Boston.com’s Boehner poisoning article sparks furor

The Boston Globe's boston.com this morning was silent amid a furor of criticism over their article mocking death threats aimed at Republican House Speaker John Boehner.

Boston.com spokeswoman Mary Zanor did not return an email or call for comment today.

The story, written by Boston.com associate editor Victor Paul Alvarez and posted on the website's "Top News" section last evening, was headlined "Would Anyone Have Noticed if Bartender Succeeded in Poisoning John Boehner?"

"The question is: Would anyone have noticed? Stories about Boehner's drinking have circulated for years. His drinking inspired a blog called DrunkBoehner, and in 2010 he brought booze back to Washington," the story read. "Had he been poisoned as planned, perhaps his pickled liver could have filtered out the toxins."

The cutline on the Associated Press photo attached to the story reads: "House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, has been known to get hammered from time to time."

Michael R. Hoyt, 44, of Deer Park, Ohio, was indicted in federal court last week. He had tended bar at the Wetherington Country Club, where Boehner is a member.

In an email to Boehner's wife, Hoyt wrote: "If I had any intention of hurting Mr. Boehner, I could have poisoned his wine at Wetherington many, many times," according to a criminal complaint.

The boston.com story prompted immediate outrage online, both in the story's comments section and on social media.

"It's hate speech," wrote one commenter. "If a commenter said this about Obama, the FBI would be at their door."

Another commenter said, "This piece goes over the line. Remove it, please."

There was also backlash on Twitter.

"Imagine a plot involving the assassination of Obama getting this sort of treatment from the media," wrote one tweeter.

Another wrote: "To Boston.com, John Boehner's death would be funny. This hateful column is featured as "Top News."

"Boston.com does satire now?" tweeted Sue O'Connell, co-publisher of Bay Windows, "Then they should hire an satirist."

At about 9:30 this morning — about 14 hours after the story was posted — the sentence referencing Boehner's liver was removed. At the bottom of the story, an "editor's note" was added: "A previous version of this article made an unsubstantiated reference to the health of Speaker Boehner."

Boston.com is owned by Boston Globe Media Partners LLC.

The flap is the second in a month for boston.com, which in December suspended the site's deputy editor for creating a T-shirt that mocked a Harvard professor who, she reported, had sent emails to a Chinese restaurant complaining about his takeout bill. Boston.com had to pull a follow-up story Hilary Sargent wrote claiming the professor had emailed a racial slur to the restaurant.

In the Boehner case, the suspect had told police he was "going to shoot Boehner and take off" and that he had a loaded .380 Beretta automatic handgun. Police later recovered a Beretta from his home, records state.

After he called 911 in October, Hoyt was committed to a mental facility. On Dec. 16, he was transferred to the Bay State's 
Devens Federal Medical Center for a psychiatric evaluation, according to court records.

The complaint says Hoyt was treated for a previous psychotic episode about two years ago. He was prescribed medication, "which he voluntarily stopped taking" about six months ago, the complaint states.

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NASA evacuates its side of space station, but finds no leak

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA evacuated astronauts from its side of the International Space Station on Wednesday after an alarm indicated a possible toxic leak. Officials later said a false sensor reading or computer problem likely set off the alarm, rather than an actual leak of ammonia coolant.

"No signs of a leak," NASA said via Twitter. "Controllers are assessing."

In the meantime, the six crew members huddled safely on the Russian side of the orbiting outpost, as Mission Control analyzed the data through the morning.

"Hey everybody, thanks for your concern," Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti said in a tweet. "We're all safe & doing well in the Russian segment."

The scare occurred around 4 a.m. EST, well into the station crew's workday.

As alarms blared, the astronauts followed emergency procedures in turning off non-essential U.S. equipment, taking cover in the Russian quarters, then sealing the hatches between the U.S. and Russian sides.

NASA said because of the possibility of leaking liquid ammonia — it's used to cool electronics — the entire crew was ordered over to the Russian side. The three Russians, two Americans and the Italian Cristoforetti will remain there until further orders; mission managers gathered in Houston at midmorning to discuss the situation.

There's enough food and supplies in the three Russian segments for all six to stay there a week, although that isn't anticipated given that there doesn't appear to be a leak.

Russian space officials at first reported an actual leak, then backed off that statement.

Commander Butch Wilmore, an American, and his crew were busy dealing with supplies from the newly arrived SpaceX capsule when the ammonia-system alarm sounded.

