Small Business Story of the Year: The Rise of Alternative Lending

Supporting small business was among the top economic stories of the year, and the rise in lending to those growing companies was the most important development in 2011.

It?s a story we saw developing since the credit crunch tightened the spigots on funding for small businesses. When the big banks said no, small banks and non-bank lenders increasingly said yes. Over the course of 2011, big banks rejected loan applications about 90 percent of the time. Smaller banks approved nearly half of small business funding requests, while alternative lenders granted approvals more often than not.

Many people ask me, ?Who are the alternative lenders?? They are comprised of credit unions, CDFIs, micro lenders and accounts receivable financers.

Credit Unions
A credit union is a cooperative, not-for-profit financial institution owned and controlled by its members. Credit unions are established and operated for the purpose of promoting thrift and providing credit at competitive rates and other financial services to their membership. They are locally focused and lend at reasonable rates, which accounts for their tremendous growth in small business lending in 2011.

Credit unions are becoming more aggressive in soliciting deposits and are seeking to double the 12.5 percent cap on small business lending set by the government. The National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU) provides a list of its members online.

Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI)
Community Development Financial Institutions are financing entities that have a primary mission of community development. Established by the Reigle Community Development and Regulatory Improvement Act of 1994, CDFIs are certified by the Treasury Department, which provides funds to them through a variety of programs. Biz2Credit has helped numerous small business owners in New York to get funding from the New York Business Development Corporation (NYBDC).

The organization helps provide term loans to small businesses that sometimes are unable to meet the requirements for traditional financing. In many cases the financing incorporates multiple participations, SBA guarantees, flexible amortization and long-term payouts.

NYBDC also manages the Empire State Certified Development Corporation (?The 504 Company?), which is licensed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) to provide SBA 504 Loans that are designed to stimulate economic development and spur job creation for eligible New York State businesses.

Micro Lenders
Micro lenders provide small loans designed to spur entrepreneurship in economically disadvantaged areas. Often they are granted to women and minority entrepreneurs and to companies that have been established in economic empowerment zones. Often the startup businesses in these neighborhoods are created by individuals who lack collateral or a long credit history and therefore are unable to meet even the most minimal qualifications of traditional creditors.

ACCION USA is a microfinance organization that lends with the mission of empowering business owners with access to working capital and financial education. ACCION offers business loans up to $50,000 and financial education throughout the U.S. and specializes in working with small business owners who cannot borrow from the bank due to business type, a short length of time in business, or an insufficient credit history.

Accounts Receivable (AR) Lenders
Accounts Receivable (AR) financers ? often known as ?factors? ? purchase a company?s accounts receivable, at a discount, to provide them with working capital when they need it. With factoring, financing is provided to the seller of the accounts in the form of a cash ?advance,? often 70-85% of the purchase price of the accounts. The balance of the purchase price is paid upon collection, often as a percentage of credit card transactions. Interest rates generally are higher with factoring.

However, the lender is assuming a higher level of risk, which justifies the return. Many times, small business owners who have little or no credit history or who need a lot of money quickly turn to AR financers. In the past few months, my company has connected a number of entrepreneurs with lenders such as Cash Advance Network (CAN), the largest lender in this category.

In November, so-called alternative lenders approved 62 percent of small business funding requests in November, a rise from the 61.8 percent during October, according to the Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index, an analysis of 1,000 loan applications.

Among alternative lenders, credit unions granted 57 percent of small business funding requests, up from 56.6 percent in October. Meanwhile, loan approvals by small banks were 47 percent in November and approvals by large banks reached 10 percent in November ? for the first time since April.

Overall, I believe optimism is returning in the credit marketplace. We have seen a steady increase in loan applications, a good sign for the economy. We can all hope that this momentum in the fourth quarter of 2011 bodes well for the coming year.

Money Story Photo via Shutterstock

About the Author

A frequently quoted expert on small business lending and recently named the ?Top Entrepreneur of 2011? by Crain?s New York Business, Rohit Arora is CEO of Biz2Credit, which connects small business owners with 400 lenders, credit rating agencies and service providers. Since 2007, Biz2Credit has secured $400 million in funding for small businesses across the U.S. via its safe, efficient online platform.

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Source: http://smallbiztrends.com/2011/12/alternative-lending.html

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16-year-old computer prodigy's life at risk

This portrait of Arfa Karim Randhawa, by Dan DeLong, accompanied a Seattle P-I story about her 2005 Microsoft visit.

Computer programming prodigy Arfa Karim Randhawa, a?16-year-old girl from?Pakistan who seven years ago became the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in the world, is on life support after?suffering an epileptic attack, according to a newspaper report out of the country.

Her father,?Amjad Karim Randhawa, tells The Express Tribune,??only a miracle will allow my brilliant, genius daughter to live now."

In 2005, when I was working for the Seattle P-I newspaper, I got a chance to meet and?write a story?about Arfa. She was 10 years old at the time, visiting the Microsoft campus to meet Bill Gates and other executives from the Redmond company.

(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

As I wrote in the story at the time,?She made an impression through a combination of charm, flattery and boldness uncommon for someone her age. For example, during Arfa?s meeting with Gates, she presented him with a poem she wrote that celebrated his life story. But she also questioned him about what she perceived to be the relatively small proportion of women on the?campus.

In short, she is a remarkable person. She is also very thoughtful, and after the article ran, she made a point of keeping in touch with me via email. It was fun to periodically get messages from her out of the blue, updating me on her progress in school and her plans for the future.

Arfa was extremely proud of her accomplishment as the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional, even including the phrase ?Youngest MCP in the World? in her email signature line. So a?few years ago,when a 9-year-old from India broke her record, I sent Arfa a link and asked her what she thought.

