California Supreme Court Ruling Dissolves 400 Local Redevelopment Agencies
by Joseph Henchman
About $5 billion in California tax revenue is allocated not by the State Legislature but by approximately 400 different local redevelopment agencies. These agencies arose after World War II to undertake ill-defined "slum clearance" and "eliminating blight," but now carry out a wide array of activities, primarily condemning property for private developers and constructing public projects (although ones that often benefit private interests, such as restaurants or sports team owners).
They are generally funded by Tax Increment Financing (TIF): an exclusive power to tax any property tax growth in the tax base from the time of their formation. This is a sizeable chunk of revenue, growing each year and insulated from having to compete with other state and local funding priorities.
California Governor Jerry Brown (D), arguing that state budget priorities overrode these districts' desires for new projects, had sought to shut them down and transfer much of their funds to the state. The Legislature was reluctant, so they passed two companion bills:
ABX1 26, which dissolved all the local redevelopment agencies in the state.
ABX1 27, which cancelled ABX1 26 if the agencies turned over $1.7 billion to the state, followed by $400 million annually. Redevelopment agencies characterized this as a ransom note and challenged it in court.
Well, they got their way but also they didn't in a big way. Yesterday, the California Supreme Court ruled (PDF) that ABX1 27 was unconstitutional, violating state constitutional language that prohibits the state from "[r]equir[ing] a community redevelopment agency (A) to pay, remit, loan, or otherwise transfer, directly or indirectly, taxes on ad valorem real property and tangible personal property...to or for the benefit of the State, any agency of the State, or any jurisdiction...." (One justice disagreed with this rather open-and-shut reading of the state constitution.) The issue is one of the surprisingly undeveloped doctrine of "unconstitutional conditions"-how many conditions can a superior government attach to funding before its acceptance no longer becomes voluntary?
While they struck down ABX1 27, they upheld ABX1 26 as a valid exercise of the state's power. (The Court considered the argument that ABX1 26 be invalidated, but the Legislature stupidly (or intentionally?) put a severability clause ensuring that one would survive the other.) Consequently, local redevelopment agencies in California are now hasta la vista, and must close up shop by May 2012.
Redevelopment agency lobbyists promise that they're going to fight this:
Advocates for the agencies are expected to return to the Legislature to ask lawmakers to recreate them, probably under some sort of revenue-sharing agreement.
"We hope the Legislature goes back to fix this," said Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities. "This is a tool the state cannot afford to lose."
Cities may fight to keep the ruling in place, however:
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chairman?Zev Yaroslavsky?said redevelopment over the years "evolved into a honey pot that was tapped to underwrite billions of dollars worth of commercial and other for-profit projects."
The projects "had nothing to do with reversing blight, but everything to do with subsidizing private real estate ventures that otherwise made no economic sense," Yaroslavsky said.
Deputy Santa Clara County Counsel James R. Williams, whose office advocated the positions taken by the court, said the ruling would eventually add $90 million to the county's coffers and provide schools in Santa Clara County with $150 million annually. In the past, the state has been "backfilling" the loss to schools, Williams said.
"All counties will benefit in the sense that they will ultimately receive this money back as general fund money," he said, although some have their own redevelopment agencies or agreements with city agencies to share revenues.
"What happens now is the state subsidizes redevelopment agencies by backfilling losses to school districts when schools lose money to redevelopment," Williams said.
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DES MOINES, Iowa ? Regardless of whether Mitt Romney wins the Iowa Republican caucus Tuesday, he has enjoyed a remarkably easy presidential race so far.
When his rivals have stopped battering each other long enough to criticize him, they've often done so tentatively and ham-handedly. Romney's injury-free journey is all the more surprising because, despite some obvious campaign skills, he has well-known vulnerabilities ripe for attack.
The turn of events has astonished campaign pros in both parties, who expected Romney to be more bloodied. And it has dismayed President Barack Obama's allies, who assumed Republicans would at least soften up the man they viewed as the likeliest nominee from the start.
"By all rights, Romney should have spent the last six months with a target painted on his back," said Dan Schnur, a former GOP adviser who teaches politics at the University of Southern California. "But he has been able to keep his head low," Schnur said, while a series of rivals have taken turns quarreling, surging and falling.
New polls show Romney heading into Tuesday's caucus as the front-runner in a state that seems ill-suited to his background, and which snubbed him four years ago. The Iowa Republican caucus is usually dominated by evangelical voters, home-schoolers and other social conservatives. Yet his rivals have done little here to turn those dynamics against Romney, a Mormon who supported legalized abortion and mandatory health insurance as governor of liberal Massachusetts.
Romney began this year's campaign de-emphasizing Iowa. But his rivals' inability to produce a clear leader has opened a possible path for him to seize the prize.
A Romney win in Iowa, which is far from certain, would make him the clear favorite to win the nomination. Next up is the Jan. 10 primary in New Hampshire. Romney has a second home there, and the GOP voters' greater emphasis on financial matters is better suited to his politics.
Romney's luck stems largely from his opponents' early conclusion that he had enough money and experience to go deep into the nominating contest, and only one viable alternative could emerge. They've been competing for that spot, and attacking each other, ever since.
"If you have modest resources, you're going to spend your time differentiating yourself from the rest of the non-Romney crowd," said GOP lobbyist and strategist Mike McKenna.
Campaign attack ads in Iowa underscore the point. When former House Speaker Newt Gingrich surged in polls earlier this month, he was quickly pilloried by TV ads and mailings financed by groups associated with Romney, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.
In two weeks in Iowa, a PAC that supports Romney dumped $2.6 million into the effort, according to records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. Having little money to respond, Gingrich has plummeted in the polls.
A far smaller sum was spent on anti-Romney ads, mostly by a pro-Obama group trying to fill the vacuum.
Campaign veterans say Perry had the best chance to establish himself early as the Romney alternative. That could have positioned him to hammer away at his Massachusetts rival. A proven fundraiser with 10 years as Texas governor, Perry rocketed to the top of GOP polls when he announced his candidacy in mid-August.
But he quickly fell after debate performances that typified the GOP field's inability, or unwillingness, to train sustained fire on Romney's obvious soft spots: his changed positions on abortion, gun control and gay rights, and his policy of requiring Massachusetts residents to buy health insurance or pay a penalty.
In a Sept. 22 debate in Florida, Perry started to describe Romney's various flip-flops. But he stammered and wandered so badly that it was nearly impossible to understand his point.
After that, the GOP field showed little interest in launching focused attacks on Romney's policy changes.
Romney was equally lucky in June. Then-candidate Tim Pawlenty had said in a TV interview that "Romneycare" was the inspiration for "Obamacare," the GOP term for the Democrats' 2010 health care overhaul. But in a televised debate that followed, Pawlenty refused to repeat the criticism. His reticence contributed to his fast decline, and gave Romney a big break.
