Palin clothing bill up, poll standing down

The John McCain-Sarah Palin campaign is striking back at a report about money spent on Palin’s appearance.

Politico reported that the Republican National Committee spent $150,000 to clothe and accessorize Palin since she was picked by McCain in late August. According to financial disclosure records, the bills include $75,063 at Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis and $49,426 at Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York. The RNC also spent $4,716.49 on hair and makeup through September after reporting no such costs in August.

Politico also reported that its review of similar records for the campaign of Democrat Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee turned up no similar spending.

“With all of the important issues facing the country right now, it’s remarkable that we’re spending time talking about pantsuits and blouses. It was always the intent that the clothing go to a charitable purpose after the campaign,” Palin spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said in a statement.

While the money comes from campaign donors, not from taxpayers, the clothing from high-end stores does seem to conflict with Palin’s image as a Wal-Mart hockey mom. There was also quite a bit of buzz over Palin’s designer rimless eyeglasses, whose popularity exploded.

And while male candidates have been criticized spending on their looks — Democrat John Edwards’ $400 haircuts, for instance — there does appear to be more attention paid to female candidates’ appearance, both Hillary Clinton (her blouses and pantsuits) during the primaries, and now Palin, as the second woman to run on a major-party ticket. 

Meanwhile, in a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll that shows Democrat Barack Obama leading McCain 52 to 42 percent among registered voters nationwide, up from 49 to 43 percent two weeks ago, voters also said that Palin’s qualifications to be president was their top concern about McCain — ahead of even continuing President Bush’s policies. was.

Of respondents, 55 percent said she is not qualified to serve as president, and 47 percent have a negative opinion of her, up from 27 percent when she was first picked two months ago.

‘High School Musical’ Was Vanessa Hudgens’ Only High School Experience

‘I got to have my fantasy prom and got to wear a cap and gown,’ she says of reaching movie milestones while being homeschooled.

At the ripe old age of 19,Vanessa Hudgens is on the verge of becoming a Hollywood superstar. She and Zac Efron are the Disney power couple, and now that she’s leaving her role as Gabriella Montez behind, Hudgens is also poised to leave the “High School Musical” franchise in the dust.

“I came into this project at 16 years old and just eager to work,” she told MTV News. “I had so much fun, and I was so passionate about acting, singing and dancing.”

Up next for Hudgens is another high school film, “Bandslam,” which Hudgens insists is nothing like “HSM.” “It’s a little bit more rock and roll,” she said. “I get to play a character who’s very different. She’s a lot darker and more deadpan. She comes out in the end with a Flying V [Gibson guitar], and she gets to have her fun.”

But right now, Hudgens is excited to have the well-loved “High School Musical” franchise finally coming to a theater near you, after two made-for-TV films. “The fact that we finally get to take it to the big screen is really exciting,” she said. “We finally have the chance to create something bigger and better.”

Hudgens didn’t have the opportunity to attend a real high school. She was too busy working in Hollywood to deal with the daily grind of lockers, gym class and all the awkward moments that most normal teens go through. So working on “HSM” offered the chance to see what it would be like to be a normal teen, albeit with lots of musical numbers.

“I was actually homeschooled. [So working on 'HSM,'] I got to have my fantasy prom and got to wear a cap and gown for the first time and graduate with people I love — the cast — so it’s been amazing,” she said. “It’s been this journey.”

And on that journey, she met her boyfriend. When most teens are learning about the birds and the bees in front of their classmates, Efron and Hudgens did it in front of the paparazzi — but that doesn’t mean she’s ruled out working with Efron again.

“We have the most amazing time,” she said. “I think with the entire cast, as well. We are all so close. I think we’d like to keep that door open to do another project together.”

With big lead, Obama says McCain is ‘running out of time’

CNN
With less than two weeks until Election Day, Sen. Barack Obama is telling voters that Sen. John McCain is “running out of time” and as a result has taken to “making stuff up” on Obama’s record and tax cut plan.

Sen. Barack Obama has a sizeable lead over Sen. John McCain in the national polls.

