[OOC] Lux Aeterna: Avenging Monsters

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Some say the world will end in Fire,
Some say in Ice,
From what I've tasted of desire,
I hold with those who favor Fire,
But if I had to Perish twice,
I think I know enough of Hate,
To say for Destruction Ice is also Great,
And would Suffice.

- Robert Frost.

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Indian casinos struggle to get out from under debt (AP)

HARTFORD, Conn. ? The warning from the ratings agency could not have been more direct: The parent company of the Mohegan Sun faces a "wall of debt" due early this year as the casino, struggling with rising competition and a weak economy that's hammered consumer spending, tries to refinance hundreds of millions of dollars in loans.

The Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority has $505 million in loans outstanding and another $250 million due April 1, Keith Foley, an analyst at Moody's Investors Service, recently told investors. The gaming authority, parent company of casinos in Uncasville, Conn., and Wilkes-Barre, Pa., also has about $21 million in interest payments due Feb. 15, he said.

Mohegan Sun announced this month that fourth-quarter net income rose significantly, to $46.7 million, compared with a net loss of $26.3 million in the same period in 2010. But it also said it failed to reach an agreement to refinance debt, though lenders waived a possible default.

"They get to live another day," Foley said in an interview.

Executives at Mohegan Sun did not respond to a request for an interview.

Mohegan Sun is not alone as several Indian-run casinos ? some with plans for expansion that have been put on hold ? struggle to refinance debt after being caught short when the economy went into recession in December 2007.

Foxwoods Resort Casino in eastern Connecticut seeks to restructure debt, and the Mescalero Apache tribe restructured $200 million in bonds last year for casino resort property in New Mexico. A spokeswoman said Foxwoods is in debt talks, but would not provide details.

An advantage that Indian-run casinos have over their commercial counterparts is that they cannot file for bankruptcy and creditors can't foreclose on their properties because tribal governments are sovereign, said Clyde Barrow, director of the Center for Policy Analysis at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.

Valerie Red-Horse, an investment banker and financial adviser who worked on the Mecalero Apache deal, called it the "best model out there," in part because it preserved the casino's financial distributions to tribal members and tribal government while bond holders kept their stakes, she said.

Some tribes have been forced to agree to cut their distributions until debt is paid down, Red-Horse said. Making sure distributions continue is a "very delicate subject. It causes a lot of angst among tribes," she said.

Financial problems at the casino, the Inn of the Mountain Gods, were due in part to the slowing economy and faltering tourism, she said.

Indian-run casinos expanded rapidly because they are strong economic development tools for the tribes that run the casinos, said Peter Kulick, a Lansing, Mich., tax and gaming lawyer. The businesses survived economic downturns in the 1970s and 1980s and were seen as immune to recessions, he said.

"In the last go-round, that's not the case," he said.

Kulick and Barrow said competition is the newest threat to casinos, even as revenue is now rising as the economy slowly improves.

"There are some real pockets of recovery going on right now," Barrow said.

Massachusetts legalized casino gambling in November, but it will be years before the three casinos authorized will be operating.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced this month that he would work with the Genting Group, one of the world's largest gambling companies, to transform the Aqueduct horse track into a megaplex that would eventually include the nation's largest convention center, 3,000 hotel rooms and a major expansion of a casino that began operating in October.

For Connecticut's two casinos, "Aqueduct could be pretty substantial competitive pressure," Barrow said.

"I don't see real revenue growth for Connecticut's casinos, he said.

Declining or stagnant revenue is bad news for Connecticut state government, which takes 25 percent of what the casinos pull in. State revenue from the two casinos reached their peak in 2007 at more than $411 million, said Kevin Lembo, Connecticut's comptroller who tracks state revenue from all sources.

That's declined to $342 million in the state's budget year that ended last June 30, down $69 million, or 17 percent.

"The loss of revenue is one obvious and immediate impact for the state," Lembo said. "What happens to jobs? What happens to future development plans? These are areas of concern for everyone at this point."

Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman said the health of the two casinos is critical because they are destinations in southeast Connecticut, drawing tourists who also visit vineyards along the shoreline, the Mystic Aquarium and other sites.

