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Police: 'Hero' saved lives in Seattle shootings

SEATTLE (AP) ? Someone inside an artsy Seattle cafe where a gunman opened fire threw stools at the assailant during a shooting rampage police described as "callous, horrific and cold," a move that allowed others to run to safety.

Ian Lee Stawicki was armed with two .45-caliber handguns and began shooting Wednesday morning at Cafe Racer, killing four people. Police said he fled and later killed a female motorist, taking off with her SUV.

Stawicki later killed himself as police closed in.

Police said more could have been injured or even killed at the cafe were it not for the actions of the man, whom they did not identify. They did not say whether he was a patron or an employee.

"The hero picked up a stool and threw it at the suspect. Hit him. Picked up another stool, as the suspect is shooting and now pointing (a gun) at him and hits him with another stool," Assistant Chief Jim Pugel said.

"During that time, two or possibly three, people made their escape," he said, adding, "He saved three lives."

The slayings further frayed nerves in an already jittery city that has seen 21 homicides so far this year, as many as Seattle had in all of 2011.

"In my almost 30 years in this department, I've never seen anything more callous, horrific and cold," Deputy Chief Nick Metz said at a Thursday news conference after reviewing video footage of the killings.

The gunman's father struggled Thursday to understand how his son could have gone on a shooting rampage and apologized to the victims' families.

"The first thing I can say, and it doesn't go very far at this point, is I'm so sorry," Walter Stawicki said, his voice quivering. "It sounds so trite, that I feel their grief. ... I just hope they understand he wasn't a monster out to kill people."

The 21 homicides this year have the city's leaders wondering what if anything can be done.

"The city is stunned and seeking to make sense of it," Mayor Mike McGinn said. "I think we have to start by acknowledging the tremendous amount of grief that's out there from the families and friends of the victims."

In just over a month, a young woman was killed in a seemingly random drive-by shooting in a popular nightlife district and a father who was driving with his family was killed by a stray bullet fired during a fight involving people on the street.

While the city still has low murder rates, pressure is growing on the police to curtail the violence at a time when the department is facing accusations of excessive force. Police have told residents to expect more officers on patrol in high-crime areas.

McGinn said the highest priority would be addressing the "epidemic of gun violence that's plaguing the city." He said he'll look at redeploying officers, as well as legislation.

The gunman's family, meanwhile, is struggling with what could have been had they been able to get Stawicki help sooner.

Ian Stawicki, 40, had suffered from mental illness for years and gotten "exponentially" more erratic, his father said, but family members had been unable to get him to seek help.

Walter Stawicki said he was "bitter" that it was so hard to get his son help.

"He wouldn't hear it," he said. "We couldn't get him in, and they wouldn't hold him ... The only way to get an intervention in time is to lie and say they threatened you. Our hands were so tied."

Walter Stawicki recalled a son who liked dogs, kids and plants. He joined the U.S. Army after graduating high school, but the Army honorably discharged him after about a year, he said.

Since then, Ian Stawicki had bounced around serving as a roadie for bands and helping his mother with gardening.

According to the Seattle city attorney's office, police cited Stawicki in 1989 for carrying a concealed knife and, in 2008, a girlfriend who lived with him claimed he had assaulted her and had destroyed her property. She later recanted, and charges were dismissed because she would not cooperate with prosecutors.

Stawicki obtained a concealed weapons permit in 2010 from the Kittitas County Sheriff's Office. The permit shows he owned six firearms.

Other than a couple of traffic tickets and a fistfight with his brother several years ago ? charges were dropped ? his son had no criminal record, Walter Stawicki said.

"When you knew him and he liked you, he was the best friend you could have. He was an old-fashioned gentleman," he said. "But when he was having bad days, he scared people."

Stawicki also said he knew his son had guns, but he was more concerned that Ian ? a "bean pole" at 6-foot, 150 pounds ? would get in a physical altercation and lose.

Stawicki last spoke to his son the morning of the shooting. He recalled a cheerful conversation. "He handed the phone to his mother and I said, 'Gee, he sounds in a good mood.'

The only survivor of the cafe shooting, Leonard Meuse, was upgraded from critical to serious condition at Harborview Medical Center.

A memorial in front of the cafe grew Thursday as people stopped by to drop off flowers, cans of beer and toy instruments. Two of the victims, identified by friends as Drew Keriakedes, 49, and Joe Albanese, 52, were old-time musicians and regulars at the cafe, where they often played or simply held court.

"They were the life of this place," said Janna Silver, who had known them for a few years. "They were very welcoming, and they'd talk to anyone."

The King County medical examiner's office confirmed the identification of Keriakedes and also identified another cafe victim, Kimberly Layfield, 36.

The carjacked woman was identified as Gloria Leonidas, 52. The Seattle Times said she was a married mother of two from suburban Bellevue. The medical examiner's office does not release hometowns.

Formal identification of the other victims, as well as the victims' cause and manner of death, will be released Friday, the medical examiner's office said.

___

Associated Press writer Chris Grygiel contributed to this report. Dininny reported from Yakima, Wash.

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Eric L. Maughan - Rader, Fishman & Grauer

Eric L. Maughan primarily focuses on patent law, particularly the preparation and prosecution of utility patent applications in the electrical and mechanical arts.? Eric has prepared and prosecuted numerous applications covering diverse technologies including: semiconductor fabrication techniques and semiconductor devices; electronic circuitry including LED?displays; lasers; nano-technology; digital cameras and other optical devices; communications devices including cell-phones; computer programs and web?applications; printers and print-error diffusion techniques; hybrid car technologies; and color sampling algorithms.? Eric also has experience preparing numerous petitions-to-make-special under the Patent Prosecution Highway program.

While attending the Georgetown University Law Center, Eric served as a research assistant for Professor Susan Low Block. ?Prior to joining Rader, Fishman & Grauer, he worked as an intern at two Washington, DC area law firms where he prepared and prosecuted patent applications and prepared patents for licensing and/or litigation by performing infringement analysis and researching legal issues on topics such as res judicata and claim construction.? Eric is the author of the article Protecting the Rights of Inventors: How Natural Rights Theory Should Influence the Injunction Analysis in Patent Infringement Cases, 10 Geo. J.L. & Pub. Pol?y 215 (2012).

Eric holds a Bachelor of Science degree with a Major in Physics and a Minor in Mathematics from the University of Utah (2009), where he focused on quantum theory and completed the ?pre-professional? honors physics program.? Eric received his J.D. degree, cum laude, from the Georgetown University Law Center (2012), where he was a Dean?s Scholar and a member of the Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy.?

Eric was raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, and enjoys backcountry hiking and camping, racquetball, football, philosophy, computers, and reading.

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Commonly used painkillers may protect against skin cancer

ScienceDaily (May 29, 2012) ? A new study suggests that aspirin and other similar painkillers may help protect against skin cancer. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the findings indicate that skin cancer prevention may be added to the benefits of these commonly used medications.

Previous studies suggest that taking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, which include aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen, as well as a variety of other nonprescription and prescription drugs, can decrease an individual's risk of developing some types of cancer. Sigr?n Alba J?hannesd?ttir, BSc, of Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark, and her colleagues looked to see if the medications might decrease the risk of the three major types of skin cancer: basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and malignant melanoma.

