Psychologist believes Loughner's still incompetent (AP)

PHOENIX ? A psychologist believes that the suspect in the Tucson shooting rampage that left then-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords wounded has an improved mental state but remains incompetent to stand trial, a federal judge said in a court filing Thursday.

U.S. District Court Judge Larry Burns scheduled a hearing for Monday in San Diego to determine whether Jared Lee Loughner should remain at a federal prison facility in Springfield, Mo., where officials have been forcibly medicating him.

Loughner, 23, has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges stemming from the Jan. 8, 2011, shooting in Tucson that killed six people and injured Giffords and 12 others. Giffords resigned from Congress last month and continues to recover from a gunshot wound to the head.

Loughner has demonstrated bizarre behavior since his arrest. He was removed from a May 25 court hearing when he lowered his head to within inches of the courtroom table then lifted his head and began a loud and angry rant.

Mental health experts have determined Loughner suffers from schizophrenia and are trying to make him fit to stand trial. Loughner has been at the Missouri facility since May 28, and his attorneys have vigorously fought the government's efforts to medicate him with psychotropic drugs.

An appeals court temporarily halted Loughner's forced medication last summer, but the medication resumed once mental health experts at the prison concluded that his condition was deteriorating further.

After a Sept. 28 court hearing, Burns extended Loughner's detention in Missouri by another four months. His current stay is set to end on Feb. 8.

Burns said the court received a competency report on Jan. 30 from Dr. Christina Pietz, who is Loughner's chief psychologist.

"In Dr. Pietz's opinion, the defendant remains incompetent to stand trial, in particular because he lacks an adequate understanding of the nature and consequences of the charges against him," Burns wrote. "Dr. Pietz does, however, believe that the defendant has made measurable progress toward competency and that his mental state will continue to improve."

But Burns added that "the court's inclination is to extend the defendant's commitment by another four months." The judge also said that Loughner shouldn't be transported from Missouri for Monday's hearing.

A call to Loughner's lead attorney, Judy Clarke, for comment on Burns' filing wasn't immediately returned Thursday evening.

If the two sides can't agree to a treatment extension for Loughner, Burns said he would hear any objections and schedule a more substantive evidentiary hearing if needed.

Tucson-based prosecutors said in a filing late Thursday that they had "no additional evidence to offer" on the extension request and asked the court to proceed with adding another 120 days to Loughner's commitment at the Missouri facility.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120203/ap_on_re_us/us_congresswoman_shot_suspect

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Mardi Gras float painter Max Bernardi says it all begins with a sketch ...

Max Bernardi, a New Orleans muralist and painter has been painting floats and Carnival ball backdrops, on and off, since 1996. As of the last week of January, she was putting the finishing brushstrokes on signature floats like Bacchus? Bacchagator and Baccha-Whoppa, and Orpheus? massive Smokey Mary.

Her large-scale work is on display at the Audubon Zoo and Aquarium, the Magnolia Mansion Bed and Breakfast, and it will be rolling down St. Charles Avenue at Carnival time.

Watch for it in Bacchus, which rolls Sunday, Feb. 19 at 5 p.m.; Orpheus, which is on Lundi Gras, Feb. 20, at 6 p.m. Both parades follow the Uptown route.

Q: What kind of artistic background do you have?

A: Ever since I was really young, I had a fascination with murals, and I always wanted to be a mural painter. I guess I always wanted to paint big. I went to the Atlanta College of Art for a year, and I had a boyfriend who encouraged me to intern on films, so I learned something about scenic painting. And from there, I started doing work for conventions, back when convention booths actually had hand-painted faux-finishes and stuff like that, and some murals for museums, in Atlanta. But the work was sort of all very dry and had an industrial feeling to it, and I got the notion that if I came to New Orleans I would have the opportunity to do work that was more creative.

Q: How did you get into float painting, once you moved to New Orleans?

A: When I first moved to New Orleans, the place everyone told me I could probably get a job was working for the Kern float builders. So almost the first day I came to the city, I interviewed with Barry Kern. But instead of having me paint floats at first, he hired me for the sculpture division, painting sculpture pieces for casinos like the Orleans in Las Vegas. I painted three giant alligators playing musical instruments for their lobby.

Q: Do any of the signature floats you work on change from year to year, or do they just get freshened up?

