transvaal titian: February 2013

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Penney's shares plunge after 4Q massive loss

FILE - In this Friday, July 27, 2012, file photo, Teresa Chavez shops at JC Penney's in the Southaven Towne Center Mall in Southaven, Miss. On Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013, a day after J.C. Penney reported a much wider-than-expected loss, the retailer?s stock is plummeting. (AP Photo/The Commercial Appeal, Kyle Kurlick, File)

NEW YORK (AP) ? J.C. Penney was the biggest loser Thursday.

Shares of J.C. Penney Co. plunged nearly 17 percent on Thursday, the largest decline on the Standard & Poor's 500 index on the day. The drop came a day after the department-store chain reported its fourth consecutive larger-than-expected quarterly loss on another steep sales decline.

Penney shares, which are now trading at around $18, now have lost nearly 60 percent of their value since early February of last year after CEO Ron Johnson revealed his plan to ditch hundreds of sales in favor of everyday low prices. After Johnson announced his vision in late January 2012, investors drove Penney's shares up 24 percent to $43 in a vote of confidence.

The stock drop is the latest sign that Johnson's turnaround strategy is failing on Wall Street as much as on Main Street. The company's quarterly and full-year results, which it reported Wednesday after the markets closed, revealed that shoppers still aren't buying it. But the sell-off shows that investors, too, are concerned that the plan won't work.

"I fear it will be much worse as consumers continue to walk away from J.C. Penney and its financial health continues to deteriorate," said Walter Loeb, a New York based independent consultant.

Penney's spokeswoman Daphne Avila declined to comment on Thursday's stock movement. But Johnson on Wednesday acknowledged to investors that the 1,100-store chain had made some mistakes. He also told them that Penney would start offering sales in stores every week.

"Experience is making mistakes and learning from them," Johnson told investors on Wednesday. "I have learned a lot."

If J.C. Penney's results are any indication, Johnson is right. Penney reported on Wednesday after the markets closed that it widened its quarterly loss to $552 million, or $2.51 per share. Revenue fell 24.8 percent to $12.98 billion.

Revenue at stores opened a least a year dropped 31.7 percent. The measure is a key indicator of a retailer's health. Customer traffic dropped 17 percent in the quarter, worse than the 10 percent drop in the third quarter.

Results for the full year were even more staggering. For the fiscal year, Penney lost $985 million, or $4.49 per share, compared with a loss of $152 million, or 70 cents per share, in the year ended January 28, 2012. Revenue dropped 24.8 percent to $12.98 billion.

It's a disappointing turn of events for Johnson, the mastermind of Apple's successful retail stores who took the top job at Penney in November 2011. A couple of months later, on Feb. 1 of last year, Johnson got rid of the nearly 600 sales Penney offered each year and lowered prices in the store by 40 percent. He also got rid of the word "sales" from the company's marketing.

But customers weren't responding to the changes, and Johnson has tweaked his strategy a few times, including bringing back the word "sale" in its marketing last spring. The latest change came early February when Penney began adding back more sales events and putting price tags on half of its merchandise to show customers how much they're saving by shopping at Penney.

Penney said that it's seeing positive results from its makeover of some of its stores with sectioned-off shops that feature different brands. The company plans to have 700 of its 1,100 stores nationwide remodeled in the coming years, but critics question whether the company is running out of time ? and money.

In November, Penney said that it would end the latest fiscal year with $1 billion in cash. But the company winded up ending the year with $930 million in cash, which was better than analysts had feared but below the company's target.

The company also told investors on Wednesday that it delayed $85 million in payments to its suppliers from the fourth quarter to the early part of the first quarter. That suggests they're running out of cash.

And two rating agencies ? Standard & Poor's Ratings Services and Fitch Ratings ? raised further concerns on Thursday about Penney's ability to meet its loan commitments. Both lowered their credit ratings on Penney, which were already in junk status, by one notch.

"Our analysis suggests (Penney) will deplete cash" in the third quarter, wrote Kimberly C. Greenberger, an analyst at Morgan Stanley in a report published Thursday.

_______

Follow Anne D'Innocenzio at www.twitter.com/adinnocenzio

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-02-28-JC%20Penney-Stock%20Plunge/id-214a519339e14fe085dc3f84cd0bae07

Louisville football Fidelity pnc Charlie Strong Calendar 2013 john boehner HGTV Dream Home 2013

Dan Henderson gets bigger payday than Ronda Rousey, but disclosed sums don?t tell whole story

The California Athletic Commission announced the reported salaries from UFC 157 over the weekend. While Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche dominated headlines with the first female bout in UFC history, it was Lyoto Machida and Dan Henderson who made the biggest sums of reported money after squaring off in 157's co-main event.

Here are the reported salaries of the top five fights from the card (via MMA Weekly):

Ronda Rousey: $90,000 (includes $45,000 win bonus) def. Liz Carmouche: $12,000

Lyoto Machida: $200,000 (no win bonus) def. Dan Henderson: $250,000

Urijah Faber: $100,000 (includes $50,000 win bonus) def. Ivan Menjivar: $17,000

Court McGee: $40,000 (includes $20,000 win bonus) def. Josh Neer: $16,000

Robbie Lawler: $105,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus) def. Josh Koscheck: $78,000

It may stand out to the casual fan that Rousey and Carmouche made much less money on paper than Henderson and Machida. But there are a few things to consider as the money disclosed here is only what promoters are required to report by law.

[Also: Concern is growing among devoted followers of popular UFC fighter Wanderlei Silva]

It does not include money the fighters make of pay-per-view sales. Quite often, fighters at the top of the card will make a percentage of the pay-per-view profits. Early reports have UFC 157 with 400-500,000 pay-per-views, so it could mean a good payday for the headliners.

The UFC also is known to give out "locker room bonuses," or extra money because of a good performance that they are not required to report to the athletic commissions.

During the run-up to UFC 157, Carmouche talked about how she didn't have much furniture in her home and drove a rundown car. UFC president Dana White promised after the fights that her furniture-less days are over.

"She going to have a kitchen table, and a couch, and whatever else the [expletive] she wants," White said.

Also, Henderson and Machida are UFC veterans whose payouts are decided by their contracts well in advance of their fights. Rousey and Carmouche were the main event because the UFC standard is to put the championship fight as the main event. Henderson and Machida taking home more listed money is akin to Mike Trout making $480,000 and Vernon Wells making $21 million for the Los Angeles Angels. Trout finished second in American League MVP voting but makes much less because he's a rookie and not a veteran like Wells.

To use another example, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick made much less money than backup Alex Smith. Kaepernick will eventually get paid as his star blossoms but it doesn't change the paycheck he took home from the Super Bowl.