The researchers analyzed medical records from northern Denmark from 1991 through 2009 and identified 1,974 diagnoses of squamous cell carcinoma, 13,316 diagnoses of basal cell carcinoma, and 3,242 diagnoses of malignant melanoma. They compared information, including prescription data, from these patients with information from 178,655 individuals without skin cancer.

Individuals who filled more than two prescriptions for NSAIDs had a 15 percent decreased risk for developing squamous cell carcinoma and a 13 percent decreased risk for developing malignant melanoma than those who filled two or fewer prescriptions for the medications, especially when the drugs were taken for seven or more years or taken at high intensity. Individuals who took NSAIDs did not seem to benefit from a reduced risk of developing basal cell carcinoma in general, although they did have a 15 percent and 21 percent reduced risk of developing this type of cancer on less-exposed sites (body areas other than the head and neck) when they took them long term or at high intensity, respectively.

"We hope that the potential cancer-protective effect of NSAIDs will inspire more research on skin cancer prevention," said Ms. J?hannesd?ttir. "Also, this potential cancer-protective effect should be taken into account when discussing benefits and harms of NSAID use."

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Journal Reference:

1. Sigrun Alba Johannesdottir, Ellen T. Chang, Frank Mehnert, Morten Schmidt, Anne Braae Olesen, Henrik Toft S?rensen. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and the risk of skin cancer A population-based case-control study. Cancer, May 29, 2012 DOI: 10.1002/cncr.27406

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

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Clogged Ketchup No More With MIT's 'LiquiGlide'

On Memorial Day, many of us flip burgers, spear hot dogs, and whack a ketchup bottle trying to coax a stubborn glob of the stuff out and onto the bun. Now, a team of scientists at MIT has decided that this ketchup-to-bottle adhesion is a problem that must be fixed. Melissa Block talks with doctoral MIT student Adam Paxson about a solution some researchers have developed.

Copyright ? 2012 National Public Radio?. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

This being Memorial Day, many of you have been flipping burgers, spearing hot dogs and then whacking a ketchup bottle to try to coax that stubborn glob of red stuff out onto the bun.

Well, a team of scientists at MIT has decided that this ketchup-to-bottle adhesion is a problem that must be fixed and they've come up with a solution. Adam Paxson, what's the solution called?

ADAM PAXSON: We are calling it LiquiGlide.

BLOCK: LiquiGlide. And, Adam, you're a doctoral student in mechanical engineering at MIT. You're part of this team. Why don't you explain how it works?

PAXSON: Yeah. It's a super slippery surface coating. I guess the technical jargon would be an ultra-low adhesion surface. You can make it out of a bunch of different materials, as long as they satisfy certain requirements in, like, viscosity and surface energy, but we did this huge exhaustive search to find out a way to actually make it out of food materials.

BLOCK: Food materials? What kind of food materials are we talking about and are they things that I would want to be consuming along with my ketchup?

PAXSON: Well, if you wanted to scratch this off and eat it, it would actually be completely fine. Yeah, this is stuff that is edible.

BLOCK: And can you tell me what's in it or is that a trade secret?

PAXSON: What exactly it's made of, I'm afraid I can't, actually. We're still doing some IP filings, but imagine you're chewing gum and you want to throw it out and, if you grab your gum with dry fingers, it's going to stick, but if you lick your fingers, it'll just slide right off, so that's sort of how it works.

BLOCK: Aha. Now, IP filing - you're talking about intellectual property?

PAXSON: Right.

BLOCK: You know, Adam, there's a whole mystique around the Heinz ketchup brand that was built around that excruciatingly slow slide of ketchup out of the bottle. There's a famous ad campaign from the 1970s.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ANTICIPATION")

CARLY SIMON: (Singing) Anticipation.

BLOCK: It's all built around this famous Carly Simon song, "Anticipation."

(SOUNDBITE OF TV COMMERCIAL)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Thick, rich Heinz ketchup. The taste is worth the wait.

BLOCK: And then that tag line, the taste is worth the wait. You really are, I think, upending a whole culture here of slowness being a good thing.

PAXSON: Yeah. This is something really interesting that we found out in our market research was - they have, like, this speed gate that they run ketchup down with a little stopwatch and, if it's too fast, they, like, throw the batch away.

BLOCK: No way. Really?

PAXSON: Well, I guess it's something they stuck to for the past decades or so, so it's not our concern to upend it, but I'd rather have ketchup flow out easily than stay stuck. I don't know.

BLOCK: Well, who wants this, Adam? Who wants the ketchup to be sliding more smoothly out of the bottle?

PAXSON: So we've gotten a lot of interest from a bunch of food companies. Any time you have a really thick sauce that's hard to get out of the bottle, this helps to let it slide. So, in food mechanics, you'd call it a no-slip boundary condition.

BLOCK: A no-slip boundary condition?

PAXSON: And we can get rid of that.

BLOCK: Wow, I like that. How much bottle pounding and experimenting have you been doing along the way for this project?

PAXSON: Well, it's funny. If you open up our chemical closet and there's just a bunch of mustard and ketchup and honey spread everywhere. They have us put not for consumption labels on the food just because we're working on it in a laboratory.

BLOCK: And other uses for this substance you've come up with?

PAXSON: So my research is looking at applying it to condensers in power plants, so it's a little bit different from ketchup. I've built a little miniature power plant to test this new coating out on these surfaces.

BLOCK: But, for some reason, people seem to be more interested in hearing about the ketchup bottles.

PAXSON: They are much more interested in the ketchup. That's true.

BLOCK: Well, Adam Paxson, thanks so much for talking to us about LiquiGlide, designed to get ketchup out of the bottle faster.

PAXSON: Thank you.

Copyright ? 2012 National Public Radio?. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.

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Tips On How To Plan For A Wedding

Planning a wedding is an exciting time, but it's very easy to go overboard, and in no time, your expenses could start spiraling out of control. You can do many things to control your wedding budget. This article is packed with useful tips and tricks for planning a magical wedding on a practical budget.

Try something relaxing before your wedding if your time allows. Getting a relaxing massage for about 30 minutes in the morning of your big day is a perfect way to keep yourself feeling great.

If you cannot justify the cost of a thousand-dollar wedding cake, consider contacting a local bakery and inquiring about single-serving portions, like cupcakes or cake pops. Many bakeries can provide wedding cupcakes that come in at 100 calories or less per serving. Other healthier options include gluten-free pastries, no-calorie sweeteners, and icing alternatives, such as meringue or fruit spreads.

Get a wedding planner who can help you get through the whole planning process. Weddings tend to be stressful and many things can go wrong. A professional has seen most of these problems before and can deal with them more effectively than you can. That way your loved ones can enjoy the wedding and the reception with no worries.

Dress any children attending your ceremony in comfortable attire. Dress them in soft, comfortable fabrics that are airy and fit loosely. It's important that any shoes they wear are comfortable, which means new shoes, will need to be broken in. Taking care of these small details will allow children to focus on participation in the wedding instead of fussing with their attire.

Seasonal flowers that are native to your state may not be easy to find at your wedding location, especially if it's a completely different climate. Contact professionals near the destination site to find out which blooms are readily available.

