IRVING, Texas (AP) -- NFL officials ended their labor dispute with the league by approving a new eight-year contract with a 112-5 vote Saturday, then hustled off to the airport to get to work.
Next stop, stadiums around the country.
And, the officials hope, anonymity.
''The last Super Bowl that I worked, when we got in the locker room, I said, 'You know, the best thing about this game, nobody will remember who refereed this game,''' said Scott Green, president of the referees' association. ''That's how we like to work.''
The vote ended a labor spat that created three weeks of increasingly chaotic games run by replacement officials who drew criticism of everyone from the average fan to President Barack Obama.
''It was pretty much 'Come on in and vote,''' Green said. ''We're going to talk football now. We're going to stop talking about CBAs and lockouts and now we're going to talk about rules and video and getting ourselves ready to work football games.''
They may get ovations similar to the one bestowed on the crew that worked Thursday's Cleveland-Baltimore game with the tentative deal in place.
The referees met for about an hour and a half Friday night to go over the contract, then gathered for another 30 minutes Saturday morning before approving the contract.
''We are obviously pleased to hear it,'' NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said in an email to The Associated Press on Saturday.
Because they were aware of the financial parameters, most of the discussion by the referees involved non-economic issues such as year-round work and developmental squads, said Tim Millis, the association's executive director.
The deal came together quickly this week after an increasing chorus of complaints became impossible to ignore when a disputed touchdown call on the final play gave the Seattle Seahawks a victory over the Green Bay Packers on national television Monday night.
Many thought the ruling of a Seattle touchdown instead of a Green Bay interception was botched, and the labor dispute drew public comments from Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
By late Wednesday, the sides had a contract calling for refs' salaries to increase from an average of $149,000 a year in 2011 to $173,000 in 2013, rising to $205,000 by 2019. The current defined benefit pension plan will remain in place for current officials through the 2016 season or until the official earns 20 years' service.
The defined benefit plan will then be frozen. Retirement benefits will be provided for new hires, and for all officials beginning in 2017, through a defined contribution.
Beginning with the 2013 season, the NFL will have the option to hire a number of officials to work year-round. The NFL also can retain additional officials for training and development and assign those officials to work games. The number of additional officials will be determined by the league.
The officials that worked Thursday's Ravens-Browns game were cheered from the moment they walked onto the field. The difference between the regular crew and replacements was clear. The officials kept the game in control, curtailing the chippy play and choppy pace that had marred the first three weeks of the regular season.
''I think the thing we're most proud of is the lesson that we all learned,'' Green said. ''If you're going to be in a professional league, you've got top-notch coaches, you need professional officials as well.''
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Online: http://bigstory.ap.org/NFL-Pro32 and http://twitter.com/AP-NFL
Approximately 80 more participants are needed for a multisite, Phase 3 clinical trial comparing laparoscopic-assisted versus conventional surgery in patients with stage IIA, Stage IIIA or stage IIIB rectal cancer.?
Eligible participants must have completed their pre-surgery chemotherapy (Xelox? or fluorouracil-based) and/or pre-surgery radiation therapy within the previous 4 weeks.
Standard medical practice for rectal cancer surgery has been conventional operating techniques, but surgeons at comprehensive cancer centers around the world have been performing and studying?outcomes of laparoscopic versus traditional rectal cancer surgery for several years. The evidence so far?in most trials?shows safety and recurrence rates about equal for both types of surgery; however, it?s still too early to compare long-term survival rates.
In this U.S. study, participants will be randomly assigned to receive either conventional surgery or laparoscopic-assisted surgery. During hospitalization for the surgery, patients will be studied for surgical results (e.g., complete surgical removal of the cancer), as well as length of hospital stay and need for pain medication. For a follow-up period of several years, patients will fill out quality-of-life questionnaires (e.g., bowel, stoma, sexual function).
The trial goal is to evaluate whether laparoscopic surgery is as safe and effective as conventional surgery to remove certain stage II and III rectal cancers. Outcomes will be evaluated according to surgical success, quality of life measures, and disease-free survival and/or pelvic recurrence within 2 years, with long-term followup?for 5 years.
If you?d like more details about eligibility or participating clinical locations, call Fight Colorectal Cancer?s Answer Line at 1-877-427-2111.??
Source: ClinicalTrials.gov;??American College of Surgeons Surgery News Update Oct. 4 2011 ;???Laparoscopic Surgery for Rectal Cancer: State of the Art,? Sept. 27 2010 World Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery?
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rld Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery Sept. 27 2010
If you are currently renting a property and are about to move on what steps will you take to make sure that your property will be spotlessly clean when you close the door for the last time? The consequences of leaving a rental property in a poor condition are more than just financial; a lost deposit for instance could render you financially unable to place a deposit on your next home as would poor references from a previous landlord.
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Disposed World War II explosives and munitions in the Gulf of Mexico pose a threat to offshore oil drilling, according to Texas oceanographers.
By Eileen O'Grady,?Reuters / September 29, 2012
In this April 2010 file photo, an oil rig is seen in the Gulf of Mexico near the Chandeleur Islands, off the Southeastern tip of Louisiana. As technological advances allow oil companies to push deeper into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, forgotten hazards pose a threat.
Gerald Herbert/AP/File
Enlarge
Millions of pounds of unexploded bombs dumped in the?Gulf of Mexico?by the U.S. government after World War Two pose a significant risk to offshore drilling, according to?Texas?oceanographers.
