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Top 10 Twitter Pics of the Week

Click here to view the gallery: Top 10 Twitter Pics of the Week -- 1/31

Michael Jordan hanging out with Justin Bieber? Apparently so, according to Twitter.

[More from Mashable: Super Bowl Teams Are Losers on Facebook Likes]

Our friends over at Skylines sorted through 34,220,279 unique Twitter photos from the past week and compiled the most shared and retweeted. Check out the gallery above to see the top 10.

SEE ALSO: Twitter 'Experimenting' With Vine Porn Censorship

[More from Mashable: How to Create Facebook Events Without Annoying Your Friends]

Any cool pics we didn't include? Tell us your favorite photos from the past week in the comments below.

Image courtesy of Alfredo Flores

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/top-10-twitter-pics-week-210622311.html

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Rudy Gay heads to Toronto in Grizzlies' makeover

Rudy Gay is on his way to Toronto in the latest and most dramatic move in the Memphis Grizzlies' money-motivated makeover.

The Grizzlies agreed to trade their star swingman to the Raptors on Wednesday, parting with the leading scorer on a team that has aspirations of making a run in the powerful Western Conference.

The Raptors gave up point guard Jose Calderon and forward Ed Davis in the deal that also included Grizzlies backup center Hamed Haddadi, and Memphis then shipped Calderon to Detroit for Austin Daye and Tayshaun Prince.

"Players like this don't come along that often in terms of their availability," Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo said of Gay. "This was a very unique circumstance. We feel like we took advantage of it."

Memphis general manager Chris Wallace didn't mention finances in a statement issued Wednesday night, but there is no doubt they played a big role in the decision.

"We are excited to add three players who bring with them a tremendous amount of value to our team and have achieved incredible success on the pro, college and Olympic levels," Wallace said in a statement Wednesday night. "In these players, we welcome NBA Champion and Olympic gold medalist Tayshaun Prince, as well as up-and-coming athletic forwards Ed Davis, who won an NCAA title at North Carolina, and Austin Daye."

The moves surprised many around the league, including Calderon and Prince.

"It's been my home for eight years," Calderon said in Atlanta, shortly before leaving the arena. "I've done everything possible for this team. It's tough. The fans have been with me since Day 1. It's tough."

Prince and Daye have both spent their entire careers with Detroit, and Prince was the last link to the proud championship team of 2003-04.

"Trading a player like Tayshaun Prince, who has meant so much to our organization and contributed to our championship success, is never easy," Pistons president Joe Dumars said in a statement. "We want to thank Tayshaun for his professionalism and contributions over the last 10 years. We also appreciate everything that Austin Daye has done for our team both on and off the court over the past three-plus years."

Gay, averaging 17.2 points and 5.9 rebounds, signed a five-year, $82 million maximum contract in July 2010 with Memphis. The 6-foot-8 small forward is due $16.5 million this season with $37 million more over the next two years. That's a big number for new owner Robert Pera, who took over the franchise last November and has quickly started addressing the team's salary situation.

Just over a week ago, the Grizzlies sent valuable reserve Marreese Speights and two other players to Cleveland in a move that cleared $6.4 million in salary and avoided a $4 million luxury tax hit this season. Team officials said that move put the Grizzlies in position not to have to make a move this season.

Memphis coach Lionel Hollins had been lobbying to keep his five starters together the rest of this season, but he apparently lost that fight. It's a significant move for a team that was fourth in the Western Conference and three games behind the third-place Clippers.

"Wow," Grizzlies point guard Mike Conley tweeted.

Trading away Gay also eases a luxury tax hit due next season, while concentrating the team around center Marc Gasol and All-Star forward Zach Randolph. The Grizzlies had their best playoff run in 2011 when they knocked off then-No. 1 seed San Antonio before losing to Oklahoma City in seven games in the Western semifinals ? all with Gay on the bench after needing season-ending shoulder surgery.

"Wow that was 1 crazy trade today," Oklahoma City center Kendrick Perkins tweeted. "Are you serious Rudy Gay is right there under KD, Lebron, Kobe, and Melo. (hashtag)badtrade."

They do run the risk of upsetting the chemistry on a tight-knit group, even if there were some questions of how Gay's scoring fit in with the ball-dominant frontcourt of Gasol and Randolph.

But there may be more deals like this one coming in the new NBA economy.

