'Fast and Furious' actor Paul Walker dies in car crash

Andre Penner / AP file

Actor Paul Walker

Actor Paul Walker, the 40-year-old star of Universal Pictures' "Fast & Furious" movie franchise, was killed in a single-car crash in California Saturday, according to a post on his official Facebook page.

Walker was a passenger in a friend's car while attending a charity event for his organization Reach Out Worldwide, the post read. Both lost their lives.

"Sadly I must confirm that Paul did pass away today in a car accident," Walker's representative Ame Van Iden told NBC News.

The crash took place north of Los Angeles in the community of Valencia. 

Authorities responded to the wreck at about 3:30 p.m. local time (6:30 p.m. ET), the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station told NBCLosAngeles.com. 

The vehicle was engulfed in flames and extinguished by the Los Angeles County Fire Department, KNBC reported. Authorities found two people inside the vehicle after the fire was put out, officials said.

Both were pronounced dead at the scene, KNBC reported. 

The cause of the crash is under investigation.

At the time of his death, Walker was working on the latest "Fast & Furious" movie.

The "Fast & Furious" franchise is a series of action films depicting street racing. 

Ex-GOP Chairman Charged with Rape, Drug Possession

Robert J. Kerns resigned his post as leader of the Republican Party in Montgomery County after a sex assault investigation was reported.

Former Montgomery County Republican Committee Chairman Robert J. Kerns

Former Montgomery County Republican Committee Chairman Robert J. Kerns has been charged with a number of felonies in connection with an alleged sexual assault that occurred in late October, according to court documents.

Kerns, 66, who led the GOP from 2008 through Nov. 15 when he resigned after the sexual assault investigation was reported, was charged with 19 criminal counts, including rape of an unconscious victim, rape of a substantially impaired person sexually assault, aggravated indecent assault without consent, possession of an instrument of crime with intent, and possession of a controlled substance.

According to reports, the victim is an employee of Kerns’s Upper Gwynedd law firm and the incident occurred in his car after work function on October 25 in King of Prussia, just one day after Kerns announced a truce among warring factions in the Republican Party, which had impacted the party for decades.

Kerns was also charged with unsworn falsification to authorities and tampering with physical evidence.

More details will be released at an 11 a.m. press conference with Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Ferman.

Kerns currently serves as the solicitor for Upper Gwynedd and West Norriton Townships and Trappe Borough, and the Police Chiefs Association of Montgomery County.

Food Banks You Can Support This Holiday Season

1 in 4 people in the greater Philadelphia region struggles to put food on the table.

In this season of plenty, it’s important to remember those who have so little. One in four people in the greater Philadelphia area struggles to put food on the table, according to the Coalition Against Hunger. 

If you’re feeling generous this holiday season, here is a list of places that will gladly take your donations.

Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger. Founded in 1996, the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger strives to build a community where all people have the food they need to lead healthy lives.

Manna. MANNA is a non-profit organization that cooks and delivers nutritious, medically-appropriate meals  and provides nutrition counseling to neighbors who are battling life-threatening illnesses such as cancer, renal disease and HIV/AIDS.

Philabundence. Philabundance was created in 1984 with the belief that no man, woman or child should go hungry. It integrated with the Philadelphia Food Bank in 2005 , making it the region’s largest hunger-relief organization.

Second Harvest Food Bank. Second Harvest Food Bank of the Lehigh Valley and Northeast Pennsylvania serves Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon, Wayne, Pike and Monroe counties.

Share Food Program. The SHARE Food Program is a nonprofit organization serving a regional network of community organizations engaged in food distribution, education, and advocacy. SHARE serves Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, metro New York and the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Feeding America has a food bank locator, if you’d prefer to make a donation to a different organization.

Crucial weekend for Obamacare website begins with a shutdown

A man looks over the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare) signup page on the HealthCare.gov website in New York in this October 2, 2013 photo illustration.

