Packers OC Philbin away from team indefinitely (AP)

GREEN BAY, Wis. ? Mike McCarthy called it a "punch in the heart."

Then the typically stoic Green Bay Packers coach briefly lost his composure, pausing for several seconds as he choked up with emotion.

It was another sign of how hard the team has been hit by the death of Michael Philbin, the son of Packers offensive coordinator Joe Philbin.

With Sunday's playoff game against the New York Giants to prepare for ? and a Super Bowl repeat to strive for ? real life has knocked the Packers back.

"I think the reality of this just gave everybody a punch in the heart to let you know the reality," McCarthy said, pausing and looking downward as he gathered his emotions. "How fortunate to be where we are."

Philbin wasn't with the team Wednesday and will be away indefinitely as he and his family deal with the loss of Michael, whose body was recovered from an icy Wisconsin river on Monday.

The 21-year-old Philbin disappeared early Sunday morning after a night out with friends in the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh campus area. Police said preliminary autopsy results showed he drowned. No evidence suggesting foul play was found during the examination.

McCarthy said he and the rest of his offensive assistant coaches are dividing up Philbin's responsibilities, and will continue to do so as long as they need to.

"Joe Philbin is where he's supposed to be," McCarthy said. "Frankly, Joe and I haven't even talked about his responsibility ? and will not. He's with his family and he'll return when he feels he's ready to return."

Giants coach Tom Coughlin passed along his condolences.

"Our heart goes out to the Philbin family," Coughlin said. "When we first heard this the other night, the whole coaching staff, the room went absolutely silent. Many guys know Joe Philbin. You have tremendous empathy, but you can't (have) anywhere near the feeling that his family's going through. Just tragic. The sympathy of the Giants organization goes out to the Philbin family."

Although police didn't publicly confirm Michael Philbin's death until Tuesday morning, players were told Monday afternoon.

After a day off Tuesday, McCarthy talked to the team Wednesday about separating their personal challenges from their professional challenges.

"It really goes in line with the family-first philosophy," McCarthy said. "Everybody's feeling it. There's no question on what level. That's really for the individual (players) to speak on. But professionally, I've been very pleased with what we've been able to accomplish. We had a very productive day Monday with everything going on on Monday. And today just a ton of energy."

The Philbin family will hold a visitation Thursday and the funeral is Friday afternoon. Wide receiver Greg Jennings hopes he'll be able to attend.

"Definitely," Jennings said. "Obviously, he's a part of us, he's a part of our family and we're a part of their family. When you work with a guy every single day from morning until late night, it's like you become a part of them and they become a part of you. So we definitely want to support (them) if that will allow us."

Aaron Rodgers also wants to attend the funeral ? something he apparently hasn't done before.

"I don't know the right words to say to him to try and comfort him," Rodgers said of Philbin. "I have zero experience and have never really dealt with anything like this before. I have never been to a funeral in my life, knock on wood. So this is a tough time."

This week is especially tough for Packers offensive lineman T.J. Lang, who already was dealing with the recent death of his father.

"Today I think was definitely tough, being the first day back, but I think it will get better," Lang said. "With everything going on around the organization, it's been pretty rough. I think times like these, when guys are going through some personal struggles, that guys really rally up and get behind you. I've had a lot of support, and I know everyone's shown a lot of support for Coach Philbin as well."

But while players are taking the Philbin situation hard, they're also using it as a rallying cry for Sunday.

"I think this will only make us tougher as a group and even more family-oriented," Lang said. "We've always had a great family feel to this team. I think when people go through some things like this, I think it will only strengthen it. Nothing's ever going to heal it, but if we accomplish our last goal, I think that will take a little of the pain away. It's good to be back with the guys."

Players know that winning a game in Philbin's honor won't really do anything to take away the family's loss ? but at least it's doing something.

"Being in the team meeting, when everything was relayed to us, you could just sense that, `OK, we've got to do this for Joe,'" Jennings said.

"If he can't be with us to experience it, he's with the people he should be with, which is his family. We need to make sure that he knows that we're thinking about him and the one way we can definitely show that is going out there and performing and executing the way he would want us to perform and execute."

___

AP Sports Writer Tom Canavan contributed to this report from East Rutherford, N.J.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120112/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_packers_philbin

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Honey Creek posts operating profit before debt payments

Honey Creek Resort, a $58 million state-owned facility in southern Iowa, had an operating profit for the first time last fiscal year, clearing $4,230 before debt payments.

State Auditor David Vaudt released a report Tuesday showing the resort saw operating revenues of $5,547,357 for the year that ended June 30, compared to operating expenses of $5,543,127.