Obama holds his biggest lead yet, according to CNN’s latest average of national polls. He is ahead of McCain by nine points — 51 percent to 42 percent.

Tuesday’s poll of polls shows that Obama has “moved into a commanding position in the presidential race,” said Alan Silverleib, CNN’s senior political researcher.

“Obama is either tied or ahead in all of the battleground states,” Silverleib said. “The Democrats now have what may be a decisive edge in terms of voter enthusiasm and financial resources … While anything can happen in the remaining two weeks, it’s hard not to conclude that McCain’s back is against the wall.”  Watch more on the state of the race »

As McCain tries to regain his footing, he’s been hammering away at the now highly publicized remarks Obama made to a man since dubbed “Joe the plumber.”

Earlier this month, Joe Wurzelbacher unintentionally stepped onto the political scene when Obama was canvassing for support in Holland, Ohio.

Wurzelbacher asked Obama if he believed in the American Dream. He said he was about to buy a company that makes more than $250,000 a year and was concerned that Obama would tax him more because of it.

Obama explained his tax plan in depth, saying it’s better to lower taxes for Americans who make less money so that they could afford to buy from his business.

“I think that when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody,” Obama told Wurzelbacher.

Obama told voters Tuesday night that McCain has “decided to make up, just fabricate this notion that I’ve been attacking Joe the plumber.”

“Now, let me tell you something even just yesterday, Joe the plumber himself said that wasn’t true. I’ve got nothing but love for Joe the plumber. That’s why I want to give him a tax cut,” he said at a rally in Miami, Florida.

“Apparently Sen. McCain decided that if he can’t beat our ideas, then he’s just going to make up some ideas and run against those.”

Obama’s said McCain has been on the attack instead of talking about the issues.

“That’s what you do when you’re out of ideas, when you’re out of touch, and you’re running out of time,” he said.

McCain’s campaign on Wednesday launched a new ad that continues the Joe the plumber line.

The ad focuses on small business owners who express concern that their businesses would struggle under Obama’s tax plan.

“Barack Obama: higher taxes, more spending, not ready,” the announcer says in the 30-second spot. Fact check: Obama and small businesses

Meanwhile, with limited time left on the campaign trail, the candidates are spending their final days in the most contested states.

Obama on Wednesday is holding rallies in Richmond and Leesburg, Virginia. Virginia has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate in more than 40 years, but polls show Obama leading there.

Sen. Joe Biden, Obama’s running mate, is continuing his two-day swing through Colorado, with stops scheduled in Colorado Springs and Pueblo.

On the Republican side, Sen. John McCain started his day meeting with voters in Manchester, New Hampshire.

He’ll then join Gov. Sarah Palin for rallies in Green and Cincinnati, Ohio. No Republican candidate has ever won the White House without also winning Ohio.

According to CNN’s average of Ohio polls, Obama leads by 3 percentage points there.

CNN’s national poll of polls is composed of the following six national general election surveys of likely voters: Pew (October 16-19), CNN/ORC (October 17-19), ABC/Washington Post (October 16-19), Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby (October 18-20), Gallup (October 18-20) and Diageo/Hotline (October 18-20). It does not have a sampling error.

Study: U.S. suicides rising; risk high in middle age

CNN

After a decade-long decrease, U.S. suicide rates have started to rise, largely because of an increase in suicides among middle-aged white men and women.

 

If the economy continues to decline, suicides could go up, researchers say.

White people age 40 to 64 have “recently emerged as a new high-risk group for suicide,” according to the study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Suicides increased between 1999 and 2005 by about 3 percent annually in white men and 4 percent in white women age 40 to 64, according to Susan Baker, M.P.H., of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, and her colleagues. Suicide rates remained the same in Asians and Native Americans, and declined in blacks.

Overall, the suicide rate rose in the early 1980s, then dropped each year from 1986 to 1999. From 1999 to 2005, however, the rates have increased 0.7 percent annually.

In all, 32,637 people killed themselves in the United States in 2005, a rate of 11 per 100,000 people.

