A WTHR-TV Indianapolis investigative report exposes a fraudulent scheme wherein the IRS is sending $4.2 billion per year to illegal immigrants as an "additional child tax credit" for children who don't even live in the U.S.
Further, the IRS and Congress have been ignoring the scheme for years. ?The Inspector General's office has repeatedly identified the problem in audit after audit.? The IG, Russell George says, "The magnitude of the problem has grown exponentially," but the IRS is doing nothing to stop it.
"It's so easy it's ridiculous," the tax preparer whistleblower who exposed the fraud admits.? Names are simply listed on the IRS form. "The more you put on there, the more you get back." No questions asked?the check's in the mail.
Below is the video of the shocking report.
The whistleblower notified the IRS of dozens of returns that were "fraudulent, 100% fraudulent tax returns." But, no response was ever received from the IRS. Out of frustration he went to WTHR investigative reporter Bob Segall.
"If the opportunity is there, and they can give it to me, why not take advantage of it?" admits one of the undocumented perpetrators to Segall on camera.
Segall found that there are "2 million?undocumented workers right now who are getting tax refunds because of this loophole."
Meanwhile, American school kids hoping for the opportunity of a lifetime to see the inside of the White House find the doors are closed supposedly because we can no longer afford to let them in.?
Mar. 26, 2013 ? The genome of the mountain pine beetle -- the insect that has devastated British Columbia's lodgepole pine forests -- has been decoded by researchers at the University of British Columbia and Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre.
This is a first for the mountain pine beetle and only the second beetle genome ever sequenced. The first was the red flour beetle, a pest of stored grains. The genome is described in a study published Tuesday in the journal Genome Biology.
"We know a lot about what the beetles do," says Christopher Keeling, a research associate in Prof. Joerg Bohlmann's lab at the Michael Smith Laboratories. "But without the genome, we don't know exactly how they do it."
"Sequencing the mountain pine beetle genome provides new information that can be used to help manage the epidemic in the future."
The genome revealed large variation among individuals of the species -- about four times greater than the variation among humans.
"As the beetles' range expands and as they head into jack pine forests where the defensive compounds may be different, this variation could allow them to be more successful in new environments," says Keeling.
Researchers isolated genes that help detoxify defence compounds found under the bark of the tree -- where the beetles live. They also found genes that degrade plant cell walls, which allow the beetles to get nutrients from the tree.
Keeling, Bohlmann and their colleagues also uncovered a bacterial gene that has jumped into the mountain pine beetle genome. This gene codes for an enzyme that digests sugars.
"It might be used to digest woody tissue and/or the microorganisms that grow in the beetle's tunnels underneath the bark of the tree," said Keeling. "Gene transfers sometimes make organisms more successful in their environments."
This study involved researchers from the University of Northern British Columbia and the University of Alberta.
Characteristics of the mountain pine beetle genome
12 pairs of chromosomes
Approximately 13,000 genes
The mountain pine beetle separated from the red flour beetle -- the only other beetle genome sequenced to date -- about 230 million years ago. According to Keeling, "the two insects have about the same relatedness as a pine tree and a head of lettuce."
The mountain pine beetle is closely related to other significant pests in North American forests such as the southern pine beetle, Douglas-fir beetle, eastern larch beetle, and spruce beetle. Insights gained from sequencing the mountain pine beetle genome can be transferred to these beetles, and other forest insect pests around the world.
Mountain pine beetle epidemic
The mountain pine beetle has infested over 18 million hectares of lodgepole pine in British Columbia -- an area more than five times larger than Vancouver Island -- causing enormous damage to the environment and forest industry. In recent years, the insect has moved further north and east, over the Canadian Rockies, and is now approaching the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. It is also beginning to infest other pine trees -- jack pine, a jack-lodgepole hybrid, limber pine, and the endangered whitebark pine. Jack pine boreal forests extend from Alberta to the Atlantic provinces. The mountain pine beetle also lives in Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona and South Dakota.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of British Columbia.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Christopher I Keeling, Macaire MS Yuen, Nancy Y Liao, T Roderick Docking, Simon K Chan, Greg A Taylor, Diana L Palmquist, Shaun D Jackman, Anh Nguyen, Maria Li, Hannah Henderson, Jasmine K Janes, Yongjun Zhao, Pawan Pandoh, Richard Moore, Felix AH Sperling, Dezene PW Huber, Inanc Birol, Stephen JM Jones, Joerg Bohlmann. Draft genome of the mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins, a major forest pest. Genome Biology, 2013; 14 (3): R27 DOI: 10.1186/gb-2013-14-3-r27
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
5 from MD Anderson among first inaugurated to AACR AcademyPublic release date: 27-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Scott Merville smerville@mdanderson.org 713-792-0661 University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
Fidler, Hong, Kripke, Mendelsohn and Strong earn cancer research group's new honor
HOUSTON Five researchers and leaders from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have been named Fellows to a new academy launched by the world's oldest and largest organization dedicated to cancer research, the American Association for Cancer Research.
AACR Chief Executive Officer Margaret Foti, Ph.D., M.D. (h.c.) said: "Our Board of Directors made the decision to establish the AACR Academy as a mechanism for recognizing scientists whose contributions to the cancer field have had an extraordinary impact. Membership in the Fellows of the AACR Academy will be the most prestigious honor bestowed by the American Association for Cancer Research."
MD Anderson Fellows are:
Isaiah J. Fidler, D.V.M., Ph.D., professor and R. E. "Bob" Smith Distinguished Chair in Cell Biology, Department of Cancer Biology. Fidler is an expert on metastasis, the lethal spread of cancer to other organs. He revived and developed the "seed-and-soil" hypothesis of cancer metastasis, directing attention to the importance of the microenvironment (soil) where metastatic cancer cells (seeds) take hold and flourish. The tumor microenvironment is now a major area of cancer research.
Waun Ki Hong, M.D., professor and head, Division of Cancer Medicine, and Samsung Distinguished University Chair in Cancer Medicine. Hong's landmark clinical trials demonstrated the effectiveness of organ-sparing cancer treatment, launched the field of chemoprevention, and led the field of personalized cancer therapy. He established the groundbreaking BATTLE clinical trial for lung cancer, an unprecedented effort to match treatment to tumor characteristics.
