Local 100 Partnering with American Cancer Society in Cancer ...

Under the leadership of the TWU Local 100 Womens Committee and our Safety Department, the union is recommending that transit workers sign up to participate in a new study, Cancer Prevention Study 3 (CPS-3), which aims to find out, over a long period of time, what factors predispose a person to get cancer. The study is completely confidential and only requires one 20-minute visit to an office, filling out a questionnaire, and regular follow-ups over time. Previous studies have greatly added to our store of knowledge about cancer, including the finding that regularly taking low-dose aspirin reduces the risk of colon cancer by 24% and deaths by 35%, and the risk of breast cancer by 50%. Read about the colon cancer study here and about the breast cancer study here. Check with your doctor before starting a low-dose aspirin regimen. Women?s Committee Chair Liz Wilson and Safety Director for Subways Tom Carrano strongly encourage all members to sign up for CPS-3. Here are links for transit workers living in Manhattan and the Bronx. A Brooklyn location will be coming soon.

Source: http://www.twulocal100.org/story/local-100-partnering-american-cancer-society-cancer-prevention-study-3

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New Texas Senator Ted Cruz blazing a trail in Washington

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For new U.S. senators, the drill typically goes something like this: Keep quiet once you arrive in Washington, learn how things work and then begin asserting yourself.

That is not exactly the path Ted Cruz is taking.

He has been in office for barely six weeks, but already the senator from Texas, a favorite of the conservative Tea Party movement, has shown a provocative, in-your-face style that has won him criticism and praise.

Cruz, 42, has been chided by Democrats and even fellow Republicans who say he trampled Senate etiquette during contentious hearings in which he went after former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, Democratic President Barack Obama's nominee for defense secretary.

While some Republican leaders have sought to broaden the party's appeal with a more moderate tone on a range of issues, Cruz has unabashedly - and often dramatically - cast himself as a hard-line conservative with a distaste for compromise.

He was one of only three senators to vote against Secretary of State John Kerry's confirmation, and sponsored a doomed-to-fail bill to repeal Obama's healthcare overhaul, which some conservatives view as socialized medicine.

Cruz voted against both a Hurricane Sandy relief package and raising the government's debt ceiling. Cruz, the son of a Cuban immigrant, has also expressed "deep concerns" about a bipartisan Senate plan to give many of the nation's 11 million illegal immigrants a possible path to U.S. citizenship.

All of which have made Cruz an intriguing player in Washington at a time when some Republicans are emphasizing social programs and compassionate immigration policies to try to win over Hispanics, who voted overwhelmingly for Obama in the November election.

Cruz's early influence in Washington was evident on Tuesday, when a Senate committee hearing on Hagel's nomination as defense secretary essentially became a discussion of Cruz's tactics.

In recent weeks, Cruz has suggested that Hagel's nomination was endorsed by Iran, and that Hagel was not being forthcoming enough about his finances.

Before the Democratic-led Senate Armed Services Committee voted to back Hagel's confirmation on Tuesday on a party-line, 14-11 vote, Cruz angered lawmakers in both parties by suggesting, without giving evidence, that Hagel might have taken money from countries such as North Korea.

That drew a rebuke from Democratic Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, who said Cruz had "gone over the line."

It also prompted a warning to Cruz from a fellow Republican, John McCain of Arizona, who had sharply questioned Hagel during the hearings and was about to vote against Hagel's nomination.

"No one on this committee at any time should impugn his character or his integrity," McCain said of Hagel, a fellow veteran of the Vietnam War.

'A POLITICAL PHENOMENON'

Cruz's aggressive approach has made him a favorite conversation piece in Washington, where headlines in recent days have referred to him as an "attack dog" and a "chicken hawk" - a term used by critics for those who take a strong pro-defense stance but have served little or no time in the armed forces.

CNN broadcaster Wolf Blitzer chided Cruz during an interview about the need to compromise. MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida, refused to utter Cruz's name while denouncing the senator's questioning of Hagel at his confirmation hearing as a "clown show."

Cruz, who declined through an aide to be interviewed for this story, has been unapologetic.

"I view all of that as a sign that maybe we're doing something right," he said recently on conservative Glenn Beck's radio show.

Cruz's ambition and no-holds-barred style have made him a hero among conservative activists and raised talk that Cruz - like Florida Senator Marco Rubio, another Hispanic rising star among Republicans - might run for president as soon as 2016.

"He's a political phenomenon, and he has managed to become a national figure in a very short period of time," said Steve Munisteri, chairman of the Texas Republican Party. "I have no doubt that a year from now, virtually every Republican activist in the country will know who Ted Cruz is."

But some analysts said Cruz's confrontational approach also put him at risk of being marginalized and portrayed as a political bomb thrower in a gridlocked Congress.

"He talks about issues from an ideological perspective. But has shown no sign of being someone who could sit down and work out a solution to a complicated problem," said political scientist Cal Jillson of Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Norm Ornstein, a congressional analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, said Cruz had been pushing the limits on standards of behavior in the tradition-bound Senate.

GRASS-ROOTS SUPPORT

"In the modern, cable television-talk radio media age, the more outrageous you are, the more attention you get," Ornstein said. "And Cruz is no dummy. He's a smart, articulate guy. You'll be seeing and hearing him a lot."

Cruz captured his Senate seat after upsetting Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, the choice of the state party establishment, in the Republican primary. That followed months of political spade work at small county meetings around the state that won Cruz a dedicated grass-roots following.

"I see Ted as someone who gives a voice and representation to people like me, who feel like they have had no voice and no power," said Katrina Pierson, founder of the Grassroots Texans Network and a board member of the Dallas Tea Party, who was an early Cruz supporter.

But Cruz, a Harvard Law School graduate who was a clerk for former Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist and served as Texas solicitor general, has also built bridges with more established Republicans eager to court the party's conservative wing and promote a rising Hispanic star.

Party leaders gave him a plum speaking slot at last year's national convention, and sought-after appointments to the Senate Judiciary and Armed Services committees once he was elected. They also made him vice chairman of the Senate Republican campaign arm, which will recruit and back candidates in the 2014 elections.

The top two Senate Republicans, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and John Cornyn of Texas, both hope to avoid primary challenges from conservatives next year and have sought to strengthen their relationships with Cruz.

Cruz accompanied McConnell on a congressional visit to Israel and Afghanistan last month and won an admirer in the process. McConnell told the National Review Online afterward that Cruz was "ready for prime time on day one, which is pretty unusual for somebody who just got sworn in."

Republican leaders also have been eager for Cruz, whose father was born in Cuba and came to Texas in 1957, to help them gain support among Hispanics.

But Cruz refused to back a bipartisan Senate immigration plan, putting him at odds with Rubio and with the views of most Hispanics, who polls show support a broad path to citizenship.

