Dubai: Tennis star Serena Williams is trading in her racket for the microphone. Williams, who announced last year she was pursuing a musical career, launched a teaser of her new song on Saturday. According to acesshowbiz.com, the champ is yet to reveal the title of the song.

According to the report, the song describes her powerful personality: "I ball hard no tennis racket/I can’t see these haters through my Gucci glasses/I make hits like batting practice — they be like ‘Serena, is you really rapping?’

"That’s me, thanks for listenin’/schooling all these rappers, they should pay tuition/ I make a lot of money but that ain’t yo business/you can tell the people I said this."

She makes a reference to her sister Venus Williams in the song as well, rapping "I win, I really mean it/Swag out this world, you should call me Venus/That’s my sister, my name is Serena/on the court I serve ‘em up, no subpoena."

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Editor’s note: This piece is part of a series of “city smackdowns” pitting rival cities against each other and letting you decide which one’s best. Next week we’ll let fans of the political convention cities, Charlotte, North Carolina and Tampa, Florida, duke it out.

As part of our Destination USA project pitting rival cities against each other, New York beat Los Angeles in our completely unscientific poll, gaining 52% of the approximately 7,000 votes cast, compared with L.A.’s 48%.

But Angelenos walloped New York in enthusiastic support for their city, sharing our Los Angeles lover’s column on L.A.’s virtues more than 30,000 times on Facebook, compared with 1,400 endorsements for our transplanted New Yorker’s love letter to NYC.

And that robust participation from the City of Angels translated into more than 500 reader comments on the Los Angeles story, compared with 150 on the New York installment of the smackdown.

We asked iReporters and commenters to share the very best things about their respective cities and why they like them better than any other. Some felt the need to add a little trash talk. You decide if they’re right.

Talking a little smack

New York inspires people to accomplish great things they could not imagine anywhere else, according to iReporter Mandana Armand of Gramercy Park, in Manhattan. “That greatness is just around the corner, always in New York. You never know what kind of fortuitous kindling this city will throw at you.”

New York is the center of the modern world, claims iReporter Craig Clemens, a former Los Angeles resident. “Finance, real estate, publishing — it’s almost too much for an Angeleno to take in. I should know because I used to be one.”

Not so, claims L.A. defender cornholio5. “L.A. intimidates people because they’re afraid to admit it’s better than where they’re from. In L.A., we order bagels from people that don’t yell at us. We don’t care if your pizza is better. We like ours, but we like yours, too. We legally smoke weed, we surf, we go to work in flip-flops and we drive Priuses. We work hard, we’re laid back, we eat avocados and we do yoga. We respect N.Y., and don’t even expect it back. That’s how we roll.”

Residents of Los Angeles rave about the good weather, and more. “Los Angeles has the better weather, the better technology, the car capital of the world, better jobs, better food and better people,” writes another commenter. “New York City: You pay outrageous rent, and who wants to pay $1,000/month just to park your car?”

Let’s go out and play in New York

We admit it, both cities have great places to play, whether you’re splurging or traveling on a budget. New York offers full price theater tickets to “The Book of Mormon” and discount theater tickets at the TKTS booth. Make reservations to Per Se or Eleven Madison Park for fine dining or grab an affordable (and incredible) burger and cheese fries at Shake Shack in Madison Square Park or “chicken fried chicken” at Cowgirl in the West Village.

iReporter Beth Barret, who grew up on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and lives in Riverdale in the Bronx, offers you her walking tour route, free of charge. “One of my favorite things to do with friends who visit me is to start walking from the bottom of Manhattan,” she writes. “We start at the Statue of Liberty, walk north through Battery Park, Wall Street, the South Street Seaport, Chinatown, Little Italy, Tribeca, Soho, Greenwich Village & Chelsea. And that is only day one!”

“Every nook and cranny of the city exudes its own pleasures, flavors and personality,” claims Barret. “I honestly don’t think you can ever see it all. From the Edgar Allen Poe cottage in the Bronx to the site of the 1962 World’s Fair in Queens, there is always something to see that will wow you!”

Head to One World Trade Center, says Charlottesville, Virginia, resident and iReporter Joanne Ciccone, who visits New York regularly to see her son. “One World Trade Center is at the heart of what this country is about. Like the Phoenix rising from its ashes, NYC is building up from the horrors of 9/11. This rebuilding of structure and attitude makes NYC the greatest city on Earth. It will not be destroyed in building or beliefs.”

Let’s play in L.A.

Los Angeles offers everything from swimming and surfing at the beach to skiing in the mountains and camping in the desert. A short drive (traffic permitting) will get you to some of the most beautiful outdoor spots in the world.

