Saturday, September 29, 2012

Tips For Using Bankruptcy To Your Advantage | Siben & Siben Long ...

TIP! Once you have decided that bankruptcy is your only option, research the bankruptcy laws for your state and familiarize yourself with the whole process. Your financial future is at stake, so arming yourself with knowledge and staying proactive by engaging in the process with your attorney, helps ensure a more favorable outcome and better protects your financial future.

Although it is sometimes needed, deciding to file for bankruptcy is hard. It?s best to make the decision of filing for personal bankruptcy after doing a little research and gaining a clear understanding of the topic. Read the below article for excellent advice from people who have personally went through bankruptcy.

TIP! Be mindful of new debt after bankruptcy has been filed for. A lot of lenders will give you loans that are geared in helping people that are trying to start fresh after bankruptcy.

If you need to file for bankruptcy, do not put it off. Once you decide that filing for bankruptcy is the option you must choose, file immediately. Waiting will only worsen your finances and subject you to even more stress. You will feel the negative effects in the rest of your life. The earlier you file, the better it is for you.

TIP! Before filing for bankruptcy, be sure to choose the kind of bankruptcy that is best for your personal financial situation. There are many different types of bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy laws are very exact and very important, so ensure that you?re well aware of all current laws before you file a petition. For instance, you need to know not to shift assets into someone else?s name in the year leading up to your filing. In addition, it?s unlawful for a filer to acquire more debt on their credit cards before they file.

TIP! Some lawyers offer a free phone line so creditors may be referred there when they make attempts to contact you about your delinquent accounts. You can just give them the number and they can call for confirmation that your debt is indeed part of a bankruptcy.

It is important that you do not transfer assets of any kind to another individual within one year of filing for bankruptcy. Why shouldn?t you transfer assets? It?s because this looks as if you?re attempting to hide your money so that you can wiggle out of debt. Certain assets are untouchable by creditors. In any case, this sort of asset hiding is not allowed, so you might need to delay filing if you?ve transferred any assets recently.

TIP! You should never lie when filing for bankruptcy. If you hide something, or neglect to add all of your information you could be denied.

If you aren?t totally honest about your assets when filing a bankruptcy petition, you could get into serious trouble. The lawyer representing you when you file needs to have full knowledge of your financial situation. Never hide anything, and make sure you come up with a well devised plan for dealing with bankruptcy.

TIP! Gain a clear understanding of the circumstances that put you in a position to file for personal bankruptcy. Bills for unexpected medical issues are one issue, but spending for no reason is another.

Make sure to list all of the debts you are responsible for when you retain a lawyer to handle your bankruptcy case. You need to inform your attorney about all your debts, both public and private.

TIP! If possible obtain a personal recommendation for a bankruptcy lawyer instead of randomly choosing one. Some companies just want to take advantage of you, so it is important that you have help from someone you trust.

A lot of people who file for bankruptcy swear they will never use credit of any kind ever again. Since using credit responsibly is the only way to improve your credit score, this is not such a good idea. If you never work on rebuilding your credit after a bankruptcy, you may not be able to qualify for a car loan or mortgage. Begin to go down the right path by obtaining a single card.

TIP! If you are considering bankruptcy, do not leave it until the last possible moment to do so. Do not avoid your creditors; they will not go away.

Do not hesitate to remind your lawyer of any details regarding your case. Don?t assume that they?ll remember something important later without having a reminder. Speak up. This is your life, and your future depends on it.

TIP! Keep working to improve your situation. Certain property cannot be repossessed while you are in the process of filing for bankruptcy so be sure to learn about the laws in your state.

If you are going to file for bankruptcy make sure you are prompt. What a lot of people do is ignore the fact that they are in a financial crisis and think that their debt is not going to catch up to them. It is easy you to lose control of your debt, and avoiding the problem will make things worse. As soon as you know that you are too far over your head, make the move to call an attorney skilled in bankruptcy court, to weigh your options.

TIP! When bankruptcy seem inevitable it is important not to use your retirement funds or emergency savings to pay creditors. You should never touch your retirement accounts, unless you have absolutely no choice.

Nobody wishes to file for bankruptcy, but there are cases where it is simply necessary. Now that you have read this article, you have been exposed to some ideas, insights and advice from those who have gone down this road before. If you take time out to learn from the experiences of others, your journey with bankruptcy won?t be so stressful

Source: http://www.sibensiben.com/long-island-injury-lawyer-blog/uncategorized/tips-for-using-bankruptcy-to-your-advantage-5-2

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Friday, September 28, 2012

Japanese Scientists Produce Element 113

A Japanese scientist thought he had discovered technetium [wikipedia.org] in the early 1900s and named it nipponium, but it was actually just an impure sample of rhenium. IUPAC policy states that any name used temporarily or even incorrectly cannot ever be used again, as it would cause confusion with the literature ("Okay, so this paper says nipponium forms an alloy with carbon, iron, and silicon, while this paper says nipponium only alloys with transition metals!").

So unfortunately there will never be a nipponium.

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/GxKwRUCqUfk/japanese-scientists-produce-element-113

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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Bill Nye warns: Creation views threaten US science

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) ? The man known to a generation of Americans as "The Science Guy" is condemning efforts by some Christian groups to cast doubts on evolution and lawmakers who want to bring the Bible into science classrooms.

Bill Nye, a mechanical engineer and star of the popular 1990s TV show "Bill Nye The Science Guy," has waded into the evolution debate with an online video that urges parents not to pass their religious-based doubts about evolution on to their children.

Nye has spent a career teaching science to children and teens with good-natured and sometimes silly humor, but has not been known to delve into topics as divisive as evolution.

Christians who view the stories of the Old Testament as historical fact have come to be known as creationists, and many argue that the world was created by God just a few thousand years ago.

"The Earth is not 6,000 or 10,000 years old," Nye said in an interview with The Associated Press, citing scientists' estimates that it is about 4.5 billion years old. "It's not. And if that conflicts with your beliefs, I strongly feel you should question your beliefs."

Millions of Americans do hold those beliefs, according to a June Gallup poll that found 46 percent of Americans believe God created humans in their present form about 10,000 years ago.

Nye, 56, also decried efforts in recent years by lawmakers and school boards in some states to present Bible stories as an alternative to evolution in public schools. Tennessee passed a law earlier this year that protects teachers who let students criticize evolution and other scientific theories. That echoes a Louisiana law passed in 2008 that allows teachers to introduce supplemental teaching materials in science classes.

