As the bacon and sausages sizzle, we reach into our cupboard and pluck out a tin of baked beans, the very definition of comfort food for many an impoverished British student. The can is an airtight tube, sealed at both ends, and though we’ll soon chuck the empty container in the recycling bin with barely a flicker of appreciation, this simple technology was once a marvelous revolution in culinary history, and the result of a strange co-operation between enemies.

For millennia, an army had “marched on its stomach,” to quote celebrity Corsican Napoleon Bonaparte, and the logistical puzzle of feeding soldiers and sailors was a head-scratcher to flummox even a chess grand master. How did one supply tens of thousands of men, miles from friendly shores or towns, with sufficient rations to fuel their grueling demands, when the food itself spoils so quickly that it needs to be replaced every few days? If an army couldn’t rely on stripping the nearby countryside of its resources, then what was the solution? In search of an answer, in 1795 the French government embraced crowd-sourcing, and offered a prize to any boffin able to solve the quandary. In 1810, after the prize money had gone uncollected for some 15 years, a cook named Nicholas Appert claimed his 12,000 francs.

The son of an hotelier, Appert had initially trained as a chef but switched to become a confectioner, a trade in which he explored the preservation of fruit in sugary jellies. For a decade he experimented with sealing food in glass jars and then boiling them for different lengths of time, and in 1804 he impressed the French Navy, and then the army, with his invention. By 1809, an official committee was called to sample his preserved foods and found them to be deliciously maggot-free. Appert clearly deserved his prize, which was handed to him on the condition that he published his theory and didn’t patent it.

And so, in 1810, The Art of Preserving All Kinds of Animal and Vegetable Substances for Several Years appeared in print and Appert became a media darling, flogging his luxurious preserved wares from an elegant Parisian showroom. Tellingly, despite his success, he had no scientific understanding of why his techniques worked. Germ Theory, and the discovery of bacteria, was still 50 years away, and Louis Pasteur — one of the pioneering scientists to discover it — hadn’t even been born yet. Appert, the new hero of food storage, had blundered his way to victory. What’s more, though hailed as the “Father of Canning,” he hadn’t actually invented the can. Indeed, his glass jars sometimes exploded due to the high internal pressure, were prone to fracturing if dropped, and were a bloody nightmare to open, making them less than ideal for warzones.

Instead, it was another Frenchman, Phillipe de Girard, who devised the now familiar tin can. Yet, instead of touting his invention around France, Girard pursued the healthier British market instead, though this wasn’t without complications. The two nations were in the midst of the Napoleonic Wars and Britain wasn’t exactly rolling out the red carpet to people with thick Gallic accents, so Girard hired an English merchant called Peter Durand to take out the patent on his behalf. But, clearly his invention was of sufficient interest to suppress any xenophobic Frog-bashing from the scientific community, as records show Girard somehow snuck out of France to make regular visits to the Royal Society in London.

Intriguingly, de Girard’s involvement ended soon after as his patent was snapped up and put into production by Bryan Donkin, an English engineer, who wowed the Duke of Wellington and the British Admiralty with his long-life canned meats, preserved within the tin jacket. By 1814, these novel tin cans were sailing the high seas and trundling across the battlefields of Europe, to the delight of sailors and soldiers who wrote back to London exclaiming joyfully that their dinners were no longer accessorized with weird-smelling mold. Just five years after Appert had picked up his prize check from the French government, Napoleon Bonaparte faced off against the British at the infamous Battle of Waterloo in 1815, where he may have been royally peeved to discover that not only were his adversaries carrying tinned food in their wagon trains, but that a Frenchman had been the one to put them there. So much for patriotism.

Thankfully, our own can of baked beans has one of those new-fangled rings pulls on the top, and doesn’t require the dreaded can-opener to be clumsily clamped over the metal lip. Still, at least the thing exists — in a weird quirk of history, the can-opener wasn’t invented until 1870, a lengthy 48 years after the can itself. It seems people spent the best part of half a century frustratingly smashing the tins open with hammers and chisels as if they were the furious bone-thumping apes in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

YOU SAY POTATO . . .

The guards stood defiantly around the edge of the fields, weapons in hand, as the local peasants peered past them, hunting for clues as to what precious luxury might be sprouting from the soil. Their curiosity inflamed, the locals patiently waited for dusk to settle and watched with eager delight as the soldiers abandoned their posts and traipsed to their barracks for the night. With no sentries on duty, these scruffy peasants scurried out into the fields, dug up the crops by moonlight, and ferried them quietly back to their own strips of land for replanting. Whatever aristocratic nosh this was, they were going to sample it first. When news of the dramatic theft reached the owner of the fields, he was delighted. His cunning plan had worked brilliantly.

As we chuck some shredded-potato hash browns into the frying pan, it may not occur to us that the story of the potato is a controversial one, and that the humble spud was once greeted with a mixture of haughty disdain and desperate panic. As with tomatoes, potatoes had been a South American food and the Incas had grown them at altitude, making use of the night frost to freeze-dry the tubers into dehydrated starch, almost like our frozen French fries, and this had allowed potatoes to be a long-life food source to fill the gap when other crops failed. Yet, upon arrival in Europe in the 1570s, the launch of such a nutritious and practical foodstuff was nothing but a spectacular PR disaster.

In 1596, the Swiss botanist Caspar Bauhin named the potato Solanum tuberosum esculentum, but provided a scarily dramatic drawing of the plant in his book and accompanied it with scurrilous gossip, suggesting that it caused flatulence, lust and leprosy — a holy trio of embarrassment, guaranteed to ruin any romantic encounter. We’re not sure why he decided this, but perhaps he came to this conclusion due to the somewhat lumpen, gnarly shape of his sample potato, which maybe resembled the ravaged limbs of lepers. This awful write-up gave the humble spud the kind of dreaded reputation more recently witnessed with Mad Cow Disease, and — as with the collapse of trust in British beef — soon people refused to eat potatoes, even in desperate times of famine.

The owner of those aforementioned ransacked fields was Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, a French food scientist who’d formerly been a prisoner of war and who had been fed by his Prussian captors with a lowly diet of horse food — i.e. potatoes — yet had emerged after three years of captivity in robust health. Clearly, potatoes weren’t some ungodly source of horror after all. Determined to prove his theory right, Parmentier began a long campaign to convince scientists, farmers, the French government and the superstitious population that potatoes were a useful alternative to bread, and not some fart-inducing aphrodisiac that made your legs fall off. In 1771, he managed to convince the scientists but still faced stiff opposition, so began plotting his clever series of promotional stunts, including serving potato dishes to celebrities, such as Benjamin Franklin; convincing Marie Antoinette to wear potato flowers in her posies; and fooling the peasants of Neuilly, west of Paris, that his heavily guarded potato crop — grown on 50 acres of sandy wasteland — was a new luxury food not intended for their low-born tummies. The reverse psychology, as we already know, was a triumph.

Parmentier is now celebrated with potato recipes named in his honor, and thanks to his efforts the starchy spud gradually shimmied its way up the nutritional ladder, from horse fodder, to emergency rations in a famine, to staple food source. Yet, tragically, in Ireland this former back-up option, there to plug the gap in times of crop-failure, ended up as the primary foodstuff and such over-reliance proved to be disastrous when the disease-prone tubers suffered a catastrophic blight.

From A Million Years in Day by Greg Jenner. Copyright © 2016 by the author and reprinted by permission of Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press, LLC.

Summary: Read an excerpt from Greg Jenner's 'A Million Years in a Day'


The Russian city of Dzerzhinsk was a centre of chemical production during Soviet times.

Neighbouring towns used to joke about its two-headed purple-skinned inhabitants. But what was it really like to grow up there?

Tatyana Movshevich, a journalist from Dzerzhinsk, shares her special memories.

Watch more BBC World Service animations here.

Find out more about how they were made here.

Summary: Tatyana Movshevich grew up in the Soviet city of Dzerzhinsk, a centre for the production of toxic chemicals.


The school resource officer whose violent arrest of a South Carolina student this week sparked a Justice Department investigation has drawn fresh scrutiny of the tens of thousands of police increasingly present in U.S. public schools.

The role of school resource officers (SROs), sworn law enforcement agents that help provide school security, is being re-examined after a video surfaced showing Ben Fields, a white officer at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, S.C., arresting a black 16-year-old after flipping the student out of her chair and dragging her across the floor. Fields, a Richland County senior deputy who spent seven years as an SRO, has since been fired, and the Department of Justice is considering whether the arrest violated civil rights laws.

Fewer than 100 police officers were in schools when the practice began in the 1950s, says Jason Nance, a University of Florida law professor who studies SROs. But they increased significantly throughout the 1980s and 1990s as tough-on-crime federal and state policies attempted to bring down juvenile crime rates around the country.

The shooting at Columbine High School in 1999 led to even more SROs after the federal government provided money for stepped-up security in schools. The number of school cops likely peaked around 2007 at roughly 19,000, Nance says. There are no definitive numbers on how many SROs are currently in the U.S., but the National Association of School Resource Officers estimates it’s between 14,000 and 20,000. Nance says the number likely dipped a bit after 2007 but picked up following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and has remained steady since.

School resource officers have all the powers of a regular police officer, including the right to arrest, which concerns civil rights groups who believe that the growth of cops in schools is contributing to the so-called school-to-prison pipeline. “I think they increase the likelihood that people will be involved in the juvenile justice or criminal justice system,” says Dennis Parker, director of the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program. “Our concern is that law enforcement in schools should be strictly limited to enforcement of criminal laws and not school discipline policies.”

Critics of SROs say that police are now dealing with disciplinary matters that previously would’ve been adjudicated by teachers or school administrators, and that teachers in schools with SROs are becoming overly reliant on officers who are readily available.

