Stocks shaken by new confidence data

By msnbc.com news services

Stocks were struggling Tuesday, following a report that U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly fell in January as more Americans worried about the country's weak job market.

Key earnings also drove trading, with shares of Exxon falling and Eli Lilly and U.S. Steel advancing. The results reflected a mixed picture of corporate strength, continuing a trend this earning season.

Hopes built that Greece was nearing a debt swap deal, just a day after talks had stalled, lessening the odds of a messy default and possibly creating other shocks to the region's financial system.

Also, European Union leaders agreed on a stricter budget discipline plan to prevent further debt build-up in the region.

Since December, Wall Street has largely decoupled from European equities, trading less in tandem with the region than in the months before. Investors still looked to developments from the region for any setbacks or signs of progress.

"Europe seems to be closer to a resolution, and while they're not done with their issues, any good news will be taken positively," said Rick Bensigor, chief market strategist at Merlin Securities in New York. "Any sellers at this stage will be tactical, and they're likely to get squeezed here."

The S&P is up 4.4 percent in January, its best month since October, heading into the last trading day of the month. The Dow is up 3.6 percent and has had three straight months of gains. The Nasdaq is up almost 8 percent on strong results from technology companies.

Quarterly profits from drugmakers Pfizer Inc and Eli Lilly & Co both topped expectations. But Pfizer trimmed its 2012 view and Lilly repeated an outlook calling for a drop in 2012 earnings.

RadioShack Corp's stock price plunged?one day after warning of a drop in fourth-quarter profit.

A number of other major companies reported results, including Exxon Mobil Corp, U.S. Steel Corp and United Parcel Service Inc.

U.S. single-family home prices fell more than expected in November, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller composite index, highlighting a sector that continues to struggle to make a meaningful recovery. Futures moved little after the data.

U.S. stocks fell for much of Monday's session, but an afternoon rally cut losses in a sign of the underlying resilience the market has shown early in the year. The S&P held above the psychologically important 1,300 level after crossing it for the first time in six months earlier in January.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/31/10279254-stocks-shaken-by-new-confidence-data

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Bright lights of purity

Public release date: 30-Jan-2012
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Contact: Lynn Yarris
lcyarris@lbl.gov
510-486-5375
DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Berkeley Lab researchers discover why pure quantum dots and nanorods shine brighter

To the lengthy list of serendipitous discoveries gravity, penicillin, the New World add this: Scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have discovered why a promising technique for making quantum dots and nanorods has so far been a disappointment. Better still, they've also discovered how to correct the problem.

A team of researchers led by chemist Paul Alivisatos, director of Berkeley Lab, and Prashant Jain, a chemist now with the University of Illinois, has discovered why nanocrystals made from multiple components in solution via the exchange of cations (positive ions) have been poor light emitters. The problem, they found, stems from impurities in the final product. The team also demonstrated that these impurities can be removed through heat.

"By heating these nanocrystals to 100 degrees Celsius, we were able to remove the impurities and increase their luminescence by 400-fold within 30 hours," says Jain, a member of Alivisatos' research group when this work was done. "When the impurities were removed the optoelectronic properties of nanocrystals made through cation-exchange were comparable in quality to dots and nanorods conventionally synthesized."

Says Alivisatos, "With our new findings, the cation-exchange technique really becomes a method that can be widely used to make novel high optoelectronic grade nanocrystals."

Jain is the lead author and Alivisatos the corresponding author of a paper describing this work in the journal Angewandte Chemie titled "Highly Luminescent Nanocrystals From Removal of Impurity Atoms Residual From Ion Exchange Synthesis." Other authors were Brandon Beberwyck, Lam-Kiu Fong and Mark Polking.

Quantum dots and nanorods are light-emitting semiconductor nanocrystals that have a broad range of applications, including bio-imaging, solar energy and display screen technologies. Typically, these nanocrystals are synthesized from colloids - particles suspended in solution. As an alternative, Alivisatos and his research group developed a new solution-based synthesis technique in which nanocrystals are chemically transformed by exchanging or replacing all of the cations in the crystal lattice with another type of cation. This cation-exchange technique makes it possible to produce new types of core/shell nanocrystals that are inaccessible through conventional synthesis. Core/shell nanocrystals are heterostructures in which one type of semiconductor is enclosed within another, for example, a cadmium selenide (CdSe) core and a cadmium sulfide (CdS) shell.

"While holding promise for the simple and inexpensive fabrication of multicomponent nanocrystals, the cation-exchange technique has yielded quantum dots and nanorods that perform poorly in optical and electronic devices," says Alivisatos, a world authority on nanocrystal synthesis who holds a joint appointment with the University of California (UC) Berkeley, where he is the Larry and Diane Bock professor of Nanotechnology.

As Jain tells the story, he was in the process of disposing of CdSe/CuS nanocrystals in solution that were six months old when out of habit he tested the nanocrystals under ultraviolet light. To his surprise he observed significant luminescence. Subsequent spectral measurements and comparing the new data to the old showed that the luminescence of the nanocrystals had increased by at least sevenfold.

"It was an accidental finding and very exciting," Jain says, "but since no one wants to wait six months for their samples to become high quality I decided to heat the nanocrystals to speed up whatever process was causing their luminescence to increase."

Jain and the team suspected and subsequent study confirmed that impurities original cations that end up being left behind in the crystal lattice during the exchange process - were the culprit.

"Even a few cation impurities in a nanocrystal are enough to be effective at trapping useful, energetic charge-carriers," Jain says. "In most quantum dots or nanorods, charge-carriers are delocalized over the entire nanocrystal, making it easy for them to find impurities, no matter how few there might be, within the nanocrystal. By heating the solution to remove these impurities and shut off this impurity-mediated trapping, we give the charge-carriers enough time to radiatively combine and thereby boost luminescence."

Since charge-carriers are also instrumental in electronic transport, photovoltaic performance, and photocatalytic processes, Jain says that shutting off impurity-mediated trapping should also boost these optoelectronic properties in nanocrystals synthesized via the cation-exchange technique.

###

This research was supported by the DOE Office of Science.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit http://www.lbl.gov.

---

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?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 30-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Lynn Yarris
lcyarris@lbl.gov
510-486-5375
DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Berkeley Lab researchers discover why pure quantum dots and nanorods shine brighter

To the lengthy list of serendipitous discoveries gravity, penicillin, the New World add this: Scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have discovered why a promising technique for making quantum dots and nanorods has so far been a disappointment. Better still, they've also discovered how to correct the problem.

