WACO, Texas - Recasting what would keep her campaign alive, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s advisers said Friday that if rival Barack Obama loses any of Tuesday’s four presidential primaries it would show Democrats are having second thoughts about him.In an e-mail and conference call to reporters, Clinton’s campaign sought to raise the stakes for the Illinois senator in next week’s primaries and also laid the groundwork to keep her campaign alive if the results are disappointing.

Obama heads into Tuesday’s primaries in Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont riding a streak of 11 consecutive primary and caucus wins and leading the former first lady in popular vote, committed delegates, and fundraising.

In the conference call, senior Clinton strategist Howard Wolfson seized on those facts to reshape expectations about the Democratic contest.

“They are outspending us at least two to one in Ohio and Texas,” Wolfson said. “If they are unable to win these states it sends a very clear signal that Democrats want this campaign to continue. Obama has every advantage going into this election. If Senator Obama is in fact the de facto nominee, he ought to win all four.”

A loss for Obama in even one of the four states Tuesday would indicate Democrats have developed a case of “buyer’s remorse,” Wolfson said. “It would show that Senator Obama is having trouble closing the deal with Democrats.”

As recently as Feb. 20, Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, was singing a different tune about what it would take to keep her candidacy afloat beyond Tuesday.

“If she wins in Texas and Ohio, I think she’ll be the nominee,” the former president to a Beaumont, Texas, audience. “If you don’t deliver for her, I don’t think she can be.”

Bill Clinton’s assertion that his wife must win both Texas and Ohio to keep her campaign alive reflects a widely held view among political analysts.

Polls now give her a modest lead in Ohio and show Texas is a toss-up, but earlier she had large leads in both states.

The New York senator campaigned with a backdrop of military leaders Friday in Texas, which has a large military presence.

She’s spending all day Sunday rumbling across Ohio, and plans to stump there again Monday morning. Clinton will then return to Texas for a televised town hall meeting and she’s purchased time to broadcast it across the state.

Her aides said no decision had been made on where to spend election night, but most betting was on Ohio, where the polls are more favorable.

Obama has announced he’ll spend Tuesday night in Texas, one of the biggest prizes of the campaign. A win in Texas would allow him to counter the Clinton campaign’s argument that although he’s won more states, she’s carried the big states like California, New York and New Jersey.

SOurce:news.yahoo

LOS ANGELES - John Wooden broke his left wrist and collarbone in a fall, leaving the former UCLA basketball coach hospitalized Friday. Daughter Nan Muehlhausen said the 97-year-old Wooden fell in his condominium Thursday night. She said Wooden was resting comfortably in a hospital and visited with family members throughout the day.
 
“Dad’s spirits are good,” Muehlhausen said in a statement. “He is up and joking around with the family. He will probably be in the hospital for a couple of more days before he goes home.”

Wooden has a hairline fracture in his wrist and a fractured collarbone. He also hit his head, but a CT scan of his head and neck were negative.

The family didn’t release the name of the hospital.

“We appreciate everyone’s concern, but we are requesting that people do not call the hospital and do not try to visit Dad at this time,” Muehlhausen said.

Wooden coached the Bruins to an unsurpassed 10 NCAA championships in the 1960s and ’70s, including consecutive titles from 1967-73. His teams also had an 88-game winning streak.

“The entire UCLA community wishes Coach Wooden a speedy recovery,” current Bruins coach Ben Howland said Friday night in Tucson, Ariz. “We are glad that his injuries are not more serious, and we look forward to seeing him when we return to Los Angeles.”

Wooden, still an active presence around UCLA, gets around using a cane and Muehlhausen usually accompanies him. School officials last month ask fans not to bother him at games, because autograph-seekers had been lining up near his seat behind the Bruins’ bench.

He was hospitalized for several days last April after having symptoms similar to those he had a year earlier, when he had to spend time in the hospital with diverticulitis, an inflammation of pockets in the colon. But doctors decided that his problem last year was a reaction to a combination of medications, including one for arthritis.