"If we raise a generation of students who don't believe in the process of science, who think everything that we've come to know about nature and the universe can be dismissed by a few sentences translated into English from some ancient text, you're not going to continue to innovate," Nye said in a wide-ranging telephone interview.

The brief online video was not Nye's first foray into the combustible debate, but "it's the first time it's gotten to be such a big deal."

"I can see where one gets so caught up in this (debate) that you say something that will galvanize people in a bad way, that will make them hate you forever," he said. "But I emphasize that I'm not questioning someone's religion ? much of that is how you were brought up."

In the video he tells adults they can dismiss evolution, "but don't make your kids do it. Because we need them." Posted by Big Think, an online knowledge forum, the clip went viral and has 4.6 million views on YouTube. It has garnered 182,000 comments from critics and supporters.

It drew the ire of the creationism group Answers in Genesis, which built a biblically based Creation Museum in Kentucky that teaches the stories of the Old Testament and has attracted headlines for its assertion that dinosaurs roamed alongside Adam and Eve.

The group produced a response video featuring two scientists who say the Bible has the true account of Earth's origins, and that "children should be exposed to both ideas concerning our past."

Nye, who is prone to inject dry humor into scientific discussions, said Earth is about 4.5 billion years old.

"What I find troubling, when you listen to these people ... once in a while I get the impression that they're not kidding," Nye said.

Ken Ham, a co-founder of Answers in Genesis, said dating methods used by scientists to measure the age of the earth are contradictory and many don't point to millions or billions of years of time.

"We say the only dating method that is absolute is the Word of God," Ham said. "Time is the crucial factor for Bill Nye. Without the time of millions of years, you can't postulate evolution change."

America is home to the world's biggest creationist following, Ham said, and the $27 million Creation Museum has averaged about 330,000 visitors a year since it opened just south of Cincinnati in 2007.

___

Online:

Big Think video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHbYJfwFgOU

Creation Museum response: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-AyDtD6sPA

The Planetary Society: http://www.planetary.org/

___

Follow Dylan Lovan on Twitter at www.twitter.com/dylanlovan

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bill-nye-warns-creation-views-threaten-us-science-080205747.html

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LePage taps Lewiston HR exec to help lead state workforce board ...

AUGUSTA, Maine ? Gov. Paul LePage has appointed Kevin Healey, currently vice president of human resources at St. Mary?s Health System in Lewiston, as vice chairman of the State Workforce Investment Board.

Healey has been a member of the workforce investment board since LePage created it last December, two months after discovering that in recent years the four regional workforce development boards had used roughly 20 percent of federal workforce training funds for job training, while the rest was used for administration and overhead. Those four regional workforce boards were eliminated and the new State Workforce Investment Board officially replaced the Maine Jobs Council last month, according to the jobs council?s website.

When asked what his priority would be in his new role, Healey said it was to make sure federal money flowing into Maine for workforce training is used effectively.

?I want to see those dollars used as efficiently as possible so more people have the skills they need to get a job,? he said. ?Not to say it hasn?t been done in the past, but I think we can do it in a more targeted and more collaborative manner.?

The workforce investment board?s new strategic plan involves collaborating with the state?s chambers of commerce to better understand the workforce needs of businesses.

The board consists of 35 members from the business, economic development and education fields, as well as a few legislators, according to the state website. It is tasked with advising the administration and Legislature on workforce development issues, as well as managing the effort to improve Maine?s workforce development system so it is able to meet the future needs of Maine employers.

In his current position at St. Mary?s, Healey is responsible for all aspects of human resources management for both the health system and St. Joseph hospital. Previously, he served as a human resources division director at Unum in Portland and as the executive director of the Unum Foundation.

Healey?s ?background in human resources and management will serve the board and Mainers well,? Fred Webber, chairman of the workforce investment board, said in a statement.

Source: http://bangordailynews.com/2012/09/25/business/lepage-taps-lewiston-hr-exec-to-help-lead-state-workforce-board-2/

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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Libya's vow to rein in militias is immediately challenged

The Libyan government promised to bring under control or disband all militias, but within hours of the announcement, one group threatened to blow up the de facto government headquarters.?

By Mel Frykberg,?McClatchy Newspapers / September 24, 2012

Libyan security forces gesture as they head to a compound which had been taken over by an armed group in Tripoli September 23, 2012. Libya's army on Sunday ordered rogue armed groups in and around Tripoli to leave state and military premises or be ejected by force, apparently seeking to capitalize on the withdrawal of militias from Benghazi and Derna.

Anis Mili/REUTERS

Enlarge

The Libyan government said Saturday that all of Libya?s militias would be brought under government control or forced to disband within 48 hours, but was quickly challenged.

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?We are disbanding all armed groups that do not fall under the authority of the government,? said President of the General National Congress (GNC) Mohammed Magarief. ?We are also banning the use of violence and carrying of weapons in public places. It is also illegal to set up checkpoints.?

Within hours, however, the government faced its first challenge from some of its insubordinate security forces and the extra-judicial militias.

On Saturday afternoon Libya?s Tripoli Rixos hotel was stormed by members of the Supreme Security Council (SSC) ? an amalgamation of security forces which fall under the jurisdiction of the interior ministry ? who threatened to blow it up. The Rixos Hotel serves as a de facto headquarters for the Libyan government.

The SSC men were angered by the lack of support they had received from the defense ministry following fierce clashes between the SSC and alleged Gadhafi loyalists in the town of Brak in central Libya.

Clashes between the two groups started on Wednesday after SSC members tried to arrest a number of Gadhafi sympathizers who had been celebrating Gadhafi?s ?Fateh Revolution Day? on Sept. 1.

Many of the SSC members are Salafists and the group is said to be sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood

In the arrest attempts they shot dead the sister of one sympathizer as they tried to arrest her brother at the family home. During the melee six people, mostly SSC members, were killed. There was a lull in the fighting on Thursday but on Friday deadlier clashes broke out again with the death of another 16 SSC members and the wounding of 50.

During the week preceding the bloody confrontations, tensions had been building in the town following the alleged mistreatment of locals by the SSC.

After running low on ammunition, the SSC men withdrew from Brak and returned to Tripoli with the bodies of their comrades. They then stormed the Rixos Hotel after claiming that Interior Minister Fawzi Abdel Al and Defense Minister Osama Juwaily had refused to provide them with weapons, more ammunition and ambulances despite promises made by the defense ministry.

The two men had also ignored their repeated requests for a meeting.

The incident ended without casualties.?

