Heat islands – one effect of climate change

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Heat islands - one effect of climate change

Medvedev to Visit Disputed Kuril Islands

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Wikimedia Commons

A map showing the de-facto Kuril Island border over time between Japan and Russia. The currently disputed islands fall between the lines marked 1945 and 1855.

During a visit to the Far East, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev Tuesday traveled to Kunashir island, inflaming a long-standing territorial dispute with Japan over the Kuril Islands.

Medvedev took anunflinching tone before the visit, saying that "the practice ofvisiting theislands bythe Russian leadership will continue," RIA-Novosti reported.

Theislands, surrounded byrich fishing grounds believed tohave oil, natural gas andmineral deposits, were seized bySoviet troops inthe closing days ofWorld War II, but Japan says they are part ofits territory.

"I would like toemphasize that I consider it very important that members ofthe government visit theKurils. This is animportant part ofthe Sakhalin region andsimply animportant part ofour Russian lands," Medvedev said.

It has been earlier reported that theprime minister's planned trip tothe Kuril Islands would be postponed due toweather conditions, but conditions improved enough toallow thegovernment delegation tofly tothe island.

"Life inSakhalin is such that it changes very quickly. Andit's alesson fora lot ofpeople who are here with me today because I just said that we would not go, but now we have theopportunity tovisit theKurils. I think this is avery important part ofour program," Medvedev said.

Medvedev's visit tofar eastern regions will last until Thursday.

InNovember 2010 Dmitry Medvedev became thefirst Russian president tovisit theislands, causing astrong outcry fromthe Japanese government.

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Medvedev to Visit Disputed Kuril Islands

Five Islands head teacher resigns

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3 July 2012 Last updated at 03:51 ET

The head teacher of the only secondary school on the Isles of Scilly has resigned, the BBC has learned.

Bryce Wilby was suspended in May from the Five Islands School after "apparent financial irregularities" were found during a routine audit.

But Mr Wilby previously told the BBC he was confident any investigation would show he had done nothing wrong.

The Council of the Isles of Scilly said it had accepted Mr Wilby's decision to stand down.

The Church of England school has about 250 students and is controlled by the council, the islands' unitary authority.

Mr Wilby, who was head teacher for more than three years, said he was not told the reasons for his suspension.

Two school governors have also resigned since his suspension.

The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall are due to visit and officially open the Five Islands School later.

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Five Islands head teacher resigns

Douglas Wallace to Receive Gruber Foundation 2012 Genetics Prize

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PHILADELPHIA Douglas C. Wallace, PhD, professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, is the recipient of the 2012 Genetics Prize of the Gruber Foundation. Wallace is a pioneering genetics researcher who founded the field of mitochondrial genetics in humans. He is also the director of the Center for Mitochondrial and Epigenomic Medicine at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Wallace is being honored with this prestigious international award for his groundbreaking achievements in understanding the role of mitochondriathe "power plants" of cellsin the development of disease and as markers for human evolution. He is also being honored for training and inspiring numerous pre- and postdoctoral students who have gone on to have distinguished careers of their own.

Wallace will receive the award on November 9 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics in San Francisco. The Gruber Foundation, now based at Yale University, announced the Genetics Prize on June 28. The Foundation's Genetics Prize annually honors leading scientists for groundbreaking contributions to genetics research. The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation's International Prize Program honors contemporary individuals in the fields of Cosmology, Genetics, Neuroscience, Justice and Women's Rights, whose groundbreaking work provides new models that inspire and enable fundamental shifts in knowledge and culture. The Gruber Foundation's Genetics Prize, a gold medal and an unrestricted $500,000 cash award for fundamental insights in the field of genetics, was established in 2001.

"Douglas Wallace's contributions to our understanding of mitochondrial genetics have changed the way human and medical geneticists think about the role of mitochondria in human health and disease." said Elizabeth Blackburn, chair of the Selection Advisory Board to the Prize. Blackburn is the 2006 Gruber Genetics Prize laureate and shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine.

