TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? A small American commercial plane left Iran Sunday after it was repaired following an emergency landing at an Iranian airport this month, state TV reported.
The plane was forced to land 16 days ago at the airport of the southern city of Ahvaz due to technical failure, Mahmoud Rasoulinejad, head of the state-owned Iran Airports Company, told the TV station.
Rasoulinejad said three passengers left Iran for Arab countries in the Gulf, but the plane remained under repair in the airport. He said the plane took off from Iran Sunday upon arrival of needed spare parts and completion of repairs.
It was not clear why the announcement of the plane's landing was not made earlier.
Iran is a member of the International Civil Aviation Organization, or ICAO, which requires members to come to the aid of civilian aircraft when requested.
The service was provided though Iran and U.S. are at odds over Tehran's suspect nuclear program. The West believes it might be aimed at weapons development, a charge Iran denies.
A separate report by state TV said the Falcon-900 plane had one passenger and two crew members and was flying to Rotterdam in the Netherlands from Abu Dhabi in United Arab Emirates when it encountered mechanical difficulties.
It said a French team from Abu Dhabi repaired the plane at Ahvaz airport.
Every day some 500 foreign airplanes pass through Iranian airspace, including 30 American aircraft.
I?m at a fork on the parenting road. And I don?t know which way to turn. Frankly, I?d like to turn back and go home, but unfortunately that?s not an option?
On the left of the fork is the road that leads to activities the kids are enrolled in outside of the home. Hockey, gymnastics, soccer and piano, plus swimming. It sounds crazy, when I look at the list, especially when I realize I missed ball-hockey and Sonja?s never-ending requests for playdates. There?s school and homework in that as well, which requires parental supervision. It all sounds like it?s too much.
On the right of the fork the road leads to an empty space. No activities, only family time and home-time. We could sit and play lego, board games or paint together, we could take excursions into the many parks out our way, we could go skating, tobogganing or just walking and playing outside when the snow is fresh and deep. We could cook together, bake together, and just hang out, maybe pop a movie in once in a while. We could just BE.
We did the second option for 5 years. The kids were young, we did crafts, we spend many hours walking and playing at the playground, or having picnics or making snowmen. Then they got older, started school, and they developed interests of their own. They received countless invites to birthday parties, and I was forced to start a spreadsheet with phone numbers of all their friends they made?their social lives became busy and complicated. And they?re only 7 and 5?
We had a family night last night. Actually, we spent the bulk of the holidays together, sometimes with extended family, sometimes just us. We spent some of that time at the rink, but we also spent some of that time just doing things together alone, just the 4 of us. Yet as the holidays draw to a close, it?s becoming more evident that especially Sonja, who is not in an activity unlike Ben with his tournament, is craving playtime with her friends.
She is getting harder to handle. Is it her age? Is it me? Is it just a clash in personalities? She is an extrovert, and very VERY confident in what she wants and when she wants it. She was like this as a baby and I wondered even back then what kind of a child she was going to turn into.
Sonja needs activities, it seems, that go beyond family time. As long as the family time balances out the out-of-the-house activities, she seems more even-tempered. I have noticed this over time and find her easier and more pleasant to be around when she has that balance met.
She has to go to gymnastics. Indoor soccer will give her that extra bit of team-oriented-endless-running activity that is harder to do in snowsuits outside in the frigid air, and when she accompanies us to the rink during one of Ben?s hockey sessions, she has several children to play with while we watch a game or practice. This too satisfies her social needs. And she?s back in the pool after a term off.
I don?t know how I?m going to handle it all, but there it is.
Ben has hockey and hockey and more hockey. But his dad takes care of most of that. He is also in swimming, but the kids are now in the same class which will make life easier for us. And he gets to start piano lessons. He loves music but it always conflicted with hockey, so after two years of music, he had to choose. I finally found a night where the potential for hockey conflict is minimal plus Sonja is occupied in soccer at the same time.
Perfect.
Only, I don?t feel like it?s so perfect. I feel like the calendar is so full, I?m not sure I can actually wrap my head around how this will all work out.
How do people who work full-time outside of the home manage these crazy schedules? Do they just drop off on all the activities? When does one do the grocery shopping? Cooking? Are we resigned to start ordering in more often now?
I hope not. I?m going to keep using my crockpot, and if I have to get groceries delivered via a service to help manage my time better, then I will consider that option too.
Time will tell what will happen next. In the meantime, we still have a whole week of home-time, family-time, and I plan on getting organized with, hopefully, the kids? help.
I?ve become one of *those* parents who schedules her kids.
A Georgia measure that takes effect Tuesday will guarantee that parents can purchase health care insurance for their children, even if the adults themselves don't have their own policy.
The "Child Only" program, approved by the Georgia Legislature, begins with open enrollment from Jan. 1 through Jan. 31, with coverage becoming available starting March 1, according to the Georgia Department of Insurance.
"To guarantee that children get the quality medical care they need, I encourage parents and guardians with uninsured children to consider purchasing this coverage," Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens said in a statement.
The final rules for the program were signed this week by Hudgens. They require all insurance companies that sell health care policies in Georgia to offer coverage to children ages 19 and under, even if the kids have a pre-existing condition.
The pre-existing condition clause is something that President Obama's health-care overhaul requires anyway, with a $63-per-person fee beginning in 2014 to fund the requirement. That fee currently is scheduled to phase out over three years unless Congress renews it.
The Georgia plan is aimed at giving parents who are unemployed or have lost their job the opportunity to maintain coverage for their children.
The Georgia Department of Insurance advises parents and guardians interested in buying the coverage to contact a health care insurance agent in their area. Those with more questions can contact the department 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday at 1-800-656-2298.
The Chancellor, George Osborne, has outlined plans to boost development of the "super-material" graphene.
It is one of the lightest, strongest and most conductive materials known, with great commercialisation potential.
Now, ?21.5m - ?12m from a 2011 funding of ?50m and nearly ?10m from the science research council EPSRC - will be allocated to specific universities.
In addition, those universities and their industrial partners will commit a total of ?14m to the effort.
Mr Osborne said the investment fund would aim to take the technology "from the British laboratory to the British factory floor".
