Storm clouds approach South Haven, Kansas, May 19, 2013. (Gene Blevins/Reuters)
Less than a week after a string of tornadoes killed six people in north Texas, a massive storm system that tore through the center of the country on Sunday spawned at least a dozen tornadoes, killed two people, injured dozens more and caused extensive damage from Georgia to Minnesota.
According to the Oklahoma state medical examiner, the two victims in Sunday's storms?Glen Irish, 79, and Billy Hutchinson, 76?were from hard-hit Shawnee. At least 39 other people were injured on Sunday, Oklahoma emergency management director Albert Ashwood said.
James Hoke, a resident of Steelman Estates Mobile Home Park in Shawnee, told the Associated Press his neighborhood "took a dead hit."
"My father-in-law was buried under the house," he said. "We had to pull Sheetrock off of him."
[Slideshow: Tornadoes rip through Plains]
A tornado at least a half-mile wide was spotted near Pink, Okla., outside Oklahoma City, prompting the National Weather Service in Norman to issue an unusually dire warning:
You could be killed if not underground or in a tornado shelter. Complete destruction of neighborhoods, businesses and vehicles will occur. Flying debris will be deadly to people and animals.
"Large tornado west of Pink!" a tweet from the Norman office read. "Take cover RIGHT NOW in Pink! DO NOT WAIT!"
"Overpasses are NOT tornado shelters!" read another. "Do not park under them! You are keeping others from getting to safety!"
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin declared states of emergency in 16 counties. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said hailstones as large as baseballs were seen throughout the region.
According to the National Weather Service, more severe weather is expected in Oklahoma on Monday, "with very large hail, damaging winds and perhaps tornadoes impacting the region."
From the National Weather Service's Facebook page in Norman:
We are very concerned that we could be dealing with dangerous storms?possibly including tornadoes?around school dismissal time today, and certainly during afternoon rush hour. Please stay very alert today and think about how you might need to change your plans this afternoon. Please share this with your family and friends.
Videos of several tornadoes that touched down in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri were posted to YouTube:
WCS informs discussion of responses to a changing ArcticPublic release date: 20-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Scott Smith ssmith@wcs.org 718-220-3698 Wildlife Conservation Society
New York (May 20, 2013) In two critical reports released at the Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting in Kiruna, Sweden on May 15th, the scientific expertise of the Wildlife Conservation Society helped inform an international body of senior government officials about changing conditions in the Arctic, and potential responses to those changes.
The scientific reports reviewed by the ministers are products of contributions from various experts, representing a range of knowledge and traditionsincluding indigenous perspectives.
The first report, entitled "Arctic Biodiversity Assessment Status and Trends," provides the best available science and traditional ecological knowledge on the status and trends of biodiversity in the Arctic. It looks at all aspects of Arctic biodiversity, including all taxonomic groups and ecosystems, and includes a section on recommendations for conservation actions and policy.
WCS Canada's Associate Conservation Zoologist Dr. Don Reid is the lead author of the "Mammals" chapter of this report, which documents recent and ongoing changes to distribution and abundance of marine and terrestrial mammals, along with an assessment of the likely causes of those changes. In addition, he contributed to the "Synthesis" chapter, which brings together the key findings of all the chapters and lays out recommendations for dealing with trends that have been or may soon be problematic for conservation of species and ecosystems.
Reid summarizes the changes as both negative and positive depending on the species, "The Arctic is changing fast, and for mammals, the changes are most obvious in the shifts in habitat that a warming climate is driving," said Reid. On the oceans, ice creates habitat, but summer ice is disappearing, creating problems for polar bears, walrus and seals, but opportunities for some whales. On land, substantial tundra is changing to shrub land, which means a loss of feeding habitats for some species such as reindeer, but a novel area of expansion for moose."
Reid goes on to point out that, "These climate-driven changes then overlay the various other human-induced forces that Arctic wildlife face. This includes new mines, roads, pipelines, oil and gas developments, and increased industrial pollutants, creating a growing complexity of management issues that will require harmonized regulatory regimes internationally, and greater involvement of northern communities in the conservation of the wildlife which are so crucial to their food security and culture."
A second report, the Arctic Resilience Report (ARR), features the insights of WCS Beringia Director Dr. Martin Robards and makes a science-based assessment of the integrated impacts of change in the Arctic. The report looks at the potential for large shifts in ecosystem services that affect human well-being, and how drivers of change interact to affect the ability of ecosystems and human populations to adapt or transform. In addition, this report offers an evaluation of adaptive strategies.
Dr. Robards is a lead author on the Background/Introduction chapters and the author of Chapter Seven that presents one of four case studies. His chapter discusses the rapid increase in Arctic shipping in the narrow confines of the Bering Strait the gateway for all vessel traffic passing between the Arctic and Pacific Ocean.
"We found great political challenges for responding to the rapid increase in international vessel traffic in a manner that minimizes risks to the incredible aggregations of marine mammals and the food security of indigenous communities," said Dr. Robards. "However, there are also great opportunities for learning from successful efforts elsewhere such as on the eastern seaboard of the United States where Atlantic right whales have received greater protection through attention to vessel speeds and routing. Through our continuing work in the Arctic, WCS is well-suited to offer a unique perspective on the issue and to be a critical voice in offering science-based solutions to these challenges that benefit from the active engagement of the region's indigenous communities."
Approximately 300 people including ministers, delegates from the eight Arctic states (Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States), representatives of indigenous peoples, scientists, and observers gathered in Kiruna to mark the end of the two-year Swedish chairmanship and the beginning of the Canadian chairmanship of the Arctic Council.
The Council is a high level intergovernmental forum promoting cooperation, coordination and interaction among the Arctic States. This includes active involvement by Permanent Participants, including Arctic Indigenous representatives, on common Arctic issues, such as sustainable development and environmental protection.
###
WCS Canada thanks The W. Garfield Weston Foundation and other generous supporters.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
WCS informs discussion of responses to a changing ArcticPublic release date: 20-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Scott Smith ssmith@wcs.org 718-220-3698 Wildlife Conservation Society
New York (May 20, 2013) In two critical reports released at the Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting in Kiruna, Sweden on May 15th, the scientific expertise of the Wildlife Conservation Society helped inform an international body of senior government officials about changing conditions in the Arctic, and potential responses to those changes.
The scientific reports reviewed by the ministers are products of contributions from various experts, representing a range of knowledge and traditionsincluding indigenous perspectives.
