Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein during a hearing in September on Capitol Hill.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein during a hearing in September on Capitol Hill.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is calling for a "total review" of spying operations directed against foreign leaders.
"Unless the United States is engaged in hostilities against a country or there is an emergency need for this type of surveillance, I do not believe the United States should be collecting phone calls or emails of friendly presidents and prime ministers," Feinstein said in a statement following reports that the National Security Agency had eavesdropped on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone and spied on other leaders.
"It is abundantly clear that a total review of all intelligence programs is necessary so that members of the Senate Intelligence Committee are fully informed as to what is actually being carried out by the intelligence community," Feinstein said.
"The White House has informed me that collection on our allies will not continue, which I support," she said. "But as far as I'm concerned, Congress needs to know exactly what our intelligence community is doing."
"Feinstein has been one of the NSA's staunchest congressional defenders amid the uproar over its phone records surveillance, but she said that the spying on foreign leaders without President Obama's knowledge was a 'big problem.' "
In a briefing on Monday, when asked about the alleged spying, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said "reviews are underway."
"And we are, as part of that process, endeavoring to make available more information about what the NSA does and about the programs that have been discussed a lot of late," he said.
FILE - In this Nov. 7, 2012 file photo, then-Michigan Republican House candidate Kerry Bentivolio speaks at his election night party in Novi, Mich. Business thinks tea partyers have overstayed their welcome in Washington and wants to show them the door in next year’s congressional elections. In Michigan, longtime businessmen Brian Ellis and David Trott are challenging hard-line Reps. Justin Amash and Kerry Bentivolio in Republican primaries as three years of frustration over GOP insurgents roughing up the business community’s agenda came to a head with the 16-day partial government shutdown and the near financial default. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
FILE - In this Nov. 7, 2012 file photo, then-Michigan Republican House candidate Kerry Bentivolio speaks at his election night party in Novi, Mich. Business thinks tea partyers have overstayed their welcome in Washington and wants to show them the door in next year’s congressional elections. In Michigan, longtime businessmen Brian Ellis and David Trott are challenging hard-line Reps. Justin Amash and Kerry Bentivolio in Republican primaries as three years of frustration over GOP insurgents roughing up the business community’s agenda came to a head with the 16-day partial government shutdown and the near financial default. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
FILE - In this July 24, 2103 file photo, Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. Business thinks tea partyers have overstayed their welcome in Washington and wants to show them the door in next year’s congressional elections. In Michigan, longtime businessmen Brian Ellis and David Trott are challenging hard-line Reps. Justin Amash and Kerry Bentivolio in Republican primaries as three years of frustration over GOP insurgents roughing up the business community’s agenda came to a head with the 16-day partial government shutdown and the near financial default. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A slice of corporate America thinks tea partyers have overstayed their welcome in Washington and should be shown the door in next year's congressional elections.
In what could be a sign of challenges to come across the country, two U.S. House races in Michigan mark a turnabout from several years of widely heralded contests in which right-flank candidates have tried — sometimes successfully — to unseat Republican incumbents they perceive as not being conservative enough.
In the Michigan races, longtime Republican businessmen are taking on two House incumbents — hardline conservative Reps. Justin Amash and Kerry Bentivolio — in GOP primaries. The 16-day partial government shutdown and the threatened national default are bringing to a head a lot of pent-up frustration over GOP insurgents roughing up the business community's agenda.
Democrats hope to use this rift within the GOP to their advantage. Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., chairman of the House committee to elect Democrats, insists there's been "buyer's remorse with House Republicans who have been willing to put the economy at risk," and that it is opening the political map for Democrats in 2014.
That's what the Democrats would be expected to say. But there's also Defending Main Street, a new GOP-leaning group that's halfway to its goal of raising $8 million. It plans to spend that money on center-right Republicans who face a triumvirate of deep-pocketed conservative groups — Heritage Action, Club for Growth and Freedom Works — and their preferred, typically tea party candidates.
In one race, the group plans to help Idaho eight-term Rep. Mike Simpson, who faces a Club for Growth-backed challenger in a GOP primary.
