Actor Dale Robertson dies in California hospital

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) ? Dale Robertson, an Oklahoma native who became a star of television and movie Westerns during the genre's heyday, died Tuesday. He was 89.

Robertson's niece, Nancy Robertson, said her uncle died at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, Calif., following a brief illness.

Dale Robertson had bit parts in films including "The Boy with the Green Hair" and the Joan Crawford vehicle "Flamingo Road" before landing more high-profile roles such as Jesse James in "Fighting Man of the Plains."

In the 1950s, he moved into television, starring in series such as "Tales of Wells Fargo" (1957-62), "Iron Horse" (1966) and "Death Valley Days" (1968-70).

Robertson continued to work in TV in the 1970s, and in the 1980s he landed roles in the popular night-time soap operas "Dallas" and "Dynasty."

In 1993, he took what would be his final role, as Zeke in the show "Harts of the West," before retiring from acting to spend more time at his ranch in Yukon, Okla., where he lived until moving to the San Diego area in recent months, Nancy Robertson said.

Dale Robertson would want to be remembered as a father, a grandfather and an Oklahoman, she said.

"He came back a lot when he was in Hollywood, and he came back (to Oklahoma) after retiring," she said.

"I remember him as a larger-than-life fellow," she said. "When he was in town it was always very exciting. It always meant something magical was going to happen," such as another actor or performing artist accompanying him on his visits.

Born Dayle Lymoine Robertson to Melvin and Vervel Robertson in Harrah, on July 14, 1923, Robertson attended Oklahoma Military College at 17 and boxed in professional prize fights to earn money.

He joined the U.S. Army and fought in North Africa and Europe during World War II. Robertson was wounded twice and awarded the Bronze and Silver Stars and the Purple Heart.

While stationed at San Luis Obispo, Calif., he had a photograph taken for his mother. A copy of the photo displayed in the photo shop window attracted movie scouts, and the 6-foot-tall, 180-pound Robertson soon was on his way to Hollywood.

Will Rogers Jr., son of fellow Oklahoma-born actor and writer Will Rogers, once told Robertson to avoid formal training and keep his own persona.

Robertson received the Golden Boot Award in 1985, and was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers and the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.

He was married several times, most recently in 1980 to Susan Robbins, who survives him along with two children.

Nancy Robertson said her uncle will be cremated and that a memorial service will be held in a few weeks.

_____

Former Associated Press writer Rochelle Hines contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/actor-dale-robertson-dies-california-hospital-011301126.html

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Order in the chaos of a cell membrane

Mar. 1, 2013 ? An explanation has been proposed for the way in which ordered structures arise in cell membranes. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam have discovered how complex compounds of sugar and lipids -- known as glycolipids -- order themselves in cell membranes into rafts, namely small, highly organised domains. The arrangement of glycolipids on the surface of plant and animal cell membranes regulates numerous cellular processes. If errors occur in this process, diseases like PNH and BSE can arise.

Lipids, i.e. fats and fat-like substances, arise all over the human body. They are the body's most important energy storage system and are crucial structural components of cell membranes. Compounds formed from complex sugar components and fats are known as glycolipids. Those are vital communicators found in the membranes of every human cell, and constantly exchange information about the type and state of the cell. Numerous metabolic processes depend on glycolipids and their recognition. Even the immune system identifies and combats many pathogens using certain sugar structures located on the surface of the pathogen cells.

Glycosylphosphatidylinositols (GPIs) belong to the group of natural glycolipids. They are found on the surface of plant and animal cell membranes, where they appear either as free molecules or as membrane anchors for various proteins. The arrangement in clusters and their preference for denser and, in part, highly-organised micro-domains in the membrane are seen as essential for the effective functioning of a cell. These minuscule clusters are extremely important for the regulation of many cellular processes, and their malfunction can have very serious consequences. For example, it has been proven that the accumulation, missing or alteration of GPI-anchored molecules can trigger the development of serious diseases like BSE and paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH). Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Golm near Potsdam have gained new insight into how GPIs structure themselves in membranes.

