Dell buyout intrigue heightens as deadline looms

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Michael Dell is about to find out if other bidders think his company is worth more than he does.

The answer could come Friday, which marks the end of a 45-day period that Dell Inc.'s board of directors settled on to allow for offers that might top a Feb. 5 agreement to sell the personal computer maker to CEO Michael Dell and a group of investors for $24.4 billion.

With the deadline looming, buyout specialist Blackstone Group is emerging as the most likely candidate to trump the current bid of $13.65 per share.

Blackstone is so intrigued with the prospect of owning Dell that the firm has been courting former Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO Mark Hurd to run Dell if it decides to mount a hostile takeover attempt, according to a person familiar with the situation. The person asked not to be identified because the discussions between Blackstone and Hurd are considered confidential.

Several other buyout scenarios tying Blackstone to Dell have been leaked to the media this week, another indication that the New York firm is mulling a bid that could scuttle the debt-laden deal that the company reached with Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners.

Dell Inc. says Friday's deadline for competing offers could be extended if its board believes other suitors would benefit from more time to examine Dell's books and hash out other details. The company, which is based in Round Rock, Texas, has promised to provide extensive details about the sales process in regulatory documents that are supposed to be filed next week.

Although there is much rumor and speculation, many investors are convinced a higher bid is in the works. That's why Dell's stock price has remained above $14 for the past two weeks. The shares fell 19 cents Thursday to close at $14.14. Some analysts have even predicted Dell ultimately will be sold for $15 to $16 per share.

Southeastern Asset Management, Dell's second largest shareholder after Michael Dell, has asserted the company is worth closer to $24 per share.

For its part, the four-member board committee that negotiated the current deal maintains it's selling Dell at a fair price ?one that reflects the dimming prospects for the PC industry as more technology spending shifts to smartphones and tablet computers.

The upheaval is siphoning revenue away from both Dell, the world's third largest PC maker, and HP, the top PC maker. Both companies are trying to adapt by making more tablets and diversifying into more profitable areas of technology, such as business software, data analytics and storage.

The rivalry between Dell and HP makes Blackstone's flirtation with Hurd a tantalizing twist.

HP widened its lead over Dell during Hurd's five-year reign, but the company parted with its former CEO under acrimonious terms in August 2010. Hurd resigned after facing allegations of sexual harassment against an HP contractor. HP found no evidence of harassment, but concluded that Hurd had filed inaccurate expense reports. Since Hurd's departure, HP has struggled and its stock price has been cut in half in a slide that has erased about $45 billion in shareholder wealth.

Hurd, 56, began working as president of business software maker Oracle Corp. shortly after leaving HP. He is given every indication that he is happy with his current job, which could lead to a promotion to succeed his close friend, Larry Ellison, as Oracle's CEO. Ellison, 68, hasn't set a timetable for stepping down. Analysts nevertheless see Hurd and Safra Catz, Oracle's chief financial officer, as the leading candidates to replace Ellison.

Oracle declined to comment Thursday. Blackstone didn't return phone calls.

Blackstone is only interested in bringing Hurd to Dell if it can't negotiate a deal on friendly terms, should it decide to pursue a bid, said the person familiar with the situation. The easier path would require Blackstone to win the cooperation and financial participation of Michael Dell, who is contributing about $4.5 billion in cash and stock to the deal that he worked out with Silver Lake. Under that agreement, Michael Dell would remain CEO of a company that would become privately held for the first time in 25 years.

Blackstone also has discussed the possibility of Southeastern Asset contributing its 8.4 percent stake in Dell to a competing bid, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited anonymous people familiar with the matter.

Other Blackstone maneuvers under consideration would focus on buying just a part of Dell. Blackstone might try to buy Dells' financial services division in a partnership with TPG, another buyout firm, or General Electric Co.'s lending arm, according to the people who talked to the Journal. Dell's financial services division lends money to customers who buy its products.

Another Dell shareholder, billionaire investor Carl Icahn, is pressing the board to forget about selling the company and paying a one-time dividend instead. In a letter to Dell's board earlier this month, Icahn proposed a dividend of $9 per share that would require Dell to take on billions of dollars in additional debt. Shareholders would profit further if Dell is able to engineer a turnaround that drives up the stock price.

