FAMU student leaders call for an end to hazing (AP)

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. ? Florida A&M President James Ammons said Monday the university is committed to breaking a conspiracy of silence that has for decades shrouded hazing practices at the school and finally resulted in a band member's death.

Ammons addressed an estimated 2,000 FAMU students Monday night and then took several questions, many of which were about the media coverage that most in the audience felt portrayed the school in a bad light.

"We are going to eliminate this pattern of destructive behavior from our campus," Ammons said. "This code of silence hampers our ability to root out these insidious activities."

Petitions were sent through the audience from student government leaders seeking signatures from students to pledge to stop hazing at the school.

Robert Champion, a drum major in the school's famed band, the "Marching 100," died in Orlando. It came hours after performing at the annual Florida Classic football game between the Rattlers and rival Bethune-Cookman.

Champion, 26, was found unresponsive on Nov. 19 on a bus parked outside a hotel after the game after he had been seen vomiting. Police have not been specific, but said they believe hazing played a part in his death.

It also started a criminal investigation into whether FAMU officials have ignored past warnings about hazing.

"It's just not right, but it probably took this for it to stop," said Fredrick Mixon, a 21-year-old fourth-year health service major from Avon Park. "It's an embarrassment to the university, not only to the Marching 100. It's shameful."

Ammons repeatedly asked students to keep Champion and his family in their hearts and as the rallying cry to finally stamp out a hazing tradition that has haunted FAMU for the past 20 years.

"We're going to have to unify around the legacy of Robert Champion," Ammons said. "And to institute a complete culture change here at FAMU."

Champion's death is being investigated by the Orange County Sheriff's Office and Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Until it is completed, the showy high-stepping, high-energy band is suspended from performing.

Ammons also fired longtime band director Julian White and expelled four band members suspected to be involved in hazing.

"This is one of the most challenging times that the university has had," he said. "This university community is committed to making this right and doing away once and for all with hazing."

The Marching 100's rich history includes performing at several Super Bowls and representing the U.S. in Paris at the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution.

There have been no formal discussions about when, or even if, the band will resume its activities during the remainder of this school year.

"Out of respect for Robert Champion and his family, I just don't think they should be performing," Ammons said.

More than 100 band members dressed in bright orange T-shirts with "100" on the front, sat together in the crowd.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111206/ap_on_sp_ot/us_famu_student_dead

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Saudi report claims women at wheel will have sex (AP)

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia ? A Saudi rights activist says a report given to a high-level advisory group claims that women in the kingdom will have options for premarital sex if allowed to drive.

The ultraconservative stance suggests increasing pressure on King Abdullah to retain the kingdom's male-only driving rules.

Rights activist Waleed Abu Alkhair said Saturday that the document by a well-known academic was sent to the all-male Shura Council, which advises the monarchy. The report by Kamal Subhi claims that allowing women to drive will threaten the country's traditions of virgin brides, he said.

Saudi women have staged several protests defying the driving ban. The king has already promised some reforms, including allowing women to vote in municipal elections in 2015.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111203/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_saudi_women_driving

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Photo of the day: Laid back in the Bahamas

Jim Walker/UGC

Flats off the Berry Islands, Bahamas

Get started on your daydreaming with this photo of the Berry Islands in the Bahamas submitted by reader Jim Walker.

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Source: http://todaytravel.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/02/9167972-travel-photo-of-the-day-laid-back-in-the-bahamas

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Congress bickers toward year-end compromise (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Republicans and Democrats bickered and blustered Thursday toward eventual compromise legislation extending expiring Social Security payroll tax cuts and long-term jobless benefits through 2012, each seeking political advantage for elections almost a year distant.

The White House weighed in with a written statement opposing the GOP approach, which presidential press secretary Jay Carney said includes "window dressing" hung by Republicans seeking to cut costs by freezing federal workers' pay through 2015 and reducing the government bureaucracy.

By contrast, President Barack Obama and most Democrats in Congress want to extend and expand the payroll tax cut and pay for it by slapping a 3.25 percent surtax on incomes of $1 million or more.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Republican opponents "insist on helping the very wealthy while turning their back on the middle class," while another member of the leadership, Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, said they "put up a transparent fig leaf" that would kill jobs rather than create them.

In remarks on the Senate floor, the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said the issue reflected poorly on both Obama and his allies in Congress.

"There's no reason folks should suffer even more than they already are from the president's failure to turn this jobs crisis around," he said. "But there's also no reason we should pay for that relief by raising taxes on the very employers we're counting on to help jolt this economy back to life."

That left both parties seeking the political high ground ? Democrats accusing Republicans of siding with the rich, and Republicans countering that Democrats were taxing small business owners who create jobs ? in advance of a pair of Senate test votes expected late Thursday or Friday morning.

Neither of two rival measures was expected to gain the 60 votes necessary for passage, a double-barreled rejection likely to clear the way for talks on a compromise.

Across the Capitol, House Republicans readied legislation of their own that aides said likely would include the tax cut extension as well as renewed benefits for long-term victims of the worst recession in decades and a painfully slow recovery.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, made clear that all costs must be paid for, and said higher taxes were a non-starter.

"Republicans are ready to work with the president and the Democrats to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance temporarily, but they must be offset with spending cuts elsewhere," he said.

