Senate OKs Obama's choice for Afghan commander

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Senate has approved President Barack Obama's choice to be the top commander in Afghanistan.

By voice vote Monday, lawmakers cleared the way for Gen. Joseph Dunford, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, to take over as head of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Dunford would replace Gen. John Allen, the current commander who has been nominated to take charge in Europe. Allen's nomination is on hold as he's ensnared in the sex scandal that had led to the resignation of CIA director David Petraeus.

Dunford takes charge at a critical time for Obama and the military as they decide in the coming weeks the pace of drawing down the 66,000 U.S. combat troops in Afghanistan. Dunford has directed combat forces in Iraq.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-oks-obamas-choice-afghan-commander-002246328.html

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Green Throttle Games Nabs $6M To Fund Android Game Console ...

Green Throttle Games, the video game publisher and the Atlas wireless game controller, just raised $6 million in funding from Trinity Ventures and DCM.

The company was co-founded by Charles Huang, one of the creators of the popular ?Guitar Hero? game franchise and is joined by Matt Crowley, former Palm and Nokia product lead, and Karl Townsend, lead engineer for the Palm Pilot. With this new source of capital, the company hopes to build more games that will work on its system.

The change in how gaming is done

What Huang and his team are building is something interesting ? it hopes to create a new game paradigm, something that isn?t relying on the needs of traditional consoles like the Microsoft Xbox, Sony Playstation, or even the Nintendo Wii. Instead, gamers will use something that is much smaller, but familiar: your mobile device.

Mobile gaming isn?t anything new, but Green Throttle Games hopes its twist to it will make it more appealing. If this works, gamers will be able to play multiplayer games right from their phones and tablets on the television against people in the same room. While there are multiplayer games out in the market, it still isn?t like how one might play?Call of Duty or?Halo 4 on a game console. Huang says that his team ?believes a large percentage of consumers will use their phones or tablets to play games on a TV, and mobile-to-TV gaming could quickly grow to surpass the console market.?

The impetus for mobile device gaming consoles

After leaving ?Guitar Hero? in 2010, Huang explored where the gaming industry was heading. He hoped to find the next $1 billion industry ? of which a majority is from games on CDs and consoles. Soon he realized that the business model for console games was broken and felt it wasn?t sustainable.

Huang looked at how best to deliver games to consumers and saw that the mobile device was becoming a source of powerful technology ? it already had the power of a CPU and a distribution network that was ?unparalleled? compared to other gaming devices.

Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have already begun moving in this direction with Sony making Playstation games on the Android platform while Wii has created a tablet-like controller, and the Xbox has been tying things together with its Xbox Live service available on the smartphone. But Huang says that these companies are building things for their proprietary networks ? Green Throttle Games is looking to build on the backs of existing distributions that Apple, HTC, Samsung, and others are already doing.

A streamlined gaming experience

With this new gaming paradigm, Green Throttle Games hopes to find a way to streamline the way people interact with the game. It says that by having an open platform, users will be able to play one game on a specific device and continue it on other ones easily because of the integrated platforms. If this works, it looks like gamers won?t need to stick with one game system to play their favorite games, which could wind up saving people a lot of money.

To help with the gameplay, the company has created a specialized Atlas wireless controller that will cost about the same as an individual Playstation and Xbox one. Up to four players can connect to the same Android device powering the game.

The difficult level lies ahead

Now that Green Throttle Games has funding, its greatest challenge lies ahead. Not only does it need to worry about contenders like OUYA and similar services, but the lack of games is somewhat disturbing. Huang says that the company?s goal is to get 20 new games launched by the first quarter in 2013 and it?s working on getting the Atlas controllers in the hands of developers to help them get a head start in programming games.

To aid developers, the company will be releasing its SDK on December 12 so that they can easily integrate their games with the platform.

Developing games for the television screen, especially something that?s on a large display isn?t simple. As you might expect, it?s similar to what you get when you try to use an iPhone-only app on an iPad ? it doesn?t scale up correctly and looks pixelated. By having this on a television, it will get much worse because it?s a screen where people spend an enormously long amount of time staring at it consuming content.

