Raiders coach Dennis Allen fires back at Terrelle Pryor's agent

Oakland Raiders coach Dennis Allen fired back Tuesday at the agent of quarterback Terrelle Pryor, a day after Jerome Stanley called it "ridiculous" that Allen has decided that Pryor will start Sunday against the Denver Broncos.

Stanley, in an interview with CSN Bay Area, said he believed the decision to play Pryor now is a plot by the Raiders to set Pryor up to fail.

"First, I'd say that's the stupidest thing I've ever friggin' heard," Allen said Tuesday to reporters. "This isn't the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. This isn't made-for-TV drama. This is football. We make our football decisions based solely based on that, nothing other than that. So I don't really give it a lot of thought. I can't control the ignorance that might come out of somebody else's mouth."

Allen said he called to Pryor to talk about Stanley's comments, and that Pryor was very apologetic.

Pryor started eight games this season for the Raiders, and played in two others. But Allen and his staff decided to start rookie Matt McGloin since mid-November. Allen had said previously that McGloin would remain the starter for the rest of the season.

That changed this week, when Allen announced on Monday that Pryor would start the final game.

"I think it was just time to give another opportunity to take a look at Terrelle and give Terrelle another opportunity to prove the things he can do," Allen said.

Allen said he hoped the six games Pryor spent on the bench as McGloin's backup was useful. Pryor threw five touchdowns and 10 interceptions while he was the Raiders' starter. He threw another interception two weeks ago against the Raiders when he came in the game after McGloin. Pryor has also rushed for 527 yards and two touchdowns.

"I think sometimes as a young player, when you're out there and going through it you're learning, but sometimes it's a good situation to kind of sit back and be able to see it from the sideline, see how the game develops and take a back seat and really evaluate what's going on," Allen said. "I think it's been good for Terrelle. Obviously, he's excited. I'm excited; we're all excited about giving him another opportunity."

Federal court: No halt to gay marriages in Utah

A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that gay marriages can continue in Utah, denying a request from the state to halt same-sex weddings until the appeals process plays out.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the state's request for an emergency stay on a federal judge's ruling that found Utah's same-sex marriage ban violates gay and lesbian couples' rights.

The judge who made that ruling, U.S. District Judge Richard Shelby, refused the state's first request to put a halt to the marriages Monday.

Christmas and Boxing Day: What’s open, what’s closed

Many services and stores will be closed or operate on a revised schedule on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Here is a partial list:

Shopping:

Fairview Park Mall in Kitchener is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Christmas Eve, closed Christmas Day and open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Boxing Day.

Conestoga Mall in Waterloo is open Christmas Eve from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Christmas Day and open Boxing Day from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Cambridge Centre Mall is open Christmas Eve from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Christmas Day and open Boxing Day from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

LCBO stores and The Beer Store locations close at 6 p.m. Christmas Eve, not reopening until Friday morning.

Region of Waterloo:

The Region of Waterloo International  Airport will remain open.

Grand River Transit Service will be reduced on most routes on Christmas day. For a full list of changes, click here.

GRT will run on a Sunday schedule on Boxing Day, with the exception of Route 200 iXpress, which will run on a Saturday schedule.

Bus terminals will also see reduced hours.

All regional government offices, libraries and regional daycare centres and home child care will be closed on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

There will be no waste collection on Christmas Day, with services pushed back a day for the remainder of the week. See details here.

City of Kitchener:

All community arenas are closed Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, with the exceptions of The Aud and Activa Sportsplex, which will be open on Christmas Eve morning.

Budd Park and all city pools are closed all three days.

Most city community centres close at noon Tuesday and remain closed through Christmas and Boxing Day, although some close earlier and two (County Hills and Centreville Chicopee) are open all day on Christmas Eve.

Kitchener Public Library branches close at 1 p.m. Christmas Eve and reopen Friday.
The Kitchener Market will be closed from noon Tuesday until Friday morning.
Offices in City Hall will be closed from noon Tuesday until Friday morning, but the building will remain open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

City of Waterloo:

All city facilities are closed Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

On Christmas Eve, the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex track closes at 2 p.m.

Christmas Eve afternoon skates at the Albert McCormick community centre are cancelled.

City of Cambridge:

All city facilities close Christmas Eve afternoon, reopening Friday morning.

2014: Apple's crunch year to prove innovation chops

Apple CEO Tim Cook spent 2013 fighting creeping concerns that the company has lost its innovation edge and hinting about new products that will take the Silicon Valley giant into exciting new categories. 2014 is the year he has to deliver, according to investors and analysts.

While it was going to be impossible to replace the creative genius of Steve Jobs, Cook is increasingly seen as a smart operations leader, rather than a creative innovator.

Without compelling new products in big new markets next year, worries will grow that Apple's days as a hot growth company are over, limiting future gains for the shares.

