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Source: http://www.nationalpost.com/Canada+Harrington+stays+spotlight/5926177/story.html
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LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? Despite the fact that "The Darkest Hour" was smuggled into U.S. theaters on Christmas Day with no advance press screenings, I went in full of residual holiday good cheer, prepared to give this sci-fi movie the benefit of the doubt that all B-movies deserve.
By the time the closing credits came up, however, I felt drained of my Yule joy, dispirited by this aggressively idiotic movie.
It's the sort of film where our plucky band of survivors learns ways to resist their invisible alien foes, but then never use that information.
Case in point: heroes Sean (Emile Hirsch) and Ben (Max Minghella) figure out that they can avoid detection by hiding under a car. Then this bit of intel is never mentioned again, so instead of crawling under abandoned vehicles when trying to travel down roads, our heroes instead run around screaming, making themselves into perfect targets.
If these dimwits represent the hope of humanity, bring on the alien overlords.
Sean and Max have come to Moscow to peddle an internet venture, but when their ideas get stolen, they head to a hot bar to drown their sorrows. There they run into Skyler (Joel Kinnaman), the stealer of the aforementioned ideas, and Natalie (Olivia Thirlby) and Anne (Rachael Taylor). The latter two apparently have the mutant power of having their hair and makeup look awesome even after a week of being chased by invisible aliens, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Those aliens appear as glowing orbs in the night sky, and they immediately set about making all the power go out and vaporizing any human being or dog who gets too close. The quintet of characters who have been given first names hide out in the nightclub kitchen, but after a few days of living on canned goods, they venture out into the abandoned streets.
They soon realize that while the aliens, who have wiped out most of the population, are invisible, they can be detected by the way they make electrical circuits light up in their presence. Sean comes up with the idea of wearing a light bulb around his neck as an early-warning device, but only Natalie follows suit. And then, run, run, vaporize, meet Nick Frost-ian electronics geek (Dato Bakhtadze as Sergei) with an anti-alien microwave gun, run, run, encounter homemade-weapons-brandishing good ol' boys who look like the cast of a Muscovite remake of "Bellflower."
Writer Jon Spaihts and director Chris Gorak seem unable to provide suspense, shocks, characters, or even memorable technobabble. Hirsch, Minghella and Thirlby have done interesting work in the past, and probably will in the future, but all they have to show for "The Darkest Hour" was the free trip to Russia.
In the final wash, this movie has three interesting things to offer: the empty, post-apocalyptic streets of modern-day Moscow, the unpredictable death of a major character, and a cat named after "Yo Gabba Gabba!" star DJ Lance Rock.
None of those things merits the interruption of your holiday.
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BOXING DAY SPECIAL with Bushwacka of (Layo & Bushwacka) + the debut set at Egg for Luke Solomon (Music For Freaks DJs: Bushwacka, Luke Solomon, Eddie Evil Richards, Femi B, plus guests Venue: Egg, 200 York Way, Kings Cross, London Tickets: 13 adv, 15 conc, 20 on the doorLondon's hedonistic movers and shakers come out to party and strut their stuff for a dance marathon clocking in at 12 fantastic hours. Big line up of House music talents headed up by the inimitable Bushwacka (of Layo & Bushwackafame) and joined by Music For Freak/Classic's Luke Solomon, Wiggle's Evil Eddie Richards and Strictly Rhythm's Femi B joined by live acts, dancers and an impromptu PA. |
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POCATELLO ? Jenni Lake gave birth to a baby boy the month before her 18th birthday, though she was not destined to become just another teenage mother.
That much, she knew.
While being admitted to the hospital, she pulled the nurse down to her at bed level and whispered into her ear. The nurse would later repeat the girl?s words to comfort her family, as their worst fears were realized a day after Jenni?s baby was born.
?She told the nurse, ?I?m done, I did what I was supposed to. My baby is going to get here safe,?? said Diana Phillips, Jenni?s mother.
In photographs, the baby?s ruddy cheeks and healthy weight offer a stark contrast to the frail girl who gave birth to him. She holds the newborn tightly, kissing the top of his head. Jenni, at 5 feet, 4 inches tall, weighed only 108 pounds at the full term of her pregnancy.
A day after the Nov. 9 birth, Phillips learned that her daughter?s decision to forgo treatment for tumors on her brain and spine so she could carry the baby would have fatal repercussions. The cancer had marked too much territory. Nothing could be done, Phillips said.
It was only 12 days past the birth ? half spent in the hospital and the other half at home ? before Jenni was gone.
A BLEAK PROGNOSIS
The migraines started last year, when Jenni was a 16-year-old sophomore at Pocatello High. She was taken to the family doctor, and an MRI scan found a small mass measuring about 2 centimeters wide on the right side of her brain.
She was sent to a hospital in Salt Lake City, and another scan there showed the mass was bigger than previously thought.
Jenni had a biopsy Oct. 15, 2010, and five days later was diagnosed with stage three astrocytoma, a type of brain tumor. With three tumors on her brain and three on her spine, Jenni was told her case was rare because the cancer had spread from her brain to another part of her body with no symptoms.
Her parents, who are divorced, remember they were brought into a room at the hospital and sat down at a long table as doctors discussed her chances of survival.
?Jenni just flat-out asked them if she was going to die,? said her father, Mike Lake, 43, a truck driver who lives in Rexburg.
The answer wasn?t good. With treatment, the teen was told she had a 30 percent chance of making it two years, Lake said. While he was heartbroken, Lake marveled at how strong she seemed in that moment. ?She didn?t break down and cry or anything,? he said.
But her mom recalled Jenni did have a weak moment that day.
?When they told her that she might not be able to have kids, she got upset,? said Phillips, 39.
Jenni started aggressive chemotherapy and radiation treatments, while also posting videos on a YouTube site titled ?Jenni?s Journey,? where she hoped to share her story with updates every other day. She managed to upload only three videos, though, as her treatments left her tired and weak.
On her second video, posted Nov. 20, 2010, Jenni appears distraught while a friend records her having lunch with her mom.
