Video: NYC cracks down on soda

>>> well, drink up while you can, new yorkers, drink those large beverages free of government intervention while there is still time, because the city board of health approved the ban on sugary drinks over six ounces, the first soft drink ban of its kind in the nation. the mayor called it a first step in curing obesity. critics say it is harming personal choice. unless they derail it, new yorkers have just six months to drink freely. otherwise, they will have to drink drinks from new jersey.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/49026185/

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Belly button kidney removal boosts living-donor satisfaction

ScienceDaily (Sep. 12, 2012) ? In the largest study of its kind, living donors who had a kidney removed through a single port in the navel report higher satisfaction in several key categories, compared to donors who underwent traditional multiple-port laparoscopic removal.

The new technique has been described as virtually scarless, because nearly the entire incision, once healed, is hidden within the belly button. Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore found the belly button group had significantly improved satisfaction with the cosmetic outcome and the overall donation process. Additionally, the new technique was associated with fewer limitations in bending, kneeling or stooping following surgery, and slightly less pain after surgery, compared to the multi-port approach. At the same time, the study found the two procedures equally safe. The results are published online in the Annals of Surgery.

"Everything we do in organ transplantation is based on the generosity of organ donors," says lead author Rolf Barth, M.D., associate professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and transplant surgeon at University of Maryland Medical Center. "If we as surgeons can safely improve the donation process for our living donors by perfecting less-invasive surgical options, we should embrace these new approaches."

Single-port donor nephrectomy (kidney removal), also known as laparoendoscopic single-site (LESS) surgery, has been the standard of care for living kidney donors at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) for the past three years; however, no objective data previously existed to compare the single-port with the multiple-port laparoscopic techniques. UMMC is only the third hospital in the country to consistently use this surgical approach on living donors and, to date, has employed the single-port technique in 215 donors.

"Once this surgical procedure came to our attention, we wasted no time in adopting this as our standard technique in 2009," says senior author Benjamin Philosophe, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Head, Section of Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center. "It seemed like the logical next step in the surgical evolution of living donation."

The researchers took a two-pronged approach. They analyzed the surgical results of 135 single-port and 100 multi-port donors from the UMMC patient database and measured transplant outcomes. They also sent two questionnaires to 100 single-port patients and a group of 100 multi-port donors -- all of whom had their procedures performed by the same surgeons with similar laparoscopic equipment at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

The analysis determined that LESS surgery is a safe option for kidney donation without increasing risks or complications to the donor. Single-port nephrectomy leaves only one small scar in the center of the navel, which typically fades over time. The multi-port approach leaves several scars. Beyond the cosmetic benefit, the data suggested single-port donors were more satisfied with their donation decision. "For a living kidney donor who leaves the operating room with no health benefit from the surgical procedure and only a small band-aid over the umbilicus, LESS may be more," says Barth.

"The single-port donor nephrectomy operation is more technically challenging than the standard multiple-port donation technique used nearly everywhere else in the U.S.," says Stephen T. Bartlett, M.D., the Peter Angelos Distinguished Professor; chair, Department of Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine; and surgeon-in-chief at the University of Maryland Medical System. "Our Division of Transplantation has a long-standing reputation for leading the way in transplant innovation, and our surgeons are handpicked for their ability to master complex surgical techniques and consistently try to make the patient's experience as safe and effective as possible."

"Our transplant surgeons work tirelessly to assess and improve every angle of the transplant process," says E. Albert Reece, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., vice president for medical affairs, University of Maryland; the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor; and dean, University of Maryland School of Medicine. "The standard of care elsewhere is not good enough for our patients, and this team of surgeons continues to impress me with their commitment to the advancement of medicine through surgical excellence."

The UMMC transplant team is conducting workshops to train other transplant surgeons in the LESS technique, and has been selected to author a chapter on this technique in the surgical textbook Kidney Transplantation.

This study on single-port donor nephrectomy is a natural milestone in the surgical advancement of living kidney donation. In 2003, UMMC urologist Michael W. Phelan, M.D., a co-author of this Annals of Surgery paper, published a study on the advances in laparoscopic nephrectomy, which accurately predicted the increased use and standardization of laparoscopic techniques for kidney donation.

