CLEVELAND (Reuters) ? An Ohio man accused of killing three people and wounding a fourth after luring them through bogus Craigslist ads for a job as a farm caretaker pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to the charges, which could carry a death sentence.

Richard J. Beasley, 52, faces a 28-count indictment stemming from the killings. Brogan Rafferty, 17, has also been charged in the killings as an accomplice to Beasley.

Beasley appeared Wednesday in court by video conference and over the course of nearly an hour prosecutors read the charges against him, said April Wiesner, spokeswoman for the Summit County, Ohio, prosecutor’s office.

Prosecutors have said they believe that Beasley fired the shots in the three killings and the wounding of the fourth man.

Beasley and Rafferty are suspected of luring the men to Noble County with the promise of a job on a 688-acre property, telling them to bring all of their belongings.

The killings are the latest in a string of incidents across the nation where accused attackers apparently found their victims through ad postings on Craigslist or other social media sites.

In 2009, a former medical student was accused of killing a masseuse he met through Craigslist and police believe that a serial killer, or killers, in the New York area may be preying on prostitutes who advertised on the site.

In other incidents, victims advertising goods for sale have been attacked and killed as have those responding to ads.

In the Ohio killings, Beasley was charged with aggravated murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, robbery and identity theft. Rafferty was charged with three counts of aggravated murder, one count of attempted murder, four counts of aggravated robbery and four counts of kidnapping, Wiesner said.

Prosecutors have opted to pursue the charges against Beasley and Rafferty in Summit County, where one of the crimes occurred.

Rafferty was charged originally as a juvenile in Noble County, where two men were killed and a third wounded. A Noble County judge ordered him to face charges as an adult, but with the transfer of the case to Summit County, prosecutors must re-file their request to try Rafferty as an adult.

Beasley and Rafferty have been charged with the attempted murder of Scott Davis, 48 of South Carolina, who was shot after meeting them and driving with them to a secluded area.

They are also charged with killing Ralph Geiger, 56 of Akron, Ohio, David Pauley, 51 of Norfolk, Virginia and Timothy Kern, 47 of Massillon, Ohio. The bodies of the three men were found in November in shallow graves after Rafferty’s arrest.

Summit County prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh has said prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Beasley if he is convicted of aggravated murder. Ohio law bars prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against Rafferty because he was under age 18 at the time of the crimes.

A pre-trial hearing for Beasley is scheduled for February 8.

(Reporting by Kim Palmer; Editing by David Bailey and Greg McCune)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/us_nm/us_crime_craigslist

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In this undated photo released by the Italian Navy Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012, the Costa Concordia cruise ship is seen grounded off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy. Italian authorities have identified the bodies of three German passengers as divers kept up the search for those still missing from the Costa Concordia cruise ship that rammed into a reef off Italy. Sixteen deaths have been confirmed so far in the disaster, but three of those bodies have yet to be identified. Another 16 people are still missing from the ship, which grounded Jan. 13, but officials have acknowledged that it would take a miracle to find any more survivors. Salvage experts worked Thursday so they could begin pumping tons of fuel off the ship starting Saturday to avert an environmental catastrophe. The stricken ship lies very close to a marine sanctuary. (AP Photo/Italian Navy)

In this undated photo released by the Italian Navy Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012, the Costa Concordia cruise ship is seen grounded off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy. Italian authorities have identified the bodies of three German passengers as divers kept up the search for those still missing from the Costa Concordia cruise ship that rammed into a reef off Italy. Sixteen deaths have been confirmed so far in the disaster, but three of those bodies have yet to be identified. Another 16 people are still missing from the ship, which grounded Jan. 13, but officials have acknowledged that it would take a miracle to find any more survivors. Salvage experts worked Thursday so they could begin pumping tons of fuel off the ship starting Saturday to avert an environmental catastrophe. The stricken ship lies very close to a marine sanctuary. (AP Photo/Italian Navy)