I went back this morning and found her response ?

?This is the first time I?ve seen this story. But I must say that I?m really happy to have read it. This is exactly what I had been wishing for ever since I got to bring laurels for my country. I am very glad to see that people are following what I did and have succeeded in beating me. I don?t know whether you?ve heard or not but a boy, named Bilal, from Gujranwala in Pakistan also became a Microsoft Certified Professional at the age of nine. I would say that the other youngsters should follow suit, thereby convincing the people to take us kids seriously. Our generation is very talented and so should be promoted.?

She was 13 at the time, and working hard in school in hopes of attending her ?dream university,? MIT, where she wanted to study computer science.

Todd Bishop is co-founder of GeekWire, a technology news site based in Seattle.

Source: http://digitallife.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/30/9833946-remembering-arfa-seizure-threatens-life-of-16-year-old-computer-prodigy

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Police find 7 bodies in northern Mexico

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) ? Police in the northern Mexico state of Nuevo Leon said Tuesday that information provided by arrested members of a kidnapping gang has led them to at least seven bodies found buried in shallow graves or dumped in a well.

By nightfall, Nuevo Leon state police had found seven sets of human remains around the cities of Linares and Montemorelos, near the border with Tamaulipas state. Four bodies were found burned or half-buried, and three others had apparently been thrown down a well.

A Nuevo Leon state detective who was not authorized to be quoted by name said information from a band of five kidnappers detained over the weekend by soldiers led police to the bodies.

The soldiers detained the gang after a woman's relatives alerted a passing army patrol that she was being kidnapped.

Nuevo Leon security spokesman Jorge Domene said the gang worked for the Zetas drug cartel.

Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon have been the scene of bloody turf battles between the Zetas and the Gulf cartel.

Also Tuesday, federal prosecutors announced that a former high-ranking federal police official has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for helping the Sinaloa drug cartel.

The case of former regional police security coordinator Javier Herrera Valles had been a scandal and for some a cause celebre, in part because he was arrested after having publicly accused some of his superiors of corruption or incompetence.

The Attorney General's Office said in a statement Tuesday that Herrera Valles had been convicted of organized crime charges for aiding the Sinaloa drug cartel, Mexico's most powerful gang.

He was arrested in 2008, around the same time Mexico arrested a number of high-ranking officials for collaborating with drug cartels.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-12-27-LT-Drug-War-Mexico/id-5dda88044e214d7b946a4b91b1d60280

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Chanukah celebration at North Shore Congregation Israel

Dave Iskowich stands over his daughter, Annaliese, age 6, during a menorah lighting as part of a Chanukah celebration at The North Shore Congregation Israel. | Jerry Daliege~for Sun-Times Media

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Updated: December 27, 2011 11:42PM

Glencoe?s North Shore Congregation Israel held a special Chanukah celebration on Friday evening, followed by a lighting ceremony and latke fest.

Source: http://highlandpark.suntimes.com/news/9627905-417/chanukah-celebration-at-north-shore-congregation-israel.html

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Mayor hopes to renew Ford Heights by raffling off its homes

Pulling into a Ford Heights subdivision in a black Chevrolet Malibu, Mayor Charles Griffin notes the four youths on a corner, likely selling drugs.

Then comes the scruffy vacant lots, the houses with plywood-covered windows and the charred remains of homes. A young girl's arm reaches high to hold her mother's hand as they walk down the street.

It is the 1400 block of Congress Lane. And it is also home to a rehabbed, red-brick ranch house that is up for grabs in a $100-a-ticket raffle under Griffin's "Battle Against Abandoned Housing."

"If I can do this street, I can do any of them," Griffin says.

In some cases, charities have raffled off homes to raise money. In rare cases, homeowners desperate to unload their property have tried a raffle. But using raffles to help save a blighted town is unusual, if not unheard of.

Griffin says it is just one part of his efforts to save his town. And housing experts say the small-scale approach of house raffles won't be able to fix the large-scale problem of abandoned homes throughout the Chicago region.

But Metropolitan Planning Council Vice President Robin Snyderman notes, "These are really tough times for communities, and I think municipal leaders are willing to try anything they can to make a dent in the problem."

For $100, participants in the Ford Heights raffle get a 1-in-500 shot at landing a four-bedroom home that was rehabbed with new flooring, kitchen cabinets and bathroom fixtures after the foreclosure sat vacant and ransacked for years.

If successful, Griffin says the town will plow any profits into another abandoned home, then another and another. He hopes the raffles will save as many as 20 houses.

Tucked between Illinois Highway 394 and the Ford plant along U.S. Route 30, the far south suburb of about 3,000 has long been home to violent and poverty-stricken streets.

Some blocks in Ford Heights have only a few houses left, with lot after lot left bare after abandoned homes were finally demolished or leveled by fire. Even hundreds of public housing town homes that used to dominate the town have been boarded up or torn down.

Cook County sheriff's police took over policing the suburb in 2008 after the town said it couldn't afford the few underpaid officers it once had.

In desperation, town officials have turned to a number of unusual economic saviors, including a strip club, a tire-burning power plant and a failed bid to turn a dump into a ski slope.

Most recently, the first-term Mayor Griffin has been pushing to land a casino. But Gov. Pat Quinn has opposed legislation that lawmakers passed to add five new Illinois casinos, including one designated for the south suburbs that Ford Heights could hope to win.

Today, Griffin considers a casino a "long shot" as he focuses on persuading banks to turn over abandon homes to the city so they can be raffled off to new owners in a block-by-block, ticket-by-ticket redevelopment effort.

