Monthly Archives: July 2012

HBO's 'Newsroom': Am I watching 'Grey's Anatomy'?

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Am I watching "Grey's Anatomy"? Because for a good 40 minutes of Sunday's episode of "The Newsroom," I was watching people make puppy-dog eyes at people they are in love with but can't be with.

Associate producer Maggy Jordan pretended she wasn't attracted to senior producer Jim Harper, while Jim hooked up with her roommate. Executive producer MacKenzie McHale pretended she wasn't still in love with anchor Will McAvoy while he hit on multiple women. In the last climactic moments of the "I'll Try to Fix You" episode, an emo rock pop love song played while people exchanged long glances fraught with emotional subtext. Here is that technique, applied to a "30 Rock" episode in the video below.

Several women threw drinks in Will's face. The drinks were not a "Grey's" plot device that was borrowed from the musical drama "Smash." And no one, not even last night's "Newsroom" guest star Hope Davis, can sling the contents of a martini glass like Anjelica Huston's character on "Smash." Here is a video of Huston doing just that.

Producer Aaron Sorkin used this episode to criticize celebrity tabloid journalism. Davis played a writer for TMI magazine, and she was about to write a "takedown" piece on a Housewives reality show character, which McAvoy ripped into her for. The magazine then published a "takedown" piece on McAvoy himself.

And finally, there was a totally solid moment when the McAvoy was about to go on the air to report that U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., had been shot, and the network's president was goading him into reporting Giffords was dead. He held off.

We don't know have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight when news is breaking in real time. I now work for the editorial department but I was a Web producer in the newsroom hub for nine months. When a shooting story breaks in The Seattle Times newsroom, often times other news outlets will start correctly or incorrectly reporting a person has died, and there is intense pressure to confirm and report. It happened during the Cafe Racer shootings when the newsroom knew police had shot the suspect in West Seattle but didn't know whether he was dead. It happened when law enforcement officials found the North Bend bunker where the man suspected of killing his wife and her daughter was hiding.

The tension in our newsroom is never about when to push print on a story for the paper or for the website. It is always about one thing: Twitter. So and so has "tweeted he's dead." "Is he dead?" "Do we know he's dead?" "Are we reporting he's dead?" No one ever thinks to put on Nickelback.

Considering the competition on national news, it's not surprising that CNN and Fox News both made errors reporting on the Supreme Court health-care ruling. CNN and Fox initially reported the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act had been struck down, then had to issue corrections, which came 90 minutes later. Here is the recap from the Poynter Institute.

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HBO's 'Newsroom': Am I watching 'Grey's Anatomy'?

Gaius Charles Joins 'Grey's Anatomy' And More Casting News

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From Dillon to Seattle Grace, "Friday Night Lights" alum Gaius Charles will appear in Season 9 of "Grey's Anatomy" as a young doctor, but the details of his character are still under wraps, according to TVLine.

In addition to "FNL," Charles' other TV credits include "Necessary Roughness," "NCIS," "Pan Am" and "Law & Order: SVU."

When we last saw the doctors at Seattle Grace in the shocking "Grey's Anatomy" Season 8 finale, Mark (Eric Dane), Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), Derek (Patrick Dempsey), Christina (Sandra Oh) and Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) were in a terrible state after a plane crash killed Lexie (Chyler Leigh) and left the others stranded and wounded in the woods. Time will tell how Charles and the rest of the cast will fare in "Grey's Anatomy" Season 9.

In other casting news...

