Boehner's 'Plan B' immediately encounters opposition

House Speaker John Boehner says he is readying a backup bill aimed at averting the "fiscal cliff."

WASHINGTON -- House Speaker John A. Boehner’s "Plan B" on the budget talks, bringing to a vote his proposal to extend expiring tax breaks for all but those Americans who earn more than $1 million a year, ran almost immediately into stiff resistance Tuesday.

Conservative Republicans pushed back against it, the White House swiftly rejected the approach and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) called it "dead on arrival."

Boehner's decision, shared behind closed doors during a morning meeting of rank-and-file GOP lawmakers, was an abrupt shift after the Ohio Republican and President Obama had substantially narrowed their differences in talks that both sides described as optimistic. The proposed vote could come as soon as Thursday.

By calling up the legislation for a vote, the speaker is trying to build momentum toward a resolution as talks over a broader deficit deal continue. He wants to avoid having his party be seen as causing a tax hike on most Americans in the new year, which would happen if no agreement is reached.

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"We have to stop whatever tax-rate increases we can," the speaker told his troops, according to prepared remarks supplied by a source familiar with the talk but not authorized to disclose it. "In the absence of an alternative, as of this morning, a modified Plan B is the plan. At the same time we're moving on Plan B, we're leaving the door wide open for something better."

The speaker made it clear that he is not cutting off talks with Obama as they continue to pursue a deficit-reduction package to avert the "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts in the new year. He and the president spoke by phone late Monday after a morning meeting at the White House.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney dismissed the speaker’s Plan B in a statement, saying it "can't pass the Senate and therefore will not protect middle-class families." He added that Obama "is not willing to accept a deal that doesn't ask enough of the very wealthiest in taxes and instead shifts the burden to the middle class and seniors."

Obama campaigned on extending tax breaks for household income of less than $250,000 a year, although he has sought compromise in talks this week with Boehner, indicating a willingness to raise that threshold to $400,000.

Boehner seeks to launch a legislative ping-pong game between the House and Senate over the Plan B bill. If he is able to pass the measure in the House -- which remains uncertain -- Republicans expect that the Senate, controlled by Democrats, would likely amend it to reflect Obama’s priorities on taxes and stimulus spending on long-term unemployment insurance, and send it back to the lower chamber.

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the Boehner bill could not pass either chamber.

As Boehner outlined his strategy Tuesday, conservative Republicans bristled at being asked to raise the highest tax rates, now at 35%, to 39.6% for those earning more than $1 million a year. Tax rates on capital gains and dividends would also rise on those wealthy households.

"I hate it. I hate it," said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), an outspoken leader of House conservatives. But he did not say he would oppose it. "I'm trying to be reasonable. I understand no one person is going to get everything they want."

Conservatives want more federal spending cuts in exchange for any new tax revenue -- but not the massive automatic spending cuts in place for early next year. Plan B would keep those cuts in place.

Freshman Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) said reaction was mixed as Boehner spoke. "There will be some of us that will say no; some of us will say yes," he said. "This is a reality check, people are trying to grapple with the situation in which we sit right now."

Democrats, though, were more certain of the outcome, especially because the Boehner proposal would reduce the cost-of-living adjustment for those who receive government benefits, likely including Social Security, which would be a major concession for the Democratic Party. Obama has offered making that cut, but only in exchange for higher tax rates on households making at least $400,000 a year.

QUIZ: How much do you know about the fiscal cliff?

"I don’t know what the purpose of this Plan B is," Pelosi said as she emerged from a closed-door meeting of House Democrats. "To find out if Democrats will support that? They won't."

"Speaker Boehner seems to be walking away," added Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the House Democrats' point person for discussions of the fiscal cliff. "I know he says he wants to engage in conversation, but now he's doing this unilateral course."

Boehner faces an enormous test in trying to get his Plan B out of the House with his conservative majority. He plans to offer the rank-and-file a chance to make changes to the bill.

"He's got a difficult hand to play: On the one hand, he’s got difficult negotiations, and on the other hand, he’s got a contentious conference to deal with," said freshman Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) "He understands what reality is. He understands he’s got a difficult sell ahead of him."

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CBS dominates week in TV ratings

NEW YORK (AP) — CBS had little competition for dominance last week in the television ratings.

