DOMA Just Got Repealed, And I'm Getting Gay Married on Monday ...

This winter, when Edie Windsor went before the Supreme Court to argue against the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) -- which effectively banned federal recognition of same-sex marriages in the United States -- I got excited.?

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A big ol? dyke and a former intern at legal nonprofits like the ACLU and Lambda Legal, I had been following the Windsor v. United States case for years. Like most cases of its size and importance, it languished for what seemed like forever, without a lot of major developments. But at the beginning of 2013, Windsor v. United States was finally nearing its conclusion. A decision would be made in the foreseeable future, determining whether DOMA would stay or go.

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Folks, I got really pumped. You see, I had been engaged to my longtime ladylove for quite awhile, and I was already knee-deep in wedding preparations. Wouldn't it be awesome if SCOTUS made a decision about DOMA in time for our wedding? Wouldn't it be freakin' fabulous if they decided it was unconstitutional, and that our relationship would be eligible for federal recognition?

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But as our wedding day loomed closer, I gave up on the lofty hope that DOMA would fall in time for us to get married. SCOTUS takes forever to decide on anything anyway, and besides, our wedding was in less than a month. Federal recognition was probably not going to magically fall into my white lace-clad lap.

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But then! Wednesday happened! I was at Sephora in Union Square, shopping for the perfect lipstick for the big day, when my bestie sent me a super excited text. My embarrassingly old-fashioned flip phone lit up with the words, "DOMA FOUND UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!!!!!" And suddenly, my totally unrealistic dream came true.?

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DOMA got struck down, literally a few days before I was off to the Manhattan Marriage Bureau to tie the knot.?

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But despite the perfect timing, this happily-ever-after conclusion to my wedding planning saga doesn?t feel as wonderful as I thought it would.

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This past winter, fantasizing about the possibility of a perfectly timed DOMA decision, I imagined I?d watch the proceedings on the news with baited breath. I pictured myself jumping up and down in my living room, or in my cube at work, screaming and squealing with glee. I imagined my eyes tearing up a little. I imagined joy actually bursting from my body.

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And that?s how it felt for my bestie. A totally queertastic straight girl and one of the best people I know, she was crying with joy on her way to work. She was giddily hopping and skipping on the Manhattan sidewalks. She was physically manifesting her glee, the way I thought I would.

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But as I stood in the middle of the floor in Sephora, disappointing lipstick contenders in hand, I didn?t even feel my facial expression change. I stared at the words on my cell phone screen and felt a mixture of suspicion and disbelief. My happiness was only half-baked. For me, DOMA?s death wasn?t overwhelmingly joyous -- it was bittersweet.

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You see, even though I?m totally pumped to be marrying my super sexy soul mate, my relationship with the whole marriage thing is pretty complicated. I think the whole institution is kind of fucked up, and I don?t really agree with the mainstream gay rights movement?s choice to focus almost exclusively on the issue of marriage equality, when there are tons of other really important issues that pretty much get ignored.

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Like, for example, as Black Girl Dangerous pointed out in a recent post, on the same day that SCOTUS decided to strike down DOMA, about 2,000 queer youth went homeless. Almost 40,000 Americans were arrested and taken to jail -- and they were overwhelmingly queer and/or of color. Kansas lawmakers made headway towards passing a truly disgusting bill that would require HIV positive folks to be quarantined. Arizona lawmakers passed a bill that makes it significantly more dangerous for trans and gender-non-conforming folks to use public restrooms. And over 1,000 women were raped.

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But none of those things really found their way into the news cycle. Despite all of this fuckery, when I came home from my Sephora outing and signed into Facebook, I saw countless status updates self-righteously claiming that ?We?re all equal now!? and ?This is the end of all discrimination!? Like, are you kidding me? Those claims are about as true as Bill Clinton insisting that he did NOT have sexual relations with that woman.?

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And why the tunnel vision, really? Federal recognition of same-sex marriage is great, for sure, because it translates to plenty of real, material gains for specific chunks of people. It means that we can access a whole bunch of tax and Social Security benefits, partner-sponsored health insurance, and immigrations sponsorships for our international spouses. Yay!

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But why do we have to be MARRIED to get these perks? Why are there financial rewards for coupling up? Why does no one care about all the single folks who are getting shafted? Shouldn?t we be focusing on making life better for everyone, and not just those of us who have set up bridal registries at Bed Bath & Beyond?

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Obviously, the answer to that question is YES. Of course we should be using our social justice energies to make life better for everyone. That includes the homeless queer youth who crowd Christopher Street every night. And the trans people of color that are routinely raped, beaten, and funneled into the prison industrial complex. And the low-income gay lovers who don?t have employer sponsored health insurance to share with each other.

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These people aren?t feeling any more equal today than they did on Tuesday, when DOMA was still alive and well. These people won?t benefit from same-sex marriage. And we can?t stop fighting and forget about them because gay wedding bells are ringing.

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Plus, we also can?t let DOMA?s death overshadow what SCOTUS did only one day before. On Tuesday, it struck down Section 4 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA), which required certain states to clear any proposed changes to their voting laws with the federal government. The whole point of this provision was to try and eradicate Jim Crow, and it has successfully done away with poll taxes, voter ID requirements, and literacy tests that overwhelmingly disenfranchised people of color.

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But on Tuesday, SCOTUS decided that institutionalized racism wasn?t a thing anymore -- or at least not a thing that many of them weren?t OK with. Almost immediately following the VRA?s demise, conservative lawmakers started pushing through updated voting laws aimed at disenfranchising people of color. No one was surprised.

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So when I heard about the end of DOMA, what I actually heard was that, within 24 hours, SCOTUS had decided that people of color aren?t worth protecting, but gay folks are. It had granted legal goodies to one marginalized group at the expense of another. In both cases, upper-middle class, privileged folks rule the day -- as they are the only people who will either benefit or go unharmed from the death of these two laws. For me, and for so many others, the end of DOMA is more bittersweet than joyous -- and it?s a poignant reminder that there?s still a ton of work that needs to be done.

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So, in the wake of DOMA?s death, I?m on my way to my own wedding. On Monday, just 5 days after SCOTUS? decision, my fianc?e and I will head over to the Manhattan Marriage Bureau to legalize our love. But that?s not to say that our marriage will be on the same legal ground as our straight counterparts. Not by a long shot.