Mark Consuelos joins the cast of "American Horror Story." The "All My Children" vet is headed to the asylum as a patient named Spivey in Season 2 of the FX series. [EW]

"Dancing With The Stars: All Stars" casting news is coming. The cast of the buzzed-about special edition of "DWTS" will officially be announced during the ABC presentation at the Television Critics Association summer press tour on July 27. [THR]

"Castle" actress will voice Supergirl. Molly Quinn is set to play Supergirl in a still-untitled animated project based on a popular DC Comics storyline. [TV Guide]

Season 11

Season 10

Season 14

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Gaius Charles Joins 'Grey's Anatomy' And More Casting News

Grey’s Anatomy Drafts FNL’s Gaius Charles for Recurring Role

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Jul 16, 2012 07:23 PM ET by Kate Stanhope Follow katestanhope Tweet

Gaius Charles

Friday Night Lights alum Gaius Charles is joining Grey's Anatomy for the medical show's upcoming ninth season, TVGuide.com has confirmed.

Charles, 29, has signed on for a recurring role, but details about his character are not yet known. TVLine first reported his casting.

Friday Night Lights' Gaius Charles talks about returning to the field for Necessary Roughness

Best known for his performance as outspoken high school football player "Smash" on Friday Night Lights for two seasons, Charles has recently guest-starred on NCIS and Pan Am and is recurring on Necessary Roughness as a more soft-spoken NFL player.

Seattle Grace lost at least two doctors at the end of last season with the exit of Teddy (Kim Raver) and the death of Lexie (Chyler Leigh).

Grey's Anatomy returns to Thursdays this fall on ABC.

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Grey’s Anatomy Drafts FNL’s Gaius Charles for Recurring Role

Sooner Nutrition celebrates one year anniversary

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July 15, 2012 Sooner Nutrition celebrates one year anniversary

Jessica Lane, Staff Writer, jlane@chickashanews.com The Express-Star The Chickasha Express Star Sun Jul 15, 2012, 04:49 PM CDT

Sooner Nutrition celebrated their one your anniversary on June 12, showcasing their state of the arts detox room which includes an ozone whirlpool, a dry sauna and a detox foot bath.

For $50 a month, patrons can use the ozone whirlpool, dry sauna and detox foot bath. To just use the foot detox, the price is $30, according to Cindy Grissom.

Ozone is a natural purifier that has many benefits on the human body including killing bacteria and viruses.

The benefits of using a sauna include profound relaxation, alleviation of skin problems, detoxification, improved circulation, enhanced physical conditioning and weight reduction to name a few.

There are mental and physical benefits to using the detox foot bath including better mental clarity and relaxation, weight loss, easing of joint and head pain and more.

Sooner Nutrition is a full line health food store, carrying an extensive line of all-natural J.R. Watkins products. While many people are familiar with the brand's vanilla extract, J.R. Watkins also makes spices, soaps, salves, household cleaners and more. And they've been doing it since 1868.

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Sooner Nutrition celebrates one year anniversary

DNA tests fail to clear man convicted of old felonies in Norfolk

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Authorities say recent DNA testing does not clear a person convicted of old violent felonies in Norfolk, because it was performed on evidence in two other crimes for which no one was ever convicted.

Gail Jaspen, chief deputy director of the Virginia Department of Forensic Science, said Friday that the confusion resulted because the person in question was convicted of similar crimes against different victims during the same period.

"The Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney's Office was able to pair police records with indictment information to clarify this issue," Jaspen said. She said the department will not release the DNA test results that would disclose the identity of the person.

A spokeswoman for the Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney's Office, citing the decision by the Department of Forensic Science, also declined to identify the man. In an Associated Press story last week, Norfolk authorities said he was serving life for sexual-assault convictions and was a suspect in the crimes for which the testing was performed.

Olga Akselrod, an attorney with the Innocence Project, said that because the crimes for which he was and was not convicted are said to be similar and happened during the same time frame, it raises many questions and his name should be released.

"If he is innocent and all of these crimes were committed by the same person, the DNA results excluding him from some of these crimes could be a critical lead in proving his innocence in all of the crimes," she said.

Akselrod said, "It is possible that the DNA testing may be of no relevance and that the person is not claiming innocence, but unless his identity is released we can't be sure." At minimum, she said the state should notify the defendant about the exclusion and tell him how to obtain counsel.

This month, the Department of Forensic Science disclosed test results in more than 70 old cases where the DNA profiles of convicted people were not found in crime scene evidence collected from 1973 to 1988.