Crystalline lipid areas never previously observed in membranes

It was assumed up to now that the arrangement of the GPIs in clusters and rafts was determined by the water-repelling section of the glycolipids embedded in the cell membrane. The chemical structure of the hydrophobic ends is actually responsible for strong interactions with similarly rigid neighbouring molecules. If the number of the molecules that interact with each other is big enough, rigid and partly organised domains may arise like icebergs on the surface of the ocean.

Cristina Stefaniu and her colleagues have now discovered that, in addition to the hydrophobic ends, the large GPI head groups, which contain sugar, mainly contribute to the formation of the rafts. This means that the hydrophylic part of the molecule is able to build strong interactions with the neighbouring GPI molecules. This part of the molecule is located precisely on the boundary between the membrane surface and the liquid medium. "The interactions between neighbouring GPI molecules result in the formation of crystalline orders that have not previously been observed for other membrane lipids," says Cristina Stefaniu.

Hydrogen bonds connect the hydrophylic head groups

The scientists reached this new conclusion about the order in membranes by studying a model molecule. This is a GPI fragment that was synthesised by the groups headed by Peter Seeberger and Daniel Var?n Silva and that imitates the behaviour of entire GPIs. It forms a very thin film, just one molecule thick, on the surface of the water. This so-called monolayer is the simplified model of a half cell membrane which the researchers analysed using synchrotron x-ray scattering. "Surprisingly, the highly ordered structure in the GPI monolayer is predominantly determined by the bulky hydrophilic head groups that connect through hydrogen bonds," says Stefaniu. A hydrogen bond is a relatively weak chemical bond and usually links two molecules through the bonding of a hydrogen atom from one molecule with an oxygen or nitrogen atom from the other molecule. Thus the monolayers of the GPI fragment are characterised by both the order of the hydrophilic lipid chains and the crystalline arrangement of the GPI head groups.

"The molecular lattices observed here have not yet been described for lipid monolayers," says Cristina Stefaniu. "A similar order forms in lipid bilayers if they are stored at temperatures close to zero degrees Celsius." The strong interactions between the head groups can only be disrupted and the molecular lattice destroyed through the addition of a highly concentrated urea solution, which breaks the hydrogen bonds, eliminates the strong interactions of the head groups and destroys the molecular lattice. In addition, the scientists proved that ordered clusters can arise in mixtures of the GPI fragment with typical membrane lipids, which only form unordered films. Thus, the GPIs are able to generate order in the chaos of a membrane. This special skill could be very important for the GPI interactions in real cell membranes.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces.

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Journal Reference:

1. Cristina Stefaniu, Ivan Vilotijevic, Mark Santer, Daniel Var?n?Silva, Gerald Brezesinski, Peter H. Seeberger. Subgel Phase Structure in Monolayers of Glycosylphosphatidylinositol Glycolipids. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2012; 51 (51): 12874 DOI: 10.1002/anie.201205825

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/Tel7Ws9r9ic/130301051615.htm

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Sandy's scars still visible on N.J. shore

The Jet Star roller coaster, in the ocean since Sandy, will soon be removed (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

SEASIDE HEIGHTS, N.J.?People have come from hundreds of miles away to see it, sneaking past the yellow caution tape and heavy police guard onto a closed beach still littered with jagged pieces of debris four months after Superstorm Sandy nearly swept away this tiny oceanfront town.

The Jet Star roller coaster, sucked from the Casino Pier amusement park into the Atlantic Ocean by the storm, has become an iconic image of the horror and destruction left in Sandy?s wake. There?s something hauntingly beautiful about the sight of a roller coaster submerged in the sea?the strange way its frame reflects off the water in the early morning light and how the waves expand and retract around it, as if it had been built there in the first place.

As Casino Pier finalizes plans to finally begin removing it from the ocean in coming days, the Jet Star, for many here, is a sad, if beautiful, reminder of everything Sandy has taken away in a city struggling to fight its way back.

