DealBook: Southeastern Asset Management to Fight Dell's Takeover

7:44 p.m. | Updated One of the biggest investors in Dell said on Friday that it would oppose the company’s plans to go private, setting up a major potential roadblock for the biggest buyout since the financial crisis.

Southeastern Asset Management, Dell’s largest outside shareholder, argued in a letter to the board that the $24.4 billion takeover bid was too low.

The company’s founder, Michael S. Dell, and the investment firm Silver Lake, are offering $13.65 a share. Southeastern, which has an 8.5 percent stake in Dell, contends that the company is worth closer to $24 a share.

To block the “ill-advised transaction,” Southeastern laid out a range of possible tactics, including a proxy fight and lawsuits. The firm also pushed the board to “aggressively” look for alternative proposals. Dell has 45 days to solicit other bids as part of the so-called go-shop process.

A Dell spokesman said in a statement on Friday that a special committee of the company’s board had considered various options with the help of advisers before accepting the management buyout.

“Based on that work, the board concluded that the proposed all-cash transaction is in the best interests of stockholders,” said the spokesman, David Frink. “The transaction offers an attractive and immediate premium for stockholders and shifts the risks facing the business to the buyer group.”

The opposition highlights the conflict facing Dell and its investors.

Many shareholders bought the company at lofty prices, watching the value of their shares erode. Analysts estimated that Southeastern paid more than $20 a share on average, meaning that the asset management firm would lose over $800 million if the current deal was completed.

Still, the takeover values Dell at price that the company has not touched for months. Its stock has not reached $14 since late May, and it lingered below $10 for two months late last year.

The company also faces continued pressure in its operations. Its core PC business is ceding ground to lower-cost rivals, as well as new entrants like tablets and smartphones.

Additionally, its effort to sell servers to big companies has been hurt by the changing industry dynamics, including the move to cloud computing.

Management buyouts have long been regarded skeptically by investors. The concern is that they enrich executives at the expense of other shareholders. The takeovers of companies like J. Crew and Affiliated Computer Services spurred a number of lawsuits by irate investors.

Southeastern and its founder, O. Mason Hawkins, generally keep a low profile and shun the press. But the money manager, based in Memphis, has been more outspoken of late.

The firm stepped into the spotlight last year when it called on Chesapeake Energy to entertain takeover offers, after the company ran into financial difficulties and faced criticism for the compensation plan of its co-founder, Aubrey McClendon. Southeastern and another activist investor, Carl C. Icahn, eventually won seats on Chesapeake’s board. Last month, Mr. McClendon was forced to retire under pressure from the board.

In its letter to Dell’s board, Southeastern said that it would support a number of alternatives. The investor, for example, outlined a plan to pay out a special dividend to shareholders or a buyout that would allow existing investors to keep a piece of the company.

But Southeastern said the current deal, hashed out over six months, “falls significantly short,” adding that it “appears to be an effort to acquire Dell at a substantial discount to intrinsic value at the expense of public shareholders.”

Dell’s board was mindful of potential conflicts — legal and otherwise — that its founder faced in trying to buy back the company he founded nearly three decades ago. To assess the deal, it formed a special committee of its board, led by Alex J. Mandl, which was advised by two sets of financial advisers.

JPMorgan Chase served as the principal investment bank for the committee, negotiating with Silver Lake.

Evercore Partners is overseeing a 45-day go-shop period intended to flush out rival suitors for the company. The company itself was advised by Goldman Sachs.

To help further minimize conflicts, JPMorgan refrained from providing financing for the deal. And Evercore’s advisory fee is set up in a way that encourages the bank to find a higher bid.

“The go-shop process provides stockholders an opportunity to determine if there are alternatives that are superior to the present offer,” the Dell spokesman said in a statement.

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Friend: Ex-cop 'last guy' expected to be murder suspect

Those who knew Christopher Jordan Dorner during college expressed shock at the news that the former college football player is allegedly responsible for shootings that have left three people dead and two wounded.