Griffin blames the town's abandoned housing problem on both joblessness and the housing bubble.

In some cases, Griffin said, predatory loans got people into homes they couldn't afford. In others, he said, loose mortgage rules allowed Ford Heights homeowners to get large home-equity loans and then flee with the extra cash.

Still, Griffin insists his town is turning a corner.

Some public housing is being rehabbed, and new security cameras are deterring crime. A basketball court next to Village Hall was spruced up, and a few streets have been paved. Now, Griffin hopes residents will buy into the town's raffle ? another chance at hope for Ford Heights.

Since starting the raffle last month through a not-for-profit community organization, Griffin said about 100 tickets have been sold. He said the drawing will come in March. Five hundred tickets are for sale.

"That is a better chance of being successful than going to the riverboat or the lottery," Griffin says.

jbryan@tribune.com

Source: http://feeds.chicagotribune.com/~r/chicagotribune/news/local/~3/ceCPyWw_YfA/ct-met-ford-heights-raffle-house-20111228,0,6906673.story

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Everyone Must Sacrifice? Obama Plays 90th Round of Golf as President

In January 2009, before the president signed his failed $787 billion stimulus bill into law, Barack Obama lectured America saying,

?Everyone must sacrifice for the greater good? Everyone must have some skin in the game.?

Everyone but Barack and Michelle Obama.

Obama just golfed his 90th round of golf in three years this week.

White House Dossier reported:

After an hour of hiking, President Obama Monday got down to the serious business at hand, heading out to golf for the second day in his first three days of vacation. He was back on the course at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.

With this one, Obama reaches a new milestone, having gone golfing 90 times in less than three years as president. That?s about three months of golf, given that the excursions generally take about five hours ? much of the useful portion of the day.

What?s more, it?s the 32nd time he?s been on the links this year, a record for the president. His 32 outings eclipses the 2010 mark of 30 and is far ahead of his 2009 tally of 28 rounds as president.

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Source: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/12/everyone-must-sacrifice-obama-plays-90th-round-of-golf-as-president/

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Obama's recess dilemma (The Week)

New York ? The president may be tempted to make several appointments while Congress is on holiday, but doing so poses major political risks

Normally, a recess means that work gets put on hold. A holiday means a break from normal activity, even in Washington D.C. But as with most other quaint notions of normality, recesses and holidays in the beltway take on a partisan significance, especially when Republicans and Democrats believe they have an opportunity to score political points.

At the heart of this particular holiday rancor is Article II, Section II of the U.S. Constitution, which reads, "The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session." The original intent of this clause was to provide the president a way to fill sudden openings in the executive and judicial branch at a time in history when calling Congress into session immediately was impossible, given the transportation and communication limitations of the era. This rule prevented government from becoming paralyzed in the absence of the Senate, and was expected to be used only in pressing circumstances.

SEE MORE: The brainless use of pop psychology to diss Obama

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Barack Obama has not exactly been a shrinking violet when it comes to recess appointments.

Of course, any power granted to an office without restriction will eventually get used and even abused. That's true no matter which party holds the presidency. Recess appointments have always been controversial, and that has become especially true in the last few decades. Thurgood Marshall was put on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals through a recess appointment by John F. Kennedy, after southern Democrats threatened to block Marshall's confirmation. Bill Clinton's recess appointment of Bill Lan Lee for assistant Attorney General for civil rights avoided a Senate rejection over Lee's support of affirmative action. George W. Bush had to use a recess appointment to get John Bolton installed as ambassador to the U.N. when Democrats opposed to Bush's foreign policy in general, and Bolton's hostility towards the U.N. specifically, threatened to reject him. Bush also used his recess appointment power to install two appellate judges, Charles Pickering at the 5th Circuit and William Pryor at the 11th Circuit, when Democrats blocked votes on nearly all of his appellate appointments.

SEE MORE: President Obama's rising approval rating: 4 theories

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Barack Obama has not exactly been a shrinking violet when it comes to recess appointments. Last year, Obama installed James Cole as deputy Attorney General, despite concerns in the Senate over his performance as independent monitor of AIG from 2005 through 2009, a period in which taxpayers had to bail out the insurance giant to keep it from destroying the American financial sector. Obama also gave a recess appointment to Donald Berwick to run Medicare and Medicaid, even though Democrats had 59 seats in the Senate and Berwick hadn't bothered to complete his initial questionnaire for his Senate confirmation process. That was controversial enough to provoke fellow Democrat Max Baucus into publicly criticizing Obama.

Another recess has now arrived, and with it, the opportunity to bypass a more closely-held Democratic Senate. It may not be a question of if Obama will use his recess power, but when ? and how often. Obama has a fight brewing over the National Labor Relations Board and its attempt to impose new union-friendly policies. The term of NLRB member Craig Becker, one of Obama's previous recess appointments to the NLRB, and one that caused a great deal of anger in the business community, has expired. Republicans in the Senate have held up two other appointments over the new regulations, which means that the NLRB board might not have a quorum. Unless Obama can get the Senate to act quickly to approve one or more of his nominees, the NLRB will not be able to do anything at all.

SEE MORE: Did Obama really call Americans 'lazy'?

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There would be considerable political risk in the decision to use a recess appointment in this case. Obama's union allies want recess appointments that will allow the NLRB to promulgate those new, union-friendly regulations, and Obama needs unions to help organize the ground game for his re-election effort. However, the business community that Obama has tried to court all year wants the NLRB's regulatory adventurism curtailed, and will see a recess appointment as a signal that Obama wants to push the board further along its current anti-business trajectory. Obama risks losing important contributors, and worse, pushing them into the arms of the GOP.