"People are questioning Cook's status as a leader of an innovative company. Maybe he's just a great operator," said Josh Stewart, portfolio manager at the Wasatch World Innovators Fund, who sold his Apple shares earlier this year.

When Jobs died Oct. 5, 2011, there were initial questions about Cook's ability to replace the co-founder, but Stewart disagreed because Apple had a long growth runway in tablets, the iPhone was a hot product and they had a pipeline of other products in development.

"That was more than two years ago and there's been nothing else so far," Stewart added. "I got frustrated and moved on."

Such worry even prompted one analyst to suggest Apple should buy electric car company Tesla Motors, partly because founder and CEO Elon Musk is considered more capable of driving future innovation.

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman from Tesla.

Stewart's fund invests in companies that are gaining big market share from legacy companies through innovative new products. And Apple is now losing share in the tablet and smart phone markets, mainly to devices running on Google's Android mobile operating system.

"2014 will be hard," Stewart added. "Unless they come up with something we haven't thought of yet it will be hard to drive double-digit sales growth from here."

NEW PRODUCT CATEGORIES:

Apple introduced the iPod in October 2001, revolutionizing music consumption. The iPhone came out in January 2007 and quickly dominated the lucrative high end of the mobile phone industry. The iPad came three years later, creating a new category that is still eating into the huge PC sector.

Since then, the company has updated existing products with cutting-edge technology — such as a finger-print sensor and the first 64 bit application processor in a smartphone — but Apple has not launched a new product in a big new category.

In April, Cook dropped a big hint during a conference call with analysts, saying "amazing new hardware, software and services" would be introduced in the fall and through 2014.

Analysts and investors thought that suggested Apple was looking to move beyond computers, smartphones and tablets into other technology such as a smart watch or a connected TV.

What followed was a series of updates of existing products, such as the iPad Air, the iPhone 5s and 5c and an iPad mini with a Retina display. These got rave reviews and most have sold like hot cakes, but they did not take Apple into new categories.

During Apple's Oct. 28 earnings conference call with Wall Street, Cook said he saw "significant opportunities ahead" for the company in "current product categories and new ones."

Tony Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, noted there had been no new product categories since Cook's April comments and asked if investors should still expect something in 2013 or the first half of 2014.

Cook stressed that during the April conference call he did not promise new product categories in that time frame.

"But what I have said is that you'll see — I've said that you would see some exciting new products from us in the fall of this year and across 2014. And I obviously stand by that, and you've seen a lot of things over the last couple of months," Cook added. "We obviously believe that we can use our skills in building other great products that are in categories that represent areas where we do not participate today."

iWATCH? iTV?

Analysts and investors expect Apple to come out with some type of smart watch next year and some still hope for a TV from the company that would replicate the music success of the iPod, but in video.

"Apple definitely needs to keep innovating, but we have not picked up anything from the supply chain that either are close," said Brad Gastwirth of research firm ABR Investment Strategy.

Other wearable technology may be in the works, along with a larger iPhone and iPad and mobile devices with curved displays, according to analysts.

Even if those products do materialize in 2014, they may not be enough to move the needle at a company that generated more than $170 billion in revenue during its latest fiscal year.

A smart watch could bring in annual revenue in the low single-digit billions of dollars, which would generate about 1% to 2% incremental sales growth for Apple, Bernstein's Sacconaghi estimates.

"That would help investor sentiment, proving that Apple is still an innovator. But it's still unlikely to be very material financially," he added.

A new type of TV could be a $10 billion market for Apple, but that is about 6% incremental revenue for the company, according to the analyst.

"We need something revolutionary from Apple that will move the needle and iWatch and iTV won't do it," said Brian Marshall, an analyst at ISI Group. "They are in a tough spot and run the risk of just being dependent on upgrading their installed base every few years."

iCAR?

Apple should look at other, much larger markets, some analysts and investors reckon.

Adnaan Ahmad, a veteran tech analyst at Berenberg Bank, wrote an open letter to Cook and Apple Chairman Art Levinson on Oct. 25 suggesting the company acquire Tesla.

The key to Apple's future and investors' perception of the company is not about how many iPhones are going to ship, or profit margins, or even whether a larger phone is coming in 2014 or bigger share buy backs, Ahmad wrote.

"It is all about what new avenues of growth there are for Apple over the next five years and beyond," he added.

The TV market, with roughly $100 billion in annual revenue, and the watch business, which is worth about $40 billion annually, are not big enough, he argued.

The auto industry, in contrast, is a $1.6 trillion a year market which is in the early stages of switching to hybrid and electric vehicles, some of which are already sold by Tesla.

An acquisition of Tesla "would radically alter Apple's growth profile," Ahmad wrote, adding that Apple's strengths — its brand, cult-like following and product design skills — would be well suited to modernizing the auto industry.