Wallace began his research on mitochondrial biology 40 years ago, at a time when few people thought the study of mitochondria and its DNA (mtDNA) would have any significant applications for clinical medicine. In the late 1970s, Wallace demonstrated that human mtDNA is inherited solely through the mother. Using maternal inheritance as a guide, Wallace identified the first inherited mtDNA disease -Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy - and subsequently linked mtDNA mutations to a wide range of clinical symptoms, including deafness, neuropsychiatric disorders, cardiac and muscle problems, and metabolic diseases such as diabetes. Wallace also showed that mtDNA mutations accumulate in human tissue with age, and thus may play a role in age-related diseases, such as heart disease and cancer. In addition, he found that the levels of these age-related mtDNA mutations are higher in the brains of people with certain neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease, and Huntington disease.

Wallace's research has also made a major contribution to the field of molecular anthropology. Using mtDNA variation, he has reconstructed the origins and ancient migrations of women, tracing all mtDNA lineages back some 200,000 years to a single African origin the so-called mitochondrial Eve.

Wallace holds the Michael and Charles Barnett Endowed Chair in Pediatric Mitochondrial Medicine at Children's Hospital. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, as well as the Academy's Institute of Medicine, and is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Wallace joined the Penn Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in 2010 and previously held academic positions at Stanford University, at Emory University, where he chaired the Department of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, and most recently at the University of California Irvine, where he was Director of the Center for Molecular and Mitochondrial Medicine and Genetics.

For more information, read the Gruber Foundation news release.

The Perelman School of Medicine is currently ranked #2 in U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $479.3 million awarded in the 2011 fiscal year.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania -- recognized as one of the nation's top 10 hospitals by U.S. News & World Report; Penn Presbyterian Medical Center; and Pennsylvania Hospital the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Penn Medicine also includes additional patient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region.

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Douglas Wallace to Receive Gruber Foundation 2012 Genetics Prize

Bill Mann's Canada: Canada’s single-payer health plan turns 50

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The same week that President Obama’s health-care program squeaked through the U.S. Supreme Court, Canada marked the 50th anniversary of its own national health care. But it, too, needs to change, despite its huge popularity with most Canadians. Just not as drastically as the potholed U.S. system needs to change.

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Bill Mann's Canada: Canada’s single-payer health plan turns 50

Checking facts on opposing claims about health care law

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Posted:Today Updated: 12:37 AM President Obama and Mitt Romney both make arguments -- likely to continue until November -- based on suspect data.

By CALVIN WOODWARD and RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR/The Associated Press

WASHINGTON President Obama promises nothing will change for people who like their health coverage, except it'll become more affordable, but the facts don't back him up. Mitt Romney groundlessly calls the health care law a slayer of jobs certain to deepen the national debt.

Welcome to the health care debate 2.0. As the claims fly, buyer beware.

After the Supreme Court upheld the law last week, Obama stepped forward to tell Americans what good will come from it. Romney was quick to lay out the harm. But some of the evidence they gave to the court of public opinion was suspect.

A look at their claims and how they compare with the facts:

OBAMA: "If you're one of the more than 250 million Americans who already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance. This law will only make it more secure and more affordable."

ROMNEY: "Obamacare also means that for up to 20 million Americans, they will lose the insurance they currently have, the insurance that they like and they want to keep."

THE FACTS: Nothing in the law ensures that people happy with their policies now can keep them. Employers will continue to have the right to modify coverage or even drop it, and some are expected to do so as more insurance alternatives become available to the population under the law. Nor is there any guarantee that coverage will become cheaper, despite the subsidies many people will get.

Americans may well end up feeling more secure about their ability to obtain and keep coverage once insurance companies can no longer deny, terminate or charge more for coverage for those in poor health. But particular health insurance plans will have no guarantee of ironclad security. Much can change, including the cost.

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Checking facts on opposing claims about health care law

Health care end game hasn't started

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In approving the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, Chief Justice John Roberts may have wanted to gently rebuke Congress for pushing the Commerce Clause too far, though he let it slide as a tax.

Even so, its important to place this ruling in context.

Today and into the foreseeable future, the political parties are far apart and not likely to compromise.

The same organizations that in 2009 contributed $1.2 billion to Congress in exchange for influence over the laws formulation remain engaged.

While the individual mandate will allow us to spread risk more broadly and make access more available, especially to lower income Americans, it isnt perfect.

The dire problems of extravagant health care use, unit pricing and cost remain largely untouched by the law in its current form.

High cost barely touched

Half or more of all U.S. health care spending provides no value by design, meaning that Americans pay double for health care compared to citizens in other developed nations, and our quality is spottier.