Commonwealth's attorneys in Norfolk and Carroll County asked the department to withhold four such reports involving four people three in Norfolk and one in Carroll because they were deemed critical to ongoing investigations.

As part of its landmark post-conviction DNA project begun in 2005, the Department of Forensic Science was to conduct DNA testing of biological evidence found in old criminal case files that resulted in convictions in an effort to identify innocent people.

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DNA tests fail to clear man convicted of old felonies in Norfolk

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Soyuz rocket blasts off for space station

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A Russian Soyuz craft has launched into the morning skies over Kazakhstan, carrying three astronauts on their way to the International Space Station (ISS), where they will quickly start preparing for a frenzy of incoming traffic.

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, Russian cosmonaut Yury Malenchenko and Japan's Akihito Hoshide are set to travel for two days before joining three colleagues already at the permanent space outpost.

Families and colleagues watched the launch on Sunday from an observation platform in the Russian-leased cosmodrome in the dry southern steppes of this sprawling Central Asian nation.

Lift-off took place at the scheduled time of 8.40am local time (12.40pm AEST), sending a deafening roar as the craft gained height.

Despite intense G-force pressure, the three astronauts looked relaxed in televised footage as they performed a series of routine operations.

The Soyuz jettisoned three rocket booster stages as it was propelled into orbit, which takes just over nine minutes.

At that stage, a doll given to Malenchenko as a mascot by his daughter and suspended over the three astronauts floated out of view on television footage, indicating the craft had escaped the Earth's gravitational pull.

The shell that surrounds the capsule during the launch phase also peeled away, soaking the astronauts in bright yellow sunshine pouring through the viewing hatches.

The solar arrays that deployed on the Soyuz after orbital entry will provide the craft with the power it needs during its two-day trip.

Williams, tightly squeezed into the cramped craft, gave a thumbs-up sign and waved to onboard cameras as Russian space agency chief Vladimir Popovkin congratulated the crew over radio control.

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Soyuz rocket blasts off for space station

NASA Announement for Partnering Opportunities for Delivery of NASA Content To The Public

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Synopsis - Jul 13, 2012

General Information

Solicitation Number: NNH12NG001O Posted Date: Jul 13, 2012 FedBizOpps Posted Date: Jul 13, 2012 Recovery and Reinvestment Act Action: No FedGrants Posted Date: Jul 13, 2012 Application Due Date Explanation: Responses to this announcement are due by 5 p.m. EST on August 3, 2012. Classification Code: A -- Research and Development NAICS Code: 518210

Grant Specific Information

Funding Instrument Type: Other CFDA Number: 43.009 Cost Sharing or Matching Required: No Estimated Total Program Funding: not available Expected Number of Awards: not available Ceiling Amount: none Floor Amount: none Funding Activity: Other (O) We will be awarding Space Act Agreements from this announcement not contracts or grants and there will be no funding provided. Eligible Applicants: 99 - Unrestricted Unrestricted Link to Full Announcement: http://www.nasa.gov/news/highlights/partnership.html

Contracting Office Address

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Headquarters Acquisition Branch, Code 210.H, Greenbelt, MD 20771

Description

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

NASA is releasing this announcement to identify potential partners who may benefit from the delivery of the Agency's web videos, both live and on-demand, and other web content to support increased public access and awareness of NASA activities.

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NASA Announement for Partnering Opportunities for Delivery of NASA Content To The Public

New dean for NTU's Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine

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Published on Jul 16, 2012

By Kezia Toh

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New dean for NTU's Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine

Harvard Medical School, MGH researcher honored for Alzheimer’s studies

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Photo by David W. Johnson, courtesy of the Alzheimers Association

Dr. Bradley T. Hyman, director of the Massachusetts Alzheimers Disease Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, received the Henry Wisniewski Lifetime Achievement Award Sunday from Kristine Yaffe, a University of California, San Francisco professor at the Alzheimers Association International Conference in Vancouver, Canada.

