Earnings Preview: Merck report keys on new drugs (AP)

Drugmaker Merck & Co., the world's third-biggest drugmaker by revenue and a Dow component, will tout recent drug approvals and progress on creating new drugs when it reports its fourth-quarter results before the stock market opens Thursday.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR: CEO Kenneth Frazier, at the helm for a year, will discuss development of key experimental drugs among Merck's 20 compounds in late-stage testing. He'll likely note the company, based in Whitehouse Station, N.J., got five products approved last year, including breakthrough hepatitis C drug Victrelis.

Frazier likely will discuss progress on his strategy to boost revenue and profit by limiting spending, launching new drugs and increasing sales of existing ones, growing sales in emerging markets and expanding the consumer and animal health businesses.

Merck, the maker of Januvia, the top-selling pill for Type 2 diabetes, has been expanding that $3 billion-a-year-plus franchise. Its Janumet pill combines widely used generic metformin with Januvia, which increases insulin production and decreases the liver's glucose production. In October, Merck got approval for Juvisync, the first combination pill for the millions who have both diabetes and high cholesterol. The company is expecting a Food and Drug Administration decision this quarter on whether it can sell an extended-release form of Janumet.

Frazier will note the company plans during 2012 and 2013 to apply for approval of five major products in the U.S. and other countries. Those are osteoporosis drug odanacatib, insomnia treatment suvorexant, Bridion for reversing anesthesia after surgery, Tredaptive for blocking hardening of the arteries and a vaccine known as V503. That shot covers more strains of cancer-causing human papilloma virus, which is sexually transmitted, than Merck's blockbuster Gardasil vaccine.

Merck will give its first financial forecast for 2012. Frazier said in November that the company hopes to keep 2012 revenue about the same as in 2011, when sales over the first nine months grew about 5 percent from the prior year.

During the last quarter, Merck got approval for marketing its HIV drug Isentress to children aged 2 through 17, plus a recommendation from U.S. government advisers for giving all males aged 11 through 21 Gardasil shots. It also won approval to expand use of cholesterol drug Vytorin to patients with kidney disease, but not those on dialysis.

Analysts may ask about Frazier's recent comments that the company is shifting strategy from pursuing acquisitions and licensing agreements for drugs in early testing to ones in later testing, when deals are more expensive. That could indicate worries about the strength of the company's pipeline.

Last year, bleeding risks led Merck to end a late-stage study of blood thinner vorapaxar, and it halted a study of a vaccine for dangerous Staph infections because more people in the group getting that vaccine were dying.

Analysts may ask whether the end is in sight for litigation over its recalled painkiller Vioxx, after Merck recently settled patient lawsuits in Canada for about $37 million and agreed to pay 43 states a combined $950 million to end charges of improper marketing.

WHY IT MATTERS: Merck's revenue has taken a hit from generic competition to its blockbuster osteoporosis, blood pressure and cholesterol drugs. Its current top seller, $5 billion-a-year allergy and asthma drug Singulair, gets U.S. generic competition this August. Analysts will be watching to see whether the Januvia franchise and other new medicines can pick up the slack.

Frazier said earlier this month that he's increasing cost-cutting efforts, and analysts will be watching for details.

That was after Merck told employees in September that it was speeding up layoffs in the U.S. so it could meet its goal of cutting up to 13,000 jobs by 2015. Merck has been continually downsizing since its November 2009 acquisition of Schering-Plough Corp., although it's still hiring for positions in growth areas.

WHAT'S EXPECTED: Analysts surveyed by FactSet forecast earnings per share of 95 cents and revenue of $12.52 billion.

LAST YEAR'S QUARTER: Merck reported a net loss of 17 cents per share, but would have made 88 cents per share without $3.9 billion in restructuring and other charges. It had revenue of $12.09 billion.

___

Linda A. Johnson can be followed at http://twitter.com/LindaJ_onPharma

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_bi_ge/us_merck_earnings_preview

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Senate clears way for vote on insider-trading ban

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Congress' low approval ratings have sparked a rare instance of bipartisanship, as both parties are rushing to pass a bill that would make it clear that insider trading laws apply to lawmakers.

The Senate voted 93-2 Monday to clear the way for consideration of amendments and ? sponsors hope ? final passage later this week.

Members of both parties looked at approval ratings in the teens in an election year and didn't like what they saw. But it was an independent, Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, who may have best expressed Congress' political plight.

"The numbers of people who have a favorable impression of this body are so low that we're down to close relatives and paid staff. And I'm not so sure about the paid staff," he said.

The legislation would require disclosure of new stock transactions on the Internet within 30 days and explicitly prohibit members of Congress from initiating trades based on non-public information they acquired in their official capacity. The legislation, at least partly symbolic, is aimed at answering critics who say lawmakers profit from businesses where they have special knowledge.

U.S. lawmakers already are subject to the same penalties as other investors who use non-public information to enrich themselves, though no member of Congress in recent memory has been charged with insider trading. In 2005, the Securities and Exchange Commission and Justice Department investigated then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's sale of stock in his family's hospital company, but no charges were ever brought against the Tennessee Republican.

Voters may believe lawmakers who are paid an annual salary of $174,000 are enriching themselves ? especially if those voters saw a segment of CBS' "60 Minutes" in November. The show questioned trades by a House committee chairman, the current speaker and his predecessor's husband. Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., all denied wrongdoing. Bachus chairs the Financial Services Committee.

A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll of registered voters found 56 percent favored replacing the entire 535-member Congress. Other polls this year have given Congress approval ratings between 11 percent and 13 percent, while disapproval percentages have ranged from 79 percent to 86 percent.

The bill is titled the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act. President Barack Obama has endorsed it.

The Senate bill would prohibit lawmakers from tipping off family members or others about non-public information that could influence a stock's price, in addition to the explicit ban itself. And it would direct the House and Senate ethics committees to write rules that would make insider trading violators subject to congressional punishment.

House leaders are working on a more expansive bill that would include land deals and other non-stock transactions. A vote is expected in February.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-31-Congress-Insider%20Trading/id-23e2fd398f4d4ca7ad9e3563692e8e03

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Demand for Barbie helps push Mattel 4Q profit up

FILE - In this April 13, 2011 file photo, a Mattel's Hot Wheels car from the Larry's Garage Series is shown in Portland, Ore. Mattel Inc. said Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012, strong holiday demand for toys including Barbie, Hot Wheels and American Girl helped push its fourth-quarter net income up 14 percent. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

FILE - In this April 13, 2011 file photo, a Mattel's Hot Wheels car from the Larry's Garage Series is shown in Portland, Ore. Mattel Inc. said Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012, strong holiday demand for toys including Barbie, Hot Wheels and American Girl helped push its fourth-quarter net income up 14 percent. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Strong holiday demand for toys including Barbie and Monster High dolls helped push Mattel Inc.'s fourth-quarter profit up a better-than-expected 14 percent.

