Life already seemed pretty peachy for Tony Romo and his wife Candice Crawford since they wed a year ago, but adding son Hawkins to the mix last month has made it even sweeter.

“If it’s possible to bring you and your wife closer together, something like this really does,” Romo, 32, told PEOPLE during a recent photo shoot for Starter athletic wear.

“It strengthens your family values and your family and the love you have, which is already really strong. It’s been a great blessing from God to put us in this situation. We feel very honored.”

The Dallas Cowboys quarterback says it’s “definitely hard” to be away from his baby and beautiful wife, 25, but knowing she is supportive of his career makes being away for work that much easier.

“If you get a great wife who understands the demands of someone in athletics, I think that’s important,” Romo explains. “I was lucky enough to find someone like that. She’s a great mom and a great wife. It’s been fun just hanging out with her and my son. It’s been exciting.”

Romo and his love have already even witnessed a little milestone.

“You want to see everything,” he says. “At 3 weeks old, we were having him lay down, and we put him on the floor. And all of a sudden he just rolled himself right over. That was pretty neat to see.”

Being a good father shouldn’t be too challenging for Romo, who has already enjoyed acting as a role model in the athletic community.

“It’s a wonderful position to be in, to have the ability to affect some of America’s youth when they see you and you’re working hard and doing things the right way,” he says. “Little do you know that some of the choices that you make are being watched.”

As for his decision to be the face of the Starter line that is being sold exclusively at Walmart, Romo sums it up easily.

“It’s a brand that represents high-quality performance gear at an affordable price,” he says. “Growing up, that was something I always looked for because I was going through shirts like they were water.”

Via – http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20595852,00.html?xid=rss-topheadlines

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Little Lupo enjoyed a stunning spring day with the Duchess of Cambridge when the two headed out to watch Prince William play polo Sunday.

The royal cocker spaniel was taken to a field near Windsor to watch William and brother Harry wield their polo sticks for charity.

And he was clearly something of a novelty for guests. “Lupo seemed to get as much attention from the people at the presentation as William and Harry,” an observer says.

Kate, 30, wearing a Libelula Studio shirt dress and Stuart Weitzman wedges, spent most of the game in or around a tent by the side of the polo field. She was accompanied by key aide Rebecca Deacon and was spotted playing with Lupo during the match.

Lupo seemed to relish the day in the spring sunshine. “Lupo was off his leash, running around during the polo game, and he found a friend – another dog – to play with too,” the observer adds.

At the end, when William and Harry were mingling with guests and present for the award-giving, Kate and Lupo joined them, and the lucky pup got some love from his two favorite princes.

“Spring feels it has finally started and Kate was enjoying the sunshine,” the source, who watched the match, says.

For the princes, it was the second day of a weekend of polo matches played as the Audi Polo Challenge, which they do every year to raise funds for some of their charities.

Original – http://www.people.com/people/package/article/0,,20395222_20595256,00.html?xid=rss-topheadlines

By Dahvi Shira and Lesley Messer

Saturday May 12, 2012 04:25 PM EDT

(CNN) — Saying he had no discretion under state law, a judge sentenced a Jacksonville, Florida, woman to 20 years in prison Friday for firing a warning shot in an effort to scare off her abusive husband.

Marissa Alexander unsuccessfully tried to use Florida’s controversial “stand your ground” law to derail the prosecution, but a jury in March convicted her of aggravated assault after just 12 minutes of deliberation.

Miley Cyrus has a new reason to smile, and his name is Happy.

The singer brought home a new puppy on Tuesday, adding to her full house of dogs, including Lila, Floyd and Ziggy.

“He was left in a box in front of Walmart,” she Tweeted Wednesday. “I don’t understand how people can be so cruel. That’s why we named him Happy.”

The dog, a possible Rottweiler-beagle mix, has gone “from cardboard” to Maison Martin Margiela, according to Cyrus, who shared a photo of her new puppy lying on luxurious-looking leather.

Cyrus’s boyfriend, Hunger Games star Liam Hemsworth, was spotted yesterday picking up bags of pet food and a new dog bed from the store yesterday – and now we know why!

Source – http://feeds.people.com/~r/people/headlines/~3/hAXcDz3riX0/0,,20592330,00.html

President Barack Obama arrived in Kabul to sign a 10-year security agreement with Afghanistan. NBC’s Chuck Todd and Jim Miklaszewski report.

