Libertarian gets on Minnesota ballot for president

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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson has obtained a spot on the Minnesota ballot after gathering more than 3,000 signatures.

A spokesman for the Minnesota Secretary of State said Thursday that Johnson met the requirements to get on the November ballot with running mate Jim Gray.

Johnson, a former Republican, served two terms as governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003.

His platform includes cutting taxes and government spending, repealing the federal health care law, legalizing marijuana, keeping abortion legal and allowing gay marriage.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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Libertarian gets on Minnesota ballot for president

Libertarian gets on Minn. presidential ballot

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August 23, 2012

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson has obtained a spot on the Minnesota ballot after gathering more than 3,000 signatures.

A spokesman for the Minnesota Secretary of State said Thursday that Johnson met the requirements to get on the November ballot with running mate Jim Gray.

Johnson, a former Republican, served two terms as governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003.

His platform includes cutting taxes and government spending, repealing the federal health care law, legalizing marijuana, keeping abortion legal and allowing gay marriage.

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Libertarian gets on Minn. presidential ballot

Minnesota: Libertarian on presidential ballot

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Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson has obtained a spot on the Minnesota ballot after gathering more than 3,000 signatures.

A spokesman for the Minnesota Secretary of State said Thursday, Aug. 23, that Johnson met the requirements to get on the November ballot with running mate Jim Gray.

Johnson, a former Republican, served two terms as governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003.

His platform includes cutting taxes and government spending, repealing the federal health care law, legalizing marijuana, keeping abortion legal and allowing gay marriage.

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Minnesota: Libertarian on presidential ballot

Libertarian gets on Minn. ballot for president

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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson has obtained a spot on the Minnesota ballot after gathering more than 3,000 signatures.

A spokesman for the Minnesota Secretary of State said Thursday that Johnson met the requirements to get on the November ballot with running mate Jim Gray.

Johnson, a former Republican, served two terms as governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003.

His platform includes cutting taxes and government spending, repealing the federal health care law, legalizing marijuana, keeping abortion legal and allowing gay marriage.

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Libertarian gets on Minn. ballot for president

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson on MN ballot

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ST. PAUL, Minn. - Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson has obtained a spot on the Minnesota ballot after gathering more than 3,000 signatures.

A spokesman for the Minnesota Secretary of State said Thursday that Johnson met the requirements to get on the November ballot with running mate Jim Gray.

Johnson, a former Republican, served two terms as governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003.

His platform includes cutting taxes and government spending, repealing the federal health care law, legalizing marijuana, keeping abortion legal and allowing gay marriage.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. )

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Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson on MN ballot

Greece eyeing its islands for much-needed cash

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Greece is looking for islands of opportunity amid a sea of debt, as the troubled countrys leader mulls the profitability of its uninhabited land parcels.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras told Frances Le Monde that some Greek islands may have commercial use as long as this doesnt pose problems for national security, openly pondering investment opportunities.

Samaras argued that investment is crucial to reviving the Greek economy, adding that railways and a portion of the Attica coast may also be attractive to private patrons.

Local travel sites list Chrissi as one of the many uninhabited isles surrounding Crete, Greece. (GreekDestinations.com)He qualified that the assets, especially the islands, would not simply be liquidated.

"This is not, in any way, about selling them off for cheap, but about transforming unused terrain into capital that could generate revenue, at a fair price," Samaras said in the Thursday interview.

The president did not elaborate or say the government would sell the islands altogether.

The idea comes on the heels of Greeces admission that it needs more time to implement the tough financial reforms and spending cuts the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund have demanded in return for bailout help.

"Let me be very clear: we are not asking for extra money," Samaras told the German daily Bild. "All we want is a little air to breathe to get the economy going and increase state income," he said.

"More time does not automatically mean more money."

Greece's Finance Ministry said the country's total central government debt stood at 303.5 billion ($370 billion Cdn) at the end of July 2012, up from 280.2 billion at the end of the first three months of this year.

