TextSpam2

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

  • 7/31/2019 TextSpam2

    1/1

    The Brunswick News / Thursday, October 11, 2012 5A

    By DAVID ESPOand STEVE PEOPLESAssociated Press

    MOUNT VERNON, Ohio Mitt Romney barnstormed battle-ground Ohio and pledged Im notgoing to raise taxes on anyonein a new commercial Wednes-day as Republican running matePaul Ryan and Vice President JoeBiden looked ahead to their onlydebate of the 2012 campaign.

    President Barack Obama spenta rare campaign day at the WhiteHouse, leaving it to aides to ac-cuse Romney of dishonesty forsaying he wont pursue anyabortion-related legislation if hewins the White House. The for-mer Massachusetts governor, whoonce supported abortion rights,reafrmed h is opposition.

    Neither Biden nor Ryan hadany public appearances the daybefore Thursday nights 90-min-ute debate in Danville, Ky.

    Vice presidential encountersrarely make a signicant differ-

    ence in a White House campaign,although aides engage in the samesort of attempt to shape public ex-pectations as when the men at thetop of the ticket are ready to faceoff.

    For Ryans camp, that meantwhispering that the 42-year-old

    Wisconsin congressman andHouse Budget Committee chair-man was comfortable discussingspending issues and domesticpolicy, but might not be able to

    hold his own on foreign policy, aBiden strong suit.The vice presidents side let it

    be known that Ryan is smart andwonky, a man who knows thebudget better than anyone butits a version that omits mentionof Bidens nearly four decades

    of experience in government andhis role as Obamas point man inbudget negotiations with Republi-cans on an elusive decit-reduc-tion deal.

    Not even Romney or Obamaseemed to pay much attentionto the chatter. Instead, each ex-pressed condence in his ownunderstudy.

    Whatever the impact of theBiden-Ryan encounter, lastweeks presidential debate boost-ed Romney in the polls nationallyand in battleground states, to thepoint that Obama was still strug-gling to explain a performanceeven his aides and supporters saywas subpar.

    I think its fair to say I wasjust too polite, he told radio hostTom Joyner in an interview lateTuesday. ... But, you know, thegood news is, is thats just the rstone, he said, criticizing Romneyfor having made numerous claimslast week that are untrue.

    Public opinion polls suggestedthe impact of last weeks debate

    was to wipe out most, if not all, ofthe gains Obama made followingboth parties national conventionsand the emergence in late summerof a videotape in which Romneyspoke dismissively of the 47 per-cent of Americans whom he saidpay no income taxes, feel like

    victims and dont take personalresponsibilities for their l ives.

    Eager to capitalize, Romneytold a factory audience in Ohioduring the day: My whole pas-sion is about helping the Ameri-can people who are strugglingright now ... The president sayshes for the middle class. Howhave they done under his presi-dency? Not so well.

    The Republican challengersnew television commercial wasan appeal to voters pocketbooks and also a rebuttal to Obamasclaim that Romney had a planto cut taxes by $5 trillion on thewealthy that would mean highertaxes for the middle class.

    The president would preferraising taxes, Romney is shownsaying in an exchange from lastweeks debate. Im not going toraise taxes on anyone ... My prior-ity is putting people back to workin America.

    Unemployment and the econ-omy have been the dominantissues in the race for the presi-

    dency, and while Romney gainedfrom the debate, last weeks dropin the jobless rate to 7.8 percentgave Obama a new talking pointfor the Democratic claim that hispolicies are helping the countryrecover, however slowly, from theworst recession in decades.

    Theres no way to tell deni-tively why text spamming has be-come a growing problem, Skellysaid, but he suspects its becauseof the rise in popularity of smart-phones.

    In 2008, about 1.5 billion mes-sages that were sent and receivedcould be considered spam, hesaid. Four years later, the numberhad increased to 4.5 billion.

    Persons who dont want to re-ceive telemarketing phone callson home or cell phones can placetheir phone numbers on the Na-tional Do Not Call Registry,operated by the Federal TradeCommission, but there is no suchservice to prevent unsolicited textmessages, said Mitchell Katz,

    spokesman for the FTC.

    There are laws prohibiting de-ceptive marketing, though, thatmake text spamming illegal, suchas the Federal Commission Actand the Controlling the Assault ofNon-Solicited Pornography andMarketing Act of 2003, betterknown as the CAN-SPAM Act.

    Few cases have made it throughthe court system, but in February2011 the FTC led an unprec-edented complaint against a mar-keter named Phil Flora who senta mind-boggling number of un-wanted commercial text messagespitching a mortgage modicationservice and stated incorrectly thathe was associated with a govern-ment agency.

    One of the websites the mes-sages directed people to claimed

    to provide home loan modica-

    tion information. Flora is alsoalleged to have collected infor-mation from consumers whoresponded to the text messagespositively and those who askedto be removed and sold it to thirdparties.

    A settlement order found Floraguilty of violating the CAN-SPAM Act and banned him fromsending or helping others sendunsolicited commercial text mes-sages and bars him from makingfalse of misleading claims aboutgoods or service.

    Flora was ordered to pay a neof $32,000, reduced from theoriginal judgment of $58,946.90.

    To register a phone number onthe FTC do-not-call list, go on-line to www.donotcall.gov.

