The latest articles from WNYC News

Contraception Debate Rages in Washington, But Mandate Is Familiar in NY

Fred Mogul — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:01:00 -0500

If President Barack Obama stands firms on a federal rule requiring all insurers to provide contraception, he will be bringing to the country a mandate similar to one in place in New York, Connecticut and 26 other states.

These states demand insurers pay for contraception. Twenty of them provide conscience exemptions to different categories of religious organizations, according to a study [PDF] by the Guttmacher Institute, which focuses on sexuality and reproductive rights.

In New York and Connecticut, the only exempt institutions are churches, where the majority of people they employ and serve are presumed to share anti-contraception values.

That leaves most religious hospitals, schools, universities, charities and social services mandated to provide workers with contraception, because they employ and serve a broader group of people. Obama and his supporters say the exemption for churches constitutes a reasonable compromise, but many religious groups say it’s not enough.

“The religious exemption is very choking and very tight,” Archbishop Timothy Dolan said Thursday on CBS “This Morning.” Dolan, who will soon become a cardinal, is also the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Asked what he would tell Obama, Dolan replied: “Simply, in the best American principles of freedom of religion, give a much more dramatically wide latitude to that religious exemption and protection of conscience and religious freedom, and you’re not going to hear from us anymore.”

The federal rule being debated in Congress would supersede state laws – and would also force self-insured institutions to cover contraception (and to accept other mandates from which they’re currently exempt, such as covering young adults on parents’ plans through age 26). In New York, about 45 percent of people with employer-based health coverage get it from self-insured plans.

“Our student health center does not prescribe contraception, and you can’t get it on campus,” Fordham University spokesman Bob Howe said. “But our insurance, for both students and employees, does cover contraception, and people can get a prescription and purchase the medication wherever they want off-campus. That’s a requirement of state law.”

The Archdiocese of New York, on the other hand, does not offer contraception to the 6,000 employees who work for its main office, school system and charitable wing. It’s allowed to do this not simply because it is a church – it’s actually much more than that – but because it’s “self-insured.” Organizations that are self-insured directly pay for employees’ health benefits without outside insurance, so they are not subject to state regulations.

It’s still not clear where Dolan and others would draw the boundaries of exemption. Anthony Picarello, general counsel for the Catholic Bishops, suggested adding hospitals, schools, universities and charities would not be enough. Picarello, who declined to be interviewed by WNYC, told USA Today on Thursday that "good Catholic business people” also should not be forced to offer employees access to contraception.

"If I quit this job and opened a Taco Bell, I'd be covered by the mandate," Picarello told the newspaper.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat, said this demand would open the way for a much broader group of employers to deny contraceptive coverage.

“It’s very important that bosses not be able to tell employees what medicines they can and cannot take,” Gillibrand said in an interview with WNYC. She said the rule as it currently stands exempts more than 335,000 churches and other houses of worship, and that should be enough.

“What we’re talking about are large employers, like hospitals and universities -- major employers for a whole region in a state,” Gillibrand said. “They have to play by the same rules as everyone else. You can’t pick or choose which laws you want to apply.”

Over Bowls Of Soup, Donors Find Recipe For Change

Linton Weeks — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:00:00 -0500

The Soup Movement in America is based on a simple recipe: Bring a bunch of people together to eat soup. Ask each person for a modest donation — say $5. Listen to a few proposals about how people might use that pool of money for a worthwhile project. Vote on the best proposal, and give all the money to the top vote-getter. Go home full and fulfilled.

With the national surge of microfinancing and social entrepreneurship, soup groups have bubbled up in Detroit, Fort Worth, Los Angeles and other cities around the country. FEAST, founded in Brooklyn in 2009, has awarded more than $17,000 in small grants. Louisville's posSOUPbility group convened for the first time on Jan. 29. You can find a loose-knit network of active — and not so active — groups at the Sunday Soup website.

Many of the confabs have a special focus. Sprout Seattle, for example, provides funds for emerging artists. In Philadelphia, an organization called PhilaSoup concentrates on education.

PhilaSoup was founded in 2011 by two Philadelphia sisters, Claire and Nikka Landau, with help from their friend Jason Tucker. "The vision for PhilaSoup," according to Nikka, "is a monthly microgrant dinner meant to bring innovative and dynamic Philadelphia-area educators together, highlight the great work they are doing, and fund some innovative education projects."

Nikka brought the idea home with her from Detroit, a key city in the Soup Movement. "I loved the idea of coming together with strangers over a meal," Nikka said, "and finding out more about our shared community."

Breaking Bread

On a recent Sunday night, the trio of friends welcomed about 45 teachers and other members of the local education community to a cozy gathering at the University Barge Club, a 19th-century boathouse on the banks of the Schuylkill River. As folks walked in, they were asked to fill out name tags — with their names and the names of their favorite children's books.

"Teachers all over Philadelphia are doing terrific projects," Claire said. "It's really exciting to gather and break bread with teachers from across the city doing exciting things."

Out the window of the Barge Club's cozy meeting room, the silver-blue and glassy waters flowed below as the sun set in the midwinter sky. Inside, people mingled over wine and clementines. Warmth was provided by a gas-log fire and genial conversation.

Mounted on the walls — alongside a ginormous moose head and various memorial oars — were old photos of rowing teams, working together in concert to accomplish a greater task. Metaphor in black and white.

Four soups — lentil, tomato bisque, beef barley (made by the Landau sisters' father) and ginger carrot — were served, along with French bread and pumpkin muffins.

As people slurped their last spoonfuls, Jason and the Landau sisters welcomed everyone, explained how the evening would unfold, and called on the first presenter. Presentations were limited to three minutes apiece. Questions were allowed.

In striped blouse, dark skirt and glasses, Lacey Boland, a 7th-grade English teacher at Independence Charter School, spoke very fast. She said she would use the money for a student publication program. Students had written retooled versions of fairy tales and turned the stories into books. She read an excerpt of one of the retellings, Snow What: The Remix.

" 'There's something wrong with her,' the doctor sighed. The mother was in a daze. She let out a small mix between a scream and a gasp."

Lacey said she planned to use the night's money to pay a visiting author to give a workshop. And she said that when it comes to her students, "it's really hard to underestimate the power of having seen their word in print."

The second presenter was Brian Kerner, a high school art teacher at Prep Charter High School. Brian — in black jeans and black shirt — waved his hands here and there as he spoke. He said he wanted to use the microgrant to buy art supplies so that his students could make family crests in a metalworking project. "Metals are cool," he said. And by helping students create medieval shields with crests that reflected meaningful parts of their lives, he could teach them about symbolism in art.

Alyssa Boyle, a young principal at Camelot Excel North Academy, beseeched everyone to consider her appeal for a dropout prevention plan. She hoped to use the money to buy black vests — to spruce up school uniforms — and to use those vests to encourage marginal students to improve their attendance records. "I can single out the kids who are always there and put them in a nice vest," Alyssa explained. "Any way to make their uniform a little more snazzy is always welcome."

And The Winner Is ...

After the three proposals — each met with enthusiasm, support and a few questions — someone passed around a plate of homemade cookies.

As people discussed the pros and cons of the projects, and the presenters stealthily lobbied the crowd for votes, Jason handed out stones to everyone and asked them to place their stone in one of the milk jugs — each labeled with one of the night's proposals — on the table near the exit door on their way out.

The Landau sisters thanked people for coming and bid them all a good night.

Once the crowd had left and the soup was put away, Jason and the Landau sisters tallied the stones. The evening's winner — of about $225 — was Lacey Boland, and her "Fairy Tales Remixed."

Obama Gives Education Waviers to 10 States

WNYC Newsroom — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:44:46 -0500

New Jersey is one of ten states that received a waiver from the No Child Left Behind education law on Thursday. President Barack Obama says his decision will give the 10 states the flexibility needed to set high standards for students and hold schools accountable.

Speaking at the White House, Obama said states need to ensure that "every student should have the same opportunity to reach their potential." He added the states are getting leeway in exchange for promises to improve the way schools teach and evaluate students.

Critics of the law argue it relies too heavily on test scores. The waivers are also tacit acknowledgment that the law's main goal — to get students up to par in math and reading by 2014 — is not within reach.

Governor Chris Christie said the waiver is validation for the state's bold, common sense, bipartisan approach to education reform. "This is not about Democrats or Republicans - it is about pursuing an agenda in the best interest of our children whose educational needs are not being met, and those who are getting a decent education but deserve a great one,” the governor said in a statement.

New Jersey schools will no longer be subject to NCLB accountability provisions or sanctions for not making the Adequately Yearly Progress. The state's Department of Education, instead, will develop a new accountability system based on growth made in a given year.

"There is no single solution to turn around chronically failing schools or close the achievement gap. So, it is critical that the Legislature join me, standing alongside President Obama and Secretary Duncan, in providing the comprehensive set of tools needed to give every children in every part of our state the opportunity and hope that only comes with a quality education,” concluded Governor Christie.

New Jersey applied for the waiver in November, including a package of four reform bills as part of its waiver application.

Dawn Hiltner, with the New Jersey Education Association, agrees that the waiver will give the state more flexibility. "The No Child Left Behind law didn't take into account that students have different needs and different abilities. Students that did not have English as their first language, or students with severe disabilities and special needs were expected to perform as high as their, you know, as their peers in their grade, as their age-level peers," she said. Still, she does have some concerns about the some of the proposals included in the waiver application.

The president said he acted because Congress failed to update the law, despite agreement that it needs to be fixed.

Other states to receive the waiver included Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

Only one state did not receive the waiver, that was New Mexico. The state is working with the administration to get approval. A total of 28 others states have signaled that they may seek waivers.

With reporting from Annmarie Fertoli

AG Eric Schneiderman Says Mortgage Settlement Means Relief for Troubled NY Borrowers

Ilya Marritz — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:58:00 -0500

New York has joined a $25 billion state and federal settlement with five major banks that would resolve claims over "robo-signing" and other abuses of the foreclosure process.

The agreement will result in principal and interest rate reductions for millions of Americans — and as many as 118,000 residents of New York state — whose outstanding balances on their mortgages are worth more than their homes.

State and federal officials had been in talks with the major mortgage servicers for over a year, and there have been rumors for months that an agreement was close.

But until the last minute, it was unclear whether New York would join. In August, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, left the negotiation table, claiming the draft agreement would have given banks broad immunity from prosecution on the origination and packaging of mortgages. Now the Schneiderman has given the settlement his enthusiastic support.

"For a year, the proposed settlement was simply inadequate,” Schneiderman said in a statement, “and I applaud all those who fought with us to hold banks accountable for their role in the foreclosure crisis, provide meaningful relief to New York’s struggling homeowners, and allow a full airing of the facts to ensure that abuses of this scale never happen again.”

Among the benefits he is touting:

• $495 million in loan modifications for "underwater" borrowers.

• $140 million in estimated benefits for borrowers from the refinancing program.

• $13 million for persons who can show they were wrongly foreclosed.

• Approximately $136 million in cash will be made available for distribution to legal aid and other groups helping distressed homeowners.

• New York is free to pursue lawsuits against mortgage servicers and lenders, including a suit filed last week against MERS, a mortgage-recording system.

The banks signing on to the agreement are Bank of America Corporation, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Company, Citigroup Inc. and Ally Financial Inc. (formerly GMAC). The settlement still requires the approval of a federal judge.

The American Bankers Association voiced cautious support for the agreement, emphasizing the narrowness of the complaints it was designed to resolve.

"This settlement addresses a distinct group of mortgages offered during a specific timeframe. It would be a mistake to regard the settlement as applying to mortgage practices industry wide,” said Frank Keating, the president and CEO of American Bankers Association in an email.

Terry Goddard, a former Arizona Attorney General who took part in negotiations in 2010, said the terms of the settlement became much more favorable to prosecutors.

“More than a year ago there was talk about almost total immunity that banks would have in exchange for better procedures going forward,” Goddard said.

While the agreement would settle many civil claims related to robo-signing and other allegations of improper foreclosures, authorities will retain broad powers to bring criminal cases.

The next step now is for a federal judge to ratify the agreement.

Schneiderman said after that, the five servicers participating in the settlement will be obliged to contact their underwater borrowers and offer to negotiate new terms. He also said he will quickly distribute money to legal aid and foreclosure-prevention groups so they can advocate on behalf of homeowners.

States, Banks Reach Foreclosure-Abuse Settlement

The Associated Press — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:23:20 -0500

Federal officials say the five largest mortgage lenders have reached a $25 billion settlement with 49 states over foreclosure abuses that took place after the housing bubble burst. They will have three years to fulfill the terms of the landmark deal announced Thursday.

The deal also ends a separate investigation into Bank of America and Countrywide for inflating appraisals of loans from 2003 through most of 2009. Bank of America will pay $1 billion to settle that federal probe.

Oklahoma is the lone holdout and will receive no money.

What Do The Dow's Daily Swings Mean? Not Much.

