Is Pitbull 'Mr. Education'? Rapper Opens Charter School In Miami

Pitbull is one of a growing list of celebrities who have opened their wallets or given their names to charter schools.

Jeff Daly/AP

Pitbull is one of a growing list of celebrities who have opened their wallets or given their names to charter schools.

Jeff Daly/AP

Rapper Pitbull (Armando Christian Pérez) is the latest in a long list of celebrities lending their star power to the flourishing charter school movement. Alicia Keyes, Denzel Washington, Shakira, Oprah — all support or sponsor charter schools.

The Sports Leadership And Management Academy (SLAM), Pitbull's new public charter school for students in grades six through 12, opened this fall in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood. Pitbull says SLAM's sports theme has a vocational bent as a way to hook kids for whom school is boring.

"If sports is what you love, one way or another, it's a business you can get involved with ... whether you're a therapist, an attorney, a broadcaster," he says. "They're already labeling me 'Mr. Education.' "

It's an interesting twist, considering that at the last school Pitbull attended, the principal couldn't wait to get rid of him. "He literally told me, 'I don't want you in my school ... gonna give you your diploma ... get out of here.' "

Pitbull's parting words were: "Thank you."

Seventeen-year-old Austin Rivera says he transferred to SLAM after Pitbull spoke at his previous school. "He came from nothing and became something huge. ... It shows like not a lot of people are handed everything," Austin says.

"[A] lot of these kids are so creative ... but no one believes in them. ... No one motives them," Pitbull says. "I relate to them ... but then I give it to them raw."

The rapper's parents fled Cuba and settled in Miami, where they struggled. His father went to jail for dealing drugs. And at 16, Pitbull began dealing, too — and rapping. He chose the name "Pitbull" because, he says, pit bulls are too stupid to lose. The name and the "outlaw" image stuck.

Pitbull's breakthrough hit came in 2004 with a song titled "Culo," a vulgar word in Spanish and "booty" in the rap vernacular.

It wasn't long before Pitbull was making millions, touring with rappers Eminem and 50 Cent. Pitbull's problems with drugs and alcohol, his womanizing and his profanity-laced lyrics didn't exactly qualify him for opening a charter school. Surprisingly, parents and educators at SLAM didn't think that should disqualify him, either.

Critics say Pitbull is not the issue. It's the school itself that they find objectionable.

"[I] don't know if it's going to provide something useful at the end of the day," says Raquel Regalado, who is on the Miami-Dade County Public Schools' school board. "I guess you can expect Pitbull to show up every now and then, and that's cool if you're a Pitbull fan ... [but] how does that translate into academic achievement? That's the difficult part of this that parents don't understand. ... I think it's a marketing ploy, honestly."

Nina Reese, who heads the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, says she's not about to apologize for supporting the rapper's school.

"Whether it's Pitbull or Meryl Streep in Rhode Island or Sandra Bullock in Louisiana," she says, "charters do benefit from celebrities because public schools, they do have to market themselves to families because these are schools of choice."

Reese says she has no problem with Pitbull's music, either.

"We're not endorsing his music, but welcoming him as an investor," Reese says. Besides, she adds, everybody is entitled to their own tastes. "I admit that I'm a fan of his music."

Three of Pitbull's six children attend charter schools.

"I'm not just a charter school advocate. ... I'm a charter school parent," Pitbull said when talking at this year's National Charter School Conference in D.C. "And that makes me one of you."

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/10/15/234683081/is-pitbull-mr-education-rapper-opens-charter-school-in-miami?ft=1&f=1039
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As Gitmo plods, Obama's winning the case for court

FILE - This file image from the FBI website shows Anas al-Libi, an al-Qaeda leader connected to the 1998 embassy bombings in eastern Africa and wanted by the United States for more than a decade. Gunmen in a three-car convoy seized Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, known by his alias Anas al-Libi, outside his house Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013, in the Libyan capital, his relatives said. Two law enforcement officials say a team of U.S. investigators from the military, the intelligence community and the Justice Department has been deployed to question Abu Anas al-Libi, according to two law enforcement officials. (AP Photo/FBI, File)

FILE - This file image from the FBI website shows Anas al-Libi, an al-Qaeda leader connected to the 1998 embassy bombings in eastern Africa and wanted by the United States for more than a decade. Gunmen in a three-car convoy seized Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, known by his alias Anas al-Libi, outside his house Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013, in the Libyan capital, his relatives said. Two law enforcement officials say a team of U.S. investigators from the military, the intelligence community and the Justice Department has been deployed to question Abu Anas al-Libi, according to two law enforcement officials. (AP Photo/FBI, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Four years after his failed effort to bring the 9/11 mastermind to New York for trial, President Barack Obama has reinstated the federal courthouse as America's preferred venue for prosecuting suspected terrorists.

