Advokats ærkerival frygtes dræbt

Lettisk politi mener at have fundet liget af en russisk-født rigmand, der sagsøgte den danske advokat Jeffrey Galmond og en russisk teleminister for mordtrusler, før han forsvandt Skandalen om den danske advokat Jeffrey Galmond og hans forbindelser til inderkredsen omkring den russiske præsident, Vladimir Putin, tager nu en makaber ny drejning.

Facebook and Twitter: A No-No for Federal Jurors

Were you hoping to waste away your hours of jury duty on Facebook or Twitter?

Federal judges are hoping you won’t, and have a new list of instructions from the Federal Judicial Conference Committee on how to discourage social networking in the courthouse throughout cases. While you may just be browsing breaking news or your friends’ updates, judges are concerned you’ll engage in external research or leak details about the case.

The new guidelines, drafted in June and issued Friday, instruct judges how to best deter jurors from using Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or YouTube to research and communicate about the cases for which they’re serving. Judges are told to review these instructions before the trial, at the close of each day before they return home, at the end of the case and at any other time deemed appropriate.

“Jurors should be told why refraining from use of social media promotes a fair trial,” said Judge Julie Robinson, the Conference Committee on Court Administration and Case Management chair, in a statement. “Finally, jurors should know the consequences of violations during trial, such as mistrial and wasted time.”

These instructions follow the results of a national survey of federal judges who reported that juror use of social media was most often reported by a fellow juror. Judges are encouraged to ask jurors to out fellow jurors who violate the instructions against social networking.

GOP delegates want tough talk, yearn to party like 1980, when Democrat was ousted after 1 term

 Republicans heading to their party convention are eager to hear an earful about the shortcomings of President Barack Obama’s record, the woeful U.S.

economy and the competing visions of the two presidential candidates. What they aren’t looking for is any mention of compromise, which most Americans say is

necessary to get the nation back on track.

The Republicans want a party like in 1980, when the GOP ousted a Democratic president after one term.


Delegates from around the country have big dreams for the Aug. 27-30 gathering in Tampa, Fla., where Mitt Romney will accept the party’s nomination and

Republicans will kick off their final push to defeat Obama. They sketched out a sharp message they want to hear from speaker after speaker — onetime White

House hopefuls, GOP governors, congressional leaders and the party’s top recruits angling to win a job in Washington.

Conventions are four-day slugfests directed at the opposing party and its candidate. The rhetoric is brutal, vitriolic and far from conciliatory. Some lines

are memorable.

“Poor George, he can’t help it — he was born with a silver foot in his mouth,” quipped Texas state treasurer Ann Richards to laughs and applause at the

Democratic National Convention in Atlanta in 1988. Her target was the well-heeled GOP nominee, Vice President George H.W. Bush.

Twenty years later, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin accepted the Republican vice presidential nomination at the GOP convention in St. Paul, Minn., and compared her

mayoral experience in Wasilla, Alaska, to that of nominee Obama.

“I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities,” she said.

The crowd roared.

Ed Cox, the chairman of the Republican Party in New York, wants speakers at the convention to echo the message that Romney delivered after he won the

Wisconsin primary in April. Romney cast the election as a choice between what he called Obama’s “government-centered society” and the “opportunity

society” the former businessman said he would pursue as president.

“This is the crux of our message, that we are for an opportunity society of free people and free enterprise,” Cox said in an interview with The Associated

Press. “America has always been about people having dreams, going out and working to make them. To do that they don’t want the heavy hand of government on

top of them, whether it’s in taxes or regulations.”

The Obama administration in its first year “ignored what they were elected to do, which was to pay attention to jobs and the economy,” said Cox, who has

seen his share of conventions as the son-in-law of President Richard M. Nixon.

Jim McErlane, a lawyer from Chester County, Pa., said convention speakers should keep it simple.

“The economy, the economy, the economy,” he said in an interview. “Jobs, jobs, jobs.”

Shawn Steel, a lawyer from Palos Verdes, Calif., wants the convention to remind Americans of 1980, when Ronald Reagan accepted the nomination in Detroit and

then scored a landslide victory that knocked out President Jimmy Carter and helped Republicans seize control of the Senate.

Ibaka's new deal with Thunder reportedly for $48M

 The Oklahoma City Thunder took a big step toward sticking around as an NBA championship contender.

