Time short for Gingrich to close gap in Florida (AP)

MIAMI ? Newt Gingrich slammed GOP rival Mitt Romney on Sunday for the steady stream of attacks he likened to "carpet-bombing," trying to cut into the resurgent front-runner's lead in Florida in the dwindling hours before Tuesday's pivotal presidential primary.

Surging ahead in polls, Romney kept the pressure on Gingrich with a dominant advertising presence that questioned the former House speaker's leadership and ethics. During campaign stops, Romney divided his focus between Gingrich and President Barack Obama.

In what has become a wildly unpredictable race, the momentum has swung back to Romney, staggered last weekend by Gingrich's victory in South Carolina. Romney has begun advertising in Nevada ahead of that state's caucuses next Saturday, illustrating the challenges ahead for Gingrich, who has pledged to push ahead no matter what happens in Florida.

Romney's campaign has dogged Gingrich at his own campaign stops, sending surrogates to remind reporters of Gingrich's House ethics probe in the 1990s and other episodes in his career.

Gingrich reacted defensively, accusing the former Massachusetts governor and a political committee that supports him of lying, and the GOP's establishment of allowing it.

"I don't know how you debate a person with civility if they're prepared to say things that are just plain factually false," Gingrich said during appearances on Sunday talk shows. "I think the Republican establishment believes it's OK to say and do virtually anything to stop a genuine insurgency from winning because they are very afraid of losing control of the old order."

Gingrich objected specifically to a Romney campaign ad that includes a 1997 NBC News report on the House's decision to discipline Gingrich, then speaker, for ethics charges.

After hounding Gingrich during two debates last week, Romney returned more of his attention to Obama, who had been Romney's chief target as he tried to make the case that he was the most worthy Republican to challenge the Democratic incumbent.

But Romney didn't relent in swiping at Gingrich, even as an NBC News/Marist poll published Sunday showed Romney with support from 42 percent of likely Florida primary voters, compared with 27 percent for Gingrich.

"He's now finding excuses ... complaining about what he thinks were the reasons he thinks he's had difficulty here in Florida. But you know, we've got a president who has a lot of excuses," Romney said at a rally in Naples. "And the excuses are over, it's time to produce."

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, trailing in Florida by a wide margin, stayed in his home state, where his 3-year-old daughter, Bella, was hospitalized. She has a genetic condition caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 18th chromosome. Aides said he would resume campaigning as soon as possible.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who has invested little in Florida, looked ahead to Nevada. The libertarian-leaning Paul is focusing more on gathering delegates in caucus states, where it's less expensive to campaign. But securing the nomination only through caucus states is a hard task.

The race began moving toward a two-person fight in South Carolina, and has grown more bitter and personal in Florida.

The intense effort by Romney to slow Gingrich is comparable his strategy against Gingrich in the closing month before Iowa's leadoff caucuses Jan. 3.

Gingrich led in Iowa polls, lifted by what were hailed as strong performances in televised debates, only to drop in the face of withering attacks by Romney, aided immensely by ads sponsored by a political committee run by former Romney aides.

In Florida, senior Romney aides have popped up at Gingrich events to question Gingrich's conservative credentials. Led by Romney's top Iowa adviser, David Kochel, Romney's team cites Gingrich's criticism of House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan's Medicare overhaul plan last year, and his appearance with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in an advertisement supporting climate-change legislation.

"That kind of language emboldens the critics of conservatism," Kochel said. "We're out pointing that out correcting the record."

Gingrich has responded by criticizing Romney's conservative credentials. Outside an evangelical Christian church in Lutz, Gingrich said he was the more loyal conservative on key social issues.

"This party is not going to nominate somebody who is a pro-abortion, pro-gun-control, pro-tax increase liberal," Gingrich said. "It isn't going to happen."

But Gingrich, in appearances on Sunday news programs, returned to complaining about Romney's tactics, rather than emphasizing his own message as that of a conservative with a record of action in Congress.

"When we get to a positive idea campaign, I consistently win," Gingrich said. "It's only when he can mass money to focus on carpet-bombing with negative ads that he gains any traction at all."

Romney and the political committee that supports him had combined to spend some $6.8 million in ads criticizing Gingrich in the Florida campaign's final week. Gingrich and a group that supports him were spending about one-third that amount.

