BedEd.org Launches Blog for Mattress Reviews, Education, Consumer Tips & More

New blog, BedEd.org announces launch; to promote consumer awareness via buying guides, shopping tips, product reviews, and information related to mattresses and sleep.

Tempe, AZ (PRWEB) December 19, 2012
BedEd.org launches mattress education blog designed to offer consumer resources including reviews, buying guides, shopping tips, and more.
Shopping for a new bed can seem like a daunting task with so many brands, models, and types in the marketplace. How can consumers figure out the best bed for their needs? BedEd.org seeks to help shoppers make the research process a little smoother with informational support regarding mattresses, brands and innovations.
Using an easy to navigate blog format, the website will provide first hand research as well as write ups and summaries of third party reviews and research. As an information aggregate, the blog will contain information on the spectrum of companies and offerings available, making research simpler and more efficient for shoppers.
Planned topics are to include mattress buying guides, pros and cons of specific mattress types and brands, product reviews, and sleep hygiene tips. They will also run series detailing the best mattress types based on specific needs in response to common concerns and reader questions. The blog also hopes to serve as a social tool via commentary on personal experience and recommendations.
The blog’s initial post takes an informational stance on mattress material composition and effects on health. Titled “What’s in Your Bed? Choosing the Best Mattress for Your Health” the post outlines how flame retardants, volatile organic compounds, and allergens impact sleepers. Using these criteria, it is explained why natural latex and memory foam offer superior alternatives for individuals concerned about mattress health.
Upcoming posts will include tips for combating allergies in the bedroom, detailed information on mattress types, and how to pick the best beds for back pain and fibromyalgia. BedEd.org offers newsletter options and a Twitter feed for interested readers to receive updates on recent posts and industry news.
BedEd.org is a mattress education blog dedicated to providing informational resources to shoppers. The blog features impartial assessments of mattress types, brands, and other sleep related products, developed via first party research, third party reviews, and expert research and opinion. In addition, readers receive useful sleep quality tips and news on the latest mattress developments

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Five Star Service Award for SIPP Providers Dentons Pensions

Dentons Pensions are the only Bespoke SIPP Providers to be Awarded 5 Stars at Financial Adviser Service Awards – the benchmark for service levels in the retail financial marketplace.

Godalming Surrey (PRWEB UK) 20 December 2012
Hosted by comedian Stephen K Amos, The Financial Adviser Service Awards were held on 22 November 2012 at The Natural History Museum. Dentons Pensions were the only bespoke SIPP Provider to win the 5 Star ‘excellent service’ Award, which is voted for by advisers.
The Financial Adviser Service Awards identify the importance of the highest possible quality services from all financial product providers to their IFA clients. They are well known to be the absolute benchmark for premium service levels across the retail finance marketplace.
“Dentons has always been focused on delivering exceptional service and flexibility – reacting to changes in the marketplace and making it easier for advisers to do business. It’s why we are delighted to have been awarded 5 stars at the Financial Adviser Service Awards 2012,” said David Fox, Director of Sales & Marketing.
These are not the first awards that Dentons has won. Having already received the Investor In Customers (IIC) ‘outstanding’ award, Dentons’ SIPP earlier this year was given a 5 star rating by Defaqto, a leading UK independent financial research company. The rating shows the level of benefits provided, allowing adviser’s clients to base decisions on features, not just on price. With this level of service and understanding, clients can be confident they will enjoy a comprehensive range of features, options and benefits.
These awards underline Dentons’ commitment to advisers and their clients whose ethos has always been one of delivering service and flexibility to clients without putting unnecessary barriers in the way. With the SIPP marketplace becoming increasingly crowded in recent years the continued delivery of a market leading service proposition has become crucial. As one of the few areas where a firm can really stand out from the competition, one can see that service remains a key focus for Dentons.
So the root of this success? The average pension consultant at Dentons has been there for over 20 years and each one is skilled at dealing with a range of investments from simple to complex transactions, including property purchase. Working with all appointed professionals to ensure everything runs smoothly and allowing clients to use their own contacts and to manage their own properties (if required) is part of the key to Dentons’ success. It currently manages in excess of 700 properties.
Dentons has made a huge investment in their SIPP and SSAS propositions, supported by an interactive website and secure adviser portal, giving advisers instant access to their client information 24 hours a day. The sales, technical and marketing functions have been strengthened and a new technical advisory service for advisers has been launched.
Overall, Dentons ethos has always been one of delivering service and flexibility to its clients without putting unnecessary barriers in the way. In such a competitive marketplace, introducers and clients want more than just competitively priced products. Dentons listens to client needs and this award endorses their ongoing commitment to deliver.

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HeroClix, a Fun App using Comic Book Characters, was Recently Featured on the AppWatch Segment of NewsWatch

NewsWatch, a nationwide television show, recently aired a news segment about “HeroClix”, a new app using comic book characters from popular franchises. The segment aired as part of “AppWatch”, a weekly review of the top apps in the marketplace.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) December 20, 2012
NewsWatch, a nationwide television show, recently aired a news segment about “HeroClix”, a new app using comic book characters from popular franchises. The segment aired as part of "AppWatch”, a weekly review of the top apps in the marketplace.
To get started, download the HeroClix TabApp application for free in the Apple App Store. Then unlock new comic stories and missions with each super hero figure. Unlock over 15 maps and follow along the unique storyline of each character while battling known villains. Users can challenge themselves to take out enemies at three separate difficulty levels and achieve the ultimate 3 star rating for each.
Figurines are available across multiple franchises, including Marvel Comics and DC Comics. Marvel figurines include comic book characters Wolverine, Captain America, and Iron Man. Each character has a different storyline that pops up when you place them on the screen. The marvel edition has over 30 villains and 18 different maps that users can play through.
The game has a live action, arcade style of play that is fun for anyone, ages 14+. Unlock special maps and comic scenarios with each figure. Users can take out a swarm of villains with the tap or swipe of a finger as you move on to more challenging levels. Haven’t picked up a figure yet? You can still play HeroClix TabApp by selecting the "Don’t Have A Figure" option from the main menu to play the demo.
HeroClix TabApp is currently available for iOS devices and is compatible with the iPad 2 and newer, as well as the iPad mini. If you don’t have an iPad, HeroClix plans to announce they will be creating an Android compatible version soon. To download the app and begin playing, go to HeroClixTabApp.com or visit your itunes store and search for HeroClix TabApp. The app is currently free on the iTunes Store and figurines can be purchased through the HeroClix website.
NewsWatch is a weekly 30-minute consumer oriented television show that airs on the ION Network Thursday mornings at 5:30am across the nation. NewsWatch regularly features top travel destinations, health tips, technology products, medical breakthroughs and entertainment news on the show. A recent addition to NewsWatch, AppWatch is a weekly segment that provides viewers app reviews and game reviews of the latest and hottest apps and games out on the market for iOS and Android devices. The show airs in 180 markets nationwide as well as all of the top 20 broadcast markets in the country, and is the preferred choice for Satellite Media Tour and Video News Release Distribution.

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Hands-Free Lighting Device Designed by ASF Lightware Solutions Now Offered by Rehabmart.com

It is an LED light that is worn around the neck and offers a wider and brighter light than a typical clip-on book light. The hands-free design is perfect for wheelchair or walker users, and helps to keep hands free for tasks like quilting, knitting, changing diapers and other various forms of work and hobbies.

Elberton, GA (PRWEB) December 20, 2012
Rehabmart.com, an online e-commerce company that sells rehabilitation and medical supplies, has joined into a distribution partnership with ASF Lightware Solutions to offer their hands-free Beam N Read® Lights to a wider consumer marketplace. Headquartered in Merrick, New York, ASF Lightware Solutions was founded by inventor Arthur Friedman who has been awarded 18 patents for his inventions and designs, including the Beam N Read® light. Friedman himself needed a better portable light solution and was disappointed with the available market choices, so he created his own. Both Friedman and his company's co-founder and CKO (Chief Knitting Officer), wife Cynthia Freeman, use the Beam N Read® light in their daily lives.
The Beam N Read® Hands Free Lights are specifically designed for personal light wherever the user might need it, that won't disturb others in the same vicinity. It is an LED light that is worn around the neck and offers a wider and brighter light than a typical clip-on book light. The hands-free design is perfect for wheelchair or walker users, and helps to keep hands free for tasks like quilting, knitting, changing diapers and other various forms of work and hobbies. It is very compatible with books, newspapers, magazines, eReaders and as a Kindle reading light. The range of uses for the Beam N Read® is practically limitless and include utilization for reading, needlework, fine detail artwork and hobbies, camping, travel, emergencies and to help senior citizens with age-related disabilities and adults and children with special needs. The extra long battery life provides useful emergency light during a power outage as well.
Accessories to customize the Beam N Read® vary by model and include night vision filters that help to prevent night blindness and reduce the risk of eyestrain. Recommended for anyone who works in the dark, the Beam N Read® Hands-Free Night Vision Light is perfect for campers and hunters, and for healthcare professionals or caregivers who need to administer to a patient in the dark. “We are proud to introduce these amazing Hands-Free Beam N Read® Lights from ASF Lightware Solutions to more consumers,” said Hulet Smith, OTR/L, MBA and CEO of Rehabmart. “This personal light offers unsurpassed quality, functionality and versatility, enhancing sight for all users. Use it for reading, writing, drawing, painting, all forms of needlework and sewing, crafts and hobbies, traveling and camping, night work, emergencies, and just for seeing a whole lot better whenever and wherever you need to! Testimonials abound for this helpful device and we are so pleased to be able to offer this simple, but profound life enhancement to our customers at Rehabmart.com.”
About Rehabmart.com:
As an Occupational Therapist, the founder of Rehabmart, Hulet Smith, has the breadth of knowledge and experience necessary to match the needs of his customers with the very latest innovative products in the field of medical supplies and rehabilitation equipment. As a parent of special needs children, he has a personal interest in finding the best products to improve the lives of those who are disabled and medically challenged. Rehabmart.com is committed to provide superior customer service, competitive pricing and exceptional product offerings.

