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WASHINGTON – Democrats on a key Senate committee are circulating details of a revised health care plan that includes a government-backed insurance option and a fee on employers if they do not offer coverage to their workers.
In a letter to members of the HELP Committee, the backers of the plan say it will result in 97 percent of Americans having health coverage, at a net cost of slightly over $600 billion over the next 10 years. That's far less than an earlier $1 trillion estimate from the Congressional Budget Office in mid-June.
A description of the plan was sent to committee members in a letter Wednesday night from Sens. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Chris Dodd of Connecticut. The Associated Press obtained a copy.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) –
Abandoned by Michael Jackson after a humiliating child molestation trial in 2005, the late singer's Neverland Ranch could now become one of the biggest draws in the world as a memorial to the King of Pop.

Jackson's family has said there are no plans for a funeral or burial of his body at the ranch in central California after his death last week.

But the rural playground inspired by Jackson's alter-ego, Peter Pan, would remain an attraction in a region already visited by tourists, and it could rival Elvis Presley's Graceland as a future venue for his millions of fans around the world.

"Michael Jackson has worldwide appeal and probably a stronger fan base than even Elvis. Neverland is a lot larger than Graceland and Los Angeles is a major tourist destination already," said Roger Brooks, CEO of tourism company Destination Development International.

"Neverland embodied who Michael Jackson was -- the good and the bad. I think it could draw about one million visitors a year," Brooks told Reuters.

Los Angeles-based private equity firm Colony Capital bought the ranch in 2008 in a joint venture with Jackson when he went $24 million in arrears on his mortgage. Colony said "any discussion on the future of the property is premature."

But there has been a burst of activity around the ranch in recent days as fans gathered to mourn and place flowers at its iron gates, and TV pictures have shown moving vans and landscape workers going in and out of the property northwest of Los Angeles.

"If Elvis Presley has Graceland, Michael Jackson can have a place for him here at Neverland. And that's how I feel, and I hope it becomes a museum in memory of Michael," Amey Avila of nearby Solvang, California, told Reuters outside the ranch.

Graceland, the Memphis estate where Presley died in 1977, was opened to the public in 1982 and gets more than 600,000 visitors a year, according to Elvis Presley Enterprises, a subsidiary of CKX Inc.

The Presley business, including worldwide licensing of music rights, as well as Graceland and the Heartbreak Hotel, reported $11.7 million in operating income in 2008.

NEVERLAND SPIRIT VIOLATED

Jackson bought the 2,800-acre (1,133-hectare) Neverland ranch in 1988 and filled it with theme-park rides, a zoo, and statues of Peter Pan -- the fictional boy who never grew up.

It was there that Jackson hosted parties for local children and controversial sleepovers for young boys that prompted charges of child sexual abuse in 1993 and 2005.

But after a grueling 2005 trial and acquittal on child molestation charges, Jackson left Neverland, vowing never to return. He said its spirit had been violated by police raids looking for evidence.

Last year, auctioneers emptied the house of Jackson's furniture, toys, platinum records and its vast iron gates for an auction in April that was canceled at the 11th hour.

Many of those 1,400 items -- which included sequined costumes and Jackson's red gilded throne -- were thought to be among the belongings returned to Neverland this week.

"We removed everything -- the gates, the fireplaces, the chandeliers," said auctioneer Darren Julien, who spent three months at Neverland last year with the approval of the singer.

"It was still a magical place when we were given access to it. The outdoors was a little bit run down -- the rides needed maintaining. But on the inside, the rooms were exactly the way Michael left them in 2005," he said.

Brooks doubted the murkier associations of Neverland would deter potential tourists. "People are always curious. They want to see where things supposedly happened. Jackson had some of the most troubling times of his life at Neverland and he ran away from it, but that is part of the draw," he said.

(Editing by Sandra Maler)

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration said Wednesday it has suspended joint military operations with Honduras to protest a coup that forced President Manuel Zelaya into exile. The U.S. withheld stronger action in hopes of negotiating a peaceful return of the country's elected leader.
The Organization of American States, meeting in Washington, gave Honduran coup leaders three days to restore Zelaya to power — under threat of suspending Honduras's OAS membership. Afterward, several officials said the administration is still reviewing the possibility of cutting off U.S. aid.
Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said, "We continue to monitor the situation and will respond accordingly as events transpire."
At the State Department, spokesman Ian C. Kelly said the department's top diplomat for the Americas, Thomas Shannon, met with Zelaya at OAS headquarters on Tuesday evening. Kelly would not reveal details, except to say Zelaya thanked the administration for supporting his unconditional return to power.
Kelly said he was not aware of any plan to recall the U.S. ambassador from the Honduran capital. Another official, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations, said the administration believes it stands a better chance of achieving a peaceful outcome if it keeps a diplomat in Tegucigalpa.
The official also said the U.S. was not advocating that the matter be taken up by the U.N. Security Council.
Kelly said the administration was still studying whether the forced removal of Zelaya was a military coup in a legal sense that would trigger a cutoff or suspension of American financial assistance.
"Our legal advisers are actively assessing the facts and the law in question, which we take very seriously," Kelly said.
The administration appeared to be counting on the threat of Honduras having its OAS membership suspended as leverage in getting Zelaya back in power. While the administration joined the OAS in calling for Zelaya's unconditional return, with no limits on his presidential powers, it also seemed open to some form of compromise.
U.S. officials said they were pleased that Zelaya, who had vowed to return to Honduras on Thursday, put that off after the OAS announced the three-day deadline for the country's interim leaders to accept him back. Zelaya was in Panama on Wednesday to attend that country's presidential inauguration.
Zelaya said he would put off his return until the weekend.
The decision to suspend U.S. military activities in Honduras was announced by Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, who said, "We've postponed any activities in Honduras right now as we assess that situation."
Whitman would not be specific, but the suspension could have broad implications because the United States runs a large Central American security and counternarcotics operation from a jointly run air base in Honduras. Whitman said only operations affecting Honduras itself are on hold.
Earlier, OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza delivered what he called "an ultimatum" for Zelaya's safe return.
In a sharply worded resolution, the OAS said it vehemently condemned the coup and "the arbitrary detention and expulsion" of Zelaya.
The coup, the OAS resolution said, has produced an "unconstitutional alteration of the democratic order."
Calling Zelaya's overthrow an "old-fashioned coup," Insulza said: "We need to show clearly that military coups will not be accepted. We thought we were in an era when military coups were no longer possible in this hemisphere."
Zelaya has said he intends to return home accompanied by Insulza, the presidents of Argentina and Ecuador and the head of the U.N. General Assembly to seek restoration of his authority.

Roberto Micheletti, named by Honduras' Congress as the new president, said Tuesday that Zelaya could be met with an arrest warrant if he returned.

___

AP National Security Writer Anne Gearan contributed to this report.

WEDNESDAY, July 1 (HealthDay News) -- Two drugs prescribed to
help people quit smoking, Chantix and Zyban, will now carry "black-box"
warnings on the potential risks of psychiatric problems, including
depression and suicidal thoughts, U.S. health officials said Wednesday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it was mandating the
black-box warnings, the strictest possible, based on reports to the agency
of these side effects and on a review of clinical trials and scientific
literature.

"We are requiring the manufacturers of the smoking-cessation drugs
Chantix and Zyban to add a new boxed warning highlighting the risk of
serious mental health symptoms with use of these products," Dr. Curt
Rosebraugh, director of the FDA's Office of Drug Evaluation II, said
during a Wednesday teleconference.

The agency's review found that some people who used Chantix
(varenicline) and Zyban (bupropion) experienced unusual changes in
behavior, became depressed, or had their depression worsen and had
thoughts of suicide or dying, the FDA said.

Rosebraugh said there were reports of 98 suicides and 188 suicide
attempts involving Chantix, and 14 suicides and 17 attempts reported with
Zyban.

For many users, the problems started soon after they began taking the
drugs and ended when they stopped taking them. Some users, however,
continued to have symptoms even after stopping the drugs. In a few cases,
the problems started after the drugs were stopped, Rosebraugh said.

People taking these drugs who develop any of these symptoms should be
monitored until their symptoms clear up, even if symptoms develop after
stopping these drugs, Rosebraugh added.

