Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have discovered ...

Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have discovered that decaffeinated coffee may improve brain energy metabolism associated with type 2 diabetes. This brain dysfunction is a known risk factor for dementia and other neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease. The research is published online in Nutritional Neuroscience...

Realtime Related Tweets


Source: http://www.kiefit.com/Health_Fitness/brain-energy-metabolism-improved-by-decaffeinated-coffee/

gloria cain kandi burruss occupy portland occupy portland the hunger games neil degrasse tyson neil degrasse tyson

'They use you up': Hall of Famer Dorsett suing NFL (AP)

The helmet-to-helmet shot knocked Tony Dorsett out cold in the second quarter of a 1984 Cowboys-Eagles game, the hardest hit he ever took during his Hall of Fame NFL career.

"It was like a freight train hitting a Volkswagen," Dorsett says now.

"Did they know it was a concussion?" he asks rhetorically during an interview with The Associated Press. "They thought I was half-dead."

And yet, he says, after being examined in the locker room ? a light shined in his eyes; queries such as who sat next to him on the Cowboys' bus ride to the stadium ? Dorsett returned to the field and gained 99 yards in the second half. Mainly, he says, by running plays the wrong way, because he couldn't remember what he was supposed to do.

"That ain't the first time I was knocked out or been dazed over the course of my career, and now I'm suffering for it," the 57-year-old former tailback says. "And the NFL is trying to deny it."

Dorsett traces several health problems to concussions during a career that lasted from 1977-88, and he has joined more than 300 former players ? including three other members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and at least 32 first- or second-team All-Pro selections ? in suing the NFL, its teams and, in some cases, helmet maker Riddell. More should have been done in the past to warn about the dangers of concussions, their lawyers argue, and more can be done now and in the future to help retired players deal with mental and physical problems they attribute to their days in the NFL.

In interviews conducted by the AP over the past two months with a dozen plaintiffs, what emerged was, at best, a depiction of a culture of indifference on the part of the league and its teams toward concussions and other injuries. At worst, there was a strong sense of a willful disregard for players' well-being.

"It's not about whether players understood you could get a concussion playing football. It's about the negligence of care, post-concussion, that occurred," says Kyle Turley, an offensive lineman for the Saints, Rams and Chiefs who was the No. 7 overall pick in the 1998 draft and an All-Pro in 2000.

Players complain that they carried owners to their profits, in an industry that now has more than $9 billion in annual revenues, without the safety nets of guaranteed contracts or lifetime medical insurance.

"Yeah, I understand you paid me to do this, but still yet, I put my life on the line for you, I put my health on the line," Dorsett says. "And yet when the time comes, you turn your back on me? That's not right. That's not the American way."

Head injuries are a major topic of conversation every day of the NFL season. With the Super Bowl as a global stage, the NFL will air a one-minute TV commercial during Sunday's game highlighting rules changes through the years that have made the sport safer.

The owners of the teams playing for the Lombardi Trophy in Indianapolis ? Bob Kraft of the New England Patriots and John Mara of the New York Giants ? acknowledge the issue's significance.

"There's more of a focus on it now, without question, and I think that's a good thing, and I think it'll continue to be a focus. Because none of us want to put players in perilous situations like that," Mara says. "I don't want to see guys that are on this team, 20 years from now, with debilitating injuries, no matter what they are."

Says Kraft: "We know this is a physical game, and when people play the game, they know it comes with certain risks. We have tried to stay ahead of it."

The most accomplished and best-known plaintiff in the flurry of lawsuits ? a star for the Cowboys after winning the 1976 Heisman Trophy at Pittsburgh ? Dorsett agreed to two interviews with the AP, one over the telephone and one at his suburban Dallas home.

"I don't want to get to the point where it turns into dementia, Alzheimer's. I don't want that," says Dorsett, who ran for 12,739 yards, the eighth-highest total in league history. He is, in that moment, sad and deflated ? in others, pumped up and angry, fists flying to punctuate his words. "There's no doubt in my mind that ... what I went through as a football player is taking an effect on me today. There's no ifs ands or buts about that. I'm just hoping and praying I can find a way to cut it off at the pass."

He spreads two pages' worth of brain scans on his coffee table and says doctors told him that red regions in the color-coded scan mean he is not getting enough oxygen in the left lobe of his brain, the part associated with organization and memory. He already forgets people's names or why he walked into a room or where he's heading while driving on the highway, and fears his memory issues are getting worse.

