David Petraeus didin't settle partisan divide on Benghazi

WASHINGTON – Appearing before two congressional committees in closed-door sessions, former CIA Director David Petraeus did little to dispel the partisan divide over whether Obama administration officials misled the public in the days after heavily armed militants killed four Americans in Benghazi,Libya,  lawmakers said Friday.

Petraeus told the House and Senate intelligence committees that he believed almost immediately that the Sept. 11 assault was an organized terrorist attack, according to lawmakers and staff sources. But he said the administration initially withheld suspicion that specific Al Qaeda affiliates were involved to avoid tipping off the terrorist groups.

Petraeus also said some early intelligence reports appeared to support Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, when she said five days after the deadly raid that it had grown out of a protest that was hijacked by extremists, comments that some Republicans contend were meant to downplay the significance of the attack before the election. Even now, the intelligence community has evidence that some attackers were motivated by protests earlier that day in Cairo over an anti-Islamic video, sources familiar with the intelligence said.

"The general completely debunked the idea that there was some politicization of the process," said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank).

Petraeus, who has not appeared in public since he resigned from the CIA on Nov. 9 after admitting that he had an extramarital affair, avoided a throng of reporters and cameras before and after the two back-to-back sessions. Lawmakers lined up to speak after the hearings, however.

Democrats defended Rice and the administration, while some Republicans said they were unshaken in their belief that intelligence was misused to bolster White House claims that it had decimated the leadership of Al Qaeda. Some Republicans, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), have vowed to block any effort to make Rice the next secretary of State to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has said she will step down next year

Rice relied on unclassified written guidance, known as talking points, from the CIA, Democrats said. But some key words were changed from initial drafts as other agencies weighed in, Republicans countered. The word “attack” was changed to "demonstration," for example, and the phrase "with ties to Al Qaeda" was removed, a senior Republican congressional official said.

Precisely who made the changes is not yet clear. "If it was altered by somebody not within the intelligence community, we should know that," the official said.

The CIA ultimately signed off on those changes, the official said. Intelligence officials say the changes were part of a normal vetting process for public comments, and was consistent with the CIA’s assessment at the time. That assessment later was revised to discount the video as a motivating factor before armed militants stormed and burned the State Department mission in Benghazi, and hours later, launched a mortar barrage on a CIA compound 1½ miles away by road.

The U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, and an embassy employee were killed at the mission, and two CIA contractors were killed later by the mortar fire.

The nighttime attack was not planned in advance, however, and initially appeared as a mob of looters, intelligence officials have said.

The extent of Al Qaeda's involvement also remains in dispute. Democrats and administration officials say the ties between the militants who attacked the mission and Al Qaeda's North African affiliate are remote, while some Republicans describe the Benghazi incident as an attack by "Al Qaeda."

A few Republicans said they believe that  the more important question is whether U.S. security was adequate for the threat, and whether warnings were ignored.

"The focus is moving toward 'Did they have enough security?'" said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla). "Clearly the security measures were inadequate, despite an overwhelming and growing amount of information that showed the area in Benghazi was dangerous, particularly on the night of Sept. 11."

Lawmakers declined to discuss where security arrangements fell short, saying some details are classified and the investigation is ongoing.

The Senate Intelligence Committee may issue a public report about Benghazi, staffers said, and a State Department accountability review board is also investigating.

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ken.dilanian@latimes.com

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Wired Readers Create Epic Soundtrack for Space Photo of the Day

Last week I was listening to the Inception soundtrack and flipping through the Wired Science Space Photo of the Day gallery, a collection of the best astronomical images on the web, hand-selected by the Wired Science staff. It was quite possibly the most dramatic thing my brain has ever comprehended, even more so than weddings and the Olympics and such. So I sent out the following tweet:

And it got a lot of response. So I sent out another tweet, which @wired retweeted, asking Wired readers to pick the most dramatic/epic music they could find on Spotify, so we might build a playlist worthy of being the soundtrack to nebulas, dying stars, and swirling galaxies.

This is that playlist. All six hours of it: The Wired Science Space Photo of the Day Spotify Playlist

It’s by no means comprehensive. If you keep sending in your picks, we’ll keep expanding the playlist. Ping me at @mrMattSimon or drop a comment below.

At the top of this post is a silent video slideshow we’ve put together to pair with the soundtrack if you want to sit back and give your clicker finger a rest, or feel free to click through your own selection of images. Please note that if you have a slow connection the video quality may kick down automatically.

