At least 13 killed in Texas pickup truck crash

Texas Department of Public Safety / AP

A pickup truck crashed into trees in Goliad County, Texas, on Sunday, killing at least 11 people and injured 12 others, authorities said.

By NBC News staff and wire reports

At least 13 people died Sunday and another 10 were injured after a pickup truck loaded with passengers veered off the highway and crashed into trees in rural South Texas, authorities said.

State troopers and Goliad County sheriff's investigators were investigating the crash.?A trooper told KRIS-TV, the NBC affiliate in Corpus Christi, Tex., that it appeared a tire on the truck blew out before the vehicle went off the road and struck two trees.


Authorities said they did not immediately know the names and ages of the victims.

A spokeswoman with the?Texas Department of Public Safety told NBC News early Monday that the number of those killed in the crash had risen to 13 after two more victims succumbed to their injuries in local hospitals.

Vehicle laden with passengers
Gerald Bryant, also of ?the Texas Department of Public Safety, told The Associated Press the dead and wounded were various ages and that he personally saw two young children among the dead at the scene.

"This is the most people I've seen in any passenger vehicle, and I've been an officer for 38 years," Bryant said, referring to the chaotic scene.

The white 2000 Ford F-250 pickup was heading north on U.S. 59 around 7 p.m. (9 p.m. ET) Sunday when it traveled off the right side of the highway near the community of Berclair in Goliad County, Bryant said.

The 23 people were loaded inside both the truck's cab and bed.

Six of those who died were still inside the truck when emergency crews arrived to find the mangled vehicle, Bryant said. A man who claimed to have been the driver of the vehicle was ejected but survived, Bryant told the San Antonio Express-News.

He said several of the surviving victims had life-threatening injuries. He did not have their official conditions but described them as "very serious." The injured were taken to various hospitals in San Antonio, Victoria and Corpus Christi. Berclair is about 100 miles southeast of San Antonio.

'Very traumatic'
Border Patrol will assist with the investigation, authorities said.

Read more from NBC News station KRIS-TV in Corpus Christi

"It's unknown whether or not (the victims) were illegal, but it's possible," Bryant told the AP. The truck was registered to an owner in Houston, he told the Express-News.

Crash investigators stayed at the scene into the late hours Sunday to assess the crash, which halted traffic on U.S. 59. "It's been very chaotic here, and it's very traumatic," Bryant told the Express-News earlier from the scene. "It's only first responders out here, and it's very solemn."

A Goliad County sheriff's dispatcher deferred comment to the?Texas Department of Public Safety, which did not immediately return a call by NBC News.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/23/12899324-at-least-13-killed-as-truck-loaded-with-23-passengers-slams-into-trees-in-texas?lite

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Selling Coconut Creek Real Estate, Staging Tips

Coconut Creek real estate

Silva Stoyanova, Coconut Creek real estate

Staging tips an be very helpful for those of you who are considering selling Coconut Creek real estate. ?Staging is the act of prepping your home for sale, helping accentuate the best features of your home and show it off to potential buyers. ?We are still experiencing a buyers market with regards to Broward County real estate, which means that you stand to get the best value for your home if you have it look it?s best.

It goes without saying that the first step in staging your Coconut Creek home is cleaning, organizing, and de-cluttering. ?However this important step cannot be stressed enough. The neater and more organized your home appears the more efficient its space appears to a buyer. A cluttered home can lead a buyer to believe that there is not adequate storage and useful space available in your home.

Another helpful tip to stage your Broward County real estate is to take a good look at your walls. Do you need a fresh coat of paint? While neutral colors have always been the suggested way to go, a splash of color on say one wall in a room can bring out the color in a rug or object and complete the overall look of a room.

There are countless tips for staging homes in Coconut Creek FL. Click here to read ?Home stagers? top tricks and tips? from Yahoo Homes. Selling a home can be tricky but luckily there is a great deal of advice available. A Coconut Creek REALTOR? can be an invaluable asset in helping you to understand exactly what is involved in the selling process and help you get your Broward County real estate sold in a timely and efficient manner.

For the best in Coconut Creek real estate experience and knowledge contact Silva Stoyanova at 954-673-4402. Silva has access to the Coconut Creek MLS and all available listings in the area.