Dorsett's had surgery on both his knees, and problems with his left arm and right wrist. He says then-Cowboys coach Tom Landry once told him he could play despite a broken bone in his back. Not even the flak jacket Dorsett says he wore beneath his jersey could bring relief, the injury so painful that "tears would just start flowing out of my eyes, profusely and uncontrollably" during practices.

"They would see me and just point to the training room. `Go to the training room, get some ice and heat and come on back out here,'" Dorsett says.

And during games?

"They were hitting me, and I'd be squealing like a pig," Dorsett says, imitating the guttural sound. "It was so bad that the other team was telling our coaches, `Get him out of the game.' You know that something's wrong then. And like a fool, I stayed as long as I could. They're going to our sideline, telling our coaches, `Get him out of the game!' ... You know it's bad when the opposition feels sorry for you."

Other players describe an off-camera NFL that is darker than the carefully scripted show presented during Super Bowl week. Their recollections, based on playing careers that touched every decade from the 1960s to the 2000s, include:

? "Midnight snack" buffets at a team hotel the night before games that would consist not only of food and drink, but also painkillers so that, as Rory Graves, an Oakland Raiders offensive lineman from 1988-91, puts it, "The next day, you feel like a kid. You could run into a car ? no pain! You didn't feel nothing."

? Cans of beer tucked into airplane seat pockets before players would board, so they'd have something at the ready to wash down the prescription drugs such as the painkiller Vicodin (commonly called "footballs" by players because of their oblong shape) or the muscle relaxant Flexeril ("home plates" because they're pentagons) disbursed freely by someone coming down the aisle on team flights. "We took those drugs because we wanted to play, but there was nobody stopping us," Turley says. "We're young. We're 10 feet tall. Nothing can harm us. If you're giving it to us, we're going to take it."

? Widespread and regular use of Toradol, a medicine intended for pain relief, generally after an operation, and a central part of one of the lawsuits that says the drug could put someone with a head injury at increased risk. "If it wasn't torn or it wasn't broken, to me, Toradol fixed it and allowed me to keep going. I was so used to using it that I wanted to make it a weekly ritual to make sure that if I did get hurt, I wouldn't have to be taken out of the game," says Joe Horn, who estimated he got four or five concussions during a career in which he caught more than 600 passes for the Chiefs, Saints and Falcons from 1996-2007. "To be honest with you, we were kind of ? what's the word for it? ? addicted. But I always thought it was OK; the NFL doctors were giving it to us."

? Being scorned by teammates or coaches if unable to return to a game because of injury, and a seeming total dismissal, particularly in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, of the notion that head trauma could cause significant problems, immediately or long term. "Get back out there" was a phrase repeated by the ex-players, citing words they heard during practices or games. As Joe Harris, a linebacker with five teams from 1977-82, says: "I know I had nine or 10 concussions, because I played through them. A lot of times, I'm out there and I was dazed, and I heard guys say, `He's knocked out, and he don't even know it.' And then you talk to your coach, and they bring out smelling salts. `Give him a hit of that, and put him back out on the field.' And they show you fingers, and you say it's three when it's two. And they say, `Get back out there. Just hit the one in the middle.'"

? A day-to-day, post-football existence that is difficult because of, for some, depression, dementia, migraine headaches, memory lapses, along with balky hips and knees and shoulders. "My body hurts all the time," says Mark Duper, who caught more than 500 passes as a wide receiver with Dan Marino's Miami Dolphins from 1982-92. Duper is more concerned, though, about the ringing in his ears, the loss of memory, "having a conversation and, all of a sudden, I just forget what I'm talking about."

"I try not to take medicine. I don't want to be a zombie," Duper adds. "What little left I've got in my brain, I want to keep it normal."

Dorsett describes making the trek to the annual Hall of Fame induction ceremony and being saddened by once-hearty men deteriorating before his eyes.

"Bodies that were just mangled, just beat up. Twisted up. Hit with arthritis and the knuckles and the bones, the twisted bones. It's `Wow!' It's very enlightening to see that," he says, wincing at the images he describes. "And then when you hear that these guys don't have insurance, that the league won't give them insurance, that the league is saying that it didn't happen on their clock. That's bull."

