Sitenet Info News - newsxyrm.blogspot.com: 05/11/12

Killer Faces Life in Jail in Hudson Family Murders

William Balfour was convicted in the October 2008 murders of singer and actress Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and nephew.AP

CHICAGO â€" Â A Chicago jury on Friday convicted Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson's former brother-in-law of murdering her mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew in what prosecutors' described as an act of vengeance by a jilted husband.

Hudson, who expressed her undisguised disdain for William Balfour when she took the witness stand and who endured weeks of excruciating testimony about the October 2008 killings, was visibly overcome with emotion as the verdict was read. Hudson's eyes filled with tears and she shook her head and bit her lip. Afterward, she looked over at her sister, Julia Hudson, and smiled.

Balfour, who faces a mandatory life prison sentence, showed no emotion.

Jurors deliberated for three days before reaching their verdict against Balfour, a 31-year-old former gang member who was the estranged husband of Hudson's sister at the time of the triple murders.

With no surviving witnesses to the Oct. 24, 2008, slayings or fingerprints, prosecutors built a circumstantial case against Balfour by calling 83 witnesses over 11 days of testimony. Witnesses said he threatened to kill the entire family if Julia Hudson spurned him.

Balfour's attorneys proposed an alternate theory: that someone else in the crime-ridden neighborhood on Chicago's South Side targeted the family because of alleged crack-cocaine dealing by Jennifer Hudson's brother, Jason Hudson. During the 30 minutes in which they called just two witnesses, however, they presented no evidence to support that theory.

The verdict came shortly after jurors sent the judge a note saying they were split. The jury did not say it was giving up, though.

"We are trying," jurors said in their note.

Jennifer Hudson, who was in Florida at the time of the killings, attended every day of the two-weeks of testimony, sobbing when photos of her relatives' bloodied bodies were displayed to jurors during closing arguments. Known for wearing tony designer dresses on Hollywood's red carpets, Hudson wore toned-down clothes at the trial, often all black.

Hudson, 30, rose to prominence as a 2004 "American Idol" finalist. But she became a bona fide star for her performance in the film adaptation of the musical, "Dreamgirls," for which she won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Hudson was the first witness prosecutors called to testify, and during her more than 30 minutes on the stand she talked about her murdered family members and spoke endearingly about her nephew, Julian King, whom she called Tugga Bear. She said she knew Balfour since the eighth grade but always deeply disliked him.

Balfour had lived in the Hudsons' three-story Englewood home after marrying Julia Hudson in 2006. He moved out in early 2008 after falling out with his wife, but witnesses told jurors he often stalked the home.

The killings occurred the morning after Julia Hudson's birthday, and prosecutors said he became enraged when he stopped by the home and saw a gift of balloons in the house from her new boyfriend.

After his estranged wife left for her job as a bus driver on the morning of Oct. 24, 2008, prosecutors said Balfour went back inside the home with a .45-caliber handgun and shot Hudson's mother, Darnell Donerson, 57, in the back; he allegedly then shot Jason Hudson, 29, twice in the head as he lay in bed.

Prosecutors said Balfour then drove off in Jason Hudson's SUV with Julian -- Julia's son, whom she called Juice Box -- and shot the boy several times in the head as he lay behind a front seat. His body was found in the abandoned vehicle miles away after a three-day search.

The defense tried to counter the portrayal of Balfour as an embittered husband by noting Julia Hudson continued to have sex with him until just days before the killings.

In heated closings Wednesday, public defender Amy Thompson, almost shouting, said prosecutors had failed to prove their case.

Prosecutor James McKay shot back that the defense was exploiting a popular misunderstanding that circumstantial evidence is lesser evidence.

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Hudson\'s brother-in-law convicted of murder

CHICAGO (AP) - A Chicago jury on Friday convicted Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson's former brother-in-law of murdering her mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew in what prosecutors' described as an act of vengeance by a jilted husband.

Balfour, who faces a mandatory life prison sentence, showed no emotion.

Jurors deliberated for three days before reaching their verdict against Balfour, a 31-year-old former gang member who was the estranged husband of Hudson's sister at the time of the triple murders.

The verdict came shortly after jurors sent the judge a note saying they were split. The jury did not say it was giving up, though.

"We are trying," jurors said in their note.

The killings occurred the morning after Julia Hudson's birthday, and prosecutors said he became enraged when he stopped by the home and saw a gift of balloons in the house from her new boyfriend.

Prosecutors said Balfour then drove off in Jason Hudson's SUV with Julian - Julia's son, whom she called Juice Box - and shot the boy several times in the head as he lay behind a front seat. His body was found in the abandoned vehicle miles away after a three-day search.

The defense tried to counter the portrayal of Balfour as an embittered husband by noting Julia Hudson continued to have sex with him until just days before the killings.

In heated closings Wednesday, public defender Amy Thompson, almost shouting, said prosecutors had failed to prove their case.

Prosecutor James McKay shot back that the defense was exploiting a popular misunderstanding that circumstantial evidence is lesser evidence.

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Citizenship Too Taxing for Facebook Co-Founder?