In a study to be published next year in the Washington University Law Review, Nance found that the presence of school resource officers increases the likelihood of students being involved in the justice system for virtually every offense that occurs in schools, including lower-level offenses like fighting and theft. According to the paper, the odds of a student accused of a low-level offense being referred to law enforcement in a school with a regular police presence is between 1.38 and 1.83 times higher than those without SROs. Other studies show that high schoolers who have early run-ins with the law are more likely to drop out of school or potentially be arrested again later in life.

“Once a student is arrested, they’re less likely to graduate and more likely to be involved in the justice system later on,” Nance says. “It’s traumatic for these kids, and some of them don’t recover.”

The National Association of School Resource Officers, however, disputes the notion that the presence of police officers in schools leads to more students being arrested. NASRO Executive Director Mo Canady points to numbers from the U.S. Department of Justice showing that the number of juvenile arrests between 1994 and 2009 dropped almost 50% while SROs in schools increased.

“There’s no way law enforcement referrals can be up if SROs are doing the job the right and way and building relationships,” Canady says, adding that the officers’ overall mission is to “bridge the gap between law enforcement and youth.”

“Numbers [for juvenile arrests] are down overall, so how are we getting so much criticism for putting kids in jail if numbers are so dramatically down like that?” Canady says. “I have never said that we deserve all the credit for that, but we deserve some of it.”

There may be issues of training in the officers who have been in the spotlight lately; Canady says that neither South Carolina’s Fields nor the officer involved in arresting Ahmed Mohamed, the 14-year-old Texas high schooler who made a clock that officials thought was a bomb, were trained by NASRO, as some are. “That’s not the way we train our officers,” he says.

Schools have often reacted to mass shootings like those at Columbine or Sandy Hook by bringing in police, in part because it’s the one tangible way administrators can show that they’re attempting to make their school safer. But the question now may be whether national incidents like the arrest in South Carolina will lead to schools rethinking the role of school resource officers altogether.

“I hope the nation will now reconsider whether or not it’s a good thing to have police officers stationed in schools,” Nance says. “Is this the appropriate response to developing safe climates?”

Summary: School resource officers are in the spotlight after South Carolina incident


This week’s consumer question comes from a source very close to home: myself. As a new mother, I spend a lot of time figuring out how best to care for my daughter. And though she is only three months old, the rapidly rising cost of higher education means I am already thinking about how we will pay for college when the time comes. So I set out to learn as much as I could about 529 savings plans. These plans, named after the section of the tax code that authorized them, are similar to 401(k) retirement programs, except your money is spent on tuition and other education expenses.

■ There are two types of 529s. Prepaid tuition plans let you lock in current tuition rates but are limited to state schools. In Massachusetts, you are guaranteed not to lose any principal invested in one of these plans. Other education savings plans can be used to pay for any post-secondary school and are generally invested in mutual funds. In both cases, money used for qualified expenses is exempt from federal — but not state — taxes.

■ The plans are tax-free, but not fee-free. A 529 plan is subject to small setup and annual maintenance fees. The funds within the plan also charge fees equal to a percentage of the amount invested, so it is important to understand the component funds. Use a site like Morningstar or Savingforcollege.com to compare fees and understand what is average and what is unreasonable.

■ Consumers can buy and manage a 529 plan themselves from a company such as Fidelity or Vanguard, or they can go through a financial adviser. Two important caveats: Adviser-sold plans generally have higher fees of up to 3.75 percent, said John McAvoy, president of the Financial Planning Association of Massachusetts. And advisers do not have a fiduciary responsibility to 529 buyers, which means they are not required to act in their clients’ best financial interest. That is not to say they will not do so, but it does mean consumers must be more vigilant.

■ As with any savings plan, it is essential to contribute early and often, giving the miracle of compound interest time to work its magic. An investment of $10,000 today, compounding annually at 3 percent, would become more than $17,000 by the time my baby is ready to head to college; the same sum contributed 10 years from now would only grow to about $12,700.

Now, with a little luck and a lot of saving, my daughter will be able to avoid crippling debt as she pursues her dreams. For more on saving for college: US Securities and Exchange Commission: https://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/intro529.htm. Savingforcollege.com: http://www.savingforcollege.com/intro_to_529s/what-is-a-529-plan.php. US News & World Report: http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/mutual-funds/articles/2014/09/03/the-ultimate-guide-to-understanding-529-college-savings-plans.

For more on saving for college:

US Securities and Exchange Commission: https://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/intro529.htm.

Summary: Worried about paying for college? Here’s an introduction to savings plans.


Donald Trump has pledged to begin deportations the moment he is sworn in, if his presidential campaign is successful. (AAP)

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has pledged to start deporting "criminal illegal immigrants" as soon as he is sworn in should he become the White House's next occupant.

"On Day One, I am going to begin swiftly removing criminal illegal immigrants from this country, including removing the hundreds of thousands of criminal illegal immigrants that have been released into US communities under the Obama-Clinton administration," Trump said in Des Moines, Iowa.

Trump's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state during President Barack Obama's first term in office. The next president will be sworn in on January 20.

"I am going to build a great border wall, institute nationwide e-verify, stop illegal immigrants from accessing welfare and entitlements and develop an exit-entry tracking system to ensure those who overstay their visas are quickly removed," Trump warned.

The billionaire real estate magnate and former reality TV host said "If we don't enforce visa expiration dates, then we have an open border. It's as simple as that".

"A vote for Trump is a vote to have a nation of laws, a vote for Clinton is a vote for open borders," he stressed.

Trump also has sought to court black votes, promising to help African Americans find jobs, linking illegal immigration and unemployment.

"Every time an African American citizen, or any citizen, loses their job to an illegal immigrant, the rights of that American citizen have been totally violated," he argued.

Details of Trump's immigration policies remain scant. He rallied much of his primary support with a controversial hardline tone against illegal immigrants and his plan to build a wall on the Mexican border.

Some of his advisors are now reportedly urging him to tone down his signature policy priority.

© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2016

Summary: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump linked illegal immigration and employment Saturday, pledging to start deporting offenders as soon as he is sworn in should he become the White House's next occupant.


The mystery company helping GM’s OnStar isn’t a mystery anymore.

Google I/O is turning out to be a pretty interesting conference this year with GM now acknowledging the speculation that they are working with Google.

(I’ll be dropping in at Google I/O and dropping posts on location tomorrow and Thursday).

Today, GM announced that they’d be showing up at Google I/O to demonstrate the new Android app that will accompany the Chevy Volt and presumably other Chevy cars in the near future.

Besides an Android app, OnStar will now feature a Maps GPS service that pulls location coordinates from the Google Android phone.

From this map screen, owners can use Google search by voice to vocally search for a destination with their Android handset, and see where that destination is related to the Volt’s current location. They can then elect to send the destination from their Android phone to their Volt and have OnStar Turn-By-Turn directions to their destination waiting for them when they start the vehicle. Additionally, the owner will also have the option to get voice-guided directions to their vehicle from their current location, using Google Maps Navigation.

The new features won’t be available on the Volt mobile app at launch, but are planned for a 2.0 version.

“While OnStar will never lose sight of our core focus on safety and security, this relationship is an example of how we’re evolving our leadership position in connected vehicle technology,” said Chris Preuss, OnStar president. “What we’re talking about today is only the beginning.”

The smartphone mobile application for the Chevrolet Volt made its debut at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show and is planned to launch in tandem with the Volt this fall.

“These two new features add to the suite of mobile application features for Volt that given Volt owners a personal connection to their car,” said Tony DiSalle, Chevrolet Volt marketing director. “Connecting customers to their cars is one way we’re using technology to provide value and a real useful benefit to the Volt owner.”

Summary: The mystery company helping GM's OnStar isn't a mystery anymore. Google I/O is turning out to be a pretty interesting conference this year with GM now acknowledging the speculation that they are working with Google. (I'll be dropping in at Google I/O and dropping posts on location tomorrow and Thursday). Today, GM announced that they'd be showing…


A new voluntary euthanasia bill will come before the South Australian parliament on Thursday in the state's 15th attempt to introduce the controversial laws.

The Death With Dignity Bill is the latest bid to pass legislation in SA to allow voluntary euthanasia, with the first bill coming back in 1995.

The bill would allow people to request voluntary euthanasia if they are suffering intolerably from a terminal illness that will kill them eventually.

Liberal MP Dr Duncan McFetridge introduced the legislation on October 20 after a previous bill was scrapped and then rewritten with amendments to tighten eligibility processes.

There has been heated debate over the issue in recent months and some Christian and disability groups have fiercely opposed the idea.

These groups say it's a slippery slope to allow people to end their lives and that despite the bill being strict the laws would be expanded in future once passed.

But voluntary euthanasia supporters, such as TV presenter Andrew Denton, believe people should be given the freedom to die quickly and with dignity if they are sick and suffering.

The Death With Dignity Bill will be read for the second time on Thursday.

If the laws were to finally get up, SA would be the only Australian state to allow voluntary euthanasia.

Summary: In the latest bid to pass voluntary euthanasia laws in the state, the South Australian parliament will hear the Death With Dignity Bill on Thursday.


When will Sanders’ millenials support Clinton

Former Bernie Sanders’ supporter and former Ohio state senator, Nina Turner, talks to MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts about Hillary Clinton’s status among millenials and comments on how Bernie Sanders, Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are all on the...

MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts

Summary: Senator Sanders joins Chris Hayes to react to the news that Donald Trump reached a deal with Carrier to keep about 1000 jobs in the U.S. in exchange for $7M in tax breaks.


The NSW state government will adopt a trial period of extending bottle shop closing hours and lockout times in Kings Cross and the Sydney CBD, following controversy over the legislation.

The government today announced they would adopt recommendations set out in the Callinan Review, which included more than 1800 submissions including the idea that Sydney’s lockout laws could be “relaxed”.

The two-year trial period will extend closing hours from 3.00am to 3.30am, and lockout times extended from 1.30am to 2.00am, provided venues offer live entertainment, live performances or art and cultural events including bands and DJs.