There were other issues under negotiation as lawmakers looked toward the end of a highly partisan year, the first in a new era of divided government.

Boehner said lawmakers were discussing a bill to avoid a scheduled 27 percent cut on Jan. 1 in reimbursement rates for doctors treating Medicare patients.

The two parties also looked for agreement on a measure to fund the government through the Sept. 30 end of the budget year.

Boehner added that he likely would try to include some of the 20 House-passed bills that are part of a GOP jobs package in one of the year-end wrap-up bills. Most of the measures would block federal regulations on various industries, and are stalled in the Senate.

With unemployment hovering around 9 percent nationally, Obama urged Congress in September to renew and expand the Social Security payroll tax cut for workers that he signed a year ago, and called as well for an extension of benefits that can cover up to 99 weeks for the long-term jobless.

State unemployment insurance programs guarantees coverage for six months, but as in previous downturns, Congress approved additional benefits in 2008. Expiration of those payments would mean an average loss of $296 in weekly income for 1.8 million households in January, and a total of 6 million throughout 2012.

On the tax cut extension, Republicans prefer a simple one-year continuation of the existing law, jettisoning Obama's call to deepen the cut while expanding it to cover an employer's portion of payroll taxes.

To pay for the measure, Senate Republicans proposed freezing federal workers' pay through 2015 ? extending a two-year-freeze recommended by Obama ? and reducing the bureaucracy by 200,000 jobs through attrition.

The bill also would raise Medicare premiums for the wealthy, and take steps to deny unemployment benefits and food stamps to anyone with a seven-figure income.

Republicans circulated statistics from the Internal Revenue Service reporting that tax filers with $1 million or more in income received a total of $20.8 million in unemployment benefits in 2009, the latest year for which figures are available. Their bill would impose a 100 percent tax on those payments ? an irony for a party that historically has opposed any tax increases.

____

Associated Press writer Donna Cassata contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/democrats/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111201/ap_on_go_co/us_congress_payroll_tax

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Google in talks to take on Amazon in retail: report (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Google Inc is pondering an Internet service to help consumers shop online and take advantage of same-day delivery, hoping to stanch the loss of Web traffic to Amazon.com Inc, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The Internet search leader is in talks with major retailers and shippers, including Macy's, Gap Inc and OfficeMax, to set up the service, the newspaper cited people familiar with the matter as saying.

Google declined to comment and Amazon did not return calls for comment. A Gap spokeswoman declined to comment, while Macy's and OfficeMax were not available for comment.

Google may be casting a wary eye on the popularity of Amazon.com's Prime service -- which offers free two-day shipping for $79 a year in the U.S. -- fearing it will entice away the Web traffic it depends on from its own sites.

About 40 percent of Google's revenue comes from retail sources, according to Scot Wingo, chief executive of e-commerce company ChannelAdvisor.

Amazon Prime has been such a big success in recent years that it has begun to threaten this big chunk of Google's revenue, Wingo explained.

"Once a consumer joins Amazon Prime, their searches for products at Google have to decrease precipitously," Wingo wrote in a blog on Thursday. He owns Google and Amazon shares.

"As a Prime user, I only look for products on Google and other channels if I can't find it on Amazon," Wingo added. "Amazon has created a lock-in and they have the world's best product search engine. That's 40 percent of the Internet that Google really can't afford to lose serious share on."

Google's plan under consideration stops short of selling directly to consumers, the Journal cited a person familiar with the matter as saying.

Google will instead work with retailers' websites, combining an existing product-search feature that directs shoppers to those sites, with a new shipping service that it intends to create and oversee, the Journal reported.

That new feature is designed to determine if a nearby physical store has a desired product in stock. Google could then offer the consumer an option to receive their goods within a day or two, for a fee, the newspaper said.

Google plans a test trial in the San Francisco Bay area for the new initiative, which could also involve United Parcel Service Inc, the Journal added.

Google still dominates when shoppers are searching for products to buy on the Internet. Handling the next steps, such as purchasing and getting items delivered, makes sense, said Eric Best, chief executive of e-commerce firm Mercent.

However, Amazon owns inventory and runs a massive chain of warehouses, so it tightly controls the process of taking orders and delivering goods.

Google would instead rely on third-party logistics companies to handle these fulfillment steps, Best said.

"Ensuring third-party partners perform to high service levels will be the biggest execution risk," Best added. "Consumers will need to have a similar experience to what they already get with Amazon."

(Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111202/wr_nm/us_google

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Court weighs trademark on Maker's Mark wax seal (AP)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. ? The dripping red wax seal atop a Maker's Mark bottle makes the bourbon stand out on shelves. Three federal judges are trying to decide whether the company can keep that distinction.

The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati heard arguments Thursday over whether Maker's Mark can keep the trademark on the capper or if other liquor companies can use a similar seal.

Maker's Mark in 2010 won an order awarding it exclusive rights to the seal. Attorneys for London-based Diageo North America and Casa Cuervo of Mexico argued that wax seals have been used for centuries and Maker's Mark wasn't harmed by their use of it on a special bottle of tequila.

Maker's Mark attorneys said the company has a valid trademark on the wax seal.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111201/ap_on_re_us/us_wax_seal_battle

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Fierce Santa Ana winds cause power outages (Providence Journal)

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