The drugs don't contain nicotine, and some of the symptoms may be
caused by nicotine withdrawal. People who stop smoking can suffer from
depression, anxiety, irritability, restlessness, and sleep disturbances,
the FDA noted.

Some patients who were using the drugs experienced the side effects
while they were still smoking, the agency said.

Rosebraugh said the risk of using these drugs needs to be balanced with
the substantial benefits of quitting smoking, and these drugs can be very
effective.

"Stopping smoking is a goal we all want to work towards, and if people
need medication to do it they should have access to it. So we don't want
to scare people off from trying to use a medication to stop smoking; we
just want them to be carefully monitored," he said.

In addition to the warning, the FDA is requesting more prescribing
information in the warning section of the label, and new information in
the Medication Guide for patients that discusses the risk of mental health
events while using these products.

The makers of the drugs will also be required to do a clinical trial to
see how often serious psychiatric symptoms occur in patients using a
variety of therapies to help them quit smoking, including patients who
currently have psychiatric disorders, Rosebraugh said. Results of this
trial won't be known for several years, he added.

Chantix is manufactured by Pfizer Inc. Zyban is made by
GlaxoSmithKline.

"The labeling update underscores the important role of health-care
providers in treating smokers attempting to quit and provides specific
information about Chantix and instructions that physicians and patients
should follow closely," Dr. Briggs W. Morrison, senior vice president for
the Primary Care Development Group at Pfizer, said in a prepared
statement. "Quitting smoking is one of the best things people can do for
their health, but the quitting process is both difficult and complex."

The FDA's review of consumers using nicotine patches did not find a
link between patches and psychiatric side effects.

The antidepressant Wellbutrin, which contains the same active
ingredient as Zyban, already carries a black-box warning.

More information

For more on how to quit smoking, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Los Angeles (E! Online) –
There are only two Jonas Brothers left.

For girls to fantasize about marrying one day, that is!

Kevin Jonas, 21, has proposed to his girlfriend of two years, Danielle Deleasa, E! News confirmed Wednesday.

Deleasa, 22, met Kevin—the JoBro who has managed to have a private life—in May 2007 while their families were vacationing in the Bahamas.

"Our hearts are filled with joy today and we are happy to share with you that our son Kevin has asked Danielle for her hand in marriage," parents Denise and Kevin Jonas Sr. said in a statement. "Her answer was yes, and it is such a blessing that she will be joining our family. Kevin and Danielle have not yet set a date."

A rep for Kevin confirmed that he showed up at Deleasa's New Jersey home this morning with a ring he codesigned with Jacob & Co., and popped the question at her doorstep.
But while thousands of girls would love to be in Deleasa's shoes—or at least also in a position to attend a wedding where Joe and Nick Jonas will be—the former hairdresser tells People she didn't know who Kevin was when she first met him.

Way to play coy, honey.

Kevin, who performed in Vancouver last night and caught a red-eye to Jersey, told the mag, "It was tough performing last night, knowing that I was going to ask the biggest question in my life to the most amazing girl in the world."

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BETHESDA, Maryland (Reuters) –
U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover believes he has to elevate his game on a more consistent basis before he will consider himself among the sport's elite.

The South Carolina native missed the cut in his three previous U.S. Open appearances but two weeks ago shocked the golf world and himself by winning the year's second major by two strokes.

At this week's AT&T National starting on Thursday, Glover is in high quality company alongside luminaries such as former world number one Vijay Singh and tournament host Tiger Woods, one of his playing partners for the first two rounds.

"Those guys are there (contending) every week," Glover, 29, told a news conference at Congressional Country Club outside Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. "I've done it once. I've got a lot of room to improve.

"Now I get to see the best the next two days," he added, referring to top-ranked Woods, a 14-times major winner.

Glover entered the U.S. Open ranked 71st in the world with just one previous PGA Tour victory under his belt before his unlikely win at water-logged Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York.

Now, instead of trying to play his way into this month's British Open, he can fine-tune his game after automatically qualifying for the July 16-19 event at Turnberry in Scotland.

Glover is determined to build on his shining moment at Bethpage and become more than just an answer to a U.S. Open trivia question.

OPEN MOTIVATION

"I said it there as soon as it happened that that was going to be motivation for me," he said. "I didn't want that to be it. And whether it is or isn't, I can't think that way.

"I can't say: 'Well, I'm done.' Springboard, motivation, whatever term you want to use, I want to be there again. I want to have more chances.

"Nothing is guaranteed in golf. I've got to use that as motivation and try to improve my game and try to get back."

Glover conceded his temper has often got the better of him in the past, forcing him to "battle" to stay focused. He began last month's U.S. Open with a double bogey, an incident which would have caused him to unravel in the past.

"It used to be a big deal," Glover said of his temperament. "But it's just a patience thing for me. Just try not to let it get to me and just move forward.

"Bogey is not the worst thing in the world, and there's a lot of people that would like to be where I am."

The 6-foot-2, 195-pound (88 kg) Glover wants to move on from his Open triumph but he still has trouble believing he actually accomplished the feat.

"I'm getting back down a little bit," he said. "Cloud four as opposed to nine, I guess."

(Editing by Justin Palmer)

ATLANTA – The percentage of Americans with private health insurance has hit its lowest mark in 50 years, according to two new government reports. About 65 percent of non-elderly Americans had private insurance in 2008, down from 67 percent the year before, according to preliminary data released Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"It's bad news," said Kenneth Thorpe, a health policy researcher at Emory University.
In the 1970s and early 1980s, nearly 80 percent of Americans had private coverage, according to CDC officials.
Some experts blamed the faltering economy and corporate decisions to raise health insurance premiums — or do away with employee coverage — as the main drivers of the recent data. They say coverage statistics for 2009 may look even worse.
However, public coverage of adults is rising in some states, due to programs like Medicaid expanding eligibility. So not all the adults without private coverage are uninsured, Thorpe said.
Indeed, the CDC estimated that about 44 million Americans were uninsured last year — nearly the same as CDC estimates for other recent years.
The CDC is one of at least three U.S. agencies that estimate the number of Americans without health insurance. The U.S. Census Bureau puts out what is perhaps the best-known number, but that agency's 2008 estimate is not due out until August.
Like the Census Bureau, the CDC's estimate is based on a survey. The CDC interviewed about 75,000 Americans last year, asking if they were uninsured at the time. About 15 percent said yes, leading to the estimate that about 44 million Americans were uninsured.
The drop in non-elderly adults with private health insurance was statistically significant, but the drop in children without private coverage was not. Health officials noted that public coverage of children has risen dramatically in the last ten years, and now more than one in three children are covered by a public plan.
The CDC also reported on insurance coverage in the 20 largest states, and found the percent of uninsured people ranged from 3 percent in Massachusetts to 23 percent in Texas. Lack of health insurance was greatest in the South and West.
Private coverage rates for people under age 65 ranged from 79 percent in Massachusetts to 56 percent in Florida, the CDC reported.
__
On the Net:
The CDC reports: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs

KIRKWOOD, N.Y. – State police in New York say two Pennsylvania men robbed a gas station and might have gotten away if they had also fueled up. Troopers said they caught 29-year-old Lonnie Meckwood, of Carbondale, and 51-year-old Phillip Weeks, of Tunkhannock, after their getaway car ran out of gas while the were trying to escape late Monday night.
They're accused of using a knife to rob a clerk at the Quickway Convenience Store in Kirkwood, near the New York-Pennsylvania border about 80 miles south of Syracuse. The clerk wasn't hurt.
Police found the pair about a mile away. Their car was on the side of the road.
They're being held in the Broome County Jail without bail. Troopers don't know if they have lawyers.

RALEIGH, N.C. – The Carolina Hurricanes are keeping Erik Cole with a two-year deal.
He and the Hurricanes agreed to a contract Wednesday that will pay him $2.8 million this upcoming season and $3 million in 2010-11.
Carolina dealt Cole to Edmonton last summer, then reacquired him at the trading deadline. His return re-energized the Hurricanes — and All-Star Eric Staal in particular — down the stretch, but he struggled in the playoffs with no goals and five assists in 18 games.
He had 18 goals and 24 assists in 80 regular-season games.
Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford called Cole "an important piece for our franchise for a long time."
Cole became the second player to re-sign with Carolina this week. Jussi Jokinen previously signed on for two years.

