Lawmakers grill FBI on bombing investigation

By Scott Malone and Samuel P. Jacobs

BOSTON (Reuters) - Thousands of law enforcement agents from around the country plan to attend a memorial on Wednesday for a campus police officer who authorities say was slain by the accused Boston Marathon bombers, and Vice President Joe Biden is slated to speak at the ceremony.

The service at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology honors 26-year-old Sean Collier, who police say was shot and killed by Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the MIT campus on Thursday night.

The two ethnic Chechen brothers planted and detonated the two pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, killing three people and injuring 264, authorities say. Ten people lost limbs in the bombing.

Authorities released videos and photos of the suspects, still unidentified at the time, on Thursday. Hours later, Collier, who had worked at MIT since January 2012, was shot and killed.

MIT canceled Wednesday's classes in his honor and said thousands of law enforcement agents were expected to attend the memorial from around the country.

Top U.S. security authorities faced a grilling on Tuesday about the handling of the Boston bombing investigation by lawmakers seeking answers to why Tamerlan Tsarnaev, flagged as a possible Islamist radical, was not tracked more closely.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in a shootout with police on Friday and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was captured later that day. He lies wounded in a Boston hospital charged with using weapons of mass destruction.

Investigators have focused on a trip to Dagestan last year by the older Tsarnaev and whether he became involved with or was influenced by Chechen separatists or Islamist extremists there.

Russian authorities flagged him as a possible Islamist extremist in 2011. The FBI interviewed him in Massachusetts but found no serious reason for alarm.

QUESTIONS ABOUT FLOW OF INFORMATION

Senators said after Tuesday's briefing by FBI Deputy Director Sean Joyce and other officials that there may have been a breakdown in communication that kept authorities from tracking his apparent radicalization.

Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, the ranking Republican on the Senate intelligence committee, said the briefing raised questions about the flow of information among law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

"I think there has been some stonewalls, and some stovepipes reconstructed, that were probably unintentional, but we've got to review that issue again, and make sure there is the free flow of information," he said.

"I can't say the FBI dropped the ball. I don't see anybody yet that dropped the ball," Chambliss said. "That may develop."

The wife of Tamerlan Tsarnaev is assisting authorities and in absolute shock that her husband and brother-in-law were accused of the deadly blasts, her lawyer said.

"She cries a lot," attorney Amato DeLuca said of Katherine Russell, 24, an American-born convert to Islam who married Tsarnaev in June 2010. "She can't go anywhere. She can't work."

The sisters of the bombing suspects said they too did not know what had happened to their brothers.

Ailina Tsarnaev, who lives in West New York, New Jersey, and her sister Bella issued a statement through their attorneys expressing their sadness over "such a callous act."

"As a family we are absolutely devastated by the sense of loss and sorrow this has caused," they said. "We don't have any answers but we look forward to a thorough investigation and hope to learn more."

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's condition improved to "fair" from "serious" on Tuesday as he recovered from gunshot wounds at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where in an impromptu hearing on Monday he was charged with two crimes that could result in the death penalty if he were convicted.

Recovering enough to communicate by nodding his head and writing, the younger Tsarnaev has told authorities he and his brother acted alone, learned to build the bombs on the Internet and were motivated by a desire to defend Islam because of "the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," NBC News reported.

NBC cited an unnamed U.S. counterterrorism source. Reuters could not confirm the information.

(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell and Patricia Zengerle in Washington and David Jones in New Jersey; Writing by Ellen Wulfhorst; and Mohammad Zargham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-lawmakers-grill-fbi-boston-bombing-investigation-011321908.html

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How Do I Get My Boss to Communicate Better?

Some of us have bad bosses. Some of us have great bosses. Most of us are stuck with a somewhere in between boss. Fortunately, the quality that keeps a boss from being great sometimes comes from a deficit of skill rather than of personality. A perfect example is a boss who isn't good at communicating with employees.

Lost in Bossland writes:

I work at a small company (10 people). My boss is really bad at communicating. The software we use is our own, and it changes constantly, and these changes are rarely shared with the rest of the company. He doesn't share his vision for our future, and doesn't even really tell us what new hires are being hired for. We literally find out when we read press releases...

Any tips on how to get your boss to be more communicative?

Have some advice for Lost in Bossland? Post it below!

Do you have a problem that needs solving and want help from the Lifehacker community? Email us at tips+wyp@lifehacker.com and we might post it. The best questions are broad enough to apply to other people and have many possible answers (so that you can get lots of opinions from your fellow readers). If you have a question that's specific to you or only has a single solution, send an email to tips@lifehacker.com instead.

Images by Yuri Arcurs (Shutterstock).

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/RUzd88wp8Y8/how-do-i-get-my-boss-to-communicate-better-478429204

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Track and Field Compete in Sea Relays | The Sentinel Newspaper ...

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The KSU women?s track and field team finished in first place in the Sea Relays on April 13. The women?s 4?100 relay team performed at a very high level.

The 4?100 relay team is made up of Cynthia Davis, Alicia Whittle, Kentrell White and Hannah Wood. The team won the event for the fourth time in five meets this season and took home the title with?a top time of 45.59 while beating out Tennessee and Purdue.

