Gates says knowing Jobs was "insanely great" honor (BLOG)

SEATTLE — Microsoft Corp co-founder and chairman Bill Gates bid farewell to his long-time friend and competitor Steve Jobs on Wednesday, using the Apple co-founder's own words in his tribute.

"For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it's been an insanely great honor," Gates said in an e-mailed statement. "I will miss Steve immensely."

"Insanely great" was of one of Jobs' favorite expressions.

"The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come," Gates said.

Gates, 55, and Jobs, 56, were twin figureheads in the early development of personal computers in the 1970s and 1980s. They became friends and fierce competitors.

"Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives," said Gates.

"I'm truly saddened to learn of (his) death," he said. "Melinda and I extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to everyone Steve has touched through his work."

Steve Jobs Dies: Apple Chief Created Personal Computer, iPad, iPod, iPhone (BLOG)

Steve Jobs, the mastermind behind Apple's iPhone, iPad, iPod, iMac and iTunes, has died, Apple said. Jobs was 56.

Apple did not reveal where Jobs died or from what cause -- though in recent years he had fought pancreatic cancer and had a liver transplant.

"We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today," read a statement by Apple's board of directors. "Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve. His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts."

The homepage of Apple's website this evening switched to a full-page image of Jobs with the text, "Steve Jobs 1955-2011."

Clicking on the image revealed the additional text: "Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple."

Jobs co-founded Apple Computer in 1976 and, with his childhood friend Steve Wozniak, marketed what was considered the world's first personal computer, the Apple II.

Shortly after learning of Jobs' death, Wozniak told ABC News, "I'm shocked and disturbed."

Industry watchers called him a master innovator -- perhaps on a par with Thomas Edison -- changing the worlds of computing, recorded music and communications.

Jobs rivals in the development of personal computers, Microsoft co-founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen, immediately reacted to his death and highlighted his importance to their industry.

Allen called him "a unique tech pioneer and auteur who knew how to make amazingly great products."

Gates also extended his condolences, and added via a written statement, "Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives.

"The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come," he added. "For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it's been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely."

Jobs continued to innovate in recent years even as he battled severe health problems that prompted leaves of absence from Apple.

In 2004, he beat back an unusual form of pancreatic cancer, and in 2009 he was forced to get a liver transplant. After several years of failing health, Jobs announced on Aug. 24, 2011 that he was stepping down as Apple's chief executive.

"I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know," Jobs wrote in his letter of resignation. "Unfortunately, that day has come."

Click Here for Pictures: Steve Jobs Through the Years

One of the world's most famous CEOs, Jobs remained stubbornly private about his personal life, refusing interviews and shielding his wife and their children from public view.

"He's never been a media person," said industry analyst Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, after Jobs resigned. "He's granted interviews in the context of product launches, when it benefits Apple, but you never see him talk about himself."

The highlights of Jobs's career trajectory are well-known: a prodigy who dropped out of Reed College in Oregon and, at 21, started Apple with Wozniak in his parents' garage. He was a multimillionaire by 25, appeared on the cover of Time magazine at 26, and was ousted at Apple at age 30, in 1984.

In the years that followed, he went into other businesses, founding NeXT computers and, in 1986, buying the computer graphics arm of Lucasfilm, Ltd., which became Pixar Animation Studios.

He was described as an exacting and sometimes fearsome leader, ordering up and rejecting multiple versions of new products until the final version was just right. He said the design and aesthetics of a device were as important as the hardware and software inside.

Click Here for Pictures: Apple's Iconic Products

In 1996, Apple, which had struggled without Jobs, brought him back by buying NeXT. He became CEO in 1997 and put the company on a remarkable upward path.

By 2001 the commercial music industry was on its knees because digital recordings, copied and shared online for free, made it unnecessary for millions of people to buy compact discs.

Jobs took advantage with the iPod -- essentially a pocket-sized computer hard drive with elegantly simple controls and a set of white earbuds so that one could listen to the hours of music one saved on it. He set up the iTunes online music store, and persuaded major recording labels to sell songs for 99 cents each. No longer did people have to go out and buy a CD if they liked one song from it. They bought a digital file and stored it in their iPod.

In 2007, he transformed the cell phone. Apple's iPhone, with its iconic touch screen, was a handheld computer, music player, messaging device, digital wallet and -- almost incidentally -- cell phone. Major competitors, such as BlackBerry, Nokia and Motorola, struggled after it appeared.

By 2010, Apple's new iPad began to cannibalize its original business, the personal computer. The iPad was a sleek tablet computer with a touch screen and almost no physical buttons. It could be used for almost anything software designers could conceive, from watching movies to taking pictures to leafing through a virtual book.

Personal Life

Jobs kept a close cadre of friends, Bajarin said, including John Lasseter of Pixar and Larry Ellison of Oracle, but beyond that, shared very little of his personal life with anyone.

But that personal life -- he was given up at birth for adoption, had an illegitimate child, was romantically linked with movie stars -- was full of intrigue for his fan base and Apple consumers.

Jobs and his wife, Laurene Powell, were married in a small ceremony in Yosemite National Park in 1991, lived in Woodside, Calif., and had three children: Reed Paul, Erin Sienna and Eve.

He admitted that when he was 23, he had a child out of wedlock with his high school girlfriend, Chris Ann Brennan. Their daughter, Lisa Brennan Jobs, was born in 1978.

He had a biological sister, Mona Simpson, the author of such well-known books as "Anywhere But Here." But he did not meet Simpson until they were adults and he was seeking out his birth parents. Simpson later wrote a book based on their relationship. She called it "A Regular Guy."

Tony Avelar/AFP/Getty Images

Fortune magazine reported that Jobs denied paternity of Lisa for years, at one point swearing in a court document that he was infertile and could not have children. According to the report, Chris Ann Brennan collected welfare for a time to support the child until Jobs later acknowledged Lisa as his daughter.

