Arianna Addresses U.S. Mayors: Country's Solutions To 'Come At Local Level'

Arianna and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi addressed the U.S. Conference of Mayors on Jan 18, challenging the nation's local leaders to become a voice for the people they represent.

In her speech, Arianna called on American mayors to become active members of their communities and address the growing gaps between the nation's rich and poor. She hit at the heart of what many consider to be an astounding trend in the US: the increasing downward-mobility of the American middle-class.

With an emphasis on Aol's Patch network of hyper-local sites, Arianna also told the conference of the growing need to address and cover the nation's often neglected poorest citizens.

In her blog post prior to the conference, Arianna explained why she feels the recovery of America's economy begins at the local level.

That's why I believe the solutions the country is so desperately looking for are going to come at the local level -- from our mayors and engaged citizens working with their communities. It's our cities, not the nation's capital, that are the real idea factory of our country. It's the Mayor's Mansion not the White House from which bold decision-making is likely to originate. It's from any house on your street not the House of Representatives where projects that will make your community a better place to live in are more likely to surface.

You can read her post in full, here.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/21/arianna-huffington-nancy-pelosi-mayors_n_1221594.html

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Wealthy hit the skids in Sundance doc 'Versailles'

Filmmaker Lauren Greenfield, left, and documentary subject Jacqueline Siegel, right, pose together at the opening night premiere of "The Queen of Versailles" at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

Filmmaker Lauren Greenfield, left, and documentary subject Jacqueline Siegel, right, pose together at the opening night premiere of "The Queen of Versailles" at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

In this image released by Sundance Film Festival, Jackie Siegel is shown with her children during the filming of a documentary, "The Queen of Versailles," being shown at the Sundance Film Festival. The festival begins Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Sundance Film Festival, Lauren Greenfield)

Filmmaker Lauren Greenfield is interviewed as she arrives for the opening night premiere of "The Queen of Versailles" at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

Filmmaker Lauren Greenfield arrives for the opening night premiere of "The Queen of Versailles" at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) ? Lauren Greenfield's Sundance Film Festival entry "The Queen of Versailles" tells the story of every American in danger of losing a home amid the economic crisis.

The difference is that the home in question was a 90,000-square-foot mansion inspired by the excesses of France's Palace of Versailles.

Greenfield's documentary chronicles the financial success of Florida time-share condominium entrepreneur David Siegel and his wife, Jackie, who set out to build the largest house in America at the height of the real-estate bubble.

When the bubble burst, the Siegels had the same rude awakening as millions of others: They had been living easy on borrowed money they now could not repay.

One of the opening-night films Thursday at the Sundance showcase for independent cinema, "Queen of Versailles" presents an intimate portrait of the Siegels' extreme wealth and the hard fall they took as the markets crashed and money dried up in 2008.

"It is a metaphor for what we have all gone through in the economic crisis, and that's what was really compelling to me about the story," Greenfield said in an interview Friday. "It's not a reality show, it's not a gotcha on the 1 percent. It's really looking at their life in the big, kind of epic size that it is, and having that be a window in which to kind of think about what happened to us all."

Greenfield, a photographer whose debut documentary "Thin" premiered at Sundance in 2006, met Jackie Siegel at a photo shoot for fashion designer Donatella Versace. Siegel, who says in the film that she used to spend $1 million a year on clothes, was one of Versace's best customers, and she and Greenfield hit it off right away.

As Siegel described her life ? flying with her eight children on a private jet, building the biggest home in the country ? Greenfield realized the family was an ideal subject for her long-term photographic project on wealth. Greenfield visited the Siegels to shoot photographs and eventually convinced them to let her document their lives and the construction of the house on film.

The documentary starts out like a twist on "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," revealing the splendor of the 26,000-square-foot home the Siegels occupied and the gaudy grandeur of the palace they were building that would be nearly four times bigger. Greenfield examines the family business, including its crown jewel, a new time-share tower in Las Vegas, and traces the self-made couple's humble origins before rising to wealth.

