Meet the Antidepressant That Eases Depression in Hours?Not Weeks

So let's say you're really depressed and haven't been able to pull yourself out of your misery. You somehow find the energy to see a doctor and she gives you a prescription for an antidepressant.?Then you find out the drug will take about four to six weeks to work, if it works at all.

Depression is a wicked condition that weighs heavy on the lives of millions of Americans?about one in ten, in fact. Antidepressants help, as do and other forms of therapy?such as "talk" therapies (e.g., counseling, psychotherapy). But the problem is time. People who are depressed need help now, not two months from now.

In other words, what the world could really use is a drug that eases depression quickly. Thankfully, that's one of the most interesting areas of research in mental-healthcare. Scientists say that in the not-too-distant future ?they'll be able to develop a so-called "fast-acting" antidepressant that works in a matter of days, not weeks or months.

Feeling Blue? Let Dr. Feel Good Make a House Call

Two existing drugs?ketamine and scopolamine?have become the major focus of research efforts at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). In addition to the delay in seeing benefits from most antidepressants, "it's not unusual for someone to need a combination of therapies," before experiencing relief from the worst of their symptoms, Maura Furey, a scientist at the NIMH, told TakePart.

A major study on the effectiveness of antidepressants found that only about 30 percent of people saw their symptoms dissipate after an average of seven weeks on their first antidepressant. Many others continue dealing with the effects of depression four to six months after beginning treatment. "[Finding] something that could work overnight or in a few days would have a potentially huge impact," she says.

Scientists discovered the drug ketamine could snap some people with major depression out of their illness in a matter of hours.

The idea of a fast-acting antidepressant first emerged more than a decade ago when scientists discovered the drug ketamine could snap some depressed people out of their illness in a matter of hours. Ketamine is an anesthetic, mostly used in animals, that targets receptors in the brain known as NDMA.

Blood Test for Depression Proves It's Not All in Your Head

However, the drug is not currently fit for therapeutic use in people. It causes hallucinations, disorientation, and amnesia. Researchers have since tried to create a drug like ketamine but without the side effects. A study?published last year in the journal Science examined a ketamine-like drug called AZD6765 and found that 18 percent of people who took the medication had a full remission of their depression, lasting two days, compared to ten percent of those taking a placebo.

Furey says that scopolamine?best known as a motion sickness treatment?may have more potential as a fast-acting antidepressant. In 2006, Furey and her colleagues discovered its anti-depressive benefits. Unlike ketamine, scopolamine works through the brain's acetylcholine chemical messenger system, which plays a role in memory and how information is processed. The NIMH team's research showed that by blocking receptors for acetylcholine on neurons, scopolamine could lift depression in many patients within a few days.

"One important thing," notes Furey, "is that it doesn't work for everybody. But when it works, it works very quickly." Scopolamine has some side effects, like drowsiness and dry mouth. Moreover, there?s some negative Internet buzz about the drug. The side effects of scopolamine aren't bad, Furey says, "but it doesn't have a great reputation. There are some people who claim it has been used in date-rape type of stuff, which I haven't seen. It makes people a little bit nervous, which I understand."

U.S. Mental Illness Rates Are Persistently High

There are also questions about how scopolamine, or any fast-acting antidepressant, would be used in the real world. If the drug works within a day or so, how long would therapy need to last? What are the chances that the depression would return after the medication is stopped? "We don't know how feasible it is to use these medications to treat people," Furey says. "How do we design a treatment protocol to work long-term? That has not been evaluated yet."

Still, the research so far is illuminating some fascinating things about the nature of depression. For example, depressed patients have a well-known tendency to process and remember negative emotions. The researchers suggest this tendency emerges from dysfunction in the acetylcholine system of the brain in some patients. In a recent study, Furey and her colleagues found that a boost of activity in the brain occurring when the brain is processing emotional information predicted who would respond to scopolamine.

This brain-activity test could be used to predict how people will respond to depression treatments, Furey says.

The study also suggests that researchers should consider designing? antidepressants that work on the acetylcholinergic system of the brain. Modern antidepressants work on the serotonin or norephinephrine systems of the brain.

It may take at least five more years for a fast-acting antidepressant to reach the marketplace, but in the meantime, some people are using scopolamine off-label?something that is not advisable, Furey says. "We're not encouraging people to use it on their own," she stresses. "People call me telling me they are using it. And some physicians are prescribing it off-label. But I think that makes most physicians uncomfortable."

Would you try a fast-acting antidepressant? Have you had success with existing antidepressant? Did you need to wait to see benefits and/or adjust your dosage or try other drugs?

Related Stories on TakePart:

? The Toll of War: Service Members With PTSD Get Help, but More is Needed

? Sneak Peek: Psychiatry's 'Bible' Is Updated After Nearly 20 Years

? Mental Illness: Don't Throw Out the Good with the Bad

?

Shari Roan is an award-winning health writer based in Southern California. She is the author of three books on health and science subjects.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/meet-antidepressant-eases-depression-hours-not-weeks-172649047.html

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Vinehout introduces bill to help small businesses; introduces health ...

RELEASE FROM SEN. VINEHOUT'S OFFICE:

Sen. Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma) introduced her bill to make affordable health insurance available to small businesses and individuals through a health insurance exchange. Heath insurance was recently ranked as the most important challenge facing small business?

?It?s not surprising that business owners tell us that health insurance is the most important challenge facing their business. They?ve told us this for years,? said Sen, Vinehout. ?What is surprising is the leaders of our state seem deaf to the number one concern of small business.?

Nearly 600 business owners responded to a recent survey from the Governor?s Office, titled ?Wisconsin Regulatory Review Report 2013?. They rated health insurance, tied with ?decreased demand?, as the most important challenge facing their businesses. Nearly 80% owned a business with 25 or fewer employees.

?My bill does two things for small businesses and others who buy insurance on their own,? said Vinehout. ?First, it gives small coups the benefits of big coup buying power. Second, it. provides currently unavailable information so comparison shopping is much easier.?

Other states, including Minnesota, are working quickly to assist small business in finding affordable health insurance though insurance exchanges. However, die Walker Administration continues its inaction, The Governor returned federal funding allotted to create a state-based exchange, preferring instead to default health exchange decisions to Washington, D.C.

