JPMorgan's California energy dealings draw more fire

State and federal energy regulators moved on two fronts against the giant investment bank JPMorgan Chase & Co. over its dealings in the California electricity market.

On Wednesday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission hit Morgan's electricity-trading unit with one of the most stringent penalties in its arsenal, barring it from selling electricity in California's auction-based market for six months starting in April.

The ruling, which may deprive Morgan of millions of dollars in profits in California, stemmed from FERC's conclusion that JPMorgan Ventures Energy Corp. had misled the agency in its investigation of alleged overcharges to the California Independent System Operator, which runs much of the state's wholesale power grid.

Meanwhile, the ISO moved Thursday to stop Morgan from blocking the upgrade of two Huntington Beach power plants considered key to keeping air conditioners humming next summer in Southern California. Morgan could not be reached for comment.

The operator of California's far-flung power grid filed a petition with federal regulators, accusing Morgan of raising legal obstacles to getting the plants working in time to avoid possible brownouts and rolling blackouts when the temperatures climb.

The shoreline facilities, currently not in use, are needed to help make up for the loss of more than 2,000 megawatts of power caused by the shutdown for safety reasons of both reactors at Southern California Edison's San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.

Several power plants in Huntington Beach are owned by AES Corp. Two of them currently supply power to Morgan. But it is two other plants there, currently not operating, that the state wants to upgrade.

But the ISO says AES is balking, saying Morgan doesn't want to go along with the upgrade. The state is trying to force Morgan and AES to go ahead.

Grid operators want FERC to rule that JPMorgan's consent is not needed to retrofit the Huntington Beach power plants. The retrofit is essential to maintain sufficiently high voltage in transmission lines to meet peak summertime demand.

"The inability to resolve the consent issue in time to allow construction to commence in early 2013 could leave Southern California exposed to reliance on a widespread load-shedding scheme in the summer of 2013," state officials warned the commission.

The state agency's petition was submitted one day after federal energy regulators suspended JPMorgan Ventures after finding that the energy firm had provided false data and omitted important information during the federal investigation. It is reviewing state allegations that the firm hit utilities with excessive charges of as much as $73 million in 2011 and the beginning of this year.

Of that, the state has recovered about $20 million in overcharges, said Stephanie McCorkle, a spokeswoman for the state power grid operator.

The suspension was ordered to begin April 13 of next year. The delay was aimed at giving the grid managers sufficient time to contract for new power deliveries to ensure the lights stay on across the state.

JPMorgan Ventures is one of several energy-trading firms that buy and sell power nationally and play a key role in delivering electricity to states when demand is high and supplies are short.

The firm fought the suspension and told the commission in October that the company's actions were "inadvertent mistakes" and said that suspending its trading authority would be an "unjustified reaction to unintentional, good-faith mistakes, misunderstandings and miscommunications."

marc.lifsher@latimes.com

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L.A. County sheriff's deputy held in fatal off-duty shooting

A veteran Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy was arrested Wednesday for allegedly shooting and killing a man in Sylmar while off-duty in June, authorities said.

The deputy, Francisco Gamez, 41, has been with the department for 17 years and was last working as a station detective in West Hollywood.

Law enforcement sources told The Times that the deputy's son got into a dispute with another person. The son, they said, called his father to the scene. The deputy allegedly drove up soon after and exchanged words before opening fire from inside his car, striking one man, the sources said.

He then allegedly drove a short distance before shooting at a second person, added the sources, who asked for anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

That person was not injured, according to authorities.

The other victim, Armando Casillas, 38, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead from a gunshot wound to the chest just before midnight on June 17.

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FOR THE RECORD:
An earlier version of this article misspelled the victim's first name as Armondo.

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Neighbors said Gamez and Casillas lived a block apart.

In August, a person who identified himself as the victim's brother commented on the website of the Los Angeles Times, saying he suspected a deputy was responsible.

"We think he is a L.A. COUNTY SHERIFF," the comment stated. "The reason we think he is a Sheriff is that he shouted to my Brother "L.A. COUNTY SHERIFF WHERE YOU FROM" as if the sheriff was in a gang."

