Why Katy Perry Can't EVER Forgive Russell Brand

Russell Brand is entering Justin Timberlake territory at Us Weekly apparently.

No matter how little evidence they may have, they're convinced Russell is a bad dude. Whenever Katy Perry gets around to writing material for her third album, the tabloid erroneously claims, she's got plenty of dark, painful memories to draw from!

The reason for that? Russell is (allegedly) penning a book about her!

Despite public denials from a rep, the British comic plans to cover all the nitty-gritty, sometimes ugly details of their failed 14-month marriage ... Us claims.

"Katy is insulted and feels betrayed that Russell has treated her so poorly," a pal to the "Firework" singer, 27, tells Us. "She will never forgive him. Ever."

For the record, Katy says no one speaks for her.

Although Perry is supposedly "in panic mode" regarding her ex's memoir plans, she's back to work on her ongoing concert tour, commercial shoots and more.

She's taking pains to "limiting interactions" with Brand, another source says of Katy. "He's being so atrocious that she feels like she never knew him."

FYI, he's really not, as far as we can tell.

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/why-katy-perry-cant-ever-forgive-russell-brand/

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House to take up anti-piracy bill in February (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The House of Representatives will resume work next month on a controversial bill aimed at stopping online piracy of movies, music and other content, a leading lawmaker said on Tuesday.

The anti-piracy legislation has been a top priority for entertainment companies, publishers, pharmaceutical firms and others, who say it is critical to curbing online piracy.

Internet companies vigorously oppose the bills, arguing they would undermine innovation and free speech rights and compromise the functioning of the Internet.

The debate escalated over the weekend when White House officials raised concerns that the legislation could make businesses on the Internet vulnerable to litigation and harm legal activity and free speech.

Representative Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was needed to protect American businesses from intellectual property theft, and that legislation would move forward.

"Due to the Republican and Democratic retreats taking place over the next two weeks, markup of the Stop Online Piracy Act is expected to resume in February," added Smith, a Texas Republican. "I am committed to continuing to work with my colleagues in the House and Senate to send a bipartisan bill to the White House."

The Senate is expected to begin voting on January 24 on how to proceed in considering its own version of the bill.

Both Smith and Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy have said that they plan to jettison a controversial portion of their bills which would block access for Internet users who seek stolen movies or music.

White House officials, including cyber-security czar Howard Schmidt, said in a blog posting on Saturday that they opposed the bills as currently written. But they said the Obama administration would work with lawmakers on a narrower, more targeted approach to online piracy to ensure that legitimate businesses - including start-up firms - would not be harmed.

Wikipedia, the popular community-edited online encyclopedia, will black out its English-language site for 24 hours Wednesday to oppose the legislation. Other smaller sites leading the campaign include Reddit.com.

(Reporting By Diane Bartz; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120117/music_nm/us_usa_internet_piracy_house

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Apple starts selling interactive iPad textbooks (AP)

NEW YORK ? Apple Inc. on Thursday launched its attempt to make the iPad a replacement for a satchel full of textbooks by starting to sell electronic versions of a handful of standard high-school books.

The electronic textbooks, which include "Biology" and "Environmental Science" from Pearson and "Algebra 1" and "Chemistry" from McGraw-Hill, contain videos and other interactive elements.

But it's far from clear that even a company with Apple's clout will be able to reform the primary and high-school textbook market. The printed books are bought by schools, not students, and are reused year after year, which isn't possible with the electronic versions. New books are subject to lengthy state approval processes.

Major textbook publishers have been making electronic versions of their products for years, but until recently, there hasn't been any hardware suitable to display them. PCs are too expensive and cumbersome to be good e-book machines for students. Dedicated e-book readers like the Kindle have small screens and can't display color. IPads and other tablet computers work well, but iPads cost at least $499. Apple didn't reveal any new program to defray the cost of getting the tablet computers into the hands of students.

All this means textbooks have lagged the general adoption of e-books, even when counting college-level works that students buy themselves. Forrester Research said e-books accounted for only 2.8 percent of the $8 billion U.S. textbook market in 2010.

Pearson PLC of Britain and The McGraw-Hill Cos. of New York are two of the three big textbook companies in the U.S. market. The third one, Boston-based Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, also plans to supply books to Apple's store, but none were immediately available.

The new textbooks are legible with a new version of the free iBooks application, which became available Thursday.

The textbooks will cost $15 or less, said Phil Schiller, Apple's head of marketing. He unveiled the books at an event at New York's Guggenheim Museum. Schools will be able to buy the books for its students and issue redemption codes to them, he said.

Albert Greco, a professor of marketing at Fordham University in New York and a former high-school principal, said schools would need to buy iPads for its students if it were to replace printed books.

