News: President Issues Statement On World Refugee Day

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

June 20, 2012

On this World Refugee Day, the United States joins the international community in recognizing the nearly 15 million refugees worldwide, and millions more internally displaced people. We honor the dignity, courage, and determination of these men, women and children who have fled persecution and violence in their homelands and the commitment and generosity of the countries and organizations that provide them protection and assistance during this difficult time.

While we work to promote lasting peace and stability and human rights around the world, so that these refugees may one day return to their countries in safety and dignity, we know that for some voluntary return may not be possible. For these refugees social, economic, and legal integration in their country of asylum not only provides opportunities for them to begin rebuilding their lives, but also for the contribution of their knowledge, talents, and skills to be fully realized. Americans know the benefits of these valuable contributions firsthand.? Since 1975, we have welcomed more than 3 million refugees from all over the world and continue to lead the world in refugee resettlement.

Together with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the international community, we are committed to protecting the world?s refugees, mitigating their suffering, and working to help find ways for them to live in dignity and peace.

---

---

'); }

The leading immigration law publisher - over 50000 pages of free information!
? Copyright 1995- American Immigration LLC, ILW.COM

smokey robinson smokey robinson pulmonary embolism packages camila alves albrecht durer dan marino

Stars with the Same Name: Who's Hotter?

Lopez or Aniston? Gosling or Reynolds? These celebrity duos share the same first name -- but their good looks are all their own!

billy crystal oscars 2012 angelina jolie oscars chardon high school christopher plummer viola davis school shooting in ohio shooting at chardon high school

Movie Review: 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter' ? CBS Philly

(Benjamin Walker stars as the 16th president of the United States in this hybrid of history and horror.)

By Bill Wine
KYW Newsradio 1060

?

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) ? And you thought you were paying attention in history class?

Not by a long shot.

Abraham Lincoln, it turns out, whose mother was apparently killed by immortal bloodsucking demons, had a secret identity as a vengeance-seeking hunter of vampires and their slave-owning helpers.? This according to the central conceit of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, a big-screen adaptation by the author of the best-selling mashup novel.

When I first heard about the premise, I unfairly pre-judged it, deciding that it was historical revisionism on steroids.? It sounded not only outlandish but ridiculous and pointless.

(1? stars out of 4)

Then I saw the movie.

It?s not only outlandish but ridiculous and pointless.

With a Lincolnian running time of five score and five minutes, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is a bizarrely self-serious, supernatural action thriller about the axe-wielding proclivities of that tall drink of water from Illinois who took it upon himself to make sure that our nation continued to belong to the living rather than the undead.

When the lawyer and politician who would someday become the nation?s 16th president until he was assassinated, this fella by the nicknames of Honest Abe and The Rail Splitter (played by Benjamin Walker) also discovers that vampires are plotting to take over the United States -? they back the Confederacy in the Civil War! ? he embellishes his own personal mission and wages a secret war against the fanged bloodsuckers.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Mary Todd Lincoln, his wife; Dominic Cooper is Henry Sturges, Lincoln?s vampire-hunting mentor; Anthony Mackie plays William Johnson, his valet and friend; Alan Tudyk is his political rival, Stephen Douglas; and Rufus Sewell portrays the vampire antagonist.

With Tim Burton as one of his co-producers, Russian director Timur Bekmambetov (who made the preposterous but exhilarating 2008 Angelina Jolie action thriller Wanted, as well as the vampire thrillers Night Watch and Day Watch) takes his material far too seriously.? The historical-accuracy-shunning screenplay by Seth Grahame-Smith (who wrote the best-selling and groundbreaking spoof Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), adapted from his own fanciful novel of the same name, mixes fact-based elements of the American Civil War with fantastical occurrences and imagery.

But all attempts to incorporate the broad strokes of Lincoln?s actual life and career into this video-game-like enterprise come off as pretentious at best, insulting at worst.

Only the tongue-in-cheek approach would have worked with this subject matter, but Bekmambetov?s straight-faced directing style will have none of it.

The action set pieces, designed to show off the frenetic and overblown CGI special effects that the director is so enamored of, seem disconnected from the narrative and stand out at regular intervals like so many sore thumbs.

