Mary-Pat is 15 years old.

Just as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led the Montgomery Bus Boycott at age 26, and Rep. John Lewis helped to lead freedom rides at 23, young Americans like Mary-Pat are not letting age get in the way as they seek more than a contributing role in the push for social reform.

Young people are eager to influence this year's March on Washington, says Jessica Brown, national coordinator for the Black Youth Vote coalition, which organized several youth events around Saturday's march to the Lincoln Memorial.

"Of course you have the seasoned people who are there, and they are always rightfully going to have their position," Brown said. "But you're starting to see the pickup of the youth saying, 'This is our time, this is our moment, this is the opportunity we have to show the world and the nation, that we're here and we're ready to work and organize to get things done.'"

In 1963, those "seasoned people" were A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, who birthed the idea of a Washington march to appeal for jobs and justice, and ultimately attracted 250,000 people. Today, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III, who were 8 and 5 years old, respectively, in 1963, are the veterans who brought thousands to the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday. The King Center also has organized a ceremony on Wednesday, the actual march anniversary, when President Barack Obama will speak.

Friday night, students and young adults gathered at Howard University in Washington for a mass meeting and rally ahead of Saturday's march activity patterned after the student rallies that were held before major demonstrations during the civil rights movement.

Anthony Miller, president of the Howard University Student Association, said students recognize the historical significance, and some are using this moment to express their continuing anger over the shooting death of black Florida teen Trayvon Martin.

"They want to be able to do something positive and something that will uplift this situation and really bring it to light," Miller says. Students want "to effect a positive change and push this country in the right direction," he said, "And I think this is an excellent opportunity."

Janaye Ingram, who runs the Washington office of Sharpton's National Action Network, spent hours on the phone recruiting students. "This is their moment to make a change. It's reminiscent of what happened in the '60s, when the movement was led by them," she said.

Students and other young people made significant contributions to the civil rights movement. In 1957 a group of black students, later called the Little Rock Nine, helped integrate all-white Central High School in Arkansas. The Freedom Riders challenged segregation by riding buses through the South in integrated pairs. There were numerous others who held sit-ins at restaurant counters, skipped school to participate in marches and were attacked by police dogs and water cannons during public demonstrations.

"When you have been sitting on a lunch counter stool and someone walk up and spit on you or pour hot water or hot coffee on you and you say you're committed to non-violence, you have to grow up," Lewis said Sunday on ABC's "This Week." ''To go on the Freedom Rides in 1961, the same year that President Barack Obama was born? And to be beaten. You had to grow up. So by the time of the March on Washington, I was 23, but I was an older person."

Saturday's march included several youth speakers the youngest, Asean Johnson of Chicago, just 9 years old.

Lewis, who was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the youngest of the "Big Six" leaders from the 1963 march, represented the movement's already battle-tested young foot soldiers. His elders asked him to tone down the more fiery passages of his speech after seeing a draft; Lewis told MSNBC that he agreed to make the changes, not wanting to disappoint King and the other leaders.

Now 73 and a Democratic congressman from Georgia, Lewis was under no pressure to mince his words Saturday. He reminded the crowd of the vicious beating he endured in the 1965 voting rights march in Selma, Ala., and encouraged today's youth to resist efforts to erode his generation's hard-fought victories.

"Back in 1963, we hadn't heard of the Internet. We didn't have a cellular telephone, iPad, iPod," Lewis said. "But we used what we had to bring about a nonviolent revolution. I say to all of the young people: You must get out there and push and pull and make America what it should be for all of us."

Unlike the narrow focus on jobs and freedom in 1963, this year's march seeks to address an array of issues. Sharpton expanded the march's original goals, combatting high black and youth unemployment, to include a call for action after the Supreme Court invalidated parts of the Voting Rights Act, and to protest "stand your ground" laws and stop-and-frisk police tactics.

"We're looking at the issue that went on in Florida, we're looking at what's going on with the Voting Rights Act, so youth are really upset, and they're deciding maybe this is a good point to collectively come together, continuously build on our network, and take it back to our community to continue working," Brown says.

Sasha Costanza-Chock, an assistant professor of civic media at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says young people's willingness to simultaneously address "multiple dynamics of oppression" shows how youth activism has matured.

