Press is a Gorgeous Newsreader for Android Phones and Tablets

Android: If you're a fan of Reeder for OS X and iOS, but wish Android had a similar newsreader, congratulations: Press is the app you've been waiting for. The developer takes more than a few design cues from Reeder, and that's a really good thing.

Press connects and syncs with Google Reader. After launching, let it sync, and the app displays all of your feeds as tiles or as a list that you can browse through. Tap a specific feed to read articles from it, or read all of your unread articles at once. In portrait mode, you can swipe from side to side to move from article list to article text, and in landscape mode you can zoom in on article text or images. On tablets, you can see a list of stories on the left, and tap them to change the text on the right.

At any time, you can hit the menu key or button in the upper right to open the article in your browser, share it with friends, mark it as read, star it to read later, and more. The app supports offline reading and lets you control text size and font, so you get the reading experience you want.

Granted, it's not as feature-packed as some of your other favorite newsreaders, and some people report crashing issues with it (which we didn't have when we tested it.) Still, if you're looking for an elegant, gesture-friendly way to get Google Reader onto your Android phone or tablet, it's definitely worth the $1.99 you'll pay to download it.

Press ($1.99) | Google Play via CNET

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/YYNII_AsEEs/press-for-android-is-a-gorgeous-newsreader-for-phones-and-tablets

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Great home improvement projects

?

A recent study has shown that more and more women are beginning to take on home improvement projects that typically belonged to the man in the home. The Washington Post recently revealed that women are beginning to outshine men in this typically male-dominated area as women become more economically independent and start fixing things around the hose for themselves. Economically independent women are making more money now than they ever have, and because of that there are twice as many single female homeowners than men. Additionally, the number of women who DIY has increased due to the recession.

?

There are tons of power tools that are now being manufactured and marketed directly to women, so this may not be surprising to some. The single women that own homes don?t have a man to rely on to get the job done, so they are taking to addressing home repairs themselves rather than spending money on someone to come fix their issue for them. Additionally, many women believe some of the smaller repairs should be easy for women to do on their own so they don?t have to wait for their husband to get home and fix it. However, it?s not just small repairs ? some women are even taking on bigger projects like repairing roof issues. It is believed that this trend will continue, putting women in the forefront of another typically male-dominated activity.

Source: http://returngood.com/great-home-improvement-projects/

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CPEhr Releases Annual Report: 2013 Human Resources Updates

Los Angeles, CA, December 28, 2012 ?(PR.com)? Human Resources Outsourcing firm CPEhr announced today the release of their annual report highlighting important employment information that will impact business in 2013. The report, titled ?2013 Human Resources Updates,? covers a wide range of topics that will directly affect employers in the coming year.

Over the past year, dozens of new California employment laws and legislative bills were passed, to go into effect on January 1, 2013. Additional changes affect employers nationwide in the areas of payroll tax limits, workers? compensation insurance, and most significantly, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Health Care Reform.

?2012 was one of the most turbulent years in recent memory in regards to new laws and legislation impacting employers across the country,? says Ari Rosenstein, director of marketing at CPEhr. ?From the looming fiscal cliff, to Health Care Reform, to volatile insurance markets, to new employment regulations, it is no wonder employers are feeling overwhelmed and resisting growth. We hope our annual report will provide some insight into what they can expect in 2013.?

The report draws from CPEhr?s human resources experience on a wide range of employment, payroll, tax and insurance areas. Topics covered in the report include:

> California Labor & Employment Law Updates
> Health Care Reform in 2013
> Other PPACA Updates for 2013
> Workers? Compensation Reform?
> 2013 Workers? Compensation Insurance Rates
> Payroll & Taxes ? 2013 Updates
> Employee Training & Development

?By publishing this annual report, we hope that employers will gain a basic understanding of the new laws and how to prepare for the coming year,? says Rosenstein.

The report can be downloaded from the CPEhr corporate website here: 2013 California Human Resources Updates.

