EU, IMF resisting merger of Greek banks NBG, Eurobank: paper

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's international lenders have asked Athens to halt the merger of National Bank with Eurobank , worried that the resulting lender would be too big for the state to deal with, daily Kathimerini reported on Saturday.

The paper said the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund troika had raised issues over the size of the merged entity relative to Greece's gross domestic product (GDP) and the banking sector as a whole.

Two banking sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to Reuters that doubts had been raised.

"Pretty much these are the arguments put forth by the troika," one of the bankers told Reuters.

The banks and the Greek government had no comment to make on the report. European Commission officials were not immediately available.

National Bank (NBG) took over 84.3 percent of Eurobank last month via a share swap as part of consolidation in Greece's banking industry to cope with fallout from the debt crisis and a deep recession.

The two banks have already initiated merger procedures.

"NBG is going ahead with the legal merger process to absorb Eurobank, which has been approved by Greek and European authorities. Our goal is to complete the process by June," an NBG official told Reuters, declining to comment on the report.

The combined group would have assets of 170 billion euros, almost the size of the country's 190 billion GDP and 36 percent of total deposits.

"The troika is arguing that the two banks must be recapitalized separately and remain separate legal entities," Kathimerini said.

"The request of the troika that the merger be cancelled is a red line for the government as the tie up is now on its final stretch," the paper said.

The two banks together need 15.6 billion euros in fresh capital to shore up their solvency ratios to levels required by the central bank after incurring losses from a sovereign debt writedown and impaired loans.

According to the paper, troika officials argue that the combined entity would find it hard to raise a minimum 10 percent of the needed capital from the private sector to stay privately run, as required under the agreed recapitalization scheme.

Such an outcome would bring the group under the full control of a state bank support fund, which would have a harder time finding a buyer for a bank of this size in the future.

(Reporting by George Georgiopoulos; editing by Patrick Graham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/eu-imf-resisting-merger-greek-banks-nbg-eurobank-164018518--finance.html

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Victims' Rights Pamphlet Offers Number to Sex Line (Taegan Goddard's Political Wire)

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The Single Secret To Maintaining Brilliant Brains

If you happened to be a student or a young professional or even an accomplished middle-aged person, you may have wondered how you can ever maintain an actively working mind when you get really old. Of course, the goal initially considered would have been to be able to reach a considerably old age, and then would come the desire to maintain youthful brilliance even in that stage of life. Some say that the single secret to making such a dream a reality is to keep the mind in the state of learning. With the golden opportunities of enrolling these days under training providers that make use of learning management systems, this dream may surely take hold on brighter hopes for their fulfillment among many individuals.

Learning More and Learning Again

Indeed, presently active RTOs or Registered Training Organizations all over the country are now able to provide a wider class of courses for a more expansive variety of individuals. RTO training and consulting, as they are being standardized, make certain that each of the strata of students may have their goals of maintaining the learning experience throughout their lifetime. Most RTOs do not impose severe restrictions on the allowed age brackets that could undergo certain training courses. As such, while there is still time and opportunity, anybody can pursue learning more and learning again.

After college graduation, some would choose to take up masters and study again, while others opt to proceed on their career life. At some points, the young professionals may feel that they still are lacking in terms of the knowledge that was supposed to equip them for professional life. This need may then be readily answered by the RTOs which do uphold the AQTF. Still, the others who may have pursued graduate studies in formal school may find it also interesting to undergo some vocational training, the benefits of which go beyond the intellectual level as it tries to explore more on the practical application of things. Again, the most interesting goal of such courses is that of keeping the mind expanding, working and learning something new.

Maintaining Healthy Brains

While the student may enjoy the learning experience provided through RTO training and consulting and also gain intellectual benefits from them, he also needs to maintain a physically healthy brain to enable his very access to maximum gains. This means that he has to not only be watchful of his mental health, but also to keep the body exercised and fed with nutritious food. He must also maintain his emotional well-being through old age so that he may not be easily disturbed when greater challenges face his later part of life. This may be done through healthy social relations and having freedom from guilt.

The author writes about training management systems, RTO training and consulting at http://www.scribd.com/waagchristian

Source: http://articles.submityourarticle.com/the-single-secret-to-maintaining-brilliant-brains-323198

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Eiffel Tower evacuated after bomb threat

PARIS (AP) ? The Eiffel Tower was evacuated Saturday night after an anonymous caller phoned in a bomb threat, police said.

Nearly 1,400 people were sent away from the tourist attraction following a request from tower operators after the warning, a Paris police official said. Police then searched the monument with sniffer dogs, and set up a security perimeter.

No explosives were found and the site was to be reopened, the official said on condition of anonymity because she wasn't authorized to speak publicly.

French authorities have stepped up counterterrorism measures in recent weeks amid heightened concern about threats to France over its military campaign against al-Qaida-linked fighters in Mali which began more than two months ago.

The tower is occasionally evacuated because of such warnings ? at least once last year and twice in 2011. The 324-meter (1,063-foot) tower is one of the world's top tourist attractions, with millions of visitors a year.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-03-30-EU-France-Eiffel-Tower/id-674c32517d874b2097a462bd6cd64f2e

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Filmmaker who rescued Romanian orphans is killed

ENCINITAS, Calif. (AP) ? A documentary filmmaker known for helping rescue children from squalid Romanian orphanages in the early 1990s was fatally shot following a dispute over the trimming of shrubbery outside his Southern California home, officials said Friday.

John Charles Upton Jr., 56, was found dead Thursday on a dirt path in the yard of his Encinitas home. The San Diego County Sheriff's Department said detectives arrested Michael Vilkin, 61, on suspicion of murder. He was being held without bail, pending arraignment Tuesday.

Upton, after learning of the plight of Romanian orphans, publicized the brutal conditions and was instrumental in bringing an estimated two dozen orphans to America for medical care and adoption.