SEE MORE: The many failures of Obama's Teddy Roosevelt speech

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Obama has other opportunities for recess appointments as well. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) has put holds on two FCC nominations in an attempt to force FCC chair Julius Genachowski to disclose communications between the agency, the White House, and LightSquared, a politically-connected firm that got a controversial waiver from Team Obama. Bypassing the Senate would cut Grassley out of the equation, but it would also contribute to the perception that Obama has something to hide on LightSquared.

Richard Cordray might be a candidate for a recess appointment. Republicans in the Senate blocked his confirmation a couple of weeks ago in a dispute over the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Earlier this year, Obama had to withdraw the name of his first nominee to run the CFPB, Elizabeth Warren, and the rejection of Cordray undoubtedly rankled the White House, which sees the fight over the CFPB as old news and the block on Cordray as illegitimate. ?

SEE MORE: The 'creepy' Barack Obama mannequin

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With the unlimited power to make recess appointments, why would Obama hesitate? For one, Obama needs to move legislation next year. Bypassing the Senate creates more hostility on Capitol Hill, even with members of one's own party, as the Berwick appointment proved. Voters might see it as a demonstration of leadership in response to an obstructionist Senate ? perhaps more so with Cordray than with others ? but they could also see it as executive arrogance, or even corruption.

Anticipating the temptation that all of these cases pose, as well as a few open judicial slots, Republicans forced Harry Reid to allow pro forma Senate sessions every three or four days for the five weeks of this current recess. The strategy is designed to argue that the Senate hasn't gone into recess at all, or at least not significantly enough to justify a recess appointment. A president hasn't made a recess appointment in the last 20 years during a period in which less than 10 days have passed between Senate sessions, say Republicans, and they believe this will keep Obama on the sidelines over the holidays. However, that relies heavily on tradition, not the law; the Constitution doesn't define the requisite length of a recess for the purpose of presidential appointments. Teddy Roosevelt made several recess appointments when the Senate went dark for just a day ? and Obama has evoked TR more than once over the last few weeks. Perhaps the president really will start swinging that big stick soon.

View this article on TheWeek.com
Get Obama and the 'road to serfdom'

Opinion Brief: 5 theories why Obama is going on 'The View'

Opinion Brief: Obama on 'The View': Unpresidential?

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Daily iPhone App: SkySafari

SkySafari from Southern Stars is an app for the astronomy enthusiast with an iPhone. It's the perfect companion for a new telescope owner, who can use the app to help locate celestial bodies in the sky, or the casual observer who wants to know the name of that bright star cluster overhead. It's also useful for the seasoned astronomer who wants a pocket reference that's chock full of information.

The basic app (US$2.99) displays over 120,000 stars and has images of all the major planets and their moons. It also includes information on well-known asteroids and comets. SkySafari lets you look up details on each heavenly object including its catalog number and its coordinates in the sky. The app also explains the history and mythology behind each celestial object, so you can learn about the object as well as find it in the sky.

If you have an iOS device with a compass or gyroscope, you can point the app at the sky and use an augmented reality view to locate stars and planets. It even includes a night mode which preserves your dark-adjusted vision when you're out stargazing at night.

One of the best features is "Tonight's Best," which lists the best celestial objects to observe that night. The app generates this list based on your location and the local date and time. The app also has SkyWeek, a list of notable astronomical events pulled from Sky and Telescope Magazine's popular weekly column. Both Tonight's Best and SkyWeek are fantastic places to start if you're new to astronomy and don't want to miss an important event.

SkySafari is also available in a Plus ($14.99) and Pro ($59.99) version which includes information on millions of stars, deep sky objects and every comet or asteroid ever observed. If you have a motorized GoTo mount, the Plus and Pro versions also let you control your telescope using the iPhone app.

SkySafari is similar to Star Walk, another iPad and iPhone-based astronomy app. Both apps give you an augmented reality view of the sky and have information on the objects that you see. SkySafari, though, has additional features like SkyWeek that'll appeal more to the serious hobbyist than the casual observer. The depth of the information available and the option to control your telescope make SkySafari one of the leading astronomical apps available for iOS.

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Source: http://www.tuaw.com/2011/12/27/daily-iphone-app-skysafari/

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Nigeria: Boko Haram Militants Strike on Christmas Day (Time.com)

Nigeria's Christmas from hell began around 7:30 a.m. at St. Theresa's Church in Madalla, a suburb of the capital Abuja, just as worshippers spilled outside from the popular service. "A man with a motorbike dropped a bag just outside the church," a church member told TIME. "One of our officials went to check what was in the bag and at the same time he reached it -- that was when there was an explosion. Everybody started running. You can imagine how many people were running around. We thought the explosion was from one car that was parked outside, but we now discover it was actually the bag that my colleague went to check." The blast partially destroyed the church roof and shattered glass in nearby buildings. It turned out to be part of a wave of bomb blasts striking packed churches and towns across Nigeria as Islamist militants launched a Christmas Day bombing spree that left at least 39 dead and scores more wounded in Africa's most populous nation.

"With my own two eyes, I saw a whole family, five of them, perish in their car which was next to the explosion," Idriss, a 43-year-old truck driver, told TIME over the phone. "I counted 27 bodies. Not only in the church, outside there were two drivers dead on top of their okadas [the local motorcycles used to navigate the area's choked streets]." Among the dead were three policemen stationed to guard the church, the police area commander told TIME. Security has been beefed up in churches nationwide amid repeated threats from the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. (See photos of Boko Haram's August bombing in Nigeria.)

