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July 2009

Natural Baby Products

Wed, 07/22/2009 - 04:51 — admin

In cases where the infant is in obvious pain, some doctors recommend the use of anti-inflammatories or child-safe pain-relief treatments containing benzocaine. Some infants gain relief from chewing on cold objects.

Immediately after birth, a newborn's skin is often grayish to dusky blue in color. As soon as the newborn begins to breathe, usually within a minute or two, the skin's color returns to its normal tone. Newborns are wet, covered in streaks of blood, and coated with a white substance known as vernix caseosa, which is hypothesised to act as an antibacterial barrier. The newborn may also have Mongolian spots, various other birthmarks, or peeling skin, particularly on the wrists, hands, ankles, and feet.

Natural Baby Products

Small town grapples with $5M bill to fix dam (AP)

Wed, 07/22/2009 - 04:39 — admin

KATHRYN, N.D. – All that's left of this southeastern North Dakota town is a bar, a church, a post office and about 55 people who call it home — but if floods like the ones that hit last spring begin to rise again, it could be destroyed.
That's led some to quietly joke that the town may not be worth holding onto at all. In conversations among townspeople and even local officials, some are wondering if moving Kathryn might be cheaper than the $5 million or more it could cost to replace the Clausen Springs Dam.
The mayor, however, won't even consider the idea of uprooting the town.
"Five million dollars is a drop in the bucket to save a town," Mayor Dave Majerus said of Kathryn, which is shrouded by rolling hills, pastureland and crop fields about 60 miles southwest of Fargo.
The conversation has revealed a deeper problem in the vulnerable community: Just who, if anyone, will foot the bill to repair the dam? It's one of up to 30 smaller, mostly earthen dams for which it could cost millions to fix damage caused by erosion.
Kathryn's 55 residents were evacuated for a few days in April after heavy flooding began eroding the dam, six miles west of the town. It was just one segment of the weather disaster that pummeled most of North Dakota, sending the Red River to a record level in Fargo and causing an ice jam on the Missouri River in Bismarck.
In a scene replayed across the state, trucks hauled in clay to fortify the dirt and grass spillway at the dam near Kathryn and North Dakota National Guard soldiers in helicopters dropped more than 100 one-ton sandbags to help shore it up.
Months after the rivers receded, the erosion damage to dozens of small earthen dams is still being assessed statewide. It's forcing officials to talk — if only halfheartedly — about the possibility of moving the town of Kathryn rather than fixing the dam. Other dams, which are not threatening towns, might never be fixed.
The Clausen Springs Dam is about 50 feet high and about 700 feet long and holds back a lake about the size of 50 football fields. It was built in 1967, before state dam safety standards were enacted, and created a picturesque lake and campgrounds. It protects Kathryn, which was founded in 1900 and named for a daughter of the president of Northern Pacific Railroad, which extended track to the area.
"Everybody likes it, but nobody wants to lay claim to it now because of the cost to repair it," Majerus said of the dam.
Lee Grossman, the assistant Barnes County state's attorney, said a written agreement between the state and county "doesn't say who's responsible when an act of God destroys the dam.
"That's still open for interpretation," Grossman said.
Money for some of the work could come through federal disaster funds, but they would only repair the dam to the state it was in before last spring's floods, said Todd Sando, an assistant engineer for the state Water Commission. The Clausen Springs Dam would still need county and state funds to bring it up to code.
County officials have hired an engineering company to provide an estimate of how much it would cost to repair the dam and to study how bad the damage would be if the dam failed. Chad Engels, an engineer with West Fargo-based Moore Engineering Inc., said rebuilding the dam and bringing it into compliance would cost "$5 million, give or take one or two million."
It would cost about $100,000 to repair the emergency spillway, restoring the dam to its pre-flood condition, Engels said. For about the same price, officials could also permanently drain the lake, he said.
It's unlikely Kathryn would be leveled by "a wall of water" if the dam broke, but it would likely be destroyed by floodwater and mold, Engels said. His firm is still working on its worst-case scenario study, but he believes floodwaters would reach 5 feet in the town.
"If the dam broke, water would be all over the place," he said.
It isn't clear how much it would cost to actually relocate the town, and the idea has not been formally proposed. No cost estimates have been drafted. But a similar idea was executed in a larger North Dakota town years ago for less than the estimated cost of repairing the Kathryn dam.