Dorner attended Southern Utah University from 1997 to 2001 and graduated with a bachelor of science with a major in political science and a minor in psychology, a university spokesman said.

Neil Gardner, an assistant athletic director who works with the student athletes in media relations, interacted with Dorner when he was on the school’s football team during the 1999 and 2000 seasons. Gardner said Dorner was a backup running back who didn’t play a lot, but was “never a disgruntled guy.”

PHOTOS: Manhunt for ex-LAPD officer

“When he was in college he was a great kid,” Gardner said. “He was a kid you hoped would do well. He was polite. I liked him.” 

Jamie Usera, an attorney in Salem, Ore., said he met Dorner in the spring of 1998 at Southern Utah. Usera, who grew up in Alaska, said he and Dorner, an African American from Southern California, bonded over their shared feelings of culture shock that came with being outsiders on the predominantly white, Mormon campus.

Usera and Dorner eventually joined the football team as running backs and became good friends, Usera said. They shared long hours on the practice field, but neither saw much playing time and both decided to quit the team after two years.

PHOTOS: Manhunt for ex-LAPD officer

The friendship endured throughout their remaining years at the school. Usera said he introduced Dorner to the world of hunting and other outdoor sporting. Usera recalled frequent trips into the Utah desert to hunt rabbits with Dorner.

Nothing about Dorner in college raised any red flags that he was mentally unstable or capable of such violence, Usera said.

“He was a typical guy. I liked him an awful lot,” Usera said. “Nothing about him struck me as violent or irrational in any way.  He was opinionated, but always seemed level-headed.”

Usera said he and Dorner frequently had lively discussions. A recurring theme was race relations in the U.S., and the two often had heated but respectful arguments about the extent of racism in the county, Usera said.

A manifesto that police say was published on what they believe was Dorner’s Facebook page  made reference to Usera. A section read:

“James Usera, great friend, attorney, father, husband, and the most cynical/blatant/politically incorrect friend a man can have. Best quality about you in college and now is that you never sugar coated the truth. I will miss our political discussions that always turned argumentative. Thanks for introducing me to outdoor sports like fishing, hunting, mudding, and also respect for the land and resources. Us city boys don’t get out much like you Alaskans. You even introduced me to PBR. A beer, that when you’re a poor college student is completely acceptable to get buzzed off of. I’m sorry I’ll never get to go on that moose and bear hunt with you. I love you bro.”

Usera could not recall Dorner ever discussing a dream or plan to become a police officer. He remembered his friend talking excitedly with a Marine or Navy recruiter on campus when he was either considering enlisting or after he had already made the decision to do so.

The two lost touch quickly after graduating, Dorner said, but later reconnected out of the blue about four years ago with a phone call. Dorner made passing reference to his discipline problems with the LAPD but did not go into detail. Usera said Dorner did not seem troubled during the 10- to 15-minute conversation. A few text messages followed in the days after the call, but Usera said he had not heard from Dorner since.

“Of all the people I hung out with in college, he is the last guy I would have expected to be in this kind of situation.”

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Senator Warns CIA Against Lying About Civilians Killed in Drone Strikes

The CIA’s biggest ally in Congress for its targeted killing program is Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. But there’ll be hell to pay at Langley if Feinstein learns the CIA is misrepresenting how many civilians its lethal Predator and Reaper drones kill, she indicated to Danger Room on Friday.

“This is something that I think we would get straight figures [on],” Feinstein told Danger Room after White House aide John Brennan’s Thursday confirmation hearing to run the CIA. “If we don’t get straight figures, it’s a whole new situation.”

During the hearing, Feinstein forcefully insisted that the CIA’s drone strikes kill only “single digits” of civilians annually, and even ran through a list of accusations against Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S. citizen and al-Qaida propagandist the U.S. killed in Yemen in 2011, to underscore her belief in the legitimacy of the killing. She suggested that media reports and nongovernmental organization studies claiming larger percentages of civilian deaths from the highly classified program are ignorant. Feinstein emphasized that the CIA has hosted committee staff over 30 times to conduct oversight over the drone program.