The lighting in your venue should be able to be dimmed. Although this may seem trivial, you want the option of having a low-light setting during your first dance and a more brighter setting for the rest of the celebration. Check out the lighting available at different venues before picking one.

Consider the appearance of your wedding cake when deciding how to display it. For example, if your cake is unusually colorful, match its color to the hue of the fabric underneath it. There are many different styles and options, such as various types of fabrics and textures. It is up to you how to put it all together.

See if you can find a willing helper who can assist you with looking after your equipment and moving it when necessary. They can also be of assistance in rounding everyone up for the group photographs, and this will make sure no one is left out.

Make a detailed itinerary with directions, so guests know when and where the wedding and reception will be held. Inform people of events, like rehearsals, that they are required to attend, so they will be where they are supposed to be at the scheduled time.

Avoid cluttering tables with too many flowers at your reception. Often, flowers interfere with guests being able to converse across the table. Also, some of your guests may have allergies to the flowers. Try putting some scent free candles on your wedding tables.

Place a number of different-sized potted plants throughout the venue in lieu of costly floral arrangements. Use colorful, glazed ceramic pots, or dress up earthy terracotta stoneware with ribbons, decoupage, or decorative paint effects. When the wedding is over, the guests can then take those plants home with them as a favor and have a constant reminder of the new couple.

Trust in others to help you with your wedding plans. It is natural to want to participate in all aspects of planning, especially since your wedding is such a personal affair. You can overdo it though, so you may want a trusted pro who has expertise in this area.

Be sure you have help when trying on wedding dresses. Choose a dress whose style you like but also one that suits your figure. Ask your friend or the sales clerk what they think of it. If you are under 5"4', step away from the normal dress section and make a beeline for the petite dresses. By choosing a gown that is designed for your body type, it will ensure a comfortable fit, making you much happier.

If you want the bride to be happy on her wedding day, it is important that everything meets her standards. Planning the wedding is stressful for the bride, and sub-par results may leave her crushed. In order to prevent your fianc from being upset, ensure that you run everything by her.

If you conduct your wedding in a vacation spot, have a basketful of themed goodies delivered to each guest's room. Useful things that you may include are local attraction pamphlets, a hat, sunglasses, tourist map, and a disposable camera. It may also be nice to give them a guide to a restaurant in the area so they have an easier time finding a place to get food.

Pick out a few special activities for the day, and use them to spice up the mood when needed. Don't just let everyone stand around tapping their feet, waiting for something to happen. Examples of activities could include a volleyball game, or a contest of who can get to know the most people prior to the wedding. You can make your wedding more memorable by planning activities that allow your guests to have fun and interact with each other.

Let your control issues go, and allow your friends and family to get involved in the planning of your wedding. You will more than likely want to control every aspect of your wedding, but it is important to be able to let go of some aspects so that you do not get overly stressed during what should be the happiest time of your life. On the other hand, overdoing it is really possible, and some things are just better left in the hands of expert professionals.

Your assistant will be helping carry equipment around for you so there is no need for them to have any specific photography training. They can help you get group shots of the family too!

Large centerpieces are unnecessary on your tables as they not only eat away at your budget, but serve as an unneeded distraction. Instead of going with a huge table centerpiece that uses up almost the entire table, keep it simple. You do not want your guests to be unable to communicate because there is a large centerpiece in the way.

If not planned well, a joyous wedding occasion can turn disastrous. Follow the advice in this article as you are planning your wedding, and you will see how easy it can be.

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Strategic Planning Made Simple, Part 6 - Profit

Strategic Planning Made Simple, Part 6 - Profit

Posted by Matt Heemstra on Mon, May 28, 2012 @ 12:01 PM

Understanding the NOW and WHERE of your Patrons, Products, Promotion, and People are key parts of developing long-term strategy.? Even if you have an understanding of all of those things, though, you?re still missing some key elements.? Most significantly, how will you know you?ve been successful?

Measuring success requires you to develop and use key performance indicators.? Key performance indicators (KPI?s) are quantifiable measurements, agreed to beforehand, that reflect the critical success factors of an organization.? There are thousands of possibilities, but for purposes of this discussion, let?s stick to financial-related KPI?s.

Perhaps the most often mentioned KPI of all is profit.? Most business owners like to talk about how profitable their businesses are.? It?s used as a measure of success - ?A person is born with a liking for profit? (Xun Zi).? But how profitable do you want to be?? And ?As profitable as possible!? isn?t an answer.?

Think about your profits NOW.? Are you satisfied with them?? Are they enough to fund the needs of your business?? What about your personal needs?? Now think about WHERE you want your profits to be.? Go back to the Patrons, Products, Promotion and People work you?ve done.? How much profit will you need to fund the WHERE for those areas?? A business who decides that a key strategy will be product development requires a much different level of profit than one who decides it needs to function with significantly less staff.

What about some financial info besides profit?? ?Happiness is a positive cash flow? (Fred Adler).? What is your cash situation NOW?? Do you have enough cash today?? Again, think about all the work you?ve already done with Patrons, Products, Promotion and People.? How much cash will you need for the WHERE?? Many business owners look at their financial statements and feel good about being profitable, yet at the same time feel like they don?t have any money.? It?s important to set profit goals; it?s equally important to think about cash needs.? If there?s a gap between your NOW and WHERE, you?ve got work to do.

So what does the profit look like in your business?? Are you satisfied?? Or wanting more?

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Recognize The 8 Rules Of Nutrition For Optimal Muscle Building

In this article you will learn about 8 rules of nutrition for optimal muscle building so give yourself some time and review all the post.

It has been said that nutrition is responsible for 80% of your muscle building results. I think that is dramatically overstating it but nutrition is critically important to your muscle building efforts. Without proper nutrition you will never build the physique you desire. Below are a few easy to follow nutrition rules that will help you get bigger and leaner. Follow these rules and you will reach your goals, ignore them and you could be in for years of frustration.

? Eat every 2-3 hours. Doing this keeps your body in an anabolic state and keeps your metabolism running along at high speeds so that you don?t get fat. If you need 3,000 calories per day to build muscle, it is much more effective to have five 600 calorie meals or six five hundred calorie meals than it is to have three big 1,000 calorie meals.

Doing that leads to fat accumulation and also has you going too long without eating which only leads to muscle loss.

? Build your meals around a base of lean protein. Protein is what builds muscle, so every time you sit down to eat you should be consuming some kind of protein. That should be the main focus of each meal. Once you have that covered you can add in starchy carbs, vegetables and good fats. As far as daily protein requirements go, you should shoot for one gram per pound of bodyweight per day. The only time you would need more than this is when you are dieting and your carbs are extremely low.

? Eat vegetables at every meal except breakfast. Not only are vegetables incredibly healthy because they provide tons of nutrients and fiber but they also slow down the absorption of your meals leading to less bodyfat accumulation.

? Eat organic foods whenever possible. There is so much artificial crap in the food we eat these days that it is really a very wise decision to eat organic as often as you can. This includes meats, fruits, veggies and grains.