And we must insist you go full-screen on this one. So get some good headphones, find some dramatic tunes, and experience the glory of the universe.

Matt is the host of Wired's Footnotes show and editor of the This Day in Tech blog, where he writes about all manner of milestones while respectfully declining requests from friends and family to write about their birthdays.

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Can NBC keep up its ratings swagger without NFL, “The Voice”?

NEW YORK (Reuters) – NBC is expected to wrap up its fall season as the No. 1 broadcast network in the key 18-49 advertising demographic for the first time in a decade.

The network’s catapult to first place from fourth in the ratings is the biggest surprise so far of the young TV season. The question is how long can its ratings momentum last.

The Comcast-owned network has seen a surge in the fall fueled by two shows that won’t be around by the end of December, its red-hot Sunday Night NFL telecast and the hugely popular singing competition “The Voice.”

The numbers are shining a positive light on Entertainment Chief Bob Greenblatt, in his second year since moving over from the Showtime cable network. In the first quarter of 2013, however, analysts and advertising buyers say holes in NBC‘s lineup can’t make up for the loss of its two top shows.

“I’m skeptical about whether their ratings are sustainable,” said Brad Adgate, who heads research for the advertising firm Horizon Media. “Once those shows go on hiatus or they are doing repeats, I’d be surprised if what they replace with them with will deliver those type of numbers.”

When the TV season started, NBC boosted its ratings by adding a second season of the “The Voice” in the fall, instead of airing it only during the spring, and showing it on Mondays and Tuesdays.

The show gave NBC ratings victories in the 18-49 demographic, the age group that advertisers seek, has consistently won its time slots while boosting shows like “Revolution” and “Go On” that followed it.

Total viewers increased from a year ago by 20 percent, to an average of 8.8 million per night, while rivals CBS, FOX and ABC are all down in total viewers.

NBC‘s ratings engines throttle back without “The Voice,” which goes off the air from Dec 17 until March 25. When it returns, it also faces an uncertain reception as new judges Shakira and Usher replace Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green.

On December 30, NBC will air its final Sunday night football game of the year, taking prime time’s top-rated show with it, Jeff Bader, NBC‘s president of program planning, strategy and research, said in an interview on Thursday.

NBC‘s ratings will weaken in January, he conceded. The January-to-March period won’t be “necessarily about winning” in the ratings but about getting one or two shows to stick with viewers, he said.

“I wish we had Sunday night football all year, but hopefully these other returning shows will keep us in the hunt,” Bader said.

UBS analyst John Janedis predicts that CBS and FOX will move past the Peacock network by the end of the TV season, and CBS’ Chief Executive Les Moonves vowed on a November 7 earnings call that his network will finish “on top” and “strong in every single one of the key demos.”

“The Voice” served as a launch pad for the hit drama “Revolution,” a post-apocalyptic thriller that airs on Mondays and is set 15 years after all the world’s electricity stopped functioning. But that show, like “The Voice,” is going on hiatus from November 26 to March 25.

Greenblatt has “to make sure that ‘Revolution’ stays strong, said Optimedia media buyer Maureen Bosetti. “I’m a little bit cautious to say he’s a huge success until he’s got more solid hits under his belt that he’s developed.”

NBC will air the weight-loss reality show “The Biggest Loser” in the place of “the Voice” on Mondays, followed by “Deception,” a one-hour soap opera about a murder in a wealthy family that replaces “Revolution.” On Tuesdays, a reality show called “Betty White’s Off Their Rockers” featuring senior citizens playing pranks will take “the Voice” slot.

Ad agency GroupM media buyer Shari Cohen is more optimistic about NBC‘s chances without “The Voice” and said she is impressed by the network’s comeback this season.

“The void will be felt, but there’s confidence enough in their strategy and other nights of the week where they have been gaining traction and things that will be coming back in 2013 like ‘Smash’,” Cohen said.

“Smash,” a lavishly produced and heavily promoted musical drama about a Broadway show starring Katharine McPhee and Debra Messing, finished as NBC‘s top drama in its first season in 18-49 age group and will return for its second season February 5.

The show is heavily championed by Greenblatt, the programming chief who came to Comcast in 2011 after it took control of NBC in a $ 30 billion deal. When he left the CBS-owned Showtime cable channel, it was in the midst of a phenomenal run of developing hit shows such as “Dexter,” “Weeds,” and “The L Word” for cable’s Showtime network.