A team of researchers led by chemist Paul Alivisatos, director of Berkeley Lab, and Prashant Jain, a chemist now with the University of Illinois, has discovered why nanocrystals made from multiple components in solution via the exchange of cations (positive ions) have been poor light emitters. The problem, they found, stems from impurities in the final product. The team also demonstrated that these impurities can be removed through heat.

"By heating these nanocrystals to 100 degrees Celsius, we were able to remove the impurities and increase their luminescence by 400-fold within 30 hours," says Jain, a member of Alivisatos' research group when this work was done. "When the impurities were removed the optoelectronic properties of nanocrystals made through cation-exchange were comparable in quality to dots and nanorods conventionally synthesized."

Says Alivisatos, "With our new findings, the cation-exchange technique really becomes a method that can be widely used to make novel high optoelectronic grade nanocrystals."

Jain is the lead author and Alivisatos the corresponding author of a paper describing this work in the journal Angewandte Chemie titled "Highly Luminescent Nanocrystals From Removal of Impurity Atoms Residual From Ion Exchange Synthesis." Other authors were Brandon Beberwyck, Lam-Kiu Fong and Mark Polking.

Quantum dots and nanorods are light-emitting semiconductor nanocrystals that have a broad range of applications, including bio-imaging, solar energy and display screen technologies. Typically, these nanocrystals are synthesized from colloids - particles suspended in solution. As an alternative, Alivisatos and his research group developed a new solution-based synthesis technique in which nanocrystals are chemically transformed by exchanging or replacing all of the cations in the crystal lattice with another type of cation. This cation-exchange technique makes it possible to produce new types of core/shell nanocrystals that are inaccessible through conventional synthesis. Core/shell nanocrystals are heterostructures in which one type of semiconductor is enclosed within another, for example, a cadmium selenide (CdSe) core and a cadmium sulfide (CdS) shell.

"While holding promise for the simple and inexpensive fabrication of multicomponent nanocrystals, the cation-exchange technique has yielded quantum dots and nanorods that perform poorly in optical and electronic devices," says Alivisatos, a world authority on nanocrystal synthesis who holds a joint appointment with the University of California (UC) Berkeley, where he is the Larry and Diane Bock professor of Nanotechnology.

As Jain tells the story, he was in the process of disposing of CdSe/CuS nanocrystals in solution that were six months old when out of habit he tested the nanocrystals under ultraviolet light. To his surprise he observed significant luminescence. Subsequent spectral measurements and comparing the new data to the old showed that the luminescence of the nanocrystals had increased by at least sevenfold.

"It was an accidental finding and very exciting," Jain says, "but since no one wants to wait six months for their samples to become high quality I decided to heat the nanocrystals to speed up whatever process was causing their luminescence to increase."

Jain and the team suspected and subsequent study confirmed that impurities original cations that end up being left behind in the crystal lattice during the exchange process - were the culprit.

"Even a few cation impurities in a nanocrystal are enough to be effective at trapping useful, energetic charge-carriers," Jain says. "In most quantum dots or nanorods, charge-carriers are delocalized over the entire nanocrystal, making it easy for them to find impurities, no matter how few there might be, within the nanocrystal. By heating the solution to remove these impurities and shut off this impurity-mediated trapping, we give the charge-carriers enough time to radiatively combine and thereby boost luminescence."

Since charge-carriers are also instrumental in electronic transport, photovoltaic performance, and photocatalytic processes, Jain says that shutting off impurity-mediated trapping should also boost these optoelectronic properties in nanocrystals synthesized via the cation-exchange technique.

###

This research was supported by the DOE Office of Science.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit http://www.lbl.gov.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/dbnl-blo013012.php

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Jury finds Afghan family guilty in honor killings

Mohammad Shafia, centre, Tooba Yahya, right, and Hamed Shafia, left, arrive at the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ontario, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. A jury took 15 hours to find Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

Mohammad Shafia, centre, Tooba Yahya, right, and Hamed Shafia, left, arrive at the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ontario, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. A jury took 15 hours to find Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

Mohammad Shafia, center, Tooba Yahya, right, and Hamed Shafia, left, arrive at the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ontario, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. A jury took 15 hours to find each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

Tooba Yahya is led away from the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ontario, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, after being found guilty of first degree murder. A jury took 15 hours to find Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

Mohammad Shafia, front,Tooba Yahya, center and Hamed Shafia arrive at the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ont., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. A jury took 15 hours to find Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder of Mohammad Shafia's three daughters and childless first wife. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

Mohammad Shafia reacts as he his led away from the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ont., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, after being found guilty of first degree murder of his three daughters and childless first wife. A jury took 15 hours to find Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

KINGSTON, Ontario (AP) ? A jury on Sunday found three members of an Afghan family guilty of killing three teenage sisters and another woman in what the judge described as "cold-blooded, shameful murders" resulting from a "twisted concept of honor," ending a case that shocked and riveted Canadians.

Prosecutors said the defendants allegedly killed the three teenage sisters because they dishonored the family by defying its disciplinarian rules on dress, dating, socializing and using the Internet.

The jury took 15 hours to find Mohammad Shafia, 58; his wife Tooba Yahya, 42; and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder. First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.

After the verdict was read, the three defendants again declared their innocence in the killings of sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, Shafia's childless first wife in a polygamous marriage.

Their bodies were found June 30, 2009, in a car submerged in a canal in Kingston, Ontario, where the family had stopped for the night on their way home to Montreal from Niagara Falls, Ontario.

The prosecution alleged it was a case of premeditated murder, staged to look like an accident after it was carried out. Prosecutors said the defendants drowned their victims elsewhere on the site, placed their bodies in the car and pushed it into the canal.

Ontario Superior Court Judge Robert Maranger said the evidence clearly supported the conviction.

"It is difficult to conceive of a more heinous, more despicable, more honorless crime," Maranger said. "The apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honor ... that has absolutely no place in any civilized society."

In a statement following the verdict, Canadian Justice Minister Rob Nicholson called honor killings a practice that is "barbaric and unacceptable in Canada."

Defense lawyers said the deaths were accidental. They said the Nissan car accidentally plunged into the canal after the eldest daughter, Zainab, took it for a joy ride with her sisters and her father's first wife. Hamed said he watched the accident, although he didn't call police from the scene.

After the jury returned the verdicts, Mohammad Shafia, speaking through a translator, said, "We are not criminal, we are not murderer, we didn't commit the murder and this is unjust."

His weeping wife, Tooba, also declared the verdict unjust, saying, "I am not a murderer, and I am a mother, a mother."

