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January 30, 2012 12:04 PM

Clever Plans to Reform Legal Education Won't Make Legal Services Any Cheaper

Posted by Matt Leichter

Due to the stream of negative press America's legal education system has received, it is becoming almost a rite of passage for aspiring reformers to submit their own proposals to fix the problem. There's nothing wrong with that, but some proposals are more sophisticated than others. Here are ten examples in no particular order:

? UCLA law professor Stephen Bainbridge recommends unilaterally shutting down the bottom half of the ABA law schools per U.S. News & World Report's rankings.

? Law School Transparency advocates requiring law schools to gather and provide accurate graduate employment data to applicants and letting them decide whether law school is worthwhile.

? Two economists, Clifford Winston and Robert W. Crandall, want to completely deregulate legal services.

? Yale law professors Ahkil Reed Amar and Ian Ayers want first-year law students to be able to demand a partial tuition refund if they choose to discontinue law school. (It should be noted that Southern Illinois law professor Christine Hurt proposed the same idea in 2010).

? Attorney Ari L. Kaplan proposes law schools backload their costs, making the first year cheap so students can decide if they want to continue without significant financial penalty.

? One common suggestion is to turn the third year of law school into an apprenticeship program.

? Scambloggers' views differ,?but generally they advocate eliminating the formal legal education requirement altogether, though some would like the deans incarcerated for fraud.

? CUNY law professor Michael Macchiarola and attorney Arun Abraham argue for law schools to give their graduates "put options" on their student loans, which if exercised would require law schools to reimburse graduates the difference between their projected incomes after ten years and their actual incomes.

? I'd like to see the Direct Loan program dismantled and bankruptcy protections restored to student debt. Legal education can be financed by human capital contracts in which graduates pay roughly 10 percent of their disposable incomes for 10 years back to the law school, providing they're employed using their legal educations.

? And most recently, Northwestern law professor John O. McGinnis and attorney Russell D. Mangas (Kirkland & Ellis) stepped forward on the Wall Street Journal?s opinion page to advocate reducing legal education into an undergraduate major.

All these proposals have their drawbacks, particularly Winston and Crandall's, which I believe uses the plight of underemployed, indebted law grads as a pretext to ram through their neoliberal deregulation agenda.

But I'd like to focus on McGinnis and Mangas' proposal, and not because I disagree with it. Quite the contrary, as far as I'm concerned the test of a reform proposal rests on its ability to allow market demand for legal services to control excess demand for legal education. The current system tries to do it the other way around, resulting in an expensive, pushing-the-string ideology that promotes people paying for education and then letting the market decide whether they get to use it fruitfully. McGinnis' and Mangas' proposal doesn't fully address that, but at least it clearly reduces the education costs lawyers would incur in entering the profession. However, it leans on two premises I believe are false, and importantly, other proposals duplicate them:

(1) There is a shortage of attorneys in the United States.

(2) The costs of legal education raises the cost of legal services.

The first is easy to falsify, the second is more involved.

For specific numbers on lawyers, the ABA recently updated its Web site with a spreadsheet of its "Total National Lawyer Counts," which measures the number of "active and resident" attorneys in the U.S. It's an impressive dataset, though I think the pre-1980 numbers aren?t very accurate and also include non-practicing lawyers who serve as judges, legislators, executives, administrators, etc. The ABA also gives us the number of people who graduated from its law schools each year, which isn't the total number of potential attorneys (aside from the several thousand that have passed away or could never pass a bar exam), but it does represent the majority. Archived issues of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) provide estimates of the number of employed lawyers between 1994 and 2008. In each edition, the OOH predicts there would be more law graduates looking for work than the number of jobs available for them. I contacted the BLS, and in addition to sending me the Current Population Survey's (CPS) number of employed lawyers going back to 1983, it informed me that the BLS considers the CPS more definitive than the OOH. Here's a comparison against the population going back to 1950, using Census data:

No. Lawyers Per Capita

Given that there were a few years in which the BLS managed to find more employed lawyers than state bar authorities reported as active on their rolls, I suspect the CPS overstates the number of employed lawyers and that the actual number is closer to the OOH's, which is unfortunate given its shallow employment projection for 2018. Nevertheless, it's clear that the lines have been splitting apart for quite some time, a topic I may cover at a future date. True, many potential attorneys could have left the rolls and found gainful employment in other industries, but many more left the profession early in their careers while others never had good chances at creating them. This is the exact opposite of what we would expect to see if there was a shortage of lawyers.