?We cannot afford further delay. Our small businesses cannot sustain higher health insurance costs. Wisconsin needs to create a state-based health insurance exchange or we risk being put at thither competitive disadvantage,? said Vinehout.

Source: http://www.weau.com/home/headlines/Vinehout-introduces-bill-to-help-small-businesses-191083391.html

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Eagles to shift to two-back system under Kelly

AP

Ryan Otten is a tight end and NFL draft prospect from San Jose State who became so sick from a staph infection at the Senior Bowl that he thought he was going to die.

Otten told the Sacramento Bee that a small cut on his middle finger during Senior Bowl practice week turned into a grotesque, swollen mess thanks to a staph infection, but he refused to stop working toward his dream of getting to the NFL.

?I felt like it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be out there at the Senior Bowl, and I wanted to try to battle through it,? he said. ?Things are going to happen ? getting sick or getting nicked. I wanted to show I was one of those guys who would keep grinding.?

Fighting through it might not have been the right move: He was so sick from the infection that he told his mother he was afraid he was going to die, and he was hospitalized for two days in Alabama immediately after the Senior Bowl.

?Oh, man, this is not good,? Otten said he was thinking as he sat in the hospital. ?I hope I don?t lose an arm or my hand or fingers or something. When they told me it was a staph infection, I knew it was bad stuff.?

Otten felt well enough after two days in the Alabama hospital that doctors there told him he could fly home to California, but when he got home the hospital in Alabama told him his blood work showed the infection was even more serious than they had thought, and he needed to get to the hospital immediately. He was then hospitalized for two more days in California, and although he is now home, he has to go back to the hospital every single day for intravenous antibiotic treatment.

Senior Bowl executive director Phil Savage, the former Browns general manager, said this story will tell NFL teams that Otten is a tough kid.

?I think he?ll get a lot of credit for that,? Savage said. ?There?s no question that life in the NFL is not easy. It?s a long, grueling season, and teams definitely take a player?s temperament and toughness into consideration.?

Otten probably would have preferred to prove his toughness in a way that didn?t include spending four nights in the hospital.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/13/eagles-to-shift-to-two-back-system-under-chip-kelly/related/

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Why You Did Not Get That Business Consulting Job

by admin on February 11, 2013

Are you looking for the first business consulting job, or trying to switch careers to the business consulting field? Have you sent out numerous resumes only to receive little to no invitations for an interview? You may be trying to decide what you are doing wrong and why you aren?t getting those interviews. Here are some things to consider:

Your resume isn?t telling what YOU can do for THEM.? When applying for a business consulting job, you need to have your resume tell your interviewer what you can do for their company. Your resume needs to do more than list your former jobs and duties; you need to tell how well you performed the job. Quantify your successes and qualify your accomplishments.

Your cover letter is generic. A generic cover letter is as good as not having a cover letter. You don?t want to highlight your resume in the cover letter, you want to tell the interview something about yourself. Explain why you will be great at the job for which you are applying. Be specific and say something catchy.

Your resume lists skills not pertinent to the job for which you are applying. If you are changing to the field of business consulting, or have been out of the business consulting field for some time, you will need to make certain your resume highlights skills pertinent to the business consulting field and not just list what you have been doing. If an interviewer sees that you have been out of the field, they need to know how your skills will apply to business consulting now. This is a good time for your cover letter to explain what you are doing and why you are changing field.

When applying for business consulting jobs, you want to make sure that your resume and cover letter stand out among the sea of applicants you might be competing. Make sure you have someone with hiring experience proof your resume and give you some feedback, you want your resume to be brief, to the point, and highlight the right things that an interviewer in the field of business consulting is looking for when determining to whom they will offer interviews.

Tagged as: resume tips for business consulting, tips for getting business consulting job, why did not get business consulting job, why not getting business consulting interviews

Source: http://consultingskillstraining.com/why-you-did-not-get-that-business-consulting-job/

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School Heath Clinics In Los Angeles Serve Low-Income Communities, Reap Revenue For Kids

LOS ANGELES -- When Maria Barrales' children got sick, she would drive two hours south from her East Los Angeles home to the Mexican border and spend two more hours waiting to cross so she could go to an affordable doctor in Tijuana.

Now, Barrales, who does not have health insurance, can walk a couple of blocks to Garfield High School and see a modestly priced physician at a new health clinic converted from an auto shop on the school grounds.

"This is something so necessary here. A lot of people don't have insurance, and they don't have the means to go to Tijuana," she said in Spanish.

The clinic is one of 14 new "wellness centers" that the Los Angeles Unified School District is rolling out this year at schools in impoverished neighborhoods in an initiative that expands the mission of traditional school-based health centers from treating only students into one that treats the general public, too.

While a smattering of school clinics across the nation have long been open to the public, more are looking to expand their patient base to reap revenue that can subsidize the care often given for free to youngsters as well as fill a dire larger need for community health care access.

"The more folks you're seeing, the more revenue you're generating," said Tracey Schear, who oversees 26 school-based health centers for Alameda County Health Services Agency in Northern California. "We're trying to make more visits reimbursable."

About 1,800 school-based centers, which are usually run by a nonprofit or public health care provider in school-owned buildings, operate across the country. They provide a combination of primary care, mental health counseling, dental and vision screenings, and health education and prevention to youth who may have grown up with few, if any, doctor visits.

Around since the 1980s, school health clinics received a shot in the arm from the federal Affordable Care Act, which earmarked $200 million from 2010 to 2013 to build and equip more centers and expand services. With fewer than half of public schools now employing school nurses, some districts have used the money to add health centers, which have traditionally been located in high schools, at elementary and middle schools and add mental health, vision, and dental care.

The federal funding, though, does not cover operational expenses, and more providers are looking to become financially sustainable in an era of shrinking public money and increasing competition for private donations that typically fund school clinics. Some clinics have closed in recent years.

The National Assembly of School-Based Health Care is now lobbying Congress to appropriate $50 million to help centers maintain their operations, said President Linda Juszczak.

With health care reform approaching, school-community health centers are also ramping up to enroll people in public insurance programs that will become available.

