'Argo' director Ben Affleck Wins DGA Award

Ben Affleck was named outstanding director for "Argo" at the 65th Annual Directors Guild of America Awards, which were held Saturday night at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland.

The win solidifies "Argo" as an Oscar frontrunner, after the film also claimed key honors from the Screen Actors and Producers guilds last weekend.

"I don't this makes me a real director, but I think it means I'm on my way," Affleck said in a speech.

The other nominees for the feature directing award were Kathryn Bigelow for "Zero Dark Thirty," Tom Hooper for "Les Miserables," Ang Lee for "Life of Pi" and Steven Spielberg for "Lincoln."

The DGA award for feature directing has traditionally been a reliable indicator of who will win the directing Oscar -- only six times since the DGA Awards began in 1948 have the two honors differed.

But this year's Oscar directing race has been a bit of a head-scratcher--Affleck was not nominated, despite his film receiving multiple nominations from the Academy in other categories. Bigelow and Hooper were also snubbed.

The DGA is a larger body than the Academy's directing branch, representing 15,000 members, many of them in television.

The ceremony's television winners included Rian Johnson, who earned the drama series award for directing the "Fifty-One" episode of "Breaking Bad"; Lena Dunham, who collected the comedy series award for directing the pilot of "Girls"; and Jay Roach, who took the movies for television/miniseries prize for "Game Change" on HBO.

The evening's winner for documentary directing was Malik Bendjelloul, for the "Searching For Sugarman."

A lifetime achievement award was presented to "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "The People vs. Larry Flynt" director Milos Forman.

Host Kelsey Grammer kept the evening light, making jokes about Manti Te'o, Mel Gibson and Ron Jeremy, as well as some of the nominees in the room.

Grammer said to Bigelow, whose movie has been at the center of a controversy over forced interrogation, "Waiting so patiently to see if your name will be called, it must be torture for you."

All of the evening's feature directing nominees received a medallion from the DGA, most of them presented after an adoring speech. Martin Short, however, delivered Spielberg's medallion in an irreverent and sometimes bawdy address.

"I like my champagne like I like my women," Short said. "Compliments of the DGA."

When Spielberg stood to accept the honor--receiving the night's first full-house standing ovation--he reacted with amusement.

"When you tell your assistant to contact Marty about presenting you with the DGA medallion," Spielberg said, "You just assume she knows you're talking about Marty Scorsese."

ALSO

Academy doesn't follow the script in directors' race

Santa Barbara Film Fest sees itself as Oscar harbinger

Is 'Argo' poised to deliver a shocker at Directors Guild Awards?

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Meet the Man Who Designed BlackBerry’s New Phones

When BlackBerry set out to design the phones that would take the company into the next decade, it faced a big challenge. The flagship device of the new BlackBerry 10 platform needed to simultaneously satisfy what today’s customers want in a smartphone while at the same time stay true to the essence of BlackBerry — which, if the company’s market over the last few years is any indication, customers didn’t want.

The man tasked with redesigning BlackBerry phones was Todd Wood, the company’s senior vice president of design. Leading industrial design at BlackBerry since 2006, Wood is a veteran of industrial design, previously doing design work for Nokia and, before that, Nortel. Mashable sat down with Wood this week while he was in town for the BlackBerry 10 launch.

[More from Mashable: Here’s a Mysterious Image From BlackBerry’s Super Bowl Ad]

Wood speaks with the same thoughtfulness of other design leaders, such as Apple’s Jony Ive, but with none of the showiness. He’s been with BlackBerry (formerly Research In Motion) for long enough to see its fortunes rise and fall. As he describes the Z10, you feel that he’s heard enough praise and criticism about BlackBerry’s products that it all just bounces off.

[More from Mashable: Don’t Hold Your Breath for More BlackBerry Tablets]

When I bring up the BlackBerry Storm — the company’s previous (failed) attempt to create a touchscreen phone — Wood doesn’t bristle or even acknowledge the disaster it was. He simply describes certain design elements that a similar to the BlackBerry Z10, BlackBerry’s new flagship phone. And he makes them sound kind of cool.

“There’s still the ‘waterfall’ that was pronounced on Storm — these flowing surfaces,” Wood says as he points to the top and bottom of the Z10, which are ever-so-slightly sloped. “We’ve brought that with the margins [on the Z10], but it’s very subtle. There are some principles that we carry forward, but nothing’s been cut and pasted.”

As CEO Thorsten Heins described at the launch, BlackBerry faced a decision three years ago: adopt someone else’s mobile OS or go it alone. It opted for the latter, acquiring QNX software in 2010 and adapting it to build first the PlayBook, then BlackBerry 10.

Completely switching mobile platforms was risky and extremely challenging, but it was also a huge design opportunity, says Wood.

“We were starting the platform from scratch. We wanted to build on the design DNA [BlackBerry] had, and we wanted to keep certain attributes — the fit to face, fit to hand — the general comfort of the device, the build quality of the device.”

No Home Button

Key decisions about the device itself depended on how the software worked. There’s no home button on the Z10, for example — a user controls basic functions (like switching between apps) via gestures, such as swiping up from the edge of the screen.

Much of the design was influenced by the need for easy, one-handed operation.

“How can you design a system where you could multitask more elegantly?” Wood asks, rhetorically. “It’s not unlike shuffling cards. And we started to realize you can really do that with one hand and one thumb.

“Almost every phone has a UI paradigm of ‘You go home to go somewhere else.’ Here you can flow from app to app.”

Soft Touch Backside

The phone has a semi-rubberized back, a material that BlackBerry refers to as “soft touch.” The company has used it before — in the trim of the latest Bold smartphone, for example. But in the Z10, Wood’s team added a perforated pattern.

“Soft touch is a special coating that we use,” he explains. “It provides grip, and it’s very silky. What we did was add some microtexture to it, which is something that you don’t notice until you pick the phone up and run your hand across it. It’s a nice subtlety.”

Button Shapes

If you’ve ever thought the physical buttons on Samsung’s phones felt cheap, or the iPhone’s too bland, you’ll appreciate RIM’s contoured buttons for volume and media playback. The volume buttons have a slight notch on one side, and the play/pause button has a small upraised piece — all detectable by touch.

“We wanted to keep them really precise and clean,” says Wood. “We sculpted the keys so it’s always really apparent without looking, almost like braille, exactly where you are.”

Font

Wood also played a role in choosing the system font for BlackBerry 10, which is called Slate. Designed by Canadian Rod McDonald (who also designed the font for Maclean’s, one of Canada’s top national news magazines), BlackBerry chose Slate for its legibility, Wood says.

“Slate really works for screen and print, so we decided to adopt it. When you have such a high-res display, you get really accurate letterforms. When you have a really great font design, that improves productivity. You’re not squinting, and letters are not misinterpreted.”

The Q10

Of course, Wood also led the team that designed the Q10, the BlackBerry 10 phone with a physical QWERTY keyboard, coming about a month after the Z10 debuts. Although the Q10 borrows more design DNA from the BlackBerry of old, BB10 afforded some big departures as well.

For starters, the Q10′s keyboard is straight whereas most previous BlackBerry phone keyboards had a curve to them — which even led to the company calling one of its product lines the Curve.

“That is a big change,” Wood says of straightening out the keyboard for the Q10. “It was very logical, but also it signals ‘This is different.’ And there’s no performance tradeoff with it being straight — we’ve measured it.”

Besides being straight, the keyboard is larger than the ones on previous BlackBerry phones.

“What allows us to get that extra size is we’ve replaced the home key, the back key and the send/end keys, since everything in BB10 is controlled by gestures and direct manipulation of the data. Without the curve, each key is the same size, and they’re 3% larger.”

The Red LED

No BlackBerry phone would be complete without the trademark — and at times notorious — blinking red LED that indicates a message is waiting. Wood says the attribute is hard-wired into BlackBerry design at this point and at no point did the company consider ditching it.

“That’s probably the strongest, most iconic element of the DNA we carry forward,” he says. “It’s origins were ‘Let’s save on battery life,’ and it continues today. For us, we call it the spark, or the splat. It’s a hallmark of BlackBerry it makes some people excited, and it makes some people neurotic, but it’s up to end users to manage that.”

How do you like the design of BlackBerry’s new phones? Let us know in the comments.

