Alex Bach

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AFP) –
American Kelly Pavlik stopped Miguel Espino in the fifth round of their World Boxing Council middleweight fight on Saturday.

Pavlik, 27, floored Espino three times including twice in the fourth round. He sent Espino to the canvas again in the fifth and that's when the challenger's corner threw in the towel.

Pavlik (36-1, 32 KOs) traded punches with Espino from the opening bell in an entertaining fight that was stopped by referee Steve Smoger at 1:44 of the fifth.

Espino (20-3-1) is the third ranked contender behind Pavlik. He was deducted a point after round one for throwing a late punch.

The win was a confidence boost for Pavlik who recently took 10 months off to recover from an infected hand.

Pavlik suffered his only loss 14 months ago when he stepped up in weight to face Bernard Hopkins and dropped a unanimous 12-round decision.

Pavlik defended his title last February by beating Mexico's Marco Antonio Rubio, but needed this win to prove himself once again.

Big Mac, large fries and a large Coke: That'll be 1,350 calories.

If Congress has its way, you'll soon be as familiar with the nutritional content of your fast-food combos as you are with their prices.

The House (HR 3962) and Senate (HR 3590) health care reform bills include provisions requiring fast-food chains to post calorie counts on their menus. Separate House (HR 2426) and Senate (S 1048) bills would have the same effect.

The measures are designed to curb the epidemic of obesity in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese.

Legislators are hopeful that the extra information will help consumers make healthier choices -- helping reduce health care costs for heart disease, diabetes and other weight-related illnesses.

But according to independent research in low-income areas, calorie intake could take a backseat to price.

"We may need to look at a combination of policy implemented simultaneously to impact obesity," said Dr. Brian Elbel, assistant professor of New York University School of Medicine and author of the study.

Supportive policy like increasing healthier and affordable food choices in low-income areas can strengthen the calorie labeling measure, said Elbel.

Additionally, some critics say the calorie content alone is not enough because many consumers don't know much about what they should be eating.

For example, that Big Mac combo is nearly two-thirds of the 2,000 calories that an average adult who is moderately active should consume in a single day, according to Dr. James A. Dail, a nutritionist and doctor of naturopathic medicine.

The ideal caloric breakdown, according to Dail: 500 calories for breakfast, 1000 calories for lunch and 500 calories for dinner. He also says that the last meal of the day should be consumed before 7 p.m.

Still, supporters of the measures say any little bit of information helps.

A report from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene found that most people underestimate the number of calories they consume.

The measure began as local mandates, with New York City leading the way.

Surprisingly, the National Restaurant Association supports the federal bills in part because it hopes to stem the tide of local restrictions, which vary widely. Those little differences cause heartburn in an industry that aims for standardized menus.

According to the association, menu labeling at fast-food chains is currently required in three counties in New York; Philadelphia, Penn.; Montgomery County, Md.; Nashville, Tenn.; and jurisdictions in Maine, Massachusetts and Oregon, among other places.

From our sister publication, Congress.org

ATLANTA – Willie Maxine Perry, who helped inspire the character Madea played by her movie producer son Tyler Perry, has died. She was 64.
Tyler Perry announced her Tuesday death on his Web site, where he thanked fans for their prayers. He did not say where his mother died or anything about the cause.
Perry's publicist, Keleigh Thomas, would not give further details Wednesday afternoon.
Perry owes much of his popularity to his portrayal of Madea, a sharp-tongued, iron-willed Southern matriarch played by Perry in a padded suit and wig. She is the central character in films like "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail,"
In an October interview, Perry told CBS' "60 Minutes" that the character is a celebration of strong black women who is based in part on his own mother.
"Madea's a cross between my mother and my aunt — she's the type of grandmother that was on every corner when I was growing up," he said. "... She's a strong figure where I come from, in my part of the African American community."
But the character has also earned criticism from some black community figures who argue Perry is reinforcing stereotypes of black women as overbearing, violent and brash. Film maker Spike Lee recently labeled Perry's TBS sitcoms and films "coonery."
Arlene Barron, executive director at the Jewish Community Center in New Orleans, said Maxine Perry had worked there as a nursery school assistant for about 10 years from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s.
___
On the Net:
http://tylerperry.com/

Originally a text-only communications medium, email was extended to carry multi-media content attachments, which were standardized in with RFC 2045 through RFC 2049, collectively called, Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME).

The foundation for today's global Internet e-mail service was created in the early ARPANET and standards for encoding of messages were proposed as early as 1973 (RFC 561). An e-mail sent in the early 1970s looked very similar to one sent on the Internet today. Conversion from the ARPANET to the Internet in the early 1980s produced the core of the current service.

