Obama blames GOP for 'fiscal cliff' brinksmanship

WASHINGTON -- President Obama blamed Republican leaders for the latest round of brinkmanship in Washington and said it was now up to lawmakers to find a way back from the so-called fiscal cliff.

In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” aired Sunday, Obama said he had reached out to Republicans for weeks, but their refusal to raise taxes had blocked progress.

“They have had trouble saying yes to a number of repeated offers,” Obama said. In Friday’s meeting with congressional leaders at the White House, “I suggested to them if they can't do a comprehensive package of smart deficit reductions, let's at minimum make sure that people's taxes don't go up and that 2 million people don't lose their unemployment insurance.

“And I was modestly optimistic yesterday,” he added in the interview taped Saturday, referring to the aftermath of that meeting, “but we don't yet see an agreement. And now the pressure's on Congress to produce.”

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Senate leaders and their aides spent Saturday working on a deal that would protect most taxpayers from seeing their incomes taxes rise Jan. 1. The deal may also set new estate tax rates, prevent an expansion of the alternative minimum tax and extend unemployment insurance.

If the effort is successful, a final proposal is expected later Sunday, when senators are set to meet in party caucuses.

A spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell responded to the president's criticism:

"While the president was taping those discordant remarks yesterday, Sen. McConnell was in the office working to bring Republicans and Democrats together on a solution," Don Stewart said. "Discussions continue today."

In the interview, Obama said he expected an “adverse reaction in the markets” and depressed consumer spending if lawmakers allow the tax increase to take effect as scheduled -- and he tried to lay the blame on Republicans. Economists have suggested the combination of the tax increases, along with nearly $65 billion in spending cuts, could knock the economy back into a recession.

Obama did not offer a clear strategy for avoiding those spending cuts, which Congress and the president agreed to in 2011 as a way to force themselves to act on a larger deficit reduction deal. That deal has remained elusive, and Obama said in the interview that Republicans have had trouble saying yes to his offers.

QUIZ: How much do you know about the fiscal cliff?

Pressed by host David Gregory on why that is, Obama answered:

“That's something you're probably going to have to ask them, because, David, you follow this stuff pretty carefully. The offers that I’ve made to them have been so fair that a lot of Democrats get mad at me. I mean, I offered to make some significant changes to our entitlement programs in order to reduce the deficit,” he said, referring specifically to a change in the way Social Security cost of living increases are calculated, which many liberal groups opposed.

“They say that their biggest priority is making sure that we deal with the deficit in a serious way, but the way they're behaving is that their only priority is making sure that tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are protected. That seems to be their only overriding, unifying theme.”

Obama has tried to frame the debate as a battle over taxes. One Republican acknowledged Sunday that the president appears poised to win the political battle on that front. If lawmakers agree on allowing taxes to rise on top earners, “it will accomplish a political victory for the president,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina

“Hats off to the president. He stood his ground; he’s going to get tax rate increases … on upper income Americans. And the sad news for the country is we’ve accomplished very little in terms of not becoming Greece or getting out of debt.… Hats off to the president -- he won.”

[For the Record, 8:05 a.m. PST  Dec. 30: This post has been updated to include reactions to Obama's comments from McConnell's office.]

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Iran may be reconsidering position on Syria

TEHRAN — As rebel forces advance and longtime allies in Moscow distance themselves, Syria's most faithful friend is recalculating as well: Iranian officials and analysts say the Islamic Republic has launched a vigorous internal debate about how firmly it will continue to support Syrian President Bashar Assad.

On the surface, Iranian officials stick to the view that Assad remains in control, and they welcome his emissaries. In Friday sermons, clerics close to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, accuse Israel and Western powers of plotting to bring Assad down.

But faced with the slow-motion collapse of Assad's regime, senior Iranian officials and clerics appear to be increasingly divided about how to respond. Under an Iranian peace plan unveiled this month, the Syrian president would remain in power through elections in 2014, although he could run again.

