The law firm whose partner was responsible for blowing J.K. Rowling's cover as the author of 'The Cuckoo's Calling' will pay her legal costs and donate funds to The Soldiers' Charity, the charity to which Rowling is also donating her royalties for the next three years.
By Molly Driscoll,?Staff Writer / July 31, 2013
J.K. Rowling will be donating her royalties for 'The Cuckoo's Calling' earned through the next three years to The Soldiers' Charity.
Joel Ryan/AP
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Author J.K. Rowling, who recently sued the law firm partner and his acquaintance who leaked her identity as the author of ?The Cuckoo?s Calling,? received damages from the law firm Russells in the form of a donation to The Soldiers? Charity.
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Russells will also be paying Rowling?s costs for the legal proceedings.
Rowling was ?angry and distressed that her confidences had been betrayed,? the author?s attorney, Jenny Afia, said during the proceedings, according to the Associated Press.
Russells, the law firm partner, Chris Gossage, and his acquaintance, Judith Callegari, both apologized to the author.
In addition, Rowling stated she would be donating any royalties she receives from the book for the next three years to The Soldiers? Charity. The writer met with many real-life veterans and has said her inspiration for her ?Cuckoo? protagonist, a man who served in Afghanistan and had to have his leg amputated, came from those talks.
?This donation is being made to The Soldiers' Charity partly as a thank you to the army people who helped me with research, but also because writing a hero who is a veteran has given me an even greater appreciation and understanding of exactly how much this charity does for ex-servicemen and their families, and how much that support is needed,? the author said in a statement.?
The chief executive of ABF (the Army Benevolent Fund) The Soldiers? Charity Major General Martin Rutledge called Rowling?s gesture ?extraordinary generosity? in an interview with the BBC.?
?This donation will make a huge difference to the lives of thousands of soldiers, former soldiers and their families who are in real need,? he said. ?Her tremendous show of support for The Soldiers' Charity will help to remind people of the many sacrifices made by our soldiers, long after any news of Afghanistan has left the front page.?
?Cuckoo? is still the number one seller at Barnes & Noble and is ranked third at Amazon.
President Obama emerged from closed-door meetings with House and Senate Democrats on Wednesday with a new mantra for his focus the rest of this year: ?Jobs. Middle class. Growth.?
With Congress poised to leave for a five-week summer vacation at the end of this week, Democrats wanted to huddle and make sure they were on the same page before tackling the major spending and debt fights looming.
?One thing is very clear as we get into debates this fall ? we are united,? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters after the Democratic Caucus met with Mr. Obama in the lunch hour.
The president had met with House Democrats earlier in the day.
Congress is leaving town for its vacation without the urgency that usually characterizes the last week before summer break ? particularly in the first year of a new Congress. In 2011, lawmakers were scrambling to avert a debt crisis, and in 2009 they were trying to find the funds to replenish the Cash for Clunkers stimulus program.
This year, however, the deadline fights are all coming later, leaving both chambers to clean up some regular business before fleeing the stifling summer days that characterize Washington in August.
Democrats and Republicans have both signaled the battle lines for the upcoming fights: The GOP says it will not accept another debt increase without winning concessions, while the White House says it?s done negotiating over spending cuts that it says are keeping the economy down.
Wednesday?s latest growth figures suggest that there is plenty of room for work.
The economy grew at a rate of 1.7 percent, measured by gross domestic product, between April and June. But the bad news came in the January to March period, which saw its growth tally revised downward from 1.8 percent to just 1.1 percent.
? Copyright 2013 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
Just weeks after we put the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini through its paces, we're looking at the HTC One mini, another attempt to shrink a flagship down into a smaller (and cheaper) package. As you'd expect, the 4.3-inch mini looks much like the full-sized version, and that goes for both the hardware and software. In addition to its similar-looking aluminum-and-plastic frame you'll find both a 4-megapixel Ultrapixel camera sensor and HTC's Sense 5 UI, meaning automatic video highlights, Zoe and BlinkFeed all make an appearance here as well. There are, however, a few hardware drawbacks compared to the original, with the IR blaster, optical image stabilization on the camera and NFC stripped out for space- and cost-saving reasons. Can HTC launch a mid-range phone that won't get lost between similarly priced offerings and last year's discounted flagships? We'll try to reason that out after the break.
Northern Illinois's offense played the pumpkin in the Orange Bowl last season. Can Lynch & Co. retrace their run as BCS Cinderellas?
By Holly Anderson on
1. I Only Wanna Have a Good Time
Like a lot of quarterbacks, Jordan Lynch has a pregame ritual. About 15 minutes before the team leaves the locker room, Lynch takes a shower and brushes his teeth, and cranks up the heart-pounding sound of ? Shania Twain?
"Oh, there's a lot of that," says Lynch. "Shania. Adele. I have a lot of that before games."
