The update brings Google Now, Project Butter, and all the Jelly Bean treats -- along with some device specific fixes and enhancements
When we saw the T-Mobile Galaxy S II get it's Jelly Bean update, we knew the Skyrocket couldn't be far behind. They're essentially the exact same phone, and folks are using them interchangeably between T-Mobile and AT&T. We also figured it would be done via Kies, and sure enough, there's an update ready and pushing out to folks who connect to Samsung's desktop utility.
The update to I727UCMC1 (Android 4.1.2) has plenty of Jelly Bean goodies, like expandable notifications, Google Now, and Project Butter. It also has a few fixes specific to the Skyrocket, like the removal of Qik and MSpot, and call quality should be a bit better.
Grab you cables, fire up Kies and plug it in if you're using a Skyrocket. For more details, hit the source link, and to discuss the good and bad of this one, the forums are right here.
A Georgia man who held four firefighters hostage on Wednesday died during the rescue effort. One of the firefighters was injured. The man took the hostages in an attempt to have his utility services restored. His home was in foreclosure.?
By David Beasley,?Reuters / April 10, 2013
An EMT works in the back of an ambulance as it leaves an Suwanee, Ga., subdivision after an explosion and gunshots were heard near the scene where a man held four firefighters hostage Wednesday. A police spokesman said the suspect was dead and none of the hostages suffered serious injuries.
AP Photo/John Bazemore
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A gunman who held four Georgia?firefighters hostage on Wednesday, demanding his utilities and cell phone service be restored, was killed after an exchange of gunfire with authorities who moved in to free the captives, police said.
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An officer was wounded and the firefighters, taken hostage after responding to what had appeared to be a medical call, suffered minor injuries during the rescue at a suburban?Atlanta?home,?Gwinnett County police?spokesman?Edwin Ritter?told a news conference.
The man, whom police have not identified, apparently had been in financial troubles and demanded his power, cable television and cell phone service be restored, Ritter said.
"He wanted all those things turned back on," Ritter said. "That's why he was holding them hostage."
The gunman had initially also held a fifth firefighter captive in the home in Suwanee, about 35 miles (56 km) northeast of?Atlanta, but let that person leave to move a fire truck, police and fire department officials said.
Property records show the home is owned by Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, and a Freddie Mac spokesman confirmed to WSB-TV that the property was in foreclosure.
A SWAT unit entered the house after deciding the lives of the firefighters were in imminent danger, Ritter said.
During the rescue effort, the firefighters received superficial wounds from an explosive device used to disorient the suspect, and an officer sustained a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to the arm or hand, Ritter said.
The police spokesman could not immediately say whether the suspect died as a result of gunshots by law enforcement or a self-inflicted wound.
"This is the result of his actions," Ritter said. "We didn't want it this way but he was calling the shots, and this was the end result."
The hostage situation, which lasted several hours, drew dozens of police cars and fire engines on Wednesday afternoon to a well-groomed neighborhood of mostly two-story homes that neighbors described as safe and quiet.
Sounds of an explosion followed by a series of gunshots rattled the community as the stand-off came to an end.
"There was a giant explosion that shook my house. Then there was a second what seemed like a smaller one and then there was several semi-automatic gunfire exchanges. And then it was done," neighbor?Wesley Gossan?told CNN.
"Thirty seconds later I knew everything was OK because the guys walked out. They took the hard hats off and I just assumed everything was OK," he added.
(Additional reporting and writing by Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Steve Orlofsky, Paul Simao and Lisa Shumaker)
Twelve Chinese fishermen were charged with poaching offenses on Wednesday after their vessel ran aground on Tubbataha Reef, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the Philippines.?According to the Philippines' GMA News,?the fishermen could face up to?12 years in prison under Filipino law.
The USS Guardian, a?U.S. Navy minesweeper, was grounded on the same reef in January.
Philippine Coast Guard via Reuters
A member of the Philippine Coast Guard, left, talks to Chinese fishermen aboard their vessel on April 9, 2013.
Ted Aljibe / AFP - Getty Images
A protester donning a snorkel and holding placards attends a rally in front of the Chinese consular office in the financial district of Manila on April 10, 2013, after a Chinese fishing vessel ran aground off Tubbataha reef, around 1,000 miles from China's nearest major landmass.
Related:
South Korean coast guard clashes with armada of Chinese fishing boats
Despite a recent preoccupation with the web-based Office 365 service, the folks in Redmond haven't stopped working to bring regular MS Office to mobile users. ZDNet reports that a leaked Microsoft Office roadmap shows that the ubiquitous productivity suite is due to land on Android and iOS in October of 2014. This seems to confirm earlier rumors of an iPad-friendly version of Office, but at a much later date than previously expected.
Android and iOS users aren't the only Office aficionados receiving good news, as the leak also indicates that touch-friendly Blue updates for Word, Excel PowerPoint and OneNote are due to appear for Windows 8 by October of this year. Furthermore, April of 2014 is set to deliver a new version of Office for Mac and Windows phone, and it looks like Microsoft Outlook will finally land on Windows RT by the fall of 2014, too. Naturally, we don't know what features these updates will bring, but it's nice to know they're coming, right?
Local oncologists say they are already preparing for the effects of sequestration to cancer care.?
Some private clinics further north are already beginning to turn thousands of Medicare patients away due to the government's decreasing reimbursement, sending patients to hospitals instead.?
"Our estimates are that there will be at least a two percent to as much as 28 percent reduction in payments to physicians that do cancer medicine," said Dr. John Mattern of Virginia Oncology Associates.?
WAVY.com spoke with Dr. Mattern about these cuts happening in Hampton Roads.