"The debate behind the curtains among experts and officials regarding the Syrian crisis is very hot," said an Iranian journalist with close ties to the office of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Staunch support for Bashar Assad's regime is costing the Islamic Republic of Iran a lot."

Shiite Muslim Iran faces increasing isolation if Assad is overthrown by predominantly Sunni Muslim rebels supported by Iran's regional rivals in the Persian Gulf. Iran would lose a key part of an anti-Israel alliance it has nurtured since the 1980s. And at a time when it faces tough international sanctions because of its nuclear program, Iran risks complicating its problems by being regarded as an obstacle on Syria.

Focusing the blame for the "Syria debacle" could also affect Iran's next presidential election, scheduled for June.

As the fighting approaches the two-year mark, the slaughter of Syrian civilians and Assad's slipping territorial control have prompted subtle shifts in Iran's position.

Its six-point peace plan appears aimed largely at shielding Assad in the short term, while opening the way for his departure. Although roundly rejected by the Syrian opposition, it offers a window into Iranian thinking about a conflict that officials here once believed that Assad would win.

"Compare the content of [special envoy] Lakhdar Brahimi's six-point plan with Iran's six-point plan, and you will find very similar phrases and sentences," said an Iranian Foreign Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Brahimi, backed by the United Nations and the Arab League, has proposed a transitional government including rebels and government officials who would serve until elections. It remains unclear what role, if any, Assad would have. Although Russia is distancing itself, it hasn't demanded Assad's departure. Washington says the Syrian president must go.

"Both sides should come to the negotiating table," said the Iranian Foreign Ministry official. "Iran is sure it can keep Bashar in power until a 2014 presidential election, and then keep the state structure in Syria intact, with or without him."

The possibility that Assad, a member of the Alawite minority, a small offshoot of Shiite Islam, could fall shakes decades of Iranian assumptions about how to pursue its goals in the Middle East.

Since the 1980s, Iran and Syria have armed the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah and the Palestinian group Hamas, creating a united front against Israel and helping the two countries burnish their anti-Israeli credentials in the Muslim world.

When the Syrian uprising began in March 2011, it was largely a peaceful effort aimed at gaining greater democracy. But Assad met it with force, and over time the opposition developed into an armed insurrection with sectarian dimensions.

The battle is no longer about basic rights, but a struggle between Assad and the country's Sunni majority. Iran encouraged Assad to crush the resistance, not wishing to lose an important partner in the Arab world. It also was concerned about the rise of Syrian Sunnis who could fall under the influence of Turkey and Sunni monarchies of the Persian Gulf that are hostile to Iran.

Iran acknowledged sending Revolutionary Guard advisors to Syria, but then denied it. The Islamic Republic has been accused of arming Assad's security forces.

Among the consequences of the Syria conflict has been a crack in the anti-Israeli alliance. Hamas has broken with Damascus, and its relations with Iran have been strained by the fighting in Syria. Iran is also hard-pressed by economic sanctions over its nuclear program. Tension with the international community over its support for Assad could make it more difficult for Tehran to build the goodwill to cut a deal, if it chooses to do so.

Iran's military, religious and political elite are finding it hard to come to grips with the idea that their strategy of unconditionally backing Assad is no longer working. The realization that it was failing first came from academics and analysts working with the government, and has slowly permeated the halls of power.

"Unfortunately there is no other way to exit from this current crisis but the fall of President Bashar Assad," said Aziz Shahmohammadi, an analyst with close ties to the Foreign Ministry who has urged the Iranian leadership to prepare for the worst.

In addition to its peace plan, Tehran has explored talks with Syrian dissidents. The most prominent is Haytham Manna, who lives in Paris and represents the Damascus-based opposition umbrella group the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change. The group, which emphasizes peaceful change, has been tolerated by Assad.

Iran has talked with Manna about heading a government while Assad stays on as president until elections, said Hossian Royarvan, a state television analyst on Middle Eastern affairs.

