CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (Reuters) President Barack Obama began a campaign-style swing through political battleground states on Wednesday, pitching his State of the Union initiatives on taxes and jobs as he made his case for a second term.
Fresh from his election-year speech to Congress, Obama amplified his proposals for rewarding companies that keep jobs at home and eliminating tax breaks for those that outsource overseas. He also pressed his argument for higher taxes on the rich.
Obama used his last State of the Union speech before the November election to cast himself as a champion of the middle class, but with polls showing most Americans unhappy with his economic leadership he faces a tough re-election challenge.
Embarking on a three-day, five-state tour starting in Iowa, Obama defended his record and sought to turn up the heat on Republicans in Congress he has accused of obstructing his economic recovery efforts.
“There are people in Washington who seem to have collective amnesia. They seem to have forgotten how we got into this mess,” Obama told workers at a conveyor belt factory in Iowa. “They want to go back to the very same policies … that have stacked the deck against middle-class Americans for years.”
Republicans have accused Obama of promoting the “politics of envy” and pursuing policies that kill jobs and hinder growth.
While the biggest proposals in Obama’s speech are considered unlikely to gain traction in a deeply divided Congress, the White House believes he can tap into voters’ resentment over Wall Street excesses and Washington’s dysfunction.
He used his Iowa visit primarily to build on his State of the Union assault on tax breaks he says reward U.S. firms for shipping jobs overseas. He has also called for a minimum international tax on the overseas profits of American firms.
As he spoke, the White House rolled out more details, including new tax breaks for U.S. manufacturers and closing loopholes for companies’ income overseas.
“We’ve got to stop rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas,” Obama said.
He planned to keep the focus on jobs at a stop in Arizona on Wednesday. A Nevada visit is likely to highlight proposed remedies for the housing crisis. He will also go to Colorado and Michigan. All are states crucial to his re-election chances.
ON THE BIG STAGE
In his Tuesday night address that afforded him one of his biggest political stages of the year, Obama set as a central campaign theme a populist call for greater economic fairness.
He mentioned taxes 34 times and jobs 32 times during his hourlong speech, emphasizing the two issues at the heart of this year’s presidential campaign.
But Obama seemed to put no blame on himself for a fragile economic recovery and high unemployment that could trip up his re-election bid.
A highlight of Obama’s speech was his call to set a 30 percent minimum tax on millionaires, known as the “Buffet rule” because it is favored by billionaire Warren Buffett.
Obama’s message could resonate in the 2012 campaign following the release of tax records by Mitt Romney, a potential Republican rival and one of the wealthiest men ever to run for the White House. He pays a lower effective tax rate than many top wage-earners.
Democrats have hammered Republicans in Congress for supporting tax breaks that favor the wealthy. Republicans staunchly oppose tax hikes, even on the richest Americans, arguing they would hurt the economic recovery.
“No feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others,” Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels said in the Republican response to Obama.
In a critique of Obama’s speech, Romney, campaigning in Florida for Tuesday’s party primary, accused the Democratic president of being “detached from reality” in his appeals to voters who have suffered economic hardship under his tenure.
Obama’s challenge is clear. The U.S. unemployment rate was 8.5 percent in December. No president in the modern era has won re-election with the rate that high.
As a result, Obama cast a wide net in his State of the Union speech.
Taking aim at China - an election-year target of Republicans and Democrats alike over its currency and trade practices - Obama proposed creation of a new trade enforcement unit.
Obama said he would ask his attorney general to establish a special financial crimes unit to prosecute those parties charged with breaking the law, and whose fraud contributed to the 2007-2009 financial crisis.
He also said he would send to Congress a proposal to allow more Americans to take out new and cheaper mortgages as long as they are current on their payments, savings that would amount to $3,000 per household each year. The depressed housing market continues to drag on the economy.
(Additional reporting by Alister Bull and Steve Holland,wholesale NFL Jerseys, writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
On Europe, he offered guardedly optimistic predictions that it would work its way through its fiscal problems.
But U.S. leverage over Beijing is limited since China is the largest foreign creditor of the United States, holding more than $1.1 trillion in U.S. debt.
