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Friday, August 30, 2013
On the edge: A family fights to keep their home
Video: Lester Holt follows the story of a family as they attempt to avoid foreclosure. How far would you go to save your home?
They lived in a four-bedroom home in a cul-de-sac. They had an outdoor kitchen, a gas fire pit and a custom pool lined with boulders they had craned in, because they didn’t want artificial rocks. For the Sadowski sons’ birthdays, they celebrated big, with neighbors, family and bounce houses.
They also put away money for emergencies: Tim Sadowski, the father, earned about $160,000 a year and managed to squirrel away $80,000 in savings. They had health insurance, and they had put down 20 percent when they bought their home.
But in 2007, Tim Sadowski’s interior construction business started losing customers. That’s when reality hit: The family might lose their home.
“We don’t want to lose our home,” Krichelle Sadowski, the mother, said. “We love it. We love this neighborhood. My kids have gone to the same school their whole life.”
The Sadowskis weren’t an anomaly. In fact, friends agreed that they were “part of the crowd” of people on the brink of losing their homes. Between 2007 and the beginning of 2010, 6.6 million foreclosures were initiated. And even though the recession has ended, more than a million families in the U.S. are still fighting to save their homes.
Dateline met the Sadowskis in April of 2009 as their financial struggles were underway. We connected with them over the next four years as they negotiated with banks to keep their home and negotiated with each other to maintain their marriage.
The American dream
The Sadowskis were proud of their accomplishments. They had grown up without much money, hadn’t graduated from college but still achieved financial success.
They refinanced their mortgage several times, taking out more than a hundred thousand dollars to upgrade their house. They viewed it as an investment, and in a sense, it was: Their home almost tripled in value.
“I bought motorcycles for the boys, quads for the boys,” Tim Sadowski said. “We would go out to the desert a lot with me and the family. That was my enjoyment.”
Krichelle Sadowski said they worked hard for their success. “I don’t think it was excessive,” she said.
“A financial analyst probably would have said, ‘You’re irresponsible,’” Tim Sadowski said. “But the friends we were hanging out with are saying, ‘You guys are just part of the crowd.’”
As Tim Sadowski’s business dried up, he applied for more than 100 jobs. In that time, the family blew through their savings, forcing Krichelle Sadowski to work part time job as a lunch aide supervisor at her sons’ school.
The Mercedes and the RV were repossessed, and when the business finally closed, the family lost their health insurance.
‘Hoping against hope’
Yale Professor Jacob Hacker explained how people think in these dire situations: “If your house goes into foreclosure, your credit rating is ruined – you don’t think you’ll be able to get another house,” he said. “It’s not so much you’re denying it. But you’re just hoping against hope that you can somehow work it out.”
But hope started to fade as Tim and Krichelle Sadowski started bickering over finances. Krichelle Sadowski stopped wearing her wedding ring and threatened divorce.
One day, after more talk of divorce, Tim Sadowski took off on a motorcycle to clear his head. But rather than provide clarity, the drive added yet more stress as he slammed into an oncoming vehicle.
“The next thing I know, I’m laying down on a street, face up, looking up at the sky,” he said.
As he lay in intensive care with a severed foot and broken pelvis, Krichelle called hospital after hospital, begging them to take a man without health insurance. Finally, Riverside County agreed.
For a while, the Sadowskis found love again as Krichelle nursed her husband back to health.
They applied for food stamps and were awarded $668 a month for their family of four. They also received cash aid of $762.
“It’s embarrassing,” Krichelle said, “but I had to do what I had to do. We did not have enough money to buy food.”
Professor Hacker said the Sadowskis were in a particularly bad spot, having lost work so early in the recession.
“When the economy is depressed, when there’s not much demand for workers, the people who lose their jobs at the beginning of the recession often are the ones who have the hardest time getting back in.”
‘Things don’t buy happiness’
In the end, the Sadowskis lost both battles – for their home and their marriage. They no longer live that American dream, but their outlook has changed.
“You know what? Things don’t buy happiness,” Krichelle Sadowski said. “We all say that, but it really is true. I’ve learned that you can be happy without money.”
NBC's Isolde Raftery contributed to this report.
Watch Dateline’s full report, “America Now: On the Edge,” on Friday, Aug. 30, starting at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Friday, August 23, 2013
Teen arrested in beating death of WWII vet, 88, in Spokane, Wash.
Teen arrested in beating death of WWII vet, 88, in Spokane, Wash.
The great nephew of a World War II veteran who was killed outside a lodge in Spokane, Wash., speaks out about his great uncle. KHQ's Dylan Wohlenhaus reports.
A 16-year-old was arrested Friday in the robbery and beating death of an 88-year-old veteran who survived being wounded in World War II, police in Spokane, Wash., said.A second male teen was still being sought in the murder of Delbert "Shorty" Belton, a retired aluminum company worker who was brutally attacked in the parking lot of his lodge Wednesday night and died the following morning.
The suspects' names were not released because of their age, police said. The teen in custody was charged with first-degree murder and first-degree robbery.
The victim's daughter-in-law, Barbara Belton, said doctors told her his face was battered so badly that they couldn't stop the bleeding.
Spokane Police Department
Police released these surveillance camera photos Thursday of two young men believed to be the suspects in the beating death of Delbert Belton of Spokane, Wash. Click to enlarge the images.
"Who beats an 88-year-old man in the face?" she said.
At the lodge, a makeshift memorial overflowed with flowers, U.S. flags and messages of sympathy as friends remembered Belton as an active and generous man who had been widowed for about six years.
"He was outstanding," sister Alberta Tosh said. "He went dancing. He worked on cars all the time. He would help anyone who needed help."
Friend Linda Herde told NBC station KHQ of Spokane that Belton "had a heart of gold."
"There wasn't a thing he wouldn’t do for anybody," she added. "He’d give you the shirt off his back."
Great-nephew Allen Hills told KHQ that when he hit bottom about 10 years ago in California, where he was unemployed and sleeping on his mother's sofa, Belton stepped in with the offer of a car and a new life in Washington state.
"It seems trivial, but he really did save my life," Hills said. "He made it possible for me to get a job and find work."
Ted Dennison, a friend, called Belton "a tough old bird" who was shot in the leg in the 1945 Battle of Okinawa. His experiences in the war didn't appear to have dampened Belton's instinct to help others, Denison said.
Belton died the same day another Spokane man was killed in a confrontation with police, a manifestation of what Hills said was the "senseless violence" plaguing the city of 210,000 in eastern Washington.