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Greece eyeing its islands for much-needed cash

New insights into why humans are more susceptible to cancer and other diseases

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Public release date: 23-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Mary Beth O'Leary moleary@cell.com 617-397-2802 Cell Press

Chimpanzees rarely get cancer, or a variety of other diseases that commonly arise in humans, but their genomic DNA sequence is nearly identical to ours. So, what's their secret? Researchers reporting in the September issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics, a Cell Press journal, have found that differences in certain DNA modifications, called methylation, might play a role.

The researchers discovered hundreds of genes that display different patterns of methylation between the two species. These different patterns of methylation lead to different levels of expression, and many of the genes involved are linked to specific human diseases. Given that environmental factors can affect DNA methylation, these results might help researchers to better understand how differences in genetics and environmental exposure contribute to differences, including different disease vulnerabilities, between the two species.

DNA methylation doesn't change a cell's underlying genetic information, but it does affect gene activity and can have a profound impact on processes such as aging and the development of disease. By using new state-of-the-art techniques to look at methylation maps and gene expression in the brains of chimpanzees and humans, the investigators found that changes in DNA methylation at least partially explain the divergence of gene-expression patterns between these species.

In addition, differentially methylated genes showed striking links with specific neurological and psychological disorders and cancers to which modern humans are particularly susceptible, suggesting that changes in DNA methylation might be linked to the evolution of humans' vulnerability to certain diseases.

"Our results hint, but by no means provide proof, that epigenetic divergenceor changes of chemical properties of DNAmay be particularly important for some disease-related phenotypes that are pertinent to modern humans," says senior author Dr. Soojin Yi, from the Georgia Institute of Technology. "Such findings, in the long-term, may contribute to the development of better therapeutic targets for some human diseases," she adds.

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Zeng et al.: "Divergent Whole-Genome Methylation Maps of Human and Chimpanzee Brains Reveal Epigenetic Basis of Human Regulatory Evolution."

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New insights into why humans are more susceptible to cancer and other diseases

More Clues About Why Chimps and Humans Are Genetically Different

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Newswise Ninety-six percent of a chimpanzees genome is the same as a humans. Its the other 4 percent, and the vast differences, that pique the interest of Georgia Techs Soojin Yi. For instance, why do humans have a high risk of cancer, even though chimps rarely develop the disease?

In research published in Septembers American Journal of Human Genetics, Yi looked at brain samples of each species. She found that differences in certain DNA modifications, called methylation, may contribute to phenotypic changes. The results also hint that DNA methylation plays an important role for some disease-related phenotypes in humans, including cancer and autism.

Our study indicates that certain human diseases may have evolutionary epigenetic origins, says Yi, a faculty member in the School of Biology. Such findings, in the long term, may help to develop better therapeutic targets or means for some human diseases.

DNA methylation modifies gene expression but doesnt change a cells genetic information. To understand how it differs between the two species, Yi and her research team generated genome-wide methylation maps of the prefrontal cortex of multiple humans and chimps. They found hundreds of genes that exhibit significantly lower levels of methylation in the human brain than in the chimpanzee brain. Most of them were promoters involved with protein binding and cellular metabolic processes.

This list of genes includes disproportionately high numbers of those related to diseases, said Yi. They are linked to autism, neural-tube defects and alcohol and other chemical dependencies. This suggests that methylation differences between the species might have significant functional consequences. They also might be linked to the evolution of our vulnerability to certain diseases, including cancer.

Yi, graduate student Jia Zeng and postdoctoral researcher Brendan Hunt worked with a team of researchers from Emory University and UCLA. The Yerkes National Primate Research Center provided the animal samples used in the study. It was also funded by the Georgia Tech Fund for Innovation in Research and Education (GT-FIRE) and National Science Foundation grants (MCB-0950896 and BCS-0751481). The content is solely the responsibility of the principal investigators and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NSF.

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More Clues About Why Chimps and Humans Are Genetically Different

HCN to Acquire Sunrise Senior Living

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Health Care REIT Inc. (HCN), a leading health care real estate investment trust (:REIT) that operates senior housing and health care real estate, has recently penned an agreement with Sunrise Senior Living Inc. (SRZ) one of the largest providers of senior living services in the U.S., to acquire all of its outstanding shares in a move that could redefine the market dynamics.

