Cigarette smoking's impact lingers after quitting: Current, former smokers may face impaired pancreatic duct cell function, elevated colorectal cancer risk

ScienceDaily (Oct. 31, 2011) ? Cigarette smoking appears to impair pancreatic duct cell function- -even for those who quit--putting all smokers at risk of compromised digestive function regardless of age, gender and alcohol intake, according to the results of a study unveiled at the American College of Gastroenterology's (ACG) 76th Annual Scientific meeting in Washington, DC.

In a separate smoking-related study also released at the ACG meeting, "Smoking Cessation and the Risk for Advanced Neoplasia: Risk for Women Persists Longer than for Men," researchers from the University of Connecticut found that the risk of advanced pre-cancerous tissue changes (neoplasia) was significantly elevated for women -- even if they stopped smoking -- but not for men--suggesting that the impact of smoking in women has a longer effect than in men.

In the study, "Cigarette Smoking Impairs Pancreatic Duct Cell Function," researchers from Center for Pancreatic Disease at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston assessed pancreatic duct cell function in smokers and non-smokers (current and past). A total of 131 subjects (74 smoked and 57 never smoked) underwent secretin-stimulated endoscopic pancreatic function testing (ePFT), for pancreatic fluid bicarbonate analysis. Cigarette smoking exposure was found to be associated with an abnormal ePFT result, and there was no statistical difference in peak bicarbonate concentration between current and former smokers, according to the results.

The risk of pancreatic duct cell dysfunction was 56.78 percent in former or current smokers and 26.32 percent in nonsmokers, according to Vivek Kadiyala, MD, who presented the findings. "Our data suggests the risk of duct cell dysfunction was doubled in patients who smoked compared to nonsmokers," said Dr. Kadiyala.

"These findings indicate that anyone with a history of smoking, either current or past is at greater risk of impaired pancreatic duct cell function," said Dr. Kadiyala. "Additionally, the findings underscore the value that early smoking cessation may have for patients with chronic pancreatitis and as a result healthcare providers should advise patients to quit smoking as part of their overall treatment plan."

Elevated Colorectal Cancer Risk for Women, Even After Smoking Cessation

Even after women quit smoking they are still at an increased risk for colorectal cancer, according to researchers at the University of Connecticut who examined the risk of advanced neoplasia in 2428 male and female patients over age 45 who have quit smoking.

The recent ACG colorectal cancer screening guidelines include smoking as a risk factor that should be considered when screening for colorectal cancer. Although the risk for neoplasia increases after 10 pack years of exposure, there is little data regarding the risk for advanced neoplasia after quitting.

"The risk of advanced neoplasia was significantly elevated for women and men whether they were current smokers and/ or former smokers who quit within five years of screening colonoscopy," said Joseph C. Anderson, MD, FACG, also of the White River Junction VA Medical Center in Vermont, who presented the findings. "The risk was elevated for female smokers who quit six to ten years prior to screening but not for male smokers."

Dr. Anderson said the data suggests that the impact of smoking has a longer effect in women than in men, and that the data could have an impact on colorectal cancer screening in male versus female smokers. "If smoking is used as a factor for determining when to begin screening, for example, we might have different parameters for men and women."

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Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111031114943.htm

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Total, Chevron profits lifted by firm oil price (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Chevron Corp and Total posted higher quarterly profits on Friday, the latest two major oil companies to reap the benefit of firm oil prices and rosier refinery conditions.

The third-quarter profits from Total and Chevron capped a week of earnings figures that saw gains at Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell and BP Plc as benchmark Brent oil prices hover near $112 per barrel, nearly 50 percent higher than the year-earlier quarter.

Still, oil prices were slightly down from the second quarter of the year, which helped the companies' refineries to post higher margins and profits.

Chevron Corp, the second-largest U.S. oil company behind Exxon, said its profits more than doubled, helped by a gain of about $500 million from the sale of its Pembroke refinery to Valero Energy Corp.

Total's profits climbed a more modest 24 percent, but met market expectations, as its output fell by 1 percent because of disruptions in Libya.

Chevron also posted a decline in output to 2.6 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (bpd), down from 2.74 million a year ago.

It July, Chevron had said a slower Gulf of Mexico project ramp-up and a Thai pipeline problem would trim its 2011 production by about 30,000 bpd.

Like their peers, Chevron and Total have struggled to increase oil production in recent years.

Disappointment about the trend has hit oil stocks, and Total has been punished by investors more harshly than its rival -- until a rally that has lifted its stock 27 percent since September 26 when it raised its 2010-15 average output goal to 3 percent per year from 2 percent.

Total has made over $10 billion of acquisitions in the past 18 months, expanding its geographical footprint beyond its historical heartland of Africa to Australia, Canada and Russia.

Shares in Total fell about 2 percent in Friday trading, while Chevron shares climbed less than 1 percent.

(Reporting by Marie Maitre in Paris, Braden Reddall in San Francisco and Matt Daily in New York, editing by Dave Zimmerman)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111028/bs_nm/us_chevron

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NBA 2k12- marcin gortat wants to fight amare stoudemire

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Studies challenge wisdom of GOP candidates' plans (The Arizona Republic)

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Commonwealth leaders raise polio vaccine spending

Queen Elizabeth arrives for a dinner at the Commonwealth Heads of Government in Perth, Australia Friday Oct .28, 2011. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Adrian Wyld)

Queen Elizabeth arrives for a dinner at the Commonwealth Heads of Government in Perth, Australia Friday Oct .28, 2011. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Adrian Wyld)

Queen Elizabeth II, second left, and Prince Philip, left, greet Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, right, and his wife Patience Jonathan at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) banquet dinner in the Golden Ballroom of Pan Pacific Hotel in Perth Friday, Oct. 28, 2011. (AP Photo/Andrew Meares, Pool)

Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan, right, and wife Patience arrive for a banquet dinner during Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth, Australia, Friday, Oct. 28, 2011. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith, Pool)

British Prime Minister David Cameron gestures during a press conference with Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard during Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth, Australia, Friday, Oct. 28, 2011. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith)

PERTH, Australia (AP) ? Commonwealth government leaders meeting in Australia agreed Saturday to step up efforts to eradicate polio worldwide, despite the Afghanistan war setting back vaccination efforts there and in neighboring Pakistan.