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Appconomy Announces Launch of its Jinjin Marketplace in China; Completes Series A Round for $16 Million Total

Appconomy, Inc., developer of the Appconomy Commerce Cloud platform and mobile apps, announced today the launch of its JinjinTM mobile marketplace in China.

Shanghai, China (PRWEB) December 20, 2012
The Jinjin marketplace launched in two of China’s most strategic markets, Beijing and Shanghai, the nation’s capital and the country’s largest city, respectively. Appconomy also announced that it had raised an additional $6 million in venture financing to complete its Series A round, for a final total of more than $16 million, to continue the rapid introduction of the Jinjin marketplace app and its mobile solutions across China’s retail industry.
The Jinjin marketplace features dozens of popular Chinese and global retail brands, with hundreds of locations in Beijing and Shanghai. Merchants include popular food & beverage chains Golden Phoenix Bakeries, Burger King, Pepper Lunch, among many others, as well as a variety of high-end health, beauty, and other goods & services merchants. For consumers, the Jinjin marketplace offers a ground-breaking mobile loyalty and rewards program in China. It is available immediately from the Jinjin website (http://www.jinjinapp.com) and popular Chinese Android app stores, e.g., HiAPK, Wandoujia, and Gfan, and will be available within days in iTunes for iOS users.
“We strongly believe that the launch of the Jinjin marketplace represents a unique milestone in the reinvention of the retail and dining experience for Chinese consumers and merchants,” said Brian Magierski, President and CEO of Appconomy. “Following our announcement early last month of the Jinjin Retail Solution at the China Retail Industry Convention, which we’ve begun the process of piloting for large retailers, Appconomy now offers the only comprehensive, mobile solution, serving both big and small box retailers. Through our Jinjin marketplace, commerce platform, and mobile apps, we enable retailers, in both their physical and online stores, with capabilities like smart shopping list management, in-store geo-fencing technology for precise product location, customizable notifications, discounts, rewards, and loyalty programs.”
“With the launch of the Jinjin marketplace, we are excited to accelerate our market penetration with multiple Chinese national and global brands, in multiple markets,” said Steve Papermaster, Chairman of Appconomy’s Board of Directors. “As we prepare for a next major phase of growth and related financing activity, we are pleased with both the strong interest by current investors to complete our Series A by exercising their rights and the new investors that are participating in the Appconomy opportunity to create value by joining in the round.

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Attacks on Ivorian military kill 1 in Abidjan

 Authorities in Ivory Coast say at least one person is dead after two simultaneous attacks on Ivorian security forces.
Cherif Moussa, chief of communications for the army, said Friday that the attacks took place overnight in the commercial capital of Abidjan.
The United Nations said it "firmly condemns" the latest violence against members of the Ivorian armed forces.
In a statement, the U.N. special representative, Bert Koenders, said he "deplores these violent acts which were carried out at a time when the political situation was becoming more hopeful."
President Alassane Ouattara's government alleges that fighters who support former President Laurent Gbagbo are behind recent attacks on military positions in the West African nation.
Since early August, more than a dozen such attacks have been carried out throughout the country.

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EU to re-launch aid to Guinea after vote date set

 The European Union says it has agreed to re-launch €174.3 million in development funds to Guinea.
The move comes after the West African nation finally set a date for long-delayed legislative elections.
The announcement on Friday said Guinea's government had "presented a credible timetable for the organization of legislative elections."
The head of Guinea's electoral commission announced earlier this month that the vote will go ahead in May, though 10 members of the 25-member body later released a statement criticizing the move.
The West African country has not had a functioning parliament for four years, and only held its first democratic presidential election in 2010.

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Mali militants seek peace after UN backs force

The al-Qaida-linked group that controls much of northern Mali and other rebels agreed Friday to cease hostilities in the areas they control, a day after the United Nations backed a regional plan to oust the Islamists from power in a military intervention next year.
Ansar Dine, which controls the northern cities of Timbuktu and Kidal, and a secular rebel group known as the NMLA made the concessions following talks in neighboring Algeria.
The two groups vowed "to refrain from all actions that would cause confrontation and hostilities in the areas that they control."
They also vowed to work to free hostages in northern Mali, where al-Qaida's North Africa branch has made millions of dollars through ransoms and is currently holding seven French nationals captive.
The U.N.'s most powerful body on Thursday authorized an African-led force, but made no mention of size and set no timeline for military action.
U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said recently he does not expect a military operation to begin until September or October of next year.
Ansar Dine had previously met with government representatives in talks that were facilitated by the government of Burkina Faso. As a result, other militants in the north have sought to join Ansar Dine recently including members of the secular NMLA group.
Malians living under the grip of al-Qaida-linked militants expressed dismay Friday that it could be nearly a year before a regional military intervention to oust the Islamists from power.
"We want rapid military action to liberate our cities," said Alphadi Cisse, who lives in Timbuktu. "There is no school, there is no work and no money. We are fed up with this situation."
The mayor of Timbuktu, which is controlled by the Islamist group Ansar Dine, has described conditions there as "a living hell." The al-Qaida-linked militants have imposed their version of strict Islamic law known as Shariah.
They have stoned to death a couple accused of adultery, hacked off the hands of thieves and have recruited children as young as 12 into their ranks. Heavily armed men also have attacked bars that sell alcohol, and banned men and women from socializing in the streets.
The turmoil has decimated the economy of Timbuktu, once a thriving tourist town.
Thursday's resolution adopted unanimously by the U.N. Security Council welcomes troop contributions pledged by the West African regional bloc ECOWAS and calls on member states, including from the neighboring Sahel region, to contribute troops to the mission.
Council diplomats say the best-trained African troops in desert warfare are from Chad, Mauritania and Niger.
The resolution stressed that there must be a two-track plan — political and military — to reunify the country, which has been in turmoil since a coup in March. Islamist groups were able to take hold of northern Mali, an area the size of Texas, after the March coup created a power vacuum.
Coup members created new political turmoil earlier this month when they arrested the country's prime minister and forced him to resign — a move that raised new concerns about the ability of the Malian military help regain control of the north.
The U.N. resolution also emphasizes that further military planning is needed before a force could be sent and it asks Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to "confirm in advance the council's satisfaction with the planned military offensive operation."
France's U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud told reporters Thursday that it's premature to say when the military operation will take place because African and Malian troops must be trained and much depends on the political process and the country's extreme weather.
Northerners in Mali say the longer the world waits, the more entrenched the militants are becoming.
Hamadada Toure, a teacher from the city of Gao, urged the international community to follow through swiftly on its pledges to help free the north.
"If the resolution is not acted upon to chase the Islamists out of towns, all the comings and goings of diplomats and the mobilization of the international community are a bluff," he said from southern Mali where he sought refuge earlier this year.

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Mozambique highway collision kills 14

Police in Mozambique say 14 people died when a tire burst on a speeding minibus, causing the driver to lose control and collide with an oncoming vehicle.
Radio Mozambique cited police as saying 11 people were also injured in the accident on Friday. It happened 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the capital, Maputo.
Police say all of those killed were on the minibus that had been going too fast, and that the driver was among the injured. Some passengers in the other vehicle, also a minibus, had minor injuries.
Traffic on some highways in Mozambique is heavy at this time of year as people working in South African mines return home for the Christmas season. Many South African tourists also visit Mozambique over the holiday period.

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South African president visits Mandela in hospital

 South Africa's president has visited former leader Nelson Mandela in a hospital, and the presidency says Mandela continues to respond to treatment.
The office of President Jacob Zuma says he saw Mandela on Saturday morning in Pretoria, the capital, and assured the anti-apartheid icon that he has the support of all South Africans and the world.
Mandela, who is 94, has been hospitalized since Dec. 8. He was diagnosed with a lung infection and also had gallstone surgery.
Zuma said Thursday that Mandela had been seriously ill but had steadily improved.
Zuma is urging South Africans to continue praying for Mandela, who was imprisoned for 27 years for his role as a leader of the struggle against white racist rule. He served one five-year term as president.

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Patent agency rejects Apple "pinch-to-zoom" patent in initial ruling

Reuters) - U.S. patent authorities rejected Apple Inc's key "pinch-to-zoom" patent in an initial ruling, the second setback in less than two months for the iPhone maker in its patent battle with Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.
Apple's shares have taken a beating recently, with investors worried about rising competition from Samsung and other mobile device makers using Google Inc's Android platform.
Apple scored a sweeping legal victory over its South Korean competitor in August when a U.S. jury found Samsung had copied critical features of the hugely popular iPhone and iPad and awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages.
Samsung and Apple, the world's top two smartphone makers, are locked in patent disputes in at least 10 countries as they vie to dominate the lucrative mobile market and win over customers with their latest gadgets.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Wednesday temporarily invalidated the "pinch-to-zoom" patent, which had been contested at the trial in August. The jury had ruled that Samsung had infringed six of seven Apple patents.
The "pinch-to-zoom" feature distinguishes between single-touch and multitouch gestures on a mobile device screen and allows the user to zoom in or out by moving two fingers apart or closer together while touching the display.
A U.S. judge denied on Monday Apple's request for a permanent injunction against Samsung's smartphones.
Samsung won a preliminary invalidation of Apple's "rubber-banding" patent in October that had the "bounce" feature. The patent allows a user with a touch screen to bounce back to the image on the screen if the user goes beyond the edge.
When the U.S. patent office rules against a patent, the full process involves multiple steps and can take years. It can also often be appealed in court, further tying up the process.
The ruling by the U.S. patent office after Samsung requested an examination of the patent was included in documents filed by Samsung in a federal court in San Jose, California.
Apple's claims were rejected on the grounds that prior patents covered the inventions.
Representatives for Apple and Samsung were not immediately available for comment.
A Dutch court ruled in October that Samsung did not infringe on Apple's patent by using certain multi-touch techniques on some of the Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablet computers.

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Samsung to be charged with breaking European antitrust laws

The European Commission will charge Samsung (005930) for breaking “EU competition rules by filing lawsuits against Apple (AAPL)” according to Reuters. The watchdog’s vice president for competition policy Joaquin Almunia told Reuters it will be issuing a “statement of objections very soon.”  The investigation comes after Samsung announced on Tuesday it was dropping its lawsuits against Apple for “standard essential patents pending in European courts.” The company has been under investigation by the European Commission since January for violating antitrust laws related to licensing patents that are considered essential to implementing European mobile telephony standards.

