Inauguration weekend kicks off with National Day of Service

Vice President Joseph Biden participates during the National Day of Service (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON -- "You guys ready to kick off this day of doing a whole bunch of good?!"

Tommy McFly, a spry Washington, D.C. radio host, is looking over a few hundred volunteers gathered beneath a massive heated tent that stretches for a block on the National Mall, the hub of the National Day of Service, the first official event for President Barack Obama's second Inauguration. The tent is filled with booths from government agencies and non-profits offering community service opportunities.

Across town, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joseph Biden are at work on their own projects.

The president and first lady visited Burrville Elementary School in northeast Washington, where they helped stain bookshelves.

"This inauguration is going to be a symbol of how our democracy works...but it should also be an affirmation that we are all in this together," Obama told a crowd at the school.

At the DC Armory, Biden and his wife Jill spent some time putting together service packages for members of the armed services abroad while Obama joined about 500 volunteers fixing up an elementary school in the city.

The festivities are only a part what will be a national day of events. Across the country, non-profit groups are organizing hundreds of service projects for Martin Luther King Jr. weekend.

Here in Washington, volunteers are gathered for an all-day marathon of community service projects--and maybe also to catch a glimpse of actress Eva Longoria and former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton, who are headlining the morning rally.

"Let's start off this new year by renewing America's promise," Longoria tells the audience to whoops and cheers. "We're going to give back to our schools and students and we're going to be serving our community. And you'll be serving your country when you serve your community."

With the stage bookended by giant Jumbo Tron screens, the event resembles a campaign rally mixed with a splash of county fair, trade show and a hands-on science museum. Display booths for government agencies and non-profit groups fill most of the tent, while employees sign up new recruits to pledge volunteer service in 2013. The booths are divided into sections beneath well-lit banners like "Economic Development," "Health," "Faith," and "Veterans & Military Families."

After Clinton, Longoria and Vice President Joe Biden's son Beau finish brief motivational speeches, the crowd disperses to the booths to pledge volunteer hours and add their names on non-profit mailing lists.

The whole tent is buzzing with activity: At Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots booth, children make paper birds from stencils to paste on windows so real birds don't smash into them. Teenagers at the Best Buddies International section sign up to mentor children and activists join the Sierra Club's campaign against forest logging.

Across the way, The American Legion has teamed up with the Dept. of Veterans Affairs by providing cards for people to write support letters to wounded soldiers in hospitals throughout the country.

"I just wanted to let them know how much I appreciate what their doing," says Susan Schesnol from Scottsdale, Arizona, who is writing several letters to soldiers she'll likely never meet.

Girls write letters to wounded veterans. (Chris Moody/Yahoo News)

Around another corner, a physicist from the Department of Energy has set up a bicycle to a row of light bulbs, and is showing out-of-shape visitors how difficult it is to peddle electricity into old fashioned light bulbs. Nearby, a line has formed for autographs from NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren and Serena Au??n.

Every once in a while, the Clinton and Longoria entourages pass by, inspiring almost everyone in eye shot to drop what they're doing and tag along. The two women, working different sides of the tent, navigate their way from booth to booth, stringing along dozens of photographers and fans along the way.

"That's Hillary Clinton!" yells a teenager in a red beanie as Chelsea Clinton flows passed him. "I mean, it's WhatSerDaughter's name!"

On Saturday night the first and second ladies, Michele Obama and Jill Biden, will attend the Kids? Inaugural Concert at the Washington, D.C. convention center.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/national-day-181047973--politics.html

freedom tower eric church world trade center quick silver where have you been rihanna kirk cousins mothers day

Syrian FM calls on rebels to disarm and negotiate

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syria's foreign minister invited the country's rebels on Saturday to lay down their weapons and take part in a national dialogue, saying everyone who participates will be included in a new Cabinet with wide executive powers.

