Ecuador's envoy heads to Quito for Assange talks

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Ill. prosecutors refuse to defend gay marriage ban

(AP) ? Twenty-five Illinois couples were prepared for a long legal fight when they joined lawsuits challenging the state's ban on gay marriage. Turns out they won't get one ? at least not from the attorneys who would normally be responsible for defending the state's laws.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez have refused to defend the 16-year-old ban, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman, saying it violates the state constitution's equal protection clause.

The decision has raised eyebrows among some legal experts who believe prosecutors are legally bound to defend Illinois law, and sets up a scenario where a judge could quickly strike down the marriage statute. Supporters of the ban say it's unconscionable that there might be nobody in court to defend it, and some are strategizing over how to intervene.

"I took an oath when I was sworn in to defend the constitution of the state of Illinois and I believe that's what I'm doing," Alvarez said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I'm not going to defend something I believe is in violation of the constitution."

Madigan, who did not respond to a request for comment, plans to file arguments next week in support of the lawsuits, which could be consolidated into one case.

The decision not to defend a state law is unusual, experts said, but not entirely without precedent. Prosecutors in other states have refused to defend other controversial laws, including in Nebraska, where the attorney general refused to defend that state's abortion screening law after a judge temporarily blocked it, because he felt it ultimately would be found unconstitutional.

The move, sure to thrust Illinois into the national spotlight as federal and other state courts wrestle with the gay marriage issue, was greeted with enthusiasm by couples involved in the lawsuits.

The Obama administration last year announced it would not defend the federal Defense of Marriage Act, though the U.S. House of Representatives' Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group took up the defense. A federal appeals court in California recently declined to reconsider its decision to strike down that state's ban on gay marriage, a case that could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Currently, the District of Columbia and seven states ? Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont ? have legalized gay marriage. Voters in Washington state will decide whether to overturn a new law legalizing gay marriage, which was blocked from taking effect after opponents got enough signatures to put a referendum on the ballot.

"I was thrilled and excited," said Liz Matos, 41, who hopes to marry her partner of 15 years, Tanya Lazaro, with whom she has two young daughters. She said they considered entering into a civil union, legalized in Illinois last year, but decided it "didn't truly represent our relationship and what we mean to each other. We still felt that we deserved more."

The American Civil Liberties Union and New York-based Lambda Legal filed separate lawsuits last month against Cook County Clerk David Orr, a supporter of gay marriage whose office is responsible for issuing marriage licenses in the county, which includes the city of Chicago.

The lawsuits were filed on behalf of the 25 couples, some of them from outside Cook County, but all of whom had applied for marriage licenses there and been denied. The suit closely followed the formal endorsement of same-sex marriage by President Barack Obama. Democratic Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn also recently stepped up his public support, though legislative moves to approve gay marriage remain stalled in the General Assembly.

Alvarez said it's her job to represent Orr ? and they both agreed with the plaintiffs.

Peter Breen, executive director of the Thomas More Society, a private bar association that represents the Catholic Church, said the group "will be seeking relief from the court," though he didn't say exactly what that would be. Some experts have suggested the society could seek the right to defend the ban, though that's considered a long shot.

"You can't just say you feel it's unconstitutional," said Breen. "This ... puts people of the state of Illinois in a difficult place because their elected representatives are not defending their interests. If there is no argument or disagreement, then you'd really have a hollow judgment."

David Erickson, a former prosecutor and state appellate judge who now teaches at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, said it also potentially puts a private bar association in the position of being demonized for stepping forward to defend a state law. Erickson believes the law is unconstitutional but said Breen is right.

"Show me where it says any elected official, especially a prosecutor, can say, 'I won't defend law passed by a legislative body that is my coequal,'" Erickson said. "Only one body can say it's unconstitutional and that's the (Illinois) Supreme Court."

But fellow Kent College professor Douglas Godfrey said Alvarez and Madigan have a professional responsibility to ensure claims have merit, whether they're filing a lawsuit or defending one, and "in essence ... said we don't think Illinois' law will stand muster."