Every percentage point of global auto industry revenue grabbed by an Apple "iCar" would equal at least $16 billion in annual revenue — or 16% of the TV market and 40% of the watch sector, the analyst said.

If it bought Tesla, Apple would also get Musk, who helped start PayPal and also runs SpaceX, a pioneering space rocket company.

"In Elon Musk, you could strike up a partnership and obtain a new iconic partner to lead Apple's innovation," Ahmad wrote. Musk's PayPal experience could also help Apple accelerate mobile payments initiatives including iBeacon and Passbook, the analyst added.

'OUT OF THE BOX'

Ahmad said the proposal was likely to be ridiculed. Bernstein's Sacconaghi said such a large acquisition would be uncharacteristic of Apple, which is fiercely proud of its products and generally develops them itself, rather than buying them through M&A deals.

However, the fact that some on Wall Street are talking about such a radical idea highlights Apple's problems and Cook's predicament.

"People are not counting the days until the next new product to see if Apple has lost their innovation mojo. But people are asking how they can grow from this huge revenue base and what new products can fuel that. That's a bigger concern," Sacconaghi said.

Apple sales grew 45% in fiscal 2012, but that growth dropped to 9% the following year. The company's revenue growth rate may slip to 3.5% in fiscal 2014 and 2.6% in 2015, according to Sacconaghi.

"The problem I see with your stock is that in the absence of any 'out of the box' move to a sizable new vertical market, the key debate will always be about your ability to sustain these "abnormal" margins in your iPhone business," Ahmad told Cook and Levinson.

In the past, similar efforts to maintain juicy hardware margins by other historically great consumer tech companies, such as Sony and Nokia, failed, he noted.

Want a White Christmas? For most in East, dream on

What you see is what you get.

For most Americans, if you wake up to a brown or green backyard Tuesday, you probably won't have a white Christmas this year. There are no big snowstorms and plenty of cold temperatures in the forecast, so "the places that are snow-covered now will stay snow-covered," AccuWeather meteorologist Tom Kines said Monday.

About half of the USA's land area is forecast to see a white Christmas this year, according to the National Weather Service. As of Monday, the USA was 47% snow-covered.

Typically, based on data from the past 10 years, 39% of the nation has snow on the ground on Christmas Day. The weather service defines a white Christmas as having 1 inch of snow on the ground Dec. 25; it need not snow on Christmas Day to be considered a white Christmas.

6 dead, thousands in dark after 'crazy storm'

A storm that left at least six people dead and tens of thousands without power this weekend was pushing its way into Canada on Sunday, but holiday travelers may still face slick roads as the system douses the Southeast with heavy rainfall.

The storm that brought high winds, ice, snow and rain to a wide swath of the Southeast before roaring north will affect sections of the USA through Monday night, says Frank Strait, senior meteorologist with Accuweather.

"The main part of the storm is pulling away into Canada now and taking some of the snow with it,'' Strait says. But a lingering cold front could stretch from Virginia to Pensacola, Fla., causing heavy downpours before the system finally begins to weaken.

While roadways may be slippery, prospects brightened for airline passengers this holiday. No flights scheduled for Monday into, out of, or within the USA, had been canceled as of Sunday afternoon, according to Daniel Baker of flight tracking site FlightAware.com. That was in contrast to the 516 flights canceled Sunday.

The weather should calm by Christmas Eve, though the Midwest and East Coast likely will see freezing temperatures colder than normal.

A "cold arctic air mass is going to settle in behind the front,'' Strait says. "Across parts of the Midwest, a lot of people will be in single digits and teens for highs. That's well colder than normal.''

The weekend storm was a study in extremes. Its northern edge featured sleet and freezing rain that sparked travel advisories in New York and New England. Several inches of snow fell from Wisconsin to Oklahoma. On the other hand, many eastern cities saw record high temperatures.

"It's a big, crazy storm of contrasts," says AccuWeather senior meteorologist Paul Walker.

The storm was also deadly. Flood waters engulfed a vehicle in central Kentucky, and early Sunday three bodies were pulled from a river. Another person drowned after a four-wheeler flipped over.

In Mississippi, one man died after his mobile home overturned in the and another died when his car hit a tree that had fallen across a county road.

At least five people were injured and two dozen homes damaged in Arkansas.

In Michigan, ice and strong winds left nearly 300,000 homes and businesses in the dark Sunday, while another 100,000 were left without power in upstate New York and New England.

But in some northern cities, record warm temperatures were the news of the day. New York City reached 70 degrees Sunday morning. The previous record for Dec. 22, set 15 years ago, was 63 degrees.

Peyton Manning breaks TD record, Broncos win AFC West

Peyton Manning had to prepare for a 2-point conversion and couldn't celebrate when he set the NFL record for touchdown passes in a season in 2004.