The town of Churchs Ferry was bought out by the government in 2000 because of the rising Devils Lake. Churchs Ferry was nearly cleared of homes after the $3.5 million Federal Emergency Management Agency buyout. The town had about 100 residents at the time; only a handful remain.

Gordon Broadwell, a retired farmer who lives on high ground two miles north of Kathryn, said he's safe from the floodwater if the dam breaks. But he thinks the dam is dangerous for his neighbors and the town if the area gets another flood like the one earlier this year.

"Next year, if the same thing happens, she'll let go," he said. "It would probably be better buying out Kathryn, which isn't much of a town to begin with."

Michael Jackson aimed to direct movie about foster children (Reuters)

Wed, 07/22/2009 - 04:06 — admin

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) –
Three months before his death, Michael Jackson committed to co-directing and financing a movie -- a poignant drama about foster children -- and planned to get started as soon as he completed his London concerts.

The news is the latest in a series of revelations that are helping to shed light on the pop star's passions and projects, even as the investigation into his abuse of prescription drugs and a tussle over custody of his children rage on.

The movie project also is eerily keyed to one of the most haunting aspects of Jackson's life: his apparent feeling that the Jackson 5's huge success robbed him of his childhood.

"He was very excited about making movies and wanted his hands on everything, from working on screenplays to producing, to writing the music. However, he never showed any interest in acting," B-movie producer, writer and director Bryan Michael Stoller said of Jackson, who starred in the 1978 pic "The Wiz."

Stoller said he had a 23-year friendship with the pop star and was his partner in the film company Magic Shadows. He was to have co-directed the movie, called "They Cage the Animals at Night," which Stoller said they had been developing for seven years.

INSPIRED BY BOOK

The project was based on a 1985 book about the real-life experiences of author Jennings Michael Burch, who bounced around foster homes as a child. Jackson showed the book to Stoller in 2002 at his Neverland estate and asked if he wanted to produce and co-direct a movie version.

"Michael told me often he felt like he grew up as an orphan, like a foster kid, because he never was in one home," Stoller said. "To him every hotel was like a different foster home. He said he used to sit in the window and see kids playing outside and cry because he couldn't be part of that."

Stoller optioned the book for $1 -- initially without telling Burch about Jackson's involvement. When he did tell him, Stoller said the author was excited to work with the singer.

Jackson, meanwhile, was concerned that Burch, then 67 and suffering from cancer, might not survive to see the movie made. So Stoller suggested bringing Burch to Neverland in 2003, where Jackson turned the tables and interviewed him for what was to be a TV special and for the eventual DVD.

During their highly charged conversation, Jackson asked the author if he had ever considered suicide. Burch said he had, and Jackson said he too had considered it during his darkest days. (A clip from this footage is available at THR.com.)

Stoller recorded their meeting, an addition to a collection of videos he made with Jackson over the years, and to hours of audio recordings from their meetings.

Stoller told The Hollywood Reporter he has now come forward because he believes this material humanizes his friend at a time when much myth-making about Jackson is taking place. The producer also is marketing his video, audio and photos either for outright sale or as a project he would produce and direct.

He said he already has had interest from NBC, CBS and E!

But insiders in the Jackson camp said there was no formal deal in place for any Jackson involvement in "Cage"; discussions between the artist and Stoller occurred when Jackson was without management, which may have frowned on any distractions as he prepared for the London shows.

'CAST AWAY' CAST OFF

Jackson's last film foray was a 2005 comedic farce, "Miss Cast Away and the Island Girls," produced, written and directed by Stoller and starring Eric Roberts. Jackson is briefly in the movie as Agent M.J., who comes to the rescue of various characters on a beam of light. The movie was a direct-to-DVD release sold briefly at Blockbuster stores.

When Jackson was indicted on child molestation charges shortly after its release, Blockbuster pulled the film from its shelves. "Miss Cast Away" has been sold overseas by Showcase Entertainment, and Stoller said he has offers for a new domestic video release for Jackson's last movie appearance.

"They Cage the Animals" also was affected by the molestation charges, Stoller said. In 2003 the producer arranged a three-hour meeting in a Universal City hotel between Jackson and Mel Gibson, who besides being an actor is a producer and partner in Icon Prods. "They got along great," Stoller said. "It was kind of funny. Mel was a little nervous. He was hugging a pillow the whole time, kind of playing with it. Michael was kind of shy."