The company also raised its dividend and its shares edged higher in premarket trading.

But there were a few lumps of coal in the report, as U.S. sales dipped and weakness continued at its Fisher-Price unit.

The holiday quarter is crucial for toy makers, who can make up to half of their annual sales during the period.

Mattel, which is the No. 1 U.S. toy maker, reported Tuesday that its net income rose to $370.6 million, or $1.07 per share, for the period ended Dec. 31. That's up from $325.2 million, or 89 cents per share, a year ago.

This beat the $1 per share that analysts polled by FactSet expected.

"Mattel delivered another strong year, our third consecutive year of solid performance, which I am especially pleased about given the soft global economic backdrop and the highly promotional environment, particularly in the U.S.," CEO Bryan G. Stockton said in a statement.

Mattel's quarterly revenue edged up 1 percent to $2.15 billion from $2.12 billion. But that missed Wall Street's estimate of $2.22 billion.

A 2 percent drop in U.S. sales was offset by stronger results overseas, where revenue rose 5 percent.

.Barbie sales rose 6 percent in the quarter. Sales of for Mattel's Wheels segment ? which includes the Hot Wheels, Matchbox and Tyco R/Co brands ? increased 5 percent. American Girl sales rose 4 percent. But sales for Fisher-Price fell 10 percent. The Fisher-Price unit makes pre-school toys such as Power Wheels.

For the year, Mattel reported net income of $768.5 million, or $2.18 per share, up from $684.9 million, or $1.86 per share, a year earlier.

Annual revenue increased 7 percent to $6.27 billion from $5.86 billion.

Mattel, based in El Segundo, Calif., is also raising its annual dividend by 35 percent.

The toy maker will pay a first-quarter cash dividend of 31 cents per share on March 9 to shareholders of record on Feb. 23. Its annualized dividend is expected to be $1.24 per share. The prior-year's dividend was 92 cents per share.

The company said that its $680 million acquisition of HIT Entertainment, the company behind Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob the Builder, is expected to close on Wednesday. Mattel announced the deal in October. It will be the company's biggest acquisition in a decade.

Mattel's chief rival, Hasbro Inc., reports its financial results on Monday.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-31-Earns-Mattel/id-3171b166e6fc433a9c9885696ebfb4aa

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Car being hawked a character in 'The Middle' (AP)

NEW YORK ? Frankie Heck settled into the driver's seat of a new Volkswagen on a recent episode of ABC's "The Middle," caressing the steering wheel as celestial music played. Her face was a mask of such pure pleasure that you almost wanted to avert your eyes.

The gleaming Passat appeared throughout the half hour. Dad Mike found it a comfortable refuge for a nap, daughter Sue studied for driver's ed and the whole family used it as a restaurant by driving around with a bucket of chicken.

Welcome to the world of product "integration" on prime-time television. Advertising within programs has gone beyond the mere placement of soda bottles on the table in front of "American Idol" judges. The Passat didn't just pass by on the street during "The Middle," it was a key part of the comedy's story line.

Public Citizen president Robert Weissman, who has long protested the encroachment of unmarked ads within entertainment programming, called the episode "astounding," and he wasn't being complimentary. Final reviews of consumer attitudes aren't in yet, but ABC and VW considered the placement very effective, illustrating another way to satisfy advertisers who are concerned about the growing number of people watching programs on their DVRs and fast-forwarding through commercials.

Product integration isn't difficult to find. On Thursday's "30 Rock" on NBC, Jenna posed for paparazzi in front of a restaurant, saying, "Make sure you get the `Outback' sign in the picture or I don't get paid."

In "Desperate Housewives" last year, a woman suspected her husband was cheating. She spied on him with his new Sprint phone, checking through it for missed calls, text messages and calendar items.

Even to the experts at ABC, "The Middle" episode that aired Jan. 18 stretched the concept to an unusual extent.

Frankie, played by Patricia Heaton, was asked by neighbors to back their new Passat from the driveway into the garage because they were going to be away for a week. Enthralled by the vehicle, Frankie instead puts it in her own garage and the Heck family secretly finds ways to enjoy it, driving around together by the end of the week. Throughout the episode, family members show off the car's features such as its sound and navigation systems.

Son Brick pops open the trunk, exposing dozens of books. "It can hold my entire library," he says. "Darn this roomy trunk."

By contrast, their own car is dirty, dented and the driver's side door creaks when it opens.

"It's amazing how one nice thing actually made us a better family," Frankie says. "More compassionate, more considerate. We were in better moods."

The Hecks find out with five minutes' warning that their neighbors are returning home early, and rush to clean garbage out of the car.

The episode's other central story involved Frankie volunteering to help at the Super Bowl (the show is set in Indiana and the Super Bowl is being held in Indianapolis this year). That also worked well for Volkswagen, which used a real commercial break for a sneak preview of an ad they plan to run during the game.

ABC and VW began working on the product integration last spring when they were negotiating an overall deal for advertising this TV season. The example is more valuable than a traditional ad, although neither ABC nor Volkswagen would say how much.

"The Middle" seemed like a perfect venue, said Justin Osborne, Volkswagen's general manager for marketing strategy. Its characters are solid middle class from middle America, for whom a new Passat would be nice enough to want but not so expensive that it's out of reach, he said.

Even though VW worked with ABC, writers had some latitude. Osborne said the scene about the trunk came as a surprise and wasn't something the car company requested.

"We're very into authentic and organic integrations that don't seem too heavy-handed or obvious," he said.

ABC discusses potential integrations with show creators and does not force situations upon them, said Jerry Daniello, the network's senior vice president for integrated marketing. More requests are turned down than approved. Regular, big-ticket advertisers are those considered for integration opportunities, as opposed to one-shot clients, he said.

"We like to do things in a very streamlined, very classy, very strategic and very focused way," Daniello said. "It has to make sense. There's really not much value in seeing a product just placed on the counter."

Some advertisers seek a very seamless integration so that it is almost subliminal. In other cases, such as the "30 Rock" riff on "Outback," networks call attention to the pitch by essentially mocking it. That's an approach Volkswagen will take on IFC later this year, with an in-show ad considered so ridiculous it ends with a fiery crash of a VW into the company logo, Osborne said.

For ABC, however, there's less value in characters that are seen primarily as shills. Network programmers help create fictional worlds and hope viewers can get lost in them. They make the characters less real to viewers at their own peril.

The Writers Guild of America, West has publicly supported proposed federal regulations that would make it more explicit to viewers that they are the targets of advertising by, for example, running a printed message on the screen identifying an advertising pitch.

"People are being advertised to when they don't realize it," Weissman said. "One of the core principles of fair advertising laws is you can't be lied to. You have to know when someone is pitching you."

