Boehner makes counteroffer on debt talks

WASHINGTON—House Republicans on Monday unveiled a counterproposal to a Democratic plan to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff that includes $800 billion in new government revenue by eliminating write-offs in the tax code while extending current tax rates for all income levels.

In a letter sent to the White House, Republican leaders outlined a plan that they said would provide $2.2 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade. On top of the $800 billion in new revenue from a tax code overhaul, Republicans estimated they could save $300 billion by cutting discretionary spending, $600 billion in "health savings," $200 billion in changes to the consumer price index and another $300 billion in mandatory spending.

The White House last week sent Republicans a proposal that estimated $1.6 trillion in new tax revenue over 10 years and about $400 billion in savings for entitlement programs. It also included new spending for infrastructure projects. Republicans rejected it outright and put forth their own plan on Monday.


The President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Northwest
Washington, DC 20500


Dear Mr. President,


After a status quo election in which both you and the Republican majority in the House were re-elected, the American people rightly expect both parties to come together on a fair middle ground and address the nation's most pressing challenges.


To that end, shortly after the election, we presented you with a balanced framework for averting the fiscal cliff by coupling spending cuts and reforms with new tax revenue. We then welcomed Secretary Geithner to the Capitol on November 29 with every expectation that he would lay out a similarly reasonable path.


Regrettably, the proposal he outlined on behalf of your Administration contains very little in the way of common ground. The proposal calls for $1.6 trillion in new tax revenue, twice the amount you supported during the campaign. The proposal also includes four times as much tax revenue as spending cuts, in stark contrast to the "balanced approach" on which you campaigned. While administration officials are claiming that this proposal contains 2.5 dollars of spending cuts for each dollar in new revenue, counting as part of this ratio previously enacted savings — as if these were new spending reductions — only confuses the public debate. What's worse, the modest spending cuts in this offer are cancelled out by the additional 'stimulus' measures the Administration is requesting. And, this proposal would remove any and all limits on federal borrowing.


We cannot in good conscience agree to this approach, which is neither balanced nor realistic. If we were to take your Administration's proposal at face value, then we would counter with the House-passed Budget Resolution. It assumes an overhaul of our tax code with revenue remaining at historically normal levels and proposes structural reforms to preserve and protect the Nation's entitlement programs, ensuring they are sustainable for the long-term rather than continuing to grow out of control. Some of its key reforms include:


The House-passed Budget Resolution assumes enactment of structural Medicare reform that offers future beneficiaries guaranteed coverage options, including a traditional fee-for-service Medicare plan. This proposal is based on recent bipartisan efforts and would provide greater support for the poor and the sick and less support for the wealthy. We achieve these reforms in Medicare without affecting current seniors or those nearing retirement. This would slow the projected explosive spending growth in this program and eventually maintain Medicare spending as a share of the economy at 4.75 percent, thus saving the program for future generations.
The House-passed Budget Resolution reforms Medicaid and provides states with greater flexibility to better deliver health security to beneficiaries, saving the federal government nearly $800 billion over 10 years.
Separate from savings in our proposal for the 2010 health care law, the House-passed Budget Resolution envisions hundreds of billions in savings in other mandatory spending, including reforms to Federal employee compensation and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.


These reforms are, in our view, absolutely essential to addressing the true drivers of our debt, and we will continue to support and advance them. At the same time, mindful of the status quo election and past exchanges on these questions, we recognize it would be counterproductive to publicly or privately propose entitlement reforms that you and the leaders of your party appear unwilling to support in the near-term.


With the fiscal cliff nearing, our priority remains finding a reasonable solution that can pass both the House and the Senate, and be signed into law in the next couple of weeks. The best way to do this is by learning from and building on the bipartisan discussions that have occurred during this Congress, including the Biden Group, the Joint Select Committee, and our negotiations leading up to the Budget Control Act.


For instance, on November 1 of last year, Erskine Bowles, the co-chair of your debt commission, presented the Joint Select Committee with a middle ground approach that garnered praise from many fiscal watchdogs and nonpartisan experts. He recommended that both parties agree to a balanced package that includes significant spending cuts as well as $800 billion in new revenue.


Notably, the new revenue in the Bowles plan would not be achieved through higher tax rates, which we continue to oppose and will not agree to in order to protect small businesses and our economy. Instead, new revenue would be generated through pro-growth tax reform that closes special-interest loopholes and deductions while lowering rates. On the spending side, the Bowles recommendation would cut more than $900 billion in mandatory spending and another $300 billion in discretionary spending. These cuts would be over and above the spending reductions enacted in the Budget Control Act.