?You look out there, and you just want to cry,? said Kathie Kirckof, a Seaside Heights resident who lost everything when her beachside home in nearby Ortley Beach was flooded by the storm. ?So many memories, just gone. All people want is just to feel normal again, yet it?s really anything but that here. It just feels eerie.?

Last weekend, Seaside Heights was forced to cancel one of its biggest winter attractions?the annual Polar Bear Plunge, a chilly swimming event that usually attracts thousands of people. But with the Jet Star and other debris in the water and the beach still closed, the Plunge was moved upstate to Long Branch?a disappointment to businesses that had been closed for weeks and hoped to see customers return.

Four months after the storm, efforts to rebuild Seaside Heights have been minimal at best. The old boardwalk, left in splinters by Sandy?s massive storm surge, has largely been carted away as the city last week began work on a new boardwalk it hopes to open by May, the kickoff of the summer tourist season, which is crucial to the city?s economy.

?We are going to have [the boardwalk] finished by May because we absolutely have to,? Seaside Heights Mayor William Akers told Yahoo News. ?Yes, it?s an ambitious schedule, but if we don?t do this it will be a huge blow, and we can?t take it. It would be economic suicide.?

There?s also a symbolic reason Akers and other Seaside Heights leaders are working so hard to revive the city. This summer, Seaside Heights turns 100 years old?a benchmark the city is determined to celebrate.

But the boardwalk is one of the few obvious signs of progress. Seaside Heights, made famous for its starring role in MTV?s reality show ?Jersey Shore,? feels like a ghost town. Just 16 blocks long?all of which is nestled along the ocean?the city is empty and still. There?s little traffic and almost no people except for an occasional smattering of tourists looking for a glimpse of the Jet Star or other storm damage along the boardwalk.

On one recent afternoon, the only cars on the street were about a half dozen police cruisers trying to keep people away from the closed beach area. ?It?s what we do all day,? one officer, who declined to be named because he wasn?t allowed to talk to the media, explained. ?We just chase the storm tourists away.?

One of those tourists was Dorothy Dabronski who, with her husband Stan, had driven from their home in Bayonne, N.J., to see the damage firsthand.

?I have been coming here for decades,? Dabronski said. ?I wanted to see for myself what it looked like.? Glancing around, she declared, ?It?s really sad.?

Around town, fewer than two dozen businesses have reopened in the aftermath of the storm as many continue to wait for insurance companies to answer their damage claims. A handful of bars are aiming to open next week, ahead of the city?s March 9 St. Patrick?s Day parade?an event that has long been one of the city?s biggest tourist weekends and has taken on a special air of significance this year as the town tries to get back to normal. But in a sign of how tenuous that commitment is, many of those buildings were still locked up last week, with no signs of life.

Some business owners have taken it upon themselves to try to earn the money needed to reopen. Along Ocean Terrace, the closest road to the beach, employees of Vinny's Games have set up a temporary booth to try to woo those passing by into playing a dart game involving balloons.

Joe Franzi, a manager at Vinny?s, explained they were trying to raise money to rebuild their stand along the boardwalk, which had been heavily damaged by the eight-foot storm surge. Recent business, Franzi said, has been ?pretty good some days and just OK on others.?

?There are a few people who walk by and stop in during the day, and some people just give us donations,? Franzi said. ?Little by little, we?re trying to get back to normal. It?s tough, but we?re trying. It?s good for people to see us trying. You want to make people feel good, to remind them of what having fun feels like. We need that.?

But, he admitted, it?s not always easy. Franzi, who lives in nearby Toms River and has worked the Seaside Heights boardwalk for 23 years, said he broke down when he first saw the damage after the storm and sometimes still gets emotional when thinking about what the city has lost.

?I just cried,? Franzi said. ?It?s hard to take. ... I know we'll rebuild, but it?s going to take awhile. And I wonder if it will be the same.?

Down the road, Captain Hook?s Bar reopened early last month after its building had been flooded by more than four feet of water and sludge from the surge. The owners had to replace almost everything?from the coolers behind the bar to the video games out front. The atmosphere, they said, hasn?t quite been the same.

