It's been a couple of years since the self-described conservative considered herself a Republican, but she still often votes for GOP candidates. That's partly because of their tough stands against illegal immigration, which the retired teacher's aide blames for ruining her Southern California hometown and fears could threaten the Colorado mountain community where she now lives.
But Lich and voters like her are watching with despair as more and more Republican politicians edge toward a bipartisan plan that includes a pathway to citizenship for many of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. "If the GOP agrees on this amnesty, they're selling out their core values," Lich said. "They'd lose us. They'd lose the votes of people who support them, and they're not going to gain a lot of votes."
Demographics and election returns are pushing Republican leaders away from people like Lich. In 2007, a grass-roots rebellion led Republicans to reject then-President George W. Bush's immigration overhaul because it included a process in which otherwise law-abiding illegal immigrants could eventually become U.S. citizens. Activists derided the provision as an "amnesty." After tea party groups toppled various Republicans in primaries over their dovish immigration stands, the party's rhetoric and proposals became increasingly tough.
That's changed since the drubbing the GOP took last November. Mitt Romney received underwhelming support from voters in the two fastest-growing minority groups: 27 percent of Hispanic voters and an even smaller share from Asians, according to exit polls. In contrast, George W. Bush won an estimated 44 percent of the Hispanic vote in his 2004 re-election.
Prominent Republicans, from television commentator Sean Hannity to former vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, now support legalizing the status of some illegal immigrants. The outline of a bill to do just that was unveiled Monday by a group of eight senators, four from each party, and President Barack Obama reiterated his support for a similar overhaul Tuesday. Even in the Republican-controlled House, a half-dozen bipartisan members are nearing completion on wide-ranging legislation that would include a pathway to legalize the immigration status of those here without authorization.
It's unclear what, if any, immigration bill could pass Congress. Still, the shift in tone signals to some who favor tighter restrictions on immigration that parts of the Republican Party are ready to cave. That'd be a dangerous move, they warn, arguing that Hispanics strongly support Obama's health care law and other Democratic initiatives and are unlikely to ever back Republicans in significant numbers. They also warn that the party will squander a valuable resource by alienating its base.
"I don't know how you can even quantify the loss of enthusiasm," said former Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, a longtime thorn in party elders' sides for his aggressive stance on illegal immigration. "You're not going to knock on any doors, make any phone calls or give any money."
Other Republicans dismiss that worry. "Where else are they going to go?" asked Sig Rogich, a veteran Las Vegas-based Republican operative who has long pushed for a more immigrant-friendly GOP. "They'll get over it."
Immigration restriction activists ? they don't like being called "anti-immigrant" or "hard-liners" ? lack the organizational heft of labor unions, business organizations and religious groups, their primary opponents in this debate. Nonetheless, for years they were able to block an immigration overhaul that included some kind of legalized status.
But polls show public opinion may have turned against them. An AP-GfK poll last week found 62 percent of Americans ? and 53 percent of Republicans ? support a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. That's up 10 points and 22 points respectively from 2010.
"The economy's terrible, people are struggling and hurting. It's hard to go out and do what we were doing, at the same level, before," said Michelle Dallacroce, an Arizona-based activist who had to take down the website for her group, Mothers Against Illegal Amnesty, because donations dried up. "We're losing. We don't have a voice anymore."
Others are less worried. Rosemary Jenks, director of governmental relations for the Numbers USA, a group that favors tightening immigration restrictions, said the same popular rebellion that deadlocked Congress over Bush's immigration proposal also will stop Obama's, regardless of demographic trends and the November's election results. She noted that some Democrats, too, oppose a big bill.
"It's going to be the same Republicans on the amnesty side and the same Democrats on our side," she said.
Still, the tea party chat rooms and message boards Virginia Gomez reads are full of foreboding that some Republicans are changing their stance on the issue. "They have moved away from securing the border and standing firm," said Gomez, 67, who recently retired from a banking job in Illinois and moved to rural Utah. "They are trying to cater more to the people who are here illegally, but they are alienating people like myself, Hispanics who are born here in this country."
Michael Long, a retired Air Force employee in Colorado Springs who actively monitors the immigration debate, is resigned to the GOP cutting a deal. His antipathy for the idea is balanced by his respect for Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a point man on the bipartisan agreement, and his understanding of political realities.
"The last election scared the heck out of Republicans, and the numbers aren't going to go down for the Latino vote," said Long, 50.
Jan Taylor also expects her side to lose the political battle. She worked at an American consulate in Mexico during the last major immigration deal, in 1986, when President Ronald Reagan signed a bill that allowed 3 million illegal immigrants to become U.S. citizens. She remembers the stampede of people brandishing what she described as clearly forged papers showing they qualified for the amnesty. "It was kind of a game," she recalled.
Now, at 71, she's retired, living in Colorado Springs and dismayed the country may go down a similar road. For years, she's written to congressional and state representatives urging tougher enforcement of existing immigration laws and warning against another amnesty. She's not sure what else she can do.
"I'm only one person," Taylor said.
___
Follow Nicholas Riccardi on Twitter at https://twitter.com/NickRiccardi .
On January 16th, 2013 I sent this letter to President Obama both through the mail and also to one of his administrative staff via email. Not surprisingly, I have not recived a response from President Obama nor anybody from his administration.
I ask you to stand with me against any executive order which would deny any citizen their rights gauranteed by the Constitution of the United States of America.
Mistakes Are Costing You! Learn To Stop?Making ALL 189 Of Them!
Struggling With WordPress? 100+ Step-By-Step Videos Now Available!
Posted by Administrator on Jan 29, 2013 in Uncategorized | Comments Off
Are you looking for information on Internet marketing? We will now outline some tips that will help you understand things better.
Know your competition! This is true in Website marketing as well as any other business. Find out what steps they are taking and what is working and not working for them. Observation of the way others in your field are doing business can provide much valuable insight. Checking out competitors can help you avoid mistakes they?ve made and set yourself apart from them.
Make it easy for others to link their websites to yours by using a linking button. People who have a site that is related to your business in some way will often want to help out by using the add on their own site for their visitors to see.
TIP! Try and implement emotional descriptors in your ads as a means of selling more products. This helps you concentrate on building brand recognition.
For successful Internet promotion, you have to make the most of your website. There are many things you can do such as, changing up the color schemes and fonts, and just designing it in different ways that make the products stand out much better. Keep that in mind when you are building your site.
One of the best ways to ensure success with you business, would be to ?know your competition.? Figure out what they are doing and what?s working for them, and do the same thing, but better. If you are aware of what they are selling and know you can do something a bit better, then you can be very profitable and surpass them in sales. Another way to increase your profits is by offering your goods and services at a lower or comparable price to that of your competitors.