According to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), as of June 1, 2012, more than 92,000 people are on the kidney transplant waiting list in the U.S. Living donation can help many patients receive a transplant sooner and avoid dialysis or deteriorating health that often occurs while waiting for a transplant from a deceased donor.

The University of Maryland Division of Transplantation, which focuses on kidney, pancreas and liver transplantation, is one of the nation's largest transplant programs, set to exceed 400 transplants in 2012. The Division offers living donation as an option for liver and kidney patients to decrease patient wait times and improve patient outcomes.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Maryland Medical Center.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Rolf N. Barth, Michael W. Phelan, Lauren Goldschen, Raghava B. Munivenkatappa, Stephen C. Jacobs, Stephen T. Bartlett, Benjamin Philosophe. Single-Port Donor Nephrectomy Provides Improved Patient Satisfaction and Equivalent Outcomes. Annals of Surgery, 2012; DOI: 10.1097/SLA.0b013e318262ddd6

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/top_news/top_health/~3/JnuH-zV6NLc/120912161936.htm

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UC Santa Cruz provides access to encyclopedia of the human genome

ScienceDaily (Sep. 5, 2012) ? A massive international collaboration has enabled scientists to assign specific functions for 80 percent of the human genome, providing new insights into the mechanisms of gene regulation and giving biomedical researchers a solid genetic foundation for understanding how the body works in health and disease.

The results of the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project are described in a coordinated set of 30 papers published in several journals on September 5, 2012. Scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have operated the Data Coordination Center for ENCODE since an initial pilot project began in 2003, and they have made all of the ENCODE data available for public use through the UCSC Genome Browser.

"Our job was to gather data from 32 labs running different types of experiments on a staggering array of cells and tissues, and we had to establish a common data language so we could get it all into a single database that scientists across the world could use. We also developed a lot of new ways of looking at the data, creating search and visualization tools so that people could find the data most relevant to them," said Jim Kent, director of the UCSC Genome Browser project and head of the ENCODE Data Coordination Center.

ENCODE is supported by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), one of the National Institutes of Health. Hundreds of researchers across the United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Singapore, and Japan performed more than 1,600 sets of experiments on 147 types of tissue using technologies standardized across the consortium. In total, ENCODE generated more than 15 trillion bytes of raw data, and the data analysis consumed the equivalent of more than 300 years of compute time.

"We've come a long way, and we have learned an incredible amount by integrating the different types of data that ENCODE produced, which was done at a scale never before achieved in biology. This data integration was one of the keys to the success of the project," said Ewan Birney of the European Bioinformatics Institute in the United Kingdom, lead analysis coordinator of the ENCODE data.

For Kent and his data coordination team at UCSC's Center for Biomolecular Science and Engineering, the scale of the project presented many challenges. To start with, they had to coordinate a small army of researchers who were producing data in labs around the world. "We had five data wranglers who traveled around to the labs, probably four conference calls a week at the height of it, plus large group meetings twice a year, and countless emails and skype calls," Kent said.

Researchers were able to map more than 4 million regulatory regions in the human genome where proteins specifically interact with the DNA. These findings represent a significant advance in understanding the precise and complex controls over how and when genes are active within a cell.

"The regulatory elements are responsible for ensuring that you get crystalline protein in the lens of your eye and hemoglobin in your blood, and not the other way around," Kent said. "It's quite complex. The information processing and the intelligence of the genome reside in the regulatory elements. With this project, we probably went from understanding less than five percent to now around 75 percent of them."

The ENCODE data are rapidly becoming a fundamental resource for researchers working to understand human biology and disease. More than one hundred papers using ENCODE data have already been published by investigators who were not part of the ENCODE project. For example, researchers studying the genetic basis of human diseases use genome-wide association studies to identify disease-associated variants, or markers, in the genome, and they are using the ENCODE resource in an effort to determine which of the many specific variants identified in a study actually contribute to disease. These disease-associated variants map not only to protein-coding regions of the genome, but more often to the non-coding regions of the genome, the vast tracts of sequence between genes where ENCODE has identified many regulatory sites.

