FAA moving toward easing electronic device use

FILE - This Feb. 23, 2011 file photo shows United Airlines planes taxing at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco. The government is moving toward easing restrictions on the use of electronic devices by airline passengers during taxiing, takeoffs and landings. An industry-labor advisory committee was expected to make recommendations next month to the Federal Aviation Administration on easing the restrictions, but the FAA said Friday that deadline has been extended to September. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)

FILE - This Feb. 23, 2011 file photo shows United Airlines planes taxing at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco. The government is moving toward easing restrictions on the use of electronic devices by airline passengers during taxiing, takeoffs and landings. An industry-labor advisory committee was expected to make recommendations next month to the Federal Aviation Administration on easing the restrictions, but the FAA said Friday that deadline has been extended to September. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The government is moving toward easing restrictions on airline passengers using electronic devices to listen to music, play games, read books, watch movies and work during takeoffs and landings, but it could take a few months.

An industry-labor advisory committee was supposed to make recommendations next month to the Federal Aviation Administration on easing the restrictions. But the agency said in a statement Friday the deadline has been extended to September because committee members asked for extra time to finish assessing whether it's safe to lift restrictions.

"The FAA recognizes consumers are intensely interested in the use of personal electronics aboard aircraft; that is why we tasked a government-industry group to examine the safety issues and the feasibility of changing the current restrictions," the statement said.

The agency is under public and political pressure to ease the restrictions as more people bring their e-book readers, music and video players, smartphones and laptops with them when they fly.

Technically, the FAA doesn't bar use of electronic devices when aircraft are below 10,000 feet. But under FAA rules, airlines that want to let passengers use the devices are faced with a practical impossibility ? they would have to show that they've tested every type and make of device passengers would use to ensure there is no electromagnetic interference with aircraft radios and electrical and electronic systems.

As a result, U.S. airlines simply bar all electric device use below 10,000 feet. Airline accidents are most likely to occur during takeoffs, landings, and taxiing.

Cellphone calls and Internet use and transmissions are also prohibited, and those restrictions are not expected to be lifted. Using cellphones to make calls on planes is regulated by the Federal Communications Commission. There is concern that making calls from fast-flying planes might strain cellular systems, interfering with service on the ground. There is also the potential annoyance factor ? whether passengers will be unhappy if they have to listen to other passengers yakking on the phone.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that a draft report by the advisory committee indicates its 28 members have reached a consensus that at least some of the current restrictions should be eased.

An official familiar with FAA's efforts on the issue said agency officials would like to find a way to allow passengers to use electronic devices during takeoffs and landings the same way they're already allowed to use them when planes are cruising above 10,000 feet. The official requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak by name.

FAA Administrator Michael Huerta told a Senate panel in April that he convened the advisory committee in the hope of working out changes to the restrictions.

"It's good to see the FAA may be on the verge of acknowledging what the traveling public has suspected for years ? that current rules are arbitrary and lack real justification," Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., one of Congress' more outspoken critics of the restrictions, said in a statement. She contends that unless scientific evidence can be presented to justify the restrictions, they should be lifted.

Edward Pizzarello, the co-founder of frequent flier discussion site MilePoint, says lifting the restriction is "long overdue."

"I actually feel like this regulation has been toughest on flight attendants. Nobody wants to shut off their phone, and the flight attendants are always left to be the bad guys and gals," said Pizzarello, 38, of Leesburg, Va.

Actor Alec Baldwin became the face of passenger frustration with the restrictions in 2011 he was kicked off a New York-bound flight in Los Angeles for refusing to turn off his cellphone. Baldwin later issued an apology to fellow American Airlines passengers who were delayed, but mocked the flight attendant on Twitter.

"I just hope they do the sensible thing and don't allow people to talk on their cellphones during flight," said Pizzarello, who flies 150,000 to 200,000 miles a year. "There are plenty of people that don't have the social skills necessary to make a phone call on a plane without annoying the people around them. Some things are better left alone."

"It'll be nice not to have to power down and wait, but it never really bothered me. As long as they don't allow calls I'll be happy," said Ian Petchenik, 28, a Chicago-based consultant and frequent flier.