Davis placed fourth in the 200m dash, and Wood achieved a personal best with a time of 24.15 in the same event.

The KSU men?s track and field team was very successful at the 200m event. Sadio Diallo narrowly missed finishing in first place by less than two-tenths of a second with a time of 21.27.

Sophomore Andre Dorsey finished third, and freshman Bilal Abdullah finished fifth in the high jump. Robert Darvey placed 12th in the discus with the fourth best toss (44.82 147- 00) in KSU history.

?Our teams performed really well this weekend,? said KSU head coach Andy Eggerth. ?They are at the most fatiguing part of the training year, and they just continue to break records. We will gradually unload the training throughout the championship season so we can definitely be ready to turn it up at the Atlantic Sun Conference Championships.?

The men?s and women?s track and field teams have two weeks to rest and prepare before they compete in the Samford Multi and Invitational III April 26-27
in Birmingham, Ala. finished in first place in the Sea Relays on April 13. The women?s 4?100 relay team performed at a very high level.

Source: http://www.ksusentinel.com/2013/04/23/track-and-field-compete-in-sea-relays/

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Protesting Animal Testing, Intruders Vandalize Italian Lab

I have some sympathy for those who think animal testing is inhumane, but really all they are doing is just making sure these animals suffered for nothing. Does anyone think these funded projects will not get funding and a new set of animals to test on again?

I think humane treatment of animals needs to be done in a context of changing society's views on animal testing itself instead of what is basically vandalism. Vandalism is only going to let people regard those against animal testing as some sort of anarchist losers.

And yes, breaking into some of these labs is a biohazard situation. Probably not zombies, but still potentially very dangerous,

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/Gv1K_Mos_iw/story01.htm

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ALABC and CPT to introduce 48V LC Super Hybrid demonstrator at ...

ALABC and CPT to introduce 48V LC Super Hybrid demonstrator at Vienna Motor Symposium

The Advanced Lead-Acid Battery Consortium (ALABC) and Controlled Power Technologies (CPT) will introduce a low-carbon 48 volt LC Super Hybrid technology demonstrator at the International Vienna Motor Symposium this week. The 48V LC Super Hybrid aims to demonstrate CO₂ emissions of 120 g/km, combined with 0 to 100 km/h acceleration in less than nine seconds, in a family-sized sedan.

Employing cost-effective low-voltage micro-mild hybrid technology, the LC Super Hybrid, which is based on a 1.4-liter VW Passat, will make its global debut at the 34^th annual powertrain conference. The 48-volt version of the LC Super Hybrid complements the existing 12 volt technology demonstrator unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in 2012. (Earlier post.)

The more powerful 48-volt demonstrator offers additional functionality including torque assist to the gasoline engine for launch and low-speed transient acceleration; optimized fueling during idle and motorway cruise conditions with electric assist ?load point moving? and a leaner fuel calibration; in-gear coast-down; and the ability to harvest significantly more kinetic energy from regenerative braking. It combines advanced lead-carbon batteries with CPT?s production-ready SpeedStart motor-generator system.

The vehicle also includes production-ready electric boosting technology sold by technology developer CPT to Valeo. (Earlier post.) Other international companies involved are powertrain developer and systems integrator AVL based in Germany; drive belt specialist Mubea also from Germany; and Provector, a battery management systems company based in the UK.

We expect to gain an additional 4-8 percent fuel economy improvement over the 1,450 kg kerb weight, 12-volt LC SuperHybrid, which already achieves 50 mpg imperial (42 mpg US and 5.6 l/100km) and 130 g/km on the NEDC New European Drive Cycle and significantly more miles per gallon in real world driving, while delivering the performance and driveability of a 2-liter class vehicle.

?Nick Pascoe, CPT chief executive

The partners anticipate that the ALABC advanced lead-carbon battery and CPT switched reluctance motor-generator technologies can appear in the next generation of cars from 2015 onwards, when tighter CO₂ emission limits are imposed.

Mild electrification of the powertrain deploying more than 12 volts, but keeping it safely less than 60 volts, combined with new generation advanced lead-carbon batteries, which offer high power density and feature capacitive negative electrodes with added carbon, which have been shown to tolerate the relentless charging and discharging in this micro-mild hybrid application, will be a major factor in providing carmakers with the required energy efficiency and affordability.

Most significantly this low voltage micro-mild hybrid technology with nominal 1 kWh batteries included can be achieved at a quarter of the add-on costs normally incurred with a full hybrid or electric vehicle.

?Allan Cooper, European projects coordinator at the Advanced Lead-Acid Battery Consortium

Emerging low voltage mild hybrid electrification standards, led by the German VDA, but with vehicle OEM and tier 1 defined variations, provide a solution for reducing carbon emissions, without compromising performance or adding significant manufacturing cost.

Pascoe says the auto industry has calculated the additional cost to the motorist of deploying a 48 volt micro-mild hybrid solution to achieve a 30% reduction in CO₂ emissions can be as little as ?1,000 ($1,500) for the equivalent performance of a current 2-liter family-sized sedan depending on the base vehicle specification and electrical architecture deployed.