Vilkin, in an interview conducted in county jail, told KGTV in San Diego he fired gunshots in self-defense after Upton menaced him with a gun during a dispute over foliage.

Vilkin said he owns vacant property next to Upton's home, and the two men had a disagreement over trimming shrubs.

"I did not go to him," Vilkin told the station. "He came to me threatening and pulled a gun (on) me."

Upton's brother, Michael Upton, told U-T San Diego that his brother and Vilkin previously argued about trees.

Upton's work in Romania also gained the attention of influential activists, inspiring billionaire philanthropist Richard Branson and actress Jessica Lange to help rescue youngsters from Romania.

Upton went on to create an online network of films about charitable causes.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/filmmaker-rescued-romanian-orphans-killed-231935649.html

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Ask A VC: AngelList's Naval Ravikant On The Currency Of Silicon Valley And More

AngelList’s Naval Ravikant joined us in the TechCrunch TV studio for our Ask A VC series, where we put VCs in the hot seat. Ravikant talked about the currency of Silicon Valley, which he says is deals shared, talent referred, and acquirers introduced. He explains that AngelList, a service he co-founded that matches early-stage startups with investors, puts these transactions online. We also chatted about his secret to picking the right startups for angel investments (Ravikant invested in Twitter, Foursquare, BranchOut, Codecademy, Uber, Heyzap and Disqus). Check out the video above for more!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/G4xpuIXalL8/

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Drones over America: How unmanned fliers are already helping cops

Nidhi Subbaraman , NBC News ? ? ? 11 hrs.

It was getting dark, and the sheriff of Nelson County, N.D., was in a standoff with a family of suspected cattle rustlers. They were armed, and the last thing anybody wanted was a shoot out.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which monitors police radio chatter, offered to help. Their Predator was flying back to its roost at the Grand Forks Air Force base and could provide aerial support. Did the sheriff want the assist?

Yep.

"We were able to detect that one of the sons was sitting at the end of the driveway with a gun. We also knew that there were small children involved," Sheriff Kelly Janke told NBC News, remembering that tricky encounter in the early summer of 2011. "Someone would have gotten seriously injured if we had gone in on the farm that night." He decided to wait.

The next day, the drone gave them an edge again by helping them choose the safest moment to make a move. "We were able to surprise them ? took them into custody," Janke said. They also collected six stolen cows.

Rodney Brossart, the arrested farmer, sued the state, in part because of the cop's use of a drone. But a district judge ruled that the Predator's service was not untoward.

When advocates express concern about government drones threatening people's privacy, the Brossart case is one they bring up. It's one of the first instances of a flying robot doing a cop's dirty work, and this kind of intervention is likely to be more and more commonplace, as the FAA fulfills a congressional mandate to increase its granting of drone permits ? certificates of authorization, or COAs.

Cops and flying robots
At the moment, there are only 327 active COAs, all held by these organizations, and all for unarmed crafts, of course. A tiny sliver of these permits are in the hands of law enforcement agencies, and from them, we're seeing the first glimpses of drone use in policing and emergency response.

"The FAA has approved us to cover a 16-county area," Sheriff Bob Rost of Grand Forks County, N.D., said of their COA. "To look for missing children, to look for escaped criminals and in the case of emergencies." In the spring, they will use two mini-copter drones ? a trusty DraganFlyer X6 and an AeroVironment Qube ? to check on flooded farms.

The police department in Arlington, Texas, also recently got FAA clearance to fly their drones after two years of testing. The two battery-powered Leptron Avenger helicopter drones won't be used for high-speed chases or routine patrol, the department explains. In fact, the crafts will be driven in a truck to where they're needed, and when they're launched to scope out incidents, local air traffic control will be informed.

In Mesa County, Colo., the police department has used drones to find missing people, do an aerial landfill survey and help out firefighters at a burning church. For them, it's seen as a cost-cutting technology.

"It's the Wal-Mart version of what we'd normally get at Saks Fifth Avenue," said Benjamin Miller, who leads the drones program in Mesa County, comparing drones to manned helicopters that would otherwise give police officers help from the sky.

In Seattle, the police department received an FAA permit ? but had to give back its drones when the mayor banned their use, following protests in October 2012.

Protests and red tape
"Hasn't anyone heard of George Orwell's '1984'?" the Seattle Times quoted a protester as saying. "This is the militarization of our streets and now the air above us."

Protesters, not just in Seattle, seek more legal definition of what a drone can or can't do, and debate whether or not current laws sufficiently protect citizens from unauthorized surveillance and other abuses.

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg thinks of police drones as an inevitability ? "We're going to have them," he recently said in a radio interview ? while those on the police (and drone) side say the fears are unfounded.

"This hysteria of [a drone] hovering outside your backyard taking a video of you smoking a joint, it's just that ? hysteria," said Al Frazier, an ex-cop from Los Angeles who is now an assistant professor of aeronautics at the University of North Dakota, and a deputy at the Grand Forks sheriff's office.

The reason the sky isn't lousy with drones already mostly has to do with red tape. The FAA's highly restricted drone application for government agencies is supposed to take about 60 days, though unofficially, we're told it's much longer. COAs are also very strict about where, when and by whom a drone is flown.

"I think there are many agencies who would like to use [drones] for public good, but they're stymied by the process," Frazier said.

That's likely to change ? and soon. Last February, Obama signed a mandate that encourages the FAA to let civil and commercial drones join the airspace by 2015. This will take new regulations from the FAA for safe commercial drone flight, and it may take some convincing of local anti-drone activists (who sometimes don't differentiate between drones great and small). It may even require the passing of a few new privacy laws.

Folks like Frazier and Miller don't see the permit process getting easier any time soon but eventually ? inevitably ? and for better or worse, your local police department will get its drone.

Nidhi Subbaraman writes about technology and science. Follow her on Twitter and Google+.