Sensation may be what they are all about, but they and the film they punctuate are anything but sensational.

Abraham Lincoln as an action hero may work on a metaphorical level.? But as soon as he starts twirling his trademark axe and actually slaying these thirsty, marauding creatures of the night, the movie goes right off the rails.

We?ll get a more realistic look at Lincoln when Steven Spielberg?s Lincoln, with Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role, comes our way at the end of the year.

Meanwhile, for now, we?re left with this humorless hybrid horror flick, which manages to trivialize slavery, the Civil War, the presidency, and the title character.

If you do not find the overall concept idiotic, then you might find the film engaging.? For those of us who do, however, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter has very little bite and is about as dramatically satisfying as a Civil War reenactment at your local middle school.

So we?ll suck the blood out of 1? stars out of 4 for the truthless and toothless Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.? As Lincoln memorials go, fangs but no fangs.

?

More Bill Wine Movie Reviews

CBS Philly Entertainment News

the lucky one pittsburgh pirates mariners mets shades of grey pittsburgh penguins record store day

At US hotels, Chinese treated to comforts of home

NEW YORK (AP) ? Major hotel brands are bending over backward to cater to the needs of the world's most sought-after traveler: the Chinese tourist.

Now arriving on American shores in unprecedented numbers thanks to a streamlined visa process and a rising Chinese middle class, Chinese tourists are being treated to the comforts of home when they check in at the front desk. That means hot tea in their rooms, congee for breakfast and Mandarin-speaking hotel employees at their disposal.

Chinese "welcome programs" at reputable chains like Marriott and Hilton even address delicate cultural differences: No Chinese tour group should be placed on a floor containing the number four, which sounds like the word for death in Mandarin.

"They're very relieved, like finally somebody's doing these things that make sense," said Robert Armstrong, a sales manager who handles all bookings for incoming Chinese travelers at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. "Finally somebody's catering to them."

More than a million Chinese visited the U.S. in 2011, contributing more than $5.7 billion to the U.S. economy. That's up 36 percent from 2010, according to the Department of Commerce. By 2016, that figure is expected to reach 2.6 million Chinese.

In a striking departure from the traditional Chinese business traveler, a growing number of them are simply coming to America for fun ? with lots of cash on hand. (The average Chinese visitor spends more than $6,000 per trip.)

And so hotels are openly competing to win the hearts of the Chinese, who generally travel in large groups and stick to a tight itinerary, often packing multiple cities into a two-week American tour. What they're looking for is a hotel that makes them feel at ease with their surroundings, said Roy Graff, a travel consultant who educates hotels in proper Chinese culture and hospitality.

That may take the form of slippers and a tea kettle in the hotel room or a Mandarin-speaking employee at the front desk ? or all of the above.

"They drink tea. Eastern style, everything cold," explained Charlie Shao, president of Galaxy Tours, a New York City-based Chinese tour agency, who used to frequently request special amenities for his clients. "They don't walk inside the room with bare feet."

It's rare that Shao has to ask hotels for anything anymore. Marriott International, for example, now offers not one but several Chinese breakfasts, depending upon which region of China the traveler hails from: there are salted duck eggs and pickled vegetables for eastern Chinese, for example, and dim sum and sliced pig's liver for the southerners.

Major chains are also training employees to avoid cultural missteps that would offend a Chinese visitor. Superstition is a big one: Red is considered a lucky color, along with the number eight, which signifies wealth. The color white, meanwhile, is frowned upon, not to mention the cursed number four.

Failing to respect the pecking order in a Chinese group is another common blunder by hotels that have limited knowledge of Chinese culture.

"We try to make sure nobody's on a higher floor than their boss," Armstrong said. "Even if the boss is on a beautiful suite on the eighth floor, if the assistant is in a standard room on the 38th floor, it doesn't translate."

As hotels fine-tune Chinese outreach stateside, the race is on to build loyalty within China's borders.

Last year, Starwood Hotels ? which has a Chinese "specialist" at each American hotel ? relocated its entire senior leadership team to China for a month. The Ritz-Carlton rotates general managers and other hotel staff into its Chinese hotels for three-year stints at a time. And both chains are banking on the success of their customer rewards programs, which have been a big hit in China.