"As much as nine out of 10 times, disease-linked genetic variants are not in protein-coding regions," said Mike Pazin, an ENCODE program director at NHGRI. "Far from being 'junk' DNA, this regulatory DNA clearly makes important contributions to human disease."

The coordinated publication set includes one main integrative paper and five other papers in the journal Nature; 18 papers in Genome Research; and six papers in Genome Biology. The ENCODE data are so complex that the three journals have developed a pioneering way to present the information in an integrated form that they call "threads." Since the same topics were addressed in different ways in different papers, a new website will allow anyone to follow a topic through all of the papers in the ENCODE publication set in which it appears. In addition to the "threaded papers," six review articles are being published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, and other affiliated papers in Science, Cell, and other journals.

Despite the enormity of the data set described in this historic set of publications, it does not comprehensively describe all of the functional elements in all of the different types of cells in the human body. Much additional work needs to be done, and ENCODE is about to be renewed for an additional four years. During the next phase, ENCODE will increase the depth of the catalog with respect to the types of functional elements and cell types studied. It will also develop new tools for more sophisticated analyses of the data.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Santa Cruz. The original article was written by Tim Stephens.

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


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/genes/~3/0qcpOD2XFY0/120905135004.htm

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Flydubai, Air Arabia and Qatar Airways cut fares - Emirates 24/7

It's time to take to the skies once again and beat those summer blues as Middle East carriers announce yet another sale season with discounted fares of up to 30 per cent.

Clearing the runway is local budget carrier flydubai, which is offering it ?Pay Once, Fly Twice promotion? that allows travellers to book a flight before September 8, 2012 to avail a special promotion whereby allowing them to jet off to one of 16 destinations, including Muscat, Oman or Colombo, Sri Lanka a second time and only pay the taxes on the additional trip.

Conditions are that the first flight must be booked for travel between September 16 and October 20, 2012, then on return, claim your second flight, jetting away between September 16 and October 20 or from November 4 to December 12.

Sharjah-based Air Arabia has opted for the traditional flightplan of slashing airfares, with a 48-hour sale, which commenced today, giving travellers deeply discounted fares of Dh333 for an all-inclusive one-way trip to Alexandria, Beirut or Amman, or a Dh399 fare to Mumbai, Delhi Goa and other Asian destinations.

Meanwhile, Doha?s Qatar Airways launched its three-day global sale at midnight today, offering discounted fares to more than?100 destinations.

The 72-hour marathon sale ends at 11.59pm on September 6 (local time in each market) and offers customers the opportunity to travel to a variety of destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia and the Americas at very attractive fares.

The travel window here is over a six-month period between September 10 and March 13 next year.

Seats are limited and subject to availability Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said: ?Whether travelling for leisure or business, the three-day sale?provides customers the opportunity to visit popular destinations and discover newly-introduced routes available on our rapidly expanding network.?

However, several travellers are still wary of the sales, with Akashdeep Singh saying: ?A lot of these sales have blackout periods, which limits our travel during the days the really count.

?I tried to book a roundtrip flight to Goa for the discounted fares with one of the airlines mentioned, but the fare hiked up to double of what is being quoted because it is during the peak Eid holidays in the last week of October.

?These sales are just methods to fill in empty seats during the off-peak travel dates.?

Michelle Caruso, who is attempting to book her return to New York for the Christmas holidays had a similar outlook, saying: ?I saw the airfare on Qatar Airways to New York for Dh3,000 but when I go to book from December 20, the fare spikes to Dh2,830 one-way. That?s insane!?

Caruso may want to look at the Air France route, which is offering up to 20 per cent in discounted fares to Europe and North America for booking until September 15, and travel between September 1 and December 15.

Meanwhile, there are those who are also very excited with Bashir Khan, travelling Hyderabad next month saying: ?I am paying Dh399 one-way. That?s the best fare a worker like me can afford.?