Obama spoke shortly after Chinese President Hu Jintao took the podium at the gathering of executives. Hu told them Beijing was committed to free trade in the Asia-Pacific region and urged mutual respect in global decision-making.
The two presidents, leaders of the world’s two largest economies, were due to meet one-on-one later on Saturday.
“For an economy like the United States — where our biggest competitive advantage is our knowledge, our innovation, our patents, our copyrights — for us not to get the kind of protection we need in a large marketplace like China is not acceptable.”
There have been positive signs in Europe’s efforts to tackle its debt crisis, with leaders focused not just on Greece but on problems affecting the euro zone more broadly, Obama said.
He said Italy’s troubles could not be fixed overnight but it was important Europe stand behind its euro zone members.
Obama, under pressure to create jobs at home and eager to highlight U.S. influence abroad, said an undervalued Chinese yuan was putting U.S. businesses at a disadvantage and a change in the currency policy would help the global economy.
(Additional reporting by David Lawder; Editing by John O’Callaghan)
HONOLULU (Reuters) President Barack Obama used an Asia-Pacific summit on Saturday to push back against China’s trade practices, insisting Beijing stop poaching U.S. intellectual property and allow its currency to rise.
Obama called for “reciprocity” in the trade arena, saying there was no reason this should lead to problems in broader relations. But he said the United States would “speak out and in some cases we’ll take action” if rules were being broken.
Obama told the business leaders the United States was putting a priority on the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region.
“What I have said since I first came into office and what we’ve exhibited in terms of our interactions with the Chinese is we want you to play by the rules. And currency is probably a good example,” Obama said at a forum of global executives on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
“I was pleased to see that European leaders were taking seriously the need to not just solve the Greek crisis but also to solve the broader euro zone crisis,” Obama said.
Obama is under pressure from Republican presidential candidates, including front-runner Mitt Romney, to take a tougher line with China. Obama’s remarks on Beijing’s trade practices seemed more pointed than in the past.
MUMBAI (Reuters) Bollywood struck gold in 2011, revving up lacklustre box offices in India with help from its leading men who wooed audiences back to cinemas after a dismal 2010.
“Bodyguard”, in which Khan plays a personal security guard to a rich man’s daughter and ends up falling in love with her, was the most successful Bollywood film, raking in more than 1.5 billion rupees ($28 million) at domestic box offices.
The solid performance contrasted sharply to the previous year when there were hardly any hits.
Other themes were successful, too.
But widely-hyped movies like superhero film “Ra.One” were a let-down.
Big studios like Reliance and UTV also have changed their business models, preferring to co-produce films rather than acquire them after completion. Last year, Reliance suffered losses after two big-ticket acquisitions, Mani Ratnam’s “Raavan” and Hrithik Roshan-starrer “Kites” flopped at box offices.
“Audiences have always loved the dilemmas of the hero, a little bit of action, some drama and some romance,” Lamba said. “We had a lot of that this year.”
Both “Bodyguard” and “Singham” were panned by critics but loved by audiences. And both featured strong central characters, harkening back to the 1980s and early ’90s in Bollywood when films were centred on the hero and his defeat of a villain in a battle of good versus evil.
“This year, all our films have been co-productions or our own productions and we have seen the successes,” Lamba said.
“We prefer to be creatively involved from the beginning of the project rather than coming in at the end in an acquisition scenario.”
Indian audiences also warmed up to Hollywood blockbusters including “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2″ and “The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn” — something that wasn’t seen until just a few years ago due mainly to Bollywood’s dominance of the box office.
“These days, the box office collections of good Hollywood films can rival those of a Bollywood film,” said Sunil Punjabi, chief executive of the Cinemax chain of multiplexes.
“The Adventures of Tintin,” which was released along with Ranbir Kapoor’s “Rockstar” in November, made more than 70 million rupees its opening weekend
(Editing by Elaine Lies and Bob Tourtellotte)
“Audiences and filmmakers have gone back and discovered stories that are close to our Indian roots,” said Sanjeev Lamba, Chief executive of Reliance Entertainment, which produced two of the year’s biggest blockbusters — “Bodyguard” and “Singham”.
