Danny Puff

WASHINGTON (AP) Just in time for inauguration coverage, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has joined CBS News as a contributor.

Rice, who served as secretary of state during President George W. Bush's second term, made her debut on "Face the Nation" Sunday and will be included in inauguration coverage on Monday.

CBS News Chairman Jeff Fager and president David Rhodes made the announcement Sunday, saying Rice "will use her insight and vast experience to explore issues facing America at home and abroad."

Rice was the first African-American woman to serve as secretary of state, following Colin Powell in the office. She was Bush's national security adviser during his first term and worked on the National Security Council under his father, President George H.W. Bush.

As secretary of state, Rice warned of weapons of mass destruction in pressing for war in Iraq that killed more than 4,400 Americans. No weapons of mass destruction were found.

More recently, Rice was part of the team offering Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney general strategy and advice on foreign policy.

Her primetime speech at the Republican National Convention in August received raves. She did not mention President Barack Obama by name, but spoke of the crisis in education and the need for immigration laws that protect the country's borders while meeting economic needs. She also said that although there was a sense that for far too long America has carried the burdens of supporting free people and free markets, but that if the United States does not lead no one will lead, fostering chaos.

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PHOENIX (AP) Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has built a political career in standing up to the federal government over everything from immigration to health care. So she surprised almost everyone when she announced last week that she not only plans to push for an expansion of the state's Medicaid program under the federal health care law she plans to fund it by raising taxes.

A conservative Republican, Brewer is believed to be the first governor to publicly come up with a way to fund the controversial Medicaid expansion. Not even California Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat in a state that largely supports the new federal health plan, has figured out how to pay for a boosted Medicaid plan.

Her proposal to add about 300,000 low-income Arizonans to her state's Medicaid plan relies on funding from hospitals through a so-called provider tax. The idea is already used to fund some Medicaid plans in 39 states, but none have tapped it to pay for the federal expansion and many have at least some room to expand their hospital taxes.

The Medicaid expansion is intended to cover about half of the 30 million uninsured people expected to eventually gain coverage under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. The law expanded Medicaid to cover low-income people making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $15,400 a year for a single person. That provision will mainly benefit low-income childless adults, who currently can't get Medicaid in most states. Separately, the overhaul provides subsidized private insurance for middle-class households.

Washington, D.C., and 17 states have opted to expand their Medicaid rolls, but few have been explicit in how they'll pay for it, according to the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. Some GOP governors, including Rick Perry in Texas, Bobby Jindal in Louisiana, and Nikki Haley in South Carolina, have opted out, citing philosophical differences as well as worries about costs.

Under the federal legislation, Washington would pay the entire cost of the Medicaid expansion for the first three years, gradually phasing down to 90 percent of the cost after that. It's a far more generous matching rate than the federal government provides for other parts of the Medicaid program that's designed to get states to sign on.

But Arizona appears to be unique in that it will see large costs immediately because of how its existing plan is arranged. So it needs to come up with new funding by January, while other states don't.

Brewer is bucking party and philosophical lines and blazing a unique path in the health care debate. Time will tell if others follow her lead.

Under the federal legislation, Washington would pay the entire cost of the Medicaid expansion for the first three years, gradually phasing down to 90 percent of the cost after that. It's a far more generous matching rate than the federal government provides for other parts of the Medicaid program that's designed to get states to sign on.

But Arizona appears to be unique in that it will see large costs immediately because of how its existing plan is arranged. So it needs to come up with new funding by January, while other states don't.

Brewer is already facing opposition from budget hawks in her own party on the issue. Two bills have already been introduced that would essentially block her efforts.

She has found supporters, however, among many Arizona hospital executives and business groups, including the Chamber of Commerce, a leading opponent of raising taxes.

For hospitals stuck with millions of dollars in uncompensated care each year, agreeing to be taxed makes sense. They pay 6 percent of their revenues and get a much larger amount back from Medicaid from the newly insured.

Among the supporters of a tax is Dignity Health, which has three Phoenix-area hospitals, including one of the biggest in the state, St. Joseph's Hospital. Suzanne Pfister, Dignity's vice president for external affairs, said St. Joseph's alone has seen a tidal wave of uncompensated care since 2010, rising from an average of $8 million a month to an "unsustainable" $17 million a month now.

Others, like the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, are opposed to the taxes. Mayo argues it provides specialized care for cancers and transplants and shouldn't have to pay to support general care hospitals with high numbers of indigent patients.

Mayo CEO Dr. Wyatt Decker said it would be extremely difficult if the not-for-profit had to pay the tax, which a 2009 state study estimated at about $38 million for his hospital.

"We do applaud the governor's commitment to helping provide access to health care for more Arizonans. It's a good thing," Decker said Thursday. "But we, in general, do not support provider taxes as a solution because it is ultimately a tax on patients."

Virtually all states are looking at ways to pay their share of the expansion, said Dr. Daniel Derksen, a University of Arizona public health policy and management professor who helped design New Mexico's health insurance exchanges in 2011. Many have looked at provider taxes in recent years, he said, and they could again.

Provider taxes aren't new. Thirty-nine states already use some form of hospital provider taxes to help cover their share of Medicaid costs, according to the Kaiser Commission. And all but Alaska have taxes on nursing homes or other providers to help pay for required state matches to qualify for federal cash.

But Brewer is the first governor to propose a stand-alone hospital tax designed specifically to fund the Medicaid expansion.

The federal government puts a cap of 6 percent of hospital revenues on those taxes, and the 11 states without hospital taxes can put them in place. Most of the 39 already imposing hospital taxes have room to boost them.

California does not. It initiated a hospital provider tax in 2009 that is used to cover uncompensated care. The state might be able to redirect some of the estimated $2 billion in yearly revenues to its Medicaid program, called Medi-Cal, if uncompensated care drops. But shifting the funding is a complicated act, as complex as other aspects of federal health care funding, said Dylan Roby, an assistant professor and researcher at UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

Such taxes can be compelling to lawmakers because the economics means health care providers are more willing to sign on.

"If the folks that are going to be taxed say, 'Well, we really need to do this,' that's a lot easier lift legislatively than trying to force something on a reluctant group," Derksen said.

Arizona began covering many low-income childless adults after voters required it in 2000, but Brewer trimmed the ranks covered by the state plan, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, or AHCCCS, when the Great Recession hammered state revenues. She proposes restoring that coverage as part of the expansion.

But there are costs to states, even at first, depending on their current plan. In Arizona, the state expects to be on the hook for $256 million by 2016, when its expansion if fully rolled out.

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CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's government is open to improving troubled ties with Washington and is considering a U.S. proposal for the return of anti-drug agents kicked out of the country eight years ago by President Hugo Chavez, a senior official said.

There has been no word from Chavez since he had cancer surgery in Cuba five weeks ago, so every move the government makes in his absence is being picked over for clues to what the OPEC nation might look like in a post-Chavez era.

Speaking to Telesur, a TV network set up by Chavez to counter Western media influence, Venezuela's ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), Roy Chaderton, said U.S.-Venezuela relations were "not hot, not cold. Zero degrees".

But he said there were efforts to find common ground.

"There are things that are being done with a great deal of seriousness and a lot of caution," he said late on Saturday.

"We are not obliged to have bad ties with governments which have different visions to ours ... I hope pragmatism prevails in this initiative and we reach a fair place of mutual interest."

Officials say Chavez's condition is improving but delicate after the 58-year-old suffered complications from his surgery in Havana on December 11, his fourth operation in just 18 months.

Many Venezuelans suspect, however, that the socialist's 14 years in power - during which his fiery criticism of the United States helped turn him into one of the world's most recognizable and polarizing leaders - may be coming to an end.

In one typically headline-grabbing move, Chavez halted cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 2005 after accusing its agents of spying.

Venezuela, which shares a long, largely unpoliced border with Colombia, has become a transshipment point for Colombian cocaine on its way to consumer nations.

TARGETING DRUGLORDS

Asked about the possible return of DEA agents to Venezuela, Chaderton confirmed it was being discussed. "It is one of the many hopes of the United States and it is a proposal," he said.

"Our government will decide, the competent national authorities, the justice minister, the director of the O.N.A. (anti-drug agency)," he said. "It is a matter which has to be studied by the politicians and the experts."

The government says it has invested heavily in fighting narcotics and points to the extradition to Colombia and the United States of high profile accused drug lords as evidence of its efforts. It has also taken part in joint operations.