Email Marketing Service

London –
Most of the focus on the United Nations' upcoming Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, has been about the "what" of any potential agreement – the possibility of reaching a "climate change deal." In truth, whatever is or is not agreed on at Copenhagen, the overwhelming emphasis at this point should not only be upon the what, but more upon the how.
Take, to begin with, the developed countries, which are supposed to take the lead in reducing their greenhouse-gas emissions in a radical way. Most have made only limited progress in meeting their Kyoto targets for emissions reductions, modest though these are.
A small cluster of countries, such as Sweden, Denmark, and Germany, have made significant headway. Closer examination, however, shows that most of what they have achieved is not simply the result of active climate-change policy. Sweden and Denmark reacted vigorously to the oil crisis of the late 1970s, and introduced renewable technologies at that point. Germany has made some advances in developing wind power; nevertheless, renewable sources account for only some 7 percent of its energy mix.
Even in the "successful" countries, therefore, a step change in achievements thus far will be demanded.
There is a long list of nations where little or no progress has been made, or where emissions have actually increased. In Europe, one can point to countries such as Italy, Spain, and Greece. Elsewhere, they include Japan, Australia, Canada – and the United States.
There has been much talk recently about the weak negotiating position President Obama will have at Copenhagen, given the difficulty of getting a climate-change bill through Congress. Quite apart from any such legislation, the task of actually reducing American emissions in a systemic way is huge. The American way of life is based upon cheap energy coupled to cheap credit, conjoined to more or less endless suburban expansion. How can these trends be reversed, and in the relatively short term? Where are the policies commensurate with the scale of the problem?
Many suppose that wind, solar, thermal, and other low-carbon technologies can progressively substitute for fossil fuels. They can be part of the solution, to be sure, but we will make little progress in reducing emissions unless we are able to deal with consumption.
Lifestyle change, and on a widespread level – across the industrialized world – is an exigency. Gross domestic product is deeply flawed as a measure of welfare, but no country has yet found a way of replacing it in a way citizens are prepared to accept.
So far as the poorer countries of the world are concerned, the task is equally formidable, or perhaps even more so. Essentially, a new model of development must be pioneered. China, India, Brazil, and other developing nations have the right to aspire to living standards comparable with those of the developed world. Yet beyond a certain point, it will be impossible for them simply to tread the same path the rich countries have followed; the destructive consequences in terms of climate change will be far too large.
A great deal of creative thinking is needed, and most of it will have to be social and political.
The world must consider the possibility that some traditional ways of life and social connections should not be sacrificed on the altar of modernity but can help show an alternative way to prosperity. For instance, could developing countries go back to the future by preserving local communities and attachments, perhaps integrating them with high-tech means of communication and thereby avoiding further urban sprawl?
And then there is the sphere of international relations, where just as much innovation will be needed. At present, there are few means of ensuring that countries that sign up to international agreements actually comply.
What use is it for governments to agree to set themselves targets if there is no way that they can be held to them? Regular monitoring of progress by an international body or bodies will help, but naming and shaming is likely to have only a marginal impact. More far-reaching sanctions have to be found, difficult though that task is in the face of the fact that nations jealously guard their sovereignty.
Finally, even on the level of sheer negotiation, Copenhagen-style agreements can only take us so far. Bilateral pacts will be extremely important, especially between China and the US, the world's two biggest polluters.
For instance, the US could agree to relax certain patent rights for the transfer of low-carbon technologies into China in exchange for trade concessions . Regional agreements and plans will also be necessary in all parts of the world, not just for mitigation but also for adapting to large-scale changes in weather patterns.
Wherever we look there is an immense amount of work to be done and novel thinking is required.
Anthony Giddens is a member of the British House of Lords and the former director of the London School of Economics. His most recent book is "The Politics of Climate Change." The UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen is Dec. 7 to Dec. 18.
© 2009 Global Viewpoint Network / Tribune Media Services. Hosted online by The Christian Science Monitor

----

READ ALSO:Editorial: Copenhagen, Epa, and climate change: Obama's false move

Opinion: At Copenhagen, the US should partner with India

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
Runny nose, fever, cough, even pneumonia -- the symptoms sound like swine flu but children hospitalized at one U.S. hospital in fact had a rhinovirus, better known as a common cold virus, doctors said on Tuesday.

Hundreds of children treated at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia had a rhinovirus, and federal health investigators are trying to find out if it was a new strain, and if this is going on elsewhere in the country.

"What began to happen in early September is we started seeing more children coming to our emergency room with significant respiratory illness," said Dr. Susan Coffin, medical director of infection control and prevention at the hospital.