“It’s our belief, based on that, that the intelligence used is very careful and very good,” she said. “It’s also our belief that the collateral damage spelled out in the papers is wrong. But the only way to correct it is to say what we believe is correct, and we are told we cannot do that.”

Yet Feinstein and several other senators during the hearing said the CIA materially misrepresented to Congress key facts about the quality of information it received from its post-9/11 torture and detentions program. That revelation came from the committee’s recently completed 6,000-page report into those programs. But since the report is still classified, senators couldn’t say outright that the CIA lied to them. Brennan said that the misstatements made by CIA about torture called into question the basis for his public statements years ago that torture extracted valuable information for counterterrorist operations. “I have to determine what the truth is,” Brennan said.

But if the CIA misled Congress about torture, how can the committee be confident it’s not misleading Congress about civilian deaths from drones?

“That’s a good question, actually,” Feinstein said when Danger Room asked. “That’s a good question.” She said she felt the CIA wasn’t “defensive” of the drones in the way it was defensive of the torture program, however.

Her colleague on the committee, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), told Danger Room he “had not been familiar with the number Sen. Feinstein talked about” regarding civilian deaths from drones. “What I’m in the business of is picking up the statement Ronald Reagan made years ago: trust but verify.”

Wyden and 10 other senators successfully pressured President Obama this week to release secret legal memoranda authorizing the targeted killing of American citizens. While Wyden said that the bipartisan Senate group still haven’t received all the memos they’ve asked for, he saw “an opportunity for bipartisan, fresh power” to reassert “checks and balances” over the targeted killing program.

“I thought one of the better answers was Mr. Brennan saying that if he sees” the CIA erroneously killing civilians “he would publicly acknowledge it,” Wyden told Danger Room. “That was the kind of statement you make when you try to address the checks and balances.”

The committee isn’t through with Brennan. It’s going to grill him on Tuesday in a closed-door session.

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Keep breasts, buttocks under wraps, CBS tells Grammy performers

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Grammy performers have been told to cover up at Sunday’s big music awards show, and keep their buttocks, nipples and genitals under wraps. Their politics can’t show either.

In a “wardrobe advisory,” broadcaster CBS also asked musicians and audience members likely to appear on camera at the February 10 Grammy Awards ceremony to avoid wearing brand names on T-shirts as well as clothing with political or activist slogans.

“Please be sure that buttocks and female breasts are adequately covered. Thong type costumes are problematic. Please avoid exposing bare flesh under curves of the buttocks and buttock crack,” said the memo issued by CBS standards and practices department and obtained by entertainment industry website Deadline.com on Wednesday.

“Obscenity or partially seen obscenity on wardrobe is unacceptable for broadcast,” the note added.

The warning follows a lengthy court battle over indecency and obscenity standards on U.S. network television.

CBS, a unit of CBS Corp, was fined $ 550,000 by the Federal Communications Commission for airing a glimpse of Janet Jackson‘s breast when her costume slipped while singing at the Super Bowl half-time show in 2004.

The fine was later thrown out and that decision was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2012. CBS has expressed “deep regret” for the incident.

The annual Grammy Awards ceremony honors the best musicians of the year, but is also a major promotional showcase for rising stars and upcoming albums.

In 2010, singer Pink performed upside down in a flesh-colored bodysuit, while Rihanna last year wore a plunging black dress on the red carpet.

Performers at Sunday’s three-hour show in Los Angeles include Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, Maroon 5, Frank Ocean, Alicia Keys and Elton John.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Well: The 'Monday Morning' Medical Screaming Match

I did not think I would ever see another “morbidity and mortality” conference in which senior doctors publicly attacked their younger colleagues for making medical errors. These types of heated meetings were commonplace when I was a medical student but have largely been abandoned.

Yet here they were again on “Monday Mornings,” a new medical drama on the TNT network, based on a novel by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent and one of the executive producers of the show. Such screaming matches may make for good television, but it is useful to review why new strategies have emerged for dealing with medical mistakes.

