illegitimacy sewer: 2013

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Apple may conjure up iPad keyboard to mimic Surface Touch Cover

The company is working on a prototype iPad keyboard that would borrow from Microsoft's Surface Touch Cover, claims a former Apple employee.

An iPad.

(Credit: Apple)

Apple may take a page from Microsoft in cooking up a whole new keyboard for the iPad.

A case for the full size iPad that mimics Microsoft's Touch Cover has been prototyped, former Apple employee Jamie Ryan said in a blog post Saturday. Ryan said he wasn't clear whether the development is far enough along for Apple to unveil the new case at Tuesday's launch event. But he claimed that different style cases have been in the test phase for a while and that Apple is also working on various accessories.

The purported goal is to enable Apple to distinguish the 9.7-inch iPad from the iPad Mini and market the larger version as a professional model designed for both content creation and consumption. Various keyboards already exist for the iPad, but none are as fully integrated as Microsoft's Touch Cover is for the Surface tablet.

What gives Ryan the inside scoop on Apple's plans? He used to work at Apple in developer relations, so presumably he has some contacts within the company.

Still, these types of reports should always be taken with a grain of salt. And even assuming Ryan's information is accurate, such a keyboard may never reach the consumer market.

"Now I must stress that what was seen were only prototypes and they might never get to see the light of day," Ryan said. "Apple regularly mocks up all sorts of accessories and products and ditches them. 1000 no's for every yes etc."

Lance Whitney

Journalist, software trainer, and Web developer Lance Whitney writes columns and reviews for CNET, Computer Shopper, Microsoft TechNet, and other technology sites. His first book, "Windows 8 Five Minutes at a Time," was published by Wiley & Sons in November 2012.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57608451-37/apple-may-conjure-up-ipad-keyboard-to-mimic-surface-touch-cover/?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=News-Apple
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It's City Vs. Creditors In Detroit Bankruptcy Trial

Detroit officially makes its case for bankruptcy before a federal judge on Wednesday. The city is currently saddled with $18 billion in long-term debt, and officials see bankruptcy as their only choice.

Paul Sancya/AP

In Detroit on Wednesday, a federal trial begins that will determine whether that city is eligible for the nation's largest-ever municipal bankruptcy.

Hundreds of the city's creditors are lining up to oppose the bankruptcy, arguing that Detroit is violating Michigan's constitution and that if officials tried harder they could find enough savings to pay the city's bills.

Officials here say a declining population, decades of mismanagement and at times corrupt city government has cost Detroit a lot of tax revenue, leaving it drowning in red ink.

So much so that in March, the governor appointed Kevyn Orr to be an emergency manager and take control of the city's finances. He spent months crafting payment arrangements with some creditors, but hundreds of others rejected offers that amounted to accepting pennies for every dollar they were owed by Detroit.

Orr says that leaves Detroit with roughly $18 billion in long-term debt, and no other option but bankruptcy.

"There's no way out," Orr says. "The mountain of debt we have to climb over simply is insurmountable without some kind of process to resolve it. We simply cannot pay it. That's it."

Where Business Stands

Detroit's business community overwhelmingly agrees with Orr.

Dan Gilbert owns Quicken Loans, the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers and in recent months has bought more than $1 billion worth of buildings in Detroit's downtown. He's betting that Chapter 9 protection will allow Detroit to get out from under its crushing debt load and pour money back into city services, which would help make his investments pay off.

"As hard as that is to sort of suspend democracy, for a short period of time if you will, my view is, let's get it over with," Gilbert says. "Let's get it done. Let's stop talking about it [and] go through the pain and then move forward, and I think it will fade into the background."

But some of Detroit's longest-standing creditors are fighting a bankruptcy declaration, arguing that it would create big problems for them.

At the headquarters of AFSCME Council 25, the union representing the majority of city workers here, a half-dozen retirees are making phone calls. Juanita Scott says Detroit's potential bankruptcy puts her pension, her health care and her future on the chopping block.

"Because they're going to cut my medical, that's going to really hurt me bad," says the 86-year-old Scott. "Right now I'm under three different doctors' care and trying to stay in my neighborhood."

Scott says she has to have a burglar alarm because all the houses around her are going vacant. "This whole thing of bankruptcy, it's just bad," she says.

The union leadership argues Detroit's bankruptcy filing itself violates state prohibitions against cutting public pensions. Union attorney Herb Sanders even questions if Detroit is truly insolvent, because the state forbade city officials from approving tentative labor agreements that he says could have saved millions annually.

"When you think that the purpose of bankruptcy is to restructure debt, is to save the city money, and if that is your true intent then why wouldn't you sign the collective bargaining agreement with the unions that would indeed do that?" Sanders says.

The Possibility Of Lawsuits

The union will argue in court Wednesday that Detroit did not bargain in good faith. But bankruptcy attorney Douglas Bernstein says the judge may see things differently.

"There's no bright line which says what constitutes good faith and what isn't good faith," Bernstein says. "There's isn't an awful lot of precedent in Chapter 9."

Bernstein's firm worked with several of Detroit's creditors who decided not to fight the city's bankruptcy filing. He says those creditors and the city will be thrown into financial turmoil if the court finds Detroit is not eligible for Chapter 9 protection. The likely result would be a flood of lawsuits, he says.

"So they'll be fending off all the creditors in a variety of courtrooms where everybody in the creditor body is trying to get the best deal for themselves rather than in an organized, unified setting in the bankruptcy court," he says. "So you would have chaos."

And chaos is the last thing Detroiters need in a city that has seen more than its share of it in recent years. Former officials sent to prison for corruption, high unemployment and crime rates, faltering city services and now a fight over what's left in the city's coffers.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/10/23/239681817/its-city-vs-creditors-in-detroit-bankruptcy-trial?ft=1&f=1001
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For Obamacare To Work, It's Not Just About The Numbers

Ashley Hentze (left) gets help signing up for the Affordable Care Act from a volunteer in Florida. The government says that 40 percent of the expected enrollees for 2014 must be young and healthy for health insurance premiums to remain affordable.

Chris O'Meara/AP

Relatively few people have enrolled in new health insurance plans since the Affordable Care Act exchanges launched this month. But some health care experts say it's early days yet — and that getting the right proportion of healthy, young new enrollees is just as important as how quickly people sign up.

The Congressional Budget Office projects that 7 million people will buy health insurance for 2014 through the new exchanges, integral to the implementation of the government's new health care law.

Federal officials say that the exchanges have received 700,000 applications since launching Oct. 1. But so far, it appears that most of those being enrolled are signing up for Medicaid, the government health care system for the poor, rather than private insurance plans.

As a result, many health insurance companies say they've received only a trickle of enrollment through HealthCare.gov, the federally run marketplace that serves 36 states and has been plagued by major technical problems.

The Obama administration said Friday that the federal exchange will work smoothly for the vast majority of users by the end of November. But some are concerned about the financial consequences for the government and insurers if enrollment on the exchanges falls short.

Health care expert Larry Levitt, senior vice president for special initiatives at the Kaiser Family Foundation, says the higher numbers of Medicaid enrollees is not surprising, since Medicaid is free, whereas most people will have to pay something for private insurance.