"To allow those who came here illegally to be placed on such a path is both inconsistent with the rule of law and profoundly unfair to the millions of legal immigrants who waited years, if not decades, to come to America legally," Cruz said in a statement after the Senate immigration plan was made public.

Trey Martinez Fischer, a Democratic state representative in Texas and head of the state's Mexican-American Legislative Caucus said Cruz represented the "extreme conservative, highly partisan" wing of the Republican Party.

"I would caution anybody who looks to Senator Cruz as a role model for Hispanics," Martinez Fischer said. "There is a difference between being the Hispanic candidate and being the candidate who happens to be Hispanic. He's the latter."

(Editing by David Lindsey and Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/texas-senator-ted-cruz-blazing-trail-washington-060210411.html

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'Guardians of the Galaxy' movie's Rocket Raccoon to be mix of CGI and 'rotomation'

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

Just in case you were wondering, "Guardians of the Galaxy" teammate Rocket Raccoon won't be played by a man in a suit in Marvel's upcoming film.

In a recent interview with Cinema Blend, Marvel EVP of Visual Effects Victoria Alonso opened up about the studio's interstellar superhero flick, telling the outlet that the team's furriest member will be created using a blend of CGI and "rotomation," essentially a cross between "rotoscoping" (see: Richard Linklater's "Waking Life" and "A Scanner Darkly") and traditional animation.

"You can?t do any motion capture with a raccoon ? they won?t let you put the suit on," laughed Alonso. "But we will do rotomation, probably, for some of the behavior. Rocket will have his own personality, of course, and clearly we can?t do mocap on a tree, per say, but we definitely will have performers to emulate what James Gunn will lead to be the behavior and the performance. He?s very clear on where he wants to take the characters."

"Mocap," of course, is "a process by which a device can be used to capture patterns of live movement; the data is then transmitted to a computer, where simulation software displays it applied to a virtual actor." (Credit: Google)

Also concerning "Guardians," which recently snagged "Parks and Recreation" thesp Chris Pratt for the role of Star-Lord, Alonso confirmed that principal photography is slated to kick off in June, though work for director James Gunn begins much, much sooner.

"Our director travels next week and it?s going, baby!" she said. "It?s a fast train to a beautiful place."

"Guardians of the Galaxy" is slated for release on August 1, 2014.

Source: http://www.hitfix.com/articles/guardians-of-the-galaxys-rocket-raccoon-to-be-mix-of-cgi-and-rotomation

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Vanderbilt study reveals clues to childhood respiratory virus

Public release date: 13-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Craig Boerner
craig.boerner@vanderbilt.edu
615-322-4747
Vanderbilt University Medical Center

New Vanderbilt-led research published in the Feb. 14 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine has identified the relatively unknown human metapneumovirus (MPV) as the second most common cause of severe bronchiolitis in young children.

Senior author John Williams , M.D., associate professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and a well-known expert in MPV research, said it is gratifying to offer a clearer picture of how this virus impacts children.

"We found MPV is as important a cause of respiratory illness as influenza, and caused more illness than the three common types of parainfluenza virus combined. In fact, in young children, the burden of MPV was second only to RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) as a cause of bronchiolitis," Williams said.

The prospective research spanned six years, from 2003 to 2009, and involved samples taken from more than 10,000 children under age 5. The children were hospitalized, treated in an emergency department, or seen in an outpatient clinic with a lower respiratory infection (bronchiolitis).

Lead author Kathryn Edwards, M.D., the Sarah H. Sell and Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in Pediatrics and director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program, led the clinical portion of the study while Williams' laboratory tested the samples for their viral content.

Three New Vaccine Surveillance Network (NVSN) sites participated: Rochester, N.Y., Cincinnati and Nashville, making this the largest prospective trial to date to investigate the burden of MPV.

Researchers found MPV tends to affect more children over age 1 than RSV, and while both viral infections strike in late winter or spring, MPV has a seasonal peak that lags behind the typical peak for RSV by about a month. The authors said physicians commonly see patients with this virus, but know little about it.

"It is important to understand the burden of disease caused by human metapneumovirus so that we can work on vaccines to prevent them. We want to understand the enemy so that we can counteract it," said Edwards.

MPV was first described in 2001 and there are no specific treatments or vaccines for it other than supportive care for bronchiolitis, such as oxygen, bronchodilators and intravenous fluids. No children involved in this study died from their infections. Williams said this is generally true for all the major causes of bronchiolitis in the United States because of the level of medical care available in this country.

"But in developing nations worldwide, lower respiratory illness is a leading cause of death in young children. Only diarrhea kills more children under the age of 5. We can infer, because of this study, that MPV is a major contributor to these deaths worldwide. We hope this will help stimulate more interest in research on vaccines and treatment for MPV," Williams said.

###

The major funding for this work came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with additional funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Other Vanderbilt authors include Marie Griffin, M.D., MPH, professor of Preventive Medicine and Yuwei Zhu, M.D., M.S., senior associate in Biostatistics.

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[ | 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.

Public release date: 13-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Craig Boerner
craig.boerner@vanderbilt.edu
615-322-4747
Vanderbilt University Medical Center

New Vanderbilt-led research published in the Feb. 14 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine has identified the relatively unknown human metapneumovirus (MPV) as the second most common cause of severe bronchiolitis in young children.

Senior author John Williams , M.D., associate professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and a well-known expert in MPV research, said it is gratifying to offer a clearer picture of how this virus impacts children.

"We found MPV is as important a cause of respiratory illness as influenza, and caused more illness than the three common types of parainfluenza virus combined. In fact, in young children, the burden of MPV was second only to RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) as a cause of bronchiolitis," Williams said.

The prospective research spanned six years, from 2003 to 2009, and involved samples taken from more than 10,000 children under age 5. The children were hospitalized, treated in an emergency department, or seen in an outpatient clinic with a lower respiratory infection (bronchiolitis).

Lead author Kathryn Edwards, M.D., the Sarah H. Sell and Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in Pediatrics and director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program, led the clinical portion of the study while Williams' laboratory tested the samples for their viral content.

Three New Vaccine Surveillance Network (NVSN) sites participated: Rochester, N.Y., Cincinnati and Nashville, making this the largest prospective trial to date to investigate the burden of MPV.

Researchers found MPV tends to affect more children over age 1 than RSV, and while both viral infections strike in late winter or spring, MPV has a seasonal peak that lags behind the typical peak for RSV by about a month. The authors said physicians commonly see patients with this virus, but know little about it.

"It is important to understand the burden of disease caused by human metapneumovirus so that we can work on vaccines to prevent them. We want to understand the enemy so that we can counteract it," said Edwards.

