'Justice for Trayvon' rallies set for 100 cities

FILE -This combo image made from file photos shows Trayvon Martin, left, and George Zimmerman. The jury in the trial of neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman began deliberating his fate, Friday, July 12, 2013, on charges in the 2012 shooting death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin. (AP Photos, File)

FILE -This combo image made from file photos shows Trayvon Martin, left, and George Zimmerman. The jury in the trial of neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman began deliberating his fate, Friday, July 12, 2013, on charges in the 2012 shooting death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin. (AP Photos, File)

ATLANTA (AP) ? One week after a Florida jury found George Zimmerman not guilty in the death of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin, rallies are scheduled in 100 cities to press for civil rights charges against the former neighborhood watch leader.

Zimmerman claimed self-defense after shooting Martin during an altercation. The case has become a flashpoint in national debates over guns, race relations and self-defense laws. Zimmerman identifies as Hispanic. Martin was black.

The Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network has organized the "Justice for Trayvon" rallies and vigils outside federal buildings from New York and Los Angeles to Des Moines, Iowa, and Little Rock, Ark. He wants the Justice Department to pursue a case.

The group says Martin's mother and brother will attend the New York event. His father will appear in Miami.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-07-20-US-Neighborhood-Watch-Rallies/id-cb704f91acf648778b1c0bd0444b2856

national championship calipari national archives brock lesnar kentucky jayhawks wwe wrestlemania

Saudi suspect in underwear bomb plots trained others, U.S. says

By Phil Stewart

ASPEN, Colo. (Reuters) - The United States believes the Saudi man suspected of designing underwear bombs for al Qaeda's Yemeni affiliate has trained a small number of people on his advanced bomb-making techniques, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.

The remarks by John Pistole, who heads the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, were some of the most detailed public comments to date about Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri and the thwarted May 2012 plot by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, to blow up a plane with an underwear bomb.

"There is intelligence that he has unfortunately trained others and there's a lot of effort to identify those folks," Pistole told the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.

Asked by Reuters afterward about the nature of that intelligence, Pistole said Asiri was believed to have trained a small number of people. He added that the intelligence was "credible."

Believed to be in his early 30s, Asiri, who survived a U.S. drone missile attack in 2011, has drawn scrutiny for his skill at fashioning hard-to-detect bombs and hiding them in clothing or equipment.

He became an urgent priority for Western counterterrorism officials after his suspected role in planning strikes on the United States in 2009 and 2010, plots that included the failed bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day in 2009.

The Detroit plot was discovered only when the explosive sewn into the bomber's underwear misfired as the airliner flew over U.S. territory.

Pistole said Asiri's 2012 attempt utilized a more sophisticated device using a new type of explosive the United States had not seen previously.

Asiri also used a double-initiation system for igniting the bomb and enclosed the device in caulk to prevent leakage of any explosive vapors that could be detected by airport equipment or bomb-sniffing dogs, Pistole said.

"He gave (the presumed attacker) instructions to get on the plane ... and fly to the U.S. and blow himself up over the U.S.," he said.

"Fortunately, that terrorist was a double agent," Pistole said, referring to the U.S.-British-Saudi undercover counterterrorism operation.

A Riyadh-born former chemistry student who once plotted to bomb oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, Asiri served nine months in jail in Saudi Arabia for attempting to join a militant group in Iraq to fight U.S. troops there.

He later moved to Yemen and joined AQAP, and is suspected of providing the bomb that killed his younger brother in a failed bid to assassinate Saudi counterterrorism chief Prince Mohammed bin Nayef in 2009.

Pistole described Asiri as "the bombmaker who has made all of these" devices and acknowledged that U.S. officials harbored fears he and AQAP might try to strike again.

"That is our greatest threat," he said.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/saudi-suspect-underwear-bomb-plots-trained-others-u-023246464.html

the shins atomic clock john mccain game changer corned beef recipe rpi dst

Good news: You get a raise. Bad news: It's not much?

pay

Kelli Grant CNBC

4 hours ago

Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

Employee Lucy Rodriguez stocks the frozen meat section of a Walmart Supercenter store on May 30, 2013 in Pico Rivera, California. A new survey of 1,500 companies says many will be doling out raises this year, but not as large as in previous years.