Guns are the most common method of suicide, but their use has declined over time. Suicide by hanging or suffocation has increased among both men and women.

The reason for the increase is unknown. But if economic conditions continue to decline, suicides could go up. “This is a concern, especially when one looks at the high rates during the Great Depression,” says Baker. Health.com: How exercise can improve your mood

Seetal Dodd, Ph.D., a senior fellow at the University of Melbourne in Australia, has found that suicide rates tend to fluctuate with the economic trends – at least in men.

The study is cause for concern, Dodd says, because it identifies middle-aged white men as the new high-risk group for suicide — the same section of the population at risk for suicide during an economic downturn.

“There is a considerable risk that the current economic situation may result in a further spike in the suicide rate for men of working age, especially if we start to see an increase in unemployment and a decrease in housing affordability and consumer sentiment,” Dodd says.

Robert Bossarte, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Rochester in New York, says that people have traditionally focused on suicide prevention in the very young and the old, but not necessarily the middle-aged. Historically, people over 65 have had the highest suicide rates, but this study suggests that trend is changing. Health.com: The risk of suicide for bipolar patients

“The most important take-home message is try to understand what’s unique about the [middle-aged] population and what message would be most effective at preventing this,” he says.

A number of factors could be affecting the middle-aged, including taking care of aging baby-boomer parents, or coping with substance abuse or unemployment.

Bossarte also notes that while rates are rising in women, men are at greater risk overall. Health.com: Bipolar disorder is different for women

“There’s something unique about the life circumstances of white, middle-aged males that is contributing to this risk,” he says. “The key is getting people into treatment and getting people to use the resources that are available to them.” Health.com: Expert advice on paying for talk therapy 

T-Mobile delivers the G1 (aka Android) phone (with pictures)

CNET

This was the first G1 sold, at a T-Mobile store in San Francisco.

T-Mobile USA on Wednesday made the formal, nationwide launch of its G1, the first phone to run Google’sAndroid operating system.

The G1 smartphone is now available to consumers at retail outlets in cities where T-Mobile’s 3G service is available, including Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, and Seattle. The company made its first retail sale of the G1 Tuesday evening in San Francisco.

Along with 3G support, the HTC-built G1 features a touch screen, a full QWERTY keyboard, and GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth connectivity. But the big attraction for many will be the open-source Android software, the means by which Google is seeking to up-end the old ways of the telecommunications business.

The Android mobile operating system is closely tied to Google services and, says CNET News’ Stephen Shankland, it gives the Internet titan yet another way to get people to use them. For instance:

Search ads are, of course, Google’s bread and butter. Android’s Web browser can use others’ search engines, but a secondary part of the G1’s home screen features a prominent Google search box. There’s no option to change the search box to use search from Microsoft or Yahoo.

CNET Reviews, meanwhile, offers this bottom line on the G1 as a phone:

While we’re not in love with the design and would have liked some additional features, the real beauty of the T-Mobile G1 is the Google Android platform, as it has the potential to make smartphones more personal and powerful. That said, it’s not quite there yet, so for now, the G1 is best suited for early adopters and gadget hounds, rather than consumers and business users.

For the full review, see: HTC Dream T-Mobile G1. CNET’s Kent German, too, offers his own assessment: On Call: Welcoming the G1.

Over the summer, Google unveiled the Android Market, an online resource akin to Apple’s App Store for the iPhone, but for software applications designed for the Android operating system.

On Tuesday, Kyocera Wireless said it, too, would be building an Android-based phone.

BlackBerry to Get App Store, Developer Tools

During its first developer conference, smartphone maker Research in Motion follows Apple and Google in creating a mobile application storefront and smoothing the way for third-party developers.

Research in Motion is following the leads of Apple and Android in creating an application storefront for its BlackBerry device, in a bid to make it simpler and more enticing for developers to create and sell their own apps for the mobile devices.The new BlackBerry store front, announced during RIM’s (NASDAQ: RIMM) first-ever developer conference, won’t make its official debut until March. However, the company plans to begin accepting applications in December and said it is working with PayPal to build a payment system for the store.