"We're looking at long-term sustainable plans," said Maryjane Puffer, executive director of the Los Angeles Trust for Children's Health, a nonprofit that supports the school district's clinics.

One Los Angeles Unified school center that has served the community for a long time has been successful doing that, she noted.

About four school-based health centers have opened to the general public in California's Alameda County, and two centers under construction at schools in the Oakland Unified School District are being designed to serve the community as well as students.

Other clinics are choosing a more limited model that serves school staff, who have private insurance, and students' families.

In Oklahoma City, nonprofit community health care provider Variety Care is rolling out its first school clinic at Capitol Hill High School that is open to the staff and student families, said Chief Executive Lou Carmichael. Although United Way donations help to cover expenses, how the clinic would be financially self-sufficient was a key issue, she noted.

"It's about building income so you can see as many people as you can," she said. "We don't need a big margin but we do need to be able to cash-flow this."

Carmichael said the agency already has a waiting list of schools wanting clinics, but she noted that she'll have to see how the first program works first. "The need is so great, but how do you pay for it?" she said.

Advocates say the combo clinics make sense because neighborhood schools are convenient locations to reach underserved people, especially in rural areas, but accepting community patients has some caveats.

Safety is a concern because schools do not want strangers wandering around their grounds. A health center open to the public typically needs two entrances ? one from the school for students and another street entrance for adults, and may require longer hours, as well as different equipment and staff, such as internist, to deal with adult health problems.

Security issues have prevented a number of clinics in Connecticut from expanding because they're located within older school buildings, noted Jesse White-Frese, executive director of the Connecticut Association of School Based Health Centers. The state has one school clinic open to the public in north New Haven.

Another key issue is privacy for adolescents, who may be seeking contraception, pregnancy tests or treatment for sexually transmitted infections and might shy away from going to a place where they could run into someone they know.

At Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, the clinic is installing a partition to divide the center into two areas after realizing students could feel the waiting room was a little too open, said Rafael Gonzalez-Amezcua, medical services director for Bienvenidos, the nonprofit health care agency running the center.

"It's a little tricky," he said. "The staff will keep the two groups separate. We want the kids to enjoy true privacy."

Experts say the combo clinic is an efficient way of delivering low-cost health care, but note that the school-based health center's primary mission is kids. School clinics often serve a role in student health education and even provide professional role models for kids who lack exposure to career paths , said Julia Lear, senior adviser to the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools at George Washington University.

"Historically, the health care system has not treated children well because the truly interesting money is in adults. These programs were driven by that gap in care for kids," she said. "You don't want to lose that."

For working-class immigrant communities like East Los Angeles, where many people work in jobs that do provide medical insurance, residents said the Garfield High School clinic was a welcome relief for families.

Kids said they'll now be able to try out for school sports teams because they'll be able to get the required physicals their parents can't afford, while parents said they can get help for asthma, diabetes and general stress without worrying about how they'll be able to pay.

Mariela Ortiz, who has no medical insurance, said she's planning to get tetanus shots for her two kids. "Everybody was waiting for this," she said.

____

Contact the reporter at . http://twitter.com/ChristinaHoag

Related on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/09/school-heath-clinics-los-angeles_n_2653119.html

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Bahrain crisis talks to begin amid mistrust

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) ? After nearly two years of nonstop unrest, opposing factions in Bahrain are set to open talks to ease an Arab Spring conflict that has run longer than Syria's rebellion and is playing out on the doorstep of the U.S. military's main naval base in the Persian Gulf.

But mistrust runs so deep on all sides that even the prelude to Sunday's planned start of negotiations has been a study in the kingdom's divisions and suspicions, and suggests a difficult route toward any possible accords.

The country's Sunni rulers ? supported by the West and other Gulf allies ? seek to bring the main Shiite factions back into the political fold in hopes of starting a gradual reconciliation on the strategic island, home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

Envoys from the Shiite groups, however, remain wary of opening a process that they believe has no chance of reaching their goals: forcing the ruling monarchy to give up its monopoly on power and allow an elected government that would certainly include the majority Shiites.

Meanwhile, hard-line Shiite protesters demand nothing short of toppling the two-century-old dynasty. Such a showdown would likely prompt another round of military action from neighbors such Saudi Arabia, which sent in troops to aid Bahrain's Sunni leaders after the uprising began in February 2011.

Washington, which has supported the efforts for negotiations, has stood by Bahrain's monarchy because of its critical military ties and worries about fallout among other Gulf Arab states. However, U.S. officials have criticized harsh measures by Bahrain, including stripping 31 Shiite activists of citizenship, and faces mounting pressures to further trim military sales to Bahrain's government.

Bahrain's Shiites account for about 70 percent of the kingdom's more than 550,000 native-born citizens. While they are the majority, they claim they face systematic discrimination and are effectively shut out of top-level government and military roles. Shiites protests for a greater political voice have flared during the past decades, but the current unrest is the longest and most threatening to the ruling system.

More than 55 people have been killed in the clashes. Some Bahrain-based rights activists place the death toll far higher. Dozens of top Shiite political leaders remain in jail, including some sentenced to life terms.

Tensions also appear to be on the rise heading toward the second anniversary of the uprising on Thursday. Early Saturday, Shiite protesters set barricades of tires ablaze and government security forces lobbed tear gas canisters at the demonstrators.

Police have set up more checkpoints on main roads and security reinforcements have been deployed around the birthplace of the rebellion, Pearl Square in the capital, Manama. The square, ringed with razor wire and concrete barriers, is watched round-the-clock.

Bahraini authorities have offered a number of concessions to try to quell the violence, including granting more oversight powers to the elected parliament. The steps, however, fall short of Shiite demands to break the current system, which allows rulers to hand-pick Cabinet members and other key posts.

A statement from Al Wefaq, the biggest Shiite political group, said the talks must seek a "big political project that seriously represents the peoples' demands."

Bahraini officials have called the dialogue a chance for a "national consensus," but have been unclear on whether they would consider any reforms that would weaken their direct control over the country's affairs. A key challenge could be opposition calls to replace Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, an uncle of the king who has been in office since Bahrain's independence in 1971.