In September, Venezuelan officers captured a top Colombian trafficker, Daniel "Crazy" Barrera, near the border in a raid that Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos said was directed from Washington by a Colombian general and included the help of U.S. and British intelligence agencies.

The latest political spat between Washington and Caracas took place as recently as December, when Venezuelan officials were furious after President Barack Obama criticized the ailing Chavez's "authoritarian policies and suppression of dissent".

Venezuela's government called them "despicable comments at such a delicate moment", and said Obama was responsible for a major deterioration in relations.

Spurred on by years of Chavez's tirades about the "Yankee empire", many of his loyal supporters suspect the United States of being behind a wide range of threats to his self-styled revolution - including a coup that briefly toppled him in 2002.

Stressing the need for mutual respect, Chaderton couched his talk of better ties in caution, stressing that Venezuela needed no U.S. stamp of approval or card of good conduct.

"We are not going to take part in an improvement of relations at the cost of being 'certified' by those who have no authority to do so," he said.

(Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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WASHINGTON (AP) Formally embarking on his second term, President Barack Obama was set to take the oath of office Sunday surrounded by family in an intimate inauguration at the White House, 24 hours before re-enacting the ceremony in front of hundreds of thousands outside the Capitol.

The subdued swearing-in at the White House Blue Room is a function of the calendar and the Constitution, which says presidents automatically begin their new terms at noon on Jan. 20. Because that date fell this year on a Sunday, a day on which inauguration ceremonies historically are not held, organizers scheduled a second, public swearing-in for Monday.

A crowd of up to 800,000 people is expected to gather on the National Mall to witness that event, which will take place on the Capitol's red, white and blue bunting-draped west front. Chief Justice John Roberts, who famously flubbed the oath of office that Obama took in 2009, was on tap to swear the president in both days.

Vice President Joe Biden was to be sworn in earlier Sunday at the Naval Observatory, his official residence. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was appointed by Obama during his first term, was to administer the oath of office.

Before the ceremony, Biden was celebrating an early morning Mass with friends and family. About 120 people were expected to be on hand to watch him place his hand on a Bible his family has used since 1893 as he takes the oath.

Biden was then to join Obama at Arlington National Cemetery for a wreath-laying ceremony.

Once the celebrations are over, Obama will plunge into a second-term agenda still dominated by the economy, which slowly churned out of recession during his first four years in office. The president will try to cement his legacy with sweeping domestic changes, pledging to achieve both an immigration overhaul and stricter gun laws despite opposition from a divided Congress.

But for one weekend at least, Washington was putting politics aside. Obama called the nation's inaugural traditions "a symbol of how our democracy works and how we peacefully transfer power."

"But it should also be an affirmation that we're all in this together," he said Saturday as he opened a weekend of activities at a Washington elementary school.

Only a small group of family members was expected to attend Obama's Sunday swearing-in, including first lady Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha. A few reporters were to witness the event.

Roberts was to administer the oath shortly before noon in the Blue Room, an oval space with majestic views of the South Lawn and the Washington Monument.

Named for the color of the drapes, upholstery and carpet, the Blue Room is not typically used for ceremonies. It primarily has been a reception room as well as the site of the only presidential wedding held in the White House, when President Grover Cleveland married Frances Folsum in 1886.

Later Sunday, Obama and Biden were to speak at a reception attended by supporters.

The president planned to save his most expansive remarks for Monday, when he delivers his second inaugural address to the crowd on the Mall and millions more watching across the country and the world. Obama started working on the speech in early December and was still tinkering with it into the weekend, aides said.

The president's address will set the stage for the policy objectives he seeks to achieve in his second term, including speeding up the economic recovery, passing comprehensive immigration and gun control measures and ending the war in Afghanistan. However, aides said Obama would save the specifics of those agenda items for his Feb. 12 State of the Union address.

The president launched a weekend of inaugural activities Saturday by heading up a National Day of Service. Along with his family, Obama helped hundreds of volunteers spruce up a Washington area elementary school.

Obama put on rubber gloves, picked up a paint brush and helped volunteers stain a bookshelf.

Obama added the service event to the inaugural schedule in 2009 and is hoping it becomes a tradition followed for future presidents.

Mrs. Obama, speaking to volunteers Sunday, espoused the importance of giving back in the midst of the weekend of pomp, circumstance and celebration.

"The reason why we're here, why we're standing here, why we're able to celebrate this weekend is because a lot of people worked hard and supported us, and we've got a job to do and this is a symbol of the kind of work that we need to be doing the next four years," Michelle Obama said at Burrville Elementary.

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Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

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LOS ANGELES (AP) "Holy windfall, Batman!" The Batmobile just sold for $4.2 million.

The original 19-foot-long black, bubble-topped car used in the 1960s "Batman" TV show sold at auction Saturday.

The Barrett-Jackson Auction Co. in Scottsdale, Ariz., revealed the selling price but says the winning bidder has not been disclosed.

The car's owner auto customizer George Barris, of Los Angeles transformed a one-of-a-kind 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car into the sleek crime-fighting machine. It boasted lasers and a "Batphone" and could lay down smoke screens and oil slicks.

The iconic car was used by Adam West who starred as the Caped Crusader and by Burt Ward, his sidekick Robin known for exclamations beginning with "Holy."

Barris' publicist says his client is pleased with the auction result.

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PARK CITY, Utah (AP) The Eagles picked the producer of their new Showtime documentary "The History of the Eagles" but they insist that's about all the control they had in the making of it.

"It's really not a film that represents our point of view so much," Glenn Frey said Saturday as the quartet spoke at the Sundance Film Festival hours before the film's premiere.

The film was directed by Alison Ellwood and produced by Alex Gibney, whose other documentaries include the Academy Award-winning "Taxi to the Dark Side" and "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room."

"The History of the Eagles" will be shown in two parts on Showtime Feb. 15-16. It includes 40-year-old footage that was in the band's archives, as well as recent interviews with the band.

Henley said he was interested in someone making a documentary about the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers but was unimpressed with recent music documentaries. So, he asked to see the work of Oscar-winning documentary filmmakers and was led to Gibney.

From there, he worked to convince Gibney that he should tell the band's story, and they had "zero" influence on its outcome.

"We have a good story to tell and I think he's a great storyteller," Frey said, adding that Gibney told him, "We're going to make a movie, and we're going to tell the truth."

Don Henley said the band hasn't even seen the final cut yet. "I hope we like it," he joked.

Frey said what surprised him most about the film, and seeing the old footage, was "how much fun we had."

That may surprise people who are familiar with the band's well-documented discord, including their acrimonious breakup in 1982 (they got back together in 1994).

"Most of the things that have been written about this band have focused on conflict the journalism of conflict," Henley said. "It sells papers and magazines, but one thing that Glen said that people will see in this documentary is that we had a lot of fun. Some of it's not on film, and that's good."

"The bitter fighting that the media loved to talk about really didn't take place. We argued a lot, we discussed stuff a lot, and that tension had a lot of to do with the creative process," Walsh said. "We didn't hate each other; we didn't have fist fights, none of that."

Walsh, Henley, Frey and Timothy Schmit were expected to attend the premiere later Saturday.

Frey said the band might eventually make new music together. Their last album together was 2007's "Long Road Out of Eden."

"I think what we realized is how good we are together and how things have changed, and it would be a shame if we didn't try to find a way to create some more new music," Frey said. "People really like to hear us sing, we really do well, we still perform at a very high level, so for me, it would be great."

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Nekesa Mumbi Moody is the AP's global entertainment and lifestyles editor. Follow her at http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi .

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Barbra Streisand will add the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Chaplin Award to her roster of honors, in recognition of her achievement as a director, writer, producer and film star, the group said on Friday.

Streisand, who shot to fame in the 1960s on Broadway and as a major recording star, will receive the honor at the 40th Annual Chaplin Award gala in New York on April 22 which will feature celebrity guests and a host of film and interview clips.

"The Board is very excited to have Barbra Streisand as the next recipient of The Chaplin Award," Ann Tenenbaum, The Film Society of Lincoln Center's board chairman, said in a news release.

"She is an artist whose long career of incomparable achievements is most powerfully expressed by the fact that her acclaimed 'Yentl' was such a milestone film."

The group cited Streisand as the first American woman artist to receive credit as writer, director, producer and star of a major feature film.

It also noted she is the only artist to receive an Academy Award, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Directors Guild of America award, Golden Globe, National Medal of Arts and Peabody Awards, France's Legion d'honneur and the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award. She was also the first female film director to receive a Kennedy Center honor.