It wouldn't work to let students who can afford to buy their own iPads use them in class with textbooks they buy themselves, alongside poorer students with printed books.

"The digital divide issue could be very embarrassing. Because if you don't have the iPad, you can't do the quiz, you don't get instant feedback ... that is an invitation for a lawsuit," Greco said. "I would be shocked if any principal or superintendent would let that system go forward."

Greco said hardback high-school textbooks cost an average of about $105, and a freshman might need five of them. However, they last for five years.

That means that even if an iPad were to last for five years in the hands of students, the e-books plus the iPad would cost more than the hardback textbooks.

Apple also released an app for iTunes U, which has been a channel for colleges to release video and audio from lectures, through iTunes. The app will open that channel to K-through-12 schools, and will let teachers present outlines, post notes and communicate with students in other ways.

Greco called the new app "a shot across the bow" of Blackboard Inc., a privately held company that provides similar electronic tools to teachers. It, too, has applications for cellphones and tablets.

Apple also revealed iBook Author, an application for Macs that lets people create electronic textbooks.

According to biographer Walter Isaacson, reforming the textbook market was a pet project of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, even in the last year of his life. At a dinner in early 2011, Jobs told News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch that the paper textbooks could be made obsolete by the iPad. Jobs wanted to circumvent the state certification process for textbook sales by having Apple release textbooks for free on the tablet computer.

Jobs died in October after a long battle with cancer.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/applecomputer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_apple_textbooks

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Minn. couple among those missing from cruise

MINNEAPOLIS?? A Minnesota couple missing after a cruise ship capsized off the west coast of Italy are devout Catholics who spend part of almost every day at church, where he teaches religious classes and she hands out baked goods and other sweet treats to parishioners.

Church members described the kindness and good deeds of Jerry and Barbara Heil on Monday as a search continued along the Italian coast. The Heils are among more than two dozen people still missing after the Costa Concordia hit a reef and ran aground near Tuscany on Friday night.

Six people have been confirmed dead, and prosecutors are investigating the ship's captain for manslaughter, abandoning ship and causing a shipwreck. The ship's owner said the captain, Francesco Schettino, caused the crash by deviating from the authorized course.

Diane Vorland, who is confined to a wheelchair, told The Associated Press that Jerry Heil, 69, came to her house every Thursday for the past three years to administer her communion and recite the rosary. The trip, she said, "was a big deal for them."

"On the Thursday before he left, he said, 'The next time you see me I'll have been to Rome,'" Vorland said.

Captain?s favor to crew to blame for cruise disaster?

Other members of Church of St. Pius X in White Bear Lake described the Heils as quiet, kind people deeply involved in the congregation. They joined the church in 1973, and their four children attended its elementary and middle school, said Larry Erickson, the parish administrator.

Jerry Heil taught religious education classes for everyone from children to senior citizens. Dennis Hardy, who attended one of his classes, said Barbara Heil, 70, often accompanied her husband, bringing baked goods she gave to class members.

"Both of them are at the church, I'd say, pretty much every day," Erickson said.

The Heils live in White Bear Lake, a suburb of about 25,000 people 15 miles outside St. Paul. The community sits between two large lakes, White Bear and Bald Eagle, which are encircled by opulent homes and historic cottages dating to the early 1900s when the area was a weekend destination for wealthy St. Paul residents. Today, the city retains vestiges of a resort aura but also is home to middle- and working-class neighborhoods.

Jerry Heil retired from a job at the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. While reserved, he possesses a dry sense of humor, Vorland said. After communion and prayers, she said, he would engage her in deep and thoughtful conversations about history or church teachings.

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"Every Christmas he and his wife would come and give me some fudge," she said. "They're just solid people."

Jerry Heil also is a longtime member of the congregation's Knights of Columbus chapter. Duane Jabas, a former grand knight, called him a jack-of-all-trades who helped plan and run nearly every chapter function for years. "You always knew every detail would be covered if Jerry was involved," Jabas said.

Shawn Gutoski, who works at St. Pius X, said the Heils were the type of people every church needs to function. "They're not people that want to draw attention to themselves, but you knew if they were involved that it would get done," Gutowski said.

The church's music director announced before Sunday Mass that the Heils were missing after the shipwreck.

"A lot of people gasped," said Hardy, who was in attendance. "I know there are a lot of prayers going over to Italy right now."

Hardy, who recently lost his driver's license, said Jerry Heil offered to drive him around on errands.

Several family members did not respond to phone calls from the AP on Sunday and Monday. A family friend outside the home of the couple's son, Aaron Heil, gave the AP a statement from the family.

