New Era for Energy Department Expected Under a Secretary Moniz

With stimulus funding for clean energy at an end, climate-change policy dead in Congress, and harsh budget cuts looming over all agencies thanks to the sequestration, the days of President Obama?s vision of the Energy Department as a green juggernaut have probably come to an end.

But Ernest Moniz, who faces a Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday morning as Obama?s choice to become the next Energy secretary, would be likely to steer the department into a new era, one in which climate change still plays a key role in guiding its mission but so, too, do policies connected to the nation?s recent boom in oil and natural-gas development.

The MIT professor and former Energy undersecretary in the Clinton administration is also likely to renew the agency?s traditional focus on nuclear energy, nuclear waste, and nonproliferation of nuclear weapons.

Before Obama took office, the Energy Department had been widely viewed as a backwater agency. But people close to Moniz say they expect him to revitalize the department?s original mission while also taking on new issues involving global trade and commerce.

Like the man he would succeed, Nobel laureate Steven Chu, Moniz is a renowned physicist with serious research chops: He is director of the Energy Initiative at MIT, where he has been on the faculty since 1973. Unlike Chu, however, Moniz has a long record of supporting a broad portfolio of energy sources, including natural gas. He also has a strong background in nuclear issues, making him a better fit considering the agency?s historic nuclear portfolio.

Also unlike Chu, Moniz is viewed as a pragmatic and politically savvy operator who knows his way around Washington.

?I think it will be a very different agency than it was in the first term,? said Charles Ebinger, director of the Energy Security Initiative at the Brookings Institution, who has worked with Moniz on energy policy for many years.

?Ernie knows climate change, but also unconventional oil and gas and coal and nuclear. He will push the president towards a more balanced policy. I think you?ll see a focus on unconventional oil and gas and not as much on renewables.?

Frank Verrastro, director of the energy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said, ?He?ll be a more complete secretary of Energy. He brings different skills. He?s focused on climate and clean energy, but he?s aware of what?s going on in the oil and gas space. It?s an opportunity for the administration to gain back some energy-policy stake.?

The nation?s energy picture has changed profoundly since 2008, when Obama appointed Chu to lead the DOE. Since then, a boom in unconventional oil and gas development, thanks to breakthroughs in hydraulic fracturing, or ?fracking,? technology has led to a dramatic increase in domestic oil and gas supply. Obama has been particularly bullish on natural gas as a one-two punch for his climate-change and economic goals: The fuel has half the carbon emissions of coal, and the new glut of it has lowered U.S. manufacturing costs.

The fossil-fuel industry, which regularly railed against Chu, has already indicated its openness to Moniz.

?Moniz seems to be a pragmatist on the important energy issues facing our nation including natural-gas development,? said John Krohn, a spokesman for Energy In Depth, which represents the gas-fracking industry in Washington. ?When he arrives at DOE, he will join many senior-level Obama officials who have publicly stated that natural gas is an important fuel for our nation?s environment and economic future.?

Among the biggest policy decisions facing the Energy Department in the coming years will be the question of whether or not to grant permits for U.S. companies to begin exporting natural gas. Manufacturers fear that exporting the fuel will increase their prices, but foreign policy thinkers believe it could help increase U.S. muscle in Asia. Moniz is expected to be a key player in these decisions.

Nuclear-energy issues are also likely to get more attention under Moniz. While some environmentalists remain wary of nuclear energy, Moniz is among a group of thinkers who see nuclear power?which produces no carbon emissions?as a key piece of a future climate policy. While nuclear-waste issues were not a forte of Chu?s, Moniz was part of the blue-ribbon commission on nuclear waste that last year recommended building medium-term nuclear-waste storage facilities that could hold waste for up to a century.

?There will be more attention paid to nuclear waste and the nuclear stockpile,? said John Deutch, a professor at MIT and former head of the CIA who held senior positions in the Energy and Defense departments during the Carter and Clinton administrations, and who has worked with Moniz on energy issues for more than 30 years.