This is by no means an adequate long-term solution, as resolving our long-term fiscal crisis will require fundamental entitlement reform. Indeed, the Bowles plan is exactly the kind of imperfect, but fair middle ground that allows us to avert the fiscal cliff without hurting our economy and destroying jobs. We believe it warrants immediate consideration.


If you are agreeable to this framework, we are ready and eager to begin discussions about how to structure these reforms so that the American people can be confident that these targets will be reached.


Again, the American people expect their leaders to find fair middle ground to address the nation's most pressing challenges. To achieve that outcome, we respectfully request that you respond to this letter in a timely fashion and hope that you will refrain from any further action that would undermine good-faith efforts to reach a reasonable and equitable agreement in this critical matter.


Sincerely,


John Boehner, Speaker
Eric Cantor, Majority Leader
Kevin McCarthy, Majority Whip
Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Republican Conference Chairman
Dave Camp, Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means
Paul Ryan, Committee on the Budget
Fred Upton, Committee on Energy & Commerce


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Clinton Unveils PEPFAR Blueprint in Honor of World AIDS Day












U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton unveiled the nation’s new initiative to eradicate HIV and AIDS on Thursday. Dubbed the “President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) Blueprint: Creating an AIDS-free Generation,” the initiative is focused on improving both preventative measures and treatment options. Clinton presented PEPFAR during a special news conference in the Benjamin Franklin Room at the State Department.


Clinton’s announcement was meant to coincide with World AIDS Day, which is Dec. 1. World AIDS Day was established in 1988 in order to shed light on the disease, its causes, and its prevention and treatment, as well as to push for comprehensive government intervention and research. The theme of this year’s World AIDS Day is a continuation of last year’s “Getting to Zero.”












Here is some of the key information that emerged from Clinton’s PEPFAR announcement.


* The State Department had announced Clinton’s intention to present the plan in a press release issued on Tuesday.


* The press conference, which was streamed live by the State Department, featured opening remarks by Florence Ngobeni-Allen, who is the ambassador for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, as well as remarks by Ambassador Eric P. Goosby, who is the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator.


* Clinton reportedly had requested that the PEPFAR blueprint be drawn up after her visit to South Africa this past summer.


* As noted by The Hill, The PEPFAR Blueprint establishes several priorities in the nation’s fight against AIDS, particularly mother-to-child transmission of HIV, increased access to condoms, and more HIV testing, among other factors.


* Clinton said in her remarks on Thursday that while “HIV may well be with us into the future,” AIDS itself “need not be.”


* She outlined what she referred to as two “broad goals” of the PEPFAR Blueprint and the nation’s fight against AIDS — to be able to fight new HIV infection rates to the point where globally more people are treated for an existing infection than are newly-diagnosed, and for the U.S. “to deliver” on its promises to continue to help lead the fight against the disease.


* Clinton also said that the nation’s fight against AIDS would place more of its global focus on women and girls, as they are at a higher risk of infection due to “gender inequity and violence.”


* According to the U.N. News Centre, the U.N. also has plans to mark World AIDS Day. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon reportedly plans to call for more focused initiatives and an ongoing global commitment “to get to zero.”


Vanessa Evans is a musician and freelance writer based in Michigan, with a lifelong interest in health and nutrition issues.


Sexual Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Angry Birds Star Wars updated with 20 additional levels, Princess Leia cameo












Rovio on Thursday updated its immensely popular Angry Birds Star Wars game to include 20 additional levels. The latest game in the bird-slinging franchise was released earlier this month and was an instant hit, topping the iTunes App Store in less than three hours. In the most recent update, gamers must help the birds escape from the AT-ATs and Pigtroopers on the remote ice world of Hoth. Luckily, the rebel birds have a secret weapon — Princess Leia.


“It is a dark time for the Rebellion,” Rovio wrote on its website. ”Evading the dreaded Imperial Starfleet, a group of freedom fighters has established a new secret base on the remote ice world of Hoth. Unfortunately the evil Lord Vader discovers their hideout, and the desperate Rebel birds must escape the AT-ATs and Pigtroopers hot on their trail. But the Rebels have an ace up their sleeve with the debut of PRINCESS LEIA and her attractive new power!”












Angry Birds Star Wars is available for Android, iOS, Macs and PCs. The Hoth trailer follows below.


Get more from BGR.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook


Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Egypt’s anti-Morsi rebellion of judges is complete












CAIRO (AP) — Egypt‘s rebellion of the judges against President Mohammed Morsi became complete on Sunday with the country’s highest court declaring an open-ended strike on the day it was supposed to rule on the legitimacy of two key assemblies controlled by allies of the Islamist leader.


The strike by the Supreme Constitutional Court and opposition plans to march on the presidential palace on Tuesday take the country’s latest political crisis to a level not seen in the nearly two years of turmoil since Hosni Mubarak‘s ouster in a popular uprising.












