HARTFORD, Conn.?? The police chief in East Haven, Conn., is retiring amid a scandal in which four officers are accused of tyrannizing Latino residents.
Chief Leonard Gallo's attorney, Jon Einhorn, said the chief is stepping down because of the federal probe into the department, but that his client has neither participated in nor condoned racial profiling.
"He will be vindicated," Einhorn said during a press conference on Monday, adding, "He is not guilty in any wrong doing."
Einhorn said Gallo, 64, did not attend Monday's brief press event because "it was too emotionally upsetting for him."
Einhorn said Gallo, who has been chief of police for 14 years, has been thinking about retiring for a while.
"I think (Gallo's) feeling is he is doing the best thing for the town," Einhorn said.
Gallo had been suspended as chief in April 2010 after the FBI launched the criminal investigation, but he was reinstated to the post in November after his friend Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. took office.
The four officers have pleaded not guilty to charges including deprivation of rights and obstruction of justice.
More charges in the case could be filed today, according to NBCConnecticut.com.
Gallo's attorney told NBCConnecticut.com last week that the chief was identified in the indictment as co-conspirator number one and could face possible charges.
His attorney has denied the allegations.
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Deputy Chief John Mannion will serve as interim chief and there will be a search committee to find a new chief.
More than 15,000 East Haven residents had signed an online petition asking that Gallo be replaced, according to NBCConnecticut.com.
Residents spoke out about the allegations against the city's police.
?I think it's pretty despicable, actually. I really do,? long-time East Haven resident Lindsay Kelsey told the NBC affiliate on Monday.
?If that is the case, you would like everyone brought to justice and no one should be above the law if in fact the law was broken," resident Peter Sanchez added.
The Associated Press and NBC News contributed to this report.
Rooney Mara has replaced Blake Lively as the troubled lead in Steven Soderbergh's "The Side Effects," marking her first project since "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" hit theaters. Meanwhile, Sarah Jessica Parker has officially replaced Demi Moore in "Lovelace," Tom Hiddleston joined an upcoming vampire flick and Michelle Williams could be taking a break [...]
We're baffled that we missed this gem of news during the bustle of CES, but it turns out that Koss has recently announced a new version of its iconic Porta Pro headphones. The Porta Pro KTC (Koss Touch Control), as it's dubbed, is essentially the same piece of retro kit that's been delighting ears and keeping wallets chubby for nearly three decades. The KTC bit in its name refers to the inclusion of an iDevice-certified inline remote / mic, aimed at keeping on-the-go users in sync with their playlists and phone calls. If you prefer earbuds, but hate tangled cords, then the company's interlocking intra-aurals might be to your liking. This lineup features in-ears which snap into each other for easier storage. You'll have a choice between the IL-100 and 200, the latter of which distinguishes itself with the mere addition of an inline remote for iPhones. While there's no word on pricing just yet for any of the aforementioned units, Koss aims to begin ship the new audio-wares once spring is in full bloom. For now, you'll find the press releases and a render of the 'buds after the break.
PORTLAND, Maine ? Investigators have been analyzing blood found in the basement of a Maine home where a missing toddler was last seen six weeks ago, an official said Saturday.
The blood was found early in the investigation into Ayla Reynolds' disappearance from her father's home in Waterville, state police spokesman Steve McCausland said. The state crime laboratory has been running tests on it since then, but it was unclear when results would be available.
Ayla's father, Justin DiPietro, reported her missing Dec. 17. He had put her to bed the night before and said she wasn't there the next morning.
McCausland called the discovery of the blood "troubling." He declined to discuss how much blood was found in the basement or how long it might have been there.
Ayla was 20 months old when she disappeared. She had been staying with her father at the time in the house where DiPietro lives with his mother. Her mother, Trista Reynolds, lives in Portland.
DiPietro told police she was wearing green pajamas with polka dots and the words "Daddy's Princess" on them and had a soft cast on her broken left arm.
DiPietro, his mother and a third adult were home the night of Dec. 16, and police have questioned all three, McCausland said.
"We believe they have not given us the full story," he said.
Both of Ayla's parents participated in a vigil Saturday on the City Hall steps in downtown Waterville.
It was the first time the two came face to face since their daughter's disappearance, said Bob Vear, a friend of the DiPietro family who organized the vigil. They spoke privately for about 10 minutes before giving each other a hug, Vear said.
DiPietro declined to discuss the discovery of the blood.
"I'm not going to answer any questions about it, but I will say this: If there was something there, I don't think I'd be standing here with you right now," he told the Morning Sentinel newspaper in Waterville.
A woman who answered DiPietro's mother's cellphone hung up after being asked about the blood.
Reynolds could not be reached for comment.
In an interview earlier in the day with the Morning Sentinel, she said she was preparing herself for any outcome.
"As a mother, as a parent, you need to mentally prepare yourself for the good, the bad, the worst," she told the newspaper. "I have been preparing myself for all of it during the last 40 days. I have told myself anything can happen. I could get the greatest news or I could get the worst news ever."
The blood was among hundreds of pieces of potential evidence that were removed from their home as part of a criminal investigation into the girl's disappearance. The discovery of the blood was first reported Saturday by WCVB-TV in Boston.
Ronald Reynolds, who is Trista Reynolds' father, said DiPietro hasn't been forthcoming with his version of what happened or what he knows. DiPietro has said he took a polygraph test, but has declined to say what the results were.
"They haven't given the full story, but this family has gone through so much pain, so much hurt," said Reynolds, who lives in Portland. "We're going into two months now and don't know anything, and all we get is the runaround."
