North Korea plans long-range rocket launch

BEIJING -- North Korea announced Saturday that it will send a long-range rocket into space this month, trying to make up for a public-relations disaster in April when a much-hyped launch failed.

In the announcement attributed to a spokesman for the Korean Committee for Space Technology, North Korea said the rocket would carry a "polar-orbiting Earth observation satellite" for "peaceful scientific and technological" purposes.

Nonetheless, the launch is seen as a defiant move for an impoverished country that is already subject to a U.S. ban from developing nuclear and missile technology.

PHOTOS: North Korea's April launch preparations

The timing -- between Dec. 10 and 22, according to the announcement -- coincides with several sensitive dates on the Korean calendar.

On Dec. 19 there is a closely contested presidential election in archrival South Korea that could be swayed by the rocket launch. Perhaps more important on the North Korean calendar, Dec. 17 marks the one-year anniversary of the death of longtime leader Kim Jong Il, who is believed to have ordered the launch.

A successful launch is also seen as key to establishing the legitimacy of successor Kim Jong Un, the late dictator’s son who is still in his 20s.

North Korea had been in the midst of a propaganda campaign, claiming that it would become a "strong and prosperous nation" by 2012, which happens to be the centennial of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the dynasty’s founder.

PHOTOS: Rare glimpse of North Korea

"It seems like they are trying to keep up with their declaration that the year 2012 will be the first year of  'strong and prosperous nation,'" said Koh Yoo-hwan, North Korean studies professor at South Korea’s Dongguk University. "Because that had failed, they will try and finish the project within this year."

The earlier launch was an embarrassment for the regime, which had invited foreign television crews into North Korea to publicize the feat. But the rocket flew for less than two minutes before splashing into the Yellow Sea, close enough to South Korea that its intelligence services were able to recover pieces to analyze.

"The purpose of a rocket launch is for domestic politics," said another South Korean specialist, Baek Seung-joo at Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. "This is their chance to recover from embarrassment in April, and also to strengthen the Kim Jong Un-centered leadership."

In the announcement, North Korea said the satellite, known as Kwangmyongsong-3, meaning "bright star," had been "manufactured by its own efforts and with its own technology, true to the behests of leader Kim Jong Il."

"Scientists and technicians of the DPRK  [North Korea] analyzed the mistakes that were made during the previous April launch and deepened the work of improving the reliability and precision of the satellite and carrier rocket, thereby rounding off the preparations to launch," the statement read.

The April launch was the third attempt for North Korea, the last two having taken place in 1998 and 2009. This launch, like the attempt in April, is to take place from the Sohae military installation on the country’s west coast near the border with China, and is probably headed south toward the Philippines. The 1998 and 2009 launches, directed to the east, caused great consternation in Japan.

Technologically, launching an intercontinental ballistic missile or satellite is essentially the same, with the main difference being what the rocket is carrying. The fact that North Korea is simultaneously developing nuclear weapons has raised fears that eventually the United States could be within its range.

South Korea's first rocket from its own territory, Naro-1, was scheduled to launch Thursday, but was delayed until next year because of technical problems.

In a statement, the South Korean foreign ministry said Thursday that the North's planned launch is "a grave provocation and a head-on challenge to the international community."

The North Korean statement was not a surprise because satellite intelligence released in recent days showed a movement of trucks around the launch site, according to 38 North, a think tank affiliated with Johns Hopkins University.

"If Pyongyang follows past practice in preparing for a launch, it could be ready to fire a rocket as early as the end of the first week in December," 38 North said in the report released Wednesday.

Demick reported from Beijing and Choi from Seoul.

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JLo tones down concert in Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Jennifer Lopez wowed thousands of fans in Indonesia, but they didn't see as much of her as concertgoers in other countries — the American pop star toned down both her sexy outfits and her dance moves during her show in the world's most populous Muslim country, promoters said Saturday.

Lopez's "Dance Again World Tour" was performed in the country's capital, Jakarta, on Friday in line with promises Lopez made to make her show more appropriate for the audience, said Chairi Ibrahim from Dyandra Entertainment, the concert promoter.

"JLo was very cooperative ... she respected our culture," Ibrahim said, adding that Lopez's managers also asked whether she could perform her usual sexy dance moves, but were told that "making love" moves were not appropriate for Indonesia.

"Yes, she dressed modestly ... she's still sexy, attractive and tantalizing, though," said Ira Wibowo, an Indonesian actress who was among more than 7,000 fans at the concert.

Another fan, Doddy Adityawarman, was a bit disappointed with the changes.

"She should appear just the way she is," he said, "Many local artists dress even much sexy, much worse."

Lopez changed several times during her 90-minute concert along with several dancers, who also dressed modestly without revealing their chests or cleavage.

Most Muslims in Indonesia, a secular country of 240 million people, are moderate. But a small extremist fringe has become more vocal in recent years.

They have pushed through controversial laws — including an anti-pornography bill — and have been known to attack anything perceived as blasphemous, from transvestites and bars to "deviant" religious sects.

Lady Gaga was forced to cancel her sold-out show in Indonesia in May following threats by Islamic hard-liners, who called her a "devil worshipper."

Lopez will also perform in Muslim-majority Malaysia on Sunday.

"Thank you Jakarta for an amazing night," the 43-year-old diva tweeted to her 13 million followers Saturday.

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Seeking a fix for California's gasoline market problems

California will always be at risk of gasoline price spikes caused by disruptions at refineries because it is a “fuel island,” stranded by time and distance from quick delivery of gasoline from outside the state. Without interstate pipelines, California relies primarily on maritime tankers for oil and gasoline imports, which cannot move fast enough to make up for a sudden drop in supply.

Spikes in California gasoline prices experienced in 2012 were in large part due to significant, unplanned outages at three major oil refineries. When the most recent outage occurred, in Torrance on October 1, the wholesale price for gasoline followed a pattern typical of such price spikes – rising, peaking and starting to decline within a week, fewer days than it would take a gasoline shipment to arrive at a California port.

Although the state’s clean-air requirements add to the price of gasoline, the health benefits are substantial, and studies show their value exceeds the additional cost at the pump. Furthermore, the requirements are not the primary driver of price spikes, nor do they prohibit importing gasoline from elsewhere.

In fact, refiners outside California can, and sometimes do, make gasoline that meets the state’s specifications. That said, in the wake of the recent price spike, the state eased summer-blend fuel requirements, which benefited motorists by allowing in-state refiners to immediately boost gasoline production by 3% to 5%.

But there is a larger lesson here: It’s time to think beyond the gas tank.

Instead of running on fossil fuels and driving toward empty, California needs to diversify its array of transportation fuels to include more electricity, biofuels, natural gas, propane and hydrogen.

The California Energy Commission is working to do just that as it helps the state meet ambitious climate change goals. The commission supports the development and use of new vehicle technology and alternative and renewable fuels through competitive awards of AB 118 funds — made available through legislation adopted in 2007 and funded by a small surcharge on vehicle and boat registrations and smog-check and license plate fees.

