Sunday, 31 March 2013

Veterans fight changes to disability payments

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Veterans groups are rallying to fight any proposal to change disability payments as the federal government attempts to address its long-term debt problem. They say they've sacrificed already.

Government benefits are adjusted according to inflation, and President Barack Obama has endorsed using a slightly different measure of inflation to calculate Social Security benefits. Benefits would still grow but at a slower rate.

Advocates for the nation's 22 million veterans fear that the alternative inflation measure would also apply to disability payments to nearly 4 million veterans as well as pension payments for an additional 500,000 low-income veterans and surviving families.

"I think veterans have already paid their fair share to support this nation," said the American Legion's Louis Celli. "They've paid it in lower wages while serving, they've paid it through their wounds and sacrifices on the battlefield and they're paying it now as they try to recover from those wounds."

Economists generally agree that projected long-term debt increases stemming largely from the growth in federal health care programs pose a threat to the country's economic competitiveness. Addressing the threat means difficult decisions for lawmakers and pain for many constituents in the decades ahead.

But the veterans' groups point out that their members bore the burden of a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the past month, they've held news conferences on Capitol Hill and raised the issue in meetings with lawmakers and their staffs. They'll be closely watching the unveiling of the president's budget next month to see whether he continues to recommend the change.

Obama and others support changing the benefit calculations to a variation of the Consumer Price Index, a measure called "chained CPI." The conventional CPI measures changes in retail prices of a constant marketbasket of goods and services. Chained CPI considers changes in the quantity of goods purchased as well as the prices of those goods. If the price of steak goes up, for example, many consumers will buy more chicken, a cheaper alternative to steak, rather than buying less steak or going without meat.

Supporters argue that chained CPI is a truer indication of inflation because it measures changes in consumer behavior. It also tends to be less than the conventional CPI, which would impact how cost-of-living raises are computed.

Under the current inflation update, monthly disability and pension payments increased 1.7 percent this year. Under chained CPI, those payments would have increased 1.4 percent.

The Congressional Budget Office projects that moving to chained CPI would trim the deficit by nearly $340 billion over the next decade. About two-thirds of the deficit closing would come from less spending and the other third would come from additional revenue because of adjustments that tax brackets would undergo.

Isabel Sawhill, a senior fellow in economic studies at The Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank, said she understands why veterans, senior citizens and others have come out against the change, but she believes it's necessary.

"We are in an era where benefits are going to be reduced and revenues are going to rise. There's just no way around that. We're on an unsustainable fiscal course," Sawhill said. "Dealing with it is going to be painful, and the American public has not yet accepted that. As long as every group keeps saying, 'I need a carve-out, I need an exception,' this is not going to work."

Sawhill argued that making changes now will actually make it easier for veterans in the long run.

"The longer we wait to make these changes, the worse the hole we'll be in and the more draconian the cuts will have to be," she said.

That's not the way Sen. Bernie Sanders sees it. The chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs said he recently warned Obama that every veterans group he knows of has come out strongly against changing the benefit calculations for disability benefits and pensions by using chained CPI.

"I don't believe the American people want to see our budget balanced on the backs of disabled veterans. It's especially absurd for the White House, which has been quite generous in terms of funding for the VA," said Sanders, I-Vt. "Why they now want to do this, I just don't understand."

Sanders succeeded in getting the Senate to approve an amendment last week against changing how the cost-of-living increases are calculated, but the vote was largely symbolic. Lawmakers would still have a decision to make if moving to chained CPI were to be included as part of a bargain on taxes and spending.

Sanders' counterpart on the House side, Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., the chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, appears at least open to the idea of going to chained CPI.

"My first priority is ensuring that America's more than 20 million veterans receive the care and benefits they have earned, but with a national debt fast approaching $17 trillion, Washington's fiscal irresponsibility may threaten the very provision of veterans' benefits," Miller said. "Achieving a balanced budget and reducing our national debt will help us keep the promises America has made to those who have worn the uniform, and I am committed to working with Democrats and Republicans to do just that."

Marshall Archer, 30, a former Marine Corps corporal who served two stints in Iraq, has a unique perspective about the impact of slowing the growth of veterans' benefits. He collects disability payments to compensate him for damaged knees and shoulders as well as post-traumatic stress disorder. He also works as a veterans' liaison for the city of Portland, Maine, helping some 200 low-income veterans find housing.

Archer notes that on a personal level, the reduction in future disability payments would also be accompanied down the road by a smaller Social Security check when he retires. That means he would take a double hit to his income.

"We all volunteered to serve, so we all volunteered to sacrifice," he said. "I don't believe that you should ever ask those who have already volunteered to sacrifice to then sacrifice again."

That said, Archer indicated he would be willing to "chip in" if he believes that everyone is required to give as well.

He said he's more worried about the veterans he's trying to help find a place to sleep. About a third of his clients rely on VA pension payments averaging just over $1,000 a month. He said their VA pension allows them to pay rent, heat their home and buy groceries, but that's about it.

"This policy, if it ever went into effect, would actually place those already in poverty in even more poverty," Archer said.

The changes that would occur by using the slower inflation calculation seem modest at first. For a veteran with no dependents who has a 60 percent disability rating, the use of chained CPI this year would have lowered the veteran's monthly payments by $3 a month. Instead of getting $1,026 a month, the veteran would have received $1,023.

Raymond Kelly, legislative director for Veterans of Foreign Wars, acknowledged that veterans would see little change in their income during the first few years of the change. But even a $36 hit over the course of a year is "huge" for many of the disabled veterans living on the edge, he said.

The amount lost over time becomes more substantial as the years go by. Sanders said that a veteran with a 100 percent disability rating who begins getting payments at age 30 would see their annual payments trimmed by more than $2,300 a year when they turn 55.

.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/veterans-fight-changes-disability-payments-070421575--politics.html

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GWH News and Notes: March 30 Ohio Valley Wrestling Television

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Source: http://www.gwhnews.com/2013/03/march-30-ohio-valley-wrestling.html

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Man admits faking own death, allegedly impersonates cop hours later

By Greg Cergol, NBCNewYork.com

A man who admitted faking his own drowning at a New York beach pleaded not guilty on new charges that he posed as a police officer and has been placed on suicide watch, his lawyer said Thursday.

Raymond Roth tried to "hurt himself" in custody and his family considered having him committed before he was arrested again for impersonating a police officer, Roth's lawyer, Brian Davis, said.

Roth last week admitted faking his death at Jones Beach in exchange for a 90-day jail sentence, but had not started serving that time when he allegedly impersonated a cop just hours after appearing in court.

That plea deal could be in jeopardy and Roth could now face as many as four years in jail for faking his own death to collect an insurance policy.

In this latest case, he faces more than 20 years in prison on attempted kidnapping, attempted burglary and criminal impersonation charges. He pleaded not guilty and is due back in court on April 24.

Roth is accused of following a woman in van in a Freeport, saying "Get in the van or I will arrest you. I am a police officer," according to court papers.

Surveillance video released by investigators allegedly shows a man following a woman into a check-cashing store. According to police, after the woman went to a back office area, the man tried to convince her to come out by claiming to be a cop.

