Deasy wants 30% of teacher evaluations based on test scores

L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy announced Friday that as much as 30% of a teacher's evaluation will be based on student test scores,...

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The Quirky World of Competitive Snow Carving Comes to California

Team Truckee entered the competition late, after Team Russia was unable to get visas in time. Their sculpture: "Rising Tide."The weekend at Northstar ski resort in Truckee, California, is beautiful, sunny, and in the 30s. For eight teams of snow carvers from around the world, though, it’s terrible — the melty snow is sloppy, hard to carve, and even dangerous.Teams of three from Finland, Japan,...

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Scott Brown joins Fox News

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Fox News Channel has chosen another former politician to join its swelling ranks of contributors, and this one comes with TV-ready looks.The recently ousted Republican Massachusetts senator – who paid his way through law school with modeling gigs – has signed on as a contributor. Brown, who will offer political commentary on several programs, will make his debut Wednesday...

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Livestrong Tattoos as Reminder of Personal Connections, Not Tarnished Brand

As Jax Mariash went under the tattoo needle to have “Livestrong” emblazoned on her wrist in bold black letters, she did not think about Lance Armstrong or doping allegations, but rather the 10 people affected by cancer she wanted to commemorate in ink. It was Jan. 22, 2010, exactly a year since the disease had taken the life of her stepfather. After years of wearing yellow Livestrong wristbands, she...

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The Boss: Bert Quintana of Sitel, on Making Career Choices

I WAS born in Cuba, and I was 2 when my parents brought me to the United States in 1962 with my baby brother, Jorge. Bert Quintana is the president and C.E.O. of Sitel, a call center and telemarketing company based in Nashville. AGE 52 NAME OF HIS BOAT Sea GemFAVORITE SPORT Golf SPORTS HERO Don Shula, former Miami Dolphins coach We passed through the...

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'Blade Runner' Oscar Pistorius weeps as he faces murder charge

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee revered in South Africa for overcoming his...

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Feds Say Megaupload Entrapment Claim Is 'Sensationalist Rhetoric'

Calling it “sensationalist rhetoric,” federal authorities took the offensive late Thursday for the second time in as many months to blast Megaupload for its contention that the authorities entrapped the now-shuttered file-sharing service.Federal authorities 13 months ago seized Megaupload’s domains and arrested its chief executive Kim Dotcom and his top lieutenants for running what the authorities...

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Seth MacFarlane’s “Dads” series casts “Mindy Project” actor

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Tommy Dewey has been cast in the Fox comedy “Dads,” from “Ted” team Seth MacFarlane, Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild.Dewey, who’s appeared in a handful of episodes of Fox’s “The Mindy Project,” will play Warner, the co-owner of a successful videogame company and stable family man whose otherwise perfect life is cast into chaos when his feckless father Crawford moves in with...

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Fat Dad: Baking for Love

Fat DadDawn Lerman writes about growing up with a fat dad.My grandmother Beauty always told me that the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach, and by the look of pure delight on my dad’s face when he ate a piece of warm, homemade chocolate cake, or bit into a just-baked crispy cookie, I grew to believe this was true. I had no doubt that when the time came, and I liked a boy, that a batch of...

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DealBook: SAC Investors Ask to Withdraw $1.7 Billion

Clients of SAC Capital Advisors have asked to withdraw $1.7 billion from the giant hedge fund amid an intensifying insider trading investigation involving the fund, according to people briefed on the matter.That amount represents slightly more than a quarter of the $6 billion that SAC manages for clients, and is the largest amount ever withdrawn from the fund. Clients had to inform SAC by Thursday...

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Oscar Pistorius remains in jail facing murder charge

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- South African athlete Oscar Pistorius, who made history last year as the first double amputee...

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Finding Holes in Tesla's Data, <em>New York Times</em> Assertions

Tesla’s late-night data dump might have refuted some of the claims surrounding John Broder’s ill-fated drive in the Tesla Model S. But there are still questions for both the automaker and The New York Times.To begin with, there’s one massive chunk of the data missing from the puzzle: GPS. According to a Tesla spokeswoman, the automaker didn’t have GPS data turned on in the car, which makes...