Source: http://www.emirates247.com/lifestyle/travel/flydubai-air-arabia-and-qatar-airways-cut-fares-2012-09-04-1.474090

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On Labor Day, Jobs Debate A Convention Warm-Up ? CBS Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) ? Republicans and Democrats jockeyed for economic high ground in a Labor Day warm-up to the Democratic National Convention, with Republican Mitt Romney labeling the holiday ?another day of worrying? for too many Americans anxious about finding a job. Supporters of President Barack Obama worked to put a glossy sheen on economic progress after offering a more muddled message over the weekend.

Obama addresses a United Auto Workers Labor Day rally in Toledo before getting his first look at the aftermath of Hurricane Isaac in a stricken parish outside New Orleans. He?s to meet emergency personnel who?ve been laboring since the storm hit last week to restore power and tend to thousands of evacuees from flooded areas.

Romney issued a statement marking Labor Day as ?a chance to celebrate the strong American work ethic.? But he added: ?For far too many Americans, today is another day of worrying when their next paycheck will come.?

Obama?s backers were up early to try a morning do-over of his supporters? less-than-rosy answers Sunday when asked to answer the classic campaign question: Are Americans better off than they were four years ago?

?Absolutely,? said Stephanie Cutter, Obama?s deputy campaign manager, speaking on NBC?s ?Today? show. ?By any measure the country has moved forward over the last four years. It might not be as fast as some people would?ve hoped. The president agrees with that.?

Martin O?Malley, Maryland?s Democratic governor, had answered the same question with a ?no? on Sunday before turning the blame to Obama?s Republican predecessor. Appearing Monday on CNN, O?Malley tried a more positive turn of phrase, saying: ?We are clearly better off as a country because we?re now creating jobs rather than losing them. But we have not recovered all that we lost in the Bush recession. That?s why we need to continue to move forward? under Obama.

While the official convention program doesn?t start until Tuesday, delegations were gathering across Charlotte on Monday for state breakfasts. Convention officials were also hosting a Labor Day festival in downtown Charlotte featuring singer James Taylor and actor Jeff Bridges.

At a breakfast with the Iowa delegation, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the chair of the convention, told about 60 members of the state?s contingent that Romney and running mate Paul Ryan would pursue massive tax cuts that would benefit only the very wealthy ? stances that he said were far removed from their GOP predecessors.

?Ronald Reagan would turn in his grave listening to some of these people,? he said. ?They?re so far out there.?

Villaraigosa told the Iowans that he spent 25 years as a community organizer and urged them to register new voters and recruit volunteers to help re-elect Obama.

?We?ve got our work cut out for us. We know that,? he said. ?The country is evenly divided. It has been for a long time. So what are we going to do? This is going to be a working convention. Every one of you can sign up as a volunteer. In fact, I know you?re already going to volunteer.?

In Boulder, Colo., on Sunday, Obama warned a college crowd that ?the other side is going to spend more money than we?ve ever seen in our lives, with an avalanche of attack ads and insults and making stuff up, just making stuff up.?

?What they?re counting on is that you get so discouraged by this, that at a certain point you just say, you know what, I?m going to leave it up to somebody else.? Obama did not mention his own side?s arsenal of negative advertising.

The Republican convention behind him, Romney was staying low for a few days, preparing for the October debates as Democratic conventioneers gathered for the opening of their event Tuesday.

Younger voters gave Obama a big boost four years ago and he can ill afford to see their support drop off in a tight election where the sluggish economy is the dominant issue in the nation and a specific drag to many young people coming out of college or trying to afford it.

But his campaign surely has a more immediate need for young people, too ? helping to fill the seats for Obama?s address Thursday. With 6,000 delegates at the convention and thousands more attached to the event, Democrats hope to pack a nearly 74,000-seat outdoor stadium for the prime-time speech.

Obama deputy campaign manager Jennifer O?Malley-Dillon told Iowa delegates the campaign was hoping the rain would stay away when the president delivers his speech.

?If you believe in weather gods, you should pray to them,? she said.

San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro delivers the keynote speech on Tuesday, followed by first lady Michelle Obama?s remarks. Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will be nominated for second terms on Wednesday night, when former President Bill Clinton takes the stage as star speaker.

