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6A Daily News – Wednesday, January 25, 2012 WORLD BRIEFING Romney's wealth, Gingrich's deals come to fore in Fla. TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich's fight for Flori- da and the states beyond stayed at a high boil Tues- day as Romney released tax returns showing annu- al income topping $20 million — including a now-closed Swiss bank account — and Gingrich insisted his high-paid consulting work for a mortgage giant that con- tributed to the housing crisis didn't include lob- bying. After a night of mutual sniping in a debate, the two leading GOP presi- dential candidates tried to turn the arguments over their various business dealings to his own advantage. Romney's release of two years' worth of tax documents, showing him at an elite level even among the nation's richest 1 percent, kept the focus on the two men's money and how they earned it. Romney's income put him in the top 0.006 per- cent of Americans, according to Internal Rev- enue Service data from 2009, the most recent year available. His net worth has been estimated as high as $250 million. As the former Massa- chusetts governor relented to pressure and released more than 500 pages of tax documents, Gingrich kept up the heat, saying Romney was ''outra- geously dishonest'' for accusing him of influence peddling for government- backed mortgage giant Freddie Mac. ''I don't own any Fan- nie Mae and Freddie Mac stock. He does, so pre- sumably he was getting richer,'' Gingrich told Fox News on Tuesday. Obama taking on economic anxiety WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is promising the nation an economy that gives a shot to everyone and not just the rich, using Tuesday night's State of the Union address to draw an election-year battle line with Republicans over fairness and the free market. Driving every- thing about the speech: jobs, including his own. Overshadowed for weeks by the fierce race of the Republicans seek- ing his job, for one night Obama had a grand stage to himself. He planned to pitch his plans to a bitterly divided Congress and to a country underwhelmed by his handling of the economy. Targeting anxiety about a slumping middle class, Obama was calling for the rich to pay more in taxes. Every proposal was to be underlined by the idea that hard work and responsibility still count. Tens of millions of people were expected to watch on television, turn- ing an always-political speech into Obama's best chance yet to sell his vision for another four years. For an incumbent on the attack about income inequality, the timing could not be better. Penn State lines up to bid farewell to Joe Paterno STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Decked out in Penn State hats and jack- ets, students and towns- people stood in a line more than a quarter-mile long Tuesday to pay their respects to Joe Paterno, the coach who for nearly a half century was the face of their university. Mourners waited for hours along a main cam- pus artery for the chance to file past Paterno's closed brown casket at the campus spiritual center during a public viewing session. Some departed crying. All were moved. ''He was my hero. He was my hero. I had to come,'' said a sobbing Gloria Spicer, who was freshman in 1966 when Paterno started his first season as head coach at Penn State. The 85-year- old Paterno, the win- ningest coach in major college football history, died Sunday of lung can- cer. He had been fired just days before learning of his diagnosis in Novem- ber. ''He was a teacher to me,'' Spicer said. ''He taught me to be a better person and a better teacher.'' Spicer and others walked slowly past the undraped casket which had an ''honor guard'' of two Penn State players — one past and one present. Six feet away, a stylized, black-and-white photo of a smiling Paterno, arms crossed in front of his chest, sat on an easel. Marine will serve no time for leading squad that killed civilians CAMP PENDLETON (AP) — A Marine sergeant who led a squad that killed 24 unarmed Iraqis will spend no time in confinement. Military judge Lt. Col. David Jones said he want- ed to send Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich to the brig, but his hands were tied by a plea agreement that prevents any jail time. Jones was not aware of the stipulation until he opened the plea agree- ment in court after recom- mending 90 days confine- ment. Wuterich pleaded guilty to negligent dere- liction of duty, a charge that carried a maximum sentence of 90 days. But because of the way the military system works, the terms of the deal with prosecutors weren't known to the judge until after he made his sentenc- ing recommendation in court on Tuesday. Tribalism, simmering grievances help give loyalists a comeback BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — Moammar Gad- hafi loyalists seized control of a Libyan mountain