Saturday, December 31, 2011

'500 Days of Summer' stars sing together

By Bruna Nessif, E! Online

Summer's back!

Kinda. The "500 Days of Summer" costars have reunited on screen, except this time, instead of going through an emotional rollercoaster, Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt sing a sweet tune together.

The darling duo, looking casual and comfortable, sit in front of the camera with ukulele and guitar, ready to give us a mini performance. And we'll tell you right now, our hearts melted.

READ: Karaoke Fan Surprised by Drake: "It Was a Total Hollywood Moment"

Deschanel kicks off their cover of jazz singer Nancy Wilson's, "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" with her hypnotizing voice, which is soon followed by Gordon-Levitt sharing his singing chops (which only makes him that much sexier).

She & Him's female half posted the video on her website HelloGiggles, and wrote, "I have known Joe Gordon-Levitt for going on 12 years. We first met in the summer of 2000 while doing a tiny movie called Manic, where we bonded over a mutual appreciation for Harry Nilsson and Nina Simone and I have been lucky enough to call him one of my dearest friends ever since.

"When we did '500 Days of Summer' 8 years later, we spent every lunch hour dancing to Marvin Gaye in the hair and makeup trailer; we had loads of fun. I hope to do a thousand more movies with him because he's simply the best. But in the meantime, we made a little New Year's duet for all of you! The original?by Nancy Wilson. ENJOY! Don't forget to check out Joe's website http://hitrecord.org/"

We know 'New Girl' star Zooey just separated from her hubby?and who knows what J.G.L is up to with the ladies?these days, but deep inside, we kinda (and by kinda we mean really) hope that one day we'll write a "new couple alert" story on these two.

GALLERY: Kissing Costars: Movies

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Source: http://todayentertainment.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/30/9826119-its-not-summer-but-deschanel-and-gordon-levitt-are-together-again

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NFL: Giants RB Brandon Jacobs Says Cowboy Fans are ?Loud and Obnoxious?

How about those Cowboys ? fans? ?Giants RB Brandon Jacobs isn?t too fond of them, check what he had to say after the jump.

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That?s the major problem Brandon Jacobs has with the team that stands in the way of the Giants winning the NFC East and making the playoffs. The Giants, especially Justin Tuck, aren?t shy about expressing their hatred of the Cowboys. Now Jacobs explains why he isn?t a big fan: Because of the Cowboys fans.

?The reason that a lot of guys on opposing teams hate the Cowboys is their fans,?? Jacobs said Thursday afternoon. ?So many of their fans are loud and obnoxious. Everywhere you go you got some Dallas fans and they?re just like running their mouth about Dallas and keep going. It?s not really the team and the star and all that because they?re just like any other team in the National Football League, but their fans are the ones who have me feeling the way I feel. That?s my issue.?

Throughout the NFC East and the NFL, Eagles fans are renowned as perhaps the most difficult group to deal with, but Jacobs ranks Cowboys fans at the top of the heap.

?I?m not talking about being a fan of the team and going out actually at the game and doing the type of stuff they do in Philly,?? Jacobs explained. ?I?m just talking about in everyday life, Cowboy fans get on my nerves.?

NY Post

Source: http://www.inflexwetrust.com/2011/12/29/nfl-giants-rb-brandon-jacobs-says-cowboy-fans-are-loud-and-obnoxious/

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Friday, December 30, 2011

Katy Perry, Russell Brand Breakup Rumors Swirl Online

Both celebs were photographed without their wedding bands this week.
By Kara Warner


Katy Perry and Russell Brand in Los Angeles on December 3
Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Katy Perry and Russell Brand have both been spotted in public sans wedding bands recently, and while there has been no official word regarding a separation of any sort, nothing sets the Internet rumor mill spinning like a high-profile married couple stepping out with naked ring fingers.

Perry was first spotted without her ring around Christmas, but she was splashing around in the ocean and could have chosen not to wear the ring for fear of losing it, not to make a statement about her relationship status.

A wedding-ring-free Brand was snapped by photographers walking around London on Thursday (December 29), further fueling rumors of marital trouble that have been swirling, which both Brand and Perry addressed recently.

"There are always rumors, aren't there? In the end, you have to just not engage with Internet technology, which is difficult because a lot of the nude women websites I quite enjoy," Brand joked to Ellen DeGeneres about breakup rumors during his visit to her talk show. "I've treated the whole Internet now like it's a wicked little liar. Yeah. I am really happily married," he added. "I'm married to Katy. Perpetually, until death do us part was the pledge."

Perry took to Twitter in November to brush off earlier rumblings. "First I'm pregnant & then I'm divorced. What am I 'All My Children'?! #ericakane #pshhh #ifihadadollarforeverytime ...," she tweeted. The pop princess and cheeky British comedian have been married since October 2010.

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1676624/katy-perry-russell-brand-wedding-rings.jhtml

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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Whidbey forest lovers fight disc golf proposal

By JUSTIN BURNETT
Whidbey News Times Staff reporter
December 28, 2011 ? Updated 2:20 PM?

It wasn?t a hole-in-one but a proposal for an 18-hole disc-golf course at Rhododendron Park on Central Whidbey is all but sunk.

Danni Baugher, director of the Oak Harbor-based Whidbey Island Disc Golf Club, said the organization is going to start looking at alternative locations besides the Island County park just east of Coupeville on Highway 20.

The decision was made early last week in the wake of an unexpected and withering round of protest emails submitted to county leaders; communications which Baugher said are based on misperceptions and half truths.

?It?s disappointing,? Baugher said. ?It?s just a shame.?

In late November, the disc-golf club made a proposal to build an 18-hole course at the Island County park. The group has a course at Fort Nugent Park in Oak Harbor, but it?s small and the organization wants a more modern and challenging facility.

The sport is similar to golf but instead of clubs and balls, players use discs that resemble Frisbees and shoot for metal baskets rather than holes in the ground.

According to the group?s original written proposal, the course would have been constructed along existing loop trails in a 40-acre area. The document specified two concrete tee-off pads per hole, each about 12-feet by six-feet, the installation of directional signs, a message board and garbage cans.

?Absurd? plan

Although many of the details of the original plan have changed following discussions with county park officials, from reducing the number and size of tee-off pads to a strict tree-cutting ban in the ecologically sensitive area, the proposal birthed a firestorm of protest from park enthusiasts.

Saturday, Dec. 17, the Whidbey Camano Land Trust released an ?Action Alert? on the plan that resulted in scores of emails to the Island County Board of Commissioners and county park officials. The group made it clear it was against the proposal, saying ?it will cause irreparable damage to this irreplaceable part of our Island?s natural heritage.?

Most were simple objections, urging the commissioners to reject the proposal and seek alternative locations. But others were much more stinging, saying that even considering the idea was ?frivolous and irresponsible? or ?absurd.?

Rhododendron Park is credited with being a rare and sensitive forest, containing old-growth trees up to 350 years old. It?s believed to be one of just five quality examples left in Washington and possibly the United States.

?This is one of the rarest forest systems left,? said Pat Powell, executive director for the land trust. ?This is not the right place.?

No tree cutting

But Baugher and county officials working on the plan said the land trust?s action alert was unfair and loaded with misconceptions, the biggest of which was the implication that wide swaths of forest would need to be clearcut for fairways.

