Cablevision's case has been closely watched in the cable TV industry. If allowed to proceed, the remote-storage DVR could allow companies like Cablevision to dramatically increase the rate at which they introduce digital video recording services to their customers.

DVRs allow cable TV subscribers to record TV programs without the hassles of videotape, letting users pause live TV, do instant replays and begin watching programs even before the recording has finished. Viewers can also skip through commercials, something that worries the TV industry.

Cablevision's system would have allowed any cable subscriber with a digital cable box to have DVR-like service by storing and playing back shows on computer servers maintained by Cablevision.

That could allow Cablevision to offer the service to many more customers without having to install the expensive hard drive-equipped DVR boxes in each home, as is currently the case.

A group of Hollywood studios successfully sued Cablevision, claiming that the remote-storage system would have amounted to an additional broadcast of their programs, something for which they haven't given permission.

Cablevision argued its service was permissible because the control of the recording and playback was in the hands of the consumer. A landmark 1984 Supreme Court case found that Sony Corp. wasn't breaking copyright laws if home viewers used Sony's Betamax videotape recorders to record and play back shows for personal use.

"We continue to believe strongly that remote-storage DVR is permissible under current copyright law and offers significant benefits to consumers, including lower costs and faster deployment of this popular technology to our digital cable customers," Tom Rutledge, Cablevision's chief operating officer, said in a statement.

By a 2-1 panel vote in March, the judges deciding Parker v. District of Columbia relied on the Second Amendment to overturn a 31-year old ban on handguns in the District of Columbia. Mayor Adrian Fenty and the city argued that the panel's interpretation of the Second Amendment is "contrary to of nearly every other federal court of appeals, as well as the highest local court in this jurisdiction." The case is widely expected to end up before the US Supreme Court, regardless of who ultimately wins in the DC Circuit Court.

Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman and Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher Join the Governors of Maine, Iowa, and Nevada in Recognizing and Proclaiming April 25th as Parental Alienation Awareness Day

Parental Alienation Awareness Organization (PAAO) is pleased to announce that Nebraska and Kentucky are among the states that recognize the importance of Parental Alienation awareness.

Parental Alienation Awareness Organization is working towards having the behaviors involved in Parental Alienation recognized on a statewide level.

Parental Alienation and Hostile Aggressive Parenting inolve a series of behaviors that can effectively alienate a child from a parent. They are often seen in the context of
high-conflict divorce or custody cases and are done by a third party, such as a parent or extended family. Such behaviors interfere with the bond between a loving parent and child.

These behaviors can include: speaking negatively about a parent to, or in front of, a child; interfering with communication and visitation; moving and leaving no contact
information; and discussing inappropriate information with a child, such as details of the marriage, divorce, or court proceedings.

The most common response of a child exposed to alienating behaviors is extreme resistance to contact with, or fear of, a parent without any justifiable cause.

These behaviors are both painful and destructive and can leave deep and long-lasting emotional scars on a child. Research has shown that children who have been alienated from a parent show a greater percentage of depression, low self-esteem, drug and alcohol problems, and difficulties in their own relationships.

While not everyone agrees on the terminology, mental health professionals, legal professionals, and especially adult children who have experienced such behaviors in childhood acknowledge and agree that alienating behaviors are damaging.

These behaviors, designed to take advantage of a child's suggestibility and dependency, leave a child feeling confused, frightened, and insecure.

They can result in the loss of a relationship with a previously loving, supportive, and nurturing parent and in fact send a message that the half of the child that is that
parent is unworthy. The child has "lost" a parent but is given no permission to grieve.

"We are urging the governors of all of the states to learn more about Parental Alienation," states Sarvy Emo, PAAO co-founder.

"Parental Alienating behaviors, under the term Parental Alienation, must be recognized, understood, and addressed to allow a child to love and be loved by both parents, regardless of the parents' relationship to each other," adds Robin Denison, PAAO co-founder.

PAAO urges governors, the professionals who work with children and families, and the public to learn more about Parental Alienation and Hostile Aggressive Parenting by visiting http://www.parental-alienation-awareness.com - for the sake of all children to be able to give and receive all of the love they deserve.

About PAAO

Parental Alienation Awareness Organization (PAAO) is an organization dedicated to increasing the awareness and education of the public and professionals who work with families and children about the causes and effects of Parental Alienation and Hostile Aggressive Parenting, and suggests guidelines as to how to eliminate or ameliorate the effects of these behaviors.

The Third Network of East Asian Think-Tank (NEAT) Financial Cooperation Conference, held in Shanghai on April 7, brought the issue of "establishing a unified currency in East Asia" to the table.

Also discussed at the meeting were topics including the "post Chiang Mai system" and the "Asian bond market."