The person who wrote the comment could not be reached Wednesday evening.

At the time of the killing, authorities said the victim got into an argument with an unknown person. At some point, the other person left the area only to return and shoot Casillas in a drive-by, authorities said then. Now they are saying that the shooter was not the same person who initially got into the argument.

LAPD officers arrested Gamez on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. He was booked into the LAPD's 77th Street station Wednesday in lieu of $4-million bail, officials said. He has not been charged.

Casillas' sister said that the family was thankful for the arrest, but that they were not prepared to discuss the events that led to the fatal shooting.

In a statement, Sheriff Lee Baca called the incident "deeply disturbing."

His spokesman Steve Whitmore said the department placed Gamez on leave July 3 after learning from the LAPD about the investigation.

"He's been stripped of all law enforcement power," Whitmore said. "It casts a pall over the scores and scores of deputy sheriffs that every day do their job."

robert.faturechi@latimes.com

richard.winton@latimes.com

Times staff writer Andrew Blankstein contributed to this report.

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RIM to offer free voice calls over Wi-Fi with BBM

TORONTO (AP) — BlackBerry users will soon be able to make free voice calls over a Wi-Fi network using the popular BBM messaging service.

Research In Motion Ltd. announced Wednesday that it’s adding the feature to BBM. Users will be able to switch back and forth from a text chat to a voice call. A split-screen option will let them talk and text at the same time.

The new feature is a free update for existing customers and comes months before RIM introduces its new BlackBerry 10 smartphones, which are seen critical to RIM’s survival.

RIM made a surprise disclosure in its most recent earnings report in announcing that the number of subscribers grew, thanks in part to emerging markets and its popular BBM service. It’s struggling in North America as customers migrate to flashier iPhones and Android phone.

RIM stopped short of offering the BBM voice feature over wireless carriers’ own cellular networks. Doing so would have potentially created more congestion on cellular data networks and deprive carriers of revenue for voice calls. With the new feature, the free calls are limited to times and places where Wi-Fi is available.

The Canadian company said the BBM voice feature is especially attractive for developing markets. Unlike regular texts, BBM messages are not charged on a per-text basis.

Although RIM is struggling in North America, the BlackBerry continues to sell well in such markets as South Africa, Nigeria and Indonesia.

The BBM service has long been a reason for BlackBerry users to not defect to other smartphones but there are rival messaging services.

RIM said the BBM voice update is currently available for BlackBerry smartphones running the BlackBerry 6 operating system or higher, with plans for BlackBerry 5 later. RIM’s latest phones run the 7 operating system. The next version, BlackBerry 10, will come soon after a Jan. 30 launch event.

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Erdrich wins her first National Book Award

NEW YORK (AP) — The National Book Awards honored both longtime writers and new authors, from Louise Erdrich for "The Round House" to Katherine Boo for her debut work, "Beyond the Beautiful Forevers."

Erdrich, 58, has been a published and highly regarded author for nearly 30 years but had never won a National Book Award until being cited Wednesday for her story, the second of a planned trilogy, about an Ojibwe boy and his quest to avenge his mother's rape. A clearly delighted and surprised Erdrich, who's part Ojibwe, spoke in her tribal tongue and then switched to English as she dedicated her fiction award to "the grace and endurance of native people."

The works of two other winners also centered on young boys — Boo's for nonfiction, and William Alexander's fantasy "Goblin Secrets," for young people's literature. David Ferry won for poetry.

Boo's book, set in a Mumbai slum, is the story of a boy and his harsh and illuminating education in the consequences of crime or perceived crime. The author, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist currently on staff with The New Yorker, said she was grateful for the chance to live in a world she "didn't know" and for the chance to tell the stories of those otherwise ignored. She praised a fellow nominee and fellow Pulitzer-winning reporter, the late Anthony Shadid, for also believing in stories of those without fame or power.