The first report, entitled "Arctic Biodiversity Assessment Status and Trends," provides the best available science and traditional ecological knowledge on the status and trends of biodiversity in the Arctic. It looks at all aspects of Arctic biodiversity, including all taxonomic groups and ecosystems, and includes a section on recommendations for conservation actions and policy.
WCS Canada's Associate Conservation Zoologist Dr. Don Reid is the lead author of the "Mammals" chapter of this report, which documents recent and ongoing changes to distribution and abundance of marine and terrestrial mammals, along with an assessment of the likely causes of those changes. In addition, he contributed to the "Synthesis" chapter, which brings together the key findings of all the chapters and lays out recommendations for dealing with trends that have been or may soon be problematic for conservation of species and ecosystems.
Reid summarizes the changes as both negative and positive depending on the species, "The Arctic is changing fast, and for mammals, the changes are most obvious in the shifts in habitat that a warming climate is driving," said Reid. On the oceans, ice creates habitat, but summer ice is disappearing, creating problems for polar bears, walrus and seals, but opportunities for some whales. On land, substantial tundra is changing to shrub land, which means a loss of feeding habitats for some species such as reindeer, but a novel area of expansion for moose."
Reid goes on to point out that, "These climate-driven changes then overlay the various other human-induced forces that Arctic wildlife face. This includes new mines, roads, pipelines, oil and gas developments, and increased industrial pollutants, creating a growing complexity of management issues that will require harmonized regulatory regimes internationally, and greater involvement of northern communities in the conservation of the wildlife which are so crucial to their food security and culture."
A second report, the Arctic Resilience Report (ARR), features the insights of WCS Beringia Director Dr. Martin Robards and makes a science-based assessment of the integrated impacts of change in the Arctic. The report looks at the potential for large shifts in ecosystem services that affect human well-being, and how drivers of change interact to affect the ability of ecosystems and human populations to adapt or transform. In addition, this report offers an evaluation of adaptive strategies.
Dr. Robards is a lead author on the Background/Introduction chapters and the author of Chapter Seven that presents one of four case studies. His chapter discusses the rapid increase in Arctic shipping in the narrow confines of the Bering Strait the gateway for all vessel traffic passing between the Arctic and Pacific Ocean.
"We found great political challenges for responding to the rapid increase in international vessel traffic in a manner that minimizes risks to the incredible aggregations of marine mammals and the food security of indigenous communities," said Dr. Robards. "However, there are also great opportunities for learning from successful efforts elsewhere such as on the eastern seaboard of the United States where Atlantic right whales have received greater protection through attention to vessel speeds and routing. Through our continuing work in the Arctic, WCS is well-suited to offer a unique perspective on the issue and to be a critical voice in offering science-based solutions to these challenges that benefit from the active engagement of the region's indigenous communities."
Approximately 300 people including ministers, delegates from the eight Arctic states (Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States), representatives of indigenous peoples, scientists, and observers gathered in Kiruna to mark the end of the two-year Swedish chairmanship and the beginning of the Canadian chairmanship of the Arctic Council.
The Council is a high level intergovernmental forum promoting cooperation, coordination and interaction among the Arctic States. This includes active involvement by Permanent Participants, including Arctic Indigenous representatives, on common Arctic issues, such as sustainable development and environmental protection.
###
WCS Canada thanks The W. Garfield Weston Foundation and other generous supporters.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
You have to figure out how much money you will wind up with once the sale of you house is completed and you have to determine which method you are going to take to sell the house. You might not make more money if you sell your house than if you use a real estate agent.
People who live in the Los Angeles area might want to consider using a real estate agent to sell their house and they should use one that is local. These real estate agents will work to help people sell their houses under conditions that are most favorable to the seller. It is important to know the different ways to find the ideal real estate agent who will assist you the most in getting the most money for your house and this can be somewhat difficult.
One place that you can look for a real estate agent in the Los angles area is the telephone book. They are a great source of information for finding a real estate agent. You should look in the yellow pages under the business listings and you will find a list of all of the real estate agents in the Los Angeles area. However, don't select the first real estate agent that you come across. You need to develop a relationship with the real estate agent and be comfortable with them by speaking with each of the real estate agents.
Another place that you should look for listings for real estate agents is the internet. The internet can provide you with many sources of contact information for the agents in the area who may be able to help you get your home sold. The internet has many different directories and phone books available to anyone who searches for them.
The best way to find a real estate agent in the Los Angeles area is to look in the Los Angeles classified on the Internet. They have their own website that lists all of the many services that they will provide in addition to a lot of other information that you will need to determine the best way to sell your house.
After you have found a real estate agent in the Los Angeles classifieds you should meet with the real estate agent in person to discuss the strategy they intend to use to sell your house. You should pay attention to how much experience they have had selling real estate, how much training they have had in the real estate field, and how they interact with people. You should also compare how much the houses they have sold to their fair market values.
About the Author: Providing a better real estate buying and selling process with our free reports, local listings, and years of experience. Let Terra Bruns take care of all your real estate needs in the Santa Clarita , California area.
May 21, 2013 ? Bacteria resistant to the antibiotic colistin are also commonly resistant to antimicrobial substances made by the human body, according to a study in mBio?, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. Cross-resistance to colistin and host antimicrobials LL-37 and lysozyme, which help defend the body against bacterial attack, could mean that patients with life-threatening multi-drug resistant infections are also saddled with a crippled immune response. Colistin is a last-line drug for treating several kinds of drug-resistant infections, but colistin resistance and the drug's newfound impacts on bacterial resistance to immune attack underscore the need for newer, better antibiotics.
Corresponding author David Weiss of Emory University says the results show that colistin therapy can fail patients in two ways. "The way that the bacteria become resistant [to colistin] allows them to also become resistant to the antimicrobials made by our immune system. That is definitely not what doctors want to do when they're treating patients with this last line antibiotic," says Weiss.
Although it was developed fifty years ago, colistin remains in use today not so much because it's particularly safe or effective, but because the choices for treating multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii and other resistant infections are few and dwindling. Colistin is used when all or almost all other drugs have failed, often representing a patient's last hope for survival.
Weiss says he and his colleagues noted that colistin works by disrupting the inner and outer membranes that hold Gram-negative bacterial cells together, much the same way two antimicrobials of the human immune system, LL-37 and lysozyme, do. LL-37 is a protein found at sites of inflammation, whereas lysozyme is found in numerous different immune cells and within secretions like tears, breast milk, and mucus, and both are important defenses against invading bacteria. Weiss and his collaborators from Emory, the CDC, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, and Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta set out to find whether resistance to colistin could engender resistance to attack by LL-37 or lysozyme.