"This is a big thing for us," she said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_bi_ge/us_indian_casino_financing

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Megaupload exec's homes raided, luxury cars seized

By msnbc.com staff and news services

Police in New Zealand on Friday raided several homes and businesses linked to the founder of Megaupload.com, a giant file-sharing site shut down by U.S. authorities, and seized guns, millions of dollars, and nearly $5 million in luxury cars, officials said.

Police arrested founder Kim Dotcom and three Megaupload employees Thursday on U.S. accusations that they facilitated millions of illegal downloads of films, music and other content, costing copyright holders at least $500 million in lost revenue. Extradition proceedings against them could last a year or more.


David Rowland / EPA

(L-R) Bram van der Kolk, Finn Batato, Mathias Ortmann and German national Kim Schmitz, also known as Kim Dotcom, are remanded in custody at the District Court on charges in a US copyright infringement investigation in Auckland, New Zealand, 20 January 2012.

With 150 million registered users, about 50 million hits daily and endorsements from music superstars, Megaupload.com was among the world's biggest file-sharing sites. According to a U.S. indictment, the site, which was shut down Thursday, earned Dotcom $42 million in 2010 alone.

Although the company is based in Hong Kong and Dotcom lives in New Zealand, some of the alleged pirated content was hosted on leased servers in Virginia, and that was gave U.S. prosecutors jurisdiction to act.

New Zealand police served 10 search warrants at several businesses and homes around the city of Auckland.

Police spokesman Grant Ogilvie said the seized cars include a Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe worth more than $400,000 as well as several Mercedes. Two short-barreled shotguns and a number of valuable artworks were also confiscated, he added.

Pictures posted on Flickr and technology news website Gizmodo showed the haul included a 2010 Maserati and a pink Cadillac. One Mercedes had the personalized license place "MAFIA,"while another had a plated that read "CEO."

A report by New Zealand news website stuff.co.nz said Detective Inspector Grant Wormald from the Organized and Financial Crime Agency NZ (OFCANZ) gave details of the extraordinary raid, which had been planned for several months.

"Police arrived in two marked police helicopters," said Wormald, according to the website. "Despite our staff clearly identifying themselves Mr. Dotcom retreated into the house and activated a number of electronic locking mechanisms. While police neutralized these locks he then further barricaded himself into a safe room within the house which officers had to cut their way into."

Once they gained entry into this room they found Dotcom near a firearm which had the appearance of a sawed-off shotgun, Wormald said.

"It was definitely not as simple as knocking at the front door," he added.

New Zealand's Fairfax Media reported that the four defendants stood together in an Auckland courtroom in the first step of the extradition proceedings.

'Nothing to hide'
Dotcom's lawyer raised objections to a media request to take photographs and video, but then Dotcom spoke, saying he didn't mind photos or video "because we have nothing to hide." The judge granted the media access, and ruled that the four would remain in custody until a second hearing Monday.

Dotcom, Megaupload's former CEO and current chief innovation officer, is a resident of Hong Kong and New Zealand and a dual citizen of Finland and Germany who had his name legally changed. The 37-year-old was previously known as Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor.

Two other German citizens and one Dutch citizen also were arrested and three other defendants ? another German, a Slovakian and an Estonian ? remain at large.

Megaupload has retained Washington, D.C. power attorney Bob Bennett in the case, according to a person inside the company. Bennett is best known for representing former President Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. The person within Megaupload spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the company's plans.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which defends free speech and digital rights online, said in a statement that the arrests set "a terrifying precedent. If the United States can seize a Dutch citizen in New Zealand over a copyright claim, what is next?"

The indictment was unsealed one day after websites including Wikipedia and Wired shut down in protest of two U.S. proposals intended to make it easier for authorities to go after sites with pirated material, especially those with overseas headquarters and servers.

Before Megaupload was taken down, the company posted a statement saying allegations that it facilitated massive breaches of copyright laws were "grotesquely overblown."