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, seen in a 2010 interview from Singapore, where he lives.YouTube
The Facebook page of company co-founder Eduardo Saverin, who renounced his U.S. citizenship ahead of the social network's hotly anticipate IPO.Facebook

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He lived the American Dream -- and then he packed up and left.

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, who made billions off the world's most popular social network, stands to rake in about $3.84 billion from his 4 percent share of Facebook, Bloomberg reported.Â

American citizens pay several taxes, including taxes on salary and investments. Saverin would be hit with about $600 million in capital gains taxes whenever he sold the Facebook shares (or "realized the income," in financial speak).

But Saverin may not have to pay -- he's chosen to renounce his U.S. citizenship for residence in Singapore, Bloomberg reported, where there is no capital gains tax.

Tom Goodman, a spokesman for Saverin, told Bloomberg the move was â€œpractical.â€

â€œEduardo recently found it more practical to become a resident of Singapore since he plans to live there for an indefinite period of time,â€ said Tom Goodman, a spokesman for Saverin, in an e-mailed statement.

'Eduardo recently found it more practical to become a resident of Singapore.'

- Tom Goodman, a spokesman for Saverin

He filed to renounce his citizenship "around September" of last year,Goodman told Bloomberg.Â

But even if he's no longer an America, Saverin may not escape all U.S. taxes, Bloomberg explained. Americans who give up their citizenship owe what is effectively an exit tax on the capital gains from their stock holdings -- even if they don't sell the shares, a tax specialist at the University of Michigan's law school told the site.

Renouncing your citizenship well in advance of an IPO is â€œa very smart idea,â€ from a tax standpoint, Avi-Yonah said. â€œOnce it's public you can't fool around with the value.â€

Saverin became a U.S. citizen in 1998, having moved to the country in 1992, Goodman told Bloomberg.

He was chief financial officer and business manager at Facebook, until he was forced out of the company -- a dramatic tale described in the fictional 2010 film â€œThe Social Network,â€ directed by David Fincher.

He settled out of court with co-founder Mark Zuckerberg for an undisclosed amount of money, but still owns shares in the company. The Facebook co-founder left for Singapore in 2009, where he has invested in several technology companies.

A Facebook spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for more information.

The Brazilian born Internet entrepreneur's name turned up on an April 30 list published quarterly by the Internal Revenue Service of people who have chose to expatriate.Â

The IRS list of Americans who renounced their citizenship is required by law, in accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) of 1996, the site explains. This listing contains the name of each individual giving up his or her United States citizenship.

There are 460 names on the list, from Nina Aabel to Thomy and Daniel Zund.

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Hudson family slayings suspect convicted of murder

By MICHAEL TARM | Associated PressÂ â€"Â

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Dem\'s Heritage Claims Draw Scrutiny

FILE: July 21, 2011: Elizabeth Warren, as head of the Congressional Oversight Panel, testifies before a Senate Finance Committee.AP

The top Democratic candidate in this year's Senate race in Massachusetts was listed as a minority professor in a newly discovered University of Pennsylvania report â€" raising eyebrows a second time over how she and her employers characterized her heritage.

The scrutiny started last month after newspaper reports surfaced that Elizabeth Warren had listed herself in law school directories as having American Indian heritage. The latest revelation raises further questions about how Warren might have used such classifications to her professional advantage.

The 62-year-old Warren is attempting to unseat first-term GOP Sen. Scott Brown who has called on her to release all law school applications and personnel files from the universities where she taught.

A Massachusetts genealogist said he uncovered evidence that Warren's great-great-great grandmother had listed herself as Cherokee in an 1894 document. That would make Warren Â 1/32nd American Indian.

Requirements for tribal membership vary from tribe to tribe. The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians requires a bloodline of at least 1/4 Cherokee, according to the genealogy website All Things Cherokee. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians requires at least 1/16, making someone with a bloodline of 1/32 one generation beyond that threshold.

The race between Brown and Warren is among the mostly closely watched this year. The non-partisan Cook Political Report and leading polls list it as a tossup.

The high-stakes race could help decide whether Republicans take control of the Senate. But the candidates have agreed to a so-called â€œpeople's pledgeâ€ that has stopped millions of dollars in third-party ads from influencing the race.

The University of Pennsylvania document was one of three similar ones made public Thursday.

The second shows Warren identified herself as "white" on a University of Texas employment record, and the other indicates she declined to apply to Rutgers Law School under minority status.

Warren worked at the University of Texas from 1983 to 1987, before taking a job at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

The University of Pennsylvania document -- a report published in 2005, 10 year after Warren left to teach at Harvard Law school â€" indicates she was a minority faculty member and had won a teaching award. The report stated only eight of the 112 awards give out during a 13-year span had gone to minority teachers.

Warren's campaign said the records from Rutgers and Texas bolster her argument that she was able to land a job at Harvard Law School in 1995 based on hard work and achievement, not claims of Native American heritage.

"At every law school where Elizabeth was recruited to teach, it has been made absolutely clear she was hired based on merit; on her accomplishments and ability," Warren spokeswoman Alethea Harney said in a statement Thursday.

