sicily posting: June 2012

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Report: 33 Syria military members defect to Turkey

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Monday, June 25, 2012

Denver officer shot, killed near park concert

DENVER (AP) ? A Denver police officer trying to break up a confrontation was shot and killed at a city park where families had gathered for a free weekly jazz concert before gunfire erupted and sent hundreds running.

The officer, who was shot in the head Sunday, was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead, police spokesman Sonny Jackson said. Police were searching for a suspect in what Jackson described as an isolated incident.

At least three shots were fired shortly after the jazz band playing on a lake-side pavilion stage finished, sending waves of people running through park grounds where some concert goers who were initially unaware of the shooting remained seated on picnic blankets and lawn chairs.

More than 1,000 people were at the City Park Jazz concert, the fourth of 10 shows scheduled for this summer in the annual series that draws families and people of all backgrounds to one of the city's more popular summer events. The mayor said late Sunday that the concerts should continue.

"We will not surrender what we consider special in this city to anyone," Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said.

Nakira Doss, a jazz singer herself, said she hopes the series continues. The 28-year-old mother was at the show Sunday and sitting near the stage with her children, ages 4, 5 and 7, when she heard at least two shots. As people ran past, she said told her children to "get on the ground" and then she laid herself over them.

"I'm trying to show them music, but at what cost," she said, nodding toward her own children.

City Park is one Denver's most famous and sprawls across several hundred acres east of downtown. It holds the Denver Zoo, Museum of Nature and Science, as well as ponds, trails and recreational fields.

After shots rang out, scores of people ran from the northwest side of the pond and stage area, confusing crowds on the south side of the pond who were still lingering over conversation and picnics in lawn chairs and blankets. Someone announced from a loudspeaker on stage that the park was closed and told park goers to leave from the south side.

Nakira Doss, 28, was sitting near the stage when she heard at least two shots. She said she covered her three children, ages 7, 5 and 4, as other concertgoers ran past.

Samuel Bell, 19, of Denver, said he was in the parking lot looking for a space for his scooter, which police later cordoned off with yellow tape. He said he heard several shots.

"We just arrived at the park. It was crowded, it was looking fun," Bell said. "And then 'pa- pa-pa-pa' outta nowhere.

"We just ducked," Bell said. "We pulled off in enough time to get away. It was crazy."

He said he saw police officers administering CPR. He estimated he was about 10 to 20 feet away from where the officer was shot.

___

Associated Press Writers Rema Rahman and Thomas Peipert contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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Biden, in leaked memo, told Obama war plan flawed

WASHINGTON (AP) ? As President Barack Obama considered adding as many as 40,000 U.S. forces to a backsliding war in Afghanistan in 2009, Vice President Joe Biden warned him that the military rationale for doing so was flawed, a new book about Obama's expansion of the conflict says.

The book, "Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan," also says that in planning the drawdown of troops two years later, the White House intentionally sidelined the CIA. Obama purposely did not read a grim CIA assessment of Afghanistan that found little measurable benefit from the 30,000 "surge" forces Obama eventually approved, the book quotes a U.S. official as saying.

A copy of the book by Washington Post correspondent Rajiv Chandrasekaran was obtained by The Associated Press. It will be released Tuesday.

A previously undisclosed Biden memo to Obama in November 2009 reflects his view that military commanders were asking Obama to take a leap by adding tens of thousands of forces whose role was poorly defined.

Although Biden's doubts have become well known, the new book details how Biden used a months-long White House review of the war to question the basic premise that the same "counterinsurgency" strategy that had apparently worked in Iraq could be applied to Afghanistan.

"I do not see how anyone who took part in our discussions could emerge without profound questions about the viability of counterinsurgency," Biden wrote to Obama. To work, the counterinsurgency or "COIN" doctrine requires military gains to be paired with advances in government services, a "credible" Afghan government and Afghan security services that can take over, Biden's memo said.