?Last night, like, I was just lying in bed and I was thinking about everything that was going on and it just like, it just hit me, like everything, and I don?t know, it made me cry,? Jenni says on the video.
Her mom is shown burying her face in her hands. ?Do you know how hard it is to be a mom and know that she?s sick and there?s nothing you can do,? she says, before collapsing into tears.
By March of this year, the tumors had started to shrink, the family said.
In a picture taken at her prom in early May, Jenni is wearing a dark blue strapless dress and gives the camera a small smile. There?s a silver headband in her hair, which is less than an inch long. Chemotherapy had taken her shoulder-length blond tresses.
Her boyfriend, Nathan Wittman, 19, wearing a black dress shirt and pants, is cradling her from behind.
FOR JENNI, A CLEAR CHOICE
Jenni and Nathan?s adolescent relationship withstood the very adult test posed by cancer, the treatments that left her barely able to walk from her living room to her bedroom, and the gossip at school.
?The rumors started flying around, like Nathan was only with her because she had cancer,? said Jenni?s older sister, Ashlee Lake, 20, who tried to squelch the mean-spirited chatter even as the young couple ignored it.
They were hopeful and dreamed of someday opening a restaurant or a gallery.
Jenni had been working as an apprentice in a local tattoo shop. ?She was like our little sister,? said the owner, Kass Chacon. But in May, Jenni?s visits to the shop grew less frequent.
She had been throwing up a lot and had sharp stomach pains. She went to the emergency room early one morning with her boyfriend and when she returned home, her family members woke up to the sound of crying. ?We could hear Jenni just bawling in her room,? said her sister, Kaisee, 19.
She had learned that she was pregnant, and an ultrasound would show the fetus was 10 weeks old.
Jenni?s journey was no longer her own.
From the start of treatment, she was told that she might never have children, her mother said, that the radiation and chemotherapy could essentially make her sterile.
?We were told that she couldn?t get pregnant, so we didn?t worry about it,? said Nathan, 19.
Jenni, the third of her parents? eight children, had always wanted to be a mom. She had already determined to keep the baby when she went to see her oncologist, Dr. David Ririe, in Pocatello two days after she found out she was pregnant.
?He told us that if she?s pregnant, she can?t continue the treatments,? Phillips said. ?So she would either have to terminate the pregnancy and continue the treatments, or stop the treatments, knowing that it could continue to grow again.?
Ririe would not discuss Jenni?s care, citing privacy laws, but said, generally, in cases in which a cancer patient is pregnant, oncologists will consider both the risks and benefits of continuing with treatment, such as chemotherapy.
?There are times during pregnancy in some situations, breast cancer being the classic example, where the benefits of chemotherapy may outweigh the risk to mother and baby,? Ririe said. ?There are other times where the risk outweighs the benefits.?
There was no discussion about which path Jenni would choose. Her parents didn?t think of it as a clear life or death decision, and Jenni may not have, either. They believed that since the tumors had already started to shrink earlier, she had a strong chance of carrying the baby and then returning to treatment after he was born.
?I guess we were just hoping that after she had the baby, she could go back on the chemotherapy and get better,? her mother said.
SAYING GOODBYE
Jenni and Nathan named the baby Chad Michael, after their dads. Nathan has legal custody of the child, who is primarily cared for by Nathan?s mom, Alexia Wittman, 51.
?Nathan will raise him,? she said.
Jenni didn?t show regret for her decision, not in the final weeks of her pregnancy as she grew weaker, and not when she started to lose her vision as the cancer took its course, her family said.
Jenni?s last words were about her son as he was placed beside her a final time, her father said. As she felt for the baby, she said, ?I can kind of see him.?
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MONDAY, Dec. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Teens are more likely to be obese if they had a poor emotional relationship with their mother when they were toddlers, according to a new study.
The findings echo previous research showing that toddlers who didn't have close emotional ties with their parents were more likely to be obese by the time they were 4.5 years old.
In the latest study, researchers examined U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development data collected from hundreds of families who lived in nine states and had children who were born in 1991.
The analysis showed that the children's risk of obesity at age 15 was highest among those who had the lowest-quality emotional relationship with their mothers when they were toddlers, the Ohio State University researchers said.
More than one-quarter of the toddlers who had the lowest-quality relationships with their mothers were obese as teens, compared with 13 percent of those who had closer bonds with their mothers in their early years, according to the report published online and in the January print issue of the journal Pediatrics.
These and previous findings indicate that the risk of obesity may be affected by areas of the brain that control emotions and stress responses working together with those that control appetite and energy balance, the investigators explained.
The authors suggested that obesity prevention efforts should include strategies to improve the mother-child bond, as well as promoting healthier eating and exercise.
"It is possible that childhood obesity could be influenced by interventions that try to improve the emotional bonds between mothers and children rather than focusing only on children's food intake and activity," lead author Sarah Anderson, an assistant professor of epidemiology, said in an Ohio State University news release.
"The sensitivity a mother displays in interacting with her child may be influenced by factors she can't necessarily control. Societally, we need to think about how we can support better-quality maternal-child relationships, because that could have an impact on child health," Anderson added.
More information
The Nemours Foundation has more about overweight and obesity in children.
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CONCORD, N.H. ? Mitt Romney's wife gushes about his silly side and devotion to their five sons and 16 grandchildren. Rick Santorum's college-age daughter opines online about missing the campus coffee shop and chats with friends about their Friday night plans. Jon Huntsman's daughters generate much-needed buzz for him with a joint Twitter account and online videos, including at least one that went viral.
Days away from voting in the Republican presidential race, the path to the nomination is quickly becoming a crowded family affair with spouses and offspring pitching in and doing far more than just smiling from the sidelines.
Ann Romney, Anita Perry and Callista Gingrich are starring in new TV ads for the husbands they've loyally campaigned for. Romney extols her husband's character and says "to me that makes a huge difference" in a candidate. Perry tells the "old-fashioned American story" of how she and her husband were high school sweethearts who had to wait until he was done flying airplanes around the world for the Air Force before they could marry. Callista Gingrich wishes the nation a Merry Christmas "from our family to yours" in husband Newt Gingrich's new holiday-themed TV ad.