Workers hoping for a pay raise may have to settle for another year of belt-tightening.

A new survey of 1,500 U.S. companies from consulting firm Mercer found that employers expect to increase worker salaries by an average 2.9 percent in 2014, up just slightly from 2.8 percent raises this year.

That's a continued increase from recent years, although short of the bigger raises Americans might have seen before the recession, said Catherine Hartmann, a principal at Mercer.

Part of the reason for the slow recovery is the still-high unemployment rate. "With few exceptions, the job market is still very much a buyer's market and that puts downward pressure on pay raises," said Steve Tobak, managing partner at Invisor Consulting in California. Higher costs of companies' health-care benefits have reduced funds available for raises, he said.

(Read more:Americans hate their jobs, even with office perks)

Many workers will see even smaller raises in their paychecks. More employers are doling out raises based on performance, to reward and retain their best workers, said Hartmann.

Almost half of the money available will go to 7 percent of the work force?the top-performing employees, who will receive average raises of 4.6 percent. Average workers (54 percent of the work force) will see pay increases of 2.6 percent, according to Mercer, and the lowest-performing workers (2 percent of the work force), just 0.2 percent.

Those average increases are large enough to qualify as a raise, but just barely. "Wage gains are surpassing price increases, but it's because price increases are weak," said Chris Christopher, an economist with IHS Global Insight. The June consumer price index was 1.8 percent higher than a year ago, and core prices were up 1.6 percent.

That leaves many workers with a little extra pay that won't go to offsetting the higher cost of living, he said. (Part of the recent increases stem from spiking gas prices, which leaves workers with even less.)

It's not enough to justify splurging. "Virtually everybody needs to do something productive with their new-found income," said certified financial planner Sheryl Garrett, founder of The Garrett Planning Network. "Think first, 'how can I enhance my net worth statement?'"

Most workers would benefit from putting an extra 1 percent (or more) as automatic contributions in their 401(k) or other retirement account, Garrett said. Paying down high-interest credit card or student loan debt is another beneficial option, as is contributing to an emergency fund or other future savings.

Whatever you choose to do, hold off on acting until that money appears in your paycheck, she said. Until then, it's not guaranteed.

? 2013 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663286/s/2ec00be5/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Cgood0Enews0Eyou0Eget0Eraise0Ebad0Enews0Eits0Enot0Emuch0E6C10A653475/story01.htm

john mccain game changer corned beef recipe

On Martin case, Obama shifts from passion to calm

WASHINGTON (AP) ? When President Barack Obama first addressed the death of Trayvon Martin last year, he did so passionately, declaring that if he had a son, he would look like the slain 17-year-old. His powerful and personal commentary marked a rare public reflection on race from the nation's first black president.

But now, with the man who fatally shot Martin acquitted and the burden of any future charges squarely on his own administration, Obama is seeking to inject calm into a case that has inflamed passions, including his own. In a brief statement, the president called Martin's killing a "tragedy" but implored the public to respect a Florida jury's decision to clear George Zimmerman, the man charged in the teen's death.

"I know this case has elicited strong passions. And in the wake of the verdict, I know those passions may be running even higher," Obama said Sunday. "But we are a nation of laws, and a jury has spoken."

The president's restrained response underscores the complicated calculus for the White House as it grapples with the fallout from the racially charged case. Obama faces inevitable questions about the verdict, given his previous statements on the matter and his own race. But as the head of a government considering levying federal charges against Zimmerman, he must also avoid the appearance of influencing an ongoing Justice Department investigation.

"Barack Obama is a lawyer and I think his legal sense is that he should do nothing that would interrupt or disrupt any future matters involving George Zimmerman," said Charles Ogletree, a law professor at Harvard University and longtime friend of the president.

As the nation's first black president, Obama is frequently pressed about questions of race, though he often refrains from weighing in. And on the occasions where he had, he's had uneven results.