Adam Davidson — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:00:00 -0500

Turn on the news on any given day, and you're likely to hear about the Dow Jones industrial average. It is the most frequently checked, and cited, proxy of U.S. economic health. But a lot of people — maybe most — don't even know what it is. It's just the stock prices of 30 big companies, summed up and roughly averaged. That's it.

And what does the daily movement of this number have to do with the lives of most Americans? Not much.

"In 2011, we had days where it would go up several hundred points, and the next day it would go down several hundred points," says John Prestbo, editor and executive director of Dow Jones Indexes. "You can't really argue that the mood and outlook of the entire country was changing that rapidly."

Prestbo doesn't even check the Dow every day.

He says the Dow Jones average is great for a very specific purpose: to get a long-term sense of how the leading U.S. companies are doing. But its moment-by-moment, even day-by-day movements are meaningless. It wasn't designed to be used that way.

In fact, Charles Dow, who created the Dow Jones average in 1896, didn't bother to comment on his own metric more than once a month.

So what happened? How did we develop this 24-hour fixation on the Dow? Blame the Panic of 1907.

This was a severe recession. Banks were collapsing. Everyone was trying to make sense of a disastrous economy. They wanted some handy metric that could tell what each day's news meant.

"So they looked around," Prestbo says, "and they found the Dow Jones industrial average. It took on a life of its own, shall we say."

Newspapers started referring to it. Then, during the Great Depression, it became a daily requirement.

Now, of course, we can follow it every second of the day. We are confused and want to know what the latest scary or hopeful economic news means. So, we look around, and there's still this one thing available. It always has an answer for us, even if the answer doesn't actually mean anything.

CNN Suspends Roland Martin Over Super Bowl Ad Tweets

Eyder Peralta — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:38:00 -0500

CNN's political commentator Roland Martin has been suspended, because of tweets sent out during the Super Bowl that organizations like GLAAD called homophobic.

NPR's David Folkenflik reports that the network was also reacting to online criticism of Martin. David filed this report for our Newscast unit:

"Roland S. Martin is a near-incessant tweeter and Sunday night during the Super Bowl proved no exception. British soccer star David beckham was shown during a television commercial hawking men's underwear — in nothing but that underwear. Martin caustically tweeted twice in response, writing to urge followers to 'smack the ish' out of any man who was 'hyped' about the ad.

"Gay rights groups said the tweets were homophobic. Martin said he was making an anti-soccer crack, but he later apologized more fully on his blog. On Wednesday, CNN released a statement calling his tweets offensive and inconsistent with the channel's values. He has been suspended from the air as a contributor indefinitely."

"Language that demeans is inconsistent with the values and culture of our organization, and is not tolerated," CNN said today in a statement according to The Washington Post. "We have been giving careful consideration to this matter, and Roland will not be appearing on our air for the time being."

On Monday, Martin issued an apology on his blog. He maintained that his tweets were made in jest and were made about soccer and not anyone's sexuality. He wrote:

"My joking about smacking someone, whether it was in response to a commercial or food they prepare for a Super Bowl party or wearing an opposing team's jersey, was stated in jest. It was not meant literally, and in no way would I ever condone someone doing such a thing.

"As I said repeatedly, I often make jokes about soccer in the U.S., and my crack about David Beckham's commercial was related to that and not to anyone's sexuality."

But as New York Magazine points out, that explanation would be "easier to believe if Martin hadn't earlier mocked a player for wearing pink and didn't have a history of defending questionable comments about homosexuality."

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation hailed CNN's move.

"CNN today took a strong stand against anti-LGBT violence and language that demeans any community," Rich Ferraro, a GLAAD spokesperson, said in a statement.

'He Blew Up The House And The Kids!' Caseworker's Anguished 911 Call

Mark Memmott — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:45:00 -0500

Recordings of an increasingly frantic social worker's 911 calls to police on Sunday are adding more detail to the horrible events leading up to a Washington State man's apparent decision to kill himself and his two young sons by turning his home into an inferno.

The unidentified caseworker had just dropped off 5-year-old Braden and 7-year-old Charlie at Josh Powell's home in Graham, Wash., she tells the 911 dispatcher, when he slammed the door in her face and locked her out.

Powell, a suspect in the 2009 disappearance of his wife Susan, could only have supervised visits with the boys. That's why the caseworker was there.

The Seattle Times has posted the 10-minutes' worth of recordings here in two parts. In the first, which lasts more than 6 minutes, the caseworker asks the Pierce County Sheriff's Department dispatcher to send police to the scene. She tells him she smelled gasoline around the home. The dispatcher says that deputies "have to respond to emergency, life-threatening situations first." She tells him she thinks that just such a situation exists. But when the dispatcher asks if Josh Powell had ever threatened to harm the boys, she concedes she does not know. That conversation ends with the dispatcher saying "the first available deputy" will contact her.

The second conversation, apparently recorded just minutes later, begins with the caseworker shouting "he exploded the house!"

"He blew up the house and the kids!" the increasingly panicked woman says.

It appears, as The Associated Press reports, that about 10 minutes went by from the time the boys were locked in the house to when it went up in flames. "Authorities later said," AP adds, that "Josh Powell spread a 5-gallon drum of gasoline around the home to ensure the fire he set burned faster." At some point, authorities believe, he also struck the boys with a hatchet.

School-based Churches Look to Albany for Eviction Reprieve

Fred Mogul — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:24:00 -0500

Some 50 churches that worship in New York City schools are hoping their scheduled eviction this Sunday will be delayed by a potential change in state law.

The State Senate on Monday passed a bill requiring school districts to allow religious groups to rent space for worship services, as long they don’t interfere with other school functions. However, it would take weeks, at the earliest, for the bill to become law, so bill sponsor Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn) is asking the city and the Department of Education for some interim clemency.

“If the mayor and the schools chancellor understand the legislation is coming through, one would hope they’d be willing to give an extension of a couple weeks,” Golden said.

Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott said the city’s position has not changed: the last time groups can meet for worship in schools remains Sunday, February 12.

A Department of Education rule dating to 1995 excludes religious groups from renting school space for worship services. That rule has been under legal challenge by religious groups since that time, so it’s never been implemented. The groups’ final appeal was exhausted in December, when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take the case — setting up this Sunday’s deadline.

Golden’s bill effectively tries to go around the federal Appeals Court decision that declared worship services in schools violate the separation of church and state. His bill says even if the city has a constitutional right to prohibit worship services in school, the city still must answer to a higher authority — the state of New York.

Robert Ward, deputy director of the Nelson Rockefeller Institute of Government at SUNY Albany, likens it to a teenager trying to get a driver’s license. “The state law allows a 16- or 17-year-old to get a driver’s license, but the teenager’s parents might say, ‘Yes the law allows, it but we’re not going to allow it,’” he said.

“The federal courts may tell the city, ‘You are allowed to exclude worship services, if you so choose,’” Ward said. “But that doesn’t prevent the state from telling the city, ‘We’re sorry, you do not have the authority to exclude worship services, because we at the state level are taking that authority away from you.’”

Ward said judicial rulings, even when they seem relatively restrictive, can still give lawmakers a fair amount of leeway. He said, they typically vote one way or another, “not because of their reading of the Constitution, but because of their personal and political preferences.”

Golden said if his bill is unconstitutional, “it will be up to the municipality or locale” — namely New York City — to challenge the state in court. In practice, Ward said, such a challenge by the city would be unlikely — but might well come an outside party. The New York Civil Liberties Unions, which joined the city's long-standing lawsuit, has also joined the fight against Golden's bill.

"The NYCLU will look closely at challenging any legislation that requires school districts to violate the Constitution and promote religion," said New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman. "All options are on the table."

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has expressed concern the Senate bill is too broad.

“I think the way the Senate is taking it up, it’s seriously flawed,” Silver told reporters.

A spokesman for Silver said legislative staff are “working on an amendment that conforms to the court decision on the issue, however no decisions have been made.”

Governor Andrew Cuomo’s position on the court ruling and the proposed bill remain unclear.

California's Same-Sex Marriage Ban Is Unconstitutional, Court Says

Mark Memmott — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:00:00 -0500

California's Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriages is unconstitutional, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today in a much-anticipated decision from the nation's most populous state. The judges upheld a lower court's ruling.

As you'd expect, the ruling has drawn praise from those who support same-sex marriage and condemnation from those who oppose it. Both sides acknowledge that the decision isn't the last word on the subject — an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is expected.

We posted updates on the decision (which you can read below) and as reaction came in.

Update at 1:54 p.m. ET. Newt Gingrich Condemns Decision:

"Court of Appeals overturning CA's Prop 8 another example of an out of control judiciary. Let's end judicial supremacy," Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich's Twitter page says.

Update at 1:45 p.m. ET. Reaction From Prop 8 Supporters, Who Vow To Appeal.

KQED's News Fix blog reports that:

"The National Organization For Marriage, the main group supporting Proposition 8, has condemned the ruling. From the press release:

" 'As sweeping and wrong-headed as this decision is, it nonetheless was as predictable as the outcome of a Harlem Globetrotters exhibition game,' said Brian Brown, NOM's president. 'We have anticipated this outcome since the moment San Francisco Judge Vaughn Walker's first hearing in the case. Now we have the field cleared to take this issue to the US Supreme Court, where we have every confidence we will prevail.' "

Update at 1:40 p.m. ET. A Copy Of The Ruling.

We've put a copy of the court's decision here. To read it in the box below, just click on the headline "Prop 8 Ruling" so it will pop up into a larger view.

Update at 1:35 p.m. ET. Pelosi Reacts:

Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the top Democrat in the House, says on her Twitter page that Prop 8 was ruled to be "what we knew it to be: unconstitutional. Victory for equality & CA families!"

Update at 1:25 p.m. ET. Ruling Is On "Narrow Grounds":

In the decision, the judges write that they did not rule on the "broader" issue of whether "same-sex couples may ever be denied the right to marry." That, they said, "is currently a matter of great debate in our nation, and an issue over which people of good will may disagree, sometimes strongly."

They continued: "We need not and do not answer the broader question in this case, however, because California had already extended to committed same-sex couples both the incidents of marriage and the official designation of 'marriage,' and Proposition 8's only effect was to take away that important and legally significant designation, while leaving in place all of its incidents. This unique and strictly limited effect of Proposition 8 allows us to address the amendment's constitutionality on narrow grounds."

Update at 1:18 p.m. ET. More From The Decision:

"Although the Constitution permits communities to enact most laws they believe to be desirable," the opinion states, "it requires that there be at least a legitimate reason for the passage of a law that treats different classes of people differently. There was no such reason that Proposition 8 could have been enacted."

Update at 1:15 p.m. ET. 2-1 Decision.

The Los Angeles Times writes that:

"The 2-1 decision ... found that Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that limited marriage to one man and one woman, violated the U.S. Constitution. The architects of Prop. 8 have vowed to appeal.

"The ruling was narrow and likely to be limited to California.

" 'Proposition 8 served no purpose, and had no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California,' the court said."

Update at 1:07 p.m. ET. More Background.

KPCC reminds us that:

"The Ninth Circuit ruling comes 18 months after federal judge Vaughn Walker struck down the ban. Walker found Prop 8 violated constitutional rights under two provisions: the equal protection clause and the due process clause of the constitution to marry."

KQED has a timeline of significant moments in California's same-sex marriage debate. And it is live blogging the news here.

From our original post:

As NPR's Richard Gonzales reported in November, Prop 8 was:

"Struck down as unconstitutional by a federal judge more than a year ago. Both former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and then attorney general Jerry Brown took the unusual position of declining to appeal, so the sponsors of Prop 8 took it upon themselves to file an appeal before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. ...

"Regardless of the finding, the 9th Circuit is expected by all parties to be just a legal stop before the matter goes to the U.S. Supreme Court."

Retired Cardinal Edward Egan Criticized for Abuse Comments

The Associated Press — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:40:43 -0500

Retired New York Cardinal Edward Egan is facing criticism from representatives of clergy sexual abuse victims for a recent interview in which he said he regretted apologizing for the priest abuse scandal in 2002 when he was bishop of Bridgeport.

In the interview with Connecticut Magazine, Egan says "I don't think we did anything wrong" in handling abuse cases. He says he was not obligated to report abuse claims and maintained he inherited the cases from his predecessor and did not have any cases on his watch.

Attorneys who represented numerous abuse victims say Egan's apology withdrawal is "just another slap in the face" to victims. They say clergy have been required to report abuse claims to authorities since the early 1970s.

Controversial Komen Policy Official Resigns

Scott Hensley — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:16:00 -0500

A high-ranking official at the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation has resigned amid fallout from the charity's move, since reversed, to halt funding for breast cancer screening by Planned Parenthood.

Karen Handel, a former Republican candidate for governor in Georgia, resigned her job, effective immediately, as senior vice president for public policy. The Associated Press first reported the move. The Komen foundation confirmed the report in an email to Shots.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution posted a copy of Handel's resignation letter. In it, Handel wrote that the decision to "exit the controversy surrounding Planned Parenthood and its grants was fully vetted by every appropriate level within the organization." And, she wrote, "No objections were made to moving forward."