Conservative columnist George Will said on ABC in September: "Tim Pawlenty got in trouble when he got a chance to attack Romney and didn't. Perry's in trouble because he attacked Romney and did it so incompetently."
Romney has enjoyed other breaks. James Pethokoukis of the conservative American Enterprise Institute noted that Romney recently stopped short of endorsing a value-added tax without ruling it out in all circumstances.
"Many conservatives/libertarians simply hate, hate, hate the idea of a VAT," Pethokoukis wrote. "I would be surprised if those quotes don't end up in a 30-second, anti-Romney ad in Iowa or New Hampshire."
So far, they haven't.
Democrats contrast Romney's easy ride with Obama's grueling Iowa campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards, two well-financed politicians with sharp debating skills.
Rodell Mollineau heads American Bridge, a Democratic group that gathers information to use against Republicans in campaigns. This year's GOP candidates have tried to attack Romney at times, Mollineau said, "but they're just not very good at it."
"Perry has the money, but he can't get a sentence out," Mollineau said. Gingrich is articulate, he said, but hasn't raised enough money to wound Romney with broadcast ads.
Romney's luck continued Wednesday. Rep. Michele Bachmann criticized two rivals during her fast-moving bus tour of Iowa. She said Perry has spent "27 years as a political insider," and Paul would be "dangerous as president" because of his hands-off views on national security.
United States: Automotive Industry Guide is an essential resource for top-level data and analysis covering the United States Automotive industry. It includes detailed data on market size and segmentation, textual analysis of the key trends and competitive landscape, and profiles of the leading companies. This incisive report provides expert analysis with distinct chapters for Replacement Car & Van Tires, Trucks, Used Cars, Automotive Aftermarket, Company Cars, Fast Fit, Light trucks, Medium & Heavy Trucks, Motorcycles and New Cars
Scope of the Report
* Contains an executive summary and data on value, volume and segmentation for Replacement Car & Van Tires, Trucks, Used Cars, Automotive Aftermarket, Company Cars, Fast Fit, Light trucks, Medium & Heavy Trucks, Motorcycles and New Cars
* Provides textual analysis of the industrys prospects, competitive landscape and profiles of the leading companies
* Incorporates in-depth five forces competitive environment analysis and scorecards
* Includes five-year forecasts for Replacement Car & Van Tires, Trucks, Used Cars, Automotive Aftermarket, Company Cars, Fast Fit, Light trucks, Medium & Heavy Trucks, Motorcycles and New Cars
Highlights
The United States Replacement Car & Van Tires market is forecast to post total revenue of ,083.9 million in 2010, representing a compound annual rate of change (CARC) of -2.8% for the period spanning 2006-2010.
The US trucks market had total revenue of 7.4 billion in 2009, representing a compound annual rate of change (CARC) of -15.1% for the period spanning 2005-2009.
The US used cars market had total revenue of 7.9 billion in 2009, representing a compound annual rate of change (CARC) of -5.7% for the period spanning 2005-2009.
The US automotive aftermarket sector is expected to reach total revenue of 0.2 billion in 2010, representing a compound annual rate of change (CARC) of -0.4% for the period spanning 2006-2010.
The United States Company Cars market experienced minimal growth in 2009 with a 0.2% increase in total number of cars operated.
The US fast fit market is expected to generate a total revenue of .9 billion in 2010, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 0.5% for the period spanning 2006-2010.
The US light trucks market had total revenue of 9.3 billion in 2009, representing a compound annual rate of change (CARC) of -14.7% for the period spanning 2005-2009.
The US medium & heavy trucks market had total revenue of .1 billion in 2009, representing a compound annual rate of change (CARC) of -17.9% for the period spanning 2005-2009.
The US motorcycles market had total revenue of .1 billion in 2009, representing a compound annual rate of change (CARC) of -4.7% for the period spanning 2005-2009.
The US new cars market had total revenue of 4,386.6 million in 2009, representing a compound annual rate of change (CARC) of -5.4% for the period spanning 2005-2009.
Why you should buy this report
* Spot future trends and developments
* Inform your business decisions
* Add weight to presentations and marketing materials
BANGKOK ? World stocks markets fell Wednesday, with trading thinned by year-end holidays and mixed economic news out of the U.S. and Japan.
Benchmark oil hovered above $101 per barrel while the dollar fell against the euro and the yen.
European stocks dropped in early trading. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.2 percent to 5,501.25. Germany's DAX was 0.9 percent lower at 5,839.98 and France's CAC-40 lost 0.4 percent to 3,092.01. Wall Street also appeared headed for a lower opening. Dow Jones industrial futures rose 0.2 percent to 12,199 while S&P 500 futures dipped 0.3 percent to 1,256.60.
Earlier in Asia, trading was subdued, as it typically is between the Christmas holiday and New Year's.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.2 percent to close at 8,423.62. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.6 percent to 18,518.67, while South Korea's Kospi lost 0.9 percent to 1,825.12. Australia's S&P ASX 200 lost 1.3 percent to 4,088.80. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan and Indonesia were also lower.
Japan's industrial output dropped a seasonally adjusted 2.6 percent last month ? the first decline in two months. But the negative news was mitigated by expectations of rebounding manufacturing and production this month and next, which helped to mute stock market losses.
The Shanghai Composite Index reversed course after early losses, rising 0.2 percent to 2,170.01. But the smaller Shenzhen Composite Index sank 0.5 percent at 849.76.
Some investors were "dumping shares" because Beijing has failed to take steps they expected to stimulate slowing economic growth, said Peter Lai, investment manager for DBS Vickers in Hong Kong.
"Some investors believed there would be a reduction in interest rates or the bank reserve ratio. But this hasn't happened," Lai said.
Tokyo Electric Power plunged 11.8 percent, a day after Japanese Industry Minister Yukio Edano suggested that the embattled utility be put under temporary state control and warned the company against resorting to electricity bill hikes.
TEPCO operates the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, which was heavily damaged in the March earthquake and tsunami, and owes massive compensation payments to people and companies harmed by a nuclear disaster at the plant.
Hong Kong-listed property shares also slumped. China Overseas Land & Investment slid 3 percent. China Resources Land lost 2.7 percent.
China Mengniu Dairy, the country's biggest dairy company, plummeted 24 percent in Hong Kong after acknowledging that a cancer-causing toxin had been found in milk produced by the company. Mengniu apologized and said no tainted milk had made it to the market. The government blamed the problem on bad feed given to cows.
Retail shares also slid on growing anxiety over the global economy in 2012. Hong Kong-listed jewelry retailer Chow Sang Sang shed 4 percent. Australian department store chain David Jones fell 2.1 percent and Woolworth's lost 0.9 percent.