"Manna … has taken trips to Tehran several times and talked with Iranian officials. He wants the structure of state to remain intact as he thinks the structure is in the national interest, but he believes Bashar should quit," said Royarvan. "So Iran is talking with him and trying to find a solution for Syria through dialogue. There is no military solution."

The anxiety has crept into Iranian media, where censors had permitted no criticism or negative stories about Assad until about two months ago. Pro-government and opposition papers have both started running articles that forecast the end of Assad's rule.

On Tuesday, the pro-government paper Etellaat, whose editor is selected by Khamenei, published a story saying that the U.S. and Russia had crafted a joint plan for a transitional government in Syria, which both countries have denied. It included a call by a senior Hamas leader for Assad to be removed from power.

"In the beginning we supported the Syrian government extensively and ignored the opposition and even called them terrorists. It has cost Iran a lot among the Muslims," Abbas Abdi, a leader of the hostage-taking at the U.S. Embassy in 1979, said in the reformist daily Etemad last weekend.

Abdi said he believed Iran's new peace plan could have made a difference if it had come earlier, but now it was too little, too late. He called his piece: "Feeling sorry for the lost opportunity in Syria."

Special correspondents Mostaghim reported from Tehran and Sandels from Beirut. Times staff writer Ned Parker in Beirut contributed to this report.

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FBI removes many redactions in Marilyn Monroe file

LOS ANGELES (AP) — FBI files on Marilyn Monroe that could not be located earlier this year have been found and re-issued, revealing the names of some of the movie star's communist-leaning friends who drew concern from government officials and her own entourage.

But the records, which previously had been heavily redacted, do not contain any new information about Monroe's death 50 years ago. Letters and news clippings included in the files show the bureau was aware of theories the actress had been killed, but they do not show that any effort was undertaken to investigate the claims. Los Angeles authorities concluded Monroe's death was a probable suicide.

Recently obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act, the updated FBI files do show the extent the agency was monitoring Monroe for ties to communism in the years before her death in August 1962.

The records reveal that some in Monroe's inner circle were concerned about her association with Frederick Vanderbilt Field, who was disinherited from his wealthy family over his leftist views.

A trip to Mexico earlier that year to shop for furniture brought Monroe in contact with Field, who was living in the country with his wife in self-imposed exile. Informants reported to the FBI that a "mutual infatuation" had developed between Field and Monroe, which caused concern among some in her inner circle, including her therapist, the files state.

"This situation caused considerable dismay among Miss Monroe's entourage and also among the (American Communist Group in Mexico)," the file states. It includes references to an interior decorator who worked with Monroe's analyst reporting her connection to Field to the doctor.

Field's autobiography devotes an entire chapter to Monroe's Mexico trip, "An Indian Summer Interlude." He mentions that he and his wife accompanied Monroe on shopping trips and meals and he only mentions politics once in a passage on their dinnertime conversations.

"She talked mostly about herself and some of the people who had been or still were important to her," Field wrote in "From Right to Left." ''She told us about her strong feelings for civil rights, for black equality, as well as her admiration for what was being done in China, her anger at red-baiting and McCarthyism and her hatred of (FBI director) J. Edgar Hoover."

Under Hoover's watch, the FBI kept tabs on the political and social lives of many celebrities, including Frank Sinatra, Charlie Chaplin and Monroe's ex-husband Arthur Miller. The bureau has also been involved in numerous investigations about crimes against celebrities, including threats against Elizabeth Taylor, an extortion case involving Clark Gable and more recently, trying to solve who killed rapper Notorious B.I.G.

The AP had sought the removal of redactions from Monroe's FBI files earlier this year as part of a series of stories on the 50th anniversary of Monroe's death. The FBI had reported that it had transferred the files to a National Archives facility in Maryland, but archivists said the documents had not been received. A few months after requesting details on the transfer, the FBI released an updated version of the files that eliminate dozens of redactions.

For years, the files have intrigued investigators, biographers and those who don't believe Monroe's death at her Los Angeles area home was a suicide.

A 1982 investigation by the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office found no evidence of foul play after reviewing all available investigative records, but noted that the FBI files were "heavily censored."

