VA stops bonuses for disability claims executives

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Veterans Affairs Department is withholding bonuses for senior officials who oversee disability claims, citing a failure to meet performance goals for reducing a sizable backlog in claims processing.

The backlog has increased dramatically over the past three years, and the department has come under intense criticism from veterans' groups and members of Congress.

VA spokesman Josh Taylor said Monday that the savings would be used to help reduce the backlog. He could provide no specifics nor say how many people would be affected.

In all, records show the department paid its senior executives a total of $2.8 million in bonuses in fiscal 2011.

During that same year, the number of disability claims pending for longer than 125 days jumped from less than 200,000 to nearly 500,000.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-04-29-US-Veterans-Bonuses/id-b9bfb605edd7441eabef99c42c63dffe

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Court rejects Alabama appeal over immigration law

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Supreme Court has rejected Alabama's appeal to revive portions of a state immigration law, including a section that made it a crime to harbor people who are living in the country illegally.

The justices on Monday left in place a federal appeals court ruling that blocked parts of the law. Justice Antonin Scalia voted to hear the state's appeal.

The law's purpose was to reduce the "number of illegal aliens" in Alabama

The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said immigration law primarily is the responsibility of the federal government and that the state lacked the authority to enforce the challenged provisions. The appeals court ruling followed last year's Supreme Court ruling that blocked some parts of Arizona's immigration law.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-04-29-Supreme%20Court-Immigration/id-73fdad80ec4445f2a1e167012cefcbd2

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Movie Reviews: 'The Big Wedding', 'Pain & Gain', 'Home Run'

Movie information aggregated from?MovieFone.com

The Big Wedding

"There?s not a bad performance in this movie. De Niro, Keaton and Sarandon are particularly good, what a surprise. But it feels as if all the guests at ?The Big Wedding? are wearing ID tags telling us their one Plot Point." Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times.

"There is nothing about the movie that isn?t utterly predictable. You meet a character, and it?s immediately obvious what?s going to happen to him (or her). And then it happens. Maybe it?s meant to make you feel good about your deductive reasoning skills or something. But mostly it just makes you want to see something else."?Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic.

Do you plan on seeing this movie? Leave a review of the film with a comment below after you do.

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Pain & Gain

"This is easily Bay?s best movie, the work of a filmmaker with a cracked sense of humor that he is able to share with the audience." Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald.

"Yes, the canon invoked for this film is that of the Three Stooges, but it?s still not as magnificently berserk as they can be. Set your expectations carefully for this one." Louis Black, Austin Chronicle.

Do you plan on seeing this movie? Leave a review of the film with a comment below after you do.

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Mud

"Reese Witherspoon's unglamorous, understated supporting work recalls the kinds of films she made before becoming a movie star. Other recognizable faces include Sam Shepard, Joe Don Baker, Michael Shannon, and Sarah Paulson." James Berardinelli, ReelViews. Full Review

"It?s hard to believe Nichols thinks he can get away with all this and harder still to believe he does. It?s the quality of the attention that he brings ? his focus ? that makes his work so engrossing." David Edelstein, New York Magazine (Vulture). Full Review

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The Place Beyond The Pines

"A riveting crime thriller, it's also a multi-generational familial saga that approaches Greek tragedy." Claudia Pulg, USA Today. Full Review

"Cool, violent, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, Gosling reprises his inexorable-loner routine from ?Drive.? Cianfrance and the screenwriters Ben Coccio and Darius Marder wrote thirty-seven drafts of the script, but gave him almost nothing to say. He rides, he smokes, he knocks over banks, he loves his baby, and that?s it." David Denby, The New Yorker. Full Review

Do you plan on seeing this movie? Leave a review of the film with a comment below after you do.

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Oblivion

"The good news: Here's a lavish, serious science-fiction picture, one that on occasion transcends big-budget hit-making convention to glance against grandeur...Which brings us to Tom Cruise, the not-necessarily-good news. However engaging its end-times mysteries, Oblivion is still a Tom Cruise movie." Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice. Full Review

"A moderately clever dystopian mindbender with a gratifying human pulse, despite some questionable narrative developments along the way." Justin Chang, Variety. Full Review

Have you seen this movie? Help your neighbors out. Leave a review of the film with a comment below.

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42

"One of the all-time great sports movies ? primarily because it's one of the all-time great sports stories." Steve Persall, Tampa Bay Times.

"42 is competent, occasionally rousing and historically respectful ? but it rarely rises above standard, old-fashioned biography fare. It?s a mostly unexceptional film about an exceptional man." Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times.

Have you seen this movie? Help your neighbors out. Leave a review of the film with a comment below.

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Scary Movie 5

"Somehow, it actually looks cheaper than "Paranormal Activity." It's less funny, too." Darren Franich, Entertainment Weekly. Full Review

"This latest installment of the horror movie spoof franchise is mainly notable for its Charlie Sheen/Lindsay Lohan cameos." Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter.? Full Review

Have you seen this movie? Help your neighbors out. Leave a review of the film with a comment below.

