Minnesota set to be 12th state to allow gay marriage

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) ? A historic vote Thursday in the Minnesota House positioned that state to become the 12th in the country to allow gay marriages and the first in the Midwest to pass such a law out of its Legislature.

Lawmakers approved it 75-59, a critical step for the measure that would allow same-sex weddings beginning this summer. It's a startling shift in the state, where just six months earlier voters turned back an effort to ban gay marriage in the Minnesota Constitution.

The state Senate plans to consider the bill Monday and leaders expect it to pass there, too. Gov. Mark Dayton has pledged to sign it into law.

"It's not time to uncork the champagne yet. But it's chilling," Rep. Steve Simon, a suburban Democrat who backed the bill, said at a raucous rally in the state Capitol rotunda minutes after the vote.

Rep. Karen Clark, the bill's sponsor, said her only goal was equal treatment under state law for same-sex couples. In a deeply personal speech, the Minneapolis Democrat talked of the support she got from her own family after coming out as gay decades ago.

"My family knew firsthand that same sex couples pay our taxes, we vote, we serve in the military, we take care of our kids and our elders and we run businesses in Minnesota," she said.

Hundreds of supporters and opponents gathered outside the House chamber up to and during the debate, chanting and waving signs. They sang "We Shall Overcome" and the John Lennon song "Give Peace a Chance" ? substituting the word "love" for "peace."

Four of the House's 61 Republicans voted for the bill, while two of its 73 Democrats voted no. None of the four Republicans committed support beforehand; one, Rep. Jenifer Loon, said she made up her mind during the three-hour House debate, in which lawmakers listened with rapt attention while their colleagues spoke.

"There comes a time when you just have to set politics aside and decide in your gut what is the right thing to do," said Loon, whose suburban district southwest of Minneapolis voted strongly against last fall's gay marriage ban. The other Republicans to vote for gay marriage also hail from suburban or exurban districts: Pat Garofalo of Farmington, David FitzSimmons of Albertville and Andrea Kieffer of Woodbury.

The two Democrats who voted no, Patti Fritz of Faribault and Mary Sawatzky of Willmar, represent largely rural districts where the gay marriage ban was backed by a majority of voters. But most of the Democrats from rural, more socially conservative areas ended up voting for the bill.

Opponents argued it would alter a centuries-old conception of marriage, and leave those people opposed for religious reasons tarred as bigots.

"We're not. We're not," said Rep. Kelby Woodard, a Republican from Belle Plaine. "These are people with deeply held beliefs, including myself."

House Republican Leader Kurt Daudt acknowledged that views on gay marriage are changing, but said the bill's sponsors stood to alienate thousands of Minnesotans who still believe in the male-female definition of marriage.

"Hearts and minds are changing on this," Daudt said. "But Minnesotans are still divided."

That could be seen outside the House chamber, where supporters and opponents of the bill stood shoulder to shoulder and chanted with equal vigor. Gay marriage backers dressed in orange T-Shirts and held signs that read, "I Support The Freedom to Marry." Behind them, opponents held up bright pink signs that simply read, "Vote No."

Among the demonstrators was Grace McBride, 27, a nurse from St. Paul. She said she and her partner felt compelled to be there to watch history unfold. She said she hopes to get married "as soon as I can" if the bill becomes law. The legislation would allow her to do so starting Aug. 1.

"I have thought about my wedding since I was a little girl," she said.

On the other side of the divide, Galina Komar, a recent Ukrainian immigrant who lives in Bloomington, brought her four-year-old daughter and one-year-old son to the Capitol to express her religious concerns.

"I do believe in God, and I believe God already created the perfect way to have a family," Komar said.

Eleven other states allow gay marriages ? including Rhode Island and Delaware, which approved laws in the past week.

Iowa allows gay marriages because of a 2009 court ruling. Leaders in Illinois ? the only Midwestern state other than Minnesota with a Democratic-led statehouse ? say that state is close to having the votes to approve a law too.

But most other states surrounding Minnesota have constitutional bans against same-sex weddings, so the change might not spread to the nation's heartland nearly as quickly as it has on the coasts and in New England.

The Minnesota push for gay marriage grew from last fall's successful campaign to defeat the constitutional amendment that would have banned it. Minnesota was the first state to turn back such an amendment, after more than two dozen states passed one over more than a decade.