Vear said he was first made aware of the blood sample Dec. 24, but he doesn't think it'll amount to anything.
"I cut myself at home all the time," he said. "It could be Justin's, it could be the baby's. There were five or six people in the house that night."
Investigators are searching for Ayla Reynolds, a 20-month-old Maine girl believed to have vanished from her bed while her family slept. Reynolds' father, Justin DiPietro, told investigators he last saw the child at around 8 p.m. on Dec. 16 when he put her to sleep in her own bedroom. The following morning, at around 8:50 a.m., he called police to say her bed was empty. This photograph was posted on a Facebook page dedicated to the missing toddler. Investigators are searching for Ayla Reynolds, a 20-month-old Maine girl believed to have vanished from her bed while her family slept. Reynolds' father, Justin DiPietro, told investigators he last saw the child at around 8 p.m. on Dec. 16 when he put her to sleep in her own bedroom. The following morning, at around 8:50 a.m., he called police to say her bed was empty. This photograph was posted on a Facebook page dedicated to the missing toddler.
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Ayla Reynolds
Investigators are searching for Ayla Reynolds, a 20-month-old Maine girl believed to have vanished from her bed while her family slept. Reynolds' father, Justin DiPietro, told investigators he last saw the child at around 8 p.m. on Dec. 16 when he put her to sleep in her own bedroom. The following morning, at around 8:50 a.m., he called police to say her bed was empty. This photograph was posted on a Facebook page dedicated to the missing toddler. "; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });
DORAL, Fla. ? Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney urged conservatives to back off aggressive anti-immigration policies as the Republican presidential candidates vied for Hispanic votes Friday, a day marked by heightened tensions entering the final weekend before Florida's primary.
"I'm very concerned about those who are already here illegally and how we deal with those 11 million or so," Romney said. "My heart goes out to that group of people. ... We're not going to go around and round people up in buses and ship them home."
The compassionate approach, like Gingrich's calls for politically practical reform, was aimed at improving the Republican Party's tarnished reputation among Hispanics. Both men delivered speeches Friday to the same group of Hispanic leaders gathered in Miami but avoided ? at least briefly ? criticizing each other in what now looks like a two-man race for the nomination.
Any calls for temperance on immigration didn't apply to personal attacks elsewhere.
The former House speaker released a new television ad in Florida using former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to question Romney's integrity. "If a man's dishonest to get a job, he'll be dishonest on the job," Huckabee says in the ad.
However, Huckabee said he didn't approve of his appearance in the ad and had been quoted out of context. Reiterating his stand against making a primary endorsement, he wrote on his PAC website: "My hope is to defeat Barack Obama and win majorities in both the House and Senate, not to attack any of the presidential candidates who might be our nominee."
Romney flashed a newfound confidence as he campaigned the day after delivering a strong debate performance. "I've had the fun of two debates where I had to stand up and battle, and battling was fun and battling was won," he told cheering supporters gathered at Cape Canaveral.
He later likened Gingrich's complaints to "Goldilocks," the fairy tale character who complained of the temperature of her porridge.
Tensions boiled over between the Gingrich and Romney representatives at a stop in Delray Beach. Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond confronted Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who is among several high-profile Romney surrogates tailing the former House speaker.
Surrounded by reporters and cameras, Hammond goaded Chaffetz for employing a tactic that even 2008 presidential nominee John McCain has called into question. McCain is a Romney backer who on Friday said he would discourage that type of infiltration.
"What you're saying is you're disregarding the advice of one your top endorsers?" Hammond asked Chaffetz.
"Speaker Gingrich has routinely said he would follow the president from place to place. We think it's a good idea," Chaffetz responded, referring to Gingrich's threat, if he wins the GOP nomination, to follow President Barack Obama from city to city to get the last word.
The outburst overshadowed a detailed discussion about immigration, in which the rivals called for democracy in Cuba and across Latin America, touching a theme that caused clashes between the GOP front-runners at Thursday night's debate in Jacksonville.
Immigration is a flashpoint issue in Florida for the GOP candidates, who are trying to strike a balance between sounding compassionate toward immigrants and firm about stemming the tide of illegal workers. The state has roughly 1.5 million Hispanic voters.
Gingrich pushed for a measured approach to revising the nation's immigration laws, "because any bill you write that is comprehensive has too many enemies." The former House speaker says he wants stricter border control, faster deportation proceedings and a guest-worker program for certain immigrants.
If elected, Gingrich said he would bring to bear "the moral force of an American president who is serious about intending to free the people of Cuba and willingness to intimidate those who are the oppressors and say to them, `You will be held accountable.'"
Romney said the United States needs to work harder to promote democracy across Latin America and elsewhere. He compared it to selling soda: "We convince people around the world to buy a brown, caramel-colored water called Coca-Cola and to pay like a half day's wage for it. And they'll buy it. It's unbelievable. We're able to convince people of things that sometimes you scratch your head. ... And yet democracy, we don't sell that so well."
Military dictatorships allied with the United States ruled much of South America in the 1970s, but most nations returned to democracy in the 1980s.
Romney also pledged to appoint a Latin American envoy and to create a task force to focus on drug trafficking and other issues.
Hours after the speech, Romney also won the coveted endorsement of Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuno, who joined Romney at an Orlando campaign stop late in the day. Romney and Gingrich said earlier that Puerto Rico should be granted statehood if local voters approve a looming referendum.
Opinion polls show a close race, with a slight advantage for Romney. Two other contenders, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, were far behind.
Paul has already made clear his intention to skip Florida in favor of smaller states that cost less to campaign in. On Friday, he began a two-day visit to snowy Maine.
