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Saturday, February 2, 2013
It Could Be Years Before Dreamliners Are Back in the Air
Blimps to bolster Washington's air shield in test
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A pair of big, blimp-like craft, moored to the ground and flying as high as 10,000 feet, are to be added to a high-tech shield designed to protect the Washington D.C. area from air attack, at least for a while.
The bulbous, helium-filled "aerostats" - each more than three quarters the length of a football field at 243 feet - are to be stitched into existing defenses as part of an exercise of new technology ordered by the Defense Department.
The coming addition to the umbrella over Washington is known as Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System, or JLENS. Raytheon Co is the prime contractor.
"We're trying to determine how the surveillance radar information from the JLENS platforms can be integrated with existing systems in the National Capital Region," said Michael Kucharek, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
NORAD, a binational command, is responsible for defending air space over the United States and Canada, including the Washington area with its many pieces of important infrastructure.
The most significant air attack in the area took place on September 11, 2001, when Al Qaeda militants hijacked American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757, and crashed it into the Pentagon.
To expand the time available to detect and defend against any future attacks from commercial aircraft, major changes were made under Operation Noble Eagle, combat air patrols begun after the September 11 attacks.
Airspace restrictions were extended. U.S. Army Sentinel radars for low-altitude radar coverage and short-range Stinger/Avenger missile batteries were deployed.
Washington is currently guarded by an air-defense system that includes Federal Aviation Administration radars and Department of Homeland Security helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft on alert at Reagan National Airport to intercept slow, low-flying aircraft.
EXPECTED IN SEPTEMBER
The JLENS craft are expected to arrive in the capital area by September 30, according to Kucharek, who is also a spokesman for the U.S. Northern Command, which coordinates the Pentagon's homeland defense role.
A "capabilities demonstration," as the test is called, is expected to last as long as three years. Its location is being withheld, pending notification of law alerts and others
JLENS craft work in a roughly $450 million pair, known as an orbit, each tethered to mobile moorings. One of the aerostats carries a powerful long-range surveillance radar with a 360-degree look-around capability that can reach out to 340 miles. The other carries a radar used for targeting.
Operating as high as 10,000 feet for up to 30 days at a time, JLENS is meant to give the military more time to detect and react to threats, including cruise missiles and manned and unmanned aircraft, compared with ground-based radar.
The system is also designed to defend against tactical ballistic missiles, large caliber rockets and moving vehicles that could be used for attacks, including boats, cars and trucks.
A success in the U.S. capital area could give a boost to the JLENS program, which has been scaled back sharply along with the Pentagon's other 15 or so lighter-than-air vehicle efforts.
Blimp-like craft offer several advantages compared with fixed-wing aircraft, including lower cost, larger payload capacity and extended time aloft. However, their funding is to fall sharply as Pentagon spending shrinks to help pare trillion-dollar-a-year U.S. deficits.
Peter Huessy, a consultant on nuclear deterrence and missile defense, said the system would compliment current U.S. missile-defense capabilities.
(Reporting By Jim Wolf; Editing by David Brunnstrom)
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NBC News president Steve Capus stepping down
NEW YORK (AP) ? NBC News President Steve Capus, who presided over years of strong ratings at the news division and expanded digital offerings but was hurt by the downfall of the "Today" show, said Friday that he was resigning.
The Philadelphia-area native joined NBC News 20 years ago and produced various newscasts for Brian Williams before being appointed news division president by Jeff Zucker, at the time chief of NBC Universal, on the week that Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005.
NBC parent company Comcast Corp.'s decision last year to appoint Pat Fili-Krushel to a supervisory role over the company's news properties signaled to many that Capus' tenure was nearing an end. His contract gave Capus an opt-out provision and he chose to exercise it. Capus said in an email to staff members that "it is now time to head in a new direction," although he hasn't said what that might be.
"I have seldom described my role as presiding over NBC News," Capus said. "Instead, I have viewed it as leading a collaborative effort to pursue journalistic excellence."
A primary yardstick for network news' success is the ratings for the flagship evening news program, and NBC's broadcast with Williams has held on to the top spot. Capus has expanded NBC's reach with specialty websites aimed at black and Latino audiences, and reached a deal to take over all responsibility for the main NBC news site, buying out Microsoft's stake.
