As trend wanes, Vegas casinos fold on poker rooms

FILE - In this May 31, 2011 file photo, players compete in a Heads-Up poker tournament during the World Series of Poker at the Rio hotel and casino in Las Vegas. At the height of the poker fad, Las Vegas couldn't get enough of poker rooms. Now some of those rooms are folding. Four casinos yanked their poker tables last year, including the Tropicana, and three other rooms closed shop in 2011. (AP Photo/Eric Jamison, File)

FILE - In this May 31, 2011 file photo, players compete in a Heads-Up poker tournament during the World Series of Poker at the Rio hotel and casino in Las Vegas. At the height of the poker fad, Las Vegas couldn't get enough of poker rooms. Now some of those rooms are folding. Four casinos yanked their poker tables last year, including the Tropicana, and three other rooms closed shop in 2011. (AP Photo/Eric Jamison, File)

LAS VEGAS (AP) ? The Tropicana hoped to step back into the big leagues when it opened its poker room in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip, touting it as the coolest in town.

But that same morning, federal agents shut down the three biggest online poker sites on the Internet. Last September, less than a year and a half later, the iconic casino quietly swapped out its green felt tables for slot machines.

It's a story that's become increasingly common as the crackdown on Internet gambling weakens pokers' appeal, and the casinos that once competed to lure fans of Texas Hold 'Em abandon the waning game in favor of more lucrative alternatives.

Poker has never been a big moneymaker like slot machines or roulette. But when the game's popularity soared during the 2000s, casinos were willing to forgo the extra dollars to get players inside their buildings.

Now the calculus is shifting. In Sin City, epicenter of the poker craze, at least eight rooms have folded in the past two years. The trend is also playing out in Mississippi riverboats, Indian casinos and gambling halls near big cities from California to Florida.

Poker's proponents insist the game remains as popular as ever, and some larger casinos say their rooms are bustling.

In a statement this month announcing the World Series of Poker lineup, executive director Ty Stewart said the summer bonanza in Las Vegas would be an "affirmation about the strength and global appeal of the game."

But the spate of poker room closures on the Strip has some wondering whether the largest gambling trend to sweep the country in 25 years may be losing momentum.

"I just think the allure of poker is lessening," said William Thompson, author of the encyclopedia "Gambling in America" and professor of public administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. "That's one reason the smaller casinos would just say, 'Hey it's not worth all the time to set everything up. A slot machine would do a lot better.'"

Poker revenue has been falling in Nevada since 2007, the year after the federal government first cracked down on virtual gambling and forced online companies to close or relocate offshore.

The recession hobbled casinos across the board, but while winnings from other games began to pick back up in 2010, poker revenue continues to slump by an average of 6 percent a year, according to annual reports from the state Gaming Control Board.

Poker revenues stacked up to $123 million last year, down from a high of $168 million in 2007.

Entries in the World Series of Poker's main event also took tumble in 2007, falling by 28 percent from a high of 8,773. Entries have only topped 7,000 once in the years since.

On April 15, 2011, the federal government took its strongest stand yet against the semi-legal world of internet poker, blacking out three major sites on a date later dubbed "Black Friday."

No longer could fresh crops of poker players develop their games online.

The Tropicana hotel-resort, which was remaking itself with several major renovations at the time, opened its new poker room the same spring day.

"Poker had gone through a dramatic popularity phase. It grew really quickly. And we jumped on board," said Fred Harmon, chief marketing officer for the casino that sits on a busy Strip intersection opposite the MGM Grand and New York New York.

The decision to replace the room with slot machines last fall was pure economics, Harmon said.

"I think every company over the last several years have had to look at what they do and what makes money," he said.

Casinos across the country are making the same calculation.

Sam's Town in Tunica, Mississippi, closed its poker room in January, citing the economy. The Seminole Casino Hollywood near Fort Lauderdale, Fla., replaced its room with slots in September.

Indian casinos in states like Minnesota and the Dakotas are also pulling their rooms, according to marketing consultant Theron "Scarlet Raven" Thompson.

"What you're seeing is the mom and pop-sized poker rooms are closing. The larger properties are monopolizing the poker crowd," he said.

Several smaller Las Vegas casinos decided they no longer wanted to bet on the game in 2012, including Ellis Island, which closed its room just two months after opening it. Casino bosses also removed rooms from the Silverton south of the Strip, Aliante to the north, and Fitzgerald's, which eliminated its room when it rebranded as the D.

The Gold Coast, the Plaza and Tuscany casinos closed their rooms in 2011.

Poker has never been a high-profit game for casinos is because players exchange money with each other, not the house. Rooms must employ a dealer for every table and can only collect portion of what players put down, usually about 5 percent.

Yet at the height of the craze, casinos scrambled to install rooms for a new generation of fans.

The game's meteoric run is generally attributed to the rise of Internet gambling, new technology that let viewers see player's hidden cards in televised tournaments and a watershed moment during the 2003 World Series of Poker when an amateur with the unlikely name Chris Moneymaker claimed the $2.5 million first prize in front of a million television viewers.

After Moneymaker's win, the MGM Grand on the Las Vegas Strip reopened its poker room, which had been closed for years, and Caesars Palace announced plans to open its first room in more than a decade. The Venetian followed suit in 2006.

Mega-casinos continue to invest in the game. The Venetian added 17 tables to its room in September, making it the biggest game in town, Caesars Entertainment added a slot-style progressive jackpot element to its games earlier this year, and the expansive room at the Bellagio is still packed most nights.

Venetian poker director Kathy Raymond said the expansion, which was part of a larger casino floor renovation, has drawn more players to the already popular room.

"I think that the love people have for poker hasn't subsided," she said. "It may be part of the economic environment, but I don't think the interest has subsided at all."

She acknowledged that smaller casinos are struggling to claim their piece of the market.

"You really need volume to operate a successful poker room," she said. "The overhead can't be absorbed by just a few tables."

In the end, the very thing that made poker so appealing ? its air of tradition and class ? may be its undoing, at least on the gambling floor, William Thompson said. After all, casinos make their billions by giving people new and stimulating ways to lose money.

While slot machine developers can roll out a new "Family Guy" or "oodles of poodles" game ever few months, poker remains unchanged.