Barbara Belton said the suspected arrested Friday was "awfully young" to be involved in such a terrible crime.
"Kids today, they think they can do whatever they want and it doesn't matter. Kids do this kind of stuff and end up in jail and probably end up worse when they come out."
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Angry Nixon: New tapes reveal an overwrought president in grips of Watergate
David Hume Kennerly / Getty Images Contributor
President Richard Nixon answers questions about the Watergate scandal in the East Room of the White House on October 1973 in Washington.
As in previous recordings, Nixon uses profanity and prejudiced language to mock his political foes and Washington rivals.
In a July 12, 1973 conversation with chief of staff Al Haig, Nixon discusses future judicial nominations, insisting on finding "meanest right-wing” nominees. He adds emphatically, “No Jews. Is that clear? We've got enough Jews. Now if you find some Jew that I think is great, put him on there."
One of the tapes features an awkward, disjointed phone conversation from April 30, 1973, with California Gov. Ronald Reagan, who had called the president to offer his support after Nixon’s dramatic address announcing the resignations of four of his closest aides: chief of staff H.R. “Bob” Haldeman, domestic policy aide John Erlichman, White House counsel John Dean and Attorney General Richard Kleindienst.
Newly released tapes from Richard Nixon's time in the White House give a new look at a president under growing pressure to leave the White House. NBC's Pete Williams reports.
In his July 12 conversation with Haig, Nixon is heard raging at the investigation being pressed that summer by the Senate Watergate committee.“The president of the United States can’t be kicked around by a God-damned senile senator,” Nixon tells Haig. The chairman of the Senate Watergate committee was Sen. Sam Ervin, D-N.C. who was 76 at the time.
The final installment of the Nixon recordings – 2,905 conversations totaling approximately 340 hours – spans the period from April 9 to July 12, 1973; a time when the cover-up of the break-in at the Watergate headquarters of Democratic National Committee, carried out in June of 1972 by operatives of the Committee to Re-Elect the President, had begun to fall apart and Nixon’s closest aides were forced to resign.
At their July 12 meeting, Haig and Nixon are heard discussing the strategy they should use to rebuff a request from the Senate committee for White House documents relating to the break-in and the cover-up.
After an apparent miscommunication with the White House operator, Rev. Billy Graham speaks with President Richard Nixon shortly after Nixon's Watergate speech on April 30, 1973. The audio is part of hundreds of hours that were recently released by the Nixon Library.
The Watergate committee had sent a letter to Nixon that day requesting a meeting between the committee and White House officials to discuss documents Nixon had refused to hand over to the committee.“I could simply say, ‘there’s nothing involving criminal activity,’ maybe put that out,” Nixon suggests to Haig.
“You could say that,” Haig agrees, and he adds, “You have turned witnesses loose to testify under oath” without any invocation of executive privilege.
Nixon also mocks the Senate questioners, adopting a wheedling voice as if acting out the part of a committee member or counsel, “'Now what does this mean, Mr. Haldeman? What does this mean?' Screw it!"
Nixon also voices his disdain at what he saw as the disloyalty of two Republican members of the Watergate committee: Sens. Howard Baker of Tennessee and Lowell Weicker of Connecticut: “Baker will not be in this office again. You understand me? Weicker will not be in this office again.”
In a recorded phone call with Haldeman about an hour after the April 30 speech in which he told the nation that Haldeman and others were resigning, Nixon is heard telling Haldeman, “It’s a tough thing, Bob, for you, for John, the rest, but God damn it, I never want to discuss this son of a bitch Watergate thing again. Never, never, never, never.”
President Richard Nixon is heard having a conversation with White House Chief of Staff Alexander Haig on July 12, 1973. Nixon is talking about Senator Sam Ervin.
Nixon expressed bitterness about only one Cabinet officer calling him to express support after the speech.“The only cabinet officer that has called – and this is 50 minutes after the thing is over – is Cap Weinberger, bless his soul. All the rest are waiting to see what the polls show. God damn strong Cabinet, isn’t it?”
Nixon also tells Haldeman: “You’re a strong man, God damn it and I love you and I love John … . Keep the faith, keep the faith. You’ve got to win this son of a bitch.”
A few minutes after the Haldeman phone call, Secretary of State William Rogers calls Nixon to praise the speech “I thought it was superb. I don’t see how you could have done any better, I think the best delivery I’d ever seen you give.”
Nixon tells Rogers, “I've been through a hell of an experience. I was just reading (Sherman) Adams' memoirs and Adams, you know, to his credit did come in and say ‘I'll resign’ – but Haldeman and Erlichman didn’t and I had to tell them they had to resign. And that was a God damn tough son of a bitch."
Sherman Adams was President Eisenhower’s chief of staff, who was forced to quit in 1958 after accepting gifts from a Boston textile manufacturer who was under federal investigation.
Haldeman, Erlichman and Dean would all eventually serve time in federal prison for their roles in the conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Kleindienst pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to testify accurately to a Senate committee about Nixon ordering him to drop Justice Department antitrust proceedings against the International Telephone and Telegraph Corp. Kleindienst paid a small fine and was given a 30-day suspended sentence.
Pete Williams, Alicia Jennings, Carroll Ann Mears, and Abigail Williams contributed to this report.
Disgraced Chinese high-flier set for court in biggest trial in almost half-a-century
Carlos Barria / Reuters
Policemen remove a petitioner outside the court where the trial of disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai will be held on Thursday in Jinan, Shandong province.
Uniformed policemen tried to disperse animated discussions that sprung up among around 30 people who had gathered outside the courthouse in the eastern city of Jinan in Shandong province, where Bo Xilai is set to appear in public for the first time in 17 months to face charges of bribery, corruption and abuse of power. In August 2012, Bo’s wife, Gu Kailai, was convicted for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.
"What's wrong with singing red songs and supporting the Communist Party? The ordinary masses love to hear these red songs," said a middle-aged woman, referring to the revolutionary-era songs encouraged by Bo during his time as chief of the Communist Party in southwestern Chongqing.
China's most politically explosive trial rapped in a matter of hours when Gu Kailai, the wife of Chinese politician Bo Xilai, did not object to murder charges against her. ITV's Angus Walker reports.
After his dramatic downfall last year, authorities have sometimes discouraged the singing of these songs, probably because of their connection in the popular imagination to Bo, who looked set to join the top ranks of the Chinese establishment before his dramatic downfall."But Bo engaged in illegal arrest of people and illegal seizure of assets," a young man countered.
Supporters and demonstrators declined to provide names, apparently for fear of repercussions.