A: This year for the Baccha-Gator, they?re going for a different image. The marsh grass blended in too much with the alligator on the top, so they had me repaint the sides with a harlequin pattern in a lighter and darker shade of purple, and then paint giant Mardi Gras beads to look like they were draped across the sides. And they?ve added some dimensional pieces too, like a gigantic Mardi Gras mask and some beads that light up from inside. And we?re repainting the king?s float that Will Ferrell will be riding on to look like classic white marble.

Q: How does the process of painting a float work?

A: The first challenge that any float painter faces is to take the sketch from the designer and draw it out on this gigantic lumpy surface. You only get the sketch for one side, and then you have to reverse it for the other side. You have sticks of charcoal, which you sometimes stick into the end of a bamboo pole to extend it and it becomes a gigantic drawing wand. You stand back from the float with the sketch in your hand and multiply it 20 times, and try to draw everything in proportionally. Every single float painter that I?ve ever known has told me that the scariest thing they?ve ever faced is walking up to that float when it?s completely white and they think to themselves, ?How in the world am I going to pull this off??

Source: http://www.nola.com/mardigras/index.ssf/2012/02/qa_with_mardi_gras_float_paint.html

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Europe tries to shield homeless from deep freeze (AP)

KIEV, Ukraine ? Russia and Ukraine both took precautions on Friday to protect homeless people, scores of whom have frozen to death on the streets of Europe during its brutal cold snap.

As the death toll from the weeklong tragedy rose to at least 169 on Friday, Russian Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered the creation of feeding and medical-assistance facilities nationwide for the homeless.

Russia has not reported casualty figures from the cold snap, which has gripped a large swath of the continent from Russia to Serbia. But Russian Deputy Health Minister Maxim Topilin was quoted by the ITAR-Tass news agency on Friday as saying that 64 people died from the cold in all of January.

In Ukraine, the hardest hit country, health officials have told hospitals to stop discharging the hundreds of homeless patients after they are treated for hypothermia and frostbite. The goal is to prevent them from dying once they are released into temperatures as low as minus 32 Celsius (minus 26 Fahrenheit).

Authorities also have set up nearly 3,000 heating and food shelters.

Thirty-eight more fatalities were reported from frostbite and hypothermia in Ukraine on Friday, raising the nation's death toll to 101. Emergency officials have said many of the victims were homeless.

Of the Ukrainians who have died since the cold weather hit Jan. 27, 64 were found frozen on the streets, 11 died in hospitals and 26 in their homes, emergency officials said.

The weeklong snap ? Eastern Europe's worst in decades ? is causing power outages, frozen water pipes and the widespread closure of schools, nurseries, airports and bus routes.

Rome ? which usually spares Italians from cold winter weather ? experienced a rare snowfall on Friday, prompting officials to close the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill, the former home of Rome's ancient emperors, to prevent tourists from slipping and falling.

Northern Italy also has been gripped by snow and ice that is disrupting train travel.

Temperatures in the Italian Alps have fallen as low as minus -22 C (minus 7 F).

In Poland, the Interior Ministry recorded eight more deaths on Friday and said two other people died of asphyxiation from carbon monoxide-spewing charcoal heaters.

In Serbia, where six people have died, blizzards gripped Belgrade, the capital, and Novi, the country's second-largest city, complicating efforts to rescue people trapped in their homes. In northern Serbia, hundreds of tons of fish in the Ecka lakes were in danger because the water was icing over. Dozens of people have been working nonstop to break the ice, using hammers and all kinds of tools, and sometimes even falling into the freezing water.

Neighboring Croatia and Montenegro also were hard hit.

In Croatia, some highways were closed and waters of the Adriatic Sea froze in some areas. Buses that travel from Zagreb, the capital, toward the coast have been canceled. In Montenegro, the airport in the capital, Podgorica, was closed due to heavy snow.

Daytime temperatures have been hovering around minus 18 (0 F) in Moscow, raising questions about how many people will brave the cold for the latest in a series of massive opposition rallies planned in the Russian capital on Saturday.

___

Monica Scislowska in Warsaw, Jim Heintz in Moscow and Jovana Gec in Belgrade contributed to this story.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/weather/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120203/ap_on_re_eu/eu_europe_weather

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Learn How You Can Unlock Wii With Little Effort |

Us might possibly know that anyone can make your Wii console your ultimate multimedia device. However, a lot of people never know precisely what they really should do with regard to purchase to be able to achieve this goal. Truth be told, it is actually not hard to be able to to be able to and so. Just what anyone need to be able to do is to be able to unlock Wii.