The last round of talks in 2011 collapsed quickly. Al Wefaq delegates pulled out, saying the government was not willing to discuss political reform. Since then, accusations and recriminations from both sides have sharply intensified.

Bahrain's leaders and Gulf partners increasingly portray the opposition as being linked to Shiite power Iran and its proxies such as Lebanon's Hezbollah. No evidence exists of direct Iranian ties to the protests, but Tehran's state media gives extensive coverage to the crackdowns in Bahrain.

On the streets, the demonstrations have evolved from a general call for greater rights into a direct assault on the Western-backed monarchy. Chants of "Down with Hamad" ? King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa ? are now common.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bahrain-crisis-talks-begin-amid-mistrust-063249445.html

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Senator vows to delay Obama's nominees over Libya

A leading Republican senator said Sunday he would hold up Senate confirmation of President Barack Obama's nominees to head the Defense Department and the CIA until the White House provided more answers about the deadly Sept. 11 attack against a U.S. installation in Benghazi, Libya.

The White House took aim at Sen. Lindsey Graham, a persistent critic of Obama's response to the terrorist assault, by urging quick approval of the president's second-term national security team and scolding any lawmakers trying to "play politics" with critical nominations.

Graham accused the White House of "stonewalling" requests to release more information about the attack that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya. "We're going to get to the bottom of Benghazi," he told CBS.

A Democratic colleague branded Graham's threat to stall the nominations of former Sen. Chuck Hagel to be defense secretary and John Brennan, Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, to be CIA director as "unprecedented and unwarranted." Senators should have the chance to vote on the fate of those nominees, said Sen. Jack Reed.

The White House did not address Graham's demand for more information, but did note that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified Thursday before Congress about the chaotic day of the Sept. 11 attack.

Republicans have accused the Obama administration of an election-year cover-up of the attack, and at the hearing several suggested the commander in chief was disengaged as Americans died.

"We know nothing about what the president did on the night of September 11th during a time of national crisis, and the American people need to know what their commander in chief did, if anything, during this eight-hour attack," Graham said on CBS.

Graham contended that a six-person rescue team was delayed from leaving the Benghazi airport because of problems "with the militias releasing them and a lot of bureaucratic snafus," and he said he wants to know whether Obama called any Libyan officials to expedite their mission.

"I don't think we should allow Brennan to go forward for the CIA directorship, Hagel to be confirmed to secretary of defense until the White House gives us an accounting," Graham said, adding, "What did he do that night? That's not unfair. The families need to know, the American people need to know."

Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the White House's National Security Council, said, "We believe the Senate should act swiftly to confirm John Brennan and Sen. Hagel. These are critical national security positions and individual members shouldn't play politics with their nominations."

Reed said that "to dwell on a tragic incident and use that to block people is not appropriate. To try to find information, to ask legitimate questions, as Senator Graham is doing is completely appropriate. But then to turn around and say, 'I'm going to disrupt, essentially, the nomination of two key members of the President's Cabinet,' I don't think that's appropriate, I don't think it's warranted, I think it is an overreaction that is not going to serve the best interest going forward of the national security of the United States."

Graham would have none of it.

"In a constitutional democracy, we need to know what our commander in chief was doing at a time of great crisis, and this White House has been stonewalling the Congress, and I'm going to do everything I can to get to the bottom of this so we'll learn from our mistakes and hold this president accountable for what I think is tremendous disengagement at a time of national security crisis," he said.

At the Senate hearing, Panetta testified that he and Dempsey were meeting with Obama when they first learned of the Libya assault. He said the president told them to deploy forces as quickly as possible. Graham asked whether Panetta spoke again to Obama after that first meeting. Panetta said no, but that the White House was in touch with military officials and aware of what was happening. At one point, Graham asked Panetta if he knew what time Obama went to sleep that night. The Pentagon chief said he did not.

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senator-vows-delay-obamas-nominees-over-libya-160603738.html

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Why Doesn?t the Postal Service Make Money?

U.S. Postal Service clerk Roger Lozano helps a customer with his packages at the Los Feliz Post Office on Thursday in Los Angeles.

Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

The U.S. Postal Service announced Wednesday that it would end Saturday letter delivery beginning in August. The change reportedly will save the USPS $2 billion annually. UPS and FedEx post profits fairly regularly. Why can?t the Postal Service make money delivering mail?

Because it got complacent holding a monopoly. The U.S. Postal Service has a legal monopoly on the non-urgent delivery of letters. It used to be an extremely valuable asset. The monopoly was so valuable, in fact, that the agency built its future around the lucrative first-class letter business. With the profits from first-class mail, the Postal Service priced the delivery of newspapers and magazines at well below cost. In 2006 alone, the USPS subsidized periodicals to the tune of $273 million. The profits from first-class letter monopoly also allowed the Postal Service to stand by while private companies dominated the now crucial parcel-delivery business. The Internet eventually made letters obsolete; gas prices surged; and health care and retirement costs rose beyond projections, turning letter delivery from a cash cow into a burden. (The true cost of delivering a letter is likely more than twice what we now pay.) The collapse of first-class mail was inevitably going to damage the agency. Many observers believe, however, that the Postal Service could have survived those challenges, and even prospered like other delivery companies, if it hadn?t relied so heavily on the profits from its exclusive letter-delivery business.

The monopoly is a curse in another way: When the government grants a monopoly, it demands the right to regulate in return. The Postal Service has to petition the Postal Regulatory Commission, and sometimes Congress, whenever it wants to make a substantial change to its business model. Federal officials have opposed attempts to save money by closing remote post offices and cutting Saturday delivery in the past. The USPS also has the government looking over its shoulder in labor negotiations.

Most postal experts believe the USPS has to behave more like a private agency if it?s to stop losing billions of dollars every year. Competitors, however, won?t accept deregulation of the Postal Service as long as it holds its monopoly on first-class mail. (The USPS holds a second monopoly on access to mailboxes, which it would also have to give up.) As a private business with less federal oversight, the Postal Service could respond more nimbly to market demand. Consider package delivery, a business that the USPS is now aggressively pursuing. Private carriers charge substantially more to deliver parcels to rural locations. According to the UPS website, the lowest rate to deliver a four-pound package from New York City to White Owl, S.D., is $20.51. The Postal Service, which is under pressure from the federal government to provide affordable service to remote locations, charges just $12.07 to deliver the same box. A less-regulated Postal Service could also impose surge-pricing for periods like the holidays or could rearrange delivery schedules to satisfy periodic changes in demand.

