Fans mob Baltimore streets to celebrate Ravens win

Lee Fuller, of Baltimore, center, and others celebrate the Baltimore Ravens winning the Super Bowl at the Famous Door Bar as fans of the Ravens and San Francisco 49ers NFL football teams pack the French Quarter on Bourbon Street for Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans, Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)

Lee Fuller, of Baltimore, center, and others celebrate the Baltimore Ravens winning the Super Bowl at the Famous Door Bar as fans of the Ravens and San Francisco 49ers NFL football teams pack the French Quarter on Bourbon Street for Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans, Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)

Baltimore Ravens fans celebrate the team's victory as fans from the Ravens and San Francisco 49ers NFL football teams pack the French Quarter on Bourbon Street for Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans, Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)

Baltimore Ravens fans celebrate the team's victory as fans from the Ravens and San Francisco 49ers NFL football teams pack the French Quarter on Bourbon Street for Super Bowl XLVII near the Royal Sonesta Hotel in New Orleans, Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)

Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis (52) holds the Vince Lombardi Trophy after defeating the San Francisco 49ers 34-31 in the NFL Super Bowl XLVII football game, Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Baltimore Ravens defensive end Arthur Jones (97) kisses the Vince Lombardi Trophy after defeating the San Francisco 49ers 34-31 in the NFL Super Bowl XLVII football game, Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

BALTIMORE (AP) ? Hundreds of giddy Ravens fans poured into the streets Sunday night, whooping, hollering and high-fiving complete strangers as they celebrated the team's 34-31 victory over the San Francisco 49ers.

On the far opposite coast, however, a spirit of hope and anticipation rapidly faded into sullen disappointment as dejected 49ers fans tried to absorb their team's loss.

In the East, Patrons who packed into Mother's Federal Hill Grille in Baltimore to watch the Ravens' second Super Bowl appearance since the team arrived in the city in 1996 jumped up onto the bar and began belting out a rendition of the Queen song "We are the champions."

Bartenders sprayed purple party string into the air.

"I love this team. I love this city!" screamed Andrew Bieler, 21, shortly after the game ended.

Ashlee Tuck, 28, shouted "Yes!" and alternated between kissing her boyfriend and dancing as fans streamed out of the bar.

Michael Falls, 25, said he plans to take Monday off from his accounting job and his boss was going to do the same.

"I'm going to live up the night," he said.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake joined in the fun, dancing and singing alongside the fans.

"The Baltimore Ravens once again demonstrated strength, poise, and perseverance as they prevailed in Super Bowl XLVII," Rawlings-Blake said in a statement.

In a live interview from New Orleans on WBAL-TV, Rawlings-Blake said the city will hold a parade in the team's honor on Tuesday that will start at City Hall and end at the Ravens' stadium. She urged fans to celebrate peacefully, while local television footage showed police mounted on horseback circling the crowds to maintain order.

Fans came decked out in purple for the game, many arriving at bars hours early. Women arrived with their nails painted purple. Men wore purple Mardi Gras beads. There were purple-feathered boas; purple, black and white camouflage pants; and a sea of purple and black jerseys.

It seemed no jersey was more popular than that of retiring middle linebacker Ray Lewis, No. 52. And whether they were wearing his number or not, fans said they wanted to win for Lewis, the only current player who started with the team when it came to Baltimore in 1996.

"We have to do it for Ray. It's not all about Ray. It's 90 percent for Ray, 10 percent for the city of Baltimore," said Darren Love, 40, an off-duty police officer clad in zip-up pajamas with the Ravens' logo in addition to a purple wig.

Fans at Pickles Pub, mere blocks from the Ravens' M&T Bank Stadium, cheered when Lewis was shown on television at the start of the game. And the cheers continued when the team scored the first touchdown. The Ravens never trailed.

Chrissy Ramirez, 22, a first-grade teacher, was one of the fans who emptied out onto South Charles Street in the Federal Hill neighborhood after the win. Ramirez, who was wearing the No. 5 jersey of Ravens' quarterback Joe Flacco, Ravens earrings, and a hat shaped like a Raven head, said she was overwhelmed by the victory. She said she planned to "be ecstatic the rest of the week."

Ecstatic was the opposite of how fans felt in San Francisco's Mission Hill district, where fans stumbled dejectedly into the streets after their team's loss.