The 12V LC Super Hybrid vehicle has now been tested extensively and driven by many vehicle OEMs and automotive journalists. ALABC and CPT expect to release comprehensive performance data regarding the 48V vehicle fuel economy and energy management later in the year, after which both vehicles will be available for evaluation and back-to-back comparisons.

Source: http://www.greencarcongress.com/2013/04/lcsh-20130424.html

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BPI to pay EPA fine for 2007 Waterloo accident

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) -- Beef Products Inc. has agreed to pay a $450,000 civil penalty to settle alleged violations of Clean Air Act regulations from a 2007 incident at a now-closed Waterloo packing plant which killed a worker and injured another.

In the accident more than 1,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia was released into an area occupied by workers and two became trapped. The EPA determined in an investigation that the company failed to implement its risk management plan.

The company says it is working with EPA to resolve past concerns about its refrigeration systems and that includes enhancing existing controls and procedures.

The company has agreed to conduct audits of its compliance with risk management regulations at the South Sioux City, Neb., facility and correct any identified problems.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bpi-pay-epa-fine-2007-155344508.html

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Bobcats fire coach Mike Dunlap after 1 season

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) ? Mike Dunlap is one and done with the Charlotte Bobcats.

The Bobcats fired Dunlap as coach Tuesday after a single season.

The Bobcats went 21-61 under Dunlap, finishing with the second-worst record in the NBA ahead of only the Orlando Magic. Charlotte won just seven games in the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season, but tripling last season's victory total and a three-game winning streak to close the season weren't enough to save Dunlap's job.

Bobcats president of basketball operations Rod Higgins said he and general manager Rich Cho met with players and Dunlap before approaching owner Michael Jordan and asking him to make a coaching change.

"The change was allowed," Higgins said.

Dunlap struggled at times with game management, transitioning from the college game to the NBA and handling professional athletes, often benching veteran players for weeks at a time after they'd irritated him in some way.

Higgins said player input was "a part of the process, but not the only indicator."

During one point in the season Dunlap feuded with veteran guard Ben Gordon during a practice, and his micromanaging approach didn't always sit well with some of the more experienced players on the roster.

"I just don't think he was a great fit," general manager Rich Cho said. "Probably best that we go in a different direction."

In a statement Tuesday night, Dunlap took the high road, thanking Jordan and the entire organization for the opportunity as well as the fans for their support.

"I am very proud of the effort and hard work that the players demonstrated throughout the season," Dunlap said. "I am looking forward to the next chapter in my coaching career."

The move means the Bobcats will have a third head coach in three seasons.

The Bobcats hired Dunlap last June after he had been working as an assistant at St. John's, the first person to make a direct move from an assistant coach at the college level to a head coaching position in the NBA.

Dunlap replaced Paul Silas, who was fired after the Bobcats went 7-59 in 2011-12, the worst winning percentage in NBA history (.106).

The Bobcats got off to a surprising 7-5 start, but even Dunlap said at the time he "didn't trust" the record. The Bobcats would go on to lose 18 straight games and quickly regain their spot at the bottom of the NBA standings, where they would remain until closing with three wins and moving ahead of the Magic.

Higgins cited the team's inconsistent play as one of the reasons Dunlap was released.

"You can characterize the season in different buckets," Higgins said. "We started pretty strong and we finished pretty strong. But through the middle part of those two buckets we had some inconsistencies. So when Rich and I reviewed the season we came to the conclusion we needed a change."

Dunlap entered training camp with a desire to push his young players physically, and three- and four-hour practices became the norm. Dunlap talked early in the season about disrupting teams with three-quarter presses, but those plans were quickly abandoned.

The Bobcats were outscored by 757 points this season, more than any team in the NBA.

Defensively, the Bobcats allowed 102.6 points per game, the second-most in the league, and they were the NBA's worst shooting team at 42.5 percent.

After the season, Dunlap sounded like a man politicking to keep his job.

"I never thought that we were going to blink our eyes and have 35 wins," Dunlap said last week. "I thought it was always going to be a slog. We're slowly moving this thing around and again, what's perspective? The worst team in the history of the NBA (last season), all right, so how do you go from seven wins to, say, 40 wins? That's pretty tough to do."

The Bobcats interviewed 10 candidates last summer for the job.

Now that process will start all over.

"In the NBA, you're not surprised by a lot because so many different things happen," Higgins said of the decision. "It's the business."

With the Bobcats getting another top-five draft pick this year and having up to $21 million to spend under the salary cap, Higgins and Cho don't believe there will be a lack of interested candidates in the position.

"Since the release our cellphones have been blowing up," Higgins said. "It lets you know that there is interest in this job, a high level of interest."

Higgins said it's too early for a list of candidates but indicated he wants a coach who's a great leader, able to develop players and great with Xs and Os.

When asked if the team is looking for a candidate with more NBA experience this time around, Cho was non-committal.

"I don't want to pigeonhole ourselves," Cho said. "We want to find out the best fit."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bobcats-fire-coach-mike-dunlap-1-season-173839265--spt.html

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