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As residents of the Sixth Borough (OK, we live in Jersey. Don?t hate. We?ve got the Cake Boss.), our legal marriage and our fancy wedding will be two separate events. Gay marriage isn?t lawful in our home state of New Jersey, so without that extra trip to the Manhattan courthouse, we wouldn?t be legally joined at all.

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Likewise, when we travel to any of the other 37 states that don?t recognize gay marriage, we won?t be legally married there either. We can file our federal tax returns as a married couple, and I can go on my new wife?s employer-sponsored health insurance (thank goodness). But with the patchwork nature of marriage laws in the U.S., DOMA?s death has actually made the legality of our union even more complicated.

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So, the moral of this story? SCOTUS? decision on DOMA is one small victory in a vast sea of social injustice. Gay marriage is still not really equal, and the fight over it is far from over. Also, don?t go lipstick shopping at Sephora. It was not a successful trip.

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But those morals are all kind of Debbie Downers, am I right? So let?s focus on the fun part of this tale! No matter how bittersweet it is, my totally unrealistic, dyketastic, fairytale-daydreaming-at-the-office fantasy came true. DOMA got struck down just in time for my very own gay wedding. Let the newlywed, lesbian sexcapades begin!

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Source: http://www.xojane.com/relationships/doma-just-got-repealed-and-im-getting-gay-married-on-monday-hannah-r-winsten

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Eminem on Past Drug Use: I Nearly Died

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/06/eminem-on-past-drug-use-i-nearly-died/

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T-Mobile buys wireless spectrum from U.S. Cellular for $308 million

Well, the hits just keep on coming. Grease being Paula Deen has not just been dropped from her ham company in the wake of her racist remark scandal. She's also been dumped by Walmart, and now Home Depot, and diabeetus drug company Novo Nordisk. All because she admitted to saying and doing some racist things years ago in a deposition. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/t-mobile-buys-wireless-spectrum-u-cellular-308-123352590.html

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Swisher homer lifts Indians past White Sox, 9-8

Chicago White Sox's Adam Dunn rounds the bases after hitting a two-run home run during the first inning of the first game of a double header baseball game against the Cleveland Indians in Chicago, Friday, June 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

Chicago White Sox's Adam Dunn rounds the bases after hitting a two-run home run during the first inning of the first game of a double header baseball game against the Cleveland Indians in Chicago, Friday, June 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

Chicago White Sox starter Jose Quintana delivers a pitch during the first inning of the second game of a doubleheader baseball game against the Cleveland Indians in Chicago, Friday, June 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

Cleveland Indians starter Carlos Carrasco delivers a pitch during the first inning of the second game of a doubleheader baseball game against the Chicago White Sox in Chicago, Friday, June 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

Cleveland Indians' Jason Kipnis slides into home plate safely as Chicago White Sox catcher Hector Gimenez tries to apply the tag during the first inning of the second game of a doubleheader baseball game in Chicago, Friday, June 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Hector Santiago walks to the dugout after being pulled during the third inning of the first game of a doubleheader baseball game against the Cleveland Indians in Chicago, Friday, June 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

CHICAGO (AP) ? Nick Swisher's approach couldn't have been more simple. The result couldn't have been more timely.

Swisher ripped a long solo homer to cap a four-run ninth inning against Addison Reed Friday night, lifting the Cleveland Indians to a 9-8 victory over the Chicago White Sox for a sweep of the longest doubleheader by time for two nine-inning games.

"It's a major league record, right?" Swisher asked. "Definitely a long day."

After pounding Chicago 19-10 in the opener in a game that lasted 4 hours, 2 minutes, the Indians came through in the end to take a nightcap that ran 3:51.

The 7:53 total made it the longest doubleheader with two nine-inning games on record, but the marathon came to an end after Swisher delivered a crushing blow.

Throw in 63 minutes between games ? a 38-minute break, and, get this, a 25-minute rain delay ? and that's one marathon at the ballpark.

Reed (3-1) entered with an 8-5 lead in the ninth but quickly ran into trouble, blowing his fourth save in 25 chances.

"They did everything they could to get the ball in my hands," Reed said. "I wanted nothing more than to close that game out and get the win tonight."

He started the inning by giving up three straight singles to Ryan Raburn, pinch-hitter Asdrubal Cabrera and Michael Bourn to make it a two-run game. He then threw a wild pitch to pinch-hitter Jason Giambi, allowing Cabrera to score.

Jason Kipnis then tied it with a sacrifice fly to center field, driving in Bourn, and Swisher drilled a 3-2 pitch well into the seats in right to put Cleveland ahead.

"When you've got a closer throwing that hard, man, all you got to do is just try and find the barrel, man, and he'll provide a lot of the power," Swisher said.

The late rally made a winner of Matt Langwell (1-0), who got his first career win even though he allowed two runs in the eighth.

Vinnie Pestano walked Wells with one out in the ninth but struck out three for his sixth save in eight chances, finishing a game that ended just after 1 a.m.

Alejandro De Aza had three hits and scored four runs in the second game for Chicago. Jeff Keppinger had a pair of three-hit games for Chicago, with a homer in the opener.

Adam Dunn drove in two runs in Game 2 after going deep in the opener, and the White Sox looked like they were going to come away with the split before Reed gave it away.

"Ball was over the plate and up in the zone and they made me pay for it," Reed said.

Jose Quintana lasted six innings, allowing five runs and five hits for Chicago. Cleveland's Carlos Carrasco allowed six runs and 10 hits in 5 2-3 and saw his ERA rise from 7.78 to 8.17.

But in the end, it was the Indians handing the White Sox another brutal loss.

In the opener, Jason Kipnis reached base six times and scored four runs, while Ryan Raburn homered and drove in four.

The Indians matched a season high for runs. They also set a season best with eight doubles while falling one hit shy of their most hits, 21.

Yet despite all that, Cleveland had to dig itself out of a five-run hole after the first inning and hang on after a nine-run lead dwindled to four.

Raburn gave the Indians some breathing room with a two-run drive off Ramon Troncoso in the seventh, making it 16-10. He also had a two-run single to break a 5-all tie in the fourth and spark a six-run rally.