"You have a lot more young people now talking about ... the ways that different structures of race, class, gender and sexuality cannot be fought only one at a time. They have to be looked at together and struggled for together," Costanza-Chock said.

Today's young activists are equipped with a tool that older generations didn't have: social media. It empowers them to rally large numbers of people to a cause in a very short span of time. Using these methods are Florida's "Dream Defenders," the student group that held a sit-in outside of Gov. Rick Scott's office for 31 days, demanding a special session to repeal the "stand your ground" law.

The group traveled to Washington for the march anniversary, and encouraged supporters to follow their journey on USTREAM, an online live video service.

"It's been easier than ever to mobilize people, to hold people accountable, and to get attention for whatever issue you care about. So I think it's just changed the game," said Ryane Ridenour from Generational Alliance, an umbrella group of 22 youth organizations.

Mary-Pat, who serves as national youth director for Sharpton's organization, said working on multiple issues and leveraging social media in this way "can be overwhelming," but she understands that this is the nature of working on intertwined causes.

Ultimately, she wants this march to serve as a moment in which history will say her generation showed "we just don't march and make a lot of noise, but we actually make an impact."

The U.N. World Tourism Organization said that conflict-troubled Mali also joins the African tourism commission.

Zimbabwe and Zambia are co-hosting the 155-nation tourism organization's summit, held every two years, at the resort of Victoria Falls on their common border.

The six-day general assembly was formally opened by the two countries' presidents, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Michael Sata of Zambia..

The United Nations said in a statement that July 31 elections in Zimbabwe, bitterly disputed over alleged rigging, "will be respected by the assembly."

Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States have condemned Zimbabwe's July 31 elections for breaches of democratic rights, but they are not members of the U.N.'s tourism organization.

Western governments are generally skeptical over the value of the biennial meeting attended mostly by developing nations with a poor record in tourism, conservation and political stability.

Mugabe told the opening dinner celebrations and tribal dancing that the meeting endorsed Zimbabwe as "a safe and secure destination for world tourists."

He said critical Western countries dominating other U.N. political and economic programs stuck to what he called their "demonic tendencies" toward him.

Zimbabwe sought friendly ties "with all countries, even those with which we may not agree on all matters," he said.

The two host nations automatically take over the presidency of the U.N. tourism organization during the summit, which is expected to be attended by about 1,200 delegates from governments and tourism enterprises worldwide.

The last such gathering was held in South Korea in 2011. Cambodia and Colombia are on the short list to hold the next summit in 2015.

The U.N.'s decision to give Zimbabwe co-host status was criticized as a "disgraceful show of support and a terribly timed award of false legitimacy" for Mugabe's authoritarian rule, by the independent U.N. Watch human rights group on Friday.

"Amid reports of election rigging and continuing human rights abuses, Zimbabwe is the last country that should be legitimized by a U.N. summit of any kind," said Hillel Neuer, head of the Geneva-based group founded to monitor adherence by the world body to its universal charter on democracy and human rights.

He said Mugabe's propagandists sought to gloss over the collapse of the economy, years of political turmoil and the persecution of opponents to "use the event to rebrand the postelection period."

"The notion that the U.N. should spin this country as a lovely tourist destination is, frankly, sickening," Neuer said.

The Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force of independent environmentalists said Sunday that extra animals have been transported by state wildlife authorities to a poaching-prone nature preserve at Victoria Falls to "repopulate" the preserve before the meeting for the benefit of visiting delegates.

The trust said giraffes, zebra and hundreds of wildebeest, also known as the gnu, eland, Africa's largest antelope, and the smaller deer-like impala antelope caught in southern Zimbabwe have been released in the 12-square-kilometer (5-square-mile) Zambezi National Park overlooking the Zambezi River and the Victoria Falls, the largest single curtain of falling water on earth at a mile (1.6 kilometers) wide ranked as one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

"Zimbabwe always claims to have an abundance of animals, so why is it necessary to move these animals to where the delegates of UNWTO will be able to see them?" said Johnny Rodrigues, head of the trust.

Zimbabwe's often violent seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms since 2000 disrupted the agriculture-based economy that in turn led to world record inflation, a sharp decline in tourism and the collapse of power and water utilities and health and education services.