"With slot machines, you can keep reinventing them, so it's going to last longer. They're throwing new wrinkles in all the time," he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-28-Poker%20Room%20Decline/id-a024da126bb045f091865d22612f2157

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NYT: Drought takes toll on Texas business, town

Manny Fernandez , The New York Times ? ? ? 3 hrs.

PLAINVIEW, Tex. ? After two years of drought, people are starting to leave this parched West Texas town.

The lack of significant rainfall has slowed the rush of cattle that came to the largest employer here, a beef processing plant that employed 2,300 people in a town of 22,343. When the plant shut this month, it took with it an annual payroll of $55.5 million.

The closing has challenged families who had worked at the plant off Interstate 27 for generations. Sons and daughters stood alongside their fathers and mothers, husbands next to wives. Many are Mexican-Americans whose families have long called Texas home. They spent decades rising into the middle class on an average hourly pay of $14.27 and becoming highly skilled at the grisly process of turning slaughtered cattle into beef products, though many lacked high school diplomas. Their Spanish had a Texas twang, and they formed the blue-collar heart of a windswept town almost 50 miles from Lubbock.

Now those families have been fractured as some relatives stay in Plainview and others leave. Dozens of former plant workers have already moved, finding new jobs with the plant?s owner, Cargill, or other companies outside Plainview or outside the state, many pulling their children out of the town?s 12 public schools. When workers receive their last paychecks in three weeks, the question is whether they will stick around. And then, the more existential question, can the town survive without those who leave?

The drought ? the third-worst in Texas since 1895 ? has dried up pastures and increased the costs of hay and feed, forcing some ranchers to sell off their herds to reduce expenses.

Cargill executives said they were idling the plant and not permanently closing it, and it could reopen if the drought breaks and the cattle herd rebounds, a process that would take years.

Other towns and cities in Texas have been affected by the drought, including those limiting residential water usage. But none have been as hurt on such a widespread, and traumatic, scale as Plainview. Nine days after the plant closed on Feb. 1, a 16-year-old girl attempted suicide, after her mother, a former plant worker, told her they might move. The girl swallowed 34 sleeping pills because she did not want to leave her boyfriend, according to the police report.

One recent afternoon, Louis Torres, 52, pulled a U-Haul truck up to his house, where stacks of boxes crowded the porch and the living room. Mr. Torres was leaving the town where he had lived all his life, and he would be driving more than five hours to a new house and a new job at a Cargill plant in Dodge City, Kan.

In this one move, Plainview was losing 13 children and adults in the extended Torres family, including Mr. Torres, his wife, his 21-year-old daughter and his son-in-law, all of whom worked at Cargill and were offered jobs in Dodge City. His son, Jessie, 32, was staying behind: he worked at the plant, but he has not been called to Dodge City.

?I didn?t want to leave my town, but there ain?t nothing here for us,? said Mr. Torres, a trainer who worked at the plant for 33 years. ?God opened the door right there for me and said, ?Here, for all of your family, go.? ?

Amid the bustle of the move, somebody asked if they could take the mailbox. Mr. Torres fought back tears, as did his youngest daughter, Julie, 11. She was wearing a purple tiara, a gift from her teacher on her last day of school. ?They said goodbye and they gave me a ton of hugs,? Julie said of her classmates.

In the two weeks following Cargill?s announcement on Jan. 17 that the plant would close, about 20 students whose parents worked at the plant left the school district, a number that has steadily climbed since then.

Ronald Miller, the recently retired schools superintendent, said that nearly 1,000 of the district?s 5,700 students had at least one parent at Cargill, and that if half of those 1,000 students left, the district would lose more than $2 million in state and local financing. He said closing a school or laying off teachers were options on the table.

?We don?t know how long it?s going to take for the full effect to kick in,? said the mayor, Wendell Dunlap. ?I think with 2,000 people laid off, there?s no way that many people can find work around here. We?re going to lose population. We?re going to have businesses that are going to have a hard time making it.?

A Cargill spokesman, Michael Martin, said 2,098 workers were laid off, in addition to more than 200 people who worked at the plant for other companies and agencies providing sanitation and other services. Of the Cargill employees, about 400 expressed an interest in relocating, Mr. Martin said.

Droughts, unlike hurricanes or tornadoes, are slow-motion disasters with indirect effects, and as a result some in town are skeptical it is to blame, believing other issues were involved. The weather itself has fueled disbelief: West Texas was hit with a winter storm that shut the Lubbock airport on Monday.

Mr. Martin said that the company idled the plant primarily because of the drought and the tight cattle supply. The day the plant closed, federal officials released new data showing the number of cattle in Texas at its lowest point since 1967.

?We would have preferred to have not had to idle any beef plant, but we cannot process cattle that do not exist,? Mr. Martin said in a statement.

Plainview gets its name from the West Texas topography ? flat, big-sky country surrounded by acres of cotton. It is a slow-paced town that cherishes its old-fashioned feel ? its hometown hero is the sausage king Jimmy Dean ? and its place in the top cattle-producing state in the country. Fiberglass statues of cattle peek out from the downtown rooftops and sidewalks.

The majority of the Cargill workers lived in Plainview, and many of them wore cowboy boots and drove pickup trucks, but it was not a man?s world (?I was the first girl to start dropping heads in second shift,? said one of Mr. Torres?s daughters, Lynda, 26). Their ties to Plainview, and the plant, ran deep.

Cruz Castillo, 65, was laid off after working in maintenance at the plant for 42 years. He helped build the plant in 1971 when it was under different ownership, and he worries about finding new health insurance for his wife, who has diabetes. The day he lost his job, so did his son, his brother and two of his nephews. He will stay in Plainview, but he thinks his son might eventually move.

Every Saturday morning, a group of residents and laid-off workers gather outside the plant to walk four miles around the perimeter. They do it not as a protest, and not strictly for the exercise. They encircle the plant with prayers.

?It?s going to have to be a miracle,? said Manuel Balderas, a police captain who organizes the walks. ?That?s what we?re praying for.?

More from The New York Times

Copyright ? 2013 The New York Times

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/drought-takes-its-toll-texas-business-town-1C8616902

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Three men arrested in London in insider dealing probe

LONDON (Reuters) - Three City of London professionals have been arrested on suspicion of insider dealing and market abuse after police and regulators launched dawn raids on their homes and offices in the capital in the latest crackdown on illegal trading.

