May 30
The number of poor people in U.S. suburbs rose by 63.6% between 2000 and 2011, from 10 million to well over 16 million people. For the first time, there are now more people living in poverty in the suburbs than in cities.
May 30
Reversing its march towards creating a phone that requires a wheelbarrow to tote around town, Samsung has announced the 4.3-inch S4 mini.
May 30
By Tom Hals
May 30 (Reuters) – Sound Shore Health System Inc of suburban New York City filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, blaming government spending cuts, and plans to sell its business to Montefiore Medical Center for $54 million.
The company provides healthcare services through its Sound Shore Medical Center of Westchester, Mount Vernon Hospital Inc and a nursing home and extended care facility.
Sound Shore said it was struggling due to cuts in government spending.
“As is true with many community hospitals serving a working-class constituency, the Medical Centers have been beset by the financial pressures caused by cuts in Medicare and Medicaid funding,” the company said in documents filed in Manhattan’s U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Wednesday.
The company said it had assets worth $159.6 million at the end of last year and liabilities of approximately $200 million. The company reported 2012 revenue of $241.8 million.
Bankruptcy lawyers and advisers have said they expect a wave of restructuring among healthcare providers as governments look to rein in their medical spending.
Earlier this month KidsPeace Corp of Pennsylvania, which operates a psychiatric hospital, filed for bankruptcy and also blaming cuts in Medicaid.
May 30
Captcha Fail Leaves Blind People Unable To Sign ‘We The People’ Petition To Help The Blind
Posted in: Today's ChiliThanks in part to a dreaded Captcha code on the White House’s petitions website, it’s nearly impossible for blind web users to sign a “We The People” petition seeking support for an international treaty intended to help … the blind.
The treaty would make it easier for the blind to access creative works by offering certain exceptions to copyright law and permitting such works to be shared across borders. It had seen decades of inaction before being brought to the World Intellectual Property Organization in 2008 and has since received wavering support from the White House.
Politico reported this week that the National Federation for the Blind is now up in arms over the required use of a Captcha code to register and begin signing any petitions on the White House website, including one in support of the treaty.
May 30
Peter Shumlin, DGA Chairman, Expects Democratic Unity In Fight Against Chris Christie
Posted in: Today's ChiliWASHINGTON – The chairman of the Democratic Governors Association is expecting the fractured New Jersey Democratic Party to unite behind the party’s presumptive nominee against Gov. Chris Christie (R).
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, the DGA chairman, told The Huffington Post Thursday that Garden State Democrats should unite behind state Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Metuchen), the presumptive Democratic nominee, as she faces an uphill battle to beat out Christie. Buono, who trails Christie by over 30 points in recent polls, has seen Democratic-elected officials defect to the Republican’s campaign, and is facing an internal battle over her pick to chair the state Democratic Party for the rest of the year.
“Barbara is running a great campaign,” Shumlin said of Buono.
Read More…
More on Chris Christie
May 30
Japan Cancels GMO Wheat Order After Concerns Over U.S. Grain Developed By Monsanto
Posted in: Today's ChiliBy Naveen Thukral and Risa Maeda
SINGAPORE/TOKYO, May 30 (Reuters) – A strain of genetically modified wheat found in the United States fuelled concerns over food supplies across Asia on Thursday, with major importer Japan cancelling a tender offer to buy U.S. grain.
Other top Asian wheat importers South Korea, China and the Philippines said they were closely monitoring the situation after the U.S. government found genetically engineered wheat sprouting on a farm in the state of Oregon.
The strain was never approved for sale or consumption.
Asian consumers are keenly sensitive to gene-altered food, with few countries allowing imports of such cereals for human consumption. However, most of the corn and soybean shipped from the U.S. and South America for animal feed is genetically modified.
“We will refrain from buying western white and feed wheat effective today,” Toru Hisadome, a Japanese farm ministry official in charge of wheat trading, told Reuters.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday said the wheat variety was developed years ago by biotechnology giant Monsanto Co. It was never put into use because of worldwide opposition to genetically engineered wheat.
Wheat, long known as the staff of life, is the world’s largest traded food commodity and it is used in making breads, pastries, cookies, breakfast cereal and noodles.
Asia imports more than 40 million tonnes of wheat annually, almost a third of the global trade of 140-150 million tonnes. The bulk of the region’s supplies come from the United States, the world’s biggest exporter, and Australia, the No. 2 supplier.
The USDA said there was no sign that genetically engineered wheat had entered the commercial market, but grain traders warned the discovery could hurt export prospects for U.S. wheat.
“Asian consumers are jittery about genetically modified food,” said Abah Ofon, an analyst at Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore. “This is adding to concerns that already exist on quality and availability of food wheat globally.”
In 2006, a large part of the U.S. long-grain rice crop was contaminated by an experimental strain from Bayer CropScience , prompting import bans in Europe and Japan and sharply lowering market prices. The company agreed in court in 2011 to pay $750 million to growers as compensation.
BUYERS CAUTIOUS, SEEK DETAILS
A major flour miller in China, which has been stocking U.S. wheat in recent months, said importers will tread carefully.