"Open the door." Roth allegedly said, according to court papers. "I'm the police. Open the door, I'm a detective in the county."

Read more news from NBCNewYork.com

He did not show a badge or phony identification, one police official said, but, according to court papers, patted his waist to create the impression he had a gun.

Authorities said they also are investigating his connection to two other similar impersonation incidents in Freeport.

Last July, Roth's son told authorities that his father went for a swim at Jones Beach and never came back. After the fruitless search, Roth turned up in Florida and South Carolina.

Prosecutors said father and son had conspired to collect on about $400,000 in life insurance.

Davis has said his client pleaded guilty to ensure his son won't go to jail. The case against his 22-year-old son is pending.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2a20f361/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C290C175147310Eman0Eadmits0Efaking0Eown0Edeath0Eallegedly0Eimpersonates0Ecop0Ehours0Elater0Dlite/story01.htm

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EPA Proposes New Rule To Clean Up Gasoline And Reduce Smog

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed on Friday a rule to clean up gasoline. The new lower sulfur gas is already what California uses to reduce air pollution, and the EPA wants it to be used nationwide. The agency estimates that it would save lives while adding a penny a gallon to the cost of gas. The oil industry fears it will cost more.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/03/29/175722031/epa-proposes-new-rule-to-clean-up-gasoline-and-reduce-smog?ft=1&f=1007

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Russia's MTS acquires stake in parent's bank

By Martyn Herman LONDON, March 28 (Reuters) - Whether by design, necessity, self-interest or because of all three, nurturing youngsters has become fashionable for England's elite with no expense spared in the hunt for the new Wayne Rooney or Steven Gerrard. The length and breadth of the country, scouts from top clubs are hoovering up promising footballers barely old enough to tie their bootlaces in a bid to unearth the 30 million pounds ($45.40 million) treasures of the future. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russias-mts-acquires-stake-parents-bank-122859415--sector.html

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Saturday, 30 March 2013

Restaurant meals for kids fail nutrition test: U.S. consumer group

By Diane Bartz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The menus offered to children by most U.S. restaurant chains have too many calories, too much salt or fat, and often not a hint of vegetables or fruit, according to a study by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

The group, which has agitated for everything from healthier popcorn at the movies to calorie labeling in supermarkets, found that among almost 3,500 combinations surveyed, kids' meals failed to meet nutritional standards 97 percent of the time.

That was a marginal improvement over 2008 when such meals failed to meet standards 99 percent of the time.

Every children's meal offered at popular chains such as Chipotle Mexican Grill, Dairy Queen, Hardee's, McDonald's, Panda Express, Perkins Family Restaurants and Popeyes fell short of standards adopted by the center from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's nutritional recommendations.

The meals also fell short of standards set by the National Restaurant Association's Kids LiveWell Program, said the CSPI, which titled its study, "Kids' Meals: Obesity on the Menu."

"Most chains seem stuck in a time warp, serving up the same old meals based on chicken nuggets, burgers, macaroni and cheese, fries, and soda," said Margo Wootan, CSPI nutrition policy director. "It's like the restaurant industry didn't get the memo that there's a childhood obesity crisis."

Among the meals singled out was Applebees' grilled cheese sandwich on sourdough bread, fries and two percent chocolate milk, which has 1,210 calories, 62 grams of fat and 2,340 milligrams of sodium.

The combo meal had nearly three times as many calories as the CSPI's criteria for four- to- eight-year-olds suggest.

At Ruby Tuesday, the macaroni and cheese, white cheddar mashed potatoes and fruit punch combo has 870 calories, 46 grams of fat and 1700 milligrams of sodium, said Wootan.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that children eat no more than 2,300 milligrams of salt each day to avoid high blood pressure, which can lead to coronary disease, stroke and other ailments.

Being overweight as a child leaves a person vulnerable to heart disease, diabetes and a shortened life span. About one-third of American children are now considered overweight and 17 percent are considered obese, according to USDA's Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

The CSPI cited Subway restaurants' Fresh Fit For Kids meal combinations as exceptions to the salty, fatty norm.

Subway serves apple slices with its kid-sized sub sandwiches and offers low-fat milk or bottled water instead of soda. All eight of its children's meals met CSPI's nutrition criteria.

A few other establishments have begun to offer side dishes beyond French fries. In fact, every child's meal at Longhorn Steakhouse now comes with fruit or a vegetable.

"More chains are adding fruit, like apple slices, to their menus, but practically every chain could be adding more vegetable and whole grain options," said Ameena Batada, an assistant professor in the Department of Health and Wellness at the University of North Carolina Asheville.

Labeling can be a potent tool. The report cited two studies that indicated customers who are provided with calorie counts on the menu sometimes gravitate toward healthier choices.

To produce its study, the CSPI looked at 50 top U.S. chain restaurants, finding 34 of them had meals designed for children and were willing to provide nutritional data. It analyzed those meals and meal combinations.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Ros Krasny and Steve Orlofsky)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/restaurant-meals-kids-fail-nutrition-test-u-consumer-102234969.html

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Friday, 29 March 2013

Rogue Dentist May Have Exposed 7,000 Patients to HIV, Hepatitis

The Tulsa Health Department is warning 7,000 patients of a local dentist's office that they could have contracted HIV, hepatitis B or hepatitis C from poor sterilization practices.

Dr. Wayne Harrington, an oral surgeon with a practice in Tulsa, Okla., is being investigated by the state dental board, the state bureau of narcotics and the federal Drug Enforcement Agency because one of his patients recently tested positive for hepatitis C and HIV without known risk factors other than receiving dental treatment.

Upon hearing of the infected patient, the Oklahoma Board of Dentistry conducted a surprise inspection of Harrington's practice on March 18, allegedly finding numerous problems, including regular use of a rusty set of instruments on patients with known infections, and the practice of pouring bleach on wounds until they "turned white."

Calls to Harrington's office were directed to an operator, who told ABC News the clinic no longer took voicemails. The operator said patients were being referred to another clinic, but did not disclose the clinic's name.

Susan Rogers, executive director of Oklahoma's Board of Dentistry, called the incident a "perfect storm." On top of his many violations in sanitary practice, the dentist was a Medicaid provider, which means he had a high proportion of patients with HIV or hepatitis, she said.

Harrington and his staff told investigators that he treated a "high population of known infectious disease carrier patients," according to a complaint filed by the Oklahoma Board of Dentistry.

He allegedly allowed unlicensed dental assistants to administer medication, according to the complaint. These assistants were left to decide which medications to administer, and how much was appropriate.

Drug cabinets were unlocked and unsupervised during the day, and Harrington did not keep an inventory log of drugs, some of which were controlled substances. One drug vial expired in 1993.

"During the inspections, Dr. Harrington referred to his staff regarding all sterilization and drug procedures in his office," the complaint read. "He advised, 'They take care of that. I don't.'"

Harrington allegedly re-used needles, contaminating drugs with potentially harmful bacteria and trace amounts of other drugs, according to the complaint. Although patient-specific drug records indicated that they were using morphine in 2012, no morphine had been ordered since 2009.