?It?s quite upsetting,? Baugher said. ?Never once did I say I was cutting one tree down.?

The club?s original proposal, which was forwarded to the land trust and environmental advocacy groups at the request of the commissioners, did mention tree trimming, seeding and mowing.

But the document wasn?t a master plan. Rather it was a general proposal of what a course could look like and that template had changed radically to fit the ecological concerns of the sensitive woodland, she said.

Not only would no trees have been cut, but the course would snake along established paths, some of which are already asphalted. Limited brush around ?holes? might be moved aside for safety but the group is well aware of the area?s important ecology.

Club member and avid disc golfer Brad VonHaden said misconceptions about the proposal and the sport by the letter writers were unfair and frustrating. The group doesn?t want to damage a sensitive area and wants to work with anyone concerned, but it seems like people have already made up their minds, he said.

?It?s hard to have a dialogue when the first word out of your mouth is ?No?,? VonHaden said.

Public Works Director Bill Oakes called the land trust?s communication to the public a ?call to arms? and sharply criticized it at a recent work session with the commissioners, saying it grossly misrepresented what was actually being proposed by both staff and the disc-golf club.

?It was designed to generate letters and emails and phone conversations and it did,? Oakes said. ?It was designed to incite and anger, and it did. It was designed to produce ?How can you be so stupid county employees? emails, and it did.?

Not giving up

According to Powell, action alerts are rare and are only done for issues that are ?highly important.? She denies that it was inflammatory or even inaccurate, saying it was based on the disc-golf club?s original application. They didn?t know about the mitigating changes to the plan because they were never released to the public, she said.

But even if they had, it would not have changed the land trust?s position. Disc-golf is an organized sport and the course would allow for heavy foot traffic in a sensitive area that would result in negative impacts, Powell said.

While the conservation group is not against disc-golf, this proposal should never have been considered for Rhododendron Park in the first place, she said.

?It?s puzzling to us why it got this far,? she said. ?It?s just so inappropriate.?

In a later interview, Oakes said he did not believe the land trust purposely put out false information but had appeared to have based its letter on the original proposal. However, he said no one called him to see if anything had changed, either.

Although the overwhelming show of opposition for the proposal has resulted in the disc-golf club looking for alternative sites, Baugher said it?s not ruling out Rhododendron Park forever.

Disc-golf is a popular, healthy and affordable sport that?s growing. Club membership is about 100 and the group wants a better course so it can continue to grow and host popular annual tournaments.

?If (other locations) don?t pan out, we?ll dig our heels in at Rhody because it?s a multi-use park,? she said. ?That?s what it?s supposed to be but it?s not being used that way. It?s a shame.?

?

Contact Whidbey News Times Staff reporter Justin Burnett at jburnett@whidbeynewsgroup.com or 360-675-6611 ext. 5054.

Source: http://feeds.soundpublishing.com/~r/wntnews/~3/0bvXr6V4oyg/136281188.html

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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Fill Your New Kindle, iPad, iPhone with Free eBooks, Movies, Audio Books, Courses & More | Open Culture

Santa left a new Kindle, iPad or other media player under your tree. He did his job. Now we?ll do ours. We?ll tell you how to fill those devices with free intelligent media ? great books, movies, courses, and all of the rest. And if you didn?t get a new gadget, fear not. You can access all of these materials on the good old fashioned computer. Here we go:

Free eBooks:?You have always wanted to read the great works. And now is your chance. When you dive into our Free eBooks collection you will find 300 great works by some classic writers (Dickens, Dostoevsky, Shakespeare and Tolstoy) and contemporary writers (F. Scott Fitzgerald, Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, and Kurt Vonnegut). The collection also gives you access to the 51-volume?Harvard Classics. Read these foundational texts, and you?ll be well on your way to giving yourself a proper liberal education.

If you need help loading files to your eBook reader, Project Gutenberg provides tutorials here,?and one of our previous posts explains?how to upload files specifically to your Kindle.

Free Audio Books: What better way to spend your free time than listening to some of the greatest books ever written? This page contains a vast number of free audio books, including works by Arthur Conan Doyle, James Joyce, Jane Austen, Edgar Allan Poe, George Orwell and more recent writers ? Italo Calvino, Vladimir?Nabokov,?Raymond Carver, etc. You can download these classic books straight to your mp3 player, then listen as you go.

[Note: If you're looking for a more recent book, you can download one free audio book from Audible.com. Grab that new Steve Jobs biography, or pretty much any other audio book you want. Find details on Audible's no-strings-attached deal here.]

Free Courses: This list brings together over 400 free courses from leading universities, including Stanford, Yale, MIT, UC Berkeley, Oxford and beyond. These full-fledged courses range across all disciplines ??history,?physics,?philosophy,?psychology and beyond. All of these courses are available in audio, and roughly 65% are available in video. You can?t receive credits or certificates for these courses. But the amount of personal enrichment you will derive here is immeasurable.

Free Movies: With a click of a mouse, or a tap of your touch screen, you will have access to 435 great movies. The collection hosts many classics, westerns,?indies, documentaries, silent films and film noir favorites. It features work by some of our great directors (Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Andrei Tarkovsky, Stanley Kubrick, Jean-Luc Godard and David Lynch) and performances by cinema legends: John Wayne, Jack Nicholson, Audrey Hepburn, Charlie Chaplin, and beyond. On this one page, you will find thousands of hours of cinema bliss.

Free Language Lessons: Perhaps learning a new language is high on your list of 2012 New Year?s resolutions. Well, here is a great way to do it. Take your pick of 40 languages, including?Spanish,?French,?Italian,?Mandarin,?English,?Russian,?Dutch, even Finnish, Yiddish and Esperanto. These lessons are all free and ready to download.

Free Textbooks: And one last item for the lifelong learners among you. We have scoured the web and pulled together a list of 150 Free Textbooks. It?s a great resource particularly if you?re looking to learn math, computer science or physics on your own. There might be a diamond in the rough here for you.

Thank Santa, maybe thank us, and enjoy that new device?.


Source: http://www.openculture.com/2011/12/fill_your_new_kindle_ipad_iphone_with_free_ebooks_movies_audio_books_courses_more.html

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Global stocks mixed on concern about US, Europe

(AP) ? Global stock markets were mixed Tuesday amid worries about weak Christmas sales in the United States and Europe and a warning by Japan's central bank about possible risks from the European debt crisis.

Tokyo lost 0.5 percent to 8,440.56 while China's benchmark Shanghai index dropped nearly 1.1 percent to 2,166.21. Seoul, Taipei, Singapore and Jakarta declined. Hong Kong and Sydney were closed.

In Europe, France's CAC 40 opened up 0.3 percent at 3,111.37 while Germany's DAX also gained 0.3 percent to 5,897.57.

Pessimistic Asian investors expect upcoming indicators including Chinese manufacturing and Christmas retail sales in key Western markets to be lackluster, said Peng Yunliang, a market strategist for Shanghai Securities.

"The markets expect these data will be no good," Peng said. "Some people think sales data from Christmas in the United States and Europe will not be as good as last year."

China's government reported Tuesday that profit growth slowed at its major industrial companies. Total profit in the January-November period rose 24.4 percent over a year earlier, down 0.9 percent from the growth rate for the first 10 months of the year.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 declined after the Bank of Japan released notes that showed a Finance Ministry representative warning at a November meeting the world's third-largest economy faces "significant downside risks" due to Europe's debt problems.