On Sunday, when Denver's quarterback regained the record against the Houston Texans, he was able to soak in the historic moment.

"It was very special," he said. "Very rarely during an NFL game do you get to have a moment like that."

Manning regained his record with 51 when he threw for 400 yards and four touchdowns, including three in the fourth quarter to give Denver its third straight AFC West title. He surpassed the 50 TD passes Tom Brady threw in 2007 and led the Broncos (12-3) to a 37-13 win over the Texans (2-13) that extended Houston's franchise-record skid to 13 games.

Tenn. man is two-time million-dollar winner

 For Charles William "C.W." Whitson, winning the lottery seems to be becoming a habit.

Whitson, who won this week playing the lottery's Play It Again drawing, won a million-dollar prize in 2010. The retired handyman won the $1 million playing an instant ticket game, according to a news release.

"I guess I'm just lucky," Whitson said in the release. "It's definitely hard to believe."

The lottery's Play It Again program began in 2007 as an effort to reduce litter, according to the release. Players register their tickets on the website to be entered into the drawings, which are held about three times a year. The program has since awarded more than $18.5 million.

DNI releases more documents to justify NSA surveillance

In the face of growing skepticism over the National Security Agency's practice of collecting bulk phone and Internet records, the director of national intelligence on Saturday declassified several documents detailing the program.

The latest declassification of documents comes during a week in which a federal judge ruled the NSA's bulk collection was likely unconstitutional and a White House task force questioned the effectiveness of the program.

Winter Solstice: Google marks the shortest day of the year with special knitting doodle

The Solstice officially heralds the beginning of winter and is regarded by some cultures as a recognition of rebirth, involving festivals and rituals

Google has marked the Winter Solstace with a special doodle depicting a woollen mitten being knitted.

The Solstice is the shortest day of the year and the longest night and officially heralds the beginning of winter.

It may be dark and miserable - but the days will start to get longer again from here.

The event is marked in different ways across the world, including at Stonehenge.

In some beliefs the Solstice is regarded as a recognition of rebirth, involving festivals and rituals.

The sun will appear at its lowest point in the sky today at precisely 12.11pm.

The word Solstice derives from the Latin word solstitium – sol meaning "sun" and stitium ("a stoppage").

Protesters vandalize Google bus, block Apple shuttle

As tech-driven housing costs and evictions soar, anti-gentrification protesters in San Francisco and Oakland on Friday again blocked private shuttle buses filled with tech workers commuting to Silicon Valley.

One Google bus had its tires slashed and a window broken while picking up employees at a West Oakland train station, according to police and local news reports. Another bus was briefly blocked at another Bay Area Rapid Transit station.

In San Francisco's Mission District, the epicenter of the housing crisis, protesters surrounded a bus full of Apple workers at about 9 a.m. and held it up for about 30 minutes, according to local news reports and witnesses. Demonstrators chanted and carried banners reading "Eviction Free San Francisco" and "Get Off The Bus." Some urged Apple workers to join them; one did.

The Mission Local blog estimated the protest at 100 people, while the SF Examiner counted 40 to 50.

"The vandalism and violence against employee shuttles and the workers who ride them is unfortunate and unacceptable," the Bay Area Council, a business group representing many of the shuttle bus operators, said in a statement.

Craig Frost, a Google employee who works for the company's Play and YouTube businesses, posted photos of the incident on Twitter, showing the broken window and protesters standing in front of the bus holding a banner that read "F--k Off Google."

He also posted a photo of a flyer handed out by the West Oakland protesters that blamed the rising cost of living in the area on Google employees.

"The people outside your Google bus serve you coffee, watch your kids, have sex with you for money, make you food, and are being driven out of their neighborhoods," the flyer read. "While you guys live fat as hogs with your free 24/7 buffet, everyone else is scraping the bottom of their wallets, barely existing in this expensive world that you and your chums helped create."

It was the second time in two weeks that protesters have targeted the fleets of corporate limousine buses ferrying thousands of high-paid tech and biotech workers from popular urban areas to the suburban campuses of Google, Apple, Facebook, Yahoo, eBay, Intuit, Genentech and other companies.

"We certainly don't want to cause any inconvenience to Bay Area residents and we and others in our industry are working with San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to agree on a policy on shuttles in the city," a Google spokeswoman said. She declined to comment further.

Tech workers, and the buses they ride, have become unwitting symbols of the latest tsunami of gentrification that has pushed seniors, middle-income workers and other longtime residents from affordable, rent-controlled apartments.

The median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco is just under $2,800 per month, a 27% jump in the past two years. Realtors say being near a corporate bus stop can add 20% to rents or selling prices.