Icon signed a deal to develop the project with a budget of $12 million-$20 million, according to Stoller, who was paid by Icon to write the screenplay. A couple of months later, when Jackson was indicted in Santa Barbara, Calif., Icon dropped the project, and Gibson stopped returning Stoller's phone calls. There were news reports in 2005 that Icon had dropped the project. A spokesman for Icon said the company briefly was involved in developing it in 1995 but had lost interest by 1997. Stoller has a copy of his contract with Icon dated 2002.

Stoller said Icon still owns the screenplay, but an Icon representative rebutted that, saying the company has had no involvement or ownership for 10 years. Gibson declined comment for this report.

WATCHING MOVIES

Jackson lost contact with Stoller for about two years during the period when the singer was on trial. But after his acquittal, Jackson reached out to him. They had watched dozens of movies in the Neverland theater; Stoller said Jackson's favorite was "To Kill a Mockingbird," and that they also discussed doing a remake of the comedy musical "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang."

"When Jackson called in 2007, he still had movies on his mind," Stoller said. "He had begun to purchase movie production equipment. He was always asking how things work, but I never saw him really work things. But he wanted all the toys. He bought a dolly and wanted me to show the kids how to use it because they were using it as a play toy, riding around on it."

Jackson wasn't interested in making a blockbuster. "He wanted to do movies the Academy would like," Stoller recalled.

Three months before Jackson's death, he and Stoller had "a pretty serious meeting" about reviving "They Cage the Animals" as an indie feature, the producer said.

"Michael was going to put up $8 million and not have to deal with any studios or producers and then take it to the studios afterward," Stoller said. "He was very passionate about being a director. He was determined to make this movie."

(Editing by SheriLinden at Reuters)

Personal Smears Against Rush (Brent Bozell III)

Wed, 07/22/2009 - 03:06 — admin

Creators Syndicate –
It's a consistent line from the left: Conservative talk radio is a cauldron of hate. In the Clinton years, a CBS News promo set out to warn the public about the dangers of Gordon Liddy: "The words are shocking ... What he says may not be illegal, but is it dangerous? Has free speech gone too far? Hate radio under fire, and firing back."

It is an unmistakable, unquestionable, resoundingly unequivocal exercise in liberal hypocrisy. The airwaves are now filled with the meanest, most insulting, most dishonest ad hominems in history. They are coming from left-wing talk show hosts.

And from CBS & Co.? Dead silence.

Take Ed Schultz, the closest thing the liberals have to a talk-radio star. He comes unglued when he talks of Rush. On July 15, he uncorked this rant: "Apparently, the drug-ridden loser Rush Limbaugh, he thinks because he's got a lot of money and a lot of stations that he's a success in life, the guy that can't hear because he did so many drugs and had no self-discipline and character has now taken his first shot at me on 'The Ed Show' on MSNBC. I love it!"

Schultz then challenged Limbaugh to a debate: "C'mon, you fat pig. Let's get it on. I'm getting ratings without you. Hell, I'm doing you a favor. C'mon, Rush! Let's get it on! Get out of your compound down there. Get away from your drugs. Go see the doctor, and get some hearing. Maybe you could pick up a 19th girlfriend. Maybe you could try marriage again. By the way, Rush, you got any kids? Oh, you're out of the mainstream!"

This is some strange taunting, since Schultz is well, heavy set, and in his second marriage. He does have six children — and about six listeners.

Then there's Ron Reagan, the liberal talk show host and the youngest child of the last century's greatest president. He may have been a ballet dancer in his youth, but on May 15, he taunted Limbaugh as less than a full man after he heard Rush making fun of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Botox shots: "Limbaugh hasn't had a natural erection since the Nixon Administration; think he's compensating for something? Now, I wouldn't pick on him for any of this stuff, not his blubbiness, not his man-boobs, not his inability to have a natural erection — none of that stuff — to me, off limits until! Until! — Mr. Limbaugh, you turn that sort of gun on somebody else. Once you start doing that, you're fair game, fat boy. Absolutely, you jiggly pile of mess."

The junior Reagan also claimed Limbaugh looked like "the unholy spawn of Tony Soprano and the Michelin Man." Surely, he made his father proud.