Honey Creek?s revenue wasn?t enough to cover the resort?s $1.5 million a year in bond payments, which the Iowa Department of Natural Resources paid with funds intended for conservation efforts in all 99 counties. The resort also fell $220,000 below budgeted revenue.

Honey Creek, which opened in September 2008 on Lake Rathbun, boasts a 105-room lodge, 28 cottages, fine-dining restaurant, water park and 18-hole golf course. The state financed most of the project with $33.5 million in bonds.

The resort was in the red $900,000 for the first 10 months of operation. A state audit showed the resort had an operating loss of $46,000 in fiscal 2010.

The DNR paid Central Group Companies, of Minnesota, more than $225,000 in fiscal 2011 to manage Honey Creek, the audit showed.

Central Group CEO Bob Pace told The Gazette in November that his company has steered the resort well through rough economic times.

?We don?t have anything to be apologetic for, as far as we?re concerned,? he said. ?The property has done incredibly well for a destination resort opening at the beginning of a recession.?

DNR officials said Honey Creek is faring better than other Midwest resorts.

Its 46.3 percent occupancy rate for January through September was slightly higher than other resorts? rates and the revenue per available room for the same period was $66.93, compared to $57.59 for the comparable facilities, data compiled by Honey Creek?s asset manager show.

To read the state auditor?s full report, go to: http://auditor.iowa.gov/reports/1260-5420-BC01.pdf.

Source: http://easterniowagovernment.com/2012/01/10/honey-creek-posts-operating-profit-before-debt-payments/

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Report: Iran begins uranium enrichment at new site

This image provided by NASA shows the Strait of Hormuz taken from the International Space Station in Sept. 30, 2003. An Iranian newspaper quotes a senior commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard Sunday Jan. 8, 2012 as saying that Tehran's leadership has decided to order the closure of the strategic Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf if the country's oil exports are blocked. (AP Photo/NASA)

This image provided by NASA shows the Strait of Hormuz taken from the International Space Station in Sept. 30, 2003. An Iranian newspaper quotes a senior commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard Sunday Jan. 8, 2012 as saying that Tehran's leadership has decided to order the closure of the strategic Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf if the country's oil exports are blocked. (AP Photo/NASA)

FILE - In this April 8, 2008 file photo provided by the Iranian President's Office, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, visits the Natanz Uranium Enrichment Facility some 200 miles (322 kilometers) south of the capital Tehran. Iran has begun uranium enrichment at a new underground site well protected from possible airstrikes, a leading hardline newspaper reported Sunday, Jan. 8, 2011. (AP Photo/Iranian President's Office, File) NO SALES

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? Iran has begun uranium enrichment at a new underground site well protected from possible airstrikes, a leading hardline newspaper reported Sunday in another show of defiance against Western pressure to rein in Tehran's nuclear program.

Another newspaper quoted a senior commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guard force as saying Tehran's leadership has decided to order the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic oil route, if the country's petroleum exports are blocked. Revolutionary Guard ground forces also staged war games in eastern Iran in an apparent display of resolve against U.S. forces just over the border in Afghanistan.

"The supreme authorities ... have insisted that if enemies block the export of our oil, we won't allow a drop of oil to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. This is the strategy of the Islamic Republic in countering such threats," Revolutionary Guard deputy commander Ali Ashraf Nouri was quoted as saying by the Khorasan daily.

Iranian politicians have issued similar threats in the past, but this is the strongest statement yet by a top commander in the security establishment.

The latest statements are certain to fuel tensions with the U.S. and its allies, which are trying to turn up pressure on Iran with new sanctions to punish it over its disputed nuclear program. The West suspects Iran is trying to make nuclear weapons, but Iran denies this.

The United Nations has already sanctioned Iran for refusing to stop uranium enrichment ? which can produce both nuclear fuel and fissile warhead material. Tehran says its nuclear program is only for energy and medical research, and refuses to halt uranium enrichment.

Kayhan daily, which is close to Iran's ruling clerics, said Tehran has begun injecting uranium gas into sophisticated centrifuges at the Fordo facility near the holy city of Qom.

"Kayhan received reports yesterday that show Iran has begun uranium enrichment at the Fordo facility amid heightened foreign enemy threats," the paper said in a front-page report. Kayhan's manager is a representative of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final word on all important matters of state.

Iran's nuclear chief, Fereidoun Abbasi, said late Saturday that his country will "soon" begin enrichment at Fordo. It was impossible to immediately reconcile the two reports.

Iran has a major uranium enrichment facility in Natanz in central Iran, where nearly 8,000 centrifuges are operating. Tehran began enrichment at Natanz in April 2006.