Leaders of Britain, Canada, Australia and Nigeria, as well as billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, committed tens of millions of dollars in additional funding toward the World Health Organization's campaign to wipe out the disabling disease from the four countries where it remains endemic ? India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.

All the polio-endemic countries except for Afghanistan are represented at the three-day summit in the western Australian city of Perth. The summit comprises the leaders of 53 countries, most of them former British colonies.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said he was "seriously concerned" that polio infection rates had worsened in his country in recent years.

Pakistan was the only country in the world to increase reported polio infections last year. There were 144 cases in 2010, up from 89 in the previous year, according to WHO figures. So far this year, 118 cases have been reported in Pakistan ? the largest number of any country.

Gilani blamed the flow of people fleeing fighting on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, the inaccessibility of war zones to medical teams and religious "fanatics" opposed to vaccines for the failures of vaccination programs in the border regions.

But Pakistan's government remains committed to a target of eliminating polio by the end of this year, he said.

"No doubt we have a huge task ahead, but we remain determined to eradicate this and protect every child in Pakistan from the scourge of polio," Gilani told reporters.

In neighboring Afghanistan, polio infections have jumped from 30 last year to 41 so far this year.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said nations cannot accept the current situation where the world is only 99 percent polio free.

"If we fail to get rid of polio completely, we run the risk that the disease will spread back to countries where it's been eliminated," Cameron said.

Britain had already doubled its contribution to the 23-year-old WHO Global Polio Eradication Initiative for this year and 2012 when it announced in January an additional 40 million pound ($65 million) contribution.

Australia, which put polio on the Commonwealth meeting agenda, promised an addition 50 million Australian dollars ($54 million).

Gates used a video message to the Perth meeting to pledge an extra $40 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He warned that the campaign to eliminate polio forever was at a crossroads, saying recent cases in China demonstrated the risk of a polio resurgence.

China had been free of the paralytic disease for 11 years before an outbreak in the country's far western region that has paralyzed 17 people since July, killing one of them.

WHO said the polio strain detected in China traveled from neighboring Pakistan.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper also pledged increased funding to polio surveillance, but did not specify an amount.

Harper said polio eradication was a key priority of the Canadian mission in Afghanistan. He said 85 percent of Afghanistan was polio free.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said his government's increasing its funding for polio vaccinations in the African nation from $17 million to $30 million annually should result in the disease disappearing by the end of 2012.

Nigeria has recorded 49 cases so far this year ? one more than all of 2010.

India recorded 44 cases in 2010, but this year has reported a single case, in January.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2011-10-29-AS-Australia-Commonwealth-Polio/id-8bb096c289e14de1ab98396e7db40606

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Kristen Stewart: 'Breaking Dawn' Sex Scenes Got R Rating

Move over wedding, birthing and vampire transformation scenes: There is nothing Twilight fans are looking forward to more than seeing Bella and Edward finally get it on in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 1. Judging by the trailer, the scene will be extremely steamy (yes, that is bed-breaking you see). But according to leading lady Kristen Stewart, she and Robert Pattinson might have made things too hot and heavy the first time around.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/kristen-stewart-breaking-dawn-sex-scenes-got-r-rating/1-a-397065?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Akristen-stewart-breaking-dawn-sex-scenes-got-r-rating-397065

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Poll: Many boomers staying put amid bad economy

Graphic shows results of a poll about retirement homes

Graphic shows results of a poll about retirement homes

WASHINGTON (AP) ? As baby boomers look ahead to retirement, they'd prefer a home that is affordable, accessible to medical care and close to family. But an Associated Press-LifeGoesStrong.com poll finds that amid a shaky economy, few think it's likely they'll move in retirement.

Shelley Wernholm, a 47-year-old single mother of two who works for a health insurance company in Cleveland, said she wanted to retire and move to a new home by 60. But her pension was eliminated five years ago, her personal investments tanked during the recession and her home of 21 years has lost more than half of its value.

"I was hoping I'd be moving to a beach somewhere, anywhere, preferably a warm one," Wernholm said. "But I'm not moving. I can't. It's hard to remain optimistic."

The 77 million-strong generation born between 1946 and 1964 is increasingly worried about retirement and their finances amid the economic crisis of the past three years.

Just 9 percent say they are strongly convinced they'll be able to live comfortably in retirement.

Overall, about 6 in 10 baby boomers say their workplace retirement plans, personal investments or real estate lost value during the economic downturn. Of this group, 53 percent say they'll have to delay retirement because their nest eggs shrank.

Financial experts say those losses, including home prices that have dropped by a third nationwide over the past four years, have left boomers anxious about moving and selling their homes.

"There's a mistrust of the real estate market that we didn't have before," said Barbara Corcoran, a New York-based real estate consultant. "There's a concern about whether people will get money out of their house. They envision the home as a problem, not an asset, and this unshakable belief in homes as a tool for retirement has been shaken to the core."

Fifty-two percent of boomers say they are unlikely to move someplace new in retirement, unchanged from March. And 4 in 10 say they are very likely to stay in their current home throughout all of their retirement.

Older baby boomers are more apt to say they're already settled in for their golden years; 48 percent say it's extremely or very likely they'll stay in the home they live in now throughout their retirement, compared with 35 percent among younger boomers. The same is true of those who've lived in their current home for 20 or more years.

Midwestern and rural baby boomers also are more inclined to stay put.

Not surprisingly, higher-earning boomers who make more than $100,000 a year are more likely to buy a new home during retirement.

Why buy a new home? About 4 in 10 of those who say it's likely they'll buy a new home in retirement would prefer a smaller one. Other important considerations include being close to medical offices or hospitals (39 percent); a different, and perhaps warmer, climate (30 percent); a more affordable home (25 percent); and being closer to family (15 percent).

Just 8 percent of those surveyed are looking for a larger home and only 10 percent are searching for a city with more services.