The offer price of $14.50 for each of the Sunrise Senior Living share represents a 62.4% premium to its closing price on August 21, which is perhaps the most that it could have bargained for, given the continued challenging macroeconomic environment. This could have led to a unanimous approval of the proposed merger by the board of directors of Sunrise Senior Living.

The offer price equates to a real estate value of approximately $1.9 billion. Health Care REIT intends to pay approximately $950 million in cash and the balance through the assumption of debt at an average interest rate of approximately 4.9%. The transaction is likely to close in early 2013, subject to mandatory regulatory approvals and closing conditions.

With the deal, Health Care REIT is poised to acquire 20 wholly-owned senior housing communities from Sunrise Senior Living, along with its 105 joint venture properties. About 17 of the wholly-owned properties are located in the U.S., while the remaining three are in Canada. The bulk of the joint venture properties are also located in the U.S. (about 78), with the remainder in the U.K. (27).

The domestic portfolio is mostly concentrated in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago. Almost half of the acquired portfolio is located in the top 5 MSAs (metropolitan statistical areas). The acquisition would position Health Care REIT as one of the largest owners of senior housing facilities worldwide with over 58,000 units in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.

With a median age of eight years, the acquisition would enable Health Care REIT to own high-quality private pay senior housing communities in high-barrier-to-entry affluent markets. In addition, the company is likely to gain operational synergies as an experienced and dynamic management team from Sunrise Senior Living, with over 30 years of experience, comes on board.

Besides improving the economies of scale, the acquisition would further enable Health Care REIT to gain access to higher yielding embedded investment opportunities, as more and more ownership stakes in joint venture properties come up for grabs. The senior housing sector is a highly-fragmented market with limited new supply and positive growth indicators, with the over-85 demographic growing at three times the rate of the overall population.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the elderly population (aged 65 and older) is expected to jump 36% from 2010 to 2020 to 54.8 million people. The latest acquisition by Health Care REIT, therefore, reinforces the buzz in the healthcare REIT industry, spurred by an aging Baby Boomer generations increased demand for assisted and independent living facilities.

The acquisition brings two of the most complementary customer franchises to the same platform in the healthcare real estate market and increases the scale and diversification of the combined company. The acquired assets overlap with Health Care REITs health system, assisted living and senior housing portfolio and offers continuum of services.

On the other hand, the deal also enables Sunrise Senior Living to continue its investment in optimizing and expanding its facilities to meet the increased needs of the acute care patient population. Consequently, the transaction is a win-win deal for both of the participating companies.

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HCN to Acquire Sunrise Senior Living

Family health care costs to exceed $20,000 this year

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After his baby was born prematurely, Matthew Cheng's health care costs soared.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Three days of Supreme Court arguments have left the fate of the 2010 health care reform law uncertain. What is certain, however, is that health care costs are continuing to eat away at consumers' budgets.

The cost to cover the typical family of four under an employer plan is expected to top $20,000 on health care this year, up more than 7% from last year, according to early projections by independent actuarial and health care consulting firm Milliman Inc. In 2002, the cost was just $9,235, the firm said.

The projected increase marks the fifth year in a row that health care costs will rise between 7% and 8% annually.

While employers still shoulder a majority of health care expenses, employees have been paying a larger portion of the total amount every year, according to Lorraine Mayne, principal and consulting actuary with Milliman.

Rising costs for employees is part of a long-term trend, said Deborah Chollet, senior fellow and health economist with Washington-based Mathematica Policy Research. "Employers have been unwilling to have their benefits costs rise at the rate that health care costs have risen," she said.

As a result, they have been passing along extra costs to employees in the form of higher deductibles and co-pays, as well as more expensive premiums.

Last year, workers' out-of-pocket costs rose 9.2% to $3,280 for a typical family of four, according to Milliman.

Those who buy insurance without an employer-provider plan are shelling out even more, Mayne said. The average premium for a family in a non-group plan was $7,102 in 2010, according to the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation.

Small business owner Matthew Cheng's health care costs rose by $600 to $7,891 last year. This year, he's looking at a much steeper bill.

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Family health care costs to exceed $20,000 this year

Health care reform stands: How it impacts your coverage

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The Supreme Court upheld health care reform Thursday, which includes a mandate that consumers have to buy coverage by 2014 or pay a penalty.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The Supreme Court's ruling Thursday to uphold health care reform has widespread implications for both insured and uninsured consumers.