"We welcome her to the list of masterful directors who have been prior recipients of the Chaplin Award Tribute," added Tenenbaum, referring to luminaries such as Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and Martin Scorsese.

Stars ranging from Bette Davis and Elizabeth Taylor to last year's recipient, Catherine Deneuve, have received the award, which was renamed for its first recipient Charles Chaplin, who returned to the United States from exile to accept the commendation in 1972.

Streisand, 70, starred in such hits as "The Way We Were" and "Funny Girl," for which she won an Oscar, and went on to direct films including "The Prince of Tides" and "The Mirror Has Two Faces."

More recently she has returned to screen acting, in "Meet the Fockers" with Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro, and "The Guilt Trip," a Christmas 2012 release co-starring Seth Rogen.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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PARK CITY, Utah (AP) As Dave Grohl took to the stage at the Park City Live, he gave the audience an expletive-laced warning: "It's going to be a long night."

But fans were rewarded Friday night as Grohl brought out members of the Foo Fighters, ex-bandmates in Nirvana, plus John Fogerty, Stevie Nicks, Rick Springfield, and several others in a three-hour plus concert that celebrated his directorial debut the film "Sound City."

Earlier Friday, "Sound City," a documentary about the music made at the recording studio of the same name, had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. "Sound City" includes interviews with some of the key musicians who made music at Los Angeles-based studio, including Nicks, Tom Petty, Paul McCartney and others.

At the packed concert, Grohl brought on stage some of those same players, named, appropriately enough, the Sound City Players. Fogerty performed some of his classics, including "Proud Mary," ''Traveling Band" and "Centerfield"; Springfield jammed with Grohl and others for his hits, including "Jessie's Girl" and "I've Done Everything for You"; and Nicks performed songs including "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around."

"I wish we could play 100 songs, but we have 17 musicians tonight," Grohl said at one point.

One of the concert's highlights came when Grohl brought out Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen, Slipknot's Corey Taylor, his old Nirvana partner Krist Novoselic, and Pat Smear together for a set that included Taylor belting out the Fats Domino classic "Ain't That A Shame."

"This, without any (expletive) is a dream (expletive) come true for me," Taylor said, echoing the sentiments of many in the crowd as well.

The Sound City Players are featured on an upcoming album that came out of the documentary: "Sound City Real to Reel."

Grohl has more appearances scheduled for his Sundance film premiere this week, and the Sound City Players plan to perform other shows in the near future.

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Online:

http://www.soundcitymovie.com

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Nekesa Mumbi Moody is the AP's Global Entertainment & Lifestyles Editor. Follow her at http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi

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WASHINGTON (AP) Some of Washington's top chefs came together to salute the president ahead of the inauguration, in part because of the first family's influence on the culture around food.

Chicago-based Chef Art Smith opened his Capitol Hill restaurant Art and Soul for a late-night Chefs Ball expected to attract food fans of all stripes Saturday night with its relatively low ticket price of $75. Seven celebrity chefs teamed up for the charity event to prepare delicious bites for a sold-out crowd of more than 500.

From the White House garden to Michelle Obama's focus on healthy eating, Smith said the Obamas, more than any other first family, have embraced fresh American food and care about where food comes from.

"Can that little garden at the White House feed America? No. But you know what it can do? It can inspire America," Smith said. "Most importantly, it's that we as Americans all deserve good food, regardless of economic, social differences."

Smith was Oprah Winfrey's personal chef for years and competed on TV's "Top Chef Masters."

For his first inaugural ball, Smith cooked his trademark fried chicken. There would probably be a riot if he didn't, he said.

Guests included "Modern Family" actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Gayle King, co-anchor of "CBS This Morning" and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn. The wait staff wore white bow ties from Ferguson's organization TieTheKnot.org to promote gay marriage rights in Illinois and across the country.

Chefs served up tiny lamb gyros, crab salad on a cornbread cracker and fried chicken and waffles on a stick, among other bites. The bar offered cocktails called "Stayin Put" and "Stickin Around."

Smith was joined by Washington restaurateurs Erik Bruner-Yang of Toki Underground, Scott Drewno of The Source, Todd Gray of Equinox Restaurant, Rock Harper of TV's "Hell's Kitchen" who helps lead the charity D.C. Central Kitchen and Mike Isabella, a "Top Chef All-Stars" finalist whose restaurants include Graffiato and Bandolero.

Isabella said he was new to Washington four years ago and that the city's food scene has come of age in the Obama era. He plans to open another restaurant later this year.

"I think D.C. is probably one of the biggest and fastest-growing culinary scenes in America," Isabella said. "It was a steakhouse town 10 years ago. Nowadays it's all about living in the city and being a part of the growth."

In the 1980s, Smith said he visited the Reagan White House when it was party central. The Reagans loved entertaining, he said, but all the cooking was French.

"America had not really discovered or embraced its food to say 'We are America. We are about our food. We are about this wonderful melting pot of people who have all come together and created this amazing culture,'" Smith said.

In the past 20 years, tastes have changed. As first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton embraced American cooking, and Laura Bush brought Tex-Mex to the White House, Smith said. The Obamas have gone a step further to foster more conversation about fresh ingredients.

Isabella, who joined Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's inaugural American Chefs Corps last year to use food as a tool for diplomacy, credits the Obama administration with changing attitudes around food.

"I think they're the first to really indulge into the whole culinary scene, putting chef programs together for schools and kids, dining in restaurants around the city and really believing in food and farm-to-table," he said. "It's been a huge, huge help for us."

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Follow Brett Zongker on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DCArtBeat

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MAPLEWOOD, New Jersey (Reuters) - The age-old call to beat swords into ploughshares is being answered in Newark, New Jersey by turning bullets into bling.

Guns and shell casings seized by the Newark Police are being melted down and made into bracelets by a jewellery company. A portion of proceeds from each sale goes to fund gun buy-back amnesty programs in New Jersey's largest city.

The company, Jewelry for a Cause, worked with Newark Mayor Cory Booker and the city police chief to design the "Caliber Collection".

It features steel bangles and cuffs, each engraved with the serial number of the illegal gun it was fashioned from. Brass pieces are made from casings swept from crime scenes in the city, which has a serious gun violence problem.

The sleek, simple line by designer Jessica Mindich has raised more than $20,000 since its debut on November 28, Booker said on The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC this week.

He said the jewellery and buy-back programs are "not a cure-all, but everybody has the power to do something little, something small to make a difference."

The collection has gained added attention since the school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut prompted President Barack Obama to launch the biggest U.S. gun control push in generations.

The Caliber Collection is "a series of pieces that embody the gun's transformation from a destructive weapon to a powerful symbol of renewal," the Connecticut-based jewellery maker says on its website JewelryForACause.net.

Cuffs and bracelets are available with or without diamonds and range in price from $150 for the steel cuff to $375 for the brass bangle with diamonds.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Andrew Hay)

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WASHINGTON (AP) Watch out Beyonce and Katy Perry. There's another diva set to perform during the inauguration festivities Lady Gaga.

A person familiar with the inauguration tells The Associated Press that the pop star will perform at Tuesday's ball for White House staffers. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because that person wasn't authorized to publicly reveal the information.

The staff ball is typically a private affair. During the last inauguration festivities, Jay-Z reportedly performed for that event.

According to one attendee, Jay-Z rapped a riff on one of his hit songs, "99 Problems but George Bush Ain't One," to the delight of the throngs of young staffers who worked to elect Obama in 2008.

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SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - As cell phones, iPods and laptops creep steadily into every corner of modern life, America's national parks have stayed largely off the digital grid, among the last remaining outposts of ringtone-free human solitude.

For better or worse, that may soon change.

Under pressure from telecommunications companies and a growing number of park visitors who feel adrift without mobile-phone reception, the airwaves in such grand getaway destinations as Yellowstone National Park may soon be abuzz with new wireless signals.

That prospect has given pause to a more traditional cohort of park visitors who cherish the unplugged tranquility of the great outdoors, fearing an intrusion of mobile phones - and the sound of idle chatter - will diminish their experience.

Some have mixed emotions. Stephanie Smith, a 50-something Montana native who visits Yellowstone as many as six times a year, said she prefers the cry of an eagle to ring tones.

But she also worries that future generations may lose their appreciation for the value of nature and the need to preserve America's outdoor heritage if a lack of technology discourages them from visiting.

"You have to get there to appreciate it," Smith said. "It's a new world - and technology is a part of it."

