Osama Bin Laden Death Top News Story Of 2011: AP

NEW YORK (AP) ? The killing of Osama bin Laden during a raid by Navy SEALs on his hideout in Pakistan was the top news story of 2011, followed by Japan's earthquake/tsunami/meltdown disaster, according to The Associated Press' annual poll of U.S. editors and news directors.

The death of bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader who masterminded the Sept. 11 terror attacks, received 128 first-place votes out of 247 ballots cast for the top 10 stories. The Japan disaster was next, with 60 first-place votes. Placing third were the Arab Spring uprisings that rocked North Africa and the Middle East, while the European Union's financial turmoil was No. 4.

The international flavor of these top stories contrasted with last year's voting ? when the Gulf of Mexico oil spill was the top story, President Barack Obama's health care overhaul was No. 2, and the U.S. midterm elections were No. 3.

Here are 2011's top 10 stories, in order:

?OSAMA BIN LADEN'S DEATH: He'd been the world's most-wanted terrorist for nearly a decade, ever since a team of his al-Qaida followers carried out the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In May, the long and often-frustrating manhunt ended with a nighttime assault by a helicopter-borne special operations squad on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Bin Laden was shot dead by one of the raiders, and within hours his body was buried at sea.

?JAPAN'S TRIPLE DISASTER: A 9.0-magnitude earthquake off Japan's northeast coast in March unleashed a tsunami that devastated scores of communities, leaving nearly 20,000 people dead or missing and wreaking an estimated $218 billion in damage. The tsunami triggered the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl after waves knocked out the cooling system at a nuclear power plant, causing it to spew radiation that turned up in local produce. About 100,000 people evacuated from the area have not returned to their homes.

?ARAB SPRING: It began with demonstrations in Tunisia that rapidly toppled the longtime strongman. Spreading like a wildfire, the Arab Spring protests sparked a revolution in Egypt that ousted Hosni Mubarak, fueled a civil war in Libya that climaxed with Moammar Gadhafi's death, and fomented a bloody uprising in Syria against the Assad regime. Bahrain and Yemen also experienced major protests and unrest.

?EU FISCAL CRISIS: The European Union was wracked by relentless fiscal turmoil. In Greece, austerity measures triggered strikes, protests and riots, while Italy's economic woes toppled Premier Silvio Berlusconi. France and Germany led urgent efforts to ease the debt crisis; Britain balked at proposed changes.

?US ECONOMY: By some measures, the U.S. economy gained strength as the year progressed. Hiring picked up a bit, consumers were spending more, and the unemployment rate finally dipped below 9 percent. But millions of Americans remained buffeted by foreclosures, joblessness and benefit cutbacks, and investors were on edge monitoring the chain of fiscal crises in Europe.

?PENN STATE SEX ABUSE SCANDAL: One of America's most storied college football programs was tarnished in a scandal that prompted the firing of Hall of Fame football coach Joe Paterno. One of his former assistants, Jerry Sandusky, was accused of sexually molesting 10 boys; two senior Penn State officials were charged with perjury; and the longtime president was ousted. Paterno wasn't charged, but expressed regret he didn't do more after being told there was a problem.

?GADHAFI TOPPLED IN LIBYA: After nearly 42 years of mercurial and often brutal rule, Moammar Gadhafi was toppled by his own people. Anti-government protests escalated into an eight-month rebellion, backed by NATO bombing, that shattered his regime, and Gadhafi finally was tracked down and killed in the fishing village where he was born.

?FISCAL SHOWDOWNS IN CONGRESS: Partisan divisions in Congress led to several showdowns on fiscal issues. A fight over the debt ceiling prompted Standard & Poor's to strip the U.S. of its AAA credit rating. Later, the so-called "supercommittee" failed to agree on a deficit-reduction package of at least $1.2 trillion ? potentially triggering automatic spending cuts of that amount starting in 2013.

?OCCUPY WALL STREET PROTESTS: It began Sept. 17 with a protest at a New York City park near Wall Street, and within weeks spread to scores of communities across the U.S. and abroad. The movement depicted itself as leaderless and shied away from specific demands, but succeeded in airing its complaint that the richest 1 percent of Americans benefit at the expense of the rest. As winter approached, local police dismantled several of the protest encampments.

