Vince Neil to plead guilty to disorderly conduct (AP)

LAS VEGAS ? Motley Crue singer Vince Neil will plead guilty to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge, pay a $1,000 fine and avoid trial on allegations that he poked his ex-girlfriend in a confrontation last March at a Las Vegas resort lounge, his lawyer said Monday.

A more serious misdemeanor charge of battery constituting domestic violence will be dropped against Neil when the 50-year-old rocker enters his plea next Monday in Las Vegas Justice Court, defense attorney David Chesnoff. He said the allegation of physical contact would be dismissed.

"Mr. Neil is sorry he raised his voice," Chesnoff said.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal first reported Monday that Clark County District Attorney David Roger also confirmed the agreement.

Roger did not immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press.

Neil, who lives in Las Vegas, could have faced up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine if convicted on each charge.

He was accused of poking the chest of Las Vegas entertainment reporter Alicia Jacobs in a casino comedy club March 24, and of cursing and pointing at Jacobs and two friends sitting with her.

Jacobs told the AP she was glad Neil was taking responsibility for his actions.

"I'm glad the story is over and the book is closed," she said.

Jacobs had told police she received a bruise from the finger-poke, which she said came just weeks she and Neil ended a seven-month relationship. Jacobs has previously given her age to reporters and police as 39 and 45. She declined Monday to correct her age.

The two other people named as victims in the confrontation, Wayne Newton's sister-in-law and publicist Patricia McCrone, 41, and Las Vegas Sun entertainment columnist John Katsilometes, 45, said they were glad the case was being resolved.

Neil is the front man for a four-member heavy metal band known for bad behavior, hard partying, famous girlfriends and hard-driving hits from the late 1980s like "Girls, Girls, Girls" and "Dr. Feelgood."

He also owns tattoo shops and two bars in Las Vegas, including one at the Las Vegas Hilton where the Shimmer Cabaret comedy club confrontation took place.

Neil served 10 days in the Clark County jail in February for driving drunk in his black Lamborghini in June 2010 near the Las Vegas Strip. He also was fined $585 and ordered to serve 15 days on house arrest as part of a plea deal that avoided trial in that case.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111031/ap_en_mu/us_people_vince_neil

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Kenyan jets bomb southern Somali town, 12 killed (Reuters)

MOGADISHU (Reuters) ? At least 12 people were killed Sunday when two Kenyan jets bombed the southern Somali town of Jilib, residents and officials said, as the east African nation fights to rid Somalia of Islamist al Shabaab rebels.

Kenya moved its troops into Somalia in mid-October in pursuit of Somali insurgents it blames for a series of kidnappings on Kenyan soil and frequent assaults on its security forces in the border province of North Eastern.

"Twelve civilians died including six children and 52 others were injured after Kenyan jets bombarded an IDP (internally displaced people) camp in the town," said Mohamud Ali Harbi, a local elder in Jilib, 120 km (74 miles) north of the port of Kismayu.

Emmanuel Chirchir, the Kenyan military spokesman, could not immediately confirm the raid when contacted by Reuters, saying they were waiting for an operational update from the ground.

"The jets bombarded two places, an al Shabaab base and a nearby IDP camp," Hassan Abdiwahab, a resident in Jilib, told Reuters.

But al Shabaab said the five bombs dropped by the planes hit a bus stop, the IDP camp and an area just outside of the town.

A top official of the group, Sheikh Muktar Robow Abu Mansoor, Thursday urged their followers to attack Kenya with "huge blasts" in retaliation for the campaign that is being carried out jointly with Somali government troops.

The call followed two grenade attacks in the capital Nairobi that killed one person and injured over 20 more Monday. Unknown militants also carried out two attacks on vehicles in the remote northern Kenya.

Mohammud Farah, spokesman for the Ras Kamboni militia that is allied to the Somali Transitional Federal Government said they seized a four-by-four vehicle laden with explosives that was headed to Kenya.

"Our forces in patrol found the car 8 km away from the town on its way to Kenya and we have discovered different types of explosive materials in the car," Farah told Reuters from Dhobley town, which is close to the border.

The vehicle was carrying 10 passengers, four of whom were identified as al Shabaab fighters, he added.

Kenya said Saturday it was committed to withdrawal from Somalia once it is satisfied that it has stripped the al Qaeda-linked group's capacity to carry out attacks across the border.

Although the Kenyan chief of defense forces said his troops had chased al Shabaab from the whole of Gedo region, the two-week old campaign has been slowed considerably by heavy rains.

