Sunday, June 30, 2013

Quinn says pension debt growing at slower pace

CHICAGO (AP) ? Gov. Pat Quinn said Saturday that Illinois' massive pension shortfall will grow at a slower pace of $5 million a day, but the Chicago Democrat continued to pressure legislators to solve the problem, saying "we must stop this bleeding."

The daily growth in the state's unfunded liability ? the cost of benefits it has promised public employees and retirees ? was estimated at $17 million per day for the fiscal year that ends Sunday. Quinn said that number is expected to drop in the next fiscal year in part because the state has made its full pension payment for the past several years. Legislation that curbed pension benefits for newly hired workers also contributed to the decrease.

But in a press release, Quinn said Illinois residents continue to pay "a steep price" for the Legislature's failure to address the $97 billion crisis.

"We must stop this bleeding," he said. "Legislators must work around the clock to put a bill on my desk that erases the pension debt for the greater good of the people of Illinois."

Illinois has the nation's worst state pension crisis, due mostly to years of lawmakers skipping or shorting the annual payment to the state's five public-employee retirement funds. Because of the shortfall, three major credit rating agencies have downgraded Illinois to the lowest credit rating of any state in the nation, and the annual pension payment has grown to about $6 billion ? taking money away from areas such as education and public safety.

Yet legislators have been unable to agree on a solution. After ending their regular legislative session in May with the House and Senate at a stalemate over rival plans, lawmakers voted earlier this month to form a bipartisan committee to try to reach a compromise.

Quinn told the group they had until July 9 to come up with a deal, but several members have said that deadline is unrealistic, and the committee is not expected to meet it. Even if they do, an agreement would still have to get the approval of both chambers of the Democrat-controlled Legislature.

The House has supported legislation backed by Speaker Michael Madigan that would cut retirement benefits across the board. The Senate prefers a plan sponsored by Senate President John Cullerton, and drafted in cooperation with labor unions, that gives workers and retirees a choice in benefits. Madigan said his plan would save the state more money, but Cullerton believes his legislation is the only one that would survive a legal challenge.

Meanwhile, the pension problem has become a political issue for Quinn, who has said he will run for re-election in 2014. In recent weeks four candidates have announced they want his job: state Treasurer Dan Rutherford, venture capitalist Bruce Rauner and state Sen. Bill Brady, all Republicans, and Democrat Bill Daley, the former White House chief of staff.

All four candidates have ripped Quinn for what they say is a lack of leadership on the pension issue.

Quinn has pinned the blame squarely on the Legislature, saying he's made pension reform his top priority and that lawmakers now need to "do their job" and send him a bill to sign.

In his statement Saturday, Quinn's office also boasted that his "responsible fiscal policies" have slowed the growth of Illinois' pension debt.

Source: http://www.pjstar.com/news/x986311025/Quinn-says-pension-debt-growing-at-slower-pace?rssfeed=true

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Fundraiser for Richland Co. boy battling brain cancer

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Published: Saturday, June 29, 2013 --- 6:30 p.m.

In the small town of Ithaca near Richland Center, nearly everyone from the community is together this weekend, supporting a little boy who's dealing with a very grown up issue.

"This whole weekend kind of revolves around a youth baseball tournament in which Jaxon is part of," said Shelly Maxwell.

In April, Jaxon Louis was diagnosed with brain cancer. Doctors were unable to remove the entire tumor, so he's now undergoing radiation and chemotherapy in Chicago.

"We're doing as much as we can to raise money for his treatments and travel expenses and doing as much as we can for his special family," Maxwell said. She organized the sports-themed fundraiser for the 7-year-old, who's a major sports fan.

Between an event with Culver's earlier in the week, and a fish fry and bake sale Friday, the event has raised more than $1,200 and counting. On Saturday, people can participate in a silent and live auction--all of the money will go to Jaxon's parents.

"I'm good friends with his mom and dad," Maxwell said. "I grew up with both of them. You know, any mother, even if it's one of your best friends that's suffering through this, any mother I think it hits them hard as well to know that their child is suffering and I think anybody would step forward."

"We can never repay what the community has done for us," Rhonda Louis said, Jaxon's mom.

She says her son has been brave througout the entire process, despite the emotional toll it's taken on her and her husband, Brad.

"He'll say, yep I have brain cancer. But it's not a big deal to him. He handles it better than us," she said. "Every aspect of our life has changed. It's been hard."

"Her and Jaxon are now in Chicago while he gets treatments, radiation and chemo five days a week," Brad said. "And I've been staying back with our two other daughters."

Jaxon still has six more rounds of chemotherapy to go, but this weekend, the only thing he's thinking about is what game to play next.

"He's shy. But when it comes to anything sports, when he's just playing with his friends, he's outgoing," Rhonda said.

"If it's got a ball he loves it," Brad said.

The fundraiser continues Sunday with the youth baseball tournament and a pancake breakfast at the Ithaca Community Gym.

Source: http://www.nbc15.com/home/headlines/Fundraiser-for-Richland-Co-boy-battling-brain-cancer-213715971.html

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Saturday, June 29, 2013

I?m So Excited

Miguel Ángel Silvestre and Laya Martí in I'm So Excited

Miguel ?ngel Silvestre and Laya Mart? in I'm So Excited

Courtesy of El Deseo S.A.

I?m So Excited, Pedro Almod?var?s frothy follow-up to his dark, masterful melodrama The Skin I Live In (2011), is decidedly minor Almod?var, a sassy disaster-movie spoof that might as well be titled Gays on a Plane. With its sometimes-poky pacing and untranslatable double entendres, this wouldn?t be the movie to win over an Almod?var virgin?if you want to show a newbie what this magnificent writer-director is capable of, show that person Talk to Her (2002) or All About My Mother (1999) or, in a more overtly comic vein, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988). Nevertheless, I?m So Excited (in Spanish, the title is Los amantes pasajeros, meaning both ?the fleeting lovers? and ?the passenger lovers?) looks fabulous, talks dirty, and sometimes makes you laugh, which is really all you can ask of a fleeting lover.