"Damn, that's all I have to say," said Niners fan David Mejia, 32.

As the game drew to an end, dozens of police officers and sheriff's deputies ? in patrol cars and on foot, motorcycle, and horseback ? fanned out on both sides of the country to watch for signs of trouble, but neither city reported any serious problems.

"Most of the crowds are dissipating," Baltimore Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi (pronounced Goo-YELL-me) said shortly after midnight. Guglielmi said the crowds grew to several thousand before people slowly started to peel off and head home.

The streets in the Golden Gate city also were relatively calm Sunday night, unlike after the San Francisco Giants' World Series victory in late October, when a city bus was set ablaze, cars were overturned and bonfires erupted in trash containers and on the streets. About three dozen people were arrested following that victory.

"Citywide, everything seemed to be pretty good" Sunday night, Officer Carlos Manfredi said. "We did have a couple of flare-ups in the Mission District, but otherwise everyone seemed to be behaving themselves."

___

Associated Press writer John S. Marshall in San Francisco contributed to this report.

Follow Jessica Gresko at http://twitter.com/jessicagresko

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-04-Super%20Bowl-Reax/id-3721ad05e9db435084e8677fcf113993

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Points Envy: Travel Hacking Goes to Business School | Million Mile ...

Note: This post is?satire?and you shouldn?t follow any of Points Envy?s suggestions, nor should you break the law. ?Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental.

We all know that business travelers comprise a large portion of the general population of miles and points junkies, and that FlyerTalk is littered with rubbish MBAs. ?This week at Billion Mile Secrets we head to the forefront of elite American education to lend our expertise to a revolutionary new curriculum designed for tomorrow?s foremost business professionals.

The connection between business schools and frequent travel is incredibly strong, resulting largely from MBA programs breeding consultants and other professionals who regularly fly around the world spouting knowledge for a hefty fee, all the while racking up points and miles on their companies? dimes. ?Hell, we even occasionally get consulting gigs just for the points earnings, as we?re usually able to take about eight to ten free trips before getting fired.

Of course, we all know that business school is, like business class, a huge joke. ?History clearly demonstrates that either you are born rich or you will never understand business. ?That is, until now.

Today, Points Envy is pleased to announce our new position as adjunct professorarium meritoriusum at Harvard Business School (HBS), where we will be teaching a set of new elective courses focused on point/mile earning and management and premium award travel, especially as it relates to the business world.

The genesis of the new electives lies in a recent trip we took in British Airways? old first class product from London to Bombay. ?During the flight we may have had a few too many, as we vaguely remember challenging several parties to a drinking contest and later asking everyone in the first class cabin their net worth and shoe size.

The Dean of HBS, Nitin Nohria, was traveling on the flight and was apparently impressed by our ?leadership potential.? ?Upon arrival, he reached out to us about coming onboard at HBS, coaxing us with the promise of a new credit card. ?The rest, as they say, will soon be becoming recent history.

Accordingly, this fall Points Envy will be teaching several courses at HBS, including Fundamentals of Advanced Award Booking, Loyalty Account Management Strategies,?Premium Cabin Travel in a Global Context, and ?Do You Know Who I Am?? A Primer for the New Elite.

In keeping with HBS tradition, these trailblazing courses will be taught through the case study method. ?For example, in Fundamentals of Advanced Award Booking, our students will have to work through booking a six-city award in business class for a family of four using US Airways Dividend Miles. ?Other projects will analyze significant historical events, including the time Points Envy booked an around-the-world first class ticket utilizing every Star Alliance first class product. ?The final exam for the course will consist of finding and booking low level award space for a transcontinental jaunt using Delta SkyMiles.

Of course, an important part of every cutting-edge business education is experiential learning, which is why we have founded the Points Envy Harvard Award Booking Club. ?In the course of a single academic semester, Club members will gain travel wisdom by flying every international first class product departing from Logan Airport. ?There will also be a competition to see who can accumulate the most points and miles in a 90-day period; first prize is a bottle of vintage whisky from The Macallan, while last place ?wins? a date with an American Airlines flight attendant.

As with most trends in business and life, we are certain that what begins at Harvard will soon be imitated by other elite programs like Stanford, Wharton, and the University of Phoenix. ?Also as per usual, Points Envy will be happy to spread our wisdom at whichever school pays us the most. ?After all, despite our first class surroundings, we remain savvy businessmen to the core.