The commission has awarded more than $250 million to more than 120 clean transportation projects across the state. These awards have leveraged more than $500 million in private and public investment.

These investments support a wide range of projects, including the installation of about 6,000 electric vehicle charging stations and the rollout of hundreds of alternative fuel vehicles on the road. These investments also support the innovative development of biofuels made from algae and restaurant and agricultural waste.

The efforts are already paying off: They are reducing gasoline dependency, creating more than 5,000 long-term jobs, bolstering energy security and economic competitiveness, and reducing the risk of lung cancer and asthma for all Californians by cleaning up the air.

In the longer term, these crucial investments will lead to more options for consumers and smooth out the road to a clean transportation future for California.

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Small union is causing big problems for ports

The small band of strikers that has effectively shut down the nation's busiest shipping complex forced two huge cargo ships to head for other ports Thursday and kept at least three others away, hobbling an economic powerhouse in Southern California.

The disruption is costing an estimated $1 billion a day at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, on which some 600,000 truckers, dockworkers, trading companies and others depend for their livelihoods.

"The longer it goes, the more the impacts increase," said Paul Bingham, an economist with infrastructure consulting firm CDM Smith. "Retailers will have stock outages, lost sales for products not delivered. There will be shutdowns in factories, in manufacturing when they run out of parts."

Despite the union's size — about 800 members of a unit of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union — it has managed to flex big muscles. Unlike almost anywhere else in the nation, union loyalty is strong at the country's ports. Neither the longshoremen nor the truckers are crossing the tiny union's picket lines.

The strike started at the L.A. port's largest terminal Tuesday and spread Wednesday to 10 of the two ports' 14 cargo terminals. These resemble seaside parking lots where long metal containers are loaded and unloaded with the help of giant cranes.

The union contends that the dispute is over job security and the transfer of work from higher-paid union members to lower-paid employees in other countries. The 14-employer management group says that no jobs have been outsourced and that the union wants to continue a practice called "featherbedding," or bringing in temporary workers even when there is no work.

The two sides haven't met since negotiations broke down Monday, but they were scheduled to begin talking again Thursday night. The union has worked without a contract for 21/2 years.

The clerical workers are a vital link in the supply chain. They handle the immense flow of information that accompanies each cargo ship as well as every item in the freight. One shipload of shoes, toys and other products is enough to fill five warehouses.

Logistics clerk Trinie Thompson, 41, normally spends her days working with railroad lines and trucking companies to ensure that the right containers are sent along to their proper destinations. On Thursday, she was walking the picket lines at the docks.

"We will be setting up trains to Houston, trains to Dallas, to Chicago, to the Pacific Northwest," said Thompson, who has worked for 10 years for Eagle Marine Services terminal, which is affiliated with the giant APL shipping line.

"For a typical container ship, we will have to set up multiple trains. We might be sending 200 to 300 containers to Chicago alone, and there will be paperwork for all of them."

The strike comes at a time of simmering labor unrest at other U.S. ports, underscoring the unusual power labor holds in maritime trade.

On the East Coast and Gulf Coast, another group of shipping lines and terminal operators called the United States Maritime Alliance has repeatedly failed to reach agreement on a new labor contract with the International Longshoremen's Assn. A strike that might have involved dozens of ports was avoided only after both sides agreed to extend negotiations past the September end of their current contract.

A strike also was narrowly avoided at Portland, Ore., only a few days ago in a dispute between grain shippers and union workers.

Operations at Oakland International Airport and at the Port of Oakland, the third-largest port in the state behind Los Angeles and Long Beach, were affected by a brief strike this month.

Maritime unions "have successfully organized one of the most vital links in the supply chain, and it's a tradition they nurture with all of their younger workers," said Nelson Lichtenstein, a UC Santa Barbara history professor and workplace expert. "They have a very strong ideological sense of who they are, and for now they are strong."

In Los Angeles and Long Beach, the 800 clerical workers have been able to shut down most of the ports because the 10,000-member dockworkers union is honoring the picket lines. Work continues at only four cargo terminals, where the office clerical unit has no workers.

"Longshoremen stand up when other workers need our help," said Ray Ortiz Jr., a member of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union's Coast Committee. "Sure, it's a sacrifice to give up a paycheck when you refuse to cross the picket line, but we believe it's in the long-term interest of the Los Angeles-Long Beach harbor area to retain these good local jobs."

Stephen Berry, lead negotiator for the shipping lines and cargo terminals, said the clerical workers have been offered a deal that includes "absolute job security," a raise that would take average annual pay to $195,000 from $165,000, 11 weeks' paid vacation and a generous pension increase.

At a news conference Thursday, Berry denounced the tactics by the clerical workers, calling them "irresponsible."

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MacFarlane surprises UCLA class, announces contest

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Oscar host Seth MacFarlane is inviting college students to join him on stage at the Academy Awards.

The "Family Guy" creator made a surprise appearance at UCLA to announce a contest sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and MTV that will allow winning college students to appear on the Feb. 24 Oscar telecast.

The contest invites students to submit videos on the academy's Facebook page describing how they'll contribute to the future of film. At least six winners will serve as trophy carriers on the Oscar show, replacing the leggy models who usually perform the duties.

MacFarlane spent 40 minutes leading the undergraduate film and television class at UCLA's Westwood campus on Wednesday as part of MTV's "Stand In" series, which brings celebrities to colleges as guest lecturers.

"In re-imagining what we want the Oscar show to be, we wanted everyone appearing on that stage to feel a deep commitment to film and its legacy, and most importantly, its future," said Oscar telecast producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron in a statement. "That was the impetus in creating this special honor for young film students who will inspire a new generation to create the films that will be honored in the future."

The contest is also aimed at drawing younger viewers favored by advertisers to the Oscars' aging TV audience. Like UCLA student Abby Smith, who immediately pulled out her smartphone to share the moment on Facebook when MacFarlane appeared before her class.

"Seth MacFarlane is speaking to my film lecture for the next hour," Smith posted. "I'm having a panic attack."

The 39-year-old entertainer urged the aspiring filmmakers and show-runners in the class to make a "commercially viable student film" before leaving school, adding that "Family Guy" was based on his own student film.

And MacFarlane said "Family Guy" could once again become a film. He said he's already come up with a concept for a feature-length movie and promised "it will happen at some point."

MacFarlane cheekily described the Academy Awards as "a crazy little variety show" and said "all I can do is do what I think is funny and most entertaining."

"The Oscars is a tricky venue," he said. "The (hosts) who have not done well, I would classify them as a noble failure, an honorable failure, because at least they were trying something new... If I can do it without torpedoing my career and getting drummed out of the business... All I can do is my very best."

He paused a beat, and added, "Lame (expletive) answer."

___

AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen is on Twitter: www.twitter.com/APSandy.