“HARRY POTTER” HOT; “RA.ONE” NOT
“Balaji Motion Pictures made ‘The Dirty Picture’ at a budget of less than 300 million rupees but have chosen themes and subjects which are interesting, and (they) publicised their films so well that audiences have felt compelled to watch them,” said industry analyst Vajir Singh.
Offbeat films like “The Dirty Picture”, based on the life of a soft-core porn star, proved to be sleeper hits and took industry analysts by surprise. Together with the likes of “Singham” and “Bodyguard”, these smaller films proved audiences have an appetite for both mass market and niche-oriented work.
“It is not that more people are watching movies, but that the same audience is watching more movies,” said Shailesh Kapoor of Ormax Media, a firm that specialises in film market research.
In spite of a publicity blitzkrieg, actor Shah Rukh Khan’s film did not live up to expectations with around 1.2 billion rupees ($22 million) in net box office. That was just a bit more than its official budget of a billion rupees. Industry estimates put the film’s cost at over 1.5 billion rupees.
“Singham” told the story of a right-minded police officer who stands up to a corrupt politician and was accompanied by romance, drama and high-octane action.
Aside from that, for the most part, Bollywood managed to keep its purse strings in check, with production houses learning that budgeting a film right is half the battle.
Domestic revenues hit 19.25 billion rupees ($363.2 million) this year, up from 14.5 billion rupees in 2010, and an unprecedented four films crossed the billion rupee milestone. Two of those blockbusters starred actor Salman Khan.
A straight-up action picture may sound unusual coming from Steven Soderbergh, but as he’s repeatedly demonstrated throughout his career, he’s keen to experiment with every genre imaginable. And if you look closely at his latest, “Haywire,” you’ll find it reveals glimmers of some of his greatest hits.
It’s a revenge thriller like “The Limey” (and comes from the same screenwriter, Lem Dobbs). It features a color-coded palette scheme to correspond with each new location in this globe-trotting tale, like “Traffic.” It has a `70s-style aesthetic sensibility reminiscent of “The Informant!” It boasts an all-star cast like Soderbergh’s “Ocean’s” movies, “Full Frontal” and, most recently, “Contagion.” But at its center is an actress who’d never appeared in a major feature film before, like “The Girlfriend Experience” and “Bubble.”
So since we’re in the midst of making comparisons, we’ll just say that “Haywire” feels like minor Soderbergh: zippy, hugely entertaining and well-crafted as always (since he once again serves as his own cinematographer and editor), but not one of his more important films in the broad scheme of things.
It does, however, mark the auspicious film debut of MMA superstar Gina Carano as special-ops bad-ass Mallory Kane. Carano had never acted before, and not only did she do all her own stunts, she had to do them in a way that she wouldn’t injure her male co-stars, including Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender and Channing Tatum. Her dialogue delivery may seem a bit stiff and she has acknowledged that Soderbergh made some tweaks to her voice in post-production but she has tremendous presence: an intriguing mix of muscular power and eye-catching femininity.
Mallory works for a private contractor that performs secret missions for the U.S. government. Her latest required her and her team to rescue a Chinese journalist who’d been kidnapped and was being held captive in Barcelona. The mission itself (pretty much) went down as planned, but afterward she finds she’s been set up. Now, her task is to figure out who’s double-crossed her and why.
All of this takes place out of chronological order as it hops around between upstate New York, Barcelona, Washington, Dublin, the scrub-brushed buttes of New Mexico and a Mexican beach at sunset. (That last location is one of the most beautiful, with the warm, jagged rocks serving as a striking backdrop for one of the film’s most intense fights.) Mallory tells her story to the poor schmo whose car she has to borrow (played by Michael Angarano) for escape; it’s intentionally disorienting, but that’s part of the fun.
Among the excellent cast, McGregor plays Mallory’s obviously slimy boss, with whom she shares some sort of nebulous romantic history. Tatum is her partner on the Barcelona job, who may or may not be trustworthy. Fassbender is the British agent with whom she’s asked to team up on a follow-up mission; their scenes smolder with an old-school James Bond sense of glamour and intrigue, as well as danger. Michael Douglas plays Mallory’s government contact and the one person she seems to be able to trust aside from her father (Bill Paxton) who, like her, is a former Marine. And Antonio Banderas is her Spanish connection, a role he plays in almost as cartoonish a fashion as his “Puss in Boots” character.
