GOP race turns to new terrain in Florida (AP)

TAMPA, Fla. ? Now it's Florida's turn.

And Republican presidential rivals Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have just 10 days to navigate a state unlike any they've competed in so far. Florida is six times larger than New Hampshire, has almost five times more Hispanics than Iowa, and, with numerous media markets, is much more expensive for candidates than South Carolina. That's where Gingrich trounced Romney on Saturday night, suddenly scrambling the GOP presidential race ahead of Florida's Jan. 31 primary.

"It's been fascinating spectator sport so far," Beth Schiller, 48, said inside Buddy Brew Coffee shop the next morning. "But it's coming here now. They're all coming."

Indeed, the remaining candidates in a shrunken field ? Romney, Gingrich, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas Rep. Ron Paul ? planned to be in the state Monday for the first of two presidential debates this week.

All eyes were certain to be on what's essentially a two-man race.

After a crushing South Carolina defeat, Romney no longer faces the prospect of wrapping up the nomination quickly and now is forced to regroup. He has spent months planning for the Florida campaign, essentially building a firewall in the state. He has the largest organization of any candidate. And he and his allies combined have had the TV airwaves all to themselves for weeks, already spending roughly $6 million combined. The former Massachusetts governor's areas of strength in the diverse state may be with the transplanted Northeasterners and snowbirds along the Gold Coast.

But now there are doubts about whether he can knit together the broad cross-section of Republican voters he'd need to win in this state, much less the nomination.

"I'm looking forward to a long campaign," Romney said on "Fox News Sunday," an acknowledgment that he wouldn't sew up the nomination with a Florida victory as aides once had hoped.

Gingrich, for his part, will work to keep his momentum going despite continued division among tea party and religious activists who, to a certain degree, continue to divide their support between him and Santorum. The state's conservative panhandle may be fertile ground for the former Georgia lawmaker who talks of his Southern roots often. His team also is working hard to court evangelicals, who vote in droves in the state's GOP primaries and who tend to look skeptically on Romney.

He dramatically trails Romney in fundraising and organization in the state, underscored by his launching of an online "money bomb" Saturday night to try to raise $1 million to help fund his efforts in Florida.

"My job in Florida is to convince people that I am the one candidate who can clearly defeat Obama in a series of debates and the one candidate who has big enough solutions that they would really get America back on track," Gingrich told CNN's "State of the Union."

His South Carolina victory is certain to change the dynamics in a state where Romney has led in polls for weeks.

"People want to get behind a winner," said Tom Gaitens, co-founder of the Tampa Tea Party and state director for the conservative organization FreedomWorks. "People will be drawn to Newt like a magnet."

Florida's size and diversity creates challenges for all the candidates. And the issues may be far different than those in the previous states.

There are 10 distinct media markets in Florida, which helps explain the tremendous cost of running a statewide campaign here.

And the voters are anything but homogenous.

Northern Florida along the panhandle is as close to the South as the state offers. It's the least populated and considered the most culturally conservative. Southeastern Florida, including the Miami area, is traditionally not as conservative as the rest of the state, offering a large Latino population and many Northeastern transplants and Jewish voters. The bulk of the state's Republicans, including a significant collection of evangelicals, live along central Florida's Interstate 4 corridor, including Tampa and Orlando.

Exit polling from the 2008 GOP primary shows that approximately 39 percent of voters identified themselves as born-again or evangelical Christians. That's a significant voting bloc Gingrich has been targeting. He won evangelicals soundly in South Carolina, where they constituted roughly 65 percent of the electorate.

Hispanics are also key.

Romney is already on television running an advertisement in Spanish. Gingrich plans to do the same. The Gingrich team is based in the Miami area, the epicenter of the state's considerable Cuban population. Cubans make up roughly a third of the state's Hispanic population and figure to play prominently.

Romney's team is based in Tampa, and it has spent weeks working to woo the 200,000 people who already have cast ballots through absentee and early voting.