China has emerged as a key buyer of U.S. wheat this year, taking around 1.5 million tonnes in the past two months. Chinese purchases in the year to June 2014 are estimated to rise 21 percent to 3.5 million tonnes, according to the USDA, with most shipments coming from the United States, Australia and Canada.
Japan’s Hisadome said the government has asked U.S. authorities to provide more details of their investigation and Japan will stop buying the wheat concerned, at least until a test kit is developed to identify genetically modified produce.
There is no U.S.-approved test kit to identify genetically engineered wheat. The USDA has said it is working on a “rapid test” kit.
The Philippines, which buys about 4 million tonnes of wheat a year and relies mainly on U.S. supplies, is waiting for more details from the USDA before acting, an industry official in Manila said.
An agriculture ministry source in South Korea said the government is reviewing the discovery, adding the country thoroughly inspects products from the United States as part of safety checks.
“I won’t be surprised if other countries start cancelling or reducing their purchases of U.S. wheat, particularly Asian countries, putting pressure on wheat demand,” said Joyce Liu, an investment analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore.
The benchmark Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures eased half a percent on Thursday after rallying in the previous session.
Genetically modified crops cannot be grown legally in the United States unless the government approves them after a review to ensure they pose no threat to the environment or to people.
Monsanto entered four strains of glyphosate-resistant wheat for U.S. approval in the 1990s but there was no final decision by regulators because the company decided there was no market.
The St. Louis-based firm downplayed the incident in a statement posted on its website. “While USDA’s results are unexpected, there is considerable reason to believe that the presence of the Roundup Ready trait in wheat, if determined to be valid, is very limited,” it said.
Still, importers are not in a position to shun wheat from the United States, which accounts for about a fifth of the global supplies, analysts and industry officials said. (Additional reporting by Karl Plume in CHICAGO, Niu Shuping in Beijing, Erik dela Cruz in MANILA, Jane Chung in SEOUL and Yayat Supriatna in JAKARTA; Editing by Amran Abocar and Richard Pullin)
May 30
Dan Savage Explains How Christians Can Help The Gay Equality Movement (VIDEO)
Posted in: Today's ChiliDuring Dan Savage’s appearance on HuffPost Live, sex columnist and author of the new book ‘American Savage’ was asked by a Christian who supports full equality for gay people about the role Christians like her can play in the gay rights movement.
Savage first clarified to HuffPost Live host Josh Zepps that he is not anti-religion, but rather anti-hypocrisy saying that one can’t talk about Leviticus and condemn homosexuality while ignoring Newt Gingrich’s multiple wives. In fact, Savage identified himself as a ‘cultural Catholic’ and shared with Zepps how the last thing he did for his mother in the hospital was run get a priest to administer last rites.
Dan Savage insisted that Christian must ‘get in the faces of people like Tony Perkins because a lot of people in America are convinced that Christianity is synonymous with anti-gay bigotry.’
Read More…
More on Photo Galleries
May 30
John Alban Jr. Named As Driver Of Truck Involved In Baltimore Suburb Train Derailment
Posted in: Today's ChiliA freight train smacked into a truck carrying garbage and careened off the tracks in Rosedale Tuesday afternoon, triggering an explosion felt throughout the region and sending up a plume of black smoke visible for miles.
Authorities identified the driver of the truck as John Alban Jr., a retired Baltimore County firefighter who owns a waste collection company near the scene of the crash. The Essex man was listed in serious condition at Maryland Shock Trauma Center Tuesday night, a hospital spokeswoman said. No other serious injuries were reported.
Officials shut down surrounding roads for several hours, slowing traffic through the region. The roads were reopened by Tuesday night, and a spokeswoman for the State Highway Administration said the morning commute should not be affected.
May 30
Bloomberg: HTC cancels plan for 12-inch Windows RT tablet, fears weak demand
Posted in: Today's Chili
Unlike companies such as Samsung, which have the freedom to throw products against the wall only to see whether they stick, HTC is forced to be more calculated with its efforts. With this in mind, Bloomberg now reports that HTC has canceled its plan for a 12-inch Windows RT tablet, which was previously rumored to be in the works alongside a smaller 7-inch Windows RT slate. Sources spoke to Bloomberg on anonymity, but suggested the decision was made based on concern that the 12-inch tablet would be too expensive to generate considerable demand. Coinciding with the launch of the 7-inch RT tablet — which is now pegged for September or October — Bloomberg sources also suggest that HTC will launch a similar 7-inch Android tablet in the same time frame. Talk about hedging one’s bets.
Source: Bloomberg
May 30
The iPad is no stranger to nostalgia-filled gaming sessions, and today Apple’s platform is welcoming yet another popular OG title into its hefty ranks. More specifically, we’re referring to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, a game which will surely bring a great deal of excitement to those who were avid fans of the original BioWare RPG back in the day. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is up for grabs now, but be prepared to pay a slight premium for it, since the near-2GB App Store download costs a cool 10 bucks. But hey, not too bad if you’d like to use an iPad to show your custom-made character what life was like before the Galactic Empire even existed.
Filed under: Gaming, Tablets, Software
Source: App Store
Who's in charge here?
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.