Professional Bull Riders: Who Is the Sexiest Cowboy Alive?

TV Watch

By Rennie Dyball

01/04/2013 at 03:45 PM EST

The bulls are back in town – and they're bringing a bunch of strapping cowboys with them.

The Professional Bull Riders kick off their 2013 season Friday at N.Y.C.'s Madison Square Garden with a whole lot of cowboy hats, chaps and swagger.

In the arena, the riders will battle it out atop the toughest bulls in the world, but here on PEOPLE.com, we're pitting them against each other. Get to know a little bit about these top 25 bull riders in the most dangerous eight seconds in sports and let us know who you think is the sexiest of them all. (Scroll through the carousel above for more photos of our top five if you're on a desktop or laptop computer.)

From left: Guilherme Marchi, Luke Snyder, J.B. Mauney, Silvano Alves and Douglas Duncan

Courtesy of PBR and Bull Stock Media

Guilherme Marchi
A former world champion, Marchi (nicknamed "Hollywood" for his movie-star looks) fought and scraped his way through the 2012 season, only to come up just short of another gold buckle. And his year wasn't without distractions: the Brazilian cowboy's wife, Patricia, suffered major injuries in a rodeo accident. She's since recovered, and this 30-year-old family man often gives shout-outs to his two young children on the PBR telecasts.

Luke Snyder
Snyder, 30, won readers' hearts last year when he wed Jen Manna in a rustic, romantic celebration. His bride may sum up the Missouri man's appeal best: "He was the cutest thing I'd ever seen. I couldn't get enough of that hat, that accent!" the new Mrs. Snyder told PEOPLE of first meeting her future husband. "I don't think I'd ever met a cowboy before. But I just thought he was the bee's knees."

J.B. Mauney
Newlywed and new dad Mauney, 25, made history in his sport last year after a broken hand nearly ended his season. Never one to sit out a competition, he did the nearly impossible and switched riding hands (riders use one hand to hold their bull rope while the other hand is raised in the air). PBR co-founder Ty Murray likened the move to a major league pitcher switching his throwing arm. Look for the now-healthy North Carolina cowboy to pick the toughest bulls and swing for the fences all season. "Anytime somebody tells me I can't do something," Mauney has said, "I'm gonna try everything I can to do it."

Silvano Alves
In October, Alves became the first back-to-back PBR World Champion in history. "Every bull rider dreams of winning the world championship. To do it twice is very special," says the 25-year-old Brazilian rider, who took home top honors in 2011 just after being crowned Rookie of the Year. But he's managed to stay humble amid all the records he's broken. "No one's ever done this before and I didn't think I could ever do it," he said last fall. "From when I was little I never would have dreamed I could do this."

Douglas Duncan
After growing up in a ranching family, Duncan says he's into everything about the lifestyle. "I love waking up in the morning, putting on my hat; I love everything about being a cowboy." To keep in shape, the 25-year-old Texan focuses on stretching, core work and riding – both horses and bulls. After hip surgery sidelined him last year, Duncan is hoping to crack the top ranks of the sport.

Runners up: For their classic cowboy names alone, (other than Pistol, these are all their genuine given names), we're granting these guys honorable mentions in the sexy race.

• Stormy Wing: The 23-year-old Texan, ranked 17th in the world, says his parents always planned to name their child Stormy, boy or girl.

• Pistol Robinson: "My dad called me Pistol, and rodeo buddies picked it up," Robinson tells PEOPLE of his longtime nickname (his given name is Caleb). "I lived a double life. Caleb went to school, and Pistol was the bull rider." He broke both legs in a wreck at last year's New York City event, but after a year of grueling rehab, Robinson is eager to compete again.

• Ryan Dirteater: Thanks to his Native American heritage, this aptly named Oklahoma cowboy's nickname is "Cherokee Kid." He's currently ranked 14th going into the 2013 season.

• Chase Outlaw: A rising star in the PBR, 20-year-old Outlaw's style has been likened to that of newly-retired PBR great Chris Shivers.

The Monster Energy Invitational at Madison Square Garden airs Saturday at 10 p.m. ET and Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network. View the full event and TV schedule here.

Who do you think is the Sexiest Cowboy Alive?