"Most of the time, I never know what kind of insurance a person has," Mattern?said. "I know if they're over 65 they usually have Medicare.? But I've never made a medical decision on whether someone should get treatment or no treatment, or whether I should order a test or not based on the patients ability to pay. Will we be able to continue that? I don't know the answer to that."
He said if doctors aren't getting reimbursed, they can't stay afloat.?
"We could see patients expecting drugs that cost in the thousands, but reimbursement is only in the hundreds. That's not sustainable," Mattern said.
His group is already thinking of contingency plans.
"We're looking at ?closing offices, eliminating overtime, suggesting people take more vacation unpaid," Mattern said.
Mattern said it's a difficult situation that no one has answers to right now. He said he wishes the government could figure out cost-effective ways to care for and serve patients without everyone suffering; patients, the healthcare system or physicians.
WAVY.com talked to one local family that fully agreed with Dr. Mattern.?
"We absolutely couldn't do it without Medicare. This scares me to death," Dennis Bragg said.?
Bragg is currently battling Multiple Myeloma Cancer.? His wife, who's also a Medicare patient, recently had a second fight with breast cancer.?
"[Medicare has] been our lifeline," Kathy Bragg said.
WAVY.com found that the government does have the authority to modify the implementation of sequestration cuts to exclude cancer drugs, which currently fall under Medicare Part B drugs.?
Dr. Mattern suggests patients write their lawmakers, and check with insurance companies to see what they will and won't cover.
'They're like 'Yeah, shut up daddy. You don't make movies that we want to see!' ' actor says before this Sunday's MTV Movie Awards at 9 p.m. ET. By Brett White, with reporting by Josh Horowitz
Michael Bay, Bar Pauly, Mark Wahlberg, Rob Corddry and Ken Jeong Photo: MTV News
ROME (AP) ? U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon is urging the Syrian government to accept an expanded U.N. probe into alleged chemical weapons use, saying he has concluded that an alleged attack in Homs in December warrants investigation.
Syria on Monday rejected the expanded investigation, which it had originally sought to look into alleged use of chemical weapons by rebels in March on the village of Khan al-Assal. The rebels blame regime forces.
Britain and France asked the U.N. to investigate allegations of chemical weapons use in Khan al-Assal and another village, Ataybah, on March 19, as well as Homs on Dec. 23.
Speaking Tuesday in Rome, Ban said he decided the mission should also look into the Homs allegations and urged Syria to "extend its fullest cooperation and allow the investigation to proceed."
Facility will be National Model for Co-occurring Disorders
BETHLEHEM, Pa., April 9, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Four-Star General Barry McCaffrey (Ret), former US Drug Czar -- and Iraq and Latin American commander; Lehigh County Executive Bill Hansell; Pennsylvania Drug and Alcohol Programs Secretary Gary Tennis and Deputy Secretary Kim Bowman; and Jerry Rhodes, Chief Operating Officer of the nation's largest treatment provider, CRC Health Group, will be among VIPs participating at the grand opening of the new Lehigh County-CRC Health Group/White Deer Run treatment center at a news conference at 11AM Monday, April 15.? The facility will be a national model for co-occurring disorders involving substance abuse and mental health.? Nine million Americans have co-occurring disorders of substance abuse and mental health issues, according to SAMHSA.
The event will be held onsite at The Lehigh County Center for Recovery, 1620 Riverside Drive, Bethlehem, PA 18015.? A ribbon cutting will occur at the conclusion of the news conference.
The facility has been licensed by state authorities and will be an adult co-ed, inpatient, detoxification, rehabilitation and dual diagnosis program.? The facility is state funded. The event is open to the media and the public.
Four-Star General McCaffrey stated, "Pennsylvania has made great strides but still has some 900,000 people who need but do not receive drug and alcohol treatment according to HHS and SAMHSA. The public-private partnership with Lehigh County is an outstanding strategy to address the treatment gap and restore people to productive lives."? County Executive Bill Hansell thanked the state legislature for its "foresight in providing the crucial funding."
Rhodes stated that "the event will underscore the importance of quality treatment programs.? The partnership with Lehigh County and the facility's dual diagnosis specialization will be valuable national models."?
Other federal, state, county, and local officials will be participating in the event, together with families and patients. The facility will be run as a partnership between Lehigh County and CRC Health Group's White Deer Run division.
Following the 11AM news conference and ribbon cutting, there will be tours for media and a lunch open to all who attend.
MEDIA NOTE:? In addition to the grand opening onsite news conference, Gen. McCaffrey and?the other VIPs will be available for one-on-one interviews starting 30 minutes before and for 30 minutes after the event;?and Gen. McCaffrey may be available for phone interviews the night before and early morning of the event.? See contacts below.
Contacts: Robert Weiner/Richard Mann 301-283-0821 or cell 202-306-1200 for Gen. McCaffrey and CRC Health Group weinerpublic@comcast.net; Frank Kane for Lehigh County 610-782-3001 cell 610-790-7588 frankkane@lehighcounty.org
Apr. 9, 2013 ? Two studies funded by NASA and presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013 help explain why space radiation may increase the risk of colorectal cancer in humans.
The researchers, from Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, found that cosmic radiation impairs the ability of cells in the intestines of mice to eliminate oncogenic proteins, thus substantially increasing development of colorectal tumors.
The findings are important because they might provide a direction for researchers in designing strategies to protect space travelers against increased cancer risk, say the scientists, Shubhankar Suman, PhD, and Kamal Datta, MD. Both scientists are involved in a NASA Specialized Center of Research (NSCOR), directed by the Molecular Cancer Research Chair at Georgetown Lombardi, Albert Fornace Jr., MD.