Their son, Hamed, speaking in English said, "I did not drown my sisters anywhere."

Hamed's lawyer, Patrick McCann, said he was disappointed with the verdict, but said his client will appeal and he believes the other two defendants will as well.

But prosecutor Gerard Laarhuis welcomed the verdict.

"This jury found that four strong, vivacious and freedom-loving women were murdered by their own family in the most troubling of circumstances," Laarhuis said outside court.

"This verdict sends a very clear message about our Canadian values and the core principles in a free and democratic society that all Canadians enjoy and even visitors to Canada enjoy," he said to cheers of approval from onlookers.

The family had left Afghanistan in 1992 and lived in Pakistan, Australia and Dubai before settling in Canada in 2007. Shafia, a wealthy businessman, married Yahya because his first wife could not have children.

Shafia's first wife was living with him and his second wife. The polygamous relationship, if revealed, could have resulted in their deportation.

The prosecution painted a picture of a household controlled by a domineering Shafia, with Hamed keeping his sisters in line and doling out discipline when his father was away on frequent business trips to Dubai.

The months leading up to the deaths were not happy ones in the Shafia household, according to evidence presented at trial. Zainab, the oldest daughter, was forbidden to attend school for a year because she had a young Pakistani-Canadian boyfriend, and she fled to a shelter, terrified of her father, the court was told.

The prosecution said her parents found condoms in Sahar's room as well as photos of her wearing short skirts and hugging her Christian boyfriend, a relationship she had kept secret. Geeti was becoming almost impossible to control: skipping school, failing classes, being sent home for wearing revealing clothes and stealing, while declaring to authority figures that she wanted to be placed in foster care, according to the prosecution.

Shafia's first wife wrote in a diary that her husband beat her and "made life a torture," while his second wife called her a servant.

The prosecution presented wire taps and mobile phone records from the Shafia family in court to support their honor killing allegation. The wiretaps, which capture Shafia spewing vitriol about his dead daughters, calling them treacherous and whores and invoking the devil to defecate on their graves, were a focal point of the trial.

"There can be no betrayal, no treachery, no violation more than this," Shafia said on one recording. "Even if they hoist me up onto the gallows ... nothing is more dear to me than my honor."

Defense lawyers argued that at no point in the intercepts do the accused say they drowned the victims.

Shafia's lawyer, Peter Kemp, said after the verdicts that he believes the comments his client made on the wiretaps may have weighed more heavily on the jury's minds than the physical evidence in the case.

"He wasn't convicted for what he did," Kemp said. "He was convicted for what he said."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-29-CN-Canada-Honor-Killing/id-68aad2c2f7dc45ea84364cfc8cbba084

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Factbox: Winners at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival (omg!)

PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) - Following is a list of winners at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, the top gathering for independent movies made outside of Hollywood's major studios.

Winners are grouped in categories for drama films and documentaries and in sections for U.S. films and world cinema.

U.S. DRAMA FILMS

Best Film, Jury Prize - "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Best Film, Audience Award - "The Surrogate"

Directing - Ava DuVernay, "Middle of Nowhere"

Screenwriting - Derek Connolly, "Safety Not Guaranteed"

Cinematography - Ben Richardson, "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Special Jury Prize, ensemble acting - "The Surrogate"

Special Jury Prize, producing - Jonathan Schwartz, Andrea Sperling, "Smashed"

U.S. DOCUMENTARY FILMS

Best Documentary, Jury Prize - "The House I Live In"

Best Documentary, Audience Award - "The Invisible War"

Directing - Lauren Greenfield, "The Queen of Versailles"

Editing - Enat Sidi, "Detropia"

Cinematography - Jeff Orlowski, "Chasing Ice"

Special Jury Prize - "Love Free Or Die" (Tied)

"Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry" (Tied)

WORLD CINEMA, DRAMA

Best Film, Jury Prize - "Violeta Went To Heaven"

Best Film, Audience Award - "Valley of Saints"

Directing - Mads Matthiesen, "Teddy Bear"

Screenwriting - Marialy Rivas, Camila Gutierrez, Pedro Peirano, Sebastian Sepulveda , "Young & Wild"

Cinematography - David Raedeker, "My Brother the Devil"

Special Jury Prize, artistic vision - "Can"

WORLD CINEMA, DOCUMENTARY

Best Film, Jury Prize - "The Law In These Parts"

Best Film, Audience Award - "Searching for Sugar Man"

Directing - Emad Burnat, Guy Davidi, "5 Broken Cameras"

Editing - Lisanne Pajot, James Swirsky , "Indie Game: The Movie"

Cinematography - Lars Skree, "Putin's Kiss"

Special Jury Prize, film - "Searching For Sugar Man"

OTHER AWARDS

U.S. Short Film - "The Black Balloon"

World Short Film - "The Return"

Shorts, Jury Prize - "Fishing Without Nets"

Shorts, Audience Award - "The Debutante Hunters"

(Reporting By Christine Kearney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_factbox_winners2012_sundance_film_festival_044758223/44342650/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/factbox-winners-2012-sundance-film-festival-044758223.html

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Republican leaders expect payroll tax deal (reuters)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/192958269?client_source=feed&format=rss

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The Quest for the Mantle of Saint Ron (talking-points-memo)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/192423082?client_source=feed&format=rss

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HBT: Cuban out of running to buy Dodgers

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Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/01/27/magic-johnson-joe-torre-and-steven-cohen-among-finalists-to-own-dodgers/related/

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ZTE Score (Cricket Wireless)

How does this sound to you: $65 per month for unlimited talk, text, Web, and music with no contract. Pretty good, right? The catch: you're stuck accessing it all with a mediocre Android smartphone. That's the dilemma you face with the ZTE Score ($69.99) for Cricket Wireless. It's a great deal, in need of a better phone.

Design, Call Quality, and Plan Pricing
The ZTE Score measures 4.4 by 2.5 by .5 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.5 ounces. The front and back are made of glass, with a thick ring of matte black plastic separating the two. It looks sharp, and its size makes it comfortable to hold and use. The 3.5-inch touch screen sports 320-by-480-pixel resolution, which is standard for budget Android phones. The onscreen keyboard is a bit small, but I didn't have any trouble typing on it.

The Score is a triband EV-DO Rev A (850/1700/1900 MHz) device with 802.11b/g Wi-Fi. It connected to my?WPA2-encrypted Wi-Fi network?without a problem, but reception on Sprint's network here in New York was shaky and voice quality is mixed. Cricket uses its own network in about a third of the country, and Sprint's network in the rest.