Related:

The drones are coming ... but our laws aren't ready

Anticipating domestic boom, colleges rev up drone piloting programs

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Obama Sends Easter and Passover Message (ABC News)

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Ric Flair's Son Dies at Age 25

Source:

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Congressional Inaction Could Cost College Students

By Martyn Herman LONDON, March 28 (Reuters) - Whether by design, necessity, self-interest or because of all three, nurturing youngsters has become fashionable for England's elite with no expense spared in the hunt for the new Wayne Rooney or Steven Gerrard. The length and breadth of the country, scouts from top clubs are hoovering up promising footballers barely old enough to tie their bootlaces in a bid to unearth the 30 million pounds ($45.40 million) treasures of the future. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/congressional-inaction-could-cost-college-students-071208468.html

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A Batman Coffee Table Bruce Wayne Wish He Had

Because we all dreamed about being Bruce Wayne once upon a time (or to this day), here's something you can get that he could never: a batman logo coffee table. Made by Charles Lushear of the Bohemian Workshop, the coffee table is carved from wood with hairpin legs and is a must for any comic book geek still living with his parents or someone who has a really understanding girlfriend (or boyfriend). More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/4BU1EanVmus/a-batman-coffee-table-bruce-wayne-wish-he-had

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Michael Dell spoke with Blackstone during "go-shop": source

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dell Inc founder and CEO Michael Dell met with private equity firms Blackstone Group LP and Francisco Partners during the computer maker's "go-shop" period, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday.

The meetings, which took place on March 7 and 8, will be disclosed in Dell's proxy statement on Friday and indicate Blackstone explored early on the possibility of keeping Michael Dell as CEO in a bid to take over the company, the person said on condition of anonymity because the information is not yet public.

Michael Dell also met this week with Blackstone senior managing directors Dave Johnson and Chinh Chu, although the outcome of these discussions has yet to become clear, the person added.

Blackstone and Dell did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

During a 45-day go-shop period that expired last week, Dell explored alternatives to Michael Dell's and Silver Lake's $24.4 billion offer for the world's number-three PC maker.

(Reporting by Gregory Roumeliotis; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/michael-dell-spoke-blackstone-during-shop-source-155247372--sector.html

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Angry lawyer throws shoe at Pakistan's Musharraf

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) ? An angry lawyer threw a shoe at former President Pervez Musharraf as he headed to court in southern Pakistan on Friday to face legal charges following his return to the country after four years in self-imposed exile, police said.

Meanwhile, a Taliban suicide bomber on a bicycle attacked the convoy of a paramilitary police commander in northwestern Pakistan, killing 11 people, including a four month-old infant, police said.

Musharraf, who seized power in a military coup in 1999 but was forced to step down nearly a decade later, is disliked by many lawyers throughout Pakistan because of his decision to suspend the chief justice of the Supreme Court while he was in office.

The lawyer tossed his shoe at Musharraf as the former military strongman was walking down a hallway in the court building in the city of Karachi surrounded by a mob of security, supporters and journalists, said police official Nasir Aftab.

The shoe did not hit Musharraf, and the lawyer was not detained because no charges were filed against him, said Aftab.

Throwing a shoe at someone is an especially potent insult in Muslim countries because the sole is considered unclean.

Local TV channels showed video of the incident, but it was impossible to identify the shoe thrower because he was hidden behind part of the corridor.

Following the incident, judges granted Musharraf an extension of pre-emptive bail in three cases against him, meaning he cannot be immediately arrested.

Two of the cases involve the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the killing of Akbar Bugti, a Baluch nationalist leader who died in August 2006 after a standoff with the Pakistani military. Musharraf was granted an extension of 21 days in those two cases.

He was granted a 15-day extension in connection with a third case, in which he is accused of illegally removing a number of judges at the time, including the Supreme Court chief justice, said Shahadat Awan, the prosecutor general for surrounding Sindh province.

Musharraf was also restricted from leaving the country during the period that his bail was extended, Pakistani state TV reported.

Musharraf returned from exile last Sunday, seeking a possible political comeback despite the legal charges against him and death threats from Taliban militants. But he was only met by a couple thousand reporters when his flight from Dubai landed in Karachi, and analysts have said they don't expect his party to attract much support in parliamentary elections scheduled for May 11.

Musharraf seized power in 1999 when he was serving as Pakistan's army chief. He was forced to step down in 2008 and eventually left the country amid discontent with his rule and threats of impeachment by the country's main political parties. His decision to suspend the Supreme Court chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, played a key role in reducing his popularity. Chaudhry has since been reinstated.

In Karachi, a group of lawyers protested outside the Sindh High Court on Friday as Musharraf entered. They chanted slogans against the former military strongman and jostled with his supporters.

The attack on the paramilitary police commander's convoy in northwestern Pakistan occurred in the city of Peshawar. The apparent target, Abdul Majeed Marwat, who heads the Frontier Constabulary, was not hurt, said police official Dost Mohammed Khan.

The 11 dead included five members of the security forces and six civilians, said Khan. The civilians included two women, a young girl and a four month-old infant. Another 22 people were wounded, said Khan.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. The group's spokesman, Ahsanullah Ahsan, told The Associated Press that they carried out the bombing because the paramilitary police "are part of a system we don't recognize, and second, they are operating against us."

Peshawar is located on the border with Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal region, the main sanctuary for Taliban militants in the country. The Pakistani Taliban have carried out many bombings in the city and other parts of the country targeting both security forces and civilians.

There is concern that the militants could step up the pace of attacks ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections.

___

Associated Press writers Riaz Khan and Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Pakistan, and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/angry-lawyer-throws-shoe-pakistans-musharraf-083754314.html

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Court: OK to cut returning veteran's job if decision wasn't based on ...

Generally, members of the military released from active duty service are entitled to return to their former jobs.

The ?Uni?formed Ser??vices Employ-ment and Re??em??ploy??ment Rights Act (USERRA) states that the returning service members shall be re-employed ?in the position of em??ployment in which the person would have been employed if the continuous em??ployment of such person with the employer had not been interrupted by such service.?

