Tuesday, October 22, 2013

S&P 500 closes at record for fourth straight day


The prospect of more economic stimulus from the Federal Reserve is pushing the Standard & Poor's 500 index to a fourth consecutive record close.

Whirlpool, Delta Air Lines and Kimberly-Clark rose sharply after reporting higher quarterly earnings.

The S&P 500 rose 10 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,754 Tuesday.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 75 points, or 0.5 percent, to 15,467. The Nasdaq composite was up nine points, or 0.4 percent, at 3,929.

In government bond trading, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.52 percent from 2.60 percent late Monday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/p-500-closes-record-fourth-straight-day-201536133--finance.html
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Election In Ultra-Orthodox Israeli Town Tests Gender Norms





Candidates for town council Michal Chernovitsky (left) and Adina Ruhamkin campaign in a park in El'ad, or Forever God, a small religious community in Israel. They could be the first women on El'ad's council, and the first ultra-Orthodox women to win public office in Israel.



Emily Harris/NPR

Voters across Israel choose new mayors and city councilors in local elections Tuesday. In one small town, a handful of ultra-Orthodox Jewish women are defying the norms of their community by running for office.


On a recent day, children mob two women in skirts, stockings and purple T-shirts in a neighborhood park in El'ad, or Forever God. The women are candidates for town council. As part of their get-the-word-out campaign, they're blowing up balloons for kids.


"I've been thinking about this for a year. I think it's crucial that women be represented on the town council," Michal Chernovitsky, the 33-year-old leader of the five female candidates running. "Because there are just men now, a lot of issues get lost."


Their slogan is "Mothers for El'ad." The town is young, just 13 years old. It was built specifically as a strict religious community, and the town spends extra money on synagogues and other religious institutions. No one is allowed to drive here on the Sabbath, and few residents have TV or the Internet.


All that is fine with Adina Ruhamkin, another candidate; what El'ad needs, she says, are basic services for children and the moms who take care of their daily needs.


"There's no library, nothing here. ... It's like a hotel," Ruhamkin says. "You come to sleep in town and leave the town. That's what's there — nothing."


Among the Mothers' pitches: Build a library and a swimming pool, increase bus service and add more stops. They also want to create jobs, for men and women. One voter at the park, a mother of nine, is hesitantly supportive.


"I've never heard before of women running for council," she says. "It's a new thing. I hope it will be accepted, but I'm not so sure. Here women who express themselves aren't seen as a good thing."


As the candidates hand out balloons, a car from another city council campaign drives by, touting over a loudspeaker the endorsements it's won from various rabbis. There are many ultra-Orthodox elected officials in Israel; none are women.


Racheli Ibenboim might have become one. She was supposed to be on the Jerusalem ballot for city council, but community pressure led her to drop out.


"My children were threatened that they would not be able to stay at their schools," Ibenboim says. "My husband was told he wouldn't be able to attend our synagogue anymore. His employers even got a phone call saying they should let him go."


She got many messages of support, too, but felt her particular ultra-Orthodox sect just wasn't ready for a woman to run for public office.


"When I had to decide whether to stay a part of my sect or take on this political task, I thought it was more important to try to create change from within," she says.


As Israel's ultra-Orthodox population has grown, its strict gender rules have crept into other parts of society. Rachel Azaria is not ultra-Orthodox, but is devout, religiously observant and an elected member of the Jerusalem City Council. She helped lead a fight against public bus lines that made women sit in the back. Azaria says many ultra-Orthodox women secretly called her during the campaign to thank her for her efforts, albeit in hushed tones.


Azaria believes with time, more ultra-Orthodox women will seek to make their voices heard in politics. Back in El'ad, the Mothers team is hopeful it will win at least one town council seat. But the candidates are in unfamiliar territory, says Ruhamkin.


"It's weird. We're not yet in, but weird," she says. "Because we are women and everybody [else] are men, and it's going to be weird.


After polls close Tuesday night, Forever God may indeed change.


Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/10/22/239347445/ultra-orthodox-towns-election-puts-gender-rules-to-the-test?ft=1&f=3
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Problems remain after Microsoft yanks Windows RT 8.1 update



In case you missed it, late Friday afternoon Microsoft pulled the Windows RT 8.1 update. Enough customers complained about BSODs and completely bricked machines -- including, notably, Microsoft Surface RT machines -- after applying the RT-to-RT 8.1 upgrade, that the update was yanked entirely.


