WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The outgoing head of the Internal Revenue Service acknowledged on Friday that the tax agency planned its initial disclosure about having targeted conservative groups through a planted question at a lawyers' conference.
Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller told lawmakers during a Capitol Hill hearing that the question-and-answer session that exposed the tax agency's targeting of conservative groups for extra scrutiny had been carefully planned.
"It was a prepared Q and A," Miller said when asked about IRS official Lois Lerner's response to a question from a lobbyist at an American Bar Association conference last week.
When pressed whether the question was planted in advance, Miller said, "I believe that we talked about that, yes."
Miller did not elaborate on why the IRS chose such a strategy to reveal what has become a scandal over whether the tax agency treated some conservative groups fairly.
Miller was fired on Wednesday as the White House sought to stem criticism over the IRS matter. On Thursday, Obama chose White House budget official Daniel Werfel to replace Miller as acting commissioner.
(Reporting By Susan Heavey and Laura MacInnis; Editing by David Lindsey and Jackie Frank)
MADRID (AP) ? A Dutch citizen arrested in Spain on suspicion of launching what authorities have called the biggest cyberattack in Internet history is expected to be handed over to the Netherlands within 10 days, a Spanish court official said Monday.
The suspect ? identified only by his initials S.K. ? was questioned Saturday in the National Court in Madrid after his arrest last week and agreed to the deal, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because court rules prevent him from giving his name.
Police say the 35-year-old suspect operated from a bunker in northeast Spain and also had a van capable of hacking into networks anywhere in the country. He was arrested Thursday in Granollers, 35 kilometers (22 miles) north of Barcelona.
He is accused of attacking the anti-spam watchdog group Spamhaus, whose main task is to halt ads for counterfeit Viagra and bogus weight-loss pills reaching the world's inboxes.
Dutch authorities alerted Spanish police in March of large denial-of-service attacks being launched from Spain that were affecting Internet servers in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and the U.S. These attacks culminated with a major onslaught on Spamhaus.
Denial-of-service attacks overwhelm a server with traffic, jamming it with incoming messages. Recent cyberattacks ? such as the ones that caused outages at U.S. banking sites last year ? have tended to peak at 100 billion bits per second. The attack on Spamhaus was three times that size.
Police from the Netherlands, Germany, Britain, Spain and the U.S. took part in the investigation.
Apr. 29, 2013 ? Compulsive gamblers suffer from an optimism bias that modifies their subjective representation of probability and affects their decisions in situations involving high-risk monetary wagers. This is the conclusion drawn by Jean-Claude Dreher's research team at the CNC (Centre de Neurosciences Cognitives, CNRS / Universit? Claude Bernard Lyon 1). These findings, published in the May print edition of Psychological Medicine, could help explain and anticipate certain individuals' vulnerability to gambling, and could lead to new therapeutic approaches.
A growing number of gamblers suffer from pathological gambling, a disease that is usually characterized as either a loss of impulse control or a behavioral addiction. It results in an inability to limit the frequency of gambling and the amount of money wagered. This increasingly common psychiatric disorder creates financial, professional and personal hardships that can have severe consequences for the patients and the people around them. The mechanisms responsible for its emergence and development remain largely unknown, which limits the clinician's ability to proceed with a diagnosis, prognosis or effective treatment for this condition.
In this study, the researchers set out to test and verify the hypothesis that links pathological gambling to an alteration of probabilistic reasoning. The capacity to reason in probabilistic terms appears only at an advanced stage of human intellectual development (in fact, the basic concept of probability is not fully understood until the age of 11 or 12). Pioneering research in the late 1970s had already shed light on the difficulties that people experience in situations involving risk or uncertainty. These difficulties are reflected in the development and perpetuation in adults of cognitive biases1 specific to probabilistic decision-making, one of the most common being probability distortion (2).
The researchers conducted an experiment on compulsive gambling patients using a standard experimental economics task and a mathematical model for measuring both probability distortion and a more general optimism bias in relation to high-risk bets. The primary result obtained confirms the general hypothesis of a distortion, associated with pathological gambling, in the subjective representation of probabilities. The results also show that the compulsion to gamble is not explained by an exaggerated distortion of probability, but rather by an increased optimism bias. In other words, regardless of the objective probability of winning a high-risk bet, gamblers tend to act as though this probability were greater than it actually is. The researchers also observed that in the patient population under study, the intensity of this bias was significantly correlated to the severity of the symptoms.
For clinical psychiatrists, the simplicity of the procedure used to reach this conclusion could offer a rapid and reliable way of measuring the representation of probability, thus allowing them to refine both their diagnoses and therapeutic decisions. This study raises many new questions for researchers in the cognitive neurosciences: how does the brain represent the probability of winning? How do the cerebral structures responsible for this representation interact with the structures involved in the development and perpetuation of an addiction? Is a pathological gambler's particular relationship to probability accompanied by an increased sensitivity to reward and/or insensitivity to monetary loss? These important questions are now being investigated at the CNC.
(1) Internal or external influence causing an alteration of human judgment or perception.
(2) Identified by the Nobel laureates Kahneman and Tversky in 1979, probability distortion is characterized by the overestimation of low probabilities and underestimation of high probabilities.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by CNRS (D?l?gation Paris Michel-Ange).