Demonstrators holding up protest signs on Oxford Street in Sydney in October. (AAP)

The state-wide ban on the sale of takeaway alcohol will be shifted one hour forward to 11pm.

The report was handed to the government in September by former High Court Judge Ian Callinan who recommended the proposed time shifts.

He did warn any relaxation “carries the risk of greater density and consumption of more alcohol” in Kings Cross and the CBD.

"Mr Callinan found that the lockout laws introduced in February have resulted in 'much safer, quieter and cleaner areas'," NSW premier Mike Baird said.

“We want this to be dynamic. If we see an uptick in violence, we will revert back to where we were… We want to ensure we continue to listen.”

Other measures announced include extending the liquor licence freeze in the CBD and Kings Cross until June 1, 2018, increasing small bar patron capacity from 60 to 100, and providing automatic extended trading to 2am for small bars in the CBD.

The government says increasing the patronage limit “will help improve the commercial viability” of small bars.

NSW Premier Mike Baird. (AAP)

Mr Baird said there had been “strong views” that the lockout laws impacted live music and the “city’s vibrancy”.

The laws were originally introduced after a spate of one-punch assaults in the CBD, but have sparked controversy from musicians, punters and business traders.

Changes to lockouts, takeaway sales, and small bars will commence in January.

Mr Baird said statistics on violence and other measures would be reviewed annually to garner whether changes need to be made.

Changes to three strikes rule and the liquor license freeze will require the proposed legislation to be presented to parliament in February.

© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2016

Summary: The NSW state government is slated to adopt a trial period of extending bottle shop closing hours and lockout times in Kings Cross and the Sydney CBD, following controversy over the legislation.


IN a scruffy hall off the dusty main thoroughfare of Somaliland’s capital, Nuruddin Farah, a Somalia-born novelist, is berating the audience at the Hargeisa International Book Fair over what he sees as the inherent cruelty of Somali society. Somali history, he says, “is a consequence of this cruelty…we can never be a democratic society until we change our behaviour towards those we consider lesser.”

Despite being born in the south of Somalia and living in Cape Town Mr Farah, probably the most well-known Somali writer, feels quite at home in the internationally-unrecognised state in Somalia’s north: “I have come to start a debate with my community”. Debate permeated the fair in August and is now in its seventh year. Jama Muse Jama, formerly an Italy-based academic and businessman and now a Hargeisa-based publisher founded the fair in 2008 as a means to allow Somalilanders “to regain their public space… to sit down and simply debate”.

Alongside authors including Nadifa Mohammed, a much-lauded young British-based author born in Hargeisa, topics including the preservation of Somali heritage, mother and infant mortality, female genital mutilation, Somaliland’s own state-building and western stereotypes of Africa exercised hundreds of attendees. Poets, including the incomparable Hadraaawi, Bob Dylan-like here, declaimed sonorously, dervish-like female sitaad dancers whirled. A delegation of writers from Malawi, the guest country, and a sprinkling from Kenya alongside guests from Europe and America underlined the fair’s international credentials.

Hargeisa itself is buzzing. Roads that for decades had been pockmarked by damage caused by war are now being repaired. Construction is booming too with gaudy McMansions, hotels and malls going up. Many are funded by Somaliland’s wide diaspora. The logos of Dahabshiil, a regional money-transfer giant, and conduit for all those diaspora remittances, and mobile phone companies Telesom and Somtel and private university billboards are everywhere. Petrol stations, often bearing the blue-and-yellow livery of Hass Petroleum, based in Kenya, are springing up. Outdoor stalls and cafes bear handpainted signs and the ubiquitous details of the Zaad mobile-payment system. Earlier this year, the opening of a swimming pool, atop a hotel roof, caused local excitement.

Mohamed Awale, the director of planning at the Ministry of Commerce, lauds Somaliland’s regulatory reform to ease investment, but worries that without foreign recognition, Somaliland may remain stuck in “transitional” phase. He also worries about the plight of Somaliland’s young. Some 75% of the population are reckoned to be under 21, and 80% of them unemployed. Another economic threat is financial. Western banks are clamping down on their dealings with money-transfer agents to limit the risk that they may be implicated in financing terrorist or other illicit activity. That may reduce the flow of funds from Somaliland’s diaspora, exacerbating poverty.

Since declaring independence in 1991, Somaliland has sought international recognition and the funding and foreign investment it would bring. It has held a raft of elections judged reasonably fair by international observers, but is little-noticed. The international community, with the backing of the African Union, is focused on Somalia, where international forces are trying to curb an Islamist insurgency and shepherd the country through federal elections, which are scheduled for 2016. Somaliland itself has elections scheduled for 2015, although implementation of a voter-registration system could cause delays.

Yet Somaliland may soon attract increased attention. One reason is the widening contrast between Hargeisa, where the streets are relatively safe, and Mogadishu—where on August 15th, at least 10 people were killed in a government-led attack on a militia leader near the city’s airport. Despite its lack of official recognition, Britain and Denmark are collaborating on a “Somaliland Development Fund” worth US$50m, to back the government’s own ambitious infrastructure development plans.

Oil firms are also taking note. A host of companies, including Turkish and Norwegian firms, have been searching for oil and gas in the east of Somaliland. Although commercial potential has yet to materialise, big hydrocarbon discoveries could bring as many challenges as benefits in an economy that is currently reliant on remittances and livestock exports to the Middle East. Some of the sites being explored are disputed between Somaliland and Puntland, a part of Somalia. Some of the clans in the disputed territories do not recognise Hargeisa’s authority. “It scares me what would happen if someone did make a big oil strike,” says Michael Walls, a Somali expert at University College London (whose own in-depth study of Somaliland’s state-building was launched at the fair). A conflict over oil would be a cruel blow indeed.

Summary: Somaliland has sought international recognition since 1991, but is little noticed


The deal came after crunch talks between employees, unions and Tata bosses on Wednesday at the South Wales plant, which employs about 4,000 staff, almost half of the UK steel operations' total.

However, the agreement could come at a cost for steelworkers. As part of the agreement Tata is beginning a consultation on changes to the £15bn pension scheme attached to the business, with far less generous terms.

Roy Rickhuss, leader of steel union Community, said that his members still had to vote to agree the deal.

However, he welcomed the proposals, adding: "The past year has been incredibly difficult for steelworkers and their families. When Tata announced in March that they planned to sell the steelworks, no one knew if they would have a job by Christmas.

"This will secure jobs for years to come and bring serious investment not just to Port Talbot but to steelworks across the UK.

Details of the deal include a jobs guarantee that matches the sister business in Holland, where workers have been given assurances the company will "seek to avoid any compulsory redundancies"

The most contentious part of the plan is changes to the 130,000-member British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS). The proposals include closing it to future accrual, replacing it with a defined contribution scheme with maximum contributions of 10pc from the company and 6pc from employees.

Summary: Staff at Tata’s sprawling Port Talbot steel plant have had their jobs guaranteed for five years with the company pledging to invest £1bn in its UK business in a landmark deal for Britain's steel industry.


One source of rising populism in the U.S. and Europe is growing dissatisfaction with the impact of trade and investment with China. The country’s entry into the global economic system, bringing a huge pool of labor into the more integrated global economy, has been disruptive.

But China exacerbated the disruption with policies that tended to limit imports and inward direct investment. Some American and European firms and workers have benefited from exporting to China, but the numbers could have been much greater, and the adjustment eased.

In the early days of China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, there was a tendency on both sides of the Atlantic to give China the benefit of the doubt and assume that its economy would become more market-oriented over time. In the event, there has been little progress in dismantling China’s mercantilist policies.

As a result, U.S. and EU stakeholders have become increasingly frustrated. This is evident in campaign statements from across the political spectrum in the U.S. and Europe.

Donald Trump floated ideas about harsh measures toward China, such as naming it as a currency manipulator or imposing 45% across-the-board import tariffs on Chinese goods. Mr. Trump will not necessarily do these specific things as President, but he is likely to introduce some measures against China’s trade and investment with the United States.

In adjusting policies toward China, it would be smart for the new administration to coordinate with Europe. Economists generally agree that China is intervening to keep its currency high, not low, so there is no traction in Europe for designating the country a manipulator. High tariffs would violate World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and Europe is likely to side with China in upholding those rules.

The area with the best potential for coordination is the growing investment by Chinese enterprises in the U.S. and Europe. State-directed firms earn profits in China behind protected walls and have now started to buy their competitors overseas. Western firms cannot make analogous purchases in China because of severe restrictions on investment in modern services, energy, agriculture and high-tech sectors.

As it contemplates its future relationship with China, the new U.S. administration might need to keep in mind the following facts:

• For the past few years China has been investing heavily throughout the European Union, its second-largest trading partner. If Washington engages in a trade war with China, Beijing would likely turn to the very same European countries with which it has built a close partnership. One example are the 16 Eastern and Central European countries that have joined China in a “16+1” forum.

• China has targeted the European Union as a consumer market for some time, but it is now doing so more aggressively through its “One Belt, One Road” initiative, a network of regional projects encompassing road and rail routes, oil and gas pipelines and facilities connecting China to Western Europe, through Central Asia, Russia and the Caucasus. It also includes maritime routes through Southeast Asia, part of Africa and the Middle East, all the way to Southern Europe.

• This has been accompanied by China’s creation of new financial institutions, such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which now has over 60 members—and does not include the U.S. Several key European countries (such as the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Poland) are founding members of the AIIB.

• China and the EU are engaged in several major discussions, including on the market-economy status that Beijing claims as part of its WTO membership, as well as a free-trade agreement and a bilateral investment treaty.

As a rising global power, China now has a much wider scope than when it joined the WTO in 2001. It is not merely a top trading nation. China has other instruments and alliances at hand—including with traditional U.S. allies.