Contact Information:
CPE HR, Inc.
Ari Rosenstein
877-842-4987
Contact via Email
www.cpehr.com
Twitter: @cpehr
Facebook: www.facebook.com/cpehr
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/cpehr

Click here to read the full story: CPEhr Releases Annual Report: 2013 Human Resources Updates

Press Release Distributed by PR.com

Source: http://money.rambergmedia.com/cpehr-releases-annual-report-2013-human-resources-updates/

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'Django Unchained': Jamie Foxx Becomes A Superhero

Foxx and co-star Kerry Washington talk to MTV News about Quentin Tarantino's 'epic, cowboy Western.'
By Josh Wigler, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Jamie Foxx in "Django Unchained"
Photo: The Weinstein Company

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1699390/django-unchained-jamie-foxx.jhtml

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Gun group offers training for Utah teachers

Christine Caldwell, left, receives firearms training with a 9mm Glock from personal defense instructor Jim McCarthy during concealed weapons training for 200 Utah teachers Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012, in West Valley City, Utah. The Utah Shooting Sports Council offered six hours of training in handling concealed weapons in the latest effort to arm teachers to confront school assailants. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Christine Caldwell, left, receives firearms training with a 9mm Glock from personal defense instructor Jim McCarthy during concealed weapons training for 200 Utah teachers Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012, in West Valley City, Utah. The Utah Shooting Sports Council offered six hours of training in handling concealed weapons in the latest effort to arm teachers to confront school assailants. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Clark Aposhian, President of Utah Shooting Sport Council, holds a pistol during concealed weapons training for 200 Utah teachers Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012, in West Valley City, Utah. The Utah Shooting Sports Council offered six hours of training in handling concealed weapons in the latest effort to arm teachers to confront school assailants. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Clark Aposhian, President of Utah Shooting Sport Council, demonstrates with a plastic gun during concealed-weapons training for 200 Utah teachers Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012, in West Valley City, Utah. The Utah Shooting Sports Council offered six hours of training in handling concealed weapons in the latest effort to arm teachers to confront school assailants. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Stephen Pratt, a third grade teacher from Alpine, Utah, is fingerprinted for a gun carry permit during concealed weapons training for 200 Utah teachers Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012, in West Valley City, Utah. The Utah Shooting Sports Council offered six hours of training in handling concealed weapons in the latest effort to arm teachers to confront school assailants. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Bobbi Frampton, a vocational teacher, listens during concealed weapons training for 200 Utah teachers Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012, in West Valley City, Utah. The Utah Shooting Sports Council offered six hours of training in handling concealed weapons in the latest effort to arm teachers to confront school assailants. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (AP) ? Jessica Fiveash sees nothing wrong with arming teachers. She's one herself, and learned Thursday how to safely use her 9 mm Ruger with a laser sight.

"If we have the ability to stop something, we should do it," said the elementary school teacher, who along with nearly 200 other teachers in Utah took six hours of free gun training offered by the state's leading gun lobby.

It is among the latest efforts to arm or train teachers to confront assailants after a gunman killed his mother and then went on a rampage through Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., killing 20 children and six adults before killing himself.

In Ohio, a firearms group said it was launching a test program in tactical firearms training for 24 teachers. In Arizona, the attorney general is proposing a change to state law that would allow an educator in each school to carry a gun.

The moves to train teachers come after the National Rifle Association proposed placing an armed officer at each of the nation's schools, though some schools already have police officers. Parents and educators have questioned how safe the proposal would keep kids and whether it would be economically feasible.

Some educators say it is dangerous to allow guns on campus. Among the potential dangers they point to are teachers being overpowered for their weapons or students getting them and accidentally or purposely shooting classmates.

"It's a terrible idea," said Carol Lear, a chief lawyer for the Utah Office of Education. "It's a horrible, terrible, no-good, rotten idea."

Kristen Rand, the legislative director for the Violence Policy Center, a gun control advocacy organization, said to believe that a "teacher would be successful in stopping someone who has made the decision to engage in a shootout is just not rationale."

"No teacher is ever going to be as effective as a trained law enforcement officer," Rand said. Even trained police officers don't always hit their targets, and arming teachers could put innocent students at risk of crossfire, she said.

Gun-rights advocates say teachers can act more quickly than law enforcement in the critical first few minutes to protect children from the kind of deadly shooting that took place in Connecticut. They emphasized the importance of reacting appropriately under pressure.