Wooden retired with a 620-147 record in 27 years at UCLA, where his stars included Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, Walt Hazzard and Gail Goodrich.

He announced during the 1975 NCAA tournament that he would retire after the championship game. The Bruins gave him a going-away present; they won the title game against Kentucky.
Source:news.yahoo

PASCO, Wash. - What happened to faking a cough? Sheriff’s detectives in Franklin County said a man had his friend shoot him in the shoulder so he wouldn’t have to go to work.

When he first spoke with deputies, Daniel Kuch, of Pasco, told them he’d been the victim of a drive-by shooting while he was out jogging Thursday. But detectives told KONA radio that Kuch later acknowledged that he asked his friend to shoot him so he could get some time off work and avoid an upcoming drug test.

The friend, Kurtis Johnson, of Burbank, has been arrested for investigation of reckless endangerment. Kuch was booked into the county jail and is expected to be charged with false reporting.

Detectives declined to say where Kuch works, or whether he still has a job. It wasn’t known if he had obtained a lawyer.

source:news.yahoo

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Naomi Campbell was released Friday from the hospital where she underwent abdominal surgery. The 37-year-old British supermodel, a frequent visitor to Brazil, was admitted for an emergency operation Monday.

“She recovered very well from her surgery,” said Mirtes Bogea, a spokeswoman for the Sirio Libanes hospital in Sao Paulo. “Doctors signed her release and she left in the afternoon in a helicopter that someone sent to pick her up.”

Bogea declined to provide further details.

On Tuesday, the model’s publicist, Jeff Raymond said she had been hospitalized “to have a small cyst removed.”

She was operated on by gynecologist Jose Aristodemo Pinotti, who would only say he performed abdominal surgery on her.

He described the procedure as a laparoscopy, in which doctors use a thin, lighted scope to view internal organs.

“She came to Brazil to be treated for a condition I am not authorized to reveal,” he said earlier this week, declining to comment further.

Dr. David Uip, one of Brazil’s leading experts in infectious diseases, also cared for Campbell during her stay at the hospital.

Source:news.yahoo

ST. LOUIS - Dogs may have a hard time wrapping their paws around this one: Robotic competition is nipping at their heels in the man’s-best-friend department. A study by Saint Louis University found that a lovable pooch named Sparky and a robotic dog, AIBO, were about equally effective at relieving the loneliness of nursing home residents and fostering attachments.
 
 The study, which appears in the March issue of the Journal of The American Medical Directors Association, builds on previous findings by the researchers that frequent dog visits decreased loneliness of nursing home residents.

Andrew Ng, who leads Stanford University’s team in building a home-assistance robot and was not involved in the study, said the strength of the research is very encouraging.

If humans can feel an emotional bond with robots, even fairly simple ones, some day they could “not just be our assistants, but also our companions,” he said.

To test whether residents responded better to Sparky, a trained therapy dog, or the Sony-made robot dog, researchers divided 38 nursing home residents into three groups at a trio of long-term care facilities in St. Louis.

One group had weekly, 30-minute one-on-one visits with Sparky; another group had similar visits with AIBO; a control group did not visit with either dog. Their level of loneliness — determined by residents’ answers to several questions — was tested at the beginning and near the end of eight weeks of visits.

Investigator Marian Banks delivered the dogs, but did not interact with the residents. In the end, both groups were less lonely and more attached.

Most of the elderly used Sparky, a 9-year-old, reddish-brown mutt with a white muzzle and floppy ears, as a confidant, telling him “their life story,” Marian Banks said.

“He listened attentively, wagged his tail, and allowed them to pet him,” said Banks, who adopted and trained Sparky after finding him in an alley behind her home seven years ago.

Those who visited with AIBO took a little longer — about a week — to warm up to the metallic creature. Over time, they grew more comfortable with AIBO, and petted and talked to him. He responded by wagging his tail, vocalizing and blinking his lights.

