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Friday, January 25, 2013

Frontman for LA band charged with $6M loan fraud

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Robert Mawhinney gave the appearance that his fledgling band, Lights Over Paris, was successful. He enlisted rapper The Game for one of his videos, traveled around the world and had a customized tour bus emblazoned with the group's name on its side.

But federal prosecutors said Mawhinney's fortunes were built on fraud because he bilked more than $6 million in loans from banks by providing them fake documents that claimed he was a millionaire.

Authorities said Friday the 30-year-old singer was charged with making a false statement in a loan application and faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted. He's scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 11.

Over a nearly two-year period, beginning in August 2009, Mawhinney sought and obtained four loans from Comerica Inc. totaling about $6.2 million, according to court documents. He provided statements that claimed he had nearly $8 million in assets, but it turned out his account had only about $10,000, authorities said.

Loan officers even visited a recording studio in Burbank to determine if Mawhinney was creditworthy. There, the singer said he was a successful ghostwriter for various artists and sought the loans to finish a recording room in the studio, among other expenses, court documents show.

During that time, the band released an EP "Turn Off the Lights," which appeared on Billboard's Heatseeker Albums chart. The band also produced a video entitled "I'm Not A Gangsta," in which Mawhinney is riding shotgun in a Rolls Royce driven by The Game.

Prosecutors said Mawhinney attempted to pay off of some of his loans with proceeds he received from earlier payouts, but he eventually defaulted.

Mawhinney, who used the stage name Robb University, apparently lived the rock star lifestyle. He lived in a 35-story luxury high-rise located in downtown Los Angeles, took trips to the Caribbean, Europe and South America, and purchased a luxury tour bus that cost more than $750,000.

The front of the bus, once featured in Limo Digest, resembles the nose of an airplane and the vehicle is equipped with exterior awnings that, when expanded, look like wings.

Mawhinney was arrested at Miami International Airport earlier this month after returning from a trip to Buenos Aires.

He was being held without bond after a U.S. magistrate judge determined he posed a flight risk. Prosecutors said Mawhinney had sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to Cyprus but didn't elaborate.

Mawhinney's attorney, Jerry Kaplan, declined comment.

Prosecutors said that two brothers who ran a recording facility and worked with Mawhinney have agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit loan fraud.

Matt Salazar, 29, and his brother, Jason Salazar, 28, acknowledged they provided false documents to three banks to obtain about $1.7 million in loans for their music business, according to court documents.

Mawhinney used the Salazars' studio to bolster his own fraudulent loan applications, prosecutors said.

The Salazars face a maximum of five years in prison.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/frontman-la-band-charged-6m-loan-fraud-220714562.html

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Czech election overshadowed by prisoner amnesty

FILE - In this Nov. 13, 2012 file photo Czech Republic's President Vaclav Klaus speaks during a joint news conference with his Austrian counterpart Heinz Fischer, unseen, at the Hofburg palace in Vienna, Austria. In 10 years as Czech president, Klaus has been no stranger to controversy, but one of his final acts in power _ a sudden prisoner amnesty _ has backfired so badly he's being accused of treason. His portrait has been torn down in anger in schools and offices across the country in a rapidly-evolving scandal that has cast a shadow over this weekend's presidential election and tainted the post which, while largely ceremonial from the grandeur of Prague Castle, is seen to carry moral weight. It could also swing the outcome of the runoff vote that began Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak, File)

PRAGUE (AP) ? With his rants against the EU and gay rights, Vaclav Klaus has been no stranger to controversy in his 10 years as Czech president. But one of his final acts in power ? a sudden prisoner amnesty ? has backfired so badly he's being accused of treason.

His portrait has been torn down in anger in schools and offices across the country in a rapidly evolving scandal that has cast a shadow over this weekend's presidential election and tainted the post which, while largely ceremonial from the grandeur of Prague Castle, is seen to carry moral weight. It could also swing the outcome of the runoff vote that began Friday.

To mark the country's 20th anniversary of independence on Jan. 1, Klaus used a traditional tool of Czech presidents and ordered the release of more than 6,000 inmates serving short prison terms. But what really infuriated many Czechs was that the decree also halted court proceedings in several high-profile fraud cases and financial scams on the grounds he wanted to stop "endless criminal proceedings."

The opposition suspects his main motive may be to protect people close to his inner circle, a claim he vehemently denies.

The controversy has touched a raw nerve in a nation that threw off communism in 1989 and has become increasingly angered by widespread corruption. Czechs, voting Friday and Saturday to elect a new president to replace Klaus, are waking up every day to new names of pardoned felons and shocking tales of people who ripped off thousands.

Bronislava Kupkova, now 86, took out a loan of 2 million koruna ($104,000) from a bank in 1995 to buy a house she never got. She had to work till she was 82 to pay the money back. And the culprits are among those pardoned.