"The fact is that the vast majority of Mega's Internet traffic is legitimate, and we are here to stay. If the content industry would like to take advantage of our popularity, we are happy to enter into a dialogue. We have some good ideas. Please get in touch," the statement said.

Several sister sites were also shut down, including one dedicated to sharing pornography files.

Retaliation
News of the shutdown seemed to bring retaliation from hackers who claimed credit for attacking the Justice Department's and FBI websites. Federal officials confirmed the Justice Department site was down for hours Thursday evening, and that the disruption was being "treated as a malicious act."

A loose affiliation of hackers known as "Anonymous" claimed credit for the attacks. Also hacked was the site for the Motion Picture Association of America.

According to the indictment, Megaupload was estimated at one point to be the 13th most frequently visited website on the Internet. Current estimates by companies that monitor Web traffic place it in the top 100.

Megaupload is considered a "cyberlocker," in which users can upload and transfer files that are too large to send by email. Such sites can have perfectly legitimate uses. But the Motion Picture Association of America, which has campaigned for a crackdown on piracy, estimated that the vast majority of content being shared on Megaupload was in violation of copyright laws.

Elliot Kember / EPA

The New Zealand mansion rented by co-operator of the file-sharing platform Megaupload, Kim Schmitz, also known as Kim Dotcom.

The website allowed users to download some content for free, but made money by charging subscriptions to people who wanted access to faster download speeds or extra content. The website also sold advertising.

Megaupload was unique not only because of its massive size and the volume of downloaded content, but also because it had high-profile support from celebrities, musicians and other content producers who are most often the victims of copyright infringement and piracy. Before the website was taken down, it contained endorsements from Kim Kardashian, Alicia Keys and Kanye West, among others.

The company listed Swizz Beatz, a musician who married Keys in 2010, as its CEO. He was not named in the indictment and, via a representative, declined to comment.

The five-count indictment, which alleges copyright infringement as well as conspiracy to commit money laundering and racketeering, described a site designed specifically to reward users who uploaded pirated content for sharing, and turned a blind eye to requests from copyright holders to remove copyright-protected files.

The Justice Department said it was illegal for anyone to download pirated content, but their investigation focused on the leaders of the company, not end users who may have downloaded a few movies for personal viewing.

A lawyer who represented the company in a lawsuit last year declined to comment Thursday. Efforts by the Associated Press to reach an attorney representing Dotcom were unsuccessful.

The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

Source: http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/20/10199528-megaupload-millionaires-have-homes-raided-5m-in-luxury-cars-seized

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NW storm cuts power, thousands try to stay warm

A U.S. flag is shown encrusted with ice, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, near Lacey, Wash. Heavy layers of ice brought down trees and power lines across the Northwest Friday, following two days of snow and ice storms. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

A U.S. flag is shown encrusted with ice, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, near Lacey, Wash. Heavy layers of ice brought down trees and power lines across the Northwest Friday, following two days of snow and ice storms. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

A tree branch that feel as a result of a heavy coating of ice is shown resting on a house, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, near Lakewood, Wash. Heavy layers of ice brought down trees and power lines across the Northwest Friday, following two days of snow and ice storms. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

A deep snow pile made things a bit challenging for an Intercity Transit rider while boarding the bus on Friday, Jan. 20,2012 in Olympia, Wash. Thick ice brought down trees and power lines in the region overnight, following two days of snow and ice storms. A powerful Pacific Northwest storm knocked out power to about 250,000 electric customers around Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia after it coated much of Washington in ice and swelled Oregon rivers, killing a child and two adults. Besides the outages, the big concern now is more flooding in both states with warmer temperatures and rain. (AP Photo/The Olympian, Steve Bloom)

A truck drives past downed trees and low-hanging power lines, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, near Lacey, Wash. Heavy layers of ice brought down trees and power lines across the Northwest Friday, following two days of snow and ice storms. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Vehicles drive past downed trees and low-hanging power lines, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, near Lakewood, Wash. Heavy layers of ice brought down trees and power lines across the Northwest Friday, following two days of snow and ice storms. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

(AP) ? Tens of thousands of Pacific Northwest residents faced the prospect of a chilly weekend after a powerful storm brought snow and ice and left a tangle of fallen trees and damaged power lines. Several Oregon counties saw their worst flooding in more than a decade.