Boo was chosen from one of the strongest lists of nonfiction books in memory, from the fourth volume of Robert Caro's Lyndon Johnson series to Shadid's memoir "House of Stone." Finalists in fiction, which in recent years favored lesser known writers, included such established names as Dave Eggers and Junot Diaz. Publishers have been concerned that the National Book Awards have become too insular and are considering changes, including expanding the pool of judges beyond writers.

Winners, chosen by panels of their peers, each will receive $10,000.Judges looked through nearly 1,300 books.

Ferry is a year older than one of the night's honorary recipients, Elmore Leonard. Ferry, 88, won for "Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations," a showcase for his versatile style. He fought back tears as he confided that he thought there was a chance for winning because he "was so much older" than the other nominees. Attempting to find poetry in victory, he called the award a "pre-posthumous" honor.

Alexander quoted fellow fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin in highlighting the importance of stories for shaping kids' imaginations and making the world a larger place than the one they live in.

"We have to remember that," Alexander said.

The ceremony was hosted by commentator-performer Faith Salie and went smoothly even though Superstorm Sandy badly damaged the offices of the award's organizer, the National Book Foundation, whose staffers had to work with limited telephone and mail access.

Honorary prizes were given to Leonard and New York Times publisher and chairman Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr.

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Alzheimer’s Tied to Mutation Harming Immune Response

Alzheimer’s researchers and drug companies have for years concentrated on one hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease: the production of toxic shards of a protein that accumulate in plaques on the brain.

But now, in a surprising coincidence, two groups of researchers working from entirely different starting points have converged on a mutated gene involved in another aspect of Alzheimer’s disease: the immune system’s role in protecting against the disease. The mutation is suspected of interfering with the brain’s ability to prevent the buildup of plaque.

The discovery, researchers say, provides clues to how and why the disease progresses. The gene, known as TREM2, is only the second found to increase Alzheimer’s risk substantially in older people.

“It points very specifically to a potential metabolic pathway that you could intervene in to change the course of Alzheimer’s disease,” said William Thies, chief medical and scientific officer of the Alzheimer’s Association.

Much work remains to be done before scientists understand precisely how the newly discovered gene mutation leads to Alzheimer’s, but already there are some indications from studies in mice. When the gene is not mutated, white blood cells in the brain spring into action, gobbling up and eliminating the plaque-forming toxic protein, beta amyloid. As a result, Alzheimer’s can be staved off or averted.

But when the gene is mutated, the brain’s white blood cells are hobbled, making them less effective in their attack on beta amyloid.

People with the mutated gene have a threefold to fivefold increase in the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease in old age.

The intact gene, says John Hardy of University College London, “is a safety net.” And those with the mutation, he adds, “are living life without a safety net.” Dr. Hardy is lead author of one of the papers.

The discovery also suggests that a new type of drug could be developed to enhance the gene’s activity, perhaps allowing the brain’s white blood cells to do their work.

“The field is in desperate need of new therapeutic agents,” said Alison Goate, an Alzheimer’s researcher at Washington University in St. Louis who contributed data to Dr. Hardy’s study. “This will give us an alternative approach.”

The fact that two research groups converged on the same gene gives experts confidence in the findings. Both studies were published online Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine. “Together they make a good case that this really is an Alzheimer’s gene,” said Gerard Schellenberg, an Alzheimer’s researcher at the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved with the work.

The other gene found to raise the odds that a person will get Alzheimer’s, ApoE4, is much more common and confers about the same risk as the mutated version of TREM2. But it is still not clear why ApoE4, discovered in 1993, makes Alzheimer’s more likely.

Because the mutations in the newly discovered gene are rare, occurring in no more than 2 percent of Alzheimer’s patients, it makes no sense to start screening people for them, Dr. Thies said. Instead, the discovery provides new clues to the workings of Alzheimer’s disease.

To find the gene, a research group led by Dr. Kari Stefansson of deCODE Genetics of Iceland started with a simple question.

“We asked, ‘Can we find anything in the genome that separates those who are admitted to nursing homes before the age of 75 and those who are still living at home at 85?’ ” he said.