"It's injustice ... it's not right. But tell me: what can an ordinary person who has never stolen anything and had to work all the time do about it?" Kupkova told the AP. The amnesty means her chance to seek any compensation is "close to zero," she said.

The frustration at Klaus, who polarized the public with his strident views on Brussels, gays and global warming, has mushroomed.

And his legacy ? as the economics professor who oversaw the transition to free markets in the 1990s ? will now most likely be rewritten.

A businessman supported by 17 non-governmental organizations called on the Senate on Wednesday to file impeachment charges against Klaus in order to "renew the confidence of citizens in the rule of law."

Almost 35,000 people backed the call online in less than two days. And a group of 30 senators has challenged Klaus' decree at the Constitutional Court.

Only the Senate has the power to file treason charges at the Constitutional Court. The senators plan to discuss next month what steps to take. Klaus' final term ends in March.

"We need to know the view of the highest legal authority in the country ? whether this amnesty, its content, is in line with the Constitution," said Alena Gajduskova, deputy speaker of the Senate who filed the challenge and called Klaus' move "unacceptable."

Both candidates in this weekend's election runoff have distanced themselves from the amnesty.

Karel Schwarzenberg, a bow tie-wearing aristocrat, is a sworn enemy of Klaus and has been at odds with the current prime minister, Petr Necas, who co-signed the decree. Schwarzenberg accused Necas of failing to warn the government about what was coming. Left-winger Milos Zeman, the other candidate, is supported by Klaus but has said the amnesty should only have applied to people for humanitarian reasons.

The prisoner release has come as a major blow for tens of thousands of fraud victims who have been seeking compensation for damages, including Kupkova.

"It's terrible," said Hana Marvanova, a lawyer who represents about a hundred people who lost their money in a bogus housing scheme. "They have a feeling of total lawlessness."

Three managers in that case have already been cleared. They promised to build homes for a thousand people but made off with the funds worth about $100 million.

"It took years to investigate what it was all about and this is the result: the perpetrators have support at the top levels in the country. It's impossible to explain that to them," said Maranova, a former anti-communist dissident.

Klaus has dismissed the criticism, calling it a "wave of hysteria" and an attack on him by his enemies.

That has not helped.

"Vaclav Klaus is leaving his office in the worst possible way," said an editorial in the Lidove Noviny daily.

The deputy leader of the opposition Social Democrats, Lubomir Zaoralek, said the amnesty is a sign that "the state stands behind organized crime." Zaoralek, who says several presidential advisers have links to some of those covered by the pardon, asked Klaus to reveal who drafted the document for him. His request was rejected.

As the Czech president occupies a largely ceremonial post, the right to grant amnesty seems inappropriate to many. But there are precedents.

During his presidency, Vaclav Havel, a much-loved dissident playwright who helped topple communism, used it three times. In 1990, he ordered the release of some 23,000 prisoners in an attempt ? criticized by the public then ? to draw a line under more than 40 years of communism that ended in the 1989 peaceful Velvet Revolution.

But to free those charged with corruption is the last straw in a country that has taken an increasingly hard line against graft.

Many Czechs have been showing their indignation with corruption in unusual ways. CorruptTour, a travel agency established last year that organizes trips to places linked to corruption, has been doing a roaring trade under its slogan: "the best of the worst."

Some 40 people joined the tour Thursday, braving piercing cold, frost and snow. They burst into laughter when Eva Cechova, a tour guide, quipped in front of the presidential office that the amnesty was "the biggest achievement of Klaus' presidency."

Vanda Koleckova, a 23-year-old student, was among them. She said she hopes the constitutional court overturns the decree.

"It's very Czech to make fun of the unbelievable scope of corruption," she said. "Humor is a way for us Czechs to deal with that."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-01-25-EU-Czech-Presidential-Amnesty/id-dcdede3bbd284540be28bbc3ca4b6ea3

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Genes provide clues to gender disparity in human hearts

Jan. 24, 2013 ? Healthy men and women show little difference in their hearts, except for small electrocardiographic disparities. But new genetic differences found by Washington University in St. Louis researchers in hearts with disease could ultimately lead to personalized treatment of various heart ailments.

Generally, men are more susceptible to developing atrial fibrillation, an irregular, rapid heartbeat that may lead to stroke, while women are more likely to develop long-QT syndrome, a rhythm disorder that can cause rapid heartbeats and sudden cardiac death.

While prior studies have clearly established differences in the development of heart disease between men and women, very few studies had looked at the molecular mechanisms behind those differences in human hearts.

Igor Efimov, PhD, the Lucy and Stanley Lopata Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis, and a former doctoral student, Christina Ambrosi, PhD, analyzed 34 human hearts looking for genetic differences that might explain gender differences in heart disease.

