Iran says test-fires missiles over threats of attack

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-test-fires-medium-range-missiles-111829434.html

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PFT: Jenkins reports to Cowboys' camp

Getty Images

From all indications, rookie Brandon Weeden will be the Browns? starting quarterback this season. So what does that mean for the two quarterbacks who started in Cleveland last year and remain on the roster this year, Seneca Wallace and Colt McCoy?

According to Wallace, it means one of them will be out of a job.

?Can any of you guys see all three of us being here?? Wallace asked reporters today, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. ?You?ve written about it, so that answers your question. . . . Probably not.?

So which one of them is going to immediately follow Weeden on the depth chart? That?s up in the air, but Wallace says that if it?s not him, he?d rather be gone than be No. 3. Asked if he wants to be in Cleveland as the third-stringer, Wallace answered, ?No, not really.?

?We all know the third guy doesn?t dress on Sundays and if that comes down to that decision, obviously neither one of us [Wallace or McCoy] wants to be that third guy,? Wallace said.

For his part, McCoy isn?t ready to concede that Weeden is going to start.

?When I come out to practice, in my mind, I?m the starter,? McCoy said.

That might be the case in McCoy?s mind, but in the mind of Browns coach Pat Shurmur, Weeden appears to be the favorite to start. And that means McCoy?s training camp competition may be with Wallace, to see which one of them deserves a spot on the roster at all.

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SPIN METER: Romney championed green energy fund

BOSTON (AP) ? Mitt Romney slams President Barack Obama for using taxpayer dollars to pick "winners and losers" among green energy firms rather than allowing them to rise or fall in the free market. Yet as governor of Massachusetts, Romney backed a state program that targeted investments to individual green startup companies in hopes of boosting jobs and the state's revenues.

"There is nothing fair about a government that favors political connections over honest competition and takes away your right to earn your own success," Romney said in a campaign speech last week in St. Louis.

It's an attack line the Republican presidential challenger fires at Obama over Solyndra, a solar firm that got a half-billion-dollar federal loan and was touted by the Obama administration before the company declared bankruptcy last year. Romney mocks Solyndra as a symbol of Obama's failed economic policies.

"When government rather than the market routinely selects the winners and losers, enterprises cannot predict their prospects and free enterprise is replaced with crony capitalism," Romney said in March during a speech at the University of Chicago.

As governor, however, Romney did much the same thing. He championed a $24 million green energy fund that used public money for equity capital and loans to renewable energy firms in the state. He said he hoped it would be a "major economic springboard" for the state.

Not every bet paid off. Some of the companies that received public backing under Romney, who amassed a fortune as a venture capitalist before entering politics, have since folded or have been sold at a loss.

The most recent was Konarka Technologies Inc., a Lowell, Mass.-based company that makes thin, flexible solar panels. The company, which received a $1.5 million public investment during Romney's first year as governor, in 2003, announced June 1 that it filed for bankruptcy protection, as it laid off about 80 workers.

The Konarka announcement came a day after a Romney campaign appearance at the former headquarters of Solyndra in Fremont, Calif., to portray it as a prime example of government waste and favoritism.

Ryan Williams, a Romney spokesman, said the decision to assist Konarka was made by an independent board about a month before Romney became governor.

"Gov. Romney has never believed that the government should play venture capitalist," Williams said. "President Obama has a lot of questions to answer about why he used taxpayer dollars to reward wealthy campaign donors for bad ideas like Solyndra."

Williams said since the green fund was established before he became governor, Romney's hands were largely tied.

Romney later vetoed $12.5 million from an emerging technology fund, designed to boost manufacturing in Massachusetts, because it would have let public officials pick and choose which firms to aid, Williams said. His veto was overturned by the Democratic-run Legislature.

Some of the green fund investments Romney touted as governor were made through complex financial arrangements to funnel money collected from a surcharge on electricity bills paid by utility consumers into a private venture capital fund to support local green energy companies.

The surcharges, which predated Romney's governorship, were first imposed in 1998, with the money going toward the state's Renewable Energy Trust Fund.

In January 2003, Romney announced a plan to use $15 million from the fund ? by then it had collected about $160 million ? to provide equity capital and loans to Massachusetts-based renewable energy businesses. He pushed to make sure that financial professionals rather than bureaucrats were given the power to decide which firms would get assistance, Williams said.

"The trust fund has been growing for years, and I believe now is the time to refocus its assets in such a manner that it can become a major economic springboard for the commonwealth by focusing on job creation in the renewable energy sector," Romney said during an event outside the Konarka plant during his first weeks in office.

The state invested the $15 million into the Massachusetts Green Energy Fund LP, a private venture capital fund. Other backers invested an additional $2 million, meaning the state retained a majority stake in the fund.

While the managers of the fund were free to pick which companies to invest in, the state placed two restrictions on their choices: The companies had to be based in Massachusetts and have a renewable energy focus.

William Osborn, a general partner at the Green Energy Fund, said the fund ended up investing in about a dozen companies. While most continue to thrive, Konarka and two others have either gone under or been sold at a loss.

"The idea was a private venture capital fund was best but the state wanted some control on where to direct investment," Osborn said. "That was the big idea of the fund."