Wall Street and European stock markets were closed Monday because Christmas fell on a Sunday this year.

Elsewhere in Asia, Seoul's Kospi shed 0.8 percent to 1,842.02 while Taiwan's Taiex lost 0.1 percent to 7,085.03. Singapore's benchmark was off 0.1 percent at 2,673.18. Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur also declined.

Chinese losses were led by media, information technology, food and travel-related companies.

Dairy shares fell after China's biggest milk producer said Monday it destroyed a batch found to be contaminated with a potentially cancer-causing toxin. Zhejiang Beingmate Scientific Industrial Trade Co., an infant formula producer, lost 6.8 percent while Bright Dairy & Food Co. shed 4.1 percent.

Asian investors are closely watching Europe, whose debt crisis already has hurt demand for exports from China and other major producers.

In the last pre-holiday U.S. trading day on Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average added 1 percent while the Nasdaq composite index gained 0.7 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.9 percent.

Benchmark crude for February delivery was down 14 cents at $99.54 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In currencies, the euro was up 0.1 percent at $1.3065 while the dollar held steady at 77.91 yen.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-12-27-World-Markets/id-6bc742b605d840d99ea5731c9db7fa2e

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Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Automotive Public sale In Sacramento ? aminuu.com

In the first place, long time in the past, when the first car appeared and the auto business was born this manner of transportation was seen extra as a hobby. The peculiar folks would still use the old methods of transportation. So the automotive?s utility wasn?t totally understood not until within the 20th century. Now the automobile is an object that is not regarded as a hobby however a must, it is now an utility. Individuals can not imagine their world without the automobile.

Unfortunately for some of us, vehicles are still too expensive. Not all people can afford to spend a lot of money on new cars. That is why the automotive auctions are so successful today. Any such auction is utilized in a whole lot of nations, and is now a common practice.

Within the United States the variety of car auctions has elevated since just a few years ago and is consistently increasing. There are car auctions in each city, there are automobile auctions in L.A, car auctions in New York, automotive auctions in Sacramento, and so on.

The car auction in Sacramento for example, has nothing more or less from the automobile auction in L.A. All the car auctions work across the similar idea: used automobiles that individuals can buy for a decrease price.

What are Car Auctions Really about?

For sellers, the automobile public sale is a great marketplace, a marketplace stuffed with opportunities and an important a part of their business. The car auction represents the assembly level the place each socializing and massive transactions take place.

As a result of we first took the example of the automotive auction in Sacramento let us continue with this one. Cars find yourself at an automobile public sale for all sort of reasons. It?s the same here, with the automobile public sale in Sacramento. One of many reasons why automobiles find yourself at an automobile auction, for instance on the automotive auction in Sacramento, is their age.

Many sellers offer all sort of leases and different kinds of facilities. When returned, these ?off-lease? vehicles will end up at an automotive auction. This happens as a result of it?s a lot simpler and likewise more handy for the dealership to use the car auction system instead of simply attempting to sell them and place them in a car lot, especially if the automobiles are nicely used.

Another way how vehicles can end up at a car auction is that their companies are buying and selling them. The companies? cars are normally traded after some years, and the car public sale is the perfect place the place they can be sold. That?s the reason the automotive public sale is the best place where you may either promote or purchase an used car. It?s the identical in any respect the car auctions, no matter their location, and it is the same at the automobile auction in Sacramento too, simply in case you have been asking.

Cari F Jaminet

For facts with reference to Corsa, swing by the author?s website directly.

Source: http://aminuu.com/internet-business/auctions/automotive-public-sale-in-sacramento/

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IRS Debt Relief Help

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Monday, December 26, 2011

The cat who vanished in sunny Florida and is found in snowy Colorado four months later

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 4:16 AM on 24th December 2011

It's a Christmas miracle - but it's also something of a yuletide mystery.

A cat that went missing in Florida has turned up 2,000 miles away in Colorado.

The one-year-old orange and white male tabby cat called Waylon disappeared in August.

Scroll down for video

Waylon the missing cat

Waylon the missing cat

He had been adopted from an animal shelter in Naples, Florida, by Daniel Johns, the Huffington Post reports.

But Waylon, it appears, had other plans. Within an hour of arriving at his new home Waylon escaped through a dryer vent.

?

Last Wednesday, Waylon was found wandering in Littleton, Colorado.

How - and when - he got to Colorado is a complete mystery.

One amazing journey: How the cat travelled 2,000 miles and when it happened currently remains a mystery

One amazing journey: How the cat travelled 2,000 miles and when it happened currently remains a mystery

waylon the missing cat

waylon the missing cat

The good samaritan who found Waylon took him to the Foothills Animal Shelter in Golden.

They scanned a microchip embedded under the cat's fur, linking the cat to Mr Johns.

Mr Johns told the Naples News: 'It's a Christmas miracle. He's a really cool, sweet cat. He walks on a leash and knows his own name.'

He said he plans to travel to Colorado and pick up Waylon next week.

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Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2078289/The-cat-vanished-sunny-Florida-snowy-Colorado-months-later.html?ITO=1490

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Anti-Putin protest draws tens of thousands

In this photo taken with a fisheye lens, demonstrators rally to protest against election fraud in Moscow, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011. Tens of thousands of demonstrators rallied in the Russian capital Saturday in the largest protest so far against election fraud, signaling growing outrage over Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's 12-year rule. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

In this photo taken with a fisheye lens, demonstrators rally to protest against election fraud in Moscow, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011. Tens of thousands of demonstrators rallied in the Russian capital Saturday in the largest protest so far against election fraud, signaling growing outrage over Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's 12-year rule. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Demonstrators hold Russian opposition flags during a rally protesting against election fraud in Moscow, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011. Tens of thousands of demonstrators rallied in the Russian capital Saturday in the largest protest so far against election fraud, signaling growing outrage over Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's 12-year rule. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Demonstrators hold Russian opposition flags and protest slogans during a rally protesting against election fraud in Moscow, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011. Tens of thousands of demonstrators rallied in the Russian capital Saturday in the largest protest so far against election fraud, signaling growing outrage over Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's 12-year rule. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Demonstrators hold Russian opposition flags during a rally protesting against election fraud in Moscow, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011. Tens of thousands of demonstrators rallied in the Russian capital Saturday in the largest protest so far against election fraud, signaling growing outrage over Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's 12-year rule. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Demonstrators rally to protest against election fraud in Moscow, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011. Tens of thousands of demonstrators rallied in the Russian capital Saturday in the largest protest so far against election fraud, signaling growing outrage over Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's 12-year rule. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

MOSCOW (AP) ? Tens of thousands of demonstrators on Saturday cheered opposition leaders and jeered the Kremlin in the largest protest in the Russian capital so far against election fraud, signaling growing outrage over Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's 12-year rule.

The demonstration in Moscow was even bigger than a similar protest two weeks ago, although rallies in other cities in the far east and Siberia earlier in the day drew smaller crowds than on Dec. 10. The demonstrations are the largest show of discontent the nation has seen since the 1991 Soviet collapse.

Rally participants densely packed a broad avenue, which has room for nearly 100,000 people, about 2.5 kilometers (some 1.5 miles) from the Kremlin, as the temperature dipped well below freezing. They chanted "Russia without Putin!"