Beginning in 2014, uninsured individuals must buy coverage -- either on their own, through an employer's plan or through a health insurance exchange -- or else pay a tax penalty. Meanwhile, insured consumers will continue to enjoy key mandates of the law, such as free preventive care and coverage of adult dependents up to age 26, but at the expense of higher out-of -pocket costs.

In the United States, more than half of the population -- or 160 million people -- gets health insurance directly through their employers, while 50 million people have no insurance, according to the government. Tens of millions more consumers either buy their own private insurance or are covered by government programs, such as Medicaid and Medicare.

Several key mandates of health reform have already gone into effect since the law passed in 2010. Here's a rundown of those provisions and new mandates rolling out over the next two years that will impact almost all of these consumers.

If you have insurance through your employer: Employees will continue to enjoy key benefits mandated by health reform that have already gone into effect.

"For consumers who are insured through their employers, this is good news," said Mike Thompson, principal with PwC's Global Human Resources Services.

Among the main provisions: Employers must provide coverage for adult dependents of workers up to age 26; health plans must cover certain preventive services, such as mammograms and colonoscopies, without charging a deductible, co-pay or coinsurance; and insurers can't impose a maximum lifetime dollar limit on a customer's medical care.

In 2013, eight additional preventive care services for women, including HIV and HPV (Human Papillomavirus) screening, will be covered under health reform.

But some industry experts also said that employers who offer insurance will now be even more focused on controlling their health care costs, especially since the individual mandate is expected to add more people -- including more high-risk individuals -- to their plans.

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Health care reform stands: How it impacts your coverage

Research in the News: Gene therapy shows promise in neuron repair and pain relief

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Neuropathic pain associated with diabetes, shingles, and traumatic injury affects up to 18 percent of the population and can be difficult or impossible to effectively treat. Using gene therapy, Yale neurologists have managed to repair neurons associated with traumatic nerve injury pain in rats.

Since the therapy targets only cells in the pain-sensing neurons outside the brain and spinal cord, this method can avoid some of cognitive problems associated with other pain therapies that also work on the central nervous system, said Omar Samad, research scientist in neurology and lead author of the paper published online Aug. 21 in the journal Molecular Therapy.

The work was conducted in the laboratory of Stephen Waxman, the Bridget M. Flaherty Professor of Neurology and director of the center for neuroscience and regeneration research, and it was supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Nancy Taylor Foundation for Chronic Diseases.

Other authors are Andrew Tan, Xiaoyang Chen, Edmund Foster, and Sulayman Dib-Hajj.

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Research in the News: Gene therapy shows promise in neuron repair and pain relief

Debbie Talbot tapped as Beaches and Harbors Boating Section head

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Marina Del Rey

Debbie Talbot tapped as Beaches and Harbors Boating Section head

The Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors has promoted Debra Talbot as head of the new Boating Section of the department.

Beaches and Harbors spokeswoman Carol Baker said that one of the departments strategic goals has been to establish a Boating Section, and that in a major step toward achieving that goal, Talbot will engage in a variety of efforts aimed at building a thriving boating community in Marina del Rey.

A boater for nearly 50 years and a 25-year resident of Marina del Rey, Debbie has been with DBH since 2002, serving as a senior marketing analyst in the Community and Marketing Services Division, Baker said. Debbie has played a leadership role in many of the departments strategic communications efforts, creating the Beaches and Harbors Communications Strategy, the Los Angeles Beach Guide and the Marina del Rey Boaters Guide.

She has served as the departments public information officer and helped launch and maintain DBHs social media platforms. In addition to managing Anchorage 47 as well as mast-up and dry storage facilities, Debbies new position will continue to entail the use of multi-media communications and collaborative efforts with boaters and boating entities to further the Boating Sections objectives, Baker noted.

Since 2004, Debbie has been the project manager for the highly successful Marina del Rey WaterBus that has shuttled over 200,000 riders since its inception and garnered a National Association of Counties Achievement Award. Since 1999, Debbie has served on the board of directors for the Marina del Rey Holiday Boat Parade and was appointed vice president in 2002.