Angry Christian youths, furious over the attack, initially refused to let the dead bodies be cleared away from the smoldering rubble, demanding that President Goodluck Jonathan personally see what had taken place. Officials from the National Emergency Management Agency struggled with a shortage of ambulances. Policemen eventually cordoned off the area and dispersed the mob by reportedly firing live rounds into the air.

It was not the first bombing in the capital region. Boko Haram members allegedly detonated Nigeria's first ever suicide bombing in August at the U.N. compound, killing 24. The group, which draws inspiration from Afghanistan's Taliban movement, is fighting for a strict interpretation of Shari'a across Nigeria's 160 million-strong population, which is roughly split between Muslim and Christian. Boko Haram (which -- in Hausa, a language in northern Nigeria -- roughly means Western Education Is Sacrilege) is believed to have been behind four subsequent explosions.

On Christmas Day, a person claiming to speak on behalf of Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the Madalla church attack and another attempted explosion that struck the central city of Jos -- an ethnic and religious melting pot that has borne the brunt of Nigeria's sectarian violence. "A police patrol car sighted three men on a motorbike. There was exchange of gunfire and the men threw the bomb into the church compound," a Jos state official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. He said the policeman died on the way to hospital, but no other casualties were reported. In Jos, traditional celebrations and planned family reunions had already been scrapped in the run-up to Christmas amid painful memories of a Christmas Eve bomb that killed some 32 people last year, residents said. "The streets are so empty it's like it's not even Christmas. Nobody wants to go out even to buy cigarettes because of all this fear," said Chidi Emweku, 31, a university student.

Meanwhile explosions struck two other towns in Yobe, one of the impoverished northeastern states where Boko Haram traditionally operates. One was in a church in Damaturu, according to residents. The police commissioner said details were not immediately available. (See why Boko Haram is al-Qaeda's new friend in Africa.)

Earlier in the week, the Nigerian chief of army staff, Azubuike Ihejirika, said three soldiers were killed when police raided a suspected Boko Haram bombmaking factory in Damaturu. "There was a major encounter with the Boko Haram in Damaturu," Ihejirika said. "In the encounter, we lost three of our soldiers, seven were wounded. But we killed over 50 of their members." Hospital and morgue workers who spoke to TIME said almost all the 50 bodies they saw were civilians. Critics say the army's frequent incursions into areas where Boko Haram has popular support has fueled the cycle of violence. The group's fierce antigovernment rhetoric has also earned support in the arid, predominantly Muslim northeastern states of Yobe and Borno, where unemployment and poverty far exceed that in the oil-rich south, where Christians abound.

Experts are anxiously monitoring Boko Haram's ability to strike regularly beyond Yobe and Borno, amid claims from the group that its members have traveled to neighboring Chad and as far east as Somalia for training and financing. A December 2011 report from the U.S. Congress said the organization -- along with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which operates just north of Nigeria's Sahel desert -- posed a growing threat to American interests.

Activist Shehu Sani, president of Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria, said several attempts to broker a cease-fire between the group and the government collapsed amid mutual mistrust. "The only option is dialogue. For as long as the group has foot soldiers willing to use their bodies, using force will not work against them," he said. The violence prompted condemnations from around the world, including a statement from the White House, which called the attacks "senseless" and pledged to work with Nigerian officials to bring those responsible to justice.

President Jonathan said there was "no reason" for what he called "an ugly incident." "This is one of the challenges of this Administration. This will not be forever, it will end one day," he said in a statement. But many Nigerians wonder when it will end. Idriss, standing amid the wreckage in Madalla, said he had fled Jos earlier in the week after news of gun battles day after day in the north of the country filtered through. "I just wanted to be somewhere safe, but look what happened," he said as sirens wailed in the background.

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What was a miracle of the May 22 tornado has become a Christmas blessing. Desire...

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Batting Cage Practice or Virtual Golf for Up to Four People at Baseball Plus in Freeport (Up to 58% Off)

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Source: groupon.com --- Sunday, December 25, 2011
Baseball and golf both reward those with powerful swings, exceptional hand-eye coordination, and the ability to sprout spikes from the bottom of their feet. Reap the benefits of a firm foundation with today?s Groupon to Baseball Plus in Freeport. Choose between the following options: For $19, you get one hour of batting cage practice (a $45 value). For $35, you get two hours of golf simulator play for up to four people (a $70 value). The kinetic clash of zipping projectiles resonates throughout Baseball Plus?s expansive indoor facility, where Baseball players and golfers alike can groom their game in multiple batting cages and state-of-the-art Full Swing golf simulators . The studio?s mechanical hurlers paint the plate with pitches dialed to one of seven total speeds?topping out at 80 mph and hitting the low-end with high-arcing, slow-pitch softball?for players to swat with their trusty bat or swimming noodle. Up to four linksmen can loop the realistic-looking courses contained in each golf simulator, which precisely replicates the emerald corridors of 50 worldwide courses. Players can spend their two-hour session playing competitive rounds of golf or in training modules that foster games of longest drive, closest to the pin, and greatest postswing pirouette. Groupon Says The Groupon Guide to: Map-Legend Symbols Which map shows where you can safely leave a baby? Read more... ...

Source: http://groupon.com/long-island/deals/baseball-plus

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Athens-Clarke Police looking for blue 2000 Ford Explorer from Friday, 12/23 carj...

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Windows Media Player 12 Issue

Heya!

Im having issues with Media Player 12, the issue is that i put several songs in a playlist and sometimes media players think he changes music automatically, and it just start jumping through the songs and never stops, or if stops, after a few seconds starts switching again.
The problem occurs since i bought a Razer Lycosa keyboard. Any fix ideas?
I know use another player, but i just wanna know what the hell is goin on.

Thank you.