MPV was first described in 2001 and there are no specific treatments or vaccines for it other than supportive care for bronchiolitis, such as oxygen, bronchodilators and intravenous fluids. No children involved in this study died from their infections. Williams said this is generally true for all the major causes of bronchiolitis in the United States because of the level of medical care available in this country.

"But in developing nations worldwide, lower respiratory illness is a leading cause of death in young children. Only diarrhea kills more children under the age of 5. We can infer, because of this study, that MPV is a major contributor to these deaths worldwide. We hope this will help stimulate more interest in research on vaccines and treatment for MPV," Williams said.

###

The major funding for this work came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with additional funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Other Vanderbilt authors include Marie Griffin, M.D., MPH, professor of Preventive Medicine and Yuwei Zhu, M.D., M.S., senior associate in Biostatistics.

---

[ | 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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/vumc-vsr021313.php

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Employee Facebook privacy bill comes to Colorado

The Facebook logo is reflected in a young woman's sunglasses as she browses on a tablet in this 2012 file photo. (AP file photo)

DENVER?Colorado lawmakers are considering a bill to protect social media privacy by banning employers from requiring passwords to personal accounts.

A bill up for its first hearing Tuesday in a House committee would prohibit required disclosure of personal passwords or account information on social networking sites such as Facebook.

The bill does not prohibit companies from looking at Facebook pages or punishing employees for what they post on their personal sites. But the bill prohibits required password disclosure of personal accounts.

In their effort to vet job applicants, some companies have started asking for passwords to log into a prospective employee's accounts on social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. Critics call it an invasion of privacy.

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House Bill 1046: http://bit.ly/UOffsH

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/dp-news-local/~3/cKxbBth7pac/employee-facebook-privacy-bill-comes-colorado

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Bad News: Obamacare Is Going to Make the Doctor Shortage Worse

If you had surgery at New York City?s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center?one of the top cancer centers in the world?you may not see your surgeon for your post-surgery exam. More and more, it?s likely to be a ?surgical assistant,? someone who?s completed years of training and may have even?been a member of the surgical team. The surgical assistant gives the report to the surgeon, who can act immediately if there?s a problem and check up later if recovery is going well. Having the assistant has two benefits: It frees up the surgeon to do more surgery or deal with complications; and it can lower costs because the assistant is paid a lot less than the doctor.

Why Everyone Under 26 Should Thank Obamacare

This isn?t a new phenomenon, but it?s one that will likely become more common.?Hospitals, clinics, emergency rooms, and medical practices are increasingly using medical and surgical assistants, often referred to as ?physician extenders.? That?s important, since, starting in January 2014, the Affordable Care Act will add millions more Americans to the U.S. healthcare system?right at the same time that we?re hearing more urgent reports about a shortage of primary care physicians?internists, family physicians, pediatricians, and geriatricians.

Quick Study: More Americans Skipping Doctor Visits

?After high school graduation, it takes about 12 years to produce a primary care doctor?four years of undergraduate education, four years of medical school, and three to four years of residency training,? says Laura Tobler, who follows primary care for the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), in Washington, D.C. ?So increasing the number of primary care doctors is not a quick fix. In the meantime, nurse practitioners and physicians? assistants may assume more responsibility for delivering primary medical care.?

A 2012 study by the American Association of Medical Colleges predicts a shortfall of 45,000 primary care doctors by 2020, a result of a combination of factors: the many newly insured; a large aging population (i.e., Boomers), who are more likely to go to the doctor; more docs leaving primary care as reimbursements go down; and fewer medical students choosing a primary care specialty because the hours can be longer and the income lower than other medical specialties.

Across the country, though, non-doctor professionals, including nurse practitioners?who get advanced training beyond their initial nursing degree ?physician and surgical assistants, and many pharmacists are already providing primary care services to patients, especially in rural areas where there may be few practicing doctors, or, increasingly, none at all. Physician and surgical assistants may do their training as part of a college degree, or go back for an advanced degree, which usually takes two to three years. And, unlike medical school, physician assistants work with patients early on in their training.

Affordable Care Act Won't End Disparities

What?s more, an increasing number of pharmacy schools are including primary care training in their curriculum, and many offer a ?community pharmacy? residency option that can include training on preventing and treating diabetes, obesity, heart disease and other medical conditions.

Chances are good you?ve already been treated by a physician assistant and just didn?t realize it. Urgent care centers and emergency rooms, for example, often have physician assistants at different points before you reach the examining room. State laws generally allow physician assistants to do physical exams, diagnose and treat illnesses, order and interpret tests, handle preventive services and, in most states, write prescriptions, though just about always under a doctor?s supervision. During an ice storm in Silver Spring, Maryland, several years ago, for example, dozens of patients came in with bruises and breaks from falls on the ice, and physician assistants were pivotal in moving patients along for X-rays and checking them out, freeing up the physicians to care for the seriously injured.

The Affordable Care Act authorizes $50 million for ten nurse-managed primary care clinics in underserved areas, according to the NCSL, and there are hundreds more clinics headed by nurse practitioners. NCSL data shows that nurse practitioners?are the fastest-growing group of primary caregivers?increasing at a rate of 9.44 percent per capita, compared to 1.17 percent for physicians. Ten states, many with large rural areas, including Alaska and Montana, allow nurse practitioners to work independently.?In June 2012, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius announced $32 million in funding to train more than 600 primary care physician assistants. All of these changes mean we're likely to see far more non-physician folks for our healthcare in the months and years to come.

What do you think about the trend toward seeing non-physician healthcare professionals for your care?
?

Related Stories on TakePart:

? Confused About Healthcare Reform? A New Guide Helps You Make Sense of It

? That New Box on Your W-2 (And Why You Should Care)

? A Quickie Guide to Obamacare: Four Big Changes You Need to Understand

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Fran Kritz is a?freelance writer specializing in health and health?policy and lives in Silver?Spring, Maryland. Takepart.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bad-news-obamacare-going-doctor-shortage-worse-193118981.html

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Finger-pointing trumps problem-solving on budget

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio takes questions from employees after a tour of Vinylmax LLC, Monday, Feb. 11, 2013, in Hamilton, Ohio. Vinylmax is a top window producing company. (AP Photo/Al Behrman)

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio takes questions from employees after a tour of Vinylmax LLC, Monday, Feb. 11, 2013, in Hamilton, Ohio. Vinylmax is a top window producing company. (AP Photo/Al Behrman)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Just about everyone in official Washington is in agreement that big across-the-board spending cuts at the Pentagon and throughout domestic federal programs on March 1 are a bad idea.

So far, however, the warring factions in the nation's capital seem more interested in finger-pointing than problem-solving.

Top House Republicans have embarked on a PR campaign reminding the public that the idea for the across-the-board cuts originated in Obama's White House.