Guilherme Marchi

Luke Snyder

J.B. Mauney

Silvano Alves

Douglas Duncan

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Data helps pace Wall Street higher, but Apple drags

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks advanced on Friday, putting the S&P 500 on track for its biggest weekly gain in over a year after a jobs report showed employers kept the pace of hiring steady in December.

The Labor Department said payrolls outside the farming sector grew by 155,000 jobs last month, slightly below November's level. Gains in employment were distributed broadly throughout the economy, from manufacturing and construction to healthcare.

Also helping to keep equities afloat was data from the Institute for Supply Management showing U.S. service sector activity expanding the most in 10 months.

"It feels like the economy, we're not burning the barn down, but we are doing fine - we seem to be growing and the fiscal cliff does not seem to have weighed too much on December employment," said Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Windham Financial Services in Charlotte, Vermont.

The S&P 500 index's weekly gain would be its largest since December 2011. The majority of the gains were achieved earlier in the holiday-shortened week, including the largest daily gain for the benchmark S&P index in more than a year on Wednesday, after a deal was struck in Washington to avert the "fiscal cliff."

"So far there is nothing that has come out that has been negative following the push, they tried to read into the Fed minutes yesterday and take it down but so far they haven't had much success," Mendelsohn said.

But a drag on Apple Inc shares, down 2.6 percent to $528.36, kept the Nasdaq near the uchanged mark, as the iPhone maker continued its downward path of recent months.

Adding to concerns about Apple's ability to produce more innovative products, rival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd is expected to widen its lead over Apple in global smartphone sales this year with growth of 35 percent. Market researcher Strategy Analytics said Samsung had a broad product lineup.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 28.46 points, or 0.21 percent, to 13,419.82. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> rose 5.47 points, or 0.37 percent, to 1,464.84. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> added 2.50 points, or 0.08 percent, to 3,103.07.

The CBOE Volatility index <.vix>, a measure of investor anxiety, was on pace for its fourth straight decline, a drop of nearly 40 percent which has pushed the index to its lowest level since September.

Eli Lilly and Co was among the biggest boost's to the S&P, up 3.5 percent to $51.47 after the pharmaceuticals maker said it expects its 2013 earnings to increase to $3.75 to $3.90 per share, excluding items, from $3.30 to $3.40 per share in 2012.

Fellow drugmaker Johnson & Johnson rose 1.2 percent to $71.55 after Deutsche Bank upgraded the Dow component to a "Buy" from a "Hold" rating. The NYSEArca pharmaceutical index <.drg> climbed 0.4 percent.

Shares of Mosaic Co gained 2.7 percent to $58.29. Excluding items, the fertilizer producer's quarterly earnings beat analysts' expectations, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The rise in payrolls shown by the jobs data did not make a dent in the still-high U.S. unemployment rate, but it calmed fears about the possibility of the U.S. Federal Reserve ending its highly stimulative monetary policy.

Concerns about the duration of the Fed's stimulus program prompted a pull-back from the market Thursday after a rally.

Minutes from the Fed's December policy meeting, released Thursday, showed Fed officials were increasingly worried about the risks of asset purchases to financial markets, though they looked set to continue with the open-ended stimulus program for now.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

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Malala Yousafzai, Shot by Pakistani Taliban, Is Discharged From Hospital

LONDON — Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head three months ago by the Taliban for advocating the education of girls, has been discharged from a British hospital. Doctors said she had made “excellent progress” and would be staying with her family nearby before returning for further surgery to rebuild her skull in about four weeks.

Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, via Reuters

 Medical experts say Ms. Yousafzai, 15, has a good chance of making a full recovery because of her youth, but the long-term impact of her head injuries remains unclear.

“Following discussions with Malala and her medical team, we decided that she would benefit from being at home with her parents and two brothers,” said Dr. Dave Rosser, the medical director.

Video released by Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham showed Ms. Yousafzai walking slowly out of a ward, wearing a head scarf and accompanied by a nurse.

The release was a promising turn for the teenage activist. Her shooting brought global condemnation of the Pakistani Taliban, whose fighters killed six female aid workers this week in the same region in northwestern Pakistan where Ms. Yousafzai was shot.

On Oct. 9, gunmen halted her school bus as it went through Mingora, the main town in the Swat Valley, singled her out and opened fire. A bullet grazed her brain, nearly killing her, and traveled through her head before lodging in her neck.

