Latest glitch hits United a week before holiday crush

A massive computer outage at United Airlines early Thursday stranded passengers across the country.A spokesperson for United tells WGN-TV that the airline is up and running again.

United Airlines, just a week before the year's busiest travel period, experienced yet another major computer problem Thursday morning that delayed hundreds of flights across the country, mostly on the East Coast. Some airline industry observers called for "heads to roll" at the world's largest airline.

The latest glitch involved the dispatch system software that enables Chicago-based United to communicate with airplanes before departure, delivering information on the plane's weight and balance, number of passengers and baggage, said United spokesman Charlie Hobart.

Flights of United's regional jet service United Express were not affected.

The outage occurred from about 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Thursday and resulted in 257 delays directly attributable to the outage and more through the day, along with about 10 cancellations. The airline said it had a total of 636 delays on Thursday, far more than its usual number of about 300. The delays affected a relatively small number of the airline's 5,500 daily flights — fewer than 5 percent, Hobart said.

The computer problems, especially with the reservation system, have had Jeff Smisek, CEO of United's parent company United Continental Holdings, making public apologies since March. He conceded to Wall Street analysts that operational problems hurt the airline's third-quarter profits as many customers fled to competitors. However, he said during an earnings call with analysts in late October that those problems were behind the airline and that he was confident United would perform well during the heavy holiday travel season.

Aside from weather-related delays, such as Hurricane Sandy and a snowstorm on the East Coast, that seemed true until Thursday. Even on Thursday, United's on-time performance for all of its operations was about 80 percent, meeting its target, a spokesman said.

"It was a software issue that we found and fixed in that two hour period," United spokesman Rahsaan Johnson said. "It will not happen again."

But some industry observers said United is out of excuses.

"It is flat-out unacceptable," said Henry Harteveldt, co-founder of Atmosphere Research Group. "This makes United a laughingstock among airlines."

He said airline computer systems are complex and Thursday's problem might be a one-time issue, but the repeated failures are not only embarrassing for United, they also "undermine trust in the airline" and "demoralize employees."

"There are clearly failures in the airline's strategy and the airline's execution, and heads need to roll," he said. "United's [chief information officer] should resign or be dismissed."

Hobart, the United spokesman, pointed out that the airline has improved recently. "Since this summer, we've significantly improved our operational performance, with nearly 85 percent of our flights  on-time so far this month and nearly 80 percent of flights arriving on-time in October, despite operational challenges like Hurricane Sandy," he said. "We understand this outage was frustrating for our customers, and we are enabling them to rebook without penalty and receive a full refund of their flights were delayed by at least two hours."

Hobart said he did not have details about what went wrong with the dispatch system Thursday.

Joe Brancatelli, a business-travel writer at JoeSentMe.com, said the failures point to a larger problem.

"Mostly what it says is that [airlines] have got to stop looking at mergers as two route maps you can smash together," he said. He contends the United-Continental merger was not planned properly. "There are too many things going wrong," he said. Blame rests with "the guys running the show," he said of United's top executives. "The fish stinks from the head."

gkarp@tribune.com

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Livestrong charity drops Armstrong name from title

Lance Armstrong has cut formal ties with his cancer-fighting charity to avoid further damage brought by doping charges and being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.

AUSTIN, Texas -- The Lance Armstrong Foundation has formally dropped the name of the disgraced cyclist from its title, the organization said on Wednesday, marking the latest move by the cancer charity to distance itself following the biggest doping scandal in the sport's history.

The foundation that has been informally known for years as Livestrong -- the word adorning its well-known yellow wristbands -- filed paperwork with the Texas Secretary of State for a name change that became effective on October 30, said foundation spokeswoman Katherine McLane. It is now the Livestrong Foundation.

"For most of its life, the organization has been known as the Livestrong Foundation, but making that change official is necessary and appropriate during a time of change for the organization," McLane told Reuters.

Armstrong founded the charity in 1997, after he was diagnosed with testicular cancer and before he first won the Tour de France. Since then, it has raised some $500 million and has evolved from a focus on testicular cancer research to addressing the needs of survivors of all cancers.

Armstrong, 41, announced on October 17 that he was stepping down as chairman but remaining on the board of the organization, which helps people and families affected by cancer. That followed an October 10 report by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) that said that the now-retired rider had been involved in the "most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."