However, at least 14 people were killed and more than 70 wounded following the storming of several militia bases in Benghazi by thousands of unarmed, angry Libyans on Friday.

The attack on the militia bases followed a ?Save Benghazi? mass demonstration in the eastern city which was held to protest the deteriorating security situation in the city which has witnessed a spate of kidnappings, bombings and assassinations over the last few months.

Libyans have been angered by what they see as government complacency and even collusion in a number of militia attacks, including the targeting of Sufi shrines and mosques in several Libyan cities. However, the killing of US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, allegedly by Islamists from the Ansar Al Sharia Militia, during the storming of the US Consulate several weeks ago was a trigger.

The Libyan government has been either unwilling or unable to control the hundreds of armed militias which still control large areas of the country.

Unarmed, thousands of protestors set the headquarters of Ansar Al Sharia ablaze, causing the gunmen to flee. They then moved on to several other militia bases which were not connected with the Islamists and forced the gunmen there to also flee.

The reprisals began early the next morning when the bodies of five soldiers from the defense ministry were found on the outskirts of Benghazi. They had been shot in the head, execution style, while their hands were tied behind their backs. A sixth member remains in critical condition in hospital.

The killing of the five soldiers, who were not related to any militia or Salafist group, was thought to have been carried out by militia members in revenge for what they said was the involvement of the army and police members in helping to orchestrate Friday?s protests which targeted them.

Frykberg is a McClatchy special correspondent

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/uC71Ez63hz8/Libya-s-vow-to-rein-in-militias-is-immediately-challenged

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Peanut butter recall expands beyond Trader Joe's

(AP) ? A New Mexico-based company is recalling 76 types of peanut butter and almond butter after one of its products was linked to a salmonella outbreak at Trader Joe's groceries.

Sunland Inc. recalled the products under multiple brand names after the Food and Drug Administration and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention linked 29 salmonella illnesses in 18 states to Trader Joe's Creamy Salted Valencia Peanut Butter. Sunland manufactures and packages the Trader Joe's product.

A Sunland spokeswoman said the company recalled the other peanut and almond butters because they were manufactured with the same equipment as the Trader Joe's product. None of the other products have been linked to illnesses.

Trader Joe's recalled the Creamy Salted Valencia Peanut Butter from its stores Saturday.

___

Online:

Sunland recall: http://www.sunlandinc.com/788/html/pdfs/SunlandRecall.pdf

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2012-09-24-Peanut%20Butter%20Recall/id-a611862ccc89434e92e26ac51217505f

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Monday, September 24, 2012

NFL players union asks league to end referee lockout

Union asks NFL owners to end officials lockout

(AP Photo/Bob Leverone, File)

NEW YORK (AP) The NFL players' union sent an open letter to team owners calling for an end to the lockout of on-field officials and hinting that it's a violation of the contract between the players and the league.

The players were locked out for 4 1/2 months last year, and they emphasized in the letter, posted Sunday on the union's website, that a lack of a safe working environment exists with replacement officials working the games.

Domonique Foxworth, president of the NFL Players Association, Drew Brees and Scott Fujita are among the union members who signed it.

"Your decision to lock out officials with more than 1,500 years of collective NFL experience has led to a deterioration of order, safety and integrity," the NFL Players Association wrote. "This affirmative decision has not only resulted in poor calls, missed calls and bad game management, but the combination of those deficiencies will only continue to jeopardize player health and safety and the integrity of the game that has taken decades to build."

The NFL did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the letter signed by 12 current or former players, the players also ask why Commissioner Roger Goodell issues suspensions and fines "in the name of player health and safety" while the regular officials the league entrusts to maintain health and safety are locked out.

"As players, we see this game as more than the `product' you reference at times," the letter said. "You cannot simply switch to a group of cheaper officials and fulfill your legal, moral, and duty obligations to us and our fans. You need to end the lockout and bring back the officials immediately."

The NFL locked out the officials in June after their contact expired. It has used replacements for the first time since 2001, when the regular officials missed only the first week of action.

But those replacements had experience at the highest levels of college football, and the current replacements come from lower college levels or from other leagues such as Arena Football.

There have been numerous complaints by players and coaches about the officiating - certainly more than when the regular officials work - and one particularly embarrassing episode in which an official was removed from working a New Orleans game because he posted photos of himself in Saints gear on Facebook.

"The removal of the veteran officials from regular-season games left a group of your replacements who have proved to be incapable of keeping pace with the speed of the game," the players wrote. "Coaches and players have complained of numerous errors and failures including: erratic and missed calls on egregious holds and hits, increased skirmishes between players and confusion about game rules. Many replacements have lost control of games due to inexperience and unfamiliarity with players and rules."

Browns linebacker Fujita was suspended for three games by Goodell for his role in the Saints' bounties scandal, a suspension that was temporarily placed on hold by an appeals panel.

Among others signing the letter were Titans quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, Packers center Jeff Saturday and former star safety Brian Dawkins, now retired.

Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP-NFL

Updated September 23, 2012

Source: http://csnne.stats.com/fb/story.asp?i=20120923132852635156908

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Saturday, September 22, 2012

Walker, other governors, meeting with Chinese investors in Texas (Star Tribune)

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Joe Ricketts: The new billionaire political activist - The Term Sheet ...

By Jennifer Reingold, senior editor

FORTUNE -- I am perched atop a hay bale in the glorious Wyoming mountains, the majestic Teton Range crowning a landscape of unspoiled beauty. Surrounding me is a 240-strong herd of grass-fed bison. A couple of them eye me warily as they munch on my temporary seat. I feel a bit like an intruder, but I'm the invited guest of J. Joe Ricketts, the billionaire founder of what is now TD Ameritrade (AMTD) and the owner of this 1,300-acre swath of land. While here I learn how to fly-fish in Lake Marlene -- named for Ricketts's wife of 49 years -- behind his sprawling western-style home. I sample bison pastrami. I ride in a wagon drawn by his Percheron draft horses, which have won awards at the Calgary Stampede.

There's only one thing missing: Joe Ricketts. He prefers to remain behind the scenes. But his money is having an outsize influence on the 2012 election.

