Yamaha RX-V473

Yamaha has been a stalwart in the home theater receiver field for more than two decades now. Its early lead began with its smooth-sounding Dolby Pro Logic and 70mm Theater DSP modes. The company's latest home theater receiver, the RX-V473 ($449.95 list), offers integrated iPod and iPhone support over USB, plus AirPlay compatibility for streaming music wirelessly.

Design, Amplification, and iPod Connectivity
A fairly imposing piece of kit, the RX-V473?measures 6.4 by 17.2 by 12.4 inches (HWD) and weighs 17.9 pounds. It also offers plenty of connectivity including four HDMI inputs?one less than the Denon AVR-1613 ($399.99, 3 stars)?and one output. Notably, the RX-V473 not only switches video automatically among the inputs, but also passes through 4K video. That sets you up for the future, if and when 4K video becomes widely available. Unlike the AVR-1613, the RX-V473 also contains a full set of composite A/V inputs as well as component-level inputs, which helps if you've got older sources to connect without HDMI ports. This alone could be your deciding factor.

With five discrete channels of amplification, the RX-V473?outputs 80 watts per channel @ 8 ohms, 20-20,000 Hz, and 0.09 percent THD; ignore Yamaha's higher 115-watt figure, as that allows for almost one percent of distortion and doesn't offer a specific frequency range. There are Burr-Brown 24-bit, 192kHz DACs on all channels, plus a switchable Direct Mode for bypassing the EQ and DSP circuitry.?AirPlay support lets you stream music wirelessly from an iPhone, iPod, iPad, Apple TV, or a Mac or PC running iTunes. Unfortunately, the RX-V473 itself has no Wi-Fi; to use AirPlay, you need to connect the receiver to your home network via a wired Ethernet connection. Yamaha's remote is absolutely packed with tiny buttons; at least you can do almost everything you need to with it.

The stereo component industry is being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. For a long while, there was no easy way of hooking up an iPod or other MP3 player aside from using a Y-cable purchased from Radio Shack?which was fine as it goes, although it didn't sound the best. But it also didn't charge your player; you'd need a second cable for that, which was messy. Then Onkyo, Yamaha, and others began to sell accessory docks that charged an iPod and were easier to use, but these were expensive and came with another nest of cables, plus yet another remote control.

At least now receivers like the RX-V473 and the Denon AVR-1613 come with front-panel USB ports. You can plug in, charge your iPod, and listen all at the same time. But even so, integration is nowhere near it should be. Unfortunately, like with the Denon, the Yamaha RX-V473's on-screen menu system looks like it's from 1982 ColecoVision console. The graphics-free design and blocky fonts aren't pretty. Yamaha's OS and remote control are more responsive, though. I had little trouble navigating to various modes and listening options.

Performance, AirPlay, and Conclusions
Sonically, the RX-V473 is a solid performer. It had no problem driving a set of Energy Take Classic 5.1 ($399, 4 stars) speakers to deafening levels in our testing lab. That said, the quality of the sound was ever so slightly off when compared with the Denon AVR-1613. It's subtle, but the RX-V473 sounded a little thinner and muddier with the levels matched. It's something you'd only notice in a side-by-side comparison.

Next up were some movies. To test the RX-V473's home theater prowess, I ran scenes from the 2010 DTS Demonstration Blu-Ray Disc through the receiver, a Samsung BD-D5500 ($159.99, 3.5 stars) Blu-ray player, a Sony Bravia KDL-46EX620 HDTV ($809.99, 3.5 stars) and the Energy Take speakers. The Yamaha RX-V473 actually sounded ever-so-slightly better with movies than the AVR-1613, with its clear, distinct treble and a less emphasized upper bass range. In Robin Hood (the 2010 film with Russell Crowe), I heard clearly resolved arrow shots and crisp, natural dialog even when many things were going on simultaneously. Next up was the DTS-encoded Despicable Me, where the RX-V473 did a nice job resolving rocket engine rumble cleanly underneath the heated dialog between the on-screen characters, and delivering massive low-end punch through the Energy subwoofer whenever necessary.

Yamaha gives you plenty of other features to play with. There are 17 Cinema DSP modes, including a compressed music enhancer and various surround sound-enhancing circuits like DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD, both of which offer master-quality audio from supported sources. The Silent Cinema mode distills a 5.1 signal into something that works for regular stereo headphones. As is typical for Yamaha receivers, most of these sound excellent. Even if they're not for purist audiophiles, they're quite sophisticated and add serious atmosphere to both music and movies. The RX-V473 supports FLAC 96/24 lossless, and also works with both DNLA 1.5 and Windows 7 systems.

AirPlay also worked particularly well. Once I plugged the receiver into our test network with an Ethernet cable, within moments it showed up on my iPhone as a possible AirPlay destination. I selected it and off I went, playing music tracks stored on the iPhone with little of the drama I saw with the Denon AVR-1613.

For this review, I also tested Yamaha AV Controller, a free app that turns your iOS or Android device into a Wi-Fi-based remote control for the RX-V473. Skip the on-screen menus and use this, because it's a much better experience. I liked it much better than Denon's; it features sharp graphics indicating which mode you're in, as well as simple navigation for selecting sources, activating DSP modes, and controlling playback.

Yamaha has clearly thought through its media options for the RX-V473. It's almost impossibly well specified for an under-$500 home theater receiver. It's still in the dark ages when it comes to iPod and AirPlay integration, since there's no actual Wi-Fi, and the on-screen menus look so dated. That said, it's still a solid performer in the traditional home theater receiver sense, and if you use the iOS or Android app, you won't have to deal with that on-screen menu system. The Denon AVR-1613 offers slightly better sound quality and native Pandora and Sirius XM integration, but it's buggier with iPod and AirPlay connectivity, and Denon's app trails the Yamaha version by a significant amount.

More Audio Reviews:
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/y3wlb5fls1I/0,2817,2405772,00.asp

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Canada's Largest Indie Game Developer is Hiring - Techvibes.com

Canada's largest independent game developer is Vancouver's East Side Games (at least according to their website).

Founded in July of 2011 by Jason Bailey with a "mountain of cash," East Side Games is a profitable social and mobile gaming company with several live titles including, NomNom Combo, Zombinis, Blaze Runner and their flagship game, Pot Farm.

Bailey is legendary in Vancouver for bootstrapping Super Rewards to a $100 million run rate within 18 months and then selling it for a reported $50 million. He's now an outspoken angel investor and one of the founders of accelerator GrowLab.

East Side Games has had over six million installs and have well over half a million unique users across their games every month.

Their team has over 100 years of combined experience working at AAA studios such as Blizzard/Activision, THQ, Crytek, EA, Rockstar, Disney and Ubisoft and over 60 years experience in the social/mobile space at studios such as DES Games, Hothead Games, Nexon America, Club Penguin (Disney) and Magellan Interactive.