___

Online:

http://www.facebook.com/TheAcademy/app_436081253118204

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Ranbaxy, a Generic Drug Maker, Stops Making Cholesterol Pill

Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals, the largest producer of the generic version of Lipitor, has halted production of the drug until it can figure out why glass particles may have ended up in pills that were distributed to the public, the Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday.

The agency said it had not received any reports of patients being harmed by the particles, which are about the size of a grain of sand. Earlier this month, Ranbaxy recalled more than 40 lots of the drug because of the glass contamination.

The company has declined to say where the drug was manufactured or why the problem occurred, but a spokeswoman for the F.D.A. said Thursday that the company would stop making the pill’s active ingredient, which is made in India, until the investigation is completed.

The contamination was the latest episode in a history of manufacturing lapses at Ranbaxy, which is a subsidiary of the Japanese pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo. The company has been operating under a court-ordered consent decree since January, one that federal authorities have called “unprecedented in scope,” after they identified a host of manufacturing problems at the company’s plants in India and the United States, and concluded that Ranbaxy had submitted false data in drug applications to the F.D.A..

The decree prevents Ranbaxy from manufacturing drugs at its most troubled facilities until it can show it is meeting United States standards, although it was allowed to continue making products — including the generic version of Lipitor — at other plants.

The F.D.A. spokeswoman, Sarah Clark-Lynn, said the affected lots were not made at “the same facilities whose conduct gave rise to the consent decree.” Nonetheless, she said in an e-mail Monday, “the consent decree provides the F.D.A. with additional tools to address violations for other Ranbaxy facilities.”

A spokesman for Ranbaxy declined to comment beyond an informational statement on the company’s Web site.

Some drug manufacturing experts said Ranbaxy’s latest troubles highlight the disparities in oversight of plants in the United States versus those overseas. “I have pretty good faith in companies and plants that make drugs in this country because I know from my own experience that they try to do a good job,” said Prabir K. Basu, executive director of the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Technology and Education, who previously worked in manufacturing and global outsourcing for pharmaceutical companies, including Searle and Pharmacia. “But my confidence is not that high when we are getting products from outside the country.”

He pointed to studies that have shown the F.D.A. inspects foreign generic manufacturing plants about once every seven to 13 years, compared with once every two years for domestic manufacturers. A law passed over the summer will eventually require the F.D.A. to apply the same standards when inspecting all manufacturing plants, regardless of which country they’re in.

Allan Coukell, director of medical programs at the Pew Health Group and an expert on drug safety, said the new law would level what he described as an uneven playing field, but “it’s incumbent on F.D.A. to hire the staff and to make the shift to a risk-based inspection system.” Under the law, fees collected from generic manufacturers will help pay for more inspectors.

Mr. Basu said the law, called the Generic Drug User Fee Amendments of 2012 and known as Gdufa (Gah-doofuh) was a step in the right direction, but fixing the problem would require more than simply hiring more people. “This is a very difficult and complex system, and how do we ensure the integrity of this supply chain?” he said. “I don’t know how much Gdufa will help.”

Ranbaxy has held a significant share of the market for generic Lipitor, also known as atorvastatin, since it became one of the first companies to sell it after Pfizer lost patent protection for the top-selling drug last November; another company, Watson, sold a generic version that was authorized and manufactured by Pfizer. In October, Ranbaxy’s product accounted for 43 percent of prescriptions for atorvastatin, a widely used drug to lower cholesterol levels, according to an analysis by Michael Faerm, an analyst for Credit Suisse who used prescription data from the research firm IMS Health.

In its statement on Thursday, the F.D.A. said it did not expect a shortage of atorvastatin. Erin Fox, who tracks drug shortages as director of the Drug Information Service at the University of Utah, said drugs in pill form have long shelf lives and suppliers can keep large quantities in stock. Other generic manufacturers with approval to sell the drug include Apotex, Dr. Reddy’s Labs, Mylan, Sandoz, and Teva, according to the F.D.A. Web site.

Ranbaxy has posted a list of the recalled lots on its Web site, and has warned that patients should not stop taking the drug without guidance from their doctor. The lot numbers are found on the side of Ranbaxy pill bottles and the company advised patients to check with their pharmacist if customers received pills in a container dispensed by the pharmacy.

The agency said the potential for injury because of the contamination appeared to be low and “if any adverse events are experienced, they would be temporary.”

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Stocks flat; consumer spending falls

Stocks are little changed in morning trading Friday as lawmakers seek to thrash out a budget agreement. The government also reported that consumer spending fell in October.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose six points to 13,028 as of 11:13 a.m. Eastern. The Standard and Poor's 500 was down 0.4 points to 1,415. The Nasdaq composite was down five points to 3,007.

Stocks are slightly higher for the week. The Dow is up 0.2 percent, the S&P 500 index 0.4 percent. The market has fluctuated between gains and losses in recent days as news and comments filtered out from the budget negotiations in Washington.

Investors have been closely following the talks between the White House and Congress over the “fiscal cliff,” which refers to sharp government spending cuts and tax increases scheduled to start Jan. 1 unless an agreement is reached to cut the budget deficit. Economists say that those measures, if implemented, could push the U.S. economy back into a recession.

“Right now the market is just going to be held hostage as to what happens in the next five hours, versus what's going to happen in the next five years,” said Dan Veru, chief investment officer at Palisade Capital Management, in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

Americans cut back on spending last month and saw no growth in their income, reflecting disruption from Superstorm Sandy that could hold back economic growth in the final months of the year.

The Commerce Department reported that consumer spending dropped 0.2 percent in October. That's down from an increase of 0.8 percent in September and the weakest showing since May.

Among stocks making big moves:

—Yum Brands, which owns KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, fell $6.90 to $67.58. The fast-food operator reported disappointing sales and earnings forecasts. An analyst recommended that investors sell the stock.

—Zynga, the maker of computer games including “Farmville” and “Cityville,” fell 17 cents to $2.45 after the company said late Thursday that it was loosening its relationship with Facebook.

—VerSign plunged $5.50 to $33.83 after the company announced the terms of its new contract to run the key directories that keep track of “.com” domain names. The company won't be allowed to raise prices on the registration of such names without government approval.

—Duke Energy rose $1.10 to $63.49 after the company said its CEO will step down as part of a settlement with the North Carolina utilities regulator that ends an investigation into the company's takeover of in-state rival Progress Energy.

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British judge urges new press regulator due to hacking scandal

LONDON – In a highly anticipated and lengthy report, a senior judge Thursday recommended that a new, independent regulatory authority be set up to monitor Britain’s raucous press and to crack down on media abuses such as phone hacking and other unethical newsgathering practices.

Justice Brian Leveson said such a regulator was necessary because the press had at times “wreaked havoc in the lives of innocent people” through its intrusions on privacy and relentless pursuit of scoops.

The new regulatory body should be backed by law, but it should not include any politicians, in order to avoid government control of the press, nor any editors, in order to maintain full independence, Leveson said.