Boxing video from Yahoo! Sports:

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/dan-henderson-gets-biggest-pay-day-ufc-157-215628008--mma.html

chris kreider correspondents dinner 2012 white house correspondents dinner 2012 whcd 2012 nfl draft kevin durant jazz fest

It?s Not Just Best Buy ? Study Finds Most At-Risk Retailers From Shoppers? ?Showrooming? Behaviors Are Home, Toy And Pet Stores

Placed, the Madrona-backed location analytics startup which emerged from stealth around a year ago, has today released a study which details which retailers are more likely impacted by?the so-called "showrooming" trend. The study also examines?more specifically, how and where this trend may benefit one e-commerce retailer in particular: Amazon, incidentally a company which Madrona is known for having invested in early on.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/zd9mSeUVrlw/

andrew luck pro day josh johnson kim kardashian flour matt forte jeremy shockey new orleans saints ireland

Army withholding findings of Madigan PTSD probe

By Rebecca Ruiz, NBC News contributor

The results of a months-long investigation into the reversal of post-traumatic stress disorder diagnoses at Madigan Army Medical Center are being kept confidential.

Earlier this month, Army Secretary John McHugh told reporters at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state that the Madigan findings would not be disclosed.

Days later, the Army denied Freedom of Information Act requests for documents related to the?controversy made by three Seattle-area news organizations.

George Wright, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon, told NBC News that ?concerns brought up in the Madigan matter will be addressed? in a separate forthcoming report by the Army's?Task Force on Behavioral Health.

Wright said he had not viewed that document, which is an Army-wide review of mental health diagnoses as far back as 2001, and could not comment on what information it would include about the Madigan inquiry.

The Madigan investigation, completed last fall, sought to determine whether or not a team of forensic psychiatrists inappropriately changed soldiers? PTSD diagnoses, perhaps to save the federal government money.

In a memo obtained last year by the Seattle Times, a Madigan Army Medical Center psychiatrist gave a presentation to colleagues in September 2011 in which he noted that a soldier medically retired with a PTSD diagnosis would collect $1.5 million in disability payments over his or her lifetime. The psychiatrist warned his colleagues against ?rubber stamping? a PTSD diagnosis.

Around the same time, several soldiers screened at Madigan complained that their PTSD diagnoses had been switched to conditions like anxiety disorder, which could have affected their medical retirement rating and the amount of their disability payments.?

A subsequent review of 431 Madigan cases ? some of which had been overturned ? led to?PTSD diagnoses for 150 soldiers by last October, according to the office of Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

Murray pushed for the investigation into the PTSD diagnoses at Madigan ??an Army hospital in Tacoma, Wash., that serves soldiers stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord ??but has yet to see its findings.?

The Madigan investigation was reported by the Seattle Times in January 2012. In May, McHugh announced the Army-wide review,?which is said to contain 24 findings and 47 recommendations, and now according to Wright, details related to Madigan.?Murray is scheduled to be briefed on the review in the next few weeks, Matt McAlvanah, a spokesman for the senator, told NBC News.

Last year, Seattle-area news organizations asked to see documents related to the inquiry through Freedom of Information Act requests.

Request denied
Patricia Murphy, a reporter at KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio, said the Army denied the station?s attempts to obtain information and subsequently denied an appeal.?The Army?described the Madigan documents as ?pre-decisional,? a legal privilege extended to documents that influence new rules and regulations. In a letter to the station, the Army said this designation is meant to ?protect the quality of agency decisions by encouraging frank and open discussions of agency policy.?

Murphy said she understood that the documents might contain sensitive government and patient information, but was hopeful the Army could strike a balance for transparency. ?We don?t care about the names,? Murphy told NBC News. ?We care about the reasons they were doing this and whether or not this was a cultural issue at Madigan.?

The Army has said that Madigan was the only Army hospital to employ a team of forensic psychiatrists who vetted PTSD diagnoses and said it had stopped that practice.

Last February, it announced that the hospital?s commander, Col. Dallas Homas, was reassigned during the inquiry. The Army reinstated Homas several months later after finding that he did not "exert any undue influence on PTSD diagnoses." The Army provided that document to KUOW in response to a FOIA request.?

The Army also issued new guidelines for PTSD screening last April, discouraging staff from using testing to identify patients who might be "malingering" or faking their symptoms, an approach some soldiers claimed was utilized at Madigan.?

Despite these corrective actions, critics of the decision to withhold the Madigan findings say that transparency is key to restoring trust in the Army?s ability to accurately diagnosis and treat PTSD.

Tom Tarantino, chief policy director of the advocacy organization Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and a former Army captain, said that keeping the report confidential reflected a ?shocking amount of tone deafness.?

?I don?t want anybody to release information that violates HIPAA, privacy or endangers national security, but there has to be some sort of accountability,? Tarantino said. He also fears that withholding the findings sends the wrong signal to soldiers who worry that the problems at Madigan could be widespread and might not seek mental health care as a result.

?You have to actually show patterns of behavior and convince people that you?re willing to change.?

Wright?said the Army wanted to make public its report on behavioral health ?as soon as possible,? but that it was weighing the feasibility of the recommendations and how to implement them.

?We expect that work to be completed shortly,? he said, ?and then we will be able to share not only the findings, but the way ahead.?

Rebecca Ruiz is a reporter based in the Bay Area.

Mama Movie flyers epo suits PlayStation Network chip kelly NRA

The Times Does Geometry (Powerlineblog)

Share With Friends:

| Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/287850195?client_source=feed&format=rss

new york knicks lin j.r. smith espn jeremy lin sleigh bells meek sturgis

Metastatic breast cancer rising in patients younger than 40 ? The ...

Diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer in women younger than 40 has increased 2% a year, every year, from 1976 to 2009, according to a study published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The increase was seen in women aged 25 to 39 of all races and ethnicities, living in both rural and urban areas.

It's a devastating diagnosis, particularly because a woman younger than 40 who is diagnosed with breast cancer is more likely to have an aggressive form of the disease and face lower survival rates.

But for perspective, the overall population of women who are affected still remains small.

"If you project these data out to the number of people in the U.S., there were about 250 cases per year ... in 1976 and that's now risen to 850 cases of breast cancer per year," said Dr. Rebecca Johnson, the study's lead author and medical director of the Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology program at Seattle Children's Hospital.

Those numbers, she says, refer to metastatic breast?cancer in women younger than?40. The rise, she says, was "really concerning."

Johnson is a breast cancer survivor. She found a lump in her breast and was diagnosed with the disease when she was 27. It was not metastatic.

In previous research, she found that a woman?younger than?40 had a 1 in 173 chance of developing breast cancer. For this study, she wanted to look specifically at advanced breast cancer within that same population.

"Along with my colleague, Dr. Archie Bleyer, a couple of years ago, we just wanted to ask the question, how common is this? Because once I was diagnosed, I had friends and friends of friends getting diagnosed and I didn't know if this was happening more or if I was hearing about it more," she says.

Johnson and her team used three U.S. Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) databases of the National Cancer Institute to obtain data about breast cancer incidence from 1973 to 2009, 1992 to 2009, and 2000 to 2009. They chose 1976 as their starting year.

Not only did they find an increase in incidence of metastatic breast cancer in women younger than 40, the team also calculated that the average age of diagnosis was 34.3 years of age in women aged 25 to 39.