John Knight, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Project of the ACLU of Illinois, said plaintiffs will ask the judge to rule on Illinois' law based on their arguments and those of Madigan and Alvarez.

Lambda Legal's marriage project director, Camilla Taylor, said she never has had a case in which the defendants agreed with her.

It "reflects the fact that we're at a tipping point now ... (because) our government finds these laws indefensible," she said. She went on to add, "It comes at a time when a form of discrimination against a class of people in our society is so shameful and reprehensible that it's incapable of defense."

Associated Press

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After the Bubble: Falling Home Values and Affordable Housing in ...

Beijing | 06/20/2012 1:34pm |
Raillan Brooks | Next American City

News of shrinking housing values comes amid worries that the Chinese housing and construction bubble is slowly deflating. Credit: Flickr user Ernie

On Monday, Bloomberg reported that 54 of 70 cities tracked by the Chinese government saw home values plummet by as much as 14 percent, a result of central planning to keep housing costs in step with China?s cooling economy.

The news comes amid worries that the Chinese housing and construction bubble is slowly deflating, prompting concern that the first national economy to emerge from the recession might see the same housing bust the rest of the world saw after all.

Missing from the conversation is an appraisal of falling home values? consequences for affordable housing policies in China. Once entirely shielded from market forces, housing has slowly commercialized alongside China?s increasingly market-driven economy.

A series of reforms that began in 1978 has exposed more and more housing in China to market vicissitudes. Once distributed strictly through a system known as danwei, in which employers were responsible for the provision of accommodation for their workers, housing has largely become a commercial commodity. By 2007, with homeownership initiatives that included compulsory home-buying saving programs and commercial housing subsidies, homeownership in Chinese cities had risen to 82.3 percent.

But research suggests that the benefits of housing reform are uneven across economic and social lines. A 2006 study in the Journal of Urban Planning Development found that housing reform still largely favored the monied elite when housing costs took off after deregulation, putting much commercial real estate out of reach for China?s rapidly expanding middle class.

?There are two housing markets in China,? says Heshuang Zeng, an urban development researcher at EMBARQ and writer for TheCityFix, a Next American City partner website. ?One is the commercial housing market. The other is the affordable housing market. There is a very weak linkage between the two.?

Due to speculative real estate development, Zeng says housing markets are becoming increasingly stratified, leaving some Chinese city dwellers in a bind. ?Median income people cannot afford housing available in the commercial market, but they do not qualify for public housing, either.?

With urban housing prices falling in many Chinese urban centers, the government is leaning on affordable housing construction to buoy the real estate market. One such project, the construction of 36 million units nationwide slated for completion in 2015 (a project expected to run up a tab of $800 billion), is facing increased scrutiny over whether it will live up to the government?s claims that it will not only breathe new life into the housing market, but also buttress the raw material industries tied to housing construction: Steel, cement and copper, among others. Social housing floor space is expected to grow between 30 and 40 percent this year, According to an April report in Businessweek.

As Chinese officials recalibrate housing policy in the face of changes in the housing market, questions are arising as to what, exactly, is thought of as ?affordable housing.? In a comment to Reuters in February, GK Dragonomics Research Manager Rosealea Yao points out that, ?There?s a big difference between government definitions and what a normal person would consider an ?affordable house?.?

At the moment, no standard exists.

Tags: china, affordable housing, beijing, housing bubble, deregulation, housing reform, social housing, central planning

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New glasses will let you see emotions

Evolution has tailored the human eye for detecting red, green, blue and yellow in a person's skin, which reveals areas where that person's blood is oxygenated, deoxygenated, pooled below the surface or drained. We subconsciously read these skin color cues to perceive each other's emotions and states of health. Rosy cheeks can suggest good health, for example, while a yellowish hue hints at fear.

Now, researchers have created new glasses, called O2Amps, which they say amplify the wearer's perception of blood physiology, augmenting millions of years of eye evolution.