Since Ricketts, 71, stepped down from TD Ameritrade's board in 2011, he has become increasingly prominent on both the business and the political scenes, with an eclectic collection of entrepreneurial ventures and an eight-figure commitment to defeat President Obama. Yet that hasn't translated into a desire to explain himself to a journalist. The tall, doughy Nebraskan doesn't want to talk about his first feature film -- directed by Robert Redford -- or his own media enterprise, local news site DNAinfo.com, or his bison ranch, or his charity that helps educate children from underdeveloped countries (though he did provide us with pictures). He doesn't want to talk about Ameritrade, the electronic brokerage he founded in 1975, or his purchase of the Chicago Cubs on behalf of his four children. He especially doesn't want to discuss the controversy over a proposed anti-Obama ad campaign that landed him on the front page of the New York Times, with repercussions for both his causes and his family -- or the new, $10 million campaign featuring disappointed former Obama voters that is about to flood the airwaves.

MORE:?Who's better for stocks: Obama or Romney?

No, Ricketts wants to do things his way -- which mostly means maintaining control. So while he refused to be interviewed, he invited others to extol him, including executives from Hugo Enterprises, his holding company; Ending Spending Action Fund, the Super PAC that carries out his political objectives; and his son, Tom Ricketts, the Cubs' chairman. They all say Joe Ricketts is a man who changed an industry forever, a patriot who wants to return to the good old days of national fiscal responsibility, and a patriarch who is building a new American family dynasty. "He is a great visionary with a true entrepreneurial spirit," says Kurt Halvorson, Ameritrade's former chief administrative officer. "He dreams big and thinks big."

The portrait that emerges from dozens of conversations and journeys to Washington, Chicago, and Wyoming is more nuanced: It is one of a maverick full of contradictions. Ricketts is a self-made man who preaches fiscal austerity while his family's baseball team offloads business costs on the public; a media executive who won't give an interview; a man indifferent to baseball who bought one of the sport's best-known teams; a donor to the poor in the developing world who wants to cut spending on poverty at home; a supporter of politicians who oppose gay rights whose daughter, Laura, has helped create a Super PAC called LPAC, for Lesbian Political Action Committee.

Yet Ricketts, whose family is worth an estimated $1.9 billion, is not just another rich dude. He is one of the small group of billionaires taking advantage of the changes in campaign-finance law to influence the nation's political discourse. You may not be familiar with him -- he's no Sheldon Adelson or George Soros -- but he's one of the big players on the American political scene, and you'll be hearing from him plenty in coming weeks.

For Ricketts, the most important issue is cutting federal spending and taxes to tackle the debt crisis. It's a straightforward position. But as Ricketts has discovered the hard way, writing a big check is one thing; controlling what your money accomplishes is quite another. It turns out that in politics, as in business, deregulation is a powerful and unpredictable thing.

Joe Ricketts actually possesses the asset that so many politicians love to claim: an up-by-the-bootstraps biography. Born in Nebraska City, Neb., to a carpenter and a homemaker, he grew up poor, with three brothers and a sister. His first job was in third grade, working as a janitor's assistant.

After working his way through Creighton University, a Jesuit school in Omaha, Ricketts became first a credit analyst at Dun & Bradstreet (DNB), then a stockbroker. In 1975, when the SEC deregulated broker commissions, the 33-year-old Ricketts saw an opportunity. Why should investors have to rely on full-service brokers when many of them knew what they wanted to invest in anyhow? The same year, with a few partners, he opened First Omaha Securities. "No one had really brought Wall Street to Main Street," says J. Randy MacDonald, Ameritrade's CFO from 2000 to 2006. "The pioneers of discount brokerage were three people: Charles Schwab, Joe Ricketts, and probably Muriel Siebert."

Ricketts's best insight was technological. His firm was the first to execute trades using the touch-tone phone instead of a live person, in 1988. In 1995 he saw the potential of the Internet and scooped up K. Aufhauser & Co., one of the first firms to use the web for trading.

He also worked his tail off to make his company a success. The four Ricketts children -- J. Peter, now 48; Tom, 47; Laura, 45; and Todd, 43 -- helped out too. "We didn't take vacations," remembers Tom. "We stuffed envelopes on weekends, and we got paid in sugar cubes." Dad took the kids to baseball games and occasionally coached their teams, but he had little interest in the box score. "He'd bring a cigar and sit up in the top row by himself and think about the day," Tom says. Ricketts's ambition stretched far beyond the outfield. He announced he would become the largest discount broker, as measured by trades per day.

MORE: Forget four years ago. We're worse off than in 2011

Ameritrade, as the company was known by 1996, didn't feel like a dotcom, but it soon became one. The company, along with Schwab (SCHW), E*Trade (ETFC), and Datek, was a player in the fast-growing online-brokerage market and went public in 1997. By 1999, thanks to the Nasdaq bubble and Ameritrade's ad campaign featuring Stuart, the red-haired slacker with the $8 trade, Ricketts, who had retained 55% of the company, was worth more than $2 billion. The man who rarely bought a new car came up in the same sentences as the Oracle of Omaha himself, Warren Buffett.

Buffett stayed in his modest home, but Ricketts began to enjoy the fruits of his labor. In 1998 he bought the spectacular ranch in Little Jackson Hole, Wyo., on which he would later raise bison, and the next year he spent $7 million to buy the most expensive house ever sold in Omaha, a 17,000-square-foot mansion formerly owned by James Crowe, CEO of Level 3 Communications (LVLT). Later he would purchase a 78th-floor penthouse in New York City's Time Warner Center for $29 million, a sleek, modern space that he decorated in a western motif. Yet he was no socialite, preferring a ride to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally on his Harley-Davidson Springer Softail Custom to chairing a ballet gala.

He did make at least one memorable public appearance. At the Omaha Press Club's annual dinner in 2000, the three local billionaires -- Warren Buffett, Level 3's Walter Scott Jr., and Ricketts -- sat on stage. Suddenly Regis Philbin's face filled a videoscreen. "Let's play Who Wants to Be a Jillionaire?" he sang out. When the three discovered that the grand prize was only $1 million, they stalked off the stage. "We're outta here," said Ricketts to hoots and applause before coming back to answer questions. When asked if he was nervous, he said, "Not a bit. It's the first billion that's really hard on you."

Even though Ricketts was rich beyond his wildest dreams, he was still wide-eyed when it came to big-spenders' protocol, thrilled to be able to use his American Express Black card to pay for dinner one night in 2000. As a joke, when he went to use the bathroom, MacDonald told the waiter to pretend Ricketts's card had been rejected. "He looked like he was going to cry," MacDonald remembers, before letting Ricketts in on the ruse. "I wasn't sure if this was going to be 'Ha-ha-ha' or 'You're fired,'" he says. Ricketts was a good sport.