Like A Midsummer Night?s Dream, this is an erotic roundelay in which magic potions (here, not flower juice but tequila and cocktails spiked with mescaline) serve as both aphrodisiac and matchmaker. By film?s end, everyone?gay, straight, or bi?has found his or her match (or at least some action at 30,000 feet). We begin with a glimpse of a happy couple?played in teasingly short surprise cameos by two Almod?var regulars?working as baggage handlers at the Madrid airport. When they?re distracted by a mishap on the runway, the landing gear of a jet is damaged, leading to the crisis that will drive the film?s story: While a runway is being found for a dangerous emergency landing, the plane must fly in circles while the increasingly anxious passengers try to settle their affairs and make peace with their loved ones on the ground (via an in-flight phone that, thanks to a narratively convenient broken speaker, broadcasts conversations to the entire cabin). A soap-opera star (Guillermo Toledo) gets in touch with his suicidal girlfriend (Paz Vega); a crooked investment banker (Jos? Luis Torrijo) has an emotional phone conversation with his long-estranged adult daughter; and a paranoid dominatrix (Cecilia Roth) tries to determine which of her enemies has put out a hit on her. (Meanwhile, all of economy class, for reasons that are never quite clear, has been dosed by the crew with sleep-inducing muscle relaxants.)

Many of the funniest scenes take place in the cockpit, where the bisexual pilot (Antonio de la Torre) and the straight (or is he?) co-pilot (Hugo Silva) bicker with the flamboyantly queeny head steward, Joserra (the dependably superb Javier C?mara), over how best to handle their plane full of nervous passengers. Joserra (who declares himself physically incapable of lying after a long-ago trauma involving a corporate cover-up) can?t stop blurting out the upsetting truth between shots of tequila. By way of distracting the passengers from their fear, Joserra?s fellow ?ber-gay stewards, Ulloa (Ra?l Ar?valo) and Fajas (Carlos Areces) perform an engagingly campy lip-sync of the Pointer Sisters hit that gives the film its English title. Eventually the magical properties of that hallucinogen-laced cocktail?along with the dire predictions of a ditzy passenger (Lola Due?as) who declares herself both a psychic and a virgin?get the whole plane worked up into a death-fearing, sex-craving lather, until ? let?s just say the Mile High Club gets enough new members to open a whole new chapter.

Almod?var has said that the endless circling of this fictional flight over the center of Spain is meant in part as a commentary on the country?s current economic crisis, and if you pay close attention, the repeated references to bank swindles and government double-crosses (not to mentioned those narcotized lower classes) bear that reading out. But I?m So Excited works principally as a visually lavish celebration of the liberating power of hedonism, in the vein of the director?s early works. The sex jokes and performances are as broad as a barn, but it?s a stylishly painted one: the design, right down to the crisp red-and-white trim on the stewards? spiffy sky-blue uniforms, is delicious, and the lush orchestral score by longtime Almod?var collaborator Alberto Iglesias slyly references both Hitchcock thrillers and classic disaster films. At times this slightly manic movie strains too hard to reassure us that the lyrics of that Pointer Sisters song hold true, that we?re all in this together and having a wonderful time. But as this death-obsessed farce barreled along toward its sexy crash-landing climax, I?m So Excited let me lose control, and I think I liked it.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2013/06/pedro_almod_var_s_i_m_so_excited_reviewed_so_sassy_it_might_as_well_be_called.html

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Cassidy: NSA muzzle should be removed from Google, Facebook, Apple, Yahoo

The NSA spying scandal and the way it runs through Silicon Valley "is the story that just won't go away," to borrow a phrase from Fox News.

Details -- some accurate, some not -- of the government's snooping continue to trickle out. Many of us continue to wonder just what the government has scooped up about us from our go-to social networking and search companies like Google (GOOG), Facebook, Yahoo (YHOO) and Apple (AAPL). And some of us wonder just what those companies have done to try to protect our privacy

It's the last question that has become my personal obsession. The feds and the commercial keepers of the Internet have said all the right things to make us feel better. When several news outlets were reporting that the NSA through a program called Prism was tapping directly into the servers of search engines and social media sites, executives said that was not the case. The NSA explained

that it was only targeting foreign suspects and only with the authorization of a top-secret court.

But does any of that put you at ease? Me neither.

There is something that could help us all feel better about the oceans of personal data that are sloshing around out there: National security officials should free companies like Google, Facebook, Apple and Yahoo to explain what is going on in much greater detail. After all, we are their customers. We put our trust in them. They have benefited greatly from using our data to target ads and develop marketing schemes. They know more about us than we know about ourselves.

All this was on my mind recently when I attended a New York Times global forum. This one, hosted by columnist Thomas Friedman, centered on the notion that we'd moved from being a connected society to a hyper-connected one and that the transformation has changed everything from business to security to philanthropy to education to relationships.

The spin was generally positive, but obviously this increased connectivity has some serious down sides.

Among the many speakers was Dov Seidman, CEO of corporate advisory firm LRN and a guy who's become a guru of good corporate behavior. He seemed a

An illustration picture shows the logo of the U.S. National Security Agency on the display of an iPhone in Berlin, June 7, 2013. REUTERS/Pawel Kopczynski (PAWEL KOPCZYNSKI)

logical one to ask about the role of valley companies in the NSA drama.

"At the end of the day," Seidman, whose outfit works with Fortune 500 companies globally, told me, "the Silicon Valley companies that are capturing a lot of data are in a very precarious and a very rich relationship with their (customers). Their currency is trust and if they do anything to betray that trust, it's going to be hard to regain it."

No kidding. The problem is that it's going to be hard for Silicon Valley companies to maintain or regain that trust if the federal government continues to muzzle them.

Part of Seidman's gospel is that the world has become a place where what companies do is important, but more important is how they do things. The explosion of social media and the ability to immediately and broadly call out bad corporate behavior, means that companies that act unethically or otherwise mistreat customers, partners, suppliers and others will have a hard time getting away with it.

Few things matter more to people than their personal information, said Seidman, author of "How: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything." "So these are the crown jewels that these companies are possessing," he said. "They've got to handle them with great care."

How have they done? Google, Facebook, Apple, Yahoo, Microsoft and others have pushed back, asking the feds to let them disclose more details about government demands for information and corporate responses to those demands. But the feds have provided little useful relief.

No question it would be good to get a good accounting. I'd also be interested in knowing what search and social media companies did when the NSA first came calling. The week the NSA news broke, I wrote a blog post wondering whether Silicon Valley companies stood up for our privacy. Did they go to court to fight the orders to turn over data? Did they use their considerable connections in Congress? It would be fair to say the post was critical and assumed the worst.