Senate Democrats are preparing a bill to substitute about $120 billion in alternative deficit cuts over 10 years and prevent the automatic cuts ? in Washington parlance, a sequester ? through the end of calendar 2013. Its biggest component is a $47 billion tax increase on the rich; that is sure to prompt a GOP filibuster, probably successful, that will give Democrats political cover ? and ammo.

"We again find ourselves in sad and familiar territory," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "Democrats sit on their hands until the last minute. Then they offer some gimmicky bill designed to fail."

Then there's President Barack Obama. He appeared before reporters at the White House last week to urge lawmakers to come up with a short-term plan to avoid the sequester. But Obama offered nothing specific, even though there are plenty of options at the ready after several recent rounds of failed Washington budget negotiations.

House Republicans do not have a plan to shut off the cuts and instead point to a spending cut bill that passed twice last year, most recently by a slender 215-209 vote in December. The GOP now controls eight fewer seats in the House and there's hardening sentiment among some tea party Republicans to allow the automatic cuts to take effect. It's not clear whether GOP leaders like Speaker John Boehner of Ohio could muster enough support to stop them.

"They seem content to sit on the sidelines and let the sequester take effect," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

The Senate bill would replace the automatic spending cuts with a tax increase patterned after the so-called Buffett Rule, which would require people with million-dollar incomes to pay a minimum 30 percent income tax. The rule is named after billionaire Warren Buffett, who championed it on the grounds that it wasn't fair for his secretary to pay a higher effective tax rate than him. That's because taxes on most earned or wage income are generally higher than taxes on investments.

The Buffett rule was a wedge issue in last year's campaign and was rejected by Senate Republicans in April. It's sure to prompt Republicans to scuttle the upcoming Democratic bill in a filibuster vote expected to be held just days before the cuts take effect March 1.

All sides now think Washington is inevitably drifting into the sequester trap. Everyone's sticking to their positions. It's as if the only way out of the crisis is to stumble into it ? and hope the resulting political heat drives the battling sides to compromise.

Republicans say the moment calls for presidential leadership.

"The president warned of grave economic consequences if the sequester were to go into effect, but he didn't announce any specific plans for how he would address it," Boehner told reporters last week. "He didn't bother to actually outline how he would replace the sequester that he suggested and insisted upon."

Senior White House aide Jason Furman said last week that any short-term plan should include "a balanced combination of spending and revenue measures." He would not elaborate. Nor have Obama and Boehner talked recently, other than pleasantries at the inauguration. Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., haven't been in touch either, even as the cuts loom ever closer.

"There's an eerie similarity here isn't there to previous occurrences?" McConnell said Tuesday. "Take no action. Go right up to the deadline. And have an 11th hour negotiation. Read my lips, I'm not interested in an eleventh-hour negotiation."

The idea for the sequester came from the White House during negotiations in the summer of 2011 to increase the government's borrowing cap. Then, the White House pushed it as a way to avoid a second vote to increase debt limit that would have occurred in the middle of Obama's re-election campaign.

Whatever their reservations, top Republicans voted for the idea.

The sequester was intended to be so harsh that its prospect would drive a deficit-cutting "supercommittee" created by those talks toward an agreement. It did not.

The cuts were originally due to hit Jan. 1 but lawmakers gave themselves a two-month reprieve in last month's deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff.

Many Republicans see the prospect of the sequester as their best chance to force Obama to agree to cuts in government benefit programs like Medicare, and some tea party Republicans are willing to absorb the sequester cuts if he won't go along. GOP leaders across the board say they won't agree to tax increases demanded by Democrats as part of any solution.

Obama carries the power of his office and the fact that he's more popular with the public than Capitol Hill Republicans into the battle. So Republicans already have been working overtime to remind voters that the sequester idea came from Obama's administration. Still, blaming the president for something some GOP members are embracing promises to be a tightrope exercise for Republican leaders.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-02-12-Budget%20Fight/id-795a6c86770d442c93379cb1f6cec4cc

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Community health workers help type 2 diabetes care

Feb. 11, 2013 ? Researchers who conducted a clinical trial in American Samoa to test whether community health workers could help adults with type 2 diabetes found that the patients who received the intervention were twice as likely to make a clinically meaningful improvement as those who remained with care only in the clinic. The results appear in the journal Diabetes Care.

Newly published results from a randomized controlled clinical trial in the Pacific U.S. territory of American Samoa add clear evidence for the emerging idea that community health workers can meaningfully improve type 2 diabetes care in medically underserved communities.

In the U.S. territory, 21.5 percent of adults have type 2 diabetes. Meanwhile, 58 percent of families are below the U.S. poverty level. The research team, led by public health researchers from Brown and The Miriam Hospital, wanted to test whether four trained local community health workers led by a nurse case-manager could extend the reach of the territory's limited medical staff.

For their study, published online in the journal Diabetes Care, the team recruited 268 Samoans with type 2 diabetes and randomly assigned them, according to their villages, into two groups: One panel received a personal, culturally tailored intervention from community health workers, and one group continued with only their usual primary care.

After a year, members of the group that received the intervention were twice as likely as those in the usual care group to have made a clinically significant improvement in blood glucose levels, the researchers found.

"This approach of using community health workers and home visits can work to help individuals better manage their diabetes," said Stephen McGarvey, professor of epidemiology (research) at Brown University, a co-author and principal investigator of the study. "This adds to the small list of randomized trials designed to look at the efficacy of community health workers to help underserved patients."

Cultural context

For the intervention group, the community health workers trained by the researchers and led by the nurse would visit each patient's home or workplace either weekly, monthly or quarterly depending on the patient's level of health risk from the disease. The workers would test and explain blood glucose readings, remind patients to keep up with medicines and doctors' clinic visits, and lead educational discussions about diet and exercise based on educational materials developed by the research team. If patients were having problems caring for themselves, the workers were trained to help them solve the problems.

Patients could choose from a menu of eight topics for their educational discussions.

The basic model for the intervention came from the successful "Project Sugar 2" trial in Baltimore, but study lead author Judith DePue of The Miriam and Brown said she and her team made many cultural adaptations after conducting extensive ethnographic research, including focus groups with patients.

The educational materials were in both English and Samoan. The foods and activities represented in the text and visuals were familiar and accessible in the territory's culture. All the community health workers were local residents, and the community health worker visits were free of charge (DePue's research found that even small co-pays were deterring some of the territory's residents from seeking primary care).

"We really needed to make it work in this setting," DePue said. "The adaptation that we did, we think, was part of why it was successful."

The study's main measure of that success was a blood glucose level called HbA1c. At the beginning of the study the average level in the intervention group was 9.6 percent and in the traditional care group was 10 percent. After a year, the intervention group members brought levels down to 9.3 percent on average, while among the traditional care group the average level remained at 10 percent.