The 260-mile-high complex has never had to be abandoned during its 14-year-plus occupation by astronauts. On occasion, crews have had to seek shelter in their Soyuz capsule "lifeboats" because of close shaves with orbiting junk, in case a quick getaway was needed. This time, the astronauts went into one of the three Russian modules, but not the two docked Soyuz capsules.

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AP writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report.

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Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

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Lexus will return to Super Bowl with musical car spot

While several automobile advertisers are driving away from the Super Bowl in 2015, Lexus is returning to it.

The Toyota-owned luxury auto unit will appear in the Super Bowl for just the second time, having made its debut in 2012. And while many of its teammates on the ad roster for Super Bowl XLIX are sure to rely on cute animals or celebrities to catch the audience's collective eye, Lexus is opting for an affair that is more traditional. Lexus will simply show its new NX vehicle being put through its paces in a visually elegant fashion, all to the sound of music that has the noises of the car (think dashboard clicks, squealing tires and slamming doors) embedded in its beats.

The Super Bowl spot "gives us a chance to talk to people who may not otherwise talk to the auto industry," said Brian Bolain, Lexus' corporate marketing manager. Set to air sometime during the first half of the game, the 30-second spot features shots of the NX, a sport-utility vehicle that Lexus executives said has more luxurious driving dynamics than its peers and will appeal to younger consumers and men.

Lexus cruises into the gridiron classic, set for broadcast on NBC from Phoenix on February 1, as many automobile makers have gunned their engines in a different direction. Starting with the broadcast of Super Bowl XLV in 2011, when six different car makers ran a whopping 18 ads, according to Kantar Media, the big TV event had become a commercial parking lot.

In recent outings, however, the number of vehicles advertised in the game has dwindled, and NBC executives have suggested the number will be significantly fewer in 2015. Already, Volkswagen and General Motors have indicated they will sit out this year and two other perennials of recent vintage - Audi and Hyundai - have yet to confirm whether they will take part. Nissan, Kia and Lexus sister Toyota are slated to run commercials.

Other car makers may not have launch cycles that sync with this current Super Bowl broadcast but Lexus does. "It's a very strategic time," said Brian Smith, vice president of marketing for Lexus. "We are launching a very important, all-new vehicle we haven't had before."

To help make the sale, Lexus has tapped independent ad agency Walton Isaacson, a firm that includes Magic Johnson as one of its founders. This will be the ad firm's first Super Bowl ad.

The Lexus ad is remarkable for what it lacks. The spot features no surprise appearances by a movie star or jokes about guys getting hit in the head or crotch, gimmicks that rear their head at least once in every Super Bowl. Instead, "the star of this spot should be the car," said Aaron Walton, one of the firm's founding partners. "We wanted to make sure that the focus was really around the performance of the car, the energy of the car, and we didn't want to do anything that was going to take away from that."

The agency chose to focus on giving the commercial a look much like a music video, the better to appeal to a younger consumer. Dave Meyers, a prolific music-video director known for his work for Katy Perry and Rhianna, among others, was enlisted to shoot the concept. "For this generation, music always plays a critical role,: said Walton.

Like the other Super Bowl advertisers, Lexus is spending a princely sum to get the word out about its product. NBC has been seeking between $4.4 million and $4.5 million for a 30-second spot in its broadcast, plus a similar sum for other NBC sports inventory. Executives at the car maker think the exposure the new NX will get during the game is worth the price. "There is no bigger sports property for eyeballs," said Smith.

© 2015 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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'American Sniper' stays on top of TV ad spend

In this week's edition of the Variety Movie Commercial Tracker, powered by iSpot.tv, "American Sniper" upped its budget to take the top weekly ad spend ranking for the third time in as many weeks, increasing to an estimated $10.7 million spent on 747 national airings across 45 networks, led by MTV and Ovation. That's almost $1 million more than the previous two weeks (at $9.8 million and $9.4 million).

"Blackhat," meanwhile, jumped two spots to second place on the heels of a $2.4 million increase to $7.4 million spent on 925 national airings across 34 networks led by Cloo and Comedy Central. "Inherent Vice" held position at third with $5.9 million spent on 1,078 national spots across 31 networks led by Comedy Central and MTV.

Moving up one slot to fourth is "The Wedding Ringer" with $5.9 million spent on 832 spots across 34 networks, led by MTV and Comedy Central. And newcomer "Selma" debuted at fifth with $5.4 million spent on 1,067 spots across 36 networks led by BET and OWN.