Citing the pending litigation, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league would not comment on players' specific allegations and referred to a written statement initially released in December: "The NFL has long made player safety a priority and continues to do so. Any allegation that the NFL intentionally sought to mislead players has no merit. It stands in contrast to the league's actions to better protect players and advance the science and medical understanding of the management and treatment of concussions."

Jack Yeo, who works at a public relations firm representing Riddell, said the equipment company does not comment on legal matters.

As public as the plight of current players is, former players say their stories aren't widely known.

"Fans don't know. They have no clue. And you think the NFL is going to tell them? No," says Ronnie Lippett, a Patriots cornerback from 1983-91. "I'm just so happy that the senators and congressmen and congresswomen took notice of how they have been cheating us. And that's the only reason (players are) getting the help that we're getting now. And it's only been in the last two years that anything has started to change."

Soon after a House hearing in October 2009, when lawmakers grilled Commissioner Roger Goodell about the league's concussion policies and the connection between injuries on the playing field and later brain diseases, the NFL made several changes. Those included revamping return-to-play guidelines and changing the co-chairmen of its committee on concussions ? a panel, originally formed in 1994, that one pending suit against the league describes as "part of the NFL's scheme to deceive Congress, the players and the public at large."

The league finds itself continually changing its concussion protocols, most recently after Cleveland Browns quarterback Colt McCoy returned to a December game despite not being checked for a head injury following an against-the-rules hit to the helmet. The league put certified athletic trainers in booths above the field to watch for injuries and added video feeds on sidelines to make it easier to track dangerous hits immediately.

But players like Dorsett and Duper, who played long before that greater awareness and vigilance, didn't have such safeguards.

"They weren't as cautious back then. We played with concussions. I didn't know what a concussion was, really, when I was playing football. We got hit, we got up," Duper says. "I can remember times when I got hit, and I went back out on the field, and I couldn't remember the plays. I guess that's what a concussion is, the `Eeeeeeeeeeee!' you'd hear. And you woke up and you'd see stars. I remember those things. And I played with it."

Says Barry Brown, a linebacker and tight end for three teams from 1966-70: "When you know you've got a concussion, and they put you back in the game, it's abuse."

That attitude extended beyond head injuries, according to the plaintiffs the AP interviewed.

"The game of football and the money that was out there ? they wanted the best players in the games, no matter what. If he was 80 percent well or 75 percent, they believed that he, the starter, was better than the second guy behind him, and they'd rather have a less-percentage guy. They didn't protect us at all," Lippett says. "I took shots in my foot, in my shoulders, in my ribs. They had to know of the ramifications of going back out there with different injuries. The money aspect of it just forced them to not pay attention."

Mara, the Giants' owner, says he can't speak for other teams, but insists his medical staff takes "any kind of injury seriously."

"They don't let players go back on the field unless they feel they can do so without risk, particularly with head injuries," says Mara, whose family founded the Giants in 1925. "Our trainer, Ronnie Barnes, has been with us forever. You ask any of our players, or former players, whether he put their interests first or the team's interests first, and I think you'd find a pretty strong consensus that he always put the players' interests first. I can't speak to other organizations."

Giants long snapper Zak DeOssie's father, Steve, also played for New York, as well as New England, during his 1984-95 career. The elder DeOssie was approached about signing on as a plaintiff against the NFL but hasn't because, he says, "I'm not 100 percent sure if my concussions have affected me."

"You accept the responsibility and you accept the idea that you're in a dangerous profession, but you also expect certain levels of care and professionalism on the other side. And I think it's a lot better now than it ever was before," says Steve DeOssie. "Whether it's through public pressure, or whether it's their own desire, they've gone a long way to make it right, which is a good thing."

Players have differing motives for suing their former employers, and the 20 or so lawsuits against the NFL seek varying remedies, although lawyers are reluctant to discuss specific monetary damages. At least one suit, for example, asked that the NFL and Riddell fund a medical monitoring program that would test players over the years to see whether they wind up with problems that stem from concussions.

"I just want to make sure there is some recognition given to the fact that, 10 years from now, if I come down with something ... that I have some kind of recourse," says Cedric Brown, a safety for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1976-84. "I don't want to end up, 10 years from now, being a vegetable, and you've got nowhere to go."

Asked what advice he'd give current players, Brown says: "First thing is, wear every pad. ... And pay attention to your body. When you get to be 50 or 60, those little injuries you have now, guess what? They're coming back."