Regardless of the setting, the opponent or their motives, Soderbergh is smart enough to emphasize Carano’s strengths. He lets the elaborate fight scenes play out lets us see every kick, punch and body slam without a lot of needless edits and even without any music. The battles provide their own rhythm, and afterward you may feel as if you’ve been worked over as well. But in a good way.
“Haywire,” a Relativity Media release, is rated R for some violence. Running time: 93 minutes. Three stars out of four.
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Motion Picture Association of America rating definitions:
G General audiences. All ages admitted.
PG Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.
PG-13 Special parental guidance strongly suggested for children under 13. Some material may be inappropriate for young children.
R Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
NC-17 No one under 17 admitted.
NEW YORK (Reuters) The apocalyptic psychological drama “Melancholia” was named the year’s best film on Saturday by the National Society of Film Critics, which chose its star Kirsten Dunst as best actress and Brad Pitt as best actor for the baseball drama “Moneyball” as well as “The Tree of Life.”
Lars von Trier lost out on the best director award for his work on “Melancholia” to Terrence Malick for “The Tree of Life,” a mystical period piece which also won the best cinematography prize.
But the big win by “Melancholia” bolstered the offbeat film’s chances for the upcoming Academy Awards, which will announce nominees later this month.
Set against the backdrop of a country wedding, the dark film explores the strained relationship of two sisters, one a bride played by Dunst, while a strange planet threatens to collide with Earth, wiping out all traces of human existence.
Pitt, already a strong contender for the Oscars, was honored for his roles as Oakland A’s manager Billy Beane in “Moneyball” as well as a strict father in “The Tree of Life.”
Critics’ awards are important in helping build momentum heading toward the Academy Awards,wholesale Ed hardy shoes, or Oscars, which are the world’s top film awards given out on the final Sunday in February by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The NSFC includes 58 members from major newspapers in Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Chicago and other cities as well as from Time, Newsweek and The New Yorker and newspapers The Village Voice and the Boston Phoenix.
The group’s awards for best supporting performances went to Albert Brooks, who played a small-time hood in the drama “Drive,” and Jessica Chastain, who was honored for performances in “The Tree of Life,” “Take Shelter” and “The Help.”
Both Brooks and Chastain have been honored by other critics groups in early awards this season.
Several highly touted films, most notably “The Artist,” considered a front-runner for the Oscars, “The Descendants” and Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” were shut out, although Scorsese was a close second in voting for best director.
The award for best foreign language film was won by the Iranian film “A Separation,” about a couple struggling with the decision about whether or not to leave their home country. The film also won the prize for best screenplay.
The film critics named Werner Herzog’s documentary “The Cave of Forgotten Dreams,” a 3D movie about a cave in southern France, as the year’s best nonfiction film.
Ken Jacobs won the experimental film award for “Seeking the Monkey King.”
The critics also announced “film heritage” awards to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for its recent Vincente Minnelli retrospective; to Lobster Films, Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema and the Technicolor Foundation for Cinema for the restoration of the color version of George Melies’ “A Trip to the Moon”; to the Museum of Modern Art for its Weimar Cinema retrospective; to Flicker Alley for the box set “Landmarks of Early Soviet Film; and to Criterion Collection for its two-disc DVD package “The Complete Jean Vigo.”
(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Eric Walsh)
LONDON (Reuters) Never heard of Milk Music? That may be about to change after the unsigned punk rockers from Olympia, Washington appeared on a leading music magazine’s acts-to-watch list.
Rising stars like Lana Del Rey, A$AP Rocky and Howler are also tipped to make it big this year and beyond as pop pickers and record labels search the airwaves for hitmakers of tomorrow.
With guitar bands and solo male artists featuring so prominently in a series of new music polls published at the start of the year, chart-topping divas like Lady Gaga, Adele and Beyonce could see their crowns slip.
And once again the United States looks like setting the pace, leaving Britain, the other global music powerhouse, playing catch-up.
“From doing this issue what I’ve realized is that there is a really wide scope of stuff out there,” said Matt Wilkinson, new music editor at British music magazine NME who has just compiled a list of 100 bands to watch in 2012.