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NFC projected to thrive, but not because of mobile wallet apps

Near Field Communication (NFC) is one of those technologies that sounds revolutionary on paper, but in reality, is much more complicated than just slapping a chip inside of a smartphone. Apple’s (AAPL) decision to not include NFC in the iPhone 5 is grounded around the fact that “it’s not a solution to any current problem.” Meanwhile, companies such as Samsung (005930) and Nokia (NOK) have already embraced NFC and are marketing it as more than just a mobile wallet replacement. And although Apple’s reluctance has been called a “serious blow for the technology”, several analysts from different firms say consumers are warming up to the feature, albeit very slowly, according to ComputerWorld.
[More from BGR: RIM, HTC and Nokia could all be headed the way of Palm]
[More from BGR: BlackBerry 10 browser smokes iOS 6 and Windows Phone 8 in comparison test [video]]
The immediate use for NFC is a mobile payment system, but several analysts and experts believe it’ll be NFC’s non-payment uses that will drive its growth; namely sharing data between devices, replacing security ID, time punch cards and QR codes. Other ideas such as using NFC-equipped phones to open door locks, starting up cars or pairing devices to audio speakers could also see NFC adoption speed up.
Why non-payment uses? Cost. Installing new NFC-enabled point-of-sale systems is expensive, especially for small businesses. One of the many reasons why Google Wallet hasn’t completely replaced our wallets is because there are few places that support using a phone to buy things.
While most analysts predict NFC will become more common over the next three to four years, especially if Apple ever decides to back it, Gartner analyst Avivah Litan says “it will take a decade before it’s mainstream across the globe.

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Nintendo’s amazing triumph in Japan may doom the company

According to Japanese gaming bible Famitsu, Nintendo 3DS sold 333,000 units in the week ending December 16. Sony’s PS Vita limped along at 13’000 units. The new Wii U did an OK 130,000 units and PS3 managed 46,000 units.  The utter hardware domination of the 3DS is reshaping the Japanese software market. Franchises that were thought to be fading have been revitalized in their portable versions. The 3DS version of the ancient “Animal Crossing” series, famed for being the game where nothing happens, hit a staggering 1.7 million units last week in Japan. “Inazuma Eleven” sold 170,000 units in its launch week, up from 140’000 units its DS version managed in 2011.
[More from BGR: RIM, HTC and Nokia could all be headed the way of Palm]
Nintendo’s portable console 3DS had a muted start in its home market in the spring of 2011. Many thought that Sony would have a fair shot at competing with Nintendo once Playstation Vita launched at the end of 2011. But once Nintendo executed an aggressive price cut for 3DS in the summer of 2011 and then launched a large-screen version of the console in mid-2012, the gadget has grown into a godzilla in Japan, demolishing both Sony Vita and aging tabletop console competition.
[More from BGR: BlackBerry 10 browser smokes iOS 6 and Windows Phone 8 in comparison test [video]]
3DS is doing well also in America, where its lifetime sales are moving close to the 6 million unit mark this holiday season. According to NPD, the 3DS sales in the US market topped 500,000 units in November. That’s a decent number, though far from the torrid volume the portable is racking up in its home market. The US November video game software chart was dominated by massive home console juggernauts: new installments of Call of Duty, Halo and Assassin’s Creed franchises  shifted more than 13 million units in retail. At the same time, the Japanese software chart remains in a Nineties time warp,  dominated by Nintendo’s musty masterpieces: Super Mario Brothers, Pokemon, Animal Crossing, etc.
Japanese and American tastes have always been different. But what we are witnessing now is a particularly fascinating divergence. American consumers are spending more of their time and money on smartphone and tablet games, while console game spending is increasingly focusing on massive, graphically stunning blockbuster titles on Xbox360 and PS3. The casual gamers are shifting to mobile games, while hardcore gamers remain attracted to sprawling epics on home consoles. The overall video game spending in America keeps declining month after month, as casual titles and mid-list games slide. But the Triple A whales like Call of Duty series are doing better than ever.
In Japan, Nintendo has been able to battle back iPhone and Android game invasion with a nostalgic series of portable games that basically recycle the biggest hits of Eighties and early Nineties. Mario, Pokemons and other portable heroes are slowly losing their grip on US and European consumers. But in Japan, some form of national nostalgia is keeping Nintendo on track.
The problem here is that the Japanese success of the 3DS may now be convincing Nintendo that it does not have to rethink its business strategy. The smartphone and tablet game spending continues growing explosively across the world. Unlike console games, mobile game sales in China are legal. The global gaming spending is shifting towards new hardware platforms even as console mammoths like Halo still reign in America. At this critical juncture, Nintendo has managed to cocoon its home market in a web of nostalgia, turning the 3DS console and its Eighties left-over franchises into epic bestsellers yet again.
This means that there is no sense of urgency to push Nintendo into rethinking its long-term plans. The company may continue simply ignoring the smartphone and tablet challenge, designing new portable consoles and the 28th Mario game to support it. 20 years ago, Japan’s insularity doomed its chances to succeed in the mobile phone business. Ithe idiosyncratic nature of Japan may now be leading its biggest entertainment industry success astray.

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How times have changed: Microsoft now eagerly courting Apple developers for Windows Phone 8

A decade or so ago, Apple (AAPL) was the company that had to work its tail off trying to get developers to port their Windows-based games and applications over to its desktop operating system. But with the rise of mobile computing, it seems that the tables have turned and Microsoft (MSFT) finds itself in the same place with Windows Phone 8 that Apple once did with OS X back in the days when it was still codenamed “Jaguar.” Technology Review reports that Microsoft last week invited several iOS app developers over to its Mountain View campus in an effort to persuade them to port their iPhone and iPad apps over to Windows Phone 8 and Windows RT devices.
[More from BGR: RIM, HTC and Nokia could all be headed the way of Palm]
The good news, Technology Review reports, is that developers at the conference seemed quite receptive to Microsoft’s courtship. Tim Burks, who founded the iOS app development and consulting company Radtastical and who helped organize the Silicon Valley iOS Developers’ Meetup group, told the publication that he was particularly impressed with how Microsoft organized its mobile developer tools, which he said were cleanly designed and intuitive to use.
[More from BGR: BlackBerry 10 browser smokes iOS 6 and Windows Phone 8 in comparison test [video]]
“If you’re a professional dancer, would you want to dance on a stage with broken boards and holes on the floor?” he said. “No, you want to dance on a stage that’s clean and organized. That’s what these guys — especially Apple, and it looks like Microsoft — are like.

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Samsung Display will show off a 5.5-inch flexible screen at CES

Samsung’s (005930) impending Galaxy S IV may not feature an unbreakable or flexible screen, but that doesn’t mean the company isn’t working hard to get such high-tech displays onto its phones within the next year. Engadget reports that Samsung display panel spin-off Samsung Display is preparing to demonstrate a 5.5-inch, 720 pixel flexible screen at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Engadget cautions us not to set our expectations too high, however, because the display at CES will be “merely a component that could one day find its way into a smartphone, rather than a finished product that’s meant for consumers.” Even so, anyone looking for the next big innovation in smartphone tech has to be excited that Samsung is inching closer to getting these displays ready for primetime.

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Russia welcomes any offer to give Assad refuge

BEIRUT (AP) — Russia would welcome any country's offer of safe haven for Syrian President Bashar Assad, but has no plans to make one of its own, Moscow's foreign minister said in the latest comments to suggest a growing distance between the two allies.
Sergey Lavrov's remarks on Friday night were among the clearest signs yet that Russia could be preparing for a Syria without Assad, as rebel pressure on the embattled leader intensifies. Over the past four weeks, fighting has reached Damascus, his seat of power, and rebels have captured a string of military bases.
Up to now, Russia has vetoed three Western-backed resolutions aimed at pressuring Syria's government to stop the violence that has killed more than 40,000 people over the past 21 months. While Russian leaders have given no concrete signs that stance has changed, their tone has shifted as rebels advance on the outskirts of the capital.
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin distanced himself further than ever from the Syrian president, saying Russia does not seek to protect him and suggesting his regime is growing weaker.
Speaking to reporters late Friday, Lavrov reiterated Moscow's position that "it doesn't invite President Assad here," although he said other countries had asked Russia to convey their offer of safe passage to Assad.
While he would not name the countries, Lavrov said Russia had responded by telling them to go directly to the Syrian leader.
"If there is anyone willing to provide him guarantees, they are welcome!" Lavrov said on board a plane returning from Brussels, where he attended a Russia-EU summit.
"We would be the first to cross ourselves and say: "Thank God, the carnage is over! If it indeed ends the carnage, which is far from certain."
Syria's conflict started in March last year as an uprising against Assad, whose family has ruled the country for four decades. But the bloody crackdown that followed led rebels to take up arms, and the ensuing fighting transformed into a civil war.
The regime has come under added condemnation in recent weeks as Western officials raise concerns Assad might use chemical weapons against rebels in an act of desperation.
Syria refuses to confirm or deny if it has such weapons but is believed to have nerve agents as well as mustard gas. It also possesses Scud missiles capable of delivering them.
Lavrov said the Syrian government has pulled its chemical weapons together to one or two locations from several arsenals across the country to keep them safe amid the rebel onslaught.
"According to the information we have, as well as the data of the U.S. and European special services, the government is doing everything to secure it," he said. "The Syrian government has concentrated the stockpiles in one or two centers, unlike the past when they were scattered across the country."
Lavrov added that U.N.-Arab League peace envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, would visit Moscow for talks before the year's end.
The conflict's sectarian dimension looked set to deepen at the weekend, as rebels threated to storm two predominantly Christian towns in a central region if residents do not "evict" government troops they say are using the towns as a base to attack nearby areas.
A video released by rebels showed Rashid Abul-Fidaa, who identified himself as the commander of the Ansar Brigade for Hama province, calling on locals in Mahrada and Sqailbiyeh to rise up against Assad's forces or prepare for an assault.
"You should perform your duty by evicting Assad's gangs," said Abdul-Fidaa, who wore an Islamic headband and was surrounded by gunmen. "Otherwise our warriors will storm the hideouts of the Assad gangs."
He also accused regime forces of taking positions in the two towns in order to "incite sectarian strife" between Christians and the predominantly Sunni opposition. Assad belongs to the Alawite minority sect, an off-shoot of Shiite Islam.
The threat comes just two days after a U.N. team investigating human rights abuses in Syria accused anti-Assad militants of hiding among the civilian population, triggering strikes by government artillery and the air force.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the activist group which reported the rebel ultimatum on Saturday, said such an attack by rebels could force thousands of Christians from their homes.
Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Syria's population, say they are particularly vulnerable to the violence sweeping the country of 22 million people. They are fearful that Syria will become another Iraq, with Christians caught in the crossfire between rival Islamic groups.
Clashes between troops and rebels in the central city of Homs, Syria's third largest, have already displaced tens of thousands of Christians, most of whom either fled to the relatively safe coastal areas or to neighboring Lebanon.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory, said some Christians and Alawites have also left Hama province in the past several days to escape violence. He said some of them found shelter in the coastal city of Tartus.
In Damascus, the new head of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch said that Christians in Syria had deep roots in the country and were not part of the conflict. Speaking to reporters in Damascus, Patriarch John X. Yazigi urged rival factions to negotiate a settlement.
Violence continued unabated on Saturday, particularly in the capital.
The Observatory said a car bomb went off in the Damascus neighborhood of Qaboun, killing at least five people and wounding others. A Syrian official confirmed the blast but had no immediate comment regarding casualties.
Elsewhere, the Syrian army said in a statement carried on state-run TV that it had repelled a rebel attack on a military base that killed a regimental commander in the Damascus suburb of Chebaa.
Also in Damascus, the state-run news agency SANA said gunmen assassinated a cameraman for the government's TV station, the latest such killing in recent months.
In another development, 11 rebel groups said they have formed a new coalition, the Syrian Islamic Front.
A statement issued by the new group, dated Dec. 21 and posted on a militant website Saturday, described it as "a comprehensive Islamic front that adopts Islam as a religion, doctrine, approach and conduct."
Several rebel groups have declared their own coalitions in Syria, including one calling itself an "Islamic state" in the embattled northern city of Aleppo.
The statement said the new group will work to avoid differences or disputes with the other Islamic groups.