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
It is no secret that the?United States, along with other governments, dumped munitions and chemical weapons in oceans from 1946 until the practice was banned in the 1970s by U.S. law and international treaty, said?William Bryant, a?Texas?A&M University professor of oceanography.
As technological advances allow oil companies to push deeper into the waters of the?Gulf of Mexico, these forgotten hazards pose a threat as the industry picks up the pace of drilling after?BP?Plc's deadly Macondo well blowout in 2010 that lead to the largest oil spill in U.S. history.
Unexploded ordnance has been found in the offshore zone known as?Mississippi?Canyon where the Macondo well was drilled.
The?Bureau of Ocean Energy Management?(BOEM) will auction 38 million acres of oil and gas leases in the central gulf in March.
The?U.S. government?designated disposal areas for unexploded ordnance, known as UXO, off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, as well as in the?Gulf of Mexico. But nearly 70 years after the areas were created, no one knows exactly how much was dumped, or where the weapons are, or whether they present a danger to humans or marine life.
"These bombs are a threat today and no one knows how to deal with the situation," said Bryant. "If chemical agents are leaking from some of them, that's a real problem. If many of them are still capable of exploding, that's another big problem."
Disposal zones were designated from?Florida?to?Texas, said Bryant, who will discuss his research findings at the International Dialogue on Underwater Munitions conference that begins Monday in?San Juan,?Puerto Rico.
While the practice of dumping bombs and chemical weapons, including mustard and nerve gas, in the ocean ended 40 years ago some effects are just beginning to be seen, saidTerrance Long, founder of the underwater munitions conference.
"You can find munitions in basically every ocean around the world, every major sea, lake and river," Long said. "They are a threat to human health and the?environment."
The oil industry is no stranger to leftovers from the World War Two.
Last year,?BP?shut its key Forties crude pipeline in the North Sea for five days while it removed a 13-foot (4-metre) un exploded German mine found resting cozily next to the pipeline that transports up to 40 percent of the UK's oil production.
Penn immunologists find a molecule that puts the brakes on inflammationPublic release date: 28-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Katherine Unger Baillie kbaillie@upenn.edu 215-898-9194 University of Pennsylvania
PHILADELPHIA We couldn't live without our immune systems, always tuned to detect and eradicate invading pathogens and particles. But sometimes the immune response goes overboard, triggering autoimmune diseases like lupus, asthma or inflammatory bowel disease.
A new study led by University of Pennsylvania researchers has now identified a crucial signaling molecule involved in counterbalancing the immune system attack.
"The immune response is like driving a car," said Christopher Hunter, professor and chair in the Department of Pathobiology in Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine. "You hit the accelerator and develop this response that's required to protect you from a pathogen, but, unless you have a brake to guide the response, then you'll just careen off the road and die because you can't control the speed of the response."
The research to characterize this immune system "brake" was led by Hunter and Aisling O'Hara Hall, a doctoral candidate in the Immunology Graduate Group. Additional Penn collaborators included scientists from the Penn Genome Frontiers Institute's Department of Biology and the Perelman School of Medicine's Department of Medicine. Researchers from Merck Research Laboratories, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, Harvard Medical School and Janssen Research and Development also contributed to the work, which was published in the journal Immunity.
"Healthy people have these cells you have them, I have them that are called Tregs," or regulatory T cells, Hunter said. "If you don't have them you develop spontaneous inflammation and disease."
Different forms of regulatory T cells operate as the brakes on various kinds of inflammation, but, until now, scientists hadn't been certain of how these Tregs became specialized to do their particular jobs.
Hall, Hunter and colleagues decided to follow up on a molecule called IL-27. Scientists used to think IL-27 played a role in causing inflammation, but, in 2005, a team of Penn researchers, including Hunter, found the opposite; it was actually involved in suppressing inflammation. Thus, when mice that lack IL-27 are challenged with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, they develop overwhelming inflammation.
"We never worked out how it did that, but it was a paradigm change at the time," Hunter said.
In the new study, the researchers delved deeper into IL-27's role. They found that exposing regulatory T cells to IL-27 promoted their ability to suppress a particular type of inflammation. The Penn-led team also demonstrated that they could rescue infected IL-27-deficient mice by giving them a transfusion of regulatory T cells. This finding suggests that IL-27 is required to produce the Treg cells that normally keep inflammatory responses in check during infection.
"Very surprisingly, we were able to show that the Tregs could ameliorate the pathology in this system," Hall said. "We don't think this is the only mechanism by which IL-27 limits immune pathology, but it sheds light on one mechanism by which it could be functioning."
Further experiments showed that Tregs express a different suite of genes in the presence of IL-27 as compared to another molecule that has been implicated in this process, interferon gamma, or IFN-?. The researchers' findings indicate that the two molecules have division of labor when it comes to suppressing inflammation: IL-27 seems to be important in helping control inflammation at the site of inflammation, whereas IFN-? appears more significant in the peripheral tissues.
"At the site of inflammation, where you're getting your pathology, that's where IL- 27 is important," Hall said.
With a new understanding of how IL-27 may cause a class of Tregs to become specialized inflammation fighters, researchers have a new target for ameliorating the unwanted inflammation associated with all kinds of autoimmune conditions.
"Now we have a molecular signature that may be relevant in inflammatory bowel disease, in multiple sclerosis, in colitis and Crohn's disease, in rheumatoid arthritis, in lupus," Hunter said.
Next on tap, the team plans to study IL-27 in the context of asthma , lupus and arthritis.