The Thunder and general manager Sam Presti still face difficult decisions in the team's quest to remain a title threat for the long haul after reaching the

NBA Finals last season, but reaching a contract extension with blocks leader Serge Ibaka is certainly a good start.

Ibaka came to terms on the deal on Saturday as the Thunder locked up another key member of their nucleus while also putting into question whether the small-

market team can afford to keep Sixth Man of the Year James Harden beyond next season..

Ibaka posted on Twitter that he was happy for the chance to play for the Thunder for five more years. Presti didn't provide details of the contract, citing

team policy, but Yahoo! Sports first reported that the deal is for four additional years and $48 million.

"At 23 years old (by the time next season starts), we really do expect his best basketball to be in front of him," Presti said in a conference call, hours

before his wedding.

Presti dismissed the notion that Ibaka's signing means that Harden's departure is inevitable. But with more than $50 million committed per season to All-

Stars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook and starting center Kendrick Perkins, there is not much room left in the budget for Harden, who earned a spot on the

U.S. Olympic team that won gold in London.

Ibaka played for Spain's silver-medal winning Olympic team. Both he and Harden were eligible for extensions to their rookie contracts for the first time this

summer and were set to become free agents after next season.

"We're going to continue our conversations with James. We very much value him," Presti said. "We want him to be a part of our organization moving forward.

We're excited that he's a member of the Thunder and we're hopeful that he'll be with us for years moving forward."

To make that happen, Oklahoma City would likely have to go over the salary cap - set at about $58 million for next season - and pay a luxury tax or make

other moves, such as using the amnesty clause to erase Perkins' contract.

The Thunder have already let veteran free agents Nazr Mohammed and Royal Ivey sign elsewhere, and Derek Fisher remains unsigned. Backup point guard Eric

Maynor, who missed most of last season due to a knee injury, also would become a free agent after next season.

"There's still a commitment for us to try to find a way to make it work for everybody, but we know there's going to be some difficult decisions that have to

be made," Presti said. "We're looking forward to trying to figure those things out, and having Serge in place is certainly a benefit for our organization

moving forward knowing that we have another core player that will be with us for the foreseeable future."

Ibaka was the No. 24 pick in the draft in 2008, the same year Presti selected Westbrook. A native of the Republic of Congo, Ibaka remained overseas for a

year before joining the Thunder and developing into a defensive stopper.

He led the NBA with 198 blocks in the 2010-11 season and finished second in the voting for Defensive Player of the Year last season after recording a league

-best 241 - a franchise record 3.65 per game.

"He's come a long way in a short amount of time, but I've seen a lot of hard work that's gone into that on his behalf, and that gives us confidence that he's

going to continue to work at it," Presti said.

Ibaka has steadily improved his offensive game, adding a mid-range jumper while starting to develop effective post moves. But he's best known for his

defensive impact, particularly after blocking at least 10 shots in three games last season - once as part of a triple-double.

"I think with Serge, he does so many things," Presti said. "Obviously, his shot-blocking is a statistic that's most pointed to because it's objective,

because it's measurable, but there's a lot of things he does for us in terms of just, I would say, deterring shots.

"He really helps our pick-and-roll defense and bails us out a lot of times."

Record-Breaking Phoenix Galaxy Cluster: By the Numbers

 The faraway Phoenix galaxy cluster may be the biggest and brightest such structure ever discovered, and it's forming stars at an unprecedented rate,

scientists announced today (Aug. 15).

Here's a by-the-numbers look at the Phoenix cluster — formally known as SPT-CLJ2344-4243 — which researchers say could yield key insights into how galaxies

and colossal clusters evolve:

2.5 quadrillion: How many times more massive the Phoenix cluster is than our own sun. This may be an all-time record for galaxy clusters — the most massive

structures in the universe, composed of hundreds or thousands of individual galaxies bound together by gravity — researchers said.
 "I would say it's in a dead heat for the most massive galaxy cluster," Michael McDonald of MIT, lead author of the study describing Phoenix's remarkable

properties, told SPACE.com contributor Charles Choi. "The record-holder, 'El Gordo,' is slightly more massive, but the uncertainty in this estimate is high

— it could turn out that with more careful measurements, Phoenix is more massive."