BONUS: BlackBerry Z10 Review

Click here to view the gallery: BlackBerry Z10 Review

Lead image by Nina Frazier, Mashable

Images by Nina Frazier, Christina Warren and Pete Pachal, Mashable

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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Affleck's 'Argo' wins Directors Guild top honor

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ben Affleck has won the top film honor from the Directors Guild of America for his CIA thriller "Argo," further sealing its status as best-picture front-runner at the Academy Awards.

Saturday's prize also normally would make Affleck a near shoo-in to win best-director at the Feb. 24 Oscars, since the Directors Guild recipient nearly always goes on to claim the same prize at Hollywood's biggest night.

But Affleck surprisingly missed out on an Oscar directing nomination, along with several other key favorites, including fellow Directors Guild contenders Kathryn Bigelow for "Zero Dark Thirty" and Tom Hooper for "Les Miserables."

Affleck's Oscar snub has not hurt "Argo" and may even have earned it some favor among awards voters as an underdog favorite. "Argo" has dominated other awards since the Oscar nominations.

"I don't think that this makes me a real director, but I think it means I'm on my way," said Affleck, who won for just his third film behind the camera.

The Directors Guild honors continued Hollywood's strange awards season, which could culminate with a big Oscar win for Affleck's "Argo." The guild's prize for best director typically is a final blessing for the film that goes on to win best-picture and director at the Oscars.

Affleck can go only one-for-two at the Oscars, though. While "Argo" is up for best picture, the director's branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences overlooked him for a directing slot.

Backstage at the Directors Guild honors, Affleck said he had nothing but respect for the academy and that "you're not entitled to anything."

With 12 Oscar nominations, Steven Spielberg's Civil War saga "Lincoln" initially looked like the Oscar favorite over such other potential favorites as "Argo," ''Les Miserables" and "Zero Dark Thirty," since films generally have little chance of winning best picture if they are not nominated for best director. Only three films have done it in 84 years, most recently 1989's best-picture champ "Driving Miss Daisy," which failed to earn a directing nomination for Bruce Beresford.

But Affleck's "Argo," in which he also stars as a CIA operative who hatches a bold plan to rescue six Americans during the hostage crisis in Iran, has swept up all the major awards since the Oscar nominations. "Argo" won best drama and director at the Golden Globes and top film honors from the Screen Actors Guild and the Producers Guild of America.

Many of the same film professionals who vote in guild awards also cast ballots for the Oscars, so all the wins for "Argo" are a strong sign that the film has the inside track for best picture.

Milos Forman, a two-time Directors Guild and Oscar winner for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Amadeus," received the group's lifetime-achievement award. Guild President Taylor Hackford let the crowd in a toast to Forman, who was ill and unable to attend.

Malik Bendjelloul won the guild's documentary award for "Searching for Sugar Man," his study of the fate of critically acclaimed but obscure 1970s singer-songwriter Rodriquez. The film also is nominated for best documentary at the Oscars.

Jay Roach won the guild trophy for TV movies and miniseries for "Game Change," his drama starring Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin in her 2008 vice-presidential run.

Roach said that he watched John McCain rush to choose Palin as his running-mate, potentially putting her second in line for the presidency.

"I said, 'We gotta talk about this,'" Roach joked.

"Girls" star Lena Dunham earned the guild honor for TV comedy, while Rian Johnson won for drama series for "Breaking Bad."

Dunham won for directing the pilot of "Girls," which focuses on the lives of a group of women in their 20s.

"It is such an unbelievable honor to be in the company of the people in this room, who have made me want to do this with my life," Dunham said.

Filmmaker Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu ("Babel," ''Amores Perros") won for best commercial for a Procter and Gamble spot he directed.

Among other TV winners:

— Reality program: Brian Smith, "Master Chef."

— Musical variety: Glenn Weiss, "The 66th Annual Tony Awards."

— Daytime serial: Jill Mitwell, "One Life to Live."

— Children's program: Paul Hoen, "Let It Shine."

Affleck's win Saturday nicks the Directors Guild record as a strong forecast for the eventual directing recipient at the Oscars. Only six times in the 64-year history of the guild awards has the winner there failed to follow up with an Oscar. This will be the seventh, since Affleck is not up for the best-director Oscar.

Peer loyalty might play in Affleck's favor at the Oscars. The acting branch in particular, the largest block of the academy's 5,900 members, might really throw its weight behind "Argo" because of Affleck's directing snub. Actors love it when one of their own moves into a successful directing career, and Affleck — who's rarely earned raves for his dramatic chops — also delivers one of his best performances in "Argo."

Affleck has had no traction in acting honors this season, and he's joked that no one considered it a snub when he wasn't nominated for best actor. So a best-picture vote for "Argo" might be viewed as making right his omission from the directing lineup and acknowledging what a double-threat talent he's become in front of and behind the camera.

A best-picture prize also would send Affleck home with an Oscar. The award would go to the producers of "Argo": George Clooney, Grant Heslov and Affleck.

But it's not as though Affleck has never gotten his due at Hollywood awards before. He and Matt Damon jump-started their careers with 1997's "Good Will Hunting," for which they shared a screenplay Oscar.

___

AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen contributed to this report.

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Concerns About A.D.H.D. Practices and Amphetamine Addiction

Before his addiction, Richard Fee was a popular college class president and aspiring medical student. "You keep giving Adderall to my son, you're going to kill him," said Rick Fee, Richard's father, to one of his son's doctors.

VIRGINIA BEACH — Every morning on her way to work, Kathy Fee holds her breath as she drives past the squat brick building that houses Dominion Psychiatric Associates.

Andrea Mohin/The New York Times

MENTAL HEALTH CLINIC Dominion Psychiatric Associates in Virginia Beach, where Richard Fee was treated by Dr. Waldo M. Ellison. After observing Richard and hearing his complaints about concentration, Dr. Ellison diagnosed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and prescribed the stimulant Adderall.

It was there that her son, Richard, visited a doctor and received prescriptions for Adderall, an amphetamine-based medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It was in the parking lot that she insisted to Richard that he did not have A.D.H.D., not as a child and not now as a 24-year-old college graduate, and that he was getting dangerously addicted to the medication. It was inside the building that her husband, Rick, implored Richard’s doctor to stop prescribing him Adderall, warning, “You’re going to kill him.”

It was where, after becoming violently delusional and spending a week in a psychiatric hospital in 2011, Richard met with his doctor and received prescriptions for 90 more days of Adderall. He hanged himself in his bedroom closet two weeks after they expired.

The story of Richard Fee, an athletic, personable college class president and aspiring medical student, highlights widespread failings in the system through which five million Americans take medication for A.D.H.D., doctors and other experts said.

Medications like Adderall can markedly improve the lives of children and others with the disorder. But the tunnel-like focus the medicines provide has led growing numbers of teenagers and young adults to fake symptoms to obtain steady prescriptions for highly addictive medications that carry serious psychological dangers. These efforts are facilitated by a segment of doctors who skip established diagnostic procedures, renew prescriptions reflexively and spend too little time with patients to accurately monitor side effects.

Richard Fee’s experience included it all. Conversations with friends and family members and a review of detailed medical records depict an intelligent and articulate young man lying to doctor after doctor, physicians issuing hasty diagnoses, and psychiatrists continuing to prescribe medication — even increasing dosages — despite evidence of his growing addiction and psychiatric breakdown.

Very few people who misuse stimulants devolve into psychotic or suicidal addicts. But even one of Richard’s own physicians, Dr. Charles Parker, characterized his case as a virtual textbook for ways that A.D.H.D. practices can fail patients, particularly young adults. “We have a significant travesty being done in this country with how the diagnosis is being made and the meds are being administered,” said Dr. Parker, a psychiatrist in Virginia Beach. “I think it’s an abnegation of trust. The public needs to say this is totally unacceptable and walk out.”

Young adults are by far the fastest-growing segment of people taking A.D.H.D medications. Nearly 14 million monthly prescriptions for the condition were written for Americans ages 20 to 39 in 2011, two and a half times the 5.6 million just four years before, according to the data company I.M.S. Health. While this rise is generally attributed to the maturing of adolescents who have A.D.H.D. into young adults — combined with a greater recognition of adult A.D.H.D. in general — many experts caution that savvy college graduates, freed of parental oversight, can legally and easily obtain stimulant prescriptions from obliging doctors.