“The feeling is laid back while you cruise down Sunset Blvd. and dig on the celebrities,” writes iReporter Allen Mealey. “Los Angeles is the entertainment capital of the world, from the Hollywood film industry to all of the great concerts and clubs, we beat Manhattan hands down! And those Hollywood nights, those Hollywood hills.” (With thanks to Bob Seger.)

DigitalGypsy, who lives in Culver City but also loves Venice, Santa Monica, West Hollywood and Silverlake, never wears anything heavier than a hoodie because the weather is so fabulous. “It’s definitely the spot to be in for surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding. Life is a little more laid back and you get to enjoy the beauty of nature that surrounds you.”

Standouts to commenter Jon: Griffith Observatory, summer movies at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, monthly downtown Art Walk, the Venice Art Walk, The Perch (or any of the downtown rooftop bars), driving around actual film studios, ChaCha Lounge (hipster bar in Silver Lake), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, MOCA (contemporary museum), Villain’s Tavern and “hiking up to the Hollywood sign or any of the hundreds of amazing hiking trails all throughout the hills and mountains of the city.”

Let’s eat some good food

There’s no shortage of advice online or in print on the best cuisine in Los Angeles or New York. Both towns have food critics who have their preferences for high-end, low-end and everything in between — although only Los Angeles can claim the first winner of a Pulitzer Prize for food criticism in Jonathan Gold, now at the “Los Angeles Times. “

If you’re craving a particular cuisine or need to eat in a particular part of town, plenty of foodie websites can help you out. If you’re talking to residents, make sure they really like food — because there’s plenty of bad food to be had in both cities.

Manhattan resident Mandana Armand loves the 21 Club for the feel of old New York, drinks at the Gansevoort Hotel and the chocolate waterfall brunch at the Waldorf Astoria. For vegetarians and vegans, Armand recommends Pure Food and Wine restaurant. “It’s a raw food restaurant that delivers the most exquisite flavors imaginable. You will not believe it is raw food.”

Former Los Angeles resident and iReporter Anne McCarney has many favorite restaurants and bars to recommend: “Homegirl Cafe (near downtown), OB’s Pub & Grill (Manhattan Beach), Mama D’s Italian (Hermosa or Manhattan Beach), Cafe Boogaloo (Hermosa Beach), Shark’s Cove (Manhattan Beach), Empress Pavilion (Chinatown), Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles, In-N-Out, Lotus frozen yogurt (Hermosa Beach), Sweet Lady Jane’s bakery (Melrose).”

And yes, Mexican food can be found almost anywhere in Los Angeles. However, commenter VikoG suggests visitors move beyond the assumption of Mexican food as beans, rice, tacos, burritos and enchiladas. “Angelenos know better (and) we take advantage of all the delicious non-Americanized cuisine, especially mariscos, Poblano cusine, Oaxacan cusine and so many more,” he writes.

Pitting one city against the other is pointless, say some, like comparing an SUV to a sports car. “If you want a house with a big yard, pool and palm trees, NYC is not the place for you,” writes commenter Chris Allen, who was raised in Los Angeles and visits New York. “If you want to live in a high-rise building in a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood where you can take the subway to work, your lifestyle options in L.A. will be rather limited. Both are cool places.”

Todra Payne is married to New York City, but it’s not exclusive. “NYC is home for me, but L.A. is my secret lover,” she writes. “Can’t beat the way you can walk Manhattan and meet people along the way, meander in and out of shops, restaurants, etc. You just can’t do that in L.A. But the sunshine, beaches and palm trees and the laid back vibe in L.A. are golden. If there was a way to combine the two, it would be paradise.”

Both cities, it seems, are willing to share the people they love with the city on the opposite coast.

Next on our smackdown list: Charlotte, North Carolina, home to the 2012 Democratic National Convention, versus Tampa, Florida, home to the 2012 Republican National Convention. How will you vote? Share your photos and suggestions on iReport.com.