3 trillion: The number of stars that reside in the Phoenix cluster's central galaxy, compared to 200 billion or so in our own Milky Way. [Gallery: Chandra

Spies Fastest-Growing Galaxy Cluster]

10 billion: The low-end estimate of the mass of the huge black hole at the heart of Phoenix's central galaxy, in solar masses. That's about as massive as the

biggest black hole ever discovered.

For comparison, the Milky Way's central black hole weighs in at about 4 million solar masses.
 5.7 billion: The approximate distance of Phoenix from Earth, in light-years. The cluster is found in the Phoenix constellation, partly explaining its

informal name.

However, researchers also chose the moniker as a nod to the mythological bird that rises from its own ashes, since Phoenix's central galaxy has seemingly

come back to life with a huge burst of star formation.

2010: The year in which astronomers discovered Phoenix, using the U.S. National Science Foundation-funded South Pole Telescope. But it took the team a little

while to learn just what they had found.

"We really didn't realize how remarkable it was until late last year and early this year, when we got follow-up X-ray and optical and ultraviolet and

infrared measurements that constrained the star-formation rate," McDonald told reporters today.

740: The approximate number of stars generated per year by the galaxy in Phoenix's center, a new high for the middle of a cluster.

"This extreme rate of star formation was really unexpected," McDonald said. "It's nearly five times higher than the next most star-forming central-cluster

galaxy, in Abell 1835. So it's really crushing the record."

Our own Milky Way galaxy produces just one to two new stars every year on average, McDonald added.

An Initiative to Predict Solar Flares Much in Advance

When solar flares occur, their dangerous radiations imperil satellites, astronauts, and power grids. In order to warn them in advance so that they could take

sufficient precautions, U. S. scientists have developed a new method, which will help them, forecast solar flares more than a day before their actual

occurrence.

When atoms in radioactive elements decay or lose their energy, they produce gamma radiations. This newly derived system will measure the difference in these

gamma radiations and will indicate the occurrence of solar flares. The main theory behind this system is that the rates with which radioactive elements

decay, depends upon any kind of activity that takes place in the solar system and this most of the times could be brooks of subatomic particles, known as

solar neutrinos.

Ephraim Fischbach, a Purdue University professor of physics said, "This influence can wax and wane due to seasonal changes in Earth's distance from the sun

and also during solar flares".

Solar flare is a condition, when suddenly huge amount of energy discharging lightening is observed over the Sun's surface or the solar limb. According to

scientists, it is generally 36 hours prior the beginning of a solar flare, when radioactive samples start varying.

Obama returns, Obama returned to Iowa to rekindle the passion, Iowa to rekindle the passion

This prairie state is the place where his unlikely bid for presidency began. But now it is 2012, and the big question for President Obama is whether, four

years after that historic run, Iowa can do for him what it did in 2008.
 Midway through a three-day bus tour in which he is traveling from the Nebraska border through windmill farms and dried-out cornfields east toward Illinois,

Mr. Obama is trying hard to reignite that fire, using the considerable arsenal at his disposal.

He is using the executive reach of the presidency — he began his trip on Monday announcing $170 million for aid to farmers and ranchers afflicted by the

drought. He is using the natural props that this state has always provided for the legions of politicians who flock here — posing for a photo with the Iowa

State Fair pageant queen and loudly demanding, in front of reporters at the fairgrounds, his helping of “pork chop on a stick.”

(He got two on Monday evening, but alas, they were on a paper plate instead of a stick, and no one remembered to supply the president with utensils, leaving

him to wail plaintively at the crowd: “Someone’s got to have a knife and fork!”)

And he is using his own well-known gift as an orator to try to get the flame going again.

“The centerpiece of Mr. Romney’s entire economic plan is to give another $5 trillion tax cut,” mostly to the rich, Mr. Obama told a campaign audience of

around 800 here. “Understand this is not asking you to pay more taxes to reduce our deficit, or to help kids get an education, or rebuild some roads — it’

s asking you to pay more to give an extra tax break to people making $250,000 or more a year.”

The president is mixing in campaign rallies with tête-à-têtes with local business owners. At Coffee Connection in Knoxville, Mr. Obama even talked with a

Republican, the cafe’s owner, Mark Raymie. (A campaign aide told amused reporters afterward that “we don’t party-ID people when we go to local

establishments.”)

He chatted with patrons of the coffee shop about White House beer — apparently brewed on the grounds at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue — and when one man evinced

an interest, the president sent out to his bus, Ground Force One, to get him a bottle. Then he wrote an excuse slip for a woman who was going to be late for

work because of her presidential shoulder-rubbing.