On October 22, Armstrong's seven Tour de France victories were nullified and he was banned from cycling for life after the International Cycling Union (UCI) ratified the USADA's sanctions against him. Then on Monday, Livestrong chairman Jeff Garvey said that Armstrong had voluntarily resigned from the foundation "to spare the organization any negative effects as a result of controversy surrounding his cycling career." He made the decision November 4, McLane said.

"All of us - especially Lance -- wanted Livestrong to have a presence that was bigger than its founder," board member Mark McKinnon told Reuters Wednesday in an email. "We knew that in order to make the most profound and lasting impact for cancer survivors, the cause and the organization had to have its own persona. That's exactly what Livestrong has become and Lance helped shape that effort."

Armstrong declined through a manager to comment. He said at the foundation's gala last month that the organization's mission is bigger than him. "We will not be deterred; we will move forward," Armstrong said that night.

The group's website has long been Livestrong.org, and a giant yellow "Livestrong" sign just inside the front door of the East Austin office greets visitors, but the name "Lance Armstrong Foundation" was still used regularly. For example, the yellow invitation to the foundation's $1,000-a-head gala last month said: "On October 19, 2012, Lance Armstrong Foundation will celebrate 15 years of Livestrong."

At the foundation's office, seven yellow Armstrong Tour jerseys have been removed from the walls.

"Lance doesn't want to be a distraction from the foundation's cause - serving cancer patients and survivors," said McKinnon, a board member and an Austin media producer and communications strategist. "That's why he resigned from the foundation's board. In the spirit of that noble decision, the foundation has to make appropriate changes as well."

The retired cyclist has always denied he took banned substances during his career but decided not to challenge the USADA charges against him. Sponsors including sportswear giant Nike Inc, sunglasses maker Oakley and brewer Anheuser-Busch have dropped him or have said they won't renew his contract.

The Austin father of five, who had been spending time in Hawaii, tweeted on November 10 that he was "Back in Austin and just layin' around …" He linked to a photo of himself lying on a couch, with his seven framed yellow Tour jerseys on the wall.

"At the moment, he feels it's better for the organization that he step away a bit," McKinnon said.

Board member Dr. David Johnson, an oncologist as well as a cancer survivor, said he supports Armstrong's decision to step down "even though I think he's the heart and soul of the organization." Johnson said that Armstrong was always engaged at board meetings, speaking up if he doesn't agree with something and chiming in with passion.

"I think there was some discussion that took place between him and a number of members of the foundation agonizing over what to do," said Johnson, professor and chairman of the department of internal medicine at UT Southwestern School of Medicine in Dallas.

Johnson, who has known Armstrong for years, said that the idea of a name change is "painful."

"I don't know that there was a feeling until now that it was even a necessary thing to do," he said.

Livestrong started as the name of an educational program at the foundation and in 2004 became the word on Nike wristbands, 55 million of which were sold by the following year.

"As the yellow bands sort of exploded, Livestrong just kept growing and growing," foundation CEO Doug Ulman told Reuters in August. Being known as Livestrong "wasn't really a conscious decision, it was just sort of like, ‘We're going to lead with our brand.'"

Armstrong, who is the largest donor to Livestrong, having contributed $7 million, is still welcome at the foundation, officials said.

"It's a house that he built," McLane said.

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Android 4.2 For Nexus 7, Galaxy Nexus Now Available

When Google’s Nexus 10 tablet was unveiled recently, it was running Android 4.2, a new version which adds several features. That version is coming to your Nexus 7 or Galaxy Nexus device as well. Here’s what Android 4.2 brings, where to get it, and which Nexus devices are missing out.

​New features in Android 4.2

Mashable’s Christina Warren has the scoop on what Android 4.2′s bringing. Flashy additions include Daydream, a sort of screensaver for your smartphone or tablet, and Photo Sphere, a new way to take panoramic photographs that capture the whole world around you. Right now you can only see Photo Sphere images on Google+ or in Google Maps, but according to David Ruddock of the Android Police blog Google has made it so “Anyone could, in theory, build a Photo Sphere viewer.”

