South Carolina???s Demographics Will Shape GOP Primary (ContributorNetwork)

South Carolina's presidential preference primary will be held Saturday as five mainstream GOP candidates square off to try to win their party's nomination for president. South Carolina's demographics are much different than Iowa and New Hampshire, sites of the previous two nominating contests.

Here's a look at the demographic makeup of the Palmetto State as it relates to voters in South Carolina.

* South Carolina has a population of 4.625 million residents. Three-fourths of them are of voting age, according to the U.S. Census .

* As of Jan. 1, more than 2.7 million voters were registered in South Carolina. About 78 percent of the state's eligible population is registered to vote.

* South Carolina has 46 counties, as compared to 99 for Iowa and 10 for New Hampshire. In terms of total population, Iowa has just more than 3 million people and New Hampshire has 1.3 million . South Carolina has more people and voters than Iowa and New Hampshire combined.

* The economy is going to be a larger issue in South Carolina than in other states. As of November, South Carolina's unemployment rate was the eighth-worst in the U.S. at 9.9 percent. Contrarily, New Hampshire and Iowa were fourth and sixth best in November. New Hampshire's unemployment rate was 5.2 percent last fall while Iowa was just 5.7 percent.

* In terms of ethnic background, South Carolina is much more diverse than Iowa and New Hampshire. Sixty-six percent of residents identify themselves as white in South Carolina. In Iowa, that rate increases to 91 percent. In New Hampshire, that demographic is 94 percent.

* The largest minority group in South Carolina is black, with nearly 28 percent of the population identifying themselves as that ethnicity. Over the entire U.S. just 12.6 percent of residents are black.

*The county with the highest unemployment rate in South Carolina is Marion at 17.3 percent. Lexington County has the lowest unemployment rate at 7 percent, according to the Associated Press .

* Since 1980, the South Carolina primary has had the uncanny ability to choose the overall GOP nominee when the race is contested. Every single winner of the South Carolina Republican primary since it began 32 years ago has gone on to win the nationwide nomination.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120116/pl_ac/10841871_south_carolinas_demographics_will_shape_gop_primary

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Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang resigns (Reuters)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) ? Yahoo Inc co-founder Jerry Yang has quit the company he started in 1995, appeasing shareholders who had blasted the Internet pioneer for pursuing an ineffective personal vision and impeding investment deals that could have transformed the struggling company.

Yang's abrupt departure comes two weeks after Yahoo appointed Scott Thompson its new CEO, with a mandate to return the once-leading Internet portal to the heights it enjoyed in the 1990s.

Wall Street views the exit of "Chief Yahoo" Yang as smoothing the way for a major infusion of cash from private equity, or a deal to sell off much of its 40 percent slice of China's Alibaba, unlocking value for shareholders.

Shares of Yahoo gained 3 percent in after-hours trade.

"Everyone is going to assume this means a deal is more likely with the Asia counterparts," Macquarie analyst Ben Schacter said. "The perception among shareholders was Jerry was more focused on trying to rebuild Yahoo than necessarily on maximizing near-term shareholder value.

"It certainly seems things are coming to a head as far as realizing the value of these assets."

Yang, who is severing all formal ties with the company by resigning all positions including his seat on the board of directors, has come under fire for his handling of company affairs dating back to an aborted sale to Microsoft in 2008.

Yang's exit comes roughly a month before dissident shareholders can nominate rival directors to Yahoo's board.

The remaining nine members of Yahoo's board, which includes Hewlett-Packard executive Vyomesh Joshi and private investor Gary Wilson, are all up for reelection this year.

Yang's departure could be part of a broader board shakeup, said Ryan Jacob, chairman and chief investment officer of Jacob Funds, which owns Yahoo shares.

"If they don't move quickly on these things, they run the risk of a proxy battle and they are doing everything they can to avoid that."

The company did not say where Yang was headed or why he had suddenly resigned. CEO Thompson offered few clues in a memo to employees obtained by Reuters following the announcement.

"I am grateful for the support and warm welcome Jerry provided me in my early days here. His insights and perspective were invaluable, helping me to dig deeper, more quickly than I could have on my own, into some of the key elements of the company and how it operates.