The collective bargaining agreement negotiated after last year's lockout makes the penalties for exceeding the salary cap far more punitive, and the system begins in earnest next season. Playing in a smaller market, the Grizzlies don't have the extra revenue from lavish television contracts like teams in Los Angeles or New York, which makes it that much more difficult to go over the cap. But even teams such as the Lakers and Bulls will likely have to be more responsible with their spending under the new deal, where repeat offenders are taxed at rates that multiply with each consecutive year they go over the cap.

The first domino fell before the season, when Oklahoma City sent James Harden to Houston instead of signing him to a big-money extension, and more are sure to follow.

All told, the Grizzlies shaved nearly $40 million over the next three years after the two trades.

They'll get a hard-nosed defender in return in Prince, the 32-year-old forward who was drafted by the Pistons in the first round in 2002. He is averaging 11.7 points and 4.6 rebounds per game this season.

"Shocked obviously," Prince said after the Pistons played the Pacers. "I didn't find out, obviously, until I got here. I'm shocked, but it's a business and you never know what's going to happen."

Calderon joined the Raptors from Spain in 2005 and has been a fan favorite and trusted veteran on the team. He is averaging 11.1 points and 7.4 assists this season for the Raptors (16-29), who are desperately trying to scratch their way into the playoff picture. Toronto was in 11th place before the games were played Wednesday, 5? games behind Boston for the eight seed.

Calderon and Davis had both been starting for the Raptors, but they do have Kyle Lowry waiting in the wings at point guard and likely see Gay's scoring punch as the key to vaulting back into the discussion in a mediocre conference.

Coach Dwane Casey will have to deal with a bit of a log jam with Gay, DeMar DeRozan, Terrence Ross, Landry Fields and Alan Anderson as wing players with similar skill sets. But getting a player with Gay's natural scoring talent, even at the expense of parting with a valued player like Calderon, proved too enticing to pass up.

"Hopefully this team is back to the playoffs as soon as possible," Calderon said.

___

AP Sports Writers Teresa Walker in Nashville, Tenn., Larry Lage in Detroit and freelance writer Amy Jinkner-Lloyd in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rudy-gay-heads-toronto-grizzlies-makeover-025351003--spt.html

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Student Debt Climbs as Credit Risk Gets Steeper

Americans now owe an average of $27,253 in student loans as the delinquency rate has increased by more than 47 percent since 2005, according to a new report.

Some 27 million borrowers, or slightly more than 13 percent of the country, have two or more outstanding student loans, according the report from FICO Labs, the research arm of the credit-score agency. That number has more than doubled in the past eight years. In the 2005 report, the average student loan debt was $17,233.

In the latest study, the average credit score for new loans was going down as students with less ability to repay their loans are being granted loans with fewer questions.

The reason student debt is rising so quickly isn't hard to guess. The cost of attending college has been skyrocketing, while the recession and the scarcity of jobs over the past five years has sent 20-somethings back to school in droves. Difficulteconomic times "disproportionately impact young people," said Frederic Huynh, senior principal scientist at FICO,

A study by the Federal Reserve's New York branch last year showed $580 billion of the total $870 billion in student loan debt is owed by people under age 40. The total now exceeds credit card debt ($693 billion) and auto loans ($730).(Read More: Student-Loan Delinquencies Now Surpass Credit Cards)

The recession is hardly the only factor driving the growth in student loans, which have simply become easier to get. In 2010, the Obama administration pushed through legislation that made the federal government the primary issuer of student debt, and encouraged borrowing by cutting credit requirements, capping interest rates and reducing monthly repayments to 10 percent of a graduate's discretionary income, from 15 percent.

Some observers, including Republicans in Congress, have called the White House's approach a recipe for disaster, while Democrats have moved to lift the burden of debt further by forgiving any loan of any amount on which a graduate has paid 10 percent of his or her discretionary income for 10 years.

Critics are comparing the current situation to the mortgage debacle of the early 2000s that created the housing crisis and helped to bring on the recession.

FICO's report suggests that student debt obligations have already been downgraded in many Americans' minds. Student debt is unlike other debt by nature, because it is unsecured, Huynh pointed out. "If I stopped making my car payments, they would repossess my car. But the lender can't take my degree back. This influences the higher rate of delinquency."

