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Saturday, June 29, 2013

Obama yet to have African legacy like predecessors

U.S. President Barack Obama, left, makes a toast during an official dinner with Senegalese President Macky Sall at the Presidential Palace on Thursday, June 27, 2013, in Dakar, Senegal. Obama is visiting Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania on a week long trip. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. President Barack Obama looks out to sea through the 'Door of No Return,' at the slave house on Goree Island, in Dakar, Senegal, Thursday, June 27, 2013. Obama is calling his visit to a Senegalese island from which Africans were said to have been shipped across the Atlantic Ocean into slavery, a 'very powerful moment.' President Obama was in Dakar Thursday as part of a weeklong trip to Africa, a three-country visit aimed at overcoming disappointment on the continent over the first black U.S. president's lack of personal engagement during his first term. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

President Barack Obama meets with a group of drummers that were playing music on his departure after taking a tour of Goree Island, Thursday, June 27, 2013, in Goree Island, Senegal. Goree Island is the site of the former slave house and embarkation point built by the Dutch in 1776, from which slaves were brought to the Americas. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during a joint press conference with his Senegalese counterpart Macky Sall, at the presidential palace in Dakar, Senegal, Thursday, June 27, 2013. Obama was in Dakar Thursday as part of a weeklong trip to Africa, a three-country visit aimed at overcoming disappointment on the continent over the first black U.S. president's lack of personal engagement during his first term.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) ? President Barack Obama is receiving the embrace you might expect for a long-lost son on his return to his father's home continent, even as he has yet to leave a lasting policy legacy for Africa on the scale of his two predecessors.

Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush passed innovative Africa initiatives while in the White House and passionately continue their development work in the region in their presidential afterlife. Obama's efforts here have not been so ambitious, despite his personal ties to the continent.

His first major tour of Africa as president is coming just now, in his fifth year, while Bush and Clinton are frequent fliers to Africa. Bush even will be in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, next week at the same time as Obama, although they have no plans to meet. Instead, their wives plan to appear together at a summit on empowering African women organized by the George W. Bush Institute, with the former president in attendance.

Spirited crowds greeted Obama on his visit to French-speaking Senegal, Africa's westernmost country, with revelers frequently breaking into song and dance at the sight of the first African-American president. However thrilled they were to see him, many said they wish his visits weren't so rare.

"Two visits in five years, it's not enough," said Faye Mbissine, a 30-year-old nanny who took an early morning bus to come see Obama on Thursday outside the presidential palace. "We hope that he can come more."

Manougou Nbodj, a 21-year-old student, said he hopes Obama will bring American resources like jobs and health care. "If Obama can work with Macky Sall the way that George Bush worked with Africa before him, then we will be happy," he said, referring to the Senegalese president.

One of Bush's chief foreign policy successes was his aid to Africa, including AIDS relief credited with saving millions of lives and grants to reward developing countries for good governance. Bush followed on momentum on African policy that began under Clinton, who allowed several dozen sub-Saharan countries to export to the U.S. duty-free.

Obama has continued the Bush and Clinton programs during tough economic times. But his signature Africa policy thus far has been food security, through less prominent programs designed to address hunger through policy reform and private investment in agriculture.

Obama's mantra on Africa is it doesn't need handouts, but investment to spur self-sufficient economic growth. He plans to announce Friday that Senegal is joining his New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition and will receive $134 million in investments from private companies and $47 million from the United States.

Witney Schneidman, former deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said Obama's efforts are not like Bush's AIDS initiative "where you put people on a medicine to save their lives ? very, extremely important. This is more of a structural change, and I think that's going to take time."

Under Clinton and Bush "you had this major funding, major attention, major initiatives going to Africa, and then President Obama came in, and there was a sense of stall, in a way," said Jennifer Cooke, director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She said that's understandable as he grappled with wars and an economic crisis, and she gave Obama credit for working diplomatically with African governments in his first term.

But, she said, "they weren't big, splashy initiatives that got peoples' attention either in Africa or here at home, and no big money and no big ideas that really helped define what Obama was about in Africa."

That's a disappointed those who were expecting more from the first African-American president, especially after his speech during a brief stopover in Ghana his first summer in office, in which he spoke personally of his father's life in Kenya and declared "a new moment of great promise" in Africa. "I have the blood of Africa within me," Obama said.

Schneidman argued that Obama's personal connection may also have been an impediment to deeper engagement in his first term. "The whole birther movement here in the U.S. that was sort of questioning his place of birth to begin with ... I think it was a real constraint on dealing with Africa," Schneidman said.

Mwangi Kimenyi, a Kenyan who directs the Brookings Institutions' Africa Growth Initiative, said Obama may be a victim of misplaced sky-high expectations on the continent when he was first elected.

"Africans still consider Clinton their president," Kimenyi said. "If you go to Africa and mention Clinton ? I mean, he is a hero, even today. I don't think President Obama is going to approach the level of President Clinton at all, in terms of respect, in terms of what they feel, and it's partly because, as one whose family is from Africa, the expectations were rather high. I mean, they expected him to do more, to do more visits, to actually relate better with Africans, to understand the continent better."

"There is not that feeling that, you know, we have our son there," Kimenyi said. "There's probably more reference of a prodigal son than a, you know, son."

Clinton first drew extensive attention to Africa in 1998 when he made the longest trip ever by a U.S. president, with stops in six countries that had never before been visited by any occupant of the Oval Office. He's scheduled to come back this summer for what has become an annual visit, with his Clinton Foundation investing in myriad wide-ranging projects in Africa on health, agriculture and climate change.

Bush's trip this week is his third in 19 months to promote his Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon partnership to combat breast and cervical cancer in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. On this visit, he and his wife, Laura, plan to help renovate a cervical cancer screening and treatment clinic in Zambia before heading to Tanzania for the African First Ladies Summit advocating investment in programs for women and girls.

Obama foreign policy adviser Ben Rhodes said the president is signaling increased engagement with the current trip and hopes it will prove to be a "pivotal moment" of Africa's growth taking off.

"Frankly, Africa is a place that we had not yet been able to devote significant presidential time and attention to," Rhodes said. "And there's nothing that can make an impact more in terms of our foreign policy and our economic and security interests than the president of the United States coming and demonstrating the importance of our commitment to this region."

___

Associated Press writer Robbie Corey-Boulet contributed to this report.