The requirement to keep up with this excess through the mandate will be onerous for many Americans.

As analyst Bob Laszewski points out, a household with a $60,000 annual income will need to find 9.5 percent, or $5,700, for the premium.

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Health care end game hasn't started

Reaction pours in over historic court ruling on health care

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The U.S. Supreme Court today upheld President Barack Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), which is commonly referred to as Obamacare.

Politicians, policy advocates, attorneys and scholars are weighing in on the ruling today.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said, "I continue to oppose ObamaCare. One of my first acts as Governor was to authorize Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen to add Wisconsin to the federal lawsuit opposing ObamaCare. Wisconsin will not take any action to implement ObamaCare. I am hopeful that political changes in Washington, D.C. later this year ultimately end the implementation of this law at the federal level. If there is no political remedy from Washington and the law moves forward, it would require the majority of people in Wisconsin to pay more money for less health care. Additionally, it would increase the size and cost of government, decrease the quality of healthcare and, in our state, reduce access for those truly in need of assistance. The federal government should not tell individuals and families what to do with healthcare. The alternative is more transparency and a more active role by consumers, so we can truly control costs."

Robert Kraig, executive director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin, said, "This historic ruling is a major step towards establishing the freedom of every American to make their own health care decisions. We are one step closer to every American having the peace of mind of knowing that health care will be there when they need it. The court's decision is a particular relief to nearly one million Wisconsinites who have preexisting conditions who will face outrageous discrimination if they ever have to buy insurance on their own. Now that a conservative Supreme Court has affirmed the constitutionality of the health care law, we believe that Governor Walker has a moral obligation to restart the implementation process here in Wisconsin. We call on Walker to stop playing politics with people's lives."

Rick Esenberg, president of Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty and adjunct professor of law at Marquette University Law School, said the reasoning for the Supreme Court's decision was surprising because most observers expected the decision would be made based on Congress' ability to regulate interstate commerce rather than as a function of Congress' taxing power. "I believe that our Constitutional scheme has given only limited powers to Congress and that if Congress can impose a penalty on you, if Congress can attempt to mandate that you do something then it's hard to see what limitations on the authority exist other than those we might find in the Bill of Rights," Esenberg said.

Ed Fallone, associate professor of law at Marquette University Law School, said, "I am very gratified that the court upheld the law. I think the arguments in favor of its Constitution were overwhelming. I'm only disappointed that it was upheld on the taxing power theory as opposed to the commerce clause theory."

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce president and CEO Kurt Bauer said, "The fact that a divided court upheld the constitutionality of the health care law does not make it good public policy. As Chief Justice Roberts noted in his decision, Congress, not the Supreme Court, made the policy choices under the Constitution and hopefully lawmakers will have the good sense to repeal this misguided law. The so-called Affordable Health Care Act will actually drive up the cost of health care, and in the absence of massive tax increases is likely to bankrupt the federal government. The uncertainty that businesses of all sizes feel continues with today's decision and will be a drag on economic growth." U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said, "Today's Obamacare decision establishes that there is no area of Americans' private lives that is off limits to federal intrusion and control. Freedom took a real body blow. It is now up to Congress and hopefully a new President to repeal this unpopular monstrosity and replace it with free market reforms that will actually improve the quality and restrain the cost of health care in America."

Moveon.org political action executive director Justin Ruben said, "Today, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the health of this nation. MoveOn members fought hard for the Affordable Care Act, and today's decision means millions of Americans including many MoveOn members will be able to access affordable, quality health care. Today, justice was upheld. But the fact that the Affordable Care Act was ever in jeopardy shows how politicized this court has become. All too often, this 1 percent court has legislated from the bench on behalf of corporations and the wealthy instead of acting as fair arbiters of the law. The next president will nominate as many as three new justices, setting the court's direction for a generation. There's every reason to believe Mitt Romney would try to put more 1 percent justices on the court. MoveOn will dedicate our energy and resources to reelecting President Obama to ensure more fair-minded justices are seated on the court."