The network had 17 of the 25 most-watched programs on the air last week, according to the Nielsen company. It beat second-place NBC by an average of nearly four million viewers a night last week, and also took the 18-to-49-year-old demographic that advertisers seek.

"60 Minutes" and "NCIS" were the most popular shows on CBS last week. As is typical in the fall, NBC's Sunday night football matchup was the week's most-watched show.

One end-of-year tradition, Barbara Walters' survey of the year's most popular personalities, finished No. 27 in the week's ratings with 7.6 million viewers.

On cable, Showtime's "Dexter" and "Homeland" both hit series records for their season finale episodes on Sunday. "Dexter" had 2.8 million viewers and "Homeland" had 2.3 million. Showtime preceded each episode with a disclaimer, warning that audiences might find the shows too intense so soon after the Connecticut school killings.

CBS averaged 11.9 million viewers for the week in prime time (7.3 rating, 12 share). NBC had 7.3 million (4.5, 7), ABC had 5.1 million (3.3, 5), Fox had 4.4 million (2.7, 4), the CW had 1.7 million (1.1, 2) and ION Television had 1.3 million (0.9, 1).

Among the Spanish language networks, Univision led with an average of 3.2 million viewers (1.7, 3). Telemundo had 1.3 million (0.7, 1), TeleFutura had 850,000 (0.4, 1), Estrella had 340,000 (0.2, 0) and Azteca had 140,000 (0.1, 0).

NBC's "Nightly News" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 9.4 million viewers (6.3, 12). ABC's "World News" was second with 8.3 million (5.5, 11) and the "CBS Evening News" had 7.2 million viewers (4.9, 9).

A ratings point represents 1,147,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 114.7 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of Dec. 10-16, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: NFL Football: San Francisco at New England, NBC, 23.23 million; "60 Minutes," CBS, 19.63 million; "NCIS," CBS, 17.65 million; "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 16.74 million; "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 15.12 million; "Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick," NBC, 14.62 million; "Person of Interest," CBS, 14.08 million; "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 13.34 million; "The Voice" (Monday), NBC, 12.33 million; "Criminal Minds," CBS, 12.01 million.

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ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is owned by CBS Corp. CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. Fox and My Network TV are units of News Corp. NBC and Telemundo are owned by Comcast Corp. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks. TeleFutura is a division of Univision. Azteca America is a wholly owned subsidiary of TV Azteca S.A. de C.V.

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Ancient Bones That Tell a Story of Compassion

Lorna Tilley

DISABLED Almost all the other skeletons at the Man Bac site, south of Hanoi, are straight. But the man now called Burial 9 was laid to rest curled in a fetal position that suggests lifelong paralysis.

While it is a painful truism that brutality and violence are at least as old as humanity, so, it seems, is caring for the sick and disabled.

And some archaeologists are suggesting a closer, more systematic look at how prehistoric people — who may have left only their bones — treated illness, injury and incapacitation. Call it the archaeology of health care.

The case that led Lorna Tilley and Marc Oxenham of Australian National University in Canberra to this idea is that of a profoundly ill young man who lived 4,000 years ago in what is now northern Vietnam and was buried, as were others in his culture, at a site known as Man Bac.

Almost all the other skeletons at the site, south of Hanoi and about 15 miles from the coast, lie straight. Burial 9, as both the remains and the once living person are known, was laid to rest curled in the fetal position. When Ms. Tilley, a graduate student in archaeology, and Dr. Oxenham, a professor, excavated and examined the skeleton in 2007 it became clear why. His fused vertebrae, weak bones and other evidence suggested that he lies in death as he did in life, bent and crippled by disease.

They gathered that he became paralyzed from the waist down before adolescence, the result of a congenital disease known as Klippel-Feil syndrome. He had little, if any, use of his arms and could not have fed himself or kept himself clean. But he lived another 10 years or so.

They concluded that the people around him who had no metal and lived by fishing, hunting and raising barely domesticated pigs, took the time and care to tend to his every need.

“There’s an emotional experience in excavating any human being, a feeling of awe,” Ms. Tilley said, and a responsibility “to tell the story with as much accuracy and humanity as we can.”