Keeping a strong focus on the economy, a new Obama campaign ad running in six closely contested states ? Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia ? claims Romney?s policies would ?hit the middle class harder? and that he doesn?t see the ?heavy load? the middle class is carrying.

Biden joined the fray, accusing Republicans of seeking to undermine the decades-old federal program millions of seniors rely on for health care. ?We are for Medicare,? he said. ?They are for voucher care.? That was a reference to a proposal in Congress by Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the GOP vice presidential nominee, to offer future retirees the option of buying health insurance with a government subsidy.

The president and vice president campaigned separately across three battleground states as delegates descended on the Democrats? convention city before their first official meeting Tuesday in the Time Warner Cable Arena.

Biden?s itinerary, in particular, underscored the threat that a sluggish recovery and high, 8.3 percent unemployment pose to Democrats seeking another term in power. He was in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, states that have received little attention previously as the candidates, their parties and outside allies concentrate on the areas of the country deemed most competitive. His presence suggested the race in both states was tightening.

Romney spent Sunday at his Wolfeboro, N.H., vacation home, leaving only to attend church services with his wife, Ann. Aides said he would spend much of the Democrats? convention week preparing for three fall debates with Obama, beginning on Oct. 3.

Obama aides said they expected Romney and Republicans to outpace the president and his party in fundraising in August because Obama spent less time raising cash than in the month before, and because the GOP held its convention ? usually a big money draw ? in August.

(? Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Source: http://charlotte.cbslocal.com/2012/09/03/on-labor-day-jobs-debate-a-convention-warm-up/

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Obama campaign: 'Osama bin Laden is dead, GM is alive'

CHARLOTTE, N.C.?As the Democratic National Convention opens on the heels of some of President Barack Obama's surrogates fumbling when asked if the country is better off than it was four years ago, Obama campaign aides took the question head-on Tuesday morning.

"The country is better off," declared Stephanie Cutter, the president's deputy campaign manager.

Joined by fellow Obama campaign architects Ben LaBolt and Jim Messina, Cutter sat down with Yahoo News' Olivier Knox and ABC News' Diane Sawyer and Jake Tapper for a live "Newsmakers" broadcast.

Summing up their point, Obama's aides reinforced the "bumper sticker" line credited to Vice President Joe Biden: "Osama bin Laden is dead, GM is alive."

"We broke the back of al-Qaida," Cutter said. "The auto industry was on the verge of bankruptcy?and now they're creating hundreds of thousands of jobs."

Cutter also hit back at a Mitt Romney campaign aide's contention during last week's "Newsmakers" at the Republican National Convention that "we're not going let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers."

"We do care about fact checks. We do care about the honesty of our ads," she said.

At the RNC last week, Romney's wife, Ann, took the stage tasked with humanizing her husband, and the role is no different for Obama's wife, Michelle, who speaks tonight.

"I think that what the first lady can do better than anybody else is give a lens into the values that drive the president," Cutter said.

And, like their Romney counterparts, the Obama advisers were mum on yet another convention-speaker mystery: who will introduce the president on Thursday night at the Bank of America Stadium?a venue with nearly 74,000 seats that Team Obama said again on Tuesday they will be able to fill up amid questions about enthusiasm and weather.

Looking toward November, Obama's aides agreed that it's going to be a tight race that they're careful to characterize as a "choice" for voters.

"We're confident in the choice, and we're confident when people understand that choice that we're going to win this election," Messina said.

"Confident," Cutter said.

"Ditto," LaBolt agreed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-camp-country-better-off-171839285--election.html

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How to Save Money on New Glasses and Contacts ? Aisen ...

People often experience sticker shock when they begin to shop for a new pair of eyeglasses or contact lenses.? A new designer pair of glasses can cost several hundred dollars, and that price is after the cost of an eye doctor appointment.? With a few techniques, however, the savvy shopper can drastically reduce the cost of a new pair of lenses, whether they are glasses or contacts.