###
In addition to Hall and Hunter, the authors included Beena John, Claudia Gonzlez Lombana, Gretchen Harms Pritchard, Jonathan S. Silver, Jason S. Stumhofer, Tajie H. Harris, Elia D. Tait Wojno, Sagie Wagage and Philip Scott of Penn Vet's Department of Pathobiology; Daniel P. Beiting, David S. Roos and Sara Cheery of the Penn Genome Frontiers Institute Department of Biology; Steven Reiner, formerly of the Penn Department of Medicine; Cristina M. Tato and Daniel Cua of Merck Research Laboratories; Yasmine Belkaid, Guillaume Oldenhove, Nicolas Bouladoux and John Grainger of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease; Laurence A. Turka of Harvard Medical School; and M. Merle Elloso of Janssen Research and Development.
The study was supported by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Institutes of Health.
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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.
Penn immunologists find a molecule that puts the brakes on inflammationPublic release date: 28-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Katherine Unger Baillie kbaillie@upenn.edu 215-898-9194 University of Pennsylvania
PHILADELPHIA We couldn't live without our immune systems, always tuned to detect and eradicate invading pathogens and particles. But sometimes the immune response goes overboard, triggering autoimmune diseases like lupus, asthma or inflammatory bowel disease.
A new study led by University of Pennsylvania researchers has now identified a crucial signaling molecule involved in counterbalancing the immune system attack.
"The immune response is like driving a car," said Christopher Hunter, professor and chair in the Department of Pathobiology in Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine. "You hit the accelerator and develop this response that's required to protect you from a pathogen, but, unless you have a brake to guide the response, then you'll just careen off the road and die because you can't control the speed of the response."
The research to characterize this immune system "brake" was led by Hunter and Aisling O'Hara Hall, a doctoral candidate in the Immunology Graduate Group. Additional Penn collaborators included scientists from the Penn Genome Frontiers Institute's Department of Biology and the Perelman School of Medicine's Department of Medicine. Researchers from Merck Research Laboratories, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, Harvard Medical School and Janssen Research and Development also contributed to the work, which was published in the journal Immunity.
"Healthy people have these cells you have them, I have them that are called Tregs," or regulatory T cells, Hunter said. "If you don't have them you develop spontaneous inflammation and disease."
Different forms of regulatory T cells operate as the brakes on various kinds of inflammation, but, until now, scientists hadn't been certain of how these Tregs became specialized to do their particular jobs.
Hall, Hunter and colleagues decided to follow up on a molecule called IL-27. Scientists used to think IL-27 played a role in causing inflammation, but, in 2005, a team of Penn researchers, including Hunter, found the opposite; it was actually involved in suppressing inflammation. Thus, when mice that lack IL-27 are challenged with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, they develop overwhelming inflammation.
"We never worked out how it did that, but it was a paradigm change at the time," Hunter said.
In the new study, the researchers delved deeper into IL-27's role. They found that exposing regulatory T cells to IL-27 promoted their ability to suppress a particular type of inflammation. The Penn-led team also demonstrated that they could rescue infected IL-27-deficient mice by giving them a transfusion of regulatory T cells. This finding suggests that IL-27 is required to produce the Treg cells that normally keep inflammatory responses in check during infection.
"Very surprisingly, we were able to show that the Tregs could ameliorate the pathology in this system," Hall said. "We don't think this is the only mechanism by which IL-27 limits immune pathology, but it sheds light on one mechanism by which it could be functioning."
Further experiments showed that Tregs express a different suite of genes in the presence of IL-27 as compared to another molecule that has been implicated in this process, interferon gamma, or IFN-?. The researchers' findings indicate that the two molecules have division of labor when it comes to suppressing inflammation: IL-27 seems to be important in helping control inflammation at the site of inflammation, whereas IFN-? appears more significant in the peripheral tissues.
"At the site of inflammation, where you're getting your pathology, that's where IL- 27 is important," Hall said.
With a new understanding of how IL-27 may cause a class of Tregs to become specialized inflammation fighters, researchers have a new target for ameliorating the unwanted inflammation associated with all kinds of autoimmune conditions.
"Now we have a molecular signature that may be relevant in inflammatory bowel disease, in multiple sclerosis, in colitis and Crohn's disease, in rheumatoid arthritis, in lupus," Hunter said.
Next on tap, the team plans to study IL-27 in the context of asthma , lupus and arthritis.
###
In addition to Hall and Hunter, the authors included Beena John, Claudia Gonzlez Lombana, Gretchen Harms Pritchard, Jonathan S. Silver, Jason S. Stumhofer, Tajie H. Harris, Elia D. Tait Wojno, Sagie Wagage and Philip Scott of Penn Vet's Department of Pathobiology; Daniel P. Beiting, David S. Roos and Sara Cheery of the Penn Genome Frontiers Institute Department of Biology; Steven Reiner, formerly of the Penn Department of Medicine; Cristina M. Tato and Daniel Cua of Merck Research Laboratories; Yasmine Belkaid, Guillaume Oldenhove, Nicolas Bouladoux and John Grainger of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease; Laurence A. Turka of Harvard Medical School; and M. Merle Elloso of Janssen Research and Development.
The study was supported by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Institutes of Health.
[ | 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.
Over objections of Central Coast residents and environmental groups, Pacific Gas & Electric plans to map earthquake fault zones near its Diablo Canyon nuclear plant by blasting high-decibel air cannons under the surface of the ocean.