Chirchir said the intense rains had started to abate, allowing Kenyan forces to plan an offensive of Afmadow in Lower Juba region, where al Shabaab has been digging in after reinforcing with fighters from other areas.

"Now that the rains have subsided, the taking of Afmadow is likely. It should be very soon," he said.

Two Ugandan soldiers were injured Saturday when African Union troops came under an al Shabaab attack in Mogadishu.

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, South Africa's President Jacob Zuma and Tanzania's Jakaya Kikwete expressed their support for Kenya's military action in Somalia, the Kenyan presidency said in a statement from Perth, Australia, where President Mwai Kibaki was attending the Commonwealth summit.

(Additional reporting by Feisal Omar; Writing by Duncan Miriri)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111030/wl_nm/us_kenya_somalia

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GOP seeking waiver of environmental laws at border (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Federal agents trying to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border say they're hampered by laws that keep them from driving vehicles on huge swaths of land because it falls under U.S. environmental protection, leaving it to wildlife ? and illegal immigrants and smugglers who can walk through the territory undisturbed.

A growing number of lawmakers are saying such restrictions have turned wilderness areas into highways for criminals. In recent weeks, three congressional panels, including two in the GOP-controlled House and one in the Democratic-controlled Senate, have moved to give the Border Patrol unfettered access to all federally managed lands within 100 miles of the border with Mexico.

Two of the panels expanded the legislation's reach to include the border with Canada.

The votes signal a brewing battle in Congress that will determine whether border agents can disregard environmental protections as they do their job.

Dozens of environmental laws were waived for the building of the border fence, and activists say this is just another conservative attempt to find an excuse to do away with environmental protections.

But agents who have worked along the border say the laws crimp their power to secure the border.

Zack Taylor, a retired Border Patrol agent who lives about nine miles from the Arizona-Mexico border, said smugglers soon learn the areas that agents are least likely to frequent.

"The (smuggling) route stays on public lands from the border to Maricopa County," Taylor said, referring to the state's most populous county. "The smugglers have free rein. It has become a lawless area."

Environmental groups said lawmakers lining up to support the legislation have routinely opposed the Endangered Species Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act and dozens of other laws, and they accused the lawmakers of using illegal immigration as the latest excuse to gut protections.

"For every problem that's out there in society, there's some extremists in Congress who say the solution is, `Well, let's roll back the environmental laws, let's open up the public lands,'" said Paul Spitler, spokesman for the Wilderness Society. "It doesn't comport to reality, but it fits their mindset that it's simply the environmental regulations that are holding back America."

Nearly 40 percent of the land on the U.S.-Mexico border and about a quarter of the land on the U.S.-Canadian border is public land, including Big Bend National Park in Texas and Glacier National Park in Montana. Driving is prohibited on those parts of the land that are designated wilderness areas.

Wildlife officials say vehicle use can be particularly hazardous in the desert. Water gathers in the tire tracks instead of in natural pools and evaporates more quickly, leading to less vegetation and less available food. Some areas, such as Big Bend and the desert farther west, are deadly to traverse in certain months and immigrants and smugglers avoid them.

The wilderness areas also have other restrictions on development. Border patrol agents, for example, must get permission from other federal agencies before maintaining roads and installing surveillance equipment. Federal auditors found it can take months to get that permission.

"What the Border Patrol says they really need down there is not necessarily more manpower or money," said Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, whose bill easing the restrictions passed the House Natural Resources Committee along party lines. "They need more east-west access on those public lands."

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., sponsored an amendment that requires the Agriculture and Interior departments to give Border Patrol personnel immediate access to federal lands on the southern border for security activities, including for routine motorized patrols. The amendment passed a Senate committee with the support of five Democrats and eight Republicans.

McCain told colleagues that up to 100 people sit on mountaintops near the border serving as lookouts for smugglers, suggesting that improved law enforcement access on those mountains would deter the lookouts.

"What he says is absolutely true," said Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, who visited Arizona with McCain. "For the life of me, I can't understand the hesitancy on the part of Interior or Agriculture to provide access to border security guards."

Rep. Ben Quayle, R-Ariz., sponsored a similar amendment that extends the law to the Canadian border as well, and it passed by a voice vote, which is usually reserved for noncontroversial legislation.

During a House subcommittee hearing in April, Ron Vitiello, deputy chief of the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, said he had "no complaints" about environmental laws.

But George McCubbin, president of the union that represents about 17,000 Border Patrol agents and support staff, likened current policy to telling city police officers they can't patrol a particular neighborhood.