Greenblatt’s programming performance has been mixed at NBC. He inherited the “The Voice,” and had the benefit of this summer’s NBC Olympic telecast, which enabled him to promote the fall lineup before the more than 30 million people who tuned into the London games each night.

That gave a boost to “Revolution, “Go On” and “The New Normal,” a sitcom from “Glee” creator Ryan Murphy, which were all ordered for full-seasons and are all highly rated new shows. But “Animal Practice,” another program that aired in a special preview after one Olympics telecast, was canceled after six episodes.

NBC is coming off a strong third quarter in which its revenue jumped 31.2 percent to $ 6.8 billion thanks Deto the London Olympics. Excluding the Olympics, its revenue increased 8.3 percent, the company said.

Amy Yong, a sell-side analyst for Macquarie bank, raised her estimates on Comcast in October, citing ratings growth at NBC as a contributing factors.

The NBC model for continued success resembles a strategy employed by Fox, which scheduled shows like “House” and “Bones” after the then-towering ratings champ “American Idol.”

Bader, the NBC scheduling executive, said his network will continue to use “The Voice”‘s momentum as best it can even as it heads toward its three-month break. After the December 17 finale, NBC will air a preview of a new comedy set in the White House called “1600 Penn.”

(Reporting By Liana B. Baker; Editing by Ronald Grover and Leslie Gevirtz)

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Personal Health: Quitting Smoking for Good

Few smokers would claim that it’s easy to quit. The addiction to nicotine is strong and repeatedly reinforced by circumstances that prompt smokers to light up.

Yet the millions who have successfully quit are proof that a smoke-free life is achievable, even by those who have been regular, even heavy, smokers for decades.

Today, 19 percent of American adults smoke, down from more than 42 percent half a century ago, when Luther Terry, the United States surgeon general, formed a committee to produce the first official report on the health effects of smoking. Ever-increasing restrictions on where people can smoke have helped to swell the ranks of former smokers.

Now, however, as we approach the American Cancer Society’s 37th Great American Smokeout on Thursday, the decline in adult smoking has stalled despite the economic downturn and the soaring price of cigarettes.

Currently, 45 million Americans are regular smokers who, if they remain smokers, can on average expect to live 10 fewer years. Half will die of a tobacco-related disease, and many others will suffer for years with smoking-caused illness. Smoking adds $96 billion to the annual cost of medical care in this country, Dr. Nancy A. Rigotti wrote in The Journal of the American Medical Association last month. Even as some adult smokers quit, their ranks are being swelled by the 800,000 teenagers who become regular smokers each year and by young adults who, through advertising and giveaways, are now the prime targets of the tobacco industry.

People ages 18 to 25 now have the nation’s highest smoking rate: about 34 percent counted in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2010 reported smoking cigarettes in the previous month. I had to hold my breath the other day as dozens of 20-somethings streamed out of art gallery openings and lighted up. Do they not know how easy it is to get hooked on nicotine and how challenging it can be to escape this addiction?

Challenging, yes, but by no means impossible. On the Web you can download a “Guide to Quitting Smoking,” with detailed descriptions of all the tools and tips to help you become an ex-smoker once and for all.

Or consult the new book by Dr. Richard Brunswick, a retired family physician in Northampton, Mass., who says he’s helped hundreds of people escape the clutches of nicotine and smoking. (The printable parts of the book’s provocative title are “Can’t Quit? You Can Stop Smoking.”)

“There is no magic pill or formula for beating back nicotine addiction,” Dr. Brunswick said. “However, with a better understanding of why you smoke and the different tools you can use to control the urge to light up, you can stop being a slave to your cigarettes.”

Addiction and Withdrawal

Nicotine beats a direct path to the brain, where it provides both relaxation and a small energy boost. But few smokers realize that the stress and lethargy they are trying to relieve are a result of nicotine withdrawal, not some underlying distress. Break the addiction, and the ill feelings are likely to dissipate.

Physical withdrawal from nicotine is short-lived. Four days without it and the worst is over, with remaining symptoms gone within a month, Dr. Brunswick said. But emotional and circumstantial tugs to smoke can last much longer.

Depending on when and why you smoke, cues can include needing a break from work, having to focus on a challenging task, drinking coffee or alcohol, being with other people who smoke or in places you associate with smoking, finishing a meal or sexual activity, and feeling depressed or upset.

To break such links, you must first identify them and then replace them with other activities, like taking a walk, chewing sugar-free gum or taking deep breaths. These can help you control cravings until the urge passes.