So-called M&M conferences emerged in the early 20th century as a way for physicians to review cases that had either surprising outcomes or had somehow gone wrong. Although the format varied among institutions and departments, surgery M&Ms were especially known for their confrontations, as more experienced surgeons often browbeat younger doctors into admitting their errors and promising to never make them again.

Such conferences were generally closed door — that is, attended only by physicians. Errors were a private matter not to be shared with other hospital staff, let alone patients and families.

But in the late 1970s, a sociology graduate student named Charles L. Bosk gained access to the surgery department at the University of Chicago. His resultant 1979 book, “Forgive and Remember,” was one of the earliest public discussions of how the medical profession addressed its mistakes.

Dr. Bosk developed a helpful terminology. Technical and judgment errors by surgeons could be forgiven, but only if they were remembered and subsequently prevented by those who committed them. Normative errors, which called into question the moral character of the culprit, were unacceptable and potentially jeopardized careers.

Although Dr. Bosk’s book was more observational than proscriptive, his depiction of M&M conferences was disturbing. I remember attending a urology M&M as a medical student in which several senior physicians berated a very well-meaning and competent intern for a perceived mistake. The intern seemed to take it very well, but my fellow students and I were shaken by the event, asking how such hostility could be conducive to learning.

There were lots of angry accusations in the surgical M&Ms in the pilot episode of “Monday Mornings.” In one case, a senior doctor excoriated a colleague who had given Tylenol to a woman with hip pain who turned out to have cancer. “You allowed metastatic cancer to run amok for four months!” he screamed.

If this was what Dr. Bosk would have called a judgment error, the next case raised moral issues. A neurosurgeon had operated on a boy’s brain tumor without doing a complete family history, which would have revealed a disorder of blood clotting. The boy bled to death on the operating table. “The boy died,” announced the head surgeon, “because of a doctor’s arrogance.”

In one respect, it is good to see that the doctors in charge were so concerned. But as the study of medical errors expanded in the 1990s, researchers found that the likelihood of being blamed led physicians to conceal their errors. Meanwhile, although doctors who attended such conferences might indeed not make the exact same mistakes that had been discussed, it was far from clear that M&Ms were the best way to address the larger problem of medical errors, which, according to a 1999 study, killed close to 100,000 Americans annually.

Eventually, experts recommended a “systems approach” to medical errors, similar to what had been developed by the airline industry. The idea was to look at the root causes of errors and to devise systems to prevent them. Was there a way, for example, to ensure that the woman with the hip problem would return to medical care when the Tylenol did not help? Or could operations not be allowed to occur until a complete family history was in the chart? Increasingly, hospitals have put in systems, such as preoperative checklists and computer warnings, that successfully prevent medical errors.

Another key component of the systems approach is to reduce the emphasis on blame. Even the best doctors make mistakes. Impugning them publicly — or even privately — can make them clam up. But if errors are seen as resulting from inadequate systems, physicians and other health professionals should be more willing to speak up.

Of course, the systems approach is not perfect. Studies continue to show that physicians conceal their mistakes. And elaborate systems for preventing errors can at times interfere with getting things done in the hospital.

Finally, it is important not to entirely remove the issue of responsibility. Sad to say, there still are physicians who are careless and others who are arrogant. Even if today’s M&M conferences rarely involve screaming, supervising physicians need to let such colleagues know that these types of behaviors are unacceptable.

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Barron H. Lerner, M.D., professor of medicine at New York University Langone Medical Center, is the author, most recently, of “One for the Road: Drunk Driving Since 1900.”

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DealBook: Helping Start-Ups With Local Support and National Networks

When Will Fuentes planned an extended business trip to Seattle last year, he tapped into the local chapter of a national networking group there. Within hours, Mr. Fuentes, who founded the Arlington, Va., software company Lemur Retail, had secured a work space, introductions and even restaurant recommendations via the group, the Startup America Partnership.“Before I flew out there, I already had five or six meetings set up with potential clients and other key contacts, as well as one potential acquirer,” Mr. Fuentes said.