Kipnis, who grew up in suburban Northbrook, Ill., extended his hitting streak to 10 and reached safely in his 30th straight game. He had three doubles, drove in two runs, and the only out he made was when Alejandro De Aza ran down his line drive to left in the ninth.

Then, in Game 2, the Indians somehow pulled one out in the end.

"To kick and scratch and fight," Giambi said. "We just kept going and going and going."

NOTES: Cleveland won a game with its starter lasting 2-3 of an inning or less for the first time since Paul Byrd got just two outs in a 15-13 victory over Kansas City on Aug. 23, 2006. ... Indians RHP Dillon Howard was suspended for 50 games without pay under baseball's minor league drug program following a positive test for an amphetamine. ... White Sox slugger Paul Konerko remains sidelined because of pain in the lower right side of his back. Konerko had six painkilling injections on Friday after undergoing an MRI the previous day but was not available for the doubleheader against Cleveland. He's feeling "a little better" and hopes to be ready to play by the end of the weekend. He plans to take swings Saturday and figures he'll know then whether he needs to go on the disabled list.... RHP Ubaldo Jimenez (6-4, 4.58 ERA) starts Saturday for the Indians, with RHP Dylan Axelrod (3-4, 4.57) going for the White Sox.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-06-29-Indians-White%20Sox/id-081765c873d442318ff80bd477bc7c15

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Hobby Lobby seeks formal ruling to avoid fines

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) ? Hobby Lobby and a sister company that sells Christian books and supplies want an Oklahoma federal judge to ensure they won't be fined while fighting part of the nation's new health care law.

Two questions were left unresolved Thursday when the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the companies could fight the government on religious grounds.

A lower court must still weigh in on whether granting an injunction is in the public interest. There also is a question of whether the companies or the government would suffer the greater loss.

The Christian owners of the arts-and-crafts retailer and the Mardel bookstore chain approve of most forms of artificial birth control, but not those that prevent a fertilized egg's implantation such as an IUD or the morning-after pill.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2013-06-28-US-Hobby-Lobby-Birth-Control/id-8173cc53c78e438f8a52743d5608ef52

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Publisher cancels multibook Paula Deen contract

Paula Deen's publisher has canceled a deal with her for multiple books, including an upcoming cookbook that was the No. 1 seller on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com, following her admission she used a racial slur.

Ballantine Books announced Friday it would not release "Paula Deen's New Testament: 250 Favorite Recipes, All Lightened Up," which was scheduled for October and was the first of a five-book deal announced early last year. Interest in it had surged as Deen, who grew up in Albany, Ga., and specializes in Southern comfort food, came under increasing attack for acknowledging she had used the N-word.

Ballantine, an imprint of Random House Inc., said it had decided to cancel the book's publication after "careful consideration." It had no comment beyond what was in its brief statement, spokesman Stuart Applebaum said.

Later Friday, Deen's literary agent, Janis Donnaud, said that the entire deal had been called off.

"I am confident that these books will be published and that we will have a new publisher," said Donnaud, who declined to comment on whether she had heard from other publishers.

The trouble for Deen started when comments she made in a court deposition became public. During the deposition in a discrimination lawsuit filed by an ex-employee, Deen admitted using the N-word in the past but denied using it to describe waiters.

Deen said she's not a racist during a tearful "Today" show interview but has lost many of her business relationships. Sears Holdings Corp. and J.C. Penney Co. said Friday that they were cutting ties with Deen following similar announcements from Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and Home Depot.

Last week, the Food Network said that it would not renew her contract. She also was dropped by Smithfield Foods, Caesars Entertainment stripped her name from restaurants and drug company Novo Nordisk said it was suspending its work with her.

Publishers have pulled a wide range of books over the years, usually because of plagiarism, fabrications or other issues with the books themselves. Ballantine's decision highlights a problem for Deen even when the product itself has not been challenged and is in high demand.

Some outlets that might have sold her books, such as Target and Wal-Mart, have cut ties with her. Other stores likely would have been reluctant to promote her new book or to invite her for personal appearances.

Because "Paula Deen's New Testament" was months away from release, no copies had been printed. All purchases had been pre-orders, so refunds aren't necessary.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/publisher-cancels-multibook-paula-deen-contract-214916844.html

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Watchdog warns of waste in Afghan aircraft buy (The Arizona Republic)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

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Scientists turn muscular dystrophy defect on and off in cells

June 28, 2013 ? For the first time, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have identified small molecules that allow for complete control over a genetic defect responsible for the most common adult onset form of muscular dystrophy. These small molecules will enable scientists to investigate potential new therapies and to study the long-term impact of the disease.

"This is the first example I know of at all where someone can literally turn on and off a disease," said TSRI Associate Professor Matthew Disney, whose new research was published June 28, 2013, by the journal Nature Communications. "This easy approach is an entirely new way to turn a genetic defect off or on."

Myotonic dystrophy is an inherited disorder, the most common form of a group of conditions called muscular dystrophies that involve progressive muscle wasting and weakness. Myotonic dystrophy type 1 is caused a type of RNA defect known as a "triplet repeat," a series of three nucleotides repeated more times than normal in an individual's genetic code. In this case, a cytosine-uracil-guanine (CUG) triplet repeat binds to the protein MBNL1, rendering it inactive and resulting in RNA splicing abnormalities.

To find drug candidates that act against the defect, Disney and his colleagues analyzed the results of a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored screen of more than 300,000 small molecules that inhibit a critical RNA-protein complex in the disease.

The team divided the NIH hits into three "buckets" -- the first group bound RNA, the second bound protein, and a third whose mechanism was unclear. The researchers then studied the compounds by looking at their effect on human muscle tissue both with and without the defect.

Startlingly, diseased muscle tissue treated with RNA-binding compounds caused signs of the disease to go away. In contrast, both healthy and diseased tissue treated with the protein-binding compounds showed the opposite effect -- signs of the disease either appeared (in healthy tissue) or became worse.

The new compounds will serve as useful tools to study the disease on a molecular level. "In complex diseases, there are always unanticipated mechanisms," Disney noted. "Now that we can reverse the disease at will, we can study those aspects of it."

