So Close, So Far, So Frustrating
By KAREN CROUSE, February 21, 2012, New York Times
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MARANA, Ariz. — The emphatic fist pump after a clutch putt used to be Tiger Woods’s signature on another masterpiece. But the putts that once seemed automatic to him no longer are dropping with regularity; witness the five from inside 5 feet that he missed during his final-round 75 at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am 10 days ago.
For Woods, the answer to regaining his stroke could be in his signature. He can pen an autograph for a fan without breaking stride because it is an act ingrained in his subconscious. When he was younger, he approached putting the same way: he stroked the ball without giving it a second thought and chased it to the hole.
In his 2001 instructional book, “How I Play Golf,” Woods wrote of the ease with which he putted in his teenage years. “I had never seen a putt I didn’t like,” he wrote. And, “under pressure, it seemed like I never missed.” READ….
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Porn industry may boogie out of L.A. over condom law
By Rong-Gong Lin II, Los Angeles Times, February 21, 2012
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For decades, the nation’s pornographic film industry found a happy, largely accepting home in Los Angeles.
Producers operated lucrative businesses in anonymous office parks in the San Fernando Valley. Available in the city were a steady supply of actors and film production talent as well as opulent mansions that often served as theatrical backdrops. By one estimate, at least 5% of on-location shoots were for adult films.
But this coexistence has been suddenly shaken by sweeping health regulations that, starting March 5, will require porn performers to wear condoms while on location.
The landmark law marks a rare attempt to regulate how films are made, threatening an industry that has been a source of millions of dollars in revenue. AIDS activists are gathering signatures for a countywide ballot measure that would extend the ban to dozens of additional communities. READ…..
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Gingrich perseveres in tough GOP campaign
By Jim Lynch, The Detroit News, February 20, 2012
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In the closing months of 1998, the bottom dropped out for Newt Gingrich — something that, just three years earlier, had seemed impossible.
The Republican leader of the House had been front and center in the historic election of 1994 that generated a 54-seat swing in Congress and gave conservatives control for the first time in 40 years. To many, the momentum behind that November victory had come from the GOP’s Contract with America, and Gingrich had been its foremost salesman.
And then, in December 1995, there was Gingrich’s face on the cover of Time magazine — head tilted slightly right, an intent look in his eyes — under a banner headline reading “Man of the Year.” The accompanying article didn’t mince words, leading off with: “Leaders make things possible. Exceptional leaders make them inevitable. Newt Gingrich belongs in the category of the exceptional.”
At the end of 1998, however, Gingrich was under pressure from members of his own party to step down. The party had performed poorly in that year’s election cycle, and the speaker was hounded by ethics charges.
So he stepped away and did what he seems to do best. He reinvented himself. And he’s continued to do it again and again — from pundit, to consultant, to author and producer — right up until his latest reinvention as Newt Gingrich, conservative Republican presidential candidate. READ….
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Gingrich hedges on winning Georgia, campaigns with Cain
February 18, 2012, By Jeremy Redmon, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Newt Gingrich hedged whether he could win his old home state on Super Tuesday as he campaigned through the vote-rich Atlanta area with Herman Cain at his side amid incursions from Mitt Romney and a surging Rick Santorum.
After speaking at a Republican precinct meeting at South Forsyth High School in Cumming Saturday, the former Georgia congressman pointed to the endorsement from Cain and the large, enthusiastic crowds that have met him here, saying “I think we will carry Georgia.”
But he quickly added this about the fluidity of the race: “Given the nature of this campaign, anybody who thinks that Romney can count on Michigan or Santorum can count on Pennsylvania or I can count on Georgia doesn’t understand how wild this campaign is… There are no slam dunk states.” READ….
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Portland jury awards $25 million in tobacco case against Philip Morris
By Aimee Green, The Oregonian, February 16, 2012
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A Multnomah County jury on Thursday awarded $25 million in a low-tar tobacco verdict against Philip Morris.