"From a cancer point of view, it is an important study because it suggests an early signal that there's a significant increase, a sustained increase over a prolonged period of time," said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, who was not affiliated with the study.

"There's a suggestion this rate is accelerating and it could have a much greater impact so it's important we ... continue to monitor this, we try to understand what its influences are."

There is no solid explanation for what's driving the increased incidence, but ?Johnson and her team suggest there's likely more than one cause.

Yet neither she or Lichtenfeld believe the study's findings should change current screening guidelines for breast cancer.

"If there is an action item, at this time it's awareness: Breast cancer can happen (in younger women) and if it gets to be metastatic by the time it's diagnosed, that's a problem," said Johnson.

Yet while the rate of breast cancer incidence in young women has increased, Johnson and her team found that mortality rates over the last 30 years have been stable.

"It's great, except it's not great - the five-year survival rate used to be 15%, and now it's 30%. So that's something to be thankful for, but it's still very bad," ?she said.

"If women could be diagnosed earlier (before the cancer spreads), then each individual woman that that happens to stands to do a whole lot better, stands a better chance of living."

Lichtenfeld agreed.?"This study reinforced the message, know your body better than anyone else does," he said.

"If there is a lump on the breast ... swelling in the breast, discharge from the nipple, redness in the skin of the breast, or unexplained pain in the breast, see your doctor."

Source: http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2013/02/26/metastatic-breast-cancer-rising-in-patients-under-40/

Hunter Pence NBCOlympics Danell Leyva Ye Shiwen OJ Murdock Olympics Live Mens Gymnastics

Poland finds signs of horse meat at three warehouses

WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish authorities found signs of horse DNA in beef stored at three storage facilities after several countries pointed to Poland as one of the sources of tainted meat that has shaken up the European food industry.

Officials in Ireland, Britain, Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic have reported that products such as burgers and lasagne contained horsemeat that originated from facilities in Poland.

Poland's General Veterinary Inspectorate said in a statement late on Wednesday it found three tainted samples from 121 tested, with 80 more to be examined.

Polish officials had previously said they found no signs of horse meat at all abattoirs tested.

A European scandal erupted last month when tests in Ireland revealed some beef products contained horse meat, triggering recalls of ready-made meals in several countries and damaging confidence in Europe's vast and complex food industry.

Poland exports 330,000 metric tons of beef products annually, or more than three-quarters of its total production, mainly to other European Union members.

(Reporting by Chris Borowski; Editing by Alison Williams)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/poland-finds-signs-horse-meat-three-warehouses-081621401--finance.html

meredith vieira prop 8 larry bird maria menounos proposition 8 ricky martin chauncey billups

Michelle Meyer US Housing Market - Business Insider

Screenshot via Bloomberg TV

This morning we saw two huge housing data points.

Home prices posted their biggest gain since July 2006, while new home sales surged 15.6 percent month-over-month.

However, the already tight housing supply is getting even tighter.

Bank of America economist Michelle Meyer tells us that while we are seeing an improvement in new home sales, today's data could be revised in coming months and that monthly data should be interpreted with caution since it can be very volatile.

She also says that housing supply is very tight and if we don't see a greater supply in the housing market, it will have an upward pressure on home prices.

BAML expects home prices to rise by 4.7 percent in 2013.

----------------------------------------------

BI: New home sales spiked 15.6 percent in January. What's behind those numbers?

Michelle Meyer: The 15.6 percent increase was certainly above expectations, and it is an outsized gain even for this series which tends to be volatile. So we have to put that percentage gain into perspective and realize that with the data being quite volatile, particularly at this time of the year, we could see a revision or a partial payback in coming months. But that said, I do believe that the trend is still higher for new home sales and I think we should expect to see continued improvement, given the fact that inventory is low not just for new construction properties but also for existing properties, and that creates opportunities for building.

BI: Can the rise be attributed to just a weaker base?

Michelle Meyer: So December was down three percent but November was up eight percent. If you look at a monthly pattern it is very, very noisy ? it's what's called mean reverting. I tend to like to look at three- or six-month moving average; I think it moves out some of the noise, and when you do look at it on a moving-average basis we're certainly still seeing improvement.

BI: In terms of the supply, the actual number of homes is flat on a monthly and annual basis. It's the spike in sales that is changing supply ...

Michelle Meyer: I think what it's showing is that the number of homes in the market for sale ? that's remained as you've said pretty constant ? which means builders are looking, seemingly as of now, at keeping stocks low. As home sales continue to rise we'll bring down that months' supply figure which means that the current stock of homes for sale will be cleared even more quickly and that's really what months' supply is capturing. It's saying how many months does it take to clear inventory at the current sales pace, so the lower it is, obviously the faster the inventory will move through the system, which means that there's greater ability for builders to add to the housing stock and increase construction.

BI: Is the market too tight at the moment? Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Michelle Meyer: I think the market is tight, clearly by looking at these numbers, and again it's not just the new market which has arguably been tight for some time, it's also the existing market. So, if we don't see greater supply come into the market, it will continue to put upward pressure on home prices and limit the amount of turnover we see in the market. So, I think it would very much be appropriate in the environment to see inventory pick up, see building pick up.

BI: You have previously said you're not concerned about overbuilding (see article here). One of the reasons you gave, was large homebuilders had downsized during the crisis and it would take time for projects to pick up again. Does that then worry you considering supply is already tight and homebuilding might not pick up at a fast enough pace?

Michelle Meyer: I maintain the view that there's little reason to be concerned about overbuilding this year. We're starting from low inventory levels and I think there's some limit on capacity in the homebuilder space. The large public builders are gearing up for further increase in construction and we've seen it.

The numbers coming out from the public builders have outpaced the Census Bureau numbers for some time now. So it means that either they're outperforming the rest of the market, which is possible, or it means that we're going to see a revision to the official data which is also quite possible. And we get that revision in a month or two, so that's something that could be interesting actually.

... Presumably, the inventory numbers, the month supply figures we're seeing, suggest that homebuilding is already lagging a bit relative to demand. But I think that builders are going to be reactive, and you can see from homebuilder sentiment ? homebuilder sentiment is quite strong, much stronger than what we're seeing from actual production.

So builders are feeling more confident, and I think they're looking for opportunities, and if demand continues to do well and if prices continue to improve, I think builders will respond appropriately to increases in sales.

BI: Is there anything else our readers should know?

Michelle Meyer: I think the other factor you always want to think about is regional differences. And not only in terms of new home sales, but also it ties into pricing. One of the things that was clear from this report is home construction has increased, certainly in January the biggest gain was in the West, but that was off of low levels in December. But even if you look at a longer trend, the West has seen more considerable gains in housing construction and that also is consistent with the fact that the market there just simply looks better, inventory is lower, and home prices are rising there. So the turn seems to be happening a bit more quickly in the West than in other regions.

BI: And what are you seeing in the East Coast, specifically in New York?