Harvard Law School professor Charles Fried has said any suggestion that Warren enjoyed an affirmative-action advantage in her hiring as a full professor is "false" and that Warren was recruited because of her expertise in bankruptcy and commercial law.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Jury reaches verdict in Hudson family slayings

By MICHAEL TARM | Associated PressÂ â€"Â

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Jurors in Hudson family slayings say they\'re split

CHICAGO (AP) - Jurors deliberating the case of the man charged with murdering relatives of Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson say they're split.

The jury did not say it's giving up, though. In a note to the judge Friday afternoon, jurors said, "We are trying."

Prosecutors say Hudson's former-brother-in-law, William Balfour, killed her mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew in a fit of jealous rage against her sister, Julia Hudson. Balfour was married but estranged from her at the time.

The jury has been deliberating since Wednesday.

In their note saying they are split, jurors asked for cellphone records. The judge sent a note back telling them to keep deliberating.

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Is the \'London Whale\' behind JP Morgan\'s $2B loss?

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Trayvon Martin\'s mother in Bloomberg gun-control video

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JPMorgan reveals $2 billion trading loss

(Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, said it suffered a trading loss of at least $2 billion from a failed hedging strategy, a shock disclosure that hit financial stocks and the reputation of the bank and its CEO, Jamie Dimon.

For a bank viewed as a strong risk manager that went through the financial crisis without reporting a loss, the errors are embarrassing, especially given Dimon's public criticism of the so-called Volcker rule to ban proprietary trading by big banks.

"This puts egg on our face," Dimon said, apologizing on a hastily called conference call with stock analysts. He conceded the losses were linked to a Wall Street Journal report last month about a trader, nicknamed the 'London Whale', who, the report said, amassed an outsized position which hedge funds bet against.

JPMorgan said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that since end-March, its Chief Investment Office has had significant mark-to-market losses in its synthetic credit portfolio - these typically include derivatives in a way intended to mimic the performance of securities.

While other gains partially offset the trading loss, the bank estimates the business unit with the portfolio will post a loss of $800 million in the current quarter, excluding private equity results and litigation expenses. The bank previously forecast the unit would make a profit of about $200 million.

"It could cost us as much as $1 billion or more," in addition to the loss estimated so far, Dimon said. "It is risky and it will be for a couple quarters."

BAD STRATEGY

The dollar loss, though, could be less significant than the hit to Dimon and the reputation of a bank which was strong enough to take over investment bank Bear Stearns and consumer bank Washington Mutual when they collapsed in 2008.

JPMorgan had $2.32 trillion of assets supported by $190 billion of shareholder equity at the end of March - an equity ratio of almost 13 percent, four times the industry mean and ahead of 10-11 percent at Citigroup and Bank of America Corp - and has been earning more than $4 billion each quarter, on average, for the past two years.

"Jamie has always styled himself as one of the kings of Wall Street," said Nancy Bush, a longtime bank analyst and contributing editor at SNL Financial. "I don't know how this went so bad so quickly with his knowledge and aversion to risk."

JPMorgan shares fell almost 7 percent after the closing bell and dragged other financial shares lower, with Citigroup down 3.6 percent and Bank of America down 2.6 percent. FBR Capital Markets analyst Paul Miller cut his target for the stock to $37 from $50 in response to the disclosures. The shares were at $40.74 before the news.

Dimon said he still believes in his arguments against the Volcker rule. The problem at JPMorgan, he said, was with the execution of the hedging strategy, which "morphed over time" and was "ineffective, poorly monitored, poorly constructed and all of that."

On the call, Dimon said he wouldn't take questions about specific people or their specific trading strategies. But he indicated that some people may lose their jobs as executives sort out what when wrong. "All appropriate corrective action will be taken as necessary in the future," he said.

WHALE OF A LOSS

The April Wall Street Journal report said Bruno Iksil, a London-based trader in JPMorgan's Chief Investment Office, nicknamed the 'London Whale', had amassed an outsized position that prompted hedge funds to bet against it. On an earnings conference call last month, Dimon called the concern "a complete tempest in a teapot." On Thursday, however, he said the bank's loss had "a bit to do with the article in the press." He added: "I also think we acted a little too defensively to that."

The Chief Investment Office is an arm of the bank that JPMorgan has said is used to make broad bets to hedge its portfolios of individual holdings, such as loans to speculative-grade companies.

The failed hedge likely involved a bet on the flattening of a credit derivative curve, part of the CDX family of investment grade credit indices, said two sources with knowledge of the industry, but not directly involved in the matter. JPMorgan was then caught by sharp moves at the long end of the bet, they said. The CDX index gives traders exposure to credit risk across a range of assets, and gets its value from a basket of individual credit derivatives.

Two financial industry sources in Asia said they heard the JPMorgan trader took a position that a credit derivative curve, part of the CDX family of investment grade credit indices, would flatten, but was caught out by sharp moves at the long end. The CDX index gives traders exposure to credit risk across a range of assets, and gets its value from a basket of individual credit derivatives.

"It's a pretty stunning admission for a company that prides itself on its risk management systems and the strength of its balance sheet," said Sterne Agee analyst Todd Hagerman. "The timing couldn't be worse for the industry. It will have ramifications across the broker-dealer community."