The same election put Democrats in full control of state government for the first time in more than two decades, a perfect scenario for gay marriage supporters to swiftly pursue legalization. The bill cleared committees in both chambers in March, at the same time a succession of national polls showed opposition to gay marriage falling away nationally.

"There are kids being raised by grandparents, single parents, two moms or two dads," said Rep. Laurie Halverson, a Democrat from a suburb south of St. Paul. "Some of those folks are my friends. And we talk about the same things as parents. We talk about large piles of laundry, and how much it hurts to step on a Lego. That's what we do, because we're all families."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/minn-house-approves-gay-marriage-12th-200825261.html

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Chael Sonnen steps up his efforts to get Wanderlei Silva bout

Last week, Chael Sonnen called out Wanderlei Silva over a years-old dispute they had over a misunderstanding that was caught on videotape. A week later, the fight hasn't been made. Sonnen has now stepped up his game, trying to get a fight with Silva on the UFC on Fox Sports 1 card in Boston in August.

Sonnen was nice enough to even make the poster. He added the image at right to his Twitter background. Not only does he want to fight Silva in August, but he's hoping for a five-round bout in the headlining spot.

Thiago Alves is expected to take on Matt Brown on this card, and Connor McGregor has been campaigning for a bout. Sonnen wants this fight so badly he's even willing to give up a portion of his purse to help Silva's hometown.

Wand- you have 24 hours to accept. If you do, I will donate 10% of my purse to help schools in your hometown of Curitiba .. I mean, VEGAS.

? chael sonnen (@sonnench) May 9, 2013

Silva was born and raised in Curitiba, Brazil, and still identifies with Brazil, but his gym is in Las Vegas. Sonnen was able to talk his way into a fight with Jon Jones. Will he get his wish here?

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/chael-sonnen-steps-efforts-wanderlei-silva-bout-135128604.html

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PFT: Rex says Geno Smith is no diva for the Jets

AP

The 49ers got their first in-depth look at Marcus Lattimore?s knee since they drafted him, and they were pleased with what they saw.

That doesn?t necessarily mean the rookie running back will play this season.

The fourth-round pick went through a thorough examination upon reporting with the rest of the 49ers rookies this week, and coach Jim Harbaugh was encouraged.

?Everything looks good structurally with all the guys that we drafted,? Harbaugh said, via Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com. ?The ACL looks really good for Marcus. We have to take a step back in terms of some of the cutting because we want that inside of the knee, the lateral side of the knee, to heal fully.?

Lattimore probably would have been a first-round pick, before a nasty right knee injury in October. That and the team?s abundance of picks allowed them to take a flier on him late, knowing they don?t necessarily need him this year, and can give him time to get well.

?I think that would be fine,? Lattimore said of the possibility of a redshirt year. ?Whatever happens these next three months probably will determine that. I?m going to continue to keep working hard, and if I?m called upon, I feel like hopefully I?ll be ready.

?I feel like whatever?s best, I?m going to go with that. We have a lot of great guys on our team ? Kendall [Hunter], Frank [Gore], Anthony Dixon, LaMichael [James]. And I know I can learn a lot from those guys.?

He?s going through meetings with teammates and coaches now, and that might be the extent of his activity this year. The luxury of depth works for him too, as it gives one of the brightest stars in college football a chance to get back to the form he showed at South Carolina.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/05/10/rex-ryan-geno-smith-is-no-diva-with-the-jets/related/

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As I Lay Dying Singer's Wife Had No Concerns Before Alleged Murder Plot

Tim Lambesis' seemingly amicable divorce preceded his alleged murder-for-hire plan.
By Gil Kaufman

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1707079/as-i-lay-dying-lambesis-divorce-documents.jhtml

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Sony's 2012 earnings show a net profit of $458 million, its first since 2008

We've already heard from Sony about the positive effects some of its recent moves like the sales of several of its buildings are having on its finances, and now the company is revealing its detailed results for the last year. Sony has managed a net profit of 43 billion yen ($458 million) in 2012, its first in several years and a good sign after it projected such optimism in last year's results. The most anticipated news is what it projects for 2013, a year where CEO Kaz Hirai has promised better integration between its products and of course, the PlayStation 4. Sony's forecast projects sharply improved sales next year, however it expects the operating income to remain flat with a net profit of 50 billion yen ($506 million).