The regulator would replace a previous press complaints commission that is widely recognized in Britain to have been a failure, particularly with regard to the phone-hacking scandal. Evidence has emerged that hundreds of high-profile figures may have had their cellphones tapped by the now-defunct News of the World tabloid.

The scandal gave rise to a months-long, government-commissioned investigation into media culture and ethics by Leveson, who heard testimony from more than 300 witnesses.

The recommendations in his 2,000-page report are likely to please some hacking victims and satisfy demands of some lawmakers who say that Britain’s media, in particular its sensation-seeking and gossip-hungry tabloids, have been allowed to run amok.

But the news organizations themselves have expressed alarm over any form of regulation that has its roots in law and that, they fear, could be the first step toward government censorship. Although they recognize the need for oversight, many news outlets have pushed for a better system of self-regulation with no legal underpinning.

Leveson was eager to emphasize his respect for a free press and denied that his recommendations represented any threat to it.

“The press operating freely and in the public interest is one of the true safeguards of our democracy. As a result, it holds a privileged and powerful place in our society,” he told reporters. “But this power and influence carries with it responsibilities to the public interest in whose name it exercises these privileges. Unfortunately, as the evidence has shown beyond doubt, on too many occasions those responsibilities … have simply been ignored.”

The report has been eagerly awaited for months. As its release date neared, politicians and high-profile individuals dug in on either side, calling for laws to regulate the media or warning against them as an unacceptable infringement on a free press.

“As parliamentarians, we believe in free speech and are opposed to the imposition of any form of statutory control,” said a letter signed by 86 lawmakers. “The solution is not new laws but a profound restructuring of the self-regulatory system.”

A recent poll, however, found a majority of Britons in favor of some kind of regulation of the media backed by the force of the law.

The witnesses who appeared before Leveson included some of Britain’s best-known public figures, such as Prime Minister David Cameron. Actor Hugh Grant and "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling denounced media invasions of their privacy. Media baron Rupert Murdoch and other newspaper proprietors spoke about newsgathering practices.

The inquiry was launched last year after the hacking scandal exploded in the public consciousness with the revelation that the News of the World had tapped the voicemail messages of a missing 13-year-old girl, whose body was later found dumped in the woods by her killer.

Like a fast-spreading fire, the scandal quickly engulfed key pillars of British public life, putting the heat not just on tabloid newspapers but also the politicians who cozied up to them and the police who offered scoops in hopes of flattering coverage. Within days, the head of Scotland Yard resigned, as did one of Murdoch’s closest confidants, and the 168-year-old News of the World was shut down.

Three separate police investigations – into phone hacking, computer hacking and bribery of public officials – were spawned by the affair. Dozens of people, most of them journalists at Murdoch-owned publications, have been arrested.

Only a few hours before Leveson’s report was released, the former head of Murdoch’s newspapers in Britain and a onetime senior aide to Cameron appeared in court on charges of paying public officials for information.

ALSO:

Three managers arrested after deadly Bangladesh factory fire

Outgoing Mexican President Felipe Calderon heading to Harvard

Google opposes German push for search engines to pay newspapers

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AP Newsbreak: New Suzanne Collins book in 2013

NEW YORK (AP) — "The Hunger Games" novelist Suzanne Collins has a new book coming out next year.

The multimillion-selling children's author has completed an autobiographical picture story scheduled for Sept. 10, 2013, Scholastic Inc. announced Thursday. The 40-page book will be called "Year of the Jungle," based on the time in Vietnam served by Collins' father, a career Air Force officer.

"Year of the Jungle" is her first book since 2010's "Mockingjay," the last of "The Hunger Games" trilogy that made Collins an international sensation. More than 50 million copies of the "Hunger Games" books are in print and the first of four planned movies has grossed more than $600 million worldwide since coming out in March.

Collins' next project will be intended for ages 4 and up, a younger audience than those who have read, and re-read, her dystopian stories about young people forced to hunt and kill each other. But "Year of the Jungle" will continue, in a gentler way, the author's exploration of war. James Proimos, an old friend from her days as a television writer who helped persuade Collins to become a children's author, illustrated the book.

"For several years I had this little wicker basket next to my writing chair with the postcards my dad had sent me from Vietnam and photos of that year. But I could never quite find a way into the story. It has elements that can be scary for the audience and it would be easy for the art to reinforce those. It could be really beautiful art but still be off-putting to a kid, which would defeat the point of doing the book," Collins, 50, said in a statement released by Scholastic.

"Then one day I was having lunch with Jim and telling him about the idea and he said, 'That sounds fantastic.' I looked at him and I had this flash of the story through his eyes, with his art. It was like being handed a key to a locked door. So, I just blurted out, 'Do you want to do it?' Fortunately he said 'Yes.'"

"How could I refuse?" Proimos said in a statement. "The idea she laid out over burritos and ice tea during our lunch was brilliant and not quite like any picture book I had ever come across. The writing is moving and personal. What Suzanne does so well here is convey complicated emotions through the eyes of a child."

According to Scholastic, "Year of the Jungle" will tell of a little girl named Suzy and her fears after her father leaves for war. She wonders when he'll come back and "feels more and more distant" as he misses family gatherings. He does return, but he has changed and his daughter must learn that "he still loves her just the same."

Collins has said before that she wanted to write a book about her father. In a 2010 interview with The Associated Press, she explained that her father was a trained historian who made a point of discussing war with his family.

"I believe he felt a great responsibility and urgency about educating his children about war," she said. "He would take us frequently to places like battlefields and war monuments. It would start back with whatever had precipitated the war and moved up through the battlefield you were standing in and through that and after that. It was a very comprehensive tour guide experience. So throughout our lives we basically heard about war."

Scholastic also announced Thursday that "Catching Fire," the second "Hunger Games" book and originally released in 2009, is coming out in June as a paperback. The paperback edition usually comes within a year of the hardcover, but "Catching Fire" had been selling so well that Scholastic waited. "Mockingjay" has yet to be released as a paperback.

Next summer, Collins' five-volume "The Underland Chronicles," published before "The Hunger Games," will be reissued with new covers.

"'The Underland Chronicles,' with its fantasy world and 11-year old protagonist, Gregor, was designed for middle readers," Collins said in a statement. "The 'Hunger Games' trilogy features a teen narrator, Katniss Everdeen, and a stark dystopian backdrop for the YA (young adult) audience. 'Year of the Jungle' attempts to reach the picture book readers by delving into my own experience as a first grader with a father deployed in Vietnam."

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Medicare Is Faulted in Electronic Medical Records Conversion

The conversion to electronic medical records — a critical piece of the Obama administration’s plan for health care reform — is “vulnerable” to fraud and abuse because of the failure of Medicare officials to develop appropriate safeguards, according to a sharply critical report to be issued Thursday by federal investigators.

Mike Spencer/Wilmington Star-News, via Associated Press

Celeste Stephens, a nurse, leads a session on electronic records at New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, N.C.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Marilyn Tavenner, acting administrator for Medicare.