Moving on to the second premise, the cost of legal education's bearing on the cost of legal services, McGinnis and Mangas write:

?[T]he great benefit of the undergraduate option would be lowering the cost of legal education, thus increasing the supply of lawyers willing to charge lower fees.?

The authors assume that lawyers pass their education's costs (especially student loans) onto their clients. Thus, the more unevenly student debt is distributed among lawyers, the more they will have to eat their student loan payments to compete with those who paid less. Here?s what we know about the unevenness of law school debt?s distribution.

(1) As recently as 2010, about 15 percent of all ABA grads finished law school with zero law school debt.

(2) Some law schools are cheaper than others, especially public law schools and those in Puerto Rico, so those who graduate with debt have varying amounts. (Notice that McGinnis voices no concern that Northwestern's graduates will be unemployable when Mangas's firm decides to switch to hiring Northern Illinois or Southern Illinois grads to cut costs.)

(3) Older lawyers frequently have less student debt than more recent grads, so their loan payments are smaller.

(4) Some states allow graduates of cheaper, non-ABA law schools to sit for their bar exams, or they allow people to forgo the legal education requirement altogether.

Additionally, even if debts were evenly distributed, lawyers might still find that offering lower prices offsets the cost of their debt payments with increased business, until others do the same.

The fourth point, though, is critical. California has scores of relatively cheap state-accredited, unaccredited, distance-learning, correspondence, and online law schools. This system is not new, yet none of the reformers who believe cheaper education leads to cheaper lawyers has compared the cost structures of California's legal industry to "ABA-only" states'. Surely by now there are more than enough non-ABA attorneys licensed in California to have made a noticeable difference in the cost of legal services as McGinnis and Mangas argue, yet California?s ABA law schools (including public ones) aren?t competing with non-ABA schools in terms of price. They charge about $40,000 per year in tuition, and they increase it each year over inflation.

Why aren't California's more price-sensitive firms hiring grads directly from the People's College of Law in Los Angeles rather than from UCLA? Better yet, given non-ABA graduates' lower bar passage rates, why aren't firms sending associates to stand around outside LSAT test centers, handing people their business cards and offering to help them through a correspondence program to cut out the ABA middleman? Better yet, they could simply hire people straight out of college (California doesn't even require that much) and have them qualify for the bar by "reading the law," which California allows.

Firms could do this, but instead, they prefer ABA grads from highly regarded law schools. Either California?s legal employers are all monumentally bad businesspeople, or the cost of legal education isn't their (much less their clients') problem.

Let me be clear, McGinnis and Mangas's proposal offers more than some of the others I listed above. But while it would save would-be lawyers time and money, but it still does not ensure that the country's need for legal services determines how many people undergo legal education. Those concerned about providing legal services to the poor will have to demand poverty alleviation and expanded legal aid programs. These solutions politicize the legal profession's role in society, but I think that's unavoidable. More than clever proposals, it will take courage for the profession to admit that noblesse oblige and low-cost education won't entice lawyers to serve the destitute. It will also take courage to admit that law graduates' debts do nothing but reduce their living standards, especially when the profession has no place for them.

Matt Leichter is an attorney licensed in Wisconsin and New York, and he holds a masters in International Affairs from Marquette University. He operates The Law School Tuition Bubble, which archives, chronicles, and analyzes the deteriorating American legal education system. It is also a platform for higher education and student debt reform.

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Source: http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/amlawdaily/2012/01/clever-plans-to-reform-legal-education-wont-make-legal-services-any-cheaper.html

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Berlin and Feldheim, Germany ? Germany?s renewable energy sector has experienced a boom in the last decade that has far superseded expectations. Supported by generous subsidies, a public that is fairly open to green investments, and a widespread skepticism of nuclear power, energy producers have covered the country with wind generators and solar panels. Twenty percent of Germany?s electricity now comes from renewable sources.

But the industry risks becoming a victim of its own success. It is locked in a bitter debate with the government about the future of the subsidies that have allowed it to flourish. The government wants to severely curtail the financial support ? particular for solar energy, which provides only 3 percent of Germany's electricity but receives about half the subsidies ? although there are doubts the renewable energy industry could survive without it.