That characterization intrigued the man who performed Monroe's autopsy, Dr. Thomas Noguchi. While the DA investigation concluded he conducted a thorough autopsy, Noguchi has conceded that no one will likely ever know all the details of Monroe's death. The FBI files and confidential interviews conducted with the actress' friends that have never been made public might help, he wrote in his 1983 memoir "Coroner."

"On the basis of my own involvement in the case, beginning with the autopsy, I would call Monroe's suicide 'very probable,'" Noguchi wrote. "But I also believe that until the complete FBI files are made public and the notes and interviews of the suicide panel released, controversy will continue to swirl around her death."

Monroe's file begins in 1955 and mostly focuses on her travels and associations, searching for signs of leftist views and possible ties to communism. One entry, which previously had been almost completely redacted, concerned intelligence that Monroe and other entertainers sought visas to visit Russia that year.

The file continues up until the months before her death, and also includes several news stories and references to Norman Mailer's biography of the actress, which focused on questions about whether Monroe was killed by the government.

For all the focus on Monroe's closeness to suspected communists, the bureau never found any proof she was a member of the party.

"Subject's views are very positively and concisely leftist; however, if she is being actively used by the Communist Party, it is not general knowledge among those working with the movement in Los Angeles," a July 1962 entry in Monroe's file states.

___

Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

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Surgery Returns to NYU Langone Medical Center

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Senator Charles E. Schumer spoke at a news conference Thursday about the reopening of NYU Langone Medical Center.

NYU Langone Medical Center opened its doors to surgical patients on Thursday, almost two months after Hurricane Sandy overflowed the banks of the East River and forced the evacuation of hundreds of patients.

While the medical center had been treating many outpatients, it had farmed out surgery to other hospitals, which created scheduling problems that forced many patients to have their operations on nights and weekends, when staffing is traditionally low. Some patients and doctors had to postpone not just elective but also necessary operations for lack of space at other hospitals.

The medical center’s Tisch Hospital, its major hospital for inpatient services, between 30th and 34th Streets on First Avenue, had been closed since the hurricane knocked out power and forced the evacuation of more than 300 patients, some on sleds brought down darkened flights of stairs.

“I think it’s a little bit of a miracle on 34th Street that this happened so quickly,” Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York said Thursday.

Mr. Schumer credited the medical center’s leadership and esprit de corps, and also a tour of the damaged hospital on Nov. 9 by the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, W. Craig Fugate, whom he and others escorted through watery basement hallways.

“Every time I talk to Fugate there are a lot of questions, but one is, ‘How are you doing at NYU?’ ” the senator said.

The reopening of Tisch to surgery patients and associated services, like intensive care, some types of radiology and recovery room anesthesia, was part of a phased restoration that will continue. Besides providing an essential service, surgery is among the more lucrative of hospital services.

The hospital’s emergency department is expected to delay its reopening for about 11 months, in part to accommodate an expansion in capacity to 65,000 patient visits a year, from 43,000, said Dr. Andrew W. Brotman, its senior vice president and vice dean for clinical affairs and strategy.

In the meantime, NYU Langone is setting up an urgent care center with 31 bays and an observation unit, which will be able to treat some emergency patients. It will initially not accept ambulances, but might be able to later, Dr. Brotman said. Nearby Bellevue Hospital Center, which was also evacuated, opened its emergency department to noncritical injuries on Monday.

Labor and delivery, the cancer floor, epilepsy treatment and pediatrics and neurology beyond surgery are expected to open in mid-January, Langone officials said. While some radiology equipment, which was in the basement, has been restored, other equipment — including a Gamma Knife, a device using radiation to treat brain tumors — is not back.

The flooded basement is still being worked on, and electrical gear has temporarily been moved upstairs. Mr. Schumer, a Democrat, said that a $60 billion bill to pay for hurricane losses and recovery in New York and New Jersey was nearing a vote, and that he was optimistic it would pass in the Senate with bipartisan support. But the measure’s fate in the Republican-controlled House is far less certain.