She defended the policy shift, saying:

Neither the decision nor the changes themselves were based on anyone's political beliefs or ideology. Rather, both were based on Komen's mission and how to better serve women, as well as a realization of the need to distance Komen from controversy.

Komen said last week that it had changed its grant-making criteria. Its new approach would bar Planned Parenthood from future funding because the group was under investigation.

Komen then said it was a move for efficiency's sake, not one motivated by politics. After a swift backlash, Komen reversed itself, saying Planned Parenthood wouldn't be banned from funding after all.

The group issued a statement, attributed to Nancy G. Brinker, CEO and co-founder of the charity, confirming Handel's departure:

"Susan G. Komen for the Cure's mission is the same today as it was the day of its founding: to find a cure and eradicate breast cancer.

"We owe no less to our partners, supporters and, above all, the millions of people who have been and continue to be impacted by this life-threatening disease. We have made mistakes in how we have handled recent decisions and take full accountability for what has resulted, but we cannot take our eye off the ball when it comes to our mission. To do this effectively, we must learn from what we've done right, what we've done wrong and achieve our goal for the millions of women who rely on us. The stakes are simply too high and providing hope for a cure must drive our efforts.

"Today I accepted the resignation of Karen Handel, who has served as Senior Vice President for Policy since April 2011. I have known Karen for many years, and we both share a common commitment to our organization's lifelong mission, which must always remain our sole focus. I wish her the best in future endeavors."

While Gunfire Echoes Inside Syria, A Cry For Help From A City Under Attack

Mark Memmott — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 07:30:00 -0500

With heavy machine gun fire in the background as he spoke from the Baba Amr section of Homs, Syrian citizen journalist and blogger Omar Shakir told Morning Edition co-host Renee Montagne earlier today that "we are asking for [an] SOS" and help from the International Red Cross to stop what he said has been the deadly shelling of his city by forces loyal to President Bashar Assad.

"There is no one with us," Shakir said.

And during the conversation, he had a message for Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who is in Syria for talks with Assad. Over the weekend, Russia and China blocked a draft resolution from the U.N. Security Council that would have condemned the Assad regime for the killing of Syrians in the past year and would have urged the Syrian president to step aside. Now Russia is trying to play some sort of diplomatic role in the crisis.

"I just want this Russian guy to come here inside Baba Amr," Shakir said, "and sleep one night if he can. ... We cannot sleep. ... We cannot find food. ... I just want him to come here inside Baba Amr and suffer as we suffer and see what we see."

People there have seen in the past three days, Shakir added, the deaths of "more than 60 martyrs" — Syrians killed in the shelling and gunfire aimed at the citizens of Homs by army forces.

Because independent journalists are not allowed to move about freely in Syria, news outlets are depending on reports from people as Shakir and on information collected by international human rights groups to offer a picture of what's happening inside Syria — where, according to the United Nations, government forces have killed more than 5,000 people in the nearly 12 months since protests against the regime began. Much of what people inside Syria report cannot be independently verified at this time, but they have been able to post a lot of information and videos on the Web to support their accounts. Ahmed Al Omran, a production assistant on NPR's social media desk, is curating news from Homs on his Twitter page.

According to al-Jazeera, "Lavrov began his meeting with Assad by saying that Moscow wanted the Arab people to live in peace. 'Every leader of every country must be aware of his share of responsibility. You are aware of yours,' Russia's state-run RIA quoted Lavrov as saying at the talks in Damascus. 'It is in our interests for Arab peoples to live in peace and agreement,' he continued. Lavrov was expected to use his visit to press Assad into implementing democratic reforms after Russia and China vetoed any UN-backed measures against the Syrian government over its crackdown on the 11-month uprising."

Federal Transportation Bill Could Cut MTA Funding

Janet Babin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:57:00 -0500

There's more alarm about last week's House of Representatives vote to change the way public transportation is funded. A group of New York area lawmakers and transportation officials denounced the Republican sponsored bill at a news conference Monday at Grand Central Terminal. They said the bill would slash $1.7 billion dollars from New York State coffers.

The group painted a doomsday scenario, in which major projects, including the Second Avenue Subway, could be halted in their tracks, service could deteriorate and fares would head skyward. “Over time if you don't repair the system, if we don't get the money necessary to do the repairs and renovations of the system, it will raise fares,” said MTA Chariman Joe Lhota.

It's relatively rare for an MTA chief — especially one that has been on the job for a couple of months — to speak out on politics. Lhota, a Republican who was a deputy mayor to Rudy Giuliani, was joined at the news conference by Democratic Reps. Joe Crowley (NY-7), Charlie Rangel (NY-15), Jerrold Nadler (NY-8) and Carolyn Maloney (NY-14). Consumer advocates and Union officials also spoke out against the bill. The group said the proposed legislation would adversely affect urban and suburban commuters across the country.

The Republican bill proposes to eliminate the Surface Transportation Assistance Act, signed into law by President Ronald Regan in 1983. That legislation created a dedicated funding source for public transportation through a Federal tax on gasoline. The proposed bill would change that structure.

“This [new] bill would keep the gasoline tax revenues for highways, but eliminate it for mass transit,” said New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who represents parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn. “So we would no longer have a reliable source of funding, you’d have to go and beg Congress every year for appropriations and who knows how that would turn out.”

A spokesman for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Justin Harclerode, responded: "Republicans are not anti-transit, but we do recognize that the Highway Trust Fund is paid for by highways users, and cities and local governments must look at developing a similar user fee system for transit users."

Lhota also warned that the proposed bill could halt construction at some of New York City’s biggest transit upgrade projects, called mega-projects. They include expansion of the Second Avenue subway line and the East Side Access project, which would connect Long Island Rail Road’s Main and Port Washington lines in Queens to a new LIRR terminal beneath the existing Grand Central Terminal. Also at risk, said Lhota, is the Fulton Transit Center project, which is building a new station at the corner of Fulton Street and Broadway, and seeks to improve connections to six existing Lower Manhattan subway stations.

“If this bill goes forward, we’ll have to make some serious decisions because of the lack of funding, what will continue, what will move forward and at what pace,” Chairman Lhota said. “It will also affect track work and renovations,” he added.

House Republicans are expected to bring the legislation to the floor some time next week. A separate Senate version of the bill is expected to be introduced later this week.

For more on this story go to Transportation Nation.

In Indianapolis, Super Bowl Leftovers Are All Gone (To The Hungry)

Eliza Barclay — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:00:00 -0500

The Super Bowl party is over, and that means refrigerators around the country today are jammed with uneaten Frito pies, fried chicken, and seven-layer dips – remnants of one of the most gluttonous days of the year.

Raccoons and Dumpster divers can find glistening troves of leftover food if they know where to look. But in downtown Indianapolis, they'll be mostly out of luck. That's because most of the 30,000 pounds of leftovers generated from the multitude of Super Bowl events has already been served to the hungry by a group called Second Helpings.

Increasingly, food rescue groups in urban areas are capturing the food that never hits the table from large venues, retail outlets and wholesalers. It's one of the ways communities are turning perishable food that would otherwise end up in a landfill into a resource for people in need. According to Second Helpings, 11 percent of households in Indiana are hungry or at risk of being hungry.

It helps that the NFL has made reducing food waste one of its environmental priorities for the Super Bowl. In recent years, it has set up its own food recovery operation to redistribute food to the needy in each Super Bowl city. In Indianapolis, it turned to Second Helpings, which already uses leftovers from the stadiums, convention centers and other venues in town in some of the 3,000 meals it serves every day.

Second Helpings executive director Jennifer Vigran says the NFL first told her to expect up to 90,000 pounds of leftover food in early February. "But the weather was so wonderful and the attendance was so high, I think we didn't have as much food go to waste," says Vigran.

Still, her group has already received 20,000 pounds, and expects at least another 10,000 pounds today. "We are getting some items we don't normally get," Vigran tells The Salt. "Somewhere in there we have some caviar, and prosciutto. So we have to figure out what to do with it."

The prosciutto is headed into a pasta dish with artichokes. And the caviar? Vigran says she's not sure yet, but rest assured, it will be eaten.

The Super Bowl leftovers started rolling into her office last week, as the parties started ramping up. The food is transported in refrigerated vans to keep it safe.

After pick up, the food usually heads to the Second Helpings kitchen, where it gets reassembled into hot or cold meals. From there, it goes out to one of 60 partner agencies in the area – from senior centers to homeless shelters to day care centers.

As with all prepared food, time and temperature are of the essence. "Our biggest challenge is turning the food over quickly enough so it's either frozen or stored safely, and then dispatching it to the community," she says.

First Barbie, Now Bart Simpson Is Banned In Iran

Mark Memmott — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:20:00 -0500

As most of the headlines we're seeing say: "Aww, man!"

A newspaper in Iran says the authorities there have banned dolls of characters from The Simpsons because they supposedly promote Western culture.

So that means Homer, Marge, Lisa, Maggie and, of course, Bart, join Barbie on the list of toys deemed to be too hot for Iranian children to handle.

As Tom Ricks says on The Best Defense blog he does for Foreign Policy magazine, Homer "probably doesn't care because they don't sell Duff beer" in Iran.

We suspect Lisa, judging from her ongoing war about Malibu Stacy, would be outraged to hear that she's been compared in any way to Barbie.

Bart, though, might say "cowabunga dude! Maybe I can hang out with her!"

By the way, Iranian authorities apparently say that Spiderman and Superman are OK. "They help oppressed people and they have a positive stance," Mohammad Hossein Farjoo, secretary of policymaking at the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, told Shargh.

M.I.A.'s Flip Of The Finger: Big Deal Or Not?

Mark Memmott — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:05:00 -0500

(Note: If seeing someone "flip the bird" greatly offends you, this might not be the post for you.)

If it's the morning after a Super Bowl then that must mean everybody's talking not just about the game but about the ads and the halftime show as well.

The game? OK, but not the greatest. (If you haven't heard, the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots 21-17.)

The ads? Meh, as the kids might say. It certainly didn't seem to us like there were any true breakouts. According to USA Today's annual Super Bowl ad meter that measures a captive audience's reactions, "dogs are still a Super Bowl advertiser's best friend." No stunner there.

The halftime show? Ah, now there's something to debate. We'll let our friends at The Record and Monkey See decide what should be said, if anything, about the quality of Madonna's performance.

What we're wondering is how upset, or not, everyone is about the middle finger (and possibly said an expletitive) dropped by singer M.I.A. as she backed up Madonna.

On the one hand (so to speak), it's an obscene gesture and it theoretically might have been seen by more than 100 million Americans.

On the other hand, as NPR.org's Linton Weeks wrote back in August 2010, middle fingers have been popping up with increasing frequency for several years now:

"On streets, in stores, in schools, on the news. People are extending their middle fingers as a silent, but effective — sometimes too effective — way of saying "go to hell," "up yours" or "(insert nasty-sounding verb here) you." It's also known by a few other handles, such as "shooting the bird" and "flipping off." But whatever you call it, it's become commonplace."

So, it might be asked, why fuss over something so common?

Politico says M.I.A.'s fleeting finger "could add up to another Super Bowl headache for the Federal Communications Commission," which now must decide whether NBC-TV should be fined for letting it get on the air (the network's attempt to digitally blur the gesture was a second too late). The commission might wait, though, to decide what to do until after the Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of its "fleeting expletive policy." A lower court has said the FCC was wrong to fine CBS-TV $500,000 for Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" at the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show.

We don't have to wait to ask:

(Note: That's not a scientific survey. It's just a question to spark discussion. We'll keep it open until midnight Tuesday.)

Release Americans 'Immediately,' Ambassador Rice Tells Egypt

Mark Memmott — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:30:00 -0500

Saying that "these Americans have done absolutely nothing wrong," the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations this morning called on Egypt to immediately allow 19 U.S. citizens to leave that country and to drop plans to accuse them of illegally funding groups that oppose Egypt's ruling military regime.

On CBS News' This Morning, Ambassador Susan Rice said that if Egypt follows through and charges the Americans with crimes there could be "serious consequences for our bilateral relations."

Egypt is due to get about $1.5 billion in U.S. aid this year.

The Americans, as we've previously reported, include Sam LaHood — the 36-year-old son of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. The younger man directs the Egypt offices of the International Republican Institute, a U.S.-government sponsored organization that promotes democracy. He has previously said the IRI has done nothing to aid the groups that have been protesting against the military council that took control after the toppling of President Hosni Mubarak's regime one year ago.

Some of the Americans are being sheltered at the U.S. embassy in Cairo. All told, Egypt says it plans to charge 40 people — including 14 Egyptians — with allegedly fomenting opposition.

Eli Has Two Rings, Peyton Has One; Time For Little 'Bro To Get More Respect?

Mark Memmott — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:10:00 -0500

After leading his New York Giants to a 21-17 victory over the New England Patriots last night, quarterback Eli Manning is now 2-0 in Super Bowl games.