?GABRIELLE GIFFORDS SHOT: The popular third-term congresswoman from Arizona suffered a severe brain injury when she and 18 other people were shot by a gunman as she met with constituents outside a Tucson supermarket in January. Six people died, and Giffords' painstaking recovery is still in progress.

Among the news events falling just short of the Top 10 were the death of Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, Hurricane Irene, the devastating series of tornados across Midwest and Southeastern U.S., and the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that barred gays from serving openly in U.S. military.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/17/killing-of-bin-laden-vote_n_1155384.html

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2012 Election: Robert Redford Endorses, Orrin Hatch Faces Primary Fight & Race For Barney Frank's Seat

As the 2012 elections loom, both parties are starting to pour resources into congressional and gubernatorial races across the country. While Republicans work to regain control of the Senate, Democrats are vying to pick up seats in the GOP-controlled House. Below, a rundown of election news happening beyond the presidential field.

Robert Redford Endorses Martin Chavez

Robert Redford announced Friday he's endorsing Martin Chavez for the New Mexico congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Martin Heinrich (R), who is making a bid for the Senate. Redford said in a statement:

Throughout my life I have sought to inspire positive social and environmental change by encouraging creative solutions and innovative problem solving. Never have these approaches been more pertinent to the issues we face as a nation and in order to meet the needs of the next generation of Americans, we must elect leaders who understand how to get the results we need.

That's exactly why I'm supporting Marty Chavez's race for United States Congress. Washington needs his leadership on critical issues like protecting our environment and building sustainable infrastructure for our communities.

Redford's is the latest in a string of high-profile endorsements for the former Albuquerque Mayor. Chavez has also been backed by the ASCME and "Breaking Bad" star Bryan Cranston.

Primary Rival For Orrin Hatch?

After much speculation that Republican state Sen. Dan Liljenquist would enter the U.S. Senate race to challenge incumbent Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) in the GOP primary, there's now a pretty clear sign pointing to yes: Liljenquist resigned his seat in the Utah state senate Thursday. He said he'll announce his future plans early next year.

Democrats' $1 Million Ad Buy Pays Off

Oregon's special election is a little over a month away, and Democrats are doing everything in their power to make sure they keep the seat blue, including spending an estimated $1 million on TV ads. It seems to be paying off: A new PPP poll shows state Sen. Suzanne Bonamici (D) with a solid lead over businessman Rob Cronilles (R). Former Sen. David Wu resigned earlier this year.

Heating Up In Hawaii

Hawaii's Senate candidates are duking it out in the Aloha state. Democratic frontrunner Rep. Mazie Hirono has internal polling numbers that show her with a sizable lead over former Rep. Ed Case in the Democratic primary. Hirono also picked up a crucial endorsement from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), whose chairwoman said "I believe she is going to win."

Case fired back, claiming the endorsement just proves Hirono is a Washington insider.

"Mazie is not the change candidate," he told Roll Call. "She is the inside Washington, status-quo candidate."

Kaine Gains Slight Lead In Virginia Senate Race

The gap is widening -- a little -- in the hotly contested Senate race in Virginia. The latest PPP poll shows that Democratic former Gov. Tim Kaine got a bit of a bump (47 percent to Republican candidate George Allen's 42 percent) following his strong performance in the first debate between the two candidates.

Interestingly, a telling statistic shows 61 percent of Virginia residents who don't consider themselves Southerners support Kaine. Still, the majority of Virginians (66 percent) do identify as Southerns, and that group favors Allen by a small margin.

Illinois Redistricting Favors Democrats

In a redistricting win for Democrats, a federal court upheld Democratic-drawn congressional election maps in Illinois that favor the party. Republicans challenged the maps and claimed they diluted the representation of Latinos. The court rejected the claim, and upheld the map. However the court agreed with Republicans that the map "was a blatant political move to increase the number of Democratic congressional seats."

Extras:

The first candidate filed papers for retiring Rep. Barney Frank's seat Thursday. Boston City Councilor Michael Ross will consider a run for the open seat in Massachusetts' 4th District.

------------

EMILY's List, an influential fundraiser focused on electing pro-choice Democratic women, announced it's endorsing four candidates in close congressional races: Sen. Terryl Clark in Minnesota, Elizabeth Etsy in Connecticut, Rep. Betty Sutton (D-Ohio) and Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.).