Looking at A. baumannii isolates from patients around the country, they noted that all the colistin-resistant strains harbored mutations in pmrB, a regulatory gene that leads to the modification of polysaccharides on the outside of the cell in response to antibiotic exposure. Tests showed a tight correlation between the ability of individual isolates to resist high concentrations of colistin and the ability to resist attacks by LL-37 or lysozyme.
This was very convincing, write the authors, that mutations in the pmrB gene were responsible for cross-resistance to LL-37 and lysozyme, but to get closer to a causative link between treatment and cross-resistance, they studied two pairs of A. baumannii isolates taken from two different patients before and after they were treated for three or six weeks with colistin. The results helped confirm the cross-resistance link: neither strain taken before treatment was resistant to colistin, LL-37, or lysozyme, but the strains taken after treatment showed significant resistance to colistin and lysozyme. (One post-colistin isolate was no more or less resistant to LL-37 than its paired pre-colistin isolate.) Like the resistant strains tested earlier, both post-colistin isolates harbored crucial mutations in the pmrB gene that apparently bestow the ability to resist treatment.
The authors point out that the apparent link between resistance to colistin and cross-resistance to antimicrobial agents of the immune system could well extend to other pathogens that are treated with colistin, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Weiss says he plans to follow up with studies to determine whether this bears out.
For Weiss, the problems with colistin are symptomatic of a much larger trio of problems: increasing levels of drug resistance, cuts in federal funding for antibiotic research, and lack of incentives for pharmaceutical companies to invest in antibiotic R&D. "We don't have enough antibiotics, and it's really important for the research community and the public to support increases in funding for research to develop new antibiotics," says Weiss.
"We got complacent for a while and the bugs are becoming resistant. This is something we can reverse -- or make a lot better -- if we have the resources."
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers said it would seek pay rises of up to 60 percent from gold and coal producers, raising the prospect of fresh strikes as firms battle higher costs and falling prices in an already heated labor climate.
Africa's biggest economy is hoping to avoid the 2012 wildcat strike action at platinum and gold mines that cost billions in lost revenue and production and killed over 50 people.
Mineworkers are mobilizing to assert themselves, with the NUM fighting a challenge to its once near monopoly in the shafts from the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), which has poached tens of thousands of platinum miners from it in a violent struggle for members.
NUM said it was seeking an entry-level minimum monthly wage of 7,000 rand ($750) for gold and coal surface workers and 8,000 rand for those underground in a submission to the country's Chamber of Mines, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.
Elize Strydom, the industrial relations adviser at the Chamber of Mines, said the minimum wage for surface workers is currently 4,700 rand and for underground miners it is 5,000 rand, so the demands for the latter are a 60 percent increase.
NUM also said it wanted 15 percent increases for "all other wage categories," or more experienced and skilled workers.
The chamber of mines said in a statement it had received the "proposals" from NUM and urged all parties to compromise in the talks which will begin around the middle of June.
"We appeal to all parties to explore every option in trying to reach settlement without resorting to damaging industrial action, and to reach agreements that will strike a balance between what is affordable to the companies and meets the expectations of the employees," the chamber said in a statement.
It gave no further details.
Sliding precious metals prices have raised the pressure on miners as they ready for pay talks. Spot platinum on Friday closed at $1,450 an ounce, down around 35 percent from a record high of $2,240 hit in March 2008, and most South African shafts are losing money at this price.
Gold is down about 19 percent this year, losing its safe haven allure on concern the U.S. central bank will end its extensive stimulus for the U.S. economy.
INFLATION PRESSURE
Mining companies have been awarding above-inflation wage rises over the past decade but with labor now accounting for over half their costs in South Africa, they are reaching a point where this is no longer sustainable for their income statements, especially as power and other costs climb steeply.
But even increases above inflation do not go far for workers at the bottom end of the pay scale who on average have eight dependants and are mostly drawn from poor rural areas.
South African inflation is currently running at just under 6 percent and looks set to accelerate given recent weakness in the rand currency, which investors have sold off because of concerns about labor unrest in the mining sector. Rising inflation especially for food will harden the resolve of workers.
The NUM still represents most workers in the gold and coal sectors, and to head off any challenge from AMCU in those shafts it will need to be seen taking a hard line with management.
The rivalry between the two unions triggered violence that killed over 50 people last year and tensions are running high. An AMCU organizer was murdered last weekend, prompting a 2-day strike at platinum producer Lonmin .
AMCU has not yet submitted its wage demands to platinum producers, who negotiate with unions on a company-by-company basis. But they can ill afford to be generous given current prices for the precious metal.
Anglo American Platinum , the world's top producer, now plans to cut 6,000 jobs from an initial target of 14,000 as it seeks to restore profits after falling into a loss last year. It is hardly in a position to give big pay rises after scaling back its original plan under government pressure.
Gold and coal producers negotiate through the country's chamber of mines. South African gold companies include AngloGold Ashanti , Africa's top bullion producer, Gold Fields , Harmony and Sibanye . Coal producers include Anglo American and Exxaro .
(Additional reporting by Agnieszka Flak; editing by Keiron Henderson and Cynthia Osterman)
ROME (AP) ? After all these years, Rafael Nadal still knows how to dominate Roger Federer.
In the 30th meeting between the tennis greats, Nadal controlled the final from the start and won 6-1, 6-3 Sunday for his seventh Italian Open title.
"Rafa was just too good today," Federer said.
It tied for the second most lop-sided win in the series since Nadal also lost just four games, but over three sets, in the 2008 French Open final against Federer. At the tour finals in London in 2011, Nadal allowed Federer just three games.
"For that to happen between two players with not that much difference, it has to be because one player plays very well and the other is having more mistakes than usual," Nadal said. "That's all."
Nadal improved to 20-10 in his career against Federer, and showed once again that he'll be the player to beat when the French Open starts next Sunday. It was the fifth-ranked Spaniard's sixth title since returning earlier this year from a seven-month layoff due to a left knee injury.
"I'm playing much better than I dreamed of a few months ago," Nadal said. "I'm doing the right things to play well."
Federer complimented Nadal for the way he took his time before returning to the circuit.
"It goes to show that's what every player should do," Federer said. "Now he's as strong as ever and is going to be the favorite for Roland Garros."