Less immediately noticeable improvements include a Swype-style gesture keyboard, where you don’t need to type individual letters, and a feature that lets multiple people share the same Android tablet without their apps and things getting in each others’ way. You’ll also be able to mirror your Android device’s screen on your HDTV, Apple AirPlay style, although instead of an Apple TV box you’ll need a third-party wireless display adapter.

​Who’s getting the upgrade now

Nexus 7 owners are already beginning to receive the Android 4.2 upgrade over the air. Your tablet will automatically check for it every so often, but if you want to hurry it along you can go to Settings -> About tablet -> System updates, and tell it to check again. You can also download it from Google and manually install it using Liam Spradlin’s instructions, although this is not recommended unless you’re an experienced Android hacker and are using the Wi-Fi version of the Nexus 7.

Galaxy Nexus owners who bought their phones from a wireless carrier have had to wait an unusually long time for upgrades, as long as several months after a new Android version’s announced. If you bought your Galaxy Nexus phone from a wireless carrier, an upgrade probably won’t be available anytime soon. People who purchased their Galaxy Nexus from the Google Play store are reporting that they are getting the upgrade, though, and Spradlin again has instructions for how to install manually if you are using a Galaxy Nexus bought from the Google Play store.​

Who’s being left out

While announcing that Android 4.2′s programming code was being released to the Android Open-Source Project, Google rep Jean-Baptiste Queru said “There is no support for 4.2 on Nexus S and Xoom.” The Nexus S was a Nexus smartphone released about two years ago, in late 2010, while the Motorola Xoom was the first tablet released (in early 2011) running the Honeycomb version of Android. The Xoom was not an official Nexus device, but was also made in close partnership with Google, and showcased the latest Android software.

Both devices received upgrades to Android 4.1, the first Jelly Bean version. It looks like this is where the upgrade train ends for them, though, after almost two years of support. In contrast, Apple’s iPhone 3GS, released in mid-2009, just recently received an upgrade to the latest version of iOS.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

Linux/Open Source News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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NBC names new “Today” show chiefs

(Reuters) – Comcast‘s NBC has appointed two executives to take charge of the “Today” show, a day after the television network announced that longtime producer Jim Bell would be leaving to take a larger role in the sports division.

Don Nash, a broadcast producer who has worked on NBC’s morning show for 23 years, will become the executive producer, reporting to Alexandra Wallace, who has been named executive in charge of the show.

The reshuffling is part of NBC efforts to revive the “Today” show, which has been in a back-and-forth ratings war with ABC’s “Good Morning America” ever since ABC snapped NBC’s 16-year unbeaten streak earlier in the year.

“Today” is one of NBC’s most profitable TV shows, generating $ 485 million in ad revenues in 2011, up 6.6 percent from 2010, according to Kantar Media, which provides data to advertisers. Rival “Good Morning America” took in $ 299 million last year.

NBC said on Tuesday that former executive producer Bell would be leaving the morning show to become a full-time executive producer of the Olympics. The network has a contract to broadcast the Olympics in the United States for the next four games in Russia, Brazil, South Korea and an unnamed host city in 2020.

Bell, who has headed the show since 2005, was blamed this year for the controversial firing of Ann Curry as anchor alongside Matt Lauer.

Reuters had previously reported in August that Bell was in line for a kind of uber-producing sports role like the one Dick Ebersol – NBC’s longtime Olympics executive producer and former sports chief who served as a mentor to Bell – played for the network.

(Reporting By Liana B. Baker; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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F.D.A. Seeks More Control Over Drug Compounders

Susan Walsh/Associated Press

Barry Cadden, chief pharmacist for the company that made the contaminated drugs, at a Congressional hearing on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — The commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday called on Congress to empower the agency to better police compounding pharmacies like the one at the center of a national meningitis outbreak. But Republican lawmakers pushed back, arguing that the agency has enough authority, leaving it unclear whether the House would support efforts to increase oversight.

In a contentious hearing of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, the commissioner, Dr. Margaret Hamburg, testified that a tangle of conflicting court decisions and the lack of a clear definition of compounding in the law had limited the agency’s ability to build a case against compounding pharmacies that fail to meet basic safety standards.

“There is an enormous lack of clarity, and we should seize this opportunity to address it,” Dr. Hamburg said.

In many cases, such pharmacies are not required to give investigators access to their books, agency officials say. Federal regulators sometimes have to appeal to local courts to gain access to the pharmacies or their records, although, by law, large drug manufacturers must submit to regular inspections. Compounding pharmacies are now regulated primarily by the states.