Candidate kids, including those born to Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul, are helping, too, acting as surrogates, strategists and, in some cases, sounding boards for parents competing for the right to challenge President Barack Obama next fall.
"There are times when I wonder why I'm not sitting in the coffee shop on campus with my friends, lightheartedly discussing ('Saturday Night Live') videos, how bad the cafeteria is, what our plans are for Friday night or how absolutely swamped we are with school work," Santorum's daughter Elizabeth lamented in a recent blog post. "But this is where God wanted me."
She has taken time off from her junior year at the University of Dallas to serve as a self-described "field staffer/phone banker/chauffeur/surrogate speaker," for her father, primarily in the leadoff caucus state of Iowa.
Her father, who hopes Iowa's socially conservative voters turn out for him on caucus night Jan. 3, rolled out an ad late last week featuring the entire Santorum clan, including the family German shepherd, Schotzy. The spot highlights his 21-year marriage to his wife, Karen, notes that he has coached Little League and introduces viewers to the youngest of the couple's seven children, Isabella, born in 2008 with a genetic disorder.
Sometimes the family members campaign with the candidates and other times they go it alone.
Such family involvement carries risks and benefits. The stories they tell often humanize the candidates and help voters relate to them. But the things they say, and do, can sometimes cause headaches for the campaign advisers who are left to try to figure out a way out.
While Rick Perry spent several days campaigning in Iowa recently, his wife was hundreds of miles away in New Hampshire emphasizing his small-town upbringing and conservative values at a retirement community chapel. Audience members then peppered her with detailed questions about such subjects as taxes, immigration and the death penalty.
"She handled them quite well," said Sid Schoeffler, an independent voter from Concord. "When she knew the answer or knew the campaign's story line, she recited it. And when she didn't know, she said so. I thought that was refreshing."
"Compared to what I expected, she made a favorable impression," he said. "But whether it's enough to swing my vote, I don't know yet."
Earlier in the year, as Bachmann rose in public opinion, her husband, Marcus, was forced to defend his Christian counseling business from claims that its therapies included "curing" people of being gay. With Bachmann now near the back of the GOP pack in polls, Marcus Bachmann joined her at the start of her bus tour of Iowa's 99 counties but was quickly replaced by four of their five children.
"My husband had to go home. We're small-business owners and someone had to go home and mind the store," Bachmann told one crowd. And at one point, Bachmann, who began losing her voice in the middle of the jam-packed tour, turned over the microphone to son Harrison, a teacher who talks up his family's ties to the state, and teased: "Harrison, say some nice things about me and you'll get extra cookies."
In Paul's case, he's probably hoping validation from his son, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a favorite of the tea party, will give him a boost with that pivotal constituency in Iowa. Rand Paul is also appearing in a television ad for his father.
Romney's five-son family and wife of more than four decades have long been a part of his presidential campaigns. But the spotlight has been shining more brightly on his wife and their brood in recent weeks as the campaign seeks to cast the former Massachusetts governor as a person of "steadiness and constancy" while drawing a contrast with the thrice-married Gingrich.
Ann Romney also has spoken openly about how her husband supported her through her struggle with multiple sclerosis.
Huntsman's wife and the couple's three oldest daughters are near-constant companions in New Hampshire, the only state where the former Utah governor is earnestly campaigning. His daughters recently generated a huge amount of buzz with a video spoof of an ad by former rival Herman Cain. They donned oversized glasses and fake mustaches to look like Cain's campaign manager.
"We are shamelessly promoting our dad like no other candidate's family has," one daughter said in the ad. "But then again, no one's ever seen a trio like the Jon2012 girls."
___
Associated Press writers Philip Elliott and Steve Peoples contributed to this report.
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HANOI, Vietnam ? Vietnam may block its citizens from using Facebook, but that didn't stop website founder Mark Zuckerberg from spending his vacation in the communist country.
Zuckerberg spent Christmas Eve in the popular tourist destination Ha Long Bay, local officialTrinh Dang Thanh says.
State-run media say Zuckerberg arrived in Vietnam on Dec. 22.
Zuckerberg spent Christmas Day at an ecolodge in the northern mountain town of Sapa and rode a buffalo, said Le Phuc Thien, deputy manager at Topas Ecolodge.
Zuckerberg, Facebook's 27-year-old CEO, founded the popular social networking site in 2004.
Vietnam's aggressive Internet censors block access to Facebook and other websites, but young Vietnamese easily bypass the restrictions.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) ? Vietnam may block its citizens from using to Facebook, but that didn't stop website founder Mark Zuckerberg from spending his vacation there.
Zuckerberg spent Christmas Eve in the popular tourist destination Ha Long Bay, local officialTrinh Dang Thanh says .
State-run media say Zuckerberg arrived in Vietnam on Dec. 22.
Zuckerberg spent Christmas Day at an ecolodge in the northern mountain town of Sapa and rode a buffalo, said Le Phuc Thien, deputy manager at Topas Ecolodge.
Zuckerberg, Facebook's 27-year-old CEO, founded the popular social networking site in 2004.
Vietnam's aggressive Internet censors block access to Facebook and other websites, but young Vietnamese easily bypass the restrictions.
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KHARTOUM (Reuters) ? Sudan's military has killed the leader of Darfur's most powerful rebel group, dealing a severe blow to insurgents in the remote western region and complicating a nearly decade-long war with Khartoum in which hundreds of thousands are believed to have died.
The Darfur conflict has rumbled on since mainly non-Arab insurgents took up arms in 2003, saying the central government had left them out of the political and economic power structure and was favouring local Arab tribes.
Khalil Ibrahim, head of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), emerged as one of the most powerful rebel commanders. In 2008, his fighters drove across the arid western terrain and launched a shock attack on Khartoum, killing over 200 people.
Sudan's authorities have long hunted Ibrahim, who had taken refuge in neighbouring Libya under Muammar Gaddafi until the leader's overthrow deprived him of his safe haven, and had refused to sign a Qatar-brokered peace deal.