But what happens if bad economic times force a layoff before the em??ployee returns to work? Is he exempt from the cuts? Not according to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Recent case: Douglas worked as a maintenance technician before being called to active military duty. He left the service early after he had an ad?verse reaction to a vaccine. He wanted to report back to his job. But while Douglas had been deployed, the employer underwent two reductions in force after failing to make a profit.

The second round of layoffs affected Douglas? department and was based on job duties, skills and other factors. On the day he returned to work, Douglas was informed that his job had been cut.

He sued, alleging he was entitled to return to his job even in the face of a reduction in force.

The court disagreed. It pointed out that USERRA?s language indicates that service members don?t get to keep their jobs if a position was eliminated for nondiscriminatory reasons while they were on active duty. (Millhauser v. Minco, No. 12-1756, 8th Cir., 2012)

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Lenovo rolls out extra-compact ThinkCentre Edge 62z all-in-one for $549

Some of Lenovo's pro customers can be very fussy: hospitals and schools want multiple computers in a small area, but without skimping on the usual features they'd expect from desktops. If any PC could resolve those contradictory demands, it might be the company's new ThinkCentre Edge 62z. The extra-angular design purportedly fits a 18.5-inch all-in-one into a third of the space of a 20-inch display, all while carrying up to a Core i3 processor and a DVD burner. Whether or not you see the 62z as a feat of engineering, the design has some room to grow with up to 8GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive. The price may be the real clincher for some customers -- Lenovo expects this lower-tier ThinkCentre Edge to cost $549 when it reaches the US in May, which could squeeze it into a few more IT budgets.

Filed under: Desktops, Lenovo

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/28/lenovo-thinkcentre-edge-62z-stuffs-an-all-in-one-into-a-tiny-space/

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Andrei Arlovski?s camp says timing error in New Jersey caused him to take ?huge blow? late

Just days after Nick Diaz's camp criticized the athletic commission in Quebec for their handling of his UFC 158 weigh-in with UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre, another athletic commission is under fire. Jackson's MMA, the gym who backs Andrei Arlovski, said a timing error by the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board resulted in Arlovski's broken jaw.

Arlovski lost to Anthony Johnson in a World Series of Fighting bout on Saturday. Jackson's MMA posted on their Facebook about the timekeeping problem:

The NJ athletic commission was worried about the World Series of Fighting getting a new canvas and new corner pads for the cage they almost canceled the fight Saturday night. Unfortunately they forgot to get a time keeper that was trained properly. 1st round 5min 8 sec in the Andrei fight. A devastating blow was landed after the 5min mark. It's amazing how so much time is spent with over regulating but the simple things can cost dearly.

WSOF had to bring in a new canvas and pads when the ones they originally had were unsuitable. But the timing error is much worse. Check out this video via MMA Fighting, and listen to the wood clacking at the 10-second mark. The clock disappears from the screen at seven seconds. Even a generous countdown shows the fight went past the five-minute mark.

The worst part is that the damage Johnson caused came after the time should have expired. His jaw was broken, and it needed surgery for repair. It also raises questions on if the fight result would have been different if Arlovski wouldn't have been hurt late in the first round.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/andrei-arlovski-camp-says-timing-error-jersey-caused-144726034--mma.html

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End of the road for Boston's longest-serving mayor

By Scott Malone

BOSTON (Reuters) - The longest-serving mayor in Boston history told voters on Thursday that he would not seek a sixth term in office, setting the stage for the city's most competitive mayoral race in decades.

Mayor Tom Menino, 70, declared his intention not to seek reelection to the office he has held since 1993 at Boston's historic Fanueil Hall.

"I never dreamed I would end up here, mayor of Boston, during its best years," said Menino, who was hospitalized for a month last year after falling ill while on vacation in Italy.

"I'm back to a mayor's schedule, but not a Menino schedule. And I miss it," he said, referring to his historic practice of spending most evenings at events around the city.

"I will leave the job that I love," Menino told a crowd of a couple hundred staff and supporters, including the state's interim U.S. Senator William "Mo" Cowan and Representative Stephen Lynch, one of two Democratic representatives running for a permanent shot at the senate seat.

"It was a surprise and obviously disappointing, but I'm happy for him," said Henry Vitale, acting executive director of the Boston Water and Sewer Commission, as he waited for the mayor to speak. David Bowie's "Changes" played over a public address system.

Menino took office at a tough time for Boston and much of urban America - crime was high and neighborhoods were struggling economically. Vitale said an important part of Menino's legacy would be the economic resurgence that Boston has undergone in the past two decades.

"Look at all the development he has done, look at the neighborhoods," Vitale said. "Boston is vibrant."

'THIS IS THE TIME'

Before today, only Democrat John Connolly, 39, had jumped into the race. Connolly, a Boston city councilor, has focused his campaign on improving schools.

Menino said he had "no plans to pick the person to fill this seat".

More local leaders are expected to enter the race now that they know they will not be facing a powerful incumbent.

"Boston mayors are rarely defeated for reelection, so if you are going to make a run for it, this is the time to do it," said Peter Ubertaccio, chairman of the political science department at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts, south of Boston. "The city councilors are going to be jockeying for this position."

Menino had a formidable campaign organization that he has used both for himself and fellow Democrats. His supporters played a key role in Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren's successful 2012 campaign to unseat Republican Scott Brown.

He has declined to endorse Lynch or his Democratic rival Representative Markey.

Voters will go to the polls in that special election on June 25, a little more than four months before November's mayoral race, making for one of Boston's most lively political calendars in recent years.

On the national stage, Menino has stood out as an advocate for gun control and gay rights, often working alongside New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Menino became mayor in July 1993 after predecessor Raymond Flynn resigned to become U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.

His fellow politicians were quick to offer praise.

"It's hard to imagine Boston without Tom Menino as mayor," said Governor Deval Patrick. "No one loves this city and her people more or is more excited about her future."

