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Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts

CEOs pan fiscal cliff deal, vow to continue debt fight

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(Reuters) – U.S. executives largely panned the congressional deal to steer America away from the “fiscal cliff,” saying Washington wasted an opportunity to address the nation’s long-term debt, but said they would continue to agitate for a better budget plan.


While CEOs expressed relief that $ 600 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts will not kick the fragile economy in the gut, their gratitude was salted with insults.






“I think this deal’s a disaster,” said Peter Huntsman, chief executive of chemical producer Huntsman Corp.


“We’re just living in a fantasy land. We’re borrowing more and more money. This did absolutely nothing to address the fundamental issue of the debt cliff.”


Former Wells Fargo CEO Dick Kovacevich said the agreement confirms that Washington and both parties are totally out of control.


“I think it’s a joke,” Kovacevich said of the deal. “It’s stunning to me that after working on this for months and supposedly really getting to work in the last 30 days that this is what you come up with.”


Kovacevich and others said business leaders need to consider a different approach, one that either bypasses lawmakers or lays out a much more specific plan for deficit reduction.


Corporate America had mounted a media blitz in the last two months, calling on Congress to both avert the potentially devastating fiscal cliff and replace it with a reasonable long-term plan to get the federal deficit under control.


Dozens of CEOs joined a loose coalition known as the “Fix the Debt” campaign, travelled to Washington to talk directly with lawmakers, visited the White House, and made regular rounds on TV news programs.


The executives scaled back their public posturing during the furious last-minute negotiations, which coincided with their holiday vacations, but some executives kept the phone lines to Washington open.


They are not happy with what their efforts bought them.


The final deal contained no meaningful spending cuts and adds trillions to the deficit, compared to the budget savings that would have occurred if the extreme measures of the cliff had kicked in.


It also set up another cliff of sorts in two months. That’s when the nation is expected to hit its borrowing limit, and when the across-the-board spending cuts known as “sequestration” are now scheduled kick in.


Despite executives’ distaste for the deal, they’re not turning their backs on Washington and are holding out hope for a greater deficit reduction plan.


“We cannot give up now, that’s not how a great nation acts,” said Honeywell International Inc CEO David Cote, a driving force behind the Fix the Debt group.


He said in a statement Wednesday that he’s “encouraged” by comments made by both Democrats and Republicans saying that more work needs to be done.


REGROUPING


Some in the business community are calling for a change in strategy due to the meager results of the fiscal cliff deal.


“It doesn’t work talking to the politicians, obviously,” former Wells CEO Kovacevich said. “What we’ve got to do is educate the American public that our country is going to hell.”


There are questions about how meaningful of a contribution Corporate America can make, especially if they do not deliver a unified voice on hard decisions such as industry-specific tax breaks.


Republican Senator Bob Corker from Tennessee said on CNBC on Wednesday morning that the business community could play a great role by pushing for concrete entitlement changes.


The business community appears reluctant to provide lawmakers with specific proposals.


Jon Romano, a spokesman for the Fix the Debt campaign, said the group has set out principles for a long-term deal, but it doesn’t want to prescribe what the policy should look like.


“We’re really looking to our elected leaders on both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue to come up with that solution to this issue,” Romano said.


Mark Kennedy, who heads George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management and served in Congress from 2001 to 2007, said business leaders need to do more.


He said executives should identify “sacred cows” that should no longer be protected, be more specific about how big a deficit reduction deal should be, and get specific about what they want included.


“It’s more helpful to get parameters as to what should be done than to just say, do something,” Kennedy said.


(Reporting by Scott Malone in Boston, Emily Stephenson in Washington. Additional reporting by Lauren Tara LaCapra and Ernest Scheyder in New York, Jim Finkle in Boston, Rick Rothacker in Charlotte and Nichola Groom in Los Angeles; Editing by Karey Wutkowski, Patricia Kranz, Dan Grebler and Leslie Gevirtz)


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“Fiscal cliff” crisis heads to resolution in Congress

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A months-long battle over the U.S. “fiscal cliff” headed to a close on Tuesday as the House of Representatives moved toward final approval of a bipartisan deal meant to prevent Washington from pushing the world’s biggest economy into recession.


The Republican-controlled House was expected to back a tax hike on the top U.S. earners shortly before midnight on Tuesday, ending weeks of high-stakes budget brinkmanship that threatened to spook consumers and throw financial markets into turmoil.






Approval of the bill would be a victory for President Barack Obama, who campaigned for re-election last November on a promise to raise taxes on the wealthiest but faced stiff opposition from congressional Republicans.


Republicans had earlier considered adding hundreds of billions of dollars in spending cuts after the bill had already passed the Senate with strong bipartisan support. That would have triggered further partisan warfare and pushed the crisis well past a self-imposed January 1 deadline.


But party leaders abandoned the effort after determining they lacked the votes.


“We’ve gone as far as we can go and I think people are ready to bring it to a conclusion,” Republican Representative Jack Kingston of Georgia said. “We fought the fight.”


Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, a Republican, predicted the House would back the Senate bill, which also postpones for two months $ 109 billion in spending cuts on military and domestic programs set for 2013.


The bill easily cleared a procedural hurdle by a bipartisan vote of 408 to 10.


Lawmakers have struggled to find a way to head off across-the-board tax hikes and spending cuts that began to take effect at midnight, a legacy of earlier failed budget deals that is known as the fiscal cliff.


Strictly speaking, the United States went over the cliff in the first minutes of the New Year because Congress failed to produce legislation to halt $ 600 billion of tax hikes and spending cuts scheduled for this year.


TAX HIKES FOR WEALTHIEST


While many Republicans were uneasy with the tax hikes and wanted more spending cuts in the bill, they seemed to realize that the fiscal cliff would begin to damage the economy once financial markets and federal government offices returned to work on Wednesday. Opinion polls show the public would blame Republicans if a deal were to fall apart.


House Republicans had earlier considered adding $ 330 billion in spending cuts over 10 years to the Senate bill, which raises taxes on the wealthiest U.S. households by $ 620 billion over the same period.


But Senate Democrats refused to consider any changes to their bill, which passed 89 to 8 in a rare display of unity early Tuesday.


That measure, which passed the Senate at around 2 a.m., would raise income taxes on families earning more than $ 450,000 per year and limit the amount of deductions they can take to lower their tax bill.


Low temporary rates that have been in place for the past decade would be made permanent for less-affluent taxpayers, along with a range of targeted tax breaks put in place to fight the 2009 economic downturn.


However, workers would see up to $ 2,000 more taken out of their paychecks annually with the expiration of a temporary payroll tax cut.


The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said the Senate bill would increase budget deficits by nearly $ 4 trillion over the coming 10 years, compared to the budget savings that would occur if the extreme measures of the cliff were to kick in.


But the bill would actually save $ 650 billion during that time period when measured against the tax and spending policies that were in effect on Monday, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, an independent group that has pushed for more aggressive deficit savings.


(Additional reporting by Rachelle Younglai, Thomas Ferraro and David Lawder; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Alistair Bell and Eric Beech)


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Steroids loom in major-college football

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WASHINGTON (AP) — With steroids easy to buy, testing weak and punishments inconsistent, college football players are packing on significant weight — 30 pounds or more in a single year, sometimes — without drawing much attention from their schools or the NCAA in a sport that earns tens of billions of dollars for teams.


Rules vary so widely that, on any given game day, a team with a strict no-steroid policy can face a team whose players have repeatedly tested positive.






An investigation by The Associated Press — based on interviews with players, testers, dealers and experts and an analysis of weight records for more than 61,000 players — revealed that while those running the multibillion-dollar sport say they believe the problem is under control, that control is hardly evident.


The sport’s near-zero rate of positive steroids tests isn’t an accurate gauge among college athletes. Random tests provide weak deterrence and, by design, fail to catch every player using steroids. Colleges also are reluctant to spend money on expensive steroid testing when cheaper ones for drugs like marijuana allow them to say they’re doing everything they can to keep drugs out of football.