This case, and other similar, if less extreme examples of illness and disability, have prompted Ms. Tilley and Dr. Oxenham to ask what the dimensions of such a story are, what care for the sick and injured says about the culture that provided it.

The archaeologists described the extent of Burial 9’s disability in a paper in Anthropological Science in 2009. Two years later, they returned to the case to address the issue of health care head on. “The provision and receipt of health care may therefore reflect some of the most fundamental aspects of a culture,” the two archaeologists wrote in The International Journal of Paleopathology.

And earlier this year, in proposing what she calls a “bioarchaeology of care,” Ms. Tilley wrote that this field of study “has the potential to provide important — and possibly unique — insights into the lives of those under study.” In the case of Burial 9, she says, not only does his care indicate tolerance and cooperation in his culture, but suggests that he himself had a sense of his own worth and a strong will to live. Without that, she says, he could not have stayed alive.

“I’m obviously not the first archaeologist” to notice evidence of people who needed help to survive in stone age or other early cultures, she said. Nor does her method “come out of the blue.” It is based on and extends previous work.

Among archaeological finds, she said, she knows “about 30 cases in which the disease or pathology was so severe, they must have had care in order to survive.” And she said there are certainly more such cases to be described. “I am totally confident that there are almost any number of case studies where direct support or accommodation was necessary.”

Such cases include at least one Neanderthal, Shanidar 1, from a site in Iraq, dating to 45,000 years ago, who died around age 50 with one arm amputated, loss of vision in one eye and other injuries. Another is Windover boy from about 7,500 years ago, found in Florida, who had a severe congenital spinal malformation known as spina bifida, and lived to around age 15. D. N. Dickel and G. H. Doran, from Florida State University wrote the original paper on the case in 1989, and they concluded that contrary to popular stereotypes of prehistoric people, “under some conditions life 7,500 years ago included an ability and willingness to help and sustain the chronically ill and handicapped.”

In another well-known case, the skeleton of a teenage boy, Romito 2, found at a site in Italy in the 1980s, and dating to 10,000 years ago, showed a form of severe dwarfism that left the boy with very short arms. His people were nomadic and they lived by hunting and gathering. He didn’t need nursing care, but the group would have had to accept that he couldn’t run at the same pace or participate in hunting in the same way others did.

Ms. Tilley gained her undergraduate degree in psychology in 1982 and worked in the health care industry studying treatment outcomes before coming to the study of archaeology. She said her experience influenced her interest in ancient health care.

What she proposes, in papers with Dr. Oxenham and in a dissertation in progress, is a standard four-stage method for studying ancient remains of disabled or ill individuals with an eye to understanding their societies. She sets up several stages of investigation: first, establishing what was wrong with a person; second, describing the impact of the illness or disability given the way of life followed in that culture; and third, concluding what level of care would have needed.

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Builder confidence in housing is at highest point since 2006

A Toll Bros. home under construction this year in Philadelphia. Builders' confidence in the housing market has improved, according to one index. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press / February 8, 2012)

By E. Scott Reckard

December 18, 2012, 12:21 p.m.

Builder confidence in the housing market rose for the eighth straight month in December to its highest point in more than six years.

An index compiled by the National Assn. of Home Builders and Wells Fargo & Co. put the sentiment reading at 47 – the highest since April 2006.

That’s still far from heady readings in the 60s and 70s during the housing bubble. And under 50, it indicates that more builders have a negative outlook than positive.

But the trade group said signs were encouraging.

“Builders across the country are reporting some of the best sales conditions they’ve seen in more than five years, with more serious buyers coming forward and a shrinking number of vacant and foreclosed properties on the market,” NAHB Chairman Barry Rutenberg, a homebuilder from Gainesville, Fla., said in a news release.

The biggest problem, according to the builders, was the tight lending standards prevailing today – a distinct contrast to the easy-money practices that led to the mortgage meltdown and housing collapse.

“One thing that is still holding back potentialhomesales is the difficulty that many families are encountering in getting qualified for a mortgage due,”  Rutenberg said.

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Pasadena police shooting of Kendrec McDade was justified, D.A. says

Pasadena police officers acted lawfully when they fatally shot an unarmed college student, prosecutors said Monday.

The officers reasonably believed Kendrec McDade, 19, was armed with a gun based on false information from a 911 caller, according to a report on the March shooting released Monday by the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.

