Chris Brown's scary curbside art irks LA neighbors

This May 10, 2013 photo shows Graffiti painted on the walls of the home of entertainer Chris Brown in Hollywood Hills, Calif. Neighbors are angry at Brown's street art painted outside his home and local residents are calling for fines to be brought against the pop star and demanding Brown remove the street art. (AP Photo/Los Angeles Times, Barbara Davidson) NO FORNS; NO SALES; MAGS OUT; ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER OUT; LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS OUT; VENTURA COUNTY STAR OUT; INLAND VALLEY DAILY BULLETIN OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT, TV OUT

This May 10, 2013 photo shows Graffiti painted on the walls of the home of entertainer Chris Brown in Hollywood Hills, Calif. Neighbors are angry at Brown's street art painted outside his home and local residents are calling for fines to be brought against the pop star and demanding Brown remove the street art. (AP Photo/Los Angeles Times, Barbara Davidson) NO FORNS; NO SALES; MAGS OUT; ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER OUT; LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS OUT; VENTURA COUNTY STAR OUT; INLAND VALLEY DAILY BULLETIN OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT, TV OUT

FILE - In this Feb. 12, 2012 file photo, Chris Brown accepts the award for best R&B album for "F.A.M.E." during the 54th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. Grammy-winning musician Chris Brown's neighbors are unhappy with the creepy art he's chosen to have painted along the curb of his Hollywood Hills home, Saturday, May 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Grammy-winning musician Chris Brown's neighbors are unhappy with what some are calling frightening art he's chosen to have painted along the curb of his Hollywood Hills home.

A neighborhood group said the grimacing, sharp-toothed, red-eyed goblins painted along a retaining wall have been scaring children, and is an eyesore to boot, according to the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/19cjOBY ).

"There are lots of babies, lots of children, and they're literally frightened. It's like devils on the wall ? big scary eyes and big scary teeth, and just the whole vibe is not what we're used to," Patti Negri, president of the Hollywood Dell Civic Association, told the newspaper.

L.A. city code officials responded to complaints about the monster art and cited the "Run It!" singer $376 for unpermitted and excessive signage.

Under city ordinances, it's illegal to create murals on most private properties. Though that didn't stop Madonna from painting her Hollywood Hills home in red and yellow stripes in the 1990s.

Brown has been ordered to remove the goblin paintings within 30 days, but his attorney Mark Geragos said the musician is not backing down.

"They are trying to suspend the First Amendment," Geragos said.

Geragos alleges neighbors are harassing Brown and have also made parking complaints about him and called animal control.

In a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Saturday, Negri said all she wants is for Brown to "tone it down and be a better neighbor."

Brown's tumultuous relationship with singer Rihanna and foul-mouthed Twitter presence have given him a bad boy reputation.

Brown won a Grammy in 2011 for Best R&B Album with "F.A.M.E." and was arrested shortly after the 2009 awards ceremony for assaulting Rihanna.

"I know a $300 fine is probably pocket change. But hopefully and maybe, he'll just see the light and decide to be a good neighbor," Negri told the Times. "We're happy to have him ? if he just tones it down."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-05-12-AP-US-People-Chris-Brown/id-8c09d01c84384d90be19cd424c6d7d51

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True Blood Season 6: First Photos!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/true-blood-season-6-first-photos/

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Ahead of Mother's Day, Obama rallies women around health law

President Barack Obama on Friday touted his health care law's benefits for women, whose response to the program the White House believes will be key to its success.

Moms "so often they put everything else before themselves," Obama said, tying the event, held in the White House East Room, to Mother's Day.
"And that?s particularly true when it comes to things like health care." Obama said mothers worried about potential health care bills put their children first but he said his health care law, officially named the Affordable Care Act, has changed that.

"In a country as wealthy as this one, there was no reason why a family?s security should be determined by the chance of an illness or an accident. We decided to do something about it," he said.

The event helped launch a campaign the White House is undertaking to spread information about the program and get mothers to encourage their adult children to enroll in health care "exchanges."

There's "so much misinformation" surrounding the law, the president said on Friday, that "people may not have a sense of what the law actually does."

He noted that the 85 percent of people who already have insurance will not be affected by the program.

Hispanics and African-Americans will be major target groups for enrollment in the program, which is set to begin in October, a White House senior administration official said on Friday. But the White House believes young people are the single most important group for the success of the health care exchanges?where the noninsured can buy health insurance at competitive rates?which will be established by states and the federal government, the official said.