"These conservative groups have had it all their own way," said former Republican Rep. Steve LaTourette of Ohio, head of the new group. "They basically come in with millions of dollars and big-foot a Republican primary and you wind up with these Manchurian candidates who are not interested in governing."
LaTourette said that for the past three years, some "40, 42 House members have effectively denied the Republican Party the power of the majority" that it won in the 2010 election by blocking the GOP agenda.
Defending Main Street is meeting Nov. 5 in New York with wealthy potential donors.
Call it the wrath of establishment Republicans and corporate America, always considered the best of friends. Since the Republican takeover of the House in 2010, they've watched the GOP insurgents slow a transportation bill and reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, block a treaty governing the high seas and stand in the way of comprehensive immigration legislation.
The final straw was the bitter budget standoff that partly shuttered the government, precipitated by Republicans like Amash and Bentivolio who enlisted early in the campaign demanding that President Barack Obama dismantle his health care law in exchange for keeping the government operating.
Even after 16 days of a shutdown, falling poll numbers for the GOP and a threatened economy-jarring default, the two broke with their House Republican leaders and voted against the final deal to reopen the government.
Long before the shutdown, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has spent tens of millions boosting mainly Republicans in congressional races, urged the GOP to fund the government and prevent a default, then double back and try and work out changes to the health care law later.
A significant number of House Republicans have given a cold-shoulder to the Chamber's agenda. Rob Engstrom, the group's political director, said the Chamber will see how races develop before deciding on its involvement next year.
The latest political dynamic promises to affect the midterm elections — but how? Republicans hope the widespread animosity generated by the shutdown dissipates by next November and they can hold their House majority. Currently, Republicans control 231 seats and Democrats 200. Democrats are widely expected to win the special House election in Massachusetts for the seat of Sen. Ed Markey and would need to gain 17 seats next year to seize control.
"As long as we stay focused on the priorities of the American people, I think we're going to be fine," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said last week when asked about whether the GOP can hold onto the House.
What about the Michigan races?
In the state's 11th Congressional District, just northwest of Detroit, David Trott, a businessman involved in real estate finance and a member of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce Board of Trustees, is challenging Bentivolio.
In the 3rd Congressional District in the southwest part of the state, Brian Ellis is a 53-year-old Grand Rapids businessman who owns an investment advisory firm and serves on the school board. He describes himself as the true conservative Republican in the race, criticizing Amash's votes against Rep. Paul Ryan's budget that cut nearly $5 trillion and a measure reducing taxes for small businesses.
Ellis makes it clear that he would have sided with Boehner on the House GOP's last-ditch plan to avoid default. He says it never would have reached that point if Republicans hadn't embraced the tactic of linking the health care law to government funding.
"I certainly agree that Obamacare is an 'Obama-onation,'" Ellis said in an interview. "But I think the tactic, especially threatening to default on our debt, that is very reckless and not a good way to run our country. I'm in the financial world and I know that would have some far-reaching consequences that would not be good."
In seizing on the rift, Israel and Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's national finance chairman, sent a letter to more than 1,000 business leaders reminding them that Democrats voted unanimously to end the shutdown and avoid default while House Republicans "turned their backs on business in favor of the radical demands of the tea party."
Republicans dismiss this Democratic outreach to the business community as wishful thinking.
"I don't think Democrats will be successful because the biggest headwinds we face in the economy right now are of their making, from regulation to the Affordable Care Act to this obsession with higher taxes," said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas. "Certainly the uncertainty of the last month has not been helpful, but that's on top of a heap of other uncertainty."
Even if the business community isn't ready to embrace Democrats, Israel insists that the recent budget stalemate has helped his candidate recruitment while boosting the campaign committee's fundraising. At the end of September, the committee had $21.6 million on hand to $15.7 million for the National Republican Campaign Committee.
Potential recruits who Israel jokingly said had put his number on the "do-not-call-list" have suddenly been announcing their candidacies, including Democrat Pete Festersen, the president of the Omaha City Council, who is running against eight-term Rep. Lee Terry, and attorney Bill Hughes Jr., who is looking to unseat 10-term Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J.