Volume is low in the earpiece, and voices sounded thin and robotic. Calls made with the phone are easy to understand, but again voices sounded computerized and background noise cancellation was poor. Calls sounded better through a Jawbone Era?Bluetooth headset ($129, 4.5 stars) and voice dialing worked fine over Bluetooth without training. The speakerphone sounds fine, but its volume is far too low to use outside. Battery life was on the short side at 4 hours, 49 minutes of talk time.

Cricket offers unlimited smartphone plans with its downloadable Muve Music service for $65/month, which is more affordable than all the major carriers but still more expensive than Boost Mobile's $55/month smartphone plan, which can actually reduce to $40/month as you pay your bills on time. But that extra $10 per month for unlimited music is an attractive option, and one that will likely be a deciding factor for many users. MetroPCS recently started offering a similar plan where $60 per month will get you unlimited talk, text, and Web, along with unlimited music via Rhapsody. (Without Rhapsody, that plan costs $50.)

OS, Multimedia, and Conclusions
The Score runs Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread). There's no word on an update to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), and don't count on one. ZTE has added some light customizations to Android, but they're mostly visual. There are five home screens you can swipe between, and the phone feels surprisingly responsive given its outdated 600 MHz Qualcomm MSM7627 processor.

You get all of usual perks of Android, which include native support for Microsoft Exchange; free Google Maps Navigation for voice-enabled, turn-by-turn GPS directions; a solid?WebKit browser; and compatibility with more than 300,000 third-party apps in the Android Market.

There's a side-mounted microSD card slot on the right side of the phone. Slip the included card out and you'll notice it says "3GB Muve Music, 1GB Your Space." That means the card is divided into two partitions, and the Muve partition is hidden and encrypted. You can only see the extra 1GB on a PC. You also can't use standard MicroSD memory cards for Muve. Cricket doesn't yet sell the special cards the phone accepts, though replacement 4GB and 8GB cards are in the works.

In addition to the 1GB on the microSD card, there's also 110MB of free internal storage. Music sounded fine through both wired earbuds and?Altec Lansing Backbeat?Bluetooth headphones ($99, 3.5 stars), though bass response was somewhat lacking. Outside of Muve, the Score was able to handle AAC, MP3, OGG, and WAV music files. DivX, H.264, and MP4 video files played back smoothly at resolutions up to 800-by-480.

The 3.2-megapixel camera is weak. Test photos look average outdoors, but photos taken inside appear soft and blurry, almost hazy, like a scene from a bad music video. The camera also records video at a low 352-by-288-pixel resolution. Videos are tiny and grainy, and play back at a choppy 12 frames per second indoors, and 15 frames per second outside.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/Eob_LmyH7us/0,2817,2399408,00.asp

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Avastin's Failure in Breast Cancer: New Study May Explain Why It Happened (LiveScience.com)

A new study may explain why the cancer drug Avastin hasn't worked in the treatment of breast cancer patients. Although the drug stops tumor growth for a short time, it often leads to more invasive tumors in the long run.

The reason for this revved-up invasiveness, researchers concluded from experiments done in mice, is that drugs like Avastin increase the portion of a tumor made of breast cancer stem cells.

Although Avastin, when initially given, causes some cancer cells to die and tumors to shrink, what's left behind are the cancer stem cells, according to the study. These cells can then multiply, and they are among the most lethal cancer cells ? they can sprout new tumors more easily than run-of-the-mill cancer cells.

The finding suggests that clinicians could improve Avastin's effectiveness by blocking this unwanted effect of the drug. It's a potentially bright spot for the drug, after a November decision by the Food and Drug Administration that the drug should not be used to treat breast cancer?after studies showed the drug failed to lengthen patient's lives.

"This result explains why they don't work as well as we hoped it would, and it really points to what we need to do to develop drug combinations that are more effective," said Dr. Max Wicha, author of the new study and an oncologist at the University of Michigan.

The new findings, which may also apply to other drugs in the same class as Avastin, were published Monday (Jan. 23) in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The seeds of a tumor

Avastin falls into a category of cancer drugs called antiangiogenic agents, which aim to work by blocking the growth of blood vessels that supply tumors with vital nutrients and oxygen. Without a blood supply, tumors will die, the thinking goes.

"There was a lot of excitement about using these drugs to block the blood supply to tumors," Wicha said. "But the first large studies showed that while Avastin seemed to be preventing tumors from progressing for a few months, the tumors would then start to grow again, and be even more aggressive."

Wicha said he and his colleagues suspected the cause of the new, aggressive growth, might be cancer stem cells. "These cells are the most dangerous, if they're left in the body," he explained. "They're like the seeds of a plant."

The researchers tested their theory by giving an antiangiogenic drug to mice with breast cancer tumors. As expected, the tumors shrank and had fewer blood vessels feeding them. When the team analyzed the cells within the tumors, however, the tumors of mice that had been treated with an antiangiogenic drug had five times more stem cells.

Further, the scientists found, the lack of oxygen ? called hypoxia ? in the tissues that followed the death of the blood vessels had the side effect of encouraging the growth of these dangerous cells. If doctors could combine drugs that kill the cancer stem cells with antiangiogenic drugs, they may have a winning formula, Wicha said.

"Our research suggests that it's going to necessary to target both angles of this at the same time," he said.

Two sides of a drug

The new findings didn't surprise Celeste Simon, a molecular biologist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine who studies the role of the body's low oxygen environments to human health.?

"Stem cells really like to reside in a low oxygen area," Simon said.

What the study adds, Simon said, is evidence that drugs like Avastin increase the pool of cancer stem cells living in these low-oxygen conditions.

"The notion is that by making the tumor more hypoxic, you're actually selecting for the more aggressive cells," she said. "This and other papers underscore a growing idea in the therapeutic world that, like all treatments, antiangiogenic drugs need to be very carefully evaluated in terms of their full impact on human health."

But more work is needed, she said, to flesh out the full molecular details of the observation. Tumors implanted into mice, such as the study used, aren't always a perfect mimic of human biology. "While these results are intriguing, they need to be followed up, from my point of view, with experiments on more sophisticated mouse models or primary tumors," Simon said.

Pass it on: ?Although Avastin successfully cuts off the blood supply of breast cancer tumors, it also increases the number of so-called breast cancer stem cells that can lead to tumor growth in the long run.