"It's important for our leaders to understand what's going on there at a more personal level than just the statistics," said Clayton Ruebensaal, vice president of marketing for the Ritz. "Everybody's going after this market because of the sheer volume of luxury customers. At the same time, it's a very crowded landscape."

In response to the surge in Chinese visitors, the State Department decided earlier this year to spend $22 million on new facilities in several Chinese cities and add about 50 officers to process visa applications. And in February, the U.S. government announced that Chinese visitors who had obtained an American visa within the last four years did not have to reapply in person but could apply via courier instead.

As a result, visa interview wait times in China are currently just under a week ? compared to last year's average of more than a month.

But some experts say the U.S. still lags far behind other countries, especially in Europe, when it comes to attracting Chinese tourists. Despite President Barack Obama's recent push to promote tourism, America is woefully ill-prepared to welcome China at an industry-wide level, especially at restaurants and major attractions, said Rich Harrill, director of the Sloan Foundation Travel & Tourism Industry Center at the University of South Carolina.

"We're not as ready as we should be," Harrill said. "We don't have the language skills. We have an opportunity to be on the ground floor of something that could be very, very big."

shameless kwame brown martin luther king day blue ivy devil inside dash diet how to make moonshine

NFL Referees Association files charge with NLRB

[ [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 2]], 'http://yhoo.it/KeQd0p', '[Slideshow: See photos taken on the way down]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 7]], ' http://yhoo.it/KpUoHO', '[Slideshow: Death-defying daredevils]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['know that we have confidence in', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/LqYjAX ', '[Related: The Secret Service guide to Cartagena]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['We picked up this other dog and', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JUSxvi', '[Related: 8 common dog fears, how to calm them]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 5]], 'http://bit.ly/JnoJYN', '[Related: Did WH share raid details with filmmakers?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 3]], 'http://bit.ly/KoKiqJ', '[Factbox: AQAP, al-Qaeda in Yemen]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have my contacts on or glasses', 3]], 'http://abcn.ws/KTE5AZ', '[Related: Should the murder charge be dropped?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JD7nlD', '[Related: Bristol Palin reality show debuts June 19]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 1]], 'http://bit.ly/JRPFRO', '[Related: McCain adviser who vetted Palin weighs in on VP race]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]

[ [ [['did not go as far his colleague', 8]], '29438204', '0' ], [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]

turbo tax katharine mcphee cold mountain valentines day ideas the villages florida egoraptor gisele bundchen

PhishMe

Phishing can be a serious problem for businesses, but IT administrators can fight back by incorporating software-as-a-service PhishMe (starting at $10,000 depending on users and service level) into their employee training program. Users are bombarded with malicious emails with specially crafted attachments or links to suspicious websites, and often have trouble recognizing them as being malicious. While administrators can beef up email security to prevent these messages from landing in user inboxes in the first place, they also need to teach users to recognize and not open those messages. It takes just one unsuspecting user to compromise a company, and PhishMe is designed to make employees more aware of the dangers.

PhishMe's training platform allows administrators to send out mail to employees that look like commonly seen phishing campaigns. If the employees click on the link in the message or open the accompanying attachment, they see a notification screen explaining they'd just opened a message sent to them as part of a training simulation. PhishMe provides information about the scam to give the user immediate feedback to help them recognize these types of messages later. The administrator can monitor overall performance and repeat offenders. Through the campaign management portal, administrators can track what employees are learning, and the types of scams they may be more susceptible to.

PhishMe takes a similar approach to Wombat Security's PhishGuru,? our Editors' Choice for antiphishing training, with multiple phishing templates and training documents. PhishMe has a richer interface and offers more in-depth training and reports, but there were several areas that felt a little rough. On their own, the problem spots wouldn't have been a big deal, but considering how well thought-out the rest of the platform was, the issues were jarring.

Pricing is for an annual license and can range from $10,000 to hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on the number of unique recipients and included service and support.

Prepping the Phishing Hole
Like PhishGuru, PhishMe requires the test domain to be whitelisted to ensure the test messages can be delivered. Businesses planning on running PhishMe will need to work very closely with IT before attempting the project to work around spam filters and other email security products in place. It's also possible to set up the platform to test across multiple domains. For PhishMe, I used a simple mail server with no email or spam filters running.

