EWTN News Nightly with Colleen Carroll Campbell – 2013-10-30 – International Religious Freedom – Video

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EWTN News Nightly with Colleen Carroll Campbell - 2013-10-30 - International Religious Freedom
This program features an exclusive TV interview with Ken Hackett, President Obama #39;s new U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, followed by Colleen Carroll Campbell...

By: EWTN

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EWTN News Nightly with Colleen Carroll Campbell - 2013-10-30 - International Religious Freedom - Video

Authorities identify Freedom homicide victim

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Autreydrez Maldonado

FREEDOM -- Deputies on Monday identified Jeovahni Maldonado as the 17-year-old stabbed to death at his home on Buena Vista Drive in Freedom.

Autreydrez Maldonado, his 20-year-old brother, was arrested on suspicion of murder on Friday, said Santa Cruz County sheriff's deputy Ryan Kennedy. Autreydrez remained in Santa Cruz County Jail on Monday in lieu of $750,000 bail, according to jail records.

Authorities have not yet described the attack that led to Jeovahni Maldonado's death, but they said a 911 call was made from their home at 38 Buena Vista Drive about 7:20 a.m. Friday.

Jeovahni was taken to Watsonville Community Hospital by car and died at the hospital, deputies said. An autopsy took place Monday but authorities have not released his cause of death.

Prosecutors have not charged Autreydrez, but authorities said he is expected to be arraigned Wednesday in Santa Cruz County Superior Court.

Deputies had responded to the home several times in the past two months for domestic violence-related problems.

Jeovahni's and Autreydrez's 48-year-old father, Edward Maldonado, was arrested at the house on Oct. 15 on suspicion of corporal injury and a probation violation, according to deputies.

Edward Maldonado's criminal record includes a no contest plea to felony resisting an officer with injury in 2011. He was sentenced to one year in jail and three years of probation in that case, according to court records.

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Authorities identify Freedom homicide victim

RoboRoach cyborg kit: Cruel or educational?

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The RoboRoach kit, due out this month, allows users to control the movements of a live cockroach through a smartphone application. But PETA says the kit is torture, while the start-up company behind the app emphasizes its hands-on educational value.

Do cockroaches have feelings, too?

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It's the newest debate sparked by RoboRoach, a cockroach cyborg kit that's sparking backlash from animal-rights advocates.

The neural circuit, which must be surgically installed, allows users to control a cockroach's left and right movements through a smartphone app. The insect must first be anesthetized in ice water before users insert electrodes into the roach's clipped antennae.

A beta version of RoboRoach has already been released to the public. But the newest version of the product, funded by more than $12,000 through a Kickstarter campaign, is expected to go on sale some time this month.

Backyard Brains, the Michigan-based start-up company behind the project, argues that the kit provides a hands-on, educational opportunity to teach students about neuroscience.

"Through and through, we're trying to make this an educational product," says Bill Reith, a product engineer and general maker at Backyard Brains. "If someone wanted to just use it as a toy, they're still going to have to learn about this stuff in order to use it."

But the product has stirred a backlash from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which filed complaints with Michigan authorities last week. PETA is arguing that the "surgery" required to set up the kit on the roach's back is an illegal practice of veterinary medicine.

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RoboRoach cyborg kit: Cruel or educational?

Caution urged at Treasure Coast beaches as winds affect surf, erosion

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Beachgoers should be cautious about going into the water during the next two days, warned lifeguards across the Treasure Coast.

The National Weather Service issued a lake wind advisory in effect until 7 a.m. Tuesday and a wind advisory in effect from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Double red flags, which mean people shouldnt enter the water, were flown Monday on guarded beaches in St. Lucie County, said spokesman Erick Gill. Single red flags were flown on guarded beaches in Martin and Indian River counties.

Lifeguards flew the flags because of high surf, beach erosion, dangerous rip currents and lots of wind expected through Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.

Martin County Ocean Rescue Capt. Emily Hall advised against people going into the water because of rough conditions. She said its not good weather for recreation, and conditions arent even good for surfing.

Indian River County Ocean Rescue Capt. John Frazier said he saw surfers Monday at Wabasso Beach, but he advised beachgoers to swim near lifeguards if they decide to go into the water.

Frazier also saw minimal erosion Monday about 2 to 3 feet in Indian River County compared to Martin County, where Hall saw every beach already experienced erosion, especially Bathtub Reef Beach, because of big waves.

The biggest effect St. Lucie County would see on its beaches is immediately south of the Fort Pierce Inlet, Gill said. South Hutchinson Island from Normandy Beach to the Martin County line was renourished this summer, he said.

