COPENHAGEN – A furious final two days of climate diplomacy and presidential brinkmanship produced 2 1/2 thin pages called the Copenhagen Accord, a deal vague at times in meaning, rejected by some, lacking any teeth.
"This particular text falls far short of our expectations," the European Commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, said of the political declaration produced in talks Friday between President Barack Obama and big developing countries at the U.N. climate conference. Others were harsher in their criticism.
Ill-starred though it seemed at its birth, the 11th-hour deal may ultimately be seen as another halting step in the slow, painful evolution of the global fight against climate change — the two-decade-old effort to negotiate coordinated cuts internationally in carbon dioxide and other industrial, transport and agricultural emissions blamed for global warming.
The conflicts of many interests have marked those talks from the beginning: the division between rich and poor nations, the rivalry between the U.S. and Europe, the developing world's cleavage between poor and middle-class countries, the interests of the oil states, the concerns of island states endangered by global warming's rising seas.
All those interests and more played out in the two-week U.N. meeting, which ended with an unprecedentedly large working summit on climate, involving more than 110 presidents and premiers. The spotlight fell mainly on two of them, leaders of the two biggest polluters, China's Premier Wen Jiabao and America's Obama.
In two meetings on Friday, the pair seem to have worked through chronic mistrust between their countries, reached agreement on a summit declaration and brought other big developing states (Brazil, India and South Africa) into the deal. Sponsors later claimed much broader support among the 193 conference nations.
A final session of climate conference delegates that lasted through the night cast doubt, however, as several countries, including Bolivia, Venezuela and Sudan said the document is unacceptable because it lacks targets for reducing carbon emissions.
The declaration touched on major elements of the climate story, sometimes with scant detail, always with no legal obligation attached:
_Nations agreed to cooperate in reducing emissions, "with a view" to scientists' warnings to keep temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees F) above preindustrial levels, that is, 1.3 degrees C (2.3 degrees F) above today's average temperatures.
_Developing nations will report every two years on their voluntary actions to reduce emissions. Those reports would be subject to "international consultations and analysis" — a concession by China to the U.S.
_Richer nations will finance a $10 billion-a-year, three-year program to fund poorer nations' projects to deal with drought and other climate-change impacts, and to develop clean energy.
_They also set a "goal" of mobilizing $100 billion-a-year by 2020 for the same adaptation and mitigation purposes.
In a U.S. concession to China and other developing nations, text was dropped from the declaration that would have set a goal of reducing global emissions by 50 percent by 2050. Developing nations thought that would hamper efforts to raise their people from poverty.
In the full U.N. climate conference, where the Copenhagen Accord was discussed, some developing nations complained bitterly about the "top-down" imposition of the declaration, and the conference's failure to set ambitious targets for cutting emissions.
But even if the core declaration itself lacked broad support, two simple side documents will set the stage for continuing climate talks.
Those documents extend the mandates of two key negotiating groups under the U.N. climate treaty. They guarantee continued pursuit, as early as next year, of a treaty or other major agreement reducing global emissions more sharply.
In the weeks leading up to the Copenhagen conference, few expected it to produce dramatic results — the climate negotiations process seldom has. They're long-haul, step-by-step talks.
"I know this accord is far from what we expected and what the world needs," said one summit participant, Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Now, he said, "we must launch the negotiations immediately."

___

EDITOR'S NOTE: Special Correspondent Charles J. Hanley has covered climate for The Associated Press since 1997.