Margaret Kripke, Ph.D., Vivian L. Smith Distinguished Chair and Professor in Immunology Emerita. The founding chair of MD Anderson's Department of Immunology, Kripke made major contributions to understanding of the immune response against cancer and how cancer cells evade destruction. She retired as executive vice president and chief academic officer of MD Anderson and is now scientific director of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas
John Mendelsohn, M.D., director, MD Anderson's Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy and president from 1996-2011, a time of tremendous growth and accomplishment for the institution. Also a pioneer in the field of targeted therapy, he and colleagues developed a monoclonal antibody that blocks activation of the epidermal growth factor receptor, which stimulates cancer. The first drug in its class, Erbitux is used to treat colon cancer and cancers of the head and neck.
Louise Strong, M.D., professor and Sue and Radcliffe Killam Chair, Department of Genetics, is an expert in cancer genetics and epidemiology. She has made seminal discoveries in the genetic bases of Wilms tumor, retinoblastoma and Li-Fraumeni syndrome, as well as of the cancer risk posed by inherited genetic mutations, including those in the tumor suppressor p53.
"Selection to the AACR Academy is a richly deserved honor for MD Anderson's five Fellows, highlighting their indispensable contributions in cancer metastasis, personalized treatment, immunology, targeted therapy and cancer genetics," said Tom Buchholz, M.D., MD Anderson provost and executive vice president.
"In addition to their scientific and medical achievements, all have exercised important leadership roles to support and encourage other scientists and physicians in their endeavors against cancer," Buchholz said. "Congratulations to the AACR for establishing this academy to spotlight those who have had major impact on the cause of understanding and curing cancer."
Fidler, Hong, Kripke and Strong are all past presidents of AACR.
106 inductees chosen from 69 institutions worldwide
In announcing the new organization, the AACR noted the academy was created to recognize and honor distinguished scientists whose major scientific contributions have propelled significant innovation and progress against cancer. Fellows were selected through a rigorous peer review process.
The inaugural class of Fellows will be inducted into the AACR Academy at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013 in Washington, D.C., on April 5 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The first class consists of 106 individuals, symbolizing the age of AACR upon establishment of the Academy. Future classes shall consist of a maximum of 11 individuals, in honor of the 11 founding members of the organization. These Fellows will be elected by vote of all the Fellows of the AACR Academy.
###
Founded in 1907, the AACR is the world's first and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research and its mission to prevent and cure cancer. AACR membership includes more than 34,000 laboratory, translational and clinical researchers; population scientists; other health care professionals; and cancer advocates residing in more than 90 countries. The AACR Annual Meeting draws more than 17,000 attendees. The AACR also publishes eight peer-reviewed scientific journals and a magazine for cancer survivors, patients and their caregivers.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
5 from MD Anderson among first inaugurated to AACR AcademyPublic release date: 27-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Scott Merville smerville@mdanderson.org 713-792-0661 University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
Fidler, Hong, Kripke, Mendelsohn and Strong earn cancer research group's new honor
HOUSTON Five researchers and leaders from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have been named Fellows to a new academy launched by the world's oldest and largest organization dedicated to cancer research, the American Association for Cancer Research.
AACR Chief Executive Officer Margaret Foti, Ph.D., M.D. (h.c.) said: "Our Board of Directors made the decision to establish the AACR Academy as a mechanism for recognizing scientists whose contributions to the cancer field have had an extraordinary impact. Membership in the Fellows of the AACR Academy will be the most prestigious honor bestowed by the American Association for Cancer Research."
MD Anderson Fellows are:
Isaiah J. Fidler, D.V.M., Ph.D., professor and R. E. "Bob" Smith Distinguished Chair in Cell Biology, Department of Cancer Biology. Fidler is an expert on metastasis, the lethal spread of cancer to other organs. He revived and developed the "seed-and-soil" hypothesis of cancer metastasis, directing attention to the importance of the microenvironment (soil) where metastatic cancer cells (seeds) take hold and flourish. The tumor microenvironment is now a major area of cancer research.
Waun Ki Hong, M.D., professor and head, Division of Cancer Medicine, and Samsung Distinguished University Chair in Cancer Medicine. Hong's landmark clinical trials demonstrated the effectiveness of organ-sparing cancer treatment, launched the field of chemoprevention, and led the field of personalized cancer therapy. He established the groundbreaking BATTLE clinical trial for lung cancer, an unprecedented effort to match treatment to tumor characteristics.
Margaret Kripke, Ph.D., Vivian L. Smith Distinguished Chair and Professor in Immunology Emerita. The founding chair of MD Anderson's Department of Immunology, Kripke made major contributions to understanding of the immune response against cancer and how cancer cells evade destruction. She retired as executive vice president and chief academic officer of MD Anderson and is now scientific director of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas
John Mendelsohn, M.D., director, MD Anderson's Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy and president from 1996-2011, a time of tremendous growth and accomplishment for the institution. Also a pioneer in the field of targeted therapy, he and colleagues developed a monoclonal antibody that blocks activation of the epidermal growth factor receptor, which stimulates cancer. The first drug in its class, Erbitux is used to treat colon cancer and cancers of the head and neck.
Louise Strong, M.D., professor and Sue and Radcliffe Killam Chair, Department of Genetics, is an expert in cancer genetics and epidemiology. She has made seminal discoveries in the genetic bases of Wilms tumor, retinoblastoma and Li-Fraumeni syndrome, as well as of the cancer risk posed by inherited genetic mutations, including those in the tumor suppressor p53.
"Selection to the AACR Academy is a richly deserved honor for MD Anderson's five Fellows, highlighting their indispensable contributions in cancer metastasis, personalized treatment, immunology, targeted therapy and cancer genetics," said Tom Buchholz, M.D., MD Anderson provost and executive vice president.
"In addition to their scientific and medical achievements, all have exercised important leadership roles to support and encourage other scientists and physicians in their endeavors against cancer," Buchholz said. "Congratulations to the AACR for establishing this academy to spotlight those who have had major impact on the cause of understanding and curing cancer."
Fidler, Hong, Kripke and Strong are all past presidents of AACR.
