NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne has won his share of races, but he's a little behind the curve when it comes to a mother's rights. On Tuesday, Kahne, 31, posted a series of tweets criticizing a stranger for breastfeeding her child in public. In light of fan backlash, he has now issued an apology.
ufc 141 winter classic auld lang syne clippers haywire alistair overeem alistair overeem
New blog post: PS Vita Import Review - Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational bit.ly/tDoRl9 
PSLifeStyle PlayStationLifeStyle
Source: http://twitter.com/PSLifeStyle/statuses/152862820051062785
peru earthquake peru earthquake big 12 last minute halloween costumes rum diary klipsch image s4 chris bosh
In 1949, Taylor, 17, shows her affection for boyfriend Glenn Davis (in framed photos), the West Point football star and 1946 Heisman Trophy winner, with a gold football pendant and letter sweater.
Dec 01, 1948
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/life/todaystopphotos/~3/H7ReBGegt1Q/50517699
brining a turkey who won dancing with the stars 2011 five iron frenzy wild horses lyrics sweet potato recipes green bean casserole recipe karina smirnoff
The obtusely named PRADA phone by LG 3.0 is now available in South Korea, the manufacturer announced today. It'll be released in most European nations and in other parts of Asia in January.
As you'll recall from our hands-on with the phone earlier this month, the PRADA phone by LG 3.0 (seriously, we're just calling it PRADA 3.0 from here on out) is running a unique UI on top of Android 2.3 Gingerbread, has a 4.3-inch display at 480x800 resolution and 800 nits of brightness, 8GB of onboard storage, a 1GHz processor and a 1540 mAh battery.
We've got our hands-on video and the full press release after the break.
More: PRADA phone by LG 3.0
 |  |
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/9AzcuN5LP9I/story01.htm
daylight savings time 2011 selena daylight savings bobolink bobolink breeders cup hamilton park
Texas.Multi.Mamas.S01E02.HDTV.XviD-CRiMSON
Size : 350 MB
Code:
http://www.filesonic.com/file/qynSTfr/Texas.Multi.Mamas.S01E02.HDTV.XviD-CRiMSON.avi
Code:
http://www.filejungle.com/f/x2z3jp/Texas.Multi.Mamas.S01E02.HDTV.XviD-CRiMSON.avi
Code:
http://www.fileserve.com/file/Ug7URrE/Texas.Multi.Mamas.S01E02.HDTV.XviD-CRiMSON.aviScreenshots:
If You Like My Post - Please Say Thanks!
war eagle pawn stars restrepo nba news nba news florida gators erin brockovich
In this photo taken Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, Moroccans throng the corridors of the new luxury Morocco Mall in Casablanca, Morocco. Inaugurated by popstar Jennifer Lopez in front of the cream of Moroccan society, Casablanca's first mega mall, complete with two-story-high aquarium, is dripping with glamour and luxury. While developers describe it as a step bringing Morocco closer to the ranks of the developed world, detractors worry that it is a vanity project that a country teetering on the edge of an economic crisis can ill afford. (AP Photo/Abdeljalil Bounhar)
In this photo taken Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, Moroccans throng the corridors of the new luxury Morocco Mall in Casablanca, Morocco. Inaugurated by popstar Jennifer Lopez in front of the cream of Moroccan society, Casablanca's first mega mall, complete with two-story-high aquarium, is dripping with glamour and luxury. While developers describe it as a step bringing Morocco closer to the ranks of the developed world, detractors worry that it is a vanity project that a country teetering on the edge of an economic crisis can ill afford. (AP Photo/Abdeljalil Bounhar)
In this photo taken Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, divers clean the two-story aquarium at the center of Morocco Mall near Casablanca. Inaugurated by popstar Jennifer Lopez in front of the cream of Moroccan society, Casablanca's first mega mall, complete with two-story-high aquarium, is dripping with glamour and luxury. While developers describe it as a step bringing Morocco closer to the ranks of the developed world, detractors worry that it is a vanity project that a country teetering on the edge of an economic crisis can ill afford. (AP Photo/Abdeljalil Bounhar)
In this photo taken Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, water shoots into the air accompanied by music as the musical fountain performs outside the new Morocco Mall near the coastal town of Casablanca. Inaugurated by popstar Jennifer Lopez in front of the cream of Moroccan society, Casablanca's first mega mall, complete with two-story-high aquarium, is dripping with glamour and luxury. While developers describe it as a step bringing Morocco closer to the ranks of the developed world, detractors worry that it is a vanity project that a country teetering on the edge of an economic crisis can ill afford. (AP Photo/Abdeljalil Bounhar)
In this photo taken Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, the new Morocco mall's "luxury quarter" with international brands like Louis Vuitton, is seen in Casablanca, Morocco. Inaugurated by popstar Jennifer Lopez in front of the cream of Moroccan society, Casablanca's first mega mall, complete with two-story-high aquarium, is dripping with glamour and luxury. While developers describe it as a step bringing Morocco closer to the ranks of the developed world, detractors worry that it is a vanity project that a country teetering on the edge of an economic crisis can ill afford.. (AP Photo/Abdeljalil Bounhar)
In this photo taken Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, a poster of Morocco's King Mohammed VI and palm trees are seen underneath an atrium at a new shopping mall in Casablanca, Morocco. Inaugurated by popstar Jennifer Lopez in front of the cream of Moroccan society, Casablanca's first mega mall, complete with two-story-high aquarium, is dripping with glamour and luxury. While developers describe it as a step bringing Morocco closer to the ranks of the developed world, detractors worry that it is a vanity project that a country teetering on the edge of an economic crisis can ill afford. (AP Photo/Abdeljalil Bounhar)
CASABLANCA, Morocco (AP) ? Inaugurated by popstar Jennifer Lopez in front of the cream of Moroccan society, Casablanca's first mega mall, complete with two-story-high aquarium, is dripping with glamour and luxury.
While developers describe it as a step bringing Morocco closer to the ranks of the developed world, detractors worry that it is a vanity project that a country teetering on the edge of an economic crisis can ill afford.
Morocco at first seems a curious choice for what its developers are billing as the biggest mall in Africa. It already has world-renowned traditional bazaars featuring exquisite ceramics and rugs that draw tourists from across the globe.
The North African kingdom of 32 million is home to the largest income inequalities in the Arab world ? and now hosts Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Dior and Ralph Lauren boutiques and department store Galeries Lafayette in the new mall, a futuristic, bulbous silver structure perched on Morocco's coast overlooking the crashing waves of the Atlantic.
