Revenge Sacrifice Sneak Peek Clip

The second season of Revenge has been building towards The Amanda sinking and claiming at least one life -- and when the sudsy ABC series returns on February 10, the doomed voyage commences.

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This morning, I received a Shamu-cam straight from "Nolan Ross" and it contained a very exciting video file labeled "Confidential: For Your Eyes Only." But I've decided to risk Emily's wrath by sharing the sneak peek with you right now!

PHOTOS - Revenge Cast Glams It Up in Elle Magazine

Accompanying the flashdrive was a note on NOLCORP stationary. It read:

Ems -

Or should I start referring to you as The Thorne Identity? (ed note: YES!)

Watch this. It's the whale cam video file that goes KA-BOOM! Literally. It self destructs after you watch it. Be extremely careful when activating, and whatever you do, DO NOT let it fall into the wrong hands.

Yours in Revenge,

N

I can trust you, right?

Revenge airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on ABC.

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Energy Secretary Chu steps down after Solyndra scandal

WASHINGTON — Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who won a Nobel Prize in physics but came under questioning for his handling of a solar energy loan, is stepping down.

Chu offered his resignation to President Barack Obama in a letter Friday. He said he will stay on at least until the end of February and may stay until a successor is confirmed.

Chu's departure had been widely expected and follows announcements by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson and Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, that they are leaving.

The White House said no decisions have been made on replacements for any of the environment and energy jobs but said Obama's priorities will remain unchanged. Potential replacements for Chu include former North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and former Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire.

Obama said in a statement Friday that Chu brought a "unique understanding of both the urgent challenge presented by climate change and the tremendous opportunity that clean energy represents for our economy."

During his tenure, Chu helped move the country toward energy independence, Obama said, citing Energy Department programs to boost renewable energy such as wind and solar power.

"Thanks to Steve, we also expanded support for our brightest engineers and entrepreneurs as they pursue groundbreaking innovations that could transform our energy future," Obama said.

Chu, a former director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, had little political experience before taking the energy post in 2009.

He drew fire from congressional Republicans who criticized his handling of a $528 million federal loan to solar panel maker Solyndra, which later went bankrupt, laying off its 1,100 workers. Republicans said Chu and other Energy Department officials missed many warning signs about problems at Solyndra and compounded them by approving a restructuring of the loan even after problems were discovered.

Solyndra was the first renewable-energy company to receive a loan guarantee under the 2009 stimulus law, and the Obama administration frequently promoted the company as a model for its clean energy program. Chu attended a 2009 groundbreaking when the loan was announced, and Obama visited the company's Fremont, Calif., headquarters the next year.

The company's implosion in 2011 and revelations that the administration hurried a review of the loan in time for the groundbreaking become an embarrassment for Chu and Obama and a rallying cry for GOP critics of the administration's green energy program.

Lawmakers also criticized Chu for approving the plan to restructure Solyndra's debt so that two private investors moved ahead of taxpayers for repayment in case of default.

Chu defended the Solyndra loan during a sometimes testy hearing in late 2011. While calling the ultimate outcome "regrettable," Chu said the loan was subject to "proper, rigorous scrutiny and healthy debate" before it was approved in 2009.

"While we are disappointed in the outcome of this particular loan, we support Congress' mandate to finance the deployment of innovative technologies and believe that our portfolio of loans does so responsibly," Chu said.

The White House said Chu retained Obama's confidence, but Chu was widely expected to leave following Obama's re-election last fall.

In a letter to Energy Department employees, Chu said he was proud of his tenure and cited dozens of accomplishments, including doubling the production of renewable energy from wind and solar power. Installations of small solar electric, or photovoltaic, systems have nearly doubled in each of the last three years, he said, while fully 42 percent of new energy capacity in the U.S. last year was from wind —more than any other energy source, Chu said.

"I came with dreams and am leaving with a set of accomplishments that we should all be proud of," he said.