By Gal Tziperman Lotan, Globe Correspondent

A Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School neurologist received a lifetime achievement award at an Alzheimers Association conference in Vancouver, Canada Sunday.

Dr. Bradley T. Hyman, director of the Massachusetts Alzheimers Disease Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, received the Henry Wisniewski Lifetime Achievement Award, The Alzheimer's Association said in a statement.

Its an extremely nice recognition, especially because the award is named after one of the giants of neuropathology, Hyman said in a phone interview from Vancouver Sunday.

Hyman has studied changes in patients brains and nervous systems, as well as genetic changes that underlie dementia, the statement said.

His research helps describe brain lesions in Alzheimer's patients, the statement said.

Hyman recently worked on imaging amyloid protein fragments that are broken down in healthy brains but accumulate and form amyloid plaques in Alzheimer's patients; and tau tangles, created when tau proteins that keep the brains cell transport system in working order die and collapse the system.

At its international conference, the Alzheimers Association also gave a lifetime achievement award to Lennart Mucke of the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease and the University of California, San Francisco, Monique M.B. Breteler of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and the University of Bonn in Germany, and Ronald Petersen of the Mayo Alzheimers Disease Research Center in Rochester, Minn.

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Harvard Medical School, MGH researcher honored for Alzheimer’s studies

UC Riverside makes rare second attempt to add medical school

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UC Riverside's long-held dream to have a full medical school was badly battered last year when the state refused to pay for it and then national accreditors wouldn't allow it to open. Those denials were a blow to the UC system's proud tradition of adding campuses and programs to serve a growing state.

Now, UC Riverside is making what national experts say is a rare second attempt to gain approval for a medical school. Campus officials say they have obtained alternative financial backing, worth about $10 million a year for a decade, from private donors, local government and the UC system in hopes that the medical school can enroll its first 50 students in fall 2013.

"We have so much riding on the school being successful, we just can't accept that it can't be done," said G. Richard Olds, a tropical-disease expert who is the founding dean of the UC Riverside medical school. The goal, he said, is to ease the shortage of doctors in the Inland Empire.

The medical school would be UC's sixth and its first to open since the late 1960s. The school would be the only one in UC without its own hospital, vastly cutting down on costs. UC's medical centers and its health education programs constitute about half of the system's $22-billion annual budget.

Some skeptics say that UC is in a new era of limits and that even noble causes must be put on hold to preserve the academic quality of its 10 campuses at a time of rising tuition and cutbacks in undergraduate course offerings.

But UC Riverside medical school supporters insist that progress still must be pursued, albeit cautiously.

For three decades, UC Riverside has operated a joint medical school program with UCLA. Its entering classes of about 25 students spend their first two years in Riverside and finish in Westwood.

A full four-year program at UC Riverside would offer clinical training at community medical centers. The emphasis would be on basic fields, including family medicine, pediatrics, gynecology, general surgery and psychiatry, not on more exotic and expensive specialties.

The expectation is that young doctors educated there more likely would practice in the underserved Inland Empire, officials said. Such is the case for Regina Inchizu, who recently finished her first year of medical studies at Riverside and wants to work in the area in family medicine andwomen's healthafter she graduates from UCLA. "There is a huge need for doctors in Riverside," she said, adding that she wants to work in such a high-need area.

John Stobo, the UC system's senior vice president for health sciences and services, expressed strong support. "This is not starting from scratch. This is expanding a program that's demonstrated success," he said. "This is not taking money and taking a gamble and seeing if it is going to work."

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UC Riverside makes rare second attempt to add medical school

The Solovetsky Islands decreases the number of terns (Arkhangelsk region)

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Ornithologists have presented the first results of the field season 2012 at the Solovetsky Islands. Correspondent reports BakuToday, during the month of the Solovki branch of the White Sea biological station of the Moscow State University. Lomonosov was on the islands of the archipelago and adjacent territories ornithological monitoring. The results of the expedition everybody could see at a public lecture held by Vladimir Semashko, Alexander reviem and B.e. erenkovym in the Conference Hall of the St. Petersburg hotels Solovki Museum-reserve.