When the economy went sour, the Siegels allowed Greenfield to continue her shoot. The film follows them down as they are forced to sell assets, fire employees, fight to avoid foreclosure on their unfinished mansion and struggle to hold onto the Vegas tower.

The marriage grows shaky as the Siegels fight over money. Jackie is unable to rein herself in on a colossal Wal-Mart spending spree, while David balls out the family for leaving all the lights on and threatens to let the power company cut off their electricity.

Jackie Siegel attended the Sundance premiere, but her husband did not. David Siegel is suing Greenfield and the Sundance festival, claiming materials used to promote the documentary are defamatory. Greenfield said she could not comment about the lawsuit.

The indulgence of the Siegels' lives seems absurd, sparking hearty laughter at times from the Sundance audience at the film's premiere. David Siegel proudly proclaims that his reason for building his immense house is simply "because I can," while Jackie Siegel is shown dutifully trying to cut back on expenses by flying commercial and renting her own car, then learning to her surprise at the Hertz leasing counter that the vehicle doesn't come with a driver.

Yet despite their wealth and privilege, the Siegels are sympathetic figures. The strain of trying to hold his empire together becomes apparent on David Siegel's face as his interviews with Greenfield progress. Jackie Siegel visits an old friend in danger of losing her own modest house to foreclosure and sends her $5,000 to help fend off the bankers.

"It's got a human element that I think is unexpected for the viewers going in. I think they thought it was going to be a look at the rich or this kind of reality-show craziness about the building of the biggest house in America, and it starts that way and takes you in, and then takes you on this other path that's really about looking at the American dream ? both its virtues and its flaws, and how we all got caught up in that," Greenfield said.

"I remember David said to me in one of the interviews ? I keep thinking about this, and maybe I should have put it in the movie ? he said, 'Money doesn't make you happy. You just can be miserable in a better part of town.'"

___

Online:

http://www.sundance.org

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-01-20-Film-Sundance-Queen%20of%20Versailles/id-2b96d7cfd6c9499d92677cbb62c06f3a

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The Engadget Podcast is live tonight at 5PM!

The calm after the storm? No sir. CES may be over, but the tech news is still flowing like sweet, sweet strawberry wine. Tim and Darren are both in town for that little Apple event that unfolded earlier today, so they'll be doing a live, in-studio throw down with Brian, Engadget Podcast-style. Follow along in the chat, after the jump.

Continue reading The Engadget Podcast is live tonight at 5PM!

The Engadget Podcast is live tonight at 5PM! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/19/the-engadget-podcast-is-live-tonight-at-5pm/

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Apple announces free iBooks Author OS X app for publishing books to the App Store

We're here at Apple's education-themed event at the Guggenheim museum in New York City, and the company's just followed up its long-awaited textbook announcement with something unexpected: iBooks Author, a free OS X program for creating books. The intent is really for teachers and other educators to produce educational materials, but Apple says the format can apply to any genre. Aside from the free part, the real story here is ease of use, with the ability to drag and drop photos, videos and even Microsoft Word files into various templates. If you use Apple's own suite of office apps, in particular, you can drag and drop a Keynote presentation into the doc, and it'll live on as an interactive widget. (You can whip up other widgets, too, though you'll need to know Javascript or HTML.) Moving beyond the main text, authors can also arrange glossaries by highlighting and clicking words, and clicking again to add a definition. In a surprise move, Apple also said authors can publish straight to the store, though we're waiting for clarification that textbook writers and other scribes are actually exempt from Cupertino's notorious App Store approval process. In any case, the app is available now in the App Store so by all means, get cracking on that definitive Kurt Vonnegut glossary you never knew you had in you.

Gallery: iBooks Author

Apple announces free iBooks Author OS X app for publishing books to the App Store originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/19/apple-announces-ibooks-author-app-for-os-x/

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Reunited Haiti family carries on 2 yrs after quake (AP)

CALEBASSE, Haiti ? The American missionaries arrived in a beige bus in the days after the earthquake, promising a better life for the children of this village in the mountains above Haiti's capital.