The weekly spend, estimated at $102 million, was spread across 27 studio brands and more than 16,200 airings this week. Typical leader Warner Bros. held only two of the top five spots, but still led all other studios with an estimated $19.8 million spend overall. Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures and Paramount Pictures ranked in that order behind it on the backs of their respective contributions to the top five list.

$10.7M - American Sniper

Online Activity: 7.43% within the movie category*

National Airings: 747

Networks: 45

Most Aired On: MTV, Ovation

Creative Versions: 26

Est. Lifetime TV Spend: $43.8M

Studio: Warner Bros.

Started Airing: 12/05/14

$7.4M - Blackhat

Online Activity: 0.80% within the movie category*

National Airings: 925

Networks: 34

Most Aired On: Cloo, Comedy Central

Creative Versions: 15

Est. Lifetime TV Spend: $20.4M

Studio: Universal Pictures

Started Airing: 11/20/14

$5.9M - Inherent Vice

Online Activity: 1.43% within the movie category*

National Airings: 1,078

Networks: 31

Most Aired On: Comedy Central, MTV

Creative Versions: 10

Est. Lifetime TV Spend: $15.3M

Studio: Warner Bros.

Started Airing: 12/14/14

$5.9M - The Wedding Ringer

Online Activity: 0.66% within the movie category*

National Airings: 832

Networks: 34

Most Aired On: MTV, Comedy Central

Creative Versions: 23

Est. Lifetime TV Spend: $20.6M

Studio: Sony Pictures

Started Airing: 12/14/14

$5.4M - Selma

Online Activity: 1.82% within the movie category*

National Airings: 1,067

Networks: 36

Most Aired On: BET, Oprah Winfrey Network

Creative Versions: 25

Est. Lifetime TV Spend: $15.5M

Studio: Paramount Pictures

Started Airing: 11/18/14

¹ Movie titles with a minimum spend of $100,000 for airings detected between 01/05/2015 and 01/11/2015.
* Percent of digital activity captured across online video, social media, and search activity that was stimulated by these movie trailers and measured in comparison to all online activity in the movie category.

Variety has partnered with iSpot.tv, a company that catalogs, tags and measures activity around TV commercials in real time, to bring you this weekly look at what studios are spending to market their movies on TV. Learn more about the iSpot.tv platform and methodology.

© 2015 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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GoPro to launch wireless HD transmitter for live TV broadcasts

GoPro wants to make it easier for TV networks to weave video from its mountable cameras into live sports and events programming.

The company announced a pact with Vislink, a technology provider specializing managing and delivering HD video and associated data, under which GoPro's HERO4 cameras will be available with a wireless transmitter for live, broadcast-grade video. The transmitter is small enough to be worn or mounted on various equipment to provide new perspectives for TV producers, the duo said.

The wireless HD transmitter will be showcased during popular live events this winter, including ESPN's Winter X Games 2015 Aspen from Jan. 22-25, as well as select AMA Monster Energy Supercross events and other live sporting events.

GoPro said more details on the product, including pricing and availability, will be announced this spring. While broadcasters have already been using footage from GoPro cameras, they've only been able to use it in a post-production workflow after the video has been downloaded from the memory cards.

"Now with unique GoPro perspectives available to broadcasters, watching live events is like being part of the action instead of watching it from the stands," said GoPro president Tony Bates.

Vislink says its technology is used in many highly demanding broadcast environments such as the Olympics, MotoGP, WRC World Rally Championship, Formula-E and the America's Cup.

GoPro, in another step aimed at growing the media side of its business, last fall hired Zander Lurie as senior VP of media. Lurie, formerly a senior exec with Guggenheim Digital Media and CBS, is in charge of curation and distribution of video created by GoPro users.

© 2015 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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US stocks fall on dismal retail report, slow global growth

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks fell broadly in noon trading Wednesday following a report showing retail sales declined last month and more signs of slowing global growth. Overseas stocks also fell and copper plunged to a five-year low. Investors sought safety in government bonds, pushing down the yield on the 10-year Treasury note down to its lowest level since May 2013.

KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 25 points, or 1.3 percent, to 1,997 as of 12:11 p.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 276 points, or 1.6 percent, to 17,336. The Nasdaq composite fell 43 points, or 0.9 percent, to 4,618.

SLUMPING SALES: The Commerce Department reported early Wednesday that retail sales fell 0.9 percent in December, the biggest decline since January last year. The drop shows consumers are reluctant to spend despite lower gas prices and a pickup in hiring.