Al-Sawarmi Khalid, Sudan's armed forces spokesman, said government troops killed Ibrahim as he tried to cross into South Sudan, which seceded in July under a 2005 peace deal that ended a separate, decades-long civil war.
"The armed forces clashed in a direct confrontation with Khalil Ibrahim's rebel forces, and were able to eliminate Khalil Ibrahim, who died with a group of commanders," Khalid told state television.
JEM contradicted the military's account of its leader's death, however, saying Ibrahim died on Friday morning in an airstrike which also killed one of his guards. It said the precision of the strike suggested "collusion and conspiracy of some regional and international parties."
"The blood of the martyr will not go in vain, and those who assassinated him will pay the price many times over," the group said in a statement.
The death of Ibrahim, often described as a commanding and charismatic leader, could be a major blow to JEM, although restricted access to Sudan's conflict zones has made it hard to gauge the actual strength and internal unity of insurgents.
"Khalil Ibrahim dominated JEM and personally determined the movement's political and military strategy and in particular was responsible for JEM's posture of refusing negotiation with the Government of Sudan. His death is a very serious blow to the movement," Alex de Waal, a leading Sudan expert, said.
"The leadership in Khartoum will be tempted to respond to his death by considering that the insurgency in Darfur is now finished. While the threat posed by JEM is undoubtedly diminished, it would be an error for it to conclude that the political conflict in Darfur can be so readily resolved."
FIGHTING GOES ON
The United Nations has said as many as 300,000 people may have died in Darfur, where Khartoum mobilised troops and mostly Arab militias to crush the uprising. Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.
While violence has died down since the mass killings reported in the early days of the conflict, law and order have collapsed and the area has been hit by attacks by bandits, militias, soldiers and tribal groups in recent years.
Some 2 million people have fled the fighting, the United Nations says. The International Criminal Court has charged Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir with masterminding genocide and other crimes in the region, accusations Khartoum dismisses as political.
Various Darfur rebel groups, including two factions of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), have fought on despite a huge United Nations-African Union peacekeeping operation set up in 2007.
Qatar brokered a peace deal which Sudan signed this year with the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM), an umbrella association of smaller groups.
But JEM and the other major rebel groups have refused to sign the document, dampening hopes the region will soon see lasting peace.
In November, Darfur's main insurgent groups said they had formed an alliance to topple Bashir with other rebels in two border states, where fighting broke out around the time of South Sudan's independence.
Islamist in its outlook, Ibrahim's group has cooperated in the past with the more secular SLA rebels, although their different ideologies and histories have led to tensions.
JEM has claimed military advances as recently as last week, saying on Saturday its fighters clashed with government militias in parts of the North Kordofan state and were planning to advance on the capital Khartoum.
"I don't think JEM will disappear with Khalil's death, but there's a risk that JEM fractures without his leadership, as has happened with the SLM and other rebel movements in Darfur," Aly Verjee, a researcher at the Rift Valley Institute think tank, said.
"In the short term, Khartoum's Darfur policy won't change - the agreement with LJM will continue, new state administrations will be appointed, and military action against JEM and its allies will continue."
(Writing by Alexander Dziadosz; Editing by Michael Roddy)
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CONCORD, N.H. ? Mitt Romney's wife gushes about his silly side and devotion to their five sons and 16 grandchildren. Rick Santorum's college-age daughter opines online about missing the campus coffee shop and chats with friends about their Friday night plans. Jon Huntsman's daughters generate much-needed buzz for him with a joint Twitter account and online videos, including at least one that went viral.
Days away from voting in the Republican presidential race, the path to the nomination is quickly becoming a crowded family affair with spouses and offspring pitching in and doing far more than just smiling from the sidelines.
Ann Romney, Anita Perry and Callista Gingrich are starring in new TV ads for the husbands they've loyally campaigned for. Romney extols her husband's character and says "to me that makes a huge difference" in a candidate. Perry tells the "old-fashioned American story" of how she and her husband were high school sweethearts who had to wait until he was done flying airplanes around the world for the Air Force before they could marry. Callista Gingrich wishes the nation a Merry Christmas "from our family to yours" in husband Newt Gingrich's new holiday-themed TV ad.
Candidate kids, including those born to Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul, are helping, too, acting as surrogates, strategists and, in some cases, sounding boards for parents competing for the right to challenge President Barack Obama next fall.
"There are times when I wonder why I'm not sitting in the coffee shop on campus with my friends, lightheartedly discussing ('Saturday Night Live') videos, how bad the cafeteria is, what our plans are for Friday night or how absolutely swamped we are with school work," Santorum's daughter Elizabeth lamented in a recent blog post. "But this is where God wanted me."
She has taken time off from her junior year at the University of Dallas to serve as a self-described "field staffer/phone banker/chauffeur/surrogate speaker," for her father, primarily in the leadoff caucus state of Iowa.
Her father, who hopes Iowa's socially conservative voters turn out for him on caucus night Jan. 3, rolled out an ad late last week featuring the entire Santorum clan, including the family German shepherd, Schotzy. The spot highlights his 21-year marriage to his wife, Karen, notes that he has coached Little League and introduces viewers to the youngest of the couple's seven children, Isabella, born in 2008 with a genetic disorder.
Sometimes the family members campaign with the candidates and other times they go it alone.
Such family involvement carries risks and benefits. The stories they tell often humanize the candidates and help voters relate to them. But the things they say, and do, can sometimes cause headaches for the campaign advisers who are left to try to figure out a way out.
While Rick Perry spent several days campaigning in Iowa recently, his wife was hundreds of miles away in New Hampshire emphasizing his small-town upbringing and conservative values at a retirement community chapel. Audience members then peppered her with detailed questions about such subjects as taxes, immigration and the death penalty.
"She handled them quite well," said Sid Schoeffler, an independent voter from Concord. "When she knew the answer or knew the campaign's story line, she recited it. And when she didn't know, she said so. I thought that was refreshing."
"Compared to what I expected, she made a favorable impression," he said. "But whether it's enough to swing my vote, I don't know yet."