Like everywhere else, the economy is certain to dominate the race in Florida. The unemployment rate here is 10 percent, much higher than the national 8.5 percent jobless figure. And more than 2 percent of all Florida housing units were involved in foreclosure last year, according to the RealtyTrac foreclosure listing service. Florida also is third in the number of homes with "upside down" mortgages, at 44 percent of all mortgaged properties, according to the CoreLogic real estate data firm.

But other topics also will dominate.

Florida is a retirement mecca, so expect discussion about Social Security. It's also home to a number of environmentalists working to protect the coastline and fight drilling, so those topics are all but certain to be touched on. And with a heavy influx of Hispanics, immigration is certain to be raised.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign_florida_s_turn

johnny jolly demi moore and ashton kutcher demi moore and ashton kutcher kim zolciak kim zolciak jerry sandusky interview white house shooting

Summary Box: IBM and Microsoft power Dow's rise (AP)

EARNINGS: IBM and Microsoft drove the Dow Jones industrial average higher Friday after the tech giants reported stronger earnings than analysts expected.

TECH-POWERED: Microsoft rose 6 percent and IBM rose 4 percent. The Dow rose 96.50 points to close at 12,720.48. Without the huge gains in IBM and Microsoft, the Dow would have risen just 24 points. The three major stock indexes ended the week higher.

GOOGLED: Google lost 8.4 percent after its earnings per share fell a dollar short of analysts' estimates. The misfire stemmed from an 8 percent drop in prices that the Internet search giant charges advertisers for each click.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_on_bi_ge/us_wall_street_summary_box

prime suspect prime suspect whitney whitney person of interest james spader james spader

The Gamesville Blog: Best Pets: Billinwv_1?s Rusty

Written by felixturtle / January 19, 2012 9:43 am / 1 Comment

BestPets_RustyThis week?s Best Pets comes to us from Gamesviller billinwv_1 of Charleston, West Virginia!


Distinguishing Personality Traits

Billinwv_1 shared with us why Rusty is so special to him. ?After my 16 year old yorkie past last July,? I swore I would never have another pet and if I did it would have to outlive me!? Well you know how that goes?.in October I was surfing the net and found petfinders.com. I found this dog in rescue in Ohio even though that is four hours away.

Rusty will be 2 this month and he is now in his forever home. His previous owner lost their home and had to move to an apartment so they put Rusty in a rescue organization in August. Rusty came completely house broken and crate trained (which I only put him in when we travel or if he wants in it).? Rusty is such a good dog.

Please consider pets from rescue organizations?usually they are not kept in cages at pounds but foster care in dog lovers? homes. This is a good way to put puppy mills out of business?NEVER buy pets at fleas markets, etc. Pet rescue organizations will not lie to you to sell a dog or cat?they will let you know exactly what?s up with the pet and they usually have a stringent application process, which may include a home visit to make sure you are ready for your pet.? Not all pets are abused or have been mistreated?so please consider this if you decide you want a pet.? Even if you want a puppy they have them in rescues.?

?

Want to share photos of your own favorite pet with the Gamesville community?

Send photos to: members@gamesville.com

In addition to your pet?s picture, please be sure to include:

  • Your Gamesville member name ? I can?t award you GVs without it!
  • Your pet?s most distinguishing personality trait, their name and a little bit about them!

If we publish your pet as a ?Best Pet,? we?ll give you 5,000 GV Rewards. Submit your pet today!

Keep In Touch!

Subscribe to our email digest to receive future updates. Also make sure you?re subscribed to The Gamesville Times for exclusive content and contests!
Be sure to join our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter to keep the discussion going!

Source: http://blog.gamesville.com/6191/best-pets-billinwv_1s-rusty

packers score ricky gervais napoleon dynamite ny giants michelle williams new york giants the descendants

Maldives journalists say gov't intimidating them (AP)

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka ? A journalists group says the Maldives government is threatening and harassing the media over their reporting of an political crisis and the military's arrest of the nation's top criminal court judge.