------------

Some good news for George LeMiex: The Republican Senate candidate from Florida won a small straw poll Thursday. LeMieux polled at 52 percent vs. primary rival Connie Mack's 11.6 percent. The poll was hosted by The Hialeah-Miami Lakes Republicans and the Miami Young Republicans.

Related on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/16/2012-election-robert-redford-orrin-hatch_n_1154494.html

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Howard Stern Confirmed As Judge On ?America?s Got Talent?

Howard Stern Confirmed As Judge On “America’s Got Talent”

Howard Stern has been unveiled as Piers Morgan’s replacement on “America’s Got Talent” Now this show suddenly seems more interesting! Piers announced he would be [...]

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China sends long-missing lawyer Gao back to jail (AP)

BEIJING ? More than a year and a half after prominent civil rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng disappeared, China's government gave the first sign Friday that he is alive, saying he would be sent to prison for three years for violating his probation.

A brief report by the state-run Xinhua News Agency did not answer key questions about Gao ? the condition of his health and his whereabouts now and in the 20 months since he disappeared, presumably at the hands of the authorities.

"Are they sending him to a proper prison? Which prison was he at before? Where were they hiding him?" said Gao's brother, Gao Zhiyi, who has been on a quest to find his sibling.

Gao's wife said from the United States she was still uneasy because of the lack of information.

"When I heard what they said, all I could think was 'Oh, it means he's still alive,'" Geng He said, crying, in a phone interview with The Associated Press.

Charismatic and pugnacious, Gao was a galvanizing figure for the rights movement, advocating constitutional reform and arguing landmark cases to defend property rights and political and religious dissenters. Convicted in 2006 of subversion and sentenced to three years, he was quickly released on probation before being taken away by security agents in 2009 in the first of his forced disappearances that set off an international outcry.

The United States expressed deep disappointment over Friday's announcement, describing Gao's forced disappearance and treatment as a serious human rights concern.

"We're especially concerned about Gao's welfare and whereabouts, including reports that his family has been unable to communicate with him. We reiterate our calls for the Chinese government to immediately release Gao from custody and clarify his whereabouts," spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters in Washington.

The Xinhua report referred to Gao's 2006 subversion conviction and said Beijing's No. 1 Intermediate People's Court found that he "had seriously violated probation rules for a number of times, which led to the court decision to withdraw the probation."

The report did not explain what violations Gao had committed but said his five-year probation was due to expire next Thursday ? timing which legal experts said may have prompted the government to send Gao back to jail. "He would serve his term in prison in the next three years," the report said.

Calls to the No. 1 court and the city's appeals court rang unanswered Friday.

Gao has been held incommunicado in apparent disregard of laws and regulations for all but two months of the last three years. When he emerged from the first 14-month bout in April 2010, he told The Associated Press that he had been shunted between detention centers, farm houses and apartments across north China and repeatedly beaten and abused.

He said he had been hooded several times. His captors made him sit motionless for up to 16 hours and threatened to kill him and dump his body in a river.

"'You must forget you're human. You're a beast,'" Gao said police told him in September 2009.

At one point, six plainclothes officers bound him with belts and put a wet towel around his face for an hour, bringing on a feeling of slow suffocation.

"It's hard to fathom what they might be referring to when they say that he violated his parole given that he seems to have been under constant supervision," said Joshua Rosenzweig, a human rights researcher based in Hong Kong. "It's kind of cynical."

Formalizing Gao's detention as a prison term, Rosenzweig said, gives Chinese leaders a ready response to queries from foreign governments and officials. Gao's case has repeatedly been raised by the U.S. and European governments, drawing cryptic responses if any from Chinese officials. U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke mentioned him in a public statement last weekend.

Gao's wife fled China with their two children, escorted by human traffickers overland to Southeast Asia, around the time he first disappeared. They now live in the United States.

Now living in California, Geng said she learned about the Xinhua report when a friend called her as she was taking her daughter to school. "We've asked them (the Chinese authorities) so many times, and they would never tell us anything," Geng said.

She said the family has yet to receive any notice from the police or courts about Gao's case and they still have no idea where he is.

