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Thursday, June 28, 2012
Katherine Eban's Fast And Furious Bombshell - Business Insider
Fortune Magazine's Katherine Eban has a big report out this morning arguing the?the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) had nothing to do with letting guns into Mexico.
While the guns were definitely part of Operation Fast & Furious, a program run by ATF agents in Phoenix, Egan argues that?"gunwalking" ? the tactic of allowing guns to be trafficked, in order to track cartel networks ? was never part of the ATF's mission.
She writes that agents were actually trying to intercept the guns, by tracking and arresting people hired by the cartels to purchase the guns in the U.S., but found themselves stymied by federal attorneys who said many of the "straw purchases" were not prosecutable.
The ATF, which is overseen by Attorney General Eric Holder, has admitted it did not exercise "proper oversight" over the program, and?has reassigned almost everyone associated with the operation.
Toward the end of the piece, Egan notes that new facts are still coming to light about Operation Fast and Furious, indicating that other agencies within the Department of Justice ? including the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency ? were involved in the program, and were tracking the guns through the cartel networks via paid informants, without the knowledge of the ATF agents on the ground. ?
Read the full report at Fortune >
And here's everything you need to know about the Fast and Furious scandal >?
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Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Mother Teresa, Mother Teresa biography, Mother Teresa profile ...
Mother Teresa Biography:
Mother Teresa
Profile:
Name: Mother Teresa
Born: August 26, 1910
Died: September 5, 1997
Achievements: Started Missionaries of Charity in 1950; received Nobel Prize for Peace in 1979; received Bharat Ratna in 1980.
Historical Importance of Mother Teresa:
Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Catholic order of nuns dedicated to helping the poor. Begun in Calcutta, India, the Missionaries of Charity grew to help the poor, the dying, orphans, lepers, and AIDS sufferers in over a hundred countries. Mother Teresa?s selfless effort to help those in need has caused many to regard her as a model humanitarian.
Mother Teresa and the Nobel Prize of 1979
Birth and Childhood:
Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, now known as Mother Teresa, was the third and final child born to her Albanian Catholic parents, Nikola and Dranafile Bojaxhiu, in the city of Skopje (a predominantly Muslim city in the Balkans). Nikola was a self-made, successful businessman and Dranafile stayed home to take care of the children. When Mother Teresa was about eight years old, her father died unexpectedly. The Bojaxhiu family was devastated. After a period of intense grief, Dranafile, suddenly a single mother of three children, sold textiles and hand-made embroidery to bring in some income.
Mother Teresa childhood photo
The Call:
Both before Nikola?s death and especially after it, the Bojaxhiu family held tightly to their religious beliefs. The family prayed daily and went on pilgrimages annually. When Mother Teresa was 12 years old, she began to feel called to serve God as a nun. Deciding to become a nun was a very difficult decision. Becoming a nun not only meant giving up the chance to marry and have children, it also meant giving up all her worldly possessions and her family, perhaps forever. For five years, Mother Teresa thought hard about whether or not to become a nun. During this time, she sang in the church choir, helped her mother organize church events, and went on walks with her mother to hand out food and supplies to the poor. When Mother Teresa was 17, she made the difficult decision to become a nun. Having read many articles about the work Catholic missionaries were doing in India, Mother Teresa was determined to go there. Thus, Mother Teresa applied to the Loreto order of nuns, based in Ireland but with missions in India. In September 1928, 18-year-old Mother Teresa said goodbye to her family to travel to Ireland and then on to India. She never saw her mother or sister again.
Mother Teresa the call
Becoming a Nun:
It took more than two years to become a Loreto nun. After spending six weeks in Ireland learning the history of the Loreto order and to study English, Mother Teresa then traveled to India, where she arrived on January 6, 1929. After two years as a novice, Mother Teresa took her first vows as a Loreto nun on May 24, 1931. As a new Loreto nun, Mother Teresa (known then only as Sister Teresa, a name she chose after St. Teresa of Lisieux) settled in to the Loreto Entally convent in Kolkata (previously called Calcutta) and began teaching history and geography at the convent schools. Usually, Loreto nuns were not allowed to leave the convent; however, in 1935, 25-year-old Mother Teresa was given a special exemption to teach at a school outside of the convent, St. Teresa?s. After two years at St. Teresa?s, Mother Teresa took her final vows on May 24, 1937 and officially became ?Mother Teresa.? Almost immediately after taking her final vows, Mother Teresa became the principal of St. Mary?s, one of the convent schools and was once again restricted to live within the convent?s walls.
Mother Teresa becoming a nun
?A Call Within a Call?:
For nine years, Mother Teresa continued as the principal of St. Mary?s. Then on September 10, 1946, a day now annually celebrated as ?Inspiration Day,? Mother Teresa received what she described as a ?call within a call.? She had been traveling on a train to Darjeeling when she received an ?inspiration,? a message that told her to leave the convent and help the poor by living among them. For two years Mother Teresa patiently petitioned her superiors for permission to leave the convent in order to follow her call. It was a long and frustrating process. To her superiors, it seemed dangerous and futile to send a single woman out into the slums of Kolkata. However, in the end, Mother Teresa was granted permission to leave the convent for one year to help the poorest of the poor.
In preparation for leaving the convent, Mother Teresa purchased three cheap, white, cotton saris, each one lined with three blue stripes along its edge. (This later became the uniform for the nuns at Mother Teresa?s Missionaries of Charity.) After 20 years with the Loreto order, Mother Teresa left the convent on August 16, 1948. Rather than going directly to the slums, Mother Teresa first spent several weeks in Patna with the Medical Mission Sisters to obtain some basic medical knowledge. Having learned the basics, 38-year-old Mother Teresa felt ready to venture out into the slums in December of 1948.