Seagulls stand on a rock near the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. Italian authorities have identified the bodies of three German passengers as divers kept up the search for those still missing from the Costa Concordia cruise ship that rammed into a reef off Italy. Sixteen deaths have been confirmed so far in the disaster, but three of those bodies have yet to be identified. Another 16 people are still missing from the ship, which grounded Jan. 13, but officials have acknowledged that it would take a miracle to find any more survivors. Salvage experts worked Thursday so they could begin pumping tons of fuel off the ship starting Saturday to avert an environmental catastrophe. The stricken ship lies very close to a marine sanctuary. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

A view of the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. Italian authorities have identified the bodies of three German passengers as divers kept up the search for those still missing from the Costa Concordia cruise ship that rammed into a reef off Italy. Sixteen deaths have been confirmed so far in the disaster, but three of those bodies have yet to be identified. Another 16 people are still missing from the ship, which grounded Jan. 13, but officials have acknowledged that it would take a miracle to find any more survivors. Salvage experts worked Thursday so they could begin pumping tons of fuel off the ship starting Saturday to avert an environmental catastrophe. The stricken ship lies very close to a marine sanctuary. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

Italian firefighters, top, work on the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, as Italian Financial police scuba divers prepare to dive, bottom, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. Italian authorities have identified the bodies of three German passengers as divers kept up the search for those still missing from the Costa Concordia cruise ship that rammed into a reef off Italy. Sixteen deaths have been confirmed so far in the disaster, but three of those bodies have yet to be identified. Another 16 people are still missing from the ship, which grounded Jan. 13, but officials have acknowledged that it would take a miracle to find any more survivors. Salvage experts worked Thursday so they could begin pumping tons of fuel off the ship starting Saturday to avert an environmental catastrophe. The stricken ship lies very close to a marine sanctuary. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

Italian Navy scuba divers gestures as they return after assignment of the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. Italian authorities have identified the bodies of three German passengers as divers kept up the search for those still missing from the Costa Concordia cruise ship that rammed into a reef off Italy. Sixteen deaths have been confirmed so far in the disaster, but three of those bodies have yet to be identified. Another 16 people are still missing from the ship, which grounded Jan. 13, but officials have acknowledged that it would take a miracle to find any more survivors. Salvage experts worked Thursday so they could begin pumping tons of fuel off the ship starting Saturday to avert an environmental catastrophe. The stricken ship lies very close to a marine sanctuary. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

ROME (AP) ? Costa Crociere SpA offered uninjured passengers euro11,000 ($14,460) apiece Friday to compensate them for lost baggage and the psychological trauma they suffered after their cruise ship ran aground and capsized off Tuscany.

But some passengers are already refusing to accept the deal, saying they can’t yet put a figure on the costs of the trauma they endured.

Costa announced the offer after negotiations with consumer groups who say they are representing 3,206 passengers from 61 countries who suffered no physical harm when the massive Costa Concordia cruise ship hit a reef on Jan. 13.

In addition to the lump-sum indemnity, Costa, a unit of the world’s biggest cruise operator, the Miami-based Carnival Corp., also said it would reimburse uninjured passengers the full costs of their cruise, their return travel expenses and any medical expenses they sustained after the grounding.

The deal does not apply to the hundreds of crew on the ship, many of whom have lost their jobs, the roughly 100 people who were injured in the chaotic evacuation or the families who lost loved ones. Sixteen bodies have already been recovered from the disaster and another 16 people who were on board are missing and presumed dead.

Passengers are free to pursue legal action on their own if they aren’t satisfied with the deal and it was clear Friday ? two weeks after the grounding ? that some would.

“We’re very worried about the children,” said Claudia Urru of Cagliari, Sardinia, who was on board the ship with her husband and two sons aged 3 and 12. Her eldest child, she said, is seeing a psychiatrist: He won’t speak about the incident or even look at television footage of the grounding.