Meanwhile, more than 42 percent of patients in the intervention group were able to reduce their HbA1c level by more than half a percentage point, a reduction that diabetes researchers consider clinically significant.

The researchers acknowledge that 9.3 percent is still much higher than the goal recommended by the American Diabetes Association of less than 7 percent. Still, the greatest improvements in the study occurred among the highest-risk patients who received the most frequent community health worker interactions. Future work in this resource-poor setting, DePue said, may need more sustained support or a more comprehensive approach.

But McGarvey and DePue said the overall results should encourage health officials to consider community health worker models for diabetes 2 care in areas, from Baltimore to American Samoa, where physician's office care has not proven to be enough.

"We believe the findings here may also be generalizable to other diabetes patients in resource-poor and high-risk populations," they wrote in Diabetes Care. "This study adds to the growing body of evidence showing community health workers ability to improve diabetes outcomes and related behaviors."

In addition to McGarvey and DePue, other authors on the study are Shira Dunsiger and Rochelle Rosen of Brown and The Miriam Hospital; Andrew Seiden of Brown; Jeffrey Blume of Vanderbilt University; Michael Goldstein of the VHA National Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention; and Oferia Nu'solia, and John Tuitele of the Tafuna Clinic of the American Samoa Department of Health.

The National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Disorders funded the study with grant R18-DK075371.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Brown University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. J. D. DePue, S. Dunsiger, A. D. Seiden, J. Blume, R. K. Rosen, M. G. Goldstein, O. Nu'solia, J. Tuitele, S. T. McGarvey. Nurse-Community Health Worker Team Improves Diabetes Care in American Samoa: Results of a randomized controlled trial. Diabetes Care, 2013; DOI: 10.2337/dc12-1969

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/avnbaoTTBFQ/130211102308.htm

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Leaving hospital? Heed care tips or you may return

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Michael Lee knew he was still in bad shape when he left the hospital five days after emergency heart surgery. But he was so eager to escape the constant prodding and the roommate's loud TV that he tuned out the nurses' care instructions.

"I was really tired of Jerry Springer," the New York man says ruefully. "I was so anxious to get out that it sort of overrode everything else that was going on around me."

He's far from alone: Missing out on critical information about what to do at home to get better is one of the main risks for preventable rehospitalizations.

"There couldn't be a worse time, a less receptive time, to offer people information than the 11 minutes before they leave the building," said readmissions expert Dr. Eric Coleman of the University of Colorado in Denver.

Hospital readmissions are miserable for patients, and a huge cost ? more than $17 billion a year in avoidable Medicare bills alone ? for a nation struggling with the price of health care.

Now, with Medicare fining facilities that don't reduce readmissions enough, the nation is at a crossroads as hospitals begin to take action.

"Patients leave the hospital not necessarily when they're well but when they're on the road to recovery," said Dr. David Goodman, who led a new study from the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care that shows different parts of the country do a better job at keeping those people at home.

And The Associated Press, teamed with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, found hospitals are hunting innovative ways to fix a key hole in this health care: Those missed instructions.

In Portland, Ore., nurses at Oregon Health & Science University start teaching heart failure patients what they'll need to do at home on their first day in the hospital, instead of just on their last day.

In Salt Lake City, a nurse acts as a navigator, connecting high-risk University of Utah patients with community doctors for follow-up treatment and ensuring both sides know exactly what's supposed to happen when they leave the hospital.

Some techniques are emerging as key, Coleman said: Having patients prove they understand by teaching back to the nurse. Role-playing how they'd handle problems. Finding a patient goal to target, like the grandmother who wants her heart failure controlled enough that her feet don't swell out of her Sunday shoes.

____

You'd be mad at having to return your car to the mechanic within a month, yet rehospitalization after people get their hearts repaired too often is treated as business as usual, laments Dr. Ricardo Bello, a cardiac surgeon at New York's Montefiore Medical Center.

Heart surgeons try to prevent that by re-examining patients two to three weeks after they go home. But Montefiore patients tend to be readmitted sooner than that.

So last fall, Bello's team began a special clinic where nurses check heart surgery patients about a week after they go home, at no extra charge ? and have a chance to re-teach those discharge instructions when people are more ready to listen.

Plus, for that first month at home, patients are supposed to wear a bracelet with a phone number to reach Montefiore's cardiac unit 24 hours a day with any worries.

"It changed my conception of dealing with a doctor," said Michael Lee, 60.

Montefiore surgeons repaired a life-threatening crack in Lee's aorta, the body's main blood vessel, but his recovery derailed days after getting home. He quit some medications. He was scared to wash the wound that ran from chest to navel, an infection risk. He developed a scary cough and called that special clinic in a panic.

It turned out the cough was a temporary nuisance ? but nurses discovered a real threat: Lee's blood pressure was creeping up, a risk to his healing aorta. Those pills Lee quit were supposed to keep it extra low, a message he'd missed. And some hands-on instruction reassured Lee that he could handle his wound without tearing it.

Without the clinic, "he's definitely somebody we would have been called to see in the emergency room," said physician assistant Jason Lightbody.

_____

In heart failure, a weakly pumping heart allows fluid to build up until patients gasp for breath. Spotting subtle early signs like swelling ankles or creeping weight gain is crucial. But at the Oregon Health & Science University, nurse practitioner Jayne Mitchell spied as patients were told what to watch for as they were discharged ? and they barely paid attention.

The new plan: Learn by doing.

Every morning, hospitalized patients weigh themselves in front of a nurse, record the result and get quizzed on what they'd do at home. Gained 2 pounds or more? Call the doctor for fast help. Lots of day-to-day fluctuation? A weekly log can help a doctor tell if a patient is getting worse or skipping medication or having trouble avoiding water-retaining salty food.

Step 2: These patients need a check-up a week after they go home. The hospital makes the appointment with a primary care doctor before they're discharged, to ensure they can get one.

And for some high-risk patients who live too far away to easily track, Mitchell is pilot-testing whether a high-tech option helps them stick with care instructions.

During that first vulnerable month at home, those patients record their morning weight, blood pressure and heart rate on a monitor called the Health Buddy. It automatically sends the information back to Mitchell's team at OHSU and also will flash instructions to the patient if it detects certain risks.

In Sun River, Ore., Richard W. Pasmore's phone rang one morning. Nurses three hours away in Portland saw that his weigh-in was high and adjusted his medications over the phone.

The 67-year-old Pasmore thinks it prevented a return to the hospital: "It kept them totally abreast of everything that was happening with me." And by the end of the month, he says he'd gotten in the habit of his morning heart failure checks.

___

At the University of Utah, nurse Stephanie Wallace links high-risk patients to the outside care that could keep them from returning. And she's the one whose phone rings when that care falls through.