Promotions and sales can help to boost your PageRank. You can buy a page ranking if you have a good enough deal. This is essentially the same as the loss leader sales engaged in by many big brick and mortar stores.
TIP! Illustrate every product?s quality with crisp, clear photographs. A clear and crisp graphic of your product will be appreciated by your customers.
You can use organic methods to increase the visibility of your business and you can pay to advertise online. This can be done through companies like Google?s AdSense. You just need to do the work of creating the ad up front, and let them do the rest of the work for you with the sharing of your information with potential customers afterward.
Whenever you correspond online, include links to your business webpage in your signature. If you participate in forums, place a link to your site in the signature of your posts. Also, put your business link in your outgoing mail signature. This is a way to subtly advertise your website and could increase your ratings in search engines too. Above your link, make sure that there is an interesting line that will make them want to click it.
Try exploring mobile marketing. You can give your site visitors the opportunity to get text alerts when a special sale is going on or when a new product is launched. It is one of the newest ways of advertising and it is going to help you in your online marketing campaign.
TIP! Learn how to use your email to benefit your business. When you send emails to your customers, make it newsletter style and interesting.
You can read studies that been done on the psychological impact of web design and it?s effects on Online marketing. Psychology can play a part in the way someone looks at your site, depending on a lot of different factors. Knowing this information will prove very valuable towards increasing your profit margin.
You normally do not want to mix pleasure and business, but in this instance, you may want to. This is because it can be seen as a lucrative hobby and high-pressure in regards to work is not prevalent. Do this along with the help of your husband or wife.
TIP! Here is a tip for internet marketing! Make sure you know what you want your customers to do when they land on your site. The webpage is purely about sales; nothing more, nothing less.
In conclusion, we have provided you with some important factors regarding Internet promotion. Make the most of this information and apply it to your current strategy. Use this advice and find success with your Internet promotion efforts.
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The Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM ($599.99 direct) is a telephoto lens for Canon cameras that can focus close enough to capture objects with true 1:1 magnfiication. It is adequately sharp, even at its maximum aperture, but does suffer from some optical issues in certain high-contrast situations. There are other macro lenses of similar focal lengths available for Canon cameras, including the company's own EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM?part of its top-end L series of lenses?as well as the manual focus Carl Zeiss Makro-Planar T* 2/100?but both will put a bigger dent in your wallet than this relatively inexpensive lens.
The lens is rather compact when you consider its focal length, aperture, and close focus capability. It measures 4.7 by 3.1 inches (HD) and weighs about 1.3 pounds. Standard 58mm filters are supported, and the front element doesn't rotate so using a polarizing filter is possible if desired. There is a focus limiter switch on the lens, so you can set it to seek focus over its entire range, or to restrict it to close focus only. A lens hood, which will reduce the chance of flares and improve image contrast, is not included.
I used Imatest to check the sharpness of the lens when paired with the full-frame Canon EOS 6D. It just crossed the 1,800 lines per picture height barrier at f/2.8, which is what we require to define an image as sharp using a center-weighted algorithm. Stopping down to f/4 improves the score to 2,152 lines, and the lens performs at its best at f/8, where it nears 2,500 lines. Distortion is not an issue, but the lens is prone to color fringing when shooting high-contrast scenes?this can be corrected in Lightroom, but requires a little bit of work with sliders to remove the unwanted purple and green aberrations. The Zeiss Makro-Planar opens up to f/2?capturing twice the light as this lens?and is sharper at both f/2 and f/2.8. It isn't prone to color fringing, but only offers 1:2 magnification and doesn't support autofocus.
The Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM is the lesser-loved of Canon's pair of 100mm macro lenses. Its more expensive sibling, the EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, adds image stabilization and uses a more complicated optical design?but it costs $1,049. There's also the manual focus Zeiss Marko-Planar?it has a faster aperture and is impressively sharp, but costs $1,843 and only supports 1:2 magnification. The EF 100mm f/2.8 isn't the best macro lens that you can buy, but it's adequately sharp and delivers true 1:1 magnification.
More Digital Camera Reviews: ??? Canon EF 20mm f/2.8 USM ??? Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM ??? Canon TS-E 90mm f/2.8 ??? Canon EF 180mm Macro f/3.5L USM ??? Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM ?? more
Study shows potential of differentiated iPS cells in cell therapy without immune rejection
Monday, January 28, 2013
A new study from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) shows that tissues derived from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells in an experimental model were not rejected when transplanted back into genetically identical recipients. The study, published online in Cell Stem Cell, demonstrates the potential of utilizing iPS cells to develop cell types that could offer treatment for a wide range of conditions, including diabetes, liver and lung diseases, without the barrier of immune rejection.
Ashleigh Boyd, DPhil, and Neil Rodrigues, DPhil, the study's senior authors, are assistant professors of dermatology at BUSM and researchers at the Center for Regenerative Medicine (CReM) at Boston University and Boston Medical Center (BMC). They also are lead investigators at the National Institutes of Health's Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) at Roger Williams Medical Center, a clinical and research affiliate of BUSM.
iPS cells can be developed from adult cell types, such as skin or blood, by returning them to a stem cell state using genetic manipulation. iPS cells are capable of maturing (differentiating) into all the specific cell types in the body, making them a powerful tool for biological research and a source of tissues for transplantation based therapies. Given that iPS cells can be made in a patient-specific manner, there should be great potential for them to be transplanted back into the same patient without rejection. Yet a study published in Nature in 2011 demonstrated that iPS cells transplanted in the stem cell state were rejected in genetically identical recipients.
"The Nature study provocatively suggested that tissues derived from patient-specific iPS cells may be immunogenic after transplantation. However, it never directly assessed the immunogenicity of the therapeutically relevant cell types that could be utilized in regenerative medicine and transplantation," said Rodrigues.
The BUSM researchers evaluated this matter by taking adult cells from an experimental model and deriving iPS cells from them. They then differentiated the iPS cells into three cell types: neuronal (nerve); hepatocytes (liver); and endothelial (blood vessel lining) cells. These three cell types represent each of the three germ layers present during embryonic development ? mesoderm, ectoderm and endoderm. Cells from these layers differentiate and ultimately develop into the body's tissue and organ systems. Using experiments to mirror the potential clinical use of patient-specific iPS cells in cell therapy, the team transplanted each of the differentiated cells into a genetically identical experimental model and found no signs of an elevated immune response or indications of rejection.
The study results suggest that using patient-specific iPS cells should overcome issues of immune rejection in transplantation, which will be a significant problem for potential embryonic stem cell-derived therapies. Immune rejection in transplantation is treated clinically by immunosuppressive drugs but they can have serious side-effects, including the risk of developing cancer.