PITTSBURGH – The Pittsburgh Pirates, swapping outfielders at a rapid rate for the second successive season, sent starting left fielder Nyjer Morgan to the Washington Nationals in a four-player deal involving outfielder Lastings Milledge and also shipped backup Eric Hinske to the Yankees on Tuesday.
The Pirates, spurred to trade because their farm system has been unproductive, acquired Milledge and reliever Joel Hanrahan from the Nationals for the fleet Morgan and left-handed reliever Sean Burnett, a former first-round draft pick.
Hinske, the 2002 AL Rookie of the Year, went to the Yankees for minor league right-hander Casey Erickson and outfielder Eric Fryer. The Yankees also get about $400,000 to help pay the remainder of Hinske's $1.5 million salary.
Just as they did last season by dealing Jason Bay and Xavier Nady, the Pirates traded two of their three starting outfielders before Aug. 1. They sent former NL All-Star center fielder Nate McLouth to Atlanta on June 4 for pitcher Charlie Morton and two other prospects.
Like the McLouth trade, these deals weren't popular with players who have seen regular after regular traded — Aramis Ramirez, Brian Giles, Jason Kendall, Bay, Nady — since 2004 with the Pirates getting little in return. The Pirates are on a pace for a major league-record 17th consecutive losing season.
"What's so shocking is we're (six) games out and we've lost three of our everyday players," said shortstop Jack Wilson, a nine-year veteran who could be traded this month. "It's tough for the guys who've been here and have seen these trades happen and absolutely do nothing. I've seen these trades two or three times a year and we still haven't had a winning season."
Morgan, who turns 29 on Thursday, was traded less than halfway through a promising first season as a starter. He is hitting .277 with two homers and 27 RBIs, only four fewer than No. 3 hitter Freddy Sanchez, and has 18 steals, although he has been thrown out 10 times.
"We see him as a speed-type of player that can play above-average defense for us in center field, give us a top-of-the-lineup bat that can create a little havoc on the basepaths and get you a stolen base when you need it," Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo said. "It gives us the defensive center fielder we've been missing here."
Milledge, a former top Mets prospect, hit .167 in only seven games before being sent to the minors and has spent much of the season rehabilitating a broken right ring finger that required surgery in May. He is expected to join Triple-A Indianapolis within a week to 10 days.
Milledge, 24, has 25 homers in 897 career at-bats, but has been set back by a broken right hand and finger, sore foot and groin strain. He hit .268 with 14 homers, 61 RBIs and 24 doubles in 138 games last season, earning him a spot on the cover of the Nationals' media guide.
Still, he proved to be a major disappointment to a team that traded two regulars, catcher Brian Schneider and outfielder Ryan Church, to the Mets for him in November 2007.
Criticized by some Mets players for not behaving like a major leaguer, Milledge angered the Nationals by twice being late for meetings.
"As always, these trades are not easy," Pirates general manager Neal Huntington said. "There's always risks. If there wasn't some issues, there's no way we acquire a player of this upside and potential."
Hanrahan is 0-3 with a 7.71 ERA in 34 games — he was demoted from the closer's job — and has a 5.30 ERA in 115 career games. The 27-year-old right-hander will join the Pirates on Wednesday.
Burnett, Pittsburgh's top pick in 2000, is 1-2 with a 3.06 ERA in 38 games. The 26-year-old has pitched in 96 games the last two seasons.
The 31-year-old Hinske hit .255 in 106 at-bats with nine doubles, one homer and 11 RBIs, playing right field, first base and third base. Hinske, 8 for 24 as a pinch hitter, has been disappointed by a lack of playing time.
Through June 29 last year, he had 13 home runs en route to a 20-home run season with the AL champion Rays. He won the rookie award with Toronto in 2002, when he hit .279 with 24 homers and 84 RBIs, and was a member of Boston's World Series championship team in 2007.
"He's a pro. He's been through the trenches in the AL East," Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said. "There's a lot of benefits to him. He knows his role."

The 23-year-old Erickson was 3-3 with a 2.25 ERA in three starts and 18 relief appearances at Class A Charleston this season. Fryer, also 23, hit .250 with 11 doubles, two homers, 24 RBIs and 11 steals for Class A Tampa after leading the South Atlantic League with a .335 average last year for West Virginia. He was obtained by the Yankees from the Milwaukee Brewers in February for left-hander Chase Wright.

Pittsburgh also purchased the contract of 28-year-old outfielder Garrett Jones from Indianapolis, where he hit .307 with 18 doubles, 12 homers, 48 RBIs and 14 steals.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is hoping that lessons learned from a 1976 flu outbreak can help the country act wisely to combat the current spread of swine flu.
The president and other top administration officials met Tuesday with six experts on the 1976 flu so that — in his words — "we can further prepare the nation for the possibility of a more severe outbreak of H1N1 flu."
In 1976, a mass vaccination against a different swine flu was marred by reports of a paralyzing side effect — and that time the flu didn't spread beyond an outbreak at Fort Dix, N.J.
Among those meeting Tuesday with Obama was the president of the Institute of Medicine, Dr. Harvey Fineberg.
___
On the Net:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/

Paris –
If any designer in Paris can walk away feeling justifiably good about himself after the just finished menswear season it is Kris Van Assche, whose subtle collection for Dior Homme in Paris on Sunday, June 28, and edgy fare with his own label both bore one indelible trademark - his own.

In previous seasons at Dior, Van Assche has tended to hedge his bets by not fully embracing his own aesthetic, partly due to the reputation of his predecessor, Hedi Slimane, and partly due to the weight of assuming the responsibility at such a famous house as Christian Dior.

But on Sunday afternoon, his lightly layered, faintly billowing and inside-outside Dior Homme collection was Van Assche following his own voice.

"This collection is really me being really, fully myself at Dior," said Van Assche with a slight intake of air and a palpable sense of release.

Where before Van Assche tended to be out in left field in terms of design trends, this season his main themes were entirely in sync with the current mood in menswear.

Take the trousers from Dior, cut amply at the thigh and tight at the ankle and slotting in with current trend, or the light layering, where the just-so transparency picked up on a look seen a lot in Milan this season. But Van Assche's ideas were all the better for his riskier approach, like using horse hair, normally employed on the inside to define the shoulder, used here on the outside to embellish a jacket.

The Dior designer also injected a note of street hipness with sleeveless jackets, vests with floppy lapels and high-tops with laces wrapped all around the ankle.

On Friday, June 26, Van Assche sent out his signature collection underneath the arches of the University Pierre and Marie Curie. A layered look at menswear, it featured baggy shorts, transparent chiffon tops, jackets with exposed seams and some great djellabas, a key item for next summer.

But his best moment were some remarkable, multilace street warrior sandals in electric blues and yellows, ideal for the a colonial-inspired clubber next spring.

WASHINGTON – The Senate plans to hold a hearing next week looking into antitrust issues surrounding the Bowl Championship Series. It's the second time this year that Congress is shining a light on the polarizing system college football uses to crown its national champion.
The hearing will be held next Tuesday in the Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy and consumer rights, according to a posting on the committee's Web site.
Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the subcommittee's top Republican and the lawmaker who sought the hearing, did not return telephone and e-mail messages left at his office Tuesday.
In an essay for Sports Illustrated being released Wednesday, Hatch wrote that the Sherman Antitrust Act prohibits contracts, combinations or conspiracies designed to reduce competition.
"I don't think a more accurate description of what the BCS does exists," Hatch wrote. He noted that six conferences get automatic bids to participate in series, while others do not. The system, he argued, "intentionally and explicitly favors certain participants."
Citing the money generated by the BCS, Hatch wrote, "If the government were to ignore a similar business arrangement of this magnitude in any other industry, it would be condemned for shirking its responsibility."
When asked about Hatch's comments, BCS coordinator John Swofford said the BCS' lawyers have "worked diligently to ensure that the BCS is in compliance with the law."
Football fans in Hatch's state were furious that Utah was bypassed for the national championship despite going undefeated in the regular season. Hatch noted that President Barack Obama and others have called for the BCS to be replaced with a playoff system.
"One thing is clear: No changes will take place if Congress does nothing," Hatch wrote.
Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has introduced legislation that would prevent the NCAA from calling a game a national championship unless it's the outcome of a playoff. At a May hearing, Barton warned that the legislation would move forward "if we don't see some action in the next two months" from BCS on switching to a playoff system.
David Frohnmayer, president of the University of Oregon and chairman of the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee, expressed a preference Tuesday for the current system, saying the proposals for a playoff system "disrespect our academic calendars, and they utterly lack a business plan."