Yang and co-founder David Filo, both of whom carried the official title "Chief Yahoo," own sizable stakes in the company. Yang owns 3.69 percent of Yahoo's outstanding shares, while Filo owns 6 percent as of April and May 2011.

CHIEF YAHOO NO LONGER

In a letter to Yahoo's chairman of the board, Yang said he was leaving to pursue "other interests outside of Yahoo" and was "enthusiastic" about Thompson as the choice to helm the company.

Yang, 43, is also resigning from the boards of Yahoo Japan and Alibaba Group Holdings.

Respected in the industry as one of the founding figures of the Web, Yang has come under fire over the years from investors and to some extent within the company's internal ranks.

"Lots of people think he holds up innovation there with old ideas and (is) slow to decide and that he's not an innovator himself for being at such a high level," said one former Yahoo employee.

"People have very high expectations for founders. Everyone wants a Steve Jobs," the employee said, referring to Apple's co-founder who brought the company back from near death and transformed it into the world's most valuable tech company.

Some analysts say the Yahoo board's indecision stems in part from Yang's sway in the company. Disillusioned by the company's flip-flopping, they warn that the rest of the board remained much the same as the one that rejected Microsoft's unsolicited takeover bid when Yang was CEO.

"Jerry Yang was certainly an impediment toward anything happening," said Morningstar analyst Rick Summer. "This is a company that's been mired by a bunch of competing interests going in different directions. It was never clear what this board's direction has been."

Microsoft's bid was worth about $44 billion. Its share price was subsequently pummeled by the global financial crisis and its current market value stands at about $20 billion.

More recently, Yang and Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock have incurred the wrath of some major Yahoo shareholders for their handling of the "strategic review" the company was pursuing, in which discussions have included the possibility of being sold, taken private or broken up.

Yang's efforts to seek a minority investment in Yahoo from private equity firms enraged several large shareholders, including hedge fund Third Point, which accused Yang of pursuing a deal that was in "his best personal interests" but not aligned with shareholders' interests.

Yahoo has also been exploring a deal to unload most of its prized Asian assets in a complex deal involving Alibaba, valued at roughly $17 billion, sources told Reuters last month.

Alibaba Group's founder, Jack Ma, whose personal relationship with Yang led to Yahoo buying a 40 percent stake in Alibaba in 2005, said he looked forward to continuing a "constructive relationship" with Yahoo.

Susquehanna analyst Herman Leung said: "I had thought that Jerry Yang was a lifer at Yahoo.

"Without him on the board, this could smooth a potential transaction. What that transaction is, is any of our guesses right now."

(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic; Additional reporting by Alistair Barr and Poornima Gupta in San Francisco, Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles, Liana Baker in New York and Melanie Lee in Shanghai; Editing by Bernard Orr, Gary Hill and Matt Driskill)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120118/wr_nm/us_yahoo

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Some Sour On Investing Or Saving [AUDIO]

Spencer Platt, Getty Images

The uncertainties of the economy and stock markets over the past decade have created an attitude of ?spend now, rather than lose it in the future.? One New Jersey investment expert calls that wrong-headed thinking.

Mercer County investing expert Ken Kamen says one of the legacies of the past ten years? which he calls the, ?flat decade? for markets? is that some have lost faith in investing and saving. Kamen says it would be the mistake of your life. He says just like economies, markets have a way of leveling out.

He says there are no magic bullets, it is all about homework and patience. Kamen says, ?it is boring, no one likes to hear that. But the truth of the matter is, savings is an important thing, and investing in equities is just one place to put your savings.?

Kamen says, ?save or invest whatever you can.?

He points out that many industries, most especially technology, will continue to grow in the future, so those who invest with those industries will likely grow their investments. Kamen also points out that as the middle class spreads around the world, more people are going to create a demand for the products that we have in America, and that speaks well for the growth trends looking forward.

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Source: http://nj1015.com/some-sour-on-investing-or-saving-audio/

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Rock Hall of Fame opens archives to public

CLEVELAND (AP) ? The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is giving scholars and fans access to the stories behind the music.

The museum's library and archives are open to the public beginning Tuesday in a $12 million building at Cuyahoga (ky-uh-HOH'-guh) Community College, two miles from the hall in Cleveland.