On Wall Street on Tuesday, the Dow Jones lost less than 0.1 percent to close at 12,291.35. The S&P 500 was up marginally to 1,265.43. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.3 percent to 2,625.20.
U.S. consumer confidence surged to an eight-month high, but home prices fell in 19 of the 20 cities tracked by the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index. That report dampened investors' enthusiasm about a jump in consumer confidence to the highest level since April.
Benchmark crude oil rose 2 cents to $101.36 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.66 to finish at $101.34 per barrel on the Nymex on Tuesday.
In currency trading, the euro fell to $1.3075 from $1.3069 late Tuesday in New York. The euro has been weak because of worries about Europe's government debt crisis. It is still trading just above an 11-month low of $1.2943 reached on Dec. 14.
The dollar fell to 77.73 yen from 77.85 yen.
___
AP Business Writer Joe McDonald contributed from Beijing.
It's not often that I'm at a loss for words. But this is just so awesome I'm going to let it stand on its own merits. Congrats to Android Forums member scoty024 for being quite the artiste, and to his wife for being so ... forgiving. Even I couldn't get away with doing this. Pretty sure you just signed up for the first 1,000 diaper changes, dude. (The good news: That's only a two-week sentence.)
Dive on into the forums at the link below and give scoty024 a major high five for pulling this off.
A ?vast phishing attack? that attempts to capture the credit card information of Apple customers was launched on Christmas day, according to a report from Mac security-software company Intego.
The phishing email, as posted by Intego.In a posting on its Mac Security blog, Intego says that the attack is an attempt to fool Apple customers into clicking on a link under the guise of updating the billing information of their Apple accounts:
If you click on the link in the message, you will be taken to a realistic looking sign-in page, then, after entering your Apple ID and password, you?ll be taken to a page asking you to update your account profile, notably entering your credit card information. Again, this page looks realistic, and many of the elements it contains are taken from Apple?s own webpages.
Intego reports that the messages are being sent with the subject ?Apple update your Billing Information? from a spoofed email address of ?appleid@id.apple.com,? though of course future emails from the same source might vary somewhat.
If you hover your mouse over the hyperlink in the (impressively forged) email address, you?ll see a floating box that reveals the real destination of that link: the telltale chain of four numbers that specifies a numeric IP address, rather than a link to somewhere within the apple.com domain. As Intego rightly points out, ?if it?s not something.apple.com (it could be www.apple.com, store.apple.com, or something else), then it?s bogus.?
In addition to hovering your cursor over any links before you click on them, another way to stay secure is to enter links yourself in your browser rather than click on them in emails. If you type store.apple.com into your browser, you know it?s a legitimate site. If you?re using Safari any secure connection to Apple (i.e., any URL beginning with https: rather than http:) will show a green verification item in the top right corner of the address bar. (There are similar indications in other browsers.) And no legitimate site will ask for personal information, especially of the credit-card variety, without using a secure connection.
This isn?t the first such scam posing as an email from Apple recently. In a less sophisticated attack earlier this month, a fake MobileMe message requested that users send an email containing their username and password.
In general, you should be skeptical about any email messages, however legitimate they appear to be, that ask you to go to a website or compose an email containing personal data.
Your pet shouldn?t be in pain. In this day and age there is really no reason for it. So much can be done for your pet?s pain. You want your pet to be happy and live long, right? Then take care of your pet?s pain as soon as it occurs. You need to know what type of pain it is, though, before you can treat it appropriately. There are two types of pain in pets. There is acute pain and chronic pain. Each type has a different cause and each needs to be treated differently. If you aren?t sure which type of pain your pet has then your veterinarian can help you.
When your pet is in acute pain then that means their pain came on suddenly from and injury or from surgery. It could also be caused by an infection. This pain makes your pet uncomfortable and they may not want to walk around. The good part about your pet having this pain is that it is temporary. If the veterinarian decides that your pet has chronic pain then that mean they will have pain that lasts for an extended period of time. It usually comes on slowly and not as suddenly as with acute pain. There are many causes of chronic pain. Some of these causes are arthritis and cancer. It can last for years. It is very difficult to watch your pet go through this pain day after day. Once the veterinarian has diagnosed your pet then the cause of the pain will be addressed. Make sure that you keep notes on your pet?s behavior so you can share this with the vet. They will probably take X-Rays, blood tests and tests. This can help them determine the cause and also help the vet to come up with a plan for healing. The treatment plan that your pet?s vet will come up with will include a plan for pain management. This could include pills, liquid drugs or shots. For example, if your pet has arthritis then they will be prescribed pet non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The plan could even include acupuncture and holistic medicines. Mostly, a combination of these will be prescribed. Analgesics, which are pain reducing drugs, are used a lot now to reduce stress in animals and help recovery after surgery. They can help your pet cope easier with injury or infection. These drugs include steroids, nonsteroidal anit-inflammatory drugs and narcotics. These drugs can help with acute and chronic pain. For help with acute pain, buffered aspirin is mostly used. Work as a team with your pet?s veterinarian so that you can come up with some great solutions for your pet. No one wants to see their pet in pain so make sure you get their pain diagnosed and taken care of. You want your pet that is in pain to get help but also to have the least amount of side effects. So talk to your pet?s veterinarian and come up with a pain management plan that works for your pet. Petaboo features applications such as free veterinary help, pet adoption, helps you in locating dog parks in your area, find local shelters, groomers and any other pet related service, in addition to allowing you to pay tribute to your bellowed best friend if they have passed away in our animal obituary section. Please visit www.Petaboo.comfor all your pet related needs!
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Welcome to the Apple?N'Apps Weekly podcast, which is our new segment on the site and in iTunes every Friday. Apple?N'Apps Weekly is our effort to bring you the latest and greatest of everything about apple and apps. We already provide breaking news, dozens of app reviews, and thought provoking editorials so now it?s time for a podcast to make it even easier to keep up with all the goes on in a given week.
The show will cover the hottest news, latest and greatest app reviews, and cutting edge editorials on Apple and the app industry. The hosts are Trevor Sheridan, Editor-in-Chief, and podcast expert & Apple enthusiast Rafael Chavez. The podcast will be broken down into five main sections as we cover the most intriguing topics of the week. The show will be available every friday, and we apologize about missing the past couple of weeks, but our local windstorm got in the way. Without further ado, here?s Apple?N'Apps Weekly, Episode Four which you can listen to right here, or download for later.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:28 ? 22.2MB)
iTunes Link
For this week, Episode Four, we cover the following,
News of The Week: - Southern California Wind storm - Apple Grand Central Store - Twitter rolls out major redesign - iBooks 1.5 with Beatles Yellow Submarine book - iTunes Rewind Instagram & Tiny Tower Hot Topics: - iTether app approved and then removed - iPad 3 and iPad 2S keep iPad 2 Newest Apps - Evernote Hello & Evernote Food - Flipboard & Zite now universal - Instacast HD - Sting 25 - Beatles Album Guide Latest Games: - Infinity Blade II - New Tetris - Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies Looking back at the week as a whole
We hope you enjoy the AppleNApps Weekly podcast, and are excited to see it each and every week. You can find the podcast here on?our site and iTunes every Friday, and we?ll keep you updated on Twitter, or?Facebook. Also, our intro song was created with GarageBand for iPad.