Michelle Meyer: That's probably the slowest market to turn. In terms of the Case-Shiller numbers [see here] the New York metro area was the only one of the 20 cities surveyed that is still contracting on a year-over-year basis. And in terms of construction there has been some improvement but it has been pretty modest, so I think the Northeast is lagging a bit relative to other parts of the nation.

BI: And do you expect it to continue to do so for a while?

Michelle Meyer: The challenge in the Northeast is the foreclosure process. It has a very slow judicial process which means that foreclosures and distressed inventory are leaking into the market only gradually. That means we'll continue to see this pressure on the housing market and there's certainly areas for opportunity. I think multi-family construction has picked up if you listen to what Toll Brothers just said, there's opportunities for apartment construction obviously in parts of New York, so when you look at Manhattan you get a very different picture than when you look elsewhere in the New York metro area. Overall it seems like its a little bit slower to turn.?

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/michelle-meyer-us-housing-market-2013-2

george washington russell westbrook horsetail falls ice t president day new york knicks lin

Razer Edge pre-orders begin March 1st, price starts at $999

If you were intrigued by the Razer Edge's impressive ability to transform from a tablet, to a laptop, to a gaming console and you have a spare $1k lying around, it might be time to reach for your wallet. Razer has just announced its versatile Windows 8 device will be available for pre-order from its online store starting March 1st at 12:01am PST, with units shipping later that month. You can opt for the base Razer Edge with its Intel i5 processor and 64GB SSD or the higher-end Edge Pro with its Intel i7 processor and the option of either a 128GB or 256GB SSD. Accessories like the gamepad controller, home console dock and extended battery packs will be available for pre-order as well. However, those yearning for the optional keyboard dock will have to wait until "later this year in Q3" according to the press release. Pricing starts at $999 for the base model and may climb upwards of $1,500 if you decide to go for a maxed out Pro.

Filed under: Gaming

Comments

Source: Razer Zone

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/ZoRaEfk1WV4/

powerball numbers freddie mercury Horshack Beady Eye Eric Idle rory mcilroy Fatboy Slim

Alton Coal pursuit of legal fees may have - The Salt Lake Tribune

Alton Coal Development won in its bid to strip-mine coal on private land near Bryce Canyon National Park and now wants to extract legal costs from the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and other groups. AP file photo

Mining ? Company wants groups that challenged its strip mine to pay.

An attorney-fee dispute arising from the controversial Coal Hollow strip-mine in Alton could have far-reaching consequences on citizens and conservation groups? ability to legally challenge coal projects.

Alton Coal Development prevailed in its bid to strip-mine coal on private land near Bryce Canyon National Park after a string of legal skirmishes that ended last October in the Utah Supreme Court. Now the company wants to extract its legal costs ? it hasn?t detailed a dollar amount ? from the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and three other groups.

But not content with state regulators? formal opinion that developers must show their adversaries acted "in bad faith" to collect legal costs, Alton Coal lawyer Denise Dragoo has asked the Utah governor to intervene and impose a much lower standard.

The matter, to be argued before the Board of Oil, Gas and Mining Wednesday, could result in environmentalists being liable for hefty legal costs every time they take a Utah coal project to court and lose.

A finding for Alton would deter groups from taking coal developers to court, according to Tim Wagner, head of the Sierra Club?s Utah chapter, which joined SUWA in the Alton suit.

"The availability of the courts for any groups, no matter their agenda, is a part of democracy," Wagner said. "These challenges are not frivolous. These projects are being challenged for good reasons."

The other plaintiffs are the Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Parks Conservation Association. This consortium alleged that the Division of Oil, Gas and Mining, or DOGM, failed to perform an adequate environmental review when it authorized the state?s only strip mine on 600 acres of private coal in 2009.

A separate proposal by Alton, to expand operations onto 3,500 acres, is still under analysis.

The environmentalists lost at every level and now Alton says it?s entitled to be reimbursed for its legal costs. The company contends that an old legal standard ? requiring the winner in coal disputes to show that its opponent sued simply to harass and embarrass ? no longer holds.

DOGM opposes that position, saying the bad-faith standard was "inadvertently omitted" from the state?s administrative code. In its filings with the mining board, regulators argue the state is obligated to abide by this standard as part of a deal it forged 32 years ago with the federal government to win primacy over coal mining regulation. The federal Office of Surface Mining is now threatening action against the state if it fails to apply the bad-faith standard in the Alton matter.

story continues below

Dragoo is seeking help from Gov. Gary Herbert, who received a $10,000 from Alton for his 2010 election campaign, and his energy adviser Cody Stewart.

In a Feb. 21 letter, she accused state regulators of "prematurely capitulating" their authority to the feds and asked the governor to allow the mining board "to proceed unfettered" by federal standards.

bmaffly@sltrib.com

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/55904038-78/coal-alton-utah-legal.html.csp

tesla model s tesla model s act Black Ops 2 Secede ben roethlisberger Diwali

Pratt rules out worst-case cause for F-35 blade crack: sources

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pratt & Whitney is 99 percent sure the fan blade problem that grounded the Pentagon's 51 new F-35 fighter jets was not caused by high-cycle fatigue, which could force a costly design change, according to two sources familiar with an investigation by the enginemaker.

Company engineers have concluded that a 0.6 inch-long crack found on a turbine blade in the engine of an F-35 jet at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida was almost certainly caused by lesser issues, such as high heat exposure or a manufacturing problem, that would be easier to solve, the sources said.

"They're 99 percent sure that it's not the worst-case scenario of high-cycle fatigue," said one of the sources.

Flights of the single-engine, single-seat F-35 fighter could resume as early as this week if the Pentagon accepts the findings of Pratt, a unit of United Technologies Corp , after additional tests to be done Wednesday, said one of the sources, who was not authorized to speak publicly.

The Pentagon announced the grounding of all F-35 warplanes on Friday after an inspection revealed a crack on a turbine blade in the Pratt-built jet engine of an F-35 jet being tested at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

It was the second engine-related grounding in two months of the $396 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter built by Lockheed Martin Corp , the Pentagon's largest weapons program.

Military officials are eager to resume test and training flights as soon as the engine issue has been resolved.

It was not immediately clear if the Pentagon would order a one-time inspection of all F135 engines built by Pratt for the new F-35 fighter, or whether the incident would result in a new recurring inspection requirement. Some inspections of the other 50 fighters already in use by the Pentagon were underway.

Pratt began detailed tests of the engine on Sunday evening at its Middletown, Connecticut facility after the blade assembly was removed from the Florida test plane and shipped north.

Pratt spokesman Matthew Bates declined comment on any specific results or conclusions, but said the company was making good progress in its investigation of what caused the crack.

"We have made significant progress ... and believe we're very close to determining root cause," Bates said.

One defense official said it was premature to speculate about the cause of the crack until the full battery of structural tests had been completed.

The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said Pratt was expected to deliver a comprehensive analysis of the test results to Pentagon officials no later than Thursday evening.