The instruments for infected patients was given an extra dip in bleach in addition to normal cleaning methods, but they had red-brown rust spots, indicating that they were "porous and cannot be properly sterilized," according to the complaint.

The Tulsa Health Department said Harrington's patients will receive letters by mail notifying them of the risk and steps to obtain free-of-charge testing.

While 7,000 patients may have been exposed, Joseph Perz, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said it's "extremely rare" to see dental transmission of HIV and hepatitis B or C. In July 2012, 8,000 Coloradans were notified that their dentist had reused needles, potentially exposing them to the blood-borne viruses. But not a single case was identified, according to the CDC.

Dental transmission is not impossible, however. Perz cited a dental fair three years ago in which hepatitis B was transmitted between patients.

In July 2012, more than 1,800 veterans who received dental care at a St. Louis VA Medical Center were warned that improper cleaning of dental tools may have exposed them to HIV and hepatitis.

The Tulsa Health Department has set up a hotline at (918) 595-4500 for people with questions.

ABC News' Dr. Richard Besser and Katie Moisse contributed to this story.

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rogue-dentist-may-exposed-7-000-patients-hiv-234810996.html

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Euvoluntary Exchange: Class M-3 Model B9, General Utility Non ...

ERROR WILL ROBINSON ERROR.

John and Maureen Robinson survived their stint on Alpha Centauri, so Will and Penny never had to languish in foster care, cringing in the corner when Johnathan Harris would simper by to leer at the boy and sneer at the girl.

Few earthborn children suffer the same fate as the crew of the Jupiter II these days, but according to the Child Welfare Information Gateway (of Children's Bureau fame), as of 30 September, 2010 there were an estimated 408,425 children in foster care. Is that a lot in a nation of ~300 million people? That's not a rhetorical question. I do not know what the optimal quantity of children in foster care is. My guess is that on average, it's better to be alive and in foster care than to have never been born at all. I also suspect that on average, it's better to have been adopted than to shuffle from home to home in foster care.

For those kids who stand no chance of being reunited with primary caregivers or close relatives, they will exit by way of either emancipation or adoption by strangers. Think of the normal live birth rate as an exogenous flow parameter, with some fixed proportion of this rate landing in the foster care system (please indulge this simplifying assumption for the purposes of this discussion; I quite well understand that finer and more complete analysis will endogenize the main flow and the shunt parameters alike). The outflow parameter is?governed?by the adoption rate. If a policy goal is to improve the welfare of children in the foster care system, increasing the speed and the volume of adoptions seems to be the best way to do it.

Conditional on errors, of course. You don't want kids languishing in foster care, but neither do you particularly want them adopted by abusive parents. You want arbiters of the adoption decision to avoid both Type I and Type II errors.

To review, a Type I error is a false rejection of a true null hypothesis. A Type II error is the failure to reject a ?truly false null hypothesis. Since the unknown in this case is the moral character of potential adopting parents, ?the selection of the null hypothesis becomes quite important indeed. Here are the two zero-information options: (a) all applicants are evil until proven innocent (and by 'evil', I mean that the expected outcome for adoption is unambiguously worse than the status quo of foster care) or (b) all applicants are good until proven guilty (again, by 'good', I mean that the expected outcome for adoption is as good or better than the status quo of foster care). This leaves us with our old pal, the 2x2 matrix, as illustrated here:

Type I Type II
(a) Evil

1

2

(b) Good

3

4

Four cells, four outcomes. Let's have at it.

  1. Under null assumption (a) a Type I error means that applicants are actually pimps or organ farmers or slavers and they've managed to successfully fleece the gatekeeper authority into thinking they're honest, salt-of-the-earth folk. Of course, in reality, these sorts of errors probably won't be as monstrous as I've indicated here, they'd just have to be worse than the BATNA of foster care (hint hint).
  2. Under null assumption (a) a Type II error means that honest, loving parents get the permanent stinkeye from the decision-making authority. The kid is forced to accept the BATNA of foster care and the potential adoptive parents have found that they flushed a bunch of time, effort, and money down the toilet only to go home empty-handed, lonely, and despondent.
  3. Under null assumption (b) a Type I error means that the granting authority has completed their due diligence and accidentally found honest folks to be rapscallions. This is a little different than cell 2, since the default?assumption is that anyone seeking to adopt is basically a good person. The authorizing agent needs to find actual evidence that the applicants are bad before rejecting the application rather than building a case that they're good. The parallel in the justice system is in the burden of proof. Criminal law cases require "beyond a reasonable doubt" and tort cases require "preponderance of the evidence". Cell 3 is more like an innocent defendant serving time than a non-negligent party paying damages.
  4. This is the really bad one. We've got bad people who have sailed under a relatively high bar. Since the default assumption is that people seeking to adopt are expected to be good, the criteria for rejection should be difficult to meet. Clever enough evil folks should be able to meet it easier than under assumption (a). More kids will end up in bad homes this way.

Fear of cell (4) is a not-unreasonable excuse to make assumption (a), that applicants enter adoption agencies under the presumption of guilt. But what if there were easier ways to mitigate cell (4) risks that didn't?involve lengthy, often torturous application processes, stymied along the way with interminable paperwork, wasteful fees, and in the case of overseas adoptions, seemingly endless streams of bribes? How about we look at base rates and investigate, then eliminate the incentives for bad people to adopt children??

Or how about we refrain from making the Nirvana fallacy? Instead of comparing life in an adoptive home to the idyll of being raised by both parents living in a middle-class single-family home in the 'burbs, perhaps the appropriate comparison is life in a stable household headed by adoptive parents compared to the relative instability of short-term foster care?

Or most importantly, how about starting with something as simple as completely open borders in adoption? This checklist is appalling.?

I get that adoption is not euvoluntary. Kids have little recourse in the process and their BATNA could be unattractive. There's also the possibility that exchange of the basket of rights implied by legal guardianship could be abused by people of ill intent. I agree that it's wise to try to ensure kids don't end up in harmful homes, but I also worry that if we let the perfect be the enemy of the good, many potentially good homes will go empty, many deserving kids will keep their suitcases permanently packed. It seems at least plausible to me that some sort of institutional change (like lowering the baseline standards for adoption to recognize the actual opportunity costs of adoption rather than some imaginary, idyllic standard) would be both directionally euvoluntary and welfare enhancing.

Source: http://euvoluntaryexchange.blogspot.com/2013/03/class-m-3-model-b9-general-utility-non.html

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Forecast.io Delivers a Useful Animated Weather Report for Your Location, All On One Page

Forecast.io Delivers a Useful Animated Weather Report for Your Location, All On One Page Forecast.io is a well-designed, good-looking weather site that puts all of the most relevant and useful information you need right in front of you, no clicking, no wading through ads or scrolling through pages of lengthy forecast notes. Just you, your location (automatically detected,) the current conditions, the forecast for the next day or so, and an animated globe to show you weather you need an umbrella.