106 inductees chosen from 69 institutions worldwide
In announcing the new organization, the AACR noted the academy was created to recognize and honor distinguished scientists whose major scientific contributions have propelled significant innovation and progress against cancer. Fellows were selected through a rigorous peer review process.
The inaugural class of Fellows will be inducted into the AACR Academy at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013 in Washington, D.C., on April 5 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The first class consists of 106 individuals, symbolizing the age of AACR upon establishment of the Academy. Future classes shall consist of a maximum of 11 individuals, in honor of the 11 founding members of the organization. These Fellows will be elected by vote of all the Fellows of the AACR Academy.
###
Founded in 1907, the AACR is the world's first and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research and its mission to prevent and cure cancer. AACR membership includes more than 34,000 laboratory, translational and clinical researchers; population scientists; other health care professionals; and cancer advocates residing in more than 90 countries. The AACR Annual Meeting draws more than 17,000 attendees. The AACR also publishes eight peer-reviewed scientific journals and a magazine for cancer survivors, patients and their caregivers.
-30-
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - The former chairman of the Florida Republican Party was sentenced on Wednesday to 18 months in prison for money laundering and stealing party funds.
Jim Greer, who resigned as state party chief shortly before his 2010 indictment, also was ordered to serve a year of probation.
Greer, 50, pleaded guilty last month to five charges, averting a trial that threatened to reveal potentially embarrassing details about the state party organization.
As part of his plea deal, an organized fraud charge against him was dropped.
Greer made restitution to the Florida Republican Party on Monday via a $65,000 wire transfer, party spokesman Steven Dobson confirmed to Circuit Judge Marc Lubet before the sentence was imposed.
While serving as the party's paid chairman, Greer concealed his partial ownership of a company hired by the party to handle fundraising duties in exchange for 10 percent of all major contributions.
Greer said then-Governor Charlie Crist knew about the arrangement, which Crist denied in an affidavit.
Prosecutor Michael Williams urged the judge to sentence Greer to 42.6 months, the amount of time recommended under sentencing guidelines.
Greer's lawyer, Damon Chase, argued for probation.
The judge said Greer had "egregiously violated a position of trust."
But he said he also took into consideration the fact that Greer's co-conspirator, Delmar Johnson, who cooperated with prosecutors, was not charged at all. Johnson also was ordered to pay $65,000 in restitution but "has not paid back a dime," the judge said.
Stocks closed near their best levels Tuesday, with the Dow posting a new closing high and S&P 500 finishing less than 2 points from its closing high, lifted by a handful of encouraging economic reports that pointed to an improving economy and as investors seemed to temporarily overlook worries in the euro zone.
(Read More: American Dream Is Back, So Are Stocks: CNBC Survey)
The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared more than 100 points, led by Boeing and American Express, wiping out all of the previous session's losses.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also finished near session highs. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, slumped below 13.
(Read More:Sell in May? Why it May Not Happen)
All key S&P sectors were ended in positive territory, led by health care and energy.
"From a fundamental perspective, while the dominant domestic theme has heretofore been better-than-expected economic data boosting investor confidence in the earnings outlook, despite sluggish first-quarter guidance and fears of fiscal drag, many are now beginning to lock in gains realizing that the flipside of stronger growth is that QE tapering is potentially drawing closer, Chairman Bernanke's assurances to the contrary notwithstanding," wrote Alec Young, global equity strategist at S&P Capital IQ. "After all, markets are forward looking."
In Europe, Fitch put Cyprus on rating watch negative, saying the shock from the country's banking system could damage the domestic economy and thus public finances. But Wall Street was unfazed by the announcement.
Banks in Cyprus will be closed until Thursday, and will then be subject to capital controls to prevent a run on deposits. Cyprus's Finance Minister Michael Sarris told BBC radio big depositors in Cypriot banks could lose about 40 percent of their deposits but an exact figure had yet to be decided. Banks are due to reopen on Thursday and will be subject to capital controls to prevent a run on deposits.
(Read More: Why It's Important to Keep Cypriot Banks Shut)
Still, investors seemed less fazed over Cyprus. European shares ended higher, snapping their thee-day losing streak.
"We're more optimistic about Cyprus than we were a couple days ago, but it's going to continue to be unpredictable and if nothing else, even if it does get resolved, it's a reminder of just how fragile the situation in Europe is," said Matthew Kaufler, portfolio manager of the Federated Clover Fund of the day's economic data.
Goldman Sachs rose after the financial giant and Berkshire Hathaway amended the warrants Berkshire holds as part of the lifeline it gave Goldman during the financial crisis.
Meanwhile the Federal Reserve ordered Citigroup to improve its anti-money laundering controls, after several units of the bank were subject to similar orders in 2012.
Netflix rallied to lead the S&P 500 gainers after Pacific Crest raised its price target on the movie-streaming company to $225 from $160.
Apple fluctuated after Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster called consensus estimates for the tech giant's March and June quarters too high, but said new product launches mean investors will look to the second half of the year for opportunity. In addition, Munster said he believes Apple will increase its dividend to around $14 a share from the current $10.60.
Boeing said the first round test of its new battery system for its 787 Dreamliner went according to plan, putting the jet one step closer to returning to service.
Children's Place slumped after the kids' apparel retailer issued a downbeat earnings outlook for the current quarter and fiscal year.
On the economic front, the S&P/Case Shiller home price 20-city index soared 8.1 percent compared to a year ago, kicking off the year with the biggest year-over-year increase since 2006. But new home sales declined 4.6 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 411,000 units, according to the Commerce Department, missing estimates. Homebuilders were in the red, led by Beazer and DR Horton.
Consumer confidence index dropped in March, according to the Conference Board as Americans turned more pessimistic about economic prospects in the short term.
But durable goods orders climbed in February as demand for transportation equipment rebounded, according to the Commerce Department, topping expectations.
"It's been a mixed bag and a continuation of what we've seen all along," said Kaufler. "The key takeaway is that the economy is on the mend, but in a very slow way?it's a slow grind."
Treasurys eased their gains after the government auctioned $35 billion in 2-year notes at a high yield of 0.255 percent. The bid-to-cover ratio, an indicator of demand, was 3.27.