Dr. Hamburg’s remarks signaled that the Obama administration will press for new legislation in response to the meningitis outbreak, which was caused by contaminated pain medication made by a compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts. So far, 461 people have fallen ill, and 32 of them have died.

The central question is whether the F.D.A. has enough power to crack down on large-scale compounding companies that behave more like drug manufactures than the neighborhood pharmacies that mix medicines for individual patients — the traditional purview of compounders.

Republicans on the committee said the outbreak appeared to have been preventable under existing regulations.  

“After a tragedy like this, the first question we all ask is, ‘Could this have been prevented?’ ” said Representative Cliff Stearns, Republican of Florida, who is chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. After reviewing documents, he said, “The answer appears to be yes.”

The agency’s critics maintain that the 1938 Food Drug and Cosmetic Act provides it with plenty of authority, but that the F.D.A. failed to use it to shut down the Massachusetts pharmacy, the New England Compounding Center.  

Barry Cadden, the chief pharmacist at the company, and one of the principal owners, invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent in response to every question posed to him during the hearing.

The agency has had dealings with the compounding center in the past, including an inspection in 2002 after reports of problems and a warning letter to the company in 2006. The agency argued that those steps failed to head off the meningitis outbreak in part because the company took advantage of gray areas in the law to elude oversight.

 “Throughout this time, N.E.C.C. has repeatedly disputed F.D.A.’s jurisdiction over its facility,” Dr. Hamburg said in her written testimony.

Republicans on the committee repeatedly cited the 2006 warning letter and the agency’s recent criminal investigation, which involved federal agents seizing computers from the company’s offices.

“We’re just not buying it, doctor,” said Representative Michael C. Burgess, Republican of Texas. “You lack the authority to do anything, yet you send a letter like this?”

Democrats came to Dr. Hamburg’s defense.

 “We need to work together to come up with a solution, but instead what I’m hearing from my Republican colleagues is they want to prosecute the Food and Drug Administration,” said Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California. “If there’s any ambiguity, it’s our job to clear it up. Why are we looking for anybody to blame other than the company?”

Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, who has proposed legislation to close what he calls regulatory loopholes, said he believed the committee would eventually come together and pass a bill.

Dr. Hamburg proposed requiring large-scale compounders to register with the F.D.A. and report any problems with their products to the agency. She also recommended new labeling requirements that would make clear the origin and the risks of compounded drugs.

Large-scale pharmacy compounding has greatly expanded since the early 1990s, partly because hospitals are increasingly outsourcing the making of the compounded drugs that they need and also because of widespread shortages of medicines made by the big drug manufacturers.

Jess Bidgood contributed reporting from Boston.

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FCC recommends cross-ownership waivers for Tribune Co.

The staff of the Federal Communications Commission has recommended that the agency grant Tribune Co. waivers of so-called media ownership rules, paving the way for the company to emerge from its long-running bankruptcy.

The waivers -- the last major hurdle in the four-year case -- would take effect Friday as long as none of the five commissioners raise serious objections, according to a person at the FCC who wasn't authorized to speak and therefore did not want to be identified.

No vote is required for the waivers to take effect.

The waivers would set the wheels in motion to emerge from bankruptcy, something that can happen as soon as new ownership, a group led by senior creditors Oaktree Capital Management, Angelo Gordon & Co and JPMorgan Chase & Co., can complete the necessary paperwork.

The FCC staff is recommending that the agency grant a permanent waiver to Tribune's ownership of the Chicago Tribune and WGN radio and television stations and that it give  one-year waivers for the Los Angeles Times ownership of KTLA-TV Channel 5 and for similar arrangements in three other markets.

The FCC also is circulating among commissioners a proposal for new media ownership rules that would ease restrictions on consolidations among newspapers and TV and ratio stations, according to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. That proposal is expected to come up for an agency vote at the next regular meeting.

Once the new rules are in effect, Tribune's new owners could seek permanent waivers in the Los Angeles, New York, Hartford, Conn., and South Florida markets.

Tribune Vice President Shaun Sheehan declined to comment.