The Fordo centrifuges, however, are reportedly more efficient. And the site better shielded from aerial attack.

Nouri said Iran's leadership has made a strategic decision to close the Strait of Hormuz, should the country's exports be blocked. One-sixth of the world's oil flows to market through the Strait of Hormuz, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.

President Barack Obama approved new sanctions against Iran a week ago, targeting the central bank and its ability to sell petroleum abroad. The U.S. has delayed implementing the sanctions for at least six months, worried about sending the price of oil higher at a time when the global economy is already struggling. But the new sanctions nevertheless prompted a series of threats from Iranian officials about closing the Strait of Hormuz.

The newspaper paraphrased Nouri as saying that a 10-day naval war game which ended Tuesday was preparation for such a closure. The Guard, which is Iran's most powerful military force and which has its own naval arm, has planned more sea maneuvers for February.

"The exalted leader (Khamenei) determined a new strategy for the armed forces, by which any threat from enemies will be responded to with threats," Nouri said.

The U.S. and Israel have said that all options remain open, including military action, should Iran continue with its enrichment program.

Tehran says it needs the program to produce fuel for future nuclear reactors and medical radioisotopes needed for cancer patients.

The country has been enriching uranium to less than 5 percent for years, but it began to further enrich part of its uranium stockpile to nearly 20 percent as of February 2010, saying it needs the higher grade material to produce fuel for a Tehran reactor that makes medical radioisotopes needed for cancer patients. Weapons-grade uranium is usually about 90 percent enriched.

Iran says the higher enrichment activities ? to nearly 20 percent ? will be carried out at Fordo. These operations are of particular concern to the West because uranium at 20 percent enrichment can be converted into fissile material for a nuclear warhead much more quickly than that at 3.5 percent.

Built next to a military complex, Fordo was long kept secret and was only acknowledged by Iran after it was identified by Western intelligence agencies in September 2009.

Buried under 300 feet (90 meters) of rock, the facility is a hardened tunnel and is protected by air defense missile batteries and the Revolutionary Guard, Iran's most powerful military force. The site is located about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Qom, the religious nerve center of Iran's ruling system.

"The Fordo facility, like Natanz, has been designed and built underground. The enemy doesn't have the ability to damage it," the semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted nuclear chief Abbasi as saying Sunday.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-08-Iran-Nuclear/id-e98025c325374f42a062b32d1cb63912

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EU oil embargo heightens tensions in the Gulf

The relentless march to War continues. Peter Symonds writes on how the EU sanctions are part of the Imperialist war-drive against Iran. Sanctions are War by other means. Full text at link.

European Union?s (EU) in-principle decision on Wednesday to impose an embargo on oil imports from Iran has further escalated the danger of military conflict in the Persian Gulf. The EU move dovetails with President Obama?s signing on Saturday of US legislation designed to cripple the Iranian banking system and cut the country?s oil exports.

The US and EU threats have already provoked a sharp reaction from Tehran, which has warned that it would respond to an oil embargo by blocking the Strait of Hormuz?a strategic waterway into the Persian Gulf through which about 20 percent of global oil trade passes.
As Economy Minister Shamseddin Hosseini said yesterday, Iran confronts ?an economic war.? Oil and gas exports account for some 80 percent of the country?s hard currency earnings and provide about half of government revenue. The Iranian rial has already plunged by 11 percent this week against the US dollar, compounding already high levels of inflation.

In Washington this week, British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond met with his American counterpart Leon Panetta and threatened joint military action with the US in response to any Iranian attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz. A potential trigger for a military clash was established when the Pentagon dismissed an Iranian warning on Tuesday that an American aircraft carrier, the USS John C. Stennis, should not return to the Gulf.

Source: http://www.indymedia.ie/article/101164

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For India, a Power Failure Looms

BY ERIC YEP

MUMBAI?Almost a decade ago, seeking to overcome one of the biggest challenges facing India's development, the government set an ambitious goal: electric power for all by 2012.

Instead, as the target date of March nears, the power sector is in a shambles, and its dire state threatens India's economic prospects at a time when growth is already being slowed by high inflation, a burgeoning government budget deficit and ripples from the European financial crisis.

India is the world's fifth-largest electricity producer after the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, but its per capita consumption is among the world's lowest, at 778.71 ...

BY ERIC YEP

MUMBAI?Almost a decade ago, seeking to overcome one of the biggest challenges facing India's development, the government set an ambitious goal: electric power for all by 2012.

