Holder averts furloughs of prison staffers

FILE ? In this March 6, 2013, file photo U.S.Attorney General Eric Holder testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. Congress passed a spending bill to keep the government open through the end of September 2013, which Holder says provides no relief from the $1.6 billion in budget reductions that became effective March 1. In a memo to Justice Department employees he says he dealt with the problem by transferring $150 million in existing Justice Department funds to the Bureau of Prisons account, thus averting daily furloughs of 3,570 federal prison staffers around the country, and staving off what would have been a serious threat to the lives and safety of staff, inmates and the public. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

FILE ? In this March 6, 2013, file photo U.S.Attorney General Eric Holder testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. Congress passed a spending bill to keep the government open through the end of September 2013, which Holder says provides no relief from the $1.6 billion in budget reductions that became effective March 1. In a memo to Justice Department employees he says he dealt with the problem by transferring $150 million in existing Justice Department funds to the Bureau of Prisons account, thus averting daily furloughs of 3,570 federal prison staffers around the country, and staving off what would have been a serious threat to the lives and safety of staff, inmates and the public. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Attorney General Eric Holder says he has averted daily furloughs of 3,570 federal prison staffers around the country, moving $150 million from other Justice Department accounts to stave off a serious threat to the lives and safety of correctional staff, inmates and the public.

Some 38,000 employees at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons supervise 176,000 inmates at 119 institutions, ensuring security and providing prisoners with needed programs.

In a memo Friday to all Justice Department employees, Holder said that congressional passage of a spending bill keeping the government open through the end of September provides no relief from $1.6 billion in Justice Department budget reductions that already took effect.

Holder's memo did not say which department agencies were tapped for the $150 million and spokeswoman Nanda Chitre declined to comment on that question Saturday.

Holder said the cuts still raise serious issues.

"I am deeply troubled by the impact the sequester will have on the department's capacity to prevent terrorism, combat violent crime, partner with states and local law enforcement agencies and protect the judiciary and our most vulnerable citizens," Holder wrote.

"I am still evaluating whether we have the ability to avoid other furloughs in the department this year," he added, addressing concerns of department employees. "I will do all that I can to minimize the impact of these events on your lives."

The attorney general said moving the $150 million can protect prison facilities through the end of the fiscal year in September, but does not resolve "serious life and safety issues" the Bureau of Prisons faces next year.

Holder said his department has already required extensive cuts to travel, training, contracts and other accounts.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-03-23-Holder-Prison%20Furloughs/id-f8b6f534837f4a83aaff2a7ddcda0ef2

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How your brain finds your car keys

Wei Deng / Salk Institute for Biological Studies

Different neurons in the dentate gyrus fire when mice encounter new places (green neurons) versus familiar spaces (red neurons).

By Tia Ghose
LiveScience

The saying that it's impossible to step into the same river twice may be true, at least as far as the brain is concerned.

Different neurons in a brain region called the dentate gyrus fire when encountering a place for the first or second time. Different brain cells also fire to distinguish subtle changes in familiar terrain, new research in mice suggests.

The findings, which were published March 20 in the journal eLife, may help unravel how the brain tracks minute changes in our everyday environments, a process known as pattern separation. The phenomenon is how we find our car keys or wallet, for instance.

"Everyday, we have to remember subtle differences between how things are today versus how they were yesterday, from where we parked our car to where we left our cellphone," said study co-author Fred H. Gage, a neuroscientist at the Salk Institute, in a statement. "We found how the brain makes these distinctions, by storing separate 'recordings' of each environment in the dentate gyrus." [10 Odd Facts About the Brain]

Small differences
Several studies suggested that a brain region called the hippocampus helps people navigate and orient themselves in space, in part by retrieving memories from different environments. For instance, London?cabbies have more hippocampal gray matter?after training in navigation. ?

But exactly how the hippocampus sifted memories of new and familiar places wasn't fully understood.

