After first three fighters are over, UFC 156 fighters make weight

The start of the UFC 156 weigh-ins was shaky, as the first three fighters were overweight. Was there a problem with the scale provided by the Nevada State Athletic Commission? Nah, the first three fighters were just overweight. Everyone else on the card made weight with no trouble. Yves Edwards even weighed in while eating a Snickers bar. Here are the complete weigh-in results, thanks to MMA Junkie.

MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)
? Champ Jose Aldo (145) vs. Frankie Edgar (144)
? Rashad Evans (206) vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (206)
? Alistair Overeem (264) vs. Antonio Silva (262)
? Jon Fitch (171) vs. Demian Maia (170)
? Joseph Benavidez (126) vs. Ian McCall (125)
PRELIMINARY CARD (FX, 8 p.m. ET)
? Evan Dunham (155) vs. Gleison Tibau (155)
? Jay Hieron (168) vs. Tyron Woodley (170)
? Bobby Green (155) vs. Jacob Volkmann (156)
? Yves Edwards (155) vs. Isaac Vallie-Flagg (156)
PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook, 7 p.m. ET)
? Chico Camus (134) vs. Dustin Kimura (139.5)
? Edwin Figueroa (137.5) vs. Francisco Rivera (137)

A UFC spokesperson said Kimura will not weigh in again. He will be fined 20 percent of his purse. Figueroa weighed in again and was 136. Rivera still has time to make weight.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/first-three-fighters-over-ufc-156-fighters-weight-011305149--mma.html

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New Orleans: A tale of 2 cities since Katrina

In this Jan. 31, 2013 photo, a front porch stands alone where a house once was in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, a neighborhood that was heavily damaged by floodwaters from a levee break after Hurricane Katrina. The glittering party in the French Quarter is going stronger than ever. But as revelers celebrate the ultimate comeback from those dark days in 2005, there are still areas of New Orleans that do not look much different than they did right after Hurricane Katrina swept through. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

In this Jan. 31, 2013 photo, a front porch stands alone where a house once was in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, a neighborhood that was heavily damaged by floodwaters from a levee break after Hurricane Katrina. The glittering party in the French Quarter is going stronger than ever. But as revelers celebrate the ultimate comeback from those dark days in 2005, there are still areas of New Orleans that do not look much different than they did right after Hurricane Katrina swept through. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

In this Jan. 31, 2013, photo, overgrown vegetation surrounds a damaged house at dusk in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, a neighborhood that was hit hard by floodwaters from a levee break after Hurricane Katrina. The glittering party in the French Quarter is going stronger than ever. But as revelers celebrate the ultimate comeback from those dark days in 2005, there are still areas of New Orleans that do not look much different than they did right after Hurricane Katrina swept through. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

In this Jan. 31, 2013, photo, the shell of a damaged building sits vacant in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, a neighborhood that was hit hard by floodwaters from a levee break after Hurricane Katrina. The glittering party in the French Quarter is going stronger than ever. But as revelers celebrate the ultimate comeback from those dark days in 2005, there are still areas of New Orleans that do not look much different than they did right after Hurricane Katrina swept through. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

In this Jan. 31, 2013, photo, damaged houses sit vacant in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, a neighborhood that was hit hard by floodwaters from a levee break after Hurricane Katrina. The glittering party in the French Quarter is going stronger than ever. But as revelers celebrate the ultimate comeback from those dark days in 2005, there are still areas of New Orleans that do not look much different than they did right after Hurricane Katrina swept through. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

In this Jan. 31, 2013 photo, dogs walk on an empty street past lots where buildings once stood in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, a neighborhood that was heavily damaged by floodwaters from a levee break after Hurricane Katrina. The glittering party in the French Quarter is going stronger than ever. But as revelers celebrate the ultimate comeback from those dark days in 2005, there are still areas of New Orleans that do not look much different than they did right after Hurricane Katrina swept through. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? While a blimp hovers not too far in the distance, circling over tens of thousands of Super Bowl revelers, Christopher Weaver looks around at the neighborhood where he was born and raised and almost died.