Forecast.io keeps the layout simple so you can load the page, glance at the current conditions and forecast for the next hour, 24 hours, or week, and get on with your day. Click play on the animated globe to see cloud cover and chance of rain over your location play out over the next week, just so you know if you're in for cloudy, rainy, or sunny days. If you're hungry for more details, scroll down to the day-by-day forecast to see daily highs and lows, along with the forecast conditions for each day. Click the plus sign next to any day to see hour-by-hour temperatures, highs and lows (and the hours when they'll occur), chance of precipitation, and more.

If Forecast.io looks familiar, it was built by the same folks who made the previously mentioned iPhone weather app Dark Sky. If you love poring through tons of data and maps, Forecast.io may not thrill you (but Weather Underground, your favorite weather site, will). Even so, Forecast.io has a lot to offer weather fans and people who just want to know how to pack for a trip or whether they should grab the umbrella on the way out the door. Hit the link below to give it a try.

Forecast.io | via Adam Pash

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/gYS1YxONHpo/forecastio-delivers-a-useful-animated-weather-report-for-your-location-all-on-one-page

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Investing in Silver Vs Investing in Gold - What to Choose ...

Deciding between investing in silver or investing in gold can be difficult, because it is largely a personal choice. Silver and gold are both precious metals and make for good investments when you want to protect your wealth against inflation.
But there are serious differences between the two in terms of market size, volatility, and availability.

Market Size

The silver market has always been, and will continue to be, much smaller than the gold market. The amount of bullion gold for investment available is estimated to be twice as much as that of bullion silver.

What's more, the price of gold has been up to 97 times higher than that of silver during the last hundred years, making the gold market many, many times more valuable than the silver one.

Volatility

The relative smallness of the silver market compared to the gold market makes silver more volatile. So much so that sudden rises or slumps in the value of silver are extremely common. Obviously, this makes investing in silver possibly more risky than investing in gold.

But also possibly more rewarding, since the price of silver can also grow faster than that of gold. 2010 is a good example of a year when the price of silver - at least in the first half of the year - has risen much more than the price of gold.

Availability

There are far more known deposits of silver in the earth than there are deposits of gold. While some believe that gold availability is going to dwindle in the years to come, since most of the major gold deposits have been already mined, nobody seems to worry about the availability of silver.

The greater availability of silver suggests that silver will not become nearly as expensive as gold. It also suggests that silver prices can more easily fall than gold prices, since the growing scarcity of gold will conserve the latter's value.

So, Silver or Gold?

The essential things to consider are these:

? The gold market is much bigger than the silver market.

? Gold is, and will continue to be, much more valuable than silver.

? The price of silver can increase (as well as fall) more often and more significantly than the price of gold can.

? Silver deposits are widely available, whereas gold ones are growing scarcer.

All this means that neither silver nor gold is the better investment, but that you should choose the one most appropriate for your situation and purpose. Investing in silver can mean bigger return on investments in the short-term, but also more risks, whereas investing in gold can mean more stability and fewer risks, but also smaller return on investments in the short-term.

If you are looking for best?alternative investments?such as?investing in silver?or investing in gold, experts at Compare the Financial Markets will help provide valuable assistance.

By-?Una Page
Source-??TheEnergyReport.com??

Source: http://www.everythingaboutinvestment.com/2013/03/investing-in-silver-vs-investing-in.html

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Thursday, 28 March 2013

HIV test urged for 7,000 Oklahoma dental patients

TULSA, Okla. (AP) ? Health officials said Thursday that thousands of patients of an Oklahoma dentist should undergo testing for HIV and hepatitis after officials investigating the source of a patient's disease discovered instruments weren't being cleaned properly.

The Oklahoma Board of Dentistry said Thursday that state and county health inspectors inspected Dr. W. Scott Harrington's practice after a patient with no other known risk factors tested positive for hepatitis C and the virus that causes Aids. At Harrington's clinics, they found multiple sterilization issues, including cross-contamination of instruments and the use of a separate, rusty, set of instruments for patients who were known to carry infectious diseases.

Harrington, an oral surgeon, voluntarily closed his practices in Tulsa and suburban Owasso and is cooperating with investigators, said Kaitlin Snider, a spokeswoman for the Tulsa Health Department. He faces a hearing April 19 and could lose his license.

"It's uncertain how long those practices have been in place," said "He's been practicing for 36 years."

Phone numbers for Harrington at his home and offices were disconnected Thursday and it was not clear if he had a lawyer.

Snider said letters would be sent Friday to 7,000 patients who went to Harrington's clinics in Tulsa and suburban Owasso since 2007. The letters recommend testing for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV. The agencies say it is rare for infections to spread in occupational settings but that tests are important.

The Dentistry Board complaint says Harrington and his staff told investigators that a "high population of known infectious disease carrier patients" received dental care from him.

An autoclave used to sterilize all instruments wasn't working properly, the complaint said. The clinic also apparently used outdated drugs, as one vial on the premises this year had an expiration date of 1993, the complaint said.

The health departments said hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV are serious medical conditions and infected patients may not have outward symptoms of the disease for many years. "As a precaution, and in order to take appropriate steps to protect their health, it is important for these patients to get tested. It should be noted that transmission in this type of occupational setting is rare," their statement said.

Testing will be offered free of charge at the Tulsa Health Department's North Regional Health and Wellness Center.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hiv-test-urged-7-000-oklahoma-dental-patients-195804002.html

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Peculiar parasitoid wasp found on rare sawfly developing in ferns

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

A mysterious parasitoid wasp was found in the B?hmerwald (Northeast Austria) and reared in the garden of the amateur entomologist Ewald Altenhofer of Gross Gerungs municipality, Austria. The parasitoid was identified by Kees van Achterberg, senior researcher at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, the Netherlands, as the rare Seleucus cuneiformis. It is the first time that a tip of its biology was discovered. The study was published in the open access journal Journal of Hymenoptera Research.

The parasitoids reared by Mr Altenhofer belong to the peculiar genus Seleucus. The reared parasitoid Seleucus cuneiformis is known from only a few countries in Europe and is new to Austria. The host is the fern sawfly Blasticotoma filiceti, the only member of the family Blasticotomidae in Europe. The family is considered to be one of the oldest extant families of the true sawflies. This particular sawfly was previously known only from the region near Linz since 1973 and this is the second find reported for the fauna of Austria.

The larvae of B. filiceti live in the stems of ferns in a small chamber, or gall, that they induce themselves for their protection. They feed on the nutrients in the phloem fluids and may produce foam on the outer side of the gall. The larvae have a true ant trophobiosis, or ants can live in symbiosis based on food for protection, the only known occurrence of this phenomenon within the Hymenoptera. The Myrmica ants receive fluids through some holes connected to the stem gall of the larva.

During the rearing experiments, important notes on the previously unknown biology of the parasitoid wasp were recorded. Four weeks after the sawflies emerged from the gall, the adults of Seleucus cuneiformis also started appearing, which continued over a period of two weeks. Interestingly, the parasitoid females at first had a droplet-shaped rear body characteristic for males. During the course of the first day the metasoma got expanded into the very elongate shape typical of females, which is of use to inject their eggs into the galls of the sawflies.