“It’s nothing like what’s going on in reality,” said Don Catlin, an anti-doping pioneer who spent years conducting the NCAA’s laboratory tests at UCLA. He became so frustrated with the college system that it was part of the reason he left the testing industry to focus on anti-doping research.


___


EDITOR’S NOTE — Whether for athletics or age, Americans from teenagers to baby boomers are trying to get an edge by illegally using anabolic steroids and human growth hormone, despite well-documented risks. This is the first of a two-part series.


___


While other major sports have been beset by revelations of steroid use, college football has operated with barely a whiff of scandal. Between 1996 and 2010 — the era of Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Marion Jones and Lance Armstrong — the failure rate for NCAA steroid tests fell even closer to zero from an already low rate of less than 1 percent.


The AP’s investigation, drawing upon more than a decade of official rosters from all 120 Football Bowl Subdivision teams, found thousands of players quickly putting on significant weight, even more than their fellow players. The information compiled by the AP included players who appeared for multiple years on the same teams.


For decades, scientific studies have shown that anabolic steroid use leads to an increase in body weight. Weight gain alone doesn’t prove steroid use, but very rapid weight gain is one factor that would be deemed suspicious, said Kathy Turpin, senior director of sport drug testing for the National Center for Drug Free Sport, which conducts tests for the NCAA and more than 300 schools.


Yet the NCAA has never studied weight gain or considered it in regard to its steroid testing policies, said Mary Wilfert, the NCAA’s associate director of health and safety.


The NCAA attributes the decline in positive tests to its year-round drug testing program, combined with anti-drug education and testing conducted by schools.


The AP’s analysis found that, regardless of school, conference and won-loss record, many players gained weight at exceptional rates compared with their fellow athletes and while accounting for their heights.


Adding more than 20 or 25 pounds of lean muscle in a year is nearly impossible through diet and exercise alone, said Dan Benardot, director of the Laboratory for Elite Athlete Performance at Georgia State University.


In nearly all the rarest cases of weight gain in the AP study, players were offensive or defensive linemen, hulking giants who tower above 6-foot-3 and weigh 300 pounds or more. Four of those players interviewed by the AP said that they never used steroids and gained weight through dramatic increases in eating, up to six meals a day. Two said they were aware of other players using steroids.


“I ate 5-6 times a day,” said Clint Oldenburg, who played for Colorado State starting in 2002 and for five years in the NFL. Oldenburg’s weight increased over four years from 212 to 290.


Oldenburg told the AP he was surprised at the scope of steroid use in college football, even in Colorado State’s locker room. “There were a lot of guys even on my team that were using.” He declined to identify any of them.


The AP found more than 4,700 players — or about 7 percent of all players — who gained more than 20 pounds overall in a single year. It was common for the athletes to gain 10, 15 and up to 20 pounds in their first year under a rigorous regimen of weightlifting and diet. Others gained 25, 35 and 40 pounds in a season. In roughly 100 cases, players packed on as much 80 pounds in a single year.


In at least 11 instances, players that AP identified as packing on significant weight in college went on to fail NFL drug tests. But pro football’s confidentiality rules make it impossible to know for certain which drugs were used and how many others failed tests that never became public.


Even though testers consider rapid weight gain suspicious, in practice it doesn’t result in testing. Ben Lamaak, who arrived at Iowa State in 2006, said he weighed 225 pounds in high school. He graduated as a 320-pound offensive lineman and said he did it all naturally.


“I was just a young kid at that time, and I was still growing into my body,” he said. “It really wasn’t that hard for me to gain the weight. I love to eat.”


In addition to random drug testing, Iowa State is one of many schools that have “reasonable suspicion” testing. That means players can be tested when their behavior or physical symptoms suggest drug use. Despite gaining 81 pounds in a year, Lamaak said he was never singled out for testing.


The associate athletics director for athletic training at Iowa State, Mark Coberley, said coaches and trainers use body composition, strength data and other factors to spot suspected cheaters. Lamaak, he said, was not suspicious because he gained a lot of “non-lean” weight.


But looking solely at the most significant weight gainers also ignores players like Bryan Maneafaiga.


In the summer of 2004, Bryan Maneafaiga was an undersized 180-pound running back trying to make the University of Hawaii football team. Twice — once in pre-season and once in the fall — he failed school drug tests, showing up positive for marijuana use but not steroids.


He’d started injecting stanozolol, a steroid, in the summer to help bulk up to a roster weight of 200 pounds. Once on the team, he’d occasionally inject the milky liquid into his buttocks the day before games.


“Food and good training will only get you so far,” he told the AP recently.


Maneafaiga’s former coach, June Jones, said it was news to him that one of his players had used steroids. Jones, who now coaches at Southern Methodist University, believes the NCAA does a good job rooting out steroid use.


On paper, college football has a strong drug policy. The NCAA conducts random, unannounced drug testing and the penalties for failure are severe. Players lose an entire year of eligibility after a first positive test. A second offense means permanent ineligibility for sports.


In practice, though, the NCAA’s roughly 11,000 annual tests amount to a fraction of all athletes in Division I and II schools. Exactly how many tests are conducted each year on football players is unclear because the NCAA hasn’t published its data for two years. And when it did, it periodically changed the formats, making it impossible to compare one year of football to the next.


Even when players are tested by the NCAA, experts like Catlin say it’s easy enough to anticipate the test and develop a doping routine that results in a clean test by the time it occurs. NCAA rules say players can be notified up to two days in advance of a test, which Catlin says is plenty of time to beat a test if players have designed the right doping regimen. By comparison, Olympic athletes are given no notice.


Most schools that use Drug Free Sport do not test for anabolic steroids, Turpin said. Some are worried about the cost. Others don’t think they have a problem. And others believe that since the NCAA tests for steroids their money is best spent testing for street drugs, she said.


Doping is a bigger deal at some schools than others.


At Notre Dame and Alabama, the teams that will soon compete for the national championship, players don’t automatically miss games for testing positive for steroids. At Alabama, coaches have wide discretion. Notre Dame’s student-athlete handbook says a player who fails a test can return to the field once the steroids are out of his system.


The University of North Carolina kicks players off the team after a single positive test for steroids. Auburn’s student-athlete handbook calls for a half-season suspension for any athlete caught using performance-enhancing drugs.


At UCLA, home of the laboratory that for years set the standard for cutting-edge steroid testing, athletes can fail three drug tests before being suspended. At Bowling Green, testing is voluntary.


At the University of Maryland, students must get counseling after testing positive, but school officials are prohibited from disciplining first-time steroid users.


Only about half the student athletes in a 2009 NCAA survey said they believed school testing deterred drug use. As an association of colleges and universities, the NCAA could not unilaterally force schools to institute uniform testing policies and sanctions, Wilfert said.


“We can’t tell them what to do, but if went through a membership process where they determined that this is what should be done, then it could happen,” she said.


___


Associated Press writers Ryan Foley in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; David Brandt in Jackson, Miss.; David Skretta in Lawrence, Kan.; Don Thompson in Sacramento, Calif., and Alexa Olesen in Shanghai, China, and researchers Susan James in New York and Monika Mathur in Washington contributed to this report.


___


Contact the Washington investigative team at DCinvestigations (at) ap.org.


Whether for athletics or age, Americans from teenagers to baby boomers are trying to get an edge by illegally using anabolic steroids and human growth hormone, despite well-documented risks. This is the first of a two-part series.


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New Year’s Resolutions For Better Health

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New Year’s resolutions are typically so singular, self-focused and private. How about making a resolution or two this year that has benefits beyond yourself? Here are some suggestions with lots of links to get you started.


