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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
EcoSpeed App Saves 30% On Gas With Clever Routing
Still insist on using that gas-guzzling holdover from the 20th century, the automobile? Well, I have a little somethigng for you, you naughty boy, and it will save you a little cash as well as protecting the environment you so callously defile with your every trip. It’s called EcoSpeed, and it’s pretty clever. EcoSpeed consists [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/qBeI9r-UD2A/
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Monday, January 30, 2012
62 below: Deep freeze grips much of Alaska
Downtown Anchorage, Alaska, has seen a snowy and icy winter, including this scene from Jan. 18.
By msnbc.com staff
Even if it has been warmer than usual in much of the United States, there's no denying?Alaska is seeing a real winter, even by its standards.
Anchorage is shivering through one of its coldest January's on record, while in Fairbanks, folks preparing for a sled dog race were being tested by temperatures nearly 50 degrees below zero. Farther inland, Fort Yukon has ranged from minus 50 to minus 62 degrees over the last three days, getting close to its record of minus 78.
Anchorage's average temperature for January has been 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, the Alaska Daily News reported. That's well below its average of?15 degrees, and only three other years (1947, 1925 and 1920)?have been colder, National Weather Service data show.
It's so cold for Anchorage, the Daily News reported,?that:
- Cross country ski?practices by the Junior Nordic League have been canceled due to temps dipping below the official cut-off of minus 4 degrees.
- Tow trucks are so busy helping folks with dead car batteries that it can take up to four hours to get service.
- Some schools have had only a handful of outdoor recess days this month.
In Fairbanks, where the Yukon Quest sled dog race starts on Saturday, some racers have had a hard time moving their trucks?around due to a freeze that kept engines from starting, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported.
Fort Yukon, for its part, dipped to 62 degrees below zero on Saturday, then hit?59 below on Sunday, the National Weather Service reported.
The deep freeze is in addition to the record snow and blizzard conditions seen earlier this month in towns like Cordova and Valdez. Even Anchorage is on track to see a record snow season, having received?more than twice its?average amount so far.
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Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/30/10270410-62-below-deep-freeze-grips-much-of-alaska
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Euro, rich-poor gap proved key issues at Davos
The mountain resort of Davos pictured during the last day of the 42nd Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. The overarching theme of the Meeting, that took place from Jan. 25 to Jan. 29 was "The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models". (AP Photo/Keystone/Laurent Gillieron)
The mountain resort of Davos pictured during the last day of the 42nd Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. The overarching theme of the Meeting, that took place from Jan. 25 to Jan. 29 was "The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models". (AP Photo/Keystone/Laurent Gillieron)
Workers remove material during the last day of the 42nd Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Keystone/Jean-Christophe Bott)
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) ? Europe's crippling debt crisis dominated the world's foremost gathering of business and political leaders, but for the first time the growing inequality between the planet's haves and have-nots became an issue, thanks largely to the Arab Spring uprisings, the Occupy movement and other protests around the globe.
The mood at the end of the five-day meeting in Davos was somber, and more than 2,500 VIPs headed home Sunday concerned about what lies ahead in 2012. Plenty of champagne flowed in this alpine ski resort ? but the atmosphere was flat and the bubbling enthusiasm of some past World Economic Forums was noticeably absent.
Despite some guarded optimism about Europe's latest attempts to stem the eurozone crisis, fears remain that turmoil could return and spill over to the rest of the world. And there were no answers to the widening inequality gap, but a mounting realization that economic growth must include the poor, that job creation is critical, and that affordable food, housing, health care and education need to part of any solution.
Just before the forum began, the International Monetary Fund reduced its forecast for global growth in 2012 to 3.3 percent from the 4 percent pace it projected in September. Many other economic forecasters also predict a slowing economy, including New York University's Nouriel Roubini, who is widely acknowledged to have predicted the crash of 2008 and who said he might be "even slightly more bearish" on the new IMF forecast.
Asia is expected to remain the engine for global growth though at a slower rate, with China leading the way at more than 8 percent, followed by India and Indonesia.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde warned that the eurozone crisis is not the region's problem alone.
"It's a crisis that could have collateral effects, spillover effects, around the world," she said. "What I have seen, and what the IMF has seen in numbers and forecasts, is that no country is immune and everybody has an interest in making sure that this crisis is resolved adequately."
The IMF is the world's traditional lender-of-last-resort and Lagarde is trying to increase its resources by $500 billion so it can help if more lending is needed in Europe or elsewhere. European countries have said they're prepared to give the IMF $150 billion, but that means the rest of the world will have to come up with $350 billion.
At a closing panel Sunday, Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, said a readjustment in Europe is essential "because, if you want to really simplify it, we've lived above our means, and we've done that for too long, and the moment of truth has arrived."
Vikram Pandit, CEO of the global bank Citigroup Inc., said the euro crisis "is costing us about 1 percent in GDP around the world. You do the math. You do the math and say: 'How many jobs is that? How many people are not working because of that? What can we do to go after the biggest question we've got for this decade which is jobs?'"
The world needs 400 million new jobs between now and the end of the decade, not counting the 200 million needed just to get back to full employment, so "that should be our number one priority," he said.
To keep the spotlight on jobs and poverty at the forum, the Occupy movement that began on Wall Street and spread to dozens of cities around the world set up a protest camp in igloos in Davos. They demonstrated in front of City Hall.
In a separate protest, three Ukrainian women were arrested when they stripped off their tops ? despite temperatures around freezing ? and tried to climb a fence surrounding the invitation-only gathering holding banners saying: "Poor, because of you" and "Gangsters party in Davos."
Citi's Pandit said to create the conditions for growth, economic uncertainty must end and that means quickly resolving the eurozone crisis, ending regulatory uncertainty, and getting the public and private sector together to build infrastructure that can create jobs.
Unilever's Polman said it's unacceptable that more than 1 billion people are hungry every day while another billion are obese.
"How do we pull up the people that are excluded from the work force, at the bottom of the pyramid?" he asked. "That we haven't quite figured out yet."
Sheryl Sandberg, CEO of Facebook, said the Internet sector has been creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and to keep up innovations in technology "great scientists" need to be educated all over the world, investment in infrastructure is critical, and regulations must not stifle growth or access.