###

Achterberg C van, Altenhofer E (2013) Notes on the biology of Seleucus cuneiformis Holmgren (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae, Ctenopelmatinae). Journal of Hymenoptera Research 31: 97?104. doi: 10.3897/JHR.31.4204

Pensoft Publishers: http://www.pensoft.net

Thanks to Pensoft Publishers for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127456/Peculiar_parasitoid_wasp_found_on_rare_sawfly_developing_in_ferns

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Florida officials push for answers at boys' school graveyard

By Bill Cotterell

MARIANNA, Florida (Reuters) - Florida officials said on Wednesday they will seek federal money for a forensic investigation into unmarked graves on the grounds of a shuttered state reform school for boys that has been the target of numerous allegations of abuse and mysterious deaths of children.

Dozens of unmarked graves have been uncovered at the Dozier School in the Florida Panhandle city of Marianna and investigators are trying to determine the circumstances surrounding the deaths, which experts say probably occurred between 1914 and 1952.

"We really don't know exactly how many, or who they are," said Erin Kimmerle, a forensic anthropologist at the University of South Florida with a scroll-like map of spots where her ground-piercing radar spotted signs of human remains.

The Dozier School was legend among adolescents for about 100 years in Florida, as the state's major reform school, until it was closed in 2011.

Several years ago, former students told horror stories of sexual abuse and frequent beatings in a mausoleum-like building dubbed the "White House" where nine barren cubicles held boys accused of rules infractions.

Some died under unknown circumstances, according to relatives.

In December, researchers from the University of South Florida in Tampa said they found evidence of at least 50 graves on the school's property and more grave shafts in and around an area called "Boot Hill" across a major highway from the high, razor-wire-topped fences of the closed school.

Kimmerle's work also indicates there could be at least 50 bodies buried on the property.

"All the focus on exact numbers is not really the issue," she said. "Whether it's one or 20 or 40 or 60, we are talking about a child and families that are asking for information."

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and other state officials are seeking a court order to allow the remains to be exhumed.

The U.S. Department of Justice has a program that could provide up to $3 million for forensic sifting of the burial areas, said U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat, who toured the site on Wednesday.

A $200,000 appropriation is pending in the state legislature.

Nelson said he wants to find out as much as possible and let relatives know the truth. He noted that "the statute of limitation on murder never runs out," but said there is little chance of prosecuting anyone.

State Attorney Glenn Hess said only one or two employees from the era are known to be alive, and it's unlikely a trial could prove how a boy died or who was responsible.

"The question is, can we establish probable cause that a crime has been committed, and who did it?" he said. "That's the hard part."

Families could ask their legislators to file "claims" bills for civil compensation, if identity could be established from remains and if negligence might be established on the part of the state.

(Editing by Brendan O'Brien, Kevin Gray and Lisa Shumaker)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/florida-officials-push-answers-boys-school-graveyard-021905953.html

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Wednesday, 27 March 2013

Scientists pinpoint gene coding errors for cancer

PARIS ?(AFP) ? The biggest-ever trawl of the human genome for cancer-causing DNA errors has netted more than 80 tiny mutations, a finding that could help people at high risk, researchers said Wednesday.

The results, which double the number of known genetic alterations linked to breast, ovarian and prostate cancer, were unveiled in a dozen scientific papers published in journals in Europe and the United States.

The three hormone-related cancers are diagnosed in over 2.5 million people every year and kill one in three patients, said a Nature press statement.

Teams from more than 100 research institutes in Europe, Asia, Australia and the United States said the work should in the future help doctors to calculate an individual?s cancer risk long before any symptoms emerge.

People with high-susceptibility mutations could be counselled against lifestyle choices that further increase their risk, given regular screening and drug treatment, or even preventative surgery.

?We have examined 200,000 areas of the genome in 250,000 individuals. There is no (other) study of cancer of this size,? Per Hall, coordinator of the Collaborative Oncological Gene-environment Study (COGS), told AFP of the research.

The studies compared the DNA of more than 100,000 patients with breast, ovarian and prostate cancer to that of an equal number of healthy individuals. Most were of European ancestry.

DNA, the blueprint for life, comprises four basic chemicals called A (adenine) C (cytosine), T (thymine) and G (guanine) strung together in different combinations along a double helix.

Researchers noted where the A, C, T, G combinations of cancer patients differed significantly from those of healthy people.

They were looking for a tiny ?spelling mistake? in the code, called a single nucleotide polymorphism or SNP that can cause problems in gene function.

For breast cancer, the researchers found 49 SNPs, ?which is more than double the number previously found?, said Sweden?s Karolinska Institutet, which took part in the giant study.

?In the case of prostate cancer, researchers have discovered another 26 deviations, which means that a total number of 78 SNPs may be linked to the disease.?

For ovarian cancer, eight new SNPs were found.

Everyone has inherited alterations in their DNA, but whether these mutations are dangerous or not is determined by where on the code they lie.

And carrying a mutation does not necessarily mean a person will develop cancer, a disease that may have multiple causes.

The researchers said further study is needed to allow scientists to translate these DNA telltales into tests for predicting cancer risk. A more distant goal is using the knowledge for better treatments.

?Since there are many other factors that influence the risk of these cancers (mainly lifestyle factors), future tests have to take more risk factors than just genes into consideration,? said Hall.

?It will take a couple of years before we have the necessary models enabling us, with high accuracy, to predict the individual risk of these cancers.?

The findings were published in Nature Genetics and Nature Communications, PLOS Genetics, the American Journal of Human Genetics and Human Molecular Genetics.

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Source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/03/scientists-pinpoint-gene-coding-errors-for-cancer/

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Tuesday, 26 March 2013

Google Play starts offering devices in India, starting with the Nexus 7

Google Play starts offering devices in India, starting with the Nexus 7

Google Play Books recently launched for India; it's only fitting that locals get some hardware to read with. Accordingly, Google just opened device sales for India through Google Play, beginning with the Nexus 7. The initial offering is decidedly modest and includes just the 16GB WiFi version of the reference tablet, which costs 15,999 rupees ($294) and should deliver by April 5th. While that doesn't provide the selection that we know in some countries -- and the Nexus 7 definitely isn't one of the cheaper tablets Indians will have seen -- it's an important step toward creating a truly complete Google Play ecosystem in an influential country.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/26/google-play-starts-offering-devices-in-india/

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'World War Z' trailer: Brad Pitt vs. undead world

By Cody Delistraty, NBC News contributor

After going way over budget and undergoing script rewrites and re-shoots, "World War Z" is finally coming to the screen -- and it looks to have all the trappings of a thrilling zombie blockbuster.

Just as director Marc Forster (of "Quantum of Solace" fame) has been working against the clock, budget problems, and unhappy producers to finish the film, so, too, Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) must beat the odds. With only 90 days to stop a zombie apocalypse, Lane, a United Nations worker, must leave his family to hunt for clues around the globe, interview survivors, and find out how to stop the zombies.

Paramount Pictures

"I think these things have a weakness," Pitt's character says.

According to the latest trailer, which dropped Monday, something in Russia may hold the key. As Lane says "weakness," the trailer shows a boy crouching as zombies run past him, paying him no attention even while destroying everything else in their path. So what exactly is the secret then? It?s tough to tell, but Lane must leave his family to find it.