John Fortune, a 60-year-old small business owner in Scotch Plains, N.J., outside Newark, said he'd ideally like to move in his retirement years. But he's unsure about the future and whether he'll have any money left over after putting three kids through college.

"I don't expect to fully retire," said Fortune, who runs a business that sharpens knives, tools and other cutlery. "It just depends on what happens to the economy. I'd like to find someplace that is warmer and doesn't have the high taxes but we'll just have to see."

Mothers were far more likely than fathers to say that living near their children was an important consideration in planning retirement housing.

When those kids have left the nest, baby boomer parents are most likely to have turned their children's rooms into a new guest bedroom, entertainment room or home office. Three out of 4 say they would prefer visiting friends and family stay with them instead of getting a hotel room.

Boomers are more deeply attuned to their retirement years than other age groups, and many say they'll keep working during retirement. A total of 73 percent of those polled said they would keep working, compared with 67 percent in March, a bigger percentage than any other generation.

Sherry Wise, a 53-year-old agricultural economist in Lorton, Va., a suburb of Washington, said she is worried she will have to work well into her 60s and beyond in order to continue paying her mortgage, keep up an investment property in New Mexico and look after her two daughters.

"The one thing I know is that you can't count on anything anymore. This economy has gotten so screwed up," Wise said. "We're just going to try to earn as much money as possible."

The AP-LifeGoesStrong.com poll was conducted Oct. 5-12 by Knowledge Networks of Palo Alto, Calif. The poll involved online interviews with 1,095 people born between 1946 and 1964, as well as companion interviews with an additional 315 adults of other age groups. The margin of sampling error for baby boomers was plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

Knowledge Networks used traditional telephone and mail sampling methods to randomly recruit respondents. People selected who had no Internet access were given it for free.

___

AP Deputy Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta and News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

___

Online:

Questions and results: http://surveys.ap.org

Lifegoesstrong.com: http://home.lifegoesstrong.com/new-poll-reveals-midlifers-will-retire-close-home

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-10-26-Aging%20America-Boomer%20Housing/id-b1bff73d62704296a26582dae203ecf4

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Violence in the lunchroom (hamptonroads)

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Publishers to Casey Anthony: Hit the Bricks, Tot Mom!

Amid reports that NBC is trying to secure a book deal for Casey Anthony in exchange for an interview... not a lot of publishers are showing interest in such a deal.

The biggest names in publishing want nothing to do with "Tot Mom" (copyright Nancy Grace), with one even calling this hypothetical book deal "blood money."

Check out the statements of three prominent publishing houses:

“We are 100% not interested. We are NOT NOT NOT interested. Simon & Schuster is not publishing, and has never intended to publish, any book by Casey Anthony, her family, attorneys or any member of her team." - Simon & Schuster

“We are still planning on publishing the prosecutor’s book who was involved in the Casey Anthony case, so we have no plans in releasing a Casey Anthony book. We’re sticking with the prosecutor.” - Harper Collins

"We have no plans on doing a book deal with Casey Anthony." - Penguin

Another publisher that asked not to be named had this to say when asked if they would be interested in such a project: "Hell no ... it's blood money."

Tough break, Case. You could always start a blog.

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/10/publishers-to-casey-anthony-hit-the-bricks-tot-mom/

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Turkey Earthquake Kills Hundreds, Rescue Efforts Underway (PHOTOS)

ERCIS, Turkey ? A survivor of the 7.2-magnitude quake that has killed at least 217 people in eastern Turkey was pulled from the rubble Monday after he managed to call for help on his cell phone. Dozens of people were trapped in hills of debris, but authorities offered hope that the death toll may not rise as high as initially feared.

Rescuers searched throughout the night among pancaked buildings as families members waited outside, some in tears. Cranes and other heavy equipment lifted slabs of concrete and residents searched for the missing with shovels. Aid groups scrambled to set up tents, field hospitals and kitchens to assist thousands left homeless or who were afraid to re-enter their homes.

Survivor Yalcin Akay was dug from a collapsed 6-story building with a leg injury after he called a police hotline on his phone and described his location, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

Officials said hundreds of mud-brick homes in villages and concrete buildings in two cities tumbled down in the earthquake that struck near the border with Iran, on Sunday. Worst-hit was the city of Ercis, an eastern city of 75,000 close to the Iranian border and one of Turkey's most earthquake-prone zones, where about 80 multistory buildings collapsed.

The bustling, larger city of Van, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) south of Ecris, also sustained substantial damage, but Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said search efforts there were winding down.

Sahin said he expected the death toll in Ercis to rise, but not as substantially as initially feared.

"As the rescue work progresses, there is a possibility of the Ercis death toll increasing but the figures are not likely to be scary numbers," he said.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who inspected the area late Sunday, said "close to all" mud-brick homes in surrounding villages had collapsed.

Sahin said 117 were killed in Ercis, and another 100 died in Van while some 740 people were injured in the temblor that also rattled parts of Iran and Armenia.

Some inmates escaped a prison in Van after one of its walls collapsed. TRT television said around 150 inmates had fled, but a prison official said the number was much smaller and many later returned.

U.S. scientists recorded more than 100 aftershocks in eastern Turkey within 10 hours of the quake, including one with a magnitude of 6.0.

Authorities advised people to stay away from damaged homes, warning they could collapse in the aftershocks.

Many residents spent the night outdoors and lit campfires, while the Red Crescent began setting up tents in a stadium. Others sought shelter with relatives in nearby villages.

Around 1,275 rescue teams from 38 provinces were dispatched to the region, officials said, and troops were also assisting search-and-rescue efforts.

Several countries offered Turkey humanitarian aid and assistance with search and rescue efforts but Erdogan said Turkey was able to cope for the time being. Azerbaijan, Iran and Bulgaria nevertheless sent assistance, he said.

Among those offering help were Israel and Greece. The offer from Israel came despite a rift in relations following a 2010 Israeli navy raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that left nine Turks dead. Greece, which has a deep dispute with Turkey over the divided island of Cyprus, also offered to send in a special earthquake rescue team.