In the women's final, Serena Williams won her fourth consecutive title of the year in impressive fashion, defeating third-seeded Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 6-3. The top-ranked American will go to Paris on a career-best 24-match winning run.
Williams was coming off consecutive titles in Miami; Charleston, South Carolina; and Madrid last week.
She didn't drop a set while winning this title.
"I moved better than I did all week," Williams said. "Hopefully I can stay like this. I feel really good."
Federer hadn't previously dropped a set all week as well, but he had no reply for Nadal's topspin-heavy groundstrokes. The 17-time Grand Slam winner attempted serving and volleying, but he either missed the volley or Nadal passed him with the return.
Federer lost 10 points to nine won at the net. He also committed 32 unforced errors to Nadal's eight.
"I was missing too many easy forehands," Federer said. "And if you don't stick your volleys or serve very accurate it's very difficult."
It was 20th meeting between Nadal and Federer in a final, tying the Ivan Lendl-John McEnroe rivalry for most championship matchups in the Open era.
Center court at the Foro Italico was packed to the limit with 10,500 fans, but the crowd didn't get to see too much tennis. The men's final took only 1 hour, 9 minutes ? a far cry from the 2006 final in which Nadal beat Federer in a fifth-set tiebreaker after more than 5 hours.
Rome remains one of the few important tournaments that Federer has never won. He also lost the 2003 final to Felix Mantila.
The women's final Sunday was also a short affair.
On a pleasant spring day, Williams immediately took control by breaking Azarenka's serve twice to take a 3-0 lead in the opening set.
The 15-time Grand Slam winner slugged winners at will off Azarenka's first and second serves, stepping into the court to dictate play at every opportunity.
Azarenka grew distraught at the end of the first set, twice slamming her racket on the court in desperation.
After trading breaks midway through the second set, Williams took control again when Azarenka double-faulted to give her a 5-3 lead. Williams served out the match at love, letting out a big scream when she unleashed a backhand winner down the line to close it out.
"She definitely showed incredible tennis today," Azarenka said. "But I don't think the score says how close the match was. She was better at the key moments."
Williams held a 41-12 edge in winners and served nine aces to Azarenka's none.
"It wasn't really easy out there," Williams said. "I just came up with the good shots at the right times."
Williams has twice won 21 matches in a row before, although they came more than a decade ago, in 2002 and the beginning of 2003.
Martina Navratilova established the longest women's winning run in the Open Era at 74 matches in 1984.
Williams' only previous title at this clay-court event came when she beat Justine Henin in the 2002 final.
That was also the year she won her only Roland Garros title. Last year in Paris, Williams lost in the opening round of a major for the first time, falling to 111th-ranked Virginie Razzano of France.
"The lady in the mirror is the ultimate opponent for me," Williams said, looking ahead to Paris. "I'm going to try and win every match and be really cautious going for every point."
At 31, Williams is back at the top of her game after missing 11 months in 2010 and 2011 with a right foot injury and a pulmonary embolism.
In the women's doubles final, Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan and Peng Shuai of China upset the top-ranked Italian pair of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci 4-6, 6-3, 10-8. In the men's final, top-ranked Bob and Mike Bryan of the United States beat the sixth-ranked Indian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna 6-2, 6-3.
People survey damage from a tornado that hit Edmond, Okla., on Sunday, May 19, 2013. A powerful storm system rumbled through the Plains and upper Midwest on Sunday, spawning tornadoes that damaged roofs and structures near Oklahoma City and kicked up debris in Wichita, Kan. (AP Photo/Sean Murphy)
People survey damage from a tornado that hit Edmond, Okla., on Sunday, May 19, 2013. A powerful storm system rumbled through the Plains and upper Midwest on Sunday, spawning tornadoes that damaged roofs and structures near Oklahoma City and kicked up debris in Wichita, Kan. (AP Photo/Sean Murphy)
Residents of Edmond, Okla., survey storm damage from a tornado that hit their neighborhood Sunday, May 19, 2013. Forecasters had warned that the middle of the country would see severe weather throughout the weekend. (AP Photo/Sean Murphy)
A tornado touches down southwest of Wichita, Kan. near the town of Viola on Sunday, May 19, 2013. The tornado was part of a line of storms that past through the central plains on Sunday. (AP Photo/The Wichita Eagle, Travis Heying)
June McFarland reacts to the first sight of storm damage in rural Osage, Iowa on Sunday, May 19, 2013. A powerful weather system moved through the area on Sunday afternoon triggering tornado warnings, high winds and hail. (AP Photo/The Globe Gazette, Arian Schuessler)
Jerry Dirks, at right, hugs her friend Earlene Langley after a tornado hit Driks' home just south of Carney Okla., on Sunday, May 19, 2013. Dirks was in her cellar at the time the tornado hit. (AP Photo/The Oklahoman, Bryan Terry)
SHAWNEE, Okla. (AP) ? One of several tornadoes that touched down Sunday in Oklahoma turned homes in a trailer park near Oklahoma City into splinters and rubble and sent frightened residents along a 100-mile corridor scurrying for shelter.
The tornadoes, high winds and hail across Oklahoma, Kansas and Iowa were part of a massive, northeastward-moving storm system that stretched from Texas to Minnesota.
At least four separate twisters touched down in central Oklahoma late Sunday afternoon, including one near the town of Shawnee, 35 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, that laid waste to much of a mobile home park.
Across the state, 21 people were injured, not including those who suffered bumps and bruises and chose not to visit a hospital, said Keli Cain, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.
Following the twisters, local emergency officials went from home site to home site in an effort to account for everyone. Cain said that, many times in such situations, people who are not found immediately are discovered later to have left the area ahead of the storm.
Forecasters had been warning of a general storm outbreak since Wednesday, and for Sunday's storms some residents had more than a half-hour's notice that a twister was on the way. Tornado watches and warnings were in effect through late Sunday in much of the nation's midsection.
The trailer park west of Shawnee was among the hardest-hit areas, and among the hardest to reach, as tractor-trailers that forced the closure of a section of Interstate 40 north of the site and power lines draped across roads to the south.
James Hoke lives with his wife and two children in Steelman Estates Mobile Home Park. He said the family went into their storm cellar as the storm approached. When they came out, their mobile home had vanished.
"It took a dead hit," Hoke said.
A storm spotter told the National Weather Service that the tornado left the earth "scoured" at the mobile home park.
