The Top New Home Improvement Suggestions @ Society Takes ...

Posted on February 8th, 2012 BagnellGunnels194

What have you any idea about redecorating? Do you have a plan? Should you, do you intend to boost on it? Exactly what is your competency establish like? Is what you?re using dealing with your own home? Are you presently sure you are installing points appropriately? When you are not able to answer these questions confidently, think about the ideas under.

When contemplating renovating your property to create an income property or home, consider exactly how much of the house you actually need to have. For instance, in case you have a 3 scenario household, consider hiring out more than just the downstairs room. In the event you rent out your very first floor at the same time you can dual your income and pay off your mortgage even more quickly.

An easy way to economize with home enhancements is to never have to be forced into undertaking them by keeping up with the maintenance and repairs on your own house. After a 30 days you need to wander around your house and consider particular notice of the items is wanting restoration and fix it.

In case you dislike painting and paneling, try out wallpaper. Wallpapering your property is an incredibly simple and low-cost strategy to put in a new look to your rooms. Be careful of which papers you choose, as some tend to be more difficult to remove than the others, in the situation you may not like it in the foreseeable future.

When increasing your home, there are a few jobs that you can do on your own and more that you just cannot. If you feel just like you can complete an easy task like repainting your kitchen, then by all means undertake it, in order to save on your own some extra cash. Just make certain you know what you?re acquiring yourself into before starting a task. You don?t want to try and remodel your bath room and discover half way via that you?re unsure if you can total the task without the need of hitting a pipeline.

If you are searching to get a fantastic colour of color for your house, visit a fresh paint or home remodeling store. You will find a fantastic segment in each and every which will supply various strips that offer the hue of colour inside a practical way that is certainly straightforward from which to choose. By doing this it is possible to pick the best shade for that look you are seeking to accomplish in or outside of the house.

Whether or not it is summertime or winter season always search for drafts. You can find almost nothing far more aggravating than home heating or air conditioning the outside. Use a lighted candle in close proximity to a windowpane or door, and in case the candle flickers, you already know you probably have a break to seal. Be sure you check out all sides of the windows and outside entry doors.

After reading these suggestions, you need to have a general thought of what it requires in becoming good at renovation. What instruments will get the job done? Which will you opt for? Despite your reply to, recognize that regardless of your skill level, it is easy to enhance on your home, on your own.

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Source: http://www.stop-alto.org/2012/02/the-top-new-home-improvement-suggestions/

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Insight: In Sudan, glimpses of an Arab spring (Reuters)

KHARTOUM (Reuters) ? A few weeks ago, a leading opposition activist sat down in a downtown Khartoum office to talk to a journalist. The young man immediately removed the battery from his cellphone.

"It's so they can't trace you," he said, placing the battery and the phone on the table. "Any one of the security agencies spread throughout the country can arrest you."

Despite that danger, the activist, from an underground group called "Change Now", said he was convinced Sudan is on the brink of its own Arab Spring uprising.

Hard times and growing frustration with the two-decades-old government of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir have sparked small protests in Khartoum and other university cities in the Arab-African state.

The demonstrations are still tiny compared with those that shook Egypt and Libya. Sometimes about 30 people show up, hold banners denouncing the government for a couple of minutes, and then melt away before security agents arrive. But the demonstrations have become more frequent in the past few months and the question is, could they lead to something bigger?

The main economic challenge is plain. When South Sudan seceded from the north last year, Khartoum lost about three-quarters of its oil, the main source of state revenues and hard currency. The Sudanese pound has slumped by as much as 70 percent below the official rate. Annual inflation is at 18 percent as the cost of food imports has shot up. Wars against insurgencies in different parts of the still-vast country have also soaked up government funds.

In 1985, protests against food inflation toppled President Jaafar Nimeiri in some 10 days. But the government in Khartoum today says the economy is not nearly as bad as it was in the 1980s, when people had to queue for days to get rationed petrol or food. Sudan, it says, will not follow Egypt or Tunisia.

Rabie Abdelati, a senior official in the information ministry and Bashir's National Congress Party (NCP), said that the economy was much better than in 1989 when Bashir came to power.

"The situation at that time was very terrible," he said. "The government has the ability to overcome all obstacles."