Nearly 40 companies operate the cushy, mostly unregulated coaches that make more 200 stops a day --mainly in public bus zones -- across the city. Google runs more than 100 buses that make 380 trips daily around the Bay Area. The local transit agency was deluged with complaints about private coaches hogging city bus zone and forcing passengers to get off in the middle of crowded, busy streets. In July, the agency proposed that the tech companies pay the city to share about 200 stops with the public buses.

The San Francisco protest leaders said they weren't singling out Google or tech workers.

"We want to make it clear that we're not just targeting Google, we're targeting the systematic use of these shuttles and their impact on this city," said Fred Sherburn-Zimmer, who leads the housing-rights coalition Heart of the City.

"This protest is about gentrification and people being displaced," organizer Erin McElroy told the crowd. "We're not necessarily against tech. We're against tech's effect on speculation and evictions."

The story across the bay was different, public radio station KQED said.

The character of the West Oakland incident seems much more aggressive and hostile toward Google and its employees than bus-related protests in San Francisco, which have been nonviolent and focused specifically on the displacement of residents from the Mission District as employees of technology firms bid up rents and home prices.

During this morning's San Francisco action, demonstrators went through the motions, at least, of reaching out to Apple employees inside the bus, urging them to join the protest. (None did, so far as we've heard.)

On Dec. 9, about two dozen protesters briefly blocked a Google bus in the Mission District, the epicenter of the battle. In a spoof that fooled news outlets and spectators, one union activist pretended to be an outraged Google employee, berating demonstrators to leave the city if they couldn't afford to stay.

Man thought to be Gacy victim found in Montana

A man presumed dead for decades as a potential victim of serial killer John Wayne Gacy has been reunited with his family after investigators found him alive and well in Montana.

Robert Hutton was located in April after his sister submitted his name as a possible Gacy victim, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said Thursday. Investigators in Dart's office collected DNA samples two years ago from the remains of eight unnamed victims in an effort to identify them.

Cartel boss dies in gunbattle at Mexican resort

Mexican authorities confirmed on Thursday that a top Sinaloa drug cartel lieutenant was killed in a four-hour gunbattle in the Gulf of California resort of Puerto Penasco.

A federal official said Gonzalo Inzunza Inzunza was killed and his body taken away by the shootout survivors. Another five bodies were left at the scene, where marines and federal police on Wednesday shot it out with gunmen near a luxury hotel.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record, said Inzunza was the target of the federal operation that led to the violent confrontation. He said authorities are studying blood stains and other evidence recovered.

Federal police chief Manuel Mondragon said Thursday night that Inzunza's men took his body with them. Mexico's Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong earlier said he had received reports that the body had been stolen but would not confirm he was dead.

The Mexican government had offered a $230,000 reward for the capture of a longtime high-ranking member of the Sinaloa cartel. Inzunza, also known as "Macho Prieto," has also been labeled a kingpin in a list by the U.S. government, making it illegal for U.S. citizens to do business with him and freezing his assets.

Inzunza is considered the cartel's trafficker in charge of the states of Sonora and Baja California.

The resort of Puerto Penasco, where the shootout took place, is across the border from Arizona and is popular with U.S. tourists. Gunbattles like Wednesday's are rare at Mexican beach resorts, especially so close to tourist strip.

Mega Millions jackpot likely to surpass $600 million

Tuesday night's Mega Millions jackpot, which at $586 million is already the fourth-largest ever, could be sweetened to $625 million or more Tuesday morning.

With tickets estimated to sell at a rate of 11 million an hour in 43 states, lottery officials will gauge sales to determine whether to increase the jackpot. Typically, large jackpots like this one attract a media-fueled frenzy in the hours leading up to the 11 p.m. drawing, says Virginia state lottery director Paul Otto, lead director for the Multi State Lottery Association.

The lump-sum payoff is worth a pre-tax $316 million.

A record $656 million Mega Millions jackpot in 2012 sold 26 million tickets an hour the day of the March 30 drawing, says MSLA director Chuck Strutt.

A $1 billion Christmas Eve jackpot isn't far-fetched if there's no winner tonight or Friday night. The jackpot — up more than $160 million since hitting $425 million Dec. 13 — has rolled over 21 straight times since Oct. 4, when it was a relatively pocket-change $12 million.

"If this hits a record jackpot, all bets are off," Strutt says.

Mega Millions jackpots are likely to continue swelling because lottery officials boosted their potential payouts.

Originally, customers chose five numbers from 1-56 and one number from 1-46. The new structure has customers choosing five numbers from 1-75 and one number from 1-15. The change raised the odds of hitting a winner to 1 in 259 million from 1 in 176 million.

As jackpots get larger, the number of people who don't ordinarily play join the mix. In Virginia, for example, about one-third of the state's adults have played the lottery at least once in the past month. Participation grows when there is a "phenomenal jackpot," Otto says. Strutt notes that in some states, a whopping 70% of sales occur the day of a drawing.

"Lotto players are procrastinators. They tend to buy on the day of the draw," Otto says.