It remains anyone’s guess whether Mr. Obama can replicate the magic of 2008, and to become a two-term president, he dearly needs Iowa. A swing state, it has

one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, though its booming farm economy has been hurt by the drought.

Mr. Obama’s Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, sent his new running mate, Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, here on Monday on Mr. Ryan’s first

solo foray on the campaign trail, a sign of how much the Republicans want to win this state’s six electoral votes.

It will be hard for Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan to outdo the Obama ground operation here — it remained largely in place after 2008 and was one of the first

places the Obama campaign revved up again for the 2012 cycle. But the Romney camp, sensing the potential to plug into a larger disenchantment with the

overall national employment picture, has blanketed the state in advertising and appearances by surrogates and the candidate himself.

At an appearance at the Nelson Pioneer Farm and Museum here on Tuesday, the president conceded that he was being outspent, saying, “They’ve got people

writing $10 million checks.”

Mr. Obama continued: “All the ads are the same. They say ‘the economy’s not doing well and it’s Obama’s fault.’ ” He called that a strategy to win an

election, not a plan to turn around the economy.

At the centerpiece of Mr. Obama’s bus tour is his broader electoral strategy: to hold the states won by Democrats in the last three elections, and then to

find the additional 28 electoral votes he needs from a combination of other swing states, like Iowa (6 votes), Ohio (18 votes), Virginia (13 votes) or New

Hampshire, Colorado and New Mexico.

Polls in Iowa are very close to the national average, showing a tight race, with more showing Mr. Obama holding a slight lead rather than Mr. Romney.

Mr. Obama on Tuesday called on Congress to extend expiring tax credits for wind energy production. A White House spokesman said a new Energy Department

report indicated that wind power installations surged in 2011, but warned that fear that the tax credit would expire could lead to a slowdown with

accompanying job loss.

The report seemed timed to coincide with the president’s trip to Iowa, where his motorcade whizzed past countless windmills as it traversed Interstate 80

and rural roads. The report said that 75,000 jobs in the country now depend on wind power.

Mr. Romney has opposed extending the credits, a position that Jennifer Psaki, the Obama campaign press spokeswoman, labeled surprising enough to leave even

some Republicans in “utter disbelief.”

Romney campaign aides say that he would boost the wind industry through deregulation by rewarding technological innovation.

What Romney’s run with the Big Dig tells us about how he’d manage America

Mitt Romney was used to summoning state officials and having them appear. So when the head of a troubled agency stood him up in the middle of an emergency,

the Massachusetts governor was furious.

A tunnel ceiling collapse in July 2006 had killed a mother of three, the latest crisis for the massive Boston construction project known as the “Big Dig.”

But Matthew Amorello, the official overseeing construction, had ignored Romney’s summons and instead held a televised news conference at the accident site.


Romney took off for the tunnel, his face red and his jaw set, aides said. He stormed out of his car so fast his staffers scrambled to keep up, and upbraided

Amorello in a scene captured on Boston television. “It was the one time I saw him explode,’’ said Thomas Trimarco, a Romney cabinet member.

It was also the moment Romney took control of the Big Dig, one of the state’s most infamous and vexing problems, and one that had hung over him for 3 1 / 2

years. The project was billions of dollars over budget, years behind schedule and riddled by allegations of corruption — a mess that Romney had inherited

and vowed to fix when he became governor.

Romney’s plunge into the Big Dig offers a case study of his management style, one molded by the private sector experience he promises to bring to the White

House. Faced with a crisis, he set out to diagnose the problem and master the engineering details, then ordered a top-to-bottom safety review.

As a former business consultant, the frenzied atmosphere “played to his skills,’’ said Kerry Healey, Romney’s lieutenant governor: “He’s a smart guy,

and the whole notion of consulting is, you go into a business you don’t know, and learn it so well that you can quickly tell the people whose business it is

how to do it better.’’

Yet after the crisis faded, his attention receded as well, a critique that dogged him at other points during his governership. When he took office in 2003,

for example, the novice politician faced what he called a “financial emergency,’’ a nearly $3 billion state budget gap.

Working closely with the Democratic-controlled legislature, Romney rapidly won sweeping emergency powers to cut spending. But after the immediate budget

crisis passed, his relationships with legislators frayed when he targeted many of them for defeat in midterm elections.