He loves this place, probably more now than he did back in 2005, before Hurricane Katrina tried to wash it all away.

But it's not much to look at, that's for sure.

"You can see it for yourself," Weaver moaned to a reporter, staring Friday at all the vacant lots, overrun with weeds that are taller than he is, at all the abandoned shells of former homes, many of them still marked with the spray-painted "X'' that became the grim symbol of a great American city nearly wiped off the map.

"I'm going to be honest with you," he went on. "It sucks here. Just look across the street. Nothing. Look over there. Nothing."

In many ways, New Orleans has come back stronger than ever since Katrina. The restaurant scene is thriving. The hotels are packed. The Superdome has received a glamorous makeover. The French Quarter rocks into the wee hours night after night.

But, as the Big Easy prepares to host the party-slash-national holiday it does like no other, Super Bowl Sunday, it's worth remembering that life has not yet returned to normal for everyone here.

Not even close.

"It's like a tale of two cities," said Mike Miller, who works with the homeless group Unity of Greater New Orleans. "It's hard to believe that seven years later, it still looks like this."

Just a short ride from the French Quarter, in historic neighborhoods such as Treme and the Ninth Ward, it's not hard to find a virtual time capsule from the days when Katrina roared ashore. On block after block, there are structures that look pretty much the same as they did after the water receded.

There are the telltale markings that show just how high it climbed when the levees cracked ? 3 feet on this crumbling house, 5 feet on those remains of a shopping mall, 7 feet on that ghostly apartment complex. Those Xs still mark the date many of them were searched, who did the searching and how many bodies, if any, were found inside.

Where kids once played and neighbors used to hang out together, now all that remains could easily pass for a former war zone.

"It's just hard to believe that every abandoned house, every abandoned apartment, represents a family that never came back," Miller said, shaking his head.

Even after all these years, it all looks so familiar to anyone who remembers those horrific images of people clinging to rooftops and huddled on bridges, waiting desperately for help to arrive.

"You can still see," said Travers Kurr, also with Unity of Greater New Orleans, pointing toward the roof of a boarded-up house, "where people busted out of their attics so they could be rescued."

Weaver was one of those who barely got out alive.

When Katrina struck, he was looking out a window toward the levee about a block away, the one that was supposed to keep him safe. Instead, he watched it tear apart right before his eyes ? and the water come rushing through.

He tried to escape the conventional way, but the pressure from winds howling at well over 100 mph prevented him from opening the door. He busted a window and climbed out, only to get pinned against the wall of his house by the rapidly rising waters. Finally, he went under, sure he was going to die. He held his breath and remembered what his grandmother told him, to always pray to God to forgive his sins.

"Suddenly, something shot me away from that house," Weaver said, convinced beyond any doubt that he's still alive today only because of a higher power.

A neighbor pulled him to safety using a strand of Christmas lights. After 2? days on a rooftop, they were finally rescued. Weaver still has a nasty scar of his right leg from a cut he got while being tossed about in the turbulent waters.

Despite the unthinkable carnage in the Lower Ninth Ward, Weaver never had any doubt he would return and rebuild, even if it's now clear that so many of his former neighbors and fellow survivors won't be following his lead.

"I was born and raised right here," he said. "If Katrina comes back again, I'm still not leaving."

Miller estimates there are more than 10,000 ? and maybe as many as 15,000 ? abandoned structures in the New Orleans metro area. Many of them have been commandeered by the city's large homeless population, who slip away in the light of day but leave behind evidence of their existence ? dirty clothes scattered about, a bedroll where they slept, empty cans and plastic foam containers from what passed for a meal.

As he drives around the areas that won't be found in any tourism brochures, another member of his team, New Orleans native Clarence White, rattles off what used to be here, what used to be there.

"That was a popular bar room over there," White said, turning to his left. "There used to be a drug store over there," he said, shifting his gaze to the right.

The NFL, as it now does in all Super Bowl cities, has set aside Saturday as a day of service, in which volunteers will take part in the renovation of five local playgrounds and their surrounding communities. That gesture will surely be more poignant in New Orleans than any other place where the championship game is held.

