Actor Dale Robertson dies in California hospital

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) ? Dale Robertson, an Oklahoma native who became a star of television and movie Westerns during the genre's heyday, died Tuesday. He was 89.

Robertson's niece, Nancy Robertson, said her uncle died at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, Calif., following a brief illness.

Dale Robertson had bit parts in films including "The Boy with the Green Hair" and the Joan Crawford vehicle "Flamingo Road" before landing more high-profile roles such as Jesse James in "Fighting Man of the Plains."

In the 1950s, he moved into television, starring in series such as "Tales of Wells Fargo" (1957-62), "Iron Horse" (1966) and "Death Valley Days" (1968-70).

Robertson continued to work in TV in the 1970s, and in the 1980s he landed roles in the popular night-time soap operas "Dallas" and "Dynasty."

In 1993, he took what would be his final role, as Zeke in the show "Harts of the West," before retiring from acting to spend more time at his ranch in Yukon, Okla., where he lived until moving to the San Diego area in recent months, Nancy Robertson said.

Dale Robertson would want to be remembered as a father, a grandfather and an Oklahoman, she said.

"He came back a lot when he was in Hollywood, and he came back (to Oklahoma) after retiring," she said.

"I remember him as a larger-than-life fellow," she said. "When he was in town it was always very exciting. It always meant something magical was going to happen," such as another actor or performing artist accompanying him on his visits.

Born Dayle Lymoine Robertson to Melvin and Vervel Robertson in Harrah, on July 14, 1923, Robertson attended Oklahoma Military College at 17 and boxed in professional prize fights to earn money.

He joined the U.S. Army and fought in North Africa and Europe during World War II. Robertson was wounded twice and awarded the Bronze and Silver Stars and the Purple Heart.

While stationed at San Luis Obispo, Calif., he had a photograph taken for his mother. A copy of the photo displayed in the photo shop window attracted movie scouts, and the 6-foot-tall, 180-pound Robertson soon was on his way to Hollywood.

Will Rogers Jr., son of fellow Oklahoma-born actor and writer Will Rogers, once told Robertson to avoid formal training and keep his own persona.

Robertson received the Golden Boot Award in 1985, and was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers and the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.

He was married several times, most recently in 1980 to Susan Robbins, who survives him along with two children.

Nancy Robertson said her uncle will be cremated and that a memorial service will be held in a few weeks.

_____

Former Associated Press writer Rochelle Hines contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/actor-dale-robertson-dies-california-hospital-011301126.html

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Home Depot leads Dow average higher

NEW YORK (AP) ? A jump in home sales and strong earnings from Home Depot helped the Dow claw back more than half of its losses from Monday. Improving consumer confidence also brought back buyers to the market.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 115.96 points, or 0.8 percent, to 13,900.13. The Dow fell 216 points the day before, its biggest drop in three months, on concern that the European debt crisis may flare up again. The index has moved 100 points or more on four out of the past five trading days.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 9.09 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,496.94. The Nasdaq composite was up 13.40 points, or 0.4 percent, at 3,129.65.

Home Depot, the biggest home improvement store chain in the country, jumped $3.64, or 5.7 percent, to $67.56 after reporting that its income rose 32 percent in the latest quarter thanks to strong U.S. sales and the cleanup that followed Superstorm Sandy. That made it the biggest gainer in the Dow, accounting for about 28 points, or about a quarter, of its advance.

"Companies on the whole, particularly U.S. companies, are doing well," Michael Mussio, a portfolio manager at FBB Capital, said.

Strong earnings from home improvement companies, such as Home Depot and Lowe's, which reported earnings Monday that beat Wall Street forecasts, compounded evidence that the U.S. housing market is maintaining its recovery, Mussio said. Also Tuesday, the government reported that sales of new homes jumped 16 percent last month to the highest level since July 2008.

The report boosted housing companies, which led the S&P 500 higher. PulteGroup rose $1.03, or 5.7 percent, to $19.05, edging out Home Depot as the biggest gainer in the index. D.R. Horton advanced 88 cents, or 4.12 percent, to $22.25 and Lennar Corp. rose $1.35, or 3.7 percent, to $38.01.

The rebounding housing sector has been an important factor behind a rally that pushed the Dow above 14,000 last week, close to its record high close of 14,164 reached in October 2007. The Dow is still up 6 percent this year, even after Monday's sell-off. The S&P 500 is up 5 percent.

Also Tuesday, a measure of consumer confidence rose sharply, reversing three months of declines, as shoppers began adjusting to a payroll tax hike last month.

Investors closely watched testimony by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. The Fed chairman said that the automatic government spending cuts due to take effect Friday would put a drag on the economy. He urged lawmakers and the White House to replace the cuts with longer-term policies to reduce the budget deficit.

Investors shouldn't be dissuaded from buying stocks by any flare-up in Europe's economic troubles, says Hans Olsen, a strategist at Barclays. The strategist says stocks should have a good year thanks to earnings growth and a pickup in corporate dealmaking.

Deals have accelerated sharply in the last three months and have involved household names including Heinz, Dell and American Airlines. Some of the acquired companies soared 20 percent or more when the deals are announced.

It's not yet clear how the recent see-saw in the market will affect investors. Individual investors have been creeping back into stocks since the start of this year, but the swings might yet unnerve them.

"The gyrations worry them, it scares them, even though the market is up," says Gabriel Fancher, an adviser at the Financial Group, a financial planner. "The market seems out of people's hands these days."

Tuesday's good news about the economy in the U.S. helped investors turn their focus away from Europe.

While U.S. market rose, European markets fell again as investors worried about Italy's political situation. The country is facing political gridlock after elections left Parliament with no clear-cut winner.

U.S. stocks slumped Monday after election results in Italy showed a race too close to call. That left investors fearful that the country, the euro region's third-largest, will struggle to form a government that can move forward with reforms to revive the economy, rekindling the region's debt crisis and worries over the viability of its shared currency, the euro.

Italy's main stock index dropped 4.9 percent Tuesday. The yield on Italy's benchmark government bond rose sharply, to 4.83 percent from 4.43 percent the day before, as investors sold them. That's still far below the 7 percent the yield traded at in January 2012, when confidence in Italy's finances was far lower. The euro was little changed against the dollar.

Other European indexes also fell, but not as much. Stocks fell 2.3 percent in Germany, 2.7 percent in France, and 1.3 percent in Britain.

In U.S. government bond trading, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to prices, rose two basis points to 1.88 percent.