Although the U.S. military could accomplish any technical assignment related to the new strategy, such as sweeping insurgents from a village, "no one can tell you with conviction when, and even if, we can produce the flip sides of COIN," Biden wrote. He supported a buildup of 20,000, half the number requested by then-war commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

The memo echoed a secret message to Washington from then-U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry that had called Afghan President Hamid Karzai an unreliable partner for the proposed surge. Eikenberry, a former top Army general who had served in Afghanistan, said more forces would only delay the time when Afghans would take over responsibility for their own security.

The Eikenberry memo was leaked shortly after he sent it, and confirmed by U.S. officials. Biden was presumed to agree with it, but he stayed mum at the time.

Obama's compromise ? 30,000 additional forces and a deadline to begin bringing them home ? was intended to blunt the momentum of a resurgent Taliban insurgency without committing Obama to an open-ended war.

The classified CIA assessment found that Afghanistan was "trending to stalemate" in mid-2011, just ahead of the long-planned date when Obama would begin bringing the additional forces home.

Although many of Obama's advisers had also concluded that the surge strategy had not worked, a White House official is quoted as saying aides initially rebuffed the CIA analysis because it could undercut Obama's argument for withdrawing forces on schedule.

"We didn't want it," the official said.

Associated Press

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Thursday, June 21, 2012

'Joe the Plumber' links Holocaust with gun control

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Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Baseball's Roger Clemens acquitted of all charges

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Roger Clemens was acquitted Monday on all charges that he obstructed and lied to Congress in denying he used performance-enhancing drugs to extend his long career as one of the greatest and most-decorated pitchers in baseball history.

Fierce on the pitching mound in his playing days, Clemens was quietly emotional after the verdict was announced. "I'm very thankful," he said, choking up as he spoke. "It's been a hard five years," said the pitcher, who was retried after an earlier prosecution ended in a mistrial.

This case was lengthy, but the deliberations were relatively brief. Jurors returned their verdict after less than 10 hours over several days. The outcome ended a 10-week trial that capped the government's investigation of the pitcher known as "The Rocket" for the fastball that he retained into his 40s. He won seven Cy Young Awards, emblematic of the league's best pitcher each year in a 24-year career with the Red Sox, Yankees, Blue Jays and Astros.

The verdict was the latest blow to the government's legal pursuit of athletes accused of illicit drug use.

A seven-year investigation into home run king Barry Bonds yielded a guilty verdict on only one count of obstruction of justice in a San Francisco court last year, with the jury deadlocked on whether Bonds lied to a grand jury when he denied knowingly taking performance-enhancing drugs.

A two-year, multi-continent investigation of cyclist Lance Armstrong was recently closed with no charges brought, though the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency filed formal accusations last week that could strip the seven-time Tour de France winner of his victories in that storied race. Armstrong denies any doping.

In a non-drug-related case, the Clemens outcome also comes on the heels of the Department of Justice's failure to gain a conviction in the high-profile corruption trial of former presidential candidate John Edwards

Late Monday, as the jury foreman read the acquittal on the final count, Clemens bit his lower lip and rubbed a tear from his eye.

Clemens, family members and his lawyers took turns exchanging hugs. At one point, Clemens and his four sons gathered in the middle of the courtroom, arms interlocked like football players in a huddle, and sobbing could be heard. Debbie Clemens dabbed her husband's eyes with a tissue.

Accused of cheating to achieve and extend his success ? and then facing felony charges that he lied about it ? Clemens declared outside the courthouse, "I put a lot of hard work into that career."

His chief lawyer, Rusty Hardin, walked up to a bank of microphones and exclaimed: "Wow!"

Hardin said Clemens had to hustle to get to court in time to hear the verdict. "All of us had told Roger there wouldn't be a verdict for two, three or four days, so he was actually working out with his sons almost at the Washington Monument when he got the call that there was a verdict."

Prosecutors declined to comment as they left the courthouse. But the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a written statement, "The jury has spoken in this matter, and we thank them for their service. We respect the judicial process and the jury's verdict."