Naturally, there are some stunning visual effects, such as when a plane is blown open in flight, ? la the "Iron Man 3" trailer. There are mountains of fast zombies, which are nothing like those in "The Walking Dead" or the original "Dawn of the Dead" films. No, the "World War Z" zombies move, climb and destroy with incredible pace. In fact, the newly released poster has a whole swarm (herd? gaggle? army?) of zombies piled atop one another, mercilessly pulling a helicopter out of the sky.

And, of course, lest we forget, there?s also the genre's hallmark: super serious dialogue. "I can?t leave my family," Pitt?s character says. "Don't pretend your family is exempt when we talk about the end of humanity!" a stern officer volleys back.

Over-the-top dialogue aside, the trailer shows that "World War Z," based on Max Brooks' novel of the same name, straddles action and mystery with equal importance. And we can?t wait to follow Brad Pitt and company along for the ride.

The film hits US theaters on June 21.

More Entertainment news:

Source: http://entertainment.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/25/17458628-world-war-z-trailer-pits-brad-pitt-against-mountains-of-zombies?lite

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2006 Ford F-250 - Seattle, WA, Tacoma, WA & Olympia, WA for $28,999


*The advertised price does not include sales tax, vehicle registration fees, finance charges, documentation charges, and any other fees required by law. We attempt to update this inventory on a regular basis. However, there can be lag time between the sale of a vehicle and the update of the inventory.

EPA mileage estimates are for newly manufactured vehicles only. Your actual mileage will vary depending on how you drive and maintain your vehicle.

Before purchasing this vehicle, it is your responsibility to address any and all differences between information on this website and the actual vehicle specifications and/or any warranties offered prior to the sale of this vehicle. Vehicle data on this website is compiled from publicly available sources believed by the publisher to be reliable. Vehicle data is subject to change without notice. The publisher assumes no responsibility for errors and/or omissions in this data the compilation of this data and makes no representations express or implied to any actual or prospective purchaser of the vehicle as to the condition of the vehicle, vehicle specifications, ownership, vehicle history, equipment/accessories, price or warranties. 2006 Ford Seattle, WA 2006 Ford Tacoma, WA 2006 Ford Olympia, WA

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Falcons 'rapidly evolved hunter skill'

Falcons rapidly evolved their renowned hunting skills, a study has found.

Scientists from Cardiff University have sequenced the genome of peregrine and saker falcons for the first time.

Research revealed that compared with other species, these birds of prey have been subjected to fierce competition and pressures, leading them to adapt quickly in order to survive.

Investigation of the genes responsible for the birds' unique beaks highlighted this rapid development.

The name falcon comes from the Latin word falco, meaning hook shaped and refers to the birds' strongly curved beaks.

"We have been able to determine that specific genes, regulating beak development, have had to evolve to withstand the pressure of impacting their prey at a speed of up to 300 kilometres an hour," explained Professor Mike Bruford, who authored the paper published in the journal Nature Genetics.

"The shape of the falcon beak has also had had to evolve to be capable of tearing at the flesh of its prey."

The hunting skills of falcons are well known, with the peregrine falcon often referred to as the fastest animal on Earth due to the impressive speeds at which it plummets through the air to catch prey.

Researchers worked with experts at the Beijing Genomics Institute in China to obtain the genome sequences of the birds.

They discovered the "revelatory" evidence of the falcons' evolutionary history when comparing their genomes with those of other birds that have had their genomes sequenced: chickens, turkeys and zebra finches.

Through DNA sequencing, they were able to identify the genes behind the birds' exemplary predatory adaptations.

These adaptations include hard skulls to allow the birds to survive collisions with their prey and highly efficient circulatory and respiratory systems to cope with the extreme air pressure encountered during their high-speed dives.

Tracking when and how these genes developed, the scientists identified that the process was very rapid and theorised that this was due to intense competitive pressures experienced by the birds as they sought prey.

"Evolution seems to be pushing the genome sequence in an unusual direction," said Prof Bruford.

"If we had found this just in the peregrine, that would have been interesting, but we also sequenced the saker falcon and it shows the same pattern, leaving us with the most likely explanation that it is their predatory lifestyle [that is responsible]."

Saker falcons are found across Central Asia and the research team were able to understand more about how they developed to live in arid environments.

The birds are listed as endangered in the wild and conservationists from International Wildlife Consultants, Carmarthen, who co-funded the project hope an improved understanding of their history will help safeguard the species for the future.

Join BBC Nature on Facebook and Twitter @BBCNature.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/21885659

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Monday, 25 March 2013

Apple buys Silicon Valley startup WiFiSlam

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple has acquired a Silicon Valley startup, WiFiSlam, which makes mapping applications for smart phones.

Apple confirmed the acquisition, but declined to give details. The news was earlier reported by The Wall Street Journal, which quoted a person familiar with the matter as saying that Apple paid around $20 million for the company.

"Apple acquires smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans," an Apple spokesman told Reuters.

WiFiSlam develops technology that provides indoor tracking and similar services. Big tech companies such as Apple and Google have been racing to provide more and better map applications for users. Google's application, Google Maps, is widely accessed on Google's Android platform and rival Apple's rival iOS platform.

(Reporting by Poornima Gupta in San Francisco and Caroline Valetkevitch in New York; Editing by David Brunnstrom)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apple-buys-silicon-valley-startup-wifislam-202340963--sector.html

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Moon and asteroids share history, NASA scientists find

Mar. 25, 2013 ? NASA and international researchers have discovered that Earth's moon has more in common than previously thought with large asteroids roaming our solar system.

Scientists from NASA's Lunar Science Institute (NLSI) in Moffett Field, Calif., discovered that the same population of high-speed projectiles that impacted our lunar neighbor four billion years ago, also hit the giant asteroid Vesta and perhaps other large asteroids.

The research unveils an unexpected link between Vesta and the moon, and provides new means for studying the early bombardment history of terrestrial planets. The findings are published in the March issue of Nature Geoscience.

"It's always intriguing when interdisciplinary research changes the way we understand the history of our solar system," said Yvonne Pendleton, NLSI director. "Although the moon is located far from Vesta, which is in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, they seem to share some of the same bombardment history."

The findings support the theory that the repositioning of gas giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn from their original orbits to their current location destabilized portions of the asteroid belt and triggered a solar system-wide bombardment of asteroids billions of years ago, called the lunar cataclysm.

The research provides new constraints on the start and duration of the lunar cataclysm, and demonstrates that the cataclysm was an event that affected not only the inner solar system planets, but the asteroid belt as well.

The moon rocks brought back by NASA Apollo astronauts have long been used to study the bombardment history of the moon. Now the ages derived from meteorite samples have been used to study the collisional history of main belt asteroids. In particular, howardite and eucrite meteorites, which are common species found on Earth, have been used to study asteroid Vesta, their parent body. With the aid of computer simulations, researchers determined that meteorites from Vesta recorded high-speed impacts which are now long gone.

Researchers have linked these two datasets and found that the same population of projectiles responsible for making craters and basins on the moon were also hitting Vesta at very high velocities, enough to leave behind a number of telltale, impact-related ages.