This story was provided by MyHealthNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily on Twitter @MyHealth_MHND. ?Find us on?Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/cancer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20120127/sc_livescience/avastinsfailureinbreastcancernewstudymayexplainwhyithappened

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Fran Drescher Launches 'Trash Cancer' Website - Starpulse.com

Actress Fran Drescher is urging fans to check the chemical content of everyday household products in a bid to stave off cancer.

The former The Nanny star, who survived uterine cancer, has launched the Trash Cancer website to help consumers become familiar with toxins found in skincare, food and cleaning agents.

The site also features survivors' stories, healthy recipes and government petitions to ban carcinogens.

In a video clip, Drescher explains, "We have to start thinking about the products that we clean our home with that we put on our skin and what we put into our mouths. There are so many toxins that we expose ourselves to that are now being linked to many different health issues like infertility, developmental issues and, of course, cancer."
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"You can start to recognize what chemicals are on the 'iffy' list, what chemicals are considered carcinogens... so you can make better, more informed decisions for you and your family. We want to live a preventative lifestyle, find out what the causes of cancer are and eliminate them.
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"If given the choice and you have some education and information, you may choose one product over another. Just become an educated consumer, be a medical consumer. Learn the early warning whispers of the cancers that might affect you, and the tests that are available."

Source: http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2012/01/26/fran_drescher_launches_trash_cancer_we

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UFC on Fox 2?s Mike Russow balances police work and fighting

CHICAGO -- As a rookie police officer, Mike Russow was assigned to work a Chicago Bulls game at the United Center in 2003. On Saturday, he will be back at the United Center. This time, instead of keeping the peace, he'll fight Jon Olav Einemo at UFC on Fox 2.

While putting together a record of 14-1 with three wins in the UFC, Russow has kept his day job in the Chicago Police Department. Russow currently patrols the third district on the city's South Side. He is understandably hesitant to give specifics about the details of his daily work,? but said that he has been recognized as a fighter when on the job.

"I had someone who I was arresting for a warrant, and he saw the Chicago Sun-Times picture that day. He noticed," Russow said.

Though Russow can't use his Octagon-worthy moves on offenders, he says police work and fighting share a mental side.

"You have to be calm. There's a lot of situations with police work where it's scary. You're clearing a house, by yourself, it's dark, no lights, and you don't know if the offender is in there. It's just like in the cage."

His calm demeanor came in handy when Russow fought Todd Duffee at UFC 114.

"When I was fighting Todd Duffee, he was beating my ass. I stayed calm, hung in there, and got a lucky punch. I think that's how it helps. Being mentally tough."

He broke his left arm early in the bout, and was having trouble with his right arm. Still he knew he had to pull something out to get the win.

"It was like an effortless punch. The right technique, and the right time, and I hit him and he went down. I was coming off of elbow surgery, and I couldn't extend my right arm all the way. My left arm broke. I knew something was wrong. Right before that I thought, I got to do something."

After beating Duffee, Russow TKOed Jon Madsen. Those wins earned him a shot at Einemo, a highly decorated grappler. Because of Einemo's ground skills, Russow hopes to keep the fight standing.

"I've really worked a lot on my stand-up game. He's a world-class jiu jitsu guy, so even if I did get the takedown, I don't know if I want to play in his world. I'm more or less going to try and control him and keep it standing."

To prepare for this bout, Russow used up all of his vacation time and spent time just training. Most UFC-level fighters train full-time, and Russow was appreciative of the chance to focus on MMA. He said he would love the chance to fight full time, but it's not a practical option.

"Right now I'm married and with a baby, a mortgage. I'm not in a position where I could train full time. I'm 35, and I can't take that chance. My dream would be to fight solely for the UFC."

Unlike UFC welterweight Sean Pierson, who was not allowed to join the Toronto Police Department because of his fight career, the CPD has been supportive of Russow.

"I've never had any problems. My bosses have been really supportive. I've been fortunate. They think it's a little nuts, but they support it."

Balancing the two careers is not easy. Since he works from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m., his sleep and diet are both disrupted.

"Every time you go to a gas station, they try to give you something, take this, take that. Not that I do, but it makes it harder. And you get hungry anyways around 10 or 11. I wish I was in bed, but I'm stuck out there working."

But this Saturday, when his friends, family, and fellow police officers fill the United Center with cheers, Russow will be living a dream. He'll be fighting in the Octagon in the city he patrols. It's a far cry from the days he had to sit outside the United Center, waiting for the Bulls game to end.

"Back then, I never would have imagined this."

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/ufc-fox-2-mike-russow-balances-police-fighting-154723780.html

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The nations weather (AP)

Weather Underground Forecast for Tuesday, January 24, 2012.

Snowy conditions persist over the Southwest, scattered showers and thunderstorms develop along the Gulf Coast, and snow showers linger over the Great Lakes on Tuesday. A low pressure system that moved over California and into the Great Basin and Four Corners will continue moving southeastward over Colorado and New Mexico. This will allow for snow showers to diminish over the Great Basin and Arizona, while a few lingering snow showers will persist over Colorado and New Mexico. Snowfall accumulation in these areas will range from 3 to 5 inches. Meanwhile, as this system moves into the Southern Plains, it will pull additional moisture and energy onshore from the Gulf of Mexico. This will allow for scattered showers and thunderstorms to develop from the US and Mexico border, through Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Some of these storms will turn severe with strong winds, hail, and possibly a tornado or two. Expect rainfall totals to range from 1 to 2 inches, more likely in areas of severe thunderstorm development.

In the Northeast, a low pressure system that brought wintry weather to the Northeast and Great Lakes will advance into eastern Canada. However, the back side of this system will kick up some lake effect snow showers along the downwind shores of the Great Lakes. Snowfall accumulation will range from 2 to 3 inches in most of these areas. Elsewhere, precipitation across the East Coast will wind down as a cold front pushes offshore early Tuesday morning.

In the Northwest, another strong trough of low pressure moves onshore, producing another round of rain and high elevation snow for Washington, Oregon, and northern California. New snowfall totals will range from 4 to 6 inches in the Cascades, with 1 to 3 inches likely in far northern California. Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Monday have ranged from a morning low of -5 degrees at Gunnison, Colo. to a high of 87 degrees at Crystal River, Fla.

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

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ABC Finally Admits Emily Maynard is The Bachelorette

ABC finally confirmed the news we've been all but sure of for over a week: Emily Maynard is getting her second shot at love on The Bachelorette in 2012!

The 25-year-old single mom from North Carolina, will footsteps of Ashley Hebert ... who she bested for Brad Womack's love on The Bachelor last spring.

Maynard, who went on to split with Brad last summer, will begin filming in March, a source said, adding, "She's looking for a man ... not a little boy."