The spontaneous debate at the courthouse was dominated by a finger-pointing and cheering crowd of Bo supporters, indicating that Bo's image as champion of the masses lingers, despite the government's effort to bury his legacy. While there were only a handful of protesters and supporters at the courthouse, their presence showed that Bo has supporters who are willing to risk being detained by security forces.
The trial of the disgraced but charismatic politician caps off the country's biggest political scandal since the downfall of the Gang of Four at the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976.
It also reveals the ruling Communist Party’s struggle to appear responsive to charges of corruption within its ranks, yet remain untainted by widespread allegations of misuse of power, says Shaun Breslin, professor of Chinese politics at Britain’s University of Warwick and fellow at international think tank Chatham House.
“On one side it wants to say there’s corrupt and we’re dealing with it, but you don’t want to say there is something about the system that is wrong,” he said. “It’s a tightrope they have to walk.”
The country’s leaders are struggling to deal with deep-seated resentment with the income inequality and perceived corruption and cronyism among the country’s elite. So while the recent economic boom has made China the world’s second-largest economy, it has also produced dramatic wealth inequality, vast environmental degradation and the assumption among many Chinese that the government is not working in their interests.
Jason Lee / Reuters
China's former Chongqing Municipality Communist Party Secretary Bo Xilai looks on during a meeting at the annual session of China's parliament at the National People's Congress in Beijing in this file picture taken March 6, 2010.
“There is this feeling that elites are running the country for themselves and their kids are running around in Lamborghinis and Ferraris. It is a key cause of resentment among the general population,” Breslin said.
Bo’s trial is also the end of an attempt to end a power struggle within the Communist Party, says Bo Zhiyue, research fellow at the East Asian Institute of the National University of Singapore.
The Communist Party has become unpopular because of corruption, so they have to do something about it, Bo said.
“Bo Xilai lost out,” he added.
NBC News' F. Brinley Bruton and Reuters contributed to this report.
'He's turning blue': 911 caller describes moments after Oklahoma ballplayer shooting
Three teenagers have been charged in what some are calling the "thrill killing" of a college baseball star after one of the suspects told officials "we were bored. We had nothing to do. We decided we'd kill somebody."
A woman who called 911 after an Oklahoma baseball player was shot dead jogging down the street told the dispatcher that he fell into a ditch, had blood on his back, turned blue and then stopped breathing.In a chilling seven-minute recording released Wednesday by prosecutors, the 911 caller, who identifies herself as Joyce Smith, resists panic while pleading for help. She reports to the dispatcher that she does not know the gunshot victim.
“He was standing in the roadway and he fell over, and as I come by, he just fell over in the ditch,” the woman says.
Later she reports: “He’s turning blue.”
Listen to the 911 call
AP Photo / Essendon Baseball Club
Christopher Lane, an Australian baseball player, was shot and killed while out for a jog in an Oklahoma neighborhood, police say.
One of three teens charged in the attack told police that they shot Lane because they “were bored” and decided to kill somebody.
The teens were charged Tuesday: James Francis Edwards Jr., 15, and Chancey Allen Luna, 16, were charged with first-degree murder. Michael Dewayne Jones, 17, was charged with being an accessory to murder after the fact and with firing a weapon. All were charged as adults, according to the Stephens County District Attorney’s Office.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, anonymous threats against a local high school where two of the suspects where students led the school to step up security.
“The credibility of the person or persons communicating the threats is very difficult to ascertain. However, we want to be proactive in taking reasonable precautions,” Dr. Sherry Labyer, the town’s Superintendent of Schools, wrote in a letter to parents.
As result, she said that with help from the police, security would be beefed up in schools across town and that students would only be allowed to leave once a parent checked them out. They would also not be allowed to have lunch off campus, as they normally are.
The shooting has dominated news reports in Australia and led Australian deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer to call on Australian tourists to boycott the United States.
“It is another example of murder mayhem on Main Street,” Fischer told CNN on Tuesday night.
“People thinking of going to the USA for business or tourists trips should think carefully about it given the statistical fact you are 15 times more likely to be shot dead in the USA than in Australia per capita per million people,” Fishcher said.
Stephens County Sheriff's Office
From left, James Francis Edwards, 15, Chancey Allen Luna, 16, and Michael Dewayne Jones, 17.
The State Department said the U.S. was deeply saddened “to hear the tragic news of the death of an Australian citizen in Oklahoma.”
“This is clearly a tragic death, and we extend our condolences to the family and the loved ones. We understand that local authorities are focused on bringing those responsible to justice. Clearly, we would support that,” said a State Department spokeswoman, Marie Harf.
If convicted of first-degree murder, the suspects could face life in prison.
The teens were reportedly turned in by their next potential target, Australian newspaper the Herald Sun reported.
James Johnson, 52, told the newspaper that he called the police to tell them that the accused killers were hiding in the parking lot of the Immauel Baptist Church, two hours after they allegedly shot Lane.
“My son called me and said, ‘They’re saying they’re coming to kill me.’ So I called the police, and they got here within about three minutes,” Johnson told the paper.
Johnson claimed that Edwards Jr. previously had threatened the life of Johnson’s son on Facebook.
Friends of Lane set up a gofundme.com project to help cover expenses for his family.
“Please help us raise money to cover all expenses for Chris’s family to be able to fly to Oklahoma to receive his body and take him back to Melbourne, Australia,” they said on the site. “Every cent is greatly appreciated and all donations will go right to his family! I recently spoke to Chris’s father and he told me that if there is any money left over they will start a Christopher Lane Foundation.”
Sue Ogrocki / AP
Twenty-three year old Aaron Boyer, who lives nearby, sits by the memorial for slain Australian Christopher Lane.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
CIA owns up to meddling in other countries' governments back in 1953
The CIA has something to say about the coup in Iran 60 years ago: "We did it." Excuse us for not gasping with surprise, since it's been common knowledge for decades. But on Monday, the agency took the important step of making it official and released documents to the National Security Archive admitting that the coup "was carried out under CIA direction as an act of U.S. foreign policy." American and British spooks arranged for the democratically elected prime minister of Iran, Mohammad Mossadegh, to be booted out of office, after he restricted Iran's flow of oil to Western countries. [Source]
Pennsylvania widow who nearly lost home over $6.30 wins reprieve
Keith Srakocic / AP
The home of Eileen Battisti is seen in her neighborhood on Monday in Aliquippa, Pa. The home valued at $280,000 sold at auction over $6.30 in unpaid interest.