"If the use of immunosuppressive drugs can be avoided, as may be the case for patient-specific iPS cell based therapies, it would be preferable. Our results are very promising and future work should be directed at assessing whether tissues derived from human iPS cells will similarly lack immunogenicity," said Boyd.
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Boston University Medical Center: http://www.bmc.org
Thanks to Boston University Medical Center 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.
Invites to HTC events on Feb. 19 have just arrived in our inbox -- one in London, another in New York City. Looks like that rumored M7 handset could be on the way!
A popular dog treat, the "bully stick," could be adding more calories than pet owners realize and possibly be contaminated by bacteria, according to a study published this month by researchers at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and the University of Guelph. Credit: Tufts University
A popular dog treat could be adding more calories than pet owners realize, and possibly be contaminated by bacteria, according to a study published this month by researchers at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and the University of Guelph.
The treat in question: the "bully" or "pizzle stick." The American and Canadian researchers analyzed the caloric density and bacterial contamination of these popular items, made from the uncooked, dried penis of a bull or steer. They also administered a survey to pet owners to assess their knowledge of these treats.
The study, published in the January 2013 issue of the Canadian Veterinary Journal, examined 26 bully sticks purchased from retailers in the United States and Canada and made by different manufacturers.
A random subset of the 26 bully sticks was tested for caloric content. These bully sticks tested contained between nine to 22 calories per inch, meaning the average six inch stick packed 88 calories?nine percent of the daily calorie requirements for a 50-pound dog, and 30 percent of the daily calorie requirements for a 10-pound dog.
"While calorie information isn't currently required on pet treats or most pet foods, these findings reinforce that veterinarians and pet owners need to be aware of pet treats like these bully sticks as a source of calories in a dog's diet," said Lisa M. Freeman, DVM, PhD, DACVN, professor of nutrition at TCSVM who is board-certified by the American College of Veterinary Nutrition.
Freeman was first author on the paper. Co-authors were J. Scott Weese, professor in the Department of Pathobiology at the University of Guelph, and Nicol Janecko, a research associate at the Canadian university.
"With obesity in pets on the rise, it is important for pet owners to factor in not only their dog's food, but also treats and table food," Freeman added.
All 26 treats were tested for bacterial contaminants. One (4 percent) of the sticks was contaminated with Clostridium difficile; one (four percent) was contaminated with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a type of staph bacteria that is resistant to certain antibiotics; and seven (27 percent) were contaminated with Escherichia coli, including one tetracycline-resistant sample.
The number of treats sampled was small and not all of these bacterial strains have been shown to infect humans. However, the researchers advise all pet owners to wash their hands after touching such treats, as they would with any raw meat or raw meat diets. The very young, elderly, pregnant, immunocompromised and other high-risk individuals should avoid all contact with raw animal-product based treats and raw meat diets, note the scientists.
To learn more about veterinarian and pet owner perceptions of dog foods and treats, the research team developed a 20-question Web-based survey. The survey was posted online for public participation for 60 days and all responses were anonymous. It was completed by 852 adults from 44 states and six countries. Most respondents were female dog owners.
"We were surprised at the clear misconceptions pet owners and veterinarians have with pet foods and many of the popular raw animal-product based pet treats currently on the market," said Freeman. "For example, 71 percent of people feeding bully sticks to their pets stated they avoid by-products in pet foods, yet bully sticks are, for all intents and purposes, an animal by-product."
Another surprising finding was the large number of people who did not know what bully sticks actually were. A higher proportion of veterinarians (62 percent) were able to correctly identify the source of bully sticks as bull penis compared to general respondents (44 percent). Twenty-three percent of the respondents fed their dogs bully sticks.
Further research with a larger sample size is needed to determine whether the calorie content and contamination rate found in this study is representative of all bully sticks, or other types of pet treats, according to the authors.
More information: Freeman LM, Janecko N, Weese JS. Nutritional and microbial analysis of bully sticks and survey of opinions about pet treats. Canadian Veterinary Journal. 2013; 54: 50-54.
'No one sounds like Daft Punk and I'm very, very excited to hear their new stuff,' says German DJ/producer Boys Noize. By Gil Kaufman, with additional reporting by Akshay Bhansali
Patients' own skin cells are transformed into heart cells to create 'disease in a dish'Public release date: 27-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Heather Buschman hbuschman@sanfordburnham.org 858-795-5343 Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute
Researchers use skin cells from patients with an inherited heart condition to recreate the adult-onset disease in a laboratory dish -- producing the first maturation-based disease model for testing new therapies
LA JOLLA, Calif., January 27, 2013 Most patients with an inherited heart condition known as arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy (ARVD/C) don't know they have a problem until they're in their early 20s. The lack of symptoms at younger ages makes it very difficult for researchers to study how ARVD/C evolves or to develop treatments. A new stem cell-based technology created by 2012 Nobel Prize winner Shinya Yamanaka, M.D., Ph.D., helps solve this problem. With this technology, researchers can generate heart muscle cells from a patient's own skin cells. However, these newly made heart cells are mostly immature. That raises questions about whether or not they can be used to mimic a disease that occurs in adulthood. In a paper published January 27 in Nature, researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute and Johns Hopkins University unveil the first maturation-based "disease in a dish" model for ARVD/C. The model was created using Yamanaka's technology and a new method to mimic maturity by making the cells' metabolism more like that in adult hearts. For that reason, this model is likely more relevant to human ARVD/C than other models and therefore better suited for studying the disease and testing new treatments.
"It's tough to demonstrate that a disease-in-a-dish model is clinically relevant for an adult-onset disease. But we made a key finding herewe can recapitulate the defects in this disease only when we induce adult-like metabolism. This is an important breakthrough considering that ARVD/C symptoms usually don't arise until young adulthood. Yet the stem cells we're working with are embryonic in nature," said Huei-Sheng Vincent Chen, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor at Sanford-Burnham and senior author of the study.
To establish this model, Chen teamed up with expert ARVD/C cardiologists Daniel Judge, M.D., Joseph Marine, M.D., and Hugh Calkins, M.D., at Johns Hopkins University. Johns Hopkins is home to one of the largest ARVD/C patient registries in the world.
"There is currently no treatment to prevent progression of ARVD/C, a rare disorder that preferentially affects athletes. With this new model, we hope we are now on a path to develop better therapies for this life-threatening disease," said Judge, associate professor and medical director of the Center for Inherited Heart Disease at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Disease in a dish
To recreate a person's own unique ARVD/C in the lab, the team first obtained skin samples from ARVD/C patients with certain mutations believed to be involved in the disease. Next they performed Yamanaka's technique: adding a few molecules that dial back the developmental clock on these adult skin cells, producing embryonic-like induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). The researchers then coaxed the iPSCs into producing an unlimited supply of patient-specific heart muscle cells. These heart cells were largely embryonic in nature, but carried along the original patient's genetic mutations.