Airline consultant Robert Mann said the biggest benefit would come on short flights, where passengers would have much more time to use the devices since they are above 10,000 feet for a shorter period of time. That would ultimately give the airlines more time to sell stuff ? whether that's Wi-Fi or movies and TV shows on demand.

Henry Harteveldt, an analyst with Hudson Crossing, said airlines would only profit if the FAA also amended the rules to allow passengers to access the Internet earlier ? something that is not being suggested.

"Unless the FAA is considering relaxing the rules on Wi-Fi access, this is not about making money. This is about keeping the passenger entertained," he said.

Heather Poole, a flight attendant for a major U.S. airline, blogger and author of the novel "Cruising Attitude," said easing the restrictions would make flight attendants' jobs "a whole lot easier."

There is a lot of pressure for airlines to have on-time departures, she said. Flight attendants are dealing with an "out-of-control" carry-on bag situation and then have to spend their time enforcing the electronics rule.

"These days, it takes at least five reminders to get people to turn off their electronics, and even then, it doesn't always work," Poole said. "I think some passengers believe they're the only ones using their devices, but it's more like half the airplane doesn't want to turn it off."

But there is concern about whether easing restrictions will result in passengers becoming distracted by their devices when they should be listening to safety instructions.

On a recent flight that had severe turbulence, a business class passenger wearing noise-canceling headphones missed the captain's announcement to stay seated, Poole recalled.

"Takeoff and landing is when passengers need to be most aware of their surroundings in case ? God forbid ? we have to evacuate," she said. "I don't see that guy, or any of the ones like him, reacting very quickly."

___

Mayerowitz reported from New York.

___

Follow Joan Lowy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-06-21-US-Cellphones-Planes/id-81a5941d7e5a47ae84f396f7fe8d18ca

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94% Blancanieves

All Critics (55) | Top Critics (15) | Fresh (51) | Rotten (3)

The Brothers Grimm would have been surprised, possibly amused.

A sensual and sophisticated retelling of a beloved fairytale re-imagined as a homage to European silent cinema, Spanish writer-director Pablo Berger's black-and-white Blancanieves will leave you transfixed.

Most films are experiences to be ignored or at best forgotten. "Blancanieves" is a little classic to be treasured.

It is a full-bodied silent film of the sort that might have been made by the greatest directors of the 1920s, if such details as the kinky sadomasochism of this film's evil stepmother could have been slipped past the censors.

Blancanieves, which won 10 Goyas (Spain's equivalent of the Oscars) and was a smash hit in its native Spain, has traces of a kinky undertone and an uncommon willingness to embrace the darkness inherent in this fairy tale.

As if bewitched, the legend of Snow White is transferred to Seville in the early twentieth century and transformed into high melodrama.

Blancanieves is painstakingly crafted, emotionally gripping at times, and more authentically Grimm than most interpretations, and it puts a slightly unsettling new spin on Prince Charming and the proverbial happily-ever-after ending.

The film is -- to understate the matter -- overconceptualized.

Like The Artist, Blancanieves is delightfully novel, but it also feels trapped by its innovative gimmickry.

A boldly conceived fairy tale from Spain

Succeeds in all its cinematic experiments

The story might be familiar, but Berger's film is so beautifully shot and so wonderfully scored - and so distinctively Spanish - that it stands as its own film.

Blancanieves holds to the structure, but not strictures, of the source fairy tale.

A new, purely silent movie from Spain that never once speaks and doesn't need to speak. What's more, it seems to get the infinite possibilities of silence, and how much passion can come from it.

Berger's film doesn't show loyalty to any traditional version of Snow White. Berger's Blancanieves takes a darker approach, which seems appropriate.

A completely enchanting fairy tale about the vicissitudes of fate, in live action and glorious black and white.

The fun in the Spanish "Blancanieves" is the way it plays with our expectations.

May not have much depth to its characters or particular surprise, but its lovely depiction of family's ability to harm and mend has the flair of flamenco and the sorrow of opera.

No, "Blancanieves" isn't subtle, but it's an unforgettable time at the movies.