"As soon as you sign up for a plan, the insurer is going to ask you for the first month's premium," Levitt says. "And given that the coverage won't be effective until Jan. 1, anyway, I certainly wouldn't be in a rush to pay money that won't really help me for a couple months."

Getting The Right Demographic Mix

Levitt says he doesn't expect a surge of enrollments to start before mid-November. But if the exchanges' technical problems and bad publicity dampen enrollment significantly, what might be the financial impact for the government? In the short term, Levitt says, it would actually save the government money.

"If fewer people enroll, not only will the government be paying out less in tax credits, but they'll be taking in more money in the form of penalties, because of the individual mandate," he explains.

Uninsured individuals must sign up by March 31 or face a penalty: 1 percent of their annual income or $95, whichever is higher. The penalty rises in later years.

But for insurance companies participating in the exchanges, it's not just a question of whether the exchanges fall short of the 7 million enrollment target for the first year. Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, the association that represents U.S. health insurers, says the demographic mix of participants is crucial.

"It's not simply the absolute number of people that are covered that's ultimately going to determine whether coverage is affordable," he says. "It's the type of people that decide to purchase."

In fact, to keep the premiums low and make the system work financially, the government estimates that 40 percent of those 7 million people projected to sign up in the first year need to be young and healthy.

"Because if only people who are older and have high health care costs decide to purchase coverage now, that's going to mean that next year, when open enrollment comes around again, premiums may be significantly higher than we see today," Zirkelbach says.

Rising premiums could lead to a downward spiral for the exchanges, because the increases could convince young, healthy people to pay the penalty rather than sign up for insurance that costs significantly more.

Also, since some operating costs for the exchanges, like computer servers and call centers, will be paid with fees on each policy sold, fewer policies could undermine the exchanges themselves financially. And higher premiums would end up costing the government more in subsidies.

Expecting A Rush Before Penalties Kick In

Jonathan Gruber, an economics professor at MIT, helped develop both the Affordable Care Act and a similar Massachusetts health care system back in the 1990s. He says the Massachusetts program was initially delayed for several months and then signed up just 123 people in its first month of operation.

"We have to stop over-reacting to day-to-day noise," Gruber says. "When we passed this law in Massachusetts, I was on the board that implemented it, [and] we got a report every month on how they were doing. That's probably about the right frequency to be thinking about this."

Gruber also says there was a rush of younger, healthy people signing up in Massachusetts as the prospect of a penalty loomed closer.

"What you saw was a big rush, right at the end, among the healthiest enrollees," Gruber says. "The mandate kicking in really seemed to matter. And remember — in this law, the mandate doesn't effectively kick in until April 1."

The Obama administration can only hope that the early problems don't sink the exchanges before they set sail.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/10/25/240798427/for-obamacare-to-work-its-not-just-about-the-numbers?ft=1&f=1019
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Administration: A Month Needed To Fix Obamacare Enrollment Site

The HealthCare.gov insurance exchange site shown on Oct. 1, when it opened. Since then, it's been plagued with problems.

Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images

The HealthCare.gov insurance exchange site shown on Oct. 1, when it opened. Since then, it's been plagued with problems.

Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images

A subcontractor that built a portion of the HealthCare.gov website that's now working relatively well is being promoted to oversee a thorough revamping of the entire glitch-prone portal, and work will be done by the end of next month, the White House says.

QSSI apparently will replace Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the lead role. QSSI is tasked with identifying problems and prioritizing fixes, Jeffrey Zients, who is in charge of fixing the website, said in a briefing on Friday.

"By the end of November, the vast majority of consumers will be able to successfully and smoothly enroll through HealthCare.gov," Zients said.

HealthCare.gov — the online entry point for uninsured Americans to get coverage under the Affordable Care Act — has turned into an obstacle for people trying to purchase coverage.

Zients told reporters that currently about 90 percent of the website's users are able to set up an account but "as few as 3 in 10 are getting through the process."

He said that a team of "leading managers and programmers" drawn from government and the private sector assessed the problem with the portal and determined "it is fixable."

Reuters says QSSI "produced the federal data hub and a software tool for creating online consumer accounts, which was at the center of early logjam problems."

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/25/240775440/administration-a-month-needed-to-fix-obamacare-enrollment-site?ft=1&f=1019
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'Shop-And-Get-Frisked' When You Spend $350 At Barneys

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Now it's time for our weekly visit to the Barbershop where the guys talk about what's in the news and what's on their minds. Sitting in the chairs for a shape-up this week are writer Jimi Izrael with us from Cleveland. With us from Pittsburgh, Lenny McAllister. He's host of "The McAllister Minute" on American Urban Radio network. In Chicago, Arsalan Iftikhar. He's senior editor of the Islamic Monthly and founder of TheMuslimGuy.com. And we caught up with him in St. Louis today from National Review magazine and the Texas Public Policy Foundation, chief counsel Mario Loyola. Take it away, Jimi.

JIMI IZRAEL: Thanks, Michel. Hey, all my favorite people in the barbershop, per user. What's up and welcome to the barbershop. How we doing?

MARIO LOYOLA: What's going on, Jimi?

ARSALAN IFTIKHAR: What's happening?

MARTIN: I'm not trying to be mean, he says that to everybody.

LOYOLA: I know right.

IZRAEL: I know right.

MARTIN: Just thought I'd clarify.

IZRAEL: Mr. McAllister, you're back. As always...

LENNY MCALLISTER: What's going on (unintelligible), how are you?

IZRAEL: Man, as always, you look like you could use a cupcake. Word to Tom Parada (ph). Look that up. So you know what? Let's get a quick hit and talk about the World Series. A-Train...

IFTIKHAR: Yes, sir.

IZRAEL: ...You know, your St. Louis Cardinals beat the Boston Red Sox 4-2 last night in the World Series. Are you fired up today?

IFTIKHAR: I am. Now in the interest of full disclosure, I grew up - born and raised in Chicago, but I did spend seven years of my life, for both college and law school in St. Louis. Stand up Wash U. And after a bumfuzzling Game 1, which was riddled with errors, the St. Louis Cardinals were able to steal a game away from the Red Sox in Game 2, and now the World Series goes back to St. Louis for three games. And if the Cardinals can hold serve and win every game at home, they'll win the World Series and it'll be Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on their timepiece.

MARTIN: OK.

IZRAEL: Hey, what's this baseball you speak of? No, I'm just kidding. My people are from St. Louis, so stand up St. Louis. Super Mario, now we know you only pay attention to the Packers, but you're in St. Louis this week. Is Cardinals' fever - is it rubbing off on you, bro?

LOYOLA: Yeah it is. And also, I should say that because I grew up in a Cuban and Puerto Rican family, I see the World Series in its larger historical and geopolitical context, which is...

IZRAEL: Uh-oh.

MARTIN: What a relief.

LOYOLA: ...That the Boston Red Sox - that the Boston Red Sox are basically this terrifying alliance of Venezuelans and the Dominicans bent on robbing my people of their heritage as keepers of the flame of American baseball.

MARTIN: Who are your people?

LOYOLA: And I think that they need to be stopped.

MARTIN: Oh.

LOYOLA: The Cubans and Puerto Ricans.

MARTIN: They're the keepers. OK, I'm sorry. I was confused. OK 'cause you have a lot of things - ethnicities going on there and I just want - I always kind of clarify which one we're claiming today. OK.