Adding to the confusion and uncertainty, Geng said local police called Gao's elder sister in Shandong province on Thursday, and asked if Gao was there with her.

"I am not at ease," Geng said. "I still don't know where he is or what kind of condition he's in."

Activists in China seemed astounded and outraged by the news. Huang Qi, who runs a rights monitoring group in Sichuan province, strongly condemned what he said was the use of the judicial system to persecute dissidents and he offered his services to Gao's family.

"Gao Zhisheng has used his actions to write a glorious page in the history of the Chinese democracy movement," Huang said in a statement.

Amnesty International called the move to send Gao to prison "a travesty."

"This inhuman treatment must stop. Gao Zhisheng and his family have suffered enough and he must be freed," Catherine Baber, deputy director in Asia for the group, said in a statement.

German Human Rights Commissioner Markus Loening called the report on Gao a cause of "great worry" and said he would urge China once more to shed light on his case.

"I will push for Gao Zhisheng being able to live a life in dignity and freedom," he said in a statement.

Maran Turner, executive director of Freedom Now, a Washington D.C. rights group that has campaigned for Gao's release said that Gao's formal imprisonment was "blatant repression behind a thin facade of legality."

Bob Fu, the founder of China Aid, a Texas rights group that focuses on Chinese issues, and a friend of Gao's said in an email that the court decision was "totally unacceptable and laughable.

"The top Beijing government leadership owes a clear explanation to the international community and Gao's family for this new hideous detention," Fu said.

He added that "silence was not a diplomatic option" and urged the United States and global community to tell Beijing the Gao case would hinder its interest in the world.

While Gao may be the most prominent government critic to be treated so harshly in years, the authorities have done so with other dissidents.

Du Daobin, an outspoken critic also convicted of subversion and sentenced to three years in prison in 2004, did not immediately start his sentence, according to the Laogai Research Foundation, a Washington-based advocacy group that runs a website for which Du wrote. Instead, Du was released and lived under probation for four years before being sent to prison in 2008, apparently because he continued to criticize the government online.

Gao's family and supporters meanwhile have continued to campaign for him, with little result. His brother, Zhiyi, has been on a constant search for information. When he asked Beijing police in September about his brother, one officer told him Gao Zhisheng was a "missing person and no one knows where he is."

___

Associated Press writers Alexa Olesen and Gillian Wong contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111216/ap_on_re_as/as_china_missing_lawyer

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Stern's new gig has some 'AGT' fans fuming

Donna Ward / Getty Images

Howard Stern officially became the newest "America's Got Talent" judge on Thursday, and not everyone is pleased.

By Anna Chan

Say what you will about shock jock Howard Stern, but the man definitely gets both fans and haters talking. And when NBC announced that the self-proclaimed King of All Media has indeed signed on to join "America's Got Talent" next season, the immediate?response was incredibly loud and passionate.

(FYI, TODAY.com is powered by msnbc.com, which is a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

Naturally, the Parents Television Council was among those who had something (quite negative)?to say about reality-competition fan Stern joining the talent competition. In a statement, PTC president Tim Winter called the shock jock's addition "an act of desperation for a flailing network" and said NBC had "lost its way and has made clear it holds no concern whatsoever for children and families."

It's a sentiment that quite a few Clicker readers who also happen to be "AGT" fans agree with.

"AGT is a family show! Where does Howard Stern fit into that?" reader Margie Gardner Dahl wrote on our Facebook page.?"My family and I have watch AGT from the very first season on, but will no longer watch with Howard Stern on it!"

"AGT is one of the few shows we can watch with our kids. I can't feel confident that Stern can keep his mouth in check," wrote Gena Bethune McCown.

"He is only an expert on talent of a different kind and not for a family show," wrote Deborah Krisak.?"This show is history now. Bad decision. What were they thinking?"

And though there were many responses along those lines in our Facebook conversation, others spoke up in his defense and to express their excitement. ("Baba booey!")

"A lot of people are going to be quite surprised I think; the ones intelligent enough to not be of the "I'll never watch it again!" mindset, at least," wrote Carol Venitt. "Howard's intelligent, funny, and multi-faceted, and the show won't be any more outrageous than it already is at times."