?By CNBC's JeeYeon Park (Follow JeeYeon on Twitter: @JeeYeonParkCNBC)
Cosmic crash 2022: American and European scientists are planning to crash a spacecraft into a nearby asteroid in 2022 to analyze the interior of the cosmic rock.
By Miriam Kramer,?Space.com / March 25, 2013
This NASA simulation shows asteroid 2012 DA14 approaching Earth from the south on Feb. 15, 2013, when the 150-foot asteroid passed within 17,000 miles of the Earth. In 2022, scientists hope to crash a space probe into asteroid Didymos in order to understand its composition.
JPL-Caltech / NASA / AP
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Scientists in Europe and the United States are moving forward with plans to intentionally smash a spacecraft into a huge nearby asteroid in 2022 to see inside the space rock.
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
The ambitious European-led Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment mission, or AIDA, is slated to launch in 2019 to send two spacecraft ? one built by scientists in the U.S, and the other by the European Space Agency ? on a three-year voyage to the asteroid Didymos and its companion. Didymos has no chance of impacting the Earth, which makes it a great target for this kind of mission, scientists involved in the mission said in a presentation Tuesday (March 19) here at the 44th annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
Didymos is actually a binary asteroid system consisting of two separate space rocks bound together by gravity. The main asteroid is enormous, measuring 2,625 feet (800 meters) across. It is orbited by a smaller asteroid ?about 490 feet (150 m).
The Didymos asteroid setup is an intriguing target for the AIDA mission because it will give scientists their first close look at a binary space rock system while also yielding new insights into ways to deflect dangerous asteroids that could pose an impact threat to the Earth.?
"Binary systems are quite common," said Andy Rivkin, a scientist at Johns Hopkins' Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., working on the U.S. portion of AIDA project. "This will be our first rendezvous with a binary system."
In 2022, the Didymos asteroids will be about 6.8 million miles (11 million km) from the Earth, during a close approach, which is why AIDA scientists have timed their mission for that year.
Rivkin and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins' Applied Physics Laboratory are building DART (short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test), one of the two spacecraft making up the tag team AIDA mission. Like its acronym suggests, the DART probe crash directly into the smaller Didymos asteroid while travelling at 14,000 mph (22,530 km/h), creating a crater during an impact that will hopefully sending the space rock slightly off course, Rivkin said.
The European Space Agency is building the second AIDA spacecraft, which is called the Asteroid Impact Monitor (or AIM). AIM will observe the impact from a safe distance, and the probe's data will be used with other data collected by telescopes on Earth to understand exactly what the impact did to the asteroid.
"AIM is the usual shoebox satellite," ESA researcher Jens Biele, ?who works on the AIM spacecraft, said. "It's nothing very fancy."
AIDA scientists hope their mission will push the smaller Didymos asteroid off course by only a few millimeters. The small space rock orbits the larger, primary Didymos asteroid once every 12 hours.
Sharanyan SharmaThe exciting news for the small businesses is that the recent E-Commerce revolution has introduced a whole new level playing field offering everyone a fair chance to become an internet business giant very easily enabling everyone to enjoy the big profits.The internet carries the free information flow and everyone?s looking for their necessaries. 8.5110
Online Marketing7
Offline Marketing10
Total Score8.5
The exciting news for the small businesses is that the recent E-Commerce revolution has introduced a whole new level playing field offering everyone a fair chance to become an internet business giant very easily enabling everyone to enjoy the big profits.The internet carries the free information flow and everyone?s looking for their necessaries.
Hey Guys!
Shopping at the city?center?or running errands around your local town lately? While doing these regular chores, if you look closely, you will find huge changes taken place over the recent years.I?m living in Northern Province Vavuniya City, but No matter where you live, I think the little guys- the small stores, independent business owners are all disappearing. At least in my local town, majority of them can?t be found anymore. Most of the local small families running stores offering the homely personal touch are now being all swallowed up by the latest market dominants, the supermarkets and the chain stores which sell almost anything and everything you may need for the day to day life.
It is a really depressing and pathetic scene where numerous out of town retail parks and supermarkets are uprooting the locals and taking their places. Virtually, each major town or city is basically a carbon copy of one other. Anywhere you travel; there is not much diversity or change you can find anymore. In every city or town, it?s the usual brand of coffee shops, all the same cloth stores, the usual chains of garden care companies, DIY or the same restaurants or electrical outlets.These small businesses owners are struggling to survive a losing battle and are loosing their lifeblood as it is being sucked out.
The exciting news for the small businesses is that the recent E-Commerce revolution has introduced a whole new level playing field offering everyone a fair chance to become an internet business giant very easily enabling everyone to enjoy the big profits.The internet carries the free information flow and everyone?s looking for their necessaries.? These are the local folks ? People living in your own area, Your customers with the biggest potentials.
Check out the recent statistics and you?ll get your proof. The trend of researching products and services online is increasing every year as more and more people are getting easy access to high speed internet facilities. Also the smart phone revolution and tablet devices have been a big help. But still, they buy OFFLINE! Grab full advantage of the E-Commerce concept, put your innovative ideas into effect and watch your business flourish. Make this approach, your competitors did and they are doing well.Keep reading and find out how you too can bring out your ?A Game? and someday become an online business giant.
Getting Started Online
Promoting business on the web can be quite overwhelming. This is one of the many reasons why small business owners postpone their advertisement plans over the internet. On the web, there are numerous advertisement techniques available and not having a clear idea might cause trouble deciding where to start from.
Many local businesses dip into the online marketing world and after sometime they give up as the expected results don?t show up.
The internet marketing is efficient and fruitful but it?s not a magic wand which will help you get rich overnight. You know your business by heart, so, now find an easy and simple approach to let the others know.
Not all marketing methods work well for all type of business ventures, but below are some basic things which literally almost any business venture, no matter which sector the venture is related to, can certainly help you to mark your presence on a large scale over the internet without draining your account dry.
Your Online Income Generation Machine ? ?Your Website
You don?t have to create an expensive website with all singing and dancing works of art. The site should be updated regularly and be search engine friendly.Designing a fully functional and yet profitable website is an extremely daunting task. So, small businesses owners usually leave all the designing and technical works to the hired contractors.This sometimes turns out to be an expensive mistake. Website designers are capable of making stunning looking website designs complete using every bell and whistle.