LOYOLA: So I think Boston needs to be stopped.

MARTIN: Oh. I got it. OK. Too bad Neil Minkoff isn't here...

LOYOLA: Right.

MARTIN: ...To even this conversation out.

IFTIKHAR: I know, right.

MARTIN: Dr. Neil Minkoff from Boston to kind of give his side of the thing. OK, Lenny, do you have a dog in this fight? Who do you like?

MCALLISTER: My dog lost game four in the NLDS to these Cardinals when Michael Wacha basically did to the Pirates what he did to the Red Sox last night. I'm still stinging about that, but at least the Pirates got to the playoffs for the first time in 20 years. So I'm not complaining.

MARTIN: OK. Well, Jimi?

IZRAEL: All right.

MARTIN: Jimi, what about you? Are you - do you have a dog in this fight?

IZRAEL: Again with his baseball you speak of. I live in Cleveland. And, you know, we're looking to put a dog in the fight. We're looking at a dog for next year's team I'm just kidding, Cleveland. I love you. So anyway, you know, from baseball to the spy game. Can we make that transition?

MARTIN: Yes, we can.

IZRAEL: And yes, we did. Leaders around the world are telling President Obama to quit listening on their phone calls. What's up with that, Michel?

MARTIN: Well, there's a secret memo that allegedly reveals that the National Security Agency was monitoring the calls of some 30 world leaders. One of them may have been German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and she is not happy about this. And she apparently called President Obama this week to express her displeasure. The White House has offered an interesting response. The administration says it is not now monitoring Chancellor Merkel.

IZRAEL: That was an awkward call, Michel. I know it was. Thank you for that. You know, I think Ms. Merkel was probably just keeping up on her soccer team 'cause she's an avid, rabid fan. But, you know, comedian Jon Stewart had some fun with this topic last night. Here he is talking about Secretary of State John Kerry trying to explain everything to U.S. allies. Drop that.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART")

JON STEWART: Kerry said to the French, quote, nations be spyin', yo. This ambassador knows what I'm talking about. Actually that's not really what he said. This is really what he said.

SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY: As President Obama said, very clearly in a recent speech that he gave at the United Nations General Assembly just a few weeks ago, he said, we in the United States are currently reviewing the way that we gather intelligence.

STEWART: By reviewing the way we gather intelligence, we mean from now on, we are going to try and do it secretly.

IZRAEL: Right. That's exactly right. You know, all of this seems so obvious. Like, you know, world leaders obviously should expect this. And to me, it's as if these countries are trying to say, how dare you spy on us 'cause we're spying on you, but we didn't get caught, ha ha. But Arsalan Iftikhar, you know, what do you make of all this?

IFTIKHAR: Well, you know, when I first heard the reports that the NSA was spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel my first thought was, could we have picked a more boring world leader to spy on? You know, I think that spying on a bushel of asparagus, which I enduringly refer to as asparagi, would probably yield more results. But what's interesting to me is the fact that, you know, here are many world leaders that we consider allies. I mean, you know, in our public diplomacy with these countries, how can we refer to countries as allies when we're secretly taping and spying on their elected leaders? And, you know, it reminds me of the famous quote attributed to Mae West, you know, with friends like these, who needs enemies?

IZRAEL: You know, Merkel is - she's kind of spooky, man - physicist and with that spooky thing she does with her hands, the triangle of power. I don't know. Maybe we need to keep an eye on her. Mario, you weigh in on this, man.

LOYOLA: Yeah, I don't - I mean, I don't think there's anything incompatible between having allies around the world and spying on them. It's always gone on, it's going to keep going on. And, you know, I can understand the Brazilian government being upset by this, but I - excuse me if I find it, shall we say, risible, for the French and Germans to get upset. I mean, they have the world's, you know - what is it? Third and fourth best spying operations with far fewer safeguards than NSA surveillance has. And by the way, I mean, if they're so - and if they're such great spies, then why can't they keep their own cell phones from being hacked so easily?

I mean, so I think I can understand their embarrassment. But I - you know, I have to wonder if a part of the phone call from the French president Hollande and German Chancellor Merkel wasn't asking President Obama to promise them that there aren't going to be anymore Edward Snowden's because, I mean, to a certain extent, it just puts these governments in a terribly embarrassing position when everyone knows that they just spy on each other and get along.

MARTIN: I do want to just clarify that 'cause one of the things I think that all of you are saying is that actually this is a two-way street. In fact, there have been reports for years that this is a two-way street, that these governments also spy on American diplomats, American business people and that this is known to both governments. Mario, do you mind if I ask you this question, why? Why do they? Why do allies continue to do this?

LOYOLA: Because they can. And because, you know, they - to some extent, they have to. I mean, we have, in this country in our NSA surveillance programs, we've tried very hard - and I remember when I was on Senate staff in 2008, I watched this up close - you know, we try very hard to reconcile civil liberty safeguards to the need to protect the country. You know, and the simple fact of the matter is that foreigners do not have fourth amendment protections under our laws.

I mean, I think that it's - you know, as technology advances and governments are able to collect much more information than people are comfortable with, we're going to need new safeguards on the domestic front and we also may need new rules of the road and new understandings with other governments. But the spying is going to continue. We need the information. We need to prevent terrorists from attacking our people. And so, to some extent, some minimal level, the surveillance is going to continue.

MARTIN: Lenny, you have any thoughts on this?

MCALLISTER: Yes. It's not a two-way street. It's not equal for two main reasons. Number one, none of these other world leaders are Nobel Peace Prize holders. President Obama is. And furthermore, when President Obama came into office in the election of November 2008, the promise that came with him was that he would restore the global esteem of the United States of America. This is the type of sloppy story that you would expect in the second term of George W. Bush...

IZRAEL: Uh-oh.

MCALLISTER: ...Not the second term of Barack Obama. And therefore, it looks horrible globally, which is why you're seeing the optics from a new standpoint that you're seeing. And unfortunately, this is another disappointing story on the Obama administration.

MARTIN: I'm just puzzled by the relevance of the Nobel Peace Prize. It's not like he went over there and asked for it, number one. And number two, in his acceptance speech, he made it very clear that he is not a pacifist and was not going to meet these expectations of - that the world community may or may not have had that he would be that. And he said, very clearly in his acceptance speech, which ruffled some feathers at the time, that he placed U.S. interests and national security first and foremost.

MCALLISTER: But, Michel...

MARTIN: So I don't understand the relevance of that.

MCALLISTER: Well, the relevance is, Michel, the image that he came into office with was changing the tone of what we had in Washington under Bush-Cheney. It was changing the tone that the Iraqis had towards us when they were throwing shoes at George Bush.

MARTIN: OK.

MCALLISTER: It was changing the tone of us being warmongers and being a nation that you can't really trust. And over the course of the last five or so years, you have this inconsistent record there where some of our allies trust us. We're trying to reach out to folks, such as the Iranians back in 2009 - didn't quite work out as well. Inconsistent foreign policy with Syria and some of the contradictions in Libya. So this is part of an inconsistent record that does not jive with somebody that was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. He didn't give it back.

MARTIN: I want to mention...

MCALLISTER: This is something that he's warned...