Scientists searched the genomes of 2,261 Icelanders and zeroed in on TREM2. Mutations in that gene were more common among people with Alzheimer’s, as well as those who did not have an Alzheimer’s diagnosis but who had memory problems and might be on their way to developing Alzheimer’s.

The researchers confirmed their results by looking for the gene in people with and without Alzheimer’s in populations studied at Emory University, as well as in Norway, the Netherlands and Germany.

The TREM2 connection surprised Dr. Stefansson. Although researchers have long noticed that the brain is inflamed in Alzheimer’s patients, he had dismissed inflammation as a major factor in the disease.

“I was of the opinion that the immune system would play a fairly small role, if any, in Alzheimer’s disease,” Dr. Stefansson said. “This discovery cured me of that bias.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Hardy and Rita Guerreiro at University College London, along with Andrew Singleton at the National Institute on Aging, were intrigued by a strange, rare disease. Only a few patients had been identified, but their symptoms were striking. They had crumbling bones and an unusual dementia, sclerosing leukoencephalopathy.

“It’s a weird disease,” Dr. Hardy said.

He saw one patient in her 30s whose brain disease manifested in sexually inappropriate behavior. Also, her bones kept breaking. The disease was caused by mutations that disabled both the copy of TREM2 that she had inherited from her mother and the one from her father.

Eventually the researchers searched for people who had a mutation in just one copy of TREM2. To their surprise, it turned out that these people were likely to have Alzheimer’s disease.

They then asked researchers around the world who had genetic data from people with and without Alzheimer’s to look for TREM2 mutations.

“Sure enough, they had good evidence,” Dr. Hardy said. The mutations occurred in one-half of 1 percent of the general population but in 1 to 2 percent of patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

“That is a big effect,” Dr. Hardy said.

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Staying smart about end-of-year healthcare

November is one of the most important months for health benefits. And it's half over.

This month is a time of open enrollment, when many workers sign up for next year's health insurance. Deadlines are a big deal, and you don't want to miss one.

But once you're set for 2013, experts say, shift your attention back to 2012 and those use-'em-or-lose-'em benefits awaiting you.

"Anything employees can do to accelerate elective care at year end allows them to get the full benefit" of their health plans, says Mike Thompson of consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Here is a look at ways experts recommend to avoid leaving money on the table.

Make the most of your deductibles. Deductibles — the money you're required to pay out of pocket before insurance covers all or part of your healthcare services — are becoming more prevalent and more expensive.

If you've met your annual deductible for 2012, now may be a good time to schedule any medical treatment you've been delaying.

"At the beginning of the calendar year, everything resets with new out-of-pocket limits and deductibles. It's better to get any discretionary services done by the end of the year so you're in benefit and can get expenses reimbursed," Thompson says.

Today, a person with single coverage pays $1,097 on average in medical bills before insurance kicks in. According to Menlo Park, Calif.-based Kaiser Family Foundation, 72% of workers enrolled in an employer plan are on the hook for a deductible, up from about half in 2006. The amount of deductibles has also risen 88% during the same period.

And don't forget the possible savings of ordering prescription drugs before year end. You may be able to order a 90-day supply now to get you through the first few months of the year.

"It may make sense to accelerate your purchases of prescription drugs toward the end of the year because you know you're going to need them and they won't be subject to the deductible," Thompson says.

Be careful with your calculations. It should be easy to determine whether you've met your deductible for the year. But it can get tricky when you consider a lag, sometimes months long, between the time your doctor submits a claim and your insurance company processes it. You and your insurer may not have the same tally with regard to how much you've spent during this benefit year.

"My recommendation is to work with your broker's office to get an accurate assessment as to where you are in your benefit," says Dave Morgan, senior employee benefits advisor with Morris and Garritano Insurance Services in San Luis Obispo.

If you get health insurance at work, talk with your benefits or human resources department for assistance.

Coordinate your care. There's a caveat to the recommendation that you squeeze in care before New Year's Day. Consider first, Morgan says, the "choreography" of your care and how that may affect costs.