Gingrich worked to portray himself as the insurgent outsider, collecting the endorsement of tea party favorite Herman Cain, whose own campaign for president foundered amid sexual harassment allegations.

It was unclear how aggressively Gingrich would be able to compete in states beyond Florida. The next televised debate, a format Gingrich has used to his advantage, is not until Feb. 22, more than three weeks away.

Romney already has campaigned in Nevada more than Gingrich, is advertising there, and stresses his business background in a state hard-hit by the economy. His campaign welcomed the Sunday endorsement of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevada's largest newspaper.

Michigan and Maine, states where Romney is well-positioned also hold their contests in February. Arizona, a strong tea-party state where Gingrich could do well, has its primary Feb. 28.

___

Associated Press writers Steve Peoples in Naples and Shannon McCaffrey in Lutz contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

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Trash piling up faster along border with Mexico

RIO RICO, Ariz?? Picking her way into the desert brush, Raquel Martinez gathered scores of plastic water bottles tossed in an Arizona desert valley near the Mexico border, often by migrants making a risky trek into the United States across increasingly remote terrain.

"We need more bags ... there's so much trash," said Martinez, one of scores of volunteers helping clean up the dry bed of the Santa Cruz River about 10 miles north of the Mexico border on Saturday.

Trash tossed by thousands of illegal immigrants as they chase the American Dream has been a persistent problem for years in the rugged Arizona borderlands that lie on a main migration and smuggling route from Mexico.

The problem was compounded as immigrants and drug traffickers responded to ramped up vigilance on the U.S.-Mexico border by taking increasingly remote routes, leaving more waste behind in out-of-the way and hard-to-clean areas, authorities say.

"Migants used to follow the washes or follow the roads or utility poles," said Robin Hoover, founder of the Tucson-based non-profit Humane Borders.

"Now they're having to move farther and farther from the middle of the valleys," he added. "They end up making more camp sites and cutting more trails when they do that, and, unfortunately ... leave more trash."

Those making the punishing march carry food, water and often a change of clothes on the trek through remote desert areas that can take several days.

Most is tossed before they pile into vehicles at pickup sites like the one getting attention on the outskirts of Rio Rico, from where they head on to the U.S. interior.

"One of the problems that we are facing is that these sites are becoming more and more remote as law enforcement steps up its efforts," Henry Darwin, director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, said of the flourishing borderland garbage dumps.

"There's probably sites out there that we haven't encountered yet or don't know about because there's a lot of people out in those areas," added Darwin, who gave testimony on the issue to state lawmakers earlier this month.

There are no numbers to show exactly how many would-be migrants or smugglers take the illegal and surreptitious trek across the border into Arizona from Mexico each year.

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But in an indication of the scale of the migration, federal border police made nearly 130,000 arrests last year in Arizona, where hundreds of Border Patrol agents, miles of fencing and several unmanned surveillance drones have been added in recent years to tighten security along the porous border.

With limited funding for clean up, Arizona environmental authorities draw on volunteers to help in drives like the one near Rio Rico, where an estimated 140 volunteers including residents, community and youth groups took part on Saturday.

Clean up efforts since 2008 by the department of environmental quality have included pulling 42 tons of trash from 160 acres of Cocopah tribal lands in far western Arizona, and clean ups at least seven sites on ranches and public land in areas south of Tucson.

Signs of illegal immigrants and even drug traffickers making the circuitous foot journey abound in the mesquite-studded riverbed near Rio Rico, a vigorous day's walk north of the border.

"I've found about a trillion water bottles," said David Burkett, a lawyer from Scottsdale, who worked up a sweat as he filled his fourth 50-pound trash bag. Nearby are tossed backpacks, food containers, a blanket and a pair of shoes.

He points out that alongside the apparent migrant trash is a large amount of other waste including a couch, kitchen countertops and yard debris, likely tossed by residents and contractors. Still, it is a shock to those living locally.

"We don't realize how bad it is until we come down and see it," said Candy Lamar, a volunteer who lives in sprawling, low density Rio Rico, as she works to pick up trash.

The area getting attention on Saturday lies a few miles from a remote spot where the bodies of three suspected drug traffickers were found shot to death "execution style" last November.

The area is not far from another out-of-the-way spot where Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was shot dead by suspected border bandits in December 2010. Volunteers working on Saturday were aware of the potential hazards.