?He will have a much broader agenda, and he will be asked to have a broader agenda by President Obama,? Deutch said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/era-energy-department-expected-under-secretary-moniz-223657993--politics.html

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In Berlin, treasury secretary talks up policies to spur demand

By Anna Yukhananov

BERLIN (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Tuesday urged countries with a budget surplus to introduce policies to help domestic consumption, in what appeared to be a prod at Germany.

Lew was in Berlin for talks with his German counterpart. Germany has the euro zone's biggest trade surplus and has in the past rebuffed pressure to shift policy to bring about a rebalancing of commercial flows in Europe.

"The driver for economic growth has got to be consumer demand ... policies to help to encourage consumer demand in countries that have the capacity would be helpful," he said at a news conference with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.

Lew has pressed European officials to moderate austerity measures in order to boost growth, and called on surplus countries like Germany to boost their consumption to help pull the continent out of the doldrums.

Schaeuble and Lew tried to play down any differences in their views, however, with the German arguing that growth and budget consolidation were not mutually exclusive.

"Nobody, including in Europe, sees this contrast between fiscal consolidation and growth. Our common position is of growth-friendly consolidation or of sustainable growth, however you want to call it," he told reporters.

Germany, Europe's biggest economy, argues that budgetary rigor is not incompatible with growth, and is necessary to convince markets that governments are sticking to their spending diets in order to avoid another sovereign debt crisis

Lew emphasized that the United States wanted a strong Europe.

"As we continue to address many of our long-term challenges, our economy's strength remains sensitive to events beyond our shores. We have an immense stake in a prosperous Europe," he said.

He also said that there was a common interest in ensuring that tax havens did not skew a level playing field.

On his first official visit to Europe, Lew met European Union officials in Brussels and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi in Frankfurt on Monday. He will travel to Paris later on Tuesday to meet French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici.

Lew is a budget expert, and close confidant to U.S. President Barack Obama, which may help in his dealings with European officials about deficits and debt.

(Additional reporting by Annika Breidthardt and Noah Barkin; Writing by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Stephen Brown/Jeremy Gaunt)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-immense-stake-strong-europe-lew-093138602--business.html

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Margaret Thatcher mourned, but critics speak out

By Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain and admirers worldwide are mourning Margaret Thatcher, who has died aged 87, as the "Iron Lady" who rolled back the state and faced down her enemies during 11 years as Britain's first woman prime minister.

Her impact on the 1980s was such that opponents, including Labour's Tony Blair and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, led tributes to a legacy that radically transformed the British economy along free-market lines now widely taken for granted and includes her role in the peaceful end to the Cold War.

But while U.S. President Barack Obama spoke for many in the wider world in praising the grocer's daughter with the eyes as steely as her resolve, the scars of bitter struggles left Britain itself as deeply divided now as under her leadership.

Tuesday's newspapers told the story: "The Woman Who Saved Britain", declared the Daily Mail from the right; "The Woman Who Divided A Nation", headlined the left's Daily Mirror, which questioned the grand, ceremonial funeral planned for next week.

Still Britain's only woman prime minister, the unyielding, outspoken Thatcher led her Conservative party to three election victories, governing from 1979 to 1990, the longest continuous term in office for a British premier in over 150 years.

She was loved and loathed in equal measure as she crushed trade unions, privatised swathes of British industry, clashed with European allies and fought a distant and improbable war to recover the Falkland Islands from Argentina.

She struck up a close relationship with U.S. President Ronald Reagan on the Cold War, backed the first President George Bush during the 1991 Gulf War, and was among the first to discover that Gorbachev was a man she could "do business with".

"Very few leaders get to change not only the political landscape of their country but of the world. Margaret was such a leader. Her global impact was vast," said Tony Blair, whose term as Labour prime minister from 1997-2007 he acknowledged owed a debt to the former leader of his Conservative opponents.

Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron cut short a visit abroad and flags flew at half mast: "We've lost a great leader, a great prime minister and a great Briton," Cameron said.

"The real thing about Margaret Thatcher is that she didn't just lead our country, she saved our country."

Obama led an outpouring of tributes from the United States: "America has lost a true friend," he said.

Mourners laid roses, tulips and lilies on the doorstep of her house in Belgravia, one of London's most exclusive areas. One note said: "The greatest British leader" while another said to "The Iron Lady", a soubriquet bestowed by a Soviet army newspaper in the 1970s and which Thatcher loved.

But, in a mark of lingering anger at a woman who explained her belief in private endeavour by declaring "there is no such thing as society", someone also left a bottle of milk; to many Britons, for scrapping free milk for schoolchildren as education minister in 1971, she remained "Maggie Thatcher, Milk Snatcher".

The former premier died peacefully on Monday morning at the Ritz Hotel after a stroke. Having retreated into seclusion after being deposed by her party, the death of her businessman husband Denis in 2003 and creeping dementia had kept her out of the public eye for years. She had been in poor health for months.

Lord Bell, a spokesman for the family, likened her to her hero Winston Churchill - a comparison echoed on the recaptured Falkland Islands - while Cameron said she would go down as Britain's greatest peacetime prime minister.

A ceremonial funeral with military honours at London's St. Paul's Cathedral next week will be short of a full state funeral, in accordance with her family's wishes.

Parliament, where she deployed fearsome and forensic debating skills that drew on her training as both a research chemist and a courtroom advocate, will return from recess for a special session in her honour on Wednesday.

COLD WARRIOR

The abiding domestic images of her premiership will remain those of conflict: huge police confrontations with mass ranks of coalminers whose year-long strike failed to save their pits and communities; Thatcher riding a tank in a white headscarf; and flames rising above Trafalgar Square in the riots over the deeply unpopular "poll tax" which contributed to her downfall.

To those who opposed her she was blunt to a degree.

"The lady's not for turning," she told Conservatives in 1980 as some urged a "U-turn" on the economy in the facing of rising job losses and crashing poll numbers. She stuck to her plans to pare state spending but could thank extraordinary victory in the Falklands in 1982 for helping her bounce back to re-election.

Argentineans were understandably less moved to praise her as Falklanders who called her "our Winston Churchill". In South Africa, too, there was a coolness after her death as its new, democratic leaders recalled her prevarication on apartheid.

Among Irish republicans, she was remembered as the leader whose firm line saw 10 men starve themselves to death in British jails - and as one who survived the IRA's deadliest attack on the heart of the establishment when it bombed her hotel in 1984.

In Europe, many in the east had warm words for her refusal to back down against Moscow and the inspiration of her reforms of a centrally planned economy. Among those were Chancellor Angela Merkel, a fellow chemist from East Germany who rose to become her reunited country's first woman leader.

In western Europe, where the late French Socialist president Francois Mitterrand once grappled with a conundrum he described as having "the eyes of Caligula but the mouth of Marilyn Monroe", there was respect for her achievements though never great fondness for her "handbagging" lectures on saving money.

"IRON LADY"

Brought up in a flat with no hot water above the family grocery in the eastern English town of Grantham, Margaret Hilda Roberts learned thrift and hard work from her Methodist father Alfred before going to Oxford University to study chemistry.

She met her wealthy husband Denis, a divorcee a decade her senior, at a Conservative dinner party. They married in 1951 but the young Thatcher faced snobbery from the party grandees: she was female and far too lowly.

"She was the shopkeeper's daughter from Grantham who made it to the highest office in the land," said Cameron.

As Conservatives and Labour traded power and blame for an economic and diplomatic decline in the early 1970s, Thatcher was manoeuvring behind the scenes and surprised the party by winning the leadership from former premier Edward Heath in 1975.