    The Bishop Arch will honorformer regent James Bishop, whowas instrumental in the collegestransformation, said college pres-ident Valerie Hepburn.

    This will be a lasting and sig-nicant tribute to Regent Bishop,

    Hepburn said. Designed in thecoastal Mediterranean style ofthe colleges master plan, whichRegent Bishop helped to develop,the campus entrance will honorhis unparal leled contributions.

    Hepburn said the gate and ac-companying arch will become asignature feature for the college.

    This entrance will become oneof the most recognized featureson campus, Hepburn said. Thestrong visual statement not onlywelcomes people to our campus,but also symbolizes our linkageto the Glynn County School Sys-tem, the city of Brunswick andthe Altama Corridor.

    Continued from 1A

    Continued from 1A

    Spam: Text messages increase

    College: Entry will be new face

    Page One, Part 2

    Jay LaPrete/AP

    Republican presidential can-

    didate Mitt Romney speaks

    Wednesday at a campaign stop

    in Delaware, Ohio.

    Romney says not going to raise taxes

    By SUZANNE GAMBOAAssociated Press

    WASHINGTON A three-judge panel has upheld SouthCarolinas law requiring voters

    to show photo identication buthas delayed enforcement untilnext year adding to the list ofstates that have had to postponeor drop strict ID or voting lawsthey wanted in place for the Nov.6 elections.

    The federal panel on Wednes-day found that the law was notdiscriminatory because of thesafeguards in it, but would re-quire more time to put those pro-

    tections against discrimination inplace.

    The move follows a string of re-cent voter law decisions. In Penn-sylvania, a judge blocked the statefrom enforcing its voter ID law

    next month, saying voters wouldhave trouble getting IDs beforeelections. A federal appeals courtforced Ohio to reinstate threeearly voting days leading up elec-tions. And in Mississippi lastweek, state ofcials announcedthey could not enforce photo IDrequirements for this years elec-tions after the Justice Departmentasked for more details on the law.Courts also have blocked voter ID

    laws in Texas and Wisconsin.In several states, though, photo

    ID laws are in effect such as inIndiana, Georgia and Tennessee.

    Such laws became priority is-sues in mostly Republican legis-

    latures and for governors after the2008 elections. Opponents havedescribed them as responses tothe record turnouts of minoritiesand other Democratic-leaningconstituencies that helped putBarack Obama, the rst African-American president, in the WhiteHouse.

    Debate over the laws intensi-ed in part because of the tightpresidential race between Obama

    and Republican challenger MittRomney. Supporters have pitchedthese laws as necessary to detervoter fraud, even if very few casesof voter impersonation have beenfound, and to build public con-

    dence in elections.South Carolina ofcials por-

    trayed Wednesdays decision asvindication for the state.

    Would I have loved for it tohappen in 2012? Absolutely. Butdo not lose sight that this was apowerful ght that we really hadto scratch and kick to get done,said South Carolina Gov. NikkiHaley, a Republican. She signedthe law last December.

    Judges OK S.C. voter law, say it must wait

    By SETH BORENSTEINAssociated Press

    WASHINGTON The ice goeson seemingly forever in a whitepancake-at landscape, stretchingfarther than ever before. And yetin this confounding region of theworld, that spreading ice may be acockeyed signal of man-made cli-mate change, scientists say.

    This is Antarctica, the polar op-posite of the Arctic.

    While the North Pole has beenlosing sea ice over the years, thewater nearest the South Pole hasbeen gaining it. Antarctic sea icehit a record 7.51 million square

    miles in September. That hap-pened just days after reports of thebiggest loss of Arctic sea ice onrecord.

    Climate change skeptics have

    seized on the Antarctic ice to ar-gue that the globe isnt warmingand that scientists are ignoring thesouthern continent because its notconvenient. But scientists say theskeptics are misinterpreting whatshappening and why.

    Shifts in wind patterns and thegiant ozone hole over the Antarc-tic this time of year both relatedto human activity are probablybehind the increase in ice, expertssay. This subtle growth in wintersea ice since scientists began mea-suring it in 1979 was initially sur-prising, they say, but makes sensethe more it is studied.

    A warming world can have

    complex and sometimes surpris-ing consequences, researcherTed Maksym said this week froman Australian research vessel sur-rounded by Antarctic sea ice. He

    is with the Woods Hole Oceano-graphic Institution in Massachu-setts.

    Many experts agree. Ted Scam-bos of the National Snow and IceData Center in Colorado adds: Itsounds counterintuitive, but theAntarctic is part of the warmingas well.

    And on a third continent, DavidVaughan of the British AntarcticSurvey says that yes, whats hap-pening in Antarctica bears thengerprints of man-made climatechange.

    Scientically the change is no-where near as substantial as whatwe see in the Arctic, says NASA

    chief scientist Waleed Abdalati, anice expert. But that doesnt meanwe shouldnt be paying attentionto it and shouldnt be talking aboutit.

    Experts: Warming means more ice

    THE PUMPKINS ARE

    COMING!

    OCTOBER 13-31

    HOURS OF SALE:

    Monday-Friday 1pm-8pm

    Saturday 9am-9pm

    Sunday noon-7pm

    St. Simons United Methodist Church

    Corner of Ocean and Demere

    YOUTH FUNDRAISER

    Best Wishes and LoveFrom Your Family

    Happy 65th AnniversaryJack and Anne Rivers

    October 11, 1947