CREDIT: REUTERS/MIKE SEGAR

(Reuters) - A crucial weekend for the troubled website that is the backbone of PresidentBarack Obama's healthcare overhaul appears to be off to a shaky start, as the U.S. government took the HealthCare.gov site offline for an unusually long maintenance period into Saturday morning.

Just hours before the Obama administration's self-imposed deadline to get the insurance shopping website working for the "vast majority" of its users by Saturday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it was taking down the website for an 11-hour period that would end at 8 a.m. EST on Saturday.

It was unclear whether the extended shutdown of the website - about seven hours longer than on typical day - represented a major setback to the Obama administration's high-stakes scramble to fix the portal that it hopes eventually will enroll about 7 million uninsured and under-insured Americans under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

At the very least, the shutdown suggested that nine weeks after the website's disastrous launch on October 1 prevented most applicants from enrolling in coverage and ignited one of the biggest crises of Obama's administration, U.S. officials are nervous over whether Americans will see enough progress in the website to be satisfied.

For the administration and its Democratic allies, the stakes are enormous.

The healthcare overhaul is Obama's signature domestic achievement, a program designed to extend coverage to millions of Americans and reduce healthcare costs. To work, the program must enroll millions of young, healthy consumers whose participation in the new insurance exchanges is key to keeping costs in check.

After weeks of round-the-clock upgrades of software and hardware, Obama officials said they were poised to successfully double its capacity by this weekend, to be able to handle 50,000 insurance shoppers at one time.

But if the website does not work for the "vast majority" of visitors this weekend as the administration has promised, uninsured Americans from 36 states could face problems getting coverage by an initial December 23 deadline.

It also could create ripples that extend to the 2014 elections when control of the U.S. House of Representatives (now controlled by Republicans) and the Senate (now led by Democrats) will be up for grabs.

Obama's fellow Democrats who are up for re-election in Congress already have shown signs of distancing themselves from the president and his healthcare program. If the website does not show significant improvement soon, some Democrats - particularly the dozen U.S. senators who are from states led by conservative Republicans and who are up for re-election next year - might call for extending Obamacare's final March 31 enrollment deadline for 2014.

That would delay the fines that are mandated by the law for those who do not have insurance by that date, a scenario that insurers say would destabilize the market. It also would fuel Republicans' arguments that Obamacare, and its website, are fatally flawed and should be scrapped.

In broader political terms, the website's immediate success has become vital to Obama's credibility, which polls indicate has been tarnished by the site's problems as well as Obama's admission that he overreached in promising that everyone who liked their healthcare plan would be able to keep it under the new law.

Obama has been forced to apologize for oversimplying how the law would affect certain Americans, and has acknowledged being embarrassed and frustrated by the website's failures. Recent polls have shown that Obama's approval ratings are at the lowest point of his presidency.

"It is a lot harder to reboot public trust than it is to reboot software," said David Brailer, chief executive of the Health Evolution Partners private equity firm and a former health official in George W. Bush's administration.

"But the good thing about when you're down is that usually, you got nowhere to go but up," Obama said in an interview that aired on Friday on ABC.

IS IT FIXED? HARD TO TELL

Several technology specialists told Reuters that it will be difficult to independently assess on Saturday whether the HealthCare.gov site has met the administration's goals of functioning for most users most of the time, including handling 50,000 users at once.

"There won't be anything you can tell from the outside," said Jonathan Wu, an information technology expert and co-founder of the consumer financial website ValuePenguin.

When the site opened for enrollment on October 1, many users found that they could not complete the simple task of creating an account. Now, the website is functioning better but any remaining problems lie much deeper within the site, Wu said in an interview.

Eleventh-hour checks were not encouraging, said Matthew Hancock, an independent expert in software design who said he could tell within hours of the site's launch that its problems were the results of poor system design and bugs, rather than the heavy traffic that the administration blamed initially.

"I have tested the site every several days trying to buy a health insurance plan, but haven't been able to," Hancock said.

"I think the issues the site faces now are more complex to diagnose from the front end, whereas before the site was immediately failing and returning error details," he said.