MARTIN: I should've mentioned that Lenny's a Republican. Sorry, forgot to mention that.

IFTIKHAR: You think?

MCALLISTER: You're listening to our weekly Barbershop roundtable. We're joined by Republican strategist, the talk show host, Lenny McAllister. That's who was speaking just now. Also, writer Jimi Izrael, commentator Arsalan Iftikhar and columnist and chief counsel for the Texas Public Policy Foundation Mario Loyola. Back to you, Jimi. Different subject.

IZRAEL: Thanks, Michel. Thank you, Thank you, Michel. So you know what? Check this out. A black teenager was detained by police for making an expensive purchase at Barneys New York. He saved up, bought a designer belt for $350. Holy mackerel. And, you know what? Then he left the store. That's when the cops stepped in right, Michel?

MARTIN: Well, the young man's name is Trayvon Christian. He's a 19-year-old engineering student at New York City College of Technology. What happened was that two undercover detectives stopped him after he left Barneys. They checked his ID. They questioned him. They brought him in handcuffs to the station while they checked his information. And this is what Christian had to say about the incident.

(SOUNDBITE OF INTERVIEW)

TRAYVON CHRISTIAN: Why me? I guess 'cause I'm a young black man. And, you know, people they do credit card scams, so they probably thought that I was one of them.

MARTIN: Well, anyway, it's interesting 'cause Barneys has issued a number of statements about this. They say that - at first they say that no employee of theirs was involved in sending the police in Mr. Christian's direction. But then, they subsequently have posted on their Facebook page today saying that they regret the incident, that they're very sorry. This happened in April, but Christian is now - I was going to use a New York-ism, which is to say, not for nothing. Christian is now suing Barneys and the NYPD saying he was racially profiled. So, Jimi?

IZRAEL: Yeah. Thank you for that, Michel. You know, and I'm not sure if he has a case and I'm going to tell you why - 'cause I'm not sure he's conspicuous by race so much as he is by age. I mean, if I have a teenager...

LOYOLA: Right.

IZRAEL: ...Walking up to my counter, you know, dropping down, you know, close of $400 on a belt - on a consumable that can be easily be resold in the street, you know, I'm going to look at him a little with scams. I'm sorry, bro. I'm going to have to cut Barney some slack.

MARTIN: He had a receipt. He showed the police his receipt.

IZRAEL: I mean, the receipt wasn't the problem. The fact that he may have been using counterfeit credit cards or...

MARTIN: Based on what? If he bought a PlayStation?

IFTIKHAR: Yeah.

IZRAEL: No. But - well, if he bought - a PlayStation isn't $350.

MARTIN: OK.

IZRAEL: A PlayStation is a different kind of consumable.

MARTIN: OK.

IZRAEL: That isn't anything that you can sell - you can sell on the subway for, you know, half price and still make that money back. So I'm going to have to give Barneys the benefit of the doubt.

MARTIN: Arsalan's a civil rights leader. Let's hear from him on this.

IFTIKHAR: Yeah.

IZRAEL: All right. A-Train.

IFTIKHAR: You know, I'm going to have to take the opposite side of the spectrum here, Jimi...

IZRAEL: OK.

IFTIKHAR: ...And push back by saying that, you know, if a young teenage, you know, Upper West Side, you know, trust-fund baby walked into Barneys to buy a $300 belt, I don't think that anybody would've blinked twice. I think that this was a case of racial profiling. And it actually reminds me of the concept of mystery shopping or mystery consumers, which is a tool that's been used by watchdog organizations for decades, basically, who send in minorities into apartments to rent them or stores to see if they're treated the same way as other consumers are treated.

You know, African-American people would go into an apartment building to try to rent an apartment that will - that the landlord will say is already taken, and then a white couple will come in the same day and they will rent to them. And, you know, even after 9/11, you know, Arab Muslim and South Asian people, you know, were denied access to apartments and shopping because of this also. And mystery shopping is something that's been going on, and I think this is a perfect example of why that is. And I think it's just another indicative proof that we do not live in a post-racial America yet.

MARTIN: But take his argument seriously, though, for a minute. I mean, his argument is that it's just out of the norm for a kid that young to be able to buy something that expensive. His argument is it's his age, not his race. Do you credit that?

IFTIKHAR: Right, and...

MARTIN: And you say, no.

IFTIKHAR: No.

MARTIN: You don't credit that.

IFTIKHAR: No. And that was the first thing that I said was that if a trust-fund teenager from the Upper West Side walked in, a white kid walked in and plopped down $300 for a Barneys belt, I think that nobody would've blinked twice.

MARTIN: Mario, what do you think?

LOYOLA: Not necessarily.

MARTIN: What do you think?

LOYOLA: Yeah. I was going to say, I mean, I have a - I just want to share a personal perspective on this because I used to work in a law firm in Midtown and I've shopped at that Barneys before and, you know, when I went there and got my - blew way too much money on a Hickey Freeman coat, I was wearing an Italian suit and nice shoes and I was coming from work and I looked like I, you know, like I owned it.

But I remember also that, you know, I lived on the Lower East Side during those years, and I looked like I belonged there on the weekend - ripped up jeans and what have you. And I remember that one time - by some terrible misfortune, which I've probably forgotten - I found myself in Midtown on the weekend, which was, like, the last place I would ever want to be on the weekend. And I walked into that Barneys and wearing ripped-up jeans and flannels, and I felt very much like I was the thing that did not belong there. And that I was embarrassing...

MARTIN: But were you stopped by the police? Did the police walk you out?

LOYOLA: Well, no. No, no, no. No, no.

MARTIN: Did they put you in handcuffs...

LOYOLA: No, no, no, no, no.

MARTIN: ...Because of your jeans?

LOYOLA: No. And I'm not saying...

MARTIN: Yeah.

LOYOLA: I'm not justifying what happened here, which is obviously a tragic case and it makes me very sad to think about it. But I remember walking into that Barneys on the weekend, and my first thought was, dude, get back on the six train and go back downtown where you belong 'cause you do not belong here. And...

MARTIN: OK. But I ask, were you handcuffed? Were you followed out by New York City undercover?

LOYOLA: No.

MARTIN: OK. Well, difference.

LOYOLA: And I don't think that - obviously, this shouldn't have happened, and it's a terrible thing that it happened and he may well prevail in a lawsuit. But, I mean, getting back to Jimi's point, I don't think it had to do with race. I mean, I think that age and general aspect could have been enough.

MARTIN: OK.

LOYOLA: I mean, so you don't know.

MARTIN: Lenny, what do you think?

MCALLISTER: It's absolutely about...

MARTIN: I know you rock some Barneys gear.

MCALLISTER: It's absolutely about race.

IFTIKHAR: Thank you.

MCALLISTER: This is about - I mean, we're in the era of Trayvon Martin. We're in the era of Barack Obama. We're in era where racial animus is cool once again, and you can do it under the guise of saying, well, I voted for a black president, I'm not racist. And this is just indicative of where we're going as a nation. And I think that anybody overlooks that is running a very dangerous risk because at this point in time, we're already risking a generation of African-American young men that are going to be lost or overlooked. Even if they're talented, even if they're doing the right things, they're often overlooked by the mainstream whether it's economically or in the media. And so we have to be very, very careful to be mindful of these incidents and attack them as is so that we can optimize all the talent in America, especially at a time where we're struggling economically and socially.