Dorsett acknowledges he's not familiar with details of the lawsuit that includes him among the plaintiffs. He was approached about joining other former players, and he agreed, figuring his name would call attention to the issues of mistreatment he sees as being at the heart of the case.

"I'll stand up on a mountaintop," Dorsett says, "and tell the world it's not right."

Ask Dorsett what outcome he hopes for, and he speaks about money and principles.

"The owners need to own up to it, own up to what the game does to human lives. There's a zillion football players in the same situation with their brains, their backs, their knees. Come on. They just need to own up to it, and do something about it. They've got money they can put in funds to take care of guys when they need to help," Dorsett says. "We need health insurance for life. Paid by the NFL. No question in my mind, we definitely need that."

According to the NFL Players Association, full lifetime medical insurance was not sought by current and former union leadership because such a plan would cost an estimated $50 million a year and the current U.S. health care laws should cover most players with pre-existing conditions.

"Until the public realizes what's going on and how many players ? there's guys in the Hall of Fame; in the Hall of Fame! ? that were making $300, $400, $500 a month with no health insurance. Again, what is that? That is sad. That is sad," says Dennis Harrah, a Los Angeles Rams offensive lineman from 1975-87 and an All-Pro in 1986. "They're just fallen heroes. You take care of fallen heroes. Somehow, some way."

For now, the lawsuits are still in the initial, procedural stages. On Tuesday, at least four, including one in which former Chicago Bears Super Bowl-winning quarterback Jim McMahon is a plaintiff, were consolidated in a Philadelphia court.

Harrah, like most of the former players interviewed by the AP, isn't all that optimistic about a quick resolution. "They're just waiting until we die," he says of the NFL. "They're just waiting for us old guys until we pass ? to quit complaining, and we die."

That same sense of resentment and despair permeates Dorsett's words as he raises his voice and shakes his head.

"They use you up. No matter what the circumstances are, it's all about winning games, football games, regardless. And they don't care, because they figure, you know, `We got, you know, replacement factories,' which are colleges. And there's going to be somebody else to eventually come along and fill that void," he says. "So they just put you out there, and feed you to the wolves. And if you make it through, fine. If you don't, that's fine.

"Management, ownership, as far as injuries are concerned, I think in some regards they wish they could just look the other way."

___

AP National Writer Nancy Armour reported from Chicago and Indianapolis; AP Pro Football Writer Howard Fendrich reported from Washington, D.C., and Indianapolis; AP National Writer Martha Irvine reported from Frisco, Texas. AP researcher Judith Ausuebel contributed to this report from New York.

___

Follow Nancy Armour at http://www.twitter.com/nrarmour

Follow Howard Fendrich at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich

Follow Martha Irvine at http://twitter.com/irvineap

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120202/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_the_hardest_hit

duke basketball ides of march miranda july joe paterno near death joepa sc primary bill moyers

Time in Space May Alter Astronauts? Genes

For youtube videos, paste embed code directly in the text box

-

Members do not need to provide an address

-

Rate Article

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Total votes: 0 Select Comment Validation Method
Member
Name/URL (Guest)
FaceBook (Guest) Member Commenting:


Authenticate with Facebook before submitting

Add Comment

OR


Add Comment

Make your LabSpaces comments count. Start earning LabSpaces points by becoming a member! Learn more. Please verify that you are human:
Register for LabSpaces
Add Comment Make your LabSpaces comments count. Start earning LabSpaces points by becoming a member! Learn more.

Please authenticate before trying to post a comment.

If you would like to remain anonymous, please enter a new name and link below


Add Comment

Friends

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117255/Time_in_Space_May_Alter_Astronauts____Genes

smokin joe conrad murray verdict tappan zee bridge jessica chastain jessica chastain nook tablet eagles

Police: Squatters Took Over Iraq War Veteran's Home, Sold His ...

Police: Squatters Took Over Iraq War Veterans Home, Sold His Belongings

Police say Johnny Wayne Bell and Faylisa Danielle Bailey broke into an Iraq war veteran's home and began selling off his belongings. (Image source: Houston Chronicle)

Texas police say a pair of squatters took over an Iraq war veteran?s home and began selling off his family?s belongings.