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Fla. socialite at center of scandal

If you were to diagram the increasingly tangled sex scandal involving former CIA Director David Petraeus, nearly all lines would lead back to one person: Jill Kelley, a 37-year-old Tampa socialite who hosted parties for the nation's top military brass.

Kelley's complaint about anonymous, threatening email triggered the FBI investigation that led to Petraeus' downfall. And now she is at the center of an investigation of the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan over alleged "inappropriate communications" between the two.

Kelley is a close friend of the Petraeus family, and photographs circulating in the media show the dark-haired woman at parties with Petraeus, his wife, and Kelley's husband, Scott, a cancer surgeon. She served as a sort of unofficial social ambassador for U.S. Central Command in Tampa, holding gatherings for the general when he was commander there from 2008 to 2010.

She also met Gen. John Allen while he was at Central Command, and now investigators are looking at 20,000-plus pages of documents and emails between Kelley and Allen, some of which have been described as "flirtatious." The general has denied any wrongdoing.

For her part, Kelley has taken a low profile since Petraeus' affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, became public. The Kelleys have retained high-powered Washington lawyer Abbe Lowell, who did not immediately return a call.

On Tuesday, Kelley could be seen through the large windows of her South Tampa home, a stately, two-story brick house with a half-dozen white columns. In the driveway was a silver Mercedes with a license plate marked "Honorary Counsel." Kelley's identical twin sister, Natalie Khawam, also lives there.

In the afternoon, Kelley, wearing dark sunglasses, left through the front door and ignored reporters' questions as she drove off in the Mercedes.

South Tampa is a conservative Southern community of big houses, big bank accounts, garden clubs and wives who pride themselves on volunteer work. A lot of the brass from MacDill Air Force Base, where Central Command is headquartered, lives or socializes in South Tampa, and helping members of the military is a major volunteer activity.

Former Mayor Pam Iorio said that she went to several parties to benefit the military at the Kelleys' home, and they drew MacDill's top brass, including Petraeus. But they were by far not the only parties held around the city for MacDill's officers.

"Our community's relationship with MacDill is just multi-faceted," said Iorio, who later invited the Petraeuses over to her own home for dinner. "It's something that is generational. People sincerely care about the military."

Petraeus aides said Kelley took it to another level, winning the title of "honorary ambassador" for her extensive entertaining. Petraeus even honored Kelley and her husband with an award in a special ceremony at the Pentagon.

The Kelleys invited then-Florida Gov. Charlie Crist to their home, but he never accepted. Instead, he had dinner with the Kelleys at a steakhouse in Tampa with Petraeus.

"Lovely people. I remember I had a nice dinner with she and her husband and the general and his wife," Crist said.

Ken Walters, a neighbor, said he went to a party the couple had to celebrate their first son's baptism. The Kelleys have two other children.

"Natalie and her sister, they're certainly not shrinking violets," Walters said. He recalled that when the sisters first entered the South Tampa social scene, they "rubbed people the wrong way. I think they probably stepped on a couple of toes."

Petraeus' affair with Broadwell was discovered after Kelley told an FBI agent friend that she had received email warning her to stay away from Petraeus. The email turned out to be from Broadwell, who apparently regarded Kelley as a rival for Petraeus' affections. Kelley's family and Petraeus aides have said Petraeus and Kelley were just friends.

In another strange footnote to the scandal, long before the case involving Petraeus got under way, the FBI agent sent Kelley shirtless photos of himself, according to a federal law enforcement official.

Kelley's brother, David Khawam, told WPVI-TV in Philadelphia on Monday night that the allegations have spilled out quickly.

"It's a shock. We're trying to figure out where the pieces are falling right now," he said in an interview at his law office in Westmont, N.J.

He said that his family left Lebanon for suburban Philadelphia's Huntingdon Valley in the 1970s to escape the turmoil in their homeland. His parents opened a Middle Eastern restaurant in Voorhees, N.J., called Sahara.

"My family is very patriotic; we came from Lebanon at a young age," he said.

Kelley later married and moved to Florida with her husband, who works at a cancer clinic.

Jill and Scott Kelley have been involved in at least nine legal actions since arriving in Tampa, according to court records. Most involve real estate transactions, including one foreclosure and an $11,000 judgment against the couple in a Pennsylvania case.