Nobel economics laureate Peter Diamond, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in an Associated Press interview that in the U.S. there is "an unemployment crisis," especially among young people who aren't accumulating experience. He said the government should fix the Social Security system, fix aging infrastructure, spend on research, and start fixing the education system.
When the forum opened, its normally upbeat founder Klaus Schwab said he remained a deep believer in free markets but that capitalism is out of whack and needs to be fixed "to serve society." He welcomed critics' ideas of how to fix it ? including from the Occupy protesters, though they walked out of a side event where a representative had been invited to talk.
This year for the first time, the forum invited about 60 "Global Shapers" ? young leaders under 30 ? to the forum to try to address issues confronting the generation that will be running the world in decades to come.
Among the younger generation also at Davos were Chelsea Clinton, daughter of the former U.S. president and present secretary of state, who moderated a panel on philanthropy and philanthropist Howard Buffett, son of Warren Buffett, whose foundation focuses on promoting agriculture and fighting hunger, especially in Africa.
The possibility of Iran developing nuclear weapons was among top concerns at Davos this year. There were also several follow-up panels on the Arab Spring and a session moderated by Schwab with Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, which demonstrated the deep divisions over getting peace negotiations back on track.
But although the conflict in Syria ? where the U.N. estimates a crackdown on anti-government protesters has killed some 5,400 people over the past year ? came up in the Arab Spring panels, it wasn't a hot issue.
Julia Marton-Lefevre, director general of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, said that this year for the first time at Davos "the environment is not treated so much as separate topic, which I think is a good thing."
"We are moving towards a more integrated approach to the world's challenges," she said. "Environment is not a side issue, it's really a part of everything. For me, of course, nature is a life support system ? and finally it is being recognized as being a part of the solution."
(This version CORRECTS Corrects spelling of 'Vikram' and first reference to bank as Citigroup Inc. in 10th paragraph. This story is part of AP's general news and financial services.)
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
The iLuv Alarm Clock with iPod Dock and Bed Shaker Is Your BEEP-BEEP-WAKE-THE-F*&K-UP Deal of the Day [Dealzmodo]
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Rivals see no need to match Roche's big gene bet
DAVOS, Switzerland |
DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Roche Holding AG's rivals Sanofi SA and Novartis AG see no need to match the Swiss drug maker in buying a gene-decoding business like Illumina Inc and reckon they can do partnerships instead.
The relaxed attitude in the face of Roche's $5.7 billion hostile bid for Illumina suggests the chance of a counterbid from big drug makers is slim, although diagnostics and IT companies may yet show interest.
"Everybody is thinking about diagnostics but you can get access to this technology without necessarily having to acquire the company," Novartis Chief Executive Joe Jimenez told Reuters at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
U.S.-based Illumina is a major player in the emerging field of gene sequencing, which allows scientists to better predict those patients that are likely to respond to a particular drug.
The San Diego company makes machines that decode a person's entire genome, going far beyond simple genetic tests that are already used in diseases such as cancer to test for a handful of gene variations.
Genetic profiling is getting increased attention from the global pharmaceuticals industry as companies move towards a new era of "personalized" medicine, designed to tailor treatment to particular patients.
That plays to the strengths of Roche, which is a major supplier of diagnostics tests as well as the world's largest maker of cancer drugs.
The hope is that wider use by doctors will expand as the cost of sequencing drops and drug makers adopt more medicines that target specific genes.
But the full potential of whole-genome sequencing is unclear. At the moment, Illumina's systems are used mainly in research laboratories. Their widespread application in clinical practice, potentially tied to certain drugs, remains a "blue sky" opportunity, according to Deutsche Bank analysts.
Furthermore, the drug industry's record of capitalizing on new technologies has been mixed and Chris Viehbacher, CEO of Sanofi, said he had a "deep aversion" to buying technology platforms.
"It's just not the risk profile we're looking for. It could pay off well or there's a big downside," he said. "You need to be part of new technologies but I think partnership is the way to go."
And he's not too concerned that Roche's control of a dominant player in gene decoding might lock out his company. "You can't imagine Illumina only developing diagnostics for Roche products -- that's not much of a business model," he said.
POISON PILL
Viehbacher pointed out that acquisitions did not have to disrupt ongoing partnerships, as evidenced by two deals on Thursday -- Amgen Inc's agreement to buy Micromet Inc and Celgene Corp buying Avila Therapeutics. Sanofi has alliances with both target companies.
Amgen's decision to fork out $1.16 billion on cancer drug developer Micromet has quelled speculation it might challenge Roche on Illumina. [ID:nL2E8CQ27X]
Pharma industry bankers and analysts say Siemens, General Electric, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Danaher, Agilent Technologies and Johnson & Johnson are other potential interlopers, although it is not clear any will want to make a competing bid.
In the meantime, Roche has a battle on its hands after Illumina adopted a "poison pill" defense strategy that would trigger a rights agreement if any party buys 15 percent of its stock.
Viehbacher told Reuters he was continuing to look at bolt-on acquisitions and reiterated he expected annual deals of between 1 billion and 2 billion euros (1.3-2.6 billion) -- similar to previous years -- in areas such as emerging markets, consumer healthcare and animal health.
Finding good buys, however, is not easy.
"When you look at all the deals going on in our sector the values are looking pretty racy. I think the only way you create value is trying to buy ahead of the cycle, so where we're going to be is not necessarily where our competitors are," he said.
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler. Editing by Jane Merriman)
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Demi Moore 911 call: 'She smoked something'
Partially redacted tapes of a 911 call made from Demi Moore's home the day she was rushed to a hospital is fueling speculation about what she may have smoked to induce what the caller described as "convulsions." NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports.
By Baker Machado and Josh Grossberg, E! Online
"Send an ambulance right now. This is an emergency."
So begins the dramatic 911 call, in which Demi Moore's friends are desperately trying to get an ambulance to the actress' Beverly Hills home as quickly as possible, which was released this morning by the Los Angeles Fire Department.