If you’ve failed at quitting before, try to identify what went wrong and do things differently this time, Dr. Brunswick suggests. Most smokers need several attempts before they can become permanent ex-smokers.

Perhaps most important is to be sure you are serious about quitting; if not, wait until you are. Motivation is half the battle. Also, should you slip and have a cigarette after days or weeks of not smoking, don’t assume you’ve failed and give up. Just go right back to not smoking.

Aids for Quitting

Many if not most smokers need two kinds of assistance to become lasting ex-smokers: psychological support and medicinal aids. Only about 4 percent to 7 percent of people are able to quit smoking on any given attempt without help, the cancer society says.

All 50 states and the District of Columbia have free telephone-based support programs that connect would-be quitters to trained counselors. Together, you can plan a stop-smoking method that suits your smoking pattern and helps you avoid common pitfalls.

Online support groups and Nicotine Anonymous can help as well. To find a group, ask a local hospital or call the cancer society at (800) 227-2345. Consider telling relatives and friends about your intention to quit, and plan to spend time in smoke-free settings.

More than a dozen treatments can help you break the physical addiction to tobacco. Most popular is nicotine replacement therapy, sold both with and without a prescription. The Food and Drug Administration has approved five types: nicotine patches of varying strengths, gums, sprays, inhalers and lozenges that can curb withdrawal symptoms and help you gradually reduce your dependence on nicotine.

Two prescription drugs are also effective: an extended-release form of the antidepressant bupropion (Zyban or Wellbutrin), which reduces nicotine cravings, and varenicline (Chantix), which blocks nicotine receptors in the brain, reducing both the pleasurable effects of smoking and the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal. Combining a nicotine replacement with one of these drugs is often more effective than either approach alone.

Other suggested techniques, like hypnosis and acupuncture, have helped some people quit but lack strong proof of their effectiveness. Tobacco lozenges and pouches and nicotine lollipops and lip balms lack evidence as quitting aids, and no clinical trials have been published showing that electronic cigarettes can help people quit.

The cancer society suggests picking a “quit day”; ridding your home, car and workplace of smoking paraphernalia; choosing a stop-smoking plan, and stocking up on whatever aids you may need.

On the chosen day, keep active; drink lots of water and juices; use a nicotine replacement; change your routine if possible; and avoid alcohol, situations you associate with smoking and people who are smoking.

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This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 16, 2012

An earlier version of this column stated imprecisely the rate of smoking among young adults. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in 2010 about 34 percent of people ages 18 to 25 smoked cigarettes in the month before the survey -- not daily. (About 16 percent of them reported smoking daily, according to the survey.)

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 14, 2012

An earlier version of this column misstated the rate of smoking among young adults. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in 2010 about 34 percent of people ages 18 to 25 smoked cigarettes, not 40 percent. (That is the share of young adults who use tobacco products of any kind, according to the survey.)

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Advertising: A Formerly Button-Down Brand Loosens Up

WITH so many young men spending their college years shuffling to class in pajama bottoms and sweatshirts, it should come as no surprise that they are largely ambivalent about fashion.

Only 29 percent of men agree with the statement “I like to keep up with the latest trends in fashion,” according to a survey of men 18 and older conducted by Mintel, a market research firm. What men most want from clothing has little to do with appearance; 85 percent agree with the statement, “I dress for comfort.”

Now Van Heusen, the 91-year-old clothing brand, is stepping up its efforts to use a different entry point — football — as a way to get young men interested in style.

A broad marketing effort called the Van Heusen Institute of Style features Steve Young and Jerry Rice, both Hall of Fame members, and Matthew Stafford, the current Detroit Lions quarterback, as guides to help men make the transition, in the words of the campaign, from “schlub to swagger.”

The average age of a Van Heusen consumer is 39, the company says, but the campaign is being pitched to younger men from 18 to 34.

The Van Heusen Web site and Facebook page have been transformed into an extended football metaphor. Fashion spreads featuring the players are called “playbooks” and feature gridiron lingo: one featuring fitted shirts is called “First and Fitted”; another with colorful shirts is called “Friday Night Brights.” First introduced in 2010, the newest iteration of the Institute of Style campaign is a collaboration between Van Heusen and Funny or Die, the comedy Web site. In a new online video produced by Funny or Die, Pete (played by comedian Rob Lathan) is about to meet with a banker for a small-business loan dressed in a hoodie, shorts, white socks and sandals.

Mr. Young and Mr. Rice, who are watching on a monitor in a van, stakeout-style, direct Mr. Stafford, who wears an earpiece, to scoop up Pete so they can dress him more suitably.