Questions also remain about the website's ability to direct payments to private insurance companies when consumers enroll in their plans. Portions of the system handling those functions are still being built, officials say.

"The real tests are: Were my premium payment and subsidy accurately calculated? Am I getting the coverage I signed up for? If my income situation changes, will the reconciliation occur in a timely fashion?" said Rick Howard, a research director at technology consultant Gartner.

A DATE AND A NUMBER

Heading into this weekend, administration officials tasked with rescuing Obamacare showed signs of confidence that the series of fixes by tech specialists would work.

The officials gave a "virtual tour" of what they had branded the "tech surge" to a group of White House reporters.

The White House also invited a group of IT specialists to tour the website's "command center," where an engineer on unpaid leave from Google Inc directs disparate contractors and monitors their progress.

It was a convincing show that the team had the crisis under control, said John Engates, chief technology officer at Rackspace, a web hosting firm in San Antonio, who participated.

Engates, who had been publicly critical of the launch, said he felt it was likely the website would be able to handle 50,000 concurrent users on Saturday, although he did not know for sure.

"Whenever you have a date and a number, you need to be pretty sure that you can hit that date and that number," Engates told Reuters.

"It's just another loss of confidence if you don't make it."

Rain, Snow, Cold to Invade Northwest

A powerful storm will bring hazardous conditions to the Northwest this weekend

Soaking rain, snow and a blast of cold air is heading for the Northwest later this weekend into early next week.

While the ski resorts in the Cascades and northern Rockies will welcome the fresh snow, it will create hazardous driving conditions, especially through the passes.

Snow will be heavy at times Sunday into Monday, and the heavy snowfall rates will significantly reduce visibility and cause roads to become snowpacked and treacherous.

Gusty winds over 30 mph will also accompany this storm.

The winds will cause snow to blow and drift and can also cause localized power outages by snapping off tree limbs.

Times of heavy rainfall can cause localized flooding in low-lying and poor drainage areas, especially in the foothills of the coastal ranges of Washington and Oregon and the Cascades.

RELATED
Forecast Temperature Maps
Winter Weather Center
Cold Eases in East, Blasts Into West

Interstate 90 through the Washington Cascades and across northern Idaho and western Montana will be affected, along with Interstate 15 in western Montana.

Snow levels will start out around 5,000 feet Sunday morning in the northern Rockies then fall Sunday night into Monday as colder air arrives, getting down to the valley floors across Idaho and Montana by Monday morning.

By late Monday into Monday night, snow levels will fall below 1,000 feet across western Washington southward into western Oregon.

Seattle, Wash., and the surrounding lowlands can get snow showers mixed with rain showers late Monday and Portland, Ore., can see a snow shower Monday night.

Temperatures across the Northwest will be abnormally cold into the middle of next week.

Several locations, including Seattle and Portland, will flirt with their record low temperatures both Tuesday night and Wednesday night.

AccuWeather.com meteorologists are forecasting nighttime temperatures to dip into the teens and 20s.

RELATED ON SKYE: 20 Photos of Monster Blizzards

White House expects to meet health site deadline

Real test remains: How will it work when use is heavy?

The president says the health care law “is going be a legacy I am extraordinarily proud of.’’

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WASHINGTON — Administration officials are preparing to announce Sunday that they have met their Saturday deadline for improving HealthCare.gov, according to government officials, in part by expanding the site’s ability to handle 50,000 users at once. But they have yet to meet all their internal goals for repairing the federal health care site, and it will not become clear how many consumers it can accommodate until more people try to use it.

As of Friday night, federal officials and contractors had achieved two goals, according to government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss ongoing operations. They had increased the system’s capacity and reduced errors. On the other hand, the site’s pages do not load as fast as they want, officials said, and they are working to ensure large numbers of consumers can enter the site.

An official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency overseeing the federal health insurance exchange, said the site’s true capacity is somewhat murky because they need to see how it performs under ‘‘weekday traffic volumes’’ when demand is at its peak.

