Why Joining the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Matters. | Comics ...

January 30, 2012 @ 11:48 AM

This year marks the 25th year of the CBLDF, and the 13th year of its active membership
program.

That means the comic book community, including fans, stores, creators, and publishers have collectively decided to fight for free speech for a quarter of a century. It means that for more than a decade, those who support this fight for free speech have gotten a card to prove it. And that card comes with a world of importance.

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund was founded when a store was targeted by local authorities for carrying adult material and selling it to adults. An influential and well-loved publisher circled the proverbial wagons and raised the funds to overturn a conviction. In 1986, comics were still facing the same bias and inequitable scrutiny they faced in 1948 , when groups decrying indecency in comics held public book burnings.

Since 1986 comics have faced library challenges, bannings, self-censorship, and media vilification. Even as recently as January 2012, local news reports banged the drum that dangerous and obscene illustrated fiction could fall into our children?s hands and warp their minds forever. We are still dealing with the same ludicrous trends and accusations that started in the 1940s and peaked in the 1950s, when Senate hearings almost destroyed the comics industry after a best-selling book of pop psychology laid a nations? fears of juvenile delinquency out, putting comics entirely at fault. It?s easy to assume that things will never be that bad again, but as of this writing, a fan is awaiting trial to see whether or not he will go to prison for the comics he owned. In many ways, things are worse than ever. The biases and the witch hunts still remain, but the penalties can be far, far worse.

The fact is that in 2012 we are still fighting for Free Speech in comics. The consequences for obscenity charges range from fines to public outrage and character assassination to jail time here in the U.S. and even in a foreign country. This is terrifying. This should not be a problem that anyone has to face just because they buy, sell, own, create, or distribute comics. This art form does not enjoy the same freedoms of expression as film, music, or prose, and this should infuriate everyone who loves comics.

Look at your collection right now. Do you have copies of SANDMAN, or BONE? Then you own books that have been contested in libraries nationwide. Does your local comics shop carry anything with explicit adult content? Keep in mind that the adult content label is vague and ranges from LOST GIRLS to BONDAGE FAIRIES and from BLANKETS to R. CRUMB?S BOOK OF GENESIS. All of those books have suffered the scrutiny of censorship or self-censorship. The variety of comics that could bring an outraged local authority down on a retailer (and has, in some cases) is alarmingly wide.

This is not an abstract hypothetical, and it is not a slippery slope. These attacks happen regularly, and the consequences are real. For 25 years, the fight to keep comics free and uncensored has been constant and difficult. And as a fan, or a creator, or even just a passing reader with an interest in our Constitutional rights, the best way to be part of this struggle is by becoming a member of? the CBLDF.

When you join the CBLDF, you become part of the fight. You have put your money down and made a stand. You join creators from all parts of the industry and fans from all over the world. You join some of the greatest stores in the world and some of the most vital comics publishers. You are telling the world, ?I may not want to read this comic, but no one should go to jail for making, selling, or owning it.?

In 2011 alone, CBLDF members saw their donations at work in an incredibly diverse assortment of ways:

We were quoted in a Supreme Court opinion knocking out an unconstitutional censorship law. In BROWN v. EMA, an amicus brief filed by the CBLDF and written by General Counsel Robert Corn-Revere was quoted in the majority opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia. Comparing government mandated videogame labels to the Comics Scare of the 1950s, the history of censorship in comics was referenced as a mistake ? a mistake that should not be repeated in other areas of pop culture.

We sponsored Banned Books Week. Aside from membership in the Media Coalition, the CBLDF expanded its active presence in the wider Free Expression community. We sponsored Banned Books Week, spoke about comics censorship at several library events, and exhibited at the American Library Association meeting, taking our mission to librarians, both educational and public.

We contributed the first installment of the $150,000 in legal fees needed to defend Brandon X. This terrifying case involves an American citizen who faces a minimum sentence of one year in Canadian prison and registration as a sex offender because Canada Customs alleges that the Japanese horror and fantasy comics on his laptop are child pornography. This case is vital because it raises precedent questions about the artistic merit of comics and the rights of readers and artists traveling with comics on their electronic devices. It challenges how child pornography is defined, particularly in relation to Japanese manga and the inherent xenophobia of judging the artistic merits of another culture?s pop entertainment from afar.

We saw a banner year for Retail Memberships. Working with Diamond Comic Distributors, our Retail Membership program saw the highest numbers since its inception. This means that there are more stores than ever participating in the protection of the medium, all of them part of a coalition that defends the rights of fans and creators. As the retail community grows tighter and more cohesive, with initiatives like Free Comic Book Day and growing membership in ComicsPRO, we are also seeing greater bonds with our retail partners.

Aside from these accomplishments, we attended more than 20 conventions and conferences throughout the United States, raising awareness of our important work. We also began expanding our reach onto college campuses and into libraries. We hosted educational events and started work on two separate resource guides for librarians and booksellers. All this and much, much more happened due to the generosity of our donors and our Members. The work of the CBLDF is vital, and it can?t continue without you.

Throughout the week, Comics Should Be Good will be spotlighting the various levels of CBLDF membership (you can see them now here). Please check these daily updates to see what level works for you, and please consider joining the fight.

Free Speech is worth fighting for.

Alex Cox is the Deputy Director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and a co-founder of CSBG.

Source: http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2012/01/30/why-joining-the-comic-book-legal-defense-fund-matters/

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Oil near $99 in Asia amid Iran supply concerns (AP)

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia ? Oil fell to nearly $99 a barrel Monday in Asia as tensions in Iran offset fresh concerns that the eurozone may refuse to grant Greece a fresh bailout.

Benchmark crude for March delivery was down 49 cents at $99.07 a barrel at midday Kuala Lumpur time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 14 cents to finish at $99.56 on Friday.

Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore, said crude prices were volatile after Germany's finance minister warned that the euro zone might not give Greece a fresh bailout unless it can overhaul its state and economy. Analysts fear this could reignite the region's debt crisis.

European leaders were to meet later Monday in Brussels to discuss austerity measures and a tentative deal reached Saturday between Greece and its private investors to avert a disastrous Greek default on its debt.

Shum said supply concerns also weighed on the market although Iran has postponed plans to immediately cut the flow of crude oil to Europe in retaliation for EU sanctions over its nuclear program.