Just last week Dimon and leaders of other large banks met Federal Reserve Governor Daniel Tarullo in New York to question the way the regulators conduct stress tests to see if banks have enough capital to withstand possible losses. They also made arguments over trading restrictions.

Allegations that traders at the banks take outsized risks with bank capital to earn big bonuses have been among the drivers of government regulations adopted, and pending, since the financial crisis.

JPMorgan spokesman Joseph Evangelisti said the company uses pay formulas to reduce the chance of that happening in the Chief Investment Office and throughout the bank. Except for people handling the bank's private equity investments, "no one at JPMorgan is paid on their profits and losses," he said.

PUSHING FOR DETAIL

Regulators and lawmakers are now likely to push Dimon for more details about the trades. Those details will guide how regulators now view the issue and its impact on the Volcker rule, said Karen Petrou, managing partner of Washington-based Federal Financial Analytics.

If the trades were meant to hedge against specific risks as opposed to clearly being done as a proprietary bet on the markets, it may not play as clearly into the Volcker rule debate as supporters of the crackdown want it to, she said.

"The question is whether this in fact was a hedge and I think that's to be determined," she said. "That's really the heart of the matter."

But some in Washington quickly expressed views on the lessons from the episode. Senator Carl Levin, in a statement issued two hours after the news broke, said, "The enormous loss JPMorgan announced today is just the latest evidence that what banks call 'hedges' are often risky bets that so-called 'too big to fail' banks have no business making."

(Reporting by David Henry in NEW YORK, Rick Rothacker in CHARLOTTE, North Carolina, Dave Clarke in WASHINGTON and Vidya Ranganathan in SINGAPORE; Editing by Richard Chang, Alwyn Scott, Carol Bishopric, Edwina Gibbs and Ian Geoghegan)

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Obama criticizes Romney as \'backwards on equality\'

By JIM KUHNHENN | Associated PressÂ â€"Â

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School forfeits shot at title rather than play team with girl

PHOENIX (Reuters) - An Arizona high school forfeited a shot at a state baseball championship on Thursday rather than compete against an opponent that had a 15-year-old girl on its team, an official from the rival school said.

Our Lady of Sorrows Academy in Phoenix had been due to play Mesa Preparatory Academy in the Arizona Charter Athletic Association state championship.

But the team pulled out rather than face the Mesa squad, which fielded 15-year-old Paige Sultzbach at second base, Mesa Preparatory Academy headmaster Robert Wagner said.

"They wouldn't play the game as long as we had a girl on the team who was on the field. It violates their policy about boys playing against girls," Wagner told Reuters.

"It's just unfortunate that our kids who are excited about playing don't have the opportunity," he added.

Reuters was unable to reach Our Lady of Sorrows for comment. But Fox News reported an official at the school as saying it had no option but to forfeit the game.

"Teaching our boys to treat ladies with deference, we choose not to place them in an athletic competition where proper boundaries can only be respected with difficulty," Fox reported the official as saying in a statement.

"Our school aims to instill in our boys a profound respect for women and girls," it added.

Media reports described Our Lady of Sorrows as being run by traditionalist, conservative priests who do not agree with Roman Catholic Church reforms enacted by the Vatican II Council in the 1960s and who broke from the Church in the 1980s.

The girl's mother, Pamela Sultzbach, told the Arizona Republic, "This is not a contact sport, it shouldn't be an issue.

"It wasn't that they were afraid they were going to hurt or injure her, it's that (they believe) that a girl's place is not on a field."

(Editing by Peter Cooney)

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Student charged with trying to kill baby with rat poison

MODESTO, Calif. â€" Â A California high school student has been charged with attempted murder after admitting to trying to feed rat poison to her two-week-old baby, police said.

Cashel Phin, 18, was questioned by police after they were tipped off by one of her friends who allegedly heard her talking about dumping her baby in the trash, KTLA-TV reported.

"The suspect admitted to trying to give the baby rat poison, also hitting it with a purse," Modesto Police Department Lt. Jeremy Young said.

Phin's baby, Anna, was just two weeks old at the time of the alleged poisoning attempt.

California Protective Services took custody of Anna on Tuesday. She was given a medical check and then put in the custody of Phin's sister, Jen Chung.

Chung said Phin seemed troubled since giving birth to Anna on April 13 but never believed she would harm her baby.

Phin, a student at Modesto High School, is scheduled to be formally charged Friday with attempted murder, poisoning and two counts of soliciting murder. She is currently in jail with bail set at $1.6 million.

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Fugitive Dead — Girls Found Safe

FILE: This photo shows Adam Mayes.AP

The fugitive suspected of killing a Tennessee mother and daughter and kidnapping two younger daughters died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, authorities say, after police traced him to a town in Mississippi and found the two girls alive and safe.

Adam Mayes, 35, who just Wednesday had been added to the FBI's Most Wanted Fugitive List, was found based on a tip received after a large reward was offered.

Guntown Police Chief Michael Hall says a SWAT team located Mayes in New Albany, Miss., and when they moved in to apprehend him, he shot himself.

Sheriff Jimmy Edwards said Mayes was still alive -- in critical condition -- when police took him into custody. He later died from his injury, the FBI confirmed.