His administration has done so by quietly securing conviction after conviction in the civilian judicial system. Meanwhile at Guantanamo Bay, admitted 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's case moves at a snail's pace.

Tuesday's expected arraignment of suspected al-Qaida member Abu Anas al-Libi is the latest example of Obama's de facto policy. Al-Libi was captured in a military raid in Libya earlier this month and had been under interrogation aboard a U.S. warship.

The Obama administration says it considers all options for prosecuting terrorists, weighing military and civilian trials on a case-by-case basis.

But Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. military base that embodied America's post-9/11 methods of interrogating and prosecuting suspected terrorists, has turned into a legal morass. The military commission's poor case record has become less about winning and more about completion.

While the Justice Department says more than 125 people have been convicted of terrorism charges in federal courts since 2009, not a single military commission has come to a close during that period.

Of the few military commissions completed under President George W. Bush, most resulted in short sentences or have been overturned.

"There's really no comparison in terms of the success rate," said David Raskin, the former top national security prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan. "Not really between wins or losses, just finishing the cases. There's no comparison at this point."

The politics are breaking Obama's way too.

When Attorney General Eric Holder announced in 2009 that Mohammed would be tried in New York City, the outcry from both political parties was great.

Some feared a high-profile terrorism trial would put the city at risk. Others said a civilian courthouse, with all the rights afforded defendants there, was no place for a terrorist.

Obama, who came into office promising to close Guantanamo Bay and prosecute terrorists in federal courts, buckled under the pressure and pulled the case back to Guantanamo.

Since then, not much has changed at the naval base in Cuba. Mohammed is one of 164 men held there and one of six facing trial. Those trials have stalled largely because of legal challenges to the commission system itself.

In federal courts, however, the Obama administration is quietly churning through terror cases and putting many terrorists away for life.

One of the first key cases was against Ahmed Ghailani, a former Guantanamo detainee who was transferred to New York early in Obama's administration. He was convicted in 2010 and is serving a life sentence in prison.

Last year, Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, an Iraqi man, pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in Kentucky and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Hammadi's co-defendant got a 40-year sentence for his role in a plot to ship weapons and cash to insurgents in Iraq.

Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame, a Somali citizen accused of helping support and train al-Qaida-linked militants, pleaded guilty earlier this year. Like al-Libi, he was questioned aboard a U.S. warship before being turned over to the civilian justice system.

Each new trial brought fresh criticism from Republicans, but that criticism diminished each time.

Some Republican lawmakers criticized Monday's announcement that al-Libi would face trial in court. They questioned whether interrogators questioned him long enough.

"It certainly begs the question whether rushing foreign terrorists into U.S. courts is a strategy that is in the best interests of the United States," said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

But in the midst of a major budget debate in Washington, the matter got little attention.

The White House, which once fought back against such criticism, now shows little interest in renewing a debate that proved to be a political distraction.

So the administration said nothing when al-Libi arrived in the United States on Saturday. Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York, issued a two-sentence statement Monday, saying only that al-Libi was due in court to answer charges dating back more than a decade.

Al-Libi, whose full name is Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, is accused of helping plan and conduct surveillance for the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa.

"A federal civilian criminal trial is by far the safest and the one that would raise the least complex set of legal problems for the administration," said Steve Vladick, a professor at American University law school.

That's because al-Libi was indicted more than a decade ago, which meant the government did not need any evidence it gathered against him during his interrogation.

Intelligence officials questioned him for a week aboard the USS San Antonio. Interrogations at sea have replaced CIA "black sites" as the U.S. government's preferred method for holding suspected terrorists and questioning them without access to lawyers.

Al-Libi's al-Qaida ties date back to the terrorist group's early years, according to court documents. That would make him a valuable source of information about the group's history.

In an interview last week on the PBS program "NewsHour," Lisa Monaco, the president's homeland security adviser, said the first priority in capturing al-Libi was to get intelligence.