Contributed By:
Silva Stoyanova, PA

(954) 673-4402 Direct
Charles Rutenberg Realty
2201 West Prospect Rd #200, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33309
(954) 396-3001 Office
Email: silva4info@yahoo.com

Source: http://coconutcreekrealestatehomesforsale.com/2012/07/22/selling-coconut-creek-real-estate-staging-tips/

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Online Flash Games Vs Gambling Consoles | 3d-game-wallpaper.com

What type is much better? There?s quite a bit of opposition between online flash games and gaming consoles that you play on your tv. It is hard to state which is greater because it really all depends on the individual desire of the person. However, it?d be safe to say that online games are popular toady.Both ways to play games has something specific to offer the gamer so let us take a look at the advantages and disadvantages each of them have to offer.Gaming Consoles:The price of some of the newer gaming consoles are reasonably priced considering all the great functions they?ve to offer.
The HD TELEVISION can greatly improve the graphics on a number of the games.
Once you pay for the console and the activities you need to play, there?s no constant fee monthly that you?ve to pay.
They?re quick and easy to set up.
They may be enjoyed by participants of all ages.
There are numerous excellent and fascinating activities readily available for these systems.
You may have a casino game and gather as well as friends or family night to socialize.
The greatest downfall of the gaming consoles is the undeniable fact that upgrading the system isn?t typically an option. Whenever a new system happens with functions and better graphics what this means is, you?ve to buy new activities as well. Even though, makes are working with this issue and the Xbox 360 Console is the perfect example. It was created with backwards compatibility making it possible to keep playing lots of the Xbox activities with the new console.Online Games:The game possibilities online can not be beat. There are literally tens of thousands of activities that you can choose from.
There are numerous free games that you can play online.
Many games could be downloaded to your PC for comfort.
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games can be obtained that makes it possible for large groups of participants to interact together in a digital world. These activities are exciting, exciting and challenging.
When issues arise with online games the designers of these games could put in a patch to improve the problem. Upgrades can be made this way.
Some games allow your character to be customized by you to make your avatar more personal.
It is possible to talk with participants from throughout the world. Someone can be always found by you to perform with or compete against anytime day or night.
It?s a smart way to create new friends with a common interest.
Online gaming gives both good quality sound and excellent artwork.
Obviously, before online games can be experienced by you you do have to buy good computer system. Depending on the activities you choose to play you will probably desire a high speed Net connection as well. Some games require a monthly fee to participate. Yet another problem with online gaming is that it is possible to become a little preoccupied with the games and some people become anti-social because they spend all of their time enjoying these games.When you compare online games to gaming consoles you can see that they all have good and bad problems. You?ve to determine which fits your requirements the best and gives the kind of activities that you are the most thinking about. Each person is different and what works for one, may not be suited for another. However, there is no reasons why you can not appreciate both when you?ve enough time for lots of gaming.

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Posted by margaretta22 on Jul 22nd, 2012 | Comments Off
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Source: http://www.3dgamewallpaper.com/2012/07/online-flash-games-vs-gambling-consoles/

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New Political party planned for South Africa WORLD NEWS ...

July 22, 2012

? The Editor World News Tomorrow ? world_news_tomorrow-wnt-news-today-cnn--reut-world-news-

WORLD NEWS TOMORROW | WNT NEWS AFRICA:? As part of an exploratory committee the following article is written.? A new political party called the? Consumers Party has announce their presence in South Africa after an exclusive interview with World News Tomorrow. The new party, not official launched yet,? have indicated that their policies is much conversational from the ANC and their oppositions.

Although the new Consumers Party (CP)? technically is still a secret their policies will be wide and clear. They stand for the interest of the consumer and protection of your consumers rights in South Africa. While everybody ells is fighting? over other issues, the consumers seems to be overcharged on basic living cost by government and corporations showing their lack of understanding for the South African consumer needs.

The new party is a non-racial party that hopes to present all consumers to fight unfair cost prices coursing consumers to be deprived of? basic living standards such as lower prices of food, housing? and fuel prices.