Visitors will have the chance to explore photos, albums and covers, oral histories and scrap books that, until now, have been stored away. The Plain Dealer reports (http://bit.ly/yYyCzI ) that the collection includes some 3,500 books, 1,400 audio recordings and 270 videos. The library has a staff of eight full-time employees.

___

Online:

http://rockhall.com/

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Information from: The Plain Dealer, http://www.cleveland.com

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-01-17-Rock%20Archives/id-813af4f86a8c4f4b9f0cf57a394bddcb

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Barack Obama's Fundraising Will Steamroll Every Other Candidate (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | President Barack Obama raised more than $200 million for his re-election campaign in 2011 and plans to raise more than the $750 million he spent in 2008 for his fall campaign against the Republican nominee. At some point, Americans have to step back and say "That's just crazy."

Every modern president seems to raise the bar on fundraising by trumping whatever record held up until that point. Reuters reported the Obama campaign is attempting to spread a campaign contributor program that has been very successful in attracting maximum contributors. A major incentive to becoming a maximum contributor (by donating $5,000 to the campaign) is the access it gives to the president and his advisers.

Obama certainly changed that game with a record amount in 2008. I'm not sure what the answer to this new level of campaign spending insanity is, but most intelligent people would agree that spending close to $1 billion on a presidential race is ridiculous, even for a country as large as the U.S.

Maybe the answer is to shorten the campaign period, but that tends to empower the incumbent. Requiring each campaign to spend the same amount further empowers an incumbent, as they have ready access to media -- something a challenger may not possess. Public financing of presidential campaigns just seems un-American. And mandatory media access would never work in a country where television markets widely differ from region to region.

It's for those very reasons that the fundraising process becomes more ingenious with every electoral cycle and the money raised skyrockets as well. Obama's staffers have proven themselves to be very proficient at fundraising for the president. In fact, they are the best ever. So until we devise a new system, expect every candidate to challenge the record fundraising of the previous election. If Mitt Romney is the GOP nominee -- and that appears more likely every day -- he will be able to give Obama's fundraising a better challenge than John McCain did in the last contest.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120116/pl_ac/10841509_barack_obamas_fundraising_will_steamroll_every_other_candidate

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Two killed in crash of small airplane on Cape Cod (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? A single-engine airplane flying from Martha's Vineyard to mainland Massachusetts crashed on a Cape Cod beach Sunday killing the two people on board, authorities said.

The four-seat Piper Comanche, which had taken off from Hyannis on southern Cape Cod, reported smoke in the cabin to air traffic controllers Sunday morning before communications were lost and the airplane disappeared from radar, U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Connie Terrell said.

Two airplanes, a helicopter and at least two boats were sent to search for the airplane and emergency teams searching on shore found the wreckage Sunday afternoon outside Brewster, Massachusetts, about 85 miles southeast of Boston, Terrell said.

"We received notification from the Brewster Fire Department that the plane had crash-landed on a beach ... and both people that were aboard that plane have been recovered deceased," she said.

Terrell said she did not know the names or genders of the two people killed, the airplane's pilot and either a co-pilot or passenger.

(Reporting By Zach Howard; Editing by David Bailey)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120115/us_nm/us_massachusetts_airplane_crash

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Intercepted Communications Indicate Taliban Leader Asimullah ...

Intercepted communications indicated Asimullah Mehsud was killed in a drone strike in the North Waziristan tribal area. In about a half a dozen intercepts the militants discussed whether their chief, Hakimullah Mehsud, was killed on January 12.
FOX News reported:

Intercepted militant radio communications indicate the leader of the Pakistani Taliban may have been killed in a recent U.S. drone strike, Pakistani intelligence officials said Sunday. A Taliban official denied that.

The report coincided with sectarian violence ? a bomb blast in eastern Pakistan that killed 14 people in a Shiite religious procession.

The claim that the Pakistani Taliban chief was killed came from officials who said they intercepted a number of Taliban radio conversations. In about a half a dozen intercepts, the militants discussed whether their chief, Hakimullah Mehsud, was killed on Jan. 12 in the North Waziristan tribal area. Some militants confirmed Mehsud was dead, and one criticized others for talking about the issue over the radio.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Asimullah Mehsud denied the group?s leader was killed and said he was not in the area where the drone strike occurred.

?

Source: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/01/intercepted-communications-indicate-taliban-leader-asimullah-mehsud-was-killed-in-drone-strike/

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