Santorum, who had been campaigning aggressively here, conceded that he's better off at home, sitting at his kitchen table Saturday doing his taxes instead of campaigning in a state where he can't keep up with the GOP front-runners.
Outside advisers were urging him to pack up completely and not spend another minute in Florida, where he is cruising toward a third straight loss.
QASR AL-YAHUD, West Bank (Reuters) ? Abandoned Israeli army bunkers along the Jordan River are providing a lifeline for bats on the endangered species list, researchers say.
Soldiers left Israel's underground forts along the frontier with Jordan after a 1994 peace treaty between the two countries. With much of the former front line, some of it dotted by mine fields, still designated by the military as off-limits to civilians, bats swooped into the secluded and dark steel caverns.
Several years ago, researchers from Tel Aviv University were granted access to the ghost bunkers. Now, they say, they have identified 12 indigenous bat species in the 100-kilometre- (60 mile)-long tract between the Sea of Galilee in Israel and the Dead Sea's northern edge in the occupied West Bank.
Two of the species commonly known as the Mediterranean horseshoe bat and Geoffroy's bat are on the critical list and three others are designated as endangered.
"There is no doubt that by being in a closed military zone that has prevented human interference, the bat habitat will allow these delicate creatures to thrive," said one of the researchers, Eran Levin.
But he said it was too early to quantify the growth of the local bat population, estimated to be in the thousands, because the research project was not yet complete.
One former bunker -- overlooking the spot along the Jordan River where some Christian faithful believe Jesus was baptized by John -- has been turned into a more accommodating home for the webbed-wing mammals.
To give the bats more grip, the research team roughed up its smooth steel and concrete walls, suspended mesh sheets and wooden palates, sprayed insulating foam and stuck stones to surfaces.
Different bat species each preferred different grip surfaces, Levin said.
A thick layer of bat guano now covers the floor and metal bunk-bed frames the military left behind.
A night-vision camera follows the bats' movements during the period they inhabit the bunkers from March to October when daytime temperatures in the area soar above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
Enjoying their own peace dividend, the bat population could also give something back to Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians in the area.
Aviam Atar of Israel's Nature and Parks Authority said the bats help to reduce crop damage by eating insects at night, coming out to feed in the dark when the fields are empty.
"Because each bat can eat a few grams of insects each night, they reduce the need for the use of pesticides and this certainly has potential for facilitating green farming. The crop growers don't even know this is happening," he said.
Though the Cleveland Plain Dealer still has not acknowledged the move on its website (other than to finally remove his name and face from the roster), Tony Grossi no longer covers the Browns as a beat writer, following the accidental publication of a private Twitter message that called Browns owner Randy Lerner? (pictured) ?pathetic? and an ?irrelevant billionaire.?
Browns spokesman Neal Gulkis tells PFT that the Browns have no comment on the situation.
There?s still no evidence that the Browns pressured the Plain Dealer to make the move.? Per a source with knowledge of the situation, however, both Lerner and president Mike Holmgren refused to accept calls from Grossi after the message was posted and deleted.? We?re also told that a meeting occurred Wednesday between Plain Dealer publisher Terry Eggar and Holmgren.
The Plain Dealer has been nearly as silent as the Browns.? Managing editor Thom Fladung called the Kiley & Booms radio show on 92.3 The Fan this morning to explain the decision, and Fladung?s explanation was less than persuasive, in our opinion.
The decision to remove Grossi from the beat was driven by this ?determining factor? articulated by Fladung:? ?Don?t do something that affects your value as a journalist or the value of your newspaper or affects the perception of your value and the perception of that newspaper?s value.?
That?s a pretty broad ? and vague ? rule.? And that?s the kind of standard that gives a news organization the ability to do pretty much whatever it wants whenever it wants, because there?s pretty much always something to which someone can point as proof of ?something that affects your value as a journalist or the value of your newspaper or affects the perception of your value and the perception of that newspaper?s value.?
Making Fladung?s ?determining factor? even more confusing is the fact that he admitted that Grossi could have deliberately expressed a strong opinion about Lerner in a column published and printed in the Plain Dealer without conseqeuence.? ?Let?s say Tony had written that Randy Lerner?s lack of involvement with the Browns and their resulting disappointing records over the years has made him irrelevant as an owner, that?s defensible,? Fladung said.? ?That?s absolutely defensible.?
What?s indefensible is the failure of the Plain Dealer to acknowledge the fact that Grossi never intended to make the statements available for public view.? He fell victim to the subtle but significant differences between a ?direct message? (which is private) and a ?reply? (which is public) on Twitter.? It was an accident.? A mistake.
Let?s go back to the days of typewriters and shorthand, and let?s say that Grossi?s editor has two boxes on his desk.? One is for article submissions and one is for proposed topics.? And let?s say that Grossi scribbled out a scathing column about Lerner as a proposed topic, but Grossi accidentally put it in the box of actual submissions for print.
That?s the low-tech version of what happened here.? Grossi accidentally put his message in the wrong box.
So when Fladung says he ?felt very strongly? that the Twitter message ?was inappropriate and unprofessional and . . . it?s not the kind of opinion a journalist covering a beat can express,? Fladung presumes that Grossi actually intended to articulate that opinion to the world.? He didn?t.? It was inadvertently blurted out, like a temporary case of Twitter Tourette?s.
Some have suggested that the Twitter blunder provided the Plain Dealer with a vehicle for addressing pre-existing concerns regarding Grossi?s overall job performance.? Undercutting that theory was Fladung?s assertion during the radio interview that Grossi is a ?very good? and ?very successful? beat writer.