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Journal Reference:
R. Ligneul, G. Sescousse, G. Barbalat, P. Domenech, J.-C. Dreher. Shifted risk preferences in pathological gambling. Psychological Medicine, 2012; 43 (05): 1059 DOI: 10.1017/S0033291712001900
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Grocery delivery service is greener than driving to the storePublic release date: 29-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Michelle Ma mcma@uw.edu 206-543-2580 University of Washington
At the end of a long day, it can be more convenient to order your groceries online while sitting on the living room couch instead of making a late-night run to the store. New research shows it's also much more environmentally friendly to leave the car parked and opt for groceries delivered to your doorstep.
University of Washington engineers have found that using a grocery delivery service can cut carbon dioxide emissions by at least half when compared with individual household trips to the store. Trucks filled to capacity that deliver to customers clustered in neighborhoods produced the most savings in carbon dioxide emissions.
"A lot of times people think they have to inconvenience themselves to be greener, and that actually isn't the case here," said Anne Goodchild, UW associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. "From an environmental perspective, grocery delivery services overwhelmingly can provide emissions reductions."
Consumers have increasingly more grocery delivery services to choose from. AmazonFresh operates in the Seattle area, while Safeway's service is offered in many U.S. cities. FreshDirect delivers to residences and offices in the New York City area. Last month, Google unveiled a shopping delivery service experiment in the San Francisco Bay Area, and UW alumni recently launched the grocery service Geniusdelivery in Seattle.
As companies continue to weigh the costs and benefits of offering a delivery service, Goodchild and Erica Wygonik, a UW doctoral candidate in civil and environmental engineering, looked at whether using a grocery delivery service was better for the environment, with Seattle as a test case. In their analysis, they found delivery service trucks produced 20 to 75 percent less carbon dioxide than the corresponding personal vehicles driven to and from a grocery store.
They also discovered significant savings for companies 80 to 90 percent less carbon dioxide emitted if they delivered based on routes that clustered customers together, instead of catering to individual household requests for specific delivery times.
"What's good for the bottom line of the delivery service provider is generally going to be good for the environment, because fuel is such a big contributor to operating costs and greenhouse gas emissions," Wygonik said. "Saving fuel saves money, which also saves on emissions."
The research was funded by the Oregon Department of Transportation and published in the Journal of the Transportation Research Forum.
The UW researchers compiled Seattle and King County data, assuming that every household was a possible delivery-service customer. Then, they randomly drew a portion of those households from that data to identify customers and assign them to their closest grocery store. This allowed them to reach across the entire city, without bias toward factors such as demographics and income level.
They used an Environmental Protection Agency modeling tool to calculate emissions at a much more detailed level than previous studies have done. Using factors such as vehicle type, speed and roadway type, they calculated the carbon dioxide produced for every mile for every vehicle.
Emissions reductions were seen across both the densest parts and more suburban areas of Seattle. This suggests that grocery delivery in rural areas could lower carbon dioxide production quite dramatically.
"We tend to think of grocery delivery services as benefiting urban areas, but they have really significant potential to offset the environmental impacts of personal shopping in rural areas as well," Wygonik said.
Work commuters are offered a number of incentives to reduce traffic on the roads through discounted transit fares, vanpools and carpooling options. Given the emissions reductions possible through grocery delivery services, the research raises the question of whether government or industry leaders should consider incentives for consumers to order their groceries online and save on trips to the store, Goodchild said.
In the future, Goodchild and Wygonik plan to look at the influence of customers combining their grocery shopping with a work commute trip and the impact of the delivery service's home-base location on emissions.
###
For more information, contact Goodchild at annegood@uw.edu or 206-543-3747.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Grocery delivery service is greener than driving to the storePublic release date: 29-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Michelle Ma mcma@uw.edu 206-543-2580 University of Washington
At the end of a long day, it can be more convenient to order your groceries online while sitting on the living room couch instead of making a late-night run to the store. New research shows it's also much more environmentally friendly to leave the car parked and opt for groceries delivered to your doorstep.
University of Washington engineers have found that using a grocery delivery service can cut carbon dioxide emissions by at least half when compared with individual household trips to the store. Trucks filled to capacity that deliver to customers clustered in neighborhoods produced the most savings in carbon dioxide emissions.
"A lot of times people think they have to inconvenience themselves to be greener, and that actually isn't the case here," said Anne Goodchild, UW associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. "From an environmental perspective, grocery delivery services overwhelmingly can provide emissions reductions."
Consumers have increasingly more grocery delivery services to choose from. AmazonFresh operates in the Seattle area, while Safeway's service is offered in many U.S. cities. FreshDirect delivers to residences and offices in the New York City area. Last month, Google unveiled a shopping delivery service experiment in the San Francisco Bay Area, and UW alumni recently launched the grocery service Geniusdelivery in Seattle.
As companies continue to weigh the costs and benefits of offering a delivery service, Goodchild and Erica Wygonik, a UW doctoral candidate in civil and environmental engineering, looked at whether using a grocery delivery service was better for the environment, with Seattle as a test case. In their analysis, they found delivery service trucks produced 20 to 75 percent less carbon dioxide than the corresponding personal vehicles driven to and from a grocery store.
They also discovered significant savings for companies 80 to 90 percent less carbon dioxide emitted if they delivered based on routes that clustered customers together, instead of catering to individual household requests for specific delivery times.
"What's good for the bottom line of the delivery service provider is generally going to be good for the environment, because fuel is such a big contributor to operating costs and greenhouse gas emissions," Wygonik said. "Saving fuel saves money, which also saves on emissions."
The research was funded by the Oregon Department of Transportation and published in the Journal of the Transportation Research Forum.