Judd Legum, editor in chief for Think Progress and vice president for communications for the Center for American Progress Action Fund, said, "This is a victory for millions of Americans who are already benefiting from the health reform law and the tens of millions who will benefit in the future but the fight is not yet over. Now that health care reform has been declared undeniably constitutional, its enemies will attack it in every other way they can. If they succeed more people will get sick, will die, and will go bankrupt because of a broken health care system. Health care is a basic human right. The Supreme Court knows this and saw the challenge to Obamacare for what it was an extreme, partisan attack on the health and well-being of American families. We cannot go back to the days where families lose their homes or go bankrupt trying to save their loved one's lives, where cancer patients scramble to cover out-of-pocket costs to continue treatment, and when being a woman is considered a pre-exisiting condition."

U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said, "The federal government is tasked with protecting our cherished liberties not infringing upon them with mandates and intrusions into our lives. Today's ruling affirms another broken promise by President Obama, who misled the American people in selling the law by insisting that the federal mandate was not a tax. Despite today's disappointing decision on the law's constitutionality, there is no question that the law remains terrible policy. It is bad news for individuals, whose personal health care decisions are threatened by greater government control. It is bad news for workers, whose paychecks and jobs are threatened by the hundreds of billions of dollars of new tax hikes and crippling uncertainty from the massive law. It is bad news for seniors, whose health security is threatened by the bureaucratic restrictions to access from the law's changes to Medicare. It is bad news for future generations, whose prospects for greater opportunity are stifled by the trillions of dollars of new debt that will result from this law. It is incumbent upon citizens and their elected leaders to clear this partisan roadblock with full repeal, and advance common-sense, patient-centered solutions. We can still ensure universal access to quality, affordable health coverage without a budget-busting federal government power grab. I remain committed to advancing reforms that realign incentives so that individuals and their doctors not government bureaucrats or insurance company bureaucrats are the nucleus of our health care system. This requires reforms to equalize the tax treatment of health insurance, invite true choice and competition, and ensure critical programs like Medicare and Medicaid can deliver on their promise in the 21st century. "Today's decision strengthens the case for repeal and replace. With the right leadership in place, I am confident we can advance real health care solutions for the American people. It is now in the hands of the American people to determine whether this disastrous law will stand."

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Reaction pours in over historic court ruling on health care

Health Care Reform Defiance By Republican Governors Worries Hospital Industry

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Republican governors like Rick Scott of Florida who say they will defy President Barack Obama and opt out of a planned expansion of Medicaid health coverage for the poor are setting up a fight with the health care providers in their own backyards.

When the Supreme Court upheld Obama's health care reform law last Thursday, it surprised practically everyone by ruling that states may decline to extend Medicaid coverage to 17 million people with incomes below 133 percent of the federal poverty level, which is $14,856 for an individual this year.

A growing number of Republican governors, including Scott, Terry Branstad of Iowa, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, and Scott Walker of Wisconsin say they won't carry out any parts of the law, which threatens to deny millions of poor people access to the Medicaid coverage it provides.

But Obama and those uninsured people aren't the only ones who stand to lose. Hospitals that currently treat the poor for free in emergency rooms were counting on a broad expansion of health insurance coverage to cut down on the number of unpaid bills on their books. The American Hospital Association and other national industry groups endorsed the health care reform law, calculating that more insured people would make up for $155 billion in lower Medicare payments over a decade.

A smaller Medicaid expansion would be bad news for hospitals, especially in states like Florida and Texas with large numbers of uninsured people, according to Sheryl Skolnick, a health care equities analyst at CRT Capital Group in Stamford, Conn. "That risk is real and meaningful: the hospitals may end up paying for the poorest and sickest of today's uninsured anyway AND see cuts in Medicare and Medicaid on top of that," she wrote in a note to clients Friday.

Pressure from the influential hospital industry could soften resistance in the states to adding more people to the Medicaid rolls, especially since the federal government will pay 100 percent of the costs of these new beneficiaries from 2014 to 2016 and then phase down its share of the expenses over three years, reaching 90 percent starting in 2020. Hospitals, which are required by federal law to treat anyone with a medical emergency regardless of their ability to pay, were left with $39.3 billion in unpaid bills in 2010, according to the American Hospital Association.

Florida won't take part in the Medicaid expansion, Scott said in a statement Sunday, despite the fact that 25 percent of the state's residents younger than 65 are uninsured, the second-highest rate in the U.S. That was 3.9 million people in 2010, based on data compiled by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. According to the Urban Institute, 1.8 million Floridians would would qualify for Medicaid benefits under health care reform starting in 2014.