Faylisa Danielle Bailey, 30, and Johnny Wayne Bell, 47, are accused of breaking into the Liberty County, Texas home of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Sam Burbank and holding a garage sale of his possessions. Burbank just returned from his third tour in Iraq and has been living with his wife and two sons at Fort Hood.

?They kicked open the door. They removed all the items out of the house and started selling off the property of the homeowners,? Capt. Rex Evans with the Liberty County Sheriff?s Office told Houston Fox affiliate KRIV-TV.

Bailey and Bell were arrested Tuesday after a Burbank family relative happened to drive by and see a recliner chair, a table and a mattress all for sale in the front yard, Houston ABC affiliate KTRK-TV reported. When officers arrived, they even found customers examining the yard sale items.

Investigators said the squatters lived in the house for a few days before being discovered, sleeping on an old mattress on the floor, the Houston Chronicle reported. Evans said police also discovered a ?substantial amount? methamphetamine belonging to the pair. Both had been on parole for drug possession.

?We found syringes and spoons and other evidence of them using methamphetamines inside that house,? Evans?said.

According to the Chronicle, the Burbank family packed their furniture and other belongings into a shed in the backyard after he was assigned to Fort Hood seven years ago.

?It devastated us,? Hollie Burbank told the newspaper of the squatters. ?We got married in that house. It?s been in my family for three?generations.?

She said her family would come back to the house periodically to get away and would let relatives stay there while they were gone.

She said they don?t yet know everything that?s missing.

?But there are a lot of sentimental things there that I could never replace,? she said. Among the items investigators found was a torn photo of her grandmother on the lawn.

Evans told KTRK he found the case very upsetting.

?It?s very disturbing to know that man is serving his country and risking his life for us, and to have somebody force their way into his home while he?s away and then to literally put his stuff out in the yard and just sell it ? it?s very disturbing,? he said.

(H/T: Blaze reader John)

Source: TheBlaze.com

Source: http://teapartybase.com/2012/02/01/police-squatters-took-over-iraq-war-veteran%E2%80%99s-home-sold-his-belongings/

sara evans lionel richie cma awards cma awards christmas tree tax cmas cmas

Russia postpones space launch (AP)

MOSCOW ? The head of Russia's space agency says that a manned launch to the International Space Station is being postponed from March 30 because of faults found in the Soyuz capsule.

Vladimir Popovkin of Roskosmos said Tuesday in televised remarks that the planned launch of three astronauts to the space station will be postponed "likely until the end of April."

He did not specify what the problems were, but the state news agency RIA Novosti cited the director of Russia's cosmonaut-training program as saying leaks had been found in the capsule's seals.

It is be the second significant postponement of a manned Russian launch in the past year.

Since the end of the U.S. space shuttle program last year, Russian craft are the only means to send crew to and from the ISS.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_sc/eu_russia_launch_postponed

miranda july joe paterno near death joepa sc primary heidi klum and seal divorce bill moyers fab melo

Democrats defend Obama administration over bungled gun sting (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday sought to blunt political attacks on the Obama administration over a botched gun sting operation, saying that the idea of allowing weapons to go across the border to Mexico came from field agents and prosecutors.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee issued a report just two days before Republicans on the same panel plan to grill Attorney General Eric Holder about the most recent operation, dubbed "Fast and Furious," in which as many as 2,000 guns may have been trafficked to Mexican drug cartels.

President Barack Obama's fellow Democrats said in the 89-page report that the operations and strategies dated back to the Bush administration and were the brainchild of field agents and prosecutors, not officials at the upper levels of government.

"Unfortunately this strategy failed to include sufficient operational controls to stop these dangerous weapons from getting into the hands of violent criminals, creating a danger to public safety on both sides of the border," Representative Elijah Cummings, the senior Democrat on the committee, said in a letter accompanying the 89-page report.

The panel chairman, Republican Darrell Issa, sent a letter to Holder on Tuesday accusing him of engaging in a cover-up and complaining that the Justice Department will not turn over more documents including those about its response to the scandal.

"If the department continues to obstruct the congressional inquiry by not providing documents and information, this committee will have no alternative but to move forward with proceedings to hold you in contempt of Congress," Issa said.

A Justice Department official said the agency was cooperating with the committee and would continue to do so. The agency has turned over several thousand pages to the committee and allowed some senior officials to be interviewed.