P.S.: Only the Media player 12 do this, and the other versions ofc.

Source: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2215005&goto=newpost

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America's 'booming' Christmas tree business: By the numbers (The Week)

New York ? Even in these tough economic times, Americans aren't skimping on Christmas

The economy may still be floundering. But the Christmas tree business is booming. According to new study by research firm IBISWorld, Americans will spend an estimated $3.4 billion on Christmas trees this year, the highest amount since 2007. Here, a brief guide, by the numbers, to this "booming" holiday business:

25 million
Real Christmas trees Americans will buy this year, according to IBISWorld's forecast

SEE MORE: Why are there no new Christmas songs?

?

$800 million
Estimated retail cost of those trees

10 million
Artificial trees Americans will buy this holiday season

SEE MORE: The holiday season's 8 most anticipated films

?

$2.6 billion
Estimated retail cost of those artificial trees

$3.4 billion
Total estimated Christmas tree spending this year

SEE MORE: Is the U.N. declaring 'war on Santa'?

?

3.1
Estimated increase, in percent, from last year's?Christmas tree spending

$3.51 billion
Amount Americans spent on Christmas trees in 2007

SEE MORE: 'All I Want for Christmas Is You': The best viral videos

?

$3.14 billion
Amount Americans spent on Christmas trees in 2008, when the global financial meltdown took a huge bite out of this seasonal industry

$36.12
Average cost of a real Christmas tree in 2010

SEE MORE: 'Christmas tree syndrome': An instant guide

?

$64.61
Average cost of an artificial Christmas tree in 2010

80
Percent of all artificial trees that are manufactured in China

SEE MORE: The Secret Santas who are paying strangers' debts

?

6 to 9
Number of years an average family uses an artificial tree before throwing it away

7
Number of years it takes, on average, to grow a typical Christmas tree

SEE MORE: Are loud toys damaging your kids'?hearing?

?

More than 100,000
People?who are employed either part-time or full-time in the Christmas tree industry

Sources: Bloomberg, Mental Floss, National Christmas Tree Association, Valley Breeze,?Washington Post

View this article on TheWeek.com
Get Obama's Christmas tree tax: 'Knucklehead move'?

Fact Sheet: Tips from Santa training school: Managing kids' gift expectations

Instant Guide: Toygaroo: Will parents really rent kids' Christmas gifts?

EssayThe last word: He said he was leaving. She ignored him.

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oped/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/theweek/20111223/cm_theweek/222343

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Chinese seaside town protesters in police standoff (AP)

BEIJING ? Chinese authorities have detained five people in a southern seaside town where protests against a planned power plant expansion resulted in clashes with police, state media and an official said, as riot police fired tear gas.

Thousands of people in the town of Haimen wanting to block a highway were locked in a standoff with riot police Thursday, said protesters contacted by The Associated Press. It was the third day of unrest in the area.

A city Communist Party propaganda official surnamed Chen said some people who had participated in "illegal activities that endanger public security" earlier this week had been detained, but said he was uncertain how many.

Five people were detained by police for suspected vandalism by Wednesday evening, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Xinhua said hundreds had gathered at the toll gate of the highway.

A resident also surnamed Chen, who is not related to the official, said a few thousand people gathered to face a roadblock set up by police. "Police set up a roadblock at the highway and threatened to arrest anyone who dared to cross," Chen said.

The protesters think an existing coal-fired power plant has contributed to what they say is a rise in cancer cases and heavy pollution in the seas, a serious problem for a town where fishing is a source of livelihood.

"We just want to ask the central government to order the construction of the coal power plant to be stopped," said Lin Fujin, a Haimen resident who was at the scene. "The pollution has turned the sky black and the fish are dead."

Officials cited by Xinhua said the construction of the new plant, which would be an expansion of the existing one, has not started yet. They said the project must pass an environmental impact assessment and be approved by Haimen's residents.

Footage from Hong Kong's Cable TV showed tear gas canisters hitting the ground in front of a gas station as panicked residents fled in various directions. That is the second time police have used tear gas to disperse protesters in Haimen this week.

The broadcaster also showed riot police with helmets and shields lined up around a large water cannon truck facing dozens of people on the other side of a road.

"The police hit me," a woman with bloodied hands told Cable TV, surrounded by an angry crowd. "I just wanted to go over there to offer an explanation but they started to drag me on the road."

In response to the protests, the local government said Tuesday it would temporarily suspend the power plant project, Xinhua said.

But protesters say they have not heard directly from authorities on the matter. They were also angered by rumors that one or two young protesters had died in clashes with police, but Xinhua cited a local Communist Party official as saying that no deaths had occurred.

After three decades of laxly regulated industrialization, China is seeing a surge in protests over such environmental worries.

In September, hundreds of villagers in an eastern Chinese city near Shanghai demonstrated against pollution they blamed on a solar panel factory. In August, 12,000 residents in the northeastern port city of Dalian protested against a chemical plant after waves from a tropical storm broke a dike guarding the plant and raised fears that flood waters could release toxic chemicals.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111223/ap_on_re_as/as_china_unrest

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'The X Factor' Finale Preview: Who Should Win?

Thursday night, one of the three remaining contestants on The X Factor will walk away with a record-setting $5 million recording contract. Simon Cowell's search for the next "global superstar" has come down to Virgin Islands R&B crooner Melanie Amaro, 19, soulful Ohio rocker Josh Krajcik, 30, and Californian hip hip artist Chris Rene, 28. So after Wednesday night's final performance, how are the odds looking for these three very different musicians?