?It?s been quiet,? said Kirckof, who tends bar at Captain Hook?s. ?We have some of our locals who come in, but a lot of people haven?t come back to the city?and may not come back. You just don?t know.?

Kirckof guessed that some customers were being scared off by the empty streets and heavy police presence?admitting her city looks more like a ?war zone? than the laid-back ?island community? it used to be. At the same time, she worried that people don?t understand the struggles that Seaside Heights still faces.

At her second job, as a hairdresser on the far side of Tom?s River in a more inland part of the state, Kirckof said many people she talked to ?had gone on with their lives? after Sandy and seemed unaware of the ?war zone feeling? that still engulfs Seaside Heights.

?I don?t mean to sound like I am whining, but we're all living by the skin of our teeth now. A lot of people were out of work for months. Flood insurance is a joke. We're replacing all of our belongings. It?s the worst thing I have ever gone through in my life,? Kirckof said. ?To see your friends and neighbors and the people you care about walking around like zombies, just blank stares because they're so traumatized, it?s hard. All we want is for things to go back to normal. But what is normal anymore for us?"

Even as May has emerged as an important benchmark for Seaside Heights and its future, Akers is the first to admit everything won?t be as it was in summers past. Along the boardwalk, where shops and eateries still remain boarded up, some vendors have been noncommittal about how soon they will be able to reopen. Around town, houses once rented as vacation homes remain washed off their foundations. Others that withstood the flood remain heavily damaged?empty since the storm.

Funtown Pier, the second of the two major amusement parks in town, won?t reopen until the summer of 2014. Meanwhile, officials at Casino Pier are aiming to have at least part of its park open by Memorial Day. But according to Toby Wolf, a marketing manager at the park, the pier won?t fully reopen until at least next summer, after the upper pier, where the Jet Star and four other rides were washed into the ocean, is rebuilt.

?It?s extremely important to us, as a company, to get people back to work,? Wolf said. ?It?s important to us as a business, but it?s also important to the city. The boardwalk is really the heart of the city.?

?Everywhere I go, people ask me if we will be ready, if the beach will be open, and my answer is that we will be,? Akers said, noting the extra pressure due to the town's 100th anniversary. ?After everything we went through with Sandy, this is a new beginning. We can do this. We have to do this."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/four-months-sandy-seaside-heights-struggles-sense-normal-153010102--finance.html

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Galaxy on quest for three-peat

Each day from now until the beginning of Major League Soccer?s 18th season, we will preview one Eastern Conference team and one from the West. First kick is March 2.

No. 2 in the West is the LA Galaxy:

Significant additions and subtractions: LA?s offseason may have dominated the headlines, but ultimately there?s been very little change. Eight of the 11 players who would have been first choice at season?s end return to?Bruce Arena?s starting XI.

The biggest loss is David Beckham, but unlike his off-field brand, Beckham?s replaceable between the lines. So is Christian Wilhelmsson, whose brief cameo in MLS ended with a ring. And last year?s starter in goal, Josh Saunders, was allowed to leave for Salt Lake.

That?s where the Galaxy made their one significant addition. Carlo Cudicini, a long-time backup for Chelsea and Tottenham, moves into LA?s starting XI. The last time the now 39-year-old played more than 10 games in a league season was 2003-04.

Strengths:?Questions about Cudicini aside, the defense looks great.?The team will get a full year from MVP candidate?Omar Gonzalez. A.J. DeLaGarza?returns after missing the end of last season. With Todd Dunivant and Sean Franklin, LA competes with San Jose and Real Salt Lake for the league?s best fullback tandem.

In attack, LA has another stellar tandem. Once Landon Donovan is back ? Arena?s said he should start playing in April ? he and Robbie Keane will form the league?s most potent attack. Perhaps it won?t be the most prolific, but as we saw last fall, there?s no duo more capable of executing when it counts.