The UW researchers compiled Seattle and King County data, assuming that every household was a possible delivery-service customer. Then, they randomly drew a portion of those households from that data to identify customers and assign them to their closest grocery store. This allowed them to reach across the entire city, without bias toward factors such as demographics and income level.
They used an Environmental Protection Agency modeling tool to calculate emissions at a much more detailed level than previous studies have done. Using factors such as vehicle type, speed and roadway type, they calculated the carbon dioxide produced for every mile for every vehicle.
Emissions reductions were seen across both the densest parts and more suburban areas of Seattle. This suggests that grocery delivery in rural areas could lower carbon dioxide production quite dramatically.
"We tend to think of grocery delivery services as benefiting urban areas, but they have really significant potential to offset the environmental impacts of personal shopping in rural areas as well," Wygonik said.
Work commuters are offered a number of incentives to reduce traffic on the roads through discounted transit fares, vanpools and carpooling options. Given the emissions reductions possible through grocery delivery services, the research raises the question of whether government or industry leaders should consider incentives for consumers to order their groceries online and save on trips to the store, Goodchild said.
In the future, Goodchild and Wygonik plan to look at the influence of customers combining their grocery shopping with a work commute trip and the impact of the delivery service's home-base location on emissions.
###
For more information, contact Goodchild at annegood@uw.edu or 206-543-3747.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Apr. 28, 2013 ? s living in areas near natural gas operations, also known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, are concerned their illnesses may be a result of nearby drilling operations. Twenty-two percent of the participants in a small pilot study surmise that hydrofracking may be the cause of such health concerns as sinus problems, sleeping difficulties, and gastrointestinal problems.
The findings will be presented at the American Occupational Health Conference on April 28 in Orlando, Florida.
Scientists collected responses from 72 adults visiting a primary care physician's office in the hydrofracking-heavy area of Bradford County, Pa., who volunteered to complete an investigator-faciliated survey.
"Almost a quarter of participants consider natural gas operations to be a contributor to their health issues, indicating that there is clearly a concern among residents that should be addressed," says Poun? Saberi, MD, MPH, the study's principal investigator with the department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. She is also an investigator with the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (CEET) at Penn.
Within these 22 percent of responders, 13 percent viewed drilling to be the cause of their current health complaints and 9 percent were concerned that future health problems can be caused by natural gas operations. The previous health complaints by participants were thought to be anecdotal in nature as they were individual cases reported publicly only by popular media.
"What is significant about this study is that the prevalence of impressions about medical symptoms attributed to natural gas operations had not been previously solicited in Pennsylvania. This survey indicates that there is a larger group of people with health concerns than originally assumed," explains Saberi.
The survey included questions about 29 health symptoms, including those previously anecdotally reported by other residents and workers in other areas where drilling occurs. Some patient medical records were also reviewed to compare reported symptoms with those that had been previously documented. "Sinus problems, sleeping difficulties, and gastrointestinal problems were the most common symptoms reported on the Bradford survey," notes Saberi. "Of the few studied charts, there were no one-to-one correlations between the participants' reported symptoms on the survey and the presenting symptom to the medical provider in the records. This raises the possibility of communication gaps between residents with concerns and the medical community and needs further exploration. An opportunity exists to educate shale region communities and workers to report, as well as health care providers to document, the attributed symptoms as precisely as possible."
The CEET team also mapped the addresses of patients who agreed to provide them in relation to drilling to determine if proximity to drilling operations may relate to health problems.
"We hope this pilot study will guide the development of future epidemiological studies to determine whether health effects in communities in which natural gas operations are occurring is associated with air, water, and food-shed exposures and will provide a basis for health care provider education," says CEET director Trevor Penning, PhD. "The goal of science should be to protect the public and the environment before harm occurs; not simply to treat it after the damage has been done."
The Bradford County health concerns pilot study is one of three hydrofracking studies currently underway at CEET, one of 20 Environmental Health Sciences Core Centers (EHSCC) in the US, funded by the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).
CEET is also partnering with Columbia University's EHSCC to measure water quality and billable health outcomes in areas with and without hydrofracking on the Pennsylvania-New York border. Using a new mapping tool developed by Harvard University, CEET and Harvard researchers are creating maps of drilling sites, air quality, water quality, and health effects to locate possible associations. Initial studies will focus on Pennsylvania. Results of both studies are expected in early 2014. These collaborative studies are funded by pilot project funds from the respective EHSCCs, which in turn obtain their financial support from NIEHS.
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OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) ? After struggling to sway both state and federal lawmakers, proponents of expanding background checks for gun sales are now exploring whether they will have more success by taking the issue directly to voters.
While advocates generally prefer that new gun laws be passed through the legislative process, especially at the national level, they are also concerned about how much sway the National Rifle Association has with lawmakers. Washington Rep. Jamie Pedersen, a Democrat who had sponsored unsuccessful legislation on background checks at the state level, said a winning ballot initiative would make a statement with broad implications.
"It's more powerful if the voters do it ? as opposed to our doing it," Pedersen said. "And it would make it easier for the Legislature to do even more."
On Monday, proponents of universal background checks in Washington will announce their plan to launch a statewide initiative campaign that would require the collection of some 300,000 signatures, according to a person involved in the initiative planning who spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to pre-empt the official announcement. The Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility has scheduled a fundraiser in Seattle at the end of next month and hopes to have a campaign budget in the millions of dollars.
Ballot measures may be an option elsewhere, too. Hildy Saizow, president of Arizonans for Gun Safety, said an initiative is one of the things the group will be considering as it reconsiders strategies. An organizer in Oregon was focused on the Legislature for now but wouldn't rule out a ballot measure in the future if lawmakers fail to pass a proposed bill there.