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Bombing at political rally kills 9 in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber in Pakistan killed nine people including a provincial government official at a political rally held Saturday by a party that has opposed the Taliban, officials said.
The rally in Peshawar, the capital of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was held by the Awami National Party, whose members have been repeatedly targeted by the Taliban.
Among the dead was Bashir Bilour, the second most senior member of the provincial Cabinet, said Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, the politician's brother and federal railways minister.
Over 20 others were wounded by the blast, said local police officer Sabir Khan.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the bombing in a statement, reiterating the United Nations' support for Pakistani efforts "to combat the scourge of terrorism."
Bilour was leaving the rally after delivering the keynote speech when the attack occurred, said Nazir Khan, a local Awami National Party leader.
"There was smoke and dust all around, and dead and wounded people were lying on the ground," he said.
The suicide bomber was on foot, said another police officer, Imtiaz Khan.
Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa information minister and a member of the Awami National Party, said both he and Bilour had repeatedly received threats from militants. He condemned the attack and said the government needed to intensify its battle against the Taliban.
"Terrorism has engulfed our whole society," said Hussain. "They are targeting our bases, our mosques, our bazars, public meetings and our security checkpoints."
Ten Taliban militants attacked the military area of an international airport in Peshawar with rockets and car bombs a week ago, killing four people and wounding over 40 others. Five of the militants were killed during the attack, and five others died the next day in a gunbattle with security forces.
Also Saturday, police said a mob in southern Pakistan stormed a police station to seize a mentally unstable Muslim man accused of burning a copy of Islam's holy book. The crowd beat him to death, and then set fire to his body.
The case is likely to raise further concerns about the country's harsh blasphemy laws, which can result in a death sentence or life in prison to anyone found guilty. An accusation or investigation alone can lead to deaths, as people take the law into their own hands and kill those accused of violating it. Police stations and even courts have been attacked by mobs.
Police arrested the man on Friday after being informed by residents that he had burned a Quran inside a mosque where he had been staying for a night, said local police official Biharud Deen.
An angry mob of more than 200 people then broke into the police station in the southern town of Dadu and took the accused man, who they say was under questioning. Deen said police tried their best to save the man's life but were unable to stop the furious crowd.
Police have arrested 30 people for suspected involvement in the attack, said Deen. The head of the local police station and seven officers had been suspended, he said.
Past attempts by governments in predominantly Muslim Pakistan to review these laws have met with violent opposition from hardline Islamist parties.
In southwestern Pakistan, gunmen late Friday killed 11 Pakistanis and Afghans who were trying to cross into neighboring Iran to travel on to Europe as illegal immigrants, said local government official Zubair Ahmed. The shooting took place in Sunsar town in Baluchistan province, he said.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, but hundreds of Pakistanis and Afghans are captured by Iranian border guards every year for illegally trying to travel to Europe to find better jobs.

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No new vote in Venezuela if Chavez sworn in late: official

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela will not call fresh elections if Hugo Chavez's cancer prevents him from taking office by January 10, the head of Congress said on Saturday, despite a constitutional mandate that the swearing-in take place on that date.
Chavez is recovering in Cuba from a six-hour cancer operation that followed his October re-election. The socialist leader has not been heard from for nearly two weeks, raising doubts as to whether he will be fit to continue governing.
Opposition leaders may pounce on the issue of the swearing-in date to demand that authorities call fresh elections because of Chavez's apparently critical state of health due to an undisclosed type of cancer in the pelvic region.
A constitutional dispute over succession could lead to a messy transition toward a post-Chavez era in the South American nation with the world's largest oil reserves.
"Since Chavez might not be here in on January 10, (the opposition) hopes the National Assembly will call elections within 30 days. They're wrong. Dead wrong," said Diosdado Cabello, the National Assembly's president and one of Chavez's closest allies, during a ceremony to swear in a recently elected governor.
"That's not going to happen because our president is named Hugo Chavez, he was reelected and is in the hearts of all Venezuelans."
He suggested Chavez may need more time to recover from his surgery. Officials in recent weeks have recognized his condition was serious, and the garrulous leader's unusual silence has built up alarm even among supporters.
The constitution says "the elected candidate will assume the Presidency of the Republic on January 10th of the first year of their constitutional term, via swearing-in by the National Assembly."
It says new elections are to be called if the National Assembly determines a "complete absence" of the president because of death, physical or mental impairment or abandoning the job.
The opposition believes it would have a better shot against Chavez's anointed successor, Vice President Nicolas Maduro, than against the charismatic former soldier who for 14 years has been nearly invincible at the ballot box.
Chavez allies want to avoid a public debate over the president's health because his cancer has been treated as a state secret. His treatment in communist Cuba has helped keep his condition under wraps, and the Venezuelan government has given only terse and cryptic statements about his post-operation recovery.
Constitutional lawyer Jose Vice Harold said he expects the Supreme Court, which is controlled by Chavez allies, will rule that Chavez may extend his existing term without having to be sworn in with the expectation that he will eventually recover.
"What they are doing is taking the debate over succession from the National Assembly, which is where it belongs, and moving it to the Supreme Court where behind closed doors they can decide the next steps are," said Harold, a Chavez critic and constitutional law professor as the Universidad Catholic Andres Bellow.
Chavez has vastly expanded presidential powers and built a near-cult following among millions of poor Venezuelans, who love his feisty language and oil-financed social welfare projects.
Opposition leaders are smarting from this month's governors elections in which Chavez allies won 20 of 23 states. They are trying to keep attention focused on day-to-day problems from rampant crime to power outages.

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3-day trip becomes 3-week ordeal for 2 Jamaicans

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — It was supposed to be a three-day fishing trip at most. It turned into a three-week ordeal, drifting under an intense sun for hundreds of miles in the Caribbean in a small boat with a broken motor.
The two Jamaican fishermen survived by eating raw fish they caught and drinking water from melted ice they had brought to preserve their catch. The Colombian navy finally plucked them from the sea a week ago and delivered them home Saturday after treating them for severe dehydration, malnutrition and hypothermia.
Everton Gregory, 54, and John Sobah, 58, recounted their story in a telephone interview from Jamaica, while the boat owner and the men's employer also provided details.
The men set off from Jamaica's southeastern coast on Nov. 20. The water was glassy, the wind was calm and their boat was laden with 14 buckets of ice, 16 gallons of water and several bags of cereal, bread and fruit.
They headed to Finger Bank, a nearby sand spit 8-miles-long (13-kilometers) that is known for its abundance of fish like wahoo, tuna and mahi mahi. The owner of the 28-foot (8-meter) boat said she usually joins them on fishing trips, but she couldn't go that afternoon.
After spending a couple of days around Finger Bank, the two men set off for home with their catch. But the boat's engine soon died. The water was too deep to use the anchor and the current too strong to use the oars, so the boat slowly drifted away from Jamaica.
At first, the men got by on sipping the water and eating the food they brought with them. But days turned into weeks, and they began to eat the fish they had caught and drink the melted ice that had kept it fresh.
Gregory and Sobah kept eating raw fish and used a tarp to try to collect water, but the rain clouds remained at a distance.
Back home, friends and family called police and used their own boats to search the area where the men were last seen. The two fishermen work for the Florida-based nonprofit group Food for the Poor, which chartered a plane to search along Jamaica's coast.
Marva Espuet, the owner of the boat, said she knew she had packed it with more food and water than needed for a three-day trip, but the thought provided little relief.
"If I had gone, there would have been two boats going," said the 52-year-old woman, a longtime friend of both fishermen.
With searches proving fruitless, Sobah's niece grew frantic, recalled Nakhle Hado, a fishing manager for Food for the Poor who helped lead the search. She "begged me that she wanted John back for Christmas," Hado said.
Hado said some people believed the two men would never be found, but he and others didn't give up. "My gut was telling me that they were still alive," he said.
Hado said he had trained Gregory and Sobah on how to survive at sea.
"In case something happens, they don't have to think twice. They know how to react," he said. "It's very important, their mental state."
Gregory and Sobah finally ran out of fresh water and went several days without drink. A healthy human being can die from dehydration anywhere from three to five days without water.
Then on Dec. 12, a Colombian navy helicopter patrolling off the coast of that South American country spotted the men near Lack of Sleep cay, more than 500 miles (800 kilometers) from where they started. It took two days for a navy vessel to reach them because of bad weather. The men were hospitalized for several days at the Colombian island of San Andres before boarding a plane back home to Jamaica.
"It feels good," Sobah told the AP in a brief phone interview after arriving.
Gregory said he had lost hope, but Sobah tried to keep him positive that they would be rescued. "I just had that belief," Sobah said. "I believe in the Creator."
Yet it is Gregory who plans to keep fishing despite the ordeal because he needs the job.
Sobah said he's done. "I'm not going to go fishing again. No way."