PG&E's plan calls for towing a quarter-mile-wide array of underwater "air cannons" that emit 250-decibel blasts into the ocean every 15 seconds for 12 straight days. The sonic reflections would be picked up by underwater receivers and analyzed to provide detailed 3-D images of the geometry, relationships and ground motions of several fault zones near the Diablo facility, which generates enough energy to meet the needs of more than 3 million Northern and Central Californians.
"What we're after with this survey is the geophysical equivalent of a CT scan ? a combination of imagery and information that we could slice and dice and scrutinize in great detail," said Jearl Strickland, director of nuclear projects for PG&E. "These kinds of surveys are being performed right now around the world with no problems."
Opponents say the method threatens sea creatures from Central Coast rockfish to whales, and they dispute PG&E's claims that there are no alternative, less harmful technologies available for the job.
"We're not saying seismic testing isn't needed," said Andrew Christie, director of the Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Club. "We want them to take the time to explore potential alternatives that could do less environmental harm and provide better data."
Of particular concern are potential effects at the Point Buchon State Marine Reserve, a protected sanctuary, as well as on a population of about 2,000 harbor porpoises that reside in and around scenic Morro Bay. Harbor porpoises are acutely sensitive to manmade sounds, which makes them especially vulnerable to hearing loss and injury during the survey.
PG&E says environmentalists' fears are unfounded. The utility acknowledges that environmental effects will be significant and likely to include temporary displacement of most of Morro Bay's harbor porpoise population. But PG&E says it believes the survey's benefits outweigh the environmental costs. The California Public Utilities Commission ordered PG&E to conduct the risk assessment.
The utility initially planned to survey 90 square miles of coastline for 30 days beginning Nov. 1. But facing questions from state permitting agencies about potential environmental effects, PG&E on Thursday scaled back the scope and duration of the project's first phase to demonstrate its safety and effectiveness.
The modified proposal would survey 51 square miles, stretch over 12 days and focus on portions of the Hosgi, Los Osos and newly discovered Shoreline fault zones in the Estero Bay area. It would not reach into the Point Buchon area.
If all goes according to plan, the project will be expanded next year to include two other areas targeted for surveys near Diablo Canyon, including a portion ofPoint Buchon.
The California Coastal Commission plans to vote Nov. 10 on PG&E's request for a coastal development permit needed to begin work offshore. Later, the California Department of Fish and Game must accept or reject PG&E's request for permits to harass, but not injure or kill, protected fish and marine mammals in the survey area.
In a recent letter to the Coastal Commission, the Natural Resources Defense Council warned that approval of the permits would "set a harmful and legally dubious precedent of allowing adverse impacts to the biologically significant habitats and species in California's marine protected areas in the absence of compelling public need to do so."
The organization also argued that the survey is not essential to assessing earthquake risks and is not likely to result in improvement in the nuclear plant's safety. In a separate letter to the commission, the Surfrider Foundation suggested that in-depth analysis of existing seismic data and "worst-case-scenario models" would provide equally effective emergency preparedness and response strategies.
Other critics have suggested that PG&E use a larger vessel capable of towing longer lines attached to 10, instead of four, geophone receivers to record the echoes of the blasts. That way, researchers could cover a wider area in a shorter period.
PG&E dismissed that idea because a larger vessel would not be able to traverse relatively shallow waters, which it says is essential to the study.
The survey was scheduled for November and December to avoid the peak breeding seasons of harbor porpoises and southern sea otters, as well the highest densities of migrating blue, fin and humpback whales. Certified "protected species observers" will be onboard vessels at sea and in airplanes, on the lookout for injured animals and carcasses. High-intensity blasts will be preceded by low-frequency sound waves aimed at scaring off fish and marine mammals.
If a sea otter were observed in the vessel's path, or a whale were spotted within a mile of the operation, the air cannons would be shut down within seconds, PG&E said. The number of southern sea otters in the proposed study area is 352, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The death or injury of an endangered species would trigger an investigation that could potentially result in prosecution, according to Christine Patrick, spokeswoman for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
"All those precautions might help animals that can swim away," said environmental activist Julie Tacker of Los Osos. "But what about those that can't, such as abalone, clams and starfish?"
Those kinds of animals tend to congregate near shore and are not expected to be affected by the air cannons, which would be pointed straight down in water more than 75 feet deep, PG&E officials said.
Similar high-energy seismic surveys are planned for 2013 in coastal waters off Southern California Edison's San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in northern San Diego County.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Friday moved toward opening the long-term operations and maintenance of its most expensive weapons program, the Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, to competition from other companies.
The move is the latest action by the Pentagon to drive down the cost of the new single-engine, single-seat warplane, whose operations and maintenance costs are currently projected to reach a staggering $1.11 trillion over the coming decades.
Last week, top Pentagon and Air Force officials publicly slammed Lockheed's performance on the new radar-evading jet, whose development and production alone are slated to cost $396 billion. The officials said they were looking at ways to introduce more competition to the program.
Lockheed and the Pentagon remain locked in protracted and tense negotiations about a fifth order of F-35 production jets - talks that have been under way for over nine months.
On Friday, the Defense Department invited companies to participate in a two-day public forum on November 14-15 on possible opportunities to compete for work managing the supply chain of the new fighter jet and providing support equipment, simulators for training and a computer-based logistics system.
It said the "industry day" was aimed at identifying "potential business sources with the resources, capabilities, and experience to successfully deliver a wide range of hardware and infrastructure services in support of F-35 ... sustainment."
In a notice published on a federal website, the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) said it would use information from participating companies and other market research "to refine its acquisition strategy and to evaluate alternatives that will deliver the best value, long-term F-35 sustainment solution."