EV Energy Partners, L.P., along with certain institutional partnerships managed by EnerVest, Ltd., has closed both previously announced Barnett Shale acquisitions from two unrelated companies. EVEP acquired an approximate 31.5 percent interest in the combined assets for an adjusted purchase price of $345.6 million, subject to customary post-closing adjustments. The acquisitions were funded with borrowings under its revolving credit facility. The estimated proved reserves for these acquisitions as of Jan. 1, 2012 at SEC prices, net to EVEP, are 364.2 Bcfe.
The purchase price and estimated proved reserves were reduced from those contained in EVEP's Nov. 3, 2011 acquisition announcement because certain of the properties were not acquired, primarily due to remaining closing conditions for those properties. These property interests will be acquired if and when such remaining closing conditions are satisfied.
In conjunction with these acquisitions, EVEP has increased the borrowing base under its credit facility to $800 million. Debt currently outstanding under the facility, after funding of these acquisitions, is $660 million.
I had been involved in school sports my entire life; athletics is not something new to me. But, I certainly admit that the temptations of a less than healthy lifestyle (my personal relationship with pizza, especially) stress and not having my goals clear in my head had led me to a body that wasn't bad, per se, but was not anything to shake a stick at. What is funny is I always knew I had something special inside of me, some type of unique drive that I do not know if I can describe effectively, but it is what I dig down to every day to push me on.
My life was never an easy one. I lost my father at age 5, my family's home flooded at age 7 and I was diagnosed with ALL (Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia) at age 9. Cancer is the destroyer of bodies. The effect of 3 years of chemotherapy on my body is still being studied for late effects.
But I fought it, overcame it and lived through it to tell the story. I grew my hair back, I learned how to walk for the second time in my life and am part of an amazing Camp, Camp TaKumTa, a week long camp in So. Hero, Vermont for children who have or have had cancer.
Getting fit couldn't be as hard as surviving.
How I Did It
The first few lessons that my trainer taught me were as follows: you want the body, you have to lift weights and if you want to burn fat, you have to eat. Both of which I was not doing. In fact, I was not doing it properly until I sat myself down in April and had a little chat?with myself.
I had this great opportunity to improve myself. I had found a gym with people that care, a family, and a trainer and coach that had the tools to guide me to whatever goal I wanted to reach. A no brainer and what I wanted all along! If I did not take advantage of what was given to me, then it would be my failure and this was my life, my goal.
I had to refocus and remind myself that it was a hard road but it was what I wanted. I started my new workout booklet that day, April 1, 2011. My food was perfect, my workout was perfect and I was determined to flip the switch. I got a picture taken that day in my swimsuit, and said goodbye to the old me.
Fast forwarding to today, I am over 30 pounds leaner, stronger in heart, mind and body and healthier and more fit than I have ever been in my entire life. In 7 months I went from an asthmatic who would get sick fairly often to girl that competes in fitness games, does Boot Camps at Hoover Dam (Columbus, OH), flips 220lb tires, swings ropes, sweats profusely and can now breathe.
I can squat and deadlift 175lbs, I can run mile after mile and can be proud to put on a glittery bikini and practice competition posing in front of others. My progression is what blows my trainer away. What blows me away is the support and love that I get and the inspiration that I give others. I never thought others would follow my training, much less care or be inspired by it.
What surprises me the most is that daily I get messages, calls, texts, emails from people from my past, family, friends, you name it, telling me I inspired them to lose weight and they are 10lbs down, or they want to know what I am doing, how I am doing it, what I eat! It's remarkable!
I do not make it a secret either. I feel that if I was blessed to be put on this path, maybe my purpose is to share it with others and spread the word that anyone can be fit, reach their goals and just feel good.
Over the course of 7 months, I have learned a great deal about fitness and health. What I tell others is that while it's not everyone's desire to compete on stage in bodybuilding, everyone can make changes to be healthier, more fit and feel better.
I am frequently asked a variety of questions but most people want to know the secret to getting fit and staying that way. Well, here it is: there are no secrets and no one specific path to achieving your fitness goals. There is no special pill that you take or fad diet that can realistically change you forever.
The change starts with you. My secret is consistent, clean eating and exercise. (I know, who would have thought!) If you want to look good in a bikini, then lift weights. If you want to boost your metabolism, then eat.
If you want to improve your overall fitness and health, educate yourself and seek out those that are fit and talk to them and learn by doing what they do. Gain as much knowledge as you can and apply that to your life.
Photographic Credit: GoodKnews Photography
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Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, who heads the state's judicial branch and its highest court, said in an interview that the death penalty is no longer effective in California and suggested she would welcome a public debate on its merits and costs.
During an interview in her chambers, as she prepared to close up shop for the holidays, the Republican appointee and former prosecutor made her first public statements about capital punishment a year after she took the helm of the state's judiciary and at a time when petitions are being gathered for an initiative to abolish the death penalty.
"I don't think it is working," said Cantil-Sakauye, elevated from the Court of Appeal in Sacramento to the California Supreme Court by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. "It's not effective. We know that."
California's death penalty requires "structural change, and we don't have the money to create the kind of change that is needed," she said. "Everyone is laboring under a staggering load."
In response to a question, she said she supported capital punishment "only in the sense I apply the law and I believe the system is fair.... In that sense, yes."
But the chief justice quickly reframed the question.
"I don't know if the question is whether you believe in it anymore. I think the greater question is its effectiveness and given the choices we face in California, should we have a merit-based discussion on its effectiveness and costs?"
Cantil-Sakauye's comments suggest a growing frustration with capital punishment even among conservatives and a resignation that the system cannot be fixed as long as California's huge financial problems persist.
Her predecessor, retired Chief Justice Ronald M. George, was similarly disheartened. A former prosecutor who defended the state's death penalty before the U.S. Supreme Court, George concluded in his later years on the California Supreme Court that the system was "dysfunctional."
Cantil-Sakauye, 53, alluded to the proposed ballot measure to replace the death penalty with life without possibility of parole but declined to say whether she supported that plan.
"That really is up to the voters or to the Legislature," she said, asking whether the criminal justice system can "make better use of our resources."