Romney also zeroed in on a Massachusetts judicial nominating system he saw as riddled with patronage and favoritism. He announced widely hailed reforms, yet

reversed them as he geared up to run for president in 2008 and appointed some lawyers with political or personal ties to the bench.

The governor’s business background was perhaps most apparent in his effort to revamp what he saw as a highly inefficient higher education system. He brought

in consultants from his former firm, Bain & Co., who helped craft far-reaching proposals.

But Romney’s plan to privatize some schools and merge others quickly died in the Democratic-controlled legislature, and he never reintroduced it.

4 Updates from Mars

In the last week, little has captivated people more than Mars. Since last Sunday, images and news have been pouring out of NASA about Curiosity, the rover

that will spend the next two years exploring the red planet, sampling geology and looking for evidence of microbial life.

Here are the latest updates involving the remarkable mission.
Geology That Looks Like Death Valley

Curiosity has transmitted back to Earth its first high-resolution color mosaic that shows the environment around its landing site on Mars. It shows a Death

Valley-like landscape that includes a northern section on the crater wall where valleys believed to have resulted from water erosion protrude into Gale

Crater.

A southern perspective shows the areas the rover will explore, “including the rock-strewn, gravelly surface nearby, the dark dune field and the layered

buttes and mesas of the sedimentary rock of Mount Sharp,” reports NASA in an announcement.
This 79-image mosaic was compiled from images taken within about an hour on August 8 with Curiosity’s 34-millimeter Mastcam, but doesn’t include all of the

130 1200-by-1200-pixel full-color photos it captured—some of which have yet to be returned to earth, resulting in the black patches.
Where the Sky Crane Descent Stage Crashed

Some of the first images Curiosity captured included a strange cloud that set the blogosphere abuzz about what it might be.
"We believe we've caught what is the descent stage impact on the Martian surface," Steve Sell, NASA's deputy operations lead for Curiosity's Mars landing,

told reporters Friday at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)in Pasadena, California, reports Space.com.

Now, with the high-res images in hand, geologists are looking closely at the crash site that exposes underlying materials as well as an upper layer made up

of rock fragments embedded within finer substances.
Curiosity Gets a 'Brain Transplant'

This weekend the Mars rover has been getting what NASA calls a “brain transplant,” a new version of flight software that’s better suited for working on

the surface of Mars, such as driving and using Curiosity’s powerful robotic arm and drill. It will also give the rover better image processing ability so it

can avoid obstacles while driving as well as go on longer drives.

The software upgrade began the evening of August 10 and should be complete on August 13.

It’s a pretty big deal considering the remote update is happening from 350 million miles away and if something goes wrong it could mean the last contact

anyone has with Curiosity.

"It has to work," Steve Scandore, a senior flight software engineer at JPL, told Computerworld. "You don't' want to be known as the guy doing the last

activity on the rover before you lose contact."
Other Mars News

While Curiosity wasn’t involved, Mars enthusiasts might like knowing that a UCLA scientist has discovered plate tectonics exist on the planet.

"Mars is at a primitive stage of plate tectonics. It gives us a glimpse of how the early Earth may have looked and may help us understand how plate tectonics

began on Earth," said An Yin, a UCLA professor of Earth and space sciences and the author of the research.

 Yin made the discovery by analyzing about 100 satellite images from THEMIS (Thermal Emission Imaging System), an instrument on board the Mars Odyssey

spacecraft, and from the HIRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The surface of Mars is home to the longest and deepest system of canyons in the solar system—nearly 2500 miles long—and scientists have long wondered how

it was formed. According to Yin, the long crack is where two plates abut.

"The shell is broken and is moving horizontally over a long distance. It is very similar to the Earth's Dead Sea fault system, which has also opened up and

is moving horizontally," he said.
How to Keep up with Mars

NASA has dedicated an entire section of its website to its Mars mission and really everything you’d want to know about it is right there.

Otherwise, PCWorld’s Ian Paul has put together a thorough guide on how to track the Mars rover using a plethora of online tools. Check out Mars Rover

Curiosity: A Complete Guide to Tagging Along Online.

Sneijder not looking for summer move

 The Dutch playmaker was strongly touted for a move to Manchester United last summer, but has apparently not attracted similar attention a year later after a

disappointing trip to the Euro 2012 finals with the Netherlands.