Walid al-Moallem said in a live interview on state TV late Saturday that any opposition parties could join the Cabinet as long as they reject foreign intervention in Syria. The Syrian government has started contacting "representatives of the Syrian people," he added.

Earlier this month, President Bashar Assad dismissed calls that he step down, vowing to keep fighting the rebels. Assad also proposed a national reconciliation conference, elections and a new constitution ? concessions offered previously over the course of the uprising that began in March 2011. The opposition says that Assad can play no role in a resolution to the conflict.

"I tell the young men who carried arms to change and reform, take part in the dialogue for a new Syria and you will be a partner in building it. Why carry arms," al-Moallem said in the hour-long interview. "Those who want foreign intervention will not be among us."

He accused Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey of arming and financing the rebels in Syria. He said that Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaida-linked group which the U.S. has declared a terrorist organization but which fights alongside Syrian rebels, had brought fighters from 27 countries to fight in Syria.

Last month, the international envoy tasked with Syria's crisis, Lakhdar Brahimi, proposed a plan to end Syria's war with a cease-fire followed by the formation of a transitional government to run the country until new elections can be held.

Brahimi did not mention Assad by name, but said the transitional government would have "full executive powers" and would replace the Syrian leader. The plan was unveiled by world powers at an international conference in Geneva in June. Al-Moallem said that the Geneva conference does not require Assad to leave power.

The interview came as activists reported violence in different areas of Syria.

In the northern province of Idlib, Syrian troops fought intense battles Saturday against rebels who are trying to capture two military bases in the northwest and step up their attacks on army compounds elsewhere in the country, activists said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees said the rebels destroyed at least one tank near the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province. The rebels, who have been battling for weeks to take control of bases in Wadi Deif and Hamdiyeh, are working to cut off supply routes to the compounds, the Observatory said.

Attacks on government bases are a recent focus of fighting in Syria's civil war, which according to the United Nations has left more than 60,000 people dead since the conflict began in March 2011.

Last week, rebels captured the nearby air base of Taftanaz in a significant blow to President Bashar Assad's forces, who increasingly rely on airpower.

The rebels also have been trying to capture other air bases in the northern province of Aleppo, and, according to activists, were attacking the air base of Mannagh near the Turkish border.

In Turkey, state-run Anadolu news agency said Syria's air force targeted a mosque and a school building that was apparently sheltering displaced Syrians in the town of Salqin, some four miles (six kilometers) from the border with Turkey in Idlib province. Dozens of people were killed and wounded.

At least 30 people wounded in the attack were taken across the border to Turkey for treatment, and two died in Turkish hospitals, the news agency said.

The displaced Syrians were eating when the school was attacked, according to Anadolu, who interviewed witnesses who has crossed into the Turkish border province of Hatay. The wounded included women and children, the agency said.

Syria's official news agency SANA said troops had targeted rebel hideouts in Salqin, killing and wounding some of them.

Also in Turkey on Saturday, members of the newly-restructured Syrian opposition held a conference in Istanbul aiming to nominate representatives for a transitional government.

"We have some ideas, some proposals," said one opposition member, Abdul Ahad Astephoa, without mentioning any specifics.

The group, known as the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, was formed in Qatar in November amid international pressure to unite factions within the opposition.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory, said the government was sending reinforcements to the central city of Homs where rebels have controlled some neighborhoods for more than a year. Residents of Homs, Syria's third largest city, were one of the first to rise up against Assad and many refer to it as "the capital of the revolution."

"It seems they are preparing for a big attack on Homs," Abdul-Rahman said by telephone.

The Observatory and the LCC said troops attacked several suburbs of the capital, Damascus, as well as Homs and the southern rebel-held town of Busra al-Harir. The shelling and air raids targeted the Damascus suburbs of Douma, Daraya and Moadamiyeh where regime forces have been on the offensive for weeks, they said.