Not trying to create a marketplace of games

While Green Throttle Games is looking to have third-party developers create games for this new platform, it?s not focused on building out a marketplace. Huang tells us that when gamers play one of its games, it may recommend other similar titles. This is done intentionally to aid in the discovery of new games to foster the ecosystem?s growth.

Right now, money is made from the sale of the Atlas controllers, which are available for pre-sale at $49.99 each. Additionally, it will receive revenue from games that are bought right from the Google Play and/or Amazon marketplace for the games that it created ? it doesn?t have a revenue-share plan in place.

Investments from firms that know gaming

With the seed funding from Trinity Ventures and DCM, Green Throttle Games has the backing of two investors who have backed other industry startups, including KIXEYE, Papaya Mobile, and others. Huang says that both firms are experienced in the industry who ?understand what gaming marketing is all about.?

Ajay Chopra, the general partner at Trinity Ventures and the newest board member to the company, said ?the ability to play mobile games on a big screen TV is very attractive, and Green Throttle?s leadership is well poised to bring in the kind of top quality games and industry connections that are needed to turn the Atlas controller and Green Throttle?s solution into a household name.?

Jason Krikorian, general partner at DCM, believes that ?in the next 24 months, the smartphone will reach beyond the few inches of its own display to massively disrupt and cross over to previously independent platforms.?

As it stands, right now all Green Throttle games are available on Android devices. The company feels that it?s more open and easier to get things working. In addition, with an enormous distribution in Kindles, smartphones, tablets, etc, it made sense. An iOS version is said to be released in the first half of 2013.

Photo credit:?JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images

Source: http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/12/04/green-throttle-games-gets-6-million-to-make-android-devices-into-game-consoles/

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This Week's Pets: 2 Cats Joined by a Common Diet - Orland Park, IL ...

Felix, a black-and-white domestic short hair, and JD, gray tabby, didn't know each other before meeting at PAWS Animal Shelter in Tinley Park, but they have a lot in common. Both were abandoned by their owners within days on another (Felix came to the shelter Oct. 28; JD on Oct. 30). Both are easygoing and playful. And both require a special diet.

It's because of that diet that the shelter hopes to adopt them together (although it's not required). That diet also makes it difficult for them to live with other cats who don't eat the same specialized food.

Watch the video and see if Felix and JD are the cats for you.

Looking for more adoptable pets?

Squirt is Agent Double-Oh Cute and has a license to steal your heart. Snuggles lives up to her name, and she's the latest cat to be featured. Baby, a playful orange, white and black striped cat, and Angel, a German Shepherd mix, still need a homes.

Success stories include Millie, a lovable pointer mix found a new home, as did Patches the cat. Rosie and Lily, the pair of adorable Dachshunds, have also found owners.

?

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Palos | Orland Park | Oak Forest | Tinley Park

Source: http://orlandpark.patch.com/articles/this-week-s-pets-2-cats-joined-by-a-common-diet

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China PMI survey shows growth reviving, but uneven

BEIJING (Reuters) - The pace of activity in China's vast manufacturing sector quickened for the first time in 13 months in November, a survey of private factory managers found, adding to evidence that the economy is reviving after seven quarters of slowing growth.

The final reading for the HSBC Purchasing Managers' Survey (PMI) rose to 50.5 in November from 49.5 in October, in line with a preliminary survey published late last month. It was the first time since October 2011 that the survey crossed above 50 points, the line that demarcates accelerating from slowing growth.

The final HSBC reading follows a similar survey by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released this weekend, which showed the pace of growth in the manufacturing sector quickening. The official PMI rose to a seven-month high of 50.6 for November, from 50.2 in October.

"This confirms that the Chinese economy continues to recover gradually," HSBC's chief China economist Hongbin Qu wrote.

An official PMI survey of China's non-manufacturing sectors also ticked up, to 55.6 in November from 55.5 in October, led by expanded activity in construction services. But growth in air and rail transport and food and beverages both slowed.

While a recovery in growth appears possible, there are troubling signs that China is still relying too much on state-led investment rather than the more dynamic private sector.

Growth accelerated for large firms for the third month in a row, but medium and smaller companies saw a retrenchment, with the decline more pronounced for the smaller firms, the NBS said in a not accompanying its official manufacturing PMI survey.