For the year, its TV sales were down 38 percent, reflecting the same drop in the market reported by competitors like Samsung and LG, as well as Sony's cutbacks to reduce its losses. In phones, the newly-consolidated Sony Mobile experienced an increase in sales thanks to the shift to smartphones, however the cost of its inclusion cause the division to lose money. Next year, it's anticipating sales of 42 million smartphones, up from 33 million. In the games division, Sony had a decrease in sales for the PS3, PSP and PS Vita of 12.2 percent from last year, although of course it's counting on the PS4 to turn that around. There aren't any numbers listed for next-gen, but it's expecting sales of PS3 hardware to drop to 10 million units from 16.5 million (including the PS2) the year before. We'll have to wait for the earnings call later this morning to hear more of the company's future projections, for now you can check the links below for the full details on its results.

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Mobile, Sony

Comments

Source: Sony (PDF), Q4 2012 Slides

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/RAR5mVxmWIA/

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Anti-EU party shakes British PM's Conservatives in local vote

By Andrew Osborn and Guy Faulconbridge

LONDON (Reuters) - The anti-European Union UK Independence Party made big gains in local elections on Friday, siphoning support from British Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives in a vote that underlined the threat it poses to his re-election chances in 2015.

Its success in council elections in mostly English rural areas that have traditionally been Conservative strongholds rattled Britain's three main parties, as voters deserted their ranks to switch allegiance to the populist group.

UKIP, which wants Britain to leave the European Union and an end to "open-door immigration", polled an average of 26 percent of the vote in council elections, according to early results, the best result for a fourth party since World War Two.

It also pushed Cameron's Conservatives into third place in an election for a national parliamentary seat in a traditional Labour stronghold in northern England, where Labour's majority was almost halved compared to three years ago.

"It sends a shockwave, I think, through the establishment," said Nigel Farage, the former commodity trader turned politician who leads UKIP.

Cameron once dismissed UKIP as "a bunch of fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists," and a senior Conservative minister called the party "a collection of clowns" before the vote.

"Send in the clowns," Farage quipped to Sky News. "We have been abused by everybody, attacked by the entire establishment who did their best to stop ordinary decent people from going out and voting UKIP and they have done in big, big numbers."

Though UKIP still has no seats in the 650-seat lower house of the British parliament, its surge in the polls will increase pressure on Cameron from nervous lawmakers in his own party to take a tougher stance on Europe and immigration.

The results suggest UKIP could split the center-right vote at the next national election. That would make it harder for Cameron to defeat Labour, which leads his Conservatives by up to 10 percent in opinion polls as the economy shows tentative signs of recovering despite unpopular public spending cuts.

"SHOCKWAVE"

While the results are likely to reignite questions about Cameron's leadership from malcontents who complain he is too liberal, they will also concern Labour leader Ed Miliband, who faces growing UKIP support in traditional Labour strongholds.

Although Labour, which has controlled the South Shields since 1935, held onto the parliamentary seat, UKIP won 24 percent of the vote in South Shields, its second highest result in such an election. Turnout was low at 39 percent.

"They have become a populist, center-right, 'small c' conservative party of protest and they will be sapping votes from the Conservatives who are unpopular mid-term but also from the other parties as well," Tony Travers, director of British government at the London School of Economics, said of UKIP.

The Lib Dems, the junior partner in Cameron's coalition, are also under pressure. They won so few votes in South Shields they lost their deposit and early results for the council elections showed their vote was also down.

Early results showed UKIP had won 77 council seats after 28 of 35 councils had been declared. Full results of the elections for more than 2,000 council seats in England and Wales are expected later on Friday.

Although the Conservatives are expected to lose hundreds of seats, they are still likely to win overall because the vote was held in their own heartlands.

Critics say UKIP's success means it will come under increasing scrutiny and that voters will ultimately find it does not have properly-developed policies, a claim UKIP rejects.

Farage says Britain's political leaders have failed voters by allowing far too many immigrants into the country and by allowing the European Union to purloin too much sovereignty.

Grant Shapps, the chairman of the Conservative party, said his party, the senior partner in a two-party coalition, had heard the voters' message "loud and clear".

But the real choice at 2015 parliamentary election would be between Labour and the Conservatives, he said.

Though significant, UKIP's gains are unlikely to give it control of a single council and Britain's first past the post system means it will have to poll even greater numbers if it is to win a large number of seats in a general election.

"It is a worry for all three party leaders," Travers from LSE said. "None of us knows whether UKIP is a flash in the pan."