You can help stop the spread of disease. Resolve to get up-to-date on your vaccines. While children have a full slate of vaccines, many adults don’t realize they have regular immunization obligations, too. Getting flu, pertussis, human papillomavirus and other vaccines can protect you and help stop the spread of diseases that harm others. Here’s a great guide to adult immunizations from the federal government. If the cost of vaccines is an issue, check into free or low-cost immunizations through your county’s public health department. Here’s a guide to finding your local office. Volunteer with an organization that needs your help. A group called Catchafire matches professionals who wish to volunteer their skills to organizations that need the help — including many important health organizations. The idea is to give great organizations access to top talent while respecting the professionals’ schedules and making their volunteer work meaningful. Here’s the link. Influence a healthier food climate. Americans spend about half of their food budgets eating out. So we had better demand thorough nutritional information about what we’re getting. Under healthcare reform, many restaurant chains will soon carry nutritional information. But the law has loopholes. If you don’t see the information you’re looking for on salt, fat, calories or other nutrients, ask the restaurant’s manager where you can find it. Nutritional information should be easy to access. Until it is, speak up and ask for it. Do your part to keep down healthcare costs. The Affordable Care Act will bring many consumers into the insurance healthcare system for the first time. But that doesn’t mean we can ignore the cost of care. Rising healthcare costs remain a huge issue that could drag down the economy and bedevil some reform efforts. You can help by being a wise healthcare consumer. Read your insurance policy and know what it does and doesn’t cover. Take advantage of free preventive care services and screening tests under the ACA. Shop around for prescriptions to find the cheapest prices. Ask your doctor for generic equivalents. Finally, use your health savings account if your employer offers one. These accounts provide incentives for using your money wisely, shopping around to find the best healthcare prices and weighing the costs and benefits of certain drugs, tests or procedures.  Here’s a guide to understanding how HSAs work. Be responsible about the prescription drugs you store at home. You can reduce your own risk of addiction and lower the risk for others, too, if you are careful about medications kept in your home. This year marked a turning point in the nation’s epidemic of prescription-drug abuse and addiction.  Admissions to addiction treatment centers for use of narcotic painkillers rose 569 percent in the past decade, according to the federal government. More people now die from drug overdoses than from traffic accidents. More than six million Americans abuse prescription drugs, and more than 70 percent of addicts get their drugs through family or friends or by raiding a home medicine cabinet. Dispose of unused medications. The Drug Enforcement Agency operates a National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day a few times a year (the next one is in April), that makes it easy to dispose of dangerous substance.  Go through your home today and collect unused medications. You can take them to a pharmacy for disposal or even flush them down the toilet. Some drugs carry disposal instructions on the label. Here’s information on how to dispose of prescription medications. Be a safe driver. One of the biggest safety issues on the nation’s roads these days is driver distraction. A large share of the distractions come from talking on a hand-held cell phone or text messaging while driving. You’re 23 times more likely to crash if you text while driving. Most states now prohibit texting while driving, but there are still many people who do it while knowing it’s unsafe. Break yourself of this terrible habit. The federal government has a website that provides people with information and tools to discourage distracted driving. Included in this package is a simple pledge sheet you can print out, sign and post on your refrigerator door or bathroom to help you make the commitment. There are a couple of other things you can do, too. Speak out if the driver you’re riding with is distracted. Encourage family and friends to drive phone-free. Run a race for the greater good. Who doesn’t love a good 5K walk or run? You benefit from the exercise and, if you choose a charity race, others reap rewards, too. There are thousands of charity races each year. Pick one and invite your friends to participate with you. Here’s a website to help you find a race.  Apply for a grant. There’s money out there for doing good. Saucony’s Run for Good Foundation aims at preventing child obesity by promoting running as part of a healthy lifestyle for kids. The foundation issues grant money to organizations that want to organize a kids’ running group. You can find information on how to apply at the foundation website. Sign a petition. Concerned about flame retardants in consumer products? Gun safety? Funding for research to fight a particular disease? There’s probably a petition for that. It’s an easy way to make your voice heard. Both change.org and thepetitionsite.com are good places to look to find a petition close to your heart.






Question: What resolutions can you make to help others? Tell us what you think in the comments.



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


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Analysis: After “fiscal cliff” dive, more battles, new cliffs

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Whether or not the “fiscal cliff” impasse is broken before the New Year’s Eve deadline, there will be no post-cliff peace in Washington.


With the political climate toxic in Congress as the cliff’s steep tax hikes and spending cuts approach, other partisan fights loom, all over the issue that has paralyzed the capital for the past two years: federal spending.






The first will come in late February when the Treasury Department runs out of borrowing authority and has to come to Congress to get the debt ceiling raised.


The next is likely in late March, when a temporary bill to fund the government runs out, confronting Congress with a deadline to act or face a government shutdown. The third will possibly be whenever the temporary bill replacing the temporary bill expires.


While Congress is supposed to pass annual spending bills before the start of each fiscal year, it has failed to complete that process since 1996, resorting to stopgap funding ever since.


Influential anti-tax activist Grover Norquist predicted in an interview with Reuters that conservatives would wage repeated battles with President Barack Obama to demand budget savings every time the government needs a temporary funding bill or more borrowing capacity.


The so-called “continuing resolutions” to which a divided Congress has increasingly resorted to keep the government operating, provide a “very powerful tool” to pry out spending cuts, said Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.


Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee said he will not be satisfied until there are substantial cuts to federal retirement and healthcare benefits known as entitlements, producing savings in the $ 4.5 trillion to $ 5 trillion range.


“Unfortunately for America,” said Corker, “the next line in the sand will be the debt ceiling.”


Most observers see the $ 16.4 trillion debt limit as the true fiscal cliff in the new year because if not increased, it would eventually lead to a default on U.S. Treasury debt, an event that could prove cataclysmic for financial markets.


The Treasury Department said on Wednesday it would start taking extraordinary measures by December 31 to extend its borrowing capacity for about two more months.


‘POISONOUS CLIMATE’


It was a deadlock over raising the debt ceiling in August 2011 that prompted a deficit reduction deal that led to a key fiscal cliff component, the $ 109 billion in automatic spending cuts on military and domestic programs.


If the fiscal cliff’s spending cuts or tax increases are left even partly unresolved on December 31, the political combat over them will carry over into the new Congress, possibly simultaneously with the debt ceiling debate.


“We would be pessimistic of a quick fix” if the deadline is missed, Sean West, head U.S. analyst at Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy, said in a note to clients. “The political climate will be poisoned. The new Congress will need time to settle in.”


“We are concluding one of the most unsuccessful Congresses in history,” Democratic Representative John Dingell of Michigan declared in a statement on Saturday, “noteworthy not only for its failure to accomplish anything of importance, but also for the poisonous climate of the institution.”


Dingell, 86, is the longest serving member of the House, elected first in 1955.


Historically, bitter struggles in Congress like that over the fiscal cliff lead to further resentment and strife in a cycle of cumulative grudges that now spans nearly 30 years.


Many analysts and lobbyists in Washington believe the strife could get even worse because the new Congress convening on January 3 will include fewer members from moderate or swing districts and more from districts tilted heavily to the left or the right.


Republicans in particular are likely to face their most serious re-election challenges in 2014 not from Democrats but from conservative Republicans challenging them in primary elections.


“Ironically,” said a post-election analysis published by the law firm Patton Boggs, “the voters have elected a 113th Congress that may be even more partisan than the 112th.”


(Reporting by David Lawder and Fred Barbash; Editing by Eric Beech)


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Senate leaders to make last-ditch “fiscal cliff” effort

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama and U.S. congressional leaders agreed on Friday to make a final effort to prevent the United States from going over the “fiscal cliff,” setting off intense bargaining over Americans’ tax rates as a New Year’s Eve deadline looms.


With only days left to avoid steep tax hikes and spending cuts that could cause a recession, two Senate veterans will try to forge a deal that has eluded the White House and Congress for months.






Obama said he was “modestly optimistic” an agreement could be found. But neither side appeared to give much ground at a White House meeting of congressional leaders on Friday.