Inspired filmmaking steeped in the imagery of silent film history, a dark Iberian strain of Roman Catholicism and the magic of fairy tales.

... lusty and heartfelt, fiery flamenco and spirited country jig. Don't go expecting a Disney-fied fable. Berger seasons with S&M and the kind of macabre touches you'd expect in vintage Browning or Bunuel.

If not for some faintly disturbing imagery and a pleasingly feminist heroine, you could mistake this for a movie actually made in the 1920s (and even those two factors weren't utterly unknown then).

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blancanieves/

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Google Street View Car Captures Google Street View Bike Captures Google Street View Car

"Oh, um... hey, Google Maps Car."

"Uh, hey, Google Maps Tricycle."

"...I can see you."

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"Like, right now. I can see you. It will be on Google Maps later."

"I know that. It's what I do."

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"..."

"Well?"

"...Probably."

Photos credit Google Maps via Google Street View World

Hat tip to Mark!

Source: http://jalopnik.com/google-street-view-car-captures-google-street-view-bike-531205395

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Report: Cyclist Jan Ullrich admits blood doping

BERLIN (AP) ? Jan Ullrich, the 1997 Tour de France winner, has admitted for the first time that he received blood-doping treatment from Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes during his career, according to an interview with a German magazine published Saturday.

Ullrich had previously acknowledged having unspecified "contact" with Fuentes, but went further in an interview with the weekly Focus.

"Yes, I received treatment from Fuentes," the German rider was quoted as saying.

Asked if he only engaged in blood doping with Fuentes, Ullrich replied that "the doctor's diagnosis says that." He said he couldn't remember how many times he had received treatment from Fuentes.

In February 2012, the Court of Arbitration for Sport banned Ullrich for two years for blood doping.

The CAS ruled that the German was "fully engaged" in Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes' doping program, exposed in the Operation Puerto probe. The court stripped him of his third-place finish at the 2005 Tour. Ullrich retired in 2007.

Ullrich didn't contest the CAS ruling, saying at the time that he wanted to "put an end to the issue."

IOC vice president Thomas Bach said the confession is "too little, too late."

"Jan Ullrich had his chance for a creditable admission a couple of years ago and he missed it," Bach said in an emailed statement. "Today's confirmation of some of the already well known and established facts does not help Jan Ullrich nor cycling."

The head of Germany's cycling union echoed that sentiment.

"He would have done himself and cycling a favor years ago with such a confession," Rudolf Scharping told German news agency dpa. "But this no longer has anything to do with cycling today."

In Saturday's interview, the 39-year-old Ullrich said that while he had made bad decisions during his career, "I did not harm or defraud anyone."

"Almost everyone took performance-enhancing substances then. I took nothing that the others didn't also take," he was quoted as saying. "For me, fraud starts when I gain an advantage. That wasn't the case. I wanted to ensure equality of opportunities.

"The issue is dealt with for me. I only want to look forward, and never again backward."

Germany's national anti-doping agency said it welcomed acknowledgement of past wrongdoing by athletes, but added that it hoped Ullrich would go beyond the interview and answer its questions.

The agency said in a statement that it would try to get in touch with Ullrich for "further leads and background" which might help its work.

Ullrich's interview comes after Lance Armstrong, the dominant cyclist of his generation, acknowledged in January that he doped for all seven of his Tour wins from 1999-2005. On three of those occasions, Ullrich finished second.

"I am no better than Armstrong, but no worse either," Ullrich was quoted as saying. "The great 'heroes' of earlier years are now people with failures that they have to come to terms with."

Earlier this year, Armstrong said doping became so routine it was "like saying we have to have air in our tires or water in our bottles."

Asked about that comment, Ullrich told Focus: "I can't understand that. I always knew that I was doing something forbidden and wrong."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/report-jan-ullrich-admits-blood-doping-091803638.html

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Nevada's governor shows GOP strength in states

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) ? When Republican governors in November gathered in Las Vegas to discuss how to recover from their party's latest electoral drubbing, the popular GOP governor of Nevada wasn't there.

Instead, Brian Sandoval was in Washington, D.C., meeting with Obama administration officials to seal the deal that made him the first Republican governor to expand Medicaid as part of the president's health care initiative.