One of his accomplishments was something that Chu rarely talked about: Obama repeatedly credits Chu with helping to plug the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Chu and a team of engineers helped devised an interim solution before a replacement well permanently plugged the leak, which spewed more than 200 million gallons of oil in the worst offshore oil disaster in the country's history.

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Another Miami police officer criminally charged with extortion

A Miami police officer who recently resigned while under investigation surrendered to authorities Thursday on criminal charges stemming from an FBI investigation. He became the second officer charged with involvement in an alleged protection racket for a sports-betting ring operating out of a Liberty City barbershop.

Harold James, an eight-year veteran, is charged with two counts of extortion involving providing protection for “the cashing of fraudulent checks’’ in exchange for cash payments, according to court records.

He is scheduled to make his first appearance in federal court Thursday afternoon. Prosecutors are seeking to seize $800 from James that they say he pocketed from the alleged protection racket in 2012.

James became the second Miami officer criminally charged in as many days. In an unrelated case, authorities arrested Officer Luis Hernandez, 27, Wednesday and charged him with armed kidnapping and sexual battery by a law enforcement officer. Also Wednesday, the department fired an officer, Reynaldo Goyos, for shooting and killing an unarmed motorist two years ago.

In federal court, James is charged by criminal “information,’’ a sign that he is cooperating with authorities and will eventually plead guilty to limit any prison sentence.

James last worked in the Model City neighborhood before he resigned in November, city records show. He generally received above-average performance evaluations, and he received nine commendations over his career. James was reprimanded seven times, mostly for traffic accidents or failing to appear for court hearings, records show.

Earlier this month, fellow Miami Officer Nathaniel Dauphin became the first of several cops swept up in the broad anti-corruption dragnet of the city’s embattled police department.

Dauphin, 41, allegedly helped organize the protection racket for the Liberty City sports-betting operation. He pleaded not guilty to a single charge of extortion conspiracy, alleging that he “protected and facilitated illegal activity — gambling — in exchange for receipts of cash payments.’’

Dauphin, a police officer since 1996, was allegedly paid $5,000, according to the charge. The government filed papers to seize that money from him. Dauphin also was charged by “criminal information.’’ He was released from custody on a $100,000 bond.

James and Dauphin are among at least 10 Miami police officers expected to soon face federal criminal charges or internal discipline related to the protection scheme and other criminal activity, The Miami Herald has learned.

Seven of the officers under scrutiny, including James, have already resigned or been relieved of duty in recent weeks, according to sources close to the probe.

The FBI, which has been working with Miami internal affairs investigators since the gambling operation was shut down in March 2012, is expected to make more arrests.

The targeted officers, who worked in the Model City substation, are suspected of providing off-the-books protection and frequenting the Player’s Choice Barber Shop, 6301 NW Sixth Ave.

Also relieved of duty are officers Malinsky Bazile, 27, Vital Frederick, 26, and Angel Mercado, 29, who are suspected of other criminal activity unrelated to the alleged protection racket. All continue to receive pay while the investigation continues.

In December, The Herald reported that 31-year-old officer Lashunda Hodge was relieved of duty with pay as part of the protection-detail probe.

At least three other Miami officers are facing scrutiny in connection with the protection scheme: Hodge’s roommate, Kenya Crocker, 39; Dauphin’s girlfriend, Carol Vargas, 39, and Darryl Bryant, 51, according to sources familiar with the case.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

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Apple loses a U.S. appeals bid in Samsung patent fight

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Thursday rejected Apple Inc‘s request to revive its bid for a sales ban on Samsung‘s Galaxy Nexus smartphone, dashing the iPhone maker’s attempt to recover crucial leverage in the global patent wars.

Apple had asked the full Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., to revisit a decision in October by a three-judge panel of the same court. The panel rejected Apple’s request to impose a sales ban on Samsung’s Nexus smartphone ahead of a trial set for March 2014.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment. A Samsung representative could not immediately be reached.