Graphene is sheets of carbon just one atom thick - the very same material making up a pencil's "lead", but with record-breaking mechanical strength and electronic properties.
Manchester University academics Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov won the 2010 physics Nobel Prize in Physics for isolating the material and measuring some of its astounding properties.
Continue reading the main story
Analysis
Jason PalmerScience and technology reporter, BBC News
Graphene has been called a "wonder material" since its discovery in 2005, which led to a comparatively swift Nobel prize for its discoverers in 2010. Gram for gram, it seems to be lighter, stronger and better in every way that nanotechnology experts can measure. It is hundreds of times stronger than steel, and electrons whip through it far faster than through the chips in your computer.
That combination of mechanical and electronic properties make it a "solution looking for a problem". But it is tricky to work with - sheets just an atom thick are difficult to isolate, to manipulate, to reliably connect to other materials. Those are the engineering challenges ahead.
The push is now in getting it out of UK laboratories and into devices, as nations such as South Korea are already doing. That push seems to be one that the UK's government and research base are increasingly invested in.
But since the material's discovery in 2005, scientists have sought to make good use of those attributes - no easy task when working at the atomic scale.
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has now identified the most promising graphene-related research projects in British universities to benefit from state funding.
The University of Cambridge has been awarded more than ?12m for research into graphene flexible electronics and opto-electronics, which could include things like touch-screens and other display devices.
Imperial College London will receive over ?4.5m to investigate aerospace applications of graphene.
The other successful projects are based at Durham University, the University of Manchester, the University of Exeter and Royal Holloway.
The universities will themselves contribute about ?2m to the overall effort, and will work with industrial partners including Nokia, BAE Systems, Procter & Gamble, Qinetiq, Rolls-Royce, Dyson, Sharp and Philips Research - which will together bring in a further ?12m in investment.
Mr Osborne told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there had been "enormous competition" for the graphene research to be done elsewhere in the world, rather than the UK.
He said: "We had to act very quickly... to step in and say we're going to provide funding here in Britain for that activity. That's an example of actually actively backing a winner to keep it in the UK."
Mr Osborne said there were several ways in which the UK could become an attractive location for scientific research, including more financial backing from the government, protecting spending on science, and more investment in big capital science projects.
He added that Britain's universities - the "jewels in the crown" of the UK economy - needed to be protected.
My upper left molar has been disintegrating for a year.? The decay has spread around the huge old filling until the filling itself has fallen out.? Now there is hardly anything left above the gumline.? I can?t leave the house without a tube of Orajel in my pocket.? It?s time to face the music and have the old girl yanked out.
The waiting room is a study in ochre and ecru, a big screen TV running Nickelodeon high on one wall, a couple pieces of nondescript waiting room art on the other walls.? A wooden plaque high above the receptionist?s desk says, ?God Is Great.?? I sit on an uncomfortable window bench and wait; after a few minutes, the door to the inner sanctum opens and a young woman pokes her head out.? I do a double take.
It?s Take-Your-Daughter-To-Work Day, I think.
She leads me back to a cubicle and bids me sit in the dentist chair.? She could not be a hair?s breadth over four feet tall.? When I sit in the chair, we are face to face, so I am able to?in fact, can?t help but?study her in minute detail.? ?Her features are those of a twelve-year-old girl.? She has a roundish babydoll face, a pixie nose, and what looks for all the world to be the immature Chiclet-shaped teeth of a twelve-year-old, a little crooked, cute as a button.? Her brown hair is pulled back into a ponytail and on top of her head are a couple tiny droplets of rain.? Her garb does nothing to dispel the impression of schoolgirl youthfulness, consisting of a floral print smock and blue scrubs pants.
The first thing she does is drape the lead bib over my torso.? How sweet they let her do that.? I am still waiting for the real assistant to appear.? Then she (let?s call her Miranda?I never did get her name)?then Miranda starts quizzing me when did I last have a full set of x-rays.? I try to remember the name of the dentist whom I saw only once last spring, and failing that, explain where the clinic was, with not very much success.? Can we just yank this puppy out today, I ask?? Dr. Alma comes in and explains she wants to do a full set of x-rays today.? Okay, fine, I say.
One by one, Miranda places an array of variously colored and shaped plastic gizmos half into my mouth and asks me to bite down.? The thought dawns on me:? you?re actually a technician.? At one point, I wince and try to adjust my bite.? I say something about the plastic digging into my soft tissue.? She says something empathetic, like, ?I?m sorry.? I wish those things were softer.?? Something is strangely incongruous about that remark.? Then I realize what it is.? That sort of empathy is not something you normally find in a twelve-year-old.
I try to make sense out of what I?m seeing.? How old could she be and still look like that?? Fourteen?? Sixteen?? Has she dropped out of high school, gotten her GED, and taken a crash course in dental assisting?? Freudian, Nabokovian thoughts start clamoring at the edge of my skull, demanding I let them in.? I look for physical clues to her true age but find none.? I look for some hint of a profile underneath the shapeless uniform, but for all I can see, she has the body of a twelve-year old:? no chest, no butt, square waist.
Her accent is almost indiscernibly clipped.? Perhaps her parents are from Eastern Europe.? Maybe her name is Klowesoff.? I had been frustrated before by her blue latex gloves, but now as I sneak a peek I can see she has a ring on her wedding finger with more diamonds than I could dream of affording in a lifetime.? Damn!? I try to picture her husband (fianc??).? I wonder if her husband?s name is Oliver.? I wonder what Miranda looks like with Oliver Klowesoff.
Shut up!!Shut! Up! I scream interiorly at my runaway brain.? She?s going to catch me leering at her, then I won?t be able to come back ever!
Now (God have mercy on my soul!), Miranda is sitting down gently beside me.? She has her fingers in my mouth.? She is squirting cool liquid onto my tongue.? Her sweet, soft voice asks me to close my lips around the suction tube.? Miranda, Miranda, Miranda.? Could you love someone 40 years your senior?? Could you ever learn to love someone against whose bloody tooth-pit you pressed a square of sanitary gauze?
Oh well, I muse hopefully, there?s a cleaning appointment coming up?