Balancing the two aesthetics has emerged as the latest challenge facing the National Park Service as managers in at least two premier parks, Yellowstone and Glacier national parks, consider recent requests to install new telecommunications towers or upgrade existing ones.

There is no system-wide rule governing cellular facilities in the 300 national parks, national monuments and other units the agency administers nationwide. Wireless infrastructure decisions are left up to the managers of individual park units.

The agency's mission statement requires it to protect park resources and the visitor experience, but each individual experience is unique, said Lee Dickinson, a special-uses program manager for the Park Service.

"I've had two visitors calling me literally within hours of each other who wanted exactly the opposite experience: One saying he didn't vacation anywhere without electronic access and the other complaining he was disturbed by another park visitor ordering pizza on his cell phone," Dickinson said.

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

Wireless supporters say more is at stake than the convenience of casual phone conversations. Cellular providers say new wireless infrastructure will boost public safety by improving communications among park rangers and emergency responders.

They argue that the ability to download smartphone applications that can deliver instant information on plants and animals will also enrich park visitors' experiences.

"Our customers are telling us that having access to technology will enhance their visit to wild areas," said Bob Kelley, spokesman for Verizon Wireless, which is seeking to install a new 100-foot cell tower at Yellowstone.

Rural communities that border the national parks also stand to benefit from enlarged cellular coverage areas.

On the other side of the debate, outdoor enthusiasts worry that bastions of quiet reflection could be transformed into noisy hubs where visitors yak on cell phones and fidget with electronic tablets, detracting from the ambience of such natural wonders as Yellowstone's celebrated geyser Old Faithful.

Expanding cellular reception may even compromise safety by giving some tourists a false sense of security in the back country, where extremes in weather and terrain test even the most skilled outdoorsman, according to the National Parks Conservation Association.

Tim Stevens, the association's Northern Rockies director, said distractions like meandering moose already challenge the attention of motorists clogging park roads at the height of the summer tourist season.

"People brake in the middle of the road to watch animals. The added distraction of a wireless signal - allowing a driver to text Aunt Madge to say how great the trip is - could have disastrous consequences," he said.

Yellowstone already offers some limited mobile-phone service, afforded by four cellular towers previously erected in developed sections of the park.

But vast swathes of America's oldest national park, which spans nearly 3,500 square miles across the states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, still lack wireless reception in an age dominated by Wi-Fi and iPad users who expect access even in the most remote locations.

Park officials see definite signs that a portion of the roughly 3 million annual visitors to Yellowstone, which crafted a wireless plan in 2008, are finding the lack of cell phone coverage disconcerting.

Park spokesman Al Nash said he routinely fields calls from anxious relatives of Yellowstone visitors unable to contact their loved ones.

"They say, My gosh, my niece, daughter or parents went to Yellowstone, and we haven't heard from them for three days,'" he said.

(Reporting and writing by Laura Zuckerman; Editing by Steve Gorman and David Gregorio)

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WASHINGTON (AP) Presidential terms are measured by sweeping laws and stirring events, but legacies are about enduring ideas. The one Barack Obama has in mind will drive most everything he tries to do in the next four years: assuring that America is a place where anyone can make it.

There is no moonshot here, no call to end tyranny in our time.

What Obama wants written in the first paragraph of history is that he helped deliver a better life for the people struggling in the richest nation on earth.

His second-term agenda amounts to a wish list in support of that core idea, and this time, he is freer to define the issues.

Obama wants an immigration law that would deal firmly but compassionately with millions of illegal residents; an economic model that demands more money from the rich to shrink the debt; a tax system that is fairer and simpler for families; and a bigger emphasis on education and made-in-America energy.

The old problem of gun violence is suddenly on the list now, too, but only after an elementary school massacre led Obama into days of reflection. He concluded that the country is failing its people in another fundamental way, by not keeping even its children safe.

This is the playbook of a Democrat who thinks the basic compact between a nation and its people has been broken, who sees government as more of an aggressive force for good than a bureaucratic menace to society.

In the discussions that shape Obama's next moves, in the speeches that convey his thinking, the policy premise is usually boosting hope and genuine opportunity.

Many people have lost both.

"I've got one mandate," the president said after defeating Republican Mitt Romney in November. "I've got a mandate to help middle-class families and families that are working hard to get into the middle class. That's what the American people said: 'Work really hard to help us.'"

The American people, however, also returned Republicans to power in the House, setting up a giant clash of visions over the role of government.

Should Obama get bogged down in power struggles over the debt and spending, his overarching ideas may be shrunk along with his legacy. His influence is limited by his opponents in Congress, forcing him to scale back time and again, and frustrating him about the pace of progress.

Yet piece by piece, he is building what he is convinced voters want. He will use his powers, he says, to build a country where "you can make it if you try."

He does not have much time. Presidential capital fades after the second year of a second term.

What Obama does have is more freedom to pursue an agenda on his terms.

By the time he is sworn in again, Obama will have sworn off some of the problems he inherited.

The recession is over. So is the Iraq war, with the Afghanistan war winding down. Obama will never again have to worry about getting re-elected.

"He came into office when the American Dream was at its most maximum peril," said Obama confidant Robert Gibbs, recalling a collapsing job market and stock market. "Fixing that is likely to be a journey that will be the charge of the next several presidents. But it's his job to build a foundation."

Obama is halfway into that project.

It began with the milestones of his first term: a law extending health coverage to millions of people, taxpayer intervention to help a plummeting economy, consumer protections and Wall Street reform, and the appointment of two women to the Supreme Court, including the first Hispanic justice.

He also repealed the ban on gays serving openly in the military and became the first president to announce support of gay marriage.

Almost forgotten, by now, is the symbolism of Obama's presidency itself. He was the first black man to win the office.

"His progressive legacy is continuing the civil rights movements to the very last groups that have been marginalized," said Douglas Brinkley, a Rice University historian who has written extensively about presidents. "He is, in a way, trying to bring into the fold the last people who haven't made it."

Even when Obama looks back at the lowest moment of his re-election campaign, it is to bemoan his failure at explaining what his presidency is about. He told Time magazine that his flawed first debate against Romney never conveyed the stakes of a society in which too many have too little chance to succeed.

"Do we believe in an America that says some folks are more American than others or more worthy than others or more valued than others?" Obama said. "Or do we believe in an America where that Declaration (of Independence) means what it says: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident ... that all people are created equal?'"

Obama's legacy is already safe, Brinkley said, simply because he won again.

History is much kinder to presidents who got voter approval to finish what they started.

For Obama, Brinkley said, that means protecting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security in a time when the country leans right-center and demands to contain the debt are soaring. "His role is to be the firewall," Brinkley said.

Even discussing one's legacy can be politically tricky for any White House.

The word itself can convey that the president is too focused on his place in history, or too close to nearing dreaded lame-duck status.

But Gibbs, who served as Obama's press secretary for the first half of the first term, said legacy-shaping is inherent in every big decision in the West Wing.

"People are exceedingly aware of the fact that, for better or worse, presidents are judged on their time in office," Gibbs said. "What are their ultimate, lasting contributions? Everybody understands that. Maybe it's the elephant in the room, but it's in each and every room."

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EDITOR'S NOTE Former AP White House Correspondent Ben Feller covered the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama

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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) Hundreds of people are gathering in state capitals nationwide to rally against stricter gun control measures.

An estimated 600 people turned out so far for Saturday speeches in Austin, Texas. Many are carrying signs with messages such as "An Armed Society is a Polite Society" and "The Second Amendment Comes from God."

Meanwhile, police say hundreds more joined rallies in New England while organizers also have plans to gather in capital cites to the west.

Activists have promoted the "Guns Across America" rallies primarily via social media. They're being held days after President Barack Obama unveiled a sweeping package of gun-control proposals.

First-term Texas state Rep. Steve Toth is among attendees in Austin. He's one of several state officials nationwide who've proposed trying to curb federal gun restrictions in states.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) He's already gotten the Oprah treatment. Now Lance Armstrong is headed for the silver screen.

Paramount Pictures and J.J. Abrams' production company, Bad Robot, are planning a biopic about the disgraced cyclist, a studio spokeswoman said Friday.

They've secured the rights to New York Times reporter Juliet Macur's upcoming book "Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong," due out in June. Macur covered the seven-time Tour de France winner for over a decade.

No director, writer, star or start date have been set.

Armstrong is in the midst of a two-part interview with Oprah Winfrey in which he admits to using performance-enhancing drugs to reach his historic victories, something he'd defiantly denied for years. The International Olympic Committee stripped him of his 2000 bronze medal this week.