The Commonwealth Court decided that it was a mistake for a Beaver County, Pa., judge to rule against Eileen Battisti without first holding an evidentiary hearing, according to a court document.
Keith Srakocic / AP
Eileen Battisti talks about a court decision about her home as she sits on the stairs in front of the house on Monday.
“This was particularly inappropriate because the outstanding liability was small and the value of the home was far greater than the amount paid by (the) purchaser,” wrote Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt, according to the court documents.
Battisti’s lawyer said the woman still lives in her Aliquippa house, even though it was sold nearly two years ago for roughly $116,000, according to The Associated Press.
Battisti then appealed the sale in county court, which decided in May 2012 that she had received all notices required by law. However, just a month later, a judge ordered that the Beaver County Tax Claim Bureau could not issue a deed to the property to the buyer while Battisti appealed, the AP reported.
Leavitt, in her opinion Monday, said Battisti was beset with a series of personal setbacks and had trouble handling finances after the 2004 death of her husband, who managed their money.
She later fell behind on assorted tax bills, but was under the impression she had paid them all in full, even though some were tardy, according to the AP.
The $6.30 penalty was included in her tax bill in 2009, which ballooned with interests and costs to $235 by late 2011, when her home was sold at auction, according to the AP.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Monday, August 19, 2013
Don't fall for this jury duty scam
Get a call about missing jury duty? Don't fall for it -- and certainly don't pay out! It's a scam that is making the rounds, experts warn.
By Mitch Lipka
If you get a call that claims you missed a jury duty assignment, watch out if the caller asks you to pay a fine. It's a scam that's running hot right now -- prompting a spate of warnings.Officials scattered from Massachusetts to South Carolina and Alabama to California and Utah have put out the word about residents getting shaken down to clear their records. Often the calls come from out of state, but because caller ID can be faked, they can also appear to be coming from the local courthouse or a law enforcement agency.
The most likely people to fall for this sort of scam are older folks who think they are doing the right thing and want to avoid getting a bad mark on their record, said Eduard Goodman, chief privacy officer of the personal security firm IDT911. Plus, he said, the calls can be quite convincing -- right down to including background noise that makes it seem like the call is coming from a police station.
The set-up can be so sophisticated, Goodman said, that it could involve one call that pretends to be from the court system -- which is recorded to allow the scammers to pick up on clues that can be used on a follow-up call that pretends to be from the police.
In addition, scammers can collect information by other means to make it seem as though they know more about you, lending some additional credibility.
"We suspect that this scam relies heavily on social media to piece together information about the victims, particularly who their friends and relatives are," Goodman said. "In some reports we’re hearing about scammers contacting the victim’s girlfriend, spouse, friend or roommate to put pressure on the victim or as an alternate source of scam money."
These scams provide plenty of red flags, but you have to be aware of them since the calls themselves can be quite convincing.
Goodman said the first thing to be aware of is that the police aren't going to call you to let you know they have a warrant for your arrest.
New brews from Bud, Miller hike the alcohol
They're trying to regain ground lost to stronger craft beers and shed the 'watery' reputation of their light beers.
If you're Anheuser-Busch In-Bev (BUD -0.64%) and MillerCoors, which have battled stagnant beer demand for years, here's a simple way to create more buzz for your products: ratchet up their alcohol content.According to Advertising Age, MillerCoors, which is a joint venture between SABMiller and Molson Coors (TAP -1.32%), plans to introduce Miller Fortune next year, which has 6.9% alcohol by volume (ABV). A-B InBev recently began selling Bud Light Platinum and Budweiser Black Crown, which each have about 6% ABV. Most light beers have 4.2% ABV.
The premium-price potent brews helped boost sales at AB-InBev in the most recent quarter even though volumes fell. The brewers are betting that increasing ABV will help blunt the impact of the surging popularity of craft beers and other types of alcoholic drinks that have flattened sales of light beer in recent years.
As I recently noted on moneyNOW, market research by Consumer Edge cited by CNBC found out that 40% of drinkers in the 21-27 age group have grown "tired of the taste" of premium light beers, and 37% described them as "watery."
Miller Fortune will broadly appeal to men born in the 1980s-2000s, "but it's got a sweet spot with Hispanics and African-Americans," MillerCoors VP-innovation David Kroll told Ad Age. That concerns activist groups such as Alcohol Justice, which are worried that brewers are targeting more potent beverages to minorities.
Booze's harm to the U.S., such as crime and disease, is about $94 billion annually, according to the activists, which works out to about 80 cents per drink. David Jernigan, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told Ad Age that brewers used code words such as "edge" to get around legal prohibitions against touting the alcoholic strength of their products.
Shares of A-B InBev now trade around $97.50, having surged more than 23% over the past year. Molson Coors is just over $50, rising by 17.5% so far in 2013.
Jonathan Berr does not own shares of the listed stocks
The toughest state for getting food stamps
Turns out it's not one of the GOP-led, conservative ones. Liberal California has the lowest participation rate in the country.
By Aimee Picchi
In the political debate over soaring food-stamp usage, one state stands apart from the rest: liberal California, which ranks as the most efficient U.S. state at keeping residents off the rolls.Only 55% of eligible Californians received food stamp benefits in 2010, the lowest participation rate of any U.S. state, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Nationally, about three-quarters of eligible Americans sign up for the food aid program.
How does California discourage residents from signing up? Unfriendly offices, tough requirements and confusing applications, according to the Los Angeles Times.
That may please some conservatives who criticize the program as bloated and prone to fraud, but it also may be hindering California's economy, the Times notes. Because the program is funded mainly by the federal government, California is missing out on about $6 billion in potential federal aid that its residents could spend at local food stores.
Even at 55% participation, California is the biggest food-stamp state, on a dollar basis. About $6.48 billion in food aid was distributed to residents in fiscal year 2011, more than any other state, according to the USDA.
The paradox of food-stamp usage is shown in stark relief by looking at Texas, helmed by a Republican governor and known for its right-leaning population.
The Lone Star State had nearly 4 million residents claiming food aid in fiscal 2011, more than California's 3.67 million participants. Texas' food-stamp bill of about $6 billion was lower than California's because Texans get smaller per-person benefits. But about 65% of eligible Lone Star State residents receive the benefit, according to the USDA.
Despite Texas Gov. Rick Perry's vow to slash government spending, the state has eliminated the requirement that food stamp participants get fingerprinted, the Times noted. (California's Gov. Jerry Brown later signed a bill to do away with that requirement.)