"This supports the broader F-35 JPO goals of increased affordability, transparency, predictability, and accountability for sustainment costs and performance," it said in the notice posted on www.fedbizopps.gov.
Current estimates for the total cost of operating and maintaining the new warplane over the next 50 years are over $1 trillion, including inflation and projected fuel costs, although officials have said they expect to lower that cost dramatically.
Lockheed said it was the prime contractor for sustainment of the new jets at the moment, and aimed to keep that role. The company said its executives would attend the Pentagon's industry day but it remained confident that it offered the best solution for sustaining all three variants of the F-35.
Tom Burbage, executive vice president at Lockheed, said the United States and the eight countries helping to fund the new plane's development - Britain, Canada, Australia, Italy, Turkey, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands - had signed on to an agreement under which Lockheed would provide "performance-based logistics" for the new fighter plane.
"At the moment we are the prime contractor for sustainment and it's our intent to stay in that role," Burbage told Reuters, noting that Lockheed was taking care of logistics for the plane at a Florida training base, and was working to set up operational bases in California, Nevada and Arizona.
The company was also working with international partners to identify ways for their local industries to get involved in long-term sustainment of the new fighter jet, Burbage said.
"At the moment, we're heads down working sustainment very hard every day," Burbage said.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by Gary Hill)
The Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) has been asked to account for the GH?2 million (?20 billion) the Government of Ghana set aside in the 2012 budget to boost the creative arts industry.
MUSIGA has gone for the money and is using it without the approval of other stakeholders in the creative arts industry and this has led to some bad blood between the union and other stakeholders in the creative arts industry.
The Music Council of Ghana (MCG) will be leading a delegation of music/creative arts stakeholders to present a petition to President John Mahama over the issue and also hit the streets on a demonstration meant to draw attention to the issue of the GH?2 million.
Reports reaching NEWS-ONE say MUSIGA is hot over the issue and has fallen on leading figures within the industry to call for a dialogue rather than demonstration.
On Wednesday, Ahuma Ocansey, popularly known as Daddy Bosco, was said to have represented MUSIGA at a meeting with the aggrieved stakeholders and pleaded for an amicable settlement of the matter.
Meanwhile, MUSIGA President Bice Obour Kufour is cooling off in New York, apparently absolutely unperturbed about the development.
A press statement signed by Justice Cletus ,general secretary, Music Council of Ghana noted: ?After waiting patiently for the Government through the Ministry of Chieftaincy & Culture to invite all stakeholders in the music/creative industry for appropriate disbursement of the GH?2, 000,000 budgetary allocation from the government of Ghana to the entire creative industry, we are indeed heartbroken and refuse to accept any such criteria or justification which warranted the total disbursement of this whole sum to one union of musicians called MUSIGA by the Ministry of Finance in collaboration with the Chieftaincy Ministry.
?MUSIGA does not represent the interest of the entirety of the Ghanaian Music/Creative industry and we don?t see any error or oversight that some may want to use to cover the role played by both the Ministries of Finance & Chieftaincy/Culture towards the processing and facilitation of this very questionable disbursement which His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Ghana has openly condemned and disassociated himself from the dubious payment of the said amount to MUSIGA.?
Not long after the budget was read, MUSIGA President Bice ?Obour? Kufour told several media houses that the money was for his musicians union alone and true to his words, they have hijacked the funds and left out all other stakeholders.
Speaking with Hitz FM, an Accra-based private radio station recently, ace hi-life musician Rex Omar, who is chairman of Business for MUSIGA, insisted that the money solely belonged to the musicians union, contrary to speculations.
According to him, ?MUSIGA applied for GH?2 million and it has been given to MUSIGA,? adding, if the money was meant for the creative industry, ?how come MUSIGA was able to access it and not the creative industry?
MUSIGA sent a specific proposal to do specific things?.
Meanwhile, the circumstances under which the Ministry of Finance released the money to MUSIGA alone are quite mysterious, especially when the Minister of Finance, in reading the budget statement, had categorically stated that the money was for the creative arts industry.
The Finance Minister, when he made the announcement, even went on to explain what he meant by the creative arts industry:
?Madam Speaker, Ghana has a vibrant creative arts industry that can be nurtured to create jobs and provide increase income to all stakeholders.
The industry covers creative sectors such as music, film video and photography, visual and performing arts, publishing, etc.
Global trade in creative goods and services remained very robust during the financial and economic meltdown, with the value of global export of creative goods and services reaching nearly US$600 billion between 2002 and 2008.?
?193. Ghana can benefit immensely if it begins to tap the creative sector of the economy, particularly those of the music and film industry.
But this will require an evaluation of the potential of the creative industry to contribute to the growth of the economy.
Beginning in 2012, therefore, Government will collaborate with the music industry to identify the potential of the industry through an impact assessment study.
The study will be used to support the preparation of a medium term strategic framework that will guide the development of the industry.
Government will also support the organisation of the 2012 Ghana Music Fair.
?194. An amount of GH?2.0 million has been allocated to support the creative arts industry in 2012,?was what Finance Minister Dufour told Parliament when he read the 2012 budget last year November.
This is what is also captured in the 2012 budget under the subhead line ?Boosting the Creative Arts Industry?.
To recognize Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones is encouraging Richmond residents to join more than 1.1 million people across the nation taking a fitness break at 10 a.m. today.