In the video, whose humor is in the over-the-top style of “Airplane” and “Police Squad,” Mr. Stafford takes Pete to a department store, where the quarterback runs through the men’s department knocking over mannequins as if scrambling for a first down.

The three-minute video, which concludes, naturally, with Pete looking dapper in Van Heusen clothes and getting the loan, will appear Sunday on Funny or Die and on the Van Heusen Web site and Facebook page.

Also on Sunday, during NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” a 30-second commercial in the form of a trailer for the video will direct viewers to the Van Heusen Web site.

Van Heusen, a PVH Corporation brand, declined to reveal expenditures for the campaign, which also includes print advertising in GQ, Men’s Health and ESPN The Magazine. The brand spent $6.8 million on advertising in 2011, according to the Kantar Media unit of WPP.

Michael Kelly, executive vice president for marketing at PVH, said that Van Heusen took a fashion-intervention approach because men are in a sorry sartorial state.

“Men have sunken to an almost all-time low,” Mr. Kelly said. “Kids can get away with T-shirts and sweat pants in school, but the dress code allowed on campus is not the dress code allowed on Madison Avenue or Wall Street.”

In the age range of men the brand is pitching to, Mr. Kelly said that the ideal consumer is “a 26-year-old fan who is influenced by professional sports, and who is finding his way after leaving college.” Such fans, he added, are “getting their fashion cues from what they see athletes wearing postgame — on the sports runways, if you will.”

Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at the NPD Group, a market research firm, said that while young men entering the work force today might admire the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, they should think twice about emulating his hoodie-and-jeans wardrobe.

“Just a few years ago, you could go to work in your pajamas, and if you looked like you just rolled out of bed when you went to work, that meant you had the technological savvy to change the world,” Mr. Cohen said.

During the economic downturn, he said, applicants cannot afford to go to a job interview dressed sloppily.

Mr. Cohen lauded the Van Heusen strategy of using athletes whom many young men admire to prod them to dress more professionally.

Like its shirts, advertising for Van Heusen traditionally has been buttoned up, featuring Ronald Reagan and celebrities like Bob Hope and Jimmy Stewart. Charging Funny or Die with creating a humorous video that highlights Van Heusen but without an overt sales pitch is a departure for the brand.

“Once you move into the social space, you have to begin to give up control of the brand a bit, and if you’re not willing to do that, you can’t reach this new demographic,” Mr. Kelly, the brand marketer, said. “Writing messaging that’s edgy is a bit of a scary place.”

Founded by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Chris Henchy, Funny or Die draws about 19 million unique users a month, who on average watch between two and three videos per visit, according to the Web site.

Mr. Kelly was so impressed with the video that he decided to promote it with the commercial on Sunday, which had not been the original plan. But he noted that its humor did not resonate with all his colleagues.

“I reminded the old guys in the company when they were looking at this, ‘This is not targeted at you, so I really don’t care if you like it,’ ” Mr. Kelly said. “There’s a little bit of that ‘Saturday Night Live’ funniness, that you get it, or you don’t.”

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BP fined, charged in oil spill that showed 'profit over prudence'

BP will pay a record U.S. fine to settle criminal claims arising from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a Department of Justice official said Thursday.

By Michael Muskal and Ronald D. White

November 15, 2012, 1:28 p.m.

Oil giant BP and three of its employees were indicted on criminal charges including manslaughter and obstruction of Congress on top of a record $4-billion fine that the company will pay the government for its role in the oil spill disaster that scarred the Gulf of Mexico, officials announced Thursday.

Led by Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., officials announced the indictments in a televised news conference from New Orleans, where the grand jury has been investigating the 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the Louisiana coast. Eleven people died in the explosion.

The announcement of the charges against BP employees came on the same day officials announced that BP had agreed to an unprecedented settlement involving a guilty plea to criminal charges.

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Hi-res photos: Gulf oil spill

Drill rigs wind up operations in Arctic Alaska seas

BP guilty of criminal misconduct, negligence in gulf oil spill

“The $4 billion in penalties and fines is the single largest criminal resolution in the history of the United States and constitutes a major achievement toward fulfilling a promise that the Justice Department made nearly two years ago to respond to the consequences of this epic environmental disaster and seek justice on behalf of its victims,” Holder said.