As she stuffed a blue garbage sack with trash, retiree Sharon Christensen eyed discarded burlap sacking, blankets and cord -- the remains of a makeshift backpack of the type often used by drug traffickers walking marijuana loads up from Mexico.

"It would make me hesitant to come out here on my own, knowing that this kind of activity is going on ... It is a concern, and we need to be mindful," said Christensen, a retiree and hiking enthusiast.

Clean-up organizers liaise with Border Patrol and local police on security, in addition to warning volunteers of potential danger from snakes, scorpions or even bees that can swarm in discarded vehicle tires, and of potential hazards including medical waste and human excrement.

Equipped with gloves, volunteers such as Burkett, the Scottsdale lawyer, were glad to take part on Saturday.

"As an avid outdoors person in Arizona, I spend a lot of time using the desert," he said. "It's important to me personally to take the time to give back."

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46183245/ns/us_news-life/

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Merkel deflects pressure to boost euro bailout funds (Reuters)

BERLIN (Reuters) ? Chancellor Angela Merkel tried to deflect growing international pressure on Germany to agree an increase in the euro zone's bailout funds Sunday by saying talks were still continuing.

Amid calls to raise the size of the permanent European Stability Mechanism (ESM) ahead of an EU summit Monday, Merkel was asked by Bild am Sonntag newspaper about "rising pressure" on Germany to "massively increase" the bailout fund.

But the chancellor did not address the issue of whether Germany would back raising the ESM and instead answered a question about what impact increasing the ESM might have on the German budget this year.

"The negotiations are continuing on whether we'll pay in our contribution in one tranche or two tranches," said Merkel, who has resisted calls for Germany to back increasing the bailout funds in part due to opposition in her center-right coalition.

"But independent of all that, our deficit level as far as the European Stability Pact is concerned will not be increased as a result because the money won't be gone. It's only to be transferred from the federal budget to the ESM."

Merkel is keen to avoid the EU summit being sidetracked by debate about whether extra funding should be funneled into the euro zone bailout funds, as the International Monetary Fund and some euro states -- including Italy and Spain -- have suggested.

A close Merkel ally in parliament, Peter Altmaier, said it made sense to first see how effective the ESM is.

"It would be good if we make good use of the amounts that are now available," Altmaier, a senior MP, told German radio.

Austrian chancellor Werner Faymann said in an interview in Der Spiegel news magazine he believed the 500-billion euro ESM firewall may need to be raised, echoing appeals made in Berlin by IMF head Christine Lagarde and Italian premier Mario Monti.

"I wouldn't promise my parliament that 500 billion euros will be enough," Faymann said, adding his government was preparing to contribute to a higher firewall by taking funds from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).

"This is the direction it should go -- that way we'd come up with a total of about 750 billion euros," he said. "Financial markets are observing us closely and measuring how strong we are by looking at the size of the firewall. If it's too low, we'll be giving the markets a reason to speculate against us."

German government sources have told Reuters Merkel does not rule out boosting funds if the euro zone crisis deteriorates over the coming months. But only the threat of a disaster may persuade her coalition to back more funds for the currency bloc.

The German government believes that there should not be any discussions about increasing the firewall until March.

The leader of Germany's center-left opposition in parliament, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said Merkel was making a mistake by resisting calls to raise the ESM.

"You can argue whether continually coming up with new bailout funds is the right way to go," Steinmeier told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. "But for those who decide in a situation like this to set up a permanent bailout fund, they should realize that this one is definitely not big enough."

Steinmeier, foreign minister under Merkel in the 2005-2009 grand coalition and a possible challenger in 2013, said that Merkel had failed to inspire public confidence during Europe's worst post-war crisis, by repeatedly changing course.

"She has annoyed a lot of people and put them off on Europe by continuously changing direction," said Steinmeier.

"As Europe's strongest export nation we have a fundamental interest in preventing this crisis from becoming a permanent recession for all of Europe," he added. "If Europe isn't doing well, then Germany won't be doing well either."