Two guns from the Fast and Furious operation were found at the scene where a U.S. Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry, was killed during a shootout with illegal immigrants. It was not clear, however, if those weapons fired the fatal shots.

That operation ran from late 2009 to early 2011 out of the Phoenix offices of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Attorney. The goal was to try to track guns being smuggled from the initial purchaser to senior drug cartel members.

However, in most cases ATF agents did not follow the guns beyond the initial buyer. Republicans have questioned who in the administration knew about and approved the operation and its tactics and when. They have issued subpoenas for documents and for witnesses to testify.

Mexican authorities have complained about the flood of weapons coming into their country from the United States and contributing to the deadly war with the drug cartels.

OFFICIALS SAY THEY DID NOT KNOW

The Obama administration has admitted that the operation and its tactics were unacceptable, but senior Justice Department and ATF officials have denied that they knew of the specific tactics until early 2011 - after it was over.

Republicans have expressed doubts about those assertions and some have demanded Holder's resignation as well as that of his senior aide, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, who runs the Justice Department's criminal division.

"Contrary to repeated claims by some, the committee has obtained no evidence that Operation Fast and Furious was a politically-motivated operation conceived and directed by high-level Obama Administration political appointees at the Department of Justice," Cummings said.

The report said that during "Fast and Furious", agents first sought to bring charges for smaller cases involving the gun buyers, known as straw purchasers, but that senior prosecutors wanted to wait to see if they could bring bigger cases.

It also revealed that authorities in the United States and Mexico had recovered 567 weapons from the botched operation as of January 2011, almost two-thirds of which were found in the United States.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120131/pl_nm/us_usa_mexico_guns

nick fairley tim allen enlightened enlightened stand and deliver when does ios 5 come out when does ios 5 come out

Got an extra million? A candidate could be in need

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, greets supporters at his Florida primary primary night rally in Tampa, Fla., Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, greets supporters at his Florida primary primary night rally in Tampa, Fla., Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

FILE - In this June 7, 2011 file photo shows Las Vegas Sands Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson waves in Hong Kong. Get ready to find out who the millionaires are behind this year's presidential election. Now, for the first time since they started shaping the campaign in earnest, many of those "super" political action committees are set to disclose just who is financing their pseudo-campaign operations. Many took advantage of a change in federal rules that essentially let them shield their donors' identities until after key primary elections in January. But they still must submit their financial reports to the Federal Election Commission by Tuesday. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File)

FILE- In this June 1, 2011, file photo, GOP strategist Karl Rove arrives at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver , where he addressed Republicans at a fund raising luncheon. American Crossroads, the Republican "super" political committee that plans to play a major role in this year's presidential campaign, raised more than $51 million along with its nonprofit arm last year, The Associated Press has learned. The figures from Crossroads, the group backed by former George W. Bush adviser Rove, were among the first financial reports being made public Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012, the deadline for super PACs and presidential candidates to file financial reports with federal election officials. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski, File)

(AP) ? Brother, can you spare $1 million?

The significant "super" political action committees in this year's presidential campaign on Tuesday revealed the names of their wealthy donors, a detailed accounting that underscored how millionaires and billionaires are influencing the presidential election behind the scenes.

The group supporting Mitt Romney, who swept Florida's primary on Tuesday, identified bankers, investors and prominent businessmen who together contributed more than $30 million last year. The group's three most generous donors gave $1 million each, or 400 times the amount they could legally give directly to Romney. All were hedge fund managers.

The pro-Romney group Restore Our Future spent much of the money it raised on ads supporting the former Massachusetts governor or fiercely attacking his rivals. The generosity among Romney's wealthiest supporters is double-edged, since he can expect renewed criticisms from Newt Gingrich and others about his connections to financial elites on Wall Street, Park Avenue, Fifth Avenue and elsewhere.

The top $1 million contributions came from Robert Mercer, co-executive of Renaissance Technologies, one of the world's largest hedge funds; Julian H. Robertson Jr., the retired head of Tiger Management Corp., another top hedge fund; and Paul Singer, head of the New York-based Elliot Management Corp. Singer is a major Republican party campaign bundler, and his firm has specialized in the controversial practice of buying up sovereign debt of Third World and economically distressed nations.

A Restore Our Future official declined to discuss the new financial reports, filed with the federal government late Tuesday.