Iran also threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil passage, and the head of its national oil company warned Sunday that EU sanctions could push oil prices up to between $120 and $150 a barrel. The market is also awaiting report from an International Atomic Energy Agency team that is currently touring Tehran, Shum said.

"Trade has been flat. The geopolitical tension in Iran and concerns over Greece's debt default are driving oil in different directions. This has helped oil to hold steady," Shum added.

In other energy trading, heating oil rose 0.5 cents to $3.063 per gallon but gasoline futures fell 2.3 cents to $2.90 per gallon. Natural gas added 6.9 cents to $2.83 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_re_as/oil_prices

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Romney credits change in tactics for Florida surge (AP)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. ? Looking for a convincing win, a confident Mitt Romney said Monday the Florida primary is breaking his way and urged voters to send Newt Gingrich "to the moon." Gingrich claimed he's gaining ground and will stay in the race until summer.

"You can sense that it's coming our way," Romney told reporters. The former Massachusetts governor was already looking ahead, making plans to stop in Minnesota on his way to Nevada on Wednesday, the day after Florida votes.

A day before the voting, Romney ridiculed Gingrich, his chief rival here: "Send him to the moon," Romney said at a rally early Monday, repeating an audience member's comment and using it to poke fun at Gingrich's claim to build a moon colony as president. Romney also scoffed at "the idea of the moon as the 51st state" as "not one that's come to my mind."

Gingrich countered that Romney is "pretending he's somebody he's not" and linked Romney to Obama, calling them the "twins of the establishment." Gingrich's allies, meanwhile, urged Rick Santorum to get out of the race to clear the way for conservatives to consolidate support behind the former House speaker.

In the final hours before Tuesday's critical primary, Romney sustained his barrage against Gingrich. He said he believes he bounced back from a tough South Carolina loss by aggressively answering Gingrich's attacks and hitting him for his ties to the government-backed, mortgage giant Freddie Mac.

Gingrich threatened a long slog. "I think he's going to find this a long campaign," Gingrich said.

"That's why they're trying to carpet-bomb us here in Florida," said former Gingrich aide Rick Tyler, who runs the pro-Gingrich political action committee Winning Our Future. "They're trying to end this thing. But it's not going to end."

Tyler visited the first of three rallies Romney had planned Monday to rail against Romney and urge Santorum to leave the race.

"I'm here to get as many cameras and microphones so I can talk about Mitt Romney's incessant failure to tell the truth," Tyler said, echoing Gingrich's recent claims about Romney's character. Tyler called Romney "despicable" and "disgraceful."

He also called on Santorum to leave the race to clear the way for Gingrich. "I think it would give us Mitt Romney, and I think Rick would hurt himself" by staying in, Tyler said.

Speaking to reporters, Romney said Gingrich's threats indicated desperation. "That's usually the case when you think you're going to lose," he said. "Everybody has a right to stay in as long as they think" they should, Romney said.

Gingrich kept up his attacks, saying Monday that on the big, philosophical issues, Romney "is for all practical purposes a liberal. I am a conservative."

"It's closing here in Florida," Gingrich said, "and I think the next 24 hours in going to make a big difference."

Gingrich also defended his ties to President Ronald Reagan after Romney supporters questioned Reagan's rapport with the former speaker. "Mitt Romney may not know about the Reagan years because he was not there," Gingrich told supporters in Pensacola.

Polls showed Romney running ahead of Gingrich in the state. Romney earned positive reviews after two debates last week and has put the former House speaker on the defensive over his ethics and ties to Freddie Mac.

But instead of stepping back and refocusing on President Barack Obama ? as he did in Iowa when it became clear that Gingrich had lost ? Romney is ratcheting up his rhetoric and attacking until the very end. He hopes to close the Florida campaign strongly to push Gingrich as far back as possible.

Gingrich said Monday he was closing the gap with Romney in Florida. He said the Republican Party needed a "clear conservative" to run against Obama in the fall, and that there was very little difference between Obama and Romney when it came to their policies and politics, such as health care.

"Mitt Romney will have a very, very hard time trying to differentiate himself," Gingrich said.

In what has become a wildly unpredictable race, the momentum has swung back to Romney, who was staggered by Gingrich's victory in South Carolina on Jan. 21. Romney has begun advertising in Nevada ahead of caucuses there next Saturday, illustrating the challenge ahead for Gingrich.

An NBC News/Marist poll published Sunday showed Romney with support from 42 percent of likely Florida primary voters, compared with 27 percent for Gingrich.

Santorum, trailing in Florida by a wide margin, skipped campaigning to be with his 3-year-old daughter, Bella, who was hospitalized. He planned to campaign Monday in Missouri and Minnesota.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who has invested little in Florida, also looked to Nevada. The libertarian-leaning Paul is focusing more on gathering delegates in caucus states, where it's less expensive to campaign. But securing the nomination only through caucus states is a hard task.

__

Associated Press writer Shannon McCaffrey in Pensacola, Fla., contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

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Democratic Group Sees Romney As Changing His Tune On Immigration (ABC News)

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Madonna says charity plans 10 schools in Malawi (AP)

NEW YORK ? Nearly six years after it was created, Madonna's Raising Malawi charity is set to break ground on the construction of schools in the impoverished country, but they will be run by the local community, not the superstar's organization.

According to organizers, work on the first school will start on March 30 in the Kasungu area, about 80 miles from the capital of Lilongwe, and all of the schools should be built by June 2013. Raising Malawi is providing $300,000 to the non-governmental organization buildOn to develop the schools. They'll serve about 1,000 boys and girls in the southern African nation.

"This remains a very big priority in my life and I am excited that with the help of buildOn we can maintain our ongoing commitment to move forward efficiently," Madonna said in a statement provided to The Associated Press.

Raising Malawi had originally intended to build all-girls schools that the organization would run. But it faced several obstacles in its goal, including complaints from some local farmers that they had been moved off land that Raising Malawi intended to use for its mission. Raising Malawi also had difficulty getting title to the land and there were concerns about the high costs of construction.

The new plan calls for "simple structures" that will be more practical and better serve Raising Malawi's original mission, said Trevor Neilson, who is helping to direct the project as partner of the Global Philanthropy Group. The approach will allow the program to serve twice as many children as before, Madonna said.