In her first year on the state high court, Cantil-Sakauye has more often sided with its conservative justices than its more moderate jurists, said Santa Clara University law professor Gerald Uelmen, an expert on the court. He said her early track record shows her as more conservative than George, who was a key swing vote on the seven-member court.
Uelmen called the chief justice's comments on the death penalty "powerful" and said they confirmed what he has been hearing privately ? that even the conservatives on the California Supreme Court have grown disillusioned with the state's capital punishment system.
Men and women on death row are far more likely to die of old age than by the executioner's needle. Litigation has brought executions to a halt, and there is a shortage of lawyers willing to take capital cases. Inmates must wait an average of five years before getting lawyers to bring their first appeal.
Cantil-Sakauye has written a ruling affirming a death sentence and joined other justices' decisions upholding capital sentences since her elevation to the high court last January. Her biggest ruling came in a Proposition 8 case in which she said initiative sponsors have the right to defend their ballot measures in court when state officials refuse to do so.
The chief justice indicated during the interview that she is probably still too new on the court for outsiders to assess her judicial philosophy. Most of her first year was dominated by administrative matters, particularly budget cuts, she said.
She spends more time with Justice Marvin R. Baxter than any other member of the court because he serves with her on the Judicial Council, the policymaking body for the judiciary, she said. Baxter is considered the court's most conservative member.
Cantil-Sakauye took the reins of the court system in the midst of crisis. She was in office only a few days when a state audit was released blasting the administrative office of the courts for mismanaging a costly computer system, casting the organization she presides over as financially reckless, secretive and bloated.
Citing the audit, two legislators publicly called on her to fire William Vickrey, then head of the Administrative Office of the Courts, which runs the court system. She bristled at the interference, calling the demand "a serious attempt to interfere with judicial branch governance and my ability to evaluate the AOC's management team."
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) ? An Arizona State University student says she had nothing to eat but two candy bars while her car was stuck in the snow for nine days in a remote area of east-central Arizona.
A state away, a Texas family found themselves struggling to breathe after nearly two days in their SUV, which was buried in a snowdrift on a rural New Mexico highway.
The frigid ordeals ended with separate rescues Wednesday for Lauren Weinberg and the Higgins family. Authorities said all were recovering after being taken to hospitals. Weinberg was released from Flagstaff Medical Center early Thursday.
The 23-year-old undergraduate at Arizona State University was seen leaving her mother's home in Phoenix on Dec. 11, and later said her car became stuck in the snow a day later.
Coconino County sheriff's spokesman Gerry Blair said Weinberg was driving around with no specific destination when she traveled south from Winslow toward the Mogollon Rim ? a prominent line of cliffs that divides the state's high country from the desert.
The paved road turned into a dirt road. Weinberg stopped her vehicle at a fence line and when she attempted to move a gate she found that it was stuck in the snow, according to Blair. Soon, her car was stuck as well.
Weinberg had two candy bars with her and told a sheriff's deputy that she put snow in a water bottle and placed it atop the sedan she was driving so it would melt, Blair said. She wasn't prepared for the winter conditions and did not have a heavy coat or blankets, Blair said.
Two U.S. Forest Service employees on snowmobiles found her about 45 miles southeast of Winslow while they were checking if gates on forest roads were closed.
"I am so thankful to be alive and warm," Weinberg said through a spokeswoman at the Flagstaff Medical Center, where she was taken. "Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers, because they worked. There were times I was afraid but mostly I had faith I would be found."
Other than being cold, hungry and thirsty, Weinberg was in good condition, lucid and speaking coherently, Blair said.
Weather forecasters and authorities said her survival was remarkable, given the more than 2 feet of snow in the area and temperatures that dipped to near zero some of the nights. Blair said Weinberg had a cellphone but the battery was dead.
"It's pretty harrowing that she'd been there since the 12th in an area that's totally foreign to her," he said. "We're certainly very happy that we found her, and we found her alive."
Phoenix police told local TV station KTVK that Weinberg bought items at convenience stores in Chandler, Superior and Show Low on Dec. 11 and in Holbrook the following day, but there was no other sign of her since then.
In New Mexico, rescuers had to dig through 4 feet of ice and snow to free the Higgins family, whose red GMC Yukon got stuck on U.S. 56 near Springer when a blizzard moved through the area Monday, state police said.
Rescuers found David and Yvonne Higgins and their 5-year-old daughter, Hannah, clinging to each other and lethargic early Wednesday. The family was recovering at Miners Colfax Medical Center in Raton.
David Higgins told The Associated Press he and his wife both have pneumonia but his daughter is fine.
The family, who had left their home near League City, Texas, on Sunday for a ski trip in northern New Mexico, started to hit bad weather soon after they crossed into New Mexico on Monday afternoon. Eventually, visibility dropped to zero.
"It was white. You couldn't even see the yellow line," David said.
The snow stopped the family in their tracks. David Higgins tried backing up and then driving forward again. He made some progress but then the back end slipped around and the vehicle started to slide down an embankment.
He was able to keep the car running for a couple of hours, but when he wanted to clear the exhaust pipe, his door was blocked.
"By 9 or 10 Monday night, I realized there was solid snow outside my window. I tried to shove my arm through the top of the window," the 48-year-old father said. "I pushed as hard as I could. My arm went about 16 inches, and there was still snow."
The Higginses had plenty of water to drink, sandwiches, chips and Chex mix. But as the hours passed, it seems as if they were working harder to breathe inside the buried SUV.
"We weren't sure of it, but we think we were running out of air. That was spooky," he said.
Higgins was able to reach his brother in Texas by cellphone and the distress call was relayed to state police, which launched a search Tuesday evening.
The National Guard was called out, along with state transportation workers. State highway trucks with plows and rescuers in four-wheel-drive vehicles pushed through heavy snow and drifts as high as 10 feet as teams probed the snow looking for the family's SUV.
One of the rescuers hit the hood, and the digging started.
"They pulled us up and out of it," he said. "The rescuer took pictures and it looked like a rabbit hole. We were 3 to 4 feet above the vehicle."
"Tired and whooped" is how Higgins described his family after their ordeal.
Whether they would make it home in time for Christmas was still unclear.
Higgins had a simple message for travelers this winter: Throw a case of water and a sleeping bag in the car.
"It will be there if you need it," he said.
The rescues came after an elderly New Mexico couple took a wrong turn early this month and got stranded on a remote forest road in eastern Arizona. They survived two winter storms over five days before the woman collapsed and died as they tried to hike to safety.
___
Susan Montoya Bryan reported from Albuquerque, N.M.
WASHINGTON ? The House Ethics Committee has concluded that Republican Don Young of Alaska did not receive improper donations to a legal defense fund.
The committee said Tuesday that 12 corporations owned and operated by the same seven peole each made the maximum $5,000 contribution ? for a total of $60,000.