There were other personal details that emerged over the years, as well.

At Reed, Jobs became romantically involved with the singer Joan Baez, according to Elizabeth Holmes, a friend and classmate. In "The Second Coming of Steve Jobs," Holmes tells biographer Alan Deutschman that Jobs broke up with his serious girlfriend to "begin an affair with the charismatic singer-activist." Holmes confirmed the details to ABC News.

Jobs' Health and Apple's Health

Enigmatic and charismatic, Jobs said little about himself. But then his body began to fail him.

In 2004, he was forced to say publicly he had a rare form of pancreatic cancer. In 2009, it was revealed that he had quietly gone to a Memphis hospital for a liver transplant.

He took three medical leaves from Apple. He did not share details.

In 2009, sources said, members of Apple's board of directors had to persuade him to disclose more about his health as "a fiduciary issue," interwoven with the health of the company.

He was listed in March as 109th on the Forbes list of the world's billionaires, with a net worth of about $8.3 billion. After selling Pixar animation studios to The Walt Disney Company in 2006, he became a Disney board member and the company's largest shareholder. Disney is the parent company of ABC News.



Analysts said Apple performed well during Jobs' absence, partly because he was available for big decisions and partly because his chief lieutenant, Tim Cook, was the hands-on manager even when Jobs was there.

The company has a history of bouncing back. In January 2009, after he announced his second medical leave, Apple stock dropped to $78.20 per share. But it quickly recovered and became one of the most successful stocks on Wall Street. On one day in the summer of 2011, with the stock hitting the $400 level, Apple briefly passed ExxonMobil as the world's most valuable company.

Missing American woman found dead in Italy (BLOG)

ROME (AP) — The body of an American woman missing inTuscany for three days was found Wednesday beside a busy roadway in what appears to be a hit-and-run accident, Italian police said.

Carabinieri Col. Antonio Frassinetto told a news conference that the body of Allison Owens, 23, of Columbus, Ohio, was found in a canal beside the heavily trafficked road in San Giovanni Valdarno.

Tests have been ordered to determine the cause of death, but investigators believe she had been jogging. Owens may have been using an iPod and not heard a car approaching, Frassinetto said.

Owens was a guide for a tour company. She was last seen alive Sunday afternoon, and more than 100 police using dogs searched for her after friends reported her missing.

Italian media reported that her mother arrived Wednesday and met with investigators.

NH official: Husband killed wife who strangled son (BLOG)

BRENTWOOD, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire man who returned home last year to find his 4-year-old son strangled by the boy's mother and a 7-year-old daughter unconscious has pleaded guilty to killing his wife as she tried to commit suicide.

The description in court was the first time authorities revealed what caused the November death of Mason Smeltzer and the injuries to his sister, Mercey Smeltzer.

The revelations came as the children's father, 38-year-oldChristopher Smeltzer pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the beating death of his wife, Mara Pappalardo.

New Hampshire Senior Assistant Attorney General Jane Young says Pappalardo had been hospitalized for paranoia.

Smeltzer told police he "lost his marbles" and attacked Pappalardo with a flashlight. She had a rope around her neck, preparing to commit suicide.

Woods signs 1st major endorsement deal in 2 years (BLOG)

SAN MARTIN, Calif. (AP) — Tiger Woods has his first major endorsement since his downfall two years ago, announcing a deal Wednesday with Rolex to be one of its ambassadors.

Woods had lost five major endorsements in the two years since he was exposed for serial adultery and eventually divorced. He previously had a watch deal with Tag Heuer, which dropped him two months ago.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although it is believed to be longer than five years.

Woods earlier this year announced a deal in Japan to endorse a heat rub product for Kowa Company Ltd., although that was geared exclusively for Japanese markets.

The Rolex deal is far more significant, and it was announced the day Woods returned to the PGA Tour at the Frys.com Open. His agent at Excel Sports Management, Mark Steinberg, promised more deals to come.

"This makes a big statement," Steinberg said at CordeValle, where he was watching Woods tee off in the pro-am. "I think this shows me where people are with Tiger Woods."

Woods has lost endorsement deals with AT&T Inc., Accenture PLC, Tag Heuer, Gatorade and Gillette since his downfall.

Steinberg said Rolex would be the first of a "couple of announcements" related to endorsements, including a deal for Woods' golf bag. He has had his foundation logo on the bag since AT&T dropped him a month after Woods' sex scandal unfolded in November 2009.

He said a bag deal was likely to be announced as early as six weeks. Woods has been in negotiations with Fry's Electronics, sponsor of this week's tournament, although those discussions have been going on for most of the year.

This is a return to Rolex of sorts for Woods. He had an endorsement deal with Tudor, a Rolex brand, when he first turned pro.

Swiss-based Rolex said it was paying tribute "to the exceptional stature of Tiger Woods and the leading role he plays in forging sport's global appeal."

"Rolex is convinced that Tiger Woods still has a long career ahead of him, and that he has all the qualities required to continue to mark the history of golf," the company said in a statement.

Woods has 14 majors and 82 wins worldwide, although none since he won the Australian Masters on Nov. 15, 2009. He fell out of the top 50 in the world ranking for the first time in 15 years.

He missed most of this summer recovering from injuries to his left leg. Woods is playing four more times this year, starting with the Frys.com Open, followed by the Australian Open, Presidents Cup and the Chevron World Challenge.

Typical of his previous endorsements, Steinberg said the Rolex logo would not be visible as Woods plays golf. He had a watch in his bag during the pro-am, Steinberg said. Woods doesn't wear a watch when he plays golf.

Four Loko drink cans to show true alcohol content (BLOG)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Super-sized Four Loko drinks, beloved by college students as a "blackout in a can," have the same amount of alcohol as four to five beers, and packaging that compares them to one or two beers will be changed under a U.S. government settlement.