Deregulation advocates point to European Union postal services, all of which are either private or about to become private. Germany privatized its mail service in 1995, and it has since combined with DHL to become the world?s largest logistics company.

Got a question about today?s news? Ask the Explainer.

Explainer thanks R. Richard Geddes of Cornell University and James S. O?Rourke of the University of Notre Dame.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=a8d7e4b83e3ffd9656d2b142cff399dc

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Melissa McCarthy Slammed as "Tractor-Sized Hippo" in Identity Theft Review

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2013 Grammy Winners Revealed ... Possibly

Frank Ocean is in for a big night at the Grammys, at least according to Bigger Than the Sound.
By James Montgomery

Frank Ocean
Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1701500/2013-grammy-award-winners-predictions.jhtml

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Planning a Family Garden | CTWorkingMoms

Feb 6, 2013 by bernhardsonbunch

Ladies and Gentlemen, start your SEEDS!

The forecast may be snow-filled, but over at my house, we?re focusing on one thing: 40 more days until SPRING! And while ?spring? means many things, garden season is a big part of what it means here! Last year was our first year of having an official family garden. It was the first spring that I was not pregnant, moving to a new house, or adjusting to the pace of life as a mom, and we finally felt we had the time and energy to devote to planting and maintaing a vegetable garden. (Note: I used the word ?maintaining? loosely there. I admit we just totally stopped weeding by early August?and we vow to do better with this the 2nd time around! Sorry, plants.)

Gardening with kids comes with so very many awesome benefits beyond simply growing tasty food. There are the obvious science lessons, the math involved in planning and designing the garden, the patience and pride that comes from watering plants every day and finally picking that first tomato, the increased likelihood that kids really will eat their veggies if they grew them, the benefits of being outside in the fresh air?the list is seemingly infinite. This year, our focus is on having FUN in our garden. We are planting a ?crazy garden?, as my older son is calling it. Here are a few of the things we hope to include!

The reason we?re already in full garden-planning mode here is because many of these super cool plants have to be started indoors first and transplanted to the garden as seedlings when the warm weather arrives. We will be ordering our seeds soon and hopefully starting some seedlings indoors in a month or so?but the time to start thinking ?summer gardens? is NOW! Don?t let the snow get you down?growing season is coming soon!

?

Images are all from the Burpee seed company. Links to the images here:

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Sen. Menendez contacted top officials in friend?s Medicare dispute (Washington Post)

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Ohio AG: System failure led to deadly police chase

RICHFIELD, Ohio (AP) ? Leadership and communications failures led to the chaotic police chase in Cleveland last fall than ended with 13 officers firing 137 rounds and killing two people who were likely unarmed, Ohio's attorney general said Tuesday in reporting the results of an exhaustive investigation.

"It was total lack of control," Attorney General Mike DeWine said during a news conference at the state crime laboratory.

He turned over the report to Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty, who said he would take the case to a grand jury to determine if any of the officers should face criminal charges.

Officials didn't announce a timeframe for the grand jury review and McGinty said he hadn't dawn any conclusions about criminal charges.

The report did not assign blame on any of the officers but said "systemic failures" in the Cleveland police department led to the escalation of the Nov. 29 chase and the fatal shootings of the car's driver, Timothy Russell, 43, and his 30-year-old passenger Malissa Williams.

"Command failed, communications failed, the system failed," DeWine said.

Patrick D'Angelo, the police union attorney, watched the news conference and said the shooting would be found to be justified. The chase reflects the risks officers face daily, he said.

"The driver of the car tried to run over numerous police officers, he intentionally rammed other patrol cars and officers were in fear of their life and they did what they were trained to do," D'Angelo said.

A key question remained unanswered: Did the two people fleeing in the car have a weapon that was tossed out during the chase? DeWine said gunpowder residue tests on the two and their vehicle showed traces of gunpowder but it wasn't conclusive on whether they had been armed or on whether the residue, as was possible, came from the extensive gunfire.

Some community leaders called the shootings racially motivated, since Russell and Williams were black, but D'Angelo said race wasn't a factor in the chase.

DeWine described a confusing scene where dozens of police cruisers from multiple jurisdictions became involved in the chase without permission from superiors and little direction after some officers thought someone from the car had fired shots.

Then, at the end of the chase, officers positioned on both sides of the suspect's car began firing, the report said. The crossfire led other officers to believe they were involved in a shootout with the two people in the car.

Many of the officers told investigators they were frightened and legitimately feared for their lives.

Officer Michael Brelo, according to his account, climbed onto the trunk and then the top of a patrol car and reloaded his gun, firing rounds. An Iraq war veteran, the officer said he saw "the suspects moving and I could not understand why they are still moving, shooting at us. Even through Iraq, I never fired my weapon. I never have been so afraid in my life."

Another officer, David Siefer, radioed fellow officers to be careful because the passenger was armed.

"He's pointing the gun. He's pointing the gun out the back window. Heads up. Heads up. Passenger is pointing a gun out the back window. Everybody be careful," Siefer said.

Siefer later told investigators he didn't actually see a gun. "Despite not actually seeing a gun, Siefer broadcast on the radio that the passenger has just pointed a gun out the rear window," the report said

Mayor Michael Frank Jackson, who has said officers who violated department rules in the chase would be disciplined, was preparing to respond to the report later in the day.

The chase involving police, sheriff's deputies and state troopers went through residential neighborhoods and onto a freeway before ending with the car blocked in at the rear of a school in neighboring East Cleveland. It reached 100 mph and lasted 25 miles and 22 minutes.

