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Iran releases 3 journalists jailed during rallies

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Bijou Market to sell handmade wares

A vacant lot will be transformed into a bazaar this weekend as vendors fill the space with bright colors and funky patterns. Local artists will be selling everything from clothes to kitchen utensils.

Bijou Market, an event being held Saturday at 501 N. 900 East in Provo,  will involve 50 vendors selling their wares from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.

“There will be a lot of great stuff, and all handmade,” said Emily Frame, one of the founders and coordinators of the market. “Clothes for men, women and children, shoes, home decor, kitchen items, purses, lots of jewelry, even beach cruiser bikes.”

Frame, a local resident, will have her own booth set up at the market as well as coordinating the other vendors. She and another local artist, Raschelle Johansson, make artistic headbands for their company, Motley Handmade.

10 arrested in Mexican police chief's killing

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Obama: US must reverse course with American Indians

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama assured American Indians on Thursday that they have a place in his White House and on his agenda, telling tribal leaders their marginalized community deserves more from its government.

"I get it. I'm on your side," Obama told the largest gathering of tribal leaders in U.S. history.

Obama devoted part of his own time Thursday and even more of his administration's attention toward renewing relations with American Indians. He opened a conference that drew leaders from 386 tribal nations — the first meeting of its kind in 15 years — and he ordered every Cabinet agency to take more steps toward more cooperation.

Study: Nitrogen pollution worsens in Rockies lakes

DENVER — Airborne nitrogen pollution from vehicle exhaust and farm fertilizer is turning algae in the alpine lakes of Rocky Mountain National Park into junk food for fish, a study says.

A similar phenomenon is occurring in Sweden and Norway, according to the study of about 90 high-elevation lakes set to be published in the journal Science on Friday.

Arizona State University professor James Elser, the study's lead author, said the effect of airborne nitrogen on once-pristine lakes is greater than previously believed. The nitrogen's sources include vehicle exhaust, fertilizer used on farms and livestock feed lots and power plant emissions.

More nitrogen can reduce long-term lake biodiversity because algae become poor food for other microscopic organisms and, ultimately, fish. The algae are high in nitrogen, but low in phosphorous and less nutritious.

Northwest pilots appeal license revocation

WASHINGTON — The Northwest Airlines pilots who overshot Minneapolis by 150 miles are appealing their license revocations with the National Transportation Safety Board.

The appeals were filed late Wednesday, said board spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz. He said that appeals typically are heard by an administrative law judge with the board within 120 days.

The Federal Aviation Administration revoked the licenses of Capt. Timothy Cheney of Gig Harbor, Wash., and First Officer Richard Cole of Salem, Ore., last week. The agency said the pilots put the 144 passengers of Northwest Flight 188 in serious danger on Oct. 21 when they failed to communicate with anyone on the ground for 91 minutes despite repeated attempts by air traffic controllers and their own airline to reach them.

Supreme Court wades into mutual fund fee disparity

BOSTON — The U.S. Supreme Court is taking a close look at a question individual investors have long asked about their mutual funds, but the courts have largely ignored: Why am I getting charged twice as much as big institutional clients?

Sure enough, the money-management services that different classes of fund clients get aren't the same. Institutions like pension funds and foundations may not need toll-free customer hotlines. They don't require as many of the prospectuses and other fund reports that individuals often throw away, even though they're printed and mailed at great expense. Individuals move relatively paltry sums in and out of a fund, piling up higher transaction costs than big clients.

Still, the investments a fund makes are often the same for both groups, and the returns similar _ though individuals' higher fees take a bigger bite from their results, regardless of whether markets are up or down.

Army: 12, 31 wounded in attack at Fort Hood

AP Photo. The entrance to Fort Hood, Texas, remains closed after a shooting on the base, Thursday.

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A year after the election, Utah Valley youth weigh in on President Obama

Wednesday marked the one-year anniversary of the election of President Barack Obama, and while many youth voters across the country still remain positive about the president’s achievements, the majority of Utah Valley’s young people seem skeptical.

Obama soared into the presidency on the wings of overwhelming support and activism from Americans between the ages of 18 and 29, many of whom were impressed with his messages of positive policy change. While a recent Boston.com poll reports that most of these voters believe the president has lived up to his campaign promises, a majority of BYU students and other young adults in Utah County said one year later, Obama still has a lot of work to do.