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The Croods (3D)

"This Chris Sanders fellow knows how to craft a heart-warming animation, and if not for a few minor problems this would have had a legitimate shot at the best animated movie of 2013."?Laremy Legel, Film.com

"The movie is at its most interesting and amusing when riffing on how cavemen might have reacted to new experiences and ideas, like fire and shoes. Whether the kiddies will appreciate that is unclear, but they?ll certainly like the voice work done by Emma Stone as Eep."?Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times.

Have you seen this movie? Help your neighbors out. Leave a review of the film with a comment below.

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Olympus Has Fallen

"While Olympus Has Fallen breaks no major new ground in the political thriller genre, Fuqua has directed a sharp, very taut adventure that keeps you engrossed from start to finish." Bill Zwecker, Chicago Sun-Times.

"Perhaps every generation gets the movie stars it deserves. ?Olympus? has quite a bit to say about the current state of our country. Intentions aside, not all of it is entirely flattering." Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News.

Have you seen this movie? Help your neighbors out. Leave a review of the film with a comment below.

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None of these spark your interest? Catch one of these older or lesser known titles before they're gone:

Home Run

The Lords of Salem

The Company You Keep

Evil Dead

The Host

G.I. Joe: Retaliation

The Call

Oz the Great and Powerful

Century 20 Theaters at Jordan Creek Town Center in West Des Moines will be showing all these flicks. Showtimes and ticket cost can be found on the theater's website.

Source: http://westdesmoines.patch.com/articles/movie-reviews-the-big-wedding-pain-gain-home-run-and-more

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Obama honors firefighters killed in Texas fertilizer plant blast

By Steve Holland

WACO, Texas (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, standing before a line of flag-draped coffins, consoled family and friends on Thursday at a memorial service for firefighters killed in a massive explosion last week at a Texas fertilizer plant.

The deaths of 14 people, nearly all of them emergency responders, ripped a hole in the heart of the town of West, where farming is a way of life and where many people volunteer for the fire department in their spare time.

"To the families, the neighbors grappling with unbearable loss, we are here to say you are not alone. You are not forgotten. We may not all live here in Texas, but we're neighbors, too," Obama told more than 9,000 mourners who packed a basketball arena at Baylor University in Waco.

The April 17 explosion at the West Fertilizer Co plant obliterated a residential section of West, about 20 miles north of Waco.

Investigators have not determined the cause of the blast, which also injured some 200 people.

A video testimonial for each victim were read by a relative or friend and broadcast on a large screen behind the podium.

In one video, Carmen Bridges, wife of Morris Wayne Bridges Jr., 40, fought back tears as she told of the last time she had seen her husband. As he rushed out the door to respond to the fire in West, he stopped to hug his 2-year-old son.

"'Daddy loves you and he'll be right back,'" Bridges recalled her husband telling the boy. "And he didn't come back."

As the name of each victim was read aloud, a bell rang, echoing through the vast arena, where a dozen coffins - most covered with U.S. flags, and a couple covered with Texas flags - were lined up in front of the stage.

Obama and his wife, Michelle, both wiped tears from their eyes as bagpipers played "Amazing Grace" and the song filled the arena.

The April 15 Boston Marathon bombings and the search for the suspects last week often overshadowed the Texas tragedy in the national news media.

But Obama sought to assure Texans they were in his thoughts. He vowed that federal and state authorities would help to rebuild the town of 2,800 residents.

"Know this, for the eyes of the world may have been fixed on places far away, our hearts have also been here through times of tribulation," Obama said.

'ULTIMATE SACRIFICE'

Before the ceremony, red and white lights twinkled along Baylor's University Parks Drive as fire trucks and ambulances from across Texas approached. Along the road, people took pictures, but many watched in silence.

Bagpipe players and a color guard led a procession of members of fire departments that lost personnel in the blast. West emergency medical technicians cried as they walked hand in hand with members of the emergency medical technicians from nearby Abbott, Texas.

"Coming to memorials, when you're part of this brotherhood, one of the biggest brotherhoods in the world created for the purpose of protecting others, that's just what you do," said Tito Rodriguez, an assistant fire chief with the Clute Fire Department near Houston.

James Bruno waited until he parked to don the freshly ironed blue Irving, Texas, fire department shirt for the service. Walking with his wife, he said he felt a certain kinship with those who lost their lives in the explosion.

"They made the ultimate sacrifice trying to help everyone in their own town out," he said.

The town had 33 volunteer firefighters. Five were killed, as were four paramedics from nearby towns who rushed to the scene. Among the others killed was an off-duty Dallas firefighter who lived in West and a local welder who went to the plant to help.

Obama praised the courage of people "who so love their neighbors as themselves that they are willing to lay down their lives for each other.