The controversial shooting sparked protests and outrage in Pasadena, with some drawing comparisons to the killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida.

McDade, 19, was killed March 24 when Officers Jeffrey Newlen and Mathew Griffin responded to a report of an armed theft of a man near a taco truck in northwest Pasadena.

"The actions of McDade during the pursuit in conjunction with the information known to the officers at the time of the shooting reasonably created a fear of imminent death or serious bodily injury," Deputy Dist. Atty. Deborah A. Delport wrote in the report. "Once the officers perceived that McDade posed an apparent lethal threat their response with deadly force was justified."

In a detailed account, prosecutors revealed that after one officer shot and wounded McDade, the second officer -- believing McDade had opened fire -- shot him after he was probably already wounded.

According to prosecutors, McDade fled on foot up Sunset Street with his right hand at his waist. As he ran, Officer Griffin sped past him in a patrol cruiser and blocked the street as Officer Newlen chased him on foot. McDade was about to run past the cruiser when he turned and ran directly toward the cruiser where Griffin was seated. "He left the sidewalk and he's running at me," Griffin told investigators. "This -- this scares the crap out of me. I don't know why he is running at me. He's still clutching his waistband. I think he's got a gun. I'm stuck in the car. I got no where to go."

Fearing for his life, Griffin said he fired four times through the open driver's side window. McDade was two or three feet away. Griffin said he then ducked down to his right to avoid being hit by shots he expected from McDade. He heard two shots and believed McDade had fired at him.

Newlen told investigators he heard the gunshots and believed McDade "was firing at Griffin."

He described seeing McDade walk toward the rear of the car and crouch down. Newlen said he heard a second gunshot at that point and saw muzzle flash. Believing McDade was firing at him, Newlen fired four or five shots at McDade, who fell to the ground after being hit.

McDade was later found to be unarmed. He was carrying a cellphone in his pocket.

In addition to confusion over who was firing shots, the two officers were operating on a false premise that McDade had committed an armed robbery. Oscar Carrillo, who reported that his computer had been stolen, had falsely told police that he had been robbed at gunpoint and later claimed he saw what he thought was the barrel of a gun.

A security video shows another young man taking a computer from Carrillo's car. McDade is seen only at the rear of the car.

According to an autopsy, McDade suffered three fatal wounds and five other non-lethal rounds.

The shooting has prompted four separate inquiries and a lawsuit by the family.

In a federal lawsuit, McDade's parents, Anya Slaughter and Kenneth McDade, allege their son was shot multiple times in the chest but did not die immediately. According to the lawsuit, McDade tried to speak with the officer, but was handcuffed and started to "twitch" and was left on the street for a prolonged period of time without receiving first aid.

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Channing Tatum, Jenna Dewan-Tatum expecting baby

NEW YORK (AP) — The Sexiest Man Alive will soon be a sexy dad.

Actor Channing Tatum and his wife Jenna Dewan-Tatum are expecting their first child in 2013, their reps confirm.

The news was first reported by People.com, which named Tatum the Sexiest Man Alive in November.

The couple, who recently co-starred in the film "10 Years," met on the 2006 dance film "Step Up," and wed in 2009.

Besides a baby, the new year will be a busy year for the parents-to-be. Tatum has at least four movies in the works while Dewan-Tatum appears on this season of "American Horror Story: Asylum" and has a TV movie called "She Made Them Do It" premiering Dec. 29 on Lifetime.

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http://channingtatumunwrapped.com/

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Well: A Running Bias Against Really Dedicated Runners

From the moment it appeared online last month, an editorial in the journal Heart became a Rorschach test for opinions about runners.

Do you roll your eyes when they start talking about their races and times? Do you snigger when you see bumper stickers that simply say “26.2,” the number of miles in a marathon, or “13.1,” the half-marathon distance? Do you lose patience with family members who have to go for a run — even if it means waking up at 4 a.m. before leaving on a vacation?

Then perhaps the editorial will appeal to you. It was titled “Run for your life… at a comfortable speed and not too far.” The authors, Dr. James H. O’Keefe Jr. of Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., and Dr. Carl J. Lavie of the Ochsner Health System in New Orleans, wrote that those who run slowly and keep their mileage down gain health benefits. But those who run for more than about 40 minutes a day and those who run faster than eight minutes a mile actually increase their risk of death.