A stage at the end of the 700-meter (0.43 mile) avenue featured placards reading "Russia will be free" and "This election Is a farce." Heavy police cordons encircled the participants, who stood within metal barriers, and a police helicopter hovered overhead.

Alexei Navalny, a corruption-fighting lawyer and popular blogger, electrified the crowd when he took the stage. A rousing speaker, he had protesters shouting "We are the power!"

Navalny spent 15 days in jail for leading a protest the day after the Dec. 4 parliamentary election that unexpectedly drew more than 5,000 people and set off the chain of demonstrations. Since his release, he has helped to further galvanize the opposition.

Putin's United Russia party lost 25 percent of its seats in the election, but hung onto a majority in parliament through what independent observers said was widespread fraud. United Russia, seen as representing a corrupt bureaucracy, has become known as the party of crooks and thieves, a phrase coined by Navalny.

"We have enough people here to take the Kremlin," he shouted to the crowd. "But we are peaceful people and we won't do that ? yet. But if these crooks and thieves keep cheating us, we will take what is ours."

The recent protests in Moscow and other cities have dented Putin's authority as he seeks to reclaim the presidency in a March vote. The Kremlin has responded by promising a set of political reforms that would allow more political competition in future elections.

But protest leaders say they will continue pushing for a rerun of the Dec. 4 parliamentary election and punishment for officials accused of vote fraud. They say maintaining momentum is key to forcing Putin's government to accept their demands.

"We don't trust him," opposition leader Boris Nemtsov told the rally, urging protesters to gather again next month to make sure that the proposed changes are put into law. Along with liberals, the rally also drew Communists, nationalists and other groups.

Nemtsov called on the demonstrators to go to the polls in March to unseat Putin. "A thief must not sit in the Kremlin," he said.

"We want to back those who are fighting for our rights," said 16-year-old Darya Andryukhina, who said she had also attended the previous rally.

"People have come here because they want respect," said Tamara Voronina, 54, who said she was proud of her three sons, who had also joined the protest.

The protests reflect a growing public frustration with Putin, who ruled Russia as president in 2000-2008 and has remained the No. 1 leader after moving into the prime minister's seat due to a constitutional term limit. Brazen fraud in the parliamentary vote unexpectedly energized the middle class, which for years had been politically apathetic.

"No one has done more to bring so many people here than Putin who managed to insult the whole country," said Viktor Shenderovich, a columnist and satirical writer.

Putin has accused the United States of fomenting the protests in order to weaken Russia and has said, sarcastically, that he thought the white ribbons many protesters wear as an emblem were condoms.

In a response to Putin's blustery rhetoric, one protester Saturday held a picture montage of Putin with his head wrapped in a condom like a grandmother's headscarf.

"We can't tolerate such a show of disrespect for the people, for the entire nation," journalist and music critic Artyomy Troitsky said in a speech at the rally. He wore a white gown that resembled a condom, mocking Putin's comment.

Although Putin has derided the demonstrators as Western stooges, he has also sought to soothe public anger by promising to relax his grip on the political scene.

He has promised to liberalize registration rules for opposition parties and restore the direct election of governors he abolished in 2004. Putin's stand-in as president, Dmitry Medvedev, spelled out those and other proposed changes in Thursday's state-of-the nation address, promising to restore direct elections to fill half of the seats in parliament and ease rules for the presidential election.

Some opposition leaders welcomed the proposals, but stressed the need for the protests to continue to force the Kremlin to quickly turn the promises into law.

"These measures are insufficient," said Arina Zhukova, 45, another participant in Saturday's rally. "They are intended to calm people down and prevent them from showing up at rallies."

The electoral changes, however, will only apply to a new election cycle years away, and the opposition has stressed the need to focus on preventing fraud in the March presidential election and mounting a consolidated challenge to Putin.

In another sign of the authorities' efforts to stem the tide of public anger, the presidential human rights commission early Saturday issued a statement condemning violations in the vote and backing protesters' calls for the ouster of Central Election Commission chief Vladimir Churov.

It said that allegations of widespread fraud have led to a "moral and political discrediting of the election system and the lower house of parliament, creating a real threat to the Russian state."

____

Vladimir Isachenkov and Lynn Berry contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-24-EU-Russia-Protests/id-c881e63a397942e5a286dbe5c719d578

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Sunday, December 25, 2011

SBC and Cancer Awareness Bible

An expensive decision, no doubt, but one in keeping with a fundamental moral stance against abortion and one with which I completely agree:

?A Bible published by the Southern Baptist Convention to raise awareness and money for breast cancer has been pulled from shelves in America after Christians complained that the charity it was backing supported abortion provider Planned Parenthood. The Southern Baptist Convention?s publishing arm released its cancer awareness Bible in October ?as a way to place God?s Word into the hands of those suffering through breast cancer?, it said, with $1 from each sale going to the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation for breast health education, screening and treatment programmes. But after it discovered ?the overwhelming concern? that some of the foundation?s affiliates were donating funds to Planned Parenthood, the sexual healthcare and abortion provider, it made the decision to withdraw it.

And this is what LifeWay posted:

We made a mistake.

As part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October, B&H Publishing Group released to several mass market retailers a Cancer Awareness Bible as a way to place God?s Word into the hands of those suffering through breast cancer. As part of the project, B&H agreed to donate $1 from the sale of each Bible to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation for breast health education, screening and treatment programs.

As this project has developed, we realized it was a mistake.

When our leadership discovered the overwhelming concern that some of Komen?s affiliates were giving funds to Planned Parenthood, we began the arduous process of withdrawing this Bible from the market. Though we have assurances that Komen?s funds are used only for breast cancer screening and awareness, it is not in keeping with LifeWay?s core values to have even an indirect relationship with Planned Parenthood.

B&H?s mission to advance the gospel through distribution of God?s Word is unchanged, so we will continue to seek innovative ways that are in keeping with LifeWay?s core values.

Thom S. Rainer
President and CEO
LifeWay Christian Resources

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PatheosJesusCreed/~3/asCLrwW3eTM/

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Myth Busting: The Truth About Animals And Tools

A tufted capuchin uses a stone hammer to crack open a nut in Brazil's Parnaiba Headwaters National Park. Ben Cranke/Getty Images

A tufted capuchin uses a stone hammer to crack open a nut in Brazil's Parnaiba Headwaters National Park.

A wasp uses a pebble as a hammer. An octopus carries around a coconut shell to hide in. A shrike impales its prey on a sharp thorn.

Those are just a few examples of animal tool use that appear in the new book Animal Tool Behavior by Robert W. Shumaker, Kristina R. Walkup and Benjamin B. Beck. The book updates an edition published in 1980 by Beck. And in the new version, the authors try to dispel a number of persistent myths about animals and tools.

Shumaker tells me about some of those myths during a walk around The Indianapolis Zoo, where he is vice president of life sciences. (He is also a member of the adjunct faculty at Indiana University.)

As we approach a female polar bear named Tundra, Shumaker says one myth he hopes to deflate is that tool use is limited to monkeys and apes. Polar bears offer a powerful rebuttal of that idea, he says. In zoos, they often throw objects with great force and accuracy. It's less clear whether this sort of tool use occurs in the wild. But there are anecdotal reports from early Arctic explorers of polar bears using projectiles to hunt.