“Any step along the way, someone could have helped him — they were just handing out drugs,” said Richard’s father. Emphasizing that he had no intention of bringing legal action against any of the doctors involved, Mr. Fee said: “People have to know that kids are out there getting these drugs and getting addicted to them. And doctors are helping them do it.”

“...when he was in elementary school he fidgeted, daydreamed and got A’s. he has been an A-B student until mid college when he became scattered and he wandered while reading He never had to study. Presently without medication, his mind thinks most of the time, he procrastinated, he multitasks not finishing in a timely manner.”

Dr. Waldo M. Ellison

Richard Fee initial evaluation

Feb. 5, 2010

Richard began acting strangely soon after moving back home in late 2009, his parents said. He stayed up for days at a time, went from gregarious to grumpy and back, and scrawled compulsively in notebooks. His father, while trying to add Richard to his health insurance policy, learned that he was taking Vyvanse for A.D.H.D.

Richard explained to him that he had been having trouble concentrating while studying for medical school entrance exams the previous year and that he had seen a doctor and received a diagnosis. His father reacted with surprise. Richard had never shown any A.D.H.D. symptoms his entire life, from nursery school through high school, when he was awarded a full academic scholarship to Greensboro College in North Carolina. Mr. Fee also expressed concerns about the safety of his son’s taking daily amphetamines for a condition he might not have.

“The doctor wouldn’t give me anything that’s bad for me,” Mr. Fee recalled his son saying that day. “I’m not buying it on the street corner.”

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Deering Banjo in a groove

It all started with the Kingston Trio.

One day in 1963, a San Diego kid and his friends got their hands on an album by the popular folk group. Greg Deering, 12 at the time, recalls studying the musicians on the cover and thinking, "I've got to get a banjo" — not out of love for the twangy instrument but mainly because his pal already had a guitar.

Fifty years later, Greg, his wife, Janet, and daughter Jamie preside over the bestselling banjo-making business in the U.S.

From a small Spring Valley factory, the Deering Banjo Co. is having its best year ever, defying the U.S. skills gap and California's manufacturing doldrums. It has expanded and trained its own workforce and expects to top $4 million in sales for the year ending June 30.

Greg Deering, 62, is the creative force behind the banjo design and the machinery used to build them. Janet Deering, 58, handles operations. Daughter Jamie Deering, 34, might have the most fun job: liaison with the company's big-name roster of professional musician customers.

Over the company's 38-year history, it has developed a loyal following from the likes of Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, the Dixie Chicks, Steve Martin and Mumford & Sons. Artists who play Deering banjos rolled up 13 Grammy nominations this year.

Two of Deering's fans illustrate how the company has managed to ride the banjo's renaissance as an instrument that crosses several musical genres as varied as country, reggae and indie rock.

"It's great working with a family company, an American company that really cares about the artist and making top-quality banjos," said Jeff DaRosa, singer, bassist and banjo player for the Dropkick Murphys, the Boston-based Celtic punk band.

Scotty Morris, lead vocalist of the contemporary swing revival band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, called Deering Banjo "the quintessential American instrument builder."

"When I call Deering, I talk to a Deering, and I like that almost as much as I love the instruments they build," Morris said.

That kind of reputation combined with specially crafted manufacturing tools and a skilled, veteran workforce has helped the company weather the recession and cheap competition from China. Deering has been able to expand its workforce in a way that other companies have not, growing to 42 workers from 30 a year ago.

Although the nation as a whole has been adding manufacturing jobs, all California has done is reduce the rate of decline, said John Husing, principal of Redlands-based Economics and Politics Inc.

The most recent statistics available show that California ended 2012 with 1.23 million manufacturing jobs, down sharply from nearly 1.9 million in 2000 and marginally below the nearly 1.24 million in December 2011.

If you ask the Deerings what their greatest challenge has been, the answer has been running the business in California, particularly during a run-up in workers' compensation insurance premiums that began under Gov. Gray Davis.

"That nearly put us out of business. We're still paying off some of those debts," Greg Deering said, adding that the company has remained in California mostly because the family considers it home.

"And because we are stubborn. We are so stubborn," Janet Deering said.

Greg Deering credits his father, who worked in the Southern California aerospace industry, for developing his eye for design.

"He started me out on model airplanes when I was 2," Deering said. "He turned me loose on my own, making models when I was 5. At age 7, he bought me my first set of drafting tools."

But it wasn't until he was a student at San Diego State that he realized just what his father had done for him. There was an assignment to cut a board of certain dimensions from a rough block of wood. He was done with the assignment quickly and began working on a banjo. Weeks later, he realized the other students were still working on the block of wood.

"That was when it clicked for me," he said, later adding, "my father was a very intense mentor for me. He was teaching me how to be a craftsman."

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Marmot researchers raise a toast for Groundhog Day

For most Americans, Groundhog Day is a quaint oddity or a movie starring Bill Murray. For Punxsutawney Phil Sowerby, the Pennsylvania critter who'll be dragged out of his burrow Saturday by men in top hats to look for his shadow, the day must be a supreme annoyance.

But for UCLA biologist Dan Blumstein, today's midwinter observance has become a reason to throw a party in honor of a creature that scientists have studied for decades.

Groundhogs are marmots — and through marmots, scientists hope to gain insight into the social behavior of animals, how they communicate and how their interactions influence the size of their population.

And so on Friday afternoon, Blumstein and a group of 30 or so fellow "marmotophiles" gathered in a spare hallway in the university's Life Sciences building and toasted groundhogs with cans of soda as a jazz mix played in the background.

"This is really the only holiday about animal behavior," Blumstein said.

Cat-sized, sharp-toothed groundhogs have a large range — from the Southeast up into the East Coast and Midwest, across Canada and even as far north as Alaska. Also known as woodchucks, they're the largest of the 14 or 15 marmot species (scientists are still debating the precise number).

Marmots are great animals for scientists to study, Blumstein said, because they're awake during the day and they "have an address," living in burrows that researchers can stake out over time. Blumstein, who has also studied the behavior of kangaroos, wallabies, hermit crabs, sea anemones, lizards, birds and people, has spent more than 13 years observing the colonies of yellow-bellied marmots who live at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Crested Butte, Colo.

During summers in the field, he and colleagues have trapped marmots live using horse chow as bait, tagged them with "earrings," taken samples of their blood, and recorded the size of colonies as they waxed and waned. During winter, Blumstein has held a hibernating marmot in a lab, its body temperature just a couple of degrees above freezing. "It's like a hairy rock," he said.

A groundhog roused from hibernation that appears to be "looking for his shadow" is probably displaying a typical pattern, Blumstein said. Marmots rouse periodically during the winter to urinate, and near the end of the season they start to emerge from their burrows and scope out their territory for potential mates. Males typically wake before females.

Over the years, the scientists' observations have helped them understand how certain behaviors translate into success, or failure, for the colonies. Lately, they've focused on how the higher temperatures brought on by climate change might improve, or hinder, the marmots' reproductive success.

As recently as 2010, earlier springs seemed to be helping the marmots in Colorado by increasing the length of time they could eat. But then a longer-than-usual winter caused the population to crash.

Blumstein and his team are curious to see how the marmots will fare this spring after a winter that produced less early-season snow. That snow acts as a blanket for the animals; without it, their burrows may not have maintained the right temperature for healthy hibernation.

"We want to understand the limits of their flexibility," Blumstein said. "At some point, there may be too little snow to keep them warm over the winter."

One of Blumstein's students said she was studying gene expression in the Colorado marmots. Another student, from South America, was studying how marmots react to climate. They don't have marmots — or Groundhog Day — in South America, she noted.

Matthew Petelle, a graduate student, said he was interested in "marmot personality." Some are bold and others are shy, he said, and he's trying to figure out why the shy ones survive and thrive.

"We're the enthusiasts," he said of the partygoers at the science building, admitting that he'd probably be talking about marmots even in the absence of Groundhog Day.

Behind Petelle glowered Two-Buck Chuck, a groundhog Blumstein spied near a Kansas road more than 15 years ago.

"I was trying to study it and I was thinking it was alive," he said. "Then I realized, it's really not moving."