Leaders around the world conveyed their condolences and offered assistance.

"We stand shoulder to shoulder with our Turkish ally in this difficult time, and are ready to assist," U.S. President Barack Obama said.

Israeli President Shimon Peres telephoned Turkish President Abdullah Gul to offer assistance.

"Israel shares in your sorrow," Peres said in a statement. "Israel is ready to render any assistance that may be required anywhere in Turkey, at any time."

Turkey lies in one of the world's most active seismic zones and is crossed by numerous fault lines. In 1999, two earthquakes with a magnitude of more than 7 struck northwestern Turkey, killing about 18,000 people.

More recently, a 6.0-magnitude quake in March 2010 killed 51 people in eastern Turkey, while in 2003, a 6.4-magnitude earthquake killed 177 people in the southeastern city of Bingol.

Istanbul, the country's largest city with more than 12 million people, lies in northwestern Turkey near a major fault line. Experts have warned that overcrowding and shoddy construction in Istanbul could kill tens of thousands if a major earthquake struck there.

_____

Fraser reported from Ankara.

Residents take to the streets after a earthquake in Van eastern Turkey in this image taken from Sunday Oct. 23, 2011. Only one death was immediately confirmed, but scientists estimated that up to 1,000 people could have been killed. The worst damage was caused to the town of Ercis, in the mountainous eastern province of Van, close to the Iranian border. (AP)

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Residents take to the streets after a earthquake in Van eastern Turkey in this image taken from Sunday Oct. 23, 2011. Only one death was immediately confirmed, but scientists estimated that up to 1,000 people could have been killed. The worst damage was caused to the town of Ercis, in the mountainous eastern province of Van, close to the Iranian border. (AP)

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/24/turkey-earthquake-kills-h_n_1027784.html

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Lawmakers open to changes in military benefits (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The government's promise of lifetime health care for the military's men and women is suddenly a little less sacrosanct as Congress looks to slash trillion-dollar-plus deficits.

Republicans and Democrats alike are signaling a willingness ? unheard of at the height of two post-Sept. 11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ? to make military retirees pay more for coverage. It's a reflection of Washington's newfound embrace of fiscal austerity and the Pentagon's push to cut health care costs that have skyrocketed from $19 billion in 2001 to $53 billion.

The numbers are daunting for a military focused on building and arming an all-volunteer force for war. The Pentagon is providing health care coverage for 3.3 million active duty personnel and their dependents and 5.5 million retirees, eligible dependents and surviving spouses. Retirees outnumber the active duty, 2.3 million to 1.4 million.

Combined with the billions in retirement pay, it's no surprise that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta recently said personnel costs have put the Pentagon "on an unsustainable course."

Yet the resistance to health care changes is fierce.

Powerful veterans groups and retired generals are mobilizing to fight any changes, arguing that Americans who were willing to die for their country should be treated differently than the average worker. The American Legion has sent a letter to every member of the House and Senate pleading with them to spare health care benefits. The Veterans of Foreign Wars has urged its 2 million members, their families and friends to contact lawmakers and deliver the same message.

The two groups were unnerved when both parties' leaders on the Senate Armed Services Committee ? Carl Levin, D-Mich., and John McCain, R-Ariz. ? recommended that the special deficit-cutting supercommittee look at raising enrollment fees and imposing restrictions on the military's health care program, known as TRICARE. Current military members would be grandfathered in.

McCain and Levin also favored creating a commission to look at military retirement benefits and make recommendations for changes.

"Any changes to TRICARE that put the burden back on the beneficiaries is not supported by the American Legion," said Peter Gaytan, the group's executive director. He wondered about future benefits for his 19-year-old nephew who heads to Afghanistan in December.

The willingness in Congress to consider cost-cutting changes to the military's entitlement programs is shared by other senators, from members of the Armed Services panel to budget-conscious lawmakers in both the Republican and Democratic ranks such as Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Mark Warner, D-Va.

"I think we have to look at whether savings can be achieved, but we have to keep our promise to people who were recruited based on those benefits, and we also ought to look at whether there's ways to improve the benefit structure," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in an interview last week.

That prospect has Joe Davis, a spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, fearful of the next step.

"All our worries are starting to come to fruition," Davis said.

The debt accord reached this past summer between President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans set in motion some $450 billion worth of cuts in projected defense spending over 10 years. It's a reality check for the Defense Department, whose budget has nearly doubled to some $700 billion in the 10 years since the Sept. 11 terror attack.

That amount doesn't include the trillion-plus spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The 12-member, bipartisan supercommittee has a mandate to come up with at least $1.2 trillion in cuts by Nov. 23. If it fails to produce a plan or Congress rejects its proposal, automatic, across-the-board cuts of $1.2 trillion kick in, half of it from defense spending.

Panetta said $600 billion more in cuts over the next decade atop the $450 billion in cuts passed this summer would represent a "doomsday" for the nation's military. Republicans and Democrats have echoed his apocalyptic warning. In their separate letters to the supercommittee, Levin and McCain said they reject any deeper cuts in overall defense spending beyond the 10-year, $450 billion cuts.

Determined to avoid spending reductions that would hit troop numbers, aircraft, ships and weapons, Levin, McCain and other lawmakers are urging budget-cutters to scrutinize the military entitlement programs.

"I think they may be facing reality and want to soften the blow some," said former Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., who served as House Armed Services chairman. "They're both very responsible when it comes to the troops."

Levin and McCain support establishing an annual enrollment fee for TRICARE for Life, the health care program that now has no fee for participation. Obama had proposed an initial annual fee of $200.

Levin said future increases in fees should be tied to the same index used to determine hikes in the TRICARE Prime program, which has the lowest out-of-pocked expenses.

McCain also urged the supercommittee to consider restricting working-age military retirees and their dependents from enrolling in TRICARE Prime. The retirees could still enroll in other TRICARE programs. McCain pointed out that the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that such a move would save $111 billion over 10 years.

Active-duty personnel still would be enrolled in the program automatically.

In the House, lawmakers are less inclined to make any changes in health care benefits. Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, agreed to a slight increase in TRICARE Prime fees for working-age military retirees. The fees had been unchanged for 11 years at $230 a year for an individual and $460 for a family.

