A White House Christmas: First Families Remember Clips

While the masses scramble around to pick up their last-minute gifts for Christmas, it's hard to picture the President of the United States heading to the mall and picking out presents for the First Family. However, President Obama and past presidents have joined the masses for some holiday shopping.

As we see a sneak peek of NBC's special "A White House Christmas: First Families Remember," holiday shopping for a president may not be an average trip to the store with cameras in his face and people crowding around, but presidents have still managed time to buy gifts for their loved ones over the years.

RELATED: President Obama is Time's Person of the Year

President Obama did some last-minute Christmas shopping last year with his dog, Bo, for whom he is buying a present in the footage in the clip. While the President went Christmas shopping once again this year--this time taking his daughters, Sasha and Malia, to a bookstore--his wife isn't too keen on the First Family shopping during the holidays.

"I've had my little sneak-out moments but Christmas time is not the time for me to be out in the malls with Secret Service," First Lady Michelle Obama says. "We kind of get in the way of everybody else's shopping and I don't want to be an irritant, so [we do] a lot of online stuff."

Among the holiday festivities for the First Family is the annual Congressional holiday party at the White House. With a crowd of over a thousand Congressmen and celebrities at the party, Hillary Clinton recalls being worn out greeting guests with her husband, Bill.

VIDEO: Grammys Flashback '97: Hillary Clinton...?

"Bill and I stood in the line; we shook thousands and thousands of hands. At the end of the receiving line, my hand would be practically paralyzed and I'd go thrust it into cold water," the former First Lady recalls. "It was just a great experience, although it was exhausting, I'll be honest."

Watch the video for a sneak peek of "A White House Christmas: First Families Remember," which airs in its entirety tonight (Dec. 20) at 8 p.m. on NBC.

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US economy grew at annual rate of 3.1 percent over summer

WASHINGTON — The US economy grew at an annual rate of 3.1 percent over the summer as consumers spent more and state and local governments added to growth for the first time in nearly three years. But the economy is likely slowing in the current quarter.

The Commerce Department's third and final estimate of growth for the July-September quarter was revised up from its estimate a month ago of a 2.7 percent annual rate.

The third-quarter growth was more than double the 1.3 percent growth rate in the April-June quarter. But disruptions from Superstorm Sandy and uncertainty weighing on consumers and businesses from the "fiscal cliff" are likely holding back growth in the October-December quarter. Many analysts predict an annual growth rate of just 1.5 percent for this quarter.

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Survey shows better lending climate

Most Miami-Dade businesses believe they have easier access to borrowed money amid a slowly improving economy.

That’s one result from a recent survey of executives by Miami’s Bilzin Sumberg law firm. The online survey of about 200 top executives was conducted during the second half of 2012.

Nearly 60 percent of respondents said they thought the financing environment had improved since 2011, with venture capital funds and community banks identified as the top sources of potential capital. Fifty-two percent called the economy “growing slowly,’’ compared to 7 percent describing it as “strong and growing.” Only 16 percent described the economy as weak.

DOUGLAS HANKS

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Stone-crab season suffers in the Keys

Despite rocketing prices for stone-crab claws, many Florida Keys commercial fishermen have nearly given up on the season only 2 months old.

"We may see record prices but also record pain," said Gary Graves, general manager of Keys Fisheries in Marathon. "Prices don't mean anything if you can't catch anything."

Harvests since shortly after the season opening Oct. 15 have been "as bad as I can remember during my 45 years in the business," Graves said. "It's just bleak."

Keys Fisheries, one of the state's leading wholesalers for stone crabs, has laid off half of its production staff, maybe 20 people, Graves said.

"We hate to do it to our people but we're probably not finished," he said. "Right now, a big day for us is 1,000 pounds [of claws]. It should be around 15,000 pounds. We're doing nothing."

Keys Fisheries has raised its dockside prices paid to fishermen several times to encourage fishermen to keep their traps in the water.

Graves said it costs a fisherman about $1,200 in fuel, labor and other expenses to make a day's trip. The fish house's current prices are $9 per pound for medium-size claws and $17 per pound for the coveted jumbos.

"Our wholesale sales prices are higher than that and retail is through the roof," Graves said. "But we can't fill the orders we have."

A Marathon community group recently canceled the organization's annual stone crab feast for members because no claws were to be found.

The season runs until May 15.

Last season, Monroe County produced about 1.1 million pounds of legal-size claws, accounting for a large portion of Florida's total 2.67 million-pound harvest worth an estimated $23.6 million to the commercial fleet.

About 1,000 people statewide are licensed to fish traps for stone crabs. Only the claws are kept. Historically, stone-crab harvests have topped three million pounds of claws.

"The last two years were good and the recruitment looked normal," Graves said. "The first round of trap pulling was fine but it went downhill from there — like falling off a cliff."

Fishermen and researchers are baffled.

"Blame it on global warming, blame it on BP [Deepwater Horizon oil spill], blame it on Mother Nature," Graves said. "Everybody's got an idea but nobody can say why. It's probably a combination of a bunch of things."