The animal had been hit by a car and had crawled off the road to die. Blumstein brought the body back to his lab and stuffed it, with help from his wife.

Other examples of groundhog kitsch were on display as well. There was a photograph of an obese yellow-bellied marmot eating Lay's potato chips in a Utah woman's kitchen and a page from the News of the World tabloid headlined "ATTACK OF THE 100 FT MARMOT."

"We made that into T-shirts," Blumstein said.

The jovial professor said he got the idea for the annual shindigs from his mentor, Kenneth Armitage, a University of Kansas behavioral ecologist who led the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory marmot project for 41 years.

Armitage, now retired, said he always promised his guests he'd serve groundhog at the parties.

As in "ground hog," or sausage.

"They'd kind of look at you funny, at first," he said of his grad students. "Then you'd see this big flash of relief."

eryn.brown@latimes.com

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BlackBerry 10 installed base to reach 20 million in 2013, Windows Phone to reach 45 million

Despite showing clear promise and being a tremendous upgrade compared to earlier BlackBerry software, BlackBerry 10 didn’t receive the warmest welcome when it was unveiled earlier this week. At least one leading market research firm thinks BlackBerry (RIMM) has done enough to gain some good traction in 2013, however. ABI Research released new estimates this week projecting that the BlackBerry 10 installed base will reach 20 million by the end of 2013. The firm also says Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Phone platform, which struggled to garner interest in its early days, will see its installed base climb to 45 million by the end of the year.

[More from BGR: BlackBerry doesn’t need to catch up with Android and iOS overnight, it needs to live to fight another day]

“2013 should be seen as relative success for both Microsoft and BlackBerry,” ABI analyst Aapo Markkanen said. ”For the end of the year, we expect there to be 45 million Windows Phone handsets in use, with BlackBerry 10 holding an installed base of close to 20 million. Microsoft will also have 5.5 million Windows-powered tablets to show for it.”

[More from BGR: GS: Ignore the chatter, BlackBerry rebound is coming]

According to ABI, these figures will be “enough to keep developers interested” as the two companies battle for the No.3 spot in the smartphone war.

“The greatest fear for both Microsoft and BlackBerry is that the initial sales of their smartphones will disappoint and thereby kill off the developer interest, which then would effectively close the window of opportunity on further sales success. Our view is that the installed bases of this scale would be large enough to keep these two in the game,” Markkanen noted. ”It will definitely also help that both firms have actively kept the developers’ interest in mind while designing and rolling out their platforms.”

This article was originally published on BGR.com

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Washington wins 3 trophies at NAACP Image Awards

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kerry Washington was a triple threat at the NAACP Image Awards.

The star of ABC's "Scandal" picked up a trio of trophies at the 44th annual ceremony: outstanding actress in a drama series for "Scandal," supporting actress in a motion picture for "Django Unchained" and the President's Award, which is given in recognition of special achievement and exceptional public service.

"This award does not belong to me," said Washington, who plays a slave separated from her husband in "Django Unchained," as she picked up her first trophy of the evening for her role in the film directed by Quentin Tarantino. "It belongs to our ancestors. We shot this film on a slave plantation, and they were with us along every step of the way."

Washington, who plays crisis management consultant Olivia Pope on "Scandal," serves on President Barack Obama's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

Don Cheedle was awarded the outstanding actor in a comedy series trophy for his role as a slick management consultant in Showtime's "House of Lies."

"This doesn't belong just to me, but I am taking it home tonight," joked Cheedle.

A few winners weren't present at the Shrine Auditorium to pick up their trophies, including Denzel Washington for outstanding actor in a motion picture for "Flight," Viola Davis for outstanding actress in a motion picture for "Won't Back Down" and Omar Epps for supporting actor in a drama series for Fox's "House."

"Red Tails," the drama about the Tuskegee Airmen, was honored as outstanding motion picture.

"Look! I beat Quentin Tarantino," beamed "Red Tails" executive producer George Lucas as he accepted the award.

LL Cool J, who was honored as outstanding actor in a drama series for CBS' "NCIS: Los Angeles," dedicated his trophy to fellow nominee Michael Clarke Duncan, "The Green Mile" and "The Finder" actor who died last year.

"I wish his family well," said LL. "Let's give it up for him."

Gladys Knight sang during the in memoriam segment, but the beginning of her performance wasn't heard on the live NBC broadcast because of a technical glitch.

Sidney Poitier presented Harry Belafonte with the Spingarn Award, which honors outstanding achievement by an African American. His honor was followed by a serenade from Wyclef Jean and Common.

Other winners at the ceremony hosted by talk show host Steve Harvey included Loretta Devine as supporting actress in a drama series for "Grey's Anatomy," Cassi Davis as outstanding actress in a comedy series and Lance Gross as outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series for TBS' "Tyler Perry's House of Payne."

The Image Awards are presented annually by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the group's members select the winners.

___

Online:

http://www.naacpimageawards.net

___

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang

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Ferrol Sams, Doctor Turned Novelist, Dies at 90

Ferrol Sams, a country doctor who started writing fiction in his late 50s and went on to win critical praise and a devoted readership for his humorous and perceptive novels and stories that drew on his medical practice and his rural Southern roots, died on Tuesday at his home in Lafayette, Ga. He was 90.

The cause, said his son Ferrol Sams III, also a doctor, was that he was “slap wore out.”

“He lived a full life,” his son said. “He didn’t leave anything in the tank.”

Dr. Sams grew up on a farm in the rural Piedmont area of Georgia, seven mud-road miles from the nearest town. He was a boy during the Depression; books meant escape and discovery. He read “Robinson Crusoe,” then Mark Twain and Charles Dickens. One of his English professors at Mercer University, in Macon, suggested he consider a career in writing, but he chose another route to examining the human condition: medical school.

When he was 58 — after he had served in World War II, started a medical practice with his wife, raised his four children and stopped devoting so much of his mornings to preparing lessons for Sunday school at the Methodist church — he began writing “Run With the Horsemen,” a novel based on his youth. It was published in 1982.

“In the beginning was the land,” the book begins. “Shortly thereafter was the father.”

In The New York Times Book Review, the novelist Robert Miner wrote, “Mr. Sams’s approach to his hero’s experiences is nicely signaled in these two opening sentences.”

He added: “I couldn’t help associating the gentility, good-humored common sense and pace of this novel with my image of a country doctor spinning yarns. The writing is elegant, reflective and amused. Mr. Sams is a storyteller sure of his audience, in no particular hurry, and gifted with perfect timing.”

Dr. Sams modeled the lead character in “Run With the Horsemen,” Porter Osborne Jr., on himself, and featured him in two more novels, “The Whisper of the River” and “When All the World Was Young,” which followed him into World War II.

Dr. Sams also wrote thinly disguised stories about his life as a physician. In “Epiphany,” he captures the friendship that develops between a literary-minded doctor frustrated by bureaucracy and a patient angry over past racism and injustice.

Ferrol Sams Jr. was born Sept. 26, 1922, in Woolsey, Ga. He received a bachelor’s degree from Mercer in 1942 and his medical degree from Emory University in 1949. In his addition to his namesake, survivors include his wife, Dr. Helen Fletcher Sams; his sons Jim and Fletcher; a daughter, Ellen Nichol; eight grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.

Some critics tired of what they called the “folksiness” in Dr. Sams’s books. But he did not write for the critics, he said. In an interview with the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, Dr. Sams was asked what audience he wrote for. Himself, he said.

“If you lose your sense of awe, or if you lose your sense of the ridiculous, you’ve fallen into a terrible pit,” he added. “The only thing that’s worse is never to have had either.”

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Gordon Brush plant owner bristles at red tape tying up expansion

Ken Rakusin is frustrated.

You would be too.

Since 2009, the owner of Gordon Brush Manufacturing Co. has been trying to expand his 51,000-square-foot City of Commerce factory by 20,000 square feet. That would mean a larger factory floor, more office space for the engineers who work with customers to design new products, conference rooms, a spacious cafeteria.

It would mean room to expand beyond Rakusin's current workforce of 85. More sales. Higher payroll. More property tax, sales tax, income tax. A $1.5-million investment in construction alone.

Four years on, and he's still trying. "I've almost given up," Rakusin, 61, told me one day recently as we toured the plant. "For the life of me, I can't understand it. If I rented out the building and moved to Nevada, they'd welcome me there with open arms."