? 2012 Douglas J. Westberg. All Rights Reserved. ?Please share this on Gather.com, and elsewhere on the web by means of a link back to this page, but please do not copy. ? Doug's latest book is The Depressed Guy's Book of Wisdom from Chipmunka Publishing.
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In this photo taken Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012, a truck driver watches as a freight container, right, is lowered onto a tractor trailer truck by a container crane at the Port of Boston, in Boston. The crane and a reach stacker, left, are operated by longshoremen at the port. The longshoremen's union may strike if they are unable to reach an agreement on their contract that expires Dec. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
In this photo taken Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012, a truck driver watches as a freight container, right, is lowered onto a tractor trailer truck by a container crane at the Port of Boston, in Boston. The crane and a reach stacker, left, are operated by longshoremen at the port. The longshoremen's union may strike if they are unable to reach an agreement on their contract that expires Dec. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
In this photo taken Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012, a reach stacker operated by a longshoreman, right, places a shipping container on a tractor trailer truck at the Port of Boston, in Boston. The longshoremen's union may strike if they are unable to reach an agreement on their contract that expires Dec. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
BOSTON (AP) ? Weeks after a critical West Coast port complex was crippled by a few hundred striking workers, the East Coast is bracing for a possible walkout numbering thousands that could close 15 ports from Massachusetts to Texas.
The latest talks between shipping companies and dockworkers broke down Tuesday, less than two weeks before the contract expires Dec. 29, leading to worries a strike was inevitable.
The National Retail Federation wrote to President Barack Obama this week to ask him to use "all means necessary" to head off a strike, which they fear could have catastrophic ripple effects nationwide. "We foresee this as a national economic emergency, to be honest," said Jonathan Gold, the group's vice president of supply chain and customs policy.
Gold said billions in commerce at countless businesses nationwide could be affected, from auto manufacturers awaiting parts to the truckers that deliver them.
Ingrid Hirstin Lazcano, founder of the Los Angeles-based Andean Dream LCC, said a strike on the East and Gulf Coasts could bankrupt her company, which sells soups, pasta and other products made from quinoa, a grain, grown in the Bolivian Andes.
The company has two containers shipped monthly to both Los Angeles and Philadelphia, and Lazcano said she's still recovering from the eight-day strike of 450 clerical workers at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex, which ended Dec. 4.
"If the strike does happen, we will be paralyzed," she said. "We will not be able to fill orders."
James McNamara, spokesman for the International Longshoremen's Association, said the union knows what's at stake for others but must protect its membership.
"We offer the labor that keeps the commerce moving," he said. "If management doesn't appreciate or respect the labor that has made them a lot of money, then we have to do what we have to do."
A strike wouldn't affect passenger cruise ships, U.S. mail, military cargo or perishable cargo with a limited shelf life. It also wouldn't affect non-container, or break bulk, cargo such as steel, wood products and cars.
The longshoremen's union represents 14,500 workers at the 15 ports, which extend south from Boston and handle 95 percent of all containerized shipments from Maine to Texas, about 110 million tons' worth. The New York-New Jersey ports handle the most cargo on the East Coast, valued at $208 billion in 2011. The other ports that would be affected by a strike are Boston; Delaware River; Baltimore; Hampton Roads, Va.; Wilmington, N.C.; Charleston, S.C., Savannah, Ga.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Port Everglades, Fla., Miami; Tampa, Fla.; Mobile, Ala.; New Orleans; and Houston.
The impasse comes during a 90-day extension of the current contract. On Tuesday, a federal mediator offered another monthlong extension. Various issues, including wages, are unresolved, but the sides couldn't agree on what's become the key sticking point, container royalties.
The royalties are payments to union workers based on the weight of cargo received at each port. They were created in the 1960s to boost wages and finance worker benefits after increased automation cut down salaries and jobs, making it impossible for the dwindling labor force to finance its benefits, McNamara said.
The container carriers and port operators, represented by the U.S. Marine Alliance, want to cap the royalties at 2011 levels, saying they've morphed into a huge expense, totally unrelated to their original purpose, which hurts the industry's competitiveness as it tries to keep up with new technology. The alliance says the royalty payments now amount to a bonus averaging $15,500 annually for East Coast workers who already earn more than $50 per hour.
The union says the payments aren't a bonus, they're an important supplemental wage. It argues that in its previous contract, management agreed to remove the royalties cap in exchange for being allowed to use $42 million of royalty payments to cover a previously negotiated wage increase. There's no way the union can allow the alliance to revive the cap now and accept the cuts in worker income and union revenue, McNamara said.
The sides have traded charges of inflexibility, though both also point to a history of cooperation since the last East Coast-wide strike in 1977. No one has ruled out renewing talks.
But with time so short, companies are pushing up shipment dates or finding alternative transportation, said Steve Lamar, executive vice president of the Washington-based American Apparel and Footwear Association.
Companies are already worried about restocking after the holidays, and some are still dealing with the effects of the West Coast shutdown and Superstorm Sandy, he said.
"You've already got companies and ports and trade that have been battered by a couple of situations over the last couple of months, and we still have this uncertainty," Lamar said.
In Philadelphia, port executive Robert Blackburn estimates a strike could affect 60 percent of the tonnage the port handles.
"Frankly, there's not a lot we can do except that hope that cooler heads prevail and, if they don't, perhaps there will be intervention by the president," Blackburn said.