China wants to continue investing abroad, through mergers and acquisitions as well as greenfield investments, and it has been pushing its state-owned enterprises in particular to “go abroad.” Western brands, especially in information and communication technology, have been targeted, leading to notable debates in Germany and the U.S.

Europeans may create a mechanism similar to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (Cfius) to look at national security and economic implications of foreign acquisitions. By working together in obtaining reciprocal agreement for Western companies in China, Americans and Europeans would get better results than threatening tariff sanctions on Chinese products that would lead to a trade war.

Messrs. Dollar and Le Corre are scholars at the Brookings Institution.

Summary: America and Europe should coordinate tougher economic policies on China, David Dollar and Philippe Le Corre write in an oped for The Wall Street Journal.


Radio frequency identity tags are growing in popularity because they are easily scanned.

A group of European computer researchers have demonstrated that it is possible to insert a software virus into radio frequency identification tags, part of a microchip-based tracking technology in growing use in commercial and security applications.

In a paper to be presented today at an academic computing conference in Pisa, Italy, the researchers plan to demonstrate how it is possible to infect a tiny portion of memory in the chip, which can hold as little as 128 characters of information.

Until now, most computer security experts have discounted the possibility of using such tags, known as RFID chips, to spread a computer virus because of the tiny amount of memory on the chips.

The tracking systems are intended to improve the accuracy and lower the cost of tracking goods in supply chains, warehouses and stores. Radio tags store far more data about a product than bar codes and can be read more quickly. They have even been injected into pets and livestock for identification.

The chips have already prompted debate over privacy and surveillance, given their tracking ability. Now the researchers have added a series of worrisome prospects, including the ability of terrorists and smugglers to evade airport luggage scanning systems that will use RFID tags in the future.

In the researchers' paper, "Is Your Cat Infected With a Computer Virus?," the group, affiliated with the computer science department at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, also describes how the vulnerability could be used to undermine a variety of tracking systems.

The researchers said they realized that there are risks associated with publishing security vulnerabilities in computerized systems. To head off some of the possible attacks they described, they have also published a set of steps to help protect RFID chips from such attacks.

The group, led by Andrew S. Tanenbaum, an American computer scientist, will make the presentation at the annual Pervasive Computing and Communications Conference sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.

The researchers asserted that the RFID demonstration had not used the commercial software that collects and organizes information from RFID readers. Rather, it used software that they designed to replicate those systems.

"We have not found specific flaws" in the commercial RFID software, Mr. Tanenbaum said, but "experience shows that software written by large companies has errors in it."

The researchers have posted their paper and related materials on security issues related to RFID systems at www.rfidvirus.org.

The researchers acknowledged that inside information would be required in many cases to plant a hostile program. But they asserted that the commercial software developed for RFID applications had the same potential vulnerabilities that have been exploited by viruses and other malicious software, or malware, in the rest of the computer industry.

One such standard industry problem is a software coding error referred to as a buffer overflow. Such errors occur when programmers set aside memory to receive data temporarily, but fail to require a check on the size of the value that is moved to the allocated space. A larger-than-expected value can cause the program to break and trick the computer operating system into executing a malicious program. "You should check all of your input all of the time, but experience shows this isn't the case," Mr. Tanenbaum said.

Independent computer security specialists also said RFID systems were potential problem areas.

"It shouldn't surprise you that a system that is designed to be manufactured as cheaply as possible is designed with no security constraints whatsoever," said Peter Neumann, a computer scientist at SRI International, a research firm in Menlo Park, Calif.

Mr. Neumann is the co-author of an article to be published in the May issue of the Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery on the risks of RFID systems. He said existing RFID systems were a computer security disaster waiting to happen.

He cited inadequate identification for users, the potential for counterfeiting or disabling tags, and the problem of weak encryption in a passport-tracking system being developed in the United States. But he said he had not previously considered the possibility of viruses and other malicious software programs.

An industry executive acknowledged that the companies that make computerized tracking systems faced potential security problems.

"We are very actively looking at the different way the technology is used," said the executive, Daniel P. Mullen, president of the Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility, an industry trade group. "It's an ongoing dialogue about protecting information on the tag and in the database."

The association has a working group of experts assessing both security and privacy challenges, he said.

There are many types of RFID tag, and some of the sophisticated versions include security features like encryption of the identifying number carried by the chip.

But the Dutch research group warned that in a variety of situations it is possible for attackers to alter the information in an RFID tag to subvert its purpose.

"RFID malware is a Pandora's box that has been gathering dust in the corners of our 'smart' warehouses and homes," they write in their paper.

In one example they offered, a virus from an infected tag on luggage passing through an airport could be picked up when it is scanned by the luggage-handling control systems and then spread to tags attached to other pieces of luggage.

Such an attack, they suggest, might spread luggage contamination to other airports. It might also be used by a smuggler to cause a piece of luggage to avoid security systems.

They also described situations of counterfeit RFID tags possibly being be used to subvert pricing and other aspects of commercial sales systems, or a virus could be inserted into RFID tags used to identify pets.

Correction: March 17, 2006 An article in Business Day on Wednesday about a study of computer-virus risks in a microchip-based tracking technology referred imprecisely to the contribution of one researcher, Andrew S. Tanenbaum, to the development of the Linux operating system. While the system's creator, Linus Torvalds, has acknowledged the influence of Mr. Tanenbaum's Minix system on his own work, no Minix code was incorporated into Linux.

Summary: Researchers have demonstrated that it is possible to insert a software virus into radio frequency identification tags.


In her first in-depth interview since the death of her brother Michael Jackson, La Toya Jackson opened up exclusively to Barbara Walters about the family's grief.

The singer's sister talks to Barbara Walters about her brother's death.

"I don't think we'll find a person as talented, a person who thought the way he thought. A person with the heart that Michael had," La Toya, 53, told Walters. "People aren't that way anymore. He was special. He wasn't God, but he was certainly God-like. He was the closest thing to a god that I knew."

La Toya, one of Michael's closest siblings, was one of the first one to appear at her brother's bedside the day he died. Since then, the solo artist and model signed her brother's death certificate, became the legal guardian of his body and with the entire Jackson family, planned the funeral and memorial service in Los Angeles.

Watch Barbara Walters's exclusive interview with La Toya on "20/20" Friday at 10 p.m. ET

Michael was laid to rest in a private ceremony last week, nearly two months after his death, at the iconic Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, Calif. La Toya told Walters that her brother looked "absolutely fabulous."

"He was dressed in all white pearl beads going across, draped across. A beautiful big gold belt. Like ... Like a belt that you win being a boxer," she said. "Full makeup. ... His hair was done beautifully, his makeup was done beautifully."

According to La Toya, in addition to the stones Paris placed on his chest, the family put sunglasses, an iconic white glove and a few other items in the casket with him.

According to the autopsy, the late King of Pop died of a fatal combination of drugs, including the powerful anesthetic propofol. Dr. Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson's personal physician has admitted administering propofol, but has denied giving Michael anything that "should have killed him."

Murray told investigators that he had been trying to wean the singer off propofol by administering a series of other prescription sedatives. When asked by Walters if Murray murdered her brother, La Toya said, "Something went wrong. Something went wrong."

La Toya also addressed reports that Michael's oldest son, Prince, was summoned by Murray the night of his father's death to help resuscitate his father.

"He called Prince ... Prince ... watched him do this, Barbara. And you don't do that to a child. You don't do that to a child, especially when you knew prior to asking that child to come up, that Michael was no longer alive," she said.

La Toya stressed that she believes Michael was dead long before Murray even called for Prince -- but called the 13-year-old in, to "show that [he] had nothing to do with this."

Summary: In her first in-depth interview since the death of her brother Michael Jackson, La Toya Jackson opened up exclusively to Barbara Walters about the family's grief, Paris' visit to his open casket, how the late King of Pop was laid to rest, and the future for his children.


Quick Guide to Salem Haven't watched in awhile and just want to know what the heck's going on now? Well, the Quick Guide to Salem is here to help! Go Now!

News & Sneak Peeks News, personal appearances, and sneak peeks for the week's episodes! Go Now!

Bios Get the full story behind your favorite characters and the actors who play them. Go Now!

Shop Get your Brady's Pub Apron and other Days of our Lives merchandise at the Universal Store! Go Now!

Adventures Outside of Salem Ali Sweeney takes on a guest starring role in Mercy. Watch Now!

Summary: Days of our Lives Soap Opera: Find Spoilers, Sneak Previews and Updates - NBC Official Site


By DEREK ROSE and ALICE McQUILLAN DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Monday, July 23th 2001, 2:22AM

A stunning plus-size model with dreams of stardom slashed her throat with a kitchen knife in an apparent suicide at her East Side walkup, police said yesterday.

Green-eyed, strawberry blond Natasha Duncan, 21, died by her own hand Saturday evening after feeling despondent and smoking marijuana, her roommate told police.

She worked for the prestigious Wilhelmina Agency, which began its "Ten/20" division for larger-size women in 1994. Duncan was on a roster that includes Mia Tyler, half sister of actress Liv Tyler, and pop icon Gloria Gaynor.

Duncan's roommate, Johanna Edelberg, also a Wilhelmina plus-size model, found her sprawled on their kitchen floor about 7:30 p.m.

Edelberg, 20, told police the pair were "getting high" when she left the kitchen to listen to music on headphones in another room in their third-floor flat on E. 59th St.

By the time Edelberg returned to the kitchen, she encountered a bloody scene: Duncan had apparently grabbed a kitchen knife and sliced open her neck, police said.

She was rushed to New York Weill Cornell Medical Center but was pronounced dead on arrival.

Duncan's family told detectives that she had been fighting bouts of sadness. Despair colored her personal writings, but she did not leave a suicide note, a police source said.

The Wilhelmina Agency did not return several messages left on an answering machine yesterday.

Two weeks ago, a neighbor saw the model weeping uncontrollably while sitting on the building's staircase.

