Ban on demanding Facebook passwords among new 2013 state laws

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Employers in California and Illinois will be prohibited from demanding access to workers’ password-protected social networking accounts and teachers in Oregon will be required to report suspected student bullies thanks to new laws taking effect in 2013.

In all, more than 400 measures were enacted at the state level during 2012 and will become law in the new year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).

Some of the statutes, which deal with everything from consumer protection to gun control and healthcare, take effect at the stroke of midnight. Others will not kick in until later in the year.

The raft of measures includes a new abortion restriction in New Hampshire, public-employee pension reform in California and Alabama, same-sex marriage in Maryland, and a requirement that private insurers in Alaska cover autism in kids and young adults, NCSL said.

In New Hampshire, a rarely used form of late-term abortion will become illegal except to save the life of the mother – and even then only if two doctors from separate hospitals certify the procedure is medically necessary.

John Lynch, the state’s outgoing Democratic governor, had vetoed the measure, saying it would threaten the lives of women in rural areas. But the state’s Republican-controlled legislature later overrode him.

In California and Illinois, laws that take effect at 12:01 a.m. local time will make it illegal for bosses to request social networking passwords or non-public online account information from their employees or job applicants.

Michigan’s Republican Governor Rick Snyder signed a similar measure into law earlier this month that took effect immediately. The Michigan law also penalizes educational institutions for dismissing or failing to admit a student who does not provide passwords and other account information used to access private internet and email accounts, including social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

But workers and job seekers in all three states will still need to be careful what they post online: Employers may continue to use publicly available social networking information. So inappropriate pictures, tweets and other social media indiscretions can still come back to haunt them.

Gun violence – in places where it’s all too common, such as Chicago, and in places where it’s unexpected, such as Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut – was big news in 2012. But only a handful of new state firearms laws are set to take effect in 2013.

In Michigan, the definition of a “pistol” under the law will now include any firearm less than 26 inches in length. The new definition encompasses some rifles with folding stocks and will make the weapons subject to the same restrictions as pistols.

In Illinois, certain guns currently regulated by state law, including paintball guns, will be excluded from the definition of a firearm and participants in military re-enactments will be exempt from some weapons laws.

Another big story in 2012 was the effort by lawmakers in a number of cash-strapped states to put their public employee pension funds on a sounder financial footing.

In California and Alabama, reforms designed to begin to address the unfunded liabilities of those retirement systems will take effect in 2013.

Among the other new laws on the books in 2013:

* In California, prison workers and peace officers will now be prohibited from having sex with inmates and prisoners in transport.

* In Illinois, sex offenders will be prohibited from distributing candy on Halloween, or playing Santa or the Easter Bunny.

* In Oregon, employers won’t be allowed to advertise a job vacancy if they won’t consider applicants who are currently out of work.

* In Kentucky, residents will be prohibited from releasing feral or wild hogs back into the wild and Illinois will ban the possession and sale of shark fins.

* And in Florida, the term “motor vehicle” will no longer apply to the specialized all-terrain vehicles with over-sized tires known as “swamp buggies” that are popular in some parts of the state.

(Reporting by James B. Kelleher; Editing by Greg McCune and Nick Zieminski)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Ban on demanding Facebook passwords among new 2013 state laws
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

Eric Prydz Picks a New Year's Eve Playlist

By Dahvi Shira

12/31/2012 at 06:50 PM EST

Unfortunately not everyone can be in Las Vegas when the ball drops this year, but Eric Prydz is bringing the party to PEOPLE.com readers in advance.

The DJ and producer, 36 – best known for his 2004 hit single, "Call on Me" – is playing a three-hour extended set at Surrender Nightclub on Monday, and he's sharing the tracks he's most excited to spin, including songs from his album, Eric Prydz Presents Pryda.

"I love to play on New Year's Eve because it has that special tension in the air," Prydz says. "People are so excited about the new year coming, leaving the old behind and starting fresh. It's also the perfect excuse to blow off some steam after that long Christmas with family. Let's make New Year's Eve 2013 one to remember!"

Recently scoring a Grammy nomination for his remix of M83's "Midnight City," Prydz, who is relocating to Los Angeles, already predicts 2013 "is going to be an amazing year."

As for his evening playlist, he plans to "blend a lot of the highlights from the past year with classics and brand new music set to blow up in 2013."