HONOLULU – Hawaii public schools are closed most Fridays, rats scurry across bananas in uninspected stores and there may not be enough money to run the next election.
About the only parts of the state untouched by the foul economy are its sparkling beaches and world-class surfing.
Hawaii's money troubles are creating a society more befitting a tropical backwater than a state celebrating its 50th anniversary and preparing to welcome President Barack Obama home for Christmas this week.
"There is community energy and outrage building up," said James Koshiba, a co-founder of the activist organization and Web site Kanu Hawaii, speaking about the cuts to education. "The people have to play a bigger role. Folks won't forget how this unfolds come election time."
• Hawaii now has the shortest school year in the nation after the state and teachers union agreed to shutter schools for 17 days a year, leaving 171,000 students without class on most Fridays. Negotiations to reopen them collapsed last week.
• Food establishments often go uninspected, a fact highlighted by an Internet video showing rats roaming freely across produce in a Honolulu Chinatown market. The state has just nine health inspectors on Oahu to handle nearly 6,000 markets and restaurants.
• The state Elections Office said it may not be able to afford a pending special election, which would leave half of the state's population without representation in the U.S. House of Representatives until September 2010.
• Homelessness is on the rise as mental health, child abuse, welfare and daycare programs run short on cash.
And next year may be even worse because tax revenues continue to plunge with the economy.
Hawaii is far from alone in cutting the size of government during the global financial downturn, with nearly every state resorting to across-the-board cuts, furloughs or layoffs to make ends meet. This tiny state of 1.3 million residents faces a projected $1 billion budget deficit through June 2011.
But Hawaii stands apart in how its government shrinkage has ripped into what are generally considered to be core functions: education, public health, elections and services for the disadvantaged.
Gov. Linda Lingle warned that government would not look the same after she ordered most departments to slash their budgets by about 14 percent.
"Government is not going to be able to provide the array of services at the level that we used to because we have billions of dollars less," the Republican governor said earlier this month. "We need to be creative and we need to be realistic. We can't be in a state of denial about the reduction in revenues that we have."
Among the worst-off states nationwide are California, Nevada, Arizona, Florida and Michigan because of the collapse of the housing market and struggles in the auto industry, said Arturo Perez, a fiscal analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The organization listed Hawaii, despite having largely withstood the housing market collapse, as one of 13 states with a pessimistic budget outlook for the current fiscal year, and it's projected to have the second-largest shortfall, percentage-wise, in the 2012 fiscal year, at 28.8 percent, behind only Arizona at 30 percent.
"What we hear over and over from the states is that everything is on the table," Perez said. "When you see K-12 education being cut, which is often among the most popular programs, that speaks volumes about the tough choices the states are having to make."
Honolulu's shortage of health inspectors isn't new, but the cuts now call for the elimination of the Health Department's vector control unit, which helps homeowners and businesses eradicate rodent, mosquito, fly and other pest problems.
"This is not good government," said Larry Geller, the Internet blogger and political watchdog who posted the rat video. "Other states are struggling with the same problems, and many of them are making difficult decisions. But Hawaii ... I think the choices have been poorly made."

As for the pending election, Hawaii's elections chief said his office doesn't have enough money to run either a regular or all-mail vote. A special election will be needed because U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie plans to resign in the next few weeks to run for governor, leaving a vacancy in Congress. If money can't be found, that spot may not be filled until the regularly scheduled primary election.

Meanwhile, services to poor and disadvantaged populations are dropping off when they are most needed, said Alex Santiago, executive director of PHOCUSED, a consortium of nonprofits.

Unemployment, food stamp applications, poverty rates and domestic violence are on the rise, according to a recently released study by his organization.

The homeless who camp in tents along a stretch of Waikiki beaches are giving tourists from around the world a glimpse of the financial and social problems that Hawaii is facing. But many homeless families have been forced out far west to the Waianae Coast.

"The homeless situation is right in your face. Almost everywhere you go now you see people who are absolutely devastated and have nowhere else to turn," Santiago said. "We've allowed our responsibilities to slip."

Limits imposed on the amount of time mental health patients can get help from specialists will lead to more relapses, crime and hospitalizations, said Poka Laenui, executive director for Hale Naau Pono, the largest provider of community health services on Oahu's Waianae Coast.

"Half of the problem is a financial problem," he said. "But there's another problem, and that's a lack of leadership. It's not leadership when you get out a calculator and take across-the-board reductions in services. Leadership is looking at specific programs and setting appropriate priorities."