Feldheim, a tiny village just south of Berlin, is pretty, but otherwise unremarkable. Two dozen houses sit along a street lined with chestnut and maple trees. Nothing hints at why this place claims to be ?the future? ? but as the first energy self-sufficient village in Germany, and maybe the whole Continent, it just might be, says Werner Frohwitter.

RELATED ? COVER STORY: Wind power: Clean energy, dirty business?

Mr. Frohwitter?s company, Energiequelle GmbH, provides all of the town?s homes with heat and electricity generated from renewables at their doorstep, which feed into a local grid. Windmills rotate just behind the houses, a biogas plant on the outskirts provides heat and additional energy on windless days, and a bit farther down the road, rows of solar panels in a field face the dull winter sky.

Feldheim residents? energy prices are 30 percent below the average in Germany. Energiequelle profits from feed-in tariffs, a subsidy on the amount of energy they feed into the system. It gives the company, as a renewable energy provider, a 20-year guarantee on the amount of energy they can feed into the grid at a price that is considerably higher than what fossil energy providers get on the free market.

It is a good deal for the company, and people outside Feldheim are noticing. The solar power industry is booming. The government predicted an increase in solar power installations in 2011 with a total output of 3.5 gigawatts, but actual production far exceeded that prediction: at the end of the year, Germany had produced an additional 7.5 gigawatts of solar energy.

The feed-in tariff is regulated by the Renewable Energy Bill and financed not by the state budget, but by German consumers. A levy dedicated to the support of green energy is added to the electricity bill of each household. It rises with the number of solar panels and windmills out there, even though the government tries to adjust the tariff downward at regular intervals. Last year, the average household paid ?130 ($171) extra to foot the green bill.

?The production of solar panels has become much cheaper in recent years,? says Claudia Kemfert, energy expert with the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin. ?Manufacturers and providers can?t reasonably ask for subsidies much longer. But they are not competitive yet, compared to conventional energies.?

Overwhelmed by the green boom and under pressure from the conventional electricity utilities, the government has slammed the brakes on subsidies. Hardly a day goes by now without Economy Minister Philip R?sler asking the renewable energy sector for restraint in its demand for financial support. The feed-in tariff will now be adjusted every month rather than every six months, and subsidies for solar installations are scheduled to end in 2017 ? five years before Germany shuts down its last nuclear reactor.

?The renewables can probably replace nuclear energy in Germany,? says Mrs. Kemfert. ?But not coal, which generates most of our electricity. We will need a lot of new coal-powered plants in the next decades. And that means a rise in CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions.?

High expectations of solarBy 2020, Germany wants 35 percent of its energy needs to be met with renewable sources, with solar energy contributing 10 percent. By 2050, renewables are meant to provide 80 percent of Germany's energy, and some experts believe that solar installations will deliver more than half of that.

Not everyone agrees. "Photovoltaic [energy] in Germany makes as much sense as growing pineapples in Alaska," said J?rgen Grossmann, CEO of Germany?s second-largest utility, RWE, at a conference in Berlin in January.

Clearly he was referring to Germany's limited sunshine. But even critics more sympathetic to renewables say that far too much money has gone into subsidizing wind and solar energy, and not enough into technologies needed to complement these, such as an up-to-date grid and energy storage.

DENA, the German energy agency, estimates that in order to connect all the planned new energy providers, including large offshore wind-farms in the North and Baltic seas, with customers across Germany, about 3,700 kilometers of high voltage network need to be built by 2025. In the past few years, a mere 100 kilometers of power lines were built.

Running Feldheim on renewables is one thing. Powering large urban areas, the whole economy even, is quite another, and many still doubt it can be done in the next few decades without the use of fossil energy sources. 

?We need to put enough resources into research and development of a smart distribution grid and of energy storage facilities,? says Mr. Frohwitter of Energiequelle. ?If we do that, we can supply all private German households with renewable energy in 20 or 25 years from now.?

RELATED ? COVER STORY: Wind power: Clean energy, dirty business?

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SKOPJE, Macedonia ? Muslim leaders in Macedonia appealed for calm on Monday among community members outraged over a carnival in which Orthodox Christian men mocked Muslims by dressing as Burqa-clad women.

The incident at the Jan. 13 Vevcani festival has prompted angry, sometimes violent demonstrations by Muslims, who make up 33 percent of the country's 2.1 million population and accuse the majority of stoking hatred against them.