"While there is no reliable estimate of colorectal cancer risk from space radiation exposure, we have shown that exposure to cosmic radiation causes markedly increased intestinal tumors in mice," says Datta, an assistant professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular & cellular biology.
"These findings have implications for the health of astronauts undertaking exploratory missions into outer space and for future space tourists," he says.
"Our objective is to develop a risk estimate based on mouse model studies and to identify molecular mechanisms contributing to it, so that we can develop strategies to protect astronauts during long duration space missions, such as one to Mars," says Fornace, director of the NASA program at Georgetown.
Both researchers used specialized mutant mice to study the effects of 56Fe radiation, a highly ionizing radiation prevalent in space. "This radiation is considered the greatest challenge for space exploration," says Datta. "It deposits higher amount of energy in the body than does the gamma-/x-rays causing relatively higher DNA damage. This is believed to increase carcinogenic risk in astronauts, although accurate risk estimates are not yet available."
Georgetown researchers also report that 56Fe radiation significantly increased colorectal cancer risk in mouse models of colorectal cancer through enhanced activity of beta-catenin, an oncogene that activates expression of pro-growth genes in the colon.
In his study (abstract #3600), Datta reports that tumor formation in mouse intestines after exposure to cosmic radiation, unlike after exposure to gamma radiation, was dose dependent.
"Sustained exposure during prolonged space missions such as a mission to Mars and lengthy stays at the International Space Station may cause significant cosmic radiation dose accumulation in astronauts and thus remains a long-term health concern of space exploration," says Datta.
In his study (abstract #428), Suman, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology, report that cancer causing beta-catenin levels are increased because cosmic radiation reduces the cell's ability to tag beta-catenin proteins for destruction. That means intestinal cells cannot degrade this cancer causing protein allowing uncontrolled cell growth.
"Knowing how space radiation induces tumor formation will allow us to develop preventive strategies that target this specific signaling pathway," Suman says.
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Texas deputies confirm one suspect is in custody in connection with multiple stabbings at Lone Star Community College in Houston. MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News
At least 14 people were hurt Tuesday in a stabbing spree at a Texas community college apparently carried out by a student, authorities said. Sheriff?s officials said the suspect was in custody.
At least two victims were in critical condition. It was not immediately clear how severe the other injuries were. The stabbing happened at the CyFair campus of Lone Star College, in the Houston suburb of Cypress.
Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia said that authorities were not certain what the weapon or motive was. He said the suspect was 21 years old.
Johnny Hanson / Houston Chronicle
Life Flight personnel rush a stabbing victim to a helicopter Tuesday near Lone Star College in Cypress, Texas.
Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center said it had two patients in critical condition and six in all, including four flown there by helicopter. A spokeswoman for another hospital, North Cypress Medical Center, said it had taken six stabbing victims who were in stable condition.
Two other victims were treated at the scene and declined to be taken to the hospital, the sheriff said.
The school closed for the day and ordered students to find shelter somewhere safe. Campus police caught the suspect, the Harris County Sheriff?s Office said. The school planned to open Wednesday.
The stabbing happened just after 11 a.m., a college official said. The school had initially warned students that a second suspect might be at large, but sheriff?s officials said later that they believed they had the only suspect in custody.
In January, three people were shot at a separate campus of the same college. A federal official said that those shootings appeared to be gang-related. A 22-year-old man was charged with aggravated assault.
The Lone Star system of colleges has 90,000 students in all.
This story was originally published on Tue Apr 9, 2013 1:19 PM EDT
Shingles vaccine is associated with reduction in both postherpetic neuralgia and herpes zosterPublic release date: 9-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Fiona Godwin fgodwin@plos.org 01-223-442-834 Public Library of Science
Shingles vaccine is associated with reduction in both postherpetic neuralgia and herpes zoster, but uptake in the US is low
A vaccine to prevent shingles may reduce by half the occurrence of this painful skin and nerve infection in older people (aged over 65 years) and may also reduce the rate of a painful complication of shingles, post-herpetic neuralgia, but has a very low uptake (only 4%) in older adults in the United States, according to a study by UK and US researchers published in this week's PLOS Medicine.
The researchers, led by Sinad Langan from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, reached these conclusions by examining the records of 766,330 Medicare beneficiaries* aged 65 years or more between 2007 and 2009.
They found that shingles vaccine uptake was extremely lowonly 3.9% of participants were vaccinatedbut was particularly low among black people (0.3%) and among people with a low income (0.6%).
Over the study period, almost 13,000 participants developed shingles and the vaccine reduced the rate of shingles by 48% (that is, approximately half as many vaccinated individuals developed shingles as those who were not vaccinated). However, the vaccine was less effective in older adults with impaired immune systems. The authors also found that vaccine effectiveness against post-herpetic neuralgia was 59%.
The authors say: "Herpes zoster vaccination was associated with a significant reduction in incident herpes zoster and [post-herpetic neuralgia] in routine clinical use."
They continue: "Despite strong evidence supporting its effectiveness, clinical use remains disappointingly low with particularly low vaccination rates in particular patient groups."
The authors add: " The findings are relevant beyond US medical practice, being of major importance to the many countries, including the UK, that are actively considering introducing the zoster vaccine into routine practice in the near future."
###
* Medicare is a US government health insurance scheme that mainly helps to pay the health-care costs of people aged 65 or older.
Funding: This research was funded by an NIHR Clinician Scientist award from the National Institute for Health Research, UK Department of Health, awarded to SML. The funders of the study had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the UK Department of Health.
Competing Interests: LS has undertaken consultancy for GlaxoSmithKline. DJM is on separate data safety monitoring boards for Abbott and Astellas. The authors declare no other conflicts of interest.