Mother Teresa missionaries of charity
Founding the Missionaries of Charity:
Mother Teresa started with what she knew. After walking around the slums for a while, she found some small children and began to teach them. She had no classroom, no desks, no chalkboard, and no paper, so she picked up a stick and began drawing letters in the dirt. Class had begun. Soon after, Mother Teresa found a small hut that she rented and turned it into a classroom. Mother Teresa also visited the children?s families and others in the area, offering a smile and limited medical help. As people began to hear about her work, they gave donations. In March 1949, Mother Teresa was joined by her first helper, a former pupil from Loreto. Soon she had ten former pupils helping her. At the end of Mother Teresa?s provisionary year, she petitioned to form her own order of nuns, the Missionaries of Charity. Her request was granted by Pope Pius XII; the Missionaries of Charity was established on October 7, 1950.
Helping the Sick, the Dying, the Orphaned, and the Lepers:
There were literally millions of people in need in India. Droughts, the caste system, India?s independence, and partition all contributed to the masses of people that lived on the streets. India?s government was trying, but they could not handle the overwhelming multitudes that needed help. While the hospitals were overflowing with patients that had a chance to survive, Mother Teresa opened a home for the dying, called Nirmal Hriday (?Place of the Immaculate Heart?), on August 22, 1952. Each day, nuns would walk through the streets and bring people who were dying to Nirmal Hriday, located in a building donated by the city of Kolkata. The nuns would bathe and feed these people and then place them in a cot. These people were given the opportunity to die with dignity, with the rituals of their faith.
Mother Teresa Service
In 1955, the Missionaries of Charity opened their first children?s home (Shishu Bhavan), which cared for orphans. These children were housed and fed and given medical aid. When possible, the children were adopted out. Those not adopted were given an education, learned a trade skill, and found marriages. In India?s slums, huge numbers of people were infected with leprosy, a disease that can lead to major disfiguration. At the time, lepers (people infected with leprosy) were ostracized, often abandoned by their families. Because of the widespread fear of lepers, Mother Teresa struggled to find a way to help these neglected people. Mother Teresa eventually created a Leprosy Fund and a Leprosy Day to help educate the public about the disease and established a number of mobile leper clinics (the first opened in September 1957) to provide lepers with medicine and bandages near their homes. By the mid-1960s, Mother Teresa had established a leper colony called Shanti Nagar (?The Place of Peace?) where lepers could live and work.
International Recognition:
Just before the Missionaries of Charity celebrated its 10th anniversary, they were given permission to establish houses outside of Calcutta, but still within India. Almost immediately, houses were established in Delhi, Ranchi, and Jhansi; more soon followed. For their 15th anniversary, the Missionaries of Charity was given permission to establish houses outside of India. The first house was established in Venezuela in 1965. Soon there were Missionaries of Charity houses all around the world. As Mother Teresa?s Missionaries of Charity expanded at an amazing rate, so did international recognition for her work. Although Mother Teresa was awarded numerous honors, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, she never took personal credit for her accomplishments. She said it was God?s work and that she was just the tool used to facilitate it.
Mother Teresa with Queen Elizabeth II
Controversy:
With international recognition also came critique. Some people complained that the houses for the sick and dying were not sanitary, that those treating the sick were not properly trained in medicine, that Mother Teresa was more interested in helping the dying go to God than in potentially helping cure them. Others claimed that she helped people just so she could convert them to Christianity. Mother Teresa also caused much controversy when she openly spoke against abortion and birth control. Others critiqued her because they believed that with her new celebrity status, she could have worked to end the poverty rather than soften its symptoms.
Old and Frail and Death:
Despite the controversy, Mother Teresa continued to be an advocate for those in need. In the 1980s, Mother Teresa, already in her 70s, opened Gift of Love homes in New York, San Francisco, Denver, and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for AIDS sufferers. Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, Mother Teresa?s health deteriorated, but she still traveled the world, spreading her message. When Mother Teresa, age 87, died of heart failure on September 5, 1997, the world mourned her passing. Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets to see her body, while millions more watched her state funeral on television. After the funeral, Mother Teresa?s body was laid to rest at the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata.
Mother Teresa death
When Mother Teresa passed away, she left behind over 4,000 Missionary of Charity Sisters, in 610 centers in 123 countries. After Mother Teresa?s death, the Vatican began the lengthy process of canonization. On October 19, 2003, the third of the four steps to sainthood was completed when the Pope approved Mother Teresa?s beatification, awarding Mother Teresa the title ?Blessed.?
Mother Teresa Timeline
Mother Teresa Timeline:
Aug 27, 1910 ? Born as Agnes Gionxhu Bejuxhiu ans in Skopje in the former Yugoslavia
1928 ? Becomes Roman Catholic Loretto nun and begins noviate training in Loretto Abbey, Dublin, Ireland, takes name Sister Teresa
1929 ? Arrives in Calcutta, India, becomes a teacher at St. Mary?s High School
1937 ? Takes final vows as a nun
1948 ? Permitted to leave order and moves to slums to start school
1948 ? Transfers her citizenship from Yugoslavia to India. Left the convent to work alone in the slums. Receives medical training in Paris
1950 ? Founds the Missionaries of Charity
1952 ? Opens Nirmal Hriday (?Pure Heart?), home for the dying
1953 ? Opens orphanage
1957 ? Begins her work with lepers for which her order becomes well known around the world
1958 ? Order?s first facility outside of Calcutta opens in Drachi, India
1962 ? Wins first prize for work among the poor: Padma Shri award
1965 ? The Catholic Church grants the order permission to organize missions outside of India
1971 ? Receives the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize and uses the $25,000 to build a leper colony
1979 ? Awarded Nobel Peace Prize for work with destitute and dying
1982 ? Persuades the Israelis and Palestinians to cease fire long enough to rescue 37 retarded children from Beirut
1983 ? Has heart attack while visiting Pope John Paul II
1985 ? Awarded ?Medal of Freedom?