___
Associated Press writers Eileen AJ Connelly in New York and Kathy Matheson in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
Sandhya Jadon, 26, a lawyer from the northern town of Agra, speaks to the Associated Press in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012. "For most men, any woman who is out of the four walls of her house is fair game," she says. Many in India?s capital and across the country say they are constantly on guard, fearing everything from the routine groping they suffer on public buses to far more violent assaults. The gang-rape and brutal beating of a 23-year-old woman recently on a bus in New Delhi has sparked days of protests demanding authorities take tougher action on violence against women. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Sandhya Jadon, 26, a lawyer from the northern town of Agra, speaks to the Associated Press in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012. "For most men, any woman who is out of the four walls of her house is fair game," she says. Many in India?s capital and across the country say they are constantly on guard, fearing everything from the routine groping they suffer on public buses to far more violent assaults. The gang-rape and brutal beating of a 23-year-old woman recently on a bus in New Delhi has sparked days of protests demanding authorities take tougher action on violence against women. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Indian people hold placards as they participate in a candlelight vigil at India Gate in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012, for a woman raped on a bus. The hours-long gang-rape and near-fatal beating of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi triggered outrage and anger across the country as Indians demanded action from authorities who have long ignored persistent violence and harassment against women. Placard second left reads as, "Stop violence against women." (AP Photo) INDIA OUT
Indian people hold candles as they participate in a candlelight vigil outside the hospital, where the recent rape victim is being treated, in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012. The hours-long gang-rape and near-fatal beating of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi triggered outrage and anger across the country as Indians demanded action from authorities who have long ignored persistent violence and harassment against women. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Indian people participate in a candle light vigil in Mumbai, India, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012 for a woman raped on a bus. The hours-long gang-rape and near-fatal beating of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi triggered outrage and anger across the country as Indians demanded action from authorities who have long ignored persistent violence and harassment against women. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
NEW DELHI (AP) ? It is almost every Indian woman's nightmare, lived daily when in public ? a stream of obscene comments, unwanted hands being placed on them and then being blamed for causing the sexual violence.
The gang-rape and beating of a 23-year-old student by six men on a bus in New Delhi may have sparked days of protests and demands for authorities to take tougher action, but for women in India it is just an extreme example of what they have to live with.
Many in India's capital and across the country say they are constantly on guard, fearing everything from the routine gropings they suffer on public buses to far more violent assaults. Some say they have structured their entire lives around protecting themselves and their children.
Here are the stories of three women:
Gita Ganeshan, a 52-year-old bank worker, moved to New Delhi with her husband four years ago from the central city of Bhopal to protect their oldest daughter after she was attacked in the Indian capital, where she was studying.
The young woman had been out for a morning walk in a park near her house when four men surrounded her and began tormenting her, Ganeshan said.
"One of the men squeezed her breast. She screamed and kept screaming and running till she came home," she said.
She said she and her daughter would go to the park when she visited the city.
"This was a park where we would walk every day. The girls would jog or run and we would walk along," she said. "Just that one day, she went alone and this happened and it changed our outlook as far the safety of our girls was concerned."
Her daughter gave up jogging and wouldn't leave the house alone for months. Her parents got themselves transferred to the city to look after her.
"That was when we decided that protecting our children had to be our first priority. We've given them a good education. We cannot now tell them now not to pursue their careers because it is not safe to be out working late," she said.
She has trained the young woman to be alert: "Never let your guard down."
Now, Ganeshan is thinking of moving to the central city of Indore to protect her younger daughter, who got a job there.
But for now, she has arranged a special plan to watch over her from far away.
Every evening, her daughter calls as soon as she gets off the bus on her way home from work. The two talk for the next 15 minutes while the young woman walks the kilometer to her home, Ganeshan said.
"Every day, I wake up and my first thought is of my daughters and their safety. I call them up, or they call me," she said. "It is a real fear we confront when, even for a few hours, we are not in touch over the telephone."
Sandhya Jadon, 26, a lawyer from the northern town of Agra, said the harassment starts as soon as she leaves her home.
"For most men, any woman who is out of the four walls of her house is fair game," she said.
Last week, she was repeatedly groped on a public minibus.
"It was broad daylight. I was heading to court, and this man kept trying to touch my thigh. I shouted at him and he had the gall to ask me, 'So what can you do to stop me?'" she said.
She shouted, made the driver stop and got off. But the man continued sitting in the bus and grinning at his audacity. Not one of the 10 other passengers came to her help. Most looked away, she said.
"All day that day I was disturbed. I was shaking inside but also angry. Why do we women have to suffer this?" she asked.
For the next few days, she avoided public buses for fear she would run into the man again.
She feels relatively safe at court, in her lawyer's robes. But she still doesn't stay late at work and asks her parents to meet her at the bus stop to walk her home.
"But the fear ? that something bad will happen if you are not careful ? is always with you. It hangs over your work; it hangs over everything you do ? what you wear, or don't wear; how you talk or how you walk. It is like this big suffocating cloud hanging over you every single day of your life," she said.
Priyanka Khatri, a 21-year-old college student, said fear of attack has forced her to limit her world.
There are no movies in the evening, no late-night parties, no outside activity at all after sundown. College events are cut short because she has to get home.
"Whatever happens, I have to be home before dark. Otherwise, my parents get so worried and they will keep calling me on my cell phone till they know I'm safe," she said.
Khatri said she will only go out in the evening accompanied by her parents to a nearby temple or a family wedding.
She is shadowed by fear when she gets dressed in the morning.
"I wouldn't dream of wearing shorts or skirts in public," she said.
She is petrified by her daily commute to school on public buses.
"Usually I carry a safety pin with me, because in buses there are always men who will try to touch you," Khatri said. "Some men are so brazen, you tick them off and they will persist on groping you. Then you feel you have to do something. So I stick my pin into them, or I use my elbow, and just jab them with my elbow. But that too makes you afraid."
And she has tempered her dreams to fit the reality of life in Delhi. The outgoing badminton enthusiast longed to be an event planner. Instead, she is looking for teaching jobs, "because then I can be home before dark."
If her precautions fail and she is attacked, Khatri has a backup plan, she said.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Joe Biden will lead an effort to craft policies to reduce gun violence in a plan President Barack Obama was to lay out Wednesday amid calls for action after the massacre of 26 people, including 20 children, at a Connecticut elementary school.
Obama was not expected to unveil policy decisions but outline how his administration will proceed, White House aides said. The move could signal that he will make the issue a second-term priority and add momentum to a national debate over tighter gun control laws.
Obama has turned to Biden in the past to take a role in high-profile initiatives, including efforts on a deficit-reduction compromise with congressional Republicans in 2011. The vice president will join Obama for the announcement in the White House briefing room at 11:45 a.m. EST.
Biden's mission - to coordinate a strategy among government agencies in the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut shootings - comes days after the mass murder that has generated a national outcry for greater efforts to stem gun violence.