Two sources familiar with the investigation said the fan blade tests would include a "destructive" test that would cut into the turbine blade to better understand how the crack developed.

Engineers believe the crack is either a "creep rupture along a grain boundary" that was caused by prolonged exposure to high heat, or that it was caused by an anomaly during the metal casting process, the sources said.

The F-35 program, initially meant to start operating in 2012, is overdue and well over its original budget, but defense officials say it is making progress. They argue that the current grounding -- and a separate issue involving the plane's temperature control unit -- are normal occurrences during the development phase of a any new warplane.

The delays are causing problems for countries like Australia, which was due to buy 100 of the radar-evading F-35s, but is now considering whether to buy 24 more Boeing Co F/A-18 Super Hornets instead.

(Reporting By Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by Paul Tait)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pratt-rules-worst-case-cause-f-35-blade-023634920--finance.html

rock salt david letterman march of dimes james randi wargames blake griffin dunk florida primary

Why Home Prices Are Rising. And Some Very Weird Listing Photos ...

February 26, 2013

Here is Redfin?s monthly email newsletter, with a little about Redfin and a lot about what?s happening in the real estate market.

Howdy Redfin Fans!

Welcome to our action-packed newsletter on the U.S. Housing Market. First, what?s new at Redfin?

Redfin Expands to Charlotte, Publishes Details on Bidding Wars

For starters, Redfin just expanded to Charlotte and The Triangle area of North Carolina, with Houston, Delaware and the Bronx to follow this week.

To help you figure out what it takes to win a deal, we also began publishing stats and notes on the 1,000+ offers Redfin?s own agents write each month. This is juicy stuff:

We also launched Redfin Collections, for sharing sets of pretty listing photos of celebrity homes, extreme taxidermy, luscious gardens, the weird stuff, gorgeous views, amazing kitchens, modern mansions and interesting art. Tucked into these Collections ?are some ?bizarre photos of how other people live?and some lovely ideas of how, perhaps in another life, you and I could live:

Meanwhile, for would-be home-sellers, we published a data-driven report on how to get top-dollar for your listing:

by debuting in April not July, on Friday not Monday;
by paying for professional photos rather than the agent?s instamatic; and
by pricing at the middle of the market rather than the top, to attract competing buyers.

To learn more about listing your place, just give us a shout.

Silent Spring: Many Buyers, Few Sellers

But enough about us. What?s going on in the real estate market? The main thing is that many home-buyers can?t find a home to buy. After a year in which inventory fell 30%, things went from bad to worse. Through the first six weeks of 2013, new listings dropped another 18% over last year. Last December, we predicted it would start going the other way in 2013. You win some, you lose some.

What?s going on? Last year, the number of foreclosures reaching the market started to fall fast, as legal challenges mounted and banks saw their derelict properties plummet in value. In states that require court approval for a foreclosure, the number of foreclosed homes for sale peaked in the middle of 2012; elsewhere, foreclosures started falling three years prior. Mortgage delinquency rates have now declined to the lowest level since 2008.

But 2012 still had plenty of short sales, where banks agreed to let an underwater homeowner sell the place for less than the mortgage amount. Now this year, because of rising home prices and liberal loan modifications, fewer folks had to walk away from their mortgage, and even short sales began to disappear: short-sale listings are down 54% in 2013.

The Tweener Stage, Prices Up 10%

The market has now entered a tweener stage, where nobody has to sell, and not enough people want to sell either. Anyone thinking about listing a home bought in 2008 or 2009 is unlikely to make much money, and often decides to wait a bit longer for more price increases. As any East German will tell you, the transition from a command economy is always awkward.

As a result, 70% of the homes on which Redfin agents bid in January had competing offers; 30% of new listings were under contract in less than two weeks. Compared to last year, January prices increased 10% and sales increased 9.1%.

Sales would be much higher if there were more homes to buy. The number of construction projects started for single-family homes in the last three months of 2012 was up 44% compared to the same period in 2011 but still at just a quarter of the 2005 peak. Many builders are struggling to find lots anywhere in town that they can buy and develop.

What could slow the market down? Mortgage rates have increased in eight of the last nine weeks to 3.75%, the highest rate since last September. Eventually, money will get more expensive and buyers will become more scarce, but we don?t think that?s going to happen any time soon.

What?s your take on the market? Just leave a comment below or on Facebook.

Best, Glenn
Glenn Kelman | CEO, Redfin
Twitter | Blog

Source: http://blog.redfin.com/blog/2013/02/why_home_prices_are_rising_and_some_very_weird_listing_photos.html

spinal stenosis the forgotten man mike jones just friends chronicle george lopez bedtime stories

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

FBI agent describes cannibal talk at NY trial

In this courthouse sketch, Gilbert Valle, reacts during his trial in federal court Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, in New York. Struggling to stay composed, the estranged wife of a New York City police officer testified Monday that she was shocked to find he had visited a website featuring a photo of a dead woman and other gruesome images ? a discovery that led to a federal prosecution accusing him of plotting to abduct, torture and eat dozens of women. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Williams)

In this courtroom sketch, Gilberto Valle is seen in federal court in New York, Monday, Feb 25, 2013. The wife of Valle, a New York City police officer, will testify at a federal trial to explain how she discovered that he was discussing kidnapping, killing and eating women. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Williams)

This undated photo submitted into evidence by Assistant Federal Defender Julia L. Gatto shows Gilberto Valle with his daughter. Valle is accused of conspiracy to kidnap a woman and unauthorized use of a law enforcement database that prosecutors say he used to help build a list of potential targets. Gatto tried to soften the image of her client by showing jurors pictures of a uniformed Valle and the couple?s 1-year-old daughter, a moment that caused the wife on the witness stand and eventually the officer at the defense table 30 feet away to cry out amid sobs. (AP Photo/Assistant Federal Defender Julia L. Gatto)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Cheerful written exchanges between a police officer and women from his past appeared in a sinister new light when an FBI agent described at the officer's criminal trial how he talked on the Internet about killing and eating the women.

"I'm dying to taste some girl meat," Agent Corey Walsh testified Tuesday that New York Police Officer Gilberto Valle told one of the online friends he met who shared an appetite for human flesh.

The testimony came on the second day of testimony in federal court in Manhattan for the 28-year-old Queens resident charged with conspiring to kidnap women and illegally accessing a government database to research potential victims. If convicted, he could face life in prison.

It came a day after his 27-year-old wife told jurors she fled their home in September with their 1-year-old daughter after discovering that Valle spent hours a night on extreme sexually violent web sites and one that catered to those interested in cannibalism and asphyxiation. In Reno, Nev., she turned over a computer to the FBI that contained hundreds of Valle's emails and instant messages with what the government has described as co-conspirators.

To prove the plots involved real women and to counter defense claims that it was all fantasy, the government summoned several women to testify about their dealings with Valle before prosecutors say he wrote about them as potential targets and, in two cases, potential meals.

