2nd round of storms cuts power for more Ohioans

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) ? When the lights began flickering during another bout of thunderstorms, Leo Welsh braced himself for his second power outage in three days and decided there was no point in getting upset.

The first outage at his Columbus home followed winds of up to 80 mph on Friday. While other Ohio residents were told they might be in the dark for days, Welsh's outage lasted about 20 hours.

The second round of storms Sunday knocked out the lights throughout his neighborhood, including the ones that had remained on at the house next door, and Welsh figured it must be his turn to wait. So he packed the food from his refrigerator ? plus the food his mother-in-law had brought over when her power went out ? carted it to his brother's place in Grandview and patiently addressed his 3-year-old son's questions about when someone might be coming by to fix the TV.

"Getting worked up about it is not going to make the power come on any sooner," said Welsh, 33, a nursing home administrator. Still, he was repeatedly dialing home on Monday, hoping to hear the sweet sound of the answering machine indicating his electricity was back. By lunchtime, there was still no answer.

The Sunday storms expanded the outage lists by the thousands, including some Ohio homes and businesses where power already had been lost and restored. About 445,000 Ohio customers ? mostly of American Electric Power Co.? were without power at midday Monday, and residents were scrambling to stay cool as temperatures climbed into the 90s.

Dayton Power and Light planned free ice giveaways to help some of its 17,000 affected customers. Duke Energy Corp. had more than 8,000 customers out.

Federal and state officials and relief workers were trying to determine the biggest and most urgent needs. The Ohio Emergency Management Agency said it was fielding dozens of calls from people who mistakenly thought state and federal officials were offering access to generators for personal use. The agency was redirecting those callers to local 211 hotlines and the American Red Cross for information about cooling shelters.

Gov. John Kasich declared a state emergency during the weekend, called out the National Guard and sought help from President Barack Obama, who declared a federal emergency in Ohio. Federal aid trucks carrying water were sent to six distribution points in southern and eastern Ohio.

About 200 National Guard members were going door-to-door in the Columbus and Dayton areas Monday to check on residents who might need help. Columbus planned to open fire hydrants at four spots Monday afternoon to help residents cool off.

AEP said Friday's storm was Ohio's worst since the state was battered in 2008 by the remnants of Hurricane Ike. Out-of-state reinforcements were limited by big needs in the Washington, D.C., area and neighboring states that were also hit by storms.

In the meantime, many people visited friends and family to enjoy some air conditioning and to charge their cellphones and laptops.

The flashlights that Natalie Driscoll's family bought after the first outage proved useful Sunday when storms cut the electricity again at her home near Springfield.

"My 2-year-old thought it was kind of fun at first," Driscoll said. "She got to play with the new flashlights."

With their power not expected to return before Tuesday evening, Driscoll packed two coolers with food from her refrigerator and freezer and took her two young daughters to stay with her parents in Upper Sandusky, a two-hour drive away. Her husband stayed at home, where Friday's storm had torn the top off their tall pine tree and left it in their yard.

"It looked like somebody pulled a Christmas tree down and laid it in our yard, instead of putting it by the curb," said Driscoll, 28.

In southeast Ohio, more than half of Wayne National Forest was closed to the public and some visitors were asked to leave recreation areas as a precaution while park workers inspected trails for fallen trees and other damage.

Ohio officials confirmed one storm death. A 70-year-old woman died Friday evening in Muskingum County when a barn collapsed after she had gone to check on animals during the storm.

State Treasurer Josh Mandel said small business owners, farmers and other Ohioans might be eligible for interest rate reductions on loans to recover or rebuild from the storm damage. He said he's made $25 million available through the state's Renew Ohio & Rebuild Ohio emergency financing programs.

___

Sewell reported from Cincinnati. He can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/dansewell . Kantele Franko can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/kantele10 .

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2nd-round-storms-cuts-power-more-ohioans-184555947--finance.html

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Column: Balotelli challenging minds with his feet

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) ? The ignoramus who scrawled "non sei un vero italiano, sei un africano nero" ? "You are not a true Italian, you are a black African" ? on a wall near the San Siro stadium in Milan. Did he, despite himself, leap off his sofa in delight when Mario Balotelli thumped home his goal for Italy with a powerful nod of his shaven black head and put their country into the final of Europe's top soccer tournament?

One hopes so.