We have many questions. The first, of course, is "What's the best Shania pregame song?" ?"Man, I Feel Like a Woman," Lynch replies immediately, with a tone that implies we have asked a silly question. We think he might be kidding. He is not. We don't think.
"I remember when I used to go out there for games all jacked up, trying to run over and hit somebody. But I play quarterback. I need to be mellow, and I need to be in control."
With all due respect to the MAC, the FBS is a big league with an ever-increasing number of teams, and it was around midseason 2012 before we noticed there was a guy at NIU amassing Chandler Harnish numbers without the benefit of actually being Chandler Harnish. As the Ottawa Times's?Mike Murphy put it to CBS Chicago last November: "All the MAC schools breathed a little after Harnish graduated. Then they look at Lynch and say, 'Oh [expletive].'"
Harnish completed his NIU career with 30 program records to his name, with 11,927 yards of total offense. After two seasons of backup work, Lynch completed his first campaign as a starter in 2012, breaking 14 program records and tallying 4,953 yards of offense behind an entirely rebuilt O-line. He was the FBS player closest to hitting 5,000 yards of total offense without going over; the only guy who did surpass the 5k mark was named Johnny Manziel.
Pinball football partisans were paying rapt attention by the time the MAC championship game kicked off. Both teams were ranked. There was talk of NIU opponent Kent State crashing its way into a BCS bowl. Then Kent State lost, and so did everybody else, and then this happened:
Adding to the chaos, 15 minutes before this scene took place, NIU hired a new head coach, elevating offensive coordinator Rod Carey to replace Dave Doeren. "Dave left Saturday morning," Carey recalls, "and I got the job Sunday night ? 'Here you go! You get to be the head coach!'" Just another December in the MAC.
"This was my third head coach in five years," says Lynch. "It's a player-driven team. We know how to deal with that. A few players'll get pretty upset, but you've gotta look at the big picture. They come in and help us out, and we're setting up their future. Good coaches deserve to get more attention and go to bigger places."
"It's probably a fact of life," says Carey of the rapid coaching turnover in the conference. "It's not always one that's pretty. I think what happened when Coach Kill left is that this team, during that time, really took it upon itself to be their team. They knew that coaches help them to get where they want to get, but it's not just about the coach."
The Huskies hung around on the scoreboard, despite being outgained by incredible margins, for about three quarters of the Orange Bowl. This is not nothing. Memories of Boise State and TCU's postseason glories loom in the memories of the viewing public, but it made perfect sense for Florida State to win this one walking away. Still, there were occasional flashes of upset potential: A successful fake punt here, a recovered onside kick there. But the thing about competing in these situations is that everything has to go right at the same time, and Lynch's prized control hadn't been present that night.
"I was missing throws early," Lynch says. "You're not in a rhythm, you're trying to rush stuff. I think if I would've made the throws earlier and kinda just calmed down, acted like I'd been there before ? "
After being cut off on the ground and through the air at almost every turn, he threw an ill-advised pass that was intercepted and effectively turned the game against the Huskies for good.
"You know," Lynch says, "we have a bad day sometimes. I know I do. I just try to take the positives from that game now. We were in that game. We stuck with 'em."
"All I said to him afterward was, 'Hey, I think you and I both know you probably didn't have your best game," Carey says. "But that wasn't for lack of trying. So let's get back at it and see what we can do about it.'" Like Mark Richt, Carey spent the winter coaching his kids out of the hurt (while simultaneously rebuilding NIU's coaching ranks), day by day, detail by detail. "It's getting under the squat bar again. Getting into spring ball again. And each day, that's how you try to get them out of it. You can't snap your fingers, wave a wand, and give a Knute Rockne speech."
The 2013 Huskies are a mostly familiar team, returning 16 starters and chasing mostly familiar results. "Coach Doeren's a defensive guy," says Carey. "I'm an offensive guy. Our starting point on game plans is different. Our starting point from practices is different.
"Where we end up? Needs to be real similar. 'Cause it's worked real well." ?
2. Deleted Scenes
??Remember that time Lynch was mistaken for the Huskies' coach at MAC Media Days? Because it was last week. "I mean, I tried going along with it," says Lynch. "He goes, 'Hey, Coach!' and I'm like, ' ? Coach?' So I just let him keep going. I was gonna keep answering the coach's questions, but then he stumped me with something and I was like, 'Listen, I'm not the coach. I play.'"
??Much to the dismay of their MAC opponents ? Don't expect large-scale shifts in NIU's offense this season, even with Rod Carey running his own show. "It's gonna look mostly the same," says Lynch. "It's what we're comfortable with." Carey adds, "We didn't change a lot from Chandler to Jordan. It's not like we're going to the wishbone or anything."
? Fear the Roohouse? Most underrated MAC destination, according to Lynch: "They're not known for their crowd, but Akron's stadium is unreal. They just built it a few years ago, and it's top of the line. It's big time."