Check out part of his planned set below:

• Jeremy Olander – "Let Me Feel"
"This tune has spring/summer of 2013 written all over it. It's such a feel good track!"
Listen here

• Fehrplay – "I Can't Stop It"
"Fehrplay had a great year in 2012 and is set to blow up in 2013. This is his forthcoming single on my Pryda Friends imprint. The first time I heard this record, it took me somewhere really nice."
Listen here

• Rone – "Parade (Dominik Eulberg Remix)"
"Every now and then there is a track that comes along and blows your mind. This is one of those tracks. Nine minutes of pure emotion."
Listen here

• Eric Prydz – "Every Day"
"This one has been huge for me this summer and fall. Enough said."
Listen here

• Pachanga Boys – "Time"
"This was the soundtrack of my summer 2012. And I'm sure I'm not alone on that one."
Listen here

• Para One – "When the Night (Breakbot Remix)"
"I've been a fan of Para One's music for many years and this one is no exception. This song has a great retro vibe with a modern touch from Breakbot on this remix."
Listen here

• Pig & Dan – "Savage"
"This is a real club stomper. I can't wait to play this one out."
Listen here

• Pryda – "The End"
"I had to throw this one in. It's one of the biggest releases on Pryda to date."
Listen here

• Green Velvet & Harvard Bass – "Lazer Beams"
"Hit me with those laser beams!"
Listen here.

• Deetron feat. Hercules & Love Affair – "Crave (Deetron cRAVE Dub)"
"This song is a dark, big room destroyer."
Listen here

Read More..

Clinton's blood clot an uncommon complication

The kind of blood clot in the skull that doctors say Hillary Rodham Clinton has is relatively uncommon but can occur after an injury like the fall and concussion the secretary of state was diagnosed with earlier this month.

Doctors said Monday that an MRI scan revealed a clot in a vein in the space between the brain and the skull behind Clinton's right ear.

The clot did not lead to a stroke or neurological damage and is being treated with blood thinners, and she will be released once the proper dose is worked out, her doctors said in a statement.

Clinton has been at New York-Presbyterian Hospital since Sunday, when the clot was diagnosed during what the doctors called a routine follow-up exam. At the time, her spokesman would not say where the clot was located, leading to speculation it was another leg clot like the one she suffered behind her right knee in 1998.

Clinton had been diagnosed with a concussion Dec. 13 after a fall in her home that was blamed on a stomach virus that left her weak and dehydrated.

The type of clot she developed, a sinus venous thrombosis, "certainly isn't the most common thing to happen after a concussion" and is one of the few types of blood clots in the skull or head that are treated with blood thinners, said neurologist Dr. Larry Goldstein. He is director of Duke University's stroke center and has no role in Clinton's care or personal knowledge of it.

The area where Clinton's clot developed is "a drainage channel, the equivalent of a big vein inside the skull — it's how the blood gets back to the heart," Goldstein explained.

It should have no long-term consequences if her doctors are saying she has suffered no neurological damage from it, he said.

Dr. Joseph Broderick, chairman of neurology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, also called Clinton's problem "relatively uncommon" after a concussion.

He and Goldstein said the problem often is overdiagnosed. They said scans often show these large "draining pipes" on either side of the head are different sizes, which can mean blood has pooled or can be merely an anatomical difference.

"I'm sure she's got the best doctors in the world looking at her," and if they are saying she has no neurological damage, "I would think it would be a pretty optimistic long-term outcome," Broderick said.

A review article in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2005 describes the condition, which more often occurs in newborns or young people but can occur after a head injury. With modern treatment, more than 80 percent have a good neurologic outcome, the report says.

In the statement, Clinton's doctors said she "is making excellent progress and we are confident she will make a full recovery. She is in good spirits, engaging with her doctors, her family, and her staff."

___

Online:

Medical journal: http://dura.stanford.edu/Articles/Stam_NEJM05.pdf

Read More..

'Overwhelmed' mother admits drowning her autistic son

A 37-year-old San Diego woman, sobbing uncontrollably, pleaded guilty Thursday to 2nd-degree murder for drowning her 4-year-old autistic son in the bathtub of the family home.

Patricia Corby was so overwhelmed by the task of caring for her son that she decided to kill him and then commit suicide, prosecutors said. Her attempt to drown herself in the tub failed.