But now comes news that at least one company in 2008 fought a request made under the law that governs the Prism program. The legal battle was fought secretly and to this day the court hasn't disclosed the name of the company, although The New York Times reported that it was Yahoo.

That is exactly the sort of information that the feds should allow companies to disclose. There is no need to keep the targeted company secret five years later. If they ever doubted it, terrorists now know that investigators monitor U.S. Internet companies; and they know Yahoo is a U.S. Internet company. That Yahoo fought a surveillance order would tell those who mean us harm nothing they don't already know.

But it would tell consumers a lot. For instance, if Yahoo fought the feds prying through Prism and Google didn't (something we can't know for sure) a reasonable consumer might want to shift from Google to Yahoo for search, or from Gmail to Yahoo Mail for correspondence.

At the very least, a reasonable consumer would want to know the track record of the two companies in order to make an informed decision.

Contact Mike Cassidy at mcassidy@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5536. Follow him at Twitter.com/mikecassidy.

Source: http://www.siliconvalley.com/ci_23553774/cassidy-nsa-muzzle-should-be-removed-from-google?source=rss_viewed

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Gillmor Gang Live 06.28.13 (TCTV)

Gillmor Gang test patternGillmor Gang - John Borthwick, Kevin Marks, Robert Scoble, Keith Teare, and Steve Gillmor. Recording live today at 1pm Pacific.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Bz-3usazY-Q/

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Friday, June 28, 2013

NASA telescope to probe long-standing solar mystery

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A small NASA telescope was launched into orbit on Thursday on a mission to determine how the sun heats its atmosphere to millions of degrees, sending off rivers of particles that define the boundaries of the solar system.

The study is far from academic. Solar activity directly impacts Earth's climate and the space environment beyond the planet's atmosphere. Solar storms can knock out power grids, disrupt radio signals and interfere with communications, navigation and other satellites in orbit.

"We live in a very complex society and the sun has a role to play in it," said physicist Alan Title, with Lockheed Martin Space Systems Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, California, which designed and built the telescope.

Scientists have been trying to unravel the mechanisms that drive the sun for decades but one fundamental mystery endures: How it manages to release energy from its relatively cool, 10,000 degree Fahrenheit (5,500 degree Celsius) surface into an atmosphere that can reach up to 5 million degrees Fahrenheit (2.8 million Celsius).

At its core, the sun is essentially a giant fusion engine that melds hydrogen atoms into helium. As expected, temperatures cool as energy travels outward through the layers. But then in the lower atmosphere, known as the chromosphere, temperatures heat up again.

Pictures and data relayed by the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, telescope may finally provide some answers about how that happens.

The 4-foot (1.2-meter) long, 450-pound (204-kg) observatory will be watching the sun from a vantage point about 400 miles above Earth. It is designed to capture detailed images of light moving from the sun's surface, known as the photosphere, into the chromosphere. Temperatures peak in the sun's outer atmosphere, the corona.

All that energy fuels a continuous release of charged particles from the sun into what is known as the solar wind, a pressure bubble that fills and defines the boundaries of the solar system.

"Every time we look at the sun in more detail, it opens up a new window for us," said Jeffrey Newmark, IRIS program scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The telescope was launched aboard an Orbital Sciences Corp Pegasus rocket at 10:27 p.m. EDT Thursday (0227 GMT Friday). Pegasus is an air-launched system that is carried aloft by a modified L-1011 aircraft that took off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California about 57 minutes before launch.

The rocket was released from beneath the belly of the plane at an altitude of about 39,000 feet before it ignited to carry the telescope into orbit.

IRIS, which cost about $145 million including the launch service, is designed to last for two years.

(Editing by Kevin Gray and Eric Walsh)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-telescope-probe-long-standing-solar-mystery-030014645.html

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Iraq official says Baghdad open to US military aid

BAGHDAD (AP) ? Iraq is open to greater American military cooperation as U.S. commanders explore ways to boost security assistance to the country, a top Iraqi official said Thursday as a fresh wave of bombings claimed 16 lives.

The Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, has recommended that military American commanders look for ways to help improve the military capabilities of Iraq and Lebanon, which both face the risk of spillover from the civil war in neighboring Syria.

Dempsey said Wednesday that the assistance would not involve sending U.S. combat troops, but could involve the U.S. sending in training teams and accelerating sales of weapons and equipment.

The last American combat troops left Iraq in December 2011, ending a nearly nine-year war that cost nearly 4,500 American and more than 100,000 Iraqi lives.

About 100 military and civilian Department of Defense personnel remain in Iraq as an arm of the American Embassy to act as liaisons with the Iraqi government and facilitate arms sales. The U.S. has similar offices in other countries.

Ali al-Moussawi, the media adviser for Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, told The Associated Press that Baghdad would welcome increased arms sales and faster weapons deliveries along with U.S. training teams to help it confront rising regional instability and terrorist threats.

"We welcome this kind of cooperation and we consider it a part of the existing agreement between us," al-Moussawi said when asked about Dempsey's comments.

"Because of the high risks the region faces, I think there should be bigger cooperation and coordination between all countries threatened by terrorism."

Iraq is struggling to contain a resurgent al-Qaida that is one of the main drivers behind the country's worst uptick in violence in half a decade. More than 2,000 people have been killed in car bombings and other violent attacks in Iraq since the start of April.

More violence rocked Iraq late Thursday when bombs struck cafes in and around Baghdad, killing 16 and wounding dozens. The attacks struck in quick succession at the start of the local weekend while the cafes were filled with patrons watching a soccer match.

Police reported five people killed and 17 wounded in Baghdad's largely Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah, and another three dead and 14 wounded in Shiite-dominated Umm al-Maalif, in the southwestern suburbs of the capital.

Another blast struck the Shiite town of Jbala, about 50 kilometers (35 miles) south of Baghdad, killing 8 and wounding 25.

Hospital officials confirmed the casualty toll. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information to journalists.

The upsurge in violence comes as Iraqi fighters have been traveling to fight on both sides of Syria's civil war. The Iraqi branch of al-Qaida is pushing to make itself a player in the conflict, and now calls itself the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant to highlight its cross-border ambitions.

Iraq has acquired billions of dollars' worth of American-made military equipment, including howitzers, armored personnel carriers and Abrams tanks in recent years.