On Saturday, some protesters attacked buses and defaced a Macedonian flag and replaced it with a green flag to represent Islam. On the same day, a church was attacked by unknown perpetrators in the nearby village of Labunista.

In a statement Monday, Macedonian Muslim leaders called for restraint but also accused the government of promoting Islamophobia.

"The behavior of Muslims should be restrained, but, unfortunately, we are concerned that Islamophobia in Macedonia is often combined with government propaganda," they said. "Such is the case with this carnival that the government annually subsidizes with...the money of all citizens, including Muslims."

The carnival, said to have been held for some 1,400 years, attracts thousands of visitors. Local resident traditionally wear elaborate, frequently sarcastic masks, with some of the most common costumes including devils and demons.

Muslims in Macedonia are almost all ethnic Albanians. Albanians, in Macedonia and elsewhere, have traditionally been secular, but conservative Islamic schools, especially Wahhabism, have taken a foothold in the years following a brief ethnic Albanian uprising in Macedonia in 2001. This spread has been mainly financed from Saudi Arabia.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_re_eu/eu_macedonia_religious_tension

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Federal prosecutors say data from users of Megaupload could be deleted as soon as Thursday.

U.S. prosecutors blocked access to Megaupload and charged seven men, saying the site facilitated millions of illegal downloads of movies, music and other content.

The company says its millions of users stored their own data, including family photos and personal documents. They haven't been able to see their data since the government raids earlier this month, but there has been hope would be able to get it back.

Megaupload hires outside companies to store the data, for a fee. But Megaupload attorney Ira Rothken said Sunday that the government has frozen its money.

A letter filed in the case Friday by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said storage companies Carpathia Hosting Inc. and Cogent Communications Group Inc. may begin deleting data Thursday. Spokespersons for the two companies and for the U.S. Attorney's Office did not respond to messages Sunday night.

The letter said the government copied some data from the servers but did not physically take them. It said that now that it has executed its search warrants, it has no right to access the data. The servers are controlled by Carpathia and Cogent and issues about the future of the data must be resolved with them, prosecutors said.

Rothken said the company is working with prosecutors to try to keep the data from being erased. He said at least 50 million Megaupload users have data in danger of being erased.

Rothken said that, besides its customers, the data is important to Megaupload so it can defend itself in the legal case.

"We're cautiously optimistic at this point that because the United States, as well as Megaupload, should have a common desire to protect consumers, that this type of agreement will get done," he said.

Megaupload is based in Hong Kong. U.S. authorities said they had authority to act because some of its leased servers are in Virginia.

AP Business Writer Daniel Wagner contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46190158/ns/technology_and_science-security/

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MIAMI ? Mitt Romney is striding into the homestretch of the pivotal GOP Florida presidential primary with the confidence of a resurgent front-runner.

His main rival, Newt Gingrich, is hustling around the state as he tries to rekindle the energy that lifted him to victory in the South Carolina primary. He says he could lose Tuesday in Florida but promises to soldier on.

Gingrich picked up the endorsement Saturday of Herman Cain, a Georgia businessman, tea party favorite and former presidential hopeful. Cain's bid for the White House was derailed by allegations he sexually harassed several women.

Rick Santorum cancelled his Sunday campaign events after his young daughter was hospitalized. She suffers from a serious genetic disorder.

Ron Paul has invested little time and effort in the Florida contest.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

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Start your weekend with all the best videos the Internet has to offer with Frequency, an iPad app that makes finding and organizing great videos from all over the place a snap. It?s our top Fresh App today, followed by Steam Mobile, an iOS app that ties to the popular digital video game download portal and lets you impulse-buy during Steam?s crazy game sales no matter where you are. A big update with new levels to RAGE HD tops off our games picks for this weekend, followed by a new, free edition to the Baseball Superstars series from Gamevil.

You might think of Frequency as a kind of Pandora for video. The app makes it easy to find and watch videos from a variety of sources right on your iPad, but what?s better is that it will create customized channels for you based on your preferences. You can create channels based on your favorite sites, on specific topics and trends, or even just a running list of what your friends are sharing on Facebook and Twitter.