News reports from stone-crab fleets farther up the Florida Gulf Coast suggest an octopus population explosion. Crabs are a favorite food of octopus, which are smart enough to get into traps.

"We've seen more octopus in the 6- to 8-pound range, which is abnormal," Graves said. State experts have suggested warm winters may have triggered the octopus boom.

"Things could turn around," Graves said, "but realistically the chances of it happening this season are slim."

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg donating $500 million in stock to Silicon Valley charity

SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday he is donating nearly $ 500 million in stock to a Silicon Valley charity with the aim of funding health and education issues.

Zuckerberg donated 18 million Facebook shares, valued at $ 498.8 million based on their Tuesday closing price. The beneficiary is the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a non-profit that works with donors to allocate their gifts.

This is Zuckerberg’s largest donation to date. He pledged $ 100 million in Facebook stock to Newark, New Jersey, public schools in 2010, before his company went public earlier this year. Later in 2010, he joined Giving Pledge, an effort led by Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. CEO Warren Buffett to get the country’s richest people to donate most of their wealth. His wife, Priscilla Chan, joined with him.

In a Facebook post Tuesday, Zuckerberg, 28, said he’s “proud of the work” done by the foundation that his Newark donation launched, called Startup: Education, which has helped open charter schools, high schools and others.

With the latest contribution, he added, “we will look for areas in education and health to focus on next.” He did not give further details on what plans there may be for funds.

“Mark’s generous gift will change lives and inspire others in Silicon Valley and around the globe to give back and make the world a better place,” said Emmett D. Carson, CEO of the foundation.

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Barack Obama Time Magazine Person of the Year

For 2012, Time Magazine has selected President Barack Obama as their Person of the Year.

"For finding and forging a new majority, for turning weakness into opportunity and for seeking, amid great adversity, to create a more perfect union, Barack Obama is Time's 2012 Person of the Year," Time's Managing Editor Richzard Stengel explained.

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He also cited both of the president's re-elections, snagging over 50 percent of the popular vote, as one reason he received this honor.

PHOTOS - The Best Barack & Michelle Moments

This is the second year Time has tapped Obama as their Person of the Year -- he previously was selected in 2008 for becoming the first black president of the United States.

Time previously named the eight finalists for 2012's Person of the Year. They included: Bill and Hillary Clinton, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Malala Yousafzai (the Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban for her crusade for better girls' education), Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer, Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi and the three scientists who discovered the Higgs Boson particle.

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Russia gives initial OK to American adoption ban

MOSCOW — Russia's parliament on Wednesday gave overwhelming preliminary approval to a measure banning Americans from adopting Russian children, a harsh retaliatory move against US human rights legislation.

Top Russian officials have expressed unease about the proposal, an apparent indication that the Kremlin opposes the move.

The lower house of parliament, the State Duma, on Wednesday approved the second reading of a bill responding to the US legislation. The proposed adoption ban was not part of the original bill, but was added as an amendment.

To become law, the measure has to pass a third reading in the Duma, then clear the upper house before going to President Vladimir Putin for his signature.

Putin has not spoken publicly about the measure, but his spokesman Dmitry Peskov indicated Wednesday the Russian leader regards it as excessive. Peskov told the Interfax news agency that, although Putin understands the emotions that prompted the move, "the executive powers are taking a more restrained line."

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russia's education minister both spoke out against the amendment and the speaker of the upper house, close Putin ally Valentina Matvienko, cautioned that the lower house was being guided by emotions rather than good sense.

But the overwhelming 388-15-1 vote in favor of the amendment Wednesday included lawmakers from the pro-Putin United Russia party. It was not clear if the opposition from top officials could bring about a reversal.

Many Russians have long resented the adoption of Russian children by Americans, sensitive to the implication that Russians are hard-hearted or economically unable to take care of their own. The resentment is fanned by cases of abuse or deaths of Russian children adopted by Americans.

Underlining the anger, the bill is named after Dima Yakovlev, a Russian-born toddler who died in the United States after his adoptive father left him in an car in the broiling heat for several hours. The father later was found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

The measure is in response to a new US law, signed last week by President Obama, which calls for sanctions against Russians assessed as human-rights violators.

That law stems from the case of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who was arrested by the Russian officials he accused of a $230 million tax fraud. He was repeatedly denied medical treatment and in 2009 died in jail. Russian rights groups have accused the Kremlin of failing to prosecute those responsible.

The amended passed by Duma on Wednesday also says any country that passes legislation similar to the Magnitsky Act also will be subject to an adoption ban.

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Stone-crab season suffers in the Keys

Despite rocketing prices for stone-crab claws, many Florida Keys commercial fishermen have nearly given up on the season only 2 months old.

"We may see record prices but also record pain," said Gary Graves, general manager of Keys Fisheries in Marathon. "Prices don't mean anything if you can't catch anything."

Harvests since shortly after the season opening Oct. 15 have been "as bad as I can remember during my 45 years in the business," Graves said. "It's just bleak."

Keys Fisheries, one of the state's leading wholesalers for stone crabs, has laid off half of its production staff, maybe 20 people, Graves said.