And the hooligans in Rome who hurled a bunch of bananas into a bar where Balotelli and other young Italy players were relaxing a few summers back, prompting the owner to call the police. Did they, despite themselves, yell with joy as Balotelli celebrated his second goal against Germany in the semifinal, tearing off his blue Italy jersey to proudly show off his black torso of muscles and sinews ridged like thick rope?

Again, one hopes so.

And the idiots ? here at the Euros and back in Italy ? who have booed and howled like apes at Balotelli because he is black. Did they, despite themselves, feel twinges of shame, and were they moved when his adoptive mother cradled her boy in a long, tight hug after the game of his life, her white hand lovingly stroking the back of his neck and his Mohican-style strip of dyed-blonde hair?

Please, yes, one truly hopes so.

One of the great virtues of sport has always been that it creates heroes who change the way people think or expose those who refuse to. With their exploits, their activism or both, Muhammad Ali, Billie Jean King, amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius, Aborigine Olympic champion Cathy Freeman and other sports pioneers too numerous to name have rubbed the noses of bigots, sexists, homophobes and the otherwise small-minded in the dirt of their own ugliness, silencing some of them and enlightening others.

Balotelli, with his brilliance on the field and his dignity and good humor off it, is now doing that, too, by shining like no one else at the European Championship that has focused attention on the racism that still blights the continent's favorite sport, and which climaxes Sunday with the final between Italy and Spain.

The role is not one Balotelli has lobbied for, wholeheartedly embraced or even is naturally suited for. For starters, he's young, just 21. Before this tournament, where he has impressed with his cool and earnestness, he often made news more for his immaturity than with his play. Notable examples were when he tossed a dart in the direction of another player at Manchester City, his club in England, or when two fire trucks were called last October to his home south of Manchester to douse a blaze he said was caused by friends setting off fireworks in his bathroom.

Before these Euros, France Football magazine asked Balotelli about the thrown bananas in Rome in 2009. His response showed how deeply he's been hurt by the abuse he's endured since he first made his mark on soccer at Inter Milan but also perhaps suggested he remains vulnerable to hot-tempered excesses and still has some growing up to do.

"I hope it doesn't happen again," he said. "If someone throws bananas at me in the street, I will go to prison because I will kill them."

Balotelli's life story is complicated, through no fault of his own. He was born in Sicily, to parents who emigrated there from Ghana. He was gravely ill as a baby, with a malformation of the intestine that required repeated surgeries, and spent months in the hospital.

"I've had a lot of luck," he told France Football of that period of his life. "We are all destructible. But me, I'm difficult to destroy."

When he was 2? years old, a court ? acting upon a petition from social services ? assigned Mario to a foster family. Silvia and Franco Balotelli and their children ? Corrado, Giovanni and sister Cristina, all much older than him ? "looked after little Mario with all the love of a parent, brother or sister," his website says. When he turned 18, Mario formally applied to become the Balotellis' adopted son, according to his sister.

He told France Football he does sometimes speak to his birth parents. Tournament organizers UEFA said before Euro 2012 he would have their name, Barwuah, on his Italy shirt, along with Balotelli. But, for reasons unclear, that hasn't happened.

Immigration is a relatively new phenomenon in Italy, which has struggled to accept and adapt to some of the changes brought by people from Africa, South America, Asia and Eastern Europe who came to do jobs that affluent Italians now reject ? like picking crops, laying bricks or caring for the elderly. Tens of thousands of kids, like Balotelli, who were born there of non-Italian parents must wait until they are 18 before they can claim citizenship. That, essentially, gives the impression they are second-class Italians, and it riled Balotelli.

"I'm very attached to my Italian passport. I should have gotten it straight away and not waited for my 18th birthday," he told France Football.

But Balotelli's exploits in soccer, a sport that ignites passions and admiration like no other in Italy, have fueled appeals for change, including from Giorgio Napolitano, the country's president. Receiving the Italy squad last November, he called immigrants "the lifeblood for our country" and said their Italy-born children "feel completely Italian and they should be given citizenship as soon as possible."

That moved Balotelli to tears. "It touched me. That's my story," he said.

Again on Saturday, the eve of the final, the speaker of Parliament's lower Chamber of Deputies, center-right leader Gianfranco Fini, appealed for reform, invoking Balotelli's example in calling the children of immigrants "not a problem but a resource."