The fight in appeals court comes after Apple won a $ 1.05 billion verdict last year against Samsung in a U.S. District Court in California. The same trial judge will preside over the legal battle surrounding the Nexus phone, which involves a patent not included in the earlier trial.

The fight has been widely viewed as a proxy war between Apple and Google Inc. Samsung’s hot-selling Galaxy smartphones and tablets run on Google’s Android operating system, which Apple’s late co-founder, Steve Jobs, once denounced as a “stolen product.”

In its October ruling against Apple, the appeals court raised the bar for potentially market-crippling injunctions on product sales based on narrow patents for phone features. The legal precedent puts Samsung in a much stronger position by allowing its products to remain on store shelves while it fights a global patent battle against Apple over smartphone technology.

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, in San Jose, California, who has presided over much of the Apple/Samsung litigation in the United States, cited the appeals’ court decision in a December order rejecting Apple’s request for permanent sales bans on several Samsung phones. Apple has appealed Koh’s ruling.

Apple wanted the full Federal Circuit of Appeals, made up of nine active judges, to reverse the earlier ruling. But in a brief order on Thursday, the court rejected Apple’s request without detailed explanation or any published dissents.

Several experts had believed that Apple faced long odds, as the legal issues in play were not considered controversial enough to spur full court review.

Apple could still appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, the high court has made it more difficult for patent plaintiffs to secure sales injunctions in recent years.

The case in the Federal Circuit is Apple Inc. vs Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al, 12-1507.

(Reporting By Dan Levine; Editing by John Wallace, Grant McCool and Leslie Adler)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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New Jack Ryan Pic

The new Jack Ryan reboot doesn't hit theaters this Christmas, but that hasn't stopped Paramount from teasing us with new pics from the movie starring Chris Pine in the title role.

Pics: 13 Must-See Movies of 2013

The pic, courtesy of USA Today, features Pine and co-star Kevin Costner, who plays a CIA vet who recruits Ryan, an injured Marine, to work as a high-level analyst, teaching him that his intellect is his most potent weapon.

"It's always a bit overwhelming," Pine tells the newspaper of taking on yet another franchise character after Star Trek's Captain Kirk. "What I do know is my job is to do my best to bring whatever new colors I have to these franchises."

The Jack Ryan storyline finds the Moscow-based Ryan discovering a terrorist plot to collapse America's economy, putting his love (played by Keira Knightley) in jeopardy. Kenneth Branagh plays the film's villain and also directs. The origin story from screenwriter David Koepp will be the first Jack Ryan film not based on a previous Tom Clancy book.

"We take the fundamentals of the myth of Jack Ryan and do an original film that was never a book," says Pine. "We're making our own story in a modern-day 2013."

The CIA analyst character has been portrayed by three actors in the past: Alec Baldwin in 1984's The Hunt for Red October, Harrison Ford in 1987's Patriot Games and 1989's Clear and Present Danger and Ben Affleck in 1991's The Sum of All Fears.

Video: 'Star Trek Into Darkness' Stars Take on Warp Speed Round

"He doesn't drive great cars, he doesn't know five different martial arts," says Pine. "He works in the CIA, but he's a normal guy with a normal wife thrown into these extraordinary circumstances."

Jack Ryan hits theaters December 25.

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Mompreneur jumps into the ‘Shark Tank’

It all started with a 4 a.m. email nearly a year ago: “Do you think a baby bib could change the world? I do...”

Then Susie Taylor included a link to her website, bibbitec.com, and off it went to Shark Tank, the popular ABC television show where entrepreneurs pitch their companies to investors on the show — and by extension, 7 million viewers.

Four months later, as the “mompreneur” was leaving her Biscayne Park home to pick up her kids from school, she got a call from the show asking her to pitch on the spot. Driving with her phone on her shoulder, she told the Bibbitec story.

Shark Tank bit. After a few more back and forths, her segment was filmed last summer.