Pay with an HSA or FSA
Both glasses and contact lenses can be paid for from either a health savings account (HSA) or flexible savings account (FSA).? Paying with savings from either of these accounts will not reduce the price of new eyewear, but they will reduce one?s spring tax bill.? Many people look for glasses or contacts in December, when they are trying to use up the funds in their HSA or FSA.?

Of course, this first tip is specifically for people living in the United States, as people in other countries will have different insurance situations.? Everyone should ask their insurance company to pay for the contacts or glasses, provided they have vision insurance, and it is covered in their policy.

Replace the Lenses Only
Often, the main cost of designer glasses is the frames.? If one?s frames are still intact, but one?s prescription has changed, then only new lenses need to be purchased.? These will have to be bought at either a glasses store or doctor?s office, where the lenses can be installed in the frames.?

Unfortunately, this is rarely an option for children?s glasses, as children frequently bend their frames.? Parents are lucky if their kids manage to go a year without significantly bending their frames or scratching their lenses.? This is why many parents purchase cheaper, durable frames and lenses as a package for their children.

Purchase Glasses or Contacts Online
For those who are willing to assume a little risk, great savings can be found online.? The prices at online eyewear sites are often lower than those at local stores, and they are almost always well below the prices at an ophthalmologist?s office.? People must still have a prescription from an ophthalmologist or optometrist.

The biggest risk when purchasing glasses online is the frame?s fit.? This is not a problem for contact wearers, as the fit is included in the prescription.? There are tools to measure one?s pupil distance (PD) online, as well as to take the other pertinent measurements for a pair of glasses.? Wearers must make these on their own however, and they cannot check the fit before purchasing glasses online.

Use Vision Insurance
In a world where health insurance is no longer a standard benefit, many people do not have vision insurance.? Nevertheless, those that do should take advantage of it.? One?s insurance might pay for a portion of the cost, or the entire cost, or a new pair of contacts or glasses.? Middle-aged adults rarely have their vision change, so some people pay for insurance until they have new glasses and then cancel it the next year.

?Buy Contacts in Bulk

As with most non-perishable goods, contacts are cheaper when purchased in bulk.? (Note: contacts eventually do perish; they have an expiration date).? A ?bulk??contact purchase is generally a six-month supply, although discounts may be offered on lower quantities.

With these tips and a little research, people can significantly reduce the cost of new contacts or glasses.? What might initially be a several-hundred dollar price can be cut in half or more.

Jamie Lechler writes for EZContactsUSA, which has a pupil measurement tool.

Source: http://aisen.org/how-to-save-money-on-new-glasses-and-contacts/

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UPDATE: Farmers Insurance Mobile ... - Business Review USA

BATON ROUGE, LA--(Marketwire - Sep 1, 2012) - Farmers Insurance Group? of Companies claims has a Mobile Claims Catastrophe Bus (MCC) in Baton Rouge to help customers stricken by Hurricane Isaac.

The MCC, equipped with state-of-the art satellite communications equipment includes high-speed satellite and internet, self-contained generator power supply, satellite laptop and cell phones, claims stations; water, supplies; and a radar system to monitor incoming weather patterns.

The MCC is located at:

The Walmart Parking Lot
904 South Range Road
Denham Springs, Louisiana?70816

Hours: 8:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M.

"The MCC is one of three in the Farmers fleet, and is the foundation for restoring our customers' lives," notes Trish Bump, Farmers and Foremost Senior District Manager for Southern Louisiana.?"We invite customers and non-customers alike to visit the MCC to file claims or have a cup of coffee, or cold drink."

"Claims personnel from Farmers Insurance subsidiaries Foremost Insurance, 21st Century and Bristol West, are meeting with customers and determining the damage they have suffered and offering immediate assistance to help them get back to normal as soon as possible," explains Ms. Bump.

"We invite our customers to come to the Claims Center bus to file a claim, or Farmers customers who have suffered damage can call Farmers' 24-hour-7 days a week claims hotline for immediate assistance."

800-HelpPoint (1-800-435-7764) for immediate assistance or

Spanish-language claims assistance is available to Farmers customers by calling 877-RECLAMO (877-732-5266).