Previous studies found that a sub-region of the hippocampus, called the dentate gyrus, helped the brain pick out important patterns from detail-rich memories of the environment ? such as where someone placed their keys from one day to the next. The same region may play a role in the eerie feeling of d?j? vu.

Different brain cells
To find out, Gage and his colleagues measured firing from neurons, or brain cells, in mice as they navigated a new chamber.

They then recorded their brain activity while the same mice explored either the exact same chamber or a very similar one.

The team found that neurons in a sub-region of the hippocampus called CA-1 fired when mice were in both new and familiar environments. But in the dentate gyrus, different groups of neurons fired in undiscovered territory versus familiar spaces. Different collections of cells also fired in the dentate gyrus in the two similar chambers.

The findings suggest the neurons that encode our memories of a new place are different from those that fire when we revisit it and notice its subtle transformations.?

Follow Tia Ghose on Twitter @tiaghose.?Follow?LiveScience @livescience, Facebook?and Google+. Original article on?LiveScience.com.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Samsung exec says former Android chief Andy Rubin was stubborn

LONDON (Reuters) - British online dating firm Cupid Plc said on Friday it had launched an investigation into a recent report about methods it allegedly used to get free customers to buy subscriptions. At 1647 GMT(1147 EST), shares in Cupid, which began falling in the morning before the company announced its investigation, were down 57 percent at 52 pence, valuing the company at 94.6 million pounds ($144 million). Ukraine newspaper Kyiv Post published an article on March 15 which said that Cupid had hired "motivation managers" to encourage men to buy full subscriptions. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/samsung-exec-says-former-android-chief-andy-rubin-211115526.html

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'Ann' On Broadway: What A Night, What A Life

SPECIAL FROM Next Avenue

By Leah Rozen

Holland Taylor's one-woman Broadway show about the feisty Texas Gov. Ann Richards reminds us that life is a solo performance

Living well is the best revenge. But having that life portrayed on stage for all to see and reflect upon is almost as good.

Holland Taylor, probably best known to most of America for playing the wise-cracking mother of Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer on the CBS sitcom "Two and a Half Men" is reliving the exceedingly colorful and eventful life of former Gov. Ann Richards of Texas nightly on stage in New York City.

She?s the star and author of "Ann," a one-woman show that opened on Broadway this month to rave notices for Taylor. I caught up with the play earlier this week, a performance that also happened to be attended by former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, the former secretary of state.

(But wait, there?s more: Seated next to the Clintons were the actress Meryl Streep and her husband, the sculptor Don Gummer. Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona and her husband, the former astronaut Mark Kelly, also caught the same performance.)

That Ms. Taylor managed to keep the audience?s attention on herself throughout the performance was both a testament to her skill and to the potent power of Richards? life and legacy. It didn?t hurt that three times during the show, Richards gets on the phone to chat with Bill Clinton, including once to chide him for sending her a crossword puzzle he had done in ink. The audience roared knowingly every time.

(MORE: Saying Goodbye to Valerie Harper)

Ann Richards came to the attention of most of us in 1988, when as the white-haired, 54-year-old state treasurer of Texas she delivered the keynote address at the Democratic national convention. Her wit and no-nonsense style were instantly apparent, as evidenced by one of her most memorable lines, which resonated with women everywhere: "Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did -- she just did it backwards and in high heels."

Richards had sass and brass. A divorced mother of four, recovering alcoholic and former junior high school teacher, she was a plain-talking, charismatic liberal who believed in racial equality, feminism, abortion rights, prison reform, gun control and plenty more that one doesn?t always associate with Lone Star state politics. She was elected governor in 1990 and served one term before losing her bid for re-election in 1994 to a rising politician and fellow recovering alcoholic named George W. Bush. She spent her remaining years serving on boards, writing books, lecturing and working as a public relations strategist before dying of esophageal cancer in 2006 at age 73.

Richards believed strongly that we, the people, should have a say in how our country is run -- and the best way to do that, she said, was to get involved. She wanted people of all colors and backgrounds to vote, sign petitions, lobby for bills, contend for office and otherwise be part of our democratic process.