The Federal Trade Commission, which investigates complaints about deceptive advertising, said on Monday that Four Loko drinks, made by privately held Phusion Projects LLC, were highly alcoholic.

"Deception about alcohol content is dangerous to consumers, and it's a serious concern for the FTC," said David Vladeck, director of the agency's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Phusion Projects said it disagrees that its advertising was deceptive.

"Even though we reached an agreement, we don't share the FTC's perspective and we disagree with their allegations," the company said. "However, we take legal compliance very seriously and we share the FTC's interest in making sure consumers get all the information and tools they need to make smart, informed decisions."

Phusion Projects agreed to begin selling Four Loko drinks in resealable containers, and said they will be on shelves by late spring. It also will put a warning on cans saying, "This can has as much alcohol as 4-1/2 regular (12 oz, 5 pct alc/vol) beers."

The sweet drinks, which are popular with people in their twenties, used to contain caffeine, but it was taken out last year.

Ex-Detective Says the LAPD Knows Who Killed Tupac and Biggie (BLOG)

A new book by a Los Angeles Police Department detective says rival record label executives for Notorious BIG and Tupac Shakur(Sean Combs and Suge Knight, respectively) ordered the rappers' killings in 1996. Greg Kating worked on the still-unfinished investigations into the two shootings, which defined and fueled a rivalry between East Coast and West Coast rappers in the 1990s.Kating says the department's been sitting on tapes of damning testimony since 2008, from a one-time gangster who says Combs offered him $1 million to kill Tupac and Knight, and from one of Knight's lovers who says she helped arrange a similar deal to kill Biggie and Combs. The book's due out on Tuesday, but the L.A. Weekly has a lengthy preview that includes this description of the two key revelations:

In a taped confession fully reviewed by L.A. Weekly, Keffe D says, "[Combs] took me downstairs and he's like, 'Man, I want to get rid of them dudes.' ... I was like, 'We'll wipe their ass out, quick. It's nothing.' ... We wanted a million." In another stunning confession, detailed in LAPD documents reviewed by the Weekly, the mother of one of Knight's children, identified in Kading's book as "Theresa Swann," breaks down in tears, stating that the former Death Row boss gave her the money to pay Wardell "Poochie" Fouse — Knight's close associate and a fellow member of the Mob Piru Bloods — to kill Smalls.

US TV pitchman dies in federal custody (BLOG)

PHOENIX (AP) — A U.S. Marshals Service spokesman says a Phoenix-based TV pitchman charged with running a nationwide scheme to sell essentially worthless Internet-based businesses has died in an apparent suicide while in federal custody.

Spokesman Matt Hershey says Donald Lapre was found dead in his cell at a Florence facility Sunday morning. His trial was scheduled to begin Tuesday.

Hershey says the death remains under investigation.

A grand jury indicted Lapre in June on 41 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and promotional money laundering. He was accused of overseeing and promoting the opportunity through his company called "The Greatest Vitamin in the World."

The government says at least 220,000 victims in the scheme were defrauded of nearly $52 million.

Lapre's death was first reported by Fox 10 News in Phoenix.

Wall Street protesters dress as zombies in NYC (BLOG)

NEW YORK (AP) — Protesters speaking out against corporate greed and other issues showed no signs of giving up their campaign Monday, with organizers urging participants to dress up as what they called corporate zombies and to take part in a rally againstpolice brutality.

The arrests of 700 people on Brooklyn Bridge over the weekend fueled the anger of the protesters camping in a Manhattan park and sparked support elsewhere in the country as the campaign entered its third week.

Occupy Wall Street started with fewer than a dozen college students spending days and nights in Zuccotti Park, a plaza near the city's financial center. But a day after Saturday's mass arrests, hundreds of protesters were resolute and like-minded groups in other cities had joined in.

Group spokesman Patrick Bruner urged protesters to dress up as zombies and eat Monopoly money to let financial workers "see us reflecting the metaphor of their actions." As the encampment slowly began waking up Monday morning, several dozen police officers stood in formation across the street.

One camper set up a table with tubes of makeup and stacks of fake money and applied white makeup to the face of a young woman.

John Hildebrand, 24, an unemployed teacher from Norman, Okla., sat up in his sleeping bag around 10 a.m. He said he arrived Saturday after getting a cheap plane ticket to New York.

"My issue is corporate influence in politics," he said. "I would like to eliminate corporate financing from politics."

He said was returning home on Tuesday and planned to organize a similar protest there.

One supporter, William Stack, sent an email to city officials urging that all charges be dropped against those arrested.

"It is not a crime to demand that our money be spent on meeting people's needs, not for massive corporate bailouts," he wrote. "The real criminals are in the boardrooms and executive offices on Wall Street, not the people marching for jobs, health care, and a moratorium on foreclosures."

Police said the department will continue its regular patrols. And "as always, if it is a lawful demonstration, we help facilitate and if they break the law we arrest them," NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.

Wiljago Cook, 33, of Oakland, Calif., who joined the protest on the first day, said "exposing police brutality wasn't even really on my agenda, but my eyes have been opened."

She and her boyfriend and two neighbors all quit their jobs to come and planned "to stay as long as it seems useful," said Cook, who had worked for a nonprofit theater group.

She was wearing zombie makeup that included a red streak down her forehead. "It's a cheeky and fun way to make the same point that we've been making," Cook said of her painted face.

A map of the country displayed on the plaza identified 21 places where other protests were organized.

Wall-Street style demonstrations with names like Occupy Los Angeles, Occupy Chicago, and Occupy Boston were staged in front of Federal Reserve buildings in those cities. A group in Columbus, Ohio, also marched on the capital city's street. And signs of support were rearing up outside the U.S. In Canada, a Wall Street rally is planned for later this month in Toronto.