“AIBO is charismatic if you start to interact with him,” said the study’s author, Dr. William Banks, a professor of geriatric medicine at Saint Louis University. “He’s an engaging sort of guy.”

The research could mean that a world is possible where robots could substitute for living dogs and help people, William Banks said.

“They could be personal, not an intrusive crazy inanimate object,” he said.

Sara Kiesler, professor of computer science and human-computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon University who was not involved in the study, said the results of the study are encouraging but not completely convincing.

The problem is inferring it was the robotic dog that reduced the loneliness, and not the human who brought him into the room, she said. She said another study could compare a visit from AIBO with someone stopping by with a stuffed animal or even just a candy bar.

source:news.yahoo

MIAMI - A power failure that plunged large parts of Florida into the dark this week was caused primarily by human error, the state’s largest electric company said Friday.
 
Florida Power & Light issued a preliminary report saying that a field engineer was to blame for Tuesday’s failure, which affected more than 584,000 customers, or the equivalent of more than 1 million people.

The engineer was investigating a malfunctioning switch at one of the power company’s substations in west Miami when he disabled two levels of protection for the system, officials said.

While he was making measurements of the switch, a circuit shorted, making a loud noise and smoke that was reported as a fire. Normally, the protection system would have contained the consequences of the short circuit, but because both levels of protection had been removed, the problem cascaded to other parts of the system.

In total, 26 of the company’s 435 transmission lines and 38 of its 600 substations were affected. Two nuclear reactors and a natural gas unit at Turkey Point south of Miami shut down protectively. Two other FPL plants were also affected.

“We don’t know, still, why that particular employee took it upon himself to disable both sets of relays,” FPL president Armando Olivera told reporters.

The employee, who had “significant tenure,” has been put on paid leave during an investigation, Olivera said. It would have been appropriate for the employee to disable one, but not two, levels of protection while making measurements, he said.

A full investigation could take months, Olivera said.

Source:news.yahoo

WASHINGTON - For Republicans, watching Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama fight for supremacy in fundraising is not just a spectator sport. It is a look into the future, and the GOP isn’t cheering.
 
Obama and Clinton together raked in as much as seven times as much cash in February as John McCain, the all-but-certain Republican nominee.

The Democrats, particularly Obama, are also developing a broad base of fervent donors whose help goes beyond sending money.

Some Republicans are sounding alarms.

“Since the midterm election of 2006, Democrats have had an enthusiasm gap with Republicans,” said GOP strategist Scott Reed. “They have big crowds, raise more money and appear to have more excitement on the campaign trail. Couple this with turnout numbers, which are off the charts, and Republicans are going to have a big challenge in the fall.”

Obama raised $36 million in January. Clinton aides said she raised $35 million in February, and estimates for Obama place his haul for the month at more than $50 million. McCain, who raised about $12 million in January, is on a similar pace for February, according to his campaign.

Such a money advantage could mean that for the first time since post-Watergate campaign finance laws, a presidential candidate may forgo public financing for the general election. That would mean turning aside $85 million for September and October on the assumption that he or she could raise more.

McCain has been trying to hold Obama to an agreement to accept the general election public funds, but Democrats are counseling Obama against it. They believe Republicans will use outside groups that can raise unlimited amounts of money to close any financial advantage Democrats may have.

“If we take the federal money we are disarming ourselves unilaterally against the Republicans,” said Steve Murphy, a Democratic strategist who advised Bill Richardson’s presidential campaign.

Democratic-leaning outside groups are already entering the contest, promising to target McCain for his stance on the war in Iraq.

The Democratic financial advantage has been evident for more than a year. The eight Democrats who were in the presidential race last year raised a combined $253 million in 2007 from individual donors; the nine Republicans raised a combined $207.5 million. Obama’s $36 million in January exceeded the amount raised by all six Republican candidates who were still competing in that month.