Britain's Financial Services Authority (FSA) said on Wednesday the three men, aged 33, 37 and 39 - who are not linked to any other ongoing insider dealing investigation - were in custody awaiting questioning. It declined to comment further.

The three are London professionals and are all employed at firms in the capital, one source with knowledge of the investigation said. The men have not been charged.

Britain's top financial regulator, which is determined to deter a crime that once went largely unpunished, is currently prosecuting six others for insider dealing. It has secured 21 convictions for the offence, which can carry a jail sentence of up to seven years.

Its highest-profile insider dealing investigation to date stems from a swoop in March 2010 that originally led to seven men being arrested, including employees of institutions such as Deutsche Bank and Moore Capital, in an operation codenamed Tabernula.

Another three individuals were later arrested as part of the same operation, although only seven have been charged so far.

(Reporting by Kirstin Ridley; Editing by Hans-Juergen Peters)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/three-men-arrested-london-insider-dealing-probe-100005651--finance.html

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Seven killed by Islamist car bomb in north Mali: MNLA

BAMAKO (Reuters) - Seven people were killed in a suicide car bomb attack by suspected Islamist militants in the remote northern Malian town of Kidal on Tuesday, the MNLA Tuareg rebel group said, in the second such attack there in less than a week.

A spokesman for the Malian army, Modibo Nama Traore, confirmed that a car bomb had exploded in the town but was unable to provide further details.

French forces have been stationed in Kidal since driving out al Qaeda-linked fighters in late January as part of a military campaign to oust Islamist militants who seized the northern two-thirds of the West African country last year.

Kidal lies in the foothills of the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains where diehard al Qaeda-linked fighters are battling French and Chadian forces, which are being aided by the MNLA Tuaregs.

The Tuareg group had initially allied with the Islamists to seize control of northern Mali in April, taking advantage of a military coup in the capital Bamako. However, it was quickly pushed aside by the Islamist militants and now opposes them.

The MNLA said in a statement that the suicide bomber had stopped at one of the MNLA's checkpoints on a road heading southeast from Kidal and had detonated the bomb when its fighters approached his 4x4 vehicle.

"The provisional total of this attack against an MNLA checkpoint is seven dead MNLA fighters as well as several injured," the Tuareg rebel group said in a statement.

A Malian intelligence source said three vehicles had been destroyed in the blast.

The attack came after car bombs killed two people in Kidal on Thursday and five more in the Mali-Algeria border town of In Khalil on Friday.

Both were claimed by the MUJWA, a splinter group from al Qaeda's North African wing AQIM.

SIX WEEKS INTO OFFENSIVE

France is six weeks into an offensive to clear Islamist fighters from Mali's north, which Paris said was in danger of becoming a springboard for attacks on the region and the West.

It has wrested control of all of northern Mali's towns from the Islamists but now faces a worsening guerilla-style insurgency marked by suicide attacks and hit-and-run raids on towns.

In the wake of France's lightening northward drive, the MNLA says it has retaken control of Kidal and towns around the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains, where Islamists are believed to be hiding near the Algerian border.

Paris has said it aims to start withdrawing some of its 4,000 troops from Mali next month, depending on the success of its operations to mop up the remaining Islamist fighters in Mali's desert-and-mountain north.

France's intervention, however, has raised the risk for its citizens throughout the region as militant groups have vowed to exact revenge on French interests.

Gunmen claiming to be from Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram posted a video on the Internet on Monday showing seven French hostages they seized last week in Cameroon.

The gunmen said France had declared war on Islam with its campaign in Mali and threatened to kill their captives unless fellow Islamists jailed by Cameroon and Nigeria were released.

(Additional reporting by John Irish in Dakar and Laurent Prieur in Nouakchott; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/seven-killed-islamist-car-bomb-north-mali-mnla-000206686.html

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Putting a Number on Federal Education Spending - NYTimes.com

Jason Delisle is the director of the Federal Education Budget Project at the New America Foundation.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama proposed to expand access to preschool, but offered few details on how much money the federal government would contribute. When the White House eventually releases that figure, everyone will want to know how it stacks up against what the federal government already spends on education each year. The trouble is, that number is tough to pin down.

You might try to look it up. But beware: most tallies, even official government figures, are incomplete or inaccurate because of the way they treat student loans, refundable tax credits and education programs run by agencies other than the United States Department of Education. Other tallies go too far, lumping veterans? education benefits and other programs into the mix.

Before explaining how to get to a good number, I?ll give you mine. The federal government spent $107.6 billion on education in fiscal year 2012. As a point of reference, that sum is about one-eighth as much as Social Security spending and about a fifth of Medicare spending. Most of our national education budget comes from state and local governments. But the $107.6 billion provides a dose of perspective for when federal policy makers pledge to ?invest in education? and make education a ?top priority.? Federal education spending accounts for just 3 percent of the $3.5 trillion the government spent in 2012.

The figure includes the annual appropriation for the entire Department of Education ($67.4 billion), so-called mandatory spending at the department ($16.3 billion), the school breakfast and lunch programs ($14.8 billion), the refundable portion of a higher education tax credit ($6.6 billion), the Head Start program ($8.0 billion) and the subsidy provided on all of the student loans the government will disburse in one year (which happened to be negative ? -$5.5 billion ? last year).

The annual appropriation for the Department of Education is an obvious figure to include, but as you can see, education spending includes a significant amount outside annual appropriations, much of which goes to support the Pell Grant program for college students from low-income families.

The school meal programs are less obvious components, but should be included. The programs help ensure that more than 31 million children each year do not go hungry at school, a prerequisite for good educational outcomes. Surely when a local district builds a new school it doesn?t consider the cafeteria an optional line item tangentially related to the school?s purpose. Feeding children during the school day is, in fact, integral to their education.

Similarly, the Head Start program, although housed in the Department of Health and Human Services, is a national preschool program dedicated to early education. When people think of federal education spending, Head Start often comes to mind.