___

Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-06-28-Obama/id-6ff1f53bc3bd412caee9cedc3761d770

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Supreme Court 2013: The Year in Review

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito sits in the audience at a National Italian American Foundation.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito at a National Italian American Foundation event in Washington in 2006

Photo by Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Windsor v. United States, decided Wednesday, invalidates a provision of the Defense of Marriage Act that denies federal marriage benefits to same-sex couples. Justice Anthony Kennedy?s majority opinion points out that although laws as to who may marry (blood relatives? children?) differ quite a bit from state to state, federal benefits are uniform across states. That is, if a marriage is valid under one state?s law, that?s enough for the couple to qualify for those benefits, regardless of any differences between that state?s law and another state?s law. But DOMA, enacted in 1996, denied federal benefits to married same-sex couples even if their marriage was lawful. With telling quotations from the legislative history, Kennedy shows that DOMA?s denial of federal benefits to lawful same-sex marriages?alone among marriages?was motivated by a hostility that appears to have no basis related to any public interest. DOMA imposes both financial and psychological harm on same-sex married couples. The imposition is gratuitous. It comes close to saying: We?re not giving you money only because we don?t like you even though you?re loyal, law-abiding, and productive citizens. That sounds like a denial of equal protection, which the Supreme Court has long considered an implicit part of the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment (the due process clause that constrains federal as distinct from state action).

There is an analogy to public school segregation in the South before Brown v. Board of Education declared it unconstitutional: The motivation for segregation was hostility toward a minority, and the hostility had no justification in public policy. It was more sinister than DOMA because it was part of an elaborate, indeed an all-encompassing, system of official racial discrimination in Southern states. Gay people are no longer subject to systematic governmental discrimination. The part of DOMA at issue in the Windsor case is thus an anomaly. But its anomalousness is also cogent evidence that it?s unjustified. Gay sex is no longer illegal; its prohibition has been ruled unconstitutional. On what ground therefore should gay marriage be disfavored by the federal government?

An even closer analogy to Windsor is Loving v. Virginia, the case in which the Supreme Court in 1967 invalidated state laws forbidding interracial marriage. In that era, interracial marriage aroused the same antipathies that same-sex marriage does now (also primarily in Southern states, where polls show that disapproval of same-sex marriage is much higher than elsewhere). In neither case was there a reason, other than distaste, for forbidding the practice. DOMA does not forbid gay marriage. But it demotes it.

This discrimination against a historically despised, discriminated-against, and indeed often persecuted group requires justification. Justice Antonin Scalia, in his dissent, suggests that the justification is simplification of federal law. The federal agencies that dispense marital benefits will have to decide which same-sex marriages are valid. But this is true with respect to heterosexual marriages as well. Only couples whose marriage is valid are entitled to marital benefits. Marriage validity is rarely contested, but when it is, the contest is resolved at the state level: If a state allows a 13-year-old to marry her pet frog, and frog and girl move to another state, the state to which they move may decide not to recognize the marriage on the ground that it?s contrary to the public policy of the state. And then the couple will not be entitled to marital benefits. And likewise with a same-sex marriage. Down the road, courts may have to decide whether a state that refuses to permit its residents to marry someone of the same sex is obliged to recognize such a marriage contracted in another state that does permit same-sex marriage. However that issue is resolved, though, it won?t augment the burden on federal authorities of determining the validity of a marriage.

I should think a textualist-originalist such as Scalia would want to point out that there is no general prohibition of discrimination by the federal government anywhere in the Constitution or its amendments and no reference to sex or marriage, as well as that the Framers of the Constitution and its amendments would have considered a proposal to provide constitutional protection for gay sex acts, let alone for gay marriage or gay marriage benefits, preposterous. (Justice Samuel Alito, in a separate dissent, remarked the absence of any reference to marriage in the Constitution as support for DOMA?s constitutionality.) But Scalia?s silence is a comment on the limits of textualism and originalism. Once the Supreme Court, a decade ago in Lawrence v. Texas, provided constitutional protection for gay sex, same-sex marriage became (or should have been recognized as) a conservative policy, since conservatives like to channel sex into marriage. And with 13 states and the District of Columbia now authorizing gay marriage (eight of them within the past eight months), and more likely to follow as public opinion swings decisively in favor of allowing such marriage, the withholding of federal marital benefits becomes a senseless rearguard action, like Southern states? resistance in the 1960s to allowing interracial marriage. (The numbers: 53 percent of the adult population now favors the legalization of gay marriage, up from 27 percent in 1996, and the percentage rises to 70 percent for people between the ages of 18 and 29.) Scalia stated in his dissent that ?to defend traditional marriage is not to condemn, demean, or humiliate those who would prefer other arrangements.? But the ?defense? in the Defense of Marriage Act is actually an offense: a denial of federal benefits to ?those who would prefer other arrangements.?

Alito took a different tack. He said that some people think that gay marriage undermines heterosexual marriage. He doesn?t say how, and I don?t understand how. If it?s true, does this mean that heterosexual marriage undermines same-sex marriage? Does Alito think that straight people will become gay as a result of the invalidation of DOMA? Or does he hanker for the time when gay or lesbian people married ?straights? in order to conceal their true sexual identity? Alito is drawn to such arguments for DOMA as ?the institution of marriage was created for the purpose of channeling heterosexual intercourse into a structure that supports child rearing,? and ?marriage is essen?tially the solemnizing of a comprehensive, exclusive, per?manent union that is intrinsically ordered to producing new life, even if it does not always do so.? The first argument would have force only if one supposed (as virtually no one does any longer) that banning same-sex marriage would channel gays into straight marriages. The bearing of the second argument (a close paraphrase of official Vatican sex doctrine) eludes me. A sperm bank is intrinsically ordered to producing new life, even if it does not always do so. So what? A marriage of a man to a woman known to be sterile could not be thought intrinsically ordered to producing new life, yet it would surely be recognized by Alito as a valid marriage entitled to federal marital benefits. So far as yet appears, opposition to same-sex marriage, and to federal benefits for gay couples, is emotional and sectarian, rather than rational.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_breakfast_table/features/2013/supreme_court_2013/supreme_court_and_doma_justice_alito_s_defense_is_all_emotion.html

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Friday, June 28, 2013

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U.S. boss held hostage now free

BEIJING (AP) ? An American boss detained nearly a week by his company's Chinese workers left the Beijing factory Thursday after he and a labor representative said the two sides reached agreement in a pay dispute.

Chip Starnes, who said he was "saddened" by the experience, told The Associated Press a deal was reached overnight to pay the scores of workers who had demanded severance packages similar to ones given to laid-off co-workers in a phased-out division, even though the company said the remaining workers weren't being laid off.

Remaining workers at the medical supply plant in Huairou district, on the outskirts of Beijing, had said they believed the entire factory was shutting down, that the company owed unpaid salary and that they saw equipment being packed and itemized for shipping to India.