MARTIN: Well, we have to leave it there for now, I'm afraid. That was Lenny McAllister. He's a Republican strategist and host of "The McAllister Minute" on American Urban Radio network, with us from NPR member station WESA in Pittsburgh. Jimi Izrael's a writer and adjunct professor of film and social media at Cuyahoga Community College with us from member station WCPN in Cleveland. Arsalan Iftikhar's the founder of TheMuslimGuy.com and senior editor for Islamic Monthly. He was with us from member station WBEZ in Chicago. Mario Loyola is chief counsel at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. He's a columnist for the National Review, but we caught up with him in St. Louis, and he joined us from member station KWMU. Gentlemen, thank you all so much.

IFTIKHAR: Peace.

MCALLISTER: God bless.

LOYOLA: Choa, choa.

IZRAEL: Yepp.

MARTIN: And remember, if you can't get enough Barbershop buzz on the radio, look for our Barbershop podcast in the iTunes Store or at NPR.org. That's our program for today. I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News and the African-American Public Radio Consortium. Tune in for more talk on Monday.

Copyright © 2013 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=240749024&ft=1&f=1039
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Patz case defense wants earlier suspect as witness

NEW YORK (AP) — The man charged with killing a 6-year-old boy who disappeared in 1979 is securing an unusual witness in his defense: a convicted Pennsylvania child molester who was long the prime suspect.

A Pennsylvania judge on Friday ordered now-jailed Jose Antonio Ramos to appear at Pedro Hernandez' murder trial next year in the death of Etan Patz, The Citizens' Voice of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., reported.

A civil court years ago declared Ramos responsible for the boy's death, though he has denied involvement. Friday's developments raise the prospect of Ramos taking a witness stand for the first time to answer questions about one of the nation's most infamous missing-child cases.

"The jury should know that there's someone out there with a lot more evidence against him than my client," Hernandez' lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, said by phone Friday.

The Manhattan district attorney's office, which is prosecuting Hernandez, had no immediate comment on Friday's developments in a court in Luzerne County, Pa. Ramos is currently jailed there on a charge of violating sex-offender-registration requirements.

Ramos' attorney, Tom Marsilio, said his client has little to offer for Hernandez' trial, The Citizens' Voice reported. He told the newspaper he had declined a request from Hernandez' attorney to speak to Ramos.

Ramos repeatedly said "no comment" to a reporter's questions while being led in and out of court, the newspaper reported.

Etan disappeared while walking to his school bus stop on May 25, 1979. He was one of the first vanished youngsters featured on a milk carton, and his case helped mobilize a nationwide missing-children's movement.

Hernandez, of Maple Shade, N.J., worked as a stock clerk at a store in Etan's neighborhood when the boy disappeared.

Police said a tipster led them to Hernandez in spring 2012, and he then confessed to luring Etan into the store basement with the promise of a soda, choking him to death and leaving his body in a bag of trash about a block away. The body has never been found.

Fishbein has said Hernandez is mentally ill and made a false confession. Hernandez, 52, has pleaded not guilty. His trial is set for April.

For more than a decade before Hernandez' arrest, investigators eyed Ramos, who had been dating Etan's baby sitter. In 2000, authorities even dug up Ramos' former basement in lower Manhattan, but nothing turned up.

Ramos was never criminally charged in Etan's death. But after Etan's parents filed a wrongful-death lawsuit, a 2004 civil court ruling held Ramos responsible for the boy's death. The decision was made largely because Ramos didn't entirely cooperate with questioning.

The defense "may seek to present evidence that Jose Antonio Ramos — and not Pedro Hernandez — is responsible for the disappearance of Etan Patz," Fishbein wrote in court papers earlier this month.

The Manhattan judge overseeing the case agreed there was evidence suggesting Ramos had "information material to the trial" and asked Pennsylvania authorities to make him available for it, The Citizens' Voice reported.

After Etan vanished, Ramos was convicted of molesting two other boys in Pennsylvania. Now 70, he spent more than two decades in prison.

He was released last November but immediately rearrested on charges of lying to police about where he planned to live.

Friday's ruling means Ramos must either be brought from jail or, if he's released beforehand, transported to New York for a hearing on whether to hold him there until the trial as a material witness, according to The Citizens' Voice.

___

Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/patz-case-defense-wants-earlier-suspect-witness-214359639.html
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Friday, October 25, 2013

In Afghanistan, An Uncertain Role For U.S. After 2014

The United States is little more than a year away from ending its combat mission in Afghanistan, yet much is still uncertain about the U.S. role in that country. Next month, Afghan tribal leaders plan a vote that could define the non-combat missions of U.S. troops beyond the year 2014. Meantime, there are questions about the course of the war once U.S. troop levels drop.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=240823245&ft=1&f=1004
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Leaked docs show U.S. Galaxy Gear support rollout dates, concern over high return rate

Galaxy Gear

Best Buy documents leaked to Geek.com show Gear support slated for Galaxy S4, Note 2, S3 and S4 Active by end of year — but return rate could be higher than 30 percent

It's fair to say the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch has had a mixed reception, with early reviews, including our own, complaining of poor support for non-Samsung apps and the fact that the Galaxy Note 3 was the only phone supported at launch. Today newly-leaked documents from a major retailer show that Samsung appears ready to bring Galaxy Gear support to other U.S. handsets before the of the year, while also revealing a potentially troubling return rate for the wearable gadget.

The internal Best Buy documents obtained by Geek.com show that like their international counterparts, U.S. Samsung phones will get Galaxy Gear support with their Android 4.3 updates. They also show tentative launch dates for the Gear-enabling updates on the Galaxy Note 2, S3, S4 and S4 Active across all major carriers. The documents underscore the fact that these dates are subject to change, so don't consider them set in stone just yet. But as it stands, it looks like Samsung wants these devices up-to-date with Android 4.3 and Galaxy Gear support by the year's end, in line with its earlier statements.

Perhaps more intriguing, the leaked material also states:

The Galaxy Gear attachment rate within Best Buy is the highest among all channels; however the overall return rate is trending above 30%

That means Best Buy is selling a lot of Galaxy Gears to Note 3 customers, but almost a third of them are returning the smartwatch. In today's report, Geek.com says Best Buy "have asked that Samsung employees on site help try to figure out why this is." Samsung has yet to release any Galaxy Gear sales figures, but if accurate, a 30 percent return rate at a big-name retailer is far from ideal.

Elsewhere, Samsung began rolling out the international Galaxy S4's Android 4.3 update in the past week, which includes Galaxy Gear connectivity. The international Galaxy S3, S4, Note 2, S4 Mini, S4 Active, Mega 5.8, Mega 6.3, and S4 Zoom are also set to receive updates with Gear support, with some devices' updates slated for the end of October.

Source: Geek.com

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/u1ebIuEGxQA/story01.htm
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White House targeting young, uninsured

The White House is organizing an aggressive outreach push to make sure uninsured young people purchase coverage on the federal health insurance exchange, which cannot survive without young customers to offset the costs of older, sicker people.

The law’s supporters hope that 18- to 35-year olds will be patient with the site’s many glitches and are banking on the fact that many younger people are planning to wait until the last possible minute to sign up in the first place, when the site will theoretically be fixed.