The team took advantage of the unique opportunity at the university to obtain failing human hearts at the time of transplantation from Barnes-Jewish Hospital and non-failing hearts unsuitable for transplantation from Mid-America Transplant Services, a St. Louis-based organ procurement service.

The team screened for 89 major genes in electrophysiology, ion channel subunits, calcium handling proteins and transcription factors important in cardiac conduction and in the development of arrhythmia and the left atria and ventricles in human hearts.

"What was striking in this study is that we expected very large gender differences in expression of genes in the ventricles, but we did not find such differences," says Efimov, also a professor of medicine, of radiology and of cell biology and physiology at Washington University School of Medicine. "Unexpectedly, we found huge gender differences in the atria."

The results showed that women with failing hearts have a weaker system of gene expression than men -- males showed overall higher expression levels of nearly all of the 89 genes than women.

Women showed particularly lower atrial expression levels of several important genes encoding for potassium channels, including Kv4.3, KChIP2, Kv1.5 and Kir3.1. In fact, the atria of women with heart disease had less than half of the KChIP2 mRNA than atria in men.

Results of the research were published in PLOS ONE.

Efimov says while there are still many questions that need to be answered to explain these molecular differences, one factor that could be contributing to the difference is estrogen.

"When women have the highest levels of estrogen, they are least vulnerable to arrhythmia -- women are protected by estrogen," he says. "But after menopause, women develop atrial fibrillation at the same rate as men. We don't understand this and need to study this in humans."

Another potential factor is circadian rhythm, Efimov says.

"Humans are much more likely to die suddenly from heart disease early in the morning, between 5-7 a.m.," he says. "In the cardiac system in mice, it has been shown that there is an oscillation of gene expression, so certain genes expressed at 5 a.m. could be different by threefold at 5 p.m."

Efimov says the study on human hearts is unique to Washington University, as much cardiac research elsewhere is done mostly in animal models. In the future, the team would like to expand the research into pediatric hearts, taking advantage of Washington University's leading pediatric heart transplant program to learn more about pediatric physiology.

Funding for this research was provided by the National Institutes of Health (R01-HL114395) and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (R-01-HL085369).

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Washington University in St. Louis. The original article was written by Beth Miller.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Christina M. Ambrosi, Kathryn A. Yamada, Jeanne M. Nerbonne, Igor R. Efimov. Gender Differences in Electrophysiological Gene Expression in Failing and Non-Failing Human Hearts. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (1): e54635 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0054635

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/pDQnFtrIs8U/130124150708.htm

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Chicago warehouse faces collapse after firefighters put out flames

CHICAGO - Thick sheets of ice left on a Chicago warehouse are threatening to collapse the building after firefighters twice had to beat back flames there during a frigid cold spell.

The abandoned warehouse at the intersection of 37 th and Ashland in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood burst into flames on Tuesday night. Firefighters succeeded in putting out the blaze - one of the city's biggest in decades - but it reignited a little more than a day later.

PHOTOS: Winter Weather Slams the Midwest, East

All the water poured onto the building meant more ice on the structure because of the frigid temperatures that have hit the city in recent days. All the ice has put more weight on the five-story warehouse.

"The last few days have been really tough. It's been really cold and really wet," Peter Vandorpe of the Chicago Fire Department told ABC News' Alex Perez.

"This is one of the most dangerous stages of the operation," he said. "The building is weak. The building has a lot of ice on it. The fire is still burning in areas that we can't get to. Everybody's tired. Everybody's cold. And part of it ? is there isn't a lot of activity here. So the less active you are, the colder you get. You get numb, you get cold, it's hard to concentrate and that makes it dangerous. It doesn't look dangerous, but it is."

Vandorpe said frostbite was a key concern for him and his crew.

"We're standing out here in the middle of the day, we're not completely covered, and you can do that for a little while, but it'll sneak up on you," he said. "You'll get frostbite on your ears, your nose, your lips, places like that before you realize it. So we've got to keep an eye on our guys. Otherwise, you know, they won't be paying attention. They're focused on the task that they're doing.

"It's not what you can take. It's not about how tough you are," he said. "It's what your body can take, parts that you can't monitor or you can't pay attention to.

"Slips increase," he added, "falls increase, the frostbite increases, your body has to work hard just to keep yourself warm, so you're going to get fatigued faster."

When the fire first broke out on Tuesday, approximately 50 fire companies and 170 firefighters reportedly headed to the scene, about a third of the city's fire department.

The cause of the fire is now under investigation. No injuries have been reported.

Chicago has been hit by the bitterly cold weather sweeping the Midwest in the past few days. The temperature has been below freezing since Tuesday, with wind chills as low as 16 below zero.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Using ?The Magic of 3? to Enhance Writing Skills for Kids ...