? Avoid sugars, artificial sweeteners and saturated fats as much as possible. The consumption of sugar and saturated fat is what leads to numerous health problems and diseases. Too much saturated fat and sugar consumption also leads to inflammation in the body and can actually worsen nagging injuries and lead to other aches and pains.

Many people actually notice a reduction in back pain once they cut saturated fat and sugar from their diet. Some saturated fat in meats is ok from time to time, but you should really try to cut out the sugar and artificial sweeteners. Although they don?t talk about it much in this country there is plenty of evidence that artificial sweeteners are not the least bit healthy.

? Eat most of your carbs at breakfast and immediately before and after your workout. Those are the times when your insulin sensitivity is highest and when you will use carbs most efficiently with the least risk for body fat gain. Don?t be scared to eat carbs at this time because most of them will be used for building muscle and will not usually add to body fat accumulation.

? Drink at least a half gallon of water per day. Doing this keeps you well hydrated which keeps your performance levels high. Even a slight drop in hydration will cause a drop in performance. A half gallon is a good start but a gallon is usually better, especially in the summer.

? Pay strict attention to your sodium intake. When I say that I mean it in the opposite way that most people and doctors would think I mean it. I mean that you must be sure that your sodium intake is adequate. This is especially true for athletes who play in the summer time when it?s hot out and you are sweating a lot. Without adequate sodium intake, your performance can suffer drastically. Adequate sodium levels also help to maintain strength levels while dieting.

For More Information About The best Program Training To Gain Muscle Mass, Visit This Page:

www.HowGainMuscleMass.com

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A Boomer Girl's Guide: This week's mini-goals

Whew - The fundraising book sale is behind us and was a success on a hot day that reached into the 90s!? Our volunteers were amazing and made everything work perfectly.? The customers were pretty nice too.? And thank goodness for shade, water and light breezes.? We didn't make as much as last year, but we are still ahead of the same time last year when you add up all of the fundraising to date.

This week will I will really try to be diligent about walking the dog first thing in the morning.? Summer is here in Atlanta regardless of the date.

Volunteer:
- Volunteer at Botanical Garden
- Sort more donated books; deal with books left from sale
- Research additional fundraising ideas
- Check out other libraries book sales

Health/Fitness:
- Daily physical therapy exercises - M
- Walk dog daily - M
- Orthodontist
- Pilates session

Home Chores:
- Yard work in front
- Clean paperwork off of desk (this is the third week this is on the list and still not done!)

Financial:
- Get a second bid on the yard work we can't do (again, still on this list - darn!)
- No eating out (guess I'd really better menu plan!)
- Buy plane tickets for next family visit
- Buy summer outdoor exercise clothes?
- Register for art class

Fun:
- See "Men in Black" movie
- Go to art festival
- Go to food truck cookbook author signing
- Go to art opening

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Reporting Outages for VoIP and 911 Services ? meccabrowser.com

Over the previous few years, VoIP has skilled an explosion of development with all sorts of users. Predictably, the revolution began within the enterprise world with entrepreneurs seeing the immense benefits of lower costs and improved options along with much less tangible ones equivalent to flexibility. The rising adoption of good phones however has given a boost to VoIP like functions which allow the consumer to make free calls to their associates over the Internet. True, not all VoIP providers are constructed equally. Some are requirements-primarily based utilizing the SIP protocol at their base whereas others create their own proprietary systems. But large VoIP suppliers equivalent to Vonage have created a huge base of customers who use their techniques for his or her everyday communications.

When a selected mode of communication becomes broadly used, the federal government has to take an interest to find out whether or not or not such providers are reliable within the face of an emergency. The whole foundation of the 911 service is the flexibility for individuals to get emergency help even when the regular techniques are down ? equivalent to power for example. On the very least, such VoIP providers need to provide statistics as to how usually their networks experience outages so that customers could make knowledgeable decisions about what they need to use simply in case they discover themselves in a dangerous situation.

The newest order of the FCC gives for precisely this kind of functionality. The statement by this government regulated body is an acknowledgment of the growing affect of VoIP providers within the lives of Americans. It?s estimated that over one third of all land traces linked to the United States are primarily based off VoIP. This is a adequate inhabitants proportion for it to come back underneath the FCC?s purview and it?s important for regular customers to know the reliability of such techniques on an ongoing basis.

Hopefully, such reporting requirements with even spur competition amongst VoIP suppliers for who has the maximum uptime. Similar to in style hosts report on the proportion of uptime they experience and trumpet that as a selling point, VoIP providers may resort to the same tactics as well. Perhaps over time this may consequence within the development of higher secondary power techniques to power VoIP phones when the principle traces are down. This is because VoIP is predicated off the Web which in flip stands on the electric grid. When the latter goes down, so does the Web taking VoIP along with it.

This post is written by Samuel Jones 32. You can hire efficient virtual assistant at Myoutdesk.com.

Related Links

1. infosys technologies
2. atandt
3. f5 networks
4. research in motion
5. rf micro devices

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California tobacco tax measure risks going up in smoke

By Jim Christie

SAN FRANCISCO | Fri May 25, 2012 11:46pm BST

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Health-conscious Californians may mostly oppose smoking for its costs to public health and the economy but an aggressive tobacco industry campaign and general anti-tax sentiment may block a measure to raise taxes on smokers.

Airwaves in the most populous U.S. state are filling up with advertising for and against Proposition 29, a June 5 ballot measure that would add a $1 tax to a pack of cigarettes, taking the tax to $1.87, mainly to fund medical research on tobacco usage and programs to prevent and control it.

More than $40 million, mostly from the tobacco industry, has been raised to defeat the measure, dwarfing its proponents' war chest. But proponents are showing an ability to punch above their weight, most recently with a television commercial whose characters satirically explain why they support "Big Tobacco."

One character says "I support Big Tobacco because they killed my wife and that's one less mouth to feed."

More tough TV spots may follow as survey results released this week showed just over half of likely voters supporting the measure - down from just over two-thirds in March.

"Today, 53 percent say they will vote yes, 42 percent say they will vote no, and 5 percent are undecided on the measure," the Public Policy Institute of California's survey report said.

The ballot measure in California, the world's ninth largest economy, is of national importance because other U.S. states often follow its lead in confronting problems in public health, the environment and other areas of public policy.

The drop in support puts Prop 29 below a critical level for revenue measures with election day fast approaching, said Larry Gerston, a political scientist at San Jose State University.

"You've got to have 60 percent going in because there are always people who for whatever reason back off," he said, noting the drop also shows how effective advertising that taps into distrust of the state government has been against the measure.

That distrust is working against the general idea of raising tobacco taxes, which 63 percent of likely voters favor, said Mark Baldassare, the institute's president.

END RUN AROUND LEGISLATURE

"Sixty-two percent of likely voters say the state government wastes a lot of money," Baldassare said. "Any time you're asking voters to raise state taxes for any purpose and there is questioning of the functioning of state government it's going to raise doubts."

Californians have been questioning the finances of their state for a decade due to its persistent budget shortfalls.

Governor Jerry Brown earlier this month revised the state's projected deficit to $15.7 billion from a $9.2 billion gap forecast in January. To close the shortfall, he proposed cuts to state employees' pay and health, social and welfare programs. He also urged support for a tax measure in November to lift the state's sales tax and raise income taxes on wealthy taxpayers.