Consider the single mother who couldn't afford post-hospital blood tests to make sure her blood-thinning medication was working properly, or time off work to get them and didn't speak enough English to seek help. When the woman missed her lab appointment, Wallace pieced together the trouble, helped her enroll in a program for low-income patients ? and stressed the importance of sticking with this care.

"It's not that they don't understand why they're sick. They don't grasp the importance of why they need follow-up," Wallace said.

_____

The customized programs reflect the Dartmouth study's findings that there's great geographic variability in hospital readmissions.

In Miami, for example, more than a quarter of Medicare patients with heart failure returned to the hospital within a month in 2010, the latest data available. That's double the readmission rate for those patients in Provo, Utah.

In Dearborn, Mich., the readmission rate for pneumonia was 20 percent, twice that of hospitals in Salt Lake City.

"Every place is different and faces different challenges in terms of improving care after patients are discharged from the hospital," Goodman said.

___

Online:

Care About Your Care: http://www.careaboutyourcare.org

Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care: http://www.dartmouthatlas.org

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/leaving-hospital-heed-care-tips-may-return-091051643.html

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Chinese Actress Claims To Be Super Gamer, Supposedly Plays 5 ...

Chinese actress Li Xiao Ran (????is known for many things in China; she's famous for her roles on both the big screen and the TV screen as well as her prowess as a dancer. The one thing that she really isn't known for is being a gamer, and now she's out to change that.

Best known for her roles in Hong Kong movies Dragon Tiger Gate and Wu Xia, Li made a recent appearance on the popular Chinese variety talk show "Day Day Up" (????). On the show, Li claimed that she was a gamer, and that her love of video games and gaming culture is so extreme that she could be classified as a video game "Kong" (???). The "Kong" suffix is basically Chinese for otaku (nerd), and Ms. Li says that she's a gaming otaku.

During her appearance on the show, Li was the mystery guest?the hint about her contained a tiny tidbit about how Li can play five different games on five different tablets at the same time. Li herself claimed on the show that whenever she has time she plays online games, saying "When I'm at home I can play on my computer while I'm eating."

Unfortunately there isn't a video or pictures of Li playing on five tablets at once, but many believe her. Chinese games are often designed to be played with one hand so that the player can smoke or eat while playing, so playing multiple one handed games isn't that hard. Li's also been known to play video games during the little off time she receives during film shoots, and other actors she's worked with have called her out on her gaming.

Li's status as a gamer isn't anything new?on another talk show last year, Li said that her ideal partner would have to be a gamer, someone she can play with. However, Li is probably one of the biggest mainland Chinese actors/actresses to be a gamer, Edison Chen aside of course (though he's also Canadian and in Hong Kong).

?????????????5???? [People's Daily]

---

Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

Source: http://kotaku.com/5983281/chinese-actress-claims-to-be-super-gamer-supposedly-plays-5-different-games-simultaneously

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More coincidence than conspiracy at fashion week

NEW YORK (AP) ? During every season of designer previews at New York Fashion Week a few key, quirky items seem to pop up on different runways. They're not quite trends since one has to think they're partly for runway effect not retail orders, but they're part of the style zeitgeist nonetheless. So, how does the ball start rolling on items such as oversized fur mittens, harnesses or sleeveless coats?

It's safe to say designers don't take a meeting together to decide what direction to go in.

"The honest answer is some of it is plain and simple coincidence," said Cindi Leive, editor in chief of Glamour magazine. "These designers are creating hundreds of looks over the course of a season. It would be more unusual if there were no overlap."

Still, she said, there also are fashion cycles and sociological factors to consider as catwalk collections are prepared.

Take fur ? both real and fake. Leive said Sunday it has been on every runway so far on this fourth of eight days of fashion week.

After the recession, no one was touching fur, she said, but it has slowly made a comeback as people feel a little more comfortable about spending money. The interpretation this go-around has been impactful, with an emphasis on oversized unexpected fur touches such as hoods, handbags and boots, but they're not as expensive as a full-length coat.

It's important for fashion insiders to be aware of what's happening in other parts of culture, including politics and art, said Marie Claire executive editor Nina Garcia earlier in the week as she prepared to judge aspiring designers at "Project Runway."

"Successful designers soak it all in," she said.

Fashion week continues in New York through Thursday, when the influential Marc Jacobs closes out things. Runway previews then move on to London, Milan and Paris.

VICTORIA BECKHAM

The opening look at Victoria Beckham's show was a windowpane plaid coat. She also incorporated more sweaters and knits into her collection, with a nod to mod with some geometric, colorblocked shift dresses.

The most unexpected looks were the flashes of bright yellow, including a sleeveless trench; the techno shine she added to pleated skirts that the audience could only see as the models walked; and the long cape-style tuxedo coat.

One of the important evolutions for fall is the softer shoulder, which she used to tweak one of her popular zip-back, slim-fit dress silhouettes.

For shoes, she put models in lower kitten heels, made in collaboration with Manolo Blahnik, which was a bit of a surprise for a woman known for skyscraper stilettos.

"I'm always designing what I want to wear," she said.

CHRISTIAN SIRIANO

The "Project Runway" alum used the Russian opera as the inspiration for his fall runway show, using a book of Russian opera houses as reference.

The girl wearing this collection, he said, was on her way to see the Russian opera.

"I wanted it to be a story of what she wears during the day, what she'll wear for a cocktail dress, what she'll wear to the opera," he said.

His vintage-inspired day looks evoke many eras, from the 1940s to the 1960s, and were mostly separates of turtlenecks paired with loose leather trousers and faux fur vests in muted colors such as white, black and camel.

One ensemble included a pointed-toe flat in a penny loafer style, a surprise inclusion given fashion's love for the high heel. Siriano explained it as a way to ensure its wearability, and also because he "wanted it to be a bit more demure, a bit simple."

Other shoes in the collection included bootie heels and heeled penny loafers with gold trim, echoing the filigree that anchored many of the evening dresses that closed the show.

JOSEPH ALTUZARRA

Joseph Altuzarra's urban, confident, fashion-forward customer wears graphic black-and-white leather ? layers it on, in fact ? and then there's the fox or mink fur on top. She's not shy about drawing attention in fur mittens, shiny grommet embellishment and strategically placed zippers. She wears her high-waisted trousers with a low-slung belt.

His fall-winter collection also includes optic white pants and a khaki cotton sleeveless trench worn with a khaki four-button tailored skirt.

The silhouette he offers his customers is strong and slim, sometimes with a little bump at the hip.

"The design and construction emphasize the nip of the waist and exaggerate the hip, while shrunken proportions mixed with a bolder shoulder volume sharpen the classic silhouette," he says in describing the shape.

___

AP Writer Amanda Kwan contributed to this story.