Coming so close to Christmas, its unclear whether the holiday is spurring those looking for stocking stuffers and office exchange gifts or muting ticket sales.

"We're not certain what that will mean for consumer spending habits — if people are holding back on some dollars they might've spent on the lottery because they have to buy more holidays gifts, or a lot of people will be out and about and help sales," Otto says. "It could go either way."

An estimated 65% to 70% of potential numbers have already been selected.

Longtime lottery watcher Gail Howard says that with the odds of hitting the jackpot so small, ticket buyers should buy no more than one.

"Your odds are not going to improve that much if you buy 1 ticket or 1,000,'' says Howard, author of Lottery Master Guide. "I also think you should pick your own numbers rather than let a (point of sale) computer do it."

Ray Price, famed for his country shuffle, dies at 87

Country Music Hall of Famer Noble Ray Price, who pioneered a shuffling, rhythmic, honky-tonk sound that has had an impact on country music since the mid-1950s, died Monday at age 87 from complications of pancreatic cancer, confirms Bill Mack, a family spokesman.

Through hits including Crazy Arms, City Lights and My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You, Price's full, round voice became one of country's most beloved and instantly identifiable instruments. His expansive musicality allowed him more than 60 years in the spotlight.

Hillary Clinton may affect campaigns far ahead of 2016

Hillary Rodham Clinton looms large as a potential 2016 presidential candidate, but she could be a major factor in the 2014 elections too.

Ready for Hillary, the group organizing supporters nationwide for a potential Clinton presidential campaign, says it will ask its members to support candidates endorsed by Clinton in the 2014 midterm elections, and to push her policy agenda over the next two years.

In addition, Clinton could decide to campaign for 2014 Democratic candidates, many of whom are old friends and allies. She helped two candidates get elected this fall — Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. Doing the same in 2014 could help her amass support for a presidential run and help retain a Democratic-controlled Senate for a future President Clinton to work with. It could also help her decide whether she still has enough fun doing it to run for the presidency again.

Democratic campaign committee operatives say they hope Clinton will stump for her party in 2014, though they won't say so on the record because she hasn't yet discussed doing so. Republicans say they're sure she will.

"We anticipate there will be some appearances … on the campaign trail and some testing in some of these races for themes and things that might work for the prospective Clinton campaign,'' said Brad Dayspring, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Clinton's office would not comment on whether she will campaign for Democrats next year. "It's still 2013, so a bit too early to start addressing 2014,'' spokesman Nick Merrill said.

Clinton isn't likely to become a candidate herself until after the 2014 elections, if ever. "She thinks the country should spend at least another year working very hard on the problems that we have,'' former president Bill Clinton said earlier this month on CNN. "It's a big mistake, this constant four-year peripatetic campaign.''

He is expected to pitch in next year: he has already appeared at a fundraiser for Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor and made a video for the campaign of Alison Lundergan Grimes, who is challenging Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell in Kentucky.

"I think you will see President Clinton (on the trail), I can say that for certain,'' said Matt Canter of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Political operatives say they can't imagine Hillary Clinton not campaigning in 2014 if only because she again has close ties to several candidates, including Pryor, Grimes and New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, whose husband was Clinton's state chairman in 2008. Guy Cecil, who is charged with preserving the Democratic majority in the Senate as executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, served as Clinton's field director during her 2008 presidential run.

If Clinton helps Democrats win in 2014, it would solidify the support of a pro-Hillary swath of the political elite well before the first 2016 primary. But if Democrats lose widely in midterm elections, that could tarnish her.

"It's a matter of political momentum, who's on the winning side and who's on the losing side of that debate,'' Dayspring said. "Are they yesterday's news or are they tomorrow's news? If she associates herself … with losing candidates or the candidates of yesterday, that's a risk.''

Whether Clinton is campaigning next year or not, the people who want her to be president will be.

Ready for Hillary says it will be active in 2014 races that Hillary supports, just as it directed its members to help McAuliffe after Clinton campaigned for him this year. The group says it has raised $1.25 million and has 25,000 donors and 1.1 million "likes" on its Facebook page.

"We know that we have an opportunity to take the energy and excitement that people have about a potential Hillary candidacy and communicate with those supporters in a way that's helpful to the Democratic Party as a whole,'' spokesman Seth Bringman said.

"We're going to look to engage our supporters in those elections….They're very excited about 2016 but there are issues and efforts that are very important in the meantime.''

Getting Hillary Clinton supporters to work on 2014 issues and campaigns "serves two goals: to help pass policy or legislation that matters to the supporters of Ready for Hillary, and it allows us to develop the volunteer organization,'' said senior adviser Mitch Stewart.

The 2 million volunteers who worked for Obama's re-election were the result of early efforts by Organizing for America, said Stewart, who was national director of that group and then the Obama campaign's battleground states director. "You can't manufacture that size of organization in six months. The earlier you start the bigger it will be.''