Once my PhishMe account was created, I received an email asking me to log in and create a password for the platform. I liked the fact that the password had to be 12 or more characters long and be complex. It's a little thing, but considering how often we write about the importance of strong and complex passwords on online services, a service posting stronger requirements than what is considered the norm (6-8 characters appear to be the most common requirement) is always welcome.

Prepping the Bait
PhishMe splits the simulations into "scenarios" and "tests." The only difference between the two seems to be that tests are not tracked by the reporting engine, but it's not clearly explained within the interface. The test may allow administrators to craft simulations and step through the steps without having the results affecting the overall reports, but again, its purpose is not made clear at the onset.

In order to create a scenario, I picked from 30-or-so available templates. The selection is slightly overwhelming, as they cover a whole range of situations, including the generic package delivery notification, a virus outbreak alert, and a security update warning. They are organized in one of the three categories: tricking victims into handing over data, containing malicious links, and attached with malicious files.

The focus is on the template, giving administrators the ability to launch a mix of tests. Considering that many organizations are targeted with scams pretending to be from social-networking sites, I was surprised this wasn't highlighted in the selection. However, administrators can create templates from scratch using the custom builder.

I also thought it would have been nice to see some attention paid to use case scenarios to give administrators feedback on which ones are specifically targeting professional settings. The list of templates were overwhelming as there weren't any sub-categories focusing on the phishing type. In a way, PhishMe felt a little complicated and better designed for an organization with a large IT department that could put in the time and effort to develop and tweak comprehensive training campaigns rather than a smaller one.

I went through the workflow, selecting the type of email template to use and customizing it, choosing and customizing the training material to display, and scheduling when the messages will be sent. After I customized the email, I had the option to send a "test" message to the administrator's account to verify it looked correct.

PhishMe differs from PhishGuru in how the interface is laid out. Wombat took a very compartmentalized approach with PhishGuru, with separate sections for managing recipients, viewing existing simulations, creating new campaigns, running reports. PhishMe puts all the functions into a single workflow: Email, Site, Education, and Schedule. For example, instead of creating lists of users who would receive the test messages in a separate "user" area of the site, PhishMe prompts administrators to create the list as part of selecting and customizing the message.

Under PhishMe, administrators can upload the recipient list using Excel or comma-delimited (csv) files. However, it doesn't allow the user to open an existing list and edit it to create a new one. I was a little surprised at how rudimentary user management was.? If I upload a file and then later decide I want to use only a subset of the names, I have to re-upload a smaller list. If I edit that existing list, it overwrites the list entirely. It would have been nice to be able to modify lists, to be able to select existing recipients and group into other lists.

I selected a template, and found the editing tool allows for extensive customizations, including who it would be from, the subject line, and the actual contents of the message. After customizing the message, I could send myself a test. It took me a few seconds to do so, because I didn't realize I had to hit the + button to add a new field (which also saved the address I'd already entered) before the "send test message" button became active. This particular implementation felt surprisingly clunky in an otherwise snappy interface.

verlander justin verlander pepper spraying cop pepper spraying cop somaya reece juelz santana juelz santana

Twitter site down for brief outage

[ [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 2]], 'http://yhoo.it/KeQd0p', '[Slideshow: See photos taken on the way down]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 7]], ' http://yhoo.it/KpUoHO', '[Slideshow: Death-defying daredevils]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['know that we have confidence in', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/LqYjAX ', '[Related: The Secret Service guide to Cartagena]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['We picked up this other dog and', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JUSxvi', '[Related: 8 common dog fears, how to calm them]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 5]], 'http://bit.ly/JnoJYN', '[Related: Did WH share raid details with filmmakers?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 3]], 'http://bit.ly/KoKiqJ', '[Factbox: AQAP, al-Qaeda in Yemen]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have my contacts on or glasses', 3]], 'http://abcn.ws/KTE5AZ', '[Related: Should the murder charge be dropped?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JD7nlD', '[Related: Bristol Palin reality show debuts June 19]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 1]], 'http://bit.ly/JRPFRO', '[Related: McCain adviser who vetted Palin weighs in on VP race]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]

[ [ [['did not go as far his colleague', 8]], '29438204', '0' ], [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]

2012 oscar winners channel 3 news j lo j lo sacha baron cohen ryan seacrest octavia spencer meryl streep oscars

On the Amendment S.Amdt. 2238 to S. 3240 (Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2012): S. 3240 - To require more frequent dairy reporting.

