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We'll focus on?efforts to help veterans find?jobs and deal with health and family problems. "One of the great blessings in my life has been the exposure I've received to the military?active duty, in the field and veterans,"?says Brian Williams. "They are America?s genuine heroes, and it's a privilege to use our platforms at NBC News to honor all that they have done."

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40153870/vp/45530590#45530590

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1st Penn State abuse suit comes from new accuser (AP)

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. ? Hours after a man contended in a lawsuit that Jerry Sandusky sexually abused him more than 100 times, Penn State leaders pledged to raise ethics "to a new level" on a campus coming to grips with the shocking criminal allegations against the school's once-revered assistant football coach.

President Rod Erickson and other administrators faced pointed questions at a student-organized town hall forum Wednesday night, part of what Erickson promised would be a new emphasis on transparency.

Authorities have charged Sandusky with sexually abusing eight boys over a 15-year span, and the state police commissioner has criticized school leaders for failing to do more to alert authorities to the allegations.

Ethics would be raised "to a new level so that everyone at the university understands not just the legal thing to do, but the moral thing to do, so that we learn to do the right thing the first time, every time," Erickson told about 450 attendees at a crowded auditorium at the student union building.

Students appeared grateful to get answers more than three weeks after Sandusky was charged Nov. 5, hopeful it would aid in the arduous healing process.

"I think this is a good start for a lot of good things that can happen at the university," said student Andrew Comes, 21, following the two-hour forum. "It's a singularly bad event, but there can still be positive repercussions and good things happening from it."

Earlier Wednesday, a new accuser who is not part of the criminal case said in a lawsuit that Sandusky threatened to harm his family to keep him quiet.

The 29-year-old, identified only as John Doe, had never told anyone about the abuse he claims he suffered until Sandusky was charged last month with abusing other boys. His lawyer said he filed a complaint with law enforcement on Tuesday. He became the first plaintiff to file suit in the Penn State child sex abuse scandal a day later.

Sandusky has acknowledged that he showered with boys but denied molesting them. His lawyer did not immediately return a message about the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims Sandusky abused the boy from 1992, when the boy was 10, until 1996 in encounters at the coach's State College home, in a Penn State locker room and on trips, including to a bowl game. The account echoes a grand jury's description of trips, gifts and attention lavished on other boys.

"I am hurting and have been for a long time because of what happened, but feel now even more tormented that I have learned of so many other kids were abused after me," the plaintiff said in a handwritten statement his lawyer read aloud at a news conference in Philadelphia.

The lawsuit seeks tens of thousands of dollars and names Sandusky, the university and Sandusky's The Second Mile charity as defendants. The man says he knew the coach through the charity, which Sandusky founded in 1977, ostensibly to help disadvantaged children in central Pennsylvania.

The man was not referenced in the grand jury report.

His lawyer, Jeff Anderson, said he believes Sandusky was a predator who could not control his sexual impulses toward children. He harshly criticized officials at Penn State and The Second Mile.

"We need to address the institutional recklessness and failures," said Anderson, who specializes in clergy sex abuse lawsuits. "Was it because of power, money, fear, loyalty, lack of education?"

Erickson said after the forum he had not read the complaint. Asked if the school was prepared for the financial and legal exposure that might accompany what could be the first of several civil suits, Erickson said, "Certainly we have insurance coverage for the costs that will be involved, and we'll respond appropriately."

The charity said it would respond after reviewing the lawsuit but added: "The Second Mile will adhere to its legal responsibilities throughout this process. As always, our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families."

In the lawsuit, the plaintiff said Sandusky gave him gifts, travel and privileges after meeting him through his charity in 1992. The abuse began shortly afterward, the suit said.

Anderson suggested that it ended four years later because Sandusky was not sexually interested in older teens.

Anderson described Penn State and the charity as entwined institutions, and he contended that both failed to ensure that children were safe when they took part in trips and activities. He declined to say which bowl game the boy attended.

Sandusky took one boy he molested to the Alamo Bowl in Texas in 1999 and threatened to send him home when he resisted his advances, the grand jury said.

The bowl proved to be Sandusky's last game as Penn State's defensive coordinator. Once the heir apparent of longtime football coach Joe Paterno, Sandusky left after Paterno told him he would not get the head coaching job.

John Doe's lawsuit seeks a minimum of $400,000 in damages for sexual abuse, negligence, emotional distress and other claims. The accuser long thought he was the only victim and was mired in guilt and self-loathing, his lawyer said.

"Now that I have done something about it, I am feeling better and going to get help and work with the police," the accuser wrote in his statement.