But reader Jay Levin may have put it best when attempting to calm the naysayers: "You do realize that there are standards and practices for network broadcast television. What Howard says and does on his uncensored satellite radio show is one thing, what he will say and do on AGT is a completely different story. ... Give the guy a chance and you will see that he is a smart person with great opinions and brutal honesty. Exactly what these 'talent' reality shows need."

In the end, even if there are tons of folks booing Stern's addition to the show, there's at least one very happy person: the shock jock himself. Cameras caught him out and about in New York today after the announcement was made, and Stern was clearly pleased with his new gig -- and that's not all. In a video posted on TMZ.com, he scoffed when asked if his paycheck would really be $20 million: "Do I work for that little? C'mon."

So watch the show or don't, but Stern's getting the last laugh with?his?giant?new "AGT"?paycheck.

Do you think Stern will unseat Simon Cowell as the most brutally honest judge on reality TV? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page!

?

Related content:

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Source: http://theclicker.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/15/9472819-hey-now-sterns-addition-to-agt-has-some-fans-fuming

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Harrelson plugs new film during Globe nominations

Presenter Woody Harrelson gives his new movie "Rampart" a plug onstage during nominations for the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards, Thursday, Dec. 14, 2011, in Beverly Hills, Calif. The Golden Globe Awards will be held on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Presenter Woody Harrelson gives his new movie "Rampart" a plug onstage during nominations for the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards, Thursday, Dec. 14, 2011, in Beverly Hills, Calif. The Golden Globe Awards will be held on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

(AP) ? Woody Harrelson used the early-morning Golden Globes nominations announcement to plug his new movie.

The actor was among the stars helping the Hollywood Foreign Press Association reveal nominees for the 69th annual Golden Globes on a worldwide telecast Thursday, and he appeared to include his yet-to-be-released police drama "Rampart" in the best picture category.

As he read the nominees for best dramatic film, Harrelson said, "'Rampart,'" followed by a long pause, "opens January 27, but I don't see it on the list here."

The nominees for best drama film are "The Descendants," ''The Help," ''Hugo," ''The Ides of March," ''Moneyball" and "War Horse." Harrelson, along with Gerard Butler, Sofia Vergara and Rashida Jones, made the announcement at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where the Golden Globes will be presented Jan. 15.

Associated Press

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Crop insurance rates skyrocket after summer floods

FILE - In this Sept. 19, 2011, file photo Rob Chatt sees for the first time the extent of the soil erosion caused to his family's corn fields by the streaming flood waters of the Missouri River, near Tekamah, Neb. Midwestern farmers may be socked with steep increases in their crop insurance premiums, some nearly five times what he paid a year ago, unless levees damaged by last summer's flooding are fixed. The problem is there's not enough money for repairs, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is focusing on fixing those protecting homes and facilities like water treatment plants. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 19, 2011, file photo Rob Chatt sees for the first time the extent of the soil erosion caused to his family's corn fields by the streaming flood waters of the Missouri River, near Tekamah, Neb. Midwestern farmers may be socked with steep increases in their crop insurance premiums, some nearly five times what he paid a year ago, unless levees damaged by last summer's flooding are fixed. The problem is there's not enough money for repairs, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is focusing on fixing those protecting homes and facilities like water treatment plants. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)

FILE - In this May 3, 2011, file photo a farm is surrounded by floodwater after the Army Corps of Engineers' blew a two-mile hole into the Birds Point levee in southeast Missouri. Midwestern farmers may be socked with steep increases in their crop insurance premiums, some nearly five times what he paid a year ago, unless levees damaged by last summer's flooding are fixed. The problem is there's not enough money for repairs, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is focusing on fixing those protecting homes and facilities like water treatment plants. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

FILE - In this May 3, 2011, file photo water from the Mississippi River floods Missouri farmland Mississippi County, Mo., after the Birds Point levee was intentionally blown up to relieve water pressure around the upstream town of Cairo, Ill. Midwestern farmers may be socked with steep increases in their crop insurance premiums, some nearly five times what he paid a year ago, unless levees damaged by last summer's flooding are fixed. The problem is there's not enough money for repairs, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is focusing on fixing those protecting homes and facilities like water treatment plants. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

(AP) ? Midwestern farmers who saw their land swamped by summer flooding may be socked again with steep increases in their crop insurance premiums, the expensive result of the failure to fix broken levees before the winter snow and next spring's rains.