Andrea Stramaccioni is the Italian club's new coach and Sneijder said: "I want to start over and do well with Inter.

“I am an Inter player and have not thought about leaving. If a good offer comes in and I like it, then we’ll see…

“Currently I have not received any offers and I do not want to leave. My desire is to win it all here and provide great satisfaction to the president,

directors and fans.

“Last season I did not enjoy at all and also at the European Championships with the Netherlands I did not play well. At 28 I want to be playing me best, to

win everything. I cannot waste time.

“The team is a bit different this year, they are no longer the Inter of 2010. Compared to two years ago in have arrived players of quality, who are good,

but younger.

“Even the coach is new and we like how he trains and plays football. Together we are aiming to win.

“Yes, it is a new Inter because of the things that have changed. I see a nice mix of experienced and young players. We shall do well.”

Cognizant, HCA Net Up; The AES, Tesco Net Fall

Best Buy Co., Inc. (BBY), the consumer goods retailer founder Richard Schulze offered to take the company private. Schulze currently holds 20% stake in the

retailer and proposed to acquire all the remaining stock for $24 to $26 per share in cash which represent a 36% to 47% premium of closing price of $17.64 on

Friday.

Blue Nile, Inc. (NILE) increased 2.4% or 78 cents to $32.78 after the online jewlery retailer on Friday reported net sales in the fourth quarter ending on

July 1 surged 13% to $91 million compared to $81 million in the same period of last year. Net income in the quarter plunged 44.4% to $1.58 million or 11

cents per diluted share compared to of $2.84 million or 19 cents per share a year ago period.

Stocks surged 33% on Friday after the earnings and extended gains today by 2.4%.

Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTSH), the outsourcing service provider reported revenue in the second quarter ending in June soared 20.9% to $1.80 billion

compared to $1.49 billion in the same period of last year. Net income in the quarter surged to $251.9 million or 82 cents per diluted share compared to $208

million or 67 cents a share a year ago quarter.

The company anticipated third quarter revenue to be at least $1.875 billion and expected earnings per share to be between 86 cents and 92 cents. Revenue for

the fiscal 2012 are expected to be about $7.34 billion and above 20% compared to year ago and earnings per share to be at least $3.38 and $3.64.

Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (CNK), the motion picture theater chain operator reported revenues in the second quarter ending in June grew 10% to $649.6 million

compared to $620.6 million in the same period of last year. Net earnings in the quarter soared 20% to $51.6 million or 45 cents per diluted share compared to

$40.4 million or 35 cents per share a year ago period.

Dril-Quip, Inc. (DRQ), the drilling equipments maker reported revenues in the second quarter ending in June climbed 27% to $135.2 million compared to $106.6

million in the same period of last year. Net income in the quarter jumped 34.2% to $29.8 million or 74 cents per diluted share compared to $22.2 million or

55 cents per share a year ago quarter.

The equipments maker raised its full year earnings per share to be in the range of $2.75 to $2.95 from previous guidance of $2.60 to $2.80 per share.

HCA Holdings, Inc. (HCA), the hospital operator reported revenues in the second quarter ending in June increased 11.9% to $8.11 billion compared to $7.25

billion in the same period of last year. Net income in the quarter soared 70.7% to $391 million or 85 cents per diluted share compared to $229 million or 43

cents per share a year ago.

HCA estimated revenues for the fiscal year between $32 billion and $33 billion and adjusted earnings per share in the range of $3.57 to $3.77 from previous

guidance.

Health Care REIT, Inc. (HCN), the real estate investment company reported revenues in the second quarter ending in June increased 22.6% to $453.1 million

compared to $369.6 million in the same period of last year. Net income in the quarter declined 21.6% to $54.7 million or 25 cents per diluted share compared

to $69.8 million or 39 cents per share a year ago earlier.

The AES Corporation (AES), the electricity provider reported total revenue in the second quarter ending in June slid 5.6% to $4.19 billion compared to $4.44

billion in the same period of last year. Net income in the quarter dropped 19.5% to $140 million or 18 cents per diluted share compared to $174 million or 22

cents per share a year ago.

The AES reaffirmed its full-year earnings from continuing operations outlook range of $1.22 to $1.30 per share.

Tyson Foods, Inc. (TSN), the meat processor reported sales in the third quarter ending in June rose 0.7% to $8.31 billion compared to $8.25 billion in the

same period of last year. Net income in the quarter declined 61.2% to $76 million or 21 cents per diluted share compared to $196 million or 51 cents per

share a year ago period.