Asked about the recommendations from Levin and McCain to the supercommittee, McKeon's office said the House has already made changes and suggested additional savings come from civilian rather military health care and retirement programs. The House vote to raise the annual TRICARE Prime fees by $2.50 for individuals and $5 for families.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111022/ap_on_go_co/us_deficit_military_benefits

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Syrian protesters take inspiration from Libya (AP)

BEIRUT ? Inspired by the scenes of euphoria in Libya, Syrian protesters poured into the streets Friday and shouted that President Bashar Assad's regime will be the next to unravel now that ousted Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi is dead.

Syrian forces fired on protesters Friday, killing at least eight, activists said.

The Syrian uprising has proved remarkably resilient over the past seven months, but it has shown some signs of stalling in recent weeks as the government continues a bloody crackdown that the U.N. estimates has killed more than 3,000 people.

In the Syrian town of Qusair near the Lebanese border, Syrian forces closed all mosques to prevent people from gathering. The weekly protests usually begin as Syrians pour out of mosques following Friday afternoon prayers.

Although the mass demonstrations in Syria have shaken one of the most authoritarian regimes in the Middle East, the opposition has made no major gains in recent months, it holds no territory and has no clear leadership.

Now the armed uprising in Libya that drove Gadhafi from power ? albeit with NATO air support ? appears to have breathed new life into the Syrian revolt.

"Gadhafi is gone, your turn is coming, Bashar," protesters shouted on Friday in the central city of Hama, long a hotbed of resistance to the regime.

Gadhafi's death Thursday, after he was dragged from hiding in a drainage pipe, begging for his life, decisively ends the nearly 42-year regime that had turned the oil-rich country into an international pariah and his own personal fiefdom.

"Our souls, our blood we sacrifice for you, Libya!" Syrian protesters chanted Friday.

In many ways, the Syrian uprising has taken cues from the Libyans recently.

Syria's opposition formed a national council like the Libyans' National Transitional Council, hoping they could form a united front against Assad that Syrians and the international community could rally behind.

And with the successes of armed Libyan revolutionaries present in their minds, many Syrian protesters say they are starting to see the limits of a peaceful movement, particularly when compared to the armed uprising in Libya.

Some Syrians are now calling on protesters to take up arms and inviting foreign military action, hoisting signs that say "Where is NATO?" and urging the world to come to Syria's aid.

For the most part, Syrian opposition leaders have opposed foreign intervention.

There is no central call to arms by the opposition, in part because there is no clear leadership in the movement.

The Syrian opposition is disparate and fragmented, with various parties vying for power as they seek an end to more than 40 years of iron rule by Assad and his late father, Hafez.

There have been some clashes in border regions between Syrian forces and apparent defectors from the military, but they have not been widespread.

Still, the growing signs of armed resistance may accelerate the cycle of violence gripping the country by giving the government a pretext to use even greater firepower against its opponents. Authorities have already used tanks, snipers and gangster-like gunmen known as "shabiha" who operate as hired guns for the regime.

The regime has sealed off the country and prevented independent media coverage, making it difficult to verify events on the ground.

Syria-based activist Mustafa Osso said six people were killed in the central city of Homs on Friday, and there were reports of casualties in other areas as well. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, another activist group, put the death toll at eight nationwide.

"Gadhafi's death will boost the morale of Syrians," Osso told the AP in a telephone interview. "It will make them continue until they bring down the regime."

___

AP writer Bassem Mroue contributed to this report from Beirut.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111021/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_syria

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How Complicated Was the Byzantine Empire?

Only compared to those of medieval Europe. Ceremony and ritual were important features of the imperial court at Constantinople. Guests at royal banquets were assigned titles that denoted where they could sit in relation to the emperor, whom they could talk to, and what they were allowed to discuss. Eventually, the rituals became so complex that treatises were written to help outsiders understand proper etiquette, and the emperor employed officials to teach newbies how to behave. During this period, Western Europeans had lost a taste for the pomp and circumstance of empire. Their leaders were little more than feudal lords who more closely resembled generals than true emperors, although they sometimes carried that title. Ambassadors to Constantinople complained loudly about the formality of the court: For example, in the late 10^th century, Liutprand of Cremona, who traveled twice to Byzantium as an ambassador of German emperor Otto, wrote a book in which he bemoaned the overly choreographed Byzantine court ceremonies. Still, Byzantium was far less complicated than any modern government.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=4877a306263b8ecddf8721847029bc23

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No prior reports that locked-up CO teen was abused (AP)

DENVER ? Police had previously visited the home of a 14-year-old boy who allegedly was kept locked in a filthy room in a mice-infested trailer for most of three years, but authorities said Friday that they saw no prior signs of abuse.

The boy, described by his mother as "developmentally delayed," was found hiding under a neighbor's porch Sept. 27 in the northern Colorado town of Erie after his mother and her boyfriend left on a trip to New York.

According to an arrest affidavit, the boy told police that his mother, Amanda Joliff, her boyfriend, Richard Smith, and the boy's sister had kept him locked in the room under Joliff's orders since early 2008. He said he was allowed out to take care of the family's ducks, to clean and to eat, but said he usually only ate about four times a week.

The allegations were first reported by the Greeley Tribune.

Joliff, 36, and Smith, 31, have been jailed on charges of false imprisonment, child abuse and neglect. A public defender assigned to represent Joliff declined to comment because he hadn't reviewed the case yet. It wasn't clear yet who was representing Smith.

Police allege that after Joliff returned from New York, she told officers that a lock found on the plywood door to the boy's room was installed because he had once run away. Police say she admitted to locking him up when she got upset with him or when he was in trouble.

Police had previously been called to the home in February 2007 after the family's dog bit a boy.

Lt. Lee Mathis said an officer responded and shot the dog after it cornered the officer in an alley. The boy who was bit was under 10 at the time, but Mathis said he couldn't discuss whether it was the same boy who was allegedly locked in his room because of the pending abuse case.