Among other companies making big moves Tuesday;

? Tyson Foods fell 86 cents, or 3.7 percent, to $22.40 after it said that its fiscal second quarter has been tougher than expected because of lower margins in its beef and pork divisions. The nation's biggest meat company said it's still optimistic about its full-year results.

? Oneok fell $1.86, or 4 percent, to $44.34 after the natural gas company cut its distribution growth forecast for the next three years, citing expectations of lower sales volumes and prices of natural gas liquids.

? Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia fell 16 cents, or 5.3 percent, to $2.85 after the company said its fourth-quarter net income slid 74 percent as it continues to struggle with weak results at its publishing and broadcasting divisions.

? Macy's rose $1.33, or 3.5 percent, to $39.85 after its results beat analysts' forecasts.

____

AP Business Writer Bernard Condon contributed to the report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/home-depot-leads-dow-average-higher-174228560--finance.html

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Political tensions rise in Kenya ahead of election

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) ? Dozens of shack homes have been burned to the ground in recent weeks in Mathare, Nairobi's most dangerous slum. Families are moving into zones controlled by their own clans, fearful of attacks between the tribes of Kenya's top two presidential candidates.

Kenya on Monday holds its first presidential election since the 2007 vote devolved into months of tribal violence that killed more than 1,000 people and displaced 600,000 from their homes. In a hopeful sign, this year's presidential candidates pledged at a weekend prayer rally to accept the outcome of the election and ensure violence doesn't again break out.

But the government-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights on Wednesday released a long list of physical attacks, hate speech and cases of ethnic intimidation Kenya has seen in recent weeks, exposing an undercurrent of tribal tension.

Those strains are on high display in Mathare, where at least seven people have died and 100 shacks burned in the last two months. Officially Mathare suffered 112 deaths during the 2007-08 election violence, though one policeman, who insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press, says Mathare really suffered over 370 killings.

Lewis Kamau is a Kikuyu but wears the bright orange hat of the Luo candidate, Raila Odinga. Kamau is not crossing party lines; he says the hat protects him from Luo attacks. He says he expects Luos to react negatively if Odinga loses.

"Violence will erupt because of results they don't like," he said. "I know these people. They won't accept the results."

Kamau ? who backs the Kikuyu candidate, Uhuru Kenyatta ? is standing 20 feet from a dirt lot scorched by fire, one of the shacks burned in Luo-on-Kikuyu attacks that began in late December and carried over into January.

"Just the other day they burned here and we didn't retaliate," he said, motioning to the charred lot. "We kept quiet. On Monday after the (election results) announcement, we will be ready for it."

Odinga or Kenyatta must win at least 50 percent of the vote in Monday's election, or the two will go to a second-round runoff, where attention will be even more focused on the two, heightening tensions further.

Many in Mathare, and across town in Nairobi's biggest slum, Kibera, say that Kenyans have learned from the 2007-08 violence, and won't repeat it. But many of those pronouncements come from people who assume their candidate will win.

"I think given the 2007 experience we will accept the results, even if, God forbid, we Luos lose. But I don't see us losing," said Daniel Omondo, an information technology specialist in Mathare.

The Kikuyu-Luo rift goes back decades, to when Odinga's father was asked by British colonialist to be Kenya's prime minister. The elder Odinga declined, saying that Jomo Kenyatta ? Uhuru's father ? was the rightful leader. Kenyatta eventually became president, with Odinga as his vice president. But a few years later Kenyatta forced Odinga out of the government, and the tribes' relations began a long slide downward.

In a small tin shack in Kibera where illegal, home-made whisky is served, one Odinga backer who gave his name as Christian Nyambega said the country needs its political leaders to accept the results and for the voters to remain calm. Then one of his drinking colleagues became agitated at the memory of the disputed 2007 election win of current President Mwai Kibaki, a Kikuyu.

"They're going to steal the vote the way they did for Kibaki. The Kikuyus are not the only tribe in Kenya. We have 42 tribes in Kenya," said the man, who gave his name only as Patrick, saying her feared government retribution.

Of the dozens of worrying cases of political tensions described by the human rights commission on Wednesday was one in which Kikuyu landlords in a low-income area of Nairobi ejected Luo tenants from their rental houses. It also said a member of Kenyatta's party has been linked to the use of gangs to threaten opponents. The report also documented cases of residents voluntarily moving to areas controlled by their own tribe.

One Western embassy official watching election developments closely said he expects less violence this election season than in 2007. But he said if 200 people die in violence, it might have to be considered progress compared with the more than 1,000 deaths in 2007-08.

There are other areas of concern in addition to the Luo-Kikuyu rift in Nairobi. A United Nations official who is watching election developments said that Kenya's Rift Valley has seen an influx of imported guns that didn't exist five years ago, and the Tana River area ? a region that has seen serious tribal fighting over the last year ? is likely to see more deaths.

The official said that violence in Mathare will be the worst in Nairobi, and that members of Amnesty International and Kenya's Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission have been receiving serious threats. The official said he could not be identified because he was not authorized to share election data.

Since Kenya's last election, the country now has a new constitution, a new judicial system that is lauded as less corrupted, and the police force is being overhauled. Many residents hold out hope that those changes will help ensure that government systems ? instead of massive street violence ? will be used to settle election disputes.

"The violence (in 2007-08) came because of the stealing of votes. The Odinga supporters thought it was rigged, so there was an outcry. This time we have a credible judicial commission and we have seen many changes in police," said Bernard Titus, a Kibera resident.

In addition, four prominent Kenyans ? including Kenyatta and his vice presidential candidate ? face charges at the International Criminal Court over allegations that they orchestrated the 2007 election violence. Some Kenyans believe those charges have reduced the chances that power brokers will hire thugs ? mostly young men and boys from the slums hired for $5 to $10 a day ? and send them into the street.

Grace Kalibo runs a small shop selling basic food goods in Kibera. She attended Sunday's massive peace rally where Odinga and Kenyatta shook hands and pledged peace. She believes Kenya will avoid the massive violence of five years ago. So does her neighbor, Lucas Awol, a 39-year-old bar owner where poor Kibera men gather on Sunday afternoons.

"This time they won't react at all. They are tired of war," said Awol. "This time it will be peaceful. People say so."

___

Associated Press reporter Tom Odula contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/political-tensions-rise-kenya-ahead-election-170011584.html

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ListedBy Unlocks Access to Real Estate Listing Data ? Property ...

California-based?ListedBy?has?announced that it has eliminated all user registration requirements previously needed to research listings on ListedBy.com.

The company said that the change has been designed to further enhance user experience on ListedBy.com and it affects all residential and commercial listing data categories including public real estate auctions, government real estate auctions, REO auctions, pre-foreclosure and foreclosure listings, and MLS Listings.