"We're not suggesting that teachers roam the halls" looking for an armed intruder, said Clark Aposhian, chairman of the Utah Shooting Sports Council, the state's biggest gun lobby. "They should lock down the classroom. But a gun is one more option if the shooter" breaks into a classroom.

The group waived its $50 fee for the training. Instruction featured plastic guns and emphasized that people facing deadly threats should announce or show their gun and take cover before trying to shoot. They cautioned teachers about the liability that comes with packing a gun in public.

"It's going to be a hassle. It's another responsibility. You can't just leave your gun lying around," Aposhian said. "Not for a minute."

The teachers at the basic gun training applied for a concealed-weapons permit, submitting fingerprints and a mug shot for a criminal background check. The class kicked off as an instructor in the "psychology of mass violence" offered various tactics to disrupt an assailant.

The first, the instructor said, was to start with the command: "Stop right there!"

"I wouldn't hesitate to shoot if the danger was immediate," said Fiveash, adding that her laser sight would make shooting in tight quarters safer.

English teacher Kevin Leatherbarrow said he often felt threatened while working at an inner-city school in Buffalo, N.Y., where he got a license to carry a pistol. He moved less than a year ago to Utah, where he feels safer. But he said gun violence can break out anywhere.

Leatherbarrow said he was highly trained in handling guns ? and was taking criticism from parents who don't appreciate his views on school safety.

"I'm in agreement not everybody should be carrying firearms in school. They're not trained. But for some parents to think we're cowboys, that frustrates me," he said. "I wish parents would understand."

In the U.S., the number of homicides at schools of children, ages 5-18, have been lower year-by-year in the 2000s than they were in the mid- to late-1990s, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics report on school crime released in 2012. At 32 deaths, the 2006-2007 school year was the only one that reached the levels from the 1990s. The manner of death was not listed.

Utah is among a few states that let people carry licensed concealed weapons into public schools without exception, the National Conference of State Legislatures says in a 2012 compendium of state gun laws.

Utah educators say they would ban guns if they could, but legislators left them with no choice. State law forbids schools, districts or college campuses from imposing their own gun restrictions.

Educators say they have no way of knowing how many teachers are armed. Gun-rights advocates estimate 1 percent of Utah teachers, or 240, are licensed to carry concealed weapons. It's not known how many do so at school.

"I never felt threatened in 14 years of teaching, but I don't think you can be too prepared," said Tiffany Parry, a dance teacher in the Salt Lake City suburb of Sandy who applied for Thursday for a license to carry a concealed gun. "I think it could come in handy."

____

Associated Press writer Brady McCombs in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-12-27-Teachers-Weapons/id-a5816b3635bc4ccb835380b808c62c0f

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4 Steps for Sales Managers To Stay Ahead of the Curve in 2013

Sales managers need to provide their team with the tools they need to succeed. Make sure? your small business sales team is managing their sales pipeline with the help of a simple CRM like Base.

?

In reflecting on the past year and looking forward towards 2013, I have compiled a quick summary of a few basic actions sales leadership must take to succeed.

Step One: Build an active recruiting plan.

You must know your average transaction value is vs your yearly or monthly sales objectives.

The question you need to answer is: ?Do you have enough salespeople on board to achieve your monthly number of required sales transactions? ? A sales manager must look out 90-120 days knowing your future potential revenue objectives and understand your manpower requirements. ?Recruiting is sales leadership?s marketing campaign for sales leads. Build an ongoing program to ensure you have the right talent in place to exceed your goals.

Step Two: ?Know your pipeline metrics.

You must know the accurate value of the pipeline 90-120 days out (depending upon your sales cycle).

The question you must ask is: ?Do you have enough opportunities both in value and numbers to achieve your upcoming monthly quota?? If not, what can you do to ensure you build up the pipeline values so that you will have enough opportunities to achieve the monthly objective?

Step Three: Is your team trained?

Recently, at one of my new clients, I ?listened in? as two of their salespeople gave a presentation to a major new client sales opportunity. ?It became obvious the salespeople were not professional or even capable of handling the meeting.

It was enlightening and a crucial step towards increasing the need for continued focus on sales training. ?The sales team had been neglecting our recommendations to improve their skills. Now there will be an increased buy in by management and peer levels to focus on sales skills.