What they did agree on was to task Harry Reid, the Democratic Senate majority leader, and Mitch McConnell, who heads the chamber’s Republican minority, with reaching a budget agreement by Sunday at the latest.


“The hour for immediate action is here. It is now. We’re now at the point where in just four days, every American’s tax rates are scheduled to go up by law. Every American’s paycheck will get considerably smaller. And that would be the wrong thing to do,” Obama told reporters.


A total of $ 600 billion in tax hikes and automatic cuts to government spending will start kicking in on Tuesday – New Year’s Day – if politicians cannot reach a deal. Economists fear the measures will push the U.S. economy into a recession.


Pessimism about the fiscal cliff helped push U.S. stocks down on Friday for a fifth straight day. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 158.20 points, or 1.21 percent. Retailers are blaming worries about the “fiscal cliff” for lackluster Christmas season shopping.


Under the plan hashed out on Friday, any agreement between McConnell and Reid would be backed by the Senate and then approved in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives before the end of the year.


But the House could well be the graveyard of any accord.


A core of fiscal conservatives there strongly opposes Obama’s efforts to raise taxes for the wealthiest as part of a plan to close America’s budget deficit. House Republicans also want to see Obama commit to major spending cuts.


Talks between Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner collapsed last week when several dozen Republicans defied their leader and rejected a plan to raise rates for those earning $ 1 million and above.


A Democratic aide said Boehner stuck mainly to “talking points” in Friday’s White House meeting, with the message that the House had acted on the budget and it was now time for the Senate to move.


TALKS ON ‘BIG NUMBERS’


The two Senate leaders and their aides will plunge into talks on Saturday that will focus mainly on the threshold for raising income taxes on households with upper-level earnings, a Democratic aide said. Analysts say both sides could agree on raising taxes for households earning more than $ 400,000 or $ 500,000 a year.


The pair will also discuss whether the estate tax should be kept at current low levels or allowed to rise, the aide said.


Democrat Reid warned of tough talks.


“It’s not easy, we’re dealing with big numbers, and some of that stuff we do is somewhat complicated,” he said.


McConnell described Friday’s White House summit, also attended by Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, as “a good meeting.”


“So we’ll be working hard to try to see if we can get there in the next 24 hours. So I’m hopeful and optimistic,” he said.


If things cannot be worked out between the Senate leaders, Obama said he wanted both chambers in Congress to vote on a backup plan that would increase taxes only for households with more than $ 250,000 of annual income.


The plan would also extend unemployment insurance for about 2 million Americans and set up a framework for a larger deficit reduction deal next year.


There are signs in the options market that investor fear is taking hold. The CBOE Volatility Index, or the VIX, the market’s favored anxiety indicator, has remained at relatively low levels throughout this process, but it moved on Friday above 22, the highest level since June.


But some in the market were resigned to Washington going beyond the New Year’s Day deadline, as long as a serious agreement on deficit reduction comes out of the talks in early January.


“Regardless of whether the government resolves the issues now, any deal can easily be retroactive. We’re not as concerned with January 1 as the market seems to be,” said Richard Weiss, a senior money manager at American Century Investments.


Another component of the “fiscal cliff” – $ 109 billion in automatic spending cuts to military and domestic programs – is set to kick in on Wednesday.


S&P rating agency said on Friday the fiscal cliff impasse did not affect the U.S. sovereign rating.


That lifted the immediate threat of a downgrade from the agency, which cut the United States’ triple-A rating in August, 2011 in an unprecedented move after a similar partisan budget fight.


(Additional reporting by David Lawder, Thomas Ferraro, Rachelle Younglai and Mark Felsenthal; Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Peter Cooney)


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Lawmakers, Obama in last chance talks on “fiscal cliff”

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama and lawmakers are launching a last-chance round of budget talks days before a New Year’s deadline to reach a deal or watch the economy go off a “fiscal cliff.”


Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will meet congressional leaders from both parties at the White House on Friday at 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT) to try to revive negotiations to avoid tax hikes and spending cuts – together worth $ 600 billion – that will begin to take effect on January 1.






Members were divided on the odds of success, with a few expressing hope, some talking as if they had abandoned it and a small but growing number suggesting Congress might try to stretch the deadline into the first two days of January.


In order to be ready to legislate if an agreement takes shape, the Republican-dominated House of Representatives convened a session for Sunday.


And House Majority Leader Eric Cantor advised members to be prepared to meet through January 2, the final day before the swearing-in of the new Congress elected on November 6.


It “doesn’t feel like anything that’s very constructive is going to happen” as a result of the meeting with Obama, said Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker. “It feels more like optics than anything that’s real.


The two political parties remained far apart, particularly over plans to increase taxes on the wealthiest Americans to help close the U.S. budget deficit. But one veteran Republican, Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona, held out the prospect that if Obama came through with significant spending cuts, Republicans in the House might compromise on taxes.


The coming days are likely to see either intense bargaining over numbers, or political theater as each side attempts to avoid blame if a deal looks unlikely.


“Hopefully, there is still time for an agreement of some kind that saves the taxpayers from a wholly, wholly preventable economic crisis,” Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Democratic-controlled Senate, said on the Senate floor.


But the rhetoric was still harsh on Thursday after months of wrangling – much of it along ideological lines – over whether to raise taxes and by how much, as well as how to cut back on government spending.


Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the top Democrat in Congress, accused Republican House Speaker John Boehner of running a “dictatorship” by refusing to allow bills he did not like onto the floor of the chamber.


Reid urged Republicans in the House to prevent the worst of the fiscal shock by getting behind a Senate bill to extend existing tax cuts for all except those households earning more than $ 250,000 a year.


Both Reid and Boehner, as well as McConnell and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, are to meet Obama on Friday.


MARKETS EASE


U.S. stocks sharply cut losses after news of the House reconvening as investors clung to hopes of an 11th-hour deal. Even a partial agreement on taxes that would leave tougher issues like entitlement reform and the debt ceiling until later could be enough to keep markets calm.


“I’m not convinced it will result in a deal, but you could get enough concessions by both parties to at least avoid the immediacy of going over the cliff,” said Randy Bateman, chief investment officer of Huntington Asset Management, in Columbus, Ohio.


Obama arrived back at the White House on Thursday from a brief vacation in Hawaii that he cut short to restart stalled negotiations with Congress.


He is likely to meet the toughest resistance from Republicans in the House, where a group of several dozen fiscal conservatives have opposed any tax hikes at all.


But Flake of Arizona said his fellow Republicans in the House and Senate are resigned to seeing some sort of increase in top income tax rates. But they will push back if Obama does not offer spending cuts.


“There will be resistance from a lot of House conservatives to a deal that does that,” Flake said.


Strictly speaking, the fiscal cliff measures begin on January 1 when tax rates go up but the House might stay in session until the following day if an agreement is being worked out.


“This January 1 deadline is a little artificial. We can do everything retroactively. We have to get it right, not get it quickly,” said Republican Representative Andy Harris.


Another component of the “fiscal cliff” – $ 109 billion in automatic spending cuts to military and domestic programs – is set to kick in on January 2.


The House and Senate passed bills months ago reflecting their own sharply divergent positions on the expiring low tax rates, which went into effect during the administration of former Republican President George W. Bush.


Democrats want to allow the tax cuts to expire on the wealthiest Americans and leave them in place for everyone else. Republicans want to extend the tax cuts for everyone.


In another sign that Americans are increasingly worrying about their finances as Washington fails to address the budget crisis, consumer confidence fell to a four-month low in December.


Americans blame Republicans in Congress more than congressional Democrats or Obama for the fiscal crisis, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.


When asked who they held more responsible for the “fiscal cliff” situation, 27 percent blamed Republicans in Congress, 16 percent blamed Obama and 6 percent pointed to Democrats in Congress. The largest percentage – 31 percent – blamed “all of the above.”