The use of electronic medical records has been central to the aim of overhauling health care in America. Advocates contend that electronic records systems will improve patient care and lower costs through better coordination of medical services, and the Obama administration is spending billions of dollars to encourage doctors and hospitals to switch to electronic records to track patient care.

But the report says Medicare, which is charged with managing the incentive program that encourages the adoption of electronic records, has failed to put in place adequate safeguards to ensure that information being provided by hospitals and doctors about their electronic records systems is accurate. To qualify for the incentive payments, doctors and hospitals must demonstrate that the systems lead to better patient care, meeting a so-called meaningful use standard by, for example, checking for harmful drug interactions.

Medicare “faces obstacles” in overseeing the electronic records incentive program “that leave the program vulnerable to paying incentives to professionals and hospitals that do not fully meet the meaningful use requirements,” the investigators concluded. The report was prepared by the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Medicare.

The investigators contrasted the looser management of the incentive program with the agency’s pledge to more closely monitor Medicare payments of medical claims. Medicare officials have indicated that the agency intends to move away from a “pay and chase” model, in which it tried to get back any money it has paid in error, to one in which it focuses on trying to avoid making unjustified payments in the first place.

Late Wednesday, a Medicare spokesman said in a statement: “Protecting taxpayer dollars is our top priority and we have implemented aggressive procedures to hold providers accountable. Making a false claim is a serious offense with serious consequences and we believe the overwhelming majority of doctors and hospitals take seriously their responsibility to honestly report their performance.”

The government’s investment in electronic records was authorized under the broader stimulus package passed in 2009. Medicare expects to spend nearly $7 billion over five years as a way of inducing doctors and hospitals to adopt and use electronic records. So far, the report said, the agency has paid 74, 317 health professionals and 1,333 hospitals. By attesting that they meet the criteria established under the program, a doctor can receive as much as $44,000 for adopting electronic records, while a hospital could be paid as much as $2 million in the first year of its adoption. The inspector general’s report follows earlier concerns among regulators and others over whether doctors and hospitals are using electronic records inappropriately to charge more for services, as reported by The New York Times last September, and is likely to fuel the debate over the government’s efforts to promote electronic records. Critics say the push for electronic records may be resulting in higher Medicare spending with little in the way of improvement in patients’ health. Thursday’s report did not address patient care.

Even those within the industry say the speed with which systems are being developed and adopted by hospitals and doctors has led to a lack of clarity over how the records should be used and concerns about their overall accuracy.

“We’ve gone from the horse and buggy to the Model T, and we don’t know the rules of the road. Now we’ve had a big car pileup,” said Lynne Thomas Gordon, the chief executive of the American Health Information Management Association, a trade group in Chicago. The association, which contends more study is needed to determine whether hospitals and doctors actually are abusing electronic records to increase their payments, says it supports more clarity.

Although there is little disagreement over the potential benefits of electronic records in reducing duplicative tests and avoiding medical errors, critics increasingly argue that the federal government has not devoted enough time or resources to making certain the money it is investing is being well spent.

House Republicans echoed these concerns in early October in a letter to Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of health and human services. Citing the Times article, they called for suspending the incentive program until concerns about standardization had been resolved. “The top House policy makers on health care are concerned that H.H.S. is squandering taxpayer dollars by asking little of providers in return for incentive payments,” said a statement issued at the same time by the Republicans, who are likely to seize on the latest inspector general report as further evidence of lax oversight. Republicans have said they will continue to monitor the program.

In her letter in response, which has not been made public, Ms. Sebelius dismissed the idea of suspending the incentive program, arguing that it “would be profoundly unfair to the hospitals and eligible professionals that have invested billions of dollars and devoted countless hours of work to purchase and install systems and educate staff.” She said Medicare was trying to determine whether electronic records had been used in any fraudulent billing but she insisted that the current efforts to certify the systems and address the concerns raised by the Republicans and others were adequate.

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Fast-food workers walk out in N.Y. amid rising U.S. labor unrest

New York -- A week after hundreds of Wal-Mart employees walked off their jobs to demand better wages and the freedom to form a union, fast-food workers from some of the nation’s largest chains are staging a similar walkout.

Employees from McDonald's, Wendy’s, Burger King, Taco Bell and KFC are staging protests in locations around New York City today, demanding $15 an hour in pay – more than double the minimum wage some receive – and the right to form a union.

“What we’re finding is that there’s huge support among fast food workers to form a union and to fight back against the poverty wages that they’re being paid,” said Jonathan Westin, organizing director of New York Communities for Change, which is helping to organize the strike.

“Most workers are being paid minimum wage, they can’t afford rent, they can’t afford to put food on the table,” he said. “Many people rely on public assistance to subsidize their wages.”

The first walkout began at a McDonald's on Madison Avenue at 6:30 a.m., where 14 workers refused to enter the building – the majority of the morning shift, Westin said. The protests are now moving to downtown Brooklyn, the Penn Station area, and Times Square.

Darryl Young, 24, was one of the McDonald's workers to walkout. The Bronx resident says he gets paid $7.25 an hour to be a cashier, but is asked to do many more jobs -- maintenance, manning the grill, cleanup. He's the only one in his household earning an income, and said he was nervous about walking out because he has a 2-week-old daughter.

"I'm just standing up for what's right," he said.

It is often difficult to organize service workers because of the changing nature of their shifts – it’s even  more difficult to organize low-wage workers in a bad economy, because people are afraid they won’t be able to find a new job.

But Westin said his group had been talking to workers throughout the summer. Interest grew after Wal-Mart workers walked off the job last week. Workers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach also walked out last week.

Those actions follow a period of relative quiet on the labor front, broken by the Chicago teacher’s strike earlier this year and a strike by employees of Hostess Brands that the company blamed for putting it out of business.

More walkouts are likely to come.

“Strikes have always run in clusters, at points that nobody anticipates,” Julius Getman, a labor expert and the author of “Restoring the Power of Unions: It Takes a Movement,” said in an interview last week.

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Obama, Romney to meet over lunch at the White House Thursday

WASHINGTON -- President Obama and former campaign rival Mitt Romney will meet for a private lunch Thursday at the White House, fulfilling an offer that Obama made after his reelection victory.

The White House announced Wednesday morning that Obama and the former Republican presidential nominee will dine at an undisclosed time in the Private Dining Room in the Executive Mansion. The event will be closed to reporters and photographers.

The duo’s meeting follows a statement from Obama on Election Night.

“In the weeks ahead, I also look forward to sitting down with Governor Romney to talk about where we can work together to move this country forward,” Obama said.

PHOTOS: 2016 presidential possibilities

Obama, in a press conference held Nov. 14, offered some hints as to what their conversation may be.

“There are certain aspects of Governor Romney’s record and his ideas that I think could be very helpful,” Obama said. “To give you one example, I do think he did a terrific job running the Olympics. And you know, that skill set of trying to figure out how do we make something work better applies to the federal government.”