An interesting comment, since Brad is more than a decade older than Em.

The West Virginia native, who resides in Charlotte, N.C., with her 6-year-old daughter Ricki, was previously engaged to NASCAR driver and owner Ricky Hendrick.

He died in a plane crash in October 2004 while Maynard was pregnant, but before she even realized it. She went on to name their daughter after her late fiance.

"Emily’s strength, passion and southern charm - as a mother and as a woman - would make anyone happy to make her his wife," ABC says in a press release.

"She found love again with Brad and, even though it didn’t work out, she realized that the series can work. Among those 25 men, she is looking for someone who makes her laugh, doesn’t take himself too seriously and can be her best friend."

"Emily Maynard is hoping that the third time is the charm."

Emily Maynard as The Bachelorette: Good pick?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/abc-finally-admits-emily-maynard-will-be-the-bachelorette/

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Fannie, Freddie writedowns too costly: regulator (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The regulator for Fannie Mae (FNMA.OB) and Freddie Mac (FMCC.OB) told lawmakers that forcing the government-controlled mortgage firms to write down the principal on underwater home loans would require more than $100 billion in fresh taxpayer funds.

In a letter sent on Friday to the Republican and Democratic leaders of a House of Representatives government oversight panel, the Federal Housing Finance Agency explained why it has long opposed principal reductions for borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth. In that situation, the mortgage is deemed "underwater."

About 22 percent of U.S. home mortgages have negative equity totaling about $750 billion, meaning that about one in five U.S. home mortgages is "underwater" with the amount owed exceeding the home's value, according to CoreLogic, a financial information and analytics company based in Santa Ana, California.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency said it had determined that such reductions would be more costly for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than forbearance, which was the less expensive option by comparison. The two mortgage firms have been using forbearance to help borrowers struggling to make payments.

Forbearance lets the borrow reduce or suspend payments on a loan for a specific amount of time.

The regulator, also known as the FHFA, has been under pressure from Democrats to permit the writedown of principal by the two government-controlled mortgage finance providers as a way to help some of the millions of U.S. homeowners whose mortgages are "underwater."

Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has pushed the housing regulator to explain its thinking in deciding not to offer principal reductions.

PRESERVING ASSETS A CONCERN

The FHFA, however, has maintained that widespread principal forgiveness would undercut the finances of Fannie and Freddie, which have already received about $169 billion in taxpayer aid. Republicans have supported the FHFA's decision.

"FHFA has a statutory responsibility as conservator to preserve and conserve the assets and property of the regulated entities," FHFA's acting director, Edward DeMarco, wrote in the letter to lawmakers dated January 20.

The Obama administration wants to secure widespread principal reductions in a legal settlement between the government and some of the biggest mortgage servicers. The settlement is aimed at cleaning up alleged foreclosure abuses.

"Given that any money spent on this endeavor would ultimately come from taxpayers and given that our analysis does not indicate a preservation of assets for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac substantial enough to offset costs, an expenditure of this nature at this time would, in my judgment, require congressional action," DeMarco said in the letter.

In 2008, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over by the government as mortgage losses mounted. Millions of loans issued during the housing bubble, many of them made to subprime borrowers with spotty credit histories, soured after the housing bust -- yet they remain on Fannie's and Freddie's books. Delinquencies on those loans continue to rise.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac own or guarantee roughly half of all outstanding mortgages in the United States. Of the approximately 30 million mortgages guaranteed by the two firms, close to 3 million of those loans were held by underwater borrowers as of last summer, according to an analysis provided in the letter.

Another barrier to principal writedowns, aside from pushing losses at the two firms even higher, DeMarco said, was the cost associated with new technology and training to servicers that would be needed to launch a program that offers principal forgiveness.

The FHFA told lawmakers that forbearance is a less costly option. Principal forbearance limits accounting losses and allows Fannie and Freddie to recoup the principal at some later point, according to the regulatory agency's letter.

"The net result of the analysis is that forbearance achieves marginally lower losses for the taxpayer than forgiveness, although both forgiveness and forbearance reduce the borrower's payment to the same affordable level," the FHFA's letter said.

The housing regulator also assured lawmakers that the FHFA remains committed to helping borrowers stay in their homes and will continue to work on such principal forbearance plans and government initiatives to modify or refinance loans.

The Federal Reserve, in a white paper to Congress earlier this month, said writedowns "had the potential to decrease the probability of default" and "improve migration between labor markets."

However, the Fed stopped short of endorsing such an initiative and noted concern that writing down loan balances would create a moral hazard - the concept that rescue efforts breed further behavior that exacerbates the existing problem - and could prompt other borrowers to stop making timely loan payments.

(Reporting By Margaret Chadbourn; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120124/bs_nm/us_usa_housing_fhfa

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Civil rights in Chile: Maid refuses to get on bus (AP)

CHICUREO, Chile ? Felicita Pinto arrived early at the gates of the luxurious community where she labors as a maid, but the minibus to her employer's home was late. So she decided to walk six blocks to work, on streets lined with broad lawns and imposing homes.

Security guards quickly chased her down and forced the 57-year-old widow back to the gate. Pinto's employer protested, as he had before, against the community bylaws that forbid servants to move at will.

Pinto's simple stroll helped set off national soul-searching over discrimination and mistreatment of domestic workers across Chile, where leaders ache to be accepted as representing an enlightened, developed nation. Local news media heard of the case and outrage followed when another homeowner in the El Algarrobal II development sought to justify the restrictions.

"Can you imagine what it would be like here if all the maids were walking outside, all the workers walking in the street and their children on bicycles?" neighbor Ines Perez told a local television channel.

Her comments prompted such a wave of insults and threats that Perez was forced to close her Facebook page.

Discrimination toward domestic workers is among the more entrenched social ills in Latin America and beyond. In luxury complexes just south of Peru's capital, maids can't swim in the ocean until their employers have left the water. In Mexico City, some luxury restaurants prohibit maids from sitting down to eat and some high-rises force workers to take the service elevators.

In today's Chile, however, human rights activists are challenging low pay, long hours and discrimination that afflict domestic workers. And so Pinto's decision to skip the bus has lit debate on social networks and has filled newspaper pages and radio and TV broadcasts with commentary. Thousands signed on to an Internet campaign against the subdivision's protocols, and about 20 people demonstrated in front of the gates on Saturday, some dressed as zombies in maid uniforms.

Pinto said the rules are humiliating.

"I feel just as if was a prisoner, a delinquent, a thief," Pinto told the Associated Press, describing several encounters with the guards.