It has yet to receive the first of as many as 36 F-16 fighter jets it has ordered, and Baghdad has been pressing U.S. officials to speed delivery of the warplanes.

Also on Thursday, a spokesman for Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission said a voting list backed by influential Sunni politicians has won the biggest single bloc of seats in provincial elections in the Sunni-dominated province of Anbar.

Safaa al-Moussawi, a spokesman for the Independent High Electoral commission, said the United list led by Iraqi Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi won 8 of 30 seats in Anbar's provincial council. A bloc backed by al-Maliki came in second with five seats.

The western province of Anbar, a former al-Qaida stronghold, has been the center of anti-government rallies protesting what Sunnis say is their second-class treatment by the Shiite-led government.

Residents in Anbar and neighboring Ninevah province voted last week in local elections that had been delayed due to security concerns.

___

Associated Press writers Sameer N. Yacoub and Adam Schreck contributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iraq-official-says-baghdad-open-us-military-aid-142850054.html

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Immigration overhaul: Senate passes historic bill

WASHINGTON (AP) -- With a solemnity reserved for momentous occasions, the Senate passed historic legislation Thursday offering the priceless hope of citizenship to millions of immigrants living illegally in America's shadows. The bill also promises a military-style effort to secure the long-porous border with Mexico.

The bipartisan vote was 68-32 on a measure that sits atop President Barack Obama's second-term domestic agenda. Even so, the bill's prospects are highly uncertain in the Republican-controlled House, where conservatives generally oppose citizenship for immigrants living in the country unlawfully.

Spectators in galleries that overlook the Senate floor watched expectantly as senators voted one by one from their desks. Some onlookers erupted in chants of "Yes, we can" after Vice President Joe Biden announced the bill's passage.

After three weeks of debate, there was no doubt about the outcome. Fourteen Republicans joined all 52 Democrats and two independents to support the bill.

In a written statement, Obama coupled praise for the Senate's action with a plea for resolve by supporters as the House works on the issue. "Now is the time when opponents will try their hardest to pull this bipartisan effort apart so they can stop commonsense reform from becoming a reality. We cannot let that happen," said the president, who was traveling in Africa.

After the bill passed, he called Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., a leading author of the bill, to offer congratulations.

In the final hours of debate, members of the so-called Gang of 8, the group that drafted the measure, frequently spoke in personal terms while extolling the bill's virtues, rebutting its critics ? and appealing to the House members who turn comes next.

"Do the right thing for America and for your party," said Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who said his mother emigrated to the United States from Cuba. "Find common ground. Lean away from the extremes. Opt for reason and govern with us."

Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake said those seeking legal status after living in the United States illegally must "pass a background check, make good on any tax liability and pay a fee and a fine." There are other requirements before citizenship can be obtained, he noted.

He, too, spoke from personal experience, recalling time he spent as a youth working alongside family members and "undocumented migrant labor, largely from Mexico, who worked harder than we did under conditions much more difficult than we endured."

Since then, he said, "I have harbored a feeling of admiration and respect for those who have come to risk life and limb and sacrifice so much to provide a better life for themselves and their families."

The bill's opponents were unrelenting, if outnumbered.

"We will admit dramatically more people than we ever have in our country's history at a time when unemployment is high and the Congressional Budget Office has told us that average wages will go down for 12 years, that gross national product per capita will decline for 25-plus years, that unemployment will go up," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.

"The amnesty will occur, but the enforcement is not going to occur, and the policies for future immigration are not serving the national interest."

In the Senate, at least, the developments marked an end to years of gridlock on immigration. The shift began taking shape quickly after the 2012 presidential election, when numerous Republican leaders concluded the party must show a more welcoming face to Hispanic voters who had given Obama more than 70 percent of their support.

Even so, division among Republicans was evident as potential 2016 presidential contenders split. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida was one of the Gang of 8, while Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas were opposed to the bill.

The legislation's chief provisions includes numerous steps to prevent future illegal immigration ? some added in a late compromise that swelled Republican support for the bill ? and to check on the legal status of job applicants already living in the United States. At the same time, it offers a 13-year path to citizenship to as many as 11 million immigrants now living in the country unlawfully.

Under the deal brokered last week by Republican Sens. John Hoeven of North Dakota and Bob Corker of Tennessee and the Gang of 8, the measure requires 20,000 new Border Patrol agents, the completion of 700 miles of fencing and deployment of an array of high-tech devices along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Those living in the country illegally could gain legal status while the border security plan was being implemented, but would not be granted permanent resident green cards or citizenship.

A plan requiring businesses to check on the legal status of prospective employees would be phased in over four years.

Other provisions would expand the number of visas available for highly skilled workers relied upon by the technology industry. A separate program would be established for lower-skilled workers, and farm workers would be admitted under a temporary program. In addition, the system of legal immigration that has been in effect for decades would be changed, making family ties less of a factor and elevating the importance of education, job skills and relative youth.

With the details of the Senate bill well-known, House Speaker John Boehner said at a news conference the separate legislation the House considers will have majority support among Republicans. He also said he hopes the bill will be bipartisan, and he encouraged a group of four Democrats and three Republicans trying to forge a compromise to continue their efforts.

He offered no details on how a House bill could be both bipartisan and supported by more than half of his own rank and file, given that most of the bills that have moved through the House Judiciary Committee recently did so on party line votes over the protests of Democrats. None envisions legal status for immigrants now in the country illegally.

Boehner declined to say if there were circumstances under which he could support a pathway to citizenship, but he made clear that securing the border was a priority.

"People have to have confidence that the border is secure before anything else is really going to work. Otherwise, we repeat the mistakes of 1986," he said, referring to the last time Congress overhauled the immigration system.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader, also said he favors a bipartisan approach. At the same time, she noted that Democratic principles for immigration include "secure our borders, protect our workers, unite families, a path to legalization and now citizenship for those" without legal status.

While the outcome of the Senate vote was not in doubt, supporters scrambled to maximize the vote and fell short of 70, a level they had talked of reaching. Schumer spoke with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday night as he lobbied ? successfully ? for the vote of the state's Republican Sen. Jeff Chiesa, whom the governor appointed to his seat.

___

Associated Press writer Donna Cassata contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/immigration-overhaul-senate-passes-historic-204756712.html

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

98% Before Midnight

All Critics (146) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (142) | Rotten (3)

Hawke and Delpy remain as charming as ever, and their combined goofiness is more endearing than annoying.