Doctors and parents assumed it was the new pandemic H1N1 swine flu, which would be expected to re-emerge as schools began in September. But it was not, Coffin said in a telephone interview.

The hospital, unlike most hospitals in the United States, runs a test that can diagnose 10 different respiratory viruses, including influenza but also rhinoviruses, parainfluenza viruses and other germs that make kids sick.

"The data showed us it wasn't H1N1 but instead was this rhinovirus infection," Coffin said.

Usually rhinoviruses cause an annoying but benign illness that looks a lot like flu, but with more runny nose and usually less of a fever. This one was causing severe symptoms and even pneumonia.

"Some of these kids had really bad wheezing," Coffin said -- so bad they had to be hospitalized and treated with a nebulizer, which delivers drugs into the lungs to help keep oxygen in the blood.

"We don't terribly often have large numbers of children test positive for it," Coffin said.

CDC INVESTIGATING

But she estimated that 500 were hospitalized in September and October, with no deaths that she knows of. Starting in mid-October, H1N1 swine flu started to show up, too.

The U.S. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention is investigating, said CDC spokesman Dave Daigle.

"While rhinovirus outbreaks are common in the fall, the outbreak that occurred this year was unusually large and resulted in a lot of hospital admissions, including many children that required intensive care," Daigle said.

"We're still testing the strains from the outbreak, but from what we've seen so far, it doesn't appear that there's a single predominant strain."

The CDC says while swine flu is above epidemic levels, only 30 percent of cases of so-called influenza-like illness that are tested actually turn out to be H1N1.

Coffin and CDC officials say it is important for people not to assume if they or their children have flu-like symptoms that it was swine flu and that they do not need to be vaccinated.

H1N1 has infected an estimated 22 million people and killed 3,900 in the United States alone. It continues to spread globally and governments are just at the beginning of efforts to vaccinate people against the virus.

There is no vaccine for rhinovirus and no good treatment. For severely ill patients hospitals can try to keep blood oxygen levels up and keep the patients hydrated, often with intravenous lines if they are coughing or wheezing too hard to eat or drink.

(Editing by Philip Barbara)

BEIJING (AFP) –
US President Barack Obama and China's Hu Jintao on Tuesday pledged to apply their joint political might to the world's toughest problems, but friction was evident on Tibet, economics and Iran.

In solemn talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, the high point of Obama's debut visit to China, the leaders ploughed through an agenda packed with top world crises, reflecting China's rise as a key global player.

Hu vowed to work for "positive, cooperative and comprehensive" ties with Obama's administration, and the US leader, seeking to cement his early relationship with Beijing, adopted the same diplomatic formula word for word. Related article: Denmark lauds US, China support on climate talks

The pair voiced agreement on the need for action on climate change, prodding North Korea back to six-party nuclear talks and a common undertaking to help return the global economy to growth after the dark economic crisis.

US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman said the president was well on the way to forging the kind of relationship with Beijing that could help him tackle global crises which demanded the intervention of the two great powers.

The Sino-US relationship was "at a cruising altitude that is higher than any other time in recent memory, thereby able to sail above the wind shears or even storms", Huntsman said. Related article: Obama raises human rights issue

"The US-China relationship has gotten global... there are really only two countries in the world that can solve certain issues."

But the leaders' nuanced statements pointed to differences between two competing powers deeply interlinked economically and repeatedly thrust together on world problems on which they have differing views.

After their talks, they appeared together to read formal statements to several hundred journalists, but both hinted at their divides.

Hu told Obama for they needed to "oppose and reject protectionism in all its manifestations". Washington has angered Beijing by slapping tariffs recently on Chinese tyre exports and preliminary duties on some steel products.

Hu added the two sides needed continued "consultations on an equal footing to properly resolve economic and trade frictions".

Obama, tactfully voicing US worries that China's yuan currency is being kept artificially low to boost Chinese exports, said he welcomed "past statements" by Beijing to pursue a market-oriented exchange rate "over time".

That language left open the possibility Hu had made no fresh offer of action which Obama said would make "an essential contribution" to rebalancing the global economy -- code for weaning China off export-led growth.

On Iran, Obama warned that if Tehran did not "present and demonstrate its peaceful intentions" with its nuclear programme, it would face "consequences".

But Hu was less adamant, saying only the issue needed to be solved through "dialogue and negotiations". There was no sign Beijing now shared the impatience of Russia, another key power, on Iran's foot-dragging.

Obama, who angered critics by declining to meet the Dalai Lama before travelling to Beijing, pointedly raised the issue of Tibet.