"The improving numbers are mostly because of government investment," said Dong Xian'an, economist with Peking First Advisory, referring to the official PMI.

"From the second quarter the government has unleashed a lot of projects, and that has started to be felt in the economy, but it's not a very healthy recovery yet."

In another sign that demand remains lackluster, an HSBC sub-index for output prices fell despite a rise in a different sub-index for input prices, indicating that firms are unable to pass rising costs on to buyers.

"Whilst we feel that the economy has been stabilized through the short-term, we feel that the manner in which activity has been revived will retard China's economic reform agenda and make the transition onto a sustainable footing all the more tricky," wrote Xianfang Ren and Alistair Thornton of IHS Global Insight.

UNEVEN GROWTH

Smaller and private firms are still pleading for greater access to credit and investment incentives, which have gone disproportionately to the state sector, particularly since the financial crisis of 2008-2009.

Government intervention to mask debt problems where they do appear runs the risk of a socialization of losses, the IHS Global Insight analysts warned.

"Production can continue (hence contributing to GDP), and employment can remain tight. Our fear, therefore, is that whilst activity is resuming, economic efficiency is declining. This has negative longer-term consequences."

Overall, China's economic health has improved since September, with an array of indicators from factory output to retail sales and investment showing Beijing's pro-growth policies are starting to gain traction.

Output, new orders and new export orders all improved, the official PMI showed, but a sub-index tracking employment deteriorated. Private firms generally account for more new jobs than does the state sector.

China's annual economic growth dipped to 7.4 percent in the third quarter, slowing for seven quarters in a row and leaving the economy on course for its weakest showing since 1999.

Given the recent signs of recovery, many analysts expect the economy to snap out of its longest downward cycle since the global financial crisis, and start to trend upwards in the fourth quarter.

The end of a destocking cycle and a greater pace of investment are expected to keep driving up domestic demand.

Economists also warn of downside risks from still cloudy external markets. The European debt crisis and listless U.S. economy continue to crimp demand from China's two largest trade partners.

China's central bank has moved cautiously in easing monetary policy to underpin economic growth, wary of reigniting inflation and fanning property prices which are still high.

It cut interest rates twice in June and July and lowered banks' reserve requirement ratio by 150 basis points in three stages since last November, but has refrained from further cuts since July. The authorities have opted to inject liquidity via open market operations to pump short-term cash into money markets.

The official PMI generally paints a rosier picture of the factory sector than the HSBC PMI because the official survey focuses on big, state-owned firms, while the HSBC PMI targets smaller, private companies. There are also differing approaches to seasonal adjustment between the two surveys.

(Editing by Ian Geoghegan and Alex Richardson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-pmi-survey-shows-growth-reviving-uneven-011807975--business.html

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Geithner on 'fiscal cliff': The ball's in the GOP's court

With the fiscal cliff looming and no deal to resolve it in sight, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner expressed confidence that a compromise could be reached during my interview with him on "This Week," but said the burden is now on Republicans to help find a solution to avoid a potential economic crisis.

(More from Sunday's show HERE.)

"I actually think that we're gonna get there. I mean, you know, just inevitably gonna be a little political theater in this context," Geithner said, when asked whether Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell laughed after hearing President Obama's plan to avert the fiscal cliff. "Sometimes that's a sign of progress. Think we're actually making a little bit of progress, but we're still some distance apart."

Echoing widespread Republican rejection of the White House's proposal last week, House Speaker John Boehner said after meeting with Geithner that " the White House has to get serious."

"And at this point though - you gotta recognize that they're in a very difficult place. And they recognize they're gonna have to move on a bunch of things. But they don't know really how to do it yet. And how to get support from the - from the members on the Republican side," he said, adding later that the proverbial ball was "absolutely" in the GOP court. "And, you know, when they come back to us and say, 'We'd like you to consider this. And we'd like you to consider that,' we'll take a look at that."

Geithner - who met with top GOP leaders this week to present the White House's proposal to end the fiscal standoff - predicted support from "the business community" and "from the American people" for a deal approximating the one being offered, which reportedly includes tax hikes on the wealthy, cuts to Medicare and some stimulus spending.