Citation: Langan SM, Smeeth L, Margolis DJ, Thomas SL (2013) Herpes Zoster Vaccine Effectiveness against Incident Herpes Zoster and Post-herpetic Neuralgia in an Older US Population: A Cohort Study. PLoS Med 10(4): e1001420. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001420
IN YOUR COVERAGE PLEASE USE THIS URL TO PROVIDE ACCESS TO THE FREELY AVAILABLE PAPER:
Dr Sinad Langan
NIHR Clinician Scientist
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Epidemiology and Population Health
Keppel Street
London, WC1E 7HT
UNITED KINGDOM
0044 207 9272680
sinead.langan@lshtm.ac.uk
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Shingles vaccine is associated with reduction in both postherpetic neuralgia and herpes zosterPublic release date: 9-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Fiona Godwin fgodwin@plos.org 01-223-442-834 Public Library of Science
Shingles vaccine is associated with reduction in both postherpetic neuralgia and herpes zoster, but uptake in the US is low
A vaccine to prevent shingles may reduce by half the occurrence of this painful skin and nerve infection in older people (aged over 65 years) and may also reduce the rate of a painful complication of shingles, post-herpetic neuralgia, but has a very low uptake (only 4%) in older adults in the United States, according to a study by UK and US researchers published in this week's PLOS Medicine.
The researchers, led by Sinad Langan from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, reached these conclusions by examining the records of 766,330 Medicare beneficiaries* aged 65 years or more between 2007 and 2009.
They found that shingles vaccine uptake was extremely lowonly 3.9% of participants were vaccinatedbut was particularly low among black people (0.3%) and among people with a low income (0.6%).
Over the study period, almost 13,000 participants developed shingles and the vaccine reduced the rate of shingles by 48% (that is, approximately half as many vaccinated individuals developed shingles as those who were not vaccinated). However, the vaccine was less effective in older adults with impaired immune systems. The authors also found that vaccine effectiveness against post-herpetic neuralgia was 59%.
The authors say: "Herpes zoster vaccination was associated with a significant reduction in incident herpes zoster and [post-herpetic neuralgia] in routine clinical use."
They continue: "Despite strong evidence supporting its effectiveness, clinical use remains disappointingly low with particularly low vaccination rates in particular patient groups."
The authors add: " The findings are relevant beyond US medical practice, being of major importance to the many countries, including the UK, that are actively considering introducing the zoster vaccine into routine practice in the near future."
###
* Medicare is a US government health insurance scheme that mainly helps to pay the health-care costs of people aged 65 or older.
Funding: This research was funded by an NIHR Clinician Scientist award from the National Institute for Health Research, UK Department of Health, awarded to SML. The funders of the study had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the UK Department of Health.
Competing Interests: LS has undertaken consultancy for GlaxoSmithKline. DJM is on separate data safety monitoring boards for Abbott and Astellas. The authors declare no other conflicts of interest.
Citation: Langan SM, Smeeth L, Margolis DJ, Thomas SL (2013) Herpes Zoster Vaccine Effectiveness against Incident Herpes Zoster and Post-herpetic Neuralgia in an Older US Population: A Cohort Study. PLoS Med 10(4): e1001420. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001420
IN YOUR COVERAGE PLEASE USE THIS URL TO PROVIDE ACCESS TO THE FREELY AVAILABLE PAPER:
Dr Sinad Langan
NIHR Clinician Scientist
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Epidemiology and Population Health
Keppel Street
London, WC1E 7HT
UNITED KINGDOM
0044 207 9272680
sinead.langan@lshtm.ac.uk
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - World powers believe talks with Iran over its contentious nuclear program have been substantial enough for diplomacy to continue, a senior Western diplomat said on Monday, days after a meeting in Kazakhstan failed to yield a breakthrough.
"There is enough substance for these negotiations to continue," the diplomat told reporters. "I would not expect a breakdown."
The six powers - the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany - want Iran to scale back its nuclear program because of concerns it aims to give the Islamic Republic the capability of making an atom bomb. Iran denies that.
(Reporting by Justyna Pawlak; Editing by Adrian Croft)
Soooo, I went out on a date with this girl the other night. Things went really well. I like her quite a bit.
Problem is....
I still have this fear in the back of my mind that I'm gonna be wrong. I'm afraid of liking her a whole lot then realizing I'm straight and hurting her.
I know, sounds totally irrational, but it's somehow stuck in my mind :\
Can anyone relate? Or just knock some sense into me?
John Frankel, founder and partner at FF Ventures, has a steady hand on the pulse of innovation. He's invested in companies like 500px, Appy Couple, and Moveline, to name a few, and while he doesn't see a Series A crunch on the horizon, he does see the pace of innovation rapidly heating up. After all, his firm as led seven investments in new companies since December 1, most notably in companies who are taking the smartphone and turning it into something truly functional and useful for people.
MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. (AP) ? Snowboarder Chelone Miller, the younger brother of Olympic gold medalist Bode Miller, died Sunday in the area of Mammoth Lakes, Calif. He was 29.
The Mono County Sheriff's Office confirmed his death Monday in a statement. The cause of death is being investigated, but authorities say foul play is not suspected.
Chelone Miller, of Easton, N.H., was hoping to make the U.S. squad in snowboardcross for the 2014 Sochi Games. Nicknamed Chilly, Miller recently finished fourth at the 2013 U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix in Canyons, Utah.
In addition to competing, Miller also did some filming with Warren Miller and other production companies.
"Chelone Miller was an aspiring elite athlete who had made great progress as a snowboardcross rider this past season. We are all deeply saddened at the news of his death and extend our condolences to the entire Miller family," U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association President Bill Marolt said in a statement on the team's website.