It gets uglier still. If we really scrape the bottom of the barrel of liberal talk radio, there's Mike Malloy, who used to write news scripts for CNN. On Jan. 23, he called Rush the "pig man" and announced, "I hope that I'm alive when he dies. He is so morbidly overweight. He smokes. He eats his Viagra and goes down to the Dominican Republic to bugger little boys. I just hope that I'm around when he croaks."

He repeated that ugly mantra five days later: "Some horrifyingly intense America-hater like Rush Limbaugh, who appears to be morphing into, seriously, he is morphing into Jabba the Hutt. I've seen some recent video, this guy is enormous. He just keeps bloating up. It's just — I hope he keeps going, because eventually, he will croak. Like I said, eventually, he will choke to death on his own throat fat."

Where is CBS to warn the country about "hate radio" now?

The fake-TV-news goons of Comedy Central also spoil the image of liberal charity. On "The Daily Show" on April 1, unfunny fake-anchorman Jon Stewart screamed about Limbaugh finally selling his property in New York, complaining that Rush had been such a burden to the city: "We knew he was into drugs, so we cleaned up Times Square. We even opened up a Disney Store in the very place he would normally go to buy drugs." Stewart even claimed, "We outlawed murder, figuring he was a guy with a taste for it."

There are people who want talk radio to be raucous and aggressive, to scorn all the false and forced parliamentary niceties of Washington. Let us be honest: Sometimes conservative talk radio goes too far. But never will you hear a credible conservative talk show host — say, Rush, or Hannity, or Levin or Ingraham — resort to this sort of ugliness.

They don't have to. They just call liberals liberals and laugh, while those liberals explode with outrage.

L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center. To find out more about Brent Bozell III, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS.COM

Federal reserve chief heads back to Capitol Hill (AP)

Tue, 07/21/2009 - 23:50 — admin

WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke heads back to Capitol Hill Wednesday, where he's likely to face more tough questions about the central bank's extraordinary actions to rescue the economy and its ability to take on even more responsibility.
Last year's taxpayer-financed rescues of insurance giant American International Group and others have touched a nerve with the public and some lawmakers.
Although Bernanke's innovative policies have been credited with averting a financial catastrophe last year, critics worry about putting taxpayers' money at risk and creating a situation where companies may feel more inclined to take big gambles on the belief that the government will clean up their messes.
Bernanke, who is slated to appear before the Senate Banking Committee at 10 a.m. EDT, argues that a collapse of AIG would have put the entire financial system and the broader economy in peril.
Provisions included in the Obama administration plan to overhaul financial oversight, if they were to become law, would avoid a repeat of additional AIG-like taxpayer bailouts, says Bernanke.
The Fed chief also is likely to run into fresh skepticism from senators wary of expanding the Fed's duties to police big financial companies as envisioned by the administration. Some members of the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday argued that the Fed failed to spot problems that led to the financial crisis in the first place.
Bernanke countered that the administration's proposal would be a "modest reorientation" of the Fed's powers, not a great expansion of them.
All the hand-wringing on Capitol Hill about the future shape of the Fed — as well as the nation's broader regulatory structure — comes at a politically delicate time for Bernanke. His term expires early next year, and President Barack Obama will have to decide whether to reappoint him.
The Fed chief on Tuesday also sought to assure investors and Congress that the central bank will be able to reel in its economic stimulus and prevent a flare up of inflation once a recovery is firmly rooted. Still, any such steps will be far off in the future. The central bank's focus remains "fostering economic recovery," he said.
Bernanke also worked to beat back an administration proposal to create a new consumer protection regulator for financial services and strip some of those duties from the central bank. The House panel delayed a committee vote on that legislation until September.
Consumer groups and lawmakers have blamed the Fed for failing to crack down early on dubious mortgages practices that fed the housing boom and figured into its collapse. Later this week, the Fed will issue a proposal to boost disclosures on mortgages and home equity lines of credit. It also will include new rules governing the compensation of mortgage originators.
Bernanke also argued against congressional proposals to let the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, audit the central bank. He feared that audits that delve into the Fed's interest-rate decisions could compromise its independence in setting interest-rate policies.

China says has proof Rio staff stole state secrets (AFP)

Tue, 07/21/2009 - 23:35 — admin

BEIJING (AFP) –
China has told the Australian government it has "sufficient evidence" that detained Rio Tinto executives stole state secrets, a senior Chinese official said Wednesday.