Capus also oversaw the MSNBC news division. MSNBC has become profitable through its decision to skew liberal in its commentary.
Tim Russert's sudden death forced Capus to revamp the Sunday morning political talk show "Meet the Press," where David Gregory has run hot and cold since taking over.
The profitable "Today" show has taken a hard fall in the past year and now runs a consistent second to ABC's "Good Morning America." NBC was widely criticized for mismanagement of Ann Curry's dismissal as "Today" anchor last summer. Jim Bell, the show's executive producer, stepped down last fall.
Fili-Krushel set out a new temporary management structure, increasing the authority of executives Alex Wallace and Antoine Sanfuentes, until she names a successor.
"NBC News is America's leading source of television news and Steve has been a big part of that success," Fili-Krushel said in a memo to staff members.
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Friday, February 1, 2013
Risky Student Debt Starts to Sour
By RUTH SIMON and RACHEL LOUISE ENSIGN
The number of student loans held by subprime borrowers is growing, and more of those loans are souring, the latest signs that a weak job market and rising debt loads are squeezing recent graduates.
In all, 33% of all subprime student loans in repayment were 90 days or more past due in March 2012, up from 24% in 2007, according to a Wednesday report by TransUnion LLC.
Meanwhile, the Chicago-based credit bureau found that 33% of the almost $900 billion in outstanding student loans was held by subprime, or the riskiest, borrowers as of March 2012, up from 31% in 2007.
"If you become subprime, it's more likely that you will not pay your debt," said TransUnion Vice President Ezra Becker, who oversaw the study.
The high debt loads could weigh on consumer spending and the economy, said Cristian de Ritis, a senior director with Moody's Analytics, a unit of Moody's Corp. If the defaults continue to increase, "the taxpayer is going to be on the hook for losses," he added.
The federal government has taken a more active role in student lending and now makes about 93% of all loans.
Another study, released by Fitch Ratings, a unit of Fimalac SA and Hearst Corp., Wednesday, warned that the gap between college costs and what students can borrow under the federal student-loan program will continue to widen.
TransUnion performed its study at the request of credit unions, which make private student loans.
In the five years through last March, the portion of all student loans that were 90 days or more delinquent rose to 11.4% from 8.8%, while the average student- loan balance per borrower increased 30% to $23,829, TransUnion found.
For some borrowers, the burden is even greater. Kristin Jones, 24 years old, ran out of money to complete her education at Northeastern University in Boston and, with more than $60,000 in student-loan debt, is looking to finish her senior year at a cheaper school.
Ms. Jones, who works for a company that manages corporate-benefits plans, said she fell behind on her student loans after she found she couldn't afford to go back to Northeastern and her loan payments started kicking in.
"I'll be pretty much trapped for life by these loans and the credit default," said Ms. Jones, who is on a repayment plan but still owes Northeastern one semester's tuition.
The TransUnion study didn't measure whether borrowers had poor credit scores at the time they took out their loans or if their credit scores dropped because of their repayment problems. Missed student-loan payments are more likely to have a big impact on the scores of borrowers with short credit histories such as recent college graduates, TransUnion said.
Another study, released Tuesday by credit-score provider Fair Isaac Corp., found that roughly 26 million consumers had two or more open student loans on their credit report in October 2012, up from about 12 million in 2005. A majority of bank risk managers expect student-loan delinquencies to continue to rise, according to Fair Isaac.
To be sure, the rise in student-loan debt is being at least partially offset by reductions in other types of debt, such as credit cards and mortgages, said Richard Fry, a senior economist with the Pew Research Center in Washington. That should make repaying student-loan debt more manageable for some families, he said.
But Dahjanay Williams, a 21-year-old junior at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, still worries that if she doesn't get a job before her loans come due, she won't be able to make regular payments and her credit will take a hit. "That might mess up my credit history," said the New York City native.