In New York, campers take turns organizing a "general assembly" on the plaza where they divide tasks among themselves. They have "a protocol for most things," said 19-year-old Kira Moyer-Sims of Portland, Ore., including a makeshift hospital and getting legal help for people who are arrested. They rally around a website called OccupyWallSt.org, and they even started printing a newspaper — the Occupied Wall Street Journal.

The campers also have been fueled by encouraging words from well-known figures, the latest actor Alec Baldwin, who posted videos on his Twitter page that had already been widely circulated. One appeared to show police using pepper spray on a group of women, another a young man being tackled to the ground by an officer.

"This is unsettling," Baldwin wrote. "I think the NYPD has a PR problem."

Billionaire financier George Soros, during a news conference at U.N. headquarters about his participation in an African development, said Monday that he sympathizes with the protesters. He said he understands the frustrations of small business owners, including those who have seen credit card charges soar during the current crisis.

Jackie Fellner, a marketing manager from Westchester County, north of the city, said she has an issue with "big money dictating which politicians get elected and what programs get funded."

But "we're not here to take down Wall Street," she insisted. "It's not poor against rich."

Still, the protesters chose Wall Street as their physical rallying point, speaking against corporate greed, social inequality, global climate change and other concerns.

Beside the mass arrest Saturday, police arrested about 100 people Sept. 24 when protesters marched to other parts of the city and got into a tense standoff with officers.

Some said protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge were lured onto the roadway by police, or they didn't hear the calls from authorities to head to the pedestrian walkway. Police said no one was tricked into being arrested, and that those in the back of the group who couldn't hear were allowed to leave.

The NYPD released video footage Sunday to back up its stance. In one of the videos, an official uses a bullhorn to warn the crowd. Marchers can be seen chanting, "Take the bridge."

Knox leaves Italy to head home to US (BLOG)

PERUGIA, Italy (AP) — Amanda Knox headed home to the United States a free woman Tuesday, after an Italian appeals court dramatically overturned the American student's conviction of sexually assaulting and brutally slaying her British roommate.

The family of 21-year-old victim Meredith Kercher appeared overwhelmed at the ruling, saying they were shocked and bewildered by the stunning reversal of the 2009 decision. The prosecutor said he would appeal the decision releasing Knox and her co-defendant and one-time boyfriend, Italian Raffaele Sollecito.

The case has been a cause celebre in the U.S., and a staple of British tabloids, which took to calling her "Foxy Knoxy." Throughout the four-year case, Knox was portrayed either as a femme fatale with an angel face or a naive young woman caught up in a judicial nightmare.

The verdict was controversial. Hundreds of mostly university-age young people gathered in the piazza outside the courtroom in Perugia, jeering and yelling, while Knox's supporters in her home town of Seattle hugged and shouted in joy.

British tabloids played up the drama of Knox's release — and the Kerchers' pain. The Daily Mail headline read "Weeping Foxy is Freed to Make a Fortune," referring to reports that Knox could earn a hefty paycheck in the U.S. for an exclusive interview.

Back in Perugia, Kercher's family searched for answers.

"It was a bit of a shock," said Stephanie Kercher, the victim's older sister. "It's very upsetting ... We still have no answers."

Lyle Kercher, a brother, said the family has been left to wonder who is guilty. A third man has been convicted in the brutal slaying, however, his trial concluded he did not act alone.

"If the two released yesterday were not the guilty parties, we are obviously left to wonder who is the other guilty person or people. We are left back at square one," Lyle Kercher said.

The 24-year-old Knox arrived at the Rome airport in a Mercedes with darkened windows and waited for boarding inside a private waiting area Tuesday, out of public view and away from the media scrum. She headed to London, where she will catch a connecting flight to the United States.

Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini expressed disbelief in the verdict, and vowed an appeal to Italy's highest criminal court.

"Let's wait and we will see who was right. The first court or the appeal court," Mignini told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

"This trial was done under unacceptable media pressure. The decision was almost already announced; this is not normal," he said.

If the highest court overturns the acquittal, prosecutors would be free to request Knox's extradition to Italy to finish whatever remained of a sentence. It is up to the government to decide whether they make such a request.

Knox and Sollecito were convicted of sexually assaulting and murdering Kercher, who shared an apartment with Knox in Perugia. Knox was sentenced to 26 years, Sollecito to 25. Both had been in prison since Nov. 6, 2007, four days after Kercher's body had been found at the apartment.

But, the prosecution's case was blown apart by a court-ordered DNA review that discredited crucial genetic evidence.

The jury upheld Knox's conviction on a charge of slander for accusing bar owner Diya "Patrick" Lumumba of carrying out the killing. The judge set the sentence at three years, less than the time Knox had spent in prison.

Knox dissolved into tears as the verdict was read in a packed courtroom after 11 hours of deliberations, and she needed to be propped up by her lawyers on either side. Two hours later, she was in a dark limousine that took her out of the Capanne prison just outside Perugia, where she had spent the past four years, and headed to Rome.

"During the trip from Perugia to Rome, Amanda was serene," said Corrado Maria Daclon, the secretary general of the Italy-US Foundation, a group backing Knox, who was with her in the car. "She confirmed to me that in the future she intends to come back to our country."

On Tuesday, Knox thanked those Italians "who shared my suffering and helped me survive with hope," in a letter to the foundation.

"Those who wrote, those who defended me, those who were close, those who prayed for me," Knox wrote. "I love you, Amanda."

Sollecito, meanwhile, arrived back home near the southern Italian city of Bari before dawn on Tuesday. He was quoted by Italian news agencies as saying he was looking forward to seeing the sea, but he declined to make any appearances after reaching home.

Sollecito's father Francesco said his son remained stunned by the events.

"He is trying to recover himself," Sollecito's father told reporters. "He is going around touching things as if he is a child who needs to take back the things of his life, to acquire forgotten elements."

While waves of relief swept through the defendants' benches in the courtroom, members of the Kercher family, who flew in for the verdict, appeared dazed and perplexed. Her sister Stephanie shed a tear, while her mother Arline looked straight ahead.