That puts him ahead of older brother Peyton, who has taken the Indianapolis Colts to two Super Bowls and won one.

Injuries kept Peyton out of football this season and he may not be back. He's considered one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game.

But now, Eli has one more Super Bowl ring than his brother and has been the MVP in both games he's played in. So it seems fair to ask whether it's time to talk about both Mannings as being among the best ever. Their career "quarterback ratings" aren't too close — 82.1 for Eli over eight seasons and 94.9 over 13 seasons for Peyton. But what do you think?

Meanwhile, the morning's other story line from the Super Bowl seems to be the fleeting finger of singer M.I.A. during the halftime show. We missed it, but she apparently flashed a middle digit as she performed during one of Madonna's songs. M.I.A. also may have added the F-word just to get her point across ("though it was hard to hear her clearly," The Associated Press says).

The NFL and NBC, which broadcast the game, are apologizing. A spokesman for the TV network says a system that should have digitally blurred the offending finger wasn't activated in time.

Explainer: What Happens to Unused FSA Funds

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Use it or lose it! If you have money taken out of your paycheck before taxes for medical expenses, you know you have to use that money by the deadline or kiss it goodbye.

So, what happens to all of that "lost" money? It turns out the employer gets it. But they can only use it for certain things related to the Flexible Spending Account plan.

"The money stays in the plan," said Avery Neumark of accounting firm Rosen Seymour Shapss Martin & Company. "They can use it to pay the outside third-party administrator who administers the plan. The money can also be used to offset expenses of the plan for employees that terminated early in the year."

When an employee allocates some of each paycheck to an FSA, they immediately have access to the full amount they plan to put in for the full year. Sometimes, an employee may spend their whole year's worth of Flex money before the end of the year and then leave the company before making all their contributions. When that happens, the company gets stuck with the bill, but it can use any of the so-called "lost" money from other Flex participants to make up the difference.

About one out of five employees at large companies participates in a Flex plan, according to health and benefits consulting firm Mercer Global. Mercer's annual survey pegs the amount of money "lost" each year by participants at 4 percent or $60 per person. Add that up across the country, and it's quite a hefty sum — for 2010 it was between $150 million and $200 million dollars.

For some Flexible Spending plans, the deadline to spend the money was December 3; for others, it's coming up on March 15.

Why the discrepancy?

Years ago, the IRS implemented the extra two-and-a-half month grace period after participants complained about an end-of-year crunch to get medical appointments to use their flex money. But it's up to each company to amend their plan to take advantage of it.

"Some plans didn't do it for administrative purposes," Neumark said, "because this can lead to an administrative headache, where in the first 2-and-a-half months some employees are using their old accounts and some are using their new accounts. From an administrative standpoint, employers wanted to make it uniform. "

If your plan's deadline is March 15, it's not too late to use up the money in your 2011 Flex account. You may want to do it now, to avoid an early March crunch!

Law Grads Sue Law Schools over Skewed Employment Figures

Janet Babin — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Law school alums facing a tough job market are suing their alma maters. At least 15 individual class action law suits have been filed by a total of 73 law school grads who allege that the schools falsely inflated graduate employment rates.

The suits allege the schools inflated the data, in part, by employing their own graduates in temporary jobs and counting graduates working in non-legal-related jobs and part-time and temporary jobs as employed. “We believe that some in the legal academy have done a disservice to the profession and the nation by saddling tens of thousands of young lawyers with massive debt for a degree worth far less than advertised,” stated David Anziska, on behalf of Plaintiffs’ counsel.

The suits also allege that the schools inflated salary data as well.

Attorney Jesse Strauss, who represents some of the plaintiffs who filed the suits, said inflated employment and salary figures pushed more students to go to law school. He argues that if they knew job figures for recent law school grads were weak and they were unlikely to get a job when they graduated, they might not have decided to plunk all that tuition down. Law school can cost upwards of $75-thousand dollars including living expenses.

Schools being sued include four in New York, including Albany Law School, Union University, Brooklyn Law School, and Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University. New York Law School was named in another suit.

The law schools say they complied with all the standards of their trade association, the National Bar Association and other legal trade groups.

“We adhere to the reporting guidelines set by the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) and the American Bar Association, which set the standards for measuring employment data for accredited law schools nationwide,” said a spokeswoman for Hoftra Law School.

Albany Law School also defended its statistics as following American Bar Association guidelines, along with those set by the National Association for Legal Career Professionals. “The plaintiffs have been clear in their true goal to remedy a systemic reporting issue across legal education and are using a class action suit to force institutional change,” Connie Mayer, Interim President and Dean of Albany Law School said in a statement.

Still, Strauss said that complying with trade group standards is not enough. “Their defense is that they’re somehow allowed by their trade association to report employment and salary data in a misleading way,” said Strauss. “You can’t have a trade association pass regulations that immunizes schools from fraud.”

Class Action Suit Against Goldman Sachs Moving Forward

Tracey Samuelson — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:55:46 -0500

A federal judge in Manhattan has ruled that a lawsuit against Goldman Sachs may proceed as a class action.

Over 150 plaintiffs — led by a the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi — allege that Goldman Sachs didn’t properly evaluate loans it bought from New Century Financial Corp. in 2005, which it then packaged into mortgage-backed securities in 2006.

The suit also alleges that New Century didn’t follow its own mortgage underwriting standards when making the loans, according to the decision issued Thursday by Judge Harold Baer, Jr., though the company is not named as a defendant in the suit. Goldman’s alleged negligence arises from its failure to properly vet the loans and the inaccurate information about the quality of the loans investors say they received as a result.

This decision paves the way for the case to move into discovery and possible trial.

“That’s what firms like Goldman get really nervous about,” said Andrew Stoltmann, a Chicago-based attorney who has been working for several years on behalf of individuals and funds that claim they were deceived into buying mortgage bonds that were marketed as safe. “The last thing you want is a class action lawyer sniffing through the documents that a bank or brokerage firm might have.”

Moreover, “other judges trying to decide motions relating Goldman Sachs might rely on similar analysis,” Stoltmann said.

Class action certification is often the most difficult hurdle for class action cases and is therefore a significant step for the plaintiffs. Goldman had argued that each investor should have to file individual lawsuits against the bank, but Judge Baer ruled against that motion.

A spokesman for Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

In 2010, the bank paid $550 million to settle charges filed by Securities and Exchange Commission over a mortgage debt investment the bank sold to investors.

Federal Prosecutors Drop Doping Case Against Cyclist Lance Armstrong

Eyder Peralta — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:00:00 -0500

Federal prosecutors say they have dropped its doping case against seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. For two years, prosecutors looked into allegations that Armstrong and his United States Postal squad used performance-enhancing drugs.

The AP reports:

"In a press release, United States Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. says the case has been closed but didn't disclose the reason for the decision.

"Investigators looked at whether a doping program was created to keep Armstrong and his teammates running at the head of the pack while, at least part of the time, they received government sponsorship from the U.S. Postal Service."

As we've reported, Armstrong has been dogged by allegations of doping for years. He has always denied the allegations, saying that he has never taken performance-enhancing drugs.

Several associates testified before a grand jury in Los Angeles after his ex-teammate Floyd Landis leveled doping allegations against Armstrong.

The AP reports that this investigation was led by federal agent Jeff Novitzky who also investigated baseball stars Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. Back in December, Bonds was sentenced to 30 days in house arrest for an obstruction of justice conviction that stemmed from his doping case.

The Los Angeles Times reports that U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. said an announcement about the case's closure was needed, because the investigation had already been made public in press reports.

We'll have more on this story as it develops.

Update at 5:39 p.m. ET. 'Great News':

The AP has obtained a statement from Armstrong's lawyer:

"'This is great news,' Armstrong attorney Mark Fabiani said in a statement. 'Lance is pleased that the United States Attorney made the right decision, and he is more determined than ever to devote his time and energy to Livestrong and to the causes that have defined his career.'"

Komen Foundation Reverses Decision to End Grants to Planned Parenthood

Brigid Bergin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:25:46 -0500

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure announced on Friday that they have reversed their decision to pull funding from Planned Parenthood.

Komen was the target of widespread outrage in the news media and through social media leading many to cry foul that the organization was succumbing to right-leaning political influences in lieu of support for their mission to improve women’s health.

In a statement on its website, CEO Nancy Brinker apologized and said the she was "distressed" by the presumption that the decision to halt funding to Planned Parenthood was for political reasons.

"We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives," Brinker said in a statement.

Brinker asked everyone who has “participated in this conversation” to move past this issue.

“We do not want our mission marred or affected by politics – anyone’s politics,” wrote Brinker.

The news comes just a day after New York Mayor Michael Blomberg made a $250,000 matching grant donation to Planned Parenthood to help defray some of the money lost from the withdrawn Komen grants.

Bloomberg welcomed Komen's reversal and said both organizations can get on with their work. "Bottom line is Planned Parenthood will continue to give mammograms, they'll have some more money to do all of the different things that they to do, and the Susan Komen foundation I'm sure will continue to advance cancer research," he said.

Planned Parenthood said the Komen grants totaled roughly $650,000 last year and $580,000 the year before, going to 19 of its affiliates for breast-cancer screening and other breast-health services.

According to Planned Parenthood, its health centers performed more than 4 million breast exams over the past five years, including nearly 170,000 as a result of Komen grants.

Komen is based in Dallas and was founded in 1982. The organization has invested more than $1.9 billion since then in research, health services and advocacy while becoming the largest breast-cancer charity in the nation. It runs Race for the Cure fundraising events across the globe.

Read the full statement here.

Refresh this article for updates.

Unemployment Rate Edges Down To 8.3 Percent

Mark Memmott — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:32:00 -0500

The nation's unemployment rate dipped to 8.3 percent in January from 8.5 percent the month before as private employers added 257,000 jobs to their payrolls, the Bureau of Labor Statistics just reported. Overall, after a small drop at government agencies, employment grew by 243,000.

We'll add more from the report momentarily.

Update at 9:40 a.m. ET. White House, Republican Reactions:

President Obama's top economic adviser, Alan Krueger, says in a statement released by the White House that "today's employment report provides further evidence that the economy is continuing to heal from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression."

From the other side of the political aisle, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, says in a tweet posted by his office that there's "welcome news on the jobs front, but our economy still isn't creating jobs as it should be or as was promised."

Update at 9 a.m. ET. Where The Jobs Were:

According to BLS, there were 176,000 more jobs on service industry payrolls last month. Within that sector, the largest gain — nearly 30,000 — was in "health care and social assistance." The 81,000-increase in the "goods-producing" sector was led by a gain of 50,000 jobs at manufacturers.

Update at 8:55 a.m. ET. Some Analyses:

-- The Wall Street Journal says the report is "a sign that the economy's momentum carried into the new year."

-- Bloomberg News writes that "the jump in hiring shows companies are gaining confidence the expansion will weather Europe's slump and may boost President Barack Obama's re-election bid."

-- The gain in jobs "was well ahead of estimates calling for job gains to slow to somewhere around 140,000," Forbes says.

Update at 8:48 a.m. ET. Other Factors:

While the jobs gain is obviously a major reason why the unemployment rate went down, some less positive factors were also involved. The number of "discouraged workers" — those who have given up looking for work and thus aren't counted as being part of the labor force — went up to 1.1 million from 950,000 in December. Also, slightly fewer people either reentered the workforce or entered it for the first time. Those are among the reasons why the "labor force participation rate" went down to 63.7 percent from 64 percent in December.

Update at 8:42 a.m. ET. Upward Revisions:

"The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for November was revised from +100,000 to +157,000, and the change for December was revised from +200,000 to +203,000," BLS says.

Update at 8:40 a.m. ET. More From The Report:

-- At 8.3 percent, the jobless rate is the lowest it's been since February 2009.

-- The unemployment rate has now fallen for five straight months and is down from 9.1 percent a year earlier.

-- While private employers added 257,000 jobs to their payrolls, the number of jobs at government agencies continued to decline. State, local and federal agencies shed 14,000 positions. So the net gain in payroll employment at private and public workplaces was 243,000.

Facebook's Early Investors May Have Much To Like

Steve Henn — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 04:00:00 -0500

Facebook filed to go public this week, and many analysts expect that it will be valued between $75 billion and $100 billion on the day of its initial public offering. That would make Facebook more valuable than GM, Ford and even Goldman Sachs.

What's most remarkable is that the company has barely 3,000 employees, and many of them are about to become very, very rich.

There's this guy, David Choe. Back in the day, Facebook hired him to paint graffiti murals all over the company's original office space in Palo Alto, Calif. Even Marc Zuckerberg got into the act.

Choe was paid for his work in stock. And according to The New York Times, that stock could soon be worth $200 million.

One of the guilty pleasures of an IPO filing is getting to peer inside a company as famous as Facebook and get a glimpse of who owns what. Of course there's Zuckerberg.

"Obviously, he should be worth a tidy $25 billion," says Henry Blodget, editor of Business Insider and the bad-boy analyst of the last Internet boom.