Federal employees and IT contractors were expected to work through the night Friday to try to reach one of the remaining targets: determining how many people per hour should be able to register and log onto the site. An earlier attempt to make the fix failed several days ago.

Nov. 30 was not originally intended to be a key date for the online enrollment system, but it took on outsized political and public importance when administration officials said five weeks ago that the ‘‘vast majority of users’’ would be able to sign up for insurance through the site by that day. A combination of federal employees, outside contractors, and a handful of technical and management experts have worked at breakneck speed for five weeks to improve the website’s performance as the White House has come under withering criticism from its political opponents.

In an interview with Barbara Walters that aired on ABC on Friday night, President Obama said he was confident that, in time, Americans would come to embrace his controversial health care law.

‘‘I continue to believe, and [I am] absolutely convinced, that at the end of the day, people are going to look back at the work we’ve done to make sure that in this country you don’t go bankrupt when you get sick, that families have that security,’’ Obama said. ‘‘That is going be a legacy I am extraordinarily proud of.’’

Administration officials have said for several weeks they define success as having ‘‘the vast majority of users’’ be able to navigate the site and sign up for insurance. Although they initially did not define what that meant, White House press secretary Jay Carney said earlier this month that the administration’s aim was to have 80 percent of users enroll through the site. Those working on the project have set speed and error rates as a way of measuring that goal.

A significant upgrade in the website’s capacity was carried out early this week, according to the government officials, which allowed HealthCare.gov to accommodate more people at once without causing the site to malfunction. For instance, many more consumers can simultaneously be on a section of the site designed to let people compare available health plans.

Even so, how much load the site can withstand depends on how much consumers are asking it to do. For example, simply looking around on the ‘‘learn’’ part of the site — where people can get basic information and a rough sense of prices — puts less strain on the system than the areas where people actually apply for coverage.

The upgrade that workers were planning to attempt at midnight Friday is intended to allow more people to use the initial stages of seeking insurance on the site. But the upgrade also meant that the site would be unavailable overnight from 9 p.m. Eastern time on Friday until 8 a.m. Saturday.

Administration officials have established a capacity goal of 80,000 consumers per hour being able to register and 320,000 people per hour who already have accounts being able to log in, according to federal officials familiar with this aspect of the project.

The team has not yet attained its target of cutting the average load time across the site to no more than half a second, officials said, though it is running faster than before.

The blitz to rehabilitate the site has entailed an unusual public and private partnership over the past five weeks. The White House rejected the idea of turning over the work of fixing the site mainly to Silicon Valley allies, some of whom served as the president’s campaign operatives, deciding instead to selectively tap a handful to help steer the project.

Michael ‘‘Mikey’’ Dickerson, a Google employee who is on leave and volunteered on both of Obama’s campaigns, has led the twice-daily calls in which the entire team has discussed ongoing problems and how to solve them. Civis Analytics chief technology officer Gabriel Burt, who served as lead analytics engineer and product manager for Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, has also been deeply involved

Scottish leader: Fatalities likely in copter crash

LONDON (AP) — A police helicopter crashed late Friday night through the roof of a popular pub in Glasgow, littering the roof with debris and forcing injured revelers to flee through a cloud of dust. Scotland's leader warned that fatalities are likely.

Photos of the scene aired on local television show what appear to be the helicopter's propeller sticking out of the top of the pub's roof. Rescue workers swarmed the door of the pub and several fire trucks were on the scene.

First Minister Alex Salmond confirmed that a police chopper was involved in the crash, saying that rescue efforts at The Clutha pub in the city's center were in full swing.

"Scottish resilience operation now mobilized," he said on his official Twitter account. "Given an incident of this scale we must all prepare ourselves for the likelihood of fatalities."

The helicopter had a crew of three — two police officers and a civilian pilot, according to Scottish police. Police said the aircraft was a Eurocopter EC135 T2 and came down around 10:25 p.m. local time. Emergency services responded immediately.