She made her mark - after a makeover that changed her hair and her voice - by focusing on fiscal prudence and common sense - potent messages when made against the backdrop of the 1978-79 "winter of discontent" when strikes brought Britain's economy to a halt and the Labour government seemed in thrall to the unions.

The struggles that followed have left their mark on Britain.

"Margaret Hilda Thatcher is gone but the damage caused by her fatally flawed politics sadly lingers on," the National Union of Mineworkers, which Thatcher virtually destroyed during a failed year-long strike, said on its website. "Good Riddance."

"I found her to be confrontational, dogmatic, abrasive; she attacked people in her own country and didn't listen to people in her own party," recalled Caspar Joseph, 51, a history teacher in Manchester. "She was destructive, nihilistic.

"I will be raising a glass... I might drink some Argentinean wine - her attitude was contemptible over the Falklands."

"THATCHERISM"

Her personal credo, founded on competition, private enterprise, thrift and self-reliance, gave birth to a political philosophy still referred to as "Thatcherism".

Millions in Britain pay tribute to her radical policies, such as the selling off of public housing to its tenants.

"A lot of people, my contemporaries from where I grew up, didn't like her," said Mark Guard, a 48-year-old filmmaker who grew up in public housing. "But I bought my first property age 22. I thank her for getting me out of that council estate."

Placing a bunch of flowers outside her house, he added: "She was a very patriotic leader of this country and I think she changed it for the better."

But many recalled past bitterness, including in Northern Ireland where republican leader Gerry Adams said she had caused "great suffering"; she took a hard line during a hunger strike in which 10 prisoners died in 1981, and three years later she survived a deadly Irish bomb attack on her party conference.

Liam Porter, a 49-year-old Belfast Catholic said: "My first memory of her was she took the milk away from the school kids and then there was the hunger strike and the Falklands war.

"The first thing I thought when I heard it this morning was ?ding dong the witch is dead'."

Thatcher clearly relished her strongwoman poster image and famously humiliated Geoffrey Howe, one of her most respected senior ministers, in front of the entire cabinet, helping to spur his resignation and her own downfall.

But behind the doors of her Downing Street residence she would insist on making tea for her ministers, take care over her impeccable outfits and relax with whisky and water after the 18-hour days which became the norm of her rule.

"Her outstanding characteristics will always be remembered by those who worked closely with her: courage and determination in politics, and humanity and generosity of spirit in private," said John Major, her successor as Conservative prime minister.

Thatcher's combative opposition to greater European integration antagonised allies in Europe and her own ministers but which still strikes a chord with those in Britain today who fear being drawn into the troubles of the struggling euro zone.

"She saved the pound and if we didn't have the pound we'd be another Greece or Portugal," said Jack Hikmet, who has owned a pharmacy in Thatcher's constituency of Finchley for 35 years.

In a few tense weeks at the end of 1990, Thatcher fell from power as some of her most senior ministers, including Howe, turned on her in what she said later was treachery. Thatcher never really recovered from her ousting.

"We are leaving Downing Street for the last time after 11 and a half wonderful years and we are very happy that we leave the United Kingdom in a very, very much better state than when we came here," Thatcher said. For many, the tears she shed that day gave a shocking glimpse of human frailty behind the handbag.

Descending into dementia after years at the top table of world politics, Thatcher became almost a recluse, living out her life behind the white-stucco walls of her Georgian townhouse.

"Everyone wants to be immortal. Few are. Mrs Thatcher is," said Maurice Saatchi, the ad man behind some of her most potent election campaigns. "She developed all the winning arguments of our time: free markets, low tax, a small state, independence, individuality, self-determination. The result was a revolution in economic policy and three election victories in a row."

(Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/thatcher-mourned-critics-speak-060415272--business.html

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Obama to bring some Sandy Hook families on AF1

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is providing a ride on Air Force One to 11 relatives of those killed at Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary School so they can attend his gun control speech Monday before heading to Washington to personally plead with senators reluctant to back gun legislation.