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AP PHOTOS: Images from Egypt's constitution vote

Egyptians returned to the polls to vote on a referendum on an Islamist-backed constitution.
Preliminary results released by the Muslim Brotherhood show that the disputed constitution has received a "yes" majority of more than 70 percent in the second and final round of voting. The referendum was held over two days, on Dec. 15 and 22.
Here's a look at AP photos from Egypt's election.

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Shorts Travel Management Releases New Version of it's BookIt App

Patent-pending technology allows business travelers to search for flights on consumer travel sites and book through their travel management company, increasing savings & travel policy compliance

Waterloo, Iowa (PRWEB) December 18, 2012
Short’s Travel Management has taken a new spin on the Open Booking buzz going around the corporate travel marketplace this year with their product, BookIt. BookIt allows business travelers to search at leisure travel websites, like Hipmunk.com, and still book their tickets through their travel management company (TMC). The concept is simple - search there, book here.
With the first version of BookIt, released in early 2012, business travelers “Share” or “Email” their preferred flights from other websites to BookIt. BookIt applies the company’s corporate discounts to that flight, and searches for lower fare in the market across all airlines. The traveler receives an email back and books their ticket with the TMC directly from their email in just 3 clicks. Short’s Travel has learned from this first version that the process must be easier to use without needing to train employees, or requiring them to remember, to follow this process.
Short’s Travel will be releasing their newest version, the BookIt App, in January 2013, which supports many more travel websites, including airlines’ websites, and is literally the “easy button” for business travelers. When the BookIt App is turned “on” in the computer’s browser, and travelers are shopping for flights, they will see the BookIt button. If the traveler is booking a trip for work, they simply enter their company email address on file with their TMC and click the BookIt button. The BookIt App then searches for their company’s corporate discounts and travel policies, checks for lower fares on other airlines or schedules, and returns results in an email. The traveler then purchases their flight online within their corporate travel program in just 2 clicks.
The new Bookit App solves the problems travel managers have today when employees find flights outside of the corporate tool, but doesn’t require them to leap into a full Open Booking program where travelers can book wherever they want. The travel manager still has full control of their travel program because all bookings are being managed through one TMC. All corporate discounts and unused tickets credits are being applied; and all travelers’ locations are being tracked from one central database. The Bookit App also makes it easier for business travelers to buy their business trips because they check-out at one website where all of their airline frequent flyer and corporate cards are stored and automatically applied.
About Short’s Travel Management:
Short's Travel Management is a full-service travel management company with a passion for innovation and professional service to enable companies of all sizes to more effectively manage their travel investment. With over 64 years of Travel Management Experience, Short’s Travel continues to be one of the top Travel Management Companies in the industry.
About BHiveTravel.com
For companies who don't need a fully managed travel program, Shorts offers it's free online travel management tool, http://www.BHiveTravel.com. BHive allows businesses and organizations to get the robust booking and reporting tools of a fully managed travel program for no cost. Bookit is fully integrated with the BHive.

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Price4Limo is Accepting New Affiliates for Limousine and Party Bus Operators

Price4Limo is seeking new, reputable affiliates to join the fastest-growing network of limousine and party bus rental affiliates. Joining the affiliate marketplace costs nothing, and is an excellent resource for confirmed reservations.

Boynton Beach, Fla. (PRWEB) December 18, 2012
Price4Limo has been offering limousine service and party bus rentals in more areas consistently since it first went into business. The company was founded in 2001 and began with only two vehicles, a limousine and a party bus. Over the years, Price4Limo has acquired more limousines and luxury buses while also putting focus into becoming an authoritative presence online. Research shows millions of limousine-related searches on Google every month. With over 10% of all limousine reservations being made online, having an online presence is mandatory for a limousine business to reach its potential.
Price4Limo has been working with affiliates in cities across the nation and is now expanding its affiliate program to more limousine companies who want more exposure online. Price4Limo is using a very similar model as Hotels.com and Expedia. Finding limousines has never been easier.
The company has a team of prolific writers, web designers and innovative marketers all working together on an integrated marketing strategy that is steadily gaining more visibility and drawing in new customers every month. Price4Limo has increased its exposure in the marketplace through word-of-mouth affiliates, industry trade publications, direct mail campaigns and web based media.
With this influx of potential customers, Price4Limo is looking to add new affiliates to the roster. By joining the affiliate program, other limousine and party bus companies can immediately increase their exposure and customer base free of charge. Becoming an affiliate is an easy process. After visiting http://www.price4limo.com/join and submitting the required information, all that is needed is images and descriptions of the vehicles that are available and Price4Limo will handle the rest. When clients search for rentals in an area covered by an affiliate the limos or buses will be visible on the Price4Limo page. Reservations are made on-site, adding to the professional representation and keeping everything simple for the customer. With trained staff monitoring the phones and IM service, reservations and questions can be handled promptly which also saves affiliates time and money.
“We have an internet staff, and we know all the ins and outs of marketing strategies,” explains manager Greg Hawes, describing what it is that makes Price4Limo.com so effective. “But we also know what’s involved in owning and operating a limousine service -- the risks, the responsibilities and the rewards. And we know what the customers are looking for. We don’t charge for leads, and we don’t make money unless the company listing with us makes money.”
This process also saves affiliates time from dealing with the frequent search engine changes in order to have their services seen online. Becoming an affiliate will bring in more customers, thanks to Price4Limo’s web presence.
Price4Limo has become a leader in New Orleans party bus rentals and expects an increase in rentals for the Super Bowl. The company has also had great success with Texas limousine rentals.
“We learned early on that our best customers are our competition,” Hawes summarizes. “They turned out to be our partners, and we grew from teamwork. We made friendships and affiliations in Miami and West Palm, and we grew our businesses together. So we decided to take it on a bigger scale and bring it nationwide.”
A core belief of Price4Limo is that everything associated with limousine service must be representative of the quality and prestige that clients are expecting when they rent a limousine. Because of this, only the best in service, design and presentation will be accepted into the affiliate program. The company is all-inclusive when it comes to the variety or vehicles offered, from an elegant white Rolls Royce to a zebra-stripe or hot pink Hummer limousine.
There’s only one absolute in this business: If people don’t know where a particular company is and don’t know how to contact the company, the rental will go to another provider. By being seen more easily online a company will only benefit from the increased exposure and by creating a first-class impression from the first view. The affiliate program has no cost and no risk to become a part of. Whether a company’s specialties are in classic limousine service, shuttle vans or outrageous pink Hummer Limo party buses, the affiliate program is able to get provide more potential clients. To learn more about this initiative, visit http://www.price4limo.com/join, or call 407-957-8978

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Bill Howe Family of Companies Named Finalist in Better Business Bureau Torch Awards for Marketplace Ethics for Second Year in a Row

Esteemed San Diego plumber, Bill Howe, and his wife Tina Howe, proudly accept recognition of their continued efforts towards ethical marketplace practices

San Diego, CA (PRWEB) December 18, 2012
For the second consecutive year, the Bill Howe Family of Companies has been named a finalist of the Better Business Bureau’s Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics. The award winners were announced during an award ceremony on December 4, 2012 at the Town & Country Resort in Mission Valley in San Diego. Plumber and businessman Bill Howe and his wife, Tina Howe, accepted the award for 2nd place finalist in the “100-249 employees” category.
In its 15th year, the BBB Torch Awards honor companies that have made a commitment to ethical excellence, integrity and support of the San Diego marketplace, despite any adversities. To be considered for the award, companies must compile a nomination that outlines and proves their commitment to ethics in categories including management practices, community and stakeholder relations, communications and marketing practices, and industry reputation. A panel of judges reviews the submissions and grades each category on a scale of 1-10. While many of the businesses that are nominated for the award are in the San Diego heating and air conditioning or plumbing business, the award is open to businesses in any industry.
“We are here to honor companies that epitomize ethics and integrity, and present them with a coveted Torch Award. But today’s gathering is about much more than that,” said Sheryl Bilbrey, San Diego BBB President and CEO, during the ceremony’s opening remarks. “Today, we honor one another for our steadfast commitment to doing the right thing for consumers in a time when so many others struggle to remain accountable.”
The Bill Howe Family of Companies started with Bill Howe Plumbing, Inc. in 1980 and now offers services in San Diego heating and air conditioning, as well as restoration and flood services. Since its inception, the company upholds their philosophy that to be successful they focus on ensuring the happiness of their employees, their customers and their community. Recently, the Bill Howe Family of Companies proved their philosophy has been a success when they moved to an office more than twice the size of the previous office, to accommodate their growing workforce.
“The Torch Award nomination process has been an incredibly rewarding experience as we looked at every aspect of our company and put all of our efforts on paper,” said Tina Howe, Vice President of the Bill Howe Family of Companies. “When you are doing business, it is not always easy to know the most ethical decision to make; sometimes it means more money, or sometimes it means we need to seek outside counsel. Whatever it takes, we strive to build our company on honest and ethical practices.”
To learn more about the Bill Howe Family of Companies or to speak with San Diego plumber, Bill Howe, about his commitment to not only upholding ethics within his company, but helping the plumbing industry as a whole uphold ethical excellence through his work with the Plumbing Heating Cooling Contractors Association of San Diego, call 619-286-6348 or visit http://www.billhowe.com.
About Bill Howe Family of Companies

Bill Howe Family of Companies is comprised of Bill Howe Plumbing, Inc.; Bill Howe Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc.; Bill Howe Restoration & Flood Services, Inc. The family-owned and operated company began in 1980 with the plumbing division and has grown into San Diego County’s largest low-cost one-stop-shop for service, repairs and installation, offering both residential and commercial services. 9085 Aero Drive, Suite B, San Diego, CA 92123. Call 1-800-BILL-HOWE because We Know Howe!