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Us might wonder the reason why anyone need to be able to unlock your Nintendo Wii. Among the inspirations here is that you can be capable to be able to run Homebrew applications quite easily after anyone include unlocked it. Besides, anyone can moreover use your video game console to be able to act DVDs plus mp3s. Us can moreover act backup games and so that anyone never have to be concerned that your original disc might be broken.

There are really numerous methods for anyone to be able to unlock your video game console. Among the methods is to be able to purchase a mod chip. However, you can have to install the actual mod chip into the actual console. This particular can be too technical for the majority of people. Many of us are really just purchasing the actual game console for playing video games at home plus some of us might not include the actual methods to be able to install the actual chips. Besides, the actual warranty of the actual the actual device might be voided once anyone install the actual chip. Because a result, no many people might love this technique of unlocking Wii.

Found on the other hand, anyone can adapt the actual idea of softmod. You can be install a couple of software to be able to the actual console plus this might unlock Wii. It really is a lot easier than installing the actual mod chip. Most people might know how to be able to do and so after they include read a couple of guides. Because a consequence, the majority of people might go for this route when they are really struggling to be able to unlock the actual video game consoles.

Understandably you can not know how to be able to do the actual softmod without reading a couple of guides. There are really tons of guides anyone can know on the web. It really is effortless for anyone to be able to buy a ebook on this topic online. However, be sure to be able to stick to be able to reputable systems when anyone are really purchasing it. Us might have to go on a couple of game forums with regard to purchase to be able to know in the event you really should purchase a certain ebook or alternatively guide to be able to unlock Wii. Us really should try to be able to invest a couple of time on this studies and so that you can not be scammed.

Filed under: Uncategorized by righteou on Thursday, February 2, 2012 | Social tagging: homebrew channel > nintendo wii > unlock wii > wii homebrew > wii modchip > wii softmod

Source: http://carmensanchezdancestudio.com/learn-how-you-can-unlock-wii-with-little-effort/

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Egypt market plunges after deadly soccer riots (AP)

CAIRO ? Egypt's benchmark stock index fell over 2 percent Thursday, paring an earlier plunge stemming from deadly soccer riots the night before that left 74 dead and rekindled fears of fresh instability akin to the unrest that has battered the country and its economy in the year since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak.

The benchmark EGX30 index shot down about 4.6 percent within minutes of the start of trade, but rebounded as bargain hunters stepped in. The index closed down 2.2 percent, at 4,584 points.

The declines halted a rally in the market over the past week that had been fueled by newfound optimism after the peaceful passing of the one year anniversary of the Jan. 25 uprising that pushed Mubarak from power. Investors had also found cause to cheer in the convening of the country's first post-Mubarak parliament ? a legislature that was seated after Egypt's freest elections in decades.

But the riots by football fans late Wednesday in the Mediterranean city of Port Said reignited simmering criticism of the country's military rulers, with witnesses saying the police stood idly by while the violence broke out after the match. Parliament convened an emergency session ? a move also mirrored by the Cabinet.

"There are a lot of fears, a lot of concerns, a lot of potential clashes," said Mustafa Abdel-Aziz, senior broker with Mideast investment bank Beltone Financial's brokerage division. "But we're seeing the market react much better than it should" given the night's violence.

Abdel-Aziz said that the early sell-off triggered buying interest, with investors stepping in to snap up deals.

In a market that ended 2011 over 45 percent below its level at the end of 2010, the recent gains have offered a measure of optimism as the country pushes ahead with a rocky transition to democracy that has been defined by continued protests and a growing mistrust of a military that had been hailed at the start of the uprising as heroes.

The violence in Port Said, however, reflected how fragile the gains could be at a time when Egypt's economy is reeling from the overall effect of the uprising. The protests and associated violence have hammered the country's chief foreign currency sources ? foreign investment and tourism.

Meanwhile, Egypt's net international reserves were down 50 percent year-on-year by the end of December, leaving wide open questions about how the country will raise new cash to bridge a widening deficit and worries over the balance of payments. It is now discussing with the International Monetary Fund a $3.2 billion loan.