Clemens, 49, was charged with two counts of perjury, three counts of making false statements and one count of obstructing Congress when he testified at a deposition and at a nationally televised hearing in February 2008. The charges centered on his repeated denials that he used steroids and human growth hormone during a 24-year career produced 354 victories.

The first attempt to try Clemens last year ended in a mistrial when prosecutors played a snippet of video evidence that had previously been ruled inadmissible.

Still, Monday's verdict is unlikely to settle the matter in sports circles as to whether Clemens cheated in the latter stages of a remarkable career that extended into a period in which performance-enhancing drug use in baseball was thought to be prevalent. Clemens himself told Congress at the 2008 hearing that "no matter what we discuss here today, I'm never going to have my name restored."

A crucial barometer comes this fall, when Clemens' name appears on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time. His statistics would normally make him a shoo-in for baseball's greatest honor, but voters have been reluctant to induct premier players ? such as Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro ? whose careers were tainted by allegations of drug use.

Clemens capped his career with age-defying performances. He went 18-4 and won his seventh Cy Young Award at the age of 41, and the next year posted a career-best 1.87 ERA. His 4,672 strikeouts ranked third in baseball history.

The government's case relied heavily on the testimony of Clemens' longtime strength coach, Brian McNamee, who testified he injected Clemens with steroids in 1998, 2000 and 2001 and with HGH in 2000. McNamee produced a needle and other materials he said were from a steroids injection of Clemens in 2001, items that McNamee said he stored in and around a Miller Lite beer can inside a FedEx box for some six years.

But McNamee was the only person to claim firsthand knowledge of Clemens using steroids and HGH, and even prosecutors conceded their star witness was a "flawed man." Clemens' lawyers relentlessly attacked McNamee's credibility and integrity. They pointed out that his story had changed over the years and implied that he conjured up the allegations against Clemens to placate federal investigators.

Some items associated with the beer can were found to have Clemens' DNA and steroids, but the defense called the evidence "garbage" and claimed it had been contaminated or manipulated by McNamee.

Other evidence offered tenuous links between Clemens and performance-enhancing drugs. Former teammate Andy Pettitte recalled a conversation in which Clemens supposedly admitted using HGH, but Pettitte said under cross-examination that there was a "50-50" chance that he had misheard.

Convicted drug dealer Kirk Radomski testified that he supplied McNamee with HGH for a starting pitcher and even sent a shipment to Clemens' house under McNamee's name, but Radomski had no way of knowing if any of the HGH was specifically used on Clemens. The pitcher's wife, Debbie, admitted receiving an HGH shot from McNamee, but she and McNamee differed over when the injection occurred and whether Clemens was present.

Clemens' lawyers contended that the pitcher's success resulted from a second-to-none work ethic and an intense workout regimen dating to his high school days. They said that Clemens was indeed injected by McNamee ? but that the needles contained the vitamin B12 and the anesthetic lidocaine and not performance-enhancing drugs.

Clemens was invited to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in 2008 after he publicly denied accusations made in the Mitchell Report on drugs in baseball that he had used steroids and HGH. He first appeared at a congressional deposition, where he said: "I never used steroids. Never performance-enhancing steroids." He made a similarly categorical denial at a hearing about a week later, appearing alongside McNamee, who stuck to his story.

Soon after, committee chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and ranking member Tom Davis, R-Va., asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Clemens had lied under oath. In 2010, a grand jury indicted him on the six counts. Clemens lawyer Hardin revealed at the time that federal prosecutors made Clemens a plea offer but the former pitcher rejected it.

Both Waxman and Davis accepted the verdict while defending their decision to send the case to the Justice Department.

"The committee referred Mr. Clemens to the Justice Department because we had significant doubts about the truthfulness of his testimony in 2008," Waxman said. "The decision whether Mr. Clemens committed perjury is a decision the jury had to make and I respect its decision."

Davis said, " I think he's gone through enough. We did the appropriate thing in referring it over to Justice. But hopefully this will put it behind him. He's a good citizen."

