Dec
22

This bus' next stop: doing good

Maybe you want to help others. Maybe you long to lend a hand. But you're not sure where and you're not sure how and you don't...
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Maker Mom Builds Cookie-Cutter Empire With 3-D Printers

Athey Moravetz is doing some tasty work with her 3-D printers. The video game designer has worked on PlayStation games like Resistance Retribution and Uncharted Golden Abyss. She's also a self-described "jack-of-all-trades," skilled with 3-D modeling tools like Maya, and knows how to design compelling characters with them. After having two children she decided to work from home, and in addition...
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Crafters send mittens with a message to Newtown

“Chester Raccoon stood at the edge of the forest and cried. ‘I don’t want to go to school,’ he told his mother. ‘I want to stay home with you. I want to play with my friends. And play with my toys. And read my books. And swing on my swing. Please may I stay home with you?’” — “The Kissing Hand,” by Audrey Penn.___NEW YORK (AP) — Imagining the horror for Sandy Hook Elementary students when they walk...
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Alabama to End Isolation of Inmates With H.I.V.

Jamie Martin/Associated PressThe H.I.V. ward of an Alabama women's prison in 2008. The state was ordered to stop segregating inmates with the virus. A federal judge on Friday ordered Alabama to stop isolating prisoners with H.I.V. Alabama is one of two states, along with South Carolina, where H.I.V.-positive inmates are housed in separate prisons, away from other inmates, in an attempt to...
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Dec
21

Boehner's 'fiscal cliff' plan fails

WASHINGTON — House Speaker John A. Boehner abruptly canceled a vote on his Plan B tax proposal late Thursday after failing to...
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Hard to Handle

The 2013 Mustang Shelby GT500 is many things: imposing, populist, expensive. It’s also the last car Carroll Shelby had a hand in building. And true to the legacy of the legendary racer and auto designer who helped define the modern sports car, the GT500 is a Mustang with more power than any sane individual needs.Its 5.8-liter supercharged V8 puts out a massive manufacturer-claimed 662 horsepower...
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Martha Raddatz, Hot Off Debate Performance, Promoted at ABC News

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Martha Raddatz, widely praised for her moderation of the vice presidential debate in October, has been given an expanded role as ABC News’ chief global affairs correspondent. Jonathan Karl, meanwhile, will become the network’s new chief White House correspondent, filling the void left by Jake Tapper‘s exit to CNN.Raddatz will replace Tapper as the primary substitute for George...
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Stigma Fading, Marijuana Common in California

Jim Wilson/The New York TimesAt a San Francisco concert in 2010, marijuana use was general while signatures were collected for a measure to decriminalize it. LOS ANGELES — Let Colorado and Washington be the marijuana trailblazers. Let them struggle with the messy details of what it means to actually legalize the drug. Marijuana is, as a practical matter, already legal in much of California. ...
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Boehner Tax Plan in House Is Pulled, Lacking Votes

Brendan Hoffman for The New York TimesSpeaker John A. Boehner of Ohio leaving a meeting Thursday with fellow House Republicans on talks over the “fiscal cliff.” WASHINGTON — Speaker John A. Boehner’s effort to pass fallback legislation to avert a fiscal crisis in less than two weeks collapsed Thursday night in an embarrassing defeat after conservative Republicans refused to support legislation that...
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Dec
20

Fearful 'end of world' calls, emails flood NASA as Dec. 21 nears

If there's one government agency really looking forward to Dec. 22, it's NASA.The space agency said it has been flooded with...
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This Is How You Craft 16,000 Candy Canes in a Day

It might not be Christmas every day at Kencraft Candy, but it smells like it. At the height of the season, the Utah sweets factory churns out 16,000 candy canes per day. Click through the image gallery above to see how they do it.CookSixty pounds of corn syrup, 70 pounds of sugar, and 1.5 gallons of water (above) are loaded into a vacuum cooker and simmered at 272 degrees for 20 minutes. Then cooks...
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Why “Les Misérables” Looks Like a Holiday Box-Office Smash

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Moviegoers are storming online ticketing sites in advance of the Christmas release of “Les Misérables,” and the big-screen adaptation of the Broadway musical has all the makings of a holiday smash.With a cast that includes Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman, expectations are enormous, but based on advance tracking, so is the box-office potential.The film, made for a reported...
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The New Old Age Blog: After Storm, 'Friends' Rescue a Caregiver

Tales of Hurricane Sandy survival will likely emerge for years — particularly about the sick and elderly who were trapped in their homes or forced to evacuate under harrowing circumstances. Many of those stories have happy endings, like this one of social media and neighborliness I recently heard.It is about two ailing 90-year-olds who, because of social media, formal and informal, and the ingenuity...
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Obama and Boehner Split on Fiscal Plan

Brendan Hoffman for The New York TimesSpeaker John A. Boehner delivered a cutting response to President Obama on Wednesday. WASHINGTON — Hopes for a broad deficit-reduction agreement faded on Wednesday as President Obama insisted he had offered Republicans “a fair deal” while Speaker John A. Boehner moved for a House vote as early as Thursday on a scaled-down plan to limit tax increases to yearly...
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Dec
19

Gun lobby's grip on Congress threatened

WASHINGTON — The gun-control debate sharpened Tuesday as President Obama backed an effort to revive the assault weapons ban...
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The 15 Most Dangerous People in the World

There used to be an established order to the world. A structure to things. You couldn't print a gun like a term paper. It was impossible to wreck a nuclear production plant with a few lines of code. Flying robots didn't descend on you in the dead of night and kill you in your home. But that order has been upended. Cheap videos in California help spark riots in Cairo. Lynchpins of the Middle East...
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“Castle” star Nathan Fillion to preside over Writers Guild Awards show

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Pretend writer Nathan Fillion will help honor real writers on February 17, when he hosts the Writers Guild Awards West Coast show, the Writers Guild of America, West said Monday.Fillion, who plays a mystery novelist on ABC’s “Castle,” joked that he was “confused” when he was tapped for the hosting gig.“When I first accepted the honor of hosting the Writers Guild Awards,...
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The New Old Age Blog: Older People Become What They Think, Study Shows

All of us have beliefs — many of them subconscious, dating back to childhood — about what it means to get older. Psychologists call these “age stereotypes.” And, it turns out, they can have an important effect on seniors’ health.When stereotypes are negative — when seniors are convinced becoming old means becoming useless, helpless or devalued — they are less likely to seek preventive medical care...
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DealBook: As Unit Pleads Guilty, UBS Pays $1.5 Billion Over Rate Rigging

UBS, the Swiss banking giant, announced a record settlement with global authorities on Wednesday, agreeing to a combined $1.5 billion in fines for its role in a multiyear scheme to manipulate interest rates.In a sign that officials are increasingly taking a hard line against financial wrongdoing, the Justice Department also secured a guilty plea from the bank’s Japanese subsidiary, sending a warning...
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Dec
18

Newport Beach dock renters may withhold holiday love

Marcy Cook embraces the holiday season. The tell? Start with the teddy bears dressed as Santa. More than 1,500 stand sentry...
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