The ethics panel said this is allowed because each company was a distinct legal entity in Louisiana. The companies provide different services or products to the maritime industry.
The committee said it is revising the rules, starting next year, to impose new contribution limits on owners who run multiple companies. In the Young case, with seven owners for the 12 contributing companies, the maximum would be $35,000 ? or $5,000 per owner.
A federal investigation of Young was dropped last year.
With the "X Factor" finale around the corner, that means no more on-air squabbles to keep us entertained on Wednesday nights ? at least until Jan. 18 comes around. So before we say goodbye, let?s take a look back at one of the more heated battles of its inaugural season: Simon Cowell vs. L.A. Reid.
Both run record companies and have discovered and nurtured international stars, which makes them worthy adversaries, even if they do sit on the same side of the table. Cue: Survivor?s ?Eye of the Tiger? and read on for five of their more memorable spats:
1. Who can forget the war of words over Drew Ryniewicz? Have your pick: When she sang Coldplay?s ?Fix You,? Reid commented, "I don't know if that was a new song, or the same one from last week. He knocked the infamous ?chair? performance of ?Billie Jean? then accused her of singing old peoples? music when she performed 19-year-old Demi Lovato?s hit, ?Skyscraper.? Cowell lashed back, telling Reid: ?I'm sick to death of your pointless, stupid criticism."
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2.Cowell hasn?t been shy about sharing his opinion ofMarcus Canty, calling out his performance of ?A Song For You? as boring, stating plainly that he was ?not jumping out of my chair.? Reid told his contestant not to let Cowell get ?in your head.?
3.Although Reid finally gave Melanie Amaro props for her semifinals performance of ?Feeling Good? ("I know why you're the only female left ? because you're the greatest female to ever grace this stage," he told her), he?s called her performances ?predictable? on several occasions. To wit: After her rendition of Michael Jackson?s ?Man in the Mirror,? Reid opined, ?I didn?t find it that inventive.? ?He also called her performance of Whitney Houston?s? ?When You Believe? ?safe.? Cowell?s reaction? A mix of bemusement and indignation wrapped up in a scowl.
PHOTOS from THR: Get to know 'X Factor's' top 17 finalists
4. Reid was never a supporter of Simone Battle?s, but after she sang ?Just Be Good to Me? by the S.O.S. Band, he took the opportunity to go for Cowell?s throat. ?Everything was right except your choice in contestant,? he said. ?I still don?t get it. You must be really rich because clearly $5 million doesn?t mean much to you at all.?
Story: Simon: 'X Factor' judges don't always do job properly
5. When Michael Buble doppelganger Philip Lomax performed the ill-advised ?I?m a Believer,? Cowell was quick to call out Reid on his culpability: "It's like you're a race car driver, and L.A. put you through in a tractor,? Cowell mocked. ?L.A.: On this guy, you one hundred percent failed."
Which judge do you think delivered the sharper barbs? Share your thoughts on the Facebook page for our TV blog, The Clicker.
LONDON ? The British government will restructure the country's banks by separating their retail activities from riskier investment banking operations, Business Secretary Vince Cable said Sunday.
Cable said the government will comply with the recommendations of an independent commission set up after the 2008 banking crisis and "proceed with the separation of the banks."
"It's absolutely right that we make the British economy safe," Cable told the BBC. "We just cannot risk having a repetition of that financial catastrophe that we had three years ago."
Treasury chief George Osborne is due to lay out the government's plans in Parliament on Monday. Cable told the BBC that the necessary legislation would be passed before the government's term ends in 2015.
The British government bought up large chunks of the country's banking system after it ran into major financial difficulties during the 2008 credit crunch. The British taxpayer now fully owns mortgage lenders Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, along with 83 percent of Royal Bank of Scotland and 41 percent of Lloyd's Banking Group.
Northern Rock, however, is due to be sold to Richard Branson's Virgin Money.
The Independent Commission on Banking recommended in September that the banks be restructured by 2019 to reduce the risks of taxpayers having to bear the cost of any future bailouts.
The commission, chaired by former Bank of England chief economist John Vickers, said retail banks should be "legally, economically and operationally separate" from the parent companies.
It also recommended that retail banks should be required to boost the amount of equity capital they hold.
The commission estimated its proposals would cost the banks up to 7 billion pounds ($11 billion) a year, and critics of the plan say it could slow lending at a time when the economy is in danger of sliding back into recession.
Zynga IPO is priced at $10 a share, making the Internet social gaming company worth $7 billion. The Zynga IPO is scheduled for Friday.
One ?Fast Money? analyst sounded positive on the highly anticipated?Zynga IPO, citing the company?s potential for growth.
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??It?s currently the leader in the social gaming space. It has 54 million daily active users, which is more than the next 14 game developers combined,? said Stephanie Chang, research analyst at Renaissance Capital.
?Zynga, which priced shares at $10, will hold its initial public offering Friday under the symbol ZYNG. The initial share price will give the company a valuation of $7 billion.
Chang said Zynga would be able to avoid the trend of Internet and social media companies seeing a drop in their?post-IPO share prices, calling the ?Farmville? developer ?distinguished? from other game developers.
??Zynga?s a completely different animal,? she said.
?Chang said Zynga?s margin profile was significantly more attractive than a lot of other online companies. She also pointed to the company?s exposure to an estimated 3 percent of Internet users, which gave it potential advertising potential of $1.5 billion.
??That?s a source of growth they haven?t even tapped into yet,? she said.
?Chang?s position stood in contrast to a Sterne Agee analyst placing?a "sell" rating on Zynga?earlier this week.
?Either way, Stephen Weiss wasn?t tempted.
??I think the issue with all these IPOs right now is that there?s no investor loyalty, so the market gets a little rough and the first stocks that go are the ones they just bought, they really don?t know,? he said.
?Weiss said it was difficult to know who planned to own the stock and who looked to flip it.
??I?m not going to buy the stock,? he said. ?I would wait until it trades down and finds a real shareholder base.?
Close family ties keep microbial cheaters in check, study findsPublic release date: 16-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Cheryl Dybas cdybas@nsf.gov 703-292-7734 National Science Foundation
Experiments on 'slime mold' explain why almost all multicellular organisms begin life as a single cell
Any multicellular animal, from a blue whale to a human being, poses a special challenge for evolution.
Most of the cells in its body will die without reproducing; only a privileged few will pass their genes to the next generation.
How could the extreme degree of cooperation required by multicellular existence actually evolve? Why aren't all creatures unicellular individualists determined to pass on their own genes?
Joan Strassmann and David Queller, evolutionary biologists at Washington University in St. Louis, provide an answer in this week's issue of the journal Science.