Vice foreign minister He Yafei said he briefed his Australian counterpart Stephen Smith of the developments on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned summit in Egypt last week.

"I stressed that we have sufficient evidence showing that the individuals involved obtained China's state secrets using illegal means," He told reporters.

"The case has entered into the judicial process and I requested the Australian side to respect China's judicial sovereignty," he said.

Chinese authorities arrested Stern Hu, the Australian head of the miner's Shanghai office, and three local staff earlier this month accusing them of bribery and other illegal means to gather state secrets.

However, Rio Tinto said in a statement last week that media reports its employees had bribed steel mill officials during tough iron ore contract negotiations were "wholly without foundation."

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has warned China that it had "significant" business interests on the line in Hu's case and that foreign governments and international companies were watching developments closely.

He is so far the highest-level Chinese official to comment on the Rio Tinto case.

His remarks came after Smith told Australian media over the weekend that China was handling the investigation as a criminal case with a focus on commercial and economic matters rather than espionage.

Clinton to outline "stark choice" for North Korea (Reuters)

Tue, 07/21/2009 - 21:05 — admin

BANGKOK (Reuters) –
The United States will consult regional players on Wednesday about giving North Korea a choice between tighter sanctions if it pursues its nuclear program and wider incentives if it abandons them, U.S. officials said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton plans separate meetings with the foreign ministers of China, Japan, Russia and South Korea on the resort island of Phuket to plot strategy on how to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions.

Clinton's talks will come ahead of Asia's biggest annual security gathering, the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which takes place on Thursday and where concerns over North Korea's recent military moves will be high on the agenda.

In the last two months North Korea has conducted its second nuclear test, test-fired seven ballistic missiles and boycotted "six-party" talks on ending its nuclear programs in exchange for economic and diplomatic benefits.

On Tuesday, Clinton also voiced U.S. concerns about possible military links between North Korea and military-ruled Myanmar.

U.S. officials said their main focus was to carry out U.N. Security Council resolution 1874, which bans all North Korean arms exports, authorizes U.N. member states to inspect North Korean sea, air and land cargo and requires them to seize and destroy any goods transported in violation of the sanctions.

However, they said they had discussed a wider package of incentives for the North from the other five parties if Pyongyang were to take credible steps on ending its nuclear program.

"We would like to paint a picture for North Korea of a very stark choice," said one senior official who spoke to reporters on condition that he not be identified.

"If they continue on the current path, it's a path that leads to greater tensions in northeast Asia, more isolation, more steps aimed at ... the regime," he added.

"If they decide they are prepared to work constructively and take the necessary steps on the nuclear side, then there would be a different set of commitments not just from the United States but from the other players as well," he said.

The official said the United States hoped to secure greater cooperation from its partners on sanctions if it showed that it was willing to be flexible about providing more incentives.

SEOUL WANTED 5-WAY MEETING

Clinton was scheduled to hold separate talks with China's Yang Jiechi, Japan's Hirofumi Nakasone, Russia's Sergei Lavrov and South Korean's Yu Myung-hwan on Wednesday.

Seoul had wanted foreign ministers from the other five parties to meet jointly on the sidelines to discuss North Korea.

But Beijing, the closest North Korea has to a major ally and host of the now moribund six-party talks, was against the idea, said a South Korean official with knowledge of the issue.

North Korea has sent a low-level delegation to the talks in Phuket, after sending its foreign minister to previous meetings. There were no announced plans for any of the foreign ministers from the other five parties to meet the North Korean delegation.

The U.S. official declined to detail the new incentives under consideration, saying only that "some of them are familiar, but there are new dimensions associated with this as well."

However, he said "we are at the other end of the spectrum right now" and concentrating on sanctions.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said during his campaign for office last year that Seoul would set up a $40 billion international investment fund, double the North's yearly economic output, if Pyongyang scrapped its nuclear weapons.

The head of the North's delegation, ambassador-at-large Pak Kun-gwang, told his Thai hosts late on Tuesday he did not want Pyongyong to be a punching bag at the regional security meeting on Thursday.

"The ambassador wanted to express his concern to the (Thai foreign) minister that he does not want ARF to become a place where his country is attacked," said Chavanond Intarakomalyasut, a Thai Foreign Ministry official.