In addition, Disney said, with the new discovery, scientists will be able to develop a greater understanding of how to control RNA splicing with small molecules. RNA splicing can cause a host of diseases that range from sickle-cell disease to cancer, yet prior to this study, no tools were available to control specific RNA splicing.

The first authors of the study, "Induction and Reversal of Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1 Pre-mRNA Splicing Defects by Small Molecules," are Jessica L. Childs-Disney of TSRI, Ewa Stepniak-Konieczna of Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland) and Tuan Tran of TSRI. Other authors include Ilyas Yildirim and George C. Schatz of Northwestern University; HaJeung Park of TSRI; Catherine Z. Chen, Noel Southall, Juan J. Marugan, Samarjit Patnaik, Wei Zheng and Chris P. Austin of the NIH; Krzysztof Sobczak of Adam Mickiewicz University; and Charles A. Thornton and Jason Hoskins of the University of Rochester.

The study was funded by TSRI; the Muscular Dystrophy Association (158552); the National Institutes of Health (3R01GM079235 and 1R01GM079235; AR049077 and U54NS48843); the National Cancer Institute (1U54CA143869); the Molecular Libraries Initiative of the National Institutes of Health Roadmap for Medical Research; the Marigold Foundation and the Foundation for Polish Science-TEAM program co-financed by the European Union within the European Regional Development Fund.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/fRF25Qg-Ku0/130628091710.htm

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Ofgem sees higher blackout risk by 2015

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's risk of electricity blackouts by 2015 is more serious than previously thought, regulator Ofgem warned on Thursday.

The country's spare electricity supply margin could fall as low as 2 percent in 2015/16, down from around 14 percent currently.

Last year Ofgem gave an estimate of 4 percent.

"Electricity supplies are set to tighten faster than previously expected in the middle of this decade," Ofgem said in a report, adding that the chance of supply disruptions would rise to one in 12 years in 2015/16 from one in 47 years now.

Britain has seen a vast number of power plants close and being mothballed due to emissions-reduction policies and the loss-making economics of gas-fired power plants.

Ofgem said it had lowered its estimate of the amount of conventional power capacity expected for 2015/16 by more than 2,000 megawatts due plant closures and delays in building new ones.

While it played down the actual likelihood of blackouts, saying the market managed the problem effectively, the regulator said its findings showed that urgent action is needed.

Britain's network operator National Grid and the government on Thursday outlined proposals to better manage electricity demand to balance the market at times of tight supply.

They include payments to energy users for reducing their demand when necessary.

At the same time, the government on Thursday published details of its proposed capacity market, a mechanism that will pay certain power plants to be on standby to produce additional electricity when supply is tight.

The government next year will hold the first auction for power plants to participate in the capacity market for delivery of electricity in 2018/19.

The costs of the capacity agreements will be borne by energy users, but the government said that lower wholesale prices and protection against costly blackouts will offset the payments.

RWE npower, one of Britain's biggest power producers, said it was concerned the capacity mechanism favoured certain power plants, such as gas-fired ones that can respond at short notice.

"Government's proposal for a capacity mechanism must pass the simple test of whether it keeps the lights on at the lowest cost to consumers," RWE npower chief executive Paul Massara said in a statement.

"A mechanism that treats all power plants in the same way will do that, but the current proposals do not suggest this non-discriminatory approach."

(Reporting by Karolin Schaps; editing by Jason Neely)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ofgem-warns-increased-blackout-risk-2015-16-104733980.html

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Potential boost for world's food supply: Resistance gene found against Ug99 wheat stem rust pathogen

June 27, 2013 ? The world's food supply got a little more plentiful thanks to a scientific breakthrough.

Eduard Akhunov, associate professor of plant pathology at Kansas State University, and his colleague, Jorge Dubcovsky from the University of California-Davis, led a research project that identified a gene that gives wheat plants resistance to one of the most deadly races of the wheat stem rust pathogen -- called Ug99 -- that was first discovered in Uganda in 1999. The discovery may help scientists develop new wheat varieties and strategies that protect the world's food crops against the wheat stem rust pathogen that is spreading from Africa to the breadbaskets of Asia and can cause significant crop losses.

Other Kansas State University researchers include Harold Trick, professor of plant pathology; Andres Salcedo, doctoral candidate in genetics from Mexico; and Cyrille Saintenac, a postdoctoral research associate currently working at the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique in France. The project was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Borlaug Global Rust Initiative.

The team's study, "Identification of Wheat Gene Sr35 that Confers Resistance to Ug99 Stem Rust Race Group," appears in the journal Science.

It identifies the stem rust resistance gene named Sr35, and appears alongside a study from an Australian group that identifies another effective resistance gene called Sr33.

"This gene, Sr35, functions as a key component of plants' immune system," Akhunov said. "It recognizes the invading pathogen and triggers a response in the plant to fight the disease."

Wheat stem rust is caused by a fungal pathogen. According to Akhunov, since the 1950s wheat breeders have been able to develop wheat varieties that are largely resistant to this pathogen. However, the emergence of strain Ug99 in Uganda in 1999 devastated crops and has spread to Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen, though has yet to reach the U.S.

"Until that point, wheat breeders had two or three genes that were so efficient against stem rust for decades that this disease wasn't the biggest concern," Akhunov said. "However, the discovery of the Ug99 race of pathogen showed that changes in the virulence of existing pathogen races can become a huge problem."

As a first line of defense, wheat breeders and researchers began looking for resistance genes among those that had already been discovered in the existing germplasm repositories, he said.

"The Sr35 gene was one of those genes that was discovered in einkorn wheat grown in Turkey," Akhunov said. "Until now, however, we did not know what kind of gene confers resistance to Ug99 in this wheat accession."

To identify the resistance gene Sr35, the team turned to einkorn wheat that is known to be resistant to the Ug99 fungal strain. Einkorn wheat has limited economic value and is cultivated in small areas of the Mediterranean region. It has been replaced by higher yielding pasta and bread wheat varieties.

Researchers spent nearly four years trying to identify the location of the Sr35 gene in the wheat genome, which contains nearly two times more genetic information than the human genome.

Once the researchers narrowed the list of candidate genes, they used two complimentary approaches to find the Sr35 gene. First, they chemically mutagenized the resistant accession of wheat to identify plants that become susceptible to the stem rust pathogen.