January 21, 2013 by Kendra Wagner

?How come I have to write a summary? My teacher says she reads this book to the class every year, so she already knows the plot.???

?~ ?Anne, 4^th grade ~

Do you ever hear your child say, ?Can?t I just say it out loud, instead of WRITE it?? or, ?I can draw a picture of our lab report, but it is too hard to write about.?

What s/he is really saying, in geek-speak, is that his/her working memory is taxed, and writing is the most complex academic skill required. S/he has to multi-task in a way that his/her brain is not chemically wired to do. So she needs assistance.

Parents are often the default editors and revisers of their children?s writing. This role is enhanced after middle school, when 5-paragraph essays are worshiped like sacred statues in ancient mosques. Since teachers don?t have the time to sit down and do one-on-one tutoring? (which is what all the teacher training suggests they should be doing with no consideration for the time restraints, but that is another story), parents pick up the slack.

Most teachers refer to the 3 body paragraphs of a 5-paragraph essay as ?The Magic of 3.? In my work teaching students to write, I?ve discovered that The Magic of 3 is actually much more than just a framework for essays. It is a tremendously useful strategy to enhance many aspects of the writing process.

The Magic of 3 offers a model for speaking, and writing, that is common among multiple professions, including law, public speaking, journalism, and even sports. On the TV and in movies, lawyers in a courtroom typically make 3 arguments. A typical football practice will likely have a warm-up, 3 main drills, and a cool-down. Three just seems to be a magic number.

So how can you use the Magic of 3 to support your child when s/he struggles with writing? There are many strategies to becoming a skilled writer, and many ?right? ways to write. Below, I offer suggestions to help using the Magic of 3. But remember, this is NOT a Rule of 3 ? part of the magic is in figuring out what works for your child!

Magic of 3 Writing Strategies

1) ?? Sentence Builders. When your child needs to improve word retrieval, sentence development, and ease with writing, you can try to make the following exercise fun by challenging him/her to create single, unrelated sentences using 3 of the following prompts (we call these ?Ws and How? words) in each sentence. Note, my example uses all 5, but your child only has to choose 3.

Ws & How Words: When, Who, How, Why, Where

Example: After the long wedding (when), Marta (who) raced home in a flash (how) to feed her dog (why), who was waiting on the porch (where).

2)??? Conjunctions. When kids are stuck, have them use one of the three most common conjunctions in the middle of a sentence, with a full sentence on either side of the conjunction. This is commonly known as a compound sentence.

Conjunctions: and, but, so

Example: ?I really like soccer. I get to do a lot of skill practice. It is all year round.

Improvement: Soccer is a way to improve different skills, and you can practice and play year-round.

3)??? Topic Sentences. When your child is struggling with a writing assignment ? especially if s/he is frozen at the prospect of writing a topic sentence ? help your child come up with 3 different options for a topic sentence (or thesis statement). Once you demonstrate that any of the three topics would work, then choose one for the essay. This prevents topic sentence phobia and the perfectionism behind it, and reinforces the idea that there is no single right way to write.

4)??? Powerhouse Verbs and Adjectives. During the revising process, if your child?s writing seems flat (or ?wimpy,? as some of my middle schoolers call it), it is likely missing some powerhouse verbs and interesting adjectives. Use the following guideline during the editing process:

Guideline: For every 3long sentences*, include at least 3 strong emotion or action verbs and 3 adjectives, which can be as simple as color or number words. They can be distributed in any way, across the 3 sentences. Each sentence does not need one. It?s easy to find examples of powerhouse verbs in award-winning novels such as Newbery books.

Example: We went to the water park yesterday and my favorite slide was a long, long one. ? My brother was scared. It was hot and we all had fun then went home.

Improvement: We played all day at the water park and slid down a lot of slides. My favorite one was a long one called ?Geronimo? and it was the fastest, so my brother hung onto me as we skidded down. We beat the heat by staying in the water all day.

Verbs: played. slid, hung, skidded, beat, staying

Adjectives: favorite, long, fastest

While some kids find freedom in the writing process, others find frustration. ?Why can?t writing be more like math, with its correct answers?? These kids want specific rules for constructing a sentence. The Magic of 3 offers a great template to provide your child with the structure s/he craves. You don?t want to dampen the creativity of writing, so it should not be rigidly enforced. But establishing a foundation with ?The Magic of 3? can help some kids find the comfort zone they need to take the stress out of writing.

*For 4^th grade and above, a long sentence = 10-25 words.

About the Author:
Kendrar Wagner Kendra Wagner is a Learning Specialist in private practice in North Seattle. She works primarily with children who have reading and writing challenges, many of whom are ADD.? She also consults with schools on literacy, and with parents on advocacy.? She has presented on a variety of literacy topics for two decades, locally and nationally.? Her website tells more about her background, and her blog shares her insights about teaching writing.

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