The proposal, however, has been kicking around for several years with no action, and the trend away from live television viewing would seem to make the Volkswagen episode a harbinger of more things to come.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_en_ot/us_tv_integrated_ads

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Need muscle for a tough spot? Turn to fat stem cells

ScienceDaily (Jan. 30, 2012) ? Stem cells derived from fat have a surprising trick up their sleeves: Encouraged to develop on a stiff surface, they undergo a remarkable transformation toward becoming mature muscle cells. The new research appears in the journal Biomaterials. The new cells remain intact and fused together even when transferred to an extremely stiff, bone-like surface, which has University of California, San Diego bioengineering professor Adam Engler and colleagues intrigued. These cells, they suggest, could hint at new therapeutic possibilities for muscular dystrophy.

In diseases like muscular dystrophy or a heart attack, ?muscle begins to die and undergoes its normal wounding processes,? said Engler, a bioengineering professor at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego. ?This damaged tissue is fundamentally different from a mechanical perspective? than healthy tissue.

Transplanted stem cells might be able to replace and repair diseased muscle, but up to this point the transplants haven?t been very successful in muscular dystrophy patients, he noted. The cells tend to clump into hard nodules as they struggle to adapt to their new environment of thickened and damaged tissue.

Engler, postdoctoral scholar Yu Suk Choi and the rest of the team think their fat-derived stem cells might have a better chance for this kind of therapy, since the cells seem to thrive on a stiff and unyielding surface that mimics the damaged tissue found in people with MD.

In their study in the journal Biomaterials, the researchers compared the development of bone marrow stem cells and fat-derived stem cells grown on surfaces of varying stiffness, ranging from the softness of brain tissue to the hardness of bone.

Cells from the fat lineage were 40 to 50 times better than their bone marrow counterparts at displaying the proper proteins involved in becoming muscle. These proteins are also more likely to ?turn on? in the correct sequence in the fat-derived cells, Engler said.

Subtle differences in how these two types of cells interact with their environment are critical to their development, the scientists suggest. The fat-derived cells seem to sense their ?niche? on the surfaces more completely and quickly than marrow-derived cells. ?They are actively feeling their environment soon, which allows them to interpret the signals from the interaction of cell and environment that guide development,? Choi explained.

Perhaps most surprisingly, muscle cells grown from the fat stem cells fused together, forming myotubes to a degree never previously observed. Myotubes are a critical step in muscle development, and it?s a step forward that Engler and colleagues hadn?t seen before in the lab.

The fused cells stayed fused when they were transferred to a very stiff surface. ?These programmed cells are mature enough so that they don?t respond the environmental cues? in the new environment that might cause them to split apart, Engler says.

Engler and colleagues will now test how these new fused cells perform in mice with a version of muscular dystrophy. The cells survive in an environment of stiff tissue, but Engler cautions that there are other aspects of diseased tissue such as its shape and chemical composition to consider. ?From the perspective of translating this into a clinically viable therapy, we want to know what components of the environment provide the most important cues for these cells,? he said.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - San Diego.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Jennifer L. Young, Adam J. Engler. Hydrogels with time-dependent material properties enhance cardiomyocyte differentiation in vitro. Biomaterials, 2011; 32 (4): 1002 DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2010.10.020

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120130094358.htm

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First single from new Madonna album released February 3 (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? The first single from Madonna's upcoming album "MDNA" is called "Give Me All Your Luvin'" and is set for a February 3 release, two days before the singer performs at the Super Bowl on Sunday.

The track features Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. and was composed by Martin Solveig and Michael Tordjman, and marks Madonna's return to music after focusing on directing her new movie "W.E."

MDNA, to be released on Universal Music Group's Interscope Records on March 26, will be the singer's 12th studio album and the follow-up to 2008's "Hard Candy" which debuted at the top of the charts in 37 countries.

An excerpt from the video to Give Me All Your Luvin' will air on U.S. television show "American Idol" on February 2, and the full video appears on Madonna's YouTube channel the following day.

MDNA was recorded in New York and Los Angeles and reunited Madonna with William Orbit who co-wrote and co-produced several cuts on the new album.

The Grammy-winning 53-year-old will headline Sunday's halftime show at the 2012 Super Bowl in Indianapolis in a performance co-created by Cirque Du Soleil.

More than 160 million TV viewers watched last year's halftime performance, making it the most-watched musical event of the year.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120130/en_nm/us_madonna_single

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Sudan rebels say holding 29 Chinese workers (Reuters)

KHARTOUM (Reuters) ? Rebels in Sudan's oil-producing border state of South Kordofan said on Sunday they were holding Chinese workers for their own safety after a battle with the Sudanese army.

The army has been fighting rebels of the SPLM-N in South Kordofan bordering newly independent South Sudan since June. Fighting spread to the northern Blue Nile state in September.

"We are holding 29 Chinese workers after a battle with the army yesterday," a spokesman for the SPLM-N said. "They are in good health. We are holding them for their own safety because the army was trying to strike again."

The army said rebels had attacked the compound of a Chinese construction company operating in the area between the towns of Abbasiya and Rashad in the north of the state and captured 70 civilians.

"Most of them are Chinese. They (the rebels) are targeting civilians," said army spokesman Sawarmi Khalid Saad.

He said there had been no battle in the area and the army was now trying to rescue the civilians.

China's foreign ministry urged Sudan to guarantee the safety of Chinese personnel during the search and rescue process, according to a statement released in Beijing.

South Kordofan is the main oil-producing state in Sudan, while Blue Nile is rich in minerals such as chrome.

The fighting in both states has forced about 417,000 people to flee their homes, more than 80,000 of them to South Sudan, according to the United Nations.

Both states contain large groups who sided with the south in a decades-long civil war, and who say they continue to face persecution inside Sudan since South Sudan seceded in July.

The SPLM is now the ruling party in the independent south and denies supporting SPLM-North rebels across the border.

Events in South Kordofan and Blue Nile are difficult to verify because aid groups and diplomats are banned from areas where fighting takes place.

SPLM-North is one of a number of rebel movements in underdeveloped border areas who say they are fighting to overthrow Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and end what they see as the dominance of the Khartoum political elite.

Sudan and South Sudan, which still have to resolve a range of issues including the sharing of oil revenues, regularly trade accusations of supporting insurgencies on each other's territory.

(Reporting by Ulf Laessing and Khalid Abdelaziz; additional reporting by David Stanway in Beijing)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/wl_nm/us_sudan_china

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Hindu Deities: Identify Images Of Gods And Goddesses (QUIZ)

The images of Hindu deities are colorful, sacred, dramatic -- and ubiquitous. They are depicted in Hindu calendars, worshipped in temples, have a place of honor in homes, and also stare at us from bags of rice and flour in the local Indian grocery store. For centuries, specially trained artisans have been sculpting stone images of Hindu divinities. Consecrated images of deities are known as murtis. Most Hindus believe that murtis are divine, and enable the worshipper to focus on the formless divine power, Brahman.