1989 ? Suffers second heart attack, fitted with pacemaker
1990 ? Re-elected superior general of her order of the Missionaries for Charity, despite her wish to step down
1992 ? Enters the hospital in La Jolla, California for treatment of pneumonia and congestive heart failure
1993 ? Falls and breaks three ribs in May, hospitalized for malaria in August, undergoes surgery for blocked blood vessel in September
1996 ? Falls and breaks collarbone in April, suffers malarial fever and left ventricle failure in August, receives honorary citizenship on November sixteenth
March 13, 1997 ? Steps down as the head of her order, is succeeded by Sister Nirmala
September 5, 1997 ? Dies of a massive heart attack in Calcutta at the age of 87
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Dallas Roofing Company - Innovative Solutions by Dallas Roofers
by Josey Boy
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Fort Worth and Dallas roofers are there for their clients to give them service and professional advice. They help to put a roof over their clients' heads by providing affordable roofing solutions. Composition roofing is transforming the residential architecture of Dallas. A Dallas roofing company introduced it to satisfy their niche clients and ever since it has been all the rave. The composition roofing material is purely synthetic developed to last from 10 to 20 years. It is quite a good deal with low unit cost and fast installation on different types of truss. A wide variety is offered with different colors, sizes and finishes. Roofing companies Dallas will advice on the best roofing solutions that will fit the intended purpose. For general purpose, the normal grade fiberglass composition finish is used. For projects whereby conservation is important, organic compositions are used. They will completely decompose then finally disposed but have the advantage of being durable since they are heavier and have more asphalt.Roofing companies Dallas can quickly deploy a composition roof and this contributes to further cost savings. Some of the roofing Dallas compositions are simply nailed on to existing roofs. The compositions find application in any residential home or shed. Their lifespan is about 10 to 20 years because they are not heat resistant. More aesthetic solution is found in the laminate kind of roofing which has nice contours. These are sourced by Dallas roofers from manufacturers who create the laminate finish at an extra cost compared with the randomized fiberglass. The laminates are used for projects in which the visuals are important.
Roofing Fort Worth and roofing Dallas TX have another trick up their sleeve. They use the high impact composite roofing to guard against hail. The special finishing that builds resistance to impact may cost more but brings huge savings to the home policy. Up to thirty percent can be saved in home insurance from the fact that damage from storms will be mitigated. The roof companies integrated impact IV resistance from the inherent properties of fiberglass. To counter the poor thermal properties, the roof can be laid in conjunction with thermoblok. This results in savings of over 30 percent in home energy usage. That is a fantastic curtailing of running costs.
No wonder compositions are catching on in roofing companies Dallas. Having the organic composition with energy savings makes for a very green house which would make any home owner proud. Inorganic composites have a bad reputation because they take up to fifty years to decompose. Most of the compositions are recyclable and are probably already made from recycled materials. There are different styles and colors that can go with the house being roofed.
There are innovative solutions for roofing Dallas and roofing Fort Worth that present a desirable architectural finish. These are laminate compositions that are a higher grade and have gone through further production processes. In particular an additional layer of asphalt finishing is added. Impact resistance can also be catered for in areas where the roofing faces the brunt of hail and strong gales. As a measure to control house temperature, additional thermal protection is added to the roofing.
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Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Video: Writer Nora Ephron hospitalized
>>> the famed american screenwriter , author and humorist nora efron is in the final stages of leukemia and hospitalized. she wrote some modern classics, including "sleepless in seattle" and "when with harry met sally." she's apparently kept her illness a secret until now, even from close friends. nora efron is 71 years old.
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New mouse model helps explain gene discovery in congenital heart disease
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Public release date: 26-Jun-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Mary Ellen Peacock
maryellen.peacock@nationwidechildrens.org
614-355-0495
Nationwide Children's Hospital
Scientists now have clues to how a gene mutation discovered in families affected with congenital heart disease leads to underdevelopment of the walls that separate the heart into four chambers. A Nationwide Children's Hospital study appearing in PLoS Genetics suggests that abnormal development of heart cells during embryogenesis may be to blame.
When babies are born with a hole in their heart (either between the upper or lower chambers), they have a septal defect, the most common form of congenital heart disease. Although it's not clear what causes all septal defects, genetic studies primarily utilizing large families have led to the discovery of several causative genes.
Vidu Garg, MD, the study's lead author, previously reported that a single nucleotide change in the GATA4 gene in humans causes atrial and ventricular septal defects along with pulmonary valve stenosis. In mice, the GATA4 gene has been shown to be necessary for normal heart development and its deletion leads to abnormal heart development.
"While GATA4 has been shown to be important for several critical processes during early heart formation, the mechanism for the heart malformations found in humans with the mutation we previously reported is not well understood," said Dr. Garg, a pediatric cardiologist in The Heart Center and principal investigator in the Center for Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Research at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital.
To better characterize the mutation, Dr. Garg and colleagues generated a mouse model harboring the same human disease-causing mutation. They saw heart abnormalities in the mice that were consistent with those seen in humans with GATA4 mutations. Upon further examination, they found that the mutant protein leads to functional deficits in the ability for heart cells to increase in number during embryonic development.
"Our findings suggest that cardiomyocyte proliferation deficits could be a mechanism for the septal defects seen in this mouse model and may contribute to septal defects in humans with mutations in GATA4," said Dr. Garg, also a faculty member at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. "This mouse model will be valuable in studying how septation and heart valve defects arise and serve as a useful tool to study the impact of environmental factors on GATA4 functions during heart development."
###
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 26-Jun-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Mary Ellen Peacock
maryellen.peacock@nationwidechildrens.org
614-355-0495
Nationwide Children's Hospital
Scientists now have clues to how a gene mutation discovered in families affected with congenital heart disease leads to underdevelopment of the walls that separate the heart into four chambers. A Nationwide Children's Hospital study appearing in PLoS Genetics suggests that abnormal development of heart cells during embryogenesis may be to blame.
When babies are born with a hole in their heart (either between the upper or lower chambers), they have a septal defect, the most common form of congenital heart disease. Although it's not clear what causes all septal defects, genetic studies primarily utilizing large families have led to the discovery of several causative genes.
Vidu Garg, MD, the study's lead author, previously reported that a single nucleotide change in the GATA4 gene in humans causes atrial and ventricular septal defects along with pulmonary valve stenosis. In mice, the GATA4 gene has been shown to be necessary for normal heart development and its deletion leads to abnormal heart development.