Frequency makes it easy to group videos into channels and see everything you want quickly and easily, but it also helps you search through all that information for the best bits. The app will pull highlights from all your channels that you can flip through more quickly, keep you up to date on trends and allow you to find things you?re already following quickly with its TUNER feature. It also includes AirPlay support, which means you can watch your videos on your other iOS devices, including Apple TV.

An iOS tie-in to the uber-popular online video game distribution, Steam allows PC gamers the ability to access their accounts on the portal, talk to friends, view games and trailers ? basically everything they can do with the Steam PC app, except for the part about playing video games. But you can still shop for them and purchase them to be digitally downloaded on your computer when you return to it.

Steam lets you search for games, see new releases, read about titles and watch their trailers, all from your iOS device. You can buy games for yourself or for friends, or add them to your ?wishlist? for later (or to encourage people to give you gifts). You?ll need a Steam account to access your account through the app, and the system is currently still in beta, so you?ll need to wait for developer Valve to send you an invite. But downloading the app and signing-in puts you on Valve?s list of interested users, which might help fast-track your beta invite.

Last year, id Software released RAGE HD as an iOS title to go along with its first-person shooter, also titled RAGE. The iOS version contains some slick graphics and great shooter controls, making use of both the touchscreen and the built-in gyroscope to make aiming your weapons feel natural. A ?rail shooter,? RAGE takes care of the movement in the game (it?s as if you were on a rollercoaster), while you do the shooting.

A big update has just dropped for the title, bringing new content to iOS players. RAGE HD contains two new levels to work through, filled with pesky, murderous mutants. Those levels can be downloaded through in-app purchase, and the game now supports HDMI output so you can play on your TV and iOS 5. It?s also received a host of bug fixes to tighten up the experience.

Gamevil?s yearly update to its cartoonish home run-hitting baseball title has gone freemium in Baseball Superstars 2012, but the core of the game will keep fans of the long-running series happy. Like other titles in the Baseball Superstars series, you?ll manage your team and play against others, both computer controlled and online, where you?ll do the pitching and the hitting for your team.

Baseball Superstars 2012 features HD graphics and online play that allows you to take on other players as well as trade your baseball team members with your friends. It also features a story campaign you can work through on your own with multiple endings, and Game Center support for achievements and leaderboards.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/applecomputer/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/appolicious_rss/rss_appolicious_tc/http___www_appolicious_com_articles10885_fresh_iphone_apps_for_jan_27_frequency_steam_mobile_rage_hd_update_baseball_superstars_2012/44325623/SIG=14cgk2609/*http%3A//www.appolicious.com/tech/articles/10885-fresh-iphone-apps-for-jan-27-frequency-steam-mobile-rage-hd-update-baseball-superstars-2012

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President Barack Obama shakes hands after a speech at Buckley Air Force Base, Colo., Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/The Denver Post, Helen H. Richardson) MANDATORY CREDIT; MAGS OUT; TV OUT

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is signaling he'll base part of his re-election campaign on an argument that Republicans are pushing discredited economic ideas.

In an interview with ABC News, Obama says the best strategy for economic revival is avoiding the Bush administration and financial community policies that led to the near-collapse of the U.S. economy in the fall of 2008.

Obama said the country has "an economy that was built on debt and flimsy financial deals." He added in the interview broadcast Friday that this is a strategy the Republican Party will have to defend this fall, "whether it's Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum, or somebody else,"

The president said, "Why we would want to adopt something that we just tried, and didn't work, doesn't make sense."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-27-Obama-Campaign/id-e1904f7421c948d5bdd9f71b7733cf58

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CLEVELAND (AP) ? Pat Shurmur brought in a close friend to help him fix Cleveland's broken offense.

Shurmur hired former Minnesota coach Brad Childress as his first offensive coordinator on Friday, reuniting two coaches who spent seven seasons together on Andy Reid's staff with the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Browns confirmed Childress' hiring with a release that did not include any quotes.

Childress, who spent nearly five seasons with the Vikings before he was fired in 2010, will try to improve the Browns' dismal offense, which scored just 218 points last season, finished 29th in total yardage, 28th in rushing and 24th in passing. He'll also have input in the team's vital decision at starting quarterback. ? a choice that could impact the club for years.

The 55-year-old Childress was a logical choice to join the Browns, who went 4-12 in their first season under Shurmur. In addition to being tight with Shurmur, Childress is familiar with the West Coast offense the Browns installed last year and he's represented by agent Bob Lamonte, who also has Shurmur and Browns president Mike Holmgren as clients.