(Additional Reporting By Andreas Rinke; Editing by Sophie Walker)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/bs_nm/us_eurozone

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Topless protesters detained at Davos forum

A topless Ukrainian protester is arrested by Swiss police after climbing up a fence at the entrance to the congress center where the World Economic Forum takes place in Davos, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. The activists are from the group Femen, which has have become popular in Ukraine for staging small, half-naked protests against a range of issues including oppression of political opposition. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

A topless Ukrainian protester is arrested by Swiss police after climbing up a fence at the entrance to the congress center where the World Economic Forum takes place in Davos, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. The activists are from the group Femen, which has have become popular in Ukraine for staging small, half-naked protests against a range of issues including oppression of political opposition. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

Topless Ukrainian protesters demonstrate at the entrance to the congress center where the World Economic Forum takes place in Davos, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. The activists are from the group Femen, which has have become popular in Ukraine for staging small, half-naked protests against a range of issues including oppression of political opposition. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

Topless Ukrainian protesters climb up a fence at the entrance to the congress center where the World Economic Forum takes place in Davos, Switzerland Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. The activists are from the group Femen, which has have become popular in Ukraine for staging small, half-naked protests against a range of issues including oppression of political opposition. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

A topless Ukrainian protester is arrested by Swiss police after climbing up a fence at the entrance to the congress center where the World Economic Forum takes place in Davos, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. The activists are from the group Femen, which has have become popular in Ukraine for staging small, half-naked protests against a range of issues including oppression of political opposition. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

Activists of the Ukrainian feminist nudity group FEMEN clash with Swiss police during a protest at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Keystone/Jean-Christophe Bott)

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) ? Three topless Ukrainian protesters were detained Saturday while trying to break into an invitation-only gathering of international CEOs and political leaders to call attention to the needs of the world's poor. Separately, demonstrators from the Occupy movement marched to the edge of the gathering.

After a complicated journey to reach the heavily guarded Swiss resort town of Davos, the Ukrainians arrived at the entrance to the complex where the World Economic Forum takes place every year.

With temperatures around freezing in the snow-filled town, they took off their tops and tried to climb a fence before being detained. "Crisis! Made in Davos," read one message painted across a protester's torso, while others held banners that said "Poor, because of you" and "Gangsters party in Davos."

Davos police spokesman Thomas Hobi said the three women were taken to the police station and told that they weren't allowed to demonstrate. He said they would be released later Saturday.

The activists are from the group Femen, which has become popular in Ukraine for staging small, half-naked protests to highlight a range of issues including oppression of political opposition. They have also conducted protests in some other countries.

"We came here to Switzerland to Davos to explain the position of all poor people of the world, to explain that we are poor because of these rich people who now sit in the building," said Inna Schewcenko.

Protesters from the Occupy movement that started with opposition to practices on Wall Street held a separate demonstration in Davos on Saturday. A small group of protesters are camped in igloos in Davos to call for more help for the needy.

About 40 Occupy protesters gathered in front of the town hall. Some held placards with slogans such as "If voting would change anything, it would be illegal" and "Don't let them decide for you, Occupy WEF."

They then marched toward the forum, prompting about a dozen police officers to hastily erect a mobile barrier as Saturday shoppers looked on with bemusement.

The demonstrators chanted anti-capitalist slogans, remaining about 100 feet (30 meters) from police lines.

One member of the Occupy camp was invited to speak at a special event outside the forum on Friday night to discuss the future of capitalism; British opposition leader Ed Miliband was also speaking.

Soon after the panel discussion began, some activists in the audience jumped up and started chanting slogans, and the protester panelist walked off the stage.

Other members of the audience told the activists to "shut up" and arguments disrupted the panel for about 20 minutes. The discussion then resumed, without the Occupy panelist.

___

Anja Niedringhaus and Paolo Santalucia contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-28-EU-Davos-Forum-Protests/id-f3737367e5b04cfb974d53fc48a70741

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Next Up in Nuclear: Small Modular Reactors

Today, one-fifth of America?s electricity comes from nuclear power. The federal government wants to gradually expand that fraction in order to phase out greenhouse-gas-emitting coal-fired plants, which generate most of our energy. But nuclear power plants take a long time and a lot of money to build. That?s why the Department of Energy is pushing a new technology called the small modular reactor (SMR). Last week, the department announced that it would invest $452 million toward developing and licensing a smaller and sleeker nuclear reactor.

SMRs will be small enough to be pre-assembled in a factory and shipped to location. These easy-to-install reactors could potentially shave years and millions of dollars off the construction of nuclear power plants, and could make it economical to bring nuclear power to rural areas or developing countries that lack infrastructure. That?s why SMRs are being hailed as the next generation in nuclear technology.