The team's interpretation of the howardites and eucrites was augmented by recent close-in observations of Vesta's surface by NASA's Dawn spacecraft. In addition, the team used the latest dynamical models of early main belt evolution to discover the likely source of these high velocity impactors. The team determined that the population of projectiles that hit Vesta had orbits that also enabled some objects to strike the moon at high speeds.

"It appears that the asteroidal meteorites show signs of the asteroid belt losing a lot of mass four billion years ago, with the escaped mass beating up on both the surviving main belt asteroids and the moon at high speeds" says lead author Simone Marchi, who has a joint appointment between two of NASA's Lunar Science Institutes, one at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., and another at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston. "Our research not only supports the current theory, but it takes it to the next level of understanding."

The NLSI is headquartered at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. The Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

To learn more about NLSI, visit: http://lunarscience.nasa.gov .

For more information about the Dawn mission, visit: www.nasa.gov/dawn .

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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Journal Reference:

  1. S. Marchi, W. F. Bottke, B. A. Cohen, K. W?nnemann, D. A. Kring, H. Y. McSween, M. C. De Sanctis, D. P. O?Brien, P. Schenk, C. A. Raymond, C. T. Russell. High-velocity collisions from the lunar cataclysm recorded in asteroidal meteorites. Nature Geoscience, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1769

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/tTc-NiRYgpQ/130325185237.htm

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iMore app contest! Comment away for your chance to win a FREE iPhone!

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Like we announced at the beginning of the month, the iMore 2.0 app is here! That's right, in 2013, iMore re-revolutionized our app, and we're thrilled to finally get it into the App Store and onto your iPhones! And it wouldn't be Mobile Nations if we didn't celebrate with a contest. So... We're giving away an iPhone!

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Sunday, 24 March 2013

Claire's Stores Family Embroiled In Blackmail Drama With Former Maid's Family: Report

She said she had damaging information about a wealthy South Florida family. The trim man in a blue suit claimed to represent the family.

"What do you feel is fair to get the correspondence back?" he asked. They sat in a hotel lobby, smooth jazz piped in from the speakers above them.

"I feel fair-market value is fair," answered the younger woman, wearing a blouse typically worn by home healthcare workers. She unzipped her purse, pulled out a yellow index card and passed it to him. He looked at the number written on the card.

"I'm sorry. That ... three million dollars?" he asked.

"That's the minimum. That's the minimum," she said.

By the following week, the woman -- who authorities say is the daughter of the family's former housekeeper -- would be in jail. She would be accused of a blackmail plot that seems scripted for a television drama.

Audiotapes and police records recently obtained by the Sun Sentinel detail how the investigation and arrest went down.

--

Bonnie Schaefer is hardly a household name, but the company her family built is well known to pre-teen and teenage girls, and their parents. Her father, Rowland Schaefer, founded Claire's, the accessory and jewelry retailer often found in shopping malls. With more than 3,000 stores worldwide, it's where girls can buy Justin Bieber T-shirts and macrame bracelets.

Bonnie Schaefer and her sister, Marla, took over running the company in 2002 after their father had a stroke. Five years later, Claire's sold for $3.1 billion to a private equity firm. Total value of the family's holdings: more than $239 million, according to published reports.

The sale didn't affect where the parents -- Rowland, 96, and Sylvia, 89 -- lived. They stayed in the same Hollywood home they had been in for years.

And for about 15 of those years, their housekeeper was the same woman -- Coleen Parkes, according to police reports.

But the Schaefer family's attorney wrote in court documents that Parkes began threatening her co-workers, refusing to do her job and failing to prepare food to meet the Schaefers' medical needs.

She was fired on Sept. 22.

Three days later, an email arrived in Bonnie Schaefer's in-box just before midnight. It came from an email account in the name of Parkes' daughter, police records show.

The subject: "Letters from home."

--

"My name is Camille Brown," the message began. "I hope this e-mail finds you in the best of spirits."

The writer accused Rowland Schaefer of mistreating Parkes and of threatening the housekeeper to maintain her silence.

Conditions on the job got so bad that Brown accompanied her mother to work for two weeks, according to the email. During that time, Sylvia Schaefer gave Brown letters she wrote detailing family secrets, the email states.

The email went on to offer glimpses of what allegedly are in Sylvia Schaefer's letters. The Sun Sentinel is not publishing those deeply personal accusations, which the newspaper could not verify. The family's lawyer said neither he nor the family will be discussing the case.

The letter writer claimed that Forbes often would come home crying from the Schaefers' house.

"I have watched my mother cry as she comes home from working in your family's home and your family didn't even have the decency to terminate her with dignity. I have retired my mother in a foreign country so that she can live out the rest of her life with the peace that she deserves. Now Bonnie, how would you feel about the world knowing about the darker side of 'The Incredible Rowland Shaefer' [sic]."

The message warned that details of the family's personal life would be spilled to the media, unless they acted:

"The original copies of the letters I own are in a safety deposit box with instructions in the hands of my attorney to make them public in the event of my untimely demise. I often wondered why your mother gave these documents to me. God works in mysterious ways. Promptly respond with a show of commitment to protecting your family's name and the reputation of your father. Otherwise the letters will go to the highest bidder -- CNN, Time, Forbes, etc. etc. Attached are samples of some of your mother's 50 plus letters for your convenience. They make for excellent reading."

--

Bonnie Schaefer answered three days later, police records show.

"Ms. Brown,

I have received your message. I am in North Carolina and ask that in my absence you coordinate the transaction with my attorney. Any transaction between us would have to involve all of mother's letters/diaries and not just a few. I will also require assurances that you have not already disclosed this to the media. Please send me a phone number where he may contact you as soon as he can.

Bonnie Schaefer"

--

A few days later, Brown, 32, received a call from James O'Neal, according to police records. O'Neal said he represented Bonnie Schaefer. He arranged to meet Brown on Oct. 2 at 1 p.m., in the lobby of the Hampton Inn & Suites in Boynton Beach.

"It would be easier if Ms. Schaefer were down here, but she's not coming back over here for a month and she doesn't want to be involved," he said on the phone. "And I don't blame her. This is the kind of stuff we handle all the time, not for her, but for other people."

The conversation was being recorded by O'Neal.

--

If someone searches the name "James O'Neal" in Google, the second result that comes up is a website dedicated to an author who writes futuristic police thrillers under the pen name "James O' Neal."

That author is James O. Born, a Florida crime writer who consulted on the short-lived television drama "Karen Sisco" about a female U.S. Marshal.

Born has excellent credentials for writing crime novels: He is a special agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

It turned out that Bonnie Schaefer had wasted little time alerting authorities to the threatening e-mail.

--

Born wore a wire to the hotel meeting, recording the conversation. After the woman in the caretaker's blouse presented the $3 million figure, he said it was too much. She got up to leave.

"Ma'am, can we discuss this at all?" he asked.

"That's the minimum. I can go higher, but nothing lower," she said.

"Let me ask you this -- could we do this in installments?" he asked.

"That's a possibility," she said.

Born eventually agreed to wire the money and had her sign a confidentiality agreement. He asked her where he could wire the money.