However, if there is no agreement by the end of the year, the treasury secretary told me going over the cliff would be "very damaging."

"Look, there's a huge amount at stake here in this economy, George. And there's just no reason why 98 percent of Americans have to see their taxes go up because some members of Congress on the Republican side want to block tax rate increases for 2 percent of the wealthiest Americans. Remember, those tax rates, those tax cuts, cost a trillion dollars over 10 years," he said.

Geithner said the White House plan offered a "good mix" of increased taxes and spending cuts. He also added that Social Security reform would not be part of the discussion to resolve the fiscal cliff.

"We think we have a very good plan, a very good mix of tax reforms that raise a modest amount of revenue on the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans, combined with very comprehensive, very well designed, very detailed savings that get us back to the point where our debt is stable and sustainable," he said. "We're prepared to, in a separate process, look at how to strengthen Social Security. But not as part of a process to reduce the other deficits the country faces," he said.

Finally, with Geithner wrapping up his time in the president's cabinet, I asked him if banking executive Jamie Dimon - who has billionaire Warren Buffett's endorsement - should be named the next treasury secretary, but Geithner declined to answer directly.

"George, the president's gonna choose somebody very talented to lead the Treasury for his next four years. And- I'm very fortunate I've been able to work with him to help solve these problems in the country over this period of time. And I'm very confident he's gonna have somebody in place- in January to succeed me," he said.

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/timothy-geithner-fiscal-cliff-balls-gops-court-140039110--abc-news-politics.html

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APNewsBreak: Gacy's blood may solve old murders

FILE - This 1978 file photo shows serial killer John Wayne Gacy. Three vials of Gacy's blood were recently discovered by Cook County Sheriff's detective Jason Moran. The sheriff?s office is creating DNA profiles from the blood of Gacy and other executed killers and putting them in a national DNA database of profiles created from blood, semen, or strands of hair found at crime scenes and on the bodies of victims. What they hope to find is evidence that links the long-dead killers to the coldest of cold cases and prompt authorities in other states to submit the DNA of their own executed inmates and maybe evidence from decades-old crime scenes to help them solve their own cases. (AP Photo)

FILE - This 1978 file photo shows serial killer John Wayne Gacy. Three vials of Gacy's blood were recently discovered by Cook County Sheriff's detective Jason Moran. The sheriff?s office is creating DNA profiles from the blood of Gacy and other executed killers and putting them in a national DNA database of profiles created from blood, semen, or strands of hair found at crime scenes and on the bodies of victims. What they hope to find is evidence that links the long-dead killers to the coldest of cold cases and prompt authorities in other states to submit the DNA of their own executed inmates and maybe evidence from decades-old crime scenes to help them solve their own cases. (AP Photo)

This photo taken Friday, Nov. 30, 2012, in Chicago shows three vials of mass murderer John Wayne Gacy's blood recently discovered by Cook County Sheriff's detective Jason Moran. The sheriff?s office is creating DNA profiles from the blood of Gacy and other executed killers and putting them in a national DNA database of profiles created from blood, semen, or strands of hair found at crime scenes and on the bodies of victims. What they hope to find is evidence that links the long-dead killers to the coldest of cold cases and prompt authorities in other states to submit the DNA of their own executed inmates and maybe evidence from decades-old crime scenes to help them solve their own cases. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

In this photo taken Friday, Nov. 30, 2012, in Chicago, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, left, and sheriff's detective Jason Moran are photographed with three recently discovered vials of mass murderer John Wayne Gacy's blood. The sheriff?s office is creating DNA profiles from the blood of Gacy and other executed killers and putting them in a national DNA database of profiles created from blood, semen, or strands of hair found at crime scenes and on the bodies of victims. What they hope to find is evidence that links the long-dead killers to the coldest of cold cases and prompt authorities in other states to submit the DNA of their own executed inmates and maybe evidence from decades-old crime scenes to help them solve their own cases. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

CHICAGO (AP) ? Detectives have long wondered what secrets serial killer John Wayne Gacy and other condemned murderers took to the grave when they were executed ? mostly whether they had other unknown victims.