"Our eyes have been optimized to sense spectral changes in skin color," said Mark Changizi, an evolutionary anthropologist and director of human cognition at 2AI Labs in Boise, Idaho. "It turns out you can do even better, because other parts of the spectrum that we perceive in skin are just noise (they don't provide useful information). If you get rid of the noise, you're amplifying the signal." [ Red-Green & Blue-Yellow: The Stunning Colors You Can't See ]

Based on Changizi's color perception research, he and his colleagues have designed three versions of O2Amps, which are currently being sold to medical distributors and will hit wider markets in 2013.

Each of the three designs filters light in a different way, for a specific purpose: "Vein-finders" increase visibility of red, oxygenated blood by heightening the contrast with green, deoxygenated blood, in order to help nurses and clinicians quickly locate a patient's veins. "Hemo-finders" exaggerate the color difference between blue-toned skin regions where blood is pooled and yellowish regions drained of blood, giving people a "zombie appearance," Changizi said. Those are intended for use by paramedics and other emergency personnel.

The third kind, "health-monitors," enhance the wearer's perception of contrasts between red and green and between yellow and blue skin. These glasses will be used by doctors, who cite skin color when making about 15 percent of their diagnoses, but they'll also enable people in general to more easily detect health and emotional cues in those around them, by "enhancing the natural health-sense we evolved," Changizi, author of "The Vision Revolution" (BenBella Books, 2009), told Life's Little Mysteries.

"If you're angry, you get red. When you're showing weakness, the opposite is true ? your blood becomes deoxygenated and your skin appears greener," he said. "Yellow is associated with fear because the blood gets pulled out of your extremities and flows into your organs. The opposite of being yellow with fear is being blue, which your skin exhibits when you're sedate. These are the kinds of things that are being signaled with these color signals. And whereas muscular facial expression signals can be faked, it's harder to fake actually being red in the face with anger, or feeling weak."

Expect to see these "mood-ring" sunglasses in stores sometime next year. "We're in conversations with Maui Jim, Luxottica (which owns Oakley) and other companies," Changizi said. "Color enhancement is something these companies are already interested in. Well, color vision evolved among primates to help us understand emotions and signals in skin. Now that we know what color vision is for, we can design eyewear specifically for it."

Follow Natalie Wolchover on Twitter @ nattyover. Follow Life's Little Mysteries on Twitter @ llmysteries. We're also on Facebook & Google+.

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PFT: Jacobs repays kid who emptied piggy bank

136320090_crop_exactGetty Images

Whenever a player under contract holds out, plenty of fans argue that the player is doing something wrong. ?In comparison to the men who have acquired the wealth and power to own NFL teams, perhaps the player is doing something right.

After years of believing that players must honor the contracts to which they?ve applied their names, I?m ready to adopt/borrow/steal a theory Ross Tucker offered up last week on PFT Live. ?(Ross also has reduced his thoughts on the subject to writing in his latest column for SportsUSAMedia.com. ?Providing that link makes me feel somewhat less guilty about adopting/borrowing/stealing his idea.)

A holdout, while technically a violation of the player?s contract, represents a shrewd and aggressive business move ? as long as the player is good enough to get the team?s attention via his absence. ?The only real leverage a player ever has comes from withholding services, and the fact that a player is under contract doesn?t require him to provide those services.

If he chooses to breach that contract, the team has remedies, from fines to bonus forfeiture to other rights under the labor deal and the individual player contract. ?But the team ultimately can?t force the player to do the one thing the team wants the player to do most: ?show up and play.

Twice in the past two years, an aggressive holdout from a high-profile player under contract got the player paid handsomely. ?In 2011, Titans running back Chris Johnson did it. ?The year before, it was Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis.

This year, it could be Revis all over again. ?And Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew. ?And possibly plenty of young players who believe that the league?s ability to avoid paying a bunch of money to unproven rookies under the new CBA means that the players who prove themselves should be financially rewarded.

Taking a stand to get what they want is no different than what the folks who have acquired the wealth to own football teams (or their parents, or their grandparents) have done plenty of times. ?Otherwise, they (or their parents, or their grandparents) never would have acquired that kind of wealth.