It is possible, in the foreseeable future, that East Asian countries form a unified currency system, said Wu Jianmin, spokesman for the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and president of the China Foreign Affairs University, in an interview with the First Financial Daily.

Currently currency swap transactions under the Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI) have reached a total volume of US$79 billion, according to Wu. It is expected to reach US$100 billion in 2008.

CMI is an agreement signed by 13 finance ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China, Japan and the Republic of Korea, or ASEAN + 3 countries, on the Second ASEAN + 3 Finance Ministers Meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand in November 1999. CMI aims to create a network of bilateral swap agreements among ASEAN + 3 countries, to address short-term liquidity difficulties in the East Asia region and to supplement the existing international financial agreements.

The CMI system needs to enlarge its scale, extend its functions from the current "rescuing" and assistance to combat financial crisis to others like monitoring hot money and macro-policy adjustment, said Wu. In addition, he suggested to establish some form of "East Asian cooperative reserve fund" by around 2015.

However, Wu pointed out, cooperation among the East Asian countries is still focused in the trade area. Within the ASEAN + 3 region, international trade in the area accounts for 55 percent of the total international trades by the countries.

The figure for EU is 65 percent but that for the North American Free Trade Area is 45 percent. The financial cooperation between ASEAN + 3 countries is comparatively underdeveloped.

Outbound capital flow from these countries are largely long-term investment, while inbound flows are often short-term speculative hot money, which results in high risks for financial crisis, said Bank of China vice president Zhu Min.

The US$79 billion swap transactions under CMI have effectively reduced the chances for another financial crisis and contributed to regional financial stability, but still the CMI system needs to enlarge its scale and extend influences further, Wu stressed.

As for the proposed unified East Asian currency unit or currency index that stirs heated debate among the countries, Wu said it is understandable that so much discrepancy emerged. He believed that there is a concrete demand by the countries to establish a unified currency similar to the euro.

By rough estimation, the cost from currency exchange in international trades accounts for 20 percent of the total. A unified currency may reduce trading cost significantly.

However, it is very hard to persuade a country to give up its constitutional right of issuing own currency. off To develop a proper solution to the problem likely to be accepted by the countries needs great efforts in conducting systematic study, discussion, negotiation and cooperation, which is likely to be a painful and lengthy process.

The first and most urgent step, said Wu, is to set up a cooperative research mechanism to make thorough exploration into the issue finding out the critical points of the problem, maximizing common interestsin the new currency system.

On this purpose, Wu suggested to officially start up a systematic study of the "East Asian unified currency" or "East Asian currency index" issues.

On March 16, Menu Foods issued a nationwide recall of 60 million containers of wet pet food products after receiving reports of animals suffering from kidney failure throughout the United States and Canada

Samples analyzed by the Food and Drug Administration uncovered traces of melamine – a chemical used in making plastics, laminates, and fertilizer.

Menu Foods has established hotlines that pet owners can call to receive updated information on the recall. According to their own hotline, Menu foods also delayed announcement of the recall until it could be confirmed that their product was responsible for the slew of animal deaths.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has lost its bid with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission to not submit a shareholder proposal at this year’s annual shareholders meeting.

The National Legal and Policy Center said Tuesday it had been notified by the SEC that Wal-Mart will be required to submit an NLPC-sponsored proposal asking the company to disclose its charitable giving.

Wal-Mart had appealed to the SEC to exclude the resolution but was denied.

The National Legal and Policy Center said it is critical of Wal-Mart in four areas: health care, racial preferences, environmental alarmism and culture wars.

Wal-Mart Vice President and corporate general counsel Jeffrey Gearhart reportedly phoned the Policy Center on April 4 to “apologize” in the wake of a Wall Street Journal article that reported that some shareholder groups were possible targets of Wal-Mart’s security unit.

Wal-Mart’s shareholders meeting will take place June 1 in Fayetteville.

"iPod has helped millions of people around the world rekindle their passion for music, and we're thrilled to be a part of that," Apple's CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement.

Apple's iTunes online music store has sold more than 2.5 billion songs, 50 million television shows and more than 1.3 million movies.

However, the must-have portable device will face another rival on the market with flash memory maker SanDisk announcing on Monday the launch of the Wi-Fi-enabled Sansa Connect, which offers computer-free connection to Yahoo music and download services.

Users of the Sansa Connect device will be able to use a Wi-Fi wireless connection to listen to LAUNCHcast Internet radio, browse Flickr photos and see what Yahoo Messenger friends and other Sansa Connect owners nearby are listening to. LAUNCHcast and Flickr are both part of the Yahoo network.

But analysts doubt the new gadget will be able to steal much share from the dominant iPod. Numerous companies, including giants like Sony and Microsoft, have tried but so far failed to challenge the device.