"I think what it shows is a very clear strategy by the U.S. government to use all the tools, frankly, in our toolbox to disrupt threats, to go after — consistent with the rule of law — individuals who pose a threat, to get intelligence and then ultimately to make a decision about what the best disposition is," Monaco said.

So far, in every instance that the Obama administration has had a terrorist suspect in custody, it has found the best disposition was the federal court system.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-15-Terror%20Trials/id-14ff1c2aeab9454d81626272fb866b84
Category: EBT   Cameron Douglas   zac efron   cnet   Hannah Davis  

Take a look at Sony's first promo videos for the Sony Xperia Z1 f

1.
jove39






(Posts: 1030; Member since: 18 Oct 2011)

Best phone for people who still prefer (relatively) small screen.

12.
zennacko






(Posts: 141; Member since: 16 Jun 2013)

For me it'll be either this or the iPhone 5s. I can't stand "hiking" the phone with my hand or using it with two hands (which defeats the concept of "mobile") because even the 1995 cell phones could be operated with one hand, regardless of what you wanted to do

16.
james004






(Posts: 332; Member since: 15 May 2013)

not really to text people had to use 2 hands even back then.

2.
Feanor






(Posts: 168; Member since: 20 Jun 2012)

This would have been my next phone, but somehow I doubt if it improves the viewing angles problem of the Z1. Other than that flawless and even a bit better looking than the Z1 because it looks less angular.

4.
boosook






(Posts: 547; Member since: 19 Nov 2012)

I usually hold my phone just in front of my face, and I bet you do the same... ;)

17.
james004






(Posts: 332; Member since: 15 May 2013)

dont know who uses phone in that angle. may be its new hipster thing.
dont understand these benchmarks and vew angle competition.

8.
Martin_Cooper






(Posts: 94; Member since: 30 Jul 2013)

perfect viewing angles from the video

13.
yudi.nemesis






(Posts: 837; Member since: 14 Mar 2013)

Yeah the screen looks really good and if i’m not wrong Z1f also has a glove mode feature.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4TQTIC1Y4_s&client=mv-google&guid=&gl=ID&hl=id

11.
TMach






(Posts: 261; Member since: 29 Dec 2011)

Thanks for the link. Some people are just beginning to sound like broken records....the viewing angles are simply stunning and here's the link once again. I rather like the older sibling and sticking with it..what a superb piece of kit!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9miSCqgywkI&feature=player_detailpage&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Ffeature%3Dplayer_detailpage%26v%3D9miSCqgywkI#t=393

9.
TMach






(Posts: 261; Member since: 29 Dec 2011)

Go click on the link in post #6, please open your eyes and watch from 6.53 minutes onwards and then bleat about viewing angles!

3.
Martin_Cooper






(Posts: 94; Member since: 30 Jul 2013)

Best android phone for people who dont like 5inches like S4 G2 and so on. Thinking to sell my iPhone for this one just to try it.

14.
yudi.nemesis






(Posts: 837; Member since: 14 Mar 2013)

I think Iphone sales is a solid proof that there is so many people who need a compact and premium smartphone with cutting edge specs.

5.
wrm2013






(Posts: 86; Member since: 28 Mar 2013)

Availability availability pa get some info.

10.
InspectorGadget80






(Posts: 4946; Member since: 26 Mar 2011)

Another great product from Sony. From high end to low end handsets.

18.
Taters






(Posts: 1523; Member since: 28 Jan 2013)

Sony fans seem even more defensive than HTC fans....I guess that type of behavior is common with people that are fan of horrible companies but still, its pretty bad.

Source: http://www.phonearena.com/news/Take-a-look-at-Sonys-first-promo-videos-for-the-Sony-Xperia-Z1-f_id48175
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Wall Street shares rise on U.S. budget deal hopes, yen gains

By Herbert Lash

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global equity markets rebounded and oil pared losses on Monday on news of efforts by President Barack Obama and leaders in Congress to resolve an impasse over how to extend the U.S. debt ceiling and end a partial government shutdown.

The lack of an expected deal over the weekend to avert a looming U.S. debt default as early as October 17 weighed on world equity markets earlier in the day and kept the dollar under pressure. The yen rose as some investors sought safer assets.