Police said the two girls, Alexandria Bain, 12, and Kyliyah Bain, 8, were taken to a hospital for observation. It was not immediately clear if they were with Mayes when he was found.

Mayes had been charged with first-degree murder, along his wife, Teresa Mayes, in the April 27 deaths of Jo Ann Bain, 31, and her daughter, Adrienne, 14. Their bodies were found buried outside the Mayes' home a week after they were reported missing by Jo Ann Bain's husband, Gary Bain.

Teresa Mayes told investigators that after she saw her husband kill the two in the garage at the Bain home, she drove him, the younger girls and the bodies to Mississippi, according to affidavits filed in court. She faces six felony counts in the case: two first-degree murder charges and four especially aggravated kidnapping charges.

Mayes' mother-in-law Josie Tate told The Associated Press that Mayes thought the once-missing sisters might actually be his daughters and it caused problems in his marriage to her daughter, Teresa, who is jailed in the case.

In an earlier interview, Tate's daughter, Bobbi Booth, said Teresa Mayes suspected her husband was having an affair with Jo Ann Bain.

Mayes was often at the Bain home. Authorities said he was spending the night there before the mother and daughters were reported missing so he could help the family to pack for a planned move to Tucson, Ariz., and then drive their belongings west.

State and local law enforcement agents searched for Mayes on Thursday in a densely wooded area about 10 miles from Mayes' home near Guntown, Miss. State troopers blocked a road, stopped vehicles and searched their trunks.

Authorities said Mayes had changed his appearance since the mother and children were reported missing. They released surveillance video of him with short hair at a market near Guntown.

Fox News' Garrett Tenney and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Toddler yanked from flight in no-fly list mix-up

Â Â FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. â€" Â Officials say an 18-month-old girl was mistakenly pulled off a JetBlue flight before it left Fort Lauderdale because airline employees thought her name was on the U.S. no-fly list.

Â Â An airline employee boarded the Newark, N.J.-bound flight before it departed Tuesday evening, telling the family their toddler was on the federal list that includes thousands of known or suspected terrorists.

Â Â JetBlue on Thursday blamed the problem on a computer glitch, saying employees were following proper protocol. The U.S. Transportation Security Administration says the girl never was flagged by the agency.

Â Â The child's parents told ABC affiliate WPBF they believe they were targeted because they are of Middle Eastern descent and the mother wears a hijab.

Â Â The family was cleared to re-board. But they declined, saying they were too embarrassed.

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Latest EPA Rule Could Threaten Coal Town Jobs

In obscure, blue-collar towns across Appalachia -- places that most Americans have never seen -- generations of coal miners have toiled away at back-breaking labor to power American homes and industry. Now, as many as 200,000 of them who dig, process, transport and burn America's most abundant fuel are threatened by EPA's latest coal rule.

It imposes a standard for emissions that is all but impossible for many plants to meet. It requires coal-fired plants to release no more than 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt hour.

The only means for many older plants to attain that standard is to install what is known as carbon capture and storage technology. But that's expensive and not commercially available.

"At the end of the day, we just couldn't justify it based upon what that cost would be," says Mark Durbin of First Energy, which owns the Willow Island Power Station in Albright, W.Va., "It would be astronomical to try and retrofit some of older units that really are not as efficient as they should be."

Environmentalists are praising the new rule as a vital defense against climate change.

"We know what fossil fuel damages do to our public health, the health of our kids, our families," Â said Brent Blackwelder at a recent gathering of Friends of the Earth. "We know the damage it does to crops and to buildings. And now the big damage all around the world is climate disruption."

But coal industry representatives believe they've made great strides in reducing emissions through the years -- now capturing Â over 99 percent of particulate emissions released during the combustion process. The EPA's proposed rule, they say, sets the bar too high and may force the closure of 20 to 25 percent of coal-fired plants across the United States.

In a state known for its bare-knuckles politics, both men vying for the governor's office have joined forces in fighting this and other EPA regulations that target the coal industry. Incumbent Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin plans to sue the EPA over the rule - a move that his Republican opponent Bill Maloney welcomes.

"Last year at this time, we were looking for 2,000 coal miners to go to work. Now there's 2,000 laid off," Maloney said. "We've got six coal-fired power plants that are being shut. We're losing our competitive edge, and it's wrong."

As one measure of the disdain in West Virginia for the Obama administration's crackdown on coal, a federal prisoner doing 17 years for extortion got 41 percent of the vote in Tuesday's Democratic primary to President Obama's 59 percent.

Administration supporters are banking on cheap, clean and abundant natural gas as a substitute for coal-fired power, but critics say there are problems with its transportation and storage -- problems which have lead to price hikes in the past.

Craig Jennings, president of the Preston County, W.Va., Commission,Â says his constituents are bracing for big spikes in their electricity bills.

"They're telling us that you're going to see at least a 30 percent increase in your electric bill now," he said. "For an older person on a fixed income in an older home who's used to paying $300 a month for an electric bill they're going to be pushing $400 a month now on that same electric bill."