THE QUOTE: "That retail sales number really surprised people," said Peter Tuz, a portfolio manager at Chase Investment Counsel, which manages $400 million in assets. "There was a perception that the economy was improving, but that has gotten called into question."

BANKING BLUES: JPMorgan Chase fell $2.66, or 4.5 percent, to $56.18 after reporting a 7 percent drop in fourth-quarter earnings. The bank was hit by more legal costs and a decline in trading revenue.

THE HOUSE LOSES: Caesars Entertainment fell 55 cents, or 4.4 percent, to $12.08 on expectations that an operating unit of the giant casino company will file for bankruptcy this week. Caesars has lost money each year for the last five years, and is fighting with lenders over plans to cut its debt.

DISMAL FORECAST: A report from the World Bank late Tuesday after markets closed struck a downbeat note. The bank lowered its forecast for global growth this year to 3 percent from 3.4 percent. It blamed sluggish economies in Europe and Japan, and a slowdown in China.

COPPER CAPITULATES: The price of copper, a metal used in many industries, plunged for a second day following the World Bank's downgrade. It fell 5 percent to $2.51 a pound. Mining stocks fell sharply as a result. Freeport-McMoRan plunged $2.34, or 11 percent, to $18.70.

EUROPE FALLS: France's CAC 40 fell 1.6 percent while Germany's DAX fell 1.2 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 dropped 2.3 percent, underperforming its peers because miners make up a big chunk of the index.

EUROPEAN COURT RULING: The euro dropped to a nine-year low of $1.1725, below its launch rate of $1.1747. It recovered to trade slightly up on the day at $1.1813. The trigger for the decline was a ruling from an advocate general with the European Court of Justice that the European Central Bank's offer in 2012 to buy government bonds of troubled countries is legal in principle.

Analysts said that ruling has cleared the way for the ECB to announce a program to buy government bonds at its Jan. 22 policy meeting.

ASIA'S DAY: Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped 1.7 percent and South Korea's Kospi edged down 0.2 percent. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong slipped 0.4 percent. The Shanghai Composite index dropped 0.4 percent.

ENERGY: U.S. crude fell 20 cents, to 0.4 percent, to $45.68 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Stocks markets have been rattled in recent weeks as the price of oil plunged. Crude is now 57 percent lower than where it was last June.

BONDS: The yield on the 10-year Treasury note dropped to 1.81 percent from 1.90 percent late Tuesday, a large move.

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AP Business Writer Pan Pylas contributed to this report from London.

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New Charlie Hebdo reaches global audience, dismays Muslims

LONDON — A week ago, Charlie Hebdo was a niche publication little known outside France, with a circulation of 60,000. On Wednesday the satirical newspaper's first issue since last week's deadly attack on its staff went on sale with a print run of 3 million copies and front-page coverage around the world.

Readers in France mobbed newsstands to buy a copy and European newspapers reprinted Charlie Hebdo's cartoons as a gesture of solidarity. But the decision to depict the Prophet Muhammad on the cover, holding a sign saying "Je suis Charlie" (I am Charlie), angered many Muslims, who called it a renewed insult to their religion.

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MUSLIM ANGER

Many Muslims believe their faith forbids depictions of the prophet, and reacted with dismay — and occasionally anger — to the latest cover image. Some felt their expressions of solidarity with Charlie Hebdo after last week's attack had been rebuffed, while others feared the cartoon would trigger yet more violence.

"You're putting the lives of others at risk when you're taunting bloodthirsty and mad terrorists," said Hamad Alfarhan, a 29-year old Kuwaiti doctor.

"I hope this doesn't trigger more attacks. The world is already mourning the losses of many lives under the name of religion."

Abbas Shumann, deputy to the Grand Sheik of Cairo's influential Al-Azhar mosque, said the new image was "a blatant challenge to the feelings of Muslims who had sympathized with this newspaper."

But he told The Associated Press that Muslims should ignore the cover and respond by "showing tolerance, forgiveness and shedding light on the story of the prophet." An angry reaction, he said, "will not solve the problem but will instead add to the tension and the offense to Islam."

In Jordan, the Muslim Brotherhood said it would stage a protest after Friday prayers in Amman in response to the paper's Muhammad cartoon. Spokesman Murad Adaileh said the brotherhood strongly condemned both the killings and the "offensive" against the prophet.

That was a widely expressed sentiment. Ghassan Nhouli, a grocer in the Lebanese port city of Sidon, said the magazine and the killers "are both wrong."

"It is not permitted to kill and also it is not permitted to humiliate a billion Muslims," he said.

