New details: Giffords gunman was polite, cooperative

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) ? As authorities investigated the rampage that killed six people and wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, they compiled nearly 3,000 pages of documents that include everything from interviews with survivors and victims to police reports filed from the scene of the crime.

The documents were released Wednesday, and they provide new insight into how the shooting occurred and the motivations behind gunman Jared Loughner. One of the main themes to emerge was the increasingly erratic behavior of Loughner, perhaps summed up best by his father as he told investigators: He "just doesn't seem right lately."

A look at some of the major findings:

LOUGHNER

The gunman was polite and cooperative with authorities who were holding him the afternoon following his morning shooting rampage. The conversation as Loughner sat in restraints in an interview room was mainly small talk. Little was said over the four hours. Loughner asks at one point if he can please use the restroom and says "Thank you" when allowed. At another point he complained that "I'm about ready to fall over."

GUNMAN'S MOTHER

Loughner's mother, Amy, described his run-ins with authorities, his use of marijuana and cocaine, his journals and his increasingly erratic behavior. She also says the parents took a shotgun away from Loughner after he was kicked out of a community college and tested him for drugs because his behavior was so strange.

GUNMAN'S FATHER

Randy Loughner said his son became increasingly difficult, and it was a challenge to have a rational conversation with him. "I tried to talk to him. But you can't, he wouldn't let you," he said "Lost, lost, and just didn't want to communicate with me no more."

MENTAL ILLNESS

Despite their son's increasingly bizarre behavior, Loughner's parents never sent him to get help. Randy Loughner said that his son had never been diagnosed with a mental illness. Had he seen a doctor, the detective asked. "No," replied the father. The parents were also asked about any journals or writings that Loughner kept. The father said they were written in an indecipherable script.

GOING TO THE SCENE

Loughner went to a convenience store immediately before the shooting and had the clerk call a cab for him. As he waited for the car, he was pacing inside and outside the store and went to the bathroom three or four times. The employee said that as Loughner was waiting for the cab, he looked up at a clock and said, "nine twenty-five, I still got time."

TRAFFIC STOP

Loughner was pulled over earlier in the day for a traffic violation by a wildlife agent. He cried and said, "I've just had a rough time," and then composed himself, thanked the agent and shook his hand after he was let go with a warning. The agent asked Loughner again if he was OK, and Loughner said he was going home.

THE SCENE

Giffords intern Daniel Hernandez helped tend to his boss after she was shot in the head. In an interview, he described the chaos: "She couldn't open her eyes. I tried to get any responses for her. Um, it looked like her left side was the only side that was still mobile. Um, she couldn't speak. It was mumbled. She was squeezing my hand.

"I did some training as a Certified Nursing Assistant and as a phlebotomist, um, when I was in high school. So I knew that we need to see if she's got a pulse. She was still breathing. Her breathing was getting shallower. Uh, I then lifted her up so that she wasn't flat on the ground against the wall," he said.

GUNS

Loughner bought a 12-gauge shotgun in 2008, but his parents took it away from him after he was expelled from college and administrators recommended that any firearms be taken away. The shotgun was the only gun his parents knew Loughner owned.

CARING FOR GIFFORDS

A firefighter described how he cared for Giffords after arriving at the scene. "You'd ask her to grab your hand and she would grab your hand," he said. He and paramedics rushed her to the hospital in an ambulance, giving her oxygen and an IV.

THE ENCOUNTER

Hernandez described how constituents and other people were lining up to see Giffords, and he was helping people sign in. He recalled handing Loughner a clipboard. "The next thing I hear is someone yell, 'gun,'" he said.

LOUGHNER FRIEND

One-time Loughner friend Zachary Osler was an employee at a store where Loughner later bought a Glock handgun before the shooting. Osler was questioned about seeing Loughner shopping inside, sometime before Thanksgiving. He describes an awkward encounter with his former friend. "His response is nothing. Just a mute facial expression. And just like he, he didn't care." Osler told investigators he had grown uncomfortable with Loughner's personality, "He would say he could dream and then control what he was doing while he was dreaming." Osler says Loughner never mentioned Giffords to him.

REACTION

Osler said when he learned that Loughner was the suspect in the shooting, "my jaw just dropped. And I was like I know this person. Why he would do it? What would his motive be? If he had people help him? I do not know."