"She was crying like crazy on the stairs," said Barak Beleli, 25. Duncan later explained that she was upset because the roommate she had before Edelberg had moved out, Beleli said.

Most neighbors saw only smiles and heard greetings in Spanish, French and Russian from the energetic Duncan.

"We used to talk sometimes and she was saying she was an actress and a model and she wanted to be a big star," said neighbor Meir Sabag, 24.

Duncan's landlord, Kostas Zachariadis, said: "I saw her last week; she was fine. This is terrible. There's no reason for her to commit suicide, no reason."

Summary: A stunning plus-size model with dreams of stardom slashed her throat with a kitchen knife in an apparent suicide at her East Side walkup, police said yesterday. Green-eyed, strawberry blond Natasha Duncan, 21, died by her own hand Saturday evening after feeling despondent and smoking marijuana, her roommate told police. She worked for the prestigious Wilhelmina Agency, which began its "Ten/20"division for larger-size women in 1994.


BY TRACY CONNOR DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Sunday, November 2th 2003, 1:53AM

Last Monday, John Dexter, headmaster of Manhattan's exclusive Trevor Day School, was arrested for allegedly E-mailing kiddie porn to investigators posing as teenage girls. Parents and students of the elite school who had called the $200,000-a-year administrator an inspiring educator, were horrified.

But as Daily News Staff Writer TRACY CONNOR discovered, cases such as Dexter's are all too common. Many of the secret stalkers who use the Internet to prey on innocent teenagers lead public lives as solid citizens with unimpeachable reputations.

In this exclusive special report, Connor examines this frightening phenomenon, and finds ways parents can protect their children from online perverts.

He had a job in the insurance industry, a home in a leafy suburb, a wife and teenage children - and a dangerous obsession with the Internet's sleaziest corners.

"You couldn't wait to get on it," the man told the Daily News. "Couldn't wait for whatever new surprise or new friend you would come across.

"It was like being a kid in a candy story, only you never felt the pressure that someone was looking over your shoulder."

When the 53-year-old broker sent a message to a chat-room buddy he thought was a 14-year-old boy, an investigator for the Westchester district attorney was on the other end.

And when he showed up for a tryst with the "teen" in April 2002, he was met by cops with guns drawn, arrested and charged with indecent behavior.

The New Rochelle man, whose only other brush with the law was a parking ticket, had just joined a growing list of New Yorkers collared in cybersex stings.

Like the Manhattan prep-school headmaster nailed last week for E-mailing smut to minors, many of those caught trolling for sex with kids online fit a surprising profile.

They're middle-aged white men with no criminal history. They have families, good jobs, higher education, positions of respect in the community.

They're the kind of guys who wouldn't be caught dead in a trench coat at the playground.

But armed with a mouse and a modem, cloaked by anonymity in the privacy of their own homes, they risk everything to satisfy their sexual compulsions.

Kenneth Lanning, a former FBI profiler, believes many offenders have harbored - and suppressed - deviant urges for years.

"They may never have acted out. They were able to control it, and along comes the Internet ... which is like pouring fuel on smoldering embers," Lanning said.

David Greenfield, psychologist and author of the book "Virtual Addiction," said the Internet creates a "sense of disinhibition."

"People do and say things online that they never would do otherwise," he said. "The people I see in my office - they're not perverts, but they get online and suddenly, they're sex fiends.

"Before you know it, they are lost in cyberspace."

While experts say sex crimes against children are on the downswing overall, crime blotters are rife with examples of Internet predators:

Rabbi Israel Kestenbaum, 55, a father of five and a member of the New York Board of Rabbis, pleaded guilty this summer to soliciting sex from an undercover cop posing as a 13-year-old girl in a chat room called "I Love Older Men."

Sgt. Nelson Pardo Jr., 39, a military police officer at West Point, was busted in August at a Queens restaurant where he expected to meet a 13-year-old girl to whom he sent nude photos of himself, officials said.

James Irwin, 52, had a sterling reputation as principal of Our Lady of Mount Carmel elementary school in the Bronx until he pleaded guilty after a 2001 sting operation for E-mailing child-porn photos to an undercover agent.

Father-of-two William Burgess, 43, of Forest Hills, Queens, was convicted this month of sending sexual come-ons and live Webcam images of himself masturbating to a computer user posing as a 12-year-old girl.

Westchester County DA Jeanine Pirro said the 78 suspects she's arrested in stings include doctors, lawyers, priests, school administrators and coaches.

A study due out from the University of New Hampshire found evidence that suspects arrested in Internet stings have higher social status and less deviant backgrounds than other sex offenders.

"On the surface they would appear to be respectable, responsible and law abiding members of our community," said Queens DA Richard Brown.

"But the charges against them indicate that they actually represent a dark and otherwise hidden underside of our society."

The New Rochelle insurance broker - who agreed to tell his story if his name wasn't used - said he began experimenting with the Internet during lulls at work.

At first, it was just chat rooms about skiing and hiking. Before long, he was spending nine or 10 hours a day online, and branching out.

"Once I started scrolling around and going into various sex rooms, I became more and more curious and just got caught up with what was going on," he said.

Heterosexual chat rooms led him to kinkier nooks and crannies of the Web and, fatefully, to the online profile of someone claiming to be a 14-year-old.

"It just got worse and worse," he said.

The deluge of pornographic images and chatter on line is perilous for those struggling to keep their desires in check because it whets their appetite, experts say.

The role-playing culture on the Internet encourages them to test boundaries, and the facelessness of the medium allows a false sense of security, they believe.

But what's mind-boggling to some is that men who would not risk crossing the line elsewhere will jeopardize jobs, families and liberty in the ether of the computer world.

"Let's not fall into the trap that the Internet made them do it," she said. "What the Internet has given them is a bold sense they can avoid getting caught."

The New Rochelle man knows well how false that sense is.

After his arrest, he pleaded guilty in exchange for probation and went into sex-addiction therapy.

Though his family stood by him, his career was wrecked and he had to make humiliating visits to the homes of his children's friends to explain himself.

He hasn't been back on the Internet since.

"It's like a red flag with me," he explained. "Even when I just see a computer, it brings back all the shame."

Research reveals that one in five children between ages 10 and 17 has gotten a sexual solicitation over the Internet - and one in 33 were aggressively stalked.

To keep your kids safe, here are some tips from the experts:

Rules: Laying down the law about when and how kids use the Internet is crucial. Katya Gifford of the child-safety group Cyberangels recommends children under 14 be barred from visiting chat rooms or adding strangers to instant messaging buddy lists. The National Center for Exploited and Missing Children's Web site features a pledge with safety rules that kids can sign and post on their computer.

Filters: Since children don't always follow rules, parents may want to install blocking software - programs that keep youngsters away from sites that aren't child-friendly or lock down the Internet when parents aren't home.

Supervision and snooping: The fact is tech-savvy kids who want to get around filters will figure out a way to do it. So some advocates suggest parents keep the computer in the family room, where kids can't use it unsupervised. Ex-FBI profiler Kenneth Lanning said parents might want to invest in tracking programs that let them check what sites their children are visiting and who they're chatting with.

Communication: Experts agree this is the most important component. "If you have a teenager and they have a computer and Internet access, you can almost assume they're going to inappropriate sites," Lanning said. "And you need to talk with them about what it all means in a frank and serious way.

Warning Signs: The Internet's vast sweep means nearly any child can become prey, though Teri Schroeder of I-Safe.org says when children get to the sixth grade, raging hormones and newfound freedoms put them more at risk. Cyberangels' Gifford warns adults to watch for signs their child might be in trouble - like switching or closing screens when someone walks by, logging on late at night, getting calls from strangers or unexplained gifts.

Take Action: Finally, if a child is harassed on line, report it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at (800) 843-5678.

Summary: CHET GORDON Westchester County DA Jeanine Pirro JOHN ROCA DAILY NEWS Rabbi Israel Kestenbaum pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from "teen"on the Internet. William Burgess was convicted of masturbating on a live Webcam for supposed teen. MICHAEL SCHWARTZ John Dexter, headmaster of the elite Trevor Day School, was charged with E-mailing porn to minors. BILL STAHL Children ages 10 to 17 are most susceptible to Internet predators, experts say. FROM 'PILLARS' TO PERVS Net's


Darlene Garner, left, has a joyful tear wiped from her face by her partner, Candy Holmes, of Washington, after the couple obtained their marriage license Wednesday, March 3, 2010, the first day possible for gay couples since the District of Columbia legalized gay marriage in Washington.

Updated 1:23 p.m. Eastern Time

President Obama has instructed the Justice Department to no longer defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, the legal prohibition on federal recognition of same-sex marriages.

Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement that the department will stop defending the policy because it has now been challenged in the Second Circuit, "which has no established or binding standard for how laws concerning sexual orientation should be treated."

"After careful consideration, including a review of my recommendation, the President has concluded that given a number of factors, including a documented history of discrimination, classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to a more heightened standard of scrutiny," he said. "The President has also concluded that Section 3 of DOMA, as applied to legally married same-sex couples, fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional. Given that conclusion, the President has instructed the Department not to defend the statute in such cases. I fully concur with the President's determination."

In a separate letter to House Speaker John Boehner, Holder wrote that "the legislative record underlying DOMA's passage contains discussion and debate that undermines any defense under heightened scrutiny." "The record contains numerous expressions reflecting moral disapproval of gays and lesbians and their intimate and family relationships - precisely the kind of stereotype-based thinking and animus the Equal Protection Clause is designed to guard against," he said. Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said in a statement to CBS News that Mr. Obama will have to explain to the American people why, despite a desire for lawmakers to focus on the still-struggling economy, "he thinks now is the appropriate time to stir up a controversial issue that sharply divides the nation."Holder said that despite the decision, his department will "remain parties to the cases and continue to represent the interests of the United States throughout the litigation." He added that members of Congress can still elect to defend the statute and that Justice will "work closely with the courts to ensure that Congress has a full and fair opportunity to participate in pending litigation."