For example, knee surgery is likely to require months of follow-up physical therapy. Would it be less expensive to have your surgery fully covered in 2012 and pay cash for your physical therapy starting in 2013 before your deductible is met? Or, might holding off on the surgery until early 2013 result in less cash out of your pocket given the overall course of treatment?

To reap the greatest benefit from your health plan, do the math on both scenarios.

Splitting care between one year and the next can make sense, especially for dentistry. Dental plans typically come with an annual maximum benefit of $1,000 to $1,500. If you're in need of an expensive procedure, it may make financial sense to get started in December and finish in January.

"There's no perfect way to navigate all of this," says Martin Rosen, executive vice president of Health Advocate, a patient advocacy organization based in Pennsylvania. The key, Rosen says, is to "understand how your particular plan works and the leverage points throughout the year for which timing does make a difference."

Use your annual benefits. Be sure to take advantage of benefits with calendar limits, such as semi-annual dental cleanings, free eyeglasses or contact lenses. The same goes for preventive health services.

"When you get that preventive care, you're going to have a sense of what issues you'll face with your health in the coming year," Morgan says. That may better inform your 2013 health benefit choices as well as how much money to set aside in a Flexible Spending Account, or FSA, for next year.

Use all your FSA money. Unlike Health Savings Accounts, or HSAs, which allow you to roll over pretax dollar savings from one year to the next, FSAs have a shelf life. Typically you need to fully spend the account by year's end or you'll lose the money left over.

On average, people forfeit about $120 each year, says Jody Dietel, chief compliance officer at San Mateo, Calif.-based WageWorks, which administers employer-based tax advantaged accounts.

The IRS allows a grace period of 2 1/2 months, or by mid-March of the following year, to spend FSA money. And, according to Dietel, 75% of her company's 22,000 employer clients offer employees a grace period. But the length of time varies widely among employers, so check with your plan administrator to learn what's allowed.

Also, keep in mind that some rules have recently changed because of health reform. "For example, with an FSA you can't get over-the-counter drugs without a prescription from the doctor," Rosen says. To see a list of eligible expenses, go to the FSA Store at http://www.fsastore.com and click on the eligibility list at the bottom of the home page.

Many people lose money simply by failing to claim the expenses they already have, Dietel says. "Go and see if there is unfound money someplace," she says.

For example, if you fill all your prescriptions at the same pharmacy, ask the pharmacist to print a list of the co-pays for this year, and submit any outstanding charges to your Flexible Spending Account.

One final piece of advice before you pick up the phone to schedule your end-of-year doctor visit: Follow your health plan's rules, Morgan says. Stay in your health plan's network of doctors and hospital, and "make sure you have the proper pre-authorization in place."

business@latimes.com

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If soldier killed Afghan civilians in rampage, did he act alone?

JOINT BASE LEWIS MCCHORD, Wash. — The case against U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales appeared at first to be horribly simple: Days after a bomb blew off the leg of a friend in southern Afghanistan, the 39-year-old combat veteran picked up his rifle, a pistol and a grenade launcher, walked to two villages and allegedly conducted a one-man campaign of vengeance, killing 16 civilians and wounding six more.

But by the time a weeklong hearing wound up Tuesday in a military courtroom, one of the Army's highest-profile war crimes from Afghanistan raised almost as many questions as it answered.

If Bales acted alone, why were shots heard coming from one of the villages 20 minutes after he was spotted returning to the base for the first time?

Why was a witness who claimed to have seen two U.S. soldiers killing her husband while helicopters flew overhead not brought in to testify?

Why were the crime scenes so very different — at one house, a surgical execution of the head of the family, while at the next house, 11 men, women and children were shot and possibly stabbed, their bodies piled in a heap and burned?

The Article 32 hearing, held to determine whether there was evidence to hold the serviceman for a court-martial, drew a portrait not just of a rogue soldier, defense lawyers said. It revealed a U.S. combat outpost at which soldiers spent their evenings drinking alcohol, snorting Valium and taking steroids, all three of which Bales apparently had done before asking a friend to "take care of my kids" and setting out into the darkness outside the base perimeter, laughing.