The discrepancy was enough to lead Republican National Committee Treasurer Tim Morgan to sound off last weekend in San Francisco during a California Republican convention. Morgan said the RNC has budgeted $150 million for the year, $100 million less than it raised in 2004 when President Bush ran against Democrat John Kerry.

“I look at the Barack Obama campaign in some horror,” he said, noting the Democrat’s totals so far this year. “That should give all of us a pause.”

Republican officials said their party usually budgets conservatively. It planned to raise $172 million in 2004 and ended up raising nearly $249 million. They said party fundraising is ahead of schedule so far this year.

“Republican candidates will have the necessary resources to achieve victory, and communicate the message and mobilize the vote this fall,” RNC spokesman Danny Diaz said.

The RNC is the only GOP committee that is faring better than its Democratic counterpart.

Obama and Clinton are still competing, while McCain, anticipating Obama’s nomination, is already targeting his campaign against him.

“The next 60 days is all about defining Obama in a way Clinton was never able to do,” Reed said. “The big crowds, the curiosity factor and the high platitude speeches have worked — it’s a true movement. But can the wave keep a crest all the way to November? I don’t think so. It’s impossible.”

Still, either Obama, who is leading in the number of delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination, or Clinton would clearly have the upper hand going into the general election.

A fundraising advantage, Democrats say, would give the party’s nominee the opportunity to compete in states that traditionally have not been considered general election battlegrounds.

“Obama can extend the contest to the Deep South,” Murphy said. “That would offset the Southwestern advantage that McCain might have.”

Murphy says he believes the Democratic nominee will raise twice as much as the GOP candidate and the Republican Party combined.

“I think $85 million for the general election season is a lot of money to give up,” said Michael Malbin, executive director of the Campaign Finance Institute, a nonpartisan organization that studies campaign finance trends. “That’s $1 million a day in spending.”

But Obama and Clinton spent about $1 million a day in January alone, when they were competing in far fewer states than they would face in a general election.

“I don’t know where this tops out,” Malbin said. “Even now, only about 2 percent of the public is giving to politicians. It tops out when people who are interested in politics are tapped out.”

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - A 17-year-old boy was arrested Friday and charged with fatally shooting his mother, who was a sheriff’s deputy, and his two small sisters, authorities said.

Anthony Tyrone Terrell Jr. was charged with murder in the deaths at the family home near Lawrenceville, where the bodies were found late Thursday, said police spokeswoman Illana Spellman.

She identified the victims as Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Deputy Joy Deleston, 39, and her two daughters, Micaiah, 11, and Jelani, 4. The motive was still unclear.

Terrell was taken to jail in neighboring DeKalb County to avoid any potential conflict because Deleston worked for Gwinnett County, Spellman said. He is being held without bail.

Because of his age, prosecutors cannot seek the death penalty against Terrell. A preliminary hearing will be set next week in Gwinnett County Superior Court, said prosecutor Danny Porter.

Defense attorney Lyle Porter did not return a call Friday.

Authorities on Friday found the gun used, going by information provided by Terrell. Spellman said she could not confirm whether Deleston’s service weapon was used.

Deleston, a seven-year member of the department, had been assigned to the sex offender unit, officials said.

Police had gone to the subdivision because a caller reported shots fired, Officer David Schiralli said earlier. They found a bullet hole in a house, then checked next door because they knew a deputy lived there.

“There was no answer, but lights were on,” Schiralli said. “They opened the door a little bit to announce themselves,” then discovered the bodies, he said.

The 17-year-old son arrived at the house about 35 minutes later, he said. Spellman said he was arrested after talking to investigators but didn’t elaborate.

Neighbors said the family had moved in less than a year ago. They often saw Deleston in her squad car coming home from work and said having a deputy around was reassuring.

Jeff Beaird, who lives across the street, said he often saw Terrell in the driveway shooting hoops with his friends or washing his mother’s patrol car but doesn’t remember anything out of the ordinary.