POSSESSIONS

Police reports show what authorities found in Loughner's possession after the shooting. In Loughner's left front pocket were two magazines for a Glock, both fully loaded. In his other front pocket was a foldable knife with about a 4-inch blade. In his back right pocket, he had a baggie with some money, a Visa credit card and his Arizona driver's license. He was wearing a black beanie, a black hoodie-type sweatshirt, khaki pants and Sketchers shoes.

WITNESS

A witness described seeing an ominous-looking man in his early 20s wearing a backpack near the shooting scene. The witness later described recognizing Loughner as the same person from photos on the news.

FILE - In this Wednesday, March 6, 2013 file photo, former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords smiles as she raises a fist pump to the crowd as she, husband Mark Kelly, and a number of other Tucson mass ... more? FILE - In this Wednesday, March 6, 2013 file photo, former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords smiles as she raises a fist pump to the crowd as she, husband Mark Kelly, and a number of other Tucson mass shooting victims returned to the site of the shooting in Tucson, Ariz., that left her critically wounded to urge key senators to support expanded background checks for gun purchases. Giffords has been named this year's recipient of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award. The JFK Library and Museum announced Friday that the Arizona Democrat is being honored for the "political, personal, and physical courage she has demonstrated in her fearless public advocacy for policy reforms aimed at reducing gun violence." (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File) less? ?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/major-findings-records-giffords-shooting-155158671.html

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U.S. rapper Gucci Mane jailed for alleged assault

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Rapper Gucci Mane was jailed in Georgia on Wednesday for allegedly hitting a fan in the head with a champagne bottle at an Atlanta nightclub earlier this month.

Mane, whose real name is Radric Davis, turned himself in to authorities late on Tuesday, according to Fulton County Sheriff's Office records.

Mane, 33, faces an aggravated assault charge after causing a "severe laceration" to the man whom he hit with a champagne bottle on March 16, according to a police report. The fan had approached Mane and tried to strike up a conversation, police said. Mane left the nightclub before police arrived.

A magistrate judge denied bond for Mane at his first court appearance on Wednesday, sheriff's spokeswoman Tracy Flanagan said.

Mane did not enter a plea. His next hearing will be on April 10, Flanagan said.

Mane's attorney, Drew Findling, told Reuters he would appeal the denial of bond to a higher court. He said six witnesses interviewed by his office about what he described as a melee at the club did not pin blame on the rapper.

"None of them said Gucci had anything to do with it," Findling said.

The incident is the latest in a long string of legal troubles for the rapper, who has appeared in remixes with the Black Eyed Peas and Usher.

In 2001, Mane was arrested for cocaine possession and spent 90 days in jail. He served a six-month prison term in 2005 for assault, and in 2009 was imprisoned for a year for violating probation in that case.

A Georgia judge sentenced Mane to six months in jail in 2011 after he admitted to pushing a woman out of his car.

(Reporting by David Beasley; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Bernadette Baum and Leslie Adler)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rapper-gucci-mane-jailed-alleged-assault-bottle-142618639.html

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Search Retargeting | TurnClick

What?s Search retargeting?

Showing up on a search engine results page (SERP) has the tendency of reaching those who are information or task oriented. Display ad marketing often reaches desirable profiles but it?s never known if the profile has an immediate need or interest in your product or service. The quandary within display advertising isn?t the lack of being able to reach an internet user, the dilemma is being able to display relevant messaging to relevant users within a relevant time frame. Search retargeting?brings the above ideas together by using search query history as a way to signal intent and is followed by using IP address tracking to then target the unique user via display advertising while they surf the web. This powerful form of display advertising is all about increasing relevancy and subsequently the performance and impact of banner ads served to internet users.

Take today?s typical consumer buying cycle for example:

1) Develop a need or desire

2) Research online for options to satisfy that need or desire (Search)

3) Consider the options discovered while researching (Time-span of minutes to months)

4) Purchase

5) Review purchase (Voluntary task)

The 3rd step of the consumers buying cycle is where search retargeting has a huge impact on the success of your marketing mix when? compared to that of your competitors. There is a positive relationship between the length of time a consumer spends considering his/her options and the price-point (i.e. cost) of the item the user is considering to purchase. Therefore, the larger the ticket price, the longer it takes to make a purchase decision and the more imperative it is to keep your brand top-of-mind to get that big sale.