[Scroll down to take the quiz]

Each image of a Hindu deity is unique, tells a story and is rich in symbolism. Some deities are represented in more than one form. Each form highlights a particular aspect of their personality. Hindu deities are generally represented in human form, and are either male or female. Two noteworthy exceptions are Narasimha (half-man, half-lion), the fourth avatar of Vishnu, and Ardhanarishvara (half-man, half-woman), a composite androgynous form of Lord Shiva and his consort Parvati. Typically, images of Hindu deities have multiple heads and arms (usually to denote invincibility), carry distinctive weapons, and are mounted on lotuses or particular animals. Hindu gods and goddesses are the patrons of knowledge, wealth, and artistic disciplines. Many are personifications of natural forces like Agni (the god of fire) and Bhudevi (Mother Earth).

Most Hindus believe that there are 330 million gods and goddesses and that each represents an attribute of the Supreme Truth, Brahman. While there are some sects of Hinduism that do not worship murtis (for e.g., Arya Samaj, Assamese Vaishnavism), they are loved and revered by the majority of Hindus, especially within devotional sects of Hinduism. In temples and homes, deities are regularly given a ritual bath (Abhisheka), dressed, offered food, flowers and other offerings, and put to sleep.

How many images of Hindu deities can you identify? Take this quiz to find out!

Hindu deities

Let's see how you do on the next question.

To get the highest score, get all the answers right in the fastest time!
The clock will start as soon as you submit your first answer.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/28/hindu-deities-gods-goddesses-quiz_n_1229157.html

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SUMO-snipping protein plays crucial role in T and B cell development

Saturday, January 28, 2012

When SUMO grips STAT5, a protein that activates genes, it blocks the healthy embryonic development of immune B cells and T cells unless its nemesis breaks the hold, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reports today in Molecular Cell.

"This research extends the activity of SUMO and the Sentrin/SUMO-specific protease 1 (SENP1) to the field of immunology, in particular the early lymphoid development of T and B cells," said the study's senior author, Edward T. H. Yeh, M.D., professor and chair of MD Anderson's Department of Cardiology.

SUMO proteins, also known as the small ubiquitin-like modifiers or Sentrin, attach to other proteins in cells to modify their function or to move them within a cell. SENP1 is one of a family of six proteins that snips SUMO off of SUMO-modified proteins. SUMOylation (SUMO modification) of proteins has been implicated in development of cancer, heart and neurodegenerative diseases, among others.

The team first analyzed the role of SENP1 in the development of lymphoids in mice and found it is heavily expressed in precursor cells, the early stages of B and T cell development.

Working with genetically modified mice they developed that lack SENP1 gene expression, Yeh and colleagues found the mouse embryos had severe defects in their T and B cells, white blood cell lymphocytes that identify and fight infection.

SUMO pins STAT5 in the nucleus

Subsequent experiments led them to STAT5, a transcription factor known to play critical roles in the development and function of immune cells. Transcription factors work in the cell nucleus, activating gene expression by connecting to a gene's promoter region.

"STAT5 works in a cycle, moving from the cytosol of a cell into the nucleus to activate genes and then back out to the cytosol," Yeh said. "We found that when STAT5 is SUMOylated in the nucleus it gets trapped there when there's no SENP1 to remove SUMO."

The team found that SUMO muscles in on two other signaling events that govern STAT5 activity - phosphorylation and acetylation.

SUMO inhibits STAT5 signaling

STAT5 is activated in the cell cytosol when the JAK tyrosine kinase attaches a phosphate group at a specific site on the STAT5 protein. This transformed STAT5 crosses the nuclear membrane into the nucleus to transcribe genes.

The team found that SUMO attaches to STAT5 close to its phosphorylation site and that cells lacking SENP1 have increased SUMOylation and decreased phosphorylation.

SUMOylation vs. acetylation

In addition to phosphorylation, acetylation of STAT5 has been shown to be essential for STAT5 to cross the nuclear membrane into the nucleus to enhance gene transcription. Yeh and colleagues found that SUMO competes directly with acetyl groups for the same binding site, inhibiting acetylation.

"Without SENP1 to remove SUMO, STAT5 can't be acetylated or phosphorylated and can't be recycled for use again," Yeh said. "We discovered that SENP1 controls lymphoid development through regulation of SUMOylation of STAT5."

Since Yeh's lab discovered SUMOylation in 1996, SUMO has been found to alter the function of thousands of proteins.

Yeh is hosting the 6th International Conference SUMO, Ubiquitin, UBL Proteins: Implications for Human Diseases Feb. 8-11 in the Dan L. Duncan Building at MD Anderson. Yeh organizes the meeting every other year.

"There used to be so little known about SUMO. Now, a protein is assumed to be SUMOylated until proved otherwise," Yeh said.

###

University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center: http://www.mdanderson.org

Thanks to University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117155/SUMO_snipping_protein_plays_crucial_role_in_T_and_B_cell_development

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College Tuition Controversy Highlights Challenges (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | According to the Associated Press, President Barack Obama is upset with colleges and universities that have been raising their tuition rates, forcing an increasing number of students into debt as college degrees are worth less in a down economy. He has threatened to cut federal dollars for these schools and transfer the money to schools that offer good education for a reasonable price.

That rising tuition is a problem is undeniable. With the weak job market oversaturated with college graduates, degrees are worth less and less while remaining indispensable -- twentysomethings cannot hope for a shot at a middle class lifestyle unless they nab a diploma. Knowing that high school graduates cannot hope for middle class security without a term of stay at college, colleges have teens by the short hairs: They can charge more each semester, and everyone has no choice but to pay.

And if all colleges raise their prices similarly, it makes no point to contemplate a transfer. Students might as well grin and bear it as they write checks, grimly hoping the economy improves and their degree is worth something by the time they walk across the graduation stage.

Despite being able to engage in abusive tuition-raising at will, institutions of higher education are consistently protected by the fact that hurting schools will hurt students. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., a critic of Obama's tough talk, said shifting federal dollars from universities hurts the students it is meant to help.

Aye, the old rock-and-a-hard-place dilemma: You can't put the squeeze on universities today to get them to change their tuition-raising ways so nothing changes tomorrow. Every time you get ready to teach a well-deserved lesson to those in corrupt ivory towers, you are lambasted as a tyrant who is harming innocent kids. To avoid looking like an anti-education Neanderthal you must spare the fiscal rod and spoil the college president child.