Experiments with amoebae that usually live as individuals, but must also join with others to form multicellular bodies to complete their life cycles, show that cooperation depends on kinship.
If amoebae occur in well-mixed cosmopolitan groups, cheaters will always be able to thrive by free-loading on their cooperative neighbors.
But if groups derive from a single cell, cheaters will usually occur in all-cheater groups and will have no cooperators to exploit.
The only exceptions are brand new cheater mutants in all-cooperator groups, and these could pose a problem if the mutation rate is high enough and there are many cells in the group to mutate.
The scientists calculated just how many times amoebae that arose from a single cell can safely divide before cooperation degenerates into a free-for-all.
The answer turns out to be 100 generations or more.
Population bottlenecks that kill off diversity and restart the population from a single cell are powerful stabilizers of cellular cooperation, the scientists conclude.
"The leap from single-celled organisms to multicelled ones was a critical step in the history of life that paved the way for the world's plants and animals, including humans," says Sam Scheiner, program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research. "This study provides important clues that about the conditions necessary for that leap."
Queller and Strassmann moved to Washington University from Rice University this summer, bringing a truckload of frozen spores with them.
Although they had worked for years with wasps and stingless bees, Queller and Strassmann's current "lab rat" is the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, known as Dicty for short.
The social amoebae, better known as "slime mold," can be found almost everywhere: in Antarctica, in deserts, in the canopies of tropical forests and in Forest Park, the urban park that adjoins Washington University.
The amoebae spend most of their lives as tiny blobs crawling through soil looking for E. coli and other bacteria to eat.
Things become interesting when bacteria are scarce and the amoebae begin to starve. Then they release chemicals that attract other amoebae, which follow this trail until they bump into one another.
A mound of some 10,000 amoebae forms and elongates into a slug a few millimeters long that crawls forward, but not backward, toward heat and light.
The slug stops moving when it has reached a suitable place for dispersal. Then the front 20 percent of the amoebae die to produce a stalk that the remaining cells flow up to become spores.
The 20 percent of the amoebae in the stalk sacrifice their genes so the other 80 percent can pass theirs on.
When Strassmann and Queller began to work with Dicty, one of the first things they discovered was that the amoebae sometimes cheat.
Scientist Dennis Welker of Utah State University had given them a genetically diverse collection of wild-caught clones--genetically identical amoebae.
They mixed amoebae from two clones together, then examined the fruiting bodies to see where the clones ended up.
Each fruiting body included cells from both clones, but some clones contributed disproportionately to the spore body. They had cheated.
How can a blob of cytoplasm cheat? In more ways than you'd think.
"They might," says Queller, "have a mutation that makes an adhesion molecule less sticky, for example, so that they slide to the back of the slug, the part that forms spores."
"But there are tradeoffs," says Strassmann, "because if you're too slippery, you'll fall off the slug and lose all the advantages of being part of group."
Strassmann and Queller wondered if it would be possible to break the social contract among the amoebae by setting up conditions where relatedness was low, and each clonal lineage encountered mostly strangers and rarely relatives.
Together with then graduate student Jennie Kuzdzal-Fick, they set up an experiment to learn what happened to cheating as heterogeneous (low relatedness) populations of amoebae evolved.
"At the end of the experiment we assessed the cheating ability of the descendants by mixing equal numbers of descendants and ancestors, and checking to see whether the descendants ended up in the stalks or the spores of the fruiting bodies," says Strassmann.
They found that in nearly all cases the descendants cheated their ancestors. What's more, when descendant amoebae were grown as individual clones, about a third were unable to form fruiting bodies.
Many of the mutants, in other words, were "obligate" cheaters. Having lost the ability to form their own fruiting bodies, they were able to survive only by free-loading, or taking advantage of the amoebae that had retained the ability to cooperate.
This result, Queller and Strassmann say, shows that cheater mutations that threaten multicellularity occur naturally and are even favored--as long as the population of amoebae remains genetically diverse.
But the scientists were aware that obligate cheaters are either very rare or altogether missing among wild social amoebae. They had not found any obligate cheaters in the more than 2,000 wild clones they sampled.
They also knew that in the wild, the amoebae in fruiting bodies are close kin if not clones.
What prevents cooperation in wild populations from degenerating into the laboratory free-for-all?
Could the difference be that the amoebae in the laboratory were distant relations and those in the wild are kissing kin?
Suppose, the scientists thought, one amoeba ventured alone into a pristine field of bacteria.
As it grew and multiplied, making copies of itself, how long would it take for cheating mutations to appear or what was the mutation rate? Additionally, how successfully would these mutations proliferate--how strongly would they be selected?
To establish the mutation rate, Strassmann and Queller along with graduate student Sara Fox ran what's called a mutation accumulation experiment.
In this experiment, amoebae that mutated didn't have to compete against amoebae that were faithful replicators.
In the absence of selection, all but the most severe mutations were also reproduced and became a permanent part of the lineage's genome.
The scientists allowed 90 different lines of amoebae to accumulate mutations in this way.
"At the end," says Queller, "we found that among those 90 lines not a single one had lost the ability to fruit. So that's almost 100 lines, almost a thousand generations and 100,000 opportunities, to lose fruiting and none of them did.
"That allowed us, using statistics, to put an upper limit on the rate at which mutations turn a cooperator into an obligate cheater."
The rate was low enough that if fruiting bodies were forming in the wild from amoebae that were all descended from one spore, cheating would never be an issue.
But the scientists wanted to ask another, bigger question.
They used calculations invented for population genetics to ask how many times the amoeba could divide--theoretically--before cheating became a problem.
What if, they asked, "we let an initial single amoebae divide enough times so there would be as many of them as there are cells in a fruit fly, then transferred one amoeba and allowed it to divide until the daughter colony reached fruit fly size, and so on?
"What if we let the colonies grow to human size? To elephant size? To blue whale size? Would the cheaters bring down the whale-sized Dicty colony?"
The answer, it turned out, was no.
A whale-sized Dicty colony is not the same thing as a whale, but nonetheless the experiments suggest how organisms, over the course of evolution, have sidestepped the cheating trap and maintained the levels of cooperation multicellular bodies demand.
"A multicellular body like the human body is an incredibly cooperative thing," Queller says, "and sociobiologists have learned that really cooperative things are hard to evolve because of the potential for cheating.
"It's the single-cell bottleneck,"he says, "that generates the high relatedness among the cells that allows them to cooperate."
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Close family ties keep microbial cheaters in check, study findsPublic release date: 16-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Cheryl Dybas cdybas@nsf.gov 703-292-7734 National Science Foundation
Experiments on 'slime mold' explain why almost all multicellular organisms begin life as a single cell
Any multicellular animal, from a blue whale to a human being, poses a special challenge for evolution.
Most of the cells in its body will die without reproducing; only a privileged few will pass their genes to the next generation.