Anderson declined to specify what sexual acts his client says took place, but he called them "severe." Nor would he say which police agency his client contacted on Tuesday.

Police in Philadelphia and State College said they were not aware of such a complaint. The attorney general's office, which led the grand jury investigation, and state police said they could not disclose if a report was filed.

A university spokeswoman said police have received two complaints since Sandusky's arrest, the most recent from a prison inmate in Oklahoma, and both have been turned over to the attorney general's office. Anderson said his client John Doe is not that Oklahoma inmate.

By Anderson's count, the grand jury report lists 17 adults made aware of complaints or suspicions about the coach over the years, including those who knew of a 1998 complaint that Sandusky had showered with a Second Mile boy. Police pursued that mother's complaint and compiled more than 100 pages of investigatory notes, but no charges were filed.

Had John Doe known about that, he might have come forward to a parent or counselor years ago, Anderson said.

In State College, administrators sought to reassure students worried about the unintended ramifications of the scandal, such as the reputation of a Penn State degree.

After several questioners mentioned they felt shamed by the scandal, vice president Henry Foley, as part of an answer about the school's top three priorities, told students to focus on academics and to "recognize that none of you are guilty. ... You may feel shame, but none of you are guilty. Just keep doing what you came here to do."

An overflow crowd watched the forum in another auditorium at the student union, while students at Penn State branch campuses could also email questions.

The grand jury said the allegations against Sandusky were not immediately brought to the attention of authorities even though high-level people at Penn State apparently knew about at least one of them.

The scandal has resulted in the departures of Paterno and university President Graham Spanier. Athletic Director Tim Curley has been placed on administrative leave, and Vice President Gary Schultz, who was in charge of the university's police department, has stepped down.

Schultz and Curley are charged with lying to the grand jury and failure to report to police. Sandusky is charged with child sex abuse. All maintain their innocence.

Erickson told reporters after the forum that Spanier was currently on sabbatical, and that as a tenured faculty member would have the right to teach if he so desired.

Several students also asked about the treatment of Paterno, who was the only school leader fired in the scandal's aftermath. Erickson said afterward he could not offer a detailed answer because it was the trustees' decision.

He reiterated there was no truth to Internet-fueled rumors that Paterno's statue outside Beaver Stadium would be removed, or that the Paterno name would be removed from the campus library to which the Paterno family had donated millions to help build.

"At some appropriate time down the road, I'm sure there will be an opportunity to also reflect on the many years of service Joe and (wife Sue Paterno) provided the university and the many good things that they've done for Penn State," Erickson said, eliciting brief applause.

___

Dale reported from Philadelphia.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111201/ap_on_sp_ot/us_penn_state_abuse

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Ndamukong Suh Stomp: Appeal Hearing To Be Held Thursday, Says AP Source

NEW YORK -- Ndamukong Suh will get his appeals hearing right away.

On Thursday afternoon, Suh will present his appeal of his two-game suspension for stomping Packers guard Evan Dietrich-Smith to Art Shell. The league handed out the suspension Tuesday, but Suh immediately appealed.

Shell is a joint appointee of the NFL and the players' association for such cases.

A person familiar with the process told The Associated Press on Wednesday about the hearing, which will be held by conference call. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the NFL has not announced when the hearing will occur.

Suh stomped on Dietrich-Smith during Detroit's Thanksgiving Day loss to the Packers and was ejected. Should he lose the appeal, he will miss Sunday's game at New Orleans and the Lions' Dec. 11 home game against Minnesota.

Usually, a hearing is held within 10 days of the filing of an appeal. But the league has expedited Suh's high-profile case to give the Lions and the second-year player an answer before the Saints game.

If Suh, the 2010 Defensive Rookie of the Year and an All-Pro, loses the appeal, he can return to the Lions on Dec. 12 before a road game against Oakland. He is barred from practice and the team's facility while suspended.

Early last month, Suh requested and was granted a meeting with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to discuss his play after he drew several penalties and fines. Suh said he had a better understanding of the rules after that meeting.

On Sunday, with it becoming apparent he would be disciplined again, Suh called Goodell to apologize.

Against Green Bay on national TV, Suh lifted up his right knee and forcibly stepped on Dietrich-Smith's right arm during the third quarter of the Lions' 27-15 loss. Before the stomp, Suh shoved Dietrich-Smith's helmet toward the turf while separating himself from the Packers player on the ground.

He was penalized and ejected.

Asked about the incident after the game, Suh sounded defiant, insisting he didn't intentionally step on Dietrich-Smith. A day later, following criticism from the Lions, Suh apologized to his teammates, organization and fans ? not to Dietrich-Smith.