Obama's speech on race as a presidential candidate in 2008 was widely praised as an honest ? and politically risky ? handling of the tricky topic. But his 2009 comments about the arrest of a black Harvard professor in his own home turned into a political firestorm and the president was forced to retract his statement that police had "acted stupidly" in detaining Henry Louis Gates.

Much of the furor over the president's criticism of Gates' arrest centered on the fact that his comments targeted law enforcement. Perhaps learning a lesson from that experience, the president and his advisers have purposefully avoided weighing in on the handling of the Zimmerman case by police, the courts and his own Justice Department, which is reviewing the prospect of filing criminal civil rights charges.

"He will not comment on a Department of Justice investigation or on a decision that the Department of Justice will make on how to proceed, if to proceed," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

Instead, Obama's comments ? both in the weeks after Martin's death and following the verdict ? have been more personal, focusing in part on his role as a father.

"If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon," Obama said when he first addressed the case in March 2012. "When I think about this boy, I think about my own kids."

Despite White House efforts to carefully avoid weighing in on legal aspects of the case, Republicans have criticized the president for commenting at all, saying his words helped a local legal matter morph into a national spectacle.

"President Obama politicized this at the beginning of it, I believe, unfortunately, by injecting himself into it," said Karl Rove, former political adviser to President George W. Bush.

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said the president turned a law-and-order matter "into a political issue." Rove and King both spoke Sunday on Fox News.

Zimmerman was acquitted Saturday in the February shooting death of Martin, who was unarmed when he was killed. Martin's parents and civil rights leaders said Zimmerman racially profiled the teenager when he followed him through a gated community and shot him, but Zimmerman said he was physically assaulted by Martin and shot the teenager in self-defense.

The Justice Department can still launch criminal civil rights charges against Zimmerman. Attorney General Eric Holder is reviewing evidence to determine whether to proceed on such charges after stepping aside to allow the state prosecution to run its course. However, legal experts say there are major hurdles to federal prosecution, including the burden of proving that Zimmerman, a former neighborhood watch leader, was motivated by racial animosity.

Holder, the nation's first black attorney general, said Monday that Martin's killing was a "tragic, unnecessary shooting." The Justice Department, he said, will follow "the facts and the law" as it reviews evidence to see whether federal criminal charges are warranted.

The NAACP and other civil rights organizations dismayed by the Florida jury's verdict are calling on the Justice Department to open a case against Zimmerman. As of Monday evening, more than 17,000 people had signed a White House petition supporting DOJ charges.

Senior White House officials have discussed the case with NAACP leaders in recent days, the organization said. But the White House insisted Monday that the president would not personally be involved in the decision to levy charges, nor would he weigh in personally on whether he supported that step.

"Cases are brought on the merits," Carney said. "The president expects, as in every case, that the process will be handled in the way it should be, at the Department of Justice, and certainly not here."

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/martin-case-obama-shifts-passion-calm-071703119.html

Slim Whitman Jeep Recall Selma Blair George Zimmer juneteenth anchorman 2 Instagram Video

These Quadpole Super Magnets Will Increase the LHC's Power Tenfold

Just because Cern researchers discovered the Higgs Boson particle last year doesn't mean it's time to close up shop on the biggest scientific instrument humanity ever created. Instead, the scientific community has plans to upgrade and retrofit the Large Hadron Collider with bigger, better, and more powerful systems over the next decade?like the US LHC Accelerator Program's (LARP) new interaction region quadrupole magnets (IRQM) that will help tease every last one of the Higgs-Boson's secrets.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/wQ3wbDZasmc/these-quadpole-super-magnets-will-increase-the-lhcs-po-758172598

tracy mcgrady Yeezus leak Derecho Man Of Steel Reviews

AP PHOTOS: Protests against Zimmerman acquittal

Demonstrations erupted across the United States ? ranging from dozens to hundreds ? in support of the family of Trayvon Martin. Protesters marched against the not guilty verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman for the shooting of the unarmed black teenager.