Friday night, Taylor is scheduled to be on the show pitching Bibbitec’s main product, “The Ultimate Bib,” a patented generously sized, stain-resistant and fast-drying child’s bib made in the USA — Hialeah, to be exact. Bibbitec’s $30 bib can be a burp cloth, changing pad, breast feeding shield, full body bib, place mat, art smock and more, Taylor says.

We won’t be getting any details on what happens Friday night when she and her husband, Stephen Taylor, get into the tank with Daymond John, Mark Cuban and the other celebrity sharks; Taylor has been contractually sworn to secrecy. But whatever the outcome, she believes it will be worth it for the marketing pop.

Taylor was inspired to create her bib after a long and very messy plane ride with her two young sons and started Bibbitec in 2008. She and her team — her husband is CFO, her sister, Heather McCabe, handles sales and marketing, her uncle, Richard Page, is in charge of production, and her aunt, Marcia Kreitman, advises on design — have expanded the line to include The Ultimate Smock for older children and the Ultimate Mini for babies. Coming soon: a smock for adults.

Taylor already got a taste of what a national TV show appearance can do for sales. In September, Bibbitec’s sales jumped 40 percent after she was on an ABC World News "Made in America" segment. “Within 30 seconds, we started getting sales from all over the country and they didn’t even mention our name on the air,” Taylor says. She said that confirmed her belief that a Shark Tank appearance would be worth it.

Plus, Taylor has been hooked on Shark Tank since the first time she watched it in 2008 as she was developing her product. Trained in theater, she admits she didn’t know much about business and learned from the show. She would practice how she would answer the questions.

“I’m all about empowering women who are sitting on the couch watching, because that’s what I was four years ago,” says Taylor. “All I wanted to do was to be on Shark Tank because I believed if I got on Shark Tank the world will see what I am trying to do and that’s all I need. I know it’s a great product.”

Will that theater training come in handy Friday night? Stay tuned. Shark Tank airs at 9 p.m. on ABC and Taylor hopes viewers will join in on Twitter using the hashtag #sharkbib.

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DA shot and killed outside courthouse in Texas

KAUFMAN, Texas — An assistant district attorney was shot and killed Thursday morning near the North Texas county courthouse where he worked, and authorities said they were searching for two suspects.

The shooting occurred just before 9 a.m. outside the Kaufman County Courthouse annex, which is across the street from the main county courthouse about 33 miles southeast of Dallas. Officials didn't immediately indicate any motive for the shooting.

Kaufman Independent School District Superintendent Todd Williams said all schools in the district were placed in lockdown as authorities searched for the suspects, and officials eventually decided to close the buildings for the day.

AP

Law enforcement officers investigate the scene of a shooting in downtown Kaufman, Texas where a prosecutor was shot and killed.

The name of the prosecutor was not immediately announced, pending notification of family.

Local law enforcement officials decried the shooting as an attack on the criminal justice system.

"We understand that we may come into contact with violent people but this is the next level," Kaufman County Sheriff David Byrnes said Thursday at a news conference.

Kaufman Police Chief Chris Aulbaugh said the shooting would have a major impact on the town and the county.

"Any loss of life, especially someone out there protecting the community, would have that effect," he said.

Calls to the district attorney's office Thursday were not immediately returned.

Investigators gathered in a parking lot adjacent to the annex where the prosecutor was shot. Yellow tape and law enforcement vehicles blocked the area from spectators.

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Miami police officer fired for shooting of unarmed man in Little Haiti

In an unusual move, Miami police on Wednesday announced it has fired an officer for the shooting death of an unarmed motorist two years ago.

In a brief statement, the department said Officer Reynaldo Goyos,who has been on the force for seven-years, “has been terminated because his discharge of firearm on February 10, 2011 was found to be unjustified by the Department. “

Killed in the police shooting was Travis McNeil, 28, who was in a car and was unarmed.

The firing is a surprise because in June, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office cleared Goyos of any criminal act in the fatal shooting of McNeil. They said the shooting was legally justified because McNeil, reached down into his car during the traffic stop at 11 p.m. and Goyos believed he was reaching for a weapon.