Unemployment spiraled, spurring wildlife poaching. Deforestation increased as trees were felled for domestic fuel during regular power outages and logging of protected hardwood trees, even in nature preserves, saw the timber illegally exported and sold to Asian furniture makers.

The state Forestry Commission has estimated 300,000 hectares (720,000 acres) of woodland were lost last year.

The U.N. World Tourism Organization, meanwhile, advised participants at Victoria Falls that no conference documentation will be distributed on paper to save trees "in compliance with the United Nations system's environmental protection policy."

Back then, pro boxing was deemed corrupting and exploitative, and the big purses not in line with socialist egalitarian ideals. Now the island is on verge of relaxing the monopoly of amateur boxing by joining a semi-pro league in which athletes are paid by sponsors and fight pro-style bouts, but still retain the Olympic eligibility that's all-important to Cuban sports authorities. Boxers also would fight without the headgear they have grown accustomed to.

While officials caution that no decision has been made yet, it could offer island boxers a chance to earn more money, gain more exposure in high-profile competitions and help staunch the flow of defections that has robbed Olympic delegations of some of Cuba's brightest talent and resulted in disappointing medal counts in recent years.

"It motivates me. It's something new. It's a challenge," world amateur featherweight champion Lazaro Alvarez told The Associated Press at a local tournament in an Old Havana gym. "I would really love to take part to be able to show the world what I am, what Cuban boxing is really all about."

The World Series of Boxing was launched in 2010 by the International Boxing Association and consists of a dozen teams in two divisions.

During four months of league play that begins each fall, semi-pro franchises such as the Algeria Desert Hawks and the USA Knockouts face off in home and away matches, with a post-season playoff in the spring. Some teams are backed by national boxing federations, while others receive at least partial private sponsorship: the Dolce & Gabbana Italia Thunder team, for instance.

Fighters earn $1,000 to $3,000 a month plus bonuses ranging from $500 to $2,000. Bouts are five rounds, unlike three in amateur, with a point system similar to the pros.

That would mean a big raise for Cuban fighters, the most successful of whom collect lifetime stipends of $100-$300 a month after winning Olympic or world medals. Others presumably earn an amount closer to the national average salary of around $20 per month.

In January, World Boxing Association president C.K. Wu visited Cuba for talks with local authorities and announced that they were seriously considering their own franchise.

"We have all the elements so that those who must make a decision have the pros and cons," said Alberto Puig, president of the Cuban Boxing Federation.

Juan Hernandez, a 44-year-old four-time world amateur welterweight champion who now works as a trainer, was optimistic that the island will join the league and breathe life into the sport.

"Cuba seems to be close to taking part in the World Series," Hernandez said. "I would have liked to participate in a tournament like that, of course. It's a great challenge and opportunity for the boxers of today."

If Cubans live for baseball above all other sports, boxing probably ranks second. The first bout took place in 1912 and the annals of Cuban greats include the likes of Kid Chocolate and Kid Gavilan, both winners of professional titles, plus other colorful names like "Lightning" Saguero, "Butter" Jose Legra, the Las Tunas Kid and "Puppy" Garcia.

But in 1961, two years after the Cuban Revolution, all professional sports were banned and the very concept has been anathema to the island government's Marxist ideals ever since.

"In our eyes, sport is not just another instrument of the market ... nor of profit for promoters, agents and all manner of parasites that feed off the athlete's hard work," Fidel Castro said as recently as 2005.

Cuba nonetheless devotes a considerable amount of its scant resources to developing amateur talent and has punched above its weight at international competitions, scoring relatively high in the medal tables for a nation of around 11 million people.

Former pugilists Felix Savon and the late Teofilo Stevenson are among the three boxers in history to win gold medals at three Olympic Games, and Cuba took seven gold medals out of 11 possible at Barcelona in 1992.

Yet low wages, decaying facilities and the lack of opportunities for athletes to test themselves against the best fighters on the professional circuit have all contributed to a long, slow decline and costly defections.

After Olympic champions Odlanier Solis, Yurioski Gamboa and Yann Barthelemy walked away from training in Venezuela in 2006, the Cuban boxing delegation was left short-gloved two years later in Beijing and went home without a single gold for the first time in 36 years.