The bill includes $1.2 billion for damage and lost revenue at NYU Langone, including some money from the National Institutes of Health to restore research projects. It would also cover Long Beach Medical Center in Nassau County, Bellevue, Coney Island Hospital and the Veterans Affairs hospital in Manhattan.

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Lawmakers in VIP loan program violated no rules, House panel says

WASHINGTON — The House Ethics Committee has found no rules violations by lawmakers who used a VIP loan program from Countrywide Financial Corp.

The committee's leaders said its investigation largely led to the same conclusions as the Senate Ethics Committee, which determined in 2009 that there was "no substantial credible evidence" that two of its members had broken rules by accepting loans through the special program.

Although the House Ethics Committee likewise cleared members of that body, committee Chairwoman Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) and top Democrat Linda T. Sanchez of Lakewood said in a statement that there were serious concerns about some allegations against House staffers.

Emails among the 2,000 pages of documents reviewed by the committee showed that some staffers "may have reached out to lobbyists or other government affairs officials at Countrywide for assistance with their personal loans."

Those contacts could have led to further investigation and possible disciplinary action against the staffers, the statement said. But the actions, like other allegations, fell outside the committee's jurisdiction because too much time had passed and some of the people involved no longer worked for the House.

There was no credible evidence of any such contact by House members, the committee leaders said.

Countrywide's VIP program — also known as "Friends of Angelo," a reference to former chief executive Angelo R. Mozilo — offered special treatment on mortgages.

The former Calabasas lender, acquired by Bank of America, helped fuel the subprime mortgage boom. Mozilo worked to cultivate relationships in Washington, and several lawmakers and staffers got mortgages through the VIP program.

After an investigation last year, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, alleged "possible wrongdoing" by four House members and some staffers for purportedly receiving discounted loans.

Issa did not identify the lawmakers, but three names later surfaced: Reps. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) and Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.).

Gallegly and Towns did not seek reelection this year. McKeon was reelected in November. Spokespeople for McKeon and Gallegly did not have any comment. A spokesman for Towns did not respond to requests for comment Friday.

The House Ethics Committee statement said that people in the VIP program appeared to be offered "quicker, more efficient loan processing and some discounts." But the committee said evidence showed those discounts "were not the best deals that were available at Countrywide or in the marketplace at large."

Because participation in the program "did not necessarily mean that borrowers received the best financial deal available either from Countrywide or other lenders," it was not a violation of House rules to participate, according to the Ethics Committee.

But Bonner and Sanchez in a statement provided guidance to their colleagues and House staffers about how to avoid "even the appearance of impropriety" when encountering such programs: If a lawmaker or staffer believes there was "an explicit connection between their position and some personal business transaction," they should "take steps to ensure they are being treated no differently than a member of the public."

Issa said that although the Ethics Committee took no action, its statement that some actions by staffers could have warranted disciplinary action "clearly indicated that Countrywide's efforts were inconsistent with House rules."

"While short of formally determining a violation, this sends an unmistakable warning to any entity that might try to duplicate Countrywide's lobbying strategy," Issa said.

jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com

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Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf dies at 78

Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf and President George Bush, pictured in 1991, watch the National Victory Parade from a viewing stand in Washington. (Ron Edmonds / AP / June 8, 1991)

From Times Staff

December 27, 2012, 4:32 p.m.

Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who commanded the U.S.-led international coalition that drove Saddam Hussein's forces out of Kuwait in 1991, has died, according to a U.S. official. He was 78.

The official told the Associated Press that Schwarzkopf died Thursday in Tampa, Fla. The official wasn't authorized to release the information publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. A much-decorated combat soldier in Vietnam, Schwarzkopf was known popularly as “Stormin' Norman” for a notoriously explosive temper.

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750,000 Android apps invade OS X thanks to BlueStacks App Player

Earlier this year, BlueStacks App Player made headlines by allowing Android apps run on Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows 8 platform. The company announced on Thursday its App Player is now available in beta form for free on Mac, giving OS X users access to 750,000 Android apps normally reserved for smartphones and tablets.