There were reports that people may have been trapped inside, but they could not be immediately confirmed. Glasgow ska band Esperanza were playing when the helicopter began to fall through the ceiling, witnesses said.

"It seems that the band are all OK. Not so sure about everyone else," the band's official Facebook page said.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene as people rushed through a cloud of dust to get out, some with bad gashes to the head and other injuries.

Grace MacLean, who was inside the pub at the time of the crash, said she was "having a nice time" when there was a "whoosh" noise — then smoke.

"The band were laughing and we were all joking that the band had made the roof come down," she told the BBC. "They carried on playing and then it started to come down more and someone started screaming and then the whole pub just filled with dust. You couldn't see anything, you couldn't breathe.

People formed a human chain to help pass unconscious people out of the pub so that "inch by inch, we could get the people out," said Labour Party spokesman Jim Murphy, who happened to be in the area when the helicopter came down.

"The helicopter was inside the pub. It's a mess. I could only get a yard or two inside. I helped carry people out," Murphy told Sky News. "I saw a pile of people clambering out of the pub in the dust. No smoke, no fire, just a huge amount of dust."

Gordon Smart, editor of the Scottish edition of the Sun newspaper, told Sky News that the helicopter "fell like a stone."

"There was no fireball and I did not hear an explosion," he said. "The engine seemed to be spluttering."

Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted: "My thoughts are with everyone affected by the helicopter crash in Glasgow - and the emergency services working tonight."

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Bob McDonnell Ends Term In Virginia Statehouse With Scandal-Stained Year

RICHMOND, Va. — Bob McDonnell's national profile ascended fast in four years as Virginia governor.

He delivered the Republican response to the State of the Union Address in 2010. He became chairman of the Republican Governors Association in 2011 and was widely mentioned as a possible vice presidential pick just over a year ago. Even on the day he was passed over in favor of Rep. Paul Ryan, McDonnell introduced Mitt Romney at a Norfolk naval museum and basked in the Republican candidate's public praise.

"What a great governor you have," Romney told cheering Virginians. "What a terrific man and a terrific leader. Way to go."

That was then.

McDonnell leaves office in January under the cloud of a federal investigation that has overshadowed his accomplishments, risks tarnishing his legacy and perhaps has crippled beyond repair a once-promising political future. He hasn't ruled out a return to politics — though his options seem limited. He told The Associated Press in a recent interview that he would remain engaged in "compassionate conservative" policies he values, including perhaps homelessness or prisoners' rights, but wouldn't disclose specifics.

The governor's seat has opened the door to higher office since Thomas Jefferson held it from 1779 to 1781. McDonnell's two immediate predecessors — Democrats Tim Kaine and Mark Warner — are now U.S. senators. Even so, McDonnell said he has no interest in the Senate and has never thought seriously about the White House. He brushed aside questions about whether an investigation into his relationship with a donor had derailed his political career, saying he's never looked beyond his current position.

"The thought of doing something beyond being governor of Virginia is something the press mentioned and other people mentioned, but until I finished this office, I really wasn't going to engage seriously in thinking what else could that be," said McDonnell, a former legislator, state attorney general and retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel.

Like all Virginia governors, he is barred from seeking a consecutive term. After being governor, he said, "There really aren't a whole lot of offices that excite you."

McDonnell's departure comes as federal prosecutors investigate whether he and wife Maureen gave special treatment to Star Scientific Inc., a dietary supplement-maker whose chief executive helped cover catering costs for their daughter's wedding and gave the first couple other gifts, including a Rolex watch for the governor.

McDonnell apologized in July and said he had returned more than $120,000 in loans, as well as other gifts. He repeated in the interview that he had done nothing illegal on Star Scientific's behalf, but said he'd do "things differently today than choices I made a couple of years ago."

"This has been a difficult year," he said. "In 37 years (of service), never has anyone ever even insinuated that I have done anything improper in my professional life."