East Side Games' is hiring across the board in Gastown including these two roles posted on the Techvibes Job Board.

Source: http://www.techvibes.com/blog/canadas-largest-indie-game-developer-is-hiring-2012-06-26

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PA Energy Alliance Applauds Lawmakers For Support Of House Resolution On Used Nuclear Fuel

Name: Tony Phyrillas

Location: Pottstown, PA, United States

Tony Phyrillas is city editor and political columnist at The Mercury, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning daily newspaper in Pottstown, Pa. Phyrillas has won several national and state awards for commentary, including first place for column writing in 2010 by the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors. Phyrillas has been featured on National Public Radio and The New York Times and is a frequent commentator on radio and television programs. He co-hosted "Talking Politics with Tony Phyrillas & Mike Pincus" on WPAZ 1370 AM from 2008-2009.

View my complete profile

Source: http://talkingpoliticswithtonyphyrillas.blogspot.com/2012/06/pa-energy-alliance-applauds-lawmakers.html

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Family tragedy becomes public nightmare when death video hits Twitter

15 hrs.

Helen A.S. Popkin

By the time police asked Internet users to remove graphic photos of a man decapitated after he jumped in front of a train, it was too late for the dead man's son. He had already seen the grisly images ? recorded by teenagers?just after the incident occurred ? when they went viral on Twitter.

You can hear the teens in the background of the shaky cellphone video, recorded Wednesday afternoon in the Netherlands, calling to each other, their adolescent voices tweaked with shock, excitement. "Here. Here is the body. Here he is," one boy shouts in Dutch. Another points to the man's severed head, a few feet away. No one is laughing.?

At least 70 students?at a nearby school ??in the?Kennemerland area of?Haarlem ??witnessed the accident or immediate aftermath, reports?Ijmuider Courant, a Netherlands news site. School officials swung into action. Within 10 minutes of the incident,?administrators?guided students away from the station and back to the school. There, counselors and members of the?Kennemerland police department spent the afternoon talking to kids and later, their parents, about what they had seen.

Yet at the same time that the school was trying to mitigate the psychological damage of the incident, a video of it was being shared among students and?making its way out onto the Internet, by way of Twitter.

This is the video the?dead man's son had already seen when?Kennemerland?police broke the news to the family. It was then that son connected the two, and realized the video was of his father.?

When the police department found out about the video, the department took to Twitter and asked the public to stop sharing the video. In Dutch, the police?asked, "Anyone who has shared pictures of the?Driehuis?train victim, remove them immediately. It is disrespectful and goes too far!"

It's a good-faith plea, made by a police department savvy in the ways of the Internet, enough to know it was already too late. It was too late 15 minutes after the video first hit Twitter, when the teenage boy who first sent it out into cyberspace deleted his original tweet. It had already been?retweeted countless times. And that is the lesson that Evy Elschot, spokesperson for the Kennemerland police department, hopes people will take away from this incident, instead of the gory details.

"The boy didn't understand the impact of what he had done," Elschot told msnbc.com in a telephone interview. Identifying him only as a teenager between the ages of 14 and 16, Elschot described him choking on tears and shaking with panic when confronted by police. "The boy said he wished he didn't do it, that he could take it back, but of course he couldn't," she said.

The boy tweeted (in Dutch), "I hate myself for what I've done," according to news site RTL.?

Elschot told msnbc.com she regrets the story receiving national attention, resulting in?the inevitable spread of a video that causes pain to a family already suffering. (Msnbc.com will not link to the video.) To protect the family's privacy, she would not share the age of the son who saw his father in the video.?

According to?Elschot, it was a very difficult decision to ask people via Twitter to delete the video.

The Kennemerland police department is very active on Twitter, using the official account to communicate with the public on such things as traffic delays, especially crowded areas at festivals, as well as finding witnesses to crimes and fielding complaints (and compliments) from the public. But by using Twitter to discuss a suicide, the Kennemerland police department went against what Elschot describes as Holland's "gentleman's agreement" to not publicize details about suicides.

Elschot said that it's in consideration for families whose?members?commit suicide,?but this practice also abides by the World Health Organization's recommendations for avoiding suicide contagion ? a phenomenon which affects those already at risk. Train suicides account for 4 to 10 percent of suicides in the Netherlands, the Journal of Affective Disorders reported in 2010.??Such a video going viral could spread contagion as well.

Elschot agrees that there's an important discussion to be had, but not about this family's tragedy.

"This really is about young people and how the world is different," she said. "When I was a kid, I might say some things in my small town without thinking, but we only had the telephone. Someone else might read your letter, and there is embarrassment for awhile, but not the oil spread of information we now have on the Internet. Kids need to understand that and their parents need to tell them."

The American Library Association website offers a variety of resources to help parents and kids navigate the Internet safely and responsibly. ?

If you are thinking about harming yourself or attempting suicide, tell someone who can help right away:

• Call your doctor?s office.
• Call 911 for emergency services.
• Go to the nearest hospital emergency room.
• Visit the website or call the toll-free, 24-hour hotline of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at?1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255)?to be connected to a trained counselor at a suicide crisis center nearest you.

Ask a family member or friend to help you make these calls or take you to the hospital.

Helen A.S. Popkin writes about the Internet. Join her on?Twitter?and/or?Facebook.?Also,?Google+.

Source: http://www.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/technology/technolog/family-tragedy-becomes-public-nightmare-when-death-video-hits-twitter-852115

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Get Money Online At Home - Internet Based Business Articles

Trying to make money on-line at home can be very easy or difficult, based on many diverse aspects and variables. Many home based businesses thrive and make their owners wealthy but some combat for a time and then fold. If a faltering company has had a substantial amount of time and cash invested into it, the outcome can be devastating. It is feasible to develop a profitable enterprise from your house though, as long as certain steps are followed.

Always perform all of the study that is needed before commencing any home based business endeavor. See to it that the designed sector and business design are very well planned out and meticulously created. A common error made by many business men is to hurry into a business without pondering ahead or planning for every conceivable eventuality. Being equipped for unpredicted occurrences can mean the difference between staying in business and failing.

If the goal is to generate income on-line from home then the individual needs to approach this objective sensibly. Everyone wants to earn a lot of money with smaller effort but this is about as likely as winning a lotto. For a home-based business to be prosperous, it must have a noticeable online presence and high search engine rankings. Simply throwing up a standard website and anticipating lots of traffic and income generation is not a sensible plan. Instead develop advertising concepts and possible SEO campaigns to support the business succeed before the business enterprise is ever developed.

Set a realistic time frame and the expected objectives at each point. Some goals may be reached simpler than others. Running commercials in the local newspaper and in on-line journals will help inform consumers of the company, and link building activities can help improve business visibility too. Enticing site visitors to the business can be very difficult in the beginning, and a considerable amount of effort should be put in this way.