Residential real estate auction, luxury real estate auctions, government real estate auctions, public real estate auction, real estate auction sites, commercial real estate auctions, reo auctions, government real estate auctions, real estate auction companies

The shift reinforces ListedBy?s focus on improving efficiencies and productivity in real estate, by optimizing transparency and connectivity between buyers and sellers, and by eliminating all fees associated with access to listing data and real estate auctions, including subscriptions, participation fees and auction buyers? premiums.

?Our vision for real estate is an open, fully transparent and free environment for everyone,? said Stephan Piscano, CEO and Founder, ListedBy. ?By giving residential and commercial property buyers easy access to data, including distressed assets, and by giving sellers a platform to reach and be reached directly by buyers, we?re cultivating a more vibrant, more productive industry.?

Free registration remains a requirement for users who wish to post listings, bid on properties and post in the Forum on LB Social?.

Traffic on ListedBy.com is expected to surpass 30,000 unique visitors for February 2013, with the average stay on the site recorded to date at over five minutes.

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Source: http://www.propertyportalwatch.com/2013/02/listedby-unlocks-access-to-real-estate-listing-data/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=listedby-unlocks-access-to-real-estate-listing-data

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Thai PM Yingluck may seek Malaysia's help on insurgency

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai authorities and separatist rebels could be inching towards talks after nine years of violence and the loss of more than 5,000 lives in Thailand's Muslim-dominated southern provinces bordering Malaysia.

Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is meeting her Malaysian counterpart, Najib Razak, in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday and may seek his help to make contact with rebel groups.

"There are insurgent groups operating within Malaysia and Thailand that want to talk to the Thai government," Paradorn Pattanathabutr, secretary-general of the National Security Council of Thailand (NSC), told Reuters.

"We want Malaysia to facilitate these talks."

The NSC brings together government ministers and officials charged with coordinating security matters with the military. In a 2012 paper it acknowledged a political dimension to the violence and proposed dialogue with the insurgents, but the military, which has a big presence in the south, is lukewarm.

"The military has had regular contact with Malaysia. We are not involved with the meeting on Thursday, because this is a government initiative," Udomchai Thammasarorat, commander of the Fourth Army in southern Thailand, told Reuters.

"Our military strategy is clear and we are making good progress towards resolving the conflict," he said.

Independent analysts see little evidence that the military is winning, despite its success in thwarting an attack on a marine base on February 13 in which 16 insurgents were killed, with no loss of life among the marines.

The rebels have hit back with a string of attacks. Two bombs on Saturday in Narathiwat province, about 1,150 km (715 miles) south of Bangkok, and a drive-by shooting in neighboring Pattani injured five people. An explosion in Pattani's commercial district on February 17 killed two security volunteers.

Yingluck has said she would discuss the southern unrest in Malaysia but government officials are not using the term "peace talks" and some senior ministers are opposed to such an idea.

Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobumrung ruled out negotiations with the insurgents, saying that "if insurgent groups come to us with conditions, we will not accept them".

"ENCOURAGING"

The provinces were once part of an independent Malay sultanate before being annexed by Thailand in 1909.

Resistance to Buddhist rule from Bangkok has existed for decades, waning briefly in the 1990s before resurfacing violently in January 2004.

Buddhist monks, teachers and farmers have been singled out as targets in a conflict that has killed 5,300 people, according to Deep South Watch, which monitors the violence.

Thai authorities say the attacks in the south are organized by the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) Coordinate, an offshoot of the Patani Malay National Revolutionary Front established in the 1960s to seek greater autonomy.

Some within the military and government remain suspicious of Malaysia, accusing it of providing a refuge for insurgents.

"It's encouraging that the Thai government is working seriously on establishing dialogue. But there are doubts about whether Malaysia can play a productive role as mediator," said Matthew Wheeler, a Southeast Asia analyst at the International Crisis Group.

Najib, facing a general election that has to be held by called by the end of April, could benefit from any move towards a settlement.

"For Najib, an agreement with Thailand could be presented as a major foreign policy achievement to show that the southern crisis can be resolved peacefully," said Sunai Phasuk of Human Rights Watch.

(Additional reporting by Pracha Hariraksapitak; Editing by Alan Raybould and Robert Birsel)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/thai-pm-yingluck-may-seek-malaysias-help-insurgency-110154197.html

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Hot air balloon crash in Egypt kills 18 tourists

LUXOR, Egypt (AP) ? A hot air balloon flying over Egypt's ancient city of Luxor caught fire and crashed into a sugar cane field on Tuesday, killing at least 18 foreign tourists in one of the world's deadliest ballooning accidents and a new blow to Egypt's ailing tourism industry.

The casualties included French, British, Belgian, Hungarian, Japanese nationals and nine tourists from Hong Kong, Luxor Governor Ezzat Saad told reporters. Three survivors ? two British tourists and an Egyptian ? were taken to a local hospital.

Egypt's civil aviation minister, Wael el-Maadawi, suspended hot air balloon flights and flew to Luxor to lead the investigation into the crash.

The balloon, which was carrying 20 tourists and a pilot, was landing after a flight over the southern town, when a landing cable got caught around a helium tube and a fire erupted, according to an investigator with the state prosecutor's office.

The balloon then shot up in the air, the investigator said. The fire set off an explosion of a gas canister and the balloon plunged some 300 meters (1,000 feet) to the ground, according to an Egyptian security official. It crashed in a sugar cane field outside al-Dhabaa village just west of Luxor, 510 kilometers (320 miles) south of Cairo, the official said.

The official and the investigator spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Bodies of the dead tourists were scattered across the field around the remnants of the balloon. An Associated Press reporter at the crash site counted eight bodies as they were put into body bags and taken away. The security official said all 18 bodies have been recovered.

Hot air ballooning is a popular pastime for tourists in Luxor, usually at sunrise to give a dramatic view over the pharaonic temples of Karnak and Luxor and the Valley of the Kings, a desert valley where many pharaoh, notably King Tutenkhamun, were buried.

Luxor has seen crashes in the past. In 2009, 16 tourists were injured when their balloon struck a cellphone transmission tower. A year earlier, seven tourists were injured in a similar crash.

The toll puts the crash among the deadliest involving a recreation hot air balloon. In 1989, 13 people were killed when their hot air balloon collided with another over the Australian outback near the town of Alice Springs.

Among the dead Tuesday was a Japanese couple in their 60s, among four Japanese who were killed, according to the head of Japan Travel Bureau's Egypt branch, Atsushi Imaeda.