This time the bad boys are becoming billionaires — like Sean Parker, Facebook's first president. Before that, he co-founded Napster.

"The man who, in the movie at least, famously said 'a million isn't cool — a billion is cool,' " Blodget says. "And he will have several of them."

In that movie, The Social Network, Dustin Moskowitz had little more than a cameo. He was Zuckerberg's college roommate, but he could soon be worth $7 billion.

"If he had been down the hall, we wouldn't be talking about him," says Michael Stern, who runs the website Who Owns Facebook. He says Moskowitz wasn't the only winner of the roommate lottery. Zuckerberg's prep school roommate will get a couple hundred million.

"A lot of people won the lottery here," Blodget says. And, he says, not all of these future billionaires are men.

After Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's options vest, "she's going to be one of the richest self-made women ever," Blodget says.

According to its filings, Facebook has close to 1,100 stockholders. Many more could benefit from restricted stock options. But Robert Frank, who writes the Wealth Report blog at the Wall Street Journal and is the author of the new book The High-Beta Rich, says that doesn't mean all these folks will become instant millionaires.

"More than half of this company is owned by just five large shareholders," he says. "So, like most of America, wealth in Facebook is very top-heavy, concentrated among just a few people at the top."

In Silicon Valley, it's become conventional wisdom that Facebook's IPO will create 1,000 new millionaires. And while that may be true, Frank says it's impossible to know for sure.

"Even those with a lot of shares will see their wealth fluctuate wildly. So the number of millionaires may change," he says.

After all, this is a tech stock, and Frank says all this wealth is just on paper — at least for now.

Cuomo Appointee to Police Cuomo Administration

The Associated Press — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:41:11 -0500

State Inspector General Ellen Biben who served in several roles for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was appointed Thursday to police ethics in the Cuomo administration and the Legislature and to regulate lobbying.

The Joint Commission on Public Ethics announced Thursday that it chose Biben for the $148,000-a-year job with the Joint Commission on Public Ethics.

"I am honored to accept the position of executive director of JCOPE, and I look forward to assisting the commission in its critical mission of restoring ethics and public trust in government," Biben said in a statement issued by the commission.

She will resign from the inspector general's job to which Cuomo appointed her last year. She also worked for Cuomo as head of his public integrity unit when he was attorney general, where she led the probe of the pay-to-play scandal under then-Comptroller Alan Hevesi, a Democrat. She had also spent more than 10 years as an assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney's office.

"I think it's a superb appointment," said David Grandeau, the state's former lobbying enforcer who has been critical of the ethics board and its predecessor, the Commission on Public Integrity. "She's talented, competent, aggressive and fair."

The ethics board announced the decision in a press release, not saying when the "overwhelming" vote of the commission was taken or if there were votes against Biben. The board chooses not to follow the state Open Meetings Law.

"She's a great pick," said Barbara Bartoletti of the League of Women Voters. "We have been concerned that the Joint Commission on Public Ethics has not been able to move forward and they have all these cases that languished ... she certainly made a name for herself during the Hevesi investigation."

Hevesi is serving a prison sentence for a scheme that involved payments to politically connected intermediaries for companies seeking investments from the massive pension fund for state and local government employees.

The case led to laws aimed at ending political considerations in the investment decisions of the fund.

Bartoletti said the League of Women Voters discussed Biben's history of appointments by Cuomo, but "at this point we're willing to give her the benefit of a doubt. She's been independent as inspector general." She said the group is pleased that a backlog of hundreds of cases will now be investigated.

Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto dismissed any concern about a potential conflict of interest. He called Biben "the most successful public integrity prosecutor in modern political history."

Ethics investigations halted after Cuomo dissolved the former Commission on Public Integrity last summer.

The inspector general's office also investigated allegations of misconduct in the executive branch.

Commission Chairwoman Janet DiFiore said many candidates were reviewed, but she wouldn't say how many, or if any others were interviewed.

"Ellen's reputation as a tough and independent defender of public integrity has been demonstrated throughout her career," said DiFiore, the Westchester County district attorney.

She is one of Cuomo's six appointees to the 14-member commission. Eight are appointed by legislative leaders, four of whom are Democrats and four Republicans.

No meeting was announced publicly and the appointment wasn't discussed publicly at the board's meeting on Tuesday. After it was revealed in news reports that their first meeting was held in secret in December, DiFiore said the powerful commission chooses not to follow the state Open Meetings Law, but will follow its "spirit."

The law requires most government bodies to operate publicly when hiring, otherwise spending tax dollars and setting policy. There are exceptions, such as discussing personnel and a few other sensitive matters, such as real estate sales. Fiore has cited a provision of executive law that allows the powerful ethics board to act in unannounced, closed-door meetings and deny release of public records under the state Freedom of Information Law.

Soon Facebook Growth Will Be About Users Clocking In More Time

Laura Sydell — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:00:00 -0500

The number of new American Facebook users is going down, and eventually the same will happen in every other market. Soon, Facebook's growth is going to depend on each user spending more time logged in, playing games, watching movies, planning trips and so on.

If you do the math and divide Facebook's value ($100 billion) by its number of users (845 million), that makes every Facebook account worth about $125 — money the company will get from eyeballs on ads. So the longer you're on Facebook, the more ads you look at and the more money the company makes.

That means Facebook would most likely be happy to hear that Duke University junior Justine Hong uses its iPhone app on walks across campus to keep abreast of the news.

"I can open the app as I walk to class or whatnot and see if there's a campus editorial from the campus website that's been getting a lot of comments or a national news story that my friends have been sharing a lot," Hong says. "It's pretty convenient and quick when I don't have time to actually read a paper."

Facebook also has apps for games, shopping, videos, movies and chatting. Last year, it integrated the music service Spotify, a feature that has kept Facebook user Liam Passmore logged in even longer.

"One of the elements of Spotify that really attracted me is the ticker on the side of Facebook," Passmore says. "You can see what your friends are listening to on Spotify."

For example, the other day, Passmore was at the roller rink when he heard a song he liked. He says he was a little surprised when his friend's 9- and 12-year-old kids told him the singer was Selena Gomez, of Justin Bieber relationship fame, and he wanted to share his amusement.

"I went to Spotify and played it on my Facebook account to let people know I was listening to Selena Gomez so they could comment back," says the 54-year-old.

Passmore's is another story Facebook executives would most likely be happy to hear. He's spending more time on the site, and that is exactly what Facebook needs, says Michael Pachter, a Wedbush analyst who follows the company.

"Ultimately, it's an advertising model; and ultimately, the longer you're on the site, the more information they have about you, the more they can advertise directly to you," Pachter says. "So clearly the more engaged the user, the more profitable that user will be."

Pachter says one strategy the company is starting to use more is to connect with popular websites, so when you sign in to your favorite newspaper site or game site you can use your Facebook username and password.

Justin Smith, the founder of Inside Network, which is dedicated to researching Facebook, says, "Facebook's strategy will be to increase penetration amongst many of the most popular websites where people are spending their time, instead of only being available when people come to Facebook.com."

A lot of people think it would make sense for Facebook to build its own phone or develop its own mobile operating system. The caveat for Facebook's strategy of becoming a portal to everything on the Internet is that many users like Duke student Hong aren't signing up.

"I think it gets a little bit scary when you're sharing a lot of information via your Facebook account," Hong says.

But with new pressures from Wall Street, Facebook is certainly going to try hard to lure Hong and other users deeper into its universe.

In Wake of Scrutiny, Yale Releases First Sexual Misconduct Report

Mirela Iverac — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:30:57 -0500

After facing criticism for how it handled sexual misconduct cases last year, Yale University released its first report this week listing the number of sexual misconduct complaints it received and actions taken in response.

Fifty-two complaints were made to the university officials between July 1 and December 31, 2011, ranging from verbal harassment to rape, according to the report released Tuesday. The identities of those involved were not named.

Yale is under federal investigation after 16 students and alumni filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education last March that alleges a “sexually hostile environment” and that the university did not properly handle sexual harassment incidents.

Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights enforces Title IX, federal law which prohibits sex discrimination in education institutions that receive federal funds. Last April, it sent a letter to colleges and universities reminding them of their obligation to take appropriate action in sexual violence cases.

Yale’s report lists 14 cases of sexual assault, which is defined as unwanted sexual contact, unwanted touching and nonconsensual sex/rape. Majority of complainants in those cases – 12 – chose to pursue informal resolution, which does not include a formal hearing or disciplinary measures against the alleged assailant.

Four students and one staff member made a formal complaint against three students and two faculty members. Two of those cases are pending, and one complaint was dismissed. In two other cases one alleged assailant was suspended for one semester and another one was given a written reprimand.

Hospitality, Compact Downtown Make Indy A Super Bowl City, Mayor Says

Mark Memmott — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:00:00 -0500

Lots of folks are obviously very excited in Indianapolis as Sunday's Super Bowl at the city's Lucas Oil Stadium approaches.

Just check the front of the Indianapolis Star's website from earlier this hour. The newspaper was leading with this news: "Sources: Madonna Holds 5-Hour Rehearsal For Super Bowl Show." (She's the halftime entertainment.)

But there is, as Tell Me More host Michel Martin politely suggested earlier today during a conversation with Indianapolis Mayor Gregory Ballard, a question that many around the nation are likely asking this week: why is Indy — not known for being a party city like others who have hosted Super Bowls? (We're looking at you, New Orleans and Miami.)

Ballard's answer: His town has "very hospitable people" and a "compact downtown" that means fans can easily walk from their hotels to the various Super Bowl-related venues, including the stadium. And, the city has turned three blocks of one downtown street into a "Super Bowl village."

As for whether the cost of hosting the game will be more than offset by the money that comes in thanks to visitors and other revenue sources, Ballard "it's going to be a fair chunk of change." But even more important, he suggested, will be "the extremely positive" exposure he thinks Indianapolis is getting.

As for who he favors in the contest between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots, the mayor said he's got to side with the Giants because of their quarterback — Eli Manning, the younger brother of Indianapolis Colts QB Peyton Manning (who may, of course, not be with the Colts much longer). Indianapolis is a Manning town, the mayor says.

Much more from Michel's conversation with the mayor is on today's Tell Me More. Click here to find an NPR station that broadcasts or streams the show.

Komen Says Efficiency, Not Politics, Drove Planned Parenthood Change

Rob Stein — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:06:00 -0500

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation has rejected charges that its decision to discontinue funding for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America was politically motivated.

In a statement posted on its website and a video on YouTube late Wednesday, Komen said its action had been "mischaracterized" so the organization needed to "set the record straight."

In the video, Nancy G. Brinker, who founded and leads the organization, said that the decision was made as part of a broad effort to use donations more efficiently.

The foundation regretted the impact of its new policy on groups such as Planned Parenthood, Brinker said. But she denied politics played any role and called accusations against Komen "scurrilous" and a "dangerous distraction" from the battle against breast cancer.

"Susan G. Komen will always fight for and serve the poeple who need us the most. We won't rest until every woman — rich, poor, insured or uninsured — can face a life without breast cancer," said Brinker, whose sister died from breast cancer. "That was my promise to my sister and my promise to you."

The foundation, known for its pink ribbon campaigns and Race for the Cure fundraisers, is a powerhouse in the world of breast cancer in the United States, raising billions of dollars for breast cancer research, care and advocacy.

"In the breast cancer world, they're huge," said Susan Wood of George Washington University. "They raise lots of money for breast cancer research and access to mammograpy and access to other breast cancer screening and breast health activities."

So Wood and many other women's health advocates are furious about Komen's decision to cut off funding to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

"It was really a shock and obviously distressing and very disappointing," Cecile Richards told NPR's Julie Rovner. Since the controversy erupted, donations to Planned Parenthood have surged, the group said.

But this isn't the first time the well-known breast cancer advocacy group has been the focus of controversy.

"In the past, they've let women down by insisting that the FDA should continue to approve Avastin as an effective treatment for breast cancer when new evidence sadly showed, that it's not," said Cindy Pearson with the National Women's Health Network. "They've also insisted that screening for breast cancer start at a young age and be very frequent when evidence shows it's not that much of a slam dunk anymore."

The latest controversy appears to have begun last month. An evangelical Christian group called Lifeway was selling pink bibles for Komen. But Lifeway discovered Komen was giving Planned Parenthood money.

"As soon as people figured out the link between Komen and Planned Parenthood — that there was a funding link there — Lifeway pulled all the bibles off the shelves immediately," said Amy Black, a political scientist at Wheaton College outside Chicago who studies evangelical Christians. "This was the kind of thing that captured a lot of activists' attention."

Some critics speculate that Komen was particularly susceptible to pressure from activists because of Brinker's political ties.

"One of the things many women don't understand is that the founder of Komen, Nancy Brinker, has had a long-standing and supportive relationship with the Bush family with the Bush presidencies, with the Republican party and on many occasions has supported policies that most supporters of Komen probably wouldn't approve of," said Judy Norsigian of the Our Bodies, Ourselves, the popular women's health guide.