The Missouri River rose to record levels this year after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began releasing massive amounts of water from reservoirs in Montana, Nebraska and the Dakotas that had been inundated with melting snow and heavy rains. Many levees in downstream states such as Iowa and Missouri were no match for weeks of sustained pressure and gave way. Homes and farms were damaged or ruined.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Risk Management Agency said $114 million in claims have been paid so far for flooding damage on 436,000 acres along the Missouri River downstream from the Gavins Point Dam on the Nebraska-South Dakota border. Record high water levels also created havoc along the lower Mississippi River from Missouri to Louisiana.

In southeast Missouri, the corps used explosives to blow gaping holes in the Birds Point levee to let water out of the Mississippi River and save the tiny town of Cairo, Ill., on the river's eastern bank. The blast sent water cascading over Missouri farms.

The deluge flooded about 130,000 acres behind the levee, including about 8,000 on which Ed Marshall, 55, of Charleston, grows corn, wheat and soybeans. He received $1.5 million in federally-subsidized crop insurance, which covers part of farmers' losses from such things as drought, flooding, hail, wind, insects and plant disease.

Then his premium skyrocketed. He recently paid about $100,000 to insure about 2,700 acres of wheat that he planted in the fall and hopes to harvest in the spring. The amount is nearly five times what he paid a year ago because the U.S. Department of Agriculture now considers his land high risk and he increased his coverage because of the risk.

Marshall, like many farmers, feels like the government has left him high and dry.

"You are going to blow my levee up and then you are going to turn around and take more money from me for insurance because I don't have a levee because you all blew it up," he said. "There is nothing right about that in my opinion."

The higher premium is worth it, given that Marshall expects to earn $1 million from the wheat.

But the rise in insurance costs "is almost adding insult to injury to farmers who lost their crops this year," said Kathy Kunkel, the clerk in Holt County on the opposite side of the state, where the Missouri River flooded more than 120,000 acres and 32 levees were breached. Insurance is a regular cost of doing business, but "this is going to put some people out of business," she added.

Officials with the USDA's Risk Management Agency began warning farmers of potential rate increases over the summer because they didn't want them to be shocked when the 2012 rates were announced last month, said Rebecca Davis, a spokeswoman for the agency.

"We had a lot of public meetings and at those meetings I said, 'We have to recognize that this levee is no longer there. And if it doesn't get repaired by the time that the insurance attaches, we have to recognize that it is a higher risk,'" Davis said. "We tried to let them know as early as possible."

It can be two to three times more expensive to insure farmland behind damaged levees than those where repairs have been made. Some farmers, like Marshall, have already paid the higher rates for crops planted this fall. Others will pay unless repairs are made before crops like corn and soybeans are planted in the spring. Along with the Birds Point area, the higher rates could apply in 22 counties in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska and Tennessee.

The corps has estimated it will cost more than $2 billion to repair damage this year's flooding did to levees, dams and riverbanks. With a funding bill stalled in Congress, the corps has been focusing its limited money on fixing levees that protect communities and facilities such as water treatment plants.

"We are not going to have them all fixed," said Jody Farhat, chief of the Missouri River Basin Water Management office. "The (levees) that we are working on because the funding is limited won't be restored to their pre-flood conditions. And there are many that we won't even have money to start the repairs."

Farmers also must restore their soil to pre-flood conditions to get their insurance rates back down. Flooding often cuts massive ruts in the land, washes top soil away and leaves sand from the river bed, which isn't good for farming.

The cleanup is costly. Marshall said he spent $270,000 to clean ditches and clear 200 acres of land. He figures it will cost another $300,000 to fix another 200 acres that were badly damaged.

If the corps can't take care of the levee repairs, it should help farmers pay the higher insurance premiums, Missouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst said.

"It's a mess," he said. "These folks have lost their homes. They've lost their grain bins, they've lost their implement sheds, they've lost a year's crop. They have a tremendous amount of damage to the land from both scouring and sand deposits. And now they are looking at an increase in insurance premiums. Something has got to be done."

The levee at Birds Point was 62.5 feet high before the explosion. Generally levees must be restored to their pre-flooding condition, but in the case of Birds Point, farmers won't face big premium increases if the corps gets it back up to 55 feet before spring planting. Marshall said the rebuilding has been going slowly.