Too much or too intense running, the two cardiologists said, “appears to cause excessive ‘wear and tear’ on the heart.”

The editorial got extensive news attention, often tinged with schadenfreude. “What do you get if you finish a marathon? A finisher’s medal and a risk of death! ” said MSN-Now. The Wall Street Journal’s article was headlined “One Running Shoe in the Grave.”

On the other side, of course, were aggrieved runners. Runner’s World instantly published a rejoinder titled “The Too-Much-Running Myth Rises Again.” The Heart editorial, it said, was “twisting the data.”

Meanwhile, some runners panicked. “I got 650 e-mails in four hours,” said Dr. Aaron Baggish, associate director of the cardiovascular performance program at the Massachusetts General Hospital. (Dr. Baggish cycles, he runs — more than 30 marathons so far — and he competes in triathlons. “I certainly exceed any dose of exercise that has been said to be bad for you,” he noted.)

By now the evidence has been thoroughly dissected. Suffice it to say that leading exercise researchers agree with Runner’s World and have stacks of journal articles to bolster their arguments.

Dr. Benjamin Levine, a competitive tennis player and director of the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine at Texas Health Resources and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, said: “You can always find one or two papers and studies that, if you spin the right way, can seem to reflect your argument.”

But, he added, while health benefits rise most sharply as people go from sedentary to moderately active, there is no good evidence that they decline, or even level off, for distance runners. “Our data and other data are quite convincing,” Dr. Levine said.

Dr. O’Keefe is not swayed. In an as yet unpublished editorial, he recommends running just two or three miles at a relaxed pace a few times a week, interspersed with days of swimming, a couple of sessions of weight lifting and some yoga. In an interview, he said that was his own exercise regimen.

The real question, though, is why does running arouse such passions? You don’t hear gleeful chortling about the health hazards to master swimmers or cross-country skiers or cyclists who do 100-mile “century” rides.

Dr. Paul Thompson, a cardiologist and exercise researcher at Hartford Hospital who is also an endurance athlete, cites two factors. First, he said, among runners “a lot of people use their athleticism in an attempt to show they are a superior human being.”

Paula Broadwell said she ran in the mountains of Afghanistan with Gen. David H. Petraeus, maintaining a pace of six or seven minutes a mile while interviewing him. The Wall Street Journal published her available race times, in an article that gushed over her speed.

But it was clear to runners that she could not possibly have run that fast, even at sea level. Her best time in a race was 7:21 minutes a mile, and most people race faster than they normally run. Even that pace barely put her in the 70th percentile for her age.

When runners use their prowess, real or exaggerated, to suggest superiority, they generate resentment, Dr. Thompson noted. As a result, he said, “people love to find studies that support the bias that too much exercise is bad.”

Why is this not an issue in other sports? Runners, Dr. Thompson and others say, are just so much more plentiful than other athletes; if you find yourself resenting an athlete who fancies himself superior, odds are that athlete will be a runner. And running appears so easy — anyone can run, it seems. Anyone can finish a marathon, even Oprah Winfrey did it. So those who do not run can feel a little defensive.

Added to that is all the running talk by devotees who may not realize how annoying and boring their monologues can be. Dr. Baggish said his patients often bring in huge folders full of decades worth of data — heart rates on various runs, finishing times in races.

“They can talk about it until the cows come home,” he said.

So it might behoove runners to keep their running talk and braggadocio to their running friends. There may be something more than health concerns behind those cracks from friends and family about failing knees and backs and heart attacks among runners.

“When I see runners in my office, I always encourage them to bring their spouses,” Dr. Baggish said. Often a wife, for example, will start to complain: her husband “can’t enjoy Christmas Day with the family because he has to run.” A husband might say he just can’t understand why his wife has to be out there all the time running.

“That sort of inconvenience translates into concerns about health,” Dr. Baggish said.

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U.S. mobile advertising to triple this year fueled by Facebook, Google

The U.S. mobile advertising market is growing swiftly and will nearly triple this year to more than $4 billion, fueled by an uptick in advertising sales at Facebook, Google and Twitter, EMarketer said in a new report. (EMarketer)

By Jessica Guynn

December 17, 2012, 11:53 a.m.