Source: http://millionmilesecrets.com/2013/02/03/points-envy-travel-hacking-goes-to-business-school/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=points-envy-travel-hacking-goes-to-business-school

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Wall Street fairy tale? Bull market may hit a snag

From wire services , NBC News ? ? ? 6 hrs.

Wall Street's current jubilant narrative is that a rush into stocks by small investors has sparked a "great rotation" out of bonds and into equities that will power the bull market to new heights.

That sounds good, but there's a snag: The evidence for this is a few weeks of bullish fund flows that are hardly unusual for January.

Late-stage bull markets are typically marked by an influx of small investors coming late to the party - such as when your waiter starts giving you stock tips. For that to happen you need a good story. The "great rotation," with its monumental tone, is the perfect narrative to make you feel like you're missing out.

Even if something approaching a "great rotation" has begun, it is not necessarily bullish for markets. Those who think they are coming early to the party may actually be arriving late.

The stock market may have packed much of its fun for the year into one exhilarating January.

The market charged to its best start in decades even though the U.S. economy and corporate profits haven't broken out of a three-year pattern of slow, steady improvement despite record-low interest rates and billions of dollars of stimulus and tax cuts.

This steady growth will likely make for a good year for stocks, but January may account for much of the year's rise, analysts think.

"We thought this was going to be a good year for equities, we just didn't think we'd get it all in the first month," says Barry Knapp, head of U.S. equity strategy at Barclays Capital. "I'd love for the market to keep going up but when I look forward I see a lot of headwinds."

Investors pumped $20.7 billion into stocks in the first four weeks of the year, the strongest four-week run since April 2000, according to Lipper. But that pales in comparison with the $410 billion yanked from those funds since the start of 2008.

"I'm not sure you want to take a couple of weeks and extrapolate it into whatever trend you want," said Tobias Levkovich, chief U.S. equity strategist at Citigroup. "We have had instances where equity flows have picked up in the last two, three, four years when markets have picked up. They've generally not been signals of a continuation of that trend."

The S&P 500 rose 5 percent in January, its best month since October 2011 and its best January since 1997, driving speculation that retail investors were flooding back into the stock market.

Heading into another busy week of earnings, the equity market is knocking on the door of all-time highs due to positive sentiment in stocks, and that can't be ignored entirely. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> ended the week about 4 percent from an all-time high touched in October 2007.

Next week will bring results from insurers Allstate and The Hartford , as well as from Walt Disney , Coca-Cola Enterprises and Visa .

But a comparison of flows in January, a seasonal strong month for the stock market, shows that this January, while strong, is not that unusual. In January 2011 investors moved $23.9 billion into stock funds and $28.6 billion in 2006, but neither foreshadowed massive inflows the rest of that year. Furthermore, in 2006 the market gained more than 13 percent while in 2011 it was flat.

Strong inflows in January can happen for a number of reasons. There were a lot of special dividends issued in December that need reinvesting, and some of the funds raised in December tax-selling also find their way back into the market.

During the height of the tech bubble in 2000, when retail investors were really embracing stocks, a staggering $42.7 billion flowed into equities in January of that year, double the amount that flowed in this January. That didn't end well, as stocks peaked in March of that year before dropping over the next two-plus years.

Mom and Pop still wary
Arguing against a 'great rotation' is not necessarily a bearish argument against stocks. The stock market has done well since the crisis. Despite the huge outflows, the S&P 500 has risen more than 120 percent since March 2009 on a slowly improving economy and corporate earnings.

This earnings season, a majority of S&P 500 companies are beating earnings forecast. That's also the case for revenue, which is a departure from the previous two reporting periods where less than 50 percent of companies beat revenue expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Meanwhile, those on the front lines say mom and pop investors are still wary of equities after the financial crisis.

"A lot of people I talk to are very reluctant to make an emotional commitment to the stock market and regardless of income activity in January, I think that's still the case," said David Joy, chief market strategist at Columbia Management Advisors in Boston, where he helps oversee $571 billion.

Joy, speaking from a conference in Phoenix, says most of the people asking him about the "great rotation" are fund management industry insiders who are interested in the extra business a flood of stock investors would bring.

He also pointed out that flows into bond funds were positive in the month of January, hardly an indication of a rotation.