Before any business enterprise is initiated the person should know everything possible about each factor of the business structure. This may mean several weeks of research and assessing various types of online business models to determine which one performs best with the individual in question.

Anyone can make money from home if they are dedicated enough and ready to be trained.

Source: http://internetbasedbusinessarticles.com/248733/get-money-online-at-home/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=get-money-online-at-home

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Roberts delivers for president who had opposed him

FILE - In this Oct. 8, 2010 file photo, Chief Justice John Roberts is seen during the group portrait at the Supreme Court Building in Washington. Breaking with the court's other conservative justices, Roberts announced the judgment that allows the law to go forward with its aim of covering more than 30 million uninsured Americans. Roberts explained at length the court's view of the mandate as a valid exercise of Congress' authority to "lay and collect taxes." The administration estimates that roughly 4 million people will pay the penalty rather than buy insurance. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 8, 2010 file photo, Chief Justice John Roberts is seen during the group portrait at the Supreme Court Building in Washington. Breaking with the court's other conservative justices, Roberts announced the judgment that allows the law to go forward with its aim of covering more than 30 million uninsured Americans. Roberts explained at length the court's view of the mandate as a valid exercise of Congress' authority to "lay and collect taxes." The administration estimates that roughly 4 million people will pay the penalty rather than buy insurance. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 27, 2010 file photo, President Barack Obama greets Chief Justice John Roberts before he delivered his State of the Union Address on Capitol Hill in Washington. Breaking with the court's other conservative justices, Roberts announced the judgment that allows the law to go forward with its aim of covering more than 30 million uninsured Americans. Roberts explained at length the court's view of the mandate as a valid exercise of Congress' authority to "lay and collect taxes." The administration estimates that roughly 4 million people will pay the penalty rather than buy insurance. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

This artist rendering shows Chief Justice John Roberts, center, speaking at the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June 28, 2012. From left are, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Elena Kagan. (AP Photo/Dana Verkouteren)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? As a junior senator, Barack Obama voted against John Roberts' nomination to the Supreme Court, fearing he would favor the powerful over the weak.

Now it is Roberts who has saved the signature achievement of Obama's presidency, the health care overhaul, in a ruling that challenges critics' assertions that the chief justice is nothing more than a conservative ideologue.

Roberts had pledged at his 2005 confirmation hearing to act as a judicial umpire, calling balls and strikes without taking sides. On Thursday, he threw conservatives a curveball.

In a 5-4 ruling upholding the health care law, Roberts wrote for the majority that it's not the court's job to decide whether Obama's plan "embodies sound policies. That judgment is entrusted to the nation's elected leaders."

After all the speculation that the Republican-leaning court would strike down the law, Roberts' opinion startled even Paul Clement, the lawyer who had made the case against the law in oral arguments before the high court in March.

"If you told people that there were four solid votes to strike down the whole thing, you know, I think most people ... would have been surprised to find that among the four were Justice (Anthony) Kennedy and not the chief justice," Clement said.

The 57-year-old chief justice hasn't gotten this much attention since he flubbed the oath of office that he administered to Obama on Inauguration Day in 2009. His mangled wording of the inaugural oath prompted a presidential do-over the next day.

Thursday's ruling induced an instant role reversal.

Liberals sang Roberts' praises. Conservatives suddenly were less enamored. Roberts had been their darling since President George W. Bush picked the federal judge to replace Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

For a second time in the court's final week of its term, Roberts had aligned himself with the liberal justices. In a decision Monday, he had voted to invalidate parts of Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigrants.

Roberts "saved the day ? and perhaps the court," in the health care ruling, said Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe, a constitutional scholar who once hired Obama as a research assistant and also had the chief justice as a student.

Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman of California chimed in: "Today I am proud to be a member of the Harvard Law School class of 1979, the class that included Chief Justice Roberts."

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, said Roberts had "acted as the umpire he promised to be."

Republican lawmakers largely focused on their dismay with the ruling, steering clear of its author, although Sen. David Vitter, R-La., accused Roberts of "amazingly rewriting the law in order to uphold it."

Other critics let loose.

A National Review Online editorial, under the title "Roberts's Folly," said the chief justice and his colleagues had "done violence" to the Constitution. Hackers briefly changed Roberts' title on Wikipedia to "Chief Traitor of the United States" and labeled him a "coward." T-shirts declaring "Impeach John Roberts" were soon on sale.

As Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney spoke out strongly against the ruling, his website lagged behind, still promising, "As president, Mitt will nominate judges in the mold of Chief Justice Roberts."

Once the shock at the ruling wore off, the questions about Roberts' motivations began.

Did he do it to salvage the court's image? Was he trying to preserve his legacy?

The court's reputation for impartiality took a major hit with the 5-4 ruling that awarded the presidency to Republican Bush over Democrat Al Gore in 2000. With the court's liberal and conservative justices often sharply divided in recent years, a CBS News-New York Times poll this month found that 76 percent of those surveyed thought the justices were at least sometimes influenced by their own political or personal opinions rather than the law.

The latest numbers from Gallup, which has tracked confidence in the court since 1973, are among the lowest the court has ever received.

William Galston, a former Clinton administration official, wrote that Roberts may have "had one eye focused on jurisprudence and another on the standing of the institution he heads."

But Richard Garnett, a University of Notre Dame law professor and former Supreme Court clerk to Rehnquist, rejected the idea that Roberts was out to please the public.

"Chief Justice Roberts is a guy who is trying hard to get the right answer even in hard cases that have political implications," Garnett said. Still, Garnett said the ruling might help to change public impressions, acknowledging that there was "a narrative that was being set up" painting the court in highly partisan terms.

Michael Dorf, a Cornell University law professor who clerked for Kennedy, said the ruling shouldn't be taken as evidence that Roberts has lost his conservative bent.

"There's no doubt that Roberts is a generally conservative justice," Dorf said. "What this case demonstrates is that he is not simply an ideologue and he was led where the arguments led him."

There was some speculation that Roberts had even thrown a bone to conservatives by going out of his way in the ruling to agree with their position that Congress lacked the power under the Constitution's commerce clause to put the mandate for health insurance in place.

In 2005, Obama, a former constitutional law professor, explained his vote against Roberts' confirmation by saying that the judge was qualified in temperament and scholarship for most of what comes before the high court, but not for those truly difficult cases where "the critical ingredient is supplied by what is in the judge's heart."

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., predicted Roberts' stock with the president is a notch higher these days.

"I bet he gets an engraved Christmas card invitation to the White House," Cole said. "He's pretty popular right now, down there at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."

___

Associated Press writers Laurie Kellman, Donna Cassata, Josh Lederman, Jessica Gresko, Mark Sherman and Deputy Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.