The inaugural National Just-A-Minute World Record Initiative is designed to raise awareness of the importance of incorporating physical activity into a child?s daily routine. The campaign also wants to ensure children learn healthy habits at a young age and that the nation?s schools offer quality physical education programs.
Across the nation, community members will come together to do a one-minute fitness routine, which is featured on the Jam World Record?s website, JamWorldRecord.org. In Richmond, the routine will be led by a Zumba instructor for Richmond Public Schools.
The mayor?s Healthy Richmond campaign, Let?s Move! Richmond, Richmond Public Schools, Richmond City Health District and Greater Richmond Fit4Kids will participate in the event. It will be held at 9:45 a.m. at the Marshall Plaza Courtyard, 900 E. Marshall St. The mayor will not be attending.
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If you're having acute financial issues, sometimes the best way to cope with this situation is filing bankruptcy. In difficult times this can be the sole way out to get some relief. When you file for bankruptcy, you'll may not absolutely get relief, but at the least you will have solved the difficulty partly. It will help you take control of your financial life again and start fresh.
Filing for bankruptcy can a lengthy procedure. It is a difficult process that may need you to put a little bit of work and money into the same. Although it will not have guaranteed you the protection you need, it's a good choice as it will give you some reassurance. If you don't have the knowledge for filing bankruptcy, you'll make the whole process more difficult than it needs to be.
The chapter 7 of bankruptcy has made the whole process rather difficult. There are numerous benefits that you will get from filing bankruptcy. If you get the right talents, you can consolidate all of your debt into one payment for easy clearing.
With bankruptcy filing, you'll get time to put your loans into line. You will have time to get your creditors to permit you to plan on how you're going to settle the debt you have accumulated. The best thing about partaking of this task is that you will get to choose how you are going to pay off the debts.
When you file for bankruptcy, you will get security over your property. You won't be at the mercies of auctioneers. You'll have the peace of living in your house without being concerned about having it auctioned. It is also very possible to have your creditors lower your obligations and come up with the best payment mode that may favour you.
Paul Mascia, founder and CEO of The Mascia Law Firm, spends a lot of his time helping those influenced by the current debt and house emergency.
What-If Analysis tools are a well-kept secret in Excel, located on the Data tab, Data tools group.
Scenario manager
You've probably seen payment calculators that let you adjust terms and rate.Chances are you?ve ?plugged and played? various scenarios ending up with, ?That second scenario looked good! What was that?? Scenario Manager allows you to save ?plugs and plays? and compare them. Begin with a worksheet where you can see the formula and the values it uses.
Choose Scenario Manager from the What-If Analysis dropdown button.
Click the Add button, and create your first scenario named Original Values.
Put your cursor in the Changing cells: field, and select all the fields that could vary in your scenarios.
Click OK twice.
Click Add? to create another scenario and start changing the values to create the variations.
Click the Show button to see any one of them or the Summary button to see them side by side.
Goal Seek
When your formula works, but it doesn?t give you a result that you like, try Goal Seek. The Payment formula is =PMT(B2/12,B3,-B1). Let?s say you can only afford a payment of $200.
Choose Goal Seek from the What-If Analysis dropdown button.
Verify that your result cell is indicated in Set cell:
Type 200 in To value: field.
With your cursor blinking in the By changing cell: field, click the Loan Amount (or any other field you wish to vary). Click OK.
Goal Seek will show you an answer if it found one. Confirm the change by clicking OK.
Data Table
If you know that your ?what if? choices are a combination of two values, such as interest rate and term, a Data Table will work. Using your formula as the cornerstone, type a column of one variable, and a row of another to form the table border.
Choose Data Table from the What-If Analysis dropdown button.
Select the cell with Interest rate in the original formula (B2) for Row input cell field and Term in Months (B3) for Column input cell.
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Self hypnosis, exactly what the term suggests? It isactually the process in which you practice hypnosis uponyour own self for the achievement of goals that will leadyou to the betterment of yourself. It is a verycontroversial topic since opinion about it varies from manto man. As an art rapidly changing into science, it hasopened up huge possibilities of self betterment ofindividuals. You only require patience and practice on aregular basis to put it to your use. Even though responsesto the therapy vary it is emerging as a fast developingscience that will and has helped many to overcome variousshortcomings in their personality, living habits and variousother such fields.As mentioned earlier, practices self-hypnosis because theywanted to improve the quality of their lives. It can bebecause they wanted to lose some weight, or maybe to improvethe recall rate of their memory or getting rid of some badhabits like smoking. Through self-hypnosis, a person can beself-empowered. And with this self empowerment, comesmotivation which helps to drive an individual towards his orher goals. In essence, it seeks to bring positive energyinto one?s life and ultimately improving the quality of lifeWhy is self hypnosis such a powerful and effective method?The answer lies in the acting of the sub-conscious. Itevades the conscious and directly targets the sub-consciouswhich then enables you to destroy any negative feelings andinstall positive energy that will help you in achieving newheights in life. Incorporation of self hypnosis in your lifewill lead you to the achievement of your goals much fasterthan you could have even imagined. To pick up hypnotherapy as a skill is a very simple andeasy task. Any individual can go to a professional fortraining to learn about hypnotherapy. One can also choose tolearn this skill by self-study. However, it is definitelyeasier and faster to learn with professional guidance thenthrough self-study. There is also another way, which one canget professional guidance, which is by reading books,watching DVDs or CDs tutorials.To enchcane the training, youare strongly recommended to attend seminars to get somepractical experiences. Whichever mode of study you chose;just remember that you have to be proactive in order thatthe therapy works effectively.Research shows that only a mere 10% of our subconscious andmind power has been put up to efficient use till date. Usageat this rate has led to such big changes possible, no oneknows the limit, we do not know how or what can be achievedif the full 100% can be put to use. No one knows whattremendous things can be achieved, so are you ready to makethe impossible possible?What Can Hypnosis Do For You? Visit the Self Hypnosis Site. And Grab Our Excellent Free Mp3! Weight Loss Hypnosis Archives!