It was part of the pragmatic, centrist, low-key approach that has kept Sandoval popular in a Democratic-trending state and makes him the heavy favorite in his re-election bid next year.

With all the hand-wringing about the future of the GOP, the party has an often-overlooked strength: popular governors like Sandoval who run most of the states in the nation, testing new policies, winning credit for the economic recovery and building records and expertise for possible runs at national office.

Partly due to the party's dominance in the 2010 election, Republicans hold 30 of the nation's 50 governorships.

"The larger the electoral arena, the worse the Republicans seem to do," said Eric Herzik, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, noting the GOP has lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections and blown a number of high-profile races.

"The one electoral arena that the Republicans have done fairly well in are the governorships," he said.

The 2010 wave ushered in a number of envelope-pushing conservatives. Some, like Florida's Rick Scott and Pennsylvania's Tom Corbett, are long-shots for re-election while others like Wisconsin's Scott Walker or Ohio's John Kasich have weathered early rough patches and are now doing well in the polls.

Sandoval offers a contrasting approach.

"He doesn't get boxed in or pinned down by labels. He's someone who's willing to set aside traditional boundaries if it's going to solve problems," said Greg Ferraro, a longtime Sandoval friend and adviser. "To me, he's the kind of Republican that's going to rebuild the party."

Growing numbers of migrants from the coasts and an expanding immigrant population have steadily pushed Nevada into the Democrats' column in presidential elections. But Sandoval has helped act as a GOP bulwark at the state level. He vetoed a bill to expand background checks for gun purchases as well as another to expand the period for voter registration and nixed a law to place calorie counts on chain restaurant menus.

He is so popular that Democrats have yet to field a challenger, and most analysts predict he will be handily re-elected.

But many of the things that have endeared Sandoval to Nevada voters would make him radioactive among the activists and interest groups who dominate national Republican politics. He supports abortion rights. Although he has refused to approve new taxes, he has twice extended what were supposed to be temporary taxes totaling more than $620 million.

This month, Sandoval signed a bill granting cards that permit driving to people in the country illegally.

"He's got a nice smile, a sunny disposition," said Chuck Muth, president of the Nevada conservative group Citizen Outreach and one of Sandoval's critics from the right. "But that's not something that's going to carry him very far if he ever gets into a competitive primary."

Sandoval had previously served as a state legislator and Nevada's attorney general and had a comfortable position as a federal judge when he agreed to run for governor in 2010. The incumbent, Republican Jim Gibbons, was badly tarred by a painfully public divorce case that included allegations of infidelity. Sandoval ousted him in the Republican primary and easily beat Rory Reid, son of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in the general election.

He is one of two Hispanic GOP governors elected that year, and he co-chairs a task force with his New Mexico counterpart, Susana Martinez, to recruit more Hispanic Republican candidates. But Sandoval only won 33 percent of the Hispanic vote, just three percentage points higher than Sharron Angle, the Republican challenger to Sen. Reid who campaigned on her stance on illegal immigration.

Sandoval is a halting public speaker and cautious politician. He frustrated many Nevada Republicans by only giving lukewarm support to his party's nominee, Mitt Romney, in the 2012 presidential election.

In many states, the governor has unrivaled power and ability to set the agenda. That's certainly true in Nevada, where the legislature meets for 120 days every two years. In the 2013 regular session, Sandoval came out on top, his $6.6 billion general fund budget proposal left mostly intact thanks to a GOP minority in both chambers that kept Democrats from a two-thirds vote margin needed to raises taxes.

But Sandoval came under criticism from both the right and left when just hours after the June 3 midnight deadline, he called lawmakers back into special session to act on five measures that died in the final hectic minutes ? including a sales tax increase in Clark County, where Vegas is located, to fund more police officers.

The Nevada Policy Research Institute, a conservative think tank, chided him for pushing the sales tax bill while abandoning education reforms that were rejected by Democrats.

Liberals also derided him for the special session, saying he should have pursued more tax hikes.