Mobile device users are going to see more ads a lot sooner than researchers anticipated.

The U.S. mobile advertising market is growing swiftly. It will nearly triple this year to more than $4 billion, fueled by an uptick in advertising sales at tech giants Facebook and Google and also at Twitter, EMarketer said in a new report.

Google is expected to ring up nearly $2.2 billion in mobile ad sales this year, mostly from its search ad business. Facebook is expected to generate more than $339 million after rolling out mobile ads this year. Its track record in the third quarter selling mobile ads is “one major reason for the change,” EMarketer said. It called the growth rate “astonishing” and “unexpected.”

Twitter, which did not make money on mobile last year, will record nearly $135 million in mobile ad sales this year, EMarketer said.

But Facebook, which has rolled out several types of advertising for mobile phones, is expected to edge out Google as the top seller of display mobile ads with more than 18% of the market. Google comes in a close second with a 17% share.

It’s a big market up for grabs. EMarketer estimates that U.S. mobile ad sales will reach more than $7 billion in 2013 and nearly $21 billion by 2016.

But it’s still a tiny percentage of the overall U.S. advertising market. Right now mobile ads account for 2% of the ad market. By 2016, EMarketer expects mobile ads to account for 11%.

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Connecticut school gunman shot mother multiple times, autopsy finds

NEWTOWN, Conn. -- School shooter Adam Lanza killed his mother with "multiple" shots to her head and killed himself with a single shot to his head, according to a coroner’s report released Sunday.

After killing his mother in the home they shared, Lanza, 20, drove her car to Sandy Hook Elementary School, where he opened fire in two classrooms Friday morning, killing 20 children and six adults. He then turned the gun on himself.

The autopsy reports were released by Connecticut Chief Medical Examiner Dr. H. Wayne Carver II, who said earlier that all the children had been shot multiple times.

Officials have not identified the make of Lanza's weapon, which Carver has described only as a “long gun.”

As the autopsy reports were being released Sunday, a threatening phone call to a local church prompted a mid-service evacuation that jarred a day of mourning as residents throughout this community grappled with the aftermath of the elementary school massacre.

FULL COVERAGE: Connecticut school shooting

A church spokesman said police gave an all-clear soon after the evacuation at St. Rose of Lima Church. A SWAT team had surrounded the rectory across the parking lot from the main church building and hundreds of parishioners were forced to leave services that had been packed all morning.

"This is a very difficult time for all the families. We have seen incredible dignity in the faces of these people," church spokesman Brian Wallace said. The church was locked following the all-clear to "restore calm," Wallace said.

"I don't think anyone can be surprised about anything after what has happened," he said.

Earlier police said in a morning briefing that they may have to interview the youngest survivors of the school shooting as they try to determine the motive of the gunman.

State Police Lt. Paul Vance and Newtown Police Lt. George Sinko offered few new details of the crime or the investigation into the so-far inexplicable rampage at the elementary school.

Any motive -- speculation about Lanza's video game habits, and his relationship with the school and with his mother -- remained unconfirmed. Two days later, police still aren't saying why he did what he did.

PHOTOS: Connecticut school shooting

“For us to be able to give you the summary of the motive, we have to complete the investigation; we have to have the whole picture to say how and why this occurred," said Vance of the Connecticut State Police, the lead agency on the investigation. "There are weeks’ worth of work left for us to complete this."

Lanza's mother legally purchased the guns later recovered at the scene of the massacre, law enforcement officials have said. Officials have previously said those weapons included a military-style Bushmaster .223 rifle, a Glock 9-millimeter pistol and a Sig Sauer semiautomatic pistol, officials said.

Vance said police would be tracing the weapons' origins "back to their origin" at their manufacturers.

Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy told CNN on Sunday morning: "What we know is he shot his way into the building, so he penetrated the building -- he wasn't buzzed in. He penetrated the building by literally shooting an entrance into the building."

Sinko, meanwhile, said it was "too early" to say if children ever would return to the two classrooms where the killings occurred. "It's too early to say, but I would find it very difficult for them to do that," he said.

Arrangements were under way for some children to report to another elementary school in Newtown when classes resume.