Earlier in the year, as Bachmann rose in public opinion, her husband, Marcus, was forced to defend his Christian counseling business from claims that its therapies included "curing" people of being gay. With Bachmann now near the back of the GOP pack in polls, Marcus Bachmann joined her at the start of her bus tour of Iowa's 99 counties but was quickly replaced by four of their five children.
"My husband had to go home. We're small-business owners and someone had to go home and mind the store," Bachmann told one crowd. And at one point, Bachmann, who began losing her voice in the middle of the jam-packed tour, turned over the microphone to son Harrison, a teacher who talks up his family's ties to the state, and teased: "Harrison, say some nice things about me and you'll get extra cookies."
In Paul's case, he's probably hoping validation from his son, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a favorite of the tea party, will give him a boost with that pivotal constituency in Iowa. Rand Paul is also appearing in a television ad for his father.
Romney's five-son family and wife of more than four decades have long been a part of his presidential campaigns. But the spotlight has been shining more brightly on his wife and their brood in recent weeks as the campaign seeks to cast the former Massachusetts governor as a person of "steadiness and constancy" while drawing a contrast with the thrice-married Gingrich.
Ann Romney also has spoken openly about how her husband supported her through her struggle with multiple sclerosis.
Huntsman's wife and the couple's three oldest daughters are near-constant companions in New Hampshire, the only state where the former Utah governor is earnestly campaigning. His daughters recently generated a huge amount of buzz with a video spoof of an ad by former rival Herman Cain. They donned oversized glasses and fake mustaches to look like Cain's campaign manager.
"We are shamelessly promoting our dad like no other candidate's family has," one daughter said in the ad. "But then again, no one's ever seen a trio like the Jon2012 girls."
___
Associated Press writers Philip Elliott and Steve Peoples contributed to this report.
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WASHINGTON ? Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich failed to qualify for Virginia's Super Tuesday primary ballot, the latest setback for a candidate whose standing in polls has been slipping. Gingrich's campaign said he would pursue an aggressive write-in campaign, though state law prohibits write-ins on primary ballots.
The state party said early Saturday that Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry had failed to submit the required 10,000 signatures to appear on the March 6 ballot.
Failing to get on the ballot in Virginia, where Gingrich lives, underscores the difficulty first-time national candidates have in preparing for the long haul of a presidential campaign.
And it illustrates the advantage held by Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, who has essentially been running for president for five years. Romney's team, larger than those of most of his opponents, has paid close attention to filing requirements in each state. He will appear on the Virginia ballot along with Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who also has run a national campaign before.
Ironically, Gingrich had a slight lead over Romney in a Quinnipiac poll of Virginia Republicans released earlier in the week.
The former House speaker surged in popularity in early December and tried to use that momentum to make up for a stalled campaign organization. But his standing in polls has slipped in recent days amid a barrage of negative ads in Iowa, where the Jan. 3 caucuses begin the contest for the Republican presidential nomination.
Three other candidates ? Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman ? did not submit signatures before Virginia's deadline of 5 p.m. Thursday.
Gingrich's campaign attacked Virginia's primary system on Saturday, saying that "only a failed system" would disqualify Gingrich and other candidates and vowing to run a write-in campaign.
"Voters deserve the right to vote for any top contender, especially leading candidates," Gingrich campaign director Michael Krull said in a statement. "We will work with the Republican Party of Virginia to pursue an aggressive write-in campaign to make sure that all the voters of Virginia are able to vote for the candidate of their choice."
However, according to state law, "No write-in shall be permitted on ballots in primary elections."
"Virginia code prohibits write-ins in primaries. He can't do it," said Carl Tobias, a law professor at University of Richmond.
Tobias said Gingrich may have had trouble meeting a requirement that he must submit 400 signatures from each of Virginia's 11 congressional districts.
Gingrich's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Gingrich had been concerned enough to deliver his signatures personally. Rushing Wednesday from New Hampshire, which holds its primary on Jan. 10, he had supporters sign petitions before entering a rally in Arlington, Va.
Virginia GOP spokesman Garren Shipley said in a statement that volunteers spent Friday validating signatures on petitions that Romney, Paul, Perry and Gingrich had submitted. "After verification, RPV has determined that Newt Gingrich did not submit required 10k signatures and has not qualified for the VA primary," the party announced early Saturday on its Twitter feed. Shipley did not respond to telephone calls Saturday seeking comment.
Forty-six delegates will be at stake in Virginia's Super Tuesday primary. That's a small fraction of the 1,144 delegates needed to win the nomination. But they could prove pivotal in a close race, especially for a candidate like Gingrich, who expects to do well in Southern contests.
Gingrich already missed the deadline to appear on the ballot in Missouri's Feb. 7 primary, though he insists it doesn't matter because the state awards delegates based not on the primary but on a Republican caucus held in March.
Meanwhile, Virginia's Democrats said President Barack Obama's re-election campaign gathered enough signatures to get him on the state's primary ballot though he was the only candidate who qualified.
___
Associated Press writers Will Lester and Stephen Ohlemacher contributed to this report.
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In her Washington Post/Bloomberg column, Michelle Singletary does a retrospective on personal-finance changes in 2011. She determines that the one good thing that arose during the year was the opening of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which writes federal rules to combat unfair, deceptive and abusive financial practices and products, among other things.
The bureau, despite not having a director, has been busy. I?m a huge fan of its ?Know Before You Owe? initiative aimed at helping people understand the consequences of the debt they take on. The agency began collecting public comment on a simplified credit-card agreement, and it?s testing two prototypes of mortgage disclosure forms to simplify the paperwork consumers have to tackle at the closing table.
Partnering with the Education Department, the bureau has drafted a one-page shopping sheet to help students better understand the type and amount of financial aid they qualify for, and to allow them to compare college offers. The bureau is also looking more closely at the private student-loan industry.
Also on the good side, the federal government began requiring all post-secondary institutions that participate in Title IV federal student-aid programs to begin posting a net price calculator on their Web sites. The net price is what a student might have to earn, save or borrow to go to his or her selected school. I?m hoping the calculator will help families reduce the debt they take on.
Read Michelle Singletary's entire column at the Washington Post/Bloomberg.