This 2008 picture provided by Georgetown University shows Richard Schlegel, M.D., Ph.D., left, and research associate Aleksandra Dakic, Ph.D., in his laboratory at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington. A discovery allows doctors to grow "mini tumors" from each patient's cancer in a lab dish, then test various drugs or combinations on them to see which works best. Although the approach needs much more testing, researchers think it could offer a cheap, simple way to personalize treatment without having to analyze each patient's genes. "We see a lot of potential for it," said Schlegel, one of the study leaders. "Almost everyone could do it easily." (AP Photo/Georgetown University)
This 2008 picture provided by Georgetown University shows Richard Schlegel, M.D., Ph.D., left, and research associate Aleksandra Dakic, Ph.D., in his laboratory at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington. A discovery allows doctors to grow "mini tumors" from each patient's cancer in a lab dish, then test various drugs or combinations on them to see which works best. Although the approach needs much more testing, researchers think it could offer a cheap, simple way to personalize treatment without having to analyze each patient's genes. "We see a lot of potential for it," said Schlegel, one of the study leaders. "Almost everyone could do it easily." (AP Photo/Georgetown University)
It's a medical nightmare: a 24-year-old man endures 350 surgeries since childhood to remove growths that keep coming back in his throat and have spread to his lungs, threatening his life. Now doctors have found a way to help him by way of a scientific coup that holds promise for millions of cancer patients.
The bizarre case is the first use in a patient of a new discovery: how to keep ordinary and cancerous cells alive indefinitely in the lab.
The discovery allows doctors to grow "mini tumors" from each patient's cancer in a lab dish, then test various drugs or combinations on them to see which works best. It takes only a few cells from a biopsy and less than two weeks to do, with materials and methods common in most hospitals.
Although the approach needs much more testing against many different types of cancer, researchers think it could offer a cheap, simple way to personalize treatment without having to analyze each patient's genes.
"We see a lot of potential for it," said one study leader, Dr. Richard Schlegel, pathology chief at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington. "Almost everyone could do it easily."
An independent expert agreed.
For infections, it's routine to grow bacteria from a patient in lab dishes to see which antibiotics work best, Dr. George Q. Daley of Children's Hospital Boston and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute said in an email. "But this has never been possible with cancer cells because they don't easily grow in culture," he said.
The new technique may reveal in advance whether a person would be helped by a specific chemotherapy, without risking side effects and lost time if the drug doesn't work. "Pretty nifty," Daley wrote.
In the case of the 24-year-old, described in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, lab-dish tests suggested that a drug used to treat a type of blood cancer and some other unrelated conditions might help.
It's not a drug that doctors would have thought to try, because the man technically does not have cancer. But his lung tumor shrank after a few months of treatment, and he has been stable for more than a year. He still has to have operations to remove throat growths that keep coming back, but only about once every five months.
The man, an information technology specialist in suburban Washington who asked to remain anonymous to protect his privacy, has recurrent respiratory papillomatosis, or RRP. It's usually due to infection at birth with certain types of a virus, HPV, that causes genital warts.
The condition causes wartlike growths in the throat, usually around the voice box. These growths usually are noncancerous but can turn malignant, and even benign ones can prove fatal if they spread to the lungs. The main treatment is surgery, usually with lasers to vaporize the growths and keep them from choking off the airway or making it hard to talk.
About 10,000 or more people in the U.S. have the disease, said Jennifer Woo, president of the RRP Foundation. Woo, 29, is a medical student at Georgetown and one of the researchers on the study. She also has the condition but said it is confined to her throat and has required only about 20 surgeries so far.
The man in the study has a much more serious case.
"I was diagnosed when I was 3 or 4. At first, I had to have surgery every 7 to 10 days," the man said in a phone interview. "I get short of breath and my voice will get more hoarse."
Two years ago, the growths to his lungs became extensive and life-threatening, and his physician, Dr. Scott Myers, described the condition at a meeting of Georgetown hospital specialists. "It's crushing the airway," Myers said.
Doctors suggested that the new lab method pioneered by Schlegel and others might help. It borrows an idea from stem cell researchers: adding mouse cells for nourishment, plus a chemical that prevents cell death to an ordinary lab culture medium. That enabled healthy and cancerous cells to keep growing indefinitely.
Researchers grew "mini tumors" from the man's lung mass and from healthy tissue and screened various drugs against them. One proved ineffective. Another worked against the tumor but at too high a dose to be safe. The third did the trick.
A similar approach could let doctors screen drugs for cancer patients.
"What could be more personalized than taking this person's cell, growing it in culture, finding a drug to treat them and then treat them?" said Doug Melton, co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. The Georgetown method gives an answer quickly enough that it could save lives, he said.
Tyler Jacks, a cancer researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and former president of the American Association for Cancer Research, said the next step is to show that this could work for many different cancers and that it leads to better outcomes in patients.
"It seems to have worked in this one instance, but other tumors might prove to be more challenging," he said.
The National Institutes of Health paid for much of this work and has already sent research teams to Georgetown to learn the method. About a dozen other universities have done the same, Schlegel said.