? No takebacks. Think the likes of Purdue and Iowa are sorry they scheduled this particular MAC squad? Not just yet, according to Lynch, remembering the 2012 season-opening loss to the Hawkeyes, his first collegiate start. "Kinnick Stadium, I know that's a tough place to play." Carey adds, "We gotta go there, so I know they're not too sorry." We'll ask again in October.
? Reply pending. Even in the lower-key atmosphere of DeKalb in the offseason, Lynch attracts his share of hangers-on: "A girl asked me on Twitter if I wanted to 'get a bottle of red wine, go to The Junction, and have a good cry.' I let it go." He shudders. "I have no idea."
3. Designated Talisman: Diesel
There are two kinds of dog mascots in college football: (1) The kind that travels from game to game in a sedan chair, surrounded by bags of ice in the summer and specially designated space heaters in the winter, and does not seem like it would be especially fun to have as an actual pet, and (2) THIS GUY:
NIU Athletics
Advantage: NIU.
4. Stay Tuned
??NIU football commences: Saturday, August 31, at Iowa, a rematch of last season's only regular-season loss.
??Conference play commences: Saturday, October 5, at Kent State, a rematch of last season's MAC championship game.
??Required viewing: The Huskies' last game of this regular season is a home date with Western Michigan, a team that went 4-8 last season but actually held a halftime lead over a slow-burning NIU squad in their last meeting. You may remember this game as the one in which Lynch scored six touchdowns, four of them in the second half. Remember also that the Broncos are now coached by NIU alum and former assistant P.J. Fleck, who spurned the Huskies' OC gig in 2012 to reunite with Greg Schiano in Tampa Bay. "I guess we'll be looking forward to that game," says Lynch. "That's all I can say, really."
Afterlight is a great photo editing tool for the iPhone full of filters, tools, and filters, and we're pretty big fans of it. Up until now, the only thing missing really has been proper iPad support, but that all changes with the latest update. That's right, Afterlight now comes with full, proper iPad support.
I've already shared my opinions on using the iPad to take photos, but with Photo Stream or a camera connection kit in your gear bag, Afterlight has some great options to edit your photographs taken with other devices, right on your iPad. There's also some small enhancements to the sliders in the app with the update, which is available to download from the App Store now. Any Afterlight fans out there? Pleased to see iPad support?
A group of biotech seed companies on Monday launched an online forum to combat mounting opposition to genetically modified foods among consumer groups and?activists.
The website, www.GMOAnswers.com, is designed as a ?central online resource? for information on genetically modified organisms and their use in agriculture and food production, the?Biotechnology?Industry Organization?said.
The website is backed in part by Monsanto Co, DuPont ,?DowAgroSciences, a unit of Dow Chemical Co, and other companies whose products include seeds that have been genetically altered to improve food?production.
The website is part of a broad campaign by the biotech industry to beat back growing calls for GMO food labeling and for tighter regulation of the biotech seed industry in the United States. European opposition to GMOs is so strong that Monsanto this month said it would withdraw all pending requests to grow new types of GMO?crops.
As part of the multi-year, multimillion-dollar campaign, the biotech seed companies will also open some of their fields and offices to visitors and will host face-to-face forums around the country with consumers, according to Cathleen Enright, spokeswoman for the?website.
Paul Schickler, president of DuPont Pioneer, the agricultural unit of DuPont, said anti-GMO forces have been using the Internet very effectively to get their message out, and industry wants to use the same strategy to combat what he said were notions ?not always based in?fact.?
?This ? is an effort to increase the dialogue. That is all we want,? said Schickler. ?Dialogue is good. Over time I think we?ll come to a common?understanding.?
Critics predicted the industry effort to change consumer skepticism would fail, saying there is ample scientific evidence that GMO foods can contribute to health problems in animals and humans, and hurt the?environment.
?This latest effort will likely do little to stop the consumer backlash against genetically engineered foods that has been brewing for years,? said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch, a consumer?organization.
The most popular gene-altered crops withstand dousings of weed-killing chemicals and produce their own insect-killing toxins. Biotech corn, canola, soybeans, and other crops are used in human food and animal feed around the world, and biotech companies say they are heavily regulated and thoroughly?tested.
Last year, Monsanto and other industry members spent $40 million to defeat a ballot initiative in California to require labeling of GMO food. Similar initiatives are under way in several other U.S. states and at the federal?level.
Grocery retailer Whole Foods said this year it would require suppliers to label any product made with genetically modified ingredients. And the Natural Products Association, which represents 1,900 food industry players, has called for a uniform national standard for GMO?labeling.
Burrito chain?Chipotle Mexican Grill?Inc recently became the first major U.S. restaurant chain to disclose GMO ingredients and is moving to remove such products from its supply?chain.