Tyson lowered fiscal 2012 revenues by $1 billion to $33 billion.

Tesco Corporation (TESO), the oil well service provider reported revenues in the second quarter ending in June increased 22.6% to $136.7 million compared to

$117.3 million in the same period of last year. Net income in the quarter declined 21.6% to $13.1 million or 34 cents per diluted share compared to $7.4

million or 19 cents per share a year ago earlier.

Romney camp doubles down in Ohio

Despite a spate of headlines out of Ohio that push back on the notion that President Obama's campaign is trying to strip military members of voting rights in

the upcoming election, Mitt Romney's campaign is drilling down on the claim.

In a memo out earlier from counsel Katie Biber, Romney's camp insisted that the suit the Obama camp filed - to restore early in-person voting rights to every

Ohio citizen - is targeting military members.

The suit doesn't actually say this, and papers the campaign has filed called it "appropriate" to give three extra days to military members. The suit argues

against creating two classes of voters, using the legal term "arbitrary," which Romney's camp is seizing on to make its point.

"We disagree with the basic premise that it is arbitrary' and unconstitutional to give three extra days of in-person early voting to military voters and

their families, and believe it is a dangerous and offensive argument for President Obama and the DNC to make," she wrote.

"It is not only constitutional, but commendable that the Ohio legislature granted military voters and their families this accommodation.  It is despicable

for the Obama campaign to challenge Ohio’s lawful decision."

She noted that a group of more than a dozen military groups is opposing the suit, which is an extremely complicated case related to the end of what had been

early in-person voting broadly (which would likely help Obama) being turned into solely military early in-person voting (which is likely to help Romney).

The lawsuit is not trying to end it for military members, but make it exist for everyone.

The Obama campaign, meanwhile, sent out a string of headlines that undercut the Romney campaign's claim, with statements calling it "shameful." Vice

President Joe Biden made a similar statement to Time's Mark Halperin yesterday, who notes that this is a clear play to try to recreate some of the military

voting outrage that existed in 2000.

So Romney's campaign is making two separate points - arguing based on the brief that Obama doesn't agree military members deserve special privileges, while

also claiming the campaign is trying to deny voters rights. The suit isn't about subtracting, it's about adding.

But whether the Romney campaign succeeds in making this a cause that breaks through remains to be seen.

Movie Review: Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

Modern art long ago stopped being about recreating an image of reality and became about ideas. The key question always seems to be: Is art the thing itself?

Or the idea of the thing?

But what if you live in a society where the very ideas you harbor are punishable by imprisonment -- or worse? How much of being an artist becomes about

simply having the courage to express your ideas in verbal or physical form?

That's the notion at the heart of Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, a compelling documentary about the Chinese contemporary artist who seems to spend his life on a

blade's edge, dancing on a knife that's in the hands of the government of the People's Republic of China. One of the designers of the "Bird's Nest," the

stadium that was the centerpiece of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Ai is a seemingly fearless individual whose most prominent art work often involves giving the

finger to his own government, sometimes literally.

As Alison Klayman's film shows, he comes by his rebelliousness naturally. His father was a dissident poet under Mao Zedong, sent to reeducation farms to

learn the proper attitude. Ai Weiwei lives in a slightly more enlightened time, but the memory of his father's treatment still informs his work and his

opinion about his country.

Yet his art isn't about overthrowing the established order as much as showing its hypocrisy and cement-headed attitudes toward new ideas, such as democratic

free thought and expression. The film chronicles a couple of his post-Olympic artworks, such as a show in Germany that included a massive, building-size

quilt made of red, yellow and blue nylon backpacks.

The backpacks represent the thousands of school children who died in a 2008 earthquake in Sichuan province. They were killed when the government-built school

buildings in which they were housed collapsed because of shoddy construction. The government, however, refused to acknowledge the loss of life because of the

loss of face it would entail.

The backpacks were a follow-up to one of Ai Weiwei's other projects -- assembling a list of names of all the dead children, something the government refused

to do. The government feared embarrassment for sanctioning substandard construction and refused to reveal how many children had died in the earthquake. So Ai

Weiwei and a crew of volunteers gradually assembled the most comprehensive list around and posted it on the Internet -- until the government took it down.