Judges from the country’s highest appeals court and its sister lower court were already on an indefinite strike, joining colleagues from other tribunals who suspended work last week to protest what they saw as Morsi‘s assault on the judiciary.


The last time Egypt had an all-out strike by the judiciary was in 1919, when judges joined an uprising against British colonial rule.


The standoff began when Morsi issued decrees on Nov. 22 giving him near-absolute powers that granted himself and the Islamist-dominated assembly drafting the new constitution immunity from the courts.


The constitutional panel then raced in a marathon session last week to vote on the charter’s 236 clauses without the participation of liberal and Christian members. The fast-track hearing pre-empted a decision from the Supreme Constitutional Court that was widely expected to dissolve the constituent assembly.


The judges on Sunday postponed their ruling on that case just before they went on strike.


Without a functioning justice system, Egypt will be plunged even deeper into turmoil. It has already seen a dramatic surge in crime after the uprising, while state authority is being challenged in many aspects of life and the courts are burdened by a massive backlog of cases.


“The country cannot function for long like this, something has to give,” said Negad Borai, a private law firm director and a rights activist. ‘We are in a country without courts of law and a president with all the powers in his hands. This is a clear-cut dictatorial climate,” he said.


Mohamed Abdel-Aziz, a rights lawyer, said the strike by the judges will impact everything from divorce and theft to financial disputes that, in some cases, could involve foreign investors.


“Ordinary citizens affected by the strike will become curious about the details of the current political crisis and could possibly make a choice to join the protests,” he said.


The Judges Club, a union with 9,500 members, said late Sunday that judges would not, as customary, oversee the national referendum Morsi called for Dec. 15 on the draft constitution hammered out and hurriedly voted on last week.


The absence of their oversight would raise more questions about the validity of the vote. If the draft is passed in the referendum, parliamentary elections are to follow two months later and they too may not have judicial supervision.


The judges say they will remain on strike until Morsi rescinds his decrees, which the Egyptian leader said were temporary and needed to protect the nation’s path to democratic rule.


For now, however, Morsi has to contend with the fury of the judiciary.


The constitutional court called Sunday “the Egyptian judiciary’s blackest day on record.”


It described the scene outside the Nile-side court complex, where thousands of Islamist demonstrators gathered since the early morning hours carrying banners denouncing the tribunal and some of its judges.


A statement by the court, which swore Morsi into office on June 30, said its judges approached the complex but turned back when they saw the protesters blocking entrances and climbing over its fences. They feared for their safety, it added.


“The judges of the Supreme Constitutional Court were left with no choice but to announce to the glorious people of Egypt that they cannot carry out their sacred mission in this charged atmosphere,” said the statement, which was carried by state news agency MENA.


Supporters of Morsi, who hails from the Islamic fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, claim that the court’s judges remain loyal to Mubarak, who appointed them, and accuse them of trying to derail Egypt’s transition to democratic rule.


In addition to the high court’s expected ruling Sunday on the legitimacy of the constitution-drafting panel, it was also expected to rule on another body dominated by Morsi supporters, parliament’s upper chamber.


Though Morsi’s Nov. 22 decrees provide immunity to both bodies against the courts, a ruling that declares the two illegitimate would have vast symbolic significance, casting doubt on the standing of both.


The Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice party, sought to justify the action of its supporters outside the court as a peaceful protest. It reiterated its charge that some members of the judiciary were part and parcel of Mubarak’s autocratic policies.


“The wrong practices by a minority of judges and their preoccupation with politics … will not take away the respect people have for the judiciary,” it said.


Its explanation, however, failed to calm the anger felt by many activists and politicians.


President Morsi must take responsibility before the entire world for terrorizing the judiciary,” veteran rights campaigner and opposition leader Abdel-Halim Kandil wrote in his Twitter account about the events outside the constitutional court.


Liberal activist and former lawmaker Amr Hamzawy warned what is ahead may be worse.


“The president and his group (the Muslim Brotherhood) are leading Egypt into a period of darkness par excellence,” he said. “He made a dictatorial decision to hold a referendum on an illegal constitution that divides society, then a siege of the judiciary to terrorize it.”


Egypt has been rocked by several bouts of unrest, some violent, since Mubarak was forced to step down in the face of a popular uprising. But the current one is probably the worst.


Morsi’s decrees gave him powers that none of his four predecessors since the ouster of the monarchy 60 years ago ever had. Opposition leaders countered that he turned himself into a new “pharaoh” and a dictator even worse than his immediate predecessor Mubarak.


Then, following his order, the constituent assembly rushed a vote on the draft constitution in an all-night session.