On the heavily redacted recording, which lasts about 10 minutes, one of Moore's friends begins arguing with the dispatcher amid confusion over which agency covers the neighborhood and should be sending paramedics.
"Why is there not an ambulance coming now?" the woman says testily before explaining what caused the star to "act crazy."
MORE from E!: Demi 'Pretty Hyper' and 'Acting Crazy' Before Hospitalization
"She smoked something. It's not marijuana but it's similar to incense. She seems to be having convulsions of some sort.
"She's semi-conscious ... barely. She's convulsing."
The phone is passed to another woman, who tells the dispatcher, "She's not breathing normally ... she's burning up."
MORE from E!: Demi Released From Hospital as Ashton Kutcher Returns to L.A.
Asked if she knows exactly what Moore smoked or any other drugs she might have consumed, the second woman replies: "She's been having some issues with some other stuff lately. I don't know what she's been taking or not."
The dispatcher calms the woman down and explains how to treat Moore, stressing to keep her airway open.
By the end of the call, the paramedics have arrived to take Moore to Sherman Oaks Hospital, where she has since been discharged.
As E! News has previously reported, the 49-year-old Moore had been hosting a birthday party for a friend at the time and had exhibited "pretty hyper" behavior in the moments before the 911 call.
PHOTOS: Demi & Ashton's Romance Recap
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Friday, January 27, 2012
As Sears Plans Closings, Cities Fight To Keep Stores
Sears Holdings Corp., the iconic company that sold millions of families their first appliances and christened America's tallest building, finally succumbed to shabby sales late December, announcing that it would close 100 to 120 of its of its Sears and Kmart stores. Many of the 81 store closings announced thus far are in small towns, where Sears is one of only a handful of retailers.
Now, at least four of the places affected -- Jackson, Miss., Cleveland, Tenn., New Smyrna Beach, Fla., and Harper Woods, Mich. -- are fighting the company's decision. Local governments, afraid of the economic impact of the closures, are appealing to Sears Holdings with petitions, rallies and even tax incentives, so far to no avail.
"We would like for a major store to remain in the Jackson area," pleaded Mary Garner on the online petition started by Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. "Please do not desert us." The petition had 3,251 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon.
Without a replacement store -- unlikely to emerge in this economy -- the departure of a Sears or Kmart means fewer jobs, less tax revenue and another ugly vacancy for already struggling cities. It also means a loss of pride. Even as affluent Americans protest the spread of chains like Walmart and shoppers look online for good deals, big box stores remain important symbols of prosperity for many small towns.
Once America's largest retailer -- and still one of its most ubiquitous, with almost as many store locations as Walmart -- Sears Holdings has struggled in recent years to refresh its staid brand and aging retail stores. After seeing same-store sales decline 5.2 percent in the eight weeks before Christmas (traditionally the most profitable time of the year), the company announced the closures.
"We appreciate the community support and in fact have seen an increase in traffic to these stores since the petitions have started," Tom Aiello, a Sears spokesperson, wrote in an email. "Unfortunately these stores have lost money for several years and Sears Holdings, as a company, cannot continue to support underperforming stores."
RALLIES AND INCENTIVES
Mayors Harvey Johnson Jr. of Jackson, Miss., and Tom Rowland, of Cleveland, Tenn., say that Sears Holdings didn't contact them before making the announcement and that their cities are in the midst of economic development projects that they had hoped would eventually bring more business to struggling stores like Sears'.
"I would hate to see us lose the Sears brand," Rowland said, noting that Cleveland, with a population of 41,285, is also the place where many of the Kenmore ranges -- a brand of ovens exclusive to Sears -- are manufactured. He cited a recently completed luxury apartment complex and a soon-to-open branch of the Whirlpool plant as examples of his city's vibrancy. While Cleveland has other big stores in the area, including branches of Home Depot and Kmart, the loss of one of its oldest department stores would hurt, he said.
Jackson, meanwhile, stands to lose much more: Sears is one of only two remaining anchor stores in the largest mall in Mississippi. City officials are considering offering the company an incentive package to keep it in the Metrocenter Mall, according to Chris Mims, director of communications for the mayor's office.
Jackson, the state's capital, has seen its population drop 5.8 percent since 2000, and the Metrocenter Mall has not fared well either. Since the mall's opening in 1978, it has declined along with the surrounding neighborhood as newer, nicer shopping centers opened in the northern part of the city. In 2010, the mall owners narrowly avoided foreclosure, and today only two of four anchor spaces are filled. That number will dwindle to one if Sears leaves.
Jackson city officials, working to fight the flight of retail from the area, are planning to move 200 to 300 employees from various government offices into one former anchor space in the mall, which they hope will bring new customers to stores like Sears, Mims said.
Any incentive package would most likely be made up of tax abatements, according to Mims. Jackson will lose $129,000 in property taxes annually should the store close. While proposing incentives for private companies is a bold move in a state currently considering cutting its public health budget, Sears is enough of a fixture in Jackson that public support (and petition signatures) are mounting for the plan.
'SEARS HELPED US'
So far, Sears Holdings has yet to respond publicly to the cities' efforts. It's not clear yet whether things will change before Sears Holdings completes the liquidation process for its stores in the next few months.
For cities, giving incentives to retailers doesn't always work out as planned. In 2002, when Kmart (then a separate company) announced store closings en masse, city officials in Buffalo, N.Y., presented the company with a $400,000 incentive package, including six months' worth of free rent, to keep its local store. While the company initially accepted the offer, a few months later it decided to close the Kmart anyway. The building remains vacant to this day, with Buffalo green-lighting plans for an Aldi discount supermarket to take over the space only this past summer.
In New Smyrna Beach, Fla., the petition drive to save Kmart hit a standstill last week when organizers failed to gain the support of the city commission and mayor, even though roughly 6,000 people had signed on. While there is a brand-new Super Walmart a few miles away, unlike Kmart, that store isn't accessible by public transportation. Some worry that those who don't have cars will be out of luck once Kmart is gone. "Poor and elderly people will be especially hurt," said Ellen Weller, 70, the retired nurse who launched the petition.