How It Works

First, don?t let the name fool you. "These are not going to fit in your backyard," says Paul Genoa, a policy director with the Nuclear Energy Institute. "They?ll still be industrial facilities, but the footprint will probably be like that of a small shopping mall, but with more land around it." SMR plants could fit inside the footprint of the old coal-fired plants they?re expected to replace, Genoa says.

An SMR would generate one-tenth to one-third the energy of a conventional reactor. Rather than producing 1000 megawatts of electricity, for example, an SMR might produce 300Mw or less. For example, the company NuScale Power is developing a 45Mw SMR that would be able to supply electricity to 45,000 American homes for a year, making it well suited for smaller towns and cities where a conventional reactor would be overkill. And because SMRs are modular, they?re scalable. The power plant can install additional SMRs as electricity demand grows.

There are three main varieties of SMR in development.

Light-Water SMRs

These are basically a scaled-down version of the light-water reactors already working in the United States. Inside a light-water reactor, heat from the uranium core turns water into steam, which spins turbines that generate electricity. The same thing happens in a light-water SMR, with a few modifications.

Unlike traditional reactors, which position the generators outside the reactor, some SMRs, such as the Babcock & Wilcox 125Mw "mPower" reactor, locate the generators inside the reactor. John Kelly, the energy department?s deputy assistant secretary for nuclear reactor technologies, says this makes manufacturing easier and eliminates the piping between reactors and generator, which is a safety liability. (If a pipe breaks, it becomes difficult to deliver coolant back to the hot core.)

Some light-water SMRs also incorporate what engineers call passive safety features?in an emergency, they could cool a reactor core even if the power goes out. At Fukushima Daiichi in Japan, the site of last year?s post-tsunami nuclear disaster, the plant relied on electrically driven pumps to deliver water to the hot core and cool it down. When the power went out and diesel backups failed, operators had to resort to desperate measures to prevent total catastrophe.

By contrast, small reactors such as the Westinghouse SMR would rely on gravity and thermodynamics to circulate coolants. As the radioactive core heats the water surrounding it, that hot water becomes less dense and flows upward toward the heat exchangers that turn the heat into electricity. As the water loses heat to the exchangers, it cools, becomes more dense, and falls back toward the core?no electricity required.

"The new plans are elegant in their simplicity," Genoa says. "Passive features allow reactors to go without operator interaction, and without pumps to move water around." To further improve on safety, several SMRs are meant to be installed and operated underground.

The light-water SMRs in development have been slightly less efficient than normal reactors, meaning less of the uranium?s potential energy is turned into electricity. But small light-water reactors may eventually deliver electricity that is less expensive than what larger reactors can produce simply because construction and installation costs would be lower. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects to approve the first light-water SMR power plants in the early 2020s.

Gas-Cooled SMRs

The idea behind gas-cooled reactors, Genoa says, is to rule out even the possibility of a meltdown. "It is physically impossible for the reactor to get hot enough to damage the fuel," he says. That?s because rather than using water as a coolant, gas-cooled SMRs would use helium.

As water boils it can build up pressure inside a reactor. Under extreme heat it can also react with zirconium alloys in the core. At Fukushima Daiichi, water-zirconium reactions caused a hydrogen explosion that blew the roofs off several reactors.

But unlike water, helium doesn?t boil or react. This allows the gas-cooled reactor to operate safely at temperatures up to 1000 degrees C, which increases the reactor?s efficiency. While a light-water reactor typically extracts roughly 34 percent of its core?s potential energy, a gas-cooled reactor would operate at more than 40 percent efficiency. A gas-cooled reactor developed by the Japanese Atomic Energy Research Institute has achieved 45 percent efficiency, and General Atomics? Modular Helium Reactor achieves up to 47 percent.

To accommodate the high heat needed to achieve such high efficiencies, engineers must modify other elements of the gas-cooled reactor. The fuel requires a heat-tolerant carbon coating, for example, and metal parts of the reactor are replaced with ceramics, Genoa says. Because gas-cooled reactors require these new technologies, the Nuclear Regulatory Council estimates they won?t come on line until the mid-2020s.