The National Weather Service forecast more rain and winds gusting as high as 40 mph Saturday in Western Washington, a combination that could bring down even more snow-laden and ice-damaged trees.

Nearly 230,000 customers were without power late Friday night in Western Washington, about 220,000 of them Puget Sound Energy customers.

The utility has brought in repair crews from across the West and planned to field more than 800 linemen on Saturday, in addition to tree-trimming crews, spokesman Roger Thompson said.

"The wind is a wild card that could set us back," he said, adding PSE hoped to have the majority of the outages restored by Sunday, although some customers will probably be without power into early next week.

The Weather Service predicted weekend lows in the mid-30s.

Several warming shelters have been opened in the area to aid people whose homes are without heat.

Despite warnings from emergency officials, the first cases of possible carbon monoxide poisoning surfaced Friday night. Two families in the Seattle suburb of Kent were taken to hospitals after suffering separate cases of possible poisoning. Both had been using charcoal barbecues indoors for heat.

The storm was already blamed for three deaths. A mother and her 1-year-old son died after torrential rain on Wednesday swept away a car from an Albany, Ore., grocery store parking lot. An elderly man was fatally injured Thursday by a falling tree as he was backing an all-terrain vehicle out of a backyard shed near Seattle.

On Washington's Mount Rainier, a blizzard kept rescuers from searching Friday for two campers and two climbers missing since early this week. Just east of that region, about 200 skiers and workers were able to leave the Crystal Mountain ski resort after transportation officials reopened the area's main highway, closed two days earlier by fallen trees.

Near Tacoma, three people escaped unharmed Friday when a heavy snow and ice load on the roof of an Allied Ice plant caused the building to collapse. West Pierce Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Hallie McCurdy said they heard loud noises and got out just in time.

As floodwaters receded, residents of Oregon's Willamette Valley began taking stock of damage in soaked cities.

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber paid a visit Friday to the hard-hit town of Turner, where 100 homes were damaged or still underwater.

Friday's mainly dry streets belied a morning of terror barely 24 hours earlier, when emergency crews conducted 55 boat rescues as water filled streets, homes and businesses.

"You just watch the water rise hour by hour, and there's nothing you can do about it," Mayor Paul Thomas said. "It's a long, slower sort of torture."

Kitzhaber said the state would work with local and federal officials to try and get disaster funding to Turner and other communities hard-hit by flooding.

The governor praised residents' strong sense of community as neighbors helped each other.

Nancy Ko saw that spirit first-hand. From the safety of higher ground, she watched a live feed from a security camera as water rose over the curb and lapped against the front door of the convenience store and cafe she owns just feet from Mill Creek.

Out of the blue, five strangers showed up and plopped sandbags in front of the door, preventing damage that she believes would have otherwise been far more severe.

"Just a godsend," said Ko, a Korean immigrant who has owned the store for six years. "Good person, amazing persons."

Elsewhere in the Willamette Valley, a 35-year-old woman who drove a Ford Mustang into 4 feet of floodwater was plucked from the roof Friday by deputies who arrived by boat to save her. It was one of a number of dramatic rescues in western Oregon, left sodden by as much as 10 inches of rain in a day and a half that has brought region's worst flooding in 15 years.

Interstate 5, the main road connecting Seattle and Portland, was briefly closed near Centralia so crews could remove fallen power lines.

Much of Washington's capital, Olympia, was without power.

Gov. Chris Gregoire's office, legislative buildings and other state agencies in Olympia lost electricity for several hours before power was restored. The governor thanked repair crews late Friday by hand-delivering peanut butter cookies.

The storm was "a constant reminder of who's in charge. Mother Nature is in charge, she gives us a wake-up call every once in a while, this is one of those," Gregoire said.

It was still snowing in the Cascades, with up to 2 feet possible in the mountains over the weekend.