It?s stirring stuff. Watching as Taylor delivers Richards?s best lines and depicts her fighting the good fight, a 50-plus theater-goer can?t help but be inspired. It'll no doubt make you reflect upon you own life and question what you?ve achieved, whether you?ve done enough and think about how you could do more.

This is always the case with one-person shows that depict a well-known life. In the past several years on Broadway (and on tour elsewhere in the country), both Vanessa Redgrave and Carrie Fisher have appeared in one-woman shows. The Oscar-winning English actress portrayed author Joan Didion in a stage adaptation of the writer?s 2005 memoir, "The Year of Magical Thinking," which was about the double whammy of the death of Didion?s husband and daughter within a year of each other. "Star Wars?" Fisher turned into comic gold the heartbreak of her Hollywood childhood -- the 1959 divorce of her parents, movie star Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, who ditched Reynolds for Elizabeth Taylor -- and subsequent, ongoing battles with addiction and mental illness.

Even "Star Trek?"s William Shatner brought his life story to Broadway. He starred last year in "Shatner?s World: We Just Live in It ? ," a limited-run production that won praise from a New York Times theater critic, who called the show a ?chatty, digressive and often amusing tour of his unusual acting career.? Who knew that the Priceline spokesman was Canadian and started his career as an understudy to Christopher Plummer in "Henry V" at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival?

All of these celebrated one-person shows, and now "Ann" too, serve a dual purpose. They let us glimpse celebrated lives from the inside even as they provide us with a measuring stick against which to evaluate our own lives and take inspiration.

From now on, before making any major decision, consider asking yourself, ?Would I want Broadway audiences to see me doing this in my one-person show??

Should you be inspired to catch Taylor in "Ann," the show runs through June 9. Tickets are available by clicking here.

Read more on Next Avenue
At This Stage: What We're Passionate About Now
No Stopping Florence Henderson
Fantasy Camps for the Young at Heart

Earlier on Huff/Post50:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/23/holland-taylor-broadway_n_2933022.html

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No Powerball winner? Officials watch $320M jackpot

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) ? Viola Mourton buys a Powerball ticket every day. But with a $320 million jackpot that could grow in the next few days, she's upping her chances Thursday and buying several at her local convenience store.

"It's just a chance to win big money," said the 51-year-old secretary from Ottumwa, Iowa. "I'll probably buy a couple today because it's so high. But it only takes one to win."

That could be the game plan for others around the country. No Powerball winner yet? No problem. That just means a bigger jackpot for the rest of us.

Lottery officials said no ticket matched all the numbers in Wednesday night's Powerball drawing. Three tickets won the $1 Million Match 5 prize. But it means the current $320 million jackpot could swell before the next drawing on Saturday.

The jackpot is the sixth highest in history, but it could grow depending on sales at the end of each day, said Mary Neubauer, spokeswoman for the Iowa Lottery, one of the founding Powerball states.

"I think it has reached the water cooler level," she said. "It just starts to buzz."

No one has won the Powerball jackpot since early February, when Dave Honeywell in Virginia bought the winning ticket for the $217 million jackpot.

The largest Powerball jackpot came in at $587.5 million in November. The winning numbers were picked on two different tickets ? one by a couple in Missouri and the other by an Arizona man ? and the jackpot was split.

Nebraska still holds the record for the largest Powerball jackpot won on a single ticket ? $365 million. That jackpot was won by eight workers at a Lincoln, Neb., meatpacking plant in February 2006.

"We've seen a little more traffic than we usually do. Saturday will be the busy day," said Abbey Locatis, a customer service clerk at a central Omaha grocery store that sells more Powerball tickets than any other retailer in the state.

Saturdays and Wednesdays get a bit harried when the jackpot exceeds $300 million, she said.

How does the store handle the crush of ticket buyers?

"We just keep printing them," Locatis said. "We usually have three people behind the counter, so we're able to keep up."

The search is on for the next lucky winner or winners. Neubauer said there's universal appeal to the possibility of winning the top prize.