“He’s terrorized at night,” she told The Associated Press. “He can’t go to the bathroom alone. We’re all sleeping together, except my husband, who has gone into another room because we don’t all fit.”

As a result, she said, her family has retained a lawyer because they don’t know what the real impact ? financial or otherwise ? of the trauma will be. She said her family simply isn’t able to make such decisions now.

“We are having a very, very hard time,” she said.

Some consumer groups have already signed on as injured parties in the criminal case against the Concordia’s captain, Francesco Schettino, who is accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship before all those aboard were evacuated. He is under house arrest.

In addition, Codacons, one of Italy’s best-known consumer groups, has engaged two U.S. law firms to launch a class-action lawsuit against Costa and Carnival in Miami, claiming that it expects to get anywhere from euro125,000 ($164,000) to euro1 million ($1.3 million) per passenger.

German attorney Hans Reinhardt, who currently represents 15 Germans who survived the accident and is in talks to represent families who lost loved ones, said he is advising his clients not to take the settlement.

Instead, he, like Codacons, is working with the U.S. law firm to pursue the class-action suit in Miami.

“What they have lost is much more than euro11,000,” he told the AP.

But Roberto Corbella, who represented Costa in the negotiations, said the deal provides passengers with quick and “generous” restitution that consumer groups estimate could amount to some euro14,000 ($18,500) per passenger when it includes the other reimbursements.

“The big advantage that they have is an immediate response, no legal expenses, and they can put this whole thing behind them,” he told AP.

Angry passenger Herbert Greszuk, a 62-year-old German who left behind everything he had with him, including his tuxedo, camera, jewelry, and even his dentures, told the AP before the compensation deal was announced that it was an issue of accountability.

“Something like this must not be allowed to happen again. So many people died; it’s simply inexcusable,” he said.

The Concordia gashed its hull on reefs off the island of Giglio after Schettino made an unauthorized deviation from its approved route to bring it closer to Giglio. Some 4,200 passengers and crew were hastily evacuated.

Search efforts for the missing resumed Friday as salvage crews set up to begin extracting some 500,000 tons of heavy fuel oil on Saturday before it leaks into the pristine waters surrounding the ship. That pumping operation is expected to last nearly a month.

Italy’s civil protection office on Friday released a list of some of the other possibly toxic substances aboard the cruise liner, including 50 liters of insecticide and 41 cubic meters of lubricants, among other things.

But so far, even though some film has been detected in the waters around the ship, tests on the waters indicate nothing outside the norm, according to Tuscany’s regional environment agency.

“Toxic tests have all resulted negative,” the agency said.

The crystal clear seas around Giglio are a haven for scuba divers and form part of a marine sanctuary for dolphins, porpoises and whales.

Passengers have said the evacuation was chaotic, with crew members unprepared to deal with an emergency and constantly downplaying the seriousness of the situation. Coast guard data shows the captain only sounded the evacuation alarm an hour after the initial collision, well after the Concordia had listed to the point that many lifeboats couldn’t be lowered.

Schettino has admitted he had taken the ship on “touristic navigation” near Giglio but has said the rocks he hit weren’t charted on his nautical maps.

Codacons has called for a criminal investigation into the not-infrequent practice of “tourist navigation” ? steering huge cruise ships close to shore to give passengers a view of key sites.

The chief executive of Costa, Pier Luigi Foschi, told Italian lawmakers this week that “tourist navigation” wasn’t illegal, and was a “cruise product” increasingly sought out by passengers and offered by cruise lines to try to stay competitive.

___

David Rising in Berlin contributed.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-27-EU-Italy-Cruise-Aground/id-219a8db18c6c4d478aa9208120b81705

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1/27/12 | Updated Headline adjusted to more accurately reflect the article.

If you?ve seen your health insurance premiums increase along with your deductible, you?re not alone. A recent study by the Commonwealth Fund shows just how much more consumers are paying for employer-provided health insurance.