How is that for a table full of fun? ARMdevices.net's Nicolas Charbonnier is at the Samsung Developers Conference and he spends a few minutes with Phil to talk about some really wild Android "fakes" from China.
They are all ARM powered, which is Nicolas' forte, and you'll see everything from a $50 iPhone 5S clone to a crazy e-ink touch screen device that has a two-week battery life. Of course, they all run Android.
This is without a doubt the most interesting thing you'll see on the Internet tonight.
Veteran MMA referee Marc Goddard was thrown into a tough situation on Saturday at UFC Fight Night 30. Fighting in the night's co-main event, lightweights Melvin Guillard and Ross Pearson traded blows for less than two minutes before Guillard trapped Pearson against the fence and unloaded a pair of devastating knees to the Englishman's forehead.
Pearson's right hand appeared to be downed during the salvo, casting the legality of Guillard's strikes in question, and Goddard immediately stopped the action, before ultimately ruling the bout a ‘no contest' due to a massive cut which had opened across Pearson's brow.
Looking back on the messy situation during Monday's episode of The MMA Hour, Goddard stated "100 percent" confidence in his decision.
"It wasn't the first knee that Melvin delivered," Goddard explained. "It was actually the second knee, and it was the second knee that opened up the cut.
"I saw Ross' hand, and when I say hand, I mean his palm. His entire hand. It wasn't what we're used to before with the fingertips and playing the game, as me and a couple of other refs will allude to. This was a deliberate action, in terms of Ross making himself safe, putting his full hand down on the mat. The knee came in, connected with the forehead. That's what caused the cut. That's exactly what I saw, and that's why I stopped the fight at that time to deal with it."
The severity of Pearson's cut ultimately led to the fight's premature conclusion, though afterward many observers questioned Goddard's decision to rule the bout a no contest rather than a disqualification win in Pearson's favor.
To that end, the crux of Goddard's decision came down to intent.
"It was very clear to me that Melvin delivered the two knees in quick succession, and he didn't have time to assess or see the position of Ross Pearson," Goddard explained.
"Ross' hand went down, the second knee connected, and I think it was only fair and only just [for] both parties to rule it a no contest. There was certainly no, in my mind, intention from Melvin there to foul his opponent intentionally. And there was certainly no intention in my mind that Ross was playing a game. He was trying to be afforded the protection of being a downed fighter."
The three-point stance rule, which allows a fighter to ‘play the game,' as Goddard says, and place his or hers fingertips on the canvas to prevent knees or kicks to the head, fell into question earlier this year in the aftermath of its role in Demetrious Johnson's flyweight title defense against John Dodson at UFC on FOX 6.
The controversial rule has yet to be changed, though a new wrinkle is apparently already in effect.
"What came out of [2013 ABC conference] was they understand that it goes on, but the defining factor came that it's up to the referee," Goddard revealed. "It's (up to) the referee's discretion to call whether a fighter is playing the game or not."
With that knowledge in mind, Goddard defended his ruling at UFC Fight Night 30 by stating that in the process of placing his palm fully down on the canvas, Pearson made it clear that he wasn't attempting to ‘play a game.' Rather, he was simply taking advantage of the protection afforded to him by the Unified Rules of MMA.
"If a fighter is in danger of being (hurt), they know what they're afforded to do," Goddard explained. "If you want to be a downed fighter, be a downed fighter. If it goes down to one knee, put your hand flat.
"What I won't do, what I won't allow, and some fighters will testify, is if you're going to start playing the fingertip game, because that is playing a game. If you want to be afforded the protection of a downed fighter, then become a downed fighter. And quite clearly to me, that's what Ross Pearson did. When the first knee came in, he could see the danger of repeated knees. He put his hand flat on (mat), and unfortunately ... Melvin didn't have time to see that. He didn't have time to react, and I had to do what I had to do."
Guillard and Pearson are now scheduled to rematch their lightweight tilt on March 8, 2014 in London, England. And while Goddard is positive he made the right call, he added that due to system in place, it was a call he had to make in real time, without the extensive use of instant replay.