"We have a dysfunctional, drinking and drugging … team," civilian defense lawyer Emma Scanlan said in her closing argument.

"We can't isolate Sgt. Bales within a bubble," Scanlan said, noting that he was under the supervision of Special Forces officers. "They are the command. They are in charge. And they are terrible at it."

Army prosecutors claim Bales acted alone and with chilling rationality: walking to the village of Alkozai, where he is accused of killing four people and wounding six, coming back to the base and telling a friend what he had done, then venturing out again to the village of Najiban, where he is accused of killing 12.

When Bales returned to Camp Belambay the second time, he admitted to friends he had done some "sick" things, and told them they would thank him when fighting season got underway again during warmer weather later in the spring, said prosecutor Maj. Robert Stelle.

"Terrible, terrible things happened. That is clear. The second thing that is clear is that Staff Sgt. Bales did it," Stelle said.

He urged investigating officer Col. Lee Deneke to recommend a full court-martial and that it be tried as a capital case, with the possibility of the death penalty. Bales committed "the worst, most despicable crime a human being can commit: murdering children in their own homes," Stelle said.

If Deneke recommends a court-martial, a lengthy process of mental health evaluations and further forensic reports will follow. Defense lawyers have pledged there will be a full exploration of the medical care Bales received at the Madigan Army Medical Center for an earlier traumatic brain injury.

The hospital south of Seattle was the subject of an investigation this year for tossing aside diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder, making it harder for those soldiers to receive follow-up medical care.

In the year before the shootings, Scanlan said, Bales had received an exemplary evaluation, in which he was praised for "a strong moral compass, never wavering from what was right."

What went wrong?

Scanlan suggested part of the answer might lie in the steroids and sleep aids Bales was taking, along with the Jack Daniels he drank with two friends on the evening before the killings as they watched "Man on Fire," a movie about a former CIA operative who executes a violent campaign of revenge.

"They drank a ton, and they were all drunk," Scanlan said, noting that testimony showed that one of the soldiers who'd been drinking with Bales that night, Cpl. David Godwin, was stumbling, slurring his words and smelled like alcohol four hours later.

The prosecution said Bales had plenty of time to reach both villages and return at the end of the night with his clothing and weapons covered in blood. Before he left, prosecutors said, he had discussed his frustration with the Army's lack of response to the bomb that blew off his friend's leg; after his arrest, he reminded one soldier of an Afghan machine gunner the unit had faced earlier.

"That's not going to happen again," Bales said, according to Staff Sgt. Ross O'Rourke.

Prosecutors also established that DNA from at least one of the women killed at the home of Haji Mohammed Wazir in Najiban was found on Bales' clothing.

Yet defense lawyers continue to raise questions about whether Bales was the only one responsible — whether one person could have killed so many people in so many locations in one night.

A lot of the evidence suggests otherwise, Scanlan said, pointing to an agent from the Army's Criminal Investigations Command who said that Masuma Dawood, whose husband was shot, told her that two soldiers had killed her husband.

Army officials said Dawood did not testify because of "cultural differences," and the reluctance of Afghan families to allow a woman to testify in an American courtroom, even by remote video from Afghanistan. But sources in Afghanistan have told the Los Angeles Times that Dawood was, in fact, willing to testify.

Scanlan said the timeline laid out by prosecutors also raises questions, beginning with the Afghan guard who testified that he checked his watch, and was certain that the U.S. soldier he saw — returning from the initial killings in Alkozai, prosecutors allege — had returned to Camp Belambay at 1:30 a.m.

The shots heard from the direction of Alkozai didn't stop till 1:50 a.m., the defense attorney said.

"I don't know what that means," Scanlan said. "But one thing it means is, if you believe what the government is telling you, that Sgt. Bales is the one who came back through that wire at 1:30, then somebody else was firing for another 20 minutes."

kim.murphy@latimes.com

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Cellphones may get smaller Holiday lift: Gartner

(Reuters) – The pre-Christmas shopping season is likely to boost cellphone sales less that usual this year as a weaker global economy forces consumers to cut back, research firm Gartner said on Wednesday.