Repaying debt has become more difficult in part because loan balances have grown and the interest rates on federal loans have increased as a result of a shift from variable-rate to fixed-rate loans. Most federal loans now carry interest rates of 6.8% or 7.9%, versus a rate of 2.875% on federal Stafford loans in May 2005, said Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of the financial-aid website FinAid.org.
Jennifer France became delinquent on her loan payments once, in 2009. Now, there is a good chance she will become delinquent again, she said.
The 36-year-old public defender from Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., borrowed about $100,000 in federal loans and $30,000 in private loans to cover law school more than a decade ago. She has taken advantage of the income-based repayment option, which allows borrowers to peg their federal loan payments to a certain portion of income and lowers a borrower's monthly payment. But her income recently went up, and her monthly payment on all loans jumped from around $500 to more than $800, which might be too much for her to keep up with.
"Maybe they shouldn't be so willing to give money to kids," she said, "We all thought we'd be making $100,000 out the door."
Stafford loans, which account for more than three-fourths of federal student loans, impose no credit standards and are capped at a total of $57,500 for undergraduates. Ruben Medrano, a 52-year-old undergraduate studying business management at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, said taking out about $26,000 in federal student loans was much easier than taking out an auto loan or a mortgage. "The last vehicle we purchased, we spent four to five hours in the dealership," Mr. Medrano said. "The student-loan process took me 30 to 45 minutes and I never had to leave my home."
Write to Ruth Simon at ruth.simon@wsj.com
Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page C1A version of this article appeared January 30, 2013, on page C1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Risky Student Debt Is Starting to Sour.
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Friday Support: Licensing - Simple MVA courses to solve your ...
Microsoft Licensing - Simple MVA courses to solve your licensing headaches
If licensing has been a pain point for a long time or if you?ve ever wanted to gain knowledge on Microsoft licensing then the new simple and effective MVA licensing courses would be an exceptionally great place to start. This training can
be taken at any time and at no cost to you which is not bad for becoming a Microsoft Licensing Expert!
The Microsoft Virtual Academy?s new Licensing Training and Accreditation will help you build foundational knowledge on licensing programs and solutions, and enable you to maximize the value of your software investments.
Take the first Microsoft Licensing ? Programs Fundamentals course to begin your licensing discoveries and put to rest any niggling queries you may have on licensing. This course provides a comprehensive but simple overview of Microsoft's licensing programs and licensing models. Topics covered include the benefits of volume licensing, ways to purchase licenses, and the various licensing programs and models available. Descriptions of license types such as device licenses and client access licenses (CALs) are also included, as well as overviews of Software Assurance benefits.
Whether you are beginner, intermediate or more advanced you are sure to find the course extremely useful. Not only that, but the course is extremely valuable no matter the size of organisation you work in. For those who work in organisations with more than 5 but fewer than 250 devices or users you may be keen to gain knowledge about the different choices of Open Agreements. For those in larger organisations with 250+ devices or users you will learn all you need to know about Select Plus Agreements and Enterprise Agreements.
Learn about the benefits of standardization from Volume Licensing Agreements such as savings for deploying standard sets of products across the organisations. Volume Licensing Agreements also has other great benefits including software assurances, pricing advantages and a range of offerings such as program choices for organisations of varying sizes which are covered in the module.
We, at Microsoft, are happy to announce??Talking Business??to help entrepreneurs and business owners? succeed. We believe in your ability to innovate and in the ability of technology to help, so to support??Talking Business??we have many resources available for businesses like you. We have an informative?newsletter,?blog posts by people in the industry, and?a community looking to help small business succeed.
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Follow us on twitter - @MicrosoftSB, or use the hashtag?#TalkingBusiness?to find out more information.
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Claire Squires never stood a chance after taking amphetamine in London Marathon
On Wednesday, at Southwark coroner?s court, we learned more about how a healthy, fit, prepared runner came to meet such an awful end during the country?s biggest mass participation sporting event.
Prof William McKenna of the University College London hospitals trust, who conducted her autopsy, said he found ?significant levels? of an amphetamine-like substance in her blood. And her boyfriend Simon van Herrewege revealed to the court how that might have come about. Ahead of the race she had bought a carton of a drink supplement called Jack3d on the internet.
