McGraw-Hill seeking dismissal of lawsuit over S&P

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The parent company of Standard & Poor's wants a federal judge to dismiss a U.S. government lawsuit that claims the ratings agency gave falsely high ratings to mortgage investments that helped trigger the financial crisis.

Attorneys for McGraw-Hill Cos. Inc. delivered their arguments in documents filed Monday in U.S. District Court in California.

The motion asserts that the government's complaint against S&P is "a stretch," noting that other agencies issued ratings identical to S&P.

It also argues that the ratings firm's inability to predict the extent of the financial meltdown was a lack of prescience ? not fraud. It notes the crisis was something that the Federal Reserve, U.S. Treasury and Wall Street also failed to see coming.

The government filed the civil lawsuit against New York-based McGraw-Hill in February and aims to seek billions in damages.

The Justice Department claims S&P knowingly inflated its ratings because it wanted to earn more business from its lender clients whose investments it was hired to rate.

According to the lawsuit, S&P recognized in 2006 that home prices were sinking and that borrowers were having trouble repaying loans. Yet these facts weren't reflected in the safe ratings S&P gave to complex real-estate investments known as mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs, the lawsuit alleges.

High ratings from S&P and the two other main credit rating agencies ? Fitch and Moody's ? made it possible for banks to sell trillions in risky investments. Some investors, including pension funds, can buy only securities that carry high credit ratings.

But in its filing Monday, McGraw-Hill argues that U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter should dismiss the case because the government failed to show S&P intended to defraud investors in CDOs.

In one example, the company contends that two of S&P's "supposed victims," Citibank and Bank of America, were creating and selling the CDOs that the S&P was rating.

"In other words, the complaint charges S&P with intending to defraud these financial institutions about the likely performance of their own products," the filing said.

McGraw-Hill also makes the point that it could not have been fraudulent for S&P to continue to rely on its ratings for residential mortgage-backed securities if the firm continued to update its ratings "in good faith."

The claim against S&P is the Obama administration's most aggressive action to date against those deemed responsible for contributing to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Its follows years of criticism that the government had failed to do enough.

Shares of McGraw-Hill ended regular trading up 15 cents at $52. The stock is down about 5 percent this year.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mcgraw-hill-seeking-dismissal-lawsuit-003531529.html

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CBS buys small stake in mobile TV startup Syncbak

NEW YORK (AP) ? CBS Corp. says it has made a minority investment in Syncbak, a technology company that allows mobile device users to pick up signals from their local TV stations over the Internet.

Founded in Marion, Iowa, in 2009, Syncbak allows people who download the app to watch local programming, even over a cellphone connection.

Broadcasters like CBS are hoping to reach consumers on new platforms as viewing habits change.

CBS's investment comes after it and other networks mounted a legal challenge to New York-based Aereo, a startup that plucks broadcast signals for free from the air and distributes them to customers via the Internet for $8 a month or more.

Broadcasters have sued Aereo, alleging copyright infringement. Aereo has prevailed so far, arguing that by using thousands of antennas, its service replicates a customer buying his own antenna to receive free over-the-air broadcasts.

It won a preliminary ruling in an appeals court earlier this month, which allowed it to continue offering its service in the New York City area. It plans to expand to Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington and 18 other U.S. markets this spring.

CBS said Monday that Syncbak's technology is being tested by more than 100 TV stations in 70 markets, including San Francisco, Philadelphia and Dallas.

CBS said it would work closely with cable, satellite and telecommunications companies on building Syncbak.

That suggests that getting the full use of Syncbak could require a pay TV subscription, although that hasn't yet been decided.

Most U.S. TV households pay for service from cable and satellite companies who in turn pay local TV stations for the right to retransmit their feeds to subscribers. These so-called retransmission fees amounted to $3 billion last year and are expected to double by 2018, according to research firm SNL Kagan.

Aereo jeopardizes those fees because, if its legal argument stands, cable and satellite companies could build similar technology to avoid paying for retransmission rights.