The Idaho-based Baptist volunteers said they wanted to rescue the boys and girls they believed were orphaned by the Jan. 12, 2010, quake. But their effort to spirit away 33 children to the neighboring Dominican Republic failed when they were stopped by police and then jailed on kidnapping charges. It later came out that all the children had parents.

Two years on, residents of Calebasse describe a tempered sense of hope for their returned children even as they struggle against hardship. A humanitarian group has provided the families modest aid, and UNICEF has helped the children by building new schools.

"We still have problems but the children are able to eat and go to school," said Lelly Laurentus, 29, a computer repairman who's been unable to find work except as an occasional cab driver.

Laurentus, whose two daughters boarded the beige bus late that morning in January 2010, thought he was sending them to a better life.

A U.S. missionary accompanied by a Haitian translator had circulated among the homes of Calebasse, offering to bus children across the border following the quake, which officials said killed 314,000 people and left more than a million homeless. In the Dominican Republic, the children would find shelter and a school, the missionary promised.

Laurentus couldn't resist the offer. His home had just collapsed in the earthquake and he was forced to sleep outside. Many Haitians of humble origins believe in lougarou, mythical werewolves that prey on children, and Laurentus is among them. He was terrified that in the dark, the shape-shifting beasts would fly from the mountaintops and attack his children as they slept.

"We had to confront the devils of night," Laurentus said, standing outside his concrete house Tuesday as he waited for his daughters to walk home from school.

Everybody wanted a seat on the bus, a ready-made escape from the desperation that followed the quake, he said.

"If all the kids didn't leave, it was because there wasn't enough room on the bus," said Laurentus.

Nevertheless, Laurentus felt ashamed for sending away his daughters, Leila, now 6, and Soraya, 5. A man should be able to support his family, yet he was powerless in the aftermath of the quake.

But the children never made it to the Dominican Republic. Police took them into custody and handed them over to SOS Children's Villages International, a global group that aims to keep families together by providing support.

The Haitian government and foreign relief groups reunited the children with their natural-born parents in March 2010, a month after the "orphan rescue" grabbed international headlines amid an outpouring of legitimate efforts to help quake survivors.

The 33 were among more than 2,770 children returned to their families after the quake. At the time, UNICEF and other groups feared that child traffickers were taking advantage of the chaos and smuggling children out of the country.

Charges against all but one of the missionaries were dropped and they returned to the United States. Laura Silsby, the group's leader, was convicted of arranging illegal travel under a 32-year-old statute restricting movement out of Haiti, but was later released and returned to Idaho.

SOS housed the children for a month as the government sought to locate their parents.

When their daughters were returned to them, Laurentus and his wife, Manette Ricot, 29, were given money from the organization to pay this year's school tuition along with food like spaghetti, rice, oil, milk and sardines.

The leg up amounts to about $1,400 total, said Karl Foster Candio, a Haiti spokesman for SOS.

"I know this doesn't resolve their problems but it allows them to strengthen themselves so they can have better lives," Candio said.

Ricot earns some money as a tailor when she can find the work, and her husband drives a cab part-time.

"Even though the tuition is paid for, life is still heavy for us," she said. "After two years, we're fighting to survive, because everything was destroyed. It's like we're starting over."

Ricot and her husband use that extra money to feed the girls breakfast and buy school uniforms. But even now, they would still welcome the chance to send the girls abroad, legally, if the opportunity presented itself. They face a harsh reality in Haiti, a country where about 60 percent of the population is either unemployed or underemployed.

"I'm the one who should be working, to help them," said Laurentus, who was forced to close his shed-housed cybercafe. He sold his three computers to pay for construction materials to rebuild his home.

Despite a multibillion dollar reconstruction effort, most Haitians remain hostage to the country's relentless poverty. But the nation has made key advances in school reconstruction since the earthquake, which crippled an already fragile education system, damaging or destroying almost 4,000 schools, according to UNICEF.

Now more than 80,000 children in this country of 10 million people have been able to return to hundreds of repaired and newly built schools, the aid agency says.

