Fast and Furious back in headlines as Univision reportedly finds more victims

By Matthew Boyle

Spanish-language television network Univision plans to air a television special that it said reveals more violence than previously known, as well as the stories of how many more Operation Fast and Furious victims were killed, the network announced in a Friday release.

“The consequences of the controversial ‘Fast and Furious’ undercover operation put in place by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in 2009 have been deadlier than what has been made public to date,” the network said. “The exclusive, in-depth investigation by Univision News’ award-winning Investigative Unit — Univision Investiga — has found that the guns that crossed the border as part of Operation Fast and Furious caused dozens of deaths inside Mexico.”

Among other groups of Fast and Furious victim stories Univision says it will tell in the special to air Sunday evening at 7 p.m., is one about how “16 young people attending a party in a residential area of Ciudad Juárez in January of 2010″ were gunned down with weapons the Obama administration gave to drug cartel criminals through Fast and Furious.

“Univision News’ Investigative Unit was also able to identify additional guns that escaped the control of ATF agents and were used in different types of crimes throughout Mexico,” the network added. “Furthermore, some of these guns — none of which were reported by congressional investigators — were put in the hands of drug traffickers in Honduras, Puerto Rico, and Colombia. A person familiar with the recent congressional hearings called Univision’s findings ‘the holy grail’ that Congress had been searching for.”

A video preview published on Friday shows a number of the bodies of people killed with Fast and Furious weapons, as well as victims’ family members pleading with outgoing Mexican President Felipe Calderon for justice.

Congressional investigators from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Senate Judiciary Committee have been probing Fast and Furious since early 2011, shortly after U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered with Fast and Furious weapons. Terry was killed on Dec. 14, 2010, in Peck Canyon, Ariz.

Others whose murders have been connected to Fast and Furious weapons include Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata and Mexican citizen Mario Gonzalez. Gonzalez’s sister, Patricia Gonzalez, was the state prosecutor for the Mexican state of Chihuahua.

Fast and Furious was a program of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, overseen by Attorney General Eric Holder’s DOJ. It sent thousands of weapons to Mexican drug cartels via straw purchasers — people who purchased guns in the United States with the known intention of illegally trafficking them somewhere else.

Mexican government officials have estimated that at least 300 people in Mexico were killed with Fast and Furious weapons.

Holder and President Barack Barack Obama have obstructed the congressional investigations into this scandal. After months of failure to comply with a subpoena for Fast and Furious documents, information and witnesses, Holder was voted on a bipartisan basis into criminal and civil contempt of Congress. Obama has asserted executive privilege over the documents.

The DOJ’s internal inspector general recently released a report concluding that Holder was not cleared by his currently ongoing investigation, despite a swath of media coverage saying that Holder was “exonerated” by it. Though he did conclude that he couldn’t find evidence or proof Holder knew about Fast and Furious, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz testified before Congress that almost everyone in Holder’s inner circle at DOJ did know, and that he and his team think it’s odd at best that Holder didn’t.

“We found, as we outlined in the report, we struggle to understand how an operation of this size, of this importance, that impacted another country like it did, could not have been briefed up to the attorney general of the United States,” Horowitz said during a House oversight committee hearing. “It should have been, in our view. It was that kind of a case.”

Former White House National Security Council staffer Kevin O’Reilly — who was intimately involved in Fast and Furious planning with Phoenix ATF officials, according to emails obtained throughout the congressional investigation — has since been reassigned by the Department of State to a detail in Iraq. Obama administration officials have refused to make O’Reilly available to congressional investigators and to Horowitz’s internal DOJ investigation.

On Friday, CBS News’ Sharyl Attkisson reported that congressional Republicans are now threatening to subpoena O’Reilly and force his testimony on Fast and Furious.

Univision has aggressively covered Fast and Furious, and its most recent major run-in with the scandal came when network anchor Jorge Ramos grilled Obama in an interview on the scandal, asking him why he hasn’t “fired” Holder. During the interview, Obama made at least one false statement relating to Fast and Furious.

Police investigating racist pictures sent to Mia Love

By Dennis Romboy, Deseret News

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A packet of information sent to Mayor Mia Love's office that city officials described as racist launched a police investigation Tuesday.