Student debt is also becoming different in other ways. One chart in the report shows how student-loan debtors pay their other obligations. "What was consistent was that they were least likely to pay student loans," said Huynh. Those who also had auto loans and mortgages would put resources toward those payments first (though, perhaps because of the foreclosure crisis, delinquency on mortgages grew at a much higher rate than on college loans in the period under study). An interesting side note is that car loans are now more likely to be paid before mortgage loans, a switch from 2005.

Most curiously, as the median FICO score of a student borrower fell from 670 to 665 overall, the behavior of even those with better credit scores deteriorated when it came to repaying student debt. A student borrower with a credit score of 697 today is behaving like someone who had a credit score of 667 eight years ago.

"If a lender set a cut-off score of 667 to achieve 10:1 repayment odds in 2005," the report said, "they would need to raise their cutoff 30 points to achieve the same level of risk in 2010." This is a far shift than any other kind of debt in the recession.

Whether or not student borrowers take their debt seriously, the credit agencies do. "Any default can have a material impact on your score," said Huynh, and the FICO reports, no doubt with gratification, that the agencies' scores still match up well with the actual credit risk posed by college kids. FICO urges greater efforts to educate high-school seniors and their families about what student loans can mean to your financial future.

But among lenders, delinquency on a student loan is clearly not as significant a blot on a person's financial record as on other kinds of debt. That's because, statistically, credit-card defaults are much better indicators of credit unworthiness .

Nothing in report suggests that college grads are simply cavalier about borrowing. Rather, as their financial predicament deepens with the amount they owe, their account balance may lose its sense of reality. In 2005, people who owed $100,000 in student loans were a better risk than the rest of the population. These steep borrowers were more likely then to have bright prospects and burgeoning salaries.

Today, the $100,000 borrower is a worse risk, reflecting the hopeless position in which a young person can find themselves, even with an expensive college degree. Were mere irresponsibility to blame, defaults would logically be equally common for less consequential amounts. Instead, the turning point for increased risk, according to FICO, comes at about $40,000.

Source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100420887

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Cameron makes unexpected visit to Libya

LONDON (AP) ? British Prime Minister David Cameron pledged to help Libya's police and army Thursday as he made an unannounced visit to the North African country's capital, Tripoli.

Cameron ? fresh off a visit to Algeria, where he struck a security partnership ? said Britain was prepared to provide training and advice to Libya amid growing concerns over security in the region.

His office said Cameron will hold bilateral talks in Libya and discuss how Britain can help build a "strong, prosperous, democratic" Libya. The talks will explore what support and expertise the U.K. can offer to strengthen security and defeat terrorism, Downing Street added.

Cameron's visit to the Libyan capital comes just days after Britain's Foreign Office warned of a potential threat against the U.K. embassy in Tripoli.

Just before that, the Foreign Office joined other governments in urging their citizens in Benghazi, Libya's second largest city, to evacuate in response to what was described as an imminent threat to Westerners.

The Foreign Office on Thursday would not comment on the status of those threats but said it was "taking appropriate measures."

Locals greeted Cameron as he toured Tripoli's famous Martyrs' Square amid tight security.

Cameron also visited a police training center on the outskirts of the capital, telling police recruits it was "very good to be back." He last visited Libya in September 2011.

"I will never forget the scenes I saw in Tripoli and Benghazi," he said, according to Britain's Press Association. "The British people want to stand with you and help you deliver the greater security that Libya needs. So we have offered training and support from our police and our military."

The prime minister is later expected to travel to Liberia for a development conference.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cameron-makes-unexpected-visit-libya-124551953.html

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10 Ways Liz Lemon Made the World a Better Place

On Thursday, we say goodbye to 30 Rock, the show we loved even more than Tracy Jordan loves cornbread.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/30-rock-ending-10-ways-liz-lemon-made-world-better-place/1-a-518681?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3A30-rock-ending-10-ways-liz-lemon-made-world-better-place-518681

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Drones to Watch Over US Highways

Drones could help human workers safeguard the 4 million miles of U.S. highways crisscrossing the country. The flying robots could inspect bridges and roads, survey lands with laser mapping, and even alert officials to traffic jams or accidents.

One such project focused on studying the use of drones recently received $74,984 from the Federal Highway Administration and the Georgia Department of Transportation. Researchers plan to spend the next year figuring out how drones could help workers as they go about inspecting and maintaining the safety of public roads and highways.

"Drones could keep workers safer because they won't be going into traffic or hanging off a bridge," said Javier Irizarry, director of the CONECTech Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "It would help with physical limitations of the human when doing this kind of work."