The Consumers Party (CP) have set out the following policy? as they believe these issue need urgent attention

  1. A smaller parliament with a lower wage Bil
  2. Lower municipal cost and better services by cutting to top management wage bill implementing better expertise
  3. Reduce tax and interest rates to level with international standards and inflated interest on bank loans.
  4. The stopping of fuel price manipulation and reduce of transport cost that would increase business in the economy
  5. Reduction of electricity to sustain equality for all.
  6. Reduction of VAT and lower Parliament cost

This is said to spark a new paradigm in South Africa that many consumer will welcome and might have far reaching implications for other political parties in South Africa including the present ruling ANC party of South Africa.It might be the right time for such interaction as the present situation in South Africa with a collapsed health care and social security need instant reform to ensure public?s safety .

Exclusive for World News Tomorrow USA

Source: http://www.worldnewstomorrow.com/?p=2065

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Rupert Murdoch quits boards of British newspapers: NI

[ [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 2]], 'http://yhoo.it/KeQd0p', '[Slideshow: See photos taken on the way down]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 7]], ' http://yhoo.it/KpUoHO', '[Slideshow: Death-defying daredevils]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['know that we have confidence in', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/LqYjAX ', '[Related: The Secret Service guide to Cartagena]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['We picked up this other dog and', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JUSxvi', '[Related: 8 common dog fears, how to calm them]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 5]], 'http://bit.ly/JnoJYN', '[Related: Did WH share raid details with filmmakers?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 3]], 'http://bit.ly/KoKiqJ', '[Factbox: AQAP, al-Qaeda in Yemen]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have my contacts on or glasses', 3]], 'http://abcn.ws/KTE5AZ', '[Related: Should the murder charge be dropped?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JD7nlD', '[Related: Bristol Palin reality show debuts June 19]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 1]], 'http://bit.ly/JRPFRO', '[Related: McCain adviser who vetted Palin weighs in on VP race]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]

[ [ [['did not go as far his colleague', 8]], '29438204', '0' ], [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/murdoch-quits-boards-british-media-interests-report-205746709.html

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Calls for gun control stir little support

In this July 20, 2012, photo, President Barack Obama pauses as he speaks about the Aurora, Colo., shooting at an campaign event at the Harborside Event Center in Ft. Myers, Fla. Gun control advocates sputter at their own impotence. The National Rifle Association is politically ascendant. Obama pledges to safeguard the Second Amendment in its first official response to the deaths of at least 12 innocents in the mass shooting at the new Batman movie screening. Once, every highly publicized outbreak of gun violence produced strong calls from Democrats and a few Republicans for tougher controls on firearms. Now those pleas are muted, a political paradox that?s grown more pronounced in an era scarred by Columbine, Virginia Tech, the wounding of a congresswoman and now the shootings in a suburban movie theater where carnage is expected on-screen only. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

In this July 20, 2012, photo, President Barack Obama pauses as he speaks about the Aurora, Colo., shooting at an campaign event at the Harborside Event Center in Ft. Myers, Fla. Gun control advocates sputter at their own impotence. The National Rifle Association is politically ascendant. Obama pledges to safeguard the Second Amendment in its first official response to the deaths of at least 12 innocents in the mass shooting at the new Batman movie screening. Once, every highly publicized outbreak of gun violence produced strong calls from Democrats and a few Republicans for tougher controls on firearms. Now those pleas are muted, a political paradox that?s grown more pronounced in an era scarred by Columbine, Virginia Tech, the wounding of a congresswoman and now the shootings in a suburban movie theater where carnage is expected on-screen only. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

FILE - In this April 20, 1999, file photo unidentified young women head to a library near Columbine High School where students and faculty members were evacuated after two gunmen went on a shooting rampage in the school in the southwest Denver suburb of Littleton, Colo. Gun control advocates sputter at their own impotence. The National Rifle Association is politically ascendant. And Barack Obama?s White House pledges to safeguard the Second Amendment in its first official response to the deaths of at least 12 innocents in a mass shooting at a new Batman movie screening in suburban Denver. Once, every highly publicized outbreak of gun violence produced strong calls from Democrats and a few Republicans for tougher controls on firearms. Now those pleas are muted, a political paradox that?s grown more pronounced in an era scarred by Columbine, Virginia Tech, the wounding of a congresswoman and now the shootings in a suburban movie theater where carnage is expected on-screen only. (AP Photo/Kevin Higley, File)