"It was a matter of knocking out each candidate gene until we found the one that made a plant susceptible," Akhunov said. "It was a tedious process and took a lot of time, but it was worth the effort."

Next, researchers isolated the candidate gene and used biotechnical approaches to develop transgenic plants that carried the Sr35 gene and showed resistance to the Ug99 race of stem rust.

Now that the resistance gene has been found, Akhunov and colleagues are looking at what proteins are transferred by the fungus into the wheat plants and recognized by the protein encoded by the Sr35 gene. This will help researchers to better understand the molecular mechanisms behind infection and develop new approaches for controlling this devastating pathogen.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/pyaQ1l90Ii4/130627141726.htm

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Location of upwelling in Earth's mantle discovered to be stable

June 26, 2013 ? A study published in Nature today shares the discovery that large-scale upwelling within Earth's mantle mostly occurs in only two places: beneath Africa and the Central Pacific. More importantly, Clinton Conrad, Associate Professor of Geology at the University of Hawaii -- Manoa's School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) and colleagues revealed that these upwelling locations have remained remarkably stable over geologic time, despite dramatic reconfigurations of tectonic plate motions and continental locations on the Earth's surface. "For example," said Conrad, "the Pangaea supercontinent formed and broke apart at the surface, but we think that the upwelling locations in the mantle have remained relatively constant despite this activity."

Conrad has studied patterns of tectonic plates throughout his career, and has long noticed that the plates were, on average, moving northward. "Knowing this," explained Conrad, "I was curious if I could determine a single location in the Northern Hemisphere toward which all plates are converging, on average." After locating this point in eastern Asia, Conrad then wondered if other special points on Earth could characterize plate tectonics. "With some mathematical work, I described the plate tectonic 'quadrupole', which defines two points of 'net convergence' and two points of 'net divergence' of tectonic plate motions."

When the researchers computed the plate tectonic quadruople locations for present-day plate motions, they found that the net divergence locations were consistent with the African and central Pacific locations where scientists think that mantle upwellings are occurring today. "This observation was interesting and important, and it made sense," said Conrad. "Next, we applied this formula to the time history of plate motions and plotted the points -- I was astonished to see that the points have not moved over geologic time!" Because plate motions are merely the surface expression of the underlying dynamics of the Earth's mantle, Conrad and his colleagues were able to infer that upwelling flow in the mantle must also remain stable over geologic time. "It was as if I was seeing the 'ghosts' of ancient mantle flow patterns, recorded in the geologic record of plate motions!"

Earth's mantle dynamics govern many aspects of geologic change on the Earth's surface. This recent discovery that mantle upwelling has remained stable and centered on two locations (beneath Africa and the Central Pacific) provides a framework for understanding how mantle dynamics can be linked to surface geology over geologic time. For example, the researchers can now estimate how individual continents have moved relative to these two upwelling locations. This allows them to tie specific events that are observed in the geologic record to the mantle forces that ultimately caused these events.

More broadly, this research opens up a big question for solid earth scientists: What processes cause these two mantle upwelling locations to remain stable within a complex and dynamically evolving system such as the mantle? One notable observation is that the lowermost mantle beneath Africa and the Central Pacific seems to be composed of rock assemblages that are different than the rest of the mantle. Is it possible that these two anomalous regions at the bottom of the mantle are somehow organizing flow patterns for the rest of the mantle? How?

"Answering such questions is important because geologic features such as ocean basins, mountains belts, earthquakes and volcanoes ultimately result from Earth's interior dynamics," Conrad described. "Thus, it is important to understand the time-dependent nature of our planet's interior dynamics in order to better understand the geological forces that affect the planetary surface that is our home."

The mantle flow framework that can be defined as a result of this study allows geophysicists to predict surface uplift and subsidence patterns as a function of time. These vertical motions of continents and seafloor cause both local and global changes in sea level. In the future, Conrad wants to use this new understanding of mantle flow patterns to predict changes in sea level over geologic time. By comparing these predictions to observations of sea level change, he hopes to develop new constraints on the influence of mantle dynamics on sea level.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/9X-MlqwvM38/130626142936.htm

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Oil pipe defect caused 2010 Qantas engine blowout

SYDNEY (AP) ? The dramatic disintegration of a Qantas Airbus A380 jet engine during a flight in 2010 was triggered by a poorly built oil pipe that failed to conform to design specifications, Australian investigators said Thursday in their final report into the emergency.

The Rolls-Royce engine exploded on the Qantas A380 shortly after takeoff from Singapore, forcing an emergency landing and becoming the most significant safety issue the superjumbo had faced since starting passenger flights in 2007. Rolls-Royce faced intense scrutiny of its engines, and A380s around the world were temporarily grounded.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau's report confirmed the agency's earlier findings that an oil leak from a pipe inside one of the plane's massive Trent 900 engines sparked a fire. The fire caused a disintegration of one of the engine's giant turbine discs, sending pieces of it blasting through the plane's wing.

The agency, which led an international investigation into the Qantas engine breakup, concluded that the walls of several pipes were too thin and didn't conform to design specifications. The error prompted a disastrous domino effect, with the weak wall of the pipe breaking down, then cracking and finally releasing oil into the superheated engine, sparking the fire.

The transport agency said Rolls-Royce has identified all the affected pipes, overhauled its quality management system and implemented a safety feature that should shut an engine down before it can blow apart if the same scenario ever happened again.

Rolls-Royce said it supported the agency's findings and had improved its manufacturing and design processes.

"This was a serious and rare event which we very much regret," Colin Smith, director of engineering and technology for Rolls-Royce said in a statement. "At Rolls-Royce we continually strive to meet the high standards of safety, quality and reliability that our customers and their passengers are entitled to expect. On this occasion we clearly fell short."

The Nov. 4, 2010, engine blowout sent debris raining down onto Indonesia's Batam Island. The plane landed safely and no one was hurt, but the emergency forced the temporary grounding of 20 A380s with Trent 900 engines, operated by Qantas, Singapore Airlines and Germany's Lufthansa. Qantas later reached a 95 million Australian dollar ($86 million) settlement with Rolls-Royce.