Georgia represents one of several states considering how civilian drones could do some jobs for? transportation departments, the police and firefighters. The state is also competing to become one of several flight-test regions for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ? a step in the FAA's plan to open up U.S. civilian airspace to drones by 2015.

Drones of all sizes and shapes could help safeguard state roads and bridges, Irizarry said. Small drones with cameras might take off vertically from the back of a truck to help inspect a bridge. [Video: RoboBees Design Poses Intriguing Engineering Challenges]

The larger, aircraft-size Reaper or Global Hawk drones could spend hours surveying traffic conditions or carry light detection and ranging (LIDAR) equipment that can map terrain with millions of laser pulses. That could potentially replace the expensive use of manned helicopters doing the same job.

Irizarry gave the example of the spherical drones that mapped a huge alien base in the 2012 science fiction film "Prometheus" as an analogy for how today's larger drones could aid in above-ground laser mapping. He has also enlisted the help of Eric Johnson, an aerospace engineer at Georgia Tech, to figure out the best role for drones.

"We're going to look at the different divisions that [DOT] has and see how they do things like surveying, safety monitoring or using traffic cameras," Irizarry told TechNewsDaily. "Maybe they could be using drone technology for a similar purpose."

But the human factor also matters. Georgia Tech researchers will spend the next year studying the best control schemes or interfaces for human workers to deploy drones ? probably regular video displays rather than more futuristic augmented-reality goggles or technology, Irizarry said. They'll also consider how to retrain human workers if drones end up taking over some jobs.

You can follow TechNewsDaily Senior Writer Jeremy Hsu on Twitter @jeremyhsu. Follow TechNewsDaily on Twitter @TechNewsDaily. We're also on?Facebook?&?Google+.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/drones-watch-over-us-highways-155240670.html

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Sports in brief: Lee makes a splash with Olympians

Published: January 30, 2013 3:00 PM
Updated: January 30, 2013 3:50 PM

James Lee led the way for the Abbotsford Olympians swim club in a meet at the Vancouver Aquatic Centre earlier this month.

Lee broke eight club records, won a bronze medal in the 50-metre butterfly, and posted his first AAA qualifying time ??10:09.02 in the 100m fly. The AAA standard is what swimmers must meet to compete against the best swimmers in the province.

Also attaining new standards were Katie Charest and Tobyn Smith. Charest qualified her first AA standard in the 50m freestyle, while Smith notched a second AA time in the 200m backstroke, also breaking a club record and earning the bronze medal.

McKenna Postles, Peyton Smith and Alex Smith all added 'A' times to their list of accomplishments, while Charest, McKenna Postles and Hannah Weinkauf were all club record breakers.

The Olympians finished ninth out of 15 teams, while posting 92 per cent best times and breaking 29 club records.

BARTEL, KENDALL HONOURED BY UFV

Basketball players Courtney Bartel and Nathan Kendall have been named the UFV Cascades/Abbotsford Heat athletes of the week.

Bartel, a fourth-year guard, averaged 11 points per game as the Cascades women's hoopsters won a pair of weekend home games vs. the UNBC Timberwolves.

?It was great to see Courtney playing aggressive offence again," UFV women's coach Al Tuchscherer said. "She has incredible speed and a real silky shot, when those two weapons are being utilized she is very, very tough and when she is tough that makes us very hard to defend as a team."

Kendall, a versatile sophomore out of Abbotsford's Yale Secondary, played the entire 40 minutes both nights vs. UNBC, averaging 18 points, eight rebounds and four assists per game.

?Nate was a work horse on the weekend," UFV men's coach Adam Friesen noted. "We could count on him to give us 40 minutes both nights as we battle through injuries."

The UFV athlete of the week awards are sponsored by the Heat.

REGISTER FOR LACROSSE

Abbotsford Minor Lacrosse is hosting a pair of registration sessions for the coming season.

The first runs at Abbotsford Recreation Centre on Saturday, Feb. 2, and the second is set for Matsqui Recreation Centre on Feb. 16. Both events run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The association offers teams from tyke to midget.

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Source: http://www.abbynews.com/sports/189101131.html

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Gun owner map ricochet: Blogger publishes journalists' personal data

A newspaper published names and addresses of thousands of legal handgun owners, generating widespread criticism. In retaliation, a blogger mapped the names and addresses of the journalists.