Then came the dotcom crash. Ameritrade's stock fell an astonishing 94% between 1999 and 2001, along with Ricketts's net worth. And although he had been grooming his son Peter as his successor, it became clear that Ameritrade needed outside help. In came Joe Moglia as CEO, a rah-rah Merrill Lynch executive with buckets of street cred and a strategy of rolling up all the existing players.

Ricketts had a hard time watching his ownership stake diluted as the company bought National Discount Brokers, in 2001, followed by other brokerages, including Datek, and ultimately, in 2006, merged with TD Waterhouse. "We could already see the anxiety in his face," says MacDonald of the first big deal. "It was pretty clear to all of us that that was always the big issue with Joe -- control." Ricketts's percentage of the company shrank to 15.2%, but the value of his stock grew.

Although Ricketts was no longer CEO, he still held out hope of regaining control of the company. That's one reason he supported a deal with E*Trade rather than TD Waterhouse, a debate that split the board between the Ricketts contingent, which included Ricketts and his sons Pete and Tom, and the private equity group that had come into the company with Datek, including Stephen Pagliuca of Bain Capital and Glenn Hutchins of Silver Lake. But E*Trade was seen as a much riskier play because of its large real estate loan portfolio. "We potentially would almost be out of business if we did the E*Trade deal," Moglia says. In the end, TD Waterhouse improved its offer, and the Rickettses came onboard. Today TD Ameritrade is thriving, with total client assets of $445 billion. Says MacDonald: "Joe feels that Moglia and I sort of undermined him. He's right. And he cried all the way to the bank."

Completely uninterested in standard retired-guy leisure pursuits like golf (says son Tom: "He doesn't have hobbies; he has passions"), Ricketts moved into the next phase of his life. In 2004, with two of his sons and a group of friends, the 63-year-old Ricketts climbed to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. There he fell into conversation with his guide, a Masai man named Shange Wilson, and learned that Wilson was using his meager savings to build a school in his village. Ricketts returned the next year and announced that he was starting the Educational Opportunity Foundation. Since then, the foundation has given more than $10 million of Ricketts's money to more than 1,200 schools in Africa, Asia, and India. Says Tom Ricketts: "Dad gives rich guys a good name."

MORE:?Stop beating up the rich

Ricketts wasn't done being rich either, proclaiming that he would soon make another billion -- not by, for instance, investing in other people's hedge funds, but by building new businesses. He began with, of all things, bison -- which is how I ended up in Wyoming. Like fellow mogul Ted Turner, Ricketts saw big bucks in bison as an alternative to red meat, and in 2004 started High Plains Bison. Today it is one of the top five players in the $279 million bison-processing business, though that's a long way from $1 billion. Compared with the 45 Ted's Montana Grill locations, there is just one restaurant -- Bison Jack's in Milwaukee -- where, says an employee, "we're doing pretty good at lunch." Bison is, however, the "Official Lean Meat of the Chicago Cubs."

Another new venture for Ricketts is a hyperlocal media website called DNAinfo.com. Launched in New York City in 2009, the site, staffed by a hungry pack of young journalists armed with videocameras, has already made a mark. Reporters cover one neighborhood -- say, the Upper East Side -- and produce stories about anything from local crime to zoning problems to a pizza-eating goat at the Famous Famiglia restaurant in Times Square (that one went viral). The site, while not yet profitable, boasts 1.5 million visitors per month, notable for any media company.

Another media venture has not been quite as successful. In 2008, Ricketts created the American Film Co. to produce historically accurate films about the U.S. Despite having no movie experience, Ricketts persuaded Robert Redford to direct its first film, The Conspirator, which tells the story of how the mother of one of the conspirators to assassinate Lincoln was put to death despite scant evidence that she knew of the plot. Ricketts took great pride in the film's detail, employing historians to ensure accuracy down to the buttons on the military uniforms. But the movie grossed just $11.5 million in theaters despite its big-name director and $25 million budget. Alfred Levitt, Hugo's president and general counsel, says new films are in the works, including one about Teddy Roosevelt.

Yet the business Ricketts is best known for these days is no ground-up venture, but rather the Chicago Cubs, one of the most storied -- and star-crossed -- teams in baseball. In 2009 a trust that he and Marlene funded bought 95% of the team for $845 million, with ownership going to their children. He must really love his kids -- all huge Cubs fans since they moved to Chicago for college -- because he doesn't even like the sport. Tom Ricketts says it's tough to get Joe to attend a game. "He said it was like buying a Picasso," says Jerry Reinsdorf, who owns the Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Bulls. "It doesn't matter what it costs; it will never go down in value." That assumed that the family would be able to renovate Wrigley Field, the creaky relic from the days before luxury boxes determined profitability. The assumption would soon be put to the test.

Even before Joe Ricketts was a billionaire, he had a deep interest in politics. Once a Democrat, then a Republican, now an independent, he had been politically active in Omaha's Republican Party in the 1970s, more interested in policy than in personality. He grew increasingly interested in fiscal issues, such as taxation and government spending, becoming a strong advocate of cutting both and serving on the board of the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

Joe Ricketts preferred to effect change behind the scenes, but in 2005 his eldest son, Pete, announced he was leaving his job as Ameritrade's chief operating officer to run as a Republican against Ben Nelson for the U.S. Senate representing Nebraska. Pete, then 41, had youth and wealth -- he spent more than $12 million of his own money on the campaign, more than eight times what his opponent spent. A social and fiscal conservative, he lost by an incredible 28 percentage points. It didn't help when it came out that, two months before he ran a commercial playing up his regular-guy bona fides, his dad had closed on that $29 million penthouse in New York.

MORE:?Forget Washington: Here's how we'd fix the economy

But Rickettses don't give up that easily. Pete went on to become, in 2007, the Nebraska Republican Party's national committeeman. And his dad decided he had enough time and money to dive deeply into politics -- on his own terms. In 2010, Joe Ricketts formed an advocacy group called Taxpayers Against Earmarks, hiring a lawyer named Brian Baker to run it. Earmarks -- allocations for local projects tacked onto a bill in exchange for a vote -- symbolized the me-first mentality that Ricketts felt was ruining the country. The group spent $1.3 million on advertising, categorizing Democratic and Republican congressmen alike as either "heroes" or "hooligans" depending on how frequently they used earmarks. Ricketts himself met with congressmen in Washington. The public attention and resulting embarrassment helped the passage of a two-year moratorium on earmarks in 2010. For a political neophyte, it was a stunning victory.