"If they want to get serious about this problem on the border, they can't be restricting areas we go in," said McCubbin, who works in Casa Grande, Ariz. "Don't let us there and you have nothing but the bad element going through that area."

The Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, reported that supervisors at 17 of 26 Border Patrol stations along the Mexican border said access to federal lands had been limited because of environmental restrictions. Yet, the vast majority of the agents in charge also said that they were generally able to adjust their patrols without sacrificing effectiveness.

Democratic lawmakers and environmental groups cite the GAO's findings in arguing against giving the Border Patrol authority to operate as it sees fit on federal lands.

"The record is clear. The problem this bill claims to be solving does not exist," said Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz. "So, if this is not about border security, what is it about? It's about undermining fundamental environmental protections for millions of Americans."

Bishop said federal agents would be better stewards of sensitive lands than illegal immigrants and smugglers.

"What is so ironic is that the environmental degradation is not being done by the Border Patrol," Bishop said. "It's being done by the illegals who are coming across."

___

Associated Press writer Jacques Billeaud contributed to this report from Phoenix.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mexico/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111027/ap_on_go_co/us_border_wilderness

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Sprint trying to fix iPhone 4S speed issue

Apple

By Suzanne Choney

Sprint iPhone 4S customers say they're still getting slow data speeds with their new phones, and the wireless carrier, which has spent big bucks to bring the phone to customers, is reportedly working on a solution with Apple.

User complaints are being shared on various websites, and on several threads on Sprint's Community Forum, including these: "iPhone 4S on 3G data network too slow to be useful" and "iPhone now on the slowest network. post your zip if you have slow data coverage."

An internal Sprint email to employees says Apple and Sprint are working to solve the "confirmed nationwide issue" about the slow data speed, according to The Next Web:

There was no information about what the cause of the issues are or what the expected resolution date might be. The email did contain a reference to a ?Service Settings? update, which sounds like it could be referring to the carrier settings file that contains access point info for the carriers.

When we asked Sprint about the problem last week, a representative for the carrier said it was "carefully monitoring the performance of the 3G network. We are looking into a small number of reports of slow data speeds when using the iPhone 4S, however there are also reports showing that Sprint's network is the fastest."

The Sprint rep was talking specifically about a report in Gizmodo, which gave the carrier respectable marks.

Our friends at Laptop recently gave Sprint's iPhone 4S speed mixed grades, compared to AT&T and Verizon Wireless:

The AT&T version of the iPhone is the only one that supports speeds up to 14.4 Mbps on the carrier's HSPA network, while the Verizon and Sprint versions are tied to older and slower EV-DO networks. So it wasn't a surprise that AT&T turned in the fastest download and upload speeds in our three testing locations using the Speedtest.net app.

The AT&T iPhone 4S?pulled?off an overall average rate of 970 Kbps for downloads, and 270 Kbps for uploads.?By comparison, Verizon only mustered 380 Kbps on the download and Sprint was even slower at 280 Kbps. Verizon's iPhone 4S consistently offered the slowest upload speeds, with an average of 100 Kbps versus a not-much-better 170 Kbps for Sprint.?

We've asked both Sprint and Apple to comment on their attempts to fix the problem, and will update this post if we hear back.

But comments like those of "jd_pruitt" on Sprint's forums are typical of some of the frustrations:

... when listening to Pandora the stream would stop for a few minutes and start again. Browsing is noticeably slower from my former carrier AT&T. Translation: Yeah, it's pretty lame.

Related stories:

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook,?and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Source: http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/26/8493848-sprint-trying-to-fix-iphone-4s-speed-issue

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Video: Keeping America safe

Super-social gene may hold clues to autism, other disorders

Scientists may soon understand the link between genes and human behavior, including autism, thanks to a major effort to study Williams syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that causes people to be so excessively friendly, there's no such thing as a stranger.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45038507#45038507

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Supernote lets you take some pretty super notes on your ASUS tablet (video)

Sit back and take notes while we... talk about Supernote. This note-taking app quietly debuted on the Eee Pad Transformer and Slider earlier this month, when ASUS rolled out an OTA update to Android 3.2.1, but the company has now provided substantially more details on the feature, which promises to "revolutionize the way you take notes in class." With Supernote onboard, students can write or scribble using either the keyboard or their own fingers. That isn't exactly enthralling, in and of itself, but what's cool is the fact that Supernote will convert each hand-drawn item into an image, allowing users to seamlessly modify or delete their own characters as if they were typed text. The tool also makes it easy to insert graphs or charts, thanks to an "Add Annotation" option that integrates diagrams directly into your lecture notes. And, perhaps best of all, the app will even let you insert photos, meaning you can just take a shot of your professor's blackboard and worry about understanding it later. Intrigued? Check out a demo video, after the break.