Now, in a game of scientific catch-up, the Cook County Sheriff's Department is trying to be creative: They've created DNA profiles of Gacy and others and figured out they could get the executed men entered in a national database shared with other law enforcement agencies because the murderers were technically listed as homicide victims when they were put to death by the state.

The department's hope is to find matches of DNA evidence from blood, semen or strands of hair, or skin under the fingernails of victims that link the long-dead killers to the coldest of cold cases. And they're hoping to prompt authorities in other states to submit the DNA of their own executed inmates or from decades-old crime scenes.

"You just know some of these guys did other murders" that were never solved, said Jason Moran, the sheriffs' detective leading the effort, noting that some of the executed killers ranged all over the country before the convictions that put them behind bars for the last time.

The Illinois testing, which began during the summer, is the latest chapter in a story that began when Sheriff Tom Dart exhumed the remains of unknown victims of Gacy to create DNA profiles that could be compared with the DNA of people whose loved ones went missing in the 1970s, when Gacy was killing young men.

That effort, which led to the identification of one Gacy victim, caused Dart to wonder if the technology could help answer a question that has been out there for decades: Did Gacy kill anyone besides those young men whose bodies were stashed under his house or tossed in a river?

"He traveled a lot," Moran said of Gacy. "Even though we don't have any information he committed crimes elsewhere, the sheriff asked if you could put it past such an evil person."

After unexpectedly finding three vials of Gacy's blood stored with other Gacy evidence, Moran learned the state would only accept the blood in the crime database if it came from a coroner or medical examiner.

Moran thought he was out of luck. But then Will County Coroner Patrick O'Neil surprised him with this revelation: In his office freezer were blood samples from Gacy and at least three other executed inmates. The reason they were there is because after the death penalty was reinstated in Illinois in the 1970s, executions were carried out in Will County ? all between 1990 and 1999, a year before then-Gov. George Ryan established a moratorium on the death penalty. So it was O'Neil's office that conducted the autopsies and collected the blood samples.

But there was bigger obstacle.

While the state does send to the FBI's Combined DNA Index System the profiles of homicide victims no matter when they were killed, it will only send the profiles of known felons if they were convicted since a new state law was enacted about a decade ago that allowed them to be included, Moran said.

That meant the profile of Gacy, who received a lethal injection in 1994, and the profiles of other executed inmates could not qualify for the database under the felon provision. They could, however, qualify as people who died by homicide.

"They're homicides because the state intended to take the inmate's life," O'Neil said.

Last year, authorities in Florida created a DNA profile from the blood of executed serial killer Ted Bundy in an attempt to link him to other murders. But officials there, where the law allows profiles of convicted felons be uploaded into the database as well as the phase-in of profiles of people arrested on felony charges, don't know of any law enforcement agency reaching back into history the way Cook County's sheriff's office is.

"We haven't had any initiative where we are going back to executed offenders and asking for their samples," said David Coffman, director of Florida Department of Law Enforcement's laboratory system. "I think it's an innovative approach."

O'Neil said he is still looking for blood samples of the rest of the 12 condemned inmates executed between 1977 when Illinois reinstated the death penalty and 2000 when then-Gov. George Ryan established a moratorium. So far, DNA profiles have been done on the blood of Gacy and two others; the profile of the fourth inmate has not yet been done.

Among the other executed inmates whose blood was submitted for testing was Lloyd Wayne Hampton, a drifter executed in 1998 for his crimes. Not only did Hampton's long list of crimes include crimes outside the state ? one conviction was for the torture of a woman in California ? but shortly before he was put to death, he claimed to have committed other murders but never provided details.

So far, no computer hits have linked Gacy or the others to any other crimes. But Moran and O'Neil suspect there are investigators who are holding DNA evidence that could help solve them.

That is exactly what happened during the investigation into the 1993 slayings of seven people at a suburban Chicago restaurant, during which an evidence technician collected a half-eaten chicken dinner even though there was no way to test it for DNA at the time.

When the technology did become available, the dinner was tested and it revealed the identity of one of two men ultimately convicted in the slayings.

Moran says he wants investigators in other states to know that Gacy's blood is now open for analysis in their unsolved murders. He hopes those jurisdictions will, in turn, submit DNA profiles of their own executed inmates.