But Baltimore Ravens safety Ed Reed, a native of nearby St. Rose, is keenly aware that it will take far more than a few hours to get this city ? this entire city ? back on its feet.

"When I get home, I drive around the city, go to some of my old spots, just hang out with people," he said. "You see the city is rebuilding, but we've still got a long way to go. It's just different, man. You have so many people that were lost. The spirit was kind of broken for a second. But New Orleans people, we've been through a lot. We love our city, man. We love to have a good time. We love for people to come have a great time with us."

Even amid the lingering devastation, there are hopeful signs of progress. In the Lower Ninth Ward, for instance, construction workers were on the scene Friday at several odd-shaped, energy-efficient homes going up with funding from a group led by actor Brad Pitt.

"I appreciate everything he's doing," Weaver said, though he quickly added that the remnants of Katrina are far, far more prevalent in this part of New Orleans.

Through all the hardship, Weaver doesn't seem the least bit bitter about his plight. He's proud the Super Bowl has returned to his hometown for the first time since Katrina, and he'll be pulling hard for the Ravens to beat the San Francisco 49ers. This being New Orleans, the occasion will be marked with adult beverages and plenty of food ? gumbo, red beans and rice, a big pot of crawfish.

But, for all those Super Bowl revelers who might think everything has returned to normal in the Big Easy, Weaver has this message:

"Come on over here where I'm at."

It's not far away at all.

___

Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963

___

Online: http://pro32.ap.org/super-bowl-watch and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-02-01-Super%20Bowl-Still%20Rebuilding/id-01c85d3bead64fac990b90ac1cf93ad4

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Legislative Long Session Kicks Off! What Might the Session Hold For ...

Posted on February 1, 2013 by mahanjk

This week marks the beginning of the North Carolina General Assembly?long session, which typically lasts from the end of January to sometime in June/July.? Lawmakers arrived for work in Raleigh over the last two weeks and began organizing for the session, with new legislators receiving training.? There are a LOT of new folks ? of the 170 legislators, 80 are serving in their first or second term.? They began hearing bills starting on January 31, and already leadership in the House and Senate have been discussing policy priorities, prior to bills being filed. We are likely to see proposals for tax reforms, changes to education, voter identification, overhauling unemployment compensation and reigning in Medicaid.

The Autism Society of North Carolina has its own set of public policy targets. These targets promote public policies that enhance the lives of individuals on the autism spectrum and their families. The targets are updated each year based on community feedback.? Though we work to promote these targets with our legislators, some issues get more attention than others in any given year. With the stated priorities of this new General Assembly, what might the session hold for those with Autism Spectrum Disorder?

1. Raising Autism Insurance Standards: The Autism Society of North Carolina, working in partnership with Autism Speaks, has been meeting with legislative leadership to encourage the state to adopt better insurance standards for those with autism. Expect legislation on insurance to be filed this session and to move forward through the committee process.
2. Expanded Opportunities for Children on the Spectrum to Attend Non-Public Schools: Legislation passed two sessions ago gave some families of children with disabilities a tax credit?for moving to home schools or private schools. ?As part of education reforms, legislators are looking at scholarship programs that would open this opportunity to more families and make the program easier to use.
3. Protections for People with Disabilities to Exercise Their Rights to Vote: Voter identification laws can have the unintended consequence of making it more difficult for people with disabilities, including those on the autism spectrum, to exercise their voting rights. Because some people do not drive, or have limited funds, or have difficulty getting needed paperwork to access photo identification, expect that lawmakers will make adjustments to voter ID proposals to accommodate people with disabilities. [Questions about voting rights? Disability Rights NC has an info page here.]
4. Changes to Medicaid: It?s difficult to predict what lawmakers will do with North Carolina?s Medicaid system, a $13 billion set of programs that provide health care and supportive services to people with disabilities, including those on CAP and Innovations. The Autism Society of North Carolina continues to emphasize the benefits of Medicaid services in assisting people to be able to live and participate in their communities. We hope lawmakers will see these programs as effective investments in communities for those on the autism spectrum, though it is looking more likely that lawmakers will not expand Medicaid this year to cover an estimated 500,000 low income people, including those with disabilities trying to return to work.
5. A Short Term and Long Term Fix for ?The Group Home Problem:? Language changes in the last days of the budget process in 2012 left group homes for people with developmental disabilities and mental illness without the ability to access funds to keep operating after the legislature made changes to who could receive personal care services. One of the first bills passed this session, House Bill 5, makes sure those homes can remain funded through the end of the fiscal year. The bill now moves to the Senate. Proposals for a long term fix for group homes, adult care homes, and special care units will likely be up for discussion in the coming months.
6. The Budget: Numerous programs that are used by people with autism and their families are funded by the state?s budget ? everything from special education services in schools, to? Medicaid waiver one-on-one supports, to state developmental disability center crisis programs. Over the last few years NC has cut funds for programs that served people who do not qualify for Medicaid, as well as frozen spending for Medicaid waiver programs, a trend that has left thousands on waiting lists for help. The new Governor will propose his budget priorities this spring.? Then the NC Senate will develop the first budget bill this year, with the House responding with their budget bill. ASNC will report more specific news on the budget once appropriations committees begin meeting and talking.