___

Follow Samantha Critchell on Twitter at http://twitter.com/AP_Fashion

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/more-coincidence-conspiracy-fashion-week-183426501.html

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Rare Afghan fashion show seeks to empower women

An Afghan model wears a dress creation by Shahar Banoo Zeerak, during a fashion show in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Feb. 8, 2013. Afghan models parade down a candle-lined catwalk as men and women watch from the audiencThe rare fashion show in this war-weary capital was a small production but a big idea ? part of an Afghan group's efforts to empower women by breaking down barriers in this highly conservative Muslim society. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

An Afghan model wears a dress creation by Shahar Banoo Zeerak, during a fashion show in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Feb. 8, 2013. Afghan models parade down a candle-lined catwalk as men and women watch from the audiencThe rare fashion show in this war-weary capital was a small production but a big idea ? part of an Afghan group's efforts to empower women by breaking down barriers in this highly conservative Muslim society. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

Afghan model Farkhunda Taheri, 17, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press next to a painting of Bamiyan's statue after a fashion show in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Feb. 8, 2013. The rare fashion show in this war-weary capital was a small production but a big idea ? part of an Afghan group's efforts to empower women by breaking down barriers in this highly conservative Muslim society. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

An Afghan model applies makeup prior to a fashion show in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Feb. 8, 2013.The rare fashion show in this war-weary capital was a small production but a big idea ? part of an Afghan group's efforts to empower women by breaking down barriers in this highly conservative Muslim society. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

An Afghan model walks wearing a dress creation by Shahar Banoo Zeerak, a dress designer, model and organizer of a fashion show in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Feb. 8, 2013. Afghan models paraded down a candle-lined catwalk as men and women watch from the audience in a restaurant off a muddy street in Kabul. The rare fashion show in this war-weary capital was a small production but a big idea ? part of an Afghan group's efforts to empower women by breaking down barriers in this highly conservative Muslim society. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

Afghani models are seen backstage after presenting a fashion show in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Feb. 8, 2013. The rare fashion show in this war-weary capital was a small production but a big idea ? part of an Afghan group's efforts to empower women by breaking down barriers in this highly conservative Muslim society. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? Afghan models paraded down a candle-lined catwalk Friday as men and women watched from the audience in a restaurant off a muddy street in Kabul.

The rare fashion show in this war-weary capital was a small production but a big idea ? part of an Afghan group's efforts to empower women by breaking down barriers in this highly conservative Muslim society.

"The situation always gets tougher and tougher every day by day, but we should not back down. We are here to move on and move forward, so I think if women step up and they show up in this field, I think they will do a good job," said Shahar Banoo Zeerak, the designer whose clothes were featured in the show.

The idea of women on display remains mostly taboo in Afghanistan more than a decade after the 2001 U.S. assault that ousted the Taliban from power after a five-year reign of terror by the fundamentalist movement.

Some women still don't go outside without wearing blue burqas that cover them from head to toe. Violence against women is still common in Afghanistan, and there are reports of women being stoned, executed in public or imprisoned for having affairs with men. Women have even set themselves on fire to escape domestic violence.

Friday's fashion show was organized by Young Women for Change, an independent, nonprofit Afghan organization committed to empowering Afghan women and improving their lives.

Most of the 10 models, including three young men, who showed off 33 designs including colorful short-sleeved dresses, jeans, tunics and more traditional outfits ? were Afghan women who volunteer for the group.

One of them, 17-year-old Farkhonda Taheri, had never even seen a fashion show before. She said her father and other family members were supportive of her decision to participate, but her grandmother was not happy.

"The biggest challenge for us that we cannot do these things in Afghanistan because people do not like it," she said afterward. "I was excited because I felt I am going to bring a change."

She said it was important for Afghan youths to take risks to bring change as the country struggles to achieve a semblance of normalcy, with international combat forces preparing to withdraw by the end of 2014.

"Who will bring the peace? We are going to bring it. Afghans. The new generation," Taheri said.

There have been a few other fashion shows in Afghanistan, but most were geared toward an international audience and seldom featured Afghan women or a mixed Afghan audience. Reflecting the obstacles, the organizers did not permit local Afghan media to film the event to protect the women, who on occasion appeared without headscarves and in short skirts.

"It may not be perfect and professional but it's a beginning," said Salma Gul, the 26-year-old tailor who made the clothes.

Organizers said they had two reasons for staging the show despite fears of violence in a country that sees frequent bombings and suicide attacks, often against targets deemed un-Islamic by extremists. One was to raise money for the advocacy group and the other was to gradually change attitudes toward women.

A spokesman for the advocacy group, Mohammad Zafar Salehi, said they earned more than $1,000 from the show, which sold tickets and drew mostly group members and friends.

"We want to change the mindset of the people but at the same time I worry about the security of the girls," he said as the famous Afghan rock band Morchaha performed in another room. "I believe in a change that can be slow."

___

Online:

Advocacy group's site ? http://www.youngwomenforchange.org/

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-02-08-Afghan-Fashion%20Show/id-869c9a1747384eea9692272c0d1e0fdf

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Debt BlogDebt Management Plans - Tips For Avoiding DMP Pitfalls

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Posted in Finance
February 9, 2013

Most people are involved in some type of financial transaction or decision every day. Sometimes they can get way behind in their debts and financial obligations with no clear way to pay them off. Some resort to debt management plans, which can help if you are careful in setting up the plan. Do you know how to avoid the pitfalls?

Credit and debt issues are critical life altering realities for almost everyone. The daily decisions we make in handling the balance between the two determines our credit worthiness in the eyes of financial institutions. As we all know, if you have a bad credit rating, then borrowing funds or purchasing many items will become difficult or impossible. But what happens when you get so far in debt that you have no clear way to pay it all off? Many people resort to a debt management plan (DMP). These are payment plans structured in a way so that the borrower is better able to pay off their debts, and is agreed to by the borrower and creditors. The benefits can include lower interest rates and fee waivers.

Once you and the creditors have accepted the DMP, it is important to:

* make regular and timely payments

* always read your monthly statements to make sure your creditors are getting paid according to your plan

* contact the organization responsible for your DMP if you will be unable to make a scheduled payment, or if you discover that creditors are not being paid

If the payments are not made to your DMP and creditors on time, you could lose the progress you've made on paying down your debt, or the benefits of being in a DMP, including lower interest rates and fee waivers. The creditors may not forgive any more late payments and you will incur more 'late' marks on your credit report as well as more late fees, increased debt and a longer pay off period. So, once you are on a debt management plan, make sure that you are never late on any payments. DMPs are not for everyone. You should agree on a DMP only after a certified credit counselor has spent time thoroughly reviewing your financial situation, and has offered you specific advice on managing your money. You may be able to work out a payment plan directly with your creditors. But if you decide that you need to work with a credit counselor and get additional advice and assistance, ask questions like these to help you find the best counselor for your situation and make sure you get full and complete anwsers.