Pressure points: I?m not sold on Carlo Cudicini in goal, though it seems a reasonable gamble. It?s not like he costs Designated Player money, something you often have to give up to lure a player from Europe. But this is a player coming to a new league who, far past his prime, hasn?t played a meaningful game in three seasons. Over the last decade, he?s averaged 4.6 appearances per season. So let?s just say he?s a question mark.

The team also needs to replace Beckham?s distribution. Juninho and Marcelo Sarvas will be fine in the middle, and Michael Stephens?(and eventually, Mike Magee) will do a job wide right, but when this team gets bogged down and has trouble getting through the middle third, they no longer have Beckham to take over. LA need to develop an alternative so they?re not purely reliant on Donovan?s ability to steer them in transition.

Difference maker:?No matter what happens in midfield and attack, the team has Gonzalez, something they were missing at the beginning of last season, The MLS Cup MVP is going to help Cudicini?s transition, and in those opening months where the team?s best creator is still working himself into shape, Gonzalez and the defense will keep LA in every game. In a conference full of strong No. 9s, Gonzalez is LA?s equalizer.

Potential breakout player:?With his midfield partner in Paris,?Juninho will have more to do. That may be a good thing. The 23-year-old chipped in seven goals last season, but this year, he?ll have to play a bigger part in the team?s buildup and distribution. He was hardly lax in those areas before, but with Beckham gone, the Brazilian?s contributions become vital. Where as last year he was able to rely on Beckham?s presence when he surged forward, this year Juninho may have to do some of the orchestrating.

That?s more responsibility, but Juninho?s can handle it. Tasked with having a greater presence, the overshadowed talent could develop into an All-Star.

Bottom line: Number two in the West may be too low. When we originally ordered the West, San Jose?s injury issues were still a little up in the air. Now, LA looks like more than just the team you never want to face in the playoffs. Even before acquiring another Designated Player, the Galaxy are as strong as anybody in the West.

(MORE: full roster of ProSoccerTalk?s Major League Soccer previews and predictions)

Source: http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/27/la-galaxy-preview-major-league-soccer-2013/related/

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Facebook buys Microsoft ad technology platform

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc said on Thursday it had agreed to buy advertising technology from Microsoft Corp that measures the effectiveness of ads on its website, which should help in its fight with Google Inc for online advertising revenue.

Under the long-rumored transaction, Facebook will purchase the Atlas Advertiser Suite, an ad management and measurement platform that Microsoft took on with its $6.3 billion acquisition of digital ad agency aQuantive in 2007. Facebook did not say how much it paid for the technology.

Unable to make it work for its own purposes, Microsoft wrote off $6.2 billion of the aQuantive deal's value last year.

Facebook has long been dogged by doubts about the effectiveness of its ads and was embarrassed just days before its initial public offering in May when General Motors Co declared it was pulling the plug on all paid advertising on Facebook's network.

Since then, Facebook has introduced a number of tools and partnerships to prove to marketers that advertising on its social network delivers enough bang for the buck.

Brian Boland, Facebook's director of monetization product marketing, said the purchase of Atlas was not a step toward creating a much wider ad network beyond the Facebook site, but analysts believe that is Facebook's ultimate goal.

"Although the statement announcing the deal focused on Atlas' measurement tools rather than its ad targeting technology, we expect that Atlas will soon be using Facebook's data to target sponsorships, in-stream ads, and other rich ad formats across the entire web, and that's big news," said Forrester analyst Nate Elliott.

"The question now is how quickly and successfully Facebook can integrate its data with Atlas' tools, and whether they can avoid a privacy backlash as they do so. History suggests they'll struggle on both counts," he said.

Google leads the $15 billion U.S. market for online display ads with 15.4 percent share, according to researcher eMarketer, followed by Facebook with 14.4 percent.

(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic and Bill Rigby; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz and Tim Dobbyn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/facebook-buys-microsoft-ad-technology-platform-213149225--sector.html

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Congress passes bill renewing anti-violence law

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House on Thursday passed and sent to President Barack Obama a far-reaching extension of the Violence Against Women Act. The vote came after House Republican leaders, cognizant of divisions in their own ranks and the need to improve their faltering image among women voters, accepted a bill that cleared the Senate two weeks ago on a strong bipartisan vote.