 PHOTOS: Deepwater Horizon disaster in hi-res

In addition, BP agreed to pay more than $525 million in civil penalties to satisfy complaints by the Securities and Exchange Commission. That brings the total settlement cost to more than $4.5 billion – not including the billions the company has already paid to settle civil claims from residents, fishermen and businesses harmed by the spill.

The settlement of the criminal charges by the company still leaves BP open to civil cases, officials said. The federal government is also seeking civil penalties in the billions of dollars against the company, arguing that BP was grossly negligent during the oil spill, which poured about 4 million barrels of oil from the underwater Macondo well into the gulf waters. A trial is scheduled in February and BP, in a statement released Thursday, said it will continue to vigorously defend itself from civil actions.

Federal officials blamed BP’s culture of profit for the spill.

“The explosion of the rig was a disaster that resulted from BP’s culture of privileging profit over prudence,” said Assistant Atty. Gen. Lanny A. Breuer at the news conference. “We hope that BP's acknowledgment of its misconduct – through its agreement to plead guilty to 11 counts of felony manslaughter – brings some measure of justice to the family members of the people who died on board the rig.”

In all, the company said it agreed to enter guilty pleas to 14 charges, including the eleven counts of manslaughter. But the government went further, charging individuals as well.

“Make no mistake,” Breuer said. “While the company is guilty, individuals committed these crimes.”

Two BP employees, Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine, who were described by Holder as the two highest-ranking BP supervisors on board the Deepwater Horizon when it exploded, were charged with manslaughter and other counts.

The 23-count indictment “charges these two BP well site leaders with negligence, and gross-negligence, on the evening of April 20, 2010. In the face of glaring red flags indicating that the well was not secure, both men allegedly failed to take appropriate action to prevent the blowout,” Breuer said.

David Rainey, who was BP's vice president of exploration for the Gulf of Mexico, was indicted on charges of obstruction of Congress and false statements, Holder said. Rainey, a former BP executive, served as a deputy incident commander and BP’s second-highest ranking representative at Unified Command during the spill response, Holder said.

Rainey, Breuer said, is charged with “obstructing a congressional investigation and making false statements to law enforcement officials. The indictment alleges that Rainey, on behalf of BP, intentionally underestimated the amount of oil flowing" from the Macondo well, which was spilling oil into the gulf. “Rainey allegedly cherry-picked pages from documents, withheld other documents altogether and lied to Congress and others in order to make the spill appear less catastrophic than it was,” Breuer said.

Rainey's lawyer told the Associated Press that his client did “absolutely nothing wrong.” And attorneys for the two rig workers accused the Justice Department of making scapegoats out of them.

“Bob was not an executive or high-level BP official. He was a dedicated rig worker who mourns his fallen co-workers every day,” Kaluza attorneys Shaun Clarke and David Gerger said in a statement. “No one should take any satisfaction in this indictment of an innocent man. This is not justice.”

Chris Jones, the brother of one of the rig workers killed in the disaster, said the settlement renewed his grief and anger over the loss of his younger sibling, Gordon.

“The fact that BP is finally admitting that it is responsible is not shocking; the amount of money it is paying in fines is not shocking,” said Jones, a litigation attorney in Baton Rouge, La. “What is shocking is that it has been ... years since this happened and not once has a representative of BP said to us, ‘I’m sorry for your loss.’ It’s par for the course.”

“BP is simply going to sign a check for billions of dollars, then continue to do business in U.S. waters and make money for its shareholders,” he said. “But Gordon wasn’t able to live a day after April 2010.”

British oil giant BP is more than prepared for the $4.5 billion in settlement charges it agreed to Thursday, analysts said.

In the third quarter alone, BP raked in sales of more than $93 billion and had a net profit of more than $5.2 billion. That result showed that “BP has made the most remarkable comeback from the most costly industrial accident in history,” said Fadel Gheit, senior energy analyst at Oppenheimer and Co., in a note to investors.

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Maker of Airport Body Scanners Suspected of Falsifying Software Tests

A company that supplies controversial passenger-screening machines for U.S. airports is under suspicion for possibly manipulating tests on privacy software designed to prevent the machines from producing graphic body images.

The Transportation Security Administration sent a letter Nov. 9 to the parent company of Rapiscan, the maker of backscatter machines, requesting information about the testing of the software to determine if there was malfeasance.

The machines use backscatter radiation to detect objects concealed beneath clothes. But after complaints from privacy groups and others that the machines produce graphic images of passenger’s bodies, the government ordered the machines be outfitted with privacy software by June to replace the invasive images with more generic ones that simply show a chalk-like outline of a body.