___

Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-fm-calls-rebels-disarm-negotiate-203324096.html

power ball april fools pranks livan hernandez soledad o brien mega ball lottery winner lottery numbers

UCI: Armstrong confession repairs damage to sport

WENGEN, Switzerland (AP) ? Former world cycling leader Hein Verbruggen says he's vindicated after years of "conspiracy theories" that he helped cover up doping by Lance Armstrong.

The International Cycling Union's honorary president added on Friday it was "good that Lance Armstrong finally admitted to doping," which was welcomed by the governing body as an important step in repairing damage the disgraced rider did to the sport.

Armstrong told talk-show host Oprah Winfrey that testimony from some former teammates about the UCI making his alleged positive test at the 2001 Tour of Switzerland "go away" was untrue.

"I agree with its conclusions in particular the fact that there was no cover-up," Verbruggen, who led the UCI from 1991-2005, said in a statement provided to The Associated Press.

"I am pleased that after years of accusations being made against me the conspiracy theories have been shown to be nothing more than that," the Dutch official said. "I have no doubt that the peddlers of such accusations and conspiracies will be disappointed by this outcome."

Armstrong reportedly paid the UCI $125,000 which Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton testified to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency was in exchange for covering up a positive test for the blood-booster EPO.

"That story isn't true. There was no positive test. No paying off of the lab. The UCI did not make that go away. I'm no fan of the UCI," Armstrong told Winfrey.

Verbruggen said that "given this is true, I was not surprised that Lance Armstrong confirmed this in the interview."

Still, statements issued by Verbruggen and the UCI on Friday did not directly address Armstrong's recollection that "they asked if I would make a donation," apparently toward anti-doping equipment.

"They (the UCI) called and said they didn't have a lot of money ? I did," Armstrong said.

Verbruggen's successor as UCI president, Pat McQuaid, said that Armstrong's admission of doping to Winfrey was a welcome move.

"Lance Armstrong's decision finally to confront his past is an important step forward on the long road to repairing the damage that has been caused to cycling and to restoring confidence in the sport," McQuaid in a statement.

McQuaid insisted that "there were no positive tests which were covered up and he has confirmed that the donations made to the UCI were to assist in the fight against doping."

"Lance Armstrong has confirmed there was no collusion or conspiracy between the UCI and Lance Armstrong," McQuaid said.

The UCI's links to the Armstrong case will be examined by an independent commission over three weeks of hearings in London in April.

McQuaid, who replaced Verbruggen as UCI president in 2005, said the UCI would welcome Armstrong participating in a proposed "truth and reconciliation process" for cycling.

The Irish official and Verbruggen have said they will give evidence to the three-member inquiry panel.

Armstrong told Winfrey he took banned drugs during each of the seven Tour de France victories that were stripped from him for cheating.

The UCI acted on a devastating 1,000-page report published by the USADA in October, which raised allegations that the Swiss-based governing body was complicit in the widespread doping program by Armstrong and his teams.

McQuaid said it was "disturbing" to watch the Armstrong interview, which was broadcast worldwide on Winfrey's website starting at 3 a.m. Swiss time on Friday.

"It was disturbing to watch him describe a litany of offenses including among others doping throughout his career, leading a team that doped, bullying, consistently lying to everyone and producing a backdated medical prescription to justify a test result," said the UCI chief, referring to Armstrong's positive test for a corticosteroid during his first Tour win in 1999.

"However, Lance Armstrong also rightly said that cycling is a completely different sport today than it was 10 years ago," McQuaid said.

Verbruggen said Armstrong's interview helped show that "the UCI has been at the forefront of the fight against doping in sport."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uci-armstrong-confession-repairs-damage-sport-141029426--spt.html

Yunel Escobar Eye Black Cruel Summer Endeavor shaun white carolina panthers amanda bynes Revolution TV Show

Amity Acres Day Camp Open House | Lacey Sports & Recreation ...