Starnes said the workers' demands were unjustified. Neither he nor district labor official Chu Lixiang gave details of the agreed compensation. Chu said all the workers would be terminated, and Starnes said some of them would be rehired later.

"It has been resolved to each side's satisfaction," Chu told reporters at a conference room at the plant in late morning. She said they had been sorting out paperwork until 5 a.m. and that 97 workers had signed settlement agreements.

Starnes, a co-owner of Florida-based Specialty Medical Supplies, had quietly departed the factory grounds by the time Chu spoke, returning to his hotel in Beijing.

"Yes!! Out and back at hotel," Starnes wrote in a text message. "Showered... 9 pounds lost during the ordeal!!!!!!"

Police in Huairou district had made no moves to halt the labor action but guarded the plant and said they were guaranteeing Starnes' safety while local labor officials brokered negotiations.

It is not rare in China for managers to be held by workers demanding back pay or other benefits, often from their Chinese owners. Police are reluctant to intervene, as they consider it a business dispute, and local officials typically are eager to see the matter resolved in the way least likely to fuel unrest.

The labor action reflected growing uneasiness among workers about their jobs amid China's slowing economic growth and the sense that growing labor costs make the country less attractive for some foreign-owned factories.

About 80 workers had started blocking all exits starting last Friday, and Starnes had spoken to reporters in recent days through the barred window of his factory office.

Earlier Thursday, he said in a telephone interview that he had been forced to give in to what he considered unjustified demands. He summed up the past several days as "humiliating, embarrassing." At the beginning of his captivity, workers had deprived him of sleep by shining bright lights and banging on windows of his office, he said.

"We have transferred our funds from the U.S.," he said. "I am basically free to go when the funds hit the account here of the company."

Starnes told the AP he planned to get back to business, and even rehire some of the workers who had been holding him. "We're going to take Thursday off to let the dust settle, and we're going to be rehiring a lot of the previous workers on new contracts as of Friday," he said.

Starnes previously said the company had been winding down its plastics division, with plans to move it to Mumbai. When he arrived in Beijing last week to lay off the last 30 people, workers in other divisions started demanding similar severance packages.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-boss-held-china-leaves-plant-payout-044656354.html

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EU leaders win breakthrough on budget deal

EU leaders pose for photographers during a group photo at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, June 27, 2013. Front row left to right, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, Romanian President Traian Basescu, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, French President Francois Hollande, European Parliament President Martin Schultz, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Council General Secretary Uwe Corsepius. Back row left to right, Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic, Denmark's Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Belgium's Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo, Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy , Sweden's Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, Czech Republic's Prime Minister Petr Necas, Slovenian Prime Minister Alenka Bratusek, Portugal's Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Finland's Prime Minister Jyrki Tapani Katainen, Austria's Chancellor Werner Faymann, Bulgaria's Prime Minister Plamen Oresharkski, Estonia's Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

French President Francois Hollande, right, speaks with British Prime Minister David Cameron during a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, June 27, 2013. European Union leaders meet in Brussels ostensibly to agree on ways to find more jobs for the young, who've been disproportionately punished by years of crisis and recession. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe)

A young homeless sleeps under an arcade of a closed bank, in Milan, Italy, Thursday, June 27, 2013. A hard-fought deal on how to pay for future bank bailouts gave European Union leaders a boost going into a summit Thursday, injecting credibility into their efforts to end the spiral of financial and economic troubles. But other challenges await the 27 EU leaders, who will hold talks in Brussels through Friday. Unemployment is at a record high across the bloc, particularly for the young, who have been disproportionately punished by years of crisis and recession. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso waves to journalists as he arrives for an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, June 27, 2013. European Union leaders meet in Brussels ostensibly to agree on ways to find more jobs for the young, who've been disproportionately punished by years of crisis and recession. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

French President Francois Hollande, right, gestures while speaking with journalists as he arrives for an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, June 27, 2013. European Union leaders meet in Brussels ostensibly to agree on ways to find more jobs for the young, who've been disproportionately punished by years of crisis and recession. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

BRUSSELS (AP) ? European Union leaders reached an outline deal Friday on the 27-country bloc's 960 billion euro ($1.3 trillion) seven-year budget, overcoming a British-French dispute to sign off on the agreement.

British Prime Minister David Cameron had held out for the same financial conditions already promised him months ago, overshadowing a summit meant to focus on the continent's youth unemployment problems.

However, in the end, all 27 nations backed the budget deal. EU President Herman Van Rompuy said "it is a quite clear 'yes'," when it came to unanimous backing of the 2014-2020 spending plan.

Beyond the seven-year spending plan, which still needs full parliamentary approval, the EU nations also agreed on the shape of future bank bailouts, injecting a sense of fresh credibility into the efforts of the leaders to control the region's economic problems.

But the budget deal also highlighted deep divisions among European countries over whether to spend or cut their way out of crisis. The UK is seeking reassurances that it won't have to contribute too much at a time of belt-squeezing across the continent.

The multi-annual budget, which includes the first cut to EU spending in its history, determines what the bloc can spend on common infrastructure like railway or road projects, farming subsidies and aid to poor countries. It's separate from national budgets ? and much smaller ? but a source of difficult and passionate debate.

The decision came after some protracted brinkmanship following the British objections to an outline reached early Thursday. Cameron surprised many by insisting that the EU stick to parts of an earlier agreement reached in February.

Due to a provision on agricultural funding, the country could have lost some of its previously negotiated repayment from the budget, costing it about an annual 200 to 300 million euros, a diplomat from a major EU country said.

The issue left London up against Paris, which would have to pay for the bulk of the shortfall otherwise, the diplomat said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't allowed to discuss the closed-door talks publicly.

In the end, Van Rompuy said the British concerns were taken on board, since "actually nothing has changed" on the question of Britain's contribution since the February agreement.

French President Francois Hollande said he signed off on the deal and praised the European Parliament for winning more wiggle room on the budget.

The summit was initially meant to focus on finding ways to get more young people employed, and calmly taking stock of EU efforts to stabilize the world's biggest economic bloc now that its deep debt troubles have subsided.

Crucially, the EU budget also includes money for the employment measures that the bloc's leaders addressed at the two-day summit which finishes Friday afternoon. No budget agreement would mean no money for those projects.

Unemployment is at a record high of 11 percent for the EU and 12.2 percent for the 17 member countries that use the euro. It is far worse for the young: Latest figures show almost one in four people aged under 25 in the EU are unemployed. In Greece and Spain, that rate has it hit more than 50 percent.

After the late-night meetings, Hollande said that 6 billion euros for youth jobs will be speeded up and spent over 2014-2015 instead of over 7 years.

In addition he said that there will be two to three times that amount in "European credits" for employment schemes.