"That is part of the DNA system that's not being tapped into," he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-12-03-US-Gacy's-Blood/id-f516c8c6b49244159bba0dcda1c742ac

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Veterans' gun rights sticky issue in defense bill

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Should veterans deemed too mentally incompetent to handle their own financial affairs be prevented from buying a gun?

The issue, for a time last week, threatened to become the biggest sticking point in a $631 billion defense bill for reshaping a military that is disengaging from a decade of warfare.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., sought to amend the bill to stop the Veterans Affairs Department from putting the names of veterans deemed too mentally incompetent to handle their finances into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which prohibits them from buying or owning firearms.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., objected, saying the measure would make it easier for veterans with mental illness to own a gun, endangering themselves and others.

"I love our veterans, I vote for them all the time. They defend us," Schumer said. "If you are a veteran or not and you have been judged to be mentally infirm, you should not have a gun."

Currently, the VA appoints fiduciaries, often family members, to manage the pensions and disability benefits of veterans who are declared incompetent. When that happens, the department automatically enters the veteran's name in the Criminal Background Check System.

A core group of lawmakers led by Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., has for several years wanted to prohibit the VA from submitting those names to the gun-check registry unless a judge or magistrate deems the veteran to be a danger. This year's version of the bill has 21 co-sponsors. It passed the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee by voice vote, a tactic generally reserved for noncontroversial legislation. Coburn's amendment to the defense bill contained comparable language.

"All I am saying is, let them at least have their day in court if you are going to take away a fundamental right given under the Constitution," Coburn said in the Senate debate last Thursday night.

Congressional aides said Coburn will likely drop his effort to amend the defense bill with his proposal, but that he intends to try again on other bills coming to the Senate floor.

The number of veterans directly affected by the VA's policy doesn't appear to very large. Only 185 out of some 127,000 veterans added to the gun-check registry since 1998 have sought to have their names taken off, according to data that the VA shared with lawmakers during a hearing last June.

Still, the legislation over the years has attracted strong support from the National Rifle Association and various advocacy groups for veterans.

"We consider it an abject tragedy that so many of our veterans return home, after risking life and limb to defend our freedom, only to be stripped of their Second Amendment rights because they need help managing their compensation," Chris Cox, the NRA's chief lobbyist, wrote last year in an editorial.

The NRA did not respond to queries from the AP about Coburn's latest effort.

Dan Gross, president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said gun control advocates consider the VA's current policy reasonable.

"We're talking about people who have some form of disability to the extent that they're unable to manage their own affairs," Gross said. "If you're deemed unable to handle your own affairs, that's likely to constitute a high percentage of people who are dangerously mentally ill."

Tom Tarantino, chief policy officer for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said veterans with a traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder but who pose no threat to others are possibly being barred from gun ownership. The current restrictions might even be a disincentive for veterans to seek needed treatment, he said.

"We want to remove these stigmas for mental health treatment. It's a combat injury," Tarantino said. "They wouldn't be doing this if you were missing your right hand, so they shouldn't be doing it if you're seeking treatment for post-traumatic-stress-disorder or traumatic brain injury."

VA officials have told lawmakers they believe veterans deemed incompetent already have adequate protections.

For example, they said, veterans can appeal the finding of incompetency based on new evidence. And even if the VA maintains a veteran is incompetent, he can petition the agency to have his firearm rights restored on the basis of not posing a threat to public safety.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/veterans-gun-rights-sticky-issue-defense-bill-084034457--politics.html

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Facebook voting begins on Instagram data-sharing, email privacy

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc opened the polls on Monday for its roughly 1 billion users to vote on a variety of changes to the social network's policies, including a proposal to scrap the user voting system that Facebook introduced in 2009.

Facebook also said it had "clarified" some of the proposed changes, specifying that a new policy allowing it to share user data with recently acquired photo-application Instagram will be carried out in compliance with applicable laws and that Facebook will seek user consent when necessary.

The proposed changes, which Facebook announced on November 21, generated roughly 89,000 user comments as well as concerns from some privacy-advocacy groups and a request for more information from the Data Protection Commission in Ireland, where Facebook's European business has its headquarters.