Los Angeles (E! Online) –
Didn't I tell ya T.R. Knight wanted to make a move to New York City now that he's done with Grey's Anatomy?

Knight's rep confirms the actor will star in an upcoming Broadway revival of the Tony Award-winning Lend Me a Tenor...
Opening in February 2010, the farcical tale centers around a Cleveland Opera Company's production of Othello. Knight will play Max, a production assistant forced to understudy for the lead, who has passed out from a double dose of tranquillizers.

Stanley Tucci is said to be directing Knight and his yet-to-be announced costars. Back in March, it was reported that Tucci directed a reading of the Tenor revival that included Knight, Alfred Molina, Tony Shalhoub, Jan Maxwell and Marian Seldes.

But we haven't seen the last of Knight on the West Coast. Before jumping to NYC, he'll star in a two-month run of the musical Parade at L.A.'s Mark Taper Forum.

________

Get more Marc on Twitter @marcmalkin

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Some of the significant cases the Supreme Court decided in its 2008-2009 term:
REVERSE DISCRIMINATION
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race. It was a decision that could alter employment practices nationwide and make it harder to prove discrimination where there is no evidence it was intentional. The white firefighters claimed they were discriminated against when the city tossed out the results of a promotion exam because too few minorities scored high enough. The city says it acted because it might have been vulnerable to claims that the exam had a "disparate impact" on minorities in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Decided on June 29, 2009.
STATE REGULATION OF BANKS
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that state attorneys general can investigate national banks for discrimination and other crimes in the states where they operate as long as they can convince a judge that investigations are needed. Federal courts had blocked an investigation begun by New York, which was backed by the other 49 states, of whether minorities were being charged higher interest rates on home mortgage loans by national banks with branches in New York. The high court ruled that state attorneys general cannot issue subpoenas or bring enforcement actions against banks on their own, but can go to court to get permission to investigate. Decided on June 29, 2009.
STRIP SEARCH
The Supreme Court ruled that school officials violated an Arizona teenager's rights by strip-searching her for prescription-strength ibuprofen. The court said educators cannot force children to remove their clothing unless student safety is at risk and they reasonably suspect where something is being hidden. In an 8-1 ruling, the justices said that Safford Middle School officials violated the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches with their treatment of Savana Redding, who was 13 at the time. The court ruled that the officials could not be held financially liable but left it to lower courts to decide if the school district could. Decided June 25, 2009.
VOTING RIGHTS
The Supreme Court narrowly ruled in a challenge to the landmark Voting Rights Act, siding with a small Texas governing authority but sidestepping the larger constitutional issue. The court in an 8-1 decision avoided the major questions raised over the federal government's most powerful tool to prevent discriminatory voting changes since the mid-1960s. The law requires all or parts of 16 states, mainly in the South, with a history of discrimination in voting to get approval before making changes in the way elections are conducted. The court said that the Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 in Austin, Texas, can apply to opt out of the advance approval requirement, reversing a lower federal court that found it could not. Decided on June 22, 2009.
SPECIAL EDUCATION
The Supreme Court ruled that parents don't have to send their special education students to public schools before seeking reimbursement for private school tuition. The justices ruled 6-3 that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act does not require public school attendance before parents of special ed students can ask to be reimbursed for the child's tuition at private schools. The family of a teenage Oregon boy has fought to get reimbursed for $65,000 in private tuition. Decided June 22, 2009.
AGE DISCRIMINATION
The Supreme Court made it harder to prove discrimination on the basis of age, ruling against an employee in his mid-50s who says he was demoted because of his age. In a 5-4 decision, the court said a worker has to prove that age was the key factor in an employment decision, even if there is some evidence that age played a role. In some other discrimination lawsuits, the burden of proof shifts to the employer once a worker shows there is some reason to believe a decision was made for improper reasons. Decided June 18, 2009.
DNA TESTING
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that convicts have no constitutional right to test genetic evidence to try to show their innocence. The court said it would not second-guess states or force them routinely to look again at criminal convictions. This decision could have a limited effect because 47 states and the federal government already have laws that allow DNA testing in some circumstances. William Osborne, convicted in a brutal assault on a prostitute in Alaska 16 years ago, sued for the right to test the contents of a blue condom the victim says was used by her attacker. Decided on June 18, 2009.
JUDICIAL ETHICS
The Supreme Court ruled that elected judges must step aside from cases when large campaign contributions from interested parties create the appearance of bias. By a 5-4 vote in a case from West Virginia, the court said that a judge who remained involved in a lawsuit filed against the company of the most generous supporter of his election deprived the other side of the constitutional right to a fair hearing. Justice at Stake, which tracks campaign spending in judicial elections, says judges are elected in 39 states and that candidates for the highest state courts have raised more than $168 million since 2000. Decided June 8, 2009.
IRAQ IMMUNITY

The Supreme Court ruled that the current government in Iraq cannot be held responsible for the actions of Saddam Hussein's regime. The high court unanimously turned away lawsuits from Americans who were held in Iraq during the Gulf War. The court said a federal law enacted in 2003 gave Iraq back the immunity that was stripped by the designation of Saddam's government as a sponsor of terrorism. Decided on June 8, 2009.

LAWYER REQUEST

The Supreme Court overturned a long-standing ruling that stopped police from initiating questions unless a defendant's lawyer was present, a move that will make it easier for prosecutors to interrogate suspects. The high court, in a 5-4 ruling, overturned the 1986 Michigan v. Jackson ruling, which said police may not initiate questioning of a defendant who has a lawyer or has asked for one unless the attorney is present. The court's opinion said the decision will have "minimal" effects on criminal defendants because of the protections the court has provided in other decisions. Decided on May 26, 2009.

QUALIFIED IMMUNITY

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that FBI Director Robert Mueller and former Attorney General John Ashcroft cannot be sued by a former Sept. 11 detainee who claimed he was abused because of his religion and ethnicity. This decision could make it harder to sue top officials for the actions of low-level operatives. The court overturned a lower court decision that let Javaid Iqbal's lawsuit against the high-ranking officials proceed. Iqbal is a Pakistani Muslim who spent nearly six months in solitary confinement in New York in 2002. He had argued that Ashcroft and Mueller were responsible for a policy of confining detainees in highly restrictive conditions because of their religious beliefs or race. Decided May 18, 2009.

MATERNITY LEAVE

The Supreme Court ruled that women who took maternity leave before it became illegal to discriminate against pregnant women can't sue to force employers to count their leave time for their pensions. Four AT&T Corp. employees who took maternity leave between 1968 and 1976 sued the company to get their leave time credited toward their pensions. Their pregnancies occurred before the 1979 Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which barred companies from treating pregnancy leaves differently from other disability leaves. The high court, in a 7-2 ruling, overturned a lower-court decision that said that decades-old maternity leaves should count in determining pensions. Decided on May 18, 2009.

IDENTITY THEFT

A unanimous Supreme Court said that undocumented workers who use phony IDs can't be considered identity thieves without proof they knew they were stealing real people's Social Security and other numbers. The court's decision limits federal authorities' use of a 2004 identity theft law against immigrants who are picked up in workplace raids and found to be using false Social Security and alien registration numbers. Advocates for immigrants had complained authorities used the threat of prosecution on the identity theft charge to win guilty pleas on lesser charges and acceptance of prompt deportation. Decided May 4, 2009.

SUPERFUND

The Supreme Court said Shell Oil Co. cannot be held responsible for cleanup of a contaminated Superfund site owned by a defunct company simply because it delivered chemicals to the site. The court, in an 8-1 decision, also decided that railroad companies that leased the defunct company part of the land would only have to pay for a small part of the cleanup. Decided on May 4, 2009.

BROADCAST INDECENCY

The Supreme Court ruled narrowly in favor of a government policy that threatens broadcasters with fines over the use of even a single curse word on live television. The court, however, stopped short of deciding whether the policy violates the Constitution. By a 5-4 vote, the court threw out a lower court ruling that said the agency could not now start levying large fines for the type of fleeting expletives that it had let slide for years. This was the Supreme Court's first major broadcast indecency case in 30 years. Decided April 28, 2009.