Search retargeting allows us to shadow the consideration phase of the buying cycle which subsequently complements other marketing efforts (e.g. PPC or SEO) and thus leads to more sales. The data obtained through search retargeting includes: the keyword, the IP address and the time the user made the search. This gives us the ability to target just the individuals who have recently searched for a specific keyword. In a sense, the consumer has raised their hand and pre-qualified themselves as a worthy candidate for products or services related to the keyword searched. The only filter left to further qualify the user as a candidate is to determine if they are within the desired geographic market area and because we are targeting ads via IP address, determining the location of the candidate is a very simple task. The question now is: Why wouldn?t you want to stay top of mind while consumers consider their options?

What?s the setup look like?

The setup is much like the preparation for a pay-per-click campaign, we set-up ad groups that consists of relevant keywords that will indicate a propensity for your business. We then design tailor-fit banner ads that relate to the keyword, product and user being targeted. Next we define the DMA?s or geographic market areas ?in order to target users based on their IP address location.

This process allows companies to keep their brand in front of consumers after they have shown a propensity for their products or services showing your brand, highly targeted messaging, promotions and call-to-actions. In the marketing world,?Search retargeting?is a game changer.

• Only target individuals who have shown a propensity for your product

• Achieve higher click-through rates than traditional display advertising

• Map your market-penetration geographically

Another important aspect to mention is that there comes a point when a company?s pay-per-click (PPC) program is as effective as it?s going to get, mainly because there is only so much search volume available. The average amount of time users spend searching on search engines like Google equates to 21% of total time spent online; the other 79% of time is spent surfing: reading online news, visiting websites, socializing, etc? (as of February 2013, http://www.go-gulf.com/blog/online-time) Search retargeting will maximize your business?s digital marketing mix by following the natural tendencies of a consumer?s buying cycle.

Source: http://www.turnclick.com/blog/incorporate-the-effectiveness-of-search-with-the-reach-of-display

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Portman's Son Describes Personal Side of Senator's Shift on Same ...

4:58 p.m. | Updated When Senator Rob Portman, the Ohio Republican, announced his support for same-sex marriage, he said his son?s admission that he was gay prompted the change of heart. But the timeline left some puzzled: If the son, Will, came out two years ago, why did the senator?s announcement come 10 days ago?

The younger Mr. Portman answers that question in a deeply personal essay in the student paper at Yale, where he is a junior. As he describes sending a letter to his parents, Will Portman suggests that his own reticence to make his sexuality public explains much of the timeline.

?Part of the reason for that is that it took time for him to think through the issue more deeply after the impetus of my coming out,? Will Portman writes. ?But another factor was my reluctance to make my personal life public.?

He also describes how his father told the Romney campaign that his son was gay when he was being vetted as a potential running mate, and that the family would have been open about that on the campaign trail.

In yet another reminder of how simply knowing gay people seems to influence one?s position on marriage, Senator Claire McCaskill announced on her blog on Sunday that she, too, is getting behind same-sex marriage rights.

?My views on this subject have changed over time, but as many of my gay and lesbian friends, colleagues and staff embrace long-term committed relationships, I find myself unable to look them in the eye without honestly confronting this uncomfortable inequality,? writes Ms. McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat.

However, the center of the marriage debate is a few blocks from the Senate at the Supreme Court, where justices will hear arguments over bans on same-sex marriage on Tuesday and Wednesday. In the audience will be Jean Podrasky, a cousin of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and a lesbian from California who hopes to marry her girlfriend, according to the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

On the organization?s Web site, Ms. Podrasky writes that the Portmans? experience ?got me thinking a little more about family relationships and the impact that living your life proudly, and honestly, may have on those who have yet to become allies.?

She continues, ?I know that my cousin is a good man. I feel confident that John is wise enough to see that society is becoming more accepting of the humanity of same-sex couples and the simple truth that we deserve to be treated with dignity, respect and equality under the law.?

Update: Senator Mark R. Warner, Democrat of Virginia, announced his support for same-sex marriage rights on Monday afternoon.

?I support marriage equality because it is the fair and right thing to do,? he wrote on Facebook. ?Like many Virginians and Americans, my views on gay marriage have evolved, and this is the inevitable extension of my efforts to promote equality and opportunity for everyone.?

Source: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/portmans-son-describes-personal-side-of-senators-shift-on-same-sex-marriage/

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Crisis in tiny Cyprus creates big mess for Europe

John W. Schoen , NBC News ? ? ? 13 hrs.

For such a tiny country, Cyprus and its failing banks have created an awfully big economic, financial and geopolitical mess for European bankers and government officials.