The women included a former high school classmate, two former college classmates and an 18-year-old woman who attended Valle's high school alma mater and said she had no contact with him before he described her to one of his Internet friends as "the most desirable piece of meat I've ever met" and small enough to fit in his oven.

Kimberly Sauer, of Germantown, Md., went to the University of Maryland with Valle and had nothing bad to say about her former classmate. On cross-examination, Sauer told defense attorney Julia Gatto that she never felt threatened by Valle.

Sauer learned of the case only after she received from Valle's wife last year in the middle of the night a disturbing Facebook message that sounded so crazy that she texted him to warn that the account must have been hacked. Either that "or you're trying to sell me into white slavery," she recalled joking in the text.

But Walsh said Valle's computer had a file titled "Abducting and Cooking Kimberly: A Blueprint," which included a photo of Sauer.

Sauer came up frequently as a subject in online chats between Valle and a man in Great Britain who used Moody Blues as a screen name and MeatMarketMan as part of his email address, the agent testified. Walsh said Moody Blues told Valle he had fantasized about cannibalism since he was 6 years old but did not fulfill the desire until 35 years later.

In one correspondence, Valle suggests a woman named Kimberly ? prosecutors say Sauer ? would be easy prey because she lived alone.

"I can knock her out, wait until dark and kidnap her right out of her house," he wrote, according to prosecutors.

The agent said Moody Blues suggested eating their victim alive but Valle responded: "I'm not really into raw meat."

Walsh said they also discussed cooking Sauer, basted in olive oil, over an open fire and using her severed head as a centerpiece for a sit-down meal.

"I just can't wait to get Kimberly cooking," the agent quoted Valle as saying.

In a chat, Valle told Moody Blues he was meeting Kimberly for lunch on Sunday and that she would be "kidnapped in a couple of months."

Moody Blues told him he'd "given thought to your ideas about cooking her alive."

"Give me some ideas," Valle said.

Moody Blues suggested "cutting her feet off and cooking them on the BBQ in front of her."

"I suppose that's a possibility," Valle said. "You are the one with the experience."

Walsh also described communications between Valle and his co-defendant, Michael Vanhise, of Trenton, N.J. He said the two negotiated the price to be paid for a Manhattan teacher to be taken to New Jersey in a suitcase for Vanhise to rape and kill.

The agent said Valle asked Vanhise whether he wanted the woman clothed or naked and Vanhise said he wanted her clothed.

"Excellent. I'll leave her clothes on. I'll give you the pleasure of unwrapping your gift," Valle was quoted as saying.

Vanhise, like Valle, has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers also say he engaged only in Internet fantasy chats.

The government hasn't said what role Moody Blues played in the investigation.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-27-Police%20Officer-Cannibalism/id-09716873cdf14ae69df951c0442f69cb

salton sea arizona immigration law aubrey huff the killers julianne hough brandy michael pineda

'Amateur hour': Vatican's historic conclave drama

Leading historian Michael Walsh discusses the impact of Pope Benedict XVI's resignation, his legacy and whether there's a chance that the next pontiff will be a non-European.

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

A lame-duck pope. A secret dossier. Rumors of a gay cabal. A cardinal accused of "inappropriate" behavior.

The Vatican is in an uproar, and church scholars say there hasn't been this much drama surrounding a conclave since 1800, when Pope Pius VI died while being held prisoner by Napoleon.

One Vatican watcher says you have to go back to 1730 ? when Pope Benedict XIII's right-hand man fled Rome in disguise amid allegations of corruption ? to find a conclave buffeted by this much scandal.

"This is not a healthy situation for any kind of institution," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, an expert on the Catholic Church at Georgetown University.

"It looks like amateur hour."

The conclave that will begin next month to choose Pope Benedict XVI's successor was always going to be an anomaly since it's been centuries since a sitting pontiff resigned.

The pope's historic Feb. 11 announcement has been overshadowed, however, by an extraordinary wave of revelations and accusations.

There were calls for cardinals accused of mishandling the sex-abuse crisis to abstain from voting. Then came a report that Britain's top cleric, Cardinal Keith O'Brien had been accused of bad behavior by priests, followed by his resignation on Monday.

Over the weekend, the Vatican had to deny an Italian newspaper report that Pope Benedict abdicated because an internal probe into the so-called Vatileaks mess had uncovered a network of gay priests who were being blackmailed.

Now comes the news that the pope will only let two people see the report on the document leaks ? himself and his successor ? despite calls for the Holy See to become more transparent.

Certainly, there have been other modern conclave controversies.?

The 1903 frontrunner, Cardinal Mariano Rampolla, was vetoed by the emperor of Austria-Hungary, prompting a change in rules that allowed Catholic powers to knock down a candidate, said NBC News' Vatican expert, George Weigel.

Hulton Archive via Getty Images, file

Experts say there hasn't been this much pre-conclave uproar since a pope spirited out of Rome by Napoleon's forces died.

The conclave of 1914 had cardinals from Germany and France refusing to speak to each other, and the conclave of 1939 was held against the backdrop of a world hurtling toward war.

But today's level of pre-conclave tension hasn't been seen since 1800, two years after French forces invaded Rome and carried off the pope, several experts said.

"You had a dire situation where Pope Pius VI died effectively still a prisoner of the French. The cardinals could not gather in Rome for the election and had to meet on an island off Venice," said Matthew Bunson, general editor of the Catholic Almanac.

James Weiss, a professor of church history at Boston College, sees the conclave of 1730 more analogous, because it was complicated by internal problems, not outside forces.

He said that when Pope Benedict XIII died after six years, his corrupt and powerful aide, Cardinal Niccolo Coscia, was run out of town amid allegations he looted Vatican coffers.

"The population of Rome attacked his palace and he disguised himself a washerwoman and escaped," Weiss said. Coscia managed to negotiate a return for the conclave, however.

The commotion around the upcoming conclave could have serious consequences.

The Vatileaks intrigue would appear to undermine the cardinals of the Roman Curia, the administrators of the Vatican, while the sex-scandal bombshells weaken the outsiders from dioceses around the world, Reese said.

The various crises underscore some of the Vatican's weaknesses: a lack of transparency and an allergy to change in a rapidly modernizing world with a 24-hour news cycle and exploding social media.

"This is chickens coming home to roost," Weiss said.

Church historians say the clouds hovering over the conclave show why the next pope, unlike Benedict and John Paul II before him, must make Vatican house-cleaning a priority ? from streamlining a web-like bureaucracy to standardizing archaic finances.

"It's always an issue when you have an institution that thinks in terms of centuries, to bring about reforms on a turn of a dime." Bunson said,

Bunson said he thinks those reforms are within reach with the right leader, but Weiss wondered if efforts to usher in a new era aren't already being undercut by the Vatican's announcement that the Vatileaks dossier will stay under wraps.

"That means the cardinals are going into the conclave blind, not knowing who among them may have stuffed their pockets or been part of gay sexual enclaves,"?he said.?

Reese said moving up the date of the conclave ? which the pope announced Monday he would allow ? could also be antithetical to change because it gives the cardinals less time to consider outsider candidates.

