DOJ: Arpaio mistreated Latinos (Politico)

The Justice Department on Thursday accused Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio of violating constitutional and civil rights in a ?pattern of misconduct? that involved targeting and mistreating Latinos.

The Obama administration?s report found there was ?reasonable cause? to believe Arpaio was involved in discriminatory policing practices, such as unlawful stops, detentions and arrests of Hispanics; discriminatory jail practices against Latino inmates with limited proficiency in English by punishing them and denying certain services; and unlawful retaliation against individuals criticizing the office?s practices.

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Arpaio, a sheriff known for his tough treatment of inmates, has been highly sought-after in the conservative community for his tough-on-crime and tough-on-immigration credentials. Last month, the sheriff endorsed Texas Gov. Rick Perry for president.

His tenure as sheriff has not been without controversy - in fact, he?s drawn the ire of many pro-immigration advocates because of his strong support for Arizona?s immigration law, SB 1070, regarded as one of the toughest in the nation.

The Justice Department?s investigation also found evidence that Arpaio?s Maricopa County Sherriff?s Office (MCSO) had used excessive force; did not adequately protect Latino residents, and failed to properly investigate sexual assault allegations.

?MCSO?s systematic disregard for basic constitutional protections has created a wall of distrust between the sheriff?s office and large segments of the community, which dramatically compromises the ability to protect and serve the people,? said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department?s Civil Rights Division. ?The problems are deeply rooted in MCSO?s culture, and are compounded by MCSO?s penchant for retaliation against individuals who speak out.?

The Justice Department said that it would work with Arpaio?s office to develop a ?comprehensive reform plan? to address the alleged violations of the constitution and federal civil rights law. Arpaio?s office has to decide by Jan. 4 whether it will take part in talks about reforms, or else the Justice Department will sue him to force complaince, according to a letter from the DoJ.

The Justice Department?s involved more than 400 interviews, including with MCSO supervisors and deputies, as well as former inmates. It also involved reviewing thousands of pages of the office?s documents and reaching out to the local community.

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Spotted: Ty Burrell?s Modern Family

Frances enjoys an ice cream while visiting dad Ty Burrell on the set of Modern Family Tuesday in Los Angeles.

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/CU91rct9PO8/

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Survivor South Pacific Recap, Episode 13

We begin this recap of Episode 13 of Survivor South Pacific on Night 32 at Te Tuna Beach. The original Upolu Five alliance celebrates their accomplishment. They have made it to the final phase of The Game. Coach leads the group in prayer. But inside, he knows that the REAL game will now begin. In fact, Albert is already busy plotting to boot Sophie! Coach Ben Wade looks like he just might make it to the Survivor finals. Image Credit: Wenn.com. Day 33 and we see Albert actually doing some work! He helps Brandon and Rick fetch firewood. Albert talks with Rick on the side and offers a deal for Coach and them to be the Final Three. Over at Redemption Island, everyone is gathered to watch Ozzy dispose of Edna. The task is a puzzle game, giving her something of a chance. But Ozzy wins, as usual, despite Edna getting help from her tribe mates. Back at camp, Albert talks with Brandon about giving Sophie the boot. Meanwhile, she is talking with Coach about sending Brandon to Redemption Island. Rick joins the chat and agrees that Brandon should go next. Later, Albert talks with Coach about booting Sophie. Coach [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/iyykmgBjguk/

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Father of Kris Humphries Threatens to Pen Kim Kardashian Tell-All

Might the manipulative, large-breasted roof soon get blown off DivorceGate?

In the latest issue of Life & Style, William Humphries - the father of Kris Humphries and the very brief father-in-law of Kim Kardashian - says he'd "love to write a book" about the ordeal Kim and her family put his son through.

"It's important to him that Kris' side of the story is out there," a friend tells the tabloid.

Humphries may not be entitled to any of Kim's assets, due to a prenup, but no non-disclosure agreement was ever signed. He and/or his dad are free to dish and dish and dish and "Kris has told his father everything," a source notes.

William "has many stories to tell," the magazine reports.

Kris, of course, says he just wants to move forward and find a new NBA team. But we have a feeling this story is far from over.

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/12/father-of-kris-humphries-threatens-to-pen-kim-kardashian-tell-al/

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Tycho's star shines in gamma rays, NASA's Fermi shows

ScienceDaily (Dec. 13, 2011) ? In early November 1572, observers on Earth witnessed the appearance of a "new star" in the constellation Cassiopeia, an event now recognized as the brightest naked-eye supernova in more than 400 years. It's often called "Tycho's supernova" after the great Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, who gained renown for his extensive study of the object. Now, years of data collected by NASA's Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope reveal that the shattered star's remains shine in high-energy gamma rays.

