Your Community Report 5/17 is an Article from: Fox Rio 2 News RGV

Weather Forecast 5/17 is an Article from: Fox Rio 2 News RGV

Tanorexia: are you addicted? is an Article from: Fox Rio 2 News RGV

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google is introducing a new tool, designed to make its search engine smarter.
The new feature debuting Wednesday draws from a Google-built database of more than 500 million people, places and commonly requested things to provide a summary of vital information alongside the main search results.
Google Inc. spent the past two years poring through online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the CIA Factbook and other sources to expand a database of 12 million items that it picked up as part of its 2010 acquisition of Metaweb.
The information warehouse, which Google calls a “Knowledge Graph,” is an attempt by the Internet’s dominant search engine to provide answers as quickly and concisely as possible so users don’t have to sift through a hodgepodge of Web links displayed on the main results page.
The nuggets of information will appear in boxes to the right of the main search results. Google will gradually roll out the feature to its logged-in users in the U.S. during the next few days before extending it to a wider audience.
The changes come as one of Google’s biggest rivals, Internet social networking leader Facebook Inc., prepares to complete an initial public offering of stock that is dominating the technology spotlight. The Knowledge Graph’s unveiling comes a week after the second-largest search engine, Microsoft Corp.’s Bing, announced an overhaul that will highlight more information mined from Facebook — insights that typically don’t show up in Google’s results.
The Knowledge Graph will work in different ways.
If a person enters a search request, such as “kings,” that can be interpreted in several ways, Google will now display a box on the right side of the page listing several other options, such as the Los Angeles Kings hockey team, the Sacramento Kings basketball team and the Kings TV show. Clicking on any of these choices will deliver results exclusively devoted to that topic.
Queries on specific people or places will generate thumbnails that list key statistics about the topic. Google bases its assumption on what people are most likely to want to know on an analysis of past search requests.
Google is hailing the Knowledge Graph as an important step in Internet search’s evolution. The company is trying to make the difficult transition from merely presenting a list of Web links to delivering the kinds of responses that people expect when they pose a question to an expert.
“This used to be the stuff of dreams because we didn’t really know how to accomplish it,” said Amit Singhal, a Google fellow who has been studying search for 22 years. “The dream has always been to understand things like you and I do, so this this really feels like a sea change.”
The Knowledge Graph also will help address another problem vexing Google.
As websites seeking traffic have learned to manipulate commonly requested search terms, their links have been appearing more frequently on the first page of Google’s results, even though they might not have the most relevant information. Google periodically tries to remove the rubbish by tweaking its ranking system, only to have websites figure out new ways to outfox the search formula.
If the Knowledge Graph works like it’s supposed to, it will give visitors less reason to leave Google’s website.
Although Google says that isn’t its main objective, anything that gives people a reason to hang around for longer periods, and perhaps enter more search requests, promises to help the company make more money. Google distributes ads all over the Web, but it reaps its highest profit margins from commercial links that are clicked on its own website.
Anything that keeps people on Google longer is likely to amplify complaints that the company is more interested in promoting its own services than pointing visitors to other helpful Internet destinations.
Singhal doesn’t see it that way. “As we answer more of our users’ questions, we save them time,” he said. “Time is the only quantity that we can’t make more of. When people save time, people search more. The Web gets more traffic and all boats rise.”

Google augments Search Results with a new “Knowledge Graph” is an Article from: Fox Rio 2 News RGV