Sandoval also took heat earlier this year after a mentally ill man hospitalized at a Las Vegas psychiatric hospital was given a one-way bus ticket to Sacramento, Calif., where he knew no one. It prompted a weekslong investigation by The Sacramento Bee about "patient dumping." Sandoval eventually fired two staffers and ordered an independent review of practices at the hospital.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal civil rights suit this week on behalf of one patient, and city attorneys in two California cities have criminal investigations underway.

There is already speculation in Nevada that Sandoval, if re-elected, could challenge Reid in 2016, setting up a clash of the state's political titans. Reid and his hard-edged operatives have been relatively polite in discussing the governor, and some Democrats clearly respect Sandoval.

Billy Vassiliadis, a veteran Democratic operative, said the governor's low-key, bipartisan demeanor is a clear asset, but it remains to be seen whether that approach would resonate with the GOP's more aggressive, national approach.

"There's an evolution happening in the Republican Party that will largely determine whether a more moderate Republican like Brian Sandoval could stand on a national stage," he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nevadas-governor-shows-gop-strength-states-152516350.html

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Thankful Registry Is A Wedding Gift Registry For Thoughtful Couples

Registries present an etiquette quandary for engaged couples. Open one at a major retailer, fill it with suggestions from a checklist and you end up looking greedy (how many newlywed couples really need a gravy boat?). Skip the registry, and you risk receiving multiple toasters from well-meaning guests. Thankful Registry tackles that problem by re-imagining registries as a way for couples to sign up for a thoughtful selection of items while connecting with gift buyers.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/1VDAMzI8oM4/

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Government on offensive outside Syria's capital

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian government forces stepped up their attack against rebel strongholds north of the capital Damascus on Saturday, while opposition fighters declared their own offensive in the country's largest city Aleppo.

Both sides intensified operations as an 11-nation group that includes the U.S., dubbed the Friends of Syria, began meeting in Qatar to discuss how to coordinate military and other aid to the rebels seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on an extensive network of activists in Syria, said the shelling of the district of Qaboun has killed three children, including two from the same family, since Friday.

Activists reported heavy shelling on many fronts on districts north of Damascus, apparently an attempt to cut links between rebel-held districts that have served as launching pads for operations against the capital.

The Lebanese TV station Al-Mayadeen, which had a reporter embedded with Syrian government forces in the offensive, quoted a military official as saying that the operation aims to cut rebel supply lines, separate one group from another, and secure the northern entrances to the capital. The regime's forces have struggled for months to regain control of these suburbs.

The Observatory said the neighborhood was being attacked from several different sides, while the shelling has caused structural damage and started fires. Activists from Qaboun posted on Facebook that government forces had brought up new tanks to reinforce its positions outside the neighborhood, and the bombardment had brought buildings down.

The Observatory said rebels targeted a police academy in the nearby Barzeh area Saturday, pushing back against a government attempt to storm the neighborhood. One rebel was killed in overnight fighting, it said.

A recent declaration by the U.S. that it had conclusive evidence that President Bashar Assad's regime used chemical weapons on a small scale against opposition forces prompted Washington to authorize the arming of rebels, a major shift in policy. The decision also followed advances by the government forces aided by fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah.

Rebels say they have already received new weapons from allied countries? but not the U.S. ? that they claim will help them to shift the balance of power on the ground. Experts and activists said the new weapons include anti-tank missiles and small quantities of anti-aircraft missiles.

It was not clear if any of the new weapons have made it to the Damascus area. A spokesman for one of the main groups fighting outside of Damascus, the al-Islam brigade, said his group had none of the new weapons. The unnamed spokesman spoke to The Associated Press through Skype.

He said government forces were shelling Barzeh from Qasioun mountain overlooking Damascus. Syria's main Western-backed opposition group said Thursday that 40,000 civilians in the two northern districts of Damascus are suffering from shortages of food and medical supplies.

Rebels and government also clashed in and around the northern city of Aleppo, where government forces announced an offensive earlier this month. Activists said troops clashed in the southern neighborhoods of Rashideen and Hamdaniya and in the western suburbs.