"One of the stories we have is polar bears getting up on a cliff and hurling great chunks of ice down on something like a walrus to kill it," Shumaker says.

Another common misconception: Tool use requires fingers, or at least hands, Shumaker says. Apparently, no one bothered to tell dolphins. "They have nothing to hold tools with except their mouth," he says, "and yet they are still innovative and creative."

Dolphins play with just about any object they find, Shumaker says. In some cases, the objects are merely toys ? but they become tools when used to manipulate another object or creature for a specific purpose. And dolphins do that kind of manipulating a lot, says Jodie Baker, who is in charge of marine mammals at the zoo. As we speak over the din of dolphin splashes and chatter, Baker sees a dolphin named Kimo preparing to manipulate us with a tool ? in this case, a buoy.

"If you walk by the pool and there's a dolphin playing with a toy, they'll typically throw it in your direction to get your attention," she says.

That's a form of tool use known as baiting or enticing. But scientists have collected lots of examples of dolphins doing other things with tools, Shumaker says.

"One is a dolphin that found a piece of tile and took it down to the bottom of their pool and used it to scrape algae off the bottom of their pool and then they ate the algae," he says.

And wild dolphins in Australia sometimes flush out their prey with a sponge, he says. "They hold the sponge on their rostrum, and then they use that as they disturb the sandy bottom to get fish like flounder that are down in the sand."

Genetics Or Intelligence?

One of the most widespread myths about tool use is that it is a sign of intelligence. Of course, some really smart animals do use tools. But so do creatures like the bolas spider, which is named after the throwing weapon used by South American gauchos. The spider's version of the bolas is a ball made from the same silk it uses to spin a web, Shumaker says.

"When an insect flies by, they throw it and it attaches to the insect because it's sticky and they reel them in," he says. "It's very complex. Very impressive. Very dramatic. But all available information tells us that it's completely controlled from this animal's genetic history." In other words, it's programmed behavior, not something the spider figured out. Genetic programming is also the reason hermit crabs carry around another creature's shell and ant-lions throw sand at their prey.

When intelligent animals do use tools, though, they often do so in very creative ways, Shumaker says.

At the zoo's spacious elephant enclosure, Tim Littig, a senior animal trainer, points toward a baby elephant named Kalina, who is standing next to her mother, Kubwa. Kalina has been able to nurse without any help, Littig says. But things were trickier with Kubwa's previous baby, he says.

"Her last calf was a little smaller than this one and required a step stool to be able to reach her mammary glands to nurse," Littig explains. "Kubwa would move the stool around so the calf could stand up on the stool to nurse."

Technically, that made her baby the tool user. But it was Kubwa who figured out how to use the tool. And that sort of problem-solving is a sign of intelligence, Shumaker says.

So is figuring out how to make a tool ? a skill many scientists once thought of as uniquely human. Shumaker says those scientists must not have spent much time around orangutans. Then he takes me to the orangutan enclosure for a demonstration.

I'm holding a large microphone, which Shumaker reminds me not to point at the orangutans, lest they think it's a weapon. But the animals aren't frightened. Several orangutans reach through the steel mesh and make it clear to Shumaker that they want to have the microphone. Shumaker tells a female named Knobi that she can touch it, which she does several times. When I move it out of reach, though, Knobi walks off and comes back with a small tree branch.

"She's making a reaching tool to try and get your microphone," Shumaker explains as Knobi breaks off one forking branch so the limb will fit through the steel mesh.

But this reaching tool isn't long enough, so Knobi fetches a branch that's 5 or 6 feet long. I stay where I am as Knobi prods at the microphone with the tool.

"She's doing her best to draw the mic in," Shumaker says to me. Then to Knobi he says: "I'm sorry; you cannot have it. Good job with your tool."

As we walk away, we can see Knobi grabbing an even larger branch.

Using Symbols As Tools

Just 10 or 15 years ago, scientists were still debating whether orangutans in the wild also made tools, Shumaker says. Now it's clear they do, and there are several examples in Animal Tool Behavior. The book also offers scientific documentation of other species making tools in the wild. New Caledonian crows make hooks out of twigs to catch prey. Wild chimpanzees make wooden spears for hunting.

Perhaps the most surprising and controversial findings in the new book involve what scientists refer to as symbolic tool use. "These are examples where we see tools being used to represent something else or to provide a change in psychological state," Shumaker says

Symbolic tool use is something people do every time they pay for an item with paper bills or coins. And some monkeys and apes in captivity have learned to use tokens that they trade for various foods.

But Shumaker is more intrigued by the sort of symbolic tools that can affect emotions. There are lots of examples of this in people. Children often have a special stuffed animal or blanket that is much more than a toy. The object represents comfort or security to them, and they use it to feel better.

It's one more behavior that scientists once considered uniquely human. But Shumaker says there is more and more evidence that some animals use symbolic tools in much the same way.

"We would see great apes in times of great stress or sadness, like a female who had an infant that died," Shumaker says. "That female would create something that researchers called a doll and then [she] treated it exactly as she had treated her infant that had recently died."

Shumaker says scientists are still debating the significance of examples like this. But he says the fact that such a debate is even taking place shows how much things have changed since the 1960s, when scientists first realized that humans weren't the only ones using tools.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/23/143833929/myth-busting-the-truth-about-animals-and-tools?ft=1&f=1007

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Saturday, December 24, 2011

TheDailySun: First Baptist Church to serve Christmas meal http://t.co/JDrH6aRL

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China dissident faces Friday trial for online essays (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) ? Chinese writer Chen Wei faces trial on Friday accused of "inciting subversion" for online essays advocating democracy, in the latest aftershock of a drive against dissent earlier this year, his wife and defense lawyer said.

Chen will be tried in Suining, a city in the southwest province of Sichuan, where he pursued an career as an ardent advocate of political rights, freedom of speech and replacing China's one-party rule with democracy.

Beijing has grappled over how to keep censorship of the Internet, while allowing citizens some space for sharing their views. But dissidents, such as Chen, who directly challenge Communist Party rule, risk jail.

"He's being tried for inciting subversion of state power," said his wife, Wang Xiaoyan, citing the indictment.

"It was for nothing but his essays. He'll maintain that he's completely innocent," she said in a telephone interview.

"I hope to see him in the courtroom," she added. "I haven't seen him since he was detained."

Chen, 42, was one of hundreds of dissidents, rights activists and protest organizers swept up in a crackdown on dissent from earlier this year, when the ruling Communist Party sought to stifle potential protests inspired by anti-authoritarian uprisings across the Arab world.

Many of those detained in the crackdown have been released but remain under constant police watch. But Chen is likely to stay locked up. China's party-run courts rarely find in favor of defendants in trials for political charges.

Chen's defense lawyer, Liang Xiaojun, confirmed that Chen is accused of "inciting subversion of state power" for 26 essays he published online and for an overseas magazine.

Liang said Chen appeared to be "quite healthy."

The Chinese government's hostility to political dissent is likely to grow next year as the Communist Party's prepares for a leadership handover.

Chen, who was detained February, signed the "Charter 08" manifesto for democratic reform that was co-written by Liu Xiaobo, the jailed dissident who won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.

Two other dissidents from Sichuan detained at about the same as Chen -- Ran Yunfei and Ding Mao -- have been released.