The debacle set off a flood of national soul-searching, with Castro himself calling for a frank and honest reappraisal of "every human and material resource we dedicate to the sport. We should be profound in our analyses (and) apply new ideas, concepts and knowledge."

In 2011, the country lowered the age of competition from 11 to 9 years old, beginning with a pilot program in Havana, in line with many other countries' boxing programs, and going semi-pro could be the next step toward regaining Olympic glory.

In 2015, World Series league fighters will be battling for 30 automatic tickets for the Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro the following year. AIBA will also hold an individual competition with 70 automatic bids.

Cuban defectors have already shown they can be successful at any level. Guillermo Rigondeaux, who fled in 2009 after a failed defection attempt two years earlier, holds the pro title in the super bantamweight class, and Gamboa was world featherweight champion in 2010.

Island boxers interviewed by the AP were hesitant to talk about money, but their eyes lit up when asked about the league and what Cuba will bring to the competition. They spoke of having to learn to be more defensive as the lack of headgear would leave them more exposed to knockout, but expressed confidence that they're up to the task.

"I think that without boxers from Cuba it wouldn't be a great championship due to our country's skill at this sport," said Julio Cesar La Cruz, world titleholder in the light heavyweight class. "It would be part of my arsenal. It would be good to test myself there with the same goal (as always), which is to be an Olympic champion in Rio."

___

Associated Press writer Peter Orsi in Havana contributed to this report.

(Reuters) - Consumers have a right under a federal law to revoke their consent to being contacted on their cell phones by automated dialing systems, a U.S. appeals court decided on Thursday in a defeat for computer maker Dell Inc.

Reversing a lower court ruling, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled in favor of a Pennsylvania woman, Ashley Gager, who complained that Dell hounded her with more than 40 calls in less than three weeks to collect a delinquent debt after she had sent a letter asking it to stop.

Circuit Judge Jane Roth said Congress intended the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 to protect consumers from unwanted automated calls, a conclusion supported by a 2012 Federal Communications Commission ruling in an unrelated case.

She rejected Dell's argument that because the law did not address whether consumers may revoke consent to be contacted by an autodialing system, such a right to revoke did not exist.

"We find that the TCPA provides consumers with the right to revoke their prior express consent to be contacted on cellular phones by autodialing systems," Roth wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel. "Because the TCPA is a remedial statute, it should be construed to benefit consumers."

Dell, which is based in Round Rock, Texas, and its law firm did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Cary Flitter, a lawyer for Gager, did not immediately respond to a similar request.

According to court papers, Gager had in 2007 filled in her cellphone number in place of her home number on an application for a Dell credit line, which the Honesdale, Pennsylvania resident used to buy thousands of dollars of computer equipment.

After Gager defaulted, Dell began leaving the automated messages, and continued doing so even after receiving a letter in December 2010 from Gager asking it to stop, the papers show.

In May 2012, U.S. District Judge Robert Mariani dismissed Gager's lawsuit, saying that she should have told Dell at the time she gave her cellphone number not to make automated calls.

The 3rd Circuit sent the case back to Mariani's courtroom for further proceedings, and said Dell remains entitled to pursue the unpaid debt.

"Dell will still be able to telephone Gager about her delinquent account," Roth said. "The only limitation imposed by the TCPA is that Dell will not be able to use an automated dialing system to do so."

The case is Gager v. Dell Financial Services LLC, 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 12-2823.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Indonesia, along with countries such as India, Malaysia and Thailand, has been buffeted by an exodus of cash from its financial markets as improving economic prospects in the U.S and Europe reverse the tide of money that swept into developing nations the past few years.

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Rajasa said Friday the government will relax mineral export quotas and streamline the investment permit process.

He said the government will increase the import tax on luxury cars and some branded products, provide tax incentives for investment in agriculture and metal industries and seek to reduce oil imports.

The moves aim to shore up Indonesia's currency and bolster confidence that the country can pay its bills by limiting outflows of money and encouraging inflows. That in theory should reduce Indonesia's current account deficit, which largely reflects that it is importing more than it exports.

"With these steps, the current account deficit in the third and fourth quarters is expected to decrease while economic growth could be maintained," Rajasa said.