(Additional reporting by David Lawder, Fred Barbash and Mark Felsenthal in Washington and David Gaffen in New York; writing by Alistair Bell; editing by Todd Eastham)


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British Frozen Dinners Beat TV Chefs’ Recipes For Nutrition

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Early Childhood Obesity Rates Might Be Slowing Nation-Wide

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About one in three children in the U.S. are now overweight, and since the 1980s the number of children who are obese has more than tripled. But a new study of 26.7 million young children from low-income families shows that in this group of kids, the tidal wave of obesity might finally be receding.Being obese as a child not only increases the risk of early-life health problems, such as joint problems, pre-diabetes and social stigmatization, but it also dramatically increases the likelihood of being obese later in life, which can lead to chronic diseases, including cancer, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Children as young as 2 years of age can be obese–and even extremely obese. Early childhood obesity rates, which bring higher health care costs throughout a kid’s life, have been especially high among lower-income families.”This is the first national study to show that the prevalence of obesity and extreme obesity among young U.S. children may have begun to decline,” the researchers noted in a brief report published online December 25 in JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association. (Reports earlier this year suggested that childhood obesity rates were dropping in several U.S. cities.)The study examined rates of obesity (body mass index calculated by age and gender to be in the 95th percentile or higher–for example, a BMI above 20 for a 2-year-old male–compared with reference growth charts) and extreme obesity (BMI of more than 120 percent above that of the 95th percentile of the reference populations) in children ages 2 to 4 in 30 states and the District of Columbia. The researchers, led by Liping Pan, of the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, combed through 12 years of data (1998 to 2010) from the Pediatric Nutritional Surveillance System, which includes information on roughly half of all children on the U.S. who are eligible for federal health care and nutrition assistance.A subtle but important shift in early childhood obesity rates in this low-income population seems to have begun in 2003. Obesity rates increased from 13.05 percent in 1998 to 15.21 percent in 2003. Soon, however, obesity rates began decreasing, reaching 14.94 percent by 2010. Extreme obesity followed a similar pattern, increasing from 1.75 percent to 2.22 percent from 1998 to 2003, but declining to 2.07 percent by 2010.Although these changes might seem small, the number of children involved makes for huge health implications. For example, each drop of just one tenth of a percentage point represents some 26,700 children in the study population alone who are no longer obese or extremely obese. And if these trends are occurring in the rest of the population, the long-term health and cost implications are massive.Public health agencies and the Obama Administration have made battling childhood obesity a priority, although these findings suggest that early childhood obesity rates, at least, were already beginning to decline nearly a decade ago. Some popular prevention strategies include encouraging healthier eating (by reducing intake of highly processed and high-sugar foods and increasing fruit and vegetable consumption) and increased physical activity (both at school and at home).The newly revealed trends “indicate modest recent progress of obesity prevention among young children,” the authors noted. “These finding may have important health implications because of the lifelong health risks of obesity and extreme obesity in early childhood.”


Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs.Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news.
© 2012 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.
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‘Dystextia’: Gibberish texts sound stroke alarm

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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Imagine you were a devoted husband, waiting to hear from your wife about her due date after a visit to the obstetrician, and you saw these on your phone:


“every where thinging days nighing”






“Some is where!”


That’s what happened last December to a Boston-area man, who knew that autocorrect – known for its bizarre replacements – was turned off on his 11-week-pregnant wife’s phone.


You’d probably be tempted to make sure your wife, 25, got to the emergency room. When she did, doctors noted several signs of a stroke, including disorientation, inability to use her right arm and leg properly and some difficulty speaking.


A magnetic resonance imaging scan – MRI – revealed that part of the woman’s brain wasn’t getting enough blood, clinching the diagnosis. Fortunately, her symptoms went away quickly, and the rest of the pregnancy went just fine after she went home from the hospital on low-dose blood thinners.


The case, say three doctors from Boston’s Harvard Medical School who reported it online today in the Archives of Neurology, suggests that “the growing digital record will likely become an increasingly important means of identifying neurologic disease, particularly in patient populations that rely more heavily on written rather than spoken communication.”


The authors describe the phenomenon as “dystextia,” which is the word used by other doctors in an earlier case involving a migraine, and symptoms of a stroke diagnosed for other reasons.


“In her case, the first evidence of language difficulties came from her unintelligible texts,” one of the report’s authors, Dr. Joshua Klein, told Reuters Health by email.


Strokes are rare in women aged 15 to 34, with about 11,000 per year, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published last year.


Dr. Sean Savitz, who directs the stroke program at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, said he has seen a few patients who sent emails suggesting they were having difficulty with language, a condition known as aphasia.


Such clues usually come with other information however. In this case, for example, the patient’s obstetrician’s office later remembered that she had trouble filling out a form. And they might have caught the language difficulty earlier had the woman not had a weak voice, thanks to a recent upper respiratory infection.


“So, this case report per se does not indicate to me if dystextia is going to be more common to pick up strokes,” Savitz told Reuters Health by email, “but I do think it will be a valuable addition to the collection of information that neurologists should obtain when taking a history.”


“The main stroke warning signs with respect to texting would be unintelligible language output, or problems reading or comprehending texts,” said Klein. “Many smartphones have an ‘autocorrect’ function which can introduce erroneous word substitutions, giving the impression of a language disorder.”


Autocorrect, said Savitz, a professor of neurology, can confuse matters – even for doctors.


“I have often joked with my colleagues when using the dictation of the smartphone, that it gives me an aphasia,” he said. “Potential for lots of false positives!”


SOURCE: Archives of Neurology, online December 24, 2012.


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Few tests done at toxic sites after superstorm

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OLD BRIDGE, N.J. (AP) — For more than a month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said that the recent superstorm didn’t cause significant problems at any of the 247 Superfund toxic waste sites it’s monitoring in New York and New Jersey.


But in many cases, no actual tests of soil or water are being conducted, just visual inspections.






The EPA conducted a handful of tests right after the storm, but couldn’t provide details or locations of any recent testing when asked last week. New Jersey officials point out that federally designated Superfund sites are EPA’s responsibility.


The 1980 Superfund law gave EPA the power to order cleanups of abandoned, spilled and illegally dumped hazardous wastes that threaten human health or the environment. The sites can involve long-term or short-term cleanups.


Jeff Tittel, executive director of the Sierra Club in New Jersey, says officials haven’t done enough to ensure there is no contamination from Superfund sites. He’s worried toxins could leach into groundwater and the ocean.


“It’s really serious and I think the EPA and the state of New Jersey have not done due diligence to make sure these sites have not created problems,” Tittel said.


The EPA said last month that none of the Superfund sites it monitors in New York or New Jersey sustained significant damage, but that it has done follow-up sampling at the Gowanus Canal site in Brooklyn, the Newtown Creek site on the border of Queens and Brooklyn, and the Raritan Bay Slag site, all of which flooded during the storm.


But last week, EPA spokeswoman Stacy Kika didn’t respond to questions about whether any soil or water tests have been done at the other 243 Superfund sites. The agency hasn’t said exactly how many of the sites flooded.


“Currently, we do not believe that any sites were impacted in ways that would pose a threat to nearby communities,” EPA said in a statement.


Politicians have been asking similar questions, too. On Nov. 29, U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., wrote to the EPA to ask for “an additional assessment” of Sandy’s impact on Superfund sites in the state.


Elevated levels of lead, antimony, arsenic and copper have been found at the Raritan Bay Slag site, a Superfund site since 2009. Blast furnaces dumped lead at the site in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and lead slag was also used there to construct a seawall and jetty.


The EPA found lead levels as high as 142,000 parts per million were found at Raritan Bay in 2007. Natural soil levels for lead range from 50 to 400 parts per million.


The EPA took four samples from the site after Superstorm Sandy: two from a fenced-off beach area and two from a nearby public playground. One of the beach samples tested above the recreational limit for lead. In early November, the EPA said it was taking additional samples “to get a more detailed picture of how the material might have shifted” and will “take appropriate steps to prevent public exposure” at the site, according to a bulletin posted on its website. But six weeks later, the agency couldn’t provide more details of what has been found.