"We hate to do it to our people but we're probably not finished," he said. "Right now, a big day for us is 1,000 pounds [of claws]. It should be around 15,000 pounds. We're doing nothing."

Keys Fisheries has raised its dockside prices paid to fishermen several times to encourage fishermen to keep their traps in the water.

Graves said it costs a fisherman about $1,200 in fuel, labor and other expenses to make a day's trip. The fish house's current prices are $9 per pound for medium-size claws and $17 per pound for the coveted jumbos.

"Our wholesale sales prices are higher than that and retail is through the roof," Graves said. "But we can't fill the orders we have."

A Marathon community group recently canceled the organization's annual stone crab feast for members because no claws were to be found.

The season runs until May 15.

Last season, Monroe County produced about 1.1 million pounds of legal-size claws, accounting for a large portion of Florida's total 2.67 million-pound harvest worth an estimated $23.6 million to the commercial fleet.

About 1,000 people statewide are licensed to fish traps for stone crabs. Only the claws are kept. Historically, stone-crab harvests have topped three million pounds of claws.

"The last two years were good and the recruitment looked normal," Graves said. "The first round of trap pulling was fine but it went downhill from there — like falling off a cliff."

Fishermen and researchers are baffled.

"Blame it on global warming, blame it on BP [Deepwater Horizon oil spill], blame it on Mother Nature," Graves said. "Everybody's got an idea but nobody can say why. It's probably a combination of a bunch of things."

News reports from stone-crab fleets farther up the Florida Gulf Coast suggest an octopus population explosion. Crabs are a favorite food of octopus, which are smart enough to get into traps.

"We've seen more octopus in the 6- to 8-pound range, which is abnormal," Graves said. State experts have suggested warm winters may have triggered the octopus boom.

"Things could turn around," Graves said, "but realistically the chances of it happening this season are slim."

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Broward brothers face detention hearing in terrorism case

Two Pakistani brothers accused of a plotting a terrorist attack in the United States face a detention hearing in Fort Lauderdale federal court Tuesday.

The Oakland Park pair pleaded not guilty earlier this month to conspiring to deploy explosive weapons against an American target.

The brothers, 20-year-old Raees Alam Qazi and 30-year-old Sheheryar Alam Qazi, have each been charged with one count of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and one count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.

The brothers, arrested in late November by the FBI, remain in custody at Broward County Jail. Prosecutors said that the Qazi brothers were born in Pakistan, but are both naturalized U.S. citizens.

Federal authorities disclosed few details of the ongoing investigation, but they said the alleged plot was “disrupted.” They declined to comment on the weapon type, the target, the terrorism organization or the alleged plot.

Authorities said the indictment was not the result of a sting operation.

Given the nature of the charges, it is likely the defendants won’t be eligible for bail before trial. The brothers and their attorneys may choose not to challenge their detention.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Gilbert disclosed in court papers that the case was built on surveillance of the brothers’ phones, including presumably their conversations with foreign contacts. The evidence was obtained under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a law that has been strengthened after 9/11.

Prosecutors said that starting in July 2011, the brothers conspired to provide transportation, money, lodging and other aid toward a plan to use a large-scale weapon somewhere in the United States.

“Any potential threat posed by these two individuals has been disrupted,” Wifredo Ferrer, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, said in a statement issued after the brothers’ arrests. “Since September 11, 2001, the top priority of the Department of Justice and this U.S. Attorney’s Office has been to deter and prosecute acts of terrorism.”

The case is being investigated by the FBI’s South Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force.

If convicted, the Qazis each face a sentence of up to 15 years in prison on the material support charge, and a potential life sentence on the weapon of mass destruction charge.

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Iran leader gets the clicks with Facebook rumor

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A Facebook page purportedly created by Iran‘s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attracted nearly 10,000 followers on Tuesday although the site’s content and style raise serious questions about its authenticity.

Iranian authorities had no immediate comment on the site, which apparently went online last week but only recently gained prominence among social media watchers. Despite the possibility that it is a hoax, the page has generated at least 170 comments — laudatory and derogatory, and nearly all in Farsi — that highlight the deep political divisions in Iran and possibly opposition fervor from expatriate Iranians.

One post compared Khamenei to a celebrated ruler of ancient Persia, Cyrus the Great, who significantly expanded the Persian empire 2,500 years ago.

Another wrote: “Mr. Khamenei, how are you visiting this page? With proxy?”

It was a reference to Iran’s blocking of Facebook and many other Western social media sites, and the efforts to bypass the restrictions using proxy server links from outside Iran.

The U.S. State Department said Monday it will keep tabs on the page, but had no comment on whether it was genuine or not. Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland joked that Washington is curious how many “likes” the Khamenei page receives.

But much about the page — including an informal photo of Khamenei riding in a car — suggested it was not sanctioned by Iran’s top leader. It is also highly unlikely that Khamenei would endorse a banned outlet such as Facebook.

The Net is not unknown territory for Iranian leaders, however. Khamenei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and others have official websites. Also, some senior Iranian clerics issue religious opinions by email.

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Iran leader gets the clicks with Facebook rumor
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