It is a stark symbol of the contrasts of a country with 8.5 million people in poverty that ranks 130 out of 186 on the U.N.'s human development index, but will still host acts like Shakira and Kanye West for a summer concert series.
The 20-minute coastal drive from downtown Casablanca ? Morocco's largest city ? to the mall showcases the complexity of the country, with slums hidden from sight by high walls, construction areas for new shopping centers and finally the villas and night clubs of the wealthy.
"It is a great honor for Morocco to have a project of such dimensions," said Salwa Akhannouch, head of the Aksal group and the driving force behind the mall, at its opening this month.
Most Moroccans will not be shopping at the mall.
The country has some of the lowest literacy and highest unemployment rates and the highest income disparity in the Middle East and North Africa, according to the Gini coefficient, a statistical tool used by economists to measure the inequality of distribution in a country. The disparity has been growing every year.
Crowds packed the mall in the weeks after it opened, ambling through sunlit galleries and gazing at the aquarium and the 350 stores on offer. Periodically, colorfully dressed performers, some from as far away as Eastern Europe, would burst into enthusiastic dance routines to the accompaniment of loud drums.
There were few shopping bags in sight, however, and most seemed just curious to finally see this much-talked-about monument to shopping that has been four years and $260 million in the making.
"There is a big gulf between the rich and the poor and the rich just seem to be getting richer and the poor, poorer ?the mall is a symbol of that," said Hassan Ali, a 45-year-old shopkeeper selling handtooled leather jackets in Casablanca's modest old quarter.
Tourism is a vital part of the mall's plan, according to its secretary general, Jenane Laghrar, who anticipates 20 percent of its estimated 12 million annual visitors will come from abroad. She said sales for the first week were on target.
"When you enter the mall, you see Gucci and Dior, but don't forget you have the largest content in Africa ? at the same time you have more affordable brands," she said.
There is also an aspiring middle class that wants to be able to buy these luxury products, she added.
The hope is also that European tourists will add to their usual itinerary of beaches and the exotic cities of Fez and Marrakech, a trip to Casablanca ? and the mall.
Laghrar said they are especially hoping to attract visitors from the rest of Africa who pass through Casablanca airport on their way to Europe.
For now, however, visitors from Africa make up less than 5 percent of Morocco's tourists, with the vast majority still from Europe.
This could well be a problem as the European continent sinks into crisis, said economist Najib Akesbi, and in fact Europe's woes pose a dilemma for the Moroccan economy as a whole, which is deeply intertwined with its neighbors across the Mediterranean.
Morocco's main sources of hard currency, including foreign investment, tourism and remittances from its workers abroad, overwhelmingly come from Europe. On Dec. 20, the government reduced growth projections for 2012 by half a percentage point in response to Europe's crisis.
"The world is entering a period of crisis, the next four or five years are not going to be years of prosperity," warned Akesbi, who teaches at the Hassan II Institute for Agronomy in the capital Rabat.
For him the Morocco Mall is part of a bet Morocco is making that it can become a kind of Dubai for the western Mediterranean, attracting consumers from across Africa and Europe to make up for weak local demand.
"It is a bit of a fragile model," he said. "The success depends less on durable local demand than betting on foreign demand."
The mall's developers point to Morocco's consistent growth of between 4 and 5 percent for the past few years as a sign that the economy can support this kind of luxury shopping.
Those growth figures, however, are not producing jobs, and unemployment overall is at least 8 percent, while for those under 34 it is a staggering 30 percent.
Pro-democracy demonstrations that rose up in Morocco earlier this year have faded away, but there are still regular protests by the millions of unemployed university graduates across the country, frustrated at their prospects.
Investment has not been in sectors like industry that produce a lot of jobs, rather in retail, services and infrastructure that have not been creating the employment the nation needs, said Akesbi.
And the economy is still at the whim of the annual agricultural harvest. Part of the reason for the country's steady growth recently has been good weather.
"Here we are in 2011 and the economy is still largely determined by the sky," said Akesbi. Even though only 25 percent of the economy relies on agriculture, it employs 40 percent of the work force and a bad harvest can hurt other sectors.
The government budget is also dangerously overstretched, after it increased food subsidies and raise government salaries in a bid to stave off the anti-government unrest sweeping the Arab world.
The Morocco Mall project was conceived in the headier days of the mid-2000s when it was decided that what the country needed was more shopping centers.
While Europe falters, the wealthy oil states of the Gulf are playing a role in building a more consumerist Morocco.
Half the funding for Morocco Mall comes from the Saudi Al-Jedaie Group which has built malls across Saudi Arabia and two new initiatives looks set to shower Morocco with Gulf money.
Associated Pressruth madoff ruth madoff in living color enews enews mona simpson mona simpson
A venda 'inventada' pelos blogueiros - bit.ly/s2wFn2 UOL confessa: Livro de Amaury Ribeiro alcan?ou o topo no ranking dos +vendidos 
maria_fro Concei??o Oliveira
Source: http://twitter.com/maria_fro/statuses/151851593485123585
internet censorship sveum benetton ads cornucopia best buy black friday deals thanksgiving crafts matt cassel
? To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
ONONDAGA COUNTY, N.Y. -- The color and the message are loud - and they're meant to be! Driver's Village in Cicero has donated a new van to the Carol Baldwin Breast Cancer Foundation. Baldwin's son, actor Stephen Baldwin, says that donation helps to kick off a new campaign to battle the deadly illness.
The campaign calls for people to "Fight Like a Girl.? Organizers hope the slogan gets attention.
?We want more and more people to get out and help us create awareness, raise funds. Those funds go directly into the research to, hopefully, find a cure for breast cancer. That's why we're here,? said actor Stephen Baldwin.
The car dealership has a connection to the Baldwin Foundation. Operations Director Lou Bregou says three of his four sisters were hit by the illness. He says the Carol Baldwin Foundation has always been ready to offer help and assistance to his family.
san francisco earthquake san francisco earthquake nextdoor premier fitness dan uggla kryptos student loan forgiveness
Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.
oklahoma state university osu football osu football christopher walken ok state ok state kurt budke
This feature is part of "I Am New Jersey," a Star-Ledger series profiling some of the people who make the Garden State special.
When Estela Jacinto, an associate professor at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, lectures to her students on the biology of disease, she talks about the complexities involved in cell growth, how chromosomes may develop mysterious kinks and proteins can sometimes cause cells to go haywire. The damage that sets a disease in motion, Jacinto knows, can be caused by so many things ? a flash of radiation, an exposure to chemicals, a bout with a virus.