West Virginians can take comfort in one small legal victory, one they hope to see repeated in other pending lawsuits. In March, a federal judge reversed a controversial EPA rule that Â forced Mingo Logan Coal Company to stop work at its Spruce Number One Mine, a property in which it had already invested millions of dollars.

The judge concluded that the EPA exceeded its authority under the Clean Water Act Â by revoking a permit that had already been granted.

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Biden Apologizes to Obama For Gaffe, Official Reports

Shortly before President Obama officially reversed his position on same sex marriage, Vice President Biden apologized in the Oval Office for getting ahead of him on the fiery issue, according to senior administration officials.

The apology, which officials say was generated by the Vice President himself and not forced upon him, came Wednesday shortly before the President did an interview with ABC's Robin Roberts revealing that he had competed his "evolution" and now supports same-sex marriage.

"The President has been the leader on this issue from day one," said Kendra Barkoff, spokeswoman for Biden. "And the Vice President never intended to distract from that."

Officials say the President indicated he understood the Vice President had been speaking from the heart Sunday when he all but endorsed same sex marriage on NBC's "Meet the Press," which caught other administration officials off-guard and sent the White House into damage control mode.

Senior officials have maintained the President was not angry at his number two, in part because they claim that Obama was already planning to announce his decision before the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte.

Nevertheless, Biden's comments appeared to box the President in, forcing him to speed up the timetable of his own announcement.

Dr. Joel Hunter, a spiritual adviser to the President, said he received a phone call from the commander in chief informing him of the change of heart on Wednesday. Hunter says he expressed disappointment and warned the President there could be political backlash in November, especially because of how it dribbled out.

"First of all it looked from the timing after the Biden announcement that he was being pushed into a decision that was political rather than simply value based," said Hunter.

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Florida A&M marching band director to retire amid hazing scandal

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. â€" Â The embattled head of Florida A&M University's marching band is retiring.

Â Â FAMU officials tried to fire Julian White, the director of the Marching 100, following the death of drum major Robert Champion in November.

Â Â White initially fought the dismissal and was placed on administrative leave at the urging of criminal authorities investigating Champion's death.

Â Â On Thursday attorneys announced the 71-year-old White would retire instead of trying to fight to keep his job.

Â Â Last week, 11 FAMU band members were charged with felony hazing. Two others face misdemeanor counts.

Â Â The band has been suspended since November. FAMU President James Ammons is expected to discuss the band at a special meeting of the university board of trustees either Friday or Monday.

Article from FOXNEWS

Questions linger after gay marriage frenzy

By George Stephanopoulos | Power PlayersÂ â€"Â

Article from YAHOO NEWS

Alabama town vows to defy anti-religion group

By Todd Starnes

It's the story of David versus Goliath.

â€œDavidâ€ is the small Alabama town of Sylvania, population 1,800. â€œGoliathâ€ is the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation.

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The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the town demanding that they remove Bible verses that were posted on four welcome signs. They said the signs were unconstitutional.

â€œSylvania Welcomes You,â€ the signs read. â€œEphesians 4:5 â€" One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism.â€

â€œThe Sylvania â€˜welcome' signs are not welcoming,â€ wrote FFRF attorney Patrick Elliott. â€œThey affiliate the government with one religion, Christianity, and exclude others.â€

â€œNo court would uphold this blatant violation of the Constitution,â€ read his letter to television station WAAY. â€œLocal governments have no place in making position statements on such matters.â€

Mayor Mitchell Dendy originally had the signs removed two weeks ago. However, he resigned due to an unrelated matter. The acting mayor and city council decided the signs needed to be reposted.

â€œWe're putting the signs back up and we'll see what happens,â€ acting mayor Max Turner told Fox News.â€If we don't stand up for something, it won't be long before we'll have to go to the woods to have church.â€

Turner said it's time to draw a line in the sand and fight back against the FFRF.

â€œI had itchy feet to start with,â€ he said. â€œBut we're ready to have it. I'm not afraid to take a stand. We as Christians have got to stand up regardless of what the world might say about us.â€

The 80-year-old acting mayor said to the best of his knowledge there are no atheists living in Sylvania and he said dozens of citizens are supporting their decision.

â€œWe as Christians should stand up for what we believe in as much as them people stand up for what they believe in,â€ he said, noting that he was prepared to â€œgo down trying to defeat the Devil.â€

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State agency removes stuffed wolverine, red-tailed hawk from California bar

A stuffed wolverine and red-tailed hawk have been removed from a bar in California's El Dorado County, some 50 years after the animals were first put on display, an employee told FoxNews.com.

An official from the California Department of Fish and Game, after receiving a tip, removed the animals on Tuesday from the Georgetown Hotel and Saloon in Georgetown, bartender Anthony Fox said.

â€œThey had been in a week before on a report that the two roosters on the wall were turkey vultures or California condors,â€ Fox said. â€œThen he noticed the wolverine.â€

The establishment, which opened in 1896, had both animals on display for several decades, Fox said, adding that the stuffed wolverine has adorned the bar's wall for half a century.