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Source: http://www.theroot.com/buzz/what-happened-personal-finance-2011
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We've looked at how to find the right parts for a hackintosh on your own, but now hackintosh expert tonymacx86 has posted a comprehensive list of builds and parts for creating Intel-based machines of all kinds. It includes a quite a few sample builds as well as a very helpful, long list of compatible graphics cards.
Tonymacx86 is who we look to when we build our hackintoshes. In fact, we've built the CustoMac Mini posted on this list. That's the most inexpensive machine the build list offers, coming in at just a little over $300. You can work your way up to somewhat more powerful budget build, or take on one of the pro builds for an extremely powerful hackintosh. All the builds are tested, but if you want to make little changes like choosing a different case or the amount of RAM you can do so without worry. If you want to make a bigger change, such as using a different motherboard or GPU, you're taking a bigger risk because so few are fully compatible. Fortunately, along with this buyer's guide, tonymacx86 has posted a long list of alternative motherboards and graphics cards so you can alter the suggested builds to suit you best. The guide is very comprehensive and the builds are tested, so if you're looking to build a hackintosh anytime soon this is an excellent list to consult.
Building a Sandy Bridge CustoMac: Buyer's Guide | Tonymacx86 Blog
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/yrU_ft8SoK0/story01.htm
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Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/12/22/prometheus-teaser-trailer/
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House Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., is followed by reporters after holding a news conference on the payroll tax cut on Capitol Hill on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
House Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., is followed by reporters after holding a news conference on the payroll tax cut on Capitol Hill on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
House Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., gestures during a news conference on the payroll tax cut on Capitol Hill on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
House Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., left, and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., hold a news conference on the payroll tax cut on Capitol Hill on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., gestures during a news conference on the payroll tax cut on Capitol Hill on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
House Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., during a news conference on the payroll tax cut on Capitol Hill on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? House Republicans on Thursday caved to demands by President Barack Obama, congressional Democrats and fellow Republicans for a short-term renewal of payroll tax cuts for all workers. The breakthrough almost certainly spares workers an average $20 a week tax increase Jan. 1.
After days of wrangling that even Speaker John Boehner acknowledged "may not have been politically the smartest thing in the world," the Ohio Republican abruptly changed course and dropped demands for immediate holiday season talks with the Senate on a full-year measure that all sides said they want. Senate leaders had insisted on the two-month extension to buy time for talks next year.
The House and Senate plan to act on the two-month extension Friday.
House Republicans were under fire from their constituents and GOP establishment figures incensed that they would risk losing the tax cut issue to Democrats at the dawn of the 2012 presidential and congressional election year. House GOP arguments about the legislative process and the "uncertainty" a two-month extension would mean for business were unpersuasive.
"In the end House Republicans felt like they were reenacting the Alamo, with no reinforcements and our friends shooting at us," said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas.
The compromise legislation would renew the tax break through Feb. 29, along with jobless benefits and a "fix" to prevent doctors from absorbing a big cut in Medicare payments. Its $33 billion cost would be covered by an increased fee on mortgages backed by Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac.
The developments were a clear win for Obama. The payroll tax cut was the centerpiece of his three-month campaign-style drive for jobs legislation that seems to have contributed to an uptick in his poll numbers ? and taken a toll on those of congressional Republicans.
"Because of this agreement, every working American will keep his or her tax cut - about $1,000 for the average family," Obama said in a statement. "That's about $40 in every paycheck. And when Congress returns, I urge them to keep working to reach an agreement that will extend this tax cut and unemployment insurance for all of 2012 without drama or delay."
If the cuts had expired as scheduled, 160 million workers would have seen a 2 percentage point increase in their Social Security taxes. And up to 2 million people without jobs for six months would start losing unemployment benefits averaging $300 a week.
The GOP retreat ends a tense standoff in which Boehner's House Republicans came under great pressure to agree to the short-term extension passed by the Senate on Saturday. The speaker was initially open to the idea, but rank-and-file Republicans revolted, and the House instead insisted on immediate talks on the year-long measure passed by the House, which contains curbs to unemployment insurance and other ideas backed by conservatives ? as well as deeper spending cuts to pay for the full-year cost.
After Senate leaders tried but failed to match the House's goal for a full-year pact, the chamber on Saturday instead gave sweeping approval for the two-month extension of the payroll tax cut, jobless benefits and doctors' Medicare fees that otherwise would have been cut 27 percent. The House had just days before passed a full-year extension that included a series of conservative policy prescriptions unpalatable to Obama and congressional Democrats.
Obama, Republicans and congressional Democrats all said they preferred a one-year extension but the politics of achieving that eluded them. All pledged to start working on that in January.
"Has this place become so dysfunctional that even when we agree to things we can't do it?" Obama asked. "Enough is enough.".
The top Senate Republican, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, was a driving force behind Thursday's agreement, imploring Boehner to accept the deal that McConnell and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid had struck last week and passed with overwhelming support in both parties.
"There remain important differences between the parties on how to implement these policies, and it is critical that we protect middle-class families from a tax increase while we work them out," Reid said after Boehner's announcement.
The breakthrough emerged as a firewall erected by tea party-backed House Republicans crumbled Thursday.
"I don't think that my constituents should have a tax increase because of Washington's dysfunction," said freshman Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis.
The Republican establishment, too, put new pressure on House Republicans to compromise.
The 2008 GOP presidential nominee, John McCain, former Bush administration confidant Karl Rove and The Wall Street Journal editorial page were among conservative voices urging House Republicans to retreat.
Just hours before he announced the breakthrough, Boehner had made the case for a year-long extension. But on a brief late afternoon conference call, he informed his colleagues it was time to yield.
"He said that as your leader, you've in effect asked me to make decisions easy and difficult and I'm making my decision right now," said Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., paraphrasing Boehner's comments.
Kingston said the conference call lasted just minutes and Boehner did not give anyone time to respond.
There was still carping among tea party freshmen upset that GOP leaders had yielded.
"Even though there is plenty of evidence this is a bad deal for America ... the House has caved yet again to the president and Senate Democrats," said Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan. "We were sent here with a clear set of instructions from the American people to put an end to business as usual in Washington, yet here we are being asked to sign off on yet another gimmick."