Michael Dell believes he will be in a better position to overhaul the company if he no longer has to worry about Wall Street's focus on profit fluctuations from one quarter to the next.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dell-buyout-intrigue-heightens-deadline-looms-224118301--finance.html

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New assault report similar to Steubenville case

Joan Toribio carries the ball during a game last fall (Torrington High School/Facebook)

On paper, it sounds awfully familiar.

Two high school football players are accused of sexual assault. Their fellow students take to social media to defend the pair, taunting and blaming the victims. An athletic director brushes aside the allegations?along with separate hazing, felony robbery and assault charges against the school's athletes?as "not any different than any other community." Administrators are reluctant to immediately address the accusations and make it appear like a cover-up. The online hacktivist group Anonymous pledges to expose the truth and publicly shame those who engage in cyberbullying and victim-blaming.

Except this isn't Steubenville, Ohio?it's Torrington, Conn., where two 18-year-olds, Edgar Gonzalez and Joan Toribio, stand accused of second-degree sexual assault of two 13-year-old girls. The investigation has led to the arrest of a 17-year-old male for an alleged assault on one of the 13-year-old girls last fall, police say, and more arrests could be forthcoming.

Gonzalez and Toribio, who live in the same Torrington apartment complex, were arrested last month on the sexual assault charges stemming from separate incidents that occurred around the same time period in February, a Torrington police official said on Wednesday. Both pleaded not guilty.

The investigation is ongoing, Torrington police say, and more arrests could be forthcoming.

"It's very involved," Torrington Police Lt. Mike Emanuel told reporters on Wednesday. "It's very difficult to follow, even for us."

The victims and their alleged attackers knew one another, Emanuel said. "The reason that this is a sexual assault is that there is more than a three-year age difference. That's what we have to keep in mind."

When asked if the sexual contact was consensual, Emanuel said, "Statutorily it is not consensual."

Joan Toribio and Edgar Gonzalez (Torrington Police)

Gonzalez, who had already been facing felony robbery charges related to a March 2012 incident, is being held at a New Haven correction center. Toribio, who was charged with two counts of second-degree sexual assault, was released on $100,000 bond and is being electronically monitored.

Sealed by a Litchfield court, the case had been kept under wraps by school officials until this week, when the Register Citizen reported that "dozens of athletes and Torrington High School students, male and female," taunted the victims on Twitter:

Students flocked to social media in the days surrounding the arrests of Gonzalez and Toribio, with several students offering support for the two football players and others blaming the victims for causing the incident. References included calling a 13-year-old who hangs around with 18-year-olds a ?whore,? and claiming the victims ?destroyed? the lives of the players.

"Even if it was all his fault," Mary J. Ramirez, whose Twitter handle is @LoryyRamirez, wrote, "what was a 13 year old girl doing hanging around 18 year old guys[?]"

?I wanna know why there?s no punishment for young hoes,? Twitter user @asmedick wrote, according to the paper.

Torrington school officials said on Wednesday that they would investigate the apparent cyberbullying.

"We?re doing everything we can to provide the safety [the alleged victims] need in schools,? Kenneth Traub, Torrington's Board of Education chairman, said on Wednesday.

As was the case in Steubenville, Anonymous has gotten involved, launching "Operation Raider," a reference to the nickname of the Torrington High School football team.

?#OpRaider is the new #OpRollRedRoll," the group tweeted late Wednesday. "Torrington better take note of #Steubenville because they?re about to go on blast. #endrapeculture"

Toribio and Gonzalez on the field last fall (Torrington High School/Facebook)

High school football takes on elevated importance in Torrington, a small town in northwest Connecticut. "Like Steubenville," Doug Barry wrote on Jezebel.com, the case in Connecticut "hinges in large part on the seemingly disproportionate influence a school?s football program has on the surrounding community."

Despite the felony robbery charges, Gonzalez was allowed to play football last fall.

?I reeled the kid in after that, and he walked the line," Dan Dunaj, Torrington's former head football coach, told the Register Citizen. "As a coach I was doing something right.?

Dunaj resigned in December amid an ongoing investigation into a hazing incident involving four football players last fall.

"If you think there's some wild band of athletes that are wandering around, then I think you're mistaken," Torrington High School Athletic Director Mike McKenna told the Register Citizen. "If you look at crime statistics, these things happen everywhere and we're not any different than any other community."