Chen was jailed for taking part in the pro-democracy protests centered on Tiananmen Square in Beijing that ended in the armed crackdown of June 4, 1989. He was released in late 1990.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Ed Lane)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111222/wr_nm/us_china_dissident_trial

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Friday, December 23, 2011

Chinese Hackers Hit U.S. Chamber

A group of hackers in China breached the computer defenses of America's top business-lobbying group and gained access to everything stored on its systems, including information about its three million members, according to several people familiar with the matter.

The WSJ's Jerry Seib details a cyber attack against the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in which emails were stolen. Correction: An earlier caption incorrectly said more than 300 Internet addresses were breached.

The break-in at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is one of the boldest known infiltrations in what has become a regular confrontation between U.S. companies and Chinese hackers. The complex operation, which involved at least 300 Internet addresses, was discovered and quietly shut down in May 2010.

It isn't clear how much of the compromised data was viewed by the hackers. Chamber officials say internal investigators found evidence that hackers had focused on four Chamber employees who worked on Asia policy, and that six weeks of their email had been stolen.

It is possible the hackers had access to the network for more than a year before the breach was uncovered, according to two people familiar with the Chamber's internal investigation.

One of these people said the group behind the break-in is one that U.S. officials suspect of having ties to the Chinese government. The Chamber learned of the break-in when the Federal Bureau of Investigation told the group that servers in China were stealing its information, this person said. The FBI declined to comment on the matter.

A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Geng Shuang, said cyberattacks are prohibited by Chinese law and China itself is a victim of attacks. He said the allegation that the attack against the Chamber originated in China "lacks proof and evidence and is irresponsible," adding that the hacking issue shouldn't be "politicized."

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said at a daily briefing that he hadn't heard about the matter, though he repeated that Chinese law forbids hacker attacks. He added that China wants to cooperate more with the international community to prevent hacker attacks.

The Chamber moved to shut down the hacking operation by unplugging and destroying some computers and overhauling its security system. The security revamp was timed for a 36-hour period over one weekend when the hackers, who kept regular working hours, were expected to be off duty.

Damage from data theft is often difficult to assess.

People familiar with the Chamber investigation said it has been hard to determine what was taken before the incursion was discovered, or whether cyberspies used information gleaned from the Chamber to send booby-trapped emails to its members to gain a foothold in their computers, too.

Chamber officials said they scoured email known to be purloined and determined that communications with fewer than 50 of its members were compromised. They notified those members. People familiar with the investigation said the emails revealed the names of companies and key people in contact with the Chamber, as well as trade-policy documents, meeting notes, trip reports and schedules.

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

The Chamber of Commerce building in Washington, D.C.

"What was unusual about it was that this was clearly somebody very sophisticated, who knew exactly who we are and who targeted specific people and used sophisticated tools to try to gather intelligence," said the Chamber's Chief Operating Officer David Chavern.

Nevertheless, Chamber officials said they haven't seen evidence of harm to the organization or its members.

The Chamber, which has 450 employees and represents the interests of U.S. companies in Washington, might look like a juicy target to hackers. Its members include most of the nation's largest corporations, and the group has more than 100 affiliates around the globe.

While members are unlikely to share any intellectual property or trade secrets with the group, they sometimes communicate with it about trade and policy.

U.S. intelligence officials and lawmakers have become alarmed by the growing number of cyber break-ins with roots in China. Last month, the U.S. counterintelligence chief issued a blunt critique of China's theft of American corporate intellectual property and economic data, calling China "the world's most active and persistent perpetrators of economic espionage" and warning that large-scale industrial espionage threatens U.S. competitiveness and national security.

Two people familiar with the Chamber investigation said certain technical aspects of the attack suggested it was carried out by a known group operating out of China. It isn't clear exactly how the hackers broke in to the Chamber's systems. Evidence suggests they were in the network at least from November 2009 to May 2010.

Stan Harrell, chief information officer at the Chamber, said federal law enforcement told the group: "This is a different level of intrusion" than most hacking. "This is much more sophisticated."

Chamber President and Chief Executive Thomas J. Donahue first learned of the breach in May 2010 after he returned from a business trip to China. Chamber officials tapped their contacts in government for recommendations for private computer investigators, then hired a team to diagnose the breach and overhaul the Chamber's defenses.

They first watched the hackers in action to assess the operation. The intruders, in what appeared to be an effort to ensure continued access to the Chamber's systems, had built at least a half-dozen so-called back doors that allowed them to come and go as they pleased, one person familiar with the investigation said. They also built in mechanisms that would quietly communicate with computers in China every week or two, this person said.

The intruders used tools that allowed them to search for key words across a range of documents on the Chamber's network, including searches for financial and budget information, according to the person familiar with the investigation. The investigation didn't determine whether the hackers had taken the documents turned up in the searches.

When sophisticated cyberspies have access to a network for many months, they often take measures to cover their tracks and to conceal what they have stolen.

To beef up security, the Chamber installed more sophisticated detection equipment and barred employees from taking the portable devices they use every day to certain countries, including China, where the risk of infiltration is considered high. Instead, Chamber employees are issued different equipment before their trips?equipment that is checked thoroughly upon their return.

Chamber officials say they haven't been able to keep intruders completely out of their system, but now can detect and isolate attacks quickly.

The Chamber continues to see suspicious activity, they say. A thermostat at a town house the Chamber owns on Capitol Hill at one point was communicating with an Internet address in China, they say, and, in March, a printer used by Chamber executives spontaneously started printing pages with Chinese characters.

"It's nearly impossible to keep people out. The best thing you can do is have something that tells you when they get in," said Mr. Chavern, the chief operating officer. "It's the new normal. I expect this to continue for the foreseeable future. I expect to be surprised again."

--Owen Fletcher in Beijing contributed to this article.

Write to Siobhan Gorman at siobhan.gorman@wsj.com

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204058404577110541568535300.html?mod=fox_australian

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Shell companies steal millions from Medicare

By the time authorities busted a fake AIDS clinic in Miami, it had bilked Medicare of more than $4.5 million. Still, the man behind the scheme remained far ahead of the agents pursuing him.

Michel De Jesus Huarte, a 40-year-old Cuban-American, hadn't simply avoided arrest. He had hatched a plan to steal millions more from Medicare by forming at least 29 other shell companies ? paper-only firms with no real operations. Each time, he would keep his name out of any corporate records. Other people ? some paid by Huarte, some whose identities had been stolen ? would be listed in incorporation papers.

The shells functioned as a vital tool to hide the Medicare deceit ? and not only for Huarte. Hundreds of others have used the veil of corporate secrecy to help steal hundreds of millions of dollars from one of the nation's largest social service programs, a Reuters investigation has found.

Reuters video: The Medicare swindle

Huarte is now behind bars and did not respond to requests for comment. But basic checks by Reuters of Medicare providers in one city ? Miami ? suggest shell companies remain prime tools in perpetrating fraud. Simply by reviewing the incorporation records of Medicare providers in two buildings there, reporters uncovered information that one government official said could prompt "a serious criminal investigation" of some of the companies.

The fraud rings merge stolen doctor and patient data under the auspices of a shell company and then bill Medicare as rapidly as possible. Other shell companies are often layered on top to camouflage the fraud, law enforcement officials say.

Some of the shells purport to be billing companies; they form a buffer between the sham clinics and Medicare. Others pay kickbacks to doctors and patients who sign off on bogus medical claims or sell their Medicare ID numbers to enable the shell company to bill the government. Still other shells act as fronts to launder the profits.