"We are waiting patiently for the rescuers to safely try to find our parents," it said. "Our prayers and thoughts are with our parents; those others that are still missing and their families; and the brave rescuers. We are working closely with the U.S. Embassy in Italy and are confident that everything is being done to find our parents."

Sarah Heil, their daughter, told WBBM radio in Chicago that her parents had been looking forward to their 16-day vacation.

"They raised four kids and sent them all to private school, elementary to college, so they never had any money," Sarah Heil said. "So when they retired, they went traveling. And this was to be a big deal ? a 16-day trip. They were really excited about it."

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46013950/ns/us_news-life/

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Puerto Rico installing tsunami sirens in capital (AP)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico ? Puerto Rico is setting up a tsunami alert system in densely populated San Juan.

San Juan Mayor Jorge Santini says experts warn that the island faces a very real threat from a tsunami though the last one occurred in 1918. Santini says the network of sirens and a public education campaign are critical in case of an evacuation. San Juan received about $800,000 from the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security to set up the alert system.

Puerto Rico is in a seismically active zone. The island's official seismic tracking center says one of the most powerful earthquakes in Puerto Rico history triggered the 1918 tsunami on the west coast. About 40 people were killed.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/weather/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120116/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_puerto_rico_tsunami_sirens

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SW Virginia has no reps on Senate Finance Committee | TriCities.com

This year, Southwest Virginia might have to fight for budgetary table scraps.

Why? Because the region has no representatives on the powerful Senate Finance and House Appropriations committees to bring home a slice of the funding pie.

?That?s a third of the state where we don?t have any representation,? an unnerved Senator Phillip D. Puckett, D-Lebanon, said last week.

It?s likely bad news for any economic development projects in need of extra funding. The same goes for museums, cultural attractions and other regional pet projects, lawmakers said.

To secure any financial extras, the region?s delegation of Republican and Democratic legislators has asked those on the committees to remember Southwest Virginia.

?I?ve been talking to the leadership about it,? freshman Senator Charles W. Carrico Sr., R ? Galax, said of his legislative side. ?I?ve been assured that it?s an open-door committee.?

?Carrico is no newcomer to state politics, having given up his seat in the House of Delegates to run for the 40th District Senate seat vacated by longtime Senator William Wampler. But he?s replacing the senator who this year would have been the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.

The concern of being left out of the loop in both the House and the Senate remains ever present to freshman Delegate Israel D. O?Quinn, R-Bristol.

?If we?re not going to look out for Southwest Virginia, no one else is,? he said.

The 2012 session convened Wednesday with Gov. Bob McDonnell?s proposed $85 billion, two-year budget as the main agenda.

Opening day also included a bit of wrangling for committee assignments. By the end of the first session, Republicans claimed control of an equally divided, 20-20 Senate and boasted a 68-seat majority in the 100-member House.

It also ended with much of the Senate Finance and House Appropriations committees filled with representatives from Northern, Eastern and Central Virginia.

Funding for the region used to be a sure thing. For more than a decade, 24-year Senator Wampler of Bristol held a place on Senate Finance and former Delegate Clarence E. ?Bud? Phillips, a Democrat who decided not to run when the districts were redrawn, held a place on House Appropriations.

Their senior status on each committee made sure state funding trickled into the region. But their recent retirements left a void in both committees that were quickly snatched up.

Had Wampler stayed, his position as the ranking Republican on the committee would have made him one of the state?s most powerful and respected lawmakers.

The region?s longstanding financial safety net vanished Wednesday. Now, the closest representation for the furthest flung section of the state?s southwestern corner is seated in Roanoke to the north ? Senator Stephen D. Newman, R- Forest, and Patrick County to the east with Delegate Charles D. Poindexter, R ? Glade Hill.

When the dust settled, local legislators were left scratching their heads wondering whether the region could even get any crumbs of the funding pie.

?Everybody else is going to get theirs first,? O?Quinn said.

In Wampler?s eyes, the ongoing trend has been for the state?s urban areas to gain representation on choice committees while rural areas have lost. The funding committee?s new makeup only seems to back his theory.

?The Southwest delegation has to work harder to form strong working relationships with other rural groups,? he said.

Despite their funding worries, local legislators have their own bills to push.

As a freshman legislator, O?Quinn spent the first days of the session deciphering the process, meeting new people and learning where to find forms for bills.

?The pace is definitely rapid-fire,? he said. ?There?s no time between meetings.?

Among the bills he?s introduced is one requiring a special driver?s license for convicted methamphetamine producers. That way, O?Quinn said, pharmacists would sknow who is buying products that can be cooked into meth.

Several bills are targeted toward the highly addictive drug, which in recent months has become a major worry for law enforcement officials in Southwest Virginia, crowding the courts, sending users to the emergency room and even resulting in deaths.