That's when she reached into her purse and pulled out a second yellow index card bearing the name "Camille Brown" and bank account and routing numbers, according to FDLE reports.

--

A phone call the next week set up a final meeting at the Hampton Inn. The woman agreed to bring a third of the letters if the Schaefers would wire $1 million, with the rest of the money coming in 30 days, according to the audiotape of the conversation.

The woman came into the lobby with a stack of the letters and handed them to the undercover agent, who was wearing a wire again. The conversation was recorded.

"Those are the originals," she said. "I have copies for my records."

"OK, we're going to insist there are no copies," the undercover agent said.

"You'll get copies of everything along with the other originals upon final," she said.

The undercover agent pretended to call a bank official to wire the money. He also asked her to sign a second agreement.

"For the total payment of $3,000,000 in US currency demanded by Camille Brown, all efforts to coerce, control, blackmail or extort the Schaefer family or any associated businesses will end and not be resumed," it said. The woman signed.

When she left the lobby, she found three FDLE agents waiting to arrest her. She declined to talk with the agents after she was read her constitutional rights.

"Just take me to where you are going to take me," she said, according to police reports.

--

Brown was taken to the Palm Beach County Jail and booked. She has pleaded not guilty to an extortion charge.

She's now living with her mother in Plantation while free on a $75,000 bond. Court records indicate she is a school curriculum coordinator, but do not detail where she works.

Brown declined to comment last week to a reporter about the case.

Her attorney, Guy Fronstin, said she wants her day in court to clear her name.

"From our perspective, Ms. Brown is not guilty," Fronstin said. "We are going to be defending her case in court and proving it was a misunderstanding and clearly not a situation of bribery, blackmail or extortion."

He declined to elaborate about her possible defenses.

--

There is still the matter of what happened to the other letters.

The Schaefer family's attorney, William N. Shepherd, filed a lawsuit last month against Brown and her mother to get them back.

"Instead of making arrangements for the immediate return of the property, plaintiff [Bonnie Schaefer] has information and belief that the defendants [Brown and Parkes] seek to return the property only if final resolution of Ms. Brown's criminal litigation results in a probation sentence," Shepherd wrote.

"The value of the property cannot be numerically quantified."

Brown is scheduled to go to trial June 24 in Palm Beach County Circuit Court. If convicted, she could face up to 15 years in prison.

jburstein@tribune.com, 954-356-4491 or Twitter @jkburstein ___

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Has Obama's Mideast trip changed the game on the ground?

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

US President Barack Obama, left, listens to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their visit to the Children's Memorial at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, Israel, on Friday.

By Martin Fletcher, Correspondent, NBC News

News analysis

TEL AVIV ? The verdict among Israeli pundits was unanimous: if President Barack Obama was an Israeli politician, he'd be a shoo-in to lead the liberal left.

His call for the Israeli government to halt Jewish settlement building in the West Bank, for a Palestinian state, his recognition of Israel's historical claim to the land and his demand for a secure Israel, is all straight out of the playbook of what remains of Israel's left.


His speech to Israeli students Thursday, who were carefully vetted to make sure they were in political agreement with him, was greeted numerous times by applause and a few standing ovations. And while many Israelis may have disagreed with the content of the speech, Obama's sincerity was felt by all.

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Obama drew a clear parallel between the Passover story of Jewish slaves fleeing Egypt and fighting for their rights, and the African-American struggle out of slavery and fight for their rights. That bond of shared experience, and the genuineness of his feelings, really came through.

So when Obama insisted that "all options are on the table" to stop Iran's nuclear program, he sounded convincing. And when he moved on to demand that Israel stop building settlements and make tough decisions to reach peace with the Palestinians, his words met with a more receptive audience.

For many Israelis, Obama won their hearts and their minds, but as one said to this reporter: "What now?"

President Obama spoke to an audience of more than 2,000 Israeli citizens at the Jerusalem Convention Center and stressed the necessity of peace between Israel and Palestine.

Any closer to peace talks?
Are Israel and the Palestinians closer to peace talks than they were before Obama came? Did the fine words add up to momentum?

That will be up to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to discover when he returns to Jerusalem Saturday to try, as so many have before him, to kick-start the peace process.?

Overall, Obama's message had something for everyone.

The first half of Obama's speech, in which he confirmed Israel's right to the land, pleased Israel's right wing. The second half, in which he called for compromise with the Palestinians and a Palestinian state, pleased the left wing.

When he said this is a Jewish democratic state, Jews were thrilled and Palestinians were furious.

When he said Israel will not survive as a Jewish democratic state with settlements on Palestinian land, Palestinians were thrilled and many Israelis were furious.

But after trying to be all things to all people, Obama departed leaving behind a question: What just happened? Was there any American commitment to get started with the talks?

Israelis charmed, Palestinians insulted
The answer is: no. The message was: we are here to help, but first you have to do the work. In other words, nothing changed, beyond people?s impression of Obama as a leader.

President Obama, alongside and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, says the U.S. remains "deeply committed" to the creation of an independent and sovereign state of Palestine.

Israelis were encouraged that Obama really does like them; Operation Charm worked.

But Palestinians were left fuming, and many say they were insulted.

They complained that he mentioned a Jewish rocket victim by name, but didn?t mention any of the many Palestinian victims, or the approximately 4,500 prisoners in Israeli jails. He visited the grave of two Israeli icons, Theodor Herzl and Yitzhak Rabin, but refused even to walk by the shrine to Yasser Arafat. He did not repeat the Palestinian demand that Israel stop building settlements as a condition for peace talks.

In short, Palestinians got very little, and Israel got a bit more.

At least, that's what the public saw.

Big brother still calling the shots
There was at least one big surprise from the backroom talks between Obama and Netanyahu that should go a long way toward improving frayed ties between two important U.S. allies in the region.?

After three years of refusing to do so, Netanyahu called his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan Friday to apologize for "any error" that may have led to the deaths of nine Turkish activists during a 2010 raid on a boat off the Gaza Strip.

The two agreed to normalize relations ? a major breakthrough. It means the two big U.S. allies can now resume military cooperation, which should help to contain the spillover of the Syrian civil war in the region ? and lessen Israel's isolation in the volatile region.

What isn't known yet is what was agreed to behind closed doors about how to deal with the twin threats of Iran and Syria.

In the press conference that followed their discussions, both sides seemed satisfied with the current degree of military and intelligence cooperation on both subjects.

But did Obama leave with the certainty that Israel would not interfere with the American timetable for dealing with the Iranian threat?

We don?t know more than we knew before, which is that impatient little Israel can't do much without their more patient bigger brother.?

But at least, after this visit by the American president, the brotherly relationship appears more credible than before.

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Related:

Israel's Netanyahu apologizes to Turkey over deadly flotilla raid

Photo Blog: Obama wraps up Holy Land visit at Bethlehem church after Holocaust tribute

Obama visits a Bethlehem in midst of change, Islamization

Obama appeals to Israelis: Give justice to the Palestinians

Iran threatens to destroy Tel Aviv, Haifa if Israel attacks

Obama: 'Still time' for diplomatic solution to Iran nuke dispute

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