What can you do?

1. Stay Informed: Subscribe to the ASNC blog, sign up for our e-newsletters and alerts.
2. Talk to Your ?Legislator: You can write, email, call, or visit. ASNC encourages you to share your story about autism spectrum disorder, how it affects you, your family or those you care about. We have tips for making that contact and we are glad to help you or your local chapter set up a meeting with your state legislators. You can find out who represents you here.
3. Respond to Calls for Action: Periodically ASNC will ask those in our network to respond with action. We don?t ask often, so when we do, you know we really need your help!

If you have questions about these issues, or other public policy issues for people on the autism spectrum and their families, please contact Jennifer Mahan, Director of Advocacy and Public Policy at 919-865-5068 or at jmahan@autismsociety-nc.org. if you need one-on-one advocacy help from one of our Parent Advocates, ?please see the map?to find those for your region. To connect with other parents, find a local Chapter or Support Group.

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Filed under: Advocacy, Autism, Legislative/Policy Issues Tagged: | Advocacy, autism advocacy, autism insurance, autism legislation, Group Homes, legislation, medicaid, North Carolina General Assembly, public policy, state budget

Source: http://autismsocietyofnc.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/legislative-long-session-kicks-off-what-might-the-session-hold-for-people-on-the-spectrum/

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Genome-wide atlas of gene enhancers in the brain online

Friday, February 1, 2013

Future research into the underlying causes of neurological disorders such as autism, epilepsy and schizophrenia, should greatly benefit from a first-of-its-kind atlas of gene-enhancers in the cerebrum (telencephalon). This new atlas, developed by a team led by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is a publicly accessible Web-based collection of data that identifies and locates thousands of gene-regulating elements in a region of the brain that is of critical importance for cognition, motor functions and emotion.

"Understanding how the brain develops and functions, and how it malfunctions in neurological disorders, remains one of the most daunting challenges in contemporary science," says Axel Visel, a geneticist with Berkeley Lab's Genomics Division. "We've created a genome-wide digital atlas of gene enhancers in the human brain - the switches that tell genes when and where they need to be switched on or off. This enhancer atlas will enable other scientists to study in more detail how individual genes are regulated during development of the brain, and how genetic mutations may impact human neurological disorders."

Visel is the corresponding author of a paper in the journal Cell that describes this work. The paper is titled "A High-Resolution Enhancer Atlas of the Developing Telencephalon." (See below for a list of co-authors.)

The cerebrum is the most highly developed region of the human brain. It houses the cerebral cortex, the so-called "gray matter" where complex information processing events take place, and the basal ganglia, a brain region that helps control movement throughout the body and is involved in certain types of learning. Many of the genes responsible for development of the cerebrum have been identified but most of the DNA elements responsible for expressing these genes - turning them on/off - have not. This is especially true for gene enhancers, sequences of DNA that act to amplify the expression of a specific gene. Characterizing gene enhancers tends to be difficult because an enhancer does not have to be located directly adjacent to the gene it is enhancing, but can in fact be located hundreds of thousands of DNA basepairs away.