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Down in desperation time, Oklahoma City Thunder coach Scott Brooks called on Kevin Durant to show that he’s more than just a three-time scoring champion. And that meant guarding one of the NBA’s all-time best.
Durant was up to the challenge, keeping Kobe Bryant from excelling as usual in his closer’s role while sparking the Thunder’s rally for a 77-75 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals Wednesday night.
Durant scored 22 points and rattled in the go-ahead basket on a baseline runner with 18 seconds left as Oklahoma City scored the final nine points. He also had a crucial steal from Bryant to fuel the rally.
“People talk about how I score the ball,” said Durant, one of only seven players to lead the NBA in scoring three straight seasons.
“They don’t look at me when we go on the other end. I think this whole playoff run, I’ve been picking it up on the defensive end.”
Oklahoma City trailed by seven with 2 minutes left before surging back with a series of defensive stops by its stars to rally from that deficit in the closing stages of a game for the second time this postseason. The Thunder also were down by seven with 2½ minutes left in Game 1 of the first round against defending NBA champion Dallas.
“They won’t quit. That’s not in their DNA,” Brooks said. “They’re not wired that way and if they were, they wouldn’t be here. We’re not going to win every game, but we’re going to fight to the last second of the game and we did that tonight.
“If we would have gotten down on ourselves with 2 minutes to go, we would have lost by 12 and we would go to L.A. 1-1.”
Instead, Oklahoma City takes a 2-0 lead into Game 3 on Friday night at Staples Center.
Bryant and Andrew Bynum scored 20 points apiece for the Lakers, who came up empty on their last six possessions after Bynum’s hook shot made it 75-68 with 2:09 remaining.
Struggling throughout the second half and missing 20 of their first 27 shots, the Thunder came alive after Brooks called a timeout when Bynum’s basket gave Los Angeles its largest lead of the game.
James Harden drove for a layup before Durant used his height advantage to reach up and tip away a pass from Bryant. He then ran out for a right-handed dunk at the other end.
Brooks had switched Durant onto Bryant with about 5 minutes left, after Bryant had hit a pair of jumpers as the Lakers started to inch away.
“That wasn’t the game plan going in, but there was a moment when I thought Kobe was starting to fill it and I thought Kevin’s length would bother him,” Brooks said.
That’s exactly how it played out — with the 6-foot-9 Durant using his wingspan to come up with an energizing steal and fast-break chance.
Russell Westbrook then forced another turnover by challenging an outlet pass to Bryant along the sideline. Officials originally ruled that it went off Westbrook, but changed the call after seeing on replay that he didn’t touch it and Bryant whiffed on the contested catch.
“What they did the last few minutes there, they just made gambles,” Bryant said. “They just jumped in the passing lanes. It’s something that we’re not accustomed to seeing. It’s just flat-out risks defensively.”
Harden made the next stop, blocking Bryant’s jumper on the Lakers’ next possession and getting a layup in transition off it to cut the deficit to one in the final minute.
Bryant then missed on a 3-pointer and the Thunder got the ball back with the chance to take the lead and Durant was able to make it happen on the offensive end.
“I think Kevin has improved on being a two-way player,” Brooks said. “I think the last three years it’s taken our team to a different level and it takes his game to a different level.”
Steve Blake missed an open 3-pointer from the right side with about 5 seconds left after Metta World Peace couldn’t get the ball to Bryant on the inbounds play.
Bryant, who was the primary option on the play, said Blake’s shot was in the air by the time he turned around to look for an inbounds pass.
“Blake was wide open. We didn’t have any timeouts left and he got a clean look, a really good look,” World Peace said. “He can knock that down.”
Durant was then fouled with 0.3 seconds left and made his first try before missing the second on purpose — failing to hit the backboard or rim for a violation.
The Lakers got a desperation try, but Harden intercepted World Peace’s long pass for Bynum.
Westbrook added 15 points for Oklahoma City, which matched its lowest scoring total of the season but still gutted out the win. The Thunder had ripped apart the Lakers’ defense with their pick-and-roll attack in Game 1, scoring 119 points in a 29-point blowout.
Pau Gasol had 14 points and 11 rebounds for L.A.
Historically, the loss makes a huge difference. Los Angeles is 29-12 when splitting the first two games of a seven-game series and has lost 17 of 19 when falling into a 2-0 hole. The Lakers’ last comeback was in the 2004 West semifinals against San Antonio.
The Thunder have won all nine of their series after leading 2-0, dating to the franchise’s days in Seattle.
“We’ve got to win,” Bynum said. “It’s do or die come Friday.”
Bryant almost led the Lakers to a big bounce-back victory in this one.
He drilled a jumper from the left wing and Blake followed with a 3-pointer before World Peace hit one of two free throws for a 69-63 advantage with 7:27 remaining. Bryant then answered Serge Ibaka’s jumper before missing his final five shots.
He also had a hand in two turnovers in the final 2 minutes, the first created by Durant’s defense.
“He used his length on Kobe. Coming up with that steal was huge,” Lakers’ coach Mike Brown said. “That’s what great players are supposed to do. They’re supposed to take on the challenge at the end of the game and he did.
“He won the game for them, basically.”
Notes: The NBA fined Devin Ebanks $25,000 on Wednesday for actions related to his Game 1 ejection and Bynum $15,000 for failing to speak to reporters Tuesday. Bynum talked at the Lakers’ morning shootaround Wednesday and called it a make up for skipping the previous day. … Harden caught World Peace with an inadvertent elbow to the face in the first quarter. … After making 10 of 15 shots in Game 1, Westbrook was 5 for 17.