A relaxed-looking Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, spoke on state television for almost two hours last week to assure the population that the economic situation was under control.

"We have a 3-year economic program (but) this year will be the most difficult," the president said.

"IT WAS LIKE ANGER ERUPTED"

On the surface, life in the capital looks normal. Construction cranes loom on the banks of the Nile, working on new buildings and roads. The city bustles with foreign workers, maids and hotel staff.

But there are sporadic signs that public anger is rising.

In the last week of December, authorities temporarily closed the University of Khartoum after villagers displaced by a huge hydro-electric dam staged a protest, inspiring a week of some of the biggest student demonstrations in years. Weeks later, the spray-painted graffiti calling for "revolution" still covered a few walls near the university.

"Most people didn't care about the first demonstration as we were all in exams mode," said a female computer technology student who took part.

But when police came to the dormitories one night to detain some students, "it turned into a protest not just against the dam but against poverty, inflation and the bad situation for students," said the woman, playing with her blue head scarf.

"It was like anger erupted," she added. "Now they want to punish us by closing the university, but it will make things worse. We don't get jobs after graduation. Life is so expensive, people are very angry."

Abdelati, the information ministry official, said the protests were small and the university would reopen shortly.

OIL AND CONFLICTS

Sitting in front of a small metal workshop in downtown Khartoum, Sudanese construction worker Fateh Totu takes his time to recall when he last worked for longer than a week. At the moment he gets jobs for a couple of days, with sometimes a week in between.

"Three, four years ago life was much better. The country was in good shape. Construction work was good," Totu said, drawing nods from fellow workers sitting on small plastic chairs along a dusty road.

South Sudan's independence deprived Sudan - a country of 32 million people - of around 350,000 barrels per day (bpd) of the roughly 500,000 it pumped. Since then, oil exports, which made up 90 percent of Sudan's total exports, have fallen to zero.

The remaining output in the north of around 115,000 bpd serves only domestic consumption.

Industry insiders doubt significant new reserves will be found. But Azhari Abdallah, a senior oil official, said production would rise this year to 180,000 bpd, helped by more efficient technology and recovery rates.

Other officials are less optimistic. Central bank governor Mohamed Kheir al-Zubeir has asked fellow Arab countries to deposit $4 billion with the central bank and commercial lenders to stabilize the economy. Finance Minister Ali Mahmoud said in September Sudan might need $1.5 billion in foreign aid annually.

"The state spends a vast proportion of available resources on the security services. With three conflicts ongoing, the military's claim on the national treasury is only growing," said Aly Verjee, an analyst at the Rift Valley Institute. "While some austerity measures have been implemented, there is a general unwillingness in the government to take any step that might lead to popular discontent."

Landlocked South Sudan must pump its oil through Sudan to the Red Sea. Northern officials hope the transit fees they charges will help. But a deal has been elusive - oil analysts say Khartoum has demanded a transit fee more than 10 times the international standard - and the breakaway state has so far refused to pay.

Khartoum has seized oil awaiting shipment to compensate for what it argues are unpaid fees. Industry sources say the north has sold at least one shipment of southern oil. In protest, South Sudan has shut down production.

OUTLOOK: "STABLE"

How to find new revenues? Khartoum expects to have exported $3 billion of gold in 2011 plus another $1 billion of other minerals. Mining workers say the real figures are less than a third of that.

"Only 7 of the 70 projected tonnes of gold output for 2011 come from regular mines," said a foreign mining executive who declined to be named. "The rest is produced by gold seekers whose output is very hard to verify, and often ends up being smuggled abroad."

The government predicts 2 percent growth in 2012 but the International Monetary Fund (IMF) thinks the economy will contract. A senior Sudanese analyst with ties to the government says food inflation is much higher than the official figure. Prices for meat, sugar, vegetable oil and other staples are doubling every year, according to the analyst, who asked not to be named.

Customs officials at Khartoum airport now search almost every piece of luggage brought into the country, hoping to find a laptop or other electric device on which they can charge duties.

Khartoum had long known the South would secede, but did little to diversify its economy away from oil, bankers say. Just days after South Sudan became independent last July, Sudan's parliament, which is controlled by Bashir's National Congress Party (NCP), passed a budget predicting stable oil revenues.