“In the last 12 months the United States has been on top of its game in terms of guitar bands and indie music so I kind of hope and expect the UK to react to that this year,” he told Reuters. “We are in a bit of a lull at the moment over here.”
One leading female act set for stardom in 2012 is Del Rey, real name Elizabeth Grant, an American who caused a stir last year with her haunting YouTube hit “Video Games.”
Britain’s NME music magazine decided not to feature her in its 2012 survey because it felt she was already established — in fact many acts on this month’s “next big thing” lists are well on their way to fame and fortune.
In Del Rey’s case, she is signed to Interscope, part of the world’s biggest music company Universal, and releases an album, “Born to Die,” at the end of the month.
Some question the level to which her image has been manufactured for mainstream success and question whether Del Rey can sustain her early success.
“The future for Lana Del Rey feels a little uncertain,” said Alexis Petridis, music critic for the Guardian newspaper which voted Video Games the best song of 2011.
“Whether Video Games turns out to be the one truly remarkable thing about her, or a portent of greatness to come is a moot point.”
For NME’s Wilkinson, Harlem-raised rapper Azealia Banks is a potential 2012 breakout.
“We’re going massive on her,” he said. “She’s great and totally exciting. But will she sell as many records as Adele? Probably not.”
A lack of radio play for the famously foul-mouthed musician could be a barrier, he added.
Canada’s Claire Boucher, also known as Grimes, released an album in 2010 and was on the Guardian’s “New band of the day” column as long ago as March, but her brand of dark electro pop could make a splash this year.
Across the Atlantic, British “girl power” is expected to come from Londoner Lianne La Havas,Wholesale Ed hardy, who appears both on the BBC’s “Sound of 2012″ poll and MTV’s “Brand New For 2012″ list.
The BBC also championed Ren Harvieu as a possible heir to Adele, while the dark pop of Charli XCX and soulful sounds of Delilah (Paloma Stoecker) have MTV excited.
HEAR IT FOR THE BOYS
Balancing the picture for 2012, several solo male artists are also tipped for the top.
British soul musician Michael Kiwanuka topped BBC’s annual poll on Friday, ending a run of four consecutive years in which single females claimed the prize starting with Adele in 2008.
In second place came Frank Ocean, the U.S. singer-songwriter who has already collaborated with pop royalty like Beyonce, Jay-Z and Kanye West.
NME predicts he will be the “true breakout star” of the Odd Future hip-hop collective.
New Yorker and rising hip-hop star A$AP Rocky famously signed a $3 million record deal with Sony Music last year, nearly half of which reportedly will go towards funding his own record label.
Underground Chicago singer Willis Earl Beal, who until recently was leaving CDs and fliers lying around randomly, has been snapped up by XL Recordings, Adele’s label, and they plan to release his debut album “Acousmatic Sorcery” in March.
British teenager Conor Maynard has been likened by MTV to Justin Bieber, while the music channel called Angel (Sirach Charles) “quite possibly the UK pop and R & B industry’s best kept secret.”
Briton King Krule (Archy Marshall) is another “boy wonder,” although his rich voice and wordly-wise opinions belie his years, while compatriots Dot Rotten and King Charles make at least one of the new artist lists.
BANDS ON THE RISE
Guitar bands and indie music in general have been on the decline in recent years, but they put in a strong showing in the latest surveys.
Minneapolis rockers Howler have been likened to the Vaccines and Strokes and appear first in NME’s 2012 list.
DZ Deathrays’ music, described as “sleazy, sexy, thrash-punk robo-rock,” has rung out from stages in their native Australia for more than three years, but this year they aim to conquer Europe and produce a debut album.
Milk Music have so far resisted record executives’ approaches and remain independent, while London quintet Spector hit the road in March to support Florence + The Machine.
Scandinavia is represented by Swedish electro pop duo Niki & The Dove on the BBC poll and compatriots Icona Pop feature in
NME.
In France, names to look out for include Francois & The Atlas Mountains, Apes and Horses, The Bewitched Bands, Concrete Knives and Stuck In the Sound.