When we have heavy winds and surf like this, we typically see escarpments (small cliffs) along the beaches, Gill said. These will take some time to smooth out following the event, with sand being deposited offshore and then replaced back on the beach when conditions return to normal through natural processes.

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Caution urged at Treasure Coast beaches as winds affect surf, erosion

Boca Raton beaches getting a huge infusion of sand

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Story by Anne Geggis / Sun Sentinel Posted by Scott T. Smith / CBS12 NewsBOCA RATON, Fla. -- It's going to get a lot sandier on the north and south ends of Boca's beaches starting next month.

Enough sand to form a seven-story building the size of a football field will be dumped on the mile-long stretch from the Boca-Deerfield Beach line to the Boca Raton Inlet in a project that starts next week and continues 24 hours a day, seven days a week until it's finished.

And that's just the beginning.

Enough sand to fill Sun Life Stadium more than halfway to the top row of seats, about four times the amount of the first project, will be dumped on the northern stretch of Boca's beach starting next year.

The $1.7 million cost of the southern side of the project is being borne by the state, Palm Beach County and the city. And the $6.1 million cost of sanding up the north end is getting covered by federal, state, county and city funds.

Bathers might notice the beach is a little wider and fuller, but the difference won't be overwhelming. City officials say this project goes beyondjust making the beach bigger.

Instead, it has more to do with protecting the area from flooding, and that's why the federal government was willing to pay for repairing the stretch from the northern end of Red Reef Park to the Boca-Highland Beach line.

"This is coming from the Flood Control and Coast Emergencies funding," said Jennifer Bistyga, coastal program manager for the City of Boca Raton.

Right now, the depleted sand means that water is pooling onto the beach and sandbars are forming en masse offshore, Bistyga said.

"The beaches are shorter, they are not as wide, they are not as high," Bistyga said.

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Boca Raton beaches getting a huge infusion of sand

UH researchers make another big astronomy discovery

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The University of Hawaii played a big role in another significant astronomical discovery announced Monday.

Astronomers now estimate that one in five stars in our galaxy that are similar to the sun have an earth-like planet.

Over the past four years, NASA's Kepler spacecraft has been scanning the Milky Way galaxy, looking for other planets like ours.

"Kepler looked at 150-thousand stars and it hunted for Earth-like planets around each one of them, and we counted those planets very carefully and we came up with an estimate that about 20 percent of stars like the sun have a planet that's about the size of the Earth, in an orbit that's about like the Earth's orbit," said University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy faculty member Andrew Howard.

He was one of three scientists associated with the findings, which were published online in the journal "proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" on Monday.

The team of researchers looked for Earth-sized planets with orbits in a habitable zone. An orbit too close to its star is too hot for life. Too far, too cold.

Howard said the study was far too short to scan all of the stars in the Milky Way.

"You can think of it like taking a census. You don't have time to knock on every single door. So you just knock on one neighborhood's worth of doors and that tells you about the entire population," he said.

"There's a hundred-billion stars in our galaxy. So 20 percent of that is a huge number. that's more Earth-like planets than there are people on the Earth."

But Howard warns, it's unknown how many of these planets are rocky with a similar atmosphere to Earth, making it capable for life.

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UH researchers make another big astronomy discovery

NASA's Kepler ushers in a new era of astronomy

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Scientists from around the world are gathered this week at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., for the second Kepler Science Conference, where they will discuss the latest findings resulting from the analysis of Kepler Space Telescope data. Included in these findings is the discovery of 833 new candidate planets, which will be announced today by the Kepler team.

Ten of these candidates are less than twice the size of Earth and orbit in their sun's habitable zone, which is defined as the range of distance from a star where the surface temperature of an orbiting planet may be suitable for liquid water.

At this conference two years ago, the Kepler team announced its first confirmed habitable zone planet, Kepler-22b. Since then, four more habitable zone candidates have been confirmed, including two in a single system.

New Kepler data analysis and research also show that most stars in our galaxy have at least one planet. This suggests that the majority of stars in the night sky may be home to planetary systems, perhaps some like our solar system.

"The impact of the Kepler mission results on exoplanet research and stellar astrophysics is illustrated by the attendance of nearly 400 scientists from 30 different countries at the Kepler Science Conference," said William Borucki, Kepler science principal investigator at Ames. "We gather to celebrate and expand our collective success at the opening of a new era of astronomy."