A couple of years ago, entrepreneurs would have needed several trips to make similar connections outside their own cities. Even in this era of social networks and venture conferences, start-ups are still surprisingly disconnected on a national level.

“Each region has its ties, but in many cases, entrepreneurs are operating in silos,” said Carolynn Duncan, the chief executive of Portland Ten, a mentoring program for early-stage companies, mainly in Oregon. “An entrepreneur in Oregon doesn’t have an easy way to network with entrepreneurs in Washington D.C.”

Startup America, a nonprofit organization with an all-star cast of deep-pocketed backers, is trying to bridge the gap. The organization, which was started in January 2011 as the brainchild of AOL’s co-founder, Steve Case, and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, wanted to bring a private-sector support to start-ups — without financial strings attached.

“Supporting start-ups throughout the country is the only way to make sure the American economy is firing on all cylinders,” said Mr. Case, who is the chairman of the partnership.

Start-ups are a crucial driver for job creation in the United States. From March 1994 to March 2010, businesses less than one year old created 3.9 million jobs a year on average, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, though that number has declined during the recent economic weakness.

The Small Business Administration and United States Chamber of Commerce have long been a resource for start-ups, but these government agencies have a broad mandate. There is a “growing recognition,” said Mr. Case, that high-growth start-ups — those with the potential to be national or international companies — have different needs and requirements than traditional small businesses.

Startup America’s initial focus was to provide support to start-ups through deals on goods and services, like 40 percent off FedEx shipping and free flights on American Airlines. But the group quickly realized that start-ups needed more practical help, like sharing best practices and networking.

Soon after the partnership’s start, entrepreneurs around the country starting contacting Startup America, asking how they could create their own networks and reach out to counterparts in other states. “Most of these regions were already coming up with their own initiatives or thinking about them,” said the organization’s chief executive, Scott Case, a founder and former chief technology officer of Priceline.com (and no relation to Steve Case). “We’re helping to stitch together all these parts.”

Taking cues from the entrepreneurs, Startup America has turned its attention to building such a network. Nearly 12,000 members are now affiliated with local Startup America initiatives in 30 states. The partnership expects to add another 10 states this year.

Each Startup America region is spearheaded by local “champions” who come together several times a year at national conferences, communicate via Google groups and have access to an online “idea center” where they can brainstorm about, say, bringing in outside capital or hosting a start-up conference. These envoys are all “founder types” at different stages of their careers, Scott Case said. “Some have exited companies and are looking to continue to feed that creative drive. Others understand that if they can strengthen their community, they can strengthen their own company.”

Brooks Bell, founder of an eponymous 22-employee digital consulting business based in Raleigh, N.C., became involved with the partnership in 2011 after realizing that many potential clients considered her area a backwater. “I realized that was impacting my company’s brand, too,” she said.

Mrs. Bell pointed out that other national groups, like Entrepreneurs’ Organizations, offer resources for high-growth companies. Yet, their emphasis is typically on supporting individuals rather than elevating the region and networking nationally. “They also tend to focus on early-stage companies,” she said. Until Startup America, she added, “there weren’t a lot of opportunities for early-stage companies to interact with funded companies.”

Though Startup America regions work off the same blueprint, each takes a slightly different approach. In Maryland, the staff and champions volunteer virtually. Startup Tennessee partnered with the Entrepreneur Center in Nashville, which runs a nonprofit incubator program. Startup Colorado works out of Silicon Flatirons, a center for law, technology and entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado Law School, and finds partners to finance specific projects.

Although the regional chapters operate independently, they benefit from the credibility of a national organization. “It’s helping elevate our start-ups nationally and get them in front of audiences we never would have,” said Andy Stoll, an entrepreneur in the Iowa City, Iowa, area, where rebuilding from the floods in 2008 has helped generate a boom in start-up activity.