The draft has a new article that seeks to define what the “principles” of Islamic law are by pointing to theological doctrines and their rules. Another new article states that Egypt’s most respected Islamic institution, Al-Azhar, must be consulted on any matters related to Shariah law, a measure critics fear could lead to oversight of legislation by clerics.


Rights groups have pointed out that virtually the only references to women relate to the home and family, that the new charter uses overly broad language with respect to the state protecting “ethics and morals” and fails to outlaw gender discrimination.


At times the process appeared slap-dash, with fixes to missing phrasing and even several entirely new articles proposed, written and voted on in the hours just before sunrise.


The decrees and the vote on the constitution draft galvanized the fractured, mostly secular opposition, with senior leaders setting aside differences and egos to form a united front in the face of Morsi, whose offer on Saturday for a national dialogue is yet to find takers.


The opposition brought out at least 200,000 protesters to Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Tuesday and a comparable number Friday to press demands that the decrees be rescinded. The Islamists responded Saturday with massive rallies in Cairo and across much of Egypt.


The opposition is raising the stakes with plans to march on Morsi’ palace on Tuesday, a move last seen on Feb. 11, 2011 when tens of thousands of protesters marched from Tahrir Square to Mubarak’s palace in the Heliopolis district to force him out. Mubarak stepped down that day, but Morsi is highly unlikely to follow suit on Tuesday.


Middle East News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Clint Eastwood’s daughter named Miss Golden Globe












LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Hooray for nepotism.


One of Clint Eastwood‘s daughters, Francesca Eastwood, has been named Miss Golden Globe for this January’s awards show. She joins a long list of celebrity offspring including Rumer Willis (Demi Moore and Bruce’s little girl) and Lorraine Nicholson (the apple of Jack’s eye) in receiving the honor. Other past Miss Gold Globes include Melanie Griffith (daughter of Peter Griffith and Tippi Hedren) and Laura Dern (daughter of Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd).












Francesca Eastwood is the daughter of Eastwood and actress Frances Fisher. She is the second Eastwood to become a Miss Golden Globe – her half sister Kathryn Eastwood, daughter of Clint Eastwood and Jacelyn Reeves, received the title in 2005.


“I have watched the Golden Globes ceremonies since I was a little girl, and it means so much to me to be a part of one of Hollywood’s most illustrious events,” Francesca Eastwood said in a statement.


The 19-year-old actress has appeared in her father’s movies, including “True Crime,” and can currently be seen on the E! reality show “Mrs. Eastwood and Company,” which shows her living a life of Carmel-by-the-Sea opulence along with her famous family and the South African band Overtone.


The duties of a Miss Golden Globe are somewhat nebulous, but they involve assisting with the highly rated awards show, cooking up a cure for world hunger and working on a vaccine for avian flu (OK, some of that may not be true).


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Indefinite strike: Egypt's anti-Morsi rebellion of judges is complete

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's rebellion of the judges against President Mohammed Morsi became complete on Sunday with the country's highest court declaring an open-ended strike on the day it was supposed to rule on the legitimacy of two key assemblies controlled by allies of the Islamist leader.

The strike by the Supreme Constitutional Court and opposition plans to march on the presidential palace on Tuesday take the country's latest political crisis to a level not seen in the nearly two years of turmoil since Hosni Mubarak's ouster in a popular uprising.

Judges from the country's highest appeals court and its sister lower court were already on an indefinite strike, joining colleagues from other tribunals who suspended work last week to protest what they saw as Morsi's assault on the judiciary.

The last time Egypt had an all-out strike by the judiciary was in 1919, when judges joined an uprising against British colonial rule.

The standoff began when Morsi issued decrees on Nov. 22 giving him near-absolute powers that granted himself and the Islamist-dominated assembly drafting the new constitution immunity from the courts.

The constitutional panel then raced in a marathon session last week to vote on the charter's 236 clauses without the participation of liberal and Christian members. The fast-track hearing pre-empted a decision from the Supreme Constitutional Court that was widely expected to dissolve the constituent assembly.

The judges on Sunday postponed their ruling on that case just before they went on strike.

Without a functioning justice system, Egypt will be plunged even deeper into turmoil. It has already seen a dramatic surge in crime after the uprising, while state authority is being challenged in many aspects of life and the courts are burdened by a massive backlog of cases.

"The country cannot function for long like this, something has to give," said Negad Borai, a private law firm director and a rights activist. 'We are in a country without courts of law and a president with all the powers in his hands. This is a clear-cut dictatorial climate," he said.

Mohamed Abdel-Aziz, a rights lawyer, said the strike by the judges will impact everything from divorce and theft to financial disputes that, in some cases, could involve foreign investors.