Before a speech in Hartford, Obama plans to meet privately with relatives of seven children and one staffer killed during December's massacre. Afterward they plan to travel back to Washington on the presidential plane.

The White House says Obama is going to argue in his speech that lawmakers have an obligation to the children killed and other victims of gun violence to allow an up-or-down vote in the Senate. That would require 50 votes to pass, rather than a procedural maneuver some Republican senators are threatening to require 60 votes, potentially sinking the legislation.

"Imagine what they would say to the families of victims in Newtown about why a certain measure never came to a vote because they filibustered it," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

Gun legislation could come up for debate in the Senate this week as lawmakers return from spring break. The Sandy Hook families want to speak to senators who have not voiced support for the legislation, to ask for support in memory of their children and the school staff who were killed Dec. 14. They originally planned to travel to Washington earlier on Monday, but the White House offered to give the families a ride so they could also attend Obama's speech before their lobbying push.

The families' trip was organized by Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit started by community members in the wake of the shooting. "The group is encouraging senators to come together around legislative proposals that will both save lives and respect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans," the group said in a statement.

Obama is speaking Monday evening at the University of Hartford, near the state capitol where last week the governor signed into law some of the nation's strictest gun control laws with the Sandy Hook families standing behind him.

But legislation in Washington faces a tougher challenge, as the nation's memories of the shooting fade with time and the National Rifle Association wages a formidable campaign against Obama's proposals. Senators were negotiating Monday in search of an eleventh-hour deal to expand background checks for gun buyers, after weeks of talks had failed to reach a compromise that could win bipartisan support.

Other measures Obama wants are unlikely to pass. Senate leaders say there are not enough votes for an assault weapons ban. Prospects are also bleak for a proposal to limit the number of rounds of ammunition in a single magazine to 10.

With time running out on negotiations, the White House is making an all-hands-on-deck push this week. Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder planned to promote their plan at the White House on Tuesday with law enforcement officials. First lady Michelle Obama planned to wade into the debate Wednesday with a speech on youth violence in her hometown of Chicago. And on Thursday, Biden was taking part in a discussion on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" with people who have different views on gun control.

The matter is divisive in Newtown, Conn., as in the rest of the country. Not all Sandy Hook families support gun control, and even those involved with the lobbying push organized by Sandy Hook Promise are not backing the assault weapons ban. But those families are asking lawmakers to expand background checks, increase penalties for gun trafficking and limit the size of magazines. The magazine issue has a particular resonance with those families.

Nicole Hockley told The Associated Press in an interview that she wonders if her 6-year-old son, Dylan, might still be alive if shooter Adam Lanza hadn't be able to bring 10 magazines holding 30 rounds each into the school that day. Lanza was able to get off 154 shots during a four-minute rampage in the school. But he stopped shooting briefly in her son's classroom to reload, giving 11 children time to escape.

"They ran for their lives," Hockley said in a telephone interview Friday. "Dylan was not so fortunate. If there were lower capacity magazine clips, there's a chance Dylan would be here with me today."

Hockley plans to introduce Obama in Hartford and sit on stage during the speech with her husband, Ian. The other families who plan to fly on Air Force One include:

? Mark and Jackie Barden ? parents of 7-year-old Daniel

? Nelba Marquez-Greene ? mother of 6-year-old Ana

? Neil Heslin ? father of 6-year-old Jesse

? Jennifer Hensel ? mother of 6-year-old Avielle

? Bill Sherlach ? husband of Mary, a 56-year-old school psychologist

? Ben and Cheyanne Wyatt ? parents of 6-year-old Allison

? David and Francine Wheeler ? parents of 6-year-old Ben

__

Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-bring-sandy-hook-families-af1-150654315--politics.html

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No one more surprised than Luke Bryan by ACMs win

Miranda Lambert, right, and Blake Shelton accept the award for song of the year for "Over You" at the 48th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 7, 2013. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Miranda Lambert, right, and Blake Shelton accept the award for song of the year for "Over You" at the 48th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 7, 2013. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

LAS VEGAS (AP) ? Luke Bryan heard his name called at the end of the Academy of Country Music Awards, accepted the entertainer of the year trophy and then things became a blur.