While advocates have had recent success on background checks in places like Connecticut and Colorado, they've been thwarted in some other states and in Congress. The U.S. Senate rejected a plan to expand background checks earlier this month, although lawmakers in the chamber are still working to gather additional votes.
Brian Malte, director of mobilization at the national nonprofit lobbying group Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said passage through Congress is the ideal in order to have a national solution and so that states with strong gun laws aren't undermined by nearby states with weaker standards. He noted that initiative campaigns are costly endeavors that can drain important, limited resources.
Still, Malte said, the ballot measures are an option to consider.
"At some point, certainly decisions need to be made about what the right time is to say we take it to the people," Malte said.
Brian Judy, a lobbyist who represents the NRA in Washington state, did not return calls seeking comment about the new initiative. He has previously said the NRA would likely oppose such an effort, arguing that the recently proposed laws on background checks would largely impact law-abiding citizens instead of the intended targets such as criminals and the mentally ill.
Gun measures have had mixed results at the ballot. More than 70 percent of Washington state voters rejected a 1997 initiative campaign that would have required handgun owners to pass a safety course. After the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, voters in Colorado and Oregon approved ballot measures the next year to require background checks for buying weapons at gun shows.
Following another massacre in Colorado earlier this year, state lawmakers approved a bill to expand background checks to private transactions and online purchases. A similar expansion plan in Oregon is stalled in the state Senate.
Some states don't see initiatives as a viable option right now. In Missouri, state Rep. Stacey Newman has been pushing for background checks with little success. While she spoke positively about the idea of a ballot initiative, she said there's no serious consideration of it because of the cost and coordination required just to get it on the ballot. Instead, the supporters of background checks in the state are simply working to prevent NRA-supported legislation from passing the state's General Assembly.
"We're continually on defense," she said.
Gun buyers currently must undergo a background check when they purchase a weapon from a federally licensed firearms dealer but can avoid checks through private purchases or at some gun shows.
Washington state advocates believe polls show the public is sufficiently on the side of expanding background checks further. An independent Elway Poll conducted two months ago found that 79 percent of registered voters in Washington state supported background checks on all gun sales, including private transactions.
That wasn't enough to shepherd the bill through the Legislature. Even in the state House, which is controlled by Democrats, supporters fell short after an NRA campaign put pressure on some lawmakers. Pedersen had offered concessions through the process, including the option of sending the measure out for a public vote and exemptions for people who already have concealed pistol licenses or law enforcement credentials.
Pedersen said he was working with the initiative organizers on language for the proposal, and he said the Legislature would first have another chance to adopt the measure early next year. If it fails among lawmakers again, the proposal would then automatically go to the ballot, where Pedersen said he welcomed a campaign competing against groups like the NRA.
"I'm not afraid of it at all," Pedersen said. "The public is really with us. It's the right policy. I think it can be useful for further progress."
___
AP Writer Mike Baker can be reached on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/HiPpEV
Cars are stranded in southwest Houston, which was flooded after an afternoon downpour Saturday.
By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News
A line of severe thunderstorms swept across Texas and parts of the South on Saturday, dumping more than 7 inches of rain in some places. Houston firefighters said they conducted at least 150 water rescues.
There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries, but Houston fire Sgt. Jay Evans told The Weather Channel said officials were encouraging people in the south and west of the city to stay inside.
The Houston suburb of Sugar Land got 7.2 inches of rain, The Weather Channel reported, and one photo showed a dozen cars partly submerged below a Houston overpass.
The line of storms stretched from the Texas-Mexico border through Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky. The rough weather was caused by the collision of a cold front and warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico.
This story was originally published on Sat Apr 27, 2013 10:10 PM EDT
As you may recall, Wolfram Research signed a deal with Microsoft a few years back that saw some Wolfram Alpha functionality integrated into Bing. As it turns out, it very nearly found its way into a certain other search engine as well. In an interview at The Next Web conference in Amsterdam today, Stephen Wolfram revealed that his company had tried to work with Google and "almost had a deal," but it "blew up." Unfortunately, he didn't provide any further details about when those talks took place or exactly what the potential deal entailed, and it doesn't sound like we can expect that deal to be revived anytime soon -- especially considering Google's own efforts that are increasingly overlapping with Wolfram Alpha. As Wolfram himself notes, though, the two companies do have something of a longstanding connection: Google co-founder Sergey Brin was actually an intern at Wolfram way back in 1993.
A new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Entropy indicates that glyphosate?the main ingredient in Monsanto?s Roundup weed killer?may be linked to gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer?s disease.
The study showed that glyphosate inhibits the function of enzymes that are critical to enable the body to properly detoxify. Additionally, it also enhances the damaging effects of other foodborne chemical residues and environmental toxins.
According to the scientists who completed the study, ?The industry asserts (glyphosate) is minimally toxic to humans, but here we argue otherwise.? They indicate that residues of glyphosate are found in foods that people are eating on a regular basis, especially sugar, corn, soy and wheat.
The scientists behind this important study include: Anthony Samsel is a retired science consultant and member of the Union of Concerned Scientists and Stephanie Seneff who is a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They add that ?Negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body.?
Pesticides have been found in many studies to be toxic to the brain and nervous system of humans.