So far, his lab has grown prostate, breast, lung and colon cancer cells.
Georgetown University is seeking a patent on the method.
___
AP Science Writer Malcolm Ritter contributed to this report from New York.
Presidential and vice presidential candidate names are seen on a ballot at the Polk County Election Office, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012, in Des Moines, Iowa. Voting in Iowa, one of 32 states that allow early voting, begins Thursday morning. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Presidential and vice presidential candidate names are seen on a ballot at the Polk County Election Office, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012, in Des Moines, Iowa. Voting in Iowa, one of 32 states that allow early voting, begins Thursday morning. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Election clerk Karl Althaus sorts through boxes of absentee ballots at the Polk County Election Office, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012, in Des Moines, Iowa. Voting in Iowa, one of 32 states that allow early voting, begins Thursday morning. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) ? Republican Mitt Romney is struggling in swing-state Iowa at a perilous point: just as voters here start casting early ballots in the presidential race.
President Barack Obama has a clear lead in Iowa opinion polls, helped by the fact that the state's economy is far more robust than other battleground states. The president's polling edge is so wide it has prompted grumbling among Iowa Republicans who fault Romney for failing to take advantage of Obama's standing, which had been weakened in the four years since Iowa launched his bid for the White House in 2008.
"There still is time to win, but we are in the fourth quarter," said Nick Ryan, a veteran Iowa Republican strategist who was a top adviser to Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum's caucus campaign.
Iowa is hardly the largest prize in the race for 270 Electoral College votes. But the six it offers could be pivotal if the race is close.
Iowans on Thursday can begin voting in person at early voting sites and returning absentee ballots they've requested by mail or in person. Iowa Republicans are mindful that the perception of Romney in deep trouble could sway voters already casting ballots ? or dissuade volunteers from encouraging backers to turn out at the polls.
The state knows Romney and Obama well; both competed here in 2008. And Romney came close to winning its caucuses in January.
"A lot of people I know are excited about Romney," said Susan Geddes, a Republican from Indianola, just south of Des Moines. "And a lot of people I talk to are like me, and just want it over with."
Since locking up the GOP nomination in the spring, Romney has visited the state six times and has poured $8 million into television advertising here. GOP-leaning groups have tried to help, spending $20 million in TV ads criticizing Obama. But Romney hasn't been to the state since Sept. 7, when he made a trip to the Republican-heavy northwest. And he has paid scant attention to the blue-collar voters along Iowa's eastern edge, where unemployment is running higher than in the state overall and where he needs a big turnout to overtake Obama.
The Republican's team insists that he hasn't given up on the state and that he and his running mate, Paul Ryan, plan to spend more time in Iowa in the final weeks of the campaign.
"You're going to see the governor and Paul Ryan talking a lot directly to voters, having more opportunities to do that," campaign spokeswoman Sarah Pompei said.
Aides argue that Romney has built a more sophisticated voter-contact system than Republican John McCain did in 2008, when Obama carried Iowa by 9 percentage points. And although Romney has only 14 staffed state campaign offices, compared with Obama's 67, Republicans say they have made more than 1 million contacts with voters by telephone and in person.
If the polls are right, the GOP ticket has a lot of ground to make up.
A Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Marist Poll taken last week found Romney trailing Obama by 8 percentage points, a finding that mirrored recent internal polls from Democrats and Republicans alike. The poll also found that only 40 percent had positive feelings about Romney, down from 43 percent in May. Conversely, Obama saw his favorability rating improve to 53 percent from 48 percent over that same period.
Those figures illustrate why Obama's campaign is increasingly confident about its Iowa prospects even as aides say they expect the race to tighten somewhat as undecided voters focus on the election.
Democrats say Obama has benefited from his Iowa strategy of blanketing the state with eight presidential visits ahead of early voting. Obama hoped that his frequent visits, as well as constant appearances by Vice President Joe Biden and first lady Michelle Obama, would help him build a lead over Romney ahead of Election Day, when Republicans traditionally have had an edge.
Obama focused his attention on more populous and politically diverse eastern Iowa. The small and medium-sized cities, many with struggling manufacturing sectors, were friendly territory for Romney in the Iowa caucuses but now show him trailing Obama in internal polling. Obama's three-day, statewide trip in August touched down in less-traveled cities in north- and south-central Iowa. He also made a well-publicized visit to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.
The president also has run more than $20 million in ads, including many that characterize Romney and his positions as those of a wealthy, detached former business executive. Obama allies also have spent roughly $3 million in advertising.
Obama aides say Romney's criticism of Obama's handling of the economy has been less effective here than it has been in states such as harder-hit Florida and Nevada. In August, Iowa unemployment was 5.5 percent, up from July but far below the national average of 8.1 percent.
But Obama aides also say Romney hasn't made as much of an effort to build a personal connection with voters in a state where face-to-face campaigning is key, and they say his comment about 47 percent of Americans who don't pay federal income tax has been problematic.
"He doesn't think poor people are his problem," Oskaloosa Democrat Pam Douglas said. "They are his problem if he wants to be president."
___
Associated Press writer Julie Pace in Chicago contributed to this report.
Approximately 80 more participants are needed for a multisite, Phase 3 clinical trial comparing laparoscopic-assisted versus conventional surgery in patients with stage IIA, Stage IIIA or stage IIIB rectal cancer.?![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 28-Sep-2012
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The Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) has been asked to account for the GH?2 million (?20 billion) the Government of Ghana set aside in the 2012 budget to boost the creative arts industry.