By offering local TV station content, Syncbak supplements the efforts of pay TV operators, such as Time Warner Cable Inc., which last week began allowing live TV viewing of certain channels through its mobile app for customers who are outside their home.

However, the TWC TV app only provides live TV channels of national programming, such as BBC America and TVGuide Network.

Currently, Syncbak's app is not providing national network programming or the daily prime-time lineups of major broadcasters such as NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox.

For example, in San Francisco, the only channel available on the Syncbak app is KTSF, a station that broadcasts news and dramas in a variety of Asian languages including Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-04-22-US-CBS-Syncbak/id-75708b770ed54d96a62d6265bc26457f

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Award-winning children's author Konigsburg dies

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) ? E.L. Konigsburg, an author who twice won one of the top honors for children's literature, has died. She was 83.

Her son Paul Konigsburg says the longtime Florida resident died Friday at a hospital in Falls Church, Va., where she'd been living for the past few years with another son. She had suffered a stroke a week before she died.

She won the John Newbery Medal in 1997 for her book "The View from Saturday" and in 1968 for "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler." The Newbery is one of the top honors for children's literature. Her family says she wrote 16 children's novels and illustrated 3 picture books.

Her first book, "Jennifer, Hecate, MacBeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth" was also a Newbery honor book in 1968, making her the only author to be a winner and runner-up in the same year.

In 1997, the Newbery committee called her story of a sixth grade Academic Bowl team and their coach "a unique, jubilant tour de force characterized by good humor, positive relationships, distinctive personalities and brilliant story telling."

Konigsburg said in an interview with The Associated Press at the time: "The award represents a kind of validation that I find just most gratifying."

In 2004, she told The Dallas Morning News that she built her characters and plots by imagining situations what-if situations with her children, grandchildren and students.

"I think most of us are outsiders," she said. "And I think that's good because it makes you question things. I think it makes you see things outside yourself."

Her stories were also adapted for movies and television. Ingrid Bergman starred as Mrs. Frankweiler in a 1973 film adaptation of Konigsburg's book called "The Hideaways."

Konigsburg grew up in Pennsylvania and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a degree in chemistry. She married David Konigsburg in 1952, and the couple lived in several cities before settling in the Jacksonville, Fla., area.

Konigsburg, who had two sons and a daughter and five grandchildren, started writing and illustrating children's books when her youngest child began kindergarten. Her husband died in 2001.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-04-21-US-Obit-Konigsburg/id-0b94d830a54c4cab83bdce738aca4f56

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US officials: More nonlethal aid to Syrian rebels (The Arizona Republic)

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Clippers beat Grizzlies 112-91 in playoff opener

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? The Los Angeles Clippers played above the rim, not enough to live up to their Lob City moniker but enough to beat Memphis at its own rebounding game.

Chris Paul led seven players in double figures with 23 points, Eric Bledsoe had 15 and the Clippers dominated the boards in a 112-91 victory over the Grizzlies in their Western Conference playoff opener on Saturday.

Chauncey Billups scored 14 points, and Caron Butler and Jamal Crawford had 13 apiece on a night when Blake Griffin was held to 10 points and five rebounds before fouling out with 3:32 left. The high-flying Clippers had just one dunk, but enjoyed a 47-23 advantage on the glass.

"I just decided not to dunk that often," Paul said, jokingly. "Just shoot floaters. I don't know what Blake's problem was."

Griffin bantered back, saying, "I just wanted to foul."

"They're tough inside and in the end our guys made shots. We don't live for the dunk. It just happens sometimes ? a lot of the time," he said.

Just not this time.

Griffin missed a dunk in the first quarter, when Tony Allen and Ed Davis had Memphis' only two. DeAndre Jordan's driving one-handed slam midway through the fourth was the Clippers' first, and the big man's first and only basket of the game.

"We were able to get in front of them before they take off," said Jerryd Bayless, who led the Grizzlies with 19 points.