The Maldives Journalists' Association said in a statement Thursday that television stations are being penalized for airing opposition politicians' comments that authorities perceive to be lies.

An independent regulator, the Maldives Broadcasting Commission, accused the communication minister of threatening to withdraw frequencies of television and radio stations.

Communication Minister Adil Saleem denied the allegations.

Judge Abdulla Mohamed was arrested Monday after he released an opposition leader who had been detained without a warrant.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_on_re_as/as_maldives_politics

iphone update iphone update blackberry outage blackberry outage seal beach ca seal beach seal beach

China iPhone launch delay could boost sales for rivals during Chinese New Year holidays (Digital Trends)

iphone-4-vs-4sImagine just prior to the holiday season supplies of Apple?s iPhone ran dry. You?d been hoping to treat yourself to the latest 4S device, or buy one for a friend or relative, but you can?t find the smartphone anywhere. Worse still, there?s no word when they might be returning to stores. If this happened, would you instead take a look at the competition? Examine some of the Android offerings, for example? Or would you just wait until Apple?s device returned to stores, even though it could be a couple of weeks before it happens, or even a month?

As a Bloomberg report points out, this is the dilemma facing shoppers in China just now after Apple?s launch of the 4S device in the country on January 13 descended into chaos, resulting in the company withdrawing the popular smartphone from sale until further notice. And yes, right now China is in the midst of its pre-holiday shopping rush. Their one-week holiday begins on January 23, and so Apple will have lost many sales by removing the 4S from its shelves. Even its online store has sold out. The phone can still be picked up from China Unicom and authorised resellers, but supplies are scarce.

As Bloomberg points out, there?ll be many out there who?ll be rather happy with the way things have gone for Apple in China so far this year ? its competitors, for example. Samsung and others will be hoping to capitalize on the absence of the iPhone just prior to the country?s gift-giving season next week, a period which last year saw shoppers spend an estimated $64 billion.

Is the appeal of Apple?s iPhone 4S strong enough that consumers will wait, or will makers of Android handsets see a boost in sales?

David Wolf, chief executive officer of a Beijing-based consulting firm, thinks it?ll be the latter. ?A large portion of Chinese New Year sales are about having the gifts in hand right now,? he told Bloomberg. ?Android devices competitive with the iPhone will benefit.? HTC and Motorola could also be beneficiaries of Apple?s decision to postpone the launch of the 4S, Wolf said.

It???s going to be interesting to see whether there???ll be any long-term impact on sales of the iPhone in the country, and whether Apple???s image has been tarnished by events earlier this month.

?Most worrying is the potential loss of good will. There might be real demand permanently lost,? a Beijing-based analyst with IDC China commented.

Apple is currently the fourth most popular smartphone vendor in the country, behind Nokia Oyj, Samsung and Huawei Technologies.

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

More from Digital Trends

Apple?s iPhone 4S lands Consumer Report blessing, still behind Android phones

Speaktoit: The Android answer to Siri

Samsung infiltrates Australia iPhone 4S launch

Apple iPhone 4S sales cut into Android market share: Nielsen

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20120119/tc_digitaltrends/chinaiphonelaunchdelaycouldboostsalesforrivalsduringchinesenewyearholidays

santorum atlanta falcons new hampshire debate brandon jacobs brandon jacobs beyonce and jay z baby steelers vs broncos

Brady practices after missing Wednesday

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady responds to a reporter's question during a media availabilityat the NFL football team's facility in Foxborough, Mass., Wednesday morning, Jan. 18, 2012. The Patriots are slated to host the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC championship on Sunday, Jan. 22. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady responds to a reporter's question during a media availabilityat the NFL football team's facility in Foxborough, Mass., Wednesday morning, Jan. 18, 2012. The Patriots are slated to host the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC championship on Sunday, Jan. 22. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady leaves a media availability at the NFL football team's facility in Foxborough, Mass., Wednesday morning, Jan. 18, 2012. The Patriots are slated to host the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC championship on Sunday, Jan. 22. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

(AP) ? Tom Brady is back practicing. Everyone associated with the New England Patriots is acting like he never missed a snap.