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Hurricane Sandy Victims Find Refuge on Timeshare Marketplace RedWeek.com

Timeshares are not only for fun vacation getaways, as evidenced by the story of RedWeek.com members Bob and Jody; left homeless by Hurricane Sandy last month. With the holidays approaching, Bob and Judy turned to leading timeshare marketplace RedWeek.com to secure a timeshare rental in New York City.

Seattle, WA (PRWEB) December 19, 2012
Timeshares are not only for fun vacation getaways, as evidenced by the story of RedWeek.com members Bob and Jody; left homeless by Hurricane Sandy last month.
Bob and Judy are one of the many families displaced by the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. With their Long Island home flooded and area hotels at capacity; the Bob and Judy began looking for a short-term rental property to no avail. Frustrated and exhausted, they began looking at every alternative for a place to live.
As timeshare owners, Bob and Judy knew the advantages of timesharing and had recently used leading timeshare marketplace RedWeek.com to rent out their own Aruba timeshare. Homeless and with the holidays approaching, they turned to RedWeek.com and began searching for timeshare rentals at The Manhattan Club resort in New York City.
“We decided to rent multiple units at the Manhattan Club so that we could spend the holiday all together in Manhattan,” said Jody. “When my husband and I checked in to the Manhattan Club, it was so luxurious that I actually began tearing up.”
Unlike standard hotels, timeshares offer home-like accommodations with multiple bedrooms, full kitchens or kitchenettes, and living and dining areas. Renting a timeshare directly from an owner is often cheaper than staying at a hotel, and the resorts offer the same hotel amenities such as pools, exercise facilities, reception areas, and concierge services.
“I have only good things to say about RedWeek and the Manhattan Club,” said Jody. “I plan to use RedWeek again when I need a vacation - the value and the superior accommodations were just more than I could have hoped for.”
To learn more about RedWeek.com or timesharing visit http://www.redweek.com.
About RedWeek.com:
RedWeek® is a registered trademark of RedWeek, Inc. RedWeek.com is a member-supported marketplace for timeshare rentals and resales, and also provides a full-service timeshare resale offering. You can find reviews, ratings, prices, availability, full-service exchange, and complete resort descriptions for all timeshare resorts to make vacation selection easier. Boasting an A+ Better Business Bureau rating, RedWeek has more than 1.5 million registered users and includes 5,000 timeshare resorts worldwide.

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Pure-Ecommerce.com Introduces Its New 2013 Premier Internet Business Site Collection Featuring Upgraded Designs, Larger Product Counts, and Video and Mobile Marketing

CARY, NC (PRWEB) December 19, 2012
Pure-Ecommerce.com introduces its 2013 Premier Internet Business Site Collection. This incredible new collection of 14 internet businesses for sale has been created in some of the most popular niche markets in the online marketplace. The Collection includes: eBaseballOutlet.com, eBasketballOutlet.com, EverythingDogShop.com, BlueSkyBeachStore.com, EveryStyleGift.com, eSoccerOutlet.com, ShootandScoreSports.com, BlackandWhiteDecorShop.com, GroovyGreenToys.com, ClassActCat.com, StudioDecorBoutique.com, GlassofWinePlease.com, AllAmericanMadePets.com, and TheModernBabyNursery.com. Pure-Ecommerce.com will continuously be introducing new sites to the Collection throughout 2013. It will also be offering more “sister” sites (such as eBaseballOutlet.com, eBasketballOutlet.com and eSoccerOutlet.com) to help clients expand their brand presence in the online marketplace by owning multiple internet businesses.
All Pure-Ecommerce internet businesses for sale come with a high quality, professionally designed site, as well as a 10- step training program and 40 hours of consulting to help burgeoning ecommerce entrepreneurs each step of the way! Every product featured on this site is drop shipped so no inventory is needed. It also allows for less overhead and gives owners more flexibility in managing their business and schedule. These sites feature upgraded designs as well as the addition of larger product counts, as well as Video Marketing and a Marketing Application and Site!
Pure-Ecommerce strives to be at the forefront of technology and incorporate the latest applications in all its internet business offerings. Varner wants her small business ecommerce clients to have all the latest and greatest technologies available to large ecommerce retailers. Pure-Ecommerce CEO Jennifer Varner says, “Mobile and Video Marketing are vital to any ecommerce strategy and help the e-retailer stay competitive, increase sales, drive up SEO rankings, build customer loyalty, and much more.” According to digital marketing technology company Monetate the growth in traffic on leading ecommerce websites over the past year has grown 103% with nearly 86 million Americans now shopping on their smartphones. And Practical Ecommerce says “increasing numbers of online retailers will be using video in 2013 to increase sales, find new potential customers, and build brand relationships.” Through personalized consultation and 24/7 access to an E-Learning Library, Varner and her team help clients understand how to use mobile and video marketing and design strategies to be best positioned to capitalize on these shifting market dynamics.
Pure-Ecommerce.com celebrates its sixth anniversary in 2013 and has helped over 550 entrepreneurs in the U.S. and Canada start their own internet businesses. CEO Jennifer Varner founded Pure-Ecommerce after gaining experience and success through starting one of the largest online maternity clothing stores, BellaBluMaternity.com. After selling her company, she began helping others realize their dreams of owning a business.
Buying a business from Pure-Ecommerce.com allows a budding entrepreneur to step into the business of their dreams with minimal start-up costs and low monthly and have someone personally mentor them through all aspects of setting up, running, and then growing an online business. Best of all, it provides them the opportunity to have a flexible schedule and to work when they want, where they want. A Pure-Ecommerce business can be run on a part-time basis while someone is still working or as a full-time business, depending upon the time one puts into growing their business. Pure-Ecommerce’s turnkey sites are especially attractive to budding mompreneurs and entrepreneurs; boomers looking for additional income to supplement their retirement; people looking for work-life balance; and the unemployed wishing to be their own boss and create their own destiny.
Pure-Ecommerce has been featured in several national magazines and websites such as Entrepreneur, Forbes and WomenEntrepreneur.com, as well as in national newspapers and on TV news programs. Pure-Ecommerce has also been selected as one of the top 50 Women-Owned businesses by Start-up Nation.

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Official: 28 people killed as farmers attack cattle herders in southeastern Kenya

NAIROBI, Kenya - A police official says 28 people have been killed in clashes between farmers and herders in south-eastern Kenya.
Anthony Kamitu, who is leading police operations to prevent the attacks, said Friday that the Pokomo tribe of farmers raided a village of the Orma herding community, called Kipao, at dawn in the Tana River Delta.
The latest deaths in a tit-for-tat cycle of killings may be related to a redrawing of political boundaries and next year's general elections, according to the U.N.
At least 110 people were killed in clashes between the Pokomo and Orma in September and October.
Animosity between the two communities over land and water resources has existed for decades.

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Cliff poses tiny dollar gap, wide political ravine

WASHINGTON (AP) — When it comes to resolving their "fiscal cliff" impasse, the dollar gap between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner is tiny in federal terms. That masks a monumental political ravine the two men must try to bridge, with most of the burden on the now beleaguered Boehner.
Short of support from his own Republican Party, a chagrined speaker abruptly canceled a House vote Thursday night on his so-called Plan B. The measure would have prevented looming tax increases on everyone but people earning over $1 million annually, but was opposed by rank-and-file Republican lawmakers unwilling to vote for any tax increases at all.
Now Boehner, R-Ohio, and Obama seem likely to bargain anew over a broad package of tax increases and spending cuts, with Thursday night's GOP retreat weakening Boehner's leverage. Ticking ever louder is the start of the new year, which by law will usher in hundreds of billions in tax increases and spending cuts — the "fiscal cliff" — unless the two men avert it by crafting a compromise deficit-cutting package that can get through the GOP-run House and Democratic-led Senate.
Despite the impassioned political clash that the "cliff" has prompted, weeks of intermittent bargaining between Obama and Boehner have left them facing relatively miniscule dollar differences by Washington standards.
Obama wants to raise taxes by about $20 billion a year more than Boehner. The two men differ over spending cuts by roughly the same amount.
By almost any measure, $20 billion is real money. Yet compared to the $2.6 trillion the government expects to collect next year and to the $3.6 trillion it plans to spend, $20 billion barely registers — less than 1 percent of what the government already is on track to raise and spend. Relative to the U.S. economy, which should weigh in at well over $15 trillion next year, $20 billion is even smaller.
"The policy implication is very slight," Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a non-partisan anti-deficit group, said of the $20 billion gaps between Obama and Boehner. "It's not worth the price of not getting a deal. And the impact on the economy is totally insignificant."
On the other hand, economists have warned that the "cliff's" massive tax boosts and budget cuts would heave the economy back into a recession, although likely a brief one.
Though the numbers separating them are small, Obama and Boehner have real policy disputes. Yet their inability to strike a compromise so far underscores that their problem is more than arithmetic: It's largely driven by the difficult politics that Obama and Boehner face in firming up support from their own parties.
Boehner's clout was weakened by the Plan B debacle, and it remains unclear how many GOP votes he could deliver for any compromise he might reach with Obama. Yet while his Plan B would have received virtually no Democratic votes, a bipartisan accord with Obama likely would get significant backing from House Democrats, lightening Boehner's load.
Even before Thursday, the president and the speaker each faced formidable political challenges.
Chastened by Obama's re-election, Boehner has violated a quarter-century of Republican dogma by offering to raise taxes, including boosting income tax rates on earnings exceeding $1 million annually.
Eager for a budget deal that would bolster his legacy and let him address other issues, Obama would cut the growth of Social Security benefits, usually off-limits to Democrats. He also would impose tax increases on a broader swath of people than millionaires — those with incomes over $400,000. That figure is a retreat from what he campaigned on: a $200,000 income ceiling on individuals and $250,000 on couples.
Those concessions mean that both men have angered lawmakers and staunch supporters of their respective parties. Neither wants to risk his political capital by embracing a deal his own party rejects.
"When you walk into a room and represent a group and you have to give ground to get a deal, you have to stay in that room as long as you can and you have to walk out with blood on your brow," said Joseph Minarik, research director for the Committee for Economic Development and a veteran of grueling budget talks as a former Clinton White House and House Democratic aide. "Otherwise, the people outside the room don't believe you've fought hard for them."
In their talks, Obama has proposed raising taxes by $1.2 trillion over the coming decade by boosting the current top 35 percent rate to 39.6 percent for income over $400,000, plus other increases on the highest-earning Americans.
He also says he's offered about $1.2 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years, including slowing the growth of benefits from Social Security and other programs. His proposed spending cuts also include $400 billion in savings from Medicare and Medicaid, the health care programs for the elderly and poor whose defense Democrats consider precious priorities.
Boehner has offered about $1 trillion in tax increases and roughly the same amount in spending savings. An earlier Boehner offer included $600 billion in Medicare and Medicaid savings — well more than Obama — but it's unclear whether the speaker is still seeking that figure.
Because of a dispute over how some savings are classified, Boehner says Obama's offer is really $1.3 trillion in higher taxes and only about $850 billion in spending cuts.
The House speaker says Obama's offer is not balanced because its new taxes and spending cuts are unequal. And he complains it does too little to control fast-growing benefit programs like Medicare, a chief driver of the federal government's mushrooming deficits.
Yet while their offers are relatively close, another obstacle they face is that even slight changes in the numbers could force politically significant policy alterations.
Adding, say, another $100 billion to the tax increase over 10 years could mean that people with incomes well below $1 million a year would get a tax increase, something Boehner wants to limit.
On the other hand, adding $100 billion more in spending cuts could mean a deeper hit than Obama wants to Medicare. The president prefers to limit Medicare cuts to the reimbursements that doctors and other health care providers receive, but ever deeper cuts could mean more doctors would be likely to stop treating Medicare patients — an outcome Democrats don't want.