Almost forgotten in the firestorm is that McConnell and Boehner had extracted a major victory last week, winning a provision that would require Obama to make a swift decision on whether to approve construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would bring Canadian oil to the U.S. and create thousands of construction jobs. To block the pipeline, Obama would have to declare that is not in the nation's interest.
Obama wanted to put the decision off until after the 2012 election.
House Republicans did win one concession in addition to a promise that Senate Democrats would name negotiators on the one-year House measure: a provision to ease concerns that the 60-day extension would be hard for payroll processing companies to implement.
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PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, Thursday December 22, 2011 ? Not satisfied with the payout plan recently offered by government to some larger CLICO investors and policyholders, one association of policyholders is targeting former CLICO directors to make up the shortfall.
The Santa Rosa Team, which represents a number of CLICO Executive Flexible Premium Annuity (EFPA) policyholders, announced this week that they were going after the ?the hundreds of millions of dollars (and possibly much more) in assets of those who are directly responsible for [the policyholders] financial plight.?
In the statement issued on Monday, December 19, the Santa Rosa team argued that the difference between what the EFPA policyholders were due (as per Rajnauth-Lee judgment) and what they were now being offered by the government, was a loss resulting directly from a ?catalogue of failures on the part of directors, past and present to discharge their fiduciary responsibilities, and in some cases perhaps to have conspired in the execution of fraudulent acts?.
Under its new plan, government has said policyholders for the first ten years would get a yield of approximately 80 cents for every dollar of their investment if they chose to cash in their investment within six months.
For years 11 to 20, the investors have been promised a return of 100 cents on the dollar, if they opt to swap these zero-coupon bonds for units in the investment holding company that has been called NEL II.
David Walker, the lead consultant for the Santa Rosa Team, said Monday?s statement that the legal action also included those who chose to accept the government?s offer, but he we strongly recommended the EFPA policyholders to reject the government plan as it greatly reduced their chances of getting a full payout.
He urged the EFPA policyholders in the statement to lend their support both for the likelihood of a greater settlement and for the national good. Click here?to receive free news bulletins via email from Caribbean360. (View sample)
Source: http://www.caribbean360.com/business/525992.html
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(Reuters) ? Technology giant Oracle Corp's profit and sales missed Wall Street forecasts, sending its shares plunging 8 percent and raising concerns that a global economic slowdown will hurt tech spending.
The world's No. 3 software maker reported profit, excluding items, of 54 cents per share in its second quarter ended November 30, missing the average analyst forecast of 57 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
"Every technology company is going to get hit. This is just the start," said Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry.
New software sales rose 2 percent from a year earlier to $2 billion during the quarter. Analysts, on average, were expecting new software sales of $2.2 billion, according to StreetAccount.
The company also reported that hardware product sales fell 14 percent to $953 million, below the average Street account forecast of $1.06 billion.
(Reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Richard Chang)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111220/bs_nm/us_oracle
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FORT MEADE, Md.?? The young Army intelligence specialist accused of passing government secrets spent his 24th birthday in court Saturday listening to lawyers and witnesses discuss whether his sexual orientation plays any role in the case against him.
Prosecutors began presenting their case that Army Pfc. Bradley Manning was the source of the WikiLeaks website's collection of U.S. military and diplomatic secrets. The government's first two witnesses were Army criminal investigators.
Manning's defense team asked both witnesses whether they found evidence of homosexuality or references to gender-identity disorder among Manning's belongings. One investigator testified she knew Manning was gay before she arrived in Baghdad to collect evidence. Manning had been stationed in the Iraqi capital.
Manning allegedly acknowledged he was gay in the online chat logs, called authentic by the military, at the heart of the case.
The defense wants to show that his struggles as a gay soldier in the era of "don't ask-don't' tell" contributed to mental and emotional problems that should have barred him from having access to sensitive material.
The military is conducting a hearing to determine whether prosecutors have enough evidence to bring Manning to trial. Manning's lawyers tried to oust Lt. Col. Paul Almanza as the presiding officer because of alleged bias, but an Army appeals court rejected their request late Friday.
Separately, lawyers for WikiLeaks and founder Julian Assange are asking the military's highest appeals court to guarantee them two seats in the courtroom at Fort Meade.
Manning is accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive items including Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, State Department cables and a classified military video of a 2007 American helicopter attack in Iraq that killed 11 men, including a Reuters news photographer and his driver.
The Obama administration says the released information has threatened valuable military and diplomatic sources and strained America's relations with other governments.
Friday was Manning's first appearance in public after 19 months in detention. He appeared slight but serious in his Army camouflage fatigues and dark-rimmed glasses, taking notes during the proceedings and answering straightforwardly when called upon by Almanza.
Manning, a native of Crescent, Okla., is relying on a defense that will argue much of the classified information posed no risk.
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In addition to claims of partiality, his lawyer, David Coombs, argued that Almanza wrongly denied the defense's request to call as witnesses the officials who marked as secret the material WikiLeaks later published. Instead, the officer accepted unsworn statements from those people, Coombs said.
Friday's tangling, however, centered primarily on Almanza's Justice Department job. "I don't believe I'm biased," Almanza said, explaining that his government work concerns child exploitation and obscenity. He said he hasn't talked about WikiLeaks or Manning with anyone in the department or FBI.
The Justice Department has a separate criminal investigation into Assange. A U.S. grand jury is weighing whether to indict Assange on espionage charges, even as he is in Britain fighting a Swedish request that he be extradited because of rape allegations.
Manning's hearing at this Army post outside Washington is open to the public, with limited seating.
The case has spawned an international support network of people who believe the U.S. government has gone too far in seeking to punish Manning.
In London, several dozen protesters from gay organizations, the Occupy London protest camp and other groups rallied outside the U.S. Embassy Saturday calling for Manning's release. Some held placards declaring "Free Bradley Manning" and "Happy Birthday Bradley."
More than 100 people gathered outside Fort Meade for a march in support of Manning.
Todd Anderson, 64, said drove from New York City to take part.