Foremost Insurance customers can call: 800-527-3907.

Customers with a Farmers flood policy should call 1-800-HelpPoint or?the flood claims department at 800-759-8656.

Farmers customers and non-customers alike can go to www.farmers.com and click on the Claims Section to view a new video on what to do after a hurricane.?The video can be viewed at:

https://www.farmers.com/SV_CatPreparedness_Hurricane.html

Farmers customers can also go to www.Farmers.com or download the free iClaim app to file a claim.

Farmers Insurance Group of Companies is a leading U.S. insurer of automobiles, homes and small businesses and also provides a wide range of other insurance and financial services products.?Farmers Insurance is proud to serve more than 10 million households with more than 20 million individual policies across all 50 states through the efforts of over 50,000 exclusive and independent agents and nearly 24,000 employees.

Farmers is a trade name and may refer to Farmers Group, Inc. or the Farmers Exchanges, as the case may be. ?Farmers Group, Inc., a management and holding company, along with its subsidiaries, is wholly owned by the Zurich Insurance Group. The Farmers Exchanges are three reciprocal insurers (Farmers Insurance Exchange, Fire Insurance Exchange and Truck Insurance Exchange), including their subsidiaries and affiliates, owned by their policyholders, and managed by Farmers Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries. For more information about Farmers, visit its Web site at www.farmers.com or at www.Facebook.com/FarmersInsurance.

Source: http://www.businessreviewusa.com/press_releases/update-farmers-insurance-mobile-catastrophe-claims-bus-on-the-scene-in-baton-rouge-la-helping-custom

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Crackdown on free speech in birthplace of Arab Spring

By NBC News staff and wire reports

An international rights group called Monday for Tunisian prosecutors to drop charges against two sculptors for artworks deemed harmful to public order and good morals, a legal action seen as part of a clampdown on free speech in the country where the Arab Spring began.

Human Rights Watch said that the prosecution of artists Nadia Jelassi and Mohamed Ben Salem in Tunisia, the country whose protests against its longtime dictator helped set off similar uprisings across the Arab world, violated the right to freedom of expression because the works did not incite or discriminate.


"Time and again, prosecutors are using criminal legislation to stifle critical or artistic expression," Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

"Bloggers, journalists and now artists are being prosecuted for exercising their right to free speech," he added.

Protests
The works by Jelassi and Ben Salem were exhibited in a show in La Marsa in June, according to Human Rights Watch. The two, whose mixed-media work provoked protests during the exhibition, face up to five years in prison if convicted, the rights group said.

La Marsa is a coastal town north of the capital Tunis.

Jelassi's contribution was a work titled "Celui qui n'a pas ?" ("He who hasn't ?"). It includes sculptures of veiled women amid a pile of stones. Ben Salem?s work showed ants coming out of a child's schoolbag to spell the word "Allah," or God, according to Human Rights Watch.

Mother of Tunisian fruit vendor who sparked Arab Spring is arrested

In addition to protests outside the center, several works of art in the exhibition reportedly were damaged.

The two artists were informed by the investigative judge of the First Degree Court of Tunis in August that they face charges, Human Rights Watch said.

Veiled female news anchor marks wane of secular Egypt

The article of the penal code under which the two artists were charged make it an offense to "distribute, offer for sale, publicly display, or possess, with the intent to distribute, sell, display for the purpose of propaganda, tracts, bulletins, and fliers, whether of foreign origin or not, that are liable to cause harm to the public order or public morals," according to Human Rights Watch.

NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin recaps Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's two-week overseas tour.

"Many Tunisians expected that repressive laws ... would not long outlast the dictator who adopted [them]," Goldstein of Human Rights Watch said.

Voice of Tunisian spring calls for justice, equality

"We now see that as long as the transitional government does not make it a priority to get rid of these laws, the temptation to use them to silence those who dissent or think differently is irresistible," he added.

More coverage of the Middle East and North Africa on NBCNews.com

Clampdown on freedom of expression
Amnesty International has also contended that freedom of expression has increasingly been under threat in Tunisia in recent months. A number of journalists, cinemas and TV stations have been fined, shut down or arrested, according to Amnesty.