Germany argues that governments should focus on reforms instead of new funding, to get growth going again and create more jobs.

Thursday's deal on the budget came hours after EU finance ministers reached a landmark deal determining that banks' shareholders, creditors and holders of large deposits will have to bear the brunt of future bank failures, so that taxpayers don't have to.

The joint rules on how to restructure or wind down banks are a key step toward establishing a so-called banking union for Europe, aimed at restoring stability after a tumultuous few years that have dragged down the global economy.

___

Angela Charlton and Sylvain Plazy in Brussels and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

___

Follow Juergen Baetz on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jbaetz

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Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-06-27-Europe-Financial%20Crisis/id-b42a16b087da45b382a413697c31aa15

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Supreme Court declines to take up two more gay rights cases

By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a landmark victory for gay rights on Wednesday by forcing the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages in states where it is legal and paving the way for it in California, the most populous state.

As expected, however, the court fell short of a broader ruling endorsing a fundamental right for gay people to marry, meaning that there will be no impact in the more than 30 states that do not recognize gay marriage.

The two cases, both decided on 5-4 votes, concerned the constitutionality of a key part of a federal law, the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), that denied benefits to same-sex married couples, and a voter-approved California state law enacted in 2008, called Proposition 8, that banned gay marriage.

The court struck down Section 3 of DOMA, which limited the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman for the purposes of federal benefits, as a violation of the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law.

The ruling was a victory for President Barack Obama's administration, which had decided two years ago it would no longer defend the law in court. Obama applauded the DOMA ruling and directed U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to review all relevant federal laws to ensure that it is implemented.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, 76, appointed to the court by Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1988, was the key vote and wrote the DOMA opinion, the third major gay rights ruling he has authored since 1996.

In a separate opinion, the court ducked a decision on Proposition 8 by finding that supporters of the California law did not have standing to appeal a federal district court ruling that struck it down. By doing so, the justices let stand the lower-court ruling that had found the ban unconstitutional.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the Proposition 8 opinion, ruling along procedural lines in a way that said nothing about how the court would rule on the merits. The court was unusually split, with liberals and conservatives in both the majority and the dissent.

By ruling this way on Proposition 8, the court effectively let states set their own policy on gay marriage. This means a debate is set to continue in various states via ballot initiatives, legislative action and litigation potentially costing millions of dollars on both sides of an issue that stirs cultural, religious and political passions in the United States as elsewhere.

The rulings come amid rapid progress for advocates of gay marriage in recent months and years. Opinion polls show a steady increase in U.S. public support for gay marriage.

'SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS'

Gay marriage advocates celebrated outside the courthouse. A big cheer went up as word arrived DOMA had been struck down. "DOMA is dead!" the crowd chanted, as couples hugged and cried.

Paul Katami and Jeffrey Zarrillo, a gay couple from Burbank, California, who were two of the four plaintiffs in the Proposition 8 case, were both outside the courthouse.

"We are gay. We are American. And we will not be treated like second-class citizens," Katami said.

He turned to Zarrillo, voice cracking and said: "I finally get to look at the man I love and say, 'Will you marry me?'"

Before Wednesday, 12 of the 50 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia recognized gay marriage. Three of those dozen - Delaware, Minnesota and Rhode Island - legalized gay marriage this year. California would become the 13th state to allow it.

About a third of the U.S. population now lives in areas where gay marriage is legal, if California is included.

"We are a people who declared that we are all created equal, and the love we commit to one another must be equal as well," Obama, the first sitting president to endorse gay marriage, said in a written statement.

While the ruling on DOMA was clearcut, questions remained about the meaning of the Proposition 8 ruling for California. Proposition 8 supporters vowed to seek continued enforcement of the ban until litigation is resolved. But California Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, said the justices' ruling "applies statewide" and all county officials must comply with it.

"We are now faced with this unusual situation where we have some uncertainty," said Andrew Pugno, one of the Proposition 8 proponents' lawyers. He expressed satisfaction that the Supreme Court had "nullified" a San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that, if left intact, could have had set a precedent for other Western states in its jurisdiction.

FEDERAL BENEFITS

By striking down Section 3 of DOMA, the court cleared the way for legally married couples to claim more than 1,100 federal benefits, rights and burdens linked to marriage status.

Kennedy wrote for the majority that the federal law, as passed by Congress, violated the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection. "The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and to injure those whom the state, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity," Kennedy wrote.

The law imposed "a stigma upon all who enter into same-sex marriages made lawful by the unquestioned authority of the states," he said.

Roberts and Justice Antonin Scalia both wrote dissenting opinions in the DOMA case.

Roberts went out of his way to state that the court was not making any big pronouncements about gay marriage. The court, he said, did not have before it the question of whether states "may continue to utilize the traditional definition of marriage."

Scalia accused the majority of ignoring procedural obstacles about whether the court should have heard the case in order to reach its desired result.

"This is jaw-dropping," he said of Kennedy's analysis.

As a result of the DOMA ruling, Edith Windsor of New York, who was married to a woman and sued the government to get the federal estate tax deduction available to heterosexuals when their spouses die, will be able to claim a $363,000 tax refund.

The ruling was a win also for more than 200 businesses, including Goldman Sachs Group, Microsoft Corp and Google Inc, that signed on to a brief urging the court to strike down DOMA. Thomson Reuters Corp, owner of the Reuters news agency, was another signatory.

"Today's decisions help define who we are as a people, whether or not we are part of the group directly affected," said Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman's chief executive.

CHANGING LANDSCAPE

Numerous public figures including former President Bill Clinton, who in 1996 signed the DOMA law, and prominent groups including the American Academy of Pediatrics have come out this year in support of same-sex marriage and gay civil rights.

Individual members of Congress - Democrats and Republicans - also voiced new support for gay marriage this year.

Even with recent developments, there is still significant opposition among Republicans, including House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, who had ordered the House to intervene in the DOMA case in defense of the law. Boehner said in a statement he was "obviously disappointed in the ruling" and predicted that a "robust national debate over marriage" would continue.

While more developments lie ahead, the legal fight over gay marriage already constitutes one of the most concentrated civil rights sagas in U.S. history.

Just 20 years ago, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that its state constitution could allow gay marriage, prompting a nationwide backlash and spurring Congress and a majority of states, including Hawaii, to pass laws defining marriage as between only a man and woman.

In 2003, when the top court of Massachusetts established a right to same-sex marriage under its constitution, the action triggered another backlash as states then adopted constitutional amendments against such unions. Five years later, the tide began to reverse, and states slowly began joining Massachusetts in permitting gays to marry.

The cases are United States v. Windsor, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 12-307 and Hollingsworth v. Perry, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 12-144.