Total premiums ? the amount paid by both employers and workers combined ? for family coverage rose 50 percent from 2003 to 2010, to nearly $14,000 a year, the study found. (The fund is a private foundation that researches health policy issues. The report includes an interactive map showing premium increases by state.)

Workers, meanwhile, are shouldering more of that burden. Their share of annual premiums increased by 63 percent over the same period. In 2010, employee premiums for family-plan coverage averaged about $3,700, up from roughly $2,300 back in 2003.

As a result, ?many working families have seen little or no growth in wages as they have, in effect, traded off wage increases just to hold onto their health benefits,? the report found.

What?s more, employees are paying more for less, because of higher deductibles ? the amount workers pay out of pocket before coverage kicks in. The average family deductible nearly doubled over the seven years studied, to almost $2,000 in 2010.

The study used annual employer data from the federal government to examine insurance cost trends in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Whether the rate of cost growth can be slowed, the report said, depends on the Affordable Care Act, which was passed in March 2010 and intended to go into effect over several years. The act has, for instance, rules to limit what insurance companies can spend on administrative costs and can be ?a platform for further action,? the report said.

In November, however, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to the healthcare overhaul law, throwing some of its provisions into question.

?With rising costs and eroding coverage, much is at stake for the insured and uninsured alike as the nation looks forward,? the report concluded.

If you have employer-based health insurance, how are you handling increases in your premiums and deductibles?

Source: http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/family-health-insurance-costs-doubled-in-7-years-study-finds/

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Teardown fans rejoice! Samsung’s chosen to dissect the Galaxy Note for all to see — and on its official blog, no less. Strangely, the pictures show the global Galaxy Note with its physical home button but the specs match those of the Galaxy Note LTE that we played with at CES and which is supposed to launch on AT&T and Telus real soon now. There are no major surprises here — Samsung outlines some of the over 1000 components within, including the glorious 5.3-inch 1280×800-pixel HD Super AMOLED display, the unspecified 1.5GHz dual-core processor (likely a Qualcomm Snapdragon S3), the eight megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash plus other bits and pieces like sensors and radios. What’s particularly interesting is that Samsung confirms NFC support (with the antenna inside the battery cover) and the use of a Wacom digitizer for the S Pen. Want more? Hit the source link below for the pr0n gory details.

Samsung dissects Galaxy Note, confirms NFC support for LTE version originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/26/samsung-dissects-galaxy-note-confirms-nfc-support-for-lte-versi/

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WASHINGTON ? The United States says it shares a common interest with the Philippines in protecting freedom of navigation in the South China Sea but is not seeking to re-establish a military base on the territory of its Southeast Asian treaty ally.

Despite impending budget cuts, the U.S. has signaled its intent to reinforce its presence in the Asia-Pacific, where there is some trepidation over China’s rising military capabilities. In recent months it has announced plans to station troops in Australia and dock Navy ships in Singapore. That has fueled speculation the U.S. could seek to re-establish the permanent military presence it had in the Philippines until the early 1990s.

As senior diplomats and defense officials from the Philippines and the U.S. began two days of annual strategic talks in Washington on Thursday, both sides said the focus was on intensifying military cooperation in other ways, such as more joint exercises.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. is interested in increasing training and cooperation in areas including search and rescue, freedom of navigation, countering terror and countering piracy.

“The idea that we are looking to establish U.S. bases or permanently station U.S. forces in the Philippines, or anywhere else in Southeast Asia, as part of a China containment strategy is patently false,” said Cmdr. Leslie Hull-Ryde, a Defense Department spokeswoman.

The Philippines has turned to Washington for military hardware after accusing Chinese ships last year of repeatedly intruding into areas it claims in the South China Sea’s disputed Spratly Islands and disrupting oil exploration in its territorial waters.