"Everybody starts to tune in when the lottery gets to this level," she said. "It gives you a mental break from the day ? something else to think about than day-to-day life activities."

___

Associated Press Writer Margery Beck in Omaha, Neb., contributed to this report.

___

Follow Barbara Rodriguez at http://twitter.com/bcrodriguez

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-21-Powerball%20Jackpot/id-bfdbccf0c2ea459d978a37bfbd01f08b

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Sleep consolidates memories for competing tasks

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Sleep plays an important role in the brain's ability to consolidate learning when two new potentially competing tasks are learned in the same day, research at the University of Chicago demonstrates.

Other studies have shown that sleep consolidates learning for a new task. The new study, which measured starlings' ability to recognize new songs, shows that learning a second task can undermine the performance of a previously learned task. But this study is the first to show that a good night's sleep helps the brain retain both new memories.

Starlings provide an excellent model for studying memory because of fundamental biological similarities between avian and mammalian brains, scholars wrote in the paper, "Sleep Consolidation of Interfering Auditory Memories in Starlings," published in the current online edition of Psychological Science.

"These observations demonstrate that sleep consolidation enhances retention of interfering experiences, facilitating daytime learning and the subsequent formation of stable memories," the authors wrote.

The paper was written by Timothy Brawn, a graduate researcher in psychology at UChicago; Howard Nusbaum, professor of psychology; and Daniel Margoliash, professor of psychology, organismal biology and anatomy. Nusbaum is a leading expert on learning, and Margoliash is a pioneer in the research of brain function and its development in birds.

For the study, the researchers conducted two experiments using 24 starlings each. They played two recorded songs from other starlings and tested the birds' ability to recognize and repeat the two songs. After learning to recognize the two songs, the birds were later trained to recognize and perform a different pair of songs.

In their experiments, the authors examined the effect of sleep on the consolidation of starlings' memories. After learning the second pair of songs, they were tested on the first before they went to sleep. They varied the time between testing.

Researchers found that learning the second pair of songs interfered with the birds' ability to remember the first pair, regardless of the time between the daytime testing periods. Learning the first pair of songs also interfered with the birds' ability to remember the second pair when they were tested on the second pair before they went to sleep.

When the starlings were allowed to sleep, however, they showed increases in performance on both the first and second pair of songs, suggesting that sleep consolidation enhances their memory, overcoming the effects of interference. When taught a new song pair after awaking, the birds were still able to remember what they had learned on the previous day, despite the new interference.

"The study demonstrates that sleep restores performance and makes learning robust against interference encountered after sleep. This process is critical to the formation and stability of long-term memories," Nusbaum said.

###

University of Chicago: http://www-news.uchicago.edu

Thanks to University of Chicago for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Obama urges Israelis to compromise for peace

JERUSALEM (AP) ? President Barack Obama delivered an impassioned appeal Thursday for Israel to recognize that compromise will be necessary to achieve lasting security and to take steps to reverse an "undertow" of international isolation that is worsened by its failure to make peace with the Palestinians. Militants again underscored Israel's vulnerability by firing rockets into a southern border town.

Obama declared anew that Israeli expansion of housing settlements in disputed territory only hinders chances for fruitful negotiations with the Palestinians, but he did not say as he has in the past that they must be halted.

Reminding an audience of Israeli university students that the United States is their country's best friend and most important ally, Obama said the U.S. will never back down on its commitment to Israel's defense, particularly against threats such as the one posed by Iran and its nuclear program.

"As long as there is a United States of America, you are not alone," he told a packed audience of university students who erupted frequently with applause and standing ovations at Jerusalem's convention center

The applause continued even as Obama stressed that Israel must make peace with the Palestinians if it is to ensure its survival and long-term viability as a homeland for the Jewish people. Israeli occupation of areas that the Palestinians claim for their own state must end, and progress toward creating that Palestinian state will help Israel's relations with the rest of the world, notably in its Arab-dominated neighborhood, he said.