"You're going to have a lot of cuts with no corresponding increase in the number of people that hospitals see that have any sort of coverage," said Bruce Rueben, the president of the Florida Hospital Association. Florida's hospitals ate $2.55 billion in unpaid bills left by uninsured people in 2010, according to the association, which supported the health care reform law.

Even though Medicaid pays just 45 percent to 75 percent of the treatment costs incurred by hospitals in Florida, it's better for them than not getting paid at all. In addition, people with any kind of health care coverage are more likely to visit a regular doctor than to seek treatment at emergency rooms, Rueben said, which should keep those patients out of hospitals.

Getting the Medicaid expansion in place has already become the "number one priority" for the Texas Hospital Association, said John Hawkins, the senior vice president for advocacy and public policy at the organization. "It's the kind of thing that hits our members right on the margin when they're trying to digest other payment cuts," he said.

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Health Care Reform Defiance By Republican Governors Worries Hospital Industry

Health care debate claims vs. facts

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WASHINGTON In promoting the health care law, President Barack Obama is repeating his persistent and unsubstantiated assurance that Americans who like their health insurance can simply keep it. Republican rival Mitt Romney says quite the opposite, but his doomsday scenario is a stretch.

After the Supreme Court upheld the law last week, Obama stepped forward to tell Americans what good will come from it. Romney was quick to lay out the harm. But some of the evidence they gave to the court of public opinion was suspect.

A look at their claims and how they compare with the facts:

OBAMA: If youre one of the more than 250 million Americans who already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance. This law will only make it more secure and more affordable.

ROMNEY: Obamacare also means that for up to 20 million Americans, they will lose the insurance they currently have, the insurance that they like and they want to keep.

THE FACTS: Nothing in the law ensures that people happy with their policies now can keep them. Employers will continue to have the right to modify coverage or even drop it, and some are expected to do so as more insurance alternatives become available to the population under the law. Nor is there any guarantee that coverage will become cheaper, despite the subsidies many people will get.

Americans may well end up feeling more secure about their ability to obtain and keep coverage once insurance companies can no longer deny, terminate or charge more for coverage for those in poor health. But particular health insurance plans will have no guarantee of ironclad security. Much can change, including the cost.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the number of workers getting employer-based coverage could drop by several million, as some workers choose new plans in the marketplace or as employers drop coverage altogether. Companies with more than 50 workers would have to pay a fine for terminating insurance, but in some cases that would be cost-effective for them.

Obamas soothing words for those who are content with their current coverage have been heard before, rendered with different degrees of accuracy. Hes said nothing in the law requires people to change their plans, true enough. But the law does not guarantee the status quo for anyone, either.

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Health care debate claims vs. facts

Health Care Reform: Questions and Answers

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WebMD's Health Insurance Navigator Answers Your Questions

By Lisa Zamosky WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

June 29, 2012 -- The Supreme Court's decision on the health care reform law left many people confused about their health insurance and what will happen in the future. Here, WebMD answers some of the most common questions that came in from readers after the ruling.

Starting in 2014, insurers will no longer legally be allowed to deny coverage to anyone because of their medical condition or charge them more for that coverage.

If you already have private insurance or you're enrolled in Medicare or Medicaid, you will not be required to buy new or additional insurance because of the health reform law. Generally, you can stay with your current plan if you're happy with it.

Many people who buy insurance on their own (meaning they don't get it at work) and have a preexisting medical condition, however, have held onto pricey coverage because their health condition prevents them from switching plans. Starting in 2014, these people will have greater freedom to shop for coverage and to determine if another plan better suits their needs, because insurers will no longer be allowed to deny people coverage based on prior medical diagnoses.

One of the law's major goals is to make health insurance more affordable.

If you don't get insurance through your job, you will be eligible to buy coverage through state-based insurance marketplaces scheduled to be up and running for open enrollment by fall 2013 for insurance coverage that will start in January 2014. To make insurance affordable for millions of Americans, tax credits will be available for people with incomes that are between 133% and 400% of the poverty level (up to $92,200 annually for a family of four in 2012).

There will also be caps placed on how much people will be required to spend in total out-of-pocket costs, including deductibles, co-pays, and co-insurance. These amounts will also be determined based on a person's income.