"I have learned a great deal over the last few years and feel so much more confident that we can reach out goals to educate children in Malawi, especially young girls, in a much more efficient and practical way," she said. Madonna has adopted two children from Malawi.

BuildOn has already built more than 50 schools in Malawi and 427 schools worldwide.

"For schools to be successful, they need to have community ownership and leadership," Neilson said in an interview Friday. "Raising Malawi shouldn't be running schools in Malawi. Local communities in Malawi should be running those schools, so that's a big part of the shift."

BuildOn has been working in Malawi for almost 20 years, said spokeswoman Carrie Pena. The organization works closely with the community, and locals even volunteer the labor to build the schools, according to Pena.

"It's absolutely a community-owned school," she said.

Neilson praised Madonna for sticking with her plan to build schools for Malawi's children despite several setbacks for the star, who is the director of the new movie "W.E.," out next week, and is this year's Super Bowl performer. Madonna brought in Global Philanthropy to work with Raising Malawi more than a year ago and removed the involvement of the Kabbalah Centre. She has practiced Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism.

"When the previous management team had those problems, I think a lot of people thought Madonna would give up," Neilson said "It would have been understandable, but instead she's going to reaching twice as many kids."

___

Online:

http://www.raisingmalawi.org

http://www.buildon.org/

___

Nekesa Mumbi Moody is the AP's music editor. Follow her at http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_en_ce/us_people_madonna_malawi

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Brazilian bikinis burgeon to fit the fat

In this photo taken Jan. 27, 2012, women shop for bikinis at a store in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A growing number of bikini manufacturers have woken up to Brazil's thickening waistline and are reaching out to the ever-expanding ranks of heavy women with new plus-size lines. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this photo taken Jan. 27, 2012, women shop for bikinis at a store in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A growing number of bikini manufacturers have woken up to Brazil's thickening waistline and are reaching out to the ever-expanding ranks of heavy women with new plus-size lines. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this photo taken Jan. 25, 2012, Elisangela Inez Soares rinses off at a shower in Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A growing number of bikini manufacturers have woken up to Brazil's thickening waistline and are reaching out to the ever-expanding ranks of heavy women with new plus-size lines. According to Soares " not everyone is built like a model." (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this photo taken on Jan. 25, 2012, Elisangela Inez Soares rinses off at a shower in Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A growing number of bikini manufacturers have woken up to Brazil's thickening waistline and are reaching out to the ever-expanding ranks of heavy women with new plus-size lines. According to Soares " not everyone is built like a model." (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this photo taken Jan. 27, 2012, people shop for bikinis at a store in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A growing number of bikini manufacturers have woken up to Brazil's thickening waistline and are reaching out to the ever-expanding ranks of heavy women with new plus-size lines. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this photo taken Jan. 24, 2012, people rinse off at the showers at Piscinao de Ramos, an artificial lake in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A growing number of bikini manufacturers have woken up to Brazil's thickening waistline and are reaching out to the ever-expanding ranks of heavy women with new plus-size lines. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) ? Tall and tan and young and ... chunky?

The Girl From Ipanema has put on a few pounds, and for many sunbathers on Brazil's beaches the country's iconic itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny bikini just doesn't suffice anymore.

A growing number of bikini manufacturers have woken up to Brazil's thickening waistline and are reaching out to the ever-expanding ranks of heavy women with new plus-size lines.

That's nothing short of a revolution in this most body-conscious of nations, where overweight ladies long had little choice but to hit the beach in comely ensembles of oversized T-shirts and biker shorts.

"It used to be bikinis were only in tiny sizes that only skinny girls could fit into. But not everyone is built like a model," said Elisangela Inez Soares as she sunbathed on Copacabana beach, her oiled-up curves packed into a black size 12 bikini.

"Finally, it seems like people are beginning to realize that we're not all Gisele," said the 38-year-old mother of four, referring to willowy Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen.

Clothing designer Clarice Rebelatto said her own swimwear-hunting travails prompted her to found Lehona, an exclusively plus-size beachwear line.

"Honestly, the problem went way beyond just bikinis. In Brazil, it used to be that if you were even a little chunky, finding any kind of clothes in the right size was a real problem," said Rebelatto, herself a size 10. "And I thought, 'I'm actually not even that big compared to a lot of women out there, so if I have problems, what are they doing?'"

Since its launch in 2010, the line has become a hit.

In brash leopard spots and flower prints not meant for wallflowers, the label's 14 bikini styles aren't what you'd normally associate with plus-size swimsuits. The necklines plunge dramatically. Straps are mere strings. And while the bottoms provide too much coverage to qualify for the famed "fio dental" or "dental floss" category of Brazilian string bikinis, they're significantly more audacious than the standard U.S. cut.

"We're working from the principle that bigger women are just like everyone else: They don't want to look like old ladies, wearing these very modest, very covering swimsuits in just black," said Luiz Rebelatto, Clarice's son and director of Lehona.

He said that recent publicity of the brand and several other new swimwear lines catering to plus sizes has triggered an overwhelming number of calls and e-mails from would-be customers.

"They're all excited and they say, 'I've been looking everywhere for a bikini like that. Where can I get one?'" said Rebelatto.

Lehona is currently sold exclusively at big and tall specialty stores throughout Brazil. Its bikinis retail for about 130 reais or $75 ? a relatively high price-point here, but Rebelatto said sales have grown at a galloping pace, though he did not provide any figures.

It's the same story at Acqua Rosa, a conventional swimwear label that added a plus-size line in 2008. Now, plus-size purchases account for more than 70 percent of the brand's total sales, said director Joao Macedo.

It makes sense.

For centuries, large swaths of Brazil were beset by malnutrition, and in 1970, nearly 10 percent of the population in the country's poor, rural northeast region was considered underweight, according to Brazil's national statistics institute.

But the phenomenal economic boom that has lifted tens of millions out of poverty and into the burgeoning middle class over the past decade has also changed the nation's once-svelte physique: A 2010 study by the statistics institute showed that 48 percent of adult women and 50 percent of men are now overweight. In 1985 those figures were 29 percent for women and 18 percent for men.