"Based on your feedback and after consultation with our regulators, including the Irish Data Protection Commissioner's Office, we've further clarified some of our proposals," said Elliot Schrage, Facebook Vice President of Communications, Public Policy and Marketing in a post on Facebook's company blog on Monday.

Facebook is proposing to eliminate the 4-year-old system that allows users to vote on changes to its governance policies. The company says the voting system hasn't functioned as intended and is no longer suited to its current situation as a large publicly traded company subject to oversight by various regulatory agencies.

Facebook said on Monday that it would incorporate user suggestions for creating new tools to "enhance communication" on privacy and governance matters.

Another proposal would loosen the restrictions on how members of the social network can contact other members using the Facebook email system. The company said it planned to replace the "Who can send you Facebook messages" setting with new filters for managing incoming messages.

Facebook's potential information sharing with Instagram, a photo-sharing service for smartphone users that it bought in October, flows from proposed changes that would allow the company to share information between its own service and other businesses or affiliates it owns.

The change could open the door for Facebook to build unified profiles of its users that include people's personal data from its social network and from Instagram, similar to recent moves by Google Inc.

Facebook said on Monday that the proposed change was "standard in the industry" and "promotes the efficient and effective use of the services Facebook and its affiliates," such as allowing users in the U.S. to interact with users in Europe.

"This provision covers Instagram and allows us to store Instagram's server logs and administrative records in a way that is more efficient than maintaining totally separate storage systems," the company wrote in a separate post on its website Monday titled "explanation of changes".

"Where additional consent of our users is required, we will obtain it," Facebook said.

Facebook users have until December 10 to vote on the policies using a special third-party application provided by Facebook and Facebook said the results will be certified by an independent auditor.

The vote is only binding if at least 30 percent of users take part, and two prior votes never reached that threshold.

(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic; editing by Andrew Hay)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/facebook-voting-begins-instagram-data-sharing-email-privacy-221453068--sector.html

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Successful Sales Management: How To Hire A Sales Manager

Hiring a sales manager?can feel like playing Russian Roulette. Get the selection right, and the business could fly. Get it wrong and the risks are too frightening. A bad choice might drive an exodus of customers, and sales staff, before anybody spots it, and can stop it.?

Why Is It So Difficult?

For large organisations, recruiting a sales manager, who's guaranteed survive and succeed,?can be difficult. For smaller businesses, its close to impossible. ?And its not much fun for the sales manager either.?In fact, the downsides for both employer and employee are scary.?
Larger businesses have advantages. Candidates are often selected by guys who've been successful sales managers themselves, who have insight, knowing which bits of the story to test. Who know which essential skills to look for.?Who know which questions to ask, and how to rate the answers.?

Candidates will be more comfortable, too. Big businesses already know how to succeed, even if they could do a better job some of the time. New hires are likely to hit the ground running, not spend months educating colleagues in the way sales works. An experienced manager joining an established business is as good as it gets.

Smaller businesses aren't that lucky. They find attracting quality candidates difficult, don't know which questions to ask, and can't make sense of the gobbledygook answers. ?

There's a world shortage of great sales managers.?Good ones don't leave secure jobs, and when they do, it's for more secure, higher paying positions with better prospects of promotion.?They don't interview at small businesses without a very good reason. Which means, most often, the candidates aren't great, they probably aren't very good, and sometimes they're downright dangerous.

A smaller business hiring failed, or inexperienced, sales managers is as bad as it gets.?

What's a business owner supposed to do? She's built the operation from the ground up, developing her value proposition, making the product, delivering the service, keeping the books, and probably making the coffee, too. The company isn't going to achieve its promise, unless there's a way to leverage the track record into profitable growth. That takes sales management.?

Like it or not, the successful business owner will face the dilemma at some point. How to hire a sales manager.

Which Are The Options

The simplest answer is do what the big guys do - poach the best people from the competition. It isn't easy, and certainly isn't cheap. Persuading a top performer to switch horses will take a pay increase, a vision of a brighter future, a lot of assurances and maybe even a promise of equity. Not easy and not cheap, but the best chance of bringing in proven skills, and with a collateral benefit - weakening the competition in the process.