WARRANTLESS SEARCH

The Supreme Court ruled that police need a warrant to search the vehicle of someone they have arrested if the person is locked up in a patrol cruiser and poses no safety threat to officers. The court's 5-4 decision puts new limits on the ability of police to search a vehicle immediately after the arrest of a suspect, particularly when the alleged offense is nothing more serious than a traffic violation. The court said warrantless searches still may be conducted if a car's passenger compartment is within reach of a suspect who has been removed from the vehicle or there is reason to believe evidence will be found of the crime that led to the arrest. Decided on April 21, 2009.

POWER PLANTS

The Supreme Court ruled that the government can weigh costs against benefits in deciding whether to order power plants to undertake environmental upgrades that would protect fish. The court's 6-3 decision is a defeat for environmentalists who had urged the justices to uphold a favorable federal appeals court ruling that could have required an estimated 554 power plants to install technology that relies on recycled water to cool machinery. Decided on April 1, 2009.

TOBACCO PUNITIVE DAMAGES

The Supreme Court left in place a $79.5 million award to a smoker's widow, ending a 10-year legal fight over the large payout. The court let stand a ruling by the Oregon Supreme Court in favor of Mayola Williams and against Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris USA. Williams persuaded a jury in 1999 that the company should be held accountable for misleading people into thinking cigarettes were not dangerous or addictive. The justices initially agreed to review the Oregon court judgment, then changed their minds without explanation. Announced March 31, 2009.

VOTING RIGHTS

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that electoral districts must have a majority of African-Americans or other minorities to be protected by a provision of the Voting Rights Act. The court declined to expand protections of the landmark civil rights law to take in electoral districts where the minority population is less than 50 percent, but strong enough to effectively determine the outcome of elections. The decision could make it more difficult for Democrats, particularly in the South and Southwest, to draw electoral boundaries friendly to black or Hispanic candidates following the 2010 Census. Decided on March 9, 2009.

DRUG MAKER LIABILITY

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court forcefully rejected calls for limiting consumer lawsuits against drug makers, upholding a $6.7 million jury award to a musician who lost her arm to gangrene following an injection. The right arm of Diana Levine of Vermont was amputated after she was injected with Phenergan, an anti-nausea medicine made by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Levine's lawsuit said she wasn't sufficiently warned of the risks of using Phenergan. The justices turned away Wyeth's claim that federal regulation provides a shield against lawsuits like Levine's. Decided March 4, 2009.

RELIGIOUS MONUMENTS

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Summum, a small religious group, cannot force a city in Utah to place a granite marker in a local park that already is home to a Ten Commandments display. The court said that governments can decide what to display in a public park without running afoul of the First Amendment. The Summum believe that when Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai he received a second set of tablets called the Seven Aphorisms. Decided Feb. 25, 2009.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FIREARMS

The Supreme Court affirmed the use of a federal law barring people convicted of domestic violence crimes from owning guns. The court, in a 7-2 decision, said state laws against battery need not specifically mention domestic violence to fall under the domestic violence gun ban that was enacted in 1996. The case involved Randy Edwards Hayes, a West Virginia man whose earlier misdemeanor conviction for beating his wife gave rise to a federal felony indictment for gun possession. Decided on Feb. 24, 2009.

RETALIATION

A unanimous Supreme Court ruled that workers who cooperate with their employers' internal investigations of discrimination may not be fired in retaliation for implicating colleagues or superiors.The justices held that a longtime school system employee in Tennessee can pursue a civil rights lawsuit over her firing. The court voted to reverse a federal appeals court ruling that the anti-retaliation provision of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act does not apply to employees who merely cooperate with an internal probe rather than complain on their own or take part in a formal investigation. Decided Jan. 26, 2009.

EVIDENCE

The Supreme Court ruled that evidence obtained after illegal searches or arrests based on simple police mistakes may be used to prosecute criminal defendants. The justices voted 5-4 to apply new limits to a rule requiring evidence to be suppressed if it results from a violation of a suspect's Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches or seizure. Justices acknowledged that the arrest of Bennie Dean Herring — based on the mistaken belief that there was a warrant for his arrest — violated his constitutional rights, yet upheld his conviction on federal drug and gun charges. Decided on Jan. 14, 2009.

CIGARETTE ADVERTISING

The Supreme Court handed a defeat to tobacco companies counting on it to put an end to lawsuits alleging deceptive marketing of "light" cigarettes. In a 5-4 split won by the court's liberals, it ruled that smokers may use state consumer protection laws to sue cigarette makers for the way they promote light and "low tar" brands. The decision was at odds with recent anti-consumer rulings that limited state regulation of business in favor of federal power. Decided on Dec. 15, 2008.

NAVY SONAR USAGE

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that military training trumps protecting whales in a dispute over the Navy's use of sonar in submarine-hunting exercises off the coast of southern California. The court said forcing the Navy to deploy an inadequately trained anti-submarine force jeopardizes the safety of the fleet. The most serious possible injury to environmental groups would be harm to an unknown number of the marine mammals the groups study, justices said. Decided Nov. 12, 2008.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) –
Among working women with newly diagnosed breast cancer, those treated with chemotherapy appear more likely to experience a major change in work status, study findings suggest.

By contrast, radiation therapy was not associated with a similar risk, Dr. Michael J. Hassett, at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, and colleagues report in the journal Cancer.

Hassett's team used a large health insurance claim database to identify 3233 insured women, younger than 64 years old, who were working full or part time when first diagnosed with breast cancer between 1998 and 2002.

Overall, about 54 percent underwent chemotherapy and 58 percent underwent radiation therapy.

Most of the women did "not experience a significant change in their employment after cancer diagnosis and treatment," Hassett told Reuters Health.

However, of the 6.6 percent who did have a change in work status, those receiving chemotherapy had 1.8-fold greater risk of leaving work, retiring, or going on long-term disability over the subsequent year, he and colleagues found.

Of the women who experienced a change in employment during the year after their diagnosis, 67 percent went from full-time work to early retirement. The rest went from full-time employment to long-term disability, retirement, or their status was unknown.

When the investigators allowed for factors associated with employment status, such as type of breast cancer, treatment, and health insurance plan, plus region, age, and other medical conditions, only chemotherapy treatment and older age were associated with greater risk of a change in employment.

"Most of the women in our study worked for large employers that sponsored health insurance programs for their employees," Hassett added. He and colleagues call for further investigations to assess the impact cancer diagnosis and treatments have on women who work for smaller companies or are self-employed.

SOURCE: Cancer, June 15, 2009.

The NRC accepts that despite ongoing research, large gaps still exist in the knowledge of quantitative nutritional information for specific nutrients. Some professionals acknowledge the possibilities of phytochemicals and other vital nutrients that have yet to be recognized as essential by nutritional science. With such broad guidelines and loose feeding trial standards, critics argue the term "complete and balanced" to inaccurate and even deceptive. An AAFCO panel expert has stated that "although the AAFCO profiles are better than nothing, they provide false securities. "

The 2007 pet food recalls involved the massive recall of many brands of cat and dog foods beginning in March 2007. The recalls came in response to reports of renal failure in pets consuming mostly wet pet foods made with wheat gluten from a single Chinese company, beginning in February 2007. After more than three weeks of complaints from consumers, the recall began voluntarily with the Canadian company Menu Foods on March 16, 2007, when a company test showed sickness and death in some of the test animals. Soon after, there were numerous media reports of animal deaths as a result of kidney failure, and several other companies who received the contaminated wheat gluten also voluntarily recalled dozens of pet food brands.

Holistic Pet Food

Photo Books

Publishing is a process for producing books, magazines, newspapers, etc. pre-printed for the reader/user to buy, usually in large numbers by a publishing company. Such books can be categorized as fiction (made-up stories) or non-fiction (information written as fact). A book-length fiction story is called a novel.

According to Herodotus (History 5:58), the Phoenicians brought writing and papyrus to Greece around the tenth or ninth century BC. The Greek word for papyrus as writing material (biblion) and book (biblos) come from the Phoenician port town Byblos, through which papyrus was exported to Greece. From Greeks we have also the word tome (Greek: τόμος) which originally meant a slice or piece and from there it became to denote "a roll of papyrus". Tomus was used by the Latins with exactly the same meaning as volumen (see also below the explanation by Isidore of Seville).