(Additional reporting by Joseph Ax, Steve Holland and Roberta Rampton in Washington, Lauren Tara LaCapra in New York and Daniel Levine in San Francisco; Editing by Howard Goller and Will Dunham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gay-marriage-gets-big-boost-two-supreme-court-130550277.html

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Thursday, June 27, 2013

Clinton, Obama Slip in Popularity; Uncertainty About Rubio Stays High

President Obama and Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton has lost some ground in personal favorability this year, but continues to outpace both Barack Obama and, by a wide margin, Marco Rubio - like Clinton, a possible successor to Obama - in this basic measure of public popularity.

Six in 10 Americans in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll see Clinton favorably, down 6 percentage points from her career high in January. Obama's seen favorably by 53 percent, down 7 points from January and back to his pre-re-election level across most of 2012.

See PDF with full results, charts and tables here.

Rubio, a Republican U.S. senator from Florida involved in the immigration reform effort, is far less known on the national stage. Half of Americans express no opinion of him at all, similar to its level last August, when he first was being mooted as a possible presidential candidate. The rest divide evenly on Rubio in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates.

The single-digit comedowns for Obama and Clinton are unsurprising. Since his re-election, the president's waded into contentious policy areas such as gun control and immigration, while dealing with the Internal Revenue Service and National Security Administration controversies. Obama's job approval likewise is off from his post-election high in ABC/Post polls.

Clinton, for her part, has stepped away from her popular role as secretary of state and may be seen in an increasingly partisan light given wide discussion of her possible candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016. Last week she said she hopes to see a woman president, and, even without being a formal candidate, was endorsed by Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri). A campaign fundraising committee has been created to support Clinton (without her endorsement), as has one to oppose her.

GROUPS - Indicating increased partisanship, Clinton's popularity since January has dropped by 10 points among Republicans and among "somewhat" conservative Americans; she's also lost 9 points among whites, 10 points among seniors and 11 points among college graduates.

Obama, on the other hand, has lost ground disproportionately among some key Democratic-leaning groups, down 12 points in favorability among liberals, 10 points among those without a college degree, and 9 points each among nonwhites and people with household incomes less than $50,000 a year. His favorable rating also is down 11 points among independents, dipping just below the halfway mark.

While Rubio retains a broad recognition deficit, partisan divisions about him have lessened from last August, with negative views among Democrats down by 13 points and positive views among Republicans down by 11 points. His support for immigration reform - a cause more popular among Democrats than among Republicans - may be a factor.

METHODOLOGY - This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by landline and cell phone June 19-23, 2013, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 1,010 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 points. The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates of New York, N.Y., with sampling, data collection and tabulation by SSRS/Social Science Research Solutions of Media, Pa.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/clinton-obama-slip-popularity-uncertainty-rubio-stays-high-111054219--abc-news-politics.html

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Texas prepares to execute 500th inmate

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) ? Jim Willett remembers the night of Dec. 6, 1982, when he was assigned to guard a mortuary van that had arrived at the death house at the Huntsville prison.

"I remember thinking: We're really going to do this. This is really going to happen," says Willett, who was a captain for the Texas Department of Corrections.

When the van pulled away early the next morning, it carried to a nearby funeral home the body of convicted killer Charlie Brooks, who had just become the first Texas prisoner executed since a Supreme Court ruling six years earlier allowed the death penalty to resume in the United States.

What was unusual then has become rote. On Wednesday, barring a reprieve, Kimberly McCarthy will become the 500th convicted killer in Texas to receive a lethal injection.

The number far outpaces the execution total in any other state. But it also reflects the reality of capital punishment in the United States today: While some states have halted the practice in recent years because of concern about wrongful convictions, executions continue at a steady pace in many others.

The death penalty is on the books in 32 states. On average, Texas executes an inmate about every three weeks.

Still, even as McCarthy prepares to die at the Huntsville Unit, it's clear that Texas, too, has been affected by the debate over capital punishment. In recent years, state lawmakers have provided more sentencing options for juries and courts have narrowed the cases in which the death penalty can be applied. In guaranteeing DNA testing for inmates and providing for sentences of life without parole, Texas could well be on a slower track to execute its next 500 inmates.

"It's a very fragile system" as attitudes change, said Mark White, who was Texas attorney general when Brooks was executed and then presided over 19 executions as governor from 1983 to 1987.

"There's a big difference between fair and harsh. ... I think you have (Texas) getting a reputation for being bloodthirsty, and that's not good."

Texas has accounted for nearly 40 percent of the more than 1,300 executions carried out since murderer Gary Gilmore went before a Utah firing squad in 1977 and became the first U.S. inmate executed following the Supreme Court's clarification of death penalty laws. (Texas had more than 300 executions before the pause.) Virginia is a distant second, nearly 400 executions behind. Texas' standing stems both from its size, with the nation's second largest population, and its tradition of tough justice for killers.

Still awaiting punishment in Texas are 282 convicted murderers.

Some may be spared. Supreme Court rulings have now excluded mentally impaired people or those who were under 18 at the time of their crime. Legal battles continue over the lethal drugs used in the process, mental competence of inmates, professional competence of defense lawyers and sufficiency of evidence in light of DNA forensics technology.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who has presided over more than half of the state's executions, said that the recent changes have helped make Texas' system fairer. In addition to the new sentencing options, he signed bills to allow post-conviction DNA testing for inmates and establish minimum qualifications for court-appointed defense attorneys.

"I think our process works just fine," Perry said last year during his unsuccessful presidential campaign. "You may not agree with them, but we believe in our form of justice. ... We think it is clearly appropriate."

So do most Texans.

A 2012 poll from the Texas Tribune and the University of Texas showed only 21 percent opposed to capital punishment.

Still, re-examinations of convictions have raised questions about whether some of those executed may have been innocent. The suspect cases included the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham for the arson deaths of his three young children. Arson experts consulted by a state panel determined evidence used to gain the conviction did not meet scientific standards. But Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott later barred the panel from further review of the trial evidence.

Over the years, the Texas execution list has provided a portrait of violent crime in a state where many people are armed, both good and bad, and juries have little tolerance for murderers.

Those executed have ranged from relatively common cases ? robbers who killed store clerks, drug users who killed other drug users, spouses killing each other ? to the bizarre and sensational. Ronald Clark O'Bryan, nicknamed the "Candy Man," poisoned his son's Halloween candy to collect on an insurance policy. Angel Resendez, a serial killer, rode the rails, stopping along the way to murder strangers. Lawrence Russell Brewer dragged a black man behind a pickup truck in a racist killing.

In the prison town of Huntsville, executions have become a well-worn ritual.