The catch-22 scenario afflicting attempts to rein in tuition abuse at colleges and universities is also seen in other areas, particularly military spending. If you try to cut military spending you risk being attacked as an unpatriotic coward who is risking the lives of brave American soldiers by denying young men sufficient body armor and weaponry. Therefore, you can never deny the Pentagon the funds it desires, lest you be seen as willing to send young Americans to their deaths.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/education/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120129/pl_ac/10898175_college_tuition_controversy_highlights_challenges

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Almost half of young Spaniards unemployed

Marcelo Del Pozo / Reuters

People enter a government job centre in Chipiona, on the southern coast of Spain.

By msnbc.com staff

There's no doubt that the U.S. unemployment rate of 8.5 percent (as of December) is painful for Americans. But?pain can be relative.

Spain reported Friday that its jobless rate jumped to 22.8 percent in the fourth quarter, according to The Associated Press, up from 21.5 percent in the third quarter. That means?5.3 million Spaniards were out of work in the last three months of the year versus 4.9 million in the third quarter.

The Spanish jobless rate is by far the highest in the eurozone, with Ireland?a distant second with 14.6 percent unemployed.?

It gets worse for Spain. For young?Spaniards?ages?16 to?24, almost half, or 48.6 percent,?are not working, the BBC reported.?

Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/27/10251043-almost-half-of-young-spaniards-unemployed

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HBT: Cuban out of running to buy Dodgers

UPDATE: Well, we can cross two big names off the list. Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times has learned that the groups led by Mark Cuban and former agent Dennis Gilbert didn?t make it to the second round of the bidding process.

Meanwhile, Tony Jackson of ESPNLosAngeles.com hears that Peter O?Malley?s group and the group led by?Stanley Gold (who runs the investment firm for the family of the late Roy Disney) have advanced. O?Malley has reportedly discussed joining forces with Gold?s group.

9:30 PM: We learned earlier this week that the Dodgers received more than 10 opening bids in advance of Monday?s deadline from those interested in buying the team from Frank McCourt. The opening bids aren?t binding and new bidders could still emerge in the days to come, but we have some early word on who made it through to the next round.

Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times reports that?at least eight groups have advanced, including the Magic Johnson/Stan Kasten group, the Joe Torre/Rick Caruso?group and the group headed by hedge fund manager?Steven Cohen. No word on any others, but it?s safe to say most of the big names are sticking around.

The Dodgers released a statement a little while ago confirming that ?the round of preliminary bidding has been completed successfully.? However, they didn?t say who advanced or provide a timeline for the next step.

The embattled McCourt faces an April 30 deadline to sell the team and has agreed to identify the winning bidder by April 1. The sale is expected to fetch an MLB record price tag in excess of $1 billion.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/01/27/magic-johnson-joe-torre-and-steven-cohen-among-finalists-to-own-dodgers/related/

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With new game, Zynga spells B-I-N-G-O

Zynga, the San Francisco-based developer behind FarmVille, has released a range of popular parlor games in recent years, including Zynga Poker, Chess with Friends, and Words With Friends (the Scrabble-based game that it acquired from a smaller developer). The latest addition to the company roster is Zynga Bingo ? a game which has already been described by one blogger as a "visually beautiful" experience.?

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Zynga reps said Bingo would go live this week, on a limited beta basis, with a complete version available sometime in the next couple of months. "Right now, we're only letting a limited number of people into the game to make sure our players are getting a primo, Zynga Bingo experience, before officially open the floodgates," Zynga reps wrote on the company blog.?

According to Zynga, gamers will be able to choose from a variety of rooms, as in a casino ? there's a Vegas-themed room, a pirates-themed room, and (inevitably) a FarmVille-themed room, which will probably be full of Zynga-style cows and pitchforks and rows of pixelated corn. Meanwhile, as in Words With Friends, you'll be able to invite Facebook friends to a friendly Bingo match.?

The main difference between old-school Bingo and its Zynga counterpart is the?"social aspect," Leena Rao writes at TechCrunch. "When you start the game, you?ll be promoted to enter themed bingo rooms and compete against friends or other random players on Facebook simultaneously, challenging buddies in a race to get B-I-N-G-O faster. Similar to Zynga Poker, players can chat and see which rooms their friends are in."

As Rao points out, in December, Zynga launched its long-awaited IPO, only to see shares fall hard. Since then, Zynga has introduced a handful of new titles, which Rao argues could help boost the company's bottom line.?

For more tech news, follow us on?Twitter @venturenaut. And don?t forget to sign up for the weekly?BizTech newsletter.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/iX1SIs8qSMo/With-new-game-Zynga-spells-B-I-N-G-O

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Director, Vendor Finance Front Office Systems at CIT Group ...

Job Opening in New Jersey!

and support of Vendor Finance Front Office Systems, ensuring business ? manager with Vendor Finance Front Office business and functional area?

Source: Apply HERE to this Job

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Source: http://www.njrealjobs.com/director-vendor-finance-front-office-systems-at-cit-group-livingston-nj/

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Fans Would Miss Work or a Child's Birth to Attend the Super Bowl (LiveScience.com)

American adults would be willing to miss a number of major life events, including essential work obligations, to attend a Super Bowl featuring their favorite NFL team, a new survey reveals.

More than 20 percent of those surveyed by CouponCabin.com said they would skip out on important work responsibilities, vacations and the wedding of a close friend or family member in order to see their team play in football's championship game.

Football fans also said they'd be willing to miss the funeral of a loved one and the birth of their child, according to the survey.

The game's widespread popularity among Americans is evidenced by the 56 percent of surveyed U.S. adults who said they plan to watch the Super Bowl this year.

The research shows not everyone who turns on the game is a football fanatic. Nearly 40 percent of those surveyed tune in primarily for the commercials, and a third said they watch the game because it's fun to go to a Super Bowl party.

And though many will try their hand at winning a few bucks by gambling on the big game, the study finds not too many strike it rich on the Super Bowl. Just 7 percent of those who gambled on it in the past reported winning more than $500.

The research was based on surveys of 2,625 U.S. adults ages 18 and older.

This story was provided by BusinessNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience, had Brooks is a Chicago-based freelance writer who spent 10 years working as a newspaper reporter before entering public relations. You can reach him at?chadgbrooks@gmail.com?or follow him on Twitter @cbrooks76.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/parenting/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20120126/sc_livescience/fanswouldmissworkorachildsbirthtoattendthesuperbowl

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Private sector unions add members as jobs return

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Union membership grew slightly last year, giving labor leaders hope that a period of steep declines has finally bottomed out.

The number of unionized workers increased by about 50,000 to nearly 14.8 million members in 2011, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. The increase comes after unions lost nearly 1.4 million members over the previous two years.

Still, unions' share of the overall workforce fell, from 11.9 percent to 11.8 percent, as state and local governments trimmed thousands of jobs to address budget shortfalls. That's the lowest percentage of union workers since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

Unions saw losses of about 61,000 workers in government employment. But they grew by 110,000 workers in the private sector, mainly in construction and health care. Despite that growth, unions still represent just 6.9 percent of all workers at private companies, unchanged from 2010.