City Manager Mark Christensen described the contents of the thick envelope as "disturbing" and "pretty creepy stuff." He said it included a picture of Love and her husband, Jason, and a hooded Ku Klux Klan character. There also were pictures of aborted fetuses, he said.

"I couldn't tell if it was threatening or anything. It kind of shocked me, what I saw," he said.

Christensen said the city has received others mailings aimed at Love but nothing like the one that arrived Tuesday. He said he turned it over to the police department.

Saratoga Springs Police Chief Gary Hicken said he assigned an officer to investigate.

"I can say it's racial in nature but I can't tell you it's criminal in nature," he said.

Love, a Republican who is locked in a heated battled with Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson in Utah's new 4th Congressional District, took a defiant tone when asked about the mailing.

"I want you to know, I want everyone to know I am comfortable in my skin. I'm comfortable and proud of my heritage. I'm proud of who I am. I know where I'm going and I know what we need to do to get this country back in order again. There isn’t anything that anyone can send me that will distract me from that so they can bring it," she said.

Christensen said the envelope contained fliers, pictures and pages printed from the Internet. He said the city has received mail aimed at Love four or five times before, but the latest envelope caused enough concern to involve police.

Love said she hasn't looked at the details of everything the city has received, but described what she saw as "divisive racially and negative racially."

"If there is a physical threat, I'm sure they will let me know about it. But I want them (police) to be aware and handle that," she said.

Calling herself a "tough cookie," Love said she would do everything she can to protect herself and her family. Hicken said police might increase patrols around Love's house as they would for any resident who receives threats.

Love said she believes she's a target because she poses a problem to the policies of the Obama administration. She said the threats are meant to divert her from the issues in the race.

"I knew that people would come after me," Love said. "I knew that people would try to change and distort information so I'm going to focus on things that are really important."

E-mail: romboy@desnews.com Twitter: dennisromboy

Andy Williams dead at 84: ‘Moon River’ crooner loses battle with bladder cancer

Williams came across for six decades on concert stages and television shows as the ultimate Mr. Nice Guy, as well known for his warm, genial personal style as for his music.

Andy Williams at the Emmys with Carol Burnett and Harry Belafonte (left), Williams and then-wife Claudine Longet (top right), and Williams in a quiet moment (bottom right).

Andy Williams, one of the last crooners from the golden age of easy-listening pop music, died Tuesday at his home in Branson, Mo. He was 84.

Williams, who had been battling bladder cancer, had divided in time in recent years between La Quinta, Calif., and Branson, where he owned the Moon River Theater — named after the song that had been his signature since 1962.

Williams came across for six decades on concert stages and television shows as the ultimate Mr. Nice Guy, as well known for his warm, genial personal style as for his music.

He had only one major brush with tabloid celebrity, when his ex-wife, Claudine Longet, was charged in 1976 with accidentally killing her new boyfriend, skier Spider Sabich.

Williams, from whom Longet had been divorced a year earlier, escorted her to court, attended the trial and helped pay for her defense.

She was eventually sentenced to 30 days in jail and then married her attorney a few years later.
 American singer Andy Williams and his wife Claudine Longet, shown upon arrival at the Odeon, Leicester Square, London, on Dec. 19, 1974 for the Royal Charity World premiere of "The Man With the Golden Gun.”

Williams married Debbie Meyer in 1991 and remained with her until his death. 

Williams had one of the most successful music-and-TV crossover careers of his generation.

He went solo as a recording artist in 1953 and started his TV career as a regular on the Steve Allen’s “Tonight Show” in 1954.

He hosted his own TV variety show from 1962 to 1971 along with popular holiday specials into the 1990s.

He recorded eight albums of Christmas music, tagging him with the affectionate nickname “Mr. Christmas.”

During the warmer months, he was in great demand for movie theme music. Beyond “Moon River,” he recorded themes as diverse as the dark “Days of Wine and Roses” and the saccharine “Where Do I Begin” from “Love Story.”

His association with “Moon River” began when composer Henry Mancini asked him to sing it at the 1962 Academy Awards. It won the Oscar and quickly became Williams’ most popular song — though it was never released as a single.