NEW YORK – Shares of for-profit education company Career Education Corp. fell for a second day Friday after new government scrutiny raised concern that the accreditation of one of its schools may be in jeopardy, potentially making it ineligible for federal student loans.
The Department of Education Office of the Inspector General on Thursday recommended the government investigate whether a large accreditation agency was inappropriately certifying for-profit schools after saying Career Education's American Intercontinental University may have been incorrectly accredited.
If the accreditor, the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, is suspended, then the schools it certified, including American Continental, could lose their accreditation, leaving them potentially unable to receive federal student loans, analysts said. Most for-profit schools count on federal student loans for the bulk of their revenue.
"This report introduces a new challenge to (for-profit education companies) and suggests a whole new level of hostility on the part of OIG to what and how the for-profit schools operate, particularly online," Signal Hill education analyst Trace Urdan said in a note to clients.
The Department of Education's OIG criticized the Higher Learning Commission's accreditation of AIU because of issues related to the school's assignment of credit hours in its programs, it said in a memo. The version reviewed by The Associated Press had specific allegations blacked out. American Intercontinental received accreditation in May 2009.
Career Education spokesman Jeff Leshay said the HLC will visit American Intercontinental in early 2010 for a review. The company believes the assessment will be focused on credit equivalents — or how the school applies course credits when a student transfers from another institution — and the allocation of credit hours for its online courses for adults.
"I'm not going to speculate on what the impact on the stock will be, but what I can tell you is that AIU is prepared to address any issue that HLC may raise and clearly demonstrate that when HLC accredited AIU for five years, it was fully justified," Leshay said.
The inspector general said its concerns about American Intercontinental makes it question the commission's judgment regarding other schools, as well. But while investors sold off shares of Career Education and other for-profit educators this week, analysts aren't convinced that HLC's accreditation powers are at risk or that for-profit schools are at risk of losing access to federal student loan money.
"We find it unlikely that the DOE would actually consider the suspension or termination of accreditation for HLC. Industry contacts that we communicated with last night seemed flabbergasted that the OIG could call into question whether the HLC is 'a reliable authority regarding the quality of education or training' based on the contested accreditation process of but one institution," Wedbush analyst Ariel Sokol wrote in a note to clients. "Our interpretation is that the OIG's memorandum is an attempt to intimidate the HLC and all accrediting bodies to follow the edicts of the DOE."
The HLC accredits a range of institutions including Apollo Group Inc.'s University of Phoenix, DeVry Corp. schools, Capella Education Co., American Public Education Inc., Education Management Corp.'s Argosy schools, as well as traditional schools such as the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan, said R.W. Baird analyst Amy Junker in a note to investors.
Friday, Career Education's stock dropped 58 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $22.30 after losing 19 percent Thursday. Shares of online education companies also fell. Bridgepoint Education Inc. shed 42 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $14.83, while American Public fell 74 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $32.79.
Shares of Apollo rose 1.8 percent and DeVry dipped 19 cents after dropping 5 percent and 4 percent, respectively, on Thursday.
The HLC said that it objected to the memo, and that the government inspector's allegations had "mischaracterized" its actions.
American International is undergoing a review of one area of "marked concern" that was identified in an independent assessment of the school's practices. The HLC granted the school an initial accreditation and is requiring it to remedy the concern, the HLC said in a press release.
"The HLC strenuously objects to both the second-guessing of its decision with respect to AIU and to the proposed administrative action against HLC." HLC said.

The wearing of wigs as a symbol of social status was largely abandoned in the newly created United States and France by the start of the 19th century, although it persisted a little longer in the United Kingdom.

Common hair-pieces found in the work place are none more so seen than on the barnet of a certain Mikey Picking. His "nouveau cuisine" style as it is called is reminiscent of Celtic managers of the 80's -namely Gordon Strachan. This style can only really work on head shapes that are over sized and smaller ear types.

Long Wigs

A bathroom is a room that may have different functions depending on the cultural context. In the most literal sense, the word bathroom means "a room with a bath". Because the traditional bathtubs have partly made way for modern showers, including steam showers, the more general definition is "a room where one bathes". There can be just a shower, just a bathtub or both; and often both plumbing fixtures are combined in the bathtub. The room may also contain a sink, often called a "wash basin" or "hand basin" (in parts of the USA) and often a "lavatory".