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WASHINGTON (AP) Three days of inaugural celebrations kicked off in Washington Saturday, with President Barack Obama heading up a National Day of Service ahead of his swearing-in for a second term.

The president and first lady, Michelle Obama, planned to volunteer in the Washington area Saturday. Vice President Joe Biden, his wife, Jill, and others members of his family spent the morning filling care packages for U.S. troops serving overseas, veterans and first responders.

Obama added the day of service projects in 2009 and hopes it will become a tradition for future presidents.

Volunteers also gathered on the National Mall on a crisp, sunny morning in Washington for a service summit. In a videotaped message played at the event, Mrs. Obama said the volunteers were "showing once again that by giving back, we can lift up our fellow citizens and build stronger, healthier communities."

Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton, the honorary chairwoman of the volunteer effort, kicked off the summit by praising her family's "chain of service."

The president will be officially sworn in for his second term on Sunday in a small ceremony at the White House. He'll take the oath of office again on Monday before hundreds of thousands of people on the National Mall, followed by the traditional parade and formal balls.

Thousands of workers and volunteers were making final preparations for the celebration. Hotels and government buildings along the parade route were adorned with red, white and blue bunting. White tents, trailers and generators lined the Mall.

Yet there is decidedly less energy surrounding Obama's second inauguration than there was in 2009. That history-making event drew 1.8 million people for the swearing-in of the nation's first black president.

This time, Obama takes the oath of office following a bruising presidential campaign and four years of partisan fighting. He's more experienced in the ways of Washington. He has the gray hair and lower approval ratings to show for it.

For at least the inauguration weekend, the fiscal fights and legislative wrangling will be put aside in favor of pomp and circumstance.

The White House did not say in advance what Obama's service project would be. In 2009, he helped spruce up a shelter for homeless teens in one of Washington's poorer neighborhoods then visited wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

The White House sees the call to service as a way for Americans across the country to honor the memory of Martin Luther King Jr. The day Obama publicly takes the oath of office marks King's birthday, and 2013 is the 50th anniversary of the civil rights leader's March on Washington.

Also Saturday, Michelle Obama and Jill Biden were hosting the Kids' Inaugural Concert, an evening event paying special tribute to military spouses and children.

The crowds pouring into Washington were expected to be far smaller than they were four years ago, and there will be fewer inaugural balls for the president and first lady to attend. Still, Obama's swearing-in at the Capitol is expected to draw up to 800,000 people, which would make it the largest second.

The president was still working on his inaugural address heading into the weekend. He isn't expected to delve deeply into the policy objectives he'll tackle in a second term, but the tone and theme of the speech will set the stage for the policy fights to come.

Aides said he will make the point that while the nation's political system doesn't require politicians to resolve all of their differences, it does require Washington to act on issues where there is common ground. He will speak about how the nation's core principles can still guide a country that has changed immensely since its founding.

Temperatures were forecast to fall throughout the weekend and be in the 30s on Monday when the crowds gather along the parade route that will take Obama from Capitol Hill to the White House.

Despite scaling back on some of the revelry, the inauguration will be a star-studded affair. Top acts including Beyonce, Katy Perry and Brad Paisley have signed on to perform at the weekend's events.

The inauguration also is bringing thousands of Obama campaign staffers and donors to Washington, with many getting invitations for tours and other events at the White House. On Friday, the president and first lady held two private events for donors who helped finance his 2012 campaign.

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Associated Press writer Laurie Kellman contributed to this report.

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Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

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(Reuters) - Notre Dame football star Manti Te'o has denied ever being in on an elaborate hoax, telling ESPN he had believed his relationship with a woman who turned out to be an online fabrication was real.

The tragic story of his girlfriend and her injuries from a car accident and death from leukaemia was one of the most widely recounted U.S. sports stories last year as Notre Dame made a drive toward the national championship game.

"I wasn't faking it," Te'o told ESPN in an off-camera interview on Friday, excerpts of which were posted on ESPN.com. "I wasn't part of this."

When asked whether he had made up the tale to support his chances of winning the Heisman Trophy, the highest individual honour for a college football player, Te'o replied: "Well, when they hear the facts they'll know. They'll know that there is no way that I could be part of this."

The interview was Te'o's first since the sports blog Deadspin.com on Wednesday exposed the heart-wrenching tale of his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, and her death as a hoax and that a friend of Te'o's named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo was behind it.

Te'o told ESPN that Tuiasosopo called him on Wednesday and admitted he was behind the hoax and it was then Te'o was sure the woman had never existed.

"I don't wish an ill thing to somebody," Te'o said of Tuiasosopo, according to ESPN. "I just hope he learns. I think embarrassment is big enough."

Outside Tuiasosopo's home in Palmdale, California, on Thursday, a member of his family who did not identify himself told reporters they had no comment.

Te'o acknowledged in a statement on Wednesday that he had never met the woman in person, though he considered her his girlfriend and said he had been duped.

In the ESPN interview, Te'o said he tried to video chat with her several times, but she could never be seen on the other end. He also said he intentionally told people stories about her in a way that would make people believe they had met in person.

"I even knew that it was crazy that I was with somebody that I didn't meet," Te'o said.

NATIONAL PROMINENCE

ESPN said the interview was held at a training facility in Florida where Te'o has been preparing for the National Football League draft. The star linebacker was expected to be a high draft pick before the hoax was revealed.

Te'o sprang to national prominence last fall when he led Notre Dame to a victory over Michigan State within days of learning his grandmother and girlfriend had both died. The grandmother's death was real.

The story grew to become a big feature in coverage of the team, which went undefeated in the regular season and reached the national championship game. Alabama defeated Notre Dame in the title game on January 7.

Notre Dame, one of the most powerful institutions in U.S. collegiate athletics, held a news conference within hours of the Deadspin.com article to say that Te'o had been duped.

Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick said on Friday the Indiana university was comfortable, based on a private investigation it launched and on four years experience with Te'o, that he was the victim and encouraged Te'o to speak publicly.

(Reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis; Editing by Eric Beech)

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What s the big idea?

That s what Yahoo News asked its readers this month: Which one big idea could help the country address our most pressing national problem? Which solution even if it's "out there" or controversial could go far in tackling an issue that affects millions of Americans?

After Barack Obama delivers his second inaugural address on Monday, the country will again face another four years of the same hurdles, including a still-smarting economy, gun violence, foreign entanglements and health care battles.

How do we hammer away at those problems in his next term and beyond? We requested creative and outside-the-box ideas that may not have been tried before. (Yet they still had to be credible, grounded in reality and reasonably doable. As we admonished previously: Sorry, no superintelligent monkey doctors.)

You offered a swarm of interesting brainstorms for instance: mandatory gun ownership, drug legalization, congressional penalties, hemp farming, Social Security for everyone, and mandatory recycling and we found experts in various fields to comment on the feasibility of your proposals.

Here are excerpts from several ideas, followed by reaction from experts we asked to comment.

We received hundreds of suggestions, so we ve created a Tumblr that displays many more.

John Jackson, co-owner of Capitol City Arms Supply, holds an AR-15 rifle for sale at his business in Springfield, Ill. (Seth Perlman/AP)

GUN VIOLENCE

For better gun control, we need public gun education By Phil Dotree

To effectively combat gun violence, we need a complete shift in the tone of our conversation. Here's a radical suggestion that will never gain traction: required gun education in public schools. Not a trip to the firing range, not sharpshooting lessons, but a brief addition to every health class that includes basic gun safety.

A basic education would help to dispel some of the myths that lead to impractical gun legislation. For instance, many gun-control advocates don't know that "silencers" don't actually silence guns, (they just suppress the noise) or that automatic weapons are already highly regulated. Education might compel a more civil discourse, which would allow for better laws that keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill.

More of Dotree s proposal.

Experts responses:

Children understand guns, but it's adults who refuse action by Tom Mauser

After my son Daniel was shot and killed at Columbine, I found myself receiving suggestions for how to stem gun violence. One was this simplistic notion that if we just better educated our children about the danger of guns, they would not abuse them. As I responded back then, I think the two Columbine killers would have laughed at the irony of being given a gun education class.

In a proposal, Yahoo News reader Phil Dotree makes a reasonable call for gun education as a "brief addition to every health class," but then also says he wishes to dispel myths that lead to bad gun legislation. Sorry, but it s adults who write gun legislation, not kids, and we haven t done a very good job.

More of Mauser s response.