(Additional reporting by Peter Griffiths and Stephen Addison)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/anti-eu-party-shakes-british-pms-conservatives-local-135818703.html

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Syrian opposition blames regime for village deaths

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syria's main opposition group on Friday accused President Bashar Assad's regime of committing a "large-scale massacre" in a Sunni village near the Mediterranean coast, killing at least 50 people, according to activists.

Syrian troops backed by pro-government gunmen on Thursday swept into Bayda, a village in the mountains outside the city of Banias, and killed men, women and children and torched homes, according to The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Observatory documented the names of at least 50 dead, but said as many as 100 might have been killed. The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, cited witnesses as saying that some of the victims were killed with knives or blunt objects and that dozens of villagers were missing.

In a statement, the opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Coalition, said: "Reports now confirm a large-scale massacre in Bayda. Initial reports confirm that Assad's forces were directly involved" in the violence in the area.

"It is time for the world to intervene and put an end to the grievous crimes of the Assad regime," the Cairo-based opposition group said, urging the international community to act and protect Syrian civilians.

In a video that the Observatory sent to the media on Friday, at least seven men and boys wearing civilian clothes are seen lying in pools of blood in front of a house. The caption on the video says "the first images of executions in Bayda."

A woman touching the body of one of the men can be heard saying, "Don't fall asleep. Don't move."

Referring to a Muslim pronouncement of faith before death, she tells him to say "There is no god, but Allah."

As the camera pans bloodied bodies on the ground, another woman is heard screaming, "Where are you, people of the village?"

The video appears genuine and consistent with reporting by The Associated Press from the area.

The Syrian troops were still in Bayda village on Friday, conducting house to house searches, said Rami Abdul Rahman, the Observatory's director. He added that phone and Internet service to the village was cut and the area remained under regime control, making it impossible to verify the final death toll and more details on events.

The Syrian conflict, now in its third year, started as peaceful protests against Assad's rule in March 2011. It turned into armed conflict between the opposition and the government after some opposition supporters took up weapons to fight a harsh regime crackdown on dissent and soon became a full-scale civil war.

More than 70,000 people have been killed so far in the conflict, according to the United Nations. More than 1 million Syrians have fled their homes and sought shelter in neighboring countries such as Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, while millions more have been internally displaced by the fighting.

The war also has split the country along religious lines, and the violence in Bayda appeared to have sectarian overtones. The village is primarily inhabited by Sunni Muslims, who dominate the country's rebel movement, while most of the surrounding villages are home to members of President Bashar Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

The Observatory's informants from the area reported heavy fighting in Bayda early on Thursday that left at least six government troops dead and more than 20 wounded, according to Abdul-Rahman. He said regime troops backed by gunmen from nearby Alawite villages returned that afternoon and eventually overran Bayda.

Syrian state media did not report on the events in the village in its daily roundup of army activities around the country. The country's official news agency SANA said Friday the army has continued "crackdown on terrorists groups" without mentioning any operations in Bayda or the nearby Banias. Syrian state media refers to rebels fighting to topple Assad's regime as terrorists.

A report in the English-language newspaper, The Syria Times, briefly mentioned Bayda on Friday, saying government troops seized weapons there. The newspaper is published daily by the Syrian Information Ministry in Damascus.

If confirmed, the violence in Bayda would be the latest in a string of alleged mass killings in Syria's civil war. Last month, activists said government troops killed more than 100 people as they seized two rebel-held suburbs of Damascus.

The relentless fighting has left the international community at a loss to find ways to end the bloodshed as neither side appears willing to find a political solution at the moment.

While the U.S. and its European and Gulf allies have backed the opposition forces, they have been reluctant to provide the rebels fighting Assad's troops with weapons that could stand up to the regime's superior firepower. They fear the arms could end up in the hands of radical Islamic groups that in the past year have become the most effective fighting force on the opposition's side.

On Thursday, President Barack Obama said his administration was looking at every option to end the bloodshed in Syria. Speaking at a news conference in Mexico City, Obama said the administration was proceeding cautiously as it looked at options to ensure that what it does is helpful to the situation rather than making it more deadly or complex.

In Washington, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, became the first top American official to publicly acknowledge that the administration was rethinking its opposition to arming the Syrian rebels. During a Pentagon news conference on Thursday, Hagel said that "arming the rebels ? that's an option," but added that the administration was looking at all options. "It doesn't mean that the president has decided on anything," Hagel said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-opposition-blames-regime-village-deaths-071026639.html

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