On Friday, Jeff Zients, who’s been tapped to lead the “tech surge” to fix HealthCare.gov, told reporters that the glitch-plagued health insurance exchange website will be working smoothly by the end of November. That means consumers will have just a couple of weeks after the website becomes fully functional to apply by the Dec. 15 deadline for insurance that begins Jan. 1. Uninsured people who don’t apply by March 31 will have to pay a fine on their taxes next year.

Administration officials won’t say how many young people have purchased insurance on the federal exchange — which serves as the insurance marketplace for 36 states — so far. Nearly 700,000 people in total have filled out applications to buy insurance since the exchange opened October 1, but the administration won’t say how many of those people were able to actually enroll in plans.

The White House is planning a major outreach effort aimed at young people right around when HealthCare.gov will be fixed, if Zients’ timeline is correct. The White House is hosting a youth conference in early December, which will bring young leaders from across the country to Washington to learn more about the law in the hope that they’ll spread the word to the coveted 18-to-35 demographic. Young entrepreneurs, student body presidents, local TV and radio personalities and leaders of various youth organizations will be invited, according to a White House official. Administration officials will also show up on college campuses around the country, building on their outreach efforts so far.

That sort of outreach is still badly needed, according to organizers on the ground, who say that a lack of awareness of the law and the exchanges among young people is a bigger problem thus far than the website’s glitches.

Erin Hemlin, an organizer in Houston with Young Invincibles, a nonprofit that is helping young people sign up for the exchanges, said that it’s “eye-opening” how little many people she’s spoken to know about the insurance exchanges. That includes a young college student in Arizona who didn’t realize he was able to purchase insurance now despite his cancer diagnosis, which had made him ineligible for most coverage before the health care reform law passed.

“I think there definitely seems to still be a big need for education and awareness,” Hemlin said. “There’s definitely still a big need for just pure education.”

Despite this, Hemlin has spoken to a handful of young people who have already successfully signed up for insurance on the exchange, after patiently outlasting the site’s technical problems. She said they were “unfazed” by the many glitches.

“Young people are more Internet-savvy and understand that technical problems like that happen with new websites,” Hemlin said.

Hemlin expects to see a “surge” of applications near the Dec. 15 deadline and again around March 31, the last day uninsured people can enroll and avoid a fine on their taxes in 2014. Many young people tend to procrastinate until the last minute, and may flock to the site once it’s working better, supporters hope.

There’s some evidence this could happen from a case study in Massachusetts, which instituted its own law requiring people to buy insurance in 2006. The state saw a flood of applications in the last few days that people could buy insurance and still avoid the fine — and a larger share of those latecomers were young and healthy people.

But groups that oppose the law are hoping that the glitches will keep young people away from purchasing insurance on the exchange. “It’s undermining trust in the law and it will certainly cause a lot of people to think twice about signing up for this thing,” said Evan Feinberg, president of Generation Opportunity. (The group is best known for its terrifying ads against health care reform aimed at young people.) Feinberg pointed out that the comedian Jon Stewart, who has a big following among young people, has excoriated the problems with the federal exchange on his show.

“Young people expect technology to work, and they expect problems with technology to be resolved in a timely fashion,” Feinberg said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/are-glitches-scaring-off-young-people-from-obamacare--194314118.html
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With 3D printing, HP could go back to its tech roots

When was the last time we loved HP for making a piece of hardware that wasn't just a notebook? Too long, it seems.

The company that once made the best laser printers (and calculators and scientific equipment) may have found something new to sink its teeth into: 3D printing.

As originally reported by The Register, HP CEO Meg Whitman spoke in Bangkok at the Canalys Channels Forum about how the company wanted to enter the 3D printing market in 2014 and "lead this business."

Her comments hinted at how 3D printing could be made far less time-consuming: "To print a bottle can take eight to 10 hours. That's all very interesting, but it is like watching ice melt."

Given the venue, many of her comments were clearly aimed at businesses rather than individuals. But having a company the size of HP sink its teeth into a technology problem like 3D printing is a way to all but guarantee it'll become a commodity technology.

HP produced a 3D printer back in 2010 under the Designjet brand, a label HP normally uses for their wide-format printers and plotters. But with its $17,000 pricetag, it was clearly aimed at the corporate and high-end industrial market. It didn't stand to make much of a splash with the same crowd that could pick up a MakerBot Replicator 2 for $2,199.

But $2,199 is still a lot of money. A big part of what could further drive down the cost of 3D printing wouldn't just be cheaper printers, but a larger ecosystem of support for them. Color printing has gone from a costly luxury to something casually available to the end user, in big part thanks to a whole subindustry that provides the inks.

HP could follow a similar route and supply not just the printers, but create a whole ecosystem to support them and further drive down costs. That would include the raw materials, the designs (especially those that require licensing), and so on. It's not something that HP could do casually, but it would show a commitment to driving down prices across the ecosystem.

There's little question HP is entering a market that may already be dominated from the bottom up, though. The sheer number of 3D printing devices that are crowdfunded is proof of that: the QU-BD One Up, the Helix, and the Asterid. But there's always room for competition: MakerBot, one of the few household names in the space, was recently purchased by another 3D printer maker, Stratasys, for some $403 million in stock.

If HP decides to make this a major commitment, it'll be a pleasant surprise to those who still want to associate that venerable company with its hands-on high-tech roots. The company's recent line of good-to-great Ultrabooks (the Folio, the Revolve) was one step in that direction, and showed HP still has the engineering chops to make great hardware. Now let's see what else it can make.

This story, "With 3D printing, HP could go back to its tech roots," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. For the latest developments in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/t/printers/3d-printing-hp-could-go-back-its-tech-roots-229534?source=rss_infoworld_blogs
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Here Comes The FUD: UK Police Claim To Find 3D-Printed Gun Parts In Raid On Home

Ad Targeting Startup Drawbridge Hires Tech Veteran Kate Burns To Expand In Europe

It begins. The Greater Manchester Police in the UK raided the home of a criminal suspect where they found a 3D printer and 3D printed parts. With great pride and fanfare the police reported:

During the searches, officers found a 3D printer and what is suspected to be a 3D plastic magazine and trigger which could be fitted together to make a viable 3D gun.

Sadly, they were quite wrong. The items in question, a little piece that looks like a trigger (shown here) and something that looks like a magazine, are actually a poorly-printed Replicator 2 drive block and a filament spool holder – essentially two parts you’d build if you were building another 3D printer. The criminal masterminds also printed it out of PLA plastic, which is not ideal for heavy-duty use, let alone firing a projectile. The printer, pictured above, is a Makerbot 2 which, in fact, only prints PLA. The jeers, needless to say, have been flying. https://twitter.com/Codepope/status/393661206000840704 https://twitter.com/foxsoup/status/393724792194760704 https://twitter.com/thefalken/status/393725471881326592 This sort of fear, uncertainty, and doubt will soon be flowing fast and heavy from “authorities” all over the world. What Cody Wilson at Defense Distributed has done by creating a media spectacle around his nearly useless 3D gun is set back the 3D printing industry considerably in the eyes of the uninitiated. While his gun works and can be fired, it requires far better materials and a higher-resolution printer to prevent death or maiming of the person behind the trigger. This “gun,” on the other hand, is simply plastic scrap. via Buzzfeed

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/_xMn4eKHND0/
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White House says 'Obamacare' website will be fixed by end of November

(Reuters) - The White House official brought in to fix the U.S. government website created to enable Americans to buy insurance under President Barack Obama's healthcare law said on Friday that healthcare.gov will be working smoothly for most users by the end of November.