In another twist in the scandal, court records indicate that Petraeus and Allen intervened two months ago in a messy custody dispute on behalf of Jill Kelley's sister. Both four-star generals wrote letters supporting Natalie Khawam.

The judge in the case awarded Khawam's ex-husband custody last year of their son. He also called Khawam dishonest and lacking in integrity.

Khawam is a lawyer who works on health care fraud and whistleblower cases, according to her LinkedIn profile, which has been removed from the professional networking site. The sisters also competed in a cook-off filmed for a Food Network show called "Food Fight" in 2003.

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Associated Press writers Kimberly Dozier and Pauline Jelinek in Washington, and Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee, Fla., contributed to this report.

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FTC chief: Kids’ Internet privacy rules done by year’s end

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Regulators will likely finish a long-awaited update to rules protecting children’s online privacy by the end of the year, the head of the Federal Trade Commission said on Tuesday.

The original rules were developed when most computers were large beige boxes sitting under office desks instead of smartphones slung into backpacks and permeating most aspects of daily life.

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said the agency was moving forward on two issues: self-regulatory “do not track” guidance, and regulations to update the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA.

The law requires that website and online service operators obtain verifiable consent from parents before collecting information about children.

Leibowitz, who is thought keen to leave the agency within months, said he was more confident of finishing an update of COPPA’s rules, which were written following the 1998 legislation.

Under revised rules, the FTC would make websites, mobile apps and data brokers all responsible for getting parental consent before collecting data about children aged 12 and younger. Currently it is unclear who has the responsibility.

Data brokers buy and sell consumer data.

Speaking at the Wall Street Journal’s annual CEO Conference in Washington, Leibowitz said the process would most likely be done by the end of the year.

“We are looking at all the comments that came in and weighing how to tweak the regulation,” he said.

Leibowitz was slightly less optimistic about the fate of “do not track,” an effort to allow Internet users to tell companies they did not want to be tracked online.

Some large technology companies, like Microsoft and Google, have agreed to let consumers opt out of being tracked, but advertisers have pushed back hard.

“We’re still making forward progress,” Leibowitz said when asked if the efforts would be done by the end of the year. “We continue to be optimistic. It’s not a certainty though.”

(Reporting By Diane Bartz; Editing by Ros Krasny and Kenneth Barry)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Man who accused Elmo puppeteer of teen sex recants

NEW YORK (AP) — A man who accused Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash of having sex with him when he was a teenage boy has recanted his story.

In a quick turnabout, the man on Tuesday described his sexual relationship with Clash as adult and consensual.

Clash responded with a statement of his own, saying he is “relieved that this painful allegation has been put to rest.” He had no further comment.

The man, who has not identified himself, released his statement through the Harrisburg, Pa., law firm Andreozzi & Associates.

Sesame Workshop, which produces “Sesame Street” in New York, soon followed by saying, “We are happy that Kevin can move on from this unfortunate episode.”

The whirlwind episode began Monday morning, when Sesame Workshop startled the world by announcing that Clash had taken a leave of absence from “Sesame Street” in the wake of allegations that he had had a relationship with a 16-year-old.

Clash, a 52-year-old divorced father of a grown daughter, swiftly denied the charges of his accuser, who is in his early 20s. In that statement Clash acknowledged that he is gay but said the relationship had been between two consenting adults.

Though it remained unclear where the relationship took place, sex with a person under 17 is a felony in New York if the perpetrator is at least 21.

Sesame Workshop, which said it was first contacted by the accuser in June, had launched an investigation that included meeting with the accuser twice and meeting with Clash. Its investigation found the charge of underage conduct to be unsubstantiated.

Clash said on Monday he would take a break from Sesame Workshop “to deal with this false and defamatory allegation.”

Neither Clash nor Sesame Workshop indicated on Tuesday when he might return to the show, on which he has performed as Elmo since 1984.

Elmo had previously been a marginal character, but Clash, supplying the fuzzy red puppet with a high-pitched voice and a carefree, child-like personality, launched the character into major stardom. Elmo soon rivaled Big Bird as the face of “Sesame Street.”

Though usually behind the scenes, Clash meanwhile achieved his own measure of fame. In 2006, he published an autobiography, “My Life as a Furry Red Monster,” and he was the subject of the 2011 documentary “Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey.”

He has won 23 daytime Emmy awards and one prime-time Emmy.