In an editorial published on Thursday, the Register Citizen blasted "the posture of denial and defensiveness" Torrington school officials have taken in response to the case:

The first step in recovering from this is admitting you have a problem. And after reading the social media accounts of average, "good" students at Torrington High School, it's clear that Torrington students need an urgent education about blaming the victim, bullying and harassment, what "consent" means, why statutory rape is rape, period, and where football should stand in relation to their education and the rest of life. Let's hope that starts today.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/torrington-steubenville-rape-assault-victim-twitter-163530296.html

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Zags head into tournament with top seed

Gonzaga's Kelly Olynyk shoots during practice for a second-round game of the NCAA men's college basketball tournament, Wednesday, March 20, 2013, in Salt Lake City. Gonzaga is scheduled to play Southern University on Thursday. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Gonzaga's Kelly Olynyk shoots during practice for a second-round game of the NCAA men's college basketball tournament, Wednesday, March 20, 2013, in Salt Lake City. Gonzaga is scheduled to play Southern University on Thursday. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Southern University head coach Roman Banks walks across the court during practice for a second-round game of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Wednesday, March 20, 2013, in Salt Lake City. Southern University plays Gonzaga on Thursday. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Southern University Derick Beltran goes to the basket during practice for a second-round game of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Wednesday, March 20, 2013, in Salt Lake City. Southern University plays Gonzaga on Thursday. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Gonzaga players including Kelly Olynyk huddle following practice for a second-round game of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Wednesday, March 20, 2013, in Salt Lake City. Gonzaga is scheduled to play Southern University Thursday. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) ? Maybe it's the quirky name of the school, "Gonzaga." Or its pint-sized enrollment of 4,900. Or the fact that employees at one office in its hometown are so gaga over the 'Zags, they wore their hair long at work this week as a shout-out to the team's best player, flowing-tressed 7-footer Kelly Olynyk.

Whatever the reason for all the fun-spirited underdog love Gonzaga typically engenders this time of year, it's time to get over it.

Coach Mark Few's team left behind its little-team-that-could credentials long ago. As if to accentuate that point, this year, the 'Zags (31-2) come into the NCAA tournament with a big, fat '1' by their name ? top-seeded in the West, top-ranked in The Associated Press poll and top-heavy with expectations.

They open the tournament Thursday against 16th-seeded Southern (23-9), champions of the Southwestern Athletic Conference.

"We're just going to approach it like we did all those other games," Few said. "This entire year, we're 33 games in, and every game we've been the highest-rated team. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, is my motto."

Of course, it's accurate to say the success story produced by a school like Gonzaga ? a private, liberal arts, Jesuit institution in Spokane, Wash. ? is still something of an anomaly in a college landscape filled with behemoth universities, their multimillion-dollar budgets and the mega-conferences they play in.

But the Bulldogs, champions of the West Coast Conference, stack up against the best and have now for more than a decade.

Their 15-year string of trips to the NCAA tournament is surpassed only at Duke, Kansas and Michigan State ? a stretch so long that hardly anyone close to the program remembers anything else.

"I have a 13-year-old son whose favorite day in the whole world is Selection Sunday," Few said. "He likes it better than he does his own birthday."

So numbingly successful have the Zags been over the years that a different line of thinking has evolved ? a theory that resonates louder the closer you get to their home campus.

Maybe Gonzaga hasn't accomplished enough.

Since putting itself on the map in earnest with three straight Sweet 16 appearances from 1999-2001, Gonzaga has made it to the second weekend only twice. Four times since 2002, the Bulldogs have lost to a worse-seeded team.

In other words, the same unpredictability that helped make the tournament ? and Gonzaga ? what they are has also undercut this school on a handful of occasions. This year's group ? Olynyk, Kevin Pangos, Elias Harris, David Stockton and the rest ? has a chance to do what Bulldog greats Adam Morrison, Casey Calvary, Ronny Turiaf and Stockton's father, Hall of Famer John Stockton, could not: Take little Gonzaga to the Final Four.

Earlier this week, Few said he'd sleep great if all these matchups were best-of-5 affairs. But they're not. And so, it's tiny Southern ? enrollment 6,900 out of Baton Rouge, La. ? trying to become the first No. 16 to upset a No. 1, while Gonzaga tries to remember what it felt like to be that sort of underdog.

"We've had some difficult matchups in the first round when we've been a 7 to a 10, they've sent us across the country in someone's back yard," Few said. "I think we approached it with a chip on our shoulder and went out there and were the aggressive team. We've been talking a lot about doing the same thing with this group."