“To have the opportunity to sit in a room with their board and have Steve Case ask me, ‘What are the three things that those of us at this table can do to really help support the Indiana community?’ is amazing and a humbling experience,” said Michael Coffey, a partner at DeveloperTown, an Indianapolis design and development firm that works with companies of all sizes.

In the end, it’s all about business.

Aaron Schwartz, a co-founder of the San Francisco-based Modify Watches, initially joined Startup America for the discounts. Now, he’s also tapping into the partnership to network, including finding corporate clients who order custom watches and vendors. “I now have a contact in Tennessee who has offered to look into manufacturing our watches there,” he said

Mr. Fuentes of Lemur Retail found two potential clients, both national chains, through his connections in Seattle last year; he’s currently in talks with those companies. He’s also helping his Northwest counterparts make inroads in the Washington area. He likens the experience to a fraternity or alumni organization of entrepreneurs.

“When people contact me from my high school or college, I pick up the phone,” he said. “This is no different.”

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Obama names REI chief to lead the Interior Department

President Obama nominated REI business executive Sally Jewell to lead his second-term Interior Department.

WASHINGTON – President Obama on Wednesday nominated Sally Jewell, a former oil engineer and banker and current chief executive of a national outdoor retailer, to lead the Interior Department, making an unorthodox pick for his first woman nominee to his second-term Cabinet.

The president and CEO of Recreational Equipment Inc., Jewell has no government and little public policy experience, and has spent her career far from Washington. But her resume has elements that appealed to both of the two feuding interests that consume much of the debate at the department that controls public lands: the oil and gas extraction industries seeking access to public lands, as well as environmentalists seeking to preserve them.

Jewell, 56, started her career as a petroleum engineer working in the oil fields of Oklahoma and Colorado for Mobil Oil Corp. She then moved to the corporate banking industry, and joined the REI board in 1996,  becoming chief operating officer four years later.

PHOTOS: President Obama’s past

She has been credited with expanding the Washington state-based retailer's Internet operations and contributing the membership cooperative’s resources to environmental stewardship. Jewell, an avid outdoorswoman, serves on the board of the National Parks Conservation Assn. as well as the Board of Regents of the University of Washington.

In announcing his choice, Obama cast her as someone who would seek a balance between protection and economic development of public lands. 

“She knows the link between conservation and good jobs,” Obama said in remarks at the White House. “She knows that there’s no contradiction between being good stewards of the land and our economic progress, that in fact, those two things need to go hand-in-hand. She’s shown that a company with more than $1 billion in sales can do the right thing for our planet.”

In fact, little is known about Jewell’s policy positions. And while environmental groups largely praised her nomination, Republicans and some Democrats withheld judgment.

“The livelihoods of Americans living and working in the West rely on maintaining a real balance between conservation and economic opportunity,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the ranking member of the Senate committee on energy and national resources.  “I look forward to hearing about the qualifications Ms. Jewell has that make her a suitable candidate to run such an important agency, and how she plans to restore balance to the Interior Department.”

PHOTOS: President Obama’s second inauguration

If confirmed, Jewell will replace Ken Salazar, who served in the post throughout the president’s first term and led a period of expansion of oil and gas drilling on public lands. Salazar plans to return to Colorado. Obama on Wednesday praised the former senator as a close friend and trusted advisor.

Salazar, he said, had “ushered in a new era of conservation of our land, our water and our wildlife.”

“He’s opened more public land and water for safe and responsible energy production – not just gas and oil, but also wind and solar – creating thousands of new jobs and nearly doubling our use of renewable energy in this country,” Obama said. 

Jewell is the first woman to be named to lead a Cabinet-level department in the second term. After naming a few white men to top jobs, Obama said the next round of nominees would include more women and be more racially diverse.

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Kathleen.hennessey@latimes.com

Twitter: @khennessey

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Microsoft Teases Future Surface Pro Accessories With Extra Battery Power

Days before Surface Pro’s release date, Microsoft is already teasing the types of accessories we’ll see for the device.