In Hong Kong, a travel agency said nine of the tourists that were aboard the balloon were natives of the semiautonomous Chinese city. There was a "very big chance that all nine have perished," said Raymond Ng, a spokesman for the agency. The nine, he said, included five women and four men from three families.

They were traveling with six other Hong Kong residents on a 10-day tour of Egypt.

Ng said an escort of the nine tourists watched the balloon from the ground catching fire around 7 a.m. and plunging to the ground two minutes later.

In Britain, tour operator Thomas Cook confirmed that two British tourists were killed in the crash, and two were in hospital.

"What happened in Luxor this morning is a terrible tragedy and the thoughts of everyone in Thomas Cook are with our guests, their family and friends," said Peter Fankhauser, CEO of Thomas Cook UK & Continental Europe. He said the firm is providing "full support" to the victims' families.

In Paris, a diplomatic official said French tourists were among those involved in the accident, but would give no details on how many, or whether French citizens were among those killed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to be publicly named according to government policy. French media reports said two French tourists were among the dead but the official wouldn't confirm that.

Egypt's tourism industry has been decimated since the 2011 uprising and the political turmoil that followed and continues to this day. Luxor's hotels are currently about 25 percent full in what is supposed to be the peak of the winter season.

Scared off by the turmoil and tenuous security following the uprising, the number of tourists coming to Egypt fell to 9.8 million in 2011 from 14.7 million the year before, and revenues plunged 30 percent to $8.8 billion.

Magda Fawzi, whose company operates four luxury Nile River cruise boats to Luxor, said she expects the accident will lead to tourist cancellations. Tour guide Hadi Salama said he expects Tuesday's accident to hurt the eight hot air balloon companies operating in Luxor, but that it may not directly affect tourism to the Nile Valley city.

Poverty swelled at the country's fastest rate in Luxor, which is highly dependent on visitors to its monumental temples and the tombs of King Tutankhamun and other pharaohs. In 2011, 39 percent of its population lived on less than $1 a day, compared to 18 percent in 2009, according to government figures.

In August, Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi flew to Luxor to encourage tourism there, about a month after he took office and vowed that Egypt was safe for tourists.

"Egypt is safer than before, and is open for all," he said in remarks carried by the official MENA news agency at the time. He was referring to the security situation following the 2011 ouster of autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak.

Deadly accidents caused by poor management and a decrepit infrastructure have taken place since Morsi took office. In January, 19 Egyptian conscripts died when their rickety train jumped the track. In November, 49 kindergarteners were killed when their school bus crashed into a speeding train because the railway guard failed to close the crossing.

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most powerful political force and Morsi's base of support, blames accidents on a culture of negligence fostered by Mubarak.

___

Associated Press writers Kelvin Chan in Hong Kong, Jill Lawless in London and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hot-air-balloon-crash-egypt-kills-18-tourists-132856605.html

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EconomicPolicyJournal.com: WARNING Health Insurance Under ...

I have already pointed out how a small businessman in California saw his health insurance?premium triple because of Obamacare (See:??First Obamacare Horror Story)

A friend familiar with the industry emails and points me to a summary at the NOLO legal encyclopedia that explains how healthcare insurance premiums are going to become income based. NOLO writes?(my highlight)

4. You Can Get Health Coverage If You Need It

Starting in 2014, U.S. citizens and legal residents will be able to buy health insurance through a new system of exchanges run by state government agencies or nonprofits (these exchange programs are officially called "American Health Benefit Exchanges"). Families and individuals whose income is on the lower end of the scale -- up to four times the federal poverty level, or just over $88,000 for a family of four -- will be entitled to credits and subsidies to help with some or all of the costs for coverage.

The amount that an individual or family will need to pay for health coverage will be based on total income -- the more you make, the more you'll pay for coverage. The CBO estimates that 20 million individuals and families will be entitled to receive subsidized health insurance under the new law.

My friend concludes:

The above is one of the more succinct of the articles about the coming law. ?#4 is the provision that I was told about by somebody who works at Blue Cross, but the government and even the media has been keeping very mum about it?.I usually know about this stuff a mile ahead of time but was really caught, because one provision not mentioned in this article (unless changed, as a lot of these reforms are being challenged) is about the grandfathering of current plans back to sometime in 2010, where if you have had the same policy since then you won?t be charged based on income.?

?Obviously lower income folks will move off of these plans to where they can get cheaper coverage, but those making money will be lucky if this provision sticks and will stay with their current plans.

Most of the new mandated coverage (i.e. maternity care) that will be increasing the costs of the plans are for young folks, but people of all ages, and especially those in higher income brackets, will be subsidizing the costs of the new features of the plan, as well as the cost for those who are in the lowest income brackets and are getting credits to keep the costs of their plans down.?

I?m sure this will become a much hotter topic later this year!

Karl Marx in his 1875?Critique of the Gotha Program:

?From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

?Obamacare:

?The more you make, the more you'll pay.

Source: http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/02/warning-health-insurance-under.html

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Heartland NZ lifts 1H profit by 9.2 percent on improved retail ...

Heartland New Zealand, which gained bank registration in December, posted a 9.2 percent gain in first-half profit on increased earnings from retail, business and rural lending and a reduction in costs.

Profit rose to $10.7 million in the six months ended Dec. 31, from $9.8 million a year earlier, the Christchurch-based company said in a statement. Net operating income rose 15 percent to $51.8 million, while operating expenses fell 10 percent to $31.9 million.

Growth in the net operating income mainly reflected the acquisition of PGG Wrightson Finance in August 2011 and lower cost of funds, the company said.

That more than offset a wider $5.28 million loss from the non-core property businesses acquired from Marac as part of the merger that created the company. The year-earlier loss was $1.2 million. Heartland took a $4 million impairment expense against the property book, up from impairments of $1.6 million a year earlier.

Heartland shares rose 2.7 percent to 75 cents after the results, which beat brokerage First NZ Capital's forecast of $11.1 million profit. It will pay a first-half dividend of 2 cents a share on April 5 to shareholders on the register as at March 20.

Net impaired, restructured and past due loans over 90 days were $80.2 million as at Dec. 31, down from $90.5 million a year earlier and mainly reflecting the non-core property book, which consists of $87.9 million of receivables and $55.3 million of investment properties.

The company has embarked on a review of its plan for a managed exit from non-core property over five years.

The receivables book for retail and consumer, the biggest unit of the company's core business, fell by $9 million to $945.8 million, while net operating income rose 2.3 percent to $24.1 million. Heartland said strong motor vehicle receivables growth was offset by a shrinking residential mortgage book in the face of a competitive market. Profit rose to $17 million from $14.9 million.