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/x-factor-finale-preview-who-should-win/1-a-413319?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Ax-factor-finale-preview-who-should-win-413319

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Apple posts support article confirming iTunes Match availability in 17 countries

Apple has posted a support article to back up its recent silent roll out of iTunes Match content internationally. iTunes Match has been available in the United States since November but last week some other international countries started to see it appear too. The support article confirms...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/LDKmQ3MA8C4/story01.htm

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David Archuleta announces plans for Mormon mission (AP)

SALT LAKE CITY ? American Idol runner-up David Archuleta says he will take a break from his singing career to serve a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The contestant from the 2007-2008 season made the announcement during a Christmas concert Monday in downtown Salt Lake City. The Deseret News reports (http://bit.ly/tpQhzU) that the 20-year-old Utah resident says he's not quitting music, but feels a strong call to serve the church.

A video of the concert on Archuleta's website shows him crying as he tells the crowd about his plans.

Church spokesman Eric Hawkins confirmed Archuleta's mission on Tuesday, but declined to say where the singer will serve.

More than 52,000 church members currently are serving full-time missions worldwide. Most are men between the ages of 19 and 21.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111220/ap_en_mu/us_people_archuleta

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The Automotive Story/Volt That Wouldn't Die! Reprised ? Stately ...

In this Post, I combine two shorter stories from March.? Coming tomorrow: The glories and green dreams of Dr. Chu.

03-13-11: The Automotive Story That Won?t Die!

It?s the automotive saga that won?t die! See my most recent post on the Volt here.

Chris DeMorro (here) writes about the Volt:

Without a doubt the biggest knock against the Volt isn?t its limited electric range or its so-so fuel efficiency, but the $41,000 price tag. Yet GM has the ability to make a cheaper Volt. So what are they waiting for?

DeMorro notes many of the issues I?ve raised in my several articles on the Volt including the very pricey battery ($8000-$10,000?nobody knows for sure and GM isn?t telling) and the fact that:

GM doesn?t make a dime off of every Volt they sell?

But DeMorro?s analysis of a smaller Volt with a smaller, less expensive battery produces a car?that still costs about $32,000 with the federal tax credit, yet has an all-electric range of only 12-15 miles, as opposed to the Volt?s real world pricing of up to $65,000 and a range of only 25-40 miles.

Well who wouldn?t want a pseudo-electric car that was only a little less expensive than the Volt, yet has substantially less range? To DeMorro?s credit, he admits in an update that considering economic issues,

?a smaller battery might not actually make sense.

No kidding.

And at green.autoblog.com (here), they note that the Volt?s ?More car than electric? advertising slogan has been conspicuously missing from recent Volt commercials. GM did respond to the autoblog folks with this comment:

It?s More Car Than Electric? is still the tagline for the Volt. We did replace the tagline to announce the ?Motor Trend Car of the Year? and ?North American Car of the Year.? We also do not use the tagline when we are using Volt as more of a halo story for Chevrolet.

And so GM continues to market a car that is too expensive to manufacture, too expensive to buy, is no significant improvement on contemporary vehicles and has expensive, unproven technology that has not caught up to the hype and never may. Other than that, it?s a brilliant new concept and will revolutionize the automobile industry in the same way that Mr. Obama policies have revolutionized the energy industry so as to cleverly, stratospherically raise gasoline prices. No wonder people call him the smartest man on the planet! And remember, ?it?s more car than electric,? which is rather like saying ?it?s more washing machine than coal.?

UPDATE: Rob over at PACNW Righty (here) has a story about a few charging stations being installed in the Puget Sound area?and their limitations. Nothing like a four to eight hour visit to a charging station to catch up on your reading or knitting!

03-17-11: The Volt That Wouldn?t Die!

It may be worth your while to visit Patrick Michaels? relatively brief article on the Chevy Volt at Forbes (here), if for no other reason than to reinforce what you?ve already learned, and in much greater detail, on this scruffy little blog. You?re ahead of the curve on this one!

Michaels reinforces the fact that the Volt makes no fiscal sense for GM or for potential driver/owners. One interesting bit is that a GM representative apparently told Michaels that cold would not effect a Volt?s battery operating range. Apparently GM has discovered how to sidestep the laws of physics, so I?m anxiously awaiting the brand new, warp drive 2012 Volt, with optional transporter and replicator. I wonder how much of a tax credit that will wring from the Feds? And of course, you?ll probably only get 1.5 light years on the battery before the warp drive kicks in. I?d definitely check the power reserves before trying to transport at warp though. It can be disquieting to scatter your atoms all over the universe.

Michaels also makes an interesting point about GE preparing to buy many Volts from GM. GE President Jeffrey Imelt, you may remember from my past Volt posts, is now serving as Mr. Obama?s economic advice honcho. Could there be any collusion or conflict of interest in the head of GE buying up unsellable cars with heaters that don?t work in order to shore up bull-goose looney Obama fiscal policies? Surely this would be impossible in the most transparent administration in history!

Actually, the Volt and everything and everyone remotely associated with it represent the very worst of feckless government meddling in the economy. Oh?and quit calling me Shirley.

My previous posts on the Volt may be found in the SMM Electric Vehicles archive.?

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Source: http://statelymcdanielmanor.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/the-automotive-storyvolt-that-wouldnt-die-reprised/

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Singing Christmas Hedgehogs Open Thread (Balloon Juice)

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Christopher Hitchens, Famed Author, Journalist and Critic, Dead at 62

Christopher Hitchens, famed British-born author, literary critic and journalist, passed away Thursday at a hospital in Texas. He was 62 years old.

He died from pneumonia, a complication of esophageal cancer.

Vanity Fair magazine, his longtime employer, announced his death, and said simply that there would "never be another like Christopher."