Citi's Levkovich also argues that bond investors are unlikely to give up a 30-year rally in bonds so quickly. He said stocks only began to see consistent outflows 26 months after the tech bubble burst in March 2000. By that reading it could be another year before a serious rotation begins.

On top of that, substantial flows continue to make their way into bonds, even if it isn't low-yielding government debt. January 2013 was the second best January on record for the issuance of U.S. high-grade debt, with $111.725 billion issued during the month, according to International Finance Review.

Bill Gross, who runs the $285 billion Pimco Total Return Fund, the world's largest bond fund, commented on Twitter on Thursday that "January flows at Pimco show few signs of bond/stock rotation," adding that cash and money markets may be the source of inflows into stocks.

Indeed, the evidence suggests some of the money that went into stock funds in January came from money markets after a period in December when investors, worried about the budget uncertainty in Washington, started parking money in late 2012.

Data from iMoneyNet shows investors placed $123 billion in money market funds in the last two months of the year. In two weeks in January investors withdrew $31.45 billion of that, the most since March 2012. But later in the month money actually started flowing back.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/wall-street-fairy-tale-bull-market-may-hit-snag-1B8219524

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Report: FAA lags on fulfilling airline safety law (The Arizona Republic)

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White House posts photo of Obama skeet shooting (Washington Post)

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New York Fracking Opponents, Binghamton Mayor Escalate Efforts To Block Natural Gas Industry

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- Eileen Hamlin leaned in towards the computer screen for a closer look at the purple blocks peppering a digital map of New York state. The color denoted land leased to natural gas companies in anticipation of a potential lift of the state's four-and-a-half-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

"I've just learned that I'm surrounded on three sides by leased property," said Hamlin, a finger pointing out her Kirkwood land on the map. She sat still for several more seconds, eyes frozen to the screen.

Hamlin was among several activists, including the city's mayor, who convened on Thursday in Binghamton for the launch of Save The Southern Tier, an anti-fracking network spanning the five upstate counties near the Pennsylvania border where Gov. Andrew Cuomo has suggested fracking would be allowed, should the state release the ban.

Eileen Hamlin points to her land, surrounded on three sides by natural gas leases. (Lynne Peeples)

Cuomo has until Feb. 27 to make that decision. As his deadline approaches, members of the anti-fracking community are escalating efforts to ensure their voices are heard. Various groups have hosted bus tours through Pennsylvania, rallied in Albany and delivered more than 200,000 comments on the state's proposed drilling rules. On Wednesday, New Yorkers Against Fracking released a new TV ad that concludes: "Tell Gov. Cuomo: Learn from Pennsylvania, ban fracking."

Now, members of the new Southern Tier network have added to the governor's stack of reading. In a letter to Cuomo, dated Thursday, they suggest the governor has been misled by special interests and misinformed about the level of support in the Southern Tier -- or, as the activists call it, the "sacrifice zone."

The group urges Cuomo to meet with his "constituents who oppose fracking," just as he has with the "out-of-state gas industry," before he makes his decision.

"Governor Cuomo needs to know that our numbers are growing as more and more citizens in this designated area learn the risks posed by the gas industry," Hamlin said on Thursday morning in front of local TV cameras in Binghamton's State Office Building. "Governor, please listen to the significant majority of your constituents."

Of course, the opinion of the significant majority of constituents depends on whom you ask. In January, a Siena poll found 51 percent of upstate residents opposed to and 38 percent in support of moving forward with fracking in New York. But the latest Quinnipiac University survey, released on Thursday, suggested the split in upstate New York was 48 percent in favor of drilling to 40 percent opposed.

Numerous phone calls and emails from The Huffington Post to the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York, which represents landowner organizations across the state and generally favors natural gas development, yielded no connections to anyone willing to speak for the group.

However, Ed Griffith, chairman for the Northeastern Broome Landowners Association, told HuffPost that his 178 members are "quite anxious, hoping that Cuomo will in fact decide to release the Southern Tier." No one in his coalition holds an active lease yet, but he noted that they do have a lawyer-approved lease ready and waiting.

Griffith said that he and others in support of opening New York to fracking are frustrated by the "misinformation" and "radical scare tactics" used by anti-fracking activists. He highlighted the concerns they've raised over the increased heavy truck traffic that comes with development. "I've been to Pennsylvania and looked at the beautiful new roads that companies put in," he said. "Some of those roads are better than any I've driven on."