The report noted that Russell was legally drunk when he became involved in the chase, and he and Williams also tested positive for cocaine. DeWine said they likely had been smoking crack. It wasn't clear why Russell didn't stop for police. He had earlier fled a separate traffic stop.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ohio-ag-system-failure-led-deadly-police-chase-165454983.html

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Amnesty: Hector Ramirez's journey from teen welder to business owner

By Liz Goodwin

Hector Ramirez is one of six people Yahoo News has interviewed for our series on Americans who gained green cards under Ronald Reagan?s 1986 law that legalized 2.7 million illegal immigrants. On Thursday, we profile Ubaldo, an injured truck driver who has run into immigration problems.

Hector Ramirez was 13 years old when a smuggler helped him and a friend climb over the border fence near Tijuana into the U.S. Ramirez, the youngest of 11 siblings, was picked up at a nearby McDonald?s by one of his older brothers, Luis, who was taking him back to his place in the tumultuous Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts. But they weren?t clear yet: The smuggler, or ?coyote,? who helped the two boys cross demanded $200 more than the already agreed upon $600. When Ramirez?s brother protested, the coyote punched him in the face.

The next day, a Sunday, Ramirez, who was the guest of honor at a party celebrating his arrival, believed the hard part was over. But on Monday, Luis, who owned a small welding shop, woke him at 5:30 a.m. ?He said, ?Get up and take a shower because we?re going to work,?? recalled Ramirez, who is now 45. ?Since [then] we?ve been working 10, 12, 16 hours a day.?

Ramirez said he was happy for the chance to earn money. The plan was to save enough to buy a motorcycle and then go back home to Zacatecas, Mexico. His goal: speeding up the 10-mile journey from his home to school. Ramirez, however, stayed in the U.S. and never went back to school. He threw himself into welding?picking up English from the customers, as well as from watching TV?and saved up enough money to buy a home at the age of 18. For two weeks the house was completely empty because he had spent every last cent on the down payment and could not afford to buy even curtains.

?Probably my life would have been different if I were to go to school,? Ramirez said. ?But I think I was lucky and smart to get into a business.?

Ramirez was 20 when he found out he could get legal status through Reagan?s amnesty program. The news, he said, was profound: Like many illegal immigrants, he was using fake identity documents and lacked a driver?s license. He and one of his brothers applied for legalization at the same time. (Ramirez?s two other brothers later got green cards through their spouses.)

In the 1990s, the welding shop, in part by selling fencing and window guards to Los Angeles residents wary of the city?s increasing crime, expanded to four locations, and all four brothers became partners. But like many other businesses nationwide, it was hit in the recession in 2008, going from nearly 200 employees to 68.

?We?ve been suffering for five years,? Ramirez said. ?It feels terrible.?

Ramirez, who became a citizen in 1996, has since voted in every election. In November, his three brothers ended up backing Mitt Romney, hoping his economic policies would boost their business. Ramirez, conflicted, backed President Barack Obama, in part because he didn?t like reports that Romney sometimes advised businesses to move operations abroad as a private equity executive.

Romney?s opposition to the legalization of undocumented immigrants, Ramirez said, had little impact on his vote. But he does believe illegal immigrants should have a chance to get papers: ?They?re very hard workers,? he said. He empathizes with people now trying to cross the border illegally, a journey far more dangerous than when Ramirez made it due to drug cartels frequently robbing and killing migrants who are heading north.

Ramirez now has eight children, and he said he tries to teach them how lucky they are to live in America. ?I told my son, ?You need to get up and go to work. You?re always playing with the Xbox thing.?? When his son complained that he doesn?t have a car so can?t drive to find work, Ramirez told him, ?Do you see the Home Depot? How do you think they got there? They?re walking. You speak English; you have papers, and a bicycle. Get up and get out of here.?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hector-ramirez--from-teen-welder-to-business-owner--212727779.html

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Curbing gun violence after Newtown: Let's arm teachers

In the wake of the Sandy Hook school attack in Newtown, Conn., President Obama is taking his gun control ideas on the road, and politicians, school administrators, and parents across the country are reviewing school safety. Many are discussing how to better protect schoolhouse doors and update safety drills, whether to add armed guards as the National Rifle Association proposes, and even whether to arm teachers.

That last idea is not as far-fetched as it may sound to some people. America's banks, courts, top elected officials, and super celebrities are protected by armed guards. Armed pilots and air marshals protect us in the skies. So why not armed teachers protecting our children?

State lawmakers in Arizona, California, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Tennessee have introduced or plan to propose legislation that would allow teachers and/or other school employees to have guns at school. Utah already allows concealed weapons at schools and at least 200 teachers have volunteered for firearms training since the Newtown massacre left 20 children and six adult women dead at the school in December.

ANOTHER VIEW: 6 reasons why President Obama will defeat the NRA

Critics worry about schools becoming fortresses, about accidental shootings, and liability issues. The consulting firm, National School Safety and Security Services, advises against arming teachers, though not against armed guards. But a well-thought-out program can avoid most of these pitfalls, and take advantage of teachers and staff who are eager to act as trained protectors for our children.

I'm a mild mannered eye doctor who comes from a family of teachers. Many years ago, I discovered the joy of competitive, combat-style, pistol shooting and went on to become certified as a pistol instructor. The first thing to understand about arming teachers is that learning to shoot is not rocket science. Modern firearms are designed to be easily used defensively by ordinary human beings under stress. Millions of new pistol shooters have been amazed that with proper instruction they can shoot pretty well. Carbines, like the AR-15s used by police officers, are even easier.

There is no practical reason that a sufficient number of teachers can't be trained to defend the children they care about. Those who don't have the right mindset simply won't volunteer, but those who do volunteer will be highly motivated.

A large firearms training industry has developed in the last two decades as the number of concealed carry licenses has exploded. There are many good instructors who can turn a non-shooter into a competent defender in about 40 hours.

People who get their gun knowledge from Hollywood will tell you that shooting someone intent on killing during the frenzy of a school attack is impossible. I don't buy that. If a madman comes into your workplace and starts shooting, I think you will know exactly what to do, just like the many merchants who defend themselves against armed robbers virtually every day and the moms who defend their kids from home invaders.

It's highly unlikely that students will be running every which way. They will be on the floor, under desks, and locked in classrooms. A trained, armed teacher will know to take cover, kneel, and aim with rising shots. The teacher will also know every inch of the building, having the advantage.

That's the basic scenario, but the devil is in the details.