Christopher Hitchens Interview

VF editor Graydon Carter described the writer as someone "of ferocious intellect, who was as vibrant on the page as he was at the bar ... Those who read him felt they knew him, and those who knew him were profoundly fortunate souls."

Hitchens was born in Portsmouth, England, in 1949.

He began his career as a journalist in the UK in the 1970s and later moved to N.Y. City, becoming Vanity Fair contributing editor in November 1992.

He is survived by his wife, Carol Blue, and their daughter, Antonia, and his children from a previous marriage, Alexander and Sophia. R.I.P.

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/12/christopher-hitchens-famed-author-critic-and-journalist-dead-at/

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Man to act as own lawyer in Yale doctor killing (Providence Journal)

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Syrians protest against Assad after Russia U.N. move (Reuters)

BEIRUT (Reuters) ? Hundreds of thousands of Syrians took to the streets on Friday to protest against President Bashar al-Assad, activists said, a day after Syria's big power ally Russia sharpened its criticism of Damascus in a draft United Nations resolution.

Activists and residents said Syrian forces shot dead four people in a continuing crackdown that the United Nations says has killed 5,000 people in the last nine months and has provoked Western and Arab League sanctions to isolate Damascus.

Friday's killings took place, activists said, after midday prayers in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour and in Homs, hotbed of opposition to four decades of repressive Assad family rule.

In Homs 200,000 people joined a protest march, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, and footage broadcast by Al Jazeera television showed mock gallows where five effigies were hanged, including one of Assad.

It was not possible to verify the number of protesters as Syria has barred most independent journalists, but if true it would be one the biggest turnouts for several weeks.

Russia on Thursday presented a new, beefed-up draft resolution on the violence to the U.N. Security Council, offering a chance for the 15-nation panel to overcome deadlock and deliver its first statement of purpose on Assad's crackdown.

The council has been split between Western countries harshly critical of Syria on the one hand, and Russia, China and non-aligned countries on the other that have refused to pin the main blame on Assad for the violence.

Western diplomats believe a firm Security Council resolution backed by Russia, Syria's longstanding ally and arms supplier, could make a real difference to efforts to tackle the crisis.

Assad has denied that Syrian forces have been given orders to kill demonstrators, blaming armed groups for the violence. He said 1,100 soldiers and police have been killed since the uprising erupted in March, inspired by other unrest in the Arab world that has toppled three autocratic leaders this year.

An armed insurgency has begun to eclipse civilian protests, raising fears Syria could descend into civil war. On Thursday army deserters killed 27 soldiers and security personnel in the southern province of Deraa, the Observatory said.

It is the most serious challenge to the 11-year rule of Assad, 46, whose family is from the minority Alawite sect that has dominated majority Sunni Muslim Syria since 1970.

The United States and European Union have imposed sanctions and called on Assad to step down. Neighboring Turkey has taken similar steps and even the Arab League has declared sanctions against Syria, although it has several times extended a deadline for Syria to approve a formula for ending the crisis.

In the latest sign of the heavy economic price Syria is paying for the bloodshed, Turkey said on Friday that Damascus would lose more than $100 million a year in transport revenues as Ankara bypasses the turbulent country by opening alternative export routes to the Middle East and Gulf.

The Turkish Economy Ministry said it had finalized talks to start exporting goods to Egypt via sea in January and from there overland to Gulf countries to avoid Syria.

"ARAB LEAGUE IS KILLING US"

Arab governments called off a foreign ministers' meeting due to discuss a response on Saturday to Assad's iron fist policy towards unrest, Egypt's state news agency MENA reported.

A source at Arab League headquarters in Cairo did not give a reason for the cancellation. A lower-level meeting of its ministerial committee on Syria will go ahead in Qatar on Saturday, the source said. The committee includes the foreign ministers of Egypt, Sudan, Oman, Qatar and Algeria.

Friday's protests were held under the slogan of "The Arab League is Killing us," reflecting demonstrators' frustration at what they see as the organization's ponderous response.

At the U.N. Security Council in October, Russia and China vetoed a West European draft resolution that threatened sanctions. Russia has circulated its own draft twice but Western nations said they had made unacceptable attempts to assign blame equally to government and opposition for the violence.

The draft floated unexpectedly by Russia on Thursday expands and toughens Moscow's previous text, adding a new reference to "disproportionate use of force by Syrian authorities."

Obtained by Reuters, the draft also "urges the Syrian government to put an end to suppression of those exercising their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association."

Reports by Human Rights Watch and a U.N.-backed independent investigation have assessed that Syrian government forces were given "shoot to kill" orders when confronting demonstrators.

STRONGER TEXT

Russia's U.N. Ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, told reporters that the latest draft resolution "considerably strengthens all aspects of the previous text" and that "clearly the Syrian authorities are singled out in a number of instances."

He said Russia did not believe both sides in Syria were equally responsible for violence, but acknowledged the text called on all parties to halt violence and contained no threat of sanctions, which he said Moscow continued to oppose.

Western officials welcomed the Russian move, but French Ambassador Gerard Araud said it needed "a lot of amendments."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she could not support some parts of the draft but "hopefully we can work with the Russians, who for the first time at least are recognizing that this is a matter that needs to go to the Security Council."

In London, British Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said Russia might hold the key to tightening sanctions on Syria, but Britain would also look at ways of imposing new measures on Damascus through the European Union.

"We will continue to look for new ways in energy, in transport, as well as financial restrictions, to put pressure on the Syrian regime," Burt told Reuters in a telephone interview.

(Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman, Ece Toksabay in Ankara and Tom Pfeiffer in Cairo; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111216/wl_nm/us_syria

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