___

Associated Press writers Frederic J. Frommer, Pete Yost and Mark Sherman contributed to this report.

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'Monsters University' Unleashes Four Different Teaser Trailers

As Pixar gets ready to release this year's offering of high quality computer animation, "Brave," they're already laying the groundwork for next year's adventure, a prequel to their 2001 hit, "Monsters, Inc." "Monsters University" follows the monstrous heroes from the first movie, James P. "Sulley" Sullivan and Mike Wazowski, as they enter college at the [...]

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Monday, June 18, 2012

U.N. observers in Syria suspend patrols

BEIRUT (AP) ? U.N. observers suspended their patrols in Syria on Saturday due to a recent spike in violence, the strongest sign yet that an international peace plan was unraveling despite months of diplomatic efforts to prevent the country from plunging into civil war.

The U.N. observers have been the only working part of a peace plan brokered by international envoy Kofi Annan, which the international community sees as its only hope to stop the bloodshed.

The plan called for the foreign monitors to check compliance with a cease-fire that was supposed to go into effect on April 12, but they have become the most independent witnesses to the carnage on both sides as government and rebel forces have largely ignored the truce.

Maj. Gen. Robert Mood, the U.N. mission chief, said intensifying clashes over the past 10 days were "posing significant risks" to the 300 unarmed observers spread out across the country, and impeding their ability to carry out their mandate.

The observers will not leave the country but will remain in place and cease patrols, Mood said in a taped statement, adding the suspension would be reviewed on a daily basis. Teams have been stationed in some of Syria's most dangerous cities, including Homs and Hama.

"The lack of willingness by the parties to seek a peaceful transition, and the push towards advancing military positions is increasing the losses on both sides," Mood said.

The decision came after weeks of escalating attacks, including reports of several mass killings that have left dozens dead.

The U.S. reiterated its call for the Assad regime to comply with the plan, "including the full implementation of a cease-fire."

Underscoring the dangers, activists reported at least 50 people killed in clashes and shelling in several Syrian cities.

The peace plan's near-collapse has increased pressure on the international community, including President Bashar Assad's staunch allies Russia and China, to find another solution. But there has been little appetite for the type of military intervention that helped oust Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, and several rounds of sanctions have failed to stop the bloodshed.

Najib Ghadbian of the main Syrian opposition group, the Syrian National Council, said the concerns expressed by the U.N. mission could pressure Russia to allow more censure of Assad's regime.

"They are really under pressure to say 'OK, what's next?'" he said. Are they going to continue to sabotage other ideas to protect civilians in Syria?"

Despite fears that violence could significantly worsen without U.N. monitors on the ground, activist Rami Abdul-Rahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said their numbers were too small, and the conflict too large, for them to have any use.

"A lot of crimes happened in Syria, and they couldn't do anything," he said. "The situation can't get worse than this: are we afraid that it's a civil war? Well it is a civil war."

The Syrian government, meanwhile, said it had informed Mood it understood the U.N. observers' decision and blamed rebels for the escalation in fighting.

"Armed terrorist groups have conducted, since the signing of the Annan plan, an increase in criminal operations that have targeted, many times, the observers, and threatened their lives," the Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement. Damascus frequently refers to rebels as "terrorists" instead of Syrians seeking reforms.

The opposition, for its part, has blamed the regime for the attacks near the observers.

Last week, a U.N. convoy was blocked and attacked with stones, metal rods and gunfire by an angry crowd as it was trying to head to the town of Haffa in the coastal Latakia region, where troops had been battling rebels for a week.

The observers only managed to enter once government troops had seized the area back from the rebels.

On May 15, a roadside bomb damaged the observers' vehicles shortly after they met with Syrian rebels in the northern town of Khan Sheikoun. A week earlier, a roadside bomb struck a Syrian military truck in the south of the country just seconds after Mood drove by in a convoy.

National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said the Obama administration was now consulting with allies about "next steps toward a Syrian-led political transition" in compliance with the U.N. resolutions setting up the peace plan. He didn't give further details.