After drowning the child on March 31, Corby drove to a neighborhood police station and admitted to police what she had done. The body of Daniel Corby, wrapped in a wet blanket, was found in the family's sport-utility vehicle.

Corby faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison when sentenced Jan. 28 in San Diego County Superior Court. The victim's father, Duane Corby, was in the court when his wife pleaded guilty.

ALSO:

L.A. city official hands new victory to Chinatown Wal-Mart

Flowers, candles honor homeless woman set on fire in Van Nuys

Warning: Celebratory gunfire for New Year's could land you in prison

--Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo: Patricia Corby in court. Credit: Fox-5 San Diego

Read More..

IHT Rendezvous: Republicans Consider Changing Electoral Vote Counting to Improve Presidential Odds

WASHINGTON — Not too long ago, political analysts assumed the Republicans had a clear advantage in the Electoral College, the system according to which each state, based on population, is given electors that in almost all cases are awarded on a winner-take-all basis, determining who will be the president of the United States. Today, it’s the Democrats who have the edge.

Page Two

Posts written by the IHT’s Page Two columnists.

Start by looking at the past seven presidential elections, three won by Republicans, four by Democrats. Then put most states that went for one party in five of these seven elections into the red column for Republican, blue for Democrat and purple or toss-up for the others.

Three are caveats: North Carolina and Virginia voted Republican until recently; the trends, however, are so pronounced that they are more purple than red. Conversely, West Virginia voted Democratic in three of these contests, but has moved safely into the red ranks.

BLUE: The District of Columbia and 20 states, mainly on the coasts and in the progressive upper Midwest, with 256 electoral votes, are the Democrats’ base.

RED: 23 states, with 188 electoral votes, including much of the South, the Plains and Rocky Mountains states, are reliably Republican.

There are seven purple states — Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, Colorado, Nevada and New Hampshire — with 94 electoral votes.

The upshot: In any normal election cycle, the Republicans have to win Florida and Ohio and at least three of the other five. Or they have to turn around some blue states, such as Pennsylvania and Iowa.

In the my latest Left From Washington, I write about how some Republicans
in states where Republicans control the state government are considering changing how those states assign their electoral votes, instead of the winner-take-all system used in most states, they would emulate Maine and Nebraska, where some of the state’s electoral votes are awarded based on which presidential candidate carried a district.

As I write:

They see a possible test case in Pennsylvania, where Mr. Obama won the popular vote by more than five percentage points, rolling up huge margins in Philadelphia and its suburbs and in Pittsburgh. Mr. Romney, however, carried 13 of the 18 congressional districts. If this new system were in effect, the Republicans would have gotten 13 of the state’s 20 electoral votes while getting trounced in the popular vote. If this occurred in mainly Republican states, it would erase the Democrats’ Electoral College advantage.

Politics do shift. In 1988, the Republicans won California, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Connecticut, Maryland and Vermont; all now are considered safely part of the blue base.

Read More..

Purported photo of new BlackBerry phone with QWERTY keyboard leaks

Title Post: Purported photo of new BlackBerry phone with QWERTY keyboard leaks
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

The 12 Biggest Stories of the Year on Social Media

UPDATED
12/28/2012 at 04:00 PM EST

• Originally published 12/30/2012 at 06:45 PM EST

Liam and Miley; Blake and Ryan

Wireimage(2)

Question: What do Miley Cyrus, Blake Lively and a teeny-weeny piglet have in common?

Answer: They're all among the most popular PEOPLE.com stories on social media!

That's right – this year, you cared most about weddings, engagements – and one super-small swine. Check out PEOPLE.com stories that showed up the most in users' Twitter and Facebook feeds!

Read More..

Kenya hospital imprisons new mothers with no money

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The director of the Pumwani Maternity Hospital, located in a hardscrabble neighborhood of downtown Nairobi, freely acknowledges what he's accused of: detaining mothers who can't pay their bills. Lazarus Omondi says it's the only way he can keep his medical center running.

Two mothers who live in a mud-wall and tin-roof slum a short walk from the maternity hospital, which is affiliated with the Nairobi City Council, told The Associated Press that Pumwani wouldn't let them leave after delivering their babies. The bills the mothers couldn't afford were $60 and $160. Guards would beat mothers with sticks who tried to leave without paying, one of the women said.