"While GATA4 has been shown to be important for several critical processes during early heart formation, the mechanism for the heart malformations found in humans with the mutation we previously reported is not well understood," said Dr. Garg, a pediatric cardiologist in The Heart Center and principal investigator in the Center for Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Research at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital.
To better characterize the mutation, Dr. Garg and colleagues generated a mouse model harboring the same human disease-causing mutation. They saw heart abnormalities in the mice that were consistent with those seen in humans with GATA4 mutations. Upon further examination, they found that the mutant protein leads to functional deficits in the ability for heart cells to increase in number during embryonic development.
"Our findings suggest that cardiomyocyte proliferation deficits could be a mechanism for the septal defects seen in this mouse model and may contribute to septal defects in humans with mutations in GATA4," said Dr. Garg, also a faculty member at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. "This mouse model will be valuable in studying how septation and heart valve defects arise and serve as a useful tool to study the impact of environmental factors on GATA4 functions during heart development."
###
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Joe Arpaio Defends Tent City Jail Following Protest
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio defended his controversial Tent City jail on Sunday, insisting that he has no plans on shutting down the extension of the Phoenix county jail.
On Saturday, approximately 3,000 demonstrators gathered outside the jail to protest what they see as inhumane conditions. However, as UPI reported, Arpaio sees no problem with housing incarcerated men and woman in canvas tents, even in Arizona's typically hot weather.
"They worry about the heat but I say this over and over again, our men and women are in Iraq, Afghanistan, it's about 115 degrees ... serving our country," Arpaio said.
The sheriff said that as long as he is in charge in Maricopa County, Tent City will remain in place. He also threatened to send the organizers of Saturday's protests a bill for the extra security he put in place during the demonstration.
"This cost a lot of money," he said. "You can thank these demonstrators. I am going to check the law and see if I can charge them. I am sure I can't get by with it. We are here defending our tent city, my officers, the Phoenix police."
The Associated Press reported on the protests earlier on Sunday:
"We are with you," protesters chanted in both English and Spanish, in hopes that inmates could hear them.Most protesters held candles and wore yellow T-shirts that read "Standing on the side of love," a slogan of the Unitarian Universalist Association, which was holding its annual convention in Phoenix this weekend.
The rally was the latest effort by the association to promote social justice, association spokesman John Hurley said. The Unitarians organized the rally along with the immigrant rights group Puente Arizona.
Arpaio is known for his contentious positions on immigration and his often controversial policing practices. In May, the Department of Justice filed a suit against the sheriff and his office for discriminating against Latinos.
Also on HuffPost:
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Monday, June 25, 2012
DavidAndGoliath: RT @curphey: Military contractor claims it can read fingerprints from 6m http://t.co/UEuVGiic
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Peter Dreier: Billie Jean King and Remarkable Success of Title IX
There are many heroines and heroes in the struggle for women's equality. But as we celebrate yesterday's 40th anniversary of Title IX -- the path-breaking law that opened up more opportunities for girls and women in education and in sports -- we should recognize the extraordinary courage and leadership of Billie Jean King. She is one of the people I profile in my new book, The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame. Like Jackie Robinson and Muhammad Ali, she broke barriers in sports and then used her celebrity to break barriers in society.
On Sept. 20, 1973, fifty-five-year-old Bobby Riggs, the 1939 Wimbledon champion and a top-ranked player through the late 1940s, played a match against twenty-nine-year old King, a star in the growing sport of women's tennis. The media dubbed the contest the "Battle of the Sexes." King was seen as playing for the honor of all women.
After months of advance hoopla, King entered the Houston Astrodome like Cleopatra, carried aloft in a chair held by four bare-chested musclemen dressed like ancient slaves. Riggs then entered in a rickshaw drawn by scantily clad women. Riggs gave King a giant lollypop; she handed Riggs a piglet, a symbol of male chauvinism. By the end of the day, King had defeated Riggs in three straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.
The event became the most famous match in tennis history. Though clearly a publicity stunt, and a moneymaker for both athletes, it had enormous symbolic value, coming during the early years of the new women's movement. It was viewed by an estimated 50 million people around the world, and 30,000 attended at the Astrodome.
King's solid victory significantly boosted the credibility of women's participation in major sports. Aided by Title IX, the federal anti-discrimination provision in the Education Amendments of 1972, and by the activism of King and other women athletes, the number of females involved in sports has grown steadily.
King is one of the greatest tennis players of all time, and her advocacy for women's sports in the 1960s and 1970s revolutionized school, amateur, and professional athletics. There had been many great women athletes before King, but she helped make it more acceptable for girls and women to be athletes. In 1975 Seventeen magazine polled its readers and found that King was the most admired woman in the world. Later in her life, after she retired from competitive play, King also became an iconic figure in the lesbian and gay community.
Born in Long Beach, Calif., Billie Jean Moffitt's father was a fireman and her mother a homemaker. Her brother, Randy Moffitt, had a successful career in baseball as a major-league pitcher. Billie Jean was already an accomplished softball shortstop and enjoyed playing football when her parents decided that she should pursue a more "ladylike" sport. Her father suggested tennis. She picked up a racket at age twelve, played on public courts, and was soon identified as a tennis prodigy. Unlike today's promising young athletes, King did not have an elaborate network of coaches and clinics to nurture her talent. At fifteen, she made her debut at the U.S. Championships. In 1961, at seventeen, she and Karen Hantze won the women's doubles championship at Wimbledon. In 1966 King won her first Wimbledon singles title and was ranked number 1.
King was ranked number 1 in the world five times between 1966 and 1972 and was ranked in the top ten for seventeen years, beginning in 1960. She won a record twenty Wimbledon titles, six of them in singles (1966, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1973, and 1975), won the U.S. Open four times (1967, 1971, 1972, and 1974), and won the Australian Open in 1968. In 1972 she won Wimbledon, the French Open and the U.S. Open. In total, she won 67 singles titles, 101 doubles titles, and 11 mixed doubles titles, amassing almost $2 million in prize money after turning professional in 1968 and before retiring in 1983.