On the Amendment S.Amdt. 2238 to S. 3240 (Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2012)
S.Amdt. 2238

Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2012

Sponsor:	Debbie Stabenow
Introduced:	May 24, 2012
Passed House:	?
Passed Senate:	?
Considered by President:	?
Became Law:	?

patrice o neal patrice o neal wayne gretzky wayne gretzky occupy los angeles occupy los angeles comedian patrice o neal

PFT: Brees compares bounty case to WMD hunt

Getty Images

The 50,000 pages in the bounty file became fewer than 200 that were given to the NFLPA on Friday, which via careful, time-consuming, page-by-page scrutiny by yours truly reveal a handful of documents that suggest the existence of a bounty program in New Orleans.

There?s no doubt that the Saints maintained an illegal pay-for-performance program, which rewarded defensive players for good plays and penalized them for mental errors and penalties. For that violation, the coaches and the team should indeed be punished.? As to player discipline, the question is whether and to what extent players offered, paid, or received money for the infliction of injury on opponents.

As Gantt mentioned on Monday afternoon, one document indicates that several persons pledged money to what is described in at least one of the other documents as a ?kitty pool? for the 2009 NFC title game against the Vikings, and that several of the contributions were tied to the opposing quarterback, Brett Favre.

The league didn?t produce to the NFLPA a copy of the handwritten notes.? Instead, the league converted the handwritten notes into a typed document, providing the typed document and not the handwritten notes.

For the non-lawyers in the crowd, this is very unusual.? Disputes routinely involve handwritten notes, which may or may not readily be legible.? The standard procedure in such situations is to:? (1) figure out who wrote the notes; and (2) question that person as to what the notes say.? In 18 years of practicing law, I never encountered or heard of a party to any type of litigation converting handwritten notes to typed notes, producing the typed notes, and not producing the handwritten notes for scrutiny and witness questioning.

In this case, at a bare minimum, the NFL should have produced both ? especially since the NFLPA will now argue that the typed version does not qualify as an acceptable alternative, and that the typed notes should not be considered because they weren?t produced at least three days before the appeal hearing.

With that caveat, the typed translation of the handwritten notes state ?Vilma $10,000 QB,? which the NFL presumably interprets as linebacker Jonathan Vilma pledging $10,000 to anyone who knocked Brett Favre out of the game.? The document similarly indicates that defensive end Charles Grant pledged $10,000 with the ?QB? designation, as did non-Saints employee Mike Ornstein.? The notes likewise reflect that assistant head coach/linebackers coach Joe Vitt contributed $5,000 to the ?QB out pool,? and that linebacker Scott Fujita and defensive end Will Smith contributed $2,000 and $5,000, respectively, to the ?General Pool.?? (Vitt?s lawyer, David Cornwell told PFT on Monday night that Vitt was never accused nor suspected of contributing money to a bounty pool.)? Finally, safety Darren Sharper pledged $5,000 for a ?Pick 6? and ?QB hits.?

Another document (also a typed version of handwritten notes) lists a variety of names and amounts, with no specific designation as to what the amount reflects.? The presence of Ornstein on the list, along with $5,000, suggests that it?s a list of pledges for an unknown game.? Vilma is down for $2,000, Smith for $1,500, Grant for $1,500, linebacker Scott Shanle for $500, cornerback Leigh Torrence for $500, and ?Evans? (presumably linebacker Troy) for $500.? The document in a separate column states ?Fujita to DL,? with ?$500 Sack? and ?$500 FF? below that.

Other documents raise questions, including a 2009 email from Ornstein to Gregg Willliams regarding future contributions from Ornstein, and an October 11, 2009 email from former Saints assistant Mike Cerullo to Williams that says, ?Here?s Ornstein?s slide, I also added Jets injury to our Monday slide . . . Here?s what it looks like.?? (The Saints played the Jets on October 4; October 11 was the Sunday of the Saints? bye week.)