His only No. 1 radio hit was a cover version of Charlie Gracie’s 1957 rockabilly song “Butterfly,” but he kept his popularity with easy-listening fans for decades, racking up 18 gold and three platinum albums.

Reflecting his reputation as a mainstream concert artist, Williams sang the National Anthem at the 1973 Super Bowl. He also hosted seven Grammy Awards shows, from 1971 to 1977.

He was politically active, and while he described himself as a “lifelong Republican,” he campaigned in 1968 for his friend Robert F. Kennedy. He sang “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” at Kennedy’s funeral that year.

Williams hosted his own TV variety show from 1962 to 1971, along with popular holiday specials in to the 1990s.

ANONYMOUS/APAndy Williams performs a song on a television show on May 12, 1961. Emmy-winning TV host and "Moon River" crooner Williams died Tuesday night, Sept, 25, 2012 at his home in Branson, Mo., following a year-long battle with bladder cancer.

In 1972, he campaigned for George McGovern, and when the Nixon administration tried to deport John Lennon, Williams became an outspoken defender of Lennon’s right to stay in the U.S. In later years, he criticized Barack Obama for taking the country “too far left.”

Born in Wall Lake, Iowa, Williams began singing in the Presbyterian church choir and joined his three siblings in the Williams Brothers quartet.

They sang on radio programs in the Midwest and backed Bing Crosby on his 1944 hit “Swingin’ on a Star.” They also appeared in several movies.

Williams went solo in 1953 and had his first hit with “Canadian Sunset” in 1956.

He was also a shrewd businessman. He eventually acquired the masters to all the music from his first label, Cadence, where his colleagues included the Everly Brothers and the Chordettes.

He launched his own label, Barnaby Records, which had hits with Ray Stevens and released the first album of a then-unknown singer named Jimmy Buffett. Earlier, on his TV show, he had introduced the Osmond family.

He opened the Moon River Theater with his brother Don in 1992. It was the first Branson theater not directly tied to country music, and paved the way for a broader range of artists to start playing in Branson.

He was also a major golf fan, hosting a PGA tournament in San Diego from 1968 to 1988.

He is survived by Meyer and three children from his first marriage, Robert, Noelle and Christian.

The Osmond's were a regular feature on The Andy Williams Show

• Donny Osmond

  Andy Williams was an inspiring man in both his music and his life....

  donny.com

  The Official Jay Osmond Fan PageSo sorry for the loss of dear friend Andy Williams. We would not be in this business & had the success we've enjoyed without this great man.www.jayosmond.com/news

MILITARY VOTERS IN WISCONSIN TOLD TO SUBMIT BALLOTS A WEEK AFTER DEADLINE

by MACIVER NEWS SERVICE 25 Sep 2012, 1:04 PM PDT

The Federal Voting Assistance Program website published an incorrect deadline for the return of returning military ballots in Wisconsin. Had this error not been corrected, thousands of Wisconsin servicemen and women could have been disenfranchised in this key swing state this November.

The FVAB website incorrectly stated ballots must be returned by November 16. The actual deadline is 4 p.m. November 9. Any military ballots received in that intervening week would not have been counted by local and state election officials.

MacIver News Service contacted the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board about the error on Tuesday and requested comment.

"All Wisconsin absentee ballots are due by 4 p.m. the Friday after the election. The FVAP site was incorrect," said Reid Magney, GAB spokesman in an emailed response to the inquiry.

Ballots must be postmarked no later than Election Day, which in 2012 is Tuesday, November 6th.

According to their website, The FVAP provides U.S. citizens worldwide a broad range of non-partisan information and assistance to facilitate their participation in the democratic process - regardless of where they work or live. The FVAP also administers the Federal responsibilities of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), which designates armed forces recruiting offices nationwide as voter registration agencies allowing eligible U.S. citizens to apply for voter registration, or apply to change voter registration data.

Facebook Stock Plummets After Financial Magazine Calls It ‘Too Pricey’

NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook Inc.’s stock took a hit Monday after an article in the financial magazine Barron’s said it is “still too pricey” despite a sharp decline since its initial public offering.