Love is messy here, life cannot be controlled, satisfaction is far from guaranteed. Romance is rocky at best. But romance still is.

Though "Before Midnight" is often uncomfortable to watch, it's never less than mesmerizing - and ultimately, a joy to walk with this prickly but fascinating couple again.

"Before Midnight" is heartbreaking, but not because of Jesse and Celine. It's the filmmakers' passions that seem to have cooled.

Before Midnight is fascinating to watch, and so long as Celine and Jesse are communicating, there's still hope.

How (Jesse and Celine) try to rekindle that flame is what drives Midnight, a film that feels so authentic it's like overhearing a conversation you're not sure you should be hearing.

Loving words mix with personal attacks, the magic moments with the unintended slights, as we witness the occasional desperation of imperfect people doing the best they can when life moves beyond meet-cute and courtship. That's authentic.

Linklater and his players bring an end to the fantasy and welcome the thrilling ups and bitter downs of reality to this love story.

Like the first two films, it reflects the real world in a way that seems almost preternatural. It's just that, here, the real world is a harsher, more disappointing place.

The duo, clearly so comfortable in their characters' skin, indulge in intelligent banter, sharp humour and emotional truths.

So much better written than contemporary novels, this film is a literary as well as cinematic achievement to cherish. For grown-ups.

As before, it's often very funny, with Jesse and Celine swapping Woody Allen-esque one-liners - nicely snarky, appealingly abrasive.

The acting, the dialogue and direction are superb.

None of the films is faultless in itself, but, tinted with complementary tones, the complete cycle comes as close to perfection as any trilogy in cinema history.

Marvelous. It's impossible to shake the feeling that we are merely eavesdropping on reality. Witty, wise, and -- most important of all -- truly romantic in ways that movies usually aren't.

It's been 18 years since Hawke, Delpy and Linklater introduced us to Jesse and Celine, and their story just gets richer, funnier and more punchy each time we see them. In 1995's Before Sunrise, they were idealistic 23-year-olds.

Hawke and Delpy are as believably real as any screen couple can ever be.

This is one of the few sequels for which the cliche 'eagerly awaited' is truly applicable.

Predictably, it's just as great as the first two.

By the end, Before Midnight inches towards a dawn of charm. But it's a troubled trip.

As an organic experiment in collaboration between actors and director, it is a triumph, co-created and co-owned by Delpy, Linklater and Hawke.

Hawke and Delpy, who are both credited on the script too, have never found co-stars to bounce off more nimbly or bring out richer nuances in their acting.

The performances and dialogue are wonderfully naturalistic; a reminder that the best special effects are often the cheapest.

Before Midnight is about the nature of long-term relationships, and the way love deepens and grows but also finds itself subject to the complications of maturity. Smart, insightful, and poignant.

For those who witnessed Jesse and Celine's tentative getting together as inter railing students almost twenty years ago, it's reassuring to see them still in love.

Brilliantly directed, superbly written and impeccably acted, this is a thoroughly enjoyable, thought-provoking and emotionally engaging drama that perfectly complements the previous two films.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/before_midnight_2013/

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Brioni's looks for next summer inspired by Rome

MILAN (AP) ? Brioni designer Brendan Mullane explored artistic treasures of Rome ? from the Pantheon to the Vatican Museum ? to inspire his menswear collection for next summer.

From the Pantheon he took geometric shapes from the marble floor for inspiration for the pattern of a sweater. From the Vatican Museum he took the grays, dusty pinks and steel blues that caught his eye on an early morning visit, creating a summertime color palette he called "veiled Rome, " a contrast from the terra cottas and orange usually associated with the Eternal City.

Mullane, a 37-year-old Englishman who was previously head of menswear at Givenchy, was brought in last year to relaunch the traditional Roman brand that has long specialized in handmade suits.

"For me, it had become a bit quiet as a brand," Mullane said at a presentation Tuesday, the last day of Milan Fashion Week. "I want people to look at Brioni in a different way, to take it in a creative and contemporary direction using the Brioni language.

And that language is sartorial, based on the three-piece suit. Trousers are pleated and slightly high-waisted for a lean silhouette. And the shorts are based on pants that have been cut off, so the well-tailored Brioni man can feel comfortable in his skin even on vacation. No baggy Bermudas here. But there is a silk pajama.

Mullane develops the brand's contemporary look through fabrics, giving the collection what he called "the DNA imprint."

He starts, for example, with a classic silk tie, and working with an artisan textile maker develops that into a silk blouson jacket with a matte finish, then a step further into a woven panel on a leather travel bag, and yet another step into the belt. Each piece has the same intricate geometric pattern, with layers of color.

"You look at it, and you don't know why, but it really becomes three-dimensional," Mullane said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/brionis-looks-next-summer-inspired-rome-132219167.html

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Sorry Uber, Los Angeles Has Been Banning Ride-Shares For a Century

Sorry Uber, Los Angeles Has Been Banning Ride-Shares For a Century

This week the city of Los Angeles sent a cease-and-desist letter to ride-sharing app companies Uber, Lyft and Sidecar. The city claims that these services are "rogue taxis" that are "bypassing all safety regulations created to protect riders and drivers." But this isn't the first time that this town has gone after the unregulated four-wheeled menace. This crackdown on unlicensed taxis in the City of Angels is nearly identical to a battle that raged a century ago ? without all the iPhones and whatnot, of course.

In 1914, an idea emerged in Los Angeles that would rapidly sweep the city in just a few short months: the jitney. Jitney was slang for "nickel" and for that low, low price (about $1.10 adjusted for inflation) you could catch a ride with a friendly Angeleno driver who would take you wherever you needed to go.

The very first known jitney driver took to the L.A. streets in the summer of 1914, and by 1915 there were about 700 jitney cars carrying 150,000 people per day around the city. But this disruption of the transportation industry didn't just stay contained to Los Angeles. The idea quickly swept the country, with jitney cars and buses popping up all around major cities in the U.S.

Needless to say, the established transportation companies (mainly in the form of railcars and trolleys) were not too happy about these wheel-bound disruptors. It took a few years, but thanks to a crackdown by the mayor, the jitney cars were pretty much non-existent in L.A. by 1918. Nationally, the jitney's numbers had been cut back by 90% that same year.

It's still too soon to tell if ride-sharing apps like Uber, Lyft and Sidecar will meet the same fate as the jitney. But as we learn time and again, there's nothing new in Hollywood.