In 1974 King was a founder of World Team Tennis and served as the player-coach of the Philadelphia Freedoms, becoming one of the first women to coach professional male athletes. She coached the US Olympic women's tennis team in 1996 and 2000.
In the late 1960s professional women's tennis was widely dismissed as a frilly sideshow. Male "amateur" tennis stars would get paid under the table, but women athletes were not taken as seriously. For winning her first two Wimbledons, she received nothing except the $14 daily allowance.
In 1970, when King and eight other female players defied the tennis establishment to form their own professional circuit, many experts doubted that they could attract big enough crowds to generate prize money. Women's tennis is now as popular as men's.
In addition to her dominance on the courts, King made significant contributions to women's sports and feminism in general. In 1972 she signed a controversial statement, published in Ms. magazine, that she had had an abortion, putting her on the front lines of the battle for reproductive rights. Also in 1972, she became the first woman to be named Sports Illustrated's "Sportsperson of the Year."
King pushed for higher fees for women athletes, which led firms like Philip Morris and Virginia Slims to sponsor women's tournaments. When she won the U.S. Open in 1972, she received $15,000 less than did the men's winner, Ilie Nastase. She threatened to boycott the 1973 U.S. Open if it did not equalize prize money between women and men athletes. The tournament agreed to do so, setting a precedent.
In 1974 she was one of the founders and the first president of the Women's Tennis Association. That year, with support from Gloria Steinem and Ms., King also founded womenSports magazine and the Women's Sports Foundation. With King's backing, the magazine and foundation became powerful voices for women in sports.
The foundation has helped women athletes obtain college scholarships, and it began its own grants programs to support summer camps and fund traveling and training scholarships for promising young female athletes. The foundation has played an important role in using Title IX to push for greater equality in athletic opportunities for men and women. Although women athletes still get fewer teams, fewer scholarships, and lower budgets than their male counterparts, since Title IX's passage, female athletic participation has increased by 904 percent at the high school level and by 456 percent at the college level.
This progress is the result of persistent pressure by advocates. The foundation has filed friend of the court briefs in support of women high school students seeking equity with male sports programs. In one case, resolved before reaching the courts, the foundation supported a teenage girl who wanted to try out for the men's high school baseball team instead of being restricted to softball. The foundation also advocates for greater sports participation by women of color and by those with disabilities.
By 1968 King realized she was attracted to women but could not bring herself to admit it to her husband or her parents. "The whole world was in tumult, and so was I," she said. "I was so ashamed."
"I couldn't get a closet deep enough. I've got a homophobic family, a tour that will die if I come out, the world is homophobic and, yeah, I was homophobic," King told a Sunday Times of London interviewer in December 2007.
In 1981 King was forced out of the closet by a former girlfriend who sued her, unsuccessfully, for palimony, while she was still married. She soon embraced her new role as the first openly lesbian major sports star. (She divorced her husband, Larry, in 1987.)
Elton John wrote "Philadelphia Freedom" to honor King and her World Team Tennis franchise. She serves on the Elton John AIDS Foundation and has received numerous honors for her work with the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. King's foundation developed and promotes It Takes a Team!, an educational program to end homophobia in school sports.
Writing in Sports Illustrated in 1975, sports commentator Frank Deford observed, "[King] has prominently affected the way 50 percent of society thinks and feels about itself in the vast area of physical exercise. Moreover, like [what Arnold] Palmer [did for golf], she has made a whole sports boom because of the singular force of her presence."
Among her many honors, King was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. The U.S. Tennis Association has named its main facility in New York City the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
All Americans who care about equality stand on Billie Jean King's remarkable shoulders.
Peter Dreier teaches politics and chairs the Urban & Environmental Policy Department at Occidental College. His new book, The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame, was just published by Nation Books.
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Friday, June 22, 2012
Electronic health records overview - HEALTH, BEAUTY & FITNESS
Related Post Electronic health records overview
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Egypt army talks tough as Tahrir protests
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's military rulers dismissed complaints from protesters on Friday that it was entrenching its rule and blamed the Muslim Brotherhood's presidential candidate for stirring up emotions that drew thousands onto Cairo's Tahrir Square.
In a brusque four-minute statement read on state television as Egyptians returned from weekly prayers - and as the revolutionary bastion of Tahrir was chanting for democracy - the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) made clear it had no plan to heed their calls to cancel a decree extending its powers or reverse its dissolution of the new, Islamist-led parliament.
"The issuance of the supplementary constitutional decree was necessitated by the needs of administering the affairs of the state during this critical period in the history of our nation," the off-screen announcer said, in the bureaucratic language favored by the generals who pushed aside brother officer Hosni Mubarak last year to appease the angry millions on the streets.
In what were menacing tones for the army's old adversary the Muslim Brotherhood, SCAF said people were free to protest - but only if they did not disrupt daily life. And it called the premature announcement of results in last weekend's presidential election "unjustifiable" and a prime cause of the tension.
Both comments target the Islamists more than other groups and the Brotherhood was quick to hit back. It denounced the military's actions themselves as "unconstitutional". Deadlock between Egypt's two strongest forces seemed to be hardening, raising grave doubts on the prospects for consensual democracy.
The SCAF statement read: "Anticipating the announcement of the presidential election results before they are announced officially is unjustifiable, and is one of the main causes of division and confusion prevailing the political arena."
It also said the army had no power to repeal the dissolution of parliament, saying that was down to judges who ruled that some of January's election rules were unconstitutional:
"The verdicts issued by the judiciary are executed in the name of the people and refraining from implementing these verdicts is a crime punishable by law," it said, a warning to Islamists who are challenging the dissolution. Critics say the judges were appointed under Mubarak and so are not impartial.
PROTESTS
The Brotherhood is mounting protest vigils on town squares to demand the reversal of the decree and the dissolution. It also fears a delay in announcing the result of the presidential election indicates an attempt to cheat - though opponents say it is the Islamists who are not playing fair.
The Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsy and former general Ahmed Shafik have both said they believe they have won last weekend's run-off ballot. But it is Morsy's declaration of victory within hours of polls closing - far more than Shafik's later saying he too is "confident" - which has driven debate about underhand tactics in a country long used to vote-rigging.