The U.S. says it has a national interest in peaceful resolution of the territorial conflicts and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea ? where Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan also have claims. The waters are also home to some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

“Certainly freedom of navigation in the South China Sea is something we share an interest in and something that we are interested in protecting together,” Nuland told a news conference.

Earlier, in Manila, Philippines Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said any additional joint military activity would conform with the 1999 agreement that allows U.S. ship and aircraft to visit and resupply, and for joint military exercises in the Philippines.

The Philippine Senate voted in 1991 to close major U.S. military bases in the country, but since 2002 hundreds of U.S. troops have been training and arming Filipino soldiers fighting al-Qaida-linked militants in a Muslim-majority region of the southern Philippines.

The talks in Washington involve the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, Kurt Campbell, and Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense Peter Lavoy. Their Philippine counterparts are Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Erlinda Basilio and Defense Undersecretary Pio Lorenzo Batino.

During the talks, the Philippines will discuss requests for an additional U.S. Coast Guard cutter, a squadron of F-16 fighter jets and other weapons the Philippines needs to bolster its territorial defense, Philippine defense spokesman Peter Paul Galvez said.

____

Associated Press writer Jim Gomez contributed to this report from Manila.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/usmilitary/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_re_us/us_us_philippines

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WASHINGTON ? The e-Duck Stamp would become a permanent part of federal law under legislation passed by the House Monday.

Since 1934, migratory waterfowl hunters over the age of 16 have been required to buy the federal migratory bird hunting and conservation stamps, or duck stamps, at post offices or sporting goods stores.

But four years ago, eight states joined a pilot program allowing them to sell temporary duck stamps through the Internet. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., said that program has been a success and it was time to make it federal law.

The bill passed 373-1. If passed by the Senate, it would give the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service authority to make that program permanent and extend it to all states.

The electronic stamps are valid for 45 days, giving hunters and other purchasers time to get their actual stamps through the mail.

The program also makes it easier for hunters to go online to buy their federal stamps and state hunting licenses at the same time.

The stamps now cost $15 a year, with 98 percent of the revenues going to buy or lease wetland habitat for protection in the National Wildlife Refuge System.

The Migratory Bird Conservation Fund has received more than $800 million since 1934, putting 5.3 million acres of wetlands under the refuge system. The program currently generates about $25 million a year.

The stamps also give birders and other non-hunters free access to the nation’s 553 wildlife refuges.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sponsors a contest every year where wildlife artists from around the country vie to have their entry selected as the design for the stamp the next year.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_go_ot/us_duck_stamp

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Sen. Chris Coons, (D-DE), and Sen Ron Johnson, (R-WI), discuss what they hope to hear from President Obama tonight, and how to tackle tax reform.

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Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney holds a discussion on housing and foreclosure, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney holds a discussion on housing and foreclosure, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks at The River Church, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) ? Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney launched a multipronged attack Monday on rival Newt Gingrich, accusing the former House speaker of engaging in “potentially wrongful activity” in his consulting work, while Gingrich dismissed Romney’s criticism as desperate in the wake of a big loss in South Carolina.

Romney called on Gingrich to release the list of clients he helped after leaving Congress. He offered no proof that Gingrich had engaged in wrongful behavior when, after resigning from the House, he worked with former colleagues to push for a prescription drug benefit for Medicare. Gingrich has never been a registered lobbyist.

“Was he working or were his entities working with any health care companies that could’ve benefited from that? That could represent not just evidence of lobbying but potentially wrongful activity of some kind,” Romney told reporters after a campaign appearance.

When asked if he was suggesting that Gingrich had committed a crime, Romney said: “We just need to understand what his activity’s been over the last 15 years, and make sure that it’s conformed with all the regulations that might exist.”

Gingrich said Romney was willing to “say almost anything” because the GOP nomination is beginning to “slip away” from the former Massachusetts governor.