You can read my entire story on the rise and fall of the jitney at Pacific Standard.

Update: In an email from Uber, they point out that they signed an operating agreement with the California Public Utilities Commission explicitly stating that Uber services can operate statewide. On whether they'll comply with the cease-and-desist from the city of Los Angeles: "...the PUC has authorized us to operate statewide and we will continue to."

Image: Jitney vehicle circa 1910-15, Library of Congress

Source: http://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/sorry-uber-los-angeles-has-been-banning-ride-shares-fo-574851806

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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Messier 61 looks straight into Hubble's camera

June 24, 2013 ? The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a new image of nearby spiral galaxy Messier 61, also known as NGC 4303. The galaxy, located only 55 million light-years away from Earth, is roughly the size of the Milky Way, with a diameter of around 100,000 light-years.

The galaxy is notable for one particular reason -- six supernovae have been observed within Messier 61, a total that places it in the top handful of galaxies alongside Messier 83, also with six, and NGC 6946, with a grand total of nine observed supernovae.

In this Hubble image the galaxy is seen face-on as if posing for a photograph, allowing us to study its structure closely. The spiral arms can be seen in stunning detail, swirling inwards to the very center of the galaxy, where they form a smaller, intensely bright spiral. In the outer regions, these vast arms are sprinkled with bright blue regions where new stars are being formed from hot, dense clouds of gas.

Messier 61 is part of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster, a massive group of galaxies in the constellation of Virgo (the Virgin). Galaxy clusters, or groups of galaxies, are among the biggest structures in the Universe to be held together by gravity alone. The Virgo Cluster contains more than 1300 galaxies and forms the central region of the Local Supercluster, an even bigger gathering of galaxies. The image was taken using data from Hubble's Wide Field Camera 2.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/uEPLIJiYUAA/130624141326.htm

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Opinion: Why Ecuador might shelter Snowden (CNN)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/315151373?client_source=feed&format=rss

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All-time greatest TV shows and movies are ...

Pop culture

8 hours ago

Summer's here! And while many favorite and critically acclaimed shows have ended their seasons (see you next year, Don Draper!), summer blockbusters are starting to show up in theaters and many popular television programs are returning to the airwaves.

Image: "Casablanca," "The Sopranos," "The Simpsons" and "The Godfather Part 2."

Warner Bros. / HBO / FOX / Paramount

"Casablanca," "The Sopranos," "The Simpsons" and "The Godfather Part 2" all made Entertainment Weekly's list of top movies and TV shows ever.

And as the summer entertainment season kicks into gear, Entertainment Weekly is preparing to unveil its list of All Time Greatest TV Shows and Movies Wednesday morning on TODAY.

Gangsters, outlaws, star-crossed lovers and creepy shower killers are among those viewers meet in the magazine's top five films list. And while we?re not revealing which movie is the magazine's No. 1 pick, we can tell you none of the movies that made the top five came along after America?s bicentennial. Think the suave 1940's charm of ?Casablanca,? or "Citizen Kane's" saga of old-school journalism, and the gritty and engrossing tales of mob life in ?The Godfather,? 1972 and ?The Godfather Part 2,? 1974.

In fact, there?s a flurry of bad men ? and one bad woman ? at the top of the list. ?Casablanca? has its Nazis of course, and ?The Godfather? films feature their share of murder and mayhem, horse heads in beds and characters who end up sleeping with the fishes. ?Bonnie and Clyde? came out in 1967 but tells the tale of famed outlaws from 30 years prior. And 1960?s legendary ?Psycho? is dubbed the ?granddaddy of all slasher films,? and it kept some of us out of the shower like ?Jaws? kept us out of the ocean.

On the small screen, only one of the magazine's top five picks for All Time Greatest TV Shows is still on the air. (Seriously, "Breaking Bad," "Walking Dead" and "Game of Thrones" didn't crack the summit of the list!) And that still-on-the-air comedy, Fox's very long-running "The Simpsons," is also the only animated program anywhere in the top 70.

The rest of the top five is evenly split with two truth-filled sitcoms featuring stellar comedians ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show," 1970-1977, and "Seinfeld," 1989-1998) and two crime-dramas with complex, not-always-good-guy leads who became TV legends ("The Sopranos," 1999-2007, and "The Wire," 2002-2008).

Tune in to TODAY Wednesday to see how Entertainment Weekly ranked these shows and movies in their All Time Greatest list!

Which movies and TV shows would put in your top 5? Click on "Talk about it" below and give us your list!

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/all-time-greatest-tv-shows-movies-are-6C10423399

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Monday, June 24, 2013

iOS 7 Preview: Control Center

iOS 7 Preview: New security features

Control Center provides one-swipe access to to all your settings and media controls from anywhere on your iPhone (or iPad).

Quick access to system-level toggles has been one of the most constant, consistent power-user feature requests -- nay, demands -- for years now. Everything from jailbreak apps like SBSettings to iOS 6's brief flirtation with URL Schemes for Settings made it a must-have on every geek list, come every Apple iOS keynote. And now, with iOS 7 and Control Center, it's finally a reality.

Here's how Apple describes Control Center:

Control Center gives you quick access to the controls and apps you always seem to need right this second. Just swipe up from any screen ? including the Lock screen ? to do things like switch to Airplane mode, turn Wi-Fi on or off, or adjust the brightness of your display. You can even shine a light on things with a new flashlight. Never has one swipe given you so much control.

Control Center icon

And, based on what Apple's shown off to date, here's how it works:

  • Like Notification Center, Control Center is a layer that you can slide out on top of the main iOS interface. It enjoys the same, bouncing, playful iOS 7 physics, and the same blur effect that mutes but doesn't entirely obliterate what's underneath. Unlike Notification Center, which comes from the top down, Control Center is activated by swiping up from beneath the screen, and rather than dark, smoked glass, it's given a light, frosted effect.

  • You can access Control Center from anywhere on your iPhone (or iPad), including from the Lock screen.