Among many maritime-related activities, Talbot joined the largest yacht charter operator in Marina del Rey, FantaSea Yacht Charters, to charter her sailboat and joined the Catalina Fleet of Santa Monica Bay in 1995. She has been a member of the California Yacht Club since 2009 and currently serves on the board of directors for the Marina del Rey Historical Society.

Baker said that prior to joining Beaches and Harbors, Talbot worked in the private sector for over 20 years in corporate crisis communications, public relations, marketing and television production. Her client roster included Beaches and Harbors, for whom she helped promote the summer concert series via cable TV ads that helped garner a corporate sponsor.

As a collegiate athlete, Talbot set a womens lacrosse record for a goalkeeper with the most saves against an opponent - 31 against Penn State University - that still stands today, Baker said.

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Debbie Talbot tapped as Beaches and Harbors Boating Section head

RI reopens 2 beaches to swimming, closes 2 others

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Rhode Island public health officials have reopened two beaches in Warwick two swimmers and closed two others in Middletown following recent water tests.

The Department of Health announced Thursday that Conimicut Point Beach and Oakland Beach in Warwick are now open for swimming.

But they said water quality tests at Peabody's Beach and Third Beach in Middletown showed high levels of bacteria that make swimming unhealthy.

The health department monitors water quality at public beaches during the summer months to ensure it is safe for swimmers.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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RI reopens 2 beaches to swimming, closes 2 others

The 2012 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition

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The fourth annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition has received a record number of entries. Back-garden amateurs and professional photographers alike have captured spectacular images such as huge eruptions shooting from the Suns surface, the dazzling green and red lights of the aurora borealis, and spectacular clouds of colourful dust in which new stars are forming.

The winners of the competitions four categories and three special prizes will be announced on 19 September and an exhibition of all the winning images opens the following day on 20 September at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. The competitions judges include The Sky at Nights Sir Patrick Moore, acclaimed photographer Dan Holdsworth and the ROGs Public Astronomer Dr. Marek Kukula.

We will publish a picture gallery of the winners as soon as they are annnounced. Here is a selection of the entries that have been received. For more information see http://www.rmg.co.uk/visit/exhibitions/astronomy-photographer-of-the-year/

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The 2012 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition

Amateurs Uncover Stunning Hidden Treasures In Hubble's Image Vaults [Astronomy]

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With over one million observations since it launch on April 24, 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has been a endless source for insane wonders, unprecedented scenes and humbling experiences. However, many of its most amazing images have never been seen before by anyoneuntil now. In fact, some images actually show objects that nobody knew existed before.

These are, as the European Space Agency calls them, Hubble's hidden treasuresthe unknown secret galaxies and stars that have remained unseen in the Space Telescope's data vaults until the ESA asked the public to dive in on a quest to find them. What people have found is amazing.

According to ESA:

[Of the million observations] only a small proportion are attractive imagesand an even smaller number are ever actually seen by anyone outside the small groups of scientists that publish them. But the vast amount of data in the archive means that there are still many hundreds of beautiful images scattered among the valuable, but visually unattractive, scientific data that have never been enjoyed by the public.

Knowing that, ESA opened the vaults to everyone. A few months later, they had 3,000 submissions in their servers, all of them beautiful. "More than a thousand of these images were fully processed," says ESA, "a difficult and time-consuming task."

Incredibly enough, there was no payment for all these image hunting and processing hours done by the public except a few small prizes for the top ten in two categoriesbasic imaging and image processing. The volunteers did it all out of the love for the quest, a desire to explore and find something that nobody has seen before in this way.

Here are the results:

The winner of the image processing category was Josh Lake, for the star-forming region NGC 1763, followed by Andre van der Hoeven and his image of the spiral galaxy Messier 77. My favorite, however, is this one, found and processed by Judy Schmidt, a web developer from Lakeside, California. It's the star XZ Tauri. According to the European Space Agency, this was the jury's favorite. In fact, thanks to her work, they found "an unusual object that we would never have found without her help."

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Amateurs Uncover Stunning Hidden Treasures In Hubble's Image Vaults [Astronomy]