The day after giving one of those familiar lectures last month, Jacinto?s 10-year-old daughter was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia, and the mother of two found herself tormented by the same questions she has discussed so often as a scientist.
"I tried to think how could I have damaged her genome," Jacinto says, her voice growing softer. "I know as a kid she had a flu a couple of times, but was that enough to cause leukemia? It?s mind-boggling when you think about all of the things that can go wrong."
Jacinto, a native of the Philippines with dark eyes and an easy smile, has spent more than a decade studying how normal cells grow and what causes the process to go wrong and allows cancer cells to proliferate.
Much of her research has focused around the activities of the TOR protein, which plays an important role in regulating cell growth. (The protein is the target of the immunosuppressant drug rapamycin resulting in its acronym of a name. When it appears as mTOR, it refers to mammalian cells.)
Jacinto?s efforts in the laboratory resulted in the discovery of a set of protein complexes created by mTOR. By focusing on mTORC2, the more mysterious of the two protein complexes, Jacinto has unlocked new understanding about its function, its relation to nutrients and identified another possible target for attacking a variety of cancers.
"It is still early and there is still a lot of work to be done," said Jianjie Ma, who has worked over Jacinto for the past two years as her department chair, "but her work has great potential."
In the field of drug development, some of the newest medicines are being created to inhibit the spread of disease by targeting specific proteins involved in cell growth and survival.
There are high hopes that Jacinto?s research will identify more new targets for treating cancer and other diseases. Earlier this year, she won some recognition ? and money ? to bolster those efforts. Stand up to Cancer, a group that combines the celebrity of Hollywood and the clout of top-notch scientists to raise money and fund innovative research, chose Jacinto from more than 100 other researchers to receive a $750,000 grant to help pay for her work.
Beyond the giant pharmaceutical companies that make billions selling new medicines, there are academic research laboratories around the world where scientists like Jacinto carry out meticulous experiments, de-assembling proteins and cells in an effort to better understand why the biological process sometimes goes awry, triggering bad cells ? and disease.
The research done in these tight, brightly lit spaces scattered with laptops and glass instruments may lead to new insights about the biology of a disease or they may produce break-through medicines. When the research shows enough promise, it might be purchased by a large company or spun off to form the heart of a small, new drug-making firm. The goal is to move it into the clinical setting where it can be studied further and developed into a new treatment.
Terri Kinzy, a senior associate dean for research at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, helped to recruit Jacinto for a professorship in the school?s department of physiology and biophysics nearly 12 years ago. "I think she really is that person who wants to take her research and translate it into the clinic," Kinzy says. "She really wants to increase the impact of her work.
"It?s a big challenge," Kinzy says, "and she likes challenges."
Jacinto?s passion for her work is well-known among her colleagues. She is described as a collaborator and a mentor, who attracts some of the brightest, hardest-working graduate students to her laboratory.
Ma, who has chaired the department for the past two years, says he has, sometimes, come into the laboratory on weekends to find Jacinto writing a paper or working with a student. "For someone already established," he says, "she doesn?t have to work that hard."
Even so, most researchers attribute their successes to a combination of persistence and luck. Ma says Jacinto is someone who has proven she has both.
In some ways, it was an element of serendipity that put Jacinto on the path to becoming a cancer researcher.
"A lot of scientists, when you ask them, say it was their childhood dream to be a scientist. That wasn?t me," Jacinto says. "I didn?t really know what I wanted to do when I grew up, but I liked science and I said, this is close enough to medicine, I?ll do research."
Jacinto flirted with the idea of med school when her family immigrated to San Francisco from the Philippines in 1986. Fresh out of the University of the Philippines with a degree in zoology, she applied to both medical schools and graduate schools. She settled on a Ph.D. program in biomedical sciences at the University of California in San Diego.
In a laboratory managed by Michael Karin, a professor and a world authority on signal transduction pathways that regulate gene expression, Jacinto found herself in the midst of some of the most heady research of the time.
The excitement surrounding protein kinesis ? ground-breaking work at the time ? quickly overtook Jacinto?s interest in reproduction hormones. Today, she says the course of her career was strongly influenced by Karin?s laboratory.
Jacinto says the experience was both thrilling and stressful. There was such intense interest in the science at the time, she says, and such fierce competition among the students for Karin?s time and attention.
At the University of Switzerland in Basel, Jacinto found herself in a more comfortable environment, studying yeast genetics and working alongside Michael Hall, whose research led to the identification of TOR, which continues to influence the development of immunosuppressant medicines.
Jacinto?s own research in Hall?s laboratory led to the discovery that mTOR ? again, the "m" refers to mammalian ? creates two protein complexes, mTORC1 and mTORC2. While the two are considered a pair, they work differently: mTORC2 is not inhibited by the drug rapamycin.
"No one knew the function of mTORC2," Jacinto said. "If mTOR is doing something important, then mTORC2 could have a critical role in cell growth and we could target that as well," she said. "The job was to figure out what it does."
In 2004, Jacinto left Switzerland to accept the position at the University of Medicine and Dentistry-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. In her Piscataway laboratory, she has been able to advance her understanding of mTORC2?s function in the proliferation of cells.
Kinzy, who helped to recruit Jacinto during the school?s international search, remembers being impressed by the young scientist?s work. "She had this unique view of some unanticipated roles of the mTOR pathway," Kinzy says.
Basic research is considered methodical, time-consuming and expensive and the scientists who do it usually divide their time between teaching and managing research in the lab. Jacinto oversees a research group of five.
"She is a person you bring into an institution," Kinzy says, "and she becomes a catalyst because she brings great energy and ideas."
While Kinzy describes Jacinto as an adept collaborator, she is also an advocate of her own ideas and someone who actively solicits feedback. "You?ve got the graceful art of self promotion when you can talk about your work and get others excited about it," she says.
It may be a particularly good asset for a scientist to have when she is also responsible for raising money to help advance her research. Earlier this year Jacinto applied for a portion of the $9 million in grant money that Stand up to Cancer makes available to young scientists doing cutting-edge cancer research.
Stand up to Cancer, a charitable program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation, focuses its efforts on helping to advance research from the lab to the clinic, where it can be tested to determine if it works as a therapy. The program awards its grants after a grueling, months-long review process.