FILE - In this April 16, 2007, file photo, state and local police wait for a building to be cleared by police on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Va., following a shooting incident. Gun control advocates sputter at their own impotence. The National Rifle Association is politically ascendant. And Barack Obama?s White House pledges to safeguard the Second Amendment in its first official response to the deaths of at least 12 innocents in a mass shooting at a new Batman movie screening in suburban Denver. Once, every highly publicized outbreak of gun violence produced strong calls from Democrats and a few Republicans for tougher controls on firearms. Now those pleas are muted, a political paradox that?s grown more pronounced in an era scarred by Columbine, Virginia Tech, the wounding of a congresswoman and now the shootings in a suburban movie theater where carnage is expected on-screen only. (AP Photo/Don Petersen)

(AP) ? Gun control advocates sputter at their own impotence. The National Rifle Association is politically ascendant. And Barack Obama's White House pledges to safeguard the Second Amendment in its first official response to the deaths of at least 12 people in a mass shooting at a new Batman movie screening in suburban Denver.

Once, every highly publicized outbreak of gun violence produced strong calls from Democrats and a few Republicans for tougher controls on firearms.

Now those pleas are muted, a political paradox that's grown more pronounced in an era scarred by Columbine, Virginia Tech, the wounding of a congresswoman and now the shooting in a suburban movie theater where carnage is expected on-screen only.

"We don't want sympathy. We want action," Dan Gross, president of the Brady campaign said Friday as President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney mourned the dead.

Ed Rendell, the former Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, was more emphatic than many in the early hours after the shooting. "Everyone is scared of the NRA," he said on MSNBC. "Number one, there are some things worth losing for in politics and to be able to prevent carnage like this is worth losing for."

Yet it's been more than a decade since gun control advocates had a realistic hope of getting the type of legislation they seek, despite predictions that each shocking outburst of violence would lead to action.

In 1994, Congress approved a 10-year ban on 19 types of military-style assault weapons. Some Democrats quickly came to believe the legislation contributed to their loss of the House a few months later.

Five years later, Vice President Al Gore cast a tie-breaking Senate vote on legislation to restrict sales at gun shows.

The two events turned out to be the high-water mark of recent Democratic drives to enact federal legislation aimed at reducing gun violence, and some Republicans said they could see the shift coming.

"The news media in its lather to distort this whole issue may be wrong in their estimation that this will help Al Gore," then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said in an Associated Press interview a few weeks after the tie-breaking vote. "As a matter of fact, it may already have hurt him, and it may hurt him a lot more."

By 2004, when the assault weapon ban lapsed, congressional Democrats made no serious attempt to pass an extension. President George W. Bush was content to let it fade into history.

Public sentiment had swung.

According to a Gallup poll in 1990, 78 percent of those surveyed said laws covering the sale of firearms should be stricter, while 19 percent said they should remain the same or be loosened.

By the fall of 2004 support for tougher laws had dropped to 54 percent. In last year's sounding, 43 percent said they should be stricter, and 55 percent said they should stay the same or be made more lenient.

In terms of electoral politics, Harry Wilson, a Roanoke College professor and author of a book on gun politics, said violent crime has been declining in recent years and, "It becomes increasingly difficult to make the argument that we need stricter gun control laws."

Additionally, he said in some regions, gun control "can be a winning issue for Democrats. But nationally, it's a loser ... and they have figured that out." Attempts to emphasize the issue will "really motivate the opposition. And in a political campaign, nobody wants to do that," he said.

At its core, Wilson said, the issue divides rural voters from urban voters.

Often, that means Republicans on one side, Democrats on the other. But not always.

In the current election cycle, the NRA has made 88 percent of its political donations to Republicans, and 12 percent to Democrats, according to OpenSecrets.org. The disparity obscures that the organization consistently supports some Democrats, a strategy that allows it to retain influence in both parties.

It also reported spending $2.9 million on lobbying last year.

Its clout was vividly on display in 2010 when majority Democrats in the House sidetracked legislation giving the District of Columbia a voting representative in the House of Representatives. Republicans had vowed to add an NRA-backed provision invalidating a city ban on handgun possession as the price for passage, and there was little doubt it had the votes to prevail.