So Godspeed, MJD, Darrelle Revis, and anyone else who ever chooses to stay away in order to get more of what the owners already have. ?As long as you?re willing to face the potential consequences of holding out, we say, ?Giddyup.?

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Ai Weiwei warned not to attend own court case

Andy Wong / AP

Ai Weiwei, second from left, stopped by a plain clothes policeman while he argues with another policeman, foreground, outside his home in Beijing on Wednesday.

By Ed Flanagan, NBC News

BEIJING ? While Ai Weiwei didn?t get his day in court Wednesday, he did get his case heard.

The Chinese artist and social activist was noticeably absent from opening arguments at a Beijing courtroom after he was warned off by police. Instead, Ai, 54, stayed home at his studio while his wife, Lu Qing, represented their design company, Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd., with a team of lawyers.

Ai and his wife are challenging a ruling by the tax office that rejected their appeal against a steep fine imposed for alleged tax evasion, a charge roundly rejected as false and trumped up by Ai and his supporters.


NBC News spoke to Ai Weiwei by phone late Wednesday afternoon, but he could not comment on how legal proceedings had gone.

The government previously ordered Ai?s company to pay a staggering 15 million yuan ($2.4 million) in alleged back taxes and additional fines. Surprisingly, Ai raised the money needed to pay an 8.45 million yuan ($1.3 million) bond needed to contest the tax charges through donations and contributions from around 30,000 supporters after he called for assistance through social media, a favored tool of his and other activists in China.

Stunts like these as well as his pokes at authority ? see the photo he posted yesterday on Twitter sporting a too-tight Chinese police uniform ? anger authorities who view Ai as a troublemaker.?

In April 2011, Ai was detained without charge during a national roundup of activists and dissidents following the many pro-democracy uprisings in the Middle East.

It was only after his 81-day detention that tax-evasion charges against Ai and his company were made, lending credence to claims made by human rights watchers and Ai supporters that the move was retaliation by the government.

The case against Ai has been shrouded in secrecy due to the government?s unwillingness, or inability, to reveal any original tax documents as evidence of tax evasion they purport to have.

Sharron Lovell / Polaris

Click to see a slideshow of photos of projects done by the Chinese artist and activist Ai Wei Wei.

A hearing held last July during which the government?s evidence would ostensibly have been revealed was closed and the company?s lawyers were barred from attending, a decision Ai?s lawyers claim was illegal.

It is a sensitive time politically in China as President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao are poised to step down later this year. Despite the political drama swirling around the fleeing of dissident Chen Guangcheng to the United States and the ongoing Bo Xilai scandal, Beijing desperately wants to make the transition peaceful and is doing everything possible this year to mitigate sensitive stories.

Yet, as has sometimes proven the case when it comes to Ai, attempts to muzzle or contain him can backfire.

While Beijing police have discouraged local dissidents from going to the courthouse to support Ai, security was said to be intense around the court with a ring of police cars around it and officers telling foreign press to stay away as well. Still, supporters of Ai were seen outside holding small signs that said ?Ai Weiwei, we love you? and ?No justice without a fight.?

Meanwhile, the detention of Ai?s legal consultant, Liu Xiaoyuan, by security forces Tuesday outraged Ai, who announced it on Twitter and called for Liu?s immediate release. Ai told NBC News that Liu?s phone had been turned off and that he had been ?taken away to the countryside for some sort of treatment by the police.?

Additionally, Ai has also been using Twitter to call attention to the heavy police presence outside his home. He pointed to a bust up at his home yesterday when someone in his studio took a photo of what Ai described as ?30-40 police cars.? Ai alleges that police rushed the photographer to grab the camera, causing some minor scratches and bruises which were tweeted here.

As part of his conditional release late last year, Ai?s travel rights were taken away and he was told to refrain from criticism of the government through social media.

Friday was supposed to be the day those restrictions would be lifted, but in lieu of Ai?s continued defiance, it is hard to believe local authorities won?t extend these restraints in order to rein him in.?