The Finance Ministry on Wednesday said it would secure $1.1 billion in aid from the European Union and the World Bank. While Egyptian media have reported the loans appear to be a done deal, an EU financial official in Cairo told The Associated Press that the EU portion of the aid ? known as Macro-financial Assistance ? was predicated on Egypt securing the IMF loan.

An EU team was scheduled to come to Cairo on Feb. 22 for discussions, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue.

For investors, the macroeconomic concerns appear to have been factored into their investment strategy, said brokers.

But what's "not quantifiable is the extended tension between the police, the protesters and the army," said Abdel-Aziz. "Definitely, if there's an extended tension in this relationship, you could see another wave of selling."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120202/ap_on_bi_ge/ml_egypt_economy

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Washington State Considers Gold and Silver as Legal Tender

In an effort to protect the property of citizens from the harmful effects of inflation created by the Federal Reserve, lawmakers in Washington State introduced a bill over the weekend to declare gold and silver legal tender within the state. Sound-money advocates across the nation immediately praised the effort.?

Citing several provisions of the U.S. Constitution and various rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court, the legislation notes that only gold and silver are to be considered legal tender by the states. The bill also blasts the federal government for imposing an unconstitutional monetary system on the states and for unjustly confiscating citizens? wealth by allowing the Fed to create money.

The legislation seeks to offer the people of Washington an opportunity to use constitutional money instead of the ever-depreciating paper currency issued by the American central bank, lawmakers who sponsored the bill told The New American. However, no one would be forced to accept gold or silver as payment.

?We have leveraged our debt-based currency to the hilt and the die is cast,? said Republican Rep. Matt Shea (above left), a co-sponsor of the bill and a military veteran who supports honest money. ?The Federal Reserve is faced with the position of having to further inflate our currency or have the system start to disintegrate.?

Under the proposed law, HB 2731, precious-metal coins would be treated the same as Federal Reserve Notes for state taxation purposes. And the state treasurer would be required to post the value of silver and gold every day based on market prices, an improvement over a similar law passed in Utah last year which recognized precious metals as legal tender, lawmakers said.

?The legislature finds that to secure property rights sound money is essential,? the bill states. ?Gold and silver currency retains earned wealth in the hands of the people and has provided civil societies with a fair, honest, and reliable medium of exchange for over six thousand years.?

According to the text of the legislation and economists, competition in currency would provide, among other benefits, greater security to the people of Washington in protecting their property from inflation. It would also serve to defend liberty, lawmakers noted.

?Sound money is freedom,? Rep. Shea explained. ?The free-market is about competition, and allowing competing currencies is just another extension of that time-honored principle.?

The absence of competition from gold and silver currency, meanwhile, exposes Washington?s citizens and businesses to more than a few problems including the ?chronic depreciation? of the Fed?s fiat paper money and the accompanying loss of purchasing power. And measures must be taken to fix the problem, legislators and economists believe.

The privately-owned Fed?s money printing represents nothing less than incremental confiscation of private property without just compensation, explained Rep. Shea, echoing the language in the legislation and a whole host of economists who study monetary policy. ?This depreciation is particularly tragic for seniors and others on fixed incomes,? he noted.

Another co-sponsor of the legislation, Rep. Jason Overstreet, told The New American that sound money is actually the key to an honest system of government. ?Most people know intuitively that their purchasing power is diminishing, but don?t know why,? he said. ?With our fiat paper Federal Reserve note currency, every time the Federal Reserve prints another note, the value of existing notes is debased, ultimately driving prices higher and higher.?

Even former Fed boss Alan Greenspan understood the implications of fiat currency, Rep. Overstreet noted, citing an essay Greenspan wrote decades ago entitled ?Gold and Economic Freedom.? In the piece, the former central bank chief masterfully explained why giving authorities the power to create currency out of thin air represented a deadly threat to liberty and prosperity.?

Across America, as the Fed?s policies continue to wreak havoc on the economy, lawmakers are taking notice at every level. U.S. Congressmen such as Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), who chairs the House Subcommittee on Monetary Policy, have taken an increasingly bold stand on honest-money issues. And the states are taking action, too.

Utah, for example, approved a landmark law last year which recognized gold and silver as legal tender. The measure garnered praise from sound-money proponents around the world. Over a dozen other states are now working on sound-money initiatives as well.