Led in scoring by senior Derick Beltran (15.9 points a game), the Jaguars saw the symmetry in it all when their name came up opposite Gonzaga's on Selection Sunday.

"I've been using these guys all year long as an example to building a program," coach Roman Banks said about Gonzaga. "I think they're a true example of what we're trying to do at Southern University."

Beltran said Banks reminds his players of a time, 20-30 years ago, when coach Ben Jobe had Southern etched as a perennial fixture in the March Madness bracket and nobody had ever heard of Gonzaga.

"Tables are turned now," Beltran said.

Still, this has already been a heck of a comeback story for Southern.

Four years ago, its program nearly got wiped out after an academic scandal brought the NCAA to campus and the program was hit with scholarship reductions and a postseason ban.

On opening night in 2010, the Jaguars fell 117-72 to Gonzaga, the first of 24 losses that season.

"It got ugly fast," said senior Madut Bol ? yes, the son of the late 7-foot-7 center, Manute.

It was 2? years ago, but that now seems like much longer.

"I did want to leave here, but something in me just said, 'Stick it out,'" Bol said. "A new coach came in. We saw how hard he worked us. I thought something good could happen."

Southern's ability to make history, however, will depend on its ability to contain Olynyk, the junior from British Columbia, who averages 17.5 points and 7.2 rebounds and is widely regarded as one of the top five players in the country.

He has never considered himself a basketball historian ? and doesn't remember a time when Gonzaga was anything other than what it is today: A top-notch program with a virtually locked-in date in the tournament.

"I didn't know Gonzaga from Duke, really, when I was growing up," Olynyk said. "But they had a decade of excellence and when they were recruiting us, we all became versed in it."

Now, they've been given a chance to add to it in a very significant way.

"We believe in ourselves and it feels great to be the No. 1 seed," Pagnos said. "But we believe we belong and there is no pressure. We're just going to go play."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-03-20-BKC-NCAA-Southern-Gonzaga/id-5b5544d707cc47229e75c7a0f05e893d

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Don't hate! Nicki Minaj is awesome on 'Idol'

By Craig Berman, TODAY contributor

Michael Becker / Fox

New "Idol" judge Nicki Minaj is adding some much needed spice to the singing competition.

Opinion: When "American Idol" judge Nicki Minaj is unhappy, ?she's not afraid to show it. Just last week, after it was revealed that?contestant Curtis Finch Jr. was in danger of being sent packing,?she threatened, "If you go home, I?m going home." And when the hopeful got the boot, Nicki left the stage.

Her exit was great news for the vocal portion of the Internet who would've been thrilled had she carried out her plan and stayed away for good.

But she didn?t, and thank the reality TV gods for that. Though the Nicki haters may be muting their sets whenever she opens her mouth, she?s the best thing to happen to ?Idol? in ages.

The "Starships" singer is clearly polarizing. She says wacky things. She shows up late sometimes and -- as viewers saw last week -- departs early when it suits her. There are some nights when she seems to be paying limited attention.

And who among us can turn away from that action?

Judge drama essential
As judge Randy Jackson reminds us every time he can?t think of anything else to say, "American Idol" is a singing competition. It?s a high-end talent show, the likes of which go on in every small town in the world and are available 24 hours a day to anyone with a basic cable TV package. Particularly given the increasing competition in the marketplace, ?Idol? needs more than its brand name and Ryan Seacrest?s smiling face to avoid being tossed off its perch and lumped in with every other network?s copycat effort.

?Idol? found its secret right away: drama from the judges. Simon Cowell was the original bad boy who people thought they hated but secretly loved. For all the faux outrage over all the barbs he's thrown to guileless teenagers with outsized dreams, he guaranteed that every week, ?Idol? would have something worth watching other than forgettable vocalists singing disco tunes.

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Ever since he decided to leave the show for ?X Factor? (and how?s that working out for him?), "Idol" has drifted into dullness and safety, relying heavily on the idea that viewers in the habit of DVRing the show will keep watching on autopilot.

Replacing Simon and the rest of the crew (aside from Randy, who?s apparently indestructible) with Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler was a great way to add buzz, and there was always the chance that Steven would do something wacky like hit on a teenage female contestant or show up in drag. But most weeks, viewers saw average contestants given below-average and unmemorable feedback from the judges, and sitting through the commercial-padded episodes got harder and harder.