At Sea-Tac Airport in Seattle, airlines were trying to accommodate passengers whose flights were canceled Thursday. The airport's largest carrier, Alaska Airlines, canceled 50 of its 120 daily departures Friday. On Thursday, Alaska and sister airline Horizon canceled 310 flights to and from Seattle, affecting 29,000 passengers.

In Seattle, Carly Nelson was negotiating an icy sidewalk on her way to Starbucks. Nelson has been frequenting her neighborhood coffee shop to avoid cabin fever.

"I'm pretty tired of it. It gets old pretty fast. All my friends are stranded in little pockets and you can't get together to go to yoga," she said. "I'm just looking forward to being able to go wherever I want to go."

___

Cooper reported from Oregon. Associated Press writers Doug Esser, Ted Warren, Rachel La Corte, Nigel Duara and Nicholas K. Geranios contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-21-Northwest%20Storm/id-6e081f52ffb44728ad794493051a9717

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Cruise ship threatens marine paradise off Italy

(AP) ? Stone fortresses and watchtowers that centuries ago stood guard against marauding pirates loom above pristine waters threatened by a modern peril: fuel trapped within the capsized Costa Concordia luxury liner.

A half-million gallons (2,400 tons) of heavy fuel oil is in danger of leaking out and polluting some of the Mediterranean's most unspoiled sea, where dolphins chase playfully after sailboats and fishermen's catches are so prized that wholesalers come from across Italy to scoop up cod, lobster, scampi, swordfish and other delicacies.

"Even the Caribbean has nothing on us," said Francesco Arpino, a scuba instructor in the chic port of Porto Ercole, noting how the sleek granite sea bottom helps keep visibility crystal clear even 135 feet (40 meters) down.

Divers in these transparent waters marvel at an underwater world of sea horses and red coral, while on the surface sperm whales cut through the sea.

But worry is clouding this paradise, which includes a stretch of Tuscan coastline that has been the holiday haunt of soccer and screen stars, politicians and European royals.

Rough seas hindering divers' search for bodies in the Concordia's submerged section have also delayed the start of a pumping operation expected to last weeks to remove the fuel from the ship. Floating barriers aimed at containing any spillage now surround the vessel.

According to the Dutch salvage firm Smit, which has been contracted to remove the fuel, there are about a half million gallons (2,400 tons) of heavy fuel oil on board, as well as some 200 tons of diesel oil and smaller amounts of lubricants and other environmentally hazardous materials.

The ship lies dangerously close to a drop-off point on the sea bottom. Should strong waves nudge the vessel from its precarious perch, it could plunge some 90 feet (30 meters), further complicating the pumping operation and possibly rupturing fuel tanks. Italy's environment minister has warned that if the tanks break, the thick black fuel would block sunlight vital for marine life in the seabed.

A week after the Concordia struck a reef off the island of Giglio, flipping on its side, its crippled 114,000-ton hull rests on seabed rich with an underwater prairie of sea grass vital to the ecosystem. Environmentalists warn the sheer weight of the wreckage has likely already damaged a variety of marine life, including endangered sea sponges, and crustaceans and mollusks, even before a drop of fuel leaks.

"The longer it stays there, the longer it impedes light from reaching the vegetation," said Francesco Cinelli, an ecology professor at the University of Pisa in Tuscany.

The seabed is a flourishing home to Poseidon sea grass native to the Mediterranean, Cinelli told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

"Sea grass ... is to the sea what forests are to terra firma," Cinelli said. They produce oxygen and serve as a refuge for organisms to reproduce or hide from predators.

The Tuscan archipelago's seven islands are at the heart of Europe's largest marine park, extending over some 150,000 acres (60,000 hectares) of sea.

They include the islands of Elba, where Napoleon lived in exile, and Montecristo, a setting for Alexandre Dumas' novel "The Count of Monte Cristo," where rare Mediterranean monk seals have been spotted near the coast.

Montecristo has a two-year waiting list of people hoping to be among the 1,000 people annually escorted ashore by forest rangers to admire the uninhabited island. Navigation, bathing and fishing are strictly prohibited up to a half mile (one kilometer) from Montecristo's rocky, cove-dotted coast. A monastery established on the island in the 7th century was abandoned 900 years later after repeated pirate raids.