Stability for the program and the cost of insurance premiums is dependent upon young people: 2.7 million healthy 18- to 35-year-olds are not currently covered by insurance, according to the official. Participation by these young people will offset the higher costs of covering seniors. But the challenge is getting young and presumably healthy people to sign up.

That's where the White House says mothers come in: They'll be key to encouraging their sons and daughters to sign up, the official said.

The White House will conduct outreach at the local level, in part by using tools from the campaign trail, as well as relying on information disseminated by centers for Medicare and Medicaid services, hospitals, community health centers, local churches and community leaders, officials said.

Overall, the Congressional Budget Office projects 7 million enrollees in 2014.

Many Republicans have issued dire predictions about implementation of the law, and some Democrats have added their voices to those expressions of concern.

Obama conceded on Friday that there have been "mistakes and hiccups" already, and specifically identified the original release of a 21-page application as a misstep?one that received a widespread negative reaction. Obama said that the White House, which then released a three-page version, realized "we [could] do better than that."

The White House believes they'll have the upper hand in Republican attacks on Obamacare once people enroll. At that point, the official said, Republicans would look like they were trying to take health care insurance away from Americans.

In the meantime, Republicans are continuing their assault on the controversial program, with House Republicans planning a vote next week on whether to fully repeal the law.

?The president?s health care law is a train wreck for men and women alike, and that?s why a majority of Americans support Republican efforts to repeal it to protect their health care?and their jobs," House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement on Friday. "Next week, the House will act to repeal the law that is increasing health care costs, reducing access to quality health care, and making it harder for small businesses to hire workers. The entire law should be repealed so we can enact a step-by-step, common-sense approach to health care that starts with lowering costs and protecting American jobs.?

The vote in the House, however, is largely political theater.

Republicans have staged dozens of votes to repeal the law in whole or in part in the three years since the measure passed into law. Additionally, if a repeal measure did pass the Republican-controlled House, the Democratic-controlled Senate would kill the effort.

The president's event Friday was promoted in advance by the White House, but ended up being overshadowed by continued questions regarding the administration's handling of the 2011 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi and an admission Friday by the IRS that the agency placed more scrutiny on potentially conservative groups among those applying for tax exempt status.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-rallies-women-around-obamacare-ahead-mother-day-183353680.html

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Next-gen Nexus 7 with Android 4.3 to reportedly be highlight of Google I/O

By Iain Rogers MADRID, May 11 (Reuters) - When Lionel Messi pulled on the captain's armband in the 63rd minute of Barcelona's 3-1 win over Rayo Vallecano in March, it was the first time since his 2004 debut he had led the Spanish champions in a La Liga game. Andres Iniesta's substitution meant the Argentine World Player of the Year, still only 25, was the most senior player on the pitch, and leadership responsibility was a new asset to his game to add to the incredible goalscoring exploits that have propelled Barca to a fourth La Liga title in five years. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/next-gen-nexus-7-android-4-3-reportedly-162024998.html

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Railroads hire many veterans returning from war

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- Mark Major once led a team of soldiers in combat in Iraq. Now he leads a team of railroad employees. The difference, he says, is obvious: "I'm not getting shot at anymore."

But it's the similarities between serving in the military and working for the railroad that draw Major and many other former military members to this type of work.

"For a veteran ? a person who thrives off excitement, a mission and a chain of command ? you tend to seek out companies like that," said Major, who has worked for Union Pacific Corp. for about two years.

As thousands of American soldiers return to the civilian workforce after service in Iraq or Afghanistan, many are finding jobs on the nation's rail lines. More than 25 percent of all U.S. railroad workers have served in the military.

Veterans have a long history of railroad work. Civil War veterans, for example, helped complete the transcontinental railroad in the 1860s. But railroad opportunities are especially welcome now because the unemployment rate for recent veterans remains higher than for the rest of the nation.

Major helps manage intermodal freight trains for the railroad in Oakland, Calif. He sought out a railroad job when he was getting ready to leave the military because of the challenges and independence it offered and because he had known other soldiers who went to work for a railroad and liked it.

"I'm infantry," Major said. "The 40-hour workweek, sitting in a cubicle doesn't really appeal."

The Labor Department says the unemployment rate for veterans who have served since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks improved last year but still registered 9.9 percent, compared with the 7.9 percent rate for nonveterans. The jobless rate for veterans between the ages of 18 and 24 was even worse ? 20.4 percent in 2012.

The stubbornly high unemployment among veterans inspired the White House to launch a campaign called Joining Forces to encourage businesses to hire veterans. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce led a similar effort called Hiring Our Heroes.