Dottie, a Kmart employee who asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing her last set of paychecks, is one of those people. "I've worked here for 17 years and now I'm looking for another job," she said. "I'm 72 and I live on my own on a very tight budget. It's very scary."
Whether or not the stores will stay afloat, the news of their closing has generated one strange by-product: nostalgia. Since shoppers learned of the closures, there has been more effusive praise for the iconic glory of Sears than any other time in recent history (and certainly more than was ever generated by the company's own advertising campaigns).
"I would like to see the Sears at Metrocenter in Jackson MS remain open because of the great values on the everyday products that working class people need and want," wrote Anthony Clay on the Jackson petition. Below him, many others pledged earnestly to do all of their shopping at Sears until the store decided to remain open.
"Sears helped us, I believe we can and will help Sears," wrote Jim Watford.
"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/26/sears-closes-cities_n_1231326.html
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Motorola to continue pushing 'smart actions', wants to make you look cleverer
Motorola's automated smartphone rule system first appeared on its Droid Razr; a way of sidestepping laborious menu hopping for everyday tweaks and extra functionality -- with some location-based awareness thrown in. Motorola's senior VP, Alain Mutricy, recently announced that the company plans to continue the roll-out of this smart actions system, presumably on its Razr series, which will also see further expansion this year. The VP added that Motorola will focus on its high-end hands in the US, continuing to roll-out LTE capable handsets. Moto's earnings report will arrive soon and should set the stage for whatever else its new owners are plotting for 2012.
Motorola to continue pushing 'smart actions', wants to make you look cleverer originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Gingrich: Romney self-deportation plan a fantasy
Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich walks to a stage for a forum at Univision Network Studios, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Doral, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich walks to a stage for a forum at Univision Network Studios, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Doral, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich takes part in a forum with journalist Jorge Ramos at Univision Network Studios, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Doral, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney sits with Jorge Ramos as he takes part in the Univision "Meet The Candidates?"forum at Miami-Dade College in Miami, Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Republican Presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich gestures during the "Meet the Candidates" forum, hosted by Univision, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Miami Dade College in Miami. ( Photo/Jeffrey M. Boan)
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney stands with Jorge Ramos as he takes part in the Univision "Meet The Candidates" forum at Miami-Dade College in Miami, Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
DORAL, Fla. (AP) ? Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Wednesday ridiculed rival Mitt Romney's call for self-deportation of illegal immigrants as an "Obama-level fantasy" that would be inhumane to long-established families living in America. Romney, for his part, accused Gingrich of pandering to a Hispanic audience and said Gingrich himself had supported self-deportation in the past.
Discussing immigration in state where 13 percent of registered voters are Hispanic, the former House speaker criticized Romney's immigration policy during a forum with the Spanish-language television network Univision, saying the idea of self-deportation would never work. Romney snapped back at him later in the day at the same forum.
During a debate earlier this week, Romney said he favors self-deportation over policies that would require the federal government to round up millions of illegal immigrants and send them back to their home countries. Advocates of Romney's approach argue that illegal immigration can be curbed by denying public benefits to them, prompting them to leave the United States on their own.
"You have to live in a world of Swiss bank accounts and Cayman Island accounts and automatically $20 million income for no work to have some fantasy this far from reality," Gingrich said, alluding to details in Romney's income tax returns made public Tuesday. "For Romney to believe that somebody's grandmother is going to be so cut off that she is going to self-deport, I mean this is an Obama-level fantasy."
But Gingrich's campaign has spoken of the self-deportation policy he ridiculed Wednesday.
"I recognize that it's very tempting to come out to an audience like this and pander to the audience," Romney said, pointing out that Gingrich has previously made comments supporting the idea of self-deportation. "I think that was a mistake on his part."
In debates, Gingrich has defended a proposal to allow some illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S. if they've lived here for more than 25 years and have a local sponsor.
Romney's campaign directed reporters to past comments by Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond, who said that only a small percent of illegal immigrants would likely be allowed to stay in the U.S. under Gingrich's plan. Hammond went on to say that the vast majority of them would likely "self-deport."
Gingrich also ran into trouble over a radio ad calling Romney "anti-immigrant." Florida Sen. Marco Rubio called the ad "inaccurate" and "inflammatory." Romney's campaign also asked Gingrich in a letter to pull the ad. Gingrich's campaign had no immediate comment on whether it would comply with the request to pull the ad. The Miami Herald reported that the campaign planned to remove the ad based on Rubio's comments.
Romney called the anti-immigrant label an "epithet" and "inappropriate."
At the forum, Gingrich spoke instead about other elements of his immigration plan, including controlling the border and establishing a guest-worker program to better manage the influx of immigrants. Gingrich said he favors a path to citizenship for illegal immigrant children who serve in the military but not for simply completing college.
Romney defended his opposition to allowing the children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at American universities. He said there are inexpensive options that will allow them to go to college.
Gingrich told Univision he believes states should charge in-state tuition rates for students who were born in the U.S. to illegal immigrant parents, but that he favors charging out-of-state tuition for children who were brought to this country illegally.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry's support of a Texas policy to allow children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition proved to be problematic with conservatives nationwide. Perry dropped out of the race last week.
Gingrich began the interview by speaking a few halting phrases of welcome in Spanish ? "Buenos Dias estudiantes" ? but begged off when moderator Jorge Ramos pressed him to go further. Romney did not speak any Spanish during his interview.
Romney was asked about family members he has living in Mexico. Romney's father, George Romney, was born in Mexico but moved back to the U.S. as a young child.
Ramos asked Romney if he had a claim to being Mexican American.
"I don't think people would think I was being honest with them if I said I was Mexican American but I'd appreciate it if you'd get that word out," Romney said, smiling.
Florida is home to many Hispanics of Puerto Rican or Cuban descent who don't view immigration as a priority but are more interested in the issue than the general public.
After the interview, Romney railed against Fidel Castro's Cuba in a speech before several hundred Cuban-American democracy activists. Romney has significant support from the Cuban-American political establishment in Miami.
"It is time for us to strive for freedom in Cuba, and I will do so as president," he said. "We must be prepared to support the voices for democracy in Cuba."