Supporters of Prop 29 did not expect smooth sailing to sway voters, but a tobacco tax increase has better odds at the ballot box than in the state legislature, said Jim Knox, a legislative advocate for the American Cancer Society.

By his count more than 30 efforts over the last three decades to have lawmakers raise tobacco taxes have failed.

There is no incentive for the legislature as a body to embrace a consequential tobacco tax increase, said Stanton Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco.

Democrats won't turn down support from the tobacco industry that helps cement their majority in the legislature while its Republican minority opposes taxes in general and needs any help it can get to retain seats.

"The legislature is just simply dominated by tobacco interests," said Glantz, whose work based on documents from a tobacco industry whistleblower helped produce the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.

That settlement between 46 states and tobacco companies was the biggest civil litigation settlement in U.S. history.

NOT FOR STATE BUDGET

Distrust of the legislature informs the language of Prop 29, which would keep revenue it raises from going into the state's general fund - effectively keeping it out of lawmakers' hands.

The roughly $800 million the measure would raise in its first year, followed by decreasing amounts, would instead be set aside, mirroring a successful 1988 ballot measure that imposed a tax of 25 cents per pack of cigarettes.

The money would be overseen by a nine-member committee that includes three University of California chancellors, three cancer research institute directors, one physician affiliated with an academic medical center and two members of disease advocacy groups that focus on tobacco-related illnesses.

In 1998, voters added another 50 cent tax to fund smoking prevention and childhood development programs. That marked the last time they backed a tobacco tax increase. Anti-tobacco advocates credit such hikes with helping drive down the state's smoking rate, although smoking by teens is creeping up.

"As a practical matter you have to tell the voters where you're going to spend the money," Glantz said. "They don't want the money handed over to the politicians."

Only 17 percent of likely voters approve of the job the legislature is doing, compared with 71 percent who disapprove and 11 percent who don't know how they feel, according to the Public Policy Institute of California's survey results.

But Prop 29's opponents have been tapping into a related concern, charging in one TV ad the measure would create a huge new bureaucracy. That echoes claims of wasteful government spending which helped defeat a 2006 statewide measure that urged a $2.60 tax on packs of cigarettes.

(Reporting by Jim Christie; editng by Todd Eastham)

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Stephanie Decker, Mom Who Lost Legs in Tornado, Walks on ?Ellen? (VIDEO)

Remember Stephanie Decker, the heroic mom who lost both of her legs after saving her kids from a tornado earlier this year?

Doctors told her it would likely be a year before she would walk again.

It?s only been two months, and Decker walked on Ellen?the other day!

Not only that, but was dancing too!

There?s something to be said for the power of the human spirit.

Check out her amazing story in the video below.

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White House, GOP spar on budget claim

Republicans and the White House are at odds over the administration's claim that President Obama has increased federal spending at the slowest pace in 60 years.

The brouhaha was ignited earlier this week when White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters to "not buy into the BS that you hear about spending and fiscal constraint with regard to this administration. I think doing so is a sign of sloth and laziness."

Carney pointed to a column by MarketWatch's Rex Nutting that explained federal spending is rising at its slowest pace since Dwight Eisenhower brought the Korean War to an end. Nutting claims that government spending under Obama, including his signature stimulus bill, is rising at a 1.4% annualized pace ? slower than at any time in nearly 60 years. Obama repeated the column's claims at campaign events on Thursday in Iowa and California.

But Nutting's analysis ? as the Washington Post's Glenn Kessler explains it and GOP aides have been highlighting ? takes Obama off the hook for much of 2009 spending. The government's fiscal calendar starts on Oct. 1, and remember that in 2009 the U.S. was in the midst of recession and government spending was being ratcheted up.

Kessler also quibbles with Nutting citing Obama plans to spend $3.58 trillion in 2013, citing the Congressional Budget Office budget outlook. Nutting uses the CBO baseline budget, which assumes no laws are changed. Kessler argues the correct figure to use is the CBO analysis for 2013, which predicts $3.72 trillion in spending.

Overall, spending has increased by 5.2% under Obama, Kessler argues, not the 1.4% increase that Nutting claims.

It is also worth noting, Kessler argued, in the 2010-2012 budgets Obama proposed spending more than lawmakers eventually enacted.

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FOSS Patents: Google's Motorola wants Apple to pay $347 million ...

This week, Judge Richard Posner ruled on Apple's and Motorola's Daubert (exclusion of damages theories ahead of trial) motions against each other. The case will go to trial in Chicago next month.

In January I already wrote about Judge Posner's reputation. He's the most-cited U.S. legal scholar of the 20th century. What makes his Daubert ruling particularly interesting is that legal economics are his favorite subject. I have uploaded the order to Scribd. It entered the public record only a couple of days ago.

Judge Posner threw out several theories presented by the parties' experts. A couple of Apple theories failed because Apple's damages expert asked Apple engineers about the cost of engineering around Motorola's patents, and Judge Posner said that if someone was looking for alternatives on Motorola's behalf, he certainly wouldn't ask an employee of a company that has an interest in overstating the cost. In one of these contexts, Judge Posner wrote up the following fictitious dialog to show what reaction someone hired by Motorola would get if he did this:

"So again imagine this imaginary conversation between Napper [Apple's damages expert on the relevant patent] and Motorola, which I'll pretend hired Napper to advise on how at lowest cost to duplicate the patent?s functionality without infringement:

Motorola: 'What will it cost us to invent around, for that will place a ceiling on the royalty we'll pay Apple?'

Napper: 'Brace yourself: $35 million greenbacks.'

Motorola: 'That sounds high; where did you get the figure?'

Napper: 'I asked an engineer who works for Apple."

Motorola: "Dummkopf! You're fired.'"

As you can see, this order is not only enlightening but also entertaining. But here I'll focus on what I'm particularly interested in: FRAND. That part comes up at the end in a section on Motorola's damages claims (and Apple's counterargument) regarding the '559 and '898 patents. Those are standard-essential wireless patents. One covers a preamble sequence, the other a countdown. There are actually numerous viable alternatives (in fact, an infinite number of viable alternatives) for what either patent does, but the problem with standard-essential patents is that an industry standard prescribes a particular way (out of many ways) to solve a problem, so even if those patents were narrow before they made their way into the standard, they can't be worked around.

In his analysis, Judge Posner presumes that these two patents must be licensed on FRAND terms. He also denied a Motorola motion to strike all FRAND references in Apple's damages theory: Apple argues that the most Motorola could have received as a royalty is a FRAND rate. Judge Posner agrees with Apple that "Motorola's obligation to license its standards-essential patents on FRAND terms--the content of those terms to be determined in the bench trial immediately upon the liability trials--is highly relevant to the royalty it would have been able to extract from Apple had they successfully negotiated a reasonable royalty ex ante".

While Apple's FRAND theory survived, a Motorola theory that resulted in a damages claim of $347?million as an estimate of a "reasonable" royalty (or alternatively $468?million based on Motorola's allegedly lost profits "plus a reasonable royalty on sales not subject to a lost?profits analysis") was tossed because the reasoning was based on "a counterfactual world in which there is no Apple product on the market because Apple doesn't have a license to use Motorola's cellular patents", an "alternative?universe approach" that Posner dismisses as "science fiction".