(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; additional reporting by Dominique Vidalon, editing by Paul Casciato)
LOS ANGELES George Clooney’s “The Descendants,” Brad Pitt’s “Moneyball,” Kristen Wiig’s “Bridesmaids” and Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris” are among nominees for the Writers Guild of America Awards.
Clooney’s family drama “The Descendants” earned an adapted-screenplay nomination Thursday for director Alexander Payne and co-writers Nat Faxon and Jim Rash. Pitt’s sports tale “Moneyball” is up for the same prize for writers Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin.
Zaillian has a second adapted-screenplay nomination for director David Fincher’s thriller “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara.
“Bridesmaids” star Wiig shared an original-screenplay nomination for her wedding comedy, which she co-wrote with Annie Mumolo. Director Allen also was nominated for original screenplay for his romantic fantasy “Midnight in Paris.”
Other contenders for original screenplay: Will Reiser for the cancer story “50/50,” starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen; Tom McCarthy for the family tale “Win Win,” featuring Paul Giamatti; and Diablo Cody for the dark comedy “Young Adult,” with Charlize Theron.
Also nominated for adapted screenplay: writer-director Tate Taylor for the Deep South drama “The Help,” with Viola Davis, Emma Stone and Octavia Spencer; and John Logan for filmmaker Martin Scorsese’s Paris adventure “Hugo,” featuring Ben Kingsley and child stars Chloe Grace Moretz and Asa Butterfield.
Some acclaimed films, including the silent movie “The Artist,” were ineligible because they were not made under the guild’s contract guidelines.
Nominated for documentary screenplay: Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega, “Better This World”; Marshall Curry and Matthew Hamachek,Discount Burberry wholesale, “If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front”; Patricio Guzman, “Nostalgia for the Light”; Wim Wenders, “Pina”; Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich and Leonard Retel Helmrich, “Position Among the Stars”; and Manish Pandey, “Senna.”
Honors from Hollywood trade groups such as the writers, actors and directors guilds help sort out likely contenders for the Academy Awards, whose nominations come out Jan. 24.
Writers Guild winners will be announced Feb. 19.
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Online:
http://www.wga.org
OGDEN, Utah Search warrant in hand, a team of bulletproof vest-wearing officers rapped on the door of a small, red-brick Utah house, identifying themselves as police. When no one responded, authorities say, the officers burst inside.
That’s when the gunfire erupted.
When it was over Wednesday night, a 7-year veteran officer was dead and five of his colleagues were wounded,Replica Bape jeans, some critically. The suspect, an Army veteran whose estranged father said suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and may have been self-medicating with marijuana, was injured.
Now, as the city tries to grapple with the outburst of violence and the loss of one of its officers, investigators are trying to determine how the raid as part of a drug investigation could have gone so terribly wrong.
“It’s a very, very sad day,” an emotional Ogden Police Chief Wayne Tarwater said Thursday.
A candlelight vigil for the fallen officers is planned for Thursday night at an Ogden amphitheater.
Police declined to reveal details of the shooting besides a general timeline, citing the ongoing investigation.
They would not say, for instance, whether the shootout took place entirely inside the home or spilled out into the yard, how many shots were fired and how many guns were recovered.
There will be several investigations, including one by Ogden police and another outside probe by prosecutors.
Among the questions that authorities will try to answer was whether the officers, in the chaotic moments upon entering the house, may have inadvertently fired on each other.
Police said the warrant was based on information about possible drug activity, but would not say what officers were specifically looking for inside Matthew David Stewart’s home, which sits across the street from a Mormon church meeting house.
Stewart, 37, was in the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, authorities said. He does not have an attorney yet.
Utah court records show Stewart’s criminal history includes only a 2005 conviction for a class B misdemeanor traffic violation operating a vehicle without insurance. A judge found him guilty after a bench trial and ordered him to pay a $350 fine.
State officials also placed a pair of tax liens on Stewart last August.
Stewart served in the Army from July 1994 to December 1998, spending a year based in Fort Bragg, N.C., and nearly three years stationed in Germany, Army records show.
He held a post as a communications equipment specialist, earning an Army Achievement Medal and a National Defense Service Medal. Both are given for completing active service, although they don’t indicate exceptional acts of valor.