While L-3 Communications, the maker of another brand of scanners used in airports, successfully developed the privacy software for its machines, Rapiscan was having problems with its software, according to Bloomberg.

The testing of the software, done earlier this year to determine if it met privacy requirements, was conducted by a third party, so it’s not immediately clear how Rapiscan might have manipulated the tests.

At a hearing on Thursday before the House Transportation Security Subcommittee, Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Alabama) asked John Sanders, assistant administrator for TSA’s office of security capabilities, this very question. Sanders replied obliquely that “before [a test] gets underway, we might believe the system is on one configuration when it’s not in that configuration.”

Sanders said that TSA has no evidence yet that the vendor did manipulate the tests, but is looking into the matter.

“At this point we don’t know what has occurred,” Sanders said. “We are in contact with the vendor. We are working with them to get to the bottom of it.”

The vendor has denied any wrongdoing.

“At no time did Rapiscan falsify test data or any information related to this technology or the test,” Peter Kant, an executive vice president with the company, told Bloomberg.

DHS has spent about $90 million replacing traditional magnetometers with the controversial body-scanning machines.

Rapiscan has a contract to produce 500 machines for the TSA at a cost of about $180,000 each. The company could be fined and barred from participating in government contracts, or employees could face prison terms if it is found to have defrauded the government.

It’s not the first time Rapiscan has been at the center of testing problems with the machines. The company previously had problems with a “calculation error” in safety tests that showed the machines were emitting radiation levels that were 10 times higher than expected.

It turned out the company’s technicians weren’t following protocol in conducting the tests. They were supposed to test radiation levels of machines in the field 10 times in a row, and then divide the results by 10 to produce an average radiation measurement. But the testers failed to divide the results by 10, producing false numbers.

A recent Wired.com three-part series examined the constitutionality, effectiveness and health concerns of the scanners, which were never tested on mice or other biological equivalents to determine the scanners’ health risks to humans.

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ABC Adapting Disney Theme-Park Ride for “Big Thunder Mountain” Pilot

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – ABC found ratings success by adapting Disney‘s finest fairy tales into the one-hour drama series “Once Upon a Time,” so it’s not surprising that the network has turned to a theme-park ride from its parent company for inspiration as well.

Popular roller coaster Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is being adapted for a television pilot by the Disney-owned network, an individual with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap.

Chris Morgan (“Wanted,” “Fast Five”) will co-write the story with “Ice Age: Continental Drift’s” Jason Fuchs, who will write the teleplay. ABC has ordered a script from ABC Studios, the individual said.

No word on what the show will have in common with the ride, but if it sticks with the theme presented to visitors at parks in California, Florida, Paris and Tokyo, it should have something to do with a mining town being destroyed by a natural disaster after settlers desecrate sacred Native American land.

Two other film projects have been developed based on Disney rides, “Pirates of the Caribbean” and 2003′s not-equally-successful “The Haunted Mansion.”

Morgan is represented by ICM Partners and McKuin Frankel, while Fuchs is repped by WME and Brookside and Bloom Hergott.

The Hollywood Reporter first broke the news on “Big Thunder Mountain.”

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BP to Admit Crimes and Pay $4.5 Billion in Gulf Settlement

BP, the British oil company, said Thursday that it would pay $4.5 billion in fines and other payments to the government and plead guilty to 14 criminal charges in connection with the giant oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico two years ago.

US Coast Guard, via Associated Press

The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico that was connected to a well owned by BP killed 11 workers and spilled millions of barrels of oil.

The payments include $4 billion related to the criminal charges and $525 million to securities regulators, the company said in a statement. As part of the settlement, BP agreed to plead guilty to 11 felony counts of misconduct or neglect related to the deaths of 11 people in the Deepwater Horizon accident in April 2010, which released millions of barrels of oil into the gulf over the course of the next few months.

The Justice Department also filed criminal charges against three BP employees on Thursday.

The government charged the top BP officers aboard the drilling rig, Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine, with manslaughter in connection with each of the men who died, alleging that they were negligent in supervising tests before the well blowout and explosion that destroyed the rig.

Prosecutors also charged BP’s former vice president for exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, David Rainey, with obstruction of Congress and making false statements about the rate at which oil was spilling from the well.

“All of us at BP deeply regret the tragic loss of life caused by the Deepwater Horizon accident as well as the impact of the spill on the Gulf coast region,” Robert Dudley, BP’s chief executive, said in a statement. “From the outset, we stepped up by responding to the spill, paying legitimate claims and funding restoration efforts in the Gulf. We apologize for our role in the accident, and as today’s resolution with the U.S. government further reflects, we have accepted responsibility for our actions.”