In a Reddit AMA hosted on Wednesday, members of the Surface Team responded to user questions, and suggested that a Surface Pro cover that would double as an extra battery pack is in the works. Good thing, too, since we found that the Surface Pro could barely get around four hours of normal usage.

Naturally, that’s a major concern for people considering buying the computer — Reddit members brought it up on multiple occasions. Asked about the new connectors at the bottom of the Surface Pro on either side of the cover port, a Microsoft rep said, “At launch we talked about the ‘accessory spine’ and hinted at future peripherals that can click in and do more. Those connectors look like can carry more current than the pogo pins, don’t they?”

The cryptic answer was fleshed out in another response. A redditor specifically asked if Microsoft plans to make a thicker keyboard with an extra battery pack.

“That would require extending the design of the accessory spine to include some way to transfer higher current between the peripheral and the main battery. Which we did,” a Surface Team member replied.

Considering that Microsoft already has released two covers for Surface Pro and Surface RT, along with a Surface-branded Wedge Touch Mouse, it’s not hard to imagine the company expanding its Surface accessory lineup. It’s a natural next step as the company continues to focus on its hardware division, which has traditionally offered accessories like mice and keyboards.

The Reddit AMA also covered issues like Surface Pro’s lack of storage space and whether the company plans to release a 3G or 4G Surface. The latter answer was a roundabout “no.” As for storage space, the Surface Team’s Marc DesCamp said, once again, that you can extend storage through the USB 3.0 port and microSDX card slot. He also mentioned that initial reports of available storage space (23GB for the 64GB model, and 83GB for the 128GB model) are conservative; you actually get around 6 to 7GB more than that.

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Kiefer Sutherland named Hasty Pudding Man of the Year

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Kiefer Sutherland has gained his share of accolades throughout his acting career, but none quite like this.

The “24″ star has been named 2013′s Man of the Year by Harvard University‘s Hasty Pudding Theatricals student society, succeeding “The Muppets” actor Jason Segel, who received the honors last year.

Sutherland will be feted with a roast on Friday at Harvard’s Farkas Hall, where he will receive his ceremonial Pudding Pot. If Hasty Pudding tradition is any indication, Sutherland will also dress at least partially in women’s clothes at some point during the event. Which is presumably a rare event for the actor.

“Inception” actress Marion Cotillard, who was named 2013′s Woman of the Year by the theatrical society, was honored at a January 13 ceremony, during which she led a parade through the streets of Cambridge, Mass.

Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Personal Health: Effective Addiction Treatment

Countless people addicted to drugs, alcohol or both have managed to get clean and stay clean with the help of organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous or the thousands of residential and outpatient clinics devoted to treating addiction.

But if you have failed one or more times to achieve lasting sobriety after rehab, perhaps after spending tens of thousands of dollars, you’re not alone. And chances are, it’s not your fault.

Of the 23.5 million teenagers and adults addicted to alcohol or drugs, only about 1 in 10 gets treatment, which too often fails to keep them drug-free. Many of these programs fail to use proven methods to deal with the factors that underlie addiction and set off relapse.

According to recent examinations of treatment programs, most are rooted in outdated methods rather than newer approaches shown in scientific studies to be more effective in helping people achieve and maintain addiction-free lives. People typically do more research when shopping for a new car than when seeking treatment for addiction.

A groundbreaking report published last year by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University concluded that “the vast majority of people in need of addiction treatment do not receive anything that approximates evidence-based care.” The report added, “Only a small fraction of individuals receive interventions or treatment consistent with scientific knowledge about what works.”

The Columbia report found that most addiction treatment providers are not medical professionals and are not equipped with the knowledge, skills or credentials needed to provide the full range of evidence-based services, including medication and psychosocial therapy. The authors suggested that such insufficient care could be considered “a form of medical malpractice.”

The failings of many treatment programs — and the comprehensive therapies that have been scientifically validated but remain vastly underused — are described in an eye-opening new book, “Inside Rehab,” by Anne M. Fletcher, a science writer whose previous books include the highly acclaimed “Sober for Good.”