"It seemed like it went on forever. It was a big rumbling for a long time," said Shawn Savory, standing outside his damaged remodeling business in Shawnee. "It was close enough that you could feel like you could reach out and touch it."
Gov. Mary Fallin declared an emergency for 16 Oklahoma counties that suffered from severe storms and flooding during the weekend. The declaration lets local governments acquire goods quickly to respond to their residents' needs and puts the state in line for federal help if it becomes necessary.
Heavy rains and straight-line winds hit much of western Oklahoma on Saturday. Tornadoes were also reported Sunday at Edmond, Arcadia and near Wellston to the north and northeast of Oklahoma City. The supercell that generated the twisters weakened as it approached Tulsa, 90 miles to the northeast.
"I knew it was coming," said Randy Grau, who huddled with his wife and two young sons in their Edmond home's safe room when the tornado hit. He said he peered out his window as the weather worsened and believed he saw a flock of birds heading down the street.
"Then I realized it was swirling debris. That's when we shut the door of the safe room," said Grau, adding that they remained in the room for 10 minutes.
In Wichita, Kan., a tornado touched down near Mid-Content Airport on the city's southwest side shortly before 4 p.m., knocking out power to thousands of homes and businesses but bypassing the most populated areas of Kansas' biggest city. The Wichita tornado was an EF1 on the enhanced Fujita scale, with winds of 110 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
Sedgwick County Emergency Management Director Randy Duncan said there were no reports of fatalities or injuries in Kansas.
There were also two reports of tornadoes touching down in Iowa on Sunday night, including one near Huxley, about 20 miles north of Des Moines, and one in Grundy County, which is northeast of Des Moines, according to the Des Moines Register. There were no immediate reports of major damage or injuries.
In Oklahoma, aerial television news footage showed homes with significant damage northeast of Oklahoma City. Some outbuildings appeared to have been leveled, and some homes' roofs or walls had been knocked down.
"When I first drove into the neighborhood, I didn't see any major damage until I pulled into the front of my house," said Csaba Mathe, of Edmond, who found a part of his neighbor's fence in his swimming pool. "My reaction was: I hope insurance pays for the cleaning."
"I typically have two trash cans, and now I have five in my driveway."
The Storm Prediction Center had been warning about severe weather in the region since Wednesday, and on Friday, it zeroed in on Sunday as the day the storm system would likely pass through.
"They've been calling for this all day," Edmond resident Anita Wright said after riding out the twister in an underground shelter. She and her husband, Ed, emerged from their hiding place to find uprooted trees, downed limbs and damaged gutters in their home.
In Katie Leathers' backyard, the family's trampoline was tossed through a section of fence and a giant tree uprooted.
"I saw all the trees waving, and that's when I grabbed everyone and got into two closets," Leathers said. "All these trees just snapped."
___
Associated Press writers Ken Miller in Shawnee, Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Mo., and Kelly P. Kissel in Little Rock, Ark., contributed to this report.
NEW YORK (AP) ? Police say a gunman used anti-gay slurs before fatally shooting a 32-year-old man in New York City's Greenwich (GREN'-ich) Village.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Saturday that the shooting, which occurred just after midnight, appears to have been a hate crime.
Kelly says the gunman was seen urinating on the street outside a bar, then made anti-gay remarks to the bartender and showed him that he was wearing a holster with a silver pistol.
The commissioner says the gunman then confronted the victim and a companion on the street and asked if they were "gay wrestlers."
Kelly says the man shot the victim in the face. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Police identified him as Harlem resident Marc Carson. The name of the suspect was not immediately released.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Greenwich Village, the birthplace of the U.S. gay rights movement, remained in shock on Sunday over the shooting death of a gay man by a gunman who police said uttered anti-gay slurs before targeting the victim.
Mark Carson, 32, was shot dead in Greenwich Village around midnight on Friday in what police are calling a hate crime. Others say it could be a backlash against the recent advance of gay marriage laws across the United States.
The Manhattan neighborhood has long been a haven for bohemians and artists, and its Stonewall Inn has been a landmark for gay rights since a 1969 clash when patrons of the gay bar resisted a police raid.
Sympathizers built a shrine to Carson on Sunday, leaving cards, candles and flowers at the spot where he was killed, on Sixth Avenue at Eighth Street.
"This is supposed to be like the world's capital where it's OK to be gay," said Josh Steinman, 42, who paused for a moment in front of the memorial.
The attack marked the 22nd anti-gay hate crime in New York City this year, compared to 13 incidents at this time last year, New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
"It's clear that victim here was killed only because, and just because, he was thought to be gay," Kelly told reporters on Sunday. "There's no question about that. There were derogatory remarks. This victim did nothing to antagonize or instigate the shooter. It was only because the shooter believed him to be gay."
A suspect identified as Elliot Morales, 33, was arrested on a charge of second degree murder as a hate crime shortly after the shooting. He is being held without bail and two of his companions are cooperating with police, Kelly said.
"I can't believe that something like that happened in the Village," said Carmine Tzavis, 40, a bartender at Stonewall Inn.
The police commissioner stopped short of confirming an increase in anti-gay attacks because, he said, hate crimes are typically underreported, so the data are skewed.
People in the Village said they were alarmed and feared the violence may have been sparked by the rapid passage of gay marriage laws.
On Tuesday, Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton signed a bill making his state the 12th to allow same-sex couples to marry.
"I seem to think it's an overreaction to the marriage equality stuff," said Brian Kennedy, 56, who came to the crime scene on Sunday to pay his respects.
Kennedy, who is gay, said he moved to New York from Atlanta in 1991 because he believed the city would be more accepting. Now he has his doubts.
"Getting beat up is one thing. Getting shot point-blank in the face is another," Kennedy said.
The Anti-Violence Project has organized a march and vigil at the crime scene on Monday.
A spokesman for the anti-defamation group GLAAD called the killing "a stark and sobering reminder of the rife homophobia that still exists in our culture."
"Until we rid our society of the discrimination that allows us to be seen as inferior and less than human, we will never truly be safe, even in one of the most accepting cities in the world," spokesman Wilson Cruz said in a statement.
(Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Stacey Joyce)
(Reuters) - Hope is fading for a global deal to regulate the airline industry's greenhouse gas emissions ahead of a fall deadline, even though failure could push the industry back to the brink of a trade war over the European Union's emissions trading system.
Last November the EU suspended its controversial scheme to force all airlines to buy carbon credits for any flight arriving in or departing from European airspace.