There is no good reason to use glyphosate or other toxic chemicals on lawns, agriculture, or food.? Many of these chemicals used in creating ?picture-perfect? lawns or in agricultural use are seeping into groundwater and the residues find their way into our food supply.? The harm to living organisms appears to outweigh any alleged benefits concocted by corporate marketing departments.
Many scientists and environmentalists have been warning about the dangers of glyphosate to plants, animals and people for many years.
Monsanto is the developer of Roundup herbicide as well as the genetically-modified seeds that have been altered to withstand being sprayed by Roundup.
For more information about toxins linked to cancer, check out Cancer-Proof.
Related: Apple Extract Shows Promise against Cancer 17 Essential Reasons to Eat Organic Food
Subscribe to my free e-magazine World?s Healthiest News to receive monthly health news, tips, recipes and more. Follow my blog on my site HealthySurvivalist.com, Twitter @mschoffrocook and Facebook.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - LivingSocial, the second-largest daily deal company behind Groupon Inc, said on Friday it was hit by a cyber attack that may have affected more than 50 million customers.
The company said the attack on its computer systems resulted in unauthorized access to customer data, including names, email addresses, date of birth for some users and "encrypted" passwords.
LivingSocial stressed customer credit card and merchants' financial and banking information were not affected or accessed. It also does not store passwords in plain text.
"We are actively working with law enforcement to investigate this issue," the company, part-owned by Amazon.com Inc, wrote in an email to employees.
LivingSocial does not disclose how many customers it has. However, spokesman Andrew Weinstein said "a substantial portion" of the company's customer base was affected. LivingSocial is also contacting customers who closed accounts, because it still has their information stored in databases, he added.
The attack hit customers in the United States, Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Southern Europe and Latin America. Customers in South Korea, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand were not affected, Weinstein said.
"In light of recent successful widespread attacks against major social networking sites, it's obvious that these providers are simply not doing enough to protect their customers' information," said George Tubin, senior security strategist at Trusteer, a computer security company.
The attack comes as LivingSocial struggles to handle a decline in consumer and merchant demand for daily deals. The company raised $110 million from investors, including Amazon earlier this year, but was forced to make large concessions to get the new money.
Amazon invested $56 million in LivingSocial in the first quarter, according to a regulatory filing on Friday, which also revealed the company had a first-quarter operating loss of $44 million on revenue of $135 million.
LivingSocial said on Friday it was beginning to contact more than 50 million customers whose data may have been affected by the cyber attack.
LivingSocial told customers in an email that they should log on to LivingSocial.com to create a new password for their accounts.
"We also encourage you, for your own personal data security, to consider changing password(s) on any other sites on which you use the same or similar password(s)," LivingSocial Chief Executive Tim O'Shaughnessy wrote in the email.
"We are sorry this incident occurred."
All Things D reported the cyber attack earlier on Friday.
(Reporting by Alistair Barr; Editing by Tim Dobbyn, Bernard Orr and Andre Grenon)
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures advanced on Thursday, as investors dealt with a raft of earnings, including those of 3M Co, along with data on the labor market.
Dow component ExxonMobil Corp , the largest U.S. company by market capitalization reports its results Thursday, a day after the company boosted its quarterly dividend.
Fellow Dow component 3M Co reported a slight rise in profit on modest growth in sales of its wide array of products, but shares fell 4.1 percent to $103.50 in premarket trading.
Qualcomm Inc lost 5.8 percent to $62.20 before the opening bell after the mobile chipmaker forecast earnings below expectations late Wednesday.
"The focus remains on the fact that companies continue to mostly beat expectations for earnings but also, many are disappointing on the forecast," said Rick Meckler, president of investment firm LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey.
"So it is leaving investors with mixed feelings with no real reason to sell off stocks but not enough of a reason to really drive it materially higher - that pattern is likely to continue for a while."
Companies expected to post earnings after the close include Amazon.com Inc and Starbucks .
Data on the labor market is due at 8:30 a.m. EDT with the release of weekly initial jobless claims data. Economists in a Reuters survey forecast a total of 351,000 new filings compared with 352,000 in the prior week.
Verizon Communications Inc will be in focus after sources told Reuters it has hired advisers to prepare a possible $100 billion cash and stock bid to take full control of Verizon Wireless from joint venture partner, Vodafone Group Plc . Verizon shares edged up 0.4 percent to $52 in light premarket trade.
S&P 500 futures rose 6.4 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration of the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures added 46 points and Nasdaq 100 futures gained 13.25 points.
PulteGroup Inc , the No. 2 U.S. homebuilder, returned to a quarterly profit after reporting a loss a year earlier, as it benefited from low mortgage rates. Shares fell 2.5 percent to $19.20 in premarket trade.
Akamai Technologies Inc surged 19.4 percent to $43.08 in premarket trading after the internet content delivery company forecast second-quarter results above analysts' expectations late on Wednesday.
Earnings season has been largely positive, with 68.4 percent of S&P 500 companies that have reported results so far beating expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data through Tuesday morning. Since 1994, 63 percent have surpassed estimates on average, while the beat rate is 67 percent for the past four quarters.
Analysts see earnings growth of 3.1 percent this quarter, up from expectations of 1.5 percent at the start of the month.
European shares edged up on Thursday, with the benchmark FTSEurofirst 300 index rising for a fifth straight session, helped by gains in car maker Volkswagen and telecoms group Vodafone <.eu/>
Asian shares rose, with recovering commodities and views that a run of weak global economic data will encourage major central banks to keep or deepen their monetary stimulus improving risk sentiment.