Shurmur juggled both head coach and coordinator duties during a troublesome first season in Cleveland. It's believed Shurmur will initially call Cleveland's plays next season but he intends to turn things over to Childress, who recently interviewed for Tampa Bay's head coaching job. Childress has only one season (2006) of experience calling plays.

Childress is the third former NFL head coach on Shurmur's staff, joining defensive coordinator Dick Jauron and senior defensive assistant Ray Rhodes.

Childress was Philadelphia's offensive coordinator from 2003-05 when Shurmur coached the Eagles quarterbacks. While he was with the Eagles, Childress went to three straight NFC title games and the Super Bowl in 2004.

Shurmur was asked about Childress during his season-ending news conference on Jan. 3.

"I know Brad very well," Shurmur said. "He and I worked together for a long time. He's a terrific coach."

Childress went 39-35 in four-plus seasons with the Vikings, twice leading them to the playoffs and going 1-2. Minnesota won division titles in 2008 and 2009, when the Vikings made it to the NFC title game with quarterback Brett Favre, whom Childress had famously picked up at the airport. But after a 3-7 start in 2010, Childress was fired by owner Zygi Wilf one day after the Vikings were blown out at home by rival Green Bay.

The Browns considered hiring an offensive coordinator before last season but didn't find a suitable candidate. Holmgren suggested Shurmur maintain play-calling duties to control the offense and build a stronger bond with second-year quarterback Colt McCoy. Shurmur, though, seemed overwhelmed at times as the Browns had some communication breakdowns and time-management issues.

The addition of Childress should free up Shurmur during the week as he prepares for games.

"I think what it will do is allow me to just step back and look down one some things in some areas that I may be able to contribute more," Shurmur said after the season. "That's a key piece."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-27-FBN-Browns-Childress/id-92448e2feaab456a83519fcc82271b32

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. ? Tim McGraw's long-delayed album "Emotional Traffic" has the attention of Music Row this week as it finally hits the streets.

The last album in the long, lucrative but contentious relationship between McGraw and Curb Records arrives more than a year late with a fascinating backstory and a little bit of buzz. McGraw isn't actively promoting the album, but it kicks off what promises to be a high visibility year for the country star.

He's currently considering his next move after a judge granted his freedom from his record deal last November. What's already on the schedule is the "Brothers of the Sun" stadium tour this summer with Kenny Chesney and actively recording new songs.

"Emotional Traffic" already indirectly produced a multi-week No. 1 song, "Felt Good on My Lips," which was released against McGraw's wishes on a hits package in 2010. McGraw has called the new album his "best ever" and fan interest is piqued.

"There are a lot of possibilities with this record. It's hard to say," said Wade Jessen, who tracks country music and other charts for Billboard Magazine in Nashville. "I think at least in the public comments Tim has made about it, he's very much a cheerleader for this music, and that may go a long way to making the most emotionally invested fans overlook the fact that it's coming out on a record label Tim has had some issues with. And we know how loyal country music fans are. They like for their artists to be treated fairly and with respect, and if there's any perception otherwise it can guide their decisions."

With legal issues to resolve still, McGraw and Curb executives aren't doing interviews to promote "Emotional Traffic." But McGraw laid the groundwork for a promotional campaign in a few interviews last year. He also previewed a handful of cuts from the album on last year's extremely popular "Emotional Traffic" tour.

In an interview last April, McGraw said he couldn't wait for fans to hear the new album. After recording four or five LPs with his road band, The Dancehall Doctors, McGraw decided to use a different set of musicians on "Emotional Traffic" and looked to open up his sound. He brought in Ne-Yo for a duet as well.

"There are some great players," McGraw said. "A couple of guys from Paul McCartney's band are on this album. Paul Bushnell is on bass, who's one of my favorite bass players ever. The songs are just really fresh and cool. I'm excited."

McGraw's longtime producer Byron Gallimore agrees with McGraw's assessment of the album. He says over the two decades they've worked together, they've used a formula for choosing songs. "Emotional Traffic" continues that trend of not only including country material, but expanding into areas like R&B, pop and rock. McGraw can then use his voice to pull the song back into country territory.