However, for nearly a year, no matter what they tried, the team couldn't get their ARVD/C heart muscle cells to show any signs of the disease. Without actual signs of adult-onset ARVD/C, these young, patient-specific heart muscle cells were no use for studying the disease or testing new therapeutic drugs.
Speeding up time
Eventually, the team experienced the big "aha!" moment they'd been looking for. They discovered that metabolic maturity is the key to inducing signs of ARVD/C, an adult disease, in their embryonic-like cells. Human fetal heart muscle cells use glucose (sugar) as their primary source of energy. In contrast, adult heart muscle cells prefer using fat for energy production. So Chen's team applied several cocktails to trigger this shift to adult metabolism in their model.
After more trial and error, they discovered that metabolic malfunction is at the core of ARVD/C disease. Moreover, Chen's team tracked down the final piece of puzzle to make patient-specific heart muscle cells behave like sick ARVD/C hearts: the abnormal over-activation of a protein called PPAR?. Scientists previously attributed ARVD/C to a problem in weakened connections between heart muscle cells, which occur only in half of the ARVD/C patients. With the newly established model, they not only replicated this adult-onset disease in a dish, but also presented new potential drug targets for treating ARVD/C.
What's next?
Chen's team was recently awarded a new grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to create additional iPSC-based ARVD/C models. With more ARVD/C models, they will determine whether or not all (or at least most) patients develop the disease via the same metabolic defects discovered in this current study.
Together with the Johns Hopkins team, Chen also hopes to conduct preclinical studies to find a new therapy for this deadly heart condition.
###
This research was funded by the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (grants RS1-00171-1, RB2-01512, and RB4-06276) and the U.S. National Institutes of Health (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute grant RO1HL105194).
The study was co-authored by Changsung Kim, Sanford-Burnham; Jianyan Wen, Sanford-Burnham and China-Japan Friendship Hospital; Johnson Wong, Sanford-Burnham; Shirong Wang, Sanford-Burnham; Cheng Wang, Sanford-Burnham; Sean Spiering, Sanford-Burnham; Natalia G. Kan, Sanford-Burnham; Sonia Forcales, Sanford-Burnham; Pier Lorenzo Puri, Sanford-Burnham; Teresa C. Leone, Sanford-Burnham; Joseph E. Marine, Johns Hopkins University; Hugh Calkins, Johns Hopkins University; Daniel P. Kelly, Sanford-Burnham; Daniel P. Judge, Johns Hopkins University; and Huei-Sheng Vincent Chen, Sanford-Burnham and University of California, San Diego.
About Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute
Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute is dedicated to discovering the fundamental molecular causes of disease and devising the innovative therapies of tomorrow. The Institute consistently ranks among the top five organizations worldwide for its scientific impact in the fields of biology and biochemistry (defined by citations per publication) and currently ranks third in the nation in NIH funding among all laboratory-based research institutes. Sanford-Burnham utilizes a unique, collaborative approach to medical research and has established major research programs in cancer, neurodegeneration, diabetes, and infectious, inflammatory, and childhood diseases. The Institute is especially known for its world-class capabilities in stem cell research and drug discovery technologies. Sanford-Burnham is a U.S.-based, non-profit public benefit corporation, with operations in San Diego (La Jolla), California and Orlando (Lake Nona), Florida. For more information, news, and events, please visit us at sanfordburnham.org.
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Patients' own skin cells are transformed into heart cells to create 'disease in a dish'Public release date: 27-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Heather Buschman hbuschman@sanfordburnham.org 858-795-5343 Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute
Researchers use skin cells from patients with an inherited heart condition to recreate the adult-onset disease in a laboratory dish -- producing the first maturation-based disease model for testing new therapies
LA JOLLA, Calif., January 27, 2013 Most patients with an inherited heart condition known as arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy (ARVD/C) don't know they have a problem until they're in their early 20s. The lack of symptoms at younger ages makes it very difficult for researchers to study how ARVD/C evolves or to develop treatments. A new stem cell-based technology created by 2012 Nobel Prize winner Shinya Yamanaka, M.D., Ph.D., helps solve this problem. With this technology, researchers can generate heart muscle cells from a patient's own skin cells. However, these newly made heart cells are mostly immature. That raises questions about whether or not they can be used to mimic a disease that occurs in adulthood. In a paper published January 27 in Nature, researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute and Johns Hopkins University unveil the first maturation-based "disease in a dish" model for ARVD/C. The model was created using Yamanaka's technology and a new method to mimic maturity by making the cells' metabolism more like that in adult hearts. For that reason, this model is likely more relevant to human ARVD/C than other models and therefore better suited for studying the disease and testing new treatments.
"It's tough to demonstrate that a disease-in-a-dish model is clinically relevant for an adult-onset disease. But we made a key finding herewe can recapitulate the defects in this disease only when we induce adult-like metabolism. This is an important breakthrough considering that ARVD/C symptoms usually don't arise until young adulthood. Yet the stem cells we're working with are embryonic in nature," said Huei-Sheng Vincent Chen, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor at Sanford-Burnham and senior author of the study.
To establish this model, Chen teamed up with expert ARVD/C cardiologists Daniel Judge, M.D., Joseph Marine, M.D., and Hugh Calkins, M.D., at Johns Hopkins University. Johns Hopkins is home to one of the largest ARVD/C patient registries in the world.
"There is currently no treatment to prevent progression of ARVD/C, a rare disorder that preferentially affects athletes. With this new model, we hope we are now on a path to develop better therapies for this life-threatening disease," said Judge, associate professor and medical director of the Center for Inherited Heart Disease at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Disease in a dish
To recreate a person's own unique ARVD/C in the lab, the team first obtained skin samples from ARVD/C patients with certain mutations believed to be involved in the disease. Next they performed Yamanaka's technique: adding a few molecules that dial back the developmental clock on these adult skin cells, producing embryonic-like induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). The researchers then coaxed the iPSCs into producing an unlimited supply of patient-specific heart muscle cells. These heart cells were largely embryonic in nature, but carried along the original patient's genetic mutations.
However, for nearly a year, no matter what they tried, the team couldn't get their ARVD/C heart muscle cells to show any signs of the disease. Without actual signs of adult-onset ARVD/C, these young, patient-specific heart muscle cells were no use for studying the disease or testing new therapeutic drugs.
Speeding up time
Eventually, the team experienced the big "aha!" moment they'd been looking for. They discovered that metabolic maturity is the key to inducing signs of ARVD/C, an adult disease, in their embryonic-like cells. Human fetal heart muscle cells use glucose (sugar) as their primary source of energy. In contrast, adult heart muscle cells prefer using fat for energy production. So Chen's team applied several cocktails to trigger this shift to adult metabolism in their model.