Many residents of Broome County continue to face hard financial times. Griffith noted that major area businesses such as IBM and Singer-Link have closed down. Royalties from properties leased to developers could help patch families' bank accounts, and new business opportunities could provide hope for struggling small business owners like himself. He works as a contractor for instrumentation controls -- something that local natural gas developers would need.

"I'm sitting on pins and needles waiting to see," Griffith said. His confidence that Cuomo will lift the fracking ban has increased, based on word from fellow coalition members who have heard details of the state's health and environmental reviews. "There's nothing negative out there at this point in time. There's nothing out there that concerns the Joint Landowners."

Indeed, as The New York Times reported, the state?s Health Department found in an analysis it prepared early last year that fracking could be conducted safely in New York. But as the Times went on to report, and as antifracking activists suggest, the state's lack of transparency leaves it unclear exactly how officials are assessing fracking's health risks.

Logan Adsit of South Otselic, N.Y., came to Binghamton on Thursday with her 1-year-old son Elijah. She said his health and future was her main motivation to continue to fight against fracking. "I don't want to leave a legacy of gas wells and dirty water," said Adsit. "I feel I have no other choice. If I don't stand up, I will regret it."

Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan emphasized that there's is not yet enough science to determine the practice's safety. "This is a new animal, an unproven industry. There has not been enough time to study the health impacts," he told HuffPost. "As a public official, I'm sworn to protect the health and safety of my constituents."

Ryan acknowledged the potential for some people "to get really rich" off fracking, and that there could be some real business opportunities, including full beds for hotel owners and landlords. But he added that negative economic impacts should be considered as well, such the possibility of higher rents.

Hamlin, the anti-fracking activist, had initially joined a local landowner coalition with the thought that leasing her land might be a "wonderful way to get back the money Wall Street stole" from her 401K, she said. She has since changed her mind. But with so much surrounding land already leased, she fears she'll be forced to welcome drilling under her land anyway -- due to the state's compulsory integration law that applies when a drilling company otherwise controls 60 percent or more of the acreage it intends to use.

"I don't want to live anywhere near drilling," said Hamlin. "But they could drill right under my land, whether I like it or not."

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/01/new-york-fracking-southern-tier_n_2600653.html

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2 deaths at embassy suicide bombing

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) ? A suspected suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at the entrance of the U.S. Embassy in the Turkish capital on Friday, killing himself and one other person, officials said.

U.S. Ambassador Francis Ricciardione told reporters that a guard at the gate was killed in the 1:15 p.m. blast, and a Turkish citizen was wounded.

The bomb appeared to have exploded inside the security checkpoint at the side entrance of the embassy, but did not do damage inside the embassy itself. Footage showed that the door had been blown off its hinges and debris littered the ground and across the road. An Associated Press journalist saw a body in the street in front of an embassy side entrance.

Police swarmed the area and several ambulances were dispatched. An AP journalist saw one woman who appeared to be seriously injured being carried into an ambulance.

The police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government rules, said police had examined security cameras around the embassy and had identified two people who could have been the suicide bomber.

The embassy building is heavily protected. It is near an area where several other embassies are located, including that of Germany and France. Police sealed off the area and journalists were being kept away.

The phones were not being answered at the embassy. In a statement, it thanked Turkey for "its solidarity and outrage over the incident."

There was no claim of responsibility, but Kurdish rebels and Islamic militants are active in Turkey. Kurdish rebels, who are fighting for autonomy in the Kurdish-dominated southeast, have dramatically stepped up attacks in Turkey over the last year.

As well, homegrown Islamic militants tied to al-Qaida have carried out suicide bombings in Istanbul. In a 2003 attack on the British consulate, a suspected Islamic militant rammed an explosive-laden pickup truck into the main gate, killing 58, including the British consul-general.

In 2008, an attack blamed on al-Qaida-affiliated militants outside the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul left three assailants and three policemen dead.

Turkey has become a harsh critic of the regime in Syria, where a vicious civil war has left at least 60,000 people dead. The first of six Patriot missile batteries being deployed to Turkey to protect against attack from Syria was declared operational and placed under NATO command on Saturday and others were expected to be operational in the coming days.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-suicide-bombing-us-embassy-2-dead-120006594.html

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