U.S. Representative Ron Barber, who was wounded in a 2011 Arizona shooting that targeted his predecessor Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others, welcomed the effort and echoed other Democratic lawmakers' calls to ban military-grade guns.
"I really believe that we can put together a broad coalition to deal with particularly the assault weapons and the heavy firepower that these large capacity magazines contain," Barber told MSNBC on Wednesday.
Friday's massacre was the fourth shooting rampage to claim multiple lives in the United States this year.
The president demanded changes to the way the United States deals with gun violence at a memorial service in Newtown on Sunday. Obama said he would "use whatever power this office" holds to prevent such tragedies in the future.
Gun control has been a low priority for most U.S. politicians due to the widespread popularity of guns in America and the clout of the National Rifle Association, the powerful gun industry lobby.
The constitutional right to bear arms is seen by many Americans as set in stone, and even after mass shootings, politicians have tiptoed around specific steps to limit access to lethal weapons.
Even so, the horror of the Newtown killings, in which a 20-year-old man killed 6- and 7-year-old children and their teachers in their classrooms before taking his own life, has provoked an apparent change of heart in some politicians.
REVISITING GUN CONTROL
Lawmakers, including pro-gun Democrats and some Republicans, have said they are rethinking their stance on guns after Friday's shooting.
Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a longtime gun rights advocate, has said he is now open to more regulation of military-style rifles like the one used in Newtown. Obama spoke with him on Tuesday, the White House said.
A few Republicans have also expressed a willingness to revisit the gun control issue, though few have offered specifics.
Some gun-rights advocates have pointed to the school shooting as an example for the need to expand access to guns for some, such as teachers.
The White House spelled out some gun control measures on Tuesday that Obama would support.
Spokesman Jay Carney said Obama would back U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein's effort to reinstate an assault weapons ban. The president also would favor any law to close a loophole related to gun-show sales, he said.
Efforts to limit high-capacity gun ammunition clips would be another option, Carney said.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday called on Congress to act immediately to ban high-capacity magazines - attachments that can allow shooters to fire as many as 30 bullets within seconds.
Many on both sides of the issue have also pointed to the need to address mental-health issues, violence in the entertainment industry, and school safety.
Separately on Wednesday, Senator John Rockefeller called for a national study of the impact of violent video games on children, as well as for a review of the ratings system for such games.
(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Doina Chiacu and David Brunnstrom)
Facebook has stopped its experiment with placing mobile ads on other apps and websites, Peter Kafka reports on AllThingsD.
That means plans to launch a full-fledged mobile ad network to challenge Google are on hold, at least for a few months.
A company spokesperson told Kafka that the company stopped the test to focus on selling ads on its own mobile app.
That makes some pragmatic sense: If Facebook has ad space to sell on its own properties, why spend energy brokering ads for third-party publishers?
But it also calls into question whether Facebook has bitten off more than it can chew this year. It's rolled out at least 12 ad products, and a desktop Web-display ad network is also expected to appear somewhere in the future.
Facebook also owns Instagram, which has attracted its share of controversy for publishing new terms of service that would allow it to put ads on the mobile photo-sharing app.
We asked Rob Leathern, the CEO of Optimal, one of the companies that Facebook has tapped as a "preferred marketing developer." Optimal helps clients run campaigns on Facebook.
"The magnitude of Facebook's owned and operated/native mobile ad opportunities in the near term is huge," Leathern said. "Given their bandwidth, I think it is probably just a prioritization decision. Optimizing ad units for performance is not a trivial undertaking at their scale."
But hitting pause on Facebook's ad network could disappoint investors, who'd like to see Facebook develop new sources of revenue beyond its core service.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill has been barred from touring for a month after a judge found he violated probation restrictions associated with a 2008 drug and gun conviction.
Common Pleas Judge Genece Brinkley said Monday the rapper, whose real name is Robert Williams, violated an order restricting his performance scheduling and failing to properly keep in touch with his probation officer.
The Philadelphia Inquirer (http://bit.ly/SKt9yN ) reports Williams' attorney argued the restrictions were preventing him from earning a living. Gary Silver said Williams didn't need to check in with his probation officer because his fans frequently take pictures of him when he's touring.
Williams' "Dreams & Nightmares" album debuted in October. He appeared in Jay-Z's Made In America festival earlier this year.
___
Information from: The Philadelphia Inquirer, http://www.philly.com
Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, died Monday. The most senior member of the U.S. Senate, he was 88.
By NBC News staff
Daniel Inouye, the most senior senator in the U.S. Senate, has died of respiratory complications. He was 88.
Inouye, a Democrat from Hawaii, was hospitalized a week and a half ago at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he said he was working with doctors to regulate his oxygen intake.
He is survived by his wife, Irene Hirano, and son, Daniel "Kenny" Inouye. Kenny is his son with Margaret Shinobu Awamura, who died in 2006.
Around the Capitol, Inouye had been seen with a portable oxygen supply.
Inouye had served in the Senate for 49 years, since 1963. At the time of his death, he was the longest-serving member of the Senate; the late Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia served for 51 years.
He was also hospitalized on Nov. 15 after falling and cutting the back of his head. A statement released by his office spoke to the senator?s apparent dislike of being hospitalized: ?The U.S. Army Captain and World War II combat veteran wanted to put a bandage on and come to work but his family insisted he get it checked out.?
He was hospitalized one day before Pearl Harbor Day. Although in the hospital, he honored the day as he does every year, this time through a press release remembering his time as a Japanese-American teenager in Hawaii. He wrote:
In 1941, the date December 7th was a day that evoked anger, fierce patriotism and dangerous racism. Soon after that day, I suddenly found myself, pursuant to a decision by the government and along with thousands of Japanese Americans declared 4C, enemy aliens. It was a difficult time. I was 17.
Kobe Bryant scored 34 points, Metta World Peace added 19 points and a career-high 16 rebounds, and the Los Angeles Lakers won consecutive games for the first time in nearly a month with a 111-98 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday.
Dwight Howard had 17 points and 11 rebounds for the Lakers, who led 60-50 at halftime. Darius Morris had a career-high 15 points, all in the first half, while Chris Duhon scored 14.