Marc Gasol had 16 points and two rebounds, and Zach Randolph had 13 points and four boards in the rematch of last year's first-round series, won by the Clippers in seven games. Randolph finished with five fouls and Bayless was one of four Grizzlies with four fouls.

"That's not acceptable," Gasol said about the rebounding difference. "Once we made a stop, they kept running in and getting offensive rebounds and second-chance points. We have to be better than that. The rebounds were the difference."

Game 2 is Monday night at Staples Center.

"We've got to really, really step up and execute better," Gasol said. "They cannot outhustle us."

The Grizzlies closed within a point early in the fourth on a 3-pointer by former Clipper Keyon Dooling. Los Angeles answered with a 15-3 run to go up 92-79, equaling the 13-point lead it had in the first half. Eric Bledsoe, who had seven points, opened and closed the spurt with layups as the reserves helped the Clippers outscore the Grizzlies 37-22 in the period.

"Bled is that blur," Paul said. "It gave us more versatility. They didn't know who to guard."

The game was slowed by the referees, who called Memphis for 29 fouls and the Clippers 28.

Memphis owned a 48-46 edge in scoring in the paint, while the Clippers dominated 25-5 in second-chance points.

Griffin and Randolph staged a wrestling match within the game. Griffin said his back, which had spasms in the regular-season finale on Wednesday, felt good.

"I'm ready for however many games it's going to take," Griffin said. "If that's the way he wants to play, let's do it."

Randolph said: "It's not that big of a deal right now. We want to win the next one. If we can't win the next one, then it's a big deal."

The Grizzlies never led, and it didn't help that Randolph picked up two fouls and Mike Conley Jr. had three in the first half. Besides Griffin, Jordan had four fouls, while Matt Barnes, Lamar Odom and Ronny Turiaf had three apiece for the Clippers.

"They had two or three guys going to the glass every time," Conley said. "They were jumping over us and using their athleticism."

Paul scored his team's first seven points in the third, extending the lead to 64-53.

The Clippers led 57-51 at halftime after Barnes tipped in Paul's miss just before the buzzer. They led by 13 points early in the second before the Grizzlies cut it to two points twice in the final 1:24.

NOTES: The Clippers have won eight straight games, including their final seven of the regular season. ... Los Angeles is in the playoffs for the second straight year, the first time that's happened since 1991-92 and 1992-93. ... Memphis led the NBA in points allowed with 89.5 per game in the regular season.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/clippers-beat-grizzlies-112-91-playoff-opener-052753939--spt.html

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new H7N9 flu, no sustained human-to-human, but . . . - Health ...

And there are also questions whether birds are the only or even the primary animal reservoir for this new strain.

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For flu in general, a relapse with high fever is bad because that relapse may be bacterial pneumonia (after the flu virus has stripped the helpful epithelial cells in the upper respiratory tract). Don't panic, but do call your regular doctor and hopefully he or she can put in a call for an antibiotic. Start soon.
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp4895501.html&highlight=

And apparently, people are most infectious with flu when they first get sick. Which is directly at odds with companies pressuring people to work when sick, and also people themselves wanting to be heroes.

===============

If you run across any interesting news items relating to this H7N9, please post a link here. I guess influenza is kind of a special interest of mine.

Source: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt229032.html

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Sheriff: 5 snowboarders killed in Colo. avalanche

GEORGETOWN, Colo. (AP) ? Authorities have recovered the bodies of five snowboarders who were killed in a backcountry avalanche on Colorado's Loveland Pass.

Clear Creek County Sheriff Don Krueger said multiple search and rescue crews located the bodies Saturday. A sixth snowboarder was caught in the slide. That person's condition was unknown.

Krueger said authorities are pretty certain the snowboarders triggered the avalanche, which he said was about 600 yards wide and eight feet deep.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sheriff-5-snowboarders-killed-colo-avalanche-223833422.html

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