Instead, as the target date of March nears, the power sector is in a shambles, and its dire state threatens India's economic prospects at a time when growth is already being slowed by high inflation, a burgeoning government budget deficit and ripples from the European financial crisis.

India is the world's fifth-largest electricity producer after the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, but its per capita consumption is among the world's lowest, at 778.71 ...

Source: http://feeds.wsjonline.com/~r/wsj/xml/rss/3_7013/~3/CQ_IodIN-yE/SB10001424052970203550304577136283175793516.html

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District 33C's energy savings efforts yield financial benefits

The 2011 energy improvements were completed with the aid of grants through various agencies such as the Illinois Clean Energy Grant, Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, and have led to lower electricity bills for the district.

Light bulbs

One such project was the replacement of existing light bulbs in all six buildings with longer lasting, higher efficiency bulbs. By changing to bulbs that use only 28 watts (down from 32 watts), the district has an expected energy savings of approximately 8,160 watts per building per year. Fixtures were also updated in the gymnasiums and stage at Schilling School. The new fixtures use roughly half the energy as the old fixtures, and the cost to update these will be recouped by the energy savings in less than two years.

All exit signs in the district's buildings are also being replaced through a grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. By updating to LED exit signs, the usage per sign was reduced from 30 watts to 2 watts. In receiving the grant for this project, the district reduced the cost of replacing each sign from $37 to $12, and the reduction in energy used by each sign will offset the remaining cost in less than six months.

Buses

School buildings weren't the only district structures to receive an energy makeover. Homer's entire school bus fleet, which consists of 70 buses, was fitted with engine block heaters to help warm buses in the cold winter months. These heaters, which were completely paid for through a grant from the IEPA, allow for heating of the bus without having to idle the engine. These heaters consume only .4 gallons of fuel per hour. The heaters are set on timers, which allows for savings on labor, since drivers do not have to come in early on cold mornings to start up the buses. There is also the environmental benefit of not having all the buses running idle, thus reducing the amount of exhaust fumes released into the atmosphere.

Solar panel

Homer's students also benefit from the district's energy initiatives. With the help of a grant from Illinois Clean Energy, the district invested in a solar panel, which is mounted on the gymnasium roof of Homer Junior High on Bell Road. More than 90 percent of the cost of the panel was paid for through the grant.

The panels are set up to record energy data, which can then be used in real time by teachers for lessons on energy and energy consumption. Students can work with real, rather than simulated, data, which enhances their learning experience.

In 2012 and beyond, District 33C hopes to continue to remain responsible in its energy consumption, while also creating meaningful learning opportunities for its students. By taking the initiative to be accountable for its energy consumption, the district hopes to generate meaningful dialogue between students, teachers and community members.

Source: http://www.homerhorizon.com/Articles-News-c-2011-12-30-234127.114133-District-33Cs-energy-savings-efforts-yield-financial-benefits.html

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China's Hu lauds military promotion for young Kim (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) ? Chinese President Hu Jintao sent congratulations to North Korea's Kim Jong-un on Saturday on his appointment as supreme military leader, in Beijing's most direct show of support for the young and untested successor to his father Kim Jong-il.

Hu's message, issued on the Chinese government's website (www.gov.cn), lauded the younger Kim's military promotion, which consolidated his status as the top leader of the North.

"There is a deep tradition of friendship between the peoples and the military forces of China and North Korea," said Hu, according to the statement.

"The traditional friendly cooperation between China and North Korea is sure to constantly consolidate and strengthen."

Hu's message was Beijing's latest display of support for Kim, whose country, economically threadbare and politically isolated, depends heavily on China, its sole major ally.

North Korea announced earlier in the day that it had appointed Kim Jong-un as supreme commander of its 1.2 million-strong military, two days after official mourning for his father ended.

Since Kim Jong-il's death on December 17, the North's state media have already dubbed Kim Jong-un "supreme commander."

Soon after the elder Kim's death was announced, China voiced "confidence" in Kim Jong-un, who is in his late twenties and was barely known to the outside world before his father designated him his successor-in-waiting.

Hu also made a rare visit to North Korea's embassy in Beijing to offer condolences.

China sees neighboring North Korea as a strategic barrier against the United States and its regional allies, and has made clear that it considers preserving its influence in the North a foreign policy priority.

But that goal comes with an economic and diplomatic price.

China's trade and aid are crucial to Pyongyang's survival, but bring only puny economic gains to Beijing.

In October 2006, North Korea carried out its first nuclear test explosion, defying public pleas from China, and nuclear disarmament negotiations hosted by Beijing have languished for years without fresh progress or even fresh talks.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Alessandra Rizzo)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111231/wl_nm/us_china_korea_north

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