Business receivables shrank by 9.7 million to $530.5 million, which it said reflected higher levels of repayments "in a low credit growth market." Business profit rose to $8.9 million from $5.5 million a year earlier.

The rural receivables book grew to $480.6 million from $478.6 million, which it said reflected low seasonal demand in livestock trading and a low credit growth environment. It expects a pickup in the second half. Rural earnings rose to $8.7 million from $5.1 million.

?

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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Source: http://www.sharechat.co.nz/article/3c0f7522/heartland-nz-lifts-1h-profit-by-9-2-percent-on-improved-retail-business-and-rural-earnings.html

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Sony Xperia Tablet Z launching globally: 6.9mm thin, quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro and 1,920 x 1,200 display

Sony's newest tablet, known as the Xperia Tablet Z, launched in Japan last month, but it still hasn't been seen outside of the Far East. Mobile World Congress is the perfect venue to show it off to the entire world, it seems, as it's now expanding to other parts of the globe. As we had hoped, the super-thin Tablet Z doesn't wander off from Japan's variant spec-wise, though this model will offer your choice of 16 or 32GB internal storage, rather than simply the latter. (Sony also announced that a WiFi-only version with 64GB space will come to the US.) Otherwise, it still boasts Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, a quad-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU, 2GB RAM, a 6,000mAh battery, 8.1MP rear camera and 2MP front-facing cam, NFC, PlayStation Certified, four speakers and a 1,920 x 1,200 display.

Also, the MWC launch gives us a peek at a few minor details we didn't get in the first go-round: the slate includes MHL, up to 64GB of microSD expansion and DLNA, but oddly we haven't seen any specifics on battery size. And just like its cousin, the Z will come with Jelly Bean installed but Sony promises that 4.2 is on its way, though no ETA was given for the update. Finally, we won't hold back on the pricing and availability, even if we kept you in suspense until the end: the black model will be sold in Sony stores and authorized sellers this May, and the white model (which only comes in a 32GB flavor) will be exclusive to official company outlets. A 16GB will put you back $499 and 32GB will be $599. If you're up for a deeper look into the tablet, our hands-on is a great place to get started.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile

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Engadget Eurocast 016 - 02.22.13

If podcasts were cookies -- or as our hosts say, biscuits -- this week's would be an Oreo. Two strong, independent, yet wonderfully united sections. The first part of the experience is firm, trustworthy yet exciting, before giving way to a soft, sugary, all american finale. Glass of milk optional.

Hosts: Dan Cooper, Mat Smith

Guest: Ben Gilbert

Producer: James Trew

Hear the Podcast

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/UhE0diY3QWY/

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Smoking cessation in old age: Less heart attacks and strokes within five years

Feb. 20, 2013 ? Professor Hermann Brenner and colleagues analyzed the data of 8.807 individuals aged between 50 and 74 years using data of Saarland citizens. "We were able to show that the risk of smokers for cardiovascular diseases is more than twice that of non-smokers. However, former smokers are affected at almost the same low rate as people of the same age who never smoked," says Brenner. "Moreover, smokers are affected at a significantly younger age than individuals who have never smoked or have stopped smoking."

For example, a 60-year-old smoker has the same risk of myocardial infarction as a 79-year-old non-smoker and the same risk of stroke as a 69-year-old non-smoker. Dose and duration of tobacco consumption also have an impact on disease risk. The more cigarettes a smoker consumes per day over a prolonged period of time, the higher his or her risk raises.

The study shows that the positive effect of smoking cessation becomes noticeable within a short period of time. "Compared to individuals who continue smoking, the risk of myocardial infarction and stroke is reduced by more than 40 percent already within the first five years after the last cigarette," says Carolin Gellert, first author of the study. The results suggest that smoking cessation programs, which have concentrated on younger participants up to now, should be expanded to reach out to older people as well.

Last year, Hermann Brenner and his colleagues had already studied the impact of smoking on the overall mortality of people beyond the age of 60. They had used data from international studies without German participation. In their latest study, they have evaluated data from the so-called ESTHER Study whose participants are from Saarland, a state of Germany. They included those individuals who had not suffered a heart attack or stroke prior to study start and whose health status had been surveyed for up to ten years afterwards. In their evaluation, the scientists also took account of the effects of other factors such as age, gender, alcohol consumption, education and physical exercise as well as blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol levels, body height and weight.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Carolin Gellert, Ben Sch?ttker, Heiko M?ller, Bernd Holleczek, Hermann Brenner. Impact of smoking and quitting on cardiovascular outcomes and risk advancement periods among older adults. European Journal of Epidemiology, 2013; DOI: 10.1007/s10654-013-9776-0

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/heart_disease/~3/7CjdH6kIMtc/130220123417.htm

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Microsoft's Outlook takes aim at Google's Gmail

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Microsoft is so confident it has the Internet's best email service that it is about to spend at least $30 million to send its message across the U.S.

The barrage begins Tuesday when Microsoft's twist on email, Outlook.com, escalates an assault on rival services from Google Inc., Yahoo Inc., AOL Inc. and a long list of Internet service providers.

As part of the process, all users of Microsoft's Hotmail and other email services operating under different domains such as MSN.com will be automatically converted to Outlook.com by the summer, if they don't voluntarily switch before then. All the old messages, contacts and settings in the old inboxes will be exported to Outlook.com. Users will also be able to keep their old addresses.

Email remains a key battleground, even at a time when more people are texting each other on phones.

People still regularly check their inboxes, albeit increasingly on their smartphones. The recurring email habit provides Internet companies a way to keep people coming back to websites. It gives people a reason to log in during their visits so it's easier for email providers to track their activities. Frequent visits and personal identification are two of the keys to selling ads, the main way most websites make money.

That's why Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have been retooling their email services in recent months.

After keeping Outlook.com in a "preview" phase since July 31, Microsoft Corp. is ready to accept all comers.

To welcome new users, Microsoft is financing what it believes to be the biggest marketing blitz in the history of email. Outlook.com will be featured in ads running on primetime TV, radio stations, websites, billboards and buses. Microsoft expects to spend somewhere between $30 million to $90 million on the Outlook campaign, which will run for at least three months.

The Outlook ads will overlap with an anti-Gmail marketing campaign that Microsoft launched earlier this month. The "Scroogled" attacks depict Gmail as a snoopy service that scans the contents of messages to deliver ads related to topics being discussed.

The Gmail ads are meant to be educational while the Outlook campaign is motivational, said Dharmesh Mehta, Outlook.com's senior director.