"They just thought it would continue like that," said a senior banker in Khartoum who declined to be named. "That's why I doubt they now have a plan to turn the economy around."

Harry Verhoeven, a researcher at the University of Oxford who has studied Sudan extensively, said Khartoum had used its oil revenues for large, expensive projects such as the Merowe dam that sparked December's protest.

ISOLATED

Since the united States imposed a trade embargo on Sudan in 1997, most Western firms have shunned the country. The ongoing domestic insurgencies and the International Criminal Court's indictment of Bashir mean that's unlikely to end any time soon.

That leaves Khartoum reliant on China, its biggest trading partner, and Gulf Arab states. But no substantial aid or loans have been announced yet apart from small development programs.

At an Arab investment conference in December, prominent Saudi businessman Sheikh Saleh Kamal slammed Sudan's taxation, investment, land and work laws.

"I said it already in the '90s but I repeat it again since nothing has changed," said Kamal, head of Islamic lender Al-Baraka Banking Group and the Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry. "The investment climate in Sudan does not help to attract any investments."

MIXED MESSAGES

Despite the growing problems, organizing protests isn't easy. Power cuts, unreliable cell phone networks and low internet usage make it hard to mobilize people through Facebook or Twitter as happened in Egypt.

Activists are trying to link up with groups such as the people displaced by the Merowe dam, or poor farmers.

Many are frustrated with the inconsistent and ineffectual opposition parties, most of which are run by former rulers in their 70s. Activists say the main opposition party, the Umma Party, is unwilling to call for mass protests. The party's veteran chairman Sadeq al-Mahdi recently said he wanted the president to go. But his son just became a presidential assistant in Bashir's office. The leaders of another big opposition party have decided to join the government.

For the female computer technology student, the only way is out.

"I'm just tired of Sudanese politics. I think there will be a revolution, but nothing will change. We will have the same people," she said.

"I just want to leave Sudan. I don't see any job prospects here. I think 90 percent of students want to leave Sudan."

(Writing by Ulf Laessing; additional reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; Editing by Simon Robinson and Sara Ledwith)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120208/wl_nm/us_sudan

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Santorum wins Minnesota caucuses & delegate-less primary in Missouri; votes being counted in Colorado (The Ticket)

No delegates were at stake on Tuesday night, but Rick Santorum scored two big victories nonetheless by winning Minnesota's Republican caucuses and Missouri's Republican primary.

"Conservatism is alive and well in Missouri and Minnesota,"?Santorum said when he took the stage at his victory party in St. Charles, Mo.

"I don't stand here to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney," Santorum went on to say. "I stand here to be the conservative alternative to Barack Obama."

Romney, who was talked about as the Republican Party's inevitable nominee after his wins in Florida and Nevada last week, had his worst night of the 2012 presidential campaign. For the first time, he will not finish in first or second place in a Republican primary or caucus.?In Minnesota, ABC News projects that Ron Paul will take second place, while Romney and Newt Gingrich battle for third.

In the?first multi-state election night of the 2012 campaign, voters in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri cast ballots in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Colorado and Minnesota, which held caucuses, selected delegates to attend state conventions in the spring--the same process used in Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses.

Missouri, where Newt Gingrich was not able to secure a spot on the ballot, is an entirely different story, and a messier one. By state law, Missouri must hold its primary on a particular date in February. But this year, the national Republican Party mandated that--with the exception of four states that were allowed to vote in February--all others must hold their election in March or later. Yet the Missouri legislature was not able to pass a law changing the primary date, so the state held the election anyway. But the primary is non-binding--meaningless in terms of delegate selection.?There will be a Missouri caucus in April to determine who gets the state's delegates to the Republican national convention in August.

With 31 percent of the precincts reporting in Minnesota, Santorum leads with 45 percent of the vote, followed by Ron Paul with 27 percent, Mitt Romney with 17 percent and Newt Gingrich with 11 percent.

With 7 percent of the precincts reporting in Colorado, Santorum leads with 50 percent of the vote, followed by Newt Gingrich with 21 percent, Mitt Romney with 19 percent and Ron Paul with 10 percent.