(Still, there's been no rash of plus-size male swimwear lines, as men here wear Speedo-style suits that don't impinge on big guts.)

Analysts attribute Brazil's rapidly widening girth to changes in nutrition, with chips, processed meats and sugary soft drinks replacing staples like rice, beans and vegetables.

And while the country's elite are widely known to be fitness freaks ? and also among the world's top consumers of cosmetic surgery ? those recently lifted out of poverty and manual labor are becoming increasingly sedentary. A 2008 study showed that barely 10 percent of Brazilian teens and adults exercise regularly.

Still, despite their growing numbers, not everyone is eager to embrace "gordinhas" ? or "little fatties," as chunky women are affectionately known here.

Many high-end bikini-makers have turned a seemingly deliberately blind eye to the burgeoning plus-size market. Rio-based upmarket brand Salinas, for example, offers five sizes, from extra-small through extra-large. But their sizing runs notoriously small and it's hard to imagine anyone over a size 6 actually managing to fit into any of the brand's minuscule two-pieces.

Luis Rebelatto of Lehona chalked it partially up to snobbery.

"Some brands, they don't want their image to be associated with chunky women," he said. "Only the thin, the rich and the chic."

While Brazilians' increasing heft is a public policy preoccupation for the government, growth in the ranks of the overweight population has given them increased visibility in Brazilian society. Extra-wide bucket seats for the obese have been installed in Sao Paulo's metro system, and on Sunday the city will host Brazil's first ever Miss Plus Size beauty contest.

"It used to be that people would stare at me," said Soares, the voluptuous sun-worshiper on Copacabana beach. "Now when I come to the beach I see women who are much bigger than me ? and lots of them are wearing bikinis ? so I'm not self conscious any more.

"God makes some people thin but he made me like this," she said, rubbing down the well-oiled bulge of her stomach and thighs. "So who am I to think that he was wrong?"

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-28-LT-Brazil-Bulging-Bikinis/id-7a730c2e60784e4f9198967c0cf2033d

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Selig expects expanded playoffs to start this year

Djokovic tops Murray; to face Nadal in final

Novak Djokovic overcame his breathing problems and a "physical crisis" to beat Andy Murray in an almost five-hour Australian Open semifinal Friday night and move into his third straight Grand Slam final.

Memorial exposes anger over Paterno's treatment

Crediting him with building not just better athletes but better men, some 12,000 people ? including Penn State students, fans and football stars ? paid tribute to Joe Paterno in a campus memorial service Thursday that exposed a strong undercurrent of anger over his firing.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46170480/ns/sports-baseball/

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Wrecked cruise ship passengers offered $14,460

In an exclusive interview, the captain of the Costa Concordia says he feels as if his company has abandoned him as new video emerges from the day of the ship disaster. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

By msnbc.com news services

Updated at 2:35 p.m. ET: ROME -- Passengers who were on the Costa Concordia are being offered $14,460 apiece to compensate them for their lost baggage and psychological trauma after the cruise ship ran aground and capsized off Tuscany when the captain deviated from his route.

In addition to the lump-sum indemnity, Costa, a unit of the world's biggest cruise operator, the Miami-based Carnival Corp., also said it would reimburse uninjured passengers the full costs of their cruise, their return travel expenses and any medical expenses they sustained after the grounding.

The deal does not apply to the hundreds of crew on the ship, many of whom have lost their jobs, the roughly 100 people who were injured in the chaotic evacuation or the families who lost loved ones. Sixteen bodies have already been recovered from the disaster and another 16 people who were on board are missing and presumed dead.

The agreement was announced Friday after a day of negotiations between Costa representatives and Italian consumer groups representing 3,206 people from 61 countries who suffered no physical harm when the Costa Concordia hit a reef on Jan. 13.

Passengers are free to pursue legal action on their own if they aren't satisfied with the deal and it was clear Friday ? two weeks after the grounding ? that some would.

Survivors of the Costa Concordia are realizing the limits of their legal claims, as they signed away their rights when they bought their tickets. NBC's Kerry Sanders reports on what travelers should know.

"We're very worried about the children," said Claudia Urru of Cagliari, Sardinia, who was on board the ship with her husband and two sons aged 3 and 12. Her eldest child, she said, is seeing a psychiatrist: He won't speak about the incident or even look at television footage of the grounding.

"He's terrorized at night," she told The Associated Press. "He can't go to the bathroom alone. We're all sleeping together, except my husband, who has gone into another room because we don't all fit."

As a result, she said, her family has retained a lawyer because they don't know what the real impact ? financial or otherwise ? of the trauma will be. She said her family simply isn't able to make such decisions now.

"We are having a very, very hard time," she said.

Some consumer groups have already signed on as injured parties in the criminal case against the Concordia's captain, Francesco Schettino, who is accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship before all those aboard were evacuated. He is under house arrest.

In addition, Codacons, one of Italy's best-known consumer groups, has engaged two U.S. law firms to launch a class-action lawsuit against Costa and Carnival in Miami, claiming that it expects to get anywhere from $164,000 to $1.3 million per passenger.

German attorney Hans Reinhardt, who currently represents 15 Germans who survived the accident and is in talks to represent families who lost loved ones, said he is advising his clients not to take the settlement.

Instead, he, like Codacons, is working with the U.S. law firm to pursue the class-action suit in Miami.

But Roberto Corbella, who represented Costa in the negotiations, said the deal provides passengers with quick and "generous" restitution that consumer groups estimate could amount to some $18,500 per passenger when it includes the other reimbursements.

"The big advantage that they have is an immediate response, no legal expenses, and they can put this whole thing behind them," he told AP.

Passengers who want to file a lawsuit in U.S. courts over the cruise ship disaster will likely face choppy seas. That's because the ticket contract includes what's known as a "choice of forum" clause stating that lawsuits must be filed in Italy.

Depending on each country's laws, passengers can be at a sharp disadvantage compared to the U.S. legal system. Italy, for example, requires plaintiffs to post a judiciary tax that is a certain percentage for larger amounts of damages, said attorney Bob Peltz, chairman of the Cruise Line Committee of the Maritime Law Association.

Maritime law experts say that similar attempts to sue in the U.S. despite these clauses have been turned away by the U.S. Supreme Court and that the expense of filing a lawsuit in a foreign court has deterred many plaintiffs in the past.