"We are trying to push people who have gotten lazy and comfortable with an email service that may not be all that great and help show them what email can really do for them," said Mehta.

By Microsoft's own admission, Hotmail had lost the competitive edge that once made it the world's largest email service. The lack of innovation left an opening for Google to exploit when it unveiled Gmail nearly nine years ago.

Gmail is now the industry leader, although estimates on its popularity vary.

Google says Gmail has more than 425 million accountholders, including those that only visit on smartphones and other mobile device. The latest data from research firm comScore, which doesn't include mobile traffic, shows Gmail with 306 million worldwide users through December, up 21 percent from the previous year. Yahoo's email ranked second with 293 million users, a 2 percent decrease from the previous year, followed by Hotmail at 267 million users, a 16 percent decline from the previous year.

Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Wash., is counting on Outlook.com to catapult the company back to the top of the email heap. During the preview period, Outlook attracted 60 million accountholders, including about 20 million that defected from Gmail, according to Microsoft. Comscore listed Outlook with 38 million users through December.

The new features being introduced in Outlook include: the ability to send massive files, including hundreds of photos at a time, in a single email; address books that automatically update new contact information that connections post on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn; and about 60 percent fewer ads than Hotmail.

None of these features are revolutionary. Google already has been giving its users the option to switch to a new version of Gmail that also allows for larger files to be sent in a single email. And address books in Gmail already fetch new contact information posted on Google Plus, although it doesn't yet mine Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Google declined to comment on Outlook.com. The company, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., plans to convert all of its Gmail users to its redesigned format within the next few months.

Yahoo, which is based in Sunnyvale, Calif. revamped its email service late last year in an effort to provide a more consistent experience on personal computers and mobile devices.

Outlook.com is the latest in a series of major product leases from Microsoft, which has been struggling to regain the cachet that once made it the world's most valuable technology company.

Now, both Apple Inc. and Google are worth more because they have been growing far faster than Microsoft as their products win more fans. Apple's biggest gains have come from the iPhone and IPad, while Google has been benefiting from its dominance in Internet search and its widely used Android software for mobile devices.

Microsoft has been trying to catch up with a major makeover of its Windows operating system, new smartphone software and a tablet computer called Surface. Like Outlook.com, all those products have been backed by expensive marketing campaigns in recent months.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-19-Microsoft-Outlook/id-4a0385a459ae4c60af6031f412d19d9e

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Huge brain-mapping project sparks debate

MGH-UCLA Human Connectome Project

This visualization shows the grid structure of major pathways of the human brain, as mapped by the NIH Blueprint Human Connectome Project. Click on the image for a Flash interactive exploring the brain.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

BOSTON ? The brain-mapping project that the Obama administration wants to facilitate isn't necessarily aimed at adding billions of dollars to the money already being spent on research, according to the scientists who inspired the idea. Instead, it's aimed at harnessing new technologies to uncover the secrets of neural function less expensively and more completely.

"We can bring down the cost and increase the quality of the technology," said Harvard geneticist George Church, one of the researchers who proposed the Brain Activity Map Project last year. "We are trying to work with current funding [levels] to bring down the cost."

The New York Times reported on Monday?that the White House has embraced the idea of having the Office of Science and Technology Policy spearhead the project, with participation by the National Institutes of Health and other federal agencies. The federal initiative is to be unveiled as early as next month, the Times quoted its sources as saying.

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The roots of the project go back months if not years earlier: The goals of the BAM Project were outlined last June in a?white paper appearing in the journal Neuron. The researchers proposed a 15-year international effort to map the functions of the brain's complex neural circuitry to an unprecedented degree?? using traditional tools such as magnetic resonance imaging in combination with novel technologies such as nanosensors and wireless fiber-optic probes that can be implanted into the brain, and genetically engineered cells that can be linked up with brain cells to record their activity.

The scientists' idea was to start with mice and work their way up to primates. "We do not exclude the extension of the BAM Project to humans, and if this project is to be applicable to clinical research or practice, its special challenges are worth addressing early," they wrote.

The discoveries generated by the effort could point to new strategies for dealing with brain-centered maladies such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, autism and schizophrenia.

Church and his colleagues compared the BAM Project's potential impact to the effects of the $3.8 billion Human Genome Project, a 13-year-long effort that analysts say?generated $796 billion in economic activity. "After the genome project, we brought the cost [of whole-genome sequencing] down by a million-fold," Church said. Advanced technologies for studying brain activity could bring savings on the same scale, he said.

In this month's?State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama made a similar point: "Every dollar we invested to map the human genome returned $140 to our economy ??every dollar. ?Today, our scientists are mapping the human brain to unlock the answers to Alzheimer's. ?They?re developing drugs to regenerate damaged organs; devising new material to make batteries 10 times more powerful. ?Now is not the time to gut these job-creating investments in science and innovation. ?Now is the time to reach a level of research and development not seen since the height of the Space Race."

Debate over the dollars
The Times' report on the project quoted scientists familiar with the BAM Project as saying they hoped it would receive as much support as the Human Genome Project did, which amounted to more than $300 million a year. That was widely interpreted as implying that more than $3 billion would be shifted over to the effort from other federally supported research over the next decade ? a prospect that rankled some observers.

"If there is money for frivolities like the Billion Dollar Brain Project, doesn't it show that NIH has too much money?" evolutionary geneticist Detlef Weigel of the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology?wrote in a?Twitter comment.

Some scientists noted that the European Union has already established a?Human Brain Project?in cooperation with a range of research centers, including some that are expected to play a role in the BAM Project. The European-led project is due to receive?up to 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) over the next decade.

Michael Eisen, a biologist at the University of California at Berkeley, pointed to a blog posting in which he said grand projects in biology such as?Project ENCODE?for DNA analysis?were emerging as the "greatest threat"?to individual discovery-driven science because they crowded out less costly, smaller-scale studies.

"It's one thing to fund neuroscience, another to have a centralized 10-year project to 'solve the brain,'" Eisen wrote in a?Twitter update.

Emphasis on existing funds
Church said he couldn't speak for the federal government, and he didn't rule out the possibility that the project would receive new funding. But he noted that the concept outlined last year emphasized better coordination of existing publicly and privately supported brain research efforts, which already receive hundreds of millions of dollars per year.

"We want to use existing funds," he told NBC News.

The BAM Project received a strong endorsement from Allan Jones, chief executive officer of the privately backed Allen Institute for Brain Science.