Jacinto, who ultimately won $750,000 in grant money, began as one of 188 applicants whose letters were reviewed by a 38-member committee, which includes prominent scientists and physicians. The committee chose 43 semi-finalists who were asked to submit full research proposals and then invited 18 to come in for interviews. Thirteen grants were awarded.
Richard Kolodner, one of the scientists who participated in the review of Jacinto?s grant application, acknowledges the intensity of the process. "(The interview) could have been the most serious interview she?s had in her life," he says. "She had to come into a room and submit to questions from some very serious scientists."
"She floated to the top of a very tough competition," he says.
Targeted therapy is one of the latest strategies in the fight against cancer, but there are no guarantees that regulating one protein will make enough of a difference, just as there isn?t a guarantee that a treatment will work effectively for everyone.
Jacinto?s devastation over her daughter?s illness may be more profound because of what she knows about cancer and how it proliferates.
Her daughter?s doctors have assured her that their young patients often fare well with the standard treatment ? a combination of chemotherapy drugs. Yet Jacinto is like any other parent of an ill child who is left clinging to hope that the doctors are correct.
"Hopefully, she responds," Jacinto says. "Knowing what I know about cancer and how things can go wrong and so badly, I just hope they found it early enough."
The hope underlying Jacinto?s work was always that she did not find something that would help cure a disease, then she might discover a piece of the puzzle that could help create a clearer picture of what triggered it. "As scientists we?re interested in understanding things. Finding a cure is considered a plus," Jacinto said.
"All of a sudden, since my daughter?s diagnosis, it?s made me think more about how it?s all very urgent," she says. "A lot of cancer patients are out there relying on us to make discoveries."
? More fascinating New Jerseyans
Source: http://blog.nj.com/iamnj/2011/12/estela_jacinto_a_scientist_in.html
the cabin in the woods trace adkins the darkest hour the darkest hour neverland shaun white phoebe prince
Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.
Source: http://cu.salemnews.net/galleries/309566/
paulina gretzky paulina gretzky wayne gretzky wayne gretzky occupy los angeles occupy los angeles comedian patrice o neal
"I'm hooking my 2012 fantasy-golf trailer to _______." Answer the poll question on @GolfDigestMag's Facebook page: on.fb.me/gQoaRb. 
Matt_Ginella Matt Ginella
Source: http://twitter.com/Matt_Ginella/statuses/150710069254819840
demi moore and ashton kutcher demi moore and ashton kutcher tebow meteor shower playstation network down martin scorsese kim zolciak
MOSCOW ? Tens of thousands of Russians jammed a Moscow avenue Saturday to demand free elections and an end to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's 12-year rule, in the largest show of public outrage since the protests 20 years ago that brought down the Soviet Union. Gone was the political apathy of recent years as many shouted "We are the Power!"
The demonstration, bigger and better organized than a similar one two weeks ago, and smaller rallies across the country encouraged opposition leaders hoping to sustain a protest movement ignited by a fraud-tainted parliamentary election on Dec. 4.
The enthusiasm also cheered Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader who closed down the Soviet Union on Dec. 25, 1991.
"I'm happy that I have lived to see the people waking up. This raises big hopes," the 80-year-old Gorbachev said on Ekho Moskvy radio.
He urged Putin to follow his example and give up power peacefully, saying Putin would be remembered for the positive things he did if he stepped down now. The former Soviet leader, who has grown increasingly critical of Putin, has little influence in Russia today.
But the protesters have no central leader and no candidate capable of posing a serious challenge to Putin, who intends to return to the presidency in a March vote.
Even at Saturday's rally, some of the speakers were jeered by the crowd. The various liberal, nationalist and leftist groups that took part appear united only by their desire to see "Russia without Putin," a popular chant.
Putin, who gave no public response to the protest Saturday, initially derided the demonstrators as paid agents of the West. He also said sarcastically that he thought the white ribbons they wore as an emblem were condoms. Putin has since come to take their protests more seriously, and in an effort to stem the anger he has offered a set of reforms to allow more political competition in future elections.
Kremlin-controlled television covered Saturday's rally, but gave no air time to Putin's harshest critics.
Estimates of the number of demonstrators ranged from the police figure of 30,000 to 120,000 offered by the organizers. Demonstrators packed much of a broad avenue, which has room for nearly 100,000 people, about 2.5 kilometers (some 1.5 miles) from the Kremlin, as the temperature dipped well below freezing.
A stage at the end of the avenue featured banners reading "Russia will be free" and "This election Is a farce." Heavy police cordons encircled the participants, who stood within metal barriers, and a police helicopter hovered overhead.
Alexei Navalny, a corruption-fighting lawyer and popular blogger, electrified the crowd when he took the stage. He soon had the protesters chanting "We are the power!"
Navalny spent 15 days in jail for leading a protest on Dec. 5 that unexpectedly drew more than 5,000 people and set off the chain of demonstrations.
Putin's United Russia party lost 25 percent of its seats in the election, but hung onto a majority in parliament through what independent observers said was widespread fraud. United Russia, seen as representing a corrupt bureaucracy, has become known as the party of crooks and thieves, a phrase coined by Navalny.
"We have enough people here to take the Kremlin," Navalny shouted to the crowd. "But we are peaceful people and we won't do that ? yet. But if these crooks and thieves keep cheating us, we will take what is ours."
Protest leaders expressed skepticism about Putin's promised political reforms.
"We don't trust him," opposition leader Boris Nemtsov told the rally, urging protesters to gather again after the long New Year's holidays to make sure the proposed changes are put into law.
He and other speakers called on the demonstrators to go to the polls in March to unseat Putin. "A thief must not sit in the Kremlin," Nemtsov said.
The protest leaders said they would keep up their push for a rerun of the parliamentary vote and punishment for election officials accused of fraud, while stressing the need to prevent fraud in the March presidential election.
Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov was among those who sought to give the protesters a sense of empowerment.
"There are so many of us here, and they (the government) are few," Kasparov said from the stage. "They are huddled up in fear behind police cordons."
The crowd was largely young, but included a sizable number of middle-aged and elderly people, some of whom limped slowly to the site on walkers and canes.
"We want to back those who are fighting for our rights," said 16-year-old Darya Andryukhina, who said she had also attended the previous rally.
"People have come here because they want respect," said Tamara Voronina, 54, who said she was proud that her three sons also had joined the protest.
Putin's comment about protesters wearing condoms only further infuriated them and inspired some creative responses. One protester Saturday held a picture montage of Putin with his head wrapped in a condom like a grandmother's headscarf. Many inflated condoms along with balloons.