For more than 20 years, Dennis Longmire has been a fixture outside the fortress-like prison on execution evenings, holding a lit candle on a street corner. Hundreds of demonstrators once gathered there but interest has long since subsided.

"Texas continues to march to a different beat," as other states drop the death penalty, says Longmire, a criminal justice professor at nearby Sam Houston State University. He calls the execution total "staggering."

McCarthy, convicted of killing a 71-year-old neighbor during a robbery in 1997, is among eight inmates scheduled for execution over the next four months. She would be the first female put to death in the U.S. in three years and the 13th woman since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume.

McCarthy, 52, was condemned for using a butcher knife and candelabra to beat and fatally stab retired college professor Dorothy Booth at the victim's Lancaster home. Evidence showed the former nursing home therapist used the knife to sever Booth's finger to steal her wedding ring.

McCarthy, who is linked to two other slayings, already has had her execution date pushed back twice this year. Her attorney, Maurie Levin, is trying to halt her execution again, contending black jurors improperly were excluded from her trial by Dallas County prosecutors.

Levin said there has been a "pervasive influence of race in administration of the death penalty and the inadequacy of counsel ? a longstanding issue here."

Even remarkable incidents in the death ritual can become mundane in the steady procession.

In 2000, Ponchai Wilkerson stunned officials when he spit out a small handcuff key he had kept hidden in his mouth as he prepared to die.

"In another state you live with that for a long time," said Willett, who became warden at the Huntsville Unit in 1998 and oversaw 89 executions. "Here in Texas, another one is coming a few days later and you've forgotten that one before."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/texas-prepares-execute-500th-inmate-181029165.html

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OUYA Gets Its Official Retail Release, But The $99 Game Console Still Hasn't Reached Every Early Backer

The Android-powered OUYA gaming console is celebrating its official first day of general retail availability today, a major milestone to be sure for the Kickstarter-funded piece of hardware. Many thought it would never make it this far, and that it would be vaporware before anyone actually got a chance to go and purchase one, but founder Julie Uhrman and her team have made good on making sure it hit store shelves in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, listed right alongside the marquee consoles by Sony, Xbox and Nintendo.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/KW60zPcYG-g/

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

China's latest manned spacecraft lands safely after mission: Xinhua

By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) - In a child custody case that one justice called heartbreaking, the U.S. Supreme Court said on Tuesday an American Indian girl now being raised by her biological father should not have been taken from a couple who had cared for her since just after birth under a law aimed at keeping Native American families together. In a 5-4 ruling that prompted stirring dissents, the court said South Carolina's highest court misinterpreted the law last July in letting the girl, who is now 3-1/2 years old, remain in the custody of Dusten Brown, a member of the Cherokee Nation. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-latest-manned-spacecraft-lands-safely-mission-xinhua-002211086.html

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CEO of Wal-Mart Indian joint venture leaves co.

NEW YORK (AP) ? The CEO of Wal-Mart Stores' Indian joint venture has left his post after six years at the helm.

The world's biggest retailer said in a statement on Thursday that Raj Jain is departing, but did not give any specifics on why he was leaving.

The company named Ramnik Narsey, senior vice president for Walmart International, as interim head for Bharti Walmart, a joint venture with India's Bharti Enterprises.

Narsey joined Wal-Mart Stores Inc. last month. He previously served as chairman and CEO of Woolworths India.

Wal-Mart has been trying to expand in India, a giant market that is relatively untapped by foreign retailers. But the Bentonville, Ark., company has hit some bumps along the way.

In November it suspended several workers at Bharti Walmart as part of an internal corruption investigation.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ceo-wal-mart-indian-joint-venture-leaves-co-130510844.html

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White House urges Moscow to expel Snowden to US

Light shines through a cabin window on seat 17A, the empty seat that an Aeroflot official said was booked in the name of former CIA technician Edward Snowden, shortly before Aeroflot flight SU150 takes off from Moscow to Havana, Cuba, Monday, June 24, 2013. Snowden, who has admitted to leaking National Security Agency secrets, was expected to fly from Russia to Cuba and Venezuela en route to possible asylum in Ecuador, but AP reporters on the flight never saw him get on board. (AP Photo/Max Seddon)

White House press secretary Jay Carney gestures during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, Monday, June 24, 2013. Carney said the U.S. assumes that Edward Snowden is now in Russia and that the White House now expects Russian authorities to look at all the options available to them to expel Snowden to face charges in the U.S. for releasing secret surveillance information . (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

A TV screen shows a news report of Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, at a shopping mall in Hong Kong Sunday, June 23, 2013. The former National Security Agency contractor wanted by the United States for revealing two highly classified surveillance programs has been allowed to leave for a "third country" because a U.S. extradition request did not fully comply with Hong Kong law, the territory's government said Sunday. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Graphic shows key locations in the life and career of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden; 3c x 5 inches; 146 mm x 127 mm;

Journalists show passengers arriving from Hong Kong a tablet with a photo of Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, at Sheremetyevo airport, just outside Moscow, Russia, Sunday, June 23, 2013. The former National Security Agency contractor wanted by the United States for revealing two highly classified surveillance programs has been allowed to leave for a "third country" because a U.S. extradition request did not fully comply with Hong Kong law, the territory's government said Sunday. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama says the United States is following legal channels on how to bring National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden back to the U.S. He says the administration is working with other countries to make sure "the rule of law is observed."

Obama made his remark at the White House.

He was asked by a reporter if he had discussed Snowden's situation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Obama did not respond directly to that question.

Earlier, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the United States assumes Snowden is in Russia, where he fled after leaving Hong Kong. Carney said Snowden's departure from Hong Kong after the United States requested his extradition damaged U.S.-China relations.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-06-24-NSA-Surveillance/id-1fb31b9e69634382879fd1fc98c87148

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Helping RNA escape from cells' recycling process could make it easier to shut off disease-causing genes

June 24, 2013 ? Nanoparticles that deliver short strands of RNA offer a way to treat cancer and other diseases by shutting off malfunctioning genes. Although this approach has shown some promise, scientists are still not sure exactly what happens to the nanoparticles once they get inside their target cells.

A new study from MIT sheds light on the nanoparticles' fate and suggests new ways to maximize delivery of the RNA strands they are carrying, known as short interfering RNA (siRNA).

"We've been able to develop nanoparticles that can deliver payloads into cells, but we didn't really understand how they do it," says Daniel Anderson, the Samuel Goldblith Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT. "Once you know how it works, there's potential that you can tinker with the system and make it work better."

Anderson, a member of MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and MIT's Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, is the leader of a research team that set out to examine how the nanoparticles and their drug payloads are processed at a cellular and subcellular level. Their findings appear in the June 23 issue of Nature Biotechnology. Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT, is also an author of the paper.