"This was an unprecedented event and, as the report confirms, all possible steps have been taken to ensure that it can never happen again," Qantas said in a statement.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/oil-pipe-defect-caused-2010-qantas-engine-blowout-031431583.html

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Crowding into Biotech?s Densest Supercluster

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128819/Crowding_into_Biotech___s_Densest_Supercluster

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Salmonella infection is a battle between good and bad bacteria in the gut

Public release date: 26-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Mary Beckman
mary.beckman@pnnl.gov
509-375-3688
DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

New insights into food poisoning show Salmonella have a novel sugar preference

RICHLAND, Wash. -- The blockbuster battles between good and evil are not just on the big screen this summer. A new study that examined food poisoning infection as-it-happens in mice revealed harmful bacteria, such as a common type of Salmonella, takes over beneficial bacteria within the gut amid previously unseen changes to the gut environment. The results provide new insights into the course of infection and could lead to better prevention or new treatments.

"We're trying to tease apart a largely unknown area of biology," said systems biologist Josh Adkins and team lead at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. "Infection changes the populations of bacteria in the gut with resulting inflammation. We want to understand the interplay between these events."

Out this week in PLOS ONE, the study shows that Salmonella Typhimurium might use the sugar fucose either as a sign that it has found a good place to reproduce or use fucose to sustain itself during infection, or both. This was the first time researchers saw fucose as an important player during Salmonella infection.

"We were taken completely by surprise with the fucose results," said Adkins. They also saw other sugars that normally are eaten by resident bacteria going untouched. "By knowing what the bacteria eat, we can try to promote the good bacteria and throw off the battle."

The Mice

Food poisoning caused by Salmonella bacteria hits more than 40,000 people every year. One of the common types that infect people, Salmonella Typhimurium, doesn't usually get mice sick, so Adkins and colleagues used mice uniquely sensitive to Salmonella infection. After infecting mice with the disease-causing bacteria orally, the researchers could follow the course of the illness by analyzing what came out of the other end of the mice.

"In most studies, researchers clear out the resident bacteria with antibiotics before introducing infectious bacteria," said microbiologist Brooke Deatherage Kaiser. "In this study, we could watch Salmonella knock out the commensal organisms and then watch them come back. Following the interactions through time is not something we've been able to do before."

The story they put together shows how Salmonella usurps microbes that normally populate the gut. Known as commensal bacteria, resident bugs perform important functions such as breaking down carbohydrates and sugars that people and mice can't. Using advanced instruments and techniques, the researchers identified which populations of bacteria dominated as infection progressed and mice recovered, as well as changes in the gastrointestinal tract, such as the presence of inflammation and available nutrients. Some of the experiments were performed in EMSL, the DOE's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory on PNNL's campus.

The Sugars

While many events the team witnessed were expected, such as infection causing inflammation in the gut, some were not. One unexpected change was in the kinds of sugars available for bacteria to eat. A handful of sugars that good bacteria normally chow down on lay around the gut untouched.

This stockpile of unusual sugars likely occurred because the good bacteria had, by that point, been overtaken by Salmonella and another bacterial variety, Enterococci. Enteroccoci are normally found in the gut, but can take advantage of opportunities to overgrow their welcome.

Unexpectedly, several lines of evidence suggested that Salmonella might use the sugar fucose as a food source. This study showed that the bacteria produced proteins that specifically help it digest fucose, which was the first time these researchers observed fucose proteins during Salmonella infection.

Although additional research will be needed to flesh out the role of fucose in the infectious cycle of Salmonella Typhimurium, this observation may help to control or prevent gastrointestinal infection in the future by a better understanding of nutrient sources and signals in the gut.

Overall, the study allowed the PNNL researchers to follow the rise and fall of the infecting bacteria, the fall and rise during recovery of the commensal bacteria, and changes to the gut as the mice fended off the infection. Future research will focus on what happens in other areas of the intestine to get a handle on the difference between the type of illness this study represented, acute gastrointestinal disease, and more systemic infection.

###

This work was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.

Reference: Brooke L. Deatherage Kaiser, Jie Li, James A. Sanford, Young-Mo Kim, Scott R. Kronewitter, Marcus B. Jones, Christine T. Peterson, Scott N. Peterson, Bryan C. Frank, Samuel O. Purvine, Joseph N. Brown, Thomas O. Metz, Richard D. Smith, Fred Heffron, and Joshua N. Adkins. A Multi-Omic View of Host-Pathogen-Commensal Interplay in Salmonella-Mediated Intestinal Infection, PLOS ONE Month Day, Year, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0067155. (http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0067155)

EMSL, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, is a national scientific user facility sponsored by the Department of Energy's Office of Science. Located at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., EMSL offers an open, collaborative environment for scientific discovery to researchers around the world. Its integrated computational and experimental resources enable researchers to realize important scientific insights and create new technologies. Follow EMSL on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Interdisciplinary teams at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory address many of America's most pressing issues in energy, the environment and national security through advances in basic and applied science. PNNL employs 4,500 staff, has an annual budget of nearly $1 billion, and has been managed for the U.S. Department of Energy by Ohio-based Battelle since the laboratory's inception in 1965. For more, visit the PNNL's News Center, or follow PNNL on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

---

[ | 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-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Mary Beckman
mary.beckman@pnnl.gov
509-375-3688
DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

New insights into food poisoning show Salmonella have a novel sugar preference

RICHLAND, Wash. -- The blockbuster battles between good and evil are not just on the big screen this summer. A new study that examined food poisoning infection as-it-happens in mice revealed harmful bacteria, such as a common type of Salmonella, takes over beneficial bacteria within the gut amid previously unseen changes to the gut environment. The results provide new insights into the course of infection and could lead to better prevention or new treatments.

"We're trying to tease apart a largely unknown area of biology," said systems biologist Josh Adkins and team lead at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. "Infection changes the populations of bacteria in the gut with resulting inflammation. We want to understand the interplay between these events."

Out this week in PLOS ONE, the study shows that Salmonella Typhimurium might use the sugar fucose either as a sign that it has found a good place to reproduce or use fucose to sustain itself during infection, or both. This was the first time researchers saw fucose as an important player during Salmonella infection.