Electrical appliances, such as lights, heaters, and heated towel rails, generally need to be installed as fixtures, with permanent connections rather than plugs and sockets. This minimizes the risk of electric shock. Ground-fault circuit interruptor electrical sockets can reduce the risk of electric shock, and are required for bathroom socket installation by electrical and building codes in the United States and Canada. In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, only special sockets suitable for electric shavers are permitted in bathrooms, and are labelled as such.
[edit] History of bathrooms

click here

Wallets are usually designed to hold bills and credit cards and fit into a pocket (or handbag). Small cases for securing bills which do not have space for credit cards or identification cards may be classified as money clips.

Tri-fold wallet: a wallet with three folds, in which credit cards are generally stored vertically.

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WASHINGTON – The Senate is a resolutely superlative place, so it was resolved that the august body on Wednesday will open its session by saluting Sen. Robert C. Byrd, Congress' longest-serving member.
"United States senators, like baseball fans, love statistics," the West Virginia Democrat, who turns 92 on Friday, observed during a 1986 floor speech.
"From time to time, we stop to congratulate colleagues on their years of service, the number of votes they have cast, their tenure in a committee chairmanship," he continued. "In this vast array of statistics, some record-holders stand out from the others."
Byrd was paying tribute at the time to former Majority Leader Mike Mansfield. But on Nov. 18, it's Byrd's turn.
"I look forward to serving you for the next 56 years and 320 days," Byrd said in a statement marking the occasion.
Here are some of Byrd's statistics: He was already married to his beloved Erma for nearly four years when Thanksgiving was deemed a federal holiday in 1941. He began his political career four years later as a member of West Virginia's House of Delegates. He remains the only member of Congress to earn a law degree while a member of the federal legislature, according to his Web site.
Erma passed away three years ago. Byrd says her absence at this milestone is his only regret.
"I know that she is looking down from the heavens smiling at me and saying congratulations my dear Robert -- but don't let it go to your head," Byrd said.
Setting records, though, is old news to the white-maned lawmaker. Since June 12, 2006, Byrd has been the longest-serving senator and later that year was elected to an unprecedented ninth term. His colleagues have elected him to more leadership positions than any senator in history. He has cast more than 18,000 votes and, despite fragile health that has kept him from the Senate floor during much of the year, has a nearly 98 percent attendance record over the course of his career.
Which, by Byrd's count, has spanned 20,774 days. On Wednesday, Byrd's service ties the record set by Sen. Carl Hayden, D-Ariz., who served from 1912 to 1969.
The arc of Byrd's story is more complex than the numbers would suggest. It's been long enough for him to rescind positions that he once trumpeted, such as his opposition to the Civil Rights Act. Lengthy enough to voice his regret, over and over, about joining the Ku Klux Klan a lifetime ago. Long enough to see and cheer the nation's first black president, and to watch his one-time rival and later dear friend Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., succumb to brain cancer.
He's made good on a storied pledge to become West Virginia's billion dollar industry several times over, helping bring home $326 million in earmarks for 2008 alone, according to Citizens Against Government Waste.
He is the resident expert on the Senate's arcane procedures and traditions, as well as the Constitution. Byrd is fond of telling his colleagues that he loves the Senate more than any of its members. But he has poured forth his affection for his favorites, anyway.
Byrd's also been around enough to confound a months-long whispering campaign that he was not well enough to continue serving as chairman of the Appropriations Committee. He stepped down only when he was ready, but still chairs the panel's subcommittee on Homeland Security. In October after a season of illness and absence, Byrd personally managed a $44.1 billion spending agreement on security measures against natural disaster, terrorist attacks and other threats.
Wednesday would be about marking this new milestone, although it was unclear whether Byrd would be able to attend Wednesday's session. Friday would be a celebration of his 92nd birthday. And next week, Byrd writes in his weekly column, should be about Thanksgiving.
As is his own tradition, Byrd marks the holiday with a history lesson: from the Pilgrims' first celebration in 1621 through George Washington's "Thanksgiving Proclamation," to the designation of an official holiday in 1941.
What does Byrd give thanks for this year? The privilege, he writes, of representing "our great people in the United States Senate."
Longer, of course, than anyone else.