city in the most serious chal- lenge to the central govern- ment since the strongman's fall, underlining the increasing weakness of Libya's Western-backed rulers as they try to unify the country under their authority. The taking of Bani Walid, one of the last Gad- hafi strongholds captured by the new leadership late last year, was the first such organized operation by armed remnants of Gad- hafi's regime. A simultane- ous outbreak of shootings in the capital and Libya's second largest city Beng- hazi raised authorities' concerned that other net- works of loyalists were active elsewhere. The security woes add to the difficulties of the rul- ing National Transitional Council, which is strug- gling to establish its author- ity and show Libyans progress in stability and good government. Bani Walid's fall comes after violent protests in Beng- hazi, where Libyans angry over lack of reform stormed the NTC head- quarters and trashed offices. In Bani Walid, hundreds of well-equipped and high- ly trained remnants of Gad- hafi's forces battled for eight hours on Monday with the local pro-NTC revolutionary brigade, known as the May 28 Brigade, said Mubarak al- Fatmani, the head of Bani Walid local council. The brigade was driven out and Gadhafi loyalists then raised their old green flag over buildings in the west- ern city. Four revolutionary fighters were killed and 25 others were wounded in the fighting, al-Fatmani said. Expected fuel pumping Saturday on cruise liner GIGLIO, Italy (AP) — A barge carrying a crane and other equipment hitched itself to the toppled Costa Concordia on Tues- day, signaling the start of preliminary operations to remove a half-million gal- lons of fuel from the grounded cruise ship before it leaks into the pristine Tus- can sea. Actual pumping of the oil isn't expected to begin until Saturday, but teams from the Dutch shipwreck salvage firm Smit were working on the bow of the Concordia on Tuesday and divers were to make under- water inspections to identify the precise locations of the "I am excited about D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY new online rodeo page online at www.redbluffdailynews.com/rodeo, because it has news and results. Now I don't have to wait till the ProRodeo Sports News arrives. I like it!" Jean Barton, Tehama County Cattlewoman fuel tanks. They were at work on the now-hitched Meloria barge as divers who blasted through a submerged sec- tion of the third-floor deck located another body from the wreckage, bringing the death toll to 16. The Concordia ran aground and capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio on Jan. 13 after the captain veered from his approved course and gashed the ship's hull on a reef, forcing the panicked evacuation of 4,200 passengers and crew. The 16 bodies found so far include the one located on the third-floor deck Tuesday. Seven of the badly decomposed bodies remain unidentified and are pre- sumed to be among some of the 17 passengers and crew still unaccounted for. On Tuesday, the U.S. ambas- sador to Italy David Thorne was at Giglio's port where he had lunch with relatives of two missing Americans, Gerald and Barbara Heil of Minnesota. 'Hugo,' 'The Artist' lead Oscars BEVERLY HILLS (AP) — American master Martin Scorsese journeyed to France, putting Holly- wood's newest technology to work for his dazzling 3-D re-creation of 1930s Paris in ''Hugo.'' French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius came to America, reviving old- time Hollywood with his charming resurrection of early cinema in the silent film ''The Artist.'' The two films now head a 21st century Academy Awards show whose top nominees offer loving looks back to the infancy of moviemaking, when flicks really flickered and cutting- edge visual effects amount- ed to actors jumping out of the frame while the camera was stopped so they would seem to magically disap- pear. Scorsese's Paris adven- ture ''Hugo'' led contenders Tuesday with 11 nomina- tions, among them best-pic- ture and the latest directing honor for the Oscar-win- ning filmmaker. Hazanavicius' ''The Artist'' ran second with 10 nominations, including honors for the director and Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo, the stars of the film that could become the first silent movie to win the best- picture prize since year one at the Oscars. Also nominated for best picture: Alexander Payne's family drama ''The Descen- dants''; Stephen Daldry's Sept. 11 tale ''Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close''; Tate Taylor's Deep South drama ''The Help''; Woody Allen's romantic fantasy ''Midnight in Paris''; Ben- nett Miller's sports tale ''Moneyball''; Terrence Malick's family chronicle ''The Tree of Life''; and Steven Spielberg's World War I epic ''War Horse.'' Rodeo & Rural Local Rodeo/Rural Lifestyle News Voices from the Ag Community National Rodeo/Rural Lifestyle News Rodeo/Ag Lifestyle Videos