(Additional reporting by Jack Kim and Kittipong Soonprasert in Phuket, Editing by Dean Yates and Alex Richardson)

Iraq vets' caregivers seek training, compensation (AP)

Tue, 07/21/2009 - 18:53 — admin

WASHINGTON – On good days, Michelle Briggs has to remind her 40-year-old husband to shower and eat. On bad days, she lifts him out of bed and picks him up when he falls.
Robert W. Briggs, a former Army sergeant, was severely injured in Iraq and needs constant monitoring because of traumatic brain injury, blindness in one eye and paralysis on one side. He walks with the help of a service dog. Briggs gave up her job as a veterinarian technician to care for him and their two kids.
On Tuesday, Michelle Briggs and fourteen other caregivers started more than 50 planned visits to congressional offices on Capitol Hill this week armed with a simple message: We need help.
"Mentally, it takes a very big toll on you," said Briggs, 34, of Hillsboro, Iowa, whose husband was injured in a rocket grenade attack in 2005 while serving with the Iowa National Guard. "You have to be a very strong person to get through a lot of it. It's a choice whether you stay or not. It's very much a choice."
Briggs said she's met other spouses of injured veterans who sought a divorce.
"It doesn't make them a bad person at all, but they just couldn't handle the situation because it's very, very stressful and you have to fight for the things that you're entitled to," Briggs said.
The caregivers say parents, spouses and siblings of the disabled have given up jobs, health insurance and college to care for a loved one. Yet they get no compensation to ease the burden.
"We're providing them with such a better quality of life and we need support in order to provide that," said Tracy Keil, 31, of Parker, Colo., whose husband, Matthew Keil, was paralyzed from the chest down from a sniper's bullet in 2007 and now needs around-the-clock care.
The two married six weeks before he was injured. She said she gave up the job she had as an accountant for 11 years and makes $60,000 less working from home part-time for a nonprofit organization.
The caregivers seek passage of legislation that would require the Veterans Affairs Department to offer more training to primary caregivers of severely injured veterans from the recent wars. Those certified would be eligible for benefits such as health care and a stipend of a few hundred dollars a week.
The alternative, they say, would be life in an institution for some veterans now mostly in their 20s or 30s.
Sen. Daniel Akaka, chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, who authored legislation in the Senate to address the issue with Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said there are more than just an isolated few families asking for help.
"This has been growing, growing to the point now where we can not ignore it," Akaka said.
Akaka, D-Hawaii, said he's waiting for a final analysis about how much the legislation would cost, although he's confident keeping a veteran in the home is cheaper than a nursing home.
The VA has expressed concerns about the cost of the legislation. It has also said it would divert from the agency's mission of providing care to veterans and training clinicians, and said some of the same services are provided in other programs.
Phil Budahn, a VA spokesman, said in a statement the agency would continue to look for ways to "appropriately support these compassionate providers."
Steven Nardizzi, executive director of the Jacksonville, Fla.-based Wounded Warrior Project, which organized the caregivers' effort this week, said what the VA provides simply isn't adequate. He said the VA needs to adapt its primary mission to include helping families of the wounded, and providing health benefits and a stipend would go a long way.
"If the VA thinks they're already providing or the administration thinks they're already providing support, it's because they're simply not paying attention and not listening to the families right now," Nardizzi said.

His group estimates that under legislation it's seeking, about 750 caregivers would be eligible long-term, whereas several thousand would participate for about one to three years.

Briggs said she's thrown out her back at different times lifting her husband. She said she went through a period of depression as she adjusted to their new life but has learned to find comfort talking to other caregivers. She said she's dedicated to making their arrangement work but could use more resources.

"I love him and we've been married — it will be 15 years in November. It's like your marriage vows for better or worse," Briggs said. "This wasn't his fault, and there would be no one else to take care of him properly. He would be in a nursing home."

