Nov
29

First marine wilderness in continental U.S. is designated

The federal government cleared the way Thursday for waters off the Northern California coast to become the first marine wilderness...
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A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Nov. 30

Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle posted here.SPOILER WARNING:We leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer....
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Most Americans Face Lower Tax Burden Than in the 80s

What Is Fair?: Taxes are still a hot topic after the presidential election. But as a country that spends more than it collects in taxes, are we asking the right taxpayers to pay the right amounts?BELLEVILLE, Ill. — Alan Hicks divides long days between the insurance business he started in the late 1970s and the barbecue restaurant he opened with his sons three years ago. He earned more than $250,000...
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Adkins explains Confederate flag earpiece

NEW YORK (AP) — Trace Adkins wore an earpiece decorated like the Confederate flag when he performed for the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting but says he meant no offense by it.Adkins appeared with the earpiece on a nationally televised special for the lighting on Wednesday. Some regard the flag as a racist symbol and criticized Adkins in Twitter postings.But in a statement released Thursday,...
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Nov
28

Witness says victim of deputies' shooting did not pose threat

An 18-year-old woman who witnessed an officer-involved shooting of a Culver City man has told investigators that the victim...
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Mercedes Rolls Out the Future of the SUV

LOS ANGELES, California – Geländewagen. It’s not an Austrian insult or some obscure epithet from the Eastern Bloc; it’s Mercedes-Benz’ iconic SUV. Originally crafted with a ruler and a chisel for military use, it eventually went on sale to civilians in 1979 and hasn’t changed much during its 30-plus-year run. Until now.Mercedes knows that the G-Wagon will have to be...
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The Next War: In Federal Budget Cutting, F-35 Fighter Jet Is at Risk

Luke Sharrett for The New York TimesVice Adm. David Venlet was named to lead the Joint Strike Fighter program in 2010 after problems had left it behind schedule and over budget. LEXINGTON PARK, Md. — The Marine version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, already more than a decade in the making, was facing a crucial question: Could the jet, which can soar well past the speed of sound, land at sea like...
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Adele’s “21″ sells 10 million, Rihanna leads Billboard

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – British singer and Grammy darling Adele reached the 10 million sales mark in the United States on Wednesday with her heartbreak album “21″ becoming the first by British woman to reach the milestone, Nielsen SoundScan said.“21,” released in February 2011, produced the hits “Someone Like You” and “Rolling In The Deep” and became the top-selling album of 2011. Earlier this year,...
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Well: Weight Loss Surgery May Not Combat Diabetes Long-Term

Weight loss surgery, which in recent years has been seen as an increasingly attractive option for treating Type 2 diabetes, may not be as effective against the disease as it was initially thought to be, according to a new report. The study found that many obese Type 2 diabetics who undergo gastric bypass surgery do not experience a remission of their disease, and of those that do, about a third redevelop...
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Nov
27

Most L.A. County youths held for prostitution come from foster care

A majority of juveniles arrested on prostitution charges in Los Angeles County come from the county's foster care system, and,...
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A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Nov. 28

Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle posted here.SPOILER WARNING:We leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer....
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Facebook Gifts Urges Users to Shop While They Share

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook is already privy to its users’ e-mail addresses, wedding pictures and political beliefs. Now the company is nudging them to share a bit more: credit card numbers and offline addresses. James Best Jr./The New York TimesFacebook Gifts is a service that prompts users to buy things for friends on the social network. Sharing Even MoreWhat...
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Ex-Elmo puppeteer faces new sex-with-minor allegation

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The puppeteer formerly behind the “Sesame Street” character Elmo faces a new accusation of having sex with an underage boy, a week after a similar allegation prompted him to resign from the iconic public television children’s program.In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, a man identified only as John alleges Kevin Clash engaged in oral sex and other sex...
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Amid Hurricane Sandy, a Race to Get a Liver Transplant

It was the best possible news, at the worst possible time. The phone call from the hospital brought the message that Dolores and Vin Dreeland had long hoped for, ever since their daughter Natalia, 4, had been put on the waiting list for a liver transplant. The time had come. They bundled her into the car for the 50-mile trip from their home in Long Valley, N.J., to NewYork-Presbyterian...
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Nov
26

Egypt president meets judges, fails to 'contain crisis'

CAIRO — President Mohamed Morsi suggested Monday that he would scale back broad powers he assumed last week but failed to appease...
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A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Nov. 27

Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle posted here.SPOILER WARNING:We leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer....
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Beyonce to direct documentary about herself for HBO

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Pop superstar Beyonce is stepping behind the camera to direct a behind-the-scenes documentary about her personal and professional life, U.S. cable channel HBO said on Monday.The currently untitled film will debut on February 16 and show the Grammy-winning singer’s life in the recording studio, readying for live performances and running her own TV and music production company.“Everybody...
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Letters: Cycle of Birth and Death (1 Letter)

To the Editor: Re “Amid Cosmic Fatigue, Scarcely a Star Is Born” (Out There, Nov. 20): Though one may bemoan the rapidly declining birthrate of stars, the inescapable fact is that everything ends. People live for about 80 years, but any one of us could die tomorrow. As for our species, a cosmic impact causing mass extinctions like that of the dinosaurs occurs every 100 million years or...
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Nov
25

Survey finds lots of unused vacation time

As an information technology supervisor at Pitzer College in Claremont, Dennis Crowley had so much work to do last year that...
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A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Nov. 26

Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle posted here.SPOILER WARNING:We leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer....
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Oprah Winfrey Seeks a Younger Audience to Bolster a Flagging Empire

Stephanie Diani for The New York TimesOprah Winfrey spoke last month at a convention held by O, The Oprah Magazine, in Los Angeles. LOS ANGELES — It’s not easy to find a fresh way to photograph Oprah Winfrey. That’s why the editors of O, The Oprah Magazine, recently tried to create a shot that recalled the glory days of Ms. Winfrey’s syndicated talk show. They arranged to photograph her for...
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Grammy-winning bassist injured in Swiss bus crash

GENEVA (AP) — Grammy-winning jazz bassist Marcus Miller and several members of his band were injured when their bus overturned Sunday on a busy highway in Switzerland, killing the driver, police said.The German-registered private bus tipped over as it drove into a bend on the A2 highway in central Switzerland and came to a rest on its side, police in the canton (state) of Uri said. The bus was carrying...
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