"America needs towns like West. That's what makes this country great, it's towns like West," he said.

Other speakers included Texas Governor Rick Perry and Baylor University President Kenneth Starr, best known for his investigation of the sex scandal involving then-President Bill Clinton and White House intern Monica Lewinsky during the 1990s.

"These are volunteers, ordinary individuals blessed with extraordinary courage," Perry said of the fallen first responders.

(Additional reporting by Laura Heinauer. Editing by David Lindsey, Corrie MacLaggan and Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-honors-firefighters-killed-texas-fertilizer-plant-blast-012938445.html

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Autism risk spotted at birth in abnormal placentas

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine have figured out how to measure an infant's risk of developing autism by looking for abnormalities in his/her placenta at birth, allowing for earlier diagnosis and treatment for the developmental disorder. The findings are reported in the April 25 online issue of Biological Psychiatry.

One out of 50 children are diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but the diagnosis is usually made when these children are 3 to 4 years of age or older. By then the best opportunities for intervention have been lost because the brain is most responsive to treatment in the first year of life.

Senior author Harvey Kliman, M.D., research scientist in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at the Yale School of Medicine, and research collaborators at the MIND Institute at the University of California, Davis, have found that abnormal placental folds and abnormal cell growths called trophoblast inclusions are key markers to identify newborns who are at risk for autism.

Kliman and his team examined 117 placentas from infants of at-risk families, those with one or more previous children with autism. These families were participating in a study called Markers of Autism Risk in Babies ? Learning Early Signs. Kliman compared these at-risk placentas to 100 control placentas collected by the UC Davis researchers from the same geographic area.

The at-risk placentas had as many as 15 trophoblast inclusions, while none of the control placentas had more than two trophoblast inclusions. Kliman said a placenta with four or more trophoblast inclusions conservatively predicts an infant with a 96.7% probability of being at risk for autism.

Currently, the best early marker of autism risk is family history. Couples with a child with autism are nine times more likely to have another child with autism. Kliman said that when these at-risk families have subsequent children they could employ early intervention strategies to improve outcomes. "Regrettably couples without known genetic susceptibility must rely on identification of early signs or indicators that may not overtly manifest until the child's second or third year of life," said Kliman.

"I hope that diagnosing the risk of developing autism by examining the placenta at birth will become routine, and that the children who are shown to have increased numbers of trophoblast inclusions will have early interventions and an improved quality of life as a result of this test," Kliman added.

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Yale University: http://www.yale.edu

Thanks to Yale University for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 58 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127925/Autism_risk_spotted_at_birth_in_abnormal_placentas

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New insights into Alzheimer's gene paves the way for prevention

Friday, April 26, 2013

Alzheimer's disease is the most common neurodegenerative disorder, affecting more than five million Americans, but currently there is no way to prevent, delay or stop its progression. A study published online April 25 by the Cell Press journal Neuron shows that a gene called CD33 contributes to Alzheimer's disease by inhibiting the ability of immune cells to remove toxic molecules in the brain. The findings provide new insights into the molecular causes of the disease and reveal a novel potential therapy that could prevent cognitive decline and brain damage at early stages.

"Before our study, nothing was known about the function of CD33 in the brain," says senior study author Rudolph Tanzi of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. "Moreover, our findings suggest that pharmaceutical inactivation of CD33 represents a potentially powerful new therapy for the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's disease, and perhaps other neurodegenerative disorders."

One hallmark of Alzheimer's disease is the formation of beta-amyloid plaques?deposits of toxic molecules between neurons in the brain. Past studies have suggested that these plaques cause neurons to die, leading to cognitive deficits such as impaired memory. Although several genes?including CD33?have recently been implicated in Alzheimer's disease, little is known about how they regulate the formation of beta-amyloid plaques and contribute to disease progression.

In the new study, Tanzi and his team found that CD33 is active in microglia?immune cells that clean up debris and destroy pathogens in the brain. In brain tissue samples from deceased individuals who had Alzheimer's disease, higher levels of CD33 activity in microglia were associated with an increased number of beta-amyloid plaques. Inactivation of the CD33 gene in mice enhanced the ability of microglia to clear up toxic beta-amyloid molecules in the brain. Similarly, inactivation of the CD33 gene in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease reduced the number of beta-amyloid plaques in the brain.

"This is the first time that we have direct evidence of a gene, CD33, that directly controls beta-amyloid clearance by microglia," Tanzi says. "Our findings raise the exciting possibility that the inability of microglia to degrade beta-amyloid in Alzheimer's disease could be reversed therapeutically by inhibition of CD33 activity."

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Cell Press: http://www.cellpress.com

Thanks to Cell Press for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 25 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127944/New_insights_into_Alzheimer_s_gene_paves_the_way_for_prevention

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Rachel Maddow on the Mainstreaming of Crackpot Conspiracy Theories by the Right Wing (Little green footballs)

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