"I think the obvious answer is yes, because there are things we all miss. We're human beings," Goddard responded when asked if instant replay belongs in mixed martial arts.
"Sometimes something can happen on the blind side of us. [Referees] can't take the word of someone on the outside or someone from an opposing camp, or the fighter's camp themselves. So I think video replays do have their place in MMA, certainly when there's a lot at stake."
Your new Samsung smart TV may have a familiar bit of UI baked in, as the new screen sharing features are a lot like the Chromecast.
The concept, as well as the user interface, is familiar to just about all of us. Using your mobile device, you can choose to send the data stream to your new Samsung smart TV. Pandora was given as the example, as they are actively working on support in their app.
We'll be sure to sit in on the sessions at SDC13 to find out more about the protocols used and abilities of this as it starts to work its way into consumer hands. Around here, we follow the mantra of "cast all the things." We're interested.
Model virus structure shows why there's no cure for common cold
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
28-Oct-2013
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Contact: Ann C. Palmenberg acpalmen@wisc.edu 608-262-7519 University of Wisconsin-Madison
MADISON, Wis. In a pair of landmark studies that exploit the genetic sequencing of the "missing link" cold virus, rhinovirus C, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have constructed a three-dimensional model of the pathogen that shows why there is no cure yet for the common cold.
Writing today (Oct. 28, 2013) in the journal Virology, a team led by UW-Madison biochemistry Professor Ann Palmenberg provides a meticulous topographical model of the capsid or protein shell of a cold virus that until 2006 was unknown to science.
Rhinovirus C is believed to be responsible for up to half of all childhood colds, and is a serious complicating factor for respiratory conditions such as asthma. Together with rhinoviruses A and B, the recently discovered virus is responsible for millions of illnesses yearly at an estimated annual cost of more than $40 billion in the United States alone.
The work is important because it sculpts a highly detailed structural model of the virus, showing that the protein shell of the virus is distinct from those of other strains of cold viruses.
"The question we sought to answer was how is it different and what can we do about it? We found it is indeed quite different," says Palmenberg, noting that the new structure "explains most of the previous failures of drug trials against rhinovirus."
The A and B families of cold virus, including their three-dimensional structures, have long been known to science as they can easily be grown and studied in the lab. Rhinovirus C, on the other hand, resists culturing and escaped notice entirely until 2006 when "gene chips" and advanced gene sequencing revealed the virus had long been lurking in human cells alongside the more observable A and B virus strains.
The new cold virus model was built "in silico," drawing on advanced bioinformatics and the genetic sequences of 500 rhinovirus C genomes, which provided the three-dimensional coordinates of the viral capsid.
"It's a very high-resolution model," notes Palmenberg, whose group along with a team from the University of Maryland was the first to map the genomes for all known common cold virus strains in 2009. "We can see that it fits the data."
With a structure in hand, the likelihood that drugs can be designed to effectively thwart colds may be in the offing. Drugs that work well against the A and B strains of cold virus have been developed and advanced to clinical trials. However, their efficacy was blunted because they were built to take advantage of the surface features of the better known strains, whose structures were resolved years ago through X-ray crystallography, a well-established technique for obtaining the structures of critical molecules.
Because all three cold virus strains all contribute to the common cold, drug candidates failed as the surface features that permit rhinovirus C to dock with host cells and evade the immune system were unknown and different from those of rhinovirus A and B.
Based on the new structure, "we predict you'll have to make a C-specific drug," explains Holly A. Basta, the lead author of the study and a graduate student working with Palmenberg in the UW-Madison Institute for Molecular Virology. "All the [existing] drugs we tested did not work."
Antiviral drugs work by attaching to and modifying surface features of the virus. To be effective, a drug, like the right piece of a jigsaw puzzle, must fit and lock into the virus. The lack of a three-dimensional structure for rhinovirus C meant that the pharmaceutical companies designing cold-thwarting drugs were flying blind.
"It has a different receptor and a different receptor-binding platform," Palmenberg explains. "Because it's different, we have to go after it in a different way."