[More from BGR: Google names 12 best Android apps of 2012]

BlueStacks uses patent-pending virtualization software called “Layercake” to allow Android apps to run on other platforms. It works virtually the same as running Windows within OS X using software such as Parallels or VMWare. The Windows 8 version of BlueStacks has been out since March and has been installed on more than 5 million PCs, which is a good sign that people want to run mobile apps on their computers.

[More from BGR: Samsung looks to address its biggest weakness in 2013]

BGR tested BlueStacks on a mid-2011 MacBook Air running OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and found performance to be hit or miss. Android apps can be searched and it will list which app stores to download them from, but sometimes apps won’t install properly because of missing code, especially from the Google Play store. Downloading apps from the Amazon (AMZN) Appstore seems to be a better bet, though. If it’s any consolation, Jetpack Joyride and Fruit Ninja are perfectly playable.

BlueStacks works as mostly advertised, but honestly, why bother running Android apps on your Mac? A mouse or trackpad isn’t a better substitute for a touchscreen. But if you must do so, it’s reassuring to know BlueStacks is available.

This article was originally published by BGR

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It's husband No. 3 for actress Kate Winslet

NEW YORK (AP) — Kate Winslet has tied the knot again.

The Oscar-winning actress wed Ned Rocknroll in New York earlier this month. The private ceremony was attended by Winslet's two children as well as a few friends and family members, her representative said Thursday.

It is the third marriage for the 37-year-old Winslet. She was previously married to film directors Jim Threapleton and Sam Mendes.

The 34-year-old Rocknroll, who was born Abel Smith, is a nephew of billionaire Virgin Group founder Richard Branson.

The couple had been engaged since last summer.

Winslet won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in the 2008 film "The Reader."

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China closing Web loophole

BEIJING — For years, China's net censors turned a blind eye to a major loophole.

Anyone who wanted access to blocked overseas websites like Twitter, Facebook, and more recently, the New York Times, only needed to download foreign software called a virtual private network (VPN) to circumvent the Great Firewall.

But in recent weeks, even these tools have begun to falter, frustrating tech-savvy Chinese and foreign businesspeople who now struggle to access Internet sites as innocuous as gmail.com and imdb.com.

The tightening appears to be part of a broader and continuing campaign by China to rein in the country's Internet, which has nearly 600 million users and challenges the government's monopoly on information.

State media have been running editorials regularly about the dangers of an unregulated Internet, citing an uptick in rumormongering and misinformation.

"By typing on the computer, one can send the meanest curse, the most shocking scandals, the most insensitive ridicule and it seems no one can do anything to you," the Beijing Morning Post said in an editorial Thursday. "Any responsible government shouldn't let this become a method for the mass public to seek justice."

On Monday, one of China's top governing bodies, the National People's Congress Standing Committee, proposed requiring Internet users to register their real identities before accessing online services as a way to combat online fraud. If passed, the law would be especially damaging to China's micro-blogging platforms such as Sina Weibo.

The Twitter-like services double as a national nerve center for public opinion. Because bloggers have been able to shield their identities, the platform has also engendered online vigilantism by exposing government malfeasance — such as hiding ill-gotten wealth in dozens of apartments, sex with a teenager or keeping two remarkably similar-looking sisters as mistresses.

Michael Anti, a Beijing-based critic of Web censorship, believes the current pushback on the Web reflects paranoia over incoming President Xi Jinping's crackdown on official corruption. Local officials could be pressuring propaganda departments to curb freedom of speech online, he said.

"Officials hate the Internet," Anti said. "They're afraid of being victims of the anti-corruption campaign."

Furthermore, Anti said, China's myriad ministries policing the Web are probably engaging in a turf war before Xi takes office in March.

Jurisdiction over services like VPNs could result in revenues through registration fees. Fan Binxing, creator of the Great Firewall, told the state-owned Global Times earlier this month that VPN businesses were illegal in China unless they were registered with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Many of the top commercial VPN services have reported trouble working as usual in China. Users say access is often denied or crashes after short use. When working correctly, VPN software encrypts users' Web activity and scales the Great Firewall by logging onto a server overseas.