After more trial and error, they discovered that metabolic malfunction is at the core of ARVD/C disease. Moreover, Chen's team tracked down the final piece of puzzle to make patient-specific heart muscle cells behave like sick ARVD/C hearts: the abnormal over-activation of a protein called PPAR?. Scientists previously attributed ARVD/C to a problem in weakened connections between heart muscle cells, which occur only in half of the ARVD/C patients. With the newly established model, they not only replicated this adult-onset disease in a dish, but also presented new potential drug targets for treating ARVD/C.
What's next?
Chen's team was recently awarded a new grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to create additional iPSC-based ARVD/C models. With more ARVD/C models, they will determine whether or not all (or at least most) patients develop the disease via the same metabolic defects discovered in this current study.
Together with the Johns Hopkins team, Chen also hopes to conduct preclinical studies to find a new therapy for this deadly heart condition.
###
This research was funded by the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (grants RS1-00171-1, RB2-01512, and RB4-06276) and the U.S. National Institutes of Health (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute grant RO1HL105194).
The study was co-authored by Changsung Kim, Sanford-Burnham; Jianyan Wen, Sanford-Burnham and China-Japan Friendship Hospital; Johnson Wong, Sanford-Burnham; Shirong Wang, Sanford-Burnham; Cheng Wang, Sanford-Burnham; Sean Spiering, Sanford-Burnham; Natalia G. Kan, Sanford-Burnham; Sonia Forcales, Sanford-Burnham; Pier Lorenzo Puri, Sanford-Burnham; Teresa C. Leone, Sanford-Burnham; Joseph E. Marine, Johns Hopkins University; Hugh Calkins, Johns Hopkins University; Daniel P. Kelly, Sanford-Burnham; Daniel P. Judge, Johns Hopkins University; and Huei-Sheng Vincent Chen, Sanford-Burnham and University of California, San Diego.
About Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute
Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute is dedicated to discovering the fundamental molecular causes of disease and devising the innovative therapies of tomorrow. The Institute consistently ranks among the top five organizations worldwide for its scientific impact in the fields of biology and biochemistry (defined by citations per publication) and currently ranks third in the nation in NIH funding among all laboratory-based research institutes. Sanford-Burnham utilizes a unique, collaborative approach to medical research and has established major research programs in cancer, neurodegeneration, diabetes, and infectious, inflammatory, and childhood diseases. The Institute is especially known for its world-class capabilities in stem cell research and drug discovery technologies. Sanford-Burnham is a U.S.-based, non-profit public benefit corporation, with operations in San Diego (La Jolla), California and Orlando (Lake Nona), Florida. For more information, news, and events, please visit us at sanfordburnham.org.
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Creative imagination is more than just active imagination. To be able to actively imagine things, to see and hear things in one?s mind, is an important ability. It doesn?t have to involve much creativity, though, does it? Daydreaming, for example, is a process of imagination. It can consist of an elaborate fantasy world, but one full of all the things that many people think about.
Creative imagination, then, has to include the ability not just to imagine things, but to imagine original things. It is seeing things that others don?t see, and coming up with new ideas. So how do you cultivate this?
<b>Creative Imagination 101</b>
First, exercise your basic imagination. It can be as simple as thinking in pictures more, or listening to music in your mind. Play little ?movies? in your mind, until you can watch them on command. This is a simple process, but for those of us that can?t easily do it naturally, it can take a lot of practice. Fortunately, it is not an unpleasant activity.
The second part of developing your creative imagination is to get more creative in your thinking and imagining. Start by paying attention to your creativity. Our subconscious minds give us more of what we pay attention to. Ignore creative aspects of your life, and you?re telling your subconscious they are unimportant. On the other hand, if you note when you?re creative, your subconscious mind will start feeding you more creative ideas.
Different surroundings can also encourage your creativity. Want more creativity in your love life? Hike up a mountain with your partner. Do you write? Try sitting on a roof to write. Want new ideas for your business? Take a notebook to the park and sit by the duck pond. A change of environment can get your thinking out of it?s ruts.
You can play games that exercise your creative imagination. One such game uses a technique called ?concept combination.? Alone or with other players, you combine random concepts or things in new ways, to see who has the best idea. A thermometer and a billboard, for example, could generate an idea for a sign that checks the weather and adjusts the message accordingly (?Come in out of the heat for a cold beverage,? or ?Come in out of the rain and warm up with our gourmet coffee.?).
Don?t Wait For Creative Imagination
Creative inspiration certainly can strike at any time, but it strikes more often when there is work instead of waiting. So if you want to come up with creative inventions, start mentally redesigning everything you see. Imagine a better bicycle, a faster mail service, or a better chair. Continue this for three weeks, and it will become a habit.
Of course, creative imagination goes beyond solving specific problems or inventing things. Truly creative minds are always coming up with the questions too, not just the solutions. If you want to be more creative all the time, focus on three things:
1. Changing your perspective. A child might think that working just to not work (to retire) is silly. Thinking from that perspective might give you ideas for how to make money doing things you enjoy. Seeing the world as a bear sees it might give a painter imaginative new ideas. Looking at things from a customer?s perspective is a sure way to find creative improvements for a business. See everything from several perspectives.
2. Challenging your assumptions. What if restaurants didn?t have employees? Visitors pay a machine as they enter, feed themselves at a buffet, and everything is as automated as possible, so one owner-operator could run a large restaurant alone. Challenge all your assumptions for practice. Do you really have to pay rent? Do swimming pools need water? Can exercise be a bad thing?
3. Let your ideas run wild. Does a flying bed seem silly? It could lead to the concept of a helium mattress. When you get off it in the morning, it floats out of the way, up to the ceiling. Perfect for small apartments. Don?t stifle your creativity. Relax, and let ideas come. You can always discard them later.
For these techniques to be a habitual part of your thinking, use them regularly. Since it takes several weeks to develop a habit, remind yourself to use them each day. Jot a few of your favorite techniques on a card and carry it with you. Look it over throughout the day and apply the techniques to anything. Soon, you?ll have a more creative imagination.
Ch? Palk
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Born and named Che Linton Palk in Andover Hospital, Hampshire, one cold January morning 1976. Grew up in an amazing village just outside Andover called Hurstbourne Tarrant, and always still even now, though miles away, is my home. Then after 15 years we moved into Andover Town, which had massive changes not just to my social network but would lead me to reavaluate the secular world which consumed me. Not wishing to go into too much detail here,(for now), let's say I found faith. Spent many hours deciding what I believed about life's ultimate questions, Why am I here? Does life hold any purpose? Who am I? The whole God question! life was it Futile? My fialures fatal? My death final? After which I decided I needed to get out more and trance took hold of me. Been a DJ ever since. The music it matters!..