Despite the zero delegates that will be awarded, the winner--or winners--on Tuesday will still be able to glean something from their victories. When Mitt Romney ran for president in 2008, he won in both Colorado and Minnesota, so his performance in 2012 is certain to be compared to how well he did four years ago.

Even with two losses on Tuesday, Romney is having a much better year in 2012 than he had in 2008: It was four years ago today that Romney dropped his bid for the presidency.

Santorum is likely to be able to use his upset victories to raise money and get media attention to help him make it through the doldrums of February. After Saturday's caucuses in Maine, there won't be another Republican election until Arizona and Michigan hold primaries on Feb. 28.

The Romney campaign seemed to suspect that Santorum would have a big night. Starting on Sunday, Romney hammered Santorum with opposition research, sending reporters a lengthy "research briefing" about Santorum's earmark spending during his time in Congress, and dispatching former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty to raise questions about Santorum's conservative credentials.

You can follow the unofficial returns from Missouri at the website of the state's secretary of state. With about two-thirds of the precincts reporting, Santorum led with 55 percent of the vote, followed by Romney with 25 percent and Ron Paul with 12 percent.

Other popular Yahoo! News stories:
? 'ShePAC': Republican women get their own super PAC
? In Colorado, Romney shifts strategy toward social conservatives
? Senior Obama campaign officials defend president's embrace of super PAC

Want more of our best political stories? Visit?The Ticket or connect with us?on Facebook, follow uson Twitter, or add us?on Tumblr.

Handy with a camera? Join our?Election 2012 Flickr group to submit your photos of the campaign in action.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theticket/20120207/el_yblog_theticket/voting-underway-in-colorado-early-results-coming-in-from-minnesota-and-missouri

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China VP seeks reunion with Iowans he met in 1985 (AP)

DES MOINES, Iowa ? As China's future president makes plans for a trip to the United States next week, he has made sure that there's time between stops in Washington and California to visit Iowa.

Besides Des Moines, Vice President Xi (shee) Jinping (JIHN' Pihng) asked for a Wednesday stop in Muscatine.

Xi, who becomes China's president in October, wants to reconnect with friends he made in Muscatine in 1985 as a young Communist Party leader of Hebei Province.

Sarah Lande, who met Xi in 1985, says his request for Muscatine is to see only those he met previously. She's gathering about 16 people.

Gov. Terry Branstad says Xi's visit is as significant as the 1979 visit of Pope John Paul II and the 1959 Iowa farm stop by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120206/ap_on_bi_ge/us_chinese_vice_president_iowa

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Overnight rating for Super Bowl just shy of mark (AP)

NEW YORK ? The overnight rating for the New York Giants' Super Bowl win over New England was less than 1 percent shy of the record tied last year.

New York's 21-17 victory Sunday night on NBC received a 47.8 rating and 71 share, Nielsen Media Research said Monday. It trailed the 47.9/71 overnight for Green Bay's 31-25 victory over Pittsburgh last year on Fox and the 47.9/68 for the Giants' 39-20 win over Denver in 1987.

The game began with a 43.3/69 for the first half hour from 6:30-7 p.m. EST and peaked at a 51.8/73 from 9:30-10 p.m., when the Giants rallied in the fourth quarter.

Boston had its best NFL rating at 56.7/81, topping the 2002 Super Bowl, and New York's 49.7/74 was second only to 1987. Indianapolis' 56.4/79 was second-best for a host, trailing only Jacksonville's 58.9/77 in 2006.

The rating is the percentage of television households tuned to a broadcast, and the share is the percentage of homes watching among those with TVs on at the time.

National ratings were due out later Monday.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120206/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_super_bowl_ratings

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GOP race turns to Colorado, Minnesota

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney greets supporters after speaking at a caucus night watch party, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney greets supporters after speaking at a caucus night watch party, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Republican presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney greets supporters at his Nevada caucus night victory celebration in Las Vegas, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Republican presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney greets supporters at his Nevada caucus night victory celebration in Las Vegas, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, greets supporters after speaking at a campaign rally in Colorado Springs, Colo., Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks during a campaign stop at the International Church of Las Vegas on Friday, Feb. 3, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nev. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

(AP) ? Now it's on to Colorado, Minnesota and Maine.