Just before dusk, the girls stepped foot in the dusty courtyard. They wore royal blue uniforms and white ribbons in their pigtailed hair.

"Ca va?" Leila whispered in French, planting cheek kisses on her father, mother and their friends.

Laurentus rubbed Leila's chin and she eased her way under his arm. Soraya held onto his leg.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_haiti_earthquake_children

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Oil rig blaze off Nigeria rages for fifth day

By msnbc.com staff and news services

Chevron Corp. says it is still trying to extinguish a five-day old fire on its rig off Nigeria's coast after presuming two foreign workers dead.

Chevron said Friday it is preparing to drill a relief well to fight the fire.

Chevron via AP

The Chevron oil rig on fire in the Niger delta in Nigeria.

Ian Laidlaw, an official from FODE Drilling Ltd., which was operating the rig on Chevron's behalf and employed the two foreign workers, declined to give their nationalities.

Chevron announced Thursday that a search for the missing workers had been called off. Andrew Fawthrop, managing director, Chevron's Nigeria/Mid-Africa Strategic Business Unit, told Offshore Magazine: ?After three days of intensive search and rescue activities for our missing colleagues, I am saddened to report that our efforts have proven unsuccessful and, therefore, we have made the difficult decision to transition to a recovery operation. On behalf of Chevron, we extend our sincere condolences to the families of the missing individuals."

The San Ramon, California-based energy company says 152 other workers were rescued from the rig and a nearby barge after the fire broke out early Monday. Nigeria's state-run oil company blamed it on a buildup of gas pressure.

The Associated Press reported that a coastal community said the fire is killing the fish and tinting the sky "orange-red."

The news website Upstream said some community leaders in the state of Bayelsa have complained of pollution reaching the coast following the fire.

The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

Source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/20/10198959-oil-rig-blaze-off-nigeria-rages-for-fifth-day

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Arab League considers extension of Syria mission

In this Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012 photo, anti-Syrian regime protesters chant slogans and flash the victory sign as they march during a demonstration at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the Lebanese border. As diplomats debated, opposition activists said Syrian troops shelled the mountain resort town of Zabadani, which has come under the control of army defectors. Syria's powerful ally Russia said Wednesday it would block any attempt by the West to secure U.N. support for the use of force against the regime in Damascus, which is under intense international pressure to end its deadly crackdown on dissent. (AP Photo)

In this Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012 photo, anti-Syrian regime protesters chant slogans and flash the victory sign as they march during a demonstration at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the Lebanese border. As diplomats debated, opposition activists said Syrian troops shelled the mountain resort town of Zabadani, which has come under the control of army defectors. Syria's powerful ally Russia said Wednesday it would block any attempt by the West to secure U.N. support for the use of force against the regime in Damascus, which is under intense international pressure to end its deadly crackdown on dissent. (AP Photo)

In this Tuedsay, Jan. 17, 2012 photo, a young anti-Syrian regime protester shows bullet casings, said by protesters to be left by Syrian army soldiers, at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the Lebanese border. As diplomats debated, opposition activists said Syrian troops shelled the mountain resort town of Zabadani, which has come under the control of army defectors. Syria's powerful ally Russia said Wednesday it would block any attempt by the West to secure U.N. support for the use of force against the regime in Damascus, which is under intense international pressure to end its deadly crackdown on dissent. (AP Photo)

In this Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, an anti-Syrian regime protester flashes the victory sign as he waves the Syrian revolution flag during a demonstration, at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the Lebanese border. As diplomats debated, opposition activists said Syrian troops shelled the mountain resort town of Zabadani, which has come under the control of army defectors. Syria's powerful ally Russia said Wednesday it would block any attempt by the West to secure U.N. support for the use of force against the regime in Damascus, which is under intense international pressure to end its deadly crackdown on dissent. (AP Photo)

In this photo taken on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, anti-Syrian regime protesters shout slogans and flash the victory sign as they march during a demonstration, at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the border with Lebanon. As diplomats debated, opposition activists said Syrian troops shelled the mountain resort town of Zabadani, which has come under the control of army defectors. Syria's powerful ally Russia said Wednesday it would block any attempt by the West to secure U.N. support for the use of force against the regime in Damascus, which is under intense international pressure to end its deadly crackdown on dissent. (AP Photo)

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian government tanks and armored vehicles have pulled back from an embattled mountain town near Damascus, activists and witnesses said Thursday, but at least 16 people were killed by security forces elsewhere as a monthlong Arab League fact-finding mission expired.