___

On the Net:

Wounded Warrior Project: http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/

Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee: http://veterans.senate.gov/

Veterans Affairs Department: http://www.va.gov/

White House goes a little bit country (AP)

Tue, 07/21/2009 - 17:47 — admin

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says people may think of him as a "city boy," but he enjoys listening to country music and appreciates it.
Obama made the remarks Tuesday evening before award-winning musicians Alison Krauss and Union Station performed in the East Room of the White House. Brad Paisley and Charley Pride were also set to entertain guests.
The president, whose hometown is Chicago, says country music "has captured our restlessness and resilience" through storytelling.
The performance was the second in a music series that first lady Michelle Obama launched last month to encourage arts and arts education. Earlier, both Paisley and Krauss took part in a workshop with middle school and high school music students.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House went a little bit country Tuesday.
Continuing a series on arts education, 120 middle and high school music students from Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia learned about music and song writing from some of country music's best — award-winning performers Brad Paisley, and Alison Krauss and Union Station.
It was the second workshop in a music series that first lady Michelle Obama launched last month to encourage arts and arts education. The first session was devoted to jazz. A classical music workshop is planned for the fall.
Paisley and Krauss were being joined Tuesday evening by Charley Pride, a country music legend, for a performance in the East Room. President Barack Obama and Mrs. Obama were to attend, and the president planned to say a few words.
Paisley and Krauss started their careers early. Krauss, who plays the fiddle, signed a record deal at 14; the guitar-playing Paisley was just 13 when he appeared on a country music show.
Krauss said she would listen to music all day but "I didn't think I would ... end up doing it as a career."
Paisley's grandfather, a country music lover, gave his grandson a guitar for Christmas when Paisley was 8. And the rest is country music history. "I've really not been good at much else," Paisley said. "Thankfully I was able to do this for a living because, as I said, I did not have anything to fall back on, that's for sure."
Paisley and Krauss sat on stools in the State Dining Room in front of a large portrait of a pensive-looking President Abraham Lincoln. Krauss played one piece on her fiddle, and sang another. Paisley also sang. Both answered questions from the students.
One of the participants, Sal La Rosa, of Nashville, Tenn., who just finished the fourth grade, also performed a song he wrote as part of a music education program sponsored by the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Paisley and Krauss talked about the family support they've enjoyed along the way to country music stardom.
"Music is like being up at bat," Paisley told the students. "It's really very much like stepping up to the plate. And you can have all the support in the world but it's up to you guys to really get where you want to go."

Senators raise alarms on Delaware sports betting (AP)

Tue, 07/21/2009 - 17:08 — admin

WASHINGTON – A pair of veteran Republican senators urged Attorney General Eric Holder to look into the legality of a new Delaware law allowing sports betting and to defend a federal anti-sports betting law that New Jersey politicians are challenging.
Both efforts "threaten to greatly expand sports gambling and undermine the integrity of our" national pastimes, wrote Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Jon Kyl of Arizona in a letter dated Monday, which was obtained by The Associated Press.
At issue in both cases is the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which banned sports gambling but grandfathered four states: Delaware, Nevada, Montana and Oregon.
Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, who proposed sports betting to help solve a shortfall, signed legislation authorizing it this year. State officials hope to have the sports lottery in place for this year's NFL regular season in September.
Hatch and Kyl, both longtime gambling opponents, say that although Delaware is grandfathered from the '92 law, its plan to allow single-game betting would violate the legislation because such betting was never available in any state. Delaware Lottery Director Wayne Lemons confirmed Tuesday that the state's brief 1970s sports lottery did not offer such bets.
The senators wrote that the 1992 law authorizes the Justice Department to intervene to prevent a state from expanding sports betting beyond what was offered before the law took effect.
"It is our hope that the Department of Justice will monitor closely the situation in Delaware to ensure the state's compliance with federal law," they wrote.
The NFL opposes the sports lottery, and Markell spokesman Joe Rogalsky said in an e-mail, "Along with their litigation threats, we suspect this letter is part of the NFL's continued effort to stop Delaware from moving forward with its sports lottery. Delaware is committed to operating the sports lottery in compliance with federal law and the Delaware Constitution, which is why the governor asked for and received a Delaware Supreme Court advisory opinion allowing us to move forward."
The NFL, Hatch and Kyl had no immediate comment.
Meanwhile, in neighboring New Jersey, politicians fear that Delaware's sports betting threatens the Garden State's casino and horse racing industries. In March, New Jersey Democratic State Sen. Ray Lesniak, along with an online gambling association and others, filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department challenging the 1992 law.
This month, New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine formally joined the lawsuit, filing a motion in the case arguing that the ban puts New Jersey at an economic disadvantage because it is denied a revenue stream allowed to the four grandfathered states. Corzine has called the law "fundamentally unfair."
Hatch and Kyl urge Holder "to vigorously defend the statute."
The Justice Department said it was reviewing the letter.
Corzine's office did not respond to telephone or e-mail messages left Tuesday.



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