While the settlement dispels one dark cloud that has hovered over BP since the spill, others remain. BP is still subject to other claims, including billions of dollars in federal civil claims and claims for damages to natural resources.

In particular, BP noted that the settlement does not resolve what is potentially the largest penalty related to the spill: fines under the Clean Water Act. The potential fine for the spill under the act is $1,100 to $4,300 a barrel spilled. That means the fine could be as much as $21 billion.

In addition to the 11 felonies related to the men killed in the accident, the company agreed to plead guilty to one misdemeanor violation of the Clean Water Act and one misdemeanor violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

BP also acknowledged that it had provided inaccurate information to the public early on about the rate at which oil was gushing from the well.

The company agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of obstruction of Congress over its statements on that issue. It also agreed to pay a civil penalty of $525 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission, spread over three years, to resolve the agency’s claims that the company made misleading filings to investors about the flow rate.

As part of its resolution of criminal claims with the Department of Justice, BP will pay about $4 billion, spread over five years. That amount includes $1.256 billion in criminal fines, $2.394 billion to the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation and $350 million to the National Academy of Sciences.

The criminal fine is one of the largest ever levied by the United States against a corporation, roughly equal to the $1.3 billion fine paid by Pfizer in 2009 for illegally marketing an arthritis drug. BP has repeatedly said it would like to reach a settlement with all claimants if the terms were reasonable. The unresolved issue of the claims has been weighing on BP’s share price.

On Thursday, BP’s American shares were trading at about $40 at midday, roughly unchanged on the day and down about 34 percent since the accident.

“It’s one less thing to be negative on BP about and a minor step in the right direction toward the rehabilitation of BP,” Iain Armstrong, an equity analyst at the investment manager Brewin Dolphin, in London, said. But he added that there were still concerns about remaining claims and that “lawyers might yet have their day at court.”

As part of Thursday’s agreements, BP said it was increasing its reserve for all costs and claims related to the spill to about $42 billion.

Stanley Reed reported from London and Clifford Krauss from Houston. Julia Werdigier contributed reporting from London, John Schwartz from New York and Charlie Savage from Washington.

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Obama pressures House Republicans to pass tax breaks

WASHINGTON -- President Obama used his post-election news conference to pressure House Republicans to extend expiring tax rates for middle-class Americans – avoiding massive tax hikes in the New Year that he said could put a damper on the holiday shopping season.

Halting class tax hikes for 98% of Americans would ease the threat of the coming "fiscal cliff" – the year-end confluence of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that Washington is now desperately trying to stop.

“We could get that done by next week,” Obama said.

Obama warned Republicans not to hold the middle-class tax cuts “hostage” as the debate continues over taxes for upper-income Americans. If both sides resist compromise, he said, “we can all imagine a scenario when we go off the fiscal cliff.”

Congressional Republicans have dismissed the president’s approach as incremental as they press for a comprehensive bill that would keep tax rates low -- or lower -- for all Americans, including those who earn incomes above $200,000, or $250,000 for couples, who Obama has said should pay more.

House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) has made an opening offer that would extend all of the expiring tax rates for another year while Congress and the White House work on a broader overhaul of the tax code, with the goal of closing loopholes and using the revenue to lower all tax rates.

The White House has been cool to Boehner’s offer even as the president said Wednesday he remains open to new ideas.

“I don’t expect the Republicans to simply adopt my budget,” the president said. “When it comes to the top 2%, what I’m not going to do is extend further a tax cut for folks who don’t need it.”

Obama has invited congressional leaders to the White House on Friday to begin talks on the looming budget battle.

One idea circulating is to maintain the existing tax rates, as Republicans prefer, but capping deductions for upper-income households as a way to produce more revenue.

As talks begin, the White House appears to have begun a strategy that aims to isolate House Republicans as standing in the way of the tax break for the middle class. The Senate has already passed a bill that would extend the tax rates for the middle class. Without action, tax rates would rise on most Americans on Jan. 1, a tax hike that would ripple through the economy.

At the same time, massive spending cuts are scheduled to begin – the result of a previous deficit-reduction bill that both sides had previously agreed to, but now want to amend. Halting those cuts are also part of the talks.

Economists say the combined fiscal contraction of tax hikes and spending cuts could send the economy into another recession.

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