The Observatory said rebels pounded a military academy in the area, causing a fire in the compound. There were no immediate reports of casualties. In Rashideen, rebel forces have pushed government forces out from parts of the neighborhood, according to the local Aleppo Media Center network and posts on Facebook.

A statement by a coalition of rebel groups, posted on the Center's page, declared that the fighters are launching a new operation to seize control of the western neighborhoods of Aleppo. Amateur showed what appeared to be intense government shelling of villages in the area.

On Saturday, a dozen shells from Syrian forces landed in a northern Lebanese border town, some landing near homes, causing a panic among residents, the Lebanese news agency reported.

Syria's official news agency said government troops were targeting a group of infiltrators across the border. It gave no further details.

Rockets from Syria fall regularly into towns and villages near the border. On Friday, a rocket slammed into a suburb of Beirut, bringing the war closer to Lebanon's bustling capital, the second in less than a month. No one claimed responsibility for that attack, but rebels in Syria have vowed to retaliate against Hezbollah's Beirut strongholds for its increasingly active role assisting Assad.

Syria's 2-year civil war has killed nearly 93,000 people. It increasingly pits Sunni against Shiite Muslims and threatening the stability of Syria's neighbors.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/government-offensive-outside-syrias-capital-113710792.html

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Senators urge inclusion of food safety in Smithfield review

By Doug Palmer

(Reuters) - A bipartisan group of 15 U.S. senators urged the Obama administration on Thursday to consider whether the proposed sale of Smithfield Foods Inc to the Chinese meat company Shuanghui International posed a threat to the U.S. food supply that could justify blocking the deal.

"We believe that our food supply is critical infrastructure that should be included in any reasonable person's definition of national security," the senators said in a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, whose department chairs the interagency panel that reviews foreign investment for national security threats.

Smithfield, based in Smithfield, Virginia, is the world's largest producer and processor of pork. Shuanghui is planning to acquire it for $4.7 billion in what would be the biggest takeover of a U.S. company by a Chinese firm.

"We strongly encourage you to include the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration in any CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) review of this transaction," the senators said.

The group included 15 of the 20 members of the Senate Agriculture Committee, including the Democratic chairman, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, and the panel's top Republican, Thad Cochran of Mississippi.

They said the Agriculture Committee had not taken a formal position on the proposed sale but planned to "further examine how this transaction is reviewed and how these transactions will be reviewed in the future," given the potential for other foreign purchases of U.S. food assets.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, were among the five Agriculture Committee members who did not sign the letter.

The CFIUS review process does not typically include either the USDA or FDA, although the statute allows the president to bring in additional agencies on a case-by-case basis.

In addition to Treasury, other CFIUS members include the Departments of Justice, Homeland, Security, Commerce, Defense, State and Energy as well as the offices of the U.S. Trade Representative and Science and Technology Policy.

The senators urged Lew to make the USDA one of the lead agencies in the Smithfield review and to consider "the broader issues of food security, food safety and biosecurity" posed by the proposed takeover.

They also suggested the U.S. government should require certain safeguards, if the deal was approved, to ensure Shuanghui complied with U.S. food safety and biosecurity standards.

"We welcome a full review and fair consideration of the Shuanghui-Smithfield combination from the U.S. government," a Smithfield spokeswoman said, noting the company would continue to collaborate with Congress and CFIUS.

"We believe the proposed combination does not present any national security concerns, is good for U.S. farmers and agriculture, and will advance U.S.-China relations," the spokeswoman said.

RISING 'TO OUR STANDARDS'

U.S. Treasury Department spokeswoman Holly Shulman declined to comment on the senators' letter, citing confidentiality requirements of CFIUS reviews.

"By law, information filed with CFIUS may not be disclosed by CFIUS to the public. Accordingly, the Department does not comment on information relating to specific CFIUS cases, including whether or not certain parties have filed notices for review," Shulman said.

Nancy McLernon, president of the Organization for International Investment, which represents foreign companies that invest in the United States, said she believed the Smithfield purchase would be approved and there was already no question that Shuanghui would have to abide by U.S. law.

"When foreign companies invest here, it's not a race to the bottom. It's about having them rise to our standards, because we have laws and regulations that they have to abide by. That's the price of entry into our market," McLernon said.