After a campaign event in Tampa, Gingrich didn’t take questions and did not directly respond to the former Massachusetts governor’s allegations. He did launch a pre-emptive defense, saying earlier Monday in an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that he never lobbied for Freddie Mac.

“It’s not true. He knows it’s not true. He’s deliberately saying things he knows are false,” Gingrich said. “I just think that’s what the next week will be like.”

Gingrich has acknowledged earning more than $1.6 million Freddie Mac, the federally backed mortgage company that played a significant role in the housing crisis. He has said he was a consultant and not a registered lobbyist.

Romney’s attacks, combined with his campaign’s first negative ad and a conference call in which top surrogates criticized Gingrich, showed a newfound aggressiveness for Romney and set the stage for Monday night’s presidential debate. Romney lost Saturday’s South Carolina primary by 12 percentage points to Gingrich and has adopted a newly aggressive tone in an effort to try to regain the race’s momentum.

“While Florida families lost everything in the housing crisis, Newt Gingrich cashed in,” the TV ad says, noting that the former speaker made more than $1.6 million working for Freddie Mac. “Gingrich resigned from Congress in disgrace and then cashed in as a D.C. insider.”

Gingrich called Romney’s claims “desperate baloney.”

“If you’ve been campaigning for six years and you begin to see it slip away, you get desperate and when you get desperate you say almost anything,” he said.

Romney said Gingrich should return the more than $1.6 million he made from the company and accused Gingrich of erratic leadership, saying he was “almost like a pinball machine.”

While Romney criticized Gingrich, he acknowledged profiting from investments in Freddie Mac.

His most recent financial disclosure forms show he had a direct investment in Freddie Mac worth between $100,000 and $250,000. He made between $5,000 and $15,000 in interest income on it between February 2010 and February 2011.

Romney aide Eric Fehrnstrom noted that, even though the former Massachusetts governor profited from the investment, he did not work for Freddie Mac as Gingrich did.

“Newt Gingrich said anybody who profited from Freddie Mac while defending their failed model ought to give the money back,” Fehrnstrom said.

While Romney’s allies have been attacking Gingrich in television commercials for weeks, the Romney campaign’s new commercial marked the first time it has directly attacked any of his opponents.

Romney answered questions from the media after an event Monday that made clear he intends to focus on housing in a state particularly hard hit by home foreclosures and the struggling economy.

But Romney didn’t suggest he intends to change his own prescription for fixing the housing crisis. He told the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s editorial board last year that the housing market should be allowed to hit bottom.

Still, the attacks set the stage for Monday’s debate, a forum in which Gingrich has thrived.

To improve his own performance, Romney was spending much of the day preparing for the two-hour debate with Brett O’Donnell, who advised President George W. Bush and 2008 nominee John McCain.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-23-Romney-Gingrich/id-203000bafea945e7bfaca371ae6a7806

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WASHINGTON (AP) ? As President Barack Obama prepares to deliver his annual address to Congress, many goals he outlined in previous State of the Union speeches remain unfulfilled. From reforming immigration laws to meeting monthly with congressional leaders of both parties, the promises fell victim to congressional opposition or faded in face of other priorities as the unruly realities of governing set in.

For Obama, like presidents before him, the State of the Union is an opportunity like no other to state his case on a grand stage, before both houses of Congress and a prime time television audience. But as with other presidents, the aspirations he’s laid out have often turned out to be ephemeral, unable to secure the needed congressional consent or requiring follow-through that’s not been forthcoming.

As Obama’s first term marches to an end amid bitterly divided government and an intense campaign by Republicans to take his job, it’s going to be even harder for him to get things done this year. So Tuesday night’s speech may focus as much on making an overarching case for his presidency ? and for a second term ? as on the kind of laundry list of initiatives that sometimes characterize State of the Union appeals.

“State of the Union addresses are kind of like the foam rubber rocks they used on Star Trek ? they look solid but aren’t,” said Jack Pitney, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College. “Presidents will talk about solving some policy problem, and then the bold language of the State of the Union address disappears into the messy reality of governing.”