Later in the year, the NRA objected to legislation to require groups airing political advertising to disclose donors. Fearing the fallout, enough rank and file Democrats demanded changes that the leadership had to revise the bill. A revised bill, granting the NRA and other large organizations an exemption, eventually passed.

Gross, head of the Brady Campaign, says Democrats have drawn the wrong lessons for years. "The cultural narrative exists because of the assessment of Al Gore's loss in 2000 and the mid-terms in 1994, and in both cases I think the gun issue was scapegoated," he said. "Those who didn't vote for Al Gore weren't going to vote for him anyway."

At the same time, Gross readily conceded the lingering hold of the issue.

"Look at Kerry when he felt he needed to dress up in hunting gear," he said, referring to the Democratic presidential candidate's well-photographed excursion into a duck blind in camouflage clothing in swing-state Ohio a few weeks before the 2004 election.

Four years later, Obama won the White House despite strong opposition from the NRA.

As a senator from Illinois and state lawmaker before that, he was a strong supporter of gun control.

Following last year's killing of six people and the wounding of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Ariz., Obama called for steps to "keep those irresponsible, law-breaking few from getting their hands on a gun in the first place."

He advanced no legislative proposals then, and on Friday, spokesman Jay Carney said, "The president believes that we need to take common-sense measures that protect Second Amendment rights of Americans, while ensuring that those who should not have guns under existing law do not get them."

Obama isn't the only 2012 White House candidate to adjust his views on gun control.

In a losing Senate campaign in Massachusetts in 1994, Mitt Romney said, "I don't line up with the NRA." A decade later, as governor, he signed legislation making a state assault weapons ban permanent.

This year, bidding for support at the NRA convention, he said: "We need a president who will enforce current laws, not create new ones that only serve to burden lawful gun owners."

_____

AP Deputy Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta and AP writer Jack Gillum contributed to this report.

.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-07-21-Gun%20Politics/id-df9c97bb285b434db98e3d78473946e5

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Source: Penn State to be hit with 'significant, unprecedented - Fox 13

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(CNN) ? Penn State University will face ?significant, unprecedented penalties? from the National Collegiate Athletic Association, but it will not face the so-called ?death penalty? that would have prevented the football team from playing in the fall, a source familiar with the case tells CNN.

But the source says the school might have preferred a one-year suspension because of the severity of the scholarship losses, postseason sanctions and other penalties the source wouldn?t specify.

?If I were Penn State or any other school and were given both options, I?d pick the death penalty,? the source said, adding the range of sanctions ?is well beyond what has been done in the past? and ?far worse than closing the program for a year.?

The news comes the same day the statue of the late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno was removed from outside the campus? stadium.

The NCAA will punish the school following the Freeh Report, which detailed findings of an investigation into the scandal involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky?s sexual abuse of children. Sandusky, 68, was convicted in late June of 45 of the 48 sexual abuse counts he faced, involving 10 victims.

The investigation was led by former FBI Director Louis Freeh, and the report held four top Penn State officials, including Paterno, responsible for failing to stop the abuse.

Everything the NCAA ?needed to know was detailed in the Freeh report,? according to the source.

On Monday in Indianapolis, the NCAA will hold a press conference ?to announce NCAA corrective and punitive measures for The Pennsylvania State University,? it said in a statement.

The NCAA last imposed the so-called ?death penalty? to a football team in 1987 against Southern Methodist University?s program in the wake of a payments-to-athletes scandal.

The source says the sanctions ?will really paint a picture that essentially says that leadership failure and systemic failures can?t be tolerated.?

NCAA President Mark Emmert wrote a letter to Penn State President Rodney Erickson on November 17, 2011, that included four questions he wanted the university to answer.

According to the source, the NCAA felt the questions were answered by the Freeh report and therefore could act before the university responded.

The source wasn?t sure if the university has been made aware of the penalties yet, but says the university was not involved in the decision. It was ?not a negotiated process,? the source says.

While not divulging specifics, the source said, ?The penalties go well beyond the loss of a scholarship or not being able to go to a bowl game.?

The source also said the plan includes provisions to provide ?leeway? and ?minimize the impact? on current players who had nothing to do with the Sandusky scandal.