Mathis also said a boy who lived at the home showed up at a bar to listen to country western music in August 2010 and officers took him home. A year later, police were called to the home because neighbors had complained about unlicensed dogs.

Mathis said police never entered the home during those interactions and didn't notice anything suspicious.

"If we had any indication of what was going on, we would have taken action," he said.

A police officer who did enter the home after the boy showed up at the neighbor's said the boy's room was filled with junk and had a soiled mattress with no sheets. The only window was boarded up and there appeared to be a leak in the ceiling.

The officer also noticed droppings from mice that had eaten through boxes of pasta, which the boy said was his main source of sustenance. The officer said there were two dogs, six birds including two ducks, and four toads living inside. The home reeked of animal urine and feces, and another dog lived outside.

While Joliff and Smith were in New York, the neighbor who discovered the boy told police that the boy and his sister remained at their home with the boy's father ? whom authorities noted wasn't the boy's biological father.

The boy told police that his father and sister decided to move out of the trailer Sept. 27 but told him he would have to wait another day to leave.

The boy said they gave him $5 to find a place to stay and he crawled underneath a neighbor's porch to sleep, too afraid to ask for help.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111021/ap_on_re_us/us_boy_locked_in_room

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Magnetic attraction: Microchip demonstrates concept of 'MRAM for biomolecules'

ScienceDaily (Oct. 19, 2011) ? Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and University of Colorado Boulder (CU) have developed a low-power microchip that uses a combination of microfluidics and magnetic switches to trap and transport magnetic beads. The novel transport chip may have applications in biotechnology and medical diagnostics.

A key innovation in the new chip is the use of magnetic switches like those in a computer random access memory. As described in a new paper, the NIST/CU team used the chip to trap, release and transport magnetic beads that potentially could be used as transport vehicles for biomolecules such as DNA.

Conventional microfluidics systems use pumps and valves to move particles and liquids through channels. Magnetic particle transport microchips offer a new approach to microfluidics but generally require continuous power and in some cases cooling to avoid sample damage from excessive heating. The NIST/CU technology eliminates these drawbacks while offering the possibility for random access two-dimensional control and a memory that lasts even with the power off.

The demo chip features two adjacent lines of 12 thin-film magnet switches called spin valves, commonly used as magnetic sensors in read heads of high-density computer disk drives. In this case, however, the spin valves have been optimized for magnetic trapping. Pulses of electric current are used to switch individual spin valve magnets "on" to trap a bead, or "off" to release it, and thereby move the bead down a ladder formed by the two lines (see video clip at: http://www.nist.gov/pml/electromagnetics/magnetics/magnetic-101311.cfm). The beads start out suspended in salt water above the valves before being trapped in the array.

"It's a whole new way of thinking about microfluidics," says NIST physicist John Moreland. "The cool thing is it's a switchable permanent magnet -- after it's turned on it requires no power. You beat heat by switching things quickly, so you only need power for less than a microsecond."

NIST researchers previously demonstrated that spin valves could be used to trap and rotate particles and recently were awarded two patents related to the idea of a magnetic chip.

Magnetic tags are used in bioassays such as protein and DNA purification and cell breakdown and separation. The chip demonstration provides a conceptual foundation for a more complex magnetic random access memory (MRAM) for molecular and cellular manipulation. For example, programmable microfluidic MRAM chips might simultaneously control a large number of beads, and the attached molecules or cells, to assemble "smart" tags with specified properties, such as an affinity for a given protein at a specific position in the array. NIST is also interested in developing cellular and molecular tags for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies in which individual cells, such as cancer cells or stem cells, would be tagged with a smart magnetic biomarker that can be tracked remotely in an MRI scanner, Moreland says. Automated spin valve chips might also be used in portable instruments for rapid medical diagnosis or DNA sequencing.

The lead author of the new paper, Wendy Altman, did the research at NIST as a CU graduate student working on her doctoral thesis. Another author, Bruce Han, was a CU student in NIST's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program.

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Journal Reference:

1. Wendy R. Altman, John Moreland, Stephen E. Russek, Bruce W. Han, Victor M. Bright. Controlled transport of superparamagnetic beads with spin-valves. Applied Physics Letters, 2011; 99 (14): 143703 DOI: 10.1063/1.3645615

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/OFJxfxoGQzU/111019212836.htm

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Immigration debate intensifies in GOP race (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Neither Rick Perry nor Mitt Romney can claim conservative purity on illegal immigration ? and now both must deal with it.

Illegal immigration has emerged as a defining issue with remarkable staying power in a GOP presidential race that was expected to be primarily focused on the nation's struggling economy.

The heated clashes over illegal immigration between the two Republican presidential rivals in this week's debate, coupled with renewed calls for a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border by their opponents, made clear the issue isn't going away. It's a major fault line between Perry and Romney as they court a Republican primary electorate that generally takes a hardline view against people who are in the country illegally.

At every turn, Perry, the Texas governor, has been forced to defend his signing of a law that allowed some illegal immigrants to get in-state college tuition. And now Romney is having to answer for the fact that some groundskeepers who had worked on his lawn were in the country illegally.

"Mitt, you lose all of your standing from my perspective because you hired illegals in your home, and you knew about it for a year," Perry told the former Massachusetts governor at Tuesday's debate in Las Vegas. "And the idea that you stand here before us and talk about that you're strong on immigration is, on its face, the height of hypocrisy."

Romney countered, "Rick, I don't think that I've ever hired an illegal in my life" and challenged his rival to show him the facts.

It was a preview of what Republicans can expect to hear in the coming weeks as the Jan. 3 leadoff Iowa caucuses inch closer, with Romney and Perry emerging as the two candidates with the best chances of winning the nomination. They're arguably the only Republicans with the money and organization necessary to go the distance.

Even so and in hopes of gaining traction, their rivals are playing to the part of the GOP electorate that values a secure border with Mexico above all else when it comes to immigration policy.

In recent days, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota has pledged to build two fences back to back along the 2,000-mile border. And businessman Herman Cain called for an electrified fence that could kill people trying to cross illegally.