BlackBerry developers will set their own application fees and retain 80 percent of revenue, RIM said. In addition, the handset maker said in a release that it is working with its mobile carrier partners to create customized, on-device application centers for their subscribers.

In a keynote speech this morning in Santa Clara, Calif., Mike Lazaridis, RIM’s founder, president and co-CEO, told an audience of 700 developers he views the Internet as the main roadway for application delivery. He also said Web-enabled apps would be key to the platform’s success in the future — a strategy that’s been embraced by new smartphone rivals like Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and the Google-backed Android platform.

“We see it as the entrance to an easy path to getting applications to market,” Lazaridis said, adding the Web is “the ramp and low-cost way to bring new applications to the BlackBerry platform.”

Rumors have persisted for some time about RIM’s creation of an application store, which offer a quick download process directly onto the handset and a outlet for developers to sell their programs.

Other rivals have similarly hopped on the trend of creating mobile storefronts. Apple’s App Store application marketplace for its iPhone, which debuted with the launch of the iPhone 3G, has proven to be huge hit with users. The open source Android project is following suit with the Android Market, which debuted officially at the end of September and currently contains about a dozen applications. It’s slated for availability only on the industry’s first Android device, the T-Mobile HTC G1 smartphone, which arrives in stores tomorrow. Microsoft is also thought to be working on a similar introduction.

The effort comes as RIM and all smartphone makers, along with their carrier partners, face increasing pressure to deliver advanced mobile services and features to retain and gain subscribers and market share.

While BlackBerry is the top enterprise smartphone today, according to research reports, it is facing competition as it pushes deeper into the consumer market to expand beyond its stronghold in the workplace.

Apple’s iPhone has emerged as a consumer favorite, and new challengers are arriving every month from handset makers. The latest is the recently unveiled T-Mobile G1, although HP, Palm and Nokia are all planning or currently fielding devices aimed at capturing a share of the market for high-end smartphones that support advanced mobile applications.

In support of its increasing focus on Web-based apps, RIM announced plug-ins for Eclipse and Microsoft Visual Studio, designed to make it easier for developers to build applications on its platforms. It also unveiled support for Gears, a tool initially created by Google that provides for building standalone Web applications that can be available to users in or out of a network.

RIM has also developed BlackBerry Web Signals, an application that lets content providers “push” alerts to BlackBerry users about new online content. For example, an icon will alert users to breaking sports or news at the Washington Post Web site.

In addressing the developer audience today, Lazaridis said the conference is an opportunity for RIM to share lessons learned by its internal development and research team, and he urged attendees to share and learn from each other as well.

“We want you to challenge our developers and tell them what you like and don’t like and most important what you need,” Lazaridis said.

India launches first moon mission

India blasted into the international space race Wednesday with the successful launch of an ambitious two-year mission to study the moon’s landscape.

 

The spacecraft carrying India's first lunar probe, Chandrayaan-1, lifts off in Sriharikota on Wednesday.

The unmanned lunar orbiter Chandrayaan-1, or “moon craft” in ancient Sanskrit, launched at 6:20 a.m. (8:50 p.m. ET) from the Sriharikota space center in southern India.

The mission seeks high-resolution imaging of the moon’s surface, especially the permanently shadowed polar regions, according to the Indian Space Research Organization. It will also search for evidence of water or ice and attempt to identify the chemical breakdown of certain lunar rocks, the group said.

Despite the numerous missions to the moon over the past 50 years, “we really don’t have a good map,” said Miles O’Brien, CNN chief technology and environment correspondent. “The goal is to come up with a very intricate, three-dimensional map of the moon.”

The Chandrayaan-1 is carrying payloads from the United States, European Union countries Germany, Britain, Sweden and Bulgaria, and India plans to share the data from the mission with other programs, including NASA.  Watch the launch of India’s first lunar mission »

ISRO said on its Web site that the mission would lay the groundwork for future lunar missions and “probe the physical characteristics of the lunar surface in greater depth than previous missions by other nations.”