While the interview questions asked of both candidates were mostly about Hispanic concerns, Ramos asked Gingrich whether it was hypocritical for him to criticize then-President Bill Clinton and pursue his impeachment in the 1990s when Gingrich was being unfaithful to his second wife.
Gingrich snapped at the premise of the question and said it was Clinton's false testimony under oath that bothered him the most.
"The fact is I've been through two divorces. I've been deposed both times under oath. Both times I told the truth in the deposition," Gingrich said. "I have never lied under oath. I have never committed perjury."
Ramos asked Romney to declare his wealth, to which Romney replied that he's worth between $150 million and "200-and-some-odd million dollars."
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Boeing 4Q profit up as plane deliveries take off (AP)
MINNEAPOLIS ? Quicker deliveries of Boeing's commercial airplanes helped it report a 20-percent jump in fourth-quarter profits, and offset sluggish growth in its defense business.
However, its shares fell because of a weaker 2012 earnings outlook than analysts expected.
Boeing Co. posted net income of $1.39 billion Wednesday, or $1.84 per share. That didn't include a tax benefit of 52 cents per share. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected $1 per share. Revenue was $19.56 billion, also better than expected.
Boeing delivered 128 commercial planes during the quarter, up from 116 a year ago. Profits from commercial planes jumped 56 percent. Revenue rose 31 percent.
Profits from defense rose 6 percent. Revenue rose 4 percent. Defense contractors are just beginning to see what is expected to be a major slowdown in military spending in the U.S. and Europe. Boeing says defense revenue will fall roughly 5 percent in 2012.
Boeing predicted a 2012 profit of $4.05 to $4.25 per share. Analysts had been expecting a profit of $4.90 per share. Not counting 83 cents per share in higher-than-expected pension expense and other one-time items, Boeing expects an adjusted profit of $5.06 to $5.26 per share.
The company forecast revenue of $78 billion to $80 billion. Analysts were expecting $78.45 billion.
Boeing, based in Chicago, says it plans to deliver 585 to 600 commercial planes this year, up from 477 last year. It delivered three of its new 787s last year, and nine of its new 747-8 superjumbo jets. Boeing says revenue from commercial planes will grow at least 31 percent this year.
Shares fell $1.94, or 2.6 percent, to $73.42 in morning trading.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Gingrich says DREAM Act with military aspect OK (AP)
TAMPA, Fla. ? Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says he would allow illegal immigrants to earn U.S. citizenship if they serve America in uniform.
Gingrich said during Monday's GOP debate that if president he would veto a version of the proposed DREAM Act that would allow a path to citizenship for children who come to the United States with their undocumented parents if they complete college.
Gingrich says college graduation alone is not enough.
Gingrich says citizens of other countries already have the opportunity to earn U.S. citizenship by wearing a uniform. He says that children of undocumented immigrants too should have that option.
Rivals Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum say they would veto any version of the DREAM Act that gives citizenship for college graduates.
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
France returns 20 Maori heads to New Zealand
Unidentified women sit next to Maori heads covered up by a black fabric during a hand over ceremony at the Quai Branly museum in Paris, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. France has handed over to New Zealand authorities 20 tattooed heads of Maori ethnic people once held in several French museums as a cultural curiosity. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)
Unidentified women sit next to Maori heads covered up by a black fabric during a hand over ceremony at the Quai Branly museum in Paris, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. France has handed over to New Zealand authorities 20 tattooed heads of Maori ethnic people once held in several French museums as a cultural curiosity. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)
Unidentified woman stand next to Maori heads covered up by a black fabric during a hand over ceremony at the Quai Branly museum in Paris, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. France has handed over to New Zealand authorities 20 tattooed heads of Maori ethnic people once held in several French museums as a cultural curiosity. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)
French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand, right, attends a signing ceremony with New Zealand's Te Papa museum repatriation councilor, Derek Lardelli, left, Te Papa museum co-director, Michelle Hippolite, 2nd left, and New Zealand's ambassador to France, Rosemary Banks, 2nd right, at the Quai Branly museum in Paris, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. France has handed over to New Zealand authorities 20 tattooed heads of Maori ethnic people once held in several French museums as a cultural curiosity. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)
PARIS (AP) ? Preparing the biggest homecoming yet of its kind, authorities in New Zealand on Monday received 20 ancestral heads of Maori ethnic people once held in several French museums as a cultural curiosity.
French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand and New Zealand's ambassador presided over a solemn ceremony at Quai Branly museum in Paris, where the heads were encased in a box ? the largest single handover of Maori heads to be repatriated, New Zealand's embassy said.
Since 2003, the South Pacific country has embarked on an ambitious program of collecting back Maori heads and skeletal remains from museums around the world. Yet the program has run into significant obstacles.
France long resisted handing over such cultural artifacts, but a law passed in 2010 paved the way for the return of the Maori heads. They were obtained as long ago as the 19th century, and one as recently as 1999.
Some Maori heads, with intricate tattoos, were traditionally kept as trophies from tribal warfare. But once Westerners began offering prized goods in exchange for them, men were in danger of being killed simply for their tattoos, French museum officials have said.
The heads handed over to New Zealand were not available for public viewing on Monday. Over the years, French museums, private collectors and anthropological researchers have preserved and stored the heads.
The idea behind getting back the body parts was that they would be returned to their home tribes throughout New Zealand, where tribal elders could mourn them and, if they chose, give them proper burials.
"They are, after all, human remains, and in the Maori culture they should not be publicly displayed," said Pou Temara, a university professor who chairs New Zealand's repatriation advisory panel.
Bridget Gee, a New Zealand embassy spokeswoman, said the heads remanded on Monday have not been displayed in public for years.
Most of the remains aren't readily identifiable, and only a small percentage have been returned to their home tribes ? who are loath to accept any remains that aren't their own. Heads and body parts from over 500 people now sit in storage at the national musuem, Te Papa, in Wellington.
The practice of preserving heads was begun by Maori as a way of remembering dead ancestors. In the decades after Europeans arrived, the heads became a curiosity and sought-after trade item, prompting Maori to ramp up their production levels.