?The best road back to a really well-functioning monetary system is through the states ? exercising their monetary power as articulated in Article I, Section 10 of the [U.S.] Constitution to make nothing but gold and silver coin a payment in tender of debts,? said Utah attorney and businessman Larry Hilton, who authored sound-money legislation for his state and has been a key player in the national effort to restore an honest monetary system through state-level initiatives.

Hilton told The New American in an interview last year that if just a small handful of states were to follow in Utah?s footsteps on the monetary issue, the U.S. dollar and the American people would benefit significantly. And today, according to the Sound Money Center ? a group which was involved in the recent legislation introduced in Washington ? Idaho, Colorado, Minnesota, Iowa, Ohio, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and many other states are already at various stages of creating sound-money laws.?

?So begins the 2012 season of awakening the people of this nation to the virtues of sound money,? the Center noted in a statement announcing the introduction of the sound-money bill in Washington?s legislature. ?We will track this legislation closely as it makes its way through the legislative process.?

Other organizations such as the national Tenth Amendment Center and the Washington Sound Money Committee are also involved in the process. And commentators online were thrilled to learn about the introduction of legislation aiming to address the issue in yet another state.

While bills calling for honest money have failed in some cases, lawmakers and activists are hopeful about the prospects in Washington State. But even if the legislation does not become law this session, there could still be several benefits to it ? especially in terms of sparking a broader debate.

?If this bill doesn?t pass but starts a sound money conversation and can be used to educate citizens on the Constitutional principles and necessity of sound money, it will have been a success,? said Rep. Overstreet. ?As that education continues, we will see the passage of bills like this around the country and a return to sound money.?

The road to restoring a constitutional monetary system in America might be long and tough. But the alternatives, according to experts, are not pretty ? a destruction of the currency, economic upheaval, and maybe worse. There is even a very real possibly that a global monetary regime with the power to print world money could be erected, at least if the system?s powerful proponents get their way.

?We have strayed so far from the constitutional basis of money, that it can be a difficult conversation,? noted Rep. Overstreet. ?However, with even a short primer on the subject, even young children begin to understand the intrinsic value of gold and silver versus the paper they receive as allowance.?

The Fed has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years following several waves of ?quantitative easing? ? also known as printing new money ? and its unprecedented, multi-trillion-dollar bailouts of foreign banks, big corporations, and other central banks. Its widespread manipulation of markets has also attracted fierce criticism and a bipartisan outcry to rein in the institution.??

Washington lawmakers are requesting a hearing for the bill in the state House of Representatives, but no date has been set yet. For now, the legislation has been referred to the Committee on Ways and Means. It currently has four co-sponsors.

?

Related articles:

Gold, Silver Now Legal Tender in Utah

Virginia Considers Dollar Collapse, Gold Currency

Tenn. Joins States Considering Alternate Currency Legislation

SC Bill Seeks to Refuse Federal Reserve Notes as Legal Tender

Fed Manipulations in the Crosshairs

U.S. Fed Bailout of Euro Prompts New Push for Audit & Sound Money

Utah House Approves Gold, Silver as Legal Tender

Alternative Currencies

Ron Paul Wants Competing Currencies

Competing Currencies Would Expand Freedom While Limiting Government

Utah Could Use Gold, Silver Under Sound Money Act

Rand Paul Works to Protect State Gold Money From Taxation

Waking up to a World Currency

The Emerging Global Fed

Mending Our Monetary Maladies

Fed Showered Money on Foreign Banks

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Source: http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/10715-washington-state-considers-gold-and-silver-as-legal-tender

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How the major stock indexes fared on Tuesday (AP)

Stocks closed slightly lower for the day, but it was the best January performance for the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 since 1997. Yields for ultra-safe U.S. government debt fell to their lowest level in four months as investors around the world waited for Greece to nail down a deal to reduce its crushing debt.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 20.81 points, or 0.16 percent, to close at 12,632.91.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 0.6 point, or 0.05 percent, to 1,312.41.

The Nasdaq composite gained 1.9 points, or 0.07 percent, to 2,813.84.

For the week:

The Dow is down 27.55 points, or 0.22 percent.

The S&P 500 is down 3.92 points, or 0.3 percent.

The Nasdaq fell 2.71 points, or 0.1 percent.

For the year so far:

The Dow is up 415.35 points, or 3.4 percent.

The S&P 500 is up 54.81 points, or 4.4 percent.

The Nasdaq is up 208.69 points, or 8 percent.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_bi_ge/us_wall_street_box

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