But Premier Mario Monti is entirely focused on salvaging Italy's stricken economy and says the citizenship question is a political issue that is not in the remit of his government to solve. Previous calls also got nowhere, hitting a wall of opposition from the anti-immigrant Northern League party that helped keep Monti's predecessor, Silvio Berlusconi, in power.

Still, Balotelli's performances are focusing minds against racial intolerance. UEFA has fined Spain and Croatia a total of $125,000 after their fans chanted abuse and monkey noises at him at these Euros.

Italy's leading sports newspaper, La Gazzetta dello Sport, also apologized after some readers protested about a cartoon that depicted Balotelli as King Kong. Even a Northern League lawmaker, Mario Borghezio, on Saturday hailed Balotelli as a northern Italian "with dark skin. And that's absolutely fine with me."

"Whether the racists like it or not, the joy that exploded the other night in the piazzas for the fantastic goals of our black son swept away, for a magic moment, decades of stereotypes," Gian Antonio Stella, who chronicles Italian society, wrote in the daily Corriere della Sera, under the front-page headline, "Mario and the pride of the new Italians."

Balotelli has not spoken at these Euros about the racism he has faced. But the image of him clenching his muscles like a bodybuilder, black and beautiful for all to see, after his second goal sank Germany seemed to speak volumes. The referee, as soccer's rules demand, showed Balotelli a yellow card for going shirtless, but he was unapologetic.

"If anyone is angry for my celebration, it's because they saw my physique and they're jealous," he said.

With another goal Sunday, Balotelli would become the top scorer of Euro 2012. His sister is flying to Kiev to join the rest of the Balotelli family. The eyes of the world will be on him ? challenging and hopefully sweeping away ignorance with his feats and feet.

___

AP Sports Writer Andrew Dampf at Euro 2012 and Frances D'Emilio in Rome contributed.

___

John Leicester is an international sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jleicester(at)ap.org or follow him at http://twitter.com/johnleicester

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/column-balotelli-challenging-minds-feet-204147438--sow.html

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Romney response to Supreme Court on health care

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's response to Thursday's Supreme Court decision to uphold President Barack Obama health care law, as transcribed by Roll Call:

___

As you might imagine, I disagree with the Supreme Court's decision and I agree with the dissent.

What the court did not do on its last day in session, I will do on my first day if elected president of the United States. And that is I will act to repeal Obamacare.

Let's make clear that we understand what the court did and did not do.

What the court did today was say that Obamacare does not violate the Constitution. What they did not do was say that Obamacare is good law or that it's good policy.

Obamacare was bad policy yesterday. It's bad policy today. Obamacare was bad law yesterday. It's bad law today.

Let me tell you why I say that.

Obamacare raises taxes on the American people by approximately $500 billion. Obamacare cuts Medicare - cuts Medicare by approximately $500 billion. And even with those cuts and tax increases, Obamacare adds trillions to our deficits and to our national debt, and pushes those obligations on to coming generations.

Obamacare also means that for up to 20 million Americans, they will lose the insurance they currently have, the insurance that they like and they want to keep.

Obamacare is a job-killer. Businesses across the country have been asked what the impact is of Obamacare. Three-quarters of those surveyed by the Chamber of Commerce said Obamacare makes it less likely for them to hire people.

And perhaps most troubling of all, Obamacare puts the federal government between you and your doctor.

For all those reasons, it's important for us to repeal and replace Obamacare.

What are some of the things that we'll keep in place and must be in place in a reform, a real reform of our health care system?

One, we have to make sure that people who want to keep their current insurance will be able to do so. Having 20 million people - up to that number of people lose the insurance they want is simply unacceptable.

Number two, got to make sure that those people who have pre-existing conditions know that they will be able to be insured and they will not lose their insurance.

We also have to assure that we do our very best to help each state in their effort to assure that every American has access to affordable health care.

And something that Obamacare does not do that must be done in real reform is helping lower the cost of health care and health insurance. It's becoming prohibitively expensive.

And so this is now a time for the American people to make a choice. You can choose whether you want to have a larger and larger government, more and more intrusive in your life, separating you and your doctor, whether you're comfortable with more deficits, higher debt that we pass on to the coming generations, whether you're willing to have the government put in place a plan that potentially causes you to lose the insurance that you like, or whether instead you want to return to a time when the American people will have their own choice in health care, where consumers will be able to make their choices as to what kind of health insurance they want.