"We're certainly happy with it and feel like it's one of our best," Gallimore said. "I think every time you do another one you feel like it's probably better than the last one, for me personally at least. We've got a great batch of songs on here and I'm just excited that it's getting out there. ... I feel very strongly about this record. I would agree with Tim on that."

Without McGraw's direct help, Curb has had to get creative with its promotion. It's liberally using McGraw's "best ever" quote, for one, enlisting the artist's help at least passively. The label also partnered with NPR's "First Listen" series to stream the album for a week leading up to release. While this practice isn't unusual in the indie rock world, it's a step in a different direction for mainstream country.

There's also a new single "Better Than I Used to Be" moving up the charts, the traditional way to get a fan's attention.

Jessen isn't sure all this will translate into a blockbuster sales week for McGraw, but he suspects McGraw's faithful will be ready to spend some money.

"I think this is a good day for Tim McGraw fans because they've got new music in their hands," Jessen said. "That's the upside of this entire scenario. That's the bottom line."

___

AP writer Caitlin R. King in Nashville contributed to this report.

___

Online:

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_en_mu/us_music_tim_mcgraw

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Latest Details On Demi Moore: Doing Whip-Its Before Seizure? (VIDEO)

There are more details out on actress Demi Moore‘s recent hospitalization, with sources revealing “whip-its” are to blame. Seriously, whip-its? That certainly doesn’t seem like [...]

Latest Details On Demi Moore: Doing Whip-Its Before Seizure? (VIDEO) Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/stupidcelebrities/~3/qPbdIvshuKg/

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WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama delivered an election-year broadside to Republicans: Game on.

The GOP, from Congress to the campaign trail, signaled it's ready for the fight.

In his third State of the Union address, Obama issued a populist call for income equality that echoed the Occupy Wall Street movement. He challenged GOP lawmakers to work with him or move aside so he could use the power of the presidency to produce results for an electorate uncertain whether he deserves another term.

Facing a deeply divided Congress, Obama appealed for lawmakers to send him legislation on immigration, clean energy and housing, knowing full well the election-year prospects are bleak but aware that polls show that the independent voters who lifted him to the presidency crave bipartisanship.

"I intend to fight obstruction with action," Obama told a packed chamber and tens of millions of Americans watching in prime time. House Republicans greeted his words with stony silence.

The Democratic president's vision of an activist government broke sharply with Republican demands for less government intervention to allow free enterprise. The stark differences will be evident in the White House's dealings with Congress and in the presidential campaign over the next 10 months.

In the Republican response to the president's address, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who once considered a White House bid, railed against the "extremism" of an administration that stifles economic growth.

"No feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant effort to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others," Daniels said, speaking from Indianapolis. "As in previous moments of national danger, we Americans are all in the same boat."

Obama said getting a fair shot for all Americans is "the defining issue of our time." He described an economy on the rebound from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, with more than 3 million jobs created in the last 22 months and U.S. manufacturers hiring. Although unemployment is high at 8.5 percent, home sales and corporate earnings have increased, among other positive economic signs.

Republicans say the president's policies have undermined the economy.

Obama "had the opportunity and the responsibility to level with the American people, admit that the policies of the past three years have delivered an underwhelming record of economic growth and job creation, and show an interest in changing direction and uniting, not dividing the nation," said Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., head of the Republican Policy Committee. "The president failed to meet that responsibility."

There were brief moments of bipartisanship. Republicans and Democrats sat together, continuing a practice begun last year. The arrival of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt, elicited sustained applause and cheering, with chants of "Gabby, Gabby." Republican Rep. Jeff Flake escorted her into the chamber and Obama greeted her with a hug.

The president received loud applause from both sides when he said: "I'm a Democrat. But I believe what Republican Abraham Lincoln believed: That government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more."

But all that belied a fierce divide.

Obama ticked off items on a hefty agenda that he wants from Congress ? a path to citizenship for children who come to the United States with their undocumented parents if they complete college, tax credits for clean energy, elimination of red tape for Americans refinancing their mortgages, a measure that bans insider trading by lawmakers and a payroll tax cut.

Political reality suggests it was largely wishful thinking on Obama's part. The payroll tax cut and must-do spending bill are the most likely legislative items to survive the election year.

But Obama's far-reaching list and the hour-plus speech offered a unique opportunity to contrast his record with congressional Republicans and his top presidential rivals, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.

"Anyone who tells you America is in decline or that our influence has waned, doesn't know what they're talking about," Obama said ? a clear response to the White House hopefuls who have pummeled him for months.