The Iranian government has strongly condemned the killings, but Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said that in a world of widely differing cultures, "sanctities need to be respected."

"I think we would have a much safer, much more prudent world if we were to engage in serious dialogue, serious debate about our differences and then what we will find out that what binds us together is far greater than what divides us," he said.

Egyptian cartoonist Makhlouf appealed for peace with his own spin on the Charlie Hebdo cover, replacing Muhammad with an ordinary Middle Eastern man carrying a placard reading "I am an artist" in French.

"I am for art and against killing," he added in Arabic. "May God forgive everyone." The image was widely circulated on social media.___

TURKISH TENSION

Turkey was rare among Muslim-majority nations to have publications running Charlie Hebdo images. But the decision has raised tensions in the officially secular country.

Police stopped trucks leaving the printing plant of newspaper Cumhuriyet after it said it would reprint some of the cartoons Wednesday. The vehicles were allowed to distribute the paper once officials had determined that the image of the Prophet Muhammad was not shown.

The paper printed a four-page selection of cartoons and articles — including caricatures of Pope Francis and French President Francois Hollande — but left out cartoons likely to offend Muslims. However, two Cumhuriyet columnists used small, black-and-white images of the new Charlie Hebdo cover as their column headers.

A small group of pro-Islamic students staged a protest outside the paper's office in Ankara, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported, and police intensified security outside Cumhuriyet's headquarter and printing center as a precaution.

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EAGER EUROPEANS

Across Europe, there was high demand for scarce copies of the latest edition, and several newspapers ran extracts from Charlie Hebdo.

Spain's El Pais published two pages of the cartoons with Spanish translation, though it did not include any images of the prophet.

A small Italian newspaper, Il Fatto Quotidiano (The Daily Fact), published Charlie Hebdo as a 16-page supplement, in French with Italian translations of the captions.

"Why are we doing it?" editor Antonio Padellaro wrote in a front-page column. "Because last Friday, when we called the surviving top editor of Charlie Hebdo, we heard him say, 'Thanks, you're the only Italian newspaper who asked us.'"

Physical copies of the paper were hard to find, though newsagents in several countries said they hoped to have some in stock by the end of the week.

In Sweden, the 320-strong Pressbyran chain of newsagents said it would sell the issue, but only online, not in stores. Spokesman Fredrik Klein said the decision was "as a security measure and out of concern for our staff."

There was brisk bidding for copies of Charlie Hebdo on Internet auction sites. On the Irish version of eBay, emailed electronic copies were selling at prices starting around 6.50 euros ($8), while hard copies attracted bids over 200 euros ($240). On British eBay, bidding on one copy went above 95,000 ($145,000), though it was unclear whether the bids were genuine or an attempt to make mischief.

Michael Collingwood of Sgel, Charlie Hebdo's Spanish distributor, said he normally received 40 copies but had been promised 1,000 this time by the paper's French distributor. He figured he could sell eight times that number.

"I don't know why they only printed 3 million," he said. "Everyone wants it."

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Associated Press writers Hussain al-Qatari in Kuwait City, Omar Akour in Amman, Jordan, Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Sarah El Deeb and Jon Gambrell in Cairo, Desmond Butler in Ankara, Matthew Lee in Geneva, Frances D'Emilio in Rome, Ciaran Giles in Madrid, Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin, Karl Ritter in Stockholm and Jan Olsen in Copenhagen contributed to this report.

Follow Jill Lawless on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

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Obama moves to create first methane limits for gas drilling

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration laid out a blueprint Wednesday for the first regulations to cut down on methane emissions from new natural gas wells, aiming to curb the discharge of a potent greenhouse gas by roughly half.

Relying once again on the Clean Air Act, the rules join a host of others that President Barack Obama has ordered in an effort to slow global warming despite opposition to new laws in Congress that has only hardened since the midterm elections. Although just a sliver of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, methane is far more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.

The White House set a new target for the U.S. to cut methane emissions by 40 percent to 45 percent by 2025, compared to 2012 levels. To meet that goal, the Environmental Protection Agency will issue a proposal affecting oil and gas production, while the Interior Department will also update its standards for drilling to reduce leakage from wells on public lands.

How much will the regulations cost the energy industry? The White House said it won't have specific estimates until later.

"There are significant, highly cost-effective opportunities for reducing methane emissions from this sector," said Dan Utech, Obama's climate and energy advisor. "We're confident we can do this in a cost-effective way."