Newbies to the rescue
The show needed a reboot, and it?s gotten one. Keith Urban has been outstanding in his opening season, offering encouragement, advice and gentle but firm criticism as warranted. Mariah Carey provides the tight outfits and forgettable prose. Randy is also back to remind people that this is technically the same show that saw Kelly Clarkson burst from obscurity to stardom in its first season.

But Nicki is the key. She?s the one person on the show who?s impossible to ignore because she?s impossible to predict. You literally have no idea what you're getting when you turn on the TV every Wednesday and Thursday. She might use an upper-crust British accent in the night?s commentary, or she might cause the Fox censor to work overtime. She might undress all the men with both her eyes and her feedback, or tell her favorite woman that she reminds her of pancakes with syrup and butter. It?s like combining a talent show with performance art.

She?s the first judge since Simon whose comments are impossible to ignore, and she?s under no pressure to conform. She?s a top-selling artist who?s only going to gain credibility among her fans if she?s controversial. She has a lot of rope, and she knows it.

What?s with the kindness?
Surprisingly, where she?s not like Simon is in her evilness.

Simon was, let?s face it, a jerk. Many thought that given her status and reputation in hip-hop, Nicki would have more to gain by being cutting than being nice. She fed into that soon after taking the job, noting that she didn?t plan to advance people just because of their touching backstories.

She hasn?t done that. If Nicki doesn?t like something, she?ll say so, but there?s no likening a bad performance to a lounge act on a sinking cruise ship, or whatever simile Simon is beating into the ground these days. She?ll offer useful ideas when she has them, and she?ll passionately urge those she doesn?t like to mend their evil ways.

Put bluntly, Nicki makes "Idol" worth watching again.

Has Minaj made the season more interesting? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page!

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Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2013/03/20/17375414-dont-hate-nicki-minaj-is-awesome-on-american-idol?lite

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NFL passes helmet rule, ends tuck rule

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, right, laughs along with Rich McKay, Atlanta Falcons president and CEO and co-chairman of the competition committee, during a news conference at the annual NFL football meetings at the Arizona Biltmore, Wednesday, March 20, 2013, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, right, laughs along with Rich McKay, Atlanta Falcons president and CEO and co-chairman of the competition committee, during a news conference at the annual NFL football meetings at the Arizona Biltmore, Wednesday, March 20, 2013, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Dan Rooney walks out after a morning session at the annual NFL football meetings at the Arizona Biltmore, Tuesday, March 19, 2013, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

NFL Commissioner Roger Gooderll, left, walks with Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, far right, and Dolphins CEO Mike Dee during the annual NFL footbal meetings at the Arizona Biltmore, Tuesday, March 19, 2013, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones walks out after the morning owners' session at the NFL football annual meetings, Tuesday, March 19, 2013, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Rich McKay, right, President and CEO of the Atlanta Falcons and co-chairman of the NFL competition committee, speaks on the new rule changes voted on by NFL owners, as NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, left, and St. Louis Rams head coach Jeff Fisher, the other co-chairman of the NFL competition committee, both listen in at the annual NFL football meetings at the Arizona Biltmore, Wednesday, March 20, 2013, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

PHOENIX (AP) ? If it was good enough for football's greatest running back, NFL owners figure, it should work in the 21st century.

Team owners passed a player safety rule Wednesday barring ball carriers from using the crown of their helmets to make forcible contact with a defender in the open field. Pittsburgh Steelers President Art Rooney put the change succinctly.

"Jim Brown never lowered his head," he said with a smile. "It can be done."

And according to the rules, it must be done beginning this season.

The second significant player safety rule passed this week to help protect defensive players came with much debate. Several coaches and team executives expressed concern about officiating the new rule, but Commissioner Roger Goodell championed it and it passed 31-1. Cincinnati voted no.

On Tuesday, the league took the peel-back block out of the game.

The changes were the latest involving safety, and head injuries in particular, with the issue receiving heightened attention amid hundreds of lawsuits filed by former players claiming that the NFL did not do enough to prevent concussions in years past. League officials have defended the NFL's record and did so again on Wednesday.

"I have always thought that player safety has been at the forefront of our discussion for a long, long time," said Atlanta Falcons President Rich McKay, co-chairman of the competition committee that recommends rule changes. "The game has gotten safer over time. Where we have really focused is on the big hits, the open field hits and hits where players truly can't defend themselves. In this step that we are taking we are trying to protect the player from himself with respect to this rule."