Bode Miller is a five-time Olympic medalist in alpine skiing. He sat out the 2012-13 World Cup season while recovering from a knee injury.
CAIRO (AP) ? Several hundred Christians are clashing with police and a rock-throwing crowd outside Egypt's main Coptic Orthodox cathedral in Cairo after a funeral for four Christians killed in sectarian violence.
Sunday's clashes began after gunfire erupted outside the cathedral. The funeral service quickly turned into a rally against Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood party.
Police fired tear gas to disperse the Christians, who also battled an unidentified group of men throwing rocks.
Denouncing Morsi, the mourners chanted "Leave!" and "This is our country, we will not leave."
Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt's estimated 90 million people. They have long complained of discrimination.
The four Christians and a Muslim died in violence on Saturday in a town north of Cairo.
STANLEY, N.C. (AP) ? A North Carolina man tearfully begged authorities to hurry to his house to rescue his daughter and her cousin who were buried under dirt in a 24-foot deep pit.
Thirty-one-year-old Jordan Arwood was operating a backhoe Sunday night in the pit when the walls collapsed, burying the children.
Arwood's voice is heard on a 911 tape released Monday by the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office.
He tells a dispatcher he can't see the children and urges them to get there quickly. Then he begins to sob and pray.
The bodies of two young cousins, 6-year-old Chloe Jade Arwood and 7-year-old James Levi Caldwell, were recovered Monday.
Sheriff David Carpenter would not say what was being built.
Lily Pulitzer Rousseau, the fashion designer whose vibrant shift dresses and tennis skirts defined preppy style, has died at the age of 81.
A posting on the Lilly Pulitzer Facebook page said she "passed away peacefully in Palm Beach, [Fla.] surrounded by family and loved ones."
"Lilly has been a true inspiration to us and we will miss her," the post said. "In the days and weeks ahead we will celebrate all that Lilly meant to us. Lilly was a true original who has brought together generations through her bright and happy mark on the world."
PHOTOS: Lily Pulitzer's Fashion Through the Years
Born Lillian McKim, she attended the tony Miss Porter's school in Farmington, Conn., where the future first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, was among her classmates.
Lilly married Peter Pulitzer, grandson of newspaper mogul Joseph Pulitzer.
The couple moved to Palm Beach, Fla., where they had three children: Peter, Minnie and Liza.
Despite having money and being well-known on the society circuit, Pulitzer told People Magazine she was so miserable that she landed in a Westchester, N.Y., mental hospital for six months.
"I went crazy," Pulitzer told the magazine in 1982. "I was a namby-pamby; people always made decisions for me. The doctor said I should find something to do."
Pulitzer began juicing citrus grown at her family's groves, but was always covered in juice at the end of the work day.
She designed herself a shift dress to match the juice stains. It received so many compliments that she launched her first fashion line in 1959 -- just a few dresses -- at her juice stand.
The dresses were a hit, and Pulitzer entered the fashion business full-time.
PHOTOS: Notable Deaths 2013
"It was a total change of life for me," she told W Magazine in 2008. "I entered it with no business sense. ... It was just something that I all of a sudden took over."
The brand reached new heights when Pulizter's former classmate, Jackie Kennedy, was photographed wearing one of her dresses while on vacation, according to the Lily Pulitzer website.
"Jackie wore one of my dresses -- it was made from kitchen curtain material -- and people went crazy. They took off like zingo. Everybody loved them, and I went into the dress business," Pulitzer said.
She divorced Peter Pulitzer in 1969 and that year married Cuban lawyer Enrique Rousseau, who died in 1993.
Through the years, Pulitzer's brand expanded to include country club attire, swimsuits, children's clothing, home goods and a limited selection of menswear.
Despite grossing millions of dollars each year, Pulitzer shut down her closing line in 1984 when sales began to slump.
The Lilly Pulitzer revival came a decade later when she sold the license in 1993, stepping away from the daily business grind but remaining as a consultant.
The free-spirited socialite known for going barefoot whenever possible, continuted to host parties at her Florida home and published two guides to entertaining, reveling in her belief that "it's always summer somewhere."
After five weeks of protecting these egg cases from certain disaster, I was incredibly to see that my egg cases have finally sprung for spring! Before these hatched, I was raising three live mantises. A lot of people stay away from mantises due to their short life spans, but they are among my favorite animals to take care of. Easy to handle, interesting to watch, and very entertaining to feed. A lot of people I've shown these two hate insects and arachnids, but they think these guys are pretty darn cute...
I've been breeding them for natural pest control, they have protected my succulent plants from certain doom. Once infested with aphids, I've watched them make a meal out of nearly all of them.
This photo released by the Carson City Sheriff's Office shows William McCune. A sheriff says a body believed to be that of Nevada's chief insurance examiner, McCune, was found Saturday April 6, 2013, in a river in Carson City, and four suspects were arrested in connection with his disappearance. (AP Photo/Carson City Sheriff's Department)
This photo released by the Carson City Sheriff's Office shows William McCune. A sheriff says a body believed to be that of Nevada's chief insurance examiner, McCune, was found Saturday April 6, 2013, in a river in Carson City, and four suspects were arrested in connection with his disappearance. (AP Photo/Carson City Sheriff's Department)
RENO, Nev. (AP) ? A body believed to be that of Nevada's missing chief insurance examiner was found wrapped in a blanket and bound with duct tape Saturday in a river in Carson City, and four suspects were arrested in the case, authorities said.
Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said that while a positive identification and cause of death have not been officially established, investigators believe the body found by searchers in the Carson River is that of William McCune, who disappeared earlier this week.