Emboldened, Ricketts established a Super PAC in 2010 called the Ending Spending Action Fund. He changed the name of his nonprofit 501(c)4 group from Taxpayers Against Earmarks to Ending Spending Inc. and gave it a new, more ambitious mandate: "To make sense of the federal budget, to end wasteful government spending, and to expose elected officials who say one thing and do another." The message was simple: Support anyone who has voted for "an enforceable cap" on federal government spending ("spending sheriffs"); get rid of anyone who hasn't ("budget bandits").

Ricketts's new push into politics coincided perfectly with a dramatic shift in campaign-finance regulation. Already the trend had been toward more private money in politics. Then came two major court decisions, which together overturned at least 60 years of campaign-finance law. First, the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision allowed a corporation -- or any group -- to make independent political expenditures. Two months later, in a case called Speech Now, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that if the Supreme Court was no longer fearful of potential corruption from groups, it would be a violation of a group's First Amendment rights to limit the amount it could contribute.

Ricketts meeting beneficiaries of his education foundation in Tanzania (his grandson is on his lap).

Ricketts meeting beneficiaries of his education foundation in Tanzania (his grandson is on his lap).

Now political action committees -- renamed Super PACs -- could collect unlimited amounts from any person, group, or company, as long as they did not contribute directly to the candidates or let them see or approve their plans. Donors could also give unlimited funds anonymously to a Super PAC's accompanying 501(c)4 nonprofit, which must be primarily a "social welfare" organization.

Although Ricketts is making most of his donations to his own group rather than combining forces with others, the change means that people like him -- or Adelson or Jeffrey Katzenberg -- are now in a position arguably more powerful, and less regulated, than the political parties themselves (although many Super PACs are controlled by top former operatives of political parties). As of Sept. 18 -- still seven weeks before the election -- Super PACs had spent some $244 million, according to OpenSecrets.org, compared with $52 million by the parties, with much more to come. "One good analogy," says Paul Ryan -- not the vice-presidential candidate, but a senior counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan Washington group that studies political financing -- "is that wealthy interest groups get to sit in the front row with bullhorns."

It was in this environment that Ricketts stepped up his activism, supporting anti-incumbents who pledged to tackle the deficit by any means necessary. "It's about 'How do we change the policy?'" says Baker. "You have to put new people in, and we have to get rid of the people that are bad." Ricketts donated $6 million to his nonprofit as well as other groups including AEI, Americans for Tax Reform, and the Campaign for Primary Accountability. Then he turned his attention to a few strategically important congressional races, spending almost $1 million to support candidates with advertisements (see chart above). While Ricketts says he cares only about fiscal issues, all the candidates his Super PAC supports are also social conservatives opposed to abortion and gay marriage.

Which brings us to yet another interesting contradiction in the Ricketts family: His own daughter, Laura, is an out lesbian and political activist against those very issues. A former lawyer who is now, with brothers Tom and Todd, running the Cubs, she serves on the Democratic Party's LGBT leadership council and sponsors events such as Out at Wrigley Field for All Families. She is also a major fundraiser and bundler for President Obama.

MORE:?Obama: A president ready for a showdown

Ricketts is certainly not the first dad to disagree about politics with his offspring. "We love each other," says Tom of his family. "Political positions don't define us." Yet father and daughter seem to be running their own private arms race. In July, Laura Ricketts announced the formation of LPAC, a Super PAC aimed at lesbians. As she told a Chicago podcast, The BEZ, in July: "This election cycle is kind of like the Wild West. There's so much money, I have to think it can't be good for our political process. But ... those are the rules. And we have to play by those rules."

So does her dad, who last spring said he was ready to drop $10 million, through the Ending Spending Super PAC, on a national ad campaign to defeat Obama. It would make him one of the largest individual or group players in the election, with his fund spending more money than, for example, the Super PACs of the Service Employees International Union, Planned Parenthood, and the National Association of Realtors combined. Baker asked for proposals from several political media consultants. Ricketts zeroed in on Fred Davis of Strategic Perceptions, a colorful and controversial strategist known for such ads as the infamous "I am not a witch" declaration by Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell. The decision would get Ricketts more attention than he'd ever dreamed -- though not in the way he'd hoped -- and prove Laura Ricketts right. This election is like the Wild West, and it's not clear who the sheriff is.

After preliminary meetings with Davis, Ricketts's team, which included sons Peter and Todd, along with Baker, asked him to present his plan in a May 10 meeting in Chicago. The 50-page proposal, aimed at the defeat of "Barack Hussein Obama," suggested going back to a strategy proposed and rejected by John McCain four years earlier: Tie the President to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the fiery African-American preacher at a church Obama used to attend. The proposal described the President as a "metrosexual black Abraham Lincoln" and began with a quote from Ricketts himself: "If the nation had seen that ad (an anti-Wright spot McCain rejected), they'd never have elected Barack Obama." No decisions were made at the meeting, which then turned to a campaign to support Nebraska's Deb Fischer, which Ricketts hired Davis to do.

Bison at Ricketts's Wyoming ranch

Bison at Ricketts's Wyoming ranch

Ricketts himself wasn't at the meeting. But before he could respond to the proposal, one of the six participants in that room leaked a circulating copy to the New York Times. The front-page article on May 17 -- and subsequent political firestorm -- left a shocked Ricketts defending against charges of racism and dirty politics. In the story, Baker said the family had made no decisions on the plan. Says Davis: "Different people in that meeting had different recollections of what happened." The next day, after Mitt Romney said he "repudiated" the plan, Baker released the following statement: "[Ricketts's] efforts are and will continue to be focused entirely on questions of fiscal policy, not attacks that seek to divide us socially or culturally." The imbroglio was a stunning example of how much control the political parties and candidates had lost over their own messages.

For Ricketts, the fallout was immediate. Some Ameritrade customers canceled their accounts in anger. Says Fred Tomczyk, Ameritrade's CEO: "TD Ameritrade does not endorse the personal views of its shareholders or individual candidates for public office." DNAinfo.com came under scrutiny, and Ricketts wrote a memo to the staffers assuring them that "[a]lthough I feel a strong obligation as a citizen to engage politically ... I feel equally strongly that my personal politics should have absolutely no impact on your work as objective, fair-minded journalists." It didn't help that DNAinfo.com had just announced it was expanding to Chicago, of all places, where presumably it will cover such big local stories as the potential renovation of Wrigley Field.