Tuesday, May 7, 2013, 5:00 pm

133 Jones Rd, Barnegat, NJ | Get?Directions??
FREE

Milestones?.from birth, it?s what we measure. First words; first steps; first foods.? Now, we invite you to discover a camp where your child?s milestones continue. Imagine your child?s first gallop around the equestrian center, first swim across the lake, first culinary masterpiece and many, many more.? Join us at Amity Acres Day Camp, where friendships are nurtured, confidence is cultivated and the smiles are as warm as the summer sun.??

Girls:??? Grades K-10

Boys:??? Ages 5-11

New campers who attend an Open House event and register for camp within 48 hours will receive a $20 per child/per week discount on our popular Basic Camp program.

Enter a drawing for a free week of basic camp!

We look forward to seeing you there!

39.781147

-74.306424

primary

/events/amity-acres-day-camp-open-house-2938ef3e

/locations/8628317

Source: http://lacey.patch.com/events/amity-acres-day-camp-open-house-2938ef3e

Little Nemo gawker earthquake today earthquake today Romney Bosses Day 2012 Arlen Specter

Apple reportedly halting iPad retina displays production at Sharp

Last weekend it was iPhone 5 displays, now it's iPad 4 displays, and just as before, we have a sensational headline attributed to a couple of anonymous sources, with only the most superficial context and analysis provided far, far below in the body. This time, according to Reuters, production of iPad 4 displays at Sharp is being kept at levels only sufficient to keep the line running. However:

A source at Samsung Display, however, said there had not been any significant change in its panel business with Apple, which has been steadily reducing panel purchases from the South Korean firm.

A person who is familiar with the situation at LG Display said iPad screen production in the current quarter had fallen from the previous quarter ending in December, mainly due to weak seasonal demand that is typical after the busy year-end holiday sales period.

So, even if Sharp production is being halted, Samsung and LG still sound like they're full steam ahead. If panel production in general is merely being re-prioritized towards a higher mix of iPad mini and lower mix of iPad 4, or if quantities made by one company or during one period were sufficient to cover what would have been handled by Sharp during this period, or if any other factor is at play, isn't really investigated.

When a spokesperson from Sharp was asking about the drastic change in retina display production, they declined to comment stating that they don't make statements about their supply chain or production levels.

Again, production rumors, both correct and incorrect have plagued Apple for years. Now, however, in a more competitive, more skittish market, they're garnering more attention, and carrying more weight, than ever before.

Apple announces their traditionally big Q1 numbers at the end of January. Expect the rumors to get crazier before then.

Source: Reuters

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/dXwos9Z5_os/story01.htm

michelle obama robin roberts Democratic National Convention 2012 myocardial infarction What Is Labor Day jersey shore Pasquale Rotella

The Economist on Windows

CNET TechTracker will now automatically install software without requiring further action by you. (Note: This feature automatically accepts associated EULAs and third party applications on your behalf.)

You have selected the following software to Smart Install:

CNET TechTracker will attempt to install this software without interrupting you again. If an application requires manual installation, CNET TechTracker will download the installer and prompt you to take further action.

Proceed with Smart Install?

Confirm Standard Install Cancel

Source: http://download.cnet.com/The-Economist-on-Windows/3000-2164_4-75847501.html

boston bruins carl crawford mad cow disease rampart jimmy fallon jimmy fallon nick collins

Selling rental house. How to deal with current ... - Zillow Real Estate ...

thanks for posting your question on Zillow.com!

well, I would hope he's need to start with. If you can figure out a way to motivate somebody to be neat in keep their place clean, let's get together and sell that product! :-)

you may find a buyer for the property that wants to rent it & avoid having to get him out altogether. Closings usually take 30 to 45 days and by law you're required to give him a months notice.

best of luck to you.

Source: http://www.zillow.com/advice-thread/Selling-rental-house-How-to-deal-with-current-renter/474741/

katharine mcphee cold mountain valentines day ideas the villages florida egoraptor gisele bundchen turbotax