The country's currency, the rupiah, has sunk to its lowest level in over four years. It traded Friday at 10,902 per U.S. dollar, according to Bank Indonesia, the central bank. The Jakarta Composite Index was flat Friday, after sliding 8.7 percent in the first four days of the week.

Bank Mandiri market analyst Renu Eka Putri said the Indonesian central bank is also expected to intervene to prevent the rupiah from losing more value.

"The volatility of the financial market is quite high and the national currency has tended to weaken," Putri said. "But Bank Indonesia will protect the currency."

In 2011, Indonesia's economy grew 6.5 percent, which was its fastest growth since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis. But growth slowed to 5.8 percent in the second quarter of this year.

The country has also experienced rising inflation, which hit 8.6 percent in July, after the government cut fuel subsidies. The unpopular move hiked pump prices by up to 44 percent.

Meanwhile, economic pains are also being felt elsewhere in Asia.

India's rupee has plummeted to new lows against the dollar on a near daily basis, showing the pressure of a current account deficit that has swelled from high import costs. The Sensex stock index has fallen nearly 10 percent in the past month.

JERSEY CITY, New Jersey (Reuters) - Long-hitter Gary Woodland ran off four birdies in a row from the sixth to seize a three-stroke lead with nine holes to play in the third round of The Barclays on Saturday at Liberty National.

The 29-year-old Woodland, who earlier this month won the Reno-Tahoe Open for his first PGA Tour title, was four under par for the round and 13-under for the tournament, the opening event in the FedExCup playoffs.

Little known Kevin Chappell also used a blistering hot spell to leap up the leaderboard, making seven birdies in an eight-hole stretch to reach 10 under par with two holes to play in his round.

Moving Day lived up to its name in Saturday's third round after Matt Kuchar claimed a two-shot lead in completing a second round 65 in an early morning return along with 39 other players after play was suspended on Friday due to failing light.

Bogeys at the third and seventh holes dropped Kuchar to nine under par, four shots off the pace.

Webb Simpson, the 2012 U.S. Open champion who had been tied for second with Woodland at the halfway mark, bogeyed the sixth and eighth to fall into a tie for fourth on eight-under with fellow American Rickie Fowler.

Fowler had used an eagle at the par-five sixth to move into a temporary share of the lead at 10-under but double-bogeyed the ninth after an errant tee shot.

World number one Tiger Woods also moved in the wrong direction. The FedExCup points leader began the round at six under par and birdied the first to reach seven-under, but three bogeys in a five-hole stretch left him five-under through 12.

Tied for sixth at seven under par, six behind Woodland, were a group of seven including U.S. Open winner Justin Rose (through 12 holes) and fellow Englishman David Lynn (12), former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel of South Africa (11), Australian Aaron Baddeley (15) and Spain's Sergio Garcia (11).

They were joined by Americans Jim Furyk (13) and 20-year-old Jordan Spieth (15).

Players teed off in threesomes off both nines for the third round at the scenic course waterside course with views of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline.

(Reporting by Larry Fine, Editing by Gene Cherry)

It took the 13-member panel of high-ranking officers just seven hours to reach the unanimous verdict. Hasan, a radicalized American-born Muslim who was bitter about his impending deployment to Afghanistan, admitted from the start that he had committed the massacre. He said the attack was justified toand other Islamist leaders from American forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The conviction didn't conclude the case entirely. The sentencing phase is set to begin on Monday, when the jury will decide whether to recommend if Hasan, 42, should be sent to prison for life, or become the first person the U.S. military has put to death in more than 50 years.

Under military law, anyone convicted onof premeditated murder is eligible for the death penalty. Hasan was found guilty on 13 murder counts, as well as 32 charges of premeditated attempted murder for injuring 31 soldiers and shooting at another. Hasan's spree ended when a police officer shot him, leaving Hasan paralyzed from the waist down.

While the case was always seen as open and shut with respect to the question of Hasan's guilt, what happens next is less clear.

One obstacle to a death sentence is that all of the jurors must agree. If they don't, Hasan will probably wind up serving life in prison.

Furthermore, "death sentences are rare in the military and trigger automatic appeals that take decades to play out," . "Among the final barriers to execution is authorization from the president."