The federal government also provides a long list of tax benefits (i.e., credits, exemptions and deductions) to support education. They totaled $33.2 billion in 2012 by one count, but I?ve excluded them in the spending tally. Experts argue over whether tax benefits are part of federal spending policy or tax policy. No funds leave the Treasury to finance these programs; instead, funds fail to arrive as revenue in the first place. Others argue that the benefits are not different from spending because a $1,000 tax credit has the same bottom-line effect on the federal budget as a $1,000 grant.

A ?refundable tax credit? is, however, a different matter. No one debates the fact that a refundable tax credit is government spending. The recipient owes no taxes but receives a refund check as if he did. He pays negative federal income taxes. Even the Treasury Department treats the payments as ?outlays.? Last year the government spent $6.6 billion in refundable payments under the America Opportunity Tax Credit, which I include in my measure of education spending. Tax filers can claim up to $1,000 of the credit against expenses for higher education, even if they have no tax liability to offset.

Finally, the federal government disbursed $112 billion in student loans in 2012. Most of that will be paid back, with interest. So what does the government spend on the loans? The government measures the cost of its loan programs by the subsidy that they provide to the borrower. Put simply, if the government lends at very favorable terms, then the borrower receives a subsidy equal to the discount the borrower received relative to a loan he or she otherwise could have taken out. Even though the benefit is spread over the life of the loan, this calculation treats the subsidy as one lump sum in the year that the loan is made.

By that measure, official figures show that the government?s student loan programs provide negative subsidies, which is to say, interest rates and fees are set high enough that the government makes money. But there is a big flaw with those figures.

The Congressional Budget Office and many economists argue that official figures don?t factor in all of the risks inherent in the loans. In response, the Congressional Budget Office publishes fair-value estimates to more fully reflect risk, and I use those figures in my tally of federal education spending. Note that even after the adjustment, the one year?s worth of loans still show a net gain to the government of $5.5 billion.

Excluded from my tally are any of the education benefits provided through the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs. Funds for those programs should be considered military and veterans? spending rather than federal education spending. The benefits are part of the compensation packages that the government provides to support an all-volunteer military. Similarly, a housing allowance for a member of the military is not a federal housing assistance program. The benefits are in-kind costs associated with financing the military. If included, those programs would add more than $10 billion to the $107.6 billion total.

The $107.6 billion figure, despite excluding military and veterans? programs, reflects a more comprehensive measure of federal education spending than most. Even so, it is probably surprising to many that education spending comes in at just 3 percent of the $3.5 trillion the federal government spent in 2012. It is hardly the figure that comes to mind when a lawmaker or the president speaks of investments and priorities.

Source: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/27/putting-a-number-on-federal-education-spending/

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Ultrasound reveals autism risk at birth

Monday, February 25, 2013

Low-birth-weight babies with a particular brain abnormality are at greater risk for autism, according to a new study that could provide doctors a signpost for early detection of the still poorly understood disorder.

Led by Michigan State University, the study found that low-birth-weight newborns were seven times more likely to be diagnosed with autism later in life if an ultrasound taken just after birth showed they had enlarged ventricles, cavities in the brain that store spinal fluid. The results appear in the Journal of Pediatrics.

"For many years there's been a lot of controversy about whether vaccinations or environmental factors influence the development of autism, and there's always the question of at what age a child begins to develop the disorder," said lead author Tammy Movsas, clinical assistant professor of pediatrics at MSU and medical director of the Midland County Department of Public Health.

"What this study shows us is that an ultrasound scan within the first few days of life may already be able to detect brain abnormalities that indicate a higher risk of developing autism."

Movsas and colleagues reached that conclusion by analyzing data from a cohort of 1,105 low-birth-weight infants born in the mid-1980s. The babies had cranial ultrasounds just after birth so the researchers could look for relationships between brain abnormalities in infancy and health disorders that showed up later. Participants also were screened for autism when they were 16 years old, and a subset of them had a more rigorous test at 21, which turned up 14 positive diagnoses.

Ventricular enlargement is found more often in premature babies and may indicate loss of a type of brain tissue called white matter.

"This study suggests further research is needed to better understand what it is about loss of white matter that interferes with the neurological processes that determine autism," said co-author Nigel Paneth, an MSU epidemiologist who helped organize the cohort. "This is an important clue to the underlying brain issues in autism."

Prior studies have shown an increased rate of autism in low-birth-weight and premature babies, and earlier research by Movsas and Paneth found a modest increase in symptoms among autistic children born early or late.

###

Michigan State University: http://www.newsroom.msu.edu

Thanks to Michigan State University for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127003/Ultrasound_reveals_autism_risk_at_birth

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Hagel confirmed as defense secretary (cbsnews)

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ASUS PadFone Infinity vs. PadFone 2... fight!

We happened to have a PadFone 2 with us at ASUS' MWC event, so it was only natural for us to put it next to the brand-spanking-new PadFone Infinity for a few photos. Unlike the jump from the original PadFone to the PadFone 2, the latest generation ditches the polycarbonate body with the iconic zen pattern in favor of an aerospace-grade aluminum unibody. Placing the PadFone Infinity and its shorter predecessor side by side you can see that the former is actually slimmer over all, and we dig the premium feel as well. Other notable differences include a new position for the loudspeaker, which is now on the top right side of the bezel instead of the back; and the 13-megapixel camera is now off-center.

You'd think the smaller PadFone 2 would easily fit into the bigger bay in the new PadFone Station (using the same special micro-USB socket), but interestingly, it didn't work for us. We might give it another go when we eventually get hold of a review unit, of course (it's OK, Jonney, we'll be gentle).

Gallery: ASUS PadFone Infinity vs. PadFone 2... fight!

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, ASUS

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/25/asus-padfone-infinity-vs-padfone-2-fight/

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Visa, Samsung Ink NFC Deal, Galaxy S IV First In Line For Deep Integration; ROAM Is Visa?s First ?Ready? Mobile Payment Partner

Visa is swiftly moving ahead announcing its first partners for its new NFC initiative and push into the wider world of mobile payments -- two programs it announced a few days ago?that come with a set of APIs to let third parties integrate the credit card giant's payment services more seamlessly into their own.?Visa has named Samsung as its first global NFC partner, and dongle maker Ingenico-owned ROAM as its first mobile payment partner for its Visa Ready program.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/romxs4zmuCU/

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Economists predicting moderate growth in 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Business economists expect 2013 will be another year of sub-par growth for the U.S. economy, reflecting uncertainty stemming from the budget battles in Washington and Europe's on-going debt problems. But they think the economy will improve as the year progresses and by 2014 will grow at the fastest pace in nine years.