Though Facebook’s stock has plunged since its May IPO, Andrew Bary at Barron’s said the stock trades at “high multiples of both sales and earnings, even as uncertainty about the outlook for its business grows.”

At issue is the shift of Facebook’s massive user base to mobile devices. The company is still figuring out how to advertise to people who use their mobile phones and tablet computers to access the social network. Bary said success in the mobile space is “no sure thing” for the company. Mobile ads must fit into much smaller screens, which doesn’t give Facebook “much room to configure ads without alienating users,” Bary said.

Facebook also has what Bary called “significant” stock-based compensation expenses. Last year, the company issued $1.4 billion worth of restricted stock and $1 billion so far this year, he noted. Yet technology companies such as Facebook “routinely encourage analysts to ignore stock-based compensation expense — and most comply. This dubious approach to calculating profits is based on the idea that only cash expenses matter,” Bary wrote. “That’s a fiction, pure and simple.”

Menlo Park, Calif.-based Facebook’s stock fell $2.03, or 8.9 percent, to close at $20.83 on Monday. The company went public on May 18 at a share price of $38, which it has not matched since.

Bary said he thinks Facebook’s stock is worth $15, well below its current price even with Monday’s drop.

“That would be roughly 24 times projected 2013 profit and six times estimated 2013 revenue of $6 billion, still no bargain price,” he wrote.

Facebook declined to comment.

Last week, research firm eMarketer said it expects Google Inc. to surpass Facebook in U.S. display advertising revenue this year. In February, eMarketer predicted Facebook would stay ahead of Google. The social networking company had surpassed Google in 2011. But Facebook’s ad revenue has fallen short of the expectations eMarketer set in February.

That said, some analysts are still bullish on Facebook. Last week an analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald started coverage of its stock with a “Buy” rating and a target price of $26. The analyst, Youssef Squali, said he’s “positive on the stock long-term” despite its botched IPO and the worry that Facebook’s stock will be held down as employees become eligible to sell their stock in the coming months.

“We see significant opportunities ahead of Facebook, largely from brands moving online seeking mass reach and user engagement and from the explosion of mobile advertising in the next 2-5 years,” Squali said in a note to investors.

American High School Band Marches with Hammer & Sickle

By Todd Starnes

A Pennsylvania high school marching band is raising eyebrows with a halftime performance that commemorates the Russian revolution, complete with red flags, olive military-style uniforms, and giant hammers and sickles.

“St. Petersburg: 1917” is the theme for the New Oxford High School Marching Band. Ironically, the school’s athletic teams are called the Colonials and their colors are red, white and blue. The band’s website features a picture of the group with students holding a hammer and sickle.

“There is no reason for Americans to celebrate the Russian revolution,” said one irate parent who alerted Fox News. “I am sure the millions who died under Communism would not see the joy of celebrating the Russian revolution by a school 10 miles from Gettysburg.”

The parent, who asked not to be identified, attended a football last Friday night with his children. He said he was shocked by what he saw.

“It was Glee meets the Russian Revolution,” he told Fox News. “I’m not kidding you. They had giant hammers and sickles and they were waving them around.”

“Who thought this was a good idea?”

Rebecca Harbaugh, the superintendent for the Conewago Valley School District, told Fox News that the band’s performance was “not an endorsement of communism at all.”

“It’s a representation of the time period in history called St. Petersburg 1917,” she said. “I am truly sorry that somebody took the performance in that manner. I am.”

“If anything is being celebrated it’s the music,” she said. “It is what it is. I understand people look at something and choose how to interpret that and I’m just very sorry that it wasn’t looked at as just a history lesson.”

Besides, she explained, “in 2008 we did an entire show on freedom.”

But some critics said it’s outrageous for any American school to be celebrating such a violent era.

“It would be tantamount to celebrating the music of 1935 Berlin,” the parent said. “If I was Lithuanian, Estonian, or Ukrainian, I’d be a little hot. I’d be really hot. It’s insulting to glorify something that doesn’t need to be glorified in America.”

Paul Kengor is the executive director for the Center for Vision & Values at Pennsylvania’s Grove City College.

He initially thought the halftime performance was a joke.