PHILADELPHIA – A doctor accused of botching dozens of prostate cancer surgeries at a Veterans Administration hospital admitted Monday that he sometimes missed his target when implanting radioactive seeds, leaving patients with incorrect dosages.
But Dr. Gary D. Kao called the mistakes commonplace in aiming seeds at the walnut-sized prostate, which sits near the bladder and rectum, and he steadfastly refused to become a scapegoat for the scandal at the VA Medical Center in Philadelphia.
"Contrary to the allegations that I was a 'rogue' physician, ... I always acted in the best interest of the patients in delivering this important treatment," Kao, a radiation oncologist, testified at a Senate field hearing at the hospital, where he worked from 2002 to 2008.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has found that 92 of 116 men treated in the hospital's brachytherapy program received incorrect doses of the radiation seeds, often because they landed in nearby organs or surrounding tissue rather than the prostate. Kao performed the majority of the procedures under a VA contract with the University of Pennsylvania, where he was on staff.
Under questioning from Sen. Arlen Specter, Kao acknowledged that he never informed patients when he missed the prostate or delivered insufficient doses.
Kao, however, said the mistakes did not necessarily amount to substandard care that had to be reported to the NRC or other agencies.
"Brachytherapy was and still is an evolving field," he said.
Kao, 45, testified at the hearing voluntarily, albeit with a lawyer at his side. In a lengthy written statement, he said he earned his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University, did his radiation oncology residency at the University of Pennsylvania and has never been sued for malpractice.
Rep. John Adler, D-N.J., harshly questioned why he still had a medical license.
Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-Pa., seemingly defended Kao while questioning the long-term safety of the procedure, which thousands of men across the country have undergone in recent years.
Specter sought the middle ground, eliciting an apology and an awkward embrace from Kao to one of his alleged victims, the Rev. Ricardo Flippin.
Flippin, 68, of Charleston, W.Va., testified that he lost his job during five months he spent in bed, incapacitated, after Kao implanted seeds into his rectum instead of his prostate in 2005. The VA suggested he was suffering from hemorrhoids or constipation afterward, but an Ohio State University physician finally diagnosed the problem as radiation burn and surgically corrected it, Flippin said.
"Rev. Flippin, we should have, we can do better," Kao said. "I hope we have a chance to do better for you and your colleagues in the future."
Flippin said he would have chosen another treatment option, such as having his prostate removed, had he known the risks involved with the radiation seeds.
The brachytherapy program at the VA Medical Center in Philadelphia has been suspended. A review of 12 other VA hospitals where the procedure is performed showed a handful of problems, but none on the same magnitude. The NRC also said, based on reporting by doctors and the agency's own reviews, the problems at the Philadelphia hospital were far more frequent than U.S. hospitals overall.
Kao has stopped performing the surgeries and last week took a leave from the University of Pennsylvania.

LONDON – For men with fertility problems, some doctors are prescribing a very conventional way to have a baby: more sex.
In a study of 118 Australian men with damaged sperm, doctors found that having sex every day for a week significantly reduced the amount of DNA damage in their patients' sperm. Previous studies have linked better sperm quality to higher pregnancy rates.
The research was announced Tuesday at a meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Amsterdam.
Dr. David Greening of Sydney IVF, a private fertility clinic in Australia, and colleagues looked at 118 men who had damaged sperm. Greening and colleagues told the men to have sex every day for a week. After seven days, the doctors found that in 81 percent of the men, there was a 12 percent decrease in the amount of damaged sperm.
Many fertility experts suggest men abstain from sex before their partners have in-vitro fertilization, to try to elevate their sperm counts.
Sperm quality can also be improved if men don't smoke, drink moderately, exercise, or get more antioxidants.
Since concluding the study, Greening says he now instructs all couples seeking fertility advice to start by having more sex. "Some of the older men look a little concerned," he said. "But the younger ones seem quite happy about it."
Experts think sex helps reduce the DNA damage in sperm by getting it out of the body quickly; if sperm is in the body for too long, it has a higher chance of getting damaged.
Some experts said that while Greening's research is promising, it doesn't prove that daily sex for men with fertility problems will actually produce more babies.
Greening said he and his colleagues are still analyzing the study data to determine how many women got pregnant.
"Looking at sperm DNA is just one part of the puzzle," said Bill Ledger, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Sheffield, who was not connected to the research. "Maybe this will improve pregnancy rates, but we still need to do more studies."
Ledger said instructing couples with infertility problems to have more sex could stress their relationship. "This may add even more anxiety and do more harm than good," he said. He said couples shouldn't feel pressured to adjust their sex lives just for the sake of having a baby.
Greening said the study's findings were ultimately very intuitive. "If you want to have a baby, our advice is to do it often."
___
On the Net:
http://www.eshre.com

Detoxification, or detox for short is the removal of toxic substances from the body. In conventional medicine, detoxification can also be achieved artificially by techniques such as dialysis and (in a very limited number of cases) chelation therapy. There is a firm scientific base in evidence-based medicine for this type of detoxification. Detoxification can also refer to the period of withdrawal during which a person's body to return to homeostasis after long-term use of an addictive substance.

Certain approaches in alternative medicine claim to remove toxins from the body through herbal, electrical or electromagnetic treatments (such as the Aqua Detox treatment). These toxins are undefined and have little scientific basis, making the validity of such techniques questionable. There is no evidence for toxic accumulation in these cases, as the liver and kidneys automatically detoxify and excrete many toxic materials including metabolic wastes.

Here

LOS ANGELES – The Jackson family is determined to move on in order to protect Michael Jackson's legacy and make sure his three children are well, family friend Al Sharpton said Tuesday.
"They've had challenges before," Sharpton said on ABC's "Good Morning America." "They always rallied."
Jackson's parents wasted little time demanding authority over their son's financially strained empire and guardianship of their fatherless grandchildren. The big question is who, if anyone, will contest them?
Early Monday — just four days after the death of the King of Pop — lawyers for Katherine and Joe Jackson won temporary custody of Michael Jackson's three children and moved to become administrators of his estate.
Judge Mitchell Beckloff granted 79-year-old Katherine Jackson temporary guardianship of the children, who range in age from 7 to 12. He also gave her control over some of her son's personal property that is now in the hands of an unnamed third party. But the judge did not immediately rule on her requests to take charge of the children's and Jackson's estates.
The swiftness of the legal motions underscore the fact that Jackson's death leaves a vacuum if he died without a valid will. If no will is filed, the number of potential claimants that could emerge seeking custody of the children or a piece of his empire are many.
Jackson's parents claimed in documents filed in Superior Court on Monday that there is no will. A person with knowledge of Jackson's business matters, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the material, said in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday that there is a will. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the will splits Jackson's estate between his three children, his mother and some charities.
"No one that I know of has ever seen the will," Jackson family attorney Brian Oxman said on CBS' "The Early Show" on Tuesday. "We simply don't know."
About the same time a judge granted Katherine Jackson authority over at least some of her son's estate Friday, pickup trucks and a large dump truck towing a flatbed were seen entering the 2,500-acre Neverland Ranch, a major piece of the singer's debt-strapped financial empire. It was not clear who had requested the fleet or for what purpose.
Clearly one of his most valuable assets is his recording catalog, which his father could potentially rerelease through his new record company if the family gains control of his assets. There could also be recordings in Jackson's estate that he had never released.
There's also a financial bonanza to be had in the Sony/ATV Music Publishing catalog of which Jackson owned 50 percent. The 750,000-song catalog includes music by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Lady Gaga and the Jonas Brothers, and is estimated to be worth as much as $2 billion.
When Jackson died Thursday, he also left behind a 12-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter by his ex-wife Deborah Rowe, as well as a 7-year-old son born to a surrogate mother.
The Jackson family said the children — Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. (known as Prince Michael), Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince Michael II — are living at the Jackson family compound in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley.
"They have a long established relationship with paternal grandmother and are comfortable in her care," the family said in court documents.
Family patriarch Joe Jackson, 79, said at a news conference that the children were enjoying playing with other kids — something they do not normally do.
The documents state that although Rowe is the mother of the two older children, her whereabouts are unknown. The document simply listed "none" for the mother of the youngest child, Prince Michael II.
The Jacksons say they have not heard from Rowe since their son's death. Rowe's attorney, Marta Almli, did not respond to an e-mail message seeking comment Monday. She previously said, "Ms. Rowe's only thoughts at this time have been regarding the devastating loss Michael's family has suffered."
Sharpton said on ABC that the Jackson family's status as a longtime show-biz family gives them valuable experience in dealing with the children.