The Newtown Creek site, with pesticides, metals, PCBs and volatile organic compounds, and the Gowanus Canal site, heavily contaminated with PCBs, heavy metals, volatile organics and coal tar wastes, were added to the Superfund list in 2010.


Some say the lead at the Raritan Bay site can disperse easily.


Gabriel Fillippeli, director of the Center for Urban Health at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, said lead tends to stay in the soil once it is deposited but can be moved around by stormwaters or winds. Arsenic, which has been found in the surface water at the site, can leach into the water table, Fillippeli said.


“My concern is twofold. One is, a storm like that surely moved some of that material physically to other places, I would think,” Fillippeli said. “If they don’t cap that or seal it or clean it up, arsenic will continue to make its way slowly into groundwater and lead will be distributed around the neighborhood.”


The lack of testing has left some residents with lingering worries.


The Raritan Bay Slag site sits on the beach overlooking a placid harbor with a view of Staten Island. On a recent foggy morning, workers were hauling out debris, and some nearby residents wondered whether the superstorm increased or spread the amount of pollution at the site.


“I think it brought a lot of crud in from what’s out there,” said Elise Pelletier, whose small bungalow sits on a hill overlooking the Raritan Bay Slag site. “You don’t know what came in from the water.” Her street did not flood because it is up high, but she worries about a park below where people go fishing and walk their dogs. She would like to see more testing done.


Thomas Burke, an associate dean at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, says both federal and state officials generally have a good handle on the major Superfund sites, which often use caps and walls to contain pollution.


“They are designed to hold up,” Burke said of such structures, but added that “you always have to be concerned that an unusual event can spread things around in the environment.” Burke noted that the storm brought in a “tremendous amount” of water, raising the possibility that groundwater plumes could have changed.


“There really have to be evaluations” of communities near the Superfund sites, he said. “It’s important to take a look.”


Officials in both New York and New Jersey note they’ve also been monitoring less toxic sites known as brownfields and haven’t found major problems. The New York DEC said in a statement that brownfields in that state “were not significantly impacted” and that they don’t plan further tests for storm impacts.


Larry Ragonese, a spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, said the agency has done visual inspections of major brownfield sites and also alerted towns and cities to be on the lookout for problems. Ragonese said they just aren’t getting calls voicing such concerns.


Back at the Raritan Bay slag site, some residents want more information. And they want the toxic soil, which has sat here for years, out.


Pat Churchill, who was walking her dog in the park along the water, said she’s still worried.


“There are unanswered questions. You can’t tell me this is all contained. It has to move around,” Churchill said.


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Violence, fear & suspicion imperil Pakistan’s war on polio

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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistani health worker Bushra Bibi spent eight years trekking to remote villages, carefully dripping polio vaccine into toddlers’ pursed mouths to protect them from the crippling disease.


Now the 35-year-old mother is too scared to go to work after masked men on motorbikes gunned down nine of her fellow health workers in a string of attacks this week.






“I have seen so much pain in the eyes of mothers whose children have been infected. So I have never seen this as just a job. It is my passion,” she said. “But I also have a family to look after … Things have never been this bad.”


After the deaths, the United Nations put its workers on lockdown. Immunizations by the Pakistani government continued in parts of the country. But the violence raised fresh questions over stability in the South Asian nation.


Pakistan’s Taliban insurgency, convinced that the anti-polio drive is just another Western plot against Muslims, has long threatened action against anyone taking part in it.


The militant group’s hostility deepened after it emerged that the CIA – with the help of a Pakistani doctor – had used a vaccination campaign to spy on Osama bin Laden’s compound before he was killed by U.S. special forces in a Pakistan town last year.


Critics say the attacks on the health workers are a prime example of the government’s failure to formulate a decisive policy on tackling militancy, despite pressure from key ally the United States, the source of billions of dollars in aid.


For years, authorities were aware that Taliban commanders had broadcast claims that the vaccination drive was actually a plot to sterilize Muslims.


That may seem absurd to the West, but in Pakistan such assertions are plausible to some. Years of secrecy during military dictatorships, frequent political upheaval during civilian rule and a poor public education system mean conspiracy theories run wild.


“Ever since they began to give these polio drops, children are reaching maturity a lot earlier, especially girls. Now 12 to 13-year-old girls are becoming women. This causes indecency in society,” said 45-year-old Mir Alam Khan, a carpet seller in the northern town of Dera Ismail Khan.


The father of four didn’t allow any of his children to receive vaccinations.


“Why doesn’t the United States give free cures for other illnesses? Why only polio? There has to be an agenda,” he said.


While health workers risk attacks by militants, growing suspicions from ordinary Pakistanis are lowering their morale. Fatima, a health worker in the northwestern city of Peshawar, said that reaction to news of the CIA polio campaign was so severe that many of her colleagues quit.


“People’s attitudes have changed. You will not believe how even the most educated and well-to-do people will turn us away, calling us U.S. spies and un-Islamic,” said the 25-year-old who did not give her last name for fear of reprisals.


“Boys call us names, they say we are ‘indecent women’.”


Pakistan’s government has tried to shatter the myths that can undermine even the best-intentioned health projects by turning to moderate clerics and urging them to issue religious rulings supporting the anti-polio efforts.


Tahir Ashrafi, head of the All Pakistan Ulema Council, said the alliance of clerics had done its part, and it was up to the government to come to the rescue of aid workers.


“Clerics can only give fatwas and will continue to come together and condemn such acts,” he said. “What good are fatwas if the government doesn’t provide security?”


RISK OF POLIO RETURNING


That may be a tall order in Pakistan, where critics allege government officials are too busy lining their pockets or locked in power struggles to protect its citizens, even children vulnerable to diseases that can cripple or disfigure them.


Pakistani leaders deny such accusations.


Politicians also have a questionable track record when it comes to dealing with all the other troubles afflicting nuclear-armed Pakistan.


The villages where health workers once spent time tending to children often lack basic services, clinics, clean water and jobs. Industries that could strengthen the fragile economy are hobbled by chronic power cuts.


Deepening frustrations with those issues often encourage Pakistanis to give up on the state and join the Taliban.


So far it’s unclear who is behind the shootings. The main Taliban spokesman said they were opposed to the vaccination scheme but the group distanced itself from the attacks.


But another Taliban spokesman in South Waziristan said their fighters were behind an attack on a polio team in the northwestern town of Lakki Marwat on Monday. “The vaccinations were part of “a secret Jewish-American agenda to poison Pakistanis”, he said.


What is clear is the stakes are high.


Any gaps in the program endanger hard-won gains against a disease that can cause death or paralysis within hours.


A global effort costing billions of dollars eradicated polio from every country except Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.


Vaccinations cut Pakistan‘s polio cases from 20,000 in 1994 to 56 in 2012 and the disease seemed isolated in a pocket in the north. But polio is spread person-to-person, so any outbreak risks re-infecting communities cleared of the disease.


Last year, a strain from Pakistan spread northeast and caused the first outbreak in neighboring China since 1999.


Oliver Rosenbauer, a spokesman for the World Health Organization, said the group had been coming closer to eradicating the disease.


“For the first time, the virus had been geographically cornered,” he said. “We don’t want to lose the gains that had been made … Any suspension of activities gives the virus a new foothold and the potential to come roaring back and paralyze more children.”


MOURNING FAMILIES


Condemnation of the killings has been nearly universal. Clerics called for demonstrations to support health workers, the government has promised compensation for the deaths and police have vowed to provide more protection.


For women like Fehmida Shah, it’s already too late. The 44-year-old health worker lived with her family in a two-room house before gunmen shot her on Tuesday.


Her husband, Syed Riaz Shah, said she spent her tiny salary – the equivalent of just $ 2 a day – on presents for their four daughters. Even though the family was struggling, she always found some spare money for any neighbor in need.


“She was very kind and big hearted. All the women in our lane knew her,” he said.