Osborn said the loss of three companies out of a dozen isn't unusual in the venture capital world, which inherently involves some risk. He defended the decision to invest in Konarka, saying that in 2003 it was impossible to foresee the scale of investment that China would place on solar manufacturing ? the same pressure that officials at Solyndra cited as a key reason for its failure.

Osborn said it's disingenuous for Romney to say he opposes government investment in targeted companies since Massachusetts engaged in a similar practice when he was governor.

During Romney's tenure, Massachusetts also doled out more than $31 million in loans to dozens of companies from two funds created before he took office ? the Emerging Technology Fund and the Brownfields Redevelopment Fund, designed to help rehab abandoned urban areas.

Romney in 2004 vetoed $12.5 million for the emerging technology fund, but the Legislature overrode the veto. The brownfields fund is managed by the state's quasi-public economic development agency, MassDevelopment.

"What bothers me about Romney on this issue is that he is pretending he has always had this position when it is not the case," said Osborn, who voted for Obama in 2008 and says he'll probably support him again.

"He supported this kind of thing, he put it in place and suddenly he's trying to walk away from it and saying government should not investing in technology companies," Osborn added. "It's like we've stepped through the mirror."

___

Miga reported from Washington.

EDITOR'S NOTE _ An occasional look behind the rhetoric of political candidates.

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TomTom shares surge on Apple deal

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Sudan asks AU to move summit over Bashir snub

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Facebook Launches App Center, an App Store for the Web and Mobile

Facebook's App Center is here. The feature should make it easier for users to discover new apps and for developers to expand their audience. The App Center works on all devices and is the most interesting on the mobile platforms since it goes head to head, to a degree, with the native app marketplaces.

Facebook's App Center is somewhat of a Trojan horse though. It does send users to the App Store and the Google Play Store, but any app that wants to be featured in the App Center, including mobile apps, have to be integrated into the Facebook platform, i.e. at least have a Facebook login."Today we're launching the App Center to make it easier to find apps you can enjoy with friends," Facebook wrote.

"The App Center features mobile and web apps, such as Draw Something, Pinterest, and Nike+ GPS, and new apps including Jetpack Joyride, Ghosts of Mistwood, and Ghost Recon Commander," it added.

What is different about the App Center is the customization. Since Facebook knows so much about you and your friends, and you are telling it more all the time, it can come up with personal recommendations and suggestions. The App Center's homepage is different for all users.

Of course, all apps benefit from Facebook's viral avenues, like friend recommendations, notifications and so on. This should make it easier for apps to gain visibility so there is a big incentive, even for mobile apps, to get into the App Center. Facebook's 900 million users are a big draw as well.

"To make it easier to find social apps for mobile, the App Center is available in the Facebook iOS and Android apps, as well as Facebook.com," Facebook explained.

"You can send apps you find on your computer to your mobile device using the new 'Send to Mobile' feature. If a mobile app requires a download, you?ll be sent to install it from the Apple App Store or Google Play," it said.

There are two types of mobile apps that Facebook supports, web apps and native ones. Web apps are the most interesting for Facebook, since they don't depend on any mobile platform and Facebook can take a cut from paid apps, something it can't do with native ones.

The App Center launches in the US, though it works everywhere, with 600 apps. It's not a huge number, it's a very small one in fact, but it's enough to get things going and there will be a lot more apps coming soon.

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Surprise! Stocks post best day of the year

Brendan Mcdermid / REUTERS

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday.

By msnbc.com news services

Stocks jumped Wednesday, chalking up their strongest day of 2012, as signs of moves in Europe to rescue Spain's troubled banks sparked a rebound from recent selling.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed with a gain of 287 points. The broader S&P 500 and the technology-focused Nasdaq composite index also rallied strongly.

The market was ripe for a rebound after the broader market dropped more than 6 percent in May, analysts said.

A gloomy jobs report and signs of a global economic slowdown hammered Wall Street Friday, wiping out the stock market?s gains for 2012. However, Wednesday?s advance lifted stocks back into positive territory for 2012.

"The evidence was there that the market was at least getting close to the point of seller exhaustion. Once that happens, the pressure to cover short positions increases," said Chris Burba, a short-term market technician at Standard & Poor's in New York, who noted that volume levels also increased on Friday.

Increasing optimism that central bankers will move to boost the economy and signs of urgent moves in Europe also lifted stocks.

European sources said German and European Union officials sought solutions for Spain's weakened banks, the latest worry in the fiscally troubled euro zone, although Madrid has not yet requested assistance and is resisting political conditions.

Adding to the slightly more upbeat news on the economy, the Federal Reserve said in its Beige Book summary that U.S. economic growth picked up over the two prior months and hiring showed signs of a modest increase.

Underscoring the difficulty in tackling the euro zone crisis, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi suggested further stimulus to tackle the euro zone's debt crisis would not necessarily be forthcoming. The ECB left interest rates unchanged following its meeting Wednesday.

The S&P 500 remains up 4 percent for the year so far, but is well off its highs of 2012.

U.S. non-farm productivity fell more than expected in the first quarter as companies gave more hours to employees but only modestly expanded output.

Facebook Inc is making it easier for advertisers to reach the growing ranks of users on smartphones and mobile devices, taking a significant step toward addressing one of investors' most pressing concerns and broadening its appeal to marketers. The stock rose on the news.

On the down side, shares of Tempur-Pedic International sank after revising its full year forecast.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Analysts examine the day's strong move for stocks.

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