One RNA-delivery approach that has shown particular promise is packaging the strands with a lipidlike material; similar particles are now in clinical development for liver cancer and other diseases.

Through a process called RNA interference, siRNA targets messenger RNA (mRNA), which carries genetic instructions from a cell's DNA to the rest of the cell. When siRNA binds to mRNA, the message carried by that mRNA is destroyed. Exploiting that process could allow scientists to turn off genes that allow cancer cells to grow unchecked.

Scientists already knew that siRNA-carrying nanoparticles enter cells through a process, called endocytosis, by which cells engulf large molecules. The MIT team found that once the nanoparticles enter cells they become trapped in bubbles known as endocytic vesicles. This prevents most of the siRNA from reaching its target mRNA, which is located in the cell's cytosol (the main body of the cell).

This happens even with the most effective siRNA delivery materials, suggesting that there is a lot of room to improve the delivery rate, Anderson says.

"We believe that these particles can be made more efficient. They're already very efficient, to the point where micrograms of drug per kilogram of animal can work, but these types of studies give us clues as to how to improve performance," Anderson says.

Molecular traffic jam

The researchers found that once cells absorb the lipid-RNA nanoparticles, they are broken down within about an hour and excreted from the cells.

They also identified a protein called Niemann Pick type C1 (NPC1) as one of the major factors in the nanoparticle-recycling process. Without this protein, the particles could not be excreted from the cells, giving the siRNA more time to reach its targets. "In the absence of the NPC1, there's a traffic jam, and siRNA gets more time to escape from that traffic jam because there is a backlog," says Gaurav Sahay, an MIT postdoc and lead author of the Nature Biotechnology paper.

In studies of cells grown in the lab without NPC1, the researchers found that the level of gene silencing achieved with RNA interference was 10 to 15 times greater than that in normal cells.

Lack of NPC1 also causes a rare lysosomal storage disorder that is usually fatal in childhood. The findings suggest that patients with this disorder might benefit greatly from potential RNA interference therapy delivered by this type of nanoparticle, the researchers say. They are now planning to study the effects of knocking out the NPC1 gene on siRNA delivery in animals, with an eye toward testing possible siRNA treatments for the disorder.

The researchers are also looking for other factors involved in nanoparticle recycling that could make good targets for possibly slowing down or blocking the recycling process, which they believe could help make RNA interference drugs much more potent. Possible ways to do that could include giving a drug that interferes with nanoparticle recycling, or creating nanoparticle materials that can more effectively evade the recycling process.

The research was funded by Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/7V-2JNR49qM/130624144824.htm

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US home prices rise in April by most in 7 years

WASHINGTON (AP) ? U.S. home prices jumped 12.1 percent in April from a year ago, buoyed by strong demand and a limited supply of available homes. Strong gains in a wide range of cities point to a broad-based housing recovery.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index also showed a 2.5 percent increase in April from March, the biggest month-over-month gain on records dating back to 2000.

All cities except Detroit posted gains in April from March. That's up from only 15 cities in the previous months.

Prices rose from a year earlier in all 20 cities for the fourth straight month. Twelve cities posted double-digit gains.

San Francisco, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Atlanta posted the largest year-over-year price gains. All were over 20 percent.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-06-25-Home%20Prices/id-7cc4d4fde80b46589b09145ad7e03b7a

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Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Padres beat Giants 5-3 on safety squeeze in 13th

San Diego Padres' Andrew Cashner hits an RBI bunt against the San Francisco Giants' in the 13th inning of a baseball game Monday, June 17, 2013, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

San Diego Padres' Alexi Amarista reacts after scoring against the San Francisco Giants in the 13th inning of a baseball game Monday, June 17, 2013, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

San Diego Padres' Chris Denorfia swings for an RBI double off San Francisco Giants' Barry Zito in the third inning of a baseball game Monday, June 17, 2013, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

San Francisco Giants' Barry Zito works against the San Diego Padres in the first inning of a baseball game Monday, June 17, 2013, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

San Diego Padres' Edinson Volquez works against the San Francisco Giants in the first inning of a baseball game Monday, June 17, 2013, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Andrew Cashner provided quite the thrilling warmup for his Tuesday start against San Francisco: a tiebreaking bunt as a pinch hitter in the 13th inning Monday night.

Will Venable made an incredible catch to save San Diego, Cashner drove in the go-ahead run with a perfect safety squeeze, and the Padres extended their season-best winning streak to seven games with a 5-3 victory over the San Francisco Giants.

"That was pretty cool," Cashner said. "I've never had a game-winning RBI. But if Will Venable doesn't have that catch ... it's one of the best catches I've ever seen."

Well, he didn't exactly see it live. Cashner was in the batting cage taking swings.

Venable's diving grab on the center-field warning track with his back to home plate ended the 12th and stole a game-winning hit from Juan Perez.

"The wind was funny tonight," Padres manager Bud Black said. "Off the bat, I thought Will was going to run back and catch it, and then it kept carrying."

Moments later, Alexi Amarista started the winning rally with a single and went to third on Chris Denorfia's single. Cashner came up to face Jose Mijares (0-1) and dropped a bunt single between the mound and third base for his sixth career hit and second RBI.

San Diego added another run on a bases-loaded walk from Jake Dunning. Giants manager Bruce Bochy had made a double switch to bring in Dunning and had intended to have a fresh Buster Posey lead off the next inning, but mistakenly put him in the seventh hole.

"I messed up the double switch. I got distracted," Bochy said. "I was out there arguing and I totally brain-cramped on that. Once I said it wrong, I was done. I knew that. That's a first. I probably should have stepped back and thought a little bit. ... Once I called it wrong I can't take it back. Got distracted, you're upset a little bit, that shouldn't happen but it did."

Nick Vincent (1-0) pitched two scoreless innings. Huston Street finished the 4-hour, 35-minute game for his 14th save in 15 chances. It was San Francisco's longest game of the year.

The Padres finally came through after they had two runners on and one out in the 11th and 12th, but Giants relievers Sandy Rosario and Javier Lopez got a pair of strikeouts to end each threat.

Chase Headley hit a tying single in the seventh against Jean Machi, who induced an inning-ending double play by Jesus Guzman to avoid further damage.

The Giants (35-34) couldn't hold a 3-1 lead for Barry Zito and dropped into fourth place in the NL West for the first time since April 8.

Logan Forsythe had his first three-hit game this year for San Diego, swept in San Francisco's waterfront ballpark April 19-21.

Joaquin Arias hit a sacrifice fly, Brandon Belt and Hector Sanchez each had an RBI single and Perez added two hits and a defensive gem on a night when the road-weary, injury-plagued Giants sent out a lineup largely of backups.