Methane, which leaks during production of natural gas, has grown as a concern for environmentalists amid the ongoing boom in drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. Yet these rules will target new or modified natural gas wells, meaning thousands of existing wells won't have to comply. The Obama administration left open the possibility it could regulate methane from existing wells in the future while asking the energy industry to take voluntarily steps to curb emissions in the meantime.

Though long in the works, the methane plans come at a particularly sensitive moment for Obama's environmental agenda. Republicans, incensed that Obama has made copious use of executive action to sidestep Congress on climate and other issues, have made rolling back those actions one of their first orders of business this year now that they control both chambers of Congress.

Obama's intention to eventually force industry to cut methane emissions has long been part of his broader strategy on climate change, and Wednesday's announcement may prove to be incremental.

Last year, the White House said the EPA would study how methane is released during drilling and determine whether it needed new regulations. That the administration has now decided it does need more regulations will surprise few. But the key details — how the regulations will affect industry's bottom line and how deeply they'll reduce greenhouse gases — won't come until the government formally proposes the rule. That won't come until later this year, with plans to finalize it in 2016 — the last year of Obama's presidency.

Officials couldn't say how far the rules will go toward meeting Obama's goal to cut overall greenhouse gas emissions up to 28 percent by 2025, other than that the contribution would be "significant." But environmentalists argue that cutting methane is key to curbing climate change, and some scientists have said that without methane controls, the country's shift from coal to natural gas will have less of an environmental benefit. "This is a landmark moment," said Fred Krupp of the Environmental Defense Fund.

The oil and gas industry insisted such rules aren't necessary because methane emissions are already on the decline, and said gas producers are already working to reduce methane leakage. After all, methane is natural gas, so the less that leaks during production, the more of it that companies have left to sell.

"The president's plan is another case of the administration adding new red tape to make mandatory what industry has been doing voluntarily for several years," said Kathleen Sgamma of the Western Energy Alliance, which represents gas and oil companies.

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Associated Press writer Dina Cappiello contributed to this report.

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Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

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GM predicts pretax earnings, profit margin rise in 2015

DETROIT — General Motors says it expects pretax earnings and profit margins to increase this year over last, after adjusting last year for recall costs.

The company also predicts improved automotive results in all of its regions, but it gave no specific numbers.

At a Deutsche Bank automotive conference in Detroit on Wednesday, GM also reiterated 2016 financial targets of 10 percent pretax profit margins in North America and a return to profitability in Europe, where it last made a full-year profit in 1999. The company also expects to maintain strong profit margins in China. Profit margin is the percentage of revenue that a company gets to keep.

GM also expects 9 percent to 10 percent profit margins overall by early next decade.

Last year GM issued 84 recalls covering more than 30 million vehicles in North America, costing the company more than $2.8 billion. The spate of recalls began with faulty small-car ignition switches that are responsible for at least 45 deaths and 68 injuries. GM acknowledged knowing about the bad switches for more than a decade, yet it didn't start recalling the cars until early 2014.

CEO Mary Barra told the conference that the company didn't do everything perfectly on the recalls, but said it now has permanent systems, processes and behavior changes in place to make sure it doesn't happen again.

GM plans to reach its goals by leading in product and technology, expanding the Chevrolet and Cadillac brands globally and continuing to grow in China.

Company President Dan Ammann told the conference the company plans numerous new products during the next couple of years, including top-selling models such as the Chevrolet Cruze compact car, Chevy Malibu midsize car and Chevrolet Equinox small crossover SUV.

GM has 27 new models coming globally this year, and 38 in each of 2016 and 2017, he said.

"All major-volume entries get all-new models the next couple of years," Ammann said.

Chief Financial Officer Chuck Stevens said GM plans to return "excess cash" to shareholders mainly through growing dividends, but no details were given.

GM is scheduled to release its fourth-quarter and 2014 earnings on Feb. 4.

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FDA approves appetite-zapping implant for obese patients

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators have approved an appetite-suppressing implant designed to treat obesity by zapping nerves that connect the stomach and the brain.

The Maestro Rechargeable System uses electrodes implanted in the abdomen to stimulate the vagus nerve, which signals to the brain that the stomach is empty or full. Patients and doctors can adjust the device settings using external controllers.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the device for patients 18 and older who have been unable to lose weight via other methods and have a body mass index of 35 to 40 with one other obesity-related health condition, such as diabetes. BMI is an estimate of body fat based on weight and height used to calculate obesity. Someone who is 5-foot-9 and weighs 240 has a BMI of 35.

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