For months now, immigration concerns have followed presidential contenders to town hall meetings from Nevada to Iowa to New Hampshire. And in some ways, immigration has shaped the increasingly bitter Republican nomination fight more than any other issue, particularly in a crowded field where the conservative candidates have more in common than not. And while conservative voters may be driving immigration chatter on the campaign trail, the candidates are stoking voter passions when given the opportunity.

"I'm not surprised that immigration is playing as big a role as it is," said Kevin Smith, a likely New Hampshire Republican gubernatorial candidate who has watched the candidates face repeated questions about the topic on the campaign trail. "This issue plays very well with Republican primary voters."

And it's clear they're listening.

Perry's sudden drop in the polls was largely attributed to weak debate performances involving his support for the Texas law. He suggested that Republicans who oppose the policy were heartless. And Romney fueled the tuition criticism every chance he got.

But Perry tried to neutralize the attacks this week. The outspoken Texan raised new questions at the debate about Romney's use of a landscaping company that employed illegal immigrants at his suburban Boston home several years ago.

For a moment, it looked as though Perry and Romney may come to blows as they debated the issue, with Romney at one point putting his hand on Perry's shoulder as the conversation began to heat up.

"The American people want the truth," Perry demanded. "They want to hear you say that you knew you had illegals working at your ..."

Romney cut in: "Would you please wait? Are you just going to keep talking, or are you going to let me finish with my ? what I have to say?"

For Romney, it was a frustrating return to an issue that played out in his 2008 presidential campaign.

At that time, and again Tuesday night, he said he had little control over whether a landscaping company he legally hired had illegal immigrants on the payroll. But the exchange provided one of the few moments in this presidential campaign in which the usually poised Romney showed flashes of anger.

That anger was apparent in campaign rhetoric from both sides the day after the debate.

"Gov. Perry is desperate to deflect from his liberal immigration record," Romney spokesman Ryan Williams said, calling Perry's launching of "a personal and untruthful attack" on Romney "unpresidential."

But don't expect Perry to back down from an issue that may have fueled his strongest debate performance.

Perry spokesman Ray Sullivan said, "Mr. Romney has been demagoguing and distorting these immigration and border control issues for months now." Sullivan argued that Romney was "exposed as someone who had illegal immigrants working in his lawn and cleaning his tennis court."

Sullivan would not say whether Perry might exploit the issue in television advertising, but he hinted that Romney has only seen the beginning of the new criticism.

There is danger is pushing too hard on immigration.

Polling suggests the issue may help the candidates score political points with Republican primary voters but could alienate the ballooning Hispanic population or hurt the candidates among independents in a general election matchup against President Barack Obama.

Obama campaign manager Jim Messina seized on the issue Wednesday.

"Romney's been taking hard-right positions on the campaign trail on immigration. He didn't object to having undocumented workers working for him because it's illegal; he objected because he thought it would hurt his political career," Messina said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111020/ap_on_el_pr/us_republicans_immigration

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OmniTouch projection interface makes the world your touchscreen (video)

Sometimes you just want to make notes on your forearm. Put that permanent marker down though, because PhD student Chris Harrison et al at Microsoft Research have created a new system that allows touchscreen interaction on hairy and uneven surfaces. It uses a short-range depth camera instead of the infrared sensor we've seen on similar devices, which allows it to gauge the viewing angle and other characteristics of surfaces being used -- and it can even handle pinch-to-zoom. There's a video after the break, if you fancy a bit of wall-based digital finger painting.

Continue reading OmniTouch projection interface makes the world your touchscreen (video)

OmniTouch projection interface makes the world your touchscreen (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 08:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/XN_3wRFrJNk/

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Assessing presidential prospects

A Christian Science perspective: As presidential candidates' campaigning increases, what's a citizen's role in contributing to good government?

Headlines about US presidential candidates and the presence of political pollsters are increasing as the season of primary elections approaches. What do citizens want from the candidates, whoever they turn out to be?

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When speaking of government, the founder of the Monitor, Mary Baker Eddy, was clear when she wrote, ?The government of a nation is its peace maker or breaker? (?The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany,? p. 282). She also said, ?The characters and lives of men determine the peace, prosperity, and life of nations? (p. 277).

What are we expecting of the characters and lives of our elected leaders? Good leadership. And when deciding whom to vote for, what should we expect of ourselves? Well, not groupthink.

Good leaders are proactive. They lead. They want to make things better, so they aren?t afraid to challenge the status quo. They are honest and eager to make a difference. They set high standards and stick to them, passionately live by them, and encourage others to participate. Thinking about these leadership qualities brings to mind the greatest leader of all, Christ Jesus. Jesus? leadership was remarkable. Even today people are striving to put into practice the spiritual truths he taught 2,000 years ago.

Jesus showed his own good leadership when he taught his disciples to think for themselves. One day, in a conversation with Jesus, Peter asked Jesus what John should do about a certain matter. In one of his most deliberate directions, Jesus answered: ?What is that to thee? follow thou me? (John 21:22). To me, Jesus was saying, ?Think for yourself.?

Groupthink is characterized by a leaning toward conformity to prevailing points of view. Independent thinking takes courage and faith. Self-government is spiritual. Mrs. Eddy wrote, ?Reflecting God?s government, man is self-governed? (?Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,? p. 125).

What does it mean to reflect God?s government? In this mental atmosphere of truth and freedom, thinking is independent and lines up with that which is of God, good. It will lean toward conformity, but it will be in conformity with God?s point of view: ?God think,? not groupthink. It will be about what is right, not who is right. It will be about principle, not person.

Taking this approach can do much to support that which is good in government. It can foster trust and soften partisanship. This kind of support can be a living prayer, a prayer beyond words that we can pray for our country.

I?m reminded of a special prayer in the ?Manual of the Mother Church,? the "Daily Prayer." The first part of this devotion is, ? ?Thy kingdom come;? let the reign of divine Truth, Life, and Love be established in me,...? Praying for ourselves is a good start, but this prayer is all-inclusive, complete. It concludes, ?and may Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind, and govern them!? (p. 41).