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said that enforcement of the policy will -- at least for now -- continue.

Still, the reversal is a major victory for gay rights advocates. After a district judge ruled in July that DOMA is unconstitutional, Justice announced it would appeal the ruling, arguing it has an obligation to defend all federal laws. That angered the gay rights community, which was quick to note President Obama's campaign promise to repeal the policy.

Jan Crawford: A "Highly Unusual" Move

The administration stood by its position despite the criticism, filing a brief in January defending DOMA. The brief argued that DOMA "is supported by an interest in maintaining the status quo and uniformity on the federal level, and preserving room for the development of policy in the states."

A 2009 Justice Department brief defending DOMA caused particular anger in the gay community, in part for referencing a case involving "marriage of uncle to niece" to support maintaining the policy.

The change in policy comes roughly two months after Mr. Obama signed a bill allowing for the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy to be ended, a moment he cast as a move toward equality for all Americans. He has said twice in recent months that while he still opposes same-sex marriage, his position is "evolving."

Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said Wednesday that the president is still "grappling" with his stance on the issue despite the decision. Carney said the president has always seen DOMA as "unnecessary and unfair."

DOMA, which was passed in 1996 under then-President Bill Clinton, mandates that the federal government not recognize same-sex marriages and that states not be forced to recognize same-sex marriages from other states. Section 3 -- the section spotlighted by Holder -- prevents married same-sex couples in Massachusetts and other states from filing joint federal tax returns, among other federal spousal benefits.

In his statement, Holder said the decision came in part because the Justice Department does not necessarily see support for DOMA as reasonable.

"The Department has a longstanding practice of defending the constitutionality of duly-enacted statutes if reasonable arguments can be made in their defense," he said. "At the same time, the Department in the past has declined to defend statutes despite the availability of professionally responsible arguments, in part because - as here - the Department does not consider every such argument to be a 'reasonable' one. Moreover, the Department has declined to defend a statute in cases, like this one, where the President has concluded that the statute is unconstitutional."

The reversal comes less than one month before the March 11th filing deadline for the administration to take a position on a DOMA-related case, one of four pending cases.

"Much of the legal landscape has changed in the 15 years since Congress passed DOMA," Holder concluded in his statement. "The Supreme Court has ruled that laws criminalizing homosexual conduct are unconstitutional. Congress has repealed the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. Several lower courts have ruled DOMA itself to be unconstitutional. Section 3 of DOMA will continue to remain in effect unless Congress repeals it or there is a final judicial finding that strikes it down, and the President has informed me that the Executive Branch will continue to enforce the law. But while both the wisdom and the legality of Section 3 of DOMA will continue to be the subject of both extensive litigation and public debate, this Administration will no longer assert its constitutionality in court."

Summary: Justice Department will no longer defend Defense of Marriage Act, which bars federal recognition of same-sex marriage Read more by Brian Montopoli on CBS News' Political Hotsheet.


Sunday marks Abraham Lincoln's 203rd birthday. The nation's 16th president was born Feb. 12, 1809.

And interest in his life - and assassination - remains sky-high.

Two movies about him are on the way. Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" starring Daniel Day-Lewis debuts in the fall, and the less-historically accurate "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" hits the big screen in June.

His tomb and memorial site attract a quarter-million visitors a year. Most make a point of rubbing the nose of the Lincoln statue for luck.

And in the ten years since it opened, well over 3 million people have toured the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

CBS News was given unprecedented access to the tomb and a vault in the museum, enabling viewers to see remarkable artifacts and to hear little-known stories about "Honest Abe."

To see the report from Cynthia Bowers about Lincoln and his upcoming big screen exploits, click on the video in the player above.

Summary: Forthcoming movie depicts him as one; CBS News gets unprecedented access to his tomb and vault in his presidential library


Man-Love for Matt and Lance? "Wasn't for Us"

They might not be gay lovers, but Lance Armstrong and

certainly do have cutely butch names for one another. In the November issue of

magazine, on newsstands this week, cover boy Lance says that the BFFs call each other "LiveStrong" and "J.K. Livin," and when asked whether they're gay, he jokes: "We tried it. Wasn't for us."

The two Austin, Tex. natives have been friends for years, but they really started to bond, says Armstrong, when their respective relationships with Sheryl Crow and Penelope Cruz dissolved. And when it comes to the tabloid attention both attract, they've got totally different approaches. "He's all tin cans and yam," says Lance of the famously crunchy Matt. "I get s**t on my Blackberry ... My cell phone. Most of it is bulls**t."

Elsewhere, Armstrong expresses shock that President Bush wouldn't fork over $1 billion for his charity -- given that bird flu, he says, got $7 billion. And he sets the record straight about Jake Gyllenhaal portraying his life story: He's not.

Summary: They might not be gay lovers, but Lance Armstrong and Matthew McConaughey certainly do have cutely butch names for one another. In the November issue of…


LOS ANGELES – Karolina Kurkova’s "Weight Problem" | Jada Smith's Sex Scene Fears | Kim Kardashian Brags About Reggie’s Bush’s Hand Size | Bundchen & Brady Not Engaged… Yet

Although she looked simply stunning at last year’s Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, supermodel Karolina Kurkova has come under harsh criticism for her fuller-than-usual figure over recent months. The 24-year-old was unfairly blasted by the Brazilian media for her "cellulite and love handles" after walking in Sao Paulo Fashion Week in June, and was then harshly dubbed "too fat" by fashion critics following the lavish lingerie show in November.

Kurkova has told Tarts in the past that her diet is comprised mainly of fresh vegetables, salad and protein. But for several weeks leading up to last year’s Miami show, an inside source said that the supermodel cut carbs altogether, and worked out for hours in an effort to keep up with other super-slim Angels Heidi Klum, Adriana Lima, Miranda Kerr and Marisa Miller.

"She was exhausted and didn’t get down to where she wanted to be," said the pal.

Apparently her weight woes may have more to do with a medical condition than with just a lack of willpower. According to an insider, Kurkova joins the ranks of 27 million Americans who suffer from the thyroid disorder hypothyroidism, which interferes with the body's metabolism.

We’re also told that the Czech-born beauty (who is the eighth highest-paid supermodel in the world, according to Forbes) almost didn’t strut in the 2008 VS show, and the final decision to let her bare her bod to billions wasn’t made until the last minute, which is why her name was kept off pre-show press materials.

A rep for Kurkova did not respond to calls for comment.

Jada Smith's Sex Scene Fears

There aren’t too many women who would be encouraging their husband to get as hot and heavy as possible for a love scene with someone as stunning as Rosario Dawson. But for Jada Pinkett-Smith, she just wanted to protect her own reputation.

"Jada said, 'Listen, make sure you don't embarrass me.'She said women forever are going to be looking at this love scene and they're going to decide whether you can go or not," Will Smith said with regards to his racy romp with Rosario in "Seven Pounds." "So don't be holding back, don't embarrass me."

This marks only the second sex scene Smith has done in his entire acting career. The first one was with Pinkett herself in "Ali," so it comes as no surprise that he was beside himself with nerves leading up to it.

"Will wouldn't start kissing for weeks," Dawson revealed to the L.A Times. "It would be on the schedule, we'd have lights and everything set up, and he would end up being like, 'I'm not feeling it tonight. I don't think it's going to happen. Let's wait another week.' I was checking my breath, smelling myself, trying to see: 'Am I offending the man in some way?'"

Kim Kardashian Brags About Reggie’s Bush’s Hand Size

Kim Kardashian dates one of the hottest boys in the football biz, and clearly she wants to remind everyone just how big and strong her man is. Strangely enough, the reality starlet posted pics of Reggie Bush’s super-sized hand compared to hers on her official blog this week.

You know what they say - big hands, big… feet.

Kardashian is also urging everyone to go out and buy "Disaster Movie" which was just released on DVD so they can see even more footage of her wrestling with fellow hotties Vanessa Minnillo and Carmen Electra. On that note, the flick has also been nominated for a big award - a Razzie for Worst Picture.

Bundchen & Brady Not Engaged… Yet

Despite rampant rumors that NFL star Tom Brady and his supermodel girlfriend Gisele Bundchen are engaged, a source close to the comely couple said nothing has been made official and Bundchen will have to wait a little longer to receive her rock.

"But there is nothing stopping them from getting engaged," added our source. "It could happen any day."

Pals predict the Patriot will wait until the football season is done and dusted before popping the question. Stay tuned.

Summary: Stunner had to train and cut carbs to make it into recent Victoria's Secret show


alcolm Gladwell, whose best seller "The Tipping Point" (2000) analyzed the means by which fads and ideas propagate, has written a similarly anecdotal account of how split-second decisions are made. In "Blink," he finds scientists who break down the ostensibly simple processes of perception into quantifiable elements. He finds 90 different attributes ascribed to the Oreo cookie, and an extra $789 a year in salary for every extra inch of a tall person's height. He determines that people exposed to the words "wrinkle," "bingo" and "Florida" can be made to feel old in a hurry.

Mr. Gladwell offers evidence that students can tell as much about a teacher in two seconds as they can in a semester. He finds a behavioral scientist who looks for 20 numbered elements - whining is No. 11 - in the way newlyweds discuss their smelly dog. He points out that surgeons who spend an average of three extra minutes talking to each patient are less likely than taciturn types to be sued for malpractice, regardless of what happens on the operating table. More intuitively, he knows "why you can recognize Sally from the eighth grade 40 years later but have trouble picking out your bag on the airport luggage carousel."

If the hypotheses of "Blink" are accurate, you may already have an opinion about whether Mr. Gladwell's second book interests you. Perhaps you also have a hunch about whether his thinking holds any surprises. Bear in mind that "Blink" takes a scientific approach to the following phenomena: that good-looking but incompetent politicians (like Warren G. Harding) can be elected to high office; that people think they favor one kind of mate but fall in love with another; that a mess in someone's bedroom exposes that person's hidden nature. In this context, the news that "snap judgments are, first of all, enormously quick" passes for a bright idea.