“There are exceptions, but of the many thousands of treatment programs out there, most use exactly the same kind of treatment you would have received in 1950, not modern scientific approaches,” A. Thomas McLellan, co-founder of the Treatment Research Institute in Philadelphia, told Ms. Fletcher.

Ms. Fletcher’s book, replete with the experiences of treated addicts, offers myriad suggestions to help patients find addiction treatments with the highest probability of success.

Often, Ms. Fletcher found, low-cost, publicly funded clinics have better-qualified therapists and better outcomes than the high-end residential centers typically used by celebrities like Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan. Indeed, their revolving-door experiences with treatment helped prompt Ms. Fletcher’s exhaustive exploration in the first place.

In an interview, Ms. Fletcher said she wanted to inform consumers “about science-based practices that should form the basis of addiction treatment” and explode some of the myths surrounding it.

One such myth is the belief that most addicts need to go to a rehab center.

“The truth is that most people recover (1) completely on their own, (2) by attending self-help groups, and/or (3) by seeing a counselor or therapist individually,” she wrote.

Contrary to the 30-day stint typical of inpatient rehab, “people with serious substance abuse disorders commonly require care for months or even years,” she wrote. “The short-term fix mentality partially explains why so many people go back to their old habits.”

Dr. Mark Willenbring, a former director of treatment and recovery research at the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, said in an interview, “You don’t treat a chronic illness for four weeks and then send the patient to a support group. People with a chronic form of addiction need multimodal treatment that is individualized and offered continuously or intermittently for as long as they need it.”

Dr. Willenbring now practices in St. Paul, where he is creating a clinic called Alltyr “to serve as a model to demonstrate what comprehensive 21st century treatment should look like.”

“While some people are helped by one intensive round of treatment, the majority of addicts continue to need services,” Dr. Willenbring said. He cited the case of a 43-year-old woman “who has been in and out of rehab 42 times” because she never got the full range of medical and support services she needed.

Dr. Willenbring is especially distressed about patients who are treated for opioid addiction, then relapse in part because they are not given maintenance therapy with the drug Suboxone.

“We have some pretty good drugs to help people with addiction problems, but doctors don’t know how to use them,” he said. “The 12-step community doesn’t want to use relapse-prevention medication because they view it as a crutch.”

Before committing to a treatment program, Ms. Fletcher urges prospective clients or their families to do their homework. The first step, she said, is to get an independent assessment of the need for treatment, as well as the kind of treatment needed, by an expert who is not affiliated with the program you are considering.

Check on the credentials of the program’s personnel, who should have “at least a master’s degree,” Ms. Fletcher said. If the therapist is a physician, he or she should be certified by the American Board of Addiction Medicine.

Does the facility’s approach to treatment fit with your beliefs and values? If a 12-step program like A.A. is not right for you, don’t choose it just because it’s the best known approach.

Meet with the therapist who will treat you and ask what your treatment plan will be. “It should be more than movies, lectures or three-hour classes three times a week,” Ms. Fletcher said. “You should be treated by a licensed addiction counselor who will see you one-on-one. Treatment should be individualized. One size does not fit all.”

Find out if you will receive therapy for any underlying condition, like depression, or a social problem that could sabotage recovery. The National Institute on Drug Abuse states in its Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment, “To be effective, treatment must address the individual’s drug abuse and any associated medical, psychological, social, vocational, and legal problems.”

Look for programs using research-validated techniques, like cognitive behavioral therapy, which helps addicts recognize what prompts them to use drugs or alcohol, and learn to redirect their thoughts and reactions away from the abused substance.

Other validated treatment methods include Community Reinforcement and Family Training, or Craft, an approach developed by Robert J. Meyers and described in his book, “Get Your Loved One Sober,” with co-author Brenda L. Wolfe. It helps addicts adopt a lifestyle more rewarding than one filled with drugs and alcohol.

This is the first of two articles on addiction treatment.

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