New York City real-estate company, the Durst Organization, is planning to spend nearly $1 million to install more than an acre of rooftop gardens on top of its Manhattan buildings using composted food, reports the Wall Street Journal.
The company owns several prime buildings including One World Trade Center and Four Times Square. In early 2012, food waste generated from Durst buildings (11 in total) began its journey into compost. Collected from kitchens and pantries within the city buildings, the food waste travels to Dutchess County where it winds up as compost at McEnroe Organic Farm before the compost soil mixtures are returned to Manhattan for use on the company?s rooftops.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Amy Norquist, president and chief executive of Greensulate, a Manhattan-based company that designs, builds and maintains green roofs, says Durst is the first real-estate company to recycle food waste into compost for green roofs. Norquist calls it ?forward thinking.?
The Wall Street Journal says the operation is saving water, too:? ?the Durst Organization?s green-roof system is able to retain about 55,000 gallons of water that would otherwise wind up in the sewer system. The company?s first green roofs, which are covered in a mixture of hardy, low-lying plants that don?t require deep soil, were installed last March above the Durst offices at One Bryant Park and at 675 Third Ave.
?By spring, the company will have installed green roofs on eight of its buildings, including 205 E. 42nd St., 655 and 733 Third Ave., 1133 and 1155 Sixth Ave. and 114 W. 47th St.?
Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger
Image: digitizedchaos
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Tags: compost, compost food, Composts, New York City, Real Estate company, rooftop garden, rooftop gardens
This entry was posted on Saturday, January 26th, 2013 at 1:00 am and is filed under gardening, Green Living, Health, Organic, Organic Food, Organic Living, The Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Heatbag Records?s Newest Project? Ed E buk & Zkilla MAJOR LEAGUR SPITTERZ NEW SINGLE W/VIDEO ?PRAY FOR ME? fT. Brooklyn.. Produced By THE MIC HEATBAG RECORDS
This entry was posted on Saturday, January 26, 2013 at 12:09 pm and is filed under Pray. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Partnering with an affiliate marketing company is a great method of creating a second stream of income on your website. You need to have a good base of knowledge in order to be successful at affiliate marketing. This article will share techniques and information that other affiliate marketers have found effective.
Buy advertising space to increase your profits. Purchase the ads that use your keywords in order to drive people to your site. In addition, you will have more potential buyers that have indicated an interest in what you are promoting.
TIP! To make more money with affiliate marketing, you should make your review better by including videos, screenshots, and anything else that can enhance the product. You will get more people interested in your products.
Secret links can be useful but they could also cause a search engine to assess your website as untrustworthy so use them with care. There are certain ways you can embed affiliate links throughout your articles and other content without being obnoxious or blatant about it. You should use these tips, but let your readers know about it. You can keep readers from being unhappily surprised by providing a clear context for each link.
Let your readers know the truth about the fact that you profit from your affiliations. Don?t hide the fact that a link is an affiliate; readers know what they are and if you try to hide it, they won?t trust you. By being honest from the beginning, you are more likely to gain repeat visitors and customers for your affiliates.
TIP! Having a successful affiliate marketing campaign is not only tied to the sales you make up front, but to the ones you make on the back end also. You should benefit if you send customers to your affiliates end up being repeat business and you are entitled to a commission for that repeat business.
Having to frequently recheck email messages to remind yourself of the task at hand wastes your time and causes other areas to suffer. One way to save time is to copy the information from the emails and place them into a Notepad document. Doing this will save you time, as you can refer to one single document that contains all your instructions and tasks.
The most effective affiliate companies support affiliates and assist in cross-selling products. Affiliate companies are smart, at least most of them are. They have done their homework, and researched their customers well. The preferred companies share their findings with partners, so that these associates customize their operations to boost their sales and get more income.
TIP! Never promote a product that you cannot stand behind 100 percent. Your suggestions will have an impact on how you and also your business are perceived.
Pay per sale marketing plans can be very risky for affiliates. It can lead to great returns if it is effective though. Do your homework and see whether or not this is something you might be interested in.
Have your audience in mind when selecting affiliate programs. Choose advertising that complements the product or services you are selling. Website visitors come to you with a specific purpose and are looking for certain things. Keeping that in mind, place appropriate ads that will appeal to many visitors.
TIP! If you have made $1000 with affiliate marketing this month, go for $1500 next month. You should never settle, you should always try for the best and the greatest things in life.
Try selling something that is popular instead of trying to sell something new. Avoiding the most popular products for sale online means you?ll be able to stay clear of identical campaigns on your competition?s website, but won?t necessarily mean you profit more on other products. But, getting a sale from a popular product will always be easier than getting one from a market that is not. Additionally, a really popular niche may have a customer base so large that there is room for any number of competing sellers. Then it?s just a matter of beating out the competitors with a unique marketing strategy.
For more opportunities to make affiliate money consider a specialty niche. Specialty niches tend to be more profitable than broader topics, because customers are forced to come to you if there aren?t many other businesses that offer similar products.
TIP! Once you have determined which products you want to promote for your affiliate partner, you should ensure that your marketing strategy is directed toward the appropriate audience. Low cost products can succeed through high-volume sales.
Find as many partners as you can to help you with your marketing campaign. Try and promote a range of products with different affiliate companies. A well-spread portfolio of affiliates and products will protect you from heavy losses should you have to drop one when it becomes unprofitable. If there is room to advertise more products, find some more.
One way to get started in the affiliate marketing game is to sell a group of themed products from different vendors. Using several related sites for you affiliate marketing program offers your customers a wide range of links from which to choose.
TIP! Consider joining an online affiliate marketing community, as you can gain a lot of knowledge and helpful advice on improving your business plan. These are online places that you can share ideas, code for programming, pictures, and also get advice for your affiliate marketing endeavors.
Affiliate Networks
You need to build up your Google Plus followers as soon as possible to get the jump on your competition. Pull together your Google Plus account with your other social marketing accounts such as Facebook and Twitter, combining them for one purpose. The easiest way to make sure people want to follow you is to provide them with excellent content!
TIP! Have a plan in place for your accounting. This can be a person, or even simply an accountant program.
Use affiliate networks whenever possible. Affiliate networks are a great way to connect to high quality advertisers for your site. If you want to be a good webmaster, you need to only use reputable networks, and using these tools will get you there. You will increase your own reputation by partnering with respectable networks.
Set daily goals for yourself to help you with your affiliate marketing efforts. You can stay motivated using a method that works best for you!
TIP! One helpful way to generate sales is to provide user reviews and screenshots to promote your product. If your marketing materials are full of information, you are not only more likely to make a sale, but also generate referral business.
Banner ads can help draw in business. Consider including surveys in your ads to entice customers into clicking on them. Lots of people will click through to your site to find the answer. Entice your visitors by providing discounts to those who answer the questions correctly.
To be a successful, goal minded affiliate marketer you must learn the best practices of affiliate marketing. Just because a free option has been offered to you as an affiliate, does not mean that you need to start with this one. To reach your goals, you must consider the effectiveness of each method.
TIP! Do not put an excessive amount of banners on your site. Overuse will distract users, and cause your site to appear brash and amateurish.
Many will then choose to unsubscribe and then you will lose customers and need new ones. In order to attract new clients, make sure that you send them only the emails that gave you the best results so that you can capture their attention right away.
Maximize business profits by signing up with affiliate marketing companies. Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular ways of advertising, because of the number of people who click links. As you work to select your affiliate program, consider the rate of payment you?ll be receiving, how easy it is to navigate, and how popular its products are.
TIP! When you are first getting your affiliate marketing business off the ground, you will need to spend some money before you start turning a profit. Always try putting money into your campaigns by advertising your products through various mediums.
Affiliate Partners
To make your affiliate efforts pay off, be sure to select partners with ratios that reflect a large volume of sales. Consider using a one percent ratio as a benchmark.
TIP! A lot of affiliate marketers push too hard to become ?super? affiliates. Ambitious affiliates take on too much work load, push too many widgets and just overextend themselves to the point of breaking.
Affiliate partners who have a good relationship should exchange information often, even daily if necessary. Free and frequent communication protects your revenue stream. Your affiliate partners who generate the highest returns for you are valuable assets, and you need to take any necessary steps to preserve your relationships.
Affiliate marketing helps many people make extra income, but it?s important to know how to maximize it in order to make big money. You should want your site to rank high in search engines. Accomplishing this will allow you to obtain more links and generate more sales.
TIP! If you want to get paid quickly, you should select an affiliate company that offers you different payment options. Some programs offer different payment options such as PayPal and AlertPay.
You must never try to take advantage of your visitors with the use of cookies. At the best, this is going to be irritating to your potential customers. It could also sever your tracking progress and perhaps give users viruses.
You should always research an affiliate company before making a decision, even if the company is popular. Your research should help you decide whether or not you will be successful marketing the affiliate without any major issues.
Hopefully, you have found some advice from this article that you can use in growing your affiliate promotion program. However, don?t stop reading now because new marketing techniques are made public every single day. Online marketing should be used to supplement the profits you?re already generating from the services and products you?re selling on your website. You should be able to kill two birds with one stone. ?
For more tips on Affiliate Marketing and to see the platform I use, go to: http://www.financialreboot.com.com
George Crump is President and Founder of Storage Switzerland, an IT analyst firm focused on the storage and virtualization segments that has grown to employ six full-time writers. George has been in the IT game since 1985, where he started out working on Xenix systems for Tandy. This eventually led to gigs with Novell and Legato. Before founding Storage Switzerland, he was CTO at one the nation?s largest storage integrators where he was in charge of technology testing, integration and product selection. Having reached the pinnacle of what he wanted to accomplish in that role, he sought out ways he could leverage his expertise as a consultant and analyst of the storage industry.
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He started his blogging career by writing articles for Information Week which eventually led to writing articles for and about companies in the market and their products. Thus Storage Switzerland was born and now averages about 700,000 page views per month. When asked how he came up with the name Storage Switzerland, he replies ?When I was CTO at my old firm, we would design whatever storage systems were necessary without being tied to one company?s product line. I would tell end users that ?We are like Switzerland, we don?t really follow any corporate agenda.??
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His number one goal in writing his blog is to educate on concepts and processes. He finds that the most well received articles are the ?What Is?? or ?How-To?? type of post. Specifically, he really enjoys writing about SSD and Flash and how storage is managed (or complicated) by the advent of virtualized environments. He has been surprised that some of the most popular posts lately have been about tape drives, what most in the industry would consider to be a dying technology. He theorizes the popularity is driven by a whole new generation of IT managers coming into the field who have never learned about tape, but are now forced to learn how to manage the legacy systems that are already in place.
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When asked about what he says are the future trends in the industry, he believes that the IT infrastructure is nearing a time of convergence where data, applications, and storage will all be managed under a single virtualized software stack. This may lead to easier monitoring as these systems converge, but it will still require an experienced IT manager to provision, tune, and manage these systems.
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George is also a regular contributor to publications such as Byte and Switch, SearchStorage, eWeek, SearchServerVirtualizaiton and SearchDataBackup. When not writing or researching the storage industry, George can be found training for the four or five ? Ironman Races he participates in every year.
? In theory at least, our generation has more money than other generations and more time to enjoy it. But maybe that doesn?t apply to everybody. If that?s the case with you, then you might want to read what Ron Whitaker writes about Cheap Travel Destinations for Budget-Minded Boomers.
It?s a New Year!
Ron Whitaker
A time for everyone ? baby boomers don?t get a pass ? to stick to resolutions, to reflect, and to start thinking about some exotic, far-off destinations for your vacation this year.
So, where will it be in 2013? Paris? Rome? London? Sri Lanka?
Hold on a minute! What if you?re like so many boomers these days who need to keep a close watch on the budget? Are you condemned to a boring ?staycation? this year?
Not so fast!
Believe it or not, there are some cheap travel destinations right here in the good ol? U.S.A. that you can visit and enjoy while keeping to your budget.
Here are three of them. Once you?ve finished whetting your appetite on these cities, check out the infographic that?s printed with this article for seven more cities you might want to put on your 2013 travel bucket list.
El Paso, Texas
C?mon?Texas? Really??
Absolutely!
For boomers who might be seeking a low-key, out-of-the-way cheap traveldestination, El Paso just might be your place.
It lies in the western part of Texas, and is a good distance from the bright lights, the hustle and bustle of the larger cities of Texas like Dallas or San Antonio.
While in El Paso, you?ll want to visit the El Paso Museum of Art and see some American works from the 19th and 20th Centuries. You can also see Mexican colonial art from the 1700s and 1800s.
And if you?re a Mexican-food lover, then El Paso is your city! Many restaurants serve authentic Mexican food, as well as that famous Texas barbecue you?ve heard about.
And if you?re a boomer who enjoys wine, El Paso won?t disappoint. With over 300 sunny days each year, this part of Texas has many fine vineyards. While visiting, make sure to check out La Vina Winery and Zin Valle Vineyards along historic Highway 28.
Spokane River
Spokane, Washington
If the Southwest doesn?t fit your style, how about the Northwest?
Spokane, once a busy center for fur trading, is the largest city in eastern Washington.
If you?re into outdoor activities, Spokane is definitely a cheap travel destination that offers a lot of bang for the buck!
In preparing this post, I spoke with Gina Mauro Campbell, Director of Visitor Services at the Spokane Visitors Bureau.
We discussed some great events and activities, at incredibly reasonableprices, that will interest the boomer traveler.
Gina discussed the incredible golfing opportunities that abound around Spokane. People come from all over the U.S. to take advantage of the 30+ golf courses in the area. And the great surprise (to me, at least!) was that all City and County courses are less than $30 for a full round! So grab those clubs and head to the great Northwest!
If golf isn?t your activity of choice, check out the stunning gardens throughout Spokane. Spokane?s forefathers purposefully set aside large portions of land throughout the community specifically to remain as gardens.
One well-known garden is Manito Park. Manito Park contains rose, Japanese, and French gardens, along with a conservatory filled with exotic plants year-round. And best of all, there?s no charge. Just be sure to bring your camera!
For the cyclist, check out South Hill, a stunning residential area offering eight miles of single- and double-track riding.
After a day enjoying the outdoors, catch a performance of the Spokane Symphony, or check out a show at the Opera House, or even a play at the Civic Theater.
And if all the outdoor activities around Spokane aren?t enough, take I-90 a half hour east to Coeur d?Alene, Idaho, another pristine outdoor paradise that won?t disappoint!
South Bend, Indiana
University of Notre Dame Library.
Don?t laugh! South Bend is a fantastic travel destination you can visit on the cheap!
One of the most famous universities on the planet? Notre Dame? makes its home in South Bend, and is a huge tourist destination.
And if? a big IF? you can get tickets during the season, enjoy a Saturday afternoon cheering the Fighting Irish football team.
If you?re a more refined tourist and football just isn?t your thing, then check out some of the beautiful works of art located on campus, along with the Basilica of the Sacred Heart and the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes.
What boomer doesn?t remember the Studebaker? Well, for the car enthusiast, take a fun tour of the Studebaker National Museum, then head over to the South Bend Chocolate Company and try some of their famous truffles and fudge!
The U.S.A. is about a lot more than New York and Hollywood!
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Senate's senior Democrat and Republican reached agreement Thursday to impose modest limits on the filibuster, the delaying tactics that minority parties have long used to kill legislation.
The deal would reduce ? but not eliminate ? the number of times opponents can use filibusters and also limit the time spent debating some bills and nominations. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., described the pact to rank-and-file lawmakers Thursday, and the Senate seemed likely to approve the restrictions later in the day.
The pact does not represent a dramatic reworking of Senate rules and leaves the minority party with far more power than it has in the House, where procedures allow a united majority party to muscle through its priorities.
But it would streamline some of the Senate's work and avoid what could have been prolonged, nasty battling between the two parties if Democrats ? frustrated by the GOP's growing reliance on the delays ? tried ramming through more decisive changes.
In an irony that underscores the Senate's complex rules, it was expected to take the chamber two votes to approve the changes.
The curbs on filibusters fall short of what Reid initially said he favored months ago. He wanted to completely ban the tactic's use when the Senate tries to begin debating a measure, and he threatened to use Democrats' strength in the Senate to enact that change and perhaps others by a simple majority vote.
That tactic is called the "nuclear option" because of the bitter partisan warfare it would likely trigger in the chamber, potentially halting almost any business the Senate tried to conduct.
Typically, rules changes take a two-thirds majority.
The restrictions also fall far short of what some of the Senate's newer Democrats were demanding.
Their proposals included requiring filibustering senators to actually debate on the chamber's floor, a practice immortalized in the film "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" but seldom used in recent years. Instead, most filibusters in recent decades occur when a senator simply informs majority Democrats that they will need the votes of 60 of the 100 senators to end delaying tactics.
The No. 2 Senate Democratic leader, Richard Durbin of Illinois, said this week that Democrats lacked enough votes to force that proposal through the Senate.
Durbin said Thursday that the tentative deal was "great for the Senate," and said lawmakers who wanted tighter curbs would have to settle for less.
"That's how this world works," Durbin told reporters. "People start aspiring at very high levels, then you get a negotiation, then you reach something called compromise. And I think we are at that point."
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said that while he and many other Republicans didn't believe the changes were needed, "This does this without doing irreparable damage to the Senate as an institution."
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., among a bipartisan group of eight senators who proposed changes similar to those embraced in the deal, said the agreement showed that cooperation across party lines remained possible.
Alluding to the partisan clashes that could have resulted if Democrats used the "nuclear option," McCain said, "It could have really had repercussions for a very long time here in the Senate."
Tight restraints on filibusters were championed by less-senior Democrats like Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Tom Udall, D-N.M. They are frustrated with the chamber's often glacial debates and the ability of the minority ? these days Republicans ? to kill bills with less than majority support.
"Are they everything I want? Of course not," Udall said in an interview. But he said the Senate is "moving in the right direction. With these changes, it will make this a more efficient institution."
In an email to supporters, Merkley called the agreement an improvement but also complained that senators delaying legislation would not have to appear on the Senate floor.
"If senators want to force more debate, they should make their case before the American people so the public can weigh in on whether the filibusterers are heroes or bums," Merkley wrote.
More veteran Democrats like Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan were reluctant to stifle the tactic, mindful that his party could find itself in the minority after any election and would want to be able to use the maneuvers.
The liberal group Common Cause, which has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the filibuster, criticized Reid for the agreement, saying the senator "has gone missing in the fight for filibuster reform."
Democrats say Republican use of the tactic has become almost routine and far too frequent. Republicans say they use it because Reid often blocks them from offering amendments.
As part of the agreement, filibusters could be avoided when the Senate tries beginning debate on a bill or nomination. In return, the majority leader would have to allow each party to offer at least two amendments ? addressing a major complaint of Republicans that their amendments are often shut out.
In addition, once the Senate votes to limit debate on certain nominations ? district court judges and administration posts below Cabinet level ? the debate would be limited to two hours, far below the 30 hours now allowed. The proposal was aimed at speeding the time spent on such nominations.
In addition, instead of three separate opportunities for opponents of a bill to wage filibusters to block a Senate vote allowing the chamber to try writing compromise legislation with the House, there would only be one such filibuster allowed.
According to the Senate Historian's Office, there were 73 "cloture" votes to end filibusters in the two-year Congress that ended earlier this month. There were 91 such votes in the Congress that served in the two previous years, and 112 in the two-year Congress before that. Republicans were the Senate minority party in each of those Congresses.
Those are the three highest number of cloture votes in any Congress since the Senate started allowing such votes to end filibusters nearly 100 years ago.
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Associated Press writers Jim Abrams, Stephen Ohlemacher, Andrew Taylor and David Espo contributed to this report.
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Public release date: 27-Jan-2013
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