In its latest survey of top forecasters, the National Association for Business Economics said it expected the economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, to expand at an annual rate of 2 percent this year, slightly worse than last year's lackluster 2.2 percent growth.

For 2014, however, the NABE forecasters believe the economy will be growing at a rate of 2.8 percent, which would be the best performance since 2005. The GDP, the economy's total output of goods and services, shrank in 2008 and 2009 as the country went through the worst economic contraction since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Since then economic growth has been modest as the economy has been held back by a variety of factors including prolonged unemployment.

The latest quarterly forecast from NABE is based on responses from 49 forecasters gathered from Jan. 28 through Feb. 5. On growth, it represented a slight downgrade from the survey released in December which forecast the economy would grow 2.1 percent this year.

The NABE panelists were pessimistic about the effects the budget battles in Washington would have on growth. Nearly all felt growth would be reduced this year, given the uncertainty surrounding the budget. One-half of the panelists felt the drag would shave less than one-half percentage point from growth while one-third put the drag at between one-half and a full percentage point knocked off growth this year.

The panelists saw the economy strengthening as the budget uncertainty is resolved. They forecast growth in the second half of this year would average above a rate of 2.5 percent and get stronger next year.

"While the NABE forecasters see fiscal threats, they are optimistic that there will be some resolution toward the second half of this year and that will result in an improvement in many of the numbers is 2014," said Nayantara Hensel, an economics professor at the National Defense University in Washington and a member of the NABE forecasting panel.

The next budget deadline will occur Friday when across-the-board spending cuts totaling $85 billion, known as a sequester, are scheduled to go into effect.

Congress and President Barack Obama averted the so-called fiscal cliff at the end of December with a deal that allowed tax rates to rise on individuals making more than $400,000 and families making more than $450,000 per year. That deal also allowed the temporary 2 percentage point cut in Social Security payroll taxes, which was in effect for two years, to expire.

The tax increases in the fiscal-cliff deal, especially the rise in Social Security payroll taxes, will mean slower growth this year. It will mean that a worker earning $50,000 annually will see his Social Security tax go up by $1,000.

That will slow consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of economic activity. The NABE panel forecast consumer spending will rise at an annual rate of 1.9 percent this year but will accelerate in 2014 to a growth rate of 2.5 percent.

The NABE panelists were also pessimistic about Europe's on-going budget troubles, which have hurt the U.S. economy by cutting into export sales. Over one-third of the panelists said they believe Spain will need a larger bailout package this year and one-fourth think that on-going debt troubles in Italy will force that country to take bailout support as well.

"The problems in Europe and our own domestic fiscal drama will keep the investment outlook subdued," said Kenneth Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America and a member of the NABE panel.

Among other predictions in the latest NABE survey:

?Unemployment, currently at 7.9 percent, will decline slowly to 7.5 percent by the end of this year and to 7 percent by the end of 2014, with average monthly job growth of 170,000 this year and 193,000 in 2014.

?Inflation will remain modest at around 2 percent, giving the Federal Reserve leeway to keep a key short-term interest rate at a record low near zero this year and in 2014.

?New home construction, which is finally rebounding after the housing bust, will jump 25.6 percent this year and another 17.3 percent in 2014, pushing construction next year to 1.15 million homes.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-02-25-NABE%20Forecast/id-4676cca309a64d15b6c9edf9c85bae48

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China's Steep University Tuition Costs The Average Farmer 13 Years Of Income

In China, for the average farmer, this is a reality. According to a government think tank report, which was cited by Xinhua News, a farmer would have to work for 13.6 years in order to fund tuition at a Chinese university. However, those who live in wealthier urban areas pay the equivalent of 4.2 years of an individual?s annual income on average.

Wu Yiebing, a miner, and his wife, Cao Weiping, who works on an apple farm, put all their earnings toward a fund to send their daughter to college. The New York Times documented the tireless efforts of the couple, who saved and scrimped for decades -- and for many rural Chinese, the story hit close to home.

?For nearly two decades, they have lived in a cramped and drafty 200-square-foot house with a thatch room. They have never owned a car. They do not take vacations -- they have never seen the ocean. They have skipped traditional New Year trips to their ancestral village for up to five straight years to save on bus fares and gifts, and for Mr. Wu to earn extra holiday pay in the mines. Despite their frugality, they have essentially no retirement savings,? the report said.

And though they will not be able to retire comfortably, they were able to send their now-19-year-old daughter to college.

Still, migrant workers and people from poorer, rural areas of China are finding it increasingly difficult to pay for their children to attend college as tuition costs continue to rise. According to the government report, Chinese universities have increased their tuition at least 25 times since 1989.

As a result, those looking to get a degree in business, perhaps the most popular area of study, have to be willing to pay large sums of money before they can start earning income in their chosen field. The state-run newspaper People?s Daily reported that in 2010, two of China?s large, top-tier universities, Peking University and Tsinghua University, decided also to increase the tuition for their MBA programs by a whopping 60,000 yuan ($8,900) and 40,000 yuan ($5,900), respectively.

Even still, tuition keeps rising.

Other business schools in the nation?s capital, like the University of International Business and Economics and the Central University of Finance and Economics, also began planning tuition increases.

This highlights the lack of public funding for subsidizing higher education and the persistent wealth gap that exists between the nation?s rich and poor. The??government's Social Security Development Green Paper?suggested that optimizing educational investments would guarantee education opportunities in rural areas, giving more people a chance to make higher salaries.

Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/chinas-steep-university-tuition-costs-average-farmer-13-years-income-1101434

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Choose Publishing a web based business Without difficulty ? Social ...