A Justice Department spokesman and a spokesman for McDonnell's legal team declined to comment on the investigation, which surprised many in the state.

"If you said Bob McDonnell, the first words out of my mouth would be Boy Scout, Eagle Scout, just beyond reproach," said Democratic state Sen. Chap Petersen, who served alongside McDonnell in the House of Delegates. "You just could not imagine him getting caught up in something like that."

As governor, McDonnell has actively lobbied for select policy initiatives — for instance, delivering detailed PowerPoint presentations at town-hall meetings in support of an ultimately unsuccessful effort to privatize state-owned liquor states — and engaged directly with lawmakers on issues, including transportation, he's prioritized. But he's also invited staffers and subordinates to collaborate on strategy and to help sort out specifics of implementing big-picture goals, said former state Education Secretary Laura Fornash.

Whatever the investigation's outcome, the scandal represents a precipitous fall for a highly visible Republican governor whose centrist appeal in a critical swing state made him a key Romney spokesman. Though he took office with nearly 59 percent of the vote, exit polling conducted at this year's election for AP and television networks show that a slight majority of Virginians — 52 percent — approve of his job performance, while 41 percent disapprove.

As McDonnell ends his term, many remain mindful of the scandal.

"I think the overall performance was good, but he pulled the rug out from under him by any involvement in the Star (Scientific) business," Eric Willis, 86, of Lake Ridge, Va., said this month.

Elected at the dawn of the tea party era, McDonnell modeled himself as a social conservative — a Roman Catholic, he is anti-abortion— but also as a job-creating consensus-builder. Once in office, he grappled with weighing his own bipartisan outreach efforts against the platform of his party conservative's wing.

He leaned heavily on Democratic support in securing approval for an $880-million-per-year bill to overhaul Virginia's transportation system. It was a signature accomplishment in a traffic-clogged state fixated on infrastructure, though it dismayed some Republicans because it carried tax increases.

McDonnell said he's especially proud of his fiscal management, including four consecutive budget surpluses and a near-quadrupling of Virginia's rainy-day fund, and of education changes that expanded charter schools and tightened high school graduation requirements. He also attracted attention for his efforts to restore civil rights to nonviolent felons who have done their time.

"People perceived him as a capable, mainstream, competent governor. He did a good job. That's going to be the assessment of his administration — and what a damn shame about this scandal," said George Mason University political scientist Mark Rozell.

But there were missteps along the way.

In 2010, he publicly apologized after omitting mention of slavery in declaring April "Confederate History Month" in Virginia, later amending the proclamation to denounce slavery. And he initially supported legislation that would have mandated vaginally invasive ultrasound exams for women seeking abortions, but withdrew his backing amid national ridicule and ultimately signed into law a much-revised version.

"That disaster brought back the Democratic party of Virginia. It was down, it was out, it allowed the Democrats to mobilize its base, particularly women voters," said James Madison University political scientist Robert Roberts.

But the biggest drama of the administration was unquestionably the Star Scientific investigation. It unfolded in the final year of his term, around the same time as a separate politically embarrassing case involving a former executive mansion chef who was accused of embezzlement and, in turn, accused McDonnell's children of taking mansion food and supplies for personal use. The governor later reimbursed the state.

The investigation's fallout seeped into the general election, with McDonnell playing a low-key role in support of Republican Ken Cuccinelli, who lost to Democrat Terry McAuliffe. Asked why he hadn't been more visible, McDonnell replied, "That's a question for the candidate."

McDonnell said he believed Virginians recognized the decision to return the gifts as a sign of repentance, but more broadly, that the scandal underscored the need to amend ethics laws generally rated as among America's weakest. He said he expected to present proposals during his final days in office.

"I wouldn't want anybody else to go through some of the things that I've been through, where people have insinuated things that I think are flat wrong," he said.

Japan Prices, Industrial Output Rise in October

Japan's economy is gaining momentum, data for October showed, with consumer prices excluding food and energy rising 0.3 percent from a year earlier, the biggest gain since 1998. However, household spending remained tepid, as incomes slipped from the same month a year before.