The detection gives astronomers another clue in understanding the origin of cosmic rays, subatomic particles -- mainly protons -- that move through space at nearly the speed of light. Exactly where and how these particles attain such incredible energies has been a long-standing mystery because charged particles speeding through the galaxy are easily deflected by interstellar magnetic fields. This makes it impossible to track cosmic rays back to their sources.

"Fortunately, high-energy gamma rays are produced when cosmic rays strike interstellar gas and starlight. These gamma rays come to Fermi straight from their sources," said Francesco Giordano at the University of Bari and the National Institute of Nuclear Physics in Italy. He is the lead author of a paper describing the findings in the Dec. 7 edition of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Better understanding the origins of cosmic rays is one of Fermi's key goals. Its Large Area Telescope (LAT) scans the entire sky every three hours, gradually building up an ever-deeper view of the gamma-ray sky. Because gamma rays are the most energetic and penetrating form of light, they serve as signposts for the particle acceleration that gives rise to cosmic rays.

"This detection gives us another piece of evidence supporting the notion that supernova remnants can accelerate cosmic rays," said co-author Stefan Funk, an astrophysicist at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC), jointly located at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University, Calif.

In 1949, physicist Enrico Fermi -- the satellite's namesake -- suggested that the highest-energy cosmic rays were accelerated in the magnetic fields of interstellar gas clouds. In the decades that followed, astronomers showed that supernova remnants may be the galaxy's best candidate sites for this process.

When a star explodes, it is transformed into a supernova remnant, a rapidly expanding shell of hot gas bounded by the blast's shockwave. Scientists expect that magnetic fields on either side of the shock front can trap particles between them in what amounts to a subatomic pingpong game.

"A supernova remnant's magnetic fields are very weak relative to Earth's, but they extend across a vast region, ultimately spanning thousands of light-years. They have a major influence on the course of charged particles," said co-author Melitta Naumann-Godo at Paris Diderot University and the Atomic Energy Commission in Saclay, France, who led the study with Giordano.

As they shuttle back and forth across the supernova shock, the charged particles gain energy with each traverse. Eventually they break out of their magnetic confinement, escaping the supernova remnant and freely roaming the galaxy.

The LAT's ongoing sky survey provides additional evidence favoring this scenario. Many younger remnants, like Tycho's, tend to produce more high-energy gamma rays than older remnants. "The gamma-ray energies reflect the energies of the accelerated particles that produce them, and we expect more cosmic rays to be accelerated to higher energies in younger objects because the shockwaves and their tangled magnetic fields are stronger," Funk added. By contrast, older remnants with weaker shockwaves cannot retain the highest-energy particles, and the LAT does not detect gamma rays with corresponding energies.

The supernova of 1572 was one of the great watersheds in the history of astronomy. The star blazed forth at a time when the starry sky was regarded as a fixed and unchanging part of the universe. Tycho's candid account of his own discovery of the strange star gives a sense of how radical an event it was.

The supernova first appeared around Nov. 6, but poor weather kept it from Tycho until Nov. 11, when he noticed it during a walk before dinner. "When I had satisfied myself that no star of that kind had ever shone forth before, I was led into such perplexity by the unbelievability of the thing that I began to doubt the faith of my own eyes, and so, turning to the servants who were accompanying me, I asked them whether they too could see a certain extremely bright star?. They immediately replied with one voice that they saw it completely and that it was extremely bright," he recalled.

The supernova remained visible for 15 months and exhibited no movement in the heavens, indicating that it was located far beyond the sun, moon and planets. Modern astronomers estimate that the remnant lies between 9,000 and 11,000 light-years away.

After more than two and a half years of scanning the sky, LAT data clearly show that an unresolved region of GeV (billion electron volt) gamma-ray emission is associated with the remnant of Tycho's supernova. (For comparison, the energy of visible light is between about 2 and 3 electron volts.)

Keith Bechtol, a KIPAC graduate student who is also based at SLAC, was one of the first researchers to notice the potential link. "We knew that Tycho's supernova remnant could be an important find for Fermi because this object has been so extensively studied in other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. We thought it might be one of our best opportunities to identify a spectral signature indicating the presence of cosmic-ray protons," he said.

The science team's model of the emission is based on LAT observations, along with higher-energy TeV (trillion electron volt) gamma rays mapped by ground-based facilities and radio and X-ray data. The researchers conclude that a process called pion production best explains the emission. First, a proton traveling close to the speed of light strikes a slower-moving proton. This interaction creates an unstable particle -- a pion -- with only 14 percent of the proton's mass. In just 10 millionths of a billionth of a second, the pion decays into a pair of gamma rays.