Authorities suspected foul play after finding evidence Thursday of a bloody, violent struggle in McCune's apartment in Carson City. Deputies were called to the apartment after the 62-year-old McCune failed to board a flight with a co-worker and other employees found no sign of him when they went to his residence.
All four suspects are from the Carson City area, Furlong said, but detectives were unsure of their relationship to McCune or the motive for the slaying.
Still, investigators continue to believe McCune's death concerned "personal" matters and was not work-related, the sheriff said. He declined to elaborate.
Michael Evans, 23, and Anthony Elliot, 20, were booked on murder charges, while Raul Garcia, 22, and Makyla Blackmore, 20, were arrested on burglary charges.
Evans was taken into custody in Carson City, while the others were arrested Saturday morning on the Las Vegas Strip. Furlong believes the latter three fled Carson City on Friday after news broke of McCune's disappearance.
"At this point, we believe all four took part in his murder and disappearance," Furlong told The Associated Press. "We anticipate that the district attorney's office will amend the criminal complaint to also charge (Garcia and Blackmore) with murder."
It wasn't immediately clear whether any of the four had an attorney, and the Las Vegas and Carson City jails don't make new inmates available to the media for comment. The three suspects in Las Vegas are expected to be returned to Carson City within a week, Furlong said.
McCune had held his position since December 2009 and worked similar jobs for two decades before that, said Nevada Division of Insurance spokesman Jake Sunderland.
As head of the division's corporate and financial affairs section, McCune worked to ensure the solvency of insurance companies in the state. He was charged with ensuring each company had sufficient money in their reserves to cover all claims and obligations.
McCune was single and without any known children, Furlong said, and there was no forced entry at his home.
The sheriff said the suspects were spotted in the area of McCune's apartment. He credited their arrests to "relentless" detective work and "some great tips from a lot of people and a lot of businesses."
While authorities have not found McCune's pickup truck, they located its license plates Friday night at a Carson City residence that Evans was known to have frequented, the sheriff said.
"We're still searching for the truck, but it's unlicensed," Furlong said. McCune's car was found Thursday at a nearby apartment complex.
Investigators continued to process evidence at McCune's home Saturday, and there was no indication yet of the weapon or weapons involved in the death.
"We haven't finished interviews and work at the scene to substantiate theories about a motive," Furlong said. "We're still processing the house and coming up with many alternatives."
The sheriff's search and rescue team found the body. An autopsy was performed Saturday by the Washoe County medical examiner's office, which will make a positive identification and rule on the cause of death.
Carson City, Nevada's capital, is a jumping-off point 30 miles south of Reno for travelers headed to Lake Tahoe or back to California across the Sierra. It has a population of about 50,000.
The Empowered Committee (EC) of State Finance Ministers will meet next month to decide on the reports for a model legislation and design of the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST).
"The Empowered Committee will meet in Mussoorie, Uttarkhand on May 10-11 to ponder over the progress made by two committees constituted during the Bhubaneswar meet in January," said a senior official at the Finance Ministry.
The Committee would also try to get a clarity from the Centre on when would the dues of states be cleared to make up for the losses on account of reduction in Central Sales Tax rate so as to clear the way for the implementation of the new indirect taxes regime the official added.
The Centre has agreed to give compensation of Rs 34,000 crore to states for lowering CST rates.
In November, the government had set up two sub-committees to resolve the issues of compensation to states for revenue loss on account of a reduction in central sales tax and the final design of GST.
These sub-committees, comprising officials from both the Centre and states, had met yesterday in Patna, to thrash out the contentious issues and are likely to submit their reports by the third week of April.
The implementation of GST, which seeks to remove the cascading impact of indirect taxes, has been delayed by three years due to a lack of consensus on several issues between the Centre and the states
Recently, Sushil Modi, chairman of empowered committee of state finance ministers and Bihar deputy chief minister, had said that 80 per cent of contentious issues related to GST have been resolved.
Besides, states had also reached a broad consensus on the design of GST under which states will be free to decide on the time of its introduction.
There was also consensus on the contentious issue of CST compensation with states agreeing to accept a lower package of Rs 34,000 crore.
The Centre will bear 100 per cent of the loss accrued to states in 2010-11 fiscal on account of lowering CST.
However, for 2011-12 and 2012-13 financial years, the Centre will provide for 75 per cent and 50 per cent of the losses.
CST, a tax imposed on the inter-state movement of goods was reduced from 4 per cent to 3 per cent in 2007-08, and further to 2 per cent in 2008-09 after introduction of Value Added tax (VAT).
Mr Chidambaram while presenting the Budget 2013-14 in Parliament, had announced that the government will release Rs 9,000 crore as the first instalment of compensation for losses incurred by states due to reduction in the Central Sales Tax rate, a precondition for the roll-out of GST - the indirect tax regime.
Coming Up In This Column:Side Effects, Like Someone in Love, Point Blank, Downton Abbey, Parade's End, Smash, but first...
Fan mail: David Ehrenstein, reacting to my comments on Cat Ballou, thought that all the things I liked about the writing and acting came together "thanks to efforts of that controversial new-fangled invention known as the Director." I didn't get around to mentioning the director, Elliot Silverstein, because this is one of those films, like M*A*S*H (1970), Chariots of Fire (1981), and Thelma and Louise (1991), that succeeds in spite of its director rather than because of him. Silverstein is very sloppy about where he puts the camera and the acting is all over the place. This was his only truly successful film, and he soon went back to television, where he started.
Side Effects (2013. Written by Scott Z. Burns. 106 minutes.)