“The entire neighborhood is in shock. Pray for my daughters. I will get through this. But I don’t know how they will.”


(Additional reporting by Imtiaz Shah in Karachi, Jibran Ahmad in Peshawar, Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan and Katharine Houreld in Islamabad; Editing by Michael Georgy and Sanjeev Miglani)


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Mo. students lose 756 pounds at SC boarding school

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Sixteen-year-old Jason Alexander weighed 326 pounds four months ago when he and 13 classmates boarded a plane for a weight-loss boarding school in South Carolina.


When he stepped off a return flight home Friday, he was down to 233 pounds, making him the biggest loser in his Missouri school district’s unusually aggressive effort to battle childhood obesity.






While individual families have long enrolled children in weight-loss programs, the Independence school district is believed to be the first to send students as a group to a program like the one in South Carolina. The 12 students who completed the program lost a combined 756 pounds, and relatives and friends who greeted them at the airport could scarcely believe the change.


Jason’s mother, Debbie Alexander, said it wasn’t just the weight loss. Her son who had battled a speech impediment and been slow to smile was now grinning broadly.


“It’s crazy,” Alexander said. “Kids have always given him grief.”


The school district, donors and the students’ families worked together to pay about half of the usual $ 28,500-per-semester tuition at MindStream Academy in Bluffton, S.C. The rest of the tuition was paid by a foundation associated with the academy and other donors.


Jason and the other students — the youngest was 11 — spent the semester exercising, studying, working with counselors and learning to eat healthier. The curriculum was practical and hands-on: Students took field trips to a grocery store and fast food restaurant to learn to make good purchasing decisions and studied things like knife skills in the school’s kitchen.


Their parents, meanwhile, met monthly with MindStream‘s clinical director in Independence to learn how to help their children upon their return. Experts say it’s hard for anyone to maintain weight-loss if their families don’t also develop good eating and exercise habits.


Each student had a story of how the pounds added up. Jason’s weight shot up after his father’s death 6 1/2 years earlier, jeopardizing his dream of joining the military. Like many who are overweight, he became easily winded and his knees hurt.


He said he’s now 40 to 50 pounds from being able to qualify for military service and plans to join a training group to help him shed the rest of the weight. His family has cleansed the kitchen of junk food, made space for a treadmill and stocked up on healthy items like ground turkey. The district envisions Jason and the other participants becoming health ambassadors in their schools, perhaps speaking to groups or working one-on-one with classmates who are struggling with their weight.


“I feel amazing,” said Jason, who shed weight so quickly that he struggled to find clothes. His jeans, which he bought from another classmate, hung loose around him, cinched with a belt to keep them from falling off. “I can’t believe I got to that point. I can’t believe I got that big.”


Several Independence parents said the program also helped them lose weight, from 5 to 80 pounds.


Angela Gentry lost 20 pounds while her 17-year-old daughter, Teah, was in South Carolina. Teah lost more than 60 pounds, and her brother lost 36 at home.


“These kids are ready,” Gentry said. “They could take on anything.”


The district and the boarding school didn’t know of any other public schools that had made such an effort, and other experts couldn’t name any either. But Sarah Stone, MindStream’s programming director, said it hopes to engage other districts in similar partnerships in the future.


“It is to all of our best interest for these kids to be able to realize their best potential,” Stone said.


Independence already had taken aggressive steps to battle childhood obesity, measuring students’ body-mass index and posting the information on a protected website parents use to check grades and lunch account balances. The data was alarming: 36 percent of the students were overweight last year.


The district took steps to address the problem, including offering groups for students focused on healthy eating. But district spokeswoman Nancy Lewis said some students need a more intensive intervention.


“I do think there is something about them being removed from their environment that makes this a success,” said Lewis, adding that the school system hopes to send a second group of students to MindStream next fall. “It just kick starts the process.”


Chrystal Loyd, 15, said she felt “more energized” after losing more than 60 pounds and planned to focus now on her mother. Misty Loyd, 35, already had shed 15 pounds and run a 3-kilometer race, a first for her.


“We are going to start working out together,” Misty Loyd said. “We are going to use their cookbook and start cooking healthier.”


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Ethics panel says Nevada’s Berkley violated rules

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Shelley Berkley violated House rules and the government’s code of conduct when she used her office to benefit her husband’s medical practice, the House Ethics Committee concluded Thursday.


The committee ended the case after adopting the findings of its investigative panel, saying no discipline was necessary because of Berkley’s cooperation. The conclusions said the Nevada Democrat made no attempt to enrich herself.






The seven-term lawmaker is retiring from the House, and narrowly lost a Senate race in November to incumbent Republican Dean Heller. The investigation was an issue in the Senate campaign, playing to voters’ distrust of Washington. National Republicans and GOP-aligned groups spent millions of dollars questioning Berkley’s character.


The committee said that in four instances from April 2008 through December 2010, her husband, Dr. Lawrence Lehrner, contacted Berkley’s congressional office to complain about problems his medical practice had in collecting payments from the Veterans Administration, Medicare or Medicaid.


Lehrner referenced specific dollar amounts that he believed those agencies owed to his practice, Kidney Specialists of Southern Nevada.


Representative Berkley and her staff took actions in response to these issues to assist in KSSN obtaining payment,” the committee said. It added that the violations occurred because these actions benefited her and could be construed as influencing the performance of her government duties.


But the committee made clear that Berkley’s motivation was proper, even though she ran afoul of standards of conduct. It found that the delayed payments by government agencies were a legitimate issue which —as Berkley publicly stated — could result in providers deciding not to see patients under the government programs. The findings said her activities “appear to have been motivated by factors wholly divorced from her family’s financial well-being.”


Nonetheless, the committee said, “she was mistaken when she applied these facts to the ethics rules and determined that her course of action was proper.” The panel said the lack of any corrupt intent reduced the severity of the violation.


In a statement Thursday night, Berkley said, “The committee’s findings on this issue show I acted only in the interest of protecting Nevada veterans who needed this critical kidney care.”


On a different issue, the committee found insufficient evidence that Berkley violated any rules or laws governing conflicts of interest in her attempts — along with the Nevada delegation — to aid a county hospital’s kidney transplant program where her husband’s practice had a contract to provide services.


“The committee could not determine the precise consequences of the kidney transplant center’s continued operations on KSSN’s existing contract and concluded that whatever those consequences, they did not factor into Rep. Berkley’s decision making at the time.”


Berkley said those findings “put to rest any claims that I acted improperly in fighting for (my constituents’) health care needs.”


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Officials: 31 suspended in Army day care scandal

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WASHINGTON (AP) — At least 31 people were suspended from two Army day care centers at Fort Myer, Va., last week after officials scrutinized their backgrounds and found criminal convictions including fourth-degree sexual assault and drug use, a defense official said Wednesday.


An earlier statement that the 31 people had been fired was erroneous, the official said. Suspension allows for the possibility of reinstatement or dismissal.






The escalating scandal surrounding the Fort Myer Child Development Center has triggered a review of hiring procedures, angered defense leaders, and prompted a late-night telephone call Tuesday from President Barack Obama to the Army secretary. In the call, Obama expressed concern and urged a speedy and thorough investigation.


Details of the scandal emerged this week, nearly three months after two workers were arrested on charges of assaulting children at the Fort Myer center. The slow pace of public revelations enraged Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who on Tuesday ordered a worldwide review of hiring practices at all military child care centers, schools, youth centers and other facilities that involve children.


According to a defense official, 10 of the 31 suspended workers were involved in minor criminal offenses, 13 were involved in assaults, six were involved in drug use and two were involved in fourth-degree sexual assault. The official noted that neither person with sex assault charges ever ended up on a national registry of sex offenders. In some cases, sexual assaults can involve people over the age of 18 who are having consensual relationships with someone under the age of 18.


After the arrests, the youth services coordinator and deputy at the day care center were reassigned. The center was shut down last Thursday.