The bar is â€œthe centerpiece of Georgetown,â€ Fox said. â€œWe have stuff on the wall that dates back to the '40s and '50s. It's part of the town, it's part of the culture. And by them taking that, they really did take part of history, part of our town.â€

Game Warden Patrick Foy confirmed to FoxNews.com that both animals were on a list of rare, protected species that are illegal for individuals to possess - living or dead - in California.

â€œThat's obviously something we're going to respond to,â€ Foy said. â€œThe wolverine is the single-most endangered species in the state of California.â€

No citation was issued, Foy said. The matter will be referred to the El Dorado District Attorney's Office for further investigation.

Fox, meanwhile, said the bar won't be the same without the animals.

â€œWe're going to leave the space that was there vacant, and we're going to put up a plaque,â€ he said. â€œWe're not really happy about it, it's kind of 'big brother' flexing their arm.â€

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JP Morgan reveals significant trading loss

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) revealed late Thursday that one of its units took a significant trading loss as a result of soured bets, sending shares plummeting in post-market trading.

Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said in a hastily scheduled conference call after the close of trading that the company had sustained some $2 billion in trading losses in its synthetic credit portfolioÂ in the past six weeks. The portfolio proved to be "riskier, more volatile and less effective as an economic hedge" than the bank initially believed, according to a regulatory filing.

Dimon said the trade, which came from its Chief Investment Office, was â€œflawed, complex, and poorly reviewed,â€ according to Dow Jones Newswires. He went on to say that the mistake was â€œegregious.â€Â

The Corporate/Private Equity group that the CIO office resides in is now expected to lose the biggest U.S. bank by assets $800 million in the second quarter, up from a previous estimate of $200 million. Dimon warned that the situation can get worse as a result of market volatility.Â

Generally, that office helps to hedge risks and help to manage the bank's enormous balance sheet. Dimon said the trades did not violate the Volcker rule that regulates proprietary trading at banks. The Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission both declined to comment on the matter.Â

JPMorgan's stock fell 5.5% in after-hours trading on the news. Other big banks, including Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C) and Wells Fargo (WFC) saw their shares drop 2%. Dow futures were signaling a loss of 85 points for the blue-chip average.Â

Peter Barnes contributed reporting from Washington, D.C.Â

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Panetta warns against \'pet projects\' in defense budget- Lawmakers question lack of watchdogs at federal agencies

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned legislators Thursday against adding unnecessary â€œpet projectsâ€ to the defense budget. The warning came one day after the House Arms Services Committee passed an amendment authorizing $100 million to conduct an environmental survey for missile defense shield silos that the Pentagon did not request.

Republicans in Congress managed to obtain bipartisan support for the measure to find potential sites for 20 land-based interceptor missiles to protect the East coast of the United States.

They say they are worried that the President is not serious about missile defense, especially in light of his â€œhot micâ€ moment with then Russian President Dmitri Medvedev in which Â Obama said he would have more flexibility on missile defense after the US presidential election in November.

â€œHe has some secret deal or plan,â€ said Congressman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee. â€œWe want to make certain that we're making the missile defense system robust, while he is at the same time announcing internationally that he wants to weaken it.â€

Republicans argue that the East coast of the United States needs to be protected the way the West coast is from potential North Korean and Iranian missiles. California and Alaska have interceptor sites at the Vandenberg and Ft. Greeley military bases.

Democrats think the Republicans are simply trying to force Obama into vetoing the measure so that he looks weak on national security defense.

North Korea and Iran don't have any intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the East Coast. Iran's longest range missile, the Shahab 3, can travel about 1000 miles, but the distance from Tehran to Washington, DC is 6,352 miles. North Korea's longest range missile, the Taepodong, has a range of 1864 miles, according to GlobalSecurity.org, which also falls 5000 miles short of the East Coast of the United States.

"Of course this is election year politics, of course it is,â€ Congressman John Garamendi, D-Calif., told Fox News. â€œBeating the national security drum is something the Republicans do often, usually 6 months before a national and a regional election."

The 100 million dollar request passed the House Armed Services Committee in a late night bill mark-up by 56 to 5.

The Pentagon says it never requested the money for an East Coast missile defense shield, nor does it think it is necessary. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey said as much from the Pentagon during a briefing today:

â€œOn the ballistic missile defense issue as you know Â we went through a strategic review back in the fall and we mapped our budget to it,â€ said Dempsey in response to a question from Fox News. â€œIn my military judgment the program of record for ballistic missile defense for the homeland as we have submitted it is adequate and sufficient to the task. Â And that's a suite of ground and sea based interceptors so I don't see need beyond what we have submitted in the last budget.â€

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FBI Fugitive \'Obsessed\' With Missing Sisters

FILE: This photo shows Adam Mayes.AP

Adam Mayes is a skilled mechanic who needed a heart transplant and was obsessed with the two girls authorities suspect him of kidnapping after allegedly killing their mom and sister, a Mississippi man who was Mayes' landlord and close friend told FoxNews.com.

Danny Johnson said Mayes, the FBI's newest most-wanted fugitive, was â€œlike a brotherâ€ to him for the last two years. Johnson told FoxNews.com that Mayes often spoke of Alexandria Bain, 12, and her sister, Kyliyah, 8, as his children and said he wanted to get custody of them from parents Gary and JoAnn Bain.