“They stressed a lot about change and a lot about making a difference, and I haven’t seen it in fruition yet,” said Jaclyn Coleman, a BYU nursing student from Boise, Idaho.  “But I know it’s only been a year.”

AP: Stimulus job reports included raises

WASHINGTON — The government's latest count of stimulus jobs significantly overstates the effects of the $787 billion program under a popular federal preschool program, raising fresh questions about the process the Obama administration is using to tout the success of its economic recovery plan.

An Associated Press review of the latest stimulus reports — which the White House promised would undergo extensive reviews to ensure accuracy — found that more than two-thirds of 14,506 jobs credited to the recovery act under spending by just one federal office were overstated because they counted pay increases for existing workers as jobs saved.

The inflated job count is at least partly the product of the administration instructing local community agencies that received money to count the raises as jobs saved.

NYC mayor bruised by surprisingly close victory

NEW YORK — Billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg heads toward a third term bruised by a surprisingly close re-election battle that exposed lingering anger over his reversal on term limits and his prodigious campaign spending.

In the days leading up to the election, Bloomberg was expected to secure an easy victory, perhaps by double digits. But he won by just five percentage points _ an advantage of less than 51,000 votes.

The mayor called it a "hard-fought victory in a very difficult year," and promised that New Yorkers "ain't seen nothing yet" from him.

"I'm committed to working twice as hard in the next four years as I did in the past eight," Bloomberg said.

Facing an underdog Democratic opponent who had little money and no name recognition, Bloomberg still waged the most expensive self-financed political campaign in U.S. history.

Police: Man made up knife attack to miss work

EDGEWATER, Colo. — Police in the Denver suburb of Edgewater say a man stabbed himself, then said he was attacked by three men dressed in black who were either Hispanic or skinheads, in a ploy to miss work.

Twenty-nine-year-old Aaron Siebers was arrested after police say he admitted making up the assault and said he was responsible for the knife wound to his leg and other superficial cuts on his body. He faces charges of false reporting and obstructing a police officer.

Police say Siebers reported the attack Monday to the video store where he works. The reported assault drew five police agencies to the scene, along with K-9 units.

Police spokesman Steve Davis says Siebers admitted the story was a lie after repeated questioning from detectives.

La. judge done after flap over interracial wedding

BATON ROUGE, La. — At least four times in the last 2 1/2 years, Keith Bardwell says he refused to marry interracial couples while serving as a Louisiana justice of the peace.

He said from his experience and discussions, he had concluded that blacks and whites do not readily accept offspring of such relationships, so the children end up suffering.

His latest rebuff to a bride and groom of different races turned out to be his last. After weeks of calls for his ouster, Bardwell resigned after 34 years in office Tuesday, leaving his reasons a secret.

His one-sentence statement to Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne said: "I do hereby resign the office of Justice of the Peace for the Eighth Ward of Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, effective November 3, 2009."

GOP sweep: Big governor victories in Virginia, NJ

WASHINGTON — Independents who swept Barack Obama to a historic 2008 victory broke big for Republicans on Tuesday as the GOP wrested political control from Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey, a troubling sign for the president and his party heading into an important midterm election year.

Conservative Republican Bob McDonnell's victory in the Virginia governor's race over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds and moderate Republican Chris Christie's ouster of unpopular New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine was a double-barreled triumph for a party looking to rebuild after being booted from power in national elections in 2006 and 2008.

Elsewhere on Tuesday, Maine voters rejected a state law that would allow same-sex couples to wed. If supporters had prevailed, it would have marked the first time that the electorate in any state endorsed gay marriage.

Earthquake injures 270 in southern Iran

TEHRAN, Iran— A moderate earthquake hit southern Iran early Wednesday, injuring 269 people and cutting power and telephone lines, state radio reported.

State radio said residents of the southern port city of Bandar Abbas poured into the streets after the 4.9-magnitude quake hit at 2:56 a.m. local time Wednesday.

The broadcast said there were no reports of deaths in the quake, which hit 850 miles (1,367 kilometers) south of the capital. Bandar Abbas is one of Iran's key ports and home to a large oil refinery that primarily serves the domestic market.

Iran is located on seismic fault lines and is prone to earthquakes. It experiences at least one slight earthquake everyday on average.

Some 26,000 people were killed by a 6.6-magnitude quake that flattened the historic southeastern city of Bam in the same region in 2003.