___

Online:

Health care interactive: http://hosted.ap.org/interactives/2012/healthcare

___

Follow Nancy Benac on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/nbenac

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-06-28-Supreme%20Court-Health%20Care-Roberts/id-44bc0ff00699424283ffdf0d25f4f729

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Palm oil giant Felda flies high in IPO

Shares of Malaysian palm oil giant Felda soared as much as 20 percent in their first day of trading yesterday, overcoming weakness in global stock markets after the company completed the world?s biggest initial public offering (IPO) this year after Facebook.

State-backed Felda Global Venture Holdings hit a high of 5.46 ringgit shortly after listing on the main board of Bursa Malaysia, up from its IPO price of 4.55 ringgit. It eased to 5.29 ringgit at the end of the morning session.

Felda?s first-day jump defies sustained weakness in global stock markets and reflects strong investor interest in the world?s third-largest palm oil company.

It also offset worries over a lower-than-expected net profit in the quarter through March.

Felda raised about 10 billion ringgit (US$3.1 billion) in the largest IPO in Asia this year. It is the second-biggest in the world after Facebook, which raised US$16 billion, but suffered a slumping share price after its listing last month. A volatile global economy has led to the shelving of several major IPOs in Asia, including a planned US$2.5 billion share sale by Formula One in Singapore and a US$1.5 billion listing of London-based Graff Diamonds in Hong Kong.

However, Felda?s IPO was supported by 12 institutional investors, including Qatar Investment and French agribusiness giant Louis Dreyfus.

Feldal president Sabri Ahmad said the share price was within expectations. He said Felda, which also plants rubber and sugar cane, would expand in Southeast Asia and Africa.

?Food business is quite resilient in a recession,? he said.

The IPO had met resistance from thousands of ethnic Malay farmers, who partly own the company and fear they would lose out. However, its strong trading debut is expected to help quell concerns and will boost Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is expected to call general elections this year. Felda was set up by the government in the 1950s as part of a rural development plan to alleviate poverty by giving poor Malaysians land to grow cash crops, mainly palm oil and rubber.

Najib has assured the farmers that the listing would be profitable for them, and promised a 1.68 billion ringgit windfall for the farmers and their families. Felda has also allocated 20 percent of its shares to a trust fund for the farmers, who will receive annual dividends, officials said.

The Felda group owns 70 palm oil mills, seven refineries and a string of other manufacturing plants nationwide. It produces about 3 million tonnes of crude palm oil annually, or about 8 percent of world output.

After Felda, Asia?s largest hospital operator, Integrated Healthcare Holdings, is also planning an IPO that could raise as much as 1.9 billion ringgit.

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Ex-Sands exec alleges prostitution in Macau sites

LAS VEGAS (AP) ? The fired former chief executive of Las Vegas Sands Corp.'s Macau casinos alleges in court documents revealed Thursday that billionaire Sheldon Adelson personally approved of prostitution and knew of other improper activity at his company's properties in the Chinese enclave.

Brad Brian, an attorney representing Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Sands China Ltd., called the allegations false and "scurrilous" and claimed they had been included in the civil lawsuit brought by former Sands executive Steven Jacobs only to sensationalize the case.

Adelson, a billionaire philanthropist and casino mogul who owns the Venetian and Palazzo casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, also is a prominent political donor who gave $10 million to a super PAC backing then-presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich and more recently has supported Mitt Romney's bid for the White House.

Jacobs was fired in July 2010 from his role overseeing the Macau properties. He sued the companies and Adelson three months later.

In the lawsuit, he accuses the company and Adelson of breach of contract and of pushing him into illegal activity in Macau, a former Portugese colony near Hong Kong where Sands has established a strong business presence. The company owns the Venetian Macao and Sands Macao casino resorts, the Plaza Macao hotel, restaurant and shopping complex and the newly opened Sands Cotai Central resort with three hotels and two casinos.

In documents revealed Thursday ? including a sworn seven-page declaration that Jacobs submitted along with a summary from his attorneys of problems obtaining documents from Sands ? Jacobs describes an effort he launched after arriving in Macau in May 2009 to rid the casino floor of "loan sharks and prostitution."

"This project was met with concern as (company) senior executives informed me that the prior prostitution strategy had been personally approved by Adelson," Jacobs said in the documents.

In his court filing, Jacobs alleges other documents that haven't been turned over include records of misuse of "blue card' work permits and the hiring of illegal workers in Macau; emails and records of Adelson controlling a "Chairman's Club" allowing favored members, including known or suspected organized crime figures, exclusive access to Sands China's most luxurious accommodations; and email requests from Adelson to a Macau lawmaker who Jacobs said was hired as outside counsel after Jacobs was fired.

Las Vegas Sands spokesman Ron Reese said in a statement that allegations of misconduct and wrongdoing by Jacobs against the company and senior managers are baseless.

"Mr. Adelson has always objected to and maintained a strong policy against prostitution on our properties and any accusation to the contrary represents a blatant and reprehensible personal attack on Mr. Adelson's character," the statement said.

In court, Brian told Clark County District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez that if Jacobs "truly believed that Mr. Adelson had approved prostitution, he would have resigned." Instead, Brian said, Jacobs was fired.

Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman Mark Lipparelli wouldn't say Thursday whether the state regulatory agency is investigating Jacobs' claims against his former employer. The agency doesn't comment on probes, he said.

Jacobs' lawsuit has drawn interest from U.S. Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission investigator for possible violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, according to a filing with the SEC. The law bars American companies from paying foreign officials to "affect or influence any act or decision" for commercial benefit. No charges have been filed.

The company and Adelson deny wrongdoing. They say the investigations stem from allegations by Jacobs. Sands also alleges that Jacobs stole confidential documents that might contain trade secrets.

The case once was scheduled for trial this month, but evidentiary hearings have been postponed amid clashes between the two sides about trading information and documents.

The judge scheduled a July 13 hearing on possible sanctions against the company and its lawyers for failure to disclose to the other side and to her that some documents sought by Jacobs' legal team had been brought from Macau to the U.S. more than a year ago.

Associated Press

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Foreclosures in Bonaire GA 31005 ? June 2012

Looking for an excellent deal on a Foreclosure in Bonaire GA?? If so, check out the available Foreclosures in Bonaire Georgia 31005.

Currently, there are 11 Bonaire?Foreclosures on the market, down 16% from last month.? The available Bonaire REO properties range in price from $59,900 up to $285,000 and square footage from 1,230 up to 3,108.

This month 2 new Bonaire Foreclosures hit the real estate market. The details for these properties are as follows (address, price, heated sq feet, subdivision, year built):

• 108 Ashford Park, $84,800, 1238, Ashford Park, 1990
• 118 Lattice Bend, $249,900, 3108, Sandy Springs, 2006

Buyers, do not delay or you may miss out on the available Foreclosures in Bonaire Georgia!

For a complete list of available Bonaire Georgia Homes For Sale, visit? Homes for Sale in Bonaire or call me at (478) 960-8055 (C) / (478) 953-8595 x227 (O) so we can discuss your housing needs.