If this interpretation is correct, then somewhere within the remnant, protons are being accelerated to near the speed of light, and then interacting with slower particles to produce gamma rays, the most extreme form of light. With such unbelievable goings-on in what's left of his "unbelievable" star, it's easy to imagine that Tycho Brahe himself might be pleased.

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Supreme Court to judge on patents for treating disease

THE long arm of the law may soon reach your doctor's office. In a case before the US Supreme Court, a drug company is fighting for a patent that could hold medical knowledge hostage.

Prometheus Laboratories in San Diego, California, holds a patent on guidelines for treating gastrointestinal diseases. It is battling the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota over claims that the clinic's methods of treating these diseases conflict with its patent, which covers dosage adjustments that tell doctors how much medicine should be prescribed based on metabolites in the body.

Although discoveries can be patented in the US, this claim over natural body processes goes too far, according to a statement by a group of organisations including the American Medical Association in support of the Mayo Clinic. "Long before the patentee drafted his claims, physicians treating autoimmune disorders... recognized the relationship between metabolite levels and therapeutic efficacy of the drugs," they write.

They say that patenting the "utterly conventional steps" will result in poorer patient care. "Higher priced medical care is an inevitable result," they add.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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The best iPhone travel apps of 2011 (Appolicious)

Some of my favorite apps on the iPhone fall under the ?Travel? category. I?m not a glutton for booking trips, rather iTunes uses that wide-ranging term to encompass everything from trip-booking apps, to grand reference guides for cities and parks, to collections of the best cuisines in certain areas. If variety is truly the spice of life, as many people claim to have once said, then travel apps are the spiciest app category. Here are five of my favorites from 2011.

An app ideal for the would-be camper that doesn?t know where to start, Oh, Ranger! ParkFinder is a massive app that has information on thousands of different public lands including state and national parks, national forests and even US Army Corps of Engineers recreation centers.

If you?re looking for something specific to do while you camp, you can search for the nearest ones that support 20 activities including caving, climbing, fishing, golfing and boating. Even if you already think you have the best camp site mapped out, Oh, Ranger! ParkFinder might be worth a look to see if there is a better one out there.

Suppose you go on a trip. Of course, you don?t want any old meal, you want the best your temporary home has to offer. Best Of? packs that and a lot more into its inviting layout. Supported in over 30 major US cities, Best Of? tells you more than 10,000 of the best things to do in a given place.

From the best burger to the best use of bacon, your every curiosity will be piqued. You can also vote on whether you agree something truly is one of the best things and even keep tabs on places you?d like to try but haven?t yet.

The strangest thing about Expedia Hotels is that it took so long to come to an iPhone. Other than that, the app is a lean, mean hotel booking machine. You can book a room in over 130,000 hotels spread across 20,000 cities worldwide in just a handful of screen taps.

It?s incredibly easy to find the best deal and the number of sort options combined with solid user reviews means you?ll rarely be led astray for your stay. You can even find directions to any hotel you?re looking at via a Google Maps screen. If you?re booking a hotel, this is the app with which to do it.

Sometimes when you?re in a strange new place, you just need somewhere relatively close by that won?t make you sick. Where To Eat? will find something better than that for you, but it does a great job keeping geography in mind. With over 45 cuisines and 30 food types, you?ll have quite the choice of selections, too.

Where To Eat? will even supply turn-by-turn directions for you to get to the restaurant you end up choosing. That?s a great feature for travelers in an unfamiliar town. And if you can?t decide what to eat at all, a quick shake of the app and Where To Eat? will find something for you in a hurry.

Road trips can be a blast, especially when you start exploring the little-known places off the sides of small town exits. RoadAhead attempts to help you out even further on your journey by giving you all the info you can use on the upcoming exits on your trip. It will calculate where you are and tell you pertinent info on the next exit, including the price of gas and what sort of shops and restaurants are nearby.

RoadAhead covers every exit on all highways in the US and you can also use it when you?re not on the highway by entering the road and nearby exits you?ll be passing by. You can also search by category, in case you want to scope out the cheapest gas at the next three exits.

Love travel apps? Create your very own list here.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/applecomputer/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/appolicious_rss/rss_appolicious_tc/http___www_appolicious_com_articles10369_the_best_iphone_travel_apps_of_2011/43803408/SIG=12kf963tj/*http%3A//www.appolicious.com/tech/articles/10369-the-best-iphone-travel-apps-of-2011

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