This is a time of choice for the American people. Our mission is clear: If we want to get rid of Obamacare, we're going to have to replace President Obama. My mission is to make sure we do exactly that: that we return to the American people the privilege they've always had to live their lives in the way they feel most appropriate, where we don't pass on to coming generations massive deficits and debt, where we don't have a setting where jobs are lost.

If we want good jobs and a bright economic future for ourselves and for our kids, we must replace Obamacare.

That is my mission, that is our work, and I'm asking the people of America to join me. If you don't want the course that President Obama has put us on, if you want, instead, a course that the founders envisioned, then join me in this effort. Help us. Help us defeat Obamacare. Help us defeat the liberal agenda that makes government too big, too intrusive, and that's killing jobs across this great country.

Thank you so much.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/romney-response-supreme-court-health-care-163747678.html

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All the world's quakes since 1898 mapped

If you've ever wondered where ? and why ? earthquakes happen the most, look no further than a new map, which plots more than a century's worth of nearly every recorded earthquake strong enough to at least rattle the bookshelves.

The map shows earthquakes of magnitude 4.0 or greater since 1898; each is marked in a lightning-bug hue that glows brighter with increasing magnitude.

The overall effect is both beautiful and arresting, revealing the silhouettes of Earth's tectonic boundaries in stark, luminous swarms of color.

The map's maker, John Nelson, the user experience and mapping manager for IDV Solutions, a data visualization company, said the project offered several surprises.

"First, I was surprised by the sheer amount of earthquakes that have been recorded," Nelson told OurAmazingPlanet. "It's almost like you could walk from Seattle to Wellington (New Zealand) if these things were floating in the ocean, and I wouldn't have expected that."

In all, 203,186 earthquakes are marked on the map, which is current through 2003. And it reveals the story of plate tectonics itself.

Earthquake makers
The long volcanic seams where Earth's crust is born appear as faint, snaking lines cutting through the world's oceans. The earthquakes along these so-called spreading centers tend to be rather mild. The best studied spreading center, called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, bisects the Atlantic Ocean, on the right side of the image.

Its Pacific counterpart wanders along the eastern edge of the Pacific Ocean, cutting a wide swath offshore of South America. Another spreading center makes a jog though the Indian Ocean and up through the Red Sea.

But one glance at the map shows that the real earthquake action is elsewhere. [ 7 Ways the Earth Changes in the Blink of an Eye ]

Subduction zones, the places where tectonic plates overlap and one is forced to dive deep beneath the other and into the Earth's crushing interior ? a process that generates the biggest earthquakes on the planet ? stand out like a Vegas light show.

Nelson said this concept hit home particularly for the Ring of Fire, the vast line of subduction zones around the northern and western edge of the Pacific Ocean.

"I have a general sense of where it is, and a notion of plate tectonics, but when I first pulled the data in and started painting it in geographically, it was magnificent," Nelson said. "I was awestruck at how rigid those bands of earthquake activity really are."

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That realization prompted one big decision about the map's design, Nelson said. Unlike many maps made in the United States, this one is centered over the Pacific Ocean. "That looked like where the magic was happening," Nelson said. California, a spot rattled by quakes where faults jolt horizontally, also shines brightly.

Teaching tool
There are undoubtedly many earthquakes missing, given the dramatic change in scope and accuracy of seismological instruments from 1898 to the present day. Nelson said he saw a huge jump in the volume of data from the 1960s forward. Yet even without the complete catalog of earthquakes, the map provides a striking visual reference ? even though none of the data are new.

All the earthquake information and maps are freely available on the Internet courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey, university and state partners in California, and NASA.

"There's nothing new about plotting earthquakes," Nelson said. "It's just presenting it in an interesting way."

And although he was modest about his own role as a designer, Nelson emphasized the value of design in making data more engaging. The project was a follow-up to a recent map of more than 50 years of tornado tracks across the United States; he said both maps are designed to get people more interested in the larger phenomena behind them. "To get them to start asking questions," Nelson said.

In short, a colorful map will grab people more than an Excel spreadsheet, even when both contain the same information.

"It seems almost superficial, but it's true," Nelson said. "If something is treated with thoughtful design, then it becomes better."

Reach Andrea Mustain at amustain@techmedianetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @AndreaMustain. Follow OurAmazingPlanet for the latest in Earth science and exploration news on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook ? and Google+.