The delay in publication of results, due on Thursday but not now expected until at least Saturday, has heightened anxiety on all sides, although all sides say they will protest peacefully.
Mohamed Beltagy, senior member of the Brotherhood, told Reuters the movement would continue to reject SCAF's decree, which was issued as polls closed on Sunday, two days after a court gave the military grounds to dissolve the new parliament.
"The military council is calling for respect for the legitimacy of the state and its laws, but we are asking for there first to be respect for the legitimacy of the parliamentary election and the will of the people," he said.
"The Brotherhood restates its rejection of the constitutional declaration, which is itself unconstitutional," Beltagy added. "The military council does not have any legal rights to issue such a decree."
A Shafik spokesman declined comment. Shafik himself called on Thursday for restraint and accused Morsy of trying to pressure the electoral commission by prematurely giving results.
SCARE TACTIC
Of the military's latest statement, Hassan Nafaa, a political analyst who was a critic of Mubarak, said: "The military council's statement is intended to scare the people and quell the revolutionary spirit of the nation through the firm authoritarian tone in which the statement was delivered.
"But this will not work because all politically aware civilians refuse the military's stewardship over the state."
While many of the urban liberals who began the uprising against Mubarak 17 months ago are uneasy about the electoral success of the Islamists, the prospect of Shafik winning, or of the army retaining power behind an impotent President Morsy, would for them mean the final failure of their revolution.
"This is a classic counter revolution that will only be countered by the might of protesters," said Safwat Ismail, 43, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood who came from the Nile Delta. "I am staying in the square until the military steps down."
Mahmoud Mohammed, a bearded, 31-year-old marine engineer from Alexandria among a group from the more fundamentalist Salafist movement camping on the square insisted they were not looking for a battle, but wanted to see democracy installed.
"The people elected a parliament and they put it in the rubbish bin. We need the army to hand over," he said, adding: "No one came here for a fight. We need democracy."
Though tension is real across the country, many of Egypt's 82 million people are weary of turmoil and economic crisis, so it is unclear how large protests might become - though the Brotherhood alone has formidable reserves and capacities.
On Friday, most people appeared to be staying at home and passing Friday's Muslim weekend as normal, though once the fierce sun goes down, gatherings might grow.
At Tahrir, the broad traffic interchange by the Nile in central Cairo was filled with makeshift tents offering shade from the midday sun, hawkers offering an array of goods from tea to "I Love Tahrir Square" T-shirts. Many knelt in prayer during the weekly service. Large groups of pious Islamists were bused in from the provinces by their parties.
The crowd chanted and waved Egyptian flags.
U.S. CONCERN
Events of the past week, which also saw a renewal of the power of military police to arrest civilians, have unnerved Western allies, notably the United States which has long been the key sponsor of the Egyptian armed forces but now says it wants to see them hand power to civilians.
In a country where virtually no one can remember an election that was not rigged before last year, trust is low, not least among Brotherhood officials, many of whom, like Morsy, were jailed under Mubarak for their political activities.
The same electoral commission that handed an improbable 90 percent of a November 2010 parliamentary vote to Mubarak's supporters - a result which fueled the protests that brought him down a few weeks later - sits in judgment on the new presidency.
Adding to unease, Mubarak is himself back in the news, being transferred to a military hospital on Tuesday evening from the prison where he began a life sentence this month.
Military and security sources have given a confusion of accounts about his condition, from "clinically dead" at one point, to being on life support after a stroke to "stabilizing". Many Egyptians suspect his fellow generals may be exaggerating his illness to get their old comrade out of jail.
(Additional reporting by Dina Zayed, Shaimaa Fayed, Tom Perry, Edmund Blair, Patrick Werr, Tamim Elyan and Yasmine Saleh; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
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Brazil in trade pact with China, sees aviation gains
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil and China on Thursday signed a handful of trade agreements aimed at boosting investment and trade flows for the coming decade, at a time when economic growth in both emerging market powerhouses is losing momentum abruptly.
China, the world's second largest economy, is Brazil's biggest export market, and Brazil officials hailed the accord as critical to the South American country's growth.
Under the agreements signed by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, relations between the nations will rise to the status of a "global strategic partnership," highlighting their growing influence in the global economy.
Rousseff and Jiabao, who is in Brazil to attend the U.N. Rio+20 sustainable development summit, also agreed upon a common agenda of investments in the mining, industrial, aviation and infrastructure sectors that should encourage commerce flows between the two nations.
Speaking at the summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega said the accords should provide a boost to manufacturing and sales by Brazilian airplane maker Embraer in China. Embraer
"The relation with China is greatly relevant for us because it is our most important trading partner," Mantega said. "In spite of a potential slowdown, China will keep being the place where to do business, a dynamic economy."
The accords follow recent trade tensions between the two countries. Since Rousseff took office early in 2011, Brazilian officials have complained of barriers facing its manufactured exports in China. They have also blamed the Chinese with flooding Brazilian markets with cheap imports that hurt local factories.
In one of the most heated commercial disputes, China closed its ports to the so-called Valemaxes, massive dry hulk carriers that Brazilian iron-ore miner Vale
China has complained that Brazil raised taxes on Chinese-made cars to protect a local car assembly industry dominated by U.S., European and Japanese automakers. Chinese officials said Brazil is also erecting barriers on products ranging from shoes to toys and men's suits.
The deals come as Rousseff, a results-oriented pragmatist, is pressing China to buy more products from Brazilian manufacturers as part of a broader push aimed at reducing the South American nation's dependence on sales of raw materials such as iron ore, oil and soybeans.
MORE GLOBAL CLOUT
Both countries, which are members of the BRICS group that also include Russia, India and South Africa, are racing to bolster their economies that have slowed sharply in part due to Europe's debt crisis.
Facing dwindling liquidity abroad, both countries signed a deal on Thursday to set up local currency swaps of up to 60 billion reais ($29.46 billion).
"As international credit remains scarce we will have enough credit for our transactions," Mantega said.