There's also been a steady stream of complaints about the Win8-to-Win8.1 update, including an inability to connect with Remote Access Website connections. Here's an overview of what we know so far has happened, and how you may be able to recover.


Microsoft released the Windows 8.1 upgrade early in the morning (U.S. time) on Oct. 17. For consumers and others who don't have Volume License agreements with Microsoft, the update was directly accessible through the Microsoft Store. Volume Licensees had access through the VLSC. And, of course, MSDN and TechNet members have had access to the Windows 8.1 Enterprise (but not the Windows RT 8.1) bits for a month.


By Oct. 18, many users had reported problems with a Blue Screen, 0xC1900101 - 0x40017 error with the Windows 8.1 update. To date, the Microsoft Answers forum discussion that deals with that specific BSOD is up to 24 pages of comments, and Microsoft hasn't responded with any worthwhile suggestions, much less a solution.


Now we're seeing a second wave of problems.


Windows RT customers (those with retail copies of Windows RT, not volume licensees) encountered unresolved Blue Screen 0xc000000d errors with notification that "Your PC needs to be repaired / The Boot Configuration Data file is missing some required information / File: \BCD". On Oct. 19 -- two days after the update was released -- Microsoft MVP Wesley_P posted on the Answers Forum: "Why isn't the Windows RT 8.1 upgrade available in the Microsoft store?"


Apparently it took Microsoft about 48 hours to pull the upgrade. In a post without a time stamp, on a rather obscure site , Microsoft issued this advisory:



Microsoft is investigating a situation affecting a limited number of users updating their Windows RT devices to Windows RT 8.1. As a result, we have temporarily removed the Windows RT 8.1 update from the Windows Store. We are working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible and apologize for any inconvenience. We will provide updates as they become available.



I have seen no further comment from Microsoft, no acknowledgment or description of the problem, and certainly no fix.


Ozzie Scott Williams, on his technical blog kickthatcomputer ("Annoying stuff I figured out / I really hate computers"), has come up with an ingenious workaround. Big problem: the method requires a USB recovery drive for your Windows RT computer, and few people have one sitting around.


However, following the steps he outlines, if you trust him (disclaimer: I don't know Williams), you can create a Windows RT recovery USB drive. Using the recovery USB drive, there's a way to bring up an old-fashioned command prompt, and type in a one-line command to rebuild the trashed BCD. Once the BCD is fixed, apparently Windows RT 8.1 will boot.


Score one for the DOS command line. Hard to believe it would bring a borked Surface RT back to life.


The other major, solvable Windows 8.1 bug I've seen makes it impossible to connect Internet Explorer to a Remote Web Access website running on a Small Business Server 2011 server.  Poster Yves describes it on the TechNet forum:


Source: http://www.infoworld.com/t/microsoft-windows/problems-remain-after-microsoft-yanks-windows-rt-81-update-229131
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Greek charity: mystery Gypsy camp girl aged 5-6


ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A Greek charity says an unknown girl found living with a Roma couple charged with abducting her is older than police initially thought.

The "Smile of the Child" charity, which is caring for the child known as "Maria" until her biological parents are found, says she is aged around five or six.

The charity director said Monday that the revision follows dental and other examinations done at a hospital where the girl is undergoing health checks. The charity had initially set her age at around four.

A Greek appeal for help in identifying the girl has triggered a global outpouring of sympathy and tips — over 8,000 calls so far — but no concrete breakthroughs, authorities say.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

A Greek appeal for help in identifying an unknown girl who had been living with a Roma couple has triggered a global outpouring of sympathy and tips — over 8,000 calls so far — but no concrete breakthroughs, authorities said Monday.

Greek police on the case are investigating everything from a potential link with child trafficking rings to a welfare scam or even simple charity as they seek the child's biological parents.

The "Smile of the Child" charity, which is caring for the approximately 4-year-old girl, said it has received thousands of emails in addition to the calls. Respondents include people from the U.S., Scandinavia and other parts of Europe, Australia and South Africa.