The protests reflect a growing weariness with Putin, who was first elected president in 2000 and remained in charge after moving into the prime minister's seat in 2008. Brazen fraud in the parliamentary vote unexpectedly energized the middle class, which for years had been politically apathetic.
"No one has done more to bring so many people here than Putin, who managed to insult the whole country," said Viktor Shenderovich, a columnist and satirical writer.
Two rallies in St. Petersburg on Saturday drew a total of 4,000 people.
"I'm here because I'm tired of the government's lies," said Dmitry Dervenev, 47, a designer. "The prime minister insulted me personally when he said that people came to the rallies because they were paid by the U.S. State Department. I'm here because I'm a citizen of my country."
Putin accused the United States of encouraging and funding the protests to weaken Russia.
Putin's former finance minister surprised the protesters by saying the current parliament should approve the proposed electoral changes and then step down to allow new parliamentary elections to be held. Alexei Kudrin, who remains close to Putin, warned that the wave of protests could lead to violence and called for establishing a dialogue between the opposition and the government.
"Otherwise we will lose the chance for peaceful transformation," Kudrin said.
Kudrin also joined calls for the ouster of Central Election Commission chief Vladimir Churov.
Putin has promised to liberalize registration rules for opposition parties and restore the direct election of governors he abolished in 2004. Putin's stand-in as president, Dmitry Medvedev, spelled out those and other proposed changes in Thursday's state-of-the nation address.
Gorbachev, however, said the government appears confused.
"They don't know what to do," he said. "They are making attempts to get out of the trap they drove themselves into."
____
Associated Press writers Nataliya Vasilyeva and Jim Heintz contributed to this report.
ufc 139 fight card houston nutt houston nutt peter marshall peter marshall zombie boy zombie boy
Wambach is top female
With the final seconds ticking down and the Americans on the verge of their earliest exit ever from the Women's World Cup, Abby Wambach kept waving her index finger at her teammates.
One chance, she screamed, all they needed was one chance.
When it came in the form of a left-footed cross from Megan Rapinoe, Wambach pounced. With one vicious whip of her head, she changed the course of this year's World Cup and sparked a nationwide frenzy rarely seen for women's sports.
Wambach's clutch performance at the recent women's World Cup soccer tournament made her the clear choice for the 2011 Female Athlete of the Year, selected by members of The Associated Press. The U.S. forward received 65 of the 214 votes cast, while teammate Hope Solo (38) was a distant second andConnecticut basketball star Maya Moore (35) was third.
Baseball
The Texas Rangers acquired catcher Luis Martinez from the San Diego Padres for minor league pitcher Ryan Kelly.
? The Cleveland Indians agreed to a minor league contract with versatile free-agent infielder Andy LaRoche and invited him to spring training.
? The Kansas City Royals signed left-handed reliever Jose Mijares to a 1-year contract.
? The Milwaukee Brewers signed infielder Cesar Izturis and left-hander Juan Perez to minor-league contracts with invitations to spring training.
? Creditors of the Los Angeles Dodgers are joining the team in urging a federal district judge not to halt implementation of a bankruptcy court order authorizing the Dodgers to begin a process for selling television rights to future games. In a filing, the committee said there's no guarantee that a sale of the team without the TV rights will result in Dodgers creditors being paid in full.
? Author W.P. Kinsella won the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame's Jack Graney Award for his 1982 novel "Shoeless Joe." The Jack Graney Award is given for significant contribution to baseball in Canada through a life's work or a singular outstanding achievement.
Boxing
Floyd Mayweather Jr. was sentenced to 90 days in jail after pleading guilty to reduced battery domestic violence and harassment charges before a Las Vegas judge. Mayweather, 34, also was ordered to complete 100 hours of community service and pay a $2,500 fine. The plea deal avoids trial on felony allegations that he hit his ex-girlfriend and threatened two of their children during an argument at her home in September 2010.
Auto racing
Roger Penske hired AJ Allmendinger to replace Kurt Busch in the No. 22 car. Allmendinger, 30, had 10 top-10 finishes and was 15th in points driving Richard Petty's No. 43 car. Busch won two races, took three poles and was one of 12 drivers to compete in the season-ending chase. Two weeks ago, after six bumpy seasons, Busch and Penske parted ways.
College
Connecticut is drafting a new policy that would require all employees to report any allegation of sexual abuse.The policy is expected to be presented to the school's Board of Trustees in January.
Olympics
Peter Forsberg is backtracking on comments he made in a TV interview suggesting Sweden threw a group-stage hockey game in the 2006 Olympics to get an easier draw in the second round. A 3-0 loss to Slovakia meant Sweden, which went on to win the tournament, faced Switzerland instead of Canada in the quarterfinals. In an interview that aired Sunday, Forsberg told Swedish broadcaster SVT that he "saw no reason to win the game" against Slovakia and the players figured "it's probably better if we don't go out and tire ourselves out too much." On Wednesday, Forsberg said his comments were taken out of context.
Soccer
England captain John Terry faces a criminal charge over allegations that he racially abused an opponent in the Premier League. Britain's Crown Prosecution Service decided there is sufficient evidence to prosecute the Chelsea defender for his on-field exchange Oct. 23 with Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand.
First published on December 22, 2011 at 12:00 am
Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11356/1198556-139-0.stm?cmpid=sportsother.xml
facebook ipo facebook ipo national defense authorization act national defense authorization act clemson seven days in utopia seven days in utopia
Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/12/21/design-your-own-t-shirt-while-youre-wearing-it/
jefferson county alabama marine corps marine corps veterans day 2011 veterans day 2011 cnbc debate family circus
Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.
Source: http://chinatown.wusa9.com/photo-gallery/sports-recreation/86079-photos-week-15-nfl-cheerleaders
salvia cybermonday deals cybermonday deals steve johnson norman reedus norman reedus sears
WASHINGTON?? The Senate voted Saturday to temporarily avert a Jan. 1 payroll tax increase and benefit cutoff for the long-time unemployed, but forcing a reluctant President Barack Obama to make an election-year choice between unions and environmentalists over whether to build an oil pipeline through the heart of the country.
With the still-reeling economy serving as a backdrop, the Senate's 89-10 vote belied a tortuous battle between Democrats and Republicans that produced the compromise two-month extension of the expiring tax breaks and jobless benefits and forestalled cuts in doctors' Medicare reimbursements.