Brady returned to the field Thursday after being out the previous day resting his left, non-throwing shoulder. If it's a big deal to the football world that the Patriots' star quarterback briefly was sidelined four days before the AFC championship, his teammates and coach treated it as an inconsequential blip.

So did the two-time league MVP.

"It's not the first practice I have missed over the years," Brady said with a shrug of his shoulders ? including the sore left one. "When coach feels its best that you do other things to get yourself ready, that's what you do, and you still use all that time very wisely. When your coach feels it is best to do other things to get yourself ready, that is what you do."

Coach Bill Belichick revealed little about Brady's absence on Wednesday, lumping it in with every other player in the NFL who gets nicked. Then again, Belichick doesn't give out much information or insight on anything injury-related. Ever.

New England hosts the Baltimore Ravens for the AFC championship on Sunday.

Brady missed one practice and was limited for two others during the final week of the regular season, but he played all but the final offensive series in a 49-21 win over Buffalo. Last Saturday, he played every New England offensive series in a 45-10 divisional playoff win over Denver after being on the injury list but practicing in full all week.

The quarterback stretched and ran a few drills Thursday during the 15 minutes the media were allowed access to the session. He ran with the ball in his left arm as backup quarterback Brian Hoyer half-heartedly attempted to knock it out. Brady showed no signs of being in pain.

The day before, Brady had to find ways to keep himself occupied during the missed session.

"You don't go lounging around taking naps or anything like that," he said with a chuckle. "You just try to do other things to get yourself ready to go. So catch up on your film work and get some extra treatments and so forth. It's just a matter of ultimately we're trying to be as prepared as we can for Sunday. I'm certainly going to be as prepared as I possibly can be.

"It's not the first practice that I've missed over the years. You come off a game Saturday or Sunday and you're just doing everything you can to be prepared. You're just putting in extra work and making sure you're getting prepared."

Then Brady promised to be out on the field, and a while later he was.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-19-Patriots-Brady's%20Shoulder/id-b68be2659c3f4df599b12963c6a877db

andy rooney 60 minutes andre johnson andre johnson arrested development arrested development shannon tweed shannon tweed

Rate on 30-year mortgage down to record 3.88 pct.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]WASHINGTON (AP) ? The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage fell again this week to a record low. The eighth record low in a year is attracting few takers because most who can afford to buy or refinance have already done so.

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-19-Mortgage%20Rates/id-c6329a2b17e9438d84079c987b5fcadf

nfl live nfl playoff schedule 2012 saints vs 49ers 49 ers vanessa marcil frank gore frank gore

Faceblock? Lego ? Whatever, Lego Has Its Own Social Network [Lego]

Lego geeks around the world, rejoice! You are not alone, even though you actually are alone, in your room, playing with tiny blocks. There is now a social network for Lego aficionados, and it's called ReBrick. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/fEYTHkPgv-w/faceblock-lego%252B-whatever-lego-has-its-own-social-network

donald driver donald driver martin henderson mlk day octavia spencer golden globes 2012 winners golden globes 2012 red carpet

Aparantly Sony and Microsoft are teaming up

To make the next generation home gaming console in hopes of eliminating Nintendo.

If Nintendo is eliminated, who are Sony and Microsoft gonna copy?


Xtreme Cheats: Cheats for PC, Playstation, Xbox and Nintendo Games

Fure wrote: To make the next generation home gaming console in hopes of eliminating Nintendo.

If Nintendo is eliminated, who are Sony and Microsoft gonna copy?

I?m sure there?s a company in Korea to copy.


__________________

ebm wrote:

Fure wrote: To make the next generation home gaming console in hopes of eliminating Nintendo.