A public school gun education would have merit, pitfalls By Dr. Harry L. Wilson

Phil Dotree s call for education on firearms has serious merit. Education on any topic is inherently useful, and the debate over guns would benefit tremendously with more knowledge and less heat. That said, there would likely be a long and protracted battle over what would be included in the curriculum. Survey data suggest that those who are more familiar with firearms are less fearful of guns, and they are less likely to favor gun control measures.

The unfortunate reality in the current gun control debate is that while there may be some common ground between the two sides, there is so much mutual distrust that any consensus is difficult to reach. One person s "common-sense gun regulation" is another person s "infringement on Second Amendment rights."

More of Wilson s response.

High school graduation. (bredgur/Flickr)

EDUCATION

Add a 13th school year for job and college preparation By Sylvia Cochran

Many of today's high school graduates are woefully unprepared for entering a competitive job market or succeeding in college. The National Review Online notes that nationwide approximately 40 percent of college students drop out, which gives the United States the dubious distinction of having "the highest college dropout rate in the industrialized world."

Education reform must therefore target all of America's high schoolers. The best way to prepare them for real-life job market conditions is the addition of a 13th school year. This would apply to up-and-coming grads intending to go to college as well as those planning on joining the work force immediately after graduation.

More of Cochran s proposal.

Expert s response:

A 15th year, but who s counting? By Dr. Robert Maranto

On reading Sylvia Cochran s cogent, but ultimately misguided, proposal for a required "13th year" after high school but before college or work, I could not help but recall the old Woody Allen quip about a restaurant with awful food "and such small portions." Presumably, what some schools fail to do in 12 counting kindergarten and preschool really 14 years the addition of another year will fix.

That works in models but not in the real world, where real people have other ideas.

Given such goals, lacking rigor for 14 years does not make success more likely in a 15th; on the contrary, it lets kids and teachers relax since nothing really counts until extra innings. And anyway, kids vary. An extra year would be a boon to some and hell for others. Why force everyone into the same timeframe?

More of Maranto s response.

Jonathon Quatela of the Salvation Army helps unload meals to Hurricane Sandy victims in New York on Nov. 1, 2012. (Mike Segar/Reuters)

VOLUNTEERING

Uncle Sam should want us to serve By Thomas Daniels

In 1963, "serving your country" for approximately half of the citizenry of the United States meant being shipped to a foreign land and putting their lives and health in constant danger. Fifty years later, "serving your country" for most of the citizenry of the United States is a platitude we offer to veterans in a paltry thanks for their real sacrifice.

Americans have become entitled, less intelligent and less healthy. And in another 50 years, the America we know may be non-existent because of it. Americans need to get over themselves and realize that just because you are born in this country does not make you special, that there is a price to pay for the life we enjoy. Requiring everyone in the country serve the country for two years would make us all more intelligent, healthier, more patriotic and more grateful for the life that we do have.

More of Daniels proposal.

Expert s response:

Required national service would serve needy, give meaningful work By Dr. Nina Eliasoph

It might seem outrageous to suggest that such service be mandatory. But it's no more outlandish to suggest that people should be forced to serve their nations by helping people survive and thrive than it is to suggest that people be forced to serve their nations by killing people, is it? All nations need people to take care of what's shared roads, schools, parks, beaches and all nations need people to take care of their old people, young people, sick and disabled people.

As it stands now, people get care only if their families are able to give it or can afford to pay for it. But with this program, if a government-sponsored volunteer helped a disabled toddler, for example, the parents' wealth wouldn't matter. The kid would get the care.

More of Eliasoph s response.

Early voters in Salisbury, Md., line up to cast their ballots in the presidential election on Oct. 31, 2012. (Alex Brandon/AP)

VOTING AND THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE

Make online voting mandatory; abolish the electoral college By Laurie Jo Miller Farr

Approximately half the Americans eligible to vote in the 2012 presidential election didn't. And many of those who did vote were subjected to waiting hours at polls on Election Day. Despite the typically unimpressive turnout, this presidential campaign was the most expensive ever waged. The Associated Press pegs that figure at an astonishing $2 billion, including $900 million spent on television ads. Two-thirds was dumped in just four states: Florida, Ohio, Virginia and North Carolina. Another five swing states that tally up hefty electoral votes defined the race.

Something is wrong. Here's how we could fix it.

More of Farr s proposal.

Voting shouldn't be mandatory, but it should be easier By Dr. Peter Hanson

The case for making voting as easy as possible is strong. The United States requires its citizens to jump through more hoops to vote than other countries and this depresses turnout. For example, our population is mobile but Americans must re-register to vote each time they move. Inevitably, some people who want to vote fail to re-register in time and are unable to cast a ballot. Simple reforms such as allowing people to register on Election Day would help more citizens to participate in our democracy.

Mandatory voting is less appealing. On the pro side, it might make our pool of voters a better reflection of our actual population. People who are poor, young or minority face barriers that make them less likely to vote. Requiring everyone to vote might reduce this disparity and ensure that all parts of society are heard more equally.

More of Hanson s response.

Check out additional ideas from readers and add your own at our "What's the Big Idea?" Tumblr site.

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PASADENA, Calif. (AP) Matthew Macfadyen is perfectly presentable in jeans and a crewneck sweater that coordinates nicely with the blue of his eyes.

But the look is far from the elegant attire he wore as Mr. Darcy opposite Keira Knightley's Elizabeth in the 2005 film "Pride & Prejudice." And his posture is just as casual, which he acknowledges might offend the aristocratic character's diehard fans.

"You're slouching! What are you doing? Stand up straight, man!" Macfadyen says, teasing himself.

He looks back fondly on what he calls the "iconic" role drawn from Jane Austen's novel. But the British actor who's also known to audiences for his part as an intelligence officer in the series "MI-5" ("Spooks" in the U.K.) welcomes the chance to switch gears.

"I, as most actors, want to mix it up and do different things. Otherwise it gets boring and tiresome, not only for yourself but for everyone else seeing you do the same kind of thing," he said. "The joy of being an actor is to play different parts, do something different."

Macfadyen's latest chance for diversity comes in "Ripper Street," an 1880s police drama set on the gritty and untamed streets of London's East End around the period that serial killer Jack the Ripper terrorized the area.

The series, starring Macfadyen as Detective Inspector Edmund Reid, debuts Saturday (9 p.m. EST) on BBC America after starting its British run this month. BBC America is home to another rough-and-tumble, 18th-century police drama, "Copper," set in 1860s New York City and the channel's first original scripted series.

The mysterious and brutal Jack the Ripper has been recycled throughout pop culture in films including 1979's "Time After Time" and 2001's "From Hell" with Johnny Depp. But series creator Richard Warlow said the killer is a backdrop and invisible character for "Ripper Street."

"What we wanted to do really was to tell stories about the streets down which he walked and committed his crimes in the wake of those terrible murders," Warlow said, "and how it affected the community and, most importantly, the police that tried and failed to catch him."

Each episode will include what he called a "stand-alone crime" as well as pull at the thread of Reid's life, including those surrounding him at work and at home.

Macfadyen said he was reluctant to take on another series after two plus-seasons on "MI-5" because of TV's demanding production schedules. Then the "Ripper Street" pilot script came his way last year.

"I thought the Jack the Ripper thing had been done before ... but I loved it. The thing that was most attractive was the language and the way he (Warlow) constructs the sentences ... they feel very muscular without feeling sort of wanky and silly. ... They feel very muscular."

There is an antiquated eloquence to the dialogue that contrasts with the drama's mean streets and violent sexuality of the first case tackled by Reid and his cohorts, police Sgt. Bennet Drake (Jerome Flynn, "Game of Thrones") and American forensics whiz Capt. Homer Jackson (Adam Rothenberg, "The Ex List").

Macfadyen said he was drawn to his character's modern sensibility.

Reid isn't "a sort of stock detective character. He's a very free thinking, forward-looking kind of man, not a sort of jaded 'seen it all' copper. So I was intrigued by that," he said.

The detective's viewpoint is so expansive that he can't resist admiring the potential of an early version of a motion picture camera even when he's just thwarted its use in making a 19th-century snuff film.

The scene had slipped Macfadyen's mind when he watched the episode at home in London and his wife, actress Keeley Hawes ("Upstairs Downstairs"), suddenly took alarmed note of what was unfolding on the screen.

"My 12-year-old stepson was watching and we said, 'OK, bedtime!" said Macfadyen, who has two children with Hawes.

But he considers the show "punchy and brave" for a mature audience and would like to see it go at least another season, in part for selfish reasons.