"You must remember, they're going to have to grow up as Michael Jackson's children," he said. "They need someone that understands that culture, that scrutiny, that unusual life they're going to have to live."

The legal steps were taken even as investigators continued their probe into the singer's death. Officials with the Los Angeles County coroner's office returned to the mansion he was renting at the time of his death and left with two large plastic bags of evidence.

Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said the bags contained medication. He declined to elaborate.

Lawyers for Jackson's cardiologist Dr. Conrad Murray, who was with Jackson when he collapsed, said the physician never prescribed the powerful drugs Demerol or Oxycontin for Jackson and did all he could to revive the singer.

Attorney Matt Alford said it took as long as 30 minutes for paramedics to be called after Murray found Jackson with a faint pulse and performed CPR.

The delay was partly because Jackson's room in the rented mansion didn't have a telephone and Murray didn't know Jackson's street address to give to emergency crews, Alford said.

Eventually, Murray found a chef in the house and had him summon a security guard, who called for help while the doctor continued to perform CPR.

Lou Ferrigno, the star of TV's "Incredible Hulk" who was helping Jackson train for a planned concert tour, said that Jackson didn't look like he was in pain the last time they met; he was helping Jackson train for his tour.

"He might have been a little thin because he was under a lot of stress because of the tour," Ferrigno said on "Good Morning America." But he said he believed Jackson would have made it through his concert tour. He said Jackson was a vegetarian who ate only one meal a day.

Jackson's father told reporters at the family compound that his son's funeral was still in the planning stages but added that his son would not be buried at Neverland.

___

Associated Press writers Gregory Katz in London, AP Music Writer Nekesa Mumbi Moody in Los Angeles, business writers Ryan Nakashima and Alex Veiga in Los Angeles and writers Stevenson Jacobs and David Bauder in New York contributed to this story.

PHILADELPHIA – A doctor accused of botching dozens of prostate cancer surgeries at a Veterans Administration hospital admitted Monday that he sometimes missed his target when implanting radioactive seeds, leaving patients with incorrect dosages.
But Dr. Gary D. Kao called the mistakes commonplace in aiming seeds at the walnut-sized prostate, which sits near the bladder and rectum, and he steadfastly refused to become a scapegoat for the scandal at the VA Medical Center in Philadelphia.
"Contrary to the allegations that I was a 'rogue' physician, ... I always acted in the best interest of the patients in delivering this important treatment," Kao, a radiation oncologist, testified at a Senate field hearing at the hospital, where he worked from 2002 to 2008.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has found that 92 of 116 men treated in the hospital's brachytherapy program received incorrect doses of the radiation seeds, often because they landed in nearby organs or surrounding tissue rather than the prostate. Kao performed the majority of the procedures under a VA contract with the University of Pennsylvania, where he was on staff.
Under questioning from Sen. Arlen Specter, Kao acknowledged that he never informed patients when he missed the prostate or delivered insufficient doses.
Kao, however, said the mistakes did not necessarily amount to substandard care that had to be reported to the NRC or other agencies.
"Brachytherapy was and still is an evolving field," he said.
Kao, 45, testified at the hearing voluntarily, albeit with a lawyer at his side. In a lengthy written statement, he said he earned his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University, did his radiation oncology residency at the University of Pennsylvania and has never been sued for malpractice.
Rep. John Adler, D-N.J., harshly questioned why he still had a medical license.
Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-Pa., seemingly defended Kao while questioning the long-term safety of the procedure, which thousands of men across the country have undergone in recent years.
Specter sought the middle ground, eliciting an apology and an awkward embrace from Kao to one of his alleged victims, the Rev. Ricardo Flippin.
Flippin, 68, of Charleston, W.Va., testified that he lost his job during five months he spent in bed, incapacitated, after Kao implanted seeds into his rectum instead of his prostate in 2005. The VA suggested he was suffering from hemorrhoids or constipation afterward, but an Ohio State University physician finally diagnosed the problem as radiation burn and surgically corrected it, Flippin said.
"Rev. Flippin, we should have, we can do better," Kao said. "I hope we have a chance to do better for you and your colleagues in the future."
Flippin said he would have chosen another treatment option, such as having his prostate removed, had he known the risks involved with the radiation seeds.
The brachytherapy program at the VA Medical Center in Philadelphia has been suspended. A review of 12 other VA hospitals where the procedure is performed showed a handful of problems, but none on the same magnitude. The NRC also said, based on reporting by doctors and the agency's own reviews, the problems at the Philadelphia hospital were far more frequent than U.S. hospitals overall.
Kao has stopped performing the surgeries and last week took a leave from the University of Pennsylvania.

While a house or a residential dwelling is often referred to as a "home", the concept of "home" expresses itself upon a much broader denotation of a physical dwelling. Many people think of home in terms of where they grew up or where they lived, a place that brings back old memories or feelings, and a home can even be a time rather than an actual place. The phrases, "There's no place like home". or "Home is where the heart is". come from these sentiments.

The word "home" can be used for various types of residential institutions in which people can live, such as nursing homes, group homes (orphanages for children, retirement homes for seniors, prisons for criminals, treatment facilities, etc.), and foster homes.

Wallcoverings

CHELTENHAM, England – The godfather of Michael Jackson's three children says the circumstances surrounding the singer's death "don't add up" because he never saw him take drugs.
Former child star Mark Lester, known for his lead role in the 1968 movie version of the stage show "Oliver!," told The Associated Press in an interview Monday that Jackson was in excellent shape when he visited London in March to announce his comeback concerts.
He said his friend seemed excited about the shows when he spoke with Lester by telephone shortly before his sudden death.
"The circumstances of his death just don't add up for me," said Lester, a Jackson friend for more than 25 years who said he never saw the singer use drugs. "It just doesn't make sense."
The two met extensively when Jackson was in London in March and Lester found his friend to be fit and in good spirits at the time. Their families had meals together at Jackson's hotel, with the singer indulging in his British favorite, fish and chips.
Lester said he has a close relationship with Jackson's three children and has spoken to them since the loss of their father. He said he supports the bid of the singer's mother, Katherine Jackson, to obtain custody.
"I understand his mother is taking control and that is probably the best thing for them," he said. "She is a very loving, kind and gracious woman and she had a very close relationship with Michael and a very good rapport with her grandchildren. I know the kids are fine. They are deeply saddened by what's happened but they're coping."
Lester, 50, said he does not plan to become directly involved in the children's care, even though he became their godfather at a 2003 ceremony in Las Vegas. He said Jackson also became godfather to his four children, who are badly shaken by his death.
"They are devastated, coming to terms with the fact that we'll never see this great man again," said Lester, whose eyes seem haunted by the loss of his friend.
The two first became friends some 27 years ago when Jackson's manager told Lester the singer wanted to meet him. Both shared the experience of early stardom, although Lester left show business — he is now an osteopath in this bucolic small town in southwest England — while Jackson remained a performer until his death.
"Michael thrived on it really," Lester said. "He told me he was an illusionist, creating an illusion, and that his singing and dancing were a gift from above, that he was just the receptor of this gift. There were ups and downs to it but Michael Jackson loved being Michael Jackson, he loved the adoration he got from his fans. And he liked the trappings that came with it."
Lester said one reason he is suspicious about Jackson's sudden death is because the singer was so enthusiastic about his upcoming return to the stage, set for July 13 at the 02 Arena in London. They spoke recently about Jackson's plans to come over to London for final rehearsals, and Lester and his family planned to be there opening night.
"He was really fired up, really positive, really looking forward to it," said Lester. "He wouldn't tell me about the show, he said he wanted me to be surprised. He said it would be extraordinary."