"We were taken completely by surprise with the fucose results," said Adkins. They also saw other sugars that normally are eaten by resident bacteria going untouched. "By knowing what the bacteria eat, we can try to promote the good bacteria and throw off the battle."

The Mice

Food poisoning caused by Salmonella bacteria hits more than 40,000 people every year. One of the common types that infect people, Salmonella Typhimurium, doesn't usually get mice sick, so Adkins and colleagues used mice uniquely sensitive to Salmonella infection. After infecting mice with the disease-causing bacteria orally, the researchers could follow the course of the illness by analyzing what came out of the other end of the mice.

"In most studies, researchers clear out the resident bacteria with antibiotics before introducing infectious bacteria," said microbiologist Brooke Deatherage Kaiser. "In this study, we could watch Salmonella knock out the commensal organisms and then watch them come back. Following the interactions through time is not something we've been able to do before."

The story they put together shows how Salmonella usurps microbes that normally populate the gut. Known as commensal bacteria, resident bugs perform important functions such as breaking down carbohydrates and sugars that people and mice can't. Using advanced instruments and techniques, the researchers identified which populations of bacteria dominated as infection progressed and mice recovered, as well as changes in the gastrointestinal tract, such as the presence of inflammation and available nutrients. Some of the experiments were performed in EMSL, the DOE's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory on PNNL's campus.

The Sugars

While many events the team witnessed were expected, such as infection causing inflammation in the gut, some were not. One unexpected change was in the kinds of sugars available for bacteria to eat. A handful of sugars that good bacteria normally chow down on lay around the gut untouched.

This stockpile of unusual sugars likely occurred because the good bacteria had, by that point, been overtaken by Salmonella and another bacterial variety, Enterococci. Enteroccoci are normally found in the gut, but can take advantage of opportunities to overgrow their welcome.

Unexpectedly, several lines of evidence suggested that Salmonella might use the sugar fucose as a food source. This study showed that the bacteria produced proteins that specifically help it digest fucose, which was the first time these researchers observed fucose proteins during Salmonella infection.

Although additional research will be needed to flesh out the role of fucose in the infectious cycle of Salmonella Typhimurium, this observation may help to control or prevent gastrointestinal infection in the future by a better understanding of nutrient sources and signals in the gut.

Overall, the study allowed the PNNL researchers to follow the rise and fall of the infecting bacteria, the fall and rise during recovery of the commensal bacteria, and changes to the gut as the mice fended off the infection. Future research will focus on what happens in other areas of the intestine to get a handle on the difference between the type of illness this study represented, acute gastrointestinal disease, and more systemic infection.

###

This work was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.

Reference: Brooke L. Deatherage Kaiser, Jie Li, James A. Sanford, Young-Mo Kim, Scott R. Kronewitter, Marcus B. Jones, Christine T. Peterson, Scott N. Peterson, Bryan C. Frank, Samuel O. Purvine, Joseph N. Brown, Thomas O. Metz, Richard D. Smith, Fred Heffron, and Joshua N. Adkins. A Multi-Omic View of Host-Pathogen-Commensal Interplay in Salmonella-Mediated Intestinal Infection, PLOS ONE Month Day, Year, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0067155. (http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0067155)

EMSL, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, is a national scientific user facility sponsored by the Department of Energy's Office of Science. Located at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., EMSL offers an open, collaborative environment for scientific discovery to researchers around the world. Its integrated computational and experimental resources enable researchers to realize important scientific insights and create new technologies. Follow EMSL on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Interdisciplinary teams at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory address many of America's most pressing issues in energy, the environment and national security through advances in basic and applied science. PNNL employs 4,500 staff, has an annual budget of nearly $1 billion, and has been managed for the U.S. Department of Energy by Ohio-based Battelle since the laboratory's inception in 1965. For more, visit the PNNL's News Center, or follow PNNL on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

---

[ | 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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/dnnl-sii062113.php

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Liam Neeson Returns for Taken 3

Posted 7:31 AM June 25th, 2013 by Binh Ngo

While Liam Neeson may not relish the idea of returning for another Taken movie, the producers have given him a lot of reasons to do so. 20 million of them in fact.

According to Deadline, Neeson will be paid close to $20 million, a $5 million increase from Taken 2, to reprise his role as ex-CIA agent Bryan Mills in Taken 3. The producers are also trying to bring back Famke Janssen and Maggie Grace, who played his wife and daughter, respectively. Unless there are scheduling conflicts, they are expected to return as well.

While no director is announced yet, the plan is to shoot the movie in February 2014 from a script by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen.

Taken 2 made over $376 million at the global box office on a budget of $45 million, so that paltry $20 million for Neeson is money well spent if the performance of the third Taken is within the ballpark of the first two movies.

The question is, who will be in need of Mills' special set of skills this time?

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1927734/news/1927734/

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These Guys Used 1600 Instagram Photos to Make One Instagram Video

To everyone shooting Instagram videos right now, just give up. No one cares about your 15 second selfie or crappy first video test. It's never going to be as good as your pictures. But you should also give up because these guys used 1,600 different Instagram pictures to stitch together a wonderful stop motion Instagram video that kills every Instavideo dead.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/u6RSs2OVcwU/these-guys-used-1600-instagram-photos-to-make-one-insta-580764249

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Republican battles over Medicaid turn to God and morality

By David Morgan

(Reuters) - Ohio's Republican governor, John Kasich, is no fan of President Barack Obama's health reform law. But he has become an unlikely proponent of one element of Obamacare - expansion of Medicaid healthcare coverage for the poor - and he has a warning for his fellow party members about the moral consequences of blocking it.

"When you die and get to the meeting with St. Peter, he's probably not going to ask you much about what you did about keeping government small, but he's going to ask you what you did for the poor. You'd better have a good answer," Kasich, a Christian conservative, says he told one Ohio lawmaker last week.

"I can't go any harder than that. I've got nothing left."

Most Republicans oppose Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as a costly, ineffective and unnecessary expansion of government. But some Republican governors, like Arizona's Jan Brewer and Michigan's Rick Snyder, have broken ranks to embrace the law's Medicaid expansion as a practical way to help the poor while infusing their state budgets with billions of dollars in federal funding to pay for it.