The bill renews a 1994 law that has set the standard for how to protect women, and some men, from domestic abuse and prosecute abusers. Thursday's 286-138 vote came after House lawmakers rejected a more limited approach offered by Republicans.

It was the third time this year that House Speaker John Boehner has allowed Democrats and moderates in his own party prevail over the GOP's much larger conservative wing. As with a Jan. 1 vote to avoid the fiscal cliff and legislation to extend Superstorm Sandy aid, a majority of House Republicans voted against the final anti-violence bill.

Obama, in a statement, said "renewing this bill is an important step towards making sure no one in America is forced to live in fear" and said he would sign the bill "as soon as it hits my desk."

The law has been renewed twice before without controversy, but it lapsed in 2011 as it was caught up in the partisan battles that now divide Congress. Last year, the House refused to go along with a Senate-passed bill that would have made clear that lesbians, gays, immigrants and Native American women should have equal access to Violence Against Women Act programs.

It appeared the scenario would be repeated this year when the House introduced a bill that didn't mention the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and watered down a Senate provision allowing tribal courts to prosecute non-Indians who attack their Indian partners on tribal lands.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., who has spent months working on the issue, defended the Republican plan: "Our goal in strengthening the Violence Against Women Act is simple. We want to help all women who are faced with violent, abusive and dangerous situations. ... We want them to know that those who commit these horrendous crimes will be punished."

But the House proposal encountered quick and strong opposition from women's groups, the White House, Democrats and some Republicans, and on Tuesday, the GOP leadership agreed to give the House a vote on the Senate bill. It passed immediately after the House rejected Cantor's bill, 257-166, with 60 Republicans voting against it.

The GOP decision to show the white flag came after the party's poor showing among women in last fall's election and Democratic success in framing the debate over the Violence Against Women Act as Republican policy hostile to women. President Barack Obama won 55 percent of the women's vote last November. Republican presidential candidates haven't won the women's vote since 1984, when Ronald Reagan held a 12-point lead over Walter Mondale among women.

The anti-violence bill should never have become partisan, said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a sponsor of the Senate bill. "That is why I applaud moderate Republican voices in the House who stood up to their leadership to demand a vote on the Senate bill."

The Senate passed its bill on a 78-22 vote with every Democrat, every woman senator and 23 of 45 Republicans supporting it.

A turning point in the debate came earlier this month, when 19 Republicans, led by Rep. Jon Runyan, R-N.J., wrote a letter to their leadership urging them to accept a bipartisan plan that would reach all victims of domestic violence. The letter, Runyan said, was a catalyst in showing the leadership "a willingness of people in the House to really compromise" and see that the Senate "has a pretty good bill."

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., a Native American, also wrote his Republican colleagues saying he was voting against the House alternative because "it falls short of giving tribes what they need to keep their women safe."

Indian women suffer incidents of domestic violence at rates more than double national averages, but Indian courts don't have jurisdiction over non-Indians, and federal prosecutors don't take up about half the violence cases on reservations because of lack of resources to pursue crimes on isolated Indian lands. The Senate bill would give Indian courts the ability to prosecute non-Indians for a limited set of crimes limited to domestic violence and violations of protecting orders. Opponents have said that raises constitutional issues.

The Violence Against Women Act is credited with helping reduce domestic violence incidents by two-thirds over the past two decades. The Senate bill would authorize some $659 million a year over five years to fund current programs that provide grants for transitional housing, legal assistance, law enforcement training and hotlines.

The Senate bill adds stalking to the list of crimes that make immigrants eligible for protection and authorizes programs dealing with sexual assault on college campuses and with efforts to reduce the backlog in rape kit analyses. It reauthorizes the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/congress-passes-bill-renewing-anti-181315864.html

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Congress renews Violence Against Women Act

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The House on Thursday passed and sent to President Barack Obama a far-reaching extension of the Violence Against Women Act. The vote came after House Republican leaders, cognizant of divisions in their own ranks and the need to improve their faltering image among women voters, accepted a bill that cleared the Senate two weeks ago on a strong bipartisan vote.