“It will also give us a deeper understanding about the planet Earth itself or its origins,” a statement on the Web site said. “Earlier missions did not come out with a full understanding of the moon and that is the reason scientists are still interested. This will lay the foundation for bigger missions and also open up new possibilities of international networking and support for planetary programs.”

Until now, India’s space launches have been more practical, with weather warning satellites and communiations systems, The Associated Press cited former NASA associated administrator Scott Pace as saying.

To date, only the U.S. Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan and China have sent missions to the moon, according to AP.

Critics of the mission have questioned its $80 million price tag, saying the money should have been spent by the government to improve education and fight poverty.

But, “there are scientists that would argue that there are plenty of things we don’t know about the moon … and India might have the know-how” to find answers, said CNN’s Sara Sidner in New Delhi.

The United States and the Soviet Union dominated the field of lunar exploration from the late 1950s. The United States is preparing for its own mission slated for next spring — the first U.S. lunar mission in more than a decade, according to NASA.

Soviet spacecraft were the first to fly by, land on and orbit the moon. Luna 1, launched on January 2, 1959, and sped by the moon two days later.

Luna 2 was launched on an impact mission on September 12, 1959, striking the surface two days later. Luna 9 launched on January 31, 1966, becoming the first craft to successfully land on the moon and send back data, touching down on the surface on January 31, 1966, and transmitting until February 3, 1967, when its batteries ran out.

Luna 10 was launched March 31, 1966, entered lunar orbit on April 3, and operated for 56 days.

But the United States’ Apollo missions were the first manned missions to reach the moon, culminating with six missions that set down on the surface. The first, Apollo 11, left earth on July 16, 1969, and landed astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin on the lunar surface on July 20 while command module pilot Michael Collins orbited above. The astronauts returned safely to earth on July 24.

Most recently India’s fellow Asian nations, China and Japan, put lunar orbiters in place. Japan launched the Kaguya orbiter in October 2007, followed by China’s launch of the Chang’e mission a few weeks later.  Watch what is shaping up to be a new space race »

“Each nation is doing its own thing to drive its research technology for the well-being of that nation,” AP quoted Charles Vick, a space analyst for the Washington think tank GlobalSecurity.org, as saying.

Yahoo to dump 1,500 workers as slump deepens

 Yahoo Inc.’s leaders still have jobs despite investor misgivings about their decision making, but at least 1,500 workers will be shown the door after the slumping Internet company’s profits tumbled yet again in the third quarter.

The 10 percent reduction in Yahoo’s payroll of 15,000 employees served as another stark reminder of the challenges facing a management team led by Jerry Yang as the deteriorating economy casts even more doubts about the Sunnyvale-based company’s turnaround plans.

Although Yahoo’s third-quarter profit plunged 64 percent, the cutbacks announced Tuesday are a small step in the right direction, said Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Derek Brown.

“But it seems like there is still a lot more work that needs to be done,” he said.

Yahoo is bracing for a deep downturn likely to extend well into 2009 by trimming $400 million from its annual expenses of $3.9 billion. Besides shedding 1,500 workers during the next two months, Yahoo may close some of its U.S. offices and assign more jobs to lower-paid contractors in other countries.

“We are going into what is very clearly a recession mode,” Blake Jorgensen, Yahoo’s chief financial officer, said in a Tuesday interview.

Yahoo’s determination to rein in its expenses seemed to please investors, who have been disillusioned with the company’s direction for years.

Yahoo shares gained nearly 7 percent in extended trading after ending the regular session at $12.07, down 79 cents.

But Yang and his lieutenants have a long way to go to justify Yahoo’s decision to spurn Microsoft’s takeover bid of $33 per share last May. Microsoft withdrew the offer after Yang balked at the price, asserting his management team was pursuing a strategy that would prove the company was worth than the software maker’s $47.5 billion bid.

“The heat is definitely still on Yang,” said Canaccord Adams analyst Colin Gillis.