It is simple to begin once you know the right steps to look at. Right now, many people work on the net. Many corporations have receive marketplace. Anyone may be successful if you know tips on how to . You could start by means of next these pointers outlined :

Experience a enterprise program
You might be whenever building a long lasting on the net job is always to build a small business approach. to offer on-line. Your business strategy is definitely an . You'll be ready offering a pleasant . You are able to every bit as want to . an excellent , it is possible to marketing the item on the web. Your organization approach should be meticulously thought out. You need to plan the concept to make ample results. You'll be able to generate time for it to a market niche on your small business . Once you've here is the plan , you will be certain of thriving vocation.

Established your current Electronic Company
your website. You possibly can work pleasantly from your boundaries master bedroom. All you have to will be to have a workplace. personal computer electronic business office. In addition, you web connection. You don't have to commit huge amounts involving income for you to a good computer and also a quickly net connection. You can actually acquire them via trustworthy dealers . Moreover, you may beneficial . Once you've most of these pieces of equipment, you are arranged your small business .

Build a Enterprise
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Advertise Your organization day-to-day
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Consequently, you are looking for the most beneficial internet business ? From 2005 web-based company options became a major international development as persons retake order more than their particular lifestyles and turn into utilised by independently. This economical fold provokes self-employment a good internet-based . In this article , we are going to different ways regarding making online enterprise possibilities.

Listed here are 3 possibilities laptop computer system you will be working with . is an at home supplier which provides management, , world-wide-web for folks who will not have the time. Becoming a assist you to acquire your overall even though learning fresh versions.

Up coming, freelance creating will be an additional among the list of web business opportunities that's skyrocketed along with the growth and progress in the world-wide world-wide-web. can be a position is usually , this means the need for internet benefits who are able to sites posts intended for who'd to use away .

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consider looking into potential chances, you may have ample to settle on one that what you need, regardless of whether to change full-time job, make it easier to a reliable income working in a handful of added functioning or maybe help make a little more more money. We have confidence in a number of employ, and lastly , you would like web-based company possibilities be sure to research the on-line reviews likewise.

Say that will name 5 periods . John p Piper's got about everyone. , wherever We? Wow , online business faults within a blender. You could these in a rubbish compactor nevertheless blenders are a lot more enjoyment to look at. Now don't consider? Okay, significantly . Quit itching your mind. be able to this specific . Nevertheless initial, a story.

It's a regarding underemployed computer system who was too very lazy to be able to school revise ability. So in a C++ OOP having Essential abilities. Is it possible to declare unemployable? , that may be basically he ended up being this individual dropped last career developing health care charging software inside Standard. Of course, When i the indegent shoppers who in fact bought that DOS centered monstrosity.

Effectively, this specific unemployed developer was required to want to do something in order to make a living. , the us government has not been support your pet eternally, however I know there are a variety of individuals that perform pretty well with of which . Nevertheless would you subject intended for .

So what on earth does schnook complete? Well, he earn money World wide web. After all just how might perhaps end up being? usually are carrying it out. Simply just browse around. Anywhere you go there may be advert pertaining to a thing. Someone else's reached be most of these advertising. By the way, could possibly industry for that type of ability as well. But after for the.

Currently, a very important factor this person mindful of as soon as commenced their toward World wide web riches. Contrary to a number of people believe, making money online takes at the very least some sort of modicum regarding . I'm not really any explode scientist or even Sheldon Cooper, however it facilitates your the next day devoid of seeking a flowchart to complete that.

brains, someone some kind of program. Currently, will not need to be something . chart on the planet Pluto. Wow test subjects, I cannot employ any more. an individual Brown. Simply no Xmas pastries for you personally this season.

In which had been My partner and i? Ohio of course, you will need a strategy. Next, the program. , My partner and i do not on the rear regarding barn in addition to throw that. said in steps. Acceptable, I will uncomplicated. !

This can be folks make his or her first blunder, assuming they've already got this kind of significantly wasting up Trenton, (not coming Trenton, NJ thing). Hey, I can rag on Trenton, . We reside in . Trust us, the particular name the actual "garden state" will need to have also been covered.

In which had been My partner and i? indeed, error. Observe, will certainly the approach after which it step out for the and do not , and therefore accomplish very important thing.

Verify when the darn prepare is usually it will.

For many who obtain and see that they can be in fact generating some money, most of them nevertheless the actual baseball here. Observe, , irrespective of the way excellent it is, continually be improved upon. complacency businesses compared to just about anything . , it's the same suitable.

transform. excellent can be kaput. You're rear with block one particular almost all since you record how issues were being planning.

my personal product, I manufactured this particular . Indeed, We . Complacency slain with 2006. It had been an error in judgment My spouse and i certainly not . The thing that was error?

My 1st merchandise available it is initial thirty days. The idea did two hundred per month pertaining to a few months there after. It turned out advertising Clickbank as well as some really good affiliates. Properly, basically one particular 1. Regardless, My partner and i decided the item would certainly advertise. We decided not to comprehend which goods make money online area of interest tend to be definitely not evergreen and also use a life.

my personal product has been yesterday's announcement.

Positive, built a new getting rid of off from it. And yes it manufactured a great , immediate accomplishment plus a brand to be . Yet small did everyone learn, that will living previous record after.

kept on top of the concepts happening as well as received not really arrogant to believe that will merchandise market forever, I'd personally have to the certain beforehand along with half a year later on, product the .

occured? I needed for you to scramble to help salvage my enterprise. Given that generate merchandise throughout basically days and nights, had not been injure an excessive amount of by this specific in addition to item had been a level even bigger success a lot longer. , We promptly begun implementing some other merchandise. certainly not suspected in which one thing produced promote .

, examine my DLGuard software package, I do believe I'm around product or service range 368 or that. , 6 many years of which I've been my own, personal products, produced close to products between copywriting to web content writing for you to checklist building , very well, anyone identify I've truly . We haven't much the latest thirty days outdated, even though I delight in producing again. that is yet another account regarding an additional .

Point is usually, remember to etch this mental faculties, by no means think of which something you're is actually doing the job which it will eventually carry on and perform knowning that you'll never must or, shiver the thought, in addition at some point.

worked for example corporation with regard to . When i by no means I'd . No one generally there believed I'd . In reality, manager Vince Hartman told me personally, remaining, "Man Dorrie, believed any lifer. inch

does .

Persons, . At times these people modify substantially. tend not to care in the event the technique you have available at the moment can be bringing people with 100 opt ins per day. You still have to monitor your is caused by, just what opt inside portion is along with what exactly ones transformation charge .