With back-to-back victories fueling him, Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney is looking toward the next states that hold GOP nominating contests as main rival Newt Gingrich brushes aside any talk of abandoning his White House bid ? all but ensuring the battle will stretch into the spring if not beyond.

Shortly after losing big to Romney here, the former House speaker emphatically renewed his vow to campaign into the party convention in Tampa this summer. His goal, he said, was to "find a series of victories which by the end of the Texas primary will leave us at parity" with Romney by early April.

Next up to vote are Colorado and Minnesota, which both hold caucuses Tuesday. Maine follows on Saturday during a month that promises to be as plodding as January was rapid-fire in the presidential race.

Romney will look to maintain his position of strength, if not build upon it, as his rivals continue working to derail him even as their options for doing so narrow with each victory he notches.

As Saturday turned to Sunday, the former Massachusetts governor held a double-digit lead over his nearest pursuer as the totals mounted in Nevada, where fellow Mormons accounted for roughly a quarter of all caucus-goers. Gingrich and Texas Rep. Ron Paul vied for a distant second. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum trailed the field.

With votes from 71 percent of the precinct caucuses tallied, Romney had 48 percent, Gingrich 23 percent, Paul 19 percent and Santorum 11 percent. Turnout was down significantly from 2008, when Romney also won the state's GOP caucuses.

Romney's victory capped a week that began with his double-digit win in the Florida primary. That contest was as intense as Nevada's caucuses were sedate ? so quiet that they produced little television advertising, no candidate debates and only a modest investment of time by the contenders.

A total of 28 Republican National Convention delegates were at stake in caucuses held across the sprawling state. Romney won at least 10, Gingrich at least four, Paul at least three and Santorum at least two. Eight were still to be determined.

That gives Romney a total of 97, including endorsements from Republican National Committee members who will automatically attend the convention and can support any candidate they choose. Gingrich has 30, Santorum 16 and Paul seven. It will take 1,144 delegates to win the Republican nomination.

Preliminary results of a poll of Nevada Republicans entering their caucuses showed that nearly half said the most important consideration in their decision was a candidate's ability to defeat President Barack Obama this fall, a finding in line with other states.

About one-quarter of those surveyed said they were Mormon, roughly the same as in 2008, when Romney won with more than a majority of the vote in a multi-candidate field.

The entrance poll was conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press at 25 randomly selected caucus sites. It included 1,553 interviews and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-02-05-GOP%20Campaign/id-cf5ee1b2b81643139dde38d63205e6d8

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My Blog ? Build An Online Business And Live The Laptop Lifestyle

Posted By Ray on February 4, 2012

Incorporating a company has become one of the enterprise growth strategies nowadays of growing business opposition. Also in recent times, many private or exclusive firms have began incorporating into huge multinationals. After having understood the actual short idea of company let?s move on to know how to incorporate a small business?

Proper SEO advertising will jumpstart your organization and will bring your auto insurance quotes online business the attention and website generated targeted traffic that it needs. Search engine marketing marketing agencies and internet marketing companies be aware of ins and outs of marketing businesses. They will be able to commit the adequate time needed to generate the targeted traffic that you need to your site.

You may come across thousands of internet marketing companies worldwide who offer website marketing services with different advertising appeals. Every website marketing company follows different strategies to achieve their desired goals and results. If you want internet marketing Company for promoting your own free car insurance quotes business on the World Wide Web, it is very important for you to hire the services in the right Internet Marketing Organization providing the services that you simply are looking for.

If you are a person by incorporating money to market your car insurance rates business using paid techniques is a great way to go. While using the paid ways of advertising will give you some instantaneous exposure and immediate sales for the most part. Strategies like PPC that stands for pay per click is really a technique that can be employed immediately to start getting leads this technique involves advertising on the engines like google and is a great way to obtain people to your website. Another paid strategy is known as newsletter marketing, this is when you write ads in newsletters that have something related to what you have to offer when people see your advertisements they get shown your website.