"Our own work over the last 10 years has shown that large-scale brain research and sharing vast data sets and tools publicly for use by scientists around the world accelerate progress and catalyze important research advances across the field," Jones said in a statement emailed to NBC News. "In early 2012, we launched our large-scale initiative to understand brain activity, creating a foundation for other related projects."

The Allen Institute helped organize a workshop that gave rise to last year's white paper proposing the BAM Project, and it is also a partner in the Human Brain Project. Jones said such efforts "complement our work at the Allen Institute for Brain Science and hold promise for helping to bring on new discoveries about the human brain and bring us ever closer to much needed advances in medicine."

More about the brain:

---

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Source: http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/18/17007438-how-researchers-shaped-the-white-houses-brain-mapping-initiative?lite

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CANDIDATE QUESTIONNAIRE: Ann Murguia, Unified Government Mayor/CEO

We continue looking at our political candidates today with Ann Murguia, a current Unified Government Commissioner who's running for mayor of Wyandotte County. This is the third mayoral candidate in our series. We'll be checking in with Janice Witt tomorrow. Thanks to all the candidates who have returned questionnaires so far!

1. What in your background (or what experience) makes you believe you are qualified to serve as mayor of Wyandotte County?

I am currently serving my second term as a Unified Government Commissioner.? I have an undergraduate degree in Human Services and a Masters degree in Business Administration.? I have been proud to be part of all the negotiations, planning and implementation of major projects like Cerner, Hollywood Casino, Sporting KC Park and the expansions at General Motors.

However, in addition to those large projects I have worked with residents, businesses and a variety of other organizations to raise millions in private dollars for curb and sidewalk, millions of dollars in new housing and hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring a new $3.2 million grocery store to a food desert in WYCO. In partnership with USD500 and a number of hard working, dedicated WYCO citizens, we were able to raise $2 million dollars in private funds for a brand new $6 million library.? These are some of my accomplishments that separate me from my opponents.

2. As a candidate, what would be your top three priorities as mayor if you?re elected mayor?

JOBS, COMMUNITY and BETTER GOVERNMENT.

However, Wyandotte County is a very diverse community.? I believe that surveying residents by district will ensure that whether you live in the newest area of our city or the oldest area of the city, your needs and wants will be heard and met.? This data will allow us to budget government funds by district to ensure that every area of the county is getting something for their tax dollars.

3.? A two-part question - What distinguishes you as the top candidate for this position and what differences should voters in Wyandotte County look at before making their choice?

TAXES ? I am the ONLY candidate that is an elected official that has never voted for a property tax increase!

All the elected officials running for Mayor have the experience of developing the Village West area and being part of large expansion projects across the county like General Motors and Sara Lee.

HOWEVER,? I am the only candidate that has been involved in successfully redeveloping one of Wyandotte Counties most challenging areas of our urban core.? As I said above,? I have worked with residents, businesses and a variety of other organizations to raise millions in private dollars for curb and sidewalk, millions of dollars in new housing and hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring a new $3.2 million grocery store to a food desert in WYCO. In partnership with USD500 and a number of hard working, dedicated WYCO citizens we were able to raise $2 million dollars in private funds for a brand new $6 million library.? These are some of my accomplishments that separate me from my opponents.

4.? In the next three to four years, millions of dollars will become available after the city finishes off paying bonds that were issued to increase the economic development in Western Wyandotte County. As the mayor, how would you encourage that money to be spent?

Property tax reduction.

5. What in your opinion are the three biggest challenges facing Wyandotte County? If you feel there are more than three to list, feel free too.

• Our property tax rate is crippling families and businesses in Wyandotte County. I am the only candidate that is an elected official that has never voted for a property tax increase.

• The rapidly diminishing tax base in the downtown and north eastern area of our community.? Though we have had great success out in western Wyandotte County, the tax base in mid town and the eastern side of the city is declining at a much faster rate.? I am the only candidate that has the experience and results in urban redevelopment to turn this around.

• Jobs. As we grow businesses in Wyandotte County we need to take aggressive steps to ensure our business partners understand the importance of hiring local people at a livable wage.??

6. Do you feel the Unified Government can do more to increase growth in areas outside of Western Wyandotte County, particularly the northeast part of Wyandotte County?

Absolutely!? Though I think the last two Mayors made a lot of effort to redevelop the urban core, the tax base continues to decline. A simple drive through my commission district is physical evidence of what can be accomplished under my leadership.? The fourth largest increase in median income in the county, the least number of delinquent properties in the urban core and the largest urban redevelopment project in Wyandotte County in decades is evidence of a sustainable plan (Ann?s Plan) for urban redevelopment.

Source: http://www.kckansan.com/2013/02/candidate-questionnaire-ann-murguia.html

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Ex-boyfriend: McCready left rehab too soon

HEBER SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) ? Mindy McCready threatened suicide after losing custody of her sons earlier this month, yet she was allowed to leave a court-ordered drug rehabilitation program just days before she apparently killed herself at her Arkansas home, her ex-boyfriend said Monday.

Billy McKnight, who was in a long, stormy relationship with McCready and is the father of her oldest child, Zander, said the 37-year-old mother of two stayed in the substance abuse treatment center for about 18 hours before she was allowed to walk free.

McCready died Sunday at her home in Heber Springs, a vacation community about 65 miles north of Little Rock. She was found dead on the front porch, where her longtime boyfriend, musician David Wilson, died last month of a gunshot wound to the head. Authorities are investigating both deaths as suicides but haven't determined an official cause of death.

McKnight told The Associated Press during a phone interview from Tampa, Fla., that McCready and Wilson, the father of her youngest son, were recently engaged. He wondered how she was allowed to go free, given all the turmoil in her life.

"That was a big mistake on the part of whoever released her," McKnight said. "She was in a terrible state of mind. She doesn't perform any more. She wasn't working. She has two kids and her fiance was just killed. There's no way she should be out by herself in a lonely house with nothing but booze and pills. That was a really, really bad mistake, and the end result is tragic."

Arkansas courts were closed for the holiday Monday, so local case documents weren't immediately available.

Neighbors reported hearing two shots Sunday afternoon when they called the Cleburne County Sheriff's Office. Authorities found Wilson's dog dead next to McCready's body at the home, where yellow crime-scene tape looped through a grove of pine trees and around the one-story brick house Monday afternoon.

"Based on what we have found at the scene at this time, we do believe that she took the life of the dog that we are being told by family members belonged to Mr. Wilson before she took her own life," Sheriff Marty Moss said.

The sheriff said McCready's two sons were safe. McKnight said the boys remained in foster care, where they were at the time of their mother's death. McKnight said he was trying to get custody of his son, Zander, but that he was not privy to what was happening with her other son, Zayne, who was born last year.