? 2012 OurAmazingPlanet. All rights reserved. More from OurAmazingPlanet.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48015381/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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GameStop plans to sell Nexus 7, starts taking Android tablet trade-ins

Google's Andy Rubin suggested the Nexus 7 would reach third-party US stores eventually -- we just didn't think it would be this quickly. GameStop says it's taking pre-orders for the 16GB version of the Android 4.1 tablet starting today. At $249, it will cost exactly what it does in its currently exclusive Google Play home; in other words, one of the parties involved could be taking a voluntary hit on the already razor-thin profit margins. The 7-inch slate should be arriving roughly at the same mid-July timeframe as it is for those ordering straight from the Google source.

It wouldn't be GameStop if there weren't trade-ins involved, and sure enough, the game retailer is using the Nexus 7 as the lure. Confirming an earlier leak, the chain is now accepting Android tablet trade-ins worth up to $200 in cash (or $250 in store credit) depending on how pristine the hardware is coming into the store. Play your cards right, and you're very nearly getting the Google-blessed tablet for free. As an extra incentive, any gear whose exchange goes directly towards buying the Nexus 7 will get a 30 percent boost in value. Knowing the buzz surrounding the price-to-performance ratio of the ASUS-made Nexus, we won't be surprised if GameStop suddenly faces a glut of older Android tablets in its backrooms.

Continue reading GameStop plans to sell Nexus 7, starts taking Android tablet trade-ins

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/29/gamestop-plans-to-sell-nexus-7-starts-taking-android-tablet-trades/

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After health ruling, will U.S. be ready for the law? (reuters)

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'You're fired' Pacific council audience tells mayor

There was drama a-plenty in Pacific on Monday.

First, there was the beleaguered city council, struggling to corral the city's personnel woes. Then there were outraged residents, ratcheting up their calls for Mayor Cy Sun's resignation.

During the public comment period, several residents rose to demand that Sun ? who assumed office in January after winning the mayor's seat last November with a write-in campaign ? step down. Don Thomson even "fired" Sun.

"It is over," Thomson said. "I'm demanding, I'm not requesting. Turn over your keys to the council."

"Mr. Sun, you have raped and pillaged this town beyond recognition," Reva Bryant said. "We are the laughing stock of Western Washington. It is pathetic. This was a great little city. I've been here 40 years, and you have walked in here and torn it literally apart. I ask for your immediate resignation."

After the meeting Sun downplayed the demands.

"Those are the same people that ask me to resign every meeting I go to," he said. "The same exact people. They want people to know they disapprove of my policies and my approach to the City government. Now let's put it straight. I was voted in on a write-in. And the people were disgusted with the corruption that was going on. I came in and started cleaning up corruption.

"I admit that I'm moving too fast, as to my knowledge of the Washington code and the City code. When I get to know them, I'll backtrack and approach it the right way. I wouldn't say lawful, but the right way," Sun said.

Most of the rancor centers on Sun's controversial personnel decisions, which have punched gaping holes in the City's staff roster.

Since Sun took office, five of the City's six department managers have quit or Sun has fired them.

The sixth, City Clerk and Personnel Manager Jane Montgomery, is on a leave-of-absence after filing a whistleblower complaint and an anti-harassment suit on June 11.

Montgomery claims that Sun locked her out of her office in retaliation for blowing the whistle on his controversial personnel decisions. She says she acted out of fear that Sun's decisions would put the City at risk, financially and legally.

Not true, Sun said.

"The reason I locked it was that I didn't want any documents to be removed," Sun said.

Despite criticism of his management style and his decisions since taking office, Sun said he was confident he was carrying out the people's will.

"I was voted in to do what I'm doing right now," Sun said after the meeting. "I'm doing what the voter has voted me in for."

ALSO: The rotating door at Pacific City Hall continued to spin this week with the news of Sgt. Jim Pickett's resignation as the acting police chief and Sun's termination of the contract with City Attorney Kenyon Luce. Luce was given 30-days notice... The council met in executive session with the City's insurance carrier, Canfield Associates, to address concerns about potential litigation stemming from events that have occurred within the city in the last month, including an "investigation into the whistle blower protection violation," Luce said. He added that there was also concern about some criminal conduct allegations. Both instances require action by the City, but according to Luce, the insurance carrier has no plans to cancel its contract with Pacific.

Contact Auburn Reporter Sports Reporter Shawn Skager at sskager@auburn-reporter.com or (253) 833-0218, ext. 5054.

Source: http://feeds.soundpublishing.com/~r/auball/~3/DZDCgyzaTuE/160725425.html

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