In an attack on the nation's growing income gap, Obama called for a new minimum tax rate of at least 30 percent on anyone making more than $1 million. Many millionaires ? including Romney ? pay a rate less than that because they get most of their income from investments, which are taxed at a lower rate.

"Now you can call this class warfare all you want," Obama said. "But asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? Most Americans would call that common sense."

Obama calls this the "Buffett rule," named for billionaire Warren Buffett, who has said it's unfair that his secretary pays a higher tax rate than he does. Emphasizing the point, Buffett's secretary, Debbie Bosanek, attended the address in first lady Michelle Obama's box.

Obama made his appeal on the same day that Romney released some of his tax returns, showing he made more than $20 million in a single year and paid around 14 percent in taxes, largely because his wealth came from investments.

In advance of Obama's speech, Romney said, "Tonight will mark another chapter in the misguided policies of the last three years ? and the failed leadership of one man."

Obama highlighted his national security successes ? the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, the diminished strength of al-Qaida and the demise of Moammar Gadhafi. In hailing the men and women of the military, the commander in chief contrasted their cooperation and dedication with the divisions and acrimony in Washington.

"At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations," Obama said. "They're not consumed with personal ambition. They don't obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They work together. Imagine what we could accomplish if we followed their example."

Obama leaves Washington for a three-day tour of five states crucial to his re-election bid. On Wednesday he'll visit Iowa and Arizona to promote ideas to boost American manufacturing; on Thursday in Nevada and Colorado he'll discuss energy; and in Michigan on Friday he'll talk about college affordability, education and training.

He also addresses a conference of House Democrats focused on their own re-election in Cambridge, Md., on Friday.

Polling shows Americans are divided about Obama's overall job performance but unsatisfied with his handling of the economy.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_state_of_the_union

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LOS ANGELES ? Actor James Farentino, who appeared in dozens of movies and television shows, died Tuesday in a Los Angeles hospital, according to a family spokesman. He was 73.

Farentino died of heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Hospital after a long illness, said the spokesman, Bob Palmer.

Farentino starred alongside Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen in the 1980 science fiction film "The Final Countdown." The movie featured a modern aircraft carrier that travels back in time to Pearl Harbor hours before the Japanese attack.

Farentino also starred opposite Patty Duke in 1969's "Me, Natalie."

In 1967, he won a "Most Promising Newcomer" Golden Globe for his performance in the comedy "The Pad and How to Use It."

He also had recurring roles on "Dynasty," "Melrose Place," "The Bold Ones: The Lawyers" and "ER," playing the estranged father to George Clooney's character.

In 1978, he was nominated for an Emmy for his portrayal of Saint Peter in the television mini-series "Jesus of Nazareth."

A four-time divorcee, Farentino's tumultuous personal life made headlines, too.

In March 1994, he pleaded no contest to stalking his ex-girlfriend Tina Sinatra, daughter of Frank Sinatra.

In 2010, the actor was arrested at his Hollywood home on suspicion of battery when he tried to physically remove a man from his home.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1938, Farentino is survived by two sons, David and Saverio.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_en_ce/us_obit_farentino

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CyanogenMod App Store Screenshot The popular Android custom ROM known as CyanogenMod could soon benefit from its own application store, following the embracing of an idea suggested by one of the team members recently. Posting to his Google+ account, Koushik Dutta said an independent store would be a much-needed source of income for CyanogenMod, which is now active on more than a million Android phones.

But rather than offer the same old apps available through the official Android Market, the CyanogenMod store would be home to apps specifically suited to rooted Android phones, plus offer an outlet for those that have been refused access or have been removed from Google?s store.

For example, this would include applications that simplify the rooting process, games console emulators and apps that networks don?t approve of, such as those used for tethering. According to Dutta, the store would only contain legal apps, so shouldn?t provide safe-haven for apps removed from the Market due to security concerns.

The decision to open their own store comes after conversations with Amazon failed to progress to something meaningful. Originally, CyanogenMod toyed with the idea of bundling Amazon?s store with their custom ROM, in return for a cut of application revenue, but Amazon wouldn?t commit to a time frame.

Work has now begun of the CyanogenMod App Store, a name we?d assume won?t be attached to the final product, but it still looks to be early days judging by the screenshot.

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends