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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Kentucky still easy No. 1 in AP poll (AP)
Kentucky starts it second straight week ? and fourth this season ? as the No. 1 team in The Associated Press' college basketball poll.
The Wildcats were again a runaway choice, receiving 63 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel on Monday.
Syracuse, which got the other No. 1 votes, and Ohio State both moved up one place to second and third. Missouri, which had been No. 2, dropped to fourth after its loss to Oklahoma State.
North Carolina, Baylor, Duke, Kansas, Michigan State and undefeated Murray State round out the top 10. The Racers, the lone remaining unbeaten team in Division I, cracked the top 10 for the first time in school history.
Gonzaga and Vanderbilt return to the rankings at 24th and 25th. The Bulldogs, who have won 12 of 13, were out the last two weeks, while the Commodores, winners of 10 of 11, were out the last six.
Kansas State dropped out from 22nd after a four-week run, while Connecticut, which has lost three straight and five of seven, fell from 24th. Connecticut had been ranked for the last 28 polls, the sixth-longest current streak. The longest current run is Duke at 90 consecutive polls, a streak that started with the preseason poll of 2007-08.
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Bucks keep Lakers' road woes going with 100-89 win (AP)
MILWAUKEE ? Drew Gooden scored 23 points and the undermanned Milwaukee Bucks made sure the Lakers' road struggles continued, beating Los Angeles 100-89 on Saturday night.
Kobe Bryant scored 27 for the Lakers, who are 1-7 on the road this season.
Ersan Ilyasova and Mike Dunleavy added 15 points each for the Bucks, who managed to beat the Lakers without two of their best players.
Already scrambling to compensate for the long-term absence of injured center Andrew Bogut, the Bucks found themselves without guard/forward Stephen Jackson on Saturday because of an NBA suspension.
Bryant made six free throws to break Jerry West's franchise record for free throws made. Coming into Saturday's game, Bryant needed three makes to tie West's mark of 7,160.
Bryant also came closer to becoming the Lakers' career leader in field goals made. He was 10 of 21 from the floor Saturday, leaving him three short of the 13 field goals he needed to tie Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's franchise record of 9,935 field goals made.
Even without Bogut and Jackson, the Bucks were in control most of the way. Ilyasova hit a jumper at the horn to end the third quarter, and the Bucks took an 80-73 lead into the fourth.
The Bucks led 85-76 after an inside score from Ilyasova with just under eight minutes left, but Bryant scored five straight points to cut the lead to four.
But Luc Richard Mbah a Moute hit a jumper, then Gooden scored on a turnaround hook shot and hit a pair of free throws to run the lead back to 91-81.
Andrew Bynum scored inside, but Dunleavy hit a long jumper to give the Bucks a 93-83 lead with just over two minutes left.
After Bryant made a pair of free throws, Dunleavy drilled a 3-pointer to put the game away with 1:24 left.
The Bucks managed the beat the Lakers without Jackson, whose suspension was announced a few hours before the game.
The NBA suspended Jackson one game for verbal abuse of a game official and failure to leave the court in a timely manner at the end of the Bucks' 107-100 loss at Chicago on Friday night.
It's another rough moment for Jackson, who was benched by coach Scott Skiles in the Bucks' Jan. 20 game at the New York Knicks.
Bogut, meanwhile, fractured his left ankle in Wednesday's game at Houston and is expected to miss eight to 12 weeks ? a crushing blow for Milwaukee.
Without Bogut, the undersized Bucks faced a tough test from the Lakers' pair of 7-footers: Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum.
But they held their ground on defense early on, taking a 51-43 lead at halftime. The Bucks forced the Lakers into 10 turnovers in the first half, and limited Gasol to six points on 3 for 10 shooting.
Gasol finished the game with 12 points and 15 rebounds, but was 6 for 18 from the floor.
Lakers rookie guard Andrew Goudelock scored 13 points despite being hospitalized for dehydration overnight. Goudelock was coming off his best performance of the year, having scored a career-high 14 points against the Clippers on Wednesday.
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
17th body found on wrecked Italy cruise ship
NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports from Isola del Giglio.
GIGLIO, Italy-- Rough seas delayed the planned start Saturday of a salvage operation to remove a half-million gallons of fuel from the wrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship off Italy?s Tuscan coast.
Recovery operations continued, however, and on Saturday yielded a 17th body: A woman who wasn't wearing a life jacket was found by divers on the submerged sixth floor deck, civil protection officials said.
The Concordia ran aground on Jan. 13 off the port of the island of Giglio after the captain deviated from his planned route and gashed the hull of the ship on a reef. Some 4,200 passengers and crew endured a panicked evacuation after the abandon ship alarm didn't sound until the ship had capsized so much that some life boats couldn't be lowered.
Sixteen people remain unaccounted for and are presumed dead. The body discovered Saturday has not yet been identified.
DigitalGlobe
With heavy seas and strong winds forecast to continue, work on removing more than 500,000 gallons of heavy fuel aboard the capsized ship may be held up for days, according to a spokesman for SMIT, the Dutch company that is managing the operation.
"Starting operations depends on the weather conditions," Martijn Schuttevaer told reporters. "The forecast is for the bad weather to last until Tuesday and we don't expect to be able to recommence activities until the middle of the week."
A barge carrying pumping equipment that was attached to the capsized ship was withdrawn after strong winds and high waves worsened conditions for the divers working on the huge wreck.
Pier Paolo Cito / AP
Italian police scuba divers sail around the grounded Costa Concordia on Friday.
The accident, expected to trigger the most expensive maritime insurance claim ever, has set off a legal battle in which U.S. and Italian lawyers are preparing class-action and individual lawsuits against the operator, Costa Cruises.
In a bid to limit the fallout, Costa, a unit of Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise ship operator, has offered the more than 3,000 passengers $14,460 each in compensation on condition they drop any legal action.
The Concordia's captain, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest, suspected of causing the accident by steering too close to shore, and faces charges of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship before the evacuation was complete.
The ship's first officer, Ciro Ambrosio, has also been questioned by prosecutors but the company itself has not been implicated in the investigation at this stage.
More from msnbc.com and NBC News:
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Biden says GOP obstruction benefits Democrats (AP)
CAMBRIDGE, Md. ? Vice President Joe Biden said Friday that Republican obstructionism will help Democrats' elections prospects in November, from the party's hopes of reclaiming the House to President Barack Obama's bid for a second term.
In a pep talk to House Democrats gathered in Maryland for a three-day retreat, the vice president said the American people will reject GOP unwillingness to compromise and its blatant determination to make Obama a one-term president. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has said that ensuring Obama's defeat is a priority.
Biden also said Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's criticism of the auto bailout and a host of positions stated by rival Newt Gingrich on government intervention will create a clear contrast for voters.
"These guys are helping us by saying what they believe," Biden said in a nearly 50-minute speech that he shortened because of a cold.
"We need this to be rung out. Their America vs. our America," the vice president said.
The president was scheduled to address the Democrats in early afternoon.
The administration and congressional Democrats haven't always seen eye to eye in Obama's three years in office, with some Democrats frustrated with the president's willingness to compromise with the GOP. Biden mentioned that disconnect.
At last year's conference, Biden said the message he heard from Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was "get tough. Enough is enough." He said several Democrats in the room were furious when the administration agreed on an end-of-the-year deal on extending President George W. Bush's tax cuts in December 2010.
"The message was heard. The message was heard," Biden said. "And I think we've delivered."
Obama will encounter a more unified group of House Democrats, who have welcomed the populist pitch and middle-class message of his State of the Union address Tuesday night. The bitter divisions among Republican White House hopefuls have helped bring them together, as well.
"Long may it last," said Rep. Rob Andrews, D-N.J., on the prospect of a drawn-out, bare-knuckle GOP nomination fight between top candidates Romney and Gingrich.
House Democrats echoed many of the themes from Obama's speech on economic fairness, boosting manufacturing and helping middle-class Americans, a reflection of campaign messaging and a recognition that their fate is inextricably linked to the president. They held a series of closed-door sessions on strategy for the coming year and later spoke to reporters.
It's a more upbeat Democratic caucus than the one Obama encountered last year when backbiting and frustration split Democrats after a thrashing in the November 2010 midterm elections.
Being out of power for a year will do that. So will a week in which Democrats saw some positive signs, from Obama's address to polls showing more voters think the country is on the right track, to a daring hostage rescue of an American in Somalia. Signs of an economic rebound are prevalent; Commerce Secretary John Bryson told the Democrats that of the 3 million new jobs, 300,000 were in manufacturing.
As for the Democrats' own finances, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised more than $61 million last year and has $11.6 million cash on hand. It also eliminated a lingering debt.
Democrats face a tough challenge in recapturing the House as Republicans have shored up their vulnerable lawmakers through redistricting. The GOP scoffs at the notion that Democrats can win the 25 seats necessary to take control.
"It's the first time I've seen Democrats this united," said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif.
That unity will be tested by months of campaigning and legislative fights as well as clear signals from Obama that he will run against Congress.
While Democrats talked about message, Obama was on a three-day, five-state swing that included a stop in Aurora, Colo., where he told the crowd, "We're not going to wait for Congress," on some issues such as producing clean energy to power 3 million homes. He made similar arguments in his speech.
Democratic leaders said Obama should run against a "do-nothing Congress" to highlight for American voters how Republicans have obstructed his agenda. Yet that kind of campaign strategy could be equally damaging to Democrats, who hold 191 seats in the House and control the Senate by a narrow margin, 51-47, plus two independents who generally vote with them. Public approval ratings for Congress have hit all-time lows, dipping to the teens. Voters easily could send scores of members from both parties packing in November.
Republicans signaled they have a ready response to the White House strategy.
"The president can blame anyone he wants, but it won't change the fact that this year will be a referendum on his economic record," said Kevin Smith, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
For now, Democrats will press ahead with an agenda and rhetoric that mirrors Obama's.
In his State of the Union speech, Obama called for a new minimum tax rate of at least 30 percent on anyone making more than $1 million. It's the so-called Buffett rule, named after a recommendation by billionaire financier Warren Buffett, who benefits from a low 15 percent tax rate on investments, that he be required to pay a higher rate than his secretary. The president also pleaded for legislation that rewards companies that create jobs in the United States instead of shipping them overseas.
Senate Democrats said this week they will move ahead this year with legislation.
Obama also said he would sign a bill that would ban lawmakers from buying and selling stock based on insider information. Senate Democrats signaled they would consider a bill next week.
House Republicans, not Democrats, have the final say on what legislation comes to the floor. Still, House Democrats say the messaging is in sync.
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Body location plays part in scratching pleasure
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Public release date: 27-Jan-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Bonnie Davis
bdavis@wfubmc.edu
336-716-4977
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
Wake Forest Baptist research shows all itches are not equal
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. Jan. 27, 2012 An itch is just an itch. Or is it?
New research from Gil Yosipovitch, M.D., Ph.D., professor of dermatology at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and a world-renowned itch expert, shows that how good scratching an itch feels is related to the itch's location.
While previous studies by Yosipovitch have shown the pleasurability of itching, analysis of itch relief at different body sites and related pleasurability had not been performed until now. The study was published online this month by the British Journal of Dermatology.
"The goal of this study was to examine the role of the pleasurability of scratching in providing relief for itch," Yosipovitch explained. "We first evaluated whether itch intensity was perceived differently at three body sites, and then we investigated the potential correlation between the pleasurability and the itch relief induced by scratching."
Yosipovitch and colleagues induced itch on the ankles, forearms and backs of 18 study participants with cowhage spicules, which come from a type of legume found in tropical areas that are known to cause intense itching. The spicules were rubbed gently in a circular motion for 45 seconds within a small area of the skin and removed with adhesive tape once itch was induced. Itch intensity and scratching pleasurability were assessed every 30 seconds for a duration of five minutes using a Visual Analog Scale (VAS) to rate intensity 0 for no itch, up to 10 for maximum unbearable itch.
Their results show that itch was perceived most intensely at the ankle and back, while the perception of itch and scratching relief were less pronounced on the forearm. Another major finding of the paper, as Yosipovitch explains, is that "the pleasurability of scratching the ankle appears to be longer lived compared to the other two sites."
Yosipovitch said this research helps lead to a better understanding of itch and how to relieve it for people who have skin disease.
"We see commonly involved areas such as the ankle and back in itchy patients with skin disorders caused by eczema or psoriasis," he said. "We never understood why those areas were more affected, and now we better understand that itch in these areas is more intense and pleasurable to scratch."
Yosipovitch said that while it is known that small nerve fibers are involved in unpleasant sensations such as itch and pain, he and other researchers now suspect that there are also specific nerve fibers involved in pleasure.
"If we could translate this to a treatment that induces a pleasurable relief sensation without damaging the skin, we may be able to help itchy patients," he said.
###
This study was supported by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Disease.
Co-authors include: Ghada A. Bin Saif, MBBS, M.D., College of Medicine, King Saud University; Y.H. Chan of Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Singapore; Francis McGone, Ph.D, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool; and Alexander Papoiu, Ph.D., Shawn G. Kwatra, B.S, of Wake Forest Baptist.
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Public release date: 27-Jan-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Bonnie Davis
bdavis@wfubmc.edu
336-716-4977
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
Wake Forest Baptist research shows all itches are not equal
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. Jan. 27, 2012 An itch is just an itch. Or is it?
New research from Gil Yosipovitch, M.D., Ph.D., professor of dermatology at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and a world-renowned itch expert, shows that how good scratching an itch feels is related to the itch's location.
While previous studies by Yosipovitch have shown the pleasurability of itching, analysis of itch relief at different body sites and related pleasurability had not been performed until now. The study was published online this month by the British Journal of Dermatology.
"The goal of this study was to examine the role of the pleasurability of scratching in providing relief for itch," Yosipovitch explained. "We first evaluated whether itch intensity was perceived differently at three body sites, and then we investigated the potential correlation between the pleasurability and the itch relief induced by scratching."
Yosipovitch and colleagues induced itch on the ankles, forearms and backs of 18 study participants with cowhage spicules, which come from a type of legume found in tropical areas that are known to cause intense itching. The spicules were rubbed gently in a circular motion for 45 seconds within a small area of the skin and removed with adhesive tape once itch was induced. Itch intensity and scratching pleasurability were assessed every 30 seconds for a duration of five minutes using a Visual Analog Scale (VAS) to rate intensity 0 for no itch, up to 10 for maximum unbearable itch.
Their results show that itch was perceived most intensely at the ankle and back, while the perception of itch and scratching relief were less pronounced on the forearm. Another major finding of the paper, as Yosipovitch explains, is that "the pleasurability of scratching the ankle appears to be longer lived compared to the other two sites."
Yosipovitch said this research helps lead to a better understanding of itch and how to relieve it for people who have skin disease.
"We see commonly involved areas such as the ankle and back in itchy patients with skin disorders caused by eczema or psoriasis," he said. "We never understood why those areas were more affected, and now we better understand that itch in these areas is more intense and pleasurable to scratch."
Yosipovitch said that while it is known that small nerve fibers are involved in unpleasant sensations such as itch and pain, he and other researchers now suspect that there are also specific nerve fibers involved in pleasure.
"If we could translate this to a treatment that induces a pleasurable relief sensation without damaging the skin, we may be able to help itchy patients," he said.
###
This study was supported by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Disease.
Co-authors include: Ghada A. Bin Saif, MBBS, M.D., College of Medicine, King Saud University; Y.H. Chan of Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Singapore; Francis McGone, Ph.D, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool; and Alexander Papoiu, Ph.D., Shawn G. Kwatra, B.S, of Wake Forest Baptist.
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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/2012-01/wfbm-blp012712.php
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Buccaneers introduce Rutgers' Schiano as new coach (AP)
TAMPA, Fla. ? Greg Schiano relishes the challenge of trying to turn around the struggling Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The 45-year-old Schiano was formally introduced Friday as the ninth coach in franchise history, inheriting a team that allowed the most points in the NFL this season.
"We're beginning a new chapter for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers," Bucs co-chairman Joel Glazer said, adding that they're very excited for that new chapter to begin."
Glazer said Schiano "has a vision for what he wants to do."
Schiano transformed Rutgers from a struggling college football program into a Big East contender during an 11-year run with the Scarlet Knights. The Bucs are banking on him to have the same kind of impact in Tampa Bay, which has not won a playoff game since winning the Super Bowl following the 2002 season.
"There's been several opportunities to go to places that were quote, unquote bigger names or bigger programs.," Schiano said. "And at times I listened. But when I tried to put myself there, it just didn't feel good.
"As I went through this process, and pictured myself being the coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I only felt one feeling that was negative and that was sadness of leaving my players (at Rutgers). Other than that it was tremendous excitement. That's how I knew this was the one."
Schiano replaces Raheem Morris who went 17-31 in three seasons. The Bucs were 4-12 in 2011, missing the postseason for the fourth straight year.
The Morris era ended with a 10-game losing streak, during which a porous defense allowed 31 of more points in seven of the team's last eight games and the offense sputtered, in part because of the inconsistent play of Josh Freeman, who threw took a step back in his development while throwing a career-high 22 interceptions.
Schiano was one of at least 10 candidates the Glazer family interviewed during a 24-day search. Oregon coach Chip Kelly turned down the job earlier this week, leaving Schiano, former Green Bay Packers and Texas A&M coach Mike Sherman and Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski as finalists for the Tampa Bay opening.
In addition to getting Freeman back on track, Schiano faces the challenge of improving a defense that yielded a franchise-record 494 points while also ranking near the bottom of the NFL in sacks and yards allowed.
The Bucs used first- and second-round selections in each of the past two drafts to rebuild the defense line, yet still have not been able to generate a consistent pass rush.
Schiano an assistant coach in the NFL with Chicago and was the University of Miami's defensive coordinator before moving to Rutgers.
"Our team will be built around a humble, unselfish, attitude and sacrifice. It's hard to find that in today's world," Schiano said. "But that's who we'll be."
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Friday, January 27, 2012
Suicide bomber kills 32 at Iraq funeral procession (AP)
BAGHDAD ? A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-packed car near a funeral procession in Baghdad on Friday, killing at least 32 people ? including six policemen who were guarding the march ? in the latest brazen attack since the U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq.
Police said the blast struck around 11:00 a.m. in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Zafaraniyah, where mourners had gathered for the funeral of a person killed the day before. They said 65 people were wounded in the attack, including 16 police.
Hospital officials confirmed the death toll.
Across Iraq, at least 200 people have been killed in a wave of attacks by suspected insurgents since the beginning of the year. Erupting just weeks after the last U.S. troops pulled out of the country, it has raised concerns that the surge in violence ? coupled with an escalating political crisis that cuts along sectarian lines ? might deteriorate into a civil war.
Most of the dead have been Shiite pilgrims and members of the Iraqi security forces.
Salam Hussein, a 42-year-old grocery store owner in Zafaraniyah, said he was watching Friday's funeral procession, which was heavily guarded by police, when the blast blew out his shop windows and wounded one of his workers.
"It was a huge explosion," Hussein said. As he took his employee to the hospital, Hussein said he saw cars engulfed in flames, "human flesh scattered around and several mutilated bodies in a pool of blood."
Officials at the Zafaraniyah General Hospital, where most of the dead and injured were taken, said the powerful blast shattered windows and damaged walls in the hospital, injuring a nurse and four patients who were being treated at the time of the attack.
Zafaraniyah resident Talib Bashir, 50, said he was part of the procession of about 500 men but had left the group to take his child home when he heard the blast.
"I saw smoke coming from a parked car that exploded," Bashir said, adding that police and civilians cars, an ambulance and several stores were engulfed in flames hours after the blast.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Minutes after the explosion, gunmen opened fire at a checkpoint in Zafaraniyah, killing two police officers, according to police officials. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.
Since the United States completed its pullout, militant groups ? mainly al-Qaida in Iraq ? have stepped up attacks targeting the country's majority Shiites to undermine confidence in the Shiite-led government and its efforts to protect people without American backup.
On Thursday, 17 people were killed in bombings around the country, including seven people in attacks on two of Baghdad's mostly Sunni districts, suggesting that Shiite militants could be retaliating for attacks against them.
Friday's blast was the second deadliest single attack in Iraq this month.
At least 53 people were killed Jan. 14, when a bomb tore through a procession of Shiite pilgrims heading toward a largely Sunni town in southern Iraq.
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Science magazine honors method that teaches essence of experimentation
Public release date: 26-Jan-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Natasha Pinol
npinol@aaas.org
202-326-7088
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Explorations in Physics brings inquiry experience to students who are not physics majors
Priscilla Laws' love of learning almost came to an abrupt end very early onwhen she left kindergarten, where learning was by doing, and entered first grade, where learning was rote. "They promoted me to first grade, and it was dreadful," says Laws, a research professor of physics at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania. "I was sitting in a seat and copying letters from a board."
Luckily, after heading to Reed College to study math, she discovered physics, which reawakened her creativity and love of learning by doing. Laws and two colleagues who had similar experiences with creativity and science learning, Dickinson Associate Professor of Physics David Jackson and Rochester Institute of Technology Professor of Physics Scott Franklin, are being honored for having developed an inquiry-focused curriculum for students who are not majors in science called Explorations in Physics (EiP). The curriculum is a winner of the Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction.
The Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction was developed to showcase outstanding materials, usable in a wide range of schools and settings, for teaching introductory college science courses. The materials must be effective at encouraging students' natural curiosity about how the world works, rather than at delivering facts and principles about what scientists have so far discovered. Organized as one free-standing "module," the materials should offer real understanding of the nature of science as well as providing an experience in generating and evaluating scientific evidence. Each month, Science publishes an essay by a recipient of the award, which explains the winning project. The essay about EiP will be published on January 27.
"We want to recognize innovators in science education, as well as the institutions that support them," says Bruce Alberts, editor-in-chief of Science. "At the same time, this competition will promote those inquiry-based laboratory modules with the most potential to benefit science students and teachers. The publication of an essay in Science on each winning module will encourage more college teachers to use these outstanding resources, thereby promoting science literacy."
Previous to working on EiP, Laws had been focused on an activity-based curriculum for physics majors, but an interest in the development of future teachers took her toward the idea of science curriculum materials for students who were not majoring in science. David Jackson, meanwhile, was finding as a graduate student at Princeton University that teaching science to students who weren't majoring in the sciences gave him great flexibility to explore different approaches.
"You didn't have to teach them X, Y, and Z," says Jackson. "I just kind of fell in love with that."
The three collaborators were all working on teaching physics through inquiry"to get students to think about concepts, rather than equations," Franklin saysby the time they began working as a team. They were also committed to "systematic research toward whether the approach was successful or not," he says.
The national dialogue around science education at the time EiP was first being developed fit well with the questions the three collaborators were exploring. U.S. science education seemed to need revamping, judging by students' test scores, the tendency for many students to "drop out" of science early in their academic careers, and the acceptance by the public of information with no evidence to back it up. The EiP developers asked themselves what people thought it meant to learn science and whether students recognized the importance of experiments in science.
Because of their realization that students needed above all to understand how science works in order to be able to make informed decisions about the issues that affect us all, the creators of EiP focused on guiding students directly to performing their own experiments. Rather than filling the students with facts and figures to memorize, like in a standard introductory science lecture class, a "guided inquiry" intro gave students only the very basic background needed to "scaffold" them in coming up with an experiment within a certain unit. An example of an EiP unit is one entitled "Light, Sight, and Rainbows," which explores the nature of light and its interaction with matter, how the eye organizes visual information from light, the properties of light that enable us to see colors, and natural phenomena such as rainbows, blue skies, and red sunsets.
"The whole approach was to save about one-third to one-half of the semester for the students to do their own experiment," Jackson says.
"Explorations in Physics serves as an alternative to 'science class as usual,'" says Melissa McCartney, editorial fellow at Science. "EiP enjoys the luxury of time, as it does not cover a complete physics curriculum, and 100 percent of in-class time can be spent working on inquiry-based student-directed projects."
The best projects, the team says, are those that the students come up with on their own, based on their own curiosity. "They have a strong interest in seeing the project through," says Franklin. "Because they have ownership, they're the experts. They can't say, 'Is this right?,' because the professor doesn't know if it's right. Only they do."
The hardest and most important step for students is figuring out what they're going to study and how they're going to do it.
"That is the hardest part of science," Franklin says. "This is the essence of science that we're trying to get across."
The developers of EiP have a goal that is expressed in the essay that will appear in Science. They hope the opportunity of becoming scientifically literate through self-directed exploration will be available "to students everywhere, helping them to use investigative skills in their future endeavors and to serve as scientifically literate citizens who contribute to the creation of a better world."
###
For more information about Explorations in Physics, go to http://physics.dickinson.edu/~eip_web/resources.html.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science as well as Science Translational Medicine and Science Signaling. AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy; international programs; science education; and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, www.eurekalert.org, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.
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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-Jan-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Natasha Pinol
npinol@aaas.org
202-326-7088
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Explorations in Physics brings inquiry experience to students who are not physics majors
Priscilla Laws' love of learning almost came to an abrupt end very early onwhen she left kindergarten, where learning was by doing, and entered first grade, where learning was rote. "They promoted me to first grade, and it was dreadful," says Laws, a research professor of physics at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania. "I was sitting in a seat and copying letters from a board."
Luckily, after heading to Reed College to study math, she discovered physics, which reawakened her creativity and love of learning by doing. Laws and two colleagues who had similar experiences with creativity and science learning, Dickinson Associate Professor of Physics David Jackson and Rochester Institute of Technology Professor of Physics Scott Franklin, are being honored for having developed an inquiry-focused curriculum for students who are not majors in science called Explorations in Physics (EiP). The curriculum is a winner of the Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction.
The Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction was developed to showcase outstanding materials, usable in a wide range of schools and settings, for teaching introductory college science courses. The materials must be effective at encouraging students' natural curiosity about how the world works, rather than at delivering facts and principles about what scientists have so far discovered. Organized as one free-standing "module," the materials should offer real understanding of the nature of science as well as providing an experience in generating and evaluating scientific evidence. Each month, Science publishes an essay by a recipient of the award, which explains the winning project. The essay about EiP will be published on January 27.
"We want to recognize innovators in science education, as well as the institutions that support them," says Bruce Alberts, editor-in-chief of Science. "At the same time, this competition will promote those inquiry-based laboratory modules with the most potential to benefit science students and teachers. The publication of an essay in Science on each winning module will encourage more college teachers to use these outstanding resources, thereby promoting science literacy."
Previous to working on EiP, Laws had been focused on an activity-based curriculum for physics majors, but an interest in the development of future teachers took her toward the idea of science curriculum materials for students who were not majoring in science. David Jackson, meanwhile, was finding as a graduate student at Princeton University that teaching science to students who weren't majoring in the sciences gave him great flexibility to explore different approaches.
"You didn't have to teach them X, Y, and Z," says Jackson. "I just kind of fell in love with that."
The three collaborators were all working on teaching physics through inquiry"to get students to think about concepts, rather than equations," Franklin saysby the time they began working as a team. They were also committed to "systematic research toward whether the approach was successful or not," he says.
The national dialogue around science education at the time EiP was first being developed fit well with the questions the three collaborators were exploring. U.S. science education seemed to need revamping, judging by students' test scores, the tendency for many students to "drop out" of science early in their academic careers, and the acceptance by the public of information with no evidence to back it up. The EiP developers asked themselves what people thought it meant to learn science and whether students recognized the importance of experiments in science.
Because of their realization that students needed above all to understand how science works in order to be able to make informed decisions about the issues that affect us all, the creators of EiP focused on guiding students directly to performing their own experiments. Rather than filling the students with facts and figures to memorize, like in a standard introductory science lecture class, a "guided inquiry" intro gave students only the very basic background needed to "scaffold" them in coming up with an experiment within a certain unit. An example of an EiP unit is one entitled "Light, Sight, and Rainbows," which explores the nature of light and its interaction with matter, how the eye organizes visual information from light, the properties of light that enable us to see colors, and natural phenomena such as rainbows, blue skies, and red sunsets.
"The whole approach was to save about one-third to one-half of the semester for the students to do their own experiment," Jackson says.
"Explorations in Physics serves as an alternative to 'science class as usual,'" says Melissa McCartney, editorial fellow at Science. "EiP enjoys the luxury of time, as it does not cover a complete physics curriculum, and 100 percent of in-class time can be spent working on inquiry-based student-directed projects."
The best projects, the team says, are those that the students come up with on their own, based on their own curiosity. "They have a strong interest in seeing the project through," says Franklin. "Because they have ownership, they're the experts. They can't say, 'Is this right?,' because the professor doesn't know if it's right. Only they do."
The hardest and most important step for students is figuring out what they're going to study and how they're going to do it.
"That is the hardest part of science," Franklin says. "This is the essence of science that we're trying to get across."
The developers of EiP have a goal that is expressed in the essay that will appear in Science. They hope the opportunity of becoming scientifically literate through self-directed exploration will be available "to students everywhere, helping them to use investigative skills in their future endeavors and to serve as scientifically literate citizens who contribute to the creation of a better world."
###
For more information about Explorations in Physics, go to http://physics.dickinson.edu/~eip_web/resources.html.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science as well as Science Translational Medicine and Science Signaling. AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy; international programs; science education; and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, www.eurekalert.org, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.
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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/aaft-mh012012.php
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Romney's mountain of wealth could cause loud echo (AP)
WASHINGTON ? Mitt Romney's tax returns tell the tale: Yes, he's rich ? really rich.
His returns, spanning more than 500 pages and released under political pressure Tuesday, represent an extraordinary financial accounting of one of the wealthiest U.S. presidential candidates in generations, with his annual income topping $20 million.
It remains unclear how the details of Romney's fortune will play among American workers, who on average earn less in a lifetime than Romney paid in taxes in 2010 alone. Meanwhile, the typical taxpayer pays a similar share of his income to Uncle Sam as he does, roughly 15 percent.
Romney's returns ? which include a 2011 tax estimate ? spilled out new details of his scattered holdings, tax strategies and charitable donations. Romney paid about $3 million in federal income taxes in 2010, having earned more than seven times that from his investments.
The documents quickly became fodder for his opponents, with Democrats chiding the former Massachusetts governor for not disclosing more about his financial history. The White House also weighed in about tax fairness as President Barack Obama prepared for his State of the Union Address.
Romney is hardly the only wealthy American seeking the presidency, though he's on a level all his own.
Republican rival Newt Gingrich, who had publicly pressed him to release his tax information, released his own return for 2010 last week. It revealed that Gingrich earned more than $3.1 million, mostly from $2.5 million paid by his companies, partnerships and investments, and paid just under $1 million in federal tax, a rate of about 31 percent.
Obama and his wife, Michelle, reported income of $1.73 million last year, mostly from the books he's written, and paid $453,770 in federal taxes.
Romney's tax returns showed he continues to profit from Bain Capital, the private equity firm he founded but no longer runs; from a Swiss bank account closed just as he launched his campaign and from new listings of investment funds set up overseas.
Romney had long refused to disclose any federal tax returns, then hinted he would offer a single year's return in April. Yet mounting criticism from his rivals and a hard loss in last week's South Carolina primary forced his hand.
"Governor Romney has paid 100 percent of what he owes," said Benjamin Ginsberg, the campaign's legal counsel. Ginsberg and other advisers said Romney did not use any aggressive tax strategies to help reduce or defer his tax income.
For 2011, Romney will pay about $3.2 million with an effective tax rate of about 15.4 percent, the campaign said. Those returns haven't yet been filed yet with the Internal Revenue Service. In total, he would pay more than $6.2 million in taxes on $45 million in income over the past two years, his campaign said.
Romney had been cast by his GOP opponents as a wealthy businessman who earned lucrative payouts from his investments while Bain slashed jobs in the private sector. Romney concedes that some companies Bain invested in were unsuccessful but says others created large numbers of jobs.
As for his own tax payments, he said in Monday night's debate in Tampa, "I pay all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more. ... I don't think you want someone as the candidate for president who pays more taxes than he owes."
He added, "You'll see my income, how much taxes I've paid, how much I've paid to charity."
Romney's 2010 return showed about $4.5 million in itemized deductions, including $1.5 million contributed to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Romney's charitable giving is above average, even for someone at his income level, according to IRS data.
Romney's GOP rivals did not immediately comment on his tax disclosures. But House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, defended him, telling reporters that Romney's tax rate is close to the 15 percent rate most Americans pay on long-term capital gains from the sale of investments.
Romney's advisers stressed that he met all his federal tax obligations, provided maximum transparency and did not take advantage of what they described as "aggressive" strategies often used by the ultra-rich. Still, for millions of taxpayers grappling with their own returns as tax season looms, Romney's multimillion dollar wealth provides a window into an unfamiliar world.
His 2010 return shows a number of foreign investments, including funds in Ireland, Switzerland, Germany and Luxembourg. Most of Romney's vast fortune is held in a blind trust that he doesn't control. A portion is held in a retirement account.
Romney's advisers acknowledged Tuesday that Romney and his wife, Ann, had a bank account in Switzerland as part of her trust. The account was worth $3 million and was held in the United Bank of Switzerland, said R. Bradford Malt, a Boston lawyer who makes investments for the Romneys and oversees their blind trust, which was set up to avoid any conflicts of interest in investments during his run for the presidency.
In 2009, UBS admitted assisting U.S. citizens in evading taxes and agreed to pay a $780 million penalty as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department.
The political discussion over releasing Romney's tax information highlighted an argument that Democrats are already starting to use against him ? that he is out of touch with normal Americans. And it may well have hurt him in the South Carolina primary, where he lost by 12 percentage points to Gingrich after spending several days resisting calls to release the returns.
Asked during a round of television interviews about Romney's relatively modest tax rate, Obama adviser David Plouffe said: "We need to change our tax system. We need to change our tax code so that everybody is doing their fair share." Obama planned to talk about economic fairness in his State of the Union speech to Congress Tuesday night.
Other Democratic Party voices were less restrained. "He used every loophole in the book available to the wealthy and corporations to avoid paying his fair share," said Democratic National Committee Executive Director Patrick Gaspard.
On the other hand, Romney's wife, Ann, had told supporters at a Florida rally on Sunday: "I want to remind you where we know our riches are. Our riches are with our families."
___
Associated Press writers Stephen Ohlemacher and Alan Fram in Washington and Kasie Hunt in Tampa, contributed.
___
Follow Jack Gillum at http://twitter.com/jackgillum
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Spanish police nab suspect in jeweler shooting
By WNBC New York and msnbc.com staff reports
?
A man suspected of killing a jeweler in the tony town of Westport, Conn., last month and stealing $300,000-worth of diamonds has been arrested in Spain, federal authorities said.
Andrew Robert Levene, 41, was charged Tuesday?with shooting and killing Yekutiel Zeevi, 65, at Zeevi?s office in a shopping center on Dec. 8. It was the first murder in Westport, former home of domestic guru Martha Stewart, since 1996.
According to a federal criminal complaint filed in Washington, D.C., and reported by the Connecticut Post, Levene met with Zeevi in the shop, located in a locked second-floor suite, pretending he was going to purchase several large diamonds he had arranged to buy earlier that?month.
Once inside, he pulled out a gun and shot Zeevi and a business associate, authorities said.
Levene fled the U.S. on a flight from Philadelphia to the Netherlands and then went on to Spain, authorities allege.? He was arrested by Spanish national police on Monday.?
U.S. Attorney for Connecticut David Fein said Levene will face federal murder and attempted murder charges.? It was not immediately clear when Levene might be sent back to Connecticut for trial or whether he had an attorney.
Zeevi's business associate, Ronen Konfino, 48, of New York City, survived the shooting and had been able to help police with their?investigation, the Connecticut Post reported.
Use of a firearm
Levene was formally charged with one count of federal murder, one count of attempted murder, one count of causing death through the use of a firearm and one count of interference with commerce through robbery, Fein said.
According to the Post, authorities said that Levene contacted Zeevi's business in early December and asked Zeevi if he could find diamonds between 2 and 3 carats in size and valued between $45,000 and $75,000. On Dec. 7, Zeevi and Konfino met Levene, who examined the diamonds, but told the owner he would have to "sleep on it" before making a purchase, according to the?documents.
The next day, six diamonds with a total value of approximately $300,000 were shown to Levene, who then pulled out a gun and shot both Zeevi and Konfino, according to the documents. Zeevi was pronounced dead after being taken to Norwalk Hospital, where Konfino was also treated and later?released.
Eileen Rosen, a friend of the family, told the Post that she was "thrilled that they found him; this is great news for the family. He was very close with his wife. Nothing can bring him back, her heart will ache forever, but I'm just so thrilled that they found him. Everybody in the community loves?him."
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Supreme Court rules: Warrant needed for GPS tracking
WASHINGTON?? The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that police must get a search warrant before using GPS technology to track criminal suspects.
The ruling represents a serious complication for law enforcement nationwide, which increasingly relies on high tech surveillance of suspects, including the use of various types of satellite technology.
A GPS device installed by police on Washington nightclub owner Antoine Jones' Jeep helped them link him to a suburban house used to stash money and drugs. He was sentenced to life in prison before the appeals court overturned the conviction.
Associate Justice Antonin Scalia said that the government's installation of a GPS device, and its use to monitor the vehicle's movements, constitutes a search, meaning that a warrant is required.
"By attaching the device to the Jeep" that Jones was using, "officers encroached on a protected area," Scalia wrote. He concluded that the installation of the device on the vehicle without a warrant was a trespass and therefore an illegal search.
All nine justices agreed that the GPS monitoring on the Jeep violated the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable search and seizure.
Scalia wrote the main opinion of three in the case. He was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor.
Story: 7 signs we're living in the post-privacy era
Sotomayor also wrote one of the two concurring opinions that agreed with the outcome in the Jones case for different reasons.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote, in the other concurring opinion, that the trespass was not as important as the suspect's expectation of privacy and that the long-term duration of the surveillance impinged on that expectation of privacy. Police monitored the Jeep's movements over the course of four weeks after attaching the GPS device.
"The use of longer term GPS monitoring in investigations of most offenses impinges on expectations of privacy," Alito wrote in an opinion joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan. Sotomayor in her concurring opinion specifically said she agreed with Alito on this conclusion.
Alito added, "We need not identify with precision the point at which the tracking of this vehicle became a search, for the line was surely crossed before the four-week mark."
Story: Has the government attached GPS to your car?
Regarding the issue of duration, Scalia wrote that "we may have to grapple" with those issues in the future, "but there is no reason for rushing forward to resolve them here."
Alito also said the court should address how expectations of privacy affect whether warrants are required for remote surveillance using electronic methods that do not require the police to install equipment, such as GPS tracking of mobile telephones.
A federal appeals court in Washington had overturned Jones's drug conspiracy conviction because police did not have a warrant when they installed a GPS device on his vehicle and then tracked his movements for a month. The Supreme Court agreed with the appeals court.
Related:
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46101025/ns/technology_and_science-security/
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Lifelong brain-stimulating habits linked to lower Alzheimer's protein levels
ScienceDaily (Jan. 23, 2012) ? A new study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, provides even more reason for people to read a book or do a puzzle, and to make such activities a lifetime habit.
Brain scans revealed that people with no symptoms of Alzheimer's who engaged in cognitively stimulating activities throughout their lives had fewer deposits of beta-amyloid, a destructive protein that is the hallmark of the disease.
While previous research has suggested that engaging in mentally stimulating activities -- such as reading, writing and playing games -- may help stave off Alzheimer's later in life, this new study identifies the biological target at play. This discovery could guide future research into effective prevention strategies.
"These findings point to a new way of thinking about how cognitive engagement throughout life affects the brain," said study principal investigator Dr. William Jagust, a professor with joint appointments at UC Berkeley's Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, the School of Public Health and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "Rather than simply providing resistance to Alzheimer's, brain-stimulating activities may affect a primary pathological process in the disease. This suggests that cognitive therapies could have significant disease-modifying treatment benefits if applied early enough, before symptoms appear."
An estimated 5.4 million Americans live with Alzheimer's disease, but the numbers are growing as baby boomers age. Between 2000 and 2008, deaths from Alzheimer's increased 66 percent, making it the sixth-leading killer in the country. There is currently no cure, but a draft of the first-ever National Alzheimer's Plan, released this week, revealed that the U.S. government is aiming for effective Alzheimer's treatments by 2025.
The new study, published Jan. 23 in the Archives of Neurology, puts the spotlight on amyloid -- protein fibers folded into tangled plaques that accumulate in the brain. Beta-amyloid is considered the top suspect in the pathology of Alzheimer's disease, so finding a way to reduce its development has become a major new direction of research.
The researchers note that the buildup of amyloid can also be influenced by genes and aging -- one-third of people age 60 and over have some amyloid deposits in their brain -- but how much reading and writing one does is under each individual's control.
"This is the first time cognitive activity level has been related to amyloid buildup in the brain," said study lead author Susan Landau, research scientist at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute and the Berkeley Lab. "Amyloid probably starts accumulating many years before symptoms appear. So it's possible that by the time you have symptoms of Alzheimer's, like memory problems, there is little that can be done to stop disease progression. The time for intervention may be much sooner, which is why we're trying to identify whether lifestyle factors might be related to the earliest possible changes."
The researchers asked 65 healthy, cognitively normal adults aged 60 and over (average age was 76) to rate how frequently they participated in such mentally engaging activities as going to the library, reading books or newspapers, and writing letters or email. The questions focused on various points in life from age 6 to the present.
The participants took part in extensive neuropsychological testing to assess memory and other cognitive functions, and received positron emission tomography (PET) scans at the Berkeley Lab using a new tracer called Pittsburgh Compound B that was developed to visualize amyloid. The results of the brain scans of healthy older individuals with various levels of lifetime cognitive activity were compared with those of 10 patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and 11 healthy people in their 20s.
The researchers found a significant association between higher levels of cognitive activity over a lifetime and lower levels of beta-amyloid in the PET scans. They analyzed the impact of other factors such as memory function, physical activity, self-rated memory ability, level of education and gender, and found that lifelong cognitive engagement was independently linked to amyloid deposition.
Notably, the researchers did not find a strong connection between amyloid deposition and levels of current cognitive activity alone.
"What our data suggests is that a whole lifetime of engaging in these activities has a bigger effect than being cognitively active just in older age," said Landau.
The researchers are careful to point out that the study does not negate the benefits of kicking up brain activity in later years.
"There is no downside to cognitive activity. It can only be beneficial, even if for reasons other than reducing amyloid in the brain, including social stimulation and empowerment," said Jagust. "And actually, cognitive activity late in life may well turn out to be beneficial for reducing amyloid. We just haven't found that connection yet."
Other study authors include researchers from UC San Francisco's Memory and Aging Center and Department of Neurology, and Rush University Medical Center's Alzheimer's Disease Center in Chicago.
The National Institutes of Health and the Alzheimer's Association helped support this research.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Berkeley. The original article was written by Sarah Yang.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Susan M. Landau; Shawn M. Marks; Elizabeth C. Mormino; Gil D. Rabinovici; Hwamee Oh; James P. O?Neil; Robert S. Wilson; William J. Jagust. Association of Lifetime Cognitive Engagement and Low ?-Amyloid Deposition. Archives of Neurology, 2012; DOI: 10.1001/archneurol.2011.2748
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
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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Monday, January 23, 2012
Time for robots to get real
Drop the gimmicks, focus on practical problem-solving, and robotics can change the world
FROM robotic slug-killers to dancing humanoids, there's a lot of media buzz around robots. But the roboticists behind such ventures need a serious reality check.
As a founder of iRobot Corporation, based in Bedford, Massachusetts, and CEO of robotics start-up CyPhy Works, it's clear to me that merely engineering "cool" robots does little to advance the field. If robotics is to succeed like computing, what matters is making practical robots that do jobs well and affordably - factors that tend to get lost as people fascinate over the latest autonomous party pieces.
The importance of focusing on practicality struck us during iRobot's formative years in the 1990s, when we were engineering robots as toys, oil-well surveyors and commercial cleaners for industry-leading firms. Why? Companies would only pay good money for practical designs that performed reliably.
Roboticists who don't focus on practicality, ruggedness and cost are kidding themselves. Simply put, people don't want outlandish machines in their homes. Before iRobot introduced the Roomba vacuuming robot in 2002, focus groups imagined it would look like the Terminator pushing a vacuum cleaner - and told us they would not accept such machines in their homes. But when we showed them that Roomba was small, light and friendly, they loved it.
Another benefit of practicality was seen last year, when iRobot's military robots, originally deployed in Afghanistan to defuse improvised explosive devices, proved very useful to the human teams dealing with the nuclear emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan. As a result, many in Japan have questioned the nation's research focus on singing, running and dancing humanoid robots. It looks like change is afoot there.
This is to be welcomed because at this point, attempting to duplicate human intelligence or the human form robotically is a wrong-headed approach. We already have about 7 billion humans on the planet and we are really good at what we do. To sell humanoid robots they would have to be better than people - and that is just not realistic yet.
Software standardisation, around the Robot Operating System and Linux, for instance, will help developers focus on the practical. This is a tremendous move because engineers, particularly in research universities, won't have to start coding from the ground up to build their own robots. Instead, their challenge will be to build software packages small enough to run on affordable processors, and robots that avoid the common embarrassment of being wimpy and underpowered with limited usage time.
By focusing on bringing robots to market, innovators will be able to put the industry firmly on the commercially viable, world-changing track it deserves.
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
U.S. gives church groups a year on birth control rule (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The Obama administration on Friday ruled that religiously affiliated nonprofit organizations, including hospitals and universities, will have to offer birth-control coverage to women employees but gave the organizations an extra year to comply.
In a decision expected to draw opposition from religious conservatives, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a final rule requiring affiliated groups to provide a broad range of services, from implanted contraceptive devices to the morning-after pill. Many do not at present.
The government's decision does not apply to churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and some religiously-affiliated elementary and secondary schools, which remain exempt.
But it comes as a blow to the interests of some religious authorities.
When HHS first announced plans to adopt the birth control rule last August, it stirred protests from religious groups including the Roman Catholic Church that wanted the exemption to apply to a broader category of organizations. The Catholic Church holds contraception to be sinful.
The change, intended to reduce unwanted pregnancies and abortions, is part of President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul, his signature domestic policy achievement, which is facing major challenges from the Supreme Court and Republicans this year as the president seeks re-election.
"This decision was made after very careful consideration, including the important concerns some have raised about religious liberty," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement.
"This proposal strikes the appropriate balance between respecting religious freedom and increasing access to important preventive services."
Religious-affiliated nonprofit organizations, many of which currently do not offer birth control coverage, have until August 1, 2013, to comply with the new rule. Other employers must begin covering the services from August 1, 2012.
(Reporting By David Morgan; Editing by Vicki Allen)
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