“It will be a cautious quarter. Consumers are either cautious with their spending or finding new gadgets like tablets, as more attractive presents,” Gartner analysts said.

Gartner said sales of cellphones declined 3 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, falling for the third quarter in a row, while sales of smartphones grew 47 percent.

Smartphone growth this year is boosted by strong demand in China, where annual sales will grow to 165-170 million from 78 million a year earlier, it said.

“There is huge growth coming from the Chinese market,” said Gartner analyst Anshul Gupta.

This is helping local players to climb in global cellphone rankings, with ZTE, Huawei and TCL now among the seven largest cellphone vendors globally, Gartner said.

Samsung Electronics continues to lead the global cellphone sales ranking, ahead of Nokia and Apple. In smartphone sales Nokia, which still lead the market early last year, dropped to No 7, Gartner said.

(Reporting By Tarmo Virki)

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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'Gangnam Style' star joins Madonna onstage at MSG

NEW YORK (AP) — Madonna has gone "Gangnam Style."

Korean pop star PSY joined the pop icon Tuesday night during her second show this week at Madison Square Garden. They danced to his pop culture anthem "Gangnam Style" and to her jam "Music" in front of nearly 20,000.

Madonna said PSY flew "all the way from Frankfurt, Germany this morning." She also said she was a big fan of the rapper and loved his suit, which was bright red.

He added that he's had a lot of experiences in the last few months, and that performing at MSG with Madonna topped his list.

Madonna also collected money for those affected by Superstorm Sandy. Fans threw money onstage while she sang "Like a Virgin." She said she collected $3,000 at Monday's show.

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Recipes for Health: Roasted Eggplant and Chickpeas — Recipes for Health

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

Eggplant is always a good, substantial vegetable to use for a vegetarian main dish. The chickpeas and the feta provide plenty of protein. Vegans can leave out the feta and substitute sugar or agave nectar for the honey.

 

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 28-ounce can chopped tomatoes, with juice, pulsed to a coarse purée

1 teaspoon mild honey (more to taste)

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, to taste

Salt to taste

1 large or 2 medium eggplants (about 1 1/4 pounds), cut into 1/3-inch-thick slices

3 cups cooked chickpeas (2 cans, drained and rinsed, or, 1 1/2 cups dried – about 3/4 pound

4 ounces feta, crumbled (3/4 cup)

1 teaspoon dried oregano, preferably Greek or Turkish

 

1. Make the tomato sauce. Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a heavy skillet or wide saucepan over medium heat, and add the garlic. Cook, stirring, until it smells fragrant, about 30 seconds, and add the tomatoes, honey, salt to taste and cinnamon. Cook over medium heat until the tomatoes have cooked down and the sauce is fragrant, about 20 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings.

2. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and brush the boil with olive oil. Place the eggplant slices on the baking sheet, salt lightly and brush with olive oil. Place in the oven and bake 20 minutes, or until eggplant is lightly browned and soft all the way through. Remove from the heat. Fold the aluminum foil over and crimp the edges together so that the eggplant steams as it cools. Do this in batches if you need more than one baking sheet. Turn the oven down to 350 degrees.

3. Oil a 2-quart baking dish or gratin. Place the chickpeas in the baking dish and stir in 1 cup of the tomato sauce. Layer the eggplant over the chickpeas and top with the remaining tomato sauce. Sprinkle the feta over the top and drizzle on any remaining olive oil. Sprinkle with the oregano and cover tightly with foil. Bake 30 minutes. Uncover and bake another 10 minutes, until the dish is bubbling.

Yield: 6 servings

Advance preparation: The eggplant slices can be cooked up to a day ahead. Hold in the refrigerator, covered. The tomato sauce will keep for 3 days in the refrigerator and freezes well.

Nutritional information per serving: 366 calories; 16 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 8 grams monounsaturated fat; 17 milligrams cholesterol; 44 grams carbohydrates; 14 grams dietary fiber; 431 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 15 grams protein

Martha Rose Shulman is the author of “The Very Best of Recipes for Health

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