The island nation ? with land mass and economy smaller than Vermont ? was bracing Sunday for the looming collapse of its banking system and economy, as scores of officials from Brussels to Nicosia spent the weekend scrambling to avert the crisis.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, en route to the European capital of Brussels on Sunday, has "a very difficult task to accomplish to save the Cypriot economy and avert a disorderly default," a government spokesman said.

That task grew more difficult by the hour.

Europe?s so-called "troika" ? its central bank; its political body, the European Union; and the International Monetary Fund ? were holding firm to a joint ultimatum to accept their latest bailout offer by Monday. If the Cypriot parliament won't go along, the country faces an immediate cutoff of a financial lifeline that has kept Cyprus? bloated banks ? a lucrative tax haven for wealthy Russian depositors ? afloat for months.

The latest gambit, a 20 percent tax on bank accounts bigger than the $130,000 insured limit, has yet to win approval from the Cypriot parliament. The plan would also intensify the ongoing political backlash from wealthy Russian depositors, along with local account holders still seething with resentment over Europe?s insistence that any bailout inflict direct financial hardship on the Cypriot people.

So far, there appears to be little immediate risk of the crisis spreading to the global economy or financial market, according to most analysts.

"The market doesn't care,? said Carnegie Mellon economist Adam Lerrick. ?Cyprus is a tiny economy. Its banks are not highly connected with the rest of the international financial system. There is no risk of contagion here."

But even if a deal can be struck to fill in a $7.5 billion hole in the Cypriot banking system, the standoff between Nicosia and Brussels has inflicted lasting damage on the island nation?s economy, opened up new rifts between Russia and Europe and widened the political divide pitting the eurozone?s wealthy northern countries against its struggling southern neighbors.

?What could go wrong here?? wondered Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics. ?Just about everything.?

For starters, a $7.5 billion bailout would amount to a band-aid for Cyprus' bloated banks. Swollen by more than $30 billion in Russian deposits, they've recently held up to 10 times the nation?s annual economic output. Much of the rest consists of bad bets on Greek bonds recently subject to a European-imposed "haircut."

Even with a proposed restriction on withdrawals, those banks now face a tidal wave of withdrawals and losses when they reopen after a week-long, government-imposed ?holiday.?

The bailout also would do little to rescue the indebted Cypriot government.

?After the banking system is stabilized ? a technocratic matter ? the government itself is out of cash and has no access to the financial market,? said Weinberg. ?The terms for fixing the government, unlike the stark choices for resolving busted banks, are still wide open to negotiation.?

The crisis has left European leaders with even bigger problems.

The plan to force bank depositors to pay for their own bailout, a so-called ?bail-in,? hasn't gone unnoticed in other heavily indebted countries with weak banking systems. Now, millions of deposits in other southern European countries with much bigger economies, like Portugal, Spain and Italy, are left to wonder just whether their banks accounts may be the next to be raided.

?This is the first time that a government has ever reneged on the 100,000 euro guaranteed deposit scheme," said Wilbur Ross, an American investors who specializes in turning around failed companies. "That's a little bit scary because there's no bank in the whole world that can withstand a real run.?

Europe?s weaker banks can ill-afford to see depositors grow more nervous. In Spain, for example, cash has been flying out the door since last summer, when the government took over four banks sinking under the weight of bad mortgages and stuffed their bad assets into a new entity called Sareb. With house prices ? and the overall Spanish economy - still shrinking, state-owned banks continue to post massive losses, adding to the Spanish government?s debt.

Failure to strike a bailout deal with Cyprus also would rattle more than just a Spanish bankers nerves.

By turning its back one of its member states, European central bankers would renege on a pledge to do ?whatever it takes? to keep the common currency intact. The likely departure of Cyprus from the euro would increase the odds that voters in Spain, Italy, Greece or Ireland, chafing under northern Europe?s demands for economic sacrifice, might also decide to go it alone.

?The whole condition of the euro has been that once you go in you cannot get out,? said Julian Callow, Barclays chief international economist. ?Now, if a country does leave for whatever reason, that sets a really important precedent. People start asking questions in other countries as well.?

Resentment has been simmering for two years in countries with weaker southern economies looking to their northern neighbors for help. While voters in Germany grow weary of subsidizing ongoing bailouts, many in the southern tier believe that the wealthier northern companies are profiting from their economic pain.