Now, a New York-based group has filed a lawsuit on the women's behalf in hopes of forcing Pumwani to stop the practice, a practice Omondi is candid about.

"We hold you and squeeze you until we get what we can get. We must be self-sufficient," Omondi said in an interview in his hospital office. "The hospital must get money to pay electricity, to pay water. We must pay our doctors and our workers."

"They stay there until they pay. They must pay," he said of the 350 mothers who give birth each week on average. "If you don't pay the hospital will collapse."

The Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed the suit this month in the High Court of Kenya, says detaining women for not paying is illegal. Pumwani is associated with the Nairobi City Council, one reason it might be able to get away with such practices, and the patients are among Nairobi's poorest with hardly anyone to stand up for them.

Maimouna Awuor was an impoverished mother of four when she was to give birth to her fifth in October 2010. Like many who live in Nairobi's slums, Awuor performs odd jobs in the hopes of earning enough money to feed her kids that day. Awuor, who is named in the lawsuit, says she had saved $12 and hoped to go to a lower-cost clinic but was turned away and sent to Pumwani. After giving birth, she couldn't pay the $60 bill, and was held with what she believes was about 60 other women and their infants.

"We were sleeping three to a bed, sometimes four," she said. "They abuse you, they call you names," she said of the hospital staff.

She said saw some women tried to flee but they were beaten by the guards and turned back. While her husband worked at a faraway refugee camp, Awuor's 9-year-old daughter took care of her siblings. A friend helped feed them, she said, while the children stayed in the family's 50-square-foot shack, where rent is $18 a month. She says she was released after 20 days after Nairobi's mayor paid her bill. Politicians in Kenya in general are expected to give out money and get a budget to do so.

A second mother named in the lawsuit, Margaret Anyoso, says she was locked up in Pumwani for six days in 2010 because she could not pay her $160 bill. Her pregnancy was complicated by a punctured bladder and heavy bleeding.

"I did not see my child until the sixth day after the surgery. The hospital staff were keeping her away from me and it was only when I caused a scene that they brought her to me," said Anyoso, a vegetable seller and a single mother with five children who makes $5 on a good day.

Anyoso said she didn't have clothes for her child so she wrapped her in a blood-stained blouse. She was released after relatives paid the bill.

One woman says she was detained for nine months and was released only after going on a hunger strike. The Center for Reproductive Rights says other hospitals also detain non-paying patients.

Judy Okal, the acting Africa director for the Center for Reproductive Rights, said her group filed the lawsuit so all Kenyan women, regardless of socio-economic status, are able to receive health care without fear of imprisonment. The hospital, the attorney general, the City Council of Nairobi and two government ministries are named in the suit.

___

Associated Press reporter Tom Odula contributed to this report.

Read More..

Charlie Sheen caught on tape making homophobic slur

Actor Charlie Sheen was caught on video using a homophobic slur Friday night while hosting the grand opening of a new rooftop bar at a seaside hotel in Mexico.

“How we doing?” Sheen says to the crowd as he takes the stage to introduce some musical acts, according to the video posted on TMZ’s website Sunday. “Lying bunch of ... how we doing?”

Sheen later issued an apology, according to the entertainment website.

“I meant no ill will and intended to hurt no one and I apologize if I offended anyone,” Sheen said. “I meant to say maggot but I have a lisp."

On Friday, Sheen promoted on Twitter the opening of Epic Bar on the rooftop of the four-story El Ganzo hotel in San Jose del Cabo, near Cabo San Lucas, on the southern tip of Baja California. Sheen later tweeted a photo of himself with an arm around Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, touting the mayor's visit to the grand opening.

"From Boyle Heights 2 Mayor of LA..! .... Antonio Villaraigosa knows how to party!" Sheen tweeted at 8:18 a.m. Saturday, showing a photo of the grinning actor in a tight-fitting button-up shirt, with his left arm slung around the mayor. Villaraigosa, flashing a toothy smile, was in a dark blazer with the top of his white shirt unbuttoned.

A flier on the hotel's Twitter page said Sheen was to present Slash, former lead guitarist of Guns N' Roses, at 9 p.m. Friday. David Sanchez, a hotel concierge, confirmed that Sheen was at the hotel to host the event Friday night.