All too often, many website owners produce onetime content, and lose focus on it. You need to understand by using new content being introduced on the web, it?s more than hard to preserve an effective hold on the internet market. Hence, on a regular basis updated content, a whole new interface, and newest keywords can not merely amplify your search engine rankings, but also help you stay on top. So what in the event that thousands of web pages come over Google everyday? You have your updated content ready to slump the mediocre ones down!

Source: http://www.shiraslan.info/2012/02/04/build-an-online-business-and-live-the-laptop-lifestyle/

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[OOC] Rebellion on the Rise

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Contraception mandate outrages religious groups (AP)

The Obama administration's decision requiring church-affiliated employers to cover birth control was bound to cause an uproar among Roman Catholics and members of other faiths, no matter their beliefs on contraception.

The regulation, finalized a week ago, raises a complex and sensitive legal question: Which institutions qualify as religious and can be exempt from the mandate?

For a church, mosque or synagogue, the answer is mostly straightforward. But for the massive network of religious-run social service agencies there is no simple solution. Federal law lays out several criteria for the government to determine which are religious. But in the case of the contraception mandate, critics say Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius chose the narrowest ones. Religious groups that oppose the regulation say it forces people of faith to choose between upholding church doctrine and serving the broader society.

"It's not about preventing women from buying anything themselves, but telling the church what it has to buy, and the potential for that to go further," said Sister Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association, representing some 600 hospitals.

Keehan's support for the passage of the Obama health care overhaul was critical in the face of intense opposition by the U.S. bishops. She now says the narrowness of the religious exemption in the birth control mandate "has jolted us." She pledged to use a one-year grace period the administration has provided to "pursue a correction."

The U.S. Health and Human Services Department adopted the rule to improve health care for women. Last year, an advisory panel from the Institute of Medicine, which advises the federal government, recommended including birth control on the list of covered services, partly because it promotes maternal and child health by allowing women to space their pregnancies. The regulation includes a religious exemption if an organization qualifies. Under that provision, an employer generally will be considered religious if its main purpose is spreading religious beliefs, and if it largely employs and serves people of the same faith. That means a Catholic parish likely would qualify for a religious exemption; a large church-run soup kitchen probably would not.

Employers that fail to provide health insurance coverage under the federal law could be fined $2,000 per employee per year. The bishops' domestic anti-poverty agency, Catholic Charities, says it employs 70,000 people nationwide. The fine for the University of Notre Dame, the most prominent Catholic school in the country, could be in the millions of dollars.

HHS says employers can appeal a decision on whether they qualify for an exemption. But Hannah Smith, senior counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, said, "The mandate vests too much unbridled discretion in the hands of government bureaucrats."

Mandates for birth-control coverage are not entirely new for religious groups. Twenty-eight states already require contraceptive coverage in prescription drug plans. Of those states, 17 offer a range of religious exemptions, while two others provide opt-outs of other kinds. However, opponents of the HHS regulation say there is no state mandate as broad as the new federal rule combined with a religious exemption that is so narrow.

Even in states where the requirement already exists, the issue is far from settled.

Wisconsin's 2009 contraception mandate did not include a religious exemption, but allowed an exception for employers who self-insure. While some dioceses in the state were able to self-insure, others couldn't afford to do so. The Diocese of Madison, Wis., ended up offering a policy with birth-control coverage, but asked employees to follow church teaching and not use the benefit. Local bishops continued to lobby state lawmakers for an exemption. But leaders knew a national health care overhaul was in development and hoped the federal law would be an improvement, said John Huebscher, executive director of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the state's bishops.

In California, whose religious exemption served as the model for the Obama administration, dioceses and some church-run agencies were able to self-insure, said Carol Hogan of the California Catholic Conference, but that option is for the most part unavailable under the federal health care law. Church-run groups could have stopped offering insurance to their employees, but considered that option unfair to workers.

The bishops have responded sharply to the regulation, launching a nationwide campaign against the mandate.

Bishops in more than 140 dioceses issued statements that were read at Mass last weekend. Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y., called the requirement "a radical incursion on the part of our government into freedom of conscience." Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh wrote that "the Obama administration was essentially saying `to hell with you,' particularly to the Catholic community by dismissing our beliefs, our religious freedom and our freedom of conscience."