(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Kevin Gray)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/boston-mayor-menino-not-seek-sixth-term-boston-024857747.html

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Pope names his successor as archbishop of Buenos Aires

March 28 (Reuters) - Rory McIlroy, playing for the first time since losing his world number one ranking earlier this week, got off to a shaky start at the Houston Open on Thursday where he dropped three shots over his opening eight holes. The 23-year-old Northern Irishman, who was replaced atop the world rankings by Tiger Woods this week, struggled to find his rhythm on an ideal day for low scoring at the Redstone Golf Club in Humble, Texas. He bogeyed the par-four second hole and made a double-bogey seven on the eighth hole to limp to the turn at three-over. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-names-successor-archbishop-buenos-aires-112444196.html

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Anti-rape video in response to Steubenville trial coverage goes viral

?

By Sofia Perpetua, Contributor, NBC News

A University of Oregon film student felt compelled to respond to some of the issues surrounding the Steubenville rape case -- and has 1.3 million views on YouTube.

Samantha Stendal, 19, directed ?A Needed Response? and addressed it to ?the Steubenville rapists ? or any rapists out there,? in order to show the world how real men treat women.

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"It is horrifying to me that some people can say that people deserve rape when they are passed out," said Stendal to the NY Daily News.

Samantha Stendal

Samantha Stendal is a sophomore at the University of Oregon.

In Stendal?s 26-second-long video, a woman (Kelsey Jones) pretends to be passed out, and a man (Justin Gotchall) gets her some water and places a pillow under her head. Then he faces the camera and says, ?Real men treat women with respect.?

"I was studying for my finals, and on the side I was reading about the Steubenville rape case. I grew very frustrated with the media," Stendal told NBC News on Tuesday. "That's when I came up with the idea for this video."

Gotchall, who is a philosophy major, added, "After we saw the media coverage of the Steubenville rape cases, we just had to do this."

"I think this video is powerful in its simplicity," Desertra87 posted as a comment on YouTube. After being up only four days, the video had more than 4,000 comments and more than a million views.

Last week, Steubenville High School football players Trent Mays and Ma?lik Richmond were convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl at a raucous house party in the small Ohio town.

The story had already made headlines because of the issues surrounding the case, such as social media harassment and teenage partying gone wild. But media coverage following the convictions generated even more controversy and angered many when some reporters seemed to focus on the loss of the two football players? bright future -- and not on the victim?s trauma.

"What really upsets me is what the news is going to, what the Internet is going to ? which is asking what the victim could have done differently," Stendal told KVAL 13 News in Eugene, Ore. "I'm upset that in our culture that is one of the first questions asked."

Stendal, a sophomore, added, "The message I hope that people can get from this video is that we need to treat one another with respect.?No matter what gender, we should be listening to each other and making sure there is consent."

Stendal, now on her spring break, is applying for video internships.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2a071bae/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C260C1747740A0A0Eanti0Erape0Evideo0Ein0Eresponse0Eto0Esteubenville0Etrial0Ecoverage0Egoes0Eviral0Dlite/story01.htm

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When does ad retargeting make sense for your business ...

Ad retargeting is used to follow users as they move from site to site.

Here?s how targeting advertising works ? but use it sparingly & strategically or it could turn off users

Target audience: Businesses, brands, digital marketers, advertising agencies, SEO specialists, entrepreneurs, educators, journalists, Web publishers.

Let me confess up front: I?ve long been attracted to the idea of useful advertising ? the promise that interruption marketing will fade into its well-deserved irrelevance and that marketers will be able to serve us ads and offers based on products and services we actually want or need.

Trouble is, the practice rarely lives up to the ideal, chiefly because retargeting, as it?s called, is hard to do well.

You know what I?m referring to, right? In your forays around the Web, you?ve no doubt noticed that you?re being served up advertising based on the pages you were visiting earlier. Take The Atlantic?s Alexis Madrigal, who discovered that 105 advertising-related companies tracked his online behavior over a 36-hour period. Lots of people are squeamish about the very idea of targeted ads, and for these folks, filling out this opt-out form should put the kabosh on most of these ads.

I fall into the second camp: I think retargeting has its place, especially for small businesses and entrepreneurs trying to break through the clutter of 2,000 marketing messages that bombard us every day. If you run a small business or startup and have a new product, service, book or online class that readers or followers might find valuable, retargeting has its place in your marketing arsenal, as long as it?s done with discretion and is accompanied by other tactics in getting the word out.

Below I?ll offer tips and best practices for your business if you?re considering targeted advertising.

How ad retargeting works ? is it right for you?

Here?s a look at how retargeting works and how it could be useful for your small business.

At its simplest, retargeting allows businesses to target ads to people who visited their site but didn?t purchase anything. Because the targeting is meant to be precise and the ad message can be customized, advertisers frequently see significant higher click-through-rates and purchases from retargeted ads.

Your business could:

• Bring people back who abandoned the shopping cart process
• Deliver a discount coupon or inform previous visitors of a sale
• Simply remind viewers of your product at a later date when they might be ready to purchase

A number of vendors provide retargeting products: Google, AdRoll, Retargeter, Fetchback, Clicksor and Rocketfuel, to name just a few. Some have slightly different offerings, but they all basically work the same way.

?Targeted ads have driven about 15 percent of our enrollments with a lower CPA than other channels?

Retargeting starts with a bit of tracking code that your vendor provides and that you install on pages of your site. This tracking code drops a cookie into a visitor?s web browser and that cookie tracks what pages are viewed on your site. (If this sounds old school, it is: Browser cookies have been around for 19 years.)

Once your visitors travel to other sites on the Web, they?ll almost certainly encounter advertising slots on some of these pages. This is where you can retarget an ad to them and try to bring them back to your site. Those ad slots will do a quick check to see if there is a retargeting cookie present in the browser, and if there is, it will trigger a split-second real-time auction to determine what ad is served.