"The case has touched a chord with lots of people from many countries," Panayiotis Pardalis, a charity spokesman, told The Associated Press on Monday. "We've received photos of missing children and potentially connected cases which we are forwarding to the police, but there are also — and that's the majority — people conveying their support and concern."

Greek police have also sought assistance from Interpol, the international police agency, which has 38 girls younger than 6 on its missing persons database. None of them, however, fit the girl's description and the agency only receives cases when member governments seek its help.

The Greek appeal follows the discovery last week of the girl in a Gypsy settlement near Farsala in central Greece during a police raid looking for drugs, firearms and fugitives. The blond, blue-eyed child was strikingly unlike the couple she lived with, which triggered the curiosity of prosecutor Christina Fasoula, who had accompanied the police.

A DNA test proved that "Maria," as the child was called, was not related to the Gypsy couple she was living with. Police say the couple initially claimed her as their own.

A 39-year-old man and a 40-year-old woman appeared Monday before an investigating judge in Larissa, near Farsala, to face criminal charges of child abduction, which carries a maximum ten-year prison sentence.

Both denied the charges last week, claiming instead to have adopted the child while she was just days old. A defense lawyer said they were motivated by charity, after being approached by an intermediary for a destitute foreign mother who reportedly could not afford to raise the child.

The suspects have also been charged with illegally obtaining official documents such as birth records.

Police allege the woman claimed to have given birth to six children in less than 10 months, while 10 of the 14 children the couple had registered as their own are unaccounted for.

It is unclear whether these all exist, or are fake declarations of parenthood to milk the Greek welfare system. Police say the two suspects received about 2,500 euros ($3,420) a month in subsidies from three different cities where they had registered the children.

The man also faces separate charges, together with other people from the settlement, for allegedly possessing an illegal firearm and drug-related offences.

Roma, a poor people in a country devastated by an economic crisis, try to make a living on the outskirts of Farsala by selling fruits, carpets, blankets, baskets and shoes. They are already stereotyped by some in Greece and elsewhere in Europe as social outcasts, thieves and beggars — and now fear they will be stigmatized as child traffickers as well.

The case "doesn't reflect on all of us," Babis Dimitriou, president of the local Roma community, told the AP on Sunday.

Dimitriou said the female suspect claimed the child's biological mother was a Bulgarian woman.

"I have seen that woman in our settlement, but she disappeared a few days ago," he said.

Greece's Roma community has for centuries been exposed to poverty and discrimination. According to the London-based Minority Rights Group, some 80 percent of Greece's 300,000 Roma are illiterate.

___

Costas Kantouris in Thessaloniki contributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/greek-charity-mystery-gypsy-camp-girl-aged-5-130731171.html
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Sometimes You Need Your To-Do List To Be A Bit Bossy

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=239269498&ft=1&f=1019
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NJ governor ends gay marriage fight as couples wed


TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Gov. Chris Christie dropped his legal challenge to same-sex marriages on Monday, removing the possibility that the vows of couples who began getting married hours earlier could be undone by a court.

New Jersey became the 14th state to allow gay marriages Monday, three days after the state Supreme Court unanimously rejected Christie's request to delay the start of the nuptials. He has said residents, not a court or legislators, should decide on the issue.

"Although the governor strongly disagrees with the court substituting its judgment for the constitutional process of the elected branches or a vote of the people, the court has now spoken clearly as to their view of the New Jersey Constitution and, therefore, same-sex marriage is the law," Christie's spokesman Michael Drewniak said in a statement. "The governor will do his constitutional duty and ensure his administration enforces the law as dictated by the New Jersey Supreme Court."

The announcement came from a Republican governor who is a possible 2016 presidential candidate and has for years opposed gay marriage while supporting the state's previous civil union law.

It was met with jubilation from gay rights advocates including Steven Goldstein, the founder and former leader of Garden State Equality, who asked "How much happiness can I stand?" Conversely, conservatives like National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown scorned the legalization of gay weddings.

"This is just another example of the courts making law out of thin air," he said. "Obviously, Christie should have continued the lawsuit."

Brown said his group could look into whether it could continue the legal fight that Christie dropped but said he doubts the courts would allow anyone to intervene.