“It’s so shocking because you don’t expect something like this to happen,” Beaird said.

Michael Hunt said he was taking a nap before starting work on the night shift Thursday when he heard the news about his neighbors. Hunt recalled that his wife had seen Terrell hours earlier walking down the street carrying a basketball.

“For him to be scared of our dog and then to kill his whole family … it just doesn’t add up,” Hunt said.
Source:news.yahoo

PHOENIX - John McCain is refusing to renounce the endorsement of a prominent Texas televangelist who Democrats say peddles anti-Catholic and other intolerant speech.
 
Instead, the Republican presidential candidate issued a statement Friday afternoon saying he had unspecified disagreements with the San Antonio megachurch leader, John Hagee. Hagee endorsed him at a news conference Wednesday in San Antonio.

“However, in no way did I intend for his endorsement to suggest that I in turn agree with all of Pastor Hagee’s views, which I obviously do not,” McCain said in the statement.

His campaign issued the statement after two days of criticism from the Democratic National Committee, the Catholic League and Catholics United.

Democrats quoted Hagee as saying the Catholic Church conspired with Nazis against the Jews and that Hurricane Katrina was God’s retribution for homosexual sin, and they recited his demeaning comments about women and flip remarks about slavery.

“Hagee’s hate speech has no place in public discourse, and McCain’s embrace of this figure raises serious questions about John McCain’s character and his willingness to do anything to win,” said Tom McMahon, executive director of the Democratic National Committee.

McCain was pressed on the issue Friday morning in Round Rock, Texas. Hagee “supports what I stand for and believe in,” McCain said.

“When he endorses me, that does not mean that I endorse everything that he stands for and believes in,” McCain said. “I don’t have to agree with everyone who endorses my campaign.”

He added that he was “proud” of Hagee’s spiritual leadership of his congregation at the 17,000-member Cornerstone Church.

The Catholic League and Catholics United called on McCain to reject the endorsement.

“By publicly addressing this issue, you will reaffirm to the American public and to Catholics that intolerance and bigotry have no place in American presidential campaigns,” Chris Korzen, executive director of Catholics United, wrote McCain in a letter sent Thursday.

McCain’s response to the two days of criticism stood in contrast to his rapid denunciation of a radio talk show host who denigrated Barack Obama, repeatedly using Obama’s middle name, Hussein, and calling him a “hack, Chicago-style” politician.

McCain immediately apologized and said he repudiated the statements of the radio host, Bill Cunningham, while warming up a Cincinnati crowd for McCain on Tuesday.

“Any comment that is disparaging of either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama is totally inappropriate,” McCain said at the time.

(This version CORRECTS SUBS 8th graf, When he, to correct to “I endorse” sted “I embrace.”)

source:news.yahoo

LAS VEGAS - Authorities on Friday confirmed that the deadly toxin ricin was found in a motel room most recently occupied by a man who has been in critical condition with breathing problems at a hospital for more than two weeks.
Las Vegas police said there was no apparent link to terrorist activity, and no indication of any spread of the deadly substance beyond the several vials of powder found in a plastic bag in the man’s room on Thursday. But what the ricin was doing there remained a mystery.

A pinprick of ricin is enough to kill.

“Six to eight hours, you’re going to start showing symptoms,” said Greg Evans, director of the Institute for Biosecurity at Saint Louis University in Missouri.

A friend or relative of the sick man found the vials after going to the Extended Stay America motel, several blocks west of the Las Vegas Strip, to retrieve his belongings, police Deputy Chief Kathy Suey said.

Tests by police homeland security officers, the Nevada National Guard and a laboratory in Las Vegas came back positive for ricin, she said. A cleanup of the motel has been completed, she added.

Seven people, including the man who found the ricin, the manager, two other motel employees and three police officers, were decontaminated at the scene and taken to hospitals for examination, but none have shown any signs of being affected by ricin, Suey said. All were released overnight.