The Kerchers had pressed for the court to uphold the guilty verdicts, and resisted theories that a third man convicted in the case, Rudy Hermann Guede, had acted alone. Guede, convicted in a separate trial, is serving a 16-year sentence.

Just before deliberations began Monday, Knox tearfully told the court she did not kill her roommate.

"I've lost a friend in the worst, most brutal, most inexplicable way possible," she said. "I'm paying with my life for things that I didn't do."

Knox and Kercher were in the medieval Umbrian town of Perugia to study abroad.

The 5 Dumbest Things You Can Do if You Have too Much Debt (BLOG)

If you’re struggling with too much debt, you’re not alone. It seems as if the whole nation has a borrowing hangover. For years, credit was easy, and many people became overextended. But, we now live in an era of austerity and it’s time to get our affairs in order.

The five strategies you may want to avoid:

The first piece of advice from experts in the financial field is to be sure you don't make your situation worse by making common mistakes. In particular, try to avoid:

1. Paying only the minimum payment on your debt, as this will result in the amount you owe actually growing, and your problems will only become worse.

2. Relying on friends and family, as this can damage relationships with the most important people in your life.

3. Unscrupulous credit counselors that demand cash upfront or high fees for help they promise, but don't deliver.

4. Using new, high-interest loans to pay off lower interest rate loans. While it may be easier to just have one payment, it will actually increase the amount you have to pay back.

5. Declaring bankruptcy--this can have permanent and severe consequences on your financial future. Avoid it if you can, especially when debt settlement may work for you.

Debt Settlement

For many people, working with a debt settlement company can actually be a great solution. You’ve probably heard a lot of advertising for these services recently, but what exactly do they do?

Debt settlement is the process of negotiating with creditors to get them to forgive a big portion of your debt. Why would a credit card company do this? Well, it’s not out of the generosity of their heart. They have made the financial calculations and determined they are better off knowing for certain that they’ll get paid something, rather than not knowing if they will get paid anything.

Settlement companies work with individual consumers to determine a reasonable, monthly amount that they can afford to pay against their debt load. The individual makes the affordable payment every month into a special-purpose account, and as these funds accumulate, the settlement company reaches out to creditors to negotiate a full and final actual settlement amount that they will take. The debt settlement company only charges a fee after they have achieved a satisfactory settlement for you.

Typically, these companies have excellent relationships with creditors and are negotiating on behalf of thousands of people every day. The amount of savings they can obtain for consumers can be significant.

While each situation is different, it’s not uncommon for debt settlement companies to negotiate reductions of as much as 50 percent of the outstanding amount and help get their customer debt free in just a few years.

There are many debt settlement agencies, so how do you find a legitimate and trustworthy company to work with? One great way to start is by visiting Preferred Financial Services. They offer a free, no-obligation consultation to evaluate your options. Then, if you choose to proceed, they will develop a plan that meets your specific needs and negotiate it on your behalf with your credit card companies. Preferred Financial Services is fully compliant with all FTC rules and they charge no fees until a settlement has been reached.

To learn how much of your debt can be reduced, and how quickly you can be debt free, click here.

New York teen bullied even in death (BLOG)

BUFFALO, New York (Reuters) - Weeks after the suicide of 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer in western New York, school officials, police and lawmakers are grappling with ways to prevent the kind of schoolyard bullying being blamed for his death.

The openly gay teen's parents Tim and Tracy Rodemeyer are calling for changes in how New York schools handle the kind of chronic harassment that drove their son to kill himself outside their suburban Buffalo home on September 19.

"It's the only thing that's keeping us going, to try and get the word out," Tracy Rodemeyer told Reuters.

Already the move has resulted in proposed state legislation aimed at stopping online taunts, known as cyber-bullying.

It comes in the wake of neighboring New Jersey enacting the nation's toughest anti-bullying law after the suicide last year of a gay Rutgers University student who was bullied.

At the start of this school year, New Jersey officials worried tight budgets might make it difficult to uphold the law, which requires a uniform response to each and every incidence of bullying, including corrective action plans and time frames for intervention.

In Buffalo, meanwhile, a painful reminder that little has changed came last week when a student at the school Rodemeyer attended was suspended for continued taunting of the teen even after his death.

This time the target was his 16-year-old sister at a school dance just hours after she attended a wake for her younger brother on September 22.

"It sickens me," their father said of reports that some students chanted "better off dead" when dance organizers played a song in Rodemeyer's honor by his favorite singer, Lady Gaga, who has memorialized him in her anti-bullying comments.

"Your mind just spins at 100 miles per hour. How can someone do that? I don't understand how someone could be so cruel," Tracy Rodemeyer said.

"Everybody has a story about bullying but never, never have I ever seen it where somebody would be happy that someone is dead from their actions."

Superintendent Scott Martzloff posted a message on the district's web site condemning the dance incident and saying a student believed to be responsible was suspended.

Police continue to investigate Rodemeyer's death to determine if criminal charges should be brought against some of the teens accused of harassing him, officials said.

The high school freshman had talked to his mother about being gay for the first time about a year ago. In May, he contributed an online video to an international campaign called "It Gets Better," designed to help young gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people confirm their identity and survive the pitfalls of being different.

She said the teasing that followed Rodemeyer through grade school and into high school included taunts of "fag" and "girly girl" hurled at the boy who kept mostly female friends.

While his online message in May was one of hope, his mother said it is clear now that he put up a strong front to hide the deep hurt within.

School guidance counselors and social workers met with Rodemeyer over the years but none seemed to strive to help him, his father said. One counselor's advice was simply to stop spending time with girls, he said.

One big problem is that harassment may seem endless for some teens, deepening their despair, said Dr. Stuart Green, of the New Jersey Coalition for Bullying Awareness, who helped draft the New Jersey anti-bullying legislation.