Fast Reactors

Normal nuclear reactors use what are called moderators to slow down neutrons and control the chain reactions that happen during fission. That?s because the "fast neutrons" created when uranium splits are less likely to cause fission in the neighborhood?and keep the chain reaction going?than slightly slower neutrons are.

Fast reactors, though, are optimized for fast neutrons, which allows them to extract 60 times more energy from uranium than a typical light-water reactor can. That also means that fast reactors can digest the nuclear waste of other reactors, reducing the waste?s radiotoxicity while extracting energy in the process.

Fast reactors already in development include Argonne National Lab?s 175Mw reactor, Advanced Reactor Concept?s sodium-cooled ARC-100, and the 25Mw Hyperion Power Module. But because uranium is still in abundant supply, and because fast reactors can be used to breed weapons-grade plutonium, these SMRs are not economical (or legal) at this point.

Potential Snags

Before any SMR can be used in a power plant, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission must create regulations for it. Any new reactor design raises a slew of new questions. Since SMRs are smaller and have lots of passive safety features, are fewer operators needed per reactor? Should the 10-mile evacuation radius mandated for traditional reactors be smaller for a smaller reactor? What are the proper safety protocols for an SMR? Once the NRC figures out how to adapt current regulations, it could go certify SMR designs and issue licenses to operate new power plants.

SMRs may be the reactors of the future, but Genoa says traditional reactors aren?t going away anytime soon. "Small reactors are not a substitute for big reactors, but we can?t build a big reactor everywhere," he says. "Just like when you go to the auto store and you can choose a sedan, a minivan or a truck, the nuclear market needs more options."

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/nuclear/next-up-in-nuclear-small-modular-reactors?src=rss

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Florida Presidential Debate Highlights: Ron Paul Style!

Asked at last night's Florida Republican debate if Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich should return money made from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Ron Paul responded:

"That subject really doesn't interest me a whole lot."

The Texas congressman might not be #1 in the polls, but he showed last night that when given a proper forum, he's as substantive as anyone - and funny too.

Asked where he stands on Newt Gingrich's proposal to put a permanent base on the moon by 2020, Paul said, "Well, I don't think we should go to the moon."

"I think we maybe should send some politicians up there."

Florida GOP Debate Highlights: Ron Paul Edition!

Paul, who at 76 would be the oldest person ever elected President of the United States also drew cheers in his response to a question about his medical records.

Noting that his records are "about one page, if even that long," Paul challenged his cohorts to "a 25-mile bike ride, any time, any day in the heat of Texas."

But, you know, there are laws against age discrimination, so if you push this too much, you better be careful," he quipped, and he wasn't done by a long shot.

Asked by CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer what he would say if Raul Castro called him in the Oval Office, Paul said, "Well, I'd ask what he called about, you know?"

Which isn't to say Paul's wit was his only asset. He routinely scored points with his strong responses, especially regarding monetary policy and civil liberties.

Florida's primary is Tuesday, January 31.

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/florida-presidential-debate-highlights-ron-paul-style/

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Soap Opera Actor Nick Santino Commits Suicide at 47 (omg!)

Brooklyn-born actor Nick Santino committed suicide Wednesday, The New York Post reports.

The soap opera star was wracked with grief after his beloved pit bull Rocco was euthanized Tuesday -- the same day Santino turned 47.

PHOTOS: Us Weekly's photo tribute to stars we've lost

"Today I betrayed my best friend and put down my best friend," Santino wrote in a suicide note, according to close friend Stuart Sarnoff. "Rocco trusted me and I failed him. He didn't deserve this."

The actor, who appeared on seven episodes of All My Children and six episodes of Guiding Light, had been feeling "harassed" by his building management company, according to his neighbor Lia Pettigrew.

PHOTOS: Stars' soap opera beginnings

He was allegedly threatened with a $250 fine for having a barking dog, but according to neighbor Kevan Cleary, "the dog was not a barker, but somebody complained that the dog would bark."

Santino phoned a former girlfriend at 2 a.m. Wednesday. Police found Santino's body in his bedroom later that afternoon. The actor had overdosed on pills.

PHOTOS: Stars gone too soon

The actor's pet Rocco has been cremated; friends tell The New York Post Santino's remains will also be cremated.

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_soap_opera_actor_nick_santino_commits_suicide47_175149356/44338886/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/soap-opera-actor-nick-santino-commits-suicide-47-175149356.html

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