Better than Hitchcock. Both Alfred Hitchcock and producer David O. Selznick were interested in psychiatry. In the mid-'40s, Hitchcock persuaded Selznick to buy a novel that was, according to Hitchcock's biographer, Donald Spoto, "a bizarre tale of witchcraft, satanic cults, psychopathology, murder, and mistaken identities." (The background material here is from Spoto's The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock.) Hitchcock presented some ideas on how a movie could be made out of the material to Ben Hecht, who wrote the screenplay for Spellbound (1945). Hecht's version deals with an amnesiac who replaces a man scheduled to become the head of a mental hospital. The amnesiac is accused of murder and with a helpful female psychiatrist works out his problems. Since she's played in the film by Ingrid Bergman, he falls in love with her as well. The film was a commercial success, but it's rather clunky, like many '40s films about psychiatry. And like many Hitchcock films, it's less about character than about giving the director a chance to show off. As befits Selznick, the film is a slick production with stars (Gregory Peck as the amnesiac) in a romantic mode.
Side Effects is also a thriller about a mentally disturbed person and includes murder, and as much as I love and admire Hecht, Burns's script is infinitely better than Hecht's. Burns gets into the story and the characters quickly, and he doesn't have to lay out the characters, especially the disturbed young woman, Emily Taylor, to fit the psychobabble of the trade. Burns starts with a shot of an apartment house that I suspect is sort of a tribute to the opening shot in Psycho (1960), and then we go inside to find a lot of blood. Burns flashes back three months to the return of Emily's husband from prison for insider trading. His release seems to disturb her, to the point where she drives her car into a cement wall. At the E.R., she's treated by Dr. Jonathan Banks, who in a nice twist doesn't fall in love with her. He does suspect that at least some of her problems come from the drugs she's been taking. The doctor is possibly not the only one suspicious. Audience members may be too, since they know the film is directed by Steven Soderberg, who already showed in Erin Brockovich (2000) that he doesn't believe in better living through chemistry. And Emily kills...well, I know it's only 25 minutes into the film, but I'm going to avoid as many spoilers as I can. What's shocking about the death is that it happens only 25 minutes in. After all, Hitch set the standard with Psycho that you can kill off a big star, but only at 40 minutes in. So we're unnerved, and rightly so.
Whereas Hitch and Hecht were making a big, glossy Hollywood film of its period, Burns is focused more on character. Emily is more than just a case study, although we may not think so right away. Burns and Rooney Mara, undoubtedly with help from that "new-fangled invention the Director," do a brilliant job of showing the effects of the different drugs she takes on Emily. The peril of prescription drug use is only one red herring that Burns throws out. Burns and Mara's detailing gets even more spectacular, so much so that you may want to go back and see the film a second time to see how well they've set it all up. Burns's plotting is a lot better than Hecht's, and Soderbergh's direction is a whole lot better than Hitch's, since, as we've seen in many of his films, he's very interested in character and knows how to get great performances out of the actors. Several reviews have called Side Effects a "Hitchcockian" thriller. It is, but it's better than the Master.
Like Someone in Love (2012. Written by Abbas Kiarostami, based on his play. 109 minutes.)
Not another shaggy dog story...oh...wait a minute. You may remember from US #73 that I loved Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy (2010) in part because it was a wonderful shaggy-dog story: Juliette Binoche's Elle and William Shimell's James meet, we assume for the first time, but then an innkeeper assumes they're married, so they play along. And it seems more and more like they have had some relationship in the past...and we never find out.
I assumed from the beginning of Like Someone In Love that Kiarostami wasn't doing that this time around. He starts with a long scene in a Tokyo club where we listen to a young girl, Akiko, talk on the phone and to her friends. She's a college student and works nights as an escort. We know she's a liar from her conversation with her boyfriend about where she is at present. She says she has a test tomorrow, but we're not convinced. She says her grandmother is in town, and we're not convinced about that either until we hear from grandma on the phone. Her pimp, who seems like an ordinary businessman (certainly not your typical pimp, either in clothing or attitude), wants her to take tonight's job, since it's a man he respects greatly. By the end of this sequence we feel grounded in Akiko's world.
So she goes to the apartment of a retired professor, Takashi. Kiarostami again takes his time. We get a lot of detail about Takashi's life and his apartment, the kind of detail I found missing in Amour (2012). And we watch the nuances between Akiko and Takashi. They don't sleep together, and we suspect he just wants the companionship. She's perfectly willing to just get a good night's sleep in his bed.
The next morning he takes her to the college, where he used to teach. He sees her talking with her boyfriend, who seems to be manhandling her. After she goes into the college, the boyfriend comes over to Takashi, assuming the older man is Akiko's grandfather, and like Elle in Certified Copy, Takashi lets him believe the lie. That should have made me suspicious, but the connection didn't occur to me until just now when I was writing this: Takashi thinks he boyfriend is really in love with her. The threesome spends some time driving about Tokyo. We are not in the car quite as much as we were in Kiarostami's hyper-realistic 2002 film Ten, but almost.
The realistic detail of this film makes us feel that this isn't the shaggy-dog story of Certified Copy.) And then the film just stops. The relationships aren't given closure, and Kiarostami leaves what will happen to these people literally up in the air. And I thought, damn, he's done it again. I should complain that this trip doesn't take us to a destination, but the trip and its passengers were so interesting I didn't mind. Well, not too much.
Woods hasn?t won a major since 2008, and last won the Masters in 2005. But his three victories this season, including a blistering performance at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, vaulted him past rival Rory McIlroy, and turned him into an overwhelming 3-to-1 favorite in the year?s first major tournament.
McIlroy took nearly three weeks off to prepare for the Masters, and he and fan favorite Phil Mickelson are just behind Woods at 10-to-1 odds.