Norsigian and other critics also pointed out that Komen recently hired Karen Handel, a politician from Georgia who opposes abortion, to serve as a key vice president.

It remains unclear how the move will affect Komen in the long term.

"To continue a partnership with Planned Parenthood would have significant political consequences that would harm them. To end the partnership with Planned Parenthood would have significant political consequences that also would cause harm," Black said. "Because one side or the other is not going to be happy whatever the Komen foundation decides to do."

Anger, Blame And Protests In Egypt After Deadly Soccer Riot

Mark Memmott — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:50:00 -0500

The tragic riot following a soccer game Wednesday in Port Said, Egypt, which left more than 70 people dead and at least 1,000 wounded, "highlights the problems with security in this country," NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson said earlier today in a conversation with Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep.

Since the collapse of President Hosni Mubarak's regime a year ago, police have "not been engaged in law enforcement and even in guiding traffic" around major cities, Soraya said. And Wednesday, when fans of the victorious al-Masry team stormed the field and attacked players and fans from the rival al-Ahly team, police did little if anything to stop the melee.

Now, as al-Jazeera reports, "Egypt has declared three days of mourning ... [and] angry members of parliament denounced the lack of security at the match and gathered for an emergency session."

The news network adds that "Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the head of [Egypt's Supreme Council of Armed Forces], pledged to track down those behind the violence in a rare phone call to an Egyptian TV channel."

Voice of America says protesters are taking to the streets in Port Said to register their anger over what happened. And "crowds are gathering in Cairo as tension rises" over the riots, the BBC reports. "Angry fans blocked Tahrir Square. Others are marching in protest at the handling of the riots by police."

Update at 4:53 p.m. ET. Police Fire Teargas Into Crowd In Cairo:

NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson tells our Newscast unit that police in Cairo have fired teargas into a crowd of protesters. It's the first time police have done that in a long time, said Soraya.

But protesters were raucous as they shouted slogans and obscenities in front of the building for the Interior Ministry. Soraya said they blamed the officials there for allowing the melee at the soccer match.

Soraya added that while these protests were different from the ones that brought down Hosni Mubarak, these extreme soccer fans have been present at the demonstrations since the beginning. She said at the protests today, they joined in calling for the resignation of the military rulers.

Update at 10:45 a.m. ET. Officials Fired; Some In Custody:

"Senior officials in the Egyptian city of Port Said and the Egyptian football association have been sacked in the wake of [the] riots," according to the BBC. "The governor of Port Said resigned, while the city's director of security and head of investigations were suspended and are now in custody."

A Look at What Life Is Like on Minimum Wage

Cindy Rodriguez — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:45:00 -0500

Albany lawmakers are considering raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50 an hour making it the third highest rate in the country. Under proposed legislation put forward by Assembly Democrats, the minimum wage would then rise annually by the rate of inflation. The potential increase is welcomed news for many workers trying to pay bills and keep their families afloat.

On Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn, shoppers can purchase everything from fresh fish to religious candles to hardware. At Stacy Adams Plaza, where shiny men’s suits line the walls, worker Dillon Saint Claire was waiting to help the next customer.

Like many retail workers in the area, the 28-year old gets paid minimum wage. “I just got married and I just had a son. He’s two weeks now,” Saint Claire said. “I support him and my wife because she isn’t working right now. It’s kinda tough but we help each other out.”

Saint Claire said he typically works 10-hour shifts, six days a week and Sundays are his only day off. For now, he said his family is living in a rented room that costs $130 a week. There’s no money for cable. He has a cell phone and his wife uses a free internet phone. The family relies on the government sponsored Women, Infants and Children program to help feed their new baby. Saint Claire said if the minimum wage gets raised, he’d spend his extra earnings on his son.

Still, Saint Claire, a tall, thin, soft-spoken young man with a subtle Caribbean accent, did not complain about his situation. “It’s a blessing to have a job period in this time. It’s better than nothing but raising the minimum wage...would be a good thing,” Saint Claire said.

His co-worker, Dieudonne Ouedraogo, also just became a father. Dressed in a shirt and tie, with a tape measure draped around his neck, he welcomed the possibility of making more money. “For sure it will help," he said. “I wouldn’t say it’s enough. Anybody would like to have more. Everything is rising,”

“Rent is high. You go to the grocery and it’s not like the same price it used to be before. Definitely $8.50 would be a very good step,” Ouedraogo continued. He and his girlfriend both make minimum wage and are barely able to pay their $1000 a month rent in Springfield Gardens, Queens. The retail worker said any extra money they earn would go to daycare for their new baby.

A person working 40 hours a week at the current minimum wage earns $290 a week or $15,080 a year. At $8.50 an hour, a 40 hour work week generates $340 a week or $17,680.Around the corner at a wig and beauty supply store, a woman behind the counter was reluctant to speak about earning minimum wage, but her customer Patsy Modeste was not.

“It should be at least $10 because people they work very hard,” Modeste said. The home health aide said nearly all of her monthly wages go to paying $1017 a month in rent leaving her with very little for gas, light and phone.

“I just run out of money, but the good lord have me surviving you know,” she said as she slowly exited the store.

City Has Highest Number of Marijuana Arrests in More Than a Decade

Ailsa Chang — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:00:00 -0500

Last year, New York City police officers made the greatest number of marijuana arrests in more than a decade, according to new state records.

The NYPD arrested about 50,700 people for low-level marijuana possession in 2011, a figure that comes just months after the department ordered officers not make arrests for marijuana possession if the marijuana was never in public view.

Defense lawyers and law enforcement experts say they don't think the order has done much to change what they believe to be unlawful police behavior on the streets.

A Distinction of the Bloomberg Administration

There had been a 13 percent drop in marijuana arrests after Police Commissioner Ray Kelly issued the internal order related to marijuana arrests last September. But it’s too early to tell if Kelly’s order has had an impact, observers say, because there have been historical dips and surges in the number of arrests.

Harry Levine, a professor at Queens College, said marijuana arrests have nearly doubled since 2005. The number of arrests made in the last half of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's tenure has exceeded the total number of marijuana arrests made under Mayors Giuliani, Dinkins and Koch combined.

"Twenty-four years of marijuana arrests under three different mayors and a number of different police chiefs are still lower than just five years of what Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Kelly have accomplished," Levine said.

Allegations of Improper Practices During Stop-and-Frisks

The marijuana arrest data doesn't indicate how many arrests occurred during stop-and-frisks. But critics of the police say stop-and-frisks are driving up marijuana arrest rates under Bloomberg.

For years, there have been allegations that officers force people to display their marijuana in public view before arresting them -- by either ordering people to empty their pockets or reaching into pockets and pulling marijuana out themselves. Kelly's order plainly stated that an officer may not arrest someone for a misdemeanor in those cases.

"I would say that about half of the marijuana arrest cases that I see are actually mischarged misdemeanors,” said Legal Aid lawyer Renate Lunn, “and, in fact, even the court papers say that the marijuana was recovered from some place that wasn't in public view, such as a sock or a backpack or the glove compartment of a car.”

Lawyers elsewhere in the city are seeing similar percentages of what they think are improper arrests. Scott Levy of the Bronx Defenders is heading up the Marijuana Arrest Project, which is systematically collecting data on the quality of marijuana arrests they're seeing throughout the Bronx.

"I would say as much as 40 percent of these cases stem from illegal searches, illegal stops of our clients, and the mischarging of our clients where clients are charged with the misdemeanor of possessing marijuana in public view where they only actually possessed it in their pocket," he said.

When asked on Wednesday if the new state data suggests his order isn't making much difference in what officers were still doing on patrol, Kelly said since he can't see what every officer is encountering on the street, he can't quantify how many officers are ignoring his order.

"The numbers are what they are," said Kelly.

The police argue getting tough on even low-level offenses has dramatically reduced violent crime in the city. But so far, no academic study has conclusively proven marijuana arrests cause any decrease in crime. Levine, the professor, has studied the criminal records of people arrested for marijuana possession in New York City and says the data shows we're not talking about people with violent records.

"A third of them have never been arrested before for anything,” he said. “Another third have never been convicted of anything whatsoever and you get something like about another 15 or so percent -- 20 percent -- who have never been convicted of anything but a misdemeanor.”

And more than half of them are under 25. Even though national studies show young whites smoke pot more, 87 percent of those arrested for marijuana in New York City are either black or Latino -- most of them living in the neighborhoods where the most stop-and-frisks occur.

Status Updated: Facebook Files Papers For IPO

Mark Memmott — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:30:00 -0500

Let the clever social media-related headlines and ledes begin:

"Facebook made a much-anticipated status update Wednesday: The Internet social network is going public eight years after its computer-hacking CEO Mark Zuckerberg started the service at Harvard University." (The Associated Press)

The wire service adds that:

"In its regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Facebook Inc. indicated it hopes to raise $5 billion in its IPO. That would be the most for an Internet IPO since Google Inc. and its early backers raised $1.9 billion in 2004. The final amount will likely change as Facebook's bankers gauge the investor demand."

That SEC filing, by the way, is posted here.

Wired wonders whether shares will live up to the initial hype:

"The company's relative maturity [it's 8 years old] means that most of the millions — or billions — that could be made from buying public shares have probably already been made. This could mean Facebook's IPO will meet a fate similar to that of this year's other high-profile tech IPOs. Both Zynga and Groupon actually sank below their IPO share price — right out of the gate — a sign of failure on Wall Street. "The tech class of 2011 has underperformed," said Paul Kedrosky, a prominent financial blogger and senior fellow at the Kauffman Foundation, in an interview. "Because of secondary markets, that post-IPO balance happened pre-IPO. My expectation is, Facebook will see a very similar phenomenon."

On All Things Considered, NPR's Steve Henn said trading in Facebook stock probably won't start until sometime in the second quarter of this year. Since the company will likely be valued around $100 billion, he says, it's obviously only selling "a slice" of itself. The money it raises, according to Steve, may help it start buying up other firms.

Update at 6:10 p.m. ET. Among The Risks: "We cannot assure you that we will effectively manage our growth."

There's interesting reading in the Facebook filing, including that quote and this explanation:

"Our employee headcount and the scope and complexity of our business have increased significantly, with the number of full-time employees increasing from 2,127 as of December 31, 2010, to 3,200 as of December 31, 2011, and we expect headcount growth to continue for the foreseeable future. The growth and expansion of our business and products create significant challenges for our management, operational, and financial resources, including managing multiple relations with users, advertisers, Platform developers, and other third parties. In the event of continued growth of our operations or in the number of our third-party relationships, our information technology systems or our internal controls and procedures may not be adequate to support our operations.

"In addition, some members of our management do not have significant experience managing a large global business operation, so our management may not be able to manage such growth effectively. To effectively manage our growth, we must continue to improve our operational, financial, and management processes and systems and to effectively expand, train, and manage our employee base. As our organization continues to grow, and we are required to implement more complex organizational management structures, we may find it increasingly difficult to maintain the benefits of our corporate culture, including our ability to quickly develop and launch new and innovative products. This could negatively affect our business performance."

Update at 5:50 p.m. ET. Revenue, Income Figures:

In its filing, Facebook says it had revenue of $3.7 billion in 2011 and net income of $1 billion. And it reports that "the substantial majority of our revenue is currently generated from third parties advertising on Facebook. In 2009, 2010, and 2011, advertising accounted for 98%, 95%, and 85%, respectively, of our revenue."

Update at 5:45 p.m. ET. "Investors Will Get To Friend Facebook":

NPR.org goes with the "friend" approach with its headline on a story from Marilyn Geewax, who writes that the $5 billion target "was about half what many analysts had projected earlier. But the company said the $5 billion is a place marker that could change. Even if it doesn't, Facebook, based in Menlo Park, Calif., already has so much cash that it doesn't need much more from an IPO."

Komen Foundation Stops Grants to Planned Parenthood

WNYC Newsroom — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:04:46 -0500

One of the country’s best-known breast cancer charities is halting funding to Planned Parenthood and its affiliates — cutting off hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants.

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure said it will stop giving grants — which help fund breast cancer screening and other breast-health services — to Planned Parenthood because it is under investigation in Congress by Republican Rep. Cliff Stearns.

Planned Parenthood says Komen is facing pressure from anti-abortion activists.

Komen grants totaled approximately $680,000 last year and $580,000 the year before.

Leslie Aun, a spokeswoman for Komen, said the charity's newly adopted criteria barring grants to organizations that are under investigation by local, state or federal authorities.

Anti-abortion groups welcomed the news. The Alliance Defense Fund praised Komen "for seeing the contradiction between its lifesaving work and its relationship with an abortionist that has ended millions of lives."

Reaction to Komen’s decision was swift and passionate, with people using social media to praise Komen's decision or angrily vowing never to give to it again.

Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, has depicted Stearns' probe as politically motivated and said she was dismayed that it had contributed to Komen's decision to halt the grants to PPFA affiliates.

The group was focused on raising funds to replace the Komen grants so that breast-screening services can continue, according to Richards. One person has already donated $250,000 towards that goal.