Imagine how much more successful any president would be when supported by a people who have enriched affection for God, for the presidency, for the president, and for all humanity.

To receive Christian Science perspectives daily or weekly in your inbox, sign up today.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/xvrnjJrVH7w/Assessing-presidential-prospects

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Keynes, Keynesian economics and a dead horse (hamptonroads)

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Business school adds exchange in China ? - The GW Hatchet

The School of Business launched its first program in China Saturday, partnering with one of the country?s top universities to offer Chinese students a master?s of science in finance.

The program, the first step of dean Doug Guthrie?s pursuit to expand the business school into China, will adopt a ?one-plus-one? model, offering the first year of courses at Renmin University in Suzhou, China and the second year of courses in Foggy Bottom.

?This partnership allows GWSB to gain a new and innovative position as an educational institution in China,? Guthrie said in an e-mail while in China.

Twenty-two students have enrolled in the program, which will adopt a nearly identical curriculum to GW?s traditional graduate finance program. Guthrie said he expects to double the number of students in the program next year and eventually start a master?s program in accountancy.

The graduate courses taught by GW faculty emphasize financial theory and quantitative methods in financial management. Students are expected to complete an internship in China at the end of the first year.

Guthrie, who is a top China scholar fluent in Mandarin, announced plans for the business school?s China expansion when he assumed the deanship last year. He traveled last week for the program?s ribbon-cutting ceremony to Suzhou, which is home to Beijing-based Renmin University?s satellite campus.

The dean said he expects the business school will continue to establish stronger ties in the country. The ?second track? of his plan calls for GW to secure an ?independent degree-granting status? for the program.

?That?s more complicated because it has to be approved by the ministry of education, and there?s a whole set of processes. We?ve been in several months of contract negotiations with them. That?s still in the works,? Guthrie said last month.

The move comes as many Western business schools try to gain traction in China ? a critical market to reach future business leaders. The country already has many business schools of its own, but several top American colleges like Washington University in St. Louis and Duke University have recently set up their own campuses or partnerships in the country.

Guthrie said the business school has set its sights on developing programs in Brazil and sub-Saharan Africa as well.

?GWSB has a very strong international business department. We are building on this strength by developing deep relationships in a couple of countries, China first among them,? Guthrie said.

Source: http://www.gwhatchet.com/2011/10/17/business-school-adds-exchange-in-china/

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US court: No immigration checks at Ala. schools (AP)

ATLANTA ? A federal appeals court on Friday blocked a key part of Alabama's law that requires schools to check the immigration status of students, temporarily weakening what was considered the toughest immigration law in the nation.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also blocked a part of the law that allows authorities to charge immigrants who do not carry documents proving their legal status. The three-judge panel let stand a provision that allows police to detain immigrants that are suspected of being in the country illegally.

A final decision on the law won't be made for months to allow time for more arguments.

Linton Joaquin of the National Immigration Law Center called the decision a "partial victory."

"I think that certainly it's a better situation today for the people of Alabama today than it was yesterday," said Omar Jadwat, an attorney for the ACLU, which challenged the law along with the Obama administration. "Obviously we remain concerned about the remainder of the provisions, and we remain confident that we will eventually get the whole scheme blocked."

Since a federal judge upheld much of the law in late September, many frightened Hispanics have been driven away from Alabama, fearing they could be arrested or targeted by police. Construction workers, landscapers and field hands have stopped showing up for work, and large numbers of Hispanic students have been absent from public schools.

To cope with the labor shortage, Alabama agriculture commissioner John McMillan at one point suggested farmers should consider hiring inmates in the state's work-release program.

It's not clear exactly how many Hispanics have fled the state. Earlier this week, many skipped work to protest the law, shuttering or scaling back operations at chicken plants, Mexican restaurants and other businesses.

Immigration has become a hot-button issue in Alabama over the past decade as the Hispanic population has grown by 145 percent to about 185,600 people, most of them of Mexican origin. The Hispanic population represents about 4 percent of the state's 4.7 million people, but some counties in north Alabama have large Spanish-speaking communities and schools where most of the students are Hispanic.

Requiring school officials to check the immigration status of students in public schools helped make the Alabama law stricter than similar measures enacted in Arizona, Utah, Indiana and Georgia. Federal judges in those states have blocked all or parts of those laws.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer earlier this year asked the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve the legal fight over her state's tough immigration law.

The Justice Department called the Alabama law a "sweeping new state regime" and urged the appeals court to forbid states from creating a patchwork of immigration policies. The agency also said the law could strain diplomatic relations with Latin American countries, who have warned the law could impact millions of workers, tourists and students in the U.S.

The law, it said, turns illegal immigrants into a "unique class who cannot lawfully obtain housing, enforce a contract, or send their children to school without fear that enrollment will be used as a tool to seek to detain and remove them and their family members."

"Other states and their citizens are poorly served by the Alabama policy, which seeks to drive aliens from Alabama rather than achieve cooperation with the federal government to resolve a national problem," the attorneys have said in court documents.

Thomas Perez, head of the Justice Department's civil rights division, said Friday before the ruling that a team of attorneys is in Alabama trying to determine whether the law was leading to civil rights violations. The school requirement was an area of particular worry, and the federal government is trying to determine how many absentees and withdrawals might be linked to the law, Perez said.

"We're hearing a number of reports about increases in bullying that we're studying," he said after a meeting with leaders and advocates for the Hispanic community.

Alabama Republicans have long sought to clamp down on illegal immigration and passed the law earlier this year after gaining control of the Legislature for the first time since Reconstruction. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley signed the measure, saying it was crucial to protect the jobs of legal residents amid the tough economy and high unemployment.

Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard said the state was forced to act because the federal government ignored its responsibility to enforce immigration law.

"In Alabama we believe in obedience to law because it promotes fairness and protects the rights of everybody," said Hubbard, a Republican. "That's why instead of just talking about it, we took action to ensure nobody is allowed to cheat the system and ignore our laws."

___

Follow Bluestein at http://www.twitter.com/bluestein. Associated Press reporters Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Ala. and Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111014/ap_on_re_us/us_alabama_immigration_law

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