During the breeding period, most favorable for learning disorder, studies have been conducted on the Solovetsky Islands in the archipelago, as well as on Zhizhgin island. During the expedition revealed that the population of solovetsk birds remains stable, and in some species there is a positive trend: the number of birds even increases. On the General background of the not-so-favorable optimistic situation of terns: largest colony on the islands of Maly Zayatsky, Malaya Muksalma and Cape of Kolguev. Unser decreased significantly. Scientists have been slow to sound the alarm, believing that such changes may represent a natural cyclical process, although not precluded and the influence of anthropogenic factors. In connection with this proposal to resume visits to these islands until the limit of 15 July, before the bird breeding period.

Ornithological studies are conducted at the Solovetsky Islands regularly for over 20 years. Since 1996, the monitoring is carried out mainly by the Solovki branch of BBSING. They have been a description of all bird species, their number, size, description of nests, ringing, etc. Over the years research has about 570 Islands in the White Sea, 250 species of birds, including 220 solovetsky (from constantly 120 nesting in the archipelago), BakuToday Solovki Museum.

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The Solovetsky Islands decreases the number of terns (Arkhangelsk region)

In Senate race, health care still hot topic

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By STEVE LeBLANC

July 16, 2012 12:00 AM

BOSTON In Massachusetts' contentious U.S. Senate race, few issues divide the two candidates more sharply than the health care law signed by President Barack Obama and upheld by the Supreme Court.

Republican Scott Brown ran for the Senate in 2010 vowing to be the crucial 41st vote needed to block the initiative, which ultimately passed despite his opposition. He remains critical of the law.

His Democratic challenger, Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Warren, has praised the Affordable Care Act, which was modeled after a 2006 Massachusetts law signed by then-Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican. Warren said the federal law has helped expand access to health care in Massachusetts and the nation.

Last month's Supreme Court ruling has only intensified the debate.

The latest salvo came from Brown in response to reports that U.S. employers added only 80,000 jobs in June, a third straight month of weak hiring. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.2 percent.

Brown called the numbers "grim" and faulted in part what he said were the "job-killing taxes on individuals, families and small businesses" that Warren supports, including those in the health care law.

"These are bad ideas under normal circumstances, but with our economy teetering on the brink, professor Warren's economic prescription would push us over the precipice," Brown said in a statement.

Warren has been equally emphatic in her support of the law and her criticism of Brown.

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In Senate race, health care still hot topic

Perry opposes Medicaid expansion

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AUSTIN As Gov. Rick Perry stood defiantly against expanding Medicaid in Texas under the federal health care reform law Monday, he and other officials said they'd work for alternative solutions in a state where a quarter of the people are uninsured.

It's unclear what those solutions would look like, although Perry has long called for the federal government to give money to Texas in block grants without as many restrictions on how it's spent.

Some suggested expanding federal subsidies for private insurance to allow more low-income people to buy insurance on the private market with government assistance.

The feds have basically said this is the amount of money we are going to spend. So if you are going to spend it, why don't you let us spend it in a way that we think is better for Texas, as opposed to loading up our Medicaid program? said state Rep. John Zerwas, R-Richmond.

If Perry's decision holds, Texas will forgo billions of federal dollars to help cover about 1.5 million low-income Texas adults through Medicaid.

The federal government would pay the full cost of the Medicaid expansion for the first three years; after that, Texas would pay a share that would gradually increase but be capped at 10 percent.

The Health and Human Services Commission projects the expansion would cost $27 billion in state general revenue and bring in $164 billion in federal money over 10 years.

Perry also said Monday that Texas has no intention of setting up its own insurance exchange to allow people buying their own plans to compare coverage, another provision of the health care law.

If Texas doesn't set up an exchange, the federal government will do so. But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states have a choice about expanding the Medicaid program.