Those hurdles might explain why no American soldier has been executed . Army Pvt. John A. Bennett was hanged that year after being convicted of the rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old Austrian girl.

In Hasan's case, there are other factors to consider, and not just the fact that the number of Americans favoring the death penalty in general has declined in recent years tosince capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.

Hasan dismissed his military-appointed lawyers, and defended himself in the trial. He cross-examined only a handful of the prosecution's parade of nearly 90 witnesses, and called none himself. He didn't make a closing statement, either. His military lawyers even tried, unsuccessfully, to get dropped as stand-in counsel because they believed Hasan was trying to .

There was evidence to suggest they were right. During the trial, Hasanto journalists showing that he had told military mental health workers that even though he survived the rampage he could "still be a martyr" if executed.

That, , is a strong argument for letting Hasan rot in prison. "Even with the heinousness of Hasan's crimes, this newspaper stands by its opposition to the death penalty," the Morning News says. "Tempting though it might be to argue for an exception for an Army major and psychiatrist who plotted to kill U.S. troops in cold blood, lethal injection would give this jihadist exactly what he wants."

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The new devices face more competition than TiVos did when they debuted in 1999. Cable and satellite TV companies are improving their own DVR offerings, while stand-alone devices such as Roku, Apple TV and Google's Chromecast seek to simplify Internet streaming on big-screen TVs. Meanwhile, game consoles and smartphones now come with apps to do much of what TiVo does. An Internet startup called Aereo offers an Internet-based DVR for broadcast channels.

With its new Roamio DVR, TiVo is counting on the notion that avid television viewers prefer one device to do it all.

"What TiVo is doing here is pressing home their advantage. That is, they know TV," said Colin Dixon, chief analyst at nScreen Media, a research firm in Sunnyvale, Calif. "What they are doing here is actually very difficult for anybody else."

Dixon said many casual television viewers will be fine with generic offerings from their cable company, but TiVo's appeal is with high-end consumers who are already paying the most for television packages and Internet video services.

The Roamio went on sale Tuesday and marks the company's first major update in three years.

Like previous TiVos and other DVRs, the Roamio supports basic functions such as the ability to pause and rewind live TV. TiVos also let you watch video from Netflix, Hulu and other Internet services on regular TVs, as long as you have subscriptions with them.

The new TiVos give you more options for finding shows to watch. The emphasis in the past was on finding programs to record, whether by title, actor, director, genre or keyword. The Roamio offers recommendations on what's currently on, based in part of what other TiVo viewers are watching and have watched in that time slot in the past. The new devices also let you narrow what you see in channel-by-channel listings to just movies, sports or kids shows.

Some of the new DVRs will also come with the ability to watch live and recorded shows on iPhones and iPads. Before, a $130 device called TiVo Stream was needed. Streaming is initially limited to devices on the home Wi-Fi network. This fall, out-of-home viewing will be available through other Wi-Fi networks, such as at work, hotels and coffee shops. An Android app also is coming by early next year.

The mid-range Roamio model comes with enough storage for 150 hours of high-definition television and can record up to six channels at once. Besides built-in streaming, there's built-in Wi-Fi support to negate the need for TiVo's $90 adapter.

TiVo is touting the $220 savings as it tries to persuade people to spend $400 for that mid-range model, the Roamio Plus. It's an investment that also requires a $15-a-month TiVo service for electronic television listings and other features. A high-end Roamio Pro, which can store 450 hours of HD programming, is available for $600.

The $200 base model has 75 hours of storage and can record just four channels at once. It also lacks built-in support for streaming to iPhones and iPads. But the base model can record over-the-air broadcasts, while the pricier models require a TV signal from a cable service. (Satellite TV isn't supported on any of the devices. AT&T'S U-verse won't work either, but Verizon's FiOS will.)

TiVo, which is based in San Jose, Calif., has been steadily gaining subscribers over the past two years, after seeing its business decline amid competition from DVRs provided by cable and satellite companies. TiVo now partners with many of those companies, including Comcast Corp., to provide a premium DVR offering. It also sells stand-alone DVRs, such as the current Premiere line.

TiVo had 3.4 million subscribers as of April 30, a nearly 75 percent increase from 2 million two years earlier.