“There may be ideas that he has with respect to jobs and growth that can help middle-class families that I want to hear,” Obama added. “I’m not either prejudging what he’s interested in doing, nor am I suggesting I’ve got some specific assignment.”

Romney, who lost the race by about 3.5 million votes, has avoided public appearances since shortly after the election, when he aggravated many in his own party by accusing Obama of winning through “gifts” to African-Americans, Latinos and young voters during his first term.

“The Obama campaign was following the old playbook of giving a lot of stuff to groups that they hoped they could get to vote for them and be motivated to go out to the polls,” the former Massachusetts governor said on a conference call to supporters.

PHOTOS: President Obama’s past

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BBC drama 'The Hour' back to make the 1950s sexy

LONDON (AP) — The media are under fire, celebrities are under the microscope. Welcome to Britain in 2012 — or in the 1950s, the setting for the BBC drama "The Hour."

A newsroom drama/political thriller about the staff of a current affairs TV program, "The Hour" gained attention last year when it debuted for its resonant story lines and distinctive retro style. The latter aspect — all mid-century modern interiors, sensuous silk dresses and slim suits — prompted the show to be dubbed, inevitably, a British "Mad Men."

The second six-episode season — in the middle of its run in Britain and starting Wednesday on BBC America — stays focused on the tempestuous trio of battling producer Bel Rowley (Romola Garai), combative reporter Freddie Lyon (Ben Whishaw, tech-master Q in the Bond film "Skyfall") and smooth anchorman Hector Madden ("The Wire" alumnus Dominic West) as they confront meddling management, murky maneuvers in high places and tensions between work and their private lives.

They also must deal with the consequences of their show's rising profile — especially the impulsive Hector, who finds that fame comes at a cost.

Series writer Abi Morgan, whose work includes screenplays for "The Iron Lady" and "Shame," said she was drawn to the period's sense of style — "a certain kind of 'La Dolce Vita' glamour that I really love." She also wanted to explore the birth of modern culture in a decade often seen as staid and conformist.

"What we know about history is inherently, it repeats itself," said Morgan, counting off the show's modern themes: "Immigration, women trying to have it all, the sense of a kind of greater global threat (because of the Cold War) ... the rise of capitalism and consumerism in Britain, the birth of celebrity, and the vulnerability of celebrity."

"The Hour" has been hailed for recasting a time usually remembered in Britain as a gray era of postwar austerity. Prosperity took a long time to arrive in Britain, which emerged from World War II victorious but broke — wartime food rationing continued until the 1950s.

But by 1957, when the second series of "The Hour" opens, wages were rising, the economy was growing, new consumer goods were available and the tempting devil of rock 'n' roll was washing up on Britain's shores.

The series introduces the BBC's brash rival ITV, which launched in 1955 as Britain's first commercial TV network, and takes excursions to seedy Soho nightclubs, where journalists and politicians mingled with denizens of the London underworld.

Garai, whose television roles include the title role in Jane Austen's "Emma" and an ambitious Victorian prostitute in "The Crimson Petal and the White," said "The Hour" helped correct "the idea that somehow the '60s was the sea-change."

"The '60s was born out of the '50s," she said. "In this series, we talk a bit about Ginsberg and Kerouac. The birth of everything we identify as 'modern' was definitely seeded in the '50s and the Beat Generation."

Like Aaron Sorkin's "The Newsroom," the show is also a love letter to journalism — a much-needed one in Britain, where the profession's image has plunged after revelations of tabloid phone hacking, and where even the august BBC has been tarred by its bungled response to a sex abuse scandal.

"I still believe in the nobility of journalism," Morgan said. "I still love good journalism, and I wanted to hark back to an age when you didn't instantly tweet and you didn't instantly blog and you didn't videophone an event. The slow burn of building a story and nurturing a story and investigating a story is still fascinating to me."

"The Hour" continues a run of strong female characters for Morgan, who dared to depict the divisive former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady."

In Bel, she has created something still too rare on television — a sympathetic, competent woman in a position of power. Garai said it was a delight to play a strong women who is "not seen as being bossy or controlling."

Her only qualm is the show's luscious costumes, which have made Garai and her co-stars the subject of glossy magazine spreads about '50s fashion.

The real-life Bel, she says, would have worn "a tweed suit and brogues."

"You sort of think, could Bel really afford a silk two-piece on a BBC producer's salary?" Garai said. "And then everyone goes, 'Oh shut up, Romola.' So I say 'OK, OK, yes. I'll wear the beautiful suits. And breathe in.'"

Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

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Nurses Sue Douglas Kennedy for $200,000

Yana Paskova for The New York Times

Two nurses have accused Douglas Kennedy, a son of Robert F. Kennedy, of assault and battery, negligence and causing them emotional and physical distress after an episode involving his newborn son.

Two nurses in Westchester County have filed a $200,000 lawsuit against Douglas Kennedy, a son of Robert F. Kennedy, accusing him of assault and battery, negligence and causing them emotional and physical distress after an episode involving his newborn son.

The Journal News of Westchester reported that the lawsuit was filed on Tuesday, a week after a court in Mount Kisco, N.Y., acquitted Mr. Kennedy of child-endangerment and harassment charges.

The charges stemmed from Mr. Kennedy’s attempt in January to take his newborn son from a maternity ward.

The two nurses said Mr. Kennedy hurt them as they tried to prevent him from leaving with the newborn. Mr. Kennedy said he was just taking the baby outside for some fresh air.

In a statement, Mr. Kennedy vowed to fight the lawsuit and said it was an attempt to extort money from his family.

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New home sales dipped 0.3% in October

The October data on new home sales came in below analyst expectations, but the monthly figures can be volatile. (Gregory Bull / Associated Press)

By Jim Puzzanghera

November 28, 2012, 8:31 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- New home sales dipped 0.3% in October and the government revised down its figures for September in a report that threw some cold water on the recent signs of a strong housing rebound.

New single-family homes sold last month at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 368,000, down from a revised 369,000 rate in September, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

The September figure was lowered from the initial 389,000 rate, which had represented a 5.7% jump from August and the highest rate since April 2010.

The revised figure means new home sales increased just 0.8% in September.

The October data came in below analyst expectations, but the monthly figures can be volatile. The overall trends are still positive, and new homes sales last month were up 17.2% from a year earlier.

The median sales price also dropped last month, to $237,700 from $248,000 in September. The October sales price was up 5.7% from a year earlier.

Supply also increased last month. There was a 4.8 months supply of new homes in October, compared to a 4.7 month supply in September.

ALSO:

House flipping gets an expensive twist

Housing recovery continues as home prices rise in September

New home sales up 5.7% in September to best rate since early 2010

Follow Jim Puzzanghera on Twitter and Google+.

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Obama returns to campaign trail to promote middle-class tax cuts

Negotiations on the fiscal cliff continue Tuesday as neither Republicans nor Democrats have been able to broker a deal.