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

?

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Utility Company Asks Customers to Conserve Energy

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Indiana?s NewsCenter) - The Northeastern Rural Electric Membership Corp. asks customers to conserve energy.

The warmer it gets outside the more strain is put on energy grids. This has caused Northeastern REMC to issue a peak demand alert to decrease some of the usage.

The utility company serves parts of six counties, including Allen, Noble, Huntington, Wabash and a good portion of Whitley County.

Northeastern REMC serves about 27,000 homes and businesses. They are asking customers to hold off on non-essential usage such as running dishwashers between the peak demand hours of 5 and 8 p.m.

They are not asking customers to turn off the air conditioning, but to do what they can to conserve energy during those peak hours.

Indiana Michigan Power is also not asking customers to cut back, but say conservation is never a bad idea. They are postponing any maintenance until after the heat wave passes.

I&M set a record for usage last July 21 during the two to three weeks of 90 degree weather. Therefore, while this stretch has been hot, it has not been a record.

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Safer grilling methods might cut cancer risk

(HealthDay News) -- A few simple changes in how people grill outdoors, such as avoiding too much beef or processed meats and not charring foods, can aid in cancer prevention, according to an expert.

"Two aspects of the traditional American cookout, what you grill and how you grill it, can potentially raise cancer risk," Alice Bender, a dietitian with the American Institute for Cancer Research, said in an institute news release. "Diets that feature big portions of red and processed meat have been shown to make colorectal cancer more likely. Evidence that grilling itself is a risk factor is less strong, but it only makes sense to take some easy cancer-protective precautions," she added.

One way to help prevent cancer is to avoid overcooking foods on the grill, Bender said. Charring, she explained, results in the formation of cancer-causing compounds called heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

Bender offered four other ways to grill more safely:

Add color (but not red meat). By cutting back on red meat and grilling a wider variety of colorful fruits and vegetables, people will increase their intake of phytochemicals. These naturally occurring compounds found in plants offer protection against cancer, Bender said. She suggested grilling vegetables like asparagus, onions, mushrooms, zucchini, eggplant and corn on the cob, which can be grilled whole, in chunks or in a basket. When grilling fruits, she noted, brush them with olive oil so they won't stick. Bender added that fruits should be grilled a day or two before they are completely ripe so they retain their texture.

Mix it up. Opt for chicken or fish instead of hamburgers or hotdogs.

Marinate. Marinating meat reduces the formation of HCAs, Bender advised. Marinating meats in seasoned vinegar or lemon juice for even just 30 minutes can be beneficial, she noted.

Pre-cook (partially). Pre-cooking meat will reduce the amount of time it spends exposed to high heat on the grill and reduce the formation of HCAs. Bender cautioned that partially pre-cooked meats should be transferred from the kitchen to the grill right away.

Cook slowly. By grilling meats slowly at a lower heat, they are less likely to burn or char. Bender said this will reduce the amount of HCAs and PAHs that end up on people's plates.

Bender added that visible fat should be trimmed off meats to avoid high flames or flare-ups, and that any charred portions of meat should also be cut off.

More information

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has more about grilling safety.

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#askpolak at Twitter town hall

Published: June 18, 2012 4:00 PM
Updated: June 18, 2012 4:31 PM

Langley MLA Mary Polak will host a university-themed Twitter town hall on Wednesday, June 20 from 3:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.

The aim is to engage with Langley residents and students and encourage them to share their feedback on post-secondary education in B.C.

The town hall will explore how post-secondary system can maximize skills and opportunities for the next generation.

Polak continues to lead the way in engaging local residents via social media, including being named the ninth most influential politician on Twitter by Hill & Knowlton Strategies.

"I value connecting and engaging with Langley residents via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to hear local concerns," Polak said.

To participate, individuals are encouraged to ask questions via #askpolak on Twitter before or during the Twitter Town Hall.

For more information visit Mary Polak?s website at: http://www.marypolak.bc.ca.

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