"Ordinary citizens affected by the strike will become curious about the details of the current political crisis and could possibly make a choice to join the protests," he said.

The Judges Club, a union with 9,500 members, said late Sunday that judges would not, as customary, oversee the national referendum Morsi called for Dec. 15 on the draft constitution hammered out and hurriedly voted on last week.

The absence of their oversight would raise more questions about the validity of the vote. If the draft is passed in the referendum, parliamentary elections are to follow two months later and they too may not have judicial supervision.

The judges say they will remain on strike until Morsi rescinds his decrees, which the Egyptian leader said were temporary and needed to protect the nation's path to democratic rule.

For now, however, Morsi has to contend with the fury of the judiciary.

The constitutional court called Sunday "the Egyptian judiciary's blackest day on record."

It described the scene outside the Nile-side court complex, where thousands of Islamist demonstrators gathered since the early morning hours carrying banners denouncing the tribunal and some of its judges.

A statement by the court, which swore Morsi into office on June 30, said its judges approached the complex but turned back when they saw the protesters blocking entrances and climbing over its fences. They feared for their safety, it added.

"The judges of the Supreme Constitutional Court were left with no choice but to announce to the glorious people of Egypt that they cannot carry out their sacred mission in this charged atmosphere," said the statement, which was carried by state news agency MENA.

Supporters of Morsi, who hails from the Islamic fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, claim that the court's judges remain loyal to Mubarak, who appointed them, and accuse them of trying to derail Egypt's transition to democratic rule.

In addition to the high court's expected ruling Sunday on the legitimacy of the constitution-drafting panel, it was also expected to rule on another body dominated by Morsi supporters, parliament's upper chamber.

Though Morsi's Nov. 22 decrees provide immunity to both bodies against the courts, a ruling that declares the two illegitimate would have vast symbolic significance, casting doubt on the standing of both.

The Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice party, sought to justify the action of its supporters outside the court as a peaceful protest. It reiterated its charge that some members of the judiciary were part and parcel of Mubarak's autocratic policies.

"The wrong practices by a minority of judges and their preoccupation with politics ... will not take away the respect people have for the judiciary," it said.

Its explanation, however, failed to calm the anger felt by many activists and politicians.

"President Morsi must take responsibility before the entire world for terrorizing the judiciary," veteran rights campaigner and opposition leader Abdel-Halim Kandil wrote in his Twitter account about the events outside the constitutional court.

Liberal activist and former lawmaker Amr Hamzawy warned what is ahead may be worse.

"The president and his group (the Muslim Brotherhood) are leading Egypt into a period of darkness par excellence," he said. "He made a dictatorial decision to hold a referendum on an illegal constitution that divides society, then a siege of the judiciary to terrorize it."

Egypt has been rocked by several bouts of unrest, some violent, since Mubarak was forced to step down in the face of a popular uprising. But the current one is probably the worst.

Morsi's decrees gave him powers that none of his four predecessors since the ouster of the monarchy 60 years ago ever had. Opposition leaders countered that he turned himself into a new "pharaoh" and a dictator even worse than his immediate predecessor Mubarak.

Then, following his order, the constituent assembly rushed a vote on the draft constitution in an all-night session.

The draft has a new article that seeks to define what the "principles" of Islamic law are by pointing to theological doctrines and their rules. Another new article states that Egypt's most respected Islamic institution, Al-Azhar, must be consulted on any matters related to Shariah law, a measure critics fear could lead to oversight of legislation by clerics.

Rights groups have pointed out that virtually the only references to women relate to the home and family, that the new charter uses overly broad language with respect to the state protecting "ethics and morals" and fails to outlaw gender discrimination.

At times the process appeared slap-dash, with fixes to missing phrasing and even several entirely new articles proposed, written and voted on in the hours just before sunrise.

The decrees and the vote on the constitution draft galvanized the fractured, mostly secular opposition, with senior leaders setting aside differences and egos to form a united front in the face of Morsi, whose offer on Saturday for a national dialogue is yet to find takers.

The opposition brought out at least 200,000 protesters to Cairo's Tahrir Square on Tuesday and a comparable number Friday to press demands that the decrees be rescinded. The Islamists responded Saturday with massive rallies in Cairo and across much of Egypt.

The opposition is raising the stakes with plans to march on Morsi' palace on Tuesday, a move last seen on Feb. 11, 2011 when tens of thousands of protesters marched from Tahrir Square to Mubarak's palace in the Heliopolis district to force him out. Mubarak stepped down that day, but Morsi is highly unlikely to follow suit on Tuesday.

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Belcher Didn’t Have ‘Long Concussion History,’ Team Says












The death of Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher, the latest in a string of tragic NFL suicides, has left the player’s teammates, coaches, family and friends wondering what could have led a man described as generous and caring to murder his girlfriend — the mother of his 3-month-old daughter — and then kill himself.