Courts should always reject theories according to which the economic value of a FRAND-pledged standard-essential patent is the gatekeeper value of access to the market. Any FRAND rate must be based on the value of the technology someone contributed to a standard as opposed to the value of standardization itself, which at least in this industry involves cartels that leverage collective market power.

Judge Posner didn't take a position on Motorola's 2.25% royalty demand per se since he wants to discuss it at the FRAND stage of the trial. He simply mentioned it because even if one applied that royalty, as a worst-case scenario, Apple would have paid less, given that the 2.25% royalty relates to far more patents than just the two at issue here.

At first sight, one may think that Motorola's $347-$468 million damages theory is not inconsistent with what some other right holders demand in their litigations. For example, Apple just recently said it is seeking billions of dollars from Samsung. But one can't compare any of those numbers without also looking at the facts. Here, the fact is not only that Motorola has a FRAND licensing obligation but also that those two patents are only two out of a large number of standard-essential wireless patents (for example, roughly 8,000 patents from almost 900 patent families were, by their holders, declared essential to the 3GPP/3GPP2 standards). There are situations in which two patents represent enormous value. Even a single patent can be very valuable. But here it's easy to extrapolate those numbers considering how many patents it takes to implement the 3G standard (and even more to implement standards 3G is backward-compatible with).

Of course, Motorola could argue that those two patents have a value that's far above the value of the average patent essential to the same standard. That's what Motorola did. Motorola's damages expert apparently recognized the fact that Apple had to implement those two patents only in order to make the iPhone work on AT&T's network, but wouldn't have needed them for Verizon in a technical sense. Motorola's damages theory is based in part on the fact that Apple's contract with AT?T was exclusive and Apple couldn't have switched later. Judge Posner, however, points out that Apple might have negotiated a modification or could have broken the contract, with AT?T's damages then representing the relevant cost. Motorola should at least have analyzed those alternatives.

As for Apple's benefit from partnering with AT&T, the order finds that Motorola's expert simply argued that it was substantial but cannot be quantified.

In this context, she makes an argument that a $100?million amount doesn't matter to Apple anyway, and Judge Posner dismisses that approach as "nonsense":

"She began her testimony at the Daubert hearing by explaining that $347 million, while a seemingly large number, is nothing to Apple--a company that made some $30 billion in revenue from the products that Motorola contends infringe the Motorola patents. The implication is that even if Apple could have saved, say, $100?million by launching on Verizon, what's the difference to Apple of having to pay $347 million versus $247 million? Either figure is less than 1 percent of Apple's total profits during the damages period. Obviously a damages estimate cannot be based on such reasoning. For imagine her being hired by Apple for advice on how to minimize its liability to Motorola, and her advising Apple that although her highest estimate of the cost of avoiding infringement is $347 million, that?s probably too high by a couple of hundred million dollars, but that she hasn?t bothered to consider avoidance measures that would cost less than $347?million because one hundred million dollars or so is chicken feed to Apple and so it wouldn?t want to pay an additional fee to her to search the alternatives. That is nonsense."

There's a related issue to consider here which didn't play a role in Judge Posner's analysis (it wouldn't have been relevant at this stage) but which is important to me from a FRAND point of view. Even if Apple had partnered with Verizon instead of AT?T and if Verizon's network doesn't use the features those two patents read on, Apple would always have had to assume that its customers might need that functionality if they travel outside the United States. It's risky not to implement all mandatory parts of a wireless standard in a device. Apart from potential incompatibilities with existing or future cellular networks in foreign countries, it can also result in a loss of a device maker's entitlement to a FRAND license -- or at least a debate over whether a FRAND license was effectively repudiated. FRAND pledges and FRAND license agreements relating to standard-essential patents are usually designed to benefit only those who implement a standard in full. Under antitrust law, a materially compliant implementation might also be entitled to a FRAND license, regardless of what a contract or a FRAND pledge say. But there would be some degree of legal uncertainty. There must be a limit somewhere: it would certainly be unreasonable for any standard-essential patent to be available on FRAND terms for just any purpose, no matter how little it has to do with implementing the standard the patent is essential to.

From a damages point of view, the argument that full compliance is required may seem to help Motorola rather than Apple -- but not if a court determines that the special circumstances of standard-essentiality and a FRAND licensing obligation require a completely different analysis than the one for non-standard-essential patents. In this particular litigation, the FRAND issues have not been evaluated yet, but the case is on a tight schedule and the Daubert decision had to be made now. That's why Judge Posner's Daubert order considered the existence of FRAND obligations only as an assumption in certain (but not in all) contexts. In my opinion, all FRAND issues should always be adjudicated first if there's a reasonably strong prima facie case for FRAND. FRAND should set the framework for everything else, including damages claims and Daubert motions. But I know that others have a preference for dealing with everything at the same trial.

If you'd like to be updated on the smartphone patent disputes and other intellectual property matters I cover, please subscribe to my RSS feed (in the right-hand column) and/or follow me on Twitter @FOSSpatents and Google+.

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Realtors(R) Offer Support for Bill to Help Responsible Homeowners ...

WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwire - May 24, 2012) - ?A proposed bill to streamline and align the refinance processes of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may soon make it easier for homeowners who are current on their mortgage payments but who have been previously unable to refinance to finally take advantage of record low interest rates.

NAR President Moe Veissi testified today before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee in support of the "The Responsible Homeowner Refinancing Act of 2012," introduced in Congress earlier this month by Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Robert Menendez, D-N.J.

"As the leading advocate for homeownership, Realtors^? knows that helping consumers remain in their homes must be a priority if we are going to move the housing market and our nation from a fragile recovery to long-term prosperity," said Veissi, broker-owner of Veissi & Associates Inc., in Miami. "Eliminating the refinancing barriers homeowners face with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans will help bring them relief by lowering monthly payments and reducing the risk of default."

NAR supports the "Responsible Homeowner Refinancing Act" because it offers relief to responsible homeowners who have good credit and consistently meet their mortgage obligations, but who have been unable to refinance into lower interest rates because of constraints in Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's mortgage refinance guidelines.

Veissi testified that streamlining the process and improving access to simple, low-cost refinancings will help put thousands of dollars back into the pockets of hardworking families who have stayed current on their mortgage payments and help boost the nation's economy. Refinancing into more affordable mortgages will also go a long way to helping homeowners avoid foreclosure and aid in the recovery of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, he said.

Veissi said that while Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have recently made improvements to their refinancing guidelines, the legislation will help codify many of the those improvements and remove additional barriers that are preventing borrowers from currently refinancing their loans.

The proposed legislation would extend streamlined refinancings; waive loan-to-value ratios for existing, well-performing loans; make refinancings more affordable by eliminating up-front fees and appraisal costs; improve competition for lenders looking to compete with the existing mortgage servicer; and establish penalties for second lien holders and mortgage insurers who block the refinance process.

Veissi said the changes would extend refinancing opportunities to many underwater borrowers and help alleviate existing housing cost pressures and stimulate the economy.