Indeed, the reality of food stamp usage doesn't always jibe with political leanings. For instance, 213 of the 254 counties where food stamp usage doubled from 2007 to 2011 voted for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, according to a Bloomberg estimate.
To be sure, several liberal-leaning states have the highest participation of eligible residents. Maine and Oregon, for instance, top the list at 100% participation. But Tennessee, Missouri and Kentucky -- whose voters supported Romney in 2012 -- were among those right-leaning states with higher-than average participation rates.
The food stamp program is also coming under fire from some mayors who want to ban the the benefit's use to buy sodas such as Coca-Cola (KO -0.69%), while health advocacy groups are urging the government to restrict junk-food purchases.
The bottom line, however, is that it's not always in a state's best interest to stem food stamp enrollment because of the benefit to local spending.
Or as senior research fellow Robert Rector of the conservative Heritage Foundation told the L.A. Times: "It would bring them political controversy and no financial gain for their state. It is like asking them to jump into a buzz saw and to bring their governor along."
Forever 21 caught in Obamacare controversy
The clothing chain says cutting its workers' hours isn't tied to the new law, but that's not stopping critics and supporters from weighing in.
By Aimee Picchi
If you like your cropped T-shirts to come with a dose of Obamacare controversy, look no further than retailer Forever 21.
The apparel seller is the latest business to find itself embroiled in an Obamacare minefield, with consumers accusing the chain of slashing worker hours as a way to avoid paying benefits under the new health care insurance law.
But Forever 21 is denying its decision to cut hours is related to the overhaul, writing on Facebook that the cutbacks are "based on projected store sales, completely independent of the Affordable Care Act." Obamacare will go into effect in 2014, although the government has delayed the mandate that employers provide coverage to full-time employees until 2015.
For Forever 21, the furor started after the company said it would cut hours of some full-time employees to a maximum of 29.5 hours a week, just under the 30-hour week that qualifies workers as full-time under Obamacare, The Huffington Post notes. It's not clear how many of the chain's 30,000 employees that move will affect, although Forever 21 said it was "less than 1%."
Some consumers weren't convinced by the denial.
"Expected sales says everyone should go to 29.5 hours? I guess we will all pick up the tab for their healthcare (emergency rooms) and their food (food stamps)," one consumer wrote on Forever 21's Facebook page.
Cuts to employee hours would suggest that some stores are seeing slower sales, although Forever 21 is a private company and doesn't disclose its results. But the company has experienced astounding growth during the past few years. In a September interview with CNN, founder Do Won Chang said his company was on track to report $4 billion in 2012 sales. Sales were $2.3 billion in 2009, according to The Wall Street Journal.
While some customers voiced displeasure and vowed to stop shopping at the chain, others offered support, and some pointed fingers at the health care overhaul.
"Forever 21, don't listen to these people," one supporter wrote. "They're completely ignorant of how to run a business."
The chain, which prints a Bible verse on the bottom of its shopping bags, is just the latest retailer to cut worker hours ahead of the ACA's implementation. Regal Entertainment Group (RGC +0.38%) saw a similar customer backlash in April after it announced it was cutting hours to avoid providing coverage under the law.
Still, there's not much statistical evidence that companies are planning cutbacks in response to the ACA, although anecdotes abound. Franchisees for companies such as Subway and other fast-food companies are also planning to reduce hours, NBC News reported earlier this month.
Loren Goodridge, who owns 21 Subway franchises, told NBC News, "To tell somebody that you've got to decrease their hours because of a law passed in Washington is very frustrating to me. I know the impact I'm having on some of my employees."
But Forever 21 is denying its decision to cut hours is related to the overhaul, writing on Facebook that the cutbacks are "based on projected store sales, completely independent of the Affordable Care Act." Obamacare will go into effect in 2014, although the government has delayed the mandate that employers provide coverage to full-time employees until 2015.
For Forever 21, the furor started after the company said it would cut hours of some full-time employees to a maximum of 29.5 hours a week, just under the 30-hour week that qualifies workers as full-time under Obamacare, The Huffington Post notes. It's not clear how many of the chain's 30,000 employees that move will affect, although Forever 21 said it was "less than 1%."
Some consumers weren't convinced by the denial.
"Expected sales says everyone should go to 29.5 hours? I guess we will all pick up the tab for their healthcare (emergency rooms) and their food (food stamps)," one consumer wrote on Forever 21's Facebook page.
Cuts to employee hours would suggest that some stores are seeing slower sales, although Forever 21 is a private company and doesn't disclose its results. But the company has experienced astounding growth during the past few years. In a September interview with CNN, founder Do Won Chang said his company was on track to report $4 billion in 2012 sales. Sales were $2.3 billion in 2009, according to The Wall Street Journal.
While some customers voiced displeasure and vowed to stop shopping at the chain, others offered support, and some pointed fingers at the health care overhaul.
"Forever 21, don't listen to these people," one supporter wrote. "They're completely ignorant of how to run a business."
The chain, which prints a Bible verse on the bottom of its shopping bags, is just the latest retailer to cut worker hours ahead of the ACA's implementation. Regal Entertainment Group (RGC +0.38%) saw a similar customer backlash in April after it announced it was cutting hours to avoid providing coverage under the law.
Still, there's not much statistical evidence that companies are planning cutbacks in response to the ACA, although anecdotes abound. Franchisees for companies such as Subway and other fast-food companies are also planning to reduce hours, NBC News reported earlier this month.
Loren Goodridge, who owns 21 Subway franchises, told NBC News, "To tell somebody that you've got to decrease their hours because of a law passed in Washington is very frustrating to me. I know the impact I'm having on some of my employees."
Daughter: I lied and sent my dad to prison for rape
Kelly Family
Chaneya Kelly with her son Julian and her father Daryl at New York's Green Haven Correctional Facility in January.
Chaneya says that in 1997, she falsely accused a man of raping her. That man – who has always maintained his innocence -- is Daryl Kelly, Chaneya’s father.
“All I think is, ‘One day the truth will set me free,’” said Kelly, from Green Haven Correctional Facility in upstate New York. “All I have to do is hold on.”
In October 1997, Daryl Kelly was living with his wife, Charade, and their five children in Newburgh, N.Y., 90 miles north of New York City. Chaneya, their oldest child, was two months shy of her ninth birthday.
At the time, Daryl -- a Navy veteran who owned a local electronics repair shop -- says he was trying to kick a drug habit to take care of his kids. But Charade was at rock bottom, even turning to prostitution to feed her addiction.