Kansas City police say Belcher, 25, shot and killed his girlfriend Saturday morning before going to the team stadium and and committing suicide by shooting himself in the head as he was talking to coaches.












“When the officers arrived, when they were pulling up, they actually observed a black male who had a gun to his head and he was talking to a couple of coaches out in the parking lot,” Kansas City Police spokesman Darin Snapp told ABC News Radio. “As officers pulled up, and began to park, that’s when they heard the gunshot and it appears the individual took his own life.”


It’s not yet clear what prompted Belcher’s actions, but his suicide follows those of former NFL players Junior Seau, 43, and Dave Duerson, 50, both of whom died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the chest in the last two years.


The suicides of Seau, Duerson and a number of other NFL players have been blamed on concussions racked up from playing the violent sport, and a condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, but that may not be the case for Belcher.




Kansas City Chiefs Player Jovan Belcher’s Murder-Suicide Watch Video





Did Brain Injury Lead to NFL Star’s Suicide? Watch Video



Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt said today that Belcher was “a player who had not had a long concussion history,” even though he was a three-time all-America wrestler and a star on the football team at his West Babylon, N.Y., high school.


Seau’s and Duerson’s brains are both being studied at Boston University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, where researchers have already learned that Duerson had CTE, which may have led to his suicide.


CTE is a progressive, degenerative disease found in people who have had brain trauma from repeated blows to the head, according to the Center. It includes brain tissue degeneration and a buildup of an abnormal protein called tao, resulting in symptoms including confusion, aggression, and depression. Ultimately, CTE results in dementia.


In 2006, former Pittsburgh Steelers player Terry Long killed himself by drinking antifreeze, and former Philadelphia Eagles player Andre Waters shot himself in the head. Both of them suffered from CTE.


Researchers at Boston University found evidence of CTE in 12 of the 13 professional football players’ brains they received between 2008 and 2010, according to the university. CTE can also be found in hockey players, wrestlers, and boxers.


“Football is entertainment in which the audience is expected to delight in gladiatorial action that a growing portion of the audience knows may cause the players degenerative brain disease,” ABC News’ George Will wrote in a Washington Post column published Aug. 3 just before he appeared on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”


Will cited Seau and Duerson in his column, both of whom committed suicide after 2010, adding that 62-year-old former NFL safety Ray Easterling committed suicide in April 2012. Esterling’s autopsy revealed that he had dementia and depression brought on by CTE.


Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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The 20 Most-Shared Ads of 2012












1. Kony 2012 (Invisible Children)



Most Americans had never heard of Joseph Kony, the head of the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda, before. This March video from advocacy group Invisible Children changed that.












Click here to view this gallery.


[More from Mashable: The 12 Most Memorable Marketing Campaigns of 2012]


Is Kony 2012 an ad? If so, it was the most-viral ad of the year. If not, it was just an extremely effective advocacy video and a Belgian video for cable network TNT was actually the most-viral ad of 2012.


Unruly, which keeps tabs on viral video activity, thinks Kony is, so it tops this year’s list. Indeed, Kony’s numbers are pretty staggering — 10 million shares and 94 million views on YouTube make it the Gangnam Style of charity videos. Not bad for a 30-minute film that doesn’t have a cat in sight and doesn’t introduce a new dance move.


[More from Mashable: 14 Bizarrely Awesome Rap Cover Videos]


Speaking of which, there are two tributes to Carly Rae Jepsen‘s “Call Me Maybe” on this list. There are also a few examples of borrowed equity, including Hobbit director Peter Jackson (for Air New Zealand), OK Go (Chevrolet), James Bond (Coke Zero) and various European soccer stars for Nike. There are also viral ad stalwarts Ken Block and GoPro. As usual, though, there are a lot of surprises. Who would have guessed, for instance, that a public service announcement for Melbourne Metro (as in Melbourne, Australia), would rack up 30 million views in less than a month?


This story originally published on Mashable here.


Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Egypt’s Mursi calls referendum as Islamists march












CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt‘s President Mohamed Mursi called a December 15 referendum on a draft constitution on Saturday as at least 200,000 Islamists demonstrated in Cairo to back him after opposition fury over his newly expanded powers.


Speaking after receiving the final draft of the constitution from the Islamist-dominated assembly, Mursi urged a national dialogue as the country nears the end of the transition from Hosni Mubarak‘s rule.












“I renew my call for opening a serious national dialogue over the concerns of the nation, with all honesty and impartiality, to end the transitional period as soon as possible, in a way that guarantees the newly-born democracy,” Mursi said.