One way to arm teachers is for them to carry a concealed pistol, like millions of licensed citizens do now. That cuts down on the ?school fortress? perception. It is important, too, that the aggressor not know who is armed, in order to complicate his planning, hopefully to the point that he abandons his plan entirely.

THE MONITOR'S VIEW: The NRA call for armed guards in schools

Modern security holsters make it very hard to snatch a pistol, but for some teachers, keeping their weapon a secret while in close daily contact with students may be problematic. Certainly some teachers can carry discretely, but I feel it is important to include principals, maintenance people, secretaries, and administrators who are better able to maintain their personal space.

A very good option would be to keep some firearms in security cabinets that are accessible only to those who have completed proper training and have been given the key or combination. Since they are not being carried, an appropriate long gun should be stored instead of a pistol. This can prevent accidental shootings.

The next issue is how to find enough volunteers. In some areas, volunteers will be plentiful, as recent armed teacher classes in Utah and Texas attest. In places where guns are unfashionable, armed guards or resident police officers can do the job, albeit at a higher cost.

Among the possible sticking points will be deciding who screens and selects from the available volunteers. Workplace politics and personality conflicts common to school faculties would suggest that the decision should be made at the district or state level.

Volunteers should be willing to give up a week of their summer vacation for initial training and two weekends a year for refresher courses. The state should pay for training and supply approved firearms. Police agencies should offer their trainers and facilities, as some already have, but excellent civilian trainers are available if needed.

Obviously, the names of the armed staff members must not be made public, as this will negate some of their effectiveness. Only the general fact that a school is protected should be announced in order to benefit from the deterrent effect. Ironically, it may be that this effect is more important than any particular skills or training. As long as people believe that a school is protected, the exact methods may not matter at all.

This is definitely not a one size fits all situation. It is critical that school districts have as much flexibility as possible to chart their own way, based on their finances and the local culture.

OPINION: As a gun owner, I agree with Obama's proposed ban on high-capacity magazines

Even if all obstacles are overcome and an armed school protection plan is put in place, it will be difficult to measure its effectiveness for the simple reason that serious school attacks don't happen very often. Gathering statistically significant conclusions may not be possible, because how can you identify when a perpetrator has been dissuaded from attacking a target? Like many elements of the great American gun debate, support for such a program will hinge on emotional and cultural factors in the community, rather than hard evidence.

Michael Brown is a member of Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/curbing-gun-violence-newtown-lets-arm-teachers-195616709--politics.html

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Mutations linked to relapse of childhood leukemia discovered

Feb. 3, 2013 ? After an intensive three-year hunt through the genome, medical researchers have pinpointed mutations that leads to drug resistance and relapse in the most common type of childhood cancer -- the first time anyone has linked the disease's reemergence to specific genetic anomalies.

The discovery, co-lead by William L. Carroll, MD, director of NYU Langone Medical Center's Cancer Institute, is reported in a study published online February 3, 2013, in Nature Genetics.

"There has been no progress in curing children who relapse, in spite of giving them very high doses of chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants," said Dr. Carroll.

The discovery suggests how scientists may be able to thwart a dangerous form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a rapidly progressing blood-borne cancer that strikes about 6,000 people in the United States every year and accounts for more than one in four pediatric cancers. Eventually, such information could help doctors detect the early emergence of chemotherapy-resistant leukemia cells in patients and switch to a different treatment strategy before the disease can fully reassert itself.

In acute lymphoblastic leukemia, abbreviated ALL, the body's bone marrow produces an abnormally large number of lymphocytes, or white blood cells. Improved treatments have increased the overall cure rate to roughly 80 percent. But Dr. Carroll says the prognosis is especially dire for some 20 percent of patients who relapse.

Medical researchers have suspected that the reemergence of disease could be due to drug resistance, but previous efforts had not uncovered any definitive pathway. For the new study, led by Dr. Carroll and graduate student Julia Meyer, researchers at five U.S. institutions spent three years analyzing multiple bone marrow samples from pediatric ALL patients for more clues to the disease's progression.

With the help of the Children's Oncology Group, a multi-institutional clinical trials consortium supported by the National Cancer Institute, the researchers analyzed the entire transcriptome -- or the full sequence of RNA -- from 10 children with pediatric B lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common subtype of ALL. RNA is an essential intermediary in the cellular process that uses DNA blueprints to assemble specific proteins, thus a leukemia transcriptome gives researchers a view of all active genes within the cancerous cells.

For each patient, the team pieced together a complete sequence of RNA extracted from the bone marrow at three time points: at diagnosis, during remission, and upon relapse some months or years later. All told, the project required the researchers to sequence, or spell out, 100 billion letters of RNA. By comparing the before and after sequences, the team found that each patient had acquired between one and six mutations that changed the genetic code over the course of the disease. In some cases researchers were able to detect these mutations in a very small subset (0.01 percent) of the tissue samples at diagnosis so that these cells likely expanded because their drug resistant properties provided the leukemia cells with a survival advantage.

In all, the team documented 20 relapse-specific mutations -- none of which had previously been implicated in ALL recurrences. Intriguingly, two patients harbored a mutation in the same gene, NT5C2, which encodes a protein that normally regulates some building blocks used to construct DNA but also can degrade an important class of drugs called purine analogues used in ALL therapy.

When the researchers fully sequenced the NT5C2 gene in 61 other cases in which pediatric ALL patients had relapsed, they found five more mutations that altered the gene's coding region. Further experiments suggested that these NT5C2 mutations all increased the protein's enzymatic activity, making the cancer cells more resistant to a chemotherapy treatment designed to force the cells to kill themselves. All seven patients with NT5C2 mutations relapsed within three years of the initial diagnosis -- an early, particularly hard-to-treat re-emergence likely mediated by the drug resistance.

Armed with the new knowledge, Dr. Carroll says doctors may be better equipped to identify patients likely to relapse. "We plan to test the feasibility of screening patients during therapy using sophisticated sequencing technology to pick up low-level mutations in NT5C2 and other genes indicating that a mutant clone is growing," he says. His team is researching whether that advance warning could allow doctors to administer separate drugs to beat back the cancer cells, and is also working on a strategy to directly inhibit the mutant enzyme.