The glitch apparently has something to do with a provision of the Los Angeles County building and fire code that would be affronted by Rakusin's construction plan. Before we get to the details, let's recognize that his experience underscores a major flaw in California's business development program, such as it is. Call it the missing middle: No one has the responsibility to mediate among various code and regulatory agencies in cases where it might make sense to work around the rules in a rule book to enable a California manufacturer to remain in place and even expand.

In the case of Gordon Brush, the City of Commerce and the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. have each taken a crack at finding a way around the fire code. "I've asked every question possible, and the answers come back every time: 'Nope,'" Rakusin says.

He echoes other small-business owners in observing that California isn't even organized to clue them in on the pro-business programs it does offer. Rakusin recalls that at an industry conference during the depths of the 2008 recession, a brush maker from Missouri told him about that state's innovative "workshare" program, through which the state paid some of the wages of skilled workers to tide companies over the slump and keep layoffs to a minimum.

Rakusin wondered if California had a similar program, only to discover that it did — and had pioneered the concept! "But nobody knew about it here," he says. "How come I had to learn about it from someone from Missouri?" (The California program helped Rakusin keep some workers through the most recent recession that the company could not afford to lose for the long term.)

What's at risk is a distinguished Southern California business with a veteran force of skilled workers earning as much as $20 an hour, plus medical benefits and a 401(k) plan. Gordon Brush was founded in 1951 in Los Angeles and acquired in 1974 by William Loitz, a McDonnell Douglas engineer who had helped put a man on the moon and figured that was capstone enough to anyone's aerospace career, as Rakusin recalls.

By 1989 the business was in trouble. Rakusin was an executive at Xerox in El Segundo looking for a new challenge, but when he first met with Loitz he was doubtful. "I think you'll be able to fix this," Loitz told him. Rakusin thought at first, "I belong at Xerox," then decided he'd be a fool to turn down the gamble of a new career. In a year he had doubled Gordon's profit and by 2010 he had bought out the last of the Loitz family's interest. The company moved to its Commerce location in 1998.

You may think the brush business is simple and low-tech, but that's not true even if all you know about it is paintbrushes. There are cheap paintbrushes and expensive ones, brushes for house painters and portrait artists, all requiring different shapes, sizes and bristles. There are cheap cosmetic brushes made from white goat hair and artist's brushes made from blue squirrel fur, which costs $5,000 a pound.

"We've sent brushes to the moon and Mars," Rakusin told me, describing a contract from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to equip the Mars and lunar rovers with stainless steel brushes for sweeping clean their collection scoops. "A guy came over from JPL and said, 'We need three — one to go up and two for testing.'" His finished products were nestled like precious jewels or sensitive explosives in a suitcase with foam padding so they wouldn't be jostled on their way to La Cañada Flintridge.

The factory floor is studded with huge half-million-dollar, computer-driven machines from Germany, Italy and Belgium. But despite what you may have heard, robots aren't perfect. Often there's no substitute for a human eye and hand to put the finishing touches on a product or to fix a flaw.

The bestselling brush Gordon makes is a hand-held, all-purpose one made of wood veneer, which the factory can turn out at the rate of 30,000 a day. It uses robot machines to drill holes in the 8-inch handles and fill them with tufts of wire, watched over by a single operator per shift. ("This is how I compete with China," Rakusin says.)

At the other end of the scale are custom and one-off items that Gordon Brush makes for NASA, for the semiconductor industry, for the Pentagon — you'd be amazed at who needs a brush with a unique design. For example, the Army: As Rakusin tells the story, it was discarding the gun barrels of its Abrams tank after their bores got too encrusted with soot.

"They were throwing them away at $150,000 each, until somebody said, 'Can't we clean them instead?'" The Pentagon had three teams of engineers working with three brush companies to come up with a solution. Gordon won the contract with a bulbous design made of heavy plastic with ranks of short wire bristles — $150 each to save gun barrels worth a thousand times as much.

Rakusin's decision to expand the plant in 2009 came as the economic recovery got underway. His idea was to add a two-story annex on one side of the factory, with room for an expanded employee cafeteria and more office space. That would free up as much as 20,000 square feet for manufacturing. He would also push his loading docks out into his parking lot for an additional 4,500 square feet of warehouse.

In the beginning, things moved fast. The Commerce planning commission gave zoning approval in January 2011, the county fire department asked for some minor changes in February, then electrical approvals followed, as well as assents from Southern California Edison and the railroads whose infrastructure abuts the property.

Then, in May 2011, the county fire marshals objected that the proposed expansion violated fire code provisions governing the size of a building relative to its lot.

And that was that.

"You're dealing with absolutes," says Alex Hamilton, the City of Commerce's top business development official. "It's a building and fire code issue."

He says the project sailed through the city's planning process — "from a zoning perspective it looked fine" — but the fire code was out of the city's jurisdiction. Hamilton says fire officials tried to find a way around the code restrictions but couldn't. "This received attention at the highest levels," he says. (Fire Department officials didn't return my calls.)

The L.A. County Economic Development Corp. ran into the same roadblock, says Barbara Levine, the LAEDC's regional officer for the City of Commerce. Rakusin "was talking to the right people," she says. He just wasn't getting the right answers.

It's conceivable that the fire code provision at issue in Rakusin's expansion has such important safety implications that what it says goes. But it's also possible that the problem is that every agency sees his issue from within its own sandbox, because no one in state or local government is entrusted with the power to bring them together and make a beach.

Rakusin says he receives "one letter a week" from economic development agencies in other states. They don't tell him anything he doesn't already know. He owns a factory in Wisconsin, where the purchase of factory equipment is exempt from sales tax; in Commerce, a $1-million machine will cost him an extra $90,000 in state and local levies.

Throughout his ordeal, Rakusin got the strong impression that things might have gone a little better if he was seriously threatening to leave the state. That's a dangerous impression to give a business owner, especially a manufacturer already sensitive about being ignored.

"Manufacturing gets no attention, but it's the most consistent job creator there is," he says, "and this is already the most expensive place to do it." Are these the businesses California should be taking for granted?

Michael Hiltzik's column appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Reach him at mhiltzik@latimes.com, read past columns at latimes.com/hiltzik, check out facebook.com/hiltzik and follow @latimeshiltzik on Twitter.

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Mahony stripped of public church duties

Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez  on Thursday announced dramatic actions in response to the priest abuse scandal, saying that Cardinal Roger Mahony would no longer perform public duties in the church and that Santa Barbara Bishop Thomas J. Curry has stepped down.

Gomez said in a statement that Mahony -- who led the L.A. archdiocese from 1985 to 2011 -- "will no longer have any administrative or public duties."

Gomez also announced the church has released a trove of confidential church files detailing how the Los Angeles archdiocese dealt with priests accused of molestation.

Gomez wrote in a letter to parishioners that the files would be disturbing to read.

"I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children. The priests involved had the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed," he wrote. "We need to acknowledge that terrible failure today."

Gomez's statement came a week after the release of internal Catholic church records. The records showed 15 years before the clergy sex abuse scandal came to light, Mahony and Curry discussed ways to conceal the molestation of children from law enforcement. Those records represent just a fraction of the files the church released Thursday. The Times is now reviewing those files.

DOCUMENT: Los Angeles Archdiocese priest abuse files

The records released last week offer the strongest evidence yet of a concerted effort by officials in the nation's largest Catholic diocese to shield abusers from police. The newly released records, which the archdiocese fought for years to keep secret, reveal in church leaders' own words a desire to keep authorities from discovering that children were being molested.

The records contain memos written in 1986 and 1987 by Mahony and Curry, then the archdiocese's chief advisor on sex abuse cases. In the confidential letters, Curry proposed strategies to prevent police from investigating three priests who had admitted to church officials that they had abused young boys.

Curry suggested to Mahony that they prevent the priests from seeing therapists who might alert authorities and that they give the priests out-of-state assignments to avoid criminal investigators. Mahony, who retired in 2011, has apologized repeatedly for errors in handling abuse allegations.

Gomez's letter detailed changes in the status of Curry and Mahony in the church.

"Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties. Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry has also publicly apologized for his decisions while serving as Vicar for Clergy. I have accepted his request to be relieved of his responsibility as the Regional Bishop of Santa Barbara,” Gomez wrote in a letter.