Six days later, after emergency treatment in Pakistan, she was airlifted to the hospital in Birmingham, which specializes in treating British soldiers wounded in action in Afghanistan.

Medical experts say Ms. Yousafzai has a good chance of making a full recovery because of her youth, but the long-term impact of her head injuries remains unclear.

In recent weeks, she has left the hospital regularly to spend time with her father, Ziauddin; her mother, Toorpekai; and her younger brothers, Khushal and Atul. The Pakistani government is paying for her treatment.

Ms. Yousafzai rose to prominence in 2009 with a blog for the BBC’s Urdu-language service that described life in Swat under Taliban rule. Later, she was featured in a documentary by The New York Times.

Now her father, a school headmaster, has accepted a three-year position as education attaché at the Pakistani Consulate in Birmingham, making it unlikely that the family will return to Pakistan anytime soon. In any event, it may be too dangerous.

The Taliban have vowed to attack the teenager again, and last month hundreds of students in Swat protested against plans to name their school after Ms. Yousafzai, saying it could endanger their lives. After she heard of the protest, she too asked that her name be removed from the school.

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Can the Government Really Ban Twitter Parody Accounts?

Arizona is entertaining a law that will make it a felony to use another person’s real name to make an  Internet profile intended to “harm, defraud, intimidate or threaten,” which to some sounds like a law against parody Twitter accounts. The legislation, if passed, would make Arizona one of a few states, including New York, California, Washington and Texas, to enact anti-online-impersonation laws. If these regulations seek to put a stop to fake representations online, that does sound like the end of fake celebrity baby accounts and Twitter death hoaxes. Then again, these laws have existed in these other places for years, and that hasn’t stopped the faux accounts from coming in. So what then does this mean?

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What kind of stuff is the law intended to prosecute?

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The law does not say that all uses of another person’s real name can be charged as a felony, but only profiles made for the more nefarious purposes fall into that territory. The legislation is  targeted at more serious forms of impersonation, like cyber bullying. Two Texas teens were arrested and charged under this law for creating a fake Facebook page to ruin a peer’s reputation, for example. Or, the case of Robert Dale Esparza Jr. who created a fake profile of his son’s vice principal on a porn site might fall under this law, suggests The Arizona Republic‘s Alia Beard Rau. Or, in one of the cases brought to court under the Texas version of this law, an Adam Limle created websites that portrayed a woman he used to date as a prostitute. (The case was eventually dropped because of a geographical loophole. Limle lived in Ohio, not Texas.) 

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Okay, the harm and threat in those situation is pretty clear. How can it at all apply to something relatively harmless, like a Twitter parody account? 

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The term “harm” is pretty vague, as this Texas Law blog explains, referring to that state’s version of this legislation, on which Arizona based its own law. “‘Harm’ can be very broadly construed–one person’s joke is another person’s harm,” writes Houston lawyer Stephanie Stradley. 

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So, that could extend to parody accounts then? 

Well, possibly. Stradley suggests that politicians who had parody accounts created to mock them might have a case. Some of the impersonation of Texas lawmakers has gone beyond just the jokey fake Twitter handle. Jeffwentworth.com is not the official site for Texas state senator, but rather redirects to the web site of the anti-tax advocate group Empower Texans which considers the San Antonio politician the “the most liberal Republican senator in Austin.” Wentworth told The New York Times this domain squatting amounted to “identity theft,” and could be the basis for the law’s usage. 

The law could also possibly effect sillier parody accounts, suggest privacy advocates. “The problem with this, and other online impersonation bills, is the potential that they could be used to go after parody or social commentary activities,” senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation Kurt Opsahl told The Arizona Republic’s Alia Beard Rau. ”While this bill is written to limit ‘intent to harm,’ if that is construed broadly, there could be First Amendment problems.”

Ok, but what about precedent? Has the law ever applied to a faux Twitter handle? 

Twitter has its own parody policy that mitigates a lot of the possible damage that could ever lead to a court case. Saint Louis Cardinals manager Anthony La Russa sued Twitter in 2009 because of a made-up account, but the account was removed before the case went anywhere (And that was before these laws went into effect.) 