Mursi plunged Egypt into a new crisis last week when he gave himself extensive powers and put his decisions beyond judicial challenge, saying this was a temporary measure to speed Egypt’s democratic transition until the new constitution is in place.


His assertion of authority in a decree issued on November 22, a day after he won world praise for brokering a Gaza truce between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement, dismayed his opponents and widened divisions among Egypt’s 83 million people.


Two people have been killed and hundreds wounded in protests by disparate opposition forces drawn together and re-energized by a decree they see as a dictatorial power grab.


A demonstration in Cairo to back the president swelled through the afternoon, peaking in the early evening at least 200,000, said Reuters witnesses, basing their estimates on previous rallies in the capital. The authorities declined to give an estimate for the crowd size.


“The people want the implementation of God’s law,” chanted flag-waving demonstrators, many of them bussed in from the countryside, who choked streets leading to Cairo University, where Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood had called the protest.


Tens of thousands of Egyptians had protested against Mursi on Friday. “The people want to bring down the regime,” they chanted in Cairo‘s Tahrir Square, echoing the trademark slogan of the revolts against Hosni Mubarak and Arab leaders elsewhere.


Rival demonstrators threw stones after dark in the northern city of Alexandria and a town in the Nile Delta. Similar clashes erupted again briefly in Alexandria on Saturday, state TV said.


“COMPLETE DEFEAT”


Mohamed Noshi, 23, a pharmacist from Mansoura, north of Cairo, said he had joined the rally in Cairo to support Mursi and his decree. “Those in Tahrir don’t represent everyone. Most people support Mursi and aren’t against the decree,” he said.


Mohamed Ibrahim, a hardline Salafi Islamist scholar and a member of the constituent assembly, said secular-minded Egyptians had been in a losing battle from the start.


“They will be sure of complete popular defeat today in a mass Egyptian protest that says ‘no to the conspiratorial minority, no to destructive directions and yes for stability and sharia (Islamic law)’,” he told Reuters.


Mursi has alienated many of the judges who must supervise the referendum. His decree nullified the ability of the courts, many of them staffed by Mubarak-era appointees, to strike down his measures, although says he respects judicial independence.


A source at the presidency said Mursi might rely on the minority of judges who support him to supervise the vote.


“Oh Mursi, go ahead and cleanse the judiciary, we are behind you,” shouted Islamist demonstrators in Cairo.


Mursi, once a senior Muslim Brotherhood figure, has put his liberal, leftist, Christian and other opponents in a bind. If they boycott the referendum, the constitution would pass anyway.


If they secured a “no” vote to defeat the draft, the president could retain the powers he has unilaterally assumed.


And Egypt’s quest to replace the basic law that underpinned Mubarak’s 30 years of army-backed one-man rule would also return to square one, creating more uncertainty in a nation in dire economic straits and seeking a $ 4.8 billion loan from the IMF.


“NO PLACE FOR DICTATORSHIP”


Mursi’s well-organized Muslim Brotherhood and its ultra-orthodox Salafi allies, however, are convinced they can win the referendum by mobilizing their own supporters and the millions of Egyptians weary of political turmoil and disruption.


“There is no place for dictatorship,” the president said on Thursday while the constituent assembly was still voting on a draft constitution which Islamists say enshrines Egypt’s new freedoms.


Human rights groups have voiced misgivings, especially about articles related to women’s rights and freedom of speech.


The text limits the president to two four-year terms, requires him to secure parliamentary approval for his choice of prime minister, and introduces a degree of civilian oversight over the military – though not enough for critics.


The draft constitution also contains vague, Islamist-flavored language that its opponents say could be used to whittle away human rights and stifle criticism.


For example, it forbids blasphemy and “insults to any person”, does not explicitly uphold women’s rights and demands respect for “religion, traditions and family values”.


The draft injects new Islamic references into Egypt’s system of government but retains the previous constitution’s reference to “the principles of sharia” as the main source of legislation.


“We fundamentally reject the referendum and constituent assembly because the assembly does not represent all sections of society,” said Sayed el-Erian, 43, a protester in Tahrir and member of a party set up by opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei.


Several independent newspapers said they would not publish on Tuesday in protest. One of the papers also said three private satellite channels would halt broadcasts on Wednesday.


Egypt cannot hold a new parliamentary election until a new constitution is passed. The country has been without an elected legislature since the Supreme Constitutional Court ordered the dissolution of the Islamist-dominated lower house in June.


The court is due to meet on Sunday to discuss the legality of parliament’s upper house.


“We want stability. Every time, the constitutional court tears down institutions we elect,” said Yasser Taha, a 30-year-old demonstrator at the Islamist rally in Cairo.