Foreclosures in Houston County Georgia

Bonaire GA Foreclosures ? 31005

Byron GA Foreclosures ? 31008

Centerville GA Foreclosures ? 31028

Jeffersonville GA Foreclosures ? 31044

Kathleen GA Foreclosures ? 31047

Perry GA Foreclosures ? 31069

Warner Robins GA Foreclosures ? 31088

Foreclosures in Bonaire Georgia 31005 ??June 2012

View Foreclosures in Bonaire Georgia 31005 ? June 2012 in a larger map

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About Warner Robins Real Estate

Anita Clark has written 660 posts on this blog.

Anita Clark Realtor sells Warner Robins Real Estate and provides community information as a service to the public. You can contact her at (478) 960-8055 or via email at anita@cbssk.com.

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Ancient human ancestors had unique diet

ScienceDaily (June 27, 2012) ? When it came to eating, an upright, 2 million-year-old African hominid had a diet unlike virtually all other known human ancestors, says a study led by the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany and involving the University of Colorado Boulder.

The study indicated that Australopithecus sediba -- a short, gangly hominid that lived in South Africa -- ate harder foods than other early hominids, targeting trees, bushes and fruits. In contrast, virtually all other ancient human ancestors tested from Africa -- including Paranthropus boisei, dubbed "Nutcracker Man" because of its massive jaws and teeth -- focused more on grasses and sedges, said CU-Boulder doctoral student Paul Sandberg, a co-author on the new study.

The A. sediba diet was analyzed using a technique that involved zapping fossilized teeth with a laser, said Sandberg. The laser frees telltale carbon from the enamel of teeth, allowing scientists to pinpoint the types of plants that were consumed and the environments in which the hominids lived. The carbon signals from the teeth are split into two groups: C3 plants like trees, shrubs and bushes preferred by A. sediba, and C4 plants like grasses and sedges consumed by many other early hominids.

The teeth from the two A. sediba individuals analyzed in the study had carbon isotope values outside the range of all 81 previously tested hominids. "The lack of any C4 evidence, and the evidence for the consumption of hard objects, are what make the inferred diet of these individuals compelling," said Sandberg.

"It is an important finding, because diet is one of the fundamental aspects of an animal, one that drives its behavior and ecological niche. As environments change over time because of shifting climates, animals are generally forced to either move or to adapt to their new surroundings," said Sandberg of CU-Boulder's anthropology department.

The researchers concluded from their scientific tests that bark and other fracture-resistant foods were at least a seasonal part of the A. sediba diet. While bark and woody tissues had not been previously documented as a dietary component of any other ancient African hominids, such foods are consumed by many contemporary primates and contain both protein and soluble sugars. The diet of A. sediba may have been similar to that of today's African savanna chimpanzees, Sandberg said.

One unique aspect of the project was the analysis of microscopic, fossilized particles of plant tissue known as phytoliths trapped in ancient tooth tarter, a hardened form of dental plaque, said corresponding study author Amanda Henry of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

"The fact that these phytoliths are preserved in the teeth of 2 million-year-old hominids is remarkable and speaks to the amazing preservation at the site," said Sandberg. "The phytolith data suggest the A. sediba individuals were avoiding the grasses growing in open grasslands that were abundant in the region at the time."

A third, independent line of study -- analyzing microscopic pits and scratches on A. sediba teeth, which reveal what they were eating at the time just prior to death -- also confirmed that at least one of the hominids was eating harder foods, said Sandberg.

A paper on the subject was published online by Nature on June 27. Other paper authors included Professor Matt Sponheimer of CU-Boulder, Peter Ungar of the University of Arkansas, Benjamin Passey of Johns Hopkins University, Lloyd Rossouw of the Bloemfontein National Museum in Bloemfontein, South Africa, Lee Berger and Marion Bamford of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa and Darryl de Ruiter of Texas A&M University.

A. sediba is particularly intriguing to anthropologists. The first two individuals discovered -- a juvenile male and an adult female from the Malapa Cave site roughly 30 miles north of Johannesburg in 2008 --apparently had fallen into a hidden pit in the cave and died. With an upright posture and long arms, the curious creature appears to have characteristics of both primitive and modern hominids, including a human-like ankle, short fingers and a long thumb for possible precision gripping and a relatively complex brain compared to earlier hominids, according to researchers.

The jury is still out on exactly where these hominids land on the family tree. A. sediba may have been a descendant of A. africanus, which was spawned by A. afarensis, a hominid represented by "Lucy" who lived about three million years ago and is considered by many to be the matriarch of the human family.

The A. sediba remains at Malapa were dated to 2 million years by scientists, a precise number obtained by measuring the decay of isotopes of uranium into lead that occurred in a type of mineral deposit known as flowstone that capped the fossil-bearing layer.

Paleontological evidence, including pollen and phytoliths, shows that the region around Malapa likely was a mix of abundant grassland and woody vegetation about 2 million years ago, said Sandberg. The team's carbon isotope research on the ancient teeth of rodents and hooved mammals that inhabited the region at the time indicated they had a strong affinity for C4 grasses and sedges.

"What fascinates me is that these individuals are oddballs," said CU-Boulder's Sponheimer. "I had pretty much convinced myself that after four million years ago most of our hominid kin had diets that were different from living apes, but now I am not so sure. And while our sample is too small to be conclusive, the rate at which Malapa is spewing hominid fossils makes me reasonably certain we won't have to wait another two million years to augment our data set. "

The study was funded in part by the National Science Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution, the Malapa Project at the Institute for Human Evolution at the University of Witwatersrand and the Max Planck Society.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Colorado at Boulder.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Amanda G. Henry, Peter S. Ungar, Benjamin H. Passey, Matt Sponheimer, Lloyd Rossouw, Marion Bamford, Paul Sandberg, Darryl J. de Ruiter, Lee Berger. The diet of Australopithecus sediba. Nature, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nature11185

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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European court upholds most of Microsoft fine

FILE - This set of flagpoles sits at one of the entrances to Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, Wash., in this Oct.19, 1998 file photo. The General Court of the European Union has upheld most of a massive fine against Microsoft Corp. by the European Commission's competition watchdog in 2008. In a ruling Wednesday, June 27, 2012, it rejected Microsoft's appeal but did cut the fine by ?39 million to ?860 million ($1.1 billion). (AP Photo/Joe Brokert, File)

FILE - This set of flagpoles sits at one of the entrances to Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, Wash., in this Oct.19, 1998 file photo. The General Court of the European Union has upheld most of a massive fine against Microsoft Corp. by the European Commission's competition watchdog in 2008. In a ruling Wednesday, June 27, 2012, it rejected Microsoft's appeal but did cut the fine by ?39 million to ?860 million ($1.1 billion). (AP Photo/Joe Brokert, File)

FILE - This set of flagpoles sits at one of the entrances to Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, Wash., in this Oct.19, 1998 file photo. The General Court of the European Union has upheld most of a massive fine against Microsoft Corp. by the European Commission's competition watchdog in 2008. In a ruling Wednesday, June 27, 2012, it rejected Microsoft's appeal but did cut the fine by ?39 million to ?860 million ($1.1 billion). (AP Photo/Joe Brokert, File)

BRUSSELS (AP) ? A European court on Wednesday upheld most of a massive fine levied against Microsoft by the European Commission's competition watchdog, closing a case against the software giant that began in 1998.