You?ll want to establish a budget at the outset and set a limit for your campaign. Generally these campaigns start at a few hundred dollars for a small business and can scale up from there. If your bid is the highest, you win the auction and your ad is served. The targeting companies keep track of ad inventory so you don?t have to figure out where your ad will appear. You generally pay on a cost-per-click basis, the same as you would for Google AdWords ads.

How one small business uses targeting to increase enrollments

Porter Gale, a friend who?s the author of the upcoming book?Your Network Is Your Net Worth?and the former vice president of marketing for Virgin America, wanted to get the word out about her new three-day online class?Building Your Brand (day two is today).

So she agreed to a modest retargeting campaign steered by Rick Silvestrini, general manager of?creativeLIVE, which hosts live online workshops, including Porter?s.?Silvestrini?runs targeted advertising campaigns to drive sign-ups for several of his instructors? classes. ?Targeted ads have driven about 15 percent of our enrollments from paid with a lower CPA (cost per acquisition) than other channels,? he said.

As with Google AdWords ads, the cost per click can vary greatly depending on your bid parameters ? after all, it?s auction pricing. With Google, there?s no minimum spend, and you can wind up spending little or a lot depending on how the ad performs. ?Our clicks cost anywhere from 32 cents to $ 1.50 per click, depending on how well the creative performs,? Silvestrini said. ?I?ll spend $300 to $2,000 per week on retargeting alone. That comes out to $50 to $800 per week per course.? The higher the spend, the more people who sign up for the courses.

A targeted ad that appears as an overlay on a YouTube video.

Facebook wading into relevant advertising in a big way

What about Facebook? With a billion users and about a quarter of the all display ads on the Internet, Facebook offers businesses a huge opportunity for retargeting, and the mechanics are basically the same. However, the advertising units inside Facebook are different sizes (those little text & picture ads on the right of your news feed) and there are not as many vendors to choose from; Perfect Audience and AdRoll seem to be the biggest.

Facebook also has another twist on retargeting called Custom Audiences, where you upload your email list and Facebook targets ads to Facebook members who are on your list.

Other social networks, like LinkedIn and Twitter, have their own techniques for ad targeting.

Tips for small businesses that want to try out targeted ads

Can small businesses do this on their own? That depends on how technically savvy you are and how much time you want to devote to mastering retargeting. The easiest retargeting to do on your own is Facebook Custom Audiences targeted to your email list. (I might have recommended Twitter for its ease of use, but the conversion rate was very low for a campaign I recently did for one of my sites.) For the rest, you?ll at least need to know how to install a bit of tracking code into your pages.

Regardless of who?ll be executing your targeted ad campaign, keep these best practices in mind:

• Have a planned-out strategy, don?t just send out a targeted ad blast. Who are you targeting precisely and what do you want them to do?
• Don?t do a mass carpet bombing. Start out with a short campaign and grow it from there.
• Make sure the service you use has an ad report tool. Try several variations of your ad and optimize your campaign to use the version that received the biggest response.
• Make sure your product or service offers value and is something that people will want.
• Make it personal and relevant ? not like a late-night infomercial.
• Where possible, target friends of connections, which you can do in Facebook.
• Make sure your ad contains a clear call to action.

If this still sounds bit daunting, please reach out to us and we?ll help get you on your way.

Ad targeting, while years old, still has a long way to go. Clearly, some of these companies go too far in collecting users? personal data without their consent (but that?s a column for another day). For another, there was no option to turn off the ads even though I registered for Porter?s workshop. I?m with The Register writer who bemoaned, ?Come on, people: if you?re going to track my online behavior, at least use it to get me to buy something I want!?

What do you think of retargeting? Have you used it? Do you think it has its place?

Related articles

? How to run an effective Facebook campaign for $5 (Socialmedia.biz)

? How To Use The 15 Facebook Ad Targeting Options (Socialfresh)

? Online advertising isn?t creepy enough: Go ahead and terrify me? with a properly targeted ad (The Register)

? How To Block Targeted Ads From Following You Around (Business Insider)

? Doc Searls? book The Intention Economy (Amazon)

? The Uncanny Valley of Internet Advertising (Slate)

? How to Opt Out of Facebook?s Creepy New Targeted Ads (Gizmodo)

? Targeted Ads: Finding a Balance Between Cool and Creepy (IT Business Edge)

? Online Display Advertising: Targeting and Obtrusiveness (Marketing Science, PDF)JD Lasica is founder of Socialmedia.biz. We work with large and mid-size businesses and organizations on social media strategies and optimizing your online presence. Contact JD by email, follow him on Twitter and Google Plus or leave a comment below.

Source: http://socialmedia.biz/2013/03/28/when-does-ad-retargeting-make-sense-for-your-business/

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Boston mayor announces he won't seek re-election

BOSTON (AP) ? Boston Mayor Thomas Menino has announced he won't seek re-election to an unprecedented sixth term after nearly two decades in office.

Menino told well-wishers gathered at Boston's historic Faneuil Hall Thursday afternoon that "I will leave the job that I love."

Menino's announcement came in the wake of persistent health problems including a six-week hospital state last year to treat a respiratory infection and a compression fracture in his spine. He says, "I'm back to a mayor's schedule, but not a Menino schedule"

His decision not to run is expected to spark a political stampede to fill the coveted seat.

Menino wasn't always the smoothest of political figures, but he earned a reputation as one of the hardest working, from filling potholes to shaping the city's skyline.