From the first three years of Kepler data, more than 3,500 potential worlds have emerged. Since the last update in January, the number of planet candidates identified by Kepler increased by 29 percent and now totals 3,538. Analysis led by Jason Rowe, research scientist at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., determined that the largest increase of 78 percent was found in the category of Earth-sized planets, based on observations conducted from May 2009 to March 2012. Rowe's findings support the observed trend that smaller planets are more common.

An independent statistical analysis of nearly all four years of Kepler data suggests that one in five stars like the sun is home to a planet up to twice the size of Earth, orbiting in a temperate environment. A research team led by Erik Petigura, doctoral candidate at University of California, Berkeley, used publicly accessible data from Kepler to derive this result.

Kepler data also fueled another field of astronomy dubbed asteroseismology -- the study of the interior of stars. Scientists examine sound waves generated by the boiling motion beneath the surface of the star. They probe the interior structure of a star just as geologists use seismic waves generated by earthquakes to probe the interior structure of Earth.

"Stars are the building blocks of the galaxy, driving its evolution and providing safe harbors for planets. To study the stars, one truly explores the galaxy and our place within it," said William Chaplin, professor for astrophysics at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. "Kepler has revolutionized asteroseismology by giving us observations of unprecedented quality, duration and continuity for thousands of stars. These are data we could only have dreamt of a few years ago."

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NASA's Kepler ushers in a new era of astronomy

NASA Kepler Results Usher in a New Era of Astronomy

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Scientists from around the world are gathered this week at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., for the second Kepler Science Conference, where they will discuss the latest findings resulting from the analysis of Kepler Space Telescope data.

Included in these findings is the discovery of 833 new candidate planets, which will be announced today by the Kepler team. Ten of these candidates are less than twice the size of Earth and orbit in their sun's habitable zone, which is defined as the range of distance from a star where the surface temperature of an orbiting planet may be suitable for liquid water.

At this conference two years ago, the Kepler team announced its first confirmed habitable zone planet, Kepler-22b. Since then, four more habitable zone candidates have been confirmed, including two in a single system.

New Kepler data analysis and research also show that most stars in our galaxy have at least one planet. This suggests that the majority of stars in the night sky may be home to planetary systems, perhaps some like our solar system.

"The impact of the Kepler mission results on exoplanet research and stellar astrophysics is illustrated by the attendance of nearly 400 scientists from 30 different countries at the Kepler Science Conference," said William Borucki, Kepler science principal investigator at Ames. "We gather to celebrate and expand our collective success at the opening of a new era of astronomy."

From the first three years of Kepler data, more than 3,500 potential worlds have emerged. Since the last update in January, the number of planet candidates identified by Kepler increased by 29 percent and now totals 3,538. Analysis led by Jason Rowe, research scientist at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., determined that the largest increase of 78 percent was found in the category of Earth-sized planets, based on observations conducted from May 2009 to March 2012. Rowe's findings support the observed trend that smaller planets are more common.

An independent statistical analysis of nearly all four years of Kepler data suggests that one in five stars like the sun is home to a planet up to twice the size of Earth, orbiting in a temperate environment. A research team led by Erik Petigura, doctoral candidate at University of California, Berkeley, used publicly accessible data from Kepler to derive this result.

Kepler data also fueled another field of astronomy dubbed asteroseismology -- the study of the interior of stars. Scientists examine sound waves generated by the boiling motion beneath the surface of the star. They probe the interior structure of a star just as geologists use seismic waves generated by earthquakes to probe the interior structure of Earth.

"Stars are the building blocks of the galaxy, driving its evolution and providing safe harbors for planets. To study the stars, one truly explores the galaxy and our place within it," said William Chaplin, professor for astrophysics at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. "Kepler has revolutionized asteroseismology by giving us observations of unprecedented quality, duration and continuity for thousands of stars. These are data we could only have dreamt of a few years ago."

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NASA Kepler Results Usher in a New Era of Astronomy

LMI Aerospace, Inc. Streamlines Operations; Names New President of Valent Aerostructures and New CFO

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ST. LOUIS, Nov. 4, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LMI Aerospace, Inc. (LMIA), a leading provider of design engineering services and supplier of structural assemblies, kits and components to the aerospace and defense markets, today announced key management changes as the company streamlines operations and further integrates Valent Aerostructures, LLC.

Lawrence E. (Ed) Dickinson, who has served as LMI's Chief Financial Officer since 1993, has been appointed President of Valent and will lead the Valent subsidiary, assuming control of the bulk of the company's machining business. Valent will remain headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. Dickinson has served as Chief Financial Officer since joining LMI Aerospace in 1993. Prior to joining LMI, he was a financial analyst and Controller for LaBarge, Inc.