One item lists the ?Kill the Head Totals? for 2010, with Vilma leading the way at 62.? It?s unclear what ?Kill the Head? means in that context.? Another document shows safety Roman Harper being paid $1,000 for a ?cart-off? against the Giants, with no indication as to the subject of the ?cart-off? or what specifically happened to him.

Finally, the slide containing the photo of ?Dog The Bounty Hunter? looks bad on the surface, but it seems to be an exaggeration, with entries like ?Must suspected be delivered dead or alive??

Though most of the documents produced by the NFL to the NFLPA contain no evidence of a bounty program, a few of the pages keep the bounty case alive.? But it may not be enough to constitute persuasive and adequate evidence that players paid, offered to pay, or received money for inflicting injuries ? especially without the handwritten notes and in the absence of testimony from the person(s) who created them.

49ers 49ers vs giants joe paterno san francisco 49ers san francisco 49ers giants vs 49ers sf 49ers

Europe debt crisis casts shadow over Swedish jobs market

STOCKHOLM: Swedish unemployment rose unexpectedly in May, hitting its highest level in almost a year as the debt crisis in the euro zone, the main market for its exports, cast a deepening shadow over the Nordic nation's economy.

The jobless rate rose to 8.1 percent in May, Sweden's statistics office said, above the forecast in a Reuters poll of analysts for an unchanged rate of 7.8 percent.

It was the highest level since June last year. "This was clearly weaker than we had expected. We did forecast a softer labour market but not until maybe the second half of the year," SEB analyst Sanna Eckardt said.

Sweden has largely been sheltered from the effects of the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis, now in its third year. The country's public finances are sound and consumers relatively upbeat, underpinning unexpectedly strong economic growth in the first quarter of the year.

But signs have emerged that deepening turmoil to the south has started to take a toll on the Nordic manufacturing powerhouse, with a steady drop in industrial production and orders and a falling purchasing managers index (PMI).

"This (unemployment) was higher than expected, although it wasn't a total surprise because of the signals of a weaker labor market we have seen in the PMI figures for instance," Danske Markets analyst Michael Grahn said.

"These figures were also a little higher than the Riksbank's forecast and should we have one or two more months with unexpectedly high unemployment, then it might influence monetary policy."

The repo rate is currently at 1.50 percent with the Riksbank forecasting no further cuts. It is widely expected to remain on hold at its next meeting, in early July, but many analysts expect the slowdown to prompt more easing later in the year.

WORSE TO COME Sweden's budget watchdog, The National Financial Management Authority (ESV), said separately it expected rising unemployment next year as the effects of the debt crisis and the increasing numbers of people flowing into the labour market weighed.

"Employment has so far proved relatively robust to the downturn in the economic climate," it said.

"The slowdown in the economy this year and limited growth next year will, however, put a damper on demand for labour."

The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise also took a glum view, saying in a new forecast that after two years of falling unemployment, joblessness would rise this year. It did not see a recovery in 2013.

The Nordic country's public finances are nevertheless expected to remain robust through the coming lean years, though the situation in Europe will leave no room for the government to bolster the economy and labour market with fresh spending.

The ESV forecast central government budget deficits of 8 billion Swedish crowns ($1.14 billion) in 2012 and 17 billion crowns in 2013, a far cry from the 176 billion crown shortfall seen in the wake of 2008/2009 financial crisis.

"Public finances are healthy but will not meet the budget surplus target of 1 percent of GDP. In other words, there is no scope for unfunded reforms, at least not in the near future," the budget watchdog said.

words with friends words with friends phlebotomy survivor dog show best in show bret michaels

annmariastat: RT @EdwardFBerger: #GOP Leaders Slam Obama Jobs Plan: "A Blatant Attempt By the President to Create Jobs & Boost the Economy" I lov ...

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

brandon jacobs brandon jacobs brian dawkins askew emma roberts north korea news north korea news

WATCH: Sharon Osbourne Breaks Down Over Son Jack's MS

Sharon Osbourne had a difficult time discussing her son Jack Osbourne's recent announcement that he's been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

firelight world peace elbow kevin love earthquake think like a man world peace world peace lakers