"We did note that while we recognise that Tibet is part of the People's Republic of China, the United States supports the early resumption of dialogue between the Chinese government and representatives of the Dalai Lama," he said.

Both leaders said their nations, the two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, were vital to hopes of a deal to slow global warming, despite clear signs that no global deal will emerge from next month's Copenhagen conference.

"Our aim there is... not a partial accord or a political declaration but rather an accord that covers all the issues in the negotiations and one that has immediate operational effect," the US leader said.

The sides announced a series of new initiatives on clean energy research and agreements on the cleaner user of coal, electric vehicles and shale gas.

Obama's talks with Hu came on the third leg of his four-nation maiden tour of Asia as president, which concludes on Thursday in South Korea.

After the press conference, Obama braved the crisp November air for a hectic tour of the ancient Forbidden City, one of the few moments of tourism in a trip that also took him to Japan and a regional summit in Singapore.

Hu later laid on the lavish splendour of a full state dinner for Obama, with Chinese-style beef steak and Great Wall wine on the menu. Related article: Steak on menu at state banquet

Music selections included "I Just Called to Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder, whose music Obama said earlier this year had helped bring him together with wife Michelle.

MUMBAI (AFP) –
Indian energy giant Reliance Industries will launch an "aggressive" oil and gas exploration campaign over the next three years, its chairman Mukesh Ambani told shareholders on Tuesday.

"We have planned an aggressive exploration campaign (for the oil sector) in the next three years," Ambani said in a statement issued by the company after its annual general meeting.

"This will take Reliance to a higher growth trajectory."

Last week, Reliance announced it had struck oil in the Cambay basin in western India, marking its 43rd discovery in India.

The fuel-hungry nation, which imports 70 percent of its oil needs, has been racing to discover new sources of energy to power its fast-growing economy.

In the financial year ended March 2009, Reliance announced the first flow of crude from the company's deep-sea oil and gas field in the Bay of Bengal off eastern India.

Oil production began in September last year in a sector of the Krishna Godavari basin with an initial flow of 5,000 barrels a day.

Gas production started in April at the same basin, which is among the five largest deepwater gas projects in the world.

"The year 2009 was a challenging one. The global meltdown had its impact on communities, companies and countries," Ambani told shareholders.

Last month, Reliance said quarterly net profit fell by 6.5 percent to 38.52 billion rupees (810 million dollars) in the three months to September, as core refining margins fell due to a slide in global crude prices.

Ambani identified the areas of conventional energy, retail business and services, renewable and alternative energy, innovation and rural sector transformation for potential value creation for Reliance.

The company plans to resume expansion of its retail businesses, which had faced opposition from farmers and policymakers across India since its launch.

Reliance Retail, which includes supermarkets and also sells electronic products, clothing and household goods, currently operates 1,000 stores across 86 cities.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
U.S. President Barack Obama will hold a forum on job creation with U.S. business leaders on December 3 and then embark on a cross-country tour to discuss economic recovery, the White House said on Monday.

Obama, who is currently traveling in Asia, said last week he would host the forum to devise ways to combat double-digit unemployment -- but did not announce a date.

The conference aims to bring chief executives, small business owners and financial experts to the White House to exchange ideas on putting unemployed Americans back to work.

"We have a responsibility to consider all good ideas to encourage and accelerate job creation in this country," Obama said in a statement.

"I am looking forward to hearing from the private sector, from CEOs and small business owners and from Americans struggling to make ends meet on how we can work together to create jobs and get this economy moving again."

With unemployment at 10.2 percent in October, a 26-1/2 year high, Obama is under pressure to act. An administration official said last week, however, that the president was not weighing a second stimulus package, on top of a $787 billion emergency government spending bill signed earlier this year.

The day after the forum, Obama will embark on a "White House to Main Street Tour" in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The tour will be spread out over a few months.

Obama wanted to get out of Washington and "take the temperature on what Americans are experiencing during these challenging economic times," the White House said.

On Capitol Hill, a leading Democrat said lawmakers were determined to pass measures this year to spur more job growth.

"A jobless recovery is simply unacceptable to us," said Representative John Larson, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, speaking to reporters before a meeting with Richard Trumka, president of the labor union group AFL-CIO.

Republicans have criticized Obama's economic programs and view the stimulus package as too expensive.

The jobs conference and tour will aim to highlight Obama's intention of responding to Americans' concerns about unemployment ahead of mid-term elections in 2010. The president hopes to hold on to Democratic majorities in both houses of the U.S. Congress.

The U.S. economy began growing again in the third quarter after the worst recession since the Great Depression, but unemployment has continued to climb.