"I think this man showed a great deal of courage, the kind of thing I wouldn't have the courage to do, and I really consider him to be a hero," Anderson said.
Juline Jordan, 46, said she flew in from Detroit just for the day.
"I support what he did because he exposed some horrific war crimes and horrific things done at the hands of the United States government and the Department of Defense, and he's a hero for that," Jordan said.
___
Associated Press writers Jill Lawless in London, Mark Sherman in Washington and Brian Witte at Fort Meade contributed to this report.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45707454/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/
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By msnbc.com news services
Wall Street moved higher Friday as investors were attracted to risk assets, with the euro higher and key euro zone bond yields down.
Reflecting improved investor confidence, benchmark Italian bond yields stabilized below 7 percent and Spanish yields also fell. Still, worries persisted over possible sovereign credit downgrades to the euro zone members.
European shares were slightly lower, but mining stocks rose, tracking metals. Copper prices added nearly 2.3 percent.
The euro rose against the U.S. dollar in a rebound from recent losses.
Stocks continued to be supported by strong U.S. data from Thursday, according to Jim Paulsen, chief investment officer at Wells Capital Management in Minneapolis.
"The reality is this morning, (jobless) claims are still way down, manufacturing sectors had a nice pop and that provides a nice floor to the market," he said.
The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits fell to a 3-1/2-year low last week and factory activity in parts of the Northeast picked up in December, data showed Thursday.
Online gamesmaker Zynga Inc was expected to make a strong debut on the Nasdaq Friday after it priced its initial public offering at $10 per share, the top end of its range.
U.S. consumer prices were flat in November as Americans paid less for cars and gasoline, while the 12-month inflation reading fell for the second straight month, which could give the Federal Reserve more room to help a still-weak economy.
Paulsen said that subdued inflation will be a long-term positive as consumers benefit from contained prices.
"That's one of the reasons you're seeing better consumer (confidence) of late," he said.
Research In Motion Ltd posted a sharp drop in profit on Thursday, offered a dismal outlook for BlackBerry shipments during the holidays and delayed an overhaul of its smartphones. The stock dropped nearly 10 percent to $13.64 in premarket trading.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/16/9493790-stocks-higher-amid-upbeat-euro-outlook
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New York ? New research suggests that the nearly-invisible hairs covering the human body may help us sense the presence of bedbugs
Why is the human body covered in tiny, nearly-invisible hairs? New research from the University of Sheffield in Britain suggests that the fine hairs help the skin detect bloodsucking parasites ? including bedbugs. Here's what you should know:
We're covered in tiny, nearly-invisible hairs?
There's body hair and then there's body hair. At first glance, seemingly smooth portions of the human body appear hairless. But that's not the case at all. "Per square centimeter, human skin has as many hair follicles as that of the other great apes," notes The Economist. "The difference," really, isn't in the number of hairs, but rather "in the fineness of the hair that grows from those follicles."
SEE MORE: Inbreeding: Why bedbugs are so hard to kill
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Why is this?
According to The Economist, our apparent lack of hair (at least relative to apes) is an evolutionary trait that has been attributed "to everything from a putative aquatic period" in mankind's history to "the advantages of displaying a healthy skin to members of the opposite sex." But this new study indicates that the tiny hairs serve as an "alarm system" when parasitic bugs land on (or crawl onto) us.
How did researchers determine that?
In a controlled study, researchers took 29?"brave" university students and shaved a patch of hair from one of their arms. While students looked away, researchers placed bedbugs on the participants' arms (both shaved and unshaved limbs) and recorded two things: how long it took for the bugs to find a place to feed, and how long it took the subjects to detect the insect's movements. (The bugs, however, were removed before they began to feed.)
And what did they find?
Researchers discovered that body hair "significantly enhanced" people's ability to detect something crawling on them, says Charles Q. Choi at LiveScience. Namely, participants noticed bugs on the hairy arm "quicker" than the shaved arm, suggesting that hairs act much like a "motion sensor." It took the bugs longer to feed on hairier arms, "presumably because [the hairs] hindered movement," and men were "better" at detecting bugs than women because they are "generally hairier." But rest assured: "This does not necessarily mean that women are more likely to be bitten," notes Choi. "Blood-sucking insects likely prefer to bite hosts in relatively hairless areas such as ankles."?
Sources: Daily Mail, The Economist, Live Science
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While the world was waiting for the announcement on which team had won the bidding for 25-year-old Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters' right-hander Yu Darvish, the Washington Nationals announced that they'd signed 24-year-old now-former San Francisco Giants' pitcher Waldis Joaquin. The Giants signed the 6'0'', 240lb right-hander as an amateur free agent out of the Dominican Republic in 2003. Joaquin debuted in the Majors in 2009, appearing in 10 games, but he's made just nine appearances with the Giants since then, moving up and down in San Francisco's system. In a matter of days in 2010 Joaquin was claimed by the Chicago White Sox, granted free agency and signed again by the Giants. The right-hander spent the bulk of his time in the Triple-A Fresno Giants' bullpen where he had a 3.44 ERA, 5.05 FIP, 4.89 K/9 and 4.17 BB/9 in 35 games and 49.2 IP. Joaquin has a (1-0) record at the major league level with a 5.40 ERA, 4.87 FIP, 17 walks (7.06 BB/9) and 17 K's (7.06 K/9) in 19 games and 21.2 IP.
According to MLB.com's Bill Ladson (@washingnats), who confirmed the original reports of Waldis Joaquin signing, the Nationals also signed minor league infielder Jarrett Hoffpauir, a 28-year-old utility infielder who's played 21 games in two major league stints (8 G with St. Louis, 13 w/ TOR) in which he has a .217/.308/.283 slash. The Cardinals' '04 6th Round pick has a .285/.366/.428 line over 8 seasons in the Minors, six of which were spent in St. Louis' system. After a year in the Blue Jays' organization, Hoffpauir played in 91 games at Triple-A in the San Diego Padres' system in 2011, posting a .281/.356/.428 line in 356 plate appearances over which he hit 26 doubles and five home runs.
(ed. note - "We're following along with the Yu Darvish Rumors HERE.")
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