"In addition to acting over long distances and being located upstream, downstream or in introns of protein-coding genes, the sequence features of gene enhancers are poorly understood," Visel says. "However, gene-centric studies have provided strong evidence that gene enhancers are critical for normal embryonic development of the brain and have also linked human diseases to perturbed enhancer sequences."

Visel and an international team of researchers met the challenges of systematic identification and functional characterization of gene enhancers in the cerebrum through a combination of ChIP-seq studies and large-scale histological analyses in transgenic mice, in which the activity patterns of human telencephalon enhancers can be studied. ChIP-seq, which stands for "chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing," is a technique for genome-wide profiling of proteins that interact with DNA.

This combination of approaches enabled Visel and his colleagues to identify over 4,600 candidate embryonic forebrain enhancers. Furthermore, studying mouse embryos they mapped the activity of 145 of these enhancers at high resolution to define where exactly in the developing brain they drive the expression of their respective target genes. The result is a comprehensive, electronically accessible database for investigating the gene regulatory mechanisms of cerebrum development, and for studying the roles of distant-acting enhancers in neurodevelopmental disorders.

"By mapping hundreds of gene enhancer sequences and defining where exactly in the developing brain they are active, our enhancer atlas provides important information to connect non-coding mutations to actual biological functions," Visel says.

As an example of how the enhancer atlas could be used in this manner, Visel says that if through genetic studies a certain region of the human genome has been linked to a specific neurological disorder but that region does not contain any protein-coding genes, checking the atlas could reveal whether the region is home to any distant-acting gene enhancers.

"If there is a gene enhancer in the region," Visel says, "researchers could determine exactly how the enhancer or a mutated form is related to the disorder. This encompasses a lot of territory in the human genome. More than half of all the disease-related DNA sequence changes discovered in genome-wide screens to date fall within the 98-percent of human genome sequences that do not code for proteins. These 'non-coding' sequences were once dismissed by many as 'junk DNA' but are now known to harbor critical gene regulatory functions."

Visel says the enhancer atlas also provides a "molecular toolbox" that can be used to re-locate the expression of certain genes to specific regions of the brain in experimental applications. This could help researchers gain new insights into how the brain develops and how the human brain has evolved.

"The evolution of the gene regulatory architecture may have been one of the drivers of the extremely advanced brains that we see in primates in general and humans in particular," he says.

While continuing to map and annotate additional enhancers, Visel and his colleagues are now also studying the biological mechanisms related to some of these enhancers in more detail.

"We still only partially understand how gene enhancers work in the context of a living brain, i.e., what proteins bind to them, how mutations change their function, and what exactly the role of these sequences is in the context of human neurological disorders," Visel says. "Clearly, there is more work to do."

###

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: http://www.lbl.gov

Thanks to DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126586/Genome_wide_atlas_of_gene_enhancers_in_the_brain_online

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Suicide bomber attacks Pakistani mosque, 21 dead

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) ? A suicide bomber detonated his explosives outside a Shiite mosque in northwestern Pakistan as worshippers were leaving Friday prayers, killing at least 21 people and wounding 36 in the latest apparent sectarian attack in the country, police said.

Shiite Muslims in Pakistan have increasingly been targeted by radical Sunnis who consider them heretics, and 2012 was the bloodiest year for the minority sect in the country's history.

The attack on the mosque took place in the town of Hangu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which has experienced previous clashes between the Sunni and Shiite communities that live there.

The bomber staged his attack at one of the mosque's exits leading to a bazaar, said Hangu police chief Mian Mohammad Saeed.

The blast damaged several small shops and peppered a wall with shrapnel, leaving scores of pockmarks, according to local TV footage. Ambulances rushed in to pick up the dead and wounded, as police tried to keep back onlookers in the crowded bazaar.

At least 21 people were killed and 36 wounded, said Saeed. One policeman who was guarding the mosque was killed and another was injured, he said.