The pullback from Zabadani left the town under the control of the opposition, activists said. The besieged town of Zabadani has witnessed heavy exchanges of fire between army troops and anti-government military defectors over the past six days.

The 10-month uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad has turned increasingly militarized and chaotic as more frustrated regime opponents and army defectors arm themselves and fight back against government forces. The capital has seen three suicide bombings since late December which the government blamed on terrorist extremists.

Arab League foreign ministers will consider extending the League's observer mission in Syria in a meeting Sunday in Cairo, officials said Thursday.

Although the mission expired Thursday, Adnan al-Khudeir, head of Cairo operations room that handles reports by the monitors, told The Associated Press that observers will remain in Syria until a decision is made on Sunday.

According to al-Khudeir, the meeting chaired by the Qatari foreign minister will discuss a report by the head of the mission Gen. Mohammed Ahmed al-Dabi who is arriving in Cairo from Syria on Thursday.

The monitors will remain in 17 different places around Syria until the Arab League makes a final decision, he says.

"If there is a decision to extend the mission of the observers, we are ready to send more monitors after training them in three days," he said, adding that the total number of monitors might reach 300.

The mission has been mired in controversy, with the opposition claiming it served as a cover for the regime to continue its brutal crackdown against protesters.

Rejecting charges that the observers have been ineffective in reducing violence, another official said extending the mission would help the opposition more than the regime.

"The killings are less, the protests increase," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because no decision has been made. "The mission's presence offers assurance to the people because the observers can spot any violations. There is a conviction even among Syria opponents that the extension is better than withdrawal."

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Thursday the monitors have had a "mixed picture" of results, enabling some protests and some media coverage, but violence continues.

"We believe that we've got to increase the economic pressure on the Assad regime to change course," she said.

More than 5,400 people have been killed since the uprising erupted last March.

Activists reported continued violence Thursday. In Damascus, a Syrian security agent was wounded when a small explosive device tore through his car in the Tadamon neighborhood, a Syrian official said. No other damages were reported from the morning explosion, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give statements.

A military security brigadier, Adel Mustafa, also was killed by soldiers who had defected and refused his orders to shoot at civilians in the Bab Qibli area of Homs, according to the Local Coordination Committees, an umbrella group of activists. The officer had previously overseen many killing and arrest operations, according to the LCC.

In Zabadani, activist Fares Mohammad said Syrian forces withdrew Wednesday night to two military barracks on the outskirts.

"There is a cautious calm, but fear of another major assault being prepared against Zabadani," he told The Associated Press by telephone from the resort town, located alongside the Lebanese border 17 miles (27 kilometers) west of Damascus.

The Syrian opposition has on several occasions throughout the uprising gained control of a town or city, but ultimately forces loyal to Assad retook them. It is unusual however for the army to take so long to recapture a town so close to the capital.

The activist said the siege had eased, although heating oil has not been allowed into the town, where it snowed earlier this week. Military checkpoints surrounding the Zabadani were still in place, he said, while about 100 armed defectors were "protecting" it.

Residents said government mortars had shelled the town on Wednesday, but that too had stopped.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the pullout from Zabadani, saying only two armored personnel carriers were left behind at one of the checkpoints near the town.

Syrian officials issued no comment about the fighting in Zabadani.

Activists said at least 16 people were killed by security forces across Syria on Thursday, including four activists who were ambushed in the northern Jabal al-Zawiya region.

___

Michael reported from Cairo. Additional reporting by Bradley Klapper in Washington.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-19-ML-Syria/id-dd8dd87cbb87473fb96056f317d2c83f

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