Opposition groups say more than 14,000 civilians and rebels have been killed since the uprising began in March 2011. The initially peaceful protests seeking Assad's ouster have morphed into an armed insurgency as his opponents take up weapons.

Abdul-Rahman, of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, has said more than 3,400 Syrian soldiers and pro-government militiamen have been killed.

The Syrian government has been waging a fierce offensive through towns and villages nationwide for the past week, trying to pound out rebels by shelling urban areas with tanks and attack helicopters. Rebels also have attacked Syrian forces, mostly trying to burn out their tanks.

The Observatory said more than 50 people were killed in clashes and shelling in towns close to Damascus, in the central provinces of Homs and Hama, in the seaside province of Latakia, the northern provinces of Idlib and Deir al-Zour and the southern province of Daraa.

Those included 12 people, including a man, his wife and child, who died during overnight government shelling in the Damascus suburb of Douma and seven killed by a mortar shell that ripped apart a bakery in Homs, according to Abdul-Rahman.

The Observatory said that the bodies of 11 people including one woman had been discovered in the capital's suburb of Saqba. It said some of them were "butchered." A video posted online showed a group of lifeless men crammed into a room with stab wounds, blood still spilling from one of them. The LCC reported 13 victims and provided the names of nine, saying some were "slaughtered with knives."

Rebels appeared to kill an accused regime collaborator in an amateur video that was uploaded Saturday, repeatedly shooting his lifeless body.

There was no way of verifying government or activist claims because Syria does not allow reporters work independently. With U.N. observers now grounded, not even partial, independent confirmation of the deaths was available.

Syria's state news agency also said their forces killed a top al-Qaeda fighter on Saturday. They accused Walid Ahmed al-Ayish of organizing suicide car bombings in Damascus over the past few months.

___

Associated Press writer Albert Aji in Damascus contributed to this report.

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Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Help Your Home With Some Home Improvement ? Yapperz - Speak ...

While a great deal of people try to take on home improvement projects, many find it too challenging to finish, and just give up. But, home improvements are easy if you possess the proper know-how. Use the tips in this guide as you attempt your own home improvement project.

The next time you're working on a home improvement project, be sure to find a good spot to store the debris that your work is generating. Planning in advance what you are going to do with rubbish can save you time and money during the construction.

For a cabinetry makeover that won't break the bank, try having your cabinets resurfaced, not replaced. It can cost a lot when you are replacing your cabinets in the kitchen. You can reface your cabinets for a small fraction of the price of replacement. You will get a great new look and save some money.

To improve your bathroom's appearance, try using a new glaze. A new glaze will make your fixtures look brand new. Bathroom fixtures can be quite expensive to replace; however, glazing can be completed inexpensively. In terms of "bang for your buck," a bathroom glazing project makes a great way to stretch your home improvement budget.

If a contractor offers a discount for using cash, he may be doing something illegal. You will not have documentation if you pay with cash, so it will make it difficult to prove your case in court if you run into problems with the contractor.

If you have a wood deck, you need to look for a few things in order to know when it must be repaired. Search for uneven surfaces or imperfections in the wood, as well as faulty nails or loose screws.

One of the most basic ways to update or freshen up your house is with a few coats of new paint, especially in a new color. A fresh coat of paint will make an old house look brand new. You are going to feel as if you are in a different home by just choosing vibrant, different colors.

You need to give a thought to the context of your neighborhood before you engage in extensive remodeling work. An overly modern home would appear at odds with its arts-and-crafts-style bungalow neighbors. If your remodel blends in with the other homes, your chances will be greater of selling your home in the future.

Spending money now to add extra insulation to your home can save you money in the long run. Older homes in particular do not have enough insulation. Putting extra insulation in your home can help you save on heating and cooling bills for many years.

If you want to save money, wait for sales on material or installation in home improvement stores. Often, you'll be able to negotiate low-cost installation when you buy the carpet. When you see this type of sale, it's time to move as often full-priced installation can cost more than the carpet itself.