Chaneya remembers being downstairs with her father one morning before school when she had to use the bathroom. When she was done, she went upstairs, and that’s when Chaneya says her mother asked her a question that came out of the blue.
“She repeatedly asked me, has my dad touched me,” recalled Chaneya. “I was like, ‘What do you mean, did he touch me?’ And she was like, ‘Did he touch you in your no-no spot?’ And I would repeatedly say no.”
Chaneya says the more she denied any abuse, the more irate her mother became – and even threatened her with a belt. According to Chaneya, her mother said, “If you don’t tell me the answer that I want to hear, I’m going to beat you.” To avoid a beating, says Chaneya, she told her mother that her father molested her even though it wasn't true.
On the morning of October 29, 1997 Newburgh police took Kelly downtown for questioning. They found some of his answers suspicious.
For example, when they asked him why his semen and fingerprints were found on his daughter, Daryl scrambled for an explanation. According to a police report, he said, “My wife is doing drugs and alcohol. Maybe she’s setting me up.’“
He didn’t know until later that no semen or fingerprints had been found.
In fact, there was no definitive forensic evidence that Chaneya had been raped. While a doctor's report did conclude that there was "possible sexual abuse" because of some redness, Chaneya’s hymen was intact even though she claimed her father had penetrated her.
But with both Chaneya and her mom telling police the same story, it was enough for police. Daryl Kelly was charged with multiple counts of rape and sodomy.
Kelly -- who had never before been convicted of a felony -- refused a plea deal that would have made him eligible for parole in six years, and within a year he faced a jury. Based on Chaneya’s graphic testimony, it took them just hours to find her father guilty, and he was sentenced to 20 to 40 years and barred from having any contact with his children.
After her father’s conviction, authorities removed Chaneya from her mother's custody, citing Charade’s drug abuse, and she was sent to live with her grandmother, Pat Thomas, a Pentecostal minister. It was there – six months after her father’s conviction -- that Chaneya told her grandmother that she was never raped, and that the story had been born out of fear of her mother.
Her mother, Charade, also submitted an affidavit to the court, swearing she threatened to beat Chaneya unless she said her father raped her.
The prosecutor argued that the recantation looked coerced, and the same judge who oversaw his original trial a year earlier agreed. He refused to vacate Kelly's conviction.
As the years went by, Daryl began studying the law in prison, and began the long slog of filing appeals -- all of which have been denied.
Meanwhile, Chaneya never gave up on her father. When she was 15, she convinced the courts to allow her to once again have contact with him – and that’s when she went to visit him in prison.
“The first thing my dad did was that he hugged me and he told me that he loved me and … that he doesn’t blame me for anything,” Chaneya recalled. “It was priceless to me.”
Today, Chaneya’s mom Charade says she’s been drug-free for many years. In a recent interview with NBC News, Charade confirmed that she threatened her daughter with a beating, and said she can’t remember why she was so determined to make Chaneya say she had been molested. She blames the incident on a drug binge. “I [had been] gone for three days. And I was really deep in the grip of my addiction.” When asked why she would threaten her daughter if she didn’t lie, Charade said, “I have no idea, I really don’t.”
From behind prison walls, Daryl Kelly has written to anyone who will listen to his story. Last year, one of those letters landed on the desk of Thomas Schellhammer, the head of the newly formed Conviction Review Bureau at the N.Y. Attorney General's office. Schellhammer contacted Orange County District Attorney Frank Phillips, the county’s elected chief prosecutor for almost 30 years, who was in charge when Daryl Kelly stood trial.
In an interview with NBC News, Phillips strongly defended the integrity of the original prosecution, saying he trained his prosecutors “that truth is the most important thing,” and stressing that a jury had found Kelly guilty.
“The system says he’s not innocent, that the credibility of Chaneya was tested, that the issues surrounding her testimony back in 1998 were addressed,” said Phillips.
Phillips also said it was “not unique” for the victim of a crime like rape or molestation to want to protect the abuser by withdrawing an accusation. “It’s part of a dynamic that we deal with. Whether it’s sex crimes or crimes of domestic violence, that is not unusual.”
Is it possible that Chaneya is simply repressing a horrible memory, that her father really did rape her, and she feels guilty about putting him behind bars?
She says no, that she’d have no problem with her father remaining in prison if he were guilty. “I wouldn’t be here having this conversation. “
As for Daryl, he says he won’t truly be free until he’s vindicated. “This fight will never end,” he said. “I will continue to fight for this. This is my reputation. This is my decree. This is the truth. It's not just for me. It's for my daughter as well.”
Dan Slepian is a producer with "Dateline." He can be reached at Daniel.Slepian@nbcuni.com.
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Does my twelve year old need the HPV vaccine already?
The HPV vaccine offers the best protection before kids become sexually active
By Sally Wadyka Jul 22, 2013
Turn to MSN's Ask A Doctor blog every day to find answers from top experts to all of your health concerns. Have a health issue or just curious? Send in your question today.
Most pediatricians offer this vaccine to boys and girls around 11 or 12 years old. “We suggest it be given with the rest of the middle school vaccines,” says pediatrician Natasha Burgert.
As for the common argument that their kid isn’t having sex yet so why do they need a vaccine against a sexually transmitted disease, Burgert tells parents that this is actually the perfect time to get vaccinated. “Once they are exposed to HPV, we have no way to protect them from it,” she says. And since about 50 percent of women ages 14 to 60 are infected with HPV, there’s a good chance your son or daughter will eventually be exposed. Contracting HPV can not only cause genital warts and lead to a higher risk of cervical cancer in women, it can also cause cancer of the tongue, tonsils or throat (like Michael Douglas) in both men and women. A new study found that the vaccine provided 93 percent protection against the two types of HPV that cause most cancers.
According to Burgert, your body develops the most HPV-fighting antibodies when the vaccine is given at about age twelve. “The effects of the vaccine decrease if you get when you’re older,” she says. “So if you plan on your child getting it, there’s absolutely no reason to delay.”
Dr. Natasha Burgert is a Board-Certified pediatrician who practices general pediatrics in Kansas City, MO. She regularly shares her passion for science-based child health and confident parenting on her web site.
Most pediatricians offer this vaccine to boys and girls around 11 or 12 years old. “We suggest it be given with the rest of the middle school vaccines,” says pediatrician Natasha Burgert.