In the press release, the department said: “This termination is based strictly upon a violation of Miami police’s “Deadly Force Policy,”

McNeil and his 30-year-old cousin Kareem Williams, who was also shot, had been pulled over by an unmarked police unit after they left the “Take One Lounge.” According to family, McNeill died of a gunshot wound to the head.

Kareem was wounded by the officer in the arm, back and abdomen.

But no weapon was found in McNeil’s car, only the cell phone that had fallen from his lap, the state attorney’s office said in its report.

Prosecutors found that a manslaughter prosecution wasn’t likely to succeed because the state couldn’t disprove that Goyos wasn’t in fear for his life at the time of the shooting.

The shooting angered many activists and was the last of seven deadly police shootings of black men in Miami’s inner city in just seven months.

All of the shootings happened under the watch of former police chief Miguel Exposito and all but two of the men were armed, according to the Herald.

The department said the case is now closed.

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The Z10 is a good first step, but BlackBerry still has to fix its app problem

BlackBerry, a.k.a., the Company Formerly Known as RIM, made good with its first two BlackBerry 10 smartphones on Wednesday. While the new devices are far from perfect, they will at the very least make long-suffering BlackBerry fans very happy and should provide a needed boost to a company in desperate need of growth. That said, BlackBerry still has a major problem that it will have to fix if it ever hopes to lure Android and iOS users away from their devices — it needs to improve the quality of apps that are available on its platform.

[More from BGR: BlackBerry Z10 review]

BlackBerry has done its best to spin its app situation as a positive, touting the roughly 70,000 apps that will be available for BlackBerry 10 at its launch. This number sounds impressive until you realize that the vast majority of these apps are ported from Android or from the BlackBerry Playbook. Even worse for the company, earlier reviews have indicated that many of these apps don’t at all function well, especially since a good portion of them were ported over from Android 2.3 Gingerbread or earlier.

[More from BGR: BlackBerry Q10 preview]

This is obviously not a sustainable situation for BlackBerry in the long term, and to the company’s credit it did announce some very important apps that are being developed directly for the BlackBerry 10 platform, including Skype, WhatsApp and the Angry Birds franchise. But there is a glaring absence that should give pause to anyone feeling optimistic about the platform’s ability to attract top developers in the future: Instagram.

Yes, Instagram is just one app, but it’s also one of the most popular in the world and it’s owned by Facebook (FB), the social networking giant that BlackBerry supposedly has a close partnership with. If BlackBerry can’t convince one of its close partners to develop an app that’s ready in time for its big platform launch, then it really calls into question how much clout the company will have with smaller developers that may not have the resources to build for more than two platforms.

And BlackBerry’s ability to attract the smaller developers is crucial to its future success because we’ve all seen mobile apps that come out of nowhere on iOS and Android and suddenly take the world by storm. If BlackBerry is constantly rushing around trying to get upstart app developers to make native BlackBerry 10 apps months after those developers have hit it big on other platforms, it will put the company at a perpetual disadvantage. This is a problem that BlackBerry desperately needs to fix by the time its next smartphones roll out.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Rachael vs. Guy Celebrity Cook Off Exclusive Clip

The competition on Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off is heating up, and in this exclusive clip from the hit Food Network show, Sister Act star Kathy Najimy is definitely feeling the pressure -- and possibly succumbs to it.

"I'm feeling very nervous about the Béchamel Sauce because I've never done it for 100 people before," Najimy says, while quickly whipping up the famous white sauce. "The scary ingredient for me in the sauce is the flour."

Video: Guy Fieri's Hometown Tour

And clearly, something goes awry when the sauce starts to take on a doughy consistency.

"How am I going to explain to Rachael [Ray] that I made a muffin?," she worries.

Video: ET Goes Backstage wtih Nancy O'Dellon the 'The Rachael Ray Show'

Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off, in which the last celeb standing (who's mentored either by Rachael Ray or Guy Fieri) wins a cash donation towards the charity of his or her choice, airs Sunday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Food Network.

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