The White House has warned that it could go even higher before falling back because many employers delay hiring new workers for several months after economic growth resumes.

(Additional reporting by Alister Bull and Susan Cornwell, editing by Alan Elsner)

MUMBAI (AFP) –
Katrina Kaif is one of Bollywood's leading actresses -- the most searched-for Indian female film star on the Internet and a former top model with an A-list boyfriend.

But the 25-year-old, whose latest film "Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani" ("An Amazing Story Of Strange Love") is released on November 6, said her rise to fame has not been easy and she is determined success will not go to her head.

"It didn't happen overnight. I was here struggling to make it as a model and tried my luck in acting," she said.

"I didn't know in the first place whether I wanted to be in acting but then good roles started coming and my films started becoming a hit. And here I am."

Kaif, born in Hong Kong to a British mother and a father of Indian Kashmiri origin, made a faltering start in the 2003 film "Boom" after being spotted in a commercial.

She has since notched up roles in high-profile films like the recent blockbuster "Blue", the 2008 action comedy "Singh Is Kinng" and the romantic comedy "Namastey London" in 2007.

The actress in part attributes her rise to actor Salman Khan, with whom she starred in the 2005 hit comedy "Maine Pyaar Kyon Kiya" (Why Did I Fall in Love?) and now dates, although she refuses to talk about her private life.

"He was there to guide me in the industry when I was new over here and will always be special to me," she said.

Kaif said she was always confident of success, despite setbacks.

"I have faced a lot of rejections and people always came up with one or the other excuse to reject me on flimsy grounds, but I kept going because I always knew someone would approve me," she added.

This year's "New York", about a group of friends in the city on the day of the September 11, 2001 attacks, was a critical and box office success -- and the moment Kaif said she felt she had made it in India.

Kaif, brought up in France, Hawaii and London and one of seven sisters, said family values had helped her keep a perspective in a country that reveres Bollywood stars like gods.

"I had a very frugal upbringing. My mother was into charity institutions and to date, she is involved in charity work, so I know what hardship means," she explained.

"I never had pocket money and didn't have access to material things."

Her mother now lives in the southern Indian city of Chennai and works with orphans.

"Lots of people feel that whatever I have earned is because of the goodness of her work," she said.

Kaif, who took Hindi and dancing lessons to help her acting career, says said she never wanted to be a star.

As a skinny teenager, she said boys would not give her a second glance -- though now her innocent beauty has brought worldwide fame among Bollywood fans.

"As a girl I was fascinated about collecting marbles and my two elder sisters used to make me wash dishes in exchange for giving me marbles, which used to be the most precious possessions to me," she said.

"I never knew that the marbles were very cheap and my sisters were fooling with me to do their work."

Despite now being one of Bollywood's biggest earners -- at a reported 30 million rupees (640,000 dollars) per film -- Kaif said she is unchanged by fame.

"I am still the same person. I am not a glamorous person in real life. I don't buy handbags like lots of other women do," she said.

"I don't spend on shoes, too, and you will always find me in casual dress if I am not in a film costume.

"I don't want to look glamorous when I am off screen and I want to be as real as I can."

As for criticism in the cut-throat world of Bollywood, where style often takes precedence over substance, she says she is "like every other girl".

"I am sensitive and I have my weakness. If people say, 'You have not lived up to expectations', I get upset," she added.

"I want to do good films. Eventually I want to be married and do things that will make me happy. I got this opportunity in the country by starting with nothing."