Thunder rally to edge Lakers 77-75 in Game 2 is an Article from: Fox Rio 2 News RGV

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Taylor Swift has taught a generation of kids to appreciate country music over the last five years. Now, she’s donating $4 million to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum to make sure that education continues.
The gift is the largest given to the museum by an artist and is the second largest from an individual, officials said. It will fund the Taylor Swift Education Center, an exhibit and classroom space scheduled to open in 2014.
“In terms of what it will allow us to do, we do education very well now,” museum director Kyle Young said. “It will allow us to do what we do better, serve more people, develop new programs and I’m happy to say that as we talked through this opportunity with Taylor, she very much wants to be involved in an advisory capacity in what we do. Is there a better person out there who’s in touch with a young audience? I think not. I was joking we should be paying her to do that. I was only joking.”
The new education center is part of the museum’s $75 million “Working on a Building” expansion project that will increase the space more than 200,000 square feet to 350,000. The expansion is part of the new convention center project in downtown Nashville and will include a new concert theater, more room for exhibits and archives, and a shared entrance with a new hotel.
Swift’s education center will have its own exterior entrance and is 7,500 square feet-plus spread over two stories. It will include three classrooms and exhibit space and will allow the museum to add to its youth education programs. The new space will house interactive activities such as a musical petting zoo and a “wet” classroom space to make concert posters and other art projects. The expansion also would allow the museum to start new programs and workshops and for teens and senior citizens as well as continuing workshops.
The 22-year-old singer-songwriter is country music’s top-selling artist and current ambassador to the world. The six-time Grammy winner is a two-time winner of both the Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music entertainer of the year awards and has taken the genre to Asia, Europe and Australia as well as the top of the U.S. pop charts.
She has a long history with the museum. One of her first public performances was on the building’s plaza. She signed her record contract there. And she has donated her time to the museum’s “All For The Hall” fundraisers.
“For Taylor to want to engage herself in the life of this place in such an appropriate way … every way you slice it and dice it, it’s great for this place,” Young said.
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Online: http://www.countrymusichalloffame.org

Taylor Swift donates $4 Million to the Country Hall of Fame is an Article from: Fox Rio 2 News RGV