The swap is a deal between two countries to give out loans in their local currencies.
Mantega said the move was part of an effort by emerging-market economies to shield their economies from the crisis now engulfing rich nations. He said the BRICS are demanding more influence in multilateral institutions like the International Monetary Fund to reflect their growing clout in the global economy.
A commodity-hungry China overtook the United States as Brazil's single largest trading partner in 2009, however, falling raw materials prices are starting to hurt trade flows, recent government data showed.
Brazilian policymakers said they want to tap China's growing local market by boosting manufactured goods exports and creating joint ventures in the Asian giant.
Mantega said Chinese companies are very interested in investing in the South American nation's vast oil and gas sectors. Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras
GREEN LIGHT FOR EMBRAER
In April last year, the Chinese government allowed Embraer to start assembling executive jets in China, giving the company a lifeline in a massive market where its future was in doubt.
For years Embraer tried to produce regional aircraft in China. That approval never came, in part because China is developing a rival regional plane, prompting Embraer to focus on China's business jet market instead.
Embraer's China joint venture, Harbin Aircraft Ltd, would deliver its first plane in late 2013, Embraer said in a statement that reiterated a deal to make Legacy 600/650 jets in China. The agreement is seen as key for Embraer to cut down on the cost and inconvenience of selling planes that require import licenses.
The planemaker's Chinese venture also inked a contract with ICBC Financial Leasing Co. to sell 10 Legacy 650 jets, Embraer said in statement. Five are firm orders and five are optional, with delivery planned for the end of 2013. ($1 = 2.0364 Brazilian reais)
(Additional reporting by Alonso Soto in Brasilia and Bruno Federowski in Sao Paulo; Writing by Guillermo Parra-Bernal and Alonso Soto; Editing by Paul Simao and Leslie Adler)
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Fee disputes: Which banks are stingiest?
By Bob Sullivan
Which bank is the stingiest at handing out refunds to consumers who complain?? Wouldn't you like to know?
This story offers some insight into?the first question, based on complaints filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau during the past year.
This week, the bureau began offering consumers the chance to look into its massive database of complaints -- albeit in limited fashion. Only complaints filed since about June 1 ? or 173 of the total of 42,000 -- are currently available for public viewing at the agency's website.
But msnbc.com obtained the full database of complaints under a Freedom of Information Act request and has done some crunching of the numbers.?
The data on the bureau's website were limited, in part, because the agency is still tinkering with the way it logs complaints.? It has several times refined the way it describes complaint resolution, for example. That means data codified under the old system are of limited value to researchers, and to the public.
Still, with 42,000 entries, there are things to learn from the data.? For now, we're focusing on resolution involving consumers who complained they were hit with an unfair fee. There are 1,458 such complaints in the data.? Most of these complaints involved credit card accounts (a few involve student loans).?
Squeaky wheel
Of these fee-related complaints, 204 were labeled "closed without relief," meaning the bank gave no monetary compensation to the complainer, and another 45 were labeled "no resolution provided," for a total of 17 percent.? On the other hand, 424 were "closed with relief," and another 365 cases were designated "full resolution provided" ? a winning percentage of 51 percent.? That shows the value of being a squeaky wheel, at least when it comes to fees.?
Various other designations, such as "misdirected," or "In progress" round out the results.
When considering data like this, it's of little use to count up totals and compare. It should be no surprise that really large banks like Bank of America attracted more complaints than medium-sized institutions like PNC Bank, for example.? But in the case of relief granted, a percentage of success or failure by consumers offers a little more information.
It turns out the J.P. Morgan Chase customers who complained were turned down least often among the 10 banks with the most fee-related complaints -- only about 10 percent were rejected, and conversely, 83 percent were granted relief and/or resolution.? GE Capital customers actually did a little better on the relief side, with 85 percent winning. Barclays, Capital One and Bank of America customers all got some kind of relief more than 70 percent of the time.
On the other side other side of the spectrum, US Bank customers fared the worst. Only 40 percent got relief; the same percentage were rejected by the bank (the data doesn't say what happened to the middle 20 percent). Also faring badly -- Citibank, Discover and American Express customers, who were rejected more than 25 percent of the time.? Capital One customers, despite their 70 percent success rate, were rejected 25 percent of the time.
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These results should be taken with a huge grain of salt. At this level of granularity the sample size is quite small -- with some banks, there were fewer than 50 fee-related complaints.? And the banking industry has valid concerns about the accuracy of the complaints. Nessa Feddis, spokeswoman for the American Bankers Association, correctly points out that a bank that has a particularly effective internal complaint resolution program could be wrongly portrayed as a bad actor by the CFPB data.?
"Maybe internally they have a 99 percent success rate and the only people who file with the bureau don't have a legitimate complaint, and that bank might look worst," she said.? "It would skew the percentages."
She also said banks with high ?no relief? scores could simply be ?(getting) it right the first time? when it comes to billing issues.
Feddis also complained more broadly about the idea that consumer complaints were being released to the public without vetting by a bureau official for legitimacy.
New consumer agency launches tell-all website
"Some people file complaints about a fee that they understood and agreed to and simply don?t want to pay, or they misremember,? she said. ?There is simply no way to tell whether the complaint is valid or reasonable and the issuer doesn?t get to provide its side of the story. Hardly American due process."
Msnbc.com chose fee-related complaints for a reason. The chief criticism of the CFPB complaint database by the banking industry has surrounded the various designations for resolution. Initially, only consumers who received monetary compensation were designated as having obtained relief. When the banking industry complained that banks often offer non-monetary relief -- such as taking steps to improve a consumer?s credit score -- the bureau agreed and changed its coding system.
Fee-related complaints, however, offer a more clear data point for inspection: Consumers complaining about late fees, cash advance fees and balance transfer fees generally either get their money back, or they don't. ?By limiting this analysis to fee-related complaints, the resolution data is still informative, with this?caveat, provided on background by a person familiar with how the bureau?s database works: ?A small percentage of consumers who were granted a fee waiver ? as opposed to a refund ? by their credit card issuer may have had their complaints coded as ?without relief.? ?The person said the number of entries impacted by that distinction wouldn?t skew the overall results.