“There is no information to lead us to believe that this is the result of any terrorist activity or related to any possible terrorist activity,” Suey said. “We don’t have any reason to believe any of it left the property.”

Police cordoned off the hotel and told residents to stay in their rooms. The cordon was lifted early Friday morning, and the motel has been open since then.

Suey said the manufacture of ricin is a crime, but it was not clear the substance found belonged to the man, who was hospitalized in critical condition Feb. 14 after summoning an ambulance to the motel and complaining of respiratory distress.

The man, believed to be in his 40s or 50s, was unconscious and unable to speak, Suey said, adding that he was not currently a suspect.

“We don’t know an awful lot about him,” Suey said. “We don’t even know that it was him that was in possession of the ricin.” She said she could not say how much ricin was in the vials.

Cancer research is the only legitimate reason for anyone to have ricin, Evans said.

Ricin is made from processing castor beans, and can be extremely lethal. As little as 500 micrograms, or about the size of the head of a pin, can kill a human, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Castor beans also were found in the man’s room, officials said.

An American Medical Response paramedic crew that took the man to the hospital about 11 a.m. Feb. 14 had no indication of ricin poisoning, AMR general manager John Wilson said.

Wilson would not say whether the two paramedics who handled the call entered the man’s room, but said neither have shown symptoms of exposure.

Naomi Jones, spokeswoman for Spring Valley Hospital, said the patient was in critical condition when he arrived at the hospital. She said Las Vegas police contacted the hospital Wednesday about a possible ricin exposure investigation.

“The investigation started two days ago, that’s when we began cooperating,” Jones said. “The patient who has been exposed is not contagious to anyone else, as ricin has to be injected, ingested or inhaled.”

Police refused to comment on whether the hospital was contacted Wednesday, a day before police said the ricin was found.

Evans said the fact that the man suffered respiratory illness suggested he was exposed to a powder fine enough to float in the air.

“If he went to the hospital with difficulty breathing, he actually inhaled it,” Evans said. “For some reason he opened the vial and it must have been aerosolized.”

Multiple vials would probably contain enough ricin to sicken many people if it was spread, for example, around a buffet table or sprayed in a closed room.

“If it was aerosolized in a confined space then it certainly could harm dozens of people,” he said.

Police said they had spent 12 hours containing and cleaning up the site.

“My understanding is cleanup has been done,” said Dr. Lawrence Sands, chief health officer of the Southern Nevada Health District. “There should not be a threat to anybody at this time.”

The motel room had been unoccupied since the man was hospitalized. Someone who knew the sick man found the ricin in the room and brought it to the apartment manager, Suey said.

“He claimed to be a relative. We haven’t confirmed that yet whether he is a relative or a friend,” she said.

The manager had begun an eviction because the sick man hadn’t paid his bill, and the friend or relative had gone to retrieve his items, she said.

Suey said there were several pets in the room when officers arrived. A dog was found dead but the animal had gone at least a week without food or water, Suey said, and she did not attribute the death to ricin.

Evans, of the Institute for Biosecurity, said that if ricin is inhaled, symptoms would include difficulty breathing, fever, cough and nausea. Injection would lead to vomiting and severe diarrhea. Eventually these symptoms would progress to seizures, hallucination, bloody urine and damage to the kidney, liver and spleen and death.

Tom Obrig, an expert on ricin who teaches nephrology at the University of Virginia, said there have been about 700 reports over the years of people trying to commit suicide by eating castor beans.

“Usually it doesn’t work because it’s not digested well,” he said.

For the most part, however, the toxin has more of a cloak-and-dagger reputation linked more closely to spies and assassins. He recalled one particularly famous murder in 1978 involving Georgi Ivanov Markov, a Bulgarian dissident in London.

Markov “was standing on a corner waiting for a bus and some spy came along and injected a pellet in his leg from an umbrella,” Obrig said. “The guy died three days later. It was traced back by Scotland Yard who figured the only thing potent enough to do that was ricin.”

source:news.yahoo