The study co-authors include Julia A. Meyer, Jinhua Wang, Laura A. Hogan, Smita Dandekar, Zuojian Tang, Jiri Zavadil, Timothy Cardozo, Elizabeth Raetz, and Debra J. Morrison at NYU Langone Medical Center; Jun J. Yang and William E. Evans at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital; Jay P. Patel and Ross L. Levine at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Paul Zumbo, Sheng Li, and Christopher E. Mason at Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University; and Stephen. P. Hunger at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Children's Hospital Colorado.

The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute, with additional support from the American Society of Hematology and St. Baldrick's Foundation.

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Journal Reference:

1. Linda Holmfeldt, Lei Wei, Ernesto Diaz-Flores, Michael Walsh, Jinghui Zhang, Li Ding, Debbie Payne-Turner, Michelle Churchman, Anna Andersson, Shann-Ching Chen, Kelly McCastlain, Jared Becksfort, Jing Ma, Gang Wu, Samir N Patel, Susan L Heatley, Letha A Phillips, Guangchun Song, John Easton, Matthew Parker, Xiang Chen, Michael Rusch, Kristy Boggs, Bhavin Vadodaria, Erin Hedlund, Christina Drenberg, Sharyn Baker, Deqing Pei, Cheng Cheng, Robert Huether, Charles Lu, Robert S Fulton, Lucinda L Fulton, Yashodhan Tabib, David J Dooling, Kerri Ochoa, Mark Minden, Ian D Lewis, L Bik To, Paula Marlton, Andrew W Roberts, Gordana Raca, Wendy Stock, Geoffrey Neale, Hans G Drexler, Ross A Dickins, David W Ellison, Sheila A Shurtleff, Ching-Hon Pui, Raul C Ribeiro, Meenakshi Devidas, Andrew J Carroll, Nyla A Heerema, Brent Wood, Michael J Borowitz, Julie M Gastier-Foster, Susana C Raimondi, Elaine R Mardis, Richard K Wilson, James R Downing, Stephen P Hunger, Mignon L Loh & Charles G Mullighan. The genomic landscape of hypodiploid acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Nature Genetics, 20 January 2013 DOI: 10.1038/ng.2532

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/~3/RIQfsnIOAiE/130203145450.htm

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Exclusive: Watch Seth MacFarlane Get Ready For The Oscars

Oscars host lists his favorite movies — including "From Justin to Kelly" — in this exclusive video.
By Josh Wigler

Seth MacFarlane doing promos for the 2013 Oscars
Photo: Oscars.com

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1701199/seth-macfarlane-oscars-host.jhtml

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Iraq Sunnis protest; al-Qaida front calls to arms

BAGHDAD (AP) ? Tens of thousands of Sunni protesters blocked a major highway in western Iraq on Friday, as an al-Qaida-affiliated group called on Sunnis to take up arms against the Shiite-led government.

The rally comes at a time of mounting sectarian tensions in Iraq. Minority Sunnis complain of official discrimination against them, and the arrests of bodyguards of a senior Sunni politician in December have sparked weekly demonstrations.

The main rallies Friday took place in Fallujah and Ramadi, cities that straddle the highway running through Anbar province. The province was a former al-Qaida stronghold that saw some of the fiercest fighting against U.S. forces during the Iraq war.

Protesters also marched in the capital Baghdad and in the central city of Samarra. Friday's turnout appeared to be among the largest since the protests began in December.

In Fallujah and Ramadi, demonstrators performed Muslim noon prayers, the highlight of the religious week, on the highway, which links Iraq with Jordan.

Last week, five protesters and two Iraqi soldiers were killed in clashes in Fallujah, and demonstrators held up pictures of the dead on Friday.

Sunni cleric Abdul-Hameed Jadoua told the crowd that "the blood of the martyrs was shed so that the dignity of our Iraq and our tribes will be restored."

He demanded that soldiers be put on trial for killing protesters and said the army must stay out of the area. "From this place, we tell the government that we do not want to see a soldier from now on, not only in Fallujah, but in all its suburbs and (surrounding) villages," he said.

The cleric appeared to be rebuffing a call to arms. "I tell the young people that we do appreciate your zeal ... but you should be disciplined and adhere to the directives of the clerics and tribal leaders so that we act in a reasonable way," he said.

Al-Qaida has expressed support for the protests. On Friday, an al-Qaida-affiliated group, the Islamic State of Iraq, called on Sunnis to resort to violence against the government.

Sunnis can either bow to Shiites or take up arms and restore "dignity and freedom," said spokesman Mohammed al-Adnani in an audio statement posted on the group's website.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has suggested that al-Qaida and members of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime are involved in the demonstrations.

Organizers said they have no links to al-Qaida. "This organization represents only itself and it does not represent us," Saeed Humaim, a leading activist in Ramadi, said of the Islamic State of Iraq.

Humaim said organizers also asked demonstrators not to raise Saddam-era national flags. Under Saddam, toppled by the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Sunnis enjoyed special privileges while Kurds and Shiites were often persecuted.

During previous protests, many had waved Saddam-era flags, but there were fewer on Friday. Humaim said organizers did not want to give the government an opportunity to smear protesters as Saddam loyalists.

The protesters' demands include the release of Sunni detainees from Iraqi jails and the cancellation of a tough counterterrorism law and other policies they believe overwhelmingly target Sunnis.

Many of the demonstrators link their cause to the broader Arab Spring uprisings and are calling for the ouster of the government.

Al-Maliki has released hundreds of detainees in a concession to the protesters. On Thursday, the prime minister was quoted as saying he would address what he described as "legitimate demands." He said a committee dealing with these issues has made progress.

Humaim, the Ramadi organizer, accused the government of dragging its feet.

"We will go back to our homes only when there are real reforms and real change in Iraq," he said. "More delays by the government means more demands by the people."

With sectarian tensions mounting, an Associated Press tally showed that 178 people were killed in attacks by Sunni insurgents and in other Iraq violence in January.

Four major bombings and shooting attacks contributed to the relatively high monthly toll, which was the highest since September.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iraq-sunnis-protest-al-qaida-front-calls-arms-104403325.html

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