Release Date: 04/12/2012Contact Information: David Deegan, (617) 918-1017

(Boston, Mass. – April 12, 2012) – EPA has issued a final Clean Air Act permit to the Pioneer Valley Energy Center for the construction and operation of a new 431 MW/hr combined cycle gas turbine in Westfield, Mass.  The permit is designed to prevent the significant deterioration of air quality resulting from the plant’s operation.
The federal Clean Air Act requires new major sources of air pollutants in areas which currently meet air quality standards to obtain a “Prevention of Significant Deterioration” (PSD) air permit prior to construction.  There are three main components of a PSD permit:
-  The new source must install best available control technology to reduce all air pollutants which it will emit in significant amounts;
-  The new source must demonstrate, using air dispersion modeling, its emissions will not cause or contribute to a violation of any national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS), which are designed to protect public health and the environment; and
-  The facility may not cause the existing air quality in the area to deteriorate beyond specific levels that the Clean Air Act allows to protect air that is already cleaner than the NAAQS.
The permit for Pioneer Valley meets all three criteria.  Pioneer Valley will install post combustion controls to minimize emissions of nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide.  In addition, the facility will use natural gas and ultra low sulfur diesel fuel to minimize emissions of fine particulate matter and sulfuric acid mist.  Pioneer Valley is also minimizing greenhouse gas emissions through the application of energy efficient equipment.
EPA carefully reviewed Pioneer Valley’s air dispersion modeling analysis and has determined the allowable air emissions from this project are in compliance with the Clean Air Act. The final permit for the Pioneer Valley plant contains several more stringent permit conditions that EPA added after considering public comments.
There was a formal public review and comment period on the draft Pioneer Valley PSD permit from Dec. 5, 2011 – Jan. 24, 2012.  EPA also held an informational meeting and a public hearing in Westfield on Jan. 12, 2012.  EPA received 49 written comments and heard testimony from 28 commenters during the public hearing. EPA carefully considered all comments received on the draft air permit during the public comment period, and the final air permit is accompanied by a detailed “Response to Comments” document.  EPA also carefully considered assertions that this power plant would cause a disproportionate burden on historically-disadvantaged Environmental Justice communities in the vicinity of the facility.  EPA’s analysis indicated that emissions would not adversely affect low-income or minority populations and that the impacts of those emissions did not disproportionately affect these communities.
More information:  The final Pioneer Valley PSD permit and other documents (http://www.epa.gov/region1/topics/air/airpermitting.html)
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It was a tantalizing lead offering hope that investigators would solve the mystery — at last — of what happened to the 6-year-old boy who disappeared on his way to the school bus stop 33 years ago.

There have been a series of such leads over the years in the case, which changed the nation’s attitudes toward children’s safety and helped launch the missing children’s movement.

First there was the drifter living in a drainage tunnel with pictures of boys who looked eerily similar to Etan. A rash of false leads that took investigators as far afield as Israel chasing look-alikes. Then, most recently, a cadaver dog picking up the scent of human remains in a basement near Etan’s home.

Each time, the result has been the same: sometimes a few answers, often more questions, and rarely anything resembling the full truth for Etan’s parents, Stan and Julie Patz.

The family has endured years of crank calls and far-fetched theories on the home telephone number they never changed in hope Etan might some day try to call.

“They exacted the biggest emotional cost, riding Stan and Julie on a steep vertical incline up the tracks, to plunge straight back down to hell every time,” journalist Lisa Cohen writes in her definitive account of the case, “After Etan: The Missing Child Case That Held America Captive.”

Such dramatic ups and downs have long been part-and-parcel of the investigation into Etan’s disappearance.

In the days and weeks after he went missing in May, 1979, police, the family and neighborhood volunteers worked tirelessly tracking down leads, according to Cohen.

In the two weeks following Etan’s disappearance, police put in more than 4,000 hours on the case, interviewing some 500 people, Cohen writes in her book.

Police cruisers swarmed the neighborhood as volunteers plastered the area with 10,000 posters, according to Cohen’s account.

Then came the first letdown.

The police officers who’d camped in the Patz home, answering phones and dispatching detectives to follow up on possible leads, packed up and left, the emergency phase of the response over.

In their place, they left a legal pad next to the phone and instructions to log each call. What had been a stream of calls slowed to a trickle, but kept coming, with their stories of boys matching Etan’s description seen in places near and far.

None panned out.

Three years later, in 1982, the roller-coaster would start its climb again with reports that a man, Juan Antonio Ramos, had swiped a boy’s book bag and tried to lure him and another boy into the drainage tunnel where he was living.

Police found photos of young boys among the man’s possessions, and took them to Etan’s parents to see if their son was one of them.

“Almost three years into their ordeal, the half-formed scab covering their private life and private pain was being picked off yet again to ooze fresh blood,” Cohen wrote in her book. “They greeted the news with the now familiar mix of trepidation tinged with the faint hope, one that could never be discounted, that new exposure could yield new information.”

The case didn’t pan out, at least initially, and Ramos vanished.

Interest moved on to other reports, Cohen wrote in her book: A photo in Israel, another in Massachusetts. A cab driver who said he picked up the boy the morning of his disappearance.

Like the other leads, nothing came of them.

In 1988, the cycle began turning again. Investigators turned their attention back to Ramos after locating him in a Pennsylvania prison — where he was serving time on a molestation conviction.