Kasich has gone further. His message of morality goes straight to the Republican Party's allegiance to traditional American values including charity, and should resonate with religious conservatives within its influential Tea Party faction.

"Those groups are important to the Republican Party these days, and thus religious appeals may well help GOP governors win approval from their colleagues in the legislature," said John Green, political science professor at the University of Akron in Ohio.

The visibly frustrated Ohio governor offers no evidence that his fellow Republicans are responding to his comments. But political analysts say moral arguments by Kasich and others could eventually help them win over Republican lawmakers who otherwise fear an electoral backlash for propping up part of Obama's health reforms.

"They're trying to appeal to the more conservative side of that community of primary voters," said Robert Blendon, who tracks the politics of healthcare for the Harvard School of Public Health.

"These state legislators are going to face primaries in less than a year, and on the Republican side, many of the people who turn out to vote will be very anti-Obamacare but also deeply religious," he said.

In neighboring Michigan, Governor Snyder's voice breaks a little when he talks about the potential human toll of not expanding Medicaid to more residents.

"How are you going to feel if you have to go into an emergency room?" he asked after fellow Republicans who control the state Senate left for the summer last week without a vote. "You'll walk in there, and see chair after chair of working poor people - hard-working people - knowing that's their healthcare system, when we could have given them a better answer."

MILLIONS MAY GET SHUT OUT

Allowing Medicaid to cover nearly everyone with incomes of up to 133 percent of the federal poverty line is central to Obama's goal of providing health insurance to millions of uninsured Americans. On those terms, the effort is failing: Almost a year after the U.S. Supreme Court gave each of the 50 states the choice of opting out of the Medicaid provision, only 23 have committed to expand, according to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

As a result, more than 6.3 million people living below the poverty line - $11,490 for an individual and $23,550 for a family of four - are in danger of losing the opportunity to have health coverage next year, according to a Reuters analysis of data from states and the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan research group. That's because they live either in 21 states, which have failed to move forward with the Medicaid expansion on ideological or financial grounds, or in six others that are still debating the issue: Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

The health reform law allows people with incomes at or above the poverty line to purchase federally subsidized private insurance through new online marketplaces in each state. But the Supreme Court left the law with no provision for helping those below the poverty line.

Analysts say Americans tend to believe falsely that most poor people are covered by the current Medicaid program, which was created in the 1960s and is jointly funded by states and the federal governments with oversight from Washington. But Medicaid covers only 29 percent of working-age people living below the poverty line, according to the Urban Institute. In many states, benefits are restricted to narrowly defined groups including pregnant women, children and the severely disabled.

Arizona's Brewer raised hopes for the Medicaid expansion to go forward in "red states" after overcoming opposition from her own party members by calling a special legislative session and threatening to veto other bills until lawmakers approved the expansion.

Some states have sought to overcome impasses by striking political agreements that would impose new costs on would-be beneficiaries. But negotiations have not always borne fruit, and the federal government has yet to approve any innovations. In Michigan, Senate Republicans declined to vote on a compromise measure that would require new Medicaid enrollees to pay 5 percent of their income on medical expenses, rising to 7 percent after four years.

Other states have considered proposals to make the expansion temporary or use federal Medicaid funds to purchase private insurance plans that could require the poor to meet deductibles and co-pays.

The Obama administration is leaving the door open for states to reconsider their Medicaid position on a quarterly basis in hopes that more will sign on.

2014 PROSPECTS SLIPPING

Meanwhile, Kasich and Snyder are struggling to make sure healthcare benefits are available for more than 820,000 people who live below the poverty line in their states - 474,000 in Ohio and 350,000 in Michigan, according to state estimates.

But the prospects for coverage in 2014 are slipping. Ohio lawmakers nixed Kasich's Medicaid expansion proposal from the new state budget. Snyder says a decision for Michigan needs to come within the next few weeks, but the state's Senate Republican leader, Randy Richardville, has said lawmakers will spend the summer reviewing the issue.

Kasich acknowledges that the Medicaid expansion may have to wait but believes his message will get through. "I will not give up this fight until we get this done, period, exclamation point," he recently told reporters in a hallway briefing in Columbus. "This is not a support of Obamacare. This is a support of helping our communities, our healthcare systems - the poor, the disabled, the addicted and the mentally ill."

The real change may come only after midterm elections for Congress next year, as state leaders wait to see whether Republicans retain control of the House of Representatives and gain control of the Senate.

"If Republicans get control of the Senate and the House, they'll dramatically try to limit this bill. If they don't get control, many of the states saying no to Medicaid will actually start saying yes," said Harvard's Blendon.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Michele Gershberg, Peter Henderson Douglas Royalty)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/republican-battles-over-medicaid-turn-god-morality-051235647.html

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BlackBerry launches Secure Work Space platform on Android

A secure area to keep all enterprise apps, data and communication safe without a VPN

Following up on its goal to have the products released by the end of June, BlackBerry has just put its Secure Work Space apps into the Play Store. The pair of apps -- "Secure Work Space for BES10" and "Work Space Manager for BES10" -- together let enterprise network administrators control corporate data on users devices and keep it safe. The app provides an alternative launcher that gives access to a completely sandboxed set of enterprise apps such as email, calendar, contacts and a secure browser. These apps and their associated data can be controlled by the BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) administrator just like any other BlackBerry can, which is a huge step in the right direction for BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) programs.

Although they won't do you much good until your company has set up your device (and its back-end) to use the service, both of the apps are now showing as available for download in the Play Store. Now is the time to go talk to IT at your place of work to see if they can get you set up -- more information can be found at the source link below.

More: BlackBerry

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Dy2xYi4-3G8/story01.htm

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Chromebook Pixel gets new Google+ Photos app for easier backups, sharing

It may not exactly be enough to make the high-end price tag any more palatable, but Chromebook Pixel owners now have another small exclusive to call their own. Google has just released a new Google+ Photos app for the device, which promises to make photo backups and sharing a bit easier. Namely, it'll automatically upload all your new photos to Google+ when you insert an SD card, from where you can then chose which you'd like to make public. No word on when the app will hit other non-Pixel Chromebooks, but Google says they are currently working on that.

Filed under: Laptops, Google

Comments

Source: Google, AJ Asver (Google+)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/25/chromebook-pixel-google-plus-photos/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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