[Updated
at 9:44 p.m.: An archdiocese spokesman, Tod Tamberg, said that beyond cancelling his confirmation schedule, Mahony's day-to-day life as a retired priest would be largely unchanged. He resides at a North Hollywood parish, and Tamberg said he would remain a “priest in good standing” and continue to celebrate Mass there.]

The records were released hours after a judge signed an order requiring the church to do so.

In a written order, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Emilie H. Elias gave the church a Feb. 22 deadline to turn over about 30,000 pages of internal memos, psychiatric reports, Vatican correspondence and other documents.

“Let’s just get it done,” Elias said in court Thursday.

Her order brought to a close five and a half years of legal wrangling and delays and set the stage for a raft of new and almost certainly embarrassing revelations about the church’s handling of pedophile priests.

DOCUMENT: Los Angeles Archdiocese priest abuse files

The files Elias ordered released are the final piece of a landmark 2007 settlement between the archdiocese and about 500 people who said clergy abused them. As part of that $660-million settlement, the archdiocese agreed to hand over the personnel files of accused abusers. Victims said the files would provide accountability for church leaders who let pedophiles remain in the ministry; law enforcement officials said the records would be important investigative tools.

But the release was delayed for years by appeals and the painstaking process of reading and redacting 89 files, some hundreds of pages long. A private mediator in 2011 ordered the church to black out the names of victims and archdiocese employees not accused of abuse, saying he wanted to avoid “guilt by association.”

Earlier this month, at the urging of the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press, Elias ordered the names restored, saying the public had a right to know what Mahony and others in charge did about abuse. The church complained about the cost of restoring the redactions and suggested to the judge earlier this week that generic cover sheets for the files listing top officials and their dates of service should suffice.

After criticism from attorneys for the victims and the media, the church abandoned that plan and its lawyers said in court Thursday “anybody in a supervisory role” would be named in the documents. Elias’ order specified that the names of the archbishop, the vicar who handled clergy abuse, bishops and the heads of Catholic treatment centers for pedophiles be included.

Here is Gomez's full letter:

My brothers and sisters in Christ,

This week we are releasing the files of priests who sexually abused children while they were serving in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

These files document abuses that happened decades ago. But that does not make them less serious.

I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children. The priests involved had the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed.

We need to acknowledge that terrible failure today. We need to pray for everyone who has ever been hurt by members of the Church. And we need to continue to support the long and painful process of healing their wounds and restoring the trust that was broken.

I cannot undo the failings of the past that we find in these pages. Reading these files, reflecting on the wounds that were caused, has been the saddest experience I’ve had since becoming your Archbishop in 2011.

My predecessor, retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, has expressed his sorrow for his failure to fully protect young people entrusted to his care. Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties. Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry has also publicly apologized for his decisions while serving as Vicar for Clergy. I have accepted his request to be relieved of his responsibility as the Regional Bishop of Santa Barbara.

To every victim of child sexual abuse by a member of our Church: I want to help you in your healing. I am profoundly sorry for these sins against you.

To every Catholic in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, I want you to know: We will continue, as we have for many years now, to immediately report every credible allegation of abuse to law enforcement authorities and to remove those credibly accused from ministry. We will continue to work, every day, to make sure that our children are safe and loved and cared for in our parishes, schools and in every ministry in the Archdiocese.

In the weeks ahead, I will address all of these matters in greater detail. Today is a time for prayer and reflection and deep compassion for the victims of child sexual abuse.

I entrust all of us and our children and families to the tender care and protection of our Blessed Mother Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe and Our Lady of the Angels.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

RELATED:

L.A. church molestation records spark call for criminal inquiry

Steve Lopez: It's too late for Cardinal Roger Mahony's apologies

--  Harriet Ryan, Hector Becerra, Ashley Powers and Victoria Kim

Photo: Cardinal Roger Mahony in the entrance processional for the Mass for the Reception of Coadjutor Archbishop of Los Angeles Jose Gomez. Credit: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

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Sony ignites talk of PS4 unveil with Playstation meeting

TOKYO (Reuters) – Sony Corp will this month host its first major Playstation meeting in two years, sparking a flare-up in online speculation the Japanese consumer electronics giant is preparing to unveil the successor to its 70 million-selling PS3 games console.

Sony declined to say whether it would release a new product at the meeting in New York on February 20. “We will be talking about the Playstation business,” spokesman Masaki Tsukakoshi said on Friday. A Google search for “Sony Feb 20 Playstation” returned more than 7 million hits.

The last time Sony held a Playstation event, in January 2011, it presented a protoype of its handheld Vita console. Before that, it convened a gathering in 2005 two months after it first demonstrated the PS3 concept. A meeting in 1999 revealed designs for the PS2.

It has been more than six years since Sony launched the PS3 home console, a longer gap than between it and its PS2 predecessor, adding to the anticipation that it will soon disclose its next gaming concept.

Since Sony’s last home console launch, the games market has been transformed by the boom in smartphones and tablet computers that have wooed players with free or cheap games.

Sony and other console makers Nintendo Co Ltd and Microsoft Corp now have to contend with competition from hand-held devices made by Apple Inc, Samsung Electronics and others.

Analysts expect that tablets and other mobile devices will match the power and graphics of today’s games consoles within a few years.

Struggling under competitive pressure, Nintendo on Wednesday cut its sales target for the Wii U, successor to its 100 million-selling Wii, to 4 million machines by the end of March from its launch in November, compared with an earlier forecast for 5.5 million.

(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

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Appeals judges: Anti-paparazzi law appears legal

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An appeals panel says California's anti-paparazzi statute appears to be constitutional based on a brief filed by prosecutors.

A preliminary statement by three judges in Los Angeles requires a judge who dismissed charges aimed at a paparazzo who authorities say was driving recklessly to review his order. The judge may stick to his ruling, which would trigger a full appeal, or he could schedule further arguments on the case against freelance photographer Paul Raef.

Raef was the first person charged under the new law after a high-speed chase involving Justin Bieber last year.

Superior Court Judge Thomas Rubinson dismissed two charges in November, ruling the law is too broad and is unconstitutional.

Raef's attorney David S. Kestenbaum says he is asking Rubinson to stand by his ruling and allow a full appeal.

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Insurance Industry Report Faults High Fees for Out-of-Network Care

Michael Nagle for The New York Times

Angel Gonzalez, 36, faced huge bills after emergency gallbladder surgery, despite having good insurance coverage. “I was on the hook for more than I made in a year.”

Just over a year ago, Angel Gonzalez, 36, awoke with searing chest pain at 2 a.m. A friend drove him to the closest emergency room.

Though he was living on $18,000 a year as a graduate student, Mr. Gonzalez had good insurance and the hospital, St. Charles in Port Jefferson, N.Y., was in his network. But the surgeon who came in to remove Mr. Gonzalez’s gallbladder that Sunday night was not.

He billed Mr. Gonzalez $30,000, and an assistant billed an additional $30,000. Mr. Gonzalez’s policy covered out-of-network providers, but at a rate it considered appropriate: $2,000. “I was on the hook for more than I made in a year,” Mr. Gonzalez said.

A health insurance industry report to be released on Friday highlights the exorbitant fees charged by some doctors to out-of-network patients like Mr. Gonzalez. The report, by America’s Health Insurance Plans, or AHIP, contrasts some of the highest bills charged by non-network providers in 30 states with Medicare rates for the same services. Some of the charges, the insurers assert, are 30, 40 or nearly 100 times greater than Medicare rates.

Insurers hope to spotlight a vexing problem that they say the Affordable Care Act does little to address. “When you’re out of network, it’s a blank check,” said Karen Ignagni, president and chief executive of AHIP. “The consumer is vulnerable to ‘anything goes.’ ”

“Unless we deal with cost, we won’t have affordability,” she added. “And unless we have affordability, we won’t have people participating” under the Affordable Care Act.

Among the fees on the report’s list are a $6,205 outpatient office visit to a doctor in Massachusetts for which Medicare would have paid $152; a $12,000 bill for examining a tissue specimen in New York for which Medicare would have paid $128; and a $48,983 surgeon’s fee for a total hip replacement in New Jersey that Medicare would have reimbursed at $1,543. Many of the highest billers were in New York, Texas, Florida and New Jersey.