As for the common argument that their kid isn’t having sex yet so why do they need a vaccine against a sexually transmitted disease, Burgert tells parents that this is actually the perfect time to get vaccinated. “Once they are exposed to HPV, we have no way to protect them from it,” she says. And since about 50 percent of women ages 14 to 60 are infected with HPV, there’s a good chance your son or daughter will eventually be exposed. Contracting HPV can not only cause genital warts and lead to a higher risk of cervical cancer in women, it can also cause cancer of the tongue, tonsils or throat (like Michael Douglas) in both men and women. A new study found that the vaccine provided 93 percent protection against the two types of HPV that cause most cancers.
According to Burgert, your body develops the most HPV-fighting antibodies when the vaccine is given at about age twelve. “The effects of the vaccine decrease if you get when you’re older,” she says. “So if you plan on your child getting it, there’s absolutely no reason to delay.”
Dr. Natasha Burgert is a Board-Certified pediatrician who practices general pediatrics in Kansas City, MO. She regularly shares her passion for science-based child health and confident parenting on her web site.
UK police probing newly received info related to death of Princess Diana
Jerome Delay / AP file
Police services prepare to take away the car in which Diana, Princess of Wales, Dodi Fayed and their chauffer were killed.
Investigators in London are looking into information they recently received in relation to the 1997 deaths of Princess Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement on Saturday.
“The Metropolitan Police Service is scoping information that has recently been received in relation to their deaths and assessing its relevance and credibility,” the statement said. "The assessment will be carried out by officers from the Specialist Crime and Operations Command."
The statement stressed that police are not reopening their investigation into the Paris car crash that killed Diana and Fayed as they were pursued by paparazzi.
The deaths of the glamorous princess and Fayed “were thoroughly investigated, and examined by an Inquest,” the Metropolitan Police said in the statement on Saturday. “On 7 April 2008, the Jury concluded their verdict as ‘unlawful killing, grossly negligent driving of the following vehicles and of the Mercedes.’”
Friday, August 16, 2013
Republicans vote to bar CNN, NBC News from partnering in '16 debates
Members of the RNC, gathered in Boston for their Summer Meeting voted to bar NBC News and CNN from participating in 2016 debates due to forthcoming projects about Hillary Clinton planned by both network. They approved the resolution by a voice vote.
The resolution states that the RNC would not "partner with (CNN or NBC) in the 2016 presidential primary debates nor sanction any primary debates they sponsor."
The Republican National Committee approves a resolution to block CNN and NBC television networks from hosting GOP presidential primary debates. Watch the reading of the resolution and the vote.
“We’re done putting up with this nonsense,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said ahead of the vote. “There are plenty of other outlets. We’ll still reach voters, maybe more voters. But CNN and NBC anchors will just have to watch on their competitors’ networks.”The RNC’s effort reflects an early and aggressive effort against ceding any ground to Clinton, Democrats’ early favorite in a presidential candidate in the next election. (Clinton has not yet hinted at whether she intends to again seek the Democratic nomination.) But the RNC’s effort also represents a bid to build enthusiasm with the conservative grassroots, who generally regard the establishment media with enthusiasm, and often accuse them of favoring Democrats in their news coverage.
The RNC claims the programs "are an attempt to show political favoritism and put a thumb on the scales for the next presidential election," and "will jeopardize the credibility of CNN and NBC as supposedly unbiased news networks."
Priebus wrote executives at NBC Entertainment and CNN on Aug. 5, warning that if each network did not cancel planned projects about Clinton, each network’s news division would be barred from participating in official Republican primary debates in 2016.
“It’s appalling to know executives at major networks like NBC and CNN who have donated to Democrats and Hillary Clinton have taken it upon themselves to be Hillary Clinton’s campaign operatives,” Priebus wrote at the time. In the weeks since then, the RNC chairman embarked on a media blitzkrieg looking to pressure both NBC and CNN to cancel their projects.
NBC News spokeswoman Erika Masonhall said in a statement earlier this month: "NBC News is completely independent of NBC Entertainment and has no involvement in this project."
"NBC Entertainment has many projects in development, and this particular miniseries -- which has nothing to do with the NBC News division -- is in the very early stages," NBC Entertainment said in a statement last week. "The script has not been written nor has it been ordered into production. It would be premature to draw any conclusions or make any assumptions about it at this time."
"The project is in the very early stages of development, months from completion with most of the reporting and the interviewing still to be done. Therefore speculation about the final program is just that," CNN said in a statement on Friday. "We encouraged all interested parties to wait until the program premieres before judgments are made about it. Unfortunately, the RNC was not willing to do that."
Republicans’ move to shut out two major news networks from its 2016 debates reflects a broader effort by the RNC to seize control of their primary debate process before the next presidential election.
The post-2012 election autopsy ordered by Priebus found that “there have been too many debates, and they took place too early.”
However, candidates aren’t necessarily prohibited from participating in debates not sanctioned by the RNC, a decision that might appear to candidates looking for more public exposure in a GOP primary. The RNC could conceivably impose sanctions, though, against candidates who opt to participate in such a debate.
“We could change the rules to say here are the penalties if you go outside the established debate guidelines,” said RNC communications director Sean Spicer. “The one thing that the RNC has that everybody wants is the nomination.”
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
The Big Blue
An Outdoor // Nature Blog
‘Turducken’ of the sea–scientists off Delaware catch shark within a shark
Researchers at the University of Delaware set out recently in the hope of recapturing tagged sand tiger sharks. They enticed a large female but it was the bizarre manner by which they captured the predator that left them shaking their heads in disbelief.
After casting a small fish called a menhaden, a small shark called a dogfish was quick to snatch the bait, only to be swallowed by the much larger sand tiger shark. “The dogfish was about 3 feet long and completely swallowed by the sand tiger shark,” states a post on the university’s ORB Lab Facebook page.
The researchers had captured a shark within a shark, which prompted pro bass angler Aaron Martens to comment: “There’s gotta be some kind of ‘turducken‘ label for this kind of situation.”
The ORB Lab is short for Ocean Exploration, Remote Sensing, Biogeography Lab.
Scientists are trying to recapture tagged sharks, or tags that have popped off of sharks, to compile data for study.
Sand tiger sharks are vicious-looking because of the many dagger-like teeth protruding from their jaws.
Writes the ORB Lab in a separate Facebook post: “Their protruding spike-like teeth are perfect for spearing their favorite foods: bony fishes, small sharks, rays, squids, crabs, and lobsters.”
Sand tigers, which can measure to about 10 feet, lose an average of one tooth per day and boast 56 rows of teeth in each jaw “at any time waiting to replace lost or broken teeth.”
The sand tiger in the photo looks to have lost a couple of front teeth during its attack on the dogfish and/or its capture (and release) by scientists.