Control Center on Lock screen

  • The top row Control Center provides handy on/off switches for commonly used settings like Airplane mode (which, when turned on, will turn off the cellular radio), the Wi-Fi radio, and the Bluetooth radio, as well as toggles for Do Not Disturb mode, and the portrait/landscape orientation lock. Black means off, white means on.
  • Next is a slider for screen brightness, and a set of media controls that includes a positional scrubber, the title of the track/episode you're listening to or watching, the name of the album/series that track/episode is from, skip backwards or forwards buttons (or 15 seconds forward/back), pause/play, and a volume slider.
  • If available, AirDrop and AirPlay occupy the next layer, and allow you to quickly access sheets with their individual options.
  • The bottom row of icons consists of a Flashlight to toggle the LED flash on or off, and variants of Clock, Calculator, and Camera icons for quickly accessing those apps.

Control Center bullets

That Control Center functions so much like Notification Center, and even uses similar nomenclature makes it easy to understand, even for non-power-users who haven't been lamenting its absence on iOS for years. It'll give the obsessive compulsive among us nearly instant access to toggles we probably ought not be toggling all the time, but it'll also give plenty of regular people a fast, easy way to get at things as simple as media controls and even a flashlight when they need them.

Swiping up to reveal Control Center will be confusing for people who've spent any time on webOS, BlackBerry 10, some versions of Android, or even the iPad's gesture navigation system, and personally I do find the swiping up as a way to show the fast app switcher/multitasking cards much more intuitive than the double-button click. However, Android's current two-finger swipe down to switch from their version of notification center to their version of control center isn't as easy to use, and ultimately, as goes Apple and iOS 7 will go hundreds of millions of users.

As to the design itself, while I have concerns about the low contrast and thinness of the icons and typography used, overall the usefulness exceeds the usability, and hopefully the latter can at some point be brought up to match the former.

I once wrote that iOS wasn't meant for geeks, and while I still think that's generally true, with iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks, Apple is starting to show they now have more than enough love to go around.

Control Center will ship as part of iOS 7 this fall. Check out the resources below for more, and let me know -- how do you like what you've seen of Control Center so far?

    


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/lTuKW9fZnw0/story01.htm

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Pope 'snub' of concert stuns cardinals, sends signal

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A last-minute no-show by Pope Francis at a concert where he was to have been the guest of honor has sent another clear signal that he is going to do things his way and does not like the Vatican high life.

The gala classical concert on Saturday was scheduled before his election in March. But the white papal armchair set up in the presumption that he would be there remained empty.

Minutes before the concert was due to start, an archbishop told the crowd of cardinals and Italian dignitaries that an "urgent commitment that cannot be postponed" would prevent Francis from attending.

The prelates, assured that health was not the reason for the no-show, looked disoriented, realizing that the message he wanted to send was that, with the Church in crisis, he - and perhaps they - had too much pastoral work to do to attend social events.

"It took us by surprise," said one Vatican source on Monday. "We are still in a period of growing pains. He is still learning how to be pope and we are still learning how he wants to do it."

"In Argentina, they probably knew not to arrange social events like concerts for him because he probably wouldn't go," said the source, who spoke anonymously because he is not authorized to discuss the issue.

The picture of the empty chair was used in many Italian papers, with Monday's Corriere della Sera newspaper calling his decision "a show of force" to illustrate the simple style he wants Church officials to embrace.

Since his election on March 13, Francis, the former cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina, has not spent a single night in the opulent and spacious papal apartments.

He has preferred to live in a small suite in a busy Vatican guest house, where he takes most meals in a communal dining room and says Mass every morning in the house chapel rather than the private papal chapel in the Apostolic Palace.

The day before the concert, Francis said bishops should be "close to the people" and not have "the mentality of a prince".

On Saturday, while the concert was in progress in an auditorium just meters (yards) away, Francis was believed to be working on new appointments for the Curia, the Vatican's troubled central administration.

The administration was held responsible for some of the mishaps and scandals that plagued the eight-year reign of Pope Benedict before he resigned in February.

Francis inherited a Church struggling to deal with priests' sexual abuse of children, the alleged corruption and infighting in the Curia, and conflict over the running of the Vatican's scandal-ridden bank.

Benedict left a secret report for Francis on the problems in the administration, which came to light when sensitive documents were stolen from the pope's desk and leaked by his butler in what became known as the "Vatileaks" scandal.

The Vatican source said he expected Francis to make major changes to Curia personnel by the end of the summer.

Anger at the mostly Italian prelates who run the Curia was one of the reasons why cardinals chose the first non-European pope for 1,300 years.

The key appointment will be the next secretary of state, sometimes referred to as the Vatican's prime minister, to succeed the Italian Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who has been widely blamed for the failings of the Curia.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-snub-concert-stuns-cardinals-sends-signal-143358270.html

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Skywire Pictures Nik Wallenda Crosses Grand Canyon - Business ...

UPDATE: He made it! After nearly 23 minutes, Nik Wallenda is the first human to ever cross the Little Colorado River Gorge on a wire.

Daredevil Nik Wallenda has a wife, three children, and he's been training for one moment his entire life:

To tightrope walk across the Grand Canyon without any safety net or harness. Making it across means life, falling means death.

The National Park Service would never allow a stunt like this over the Grand Canyon ? so Wallenda had to settle for the "little Grand Canyon" over the gorge of the Colorado River near Cameron, Arizona, on tribal lands of the Navajo Nation.

Wallenda's grandfather died before viewers' eyes on live television trying to do a similar, harness-free walk.

"Thank you Jesus," Wallenda kept repeating with each step. "You're my king, you're my protector, you're my shield, you're my strength, you're my lord." He battled high winds and balanced with a 45 pound bar on the 2-inch wire. He reached the half-way point on the wire at the 11:30 minute mark.

The quarter-mile walk at 1,500 feet in the air took more than 20 minutes ? in winds ranging from a safe 18 mph to a more treacherous 30 mph. Wallenda knelt twice to wait out the stronger wind.

Here's his bio on Discovery's website:

Nik Wallenda is known as 'The King of the High Wire.' He is the seventh generation of the legendary Great Wallendas and began walking the wire at age 4. He and his family have performed some of the most famous stunts in the world, but no one else has ever dared to take on the Grand Canyon.

His incredible walk was aired on the Discovery Channel Sunday evening on a live feed.

This isn't the first feat on the tightrope for Wallenda. Last year, he successfully?walked across Niagara Falls, according to NPR.