Your primary supply may dry out at some point.

Your own decide portion may possibly , this means your current landing page isn't really since efficient since it your own precise.

Your own the conversion process pace may possibly go lower simply because another person available made much the same solution , shinier, , shiver , yours. Do not be thus egotistical you are the very best item originator in the world. I helpful to feel that technique so i determine what indicating.

And if you create living, will not EVER feel that the most . Shakespeare, Dickens, Dostoevsky, Tolkien, Tolstoy Hemingway would like to employ a concept together with you. Very well, when they had been .

Pride dreadful and also among the faults that people spend. , you need in . Not any assurance causes success, I reckon that exclusions. But I recognize this much. initial set out to buck on the internet, has been decided. I needed one thing more painful than . With Yiddish, it can be chutzpah. I had been being a prepare destroy inside very quickly . did wonders age 14 hour or so counting the cash got.

paralyzing desparation can do with a .

Confident, you could have an enormous or chutzpah or even call up it. However any time drive shove and it is time for it to put the credit cards on the table, far better possibly be supplying greater than a set of deuces or perhaps you're not likely to find extremely far within this video game.

, you can only bluff that long previous to people catch through to your .

In which myself to help the past in this ... the actual absolutely no .

I'm able to price the weight history with this 1. Almost all you have to do is usually take a look at the many defunct large yield that have occur . , I am just not necessarily heading your argument regarding whether or not item chemical whether or not the needs to be cost-free because it's in all places. These fights are a shedding proposal.

Consequently I will just claim about them. My partner and i learned I discovered solutions. A few We covered, a number of We dug pertaining to. Received My spouse and i definitely not got the education i , came to precisely why in addition to develop , I'd always be smashed right now. I'm going to get away from that at which. And so , towards the end in this there is certainly planning to end up being some kind of toss for some thing. away as well as . Selection. adjustable rate mortgage rotating below.

Being in business necessarily mean you're a negative . Doesn't necessarily suggest laid back, doesn't you may never be successful. defeated business, purely implies that the specific business design next in this moment seriously isn't productive. This means the various tools, operating. Lost enterprise designs utilize and unsuccessful in addition to publicizing techniques. Bankruptcy lawyer las vegas small business is actually , it indicates you need to adjust what exactly you are undertaking.

Truth #1 : JUST ABOUT ANY Online business , and also VIRTUALLY ANY May be

It is just a well-known indisputable fact that virtually any enterprise productive, along with business unsuccessful. Exactly what it boils lower is:

the best instruments, techniques technological innovation for making your company

Have this push, determination as well as to be able to triumph over the various you can be confronted by

with your enterprise notion

Do you choose to do the best you could carry out in organizing along with research

, could be a or even a malfunction. , because an outside the box idea that no one otherwise will continue to work, necessarily mean it will likely be a not successful . The earth is finished brimming together with depressed individuals who view . While proprietor, it is in order to pessimists. just sluggish people decrease and you back by objectives. people for you to reality #2.

Reality #2 -- That has a Mindset, You happen to be Already !
adequate encased by means of , however if you let these types of has a bearing on spark a unfavorable shift , you happen to be inside heavy difficulty! Something you will need to try to remember will be your mentality has essential achievements or perhaps failing internet site. become frustrated . A thing go most of us expected. One thing a few months to finished up being a dud. Our dream genuinely grown to be any nightmare. happens to the ideal individuals. The item comes about to people. However do not allow these kind of short-lived problems your current long term achievement of your business.

Why don't we state by way of example, merely worked for hours on end and also you are house do the job. People come to house, , get any cool consume and turn on it rest for a short time. After viewing , on the internet to check on and discover whats fresh. Anyone all of a sudden comprehend nothing is achieved internet site enterprise. It truly is however very same unfinished state has been 30 days before. getting accomplished. Your perception of a successful is not since swift since . To be a issue fact, it's not growing whatsoever! Just as hurry hour targeted visitors, the net business initially thought upwards is actually at a standstill. And so, what now ? ? Do you pessimism slip inside and bad ? Would you prematurely provide your current white-colored gently ?

occasions just like these kinds of is usually crucial inside direction in addition to of websites. is usually difficult, and this you're not powerful enough in order to . Your fact of the matter is actually that you probably would not always be these days when the item weren't continue. Consequently, issues a lot, ?

Whatever you complete, never let negativity carry whole command in the circumstances currently happening. Remember black deliver .

Reality #3 : Study Each of our , In College!
strategy a lot of people are unable to manage to understanding very easily. living, operating lifestyle, does one research. Along with precisely what is ?

along with business models

Mastering the basics what can be done profitable business online

recognize involving beneficial and details (facts compared to opinions)

Quizzing oneself on subjects involving organization. And an answer, go !

groundwork for your of your respective company may be accomplished often. Some people develop the as well as tolerance to research productive as well as business . competent to in between negative and positive info. Thankfully, you will find available options. such as:

someone to the study

Signing up to be able to ezines in which just give food to people factual information

trends and also web along with

Through doing any all of the preceding, you are free to spend less time period involving the ideas effective enterprise plus the not successful strategies. , employing a person course of action. Opting-in to ezines permits you to settle back the info the mail. Maintaining movements coming from reliable on the internet options using a couple of mouse clicks.

Denominators of
Just about the most traits all lost small business business people:

Staying laid back along with failing that has a . Keep in mind: You will find there's reason the word lazy previous a couple of correspondence in the alphabet. When you're laid back, you'll conclude previous (or next last).

Developing excuses regarding everything that won't have completely finished. : Simply no excuses, zero !

Unwillingness to alter. , nothing at all . Period.

Self-Destruction available as extreme medications, increased alcohol consumption, sleeping, deficiencies in proper eating routine, etc.. These products solely impair ones capacity to think in addition to concentrate obviously.

: Also By far the most Internet sites Were being The moment !

Finally, remember that perhaps one of the most prosperous marketers have been after defeated. on making a way to obtain continuous income on the net. crash as well as couple of succeed. Even so the that will succeed will be the study along with the .

To summarize, I have manufactured the write about regarding problems well, i was talking from experience. You are able to study from that will knowledge. Which option will be .