Trust the sixth sense that tells you how many of Mr. Gladwell's observations are obvious in a flash. The world is full of evidence to support his first and least interesting supposition: that "decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately." And ideas that he illustrates systematically are equally well expressed in commonplace ways. Hundreds of numbers used to characterize a 15-minute conversation between husband and wife can be summed up as follows: they are likelier to split up if she rolls her eyes at him disgustedly than if she does not.

Much of "Blink" will seem familiar to anyone with a passing knowledge of marketing research, the kind that suggests canned meat will be perceived as fresher with a sprig of parsley on its label. So the book's raw data is less valuable than the ways Mr. Gladwell chooses to expand on it. More interesting than the mechanisms of blink-fast judgments, he finds, is the way people count on the accuracy of such assessments. We are apt to think we are right even when we are chillingly wrong.

It is one kind of miscalculation to think that Tom Hanks is a nice guy without ever having met him (an example cited here). But it is quite another to have the Joint Forces Command of the United States military stage a war game in which the team using more equipment, information and strategic game plans is readily outfoxed by guerrilla tactics and spontaneity, just as Gulliver fell victim to Lilliputians. Even more alarming is the Joint Forces' last-minute maneuver of replaying the game so that the right team won. Mr. Gladwell, however wishfully, suggests that even the waging of war could be done more intelligently if we had a better grasp of how blink-fast thinking works.

As he illustrates even more gravely by citing the 41-bullet shooting of the immigrant Amadou Diallo by four New York City policemen in 1999, the panicky aspect of high-speed decision making is dangerous in the extreme. "Blink" even compares this mental state to temporary autism - and with his penchant for wildly diverse illustrations, Mr. Gladwell invokes the way an autistic person would watch "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" to prove his point. But the book's ultimate thought is that this behavior can be anticipated if it is better understood, and that it can be modified. "Every moment - every blink - is composed of a series of discrete moving parts," he writes, "and every one of those parts offers an opportunity for intervention, for reform, and for correction." Is this a sufficiently strong concept to enter the popular lexicon, the way Mr. Gladwell's tipping point has? Probably it is, and probably the book's heavy-handed, didactic moments will only tighten its grasp on conventional wisdom. The author (a staff writer for The New Yorker) can be simultaneously lively and serious, with particularly good instincts for finding quirky, varied examples to prove his points. But he delivers what is essentially a hybrid of marketing wisdom and self-help - stronger on broad, catchy constructs than on innovative thinking.

However viable "Blink" may be, it is undercut by naggingly bad grammar. Throughout the book, an editor has allowed Mr. Gladwell to conflate the singular and plural. To make successful decisions, he writes, we need "the ability to know our own mind" and how psychoanalytic patients learn "how their mind works" and so on. The section on product marketing describes what we feel "when we put something in our mouth," as if there were quite a lot of us but only one mouth to go around. Small mistakes, but they add up to a negative impression. And Mr. Gladwell knows perfectly well what such impressions are worth.

Summary: Malcolm Gladwell examines the science of split-second decisions.


Undressing in public will likely no longer go unpunished in San Francisco, as the Board of Supervisors voted by the barest of margins Tuesday to ban public nudity.

Derided by nudity defenders as an attack on personal expression and supported by others who've had enough of seeing those who let it all hang out, the legislation bans genital exposure on all city sidewalks, plazas, parklets, streets and public transit.

Supervisors Scott Wiener, David Chiu, Mark Farrell, Sean Elsbernd, Carmen Chu and Malia Cohen voted in favor of the measure while Supervisors Christina Olague, Jane Kim, John Avalos, David Campos and Eric Mar opposed it. If the proposal passes a second reading and is signed into law by Mayor Ed Lee, a supporter, it will take effect Feb 1.

Wiener, the sponsor of the proposal, admits he was reluctant to take the step of banning public nudity, but that the issue has evolved beyond the presence of a few naked guys in the Castro and is a growing problem that generates more complaints from his constituents than homelessness or Muni.

"It's no longer a quirky part of San Francisco, it's seven days a week," said Wiener, who represents the Castro. "Many people in the neighborhoods are over it and want to take action."

Yet some supervisors argued that since the nudity problem was primarily contained to the Castro, a citywide ban wasn't needed.

"I question whether this rises to the level that it should be a priority," said Campos, who worried about police resources being diverted from violent crime to naked men and women.

Olague and Avalos said they were concerned about the restriction of personal freedom.

"Sometimes there's a little weirdness about how we express ourselves, but that's a great thing about San Francisco," Avalos said.

But Wiener said the slippery slope argument shouldn't apply.

"I don't agree that having yellow hair is the same as exposing your penis at a busy street corner for hours and hours," he said.

The legislation exempts nudity at private beaches, private property and permitted special events - like Bay to Breakers or the Folsom Street Fair - and doesn't apply to children under 5 years old. Violators would be fined $100 for the first offense and $200 for the second in a 12-month period. Convictions under the proposed law wouldn't result in a sex offense, but a third offense could bring a $500 fine or a misdemeanor.

Berkeley and San Jose have already banned public nudity, but the prospect of liberal San Francisco telling its residents to cover up drew national attention and several nude-ins at City Hall.

"I'm going to be happy when this is over," Wiener said in an interview. "It's important, it's a real issue, but it's never been the issue I've wanted to work on."

However, the nudists aren't conceding defeat yet. While many in the pro-nudity camp stayed clothed during the vote, the clothes came off as soon as the measure passed.

About five men and women disrobed and were immediately escorted out of the chamber by San Francisco Sheriff's deputies, but no arrests were made.

As he pulled his pants up, a nudist named Stardust said the legislation sent the wrong message.

"It's telling people they should be ashamed to be naked, and that's totally wrong," he said.

And a lawsuit, which was filed last week, is pending. Attorney Christina DiEdoardo, who is representing several people opposed to the ban, said a federal judge could order an injunction to stop the law from taking effect during a hearing scheduled for Jan. 17.

DiEdoardo said the surprisingly close vote gave her hope that one supervisor could switch his or her vote before the second reading of the bill.

"We only need one person to change their mind," she said. "It's a completely unjustified restraint on free speech."

Staff writer John Cote contributed reporting to this article. Neal J. Riley is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: nriley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @realdealneal

Summary: Derided by nudity defenders as an attack on personal expression and supported by others who've had enough of seeing those who let it all hang out, the legislation bans genital exposure on all city sidewalks, plazas, parklets, streets and public transit.  Wiener, the sponsor of the proposal, admits he was reluctant to take the step of banning public nudity, but that the issue has evolved beyond the presence of a few naked guys in the Castro and is a growing problem that generates more complaints from his constituents than homelessness or Muni.  Some exemptionsThe legislation exempts nudity at private beaches, private property and permitted special events - like Bay to Breakers or the Folsom Street Fair - and doesn't apply to children under 5 years old.  Berkeley and San Jose have already banned public nudity, but the prospect of liberal San Francisco telling its residents to cover up drew national attention and several nude-ins at City Hall.  Attorney Christina DiEdoardo, who is representing several people opposed to the ban, said a federal judge could order an injunction to stop the law from taking effect during a hearing scheduled for Jan. 17.  Staff writer John Cote contributed reporting to this article.


A sign in the window of Hobson's Choice, a bar on Haight Street, reads, "The Torture Returns."

Sure, it's technically referring to the Giants' nail-biting, come-from-behind entry into the World Series - but it might as well be about the race for that neighborhood's supervisor, which seems to be completely upturned every other day.

Like the Giants themselves - wait, Barry Zito is the savior of the pennant race and Tim Lincecum is relegated to a reliever - the cast of characters in the Nov. 6 race to lead District Five keeps morphing.

Supervisor Christina Olague was gunning for a four-year term as Mayor Ed Lee's loyal appointee - until she shocked him by voting to reinstate suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi and suddenly had progressives flocking to her. Now Lee is livid and has pulled out of campaign appearances with her.

Before backing Olague, the progressives were behind their darling, challenger Julian Davis, before an alleged groping incident gave a whole new meaning to the term "hands-on politician."

But rather than heed calls to drop out of the race from the Bay Guardian and others, Davis has carried on. His campaign team was even spotted delivering door hangers boasting of endorsements from the Guardian, Supervisor John Avalos and others - days after they'd withdrawn those endorsements.

His website has taken the withdrawn endorsements down, and his campaign manager said no more literature is coming out with withdrawn endorsements. But previously purchased ads were still all over the Guardian's website in recent days - right next to editorials about why he's no longer its choice.

London Breed, executive director of the African-American Arts and Culture Complex, was initially presumed to be the moderate choice of the Willie Brown crowd.

But then she went on a profanity-laced tirade to the Fog City Journal, saying, "Willie Brown didn't wipe my ass when I was a baby - my grandmother took care of me. ... They don't f- control me. ... I don't do what no mother- body tells me to do."

Tell us how you really feel, London!

Throw in the five other lesser-known candidates and ranked-choice voting - in which voters can rank their top three candidates to avoid a runoff - and it's anybody's guess how this wild ride will end.

One insider said if you asked a Magic 8 ball, the response would be "Reply hazy, try again."

Interviews with people along Haight Street showed that voters are far from decided. Tantek Celik, who works in Web standards for Mozilla, was sipping a cup of Blue Bottle coffee at an outdoor table on a recent morning and said he's annoyed with all of the candidates.

They're filling his mailbox with too many mailers, which he finds disrespectful in a neighborhood filled with environmentalists who like their trees.

"They've handed out more flyers than all the other flyers I've received put together - the ballot measures, school board, state measures," he said. "It's turned me off. ... It comes off as a sense of desperation."