For example, if you were running a car dealership, you would not trust the car mechanics to run your marketing campaigns. He ?may be a damn good car mechanic, but it is almost unlikely that the mechanic would also be an expert authority on marketing. Hand the control of the marketing campaigns over to him and pretty soon you?ll be out of business.Allowing your website designer to run the website for you would put you into similar situations as mentioned above.
Of course, they come with excellent design skills, but they are not experts on marketing in most cases. Only a few website designers completely understand the effective search engine optimization techniques, or how to present compelling sales information or advertisements which effectively pre-sells the products and services you intend to put on the shelves.Believe me; nobody wants a website designer who only focuses on eye catching designs with pretty looking but absolutely pointless gimmicks providing Zero efficiency.Below some tips are presented that will help you run your website with total control and eventually you?ll be running a website providing a healthy profit.
1.? Think straight and be sure about what it is that you really want. You want and need a website working 24/7 with regular earnings. Be clear about exactly what task each web page is expected to accomplish and design them accordingly. Also, in advance, decide what kind of customers your website is trying to attract.
For example, are you interested in showing off your products via an online brochure or do you want to sell those on the website?
?Do you want the webpage to collect the visitor?s contact details or just want the site to let the consumers know your contact details?To keep the customers updated you can go for a blog or newsletter delivery.
2.? Place your offers and make the Buy and contact details clearly visible on the website.? People buy online to save time. So, if you want more online buyers, make the Buy button clearly seen. Make sure that your contact details are visible bright and clearly on each web page, so, the customers can call you if needed.
?Download Your Free Ebook ?
Social media allow you connect with your target audience and have a two-way effective conversation. But it can be easy to forget that not everyone who finds your social media profiles will speak your language, or be able to relate to your region?s latest trends.Social Media Marketing is Secret Weapon for any offline; online business and Brands. Big MNC?s and Small Business owners use social media platform to capture the attention of their target audiences . That?s why?I?ve?created ?special short report about ?Basic E-Commerce Strategies and transform your Business Online using Social media and search Engines. Don?t worry I?m not going to ask you to subscribe my mailing list, but if you like my short report then you can?subscribe my blog to receive Regular updates via email notification.
I hope my short report will help you create some amazing ideas about your business and Brand. Just hit reply to this post and let me know what you thought please.
ASCOT, England (Reuters) - Specialist police with nuclear and chemical training gave the all clear at the British home of former Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky on Sunday, a day after the fervent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin died in unclear circumstances.
Once known as the "godfather of the Kremlin", the former billionaire powerbroker helped Putin rise to the top before falling out of favor himself and fleeing to Britain in 2000.
Police said the 67-year-old's death was "unexplained" and sent radioactive, biological and chemical experts to do tests as they tried to piece together Berezovsky's final hours.
Berezovsky had survived assassination attempts, including a bombing that decapitated his driver, and said he feared for his life after he became one of Putin's fiercest critics, repeatedly calling for him to be forced from office.
He was also a friend of Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian spy who was poisoned with radioactive material in London in 2006, a murder that strained diplomatic ties between Britain and Russia.
However, friends said the man who personified the ruthless post-Soviet era of massive wealth and political scheming was depressed, had lost his fortune and may have committed suicide.
Others suspected he could have had a heart attack after the stress of losing a $6 billion court case to Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich. British newspaper reports said his security guard found the body in the bath.
Police stood guard outside Berezovsky's mansion, an imposing French-style property with a swimming pool and lake in Ascot, a few miles from Queen Elizabeth's Windsor Castle, 25 miles west of London. Inside, detectives were carrying out a thorough search of the house.
"The CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) officers found nothing of concern in the property and we are now progressing the investigation as normal," Superintendent Simon Bowden, of Thames Valley Police, said in a statement.
'LOST MEANING'
In what is thought to have been his last media interview, given in London on Friday, Berezovsky, said he was sorry he had left Russia to live in self-imposed exile in Britain and was struggling to see the "point of life".
"I do not know what to do. I am 67 years old. And I do not know what to do next," he was quoted as saying in the Russian edition of Forbes magazine. "I've lost meaning. The point in life."
Putin's spokesman said Berezovsky, seen by Moscow as a criminal who should stand trial for fraud and tax evasion, had written to the president asking for forgiveness - a suggestion dismissed by one of the oligarch's friends.
"Berezovsky sent Vladimir Putin a letter he wrote personally, in which he acknowledged that he had made many mistakes, asked Putin's forgiveness for these mistakes and appealed to Putin to help him return to his homeland," said Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
A friend of Berezovsky's in London, Andrei Sidelnikov, told Reuters the idea that he wrote a letter to Putin was "complete nonsense".
"He was a sane person and he understood that he would never be able to return under Putin's regime, for political reasons," Sidelnikov said.
A former mathematician who made millions selling luxury cars in Russia, Berezovsky became part of the inner circle of former president Boris Yeltsin and helped forge Putin's career.
The pair fell out soon after Putin's election in 2000 and Berezovsky left for Britain where he denounced his former ally as a corrupt "bandit" surrounded by former KGB agents.
Berezovsky was humiliated in 2012 when he lost a legal battle with former partner Abramovich, over shares in Russia's fourth biggest oil company.
Some associates said he had struggled with the cost of losing to Abramovich, estimated at the time as more than $100 million. Berezovsky had kept a low profile since the defeat and was rarely seen in public.
"He had no money, he had lost it all. He was unbelievably depressed," Tim Bell, a public relations executive who was one of his closest British advisers, told the Sunday Times newspaper. "It's all very sad."
(Writing by Peter Griffiths in London; Additional reporting by Maria Golovnina and Guy Faulconbridge in London and Thomas Grove, Maria Tsvetkova, Alexei Anishchuk in Moscow; Editing by Louise Ireland)
Mar. 21, 2013 ? Though we all desire relief -- from stress, work, or pain -- little is known about the specific emotions underlying relief. New research from the Association for Psychological Science explores the psychological mechanisms associated with relief that occurs after the removal of pain, also known as pain offset relief.
This new research shows that healthy individuals and individuals with a history of self-harm display similar levels of relief when pain is removed, which suggests that pain offset relief may be a natural mechanism that helps us to regulate our emotions.