Here are some suggestions for your sales team:

• Make more sales calls with your team
• Build in a quarterly salesperson skills evaluation process
• increase more role playing in your sales training meetings
• Build a quarterly sales training programs

Step Four: Improve your professional business acumen.

Implement the following so that you can be a better leader to your sales team:

1. Make sure you read the local business sections in your newspapers, the Wall Street Journal, business magazines, and relevant websites.
2. Read a minimum of 3 business books a year.
3. Join a sales leadership ??peer group? of other sales managers to learn how others are increasing their leadership skills. This step will improve your ability to discuss the business trends of the day with prospects and your sales team, increase your stature within your management team and improve how you manage your team.

Follow these four steps and your odds of staying ahead of the normal 18 month window that most sales leaders live under will improve.

Ken Thoreson, Acumen Management Group, Ltd. president, is a sales leadership professional who ?operationalizes? sales management systems and processes to pull sales results out of the doldrums into the fresh zone of predictable revenue. His blog, Your Sales Management Guru, has been rated in the top 10 sales blogs in the United States. This entry was posted in Featured, Sales and tagged performance, plan, presentation, quota, sales, sales call, sales funnel, sales manager, sales pipeline, sales team, salesperson, selling. Bookmark the permalink.

Source: http://www.futuresimple.com/blog/sales-managers-ahead-curve-2013/

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Super-Tasting Science: Find Out if You're a Supertaster!

A taste test from Science Buddies

By Science Buddies

To supertasters, the flavors of foods are much stronger than to average tasters. Image: flickr/veteze.com

• 

  How does a Venus flytrap know when to snap shut? Can it actually feel an insect?s tiny, spindly legs? And how do cherry blossoms know when to bloom? Can they...

  Read More??

Introduction
Have you ever noticed that some people are a lot pickier about the food they eat than other people are? They might be more selective because they are supertasters! To supertasters, the flavors of foods are much stronger than to average tasters. Whether or not someone is a supertaster comes down to the taste buds on his or her tongue, and you can actually investigate a person's supertaster status by looking at this. Are you a supertaster? Find out with this tongue-based activity!
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Background
Do you hate the taste of broccoli? Or think that grapefruit is extremely bitter? If so, you may be able to blame it on your taste buds! Taste buds, located on small bumps on the tongue called fungiform papillae, are each made up of about 50 to 150 taste receptor cells. On the surface of these cells are receptors that bind to small molecules related to flavor. Each receptor is best at sensing a single flavor: sweet, salty, bitter, sour, or umami. The sum total of these sensations is the "taste" of the food.

The number of taste buds varies from person to person. People who have relatively more taste buds are called supertasters. To supertasters, foods may have much stronger flavors, which often leads to supertasters having very strong likes and dislikes for different foods. Supertasters often report that foods like broccoli, cabbage, spinach, grapefruit and coffee taste very bitter. The opposite of supertasters are non-tasters. Non-tasters have very few taste buds and, to them, most food may seem bland and unexciting. The people in the middle are average tasters. Which kind of taster do you think you are? What about your friends and family?

Materials

• Paper-hole reinforcers (one for each volunteer)?or clean wax paper, a standard hole puncher and scissors (instructions below)
• Water and soap
• At least five volunteers (such as friends and family)
• Blue food coloring
• One glass of water for each volunteer
• Magnifying glass
• A bright light or flashlight
• Scrap of paper and a pen or pencil

Preparation

• If you do not have paper-hole reinforcers, wash your hands with soap, take a clean piece of wax paper, and punch one hole in it for each volunteer. Cut out each hole so that you have at least five, small wax paper "rings."