"Given the frustration in the international community, Israel must reverse an undertow of isolation," he said. Whereas once Israel could feel at ease by keeping good relations with Arab autocrats, the revolutions sweeping the Middle East and North Africa have made broader outreach, especially on the Palestinian issue, an imperative, he added.

"Just as Israelis built a state in their homeland, Palestinians have a right to be a free people in their own land," Obama said. "The Palestinian people's right to self-determination and their justice must also be recognized. Put yourself in their shoes, look at the world through their eyes. It is not fair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of her own, living their entire lives with the presence of a foreign army that controls the movements ... every single day."

Unlike in the past when Obama and his top aides have demanded that Israel halt the expansion of settlements in disputed territory, he took a softer approach.

Still, on his first trip to Israel as president, he said its people should understand that specific actions, notably ongoing construction of Jewish housing on disputed territory, hurt the chances for restarting stalled peace talks with the Palestinians, who have made a halt to such building a demand for returning to negotiations.

"Israelis must recognize that continued settlement activity is counterproductive to the cause of peace, and that an independent Palestine must be viable with real borders that have to be drawn," he said. "No single step is going to erase years of history and propaganda, but progress with the Palestinians is a powerful way to begin, while sidelining extremists who thrive on conflict and thrive on division. It would make a difference."

Earlier Thursday in the West Bank, standing alongside Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Obama made similar comments and condemned the firing of two rockets on the southern Israeli town of Sderot by militants in Gaza. But, he essentially abandoned previous support for the Palestinian demand that settlement activity end before talks resume.

Obama said the United States continues to oppose settlement construction but said issues of disagreement between the two sides should not be used as an "excuse" to do nothing.

"If the expectation is that we can only have direct negotiations when everything is settled ahead of time, then there is no point for negotiations, so I think it is important to work through this process even if there are irritants on both sides," Obama said at a joint news conference with Abbas in Ramallah.

Abbas and other Palestinian officials said they would not drop the demand, noting that much of the world considers the settlements to be illegal and not merely an impediment to peace talks.

"We require the Israeli government to stop settlements in order to discuss all our issues and their concerns," Abbas told the news conference, a marquee event during Obama's brief visit to the West Bank on the second day of his Mideast visit. "It's the duty of the Israeli government to stop the settlement activities to enable us to talk about the issues in the negotiations."

During his first four years in office, Obama had sided with the Palestinians on the issue. He and his surrogates repeatedly have demanded that all settlement activity cease. However, when Israel reluctantly declared a 10-month moratorium on construction, the Palestinians balked at returning to negotiations until shortly before it expired and talks foundered shortly thereafter.

The Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem ? territories Israel captured in the 1967 war ? but are ready for minor adjustments to accommodate some settlements closest to Israel. Since 1967, Israel has built dozens of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem that are now home to 560,000 Israelis ? an increase of 60,000 since Obama became president four years ago.

Obama's comments in Ramallah echoed those of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has repeatedly called for the Palestinians to drop preconditions for re-launching the stalled peace talks. Obama's remarks were sure to reinforce deep skepticism among Palestinians about whether he is willing or able to use U.S. influence to push Israel on key issues.

In what appeared to be an attempt to blunt such criticism, Obama used his speech to the Israeli students to appeal to their love of freedom, respect for human rights and common values with Americans to do the right thing.

He offered profuse praise for Israel's history as a haven for refugees fleeing social and religious persecution. He hailed the technological innovations made by Israeli scientists and engineers

Though he made no demands of Israel, he made clear he was seeking their cooperation and understanding as a friend, noting that it would be easier for him to avoid anything approaching criticism of Israel because of its very strong backing in Congress and among the American people.

"Politically, given the strong bipartisan support for Israel in America, the easiest thing for me to do would be to put this issue aside, just express unconditional support for whatever Israel decides to do that would be the easiest political path. But I want you to know that I speak to you as a friend who is deeply concerned and committed to your future."

___

Associated Press writers Karin Laub in Ramallah and Ian Deitch and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-urges-israelis-compromise-peace-151103893--politics.html

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