In an appeals ruling, the General Court of the European Union rejected Microsoft Corp.'s request to dismiss the fine levied in 2008, but did trim it by ?39 million to ?860 million ($1.1 billion). Counting two earlier fines, the case has wound up costing Microsoft a grand total of ?1.64 billion.

That's the most ever resulting from a single antitrust case in Europe, though in 2009 Intel Corp. was hit with the largest single fine, ?1.09 billion.

The court in Luxembourg said its decision "essentially upholds the Commission's decision and rejects all the arguments put forward by Microsoft in support of annulment."

The ?860 million fine is a "penalty for noncompliance" with the watchdog's 2004 order for Microsoft to make computer programming code available that would allow competitors' products to interface properly with Microsoft's server software.

Microsoft did so, but at a price the Commission said was so exorbitant it amounted to not complying.

The court upheld that finding, but said Microsoft deserved a small break because of a letter the Commission sent in 2005 saying the company didn't have to freely distribute code that wasn't its own and was freely available elsewhere. That letter gave Microsoft some room to think it was okay to continue acting the way it had until 2004, and should have been "taken into account in determining the gravity of the conduct found to be unlawful," the written decision said.

The Commission's top regulator Joaquin Almunia said the judgment "fully vindicates" his office's action against Microsoft and "brought significant benefits to users."

"A range of innovative products that would otherwise not have seen the light of day were introduced on the market," thanks to the Commission, he said.

Microsoft was less enthusiastic.

"Although the General Court slightly reduced the fine, we are disappointed with the Court's ruling," the company said in a statement.

Microsoft was initially fined ?497 along with the 2004 order, then it was penalized another ?280.5 million for noncompliance in 2006, and then another ?899 million in 2008.

The company has already booked provisions for all the fines and penalties and after the ruling it has no active outstanding quarrels with European regulators.

"In 2009 Microsoft entered into a broad understanding with the Commission that resolved its competition law concerns," the company said.

Most notably in the 2009 deal, Microsoft ended an investigation into allegedly abusive practices for bundling its Internet Explorer web browser along with its operating systems. Microsoft agreed to instead offer customers a range of browsers to choose from.

In a sign of the times, Microsoft itself turned to the watchdog in 2012, asking it to investigate Google Inc. for anticompetitive practices. Microsoft alleged that Google was demanding unreasonable fees to license its technologies and asking courts to pull Microsoft products from shelves if they don't pay up. Google shot back with a similar request for the Commission to again investigate Microsoft last month.

Many observers say companies such as Apple Inc., Google and Microsoft are increasingly acting as "patent trolls," using the legal and regulatory systems as tools to thwart competitors as part of their wider struggle for market share.

Almunia said in February "the Commission will continue to keep a close eye on the behavior of all market players in the sector, particularly the increasingly strategic use of patents."

Associated Press

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Hispanics looking for November gains in US House

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Jose Hernandez worked in farm fields with his Mexican-immigrant parents before becoming an astronaut. Iraq War veteran Julius Melendez is the third generation of his Puerto Rican family to serve in the military. And Tony Cardenas, the youngest of 11 children of immigrant farmers from Jalisco, Mexico, has served in the California Assembly and on the Los Angeles City Council.

Next year, all of them could be coming to Congress.

The 2012 election is shaping up as a big one in the House for Hispanics. There are currently 29 in the House ? including a Pacific islands delegate and Puerto Rico's resident commissioner ? according to the Congressional Research Service. That number is virtually guaranteed to increase by at least three or four seats because of once-a-decade redistricting that's created new Hispanic-majority districts in California and Texas. On top of that, Hispanics could win more seats in New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and Florida.

"It's a watershed election for the Latino community," said Rep. Raul Grivalja, D-Ariz. "Our ability to influence decisions is evident and present and our ability to motivate voters is critical."

Hispanics are the fastest-growing group in the United States, increasing in population by more than 15 million between 2000 and 2010, according to U.S. Census data. They make up more than 16 percent of the U.S. population, far more than their share of roughly 5 percent of the seats in the House.

In comparison, there are 44 blacks in the House, including two delegates, according to the CRS, a record number. Blacks comprise roughly 10 percent of the House, compared to about 12 percent of the U.S. population. There are 10 Asian-Americans in the House, according to the CRS, including two delegates, roughly 2 percent of the chamber compared to roughly 5 percent of the U.S. population.

Both parties say Hispanic candidates are pivotal in this year's race for control of the House.

Democrats, who need a net gain of 25 seats to take a majority, say Hispanic candidates could make up a fifth or more of that margin. Republicans, challenging in fewer districts because of their large current majority, have recruited strong Hispanic candidates for a handful of districts seen as opportunities to snatch Democratic seats.

The competition for Hispanic votes in congressional races ? whatever the backgrounds of the candidates they're voting for ? mirrors the presidential contest. While Hispanics as a group have historically favored Democrats, Republican Mitt Romney has indicated he will compete vigorously with President Barack Obama for their support.

Democrats say maximizing Hispanic turnout is a key to electoral success. Republicans, in turn, say chipping away at Democrats' margins with the group is crucial.

Obama injected fresh energy into the competition when he announced he was easing enforcement of immigration laws for hundreds of thousands of younger illegal immigrants and offering them a chance to stay in the U.S. and work. That is expected to motivate more Hispanic voters to turn out for Democrats in November.

California is expected to be the center of Hispanic increases in Congress. Democrats are running two Hispanic candidates likely to win in the fall: Cardenas, a Los Angeles City councilman, and Juan Vargas, a state senator and son of Mexican immigrants. Republican David Valadao, a state assemblyman and son of Portuguese immigrants, is likely to win a GOP-leaning district.

In competitive seats in California, both parties are running Hispanic candidates against incumbents who are not.

Hernandez, the former astronaut, is a Democrat challenging first-term GOP Rep. Jeff Denham in the newly drawn 10th Congressional District. As a child Hernandez helped his parents in the field and went on to study engineering in college. He makes his roots a big part of his appeal to voters, telling the story of how he watched the Apollo 17 launch on TV and his father laid out how he could become an astronaut himself.

"I was able to rise from the fields of California and touch the sky on the space shuttle Discovery as an astronaut," he said when he announced his campaign last October.