EMILY's List, which backs pro-abortion rights Democrats, is raising money and support for 2014 candidates including Kentucky Senate candidate Allison Lundergan Grimes, but at the same time involving members in its Madam President program, which recruits supporters for a woman female presidential candidate. The group has held Madam President town-hall-style meetings in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states of the 2016 race, and will hold a third in Nevada next month.

"It's really about making sure that we're building that base of support and capturing that momentum,'' spokeswoman Marcy Stech said. "There will be a woman on the ticket in 2016. That is our hope and that is what our campaign is about.''

A new Des Moines Register Iowa Poll shows.Democrats overwhelmingly approve of Clinton, with 89% saying they have a positive opinion about her. Iowa Republicans favor Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin; he gets a 73% positive rating.The ratings put the two the forefront of the potential 2016 presidential candidates in the nation's kick-off voting state.

Michelle Bachelet easily wins Chile presidency

Chile's once and future President Michelle Bachelet won Sunday's runoff election after promising profound changes in society in response to years of street protests.

With 90% of the votes counted, Bachelet had an unbeatable 62% to 38% for the center-right's Evelyn Matthei, who conceded defeat.

A moderate socialist, Bachelet served as president in 2006-2010, then ran the United Nation's women's agency from New York as her successor, conservative Sebastian Pinera, was confronted with widespread demonstrations for change.

She has a new center-left coalition and promises to finance education with higher corporate taxes, reduce the wealth gap, protect the environment and reform the constitution.

But concerns that turnout would be low had worried Bachelet, who needed a strong mandate to make good on her promises.

"This is an important day and I hope people can come and participate and through their vote give a clear expression of the kind of Chile where they want to continue to live," Bachelet said after voting in her Santiago neighborhood of La Reina. "The changes we need can't be produced through skepticism."

Bachelet, 62, left office with 84% approval ratings despite failing to achieve any major changes.

This time, activists are vowing to hold her to promises to raise corporate taxes to help fund an education overhaul and even change the dictatorship-era constitution, a difficult goal given congressional opposition.

Many Chileans blame policies imposed by Gen. Augusto Pinochet's 1973-1990 dictatorship for keeping wealth and power in few hands. Pinochet effectively ended land reform by selling off the nation's water, and preserved the best educations for elites by ending the central control and funding of public schools.

Opinion polls had pointed to a bruising defeat for Matthei, a former finance minister, because of her past support for Pinochet and her ties to the current president. Pinera, a billionaire entrepreneur, was Chile's first center-right president since democracy's return, and with just 34 percent support in the latest CEP poll, the most unpopular.

This was Chile's first presidential election after voter registration became automatic, increasing the electorate from 8 million to 13.5 million of the country's nearly 17 million people. But voting became optional with the change, and only 50% of voters turned out in the first round, frustrating both the major coalitions.

It also was Chile's first choice between two women, both with long careers in politics.

Bachelet, a pediatrician, and Matthei, an economist, share a dramatic history: Playmates while growing up on a military base, they found themselves on opposite sides of Chile's wide political divide after the 1973 military coup.

Matthei's father became a member of Pinochet's junta while Bachelet's father was tortured to death for refusing to support the strongman. Bachelet was imprisoned herself and forced into exile.

The two women remained cordial over the years while they rose through the ranks of the right and left.

Matthei, 60, had campaigned with a call to continue business-friendly policies that she credited for Chile's fast growth and low unemployment under Pinera. She backed Pinochet in a 1988 referendum on continuing his rule and now opposes changing the Pinochet-era constitution. She's also against gay marriage, abortion and higher taxes.

Bachelet is seen as having more charisma and empathy, but her critics say she's made mistakes.

When a devastating earthquake struck in 2010 killing more than 500 people just 11 days before the end of her term, the national emergency office failed to issue a tsunami warning. Many coastal dwellers had figured they were safe, and failed to run to higher ground.

"I want change and I don't like Mrs. Bachelet. She did so many bad things when she was president," said Olga Espinoza, 62, a maid who voted for Matthei. "How many people died in the quake because of her? We're the same age, we have the same zodiac sign, but I don't like anything about her."

Chile is the world's top copper producer, and its fast-growing economy, low unemployment and stable democracy are the envy of Latin America. But many Chileans are insisting that more of the copper wealth be used to fix the underfunded public education system.

"Abroad you often hear that this country has been growing and progressing more than others in Latin America, but it can't be just a matter of growth," Paola Bustamante, a 40-year-old sculptor, said after voting for Bachelet. "We need urgent educational reform, improvements to health, and I feel Bachelet can fulfill promises of deep changes this time around."