___

On the Net:

http://byrd.senate.gov/

WASHINGTON — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wanted to take a pretend pig farm with real pigs to Capitol Hill to protest how the animals are treated in big corporate hog farms.

PETA also wanted to fill 3,500 buckets with pig urine and waste, set the buckets on the U.S. Capitol plaza and then, for several days, use fans to waft the scent across the Hill.

The U.S. Capitol Police said no.

Pigs, the agency said, a) have potentially unhealthy effluent and b) could spread swine flu. It cited concerns by the Washington Department of Health .

"I trust you can understand," read the police agency's letter to PETA.

The agency's reasoning raised a minor political stink, however, with a congressman from North Carolina , the nation's No. 2 pork-producing state, after Iowa .

Unsheathing his pen, Democratic U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge — a part-time farmer who raised piglets as a child — wrote the Capitol Police a stern missive last week.

"I was extremely disturbed," he began.

Pig farms already suffer because of erroneous concerns that eating pork spreads swine flu, he wrote. (The industry prefers the term H1N1.) One North Carolina pork producer declared bankruptcy this month.

"Coming in contact with pigs is not a significant risk factor for contracting the novel H1N1 flu," Etheridge wrote. "And it is not possible to get it by eating pork or pork products."

PETA activists said the Capitol Police denial proved the dangers of swine waste and corporate pig farms. Etheridge disagreed.

"Pork products are not only very safe," he wrote, "but also very tasty."

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For more McClatchy politics coverage visit Planet Washington

The Nation -- When Yiang Jiemian, president of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, gets together with his brother, Yang Jiechi, China's minister of foreign affairs, they don't talk strategy or politics. "We talk about our grandfather," he says, with a smile.

We're sitting in a conference room at SIIS, though, and Yang Jiemian is talking strategy with a few visiting journalists. I ask Dr. Yang about China's view of US policy in the Middle East and central Asia. What, exactly, is his opinion of the notion that the United States is seeking to control that crucial region, including its oil and natural gas reserves, as part of a strategy of containing China? President Obama has just left Shanghai, the sprawling city of 19 million people, and he told China that the United States does not want to contain or limit China's influence in Asia or the world. Yet the United States and China don't always agree on Iran, Afghanistan, and other questions.

"There might be a slight difference of understanding between our two cultures, our two languages," says Yang, who is flanked by a team of strategists and area specialists. ""When America talks about strategy, it implies military, security, confrontation. In China, we have a much broader view of the idea of 'strategy.' We mean something that is long-term and systematic."

Is he concerned about the idea of US hegemony in the Middle East? Could it be a detriment to China, which is excruciatingly dependent on that part of the world for its energy? "If you ask different people in China, you will get different answers," he says. "Personally, I'm concerned about the possibility that these things could be part of a plan to 'contain' China." But, he adds, China's view is to work cooperatively with all countries in the region, and with the United States, to deal with what he calls a critical transition that the countries of central Asia and the Middle East need to make.

On Iran, Yang made it clear that, despite his pleas, Obama isn't likely to get much support from Beijing over confrontation and sanctions against Iran if the nuclear talks don't move quickly. "China and the United States have similar views on some issues regarding Iran, and we have some differences," he says. He points out that China has supported limited, targeted sanctions against Iran at the UN Security Council in recent years, and he notes that China and the US both support the strengthening of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. "We will work together to persuade Iran to become part of the mainstream of the world community," he says. "But China supports Iran's right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and we oppose a military solution to the problem." Adds a colleague, "Most of us believe that Iran's nuclear program is for peaceful uses."

In a separate conversation, an expert from another thinktank says that Iran's negotiations with the P5 + 1, including China and the United States, may go on for a long time. "The important word is patience," he says. "Not sanctions." The talks are just starting. When I tell him that Obama is under pressure from neoconservatives and hawks in Congress to end the talks quickly if there is no immediate result, he scoffs. "We must approach Iran with patience. It is not just a question of months, but perhaps of years. And perhaps, in two or three years, the leaders of Iran will change." In that, he is echoing the notion of some US and Israeli diplomats with whom I've talked, who suggest that the political turmoil in Iran means that the "political clock" in Iran is ticking faster than the "nuclear clock." Iran, US intelligence believes, is several years away from being able to build a nuclear bomb, if that is indeed Tehran's intention.