Jen Howard, spokeswoman for the bureau, said it wouldn't comment on the msnbc.com results.
Here?s the top 10 list of most generous and most stingy banks, presented with the above caveats:?
Granted fee relief
| 1 | GE Capital | 85% |
| 2 | J.P M. Chase | 83% |
| 3 | Barclays | 78% |
| 4 | Wells Fargo | 72% |
| 5 | Capital One | 70% |
| 6 | Bank of America | 70% |
| 7 | Citi | 66% |
| 8 | Discover | 60% |
| 9 | Amex | 53% |
| 10 | USBank | 41% |
Denied fee relief
| 1 | J.P. M. Chase | 10% |
| 2 | Barclays | 10% |
| 3 | GE Capital | 12% |
| 4 | Bank of America | 18% |
| 5 | Wells Fargo | 22% |
| 6 | Capital One | 25% |
| 7 | Citi | 25% |
| 8 | Discover | 27% |
| 9 | Amex | 31% |
| 10 | USBank | 41% |
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Thursday, June 21, 2012
Bipartisan effort leads to Senate OK of farm bill
FILE - In this June 6, 2012, file photo, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., speaks about a farm bill on Capitol Hill in Washington. Senate Agriculture Committee chairman Stabenow is fond of saying that the five-year farm policy bill is "not your father's farm bill." There's some truth to that: while the core missions of farm bills _ protecting farmers from bad times, conserving rural lands and funding the food stamp and other nutrition programs _ are unchanged, this farm bill takes some very different approaches. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - In this June 6, 2012, file photo, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., speaks about a farm bill on Capitol Hill in Washington. Senate Agriculture Committee chairman Stabenow is fond of saying that the five-year farm policy bill is "not your father's farm bill." There's some truth to that: while the core missions of farm bills _ protecting farmers from bad times, conserving rural lands and funding the food stamp and other nutrition programs _ are unchanged, this farm bill takes some very different approaches. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Senate on Thursday completed a five-year, half-trillion-dollar farm bill that cuts farm subsidies and land conservation spending by about $2 billion a year but largely protects sugar growers and some 46 million food stamp beneficiaries.
The 64-35 vote for passage defied political odds. Many inside and outside of Congress had predicted that legislation so expensive and so complicated would have little chance of advancing in an election year.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell called it "one of the finest moments in the Senate in recent times in terms of how you pass a bill."
The bipartisanship seen in the Senate may be less evident in the House, where conservatives are certain to resist the bill's costs, particularly for food stamps. Food stamp spending has doubled in the past five years, and beneficiaries have grown from by about 20 million to 46 million. The program's budget is now about $80 billion a year, comprising 80 percent of the spending in the farm bill.
Farm bills traditionally have been bipartisan efforts, and leaders of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee leaders made a point of showing how their bill would bring down the deficit.
While overall spending on programs covered by the bill has climbed because more people are receiving food stamps, the committee head, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and the top Republican, Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, said the bill would save $23 billion over the next 10 years compared with spending under the current farm bill.
That comes from replacing four farm commodity subsidy programs with one, consolidating 23 conservation programs into 13, and ending several sources of abuse in food stamps. That program is called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
The biggest change comes from eliminating direct payments to farmers whether they plant crops or not. The program, which costs about $5 billion a year, has lost much of its support at a time of $1 trillion federal deficits and when farmers in general are prospering.
That subsidy, and a separate one where the government sets target prices and pays farmers when prices go below that level, will be replaced. There will be greater reliance on crop insurance and a new program that covers smaller losses on planted crops before crop insurance kicks in.
The bill also prevents farm "managers," often wealthy people who may not live or work on a farm, from receiving subsidy payments and gives greater help to fruit and vegetable producers and healthy food programs.
The Senate rejected several Republican amendments that would have reduced food stamp spending by such means as tightening up eligibility requirements.
The bill saves about $4 billion over 10 years, a small amount compared with the projected $770 billion in spending for food stamps over 10 years. It stops lottery winners and more affluent college students from receiving benefits and cracks down on benefit trafficking.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack praised the Senate bill for making progress toward "providing a reformed safety net for producers in times of needs," supporting agriculture research, conserving natural resources, strengthening local food systems and promoting jobs. He expressed hope the House "will produce a bill with those same goals in mind."
Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, said that while there will be differences between the House and Senate approaches, "I hope my colleagues are encouraged by this success." His committee is scheduled to meet on July 11 to vote on a House version of the bill.
The House must deal with a North-South divide on the bill that the Senate chose to leave for future negotiations.
The switch from direct payments to the revenue loss subsidy was welcomed by Northern and Midwestern corn and soybean farmers but strongly opposed by Southern rice and peanut growers. They traditionally have relied more on direct payments and targeted prices and want to keep parts of those subsidies. The House is expected to be more sympathetic to the Southerners.
While transforming the subsidy system, the Senate left intact the sugar program that for some 80 years has protected beet and sugarcane growers and sugar refiners by controlling prices and limiting imports.
The program is opposed by consumer groups and food and beverage companies that use sugar. They say it drives up costs and leads to confectioners relocating overseas. Amendments to either phase out or narrow the scope of the sugar program both failed on close votes.
In all, the Senate considered more than 70 amendments over three days. Among the more significant, the Senate approved, over the objections of Stabenow and Roberts, a measure that would reduce by 15 percentage points the share of crop insurance premiums the government pays for farmers with adjusted gross incomes of more than $750,000.
Sponsors of that amendment, Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said that would affect only 15,000 of 1.5 million farmers and save $1 billion over the next decade. Stabenow and Roberts argued that it would result in fewer people buying insurance and more relying on ad hoc disaster relief.
Currently the government bears an average 62 percent of crop insurance premiums, and the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the crop insurance costs will be nearly $10 billion a year over the next 10 years.
The Senate on Thursday also narrowly rejected an amendment by Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., that would have barred the Environmental Protection Agency from all aerial surveillance of agriculture operations.
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