Partly as a result of those efforts, businesses have hired more than 125,000 veterans or military spouses and pledged to hire or train another 250,000 more by the end of 2014. But there are up to 800,000 unemployed veterans, and thousands more are constantly leaving the military as combat operations wind down in Afghanistan. The last U.S. troops left Iraq at the end of 2011.

Part of the challenge for veterans is that they have trouble describing their military experience in language that civilians can understand, said Kim Morton, spokeswoman for the Hiring Our Heroes program.

And veterans don't always choose to live in cities where they have the best chance of landing a job. Instead, many move back to their hometowns or to the city where a favorite base was located.

Railroad officials say veterans are well-suited to the work they do because of their training and the fact that they're used to working a 24/7 job.

"Military folks adapt well to the railroad environment," said Roy Schroer, Union Pacific's vice president of human resources.

The railroad is like having a factory with no roof, Schroer said, so prospective employees who are trained to accomplish difficult tasks under fire are attractive.

Certain railroad jobs are almost perfect fits for certain military jobs, said John Wesley III, BNSF's military hiring manager. For instance, someone who was an air traffic controller can become a train dispatcher rather easily. And mechanics who maintained diesel equipment in the military can use those skills to take care of locomotives.

Plus, skilled trades like plumbers and electricians are all needed in the railroads.

And even veterans who don't have special skills are still a good fit because railroads are willing to train them to be conductors or to do other jobs.

"For the most part, if the military has it, so does the railroad," said Wesley, who served in the Army himself for 22 years before joining BNSF in 2007.

Railroads pursue veterans by attending dozens of job fairs every year, employing recruiters who are veterans and offering classes for veterans to help them apply for civilian jobs.

When she was leaving the Navy in 1998, Sandy Suver was contacted by a recruiter because the railroad industry had figured out that air traffic controllers tend to make good train dispatchers.

Working at the railroad, she said, has always helped her feel like part of a team, and her contributions mattered ? much like when she was in the military.

"It's a proud company with a proud heritage ? very similar to the military," Suver said. "The similarities are uncanny sometimes."

Suver and her brother both interviewed with UP around the same time and got job offers. Later her husband also went to work for the railroad after his active-duty military career ended. But he joined the Army reserves just before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to complete his 20 years of military service and was promptly deployed.

The railroad took such good care of Suver and her family during that deployment that she says it's unlikely she'll ever leave UP. The railroad maintained her husband's life and health insurance and covered the difference between National Guard pay and his railroad salary so he wouldn't take a pay cut while deployed.

"UP took care of me and my family while my husband was gone," Suver said. "It just made a huge impression on me."

That's part of why Suver has become an unofficial railroad recruiter herself by talking about 15 other former Navy co-workers into joining Union Pacific.

Suver said the military is structured for safety and so is the railroad, which helped with her transition to a civilian job.

"That structure is very comfortable for someone who grew up in the military," she said.

___

Follow Josh Funk online at www.twitter.com/funkwrite

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/railroads-hire-many-veterans-returning-140337065.html

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Chael Sonnen steps up his efforts to get Wanderlei Silva bout

Last week, Chael Sonnen called out Wanderlei Silva over a years-old dispute they had over a misunderstanding that was caught on videotape. A week later, the fight hasn't been made. Sonnen has now stepped up his game, trying to get a fight with Silva on the UFC on Fox Sports 1 card in Boston in August.

Sonnen was nice enough to even make the poster. He added the image at right to his Twitter background. Not only does he want to fight Silva in August, but he's hoping for a five-round bout in the headlining spot.

Thiago Alves is expected to take on Matt Brown on this card, and Connor McGregor has been campaigning for a bout. Sonnen wants this fight so badly he's even willing to give up a portion of his purse to help Silva's hometown.

Wand- you have 24 hours to accept. If you do, I will donate 10% of my purse to help schools in your hometown of Curitiba .. I mean, VEGAS.

? chael sonnen (@sonnench) May 9, 2013

Silva was born and raised in Curitiba, Brazil, and still identifies with Brazil, but his gym is in Las Vegas. Sonnen was able to talk his way into a fight with Jon Jones. Will he get his wish here?

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/chael-sonnen-steps-efforts-wanderlei-silva-bout-135128604.html

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Google Inc (GOOG) Turns YouTube Into YouPayTube By The Summer

From Insider Monkey - Free Hedge Fund and Insider Trading Data
May 9, 2013 - 6:07pm

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has already cultivated a strong revenue stream through its various properties, especially with its advertising ?on YouTube, which has about a billion visitors every month from around the world. Google has made a lot of money off YouTube, even as the nearly one billion monthly visitors watched content for free. And with [...]

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