How Google Ventures and the Glass Collective are taking Glass to the next level
"The initial versions of Glass were just Sergey [Brin]'s Oakleys with a phone taped to them," Bill Maris, managing partner of Google Ventures, told me in a noisy cafe in Midtown Manhattan. Given his position and our topic of conversation -- Google's Project Glass -- he was conspicuous for wearing no eyewear whatsoever. "[Sergey's prototype] was not very compelling." You'd forgive him for being a bit skeptical back then about what the company's leadership was hoping would be the next big thing -- or, at least, a thing worthy of the time and money required to iterate from those humble beginnings to the sleek device we now know and covet.
So, then, how did we get from those initial doubts to the launching of the Glass Collective, dedicating millions of dollars to finding, funding and fostering innovative applications (not just of the software variety) for Google's new wearable? Maris spoke of Glass project lead Steve Lee and a later prototype that took photos every few seconds. "Imagine if you had this for your entire life. You could ask: 'What did I do 10 years ago today?'" That was compelling enough for Maris to commit to the foundation of the Collective, helping Google move the project beyond a single product and into the all-important realm of the platform. This is a platform, he believes, that could change our lives over the next 10 years just as smartphones have over the past decade.
FILE - In this Oct. 18, 2010 file photo, an Amazon.com package is prepared for shipment by a United Parcel Service (UPS) driver in Palo Alto, Calif. States could force Internet retailers to collect sales taxes under a bill that overwhelmingly passed a test vote in the Senate Monday, April 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)
FILE - In this Oct. 18, 2010 file photo, an Amazon.com package is prepared for shipment by a United Parcel Service (UPS) driver in Palo Alto, Calif. States could force Internet retailers to collect sales taxes under a bill that overwhelmingly passed a test vote in the Senate Monday, April 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? A handful of senators from states without sales taxes are blocking a bill that would tax Internet purchases.
They don't have enough support to kill the bill, but they can delay a final vote until Friday ? or even this weekend ? if senators don't reach an agreement to vote earlier.
The bill would empower states to require online retailers to collect state and local sales taxes for purchases made over the Internet. Under the bill, the sales taxes would be sent to the states where a shopper lives.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is leading the fight against the bill. Oregon, Montana, New Hampshire and Delaware have no sales taxes, though the two senators from Delaware support the bill.
"It's coercive. It requires a number of states to collect the taxes of other states thousands of miles away against their will," Wyden said in an interview. "It's discrimination because this forces some people online to carry out responsibilities that brick and mortar retailers do not have to do."
Wyden said the bill also gives an advantage to foreign retailers. Supporters say the bill treats foreign retailers the same as domestic ones, but opponents question the ability of states to enforce state tax laws on companies based in other countries.
The bill has already survived two procedural votes this week, getting 74 votes in favor each time. If senators don't reach an agreement to vote earlier, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., threatened to hold a vote shortly after midnight Friday morning to end the debate.
The Senate is scheduled to go on vacation next week, and Reid vowed to pass the bill before senators leave town.
"One way or another, we will finish work on this measure before we leave," Reid said.
Wyden said he doesn't want to inconvenience senators eager to go home. But, he added, "I don't want to have our constituents rolled over in the process."
Under current law, states can only require stores to collect sales taxes if the store has a physical presence in the state. As a result, many online sales are essentially tax-free, giving Internet retailers an advantage over brick-and-mortar stores.
Supporters say the bill is about fairness for local businesses that already collect sales taxes, and lost revenue for states. Opponents say the bill would impose complicated regulations on retailers and doesn't have enough protections for small businesses. Businesses with less than $1 million a year in online sales would be exempt.
Many of the nation's governors ? Republicans and Democrats ? have been lobbying the federal government for years for the authority to collect sales taxes from online sales.
The issue is getting bigger for states as more people make purchases online. Last year, Internet sales in the U.S. totaled $226 billion, up nearly 16 percent from the previous year, according to Commerce Department estimates.
The National Conference of State Legislatures estimates that states lost $23 billion last year because they couldn't collect taxes on out-of-state sales.
The bill pits brick-and-mortar stores like Wal-Mart against online services such as eBay. The National Retail federation supports it. And Amazon.com, which initially fought efforts in some states to make it collect sales taxes, supports it, too.
The bill also gets support from many Republicans who have pledged not to increase taxes. The bill's main sponsor is Sen. Mike Enzi, a conservative Republican from Wyoming. He is working closely with Sen. Dick Durbin, a liberal Democrat from Illinois.
Enzi and Durbin say the bill doesn't raise taxes. Instead, they say, it gives states a mechanism to enforce current taxes.
In many states, shoppers are required to pay unpaid sales taxes when they file state tax returns. But governors complain that few people comply.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said he supports the bill in part because tax-free Internet sales are eating into sales by Delaware retailers.
"In our region, we've long benefited from significant commercial sales from residents of Maryland, of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, who come to Delaware to shop because we're a tax-free state," Coons said. "Over time, the benefit of that has eroded as folks discovered that they could buy the same things online without paying sales tax from home."
He noted that the bill would not require anyone from Delaware to pay sales taxes.
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Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap
Drippler's been relatively successful on Android, with more than five million downloads to date, but now the team behind the recommendations app is looking to test different waters. Earlier today, Drippler announced an iOS equivalent is now available, which will bring many of the features that made it as popular as it is on Android. What this means, essentially, is the application will tailor itself for your particular device, helping discover different types of things which relate to you -- such as tips, games, services and news articles. At any rate, it'll be folks like yourself who determine whether Drippler can also be a hit on iOS, so feel free to sound off in the comments below after you've taken it for a quick whirl.