By Brad Knickerbocker,?Staff writer / December 27, 2012

Hand guns that were turned in by their owners in a trash bin at a gun buyback held by the Los Angeles Police Department. People can anonymously trade in their guns, no questions asked, for $200 grocery store gift cards for automatic weapons and $100 gift cards for shotguns, handguns and rifles.

David McNew/REUTERS

Enlarge

The flap over the newspaper that published information about handgun owners in two New York counties has ricocheted back toward the news organization.

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Thousands of critics ? including some journalism professionals ? have weighed in. And at least one blogger has retaliated by publishing the names and addresses of editors and executives at the Journal News, the publication headquartered in White Plains, N.Y., north of New York City and part of the Gannett organization.

Still, the Journal News is not backing down. Editors say they?ll publish information on handgun owners in a third county (Putnam) once county officials have responded to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that resulted in tens of thousands of names and addresses in Westchester and Rockland Counties.

The controversy began over the weekend when the Journal News ran a story on some 44,000 registered handgun owners in?the two counties, including names and addresses showing exactly where those gun owners live using Google Maps. ?The gun owner next door: What you don't know about the weapons in your neighborhood,? read the headline.

In the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school massacre that killed 20 first-graders and six school employees, quickly followed by a raging debate over gun control and Second Amendment rights, it?s not surprising that journalists would look for fresh and provocative angles to cover the story.

David Gregory, host of NBC?s ?Meet the Press,? has taken flak for showing an ammunition magazine in his interview with National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre last Sunday. Such large-capacity magazines are banned in the District of Columbia, where the show was taped.

The online magazine Slate has partnered with the anonymous creator of?the Twitter feed @GunDeaths to craft what it calls ?an interactive, crowdsourced tally of the toll firearms have taken since Dec. 14? ? the day when 20-year-old Adam Lanza, armed with an assault-style rifle, two handguns, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in large-capacity magazines, forced his way into the Sandy Hook grade school in Newtown.

The Slate map details 206 gunshot deaths in the United States since Sandy Hook, including 21 teens and children.

But publishing the names and addresses of legitimate handgun owners is seen as very different from tallying gun deaths or discussing aspects of weaponry. (The Journal News report does not include ?long guns? ? shotguns and rifles, including assault-style rifles ? which do not require licenses.)

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/KoZ8_n-ciWo/Gun-owner-map-ricochet-Blogger-publishes-journalists-personal-data

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Childhood Hearing Loss: Beware Noisy Toys | PeopleHearingBetter

Posted on Monday, December 10, 2012

Your child?s blaringly loud toy might be more than just aggravating. It could harm their hearing. Unlike other safety aspects for toys, sound level is not regulated in the United States and manufacturers are not pressured to follow even basic standards when it comes to noise. In fact, twenty of this year's toys tested by Sight and Sound Hearing Association can cause hearing loss within fifteen minutes.

It has been shown that some children's toys create noises in excess of 120 decibels?a measurement of sound. That?s louder than the siren from an ambulance. Sounds greater than 85 db listened to for more than fifteen minutes can cause childhood hearing loss, so it seems unbelievable that some toys have been measured at 129 db. That?s not even reasonably safe as each increase of ten means it?s ten times more damaging. These explosively loud sounds create greater difficulties when listened to for longer periods or at closer distances?as children are known to do.

The admonition, ?Too loud, too long, too close? is used by the National Institute of Health to create awareness around the only preventable type of hearing loss?noise induced hearing loss (NIHL). Government programs and campaigns raise awareness, but without regulations it?s up to parents to beware noisy toys and to guard their children?s hearing.

How does noise induced damage to hearing happen? Inside the ear are small, delicate hairs that conduct sounds. Injury to these hair cells can come from exposure, sudden or prolonged, to loud noises, which can damage these important noise conducting hair cells. This can result in temporary or permanent hearing loss. Toys that talk?pretend phones, talking dolls, toy-computers, walkie-talkies, toy tools that produce realistic work sounds, toys that produce sirens or whistles are just a few of the dangers. Below are a few steps parents can take to protect children from hearing loss due to toys:

Cover the speaker. Using age-appropriate material, duct tape or clothe, to cover the speaker can muffle the sounds.

Take out the batteries. Taking out the batteries can eliminate dangerous sounds, especially if they are replaced by a child?s imagination.

Discard or recycle toys that are just too loud. In some cases, there is no way to make a noisy toy safe. These toys should be tossed out or if possible recycled.