?Despite the very peculiar rhetoric that German voters hear from some of their politicians, they have benefited handsomely from this crisis,? said Athanasios Orphanides, the former Cyprus central bank governor who oversaw its entry to the euro. ?The German government is essentially getting money at zero interest rates in the credit markets, and then it's loaning it to Ireland at very high interest rates. And of course, the money goes back to the German citizens.?

Despite the widespread political and financial risks, European officials and central bankers appear steadfast in holding Cyprus to the onerous terms that have produced ongoing street protests as one failed plan yielded to another.

Some analysts believe that resolve has been fortified by long-running frustration with Cypriot bankers? refusal to rein in risky deposits, based in part on the assumption that Europe would have to bail them out if they got into trouble. Ongoing tensions between Europe and Russia on a range of issues - including Cyprus? recently-discovered, sizable natural gas deposits ? have further complicated matters.

But in the end, Europe may pay a heavy price if it refuses what amounts to about $23 in aid for every Cypriot citizen, according to Weinberg.

?That is less than a night at the movies with a family or cafe lattes and croissants for two at Starbucks,? he said. ?This is the cost of ensuring that the public sees no bank in Euroland will be allowed to fail and that they can take out their deposits. Is this so much to pay??

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653351/s/29eee46a/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Ceconomywatch0Ccrisis0Etiny0Ecyprus0Ecreates0Ebig0Emess0Eeurope0E1B90A45378/story01.htm

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NASA: Boulder-size asteroid caused East Coast meteor

The dramatic fireball that lit up skies over the U.S. East Coast Friday evening (March 22) was caused by an asteroid just 3 feet (0.9 meters) or so wide, scientists say.

Such boulder-size asteroids slam into Earth's atmosphere every two or three days, so Friday's "Manhattan meteor" ? which shone as brightly as the full moon and was apparently visible from Maine to North Carolina ? isn't a terribly rare event. But the sensation it created on Twitter and other social media outlets is understandable nonetheless, said NASA meteor expert Bill Cooke.

"When you have something like this occur at 8 o'clock at night over one of the most populated regions of the United States, it's going to get people's attention," Cooke, head of the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., told reporters today (March 23).

Indeed, a similar meteor?caused a stir last month when it blazed through the skies above California's densely populated Bay Area. [5 Amazing Fireball Videos]

The Manhattan meteor entered our planet's atmosphere over eastern Pennsylvania Friday and streaked southeast from there, flaming out over the Atlantic Ocean. While space rocks of this size sometimes produce meteorites (rocks that survive to reach Earth's surface), Cooke said, it's unlikely that scientists or collectors will snag any pieces of this one.

"The eyewitness accounts indicate that this meteor was last seen about 70 kilometers [43 miles] into the Atlantic, so I do not believe there are any meteorites on land from this event," Cooke said.

Some eyewitnesses have posted videos of the meteor to YouTube, which Cooke and his colleagues have been poring over. NASA runs a network of fireball cameras, but the instruments were apparently all clouded out or too far away to observe the event, Cooke said.

Friday's meteor follows closely on the heels of several other dramatic space rock events. For example, a huge fireball detonated?without warning over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk on Feb. 15, wounding more than 1,200 people. Just hours later, a 130-foot-wide (40 m) asteroid called 2012 DA14 gave Earth an uncomfortably close shave, coming nearer than our planet's ring of geosynchronous satellites.

But people shouldn't start worrying that the sky is falling, Cooke stressed.

"If you look at the actual number of fireballs for this month so far, it's normal ? it's the same as every other year before this one," he said. "It's just that people are paying more attention and looking up, I think, because of recent events."

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter?@michaeldwall.?Follow us?@Spacedotcom,?Facebook?or?Google+. Originally published on?SPACE.com.

Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/boulder-size-asteroid-caused-fridays-east-coast-meteor-194918370.html

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Obama salutes soldiers who served during Iraq war

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is saluting U.S. troops for their conduct during the war in Iraq, declaring on the 10th anniversary of the start of the war that the sacrifice of Americans gave the Iraqi people "an opportunity to forge their own future after many years of hardship."

Obama opposed the war and ran for president on a pledge to end it. The last U.S. troops left in 2011.

In a statement Tuesday, Obama said the nation honors the memory of nearly 4,500 Americans who died in Iraq.

He said the U.S. still needs to meet its obligations toward those who served in Iraq, including more than 30,000 wounded. He said the nation must improve treatment for traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-03-19-Obama-Iraq/id-a90eed6f7cd0490ba231496ad1cea098

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