"The devastating losses from 2009 and 2010 have stopped and that's got to be good news for the labor movement," said John Schmitt, a senior economist with the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington.

Schmitt said another positive for unions is that private sector membership grew at about the same rate as overall job growth.

Union membership has declined steadily from its peak of about a third of all workers in the 1950s, and about 20 percent in 1983. The losses have been especially steep in private industry with the loss of manufacturing jobs that traditionally are heavily unionized.

"It is telling that as our country begins to recover the jobs lost during the Great Recession, good union jobs are beginning to come back," said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

As private sector union membership eroded, labor leaders turned increasingly toward workers in state and local governments, where there was often less resistance to organizing. About 7.6 million employees in the public sector belonged to a union last year, compared with 7.2 million union workers in the private sector. And public-sector workers had a union membership rate of 37 percent, more than five times that of private-sector workers.

But future public sector growth in union membership is in doubt.

States and municipalities laid off tens of thousands of workers to balance their budgets after tax revenues plummeted because of the recession. Public sector unions also have faced growing hostility from GOP legislatures in Wisconsin, Ohio and other states that have tried to curb collective bargaining rights.

Florida saw the largest increase in union members last year, up 68,000, followed by Michigan, a 44,000 increase as auto industry employment surged. Union membership fell most sharply in New York, down 53,000.

New York remains the most heavily unionized state at 24 percent, while North Carolina has the lowest union rate at 2.9 percent.

Among full-time wage and salary workers, the median weekly earnings of union members was $938, compared to $729 for nonunion workers.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-27-US-Union-Membership/id-ee528aea9f46425cabfe8e188fbf4a23

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NY art dealer charged in $4M fraud (AP)

NEW YORK ? A New York art dealer has been charged in a $4 million fraud for selling works by Picasso, Matisse and others without informing the owner or giving him the proceeds.

The charges in a criminal complaint in Manhattan accuse Robert Scott Cook of selling 16 works of art without the owner/collector's knowledge. The artwork included watercolors, drawings, photographs, and other works by artists including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, among others.

Lawyers in court papers filed in a civil case against him say Cook is likely living abroad because he travels frequently around the world. A lawyer for the 62-year-old Cook did not immediately return a phone message for comment.

From 2005 to 2011, Cook owned Cook Fine Art, LLC.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/arts/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_en_ot/us_art_dealer_charged

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At least 11 hurt in collapse at casino site

Al Behrman / AP

Workers and officials inspect the collapse at the Horseshoe Casino under construction on Friday, Jan. 27, 2012, in Cincinnati. Authorities say at least 11 people have been taken to hospitals with minor injuries, non life-threatening.

By msnbc.com news services

A partial collapse at a casino construction site early Friday in Cincinnati has?left at least 11 people with minor injuries, according to news reports.

Ten of the wounded were taken to area hospitals, but their conditions were unknown, Jennifer Spieser, a fire department spokeswoman, told NBC News. The collapse was a ?large? event, with 26 fire companies sent to the scene, she added.

Authorities reported differing numbers of the wounded, with fire officials saying 13 had been hospitalized and police saying at
least 11 were.

Workers were pouring concrete on the structure's second floor when a metal beam in the middle of the section fell, making the second floor buckle. No one was underneath the collapse, Fire Chief Dick Braun told The Cincinnati Enquirer.

Firefighters had to craft a makeshift bridge to move the injured workers due to muddy conditions. The site was closed and workers sent home, said city spokeswoman Meg Olberding, the newspaper reported.

Rock Gaming is developing the casino in partnership with Caesar's Entertainment.

A partial collapse of a garage at another Ohio casino under construction -- and also being developed by the Rock Gaming-Caesar's partnership -- occurred last month. No one was injured in that incident, according to The Associated Press.

The Associated Press and NBC News services contributed to this report.

?

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/27/10250410-at-least-11-hurt-in-collapse-at-casino-construction-site

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LikeBelt concept encourages a very physical kind of Facebook liking (video)

This is the LikeBelt: a concept device that inserts an NFC chip into a belt-buckle. Instead of tapping your mobile device on a "check-in" tag, you get the belt buckle close enough to do the same. There are only two downsides: how close you have to get and where most people's belts are situated. Suffice to say, the Quagmire-style movements required to ensure a connection aren't the sort of thing you'd do in front of your parents, priest or spouse. The creators provide instructions on how to build your own at the source link, but before you consider it, we insist you watch the video of it in action after the break. No, seriously.

Continue reading LikeBelt concept encourages a very physical kind of Facebook liking (video)

LikeBelt concept encourages a very physical kind of Facebook liking (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/AZ1y7xuePwY/

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Spectacular Northern Lights From Solar Storm Wow Skywatchers (SPACE.com)

A dazzling display of auroras lit up the far northern skies Tuesday night (Jan. 24) in a supercharged light show captured on camera by skywatchers around the world.

"I was screaming from excitement like a small kid at Christmas," said skywatcher Jens Buchmann, who watched the northern lights dance across the sky from Kiruna, Sweden.

The northern lights show was sparked by an intense solar flare that erupted from the sun late Sunday (Jan. 22). The flare unleashed a wave of charged particles, triggering the strongest solar radiation storm since 2005, NASA scientists said, adding that some minor satellite interference was possible.

Buchmann and a friend booked a last-minute flight from Stockholm to Kiruna after hearing about the solar storm. They braved freezing temperatures of about minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 30 degrees Celsius) in order to see the aurora display, moving inside only to thaw off before heading out again. Their photos show wispy green ribbons of energy rippling across the sky over a snow-covered landscape. [See video and photos of the solar storm's northern lights]

"After the main show was over I just continued lying in the snow for nearly two hours and watched the fainter, but fast-pulsating auroras that were everywhere," Buchmann told SPACE.com in an email. "All faint stars just lost their meaning behind these auroras."?

The auroras from the solar flare could potentially be seen at latitudes as low as Maine or Montana, they added.

"The trip was totally worth it!" Buchmann said.

Delta Airlines officials said the commercial airline rerouted some planes from polar routes as a precaution to avoid any interference from the solar storm, according to press reports.

Buchmann and his friend were not the only skywatchers to make a special trip to see the auroras.

In Muonio, Lapland in Finland, skywatcher and photographer Antii Pietk?nen made a special snowmobile ride with companion Thomas to try to catch the display. They posted one photo to the skywatching website Spaceweather.com, which received several others from different observers.

"The show started slowly and after 15 [minutes] the landscape was green!" Pietk?nen told Spaceweather.com. "This was the first time for Thomas to see the northern lights, and he was very happy."

Photographer Chad Blakely in Lapland, Sweden recorded an eye-popping time-lapse video of the northern lights display, showing auroras swirling over a snowy meadow while observers alternate between snapping photos and staying warm at a campfire.