I?m continuing to write about this because it?s the kind of mistake that could happen to anyone, and everyone should be entitled to the benefit of the doubt in a case like this, especially when newspapers and other media companies want their writers to engage with the audience through various new technologies and platforms.? It also just ?feels? like an unjust result, whether because the Plain Dealer is being obtuse or because the Plain Dealer is cowering to the Browns or because the Browns are remaining deliberately silent in order to secure the preferred outcome of having Grossi removed from the beat.
Regardless, we?re disappointed in the Plain Dealer, in Fladung, in the Browns, in Lerner, and in Holmgren.? And we hope that one or more of them will snap out of it and do the right thing, or at least let the rest of us know in far more convincing fashion why they believe the right thing was done.
Photo by: ? Stockbyte/ThinkstockA projected 71.5 million pounds of avocados will be consumed during the Super Bowl, and it's hard to avoid all the guacamole and chips (in fact, some Super Bowl parties are first and foremost Guac Bowls, where the competition gets vicious for the title of best spread). But before attempting to throw any old ingredients together with an avocado, take some advice from the experts.
The most important ingredient is ripe avocados. The least is the avocado pit, which people often leave in guacamole bowls thanks to a belief that it will prevent the oxidation that turns guac brown. It's a common mistake, but leaving the pit won't offer any kind of protection. "It will keep the area directly under the pit from browning, but no more," says Jan DeLizer of the California Avocado Commission.?
The real solution, says Golden Door spa executive chef Curtis Cooke, is to place a piece of plastic cling wrap directly on the surface of the guacamole to protect it from oxygen exposure. "I also use lime juice, an acid, to keep my guacamole green," says Cooke.? ?
There are 500 varieties of avocados, but Hass makes the best guacamole (look for the pebbly, dark skin). Avoid the mistake of making guacamole with the smooth, green-skinned avocados. "They have higher water content and don't have the full-bodied creamy richness," says DeLizer.
Choose darker avocados that have a slight give when gently squeezed in the palm of the hand. "If you have no other choice than to buy really green avocados and you need to ripen them within a couple of days, place the green avocados in a brown paper bag and store it in the pantry," says Cooke. "To help speed up the process, you can add an apple or banana to the bag because they release ethylene gas, which naturally ripens fruits."
Finally, don't make the mistake of preparing your guacamole too far in advance. "It's a time-sensitive dish," says Cooke. "Plan to serve it within a couple of hours of making it.
"For those who have Super Bowl plans, Cooke shared his recipe.
Guacamole
3 avocados, diced
1 serrano, roasted, minced
1 tomato, roasted, diced
2 T red onion, minced
1 lime, juiced
2 T cilantro, minced
? t sea salt
Preheat an oven to 400 degrees. Place the serrano and tomato on a baking sheet and roast for 8 minutes, or until the skin is blistered on the vegetables. When the serrano and tomato are cool enough to handle, peel them and dice.
In a medium bowl, combine the avocado, salt, and lime juice. Mix well to completely incorporate all the ingredients. Fold in the serrano, tomato, red onion, and cilantro.
Add in ingredient options
? cup roasted corn (add to existing recipe)
1 ?chipotle pepper, minced (replacing the serrano)
2 T ancho chile (rehydrated and minced, replacing the serrano)
Recipe courtesy Chef Curtis Cooke -- Golden Door spa
THE ARRESTS: Police in pre-dawn sweeps Thursday arrested two top former executives of the now-defunct French company at the center of a breast implant scandal affecting tens of thousands of women worldwide.
THE ARRESTEES: Jean-Claude Mas, founder of implant-maker Poly Implant Prothese, was detained as part of a judicial probe in Marseille into manslaughter and involuntary injuries, an official said. A regional official said former No. 2 executive Claude Couty also was detained.
THE IMPLANTS: The suspect implants have been pulled from the market in several countries amid fears that they could rupture and leak silicone into the body.
A woman from Tanzania's Hadzabe tribe studies a social-networking chart.
By Alan Boyle
Hunter-gatherers exhibit many of the "friending" habits familiar to Facebook users, suggesting that the patterns for social networking were set early in the history of our species.
At least that's the conclusion from a group of researchers who mapped the connections among members of the Hadza ethnic group in Tanzania's Lake Eyasi region. The results were published in this week's issue of the journal Nature.
"The astonishing thing is that ancient human social networks so very much resemble what we see today," senior author Nicholas Christakis, a sociologist at Harvard Medical School, said in a university news release. Researchers from Harvard, the University of California at San Diego and Cambridge University worked together to document the Hadza's social networks.
"From the time we were around campfires and had words floating through the air, to today when we have digital packets floating through the ether, we've made networks of basically the same kind," Christakis said.
Another co-author of the study, UCSD's James Fowler, said the results suggest that the structure of today's social networks go back to a time before the invention of agriculture, tens of thousands of years ago.
For decades, social scientists have puzzled over the origins of cooperative and altruistic behavior that benefits the group at the expense of the individual. That seems to run counter to a basic "tooth and claw" view of evolution, in which each individual fights for survival, or at least the survival of its gene pool. One of the leading hypotheses is that a system to reward cooperation and punish non-cooperators ("free riders") grew out of a sense of genetic kinship between related individuals. But how far back did such a system arise?
Harvard Medical School researcher Coren Apicella discusses the Hadza social network.