Jeffrey Zients told reporters in a conference call that Quality Software Services Inc, or QSSI, will serve as a general contractor to oversee the repairs. The website has not had a technology company overseeing the entire project. Instead, the government decided early on that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would serve as the system integrator.

The company, a unit of health insurer UnitedHealth Group, already has a technology contract related to the website and testified on Thursday to a congressional panel about problems with the system.

QSSI produced the federal data hub and a software tool for creating online consumer accounts, which was at the center of early logjam problems.

Online insurance exchanges were launched on October 1 under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, often called "Obamacare," to offer healthcare insurance plans to millions of uninsured Americans. But many Americans have experienced error messages and long waits in trying to sign on to healthcare.gov, which has become a political embarrassment for Obama.

"By the end of November, the vast majority of consumers will be able to successfully and smoothly enroll through healthcare.gov," Zients said.

(Reporting by Caroline Humer and Sharon Begley; Editing by Will Dunham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/white-house-says-obamacare-website-fixed-end-november-171107188--sector.html
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TV Ratings: 'Sunday Night Football' Climbs, 'Once Upon a Time' Falls

Getty Images

"Sunday Night Football"

Preliminary Sunday ratings brought good news for NBC. Not only was the latest installment of Sunday Night Football up 30 percent in the demo for an early 9.5 rating among adults 18-49, the Colts-Broncos game gave the franchise its best overnight returns (17.3 rating and 29 share) in 15 years.

PHOTOS: Hollywood's Connections to the NFL

That makes it the highest-rated game of the season and the fourth-highest in NBC's NFL history. Early nightly averages give the network a 7.8 rating with adults 18-49 and 21.5 million viewers.

Distant runner-up CBS kicked off the night with strong NFL overage, delaying its primetime lineup by 30 minutes. Tentative early numbers give The Amazing Race an even 1.9 rating in the adults 18-49, while The Good Wife (1.4 adults) moved up two-tenths of a point and The Mentalist (1.2 adults) dropped a tenth from last week. CBS scored a 2.7 adults rating and 12.7 million viewers.

ABC kicked off the night with a steady America's Funniest Home Videos (1.1 adults). Once Upon a Time (2.0 adults) dropped four-tenths of a point at 8 p.m. to tie a series low, while Revenge (1.5 adults) lost a tenth of a point. Both dramas, which have seen steady drops in live-plus-same-day this season, continue to post strong gains among time-shifted viewings -- rising 46 percent (Once) and 53 percent (Revenge) in the latest live-plus-7 figures. Betrayal (0.9 adults) improved by a tenth of a point from last week, giving ABC a 1.4 adults and 5.6 million viewers for the night.

Airing encores of its animation block, Fox posted a 1.1 rating with adults 18-49 and 2.7 million viewers.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/television/~3/Ees1163iwO0/story01.htm
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Calif. sheriff's deputy shoots, kills 13-year-old

This combination of photos provided by the family via The Press Democrat and the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department shows an undated photo of 13-year-old Andy Lopez and the replica assault rifle he was holding when he was shot and killed by two Sonoma County deputies in Santa Rosa, Calif. on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Family via The Press Democrat, Sonoma County Sheriff's Department)

This image, released by the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department, shows a replica gun that was being carried by a 13-year-old boy in Santa Rosa, Calif., on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013. Two Sonoma County deputies saw the boy walking with the replica assault weapon at about 3 p.m. local time Tuesday in Santa Rosa. Lt. Dennis O'Leary says they repeatedly ordered him to drop what appeared to be a rifle before firing several rounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene. (AP Photo/Sonoma County Sheriff's Department)

In this photo provided by the Lopez family is a picture of Andy Lopez, who was killed by sheriff's deputies in Santa Rosa, Calif. Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013. Northern California sheriff's deputies have shot and killed the 13-year-old boy after repeatedly telling him to drop what turned out to be a replica assault rifle, sheriff's officials and family members said. Two Sonoma County deputies on patrol saw the boy walking with what appeared to be a high-powered weapon. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Lopez family via The Press Democrat)

In this photo taken Tuesday Oct. 22, 2013, law enforcement investigators cover the body of a 13-year-old boy shot and killed by officers in Santa Rosa, Calif. Two California sheriff's deputies saw the boy walking with what appeared to be a high-powered weapon Tuesday, sheriff's Lt. Dennis O'Leary said. The replica gun resembled an AK-47, according to a photograph released by the sheriff's office. Deputies learned after the shooting that it wasn't an actual firearm, according to O'Leary. The teen was pronounced dead at the scene. The deputies, who have not been identified, have been placed on administrative leave, which is standard after a shooting, O'Leary said. (AP Photo/The Press Democrat, Conner Jay)

Students from Elsie Allen High School and Lawrence Cook Middle School march towards the site where 13-year-old Andy Lopez was shot and killed by a Sonoma County sheriff's deputy near the corner of Moorland and West Robles avenues in Santa Rosa, Oct. 23, 2013. ((AP Photo/The Press Democrat, Conner Jay)

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) — A Northern California community is anguished over the fatal shooting by a deputy of a popular, 13-year-old boy who had been carrying a pellet gun that looked like an assault rifle.

A Sonoma County sheriff's deputy twice asked the boy, Andy Lopez, to drop the weapon, but instead he raised it in their direction, police said at a news conference Wednesday.

"The deputy's mindset was that he was fearful that he was going to be shot," said Santa Rosa Police Lt. Paul Henry, whose agency is investigating the Tuesday afternoon shooting in Santa Rosa.

Only after the shooting did deputies realize the gun was a plastic replica that looked strikingly similar to a real AK-47 assault rifle, authorities said.

Residents of Santa Rosa, a suburban town of roughly 170,000 people about 50 miles northwest of San Francisco in California's wine country, were shaken by the boy's death.

Hundreds marched on Wednesday night to remember the teen and protest the shooting, chanting "We need justice," as they questioned how the deputy mistook a pellet gun for an assault rifle.

"We don't know the reason why they killed him," Katia Ontiveros, 18, told the Press Democrat of Santa Rosa. She said her brother was Andy's friend. "They should know if a gun is real."

The marchers went to the site at the edge of a field where the boy was shot. Community members had left candles, teddy bears and flowers there.

Andy, an eighth-grade student who played trumpet in his school band, was described as a bright and popular student, liked by many in his community, including Lawrence Cook Middle School assistant principal Linsey Gannon.

"Andy was a very loved student, a very popular, very handsome young man, very smart and capable," Gannon said Wednesday. "Our community has been rocked by his loss."

In a statement, Sheriff Steve Freitas said the shooting was a "tragedy" and that he would do everything he could to ensure the investigation was thorough and transparent.

"As a father of two boys about this age, I can't begin to imagine the grief this family is going through," he said.