Other workers are complaining as well.

Shortly before Pinto's rebellion became public, a nanny who works nearby in the Brisas de Chicureo Golf Club wasn't allowed to enter a pool with the 3-year-old girl she watches because she wasn't wearing the traditional maid's apron that all domestic workers are required to wear on the property. Chile's domestic workers union sued, and an appellate court on Jan. 5 granted an injunction suspending the uniform rule.

Edith Alonso, a maid in a nearby gated community, was among those protesting Saturday. She said she has got a good position now, but with a previous employer, "I suffered hunger, they counted every piece of fruit and bread, they made special food for themselves and forgot about the maid."

The administration of El Algarrobal II did not respond to requests from the AP for comment, but in an email to Pinto's employer, British shipping executive Bruce Taylor, it argued that maids, nannies, waiters, gardeners, construction workers and pool cleaners must ride the minibus to keep them from "committing robberies or providing information relevant to the privacy of other neighbors on their way to the house where they say they work."

There are more than 250 luxury homes in the complex, one of many gated communities in Chicureo, which 15 years ago was a bucolic rural town just north of the capital. Now, Chicureo has expensive private schools, a private health clinic and a walled-off toll highway that links it to other wealthy suburbs without exits to surrounding poor- and middle-class neighborhoods.

It's not easy to reach the town using public transportation, so the gated communities provide a refuge of sorts from the turmoil, traffic and crime that Chileans in other parts of the sprawling capital suffer. Still, as many as 700 workers a day enter El Algarrobal II. And until this month, each paid the equivalent of 60 cents each way for the minibus ride.

News about Pinto's complaints prompted the administration to suspend the fees.

Pinto's latest act of civil disobedience in December wasn't her first. Taylor said that several months earlier, she and his gardener, Claudio Marquez, refused to wait for the minibus and began to walk, "but the guards shoved her into a security vehicle, and kicked Claudio, who decided to quit" rather than submit, Taylor told the AP. Before that, still another gardener had been beaten by the guards and forced into a vehicle, he said in court papers.

Taylor has sued to overturn the bylaw against letting servants walk in the community, but judges have turned him down, saying the administrators have not acted illegally or arbitrarily, and that the rules were supported by a majority of the residents.

"The justice system didn't want to rule on the heart of the matter, the discrimination, and so other home owners here feel like they can do whatever they want," Taylor said.

And so Taylor has committed his own act of civil disobedience: He went to a notary and ceded part of his property to his maid ? it's a lovely corner surrounded with fruit trees where he's building a lake for swans ? to support his argument that Pinto should be allowed to walk freely in the streets.

While Taylor has lost in court, guards in recent weeks have allowed Pinto to walk to work, though others remain forbidden and she fears her exception will disappear once attention dies down.

The Chilean labor rights group Justa Causa ? "Just Cause" ? has now joined Pinto's cause. The group's lawyer, Nicolas Pavez, said Saturday that its last appeal has been turned down in the courts. Now it plans to accuse Chile before the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights of violating anti-discrimination treaties.

Meanwhile, other maids are coming forward, and Justa Causa is preparing lawsuits for them as well, Pavez said.

Marta Lagos, who directs the international Latinobarometro survey, said "Chile is an extremely tolerant country in terms of diversity. But having solidarity with your equals is one thing, and another is tolerance toward people who are different. This country is segmented, segregated: there are workers, the poor, and the rich, and each one of these segments is seen as bad by the other."

___

Follow Eva Vergara on Twitter at http://twitter.com/evergaraap

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_chile_revolt_of_the_maids

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Buffett sings in video for China's New Year gala (AP)

BEIJING ? A hugely popular Chinese Lunar New Year variety show has a special guest star playing the ukulele: American billionaire Warren Buffett.

Buffett is shown wearing a dark sweat shirt and singing the folk song "I've Been Working On The Railroad" in the video posted on state broadcaster CCTV's "Spring Festival Gala" website Sunday.

There are no details on the website about where the 45-second clip was shot, but Buffett appears to be sitting in a small room with an elaborate model railroad set up in the background.

The video's simplicity contrasts with other performances posted on the website of the gala, which is usually a flashy extravaganza that draws 800 million viewers.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_bi_ge/as_china_buffett

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Discovery Communications

Discovery Communications (DISCA)

What if you could touch 1.5 billion people in over 200 countries with your content?? Discovery Communications is the world?s number one non-fiction media company that does just that!? Did I mention it?s growing at a breakneck pace? ?Since you probably watch their productions, you might want to watch the stock.

They are the original "reality" TV network.?

Company Description & Developments
Not only does Discovery Communications own traditional media brands like the Oprah Winfrey Network, TLC, Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, they also own the website howstuffworks.com and many more valuable, popular brands.

If you?ve had enough of the Jersey Shore and Real Housewives programs like most of us, the Discovery brands offer cool, unique and informative programming in a world that otherwise lacks interesting, non-fictional TV. Discovery?s programs are eye opening, funny and relatable on many levels according to their reviews (and mine).? Its content spans cultures and creeds around the world.

Discovery also does a great job on web integration and content for other forms of media so they can keep up with an evolving space.

Aside from the solid financial growth which we will touch on shortly, I just love their programming!? Anecdotally, I hear so much positive chatter about their content coming from men and women in a wide age and social range that it?s hard to argue their reach.

If consumers are indeed getting healthier, they will be more likely to buy cable and satellite. ?Of course advertisers will be paying more, which is why expectations are for about 20% earnings growth over the next year.

Financial Profile
Discovery Communications is a larger mid-cap company (11.8 billion) that is trading at about 18 times trailing earnings (P/E).? Looking forward, Zacks Consensus Estimates sees Discovery Communication?s P/E dropping to 15.62, with no change in price from these levels. ??That puts it into a slightly elevated category, but certainly not overvalued in my opinion.

Discovery Communications jumped to a Zacks Rank 1 Strong Buy just yesterday.

One analyst revised their FY2012 earnings estimate up within the past month, which was most likely the push that got DISCA its current rating. ??

Last quarter DISCA reported sales growth of 18.25% year over year and 3% over the previous quarter with total sales of 3.8 billion in FY2010.? Discovery is expected to earn $2.39 in FY2011 according to the Zacks Consensus Estimate.?

Earnings Estimates
Expectations are for Discovery to make 69 cents this quarter when they report on February 10th.? Of the 16 analysts who cover the media company, the consensus is for the company to grow earnings by 34% in FY2011 and 18% in FY2012.