With the Associated Press

American Airlines Plans To Cut 12,000 To 14,000 Jobs

Mark Memmott — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:05:00 -0500

After it filed for bankruptcy protection last November, you knew something like this was probably coming from American Airlines:

The company said today it is looking to cut 12,000 to 14,000 jobs — as much as 16 percent of its current 88,000-strong workforce.

According to the Dallas Morning News, the cuts would shake out like this:

"Fleet Service & Other [Transport Workers Union] employees — Approximately 4,200.

"Flight Attendants — Approximately 2,300.

"Management/Support Staff — Approximately 1,400.

"Mechanics and Related - Approximately 4,600.

"Pilots - Approximately 400."

In a letter to employees, AMR Corp. CEO Tom Horton says the company is looking for "employee-related" cost savings of more than $1.25 billion a year. And he says this:

"While we are now firmly on a path to a successful growing future, we must acknowledge the near-term pain these changes will require. That's especially true because we will end this journey with many fewer people. But we will also preserve tens of thousands of jobs that would have been lost if we had not embarked on this path — and that's a goal worth fighting for. As I've said before, our objective is to create the best outcome for the greatest possible number of people."

Super Split: Bowl Has Connecticut At War With Itself

Joel Rose — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:00:00 -0500

This weekend's Super Bowl match-up has special significance for football fans in Connecticut. The state is nominally part of New England, so you might expect to find overwhelming support for the Patriots. But Connecticut's loyalty seems to lean toward the New York Giants instead.

New Englanders are known for their long memories. So while the Patriots have been one of football's best teams for the past decade or so, you'll find plenty of fans in Connecticut who still haven't climbed on the bandwagon. And nothing reveals that fault line quite like a Super Bowl match-up between the Patriots and the Giants. Take Kevin Kerlegza and Stan Milecki, who work together in Hartford.

"You'll find a lot of Patriots and Giants fans," Kerlegza says. "We can exist together peacefully." But are the co-workers going to watch the game together? "Absolutely not," laughs Milecki. "We're not that friendly," Kerlegza agrees.

Kerlegza lives in Farmington, Conn.; he's the Giants fan. Milecki, who lives in Enfield, roots for the Patriots.

"Southwest, you get Giants, right?" Milecki explains. "Northeast, you start to get more Patriots."

There's no consensus on exactly where to put the border between "Giants Country" and the "Patriots Nation," although the Connecticut River might be the 50-yard line. What's clear is that feelings can run deep on both sides. Angela Plourde lives in Meriden, a few miles west of the river.

"I can't stand the Patriots," Plourde says. "I hate everything about them. I think they have a decent team, but they just don't impress me. So I'm going to root for the Giants by default, because I loathe the Patriots that much."

On the surface, the division between football fans in Connecticut has much in common with the rivalry between baseball's New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. But there are some key differences. At 52 years old, the Patriots are still the upstart, the new kid in town. Before 1960, football fans in New England had only one team to root for — the Giants.

"When I first started rooting for them when I was a kid, there was no American Football League," says Steve Eckles of Wallingford, Conn. "Just New York Giants, Baltimore Colts. So, I go back a ways."

Eckles works in Hartford. "If you're a true fan, you know, you're going to follow the team," he says. "The Giants were here before the Patriots were. So I think the Giants are popular throughout New England. You can go up into Vermont, and pockets up north, and there's Giants fans all over the place. Because way back when, they were the only game in town."

Many fans in Connecticut also remember what happened in 1998. Patriots owner Robert Kraft agreed to move the team's home games from Massachusetts to a new, publicly financed stadium in Hartford. But the deal fell apart. And fans like Rocco DiTaranto still blame the Patriots.

"I had actually gone to the Patriots games," DiTaranto says. "I'm an avid fan; I support my teams. And to me, it was the ultimate slap in the face."

DiTaranto grew up in West Hartford, rooting for the Patriots through the dark years of the 1970s and '80s. After that slap in the face more than a decade ago, he threw his allegiance behind the Giants. Needless to say, he was delighted when New York pulled off an upset victory in the Super Bowl four years ago.

"The fact that they beat the Patriots to me is just ultimate redemption," he says. "And now to get this match-up a second time, it is absolutely surreal to me. I never thought I'd see it once. And twice in my lifetime — regardless of what happens, I'm a Giants fan for life."

DiTaranto will be watching the game with friends in West Hartford. No Patriots fans allowed.

Dozens Killed In Riot After Egyptian Soccer Match

Mark Memmott — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:45:00 -0500

(The death toll and injured figures were updated at 3:20 p.m. ET.)

There are reports of more than 70 people being killed today and around 1,000 injured during a melee following a soccer match in Port Said, Egypt.

The Associated Press writes that Egypt's health ministry says "at least 73 people" died. Reuters reports that many more were injured, according to officials. Al-Jazeera writes that:

"Fans of the winning al-Masry team flooded the field seconds after the match with al-Ahly, Egypt's top team, was over. A security official said the fans chased the players and cornered their supporters on the field and around the stadium, throwing stones and bottles at them. Most of the victims reportedly died from suffocation or head injuries."

The al-Ahly team's Facebook page is pointing to a report from health ministry officials about the tragedy.

Meanwhile, Reuters adds that "soon after reports of the pitch invasion spread, Egyptian television showed images of a fire in Cairo's soccer stadium, after the referee cancelled a match between the teams Zamalek and Ismaili." There are unconfirmed reports about deaths there as well.

Given the location — Egypt — there will be considerable speculation on what role, if any, authorities played in letting things get out of control. As NPR's Andy Carvin reminds us, though, The New Yorker has gone to some lengths to explain how and why "crowd disasters" happen. The reasons vary greatly.

NRC Concerned About Seismic Activity Around Nuclear Reactors

Tracey Samuelson — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:43:00 -0500

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced Wednesday that nuclear reactors in parts of the United States might be more vulnerable to earthquakes than previously thought.

The closest reactor to New York City is the Indian Point nuclear plant in Westchester County; neighboring New Jersey has three additional plants and Connecticut has one.

Indian Point has long been controversial due to its age and its proximity to both New York City and the Ramapo Fault line, which runs through New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

While the plant will re-evaluate its facilities given the NRC’s report, “an initial review leads us to believe that no major changes will be needed and current protections are sufficient,” said Indian Point spokesperson Jerry Nappi, adding that the plant is designed to withstand earthquakes 100 times greater than have historically been seen in the area around the plant.

The NRC report comes in the wake of Japan’s devastating earthquake in March 2011, which triggered a tsunami and a nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

The agency has been working to update its data on seismic activity since 2005, but took on new urgency in the wake of Fukushima, said NRC spokesperson Neil Sheehan.

“We are seeing now a slightly greater risk of earthquake activity,” said Sheehan, of the report’s findings. “Calculations now show an increase in the level of ground movement than might be expected.”

The East Coast got a jolt last August when a 5.8 magnitude earthquake in Virgnia, shaking buildings in the tri-state area.

The report examined the central and eastern region of the U.S., home to 62 existing sites with 96 commercial nuclear reactors, 22 potential new nuclear sites and five Department of Energy nuclear facilities.

Individual plants will now review the NRC data to determine whether their structures or systems need upgrading, which the NRC said it expects will take at least a year.

Tech World Buzzes With Word That Facebook's IPO Filing Is Imminent

Eyder Peralta — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:18:00 -0500

The tech and business world are buzzing this morning with the expectation that Facebook, the world's largest social network, will take the first step toward going public today.

There are differing reports on how much money Facebook wants to rasie during its initial public offering. Reuters is reporting $5 billion, while the AP is reporting $10 billion.

At $10 billion, the AP reports, the company would be valued at $75 billion to $100 billion. The AP reports:

"The highly anticipated documents Facebook files with the Securities and Exchange Commission will reveal how much it intends to raise from the stock market, what it plans to do with the money and details on the company's financial performance and future growth prospects.

"A stock usually starts trading three to four months after the filing.

"Around the nation, regular investors and IPO watchers are anticipating some kind of twist — perhaps a provision for the 800 million users of Facebook, a company that promotes itself as all about personal connections, to get in on the action."

NPR's Steve Henn talked to Sam Hamadeh, who follows the tech industry at PrivCo. Hamadeh told him a $100 billion valuation would make Facebook one of the largest and most valuable companies in the U.S.

Steve tells our Newscast unit that "Hamedeh says Facebook would have to grow like a weed for years to justify this stock price. Other analysts agree. They say investors who buy shares are betting that Facebook will more than quadruple in size."

Steve also spoke to Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst at eMarketer, who said that Facebook's revenue more doubled from 2010 to 2011. It went from about $2 billion to more than $4.2 billion.

Forbes' Steve Schaefer reports that the Facebook IPO will probably be the biggest tech offering and one of the biggest on the market as a whole. Schaefer says that offering bodes well for the market as a whole, because it means Facebook is confident that the market can handle an offering of that size.

Even as Arrests Increase, Human Trafficking Remains A Problem

Mirela Iverac — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:02:00 -0500

Areas in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan remain hubs for human trafficking even as the number of related arrests increase, according to law enforcement officials. The number of arrests in sex trafficking cases in New York City increased more than five times to 50 in 2011, up from 9 in 2008. Still, the data also suggests many trafficking victims remain out of reach.

Jackson Heights and Flushing, Queens, Koreatown in Manhattan and Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, remain active hubs where victims – mostly women and young girls between the ages of 10 and 30 -- are being trafficked, according to Tenaz Dubash, Victim Assistance Coordinator with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In New York State, there have been a total of 96 arrests for sex and labor trafficking and 31 convictions since 2007 when the anti-trafficking law came into effect. Most arrests – 87– happened in New York City, according to ICE, the primary U.S. law enforcement agency responsible for combating human trafficking.

“We’re making dent, and we’re making progress,” said James Hayes, ICE's Special Agent in Charge of Investigations. “But there’s still a lot of work to do.”

Between 14,500 and 17,500 victims are trafficked into the United States each year, according to the Department of Justice. ICE has been reaching out to the public with information about trafficking, particularly through January, which is the Human Trafficking Awareness month.

Most trafficking victims are from impoverished backgrounds and come from Mexico, El Salvador or Guatemala, often by crossing the border illegally or from south-east Asia and Eastern Europe, using fraudulent documents.

Traffickers often entice their victims with the prospect of jobs, education or marriage in the United States.

“When they get here, they’re working 14 hours in a night club, 14 hours in a strip club, 14 hours in a massage parlor, or worse,” Hayes said.

Trafficked women forced into the sex industry makes about $25 to $30 each time she’s forced to have intercourse, which can be to about 30 to 40 times a night, Dubash said.

One of the main issues remains identification of trafficking victims, who are almost never able to identify themselves as such.

Police officers also don’t always recognize signs of trafficking, but Hayes said coordination with local law enforcement and training ICE has provided has “increased the ability of both local, state and federal prosecutors to be able to bring charges against people.”

Analysis: Romney Proves He's Tough and Adaptable

The Associated Press — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:00:00 -0500

Mitt Romney's resounding win in the Florida GOP primary is a warning shot to any Democrats who think the former Massachusetts governor will be a soft target.

Romney and his advisers showed dexterity, smarts and toughness in retooling his campaign within hours of his stinging loss in South Carolina on Jan. 21. Romney followed the revised roadmap to a tee.

He shredded Newt Gingrich in Florida's two debates, leaving the former House speaker fuming and flailing in the campaign's closing days. He summoned a host of prominent Republicans to denounce Gingrich. And he regained his image as the person best positioned to take on President Barack Obama this fall.

There is still plenty of time for things to go wrong for Romney. Gingrich might resuscitate his campaign, as he did after his Iowa collapse, although GOP insiders say the odds are not good.

If Romney does become the nominee, his highly negative campaign tactics may hurt him among independent voters. And Obama might do a much better job of hitting Romney's record at Bain Capital and his switches on key policies over the years.

But the smug comments by some Democrats who said Romney is soft, untested and unable to take a punch have been obliterated.

"It feels like Mitt Romney's campaign has passed a crucial test and become the kind of campaign we're going to need to defeat Barack Obama in the fall," said longtime Republican strategist Terry Holt.

The most impressive thing about Romney's Florida win is how quickly his team shifted gears after his embarrassing 12 percentage point loss to Gingrich in South Carolina. Romney's team hatched a new strategy hours before the loss was official: Romney would get meaner to make Gingrich madder.

Romney immediately agreed to focus his main attacks on Gingrich, not Obama. He would highlight touchy subjects such as Gingrich's well-paid consulting work for Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage lender that some Floridians blame for their state's housing crisis.

The new, tougher Romney made a dramatic debut Jan. 23, at a debate in Tampa. He ripped into Gingrich from the opening bell, saying the former speaker "had to resign in disgrace" in 1998, only to become "an influence-peddler in Washington."

Gingrich, who had re-energized his campaign with two fiery debates in South Carolina, seemed taken aback and unsure how to respond.