They brought Ramos back to New York for questioning, and got a bombshell, Cohen writes.

Ramos acknowledged picking up a boy he believed was Etan and bringing him back to his apartment for sex, according to Cohen. But he said the boy declined his advances, so he took him to the subway and waved goodbye.

Three years later, in 1991, after helping secure another conviction against Ramos, federal authorities visited the Patz family again. They were there to deliver the news the family had long dreaded — that investigators believed their son was dead and they believed Ramos was responsible, Cohen writes.

“The words were not earth-shattering; they weren’t saying anything that twelve years into the case both parents didn’t already know,” Cohen writes in her book. “But now for the first time law enforcement was sitting across the table, telling them that the weight of evidence supported their worst fears.”

At the same time, the federal authorities said they’d come to the end of their journey, saying only New York state prosecutors could take the case to court.

They never have.

There have been more milestones since that day in 1991.

In the summer of 2000, New York investigators examined evidence from the basement of the apartment building where Ramos once lived. In 2001, Stan Patz had his son declared legally dead, and in 2004, a judge found Ramos liable for Etan’s death in a wrongful death civil lawsuit.

But none of those milestones brought them closer to what the family has long said it wants, barring the return of their son: a criminal conviction.

In 2010, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance reopened the investigation after his election, something he had promised to do during his campaign.

The promise that authorities were closer to mounting a criminal case seemed alluringly close last week, when investigators flooded the neighborhood and began dismantling the basement where handyman Othniel Miller once had a workshop.

Etan knew the man and had sometimes helped him with odd jobs before he disappeared, Cohen said in a Monday interview on CNN. Authorities had looked at the basement workshop years ago, but never tore up the place as they were doing last week, she noted.

Investigators recently renewed their interest in Miller, 75, in part after interviewing him about his connection to the basement. During the interview, a source said he blurted out, “What if the body was moved?”

About a month ago, a cadaver dog picked up the scent of human remains. Then investigators began to tear down drywall and cut through concrete in search of clues.

“It was a huge number of resources being thrown into this case,” forensic scientist Lawrence Kobilinsky said Monday in an appearance on CNN. “It shows you that this case is still alive in the minds, (of) not only the public, but certainly, of law enforcement.”

Mike Huff, a retired police detective and cold-case investigator in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who now heads the International Association of Cold Case Investigators, said as he watched coverage of the case, the kinds of details that were emerging led him to believe investigators were confident they had finally come up with a solid line on hard physical evidence in the case.

The big news came over the weekend, when it leaked out that investigators had recovered a chunk of concrete that appeared to be stained with blood.

“I thought, ‘Man, this is going to be a slam dunk, they already know the answer to this story,’” Huff said.

Then, suddenly, once again, nothing.

The blood wasn’t blood, it turned out. No human remains had been found.

Etan’s family learned Sunday the search had come up empty.

It’s not clear where the investigation goes from here. Through his attorney and daughter, Miller has denied any role in Etan’s disappearance.

Cases as old as this one can be tough to crack, Huff said.

“The longer it gets away, the more you really have to have hopes and prayers for technology to come into it,” he said.

While investigators didn’t get the answers they wanted — again — Huff says there’s still some good to take out of the effort.

“It’s a success that 33 years later, somebody is still looking at it,” he said.

Toronto Islamic school apologizes after being accused of promoting hatred of Jews("Haaretz," May 9, 2012)

Toronto, Canada – A Toronto Islamic school being investigated following a complaint that it is teaching its students that Jews are “treacherous” and comparing them to Nazis has apologized to the Jewish community.

The curriculum at the East End Madrassah, a Sunday school for Muslim children that rents space from a public school, taught boys to exercise so they are “ready for jihad,” refers to “crafty” and “treacherous” Jews and Jewish “plots,” and contrasts Islam with “the Jews and the Nazis.”

By early this week, the school had removed from its website the controversial portion of its curriculum. Later the same day, its website went offline.

The complaint was launched by Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies in Toronto.

The school on Tuesday reportedly apologized to the Jewish community and pledged to revise its teaching materials after a careful review.

“We unreservedly apologize to the Jewish community for the unintentional offense that the item has caused,” the school said in a statement. “Our team of scholars has already undertaken to review all texts and material being used in the curriculum to ensure that our teachings are conveying the right message.”

Canada’s Criminal Code makes it unlawful to publicly and “willfully” promote hatred against any identifiable group.

The Toronto District School Board, from which the madrassah rents space, said it is cooperating with police and noted it has the authority to revoke agreements with any associated school if it is found to be promoting hatred.