“This is surreal,” he told Fox News. “This is like something out of the Twilight Zone – but it’s even stranger than that.”

Kengor said even if the school was not celebrating the revolution “they seem to be commemorating this to some degree.”

“The Bolshevik Revolution launched a global Communist revolution that from 1917 through the 1990s was responsible for the deaths of over a hundred million people,” he said. “What the Russian revolution unleashed was a nightmare – a historical human catastrophe. This is something that should be condemned and not in any way commemorated or laughed at.”

Gerson Moreno-Riano, dean of Regent University’s College of Arts & Sciences, told Fox News the performance is shocking.

“The Russian revolution was one of the most violent episodes of the 20th Century,” he said. “Lenin put into place a doctrine of mass terror to crush the opposition and thousands and thousands of people were murdered.

The history professor said there’s very little to celebrate in that movement.

“It’s full of violence, terror, destruction and in some weeks thousands of people were executed – some thrown with rocks around their necks into the river to drown,” he said.

“It’s quite frankly horrific that a high school would be celebrating that at a football game,” he said.

He was even more disturbed by the group photograph of the band in front of the hammer and sickle.

“To raise the emblems of the hammer and sickle – the emblems of so much violence, destruction and terror – is a lack of knowledge of history,” he said.

In the best case scenario, he said the editors were simply ignorant of the era.

“The worst case scenario is someone who is trying to celebrate something they know about – and they’re trying to insert this into their educational agenda,” he said.

Pennsylvania Presidential Race is Tight

By Mike Wereschagin

Published: Saturday, September 22, 2012, 9:17 p.m.

Two percentage points separate President Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney in a state poll conducted for the Tribune-Review, even though the campaigns largely are ignoring Pennsylvania and concentrating on other battlegrounds.

Obama polled 47 percent to Romney's 45 percent among likely Pennsylvania voters, with 6 percent of voters undecided and 44 days until Election Day, according to the survey by Susquehanna Polling & Research. The survey of 800 voters, conducted Sept. 18-20, has a margin of error of 3.46 percentage points.

The poll showed most voters are disappointed with the country’s direction, evenly split on whether Obama deserves another term and hesitant to back Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts. Fifty-one percent of the state’s voters approve of Obama’s job performance.

Other recent polls showed a larger margin for Obama, leading some to speculate that Pennsylvania — which hasn’t voted for a GOP presidential candidate since 1988 — no longer is a swing state. Two of those last four polls gave Obama a lead larger than his margin of victory in 2008, when he defeated Sen. John McCain of Arizona by 10 percentage points.

“All the evidence points to a much closer margin,” said Jim Lee, Susquehanna president. “Nothing suggests we’re looking at anything like 2008.”

Voters continue to put the economy at the top of their list of concerns. Only one in three believes the country is headed in the right direction.

Yet, a deeper look at the numbers shows a more nuanced picture. Romney leads Obama, 48 percent to 44 percent, on the question of who would create jobs to speed up the recovery. Ask who looks out for the interests of the middle class and Obama leads, 56 percent to 38 percent.

“People run with the numbers without really paying attention to what’s behind them,” said Dilip Namjoshi, 66, of Abington, a Philadelphia suburb. “Somebody says, ‘I created 2 million jobs.’ Well, yes, but 600,000 of them are in China.”

Obama gained his lead on gut-level issues like that with his campaign’s early attempts to define Romney, the former head of a private-equity firm, as wealthy and out of touch, Lee said. Although Romney fought off primary challengers, Democrats developed his public persona.

“The Romney folks failed to develop a positive image in this state,” Lee said.

Leah Brooks, 63, a Republican in New Wilmington, Lawrence County, said she has a hard time reading Romney.

“He seems to mean well, but I’m not sure he always sees the whole picture. I’m not sure he can get down to where we are,” Brooks said. “I don’t blame him for it. But I’m not sure he really can see what it’s like.”

Brooks said she’s troubled by recent events in Arab countries where protesters stormed U.S. embassies and, in an apparent terrorist strike, killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.

“It is important how we’re seen and how we handle ourselves,” she said.

Obama leads, 49 percent to 41 percent, among likely voters on the question of who would better defend the homeland. But voters who peg foreign affairs and international events as their top concern prefer Romney, 53 percent to 46 percent, the poll found.