Next best would be hiring experience from similar markets. It's easier to head hunt from a different industry. There's less loyalty, and more comfort during the negotiations. There's more chance of improved career prospects for the candidate. Skills are often transferrable from one market to another, provided there's some common factor.

Offering the competitor's sales rep a promotion to manager can be a good move, but risky. The very best sales people don't want to be managers. ?They make more money and have more fun selling. Ambitious sales professionals do want to be managers, and will often take a chance on moving to get the promotion. But they won't stay around long. And past performance as a sales rep doesn't guarantee success in management.

Hiring friends, or friends of friends, in such an important role is another option fraught with danger. Working with a sales manager is a business partnership, not a drinking partnership, or a golf partnership. Neither boss nor manager can afford the luxury of accepting the other's foibles. There are times when tough talking is what makes a business better. ?The last thing anybody wants is the sacrifice of business results because of sensitivity to a friends personal preferences.?

Social media might prove a useful source of candidates. Linked In particularly offers ways for owners and employees to find each other. It's also overflowing with pretenders. Posting an open position is obviously attractive - low cost, impersonal, no commitment, ready to listen, no promises. ?It can certainly be worth a try, but with caution ?When it comes to the Internet, what is says on the tin isn't necessarily what's in the tin.? Professional recruiters are awfully expensive. They do have experience in selecting candidates to suit client requirements. Some even offer guarantees. If the candidate chosen doesn't work out, they'll find another for free. The professional recruitment firm can do stuff the company boss can't. ?It can make impersonal approaches to the best people around. It can present the opportunity in the best possible light. It can manage the advertising, sort through the responses, validate references, arrange interviews, play the middle man in negotiations. Using the right firm of recruiters is the preferred option for businesses with a lot of hiring to do. But with fees at up to 25% of first year earnings, it might be just too costly for the smaller business.

Last but not least, there's always the cheap, fast, simple,approach. Put an ad in the paper. More often than not, the resumes will flood in. Unfortunately, most won't be suitable. ?That's the disadvantage of advertising jobs. Sorting through hundreds of letters sent by people who didn't read the ad properly, couldn't write the application clearly, and are obviously desperate for a job, is depressing. Replying to them is a chore. And there's no guarantee of attracting the right candidates. ?The best people rarely spend evenings and weekends with the help wanted sections.

Selecting The Right Candidate

Whichever of these less than ideal options the hopeful employer chooses, the biggest problem is still to come. Interviewing is a challenging, time consuming, frustrating task. It's about finding the best candidate from a list of suitable candidates. In the case of sales managers, its a search for value add - the right skill set, with the right philosophy, compatible culture, and credibility.

Credibility is a question of track record, references, aspirations and manners. A mixture of personal characteristics and measurable results.?Compatible culture is a question of fit with the rest of the business. ?Will the candidate work easily with everybody else.

The focus on the interview should be skills and philosophy. That's where the value add will be. But value added to what. Does this candidate, who's going to cost a lot, offer promise of what the business needs? ?Will the business be stronger. Will the opportunity be more likely achieved.?

No two businesses are the same. There is no silver bullet to guarantee successful sales operations. There is no substitute for on the ground, buried in the trenches, experience of markets and customers, of what works and what doesn't. The interviewer needs to have that, of course. ?She's looking for somebody to add value to what she already knows. She's looking for somebody to add experience of turning the handle, to her expertise in creating happy customers, serviced by a happy team, in a profitable business.

Anybody looking to hire a sales manager should already have a good idea of which people buy what and how. The successful sales manager should be able to explain how that experience can be turned into a self sustaining sales organisation.?

There's good news for the boss who knows the questions to ask, and how to evaluate the answers. Quality sales managers will know they're talking to somebody who's got it. They won't be risking their career working for a pilgrim. The pretenders will slink away, looking for an easier slot.?


Why doesn?t the traditional approach to selling and sales management work so well any more? What can the modern sales professional do to stay relevant in today?s customer driven markets?? Check out our eBook?Reengineering Sales Management?for ideas on how to embrace the new order of customer driven buyer/seller relationships.

Source: http://successfulsalesmanagement.stevensreeves.com/2012/12/how-to-hire-sales-manager.html

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