IN THE NEWS: Administration believes chemical weapons used in Syria ? Boston bomb suspects planned NYC attack ? Bush feted at presidential library opening ? Exemptions for Hill staffers on insurance exchanges? ? Bill Clinton joins Twitter ? for real
THE TAKE
Obama Looking for Reasons to Delay Response on Syria
It would seem to add up to certain U.S. military action: On Thursday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the United States now believes ?the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically, the chemical agent sarin."
That finding appears to be a direct violation of the ?red line? and ?game-changer? for action that President Obama has set.
In truth, the same game is still going on, and the administration appears to be equivocating over a response while all the ?facts? are established. ?We want to continue to investigate above and beyond those intelligence estimates,? a senior administration official told reporters on Thursday afternoon, in order to gain ?a definitive judgment for whether a red line has been crossed.?
Some of the usual U.S. hawks called for immediate action, and even Obama ally Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., issued a statement indicating the administration?s credibility was at stake on the matter.
The administration remains very leery of getting directly involved in Syria, but the question is, at what cost? Read more
Michael Hirsh mhirsh@nationaljournal.com?
TOP NEWS
HAGEL, WHITE HOUSE FIND SOME EVIDENCE OF SYRIAN CHEMICAL-WEAPON USE. In a letter to lawmakers on Thursday, the Obama administration said it had seen some evidence that government forces have used the deadly chemical sarin in the Syrian civil war, Bloomberg reports. But the assessment is ?not sufficient? to take action, the letter reads. In Abu Dhabi, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel made similar statements. Intelligence officials have determined in the last 24 hours, ?with varying degrees of confidence,? that Syria has used small amounts of chemical weapons. In Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry clarified, saying there was evidence of ?two instances? of chemical weapon use. Read more
TSARNAEV TOLD AUTHORITIES: NEW YORK CITY WAS NEXT TARGET. New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told authorities that he and his brother planned to use their remaining explosives in New York City, the Associated Press reports. The answers came during the 16 hours of interrogation before Tsarnaev was read his Miranda rights, after which he stopped responding. Officials were able to question the suspect without reading him his rights under an immediate public-safety exemption.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports the CIA pushed to have Dzhokhar?s older brother and second suspect, Tamerlan, placed on a U.S. counterterrorism watch list more than a year before the attacks. Read more
FIVE LIVING PRESIDENTS ATTEND GEORGE W. BUSH CENTER DEDICATION. President Obama and the four living former presidents came together in Dallas today for the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Center on the campus of Southern Methodist University. Bush closed his remarks by saying, ?It was the honor of a lifetime to lead a country as brave and as noble as the United States.? Read more
SENATE WEIGHING END TO AIR-TRAFFIC CONTROLLER FURLOUGHS. Senate leaders are negotiating a potential solution to flight delays caused by furloughs of air-traffic controllers, Reuters reports. A measure could be attached to pending legislation on Internet sales taxes, and could come up for a vote as early as today. Possible solutions involve authorizing the Federal Aviation Administration to transfer money within its budget to fully fund the salaries of the air-traffic controllers. Read more
HOUSE, SENATE LEADERS NEGOTIATING WITH WHITE HOUSE OVER INSURANCE EXCHANGE EXEMPTIONS. Congressional leaders from both parties, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and administration officials are engaged in discussions on the possibility of exempting members and their staffs from the health insurance exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act, Politico reports. Lawmakers are concerned that the Hill will experience a ?brain drain? if the government does not subsidize staffers? insurance premiums. According to a source, ?Everyone has to hold hands on this and jump, or nothing is going to get done.? Read more
@ChadPegram: Reid spox: There are not now..nor will there ever be any discussions about exempting members of Congress (from the Affordable Care Act).
HOUSE JUDICIARY CHAIR: COMMITTEE WILL TAKE ?STEP-BY-STEP APPROACH? TO IMMIGRATION REFORM. The House is set to tackle immigration reform, but it will take a piecemeal approach rather than the comprehensive one favored by the Senate ?Gang of Eight,? The Hill reports. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said Thursday that Republicans would introduce two pieces of legislation this week -- one that would establish an employment-verification system and another to create a guest-worker program for agriculture. Read more
National Journal?s Shane Goldmacher reports that Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., believes the immigration bill needs more than 60 votes to get traction in the House.
AT FUNDRAISER, OBAMA VOWS TO KEEP REACHING ACROSS AISLE. Speaking to a group of Democratic donors Wednesday night, President Obama pledged to continue reaching out to Republican lawmakers, despite criticism he has weathered from some Democrats who think he is too acquiescent, The New York Times reports. ?Occasionally I may make some of you angry because I?m going to reach out to Republicans, and I?m going to keep on doing it,? he said. ?Even if some of you think I?m a sap, I?m going to keep on doing it because that?s what I think the country needs.? The fundraiser was held for 60 donors who paid between $10,000 and $32,400 to attend. Read more
BILL CLINTON JOINS TWITTER FOR REAL, GETS LESSON FROM COLBERT. Former President Clinton, appearing on Comedy Central?s Colbert Report via video on Wednesday, joined Twitter, adopting the handle @BillClinton. Clinton selected the moniker over the one host Stephen Colbert had chosen for him during Clinton?s trip to the show earlier this month, @PrezBillyJeff. Clinton received a tutorial from Colbert during Wednesday?s show. Read more
TOMORROW
GDP TO BE RELEASED. First-quarter gross domestic product figures will be released by the Commerce Department Friday morning. Economists are forecasting growth of about 3 percent. The Washington Post?s Neil Irwin writes that while the report is expected to be strong, ?beware its weak underbelly.? Read more
OBAMA TO ADDRESS PLANNED PARENTHOOD, HOST KING OF JORDAN. On Friday, the president will address the Planned Parenthood gala. He will also host King Abdullah II of Jordan at the White House.
APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE TO HOLD FDA BUDGET HEARING. A House Appropriations Subcommittee will hold a hearing on the budget for the Food and Drug Administration. FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg will be a witness, among others. Read more
QUOTABLE
"He's by far the best qualified man, but no. I really don't. I think it's a great country, there are a lot of great families, and it's not just four families or whatever. There are other people out there that are very qualified, and we've had enough Bushes." ? Former first lady Barbara Bush, on whether she wants her son, Jeb Bush, to run for president in 2016. (NBC?s Today)
BEDTIME READING
INSIDE THE KILLING OF ANWAR AL-AWLAKI. ?At the White House, President Obama was faced with a decision?not of morality or legality, but of timing. He had already sentenced Anwar al-Awlaki to death without trial,? writes Jeremy Scahill for The Nation. The United States had tracked the ?radical cleric? to a house in Jawf, Yemen. But officials knew there were children in the house, possibly including Awlaki?s son. ? ?Bring it to me and let me decide in the reality of the moment rather than in the abstract,? Obama told his advisers, according to author Daniel Klaidman.... ?In this one instance,? an Obama confidant told Klaidman, ?the president considered relaxing some of his collateral requirements.? ? Ultimately, the U.S. did go forward with an attack on the home, and Awlaki?s son was there. Both died in the attack. Scahill takes readers behind the scenes of the lead-up to -- and fallout from -- the attack, which rankled legal activists and sparked a public debate about U.S. drone strike policy. Read more
PLAY OF THE DAY
LOOKING BACK AT BUSH, LOOKING FORWARD TO MARS. In anticipation of the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, late-night hosts have been dusting off jokes from the previous decade. David Letterman spent most of his monologue on Bush, showing the audience a highlight reel of physical Bush gags. He also examined recent polling that suggests the American public misses the 43rd president and showed an illustration of what Dick Cheney?s library might look like. This week, photos of NASA?s Mars rover?s track marks on the red planet took the Internet by storm. On Comedy Central, Stephen Colbert found the craft?s suggestive pattern to be a triumph around which Americans can unite. Watch it here
TODAY?S CHART
THE ONE CHART THAT COULD SEVER OBAMA?S COALITION. What could dissolve the powerful electoral coalition that powered both of President Obama?s victories? The latest Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll points to the greatest risk: continuing economic dissatisfaction. Read more
Senator Jeff Sessions? staff has begun assembling summaries of key provisions of the Gang of Eight?s immigration bill. They released the first one, which deals with how the act treats ?dreamers,? this afternoon. It is titled, ?Immigration Bill S. 744 Allows Milllions of Illegal Immigrants to Become Citizens in 5 Years ? And Bring Their Relatives On An Expedited Basis.?
* Those who qualify for the broad DREAM Act fast-track amnesty under S. 744 ? estimated by Steve Camarota to be between 2 to 3 million people ? are able to become citizens after being in registered provisional immigrant (RPI) status (the general amnesty) for 5 years. Those 5 years are deemed as having been spent in legal permanent resident status (under current law LPRs must wait 5 years before becoming citizens).
o There is NO AGE CAP on eligibility o The Secretary can allow a deported DREAMer who is outside the U.S. or who has re-entered the U.S. illegally after the December 31, 2011 cut-off date to apply for this status.
* Illegal agriculture workers will also be placed on an expedited path: green cards in five years and citizenship in ten. This could apply to close to a million people or more.
* So-called DREAMers will also be able to get green cards for their parents, spouses and children five years from enactment. They will then be eligible for citizenship five years after that. Therefore the DREAM provision of the bill alone would be responsible for potentially 10 million new citizens in five-ten years [rough estimation].
* S. 744 would allow unlimited visas for the spouses and children of all green card holders ? both those currently illegal and new legal immigrants, leading to exponential chain migration.
* In addition, under S. 744, any LPR can petition for visas for adult unmarried sons and daughters (but they must wait for a visa to become available). A citizen also will be able to petition for their married sons and daughters under the age of 31 if visas are available under the family-based visa cap.
* S. 744 appears to allow those who have been granted status under President Obama?s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy (DACA) to immediately adjust to LPR status under a ?streamlined procedure? determined by the Secretary and consistent with the DACA requirements. These individuals may petition for visas for family members in the same manner as the LPRs described above. According to USCIS statistics, 472,004 DACA applications were accepted for review between August 2012 and March 2013; 268,361 were approved; only 16,778 were deemed incomplete and required resubmission; and only 1,377 were denied.
* Taking into account the expedited legalization of illegal immigrants, the expansion of low-skill legal immigration, and the new avenues for chain migration, the bill would exponentially increase the number of people granted legal status.
The Gang?s bill would bring about a demographic transformation of the United States by enabling tens of millions new immigrants, largely through the perverse policy of chain immigration. The consequences of inundating the United States with tens of millions of uneducated, low-wage workers are poorly understood, but certain to be bad. I can understand why some Democrats would favor this kind of radical transformation of America, which they don?t much like to begin with. But why any Republicans would look favorably on it is beyond me.
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Public release date: 29-Apr-2013
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