The Lakers (11-14), who beat Washington 102-96 on Friday night, won two in a row for the first time since a three-game streak from Nov. 16 to Nov. 20. Even without injured stars Steve Nash and Pau Gasol, the Lakers hardly resembled the team that entered the night four games below .500.
Nick Young paced the reeling Sixers (12-12) with 30 points, while Spencer Hawes and Evan Turner added 16 apiece. Thaddeus Young had 14 points for Philadelphia, who dropped a third straight game for the first time this season.
NUGGETS 122, KINGS 97
Reserve JaVale McGee scored 19 points, Danilo Gallinari had 18 and Denver built a big lead in the first half to cruise past Sacramento.
The Nuggets scored 16 straight points to snap a first-quarter tie and take control. Denver have won seven in a row against the Kings. Sacramento have lost four straight.
Isaiah Thomas had 20 points and DeMarcus Cousins had 19 points and 11 rebounds for the Kings.
Sacramento?s Aaron Brooks committed a hard foul against Andre Miller late in the first quarter and a mild altercation ensued involving Cousins and Kenneth Faried of the Nuggets. All four players were given technical fouls.
TRAIL BLAZERS 95, HORNETS 94
In Portland, Oregon, rookie Damian Lillard hit a three-pointer with 0.3 seconds left as Portland handed New Orleans their sixth straight loss.
After trailing by as many as 16 points, Austin Rivers hit a three-pointer for the Hornets to tie it at 92 with 50.9 seconds left to set up Lillard?s winner.
Lance Thomas made a layup for the Hornets as time ran out for the final margin.
J.J. Hickson had a season-high 24 points and added 16 rebounds for the Trail Blazers, who have won three straight. Hickson has five straight double-doubles and 13 overall this season.
Ryan Anderson had 26 points, including seven three-pointers, for New Orleans.
NIP Programs, a division of NIP Group, Inc. and a leader in the design and management of specialty insurance programs, has introduced MenuPro, a business insurance program targeting owners and operators of restaurants and other dining establishments. NIP Programs is a leader in the design and management of specialty business insurance programs, ranked among the top 100 in the nation.
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The MenuPro program offers standard business coverages, such as General Liability and Property, along with a host of optional enhancements, including Liquor Liability, Equipment Coverage, Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI), and more. The program even offers Umbrella Liability and Workers? Compensation coverage (in most states). MenuPro is underwritten in partnership with a carrier partner that?s been rated A (Excellent) by A.M. Best. Currently eligible states include Alaska; Arizona; California; Colorado; Delaware; Idaho; Indiana; Iowa; Maine; Maryland; Minnesota; Montana; New Hampshire; New Mexico; North Carolina; North Dakota; Ohio; Oregon; Pennsylvania; South Carolina; South Dakota; Tennessee; Utah; Vermont; Virgina; Washington; Wisconsin; and Wyoming
Jackie Mersereau, Program Underwriter, says ?MenuPro was designed to provide the most competitive and comprehensive coverage available today, for these types of businesses.? She goes on to say, ?We work closely with our broker partners to custom-tailor a policy that perfectly fits the needs of their client?s operation, so that their clients can focus on what they do best: providing service and value to their customers.?
NIP Programs provides independent brokers and their clients with custom-tailored coverage and stability through all market cycles. Backed by A.M. Best ?A rated? insurance carriers, NIP?s MenuPro offers a terrific product at an affordable price, while delivering the industry?s best claims-paying ability. For more information on the MenuPro program or to obtain a Broker Kit, contact MenuPro Program Manager Jackie Mersereau at (800) 446-7647 x 388 or via email at jmersereau@nipgroup.com. Submissions can be sent to NIProSub@nipgroup.com or faxed to (732) 791-4097.
Related posts:
NIP Launches IrrigationPro Insurance Program to Cover Commercial Irrigation Contractors
NIP Introduces C-StorePro Business Insurance Program, Targeting Convenience Stores Nationwide
NIP Introduces LawnCarePro Business Insurance Program, Targeting Lawn Service Providers Nationwide
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NIP Launches PetPro?, a Revolutionary New Insurance Program for Pet Care Professionals and their Businesses
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Math formula gives new glimpse into the magical mind of RamanujanPublic release date: 17-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Beverly Clark beverly.clark@emory.edu 404-712-8780 Emory University
Emory mathematician proves mock modular forms can be computed just as Ramanujan predicted
December 22 marks the 125th anniversary of the birth of Srinivasa Ramanujan, an Indian mathematician renowned for somehow intuiting extraordinary numerical patterns and connections without the use of proofs or modern mathematical tools. A devout Hindu, Ramanujan said that his findings were divine, revealed to him in dreams by the goddess Namagiri.
"I wanted to do something special, in the spirit of Ramanujan, to mark the anniversary," says Emory mathematician Ken Ono. "It's fascinating to me to explore his writings and imagine how his brain may have worked. It's like being a mathematical anthropologist."
Ono, a number theorist whose work has previously uncovered hidden meanings in the notebooks of Ramanujan, set to work on the 125th-anniversary project with two colleagues and former students: Amanda Folsom, from Yale, and Rob Rhoades, from Stanford.
The result is a formula for mock modular forms that may prove useful to physicists who study black holes. The work, which Ono recently presented at the Ramanujan 125 conference at the University of Florida, also solves one of the greatest puzzles left behind by the enigmatic Indian genius.
While on his death-bed in 1920, Ramanujan wrote a letter to his mentor, English mathematician G. H. Hardy. The letter described several new functions that behaved differently from known theta functions, or modular forms, and yet closely mimicked them. Ramanujan conjectured that his mock modular forms corresponded to the ordinary modular forms earlier identified by Carl Jacobi, and that both would wind up with similar outputs for roots of 1.
No one at the time understood what Ramanujan was talking about. "It wasn't until 2002, through the work of Sander Zwegers, that we had a description of the functions that Ramanujan was writing about in 1920," Ono says.