"It was like I was on the tilt-a-whirl," Bryan said.

Bryan pulled off a dizzying upset, all right, beating out the night's top winner Miranda Lambert, two-time entertainer of the year Taylor Swift and top male stars and good friends Blake Shelton and Jason Aldean for the academy's top award.

The 36-year-old Georgia native's reaction? He hugged the trophy and hung his head, appearing to fight back tears as members of the crowd at the MGM Grand shouted "Luke!"

"I don't think there was anyone in the room more shocked than him," Aldean said. "That's why I love him."

Though Bryan got tons of love before the ACMs because of his new role as co-host with Shelton, the idea of winning entertainer of the year was far from his mind as he prepared to replace Reba McEntire on the show. He told reporters afterward he was so focused on hosting duties, he had trouble remembering what categories he was nominated in.

And he didn't give himself any chance to beat Swift, the undeniable pop star who has reshaped the genre and used a legion of fans to rule the ACMs the last two years.

Heck, he was still opening for Aldean last summer and only recently started his own headline tour. Even he thought it was too early to win an award usually given as a reward to veteran performers who were almost universally acclaimed.

He won an award before the show, sharing vocal event of the year with Aldean and Eric Church for their collaboration on "The Only Way I Know." And he thought he might have a shot at album of the year or male vocalist.

"But this is unobtainable, this is so unobtainable," Bryan said as he held the trophy up and looked at it. "You know that statue in Rio De Janeiro (of Jesus Christ). That is what this award is like for me, up on the mount, you know."

Turns out a majority of a record 1.1 million voters thought he'd look good holding that silver trophy.

Bryan's win will be the talk of Las Vegas as the celebration continues well into Monday morning, but Lambert again walks away as the academy's trophy magnet.

She won her fourth straight female vocalist award, joining Reba McEntire and Loretta Lynn as the only singers to win female vocalist of the year four or more times. She also picked up three trophies for her hit song "Over You" ? one for single record of the year and two for song of the year. She was performer of the song and co-wrote it with Shelton, her husband.

"As a songwriter, having your song and your lyrics recognized by your peers is pretty much as good as it gets," Lambert said. "And I'm so thankful for being in this genre of country music, every single time someone's nominated, I just cheer, because I love everybody to death. So thank you for accepting me as a songwriter, not just as a singer, because that means the world to me."

Church won two awards, including album of the year for "Chief," and was tied with Aldean, Little Big Town and Florida Georgia Line in overall win total. Church's producer, Jay Joyce, also won two awards ? for album of the year and the off-camera producer of the year.

Church called "Chief," which was nominated two years in a row, a defining album.

"I think my career is going to be pre-'Chief' and post-'Chief,'" Church said. "Album of the year is most special to me."

Aldean, country's top-selling male act, also won male vocalist of the year. Little Big Town had wins for vocal group and video of the year. Florida Georgia Line won for new artist and were previous winners in the new vocal duo/group category. And husband and wife Shawna and Keifer Thompson continued their feel-good story as Thompson Square won its second straight vocal duo of the year award.

The night was full of colorful performances, but the anticipation of Garth Brooks and George Strait performing together overshadowed almost everything else. The two paid tribute to the late Dick Clark, the executive producer of the show since 1979 who passed away a year ago.

Brooks appeared on stage in flannel shirt and black cowboy hat with a Fu Manchu to perform his hit "The Dance" before Strait joined him for "The Cowboy Rides Away."

Reba McEntire introduced the two and paid tribute to Clark, momentarily breaking down as tears appeared in her eyes.

"He would slap me if he saw me crying up here," she said.