China, overwhelmingly concerned about economic growth and domestic political stability, is worried that instability in the Persian Gulf and Central Asia, including Afghanistan, could threaten China's energy lifeline and undermine China's surging economy.

What's true of Iran is also true of the war in Afghanistan, China believes. Wang Xiaoshu is vice president of the Shanghai Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, a kind of "foreign minister" for the city of Shanghai. The US intervention in Afghanistan is "not wise," he says, adding that no country has successfully invaded Afghanistan in centuries and that NATO cannot solve the problem militarily. He stresses that because of the US invasion and the current stalemate, the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan is very dangerous. "China's interest is stability in the region, and a crisis there means that the entire region could become inflamed," says Wang.

Yang, of SIIS, expresses concern over Obama's turn from Iraq to "AfPak." "It is natural for us to think that there is now a US and NATO presence at China's Western border." (Afghanistan and China share a border in China's far west.) "We hope," he says, "that the United States respects China's interests." In conversations, though, the Chinese officials and experts seem to believe that, in essence, Afghanistan is America's mess and that there is little or nothing that China can do to help the United States clean it up.

That's unfortunate, because under the right circumstances China might be able to help convince Pakistan, China's ally, to reign in the Afghan Taliban and brings the Taliban to the negotiating table. But that, of course, won't work unless Obama signals that he's prepared to draw down US forces there. As long as the United States is escalating the war, China's isn't going to providing any help. It's our quagmire, not theirs.

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Pretty Ricky, "Pretty Ricky" (Bluestar Entertainment)
It's amazing the R&B/hip-hop foursome Pretty Ricky even had time to record their latest self-titled album "Pretty Ricky." All that wooing of women has got to be taxing on the body and soul.
For its aim, this is a very good album. It wouldn't have worked if the quirky quartet of Spectacular, Diamond Blue, Slick 'em and — ahem — Lingerie had held back. They don't. They ooze of audacity, crooning smooth lyrics so brazen it's like four R. Kellys on stage.
On the upbeat "Mr. Goodbar" they sing about covering their love interest's body in "Hershey kisses." When they slow it down on "Lapdance," the song turns into a sizzling instructional about pole-dance moves and sipping Patron tequila. Pretty Ricky asks that you check all nuance at the door.
This album is a snapshot of the urban male libido in overdrive. And for better or worse, it works like a charm.
CHECK THIS TRACK OUT: "Discovery Channel" is unlike anything you've ever heard. Any song that has wild beasts and birds as back-up singers and name drops both the Discovery and Weather Channel defies all convention. Oh, and would you believe it's about sex?

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Minnesota customers of Sprint Nextel Corp. who think their cell phone contracts were extended without their say-so can file for refunds of early termination fees under a legal settlement announced Monday.
State Attorney General Lori Swanson said her office will accept claims through March 15. Swanson spokesman Ben Wogsland said about 400,000 Minnesota customers who signed contracts with Sprint Nextel since Sept. 26, 2001 are potentially eligible.
The agreement ends a two-year-old consumer protection lawsuit that started with Swanson seeking restitution and civil penalties of up to $25,000 per incident. She settled for an agreement with the cell phone giant to review claims of improper cancellation penalties and reverse or refunds some of the fees.
Sprint spokesman Matt Sullivan declined to estimate how many customers might get refunds.
"If there's no indication that the customer consented and the contract was extended, then a refund will be provided," Sullivan said. "If there's evidence in the history that the customer did provide consent, then the early termination fee will stand."
Sullivan said Sprint Nextel settled the lawsuit without admitting any wrongdoing. He said the Overland Park, Kan.-based company has always disclosed its fees.
Wogsland said a third-party reviewer will resolve disputes over claims Sprint turns down.
Swanson sued Sprint Nextel in September 2007, alleging that the company made a practice of extending customers' contracts without their informed consent when they made small changes, such as adjusting minutes or adding a family member. She said Sprint charged fees of as much as $200 per line if the consumer later canceled an extended contract they thought had already expired.
Swanson's office said at least 439,000 Minnesota residents were asked to pay cancellation penalties between July 1999 and December 2008. She said another 450,000 Minnesotans get their wireless phone service from Sprint under contracts with early termination fees, making them eligible to file claims if their contracts were extended without their permission.
One of the former Sprint customers hoping for a refund is Kate Zittlow Rogness, 34, of Minneapolis. She and her husband were charged $400 to cancel their Sprint contract for two phone lines in 2007 after they thought they had passed the penalty period. She said Sprint told her she had extended her contract when she called months earlier to get a 5 percent discount.
"I never agreed to that, nor was informed about it," she said.
Zittlow Rogness said they paid the penalty to leave Sprint and don't plan to go back.

WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald famously declared in the Valerie Plame affair that "there is a cloud over the vice president." Last week's release of an FBI interview summary of Dick Cheney's answers in the criminal investigation underscores why Fitzgerald felt that way.
On 72 occasions, according to the 28-page FBI summary, Cheney equivocated to the FBI during his lengthy May 2004 interview, saying he could not be certain in his answers to questions about matters large and small in the Plame controversy.
The Cheney interview reflects a team of prosecutors and FBI agents trying to find out whether the leaks of Plame's CIA identity were orchestrated at the highest level of the White House and carried out by, among others, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's chief of staff.
Among the most basic questions for Cheney in the Plame probe: How did Libby find out that the wife of Bush administration war critic Joseph Wilson worked at the CIA?
Libby's own handwritten notes suggest Libby found out from Cheney. When Libby discovered Cheney's reference to Plame and the CIA in his notes — notes that Libby knew he would soon have to turn over to the FBI — the chief of staff went to the vice president, probably in late September or early October 2003.
Sharing the information with Cheney was in itself an unusual step at the outset of a criminal investigation in which potential White House witnesses were being ordered by their superiors not to talk to each other about the Plame matter.
In the FBI interview of Cheney on May 8, 2004, investigators specifically asked the vice president and his lawyers not to talk to other witnesses in the probe. It was important to ensure that everything be done to keep the recollections of other witnesses from being influenced, Fitzgerald told Cheney, according to the FBI interview summary. Cheney lawyer Terrence O'Donnell replied that he could not make a binding commitment to refrain from discussing the interview with people who may need to help O'Donnell properly represent his client, the FBI summary stated.
Eight months earlier, Libby had gone to Cheney, telling the vice president that "I have a note saying that I had heard about" Plame's CIA identity "from you," according to Libby's grand jury testimony.
And what did Cheney say in response? Fitzgerald asked Libby.
"He didn't say much," Libby testified. "You know, he said something about 'From me?' something like that, and tilted his head, something he does commonly, and that was that."
Cheney's version of the conversation, as related in the FBI interview summary?
Cheney "cannot recall Scooter Libby telling him how he first heard of Valerie Wilson. It is possible Libby may have learned about Valerie Wilson's employment from the vice president ... but the vice president has no specific recollection of such a conversation."
On another basic point, Cheney simply refused to answer.
Fitzgerald had gathered evidence that Cheney apparently persuaded President George W. Bush to hurriedly declassify portions of a prewar National Intelligence Estimate on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The declassification was followed by Libby providing the information to a New York Times reporter while simultaneously talking to reporters about Plame's CIA identity.
As Fitzgerald pressed the issue in the FBI interview, Cheney refused to confirm any discussion with Bush, saying that he must refrain from commenting about any private or privileged conversations he may have had with the president.
It was an instance of Libby, who had testified two months earlier to a federal grand jury, being more forthcoming than Cheney.
Prosecutors obtained information about the leaking of the declassified NIE from Cheney's chief of staff, who testified that he had talked to New York Times reporter Judith Miller about the National Intelligence Estimate following the "president's approval relayed to me through the vice president." It was that point that investigators wanted to pin down with Cheney, who refused to say whether he had ever advised Libby that the president had decided to declassify the NIE.
Cheney's FBI interview is a study in contrasts.