The scheme had pitted European states against China, the United States, India and others, who said it violated their sovereignty. The EU said it had to act, after more than a decade of inaction on the environmental impact of aviation.
European officials gave the United Nations' agency that governs aviation, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), more time to craft a compromise in the form of a global regulatory regime.
They have vowed to bring their own program back into force unless they see real progress by the ICAO assembly, which runs September 24 to October 4. The assembly, which would have to approve any global regime, meets only once every three years.
But there is still disagreement on how to charge for emissions from flights that cross borders; how to deal fairly with developing countries; and whether airlines, states or both should be subject to regulation.
All those issues have stalled efforts to reach a compromise.
"Think of aviation as a microcosm of the big geopolitical process," said Paul Steele, executive director of the industry group Air Transport Action Group and one of the technical experts who has advised ICAO on the issue.
The group, a coalition of some 50 plane makers, airlines and narrower associations like Airports Council International, wants a global emissions regime, not a messy and expensive "patchwork" of systems around the world.
Steele said lack of progress on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the U.N.'s main climate treaty and home of the Kyoto Protocol, may be holding back talks at ICAO. That treaty and ICAO's process are legally independent, but inevitably, they are linked by politics.
Take "common but differentiated responsibilities," an argument that developed countries should shoulder most of the burden of cutting emissions. That has been a key sticking point at ICAO, as Reuters first reported last year.
Steele said some countries fear that if they compromise at ICAO, it will prejudice broader talks ahead of 2015, when climate negotiators hope to clinch a new deal to cut emissions under the U.N. Framework Convention.
And so, even as aviation industry leaders urge ICAO to hammer out a deal, talks at a high-profile ICAO committee have effectively broken down, and a key member of the agency's governing council has said a resolution may not be ready in time for the assembly.
That could escalate the conflict, especially since a U.S. law signed in November prohibits any U.S. airline from complying with the EU law. And while China partially lifted a retaliatory blockade of some $11 billion in Airbus jet orders last month, a new chapter in the conflict could put those orders at risk.
HIGH LEVEL FIZZLE
ICAO has quietly set standards and rules on everything from cargo safety to air traffic control since 1944, reaching deals between countries that may agree on very little, aside from the value of keeping planes in the sky.
But on climate change, the diplomats posted to Montreal are part of a fraught and complex geopolitical conflict that has little to do with planes. They seem to have recognized as much last fall, when talks at ICAO's governing council stalled.
Seeking to break the impasse, they convened a new group, which Kerryn Macaulay, Australia's council representative, recently said was to include "some of the decision-makers in government" who might be able to hash out compromises.
It was the creation of that "high-level group" that the EU cited when it suspended its scheme. It was just a new committee, but it was seen as a sign of good faith, and an opportunity to get a deal.
But as Macaulay told a conference hosted by the Air Transport Action Group in Montreal on May 13, the high-level group made little progress. Quite the opposite: "In some areas there has been a risk of reopening old issues that the council in fact was recently settled on."
It is not clear if the high-level group will meet again, and the ICAO governing council is now working on a draft resolution in which very little has been agreed.
"We will continue to work on that resolution, if and when necessary up to the day before the assembly," Macaulay said, adding that it still may not be ready in time.
"NOT WHAT WE EXPECTED" -EU
But even if a resolution is ready for the assembly, it may attempt to rein in the EU system, rather than establishing a global alternative, as European officials had hoped.
ICAO's process is split into two threads: looking for a global "market-based measure" to cut emissions, like a cap and trade system or carbon offsetting; and a "framework" document that lays out how market-based measures should be implemented.
Some see a "framework" only governing local or regional systems like the EU's, and not resolving any disputes on how to implement a global scheme. A draft framework proposed by the United States early this year, and obtained by Reuters, would limit the geographical reach of emissions systems.
Lourdes Maurice, executive director for environment and energy at the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, said last week that the United States wants the framework to take a "national or regional airspace approach," where countries or blocs would only regulate emissions in their own airspace.
That would put about 80 percent of emissions from aviation out of reach of national or regional carbon taxes, Macaulay said, as many flights are over international waters.
But Elina Bardram, responsible for carbon markets in the aviation and maritime sectors for the European Commission's climate division, said a proposal that did not do anything meaningful to protect the environment is "not what we expected."
(Reporting by Allison Martell in Montreal; Additional reporting by Valerie Volcovici in Washington; Editing by Janet Guttsman and Tim Dobbyn)
So many people think vanilla = plain. One dimensional. The career back-up singer in a dessert with stronger, sexier, Tina Turner-like ingredients. The choice to resort to when you?ve got picky eaters with sad, unadventurous palates.
But once you let vanilla go solo, and let it be the best it can be? whoa.
Vanilla is native to tropical America, and it comes from the only orchid plant that produces anything edible. The beans are picked and fermented to develop rich complexity. Real vanilla has so many nuances of flavor and aroma, no lab has been able to make a dead ringer. Get yourself a vanilla bean or two, one that?s fat and flexible, then rub and inhale. Beautiful, right?
You can make vanilla sugar by scraping out the bean and mixing the dark tiny seeds into sugar; I also put the scraped pod in the sugar, too, and leave it for months, adding scraped vanilla beans as I use the seeds in other recipes. (Why throw out a perfectly good and expensive bean?) You can make vanilla salt using the same method as vanilla sugar?I use a grey sea salt (sel gris)?and it?s great on fruit, popcorn, and white-fleshed seafood. Make your own vanilla extract by adding five split pods to a pint of alcohol. I use vodka because it contributes no other flavors; you can also use rum or bourbon. Let it sit in a dark spot for at least two months before using it.
The recipe in Cooking Light Chill for Vanilla Ice is a surprisingly great way to give vanilla the spotlight. It has just three ingredients?low-fat milk, sugar, and vanilla?and you really don?t think it?s going to be much. It won?t have a creamy texture like a custard-based ice cream or even a treat made with real cream. But the vanilla sings, releasing its flavor as the ice crystals melt in your mouth. It reminded us of making snow ice cream.
Give yourself a special treat: Seek out a bottle of vanilla paste and try this ice with an equal amount of paste in place of the vanilla extract. (Buy vanilla paste from specialty food, spice or kitchen retailers, KingArthurFlour.com, or Amazon.com.) The ice will have pretty little flecks of vanilla, and you?ll get to experience vanilla in a way that you might not have before. Bonus: You don?t need an ice-cream maker?just a glass baking dish and a fork, and you?re making wonders in your kitchen.