(Additional reporting by Marwa Awad, Yasmine Saleh and Tom Perry; Editing by Myra MacDonald and Jason Webb)


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“Walking Dead” midseason finale preview: attack of the bloodthirsty killers, aka our heroes












LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – (Spoiler warning: Don’t read this if you don’t want to know what happened this season on “The Walking Dead” or in the comics. We’re also giving some general details about Sunday’s midseason finale.)


As eventful as this season of “The Walking Dead” has been, they’re just getting to the best stuff.












Showrunner Glen Mazzara tells TheWrap that Sunday’s midseason finale will include several intense faceoffs, including one between Michonne and The Governor’s zombified daughter, Penny. It will also introduce Tyreese (“The Wire” star Chad Coleman), one of the most beloved characters in the Robert Kirkman comics that inspired the series. And Daryl will try desperately to reunite with his brother Merle, who has moved to Woodbury and become one of The Governor’s chief lieutenants.


The episode also features an attack on Woodbury by some “bloodthirsty killers” – also known as Rick, Daryl, and the other survivors we’ve been rooting for throughout the show.


Mazzara also talked with us about the season so far, including a horrific encounter between Maggie and the Governor, and how much we should empathize with zombies.


TheWrap: What can you say about the midseason finale?


Mazzara: It all comes to a head. We’ve spent this season introducing all these new characters into the world, introducing the governor and re-introducing Merle and Michonne, and getting these two groups face to face.


The Governor does despicable things, but in his mind, he’s the good guy.


I think you’ll see that in this midseason finale. The Governor is able to say that they’re attacked by bloodthirsty killers. He can certainly make the case that Rick and his group are killers. And if you look at it objectively, they are. They took over the prison, most of those prisoners are now dead, and the people of Woodbury are just peace-loving survivors. The Governor is definitely able to pain Rick as a villain. And in doing that, he can hopefully mobilize the people of Woodbury to war.


He’s spared the people of Woodbury from seeing some ugly stuff. Is he doing it for a noble reason – to preserve their innocence – or is it so he can exploit them?


I think it’s so he can better exploit them. He feels that the people of Woodbury are sheep. He’s not interested in what they think. He just wants them to speak well of him. They are there to be ruled and he’s there to rule by any means necessary.


I feel like Glen and Maggie are our audience surrogates at this point, our pals, and they were both horribly abused. You’ve gotten a lot of feedback from fans relieved that The Governor stopped short of raping Maggie in the last episode.


He’s killed National Guardsmen. Think of all the stuff that he’s done. And the line he’s crossed and the act from which he cannot be redeemed is that he made our beloved Maggie take off her shirt and bra.


It’s very interesting, and I don’t think that would be the case if people did not care about that character as much as they do.


Why did he stop short of raping Maggie?


He didn’t rape Maggie because she wouldn’t have been broken by it. She says ‘Do what you’re gonna do, and then go to hell.’ So then to do that would have been torture for torture’s sake. It wouldn’t have gotten him the information he wanted. So he thinks about that and thinks, this isn’t going to achieve my agenda. He moves on. He brings her in, topless, implying that she was raped, to Glen, and he puts the gun to Glen’s head. … And she gives up that information.


One change you made is that in the comics, Michonne is horribly raped and tortured by the governor.


She still may be. But I think it’s important to say that this is a character who is willing to do whatever he wants or thinks it takes to achieve his goals. … We know he’s capable of rape. We know he’s capable of murder. He knows where the prison is, and he is coming for them. He collects heads. He’s the most dangerous character in this world and he is furious.


Also last episode, we saw an effort to see how much human memory remains with walkers when they transform. How much should we empathize with walkers?


I think the show has always been in a sense compassionate to zombies. The first zombie that we met was bicycle girl and Rick says ‘I’m sorry this happened to you.’ … So I do think there’s something in the DNA of this TV show in which the frightening creatures – our worst fears, walking the earth – are also individuals and people. In a way, they’re the damned. They’ve lost their souls. They’re like a ghost that doesn’t realize that they’ve passed on and can’t make it to the light. They’re dead but they’re not dead and it’s a type of curse. It comes out of a long history of horror movie. There is some type of compassion even though there can’t be.


Does it seem like people who care about the zombies are suckers?


That’s the question. What is the right way within this world? You have people who retain their humanity, like Dale, end up eaten. People who lose their humanity, like Shane, end up dead too. So in a way it’s irrelevant. It’s like a state of war in which anyone can be killed at any time. But there’s a random quality to life and death and that’s what makes it so frightening. No matter what you do, you can still suffer a horrific fate. Who would ever assume that Carol would still be alive at this point? And she is.


She’s a survivor, but she’s not Michonne. And Carol is just as likely to live or die as Michonne.


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