The key to this kind of fraud, known as a "bust-out" scheme, is for each of the fake companies to bill as much as possible before authorities catch on. Shell companies become a tool that helps keep the crooks ahead of the cops.

"This is a 'Catch Me If You Can' environment," says Ryan K. Stumphauzer, a former assistant U.S. attorney with the Department of Justice in Miami who prosecuted the Huarte case and scores of other Medicare frauds involving shell companies. "We had no clue who Huarte was. We had no idea there was some mastermind out there."

  1. More from the Reuters series

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Last year, "improper payments" resulted in $48 billion in losses to the Medicare program, nearly 10 percent of the $526 billion in payments the program made, according to a Government Accountability Office report last March. Exactly how much of those payments moved through shell companies remains unclear. That's because neither Medicare nor law enforcement agencies systematically track how often such companies are used in the frauds. And not until 2007 did the federal government form task forces to exclusively target Medicare fraud rings.

But recent indictments issued by those task forces indicate that shell-perpetrated fraud is pervasive. Reuters examined indictments issued since 2007 in the eight states that have Medicare fraud task forces in place. The examination found that shell companies were involved in more than a third of the fraudulent Medicare claims identified by the task forces ? $1 billion of the $2.9 billion uncovered.

The indictments and other cases indicate that at least 300 shell companies posed as legitimate Medicare providers and billing firms, or laundered payments from Medicare. Court records show shells have purported to provide services ranging from treating varicose veins to supplying prosthetic limbs.

"These companies are nameless, faceless entities collecting billions in secret," says Patrick Burns, director of communications for the advocacy group Taxpayers Against Fraud in Washington, D.C. Medicare is "chasing it," he says. "But they're not getting any closer."

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Tools of deception
The shell companies bedeviling Medicare exemplify a national problem that Reuters documented in a series of stories this year. During the last decade, Washington has called on the rest of the world to clean up shady financial flows and improve corporate transparency to combat terrorism and tax evasion.

Even so, U.S.-based shell companies remain a significant tool of deception ? in this case, to swindle hundreds of millions of dollars from taxpayer-supported Medicare.

In one of the largest cases of Medicare fraud ever charged, the operation was enabled by shell companies. In October 2010, federal prosecutors indicted 44 members of an Armenian organized crime ring. Their network, which stretched from Los Angeles to Savannah, Ga., used 118 shell companies in 25 states to pose as Medicare providers, billing more than $100 million, according to federal indictments in three states.

The difficulty of spotting ? and stopping ? shell-perpetrated Medicare fraud is compounded by incorporation laws that vary from state to state and make forming fake businesses easy.

Intentionally submitting false corporate information constitutes fraud in every state. But none check the validity of corporate records when a company incorporates or collect information on the "beneficial owners" ? those with a controlling interest in the corporations.

Because Huarte's shell companies, like others, were incorporated with various state governments, the corporate documentation gave the fake clinics a veneer of legitimacy. And because Huarte was seldom listed in the incorporation papers, connecting him to the cons became more complicated.

The strategy enabled the scheme to go largely undetected by authorities for years, even though most of the operations had mailing addresses that betrayed their fiction. More than a dozen corresponded to UPS stores, Reuters found. Others tracked back to shabby apartments.

For example, a purported cancer clinic called Bellemeade Oncology Care lists its address in Georgia state records as 1500 Bellemeade Dr., #4D, Marietta, Ga. But a visit to the address reveals it isn't a clinic at all. Rather, it's an apartment with a broken washing machine on the front stoop and a pick-up truck parked in the grass outside the complex on Atlanta's north side.

In Florida, FBI agents say almost every Medicare fraud scheme involves shell companies. There, Reuters scrutinized incorporation documents for firms located in two buildings near the Miami International Airport. In a building with dimly lit corridors, a rickety elevator and almost no one in sight, a host of companies purport to provide services to Medicare recipients. But telltale signs of fraud abound.

Many of the 26 companies in the buildings had replaced corporate officers at least once in the last four years. Some had changed ownership, or their corporate executives represented more than one medical-related company. Law enforcement officials consider such activities to be red flags for fraud.

Reuters subsequently asked analysts from the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board to use its software programs to examine the companies. The board monitors $787 billion in stimulus funds for fraudulent activity using sophisticated computer systems; last year, it had worked with Medicare officials to look for patterns of fraud.

Earlier this month, board head Earl E. Devaney said the companies Reuters identified represent "a pretty big case."

Devaney, who is also the inspector general for the Department of the Interior, says the board's analysis of the 26 Medicare providers led investigators to another 15 Medicare entities associated with those providers. He believes the findings could prompt a "serious criminal investigation."

The Miami Medicare providers, he said, "have the distinct look of the kinds of scams we've seen before." The results of the board's analysis were sent to the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services for further investigation, Devaney said.

'Whack-a-mole'
Federal prosecutors struggled for years to spot, let alone stop, Huarte's shell game. They describe his operation as "remarkable for its geographic breadth, organization, sophistication, and size." From 2005 until early 2009, Huarte and at least seven co-conspirators operated at least 35 fake Medicare clinics in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina, court records show.

During that time, his scams operated "virtually uninterrupted," according to a September 2009 superseding indictment and other court records filed in U.S. District Court in Florida.

They billed Medicare for more than $100 million and received at least $34 million in payments for non-existent HIV and AIDS treatments and varicose vein care and pain management therapy that never occurred.

The key: Huarte stayed steps ahead of authorities by setting up new companies before the government could sniff out the fraud from his old ones, court records show.

"It was like whack-a-mole for a time," says Alanna Lavelle, a director of investigations for Medicare contractor WellPoint Inc., who chased the case against Huarte for more than a year. "It became frustrating."

It began like this: In 2005, Huarte and his co-conspirators formed or acquired control of six medical clinics in Florida, each with its own office. Patients were then recruited and paid kickbacks to periodically appear at the clinics or allow use of their Medicare numbers, according to a plea agreement signed by Huarte in October 2009. The clinics were shams - patients weren't receiving legitimate treatment there. Later, when authorities caught on, Huarte created shell companies consisting of entirely fictional clinics -- those that corresponded with mailbox stores, for instance.

Most of the clinics purported to treat HIV and AIDS patients. Bills submitted for expensive injections of drugs such as Infliximab and Rituxan, which fight immune system deficiencies, cost Medicare as much as $7,800 per dose, according to the indictment.

To disguise Huarte's role, "straw owners" were paid as much as $200,000 to put their names on Florida incorporation records and bank accounts. In return, some straw owners agreed to "flee to Cuba to avoid law enforcement detection or capture," according to the indictment.

For instance, Madelin Machado is listed as president of Zigma Medical Care, the fake Miami clinic that collected $4.5 million from Medicare. In January 2008, after authorities figured out the scam, Machado was indicted for healthcare fraud in Florida. She subsequently disappeared, although she's still listed as Zigma's president in state records.

Huarte's cover-ups proved successful for years, even as he secretly directed his fake companies, authorities say. He later replaced Zigma and the other Florida clinics with shell clinics in Atlanta such as New Age Family Institute and Elusive Quality, according to federal court records. Although each was registered in state incorporation records, neither the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) nor state officials checked the validity of the corporate documents, a review that may have uncovered the fraud.