Navy makes it 12 in a row against Army

Quarterback Keenan Reynolds ran for three touchdowns that gave him 29 on the year — an NCAA single-season record for rushing touchdowns by a quarterback — as Navy beat Army 34-7 Saturday at snowy Lincoln Financial Field.

The romp was Navy's 12th consecutive win against Army, the longest streak of domination in the 114-game series.

Reynolds, a sophomore from Antioch, Tenn., ran 47 yards for a touchdown late in the second quarter. In the final quarter, he added touchdown runs of 11 and 1 yard. He finished with 136 rushing yards on 30 carries in Navy's triple-option offense.

Reynolds broke the quarterback record of 27 rushing touchdowns set by Navy's Ricky Dobbs in 2009 and matched by Kansas State's Collin Klein in 2011.

After his second touchdown with 6:22 left, Dobbs caught a two-point conversion pass from wide receiver Brendan Dudeck to give Navy a 21-point lead. Reynolds scored on his 1-yard sneak with 46 seconds left.

Navy won the Commander-in-Chief's trophy for the second consecutive year after sweeping its annual series against Army and Air Force. Reynolds was voted the game's MVP.

Navy (8-4) has a game remaining, the Dec. 30 Armed Forces Bowl against Middle Tennessee State in Fort Worth. It will be the 10th bowl appearance in 11 years for Navy.

Army finished its season 3-9 under fifth-year coach Rich Ellerson, 0-5 against Navy. Ellerson is now 20-41 overall at Army, and his status moving forward is uncertain.

Navy leads the overall series 58-49-7. Its current winning streak is by far the longest in the series. Previously, the longest streak of domination by either side had been five games.

Army came close in a 17-13 loss to Navy last season, losing a fumble deep in Navy territory with just over a minute left. Navy was up 17-0 at halftime Saturday.

Sophomore A.J. Schurr made his first start at quarterback for Army, but he was replaced by regular starter Angel Santiago in the first quarter after losing a fumble.

Army was hurt by three personals fouls. Early in the second quarter, a 15-yard personal foul against Army defensive end Robert Kough was followed by a 39-yard touchdown run by Navy fullback Noak Copeland. Army was set back by another personal foul on the kickoff return to open the second half. And a roughing the passer penalty against Army defensive lineman Kyle Maxwell helped set up a Navy field goal in the final quarter.

Freshman cornerback Brandon Clements forced two Army fumbles that were recovered by Navy and intercepted a Santiago pass in the second quarter.

Wintry weather to wallop Northeast

Utilities, airports and road crews are on high alert as wintry weather heads toward the Northeast again, bringing with it ice and perhaps a foot or more of snow in parts of New England.

The storm, which was forecast to move from the Ohio into New England over the course of the weekend, put utilities and airports on alert and is likely to affect travel and shoppers looking to hit stores as Christmas approaches.

The National Weather Service said 6 to 12 inches of snow are expected from Saturday to Sunday in New England. It said up to 14 inches are possible along the Maine coast but as little as 2 inches on Cape Cod. Areas north and west of New York City and interior Pennsylvania could get 8 inches or more. About half a foot was forecast in parts of Ohio, where snow began falling overnight.

In Connecticut, a saltwater solution applied to roads before storms won't work now because temperatures are too low and the saltwater would freeze, said Kevin Nursick, spokesman at the state Department of Transportation.

However, crews have treated highways before recent snowfalls with salt, helping to keep snow from bonding. And the storm will not affect work day commutes.

"The timing is pretty good coming on a weekend," Nursick said.

Not so for retailers, who have less than two weeks before Christmas to clear their shelves and face the prospect of losing critical weekend sales.

Kathy Grannis, a spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation, said consumers likely will shop online. And the weekend before Christmas gives retailers and shoppers another opportunity after this weekend.

"If a big storm hits around the 21st, 22nd, it will be a completely different story," Grannis said.

Matthew Brelis, a spokesman for Boston's Logan Airport, said he expects the brunt of the storm to arrive Saturday night but will evaluate conditions as forecasts change.

"At some point, we'll start calling in more staff," he said.

Caroline Pretyman, a spokeswoman for Northeast Utilities, which serves electric and gas customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, said extra crews would be available beginning overnight Saturday to respond to outages.

And Metro-North Railroad, which runs trains between New York City and suburban Connecticut, Long Island and New York's Hudson Valley, said on its website it may reduce or suspend service depending on the severity of the weather.

It cautioned that snow and subfreezing temperatures can create moisture that could freeze brake lines, door mechanisms, switches and signals.

In Pennsylvania, two state high school football championship games were moved from Saturday to Sunday because of a predicted 5 to 8 inches of snow.

John Wallace, a spokesman at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Conn., said airport officials were meeting with vendors and airlines to assess the impact of the storm. But he said he wasn't worried.

"It's New England. It's the wintertime," he said. "I think we're pretty well ready for whatever is headed our way."