The 23-year-old Northern Ireland native is currently in the second round of the Valero Texas Open, after just making par in the first round with four bogeys balanced by four birdies.
Mickelson missed the cut after the second round of the Arnold Palmer in March with three double bogeys. He followed up that poor performance with a 16th place finish at the Shell Houston Open.
Still Mickelson has had far more recent success than Woods at Augusta, capturing the 2010 tournament.
Defending champion Bubba Watson sits at 35-to-1, with no victories this year, but two top 10 finishes. A full list of the odds can be viewed here.
ESPN will broadcast the first two rounds of the tournament beginning on Thursday April 11 from 3 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., and the same schedule that Friday for the second round.
CBS will cover the third and the final rounds on Saturday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. The full schedule of events can be found at Masters.com.
The network?s Web site, CBSSports.com, will have a live online stream beginning on Monday April 8 for the practice rounds, and will fill in any other time gaps throughout the tournament for more than 90 hours of coverage. There will also be three days of practice rounds, with the Par 3 contest on Wednesday.
The Southern California church headed by popular evangelical Pastor Rick Warren said his 27-year-old son committed suicide on Saturday.
Warren's Saddleback Valley Community Church near Los Angeles said in a statement that Matthew Warren had struggled with mental illness and deep depression.
"Matthew was an incredibly kind, gentle and compassionate young man whose sweet spirit was encouragement and comfort to many," the church's statement said. "Unfortunately, he also suffered from mental illness resulting in deep depression and suicidal thoughts. Despite the best health care available, this was an illness that was never fully controlled and the emotional pain resulted in his decision to take his life."
Warren, the author of The Purpose Driven Life, said in an email to church staff that he and his wife had enjoyed a fun Friday evening with their son. But Matthew Warren took his life Saturday after "a momentary wave of despair at his home."
Over the years, Matthew Warren had been treated by America's best doctors, medication, counselors and prayers for healing, Warren said.
"You who watched Matthew grow up knew he was an incredibly kind, gentle, and compassionate man," he wrote. "He had a brilliant intellect and a gift for sensing who was most in pain or most uncomfortable in a room. He'd then make a bee-line to that person to engage and encourage them."
Saddleback's website says that about 20,000 people attend weekend services at the church.
In 2008, the church sponsored a presidential forum with Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney had been invited to a similar forum last fall, but Warren canceled it, saying the campaign had become too uncivil.
New York, Apr 6 (ANI): American professional basketball player Jeremy Lin has revealed in an interview that he was not drafted by any National Basketball Association (NBA) club or get a major college scholarship because of his ethnicity.
According to the Houston Rockets guard, even though he led his high school team in Palo Alto, California, to a state championship, he did not offered a scholarships at a major US college like Stanford or UCLA because he is an Asian, the New York Daily News reports.
According to Lin, although ethnicity has no bearing on athletic skill, outdated perceptions about race still exist, adding that had he been black or white, he would have gotten a scholarship to his Stanford, his dream school.
Lin, who signed a three-year deal with the Houston Rockets in the offseason, said that instead, he had gone to Harvard, where no athletic scholarships are granted.
The interview explores Lin?s meteoric rise to fame after he came off the Knicks bench last spring as a relative unknown and created the phenomenon known as ?Linsanity? with his remarkable play, the report added. (ANI)
It should be automatic. When you are in pain, a doctor gives you a pill and the pain goes away. At least, if you believe the TV ads, that is. Unfortunately, life is not always so conveniently magical. There are many times the pain does not disappear. At this point you hit difficulty. Unfortunately, the medical profession has been talking with the pharmaceutical industry and the insurers. There?s general agreement the best approach is to give you pills. This saves the doctor?s time. If the doctor spends less time with you, the insurers save money. If doctors give you more pills, this increases the profit of the drug manufacturers. So everyone on the supply side of the process makes more money by giving you drugs. Unfortunately, this is not always the best solution for your problems.
Although we give the Europeans a hard time when it comes to their healthcare services, they have one feature we lack. Their approach is ?evidence-based?. There are both national and European review bodies to look at all the evidence on every drug and treatment. This helps everyone decide which work the best (and which do not work at all). So, when it comes to authorizing payment, public funds will only pay for those treatments where the clinical evidence shows them effective. There?s nothing to prevent Europeans from buying private health insurance and, if they fall ill, claiming any treatment no matter whether it?s shown to be effective. But come back to our system and we find the FDA does nothing more than licence a drug as safe and more effective than the placebo. There?s no formal procedure to monitor the performance of drugs and medical devices once they are released into everyday use. This means we could be prescribed a drug or have some other treatment where there?s no evidence it?s going to help in any way.
It might surprise you to learn the European approach to pain management is not simply to prescribe painkillers. They prefer a holistic strategy which focuses on the patient and his or her needs. So it becomes a team effort. Counselors will discuss problems with the patient, visiting their homes and the workplace, demonstrating how everyday tasks can be performed with less difficulty. Physical therapists will devise exercise programs to build up muscle strength and improve mobility. Cognitive behavioral therapists will devise more general coping skills for improving the quality of life.
All this, of course, is labor-intensive. We will not go down this line unless you have a top-of-the-range insurance policy that will pay for one-to-one time with a range of specialists. Sadly, the politics of our healthcare service focus on the profit to be made out of our suffering, rather than on how to improve our lives so we suffer less or not at all. Our service gives you Tramadol because it usually works and it?s cheap. If you are still in pain, the doctor will increase the dosage of Tramadol. If you are still in pain, there are more powerful drugs to try. Not surprisingly, the Europeans give us a hard time for failing to make you, the patient, the focus of our doctors? attention.
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Public release date: 9-Apr-2013
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