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Health Care Reform: Questions and Answers

Breaking the skin barrier: Drugs topically deliver gene therapy via commercial moisturizers for skin disease treatment

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ScienceDaily (July 2, 2012) Getting under your skin takes on a brave new meaning thanks to Northwestern University research that could transform gene regulation.

A team led by a physician-scientist and a chemist -- from the fields of dermatology and nanotechnology -- is the first to demonstrate the use of commercial moisturizers to deliver gene regulation technology that has great potential for life-saving therapies for skin cancers.

The topical delivery of gene regulation technology to cells deep in the skin is extremely difficult because of the formidable defenses skin provides for the body. The Northwestern approach takes advantage of drugs consisting of novel spherical arrangements of nucleic acids. These structures, each about 1,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, have the unique ability to recruit and bind to natural proteins that allow them to traverse the skin and enter cells.

Applied directly to the skin, the drug penetrates all of the skins layers and can selectively target disease-causing genes while sparing normal genes. Once in cells, the drug simply flips the switch of the troublesome genes to off.

A detailed study of a method that could dramatically redefine the field of gene regulation will be published online during the week of July 2 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Early targets of the novel treatment are melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma (two of the most common types of skin cancer), the common inflammatory skin disorder psoriasis, diabetic wound healing and a rare genetic skin disorder that has no effective treatment (epidermolytic ichthyosis). Other targets could even include wrinkles that come with aging skin.

The technology developed by my collaborator Chad Mirkin and his lab is incredibly exciting because it can break through the skin barrier, said co-senior author Amy S. Paller, M.D., the Walter J. Hamlin Professor, chair of dermatology and professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She also is director of Northwesterns Skin Disease Research Center.

This allows us to treat a skin problem precisely where it is manifesting -- on the skin, she said. We can target our therapy to the drivers of disease, at a level so minute that it can distinguish mutant genes from normal genes. Risks are minimized, and side effects have not been seen to date in our human skin and mouse models.

A co-senior author of the paper, Mirkin is the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and professor of medicine, chemical and biological engineering, biomedical engineering and materials science and engineering. He also is the director of Northwesterns International Institute for Nanotechnology.

Mirkin first developed the nanostructure platform used in this study in 1996 at Northwestern, and the FDA-cleared technology now is the basis of powerful commercialized medical diagnostic tools. This, however, is the first realization that the nanostructures naturally enter skin and that they can deliver a large payload of therapeutics.

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Breaking the skin barrier: Drugs topically deliver gene therapy via commercial moisturizers for skin disease treatment

Freedom Days in full swing in downtown Provo

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With the Freedom Festival in full swing, part of Provo's Center Street has been closed to traffic to host the annual Freedom Days.

With roughly 100 vendor booths, carnival rides and live music, the street festival is set to provide endless entertainment for visitors from all around.

Food vendors offer a plethora of dining options while booths sell goods including sunglasses, local art, jewelry, tie-dye clothing and much more. Jerry Foote and his wife Cindy drove up from Kanab with their pioneer-wagon style booth to sell J.C.'s Chuck Wagon Soda, offering six flavors of refreshing drinks.

"On the first two days, it's about normal like you're seeing now," said Jerry Foote. "On the Fourth of July, you can't even get yourself on the walkways, there's so many people. It's a lot of fun."

Skylar and Heather Thomas of American Fork came down Monday evening with their six children to enjoy the festival.

"It's a great family event, everyone here is always in a great mood," said Heather Thomas as the family sat down to enjoy some snow cones. "There's just a lot of great things here to take in, and for the kids it helps the holiday have some meat to it, so that it's not just all about barbecues."

Freedom Days continues Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Wednesday from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m.

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Freedom Days in full swing in downtown Provo

Internet activists draft Declaration of Internet Freedom

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Internet advocates announced the Declaration of Internet Freedom on July 2, 2012.

Activist groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Free Press and Access Now banned together and announced Monday the writing of the Declaration of Internet Freedom. The organizations say the document is "a set of principles providing a positive vision to preserve the Internet as a platform for speech, innovation and creativity."

SOPA, PIPA today: Internet on strike! SOPA opera: the Internet dukes it out with Congress SOPA and PIPA Internet blackout aftermath, staggering numbers

Organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International and Mozilla have all pledged their support for the declaration.