"Jerome, Adam and I get on so well, very happily. I know actors always say they love each other," he said, then smiled. "That's not always the case."

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Online:

http://www.bbcamerica.com

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STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The crash of a train into a low-rise apartment building in Sweden this week was an accident and not the fault of a cleaner who was the only person hurt, state prosecutors said on Friday.

Swedish police and prosecutors began an investigation into the accident on Tuesday in which a train ploughed past the end of the line at a depot, vaulted a narrow sidestreet and crashed into an apartment block in the upscale Stockholm suburb of Saltsjobaden.

"Several circumstances point now to the fact that the train began moving due to an accident," the state prosecution service said in a statement. "There is no longer anything which indicates that the woman drove the train away on purpose."

The service said it had found serious breaches of security on the train. The woman, who is still in hospital and with whom prosecutors have not been able to speak, was no longer suspected of committing a crime and an order for her detention has been lifted.

Prosecutors began investigating the case as one of endangering the public, but that might now be changed to one of a breach of laws on working conditions, the prosecution service said.

(Reporting by Patrick Lannin, editing by Paul Casciato)

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IN THE FLORIDA EVERGLADES (AP) The man known as "Alligator Ron" has a lifetime of experience in the Florida Everglades, a fleet of airboats at his disposal and knows the habitats of furry prey for large reptiles. He still couldn't lead a pack of hunters to a single Burmese python.

That's the catch in Florida's "Python Challenge": Even experienced hunters with special permits to regularly stalk the exotic snake through Florida's swamplands are having trouble finding them for a state-sponsored competition.

"When these snakes are in the water, in the vegetation, they blend in naturally to where you can't hardly see them," said state wildlife commissioner Ron Bergeron, whose nickname is emblazoned on the rudder of his black airboat, over the image of him riding an alligator.

The vast majority of roughly 1,000 people who signed up to hunt Burmese pythons on public lands from Jan. 12 through Feb. 10 are amateurs when it comes to pythons. Only about 30 hold permits for harvesting pythons throughout the year.

The permit holders might have a slight edge when it comes to handling snakes, but the tan, splotchy pythons have natural camouflage that gives them an important advantage in the ecosystem they have invaded.

As of Thursday, 21 pythons had been killed for the contest, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

It's hard to pin down exactly how many Burmese pythons slither through Florida's Everglades, but officials say their effect is glaringly obvious. According to a study released last year, sightings of raccoons, opossums, bobcats, rabbits and other mammals in the Everglades are down as much as 99 percent in areas where pythons are known to live.

It's believed that the pythons are devouring the native wildlife and officials worry the snakes' voracious appetite will undermine the ongoing, multimillion-dollar effort to restore natural water flow through the Everglades.

Bergeron led U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., into the Everglades to hunt pythons Thursday afternoon. They splashed from their airboat through knee-deep water into several islands that rise in small bumps above the sawgrass, but they always emerged empty-handed.

They didn't flush out any of the mammals Bergeron thought he'd see, either. The only thing they did find: signs of feral hogs, another problematic invasive species.

"Rabbits were like rats. Growing up, you saw them everywhere," said Jim Howard, a Miami native and a python permit holder participating in the contest. "I haven't seen a rabbit in 20 years. I don't see foxes. I hardly see anything."

He has caught a python in the Everglades in each of the last two years, though. Each was more than 12 feet long and contained more than 50 eggs.

He returned to those locations Wednesday, poking under ferns and discarded wooden boards with a hook at the end of a 3-foot-long stick. All he found were the sheddings of some large snake each transparent scale was the size of a fingertip.

After spending hours steering his boat along 14 miles of canals to levees and embankments where pythons might lurk, Howard extended the hook toward the dense, impenetrable grass that stretched all the way to the horizon, with no landmarks or vantage points.

Millions of acres in any direction in the Everglades are exactly the same. From that perspective, the hunt for well-hidden pythons seems futile.

"We're looking at inches," Howard said.

Officials say the number of pythons caught during the contest isn't as important as the data they provide.

"I'm going to be ecstatic if we see 100," said Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida professor of wildlife ecology who is helping the commission with the contest.

He continued to low-ball expectations for the final tally. "I'm happy with 11. I'm going to be happy with whatever we have. The small number only proves that they're really hard to find," he said.

The state hopes to use the information from python necropsies particularly what's in their stomachs to improve their attempts at dealing with the snakes.

"Our list of what pythons eat is not complete yet," Mazzotti said.

The population of Burmese pythons, an invasive species in Florida, likely developed from pets released into the wild, either intentionally or in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in 1992. They can grow to be more than 20 feet long and have no natural enemies in Florida other than very large alligators or cold weather, which drives heat-seeking snakes onto sunny roads and levees.

Florida prohibits owning or selling pythons for use as pets, and federal law bans importation and interstate sale of the species.

Mazzotti had one tip for hunters frustrated by the pythons' near-invisibility: Stop and listen for a dry, rustling sound in the grass.

"It sounds like something large," he said.

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Online:

Python Challenge: http://pythonchallenge.org/

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Follow Jennifer Kay on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jnkay

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CHICAGO (Reuters) - The tip that led to the revelation that one of the most widely recounted U.S. sports narratives of the past year was a hoax came to the editors of an online sports blog as many of their news tips do: an unsolicited email.

That email led Deadspin.com assignment editor Timothy Burke on the hunt of a story that exposed the heart-wrenching tale of standout Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o's dead girlfriend as a fabrication, Burke said on CNN on Thursday.

Te'o sprang to national prominence last fall when the senior co-captain was seen heroically leading the Fighting Irish to an underdog victory against the Michigan State Spartans within days of learning his grandmother had died. Moreover, it was widely reported, Te'o's girlfriend had died of leukemia just hours after his grandmother's death.

From that point, Te'o's narrative was a prominent feature in coverage of the team, which has a dedicated following and whose games are televised nationally each week.

Notre Dame went on to an undefeated regular season, culminating in a berth in the national championship game, which the Fighting Irish lost to the Alabama Crimson Tide on January 7.

"We got an email last week at Deadspin.com that said 'Hey, there's something real weird about Lennay Kekua, Manti Te'o's allegedly dead girlfriend. You guys should check it out,'" Burke said.

The email prompted Burke and co-author Jack Dickey to begin searching online for background on Kekua. "So we start Googling the name Lennay Kekua. We can't find any evidence of this person that wasn't attached to stories about her being Manti Te'o's dead girlfriend."

Their investigation led about a week later to a 4,000-word expose, published Wednesday under the headline "Blarney," that painstakingly debunked the story of Kekua's existence. The story went viral online.

Within hours of its publication, officials at Notre Dame, one of the most powerful institutions in college football and U.S. collegiate athletics overall, held a hastily organized press conference to assert that Te'o had been duped in a hoax perpetrated by a friend of his.

The girlfriend, who called herself Kekua and claimed to be a Stanford University graduate, was merely an online persona who "ingratiated herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia," university spokesman Dennis Brown said in a statement.

Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick said the university learned of the hoax from Te'o on December 26. Te'o answered questions forthrightly and private investigators uncovered several things that pointed to Te'o being a victim in the case, Swarbrick said.

Deadspin's Burke said he remains skeptical of this being a hoax perpetrated on Te'o rather than by Te'o.

"Ask yourself why and what incentive a person would have to execute such a lengthy, time-consuming and expensive con that would involve multiple people and essentially consume his entire life just to screw around with a guy that he knows?" Burke said on CNN.

Deadspin.com said the woman whose photograph was frequently shown on TV and in news reports about Kekua was actually a young California woman who had never met or communicated with Te'o. The website declined to identify her by name.

On Thursday, TV newsmagazine "Inside Edition" said the woman in the photograph was a 23-year-old marketing professional in Los Angeles named Diane O'Meara. Inside Edition, which is syndicated by CBS Television Distribution, said O'Meara was a former classmate of one of Te'o's friends. It Aredid not give the friend's name.

In the expose published Wednesday, Deadspin.com said a friend of Te'o's named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo was "the man behind" the hoax.

Outside Tuiasosopo's home in Palmdale, California on Thursday, a member of his family who did not identify himself told reporters, "Please, we have no comment. Please respect that."

The Te'o hoax is the latest black eye Notre Dame's legendary football program has suffered in recent years.

In 2011, the school was fined $42,000 by an Indiana agency over the death of football videographer Declan Sullivan, 20, who died in October 2010 after a hydraulic lift he was using to record practice toppled over in high winds.