Come spring, Porto Ercole's slips will be full, with yachts dropping anchor just outside the port. A steep hill provides a panoramic view of a sprawling seaside villa, once a holiday retreat of Dutch royals, and of the crescent-shaped island of Giannutri, with its ancient Roman ruins.

Alberto Teodori, who said he has been hired as a skipper for the yachts of Rome's VIPs for 30 years, noted that the area thrives on tourism in the spring and summer and survives on fishing in the offseason.

If the Concordia's fuel should pollute the sea, "Giglio will be dead for 10, 15 years," Teodori fretted, as workers nearby shellacked the hull of an aging fishing boat.

The international ocean-advocacy group, Oceana, describes the national marine park as an "ecological diamond," favored by divers for its great variety of species.

"If the pollution gets into the water, we are ruined," said Raffaella Manno, who with her husband runs a portside counter selling fresh fish in Porto Santo Stefano, a nearby town where ferries and hydrofoils depart for Giglio.

She said fish from the archipelago's waters are prized throughout Italy for their quality and variety.

"The water is clean and the reefs are rich" for fish to feed, she said, as trucks carrying oil-removal equipment waited to board ferries to Giglio. "The priciest markets in Italy come here to buy, from Milan, Turin, even Naples."

Concordia's captain, initially jailed and then placed under house arrest in his hometown near Naples, is suspected of having deliberately deviated from the ship's route, to hug Giglio's reef-studded coastline in order to perform a kind of "salute" to amuse passengers and islanders.

The maneuver is apparently a common practice by cruise ships, environmentalists lament.

"These salutes are an established practice by the big cruise ships," said Francesco Emilio Borrelli, a Green party official from Naples. He said that the Greens have received reports of numerous such sightings by ships sailing by the Naples area islands of Capri, Ischia and Procida.

Even before the Concordia tragedy, environmentalists had railed against what they brand "sea monsters," ? massive cruise liners releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gases ? sailing perilously close to the coast to thrill the passengers aboard.

"These virtual cities put at risk the richness of biodiversity, which we must never forget is at the foundation of our very survival on Earth," said Marevivo, an Italian environmental group.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-20-EU-Italy-Paradise-in-Peril/id-bc724a269f61487cb228f76a221050ee

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US natural gas supplies shrank last week (AP)

NEW YORK ? The nation's natural gas supplies fell last week, the government said Thursday.

The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that natural gas in storage shrank by 87 billion cubic feet to 3.290 trillion cubic feet for the week ended Jan. 13.

Analysts expected a drop of 88 billion to 92 billion cubic feet, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

The inventory level was 20.8 percent above the five-year average of 2.724 trillion cubic feet, and 19.6 percent higher than last year's level of 2.751 trillion cubic feet, according to the government data.

Natural gas fell 9 cents, or 3.6 percent, to $2.38 per 1,000 cubic feet in New York.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_on_bi_ge/us_natural_gas_storage

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Community pays respects to fallen soldier

Story Image

Mourners arrive at Memory Lane Funeral Chapel in Schererville for the wake of Indiana National Guard Sgt. Brian Leonhardt Tuesday afternoon. | Jeffrey D. Nicholls~Sun-Times Media

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At a glance

The funeral for Valparaiso University music major Christopher Patterson, 20, who was among the Indiana National Guardsmen killed Jan. 6, will take place at 11 a.m. Jan. 21 at Immanuel Lutheran Church in his hometown of North Aurora, Ill. Visitation will be 1 to 8 p.m. Jan. 20 at the church.

Two music groups of which Patterson was a member ? the Valparaiso Chorale, the university?s premiere singing group, and Vovox, an all-male a cappella group from Valparaiso ? will perform at the funeral.

His family is asking those who attend honor their son by wearing red in recognition of Chris? ginger-colored hair.

Two funds have been set up in Patterson?s name, including one at Valparaiso University that will support a scholarship for red-haired music majors.