The Becket Fund had previously filed two federal lawsuits over the regulations on behalf of Belmont Abbey College, a Catholic liberal arts school near Charlotte, N.C., and Colorado Christian University, an evangelical school near Denver. Both challenge the mandate as a violation of several freedoms, including the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which says the government cannot impose a substantial burden on the free exercise of religion. The fine for Belmont Abbey would be more than $300,000 for the first year, and more than $500,000 for Colorado Christian, Smith, the Becket Fund counsel, said.

Many conservatives are also supporting legislation by Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., that would codify a series of exceptions to the new health care law on religious and conscience grounds

For religious-affiliated employers, the requirement will take effect Aug. 1, 2013, and their workers in most cases will have access to coverage starting Jan. 1, 2014. Women working for secular enterprises, from profit-making companies to government, will have access to the new coverage starting Jan. 1, 2013, in most cases.

Workplace health plans will have to cover all forms of contraception approved by the Food and Drug Administration, ranging from the pill to implantable devices to sterilization. Also covered is the morning-after pill, which can prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex and is considered tantamount to an abortion drug by some religious conservatives.

There is no mandate to cover abortions. But that is little comfort to Catholic leaders, since the regulation violates other church teachings.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Thursday that the administration will not reconsider the decision.

___

Associated Press writer Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar in Washington contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/parenting/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120203/ap_on_he_me/us_birth_control_religious_fight

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Map pinpoints Lyme disease risk areas ? Health & Fitness ...

CONCORD, N.H. ? Researchers who spent three years dragging sheets of fabric through the woods to snag ticks have created a detailed map they claim could improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease.

The map, which pinpoints areas of the eastern United States where people have the highest risk of contracting Lyme disease, is part of a study published in the February issue of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Though the areas highlighted as high-risk likely won?t surprise anyone familiar with the disease, the research showed where the disease likely is spreading. It also turned up some surprising information about the rate at which ticks are infected with the bacteria that causes it, researchers said.

The map shows a clear risk of Lyme disease across much of the Northeast, from Maine to northern Virginia. Researchers also identified a distinct high-risk region in the upper Midwest, including most of Wisconsin, northern Minnesota and a sliver of northern Illinois. Areas highlighted as ?emerging risk? regions include the Illinois-Indiana border, the New York-Vermont border, southwestern Michigan and eastern North Dakota.

?The key value is identifying areas where the risk for Lyme disease is the highest, so that should alert the public and the clinicians and the public health agencies in terms of taking more precautions and potential interventions,? said the study?s lead author, Dr. Maria Diuk-Wasser of the Yale School of Public Health. ?In areas that are low risk, a case of Lyme disease is not impossible but it?s highly unlikely, so the clinician should be considering other diagnoses.?

Named after a small Connecticut town, Lyme disease is transmitted by the bite of tiny deer ticks. Antibiotics easily cure most people of Lyme, but other than the disease?s hallmark round, red rash, early symptoms are vague and flulike. People who aren?t treated can develop arthritis, meningitis and other serious illnesses.

Previous risk maps were heavily reliant on reports of human infections, but those can be misleading because the disease is both over- and underdiagnosed, according to the study. Where someone is diagnosed is not necessarily where the disease was contracted, and ticks may live in a region long before they actually infect someone, meaning there could be a significant risk even without confirmed cases.

The study was published this week based on data collected between 2004 and 2007. Diuk-Wasser said the high risk areas likely haven?t changed but there might be some changes in the transitional areas. The map still is useful, however, because it highlights areas where tick surveillance should be increased and because it can serve as a baseline for future research, she said. And it provides new information about the infection rate among ticks, she said.

About one in five ticks collected were infected ? more than researchers expected ? and that percentage was fairly constant across geographic areas, she said. Researchers had expected the infection rate to vary.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counted more than 30,000 confirmed or probable cases of Lyme in 2010, the latest data available. More than 90 percent of those cases were in 12 states: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Dr. Jodie Dionne-Odom, New Hampshire?s state epidemiologist, said the map may be a useful tool for states where Lyme disease is just emerging. But for New Hampshire, it doesn?t provide any new information because the state does its own detailed tick monitoring.

Source: http://bangordailynews.com/2012/02/03/outdoors/map-pinpoints-lyme-disease-risk-areas/

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