Sheen promoted the bar opening all day Friday. "Ready for EPIC..!" he tweeted that night, just before the opening party. Earlier, he wrote, "Chilling @hotelelganzo and this place is amazing!! Can't wait to launch the Club Epic tonight.... What a party!"

Peter Sanders, the mayor's press secretary, confirmed that Villaraigosa was in Cabo and is scheduled to remain in Mexico until Jan. 2. The City Council's president, Herb Wesson, is acting mayor until then.

Sheen was fired last year from the hit show "Two and a Half Men" after he became critical of the show's co-creator, Warner Bros., and CBS. He now stars in the FX comedy "Anger Management."

Villaraigosa, who is term-limited, is in his final year as mayor of Los Angeles. The two-term mayor leaves office June 30.

ALSO:

McDonald's hit by thieves stealing cooking oil

Delta passengers may not have noticed lightning strike

Officials' Rose Parade advice: Don't bring a tent, wear a jacket

-- Rong-Gong Lin II and Carlos Lozano

Photo: Screengrab from Charlie Sheen's Twitter page

Read More..

IHT Rendezvous: The Rope, the App and Van Gogh in Amsterdam

AMSTERDAM—Consolation for disappointed art lovers who arrive in this city and realize that the Van Gogh Museum is closed for renovation: Follow the red braided rope.

It’s affixed to the corner of the old museum building, leading away from the construction site and stretches to Museumplein, Amsterdam’s great museum square.

The red rope is part of Amsterdam’s most public Van Gogh installation, the Van Gogh Mile. In place until the Van Gogh Museum reopens in spring 2013, it connects the Van Gogh museum with the site of the temporary Van Gogh exhibition, the Hermitage museum, 2.2 kilometers across the historic center of Amsterdam.  The rope is the most visible part of a multidisciplinary art walk designed by Henk Schut for the Van Gogh Museum. The walk guides would-be visitors through Van Gogh’s life, thoughts and travels, while directing them to his famous paintings.

“By following the rope, you can let go and you can trust us,” said Mr. Schut, whose installation is inspired by the 900 letters Vincent Van Gogh wrote to his brother, Theo.

A Van Gogh Mile app can be downloaded from a free WiFi spot close to the start of the tour and is supported by iPhones, iPads and Android-based phones.

The first digital installment of the tour is activated at the head of the fountain basin on the Museum Square, just in front of the “IamAmsterdam” sign.  A tap on the device and the same place appears on the screen. As if looking through a camera, the monuments and buildings of the Museumplein move as the user moves the device. A sweep of the device downward shows the scene as an expanse of sunflowers in bloom.

“There are moments of poetic license to synthesize, to be inspired by his letters,” said Mr. Schut.

The augmented reality software transposes the courtyard of an old sanitarium in the south of France where Van Gogh spent some time into the inner courtyard of the Hermitage museum.

At a stop along the route in front of the Rijkmuseum, the user flies (with the help of their digital device and some imagination) through an open window to see a Rembrandt painting. An audio clip of a reading of one of the artist’s letters describing his reaction to Rembrandt’s art comes through the headphones.

The audio for the tour is all from Van Gogh’s letters, and is in either English or Dutch. Rather than explain the visual experiences, the snippets provide atmosphere.

David Kat, who co-created the app, describes Van Gogh’s letters used in the tour as “handwritten, sketch-like, quick thoughts.”

A third component of the tour ensures that not only smart-phone users benefit from the Van Gogh Mile. Loudspeakers hanging from trees, posts and house-fronts along the rope’s route broadcast more of Van Gogh’s letters. Other public installations, such as a picture frame bearing one of Van Gogh’s musings about art near the Amstel Church, are strewn along the path to be discovered by those who take their time in looking around.  By having walkers looking upward at a rope instead of downward at a map, Mr. Schut hopes to make the audience discover Amsterdam the way Van Gogh himself would have on his many solitary walks.

“It is a connection between looking and walking,” said Mr. Schut.

The detour from the Van Gogh Museum to the Van Gogh art at the Hermitage Museum, with its fragmented audio, fantastical images and physical installations is designed to inspire engagement with the artist, not provide biographical information on his life, explained Mr. Schut.

There are already plenty of sources for that.

Read More..