Negotiations over that work broke off abruptly as a furious Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obama's former chief of staff, stopped taking Tom Ricketts's calls. Cubs fans -- many of whom are Obama supporters -- expressed disgust with Joe Ricketts's affiliations. Many noted the contradiction between Ricketts's antigovernment approach and the fact that his children's main business was in large part dependent on getting local government subsidies.

MORE:?Mitt Romney's 5-point plan for the economy

The episode highlighted how difficult it is for Ricketts to argue against public subsidies with a straight face. The Ricketts family had already benefited from public assistance in 2010, when the city of Mesa, Ariz., approved a referendum to build a new spring-training facility for the Cubs using the city's enterprise fund and, if needed, the sale of 11,000 acres of undeveloped farmland.

Tom Ricketts admits that the blowup was "noise that we didn't need," but says, "In the end, I'm not too worried about it. We'll get through all this. We all have a long time horizon." That's a good thing; more than three months later, the mayor and Tom Ricketts still have not spoken.

Nor will they soon, it's safe to say. On Sept. 17, Ricketts's Ending Spending Action Fund unveiled a major new multimedia advertising campaign set to run both in the battleground states and on national cable networks. Although Fred Davis wasn't part of this campaign, another person well versed in attack videos was: Steve Bannon, the political filmmaker who has been executive chairman of Breitbart, the controversial political group, since Andrew Breitbart's sudden death in March.

Linked to the website WhyIChangedMyVote.com, the ads feature interviews with regular Americans who voted for Obama in 2008 and now, disillusioned, have shifted their hopes to Romney. The spots are sober and depressing -- but offer few specifics about what might change in a Romney administration. One of the subjects, a former nurse from Illinois named Jodi C., says, "There are two choices; one leads to bankruptcy," and calls this "the most important election in my lifetime." It will be interesting to see if Ending Spending will make a difference. Ironically, though, it doesn't seem as if the ads will have anything to do with ending spending on the campaign. That, thanks to Joe Ricketts and others like him, continues unabated.

This story is from the October 8, 2012 issue of?Fortune.

Source: http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/09/21/ricketts-billionaire-election/

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Friday, September 21, 2012

HTC Debuts Stunning Windows Phone 8 Devices

HTC announces its first Windows Phone 8 lineup with the colorful 8X Accord and 8S Rio.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/Mink-e1vIhE/

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Paris' Louvre Museum unveils Islamic Art wing

PARIS (AP) ? The Louvre Museum is unveiling a new wing and galleries dedicated to the arts of Islam, culminating a nearly ?100 million ($130 million), decade-long project coming to fruition amid tensions between the Muslim world and the West.

The new dragonfly-shaped building marks the famed Paris museum's greatest development since its iconic glass pyramid constructed 20 years ago. The Department of Islamic Art will exhibit much of the Louvre's 18,000 works, hoping also to foster cultural understanding.

Mosaics from the Damascus mosque and a 15th-century Mamluk porch are among works spanning from 632 to 1800 A.D. Donors included Morocco's King Mohammed VI and Saudi Prince Waleed Bin Talal's foundation.

Louvre director Henri Loyrette says the galleries aim to showcase "the radiant face of a civilization."

The wing, with its mission of heightening cross-cultural understanding, is opening at a tense ? and perhaps opportune ? time.

France stepped up security Wednesday at its embassies across the Muslim world after a French satirical weekly published lewd caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Charlie Hebdo, whose offices were firebombed last year, was brandishing its right to free speech. But the publication raised concerns that France could face violent protests like the ones targeting the United States over an amateur video produced in California ridiculing the prophet that have left at least 30 people dead.

French officials said the weekly was throwing "oil on the fire" and urged calm. France has western Europe's largest Muslim population.

In a sign of the political importance of the new Louvre exhibit, French President Francois Hollande attended an opening ceremony Tuesday, calling it a "political gesture in the service of respect for peace." The Saudi prince and the president of Azerbaijan, accompanied him.

Hollande criticized those who "destroy the values of Islam by resorting to violence and hate."

"The best weapons for fighting fanaticism that claims to be coming from Islam are found in Islam itself," he said. "What more beautiful message than that demonstrated here by these works."

The Louvre opened a department of Islamic art in 2003, under former President Jacques Chirac, who said he wanted to highlight the contributions of Muslim civilizations on Western culture. Chirac, who vigorously opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, constantly pushed for the idea of a "dialogue of cultures" to break down the misunderstandings between the West and the Muslim world.

But its gallery could initially display only a fraction of the thousands of pieces of art from the Muslim world, so it decided under Chirac on an ambitious expansion.

The museum opens to the public Saturday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/paris-louvre-museum-unveils-islamic-art-wing-084241910.html

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Thursday, September 20, 2012

Study suggests tie between BPA chemical and child obesity ...

NEW YORK ? A provocative new study suggests a connection between the BPA chemical used in food packaging and childhood obesity, but the researchers say their findings don?t prove it?s the cause.

While most people have traces of the plastics chemical in their bodies, the study found that children with the highest levels in their urine were twice as likely to be obese as those with the lowest.

There are other factors that could explain the results, and many reasons why children gain too much weight, the researchers said.

?Clearly unhealthy diet and poor physical activity are the leading factors contributing to obesity in the United States, especially in children,? said lead author Dr. Leonardo Trasande of New York University.

But the study does hint that causes of childhood obesity may be more complicated, he added. He said it is the first national research to tie a chemical from the environment to childhood obesity, and seems to echo what some studies have seen in adults.

One puzzling result: Significant differences were detected only in white children. For black and Hispanic kids, obesity rates were similar for those with the lowest levels of BPA as those with the largest amount. The researchers couldn?t explain that finding.

The study was released Tuesday and is in Wednesday?s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

BPA, or bisphenol A, has been used since the 1960s and become so widespread that it?s found in virtually all Americans. Government health officials have deemed low levels of it to be safe, but haven?t been able to decide what amount of BPA ? if any ? would be a health concern.

BPA is used to make hard plastics for food and beverage containers and many consumer goods and for metal can linings. Environmental groups have worried it interferes with children?s development. Makers of baby bottles and sippy cups stopped using it, and this year the Food and Drug Administration announced it could no longer be used in those baby products.

Some experimental studies on animals have found that BPA can aid obesity by disrupting metabolism and helping to make fat cells larger. And studies have suggested a possible tie between urinary BPA levels and obesity-related illnesses in adults, including diabetes and heart disease.

In the new study, Trasande and his colleagues used information from an annual federal health survey, which includes weighing and measuring participants and taking blood and urine samples.