Stewart’s father, Michael Stewart, said his son works a night shift at a local Walmart and may have been sleeping when police arrived.
“When they kicked in the door, he probably felt threatened,” said Michael Stewart, who has been estranged from his son for more than a year, but keeps track of him through his two other sons.
The elder Stewart said his son suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression and may have been treating it with small amounts of pot. He said he believes his son may have been growing the weed himself.
He said he didn’t believe his son owned any automatic weapons and that the family is upset by what happened. “This is my son’s problem and we’re grieving for him and all of the officers,” Michael Stewart said. “I’m dead sick about it.”
Weber County Attorney Dee Smith said it wasn’t yet clear what charges Stewart might face once the shooting investigation concludes.
“But it appears right now, with the information we have, that we have an aggravated murder as well as a number of other attempted aggravated murders,” Smith said, choking back tears.
Aggravated murder is a capital crime and, if convicted, Stewart could face the death penalty.
The officer killed, Jared Francom, was with the Ogden police. He leaves behind two daughters, aged 3 and 5, and his wife of seven years, Erin.
“She’s upset, but she’s hanging in there,” Frisby said of his daughter. “I can only describe her as a rock.”
Joining the narcotics strike force had long been Francom’s dream job, according to his father-in-law, John Frisby. Francom, 30, had worked as a part-time patrol officer and took security jobs on the side until he was finally chosen for the select group.
It was a “big honor,” Frisby said when reached by telephone at his home in Henderson, Nev. “He was good at it.”
By mid-day Thursday, more than 1,000 friends and strangers had expressed their support and gratitude for Francom and his family on a memorial Facebook page with prayers, poems and other message. Some posters swapped out their profile pictures for a black logo with a blue stripe representing fallen officers.
Authorities said the conditions of the officers ranged from serious to critical. They are Ogden officers Shawn Grogan, Kasey Burrell and Michael Rounkles, Weber County sheriff’s Sgt. Nate Hutchinson and Roy officer Jason VanderWarf.
Kevin Burrell, Kasey Burrell’s father, said his son was shot in the head. A seven-year veteran of the police force, the younger Burrell was sedated, but appears to be improving, his father said.
On Wednesday, witnesses said they heard three quick pops followed by a two- to three-minute pause, then lots of gunfire and officers yelling at someone to “put your hands up,” in the backyard.
Outside Stewart’s house on Thursday armed SWAT officers clothed in camouflage remained on guard as police continued their search of the property. The yard was taped off and dotted with numbered evidence markers.
Residents said they were shocked to hear there was any drug activity in the area or a shootout on their street.
“This has always been a quiet neighborhood. We’ve been here for 11 years,” said Andrew Mair, who said his wife hid in the couple’s basement in fear when the gunfire rang out. “I’ve never heard anything crazy going on.”
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Associated Press writer Jennifer Dobner in Salt Lake City and Michelle Rindels in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) U2 is No. 1 when it comes to touring. The band had the highest-grossing tour both in North America and worldwide in 2011.
Bono, the Edge and company grossed $156 million in North America on the strength of 1.7 million tickets sold, according to Pollstar, which covers the concert industry. They grossed $231.9 million worldwide off 2.39 million tickets.
Rounding out the top five highest-grossing touring acts in North America were Taylor Swift ($97.7 million),wholesale Burberry bags, Kenny Chesney ($84.6 million), Lady Gaga ($63.7 million) and Bon Jovi ($57.1 million).
As for the worldwide top five, U2 were followed by the reunited Take That ($224 million), Bon Jovi ($148.8 million), Swift ($104.2 million) and Roger Waters ($103.6 million). Tickets on U2’s 360 Degrees tour sold for an average of $97.15 worldwide and $91.67 in North America.
The year’s top 25 biggest tours grossed a combined $2.1 billion worldwide, which is roughly the same as in 2010. In North America, there was a 4 percent dip among the top 25, which grossed $1.19 billion.
Still, the entire concert industry had a 15 percent increase in ticket sales compared with 2010, despite 20 percent fewer reported shows, according to Billboard.
U2’s success in 2011 was bolstered by the rescheduling of postponed concert dates from 2010 due to a back injury frontman Bono suffered that year.