His actions prompted more criticism around the league, with some calling Suh the NFL's dirtiest player.

Suh can afford any fines ? he is making $40 million guaranteed with a chance to get paid as much as $68 million in a five-year contract he signed after Detroit drafted him No. 2 overall in 2010.

___

AP Sports Writers Noah Trister and Larry Lage in Detroit contributed to this story.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/30/ndamukong-suh-stomp-appea_n_1121750.html

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Mexico City 'zombies' gather to challenge record

--> AAA??Nov. 26, 2011?8:30 PM ET
Mexico City 'zombies' gather to challenge record
AP

A man dressed as a zombie gestures during the V edition of the so-called 'Zombie Walk' in Mexico City, Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011. According to the organization 'Zombie Walk Mexico', the event gathered over 9,800 participants, breaking the previous record set in Asbury Park, in New Jersey in 2010 with 4,093 participants. Guinness World Records have not officially confirmed if Mexico holds the new record. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

A man dressed as a zombie gestures during the V edition of the so-called 'Zombie Walk' in Mexico City, Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011. According to the organization 'Zombie Walk Mexico', the event gathered over 9,800 participants, breaking the previous record set in Asbury Park, in New Jersey in 2010 with 4,093 participants. Guinness World Records have not officially confirmed if Mexico holds the new record. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

People dressed as zombies react to the camera during the V edition of the so-called 'Zombie Walk' in Mexico City, Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011. According to the organization 'Zombie Walk Mexico', the event gathered over 9,800 participants, breaking the previous record set in Asbury Park, in New Jersey in 2010 with 4,093 participants. Guinness World Records have not officially confirmed if Mexico holds the new record. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

People dressed as zombies react to the camera during the V edition of the so-called 'Zombie Walk' in Mexico City, Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011. According to the organization 'Zombie Walk Mexico', the event gathered over 9,800 participants, breaking the previous record set in Asbury Park, in New Jersey in 2010 with 4,093 participants. Guinness World Records have not officially confirmed if Mexico holds the new record. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

A woman wearing zombie make-up looks on during the V edition of the so-called 'Zombie Walk' in Mexico City, Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011. According to the organization 'Zombie Walk Mexico', the event gathered over 9,800 participants, breaking the previous record set in Asbury Park, in New Jersey in 2010 with 4,093 participants. Guinness World Records have not officially confirmed if Mexico holds the new record. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

(AP) ? Thousands of self-proclaimed "undead" have gathered in the historic center of Mexico's capital for a "Zombie Walk" that organizers hope sets a world record.

The announced 9,860 registered participants are dressed in rags and ghoulish makeup to look bloody and decaying.

Organizer Pablo Guisa says the fifth annual Mexico City event is meant to celebrate diversity and human rights. The participants also collected donations for a local food bank.

Cities around the world hold zombie walks, and Guinness World Records currently recognizes Asbury Park, New Jersey, as the record holder, with 4,093 participants on Oct. 30, 2010.

A group in Brisbane, Australia, has applied for the record, claiming it massed 8,000 "zombies" last month.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-11-26-LT-Mexico-Zombie-Walk/id-b4a841bc481f4e329c814cc4c1f42775

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First-term senator fed up with Congress' gridlock

(AP) ? A first-term senator is complaining about congressional gridlock, saying lawmakers have "the blame game down to a science."

West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin says it's difficult to find constituents who think Congress is doing its job.

Manchin tells CBS's "The Early Show" that he failed to get President Barack Obama to intervene directly with the debt-reduction supercommittee, which closed shop last week after failing to come up with an agreement to save $1.2 trillion over 10 years.

Manchin says government leaders have to be more involved in such situations, "whether it's the president of the leaders of Congress." He says one possible way to surmount the current stalemate in Washington is to sacrifice an extension of payroll tax relief in exchange for commitments by lawmakers to overhaul the tax system.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-11-25-First-term%20Senator-Gridlock/id-b556a0008cf24a0f85e846d07cc4dc4b

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Turkeynomics, Mahna Mahna, and 20 Pies for 19 People

?This Book Is 119 Years Overdue: The wondrous database that reveals what Americans checked out of the library a century ago,? by John Plotz. What do the books we read say about us as individuals, and our place in society? ?What Middletown Read??a database that tracks the borrowing records of Muncie, Indiana?s public library between 1891 and 1902?tackles this question head-on. The database stratifies its residents? reading habits by age, gender, class, and more. John Plotz bridges past and present, drawing critical links between what we read and who we are.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=cb50d58a568b249b648b50b80967984d

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Multiple Baghdad blasts kill at least 13 people (Reuters)

BAGHDAD (Reuters) ? Three bombs exploded in a commercial Baghdad district and another blast hit the city's western outskirts on Saturday, killing at least 13 people, police and hospital sources said.

