Slim majority supports L.A. sales tax increase

A Los Angeles sales tax hike being promoted as vital to preserving public safety and helping end years of budget deficits is...

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Evernote Hack Exposes User Data, Forces Extensive Password Resets

Evernote joins Twitter, Apple, and Facebook on the list of tech companies hacked in recent weeks.Evernote “has discovered and blocked suspicious activity on the Evernote network that appears to have been a coordinated attempt to access secure areas of the Evernote Service,” according to a statement posted on the company’s website earlier today. “As a precaution to protect your data, we...

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Cellar victim Kampusch raped, starved in film of ordeal

VIENNA (Reuters) – A new film based on the story of Austrian kidnap victim Natascha Kampusch shows her being repeatedly raped by the captor who beat and starved her during the eight-and-a-half years that he kept her in a cellar beneath his house.Kampusch was snatched on her way to school at the age of 10 by Wolfgang Priklopil and held in a windowless cell under his garage near Vienna until she escaped...

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Texas Monthly: Sign Language Interpreters Bring Live Music to the Deaf

On the last night of the 2012 Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago, the sun set over a crowd of thousands who had stood for hours waiting to see Jack White, the headliner. A figure strode onto the stage, setting off a cascade of cheers. But it was not Jack White, the singer-guitarist, it was Barbie Parker, the festival’s lead sign language interpreter. Ms. Parker, a Texas native,...

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In Filing, Casino Operator Admits Likely Violation of an Antibribery Law

 In its annual regulatory report published by the commission on Friday, the Sands reported that its audit committee and independent accountants had determined that “there were likely violations of the books and records and internal controls provisions” of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.  The disclosure comes amid an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission as well...

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Bell jurors ordered to begin anew after panelist is dismissed

After nearly five days of deliberations, jurors in the Bell corruption trial were ordered Thursday to begin anew after a member...

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Best Sci-Fi Effects of All Time, as Voted by You

Sometimes it's the little things that send the mind soaring. Take the pen that floats, weightless, before being plucked from the air by a space stewardess in 2001: A Space Odyssey: It's a simple scene, but it feels real and sends the imagination into hyperdrive. Still, when Wired.com asked its readers to name their favorite sci-fi visual effects of all time, we got...

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U.S. Judges Offer Addicts a Way to Avoid Prison

Todd Heisler/The New York TimesEmily Leitch of Brooklyn, with her son, Nazir, 4, was arrested for importing cocaine but went to “drug court” to avoid prison. Federal judges around the country are teaming up with prosecutors to create special treatment programs for drug-addicted defendants who would otherwise face significant prison time, an effort intended to sidestep drug laws widely seen as inflexible...

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Economix Blog: Bernanke Defends Stimulus as Necessary and Effective

The Federal Reserve’s chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, picked an unusual time to offer his most recent defense of the Fed’s campaign to stimulate the economy: 7 p.m. on a Friday night in San Francisco, 10 p.m. back home on the East Coast.The basic message was the same as Mr. Bernanke delivered to Congress earlier this week: The Fed regards its current efforts as necessary and effective, and the risks, while...

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Jury in Bell corruption trial may be deadlocked

A court spokeswoman said Thursday the jury in the Bell corruption case appears to be deadlocked.“The jurors may be at an impasse,”...

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What Ousted Groupon CEO's <cite>Battletoads</cite> Reference Meant

Groupon CEO Andrew Mason is many things, and one of them is clearly a Nintendo kid from the 1980s. After his firing Thursday from the daily-deals company that he co-founded, he sent a jocular e-mail to his staff admitting that he had been fired, asking for recommendations for a “fat camp” so he could lose the “Groupon 40,” and most inscrutably (to some) comparing his dismissal to playing the...

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Jane C. Wright, Pioneering Oncologist, Dies at 93

Dr. Jane C. Wright, a pioneering oncologist who helped elevate chemotherapy from a last resort for cancer patients to an often viable treatment option, died on Feb. 19 at her home in Guttenberg, N.J. She was 93. Her death was confirmed by her daughter Jane Jones, who said her mother had dementia. Dr. Wright descended from a distinguished medical family that defied racial barriers in...

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F-35 Jets Returned to Service by Pentagon

The Pentagon lifted its grounding of the new F-35 jet fighter on Thursday after concluding that a turbine blade had cracked on a single plane after it was overused in test operations. The office that runs the program said no other cracks were found in inspections of the other engines made so far, and no engine redesign was needed. It said the engine in which the blade cracked was...

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Santa Cruz hit hard by officers' deaths

SANTA CRUZ — Flags throughout this sparkling beach town flew at half-staff Wednesday. The entire Police Department was meeting...

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Meet the Common Man's Robot: Headless and Adorable

LONG BEACH, California — Go into the typical American home and you’ll find a television, a computer, perhaps a videogame console, and even an iPad. But you won’t find a robot. What’s wrong with us?We haven’t found the right robot. Or at least that’s Keller Rinaudo’s take on the problem, presented at the TED conference Tuesday along with his creation: A $150 robot named Romo, which can stream...

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Cellar victim Kampusch raped, starved in film of ordeal

VIENNA (Reuters) – A new film based on the story of Austrian kidnap victim Natascha Kampusch shows her being repeatedly raped by the captor who beat and starved her during the eight-and-a-half years that he kept her in a cellar beneath his house.Kampusch was snatched on her way to school at the age of 10 by Wolfgang Priklopil and held in a windowless cell under his garage near Vienna until she escaped...

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Well: Think Like a Doctor: The Man Who Wobbled

The Challenge: Can you solve the medical mystery of a man who suddenly becomes too dizzy to walk?Every month, the Diagnosis column of The New York Times Magazine asks Well readers to try their hand at solving a medical mystery. Below you will find the story of a 56-year-old factory worker with dizziness and panic attacks. I have provided records from his two hospital visits that will give you all...

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Boeing Shows Dreamliner Battery Plan to Japanese Government

TOKYO — Boeing on Thursday presented the Japanese government with its plan to address battery problems on its new 787 Dreamliner, stressing that added protections against possible battery fires and overheating are more than enough to allow its planes back in the air. Japanese investigators, however, have maintained that there is still not enough evidence to show that the batteries themselves...

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Tribune Co. hires advisors to explore sale of newspaper unit

Tribune Co. has hired investment bankers to advise the media company on the potential sale of its newspaper publishing unit.The...

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Cablevision Sues Viacom Over Bundled Channels

You pay too much for pay TV because your cable company is forced to purchase channels in bundles from media companies like Viacom — if it wants to offer MTV, it has to pay for CMT Pure Country and Teen Nick as well. Now one cable provider has had enough, and is suing for the right to purchase channels à la carte. Cablevision, a New York-based cable TV provider, filed an antitrust lawsuit against...

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Well: What Housework Has to Do With Waistlines

Phys EdGretchen Reynolds on the science of fitness.One reason so many American women are overweight may be that we are vacuuming and doing laundry less often, according to a new study that, while scrupulously even-handed, is likely to stir controversy and emotions.The study, published this month in PLoS One, is a follow-up to an influential 2011 report which used data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor...

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Media Decoder Blog: SFX Entertainment Buys Electronic Dance Music Site

SFX Entertainment, the company led by the media executive Robert F. X. Sillerman, has agreed to buy the music download site Beatport, part of the company’s plan to build a $1 billion empire centered on the electronic dance music craze.Mr. Sillerman declined on Tuesday to reveal the price. But two people with direct knowledge of the transaction, who were not authorized to speak about it, said it was...

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Mike Piazza softens stance on Dodgers' Vin Scully

PHOENIX— ...

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