Feeling Worse to Feel Better: Pain-Offset Relief Simultaneously Stimulates Positive Affect and Reduces Negative Affect
Research shows that feeling pain leads to negative emotions, but less is known about the relief that occurs when pain is removed. Is pain offset associated with positive emotions, or simply the alleviation of negative emotions?
Franklin and colleagues used recording electrodes to measure participants' negative emotions (eyeblink startle response) and positive emotions (muscle activity behind the ear) in response to loud noises; sometimes the loud noise was presented alone and other times it was presented 3.5, 6, or 14 seconds after receiving a low- or high-intensity shock.
Participants showed increased positive emotions and decreased negative emotions after pain offset. The greatest increases in positive emotion tended to occur soon after high-intensity shocks, whereas the greatest decreases in negative emotions tended to occur soon after low-intensity shocks.
These findings shed light on the emotional nature of pain offset relief, and could provide insight into why some people seek relief through self-injurious behavior.
The Nature of Pain Offset Relief in Nonsuicidal Self-Injury: A Laboratory Study
In this study, the researchers examined whether the emotional relief that comes with physical pain removal might be a potential mechanism that could help to explain why some people engage in self-harm behaviors.
Participants with or without a history of self-harm were assessed for emotion dysregulation and reactivity, self-injurious behavior, and for psychiatric disorders. Using a similar recording electrode procedure as in the first study, Franklin and colleagues were able to measure positive and negative emotions in response to loud noises, either alone or after receiving a painful shock.
Surprisingly, healthy individuals displayed pain offset relief levels that were comparable to those of individuals with a history of self-harm, and there was no correlation between pain offset relief and self-harm frequency.
These results do not support the hypothesis that heightened pain offset relief is a risk factor for future self-injury. Instead, Franklin and colleagues speculate that the biggest risk factors for nonsuicidal self-injury may concern how some people overcome the instinctive barriers that keep most people from inflicting self-harm.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Association for Psychological Science.
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Journal References:
J. C. Franklin, K. M. Lee, E. K. Hanna, M. J. Prinstein. Feeling Worse to Feel Better: Pain-Offset Relief Simultaneously Stimulates Positive Affect and Reduces Negative Affect. Psychological Science, 2013; DOI: 10.1177/0956797612458805
J. C. Franklin, M. E. Puzia, K. M. Lee, G. E. Lee, E. K. Hanna, V. L. Spring, M. J. Prinstein. The Nature of Pain Offset Relief in Nonsuicidal Self-Injury: A Laboratory Study. Clinical Psychological Science, 2013; DOI: 10.1177/2167702612474440
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Vincent Kartheiser and Alexis Bledel at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles.
By Us Weekly
Their "Mad Men" characters had an ill-fated affair, but off-camera, Alexis Bledel and Vincent Kartheiser are excitedly celebrating their engagement, Bledel's rep confirms exclusively to Us Weekly. "They couldn't be happier," says a pal of the "Gilmore Girls" alum, 31, and Kartheiser, 33.
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Last June, Us broke news that the twosome -- Bledel played the mentally imbalanced mistress to his character, ad exec Pete Campbell -- had been "dating for a few months."
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Says another friend: "Vincent proposed a few weeks ago. She's been wearing her ring. It's huge!" In the past, Kartheiser has been linked to actress Rachael Leigh Cook; Bledel dated her "Gilmore Girls" co-star (and on-screen love interest) Milo Ventimiglia for more than three years.
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"They are so cute together!" another source tells Us of the spouses-to-be. It will be the first marriage for both, who attended the October nuptials of Bledel's "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" co-star Amber Tamblyn and David Cross.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Don't look for testing of the anthrax vaccine to begin in children any time soon.
Controversy arose last year as experts debated whether such studies should be done to learn how to treat children in case of a bioterror attack.
But a presidential commission says the government would have to take multiple steps ? including more safety research in young adults ? before it would be ethical to consider tests in children.
"The safety of our children is paramount, and we have to get this precisely right," said Dr. Amy Gutmann, who chairs the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, which released its report Tuesday.
More than a decade after the anthrax attacks, the government has a multibillion-dollar stockpile of drugs and vaccines to fight an array of threats. There's no information on whether those so-called countermeasures would work in children like they're expected to help their parents, or even what dose to use. Yet if a large attack were to occur, children undoubtedly would receive those untested products.
Worried about how to handle an emergency, a government advisory group recommended studying the anthrax vaccine in children if independent ethics experts agreed it could be done appropriately. The Obama administration put that question to the panel.
Tuesday's answer: Children don't gain any benefit from pre-attack research with the anthrax vaccine or other countermeasures. So the panel said such studies would be ethical only if they presented no more than minimal risk to participants ? like the risk from a routine medical check-up. Determining that would require, among other things, more testing in adults, the panel added. Something that proved safe in 18-year-olds, for example, might be a candidate to study next in 16- and 17-year-olds.
However, the government should plan now for how it would study children who receive those treatments in the event of an attack, the panel said.
The Health and Human Services Department, which requested the advice, said it would review the findings.
The United States Justice Department seems to be listening to cries from Google (among others) that the 1986 ECPA (Electronic Communications Privacy Act) should be revised to reflect the vastly different universe that we now live in. DoJ attorney Elana Tyrangiel testified before the US House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations today, and in a nutshell, she now seems willing to think about the use of search warrants to access all types of email. Previously, the entity wanted the use a far less strict method for gaining access -- giving less privacy to opened emails or emails that were over half a year old.
In part, she stated: "We agree, for example, that there is no principled basis to treat email less than 180 days old differently than email more than 180 days old. Similarly, it makes sense that the statute not accord lesser protection to opened emails than it gives to emails that are unopened." Certainly, this is a step in the right direction, but we're a long way from having a genuine solution. We'll be covering the saga as it unfolds, but for now, have a look at the full brief in the source below.
This week our schedule is all sorts of off kilter. PAX East will take out most of the streams this week, but we will have all the early week content. Monday sees Dan finishing up Alan Wake, followed by Late w/ Nikon. Tuesday is up in the air, but we will be streaming something. Hex will be on Wednesday either doing co-op Rayman: Origins or Tomb Raider. The other streams will not be airing as the stream crew will all be at PAX East. The podcast will be on Monday, March 25 due to travel on Sunday.