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Obama vows to press ahead on fiscal cliff solution

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says he'll press ahead with Congress to prevent across-the-board tax increases set to strike taxpayers Jan. 1 after House GOP leaders unexpectedly put off a vote on legislation calling for higher rates on million-dollar earners was abruptly scrapped Thursday evening.
The measure "did not have sufficient support from our members to pass," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, conceded in a brief statement.
At the White House, Press Secretary Jay Carney said that Obama's "main priority is to ensure that taxes don't go up on 98 percent of Americans and 97 percent of small businesses," citing statistics associated with Obama's campaign promise to increase top tax rates on household earning more than $250,000 a year.
"The President will work with Congress to get this done and we are hopeful that we will be able to find a bipartisan solution quickly that protects the middle class and our economy," Carney said. Pointedly, the statement didn't say whether Obama would work with Boehner to revive stalled talks with Boehner or turn to the Democratic-controlled Senate to try to salvage the situation.
Boehner's attempt to tactically retreat from a longstanding promise to maintain Bush-era tax rates for all was designed to gain at least some leverage against Obama and Senate Democrats in the fiscal cliff endgame. Thursday's drama was a major personal defeat for the Speaker, who retains the respect and affection of his tea party-infused conference, but sometimes has great difficulty in getting them to follow his leadership.
Boehner's Plan B was crafted to prevent tax increases set to kick in on Jan. 1, 2013, on virtually every taxpayer. But it also would have provision that would have let rates rise for those at the upper income range — a violation of long-standing Republican orthodoxy — triggered the opposition of anti-tax lawmakers inside the party.
The hope was that successful House action on the measure would force Senate Democrats to respond. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., made is clear that Plan B would have been dead on arrival in the Senate.
"Speaker Boehner's plans are non- starters in the Senate," Reid said.
Boehner announced he would move to Plan B after with testing the waters with fellow Republicans regarding a possible pact with Obama on tax increases of $1 trillion — including the breakthrough proposal on higher tax rates — and finding them not very receptive.
Thursday's events leave little time for Obama and bruised lawmakers to prevent across-the-board tax increases and deep spending cuts from taking effect with the new year. Economists say the combination threatened a return to recession for an economy that has been recovering slowly from the last one.
The House will not meet again until after Christmas, if then, and the Senate is expected to meet briefly on Friday, then not reconvene until next Thursday.
In his written statement, Boehner said the House has previously passed legislation to prevent all the tax increases from taking effect, and noted that earlier in the evening it had approved a measure to replace across-the-board spending cuts with "responsible" reductions.
In arguing for legislation with a million-dollar threshold for higher tax rates, Boehner said the president has called for legislation to protect 98 percent of the American people from a tax hike. "Well, today we're going to do better than that," he said of the measure that raises total taxes by slightly more than $300 billion over a decade. "Our bill would protect 99.81 percent of the American people from an increase in taxes."
Democrats said that by keeping tax rates unchanged below $1 million — Obama has offered a compromise $400,000 level — Republicans had turned the bill into a tax break for the wealthy. They also accused Republicans of crafting their measure to impose a tax increase on 11 million middle class families.
"This is a ploy, not a plan," said Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich. He accused Republicans of being "deeply cynical," saying the legislation would scale back some education and child tax credits.
A companion bill on the evening's House agenda, meant to build GOP support for the tax bill, called for elimination of an estimated $97 billion in cuts to the Pentagon and certain domestic programs over a decade. It cleared the House on a partisan vote of 215-209 and is an updated version of legislation that passed a little more than six months ago.
Those cuts would be replaced with savings totaling $314 billion, achieved through increases in the amount federal employees contribute toward their pensions and through cuts in social programs such as food stamps and the health care law that Obama signed earlier in his term.
Ironically, the votes were set in motion earlier in the week, after Boehner and Obama had significantly narrowed their differences on a compromise to avoid the fiscal cliff.
Republican officials said that members of the GOP leadership had balked at the terms that were emerging. Democrats said Boehner's abrupt decision to shift to his Plan B — legislation drafted unilaterally by Republicans — reflected a calculation that he lacked support from his own rank and file to win the votes needed for the type of agreement he was negotiating with the president.
Asked at a news conference a few hours before the scheduled vote if that were so, Boehner avoided a direct answer. "Listen, the president knows that I've been able to keep my word on every agreement we've ever made," he said.
By any measure, the two bills in the House were far removed from the latest offers that officials said Obama and Boehner had tendered. And the two men don't seem to be that far apart.
Obama is now seeking $1.2 trillion in higher tax revenue, down from the $1.6 trillion he initially sought. He also has softened his demand for higher tax rates on household incomes so they would apply to incomes over $400,000 instead of the $250,000 he cited during his successful campaign for a new term.
He also has offered more than $800 billion in spending cuts over a decade, half of it from Medicare and Medicaid, $200 billion from farm and other benefit programs, $100 billion from defense and $100 billion from a broad swath of government accounts ranging from parks to transportation to education.
In a key concession to Republicans, the president also has agreed to slow the rise in cost-of-living increases in Social Security and other benefit programs, at a savings estimated at about $130 billion over a decade.
By contrast, Boehner's most recent offer allowed for about $940 billion in higher taxes over a decade, with higher rates for annual incomes over $1 million.

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Oil drops as US 'fiscal cliff' approaches

BANGKOK (AP) -- Oil prices fell below $90 per barrel Friday as doubts intensified that political leaders in Washington would be able to reach a deal on the budget before a costly and potentially detrimental package of tax hikes and spending cuts automatically kicks in at year's end.
Benchmark crude for February delivery fell 94 cents at late afternoon Bangkok time to $89.19 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 15 cents to end at $90.13 per barrel Thursday on the Nymex.
Brent crude, used to price international varieties of oil, dropped 59 cents to $109.61 per barrel in London.
If the Republicans and Democrats don't work out a compromise before the end of the month, the U.S. could go over the "fiscal cliff," a reference to hundreds of billions of dollars in big tax increases and government spending cuts that take effect if a budget deal is not reached. Some economists fear that would push the U.S. back into recession, a prospect that would likely mean less energy demand.
Late Thursday, House Republicans abruptly put off a vote on an alternative plan offered by House Speaker John Boehner that would prevent scheduled increases from taking effect on Jan. 1 on all income under $1 million. Obama is seeking a level of $400,000.
In other energy futures trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange:
— Natural gas fell 2.7 cents to $3.435 per 1,000 cubic feet.
— Heating oil fell 1.7 cents to $3.0321 a gallon.
— Wholesale gasoline fell marginally to $2.7317 a gallon.

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FBI: 1 of 2 escaped Chicago inmates arrested

CHICAGO (AP) — One of the two bank robbers who made a daring escape from a high-rise federal jail in Chicago was arrested after a dayslong manhunt, the FBI said early Friday.
FBI spokeswoman Joan Hyde said Joseph "Jose" Banks was captured without incident in Chicago. Agents and officers from the Chicago FBI's Violent Crimes Task Force, along with officers from the Chicago Police Department, arrested Banks about 11:30 p.m. Thursday, Hyde told The Associated Press in an email.
The search continued for Kenneth Conley, who fled the jail with Banks early Tuesday.
Banks, 37, and Conley, 38, somehow broke a large hole into the bottom of a 6-inch wide window of the Metropolitan Correctional Center, dropped a makeshift rope made of bed sheets out and climbed down about 20 stories to the ground.
The escape went unnoticed for hours, with surveillance video from a nearby street showing the two hop into a cab shortly before 3 a.m. Tuesday. They had changed out of their orange jail-issued jumpsuits.
When the facility did discover the two men were gone around 7 a.m., what was found revealed a meticulously planned escape, including clothing and sheets shaped to resemble a body under blankets on beds, bars inside a mattress and even fake bars in the cells.
A massive manhunt involving state, federal and local law enforcement agencies was launched, as SWAT teams stormed into the home of a relative of Conley only to learn the two escapees had been there and left. The authorities searched other area homes and businesses — even a strip club where Conley once worked.
Law enforcement officials left a host of questions unanswered, including how the men could collect about 200 feet of bed sheets and what they might have used to break through the wall of the federal facility.
Banks, known as the Second-Hand Bandit because he wore used clothes during his heists, was convicted last week of robbing two banks and attempting to rob two others. Authorities say he stole almost $600,000, and most of that still is missing.
During trial, he had to be restrained because he threatened to walk out of the courtroom. He acted as his own attorney and verbally sparred with the prosecutor, at times arguing that U.S. law didn't apply to him because he was a sovereign citizen of a group that was above state and federal law.
Conley pleaded guilty last October to robbing a Homewood Bank last year of nearly $4,000. Conley, who worked at the time at a suburban strip club, wore a coat and tie when he robbed the bank and had a gun stuffed in his waistband.