Continue reading Supernote lets you take some pretty super notes on your ASUS tablet (video)

Supernote lets you take some pretty super notes on your ASUS tablet (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/24/supernote-lets-you-take-some-pretty-super-notes-on-your-asus-tab/

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Demise of Obama long-term care plan leaves gap (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The Obama administration's decision to pull the plug on a financially flawed long-term care insurance plan is likely to worsen a dilemma most middle-class families are totally unprepared for.

A nursing home can cost more than $200 a day and a home health aide averages $450 a week, usually part-time. Yet long-term care is one major health expense for which nearly all Americans are uninsured. Only about 3 percent of adults have their own policy, and Medicare doesn't cover it.

Families confront their financial exposure when a frail elder takes a turn for the worse, a teen is calamitously injured in a car crash or a middle-aged worker suffers a debilitating stroke.

The demise of the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program, or CLASS, means it could take a decade or longer before politicians seriously engage the issue again. By then the retirement of the Baby Boomers will be in full swing.

"Long-term care is a critical issue, and people are in total denial about it," said Bill Novelli, former CEO of AARP. "I am very sorry the administration did what they finally did, although I understand it. It is going to take a long time to get this back ? and fixed."

The irony, experts say, is that paying for long-term care is the kind of problem insurance should be able to solve. It has to do with the mathematics of risk.

Most drivers will have some kind of accident during their years behind the wheel, but few will be involved in a catastrophic wreck. And some very careful drivers will not experience any accidents. The risks of long-term care are not all that different, says economist Harriet Komisar of the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute.

"A small percentage of people are going to need a year, two years, five years or more in a nursing home, but for those who do, it's huge," Komisar said. "Insurance makes sense when the odds are small but the financial risk is potentially high and unaffordable."

Komisar and her colleagues estimate that nearly 7 in 10 people will need some level of long-term care after turning 65. That's defined as help with personal tasks such as getting dressed, going to the toilet, eating, or taking a bath.

Many of those who need help will get it from a family member. Only 5 percent will need five years or more in a nursing home. And 3 in 10 will not need any long-term care assistance at all.

For those who do need extended nursing home care, Medicaid has become the default provider, since Medicare only covers short-term stays for rehab. But Medicaid is for low-income people, so the disabled literally have to impoverish themselves to qualify, a wrenching experience for families.

Liberals say the answer is government-sponsored insurance, like the CLASS plan the Obama administration included in the health overhaul law, only to find it wouldn't work financially.

The administration was unable to reconcile twin goals of CLASS: financial solvency and affordable coverage easily accessible to all working adults, regardless of health.

Conservatives have called for private coverage, perhaps with tax credits to make it more affordable.

Some experts say it will take a combination of both approaches.

"It almost has to be," said Robert Yee, a financial actuary hired by the Obama administration to try to make CLASS work.

Lower-income workers probably would never be able to afford private insurance, Yee explained. And a lavish public plan is out of the question.

"Anytime people talk about a social program, you are talking about a basic layer," he said.

Indeed, Yee had proposed to keep CLASS afloat by using some of the techniques of private insurers to attract the healthy and discourage the frail. The administration rejected that hybrid approach as incompatible with the law's intent to cover all regardless of health.

"Despite our best analytical efforts, I do not see a viable path forward for CLASS implementation at this time," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told congressional leaders.

Although CLASS would have come too late to help his disabled mother, Jacob Bockser of Walnut Creek, Calif., says he is disappointed.

Bockser, 29, is a former emergency medical technician studying to become a respiratory therapist. His mother Elizabeth, 58, is struggling with an aggressive form of multiple sclerosis.

She had moved to lower-cost Washington state to save money, but as her condition worsens her son is trying to find a way to bring her back to California. She can still live in her own home, with help to keep safe.

"She did a lot of good saving. But because she did good, it disqualifies her from some kinds of public assistance," said the son. "When you are only 58 and looking at hopefully living another 20 or 25 years, it's scary to think the money just won't last."

Bockser says he doesn't expect the government to solve everything, but "even if there is the opportunity to try to piece together a couple of different programs that would be a start."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111024/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_aging_america_long_term_care_dilemma

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