By Christi Parsons




This post has been updated, as indicated below.

November 27, 2012, 8:47 a.m.

WASHINGTON — President Obama is heading back out on the campaign trail this week — this time to pressure Congress to extend the expiring middle-class tax cuts.
 
On Friday, Obama plans to travel to Hatfield, Pa., for an event at a toy factory that according to the White House “depends on middle-class consumers during the holiday season.”
 
Lest anyone miss the holiday spin of this public campaign, the White House issued an analysis Monday predicting how the automatic tax increases could hurt the winter shopping season. Obama is expected to mention its findings, including its estimate that the hike would put a $200-billion crimp in consumer spending in 2013.

PHOTOS: President Obama’s past 

Of course, Republicans are perfectly amenable to extending the Bush-era tax cuts as a complete package. But aides to Obama are reiterating that he won’t go along with a deal that extends the cuts for high earners.
 
Staffers on all sides are working now to come up with an agreement that will avert the expiration of the tax cuts as well as the federal government spending cuts set to take effect the end of the year.
 
Just how hard Obama plans to hit the “Grinch” message at this point in the talks isn’t clear. The politics of a deal call for a delicate balance of partisan interests — no easy task so soon after the acrimonious fall campaigns.
 
For much of this week, the campaign will take place behind closed doors. On Tuesday Obama is scheduled to meet with small retailers whose profits depend significantly on holiday sales.

QUIZ: How much do you know about the fiscal cliff?
 
On Wednesday, he has scheduled an event at the White House with middle-class Americans who responded to an email from senior advisor David Plouffe seeking accounts of how a tax increase would affect them. He’ll also meet that day with business leaders.
 
But on Friday, Obama is set to go to Pennsylvania to visit the 150 employees of the Rodon Group factory.
 
The facility makes toys for K’NEX Brands, whose products include popular items of Christmases past and present — Tinkertoys and Angry Bird Building Sets.

Republicans are planning their own public campaign on the tax fight. House members are planning events at small businesses to argue the merits of extending all of the Bush-era tax cuts.

"The target of the president’s rallies should be the congressional Democrats who want to raise tax rates on small businesses rather than cut spending," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner. "To draw attention to the irresponsible position of Democrats in Congress, House Republicans will be taking our message to small businesses across America."

[For the Record, 8:44 a.m. PST Nov. 27: This post has been updated to include Republican plans for a public campaign on taxes.]

Follow Politics Now on Twitter and Facebook 

christi.parsons@latimes.com

Twitter: @cparsons

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Nintendo says more than 400,000 Wii Us sold in US

NEW YORK (AP) — Nintendo has sold more than 400,000 of its new video game console, the Wii U, in its first week on sale in the U.S., the company said Monday.

The Wii U launched on Nov. 18 in the U.S. at a starting price of $ 300. Nintendo said the sales figure, based on internal estimates, is through Saturday, or seven days later.

The Wii U is the first major game console to launch in six years. It comes with a new touch-screen controller that promises to change how people play games by offering different people in the same room a different experience, depending on the controller used.

Six years ago, Nintendo Co. sold 475,000 of the original Wii in that console’s first seven days in stores, according to data from the NPD Group. The original Wii remains available, and Nintendo said it sold more than 300,000 of them last week, along with roughly 250,000 handheld Nintendo 3DS units and about 275,000 of the Nintendo DS.

At this early stage, demand isn’t the only factor dictating how many consoles are sold. Supply is, too. This means it’s likely that more people wanted to buy the Wii U in the first week than those who were able to. The original Wii was in short supply more than a year after it went on sale.

As of Monday afternoon, the website of Best Buy Co. was sold out of the Wii U. Video game retailer GameStop Corp. said there was at least a three day wait for a deluxe Wii U, which costs $ 350, has more memory and comes with a game called “Nintendo Land.” GameStop still had the basic, $ 300 version available.

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter estimates that Nintendo will ship 1 million to 1.5 million Wii Us in the U.S. through the end of January.

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Fla. man sues ex-Elmo puppeteer, claims NY abuse

NEW YORK (AP) — A Florida man has sued the ex-Elmo puppeteer who resigned amid a sex scandal, saying the voice actor met him in New York after trolling gay telephone chat lines seeking underage boys for sex.

The lawsuit seeking unspecified damages was filed in Manhattan federal court Tuesday by a man who remains anonymous.

The man says he met Kevin Clash on a chat line when he was 16 years old in 2000 and exploring modeling opportunities in New York.

The lawsuit says Clash had numerous Elmo dolls in his apartment when he met the teen for sex. The man, now 29, is the third to make claims against Clash, who resigned from "Sesame Street" last week after 28 years.

A spokeswoman says Clash "believes this lawsuit has no merit."

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Imaging Shows Progressive Damage by Parkinson’s

For the first time, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology report, brain imaging has been able to show in living patients the progressive damage Parkinson’s disease causes to two small structures deep in the brain.

The new technique confirms some ideas about the overall progress of the disease in the brain. But the effects of Parkinson’s vary in patients, the researchers said, and in the future, the refinement in imaging may help doctors monitor how the disease is affecting different people and adjust treatment accordingly.

The outward symptoms and progress of Parkinson’s disease — tremors, stiffness, weakness — have been well known since James Parkinson first described them in 1817. But its progress in the brain has been harder to document.

Some of the structures affected by the disease have been buried too deep to see clearly even with advances in brain imaging. An important recent hypothesis about how the disease progresses was based on the examinations of brains of patients who had died.

Now, a group of scientists at M.I.T. and Massachusetts General Hospital report that they have worked out a way to combine four different sorts of M.R.I. to get clear pictures of damage to two brain structures in people living with Parkinson’s. In doing so, they have added support to one part of the recent hypothesis, which is that the disease first strikes an area involved in movement and later progresses to a higher part of the brain more involved in memory and attention.

Suzanne Corkin, a professor emerita of behavioral neuroscience at M.I.T. and the senior author on the paper published online Monday in The Archives of Neurology, said that this progression was part of the hypothesis put forward in 2003 by Heiko Braak, a German neuroscientist, based on autopsies.

But, she said, because of the limits of brain imaging, “nobody could test this in living patients.”

David A. Ziegler, who was at M.I.T. when the research was done, and is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, said that the study, of 29 patients with Parkinson’s and 27 healthy patients of roughly the same age, showed that the peanut-sized substantia nigra lost volume first, and another structure called the basal forebrain, involved in memory and attention, was struck later.

Glenda Halliday, a neuroscientist at Neuroscience Research Australia and the University of New South Wales, who was not involved in the study, said the paper confirmed “the progression of degeneration in two important affected brain regions in people with Parkinson’s.”

Dr. Corkin, Dr. Ziegler and their colleagues developed a way to use four different varieties of M.R.I. — each using different settings on the same machine — to come up with four different images that could be used to form one image that showed structures deep in the brain like the substantia nigra, long known to be important in Parkinson’s.