Quite a day of fishing!
An Outdoor // Nature Blog
In a bizarre capture, bait is attacked by 3-foot shark, which is then 'completely swallowed' by a large sand tiger shark
Photo courtesy of the University of Delaware
Researchers at the University of Delaware set out recently in the hope of recapturing tagged sand tiger sharks. They enticed a large female but it was the bizarre manner by which they captured the predator that left them shaking their heads in disbelief.
After casting a small fish called a menhaden, a small shark called a dogfish was quick to snatch the bait, only to be swallowed by the much larger sand tiger shark. “The dogfish was about 3 feet long and completely swallowed by the sand tiger shark,” states a post on the university’s ORB Lab Facebook page.
The researchers had captured a shark within a shark, which prompted pro bass angler Aaron Martens to comment: “There’s gotta be some kind of ‘turducken‘ label for this kind of situation.”
The ORB Lab is short for Ocean Exploration, Remote Sensing, Biogeography Lab.
Scientists are trying to recapture tagged sharks, or tags that have popped off of sharks, to compile data for study.
Sand tiger sharks are vicious-looking because of the many dagger-like teeth protruding from their jaws.
Writes the ORB Lab in a separate Facebook post: “Their protruding spike-like teeth are perfect for spearing their favorite foods: bony fishes, small sharks, rays, squids, crabs, and lobsters.”
Sand tigers, which can measure to about 10 feet, lose an average of one tooth per day and boast 56 rows of teeth in each jaw “at any time waiting to replace lost or broken teeth.”
The sand tiger in the photo looks to have lost a couple of front teeth during its attack on the dogfish and/or its capture (and release) by scientists.
Quite a day of fishing!
Cisco 4Q profit grows but plans to cut 4,000 jobs
August 14, 2013
NEW YORK (AP) - Cisco's earnings and revenue grew in the latest quarter as demand for its computer networking equipment increased. But CEO John Chambers called the global economy "challenging and inconsistent" and the company said it is cutting about 4,000 jobs, or about 5 percent of its work force.
Cisco's revenue guidance for the current quarter was weaker than Wall Street expected, and shares fell sharply in extended trading.
The company's stock fell $2.51, or 9.5 percent, to $23.87 in extended trading after the results were released. The stock closed up 6 cents at $26.38 in the day's regular trading session.
Cisco Systems Inc. earned $2.27 billion, or 42 cents per share, in the three months that ended on July 27. That's up from $1.92 billion, or 36 cents per share, a year earlier.
Adjusted earnings were 52 cents per share in the latest quarter, squeaking past Wall Street's expectations by a penny. This figure excludes charges stemming from a patent settlement with TiVo and other one-time items.
Revenue rose 6 percent to $12.42 billion from $11.69 billion.
Analysts, on average, had expected revenue of $12.41 billion, according to a poll by FactSet.
Cisco's performance is widely regarded as a bellwether for the technology industry. That's because the San Jose, California, company cuts a broad swath, selling routers, switches, software and services to corporate customers and government agencies. Cisco's fiscal quarters end a month later than most other major technology companies, giving it additional time to assess economic conditions.
Cisco's product orders grew 4 percent year-over-year, the same as in the third quarter of this year. Orders in the Americas region grew 5 percent, while Asia declined 3 percent due to economic challenges in the region, Chambers said. Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Russia increased 6 percent. On its own, Europe was up 9 percent.
Chambers said that economic conditions in Europe still "vary significantly" by region, with the north and the U.K. showing "very positive progress."
"We remain cautious, however, given the instability of the southern region," he added.
The caution is evident in Cisco's guidance. For the current quarter, the company said that said it expects revenue to grow 3 percent to 5 percent year-over-year. Analysts are expecting $12.72 billion, a 7 percent increase from last year's $11.9 billion.
Over the long term, Chambers said that the company still expects revenue to grow 5 percent to 7 percent, and added that Cisco is in a "better position in the market today than ever before."
Cisco's revenue guidance for the current quarter was weaker than Wall Street expected, and shares fell sharply in extended trading.
The company's stock fell $2.51, or 9.5 percent, to $23.87 in extended trading after the results were released. The stock closed up 6 cents at $26.38 in the day's regular trading session.
Cisco Systems Inc. earned $2.27 billion, or 42 cents per share, in the three months that ended on July 27. That's up from $1.92 billion, or 36 cents per share, a year earlier.
Adjusted earnings were 52 cents per share in the latest quarter, squeaking past Wall Street's expectations by a penny. This figure excludes charges stemming from a patent settlement with TiVo and other one-time items.
Revenue rose 6 percent to $12.42 billion from $11.69 billion.
Cisco's performance is widely regarded as a bellwether for the technology industry. That's because the San Jose, California, company cuts a broad swath, selling routers, switches, software and services to corporate customers and government agencies. Cisco's fiscal quarters end a month later than most other major technology companies, giving it additional time to assess economic conditions.
Cisco's product orders grew 4 percent year-over-year, the same as in the third quarter of this year. Orders in the Americas region grew 5 percent, while Asia declined 3 percent due to economic challenges in the region, Chambers said. Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Russia increased 6 percent. On its own, Europe was up 9 percent.
Chambers said that economic conditions in Europe still "vary significantly" by region, with the north and the U.K. showing "very positive progress."
"We remain cautious, however, given the instability of the southern region," he added.
The caution is evident in Cisco's guidance. For the current quarter, the company said that said it expects revenue to grow 3 percent to 5 percent year-over-year. Analysts are expecting $12.72 billion, a 7 percent increase from last year's $11.9 billion.
Over the long term, Chambers said that the company still expects revenue to grow 5 percent to 7 percent, and added that Cisco is in a "better position in the market today than ever before."
Smartphone pictures pose privacy risks
Pictures you've e-mailed or uploaded from your smartphone could leak information that can threaten your safety or that of your children. Visit http://tinyurl.com/smartphonerisks to read much more on this investigation.
Parents warned to disable geotagging before posting kids' pics
A safety warning that surfaced in 2010 is making the rounds again. Parents are reminded to disable geotagging and location services on photographs taken of their children from their smart phones and posted to Facebook, Twitter or other websites with public access. The concern is that tech-savvy, ill-intentioned people could potentially track down the exact location the photo was taken — a child's school, daycare, your neighborhood park or home. "Basically, what you're doing is you're telling the bad guy … where [you] live and recreate," said Officer Mark Chudik of the Leawood, Kan., police department. [Source]
Trending topic: parents warned geotagging
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