___
Nick Perry contributed from Wellington, New Zealand
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Boehner: State of Union speech may be 'pathetic'
WASHINGTON (AP) ? House Speaker John Boehner doesn't sound like he's going to have a fun time listening to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night.
Obama is expected to outline an economic blueprint built around manufacturing, energy and education, and officials have said he'll propose fresh ideas to try to get the wealthy to pay more in taxes.
Boehner says it sounds to him like "the same old policies" of more spending, taxes and regulations that have hurt the economy.
The Ohio Republicans tells "Fox News Sunday" that if that's what Obama is going to talk about, then "I think it's pathetic."
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Monday, January 23, 2012
EU ministers push bondholders in Greek deal
Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, left, speaks with Luxembourg's Prime Minister and head of the eurogroup Jean-Claude Juncker during a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. European finance ministers will try on Monday to give new momentum to talks on a Greek debt relief deal that is crucial to avoid a default, but a European diplomat warned that a final agreement may have to wait until a leaders' summit next week. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, left, speaks with Luxembourg's Prime Minister and head of the eurogroup Jean-Claude Juncker during a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. European finance ministers will try on Monday to give new momentum to talks on a Greek debt relief deal that is crucial to avoid a default, but a European diplomat warned that a final agreement may have to wait until a leaders' summit next week. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Belgium's Finance Minister Steven Vanackere, right, speaks with Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker during a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. European finance ministers will try on Monday to give new momentum to talks on a Greek debt relief deal that is crucial to avoid a default, but a European diplomat warned that a final agreement may have to wait until a leaders' summit next week. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan, right, speaks with Luxembourg's Finance Minister Luc Frieden during a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. European finance ministers will try on Monday to give new momentum to talks on a Greek debt relief deal that is crucial to avoid a default, but a European diplomat warned that a final agreement may have to wait until a leaders' summit next week. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
French Finance Minister Francois Baroin, right, speaks with European Central Bank President Mario Draghi during a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. European finance ministers will try on Monday to give new momentum to talks on a Greek debt relief deal that is crucial to avoid a default, but a European diplomat warned that a final agreement may have to wait until a leaders' summit next week. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, right, speaks with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti during a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. European finance ministers will try on Monday to give new momentum to talks on a Greek debt relief deal that is crucial to avoid a default, but a European diplomat warned that a final agreement may have to wait until a leaders' summit next week. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
BRUSSELS (AP) ? European finance ministers piled the pressure on Greece's private creditors Monday to reach an agreement with Athens to cut the country's massive debt load, with the Dutch representative warning bondholders that they may be forced to take losses.
Time is running out for Greece to reduce its debt by some euro100 billion ($129 billion) and avoid missing a vital bond repayment deadline. Talks between the country and representatives of banks and other investment firms to secure a deal hit an impasse over the weekend.
The deal would involve private creditors swapping their old Greek bonds for ones with a 50 percent lower face value. The new, lower priced bonds, would also have much longer maturities ? pushing repayments decades into the future ? and will pay a much lower interest rate than Greece would currently have to pay on the market.
It's clear that Greece needs some form of deal soon ? it faces a euro14.5 billion ($19 billion) bond repayment on March 20, which it will be unable to afford if the bond swap doesn't go through.
The Greek government and representatives for the private creditors said they are moving closer to a final deal. But any agreement also has to be signed off by the other 16 countries that also use the euro as their currency and the International Monetary Fund, who have made the deal a key condition of the country winning any further bailout loans.
Greece has been surviving on a first euro110 billion ($142 billion) batch of rescue loans since May 2010, which were conditioned on deep spending cuts and sweeping public sector reforms.
At the center of the debate is the interest rate that Greece will have to pay on the new, lower-valued bonds. The interest rate is key not only to determining the overall losses for the bondholders but also to whether the deal will work.
If the interest rate is too high, a second, euro130 billion ($168 billion) bailout for Greece may not be enough to put the country back on its feet. The other eurozone states and the IMF would have to provide more loans, but they are unwilling to do so.
But if they are too low, the losses for bondholders will become so high that it will be difficult to get them to agree voluntarily to a deal.
Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager indicated that the eurozone may be moving away from its previous insistence that investors will not be forced to take losses.
"We've never pushed for a default, but we've never said it (a restructuring) must be voluntary," de Jager said as he arrived for a meeting with his eurozone counterparts in Brussels. "Our goal is a sustainable debt. It has our preference if it's voluntary, but it's not a precondition for us."
Greece needs to secure a deal quickly if it wants to avoid a disorderly default on March 20.
"Given that any debt swap deal will involve a lot of lawyers, it is estimated that around 5 weeks are needed between agreement and the bond maturing to prevent default," said Louise Cooper, markets analyst at BGC Partners. "This does not leave much wriggle room, although such pressure must focus the minds of all at the negotiating table."
A forced restructuring would likely trigger payouts on so-called credit default swaps ? a contract traded between banks and other investment firms that want to insure against potential defaults. Because the market in CDS is obscure ? with no clear data on who would owe whom how much ? the eurozone fears that a payout could lead to turmoil on financial markets similar to what happened after the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers in 2008.
Although officials, including the French and Greek finance ministers, insisted that a deal was in the making, few expected a final agreement ahead of a key summit of EU leaders next Monday. De Jager suggested that negotiations may even drag on beyond that.
Greece's economic problems kicked off Europe's debt crisis more than two years ago and the continent's inability to resolve its troubles have raised concerns about other highly indebted countries. But positive bond auctions in Spain, Italy and France last week have eased some concerns about the region's bigger economies and have lifted stock markets and the value of the euro.
Ministers will also seek to put the finishing touches on their permanent bailout fund ? the euro500 billion European Stability Mechanism ? which is scheduled to come into force this year. They will also discuss a new intergovernmental treaty designed to keep eurozone countries from overspending.
___
Greg Keller in Paris and Nicolas Paphitis in Athens contributed to this story.
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Overweight linked to acne in teen girls (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) ? Overweight girls in their late teens were twice as likely as their normal-weight peers to report having a lot of acne in a large new survey of Norwegian teenagers that did not find the same link in boys.