But it’s not clear that parody would ever be considered harmful enough for the law. When California’s version went into effect, a first amendment lawyer suggested to SF Weekly‘s Joe Eskenazi that jokes could go pretty far without prosecution. “You’re going to have to have room for satire,” he said. The account would have to look fool people, he argued. “A key question is, ‘is it credibile?’” asks Simitian. “Do people who read it think it’s him?” Because of our increasing skepticism of things on Twitter, unless the site has verified checkmark, it’s unlikely that most people believe in a fake account for long. So, unless the imitation tweeter does something extremely harmful to someone’s character, it doesn’t sound like anyone would have a strong case. Alas, parody Twitter accounts, for better or worse (worse, right?) are here to stay. 

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Check Out This Year's Victoria's Secret Swim Cover Model

Stylewatch
Style News Now

01/03/2013 at 03:00 PM ET

Courtesy Victoria’s Secret

While most of the country is hiding from cold temps, the Victoria’s Secret Angels are heating things up! The ladies star in the 2013 swim catalogue — in mailboxes nationwide today — and South African beauty Candice Swanepoel has the privilege (again) of covering the coveted issue.

“It was such an honor to be picked for the cover,” the model tells PEOPLE. “It is such an iconic catalogue. Before I was a model, I used to see Gisele Bündchen, Tyra Banks and all of those iconic women on it. It is amazing that a little South African girl can get on the cover.”

In her big shot, Swanepoel wears a Very Sexy bandeau top — one Victoria’s Secret’s newest offerings for 2013 (in stores and online today). “I love it — it’s so sexy and gives me amazing cleavage,” the model shares.

For this catalogue, Swanepoel and her Angel pals hit the beaches of Miami and Turks and Caicos, and were shot by famed photographer Russell James. And though there is always pressure to look perfect in pictures, Swanepoel says she was never nervous during her shoot.

“Victoria’s Secret is like a big family,” she explains. “The swim shoots are always really fun, and I love being on the beach. I can’t really complain [about my job] — I feel very lucky!”

This year, the company is offering a little something extra for swim fans in the form of the new Angels & Artists video series, which basically pairs hot songs with hot models in bikinis. The first clip in the series, “Bikinis & Bruno Mars” (below), features Swanepoel and Doutzen Kroes making waves to the tune of Mars’s “Locked Out of Heaven.” Additional videos featuring music and models will be released throughout swimsuit season.

If this catalogue leaves you wanting more, you’re in luck: three more catalogues, shot in Tulum and St. Barth’s, will hit mailboxes throughout the season.

–Kate Hogan

PHOTOS: WANT TO GET BIKINI-READY? SHOP THIS STAR-INSPIRED WORKOUT GEAR!

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CDC: 1 in 24 admit nodding off while driving

NEW YORK (AP) — This could give you nightmares: 1 in 24 U.S. adults say they recently fell asleep while driving.

And health officials behind the study think the number is probably higher. That's because some people don't realize it when they nod off for a second or two behind the wheel.

"If I'm on the road, I'd be a little worried about the other drivers," said the study's lead author, Anne Wheaton of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the CDC study released Thursday, about 4 percent of U.S. adults said they nodded off or fell asleep at least once while driving in the previous month. Some earlier studies reached a similar conclusion, but the CDC telephone survey of 147,000 adults was far larger. It was conducted in 19 states and the District of Columbia in 2009 and 2010.

CDC researchers found drowsy driving was more common in men, people ages 25 to 34, those who averaged less than six hours of sleep each night, and — for some unexplained reason — Texans.

Wheaton said it's possible the Texas survey sample included larger numbers of sleep-deprived young adults or apnea-suffering overweight people.

Most of the CDC findings are not surprising to those who study this problem.

"A lot of people are getting insufficient sleep," said Dr. Gregory Belenky, director of Washington State University's Sleep and Performance Research Center in Spokane.

The government estimates that about 3 percent of fatal traffic crashes involve drowsy drivers, but other estimates have put that number as high as 33 percent.

Warning signs of drowsy driving: Feeling very tired, not remembering the last mile or two, or drifting onto rumble strips on the side of the road. That signals a driver should get off the road and rest, Wheaton said.

Even a brief moment nodding off can be extremely dangerous, she noted. At 60 mph, a single second translates to speeding along for 88 feet — the length of two school buses.

To prevent drowsy driving, health officials recommend getting 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night, treating any sleep disorders and not drinking alcohol before getting behind the wheel.

__

Online:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr

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Wall Street edges lower after Fed minutes

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks edged lower on Thursday after minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting showed growing concern about the risks of its highly stimulative monetary policy.