The first blast hit Baghdad's central Bab al-Sharji district followed by two other explosions in a street nearby, in attacks highlighting the fact that violence is still troubling Iraq as the last U.S. troops prepare to withdraw at the end of the year.

A police source said the explosions killed at least seven people and wounded 29 others. Two other security sources said the blasts killed eight and wounded at least 13.

Earlier Saturday, six more people were killed and eight were wounded on the outskirts of Baghdad when a roadside bomb hit a truck carrying construction workers in Abu Ghraib to the west of the capital.

Attacks in Iraq have dropped sharply since the peak of sectarian slaughter in 2006-2007, but bombings, assaults and assassinations by Sunni Muslim insurgents and Shi'ite Muslim militias still occur nearly daily almost nine years after the U.S. invasion.

The remaining 18,000 U.S. troops in Iraq are packing up by the end of the year when a security pact with Baghdad expires. Talks to keep some U.S. troops in Iraq as trainers fell apart over the question of legal immunity for U.S. soldiers.

Iraqi and U.S. officials say Iraq's national military is capable of containing stubborn violence, but they are concerned about gaps the U.S. withdrawal will leave in their capabilities in areas like air defense and intelligence gathering.

(Reporting by Waleed Ibrahim and Kareem Raheem; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Alessandra Rizzo)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111126/wl_nm/us_iraq_violence

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Development of the brain network in the fetus now measurable for the first time in the womb

ScienceDaily (Nov. 24, 2011) ? A team of researchers at the MedUni's Clinical Department of Neuroradiology and Musculoskeletal Radiology has demonstrated for the first time ever that there are fetal brain developments that can be measured using functional magnetic resonance tomography in the womb. This means, says study leader Veronika Sch?pf, that pathological changes to brain development will be detectable earlier than they are currently -- and appropriate measures can be taken in good time.

In the study, 16 foetuses between the 20th and 36th weeks of pregnancy were measured. Measurements were taken of the brain's resting state networks. These networks remain in a state of readiness at rest and their activity increases after appropriate stimulation. The examinations are completely stress-free for the mothers and extend "normal" MRI scans by just a few minutes.

Functional defects are detected earlier "We have been able to demonstrate, for the first time ever, that the resting state networks are formed in utero and that these can be imaged and measured using functional imaging," explains Sch?pf, who is part of the working group led by Daniela Prayer, Head of the Department of Neuroradiology and Musculoskeletal Radiology and head of the world's leading centre for pre-natal magnetic resonance imaging at the MedUni Vienna.

This discovery means that, in future, the developmental progress of brain activity in the fetus can be measured and other findings and prognoses made regarding possible malfunctioning processes. As a result, functional defects, such as of the optic nerves or motor system, can be detected while the fetus is still in the womb -- an achievement that was previously impossible -- so that parents can be offered more informed advice and counselling, for example.

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Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111124150233.htm

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Bachmann says Fallon show song shows sexism, bias (AP)

ST. PAUL, Minn. ? GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann lashed out Wednesday at NBC for not apologizing or taking immediate disciplinary action for an off-color song played during her appearance on Jimmy Fallon's "Late Night."

In her first comments on the flap, Bachmann said on the Fox News Channel that the Fallon show band displayed sexism and bias by playing a snippet of a 1985 Fishbone song as she walked onstage for Tuesday's show. The title of the song is "Lyin' Ass B----."

"This is clearly a form of bias on the part of the Hollywood entertainment elite," Bachmann said. She added, "This wouldn't be tolerated if this was Michelle Obama. It shouldn't be tolerated if it's a conservative woman either."

Fallon has tweeted an apology to Bachmann, saying he was "so sorry about the intro mess." Bachmann said she hoped to speak with Fallon later Wednesday and wouldn't mind going on his show again.

But Bachmann expressed surprise that she's heard nothing from the TV network. She suggested that discipline for the show's Roots band was in order.

One of Bachmann's congressional colleagues, New York Democrat Nita Lowey, had called on NBC to apologize for its "insulting and inappropriate" treatment of its guest.

An NBC spokeswoman didn't immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press.

The Roots' bandleader, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, has said the song was a "tongue-in-cheek and spur-of-the-moment decision."

Bachmann, who is lagging in presidential polls, has spent the week promoting her new autobiography in national television interviews.

___

AP Television Writer David Bauder contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111123/ap_en_mu/us_bachmann_song_choice

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