Zohra Bensemra / Reuters

Click for more photos from the 2011 demonstrations against the Tunisian government.

The Arab Spring is widely considered to have begun in the central Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid, where a fruit seller's self-immolation triggered the popular uprisings against autocratic rule there and other countries in the region.

Complete World News coverage on NBCNews.com

The Tunisian uprising forced out dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011. Elections that followed brought to power Ennahda, a moderate Islamist party that had been banned under Ben Ali?s rule.

NBC News' staff and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/03/13637143-rights-group-blasts-repressive-crackdown-in-tunisia-birthplace-of-arab-spring?lite

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Carpool from your phone: Ride-sharing apps take off

More and more Americans are opting to leave the driving to others ? and taking advantage of the growing number of ride-sharing apps available today. Here are four of the most popular.

By Suzanne Kane,?Guest blogger / September 2, 2012

Traffic stacks up in front of the carpool van dubbed "Don't Worry Be Happy" on the highway south of Atlanta in this 2006 file photo. With the number of ride-sharing apps now on the market, it might be the perfect time to convince some of the 76 percent of commuters who drive alone to start buddying up.

Ric Feld/AP/File

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From urban dwellers to long-distance commuters, more and more Americans are opting to leave the driving to others ? and taking advantage of the growing number of ride-sharing apps available today.

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The potential audience is huge. Census survey data shows the percentage of people car-pooling has remained around 10 percent for several years. Some 5 percent of commuters use public transportation and a whopping 76 percent drive alone. But convincing people to give up a car and share a ride with a stranger? With the number of ride-sharing apps popping up recently, it could just be that the time is right.

While some are limited to certain cities or geographic areas, other startups have intentions of going national, while yet still more are already doing business nationwide. The basic principle is the same: passengers looking for a ride use the app to post their request and the app searches for drivers in the vicinity willing to provide rides. Security concerns about riding with a stranger are handled by thorough prescreening. Cost of the ride varies, with some fares a voluntary donation at a recommended amount. User ratings help keep things on an even keel. A low rating of a passenger may mean drivers will refuse that person?s ride request in the future.

Here's a round-up of a few of the larger ride-sharing operations currently available.

SideCar

San Francisco-based SideCar launched its on-demand ride-sharing app at the end of June, available for iPhone and Android devices across the U.S. SideCar vets drivers with a background check, proof of valid insurance, proof of driver?s license and proof of registration. Rides are also tracked using GPS. As for passengers, they need to register with a valid credit card.

Zimride

Passengers in need of a local or long-distance ride can hook up with Zimride, now serving San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Tahoe and Las Vegas. The app uses Facebook to enable real connections: setting up a profile, booking a ride or posting a ride. What?s it cost? Recent postings on the site included $40 per passenger from Los Angeles to San Francisco, $35 per person from Santa Barbara to Berkeley, and $40 per person from Oakland to Los Angeles.

Lyft

From Zimride, Lyft is an on-demand ride-sharing app competitive with SideCar. Lyft screens drivers, runs criminal background checks, and conducts a phone interview followed by an in-person interview with prospective drivers. Lyft rider fares are voluntary, based on a community average. Like SideCar, Lyft has a rating system for drivers and passengers. Drivers and passengers authenticate using Facebook. Currently, Lyft is only available in San Francisco using iPhone.

Avego

Using the Avego iPhone app, drivers can offer their unused seats to other people in real-time. The app combines GPS-enabled real-time ride-matching with fully automated payment transaction management, safety features, real-time passenger information, and commute reporting. At the end of the journey, Avego automatically charges the rider a fair and predetermined price for the trip, based on a per-mile default rate. Users (driver and passenger) rate each other using 1 to 5 stars. If either rates the other with 1 star, they will never again be matched together. See our previous coverage of the Avego ride-sharing app or check out the video below for more details.

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best auto bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger,?click here.?To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on the link in the blog description box above.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/ks00LAW8xG8/Carpool-from-your-phone-Ride-sharing-apps-take-off

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