A streaming camera at the Aurora Sky Station in Sweden's Abisko National Park, an observing post for aurora hunters, beamed real-time photos of the northern light show every few minutes. The images revealed stunning hues of red and green across the northern night sky.

Auroras are created when charged particles from the sun interact with Earth's upper atmosphere, causing an energy release that can be seen as lights. Because the charged solar particles are typically funneled to Earth's poles by the planet's magnetic field, the most dazzling displays occur in the far north and south. The so-called northern lights are known as the aurora borealis, while their southern counterpart is dubbed the aurora australis.

Tuesday's aurora display was sparked by a powerful solar flare on Sunday night that triggered an eruption of solar plasma, called a coronal mass ejection. The flare was classified as an M9-class solar flare, a moderate ? but still powerful ? sun storm. This eruption flung charged particles out into space, which delivered a glancing blow to Earth.

The sun storm is only the latest solar weather to ignite dazzling auroras on Earth. A series of flares late last week made for a great weekend northern lights show for some observers, even as the sun was unleashing its latest solar tempest.

The sun is currently in an active phase of its 11-year solar cycle, which is called Solar Cycle 24. Solar activity is expected to peak in 2013.

You can follow Tariq Malik on Twitter?@tariqjmalik.?Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter?@Spacedotcom?and on?Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20120125/sc_space/spectacularnorthernlightsfromsolarstormwowskywatchers

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Shop Android Deal of the Day: Case-Mate POP! Case for HTC EVO 3D

The Jan. 25 Shop Android Deal of the Day is the Case-Mate POP! Case for the HTC EVO 3D. The Pop Case features contemporary color pairings to create a modern look for your HTC EVO 3D. Rubber sides make for an easy grip. Inside, the soft material hugs your device like a glove. It's available in black, pink or white today only for just $12.95 -- that's 57 percent off! Get yours while supplies last!

 

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/_qGf1g__w8Y/story01.htm

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Summary Box: Stocks rise on Fed's low rates pledge (AP)

NEW HIGH: The Dow Jones industrial average closed at its highest level since May after the Federal Reserve said it would likely keep interest rates near zero until late 2014. It previously had promised to keep rates low through mid-2013.

BONDS RISE: Bond prices rose, sending their yields lower, because the Fed's pledge indicated that inflation will remain low. Low inflation preserves the value of a bond owner's fixed income.

NO CRYSTAL BALL: The market often reacts strongly to Fed policy. But analysts say that one-day response rarely predicts its direction over the medium term.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_bi_ge/us_wall_street_summary_box

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Transcript of the State of the Union

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans:

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Last month, I went to Andrews Air Force Base and welcomed home some of our last troops to serve in Iraq. Together, we offered a final, proud salute to the colors under which more than a million of our fellow citizens fought ? and several thousand gave their lives.

We gather tonight knowing that this generation of heroes has made the United States safer and more respected around the world. For the first time in nine years, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq. For the first time in two decades, Osama bin Laden is not a threat to this country. Most of al Qaeda?s top lieutenants have been defeated. The Taliban?s momentum has been broken, and some troops in Afghanistan have begun to come home.

These achievements are a testament to the courage, selflessness, and teamwork of America?s Armed Forces. At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations. They?re not consumed with personal ambition. They don?t obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They work together.

Imagine what we could accomplish if we followed their example. Think about the America within our reach: A country that leads the world in educating its people. An America that attracts a new generation of high-tech manufacturing and high-paying jobs. A future where we?re in control of our own energy, and our security and prosperity aren?t so tied to unstable parts of the world. An economy built to last, where hard work pays off, and responsibility is rewarded.

We can do this. I know we can, because we?ve done it before. At the end of World War II, when another generation of heroes returned home from combat, they built the strongest economy and middle class the world has ever known. My grandfather, a veteran of Patton?s Army, got the chance to go to college on the GI Bill. My grandmother, who worked on a bomber assembly line, was part of a workforce that turned out the best products on Earth.

The two of them shared the optimism of a Nation that had triumphed over a depression and fascism. They understood they were part of something larger; that they were contributing to a story of success that every American had a chance to share ? the basic American promise that if you worked hard, you could do well enough to raise a family, own a home, send your kids to college, and put a little away for retirement.

The defining issue of our time is how to keep that promise alive. No challenge is more urgent. No debate is more important. We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by. Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules. What?s at stake are not Democratic values or Republican values, but American values. We have to reclaim them.

Let?s remember how we got here. Long before the recession, jobs and manufacturing began leaving our shores. Technology made businesses more efficient, but also made some jobs obsolete. Folks at the top saw their incomes rise like never before, but most hardworking Americans struggled with costs that were growing, paychecks that weren?t, and personal debt that kept piling up.

In 2008, the house of cards collapsed. We learned that mortgages had been sold to people who couldn?t afford or understand them. Banks had made huge bets and bonuses with other people?s money. Regulators had looked the other way, or didn?t have the authority to stop the bad behavior.

1?|?2?|?3?|?4?|?5?|?6?|?7?|?8?|?9?|?10?|?11

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/dQcL8Yo_xss/Transcript-of-the-State-of-the-Union

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Five Reasons to Ignore Newt Gingrich as a Candidate (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | The GOP is still looking for their candidate to go up against President Barack Obama in the upcoming 2012 presidential election. While each has his or her flaws and drawbacks, some are worse than others. Take Newt Gingrich for example. Let's look at five strong reasons he does not deserve the power and influence afforded the presidency.

Disdain for human life. There's just no kind way to word this point. In 1996, then Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich proposed H.R. 4170: Drug Importer Death Penalty Act of 1996. When the word "smuggler" comes up in a discussion, few people would imagine someone carrying as little as two ounces of marijuana as very much of a smuggler. The very idea of a human life being worth less than the government's control of marijuana - an idea with which medical and legal experts even sometimes contend - indicates either a disdain for human life, or an inability to think here in the real world. Death for a month's worth of pot? Really?

He supported the recent bailouts. Granted, he may not be the sole cause of the nation's present economic woes, but he contributed. It would be irresponsible to blame one man for all of the housing market collapse. But, according to a story on Bloomberg.com, Newt Gingrich was paid to sell conservatives in Congress on supporting Freddie Mac. For a "conservative" candidate who claims to have such "vision," he sure did sell out cheaply enough.

The FBI once considered him a target for a sting. A story published on washingtonpost.com tells how, back in 1997, Newt Gingrich's name came up in a "legislation-for-hire" scheme involving him, his wife at the time Marianne and an Iraqi arms dealer who wanted the arms embargo lifted from Iraq. Fortunately for Gingrich, the FBI didn't have enough evidence directly linking him to knowledge of being involved, so the proposed sting was dropped. Still, America needs a president we know we can trust, not one who must constantly be second-guessed.