Despite the concerns about the effects of its asset purchases, the Fed look set to continue its open-ended stimulus program for now.

The minutes from the December meeting showed a growing reticence about further increases in the central bank's $2.9 trillion balance sheet, which it expanded sharply in response to the financial crisis and recession of 2007-2009.

Stocks had pushed the benchmark S&P 500 index 4.3 percent higher during a two-day run as investors turned their focus to upcoming battles in Congress, including likelihood of bitter fights over spending cuts and raising the federal debt ceiling.

"As we look down the pathway here, there are some real issues in front of the market. There is going to be a new battle in two months over the debt ceiling and sequestration and fourth-quarter earnings are going to start to come into focus," said Stephen Massocca, managing director at Wedbush Morgan in San Francisco.

"There are some issues out there that could hold this market back, but on the other side of the ledger, zero interest rates are a tremendous stock market flotation device."

The rally in equities began on the last day of 2012 on optimism a deal would be reached to avert the "fiscal cliff," and avoid a possible recession. Gains continued on Wednesday, the first trading day of 2013, with Wall Street's best performance since December 20, 2011 after Congress approved a fiscal compromise.

Retailers advanced after several major companies in the sector beat expectations of modest sales increases in December, with the S&P retail index <.spxrt> up 0.8 percent and the Morgan Stanley retail index <.mvr> up 0.6 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> dropped 17.47 points, or 0.13 percent, to 13,395.08. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> shed 2.30 points, or 0.16 percent, to 1,460.12. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> dipped 5.19 points, or 0.17 percent, to 3,107.07.

Economic data showed U.S. private-sector employers shrugged off a looming budget crisis and stepped up hiring in December, offering further evidence of underlying strength in the economy as 2012 ended.

The government's broader monthly payrolls report, due on Friday, is expected to show the economy created 150,000 jobs compared with 146,000 in November, according to a Reuters poll. The U.S. unemployment rate is seen holding steady at 7.7 percent.

Retailers advanced after several major companies in the sector beat expectations of modest sales increases in December, with the S&P retail index <.spxrt> up 0.8 percent and the Morgan Stanley retail index <.mvr> up 0.6 percent.

Shares in Costco Wholesale Corp rose 1.4 percent to $102.85 after the company reported a better-than-expected 9 percent rise in December sales at stores open at least a year.

Gap Inc stock climbed 3.1 percent to $32.33 following news that the retailer will buy women's fashion boutique Intermix Inc, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Family Dollar Stores Inc stumbled 12 percent to $56.38 on the company's report of lower-than-expected quarterly profit.

(Additional reporting by Angela Moon, Editing by Bernadette Baum and Kenneth Barry)

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Obama Signs Defense Bill, With Conditions

WASHINGTON — President Obama set aside his veto threat and late Wednesday signed a defense bill that imposes restrictions on transferring detainees out of military prisons in Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. But Mr. Obama attached a signing statement claiming that he has the constitutional power to override the limits in the law.

His move awakened a dormant issue from Mr. Obama’s first term: his broken promise to close the Guantánamo prison. Lawmakers intervened by imposing statutory restrictions on transfers of prisoners to other countries or into the United States, either for continued detention or for prosecution.

Now, as Mr. Obama prepares to begin his second term, Congress has tried to further restrict his ability to wind down the detention of terrorists worldwide, adding new limits in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013, which lawmakers approved in late December.

The bill extended and strengthened limits on transfers out of Guantánamo to troubled nations like Yemen, where the bulk of the remaining low-level detainees who have been cleared for repatriation are from. It also, for the first time, limited the Pentagon’s ability to transfer the roughly 50 non-Afghan citizens being held at the Parwan prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan at a time when the future of American detention operations there is murky.

Despite his objections, Mr. Obama signed the bill, saying its other provisions on military programs were too important to jeopardize. Early Thursday, shortly after midnight, the White House released the signing statement in which the president challenged several of its provisions.

For example, in addressing the new limits on the Parwan detainees, Mr. Obama wrote that the provision “could interfere with my ability as Commander in Chief to make time-sensitive determinations about the appropriate disposition of detainees in an active area of hostilities.”

He added that if he decided that the statute was operating “in a manner that violates constitutional separation of powers principles, my administration will implement it to avoid the constitutional conflict” – legalistic language that means interpreting the statute as containing an unwritten exception a president may invoke at his discretion.