Ultimately, to make business online . keep doing work day and night so as to .

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Source: http://crew.valkry.com/blog/81638/choose-publishing-a-web-based-business-without-difficulty/

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Study of Chinese hackers is dangled as phishing bait

Attackers are using fake versions of a recently released report about a Chinese cyberespionage group as bait in new spear-phishing attacks that target Japanese and Chinese users.

The report was released Tuesday by security firm Mandiant and documents in great detail the cyberespionage campaigns conducted since 2006 by a hacker group known as the Comment Crew against more than 100 companies and organizations from different industries.

Mandiant refers to the group as APT1 (Advanced Persistent Threat 1) and claims in the report that it's likely a secret Shanghai-based cyberespionage unit of the Chinese Army?the People's Liberation Army (PLA)?code-named "Unit 61398."

The Chinese government has dismissed Mandiant's claims as groundless. However, the report received a lot of attention from people in the IT security industry, as well as from the general public.

It seems that this publicity has now led to attackers deciding to use the report as bait in new targeted attacks.

Malware masquerades as Mandiant report

Two different spear-phishing attacks were discovered last week using emails with malicious attachments that masqueraded as the Mandiant report, said Aviv Raff, the chief technology officer of security firm Seculert.

One attack targeted Japanese-speaking users and involved emails with an attachment called Mandiant.pdf. This PDF file exploits a vulnerability in Adobe Reader that was patched by Adobe in an emergency update Wednesday, security researchers from Seculert said in a blog post.

The malware installed by the exploit connects to a command-and-control server hosted in Korea, but also contacts some Japanese websites, probably in an attempt to trick security products, the Seculert researchers said.

Symantec has also detected and analyzed the spear-phishing attack. "The email purports to be from someone in the media recommending the report," Symantec researcher Joji Hamada said in a blog post. However, it would be evident for a Japanese person that the email was not written by a native Japanese speaker, he said.

Hamada pointed out that similar tactics have been used in the past. In one incident back in 2011, hackers used a research paper about targeted attacks published by Symantec as bait. "They did this by spamming targets with the actual whitepaper along with malware hidden in an archive attachment," Hamada said.

Exploits old Adobe flaw

The second spear-phishing attack detected targets Chinese-speaking users and uses a malicious attachment called "Mandiant_APT2_Report.pdf."

According to an analysis of the PDF file by researcher Brandon Dixon of security consultancy firm 9b+, the document exploits an older Adobe Reader vulnerability that was discovered and patched in 2011.

The malware installed on the system establishes a connection to a domain that currently points to a server in China, Dixon said via email. "The malware provides attackers with the ability to execute commands on the victim's system."

The domain name contacted by this malware was also used in the past in attacks that targeted Tibetan activists, Seculert's Raff said. Those older attacks installed both Windows and Mac OS X malware, he said.

Greg Walton, a researcher from MalwareLab, a security outfit that tracks politically motivated malware attacks, said on Twitter that the Mandiant-themed spear-phishing attack targeted journalists in China. This information could not be confirmed by Raff or Dixon, who said that they don't have copies of the original spam emails, only of the malicious attachment they contained.

Source: http://www.techhive.com/article/2029025/study-of-chinese-hackers-is-dangled-as-phishing-bait.html

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LaHood: Cuts mean flight delays, control tower closures (CNN)

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California search for victims of "speed freak" killers grows cold

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Investigators searching for possible additional victims of California's "speed freak" serial killings of the 1980s and '90s have run out of places to look, after the latest excavation of a suspected burial site came up empty, the FBI said.

No human remains were found in the abandoned, 100-foot-deep well dug out by hand during a six-week operation on a patch of pasture land near the San Joaquin County town of Linden, east of San Francisco, the FBI said on Thursday.

The well shaft, mostly filled with rock-hard soil, was about 200 yards (meters) from a spot identified last summer by condemned killer Wesley Shermantine as a probable burial site for some of those killed by him and his now-deceased accomplice, Loren Herzog.

"We are disappointed that our efforts did not yield remains, offering closure to families who suspect that Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog were involved in the disappearance of their loved ones," FBI Special Agent Herb Brown said.

The FBI said Shermantine was asked through his attorney last week for additional leads but refused to talk. Brown said he would renew search efforts if Shermantine offered specific new information about locations and identities of remains.

For now, however, Shermantine "refuses to meet with us, stymieing future investigation and excavation," Brown said.

Shermantine and Herzog have long been suspected in as many as 22 deaths, mostly of young women and girls who vanished decades ago.

Ultimately convicted in connection with six killings, they were dubbed the speed freak killers for the methamphetamine-fueled violence they unleashed in and around California's farm-rich San Joaquin Valley.

Shermantine suggested in letters to reporters and others last year that the pair may have been responsible for more than 70 killings, a claim which if true would rank the duo among the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history.

Crude maps drawn by Shermantine after more than a decade of silence on the fate and whereabouts of his victims helped lead authorities last February to the skeletal remains of five teen girls and young women, including 16-year-old JoAn Hobson, who disappeared in 1985. No one was ever charged with her murder.

Hobson's sister, Michelle Loftis, told Reuters on Friday she would continue to press authorities to search for additional remains.

"I feel for the FBI to give up would be a travesty for the rest of these families," she said.

A jury convicted Shermantine in 2001 of four murders, and Herzog was found guilty in a separate trial of three slayings, one that overlapped with Shermantine's case.

While Shermantine was later sentenced to death, Herzog's conviction was reduced on appeal to a single count of manslaughter and he was paroled after 11 years in prison.

Herzog committed suicide by hanging in January 2012, just hours after learning that Shermantine was starting to pinpoint grave sites.

In a rare step authorized by state lawmakers, Shermantine was briefly released under guard from his death row cell last August to personally guide FBI agents to additional sites he claimed were dumping grounds for his victims.

His unusual daylong furlough led authorities to four more defunct wells. After surveying the sites, the FBI dug in an area Shermantine later complained in letters to reporters was the wrong place.

The FBI insisted it was excavating the most likely site based on information from Shermantine and its own investigation.

(Editing by Steve Gorman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/california-search-victims-speed-freak-killers-grows-cold-085903801.html

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