Expressing uncertainty on many areas he was being questioned about and refusing to discuss another area altogether, Cheney was emphatic on at least one basic point.

According to the FBI summary, Cheney said there was no discussion of using Plame's employment with the CIA to counter her husband's criticism that the Bush administration had manipulated prewar intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat. There was no discussion, Cheney insisted, of "pushing back" on Joseph Wilson's credibility by raising the issue of nepotism, the fact that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA, the same agency that dispatched him to the African nation of Niger to run down the report of an agreement to supply uranium "yellowcake" to Iraq.

It was one example of Cheney being categorical and Libby seeming uncertain.

"In a prior FBI interview, you indicated it was possible that you may have talked to the Vice President on Air Force Two ... about whether you should share the information with the press about Wilson's wife?" the prosecutor asked Libby in his grand jury testimony.

"It's possible that would have been one of the times I could have talked to him about what I had learned," Libby replied.

"As you sit here today, do you recall whether you had such a conversation with the vice president on Air Force Two?" the prosecutor asked.

"No, sir. My, my best recollection of that conversation was what I had on my note card which we have produced which doesn't reflect anything about that," Libby replied.

Libby was indicted, tried and convicted for perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI. The president commuted his 30-month prison sentence, but rejected Cheney's pleas in the last days of the administration to pardon the vice president's former chief of staff.

The Cheney interview summary was released Friday to the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which sued to get the material under the Freedom of Information Act.

___

On the Net:

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington:

http://www.citizensforethics.org

KABUL – Afghanistan's president says he wants people from "all parts of the country" in his government.
President Hamid Karzai told reporters Tuesday that he will welcome anyone from the opposition into his government and will institute reforms to stamp out corruption.
On Monday, he won a drawn-out election by default following a first-round vote that was marred by fraud. Election officials proclaimed Karzai the winner of the runoff after his only challenger dropped out saying that the election could not be free or fair.
Karzai said he wants a "national participation government."
His former challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, has said he will not join Karzai, but the two have been negotiating privately about ministry seats or accommodating Abdullah's platform in some way.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
KABUL (AP) — The Taliban say the canceled runoff election in Afghanistan proves that their efforts to derail the vote with threats and attacks were successful.
The Islamist militant group issued a statement Tuesday ahead of a speech by President Hamid Karzai on his recently declared victory. A first round was marred by fraud and Karzai won a runoff vote by default after his only challenger dropped out saying that the election could not be free or fair.
According to a statement posted on the Taliban Web site, "Our brave mujahidin were able to disrupt the entire process."
The Taliban said their recent attack on a guest house filled with U.N. election workers showed that "even they are not safe in Kabul."

LOS ANGELES (AFP) –
A 25-year-old man has been charged with stalking television personality Ryan Seacrest, the host of hit reality singing show "American Idol", prosecutors in Los Angeles said Monday.

A statement from the Los Angeles District Attorney's office said Chidi Benjamin Uzomah, would be arraigned on Tuesday on felony charges of stalking Seacrest during September and October.

Uzomah was arrested last Friday at a television studio in Beverly Hills where Seacrest records a daily television show.

Uzomah had pleaded guilty in September to attacking Seacrest's security guard and was ordered to stay away from the radio and television host.

Uzomah is also alleged to have appeared at the offices of Los Angeles radio station KIIS FM on October 2 looking for Seacrest.

If convicted, he faces up to four years in state prison, prosecutors said.

Costumes also serve as an avenue for children to explore and roleplay. Children can dress up in various forms; for example characters from history or fiction like pirates, princesses or cowboys, common jobs like nurses or police officers, or animals such as those seen in zoos or farms.

Male dancer’s standard costume includes tights and a tunic worn on the upper body. Men’s tights should be pulled up firmly in the crotch to avoid a baggy appearance. Their tights are a heavier less shear material then women’s tights, but they also wear their tights’ seams in the back. Men wear a dance belt under their tights for support and to keep the body aligned. Men also wear a regular belt or suspenders to hold up their tights.

Adult Costumes