Saying that he continued to believe that closing the Guantánamo prison was in the country’s fiscal and national security interests, Mr. Obama made a similar challenge to three sections that limit his ability to transfer detainees from Guantánamo, either into the United States for prosecution before a civilian court or for continued detention at another prison, or to the custody of another nation.

It was not clear, however, whether Mr. Obama intended to follow through, or whether he was just saber-rattling as a matter of principle. Mr. Obama had made a similar challenge a year ago to the Guantánamo transfer restrictions in the 2012 version of the National Defense Authorization Act, but – against the backdrop of the presidential election campaign – he did not invoke the authority he had claimed.

Andrea Prasow, senior counterterrorism counsel and advocate at Human Rights Watch, which advocates closing Guantánamo, criticized Mr. Obama for not vetoing the legislation despite his threat to do so.

“The administration blames Congress for making it harder to close Guantánamo, yet for a second year President Obama has signed damaging congressional restrictions into law,” she said. “The burden is on Obama to show he is serious about closing the prison.”

Signing statements are official documents issued by a president when he signs bills into law that instruct subordinates in the executive branch about how to implement the new statutes. In recent decades, starting with the Reagan administration, presidents have used the device with far greater frequency than in earlier eras to claim a constitutional right to bypass or override new laws.

The practice peaked under President George W. Bush, who used signing statements to advance sweeping theories of presidential power and challenged nearly 1,200 provisions over eight years – more than twice as many as all previous presidents combined.

The American Bar Association has called upon presidents to stop using signing statements, calling the practice “contrary to the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers.” A year ago, the group sent a letter to Mr. Obama restating its objection to the practice and urging him to instead veto bills if he thinks sections are unconstitutional.

As a presidential candidate, then-Senator Obama sharply criticized Mr. Bush’s use of the device as an overreach. Once in office, however, he said that he would use them only to invoke mainstream and widely accepted theories of the constitutional power of the president.

In his latest signing statement, Mr. Obama also objected to five provisions in which Congress required consultations and set out criteria over matters involving diplomatic negotiations about such matters as a security agreement with Afghanistan, saying that he would interpret the provisions so as not to inhibit “my constitutional authority to conduct the foreign relations of the United States.”

Mr. Obama raised concerns about several whistle-blower provisions that protected people who provide certain executive branch information to Congress from reprisals — including employees of contractors who uncover waste or fraud, and officials raising concerns about the safety and reliability of nuclear stockpiles.

He also took particular objection to a provision that directs the commander of the military’s nuclear weapons to submit a report to Congress “without change” detailing whether any reduction in nuclear weapons proposed by Mr. Obama would “create a strategic imbalance or degrade deterrence” relative to Russian stockpiles.

The provision, Mr. Obama said, “would require a subordinate to submit materials directly to Congress without change, and thereby obstructs the traditional chain of command.”

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Apple reportedly considering Waze acquisition to help fix iOS Maps app

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Robin Roberts Reunites with Her Dog 100 Days After Bone Marrow Transplant

People Pets

01/02/2013 at 03:30 PM EST

This may have been the best New Year's yet for Robin Roberts.

Exactly 100 days after successfully undergoing a bone marrow transplant, the Good Morning America host was reunited with her beloved dog, KJ, just days before ringing in 2013.

"Look who made it back for my 100 day celebration," she Tweeted on Dec. 29, with a photo of herself and KJ in a cuddly embrace. "We just keep staring at each [other] … can't believe she's finally home."

Roberts, who had the transplant Sept. 20, suffers from a rare blood disorder called myelodysplastic syndrome. The 100-day mark is a criticial milestone in her long recovery and she celebrated it on Twitter earlier that day.

"Every morning I mark the day post my bone marrow transplant. Today I reached a major milestone ... Day 100! Blessings..XO," she wrote.

In November, Roberts said that with each day comes a newfound strength.

"It's a journey that kind of zigzags, and there are complications and things like that, but I feel good. I feel stronger every day," she told her sister and donor, Sally-Ann Roberts, in an interview.

With KJ now by her side, her support system is even larger.

"Couldn't resist sharing one more photo … KJ already feeling right at home," she wrote, with a photo of the dog snoozing on her leg. "So happy to have the lil girlback."

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