By M. Alex Johnson, msnbc.com

When President Barack Obama arrived Tuesday in Afghanistan on the first anniversary of the killing of Osama Bin Laden, it was supposed to be a secret, like his earlier visits to the dangerous region. But news of the trip leaked out hours earlier, raising new alarm bells about the president’s security.

The Afghan news station TOLONews reported early Tuesday that Obama had arrived in Kabul, hours before the White House’s embargo on reporting the news was lifted. Other news organizations, including The New York Post and the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, cited that report, which was attributed to unnamed Afghan officials.

The U.S. National Security Council and the U.S. Embassy in Kabul both denied the report, and Obama’s official schedule indicated that he was still in Washington, meeting with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in the Oval Office:

In fact, he had left Joint Base Andrews, Md., aboard Air Force One shortly after midnight Tuesday morning.

In the face of the official denials, the Post removed its report, as did Buzzfeed, which deleted a tweet noting the news after an NSC official called it to argue that its report endangered Obama’s life, it said.

Obama’s previous visits to Afghanistan, in March and December 2010, were unannounced for security reasons, and news of them didn’t leak out. And strict security measures were in place Tuesday as well, including a White House embargo that prevented journalists traveling with the president to report the trip until Obama arrived at the Afghan Presidential Palace about 11:30 p.m. (2:30 p.m. ET), hours after the TOLONews report was published.

But this time the news did get out, and at an uncomfortable time for U.S. security officials.

The apparent breach comes in the wake of an incident last month in which members of the president’s advance security team were reported to have picked up prostitutes in Cartagena, Colombia, before Obama’s visit to the Summit of the Americas. Eight Secret Service agents have been forced to leave the agency as a result of the scandal.

The Defense Department said it couldn’t discuss the incident, and the White House didn’t immediately return calls for comment. Editors at TOLONews did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Ronald Kessler, a longtime political reporter who interviewed more than 100 active and former Secret Service agents for “In the President’s Secret Service,” a book on presidential security arrangements, told msnbc.com that an early report on a surprise visit ”clearly endangers the president when he’s going into a war zone.”

The biggest concern, he said, “is the possibility of attacks on the ground when (Obama) lands and thereafter.”

NBC News and other news organizations learned about the trip Tuesday but withheld reporting it until Obama arrived at the palace. But “the fact so many U.S. reporters knew about it made it easier for it to disseminate,” Kessler said.

Kessler suggested that the Obama administration follow the example of the administration of former President George W. Bush, ”which did not let reporters know beforehand at all” when Bush traveled to Afghanistan.

“They told the press pool that they were going to go on a trip, (but) they weren’t told where,” Kessler said. “It was not until they got on the airplane that they were told they were going to Afghanistan.”

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Apple saved themselves a multi-billion dollar tax bill using subsidiaries in low-tax nations. Source: AP

The New York Times outlined legal methods used by Cupertino, California based Apple to avoid paying billions of dollars in federal and state taxes.

Even though the company is based in California, Apple has set up a small office in Reno, Nevada to collect and invest its profits, according to the report. The corporate tax rate in Nevada is zero. In California, it’s 8.84 per cent.

While many major corporations try to reduce their tax bills, technology companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft and others have more options to do so.

That’s because some of their revenue comes from digital products or royalties on patents, which makes it easier for them to move profits to tax-friendly states or countries, the New York Times said.

In contrast, it’s tougher to shift the collection of profits from the sale of a physical product – like groceries or a car – to a tax-friendly haven.

The 71 technology companies in the S&P 500, including Apple, Google, Yahoo and Dell, reported paying global cash taxes over the past two years at a rate that’s, on average, one-third less than other S&P 500 companies, the New York Times said.

Apple has legally allocated about 70 per cent of its profits overseas, where tax rates are often much lower than in the US, according to company filings.

The New York Times cites a study by former Treasury Department economist Martin A. Sullivan that estimates Apple’s federal tax bill would have been $2.4 billion higher last year without such tactics.

The newspaper says Apple paid $3.3 billion in cash taxes globally on $34.2 billion in profits last year. That’s a tax rate of 9.8 per cent.

In a statement, Apple told the New York Times that it has complied with all laws and accounting rules, and says that its US operations generated nearly $5 billion in federal and state income taxes in the first half of fiscal 2012.

Wall Street analysts predict Apple could earn up to $46.9 billion in its current fiscal year, according to FactSet.

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