The tuck rule, one of the most criticized in pro football, was eliminated. Now, if a quarterback loses control of the ball before he has fully protected it after opting not to throw, it is a fumble.

The Steelers were the only team to vote against getting rid of the tuck rule. New England and Washington abstained.

Peel-back blocks had been legal inside the tackle box, but now players can't turn back toward their goal line and block an opponent low from behind anywhere on the field.

Video review now will be allowed when a coach challenges a play that he is not allowed to. But the coach will be penalized or lose a timeout, depending on when he threw the challenge flag.

That change stems from Houston's Thanksgiving victory over Detroit in which Lions coach Jim Schwartz challenged a touchdown run by the Texans' Justin Forsett. Although officials clearly missed Forsett being down by contact before breaking free on the 81-yard run, when Schwartz threw the red flag on a scoring play that automatically is reviewed, the referee could not go to replay.

That loophole has been eliminated.

Goodell was eager to get approved the competition committee's proposal to outlaw use of the crown of the helmet by ball carriers, and there was talk the vote would be tabled until May if the rule change didn't have enough support.

But after watching videos of the play that clearly showed the differences in legal and illegal moves by ball carriers, the owners voted yes ? and then applauded the decision, something Rams coach Jeff Fisher said is "rare."

"We had discussions with the players association and the players themselves, the coaches' subcommittee," said Fisher, co-chairman of the competition committee. "A lot of people talked to us about this rule and how to roll it out in our game."

The penalty will be 15 yards from the spot of the foul, and if the offensive and defensive players both lower their heads and use the crown of the helmet to make contact, each will be penalized.

"It'll certainly make our runners aware of what we expect relative to use of the helmet," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said. "One of the questions I ask a lot is who gains from this, offense or defense? And it's a toss-up as to which side of the ball has the advantage on this rule, if any. The main thing is it's pro-health and safety, and that's the big thing."

The owners discussed simply using fines on ball carriers to eliminate the tactic, but instead voted to make the rule change.

Goodell announced that the Pro Bowl will be held in Honolulu on Jan. 26, the Sunday before the Super Bowl. The commissioner has considered scrapping the all-star game, but was satisfied with the level of performance in this year's matchup, won 62-25 by the NFC.

He added that the system for choosing the players won't change, but some consideration has been given to having team captains select their rosters, rather than an AFC vs. NFC format.

The Rooney Rule that requires every team to interview at least one minority candidate when there is a coaching or general manager opening was discussed at length. This year, with eight coaching vacancies and seven for GMs, no minority candidates was hired.

Goodell said he was disappointed in those results and would like to see more flexibility when teams ask to interview candidates whose clubs still are playing.

"One of the major focuses we've had was that we are going to reinstate the symposium program that we've had in the past," Goodell said. "That was primarily focused on coaches but we are likely to have some potential GM candidates also attend with the coaches."

The owners also approved tight ends and H-backs wearing numbers between 40 and 49. Previously, they were supposed to have numbers in the 80s.

__

AP Sports Writer Bob Baum contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-03-20-FBN-NFL-Meetings/id-94064061252a4a4b9bed980a3834eae9

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Map of 'shortcuts' between all human genes

Mar. 18, 2013 ? Some diseases are caused by single gene mutations. Current techniques for identifying the disease-causing gene in a patient produce hundreds of potential gene candidates, making it difficult for scientists to pinpoint the single causative gene. Now, a team of researchers led by Rockefeller University scientists have created a map of gene "shortcuts" to simplify the hunt for disease-causing genes.

The investigation, spearheaded by Yuval Itan, a postdoctoral fellow in the St. Giles Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases, has led to the creation of what he calls the human gene connectome, the full set of distances, routes (the genes on the way), and degrees of separation, between any two human genes. Itan, a computational biologist, says the computer program he developed to generate the connectome uses the same principles that GPS navigation devices use to plan a trip between two locations. The research is reported in the online early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"High throughput genome sequencing technologies generate a plethora of data, which can take months to search through," says Itan. "We believe the human gene connectome will provide a shortcut in the search for disease-causing mutations in monogenic diseases."