"In 12 years of taking phone calls from parents I've never once gotten a call where a parent was upset about something that happened yesterday. It's months and years," he said.

The proposed legislation in New York to make it easier to prosecute online bullying is aimed at creating a "chilling effect" to discourage the harassment, said Rich Azzopardi, spokesman for state Senator Jeffrey Klein, author of the bill.

"Years ago, drunken driving wasn't viewed as a big deal, even though it has the potential to kill people. What we're doing with bullying is changing people's perception of it," Azzopardi said.

For the Rodemeyers, that shift can't come soon enough.

"We're really supposed to be learning from our mistakes and this is the next biggest one," Tracy Rodemeyer said.

Police: US singer owes $420,000 in child support (BLOG)

SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts (AP) — Police say a singer known for his 1990 chart-topping love song was hauled off a Massachusetts stage and arrested on charges of owing $420,000 inunpaid child support.

Steven Bernard Hill of Las Vegas was arrested Friday night at theMassMutual Center, where he was performing on tour.

Hill performs as Stevie B and is best known for the song "Because I Love You (The Postman Song)." It reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts in late 1990.

Springfield police Sgt. John M. Delaney tells the Springfield Republican that Hill was surprised by the arrest and concerned that he might miss a weekend show in Providence, Rhode Island.

Hill is scheduled to be arraigned Monday. He couldn't be reached for comment Sunday. Police didn't know if he had an attorney.

Facebook Keeps A History Of Everyone Who Has Ever Poked You, Along With A Lot Of Other Data (BLOG)

Across the pond, European law grants citizens a “right to access,” meaning that companies have to provide a person with all of the personal data they have on them if they request it. An Austrian-based group called Europe v. Facebook has posted a couple of the reports compiled by the social networking giant everyone loves (and loves to hate).


Facebook doesn't forget pokes

Most of you probably know that Facebook knows a lot about you. But did you know that if you were to print it out, it might take up about 880 pages? I went through one of the lengthy dossiers from Europe v. Facebook. Here are the juicy bits for a female Facebook user with the initials ‘L.B.’ who has been a member of the site since 2007:


Facebook keeps track of every person who has ever poked you. Facebook user L.B. has been poked over 50 times from 2008 through 2011 (K.D. was a frequent poker in 2008, though a user by the initials T.V. is currently the pokiest of L.B.’s friends).


Facebook keeps track of the devices associated with your account
The report includes a list of the machines that L.B. has used Facebook from, how often she has signed in from the machine, as well as a list of all the other Facebookers who have logged in on that machine. As pointed out recently by blogger Nik Cubrilovic, Facebook leaves cookies on computers that have the ability to track users even when they’re logged out of Facebook. Facebook now plans to scale back that cookie use, but it still will want information about who’s signing in on which machines to thwart hackers, block spammers, and know which computers are in Internet cafes, for example. Given the hundreds of millions of users the company has, “Facebook is pretty much indexing all computers worldwide,” says Max Schrems of Europe v. Facebook.
Facebook keeps track of every event you’ve ever been invited to, and how you responded to the invitation. L.B. has attended about 29 events since 2009, has declined nine invitations since 2010, and has failed to RSVP at all to about 75 events dating back to 2007 (how rude!). The inviter, location and name of the events have been blacked out on the report posted to Europe v. Facebook’s site for privacy reasons.


A list of exes?
Facebook keeps track of everyone you defriended and when. As some have pointed out, the Facebook Timeline will also expose this information to anyone who’s interested. L.B. has removed over a dozen of her friends over the years. The Facebook report also includes a list of friend requests that L.B. rejected.
Facebook includes a history of messages and chats in the report.Europe v. Facebook says that some users say their reports include messages they’ve deleted.

If you want to see all 880 glorious pages yourself, you can download the filehere [pdf]. It also includes things you’d expect, like a list of all of L.B.’s friends and personal information from her profile page.

(What I was surprised not to see here was a list of the things that L.B. had looked at and/or clicked, such as other peoples’ profile pages, photos, or status updates. As we have seen before, that is something Facebook knows about its users. Update, Sept. 28: While “real-time activities” are missing from L.B.’s report, you will see them in another report on the site, for M.S.)

So, just keep this in mind next time you’re on Facebook. All your pokes are going into a permanent record.

European users can request their information with this Facebook form(instructions here). Max Schrems of Europe v. Facebook put his request in to Facebook’s Ireland office and says it took the company about 30 days to send his report, and that it arrived on a C.D. from California.

One thing that I found a bit concerning about the process is that it only requires a photo of your government i.d., your name, and birthdate to confirm your identity. Given how easy it is to get one’s hands on someone else’s ID (say if you’re dating someone and s/he leaves a wallet about your house), I could imagine some scenarios in which this process could be abused.

Reebok Pays $25 Million to Settle FTC Claims of False Ads for Toning Shoes (BLOG)

Reebok International Ltd. agreed to pay $25 million to resolve government allegations it made false claims that its so-called toning shoes helped strengthen leg and buttock muscles.

The settlement with the Federal Trade Commission covers advertising starting in 2009 for Reebok’s EasyTone walking shoes and flip flops and RunTone running shoes. The agency said the ads made unsupported claims that walking in EasyTone footwear was “proven” to tone buttocks 28 percent more than other sneakers and build calf muscles by 11 percent more.

“We spent a lot of time examining the evidence the company put forward and found it wanting,” said David Vladeck, head of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, during a news conference today in Washington. “This settlement is also to remind advertisers big and small that they must have adequate proof before making claims.”