Vanilla Bean Ice This ice is reminiscent of making ice cream out of snow. While many commercial vanilla desserts are too cloying to let the vanilla flavor shine through, this three-ingredient recipe will show you that vanilla?s anything but plain. You can use an equal amount of vanilla paste for the extract; it will create an ice flecked with vanilla seeds.?
1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl, stirring with a whisk until sugar dissolves. Pour into an 8-inch square glass or ceramic baking dish. Cover and freeze until partially frozen (about 1 hour). Scrape with a fork, crushing any lumps. Freeze, scraping with a fork every hour, 2 hours or until completely frozen.
GRANDE RIVIERE, Trinidad ? Giant leatherback turtles, some weighing half as much as a small car, drag themselves out of the ocean and up the sloping shore on the northeastern coast of Trinidad while villagers await wearing dimmed headlamps in the dark. Their black carapaces glistening, the turtles inch along the moonlit beach, using their powerful front flippers to move their bulky frames onto the sand.
In years past, poachers from Grande Riviere and nearby towns would ransack the turtles' buried eggs and hack the critically threatened reptiles to death with machetes to sell their meat in the market. Now, the turtles are the focus of a thriving tourist trade, with people so devoted to them that they shoo birds away when the turtles first start out as tiny hatchlings scurrying to sea.
The number of leatherbacks on this tropical beach has rebounded in spectacular fashion, with some 500 females nesting each night during the peak season in May and June, along the 800-meter-long (875-yard) beach. Researchers now consider the beach at Grand Riviere, alongside a river that flows into the Atlantic, the most densely nested site for leatherbacks in the world.
"It's sometimes hard remembering that leatherbacks are actually endangered," said tour guide Nicholas Alexander as he watched more emerge from the surf.
With instincts honed over 100 million years, these mighty leatherbacks have migrated from cold North Atlantic waters in Canada and northern Europe to nest. The air-breathing reptiles can dive to ocean depths of more than 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) and remain underwater for an hour. They are bigger, stronger, and tolerate colder temperatures than any other marine turtle.
On a recent night, the protected beach was so busy that female leatherback turtles bumped into each other as they trudged up the sloping beach. Occasionally grunting from the effort, the big reptiles swept away powdery sand with their front flippers and then painstakingly dug holes with their rear flippers, laying dozens of white eggs before heading back to the ocean. These same females will be back in about 10 days to deposit more eggs.
The resurgence of leatherbacks in Trinidad is touted by many as a major achievement, with more than half of all adult leatherbacks on the planet having been lost since 1980, mostly in the Eastern Pacific and Asia.
When local conservation efforts started here in the early 1990s, locals say a maximum of 30 turtles emerged from the surf overnight during the peak of the six-month nesting season. Now, at Grande Riviere and in the eastern community of Matura, where another major leatherback colony has grown, locals say more than 700 of the turtles appear overnight at the very height of the season, in May and June.
Flourishing turtle tourism is providing good livelihoods for people in formerly dead-end farming towns, with the Trinidad-based group Turtle Village Trust saying it brings in some $8.2 million annually. The inflow of visitors, both domestic and foreign, to Trinidad's northeast coast jumped from 6,500 in 2000 to over 60,000 in 2012. Officials with the U.S.-based Sea Turtle Conservancy say Trinidad is now likely the world's leading tourist destination for people to see leatherbacks.
Hopes are high that tourism boom can help the creatures survive a slew of pressures. In a 2009 global study on the economics of marine turtle tourism, researchers from the environmental group World Wildlife Fund found turtle tourism earned nearly three times as much money as the sale of turtle meat, leather and eggs.
While Trinidad supports some 80 percent of total leatherback nesting in the Caribbean, with a population of some 15,000 females laying eggs every two years, the turtles are also flourishing in other spots around the region.
In northern Guyana, leatherbacks have become the most abundant marine turtle species instead of the rarest one as it was in recent decades. In neighboring Suriname, the creatures' numbers have jumped tenfold, according to a 2007 assessment by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Earlier this year, Puerto Rico protected a swath of beach along the island's northeast coast that hosts over 400 nesting leatherbacks per year. In 2012, Florida wildlife officials surveyed some 250 miles of beaches and counted some 515 leatherback nests.
Meanwhile, the Eastern Pacific leatherback population has collapsed to some 1,700 females, according to Aimee Leslie, marine turtle manager with the World Wildlife Fund.
The number of Atlantic leatherback has likely grown due to a variety of factors such as nesting beach protections, modifications of fishing gear in some places and increased public awareness, according to Jeanette Wyneken, a sea turtle expert at Florida Atlantic University. Leatherbacks may have also encountered growing stocks of the food they depend upon, mostly jellyfish and gelatinous sea creatures called salps.
Len Peters, a founding member of the Grande Riviere Nature Tour Guide Association, which patrols and manages the Trinidadian village's nesting beach, said local conservation hasn't come easy. When he started out as a 23-year-old volunteer in the early 1990s, protecting turtles was rough, sometimes intimidating work. His group would physically drag people off the beach if they were bothering leatherbacks.
"That kind of approach wasn't really helping. People were becoming very aggressive toward us, called us the turtle police," Peters said. "Now, the villagers here feel proud knowing that people come from all over the world to see the turtles. On a whole, the community has really embraced the opportunities these turtles have brought to them."
But for local fishermen, the six-month turtle nesting season from March through August is a hardship to endure.
Ervan James, a veteran fishermen from Grande Riviere, recognizes turtle tourism has been a boon for his village, but he and other fishermen are calling for the government to compensate them for not casting wide gill nets during the turtles' nesting season. Perhaps anticipating being paid not to fish, the number of fishing boats at Grande Riviere has expanded from three a few years ago to about 20 now.
Since sea turtles must surface at regular intervals to breathe, they drown when entangled in nets. Roughly 3,000 leatherbacks are snared off Trinidad's nesting beaches each season, with about 1,000 of them drowning after getting caught in the net for an hour or getting their flippers hacked off by frustrated fishermen trying to untangle their damaged nets.
"This needs very urgent attention because too many turtles have been losing their lives in nets. For a night, five or six turtles could end up in one of these nets, you understand?" James said, pulling up some of a nylon gill net piled on the beach.
Conservationists have showed fishermen modified equipment, even distributing fish finder instruments, to help balance turtle protection with profitable fishing. But local fishermen continue to use gill nets instead of trolling with hook and line, insisting they work best during the time of year that leatherbacks swim offshore.