It also capped a year of divided government marked by raucous partisan fights that tumbled to the brink of a first-ever U.S. default and three federal shutdowns, only to see eleventh-hour deals emerge. It ensured that the two sides would revisit the payroll tax cut early next year as the fights for control of the White House and Congress heat up.
By 67-32, senators gave final congressional approval to a separate $1 trillion bill financing the Pentagon and scores of other federal agencies through next September. That measure avoided a shuttering of government offices that otherwise would have occurred this weekend when temporary financing expired.
The tax legislation delivers tax cuts and jobless benefits that some Republicans opposed. It also represents a rebuff of Obama's original demands for a yearlong payroll tax reduction for 160 million workers that was to be even deeper than this year's cut, extended to employers and paid for by boosting taxes on the highest-earning Americans.
The measure's $33 billion price tag will be paid for instead by raising fees that government-backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will charge to back new mortgages or refinancings, beginning next year. When fully phased in, those increases could cost a person with a $200,000 mortgage about $17 a month.
Despite the changes, Obama praised the Senate for passing the bill and prodded the Republican-run House to give it final approval in a vote expected early next week. He exhorted lawmakers to extend the tax cuts and jobless aid for the entire year, saying it would be "inexcusable" not to.
"It should be a formality, and hopefully it's done with as little drama as possible when they get back in January" from their holiday recess, he said.
Senate Republicans voted 39-7 in favor of the payroll tax measure, suggesting that many House GOP lawmakers might also back it. Of the 51 Senate Democrats and two independents who usually side with them, only three voted "no."
The Senate adjourned for the year after its votes Saturday.
While Obama and Democrats used the fight to portray themselves as defenders of beleaguered middle- and lower-income people, Republicans used it to cast themselves as champions of job creation.
Other political news of note
First Read: The hottest argument in Republican circles these days is whether nominating Newt Gingrich as the party standard-bearer would be disastrous or providential.
Headlining that was a provision they inserted forcing Obama to make a decision within two months on whether to allow construction of the proposed 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline, which is to deliver up to 700,000 barrels of oil daily from tar sands in Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Texas. The language requires him to issue the needed permit unless he declares the pipeline would not serve the national interest.
Unions have clamored for the thousands of jobs the project could create. Environmentalists have decried the huge amounts of energy it would take to extract the oil. Obama originally announced he was delaying a decision until 2013, which would have allowed him to avoid choosing between two Democratic constituencies before Election Day next November.
When the House inserted the language into its version of the payroll tax bill this month, Obama said he would "reject" the legislation if it retained the Keystone provision. He abandoned that stance this past week as GOP leaders said they would insist on keeping the Keystone language and the final deal jelled.
"The only thing standing between thousands of American workers and the good jobs this project will provide is a presidential decision," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
An administration official said Friday that Obama would almost surely refuse to grant the permit, a stance echoed Saturday by congressional Democrats.
"We feel we're giving them the sleeves off a vest," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
Democrats said when Congress revisits the issue of renewing the tax cuts and jobless benefits early next year, they would win the political battle because they would be viewed as protecting peoples' household budgets.
Republicans, though, said they would once again focus the fight on jobs, with some predicting they would try adding provisions to repeal pollution curbs and other government regulations that they say make it harder for companies to hire people.
"There are lots of issues Republicans are interested in as job creators that will still be alive in March," said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.
The tax bill would renew this year's 4.2 percent payroll tax through February, preventing the rate from bouncing back to its normal 6.2 percent on New Year's Day. Obama pushed that cut through Congress a year ago as a way to help spark the economy by leaving more money in people's pockets.
A $50,000-a-year wage earner would save about $170 during next year's first two months under the bill the Senate approved Saturday.
Obama had proposed reducing the payroll tax employees pay to 3.1 percent next year. The levy is the chief source of revenue for Social Security.
For two more months, the tax measure would also continue current jobless benefits that provide a maximum 99 weeks of coverage for people who have been out of work the longest. Without any extension, the White House said, 2.5 million people would have lost coverage by the end of February.
The bill also prevents a 27 percent cut in Medicare reimbursements for doctors that might have induced some to stop treating the program's elderly beneficiaries.
The spending legislation carries out budget cuts across government that Republicans won earlier this year and includes GOP provisions blocking energy efficiency and coal dust requirements. Democrats fought off Republican language that would have blocked limits on greenhouse gases and hazardous emissions from utility plants and other sources.
___
Associated Press writer Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45707185/ns/politics/
st louis weather jack the cat frank lucas lego man lego man cheryl hines john lackey
Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45697024#45697024
toys r us toys r us shame shame denver weather donovan mcnabb donovan mcnabb
Ever since America's vast financial sector blew up the economy, demanded and took (without apology or gratitude) massive bailouts, and lobbied and fought against reforms, Americans have been hoping and praying that somebody, somewhere would downsize the bankers ? downsize their ambitions, their egos and their capacity to wreak havoc.
Bankers' high level of self-regard remains unchecked. J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon last week had the temerity to complain about all the complaining about inequality, and about his own tax bill. As Gary Rivlin of the Daily Beast noted, the wails came a from a guy whose stock hasn't risen in several years, and whose bank has paid billions in dollars in fines to settle a variety of alleged regulatory transgressions. In the spring, J.P. Morgan Chase paid a fine to settle suits alleging that it had improperly foreclosed on soldiers.
But there has been some progress on reducing the profile of the banking system in the U.S. In fact, it's one of the lesser-told trend stories of 2011. Thanks to the lingering effects of last decade's debt crisis, changes in the markets, this decade's debt crisis, and some elements of regulation and legislation, the footprint banks occupy in the economy, in the markets, in politics, and in the culture ? while still wildly disproportionate ? has fallen over the course of the year.
Banks are definitely a smaller presence in the investing world than they were a year ago. The Keefe Bruyette & Woods large bank index, which tracks the stocks of large banks, and KBW's capital market index, which tracks the performance of investment banks, are off about 28 percent for the year.
Some of America's largest U.S. banks continue to downsize as they recover from the self-inflicted wounds of the credit bubble. Bank of America, which is still choking on the ill-timed acquisition of Countrywide Financial, has seen its stock fall toward the dreaded Abraham Lincoln line. To raise capital and protect against further losses, it has sold off credit card assets outside the U.S. and shares it owns in China Construction Bank. With its stock in the five dollar range, Bank of America has a market capitalization of about $54 billion. Citi, the bank formerly known as Citigroup, was the largest U.S. bank by assets in the pre-crisis era. But the bank has been holding a years-long garage sale of hundreds of billions of dollars of assets it places in its Citi Holdings unit. Between the third quarter of 2010 and the third quarter of 2011, Citi Holdings' assets fell 31 percent. Citi has recently sold off non-core assets like the record company EMI.