The bill renews a 1994 law that has set the standard for how to protect women, and some men, from domestic abuse and prosecute abusers. Thursday's 286-138 vote came after House lawmakers rejected a more limited approach offered by Republicans.

It was the third time this year that House Speaker John Boehner has allowed Democrats and moderates in his own party prevail over the GOP's much larger conservative wing. As with a Jan. 1 vote to avoid the fiscal cliff and legislation to extend Superstorm Sandy aid, a majority of House Republicans voted against the final anti-violence bill.

Obama, in a statement, said "renewing this bill is an important step towards making sure no one in America is forced to live in fear" and said he would sign the bill "as soon as it hits my desk."

The law has been renewed twice before without controversy, but it lapsed in 2011 as it was caught up in the partisan battles that now divide Congress. Last year, the House refused to go along with a Senate-passed bill that would have made clear that lesbians, gays, immigrants and Native American women should have equal access to Violence Against Women Act programs.

It appeared the scenario would be repeated this year when the House introduced a bill that didn't mention the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and watered down a Senate provision allowing tribal courts to prosecute non-Indians who attack their Indian partners on tribal lands.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., who has spent months working on the issue, defended the Republican plan: "Our goal in strengthening the Violence Against Women Act is simple. We want to help all women who are faced with violent, abusive and dangerous situations. ... We want them to know that those who commit these horrendous crimes will be punished."

But the House proposal encountered quick and strong opposition from women's groups, the White House, Democrats and some Republicans, and on Tuesday, the GOP leadership agreed to give the House a vote on the Senate bill. It passed immediately after the House rejected Cantor's bill, 257-166, with 60 Republicans voting against it.

The GOP decision to show the white flag came after the party's poor showing among women in last fall's election and Democratic success in framing the debate over the Violence Against Women Act as Republican policy hostile to women. President Barack Obama won 55 percent of the women's vote last November. Republican presidential candidates haven't won the women's vote since 1984, when Ronald Reagan held a 12-point lead over Walter Mondale among women.

The anti-violence bill should never have become partisan, said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a sponsor of the Senate bill. "That is why I applaud moderate Republican voices in the House who stood up to their leadership to demand a vote on the Senate bill."

The Senate passed its bill on a 78-22 vote with every Democrat, every woman senator and 23 of 45 Republicans supporting it.

A turning point in the debate came earlier this month, when 19 Republicans, led by Rep. Jon Runyan, R-N.J., wrote a letter to their leadership urging them to accept a bipartisan plan that would reach all victims of domestic violence. The letter, Runyan said, was a catalyst in showing the leadership "a willingness of people in the House to really compromise" and see that the Senate "has a pretty good bill."

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., a Native American, also wrote his Republican colleagues saying he was voting against the House alternative because "it falls short of giving tribes what they need to keep their women safe."

Indian women suffer incidents of domestic violence at rates more than double national averages, but Indian courts don't have jurisdiction over non-Indians, and federal prosecutors don't take up about half the violence cases on reservations because of lack of resources to pursue crimes on isolated Indian lands. The Senate bill would give Indian courts the ability to prosecute non-Indians for a limited set of crimes limited to domestic violence and violations of protecting orders. Opponents have said that raises constitutional issues.

The Violence Against Women Act is credited with helping reduce domestic violence incidents by two-thirds over the past two decades. The Senate bill would authorize some $659 million a year over five years to fund current programs that provide grants for transitional housing, legal assistance, law enforcement training and hotlines.

The Senate bill adds stalking to the list of crimes that make immigrants eligible for protection and authorizes programs dealing with sexual assault on college campuses and with efforts to reduce the backlog in rape kit analyses. It reauthorizes the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/congress-passes-bill-renewing-anti-violence-law-170141520.html

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