Some Important Questions to Ask When Choosing a Credit Counselor to Handle your DMP:

1. What services do you offer? Look for an organization that offers a range of services, including budget counseling, savings and debt management classes, and counselors who are trained and certified in consumer credit, money and debt management, and budgeting. Counselors should discuss your entire financial situation with you, and help you develop a personalized plan to solve your money problems now and avoid others in the future.

2. Are you licensed to offer your services in my state? Many states require that an organization register or obtain a license before offering credit counseling and debt management plans.

3. Do you offer free information?

4. Will I have a formal written agreement or contract with you?

5. What are the qualifications of your counselors? Are they accredited or certified by an outside organization? If so, which one? If not, how are they trained? Try to use an organization whose counselors are trained by an outside organization that is not affiliated with creditors.

6. Have other consumers been satisfied with the service that they received? Once you've identified credit counseling organizations that suit your needs, check them out with your local consumer protection agency, and Better Business Bureau.

7. What are your fees? Are there set-up and/or monthly fees? Get a detailed price quote in writing, and specifically ask whether all the fees are covered in the quote.

8. How are your employees paid? Ask them to disclose what compensation it receives from creditors, and how they are compensated.

9. What do you do to keep my personal information confidential and secure? They should have safeguards in place to protect your privacy.

Get the information you need to make an informed decision.

About the author: Greg Smith publishes information on Debt Help issues at http://www.debt-help-i.com/. Visit the web site for the latest on debt and credit issues and solutions. This article may be freely reprinted as long as the author's information and URL links remain intact.

Author: Greg Smith

Source: http://www.caishi.net/307725-Debt-Management-Plans-Tips-For-Avoiding-DMP-Pitfalls.html

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Yen gains after comments from Japan official - Currencies ...

By William L. Watts and Myra P. Saefong, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) ? The yen climbed sharply versus the dollar and euro Friday after Japan?s finance minister said the currency?s fall had caught the government by surprise ? a remark the ministry later described as a misstatement.

The dollar /quotes/zigman/4868099/sampled USDJPY -0.9939% traded at 92.75 yen in recent action, down from ?93.41 in North American trade late Thursday. The dollar had bought as much as ?93.70 early Friday. For the week, the greenback is little changed versus the yen.

The euro /quotes/zigman/4868097/sampled EURJPY -1.2492% fetched ?123.93, down from around ?125.32. For the week, the euro has lost more than 2% versus the yen.

Week ahead: Currency wars at G-20

Currency wars are likely to dominate the G-20 meeting in Moscow even if most countries will try not to make any explicit accusations. .

On Friday, during a parliamentary session, Japan Financial Minister Taro Aso said the dollar had ?abruptly risen to the ?90 level from the previous ?78-?79 level in a manner we didn?t anticipate.?

Later, however, a finance ministry official said Aso had meant to say the yen?s drop had been ?fast paced? rather than unexpected. See: Japan: Aso meant to say yen's fall 'fast-paced' .

Combined with indications Japanese exporters are starting to re-emerge as yen sellers, Aso?s comments were ?sufficient to drive a stop run down to a low of ?92.17 before a partial retracement,? said Adam Cole, currency strategist at RBC Capital in London.

/conga/story/2013/02/rotation.html 248995

Aso?s remarks certainly don?t imply the yen?s fall is unwelcome, ?but does call into question the ?95-100 range [versus the dollar] that many were beginning to talk of? as a government objective, Cole said.

Taking a look at the bigger picture, seasonals are ?in favor of yen strength,? with March representing the end of Japan?s fiscal year, and the yen typically strengthening from mid-February through late-April,? said Christopher Vecchio, currency analyst at DailyFX, in an emailed note.

Given that, ?we very-well may be on the verge of the next bout of risk-aversion if political concerns stemming from Italy and Spain boil over,? he said. ?A drop back to ?120 in EURJPY can?t be ruled out at [the] present time.?

Euro falls vs. dollar

The euro, meanwhile, moved lower against the dollar.

European leaders reached an agreement Friday on a seven-year budget plan for the European Union, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy announced on Twitter without providing details after a final set of negotiations that stretched to around 24 hours. See: European leaders agree on 7-year EU budget deal.

?The EU budget deal, which confirms the EU?s appetite for austerity, provides continued support for the euro bears to bet against the euro based on a weak growth outlook,? said Richard Hastings, a macro strategist at Global Hunter Securities. ?But the market already understands this, so it looks like the budget conversation is a small catalyst in the same general direction.?

The euro had taken a tumble Thursday after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said policy makers would watch the currency?s appreciation for any sign it is affecting the euro-zone inflation outlook. Draghi also said the euro?s recent rise is a sign of confidence in the shared currency.

He emphasized repeatedly that the ECB was maintaining an ?accommodative? monetary policy. Read Draghi: Euro reflects confidence, but eyeing rise.

The euro /quotes/zigman/4867933/sampled EURUSD -0.2687% , which pushed above $1.37 earlier this week, changed hands at $1.3365 in recent trade, down from $1.3392 in late North American action Thursday. For the week, its down about 2%.

Although down about 2% just this week, the currency is still up nearly 4.9% against the greenback compared with three months ago.

ECB's Draghi knocks euro back a bit

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi helped the euro to reverse some of its recent gains with slightly more dovish comments at his monthly news conference.

?What we note is that the latest data shows the euro-zone is stabilizing. More work is needed, however,? said Evan Lucas, a market strategist at IG Markets.

?Mario Draghi?s ?whatever it takes? comments that came [at midyear] last year was the flash point for the current rally and he is holding true to his word, meaning Europe is going to be a distraction, not a disaster,? Lucas said.

The ICE dollar index /quotes/zigman/1652083 DXY -0.02% , which measures the greenback against a basket of six major global currencies, rose to 80.234 from around 79.721 late in New York on Thursday. The index was about 1.4% higher for the week.

The WSJ dollar index /quotes/zigman/9625991 XX:BUXX -0.21% , a gauge that measures the greenback?s moves against a slightly wider basket of currencies, slipped to 71.53 from 71.66 Thursday.

Among other major currency pairs, the British pound /quotes/zigman/4867886/sampled GBPUSD +0.5417% climbed to $1.5794 from $1.5696, while the Australian dollar /quotes/zigman/4867876/sampled AUDUSD +0.3414% fetched $1.0317, compared with $1.0284.

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William L. Watts is MarketWatch's European bureau chief, based in Frankfurt. Follow him on Twitter @wlwatts. Myra Saefong is a MarketWatch reporter based in San Francisco. Follow her on Twitter @MktwSaefong. V. Phani Kumar contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/euro-inches-up-versus-us-dollar-after-tumble-2013-02-08

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