?Claire was always in the gym and this stuff was being widely talked about there,? he said. He added that she had told him she was going to mix a couple of spoons-full of it into her water bottle and would take it if she was struggling in the latter stages of the race. It would help her to get over the wall, she told him. Give her the legs for the last push.
Unbeknownst to her, one of the ingredients of Jack3D is the amphetamine DMAA. And it was that, taken at the conclusion of a highly strenuous sporting event, that pushed her heart rate to an unsustainable level. The thing she thought was going to give her a little boost over the line was the very last thing she should have taken at that point.
No professional distance runner would touch anything like Jack3D. And not just because it is on the athlete?s extensive list of proscribed substances. There is a reason some substances are banned beyond the artificial help they give. Especially amphetamines. Ever since Tommy Simpson died on the Tour de France after taking a couple of blue pills, the mix of such drugs and endurance sport has been known to be a lethal cocktail.
But Claire Squires would have had no idea what was inside Jack3D, what gave it its kick. As far as she was concerned, this was something wholly benevolent, a legal product that was going to be a bit more useful than eating a banana. She bought it innocently and openly, on the recommendation of other gym users. And it cost her life.
The thing is she would not have been alone in that race. Right across the ranks of fun runners, everyone is looking for something that might gift them an extra few seconds off their time, or make their legs ache a little less. Recommendations spill across the internet of what you should wear, what you should eat, what you should drink.
This is not doping; everyone is just looking for something to make the difference. Why, even Lance Armstrong, the man who won the world?s greatest cycle race seven times, claimed in self-justification for his drug regime that it is impossible to compete in such events without help.
Armstrong?s help may have been as illegal as Claire Squires?s was legal, but it was less dangerous than hers in this crucial respect: it was conducted under medical supervision. Thanks to a complicit doctor, he was informed precisely what it was he was taking and told when to take it. And more to the point, when not to. That was how, he said, he could level the playing field. And in terms of his health if not his reputation or wealth, he has clearly got away with it. The stimuli which propelled him round France at such speed do not appear to have had any obvious lasting side effects.
Unlike Armstrong, Claire Squires did nothing underhand. She acted out of ignorance, duped by an industry which makes reckless promises on what it can deliver. Unaware of what she was doing, she suffered the terrible misfortune of having a metabolism unable to cope at that point in the race with the sudden stimulus that kicked in from the drink.
By complete coincidence, in August 2012, five months before the verdict on her death was announced, the medical regulator MHRA recommended products containing DMAA be removed from sale as they pose ?potential risks to public safety?. Runners on this year?s marathon will not be able to buy Jack3D. Which, tragically, is way too late for Claire Squires.
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Jason Hoppy Seen With Wedding Ring On; Is He Hoping to Get Back Together With Bethenny Frankel?
He's in the midst of a bitter divorce with his soon to be ex Bethenny Frankel, but Jason Hoppy was just spotted with his wedding ring back on!
OK! GALLERY: BETHENNY FRANKEL SHOWS OFF HER BIKINI BODY WHILE PLAYING WITH DAUGHTER BRYN IN MIAMI
The 41-year-old pharmaceutical executive was out in NYC today with Bryn and he looked like he was in a great mood despite just a week ago filing papers asking for primary custody of his daughter.
The couple who were only married for three years signed a prenup before getting hitched so Bethenny's $100 million estimated fortune she made from her books and Skinnygirl empire isn't up for grabs, but everything else is.
Last month the former Real Housewives of New York star released a statement announcing the sad news.
OK! GALLERY: BETHENNY FRANKEL'S EX HUSBAND JASON HOPPY SPENDS TIME WITH DAUGHTER BRYN
"It brings me great sadness to say that Jason and I are separating. This was an extremely difficult decision that as a woman and a mother, I have to accept as the best choice for our family."
But with Jason spotted with his wedding band on, does this mean there is a chance of reconciling?
Would you like to see Bethenny and Jason work things out and stay together? Tell us @OKMagazine!
RELATED NEWS:
MUST WATCH VIDEO: BETHENNY FRANKEL SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHT ON HOW SHE REALLY FEELS ABOUT JILL ZARIN!
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