As always, you can tune in to all these streams on?our Twitch page. Make sure to follow our channel to get notified the moment we?re going live! If you enjoy our streams and want to show your love for KBMOD, you can also?become a paid subscriber?to our Twitch channel! For $4.99/month, you get a completely ad-free experience on our channel and a special subscriber icon and custom twitch emoticons next to your name in the chat.
Monday (3/18) @ 9:30pm EST?- The Grind: Alan Wake (Night 5) Finale? Monday (3/18) @ 11:59pm EST?- Late Night w/ Nikon Tuesday (3/19) @ 9:30pm EST- ???? Wednesday (3/20) @ 9pm EST?- The Bearded Gamer w/ Hex: Tomb Raider Thursday (3/21) @ 10pm EST?- KBMOD @PAX East ? NO STREAM Friday (3/22) @ 11:59pm EST- KBMOD @PAX East ? NO STREAM Sunday (3/24) @ 10am EST?- KBMOD @PAX East ? NO STREAM Sunday?(3/24) @ 10pm EST?- KBMOD @PAX East ? NO STREAM
About the Author
Dan I put the OO in Swagoo.
One of the founders of KBMOD. I stream 3 times a week on the Twitch channel and try to write many articles here on the site. I enjoy long walks on the beach and games about children being chased through their basement by their homocidal mother.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? A staggering 1 in 3 seniors dies with Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia, says a new report that highlights the impact the mind-destroying disease is having on the rapidly aging population.
Dying with Alzheimer's is not the same as dying from it. But even when dementia isn't the direct cause of death, it can be the final blow ? speeding someone's decline by interfering with their care for heart disease, cancer or other serious illnesses. That's the assessment of the report released Tuesday by the Alzheimer's Association, which advocates for more research and support for families afflicted by it.
"Exacerbated aging," is how Dr. Maria Carrillo, an association vice president, terms the Alzheimer's effect. "It changes any health care situation for a family."
In fact, only 30 percent of 70-year-olds who don't have Alzheimer's are expected to die before their 80th birthday. But if they do have dementia, 61 percent are expected to die, the report found.
Already, 5.2 million Americans have Alzheimer's or some other form of dementia. Those numbers will jump to 13.8 million by 2050, Tuesday's report predicts. That's slightly lower than some previous estimates.
Count just the deaths directly attributed to dementia, and they're growing fast. Nearly 85,000 people died from Alzheimer's in 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated in a separate report Tuesday. Those are people who had Alzheimer's listed as an underlying cause on a death certificate, perhaps because the dementia led to respiratory failure. Those numbers make Alzheimer's the sixth leading cause of death.
That death rate rose 39 percent in the past decade, even as the CDC found that deaths declined among some of the nation's other top killers ? heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes. The reason: Alzheimer's is the only one of those leading killers to have no good treatment. Today's medications only temporarily ease some dementia symptoms.
But what's on a death certificate is only part of the story.
Consider: Severe dementia can make it difficult for people to move around or swallow properly. That increases the risk of pneumonia, one of the most commonly identified causes of death among Alzheimer's patients.
Likewise, dementia patients can forget their medications for diabetes, high blood pressure or other illnesses. They may not be able to explain they are feeling symptoms of other ailments such as infections. They're far more likely to be hospitalized than other older adults. That in turn increases their risk of death within the following year.
"You should be getting a sense of the so-called blurred distinction between deaths among people with Alzheimer's and deaths caused by Alzheimer's. It's not so clear where to draw the line," said Jennifer Weuve of Chicago's Rush University, who helped study that very question.
The Chicago Health and Aging Project tracked the health of more than 10,000 older adults over time. Weuve's team used the data to estimate how many people nationally will die with Alzheimer's this year ? about 450,000, according to Tuesday's report.
That's compatible with the 1 in 3 figure the Alzheimer's Association calculates for all dementias. That number is based on a separate analysis of Medicare data that includes both Alzheimer's cases and deaths among seniors with other forms of dementia.
Last year, the Obama administration set a goal of finding effective Alzheimer's treatments by 2025, and increased research funding to help. It's not clear how the government's automatic budget cuts, which began earlier this month, will affect those plans.
But Tuesday's report calculated that health and long-term care services will total $203 billion this year, much of that paid by Medicare and Medicaid and not counting unpaid care from family and friends. That tab is expected to reach $1.2 trillion by 2050, barring a research breakthrough, the report concluded.
By Stephen C. Webster Monday, March 18, 2013 11:18 EDT
?
Bills being shopped in six states by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) would make it a crime to film animal abuse at factory farms or lie on job applications, in hopes of shutting down animal rights activists who infiltrate slaughterhouses to expose ghastly conditions.
?The meat industry?s response to these exposes has not been to try to prevent these abuses from taking place, but rather it?s really just been to prevent Americans from finding out about those abuses in the first place,? Paul Shapiro, spokesperson for the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), told Raw Story. ?What they?re doing is trying to pass laws throughout the country that don?t just shoot the messenger, they seek to imprison the messenger.?
The proposals mandate that evidence of animal abuse be turned over to law enforcement within 48 hours, or face a financial penalty. Several of the bills bills also make it a crime to lie on slaughterhouse job applications, which activists commonly do in order to get footage like the content of a video published by the HSUS, embedded below.
Those bills appear to be spreading with the help of ALEC, a conservative business advocacy group that encourages lawmakers to ?exchange? legislative ideas from state to state. The group came under serious scrutiny after the killing of Florida teen Trayvon Martin sparked a national controversy over so-called ?Stand Your Ground? laws that ALEC facilitated in 18 states, enabling the use of deadly force if a person claims they felt their life was in danger. Lawmakers in a further 25 states adopted a spin-off of ?Stand Your Ground? laws called ?Castle doctrine? laws, which allow the use of deadly force against suspected home invaders.
The bills to block animal rights activists are in California, Nebraska, Tennessee, Indiana, Arkansas and Pennsylvania, according to The Associated Press. Three other states ? New Mexico, Wyoming and New Hampshire ? have already rejected similar bills this year, and HSUS told Raw Story that three more ? Minnesota, Vermont and North Carolina ? are yet expected to take them up.