###
In addition to Basta and Palmenberg, co-authors of the new studies include Jean-Yves Sgro, Shamaila Ashraf, Yury Bochkov and James E. Gern, all of UW-Madison.
Terry Devitt, 608-262-8282, trdevitt@wisc.edu
The new rhinovirus C studies were supported by the National Institutes of Health, grants AI17331 and U19 AI104317.
NOTE: An image of the model can be downloaded at http://www.news.wisc.edu/newsphotos/coldVirus_13.html
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Model virus structure shows why there's no cure for common cold
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
28-Oct-2013
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Contact: Ann C. Palmenberg acpalmen@wisc.edu 608-262-7519 University of Wisconsin-Madison
MADISON, Wis. In a pair of landmark studies that exploit the genetic sequencing of the "missing link" cold virus, rhinovirus C, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have constructed a three-dimensional model of the pathogen that shows why there is no cure yet for the common cold.
Writing today (Oct. 28, 2013) in the journal Virology, a team led by UW-Madison biochemistry Professor Ann Palmenberg provides a meticulous topographical model of the capsid or protein shell of a cold virus that until 2006 was unknown to science.
Rhinovirus C is believed to be responsible for up to half of all childhood colds, and is a serious complicating factor for respiratory conditions such as asthma. Together with rhinoviruses A and B, the recently discovered virus is responsible for millions of illnesses yearly at an estimated annual cost of more than $40 billion in the United States alone.
The work is important because it sculpts a highly detailed structural model of the virus, showing that the protein shell of the virus is distinct from those of other strains of cold viruses.
"The question we sought to answer was how is it different and what can we do about it? We found it is indeed quite different," says Palmenberg, noting that the new structure "explains most of the previous failures of drug trials against rhinovirus."
The A and B families of cold virus, including their three-dimensional structures, have long been known to science as they can easily be grown and studied in the lab. Rhinovirus C, on the other hand, resists culturing and escaped notice entirely until 2006 when "gene chips" and advanced gene sequencing revealed the virus had long been lurking in human cells alongside the more observable A and B virus strains.
The new cold virus model was built "in silico," drawing on advanced bioinformatics and the genetic sequences of 500 rhinovirus C genomes, which provided the three-dimensional coordinates of the viral capsid.
"It's a very high-resolution model," notes Palmenberg, whose group along with a team from the University of Maryland was the first to map the genomes for all known common cold virus strains in 2009. "We can see that it fits the data."
With a structure in hand, the likelihood that drugs can be designed to effectively thwart colds may be in the offing. Drugs that work well against the A and B strains of cold virus have been developed and advanced to clinical trials. However, their efficacy was blunted because they were built to take advantage of the surface features of the better known strains, whose structures were resolved years ago through X-ray crystallography, a well-established technique for obtaining the structures of critical molecules.
Because all three cold virus strains all contribute to the common cold, drug candidates failed as the surface features that permit rhinovirus C to dock with host cells and evade the immune system were unknown and different from those of rhinovirus A and B.
Based on the new structure, "we predict you'll have to make a C-specific drug," explains Holly A. Basta, the lead author of the study and a graduate student working with Palmenberg in the UW-Madison Institute for Molecular Virology. "All the [existing] drugs we tested did not work."
Antiviral drugs work by attaching to and modifying surface features of the virus. To be effective, a drug, like the right piece of a jigsaw puzzle, must fit and lock into the virus. The lack of a three-dimensional structure for rhinovirus C meant that the pharmaceutical companies designing cold-thwarting drugs were flying blind.
"It has a different receptor and a different receptor-binding platform," Palmenberg explains. "Because it's different, we have to go after it in a different way."
###
In addition to Basta and Palmenberg, co-authors of the new studies include Jean-Yves Sgro, Shamaila Ashraf, Yury Bochkov and James E. Gern, all of UW-Madison.
Terry Devitt, 608-262-8282, trdevitt@wisc.edu
The new rhinovirus C studies were supported by the National Institutes of Health, grants AI17331 and U19 AI104317.
NOTE: An image of the model can be downloaded at http://www.news.wisc.edu/newsphotos/coldVirus_13.html
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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