Two deputies were riding in a marked patrol vehicle and were in their patrol uniforms when they spotted the teen in a hooded sweatshirt and shorts around 3:15 p.m. Tuesday, police said. His back was turned toward the deputies, and they did not realize he was a boy.

One of the deputies saw what appeared to be an assault-style rifle similar to an AK-47 in his left hand. The deputies pulled over and took cover behind an open passenger door, according to police.

A witness reported seeing their lights go off and hearing the chirp of a siren, police said.

One of the deputies ordered Andy to drop the weapon twice, according to a witness, police said. There was no language barrier that would have prevented the boy from understanding the deputy, according to police.

Andy was about 20 or 30 feet away from the deputies with his back toward them when he began turning around with what one deputy described as the barrel of the assault rifle rising up and turning in his direction, police said.

The deputy then fired several rounds, striking the boy at least once, Henry said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

At Wednesday's news conference, Santa Rosa police displayed the pellet gun.

Deputies also found a plastic handgun in the boy's waistband, police said.

The pellet gun did not have an orange tip like other replica firearms, including the plastic handgun found in the boy's waistband, police said.

The deputies, who have not been identified, have been placed on administrative leave, which is standard after a shooting, sheriff's officials said.

The boy's family was back at their mobile home Tuesday night after identifying the teen's body, the Press Democrat reported.

Andy's father, Rodrigo Lopez, told the newspaper he last saw his son Tuesday morning. He said the gun was a toy that belonged to a friend of his son's.

"I told him what I tell him every day," he said in Spanish. "Behave yourself."

___

Information from: The Santa Rosa Press Democrat, http://www.pressdemocrat.com

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-24-Deputies%20Shoot%2013-Year-Old/id-a852dda95b924df292fe4b2e1cc9d4f8
Category: Cassidy Wolf zac efron remembering 9/11 The Butler Michael Ansara

Contractors describe scant pre-launch testing of U.S. healthcare site

By David Morgan and Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration launched its troubled healthcare insurance website after only a minimum of crucial system-wide testing, despite contractors warning officials repeatedly about performance risks, a congressional panel heard on Thursday.

Witnesses said the administration did not conduct end-to-end testing of the system's technology backbone until just the two weeks before one of the lynchpins of President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare policy opened to consumers on October 1.

At a U.S. House of Representatives oversight committee hearing, contractors also blamed the administration for a last-minute design change that has been identified as a flaw responsible for leading millions of visitors into system bottlenecks.

Julie Bataille, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, the agency implementing the online marketplace, acknowledged the contractors' testimony.

"Due to a compressed time frame, the system wasn't tested enough," Bataille said. "What's important to realize is that we are putting in place a much more robust performance testing system now."

She also told reporters that in-house "business decisions" prompted CMS to require online visitors to create accounts before shopping for health plans and prompted the agency to assume the key role of system integrator for Healthcare.gov.

The glitches, delays and errors that have characterized the website are a growing concern for Republicans and Democrats alike. The administration is racing to solve the problems in time for millions of uninsured Americans to enroll for coverage and begin receiving health benefits from January 1, as stipulated by the 2010 Affordable Care Act, commonly called "Obamacare."

CMS said on Thursday that about 700,000 applications had been submitted so far for U.S. healthcare coverage through the exchanges.

"We would certainly have liked to see as much time as possible for end-to-end testing," said Andrew Slavitt, executive vice president for the parent of CGI Federal and Quality Software Services Inc, or QSSI, a unit of health insurer UnitedHealth Group.

QSSI produced the federal data hub and a software tool for creating online consumer accounts, which was at the center of early logjam problems. The design change involved turning off anonymous browsing and requiring online visitors to create accounts before researching health plan information and determining their eligibility for federal subsidies to help pay premiums.

MONTHS OF TESTING PREFERABLE

Slavitt and Cheryl Campbell, senior vice president for CGI Federal, the main contractor, said months of testing would have been preferable for a big new information technology system but that the testing schedule for Healthcare.gov was determined by CMS.

The rollout went ahead after QSSI said it made CMS aware of its concerns throughout the system's development, but Slavitt was not aware of any response from the agency.

"The concerns that we had, which were mostly related to testing and the inability to get as much testing as we'd like - we expressed all of those concerns and risks to CMS," he said. "My understanding is they understood those and were working on them. But I don't know further."

Healthcare.gov is the online web portal for a federal health insurance marketplace that contractors described as one of the most complicated large-scale IT systems in existence.

The 4-1/2-hour hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee marked the first full-length public airing over the problematic rollout, giving lawmakers the chance to piece together what went wrong at the beginning of a six-month enrollment period expected to draw at least 7 million enrollees for 2014.

"This is not about blame - this is about accountability, transparency, and fairness for the American public. The broken promises are many," said Representative Fred Upton, the Michigan Republican who chairs the committee.

"We still don't know the real picture as the administration appears allergic to transparency and continues to withhold enrollment figures," Upton said.

The Department of Health and Human Services and the White House have largely declined to disclose information about the problems plaguing the system. It cost nearly $400 million to build, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Outside the hearing, Representative Darrell Issa of California and Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, both Republicans, raised the possibility of a subpoena to compel the administration to release documents related to the cost and performance of Healthcare.gov after its first nine days of operation. They asked HHS for the information by October 23, but the department did not comply.

In a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the pair said Issa's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee would consider using "compulsory process" if the information were not provided by 5 p.m. ET on Monday.

In a statement to Reuters, HHS spokeswoman Joanne Peters said, "We have told the committee repeatedly that we intend to accommodate their interest in better understanding our efforts to implement the ACA.

"The committee sent us an extremely broad request for documents on October 10 - while the government was still shut down - and asked that we produce these materials within two weeks. Since the government reopened on October 17, we have been engaged in discussions with the committee to better understand and prioritize their requests," Peters said.

Most of the criticism has come from Republicans who have long opposed the law, Obama's most significant domestic policy achievement, as an unwarranted expansion of the federal government.

Republican John Shimkus of Illinois demanded the names of administration officials involved in the decision making: "I would venture to guess the regular bureaucrats did their job. The political appointees manipulated."

Democrats largely dismissed the Republican rhetoric as partisan politics, saying the committee's goal should be to "fix, not nix" the law.

"The Affordable Care Act is an enormous success with one obvious exception: it has a poorly designed website," said Representative Henry Waxman of California, the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

But some Democrats also expressed disapproval. Representative Anna Eshoo of California said it was "a lame excuse" for contractors and the administration to say that high volumes of visitors were responsible for problems.

"Taxpayers paid you a lot of money and you're essentially saying to us that everything's all right when it's not," Eshoo told the CGI executive Campbell after she assured lawmakers that the problems would be fixed in time for consumers to enroll for benefits beginning January 1.

"We anticipate that the system, as we have seen, is improving day over day," Campbell said at the hearing. CGI Federal is a unit of Canada's CGI Group Inc.

The House oversight focus will switch next week to the administration as Sebelius appears before Upton's panel and her lieutenant, CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner, testifies before the House Ways and Means Committee.

(Reporting by David Morgan and Susan Cornwell; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey and Lewis Krauskopf; Editing by Karey Van Hall, Grant McCool and Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/contractors-describe-scant-pre-launch-testing-u-healthcare-021824768--business.html
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