WALSENBURG, Colo. – Bernice and Jerry Angely like to show visitors the singed T-shirt a friend was wearing when their water well exploded and shot flames 30 feet high.
The friend wasn't hurt. But that and an explosion at another home weeks earlier forced Colorado to suspend natural gas drilling around this southern plains town until someone could find out why dangerous levels of methane were getting into the groundwater.
Two years later, Walsenburg and surrounding Huerfano County are still waiting, its residents caught in a collision between two of the West's vital resources: Water and natural gas.
"The water is so saturated with methane and other chemicals it is not to be used for human consumption," said Bernice Angely, who's had water trucked to her home 10 miles west of town since her well blew up in July 2007.
Petroglyph Energy Inc., a Boise, Idaho-based firm that has worked the rolling plains of the Raton Basin since 1999, suspended drilling until it can stem the methane. Colorado also is rewriting rules that had allowed Petroglyph to discharge water runoff from its drilling into streams and creeks.
But Petroglyph says it's not clear the drilling caused the methane leaks or prompted other area water wells to run dry. Eying what it calls an extremely promising natural gas field, it believes a shallow water formation tapped by area homeowners isn't connected to a deeper one pumped by the company for its drilling operations.
Petroglyph chief operating officer Paul Powell also believes a growing number of new homes in the area could explain some of the dry water wells.
"We'll do what we need to do," Powell said, stressing that his firm is working with the state on a solution.
Petroglyph has a plan to prevent the flow of methane into water wells by creating a hydraulic barrier. The company has proposed pumping water from an underground formation and injecting it into a row of wells where gas drilling occurs. Powell said gas will migrate into a void, and "if the void is full of water, there isn't room for gas to migrate through it."
State regulators say the plan is plausible but that Petroglyph needs to prove it works. Democratic U.S. Rep. John Salazar, who farms in the nearby San Luis Valley, has asked the U.S. Geological Survey to weigh in by evaluating the area's water quality and formations to determine if the gas drilling is to blame for the problems.
Water coursing through porous rock and streams has allowed farming, ranching and new subdivisions to thrive in the semiarid area about 160 miles south of Denver.
It also helps trap methane gas in the vast coal seams that once made the area a mining hot spot. The coal mines are gone, but the methane that made digging for it dangerous is a valuable resource. Companies like Petroglyph pump huge volumes of water out of the ground to relieve the pressure trapping the natural gas.
Steve Gunderson, director of Colorado's water quality control division, said Petroglyph will have to build a water treatment plant before it gets a new permit to discharge water. The old permit allowed Petroglyph to release up to 8 million gallons of water daily.
Fourth-generation dairy farmer Brett Corsentino blames the discharges into the Cucharas River for ruining his corn crops. He uses river water to irrigate his crops just a few miles east of the homeowners having problems with their wells. He says the high levels of sodium in the wastewater has diminished his soil's ability to absorb water and stunted the corn's growth.
"They say, `Well, there's no proof,'" Corsentino said. "Well, we'd been getting along for generations just fine until they started pumping 8 million gallons out of this country."
Corsentino also says his herd suffered abnormally high birth and death rates and now numbers 400, down from 650. He believes the cows consumed too much sodium from the water and corn grown from it. His corn used to produce 6,000 tons of silage; this year's crop yielded 1,500 tons.
However, Corsentino says his herd is healthier and milk production has increased since drilling stopped.
"There's an obvious direct, substantial impact to Brett Corsentino's dairy," the state's Gunderson said of the drilling.

Petroglyph paid for soil tests on Corsentino's farm. They showed high levels of sodium but that it also needed more calcium, Powell said. Petroglyph and Corsentino are discussing possible treatments.

"We still don't believe we have liability for the situation," Powell said. "But we were willing to help him fix his land and get back to productivity."

Ten miles west of Walsenburg, a rushing sound emanates from a pipe that vents methane from Ben and Melanie Bounds' water well. The pipe was installed after a June 2007 explosion blew off a shed roof covering the well.

The Bounds had moved from Dallas to build what they call their dream home atop a hill with a breathtaking view of the Spanish Peaks. They say their problems started when Petroglyph began drilling nearby. They're suing the company and haul water from town to their cistern.

"If I could run the clock back, we'd have never tried this," Ben Bounds said.

"I had more methane coming out of my water well than they had out of any of their gas wells. It sounded like a locomotive going down the road," said Kent Smith, who also has a methane detector in his house. "The damage and the problems they've caused have got to be addressed, and they keep getting pushed aside and forgotten about."

Petroglyph insists it's a good neighbor. Despite the methane mystery, it's trucking water to 14 area homes and has supplied 15 homes with methane alarm systems.

___

On the Net:

Petroglyph Energy Inc., http://tinyurl.com/ybfpcco

Walsenburg 2009 Drinking Water Consumer Confidence Report for Calendar Year 2008, http://tinyurl.com/yenabct

Wood, bamboo, wheat, other grasses, rushes, twigs, osiers, or wicker are often used to make baskets. These items can also made today from plastic. The first baskets were woven by gatherers to collect fruits, grains, nuts, and other edible plant materials, as well as for holding fish by early fishing humans. A creel is a basket made especially to hold fish.

Although baskets were traditionally created to serve a utilitarian rather than an aesthetic purpose, the practice of basket making has evolved into an art. Artistic freedom allows basket makers a wide choice of colors, materials, sizes, patterns, and details.

Holiday Gift Baskets

You would think that an unpiloted space plane built to rocket spaceward from Florida atop an Atlas booster, circle the planet for an extended time, then land on autopilot on a California runway would be big news. But for the U.S. Air Force X-37B
project — seemingly, mum's the word.

There is an
air of vagueness regarding next year's Atlas Evolved Expendable launch of the unpiloted, reusable military space
plane. The X-37B will be cocooned within the Atlas rocket's launch shroud — a
ride that's far from cheap.