The slew of indicators released Friday suggests that the ultra-loose monetary policy and stimulus strategy of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is helping end a long bout of deflation for the world's No. 3 economy.

Industrial output rose 0.5 percent in October, the second straight month of increase, driven by increases in production of machinery used to make computer chips and other industrial products, plastics and cellphones.

The government reported that excluding food, the core consumer price index rose 0.9 percent from the year before. Including both food and energy, prices rose 1.1 percent.

Japan's jobless rate remained flat in October, though the number of jobs available rose slightly.

Further improvement is expected in November, driven by strength in housing construction and exports.

"Business conditions in the Japanese manufacturing economy improved for the ninth consecutive month and at a rapid pace in November, driven for the most part by an expansion of both foreign and domestic demand," said Claudia Tillbrooke, an economist at Markit.

Markit's purchasing managers index, which measures manufacturing activity, rose to 55.1 in November from 54.2 in October. A reading above 50 suggests expansion.

The government and central bank have set a target for attaining a 2 percent inflation rate within two years. So far, economists say most of the increase in prices has come from a weakening in the Japanese yen, which erodes consumer spending power and increases costs in yen terms for imports of fuel, food and industrial components.

The 0.3 percent rise in prices excluding food and fuel was the highest since August 1998 and the first positive reading since 2008.

Prices for many daily necessities have risen. The data from October showed costs for electricity rose 8.2 percent, food prices rose 14 percent, transport costs climbed 3 percent, gasoline 7 percent and insurance rates 10 percent.

Japan's economy grew 1.9 percent in July-September, sharply lower than the 3.8 percent rise in the previous quarter. A planned 0.3 percentage point increase in April in the national sales tax, to 8 percent, is expected to push consumer spending higher in coming months, before a drop following the tax hike.

To sustain the recovery that began late last year, economists say companies must invest more and raise wages. Progress toward those goals appears limited.

Workers incomes fell an average of 1.3 percent in October. Household spending, which accounts for nearly two-thirds of Japan's economic activity, rose 0.9 percent in real terms but showed no increase from the month before. Excluding housing costs, spending fell 1.5 percent from the month before and fell 0.3 percent from September

Ex-Marine charged in California homeless killings dies in hospital

Former U.S. Marine Itzcoatl Ocampo, 23, an Iraq war veteran, has his arraignment postponed on charges of first degree murder in Santa Ana (POOL New Reuters, / November 28, 2013)

 An Iraq war veteran charged in California with six murders, including the serial "thrill" killings of four homeless men, has died in a hospital where he was being treated for an illness, the Orange County Sheriff's Office said on Thursday.

Itzcoatl Ocampo, a former U.S. Marine, could have faced the death penalty if convicted on six counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances. The charges included the stabbing deaths of four transients in late 2011 and early 2012.

Ocampo died late on Wednesday or early on Thursday and a cause of death has yet to be determined, said Lieutenant Andy Ferguson. No further information was immediately available.

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas has described Ocampo, who served in the Marines from July 2006 to July 2010 and was deployed to Iraq in 2008, as a heartless "thrill" killer.

Ocampo also was charged with the murders of a high school friend's mother and brother, who were found stabbed to death in their home. He was 23 when he was arrested in early 2012.

Prosecutors said the four homeless men were stabbed dozens of times.

They accused Ocampo of targeting his final victim, John Berry, after the 64-year-old transient was featured in a Los Angeles Times article about the high-profile case.

One of the slayings was captured on a security camera and showed the killer, dressed in dark pants and a black hooded sweatshirt, kneeling on his victim's chest as he stabbed him repeatedly in the head, neck and upper torso.