Building on that description, Ono and his colleagues went a step further. They drew on modern mathematical tools that had not been developed before Ramanujan's death to prove that a mock modular form could be computed just as Ramanujan predicted. They found that while the outputs of a mock modular form shoot off into enormous numbers, the corresponding ordinary modular form expands at close to the same rate. So when you add up the two outputs or, in some cases, subtract them from one another, the result is a relatively small number, such as four, in the simplest case.
"We proved that Ramanujan was right," Ono says. "We found the formula explaining one of the visions that he believed came from his goddess."
Ono uses a "magic coin" analogy to illustrate the complexity of Ramanujan's vision. Imagine that Jacobi, who discovered the original modular forms, and Ramanujan are contemporaries and go shopping together. They each spend a coin in the same shop. Each of their coins goes on a different journey, traveling through different hands, shops and cities.
"For months, the paths of the two coins look chaotic, like they aren't doing anything in unison," Ono says. "But eventually Ramanujan's coin starts mocking, or trailing, Jacobi's coin. After a year, the two coins end up very near one another: In the same town, in the same shop, in the same cash register, about four inches apart."
Ramanujan experienced such extraordinary insights in an innocent way, simply appreciating the beauty of the math, without seeking practical applications for them.
"No one was talking about black holes back in the 1920s when Ramanujan first came up with mock modular forms, and yet, his work may unlock secrets about them," Ono says.
Expansion of modular forms is one of the fundamental tools for computing the entropy of a modular black hole. Some black holes, however, are not modular, but the new formula based on Ramanujan's vision may allow physicists to compute their entropy as though they were.
After coming up with the formula for computing a mock modular form, Ono wanted to put some icing on the cake for the 125th-anniversary celebration. He and Emory graduate students Michael Griffin and Larry Rolen revisited the paragraph in Ramanujan's last letter that gave a vague description for how he arrived at the functions. That one paragraph has inspired hundreds of papers by mathematicians, who have pondered its hidden meaning for eight decades.
"So much of what Ramanujan offers comes from mysterious words and strange formulas that seem to defy mathematical sense," Ono says. "Although we had a definition from 2002 for Ramanujan's functions, it was still unclear how it related to Ramanujan's awkward and imprecise definition."
Ono and his students finally saw the meaning behind the puzzling paragraph, and a way to link it to the modern definition. "We developed a theorem that shows that the bizarre methodology he used to construct his examples is correct," Ono says. "For the first time, we can prove that the exotic functions that Ramanujan conjured in his death-bed letter behave exactly as he said they would, in every case."
Although Ramanujan received little formal training in math, and died at the age of 32, he made major contributions to number theory and many other areas of math.
In the fall, Ono traveled to Ramanujan's birth home in Madras, and to other significant sites in the Indian mathematician's life, to participate in a docu-drama. Ono acted as a math consultant, and also has a speaking part in the film about Ramanujan, directed by Nandan Kudhyadi and set to premiere next year.
"I got to hold some of Ramanujan's original notebooks, and it felt like I was talking to him," Ono says. "The pages were yellow and falling apart, but they are filled with formulas and class invariants, amazing visions that are hard to describe, and no indication of how he came up with them."
Ono will spend much of December in India, taking overnight trains to Mysore, Bangalore, Chennai and New Dehli, as part of a group of distinguished mathematicians giving talks about Ramanujan in the lead-up to the anniversary date.
"Ramanujan is a hero in India so it's kind of like a math rock tour," Ono says, adding, "I'm his biggest fan. My professional life is inescapably intertwined with Ramanujan. Many of the mathematical objects that I think about so profoundly were anticipated by him. I'm so glad that he existed."
###
Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate experience, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. Emory encompasses nine academic divisions as well as the Carlos Museum, The Carter Center, the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, Georgia's largest and most comprehensive health care system.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Math formula gives new glimpse into the magical mind of RamanujanPublic release date: 17-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Beverly Clark beverly.clark@emory.edu 404-712-8780 Emory University
Emory mathematician proves mock modular forms can be computed just as Ramanujan predicted
December 22 marks the 125th anniversary of the birth of Srinivasa Ramanujan, an Indian mathematician renowned for somehow intuiting extraordinary numerical patterns and connections without the use of proofs or modern mathematical tools. A devout Hindu, Ramanujan said that his findings were divine, revealed to him in dreams by the goddess Namagiri.
"I wanted to do something special, in the spirit of Ramanujan, to mark the anniversary," says Emory mathematician Ken Ono. "It's fascinating to me to explore his writings and imagine how his brain may have worked. It's like being a mathematical anthropologist."
Ono, a number theorist whose work has previously uncovered hidden meanings in the notebooks of Ramanujan, set to work on the 125th-anniversary project with two colleagues and former students: Amanda Folsom, from Yale, and Rob Rhoades, from Stanford.
The result is a formula for mock modular forms that may prove useful to physicists who study black holes. The work, which Ono recently presented at the Ramanujan 125 conference at the University of Florida, also solves one of the greatest puzzles left behind by the enigmatic Indian genius.
While on his death-bed in 1920, Ramanujan wrote a letter to his mentor, English mathematician G. H. Hardy. The letter described several new functions that behaved differently from known theta functions, or modular forms, and yet closely mimicked them. Ramanujan conjectured that his mock modular forms corresponded to the ordinary modular forms earlier identified by Carl Jacobi, and that both would wind up with similar outputs for roots of 1.
No one at the time understood what Ramanujan was talking about. "It wasn't until 2002, through the work of Sander Zwegers, that we had a description of the functions that Ramanujan was writing about in 1920," Ono says.
Building on that description, Ono and his colleagues went a step further. They drew on modern mathematical tools that had not been developed before Ramanujan's death to prove that a mock modular form could be computed just as Ramanujan predicted. They found that while the outputs of a mock modular form shoot off into enormous numbers, the corresponding ordinary modular form expands at close to the same rate. So when you add up the two outputs or, in some cases, subtract them from one another, the result is a relatively small number, such as four, in the simplest case.
"We proved that Ramanujan was right," Ono says. "We found the formula explaining one of the visions that he believed came from his goddess."
Ono uses a "magic coin" analogy to illustrate the complexity of Ramanujan's vision. Imagine that Jacobi, who discovered the original modular forms, and Ramanujan are contemporaries and go shopping together. They each spend a coin in the same shop. Each of their coins goes on a different journey, traveling through different hands, shops and cities.