Obama had planned to meet leaders from the Senate and House of Representatives at 3 p.m. to discuss how to raise the $16.7 trillion federal borrowing limit and end a partial shutdown of the federal government, which began October 1.

But the meeting was postponed to allow Senate leaders time to "continue making important progress" on talks over the debt and government shutdown, the White House said.

U.S. senators later said they were closing in on a deal that would reopen the government and push back a possible default for several months, though many hurdles remained as the Thursday deadline drew near.

"We expect there will be an agreement in the next day or so, but there's a lot of fear," said Ralph Bassett, deputy head of North American equities at Aberdeen Asset Management in Philadelphia.

MSCI's world equity index rose 0.24 percent after trading lower by about the same earlier, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of leading European shares closed 0.13 percent higher at 1,252.47 after late-session gains.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 64.15 points, or 0.42 percent, at 15,301.26. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 6.94 points, or 0.41 percent, at 1,710.14. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 23.40 points, or 0.62 percent, at 3,815.28.

U.S. government debt markets were closed because of Columbus Day, a federal holiday.

Investors started the day skeptical of a deal that had been expected over the weekend, said Brad McMillan, chief investment officer at Commonwealth Financial in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Even if a deal gets done, McMillan said the stand-off had created "justifiable anxiety" and tremendous uncertainty.

"We've done more damage both directly to the economy, through the shutdown, and indirectly through postponing decisions and reintroducing uncertainly in the decision processes than anyone appreciates," McMillan said.

The earlier cautious mood was reflected in the neutral reaction to news that factory output in the euro zone grew at its strongest pace in two years in August.

The dollar, as it has since the budgetary crisis, bore the brunt of the early nervousness but pared losses on news of the White House meeting. It was 0.03 percent lower against the safer option of the yen, trading at around 98.53 yen.

The greenback also slipped against the Swiss franc, falling 0.24 percent at 0.9100 francs, while the euro rose 0.16 percent to $1.3563.

Adding to market worries, China said exports dropped 0.3 percent in September from a year earlier against expectations of a 6 percent rise, while the annual inflation rate hit a seven-month high of 3.1 percent, limiting the scope for rate cuts.

The decline in exports from the world's second-largest economy raised questions over the global recovery, which was highlighted last week when the International Monetary Fund trimmed its forecast to the lowest since the global recession in 2009.

Brent crude hovered around $111 a barrel, while copper rose 0.76 percent to close at $7,255.00 a tonne as strong imports of the metal from top consumer China boosted optimism about the outlook for demand.

U.S. oil prices rebounded as traders covered short positions in the event U.S. politicians reach a deal to fund the government and avert a debt default.

"We're trading back and forth on the changing perceptions of what is happening in D.C. at this point," said Gene McGillian, oil analyst with Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.

"You saw some short-covering on the latest news that the Senate will have a plan. Nobody wants to be exposed if something should change," McGillian said.

Brent crude futures fell 24 cents to settle at $111.04. U.S. oil rose 39 cents to settle at $102.41.

German government bond yields held near three-week highs as debt markets in Europe remained confident the United States would resolve its fiscal stalemate.

Safe-haven German Bund futures closed 4 ticks down at 139.75, while 10-year cash yields were flat at 1.86 percent.

(Additional reporting by Richarch Hubbard in London; Editing by Nick Zieminski, Dan Grebler and Leslie Adler)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-shares-edge-planned-meeting-yen-gains-193356581--finance.html
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Google Glass: Yes, it's that bad

Credit: Reuters/Stephen Lam

I've wanted a Google Glass since Commander Sisko had one on "Star Trek Deep Space 9." I ignored the warning that only the Vorta could wear them without getting a terrible headache. I thought: It's like having your own private wearable big-screen TV! But hey, I was like 14 or 15 when that show started. (I mention this only to make my editor feel old.)

At an illustrious event entitled "Glass Durham," which took place at Bay 7 in the historic American Tobacco campus, I was cured of this childhood fantasy. Or at least, this incarnation of it.

[ Also on InfoWorld: Robert X. Cringely presents as evidence yet another reason to hate Google Glass. | Stay up on the latest developer news with InfoWorld's Developer World newsletter. ]

Terminally hip
Google is trying to market something that makes you look like a dork as fashionable. Of course, I am no fashion diva. My wife once said that clothes make a statement about you. When I asked what my clothes say, she replied, "That you like zombies and the beach."