___

Online:

http://www.sesamestreet.org

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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‘Dream Team’ of Behavioral Scientists Advised Obama Campaign

Chris Keane/Reuters

DOOR TO DOOR Ricky Hall, an Obama volunteer, in Charlotte, N.C., last week.

Late last year Matthew Barzun, an official with the Obama campaign, called Craig Fox, a psychologist in Los Angeles, and invited him to a political planning meeting in Chicago, according to two people who attended the session.

“He said, ‘Bring the whole group; let’s hear what you have to say,’ ” recalled Dr. Fox, a behavioral economist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

So began an effort by a team of social scientists to help their favored candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Some members of the team had consulted with the Obama campaign in the 2008 cycle, but the meeting in January signaled a different direction.

“The culture of the campaign had changed,” Dr. Fox said. “Before then I felt like we had to sell ourselves; this time there was a real hunger for our ideas.”

This election season the Obama campaign won a reputation for drawing on the tools of social science. The book “The Victory Lab,” by Sasha Issenberg, and news reports have portrayed an operation that ran its own experiment and, among other efforts, consulted with the Analyst Institute, a Washington voter research group established in 2007 by union officials and their allies to help Democratic candidates.

Less well known is that the Obama campaign also had a panel of unpaid academic advisers. The group — which calls itself the “consortium of behavioral scientists,” or COBS — provided ideas on how to counter false rumors, like one that President Obama is a Muslim. It suggested how to characterize the Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, in advertisements. It also delivered research-based advice on how to mobilize voters.

“In the way it used research, this was a campaign like no other,” said Todd Rogers, a psychologist at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a former director of the Analyst Institute. “It’s a big change for a culture that historically has relied on consultants, experts and gurulike intuition.”

When asked about the outside psychologists, the Obama campaign would neither confirm nor deny a relationship with them. “This campaign was built on the energy, enthusiasm and ingenuity of thousands of grass-roots supporters and our staff in the states and in Chicago,” said Adam Fetcher, a campaign spokesman. “Throughout the campaign we saw an outpouring of individuals across the country who lent a wide variety of ideas and input to our efforts to get the president re-elected.”

For their part, consortium members said they did nothing more than pass on research-based ideas, in e-mails and conference calls. They said they could talk only in general terms about the research, because they had signed nondisclosure agreements with the campaign.

In addition to Dr. Fox, the consortium included Susan T. Fiske of Princeton University; Samuel L. Popkin of the University of California, San Diego; Robert Cialdini, a professor emeritus at Arizona State University; Richard H. Thaler, a professor of behavioral science and economics at the University of Chicago’s business school; and Michael Morris, a psychologist at Columbia.

“A kind of dream team, in my opinion,” Dr. Fox said.

He said that the ideas the team proposed were “little things that can make a difference” in people’s behavior.

For example, Dr. Fiske’s research has shown that when deciding on a candidate, people generally focus on two elements: competence and warmth. “A candidate wants to make sure to score high on both dimensions,” Dr. Fiske said in an interview. “You can’t just run on the idea that everyone wants to have a beer with you; some people care a whole lot about competence.”

Mr. Romney was recognized as a competent businessman, polling found. But he was often portrayed in opposition ads as distant, unable to relate to the problems of ordinary people.

When it comes to countering rumors, psychologists have found that the best strategy is not to deny the charge (“I am not a flip-flopper”) but to affirm a competing notion. “The denial works in the short term; but in the long term people remember only the association, like ‘Obama and Muslim,’ ” said Dr. Fox, of the persistent false rumor.

The president’s team affirmed that he is a Christian.

At least some of the consortium’s proposals seemed to have found their way into daily operations. Campaign volunteers who knocked on doors last week in swing states like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Nevada did not merely remind people to vote and arrange for rides to the polls. Rather, they worked from a script, using subtle motivational techniques that research has shown can prompt people to take action.

“We used the scripts more as a guide,” said Sarah Weinstein, 18, a Columbia freshman who traveled with a group to Cleveland the weekend before the election. “The actual language we used was invested in the individual person.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 14, 2012

An article on Tuesday about the role of social scientists in President Obama’s re-election campaign omitted a word from the title of the book by Sasha Issenberg that examines data-driven campaign strategies. The book is “The Victory Lab,”  not “Victory Lab.”

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