Shelton kicked the show off with his new single "Boys 'Round Here," a hip-hop-flavored ode to redneck swag. He was joined by Luke Bryan, Brad Paisley, Sheryl Crow and Pistol Annies, a trio that includes his wife Miranda Lambert.

Lady Antebellum debuted new song "Downtown" and Charles Kelley finished off the song by rubbing pregnant trio-mate Hillary Scott's belly. Carrie Underwood stepped out of a black Cadillac parked on stage as she started her song, "Two Black Cadillacs."

Lambert appeared later with a fiery, diamond-studded rendition of her recent hit "Mama's Broken Heart."

John Mayer joined Paisley for a guitar summit on "Beat This Summer" and Taylor Swift and Keith Urban joined Tim McGraw on stage for "Highway Don't Care," which Urban finished off with a scorching guitar solo.

And Stevie Wonder made his first appearance on a country music awards show, joining Hunter Hayes for a performance by two guys who got their start as precocious teens. Hayes kicked off their set with his song "I Want Crazy," then was joined by Wonder for his hit "Sir Duke." Wonder returned to finish off the show with "Signed, Sealed, Delivered."

Asked to explain why he decided to join Hayes on stage, he had a simple answer.

"What I can tell you is I have always been a lover of music and country music," Wonder said. "The amazing thing (is) I recently saw a few days ago a Motown show. And what was amazing to me, comparing this night to that, it was about lifting people up, lifting love up. And so tonight, again, here in this event, it's about lifting people up, music up, love up. Listen, we could not be here without love."

___

AP Writer Hannah Dreier contributed to this report.

___

Online:

http://acmcountry.com

___

Follow AP Music Writer Chris Talbott: http://twitter.com/Chris_Talbott.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-04-08-US-Music-ACM-Awards/id-abdc1b06b0c14605acb0b4ab7cbe0b27

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UN: Chemical investigators ready to go to Syria

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) ? U.N. experts are poised to move into Syria within 24 hours to investigate reported chemical weapons attacks in the country's civil war, but President Bashar Assad's government still has not given them the green light to enter the country, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday.

Ban told reporters in The Hague that an advance team is already waiting at a final staging post on Cyprus, while the U.N. negotiates "technical and legal" issues with Damascus.

All reports of chemical attacks "should be examined without delay, without conditions and without exceptions," Ban said.

His comments appeared aimed at increasing pressure on Assad's regime and ensuring that U.N. inspectors are given access to all sites of reported chemical weapons attacks and not just those Damascus wants them to see.

Ban said it is "a matter of principle" to investigate all allegations and not just a case in which Syria alleges that rebels used poison gas.

"I am hopeful we will be able to finish this as soon as possible, and I urge the Syrian government to be more flexible so this commission can be deployed as soon as possible," Ban said. "We are ready."

Syria asked the United Nations last month to investigate an alleged chemical weapons attack by rebels on March 19 on Khan al-Assal village in northern Aleppo province. The rebels blamed regime forces for the attack.

Britain and France followed up by asking the U.N. chief to investigate allegations of chemical weapons use in two locations in Khan al-Assal and the village of Ataybah in the vicinity of Damascus, all on March 19, as well as in Homs on Dec. 23.

Ban was speaking at the headquarters of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague, which is sending a team of 15 experts to join the commission, along with World Health Organization staff.

The team is led by Ake Sellstrom, a Swedish professor who was a U.N. chemical weapons inspector in Iraq and now works at a research institute that deals with chemical incidents. Ban said he spoke to Sellstrom on Sunday night and he was now heading to join the advance party in Cyprus.

Syria is widely believed to have a large stockpile of chemical weapons, but it is one of only eight countries in the world that have not signed up to the chemical weapons convention, which means that it does not have to report any chemical weapons to the Hague-based organization that monitors compliance with the treaty.

Ban said the experts need to get to Syria as soon as possible to investigate the attacks.