For Obama, last year’s State of the Union offers a case study in that dynamic. Speaking to a newly divided government not long after the assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Ariz., Obama pleaded for national unity, a grand goal that never came to pass as Washington quickly dissolved into one partisan dispute after another.

Many of the particulars Obama rolled out that night proved just as hard to pull off.

Among the initiatives Obama promoted then that have yet to come to fruition a year later: eliminating subsidies to oil companies; replacing No Child Left Behind with a better education law; making a tuition tax credit permanent; rewriting immigration laws; and reforming the tax system.

The list of what he succeeded in accomplishing is considerably shorter, including: securing congressional approval of a South Korea free trade deal; signing legislation to undo a burdensome tax reporting requirement in his health care law; and establishing a website to show taxpayers where their tax dollars go.

White House press secretary Jay Carney argued Monday that the unfinished business from last year’s speech didn’t represent a failure.

“I think that any State of the Union address which lays out an agenda has to be ambitious, and if you got through a year and you achieved everything on your list then you probably didn’t aim high enough,” Carney said.

One of Obama’s pledges from last January’s speech ? to undertake a reorganization of the federal government ? he got around to rolling out only this month. And other promises are vaguer or more long term, such as declaring a “Sputnik moment” for today’s generation and calling for renewed commitments to research and development and clean energy technology; pushing to prepare more educators to teach science, technology and math; promoting high-speed rail and accessible broadband; and seeking greater investments in infrastructure.

“Clearly as time goes on and a presidency matures you get less and less of it and the State of the Union becomes an aspiration for what you want to do as opposed to a road map for what you can accomplish,” said Princeton University historian Julian Zelizer. As voters’ enthusiasm fades and opposition deepens, Zelizer said, “You lose some of your power and you get closer to the next election and no one wants to work with you.”

Last year’s address already contained more modest goals than the speech Obama gave to a joint session of Congress a month after his inauguration, which although not technically a State of the Union report had the feel of one. At the time Obama called for overhauling health care and ending the war in Iraq ? promises he kept ? but also for closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and imposing caps on carbon pollution ? promises unmet.

Obama this month announced plans to use tax credits to encourage employers to create jobs in the U.S. instead of overseas ? an idea he also raised in his State of the Union speech two years ago. Some of his goals, such as immigration and education reform, have resurfaced in multiple addresses, but still without being accomplished.

And rarely has Obama’s rhetoric as president reached as high as the lofty promises of his campaign, when he pledged to change the very way Washington does business and remake politics itself. It’s a far cry from those promises of change to the ambition of meeting monthly with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders ? but even that relatively modest goal, from Obama’s 2010 State of the Union, went unfulfilled.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-23-State%20of%20the%20Union-Promises/id-78cb8e1e85eb4f4e8f07c5ce3ad13ebc

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GILBERT, S.C. ? Working to fend off a surging Newt Gingrich in what’s become an unexpectedly tight race in South Carolina, presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Friday he expects he will lose some state contests to Gingrich during a prolonged fight for the GOP nomination.

“I expect that Newt will win some primaries and contests and I expect I will as well,” Romney said on the Laura Ingraham radio show a day before voting begins in the critical South Carolina primary. “I’m not expecting to win them all.”

Romney didn’t directly say he expects to lose in South Carolina, and in a separate appearance Friday described the contest as “neck-and-neck.” But senior aides acknowledged they wouldn’t be surprised if he lost the primary.

Romney’s comments were his most blunt acknowledgement yet of the trouble his campaign faced amid a reality much changed from 10 days ago when he won the New Hampshire primary in a landslide. They also recognized the possibility that Gingrich could take a South Carolina victory on to other states and win again.