Perry said in a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius that he opposes both programs because both represent brazen intrusions into the sovereignty of our state.

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Perry opposes Medicaid expansion

Health care law's costs complicated

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By CARLA K. JOHNSON

CHICAGO - As the dust settles from the U.S. Supreme Court's momentous decision on health care, top state leaders have faced off with conflicting figures about the cost to Illinois of expanded Medicaid coverage. President Barack Obama's health care overhaul expands Medicaid to more Americans, but the court's ruling, in effect, makes the expansion optional for states.

The day of the court's decision, Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, a Republican, warned that the state would pay "an additional $2.4 billion" over six years. She urged lawmakers "to start saving now for those added costs."

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat, countered that the federal government would pay "the entire cost" of the expansion. "I want to send to Miss Topinka, who is a friend of mine, a copy of the bill," Durbin told one TV news station, implying that Topinka would back down once she had read the law.

Who's right? As it turns out, they've both got facts on their side. But both fail to mention critical information.

Voters are likely to hear more sound bites from politicians about the cost of expanding Medicaid for states from now until November's presidential election. Governors in at least five states have said they'll reject the Medicaid expansion now that it's optional, citing costs.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has embraced the president's health care law, including the Medicaid expansion. Quinn's office says cost estimates have been incorrect and "unduly high."

Here's the reality: Most of the cost of expanding Medicaid program will be paid by the federal government, but states will pay some additional costs primarily because of a quirk called "the woodwork effect."

State and federal governments share the cost of Medicaid. In Illinois, the split is about 50-50. Health policy people talk about the "federal Medicaid match" because the federal dollars roughly match the state dollars. The formula varies from state to state.

Under the new health law, as Durbin suggests, the federal government will pay the entire cost - 100 percent - for people newly eligible for Medicaid for the first three years, starting in 2014. The federal share falls to 90 percent by 2020.

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Health care law's costs complicated

Closer Look: Health care law's costs complicated

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As the dust settles from the U.S. Supreme Court's momentous decision on health care, top state leaders have faced off with conflicting figures about the cost to Illinois of expanded Medicaid coverage. President Barack Obama's health care overhaul expands Medicaid to more Americans, but the court's ruling, in effect, makes the expansion optional for states.

The day of the court's decision, Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, a Republican, warned that the state would pay "an additional $2.4 billion" over six years. She urged lawmakers "to start saving now for those added costs."

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat, countered that the federal government would pay "the entire cost" of the expansion. "I want to send to Miss Topinka, who is a friend of mine, a copy of the bill," Durbin told one TV news station, implying that Topinka would back down once she had read the law.

Who's right? As it turns out, they've both got facts on their side. But both fail to mention critical information.

Voters are likely to hear more sound bites from politicians about the cost of expanding Medicaid for states from now until November's presidential election. Governors in at least five states have said they'll reject the Medicaid expansion now that it's optional, citing costs.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has embraced the president's health care law, including the Medicaid expansion. Quinn's office says cost estimates have been incorrect and "unduly high."

Here's the reality: Most of the cost of expanding Medicaid program will be paid by the federal government, but states will pay some additional costs primarily because of a quirk called "the woodwork effect."

State and federal governments share the cost of Medicaid. In Illinois, the split is about 50-50. Health policy people talk about the "federal Medicaid match" because the federal dollars roughly match the state dollars. The formula varies from state to state.

Under the new health law, as Durbin suggests, the federal government will pay the entire cost 100 percent for people newly eligible for Medicaid for the first three years, starting in 2014. The federal share falls to 90 percent by 2020.

But as Topinka suggests, states will be on the hook for other costs. States continue to pay about half the cost for people who are already eligible for Medicaid but who've never enrolled before. Those people are predicted to come out of the woodwork to sign up because of new outreach campaigns and more attention to the benefits of health insurance coverage. Thus, the "woodwork effect."

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Closer Look: Health care law's costs complicated