He also became a prominent voice nationally in favor of stricter gun control measures.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/boston-mayor-announces-wont-seek-election-202207109--election.html

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Cyprus banks reopen; limits on transactions

People wait outside a branch of Bank of Cyprus in Nicosia, Cyprus, Thursday, March 28, 2013. Cypriots get their first chance to access their savings in almost two weeks when the country?s banks reopen Thursday - albeit with strict restrictions on transactions - after being closed due to the country?s acute financial crisis. Lines were starting to form outside banks Thursday morning ahead of the official opening for six hours at noon (1000 GMT). (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

People wait outside a branch of Bank of Cyprus in Nicosia, Cyprus, Thursday, March 28, 2013. Cypriots get their first chance to access their savings in almost two weeks when the country?s banks reopen Thursday - albeit with strict restrictions on transactions - after being closed due to the country?s acute financial crisis. Lines were starting to form outside banks Thursday morning ahead of the official opening for six hours at noon (1000 GMT). (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

People wait outside a Coop bank branch in Nicosia, Cyprus, Thursday, March 28, 2013. Bank branches across the country were being replenished with cash, and are scheduled to open for six hours at noon (10:00 GMT). Systems were frozen pending the official noon opening. (AP Photo/Philippos Christou)

People wait outside a Coop Bank branch in Nicosia, Cyprus, Thursday, March 28, 2013. Cypriots get their first chance to access their savings in almost two weeks when the country?s banks reopen Thursday - albeit with strict restrictions on transactions - after being closed due to the country?s acute financial crisis. Lines were starting to form outside banks Thursday morning ahead of the official opening for six hours at noon (1000 GMT). (AP Photo/Philippos Christou)

A woman sweeps the ground while people wait outside a branch of Bank of Cyprus in Nicosia, Cyprus, Thursday, March 28, 2013. Cypriots get their first chance to access their savings in almost two weeks when the country?s banks reopen Thursday - albeit with strict restrictions on transactions - after being closed due to the country?s acute financial crisis. Lines were starting to form outside banks Thursday morning ahead of the official opening for six hours at noon (1000 GMT). (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

People are served in a branch of Bank of Cyprus in Nicosia, Thursday, March 28, 2013. Banks in Cyprus reopened to customers for the first time in nearly two weeks Thursday, albeit with strict restrictions on transactions, after being closed to prevent people withdrawing all their savings during the country?s acute financial crisis. Large lines had formed outside the banks ahead of the opening of banks for six hours from noon. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) ? Banks in Cyprus reopened for the first time in nearly two weeks Thursday, with strict controls to stop people from taking out all their savings and plunging the country's financial system into chaos.

The limits on transactions, which include caps on withdrawals and money leaving the country, are a first in the 14-year history of the euro.

Across Cyprus, large but orderly lines formed ahead of the opening of banks for six hours from noon, and guards from private security firms reinforced police outside some ATMs and banks in the capital, Nicosia. No particular crowd issues were reported.

President Nicos Anastasiades expressed his "warm gratitude and deep appreciation towards the Cypriot people for the maturity and spirit of responsibility they have shown at a critical time for the stability of the Cypriot economy," a statement from his office said.

Banks have been shut in Cyprus since March 16 to prevent people draining their accounts as politicians scrambled to come up with a plan to allow the country to qualify for 10 billion euros ($12.9 billion) in international bailout loans for its stricken financial sector.

A deal was finally reached in Brussels with other euro countries and the International Monetary Fund early Monday. The country's second-largest bank, Laiki, is to be split up, with its healthy assets being absorbed into the Bank of Cyprus. Savers with more 100,000 euros ($129,000) in both Bank of Cyprus and Laiki will face big losses. At Laiki, those could reach as much as 80 percent of amounts above the 100,000 insured limit; those at Bank of Cyprus are expected to be much lower.

The Finance Ministry announced capital controls ? to be reviewed daily and initially applying for seven days ? to prevent a rush of euros out of the country's banks when they reopened.

They include limiting daily cash withdrawals to 300 euros ($383) per person and limiting payments abroad to 5,000 euros ($6,400). No checks can be cashed, although they can be paid in. Anyone leaving the country, whether Cypriot or a visitor, can only take up to 1,000 euros ($1,290) with them in cash.

The country's general accounting office said pensions and other social security payments, together with salaries for government employees, will be in bank accounts next Tuesday and Wednesday.

Many Cypriots were working out exactly what they could and couldn't do. Television talk shows hosted dial-ins with experts, with viewers' queries ranging from where they would repay loans to how they could pay tuition fees for children studying abroad and handle check payments. Across the country, people wondered whether they would be able to access their salaries, many of which were due this week.

"I believe this will be a very difficult day for both people and bank employees because no matter how much information there was, things were changing all the time," said Costas Kyprianides, a grocery supplier in Nicosia. "Even us traders, like myself, have so many checks which I need to deposit so I can make ends meet."

Some analysts are concerned that, if kept in place long, Cyprus's measures will go against the fundamental principle of the single currency: Free and easy movement of money around the euro's 17 members.

The European Commission said EU member states could restrict financial transactions "in certain circumstances and under strict conditions on grounds of public policy or public security" but added that "the free movement of capital should be reinstated as soon as possible".

Not every account in Laiki and Bank of Cyprus will be hit with big losses. Deposits held by the central government, local authorities such as municipalities, universities and development projects being co-funded by the European Union will not face a so-called haircut. Constantinos Petrides, undersecretary to the president, said the measure was agreed between the Cypriot government and a delegation from the IMF, European Central Bank and European Commission.

Government welfare and pension fund accounts in Laiki will be treated in the same way as those in the Bank of Cyprus, "thereby ensuring most of the deposits," Petrides added.

Some individuals and businesses, spotting that Cyprus's economy was in trouble and that a tax on deposits was being discussed, had moved their money out of Cyprus well before the banks closed their doors last week.

According to ECB figures, deposits in Cyprus' banks slipped 2.2 percent last month, to 46.36 billion euros ($59.36 billion), the lowest figure since May 2010 and down from a peak of 50.5 billion euros ($64.67 billion) in May 2012. The figure excludes deposits from other banks and the central government.

"I anticipated, not this to happen, but I anticipated issues last year, when Greece had a question of whether it will remain in euro and the consequences of that," said Athos Angelides, who runs a business importing and distributing hair salon products. "So luckily we transferred money in the middle of last year over to the UK."