Look at how he treats his other relationships. Any man who's ever had an ex-wife to cope with knows how angry she can be. The problem for us, as a nation, isn't that he has one, or more failed marriages behind him, but what Marianne Gingrich shared with politicsdaily.com helps us all to see a little bit more of the personality behind the publicly marketed image of the man. In some cases, we do want to see how the sausage is made, especially when that sausage wants to lead the most powerful nation on Earth.

And who doesn't trust Jon Stewart? As usual, someone with a sense-of-humor, intelligence and charm puts it better than anyone else could: "Gingrich is Reagan, if he were abandoned as a child and raised by a family of cactuses." The point is clear: Gingrich is no Reagan. Why should we buy pandering?

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120123/pl_ac/10706975_five_reasons_to_ignore_newt_gingrich_as_a_candidate

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RIM's new leader raises doubts among investors (Reuters)

TORONTO/LONDON (Reuters) ? The new leader at Research In Motion on Monday dismissed talk of drastic change at the BlackBerry maker, a declaration seized on by impatient investors who say Thorsten Heins has only 12 to 18 months to turn RIM around.

Takeover talk, swirling around RIM for months, picked up steam as Heins took the helm at a once-dominant smartphone company that now struggles to compete. But RIM's shares tumbled more than 8 percent as investors wondered whether Heins could reverse RIM's decline.

"I don't think that there is some drastic change needed. We are evolving ... but this is not a seismic change," said Heins, who joined RIM in 2007 and previously served as a chief operating officer.

RIM's co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, the men who engineered RIM's rise, resigned on Saturday after intense investor pressure. Their presence had been seen as a big obstacle to a possible sale of the company, although Heins insisted that was not an option he was considering.

Shareholders and analysts have grown impatient in recent months and calls for Lazaridis and Balsillie to step aside had reached a crescendo. RIM has lost market share and market value after being comprehensively outplayed by Silicon Valley tech giants Apple and Google.

"If Thorsten really believes that there are no changes to be made, he will be gone within 15 to 18 months. He will be a transitional CEO and this will be a transitional board," said Jaguar CEO Vic Alboini, who leads an informal group of 16 RIM shareholders calling for a radical restructuring. The group holds a little less than 10 percent of RIM's stock.

Lazaridis and Balsillie - two of RIM's three largest shareholders with more than 5 percent each - will remain board members, while Lazaridis will also head a newly created innovation committee. Their new roles suggest continuity was a goal in the transition.

Critics have called for a new leader who can rejuvenate both the design and operational sides of the business, or prepare it for sale to one of a raft of rumored buyers.

Heins, a former Siemens AG executive, said during a conference call on Monday that he would hone rather than abandon current strategy at RIM, which after years of massive growth needed to start operating like a mature business, not a startup.

The new CEO, who scored his last major promotion as RIM was shedding some 2,000 jobs last June, said no further job cuts were currently planned and that with RIM's $1.5 billion in cash he had no qualms in spending on the right projects.

"If I have a great strategic project or a good business case I can go to the board anytime and ask for approval for additional investment and the money's in the bank to do this," he said.

INVESTORS DISAPPOINTED

Analysts were cautious.

"People may have been a little disheartened that he was defending the current RIM strategy," said Morgan Stanley analyst Ehud Gelblum. "I think (investors) might have wanted to hear a mea culpa."

"People would have been happier hearing 'we are on the wrong path'. We didn't hear a lot of talk about change."

Jaguar's Alboini criticized the retention of Balsillie and Lazaridis on RIM's board and called for several other board members to step down before RIM's mid-year annual meeting.

"If we're wrong, prove us wrong," Alboini said in an interview, referring to the group of shareholders who support his view. "This group is not going anywhere. This is just putting RIM in a position where it might be able to get back into the game. It's early days."

Barbara Stymiest, a former banking and exchange executive, will replace Lazaridis and Balsillie as the chair of the board. Stymiest, a RIM board member for five years, is also viewed as an insider tied to the old regime.

LOOKING AHEAD

Heins' immediate concerns are to generate sales of RIM's current lineup of BlackBerry 7 touchscreen devices, deliver on a promised software upgrade for its PlayBook tablet computer by February, and rally RIM's troops to launch the next-generation BlackBerry 10 phones later this year.

But even if he had a credible overall plan to foster change, some analysts question whether RIM had fallen too far behind its competitors to catch up.

Its existing product lineup has struggled to compete with Apple's iPhone and iPad and the slew of devices from Samsung and others using Google's Android operating system. In North America particularly, RIM has hemorrhaged market share during a year marked by product delays and a botched launch of the PlayBook.

"If RIM's going to grow in the U.S. ... they have to have products better than the iPhone or Android," said Pacific Crest analyst James Faucette. As of now, "they don't have products that are competitive with those, let alone better."

But RIM has also shown a renewed seriousness about getting its message delivered, hiring crisis management firm Sitrick and Company as strategic counsel.

Sitrick helps companies in crisis and celebrities navigating scandal. Clients have included Paris Hilton as she faced jail time and Michael Vick, an NFL quarterback involved in a dog-fighting ring. The firm also helped Roy Disney remove Michael Eisner as chairman of Walt Disney.

SEEKING A PLAN

Analysts circled their calendars for an analyst day in early May as the first opportunity for the new leader to lay out a detailed plan for reversing the decline.

The event "will now become the focal point to the unveiling of Thorsten's vision," CCS Insight analyst Ben Wood told Reuters. "The speed with which you make strategic changes and implement them is absolutely critical because the mobile phone business will not stand still."

"If there are no meaningful signs of an imminent turnaround, then I think the spotlight will turn back on to the assets that RIM holds and who they might be attractive to."

Investors have seized on any rumor of a deal involving RIM as a reason to celebrate, whether talk is of a pact with Amazon as reported by Reuters in December, or with Samsung last week.

Analysts have said logical buyers for RIM also include fellow-struggler Nokia, perhaps with support from Microsoft, and Facebook which is increasingly pushing its content to users via their mobile phones.

If there is no obvious buyer, Heins has more immediate options to add value to the business.

RIM could license its software or integrate its email package, a strategy that many analysts and investors have thought the company might pursue. Heins said it would be wrong to focus on that option but he is still open to discussions.

"RIM have had big challenges in the past and they succeeded in moving from a corporate product to be also a consumer product, to get a foot in the consumer market and very few people expected them to do that," consultant John Strand said.

"Now they have to reinvent themselves again."

RIM's U.S.-listed shares closed 8.5 percent lower at $15.56, for a market capitalization of little more than $8 billion. In the company's heyday, just three and a half years ago, it had a market capitalization around $80 billion.

(Additional reporting by Sinead Carew in New York and Andrea Hopkins in Toronto; Editing by Frank McGurty and Janet Guttsman)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/bs_nm/us_rim

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