Most of the dead and wounded were Shiites, but some of the casualties were also from the country's majority sect since there is a Sunni mosque nearby, said another police officer, Naeem Khan.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but suspicion will likely fall on the Pakistani Taliban or Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which have both carried out bombings against Shiites.

The worst sectarian violence in Pakistan in recent years has been in southwestern Baluchistan province, which has the largest concentration of Shiites in the country. A twin bombing last month at a billiards hall in the provincial capital, Quetta, killed 86 people, most of them Shiites.

According to Human Rights Watch, more than 400 Shiites were killed in targeted attacks in Pakistan in 2012, including over 120 in Baluchistan.

Sectarian militant groups, such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, have increased their strength through alliances with al-Qaida and the Pakistani Taliban, which has been waging a bloody insurgency against the government for the past several years.

Rights organizations have criticized the Pakistani government for not doing enough to crack down on the attacks against Shiites.

Pakistan's intelligence agencies helped nurture Sunni militant groups like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in the 1980s, to counter a perceived threat from neighboring Iran, which is mostly Shiite. Pakistan banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in 2001, but the group continues to operate fairly freely.

___

Associated Press writer Hussain Afzal contributed to this report from Parachinar, Pakistan.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/suicide-bomber-attacks-pakistani-mosque-21-dead-105649934.html

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PolitiFact: Sunrise mayor?s statement about Baker Act half-true

Following the shooting at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Conn., Sunrise Mayor Mike Ryan has become one of the leading advocates in Broward County for changing laws to improve school safety.

Ryan called for several gun control measures, including the need to address mental health and guns, in the political blog browardbeat.com.

?Now someone committed involuntarily for 72 hours under the ?Baker Act? (as a danger to themselves or others) will have their guns returned to them by the police automatically and immediately upon discharge after 72 hours AND their commitment is never entered into a background check database,? said Ryan. ?As a result, there is also no impediment or second thought given to someone being released and purchasing a gun.?

Ryan?s claim, made in a guest column for the blog on Jan. 14, suggests that it?s a cinch for someone ?committed? under the Baker Act to reclaim their guns and then stay off lists that would ban them from getting a new one. We decided to check it out.

Under the Baker Act, law enforcement can take someone against his or her will to a facility for a mental health evaluation if the person is a danger to themselves or others. A person can?t be held involuntarily for longer than 72 hours, but a medical expert needs to examine the person and sign off on his or her release.

The simple act of being held under the Baker Act doesn?t mean the person is mentally ill or in need of commitment. In 2010, less than 1 percent of about 140,000 involuntary examinations led to involuntary placement in a mental health treatment facility, according to the Florida Department of Children and Families. (That number doesn?t account for people who voluntarily remained in facilities.)

We couldn?t find data regarding how often someone who is Baker Acted has a firearm taken.

?Most individuals don?t have weapons at the time of the Baker Act,? said Miami-Dade County Judge Steve Leifman, who chairs judicial committees on mental health.

But interviews with attorneys, law enforcement officers and experts on the Baker Act revealed that it does happen.

Whether the law enforcement agency takes the gun for safekeeping depends on the specific case, they said.

For example, if a wife reports that her husband is despondent and has a gun and he is Baker Acted at home, police would take the gun, said Col. Jim Previtera of the Hillsborough County Sheriff?s Office. But if someone is Baker Acted on the street and didn?t have a gun with him, the sheriff?s office wouldn?t go to the home and seize the gun.

For evidence of Ryan?s claim, he pointed us to a 2009 Florida attorney general?s opinion. It specifically states that law-abiding people who are released under the Baker Act should get their guns back.

?In the absence of an arrest and criminal charge against the person sent for evaluation under Florida?s Baker Act, [law enforcement] may not retain firearms confiscated from such persons and retained by that office,? concluded then Attorney General Bill McCollum.

The opinion didn?t outline procedures for gun retrieval. So in practice, that means ?there is absolutely no consistency around the state in how this is being practiced,? said former state Baker Act director Martha Lenderman, who now trains law enforcement.