Democrats also have high hopes for Raul Ruiz, a medical doctor who grew up in a trailer with his Mexican farmworker parents and has received three graduate degrees from Harvard. Ruiz is running against GOP Rep. Mary Bono Mack, who has been in Congress since 1998. Democrats say the seat will be competitive this fall.

For the GOP, a prominent Hispanic candidate, Abel Maldonado, California's former lieutenant governor, is one of its best chances to pick off an incumbent. Maldonado is running against endangered Democratic Rep. Lois Capps, who has seen her district turn more conservative with redistricting. Maldonado's campaign ads highlight his background ? his parents are Mexican immigrant farmers who eventually built their own farming business ? and show him standing in a strawberry field and talking about what he learned from his father.

In one ad, as the camera pans over California farmland, Maldonado says: "It's time to teach Washington the lessons we've learned growing up."

Hispanic candidates are figuring prominently in other states where the Hispanic population has grown quickly.

In New Mexico, Michelle Lujan Grisham is favored to take the state's 1st Congressional District, after Rep. Martin Heinrich decided to run for the Senate. In Nevada, State Assembly Speaker John Oceguera is taking on GOP Rep. Joe Heck in one of the Democrats' top targeted races. If she wins a crowded primary for Arizona's new 9th Congressional District, Leah Campos Schandlbauer, a former CIA agent, could give Republicans a prominent Hispanic on the ballot in what's likely to be a fiercely contested race.

In Florida, which has an August primary, Democrats have two Hispanic candidates ? businesswoman Gloria Romero Roses, who was born in Colombia, and lawyer Joe Garcia, a Cuban-American ? in the race to take on Republican Rep. David Rivera, a Cuban-American whom Democrats see as vulnerable. Republicans have two prominent Puerto Rican candidates vying to take on former Rep. Alan Grayson in Florida's Orlando-area 9th Congressional District: John "Q'' Quinones, a county commissioner and former state representative, and Melendez, the Iraq War veteran and a member of the local school board. Both are appealing to the district's sizable Hispanic population.

There has been one big disappointment for Hispanic growth in the House in 2012: Texas. It was poised to have the most new Hispanic members, with the state adding four new seats in 2012 thanks to large Hispanic growth. But at most two of the new seats will be represented by Hispanic lawmakers. The state is also losing two long-time Hispanic lawmakers, Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, who is retiring, and Rep. Silvestre Reyes, who lost a primary to a non-Hispanic opponent, though Gonzalez is likely to be replaced by Joaquin Castro, a state lawmaker, Harvard Law graduate and second-generation Mexican-American.

Gonzalez, the chairman of the House Hispanic Caucus, said he still believes Hispanic influence is on the rise in the House, and he noted more Hispanic candidates running in competitive districts in 2012.

"Our power will only increase as time goes on," said Gonzalez. "Because of demographics, as goes the future of the Latino family, so goes the future of the United States."

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Sen. McCaskill won't be the only convention no-show, just one of the more conspicuous (Washington Bureau)

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Feds: For-profits could lose federal student aid

Former students in career-training programs at dozens of for-profit institutions have had so much trouble paying off their loans that the schools could lose access to federal student aid if they don't improve, new data from the U.S. Department of Education finds.

The Education Department reported that at 193 programs at 93 schools, students were unable to meet any of three measures under the agency's new "gainful employment" rule. The new regulations, announced by the Obama administration last year, are aimed at making sure students in career-training programs at for-profit, nonprofit and public institutions are able to get a job and pay off their student loans when they graduate.

The programs include Everest College's paralegal training in Salt Lake City and more than 40 other programs operated by Corinthian Colleges, one of the nation's largest higher education companies; chef training at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Austin, Texas; and the medical assistant program at Sanford-Brown College in McLean, Va.

"Career colleges have a responsibility to prepare people for jobs at a price they can afford," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said. "Schools that cannot meet these very reasonable standards are on notice: invest in your students' success, or taxpayers can no longer invest in you."

The Education Department considers former students "gainfully employed" if the program they participated in meets one of three metrics: The estimated annual loan payments for a typical graduate does not exceed 30 percent of his or her discretionary income or 12 percent of total earnings; or at least 35 percent of former students are repaying their loans.

"These aren't the strictest standards to live up to," said Stephen Burd, a senior policy analyst at the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan public policy institute. That there are programs at 93 schools that don't meet any of the three "should raise alarms, and the fact we aren't doing anything about them for a long while from now is worrisome."

Steve Gunderson, president and CEO of the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, which represents for-profits, said the department's regulation doesn't accurately measure the services provided by career colleges and could result in thousands of students losing access to postsecondary education.

"America faces a demand for eight to 23 million workers with postsecondary education over the next decade, but this regulation seeks to only impose a series of faulty numerical measures that ignore the economic reality of inner-city and rural areas, education's long-term benefits and the will of the Congress," he said.

He said some schools have not received rates for all of their programs and that there have been reports that student and loan files are incorrect and that the department does not have the right data on the amount of federal debt for students or schools.

Twelve percent of all students in higher education attend a for-profit institution, yet they represent 46 percent of all student loan dollars in default. While students who attend community colleges usually do not have to borrow money to enroll, the median federal student loan debt for a student earning an associate's degree at a for-profit was $14,000.

Meanwhile, for more than a quarter of for-profit schools, 80 percent of their revenue consists of federal student aid, the Department of Education said in announcing the finalized rule last year.

Many non-traditional, adult students attend for-profit schools because of their flexible schedules, but critics say they have weaker student outcomes and that quality varies widely. Twenty-eight percent of students who enrolled in a bachelor's degree program at private, for-profit institutions in the fall of 2004 graduated within six years. The six-year graduation rate for a student at a private nonprofit institution, meanwhile, was double, at 65 percent. At public institutions, the graduation rate was 56 percent.

The department has estimated 8 percent of all career programs would fail to meet the three benchmarks at some point in time, while only 2 percent would eventually lose student aid eligibility.

The data being released Wednesday covers 3,695 programs in 1,335 schools over a two-year period. Of those, 35 percent met all three measurements; 31 percent met two; 29 percent met one and 5 percent did not meet any of the three metrics.

Kent Jenkins Jr., a spokesman for Corinthian Colleges, said the vast majority of their programs are in compliance with the regulation. He said that the department evaluated 637 of their training programs and that 93 percent complied with the regulation.

Of those that failed all three metrics, Jenkins said they have eliminated or are in the process of eliminating 13. He said they believe another 21 programs would be in compliance using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"That leaves a very small number of programs with issues, and we will of course take actions to address those," Jenkins said.

Burd said many had expected the number who failed all three of the benchmarks to be much higher. Nonetheless, he said the data raises serious questions about the quality of training that students are receiving at institutions that didn't meet any of the benchmarks.

"If we're seeing they're failing all three metrics and we're not taking any action related to that, it's putting students in harm's way," he said.