To investigate that question, researchers spent two months interviewing more than 200 adult members of the Hadza group who still live in a traditional, nomadic, pre-agricultural setting. To chart the social connections, the researchers asked the adults to identify the individuals they'd like to live with in their next encampment. They also looked into gift-giving connections by giving their experimental subjects three straws of honey ? one of the Hadza's best-loved treats ? and asking them to assign them secretly to anyone else in the camp. That exercise produced a complex web of 1,263 "campmate ties" and 426 "gift ties."
Separately, the researchers gave the Hadza additional honey straws that they could either keep for themselves or donate for group distribution. That was used as a measure of cooperation vs. non-cooperation.
When the researchers analyzed all the linkages, they found that cooperators tended to group themselves together into one set of social clusters, while non-cooperators were in separate clusters. Even when other factors were taken into account, such as connections between kin and geographical proximity, the cooperation vs. non-cooperation distinction was significant. That finding suggested that even in pre-agricultural societies, social networking strengthened the connections between people inclined toward different kinds of behavior.
"If you can get cooperators to cluster together in social space, cooperation can evolve," said Coren Apicella, a postdoctoral researcher specializing in health-care policy at Harvard Medical School and the Nature paper's first author. "Social networks allow this to happen."
The researchers said the dynamics of the Hadza social networks ? including the kinds of ties that bind a group's most popular members and the reciprocal connections within the group?? were indistinguishable from previously gathered data about social networks in modern communities.
"We turned the data over lots of different ways," Fowler said in the news release. "We looked at over a dozen measures that social network analysts use to compare networks, and pretty much, the Hadza are like us."
Beyond the Facebook angle, the rise of relationships between cooperative individuals has larger implications for the study of human evolution. "This suggests that social networks may have co-evolved with the widespread cooperation in humans that we observe today," the researchers wrote.
Update for 2:15 p.m. ET: In a Nature commentary, University of British Columbia anthropologist Joseph Henrich said that the study provided a "glimpse into the social dynamics of one of the few remaining populations of nomadic hunter-gatherers" ? and pointed up the parallels between modern-day social networking and the kind of society in which our distant ancestors lived.
One of the more interesting findings was that non-cooperators preferred to associate with other non-cooperators, rather than with the givers in the Hadza group, Henrich told me. That could be because people tend to make those they associate with more similar to themselves ? sort of like a curmudgeonly married couple. Or it could be because non-cooperative types avoid the cooperators in the first place ? sort of like the high-school kids who shun the goody-goodies and form their own clique of bad boys and girls.
Henrich said the cooperation vs. non-cooperation distinction was surprisingly strong. "In fact, the gift-network results indicate that this extends to friends of friends: if your friend's friend is highly cooperative, you are likely to cooperate more, too."
He said the findings support the principle of homophily in social relations: "People tend to pick people like themselves." But does the cooperation connection apply to modern-day social networks as well? If you're a giving person, do you tend to friend other givers online? "We don't know," Henrich told me. That's a topic for further research.
Update for 10:35 p.m. ET: In a follow-up phone interview, Fowler told me the results that he and his colleagues are reporting add a new twist to the old nature vs. nurture debate. People aren't shaped merely by genetics and their physical environment, he said.
"Social networks were actually just as important as the other two," he said. There may even be a genetic component to the associations you make. Along with Christakis and UCSD's Christopher Dawes,?Fowler conducted research suggesting that genetic factors?affect social behaviors.?Previous studies have also shown that social networking among hunter-gatherer societies like the Hadza are not governed strictly by kin-based relationships.
"What's new here is that we've specifically tied this idea of cooperation to ties between non-kin," Fowler said.
Fowler acknowledged that studying hunter-gatherer societies are not a foolproof way to trace the evolutionary roots of the behaviors we see in modern-day society, including Facebook friending and Twitter tweeting. "This isn't necessarily the be-all and end-all of determining what we were like hundreds of thousands of years ago," he said. But considering that scientists can't interview?Stone Age social networkers, Fowler believes this is one of the best methods available to anthropologists.
More social-network science:
In addition to Apicella, Christakis and Fowler, authors of "Social Networks and Cooperation in Hunter-Gatherers" include Cambridge University's Frank Marlowe.
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
'There's nothing about [Izzie] I didn't like,' Heigl tells MTV News at 'One for the Money' premiere. By Christina Garibaldi
Katherine Heigl on "Grey's Anatomy" Photo: ABC
NEW YORK — It's been more than two years since Katherine Heigl left her role as Dr. Izzie Stevens on the hit show "Grey's Anatomy." Rumors swirled that Heigl had behaved like a diva on the set, and after five seasons she left to focus on her movie career and being a mom to her adopted daughter.
Yet it seems she's had a change of heart. At the New York premiere of her new flick "One for the Money," which hits theaters on Friday, Heigl told MTV News she would love to return to "Grey's Anatomy" to find out what happened to her beloved character.
"There was something about her that I really loved. I thought she was such an interesting character and her backstory, the fact that she was raised in a trailer park and had to give a child up for adoption, put herself through med school and was standing there actually doing the work and going for it, so smart, sort of strong-willed," Heigl said. "I thought she was kind of a great character — there's nothing about her I didn't like."
Back in October 2010 Heigl told MTV News that she was certain she would not return to Seattle Grace since she didn't want to feel her plotline was forced. "I can't think of any way that she could come back gracefully that wouldn't just feel manipulative," the actress explained. "And it's hard, because I really wonder what she's doing and where she is and what happened, but that is over for me now."
Yet Heigl now seems ready to reconsider and already has an idea of what could happen to Izzie. "I've thought about this a lot, actually. I would love it if Izzie came back actually having really just sort of gotten to the next level," Heigl said. "She was always sort of one step behind and struggling with her career, and then she went though all these awful things, the death of her friend, the death of her fiancé, her own near death and then the dissolving of her own marriage. I just want the girl to win, just once. So I want her to come back and have really succeeded at whatever hospital she went to work at with her tail between her legs and maybe they've made her head of surgery or she's invented some surgical method; that would be awesome."