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Lady Gaga needs hip surgery, cancels remainder of tour

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Lady Gaga canceled the remainder of her “Born This Way Ball” concert tour to undergo hip surgery, promoters Live Nation said on Wednesday.The 26-year-old singer announced she was suffering from an inflammation of the joints on Tuesday, but the tour operator said Gaga’s injuries were more serious than she realized.“After additional tests this morning to review the severity of...

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Doctor and Patient: Afraid to Speak Up to Medical Power

The slender, weather-beaten, elderly Polish immigrant had been diagnosed with lung cancer nearly a year earlier and was receiving chemotherapy as part of a clinical trial. I was a surgical consultant, called in to help control the fluid that kept accumulating in his lungs.During one visit, he motioned for me to come closer. His voice was hoarse from a tumor that spread, and the constant hissing from...

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Cardinal Health Buys AssuraMed for $2 Billion

Cardinal Health, the second-largest distributor of prescription drugs, announced on Thursday that it was buying a large medical supplier in a $2 billion deal aimed at expanding the business into the growing area of home health care. The medical supplier, the privately held AssuraMed, supplies products for home use to aid treatment of diabetes, wounds, incontinence and other conditions. It...

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Dorner manhunt: Investigators work to ID charred human remains

After what LAPD Chief Charlie Beck called "a bittersweet night," investigators Wednesday were in the process of identifying...

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Defense Nerds Strike Back: A Symposium on the Battle of Hoth

So. You guys have really, really strong opinions about the Battle of Hoth. Many took issue with my argument that Hoth represented a military debacle for the Galactic Empire. Some questioned the (meta)factual premises of my case (are TIE Fighters even capable of in-atmospheric flight?). Others argued that Vader was deliberately trying to lose, rendering my essay myopic. Still others desired...

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Nicole Kidman, Halle Berry, Reese Witherspoon, Sandra Bullock presenting at Oscars

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Four former Best Actress winners will converge on stage at this year’s Oscar telecast, the show’s producers said Wednesday.Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon will present an award, although the show’s producers were mum about whether or not they will take the stage together. If they do, it may mean a return to a format that was deployed and...

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Phys Ed: Getting the Right Dose of Exercise

Phys EdGretchen Reynolds on the science of fitness.Fitness TrackerMarathon, half-marathon, 10k and 5K training plans to get you race ready.A common concern about exercise is that if you don’t do it almost every day, you won’t achieve much health benefit. But a commendable new study suggests otherwise, showing that a fairly leisurely approach to scheduling workouts may actually be more beneficial than...

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Cisco Tops Expectations With Rise in Profit of 44%

SAN FRANCISCO — Cisco Systems reported surprisingly strong results for its second quarter despite concerns about weak demand in some areas. Cisco, the San Jose, Calif., networking giant, said that net income in the second quarter rose 44 percent to $3.1 billion, or 59 cents a share, from the year-ago quarter. The company said revenue climbed 5 percent, to $12.1 billion. Excluding...

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Guantanamo witness testifies on courtroom eavesdropping allegations

FT. MEADE, Md. -- Top officials at the terror detainee prison at the U.S. Naval Base on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, began testifying...

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Intel Teases Set-Top Box to Compete With Cable

Intel is developing a set-top box that delivers video on demand and live TV over the internet, a move that would place it in competition with the likes of Roku and your local cable company.There’s no word on who’ll provide the all-important content we’d see on such a box or what we’d pay for it when it appears later this year, but Erik Huggers, Intel’s corporate vice president of media, promises...

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Director Panahi defies Iran ban to make another film

BERLIN (Reuters) – Iran‘s Jafar Panahi has defied a 20-year ban on filmmaking to secretly co-direct “Closed Curtain“, a multi-layered portrayal of how restrictions on his work and movement have brought on depression and even thoughts of suicide.The movie, in competition at the Berlin film festival, has its premiere on Tuesday, but Panahi was not expected on the red carpet despite festival organizers...

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