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/30/3209180/politifact-sunrise-mayors-statement.html

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Economic jitters compete with Obama agenda

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Just as President Barack Obama is pushing new initiatives on gun control and immigration, the gloomy old problem of a sluggish economy is elbowing its way back into prominence. Consumer confidence is falling, the economy is contracting and large automatic spending cuts are threatening to hit the Pentagon and other programs, with uncertain consequences.

These troubles arise as Obama's public approval is improving and as he begins to use his sway to promote the key features of his second-term agenda. The White House, the Federal Reserve and independent economists attributed the shrinkage in gross domestic product and the drop in consumer confidence to one-time events and said underlying economic factors were still showing encouraging signs.

But in politics, power resides in the moment. Any immediate economic setback ? or the perception of one ? could weaken Obama's clout or at least distract him as he carefully tries to put his imprint on initiatives dealing with immigration and gun violence.

At the White House, there was no evidence of a course alteration. And White House officials expressed confidence in consumption and investment trends that showed evidence of strength.

But the Commerce Department announcement Wednesday that the economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.1 percent came a day after the Conference Board reported a sharp decline in consumer confidence in January. That drop, together with one in December, erased consumer confidence that had built up in 2012.

What's more, the new data comes just two days before the government releases the January unemployment report, which economists believe will stay at the still-high rate of 7.8 percent, where it has held for two months.

"What's most critical to consumer confidence is employment," said Lynn Franco, director of economic indicators at the Conference Board. "We've had spurts where we've had strong job growth and we've seen a rebound in confidence, and then suddenly you have a pullback in employment and you get a pullback in confidence. So we need a convincing story, and that's going to take several months of jobs growth."

Analysts said the economy is still on track to grow steadily if modestly at a roughly 2 percent pace, as long as the housing and auto industries continue to recover.

The Commerce Department attributed the economic contraction mainly to companies restocking at a slower rate and to reductions in government spending on defense. While companies will ultimately have to rebuild their inventories, the cuts in defense spending could offer a hint of things to come.

The administration argued that the 22 percent reduction in defense spending was partly in anticipation of automatic spending cuts that were going to take effect at the beginning of the year. Obama and congressional Republicans averted that so-called fiscal cliff by extending Bush-era tax rates to all but the wealthiest Americans.

But the deal simply delayed the automatic cuts until March 1. At that point, the Pentagon faces across-the-board cuts of 7 percent, while domestic programs will have to shrink by 5 percent. Some analysts believe that if those cuts are allowed to occur, as some Republicans are now suggesting, the economy could lose a half a percentage point of growth.

Some in the business community hope the experience in the last quarter will alert lawmakers to the potential economic damage the automatic cuts could create.

"I don't think any time you see a reduction in economic growth that it's good news," White House press secretary Jay Carney conceded Wednesday.

But he cautioned, "We need to make sure that in Washington we are not taking actions that undercut that progress that we have been making and can continue to make and will continue to make."

Carney said letting the automatic cuts take effect is a "sort of political brinksmanship of the kind that results in one primary victim, and that's American taxpayers, the American middle class."

Still, the White House insists the only alternative to those cuts is a mix of savings and new tax revenue. Republicans say the $600 billion in revenue they already gave Obama as part of the New Year's fiscal cliff deal is enough. They insist that if he wants different spending cuts than those due to start on March 1, he should submit a new plan.

But the White House has been eager to move away from fiscal and budget fights, ready to use the president's re-election and the uptick in his popularity to push his noneconomic agenda.

On Tuesday, he traveled to Las Vegas to push for an overhaul in immigration. On Monday, he is traveling to Minneapolis to promote his proposals to reduce gun violence.

The issues are not simple ones for Obama. The economy and the nation's debt still rank higher than immigration and guns as issues in the mind of the public. Moreover, Obama has to navigate gingerly with Congress on immigration, where a fragile coalition of Democrats and Republicans is assembling legislation that, among other things, could provide a path to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S.

Obama has vowed to use his bully pulpit to build public support for his new agenda. Defending his economic stewardship was not supposed to be part of the playbook.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/economic-jitters-compete-obama-agenda-081854479--finance.html

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