Some 3,600 young people in Oslo, aged 18 and 19, provided information on their pimples, weight, diet and other health and lifestyle factors.
Only about a tenth of the girls and 15 percent of the boys fell into the overweight or obese categories, based on their body mass index (a measure of weight relative to height).
But among the overweight and obese girls, 19 out of every 100 said they had experienced a lot of acne in the past week, compared to 13 of every 100 normal-weight girls who reported recent acne
When the researchers took into account other potential influences, such as diet, smoking and "mental distress," they determined that overweight and obese girls were twice as likely to have acne.
Among the boys, acne afflicted about 14 out of every 100, regardless of weight.
In general, researchers say between 10 percent and 20 percent of adolescents experience moderate to severe acne. Many studies have documented the emotional and social difficulties that go along with the problem, especially during the sensitive teen years.
With a growing number of teens becoming overweight and obese - a circumstance that carries its own social stigma - the Norwegian team writes in the Archives of Dermatology, they wanted to investigate whether there's a connection.
There are physiological factors related to obesity that could explain the Norwegian results, said Dr. Nanette Silverberg, director of pediatric and adolescent dermatology at St. Luke's and Beth Israel Medical Centers in New York and a clinical professor at Columbia University.
For instance, high blood pressure, insulin resistance and hormonal changes, which frequently accompany obesity, "are in the pathway of influence" for acne, said Silverberg, who was not involved in the new study.
"Maybe changes in the level of insulin and other hormones are altered in overweight adolescents, and this can increase the formation of acne," said Dr. Jon Halvorsen, a researcher at Oslo University Hospital who led the study.
Although his results showed a link in girls between being overweight and having acne, they don't prove that one causes the other.
Because the pattern was confined to girls, though, "it is possible that polycystic ovarian syndrome can explain some of our findings," Halvorsen told Reuters Health in an email.
Polycystic ovary syndrome is a condition whose cause is poorly understood but symptoms include too-high levels of male hormones, and often both obesity and acne.
Halvorsen's team couldn't rule out that any of the girls had been diagnosed with the syndrome.
Genetics are also considered important in the development of acne.
Although diet contributes to weight gain, it's not clear that food is to blame for what the researchers found.
When they took into account how many sweets, potato chips and soft drinks the girls usually had, the higher acne rates among overweight girls remained.
"The role of nutrition is controversial, and more studies are needed," Halvorsen said.
Silverberg said there is some evidence from other studies showing that poor diets do contribute to acne.
"Whatever you think is bad for you, eating high-sugar foods, large amounts of carbohydrates, all these things have a negative long term affect on acne. And this is particularly true in the teenage years," she told Reuters Health.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/yWjZX3 Archives of Dermatology, January 2012.
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
Ship search finds 12th body, captain's documents (AP)
GIGLIO, Italy ? Divers plumbing the capsized Costa Concordia's murky depths pulled out the body of a woman in a life vest Saturday, while scuba-diving police swam through the captain's cabin to retrieve a safe and documents belonging to the man who abandoned the cruise liner after it was gashed by a rocky reef on the Tuscan coast.
Hoping for a miracle ? or at least for the recovery of bodies from the ship that has become an underwater tomb ? relatives of some of the 20 missing appealed to survivors of the Jan. 13 shipwreck to offer details that could help divers reach loved ones while it is still possible to search the luxury liner. The clock is ticking because the craft is perched precariously on a rocky ledge of seabed near Giglio island.
"We are asking the 4,000 persons who were on board to give any information they can about any of the persons still missing," said Alain Litzler, a Frenchman who is the father of missing passenger Mylene Litzler. "We need precise information to help the search and rescue teams find them."
The death toll rose to at least 12 Saturday after a water-logged body was extracted from a passageway near a gathering point for evacuation by lifeboats in the rear of the vessel, Coast Guard Cmdr. Filippo Marini said. It was not immediately clear if the woman was a passenger or crew member. A female Peruvian bartender and several adult female passengers were among the 21 people listed as missing before the latest corpse was found.
Relatives of the bartender and of an Indian crewman, along with two children of an elderly couple from Minnesota who are among the missing, boarded a boat Saturday to view the wrecked Concordia Saturday, said a maritime official, Fabrizio Palombo.
Family members tossed flowers near the site while islanders standing on the rocky edge of the island also strew bouquets on the water in a tribute to the victims.
Another Coast Guard official, Cosimo Nicastro, said the woman's body was found during a particularly risky inspection.
"The corridor was very narrow, and the divers' lines risked snagging" on furniture and objects floating in the passageway, Nicastro said. To help the coast guard divers reach the area, Italian navy divers had preceded them, setting off charges to blast holes for easier entrance and exit.
Meanwhile, police divers, carrying out orders from prosecutors investigating Captain Francesco Schettino for suspected manslaughter and abandoning the ship, swam through the cold, dark waters to reach his cabin. State TV and the Italian news agency ANSA reported that the divers located and remove his safe and two suitcases. His passport and several documents were also pulled out, state media said.
Searchers inspecting the bridge Saturday also found a hard disk containing data of the voyage, Sky TG24 TV reported.
Three bodies were found in waters around the ship in the first hours after the accident. Since then, divers have gone inside the Concordia to recover all the remaining victims, who were apparently unable to escape the lurching ship during a chaotic evacuation launched almost an hour after the liner hit a reef.
Some survivors who couldn't board lifeboats waited for hours aboard the capsizing craft for rescue by helicopters while others jumped into the water and swam to safety.
The last survivor, found aboard 36 hours after the crash, was an Italian crewman who broke his leg in the confusion and couldn't leave the ship.
The Concordia hit the reef, well-marked on maritime and even tourist maps, while most of the passengers sat down to dinner in the main restaurant, about two hours after the ship had set sail from the port of Civitavecchia on the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Costa Crociere, the ship's operator and subsidiary of U.S.-based Carnival Cruise Lines, has said the captain had deviated without permission from the vessel's route in an apparent maneuver to sail close to the island of Giglio and impress passengers.
Schettino, despite audiotapes of his defying Coast Guard orders to scramble back aboard, has denied he abandoned ship while hundreds of passengers were desperately trying to get off the capsizing vessel. He has said he coordinated the rescue from aboard a lifeboat and then from the shore.