CMS, which runs Medicare, says it doesn't have the resources to analyze incorporation records for each of its 1.5 million providers and suppliers. Those records are separately maintained by each state.

Almost all of Huarte's corporate data proved a lie. The purported representative of New Age Family Institute was a deaf retiree whose identity had been stolen, an FBI affidavit said.

Medicare claims filed by each of the fake clinics were accompanied by all the right doctor, patient and treatment codes, say law enforcement officials and fraud investigators.

But New Age Family Institute was purportedly located in Atlanta at 205 South 49th St., according to state incorporation records. A Google Maps search shows that address doesn't exist. Elusive Quality's address - 925B Peachtree Street N.E., Suite 131 - was actually a UPS store in Atlanta's Midtown district.

Some of the people listed as officers in incorporation papers say they didn't know their names had been used until contacted for this article.

One, Jimmie Dominic Dancer, is an instructor at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. State incorporation records name him as the chief executive and chief financial officer of S.T.R. of Georgia, a purported HIV and AIDS clinic in Atlanta that was part of the Huarte fraud network.

Dancer says he was surprised to learn that his name was listed in state records. A specialist in internal medicine, he says he has not practiced medicine since 2002. "I've never been a CEO or CFO," he said. "I've never heard of S.T.R. of Georgia."

The big con
For much of 2008, Huarte continued his use of shell companies outside of Florida. From February to December 2008, he and co-conspirators formed at least 29 new sham Medicare clinics in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Louisiana, according to state incorporation records.

Authorities say Huarte bought lists of real Medicare beneficiaries from a Medicare contractor and from employees of a company that administered benefits. Then he submitted claims in the beneficiaries' names.

But instead of billing Medicare directly as he had done initially, Huarte changed his approach, court records show. He began charging Medicare Advantage Plans, a program administered by private health insurers such as WellPoint and UnitedHealthcare Group, according to the indictment and a July 2009 motion to revoke bond.

A break came in early 2008, when a Medicare beneficiary complained to WellPoint that his Medicare benefits statement was wrong. It listed him as having received HIV treatments from a Huarte sham clinic called BIBB Group Services ? but he didn't have HIV and he'd never received any such care.

WellPoint fraud investigator Lavelle says her team began to review the claims and the incorporation records for other clinics in Georgia.

Reuters also reviewed records and found that BIBB Group's purported home in the central Georgia town of Warner Robins ? 1000 Martha Street, Suite F ? is an abandoned building behind a $59-a-night motel.

Despite efforts to stop him, Huarte and his cohorts adapted.

Using stolen patient information, they called WellPoint's customer service line. They pretended to be the patients, Lavelle says, and asked to change the patients' billing addresses to post office boxes. That way, the patients themselves wouldn't receive benefits letters and the fraud might remain undetected, she says.

For the next 15 months, WellPoint denied claims and stopped payment on checks worth $34 million that were sent to Huarte clinics.

After BIBB Group claims were blocked, new ones flowed in from new shell clinics. They first came from First Choice Group Services, Lavelle says. When those were stopped, new bills for HIV and AIDS treatments came from Strong Hope Co., In Excess LLC and More Than Ready Co. LLC. Each of those firms was formed in August 2008, according to Georgia state records.

"We saw more unusually named clinics pop up," Lavelle says. "We actually thought they were playing with us."

The addresses for Strong Hope, In Excess, More Than Ready and four other shell clinics also tracked to UPS stores. They billed Medicare for $15.1 million in false medical services and received $4.2 million in payments, according to court records.

Huarte's four-year Medicare fraud spree was finally ended in 2009. That's when federal investigators in Florida identified co-conspirators who ran Miami check-cashing businesses that turned the Medicare checks into cash. Early that year, the check-cashers agreed to secretly wear recording devices that caught Huarte and others talking about the scam.

In October 2009, Huarte, the master of the Medicare shell game, pleaded guilty to healthcare and mail fraud. He was sentenced to 22 years in a federal prison in Pennsylvania and ordered to repay $18.3 million.

Although WellPoint had blocked millions in payments, Huarte's fake clinics outside Florida had still received more than $12 million from almost a dozen private insurers, according to Huarte's plea agreement. In total, his fraud garnered at least $34 million from Medicare.

At a sentencing hearing in January 2010, former prosecutor Stumphauzer told the judge why he felt Huarte deserved a lengthy prison term for his shell-driven scam.

"I think what really troubles me most is their innovation," he said, according to a court transcript.

"Every time Medicare gets close, every time Medicare clamps off one path, it never occurs to them to stop stealing. They just evolve the scheme and steal some more."

Funding the fraud fight
CMS says it has been handcuffed in combating shell companies that posed as legitimate providers because it lacked the resources to extensively review the backgrounds and addresses of providers. Less than 5 percent of all payments were subjected to audits.

That led to a system in which Medicare cut checks and asked questions later. Analysts and law enforcement officials call it "pay and chase."

Until recently, Congress offered little funding to help Medicare prevent abuses. But the healthcare reform law passed in March 2010 allocates $350 million over the next 10 years to fight fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, its sister program for the poor. The law also imposes stiffer sentences for the scam artists.

CMS is installing new fraud-fighting computer analytics to check the backgrounds of doctors and providers to ensure, for example, that Medicare ID numbers aren't being stolen. The programs may help connect the people to the corporations they're running about 75 percent of the time, says Peter Budetti, deputy administrator and director of program integrity at CMS.

Beginning in January, the locations of providers also will be checked by "geo-spatial mapping," Budetti says.

In the aftermath of the Huarte case, CMS and private contractors launched a comparison of UPS store addresses and Medicare provider locations. Investigators visited 823 locations and found that 185 providers ? 22 percent ? listed a UPS store as the practice location on their Medicare enrolment application. CMS says 134 providers have had their license revoked or deactivated.

  1. Methodology

    To examine how often shell companies were used in Medicare fraud schemes, Reuters obtained a list of some 300 closed criminal cases brought by federal Medicare fraud task forces in eight states since March 2007.

    Reuters then scrutinized federal court records using Pacer, a publicly available court docket system. Open case files for fraud rings indicted by the task forces also were examined.

    The federal indictments rarely make specific reference to shell companies. So Reuters looked for descriptions of false corporate entities that posed as legitimate Medicare providers or for sham companies pretending to be billing firms. Reuters also looked for firms that paid kickbacks to doctors and patients, or that laundered stolen Medicare funds.

    Reporting By Brian Grow.

New providers also will be subject to automated enrolment screening. Their names will be checked against databases that include the federal government's banned contractor lists, state and federal criminal dockets, and state licensing records.

But how much shell-perpetrated fraud these steps will eliminate remains unclear. The dragnet, for instance, might prompt criminals to simply create new shell companies ? entities with no prior histories that wouldn't register on any government watch list.

Nor do the steps address the fundamental loophole. Although the new screening system will have access to state incorporation records, CMS acknowledges it will still struggle to pierce the shell-company veil because states don't collect information on the real owners when corporations are formed or sold.

"We want to catch this stuff when it's at the $30,000 level instead of the $10 million level before anyone notices," Budetti says.

"With the shell companies, these people just keep trying over and over again."

Additional reporting by Kelly Carr; editing by Blake Morrison and Michael Williams.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45754719/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

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