Cliff Stebe has been named the Chief Financial Officer of LMI filling the vacancy left by Mr. Dickinson. Stebe has served as LMI's Corporate Controller for three years after several years as a Senior Manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP. Both Dickinson and Stebe will report to Chief Executive Officer Ron Saks.

"Ed Dickinson has distinguished himself as a very capable Chief Financial Officer who has also spent considerable time honing his knowledge of aerospace operations and cost control," Saks said. "We have considered a senior operations role for Ed in the past, but his value in his prior position made this conversion difficult. The opportunity to oversee the Valent companies comes at a time when Ed is prepared for the challenge and has, in Cliff Stebe, an accomplished Corporate Controller also capable of assuming greater responsibilities. We are confident that both will be successful in their new roles."

Charlie Newell and Henry Newell, the co-Presidents of LMI's Aerostructures segment, and Bruce Breckenridge, Executive Vice President of Business Development for Valent, have resigned from the company. In order to effect a smooth transition, the three former executives will serve as consultants to LMI for the next six months.

"We are grateful to the Newells and Bruce for their efforts in building the strong business platform we acquired late last year. We remain impressed with the employees, capabilities and work statement of the Valent operations. We thank each of them for their service to LMI during our early efforts to integrate Valent into LMI and wish them well in their future endeavors," Saks said.

The Valent subsidiary provides complex, structural components, major sub-assemblies and machined parts for OEM and Tier 1 airframe manufacturers in the aerospace and defense industry.

In other news, LMI announced it will close Precise Machine, Co., a wholly-owned subsidiary based in Ft. Worth, Texas. The company will transfer approximately $7 million in work to other company machining facilities and expects to realize $1.5 million in recurring pre-tax savings from the consolidation after incurring approximately $1.5 million in cost to shut down the operation. The closure will take place over the next several months and is expected to be completed in May 2014. Precise was acquired by LMI in 1998 and currently has 35 employees.

"Precise Machine was LMI's first acquisition fifteen years ago, and the work force has been very reliable, growing its capability and capacity," Saks said. "However, we were not able to grow the revenue at this Fort Worth site and in the last ten years the plant was converted to machining components primarily for other LMI plants. Additionally, with the acquisition of Valent Aerostructures in late 2012, we have several larger plants with the right equipment to perform the Precise work. In recent months, capacity at those plants has become available, allowing this work to be done at the transfer plants without adding personnel and overhead expenses.

"Given the reduction of demand in 2013 for certain engineering services and structural components, LMI is aggressively reducing costs while maintaining the ability to deliver quality product on time and to accept new work when available. This closure is one of several actions we expect to take to realize the savings anticipated when we made the Valent acquisition," Saks added.

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LMI Aerospace, Inc. Streamlines Operations; Names New President of Valent Aerostructures and New CFO

LMI Aerospace Announces Conference Call to Discuss 2013 Third Quarter Results

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ST. LOUIS, Nov. 4, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LMI Aerospace, Inc. (LMIA), a leading provider of design engineering services and supplier of structural assemblies, kits and components to the aerospace and defense markets, announced that it will host a conference call to discuss the company's third quarter 2013 results.

The conference call will be Monday, November 11, 2013, at 9:00 A.M., CST. LMI Chief Executive Officer Ronald S. Saks and President of Valent Aerostructures Lawrence E. Dickinson will host the call. LMI plans to release the company's third quarter results prior to market open on Monday, November 11, 2013.

To participate in the call, please dial 866-307-3343 approximately five minutes before the conference call time stated above. A live webcast of the call can be accessed directly from LMI Aerospace website at http://ir.lmiaerospace.com/events.cfm and clicking on the appropriate link. A recording of the call will be available on the LMI web site upon completion of the call.

LMI Aerospace, Inc. is a leading supplier of structural assemblies, kits and components and provider of design engineering services to the aerospace and defense markets. Through its Aerostructures segment, the company primarily fabricates, machines, finishes, integrates, kits and assembles machined and formed close tolerance aluminum, specialty alloy and composite components and higher level assemblies for use by the aerospace and defense industries. It manufactures more than 40,000 products for integration into a variety of aircraft platforms manufactured by leading original equipment manufacturers and Tier 1 aerospace suppliers. Through its Engineering Services segment, the company provides a complete range of design engineering and program management services, supporting aircraft product lifecycles form conceptual design, analysis and certification through production support, fleet support and service life extensions via a complete turnkey engineering solution.

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LMI Aerospace Announces Conference Call to Discuss 2013 Third Quarter Results