The effort to find survivors and bodies has postponed an operation to remove heavy fuel in the Concordia's tanks; specialized equipment has been standing by for days.
Light fuel, apparently from machinery aboard the capsized ship, was spotted in nearby waters, authorities said Saturday.
But Nicastro said there was no indication that any of the nearly 500,000 gallons (2,200 metric tons) of heavy fuel oil has leaked from the ship's double-bottomed tanks, seen as a risk if the ship's position changes. He said the leaked substance appears to be diesel, which is used to fuel rescue boats and dinghies and as a lubricant for ship machinery.
There are 185 tons of diesel and lubricants on board the crippled vessel, which is lying on its side just outside Giglio's port. Nicastro described the fuel in the sea as "very light, very superficial" and appearing to be under control.
But an official leading rescue, search and anti-pollution efforts for the ship suggested that the luxury liner would have leaked contaminants on board when it tipped over.
"We must not forget that on that ship there are oils, solvents, detergents, everything that a city of 4,000 people needs," Franco Gabrielli, the head of Italy's civil protection agency, told reporters in Giglio.
Gabrielli was referring to the roughly 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew who were aboard the cruise liner when it ran into the reef and, with seawater rushing into a 230-foot (70-meter) gash in its hull, listed and fell onto its side. "Contamination of the environment, ladies and gentlemen, already occurred" when the liner capsized, Gabrelli said.
Vessels equipped with machinery to suck out the light fuel oil were in the area. Earlier on Saturday, crews removed oil-absorbing booms used to prevent environmental damage in case of a leak. Originally white, the booms were grayish.
Schettino, is under house arrest for investigation of alleged manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship before all were evacuated.
The search had been suspended Friday after the Concordia shifted, prompting fears the ship could roll off a rocky ledge of sea bed and plunge deeper into the pristine waters around Giglio, part of a seven-island Tuscan archipelago.
___
D'Emilio reported from Rome. Colleen Barry contributed from Milan and Andrea Foa from Giglio.
(This version CORRECTS Corrects misspelling 11th and 16th paragraphs. AP Video. This story is part of AP's general news and financial services.)
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Friday, January 20, 2012
In bid to unseat Wisconsin governor, whither the challengers? (Reuters)
MILWAUKEE (Reuters) ? Critics of Wisconsin's Governor Scott Walker showed on Tuesday how unpopular he is with many voters, filing more than 1 million signed petitions -- nearly twice the number needed -- to force the first-term Republican to defend himself in a special election.
On Wednesday, they faced what is likely to be a harder task: finding a Democrat who can beat the battle-tested 44-year-old.
"There is no single preeminent candidate," said Charles Franklin, a political scientist and visiting professor of law and public policy at Marquette University, said of the Democrats who might challenge Walker, who gained a national following in leading a successful push to curb Wisconsin's public unions.
Although some Democrats have hinted in recent weeks they might be interested in running against Walker in a recall, so far no one with a marquee name has committed to what is sure to be a bruising fight. No date has been set for the election.
On Wednesday, Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk announced her candidacy. But Falk, who governs the county that encompasses Madison, the state's capital, is viewed by the Wisconsin political insiders as a weak candidate given her past political losses and her liberal fiscal platform.
Due to those factors, political analysts say Falk will almost certainly have company. Other Democrats mentioned as possible candidates have included Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, former congressman David Obey and State Senator Tim Cullen.
None has the cachet of Russ Feingold, the former Democratic senator popular among progressives. But an effort last summer to draft Feingold fizzled when he announced he was not interested.
"Polling shows that (Walker) has one of the highest name recognitions in the country among active governors," Franklin said. "None of the Democrats are at that same level of name recognition and familiarity."
In November, 2010, Walker defeated Barrett in the governor's election by 52 to 46 percent -- a margin of 124,000 votes out of 2.13 million cast.
A Democratic primary, needed if more than one Democratic challenger enters the fray, could divert time and money from the fight against Walker, who set off a firestorm by curtailing the collective bargaining rights of unionized public workers.
A weak Democratic candidate, and a Democratic loss in the special election, could have implications for President Obama's reelection hopes.
Indeed, a Walker triumph in a special election could turn Wisconsin, currently a battleground state, into a GOP stronghold, according to Larry Sabato, the director of the Center for Politics and a professor of politics at the University of Virginia.
"If Walker is reelected and Republicans are energized because of this, that will have an impact in the presidential race," Sabato said. "I bet if the White House had their druthers the recall would not be happening."
Organizers of the drive to recall Walker submitted what appeared to be more than enough signatures on Tuesday to trigger the special election.
Sabato said that shows the polarizing effect Walker and his agenda has had on the state.
"The hatred for Scott Walker on the Democratic side is white hot and that is what generated the one million signatures and that is what gives them a great base," said Sabato.
Walker has remained undeterred during his tumultuous first year as governor. During the passage of collective bargaining legislation, the governor pressed on even in the wake of massive protests at the Capitol each day.
When 14 Democratic state senators left the state in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to deny the Republican-controlled body a quorum and halt action on the proposals, Walker and his allies engineered passage without them.
"He was in a bunker mentality very quickly in February of his first term and maybe having survived that may make a more resilient politician now," said Barry Burden, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin.
The Republican hold on the state legislature has also survived the political storm kicked up by the collective bargaining reforms, which Walker and his allies defended as necessary to address a gaping budget hole.
Although six Republican state senators were forced to defend their seats in special recall elections this summer, only two lost their seats. As a result, Republicans held onto a razor thin majority, 17-16, in the Senate.
In addition to Walker, four Republicans Senators, including Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, are facing the possibility of recall elections in a second round of special elections triggered by the union fight.
Officials at the state's Government Accountability Board said last week they may need more than 60 days to verify the signatures submitted on Tuesday. Currently, the law requires the process to be completed in 31 days.
According to a Government Accountability Board report, processing recall petitions will cost the state more than $650,000. The total cost of recall elections for the state and municipalities may be more than $9 million, according to estimates from board officials.
(Editing by James Kelleher and Peter Bohan)
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