Also Sunday, in State College, Pennsylvania, the 900-pound bronze statue of Paterno was removed. Penn State President Rodney Erickson said in a statement the statue is being stored in a ?secure location.?

The statue was removed exactly six months after Paterno, the winningest coach in Division I football history, died of lung cancer. Paterno had coached at Penn State for 61 years, 15 of them as an assistant. He died less than three months after he coached his last game, an October 29 victory over Illinois that gave him a record 409 wins.

Under Paterno?s 46-season tenure as head coach, the Nittany Lions won two national championships, went undefeated five times, and finished in the top 25 national rankings 35 times.

The tribute to the coach, who died in January, had become an object of contention after the child rape scandal involving Sandusky.

However, Paterno?s family said they believe taking down the statue serves no purpose.

?Tearing down the statue of Joe Paterno does not serve the victims of Jerry Sandusky?s horrible crimes or help heal the Penn State community. We believe the only way to help the victims is to uncover the full truth,? the family said in a statement.

?It is not the university?s responsibility to defend or protect Joe Paterno. But they at least should have acknowledged that important legal cases are still pending and that the record on Joe Paterno, the board and other key players is far from complete,? it added.

Dan Vecellio, a staff writer for the blog Black Shoe Diaries, said there were about 100 people who watched the statue taken down, put on a forklift and driven into the stadium through a loading-dock door.

The Freeh report found several Penn State officials concealed evidence that Sandusky had sexually abused minors. Freeh concluded that Paterno could have prevented further sexual abuse had he taken action.

?I now believe that, contrary to its original intention, coach Paterno?s statue has become a source of division and an obstacle to healing in our university and beyond,? Erickson said.

?I believe that, were it to remain, the statue will be a recurring wound to the multitude of individuals across the nation and beyond who have been the victims of child abuse,? he added.

On Sunday, Penn State employees began placing fencing around the statue, as well as a tarp. Local and university police were at the scene, and some students gathered near the football field, Beaver Stadium.

Another tribute to Paterno ? the university library that bears his name ? will remain as it is, Erickson said.

?The library remains a tribute to Joe and Sue Paterno?s commitment to Penn State?s student body and academic success, and it highlights the positive impacts coach Paterno had on the university,? he wrote.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) called Paterno ?a powerful man who acted selfishly? who ?deserves no public honors whatsoever.?

?We?re glad the statue is gone but that?s just a tiny step forward,? SNAP spokesman David Clohessy said in a statement. ?We as a society must learn that a good way to deter child sex cover-ups is to punish, not praise, those who instigate such cover-ups.?

Sandusky will be sentenced in September. His legal team has said it will appeal the convictions.

Two former university administrators are awaiting trial for their role in the scandal, and more charges are possible as the state?s attorney general investigates what Penn State may have known about Sandusky?s behavior.

By Ross Levitt and Susan Candiotti, CNN.
? & ? 2012 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

Source: http://fox13now.com/2012/07/22/source-penn-state-to-be-hit-with-significant-unprecedented-penalties/

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Green fleet upstarts make conventional Washington moves

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two companies involved on the ground level of an expensive Pentagon effort to embrace biofuels have used familiar strategies in building their profiles in Washington, using hefty campaign contributions and aggressive lobbying to secure support.

One company, Solazyme Inc, a subcontractor on a $12 million alternative fuels contract from the Navy, also has raised its Washington profile by hiring as strategic advisers former senior Clinton administration officials with close ties to the Pentagon or Department of Energy, according to corporate records.

Solazyme and Gevo Inc, a Colorado company that won a small Air Force biofuels contract, are on the cutting edge of a $510 million Pentagon effort to switch to biofuels to curb reliance on foreign oil. But the high per-gallon cost of the biofuels has spurred controversy on Capitol Hill, where some Republicans have branded the program as wasteful and raised questions about political ties.

The Navy is paying $26 a gallon for the fuel it is using to test its "green fleet" concept. The prime contractor is Dynamic Fuels, a Louisiana-based company that is a joint venture of Arkansas-based Tyson Foods and Oklahoma-based Syntroleum Corp. Solazyme, which makes its biofuel from algae, is a subcontractor. Dynamic Fuels makes some of it fuel from animal fats.