With all the ups and downs she experienced on "Grey's Anatomy," there is one thing she wish she could change: her acting. "I think there's a lot of scenes where I wish I had performed them better," Heigl said.
"You're always like, 'Oh, I wish I could take that back.' "
Would you be excited if Katherine Heigl returned to "Grey's Anatomy"? Let us know in the comments!
DEDHAM, Mass. ? A lawyer for an Alabama professor who could be executed for allegedly killing three colleagues asked a judge Wednesday to keep a report into the 1986 killing of her brother secret, arguing it could prejudice a jury against her.
Amy Bishop was indicted in the murder of her brother Seth in June 2010, after she was charged with opening fire on her co-workers at the University of Alabama in Huntsville in February 2010, killing three and wounding three others.
The charges in her brother's death came after a Massachusetts judge conducted a closed-door inquest.
The shooting of 18-year-old Seth Bishop at the family's Braintree home was initially ruled an accident after Amy Bishop told police she accidentally shot her brother while trying to unload her father's shotgun.
The Boston Globe challenged a judge's decision to keep the inquest records sealed, saying the release of the documents could shed light on why authorities didn't prosecute Bishop in her brother's death 26 years ago.
Bishop's lawyer, Larry Tipton, said Wednesday that releasing the "highly prejudicial information" contained in the inquest report, two months before Bishop is scheduled to go on trial in Alabama, could undermine her chances of receiving a fair trial.
"I think that that's a very important, unique consideration," Tipton argued to Norfolk Superior Court Judge Kenneth Fishman.
Deana El-Mallawany, a lawyer for the Globe, said the newspaper has been seeking the inquest report since June 2010.
"There's a strong interest in knowing the adequacy of law enforcement investigation," El-Mallawany said.
She said Bishop's lawyer in Alabama has already said Bishop will use an insanity defense, and her Massachusetts lawyer hasn't shown that releasing the inquest report would taint the jury pool.
But the judge challenged the assertion that publicity about the report wouldn't affect Bishop's trial in Alabama, saying it could "potentially weigh heavily" on her lawyer's ability to defend her in the university killings.
Fishman did not immediately rule on the defense request to keep the report sealed.
Last month, the highest court in Massachusetts ruled that the inquest report into Seth Bishop's death could be released publicly. But it also said Bishop's lawyer could go to court to argue that there was "good cause" why it should remain sealed.
The Supreme Judicial Court's decision also outlined new rules for the release of inquest materials. The high court said the automatic impoundment of the records ends after the subject of the inquest is indicted by a grand jury or after prosecutors decide not to present the case to a grand jury.
GENEVA (Reuters) ? The International Labour Organization sounded the alarm on the global jobs situation in its annual report on Monday and called for more coordination of fiscal policies, repair and regulation of the financial sector and support for the real economy.
"What has changed with respect to last year is that our forecast has become much more pessimistic," said Ekkehard Ernst, one of the report's authors.
"We had expected a gradual stagnation or coming down of unemployment numbers. That's not something we foresee this year any more. Even in our baseline the unemployment numbers are increasing. With a possibility of a serious deterioration of global growth these numbers actually increase very much."
The ILO says there are nearly 200 million unemployed and that another 40 million jobs need to be created each year for the next decade.
"Hence, to generate sustainable growth while maintaining social cohesion, the world must rise to the urgent challenge of creating 600 million productive jobs over the next decade, which would still leave 900 million workers living with their families below the $2 a day poverty line, largely in developing countries," the report said.
Even under fairly benign conditions such as a quick resolution of the euro debt crisis, the ILO expects global unemployment to be stuck at about 6 percent until at least 2016.
The data was based on figures for mid- or end-2011 for most countries, although ILO officials use their own estimates for the two biggest countries, China and India.
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WASHINGTON ? Several hundred protesters affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement converged on the West Lawn of the Capitol Tuesday to decry the influence of corporate money in politics and voice myriad other grievances.
Organizers had touted the rally, known as Occupy Congress, as the largest national gathering of Occupy protesters to date and secured a permit that would have allowed up to 10,000 people to participate. By mid-afternoon, the protest appeared to have fallen far short of those goals.
Still, participants said they were optimistic about the strength of the Occupy movement, which began in September when protesters pitched tents in a lower Manhattan park. The movement has since spread to dozens of cities, including Washington. While many cities have moved to evict the protesters, the National Park Service has allowed encampments to remain in two public squares near the White House.
"I'm encouraged," said Jon Wynn, 63, of Snow Camp, N.C., who traveled to Washington to attend the protest and visit friends. "There's energy here, even if there's not a whole lot of people."
The protest comes amid numerous polls that show 84 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing, near an all-time low.
While the rally was mostly peaceful, there were some scuffles between police and protesters along walkways leading to the Capitol. By mid-afternoon Tuesday, four people had been arrested ? U.S. Capitol Police said ? one for allegedly assaulting a police officer and three accused of crossing a police line.
The Occupy movement includes activists who want to change government from within and anarchists who oppose all government. Tension between the two camps was evident at Tuesday's gathering, where some taunted police while others participated in earnest group discussions about how to influence their elected representatives.
Anne Filson, 71, a retired teacher from Madison, N.H., said she was disappointed by the turnout and said Occupy protesters needed to stick to their core message of narrowing the gap between rich and poor. Protesters did not help the cause by carrying profane signs and antagonizing police, she said.