"For months, the paths of the two coins look chaotic, like they aren't doing anything in unison," Ono says. "But eventually Ramanujan's coin starts mocking, or trailing, Jacobi's coin. After a year, the two coins end up very near one another: In the same town, in the same shop, in the same cash register, about four inches apart."
Ramanujan experienced such extraordinary insights in an innocent way, simply appreciating the beauty of the math, without seeking practical applications for them.
"No one was talking about black holes back in the 1920s when Ramanujan first came up with mock modular forms, and yet, his work may unlock secrets about them," Ono says.
Expansion of modular forms is one of the fundamental tools for computing the entropy of a modular black hole. Some black holes, however, are not modular, but the new formula based on Ramanujan's vision may allow physicists to compute their entropy as though they were.
After coming up with the formula for computing a mock modular form, Ono wanted to put some icing on the cake for the 125th-anniversary celebration. He and Emory graduate students Michael Griffin and Larry Rolen revisited the paragraph in Ramanujan's last letter that gave a vague description for how he arrived at the functions. That one paragraph has inspired hundreds of papers by mathematicians, who have pondered its hidden meaning for eight decades.
"So much of what Ramanujan offers comes from mysterious words and strange formulas that seem to defy mathematical sense," Ono says. "Although we had a definition from 2002 for Ramanujan's functions, it was still unclear how it related to Ramanujan's awkward and imprecise definition."
Ono and his students finally saw the meaning behind the puzzling paragraph, and a way to link it to the modern definition. "We developed a theorem that shows that the bizarre methodology he used to construct his examples is correct," Ono says. "For the first time, we can prove that the exotic functions that Ramanujan conjured in his death-bed letter behave exactly as he said they would, in every case."
Although Ramanujan received little formal training in math, and died at the age of 32, he made major contributions to number theory and many other areas of math.
In the fall, Ono traveled to Ramanujan's birth home in Madras, and to other significant sites in the Indian mathematician's life, to participate in a docu-drama. Ono acted as a math consultant, and also has a speaking part in the film about Ramanujan, directed by Nandan Kudhyadi and set to premiere next year.
"I got to hold some of Ramanujan's original notebooks, and it felt like I was talking to him," Ono says. "The pages were yellow and falling apart, but they are filled with formulas and class invariants, amazing visions that are hard to describe, and no indication of how he came up with them."
Ono will spend much of December in India, taking overnight trains to Mysore, Bangalore, Chennai and New Dehli, as part of a group of distinguished mathematicians giving talks about Ramanujan in the lead-up to the anniversary date.
"Ramanujan is a hero in India so it's kind of like a math rock tour," Ono says, adding, "I'm his biggest fan. My professional life is inescapably intertwined with Ramanujan. Many of the mathematical objects that I think about so profoundly were anticipated by him. I'm so glad that he existed."
###
Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate experience, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. Emory encompasses nine academic divisions as well as the Carlos Museum, The Carter Center, the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, Georgia's largest and most comprehensive health care system.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
President Obama wipes tears during a news conference in response to the elementary school shooting in Connecticut on Dec. 14, 2012
Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.
Maybe I spend too much time listening to politicians. Maybe I can?t get past seeing my children in that line of kids holding hands as they?re being led through the Sandy Hook school parking lot. But I don?t want to hear President Obama talk about gun control six hours after the shooting. When he spoke this afternoon, he said there will be time to take action and then he returned the focus to where it should be, on the parents grieving over the loss of those 20 children.
We?re all trying to come to terms with today?s tragedy and for a lot of people that means talking about gun control or fighting against it. For others it?s about mental health. It?s probably about both. Have at it. Light up Twitter. But the president?s job today is not to get into that debate. His job is to lend some comfort to those parents who thought they were going to have family movie night tonight or whose biggest worry today was supposed to be how to beat the weekend traffic on their annual holiday trip. (You can argue that a president shouldn?t play this role, but this is the one we have come to cast him in.)
?We never come out here,? a local television reporter just said of Newtown, Conn., which was always too sleepy and calm to make the Action News. It is a horrible sucking hole of woe that has been opened up in Connecticut and the president?s job today is to bear witness for those stuck in that hole. Maybe the president?s words never reach those families, but he can speak to the community, to the parents who are at sea, sick to their stomachs about their neighbors and who feel guilty that they?re happy they have kids they can still hug.
For the rest of the nation, I?m betting more people see this as a human tragedy than a moment for political debate. If that?s so, I?m guessing those people could also use a little guidance, comfort, or fellow-feeling from their president. Better that a president make some stab at giving them that solace than cheapen the moment by making a political point. Politics cheapens almost everything, why should we imagine an emergency dose right now is a good idea?
Even if the president fails in all this, even if those of us in the blast radius find no comfort in connecting with his tears at the podium, he at least can keep from stirring up the big public roar. The media already skips over the families of the victims to obsess over the shooter. When Obama visited the families of the victims in Aurora, Col., they asked him to do what he could to get the media to focus on the victims, not the shooter. Why should the president help kick up a gun debate today that will give the media another topic to obsess over at the expense of the families? The gun debate will go on tonight as will the madness over the shooter (perhaps by daybreak we?ll stop misidentifying him), but the president doesn't have to contribute to it.
Plus, words are cheap today. If you?re an advocate for gun control, shouldn?t the crucial moment be in four weeks or four months when nothing has happened to prevent another day like today? The president said, ?We're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.? OK, so hold him to that. The president is the only one who can start this debate and sustain it. Because while a president?s ability to shape public opinion is more limited than we think, he does have the power to put things on the agenda and keep them there.
The cycle is familiar: shock and outrage followed by inaction, whether the shootings are in a movie theater or on a street corner in Chicago. That?s when the president will need to hear these voices. Those voices will be proof that there is a sustaining passion for a political solution and that today?s calls for action aren?t just another bout of momentary outrage that has come and gone too many times before.
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Public release date: 17-Dec-2012
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President Obama wipes tears during a news conference in response to the elementary school shooting in Connecticut on Dec. 14, 2012