"We want to keep these kids together," said Sinko, explaining that they hoped children who were moved to new schools could stay with their classmates. "We want to move forward very slowly and respectfully," he added, by way of explaining why it was expected to take so long to interview surviving children.

At the news conference, Vance also said the FBI had been asked to help investigate false postings on social media sites that included "some things in somewhat of a threatening manner," and some that purported to be messages from the shooter himself or others involved in the incident.

"There are quotes by people who are posing as the shooter.... Suffice it to say, the information has been deemed as threatening," he said when asked to elaborate.

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'Hobbit' bests 'Rings' with $84.8 million opening

NEW YORK (AP) — Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" led the box office with a haul of $84.8 million, a record-setting opening better than the three previous "Lord of the Rings" films.

The Warner Bros. Middle Earth epic was the biggest December opening ever, surpassing Will Smith's "I Am Legend," which opened with $77.2 million in 2007, according to studio estimates Sunday. "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" also passed the December opening of "Avatar," which opened with $77 million. Internationally, "The Hobbit" also added $138.2 million, for an impressive debut well north of $200 million.

Despite weak reviews, the 3-D adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's first novel in the fantasy series was an even bigger draw than the last "Lord of the Rings" movie, "The Return of the King." That film opened with $72.6 million. "The Hobbit" is the first of another planned trilogy, with two more films to be squeezed out of Tolkien's book.

While Jackson's "Rings" movies drew many accolades — "The Return of the King" won best picture from the Academy Awards — the path for "The Hobbit" has been rockier. It received no Golden Globes nominations on Thursday, though all three "Rings" films were nominated by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for best picture.

Particularly criticized has been the film's 48-frames-per-second (double the usual rate), a hyper-detailed look that some have found jarring. Most moviegoers didn't see "The Hobbit" in that version, though, as the new technology was rolled out in only 461 of the 4,045 theaters playing the film.

Regardless of any misgivings over "The Hobbit," the film was a hit with audiences. They graded the film with an "A'' CinemaScore.

"What's really important, what makes this special is the CinemaScore," said Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros. "All these things point to a great word of mouth. We haven't even made it to the Christmas holidays yet. Kids are still in school this week."

The strong opening culminated a long journey for "The Hobbit," which was initially delayed when a lawsuit dragged on between Jackson and "Rings" producer New Line Cinema over merchandizing revenue. At one point, Guillermo del Toro was to direct the film with Jackson producing. But eventually the filmmaker opted to direct the movie himself, originally envisioning two "Hobbit" films. The production also went through the bankruptcy of distribution partner MGM and a labor dispute in New Zealand, where the film was shot.

The long delay for "The Hobbit," nearly a decade after the last "Lord of the Rings" film, made it "one of those movies that had everyone scratching their heads as to how it would open," said Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst for box-office tracker Hollywood.com.

"It's been a decade since the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy concluded," said Dergarabedian. "There's been so much anticipation for this film and having Peter Jackson back at the helm just made it irresistible both to fans and the non-initiated alike."

"The Hobbit" was far and away the biggest draw in theaters, with no other new wide release. Paramount's "Rise of the Guardians" continued to draw the family crowd, with $7.4 million, bringing its cumulative total to $71.4 millon. The Oscar contender "Lincoln" from Walt Disney crossed the $100 million mark, adding another $7.2 million to bring its six-week total to $107.9 million. And Sony's James Bond film "Skyfall," with another $7 million domestically, drew closer to a global take of $1 billion.

The box office continued to be on the upswing and with anticipated releases like "Les Miserables," ''Django Unchained" and "The Guilt Trip" approaching in the holiday moviegoing season. Dergarabedian expects the year to break the 2009 record of $10.6 billion. With some $10.2 billion in revenue thus far, he said, "We're on track to be in that realm."

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," $84.8 million.

2. "Rise of the Guardians," $7.4 million.

3. "Lincoln," $7.2 million.

4. "Skyfall," $7 million.

5. "Life of Pi," $5.4 million.

6. "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2," $5.2 million.

7. "Wreck-It Ralph," $3.3million.

8. "Playing for Keeps," $3.2 million.

9. "Red Dawn," $2.4 million.

10. "Silver Linings Playbook," $2 million.

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Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

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