Elisabeth R. Benjamin, co-founder of the Health Care for All New York coalition, who is often at odds with the insurance industry, said that “is one area we totally agree on.” She continued, “Out-of-network billing is just out of control.”

Even when out-of-network fees are compared with average commercial insurance reimbursements, which are usually greater than Medicare, she said, “It’s pretty outrageous.”

Doctors say the report is skewed because it focuses on a few dozen cases of overcharging that are not representative of their billing. In response to the insurers’ report, the American Medical Association noted on Thursday that a recent analysis found that doctors’ services account for just 16 percent of health care costs.

“There are outliers in every profession, in every business,” said Dr. Andrew Y. Kleinman, a plastic surgeon who is vice president of the Medical Society of the State of New York.

Dr. Kleinman also noted that insurers had effectively shifted the costs of out-of-network care onto patients by changing reimbursement formulas. Instead of the rates commercial insurers usually pay doctors, insurers increasingly are basing their out-of-network payments on Medicare rates, usually far lower.

A growing number of high-end, flexible health plans offer policies that cover outside providers at, for example, 140 percent of Medicare. “They’re selling you an insurance product you can’t use,” Dr. Kleinman said. “You’re buying an insurance policy where the out-of-network benefit is worthless.”

The industry’s own report suggests that using Medicare rates as a benchmark will lead to patients’ picking up much more of the cost for out-of-network care, whether they carefully select a specialist or, as in the case of Mr. Gonzalez and many others, have no choice in the matter.

Had Mr. Gonzalez been 65 or older, Medicare would have paid only $958 for the surgery. The average commercial price is $12,292, according to FAIR Health, an independent nonprofit group that tracks information on health care costs.

But Mr. Gonzalez’s health plan, United Healthcare, determined the fee should be $1,273, of which the company paid $838. Mr. Gonzalez filed appeals, which were rejected. He then contacted Community Health Advocates at the Community Service Society of New York for help, and the group’s caseworkers negotiated with the surgeon on his behalf.

After months of wrangling, the surgeon agreed to accept a significantly reduced payment: $340.

Consumer advocates and health insurance executives are calling for greater transparency in health care pricing, including upfront disclosure of prices of medical procedures and services.

“The health care industry can give you an estimate, just like any other industry,” said Carrie H. Colla, an assistant professor at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, noting that the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center has a patient price estimator online.  

“It’s just not current practice right now,” Dr. Colla said. “Sometimes a doctor won’t even know. The patient really has to push for it.”

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Hackers target Western news organizations in China

More than 30 journalists and executives at Western news organizations in China, including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, have had their computers hacked, according to the news organizations and a security firm that monitors such attacks.

Over the last four months, the hackers managed to infiltrate the Times' computers, the newspaper reported Thursday. It said hackers had penetrated its computers and obtained passwords for reporters and other employees.

The hackers have been blocked and security tightened to prevent another attack, which followed an investigation by the paper into finances of relatives of Wen Jiabao, China's premier.

Mandiant Corp., a security firm brought into the case by the Times, said it found that hackers using techniques associated with the Chinese military stole emails, contacts and files from 30 journalists and executives and maintained a short list of journalists whose accounts have been repeatedly attacked.

That finding, first reported in the New York Times, was part of a December report that was expected to be made public soon, a Mandiant spokeswoman said Thursday.

The Wall Street Journal said that it too had been targeted by Chinese hackers.

Paula Keve, spokeswoman for the Journal's parent company, Dow Jones & Co., said: "Evidence shows that infiltration efforts target the monitoring of the Journal's coverage of China, and are not an attempt to gain commercial advantage or to misappropriate customer information."

Bloomberg News was targeted as well — after it published an article June 29 about the wealth of relatives of Xi Jinping, the current general secretary of the Communist Party and the person expected to become president in March. No computer breach took place.

"Our security was not compromised," Ty Trippet, a spokesman for Bloomberg, said Thursday.

"Newspapers and journalists are high-value targets," said James Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International studies. "They have really good sources, and they don't publish everything."

But they are just one target in many. Cyber-security experts say the United States has become increasingly vulnerable to foreign hackers who could target the nation's power grid, gas pipelines and other crucial infrastructure.

Those same hackers routinely and aggressively break into a wide range of corporate America's computers, including those of oil and financial companies.

Yet corporations have blocked legislation on Capitol Hill that would require higher standards to protect against breaches, saying it would be too costly and burdensome.

The full extent of how deeply hackers have penetrated into corporate America is not known. Companies are usually reluctant to talk publicly about attacks or to share information with the government.

"We know that every Fortune 500 company has had a problem, and probably every Fortune 1,000 company has had a problem too," Lewis said.

High-profile attacks like the ones that targeted Internet search giant Google Inc. three years ago may make it seem as if computer networks in the U.S. are under rising attack, but Lewis said networks are just under "sustained" attack.

"It's as bad as it can be. What's happening is that people are noticing it. That's a big change," Lewis said. "Four years ago nobody could spell cyber-security. Now everyone's waking up to the fact that the networks we depend on are totally insecure."

Cybersecurity experts said they are optimistic that the U.S. government is developing a cyber arsenal capable of repelling attacks.

Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute, said the Defense Department has a growing ability to defend against sophisticated attacks — to protect crucial infrastructure and the Defense Department itself. It also has developed a "cyber offense," the ability to "project power" and to carry out sophisticated attacks itself, Paller said.

The hackers routed their attacks through computers at U.S. universities, according to the New York Times. Hackers installed malicious software that allowed them to enter the newspaper's computers. The software, known as malware, was "identified by computer security experts as a specific strain associated with computer attacks originating in China," the newspaper said.

Chinese officials denied they were responsible.

"Chinese laws prohibit any action including hacking that damages Internet security," China's Ministry of National Defense told the New York Times. It added: "To accuse the Chinese military of launching cyber attacks without solid proof is unprofessional and baseless."

Eileen M. Murphy, the Times' vice president for corporate communications, said Thursday the newspaper stood by the story.

michael.muskal@latimes.com

jessica.guynn@latimes.com

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Bell city clerk testifies signatures on documents were forged

A key prosecution witness in the Bell corruption case testified Wednesday that signatures on city contracts, minutes for council meetings, agendas and even resolutions were forged.

Bell City Clerk Rebecca Valdez's testimony could bolster the defense's argument that record-keeping in Bell was so sloppy that it would be difficult to prove that six former council members inflated their annual salaries to nearly $100,000 by serving on boards and commissions that met for a few minutes, if ever.

On her third day on the witness stand, Valdez said she noticed the forgeries in 2010 when pulling together records requested by investigators looking into possible wrongdoing. She said she never looked into the forgeries, and didn't make a list of the questionable documents.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy ordered Valdez to look through the paperwork being used as exhibits for the trial.

After thumbing through binders filled with documents from 2005 to 2010, the city clerk said she detected about eight agendas from 2005 to 2006 that had forged signatures.

"It looks like R Valdez, but that's not the way I sign," Valdez said of the name written in cursive. She said the forgery appeared to be the work of her predecessor, Theresa Diaz.

"That appears to be her handwriting?" defense attorney Alex Kessel asked Valdez.

"Yes."

"So from your knowledge of her penmanship you believe she signed your name?"

"Yes."

As the city clerk, Valdez was responsible for keeping accurate records of public meetings but her testimony has revealed that she signed minutes for meetings she didn't attend, sometimes made mistakes in her records and for three years was the clerk in name only, performing almost none of the required duties.

"Forgery is another area that questions the legitimacy and accuracy of the minutes and agenda which is the cornerstone of the district attorney's argument that no work was being done," Kessel told The Times.

The prosecution has used many documents signed by Valdez to illustrate that Luis Artiga, Victor Bello, George Cole, Oscar Hernandez, Teresa Jacobo and George Mirabal did little work when it came to the authorities that beefed up their paychecks.

Among those is the Solid Waste and Recycling Authority, which Deputy Dist. Atty Edward Miller has labeled a "sham."

On Wednesday Miller read the ordinance for that authority, which said it could be created "for the purpose of acquiring, constructing, maintaining or operating an enterprise for the collection, treatment or disposal of waste."

Miller then asked Valdez: "Have you seen an enterprise for the collection, treatment or disposal of waste in the city of Bell?"