If Nintendo is eliminated, who are Sony and Microsoft gonna copy?

I?m sure there?s a company in Korea to copy.

Which one? :3


Fure wrote:

ebm wrote:

Fure wrote: To make the next generation home gaming console in hopes of eliminating Nintendo.

If Nintendo is eliminated, who are Sony and Microsoft gonna copy?

I?m sure there?s a company in Korea to copy.

Which one? :3

Who knows?


__________________

ebm wrote:

Fure wrote:

ebm wrote:

Fure wrote: To make the next generation home gaming console in hopes of eliminating Nintendo.

If Nintendo is eliminated, who are Sony and Microsoft gonna copy?

I?m sure there?s a company in Korea to copy.

Which one? :3

Who knows?

Honestly, do you think Sony and Microsoft will pull it off with all the little devil tricks Nintendo hides up there pad-locked sleeves?

meh,I?m sure that won?t happen.

They might team up,but Nintendo has always released rather promising titles and colourful characters....even though it has been lacking as of late....

Besides...they don?t have Kirby cool


__________________

Eliminating Nintendo? Not a chance. Nintendo?s been around for a long time, longer than when you all were shitting your diapers.

Of course it?s customary for everyone wanting to sex up Nintendo. Obviously if you have no sexual intimacies with said company, you have no childhood.


__________________

Edited 01-17-2012 11:04 PM by Dead?Head

Seriously, Nintendo is kind of a thorn in Sony and Microsoft?s sides, a really huge thorn with barbs that causes the other companies to fester.

I really dont think they can pull it off, but with Micro-Sony having a habit of taking Nintendo?s Ideas and makin them better with their General own ideas may cause trouble for the N.

It is gonna suck for Nintendo fans,like myself,though...
We will probably hear even more idiotic insults from XBox and Playstation fanboys...

''Hur dur,Nintendo is for pussies,derp,go play more manly games with over rated graphics and terrible plots and ideas,durp''


__________________

Edited 01-17-2012 11:34 PM by xXSleepwalkerXx

This is just bullshit
If anything Sony and Nintendo would team up to take down microsoft just to keep the main gaming consoles strictly Japanese


__________________

EDIT: Whoops, that was old.
I still need combustible lemons and a catapult though.


__________________

Now to start thinking. With Portals.

Edited 01-17-2012 11:54 PM by Megatronus?Prime

Lol honestly IMO Nintendo is a really good troll in the console world because Sure they are epic and are good at what they do.....

But fucking look at the wii! lol?? how complicated is that shit! They know they could have made it so there weren?t so much shit to go with it... but we still play it....

Look at the game cube, when the wii came out, have you ever just looked at the Cube and realized How fucking Simple and Just plain ?THERE? it is.....

Now this Wii U? straight Jesus fucking marry cause i sure aint doin it....

But I doubt it..................Fixed.


__________________

Edited 01-18-2012 12:22 AM by Xx?Brother?Edgar?xX

Joined: 12-28-2006
Posts: 24,498

FireWolf81
Sexy?White?Stains
Rep: 123

xXSleepwalkerXx wrote: meh,I?m sure that won?t happen.

They might team up,but Nintendo has always released rather promising titles and colourful characters....even though it has been lacking as of late....

Besides...they don?t have Kirby cool

SEGA.

Nuff said.


__________________

CHECK ME OUT ON FW DESIGNS

FireWolf81 wrote:

xXSleepwalkerXx wrote: meh,I?m sure that won?t happen.

They might team up,but Nintendo has always released rather promising titles and colourful characters....even though it has been lacking as of late....

Besides...they don?t have Kirby cool

SEGA.

Nuff said.

sega? hardly ever hear about them.......

Related Topics


__________________

Source: http://lounge.moviecodec.com/games/aparantly-sony-and-microsoft-are-teaming-up-142482/

nick cannon kidney failure casey anthony video recess appointment eastman kodak eastman kodak richard cordray shannon de lima