Carefully consider all your options when planning a home improvement project. Figure out why you desire to do a certain improvement and what doing it will do for you. You must commit yourself to your home improvement projects, and be sure that your money and time are invested wisely.

Buying A Home Should Be A Fun And Interesting Process, Important Things To Know When Buying A Home, Advice For Buying A Home Without Breaking The Bank

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Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Project Unity stuffs 20 classic consoles into one: if you can't play it, it's probably too new (video)

Most gamer who want to play with more than one or two vintage console platforms often turn to software-based emulators that may or may not be above-board. How about stuffing all of the authentic hardware into one controller and one base unit? Modders at Bacteria's forums have developed Project Unity, an attempt to natively address 20 consoles across 17 actual platforms folded into a single device. The gamepad, arguably the centerpiece, includes two each of analog sticks and directional pads, along with multiple shoulder buttons and a central button grid that can either be used to steer an Intellivision or fill in for otherwise missing controls. Stuffing the unique controller hardware into one gamepad obviously presents problems with board sizes and the laws of physics, so much of the relevant circuitry sits in modified NES cartridges. Our only dismays are the lack of original Xbox support and the slightly imposing challenge of aggregating and modifying that much classic gaming componentry in one place -- if you're more concerned about convenience in your retro gaming than preserving the original feel of that Sega Master System or SNK NeoGeo, though, you've just found Utopia.

Continue reading Project Unity stuffs 20 classic consoles into one: if you can't play it, it's probably too new (video)

Project Unity stuffs 20 classic consoles into one: if you can't play it, it's probably too new (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jun 2012 17:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Monday, June 4, 2012

China censors market on Tiananmen anniversary?

Bobby Yip / Reuters

People take part in a candlelight vigil at Hong Kong's Victoria Park on Monday to commemorate those who died during the military crackdown of the pro-democracy movement at Beijing's Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.

By Ed Flanagan, NBC News

BEIJING ? Government controls many aspects of life in China, but for today at least the invisible hand of market forces proved too strong even for the country?s ruling Communist Party.

In an apparent coincidence, Shanghai?s local stock market, the Shanghai Composite Index, opened trading this morning at 2346.98 points. Read backwards, it looks like the date, June 4, 1989 ? this day 23 years ago when the Communists brutally cracked down on pro-democracy activists in Tiananmen Square and elsewhere in the capital.

Even more bizarre? By the end of trading in the afternoon, the market had lost 64.89 points.

PhotoBlog: Thousands remember Tiananmen Square crackdown

The significance of the numbers might have passed without comment had authorities not tried to censor discussion of the anniversary by preventing users on Weibo - China?s equivalent of Twitter ? from posting terms such as ?six four,? ?candle? and ?never forget.? With users abuzz over the Shanghai Composite Index numbers, censors had to widen the list of banned terms to include the Chinese word for ?Index?.

Hundreds of students and other civilians are estimated to have been killed in 1989 as People?s Liberation Army soldiers entered the capital to clear the streets of protesters. The topic of the crackdown is taboo in this country and little discussed aside from sanitized official accounts in textbooks that call the event a ?political disturbance.? ?

Security around Tiananmen Square is typically boosted before the anniversary and censors work to keep discussion to a minimum.?

June 4, 1989: NBC News reports as Chinese soldiers crush demonstrations.

State Department deputy spokesman, Mark Toner, issued a statement on Sunday urging the Chinese government to "release all those still serving sentences for their participation in the demonstrations; to provide a full public accounting of those killed, detained or missing; and to end the continued harassment of demonstration participants and their families."

In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Weimin, called U.S. statements on the June 4th incident a ?crude meddling in domestic Chinese affairs.?

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

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Friday, June 1, 2012

Video: Closing Bell Exchange: 'Good Riddance' to May

CNBC's "Closing Bell" crew shares perspective on May's market performance. Larry Glazer, Mayflower Advisors Managing Partner and CNBC contributor Rebecca Patterson, weigh in.