The big, universal investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are also feeling the pain from a variety of sources: the carnage in Europe, high-frequency trading, new regulations, a general societal disgust with their way of doing business. Even with access to free money from the Fed and very low interest rates, it's difficult for very large investment banks to make money ? or at least the kind of money that sets managing directors' hearts aflutter. And so they're slimming down. Morgan Stanley this week announced it is going to get rid of 1,600 jobs in the upcoming quarter. Goldman Sachs, which has been on a cost-cutting crusade, is getting rid of an unusually large number of partners this year, as Susanne Craig of the New York Times reported. Yahoo! Finance reported on Tuesday that bank analyst Richard Bove has slashed his estimate of Goldman's fourth quarter earnings by 66 percent. European banks, burned by the crisis at home, are getting rid of employees around the world, including in the U.S. France's Credit Agricole on Thursday said it would cut jobs in the U.S., and around the world, following in the footsteps of fellow citoyenne Societe Generale.
While bank branches may seem ubiquitous, the number of small banks has also fallen. We've noted that the pace of bank failures has been subsiding. (Here's the complete failed bank list.) As the FDIC's quarterly profile shows, "through the first nine months of 2011, there were 74 insured institution failures, compared to 127 failures in the same period of 2010." But four straight years of failures, mergers, and a lack of interest in opening new banks has led to a significant decline in the number of banks the FDIC insures: from 8,564 at the end of 2007 to 7,436 in the third quarter.
So, to sum up: In 2011, we've got fewer banks, more very large banks with smaller asset bases, and lower stock-market values for the biggest players. Banking executives would consider 2011 a year to remember. I call it a start.
Daniel Gross is economics editor at Yahoo! Finance.
Follow him on Twitter @grossdm; email him at grossdaniel11@yahoo.com.
Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daniel-gross/banks-see-footprint-downsized-2011-181755524.html
americas next top model mark buehrle mark buehrle rick perry ad rick perry ad richard cordray dragnet
Posted on 15 December 2011 by Andy Eubank
American Soybean Association (ASA) CEO Steve Censky announced Thursday that Patrick Delaney has joined ASA as Communications Director, effective Dec. 15. Delaney is based in Washington, D.C. within ASA?s Washington Policy Representative Office of Gordley Associates.
?ASA is pleased to welcome Patrick to our team,? Censky said. ?His experience in ag policy communications will serve him well in his role with ASA, where he will craft timely communications on policy decisions and issues happening in Washington, as well as talking points and analysis to keep ASA?s farmer-leaders and state affiliates informed.?
Delaney comes to ASA from the United Fresh Produce Association, where he managed staff, advised leadership and communicated to key audiences and stakeholders on all publicity matters, including advocacy and crisis communications on nutrition, labor, food safety, immigration, trade, sustainability and farm policy. He has worked in various public relations roles with agencies and the radio broadcast industry.
Delaney is from the Kansas City area. He has a bachelor?s degree in Persuasive and Political Communication from George Mason University and is working toward a master?s degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from West Virginia University.
Bob Callanan, who has served as ASA Communications Director based in St. Louis, moves into a new position as ASA?s Project Development Director, where he?ll develop program concepts and proposals to be presented to state soybean affiliates, qualified state soybean boards, and industry partners.
Communications Coordinator Cassandra Langley will have an expanded role at ASA?s headquarters in St. Louis, assisting Delaney in the implementation of communications developed there.
ASA represents all U.S. soybean farmers on domestic and international issues of importance to the soybean industry. ASA?s advocacy efforts are made possible through the voluntary membership in ASA by over 21,000 farmers in 31 states where soybeans are grown.
Source: ASA
Source: http://www.hoosieragtoday.com/index.php/2011/12/15/asa-announces-new-communications-director/
justin beiber dia de los muertos dia de los muertos david arquette lionfish lionfish conjoined twins
Arlyssa Heard, a completely engaged and very involved Detroit Public Schools parent, was at her wit's end recently on two occasions with her two children who are vastly different ages and have vastly different learning styles.
Her youngest son, now a first grader at Paul Robeson Malcolm X Academy, was struggling with spelling and rhyming last year as a kindergartner, and Heard felt like she was running out of ways to help him. He'd also been undergoing learning evaluations for his inability to focus.
Meanwhile, her oldest son, an eleventh grader at the Cody Academy of Critical Thinkers, who is into everything "hip hop, iPod, and things like that," said his mother, was increasingly thinking mom and dad were "old and uncool." Engaging him a conversation was sometimes tough.
If you're a parent or guardian or even an uncle or aunt, you may not have been through these exact situations, but you know the feeling of helplessness when you are at a loss for helping your child or children grow and succeed.
Maybe your daughter is having out-of-control temper tantrums, and you just can't figure out why. Maybe your son is starting to neglect his homework when he used to be a straight-A student. Maybe your oldest child just can't understand Trigonometry (and you can't either).
Heard was right there. Feeling helpless.
She remembered hearing about the academic toolkits that Detroit Public Schools and Detroit Parent Network created for parents to use with their children over holiday breaks last year. The toolkits were billed as something to engage your child in lessons in fun and engaging ways during school breaks.
There are a variety of toolkits that are age-appropriate by various subjects, like Word Study, Comprehension, Writing, Numeration, Geometry and Measurement. They are based on the state's academic standards and developed and vetted by academic experts. Parents can even "check them out" like you check out books at the library by going to any one of DPS' 8 Parent Resource Centers.
Heard was skeptical. She'd seen the kits and they seemed like a waste of time.
But Heard is an explorer when it comes to parenting. And she believes in "differentiated instruction," which basically means that kids learn in different ways and need a variety of different ways to be taught.
"Sitting at a desk for 6 hours just doesn't work," she said of her first-grader. Still, she was at a loss. "And it makes me cry to say this, but sometimes you just don't know how to help your child."
So Heard decided finally to give the toolkits a try. She was surprised at some of the items in the toolkit geared for teaching reading and letters. Many of the reading kits contain books, as well as other interactive items geared at a particular age group, like Junior Scrabble for the middle school set. One of the kits for kindergartners contained a metal cookie sheet and the kind of magnetic letters that you typically see on the fridge.