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sunrises and sunsets often dazzle, but they’ll have a special ring to them in a few days for people in the western United States and eastern Asia: The moon will slide across the sun, blocking everything but a blazing halo of light.
It’s been almost two decades since a “ring of fire” eclipse was visible in the continental United States. To celebrate the end of that drought, nearly three dozen national parks in the path of the eclipse will host viewing parties.
The solar spectacle is first seen in eastern Asia at dawn Monday, local time. Weather permitting, millions of early risers in southern China, northern Taiwan and southeast Japan will be able to catch the ring eclipse. Then it creeps across the Pacific with the western U.S. viewing the tail end.
The late day sun will transform into a glowing ring in southwest Oregon, Northern California, central Nevada, southern Utah, northern Arizona and New Mexico and finally the Texas Panhandle where it will occur at sunset on Sunday. For 3 ½ hours, the eclipse follows an 8,500-mile path. Viewing, from beginning to end, lasts about two hours. The ring phenomenon lasts as long as 5 minutes depending on location.
Outside this narrow band, parts of the West, Midwest and South — and portions of Canada and Mexico — will be treated to a partial eclipse. The Eastern Seaboard will be shut out, but people can log online to sites such as the Slooh Space Camera, which plans to broadcast the event live.
A ring eclipse — technically called an annular solar eclipse — is not as dramatic as a total eclipse, when the disk of the sun is entirely blocked by the moon. As in a total solar eclipse, the moon crosses in front of the sun, but the moon is too far from Earth and appears too small in the sky to blot out the sun completely.
“A bright ring around the sun at mid-eclipse is still pretty cool,” Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory said in an email.
Asia is abuzz over the event. In Japan, cable cars will run early to give tourists an unobstructed view from the mountains. Ferries will make special trips so that others can enjoy the scene offshore. The Taipei Astronomical Museum will open its doors at dawn while Hong Kong’s Space Museum will set up solar-filtered telescopes outside its building on the Kowloon waterfront.
The last time this type of eclipse was seen in the U.S. was in 1994. This year’s solar show offers ringside seats at 33 national parks along the eclipse path including the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon. A partial eclipse can be viewed from another 125 national parks.
For die-hard sky gazers, six U.S. locations will see the moon cover about 95 percent of the sun’s diameter. They include the Petroglyph National Monument, Redwoods National Park, Lassen Volcanic National Park, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Zion National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.
Wherever you are, do not look directly at the eclipsed sun or you can get a serious eye injury. Wear specially made protective glasses that can be bought online or create your own contraption by punching a small pinhole in a cardboard box.
If you buy special eyewear, you can recycle it. Two weeks later, Venus will crawl across the face of the sun — a rare occurrence known as the “transit of Venus” that will also require viewers to take precaution.
Veteran eclipse chaser Jay Pasachoff has traveled to remote corners of the globe to see the moon take a bite of the sun. This time, the Williams College astronomer will travel to New Mexico with his students to collect data.
Sunday’s event will be his 14th ring eclipse and 55th solar eclipse overall. So what does someone who has seen it all look forward to?
Seeing “the symmetry of a ring of sunlight around the dark silhouette of the moon,” Pasachoff said in an email.
The next ring eclipse won’t be visible in the U.S. for more than a decade — October 2023.
___
Online:
U.S. viewing details: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OHtables/OH2012-Tab03.pdf
World viewing details: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OHtables/OH2012-Tab02.pdf
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AP writers Eric Talmadge in Japan, Peter Enav in Taiwan and Kelvin Chan in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
___
Follow Alicia Chang at http://www.twitter.com/SciWriAlicia.

‘Ring of Fire’ eclipse visible from China to Texas this Sunday evening is an Article from: Fox Rio 2 News RGV

A mother is now behind bars after allegedly providing her daughter with Xanax bars and her friends, so they can drug themselves and sell them.

Concerned parents told authorities their teenagers were coming home under the influence of narcotics, and they suspected they had received the drugs at this house. The investigation led authorities the residence at 409 Rio Colorado Street in San Juan, where 53-year-old Norma del Angel-Garcia was arrested.

Del Angel-Garcia allegedly hosted parties where she provided the Xanax bars to her 17-year-old daughter and her two 16-year-old friends.

In the us every day 2,500 teenagers between ages 12 and 17 try a painkiller for the first time. In San Juan, authorities say they are seeing more and more cases of parents introducing their kids to prescribed drugs. So far this year, they’ve investigated three cases of this nature.
Del Angel-Garcia received a $300,000 bond, for three charges of distributing a controlled substance to a minor and is in an Hidalgo County cell.

Reporting for Fox 2 News, I’m Victoria Acosta-Rubio.

Mother Arrested for Providing Drugs to Daughter and Minors is an Article from: Fox Rio 2 News RGV

Fox 2 News Reporter Tom Rader takes us into this world in the first part of his series – The fine line between legal and illegal gambling.

Special Series: Illegal Gambling is an Article from: Fox Rio 2 News RGV

Border agents at the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge seized over $1 million dollars worth of cocaine. CBP Officers inspected a Chevrolet Tahoe driven by a Mexican National, with legal residency in Mission, on Saturday. Upon further inspection, agents uncovered over 32 pounds of the paraphernalia hidden throughout the vehicle. The SUV and drugs were seized; the man is in the custody of federal agents.

Cocaine Seized at Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge is an Article from: Fox Rio 2 News RGV