Gartner analyst Mike McGuire said the new TiVos will appeal to people who want to find shows easily, whether they come from a traditional channel or from an Internet service. Although cheaper rival devices are available, McGuire said some consumers will be drawn by TiVo's simplicity especially if they are already paying for premium cable packages in multiple rooms.

The Roamio expands TiVo's push into multi-room experiences. You can buy a TiVo Mini for $100 upfront and $6 in monthly service fees to extend the functionality of the main TiVo into another room. Two family members can watch separate shows even though all the recordings are coming through the main TiVo. Although that capability was available before, the Roamio offers under-the-hood improvements in allocating resources.

Jim Denney, TiVo's vice president for product marketing, acknowledged growing competition from other television-viewing devices and services.

But in offering both traditional channels and Internet video, as well as features such as viewing away from home, the Roamio "should be the best TV experience you can get. . It's your content wherever you want."

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Online:

http://tivo.com

The turtle, named OD, after a dive charter boat that rescued it in 2008, has been cared for at the Florida Keys-based Turtle Hospital for almost five years. It cannot be released due to an irreparable collapsed lung that left it floating on its side.

Officials at the Turtle Hospital decided OD needed a better home with a larger and more stimulating environment.

The Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas offered to give OD a home for his "retirement" at its 1.6-million-gallon aquarium which already houses several sea turtles.

"He's ready now for a forever home ... where he can live out his life," said Turtle Hospital Manager Bette Zirkelbach.

FedEx is providing free air transportation for OD for the 2,400-mile trip to Las Vegas in a specially moisturized and foam-padded crate, accompanied by Zirkelbach and Turtle Hospital founder Richie Moretti.

(Writing by David Adams; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

The White House said on Thursday that President Obama will barnstorm this week about histo make colleges more accountable and affordable.

The two-day bus campus bus tour features the President speaking about tying funds for colleges to performance, on Thursday. The tour started Thursday morning in Buffalo, New York.

The plan is based on rating colleges and universities on measures such as tuition, rate of graduation, earnings and the debt level of graduates, and linking those ratings to financial aid.

The challenge of gaining bipartisan support in Congress for the plan reflects a legal reality that doesnt come up often in national discussion about education these days: The Constitution doesnt mention education and the Supreme Court has concluded that education is not a fundamental right under it.

The Supreme Court resolved this issue 40 years ago in a case about the means of financing the public elementary and secondary schools in San Antonio, Texas, called

By a 5-4 decision, with Justice Lewis Powell writing for the majority, the courtthat the Texas system does not operate to the peculiar disadvantage of any suspect class and that education is not among the rights afforded explicit protection under our Federal Constitution. Nor do we find any basis for saying it is implicitly so protected.

In dissent, Justice Thurgood Marshall warned that the majoritys holding can only be seen as a retreat from our historic commitment to equality of educational opportunity and as unsupportable acquiescence in a system which deprives children in their earliest years of the chance to reach their full potential as citizens. The Court does this despite the absence of any substantial justification for a scheme which arbitrarily channels educational resources in accordance with the fortuity of the amount of taxable wealth within each district.

The San Antonio ruling shifted the emphasis in education litigation to state courts, since a majority of state constitutions guarantee a right to education.

In contemporary times, revisions to those guarantees have transformed some into specific and sophisticated ones. But Justice Marshalls dissent proved prescient.

Since 1980, the quality of American public elementary and secondary education has dropped considerably compared to public education in other leading nations. The opportunity gap has dramatically widened between public schools in wealthy and in poor American districts.

Whenever a president presents a major reform in education, like the Obama plan for a change in financial aid, the effort is clearly handicapped by education being treated as a political matterand not as a matter of right guaranteed by the Constitution.

And the state-level right to education battle has taken some odds turns that touch on constitutional issues from the 1950s and the battle for civil rights.

In the state of Alabama, for instance, there is still language requiring separate schools for black and white students in that states constitution. (The 1950s Supreme Court rulings nullify that language in practice.)

A referendum to delete the Jim Crow-era language from Alabamas constitution was defeated last fall at the polls because the change would have also removed a requirement for the state to fund education at public schools.

A state commission is that may decouple the two issues, with the approval of voters in Alabama.

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