The stock market, which has been closed since March 15, stayed shut. It said it would remain closed also on Friday and Monday, which is Easter in most of Europe. Cyprus follows the Orthodox calendar and does not celebrate Easter until May this year.

____

Elena Becatoros in Nicosia and David McHugh in Frankfurt contributed.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-28-Cyprus-Financial%20Crisis/id-7ef54386040742aea982a37c43be10a4

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Boston mayor to announce he won't seek re-election

FILE - This Oct. 5, 2012 file photo shows Boston Mayor Tom Menino during a campaign event for Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren in Boston. Media outlets on Wednesday, March 27, 2013 reported that Menino will announce he won?t seek re-election for a sixth term amid ongoing health problems. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds, File)

FILE - This Oct. 5, 2012 file photo shows Boston Mayor Tom Menino during a campaign event for Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren in Boston. Media outlets on Wednesday, March 27, 2013 reported that Menino will announce he won?t seek re-election for a sixth term amid ongoing health problems. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds, File)

BOSTON (AP) ? Boston Mayor Thomas Menino wasn't the smoothest of political figures, but during his nearly two decades in office he earned a reputation as one of the hardest working, from filling potholes to shaping the city's skyline.

Menino ? beset with health problems ? has decided against seeking an unprecedented sixth term. He planned to make a formal announcement late Thursday afternoon at Boston's historic Faneuil Hall.

Menino said the decision was "very difficult" during an emotional, early morning news conference outside his home. He said he's lived the job "24-7" since becoming mayor in 1993.

"It's a changed city, and I'm glad to be a small part of this changed city," said the Democrat, crediting his staff and cabinet. He said the city is more tolerant, vital and with a younger population than when he took office.

A recent Boston Globe poll showed the 70-year-old Menino was viewed favorably by a wide margin of city residents, although less than half said they wanted him to run again.

Most political watchers assumed Menino could have cruised to another victory, however, despite health woes that had him hospitalized for nearly six weeks last year.

Menino was treated for a respiratory infection that developed during a vacation in Italy. While at the hospital he suffered complications including a compression fracture in a vertebra in his spine. Menino also was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.

After being discharged, Menino spent three months recuperating at a city-owned mansion on Beacon Hill. He just recently moved back to his home.

Menino's long stewardship of the city came a critical moment in Boston's history when traditional urban ethnic enclaves began to give way to waves of new immigrants and younger professionals.

Lawrence DiCara, a former city councilor, said Menino's success stemmed from his attention to detail and ? unlike many of his predecessors ? his lack of interest in higher office.

"He kept his eye on the ball," DiCara said. "He was not interested in running for governor. He was not interested in running for Congress. He had one thing he wanted to do and that was being mayor of Boston."

Menino also worked to make Boston more fun and livable. Despite its famously narrow, twisting streets, Menino helped usher in a bicycle-sharing program and named a "bicycle czar" to negotiate conflicts between bicyclists and Boston drivers.

He also struggled to try to improve the Boston school system and wasn't shy about wearing his sympathies on his sleeve.

Last year Menino, a strong gay rights supporter, vowed to block Chick-fil-A from opening a restaurant in the city after the company's president spoke out publicly against gay marriage.

Menino was the city's first Italian-American mayor, breaking a nearly century-long domination of city politics by Irish-Americans that began with John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, the grandfather of President John F. Kennedy and Sens. Robert and Edward Kennedy, and included the legendary James Michael Curley.

Menino grew up in Hyde Park, far from the city's traditional political power bases. This, said DiCara ? a onetime mayoral candidate himself ? gave Menino empathy with residents who often felt ignored by City Hall.

"He grew up an Italian kid in an Irish city and he grew up in a neighborhood that no one came from," said DiCara.

Along with a drop in crime and strong city finances, Menino also could tout that in 20 years, no one in his administration was indicted or convicted, an "extraordinary" accomplishment, DiCara said, in a city with a sordid history of political corruption.

Menino's departure will create only the second open mayoral election in the last half century and the first since 1983, when Kevin White chose not to seek re-election.

City Councilor John Connolly had previously announced his intention to run for mayor, but the field appeared to be wide open.

Among the possible candidates was Tito Jackson, an African-American city councilor and former aide to Gov. Deval Patrick. Jackson lauded Menino but declined to address his own future.

DiCara said the demographic changes that have occurred in the city since Menino became mayor have helped open the door to any number of possible successors.

"The next mayor could be black, could be Spanish, could be gay," he said. "Anybody could be elected mayor of Boston."

Menino became acting mayor when his predecessor, Raymond Flynn, left office in 1993 after being named ambassador to the Vatican. Menino, then president of the City Council, was automatically elevated to the mayor's job.

The circumstances prompted some critics to label him the "accidental mayor," a charge the sometimes-thin-skinned Menino was quick to reject. But he was elected mayor in his own right in November 1993 and won re-election by wide margins in 1997, 2001, 2005 and 2009.

White, the city's previous longest serving mayor, was in office for four terms, from 1968 to 1984. Menino's longevity also exceeded that of Curley, who also served four terms, but not consecutively.

Menino earned the nickname "Urban Mechanic" by focusing on the nuts and bolts of city management ? fixing potholes, cleaning streets, even curbing the practice of saving a shoveled-out parking space by putting folding chairs or trash cans along the curb.

More recently, Menino became a prominent voice in favor of stricter gun control measures.

During his years in office Menino also built an impressive political machine that handily defeated challengers and helped propel political allies into office.

Despite his political savvy, Menino was also known for his sometimes tortured phrases and malapropisms, which earned him the nickname "Mumbles" from detractors but sometimes endeared him even more to the populace.

He once confused former New England Patriots placekicker and Super Bowl hero Adam Vinatieri with former Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek and referred to Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo as "Hondo," which was the nickname of former Celtics great John Havlicek.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-03-28-Boston%20Mayor/id-e98ae385d9e34969986bb46825c21fc1

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