They landed in San Francisco about 3 a.m. Monday after a night game in Atlanta, showed up late to the ballpark and didn't take batting practice before the game. San Francisco just completed a grueling stretch with 14 of 18 games away from AT&T Park.

Zito struck out a season-high eight and got back on track at home where he pitches so well, but had nothing to show for it as the Padres rallied against the bullpen. The lefty walked off to a standing ovation from the sellout crowd with two outs in the sixth and runners on first and third.

Machi relieved and threw a wild pitch that allowed a run to score, then retired pinch-hitter Nick Hundley on a groundout. Machi has allowed a run in six straight outings and 10 of his last 11.

Zito had his most strikeouts since getting 10 against Atlanta on Aug. 6, 2010.

Padres starter Edinson Volquez struck out six in five innings. He doubled leading off the third and scored on Denorfia's double for San Diego's first run.

Volquez knew Venable was going to make the clutch catch.

"I said, 'That ball, it's not going to bounce,'" the pitcher recalled saying. "He can run. He said he let down the team down because he struck out."

San Francisco shortstop Brandon Crawford went 1 for 6 while batting third for the first time this season.

Bochy was asked before the game why he used Crawford there.

"Crawford asked me the same thing," Bochy said. "I just said, 'Maybe I got into the wine too much last night.'"

NOTES: San Diego is still waiting to determine whether SS Everth Cabrera and OF Carlos Quentin will need a stint on the disabled list. Cabrera came out of Sunday's game after the eighth inning with a left hamstring injury. Quentin missed his third straight game Monday because of left shoulder soreness. ... Giants 3B Pablo Sandoval (strained left foot) and CF Angel Pagan (strained left hamstring) are expected to be activated for the start of a series at Dodger Stadium beginning next Monday. Sandoval played catch and hit in the cage without a walking boot Monday. He is tentatively slated to begin a rehab assignment Friday with Class-A San Jose, and Pagan will likely go out on rehab soon, too. ... San Francisco reliever Santiago Casilla, who had right knee surgery, is expected to throw off a mound within a week. ... San Francisco hosted second-round draft pick INF-RHP Ryder Jones. His late grandfather, Ron Brown, who died last August of cancer, was a huge Giants fan. "This is so cool, because he would have loved this," said Jones' mother, Tiffani, fighting tears in the dugout. ... The Giants are 20-12 against the NL West. ... RHP Matt Cain (5-3) pitches Tuesday night for the Giants against Cashner (5-3).

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-06-18-Padres-Giants/id-0cb6cc8a43d844d1a5767077eae42550

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President Obama and his daughter play with toy guns | The Daily ...

Wishing Americans a happy Father?s Day, the White House tweeted a picture of President Obama and one of his daughters playing with toy water pistols.

The Tweet comes at a time when several schools around the country?fearful that such toys make kids more prone to violent behavior?have launched trade-in programs that encourage children to exchange their harmless toy guns for chances to win prizes, like books and bicycles.

One such trade-in took place last weekend at Strobridge Elementary in California. Principal Chris Hill, who organized the event, explained that toy guns desensitize kids toward gun violence.

?Playing with toys guns, saying ?I?m going to shoot you,? desensitizes them, so as they get older, it?s easier for them to use a real gun,? Hill said in a statement to Mercury News.

Earlier this year, a California activist named Jerry Rubin ramped up his efforts to dissuade parents from buying toy guns for their children.

Children who bring toy guns to school have met with severe punishments as of late. A Maryland kindergartner who took his cap gun on the bus was interrogated by administrators until he peed his pants, and then suspended for 10 days. Cap guns have bright, colorful tips to distinguish them from real guns, and make a popping noise when fired.

But given that Obama lets his daughters shoot at him with water pistols, school administrators should consider easing up on their anti-toy gun hysteria, wrote Yih-Chau Chang, a spokesperson for Responsible Citizens of California.

?Perhaps the national conversation on this issue will take a new turn now that President Obama has seemingly weighed in on the issue,? he wrote in an e-mail to The Daily Caller News Foundation.

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Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact?licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Source: http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/16/happy-fathers-day-president-obama-and-his-daughter-play-with-toy-guns/

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Debbie Gisonni: 5 Ways to Enjoy Your Summer Vacation

Get Healthy Living Alerts:

Vacations give us a much-needed break from work and responsibilities. They're a time to have fun, new adventures, rest and relaxation. In our fast-paced, over-scheduled and stress-filled lives, we often overlook the value of these benefits.

Here are five ways to ensure that you enjoy your summer vacation.

1. Always use your vacation time.

Compared to most countries, American employees have less paid vacation days, so it's amazing that some of us actually don't use what little vacation time we have! If you're all about work and no play, you are surely headed for a burnout down the road. You can't have an enjoyable vacation if you choose not to have one at all.

2. Define vacation on your own terms.

You don't have to take a trip, spend a lot of money, or even leave your house to have a vacation. All you need to do is take a break from your normal routine or work. If you happen to travel on your job, a staycation may be the perfect retreat for you. Or perhaps you'd like to spend your free time taking a pottery class, planting a garden, reading a good novel, spending time with friends and family, or just listening to the birds sing while you gently swing in your backyard hammock. A vacation is a frame of mind, not a place or schedule.

3. Do your research.

If you do plan on taking a trip, make sure there are no unpleasant surprises when you get there. Call and ask in advance to find out about things like kid-friendly or pet-friendly accommodations, transportation services, safety, climate, etc. There are plenty of travel books and Internet sites that provide all the necessary information to make your trip a pleasant one. Or, you can take the old-fashioned approach and book your travel arrangements through an experienced and knowledgeable travel agent or tour company.

4. Relax and enjoy.

Don't treat your vacation like a work project. Too much planning, organizing, list-making and over-scheduling gives you no time to relax and enjoy yourself. Get out of work mode and kick back. Don't feel as if every day needs an itinerary -- unless you're on a group tour and all you have to do is show up. Try to space out planned activities to every other day with alternate days off for whatever you feel like doing in the moment. You don't want to be exhausted from your vacation when it's all over.

5. Leave work behind.

The whole point of vacation is to take a break from work, not to have thoughts and messages from work mixing in with your thirst-quenching Mai Tai on the beach or your daring sky diving lesson. Leave the laptop behind, don't check voicemail, and don't call the office. Change your outgoing phone messages and set up an auto reply on email to make sure everyone knows you're not available until your return date. This is your time to put yourself first, renew your spirit and have a blissful experience!

For more by Debbie Gisonni, click here.

For more on emotional wellness, click here.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/debbie-gisonni/stress-vacation_b_3412571.html

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