"Realtors^? thank Sens. Boxer and Menendez for their efforts to bring relief to millions of homeowners who continue to struggle through lower home values and lost equity, yet remain current on their mortgage obligations," Veissi said. "We believe this new legislation is good for homeowners and tax payers and will go a long way toward kick starting the housing market and economy."

In his testimony, Veissi also called on Congress to eliminate the use of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guarantee fees, or g-fees, as a means to pay for non-housing programs. He said Realtors^? were strongly opposed to the use of a 10-basis point increase last year to pay for a two-month extension of payroll tax benefits, which will impact borrowers for the next 10 years who are looking to refinance their mortgages.?

"We applaud Sens. Menendez and Boxer for not utilizing the guarantee fee as a pay-for to support the proposed legislation, which makes refinances more attractive by removing costs barriers associated with the process. Increasing the g-fee, which is passed on to consumers through higher interest rates, is counter-productive and effectively adds additional cost barriers," said Veissi.

The National Association of Realtors^?, "The Voice for Real Estate," is America's largest trade association, representing 1 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

Information about NAR is available at www.realtor.org. News releases are posted in the website's "News and Commentary" tab. NAR supports public policies and policymakers who support the positions of Realtors^? and their clients and customers on private property rights, housing issues and homeownership, regardless of political party affiliation.

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Why this may be the ideal time to buy real estate - CFED News Clips

TIME
By: Martha C. White
May 21, 2012

Why this may be the ideal time to buy real estate

Well, it's only taken half a decade, but the moribund real estate market is finally starting to show signs of life. If you were thinking about making a move on a piece of property, right now is possibly the best time. You can still take advantage of low prices in most places around the country, and mortgage rates are at once-in-a-lifetime record lows: 30- and 15-year fixed mortgages are around 4% and 3%, respectively.

Although prices are still near 2003 levels, the signs of an impending resurgence are everywhere you look. The number of people signing contracts to buy houses rose by around 4% in March, according to the National Association of Realtors, and is the highest it's been in nearly two years.

Many would-be homebuyers are surprised to find that one fixture of the bubble era is back: the bidding war. According to a recent survey of 28 housing markets conducted by the Wall Street Journal, there are fewer houses for sale in every single one of those places than there were last quarter. This relatively tight inventory in markets as varied as Sacramento, Phoenix and Washington, D.C., dictate that the law of supply and demand is going to kick in. Even in places like Long Island, N.Y., where there's still a depressing 16-month buildup of housing supply (realtors consider six months' worth to be a healthy number), the number of available homes is falling.

Buyers are no longer shying away from "distressed" properties; that is, short sales and foreclosures. The foreclosure specialists at RealtyTrac.com say there are even bidding wars on foreclosures, because investors know these rock-bottom prices aren't going to last forever.

An increase in short sales is actually a good sign: Short sales do less damage to their surrounding neighborhoods than foreclosures do, both because foreclosures drive values down further and often fall victim to neglect or vandalism. Short sales are also better for banks because they get distressed properties off their books faster and don't have to pay as much in legal and administrative costs. In a recent blog post, RealtyTrac vice president Daren Blomquist writes, "Banks have recently been given additional reasons to opt for short sales rather than foreclosure over the past 18 months," and he forecasts what he describes as a "surge" in short sales this year. By some measures, it's already begun: Short sales first eclipsed foreclosure sales in November, according to Bloomberg, and RealtyTrac data shows short sales climbed by a third from the beginning of this year as compared with the same period last year.

Part of what's driving this movement is more buyers are snapping up properties as rental investments or as vacation homes for themselves. Vacation-home sales grew by 7% last year, as the rising cost of travel drove people to look at "getaways" closer to their primary residences. Trulia chief economist Jed Kolko tells the Wall Street Journal, "People choose second homes that are a shorter drive rather than a plane flight away."

Purchases of investment properties soared by 65% last year, with many buyers scooping up cheap foreclosures and renting them out. Data from real estate number-crunchers CoreLogic shows that the conversion of foreclosures to rentals will be more than a $100 billion business this year and for the next few years.

People are starting to figure out the huge potential in this market: More than a quarter of all the houses sold last year were investment properties. Fortunately for such buyers, there's also an unprecedented degree of demand for rental housing: Homeownership hit a 15-year low in the first quarter of this year, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, and rent rates, which climbed an average of 5% last year, are historically high compared with the cost of homeownership.

In some places, such as college towns, a buyer-investor often can make an even greater return on the purchase price of a house. In two-thirds of the places surveyed in Coldwell Banker's College Home Listing Report, you can buy a three-bedroom house for under $200,000. SmartMoney.com points out if the kid renting the house is your offspring, you also can net significant tax savings by purchasing a home and then renting it back to them, thanks to more lenient rules about renting to a family member versus a stranger. (Gift tax laws let you give your son or daughter up to $13,000 a year toward offsetting the cost of those monthly bills, although tax experts recommend that you avoid commingling your accounts and keep a paper trail of canceled checks or rent receipts.)

A new survey from home builder PulteGroup finds that 60% of people renting today would prefer to own their own homes, the Wall Street Journal says. This is good news if you don't plan on being a landlord forever. When mortgage lending standards loosen, there will be pent-up demand from all those renters looking for a place to call their own. The desire to own a home is particularly strong among the so-called "echo boomers," adults under 35 years old. This demographic made up 31% of home purchases last year, the National Association of Realtors says, but that's still a relatively small slice of the roughly 62 million echo boomers in the United States.

Of course, these young adults are also the same ones who have been clobbered by sky-high student loan debt and above-average joblessness, which is keeping some of them on the sidelines of the housing market. Economists say as they mature and attain more financial stability, more will make the transition from renters to homeowners. The desire for homeownership is there; an Urban Land Institute survey conducted in 2010 found that two thirds of 18- to 32-year olds expect to own their own homes by 2015. Even among the remaining one third, 70% say they'll own a home at some point in the future.

For Americans who either have cash to buy or a credit score good enough to obtain a mortgage, there's still time to get a killer deal on real estate, but that window may be closing. If your finances can support it, now appears to be a great time to buy.

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Guest Advertorial - John Lewis Home Insurance - Budget Mummy Blog

Keeping Receipts for Valuables

Insuring your precious items is essential, but it?s also a good idea to keep track of what you?ve got?

Finding out that your house has been burgled can be one of the most stressful moments a homeowner can face, but knowing that you have a good Home Insurance policy in place can help to ease the pain.

John Lewis Home Insurance offers unlimited buildings and contents insurance cover, but there is a limit for valuables - ?15,000 per individual item, and ?30,000 in total.*

Although home insurance gives you peace of mind, you?d hope that you?d never need to make a claim. If you do, being prepared can help to make things easier. It?s important that you keep receipts of new and high value items. Here are some ways to get organised:

Start a filing system at home, and every time you buy something new pop the receipt in there. It?s also worth making a list of high value items that you own so you have a clear idea of what you?d need to claim for if anything was stolen. The stress of being burgled might send you into a panic, so it?s better to have a list prepared in advance.

Make an inventory of the contents of your home, so you can check how much is missing if your house does get burgled. Add when and where any high value items were bought if you can remember those details.

If you?re lucky enough to have any items such as jewellery or watches that are worth more than ?5,000, get a valuation from a reputable jeweller.