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Rutgers elects to sue the Big East over exit fee

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) — Rutgers University is suing the Big East Conference, trying to avoid paying an exit fee.

Rutgers is trying to avoid a $10 million hit for leaving en route to the Big Ten. Big East bylaws state a school must give 27 months' notice and pay a $10 million withdrawal fee.

The suit says the Big East selectively enforced the rules. Rutgers claims some schools did and some did not have to give notice or pay the fee on their way out of the embattled conference.

The league voted to increase its exit fee from $5 million to $10 million last month. Rutgers did not vote on the motion, but voiced opposition.

Rutgers has also asked the Big East for $1.3 million it said it lost when a game was canceled due to the opposition's withdrawal.

The lawsuit was filed in Middlesex County Superior Court Wednesday.

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NCAA's Emmert still pushing for athlete stipends

NEW YORK (AP) — NCAA President Mark Emmert is still determined to provide college athletes with $2,000 for expenses not covered by scholarships.

Convincing schools to go along with that might be as much about changing perceptions as changing the proposal.

In a surprise move last January, the Division I Board of Directors delayed implementing the stipends in the face of criticism from many colleges. The plan is still on hold, with a working group creating options that address the membership's concerns, but Emmert reiterated Wednesday his commitment to putting it into effect.

The stipends would help cover the full cost of attending college, which scholarships don't meet, providing money for expenses beyond tuition, room and board, books and fees.

The Board of Directors approved the rule in October 2011, but by late December, 160 schools had signed onto override legislation. That meant the change was suspended, and the board reconsidered it at the January meeting.

On Wednesday, Emmert sounded a bit chastened by the backlash. Asked about the plan being stayed, he replied, "'Stayed' is the polite word; it kind of got crushed."

"We didn't anticipate the reaction it provoked," Emmert said at the Intercollegiate Athletics Forum.

Schools worried about how the stipends would affect Title IX compliance and whether they'd be able to afford them. Emmert said one possibility was making them need-based — available to students who can't afford the various expenses that come with attending colleges, but less expensive for schools.

But the proposals can be tweaked only so much. The biggest key to implementing the stipends may be changing schools' mindsets.

"This is a branding issue," Emmert acknowledged to The Associated Press.

That can include public pressure. Emmert chided athletic programs that make major decisions guided by efforts to generate more revenue, then complain they can't afford a stipend. At the forum, which is sponsored by IMG and hosted by SportsBusiness Daily/Global/Journal, Emmert said of conference realignment: "When people say it's all about the money, that's not inaccurate."

He later took that argument to the stipends cause: "When the world believes it's all a money grab, how can you say we can stick with the same scholarship model as 40 years ago?"

Money is also pouring in from TV deals. The new college football playoff contract will be worth about $470 million a year. That money, however, goes directly to conferences, not to the NCAA. It also benefits the most the schools that were already the wealthiest to begin with.

But the current men's basketball tournament agreement — worth an average of more than $770 million per year — is with the NCAA. The governing body could use some of that money to pay for stipends itself, though that would mean providing fewer funds to conferences. So the stipends would dent schools' budgets one way or another.

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Johnny "Football" Manziel favorite for Heisman

MIAMI (Reuters) - Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel is in line to become the first 'freshman' winner of the Heisman Trophy when the annual award for the top player in college football is made on Saturday.

Manziel, nicknamed "Johnny Football", is one of three players to be invited to Saturday's ceremony, along with Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o and Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein.

Wednesday's final installment of the Scripps Heisman Poll, which has accurately indicated the winner for 21 off the past 25 years, placed Manziel in the top spot.

The trophy was won last year by Robert Griffin III, who went on to be taken as the number two pick in the 2012 NFL draft by the Washington Redskins.

The previous year's winner Cam Newton, another quarterback, was taken as the number one overall pick by the Carolina Panthers and enjoyed a hugely successful rookie year in the NFL.

Up until Florida quarterback Tim Tebow won the Heisman in 2007, no sophomore had won the award but Manziel could go one better if he wins after his first season.

The Texan finished the regular season with 3,419 passing yards and 1,181 rushing yards to set a new total offense record for the Southeastern Conference (SEC) of 4,600 yards in 12 games.

Manziel also broke the record for total offense in a game, originally set by Archie Mannning, father of Peyton and Eli, back in 1969, when he accumulated 557 yards against Arkansas and he then bettered it with 567 yards against Louisiana Tech.

"It's so surreal for me to be even be able to be mentioned for the Heisman Trophy," Manziel said recently when asked about the award.

Manziel sat out football (redshirted) for his first year at college as the 'Aggies' already had Ryan Tannehill, now the starting quarterback with the Miami Dolphins.

While there is some debate over whether a redshirt freshman should be given the award, Tannehill believes Manziel has proven his worth.

"Look at the numbers. The numbers he has put up are outstanding. He's surpassed Cam Newton and Tim Tebow who both won the Heisman in the years that they set the SEC record for yards in a season," he said.

"Plus the fact of the game changing players he can make. He went to Alabama when they were ranked number one and had an upset victory there," added Tannehill.

The biggest threat to Manziel comes from Te'o who has been outstanding for Notre Dame as they enjoyed a 12-0 record and moved to number one in the nation, earning a shot at the title against the Alabama Crimson Tide in Miami on January 7.

Hawaiian Te'o made 52 solo tackles and assisted on a further 51 in his senior year and he has a total of 427 total tackles from his four year collegiate career.

Unlike Manziel, who has at least one more year left before he can enter the draft and will likely wait more, Te'o is expected to be a first round pick in the 2013 class.

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No one retreating; cliff talks seem at standstill

WASHINGTON (AP) — A year-end deadline approaching, quiet negotiations to avoid an economy-rattling "fiscal cliff" yielded no tangible signs of progress on Monday as Republicans pressed President Barack Obama to volunteer spending cuts he will support while the White House insisted the GOP endorse higher tax rates on upper incomes.

At a campaign-style event in Michigan, Obama warned his listeners their taxes will rise on Jan. 1 without action by the Congress. "That's a hit you can't afford to take," he declared.

He spoke one day after meeting privately at the White House with House Speaker John Boehner, whose office expressed frustration with the talks to date.

"We continue to wait for the president to identify the spending cuts he's willing to make as part of the 'balanced' approach he promised the American people,'" said a written statement from the Ohio Republican's office.

The negotiations are designed to prevent across-the-board tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to begin at the turn of the year, a combination that economists say poses the threat of a new recession.

While leaders in both parties say they are eager to avoid that "cliff," efforts to agree on a plan to cut deficits by other measures have turned into a major postelection showdown between opposing sides in a divided government.

After meeting with Boehner on Sunday, Obama dispatched a top aide to the Capitol to continue talks with the speaker's staff, but officials in both parties said they knew of no progress as a result.

Obama spoke with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., by phone on Monday, as he has consulted with House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California in recent days. The White House did not dispute that the president was prepared to modestly scale back his initial demand for $1.6 trillion in new tax revenue over a decade, twice as much as Boehner has offered.

Many Republicans agree that Obama and the Democrats hold most of the political leverage, given the president's re-election more than a month ago after a campaign in which he said the wealthy should pay more in taxes.

If anything, the president has toughened his demands in recent days, insisting not only that tax rates must rise, but also that Congress give him and future presidents the authority to raise the government's borrowing limit without prior approval by lawmakers.

Boehner, while claiming his own election mandate for the Republican majority in the House, said within a few days of the voting he was prepared to buck many in his party and support additional tax revenue as part of a fiscal cliff agreement.

The Ohio Republican has said repeatedly he opposes Obama's plan to raise tax rates for anyone, adding that he prefers to raise revenue by closing loopholes. Yet he has not yet ruled out giving the president his way, and some Republicans have said they are prepared to do so — encouraging Democrats to say they anticipate the speaker will eventually yield on the point.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters as Obama went to Michigan that "the president believes that a deal is possible. It requires acceptance and acknowledgement in a concrete way by Republicans that the top 2 percent will see an increase in their rates."

In his remarks at the Daimler Detroit Diesel Plant, Obama said the Democrats would "make some tough spending cuts on things that we don't need" as part of his budget plans, although he didn't mention any of them by name.

Republicans have increasingly expressed frustration in recent days as they accuse Obama and the Democrats of failing to talk in specifics when it comes to spending cuts that many of their constituencies are likely to balk at.

In talks that ended in failure 18 months ago, according to aides in both political parties, Obama had tentatively agreed to a proposal to raise the age of Medicare eligibility from 65 to 67 beginning in a decade, and had also said he would accept a change to slow the annual cost-of-living increases that go to recipients of Social Security and other federal benefits.

This time, the two sides have advanced opening proposals that are short of specifics and reflect different priorities.

Obama's plan would raise $1.6 trillion in revenue over 10 years, in part by raising tax rates on incomes over $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples.

He has recommended $400 billion in spending cuts over a decade.

He also is seeking extension of the Social Security payroll tax cut due to expire on Jan. 1, a continuation in long-term unemployment benefits and steps to help hard-pressed homeowners and doctors who treat Medicare patients.

Boehner's plan, in addition to calling for $800 billion in new revenue, envisions $600 billion in savings over a decade from Medicare, Medicaid and other government health programs as well as $300 billion from other benefit programs and another $300 billion from other domestic programs.

It would trim annual increases in Social Security payments to beneficiaries, and it calls for gradually raising the eligibility age for Medicare from 65 to 67, beginning in a decade.

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