"No," she replied.

Defense attorneys have attempted to pin much of the city's alleged corruption on former City Administrator Robert Rizzo. Valdez said Rizzo expected people to do what he said and was a chronic micromanager.

"It was pretty well-known to the employees that important events that happened in your life, like going to school, having a baby or buying a house — he had to be the first one to find out," Valdez said. "If he found out through a second person or third person, the employee would kind of be in the doghouse.

"When I got married," she said, "he was the first one to know before any of my peers knew."

Valdez said Rizzo questioned her about a house she was thinking of buying and urged her to make a 20% down payment. When she told him she didn't have the money, Rizzo offered her a $48,000 loan, she said.

Prosecutors say her loan, along with dozens of others provided to city employees, was given without proper authorization.

Valdez, who was granted immunity for her testimony, said she processed the repayment of such loans. She also prepared salary contracts for the council members, as well as Rizzo. She said she was aware of Rizzo's salary before the news became public.

Valdez testified that during a July 2010 meeting requested by Times reporters, Artiga and Hernandez appeared shocked when they heard that Rizzo was making nearly $800,000.

She also recalled that Hernandez, "said something to the effect of 'To have a good city manager you have to pay him well.' "

corina.knoll@latimes.com

ruben.vives@latimes.com

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Timeline: From RIM to BlackBerry, a company in transition

(Reuters) – Research In Motion Ltd has launched its new line of re-engineered BlackBerry smartphones, taking the wraps off the long-delayed devices at a series of events around the world on Wednesday.

The company used the occasion to announce that it was changing its name to BlackBerry, hoping a new brand identity will polish its tarnished image and help give it a fresh start.

The company, which has steadily lost ground in the hyper-competitive market to Apple Inc’s iPhone and devices running Google Inc’s Android operating system, is gambling its future on the BlackBerry 10. It sees the new line as make-or-break – its best hope for a comeback in an industry it once dominated.

Here are important milestones in the company’s history:

February 1985 – Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin co-found Research In Motion as an electronics and computer science business based in Waterloo, Ontario, the Canadian university city where Lazaridis studied.

1989 – RIM develops a network gateway later introduced as RIMGate, a predecessor to its BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

1992 – Jim Balsillie joins RIM as co-CEO, mortgaging his house and investing $ 250,000.

1994 – RIM launches a handheld point-of-sale card reader, which verifies debit and credit transactions directly to a bank.

1995 – RIM builds its own radio modem for wireless email.

1997 – RIM lists on the Toronto Stock Exchange, raising more than $ 115 million.

January 1999 – RIM launches rebranded BlackBerry email service across North America, offering the first wireless device to synch with corporate email systems. Sales jump 80 percent to $ 85 million. The next year revenue reaches $ 221 million.

Late 1999 – The company lists its shares on Nasdaq, raising another $ 250 million. RIM introduces BlackBerry 850 Wireless Handheld, combining email, wireless data networks and a traditional “Qwerty” keyboard. Demand explodes.

Sept 11, 2001 – People trapped in New York’s World Trade Center use their BlackBerrys to communicate after cellular networks collapse.

November 2001 – NTP sues RIM for patent infringement, the start of a five-year legal tussle. Late in the battle, the U.S. Justice Department says a threatened BlackBerry shutdown would damage the public interest due to the government’s reliance on the system.

2002 – RIM adds voice transmission to the BlackBerry.

2004 – RIM’s subscriber base surpasses 1 million BlackBerry users.

March 2006 – RIM pays $ 612 million to settle NTP dispute.

January 2007 – Apple Inc’s Steve Jobs unveils first iPhone, and the company launches the BlackBerry competitor in June. Time magazine honors the phone as Invention of the Year.

October 2007 – RIM passes 10 million subscribers. News of a China distribution deal boosts shares, making it for a time the most valuable company in Canada by market capitalization.

November 2007 – Google’s open source Android platform is unveiled. It launches in October 2008.

May 2008 – RIM introduces the Bold, a major redesign and still one of its top-tier products. The new model matches the resolution, but not size, of Apple’s iPhone screen.

July 2008 – Apple opens App Store in 22 countries and releases iPhone 3G, preloaded with App Store support.

November 2008 – RIM launches BlackBerry Storm, its first touchscreen and keyboard-less device. The screen uses a tactile feedback technology known as haptics, allowing a user to click down to select actions. The model bombs.

April 2009 – RIM’s App World goes live.

June 2009 – Apple announces and releases iPhone 3GS.

June 2010 – RIM pays C$ 200 million for QNX Software Systems, getting an industrial-strength operating system used in massive Internet routers, nuclear power plants and car infotainment systems. In same month Apple launches iPhone 4.

August 2010 – RIM launches BlackBerry Torch, a touchscreen phone with slide-out keyboard and improved web browser.

Sept 27, 2010 – RIM announces the PlayBook tablet, running on a version of the QNX system.

December 2010 – RIM acquires user interface company The Astonishing Tribe.

February 2011 – Nokia, the world’s largest smartphone vendor by volume, abandons its Symbian operating system to form alliance with Microsoft Corp.

March 2, 2011 – Apple unveils iPad 2 and ships it later in the same month.

April 19, 2011 – RIM launches PlayBook in United States and Canada. Early reviews pan the tablet for lacking core BlackBerry functions such as email and organizer functions. The company says it plans to add them in February 2012.

April 28, 2011 – RIM slashes an already dismal financial forecast for current quarter but maintains a full-year earnings outlook of $ 7.50 a share.

June 16, 2011 – RIM misses its lowered quarterly revenue target, gives more limp forecasts and resets the full-year outlook to between $ 5.25 and $ 6 a share. It says it will slash more than 10 percent of its workforce and buy back stock.

July 12, 2011 – Executives deflect criticism at annual general meeting after an activist shareholder withdrew a motion to force co-CEOs Lazaridis and Balsillie to relinquish their other shared role as board chairmen.

Sept 6, 2011 – A second activist shareholder asks the board to wrest control from Lazaridis and Balsillie and consider RIM putting itself up for sale or spinning off units.

Sept 15, 2011 – RIM reports another poor quarter including a sharp drop in phone and tablet shipments. It points to the low end of latest full year earnings outlook.

Oct 10-13, 2011 – Millions of BlackBerry users on five continents are left without email, Internet and instant messaging service by a massive failure of RIM’s infrastructure.

Nov 29, 2011 – In an acknowledgement of its slipping grip on the corporate sector, RIM offers to manage rival devices including Apple’s iPhone and iPad.

Dec 2, 2011 – The company books a huge writedown on PlayBook inventory, which it is discounting heavily to provoke sales.

Dec 15, 2011 – RIM delays its QNX-based BlackBerry 10 phones until late 2012 and gives tepid short-term outlook. The co-CEOs agree to an immediate pay cut to $ 1 each.

Jan 22, 2012 – RIM says Lazaridis and Balsillie are stepping down from their shared roles as chief executives and chairmen roles they share. The company appoints Thorstein Heins as CEO and Barbara Stymiest as chair of the board.

March 29, 2012 – Heins promises a strategic overhaul as RIM reports a slump in BlackBerry shipments and says RIM will no longer issue financial forecasts.

May 29, 2012 – RIM says it has hired bankers to assist with a strategic review and warns that it will likely report a fiscal first-quarter operating loss.

June 28, 2012 – RIM delays BlackBerry 10 again, putting off the launch to early 2013.

Sept 24, 2012 – RIM’s Toronto-listed stock touches C$ 6.10, its lowest level in nearly a decade.

Sept 27, 2012 – RIM surprises investors with a narrower-than-expected loss and boosts its cash reserves, sparking a rally that will extend into late December.

Nov 12, 2012 – RIM says it will launch BlackBerry 10 on January 30.

Dec 21, 2012 – RIM shares plunge more than 20 percent on fears that a new fee structure for its high-margin services segment could put pressure on a business that has set the company apart from its competitors.

Jan 30, 2013 – Heins formally unveils the BlackBerry 10 at a glitzy launch event in New York, with simultaneous gatherings in other cities around the world.

In conjunction with the launch, Heins announces that the company is changing its name to BlackBerry.

(Reporting by Alastair Sharp and Allison Martell; Editing by Peter Galloway)

Linux/Open Source News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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