Itan and his colleagues, including researchers from the Necker Hospital for Sick Children, the Pasteur Institute in Paris, and Ben-Gurion University in Israel, designed applications for the use of the human gene connectome. They began with a gene called TLR3, which is important for resistance to herpes simplex encephalitis, a life-threatening infection from the herpes virus that can cause significant brain damage in genetically susceptible children. Researchers in the St. Giles lab, headed by Jean-Laurent Casanova, previously showed that children with HSE have mutations in TLR3 or in genes that are closely functionally related to TLR3. In other words, these genes are located at a short biological distance from TLR3. As a result, novel herpes simplex encephalitis-causing genes are also expected to have a short biological distance from TLR3.

To test how well the human gene connectome could predict a disease-causing gene, the researchers sequenced exomes -- all DNA of the genome that is coding for proteins -- of two patients recently shown to carry mutations of a separate gene, TBK1.

"Each patient's exome contained hundreds of genes with potentially morbid mutations," says Itan. "The challenge was to detect the single disease-causing gene." After sorting the genes by their predicted biological proximity to TLR3, Itan and his colleagues found TBK1 at the top of the list of genes in both patients. The researchers also used the TLR3 connectome -- the set of all human genes sorted by their predicted distance from TLR3 -- to successfully predict two other genes, EFGR and SRC, as part of the TLR3 pathway before they were experimentally validated, and applied other gene connectomes to detect Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and sensorineural hearing loss disease causing genes.

"The human gene connectome is, to the best of our knowledge, the only currently available prediction of the specific route and distance between any two human genes of interest, making it ideal to solve the needle in the haystack problem of detecting the single disease causing gene in a large set of potentially fatal genes," says Itan. "This can now be performed by prioritizing any number of genes by their biological distance from genes that are already known to cause the disease.

"Approaches based on the human gene connectome have the potential to significantly increase the discovery of disease-causing genes for diseases that are genetically understood in some patients as well as for those that are not well studied. The human gene connectome should also progress the general field of human genetics by predicting the nature of unknown genetic mechanisms."

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Journal Reference:

1. Yuval Itan, Shen-Ying Zhang, Guillaume Vogt, Avinash Abhyankar, Melina Herman, Patrick Nitschke, Dror Fried, Lluis Quintana-Murci, Laurent Abel, and Jean-Laurent Casanova. The human gene connectome as a map of short cuts for morbid allele discovery. PNAS, March 18, 2013 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1218167110

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/genes/~3/tlBsWkX1m-o/130318151639.htm

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Mississippi forbids local laws on nutrition, super-size drinks

By Emily Le Coz

JACKSON, Mississippi (Reuters) - Mississippi, the state with the highest rate of obesity, has banned its cities and counties from trying to stop restaurants from selling super-sized soft drinks or requiring them to post nutritional information about meals.

The move came a week after a judge blocked an effort by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to prohibit vending machines, movie theaters and retailers from selling single-serving sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces (473 ml), an effort that was intended to tackle the public health problems caused by rising rates of obesity.

Mississippi's new law, signed by Governor Phil Bryant on Monday, also prohibits municipalities from banning toys in fast-food meals, saying that only the state can regulate nutrition.

"It is simply not the role of government to micro-regulate citizens' dietary decisions," Bryant said in a statement after signing the measure. "The responsibility for one's personal health depends on individual choices about a proper diet and appropriate exercise."

Although no local regulations had been passed in the state, the law was seen as a preemptive measure against the type of ban that Bloomberg proposed before a court ruled it had too many loopholes and would be difficult to enforce.

Supporters of Mississippi's new law said food-and-beverage regulations should be made at the state level to eliminate confusion and save food businesses from having to navigate a patchwork of local laws.

"The key words are consistency and uniformity," said Mike Cashion, executive director of the Mississippi Hospitality and Restaurant Association, which has been one of the law's strongest advocates.

Mississippi has the highest rate of obesity of any U.S. state, with 34.9 percent of its residents weighing in at 30 pounds or more above their ideal weight, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. It is unlikely the state will tackle its obesity problem through food regulations, said Sandra Shelson, executive director of the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi.

She noted that Mississippi has no statewide regulations on smoking in public places, though several dozen local municipalities have passed such laws.

"It's never a good idea to take away the control of some of the local governments," Shelson said. "If you have a community that wants to make itself healthier, the state shouldn't be in the business of trying to preclude it from making changes that'd result in making it a healthier place."

(Editing by Scott Malone and Steve Orlofsdky)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mississippi-forbids-local-laws-nutrition-super-size-drinks-210614667--sector.html

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