Mayes and his wife, Teresa Mayes, were charged Wednesday with first-degree murder in the deaths of Jo Ann Bain, 31, and her daughter, Adrienne, 14. Their bodies were found buried outside the Mayes' home near Guntown, Miss., a week after they were reported missing by Gary Bain. Teresa Mayes in in jail, while the FBI has offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to Adam Mayes' arrest.

Johnson thinks Mayes could be hiding in the woods with the girls.

"I'm not worried about him physically harming them, but I don't know what elements he has them in, and I'm not sure he could protect them from the elements," Johnson said. "I can't [see him] physically harming either one of those girls, but desperate people, you can't predict what they'll do.

"It's a desperate situation, but for me to say that they're in grave danger, I don't think so, but of course that'd just my opinion."

Johnson is still in shock at the knowledge that a man he knew so well is a murder suspect and the subject of an intense manhunt. He said he spoke personally to Mayes on the Monday after the girls disappeared, and the day before Mayes himself vanished.

â€œHe told me about the mom and the girls being missing," Johnson said. "And I said, you don't have any idea where they went to, or what could've happened to them? And he told me no, that he didn't know. ... And he was very calm and collected about it.â€

Mayes had suffered a heart attack, wore a heart monitor and said he would need a transplant â€œwithin a year,â€ Johnson said. Unlike many in the northeastern part of Mississippi, Mayes wasn't big on hunting or fishing but is an expert mechanic, said Johnson, who employed Mayes part time at a garage he owns one block from Mayes' home.

Last Friday, Teresa Mayes paid rent to Johnson's wife for June, acting like nothing was wrong. It was later that night that the two bodies were found.

Teresa Mayes told investigators her husband killed the pair at their Whiteville, Tenn., home on April 27 so he could abduct the two young sisters, according to court documents filed Wednesday. She said that after she saw her husband kill the two in the garage of the Bain home, she drove him, the younger girls and the bodies to Mississippi, according to affidavits filed in court.

For Johnson, the realization his friend may have done something evil has set in.

"It has been hard, extremely hard on me," Johnson said. "Because, I mean, it wouldn't have hurt me any more if it had been one of my brothers who had done this. We were that close. And I defended him up until the point where I had enough proof to realize that it's possible that he did this."

Garrett Tenney is part of the Junior Reporter program at Fox News. Get more information on the Junior Reporters Program here.

Article from FOXNEWS

Rare twin waterspouts caught on camera

In this video, a seemingly ever-growing line of bear cubs line up to groom each other. The video features some accompanying music that lets the imaginative viewer pretend the cubs are forming the world's greatest ever conga line. Even if the bears are just keeping each other clean, it's certainly a positive shift from the [...]

Article from YAHOO NEWS

Obama vowed to break from Bush\'s national security policies. How\'s he doing?

Law enforcement agents are digging in the yard of an alleged mobster today who authorities believe may have information regarding an unsolved $500 million art heist that reads like a movie plot.

Among the masterpieces stolen more than 20 years ago were works by Degas and Rembrandt.

Authorities conducted a search today on the property of Robert Gentile, 75, who was arrested earlier this year on federal drug charges. The warrant allowed ground penetrating radar to be used so agents could search for weapons, said A. Ryan McGuigan, Gentile's attorney.

"Realistically are they looking for guns? No, they're looking for the art [in his yard]," McGuigan said, pointing out that any sort of metal would suffer from corrosion underground.

In March, a federal prosecutor said Gentile may have some connection to the art heist at Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990, the Associated Press reported.

The U.S. Attorney's office declined to comment today on the search or what connection Gentile could have to the heist.

During the early hours of March 18, 1990, two men disguised as police officers were let inside the museum through a security door. The museum's guard was told the officers were responding to a call.

Once inside, the thieves asked the guard to step away from the security desk, saying there was a warrant for his arrest. The move kept the guard more than a safe distance from the museum's emergency alert button.

The other guard was called to the security desk, where the thieves handcuffed the workers and marched them into the basement. The men were secured to pipes and their hands, feet and heads were duct-taped.

When the guards' morning replacement arrived, he discovered 13 pieces of art were missing, including work by Degas, Rembrandt, Manet and Vermeer. The stunning art heist has produced few leads--even with seasoned investigators on the case-- until now.

Gentile was arrested on federal drug charges after he allegedly sold prescription drugs to an undercover agent. McGuigan said he believes it was a ruse to allow authorities to search Gentile's home, since the statute of limitations on the art heist had expired.

"It is our contention he was set up by the FBI to sell drugs to an undercover agent so they could execute a search warrant on his home," McGuigan said.

The first search yielded firearms, ammunition and homemade silencers, adding more federal charges to Gentile's rap sheet.

The second search warrant, being executed today, includes the excavation of Gentile's yard, McGuigan said.

The stunning heist has remained at the top of the list of the FBI's Art Recovery Squad. The works are worth an estimated half a billion dollars, making it the largest art theft in history, according to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Twenty-two years later, empty frames continue to hang in the museum as placeholders for the works the museum hopes will one day be returned.

Gentile pleaded not guilty to federal weapon and gun charges last month and is being held without bond.

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