It's rare to see Argentina's First Family convey political humility. But as President Cristina FernÁndez de Kirchner and her husband (and presidential predecessor) NÉstor Kirchner absorbed their startling defeat in Sunday's mid-term elections, they both offered unusual hints of contrition. "In a democracy, you win and you lose," said FernÁndez, after her Peronist party's congressional majority had vanished, leaving her to deal with a potentially hostile parliament over the last 2 1/2 years of her term. Kirchner, who resigned as the Peronists' leader after suffering a close but stunning loss in a congressional race, conceded that "in the coming days we'll all have to evaluate the mistakes that have been made."
Politicos all over Latin America will be scrutinizing those mistakes as well. The Argentine poll was a referendum on Fernandez's often confrontational leadership style - which voters and financial markets alike decided isn't all that well suited to rescuing South America's second largest economy from the ravages of a global recession. The FernÁndez-Kirchner comeuppance may well be taken as a first sign that the economic downturn is reining in the region's increasingly powerful presidents, especially the leftists who this decade have become a popular counter to U.S. political and economic hegemony in the Americas. (See pictures of the global financial crisis.)
FernÁndez, like her husband and their left-wing ally Hugo ChÁvez of Venezuela, is a combative populist who critics say is too dismissive of the legislative and judicial branches, which are still weak institutions in Latin America. Her Sunday setback "indicates that Latin America's hyperpresidentialist project, which was fueled by the economic boom, faces walls and obstacles now," says Javier Corrales, a Latin America expert who teaches political science at Amherst College in Massachusetts. Another factor is the exit of U.S. President George W. Bush, whose own bid for excessive presidential power wasn't exactly seen by Latin Americans as a model of democratic checks and balances. Today, the more collegial Obama presidency makes hyperpresidencies look less seemly. (See pictures of Barack Obama's family tree.)
Corrales is quick to note that the region's trend toward "superpresidencies," which includes conservative leaders like Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, "is far from over." But FernÁndez - who does little to discourage comparisons to Eva PerÓn, the glamorous and powerful Argentine First Lady of the 1940s and '50s known as "Evita" - has had her clout both at home and abroad diminished to the point that Argentine pundits are even discussing whether she might soon resign. While that's unlikely, the rest of her term promises to be a slog, and her husband's widely discussed plans to run for president again in 2011 suddenly seem a long shot. (Read: "Little Eva.")
FernÁndez's fall has been a steep one. Kirchner, elected in 2003, has been credited with nothing less than saving Argentina after its epic financial collapse of 2002. But he decided not to run for a second term in 2007, deferring instead to his wife, herself then a popular senator. Though critics claimed their plan was simply to alternate in power for 16 years, Fernandez won decisively and took office with a near 80% approval rating.
Within months, though, she was locked in acrimonious standoffs with everyone from farmers, who mobilized against her hikes in commodity-export taxes, to opposition leaders, who decried her efforts to nationalize private pension funds and her government's ties to a Venezuelan financial scandal. They also argued that Kirchner was still calling the shots from the presidential palace. Even her Vice President, Julio Cobos, last year cast the deciding Senate vote against her and for the farmers in a humiliating policy defeat.
FernÁndez, who like Kirchner hails from the provinces and butts heads with the Buenos Aires elite, insists she has simply tried to preserve the economic stability her husband had created and deliver it to a broader swath of the working class. But when she saw that her poll numbers had plunged below 30% - and realized moreover that the recession and rising crime statistics only stood to sink them further - she moved this year's midterm elections from October to June. Hoping to shore up the Peronists' prospects, Kirchner announced he would run for a congressional seat from Buenos Aires. (Read: "The Latin Hillary Clinton.")
Corrales says many Latin presidents are feeling a similar sort of panic. Earlier this year, ChÁvez saw plummeting oil prices threaten to undermine his socialist revolution, which has enfranchised Venezuela's poor but has also raised fears about authoritarian rule. ChÁvez rushed through a constitutional referendum last February that lets him run for re-election indefinitely. FernÁndez's midterm defeat, says Corrales, may have leaders like ChÁvez "asking if they should ease up on their ideological hard line or ramp it up to neutralize opponents before it's too late." In Honduras, a coup on the day of the Argentine vote forced leftist President Manuel Zelaya into exile. Zelaya's foes accuse him of presidential over reach.
Corrales says that coups are an "unacceptable" way for opponents to confront ambitious presidencies. But to keep her presidency relevant, FernÁndez, 56, will have to moderate her own political reach. Although Kirchner's Buenos Aires congressional slate lost to the more conservative opposition party, Union-Pro, he still gets a seat in the chamber of deputies because of proportional voting rules. But Union-Pro leader and billionaire businessman Francisco de NarvÁez told the Buenos Aires daily La NaciÓn that Kirchner "needs to step aside and let his wife be the nation's president and build some space for consensus." The president, he said, needs to read "these election results well." Other Latin presidents should, too.
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View this article on Time.comRelated articles on Time.com:More Woes for Argentina's 'New Evita' Signs of Spring: U.S.-Latin America Relations Thaw The Honduran Coup: How Should the U.S. Respond? A Mixed Message in Argentina's Vote Argentina Cries Foul Against Chavez

Almost every modern piano has 36 black keys and 52 white keys for a total of 88 keys (seven octaves plus a minor third, from A0 to C8). Many older pianos only have 85 keys (seven octaves from A0 to A7), while some manufacturers extend the range further in one or both directions.

Some Bösendorfer pianos extend the normal range downwards to F0, with one other model going as far as a bottom C0, making a full eight octave range. These extra keys are sometimes hidden under a small hinged lid that can be flipped down to cover the keys in order to avoid visual disorientation in a pianist unfamiliar with the extended keyboard. On others, the colours of the extra white keys are reversed (black instead of white).

Grand Piano Covers

DEAR ABBY: I was recently invited to a friend's home for dinner. When I arrived just a few minutes past the time I was told the meal would be served, I found that everyone had finished eating. I was asked if I'd like something to eat and offered a plate, but refused because I would have felt uncomfortable eating alone while everyone else stood around visiting. I stayed about an hour and left.

The next day, I tried to explain to my friends that I felt like a fool walking in expecting to join them for dinner only to see it was over. I told them I thought it was rude of them to eat before all their guests had arrived. They felt that because everyone else had arrived earlier in the day and the food was ready, that it was OK. They also said I shouldn't have gotten so upset about it.

Now I feel I have caused hard feelings between us and I should have just kept my mouth shut. Was it wrong to tell them how I felt? Am I wrong in thinking you should wait for all your guests to arrive before starting a meal? -- HURT IN WASHINGTON

DEAR HURT: If the invitation read, "Come between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m." and you were the last to arrive "a few minutes past the time the meal was to be served," then I can understand why the other guests started without you. However, if you were told that dinner was scheduled for 6 o'clock and when you arrived you were offered their leftovers, then your feelings are understandable.

Should you have spoken up? I think friends should be able to level with each other. And I find it interesting that telling them your feelings put them on the defensive.

DEAR ABBY: I have been dating "Ted," a widower, for two years. Ted has two daughters in their 20s. One is a college student; the other is a professional woman. Both girls still live at home. The problem in our relationship is that Ted allows them to dictate what he can and cannot do.

I have been patient and understanding about the situation. Ted's wife died three years ago, at age 50. The family was close. I feel Ted is leading two lives -- one I am not a part of, which includes his friends, and our life, which includes my friends and family. Ted comes to my place and gets along with my 20-something sons with ease, but when I suggest going to his house, he refuses. He says his girls want nothing to do with me and tell him I'm not welcome.

His daughters have attempted more than once to sabotage our relationship, but I continue to be patient. Ted has said the girls need counseling, but they refuse. I suggested he go and then they could join him. Abby, how can a parent make adult children realize he needs to move on and live a happy, healthy life? -- BIDING MY TIME IN ROCHESTER

DEAR BIDING: Ted will not be able to convince his daughters until he accepts that reality himself and makes clear to them that he expects his friends to be treated with the same respect and good manners he treats theirs. However, what I find troubling about your situation is that he has never introduced you to any of his friends, either.

I agree that Ted appears to be living two lives. I also agree that he could benefit from counseling. But the question you should be asking yourself -- not me -- is how long you intend to tolerate the status quo.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

What teens need to know about sex, drugs, AIDS and getting along with peers and parents is in "What Every Teen Should Know." To order, send a business-sized, self-addressed envelope, plus check or money order for $6 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby -- Teen Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Postage is included in the price.)