How could the extreme degree of cooperation required by multicellular existence actually evolve? Why aren't all creatures unicellular individualists determined to pass on their own genes?
Joan Strassmann and David Queller, evolutionary biologists at Washington University in St. Louis, provide an answer in this week's issue of the journal Science.
Experiments with amoebae that usually live as individuals, but must also join with others to form multicellular bodies to complete their life cycles, show that cooperation depends on kinship.
If amoebae occur in well-mixed cosmopolitan groups, cheaters will always be able to thrive by free-loading on their cooperative neighbors.
But if groups derive from a single cell, cheaters will usually occur in all-cheater groups and will have no cooperators to exploit.
The only exceptions are brand new cheater mutants in all-cooperator groups, and these could pose a problem if the mutation rate is high enough and there are many cells in the group to mutate.
The scientists calculated just how many times amoebae that arose from a single cell can safely divide before cooperation degenerates into a free-for-all.
The answer turns out to be 100 generations or more.
Population bottlenecks that kill off diversity and restart the population from a single cell are powerful stabilizers of cellular cooperation, the scientists conclude.
"The leap from single-celled organisms to multicelled ones was a critical step in the history of life that paved the way for the world's plants and animals, including humans," says Sam Scheiner, program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research. "This study provides important clues that about the conditions necessary for that leap."
Queller and Strassmann moved to Washington University from Rice University this summer, bringing a truckload of frozen spores with them.
Although they had worked for years with wasps and stingless bees, Queller and Strassmann's current "lab rat" is the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, known as Dicty for short.
The social amoebae, better known as "slime mold," can be found almost everywhere: in Antarctica, in deserts, in the canopies of tropical forests and in Forest Park, the urban park that adjoins Washington University.
The amoebae spend most of their lives as tiny blobs crawling through soil looking for E. coli and other bacteria to eat.
Things become interesting when bacteria are scarce and the amoebae begin to starve. Then they release chemicals that attract other amoebae, which follow this trail until they bump into one another.
A mound of some 10,000 amoebae forms and elongates into a slug a few millimeters long that crawls forward, but not backward, toward heat and light.
The slug stops moving when it has reached a suitable place for dispersal. Then the front 20 percent of the amoebae die to produce a stalk that the remaining cells flow up to become spores.
The 20 percent of the amoebae in the stalk sacrifice their genes so the other 80 percent can pass theirs on.
When Strassmann and Queller began to work with Dicty, one of the first things they discovered was that the amoebae sometimes cheat.
Scientist Dennis Welker of Utah State University had given them a genetically diverse collection of wild-caught clones--genetically identical amoebae.
They mixed amoebae from two clones together, then examined the fruiting bodies to see where the clones ended up.
Each fruiting body included cells from both clones, but some clones contributed disproportionately to the spore body. They had cheated.
How can a blob of cytoplasm cheat? In more ways than you'd think.
"They might," says Queller, "have a mutation that makes an adhesion molecule less sticky, for example, so that they slide to the back of the slug, the part that forms spores."
"But there are tradeoffs," says Strassmann, "because if you're too slippery, you'll fall off the slug and lose all the advantages of being part of group."
Strassmann and Queller wondered if it would be possible to break the social contract among the amoebae by setting up conditions where relatedness was low, and each clonal lineage encountered mostly strangers and rarely relatives.
Together with then graduate student Jennie Kuzdzal-Fick, they set up an experiment to learn what happened to cheating as heterogeneous (low relatedness) populations of amoebae evolved.
"At the end of the experiment we assessed the cheating ability of the descendants by mixing equal numbers of descendants and ancestors, and checking to see whether the descendants ended up in the stalks or the spores of the fruiting bodies," says Strassmann.
They found that in nearly all cases the descendants cheated their ancestors. What's more, when descendant amoebae were grown as individual clones, about a third were unable to form fruiting bodies.
Many of the mutants, in other words, were "obligate" cheaters. Having lost the ability to form their own fruiting bodies, they were able to survive only by free-loading, or taking advantage of the amoebae that had retained the ability to cooperate.
This result, Queller and Strassmann say, shows that cheater mutations that threaten multicellularity occur naturally and are even favored--as long as the population of amoebae remains genetically diverse.
But the scientists were aware that obligate cheaters are either very rare or altogether missing among wild social amoebae. They had not found any obligate cheaters in the more than 2,000 wild clones they sampled.
They also knew that in the wild, the amoebae in fruiting bodies are close kin if not clones.
What prevents cooperation in wild populations from degenerating into the laboratory free-for-all?
Could the difference be that the amoebae in the laboratory were distant relations and those in the wild are kissing kin?
Suppose, the scientists thought, one amoeba ventured alone into a pristine field of bacteria.
As it grew and multiplied, making copies of itself, how long would it take for cheating mutations to appear or what was the mutation rate? Additionally, how successfully would these mutations proliferate--how strongly would they be selected?
To establish the mutation rate, Strassmann and Queller along with graduate student Sara Fox ran what's called a mutation accumulation experiment.
In this experiment, amoebae that mutated didn't have to compete against amoebae that were faithful replicators.
In the absence of selection, all but the most severe mutations were also reproduced and became a permanent part of the lineage's genome.
The scientists allowed 90 different lines of amoebae to accumulate mutations in this way.
"At the end," says Queller, "we found that among those 90 lines not a single one had lost the ability to fruit. So that's almost 100 lines, almost a thousand generations and 100,000 opportunities, to lose fruiting and none of them did.
"That allowed us, using statistics, to put an upper limit on the rate at which mutations turn a cooperator into an obligate cheater."
The rate was low enough that if fruiting bodies were forming in the wild from amoebae that were all descended from one spore, cheating would never be an issue.
But the scientists wanted to ask another, bigger question.
They used calculations invented for population genetics to ask how many times the amoeba could divide--theoretically--before cheating became a problem.
What if, they asked, "we let an initial single amoebae divide enough times so there would be as many of them as there are cells in a fruit fly, then transferred one amoeba and allowed it to divide until the daughter colony reached fruit fly size, and so on?
"What if we let the colonies grow to human size? To elephant size? To blue whale size? Would the cheaters bring down the whale-sized Dicty colony?"
The answer, it turned out, was no.
A whale-sized Dicty colony is not the same thing as a whale, but nonetheless the experiments suggest how organisms, over the course of evolution, have sidestepped the cheating trap and maintained the levels of cooperation multicellular bodies demand.
"A multicellular body like the human body is an incredibly cooperative thing," Queller says, "and sociobiologists have learned that really cooperative things are hard to evolve because of the potential for cheating.
"It's the single-cell bottleneck,"he says, "that generates the high relatedness among the cells that allows them to cooperate."
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 16-Dec-2011
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