"What I regret about some of the Occupy movements is the dilution of the message," Filson said. "A lot of Occupy people have to realize that they're being counterproductive."
Later Tuesday, small groups of protesters entered House office buildings in a bid to meet with individual members of Congress. Participants also planned to march to the Supreme Court and the White House.
It was not clear whether the out-of-town protesters would swell the ranks of the two Occupy encampments in Washington. Late Tuesday, a House oversight subcommittee announced that it would hold a hearing next week on why the protesters have been allowed to remain in McPherson Square ? which city officials say is infested with rats ? despite a ban on camping on park service property.
Protesters Rachel Marcotte and Taft Clark, 23, planned to return to their tent at Occupy New Haven in Connecticut, which has been compromised by snow.
"We're told that it's still up, but it's not looking good," Clark said. "We have some work to do when we get back."
___
Follow Ben Nuckols on Twitter at http://twitter.com/APBenNuckols.
Kevin Love totaled game highs of 20 points and 16 rebounds as Minnesota kept Washington winless with a 93-72 decision at Verizon Center.
Derrick Williams scored 14 points for the Timberwolves, who snapped a two-game slide. Wayne Ellington, Luke Ridnour and Ricky Rubio all added 13 points apiece, with Rubio dishing out a game-best 14 assists.
"From the very start, we set the tempo. Everybody contributed at both ends of the floor. It wasn't just one guy," said Minnesota head coach Rick Adelman. "We wanted to get the first road win of the year under our belt and see if we can build on that."
Nick Young and Trevor Booker each recorded 14 points for the Wizards, who extended their franchise-worst start to any season by dropping their eighth straight game.
Trailing for the majority of the contest, the Wizards were down 48-34 at the half, but made a brief run before the midway point of the third, closing within 54-47 with 6:26 to go on an alley-oop slam from JaVale McGee.
But the T-Wolves broke open the game again, countering with a 12-4 run to go up 66-51. Ridnour began the spurt with a triple, Love connected on three straight free throws after a technical foul called on Trevor Booker, and Williams ended the charge with back-to-back shots from long distance.
Anthony Tolliver ended the period with a trey and Minnesota led 75-60 heading to the fourth.
Love's slam pushed the T-Wolves' edge to 89-68 with 6 1/2 to play and the Wizards had no answer.
"There's really not much to say. Disappointment and embarrassment doesn't come close," said Wizards head coach Flip Saunders. "My job over the next couple days is to try and find out a way to get all the guys on this team playing up to their expected level."
Minnesota led 20-17 after one quarter, and opened up a 34-22 advantage with 7:42 left in the half on Anthony Randolph's lay-in.
The visitors were up 41-30 on a driving layup from Tolliver with 3:48 to go, and back-to-back shots from Love -- the final one a three-pointer -- put Minnesota up by 14 at the break.
LONDON?? Scotland Yard?s arrest of a former personal assistant to Rebekah Brooks, a former chief executive of the British newspaper arm of Rupert Murdoch?s News Corporation, appears to reflect the investigators? intensifying focus on the possibility of a cover-up by executives, editors and others of the extent of illegal phone hacking and other criminal wrongdoing at the The News of the World, which is now defunct.
After 10 hours of questioning on Friday, detectives assigned to a special unit investigating the affair released the assistant, Cheryl Carter, 47, on police bail pending further questioning. She was arrested at dawn at her home in Billericay, 25 miles east of London. Efforts to reach her for comment on Saturday were not successful.
Scotland Yard said she was the 17th person, most of them former employees of the The News of the World, to be arrested by officers assigned to Operation Weeting, established last year under special provisions intended to ensure the independence of the investigators.
The creation of that task force followed several years of faltering inquiries by Scotland Yard that upheld, until a torrent of disclosures last year, denials by News International that more than two people on the News of the World?s newsroom staff had been involved in the illegal interception of the cellphone voicemails of crime victims, politicians and celebrities.
Scandal rocks Britain
As the scandal grew last year, dominating headlines in Britain for months, the police inquiry, and hearings by a parliamentary committee, began to focus on allegations that executives, editors and others involved had conspired to cover up the extent of the wrongdoing, which Scotland Yard said last month had involved the hacking of the cellphones of at least 800 people.
One of the executives who has been under pressure is James Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch?s son, who leads News Corporation?s European and Asian operations, and has long been considered a candidate to succeed his father as head of the company. The police investigation and testimony before a parliamentary committee identified a 2009 meeting in London attended by James Murdoch as crucial to unraveling the issue of whether senior executives conspired in the cover-up.
Under questioning at two sessions before the committee last year, James Murdoch denied having approved an out-of-court settlement of more than $1.4 million to buy the silence of a British soccer union executive who was suing News International and threatening to go public with documents pointing to a wider use of phone hacking than the company had then admitted. Two other senior Murdoch employees contested Mr. Murdoch?s denial, saying that they had informed Mr. Murdoch of the extent of the phone hacking, and cited that as a reason for approving the settlement. One of the two, Colin Myler, the former editor of the The News of the World, was appointed editor last week of The Daily News in New York, a rival of the Murdoch-owned New York Post.
Ms. Carter?s arrest drew attention for several reasons, including a Scotland Yard statement that said that she had been questioned on suspicion of trying to pervert the course of justice, a line of inquiry that has not been specified in police statements on most of the other arrests in Operation Weeting.