Their study involved more than 2,800 children ages 6 through 19, who took the survey in the years 2003 through 2008. They compared BPA levels in their urine to their weight, and divided them into four groups based on BPA amounts.

The key finding: About 22 percent of the children with highest levels of BPA were obese, compared to just 10 percent of kids with the lowest levels.

Was the reverse true? Did the heaviest kids have more BPA in their urine, and the thinnest kids less? Yes, Trasande said. But he did not include those numbers in his study, and declined to provide them.

The study raised more questions than it answered:

?The body excretes the chemical in a matter of hours. It?s possible that the study is simply indicating that heavier kids are more likely to have recently consumed something from a BPA container.

?Only one urine sample was taken from each child, and the youngest children in the study were 6. What isn?t known is how much BPA they were exposed to when they were infants ? the time in life when the chemical theoretically could have had the greatest effect in triggering weight gain.

All this means is that the study raises some interesting questions, but at this point it?s impossible to say BPA causes childhood obesity, said Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, a federal agency involved in research on BPA.

?It?s a hypothesis that needs further exploration,? she said.

The American Chemistry Council, which represents chemical manufacturers, called the study speculative and noted lab animal studies that found no evidence that BPA causes obesity.

?Attempts to link our national obesity problem to minute exposures to chemicals found in common, everyday products are a distraction from the real efforts under way to address this important national health issue,? the organization said in a statement.

Source: http://bangordailynews.com/2012/09/19/health/study-suggests-tie-between-bpa-chemical-and-child-obesity/

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Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Apple's Jony Ive tapped to design one-off Leica M for charity auction

In case the newly announced Leica M simply isn't astronomically expensive enough -- or charity-minded enough, as it were -- Apple's senior VP of design Jony Ive is working with the German photography company on a one-off version set to be auctioned for charity. Given the M's baseline price of €6,200 (about $8,100), we're guessing the one-of-a-kind version designed by one of the world's most influential designers is going to fetch a pretty penny at auction. Like, "sell of one of your extra homes" kind of money. Leica head Dr. Andreas Kaufmann announced the collaboration last night during a Leica event at Photokina -- an event that Ive himself was reportedly set to appear at -- where he said that the auction will be done with U2 frontman (and longtime friend of Ive) Bono Vox. The latest Leica M debuts in early 2013, though we won't see the fruits of Ive and Leica's collaboration for some time as the camera's design has yet to begin.

Gallery: Leica M

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/18/jony-ive-leica-m/

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Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Obama team tries to lower expectations for debates

President Barack Obama waves to the crowd at a campaign event at Eden Park?s Seasongood Pavilion, Monday, Sept. 17, 2012, in Cincinnati, Ohio. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama waves to the crowd at a campaign event at Eden Park?s Seasongood Pavilion, Monday, Sept. 17, 2012, in Cincinnati, Ohio. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign event at Eden Park?s Seasongood Pavilion, Monday, Sept. 17, 2012, in Cincinnati, Ohio. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign event at Eden Park?s Seasongood Pavilion, Monday, Sept. 17, 2012, in Cincinnati, Ohio. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

(AP) ? President Barack Obama's re-election campaign doesn't want to talk about what the Democrat is doing to prepare for the fall debates with Republican Mitt Romney. But aides are readily setting expectations ? and not surprisingly, they want to keep them low for Obama while raising the stakes for Romney.

"While Mitt Romney has done 20 debates in the last year, he has not done one in four years, so there certainly is a challenge in that regard," Jennifer Psaki, Obama's campaign spokeswoman, said of the president on Monday.

With Obama edging slightly ahead of Romney in public polling seven weeks from Election Day, the three October debates could be one of the Republicans' best opportunities to break through with voters. But the high-profile events are just as crucial for Obama, who was an uneven debater during the 2008 Democratic primaries.

In that way, some of the Obama campaign's tactical lowering of expectations is also rooted in the truth. Aides say the structured ? and time-limited ? nature of the debates isn't a natural fit for Obama, who often is long-winded when answering questions during news conferences or town hall-style meetings.

Obama's campaign purposely has been vague about how he is getting ready for the debates and aides refused to discuss details of his preparations publicly.

But those preparations are well under way. Obama has held multiple practice sessions, some with Massachusetts Democrat Sen. John Kerry, who is playing the role of Romney. One of the president's practice spots is at the Democratic National Committee's headquarters a short drive from the White House.

Romney, on the other hand, has not hidden that he's been in the midst of intense debate preparation since early September. That's when aides announced that the GOP nominee would spend much of the week of the Democratic National Convention off the campaign trail huddling with advisers in private debate sessions.

Romney got started early in part to help him get accustomed to the one-on-one format he'll face next month. Most of his numerous debates during the GOP primary featured several other candidates.

The Republican nominee is doing timed, mock debates with Ohio's Republican Sen. Rob Portman playing Obama. Longtime adviser Peter Flaherty is standing in as the moderator, asking questions about both domestic and foreign policy.

Top Romney advisers, including strategist Stuart Stevens, longtime aides Eric Fehrnstrom and Beth Myers, and senior adviser Ed Gillespie, then dissect the sessions.

Obama's campaign has tried to use Romney's intense public preparations to ramp up expectations for the Republican.

"We know that Mitt Romney and his team have seemed to prepare more than any candidate in modern history," Psaki told reporters traveling with Obama in Ohio on Monday. "They've made clear that his performing well is a make-or-break piece for their campaign."

Among the locales Romney has picked for debate preps are a friend's home in rural Vermont and a Marriott hotel in Burlington, Mass. Obama may also practice at the presidential retreat at Camp David, besides using DNC headquarters.

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, has tried to tamp down expectations, too.

During a Friday night flight to Boston, Romney and Portman walked to the back of the airplane to offer birthday greetings to two reporters covering his campaign. "Can you tell us a little bit about debate prep? How's he doing?" a reporter asked Portman. The senator replied, "He's doing great."

Romney, laughing, quickly interjected. Turning to Portman, he said: "Say nothing more."

The candidates will meet for three debates: a domestic policy debate in Denver on Oct. 3; a town hall-style debate in Hempstead, N.Y., on Oct. 16, and a foreign policy debate in Boca Raton, Fla., on Oct. 22.

Vice President Joe Biden and GOP running mate Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin will meet for one debate in Danville, Ky., on Oct. 11 that will touch on both domestic and foreign policy issues.

___

Associated Press writers Kasie Hunt in Washington and Ken Thomas in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-09-17-Obama/id-fc9d296cf4634125a99797abfe25edcc

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