While the
launch range approval is still forthcoming, SPACE.com has learned that
the U.S. Air Force has the X-37B manifested for an April 2010
liftoff.

As a
mini-space plane, this Boeing Phantom Works craft has been under development
for years. Several agencies have been involved in the effort, NASA as well as
the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and various arms of the
U.S. Air Force.

Over the last
few months, I've been in touch with DARPA, Boeing, the Pentagon, the U.S. Air
Force Space Command, as well as NASA itself. Either you get a "not in our
portfolio" or are given a "go to" pass to another agency. Just a few weeks ago, I
even commandeered a face-to-face "no comment" from a top Pentagon official for
Air Force space programs about X-37B.

Tight-lipped
factor

The
tight-lipped factor surrounding the space plane, its mission, and who is in
charge is curious. Such a hush-hush factor seems to mimic in pattern that mystery
communications spacecraft lofted last month aboard an Atlas 5 rocket, simply
called PAN. Its assignment and what agency owns it remains undisclosed.

But in a
brief burst of light eking from the new era of government transparency, I did
score this comment from NASA.

While the
program is now under the U.S. Air Force, NASA is looking forward to receiving
data from the advanced technology work.

"NASA has a
long history of involvement with the X-37 program. We continue to monitor and
share information on technology developments," said Gary Wentz, chief engineer
Science and Missions Systems Office at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. "We
are looking forward to a successful first flight and to receiving data from
some advanced technologies of interest to us, such as thermal protection
systems, guidance, navigation and control, and materials for autonomous
re-entry and landing."

The vehicle
itself is about 29 feet long with a roughly 15-foot wingspan and weighs in at
over five tons at liftoff.  Speeding down from space, the craft would likely
make use of Runway 12/30 — 15,000 feet long by 200
feet wide — at Vandenberg Air Force Base in
California.

Vandenberg serves
as an emergency space shuttle landing strip, as a second backup after
California's Edwards Air Force Base – which has also been noted as a landing
spot for the X-37B.

Once in
orbit, what such a vehicle might enable depends on the eye of the beholder.
Intelligence gathering, kicking off small satellites, testing space gear are
feasible duties, as is developing reusable space vehicle technologies.

Space
test platform

Just last
month, a U.S. Air Force fact sheet noted that the Air Force Rapid Capabilities
Office (RCO), located in Washington, D.C. "is working on the X-37B Orbital Test
Vehicle to demonstrate a reliable, reusable, unmanned
space test platform for the United States Air Force."

The mission
of the RCO is to expedite development and fielding of select Department of
Defense combat support and weapon systems by leveraging defense-wide technology
development efforts and existing operational capabilities.

"The
problem with it [X37-B] is whether you see it as a weapons platform," said
Theresa Hitchens, former head of the Center for Defense Information's
Space Security Program, now Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) in Geneva, Switzerland.

"It then
becomes, if I am not mistaken, a Global Strike platform. There are a lot of reasons
to be concerned about Global Strike as a concept," Hitchens told SPACE.com.

The implications of the program as a
possible space weapon are surely not lost on potential U.S. competitors,
Hitchens said, who may well see
anti-satellites (ASATs) as a leveler.

"Would this thing be vulnerable to
ASATs? Yes, if it stayed on orbit any length of time," Hitchens added. "While I
see value of such a platform as a pop-up reconnaissance or even communications
platform, if weaponized it becomes yet another reason for other nations to consider
building dangerous ASATs," she cautioned.

Another
mission question is, to what extent the X-37B might play into the recent
announcement that NASA is partnering with the U.S. Air Force Research
Laboratory to develop a technology roadmap for the commercial reusable launch
vehicle, or RLV, industry.

All that
said, and after years in the making, the X-37B is approaching its first
globe-trotting, milestone making and historic flight – that much is known.

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Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for
more than four decades. He is past editor-in-chief of the National Space
Society's Ad Astra and Space World magazines and has written for SPACE.com
since 1999.

Original Story: Air Force's Secretive Space Plane Nears Maiden VoyageSPACE.com offers rich and compelling content about space science, travel and exploration as well as astronomy, technology, business news and more. The site boasts a variety of popular features including our space image of the day and other space pictures,space videos, Top 10s, Trivia, podcasts and Amazing Images submitted by our users. Join our community, sign up for our free newsletters and register for our RSS Feeds today!