The full text of the Declaration of Internet Freedom reads:

PREAMBLE

We believe that a free and open Internet can bring about a better world. To keep the Internet free and open, we call on communities, industries and countries to recognize these principles. We believe that they will help to bring about more creativity, more innovation and more open societies.

We are joining an international movement to defend our freedoms because we believe that they are worth fighting for.

Let's discuss these principles - agree or disagree with them, debate them, translate them, make them your own and broaden the discussion with your community - as only the Internet can make possible.

Join us in keeping the Internet free and open.

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Internet activists draft Declaration of Internet Freedom

RIM wants to improve developer eco-system

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BlackBerry platform today has around 40 lakh developers working globally and the average earning of developers on the RIM platforms is about $3,000

BANGALORE,INDIA: Research In Motion (RIM) which recently announced hundreds of job cuts, wants to improve its developer eco system in a big way. For this, the Canadian cellphone maker has set apart a $100 million fund.

Alec Saunders, VP of developer relations for Research In Motion (RIM), says he sees his company's plan to cut jobs and improve the developer eco-system as two different issues. "The job cuts are happening as part of the company's restructuring plans in order to increase efficiency in operations," he said.

Saunders refutes the reports about developers increasingly abandoning RIM's BlackBerry platform. "The BlackBerry platform today has around 40 lakh developers working globally and the average earning of developers on the RIM platforms is about $3000. Developers can build applications for our platform at half the cost when compared to other platforms and revenue reward for developers is the second highest in the industry," he said.

"We have a fastest growing and most lucrative platform for developers. The RIM's fund to support the developer eco-system guarantees an amount of $10,000/per year for successful developers," he added.

We are seeing an impressive growth on the platform since last two years. We have registered a 226 per cent increase in applications on our platform during the last one year, our PlayBook platform has witnessed a 240 per cent growth. We are the fastest growing platform, he reasoned.

The delayed BlackBerry 10 is being built to ensure Flow, Connect and Extend, the RIM VP explained. Flow is where the apps will make use of our unique cascade framework, Connect is the social feature and Extend is the idea that your experience with the device extends beyond the device itself, he explained.

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RIM wants to improve developer eco-system

Bacteria levels make some Louisiana beaches dicey, environmental group warns

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Fourth of July revelers heading to the beach this week might want to check out a leading environmental groups report that found water quality at the nations vacation beaches last year was the third poorest in more than two decades. Louisianas beaches were rated the nations most contaminated, with 29 percent of water samples showing elevated bacteria levels, more than three times the national average of 8 percent, according to the annual study by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The states ranking was dragged down by five beaches in Cameron Parish listed among the 15 worst repeat offenders for persistent contamination problems from stormwater runoff and sewage pollution, the report said.

High bacteria levels were found in 44 percent of water samples collected at the five Cameron Parish beaches. In Grand Isle, the public and state park beaches fared much better, with elevated bacteria counts found in 9 percent of nearly 250 samples collected at seven locations.

Testing results at some favorite beach getaways for New Orleans area residents along the Gulf Coast showed an 8 percent contamination rate in Bay St. Louis and no bad samples at Dauphin Island, Gulf Shores and Pensacola. In Gulf Shores, the public and state park beaches were five-star beaches across the country by the report.

The study was based on beach water testing at 3,000 locations for bacteria found in human or animal waste.

The number of days beaches were closed or were subject to water-quality advisories was the third highest since the environmental group began issuing annual reports 22 years ago. The second highest total of beach closures and warnings occurred in 2010, the report said. That was the year of the BP oil spill.

The report urges the federal Environmental Protection Agency to impose stricter water quality standards this fall when it revises criteria that have been in place since 1986.

If people were swimming in water that meets their proposed standards, approximately 1 in 28 risk getting sick, said Jon Devine, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. We think that is too much of a risk. EPA needs to go back and come up with a stronger standard that protects more people when they go to the beach and consider other health effects.

Devine said the most common ailments are gastrointestinal illnesses, including nausea, diarrhea and vomiting.

The 10-page report, titled Testing the Waters: A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches, and a searchable database of testing results can be viewed at http://www.nrdc.org/beaches.

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Bacteria levels make some Louisiana beaches dicey, environmental group warns