Treasury should respond quickly to the senators' letter so "the concerns don't spiral out any further," McLernon added.

CFIUS could sign off on the deal by mid-July if the companies satisfactorily answer all its questions in an initial 30-day review. But some analysts expect the investigation will go into a second phase, which could take up to 45 additional days.

(Reporting by Doug Palmer and Ros Krasny; Editing by Peter Cooney and Bill Trott)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senators-urge-inclusion-food-safety-smithfield-review-011910470.html

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Wright's two blasts power Mets past Braves

By GEORGE HENRY

Associated Press

Associated Press Sports

updated 9:44 p.m. ET June 20, 2013

ATLANTA (AP) - David Wright hit two solo homers, New York's bullpen pitched five-plus scoreless innings and the Mets overcame an injury to starter Jonathon Niese in a 4-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Thursday night.

Niese left the game in the fourth with left shoulder discomfort and the Mets trailing 3-2, but the Mets' bullpen shut down Atlanta for the next 5 2-3 innings.

Closer Bobby Parnell earned his 11th save in 14 chances by facing the minimum in the ninth, retiring Freddie Freeman and Justin Upton on groundouts and B.J. Upton on a lineout.

LaTroy Hawkins (2-0), New York's third pitcher, earned the victory after allowing two hits and striking out two in two innings.

The Mets have won four of six, thanks in part to a bullpen that's 1-0 with a 1.55 ERA over the last nine games.

Mike Minor (8-3) allowed nine hits, four runs and two walks in six-plus innings for Atlanta. The left-hander struck out six.

Wright, who went 3 for 4, has 32 homers against Atlanta, his most against any opponent, including 18 at Turner Field.

In his last 14 games overall, Wright is hitting .407 with four homers and eight RBIs since June 5. It was his 20th multihomer game and second this season.

Atlanta used four singles in the third to go ahead 3-1. Chris Johnson's RBI single scored Freeman from second and moved Justin Upton to third. Gerald Laird's RBI single drove in Upton.

Those runs came off Niese, who winced in the fourth after making a pitch to Tyler Pastornicky. Niese motioned to the dugout that he was hurt and was done for the night after manager Terry Collins visited the mound.

Niese gave up eight hits and three runs with five strikeouts in 3 1-3 innings.

Wright gave the Mets a 1-0 lead in the first with his 10th homer and led off the fourth with his 11th to cut Atlanta's lead to 3-2.

After Wright's second homer, New York loaded the bases with no out, but Minor escaped the jam on Juan Lagares' flyout and Omar Quintanilla's double play grounder.

Andrew Brown's pinch-hit homer to lead off the Mets' fifth tied to score at 3-all.

David Aardsma replaced Niese and pitched out of a jam with runners on first and second when Justin Upton lined out. After Hawkins faced four batters in the fifth and four in the sixth, Brandon Lyon faced the minimum in the seventh.

The Mets took a 4-3 lead in the top of the seventh. Omar Quintanilla doubled on the 10th pitch he saw from Minor and scored from second when pinch-hitter Josh Satin doubled down the right-field line to chase Minor.

Jordan Walden got the next six outs, facing the minimum, for Atlanta.

In the eighth against Lyon, Andrelton Simmons reached with one out on Wright's fielding error and advanced to third on Pastornicky's broken-bat single to right.

Josh Edgin ended the threat when Jason Heyward grounded out.

Luis Avilan faced the minimum for Atlanta in the ninth.

NOTES: Braves 3B Chris Johnson committed three errors, including two on the same play in the ninth. ... Niese's road ERA rose to 6.66 in five starts this year. ... On a bobble-head night for B.J. Upton, the promotion's namesake went 0 for 5 with two strikeouts. Upton, who signed a five-year $75.25 million contract that's the biggest in franchise history, is batting.169 in his first season with Atlanta ... Niese missed a turn in the rotation with tendinitis in his left shoulder late last month, but avoided the disabled list. He received 12 days of rest before making his next start June 9, a no-decision against Miami in which he allowed two earned runs in 6 2-3 innings.

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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/52270523/ns/sports-baseball/

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