Ten years ago, a county Circuit Court jury awarded $150 million for punitive damages in the case after finding Philip Morris deceived a low-tar cigarette smoker into thinking she’d chosen a healthier alternative. A judge later reduced the amount to $100 million and then the Oregon Supreme Court overturned the award because of the way the jury was instructed to deliberate.
This time, with a slight but important tweak to the instructions, a new 12-person jury decided how reprehensible the tobacco maker’s actions were in causing the death of Salem resident Michelle Schwarz. The jury could have awarded up to $300 million. READ….
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Urinary tract infections linked to contaminated chicken
By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times / For the Booster Shots blog, February 15, 2012
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Urinary tract infections are common conditions that occur when bacteria from the intestines enter the urinary tract. New research, however, suggests that the bacteria causing these infections may come from contaminated food — especially chickens.
While it sounds bizarre, studies from Canadian researchers show that stricter chicken-farm ani-contamination practices may help curb cases of urinary tract infections. In 2010, researchers showed that the most common cause of the infections — E. coli bacteria — can originate in food. In a study published Wednesday, the authors show that chicken is the likely culprit. READ……
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U.S. to cut funds for water testing at beaches
By Tony Barboza, Los Angeles Times, February 15, 2012
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Health testing at beaches in California and across the nation is at risk of being cut under a plan to eliminate federal funds for monitoring whether the water is too contaminated to swim in.
Citing the “difficult financial climate,” the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in its budget request this week that it would do away with $10 million in grants it gives each year to state and local agencies in coastal and Great Lakes states to test for tainted water. READ….
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New Hampshire man arrested after assaulting mother
by GRETYL MACALASTER, Union Leader, Feb 15, 2012
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PORTSMOUTH,NH – A local man that appears to have been living in an office suite with his eight-year-old daughter is now being held at the Rockingham County Jail, charged with assaulting his mother in front of the girl.
Isaac Brake, 38, was arrested around 8:43 a.m. on Tuesday at 1950 Lafayette Road after police responded to the Heyland Development for a report of a domestic assault.
Sgt. Christopher Roth said upon their arrival they talked to Brake’s mother who said she had been assaulted by her son a few moments earlier, and showed evidence of such.
A brief struggle ensued when police tried to arrest Brake, and two different officers used their Tasers to subdue him, Roth said. READ….
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Home-schooling demographics change, expand
By Alesha Williams Boyd and Sergio Bichao, USA TODAY, February 14, 2012
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DUNELLEN, N.J. – There was a time when Heather Kirchner thought mothers who home-schooled their children were only the types “who wore long skirts and praised Jesus and all that.”
That was before the New Jersey resident decided to home-school her own daughter, Anya.
Kirchner favors jeans, and like the two dozen other families that are part of the year-old Homeschool Village Co-op in Central Jersey, she doesn’t consider herself to be particularly religious. “I was definitely not ready to hand over to anybody my 5-year-old, my baby,” she says. “I would hate to miss this. They grow too quickly.”
The New Jersey co-op is among hundreds of secular and inclusive home-schooling groups in the USA aimed at providing opportunities for parents to network and for children to socialize, conduct science experiments, play sports and games and more, according to Homeschool World, the website of Practical Homeschooling Magazine. READ….
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Whitney Houston death: Celine Dion says ‘drugs’ and ‘bad influences’ led to singer’s tragic end
by Cristina Everett, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, February 13, 2012
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Celine Dion doesn’t need a coroner’s report to know the official cause of Whitney Houston’s death.
Speaking to “Good Morning America” via phone Monday, the Canadian singer undoubtedly pinned Houston’s untimely death on drug abuse.
“Whitney has been an amazing inspiration for me,” Dion, 43, told host Robin Roberts. “It’s just really unfortunate that drugs, bad people, bad influences took over her dreams, her motherhood.”
Dion, 43, acknowledged the control drugs can have on a person, particular celebrities and entertainers in the music industry. READ…..
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