Heard took the toolkit home and got down on the floor with youngest son. He quickly became engrossed with arranging and re-arranging the colorful letters on the cookie sheet. Heard started with the first word -- "pan." Then she worked with her son to exchange the first letter for another. "Ran." They did that repeatedly. "Tan." "Man." "Can." "Fan." "Van." His eyes lit up!
"He had so much fun doing it," Heard said, and she marveled that he was spelling and finally "getting it."
With her high schooler, the story was different. He was not communicating with mom and dad like he used to. As parents, this is an awesome fear. We all love when our kids are little, and they think we are the center of their universe. And we absolutely fear the time when they grow up and mom and dad are so uncool that they won't even talk to us.
So Heard tried another toolkit, and she was completely fully skeptical about this one. It had toothpicks in it and the user was required to make shapes with only a certain number of toothpicks. The skill was to practice spatial reasoning.
"It was a high school kit and I almost didn't check it out for that reason because I wasn't convinced. But you had to use a certain number of toothpicks to complete each of the diagrams, and it was NOT as easy as it looked," she said.
Her eleventh-grader and his father worked on the project together.
First, no talking. Then a little talking. Before long, through their frustration of figuring out the puzzles, dad and son were talking and laughing and sharing. Unintended consequence: a conversation starter.
"That just jump-started my interest," Heard said. "I thought, 'You should never shut down a strategy.'"
Heard is taking that interest to a new level. During DPS' first Annual Holiday Learning Fest, when the district is going to have 18 schools open for academic enrichment academics (using the toolkits and other strategies) and offering free meals to students, Heard is going to volunteer.
Her reasons are two-fold. First, she hopes to learn more learning tactics for her children while there volunteering.
"What I found is that a lot of parents are struggling like I was. Some of us don't know how to help our children effectively. But sometimes, it just takes getting on the floor with your child and trying something."
Secondly, she wants to help other parents.
"What better testimony can you have than someone who has been through it and tried something?" she said.
Heard plans to devote three days to the DPS' brand new Holiday Learning Fest, a program sponsored in part by the Office of Food Services. Schools will remain open to students for six days (December 27, 28, 29, 2011 and January 3, 4, 5, 2012) from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to provide learning, fun activities and nourishment for students.
DPS needs more people like Heard to volunteer their time for this first-time effort. The district is only seeking volunteers who have already undergone a criminal background check with fingerprinting and can show proof. To volunteer, call 313-873-7490, fax the registration to 313-873-7446 or email parent.engagement@detroitk12.org
But we also need more parents like Heard to get engaged in their children's learning. (Heard also regularly uses the DPS Learning Village, one of two online parent portals. More on that later.)
Parenting is an awesome responsibility. Sometimes , like Heard, we just don't intuitively know all the answers. A little bit of expert help can go a long way. To learn more about DPS' parenting programs, go to www.detroitk12.org/parents
?
Follow Jennifer Mrozowski on Twitter: www.twitter.com/detroitk12
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-mrozowski/what-do-you-do-when-you-e_b_1154258.html
sweet potato pie stuffing recipe happy thanksgiving dwts cnn debate kennedy assassination kennedy assassination
(Reuters) ? NB Power said a radiation alert at the Point Lepreau nuclear generating station in Canada's New Brunswick province on Tuesday was caused by a small spill in the reactor building.
The company said the event did not pose significant impact to the public or the environment.
In an email message last night, the province owned power company said it would continue to investigate the spill and the station remains safe and secure.
Officials at the company were not immediately available for comment Wednesday morning.
The 635-megawatt station has been shut since March 2008 for refurbishing. A spokeswoman told local papers the utility was refilling equipment with heavy water as it prepares to restart.
(Reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York; Editing by Alden Bentley)
chris bosh world series october 28 2011 october 28 2011 jenelle evans jenelle evans miami hurricanes
SAO PAULO (AP) ? Brazilian federal prosecutors said Wednesday they are seeking $10.6 billion in damages from U.S.-based Chevron Corp. because of environmental harm caused by an offshore oil leak.
The prosecutors are also asking a judge to order Chevron and Transocean Ltd., the drilling contractor for the well where the leak occurred in November, to halt all activities in Brazilian territory for an indefinite period.
"During an investigation, the attorney general's office found that Chevron and Transocean were not capable of controlling the damage caused by the spill of nearly 3,000 barrels of oil, proof of a lack of environmental planning and management by the companies," the statement read.
Chevron, in an emailed statement, said that it had received no notice of the action by the federal prosecutors and that Brazilian oil regulators had not contacted it about the issue.
"From the outset, Chevron responded responsibly to the incident at its Frade Field and has dealt transparently with all Brazilian authorities," the company said.
Most of Brazil's oil drilling is conducted offshore, and that is where Chevron's work is concentrated. The company does own lubricants manufacturing plants in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. It wasn't clear if these operations would be affected by any decision a judge might make on the federal prosecutor's requests.
Transocean said in a statement that it also had not received any official notice of the prosecutors' action. "At present, our rigs are operating in Brazilian waters and we continue to cooperate with the authorities," it added.
In late November, Brazil's National Petroleum Agency banned Chevron from any drilling activities in Brazil until an investigation into the leak was finished.
Brazil's Environment Ministry fined Chevron about $28 million, but has said the company could face further penalties. Chevron has not indicated if it will contest the fine in court, which it can do under Brazilian law.
The company was strongly criticized by officials at the ministry and also the petroleum regulatory agency for not fully sharing information about the spill in its early days and for not having the proper emergency equipment on hand to deal with the spill.
Oil started leaking at the site of a Chevron appraisal well Nov. 7, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) off the northeastern coast of Rio de Janeiro state.
George Buck, chief operating officer for Chevron's Brazilian division, has said the spill occurred because Chevron underestimated the pressure in an underwater reservoir.
He said in late November that this caused crude oil to rush up a bore hole and eventually escape into the surrounding seabed. The oil leaked out through at least seven narrow fissures on the ocean floor, all within 160 feet (50 meters) of the wellhead.
Both Chevron and Brazilian officials said in late November that the leak was under control, although some residual oil continues to seep from the site of the leak.
The work at the Frade field where the leak occurred is one of Chevron's biggest capital investments, according to the company's website, though details are not provided.
Associated Pressveterans day thank you nigel tufnel day black friday deals molokai molokai ashton kutcher twitter sandusky