Experts suspect Chinese censors have determined a way to identify encrypted Web use and block corresponding proxy servers.

Foreign businesses such as banks rely on VPNs to exchange confidential information. Expatriates generally regard the software as a necessity to keep up with the outside world.

For the ruling Communist Party, the foreign Internet has never been more dangerous. Overseas Chinese websites have been breathlessly reporting party intrigue, and news organizations have been detailing the most sensitive details about families of the ruling elite.

Bloomberg's website has been blocked in China since June 29, the day it published an investigation on the family wealth of Xi. The news service released another sensitive investigation Thursday that explored the wealth and influence of China's biggest political families.

david.pierson@latimes.com

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Former President George H.W. Bush in intensive care

Former President George H.W. Bush, seen in March, has been moved to intensive care at a Houston hospital. (Tom Pennington / Getty Images)

By Matt Pearce

December 26, 2012, 4:02 p.m.

Former President George H.W. Bush has been moved to the intensive care unit at Methodist Hospital in Houston, hospital officials confirmed to the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday.

Bush, 88, has been struggling with fever, weakness and a bronchitis-like cough, according to the Associated Press. He was originally planning to spend Christmas at home, but that plan was prevented by high fever.

Bush originally was checked into the hospital in November with bronchitis symptoms.

Bush suffers from vascular Parkinson’s disease and missed the Republican National Convention this year.

ALSO:

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Newtown desperately needed Christmas after Sandy Hook massacre

Louisiana town is up in arms over resident's outdoor Christmas lights

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$.extend(settings, options);
}

/* This is a hack to make sure the shareTip always fades back to 100% opacity */
var checkOpacity = function (){
if ( $shareTip.css('opacity') !== 1 ){
$shareTip.css({'opacity': 1});
}
};

/* Function that replaces the HTML in the shareTip with the template we defined at the top */
/* It will wipe/reset the links on the social media buttons each time the function is called */
var removeLinks = function (){
shareTip.innerHTML = templateHTML;
};

/* This is the function that makes the links for the Tweet / Share functionality */

var makeURLS = function (link, message){
/* Here we construct the Tweet URL using an array, with values passed to the function */
var tweetConstruct = [
'http://twitter.com/share?url=', link, '&text=', message, '&via=', settings.twitter_account
],
/* Then join the array into one chunk of HTML */
tweetURL = tweetConstruct.join(''),

/* Same story for Facebook */
fbConstruct = [
'http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=', link, '&src=sp'
],

fbURL = fbConstruct.join(''),

newHTML = [
''
],
shareHTML = newHTML.join('');
/* Load in our new HTML */
shareTip.innerHTML = shareHTML;
};

/* Since the shareTip will automatically fade out when the user mouses out of an element */
/* we have to specifically tell the shareTip we want it to stay put when the user mouses over it */
/* This effectively gives the user a 500 ms (or whatever) window to mouse */
/* from the element to the shareTip to prevent it from popping out */
$shareTip.hover(function(){
$shareTip.stop(true, true);
$shareTip.show();
checkOpacity();
}, function(){
$(this).fadeOut(settings.speed);
});

/* This function handles the hover action */
$(this).hover(function(){
/* remove the old links, so someone doesn't accidentally click on them */
removeLinks();

/* If there's already an animation running on the shareTip, stop it */
$shareTip.stop(true, true);

var eso = $(this),
message,
/* Store the width and height of the shareTip and the offset of the element for our calculations */
height = eso.height(),
width = eso.width(),
offset = eso.offset(),
link;


link = eso.children('a').attr('href');
message = escape( eso.find('img').attr('alt') ) || eso.attr(settings.message_attr);

if (link.search('http://') === -1){
link = 'http://www.latimes.com' + link;
}
link = encodeURIComponent(link);

/* If it's at the top of the page, the shareTip will pop under the element */
if (offset.top

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