Updated: January 18, 2012 2:01AM

SCHERERVILLE ? Friends, loved ones and members of the community at large gathered Tuesday to say goodbye to Sgt. Brian Leonhardt of Merrillville.

An American flag covered his casket as pictures capturing the important moments of his 21 years flashed on video screens in the background.

Mourners waited for up to an hour during peak visiting times at Memory Lane Memorial Park and Funeral Chapel for a chance to pay their respects to Leonhardt?s family and young widow, Dianne.

?I can?t believe the response,? Dianne Leonhardt said. Earlier this week she attended services for Spc. Robert Tauteris Jr. of Hamlet, who along with her husband and two other soldiers, was killed Jan. 6 by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan. She said that service, too, drew a large outpouring of support, so she expected the same for her husband, but was still surprised by just how many people came out.

Spc. Christopher Patterson, 20, of Aurora, Ill., a music student at Valparaiso University, and Staff Sgt. Jonathan M. Metzger, 32, of Indianapolis were also killed in the blast. The four men were members of the Indiana National Guard 713th Engineer Company based in Valparaiso.

Chuck and Patricia Marsh of Crown Point were among those who came to show their support. The couple do not know the family personally, but their son, Pvt. Ryan Marsh, serves in the 713th Engineer Company and was on base when the patrol was hit. Marsh said as parents the loss of a member of their son?s unit is difficult.

?We came to pay our respects for a fellow soldier,? Marsh said.

?This is a strong patriotic family,? Patricia Marsh said.

Leonhardt comes from a family of eight. Three of his older brothers, Chuck, Randall and A.J., also served in the Indiana National Guard. Randall was also a Marine. He also two other brothers, Robert III, Randall?s twin, and Trevor, the youngest of the group. His sisters are Theresa Stoneback and Jackie Leonhardt. His mother is Marie Leonhardt of Merrillville and his father is Robert Leonhardt Jr. of Lakes of the Four Seasons.

Marianne Wyatt of Highland and her daughter, Arielle Popovich, 14, also of Highland, said it was Leonhardt?s sense of humor and his laughter they will miss the most. Wyatt?s oldest daughter Laura and Leonhardt were classmates and friends.

?He had the best sense of humor,? Arielle said.

Wyatt said they will cherish their memories and the many funny stories they can share but will never understand the senselessness of the loss of the life of someone who was as good a person as Leonhardt.

?You?re always told life is not fair. It really isn?t. They had to take Brian out of this earth and it?s really not fair,? Wyatt said.

A funeral is planned at 11 a.m. Wednesday at First Baptist Church of Hammond, 507 State St.

Source: http://posttrib.suntimes.com/10067385-418/community-pays-respects-to-fallen-soldier.html

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Nation's first secretary of veterans affairs dies (AP)

CHICAGO ? Edward Derwinski, the nation's first secretary of veterans affairs, has died at the age of 85.

Derwinski also served 24 years in the U.S. House, where he represented Chicago's south side and southern suburbs.

His family says Derwinski died of cancer on Sunday.

After leaving Congress in 1983, the Republican worked at the State Department and then was named head of the Department of Veterans' Affairs, which had just been given Cabinet status.

Other politicians tell the Chicago Tribune that Derwinski was friendly, with connections to people throughout his district.

Sen. Mark Kirk says he "brought a gritty, Chicagoland get-it-done feel to his work."

He will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. A funeral Mass will be held Saturday at Holy Family Church in Chicago.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obits/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_on_re_us/us_obit_derwinski

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Jesse Metcalfe engaged to Cara Santana

Will she ever become a "Desperate Housewife?"

Jesse Metcalfe, known for his role as John Rowland on the ABC drama, is engaged to girlfriend Cara Santana, a source confirms exclusively to Us Weekly.

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The 33-year-old actor previously dated Courtney Robertson, a model who is currently a contestant on Ben Flajnik's season of "The Bachelor."

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A source tellsUs Metcalfe and Santana "have been dating for four to five years and living together for at least three."

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His fiancee grew up in El Paso, Texas and moved to L.A. to become an actress.