Anyway, I stood in line with a bunch of people who looked like the fools who stand in line for the latest iPhone. The Glass logo suggested an electronic indie rock hipster fair flash mob could break out at any moment. Each youth waited faithfully for a chance to look like a model in some futuristic Aryan dystopia.

Google flew in a few Californians and temp-hired a bunch of recent UNC grads to pretend to have worn Glass for months. A good portion of the demo was "well, this is pre-recorded because we're having Internet problems," which pointed to a major problem with the device: It requires your phone to provide the Internet or reliable Wi-Fi.

When can I actually get one?
I asked a few basic questions about Glass: When will it be available to developers outside of San Francisco, where they hold the Google.io event? The marketoid told me that it isn't just San Francisco, it's also New York and Los Angeles as well! No idea when it would be available to other developers.

This presents a potential problem for Google. Google.io is a marketing event. You need to distribute more units to more developers than will come to your conference in order to launch with enough applications to prevent the thing from flopping. (Ask HP how WebOS went.)

For consumers, the device will be available "sometime in 2014." So these Glass events are mainly about building demand.

I also asked about battery life. The marketoid said about a day of normal use.

Source: http://podcasts.infoworld.com/d/application-development/google-glass-yes-its-bad-228478?source=rss_infoworld_top_stories_
Category: julianne hough   james franco   Marion Bartoli   Anastasia Ashley   Only God Forgives  

Living, breathing man told he's dead in the eyes of Ohio law ...

FINDLAY, Ohio — An Ohio man who has been legally dead since 1994 will remain so in the eyes of the law after losing his complaint to overturn his death filing, according to authorities.

Donald Miller, 61, testified Monday that he disappeared in 1986 after losing his job, leaving behind a wife, two children and thousands of dollars of unpaid child support, according to James Hammer, the attorney for Miller’s ex-wife, Robin Miller. He was declared legally dead eight years later.

Donald Miller said he returned to Ohio “around 2005″ with no knowledge of his legal death, and that he had hoped to reestablish his Social Security number.

A legal statute in Ohio prevents changes to death rulings once three years have passed, Hammer told CNN, and Judge Allan Davis ruled accordingly in Hancock County Probate Court.

“In over 40 years, I’ve never come across a case like this,” the judge told CNN.

“In the end though, because of the statute, it was a pretty open-and-shut case.”

Hammer recounts that at the time of Donald Miller’s legal death in 1994, he owed Robin Miller around $25,000 in child support, a matter which could have been complicated had the judge ruled in Donald Miller’s favor on Monday. Following the 1994 ruling, Hammer said, Robin Miller began receiving Social Security death benefits to support her two children.

“There could have been the possibility that my client would have to pay back what she received from Social Security,” Hammer said.

“We certainly did not want to open that door, so we’re satisfied with the outcome.”

Despite her relief at the court’s ruling, Hammer says his client has no ill will toward her ex-husband.

Donald Miller’s attorney was not immediately available for comment Wednesday. He still has 30 days to appeal the court’s ruling, according Judge Davis.

™ & © 2013 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

Source: http://myfox8.com/2013/10/10/living-breathing-man-told-hes-dead-in-the-eyes-of-ohio-law/
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LG G Pro Lite phablet made official, will debut this month

LG officially announced the entry-level LG G Pro Lite on Thursday, confirming reports earlier this month that the company has been working on a budget phablet. The rumored specs appear to have been spot on, including the 5.5-inch, 960 x 540-pixel display, 1.0 GHz dual-core processor, 8-megapixel rear camera, 1.3-megapixel front camera, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, microSD slot and Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. LG’s Stylus Pen will also be included in the box.

“With LG G Pro Lite, we are introducing a competitive device to the masses in the growing large smartphone market,” said LG CEO Dr. Jong-seok Park. “The market for smartphones with displays over five inches will continue to grow and LG is in a great position to capture these new customers when they’re ready to move up from their current phones.”

The LG G Pro Lite will make its debut in Latin America this month, followed by Asia, Russia, China, India and the Middle East in the near future. No word yet on the phone’s price or whether it will make its way to the U.S.

More from BGR: The most important wireless carrier in America

This article was originally published on BGR.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lg-g-pro-lite-phablet-made-official-debut-020052688.html
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