Before purchasing any toy, listen to the sound. If it?s loud enough to make you uncomfortable in the toy aisle, it is not something you want in your home.

Make your family and friends aware of your concerns. Often times it is the toy bought by a grandparent or a well-meaning friend that can make the most noise. Explaining the dangers to others will help keep dangerous toys out of your house, and away from your child?who might not understand why you are taking away their new toy.

Consider a holiday reminder. In some instances it's appropriate to remind parents of the dangers of loud sounds when you are sending out holiday invitations. A simple, but effective note that says, ?Help protect our child?s hearing. Please don?t purchase overly loud toys! Thank you!?

Knowledge is key. Become familiar with the toys most likely to cause childhood hearing loss. Emax Health has an annual list of Top 20 worst toys and so does Sight and Sound Hearing Association

Regular visits to an audiologist-- like visits to an eye doctor will help children keep their hearing fitness. Let?s spread the word about this issue. It?s time to make people aware of the third largest health problem in the nation?hearing loss and all the noisy culprits that could be lurking in your child?s toy-box right now. If you need help finding a hearing health provider in your area, click on the link below.

Source: http://phb.secondsensehearing.com/content/childhood-hearing-loss-beware-noisy-toys

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Chevron accuses NY State comptroller of ethics breach

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Chevron Corp sought to open an investigation on Tuesday into New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, claiming he pressured the oil company to settle environmental litigation in Ecuador in exchange for campaign contributions from supporters of the lawsuit's plaintiffs.

Chevron said it filed a complaint before the New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics, seeking a probe of DiNapoli and current and past members of his staff.

In a statement, Chevron said the plaintiffs' supporters have contributed more than $60,000 to DiNapoli's campaign, as well as "other political benefits."

The complaint alleges that Steven Donziger, the plaintiffs' U.S. legal adviser, and his associates wooed DiNapoli into applying pressure on Chevron through campaign donations and an offer to meet with the rock musician Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler.

The company said DiNapoli and Donziger and his associates engaged in "an apparent quid pro quo exchange."

DiNapoli oversees the New York State Common Retirement Fund, which owns more than $800 million of Chevron stock, the company said, citing U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

"This is a baseless attempt by big oil to intimidate me," DiNapoli said in a statement. "The allegations are without merit."

A spokeswoman for DiNapoli, Jennifer Freeman, said the comptroller has never met Sting.

"Having failed at derailing the lawsuit, (Chevron) now seeks to discredit anyone associated with it," a spokeswoman for Donziger, Karen Hinton, said in an email.

The specific actions Chevron objected to by DiNapoli include sponsoring shareholder resolutions "and making public statements against Chevron that were explicitly intended to pressure the company to settle" the lawsuit.

In a statement, DiNapoli said his call on Chevron to settle the Ecuador litigation "is about protecting shareholder value and fulfilling my fiduciary responsibility to the New York State Common Retirement Fund."

Chevron has been locked in an almost two-decade conflict with residents of Ecuador's Lago Agrio region over claims that Texaco, which Chevron bought in 2001, contaminated the area from 1964 to 1992. The plaintiffs from the villages in the oil-rich Amazon won an $18.2 billion judgment from an Ecuadorean court against Chevron. The company claims the judgment was fraudulent and unenforceable.

Graham Erion, an attorney representing the Ecuadorians, said in a statement that DiNapoli "has every right to question Chevron's actions... Turning on its own shareholders shows how desperate Chevron has become. Chevron needs to listen to its investors instead of attacking them and own up to its responsibilities in Ecuador."

Chevron, based in San Ramon, California, has not settled the litigation in Ecuador.

Because Chevron has few assets in Ecuador that can be taken as compensation, the plaintiffs are trying to get the ruling enforced in other countries.

Earlier this year, DiNapoli sponsored a shareholder resolution that would have required Chevron to appoint an independent director with environmental expertise. At the time, he and 39 other Chevron investors also called on the company to settle the protracted legal battle. DiNapoli made a similar appeal last year and in previous years.

A U.S. trial has been set for next fall in the Chevron lawsuit that accuses Ecuadorean residents, their lawyers and advisers of fraud in obtaining the pollution award.

(Reporting By Nichola Groom; editing by Andrew Hay, Leslie Adler, Bernard Orr and Leslie Gevirtz)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chevron-accuses-ny-state-comptroller-ethics-breach-232827698--finance.html

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