All of the data to be released Wednesday is strictly for informational purposes and to give the schools an opportunity to review and work on improving their student outcomes, the department said. Enforcement will begin this fall, though schools would need to fail for three out of four years in order to lose access to federal student aid.

___

Follow Christine Armario on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/cearmario

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Israel jittery after Brotherhood victory in Egypt

Gaza's Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, center, waves the Palestinian and Egyptian flags during celebrations of the victory of Mohammed Morsi in the Egyptian presidential elections, in Gaza City, Sunday, June 24, 2012. The Muslim Brotherhood victory in Egyptian presidential elections raises fears in Israel that the historic 1979 peace agreement with its southern neighbor is now in danger, a scenario that would have grave implications for regional security. But in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, ecstatic residents flock to the streets, fire guns into the air and distribute candies in celebration, hopeful that Mohammed Morsi's election will usher in a new era for the blockaded seaside territory. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Gaza's Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, center, waves the Palestinian and Egyptian flags during celebrations of the victory of Mohammed Morsi in the Egyptian presidential elections, in Gaza City, Sunday, June 24, 2012. The Muslim Brotherhood victory in Egyptian presidential elections raises fears in Israel that the historic 1979 peace agreement with its southern neighbor is now in danger, a scenario that would have grave implications for regional security. But in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, ecstatic residents flock to the streets, fire guns into the air and distribute candies in celebration, hopeful that Mohammed Morsi's election will usher in a new era for the blockaded seaside territory. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in his Jerusalem office, Sunday, June 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner, Pool)

Palestinians wave green Islamic flags that represent Hamas and the Egyptian national flag as they celebrate the victory of Mohammed Morsi in the Egyptian presidential elections, in Gaza City, Sunday, June 24, 2012. The Muslim Brotherhood victory in Egyptian presidential elections raises fears in Israel that the historic 1979 peace agreement with its southern neighbor is now in danger, a scenario that would have grave implications for regional security. But in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, ecstatic residents flock to the streets, fire guns into the air and distribute candies in celebration, hopeful that Mohammed Morsi?s election will usher in a new era for the blockaded seaside territory. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Palestinians wave green Islamic flags that represent Hamas and the Egyptian national flag as they celebrate the victory of Mohammed Morsi in the Egyptian presidential elections, in Gaza City, Sunday, June 24, 2012. The Muslim Brotherhood victory in Egyptian presidential elections raises fears in Israel that the historic 1979 peace agreement with its southern neighbor is now in danger, a scenario that would have grave implications for regional security. But in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, ecstatic residents flock to the streets, fire guns into the air and distribute candies in celebration, hopeful that Morsi's election will usher in a new era for the blockaded seaside territory. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

JERUSALEM (AP) ? The Muslim Brotherhood victory in Egyptian presidential elections, announced Sunday, has raised fears in Israel that its strategic 1979 peace agreement with its southern neighbor could be in danger.

In contrast, in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, ecstatic residents flocked into the streets, fired guns in the air and handed out candy in celebration.

Israel's peace agreement with Egypt, its first with an Arab country, is a cornerstone of Israeli security. The agreement ended decades of hostilities, with to five wars and thousands of deaths.

While relations have never been warm, Egypt has upheld the deal, keeping its bordering Sinai peninsula largely demilitarized, allowing the Israeli military to focus on other hostile borders with the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon.

In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he respected the results of Egypt's democratic process and hoped the peace agreement would remain intact.

"Israel expects to continue cooperation with the Egyptian government on the basis of the peace agreement between the two countries, which is of interest to the two peoples and contributes to regional stability," he said.

With the Egyptian military still the ultimate power in Egypt, senior Israeli defense officials who maintain contacts with Egypt said Sunday that they do not expect any immediate changes in relations. Over the long term, they warned, the Brotherhood may seek to cancel the peace agreement. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing a sensitive security assessment.

The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, is a pan-Arabic movement that favors creation of a Muslim state that encompasses the entire Middle East. It has never given up that goal, but as it gains official power in Egypt, winning parliamentary elections and now the presidency, it has indicated pragmatic willingness to accept the existence of Israel.

Addressing his nation Sunday evening, Morsi declared he had a "message of peace. We will respect all international agreements," he said, without mentioning Israel.

Although some Brotherhood leaders have said they will never meet with an Israeli official, they have been careful to say they would not cancel the treaty. Like many other Egyptians, they favor amendments ? primarily to allow more Egyptian troops into the Sinai. Israel has already permitted an increase of troops there, demanding that Egypt bring violent extremists under control.

Armed gangs are believed to control wide swaths of territory, smugglers have helped thousands of African migrant workers sneak into Israel and various Arab militant groups, some believed to have ties to al-Qaida, operate freely.

Eli Shaked, a former Israeli ambassador to Egypt, said the Egyptians would "have a lot to lose" if they canceled the peace, including Western investment and billions of dollars in U.S. aid. Even so, he warned, the treaty was not safe.

In the Gaza Strip, tens of thousands of joyous Palestinians took to the streets across the territory after the result was announced.

Gunmen fired automatic weapons in the air, and mosque loudspeakers reverberated with prayers. Some revelers handed out candy on street corners.

The celebrations were marred when one person was killed and six others wounded by celebratory gunfire.

Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood's ascent to power in Egypt has raised hopes that Gaza's relations with its powerful southern neighbor will improve.

"Today is new era for us in Gaza. The days of suffering due to the Egyptian authorities are over, said Rawhi Talab, 51, a food store owner.

Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar told a rally in downtown Gaza that "the heart of Jerusalem has started to beat again," adding, "We are not asking Egypt to fight on our behalf." Hamas does not recognize Israel.

Mubarak collaborated with Israel in a blockade of Gaza. The blockade, first imposed after Hamas-linked gunmen captured an Israeli soldier in 2006, was tightened the following year when Hamas violently seized power in the seaside strip.

Israel said the blockade was needed to prevent arms shipments to Hamas. Under heavy international pressure, Israel lifted some limits two years ago and Egypt eased travel restrictions after Mubarak's ouster.

Morsi has not yet said what plans he has for dealing with Gaza, which shares a 15-kilometer (nine-mile) border with Egypt, which ruled Gaza from 1948 to 1967.

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh phoned Morsi to congratulate him on becoming Egypt's first Islamist president. "This is a victory for all Arabs and Muslims, and this is God's promise to his believers," the Hamas leader said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a secular leader who governs in the West Bank, also congratulated Morsi. "The president expressed his respect for the choice of the great Egyptian people," according to a statement from the official Wafa news agency.

The leaders of Kuwait and Bahrain sent cables to Morsi congratulating him, according to statements carried by their official news agencies.

___

Barzak reported from Gaza City, Gaza Strip. Ian Deitch and Blake Sobczak in Jerusalem, Mark Lavie in Cairo, Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, and Adam Schreck in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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