In addition, Ms. Carter appeared to have had a close personal and professional relationship with Ms. Brooks, the most senior executive in the Murdoch hierarchy to have been arrested in the affair. Former News of the World employees who spoke on condition of anonymity said Ms. Carter had worked as a personal assistant to Ms. Brooks for 19 years, starting when Ms. Brooks was deputy editor of The Sun, another Murdoch-owned tabloid in London, and continuing as Ms. Brooks became editor of the The News of the World, editor of The Sun, and later chief executive of News International, overseeing all of the Murdoch titles in Britain.
Ms. Brooks?s resignation in July followed closely the News Corporation?s abrupt decision to close News of the World, Britain?s highest-circulation Sunday newspaper, after 168 years of continuous publication.
Ms. Carter, who was described by those who worked with her as Ms. Brooks?s ?gatekeeper,? with close knowledge of Ms. Brooks?s schedule, e-mails and meetings, lost her job as personal assistant amid the storm of recriminations after the disclosure that one of those whose cellphones had been hacked was Milly Dowler, a 13-year-old girl who was abducted and murdered in an outer London suburb in 2002.
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News International?s acknowledgment that the The News of the World had hacked into the teenager?s phone at a time when there was still hope that she remained alive, and deleted messages left by her family and friends so as to make room for others, was a watershed in the scandal. Ms. Carter?s departure from News International closely followed that of Ms. Brooks, but Ms. Carter continued to write a weekly beauty column for The Sun until that, too, was discontinued in December.
E-mails probed
One of the issues under investigation by Scotland Yard is whether any documents or e-mails pertinent to the inquiry were deleted or destroyed as part of a cover-up. Although News International has provided investigators with an archive of 300 million e-mails, the company has been accused of having deleted e-mails and of providing former employees with lavish payouts on the condition of their silence. It has also been accused of making selective leaks to other sections of the news media that Scotland Yard suggested constituted a ?deliberate campaign to undermine the investigation.?
According to two former staff members who did not want to be named because they were discussing a topic that was the subject of an active police investigation, Ms. Carter was fiercely loyal to Ms. Brooks. A person who claimed to have been present on the day that Ms. Brooks cleared out her office at News International?s headquarters, and who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the two women were seen carrying items to a parked car.
Ravi Somaiya contributed reporting.
The article, "
Latest Hacking Scandal Arrest Suggests Focus On Cover-up," first appeared in The New York Times.
SALT LAKE CITY ? A Utah man was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison after pleading guilty to murdering his ex-girlfriend and hauling her dead body to Missouri inside a 50-gallon storage bin.
Michael Doyel entered the plea Friday and was immediately sentenced by Judge Judith Atherton in Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court.
In a parallel case, the 51-year-old Doyel pleaded guilty in December to a federal kidnapping charge. He was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison, and will serve that term before the Utah sentence.
In federal court, Doyel said he strangled Deborah Jones in April 2008 after she ended their relationship.
Jones' body was found inside a bin in the backseat of her car outside a Branson, Mo., motel.
In this photo released by Natasha Baydakova on Wednesday Jan. 4,2011 showing a Welsh corgi dog named Ole that showed up at a Cooke City motel four days after the dog and its owner were swept up in an avalanche. The dog?s owner died. The dog returned to this motel where they had been staying before going backcountry skiing. (AP Photo/Natasha Baydakova)
In this photo released by Natasha Baydakova on Wednesday Jan. 4,2011 showing a Welsh corgi dog named Ole that showed up at a Cooke City motel four days after the dog and its owner were swept up in an avalanche. The dog?s owner died. The dog returned to this motel where they had been staying before going backcountry skiing. (AP Photo/Natasha Baydakova)
In this photo released by Natasha Baydakova on Wednesday Jan. 4,2011 showing a Welsh corgi dog named Ole that showed up at a Cooke City motel four days after the dog and its owner were swept up in an avalanche. The dog?s owner died. The dog returned to this motel where they had been staying before going back country skiing. (AP Photo/Natasha Baydakova)
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) ? A dog that was feared dead after he was swept away in a weekend avalanche that killed his owner showed up four days later at the Montana motel where his owners had stayed the night before going backcountry skiing.
Search and rescue team member Bill Whittle said he was "positive" that the Welsh corgi ? named Ole ? had been buried in Saturday's avalanche.
"The avalanche guys were up there on Monday investigating and they were looking for the dog too and never seen any signs," he said.
But on Wednesday, Ole showed up exhausted and hungry back at the motel, four miles from where the slide occurred, the Billings Gazette (http://bit.ly/zNaSeK) reported.
"When I first saw the dog, it was sitting in front of their room staring at the door," Cooke City Alpine Motel owner Robert Weinstein said in an email to The Associated Press on Thursday.
Dave Gaillard of Bozeman was skiing with his wife when the avalanche struck near Cooke City, an old mining town just outside Yellowstone National Park.
"His last words to me were, 'Retreat to the trees.' I think he saw what was coming from above, that I did not see," Kerry Corcoran Gaillard told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.
Gaillard's daughter, 11-year-old Marguerite, was putting photos of Ole on poster board as a memorial Wednesday afternoon.
"She found out when she was halfway done with that that Ole was still alive," said Gaillard's step-daughter, Silver Brelsford.
Whittle drove the dog back to the family in Bozeman.
"He was tired," Brelsford told the AP. "He's doing really well now."
Sidney resident Jody Ray Verhasselt, 46, also died Saturday in another avalanche while snowmobiling north of Cooke City. The two New Year's Eve avalanche deaths have taken a toll on the small mountain community.
"We needed this," Whittle said of Ole's survival. "It kind of cheered everyone up."
Searchers recovered Gaillard's body earlier this week. Family members were preparing for his funeral on Friday.