The defense official also said the approximately 100 remaining child care employees at Fort Myer are caring for the children at the Cody Child Development Center, also on the base.


Coming on the heels of last week’s massacre of 6- and 7-year-olds in a shooting at their elementary school in Newtown, Conn., the day care scandal caught Obama’s attention and prompted a 10 p.m. telephone call Tuesday to Army Secretary John McHugh.


A White House official said the president relayed his concern about reports of abuse at the day care center and made clear that there must be a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to protecting the children of service members.


The official said Obama urged McHugh to conduct the investigation into its hiring practices quickly and thoroughly. Officials spoke about the investigation and the phone call on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss them publicly.


Obama has been outspoken in his demands for a quick government reaction to the Newtown shooting that left 20 children and six adults dead.


The Army had no immediate comment on the president’s call.


Pentagon leaders were angry that it took the Army months to disclose the problems to top officials and the public.


Panetta ordered the military-wide review Tuesday shortly after the Army disclosed problems with security background checks of workers at Fort Myer. Pentagon press secretary George Little said department leaders were surprised to hear of the problems and that “clearly this information did not get reported up the chain of command as quickly as we think it should have.”


A defense official said McHugh was first notified of the problems last Friday because, prior to that, it was considered a local law enforcement matter. The official, however, said authorities at Fort Myer took quick action after the Sept. 26th arrests by alerting parents, and began a steadily expanding review of people and policies during October and November.


According to officials, one person was charged with four counts of assault on children and the other was charged with five counts of assault. The alleged actions included hitting, grabbing or pushing the children. In the days after the arrests, the two administrators were dismissed, others were brought in and town hall meetings took place with parents.


Asked about the timing, Army spokesman George Wright said the local installation commander at Fort Myer took immediate action after the arrests to address the problems, and over time officials did some random background checks of employees. When those checks revealed some criminal convictions, every worker’s background was then reviewed.


Wright said it’s not as though the arrests happened and nothing was done. “There were deliberate, prudent and cautious actions taken” as more and more information was learned over the past three months, he said.


Officials, however, said it remained unclear if the initial background checks were not done, were insufficient or simply were ignored during the screening of personnel as they were hired.


“We need to do everything we can wherever our children are entrusted to the care of DOD-employed personnel to insure we have the right personnel with the right background taking care of them,” Little said. “We want to insure that there’s consistency in the standards and policies and practices in hiring wherever military youth are involved.”


___


Associated Press writer Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.


Parenting/Kids News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Republicans put squeeze on Obama in “fiscal cliff” talks

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Frustrated by their inability to wring more “fiscal cliff” concessions out of President Barack Obama, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives announced Tuesday night that they expect to pass their own tax bill as a backup plan to avert the tax hikes and automatic budget cuts set to occur in January.


No one expects the bill, which would extend low tax rates except on income of $ 1 million and above, to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate. President Barack Obama‘s latest position puts the threshold for income tax hikes at $ 400,000.






While the move, called “Plan B” by Republicans, may not prompt Obama to give further ground in his negotiations with House Speaker John Boehner, it could allow Republicans to argue they did what they could to stop tax hikes and the full impact of the “fiscal cliff,” which the Congressional Budget Office and economists have said could trigger another recession.


“Why not put on the floor something that’s what most Americans think the president is talking about, which is protecting from tax increases everybody but truly millionaires and billionaires?,” said Republican Representative Pat Tiberi of Ohio.


When it dies in the Senate, he said, “that’s not our problem. We can’t be held responsible for what the Senate does.”


Polls have consistently suggested that the public is likely to blame Republicans for failure to reach a deal ahead of the December 31 deadline for action.


After important concessions in recent days from both Obama and Boehner, Republicans expressed frustration that the president had not moved further.


The White House seemed unconcerned by the Republican tactic, and stressed Obama’s willingness to compromise further.


“The president has demonstrated an obvious willingness to compromise and move more than halfway toward the Republicans,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters, adding that Obama is making a “good faith” effort to reach a compromise.


Still, the mood on Capitol Hill was guardedly optimistic.


Global stocks advanced to their highest levels since September. Investors shifted funds to stocks and the euro and pulled away from safe-harbor assets such as bonds, gold and the U.S. dollar.


“They’ve still got a long way to go, but you can’t help but say that the odds are better today than they were on Friday that we’ll get some sort of agreement,” said Oklahoma Republican Representative Tom Cole.


Hopes of an accord rose Monday night after Obama made a concession with his offer to limit tax increases to incomes exceeding $ 400,000 per household. That is a higher threshold than the $ 250,000 that the president had sought earlier.


Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, had earlier conceded on Obama’s insistence that tax rates rise on the wealthiest Americans, but the two have been unable to agree on what income levels should be included in that category.


Analysts said Obama and Boehner may strike a compromise at $ 500,000 or close to that, though time was running short.


One House Republican aide, asked about prospects for “Plan B” on the House floor, said: “It wouldn’t be surprising … if a lot of conservatives balk at something like that.” The House’s second ranking Republican, Eric Cantor, said he was confident his party members in the House would back the bill.


‘WE CAN DO BETTER’


Even as he presented the measure, Boehner said he would continue to negotiate with Obama on a broader agreement.


“Plan B is Plan B for a reason. It’s a less-than-ideal outcome. I’ve always believed we can do better,” Boehner said.


The expiration of low tax rates enacted under former President George W. Bush is a key component of the “fiscal cliff” that lawmakers are trying to prevent from taking hold next month, along with deep automatic government spending cuts.


Often challenged by the conservative wing of his caucus, Boehner held Republican lawmakers together in support of his efforts to forge a deal with Obama. The speaker emerged largely unscathed from a potentially tough meeting with his fellow House Republicans on Tuesday morning.


Representative Darrell Issa, a key committee chairman, said his fellow House Republicans “were supportive of the speaker. … I saw no one there get up and say, ‘I can’t support the speaker.’”


With opinion polls showing broad support in the United States for raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans and Obama still buoyed by his re-election last month, the Republicans’ traditional opposition to tax hikes has waned somewhat.


The Obama-Boehner talks have largely overcome stark ideological differences and are focused increasingly on narrower disagreements over numbers.


COST-OF-LIVING INCREASES


Obama also may face unrest from within his party. Liberal Democrats were likely to oppose a key compromise he has offered to permit shrinking cost-of-living increases for all but the most vulnerable beneficiaries of the Social Security retirement program. His proposal calls for using a different formula, known as “chained Consumer Price Index,” to determine the regular cost-of-living increases, essentially reducing benefits.


“I am committed to standing against any benefit cuts to programs Americans rely on, and tying Social Security benefits to chained CPI is a benefit cut,” Democratic Representative Keith Ellison said in a statement.


Obama also moved closer to Boehner on the proportion of a 10-year deficit reduction package that should come from increased revenue, as opposed to cuts in government spending. Obama is now willing to accept a revenue figure of $ 1.2 trillion, down from his previous $ 1.4 trillion proposal.


Boehner’s latest proposal calls for $ 1 trillion in new tax revenue from higher tax rates and the curbing of some tax deductions taken by high-income Americans.


Missing from Obama’s latest offer was any extension of the so-called “payroll tax holiday” that ends on January 1, bringing an immediate tax increase on wage earners.


Possible plans to produce cuts in spending for Medicare and Medicaid, the government health insurance programs for seniors and low-income Americans respectively, remained to be discussed.


Boehner and Obama have made headway on the politically explosive question of the president’s ability to avoid constant battles over raising the nation’s debt ceiling, which controls the level of borrowing by the government. Boehner is ready to give Obama a year of relative immunity from conservative strife over the debt ceiling, while Obama is pushing for two years.


(Additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro, Rachelle Younglai, David Lawder, Richard Cowan, Matt Spetalnick, Roberta Rampton, Jeff Mason and Fred Barbash; Writing by Kevin Drawbaugh; Editing by Alistair Bell, Will Dunham and Paul Simao)


Seniors/Aging News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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