The Air Force is paying Gevo $59 per gallon. Gevo makes its fuel by converting sugar into isobutanol.

Proponents of the program - as well as the Pentagon - argue that costs per gallon will dramatically drop after production ramps up and will eventually be competitive with fossil fuels.

Even as the biofuel companies work to build revenues in an emerging field, their investors and employees have worked the political system, campaign finance records show. Investors, officers and employees at Solazyme and Gevo have contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to political campaigns in recent years, primarily to Democrats.

Both companies have relied on extensive lobbying to help them win modest contracts.

Solazyme relies on in-house lobbyist Drew Littman, a former staffer to Democratic Senators Al Franken of Minnesota and Barbara Boxer of California. This year, it also hired McBee Strategic Consulting L.L.C., which represented Solyndra, the solar panel maker that went bankrupt after receiving more than $500 million in federal loans.

Solazyme also solicits strategic advice from two prominent Clinton administration officials - former CIA director R. James Woolsey, who has served in other administrations as well, and former Deputy Energy Secretary T.J. Glauthier.

Glauthier also served for five years in the Clinton White House at the Office of Management and Budget. He was on President Barack Obama's transition staff and worked on the energy portion of the stimulus bill.

"I had no contact with any agencies or others in the administration about Solazyme's bids or contracts for biofuels," Glauthier told Reuters.

Jonathan Wolfson, chief executive officer of Solazyme, said the company needs a strong Washington presence to counter the entrenched interests of rivals, including the oil industry. Shareholders of the publicly traded company deserve to know about legislative and administrative developments in Washington that might affect biofuels, Wolfson said.

Biofuels lobbying pales in comparison to the lobbying budgets of the oil and gas industries, he said.

Wolfson said campaign contributions by people associated with Solazyme had nothing to do with the company's Washington agenda. Most came from one person - board chairman Jerry Fiddler, who has given $358,000, mostly to Democrats. Fiddler, long active in Democratic politics, made his fortune selling his software company to Intel.

"Jerry's political donations are Jerry's private, personal business," said Wolfson. "I can absolutely guarantee you there are not discussions with management or with the board about what Jerry does with respect to his political donations. The fact that Jerry donated a lot of money is accurate. The fact that T.J. (Glauthier) had a relationship in DoE (Department of Energy) is accurate. But people are drawing lines to things that are not reality."

Fiddler could not be reached for comment.

Gevo spent $360,000 over three years for the services of Green Capitol LLC, according to lobbying records. The principals of the firm are a former Capitol Hill aide who worked on energy programs and a former official of the Air Transport Association, the major airlines' trade organization, who pushed the Air Force to experiment with biofuels.

Gevo's Air Force contract was worth $639,000.

A key Gevo investor is venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, who co-founded Sun Microsystems and has given $474,000 in campaign contributions since 1996, mostly to Democrats, according to a Reuters' compilation of campaign finance data on opensecrets.org.

Khosla told Reuters through a spokesman that he had no knowledge of the Air Force contract and declined further comment.

Of the companies helping provide biofuels to the Navy and Air Force, Tyson Foods has by far the highest profile in Washington.

Its political action committee has given $1.9 million in contributions since 1990 to candidates of both parties. Its president, John Tyson, has made $225,000 in contributions to both parties in the past six years. The company has spent $10.7 million on lobbying in the past five years, according to opensecrets.org.

Formed in 2005, Gevo seeks to retrofit ethanol plants to make isobutanol, which is more powerful and less damaging than ethanol to the machines that burn it, including cars. Gevo reported revenues of $64 million in 2011.

Solazyme, founded in 2004, creates oil from microalgae grown in fermentation tanks. Solazyme reported $39 million in revenues in 2011.

(Reporting by Marcus Stern; Editing by Marilyn W. Thompson; Desking by Vicki Allen)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/green-fleet-upstarts-conventional-washington-moves-110814291--finance.html

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Selling Baton Rouge Real Estate? Staging Helps - Glenda Daughety

Baton Rouge real estate

Glenda Daughety & Team, Baton Rouge real estate

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Source: http://blog.glendadaughety.com/2012/07/21/selling-baton-rouge-real-estate-staging-helps/

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