In 2010, Elizabeth "Lizzy" Seeberg, a freshman at nearby St. Mary's College, killed herself ten days after accusing a Notre Dame football player of sexual battery. Her family began questioning the campus police department's reluctance to gather evidence and a 15-day delay in interviewing the accused.

After a federal investigation into the matter, the school agreed to revise its policies on sexual misconduct.

(Additional reporting by Dan Burns, Dana Feldman, David Bailey and Mary Wisniewski.; Editing by Vicki Allen, Greg McCune and Andrew Hay)

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BRASILIA (Reuters) - A judge in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state has confiscated copies of wildly-popular trilogy "Fifty Shades of Grey" and other erotic books from two stores, saying proprietors must seal the novels to prevent children leafing through them.

Police and judicial officials in the Rio town of Macae seized 64 books including 11 copies of the "Fifty Shades of Grey" series by British author E.L. James after the shops flouted Brazilian laws by failing to conceal erotic images and content deemed inappropriate for under-18s.

Officials will return the books within five days if the bookshop proprietors ensure they are sealed before being put back on display.

Judge Raphael Baddini de Queiroz Campos from the local family tribunal acted after finding a group of children gathered around a window display at one of the town's bookshops where erotic content was on display, the Rio de Janeiro justice service's web site said.

(Reporting by Peter Murphy; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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Those airport scanners with their all-too revealing body images will soon be going away.

The Transportation Security Administration says the scanners that used a low-dose X-ray will be gone by June because the company that makes them can't fix the privacy issues. The other airport body scanners, which produce a generic outline instead of a naked image, are staying.

The government rapidly stepped up its use of body scanners after a man snuck explosives onto a flight bound for Detroit on Christmas day in 2009.

At first, both types of scanners showed travelers naked. The idea was that security workers could spot both metallic objects like guns as well as non-metallic items such as plastic explosives. The scanners also showed every other detail of the passenger's body, too.

The TSA defended the scanners, saying the images couldn't be stored and were seen only by a security worker who didn't interact with the passenger. But the scans still raised privacy concerns. Congress ordered that the scanners either produce a more generic image or be removed by June.

On Thursday Rapiscan, the maker of the X-ray, or backscatter, scanner, acknowledged that it wouldn't be able to meet the June deadline. The TSA said Friday that it ended its contract for the software with Rapiscan.

The agency's statement also said the remaining scanners will move travelers through more quickly, meaning faster lanes at the airport. Those scanners, made by L-3 Communications, used millimeter waves to make an image. The company was able to come up with software that no longer produced a naked image of a traveler's body.

The TSA will remove all 174 backscatter scanners from the 30 airports they're used in now. Another 76 are in storage. It has 669 of the millimeter wave machines it is keeping, plus options for 60 more, TSA spokesman David Castelveter said.

Not all of the machines will be replaced. Castelveter said that some airports that now have backscatter scanners will go back to having metal detectors. That's what most airports used before scanners were introduced.

The Rapiscan scanners have been on their way out for months, in slow motion.

The government hadn't bought any since 2011. It quietly removed them from seven major airports in October, including New York's LaGuardia and Kennedy airports, Chicago's O'Hare, and Los Angeles International. The TSA moved a handful of the X-ray scanners to very small airports. At the time, the agency said the switch was being made because millimeter-wave scanners moved passengers through faster.

Rapiscan parent company OSI Systems Inc. said it will help the TSA move the scanners to other government agencies. It hasn't yet been decided where they will go, said Alan Edrick, OSI's chief financial officer, in an interview.

Scanners are often used in prisons or on military bases where privacy is not a concern.

"There's quite a few agencies which will have a great deal of interest" in the scanners, Edrick said.

OSI is taking a one-time charge of $2.7 million to cover the money spent trying to develop software to blur the image, and to move the machines out of airports, Edrick said.

The contract to change the software on the scanners came under scrutiny in November when the TSA delivered a "show cause" letter to the company looking into allegations that it falsified test data, which the company denied. On Thursday it said final resolution of that issue needs approval by the Department of Homeland Security.

The agreement with the TSA is an indication that OSI Systems will be cleared of the issues raised by the agency, Roth Capital Partners analyst Jeff Martin wrote on Friday. OSI shares soared $2.37, or 3.5 percent, to close at $70.02.

Besides the scanners being dropped by TSA, Hawthorne, Calif.-based OSI Systems makes other passenger scanners used in other countries, as well as luggage scanners and medical scanners.

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(Reuters) - A Cheesecake Factory pasta dish with more than 3,000 calories - or more than a day and a half of the recommended caloric intake for an average adult - is among the headliners on this year's Xtreme Eating list of the most unhealthy dishes at U.S. chain restaurants.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer-focused nonprofit group that promotes healthier eating, compiles an annual list of "food porn" to alert consumers to menu items with eye-popping levels of calories, saturated fat, sugar and/or sodium.

"You'd think that the size of their profits depended on their increasing the size of your pants," CSPI Executive Director Michael Jacobson said of the industry's Xtreme Eating winners. The list was released on Wednesday.

CSPI for years has used the "awards" to raise awareness and drum up support for calorie disclosure on restaurant menus - something that larger chains soon will be required to do under the U.S. health reform law.

The Cheesecake Factory's Bistro Shrimp Pasta, made with a butter and cream sauce and topped with battered, fried shrimp, has 3,120 calories and 89 grams of saturated fat and 1,090 milligrams of sodium, said CSPI, which said it confirmed nutritional data with companies on the list.

Cheesecake Factory said that dish has 3,020 calories, 79 grams of saturated fat and 1,076 milligrams of sodium.

Typical adults are advised to consume no more than 20 grams of saturated fat and 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day.

"It's like eating three orders of Olive Garden's Lasagna Classico plus an order of tiramisu for dinner," CSPI said. Some in the food and beverage industries have dubbed the Washington-based group the "food police."

More than one-third of Americans are obese, and about 10 percent of the nation's healthcare bill is tied to obesity-related diseases, such as Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and hypertension, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The nation's food and beverage industries are under increasing pressure from consumer, health and parents' groups to offer more healthy alternatives.

Restaurant companies say it is their job to give consumers choices. Many, including Cheesecake Factory, have lower-calorie sections on their menus alongside the indulgent offerings.

Cheesecake Factory is known for its ample portions and wide array of cheesecakes - many of which weigh in at around 1,000 calories per slice.

It makes regular showings on the Xtreme Eating list, but since August 2011 has promoted its "SkinnyLicious" menu of entrees with 590 or fewer calories, including salmon rolls and a pear and endive salad.

Jayne Hurley, CSPI's senior nutritionist and an author of this year's Xtreme Eating report, said such lower-calorie items should be recategorized as "normal" rather than "diet."

"It's the steady stream of high-calorie foods that sabotage your diet not just for the day, but for the entire week," Hurley said.

"The Cheesecake Factory has always been about choices. Many of our guests come in and want to celebrate and not be concerned with calories," Donald Evans, the company's chief marketing officer, said in a statement.

Evans also said Cheesecake Factory diners often share their dishes or take home leftovers.

Other Xtreme Eating winners for 2013 include:

- Johnny Rockets' Bacon Cheddar Double Hamburger with 1,770 calories, 50 grams of saturated fat and 2,380 milligrams of sodium. For comparison, three Quarter Pounders with Cheese from McDonald's have 1,570 calories.

- Cheesecake Factory's Crispy Chicken Costoletta with 2,610 calories, 89 grams of saturated fat and 2,720 milligrams of sodium. CSPI said an entire 12-piece bucket of KFC Original Recipe fried chicken has about the same number of calories but less than half the saturated fat. Cheesecake Factory told Reuters that dish has 2,560 calories, 86 grams of saturated fat and 2,767 milligrams of sodium.

- Smoothie King's Peanut Power Plus Grape Smoothie, which includes peanut butter, banana, sugar and grape juice. A 40-ounce, large size of that drink has 1,460 calories and 22 teaspoons of added sugar plus 29 teaspoons of naturally occurring sugar.

The U.S. government's Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that women consume no more than six teaspoons of added sugars per day and that men consume no more than nine.

- Chocolate Zuccotto Cake from Maggiano's Little Italy. One slice weighs nearly one pound and has 1,820 calories, 62 grams of saturated fat and 26 teaspoons of added sugar - or 15 Hostess Ho Hos, CSPI said.

(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; editing by Ros Krasny, Bob Burgdorfer and Maureen Bavdek)

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