He's started keeping a tally of how many mailers he gets from each candidate, and said he's likely to research candidates to vote for starting from the bottom of the list. John Rizzo, an activist with the Sierra Club, may have secured his vote since he's received only one Rizzo mailer.

Jason Wright, a waiter, was smoking a cigarette on the street and said, he too, will vote for a lesser-known candidate.

"That chick - Thea, Tea, whatever her name is," he said, referring oh-so-respectfully to Thea Selby, founder of the Lower Haight Merchant and Neighbor Association. "I like the fact that she actually is out going door-to-door meeting people in the district."

He said he's heard about some of the debates in which the candidates have gotten "all up in each other's face." (Olague even walked out of one.)

"It's really sad, but it's sort of amusing," he said, describing San Francisco politics to a T.

Most City Hall watchers predict that Olague and Breed will come out on top in the first round of vote counting, though some say a dark-horse candidate could benefit from ranked-choice voting. But an incumbent has never lost a ranked-choice competition in San Francisco, so in that sense it's Olague's to lose.

Tami Bryant, a Western Addition resident who avidly supported Mirkarimi's reinstatement, said she would have backed Olague anyway but likes her even more since the Mirkarimi vote.

"It's been a chaotic race, to say the least," she said. "I think it's going to be close and I think it'll be a hard fight, but I really believe she would be the best for our district."

Ted Loewenberg, president of the Haight Ashbury Improvement Association, is volunteering on Breed's campaign.

"She's experienced, she's capable, she's savvy, she's ethical, she's effective," he said. "I can't think of a positive adjective that you could mention about a person and not apply it to London."

Political consultant Jim Ross, who is running challenger David Lee's campaign against Supervisor Eric Mar in District One, joked that his race is getting completely overshadowed.

"It started out where District One was going to be the hot race is San Francisco," he said. "But no. District Five had to figure out a way to become more interesting."

"I have a 3-year-old now. 'Let's go Giants!' is great, but not at 5 in the morning."

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, on his daughter's early-morning enthusiasm for the home team

Heather Knight is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer and covers City Hall politics. E-mail: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf

Summary: Sure, it's technically referring to the Giants' nail-biting, come-from-behind entry into the World Series - but it might as well be about the race for that neighborhood's supervisor, which seems to be completely upturned every other day.  Like the Giants themselves - wait, Barry Zito is the savior of the pennant race and Tim Lincecum is relegated to a reliever - the cast of characters in the Nov. 6 race to lead District Five keeps morphing.  Supervisor Christina Olague was gunning for a four-year term as Mayor Ed Lee's loyal appointee - until she shocked him by voting to reinstate suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi and suddenly had progressives flocking to her.  Before backing Olague, the progressives were behind their darling, challenger Julian Davis, before an alleged groping incident gave a whole new meaning to the term "hands-on politician."  London Breed, executive director of the African-American Arts and Culture Complex, was initially presumed to be the moderate choice of the Willie Brown crowd.  [...] she went on a profanity-laced tirade to the Fog City Journal, saying, Willie Brown didn't wipe my ass when I was a baby - my grandmother took care of me. ...  Tantek Celik, who works in Web standards for Mozilla, was sipping a cup of Blue Bottle coffee at an outdoor table on a recent morning and said he's annoyed with all of the candidates.  Most City Hall watchers predict that Olague and Breed will come out on top in the first round of vote counting, though some say a dark-horse candidate could benefit from ranked-choice voting.


Kevin Collins and Melanie Collins, 15-year Bostonians with farm ties in Upstate New York, said they are launching Cider Creek Hard Cider with the help of a distribution agreement with Avon-based Bay State Wine & Spirits.

Hard cider is arguably the flavor-of-the-month for the craft-beer crowd. According to a year-end report from GuestMetrics LLC, cider brands Strongbow, Stella Artois Cidre, Angry Orchard gained fans during 2013. (Angry Orchard is marketed by Boston Beer Co., which is perhaps better known for its Sam Adams brand.)

Several recent posts on 99 Bottles, a Boston Globe column devoted to beer, have taken note of Downeast Cider House and Bantam Cider.

According to the Cider Creek press release, Kevin Collins and Melanie Collins have been brewing hard cider made from a special blend of New York state apples as a hobby for years. The cider was so popular with family and friends, the couple decided that their signature recipe had the potential to flourish in the current hard cider market.

To help raise money, the Collinses mounted a Kickstarter campaign that successfully raised $25,000. Much of that money was used to convert a barn owned by the family of Kevin Collins into a cidery, Melanie Collins said during a telephone interview.

‘‘What’s special about our cider is that we control the ingredients and quality -- from fresh fruit to bottled product -- on our family’s farm,” Kevin Collins, Cider Creek’s head brewer, said in a statement. ‘‘It starts with a hand selected and sorted blend of New York state apples. We press the cider ourselves at the farm’s neighboring cider mill before fermenting, bottling, packaging and shipping it from the farm directly to stores across the state.’’

Cider Creek is currently available in about 100 stores and restaurants in New York State, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, Melanie Collins said.

In restaurants, a 16-ounce bottle generally sells for between $9 and $14, she said.

The mini growler, a 750-millileter jug sold in stores, has a suggested retail price of $13.99, she said.

Summary: Kevin Collins and Melanie Collins, 15-year Bostonians with farm ties to upstate New York, said they are launching Cider Creek Hard Cider with the help of a distribution agreement with Avon-based Bay State Wine & Spirits.


The average price for gasoline in Massachusetts was $3.67 a gallon in the latest weekly AAA survey, which was down 3 cents from the previous week’s average, AAA Southern New England reported Monday.

The current Massachusetts price is a penny more than the national average of $3.66 a gallon. The current Massachusetts price is 3 cents higher than it was a month ago.

Last year at this time, the average in the state was $3.48 a gallon, or 19 cents lower.

In the latest weekly AAA survey, Massachusetts gas had a price range of 44 cents — from a low of $3.45 to a high of $3.89, AAA Southern New England said.

The organization’s weekly surveys focus on the price of self-serve, regular unleaded gasoline.

Summary: The average price for gas in Massachusetts was $3.67 a gallon in the latest weekly AAA survey, down 3 cents from the previous week’s average.


Russian legislators are working to pass regulations that would limit the country’s dependence on U.S.-based technology companies such as Microsoft MSFT , Hewlett-Packard HP and IBM IBM .

After the U.S. imposed sanctions against some of Russia’s largest companies, the country has been looking at ways to reduce its dependence on foreign technology suppliers.

A new bill being drafted by the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, would require state-run units to contract with local software and hardware providers, as well as source products that don’t use imported or licensed components, according to a memo obtained by Bloomberg News.

Technology companies are a heightened concern for Russian legislators who say that foreign technology providers could have concealed methods to access confidential data.

U.S. and European technology firms could take a hit. IBM, Microsoft, HP, Cisco Systems CSCO , Oracle ORCL and German-based SAP SAP reaped $8.1 billion in combined sales from Russia last year. The vast majority of those revenues came from government and state-controlled companies, according to estimates from the Russian Academy of Sciences included in the memo.

Russia’s legislative move is a response to expanded U.S. sanctions announced last week by President Obama. The new sanctions targeted two major Russian banks, Gazprom Bank and VEB, and two energy companies, Novotek and Rosneft, preventing them access to new medium- and long-term financing in the U.S. The sanctions are an effort to punish Russia for its involvement in the Ukrainian military conflict.

European officials are also considering expanded sanctions, which would build on earlier U.S. and European asset freezes and travel bans following Russia’s annexation of Crimea earlier this year.

Summary: In response to increased U.S. sanctions, Russian legislators float a bill that would cut off U.S. and other international technology providers.


FORTUNE — Apple AAPL gave up most of Tuesday’s $9.66 (2.3%) gains in the first half hour of trading Wednesday after three analysts issued tepid reports:

1. In iPhone 5 cycle, search volume for the keyword “iPhone” is moderating sooner and normalizing at lower levels vs. previous cycles. This could be explained by competition and Apple’s greater efficiency in global product rollout. 2. Query volume for the iPhone remains above Samsung’s high-end models, but the gap is narrowing. The iPhone is still the bestselling model globally, but the difference between iPhone 5 units and Galaxy S3 & Notes 2 units narrowed to 8mn in Q12 vs. ~17-18mn in the last cycle. 3. Query volume for the iPhone is beginning to trail Samsung Galaxy in some emerging markets (China, India), perhaps due to Apple’s lack of exposure in the low/mid-range segment. 4. iPad remains dominant in both keyword search volume and overall unit/revenue share.

According to Thomson/First Call, the average Apple analyst’s price target is $630. On our spreadsheet it’s $613.

Summary: Barclays met with Apple execs. Citi asked suppliers. Merrill searched Google Trends


Nokia may be most vulnerable as Chinese cellphone owners upgrade to smartphones

There’s good news for Apple AAPL in the results of an Alphawise/Morgan Stanley survey released Tuesday.

The survey, conducted among a sample of 2,029 Chinese mobile phone users in February and March, found demand for smartphones to be surprisingly strong. 88% of respondents said they expected the next phone they bought would be a smartphone. And 30% of those who planned to buy a 3G phone said they expected to buy an iPhone, even at its current price. If price were not a consideration, that number would jump to 53%, according to the survey.

Nokia NOK , currently the vendor in China with the largest 3G market share, is also the one with the most to lose.

Below, a chart of the features respondents said they cared most about, which according to Morgan Stanley’s analysis will shift the balance in Apple’s favor as Internet use increases.

[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]

Summary: Nokia may be most vulnerable as Chinese cellphone owners upgrade to smartphones There's good news for Apple in the results of an Alphawise/Morgan Stanley survey released Tuesday. The survey, conducted among a sample of 2,029 Chinese mobile phone users in February and March, found demand for smartphones to be surprisingly strong. 88% of respondents said…