A looming and potentially greater threat is climate change. According to one modeling analysis, beach nesting sites for sea turtles in the Caribbean will come under significant danger due to beach erosion associated with sea level rise.
A warmer climate may also create too many females since turtle gender is determined by ambient temperatures in the sand where eggs are incubating. Cooler temperatures favor males, while warmer temperatures result in females.
"However, many turtle beaches already seem biased toward the increased production of females so it's anyone's guess whether the climate change scenarios will really change sex ratios," said Scott Eckert, who has researched the turtles in Trinidad since 1992 as science director for the U.S.-based Wider Sea Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network.
Even without such threats, the dangers are many. Experts have even long estimated that just 1 in 1,000 eggs will result in an adult turtle.
"These leatherbacks are the world's last living dinosaurs," said Alexander, the Grand Riviere tour guide, as three young apprentices learned to tag a nesting turtle's flipper on the town's beach. "We have to protect them for the next generation."
___
David McFadden on Twitter: http://twitter/com/dmcfadd
Hi, Kathleen41. When I was about 9 months sober and actively working the steps, my wife said: "I think I liked you better when you were drinking!" Obviously, she didn't mean it, but if ever there was a time for blaming a relapse on someone, that would have been it.
To this day, she considers it my problem, not hers. No AlAnon for her, thank you very much, and this makes it much more challenging--Duh. Suggestion: Do NOT tell them they need AlAnon (you will, anyway)... It's like the doc telling me not to drink on Antabuse because it'll make me violently ill. He was right.
I've been sober for a while, but I STILL have to be reminded of right-behaviours and to do the 'next right thing' constantly. On pp 419 of the text of Alcoholics Anonymous, there's a couple paragraphs that Dr. Paul O. talks about taking his program into his home and to stop trying to change his wife. I have had to copy that and leave it in my car, because she simply will not love me like I think she should; she won't treat me like I should be treated; she won't behave like I think she should behave; she won't stop spending money like I think.... Get the picture?
Somewhere in the 12 and 12 in step 10 it talks about the Spiritual Axiom. I hate axioms. I have to accept, however, that my mind is not my friend--Joyce Meyers wrote an entire book about, "The Battlefield of the Mind," and I swear she was using mine as the diagram! Spiritual warfare in my head? Yup. And I used to get hammered and watch it until I couldn't remember what side I was on.
Anyway, I've had to ask on more than one occasion that my Spousal Unit (SU) stand down and back up; that I needed to work my recovery and I'd apologize in advance for having to avoid certain triggers. Nowadays, fighting seems like a complete fear-based activity so I make every effort to apply my principles as I was taught. GENERALLY speaking, it works if I work it. And the topics seem to lessen when I practice love and forgiveness first and foremost in my life. It helps (for me) to have a God and a savior, too, but I have also learned not to "shove the dove" within the confines of recovery.
I guess this turned into a dissertation--sorry. I've seen a lot of people get divorced in AA because it's easier to blame the other person rather than practice ego-reduction and fear removal, but I don't get to make the rules these days. Nobody ever asks me to, either... There are a lot of self-help books on forgiveness and relationship mending, but there's only One I have found that works under all conditions...
Hope this helps. You can IM if you have particular questions, but I started getting sober when I had been married 27 years. Some changes were required, and some were scary...
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) ? The Canadian government has launched an aggressive campaign to lure Silicon Valley tech workers frustrated by U.S. visa policies northward, just as Congress wrestles with a long-sought overhaul of America's immigration system.
Canada's minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, arrived in the San Francisco Bay area Friday for a four-day visit aimed at snapping up talent for his country's high-tech economy by offering startup entrepreneurs a new visa.
"I think everyone knows the American system is pretty dysfunctional," Kenney said in an interview with The San Jose Mercury News (http://bit.ly/11IW2QA ). "I'm going to the Bay Area to spread the message that Canada is open for business; we're open for newcomers. If they qualify, we'll give them the Canadian equivalent of a green card as soon as they arrive."
The new "startup visa" will grant permanent residency to entrepreneurs who can start a business in Canada and raise enough venture capital.
Earlier this week, a billboard sporting a giant red maple leaf went up in South San Francisco, part of a Canadian ad campaign encouraging tech workers to head north.
"H-1B problems?" asks the billboard on the road to Silicon Valley, referencing the temporary visa issued to skilled foreign workers in the U.S. "Pivot to Canada."
The current immigration bill before the U.S. Senate ? the result of months of negotiations among eight influential senators ? is on track to greatly increase the number of highly skilled foreign workers allowed to work in the U.S. under an H-1B visa, from 65,000 to 110,000.
"The Canadian perspective is they would love to re-create Silicon Valley in Canada," said Irene Bloemraad, a professor who chairs the Canadian studies program at UC Berkeley. "And they recognize that under the current immigration system in the United States ... there are people who are having a hard time getting permanent legal status."
Bloemraad said Kenney's trip would underscore the differences between U.S. and Canada immigration systems. While two-thirds of immigrants to the U.S. gain their permanent residency thanks to family connections, she said, Canada's points-based ranking system means that two-thirds of immigrants are chosen for their work skills.
Under the current H-1B system, thousands of foreign tech workers in the Silicon Valley can stay in the United States for a maximum of six years, and must stick with the employer who sponsored them.
Kenney plans to promote the new visa and to meet with tech leaders, speak with Stanford students and run the Canadian booth at this weekend's TiEcon entrepreneurship conference in Santa Clara.
"There's an option," said Kenney, a member of his country's ruling Conservative Party. "It's north of the 49th parallel."
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A California doctor has been sentenced to 14 years in federal prison for bilking her patients out of more than $1 million by promising that an herbal supplement could cure late-stage cancer and other diseases.
U.S. District Judge Robert Timlin sentenced 58-year-old Christine Daniel on Friday. He also ordered her to pay about $1.3 million.
Daniel was found guilty of 11 counts, including wire fraud, tax evasion and witness tampering.
Authorities say Daniel enticed patients to take her herbal product.
She also charged them as much as $100,000 for a six-month treatment program that she claimed could cure cancer, diabetes and multiple sclerosis.
Some of her patients, however, died from complications of cancer within three to six months after taking the supplement.
Storm clouds approach South Haven, Kansas, May 19, 2013. (Gene Blevins/Reuters)
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Public release date: 20-May-2013
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Vanilla Bean Ice