LOS ANGELES – A shake-up in Katherine Jackson's legal team left her unrepresented during a hearing Thursday to clarify the power two attorneys have over her pop star son's estate, but it didn't stop the judge from issuing orders upholding those powers and adding new ones.
The new authority given the administrators by Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff included not having to seek permission from the judge to make routine decisions on various administrative matters involving the estate of Michael Jackson.
Earlier Thursday, Katherine Jackson replaced her team of probate lawyers with a new attorney, Adam Streisand.
Attorneys for the estate told Beckloff he would not appear because some of Katherine Jackson's former attorneys had not formally relinquished their role in the case.
Streisand said after the hearing he will need to review the case before commenting on Beckloff's ruling or his strategy for the case.
Katherine Jackson is one of the main beneficiaries of her son's estate and has already been named permanent guardian of his three children, who range in ages from 7 to 12.
Her former attorneys repeatedly talked about challenging the adequacy of the estate's administrators, attorney John Branca and music executive John McClain. But Beckloff noted none of those objections have been filed, and he was concerned about frequent delays posed by Katherine Jackson's former attorneys.
"The family came to a a decision that they felt they needed a different perspective and a fresh look at how this case was being approached," Streisand said Thursday. "I answer to nobody but Mrs. Jackson."
Streisand is no stranger to high-profile celebrity estate cases. He has represented clients in the probate cases of Anna Nicole Smith, Ray Charles and Marlon Brando.
Beckloff earlier this month granted Branca and McClain the authority to handle numerous creditors' claims and lawsuits facing the estate. But attorneys for the men and Katherine Jackson couldn't agree on the wording of Beckloff's order, so a hearing was called to clarify it.
The judge allowed the administrators a new set of powers that will allow them to handle routine transactions — such as striking business deals and making additional payments to Katherine Jackson and the children — provided they are uncontested.

TRENTON, N.J. – There are weighty issues in New Jersey's tight race for governor — the highest property taxes in the nation, for one thing. And then there are issues of weight.
Republican challenger Chris Christie's Henry VIII-like girth has become a front-and-center topic of discussion ever since Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine ran a commercial claiming that Christie "threw his weight around" to get out of traffic violations.
The ad, first aired last month, showed a clip of a rotund Christie, his extra pounds rolling beneath his shirt, lumbering out of the back seat of an SUV.
Corzine spokesman Sean Darcy insisted the governor "has no interest in Chris Christie's appearance."
But Corzine, a trim 62-year-old who has been running 5K races around the state to demonstrate his fitness, has not exactly tried to squelch use of the f-word. When asked by a newspaper whether he thought Christie was fat, Corzine touched his bare pate and responded, "Am I bald?"
There is little evidence the commercial is changing many voters' minds, but it has been a sensation online, getting more than 100,000 hits on YouTube — way more than any other ad in the race. And it has clearly changed the conversation on the campaign trail.
Christie, a 47-year-old former federal prosecutor, won't say what he weighs. But he acknowledged he has been struggling since college to lose weight. He said that he has dropped nearly 30 pounds since he started campaigning by working out with a trainer, and that he doesn't have any related health problems.
Of Corzine's commercial, Christie said: "He knows it's really unseemly and nobody really cares about this at the end of the day."
Unflattering photos in campaign ads are not uncommon. But it's rare for politicians to directly criticize their opponents' looks because that can make them appear mean-spirited, said Kerwin Swint, a political science professor at Kennesaw State University in Georgia and the author of "Mudslingers: The 25 Dirtiest Political Campaigns of All Time."
Corzine, a former Wall Street CEO who is bankrolling his own campaign, has spent much of the race attacking his GOP challenger. He suggested Christie wants to make it harder for women to get mammograms. He criticized him for making a loan to one of his top assistants in the U.S. attorney's office, and for giving no-bid government contracts to lawyers he has worked with.
Christie has accused the governor of being responsible for the state's economic woes and failing to do anything about New Jersey's high taxes. He has also portrayed Corzine as out of touch and a mean campaigner.
For his part, independent candidate Chris Daggett has attacked Corzine as aloof and Christie as hot-tempered.
The "threw-his-weight-around" ad attracted hardly any public criticism during its two-week run, perhaps because New Jersey voters themselves are saying far worse things about the candidates online, with Christie sometimes referred to as "Fatso," and Corzine as "Corslime."
Vicky Cubberley, a crossing guard and dog-walker in Pennsauken who usually votes Democratic but is leaning toward the independent, called the ad "out of line," but added: "I don't like that Christie is attacking Corzine."
Patrick Hurley, a business consultant from Summit, said the ad made him so angry that he requested a Christie sign for his yard.
"The ad was completely, totally inappropriate," said Hurley, a Republican who voted for Corzine four years ago and is leaning toward Christie this time.