Procedure

• Wash your hands thoroughly with soap.
• Have the first volunteer open his or her mouth. Place a drop of blue food coloring on the tip of his or her tongue. Do not let the tip of the food coloring tube touch the volunteer's tongue.
• Have the volunteer take a mouthful of water, swish it around in his or her mouth, and then spit it out.
• Ask the volunteer to make his or her tongue relatively dry by swallowing a couple of times. The remaining dye should stain all of the tongue blue except for the fungiform papillae, which will look like relatively large, lighter blue or pink bumps (in a sea of dark blue). These papillae are where the taste buds are.
• Put a wax paper ring (that you prepared) or a paper-hole reinforcer on the tip of the volunteer's tongue, in the area that has been dyed.
• Using a magnifying glass under bright light, count the number of papillae within the hole. How many papillae are within the hole? Write this number down along with the volunteer's name. Tip: Don't count the really tiny bumps ? just count the larger ones.
• Your volunteer can now remove the paper ring or paper-hole reinforcer from his or her tongue.
• Repeat the entire procedure with at least four more volunteers. Before testing each volunteer, wash your hands thoroughly with soap, and use a new cup with fresh water for each person. If you want to try this on yourself, have someone else count your papillae, or count them in a mirror.
• How many papillae did most people have? Did people have different amounts of papillae, with some having a lot more than others? Knowing that if a person has more than 30 papillae they are considered a supertaster, were there any supertasters in your volunteer group? If so, how many?
• Extra: Repeat this activity with at least 25 more volunteers, for a total of at least 30 people. What percentage of people in this larger group turns out to be supertasters? What percentage are non-tasters, having fewer than 15 papillae? What percentage has between 15 and 30 papillae, and are average tasters?
• Extra: Try this activity again but this time use an equal number of male and female volunteers, with at least 15 of each. Do males and females have the same likelihood of being a supertaster?
• Extra: Look into how different foods, like spinach and chili peppers, taste to the different types of tasters. Based on this, can you make a taste-test to figure out who is a supertaster? Check how accurate your taste-test is by also counting the papillae for each person.
• Extra: You can use a person's body mass index (BMI, formulas for which can be found online) and their results from this activity to try to figure out if there is a correlation between people's weight and the type of taster they are (supertaster, non-taster, or average taster). Do you find a correlation? Are supertasters more likely to be underweight, average, or above weight?

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=26b2ce15e9c30cc1d961ff33fe2c2ffa

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New Japan PM: Saving economic crisis top mission

Japan's newly-named Prime Minsiter Shinzo Abe smiles as he waves at the media upon his arrival at the prime minister's official residence following his election at Parliament in Tokyo Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012. Abe, whose nationalist positions have in the past angered Japan's neighbors, is the country's seventh prime minister in just over six years. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

Japan's newly-named Prime Minsiter Shinzo Abe smiles as he waves at the media upon his arrival at the prime minister's official residence following his election at Parliament in Tokyo Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012. Abe, whose nationalist positions have in the past angered Japan's neighbors, is the country's seventh prime minister in just over six years. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

Japan's new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks during his first press conference at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012. Old-guard veteran Abe was voted back into office as prime minister Wednesday and immediately named a new Cabinet, ending three years of liberal administrations and restoring power to his conservative, pro-big-business party that has run Japan for most of the post-World War II era. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

Japan's new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks during his first press conference at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012. Old-guard veteran Abe was voted back into office as prime minister Wednesday and immediately named a new Cabinet, ending three years of liberal administrations and restoring power to his conservative, pro-big-business party that has run Japan for most of the post-World War II era. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

Japan's Liberal Democratic Party leader Shinzo Abe bows after being named Japan's new prime minister during the plenary session at the lower house of Parliament in Tokyo, Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012. The rise of Abe, whose nationalist positions have in the past angered Japan's neighbors, ends more than three years at the helm for the left-leaning Democratic Party of Japan and brings back the conservative, pro-big business LDP that governed for most of the post-World War II era. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)

Japan's newly-named Prime Minsiter Shinzo Abe waves for the media upon his arrival at the prime minister's official residence following his election at Parliament in Tokyo Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012. Abe, whose nationalist positions have in the past angered Japan's neighbors, is the country's seventh prime minister in just over six years. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

TOKYO (AP) ? Shinzo Abe took office as Japan's seventh prime minister in six years Wednesday and vowed to overcome the deep-rooted economic and diplomatic crises facing his country.

Abe was elected as Japan's leader hours earlier Wednesday, bringing back to power the conservative, pro-business Liberal Democratic Party that governed for most of the post-World War II era. It replaces the liberal-leaning government of the Democratic Party of Japan that lasted three years.