After tackling turkey, shoppers seek holiday bargains at stores on Thanksgiving

G.J. McCarthy/Staff Photographer

Patrons run through the front door of J.C. Penney at the start of Thanksgiving Day shopping Thursday in Dallas. ()

The Associated Press

Published: 28 November 2013 09:53 PM

Updated: 28 November 2013 09:53 PM

NEW YORK -- Shoppers gobbled turkey, but saved the pumpkin pie for later on Thanksgiving Day.

As more than a dozen major retailers from Target to Toys R Us open on Thanksgiving, shoppers across the country got a jump start on holiday shopping. The Thanksgiving openings come despite planned protests across the country from workers' groups that are against employees missing Thanksgiving meals at home.

More than 200 people stood in line at the Toys R Us store in the Manhattan borough of New York City before its 5 p.m. opening.

Green Bryant was first in line at 10 a.m. The restaurant manager ended up buying a dollhouse for $129 - $30 off - a Barbie doll and a LeapFrog learning system. Bryant, 28, said she didn't miss Thanksgiving festivities but was going home to cook a Thanksgiving meal for her two children.

"It was worth it," she said. "Now I gotta go home and cook."

At a Target store in Brooklyn, N.Y., about 25 people were waiting in line at 2:50 p.m. for the 8 p.m. opening, an hour earlier than a year ago.

Theresa Alcantaro, 35, a crossing guard, was waiting with her 12-year-old son to buy an Xbox One. It wasn't on sale, but supplies have been scarce. She was missing a gathering of 40 family members but said she would meet up after shopping. She hoped to be in and out by 9 p.m.

"Honestly if I can get a good deal, I do not mind," she said about Thanksgiving shopping. "I see my family every day. They understand."

The holiday openings are a break with tradition. The day after Thanksgiving, called Black Friday, for a decade had been considered the official start to the holiday buying season. It's also typically the biggest shopping day of the year.

But in the past few years, retailers have pushed opening times into Thanksgiving night. They've also pushed up discounting that used to be reserved for Black Friday into early November, which has led retail experts to question whether the Thanksgiving openings will steal some of Black Friday's thunder.

In fact, Thanksgiving openings took a bite out of Black Friday sales last year: Sales on turkey day were $810 million last year, an increase of 55 percent from the previous year as more stores opened on the holiday, according to Chicago research firm ShopperTrak. But sales dropped 1.8 percent to $11.2 billion on Black Friday, though it still was the biggest shopping day last year.

"Black Friday is now Gray Friday," said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, a retail consultancy. "It's been pulled all the way to the beginning of November."

Stores are trying to get shoppers to buy in an economy that's still challenging. While the job and housing markets are improving, that hasn't yet translated into sustained spending increases among most shoppers. Overall, the National Retail Federation expects retail sales to be up 3.9 percent to $602.1 billion during the last two months of the year. That's higher than last year's 3.5 percent growth, but below the 6 percent pace seen before the recession.

Shoppers' financial stress was apparent at the stores on Thursday. "I struggle a lot," said Adriana Tavaraz, 51, from the Bronx borough of New York City who had spent $100 buying holiday decor on Thanksgiving at a Kmart. "Nowadays, you have to think about what you spend. You have to think about tomorrow."

The Thanksgiving openings are part of retailers' holiday strategy of trying to lure shoppers in early and often during the holiday shopping season. But the stores face challenges in doing that.

Some workers have petitions on change.org to protest against Target and Best Buy. The Retail Action Project, a labor-backed group of retail workers, also is planning to have members visiting customers at stores including Gap and Victoria's Secret in the Manhattan borough of New York City to educate them about the demands on workers.

Wal-Mart has been the biggest target for protests against holiday hours. Most of the company's stores are open 24 hours, but the retailer is starting its sales events at 6 p.m. on Thursday, two hours earlier than last year.

The issue is part of a broader campaign against the company's treatment of workers that's being waged by a union-backed group called OUR Walmart, which includes former and current workers. The group is staging demonstrations and walkouts at hundreds of stores around the country on Black Friday.

Brooke Buchanan, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman, said the discounter has received "really good feedback" from employees about working the holiday.