In terms of the magnitude of analyst estimate trends, we have seen most of the consensus estimates higher than they were 90 days ago.? This is not extremely bullish, but certainly positive.?

Discovery surprised analysts to the upside by 7.27% last quarter, with the average earnings surprise being a positive 4.20%. ??Positive surprises have been the norm over the past year.?

Market Performance & Technicals
Discovery?s stock has really picked up steam over the past month, rising almost 13.5%.? This extreme movement may be detraction to analysts upping their targets and estimates.

Momentum for Discovery has really been building since August, but it?s been a rocky road.? Given the past behavior of DISCA, it might be best to wait for the pullback before buying, as the stock has been up for nearly 10 days straight. Like many of the stocks I have targeted in our momentum picks, DISCA is knocking on the door of its 52 week high of $45.81.?

Even with the elevated volatility, it remains in a bullish channel (since August) and firmly above its 50 and 200 day moving averages of $41.49 and $41.01 respectively.

As I stated earlier, Discovery is a bit volatile, but yet its beta only reads .73.? ?That could also mean that Discovery just has a low correlation to its index, because there is no doubt this stock moves.?

Discovery has outpaced the S&P 500 by 9% over the past year and almost 4% over the past month.? Given the recent volume decline as DISCA has been rallying, I would be looking for a pullback before entering, perhaps to the $42.00 level.? ??

Jared A Levy is the Momentum Stock Strategist for Zacks.com. He is also the Editor in charge of the market-beating Zacks Whisper Trader Service.

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This Week's Momentum Zacks Rank Buy Stocks:

Brightpoint, Inc. (CELL)
The future of global communicaton and culture is without cords and boundaries.? Wireless technologies are changing the way we live, work and play.? Companies like Apple, Motorola, Samsung, Sandisk, Lenovo, Plantronics and many more are creating products that influence everything we do as a society. ?Brightpoint is a necessary catalyst for their continued success and in turn reaps serious rewards from growth in the entire space. ?READ FULL ARTICLE

Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. (DTG)?
This car company showed strong Q3 results and beat estimates across the board.? Now with a new CEO, great rates and increasing demand, they may be poised for another strong year after rising 53% over the past twelve months. ? READ FULL ARTICLE

American Water Works Co., Inc (AWK)
Contrary to what you might believe, the most important commodity is not crude oil, natural gas, silver or even gold - humans can survive without any or all of them.? The one essential commodity that humans cannot live without is potable water.
What is most interesting is that there currently is no way to ?trade it? or to take advantage of this integral part of our lives or its scarcity. American Water Works is one of the ways you can invest in water, without having to build a tower in your neighborhood to store it.? READ FULL ARTICLE

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Source: http://www.zacks.com/commentary/19947/Discovery+Communications

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Indian casinos struggle to get out from under debt (AP)

HARTFORD, Conn. ? The warning from the ratings agency could not have been more direct: The parent company of the Mohegan Sun faces a "wall of debt" due early this year as the casino, struggling with rising competition and a weak economy that's hammered consumer spending, tries to refinance hundreds of millions of dollars in loans.

The Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority has $505 million in loans outstanding and another $250 million due April 1, Keith Foley, an analyst at Moody's Investors Service, recently told investors. The gaming authority, parent company of casinos in Uncasville, Conn., and Wilkes-Barre, Pa., also has about $21 million in interest payments due Feb. 15, he said.

Mohegan Sun announced this month that fourth-quarter net income rose significantly, to $46.7 million, compared with a net loss of $26.3 million in the same period in 2010. But it also said it failed to reach an agreement to refinance debt, though lenders waived a possible default.

"They get to live another day," Foley said in an interview.

Executives at Mohegan Sun did not respond to a request for an interview.

Mohegan Sun is not alone as several Indian-run casinos ? some with plans for expansion that have been put on hold ? struggle to refinance debt after being caught short when the economy went into recession in December 2007.

Foxwoods Resort Casino in eastern Connecticut seeks to restructure debt, and the Mescalero Apache tribe restructured $200 million in bonds last year for casino resort property in New Mexico. A spokeswoman said Foxwoods is in debt talks, but would not provide details.

An advantage that Indian-run casinos have over their commercial counterparts is that they cannot file for bankruptcy and creditors can't foreclose on their properties because tribal governments are sovereign, said Clyde Barrow, director of the Center for Policy Analysis at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.

Valerie Red-Horse, an investment banker and financial adviser who worked on the Mecalero Apache deal, called it the "best model out there," in part because it preserved the casino's financial distributions to tribal members and tribal government while bond holders kept their stakes, she said.

Some tribes have been forced to agree to cut their distributions until debt is paid down, Red-Horse said. Making sure distributions continue is a "very delicate subject. It causes a lot of angst among tribes," she said.

Financial problems at the casino, the Inn of the Mountain Gods, were due in part to the slowing economy and faltering tourism, she said.

Indian-run casinos expanded rapidly because they are strong economic development tools for the tribes that run the casinos, said Peter Kulick, a Lansing, Mich., tax and gaming lawyer. The businesses survived economic downturns in the 1970s and 1980s and were seen as immune to recessions, he said.

"In the last go-round, that's not the case," he said.

Kulick and Barrow said competition is the newest threat to casinos, even as revenue is now rising as the economy slowly improves.

"There are some real pockets of recovery going on right now," Barrow said.

Massachusetts legalized casino gambling in November, but it will be years before the three casinos authorized will be operating.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced this month that he would work with the Genting Group, one of the world's largest gambling companies, to transform the Aqueduct horse track into a megaplex that would eventually include the nation's largest convention center, 3,000 hotel rooms and a major expansion of a casino that began operating in October.

For Connecticut's two casinos, "Aqueduct could be pretty substantial competitive pressure," Barrow said.

"I don't see real revenue growth for Connecticut's casinos, he said.

Declining or stagnant revenue is bad news for Connecticut state government, which takes 25 percent of what the casinos pull in. State revenue from the two casinos reached their peak in 2007 at more than $411 million, said Kevin Lembo, Connecticut's comptroller who tracks state revenue from all sources.

That's declined to $342 million in the state's budget year that ended last June 30, down $69 million, or 17 percent.

"The loss of revenue is one obvious and immediate impact for the state," Lembo said. "What happens to jobs? What happens to future development plans? These are areas of concern for everyone at this point."

Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman said the health of the two casinos is critical because they are destinations in southeast Connecticut, drawing tourists who also visit vineyards along the shoreline, the Mystic Aquarium and other sites.

"This is a big thing for us," she said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_re_us/us_indian_casino_financing

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