The disease kills brain cells, shrinking the parts of the brain that it affects, and the comparative study showed that the reduction in size of the substantia nigra showed up in early stage Parkinson’s patients, compared with a healthy group.

The reduction in size in the basal forebrain, compared with the healthy group, did not show up in the patients in the early stage, but was clear in patients in the later stage.

“This is a project we’ve been working on in our lab for years,” she said. A next step, already in progress, is to correlate damage to specific brain structures with symptoms.

Parkinson’s, she said, is a disease that shows the same broad outlines of development in most patients, but with considerable variation. Dementia may arrive early or may not appear. The M.R.I. technique described in the paper, she said, might help tease out what is going on in the brain in subgroups of Parkinson’s patients that show different symptoms and could influence treatment.

One important difference between the two brain structures is that damage to the substantia nigra decreases production of the neurotransmitter dopamine, while a smaller basal forebrain would reduce the production of a different chemical, acetylcholine.

The research is just one step, Dr. Ziegler said. One of the “big outstanding questions,” he said, is whether all patients will eventually get dementia.

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SolarCity pegs IPO at $13 to $15 a share, or up to $151 million

SolarCity Corp., a Bay Area solar energy company, is looking to raise as much as $151 million in its initial public offering, widely considered to be the most anticipated renewable-power IPO coming down the pike.

The San Mateo business – which helps residential, commercial and government customers including Wal-Mart, eBay and the U.S. military set up solar power-generating systems – said it expects its shares to price between $13 and $15 each.

The company is selling 10 million shares, and current shareholders are offering 65,012 shares, SolarCity said in an amended filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company expects its stock to trade under the SCTY ticker on Nasdaq.

SolarCity describes its business as selling renewable energy to power consumers at prices below utility rates – or roughly 15 cents per kilowatt hour on average. After customers sign multidecade contracts, SolarCity handles the entire process from permitting through installation with limited upfront charges, the company said.

Brothers Lyndon and Peter Rive founded the company in 2006. Their cousin, Tesla Motors and SpaceEx boss Elon Musk, is chairman.

SolarCity operates in 14 states and plans to expand internationally. It has raised $1.57 billion from backers such as Google, PG&E Corp. and U.S. Bancorp.

The company hopes to take advantage of rising energy prices – a trend that Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory predicts will cause the U.S. energy-efficiency service sector to grow more than four-fold from 2008 to 2020.

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Solar power plants burden the counties that host them

SolarCity sees bright future for residential solar systems

Federal plan designed to create large solar energy plants

Read More..

SEC chief Mary Schapiro to step down

WASHINGTON -- Mary Schapiro said Monday she will step down as chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission next month.

Schapiro, who has headed the Wall Street watchdog since 2009, had been widely expected to depart the commission after the presidential election. She announced that her last day would be Dec. 14.

“It has been an incredibly rewarding experience to work with so many dedicated SEC staff who strive every day to protect investors and ensure our markets operate with integrity,” Schapiro said in a written statement.

 “Over the past four years we have brought a record number of enforcement actions, engaged in one of the busiest rulemaking periods, and gained greater authority from Congress to better fulfill our mission,” she said.

Her five-year term does not expire until January 2014, but it's rare for chairs to serve more than four years. The SEC noted that Schapiro has served longer than 24 of the previous 28 chairs.

Schapiro, the first woman to serve as a non-interim chair of the agency, has headed the SEC during a volatile period. The SEC has grappled with the fallout from the Bernard Madoff ponzi scheme.

And it has launched cases stemming from the financial crisis and has had to implement dozens of new rules from the Dodd-Frank financial reform law.

The SEC chairwoman also serves on the new Financial Stability Oversight Council, a panel of top regulators that monitors the financial system for threats to the broader economy.

Democratic Commissioner Elisse Walter has been mentioned as a possible successor. The New York Times reported that Mary J. Miller, assistant Treasury secretary for domestic finance, and Sallie L. Krawcheck, a former executive at Bank of America and Citigroup, also are under consideration.

ALSO:

Warren Buffett says tax hikes won't stop wealthy from investing

Stocks fall in early trading on concerns about 'fiscal cliff,' Greece

New faces likely for key U.S. economic posts, starting at Treasury

Follow Jim Puzzanghera on Twitter and Google+.

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Yes, the Government Can Still Spy on Your Digital Life (for Now)

Ahead of a controversial Senate debate on digital privacy this week, the battle over warrantless cell-phone and Internet searches is beginning to take shape — even as law-enforcement agencies continue to carry out the searches anyway. Judges across the country have thrown out cases that used tracked digital American lives without warrants, but others haven’t, reports The New York Times‘s Somini Sengupta. A DC court, for example, compared text messages to voicemail messages, which because they can be overheard are not protected by state privacy laws, argued one judge. A Louisiana court is deciding if cell-phone records are like business records. Another court ruled that GPS cell phone tracking without a warrant was fine, too. Others, however, argue that cell phones are more than just a paper trail. One judge called cell phones “raw, unvarnished and immediate, revealing the most intimate of thoughts and emotions,” as in something that is subject to higher privacy standards. Meanwhile, we see the same inconsistencies with Internet protections, reports The Wall Street Journal‘s Joe Pallazolo. A federal court recently ruled that people who use their neighbors’ WiFi without permission forfeit privacy, opening up government officials to warrantless searches. The same ruling other courts have made for IP addresses. However, the law isn’t that clear-cut, either, argues George Washington University professor Oren Kerr. 

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Without clear rules, government agencies have continued investigations with warrantless searches. As people have started using cell phones more often and for more than just calling, law enforcement agency requests for cell-phone information have increased, reported The New York Times‘s Eric Lichtblau earlier this year. AT&T gets more than 700 requests a day from various agencies, triple what it got in 2007, he notes. Last year, the total number of requests came in at at least 1.3 million. At the same time, the application for wiretapping warrants declined 14 percent last year to 2,732, according to the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. A curious pattern considering the requests for information have gone up. Though these wireless carriers say they require a search warrant, a court order or a formal subpoena to release information, “in cases that law enforcement officials deem an emergency, a less formal request is often enough,” writes Lichtblau. Or, it’s possible that law enforcement has opted for other forms of tracking that don’t require warrants, at least not according to some judges. 

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A Senate debate beginning Thursday to make changes on the Electronic Communications Privacy Act might bring some clarity to these issues. However, it’s unclear if the revised bill will give the government more or less power, and it doesn’t sound like the vote will apply to all cell phone or Internet data. An early draft of the bill reportedly allowed warrantless e-mail searches, reported CNET’s Declan McCullagh. Since, Senator Patrick Leahy, who is spearheading the bill, has denied that the updates to the regulation will do that, however. Instead, the revised bill will require search warrants to get into email no matter how old, says Sengupta. That should presumably apply to some of our smartphone and Internet data, too. But it doesn’t address text messages or location information, other concerns of consumers.

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