“We seem to get ourselves stuck in the mud and can’t get out. I’m not sure anybody knows how to get out of the messes we’re in,” Brooks said. “It seems that what (Obama) does best is campaign. I just wish he’d get down to business.”

Politicians and government operation tie with voters’ concern about the deficit as the second-biggest problem facing the federal government, according to the poll. Thomas Hohler, 67, of Scott and other Democrats point to Republicans in Congress as the problem.

“You can’t get anything accomplished if their goal is to say no to anything Obama wants,” Hohler said. The way to solve the country’s problems “is to get members of Congress, elected officials, that are willing to work together to achieve something. I’m not sure how you can do that, or how soon that’s going to happen.”

Hohler volunteers for Obama’s campaign, though he says the past four years included disappointments.

“Obviously, Obama hasn’t done as well as I would’ve liked. On health care, I would’ve liked to see him go for single-payer or Medicare for everyone,” Hohler said. Overall, the former high school teacher gives Obama a B grade.

Joseph Mozaleski said he used to vote for Democrats before the party embraced legalized abortions. Decades later, the Republican sees increasing reliance on government assistance and rules in Obama’s health care law that require coverage of contraceptives as the consequences of a moral drift.

“Something is wrong with the moral fabric, and I think Romney has a better chance of bringing back my ideals in this country,” said Mozaleski, 62, of Sterling, Wayne County.

In Abington, Namjoshi registered to vote as a Republican in 1988 but changed his registration to independent last month, saying he’s fed up with both parties. He said he liked Texas Congressman Ron Paul’s small-government libertarian message during the GOP primaries and will watch the presidential debates to see whether either candidate says something convincing about stabilizing the country’s financial situation.

“You’ve got to be fiscally responsible. Whoever does that is probably going to get my vote,” Namjoshi said.

The debates, the first scheduled for Oct. 3, might change the dynamic of the Pennsylvania race, Lee said.

“Three in four (undecided voters) say the country’s going in the wrong direction,” Lee said. If they believe that, they’re unlikely to back the incumbent, he said. “They’re either staying home or they’re voting for Romney.”

Mike Wereschagin is a staff writer for Trib Total Media.

Will Apple Be the First to Break $1 Trillion?

If Apple continues on its current trajectory, something remarkable might happen on April 9, 2015, at around 11 a.m.

That is, statisticians and investors I've spoken with say, a conservative estimate of when Apple could become the first company ever to be valued at $1 trillion. (Yes, you read that correctly: the number one, followed by 12 zeros.)

Other analysts are making even more aggressive estimates for the company's value, which, as of Friday, was $656 billion. Those people put the trillion-dollar mark at less than a year from now: Aug. 16, 2013.

"It's hard to imagine Apple growing any faster than it has grown on both the release of the iPad and iPhone," said Michael E. Driscoll, chief executive of Metamarkets, a big data and predictive analytics company, and one of the people betting Apple will top $1 trillion in 2015.

Estimating when, or if, Apple will become the first to be worth $1 trillion is a bit of a parlor game, but we can all likely agree on one fact: today, it is a juggernaut.

Not long ago, Apple was a boutique PC maker. Since then, it has rolled over almost every company in its path, first with music players, then with cellphones and, more recently, with laptops. Nokia, Sony, Research in Motion, Dell and Hewlett-Packard have all watched open-mouthed as Apple took markets they thought were secured. Each time, Apple's stock rose and their stock fell.

"They are certainly a different kind of company," said Walter Piecyk, a wireless research analyst at BTIG Research. But, he warned: "So was Nokia in the late '90s. No one thought they'd ever be challenged, and look at where they are today."

Even with this growth, there is another possibility: that Apple never reaches $1 trillion. "In a worst-case scenario, Apple could befall the fate of Microsoft, which had a similarly dizzying peak in late 1999," Mr. Driscoll said. "In this scenario, it will never happen."

If $1 trillion were the peak of Mount Everest, Microsoft would have been rising through the highest base camp in December 1999, when its market capitalization hit an all-time high of $616.3 billion. Since then, the company has slid down the side of the mountain and is currently valued at a mere $261 billion.