Romney was even more sure-footed in Thursday's debate in Jacksonville. He seemed better prepared, more focused and more aggressive than Gingrich at nearly every turn.

Romney's research staff had handed him a crucial bit of information shortly before the forum. Earlier that day, Gingrich had rebuked Romney for owning shares of Freddie Mac. Romney's staff quickly found similar holdings in Gingrich's financial disclosures. When Romney confronted his rival with the fact on the debate stage, Gingrich was left speechless.

Romney's team of advisers, including Stuart Stevens and new debate coach Brett O'Donnell, showed the type of flexibility, solid research and fast, incisive thinking that helped Obama beat the highly regarded campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton four years ago.

No campaign strategy is better than its candidate, of course. For 10 days in Florida, at least, Romney displayed a level of discipline and confidence that could worry Obama fans.

To be sure, Romney had advantages in Florida he's unlikely to enjoy in the fall, if he's nominated. Gingrich inexplicably dropped the feisty debate style that helped him win South Carolina. And Romney's team overwhelmed Gingrich in spending, flooding Florida's airwaves with attack ads.

Romney's win "was fueled by a 4.5-to-1 spending edge that he'll never have as the nominee," said Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs.

Gibbs also said Romney has damaged his image among independent and Hispanic voters by using "a harsh and negative tone" and taking hard-right positions on issues such as immigration.

An NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll gives some credence to that view. It found that Romney's negative ratings with independents have climbed 13 percentage points since December.

Some Democrats say those independent voters, crucial in all general elections, will be more receptive to criticisms of Romney's record at Bain Capital. The corporate reorganization firm has a history of both creating and eliminating jobs.

Gingrich's criticisms of Bain fell so flat with GOP voters that he abandoned them in South Carolina. Romney has weathered other assaults from his rivals as well, including taunts about his changed positions on abortion, gun control and gay rights, and his push for mandatory health insurance in Massachusetts.

Detractors say Romney's answers are often evasive or illogical. Maybe so, but that didn't hurt him much in Florida. He now goes to Nevada, Michigan and other states as a battle-tested candidate who has proven he can get up after being knocked down.

Some Democrats are impressed.

"Romney's flaws have mostly surfaced and been addressed, and he got stronger," said Matt Bennett, a former aide to Al Gore and a vice president of the pro-Democratic group Third Way.

"The idea that a primary is like a naval bombardment that softens up the enemy is a myth," Bennett said. "A primary is more like a series of bouts that prepares a boxer for the title fight. You take a few punches, but on balance, you become a better, stronger fighter."

For Romney, Florida seemed to do exactly that.

Romney Wins Fla. Primary as Returns Show Big Lead

The Associated Press — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:09:45 -0500

Mitt Romney has won the Florida Republican presidential primary.

The former Massachusetts governor has taken a commanding lead over Newt Gingrich in the winner-take-all balloting, which is worth 50 delegates at the party's national nominating convention.

With nearly half the precincts counted, Romney is ahead 47 percent to Gingrich's 31 percent.

Romney, talking unity like a nominee, said he was ready "to lead this party and our nation" - and turn Democratic President Barack Obama out of office. In remarks to cheering supporters, the former Massachusetts governor unleashed a strong attack on Obama and said the competitive fight for the GOP nomination "does not divide us, it prepares us" for the fall.

"Mr. President, you were elected to lead, you chose to follow, and now it's time to get out of the way,: he declared.

The former House speaker earlier vowed to stay in the race regardless of the outcome in Florida. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum had 13 percent, and Texas Rep. Ron Paul 7 percent. Neither mounted a substantial effort in the state.

The winner-take-all primary was worth 50 Republican National Convention delegates, by far the most of any primary state so far.

But the bigger prize was precious political momentum in the race to pick an opponent for Obama in a nation struggling to recover from the deepest recession in decades.

About half of Florida primary voters say the most important factor for them is backing a candidate who can defeat President Obama in November. That's according to early exit poll results conducted for The Associated Press and television networks.

Occupy Wall Street, Vowing Spring Return, Dwindles in NY

Arun Venugopal — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:01:13 -0500

These days, it's easy to miss the Occupiers at Zuccotti Park.

Where there were once hundreds of demonstrators and a sea of tents — a roiling mini-city, complete with kitchen and laundry services -- the park that birthed Occupy Wall Street is now practically empty.

But not quite: as the movement waits out the winter, there's a handful of Occupiers who maintain a symbolic, 24-7 presence at the park. Ned Merrill does the graveyard shift, and sits through the night, regardless of whether the temperature is in the teens or it's pouring rain.

"That gives you a sense that there's something very important here," Merrill said recently, huddled in a blanket. "And there is -- it's liberty."

Since November, when the NYPD cleared Zuccotti Park of the Occupy encampment, Occupy Wall Street has continued to hold protests around the city -- but unlike in the fall -- the movement rarely generates headlines. And it's running low on cash.

Pete Dutro, who helps handle finances for the movement, said they have "around $200,000" but that $100,000 is tied up in a bail fund for protesters. The movement voted to freeze any further expenditures, but are continuing to fund a few items, such as food and payments to churches that currently house protesters.

But others say the real impact is being felt elsewhere.

(Photo: One of the latest OWS publications, on display at Zuccotti Park. Arun Venugopal/WNYC)

"President Obama's (State of the Union) speech was all our message," said protester Brendan Burke, who handles security for the Occupiers. "It was great. I mean, he didn't mention Occupy Wall Street, he doesn't have to. The conversation in the culture has changed now, over four months, and it's a blessing."

Although the protesters in New York haven't received much coverage lately, Occupiers elsewhere have. In Oakland, the 400 protesters and journalists arrested last weekend were trying to occupy a vacant, city-owned building. The police used force, and some protesters responded by throwing rocks and bottles at officers.

In New York, protesters marched in solidarity with the Oakland occupiers, but Burke says he and others are trying to keep extremist elements out of the movement. Those include "black bloc" anarchists, distinguished by their covered faces and willingness to engage in violence. In one recent incident, a Livestream video operator was assaulted by a masked protester who didn't want to be caught on video.

"We haven't had it bad," said Burke. "We haven't had it in a situation where people are setting things on fire, and going nuts, but we've had situation where people are throwing things, elevating the feeling on the street into more of a riotous and violent level, which puts people in danger.”

Although some protesters have stuck it out since the beginning, others have quit. Bill Buster was an impassioned voice of the movement early on, but left, saying it got weighed down by bureaucracy and endless discussions, including some which pitted minorities or members of marginalized groups against white men.

"I've literally seen people walk away from General Assemblies and saying 'I'm never coming back,'" said Buster. "This has happened time and time again."

At an Occupy event in Soho on Monday, supporters unveiled a lavishly produced booklet, spelling out the movement's principles. But one attendee, New York Nurses Association official Marc Beallor, spoke of growing divisions. And said the movement had recruited plenty of students, but had failed to attract people of different classes and ethnicities "to represent more of the 99 percent."

"And unless that happens, I'm afraid that this movement may not succeed," Beallor said.

Organizers say they are using the winter to unite protesters in far-flung cities, and to plan big events in the coming months. Those include protests at the G8 Summit in Chicago, and a General Strike on May 1. And at the end of February, organizer Austin Guest says they're planning an event called "Shut down the Corporations."

The movement also plans big protests outside the Republican National Convention in August, followed by the Democratic National Convention.

"We went and protested in front of banks in the fall and winter," said Guest, who is currently on an "Occutrip" bus ride through cities in the Northeast.

"In the spring we're going to shut them down. We're going to cost them money. We're maybe going to make them go bankrupt."

Conn. Panel to Consider Urging Mayor to Fire Embattled Police Chief

The Associated Press — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:31:20 -0500

Police commissioners in East Haven, Conn., will be voting on whether to urge the mayor to fire the police chief instead of letting him retire amid allegations that officers abused Latinos.

The meeting is set for Tuesday evening. The commission board chairman says Leonard Gallo shouldn't be allowed to retire and collect a severance lump sum of $130,000 to $150,000.

Gallo on Monday announced his retirement following last week's arrests of four town officers. They've been accused of waging a campaign against Latinos that included beatings and false arrests. The officers have pleaded not guilty.

Gallo's lawyer says his client is an unnamed co-conspirator in the federal indictment, accused of blocking the police commission's efforts to investigate misconduct. The lawyer denies the claims.

The mayor has called Gallo's retirement "selfless."

NYPD Spokesman Faces Criticism

Ailsa Chang — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:51:23 -0500

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne has made headlines for backtracking on earlier remarks he made about the police commissioner's involvement in an inflammatory film about Muslim terrorists. Critics have called for his resignation for what they claim are misleading remarks, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg and top cop Ray Kelly, have stood by the top aide.

"Anyone who knows Paul Browne knows he gives you the facts always as he knows them at the time, and later on, if he finds the facts he gave you are wrong, he's not shy about standing up and correcting himself," Bloomberg said on Monday. "He is as good as you could have representing the city and representing the police department. We're lucky to have him."

Browne is widely regarded as one of the police commissioner's closest and most fiercely loyal advisers.

Since the early 1990s, Browne has been a right-hand man to Kelly. He worked with the Kelly during his brief stint as police commissioner under Mayor David Dinkins, and then followed his boss to the U.S. Treasury Department and later to the U.S. Customs Service.

Former police officers say the organization under Kelly is setting a totally different tone from previous departments.

Louis Anemone, the Chief of the Department during the late 1990s under former Police Commissioner William Bratton, said Kelly's approach to the media is very different than Bratton's.

"He encouraged precinct commanders all the way through the borough commanders, and those of us in headquarters, to open the department to not only reporters, but to citizens as well," said Anemone. "We had nothing to hide, and if you don't engage with the public and with the press, you're giving the impression that you do have something to hide."

The NYPD and Browne declined to comment on calls for Browne's resignation.

Italian Authorities Call Off Search For Missing In Costa Shipwreck

Eyder Peralta — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:20:00 -0500

Citing safety concerns, Italian officials said they were calling off the search for those still missing at the site of the Costa Concordia shipwreck.

The AP reports:

"Italy's Civil Protection agency said Tuesday that technical studies indicated that the deformed hull of the ship created too many safety concerns to continue the search. It said in a statement that relatives and diplomatic officials representing the countries of the missing have been informed of the decision.

"The Concordia ran aground off the island of Giglio on Jan. 13 when the captain deviated from his planned route and struck a reef, creating a huge gash that capsized the ship."

So far, 17 bodies have been recovered and 16 passengers are still reported missing.

The AFP reports that authorities had contacted the families to explain the decision. Rescue crews will continue to search the part of the ship that is above water and will check for bodies on the sea floor.

Yesterday, NBC News reported that the removing the ship from the waters off Italian island of Giglio could take up to a year.

MF Global Claims Deadline Is Tuesday

Ilya Marritz — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:28:30 -0500

Tuesday is the last day tens of thousands of MF Global customers can file a claim to recover their funds.

After MF Global went bankrupt last Halloween, it was discovered that $1.2 billion was missing from customers' accounts, mostly in commodities.

Trustee James Giddens has restored 72 percent of client assets, but Peter Suarez, an independent trader who buys and sells gold and currencies, wants the balance restored to him.

“That's my money. It wasn't a loan, I didn't invest in the firm. That's my money. That's all I'm looking for,” he said.

Suarez has already sent in the 17-page claims form. Only those who file a claim are eligible to receive further payments from the trustee. But there's no guarantee the missing money will be found.

Manhattan-based MF Global was headed by former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine.

Connecticut Police Chief Retiring As FBI Probes Police Harassment Case

Korva Coleman — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:48:00 -0500

The police chief of East Haven, Conn. will leave his job this Friday as federal agents investigate whether his agency attacked and intimidated Latino residents. Last week, the FBI arrested four police officers and charged them with assaults, false arrests and intimidation of Latinos and Latino businesses in East Haven. The city's mayor inflamed the situation by remarking that to improve relations with the city's Latino community, he'd have tacos for dinner.

Now East Haven police chief Len Gallo is leaving his job, and his actions in the alleged discrimination case are getting new attention, says Reuters. Gallo's attorney announced today his client is an unnamed co-conspirator in the federal indictment against the four East Haven officers charged with abuse.

Gallo has not been charged with a crime. The indictment describes a "Co-Conspirator-1" who's a leader in the city's police department; this leader and others allegedly "took steps to strongly discourage and even to threaten fellow officers and other witnesses" who might help investigators looking into racial abuse complaints about East Haven police.

Gallo's attorney told the Hartford Courant his client could still be charged by federal officials. He's also a defendant in a civil lawsuit about the East Haven police department's behavior.

Gallo wasn't present at Mayor Joseph Maturo's news conference today announcing the development; the mayor says a search for the chief's replacement is underway, according to CNN.

Some Latino activists would like the mayor to quit as well. Following his taco quip last week, Maturo apologized last Wednesday for his handling of the police bias news but some people weren't mollified by his regret. Hundreds of tacos were delivered to his office the following day in protest, while opponents and supporters alike flooded his office with phone calls, according to AP.