The toning athletic shoe category grew to $1 billion in sales in 2010 before dropping off this year as retailers and shoemakers were forced to slash prices after demand fell. Skechers USA Inc. led the market with its Shape-ups, followed by Reebok’s EasyTone brand. Sales of toning shoes in the U.S. may drop about 40 percent this year to $600 million, according to researcher SportsOneSource.
Settlement Terms

The settlement prohibits Reebok, a unit of Herzogenaurach, Germany-based Adidas AG (ADS), from making any more unsubstantiated assertions regarding toning benefits of its footwear, the agency said. The FTC set up a website for consumers that explains how to seek a refund for the shoes covered by the lawsuit.

Sneaker maker Skechers also has been contacted by the FTC over claims that its Shape-ups shoes have toning benefits, the company said in an August filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Skechers, based in Manhattan Beach, California, said in the filing it was responding to the FTC’s requests and would “ defend the company’s position,” if needed. Leonard Armato, president of Skechers USA Fitness Group that includes the Shape- ups brand, said today the company doesn’t comment on legal proceedings.

The FTC’s Vladeck declined to comment on whether other shoe companies are being probed for similar advertising.
Bigger Number

“If this is pointing in Skecher’s direction, the number could be bigger for them,” said Sam Poser, a New York-based retail analyst for Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., who has an “underperform” rating on Skechers, in a telephone interview.

Adidas fell 0.97 euros, or 2 percent, to 48.22 euros in Frankfurt trading. Skechers fell 36 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $14.72 in New York trading.

“We stand behind our EasyTone technology -- the first shoe in the toning category that was inspired by balance-ball training,” Reebok spokesman Dan Sarro said in an e-mailed statement today. “Settling does not mean we agree with the FTC’s allegations; we do not.”

Reebok, based in Canton, Massachusetts, said it will continue to develop the EasyTone product line.

“It’s not that important to their business anymore as they’ve come out with more running products,” Sterne Agee & Leach’s Poser said.

The case is Federal Trade Commission v. Reebok International Ltd., 1:11-cv-02046, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio (Cleveland).

Patient dies outside Calif. hospital after release (BLOG)

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) — A California hospital is investigating the death of a discharged patient whose body was found onhospital grounds.

Officials at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital said Monday that their investigation into 49-year-old Michael Torres' death is almost complete.

Torres' body was discovered on the hospital campus around 8 a.m. Sept. 20. The Press Democrat of Santa Rosa reports (http://bit.ly/p4Ek7e) that he had been discharged about 12 hours earlier after treatment for an undisclosed condition.

Hospital officials say Torres was asked to move when, after he was discharged, he was found in part of the hospital that is closed to the public at night. But they have released few other details.

According to Torres' family, a preliminary autopsy showed he could have died of pneumonia, or swelling of the arteries and heart.

T.I. to be released from halfway house Thursday (BLOG)

ATLANTA (AP) — Rapper T.I. is set to be released from an Atlantahalfway house after spending about 10 months in federal prison on a probation violation.

T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris, was arrested in September 2010 in Los Angeles on drug charges. He was sentenced to 11 months in prison for violating the terms of the probation he received after he was convicted of federal firearms charges.

He was released from an Arkansas prison and sent to the halfway house on Aug. 31, put back in federal lock-up over a dispute withprison officials, and then returned to the halfway house Sept. 15.

Attorney Steve Sadow said he wasn't sure what time the performer would be released, and corrections officials declined comment.

Colo. boy, 13, pleads guilty to killing parents (BLOG)

BURLINGTON, Colo. (AP) — A 13-year-old boy who prosecutors say was playing with toy trucks and planes right before he shot and killed his parents was sentenced Wednesday to seven years injuvenile detention after pleading guilty to murder.

The boy was 12 in March when prosecutors say he shot Marilyn and Charles Long with a .357 Magnum revolver in Burlington, a small farming community about 140 miles east of Denver. He also pleaded guilty to attempt to commit first-degree murder and three counts of assault for attacking two of his younger siblings.

He could have faced decades in prison if he had been tried and convicted an adult.

The light sentence angered some relatives, but District Attorney Bob Watson said state law forced him to choose between what he saw as an unacceptably light juvenile sentence and an unnecessarily harsh lifetime sentence.

Watson told a judge there was no explanation for the slayings. He showed photographs of the family's backyard, where he said the boy had been playing with toy trucks and planes minutes before the shootings. He said tests showed that he was immature and noted that money he earned cleaning a church and the courthouse before the slayings had been spent on Legos.

"If you're looking for an adult explanation for why this kid went from playing in dirt to commit murder you'll never get one. This lies in the mind of a very immature 12-year-old," Watson said, referring to the boy's age at the time of the slayings.

The prosecutor said he was also concerned that a judge might have rejected a proposal to transfer the case to adult court and whether the state would be able to get a conviction there, noting that juries like to know why a crime was committed.

Charles Long's brother, Wally Long, said he was never in favor of a plea agreement.

"My desire for a longer sentence was never about hatred or anger but out of a sense of justice," he said.

The boy will also have to serve three years on parole after being released.

Marilyn Long, 50, homeschooled her kids and ran the children's ministry at the Evangelical Free Church. Charles Long, 51, served as an elder at another church and was a snack delivery driver. The boy was a greeter at the church and helped other children memorize Bible verses.

Prosecutors allege the boy stabbed and shot his 9-year-old brother and injured his 5-year-old sister with a knife. Both recovered from their wounds.

In court, the boy stood about 5 feet tall and appeared slight in his teal prison uniform. He declined a chance to speak and cried as a defense lawyer read a statement from his maternal grandmother, Dolores Richardson.

She noted that he was a helpful boy and hinted that the slayings had resulted from "helplessness, a cry for help for a situation, that (he) felt he had no control over."

After the hearing, Wally Long and the boy's 25-year-old brother said they didn't know to what she was referring. "He's dead to me," the brother said.

Before the sentencing, public defender Tom Ward said in court that the boy had made progress while in juvenile detention. He grew two inches, gained 16 pounds, and formed relationships with attorneys, staff and other juveniles, Ward said.

Ward also said the boy has shown "incredible remorse" for the crimes.