"They had a plan to destroy it," he said, "but not a plan to fix."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-14-Food%20and%20Farm-Insurance%20Hikes/id-42d56d06c89d43239512f1a3224fc6e7

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Antioxidant has potential in the Alzheimer's fight, UGA researchers find

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

When you cut an apple and leave it out, it turns brown. Squeeze the apple with lemon juice, an antioxidant, and the process slows down.

Simply put, that same "browning" process?known as oxidative stress?happens in the brain as Alzheimer's disease sets in. The underlying cause is believed to be improper processing of a protein associated with the creation of free radicals that cause oxidative stress.

Now, a study by researchers in the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy has shown that an antioxidant can delay the onset of all the indicators of Alzheimer's disease, including cognitive decline. The researchers administered an antioxidant compound called MitoQ to mice genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer's. The results of their study were published in the Nov. 2 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

According to the Alzheimer's Society, more than 5 million Americans currently suffer from the neurodegenerative disease. Without successful prevention, almost 14 million Americans will have Alzheimer's by 2050, accounting for healthcare costs of more than $1 trillion a year.

Oxidative stress is believed to cause neurons in the brain to die, resulting in Alzheimer's. Study author James Franklin, an associate professor of pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences, has studied neuronal cell death and oxidative stress at UGA since 2004.

"The brain consumes 20 percent of the oxygen in the body even though it only makes up 5 percent of the volume, so it's particularly susceptible to oxidative stress," said Franklin, coauthor of the study along with Meagan McManus, who received her Ph.D. in neuroscience from UGA in 2010.

The UGA researchers hypothesized that antioxidants administered unsuccessfully by other researchers to treat Alzheimer's were not concentrated enough in the mitochondria of cells. Mitochondria are structures within cells that have many functions, including producing oxidative molecules that damage the brain and cause cell death.

"MitoQ selectively accumulates in the mitochondria," said McManus, who is now studying mitochondrial genetics and dysfunction as a postdoctoral researcher at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

"It is more effective for the treatment to go straight to the mitochondria, rather than being present in the cell in general," she said.

Although he had not previously conducted research on Alzheimer's disease, Franklin was moved to approve McManus' research proposal to take his laboratory research in a more clinical direction in part because of her family's history with the disease.

"Two of my grandparents had Alzheimer's disease, but they presented with it very differently. While my granddad often couldn't remember who we were, he was still the same soulful funnyman I'd always loved. But the disease changed my grandmother's mind in a different way, and turned her into someone we'd never known," said McManus.

"So the complexity of the disease was most intriguing to me. I wanted to know how and why it was happening, and more importantly, how to stop it from happening to other people," she said.

In their study, mice engineered to carry three genes associated with familial Alzheimer's were tested for cognitive impairment using the Morris Water Maze, a common test for memory retention. The mice that had received MitoQ in their drinking water performed significantly better than those that didn't. Additionally, the treated mice tested negative for the oxidative stress, amyloid burden, neural death and synaptic loss associated with Alzheimer's.

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University of Georgia: http://www.uga.edu

Thanks to University of Georgia for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116000/Antioxidant_has_potential_in_the_Alzheimer_s_fight__UGA_researchers_find

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Video: Decision 2012

>> on decision 2012 , let's bring in cnbc's chief washington correspondent john harwood . we witnessed plenty of surges in this race. you had bachmann, perry, cain, all had their turn. how does gingrich's rise differ, if at all?

>> reporter: it is a bigger threat to mitt romney because of how close it comes to when voting starts in january. because of newt gingrich 's national track record as the leader of the 1994 republican revolution , gingrich starts way behind in organization to convert popular support into delegates and money for tv ads and mitt romney has just begun to advertise.

>> we heard it a moment ago, some white house attacks seem to presuppose romney as the nominee. might that change?

>> reporter: i wouldn't expect the white house to change tactics at all. they clearly fear mitt romney more than any other republican candidate. they believe as democrats do generally that the background and record of newt gingrich makes him an easy target, but we have seen that the white house doesn't always calculate those things correctly as we saw in 1980 when president jimmy carter 's aides wanted to run against ronald reagan .

>> john harwood , appreciate the insight. thanks.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/45543653/

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