If you have any fine art or antiques worth more than ?20,000, get them valued. The value of fine art, antiques and jewellery can fluctuate, so get a professional to review your valuations regularly. If an artist dies, the value of their work can increase so John Lewis Specialist Home Insurance automatically increases the amount that fine art is insured for by up to ?50,000 for six months after the artist?s death.

Take photos of your high value items, as that can help your insurer if they?re stolen. It could also help the police trace them if the worst does happen.

Although family heirlooms and antiques can be difficult to replace, John Lewis Home Insurance will at least give you peace of mind that your precious possessions are covered.

About John Lewis Insurance:

John Lewis Home Insurance offers good value and the high standard of customer service you?d expect. Some of the benefits on offer:

? Unlimited Buildings and Contents Cover*
? Optional Accidental Damage Cover for buildings and contents - from a DIY mishap to red wine on the carpet
? Alternative Accommodation ? somewhere to stay if your home becomes uninhabitable, after a flood for example
? Worldwide Personal Possessions Cover up to ?25,000
? Optional 24 hour Home Emergency service - up to ?1,500 including labour and parts

* There is no total sum insured limit but money, single article and total valuables limits apply.

Terms, conditions, limitations, exclusions and acceptance criteria apply. A copy of the policy wording and insurance complaints procedure is available on request.

John Lewis Insurance is a trading name of John Lewis plc. Registered in England No. 00233462. Registered office 171 Victoria Street London SW1E 5NN. John Lewis plc is an appointed representative of AXA Insurance UK plc who are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. AXA Insurance UK plc. Registered in England No. 78950. Registered office: 5 Old Broad Street, London, EC2N 1AD.

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Somali, AU troops close in on Islamist stronghold

African Union and Somali government troops have made "strong progress" in a push towards an Islamist Shebab stronghold, site of the world's largest displaced people's camp, officials said Wednesday.

Hundreds of civilians have fled as long columns of Somali and AU troops backed by tanks advanced for a second day, moving from the capital Mogadishu towards Afgoye, a strategic town and a key base of the Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab fighters.

"Our forces have captured several areas, we continue our advance, and we will be in Afgoye very soon," Mohamed Ibrahim, a Somali military commander with the advancing troops, said.

AU and Somali troops have pushed at least 13 kilometres (eight miles) northwest from the capital, about halfway to Afgoye town, moving slowly down the main road known as the Afgoye corridor, where hundreds of thousands live in basic shelters.

The Shebab are "on the run" said Lieutenant General Andrew Gutti, commander of the 11,000-strong African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), claiming that the long-awaited "operation continues to make strong progress."

However, the extremist Shebab claimed to have repulsed the attack and boasted of killing several soldiers, including Western military advisors.

Witnesses reported several casualties, but the claims could not be independently verified. The Shebab also claimed to be sending reinforcements to the front line, but others suggested the insurgents were instead pulling back.

Heavy shooting and mortar fire was reported Wednesday, killing at least four civilians on the outskirts of Deynile, a suburb of Mogadishu on the road to Afgoye.

"We were preparing to leave the area because of the fighting when a mortar shell hit a house and killed four people," said Ali Yusuf, a resident.

More than 400,000 people, around one third of all the displaced people in Somalia, were living in the Afgoye corridor at the start of the year, fleeing war or drought, according to the UN, which warned that civilians must be protected.

Impoverished plastic shelters and rag and cloth huts are scattered across the arid plains where the troops are advancing.

Long lines of trucks and buses piled high with people and their belongings lined the road towards Mogadishu, defying AU calls for civilians to remain in their homes.

Mark Bowden, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, urged all sides to "minimise the impact of conflict on civilians and allow full humanitarian access to all people."

"A prolonged operation could lead to displacement, further straining the capacity of settlements and host communities in Mogadishu, or driving people away from the life-saving help they require," Bowden said in a statement.

In recent months thousands of civilians have left the Afgoye area for the capital, ahead of the expected assault on the bases to which many Shebab retreated after pulling out of fixed positions in Mogadishu last year.

"Many people are fleeing from the Afgoye corridor towards Mogadishu," said Abdi Hashi, a resident of Deynile.

"Both sides are now reinforcing their positions, and the movement of vehicles on the main Afgoye road is very limited," he added.

However, the hardline Shebab dismissed claims they had abandoned their positions on the outskirts of Deynile.

"The mujahedeen fighters fought back fiercely... the fighters blocked their ambition for advancement," Shebab spokesman Sheikh Abdulaziz Abu Musab told reporters.

"Among the casualties were Western military commanders whose injured and dead bodies were picked by helicopters from the battle zone," he added. The claims could not be confirmed.

AU and Somali troops have made significant gains in recent months against Shebab militants, although the Islamists have switched to guerrilla tactics in Mogadishu, including a series of suicide and grenade attacks.

Somalia's weak and Western-backed transitional administration has until August to set up a permanent government, but the international community has expressed concern it is failing to meet key deadlines.

The mandate of the transitional government has already been extended several times, and Western nations say it cannot be extended again.

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Contraceptives Birth Control: Health and Fitness: Contraceptives ...

Some contraceptive methods have more adverse reactions than others. Birth control side effects are thus a major issue with hormonal pills in particular, although some downsides have been reported for all kinds of birth control. It is of paramount importance for women to understand the risks they are exposing themselves to when choosing the pill. Hormonal birth control used for years on end in order to prevent unwanted pregnancies could have tremendous health implications.

In order to make your final decision, you should always weigh the pros against the cons. For the pill, there are normally two types of pregnancy control side effects you need to pay attention too.

Temporary birth control side effects

During the first month of treatment, the body adjusts to higher levels of estrogen and progesterone, and once the body gets used to these, the adverse reactions go away. Among the more common symptoms, let me mention:

-nausea (you can reduce it by taking the pill in the evening before going to bed);
-morning sickness;
-palpitations;
-tender breast;
-bloating and loose stool;
-irregular period;
-spotting (dark-red vaginal discharges);
-hair and follicular changes;
-increased fluid retention etc.

Talk to your doctor to find out ways to reduce these pregnancy control side effects, and have your condition monitored until the symptoms go away.

Long term birth control side effects

Hormonal contraceptives have long term adverse reactions that may require a discontinuation of the pregnancy control method, and its replacement with a better tolerated one. The more common are:

-increased number of gallstones;
-susceptibility to developing cataract;
-depression;
-lower immune function;
-higher risk of ectopic pregnancies when the woman tries to conceive;
-higher susceptibility towards cervical and endometrial cancers due to lack of hormonal balance.

Most birth control side effects cannot be really anticipated because it's difficult to determine the woman's response to treatment. Nobody can tell you how you're going to react during the use of hormonal pills. Condoms are the birth control methods with almost no side effects. Intolerance to latex has been the only health-related issue; however, these thin barriers could break, and that's what makes them risky for pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

No matter what type of birth control you turn to, make sure you use it correctly and consistently for the optimal protection that you want. Sometimes a combination between more methods seems like the best idea. Talk to your family doctor and find out more.

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UN nuclear agency chief says agreement reached with Tehran on Iran probe, to be signed soon

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