Several states already have laws similar to what ALEC is pushing, and virtually all of them were triggered in response to shocking videos produced by animal rights activists, who some critics have taken to calling propagandists.
In one such recent case, undercover video from an Iowa factory farm produced by a group called Mercy for Animals caused the Iowa legislature to support a so-called ?Ag-Gag? law that makes it a crime to lie in order to infiltrate a farm?s staff. That act is now a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine of $1,500. Lawmakers in Utah passed a similar law in 2012 that bans unauthorized photography in farms. Missouri also has an older law that accomplishes effectively the same thing.
?This, I think, this a good example of just how much this industry has to hide,? Shapiro said. ?You know you?ve got a lot to hide when you want to make it a crime merely to take a photo of what you are doing.?
?At the end of the day it?s about personal property rights or the individual right to privacy,? ALEC spokesman Bill Meierling told the AP. ?You wouldn?t want me coming into your home with a hidden camera.?
An ALEC spokesperson did not respond to Raw Story?s request for comment.
This video is from the Humane Society of the U.S., published May 21, 2012. It contains graphic content.
??
Correction: Mercy For Animals is a national organization based in Los Angeles.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr. State Dept. photo.
By Al Bawaba News -- (March 16, 2013)
Dozens of demonstrators gathered in Manassa area of Nasr City to show their support of the Egyptian military.
The crowd was protesting against President Mohamed Morsi and demanding the return of military rule in what they called ?last chance Friday?.
Protestors were seen handing out forms delegating authority to run the country to Minister of Defence and military Commander-in-Chief General Abdul Fatah Al-Sisi as well as collecting national ID cards for the same purpose.
Former Member of Parliament Mohamed Abu Hamed and television talk show personality Tawfiq Okasha made the call for the protest in Manasa where radical Islamists assassinated former president Anwar El-Sadat.
The crowd brandished banners depicting Al-Sisi and Sadat while chanting against Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood rule.
A similar protest took place in Alexandria in front of the Northern Military Zone. Dozens marched from Al-Qaed Ibrahim mosque to the military zone denouncing Morsi?s rule and calling on the military to intervene.
One march called for Morsi?s resignation and early presidential elections while another merely demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Hesham Qandil?s cabinet.
Following former president Hosni Mubarak?s ousting in January 2011, the military took over power in the form of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) until Morsi?s inauguration in June.
During military rule, hundreds of protesters were killed and thousands injured in confrontations with police and army personnel. SCAF was also responsible for subjecting 12,000 civilians on military trials.
Ma'lik Richmond, 16, enters court for the fourth day of his and co-defendant, Trent Mays, 17, trial on rape charges in juvenile court on March 16, 2013 in Steubenville, Ohio.
By Drew Singer, Reuters
The trial of two Ohio high school football players accused of raping an incapacitated 16-year-old girl resumed on Saturday with two former friends of the accuser testifying that she had a reputation for dishonesty.
Defense attorneys also called an expert witness who testified that the accuser was probably drunk enough to forget what she did on the night in question - but not so impaired that she had lost the ability to make decisions.
Trent Mays, 17, and Ma'lik Richmond, 16, are charged with sexually assaulting the girl in the early morning of August 12, 2012, when she was too drunk to move or speak.
During testimony Saturday, the defense called Kelsey Weaver and Gianna Anile, two classmates of the accuser who described themselves as her former best friends.
Reuters is not identifying the girl making the accusations.
Weaver, 17, testified that the accuser had told her she liked Mays. Weaver also said she watched the accuser drink four shots of vodka and two beers and flirt with Richmond on the night she says the rape occurred.
Weaver said the accuser told her she thought she had been drugged as well -- a conclusion Weaver said she did not believe. Asked by defense attorneys why she had doubts, Weaver said "because (she) lies about things."
Both Weaver and Anile were with the accuser on the night of the alleged rape. Both testified that they ended their friendship with her as a result of the accusations.
The defense then called witness Kim Fromme, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, whose research focuses on alcohol abuse and other risky behavior by adolescents.
Taking into account conflicting accounts of how much the accuser had to drink that night, Fromme estimated the girl's blood alcohol content might have been somewhere between 0.18 percent and 0.25 percent.
That made the girl drunk enough to forget what happened, Fromme said, but not so drunk that she lost the ability to make decisions.
Keith Srakocic / Pool via Reuters
Trent Mays, 17, enters court for the fourth day of his trial on rape charges in juvenile court in Steubenville, Ohio.
Fromme went on to testify that drinking by many of the witnesses in the case may have impaired their own memories of what happened, and also that pressure from the community may now be coloring their recollection of events in a way that is inaccurate and prejudicial to the two defendants.
Under cross examination by prosecutors, Fromme admitted she had not seen any of the photographs of the accuser on the night in question.
The case drew national attention to the Ohio steel town of Steubenville, on the West Virginia border 40 miles west of Pittsburgh, after a photo and video from the party were posted online appearing to document the assault.
On Friday, Mark Cole, a teammate of Mays and Richmond granted immunity for his testimony, said he recorded a video of Mays performing the act on the girl during a car ride between houses in Steubenville the night of the party, but deleted it the next morning.
Evan Westlake, who was also granted immunity, testified he saw Richmond commit a sex act on the girl on the basement floor of a house the same night last August.
Mays and Richmond are accused of raping the girl while she was incapacitated. She told police she did not remember what happened and reported the incident the next day after hearing details from friends. The boys have denied raping her and say that any sexual contact that occurred was consensual.
Defense attorneys have questioned whether the witnesses in the case remembered details from the party or were just repeating rumors that circulated afterward through their social groups or from investigators looking into the rape allegations.
The juvenile charges against Mays and Redmond are being heard by visiting Judge Tom Lipps. If convicted, they could be required to stay at a juvenile detention facility until they turn 21 and then register as sex offenders.
Testimony in the trial, which began on Wednesday, is scheduled to continue into the evening Saturday and resume again on Sunday. The judge said he expects the trial to run into Tuesday.
A very emotional trial in Steubenville, Ohio is continuing into the weekend, with two local high school football players accused of raping a teenage girl. "There's a lot of hurt in this community," said one resident. NBC's Ron Allen reports.
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Public release date: 27-Mar-2013
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