Here are some shots of him crossing the Grand Canyon.

nik wallenda skywire

Discovery Channel

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/a-man-is-about-to-tight-rope-walk-across-the-grand-canyon-without-any-wires-2013-6

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Saturday, June 22, 2013

Germany protests over Turkish minister's comments

BERLIN (AP) ? Germany's Foreign Ministry has summoned the Turkish ambassador to hear a protest after Turkish minister accused Chancellor Angela Merkel of picking on Turkey for domestic political gain ahead of elections.

Merkel on Monday criticized the Turkish security forces' crackdown against street protests as "much too strong." The chancellor has long been skeptical of Turkey's ambitions to join the European Union; her coalition government supports continuing membership talks but this week blocked a decision to open a new chapter in negotiations.

Egemen Bagis, Turkey's minister in charge of EU affairs, said that if Merkel is looking for "internal political material" ahead of September elections "this should not be Turkey."

German Foreign Ministry spokesman Andreas Peschke said ambassador Huseyin Avni Karslioglu was summoned to the ministry Friday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/germany-protests-over-turkish-ministers-comments-103921254.html

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How some states are addressing doctor shortages

How some states are working to address a shortfall of primary care doctors:

___

CALIFORNIA

A package of bills moving through the Legislature is aimed at addressing California's medical provider gap. The legislation would allow nurse practitioners, optometrists and pharmacists to expand the types of services they can provide patients. The proposals face heavy opposition from doctors, who favor training and placing more primary care physicians in rural and other underserved communities. Opponents also worry such changes would create two classes of medical care ? one for people who have access to doctors and another for people who don't.

___

DELAWARE

Among the steps Delaware officials have taken to address the primary care physician shortage is a loan repayment program for primary care providers who commit to work in underserved areas. The program, funded by the state and federal governments, provided more than $360,000 in loan repayments to seven primary care providers in fiscal 2013. Officials say they are looking at expanding it.

___

FLORIDA

Gov. Rick Scott funded an additional 700 residency slots this year, but Florida will still need additional residencies and fellowships just to bring the state up to the national average per capita. Scott also recently signed into law a long-debated bill that expands the drug-prescribing powers of optometrists. The state now allows optometrists to prescribe oral medications to treat eye diseases. House Republicans repeatedly used the shortage of primary care physicians and nurses in the state as a reason not to expand Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act.

___

ILLINOIS

A state medical society succeeded in killing or gutting bills this year that would have given more medical decision-making authority to psychologists, dentists and advanced-practice nurses. That included one bill that would have allowed trained dentists to give flu shots and other immunizations. The dental society plans to bring the issue to lawmakers again but focus narrowly on flu shots. The group contends dentists should be prepared to respond to a future flu pandemic. They plan to make the case that the Affordable Care Act will increase the number of patients eligible for free flu shots and that the number of professionals who can give them also should increase.

___

INDIANA

State officials and professional associations representing primary care physicians and other health providers are reviewing the state's primary care providers and where they are concentrated. Shortly after the federal health care law was signed in 2010, state officials determined that Indiana had not been properly tracking the density of primary care physicians and needed to do a complete review, said David Roos, executive director of Covering Kids and Families of Indiana.

___

KANSAS

Efforts in Kansas to address medically underserved areas of the state began nearly a half-century ago at the University of Kansas, where a scholarship program is aimed at recruiting new physicians to start their practices in rural areas. Kansas has expanded those efforts in recent budget years, including legislation this year to increase the scope of study that would be eligible for the scholarships in return for serving in rural areas. Legislators also have expanded the laws to give pharmacists the ability to perform certain wellness functions, including administering vaccines.

___

KENTUCKY

The state has not yet taken steps to deal with an influx of patients, but a recent study showed Kentucky's 10,475 doctors were not enough to keep pace with current patient loads. A report from Deloitte Consulting said Kentucky needs some 3,790 additional physicians, including primary care doctors and specialists, plus 612 more dentists, 5,635 more registered nurses, 296 more physician assistants and 269 more optometrists to meet current demand. The report's recommendations included expanding the use of telemedicine, particularly to put patients in contact with specialists.

___

NEW JERSEY

Three bills in the New Jersey Legislature would give non-physicians more authority. The bills would let advanced-practice nurses determine causes of death if doctors are not available, let psychologists prescribe medications and let advanced-practice nurses prescribe drugs without the same oversight required for doctors. None of the bills has gotten far, and the Medical Society of New Jersey opposes all three.

___

NEW MEXICO

According to a state legislative report, New Mexico residents could have trouble accessing medical care due to the potential need of 2,000 physicians, 3,000 registered nurses and as many as 800 dentists. State lawmakers didn't act this year on a plan that would have allowed dental therapists to practice in the state. An association representing dentists opposed the measure, although supporters said therapists would help address the state's shortage of dentists.

___

NEW YORK

The New York health department's 2013-14 budget includes $8.5 million for programs that place physicians in underserved areas. Doctors Across New York began in 2008 and has awarded $8.9 million to support practices and $7.6 million for loan repayments. So far this year, it has provided 26 awards totaling more than $2.5 million over two years.

___

NORTH DAKOTA

North Dakota has a program that reimburses family doctors for student loans up to $90,000 for a two-year commitment to work in a rural or other underserved area. A community match is required. A related program gives similar loan repayments up to $30,000 to physician assistants and nurse practitioners for a two-year-commitment to work in rural or other underserved areas, again with a community match required.

___

OHIO

The governor wants to target graduate medical education funding toward training in primary care. Under a budget proposal still being debated, medical schools would receive about $200 million over the two-year budget period that begins in July. The state would then work with medical deans on a plan to prioritize training in primary care services, with the idea that dollars would be more focused in that area in the 2015 budget year.

___

SOUTH DAKOTA

South Dakota has a program that reimburses doctors double the University of South Dakota School of Medicine's resident tuition for the most recent four-year-period if they agree to practice for three years in underserved rural areas. The current amount is about $138,000. A related program also gives double tuition reimbursements to physician assistants, nurse practitioners and nurse midwives who agree to practice in rural areas for three years, while a third program gives a $10,000 payment to nurses, therapists, lab professionals and others who practice in a rural area for three years.

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WISCONSIN

So far, no Wisconsin bills have dealt specifically with increasing the number of physicians or granting medical decision-making authority to pharmacists and other health care workers. But the budget-writing committee of the Republican-controlled state Legislature unanimously approved a measure to shift more money toward residency programs in the state. Supporters said the bill will encourage new doctors to remain in Wisconsin.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/states-addressing-doctor-shortages-141901800.html

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