Romney’s campaign appeared visibly rattled the day before voting began. His standing in polls had tumbled after a week of constant attack ads and self-made problems. Senior advisers and campaign hands were preparing for a long fight.

“He will win. It’s a question of when,” said Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who campaigned with Romney on Friday.

Romney came to South Carolina after twin victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, only to see his Iowa victory thrown into question because of problems with the count. He then spent a week trying to answer questions about his personal wealth and when he will release his tax returns.

Romney tried to change the subject from his unreleased tax returns to the ethics investigation Gingrich faced 15 years ago.

Gingrich’s House reprimand in 1997 presented an opportunity to talk about something else. When asked if Gingrich should release the Ethics Committee report that resulted in the first such action against a House speaker, Romney replied, “Of course he should.”

“Nancy Pelosi has the full record of that ethics investigation,” he said. “You know it’s going to get out ahead of the general election.”

In fact, the 1,280-page committee report on Gingrich is already public. Campaign officials said Romney was referring to other documents that Gingrich has referenced and that Pelosi has also mentioned.

“Given Speaker Gingrich’s newfound interest in disclosure and transparency, and his concern about an `October surprise,’ he should authorize the release of the complete record of the ethics proceedings against him,” Romney spokeswoman Gail Gitcho said.

Romney’s campaign was calling South Carolina voters with a recording attacking Gingrich’s ethics record and calling on him to release any documents related to the inquiry.

In December, Pelosi told Talking Points Memo that she had served on the committee that conducted the investigation and implied that more information about the investigation could come to light. At the time Gingrich said the House should retaliate against Pelosi if she released any additional information.

“We turned over 1 million pages of material,” Gingrich said then. “We had a huge report.”

Gingrich’s campaign said Romney’s criticism represented a “panic attack” on the part of his campaign.

Romney on Friday said again that he wouldn’t release his tax returns until April, which would probably be after Republicans choose their nominee.

“I realize that I had a lot of ground to make up and Speaker Gingrich is from a neighboring state, well-known, popular in the state,” Romney said as he campaigned in Gilbert. “Frankly, to be in a neck-and-neck race at this last moment is kind of exciting.”

Romney’s campaign has rolled out endorsement after endorsement this week as he has tried to build a case that he is the most electable nominee. Ohio Sen. Rob Portman joined him on Thursday and McDonnell was with Romney on Friday.

McDonnell said he had been in touch with Romney’s campaign for several weeks as they discussed the timing for the endorsement and decided it was most needed now, even as Romney looks ahead to a long campaign.

“It’s the first Southern primary. I’m a Southern governor. I thought I could help,” McDonnell said.

The campaign’s attack message jumped from rival to rival and topic to topic as Romney fought to stay afloat here.

At the beginning of the week, Romney attacked rival Rick Santorum over voting rights for felons. Then he went after Gingrich’s claims that he created jobs under President Ronald Reagan, saying Gingrich was living in “fantasyland.” Meanwhile, his surrogates held a series of conference calls attacking his rivals, first calling Gingrich an unreliable leader and then pivoting to attack his ethics record.

In Thursday night’s GOP debate, Romney continued his string of off-message remarks about his wealth, saying he has lived “in the real streets of America.” A multimillionaire, he has three homes, one each in Massachusetts, California and New Hampshire.

Romney held three campaign events Friday in his last-ditch push to stem Gingrich’s momentum. After stopping in Gilbert, he held a rally in North Charleston and flew to Greenville in the conservative upstate for a nighttime rally and a stop at his campaign headquarters before an evening event in Columbia, the state capital.

On a plane between events Friday night, Romney was outwardly cheerful in spite of a difficult day ahead, gamely bantering with reporters as he served pastries from Panera Bread.

“Pain au chocolat, smart move!” he said to one, proferring the box and a pair of tongs to take the desserts.

As he moved farther back into the plane, though, he dispensed with the tongs.

“Just use your fingers,” he said. “To heck with it!”

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_el_pr/us_romney

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