The purge outlined Tuesday marks the second time in nine months that Yahoo has resorted to mass layoffs in what so far has been an ineffectual effort to rebound from a financial funk that has left its stock price near a 5 1/2-year low.

Yahoo is approaching these cutbacks much more aggressively than its last round of layoffs in February, when about 1,000 workers were cut loose. Within a few months, Yahoo’s payroll had expanded back to where it was before the streamlining.

“I believe getting Yahoo more fit at this time will provide the flexibility necessary for navigating current conditions and strengthen our position for the future,” Yang told analysts during a Tuesday conference call.

Yahoo’s housecleaning provides the latest example of how a credit crisis that has already rocked banks and retailers is starting to rattle Silicon Valley, the nation’s high-tech heartland.

Online auctioneer eBay Inc. is jettisoning 1,600 jobs while an array of startups are letting go workers to squirrel away more cash as venture capitalists become more cautious with their money. Even Google Inc., a company renowned for its free-spending ways, is starting to cut corners.

Yahoo felt the squeeze in the third quarter as its earnings dwindled to $54.3 million, or 4 cents per share. That was down from $151.3 million, or 11 cents per share, at the same time last year.

If not for nearly $67 million in one-time expenses and a slightly higher tax rate, Yahoo said it would have made 9 cents per share. That figure matched the average earnings estimate among analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Revenue rose 1 percent to $1.79 billion. After subtracting commissions paid to advertising partners, Yahoo said its revenue stood at $1.32 billion _ about $50 million below analyst estimates.

Analysts have blamed much of Yahoo’s past troubles to mismanagement, but the crumbling economy is now looming as the company’s biggest headache as online advertisers curtail their spending in anticipation of the worst recession in a quarter century.

Like most Internet companies, Yahoo relies on advertising for most of its profits.

Reflecting the downturn, Yahoo lowered its revenue estimates for the remainder of the year. Now Yahoo projects 2008 revenue of $7.18 billion to $7.38 billion _ down from a forecast of $7.35 billion to $7.85 billion issued three months ago.

But the turmoil hasn’t derailed Google, which last week reported a 26 percent increase in its third-quarter profit.

Yahoo is more vulnerable to advertising cutbacks because its marketing system doesn’t work as well as Google’s and it is more reliant on billboard-type ads that are more difficult to sell in tough times. Google, in contrast, specializes in text-based ad links that cost advertisers only when the ads are clicked on.

Search advertising bolstered Yahoo during the third quarter, with revenue in that segment rising 17 percent to $438 million. But graphic-rich “display” advertising edged up just 3 percent while ads that Yahoo shows on its partners’ Web sites plummeted 10 percent as bank and retailers curbed their spending.

Yahoo hopes to boost its revenue by drawing upon Google’s technology for some of the text ads shown on its Web site, but the proposed partnership is in limbo while the U.S. Justice Department investigates whether the alliance would undermine competition. Together, Google and Yahoo control more than 80 percent of the U.S. search advertising market.

Yang told analysts that Yahoo and Google are still trying to persuade U.S regulators to allow the companies work together, but didn’t specify a timetable for when the impasse might be resolved.

Miss Louisiana Teen USA Stripped of Title

Lindsey Evans, Miss Louisiana Teen USA, is about a pound lighter, because she just lost her crown.

We just got an advance copy of a statement that will be released from Paula Miles, President of RPM, sponsor of the LA. pageant. 

“Lindsey Evans has been part of an organization that believes in opportunities when earned and consequences when warranted. Due to recent circumstances, Lindsey has been relieved of her duties as Miss Louisiana Teen USA 2008 effective immediately.”

Evans was arrested this weekend after she and a group of friends allegedly tried to dine-and-dash — all over a $46.07 bill. Problem — the pageant queen left her purse at the scene of the crime. She went back to retrieve it, and was busted when cops found pot in the purse.

Here’s the insult to injury. She only had 10 days left on her reign. But pageant officials didn’t have the patience to wait.

Miss Nevada USA, eat your heart out.