McCready's sons were put in foster care and she was ordered into rehab earlier this month after McCready's father expressed concern. He told a judge his daughter had stopped taking care of her children and herself after Wilson's death, and that she was abusing alcohol and prescription drugs.

Moss said McCready's cause of death would be released soon, but that "all indicators" point to suicide. Her body has been sent to the state crime lab for autopsy.

For all the highs McCready had early in her career, thanks to the spunky anti-chauvinist hit "Guys Do It All The time," and her first album, "Ten Thousand Angels," which has sold more than 2 million copies, there were many more lows. She previously attempted suicide at least three times, and her fragile state of mindwas always a concern to family and friends. She acknowledged in a 2010 interview that her life was turbulent at times, sometimes self-inflicted.

Over the years her relationships often made the biggest headlines. McKnight was charged with attempted murder after being arrested for beating and choking her. She claimed to be in a long relationship with baseball great Roger Clemens that started when she was 15 and he was 28 and married, but Clemens denied the relationship. She was once engaged to actor Dean Cain.

She also was arrested several times on drug charges, probation violations and a misdemeanor assault charge against her mother.

But there was a period in her life where McCready thought she might be able to escape that pattern. She reluctantly joined the "Celebrity Rehab 3" cast with Dr. Drew Pinsky, and left the show believing she might be able to change.

"She was doing great," Bob Forrest, a chemical dependency counselor who frequently works with Pinsky and appeared on the show, told the AP on Monday. "She would go through these periods of three to six months where she didn't want to drink, didn't have an interest in drinking. And if she didn't drink, she didn't do drugs."

Just months after her appearance on the show in early 2010, McCready told the AP about the release of a new album, "I'm Still Here," her new love in Wilson and plans to reunite with her son, who was in her mother's custody at the time. But the progress seemed to unravel by late 2011. Her album debuted at No. 71 on the country albums chart and failed to gain significant radio airplay, and plans for a book and reality show failed to materialize.

She also was unable to immediately regain custody of Zander. McCready then took the boy from her mother, his legal guardian, and fled to Arkansas over what she said were child abuse fears. She was later found hiding in a home without permission.

McCready is the fifth participant in Pinsky's "Celebrity Rehab" shows to pass away since appearing on the show, and the third from Season 3. Pinsky has been criticized for the deaths and for showing such personal struggles on television.

In a statement, Pinsky said he had recently reached out to the singer after hearing about Wilson's death.

"She was devastated," Pinsky wrote. "Although she was fearful of stigma and ridicule she agreed with me that she needed to make her health and safety a priority. Unfortunately it seems that Mindy did not sustain her treatment."

___

AP writer Jeannie Nuss in Arkansas contributed to this report. Music Writer Chris Talbott wrote from Nashville, Tenn.

___

Follow AP Music Writer Chris Talbott: http://twitter.com/Chris_Talbott .

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ex-boyfriend-mccready-left-rehab-too-soon-224317945.html

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Mulcair ponders support for Canada-Europe pact

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})();



var headerNavication = (function($,cw) {

var nav_item_list = $('.cw-header .main-nav ul.main > li'),
channel_id_list = '',
channel,
sub_channel;

var findChannel = function () {

var winloc = isIE ? document.URL.split('/') : document.documentURI.split('/') ,
channel_id = winloc[3],
sub_chanel_id = winloc.length > 5 ? '/'+winloc[4]+'/' : '',
reg_sub_find_id = new RegExp(sub_chanel_id,'ig'),
reg_removed_id = /^nav-/i;


for (var i=nav_item_list.length-1,n; n=nav_item_list[i]; i--) {

if ( channel_id === $(n).children('a').attr('id').replace(reg_removed_id,'') ) {
var list = $(n).children('ul').children('li');

if (sub_chanel_id.length > 0) {

for (var j=list.length-1,l; l=list[j]; j--) {

if (reg_sub_find_id.test($(l).children('a').attr('href'))) {
break;
} else {
l = false;
}

}

}

break;

}

}

findChannel = function () {
return [n,l];
}

return [n,l];

}

var init = (function() {
channel = findChannel()[0] || nav_item_list[0];
sub_channel = findChannel()[1];

if (sub_channel) {
highlightSubChannel();
}

clearNav();

if(isIE) {

cw.ieRoundedCorners();

if(isIE8) {
cw.ie8DropPanel();
}
}

if ($('#handle-header').attr('id')) {
cw.dropPanelSetUp({
masterlistener: 'handle-header',
panel: ('drop-panel-container'),
eventgroup1: {
button: 'btn-newspapers',
content: 'panel-newspapers',
offset: {
x: 5,
y: 0
},
on_state_class: 'newspapers-dropdown-on'
},
eventgroup2: {
button: 'btn-networks',
content: 'panel-networks',
offset: {
x: 5,
y: 0
},
on_state_class: 'networks-dropdown-on'
}
});
}

//need to check state of search radio buttons since firefox doesn't reset to the default checked radio button
if($('.cw-header #radio-btn-yp:checked').attr('id') != null){
$('.cw-header #header-search-form').attr('action','http://canadacom.yellowpages.ca/search/');
$('.cw-header #header-search-string').attr('name','what');
$('.cw-header #radio-btn-yp').siblings('label').removeClass('selected');
$('.cw-header #radio-btn-yp').next().addClass('selected');
}

eventSetUp();

}())


function highlightSubChannel() {

if((document.location+"").indexOf("/sports/football/cfl/") > -1) $(".mainnav-item .cfl").addClass('sub-nav-highlight');
else if((document.location+"").indexOf("/sports/football/grey-cup-2011/") > -1) $(".mainnav-item .cfl").addClass('sub-nav-highlight');
else if((document.location+"").indexOf("/sports/football/nfl/") > -1) $(".mainnav-item .nfl").addClass('sub-nav-highlight');
else $(sub_channel).addClass('sub-nav-highlight');
}

function clearNav() {

clearTabs();
$(channel).children('ul').show();
$(channel).css('background-position', 'bottom right');

}

function eventSetUp() {


$('.cw-header .main-nav ').bind('mouseleave', function(event){

if (isIE) {

if ($(event.relatedTarget).parents('.main-nav').length 0)?"" + value.substring(0,pos) + "" + value.substring(pos, term.length) + "" + value.substring(pos + term.length) + "":value.substring(0, term.length) + "" + value.substring(pos + term.length) + ""; }, scroll: false, selectFirst: false }); });

Source: http://www.canada.com/business/7951738/story.html

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