"A strong economy is the source of energy for Japan. Without regaining a strong economy, there is no future for Japan," Abe told his first news conference after becoming prime minister for the second time.

Calling his administration a "crisis breakthrough Cabinet," Abe promised to launch bold economic measures to pull Japan out of deflation. He also vowed to step up an alliance with the United States to stabilize Japan's diplomacy shaken by increasing territorial threats from its neighbors.

Abe, whose nationalist positions have in the past angered Japan's neighbors, was also prime minister in 2006-2007 before resigning for health reasons that he says are no longer an issue.

The outspoken and often hawkish leader has promised to restore growth to an economy that has been struggling for 20 years. His administration also faces souring relations with China and a complex debate over whether resource-poor Japan should wean itself off nuclear energy after last year's earthquake and tsunami caused a meltdown at an atomic power plant.

On top of that, he will have to win over a public that gave his party a lukewarm mandate in elections on Dec. 16, along with keeping at bay a still-powerful opposition in parliament. Though his party and its Buddhist-backed coalition partner is the biggest bloc in the more influential lower house, Abe actually came up short in the first round of voting in the upper house, then won in a runoff.

Capitalizing on voter discontent with the Democratic Party of Japan, Abe has vowed to shore up the economy, deal with a swelling national debt and come up with a fresh recovery plan following last year's tsunami disaster, which set off the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.

Abe promised to launch bold economic measures, and mobile financial steps and strategies to encourage investment.

"We must recover a Japan where hardworking people can feel that there is a better tomorrow," he said.

Abe is expected to push for a 2 percent inflation target designed to fight deflation. Continually dropping prices deaden economic activity, a situation the Japanese economy has been stuck in for two decades.

Finance Minister Taro Aso, another former prime minister who is one of Aso's most-trusted senior lawmaker, said fighting deflation would be a challenge: "We've never dealt with deflation since the end of the war. In fact, nobody in the world has."

Besides generous promises to boost public works spending ? by as much as 10 trillion yen ($119 billion), according to party officials ? Abe is pressuring the central bank to work more closely with the government to reach the inflation target.

In foreign policy, Abe has stressed his desire to make Japan a bigger player on the world stage, a stance that has resonated with many voters who are concerned that their nation is taking a back seat economically and diplomatically to China.

He has said he will support a reinterpretation of Japan's pacifist postwar constitution to loosen the reins on the military, stand up to Beijing over an ongoing territorial dispute and strengthen Tokyo's security alliance with Washington. Beijing has already warned him to tread carefully, and will be watching closely to see if he tones down his positions now that he is in office.

"Japan's national security faces a clear and present danger," Abe said, referring to intensifying territorial disputes around the Japanese seas, and renewed his campaign promise to protect the safety of the people of Japan and its territory.

"Japan must strengthen the Japan-U.S. alliance, the cornerstone of Japan's diplomacy," Abe said. That will be key to re-stabilizing Japan's regional diplomatic relations, he added.

Abe has picked the U.S. as the first destination of his official overseas trip, expressing hopes to hold talks with President Barack Obama as early as January.

The new foreign minister is Fumio Kishida, an expert on the southern island of Okinawa, where many residents upset over crime and overcrowding want a big reduction in the number of U.S. troops they host ? now at about 20,000. The new defense minister is Itsunori Onodera, who was in Abe's previous administration.

The LDP governed Japan for decades after it was founded in 1955. Before it was ousted in 2009, the LDP was hobbled by scandals and problems getting key legislation through a divided parliament.

___

AP writer Mari Yamaguchi contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-12-26-Japan-Politics/id-ade308516ac74c52bd87019c0c67b584

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Celebrity Real Estate: Bargains Galore! | ExtraTV.com

This holiday season, some big time homes are being listed at Christmas sale prices -- including Reese Witherspoon's Ojai estate, Bruce Willis' 20-acre ranch, Matthew Perry's Hollywood Hills bachelor pad, and more!

Watch to find out who's selling what, and at how big a discount!

For more pics and information, visit Trulia.com!

Source: http://www.extratv.com/2012/12/26/celebrity-real-estate-bargains-galore/

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