At New York City's Middle Collegiate Church in Manhattan, congregants wore hooded sweatshirts ? as the 17-year-old Martin did the night he was shot.

And in Manhattan's Union Square, hundreds of people gathered to voice their passions over the verdict, hoisting placards with images of Martin.

Protesters also gathered in Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., along with several other cities.

Here are some images from the demonstrations:

____

Follow AP photographers on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP/ap-photographers

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-photos-protests-against-zimmerman-acquittal-010036947.html

the borgias shroud of turin warren sapp the masters i robot the big c

Report: Microsoft collaborated closely with NSA

By Brandon Griggs, CNN updated 8:49 AM EDT, Sat July 13, 2013 | Filed under: Web

Protesters march outside the U.S. Capitol against the NSA's secret Web surveillance program last month.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• A new report from the Guardian newspaper claims Microsoft willingly collaborated with the NSA
• Report: Microsoft allowed feds to circumvent its encryption system to spy on users
• Microsoft says it turns over data on customers only in response to legal requests
• Microsoft: We do "not provide any government with blanket or direct access to ... any Microsoft product"

(CNN) -- Most of the big tech companies implicated in the ongoing controversy over secret government Web surveillance insist they turned over data about users to the National Security Agency only after being compelled by court orders.

But a new report claims that Microsoft willingly collaborated with the NSA and even allowed federal agents to circumvent the company's own encryption system to spy on users' messages.

The latest bombshell from the UK's Guardian newspaper, which along with the Washington Post broke the NSA snooping story last month, says that Microsoft helped the NSA circumvent its encryption to intercept Web chats on its new Outlook.com portal. The Guardian, citing "top-secret" documents, said the NSA already had access to pre-encrypted e-mail on Microsoft's Outlook, including Hotmail.

The NSA allegedly listened in on numerous video calls made via Skype, which Microsoft bought two years ago. And Microsoft also worked with the FBI this year to give the NSA easier access to its cloud storage service SkyDrive, which has more than 250 million users worldwide, according to the Guardian's report, published Thursday.

In a statement, Microsoft immediately denied many of the Guardian's claims, saying the company turns over data on customers only in response to legal requests.

"First, we take our commitments to our customers and to compliance with applicable law very seriously, so we provide customer data only in response to legal processes. Second, our compliance team examines all demands very closely, and we reject them if we believe they aren't valid.

"Third, we only ever comply with orders about specific accounts or identifiers, and we would not respond to the kind of blanket orders discussed in the press over the past few weeks, as the volumes documented in our most recent disclosure clearly illustrate," the company said.

"To be clear, Microsoft does not provide any government with blanket or direct access to SkyDrive, Outlook.com, Skype or any Microsoft product."

News reports, based in part on documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, have described a classified U.S. intelligence system called Prism that examines e-mails, videos, online chats and other data that it collects via requests made under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

The revelations about Prism have alarmed everyone from members of Congress and foreign leaders to privacy activists and citizens who organized anti-NSA protests across the United States on the Fourth of July.

Like Apple, Facebook, Google, Yahoo and other tech titans linked by news reports to the Prism program, Microsoft has been working in recent weeks to convince customers that it values their privacy and safeguards their personal data against wanton snooping by a government trying to root out terrorists.

In lobbying for greater transparency on national security-related requests, Microsoft revealed last month that it had received between 6,000 and 7,000 criminal and national security warrants, subpoenas and other orders in the last six months of 2012. These requests affected between 31,000 and 32,000 consumer accounts -- a tiny fraction of the company's hundreds of millions of users -- and came from local, state and federal agencies, Microsoft said.

"When we upgrade or update products legal obligations may in some circumstances require that we maintain the ability to provide information in response to a law enforcement or national security request," Microsoft said in its statement Thursday.

"There are aspects of this debate that we wish we were able to discuss more freely. That's why we've argued for additional transparency that would help everyone understand and debate these important issues."

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/12/tech/web/microsoft-nsa-snooping/index.html?eref=rss_latest

laron landry mary j blige burger king islands 2013 nissan altima masters par 3 contest google augmented reality glasses wonderlic test