"The longer we wait, the harder this essential mission will be," he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/un-chemical-investigators-ready-syria-104632401.html

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Zorianna Kit: Things To Do in L.A. With Kids: Making Ukrainian Easter Eggs

Los Angeles is filed with activities that are fun for kids. Everyone once in a while, there are also activities that are perfect for both kids and adults.

Making decorated Ukrainian Easter eggs known as 'pysanky' ('pysanka' in the singular form) is one such activity. These are beautifully decorated eggs that are made using a wood and copper stylus, hot wax and dye.

On Sunday April 21, 2013, the Ukrainian Culture on Melrose Ave. invites all Los Angelinos, young and old, to come and learn to make this traditional folk art. The Center had previously held this annual event during the 1980s and 90s. Now for the first time in over a decade, it is being revived.

Professional egg writers such as Barbara Wetzel will be one of several pysanka artists at the Ukrainian Culture Center from 11 am to 5 pm, holding workshops to teach the public how to make the eggs.

The day-long open house event - which falls between Catholic Easter on March 31 and Eastern Orthodox Easter on May 5 - will also feature other Ukrainian artists showcasing their wares. The stage will have performances by Ukrainian dancers while a variety of different "varenyky" - otherwise known as "perogies" - will be served from the kitchen, along with some delicious poppy seed cake.

Wetzel - who has been teaching Southern Californian adults and children in the art of pysanka making for over 25 years - sat down with the Huffington Post's Zorianna Kit to talk about working with kids on the pysanky, the symbolism and legends surrounding the eggs, and how making them can translate to other forms of art.

Q: Does working with kids to make a pysanka get messy or dangerous? After all, you're working with eggs, wax and flames!

WETZEL: Children are really free and they're not intimidated by trying to make them perfect. They just want to learn how. I find that children are very good about following direction. I've had more trouble with older people dropping eggs. Myself, I started making them when I was 8 years old and I looked forward to it every year.

Q: What's your process with the kids?

WETZEL: I pick out three designs. They can choose their own colors. I give them several color options. I use eggs that are hollowed out. I put a thin coat of varnish on them at the end and then they can take them home.

Q: What do the children learn during this process?

WETZEL: It's learning the technique because it's so different from anything that they've ever done before. It's applying the wax and learning how to think from light to dark. And how the darker colors eat up the lighter colors so that you get a nice finished design.

Q: You're like an art teacher in a way.

WETZEL: Well, it is a unique art form but it also translates in to other mediums of art. It's a wax resist form of fine art. You can use that when working with a canvas and not have the paint adhere to a certain areas. It's also a batik effect that (can be translated to) to fabric when making quilts because the designs are not so uniform.

Q: What kind of art form is pysanka making?

WETZEL: It's a very ancient art form. Each eggs packs a lot of meaning with all of the symbolism. Everything on the egg means something. It's also one of the very last religious art forms. The only other religious art form is icon painting.

Q: What types of symbols can the eggs have?

WETZEL: There is the sun, because in the pagan days, they worshipped the sun and flowers and things like that. Animals symbolize prosperity. Spiders bring good luck. Today, they take on a more religious meaning. The sun represents Jesus Christ, the Son of God, flowers still represent love, although they can be God's love for people. Triangles on eggs represent the trinity. Dots are the tears of Mary.

Q: What if someone is not religious?

WETZEL: You can do the pagan symbols or you make something using the colors or designs that speak to you. I had someone once draw Mickey Mouse.

Q: What's the biggest misconception about making pysanky?

WETZEL: Usually people don't realize there is so much work involved or how they are actually made. I've had people say, 'Oh, they put the designs on with stencils!' No, not quite. Others think we use a machine. But they're all hand done. There is no ruler that is egg shaped, although I wish there was!

Q: What's the most prominent legend surrounding Ukrainian Easter eggs?

WETZEL: As long as the Easter eggs are made every year, good will prevail over evil in the world. The more eggs that are made, the less evil there will be.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zorianna-kit/things-to-do-in-la-the-ar_b_3033473.html

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