"It's well-settled law," said Jerry Hamilton, a maritime attorney who regularly defends cruise lines against lawsuits. "The Supreme Court has said those clauses are valid clauses. They will be upheld."

The clauses in the cruise industry are not as common in other forms of travel. Lawsuits against airlines, for example, can be brought virtually anyplace they do business for domestic flights; for international flights, lawyers can generally sue in the airline's home location or where the flight departed, among other venues.

At least one lawsuit has been filed against Carnival and Costa in U.S. courts, by Peruvian crew member Gary Lobaton. That case, filed in Chicago federal court on Thursday, seeks class-action status to represent all passengers and 1,000 crew members. It blames the companies for negligence because of an unsafe evacuation and seeks at least $100 million in damages, attorney Monica Kelly said in an email to the Associated Press on Friday.

Peltz said that case has two big problems: The passengers are covered by the forum clause, and crew members likely have contracts requiring them to submit first to arbitration.

"I think they are going to have a difficult time," he said of the Chicago lawsuit.?

The lawsuit sought to determine whether Carnival deviated from international safety standards when operating the cruise ship.

"Costa Concordia's Captain, Francesco Schettino, delayed the order to abandon ship and deploy the lifeboats," Lobaton's lawyers said in the filing.

Schettino has admitted he had taken the ship on "touristic navigation" near Giglio but has said the rocks he hit weren't charted on his nautical maps.

Codacons has called for a criminal investigation into the not-infrequent practice of "tourist navigation" ? steering huge cruise ships close to shore to give passengers a view of key sites.

The chief executive of Costa, Pier Luigi Foschi, told Italian lawmakers this week that "tourist navigation" wasn't illegal, and was a "cruise product" increasingly sought out by passengers and offered by cruise lines to try to stay competitive.

Neither Costa nor Carnival would comment about potential lawsuits. The case is Gary Lobaton vs Carnival Corp, Case No. 1:12-cv-00598, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.

Authorities have now identified the bodies of three German passengers recovered from the Costa Cruises ship that capsized off the coast of Italy earlier this month. Meanwhile, the children of a American couple still missing after the disaster have released a new statement. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

Search efforts for the missing resumed Friday as salvage crews set up to begin extracting some 500,000 tons of heavy fuel oil on Saturday before it leaks into the pristine waters surrounding the ship. That pumping operation is expected to last nearly a month.

Italy's civil protection office on Friday released a list of some of the other possibly toxic substances aboard the cruise liner, including 50 liters of insecticide and 41 cubic meters of lubricants, among other things.

But so far, even though some film has been detected in the waters around the ship, tests on the waters indicate nothing outside the norm, according to Tuscany's regional environment agency.

"Toxic tests have all resulted negative," the agency said.

The crystal clear seas around Giglio are a haven for scuba divers and form part of a marine sanctuary for dolphins, porpoises and whales.

DigitalGlobe

The Costa Concordia, carrying more than 4,200 passengers, ran aground Jan. 13 off the coast of Italy. At least 15 people died in the accident, and rescuers continue to search for others missing.

?

Related stories:

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/27/10248750-wrecked-cruise-ship-passengers-offered-14460-plus-travel-medical-costs

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Romney failed to disclose income from Swiss bank (AP)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. ? Mitt and Ann Romney failed to list investment income from a Swiss bank account on financial disclosure forms filed last year. Other income was missing from the disclosure documents required of presidential candidates.

A Romney spokeswoman said Thursday the adjustments would be trivial and would not alter the overall picture of the Romneys' finances. The former Massachusetts governor has estimated his wealth at as much as $250 million.

The Swiss account was held in Ann Romney's blind trust. The tax returns show the Romneys made $1,783 in interest income from that account in 2010.

Romney's campaign said it was updating 2011 financial disclosure forms after the Romneys' 2010 tax return, released this week after intense pressure from his rivals, showed income from the Swiss account. Romney reported earning nearly $22 million that year, mainly from investments, and paid about $3 million in federal taxes.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich had hammered Romney to release his tax returns while Republican voters were still choosing a nominee. Romney initially said he would release them in April, during tax filing season, but then gave in to demands that he make the tax returns public much earlier.

The missing income could become a campaign issue as Gingrich looks to criticize Romney ahead of Florida's Jan. 31 primary. Gingrich on Thursday called Romney's campaign desperate in the wake of attacks from the former Massachusetts governor and his supporters over Gingrich's fees for consulting for the quasi-government mortgage giant Freddie Mac.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_el_pr/us_romney_swiss_account

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Obama to Republicans: Game on (AP)

WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama delivered an election-year broadside to Republicans: Game on.

The GOP, from Congress to the campaign trail, signaled it's ready for the fight.

In his third State of the Union address, Obama issued a populist call for income equality that echoed the Occupy Wall Street movement. He challenged GOP lawmakers to work with him or move aside so he could use the power of the presidency to produce results for an electorate uncertain whether he deserves another term.

Facing a deeply divided Congress, Obama appealed for lawmakers to send him legislation on immigration, clean energy and housing, knowing full well the election-year prospects are bleak but aware that polls show that the independent voters who lifted him to the presidency crave bipartisanship.

"I intend to fight obstruction with action," Obama told a packed chamber and tens of millions of Americans watching in prime time. House Republicans greeted his words with stony silence.

The Democratic president's vision of an activist government broke sharply with Republican demands for less government intervention to allow free enterprise. The stark differences will be evident in the White House's dealings with Congress and in the presidential campaign over the next 10 months.

In the Republican response to the president's address, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who once considered a White House bid, railed against the "extremism" of an administration that stifles economic growth.

"No feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant effort to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others," Daniels said, speaking from Indianapolis. "As in previous moments of national danger, we Americans are all in the same boat."

Obama said getting a fair shot for all Americans is "the defining issue of our time." He described an economy on the rebound from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, with more than 3 million jobs created in the last 22 months and U.S. manufacturers hiring. Although unemployment is high at 8.5 percent, home sales and corporate earnings have increased, among other positive economic signs.

Republicans say the president's policies have undermined the economy.

Obama "had the opportunity and the responsibility to level with the American people, admit that the policies of the past three years have delivered an underwhelming record of economic growth and job creation, and show an interest in changing direction and uniting, not dividing the nation," said Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., head of the Republican Policy Committee. "The president failed to meet that responsibility."

There were brief moments of bipartisanship. Republicans and Democrats sat together, continuing a practice begun last year. The arrival of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt, elicited sustained applause and cheering, with chants of "Gabby, Gabby." Republican Rep. Jeff Flake escorted her into the chamber and Obama greeted her with a hug.

The president received loud applause from both sides when he said: "I'm a Democrat. But I believe what Republican Abraham Lincoln believed: That government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more."

But all that belied a fierce divide.

Obama ticked off items on a hefty agenda that he wants from Congress ? a path to citizenship for children who come to the United States with their undocumented parents if they complete college, tax credits for clean energy, elimination of red tape for Americans refinancing their mortgages, a measure that bans insider trading by lawmakers and a payroll tax cut.

Political reality suggests it was largely wishful thinking on Obama's part. The payroll tax cut and must-do spending bill are the most likely legislative items to survive the election year.

But Obama's far-reaching list and the hour-plus speech offered a unique opportunity to contrast his record with congressional Republicans and his top presidential rivals, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.

"Anyone who tells you America is in decline or that our influence has waned, doesn't know what they're talking about," Obama said ? a clear response to the White House hopefuls who have pummeled him for months.

In an attack on the nation's growing income gap, Obama called for a new minimum tax rate of at least 30 percent on anyone making more than $1 million. Many millionaires ? including Romney ? pay a rate less than that because they get most of their income from investments, which are taxed at a lower rate.

"Now you can call this class warfare all you want," Obama said. "But asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? Most Americans would call that common sense."

Obama calls this the "Buffett rule," named for billionaire Warren Buffett, who has said it's unfair that his secretary pays a higher tax rate than he does. Emphasizing the point, Buffett's secretary, Debbie Bosanek, attended the address in first lady Michelle Obama's box.

Obama made his appeal on the same day that Romney released some of his tax returns, showing he made more than $20 million in a single year and paid around 14 percent in taxes, largely because his wealth came from investments.

In advance of Obama's speech, Romney said, "Tonight will mark another chapter in the misguided policies of the last three years ? and the failed leadership of one man."

Obama highlighted his national security successes ? the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, the diminished strength of al-Qaida and the demise of Moammar Gadhafi. In hailing the men and women of the military, the commander in chief contrasted their cooperation and dedication with the divisions and acrimony in Washington.

"At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations," Obama said. "They're not consumed with personal ambition. They don't obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They work together. Imagine what we could accomplish if we followed their example."

Obama leaves Washington for a three-day tour of five states crucial to his re-election bid. On Wednesday he'll visit Iowa and Arizona to promote ideas to boost American manufacturing; on Thursday in Nevada and Colorado he'll discuss energy; and in Michigan on Friday he'll talk about college affordability, education and training.

He also addresses a conference of House Democrats focused on their own re-election in Cambridge, Md., on Friday.

Polling shows Americans are divided about Obama's overall job performance but unsatisfied with his handling of the economy.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_state_of_the_union

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As Obama Touts Common Core, The State Standards Spread Slowly Across U.S.: Study

Amy Bednarz, an English as a second language teacher in a Massachusetts elementary school, is confused. She doesn't know exactly what to teach.

For years, she'd been told that the state standardized tests were a make-or-break aspect of her teaching and should drive her instruction. Then came the professional development meetings this summer where she was told to teach the Common Core State Standards, a new set of academic benchmarks now being adopted by the majority of U.S. states. She got a worksheet, a binder and little guidance.

But while exams that test the Common Core are still in development, her kids will be taking the same old state tests. And then there are the emails her principal sends the school every morning: the state tests are 30, 29, now 28 days away.

"It feels like another initiative that's being thrown at us, a latest and greatest tool to solve problems in education," she said of the Common Core.

The piled-on reform she refers to received top billing in Barack Obama's State of the Union address.

"For less than 1 percent of what our nation spends on education each year, we?ve convinced nearly every state in the country to raise their standards for teaching and learning -- the first time that?s happened in a generation," said Obama, referencing the Common Core.

What Obama made sound like a revolution seems more like a slog, such accounts and recent reports indicate. The Common Core State Standards in math and English Language Arts are beginning their slow creep into America's classrooms in 46 states and Washington, D.C., according to a new report released Wednesday by the Center on Education Policy. The standards pepper the conversations of teachers and school administers, shaping instruction -- or not -- in various ways.

The CEP report surveyed 35 CC-adopting states, finding that while the "vast majority" are familiarizing school officials with the new materials, states don't expect to implement the new standards until 2014-15 or later. And while they're staying the course, 21 states cited challenges in gathering the adequate resources to implement the standards, and 20 states indicated that they are concerned about having the right number of computers required to handle the new tests.

The Obama administration incentivized these national standards, which came to fruition through the collaboration of governors, state schools' chiefs and Gates Foundation cash. Substancewise, they focus on teaching fewer things, in greater depth. Their development included the input of teachers, unions, university administrators and the influence of international assessments. The standards themselves came out last year. The assessments that test the standards are still in development: two consortia are working off of $360 million in federal Race to the Top money, having outside companies develop test items. The tests, which will be administered on computers, are currently scheduled to be operational by the 2014-2015 school year.

While the new benchmarks are often described as a method for both ensuring that students are "college-and-career ready" and that school standards are comparable across state borders, there's no way to guarantee to they're being taught.

As it turns out, in this transitional period, teachers like Bednarz are teaching one set of standards while being tested on another.

Jack Jennings, CEP's president, said people shouldn't worry about these differences. "Right now, the Common Core is just being introduced to teachers, in the sense that they're being told what it means and why it's different from what they're doing now," Jennings said.

Other teachers are having an easier time. Darren Burris, who teaches high-school math in Boston Collegiate Charter School, volunteered to coach other teachers on implementation and sees the standards as an "opportunity."

"We have a narrow mission: to prepare each kid for college," he said. "And that's the goal of these standards."

The Common Core's focus on depth over breadth, he said, has allowed him to experiment in the classroom -- and in the hallway. One day's Common Core standard was to "construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others," so he brought that lesson to life by writing out math prompts on big post-its in the corridor. Pairs of students circulated between them, scrawling their answers on the post-its, while commenting on the solutions of their peers.

"Why didn't we do this before?" a student asked.

Yet especially with Republicans taking office in statehouses and governorships since the commitments were made, the standards have been perceived by some as a political liability: a potentially big-government-seeming program that appears to standardize education across the country when state control has long been Conservative currency. For that reason, proponents are careful to couch it in state, not federal, terms.

The CEP study says that at this point, states' concerns are more practical than political. "The thing that I found most arresting was the clarity with which the report puts forward that it's the view that the political risk is secondary to the implementation risk," David Coleman, an author of the literacy standards, told The Huffington Post.

But recent headlines show that may not be the full story. A few months ago, Alabama launched an unsuccessful bid to pull out of the standards. Just Wednesday, Indiana's state senate voted down a measure to leave the new standards behind. But its sponsors -- which count Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) among its ranks -- are vowing to revive the push.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/26/common-core-state-standards-center-on-education-policy_n_1233181.html

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APNewsBreak: Bachmann says she'll seek 4th term (The Arizona Republic)

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Election night numbers can signal fraud

Too many high-turnout landslides suggests ballot stuffing

Web edition : Monday, January 23rd, 2012

Election fraud comes in many flavors, but there?s a new taste test for one sort of trickery. Scientists analyzing data from several recent international contests, including the questionable 2011 parliamentary elections in Russia, have proposed a new mathematical measure to discern fraudulent elections from fair ones.

The researchers examined voter turnout and votes received by the winning party for recent parliamentary elections in Russia, Austria, Finland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom and for presidential elections in Uganda and the United States. Graphing the relationship between turnout and votes for the winner revealed unusual peaks in the data for the elections in Russia and Uganda ? a signature of funny business, the scientists contend.

Ballot stuffing best explains the data, says study coauthor Peter Klimek, a complex systems scientist at the Medical University of Vienna.

?Of course, this is a statistical detection technique, not conclusive proof,? says Klimek, who, along with Stefan Thurner and other University of Vienna colleagues, reported the analysis online January 15 at arXiv.org. But the numbers need explaining, ?and nothing explains them as cleanly as the fraud hypothesis,? Klimek says.

Thousands of precincts in Russia and districts in Uganda reported 100 percent voter turnout with 100 percent of those votes for the winning party, the researchers found. Graph these data various ways? and the fraud signature pops out, notes Klimek. Plotting votes for the winner against voter turnout, for example, reveals a line that slopes off into a plateau for most countries, but for Russia and Uganda those lines keep climbing right off the graph.

Similar analyses of the recent elections for the Russian legislative body, the State Duma, have also found statistical aberrations suggesting the elections weren?t fair. In fact, the Russian online newspaper Gazeta.ru ran photographs of thousands protesting the elections, including a mathematician whose sign depicted one of the telltale graphs of the results. ?If United Russia were an NFL team, they would win 5 percent of their games with a score of 1,000 to zero,? says Klimek.

There are possible explanations for the Vienna researchers? results besides fraud. Some districts are ?special places,? notes Walter Mebane of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, a statistician, political scientist and expert on Russian elections. When nearly 100 percent of the voters who turn out vote for the same party or candidate, that doesn?t necessarily indicate ballot stuffing, Mebane says. The demographics of each area have to be taken into account; for example, a very militarized area might have very high support for one party.

And there are many ways to commit fraud besides ballot stuffing. Making it difficult for particular groups of people to vote, manipulating campaign finance laws and good old coercion are just some of the other tactics that can turn an election.

Political scientist Judith Kelley of Duke University, who has been investigating election monitoring around the world, says the new analysis is ?very clever.?

?I?m all for these methods ? we can never have eyes everywhere,? says Kelley. ?Of course the guys that are really good at stealing elections don?t really do it when counting votes. They have a much broader apparatus.??

Found in: Numbers and Science & Society

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/337838/title/Election_night_numbers_can_signal_fraud

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Bankruptcy protection: Kodak gets a year to reorganize

Bankruptcy protection, sought by Kodak Thursday, gives company until Feb. 15, 2013, to offer reorganization plan. Kodak expects to continue normal operations during bankruptcy protection.

Eastman Kodak Co. has a little over a year to reshape its money-losing businesses and deliver a get-out-of-bankruptcy plan.

Skip to next paragraph

Girded by a $950 million financing deal with Citigroup Inc., the photography pioneer aims to keep operating normally during?bankruptcy?while it peddles a trove of digital-imaging patents.

After years of mammoth cost-cutting and turnaround efforts, Kodak ran short of cash and sought protection from its creditors Thursday. It is required under its?bankruptcy?financing terms to produce a reorganization plan by Feb. 15, 2013.

U.S.?Bankruptcy?Judge Allan Gropper in New York gave Kodak permission to borrow an initial $650 million from Citigroup.

He also set a June 30 deadline for Kodak to seek his approval of bidding procedures for the sale of 1,100 patents that analysts estimate could fetch at least $2 billion. No buyers have emerged since Kodak started shopping them around in July.

Through negotiations and lawsuits, Kodak has already collected $1.9 billion in patent licensing fees and royalties since 2008. Last week, it intensified efforts to defend its intellectual property by filing patent-infringement lawsuits against Apple Inc., HTC Corp., Samsung Electronics and Fujifilm Corp.

Kodak is also pursuing another high-stakes dispute before the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington, D.C., against Apple and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. over image-preview technology it patented in 2002.

Kodak has said it hopes to garner $1 billion from the two-year-old claim. But the commission, a U.S. arbiter for trade disputes, recently put off its decision until September.

Founded by George Eastman in 1880, Kodak turned photography into a mass commodity at the dawn of the 20th century and was known all over the world for its Brownie and Instamatic cameras and its yellow-and-red film boxes. It was brought down first by Japanese competition and then an inability to keep pace with the shift from film to digital technology.

"They're a company that knows more about imaging than anyone else in the world," said Robert Burley, a photography professor at Ryerson University in Toronto. "But I think they lost their ability in their corporate structure to turn those innovations into real-world applications and get them on the market fast.

"There were just too many fronts to deal with, too many battles all at the same time."

In its?bankruptcy?filing, Kodak said its nearly decade-long overhaul has been undermined since 2008 by a sluggish economy and high restructuring costs. Its payroll has plunged below 19,000 from 70,000 in 2002, and it hasn't had a profitable year since 2007.

"At the same time as we have created our digital business, we have also already effectively exited certain traditional operations, closing 13 manufacturing plants and 130 processing labs, and reducing our workforce by 47,000 since 2003," CEO Antonio Perez said.

"Now we must complete the transformation by further addressing our cost structure and effectively monetizing non-core (intellectual-property) assets," Perez said in a statement.

Kodak's stock edged up to 32 cents in over-the-counter trading Friday afternoon. The?bankruptcy?filing prompted the New York Stock Exchange to delist the securities.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/Yjd_kERiF-I/Bankruptcy-protection-Kodak-gets-a-year-to-reorganize

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[OOC] We'll Meet Again, Some Sunny Day

Forum rules
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Please post all "Players Wanted" threads in the Roleplayers Wanted forum!

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Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.

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"Vera! Vera! What has become of you?" :)

I may be interested in this roleplay. Can you tell me a little bit more about the plot?

Ita, ibi stabamus, et... Oh, ignosce mihi, was I speaking Latinam iterum? So sorry, ego really must work in ille. Anyway, back to fabulam meam, So, we were standing ibi, et...

FalloutRomanae

Member for 1 years

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Could I get a hold on female 3 please?

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
?I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.?
?I guess I just prefer to see the dark side of things. The glass is always half empty. And cracked. And I just cut my lip on it. And chipped a tooth.?

Lux_Disraeli

Member for 1 years

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Very surprised at the response for this! Okay so since there's one place left then If you could send in your characters then I'll choose which one I like best but I may yet expand the character spots but first need to get some guy spots filled.

Calvazara

Member for 1 years

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I noticed you make historical role plays, which I absolutely love...maybe I will reserve one of the male characters

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. (H.P. Lovecraft "The Call of Cthulhu")

girlwt

Member for 3 years

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History is my passion! And it would be great if you could!

Calvazara

Member for 1 years

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My character is done I hope she's alright.

snipergirl24

Member for 1 years

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Marine's Iraq killings trial resumes in California (AP)

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. ? A major war crimes trial resumed Friday after lawyers worked on unspecified negotiations for two days, with the prosecution showing outtakes of a "60 Minutes" interview in which a Marine squad leader charged with killing unarmed Iraqis says he felt no emotion and "was essentially like a machine."

Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich made the comments in response to a question about whether he felt angry after a roadside bomb killed a fellow Marine.

Wuterich, 31, is the last defendant in the biggest criminal case to emerge from the Iraq war. He was charged with nine counts of voluntary manslaughter after his squad killed 24 unarmed Iraqis ? including women and children ? during a series of raids on homes after the bomb exploded.

Prosecutors have argued that Wuterich lost control of himself after seeing his friend blown apart by the bomb. The father of three said after he learned he had killed women and children that day, he could not sleep and was afraid of his dreams. His mother cried Friday as she listened to the tape.

Defense attorneys have said Wuterich did the best he could in the fog of war. He said in the interview that immediately after the explosion, his mind went into another place and his training kicked in.

"I didn't have any emotion at that point," Wuterich said in the interview. "I was essentially like a machine."

Jurors have been tasked with trying to decipher whether Wuterich acted appropriately as a squad leader that fateful Nov. 19, 2005, day: Did he protect his Marines by going after the threat following the explosion, or did he go on a rampage, disregarding combat rules and leading his men to indiscriminately kill Iraqis?

The judge excused the jurors suddenly Wednesday afternoon and told lawyers to explore options, fueling speculation a plea deal was in the works. On Friday, Lt. Col. David Jones convened the court and advised the all-Marine jurors at Camp Pendleton not to speculate on the reasons for the delay. Lawyers did not respond to repeated inquiries asking if there was talk of a plea deal.

"There were some negotiations going on and some other legal issues," Jones told the court before jurors entered.

The jury spent much of Friday watching three hours of Wuterich's 2007 "60 Minutes" interview. Legal wrangling between the defense and prosecution over the video, including unaired outtakes, delayed the case from going to trial for years. Prosecutors later won their right to use it and told jurors Friday it is a key part of their case.

Wuterich told "60 Minutes" he gave the interview because he wanted the truth to be told after being called a "monster, baby killer."

The young squad leader said he had never been in combat before that day but he had been trained to positively identify his targets before shooting to kill.

He described how parts of a Marine Corps Humvee rained down from the sky when the bomb detonated, and he fired on five Iraqi men near a car because the car was the "only thing there," the men started to run, and he feared it was a car bomb or they had triggered the roadside explosion. After that, he and the squad stormed nearby homes believing they were chasing insurgents. The search continued throughout the day. He said he saw some of the Iraqis as threats because they were military-age men and wore black robes.

After the first home, Wuterich said in the interview that he saw women and children had been killed, but he didn't call for his squad to stop firing, saying he believes he could not risk hesitating before acting and that his all that was on his mind was protecting his fellow Marines.

"You can't hesitate to make a decision," Wuterich said in the interview. "Hesitation equals being killed. I lost a fire team. I couldn't afford to lose anymore."

Wuterich also said he understood before going into the town of Haditha in 2005 that it was a dangerous place. Twenty-three Marines in the battalion before him were killed and 36 were wounded, the most casualties that any company had suffered in the war at that time.

Wuterich of Meriden, Conn., is one of eight Marines initially charged. None has been convicted.

Wuterich has said he regretted the loss of civilian lives but believed he was following the rules of engagement.

One of his squad mates took the stand Friday. Sgt. Humberto Mendoza told jurors that after he helped remove the bodies of women and children who were riddled with bullets in a back bedroom of one of the homes, he felt himself questioning "things" that 2005 night.

Mendoza acknowledged he lied to investigators at first about what happened and wanted to cover it up to protect his squad, but he told jurors he decided it's time to tell the truth. Defense attorneys have pointed out many squad members had their cases dropped in exchange for testifying for the prosecution.

"Up to this day, I really don't know what happened in the back bedroom," Mendoza said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_re_us/us_marines_haditha

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