The decision caught some by surprise, but not Larry Lustberg, one of the lawyers on the case on behalf of gay couples and Garden State Equality. "The handwriting was on the wall as clearly as it could possibly be. The governor had always said he would fight this all the way up to the Supreme Court, but he didn't say he was going to fight it in the Supreme Court twice," he said in a conference call. "This was inevitable."

The letter detailing Christie's decision, from the Acting New Jersey Attorney General John Hoffman to the Supreme Court, was just two sentences and didn't get into detail.

Goldstein said advocates for same-sex marriage still have work to do. He said lawmakers must adopt a law codifying same-sex marriage to clarify three points that are left unaddressed in court decisions. The court rulings do not say whether civil unions should be converted to marriages, does not say whether religious organizations such as the Knights of Columbus can reject hosting weddings on their property and does not spell out whether legal out-of-state marriages of gay couples are automatically recognized in New Jersey.

Last year, the state Legislature passed a law to allow gay marriage and deal with those issues, but Christie vetoed it.

Advocates have been making a major push to override the veto before a Jan. 14 deadline. Before Christie's announcement Monday, they were expecting a vote by lawmakers sometime after the Nov. 5 election.

But Hayley Gorenberg, a Lambda Legal lawyer who was co-counsel in the court case, said on a conference call Monday that the veto override is not needed. "I think we're done here," she said. She addressed one of the points left unanswered in the court rulings, saying that the First Amendment provides the necessary religious protection for clergy who do not want to preside over ceremonies of same-sex couples.

New Jersey's courts and politicians have been deliberating over whether to allow gay marriage for more than a decade. The answer has changed quickly in the past month.

In September, a state judge ruled that New Jersey must allow the nuptials in light of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that made the federal government recognize same-sex marriage.

The state's top court ruled Friday afternoon that it would not delay Monday's implementation date.

And at 12:01 a.m., couples in a handful of communities wed.

In Newark, Mayor Cory Booker, in one of his last acts before joining the U.S. Senate in coming weeks, led a ceremony for seven gay couples and two heterosexual couples.

"Tonight we have crossed a barrier, and now, while you all have fallen into love, I want to say that the truth is, that the state of New Jersey has risen to love," he said. "This state now is resonant now with the core values of our country, with the idea that there is no second class citizenship in America, that we're all equal under the law."

In Lambertville, Joanne Shcailey and Beth Asaro were wed in a municipal courtroom packed with friends, family and journalists.

"We're floating on air," Asaro, in a salmon pink suit, said afterward. "It's like winning the Super Bowl," said Schailey, who wore a black suit.

___

Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield. Associated Press writers Samantha Henry in Newark and Katie Zezima in Jersey City contributed to this report.

___

Follow Mulvihill at https://twitter.com/geoffmulvihill

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nj-governor-ends-gay-marriage-fight-couples-wed-151402979.html
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Monday, October 21, 2013

iPad Mini will adopt Retina Display, says WSJ

Apple is prepping a new iPad Mini with the higher-resolution Retina Display, says The Wall Street Journal.



The iPad Mini will finally sport a Retina Display. But will we see it on Tuesday?


Citing information from Apple's component suppliers, The Wall Street Journal said Monday that "Apple is now readying a revamped iPad Mini with a high-resolution 'Retina' Display." The Journal's careful wording suggests that the new high-res Mini is in the works but doesn't specifically say it will take its bow at Apple's media event on Tuesday.



Prior reports have been on the fence over if and when a Retina iPad Mini will see the light of day. Some analysts say it will happen but cite manufacturing issues that may delay the launch of the device or at least limit its initial supply.


Apple is also working on a thinner, lighter version of the 9.7-inch iPad that will see its glass screen replaced with a thin film. But again, the Journal doesn't say when this revamped iPad will debut. Other reports have said that the fifth-generation iPad will borrow a new thin and light design from the Mini.


We should know for sure what the iPad Mini and iPad will offer after Apple kicks off its launch event at 10 a.m. PT Tuesday. CNET will host a live blog of the event.



Read the CNET Editors' Take

iPad Mini 2


Editors' Take: Will a Retina Display finally make its way into Apple's smallest iPad? Here are our best pre-event guesses. Read More



Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57608422-37/ipad-mini-will-adopt-retina-display-says-wsj/?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=News-Apple
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