"Life in prison is not the proper place for a 12-year-old boy, especially this one," he added.

4 Americans get pot from US government (BLOG)

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Sometime after midnight on a moonlit rural Oregon highway, a state trooper checking a car he had just pulled over found less than an ounce of pot on one passenger: A chatty 72-year-old woman blind in one eye.

She insisted the weed was legal and was approved by the U.S.government.

The trooper and his supervisor were doubtful. But after a series of calls to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Drug Enforcement Agencyand her physician, the troopers handed her back the card — and her pot.

For the past three decades, Uncle Sam has been providing a handful of patients with some of the highest grade marijuana around. The program grew out of a 1976 court settlement that created the country's first legal pot smoker.

Advocates for legalizing marijuana or treating it as a medicine say the program is a glaring contradiction in the nation's 40-year war on drugs — maintaining the federal ban on pot while at the same time supplying it.

Government officials say there is no contradiction. The program is no longer accepting new patients, and public health authorities have concluded that there was no scientific value to it, Steven Gust of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse told The Associated Press.

At one point, 14 people were getting government pot. Now, there are four left.

The government has only continued to supply the marijuana "for compassionate reasons," Gust said.

One of the recipients is Elvy Musikka, the chatty Oregon woman. A vocal marijuana advocate, Musikka relies on the pot to keep her glaucoma under control. She entered the program in 1988, and said that her experience with marijuana is proof that it works as a medicine.

They "won't acknowledge the fact that I do not have even one aspirin in this house," she said, leaning back on her couch, glass bong cradled in her hand. "I have no pain."

Marijuana is getting a look from states around the country considering calls to repeal decades-old marijuana prohibition laws. There are 16 states that have medical marijuana programs. In the three West Coast states, advocates are readying tax-and-sell or other legalization programs.

Marijuana was legal for much of U.S. history and was recognized as a medicine in 1850. Opposition to it began to gather and, by 1936, 48 states had passed laws regulating pot, fearing it could lead to addiction.

Anti-marijuana literature and films, like the infamous "Reefer Madness," helped fan those fears. Eventually, pot was classified among the most harmful of drugs, meaning it had no usefulness and a high potential for addiction.

In 1976, a federal judge ruled that the Food and Drug Administration must provide Robert Randall of Washington, D.C. with marijuana because of his glaucoma — no other drug could effectively combat his condition. Randall became the nation's first legal pot smoker since the drug's prohibition.

Eventually, the government created its program as part of a compromise over Randall's care in 1978, long before a single state passed a medical marijuana law. What followed were a series of petitions from people like Musikka to join the program.

President George H.W. Bush's administration, getting tough on crime and drugs, stopped accepting new patients in 1992. Many of the patients who had qualified had AIDS, and they were dying.

The AP asked the agency that administers the program, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, for documents showing how much marijuana has been sent to patients since the first patient in 1976.

The agency supplied full data for 2005-2011, which showed that during that period the federal government distributed more than 100 pounds of high-grade marijuana to patients.

Agency officials said records related to the program before 2005 had been destroyed, but were able to provide scattered records for a couple of years in the early 2000s.

The four patients remaining in the program estimate they have received a total of 584 pounds from the federal government over the years. On the street, that would be worth more than $500,000.

All of the marijuana comes from the University of Mississippi, where it is grown, harvested and stored.

Dr. Mahmoud ElSohly, who directs the operation, said the marijuana was a small part of the crop the university has been growing since 1968 for all cannabis research in the U.S. Among the studies are the pharmaceutical uses for synthetic mimics of pot's psychoactive ingredient, THC.

ElSohly said the four patients are getting pot with about 3 percent THC. He said 3 percent is about the range patients have preferred in blind tests.

The marijuana is then sent from Mississippi to a tightly controlled North Carolina lab, where they are rolled into cigarettes. And every month, steel tins with white labels are sent to Florida and Iowa. Packed inside each is a half-pound of marijuana rolled into 300 perfectly-wrapped joints.

With Musikka living in Oregon, she is entitled to more legal pot than anyone in the nation because she's also enrolled in the state's medical marijuana program. Neither Iowa nor Florida has approved marijuana as a medicine, so the federal pot is the only legal access to the drug for the other three patients.

The three other people in the program range in ages and doses of marijuana provided to them, but all consider themselves an endangered species that, once extinct, can be brushed aside by a federal government that pretends they don't exist.

All four have become crusaders for the marijuana-legalization movement. They're rock stars at pro-marijuana conferences, sought-after speakers and recognizable celebrities in the movement.

Irv Rosenfeld, a financial adviser in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., has been in the program since November 1982. His condition produces painful bone tumors, but he said marijuana has replaced prescription painkillers.

Rosenfeld likes to tell this story: In the mid-1980s, the federal government asked his doctor for an update on how Rosenfeld was doing. It was an update the doctor didn't believe the government was truly interested in. He had earlier tried to get a copy of the previous update, and was told the government couldn't find it, Rosenfeld said.

So instead of filling out the form, the doctor responded with a simple sentence written in large, red letters: "It's working."

Rapper Petey Pablo sentenced to 3 years for gun (BLOG)

NEW BERN, N.C. (AP) — Hip-hop artist Petey Pablo has been sentenced in North Carolina to almost three years in federal prison after pleading guilty to possessing a stolen firearm.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says the 38-year-old rapper was sentenced Monday to 35 months behind bars in U.S. District Court in New Bern. Pablo's real name is Moses Barrett, and he's from Wake Forest, N.C.

Petey Pablo was arrested last year while attempting to clear security at Raleigh-Durham International Airport for a flight to Los Angeles. Authorities found a loaded gun in a bag that had passed through an X-ray machine.

Authorities say the investigation showed the gun had been stolen during a home burglary in Gardena, Calif., in 2005.

The rapper is best known for the songs "Raise Up" and "Freek-a-Leek."