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Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46025254/ns/today-entertainment/

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FDA fines Red Cross $9.6 million for blood lapses

Getty Images / File

The American Red Cross is facing a new multi-million-dollar fine for problems with blood collection and distribution.

By JoNel Aleccia

Federal health officials have fined the American Red Cross nearly $9.6 million for sloppy and unsafe blood management practices, the second multi-million-dollar penalty levied against the agency in the last two years.

The new Food and Drug Administration fine follows inspections at 16 Red Cross blood centers between April and October 2010 that revealed ongoing problems that appeared to endanger donors and to allow potentially contaminated blood into the nation?s supply.

An FDA spokeswoman said the agency found no evidence of actual harm to blood recipients and that officials remain confident about sources of blood in the U.S.

But, spokeswoman Patricia El-Hinnawy added, problems at the Red Cross, which supplies 40 percent of the nation?s blood, are worrisome.
?FDA cannot definitively say there was never any danger to the blood supply since the violations can create conditions that could lead to potential safety consequences,? said El-Hinnawy.

The violations were outlined in a 32-page letter sent Jan. 13 to J. Chris? Hrouda, executive vice president of Biomedical Services for the Red Cross. They describe a blood collection system plagued with poorly trained staff and inadequate record-keeping where donated blood was mishandled or misplaced and, in some cases, potentially infected blood was transfused into patients.

?ARC has known of these continuing problems and has failed to take adequate steps to correct them,? wrote Evelyn Bonnin, director of FDA?s Baltimore District.

But a Red Cross spokeswoman said in a statement that the problems primarily centered on an inspection at a Philadelphia site conducted 15 months ago and that the agency has since addressed many of the issues.

?We are disappointed that the FDA believed it necessary to impose a fine for an inspection conducted so long ago,? wrote Stephanie Millian, director of biomedical communications. ?We are not aware of any adverse donor reactions or patient issues due to the problems in the FDA report.?

The latest fine, however, follows a $16 million fine in June 2010 for similar failures and caps nearly two decades of trouble at the Red Cross. ?

About 17 million units of blood are donated each year and about 15 million units are transfused, according to a 2009 survey conducted by AABB, an international association of blood products groups.
The Red Cross has been operating under terms of a consent decree first issued in 1993 and then amended in 2003 to allow the FDA to impose stiff fines for ongoing failures to meet regulations and laws?governing quality and safety of the nation?s blood supply. The problems detected then were the same ones that have not, apparently, been addressed now: overworked staff, sloppy clinical practices and inadequate record-keeping.

Despite repeated stiff fines and even the informal threat of criminal penalties from some FDA officials, the agency has not succeeded in improving its record, the latest sanctions demonstrate.

Problems outlined in the Jan. 13 letter include failure to process and review records of donor reactions and injuries, including a backlog of some 15,000 records in Charlotte, N.C.

Certain Red Cross sites have not been keeping an accurate list of deferred donors who should be barred from giving blood because of infections or other potential problems, the letter said.

Others weren?t conducting ?lookback? investigations to track down blood from donors who turned out to have infections and to notify patients who might have received potentially contaminated blood.

Still others didn?t investigate complaints or other notices of problems, including a donor who was sprayed with blood during a mobile blood drive at the Heart of America regional center in Peoria, Ill., in 2009.

In Arizona in 2010, inspectors said a phlebotomist at a Red Cross center stuck herself with a needle and then stuck a patient with the same needle to draw a unit of blood, but no one reported the incident for a month.

FDA officials said that the Red Cross has taken steps to address previous violations, including new standardization of procedures, an upgrade and consolidation of national testing laboratories and increased oversight from biomedical headquarters.

El-Hinnawy stressed that donating blood is safe and that the risks of receiving a transfusion are far less than failing to receive blood when it?s needed.

?FDA strongly encourages people who are in good health to donate blood and become regular blood donors,? she said.??

Related stories:?

Donating your body to science? Nobody wants a chubby corpse?

Too promiscuous to donate an organ? Maybe, CDC says

Super blood donors could be tapped in a disaster

?

Source: http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/16/10168484-fda-fines-red-cross-nearly-96-million-for-blood-safety-lapses

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