"This is the most important thing these cardinals will ever do," he said. "There?s no reason to rush."

As Pope Benedict XVI prepares to step down from his position in a matter of days, Italian newspapers are reporting rumors of blackmail and conspiracy. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.

Related:

Pope says Vatileaks probe will stay secret

Britain's top Catholic cleric resigns amid allegations of inappropriate behavior

LA's Cardinal Mahony calls himself a scapegoat

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/26/17088868-amateur-hour-vatican-conclave-drama-is-one-for-the-history-books-experts-say?lite

completely wrong mila kunis stacey dash christopher columbus columbus day columbus day Stacy Dash

Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy (4GB)

The world is a scary place, and some of your most valuable data?be it medical information, business records, or government secrets?lives not on paper, but in zeros and ones. To keep your private data safe and secure, Kingston has the DataTraveler Vault Private, the single-user companion to the Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy-Managed Edition. With end-to-end encryption and a rugged design, it protects your data from almost anything that gets thrown at it.

The 4GB drive has very little preinstalled software, leaving you 3.68 GB of storage space. Formated in FAT32, the drive works with both Windows and Mac operating systems, letting you go from one to the other and back again without having to reformat the drive or install and conversion software. And unlike the consumer-grade Kingston DataTraveler Locker+ G2 (16GB), the DataTravaler Vault Privacy also supports Linux.

The drive earns the Vault Privacy name with 256-bit AES encryption in Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) mode. This is end-to-end hardware based encryption, meeting the same requirements needed for storing actual Top Secret government documents. On a regular drive, you'll need to use something like the CipherUSB to protect it with similar levels of encryption. With the DataTraveler Vault Privacy, you'll just need to set up a password. You'll need a password to even use the drive, and then unlock the drive with that password everytime you need to use it.

The design is also rugged to physically protect your data against moisture, dirt, and more. The aluminum case and locking cap provide protection against shock and crushing forces, while the cap seals out water up to four feet deep. While that ruggedness makes for a well-protected drive, it's a little chunky, measuring 0.5 by 0.9 by 3.1 inches (HWD)?just enough to potentially crowd an adjacent USB port?and weighs 0.5 ounce.

The initial setup is very simple?the entire process involves choosing a password, and it takes moments?but be sure you pick a password you'll remember. Once you've set your password, the drive will be discoverable by the PC, and you can open and use it just like any other drive. For a slightly easier, yet equally secure, option, there' always the Aegis Secure Key, which offers hardware based locking.

Don't forget the password! The drive's security has a lock feature which only allows 10 incorrect password attempts in a row before reformatting the drive and wiping out the data. This security feature prevents brute-force attacks from unlocking the drive. As an added dose of security, this 10-count doesn't reset when the drive is unplugged and plugged back in?so make sure you remember your password.

Also included on the drive is a program called Drive Security, a product of ESET and ClevX, which can be used to scan the drive for any security issues, such as malware or viruses. Kingston guarantees the drive with a five-year warranty and free technical support.

In our timed data transfer test, the drive offered 35 MBps write speeds and 10 MBps read speeds. That's faster than the consumer-oriented Editors' Choice, the DataTraveler Locker+, which had an average of 21MBps read and 12MBps write speed. It's also reasonably priced. While the 4GB capacity is a bit small?larger models are available (8, 16, 32, and 64GB)?the drive sells for $42.00 list, or $10.50 per GB. By comparison, the hardware locked Aegis Secure Key sells the same 4GB capacity for $65?or $16.25 per GB.

The Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy is a solid option for the security minded, with high-grade hardware-based encryption, a rugged design, and a decent price. Add it all up, and it takes a place alongside the best secure drives we've reviewed, though the Aegis Secure Key remains our top pick due its innovative physical keypad.

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy (4GB) with several other flash drives side by side.

More flash drive reviews:
??? Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy (4GB)
??? IronKey Workspace W300 (64GB)
??? Roccat Apuri
??? PocketDesktop (16GB)
??? LaCie XtremKey USB 3.0 (32GB)
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/vwMGtFSNdlU/0,2817,2416020,00.asp

young justice nfl draft d rose iman shumpert mayweather vs cotto shumpert hopkins

BPA may affect the developing brain by disrupting gene regulation

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Environmental exposure to bisphenol A (BPA), a widespread chemical found in plastics and resins, may suppress a gene vital to nerve cell function and to the development of the central nervous system, according to a study led by researchers at Duke Medicine.

The researchers published their findings - which were observed in cortical neurons of mice, rats and humans - in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Feb. 25, 2013.

"Our study found that BPA may impair the development of the central nervous system, and raises the question as to whether exposure could predispose animals and humans to neurodevelopmental disorders," said lead author Wolfgang Liedtke, M.D., PhD, associate professor of medicine/neurology and neurobiology at Duke.

BPA, a molecule that mimics estrogen and interferes with the body's endocrine system, can be found in a wide variety of manufactured products, including thermal printer paper, some plastic water bottles and the lining of metal cans. The chemical can be ingested if it seeps into the contents of food and beverage containers.

Research in animals has raised concerns that exposure to BPA may cause health problems such as behavioral issues, endocrine and reproductive disorders, obesity, cancer and immune system disorders. Some studies suggest that infants and young children may be the most vulnerable to the effects of BPA, which led the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ban the use of the chemical in baby bottles and cups in July 2012.

While BPA has been shown to affect the developing nervous system, little is understood as to how this occurs. The research team developed a series of experiments in rodent and human nerve cells to learn how BPA induces changes that disrupt gene regulation.

During early development of neurons, high levels of chloride are present in the cells. These levels drop as neurons mature, thanks to a chloride transporter protein called KCC2, which churns chloride ions out of the cells. If the level of chloride within neurons remains elevated, it can damage neural circuits and compromise a developing nerve cell's ability to migrate to its proper position in the brain.

Exposing neurons to minute amounts of BPA alters the chloride levels inside the cells by somehow shutting down the Kcc2 gene, which makes the KCC2 protein, thereby delaying the removal of chloride from neurons.

MECP2, another protein important for normal brain function, was found to be a possible culprit behind this change. When exposed to BPA, MECP2 is more abundant and binds to the Kcc2 gene at a higher rate, which might help to shut it down. This could contribute to problems in the developing brain due to a delay in chloride being removed.

These findings raise the question of whether BPA could contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders such as Rett syndrome, a severe autism spectrum disorder that is only found in girls and is characterized by mutations in the gene that produces MECP2.

While both male and female neurons were affected by BPA in the studies, female neurons were more susceptible to the chemical's toxicity. Further research will dig deeper into the sex-specific effects of BPA exposure and whether certain sex hormone receptors are involved in BPA's effect on KCC2.

"Our findings improve our understanding of how environmental exposure to BPA can affect the regulation of the Kcc2 gene. However, we expect future studies to focus on what targets aside from Kcc2 are affected by BPA," Liedtke said. "This is a chapter in an ongoing story."