And local governments already struggling financially were hit with the costs of cleanup, when federal money ran out last year. Puckett and Johnson introduced legislation that would reimburse localities for the high cost of cleaning up methamphetamine labs.

?

mowens@bristolnews.com

(276) 645-2549

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?

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2012 Virginia General Assembly

A sampling of bills introduced by Southwest Virginia lawmakers this session:

?

4th District Delegate Joseph P. Johnson Jr.

HB 848 ? Would reimburse localities for methamphetamine lab clean-up costs

HB 291 ? Would require written notice to all adjoining property owners by anyone cutting timber

?

1st District Delegate Terry G. Kilgore

HB 136 -- Would establish drug-treatment courts in counties of Buchanan, Dickenson

HB 717 -- Would enhance penalty for having children present while making meth

?

5th District Delegate Israel O?Quinn

HB 686 -- Would establish special license plates for veterans of Operation Desert Shield or Operation Desert Storm

HB 688 ? Would require special driver?s license for convicted methamphetamine offenders

?

38th District Senator Phillip P. Puckett

SB 148 ? Would reimburse localities for methamphetamine lab clean-up costs

SB 150 ? Would establish presumption of ownership of mineral rights

?

40th District Senator Charles W. Carrico Sr.

SB 335 ? Set weight limits for haulers of sand, gravel and crushed stone

SB 329 ? Require parent of child in grant-funded preschool to complete parenting courses offered

Source: http://www2.tricities.com/news/2012/jan/16/sw-virginia-has-no-reps-senate-finance-committee-ar-1614139/

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UK, Hong Kong team up to boost London as yuan centre (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? Britain is teaming up with Hong Kong to secure London a top spot as an offshore trading centre for the Chinese currency, as the UK aims to boost trade and investment ties with fast-growing Asian markets.

In a speech at the Asia Financial Forum on Monday, Britain's finance minister George Osborne also urged countries to fight protectionist tendencies and repeated Britain's willingness to add further funding to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Speaking only days after ratings agency Standard & Poor's downgraded a number of euro zone countries including France, Osborne applauded progress made by the euro area though he urged further actions to restore sustainable finances and growth.

Britain's coalition government has launched a drive to expand trade and investment ties with major developed and emerging economies outside Europe to lessen its dependence on trade with the crisis-hit euro zone.

"I believe that we can make Britain the home of Asian investment and Asian finance in Europe," Osborne said, according to the text of his speech, which kicks off his official program during a trip to China and Japan.

The British government's aim was for London to complement Hong Kong in becoming a major offshore centre for the yuan, the Treasury said in a press release.

Britain's finance ministry and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) would facilitate a private-sector forum to explore synergies, specifically looking at clearing and settlement systems, market liquidity and the development of new products denominated in yuan.

Britain won the Chinese government's backing for London to become an offshore trading centre for the yuan last year.

Osborne welcomed a recent announcement by the HKMA that it will significantly extend the operating hours of its yuan payments systems to better accommodate European transactions, making it easier for transactions in London to be settled.

London would join other centers, including Singapore and Taipei, which are vying for a share of the growing offshore yuan business. But all are expected to have to play second fiddle to Hong Kong as Chinese authorities push on with a series of initiatives to internationalize the currency.

IMF FUNDING

Osborne will meet the finance ministers and central bank governors of China and Japan as well as Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and investors during his trip aimed at strengthening ties in financial services, infrastructure and innovation.

Britain is close to recession again as the government's tough spending cuts aimed at erasing the huge budget deficit bite and the crisis in the euro zone - its main trading partner - weighs on exports and business confidence.

"The euro zone has made progress in recent months, in particular the provision of liquidity to banks by the ECB," Osborne said. "But of course there remains more to do, as the euro area itself acknowledges."

The international community had to make sure that the IMF had the tools and resources to promote global economic stability, Osborne said.

Last week, Osborne said Britain may increase its contribution to the fund together with major non-European countries such as China or Japan, but ruled out higher contributions if they were earmarked to prop up the euro zone.

"The IMF does not belong to any one region of the world," Osborne said in his speech. "Its role is to support countries which get into difficulty, not currencies."

Presenting his international agenda for 2012, Osborne vowed to push for trade liberalization, using "new and innovative alternative approaches" as the World Trade Organization's global approach was stuck at a "significant impasse".

Britain would also work to ensure that global standards for financial regulation would be implemented, he said, repeating his rejection of a financial transaction tax on a European level, which France and Germany have been seeking.

(Reporting by Sven Egenter; Editing by Dale Hudson)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/britain/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120116/bs_nm/us_britain_yuan

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