To be sure, the Romney-leaning super PAC isn't alone in its high-dollar contributions to support candidates. Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife collectively gave $10 million this month to the pro-Gingrich Winning Our Future super PAC, making the couple by far the key backers to a group that had only raised $2 million through the end of December.

Adelson's donation seemed to be reaping rewards already. Gingrich's speech in Florida late Tuesday included a renewed promise by the candidate that, if elected, he would relocate the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem ? a move Adelson has long supported.

American Crossroads, the Republican group backed by former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove, said it raised $51 million along with its nonprofit arm last year. Most of its $11 million in contributions over the past three months came from roughly a dozen wealthy donors, including Harold Simmons, a Dallas businessman with ties to former Republican candidate Rick Perry.

Restore Our Future has been among the most prominent groups this election cycle. It spent more than $14 million in key primary states on ads that largely supported Romney and hammered Gingrich. The ads were deemed so effective against Gingrich that they contributed to his downfall at the Iowa caucuses.

The group's largest donors, however, aren't immediately apparent on their filings to the Federal Election Commission. Once million-dollar gift came in four installments from Melaleuca Inc., a vitamin and health products company headed by Frank VanderSloot, a Mormon businessman who has donated to both Republican and Democratic politicians. VanderSloot's website features a photo of him posing with Gingrich and his wife, Callista.

At least $750,000 came from Bill Koch, a sibling of the two prominent Koch brothers who have undergirded the finances for many GOP, conservative and pro-business causes in recent years. Koch gave a $250,000 donation, and Oxbow Carbon LLC, the global energy firm he heads, gave $750,000 more.

The super PACs' war chests underscore the extraordinary impact the groups will have on this year's race. In GOP primaries so far, groups working for or against presidential candidates have spent roughly $25 million on TV ads? about half the nearly $53 million spent on advertising so far to influence voters in the early weeks of the race.

The super PACs are the products of a 2010 Supreme Court ruling that removed restrictions on corporate and union spending in federal elections. The super PACs can't directly coordinate with the candidates they support, but many are staffed with former campaign workers who have an intimate knowledge of a favored candidate's strategy.

___

Follow Jack Gillum on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jackgillum

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-02-01-Campaign%20Money/id-5837887e1f1a4013bdb1e58201e6c078

oxford comma elisabetta canalis lord howe island lord howe island conficker conficker zach braff

Merkel to urge China to cut Iran oil imports: source (Reuters)

BERLIN (Reuters) ? German Chancellor Angela Merkel will use a planned visit to China this week to encourage Beijing to reduce its imports of Iranian oil, a German government source said on Tuesday.

Last week, the European Union agreed to ban from July 1 all imports of oil from Iran, OPEC's second largest producer, in a drive to pressure Tehran into reining in its nuclear activities.

"It is in German interests that China does not raise its imports (from Iran). It would be good if China would reduce its imports," the government source told a news briefing ahead of Merkel's trip to China that begins on Wednesday.

China has criticized the EU ban, saying it is "not a constructive approach."

Beijing, the world's second largest crude consumer, has long opposed unilateral sanctions that target Iran's energy sector and has tried to reduce tensions that could threaten its oil supply.

The 27-nation EU delayed until July the entry into force of the oil import ban because it also wants to avoid penalizing the ailing economies of Italy, Greece and others for whom Iran is a major oil supplier.

The EU strategy will be reviewed in May to see whether it should go ahead.

Western powers accuse Iran of planning to build nuclear weapons. Tehran says its nuclear program is for purely peaceful purposes.

(Reporting by Matthias Sobolewski and Gareth Jones; editing by James Jukwey)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120131/wl_nm/us_germany_iran

eli manning eli manning steven tyler ny giants chip kelly billy cundiff new york giants

Channing Tatum Gives Co-Star Rachel McAdams A Massive Surprise!

Mindy Kaling Leaving 'The Office' for Her Own Show?

Dunder Mifflin may be losing another employee. Last week, word spread that Rainn Wilson might be leaving The Office (Thursdays, at 9 p.m. ET on NBC) for his own spin-off, and now comes news that writer/producer/cast member Mindy Kaling could be the next to jump ship. 

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/mindy-kaling-leaving-office-her-own-fox-show/1-a-423677?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Amindy-kaling-leaving-office-her-own-fox-show-423677

rumpelstiltskin rumpelstiltskin yahoo.com/mail david nelson david nelson frank miller 60 minutes