Indeed, the flap over the poor-quality maps on the iPhone 5 has led some people to wonder if Apple has already jumped the shark. But remember how well it has weathered other challenges, like poorly functioning antennas and Siri's erratic behavior.

Apple [AAPL  700.095    1.395  (+0.2%)   ] is different from Microsoft [MSFT  31.19    -0.26  (-0.83%)   ]. "When Microsoft peaked in 2000, it had 20 years running the PC revolution. We're essentially only five years into the smartphone revolution," said Charles S. Wallman, a securities analyst who runs an investment group in Middleton, Wis. "Apple has 435 million customers based on the number of credit cards in iTunes. That's 6 percent of the world's population. It's not a stretch to say it can get to 10 or 12 percent of the world's population." (Before we go any further, stop and reflect on the power that gives Apple.)

Even if Apple didn't enter any new product categories, it could reach $1 trillion by doubling its sales. That's hard for a big company, but in many respects, it is already happening. According to the latest statistics released by I.H.S. iSuppli, a research company, the Apple iPad accounts for nearly 70 percent of the tablet market. BTIG Research predicts Apple will sell 45 million iPhones in the December quarter alone. (During the same quarter last year, the company sold 37 million iPhones, doubling its revenue from a year earlier.)

While it used to be a presence in the United States and a nobody overseas, Apple is now rolling out products like the iPhone 5 worldwide on the same day. The company will also, predictably, continue to increase its global retail division of 388 stores. These stores make an average of $5,647 in sales per square foot. By comparison, shopping malls in the United States make an average of $341 in sales per square foot.

The company will continue to grow in China, too, where many of the more than one billion people who own mobile phones are upgrading to smartphones.

And don't forget those clunky old PCs. While other computer makers have lost ground, sales of Macs have grown each quarter for the past six years.

And none of these staggering drivers of growth consider Apple entering entirely new markets.

"When we invented the car, it was a substitute for horses, but it was the second phase of the car revolution — when we invent things around the cars like gas stations and drive-ins — that created new business markets," Mr. Wallman said. "We're seeing this happen now with the technology we have in our hands. We're entering the second phase of this revolution, where entirely new markets will be created, and Apple could create those."

For instance, Apple could transform the television industry, making its own TV set built on iOS, which analysts estimate could bring in another $20 billion a year in revenue. Or it could try to reinvent money itself, turning on the 435 million credit cards it has on file and enabling mobile payments. And there are consumer electronics areas that haven't even been invented yet, like wearable computing.

When Apple first introduced the iPhone, people slept in the streets to buy one. Five years later, people are still lining the streets to snatch the latest update, even though it is only a slight variation on the one before it. A company that can pull that off, selling two million iPhones in the first 24 hours, might be worth $1 trillion in no time at all.

This story originally appeared in The New York Times

China surveillance ships enter waters near disputed islands

TOKYO | Sun Sep 23, 2012 7:58pm EDT

(Reuters) - Two Chinese marine surveillance ships entered what Japan considers its territorial waters near disputed islands in the East China Sea on Monday, the Japanese Coast Guard said, a move bound to raise tension between Asia's two largest economies.

China's Xinhua news agency confirmed that two civilian surveillance ships were undertaking a "rights defense" patrol in waters near the disputed islands, citing the State Oceanic Administration, which controls the ships.

Sino-Japanese relations deteriorated sharply after Japan bought the islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, sparking anti-Japan protests in cities across China.

"In recent days, Japan has constantly provoked incidents concerning the Diaoyu islands issue, gravely violating China's territorial sovereignty," China's Xinhua news agency said.

The ship patrols were intended to exercise China's "administrative jurisdiction" over the islands, it said.

The Japanese Coast Guard ordered the Chinese ships to move out of the area, but received no response, a coast guard official said.

Sino-Japanese ties have long been plagued by China's bitter memories of Japan's military aggression in the 1930s and 1940s and present rivalry over regional influence and resources.

The islets are located near rich fishing grounds and potentially huge gas reserves.

(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka and Antoni Slodkowski in Tokyo and Chris Buckley in Beijing; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Nick Macfie)