###

Duke University Medical Center: http://www.dukemednews.org

Thanks to Duke University Medical Center for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 13 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127014/BPA_may_affect_the_developing_brain_by_disrupting_gene_regulation

jeremy lin game winner chocolate covered strawberries shrimp scampi kate upton si cover lobster recipes hearts roses

Senator McCain upbeat on immigration reform outlook (reuters)

Share With Friends:

| Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/287635242?client_source=feed&format=rss

punxsutawney egypt soccer riot facebook ipo facebook ipo mike kelley puxatony phil josh harvey clemons

Dennis Rodman worms his way into North Korea

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) ? Former NBA star Dennis Rodman brought his basketball skills and flamboyant style ? tattoos, nose studs and all ? on Tuesday to a country with possibly the world's strictest dress code: North Korea.

Arriving in Pyongyang, the American athlete and showman known as "The Worm" became an unlikely ambassador for sports diplomacy at a time of heightened tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. Or maybe not so unlikely: Young leader Kim Jong Un is said to have been a fan of the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s, when Rodman won three championships with the club.

Rodman is joining three members of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team and a VICE correspondent for a news show on North Korea that will air on HBO later this year, VICE producers told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview Tuesday before they landed.

"It's my first time, I think it's most of these guys' first time here, so hopefully everything's going to be OK , and hoping the kids have a good time for the game," Rodman told reporters after arriving in Pyongyang.

Rodman and VICE's producers said the Americans hope to engage in a little "basketball diplomacy" by running a basketball camp for children and playing with North Korea's top basketball stars.

"Is sending the Harlem Globetrotters and Dennis Rodman to the DPRK strange? In a word, yes," said Shane Smith, the VICE founder who is host of the upcoming series, referring to North Korea by the initials of its formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "But finding common ground on the basketball court is a beautiful thing."

The notoriously unpredictable and irrepressible Rodman might seem an odd fit for regimented North Korea, where men's fashion rarely ventures beyond military khaki and where growing facial hair is forbidden.

Shown a photo of a snarling Rodman, piercings dangling from his lower lip and two massive tattoos emblazoned on his chest, one North Korean in Pyongyang recoiled and said: "He looks like a monster!"

But Rodman is also a Hall of Fame basketball player and one of the best defenders and rebounders to ever play the game. During a storied, often controversial career, he won five NBA championships ? a feat appreciated even in North Korea.

Rodman, now 51, was low-key and soft-spoken Tuesday in cobalt blue sweatpants and a Polo Ralph Lauren cap. There was a bit of flash: white-rimmed sunglasses and studs in his nose and lower lip. But he told AP he was there to teach basketball and talk to people, not to stir up trouble.

Showier were three Harlem Globetrotters dressed in fire-engine red. Rookie Moose Weekes flashed the crowd a huge smile as he made his way off the Air Koryo plane.

"We use the basketball as a tool to build cultural ties, build bridges among countries," said Buckets Blakes, a Globetrotters veteran. "We're all about happiness and joy and making people smile."

Rodman's trip is the second high-profile American visit this year to North Korea, a country that remains in a state of war with the U.S. It also comes two weeks after North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test in defiance of U.N. bans against atomic and missile activity.

Google's executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, made a surprise four-day trip in January to Pyongyang, where he met with officials and toured computer labs, just weeks after North Korea launched a satellite into space on the back of a long-range rocket.

Washington, Tokyo, Seoul and others consider both the rocket launch and the nuclear test provocative acts that threaten regional security.

North Korea characterizes the satellite launch as a peaceful bid to explore space, but says the nuclear test was meant as a deliberate warning to Washington. Pyongyang says it needs to build nuclear weapons to defend itself against the U.S., and is believed to be trying to build an atomic bomb small enough to mount on a missile capable of reaching the mainland U.S.

VICE, known for its sometimes irreverent journalism, has made two previous visits to North Korea, coming out with the "VICE Guide to North Korea." The HBO series, which will air weekly starting April 5, features documentary-style news reports from around the world.

The Americans also will visit North Korea's national monuments, the SEK animation studio and a new skate park in Pyongyang.

The U.S. State Department hasn't been contacted about travel to North Korea by this group, a senior administration official said, requesting anonymity to comment before any trip had been made public. The official said the department does not vet U.S. citizens' private travel to North Korea and urges U.S. citizens contemplating travel there to review a travel warning on its website.

In a now-defunct U.S.-North Korean agreement in which Washington had planned last year to give food aid to Pyongyang in exchange for nuclear concessions, Washington had said it was prepared to increase people-to-people exchanges with the North, including in the areas of culture, education and sports.

Promoting technology and sports are two major policy priorities of Kim Jong Un, who took power in December 2011 following the death of his father, Kim Jong Il.

Along with soccer, basketball is enormously popular in North Korea, where it's not uncommon to see basketball hoops set up in hotel parking lots or in schoolyards. It's a game that doesn't require much equipment or upkeep.

The U.S. remains Enemy No. 1 in North Korea, and North Koreans have limited exposure to American pop culture. But they know Michael Jordan, a former teammate of Rodman's when they both played for the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s.

During a historic visit to North Korea in 2000, then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright presented Kim Jong Il, famously an NBA fan, with a basketball signed by Jordan that later went on display in the huge cave at Mount Myohyang that holds gifts to the leaders.

North Korea even had its own Jordan wannabe: Ri Myong Hun, a 7-foot-9 star player who is said to have renamed himself "Michael" after his favorite player and moved to Canada for a few years in the 1990s in hopes of making it into the NBA.

Even today, Jordan remains well-loved here. At the Mansudae Art Studio, which produces the country's top art, a portrait of Jordan spotted last week, complete with a replica of his signature and "NBA" painted in one corner, seemed an odd inclusion among the propaganda posters and celadon vases on display.

An informal poll of North Koreans revealed that "The Worm" isn't quite as much a household name in Pyongyang.

But Kim Jong Un was a basketball-crazy adolescent when Rodman was with the Bulls, and when the Harlem Globetrotters kept up a frenetic travel schedule worldwide.

In a memoir about his decade serving as Kim Jong Il's personal sushi chef, a man who goes by the pen name Kenji Fujimoto recalled that basketball was the young Kim Jong Un's biggest passion, and that the Chicago Bulls were his favorite.

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report. Follow Lee, AP's bureau chief for Pyongyang and Seoul, at twitter.com/newsjean.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dennis-rodman-worms-way-north-korea-051224872.html

Nolan Daniels angus t. jones monday night football monday night football SEC Championship Game 2012 kansas city chiefs Javon Belcher

Samsung Wallet Is Apple's Passbook, on Android

Samsung has just announced its new Wallet mobile payment app at the Mobile World Congress and... and it looks a hell of a lot like Apple's Passbook. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/7NUFYBTujdY/samsung-wallet-is-apples-passbook-on-android

mega millions winning numbers autism speaks ubaldo jimenez ncaa final country music awards autism awareness angelman syndrome