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Better NJ Nursing Homes for Greater Golden Years

For those with aged loved ones within their family, taking these much loved relatives to a health care center might be one of many toughest selections they deal with. The problem in your labor and exclusive life and the increasing care specifications of your senior cousin might force you to agree them to a care center. Recent modifications among nursing homes in NJ may make the decision easier, though.

Change In Employees

One of the greatest improvements is among personnel. Maybe you are familiar with the stereotype of the nursing home staff, because of their cold, unsmiling faces and colder approach.

The staff in the nursing homes in NJ today differs from that stereotype. It is certain the people who looks after your senior relative will do so with friendliness and the greatest care about their needs. They are now practical and mindful of the needs of people under their care and their relatives.

The modern stereotype these staffers intend to make is that of a kind, caring and professional health professional who attends to the wants of their charges, directly cooperates and coordinates with relatives and the elder's health care professional, and makes certain the senior enjoys the twilight of their lives.

Home Aside From Home

In the past, elderly care amenities appeared and felt like a ward. Nowadays, several nursing homes in NJ experience a lot more like a home. Aside from the numerous functions that assist care for citizens, a number of these amenities have amenities that retain their inhabitants busy and lively.

A few innovations consist of providing seniors individual plots of land to cultivate or equipment to assist with a hobby to engage in. A few engage their neighboring areas in functions for the inhabitants, such as regular trips and participation in neighborhood occasions.

Many NJ nursing homes also promote exclusive pastime rooms. They are open to inhabitants who desire for peaceful contemplation or sleep. These are growing to be a typical attribute in these amenities, along with the more traditional communal dining and social halls.

Great Principles Of Medical Care

Today's nursing homes in NJ are performing their best to keep up the best requirements of health care excellence, as they know some individuals may have specific health issues. The new standard is to provide inhabitants with the latest in health care in the nursing home, including state-of-the-art rehabilitate amenities for the grandparents who need it.

In hiring employees, they select individuals with the correct credentials, especially in elderly care. Resident doctors are now obtainable, along with consultants. Non-medical employees also obtains considerable training in managing seniors. Faith based and religious services are usually available today.

Perhaps the biggest change among nursing homes in NJ could be the special coordination between family doctors and facility's employees. This makes certain tailored care based on the wants of the person, including the application of specific diet programs. This new example also means the delivery of appropriate quantities of health care to inhabitants happens in a timely way.

Tegan Macdonald writes about nursing homes in NJ and advises NJ nursing homes to friends and family.

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Troubles Mount For India's Kingfisher Airlines

Is there any good news for Kingfisher Airlines (NSE: KFA)?

Vijay Mallya, the Forbes billionaire that owns the airline, can?t get a break with this discount flier that is vanishing before Indian travelers? eyes.? India?s second-largest airport operator, known by the acronym GVK, recently launched legal proceedings against the beleaguered airline following a round of bounced checks upwards of 60 million rupees made payable to airports like Mumbai International. So far this year, the company has bounced around 30 million rupees in checks, according to press reports.

Sources told the Economic Times that the Mumbai International Airport filed a suit in a Mumbai civil court last week when a check for around 5 million rupee bounced. ?This has been going on for a while and the airport operator thought the time has come to take legal action,? said an airport source who did not want to be identified.

This is the first time an Indian airport operator has taken the cash-strapped airline to the courts over non-payment of dues. Analysts tracking the sector said Mumbai International?s decision to adopt legal means is because they have run out of options to amicably recover the overdue airport fees.

Kingfisher Airllines? story may be coming to an end.

Eighteen lenders to the airline will meet next week to discuss whether or not to continue letting Mallya?s company borrow.? The Bangalore-based carrier, which has struggled to pay salaries to employees for the past four months amid promises to do so as recently as April, has defaulted on tax payments and bills to its vendors. It has been seeking new credit lines since last December and trying to raise money from capital markets abroad.

Mallya also runs the profitable United Breweries Group (NSE: UBHOLDINGS), owners of the popular Kingfisher beer label, so he has plenty of money to fund the airline.? There was talk of him selling some shares in the brewery to help pay for the company?s obligations, but whatever he did sell was obviously not enough to cover this debt burden.

Some of the 18 lenders meeting next week hold a 23.4 per cent stake in Kingfisher Airlines. The company reported a loss of around 1.15 billion rupees in the March quarter and has debt of over 7.5 billion rupees and an equal amount of accumulated losses. The State Bank of India, SBI, holds a 5.67 per cent stake in the airline now.

It?s been a money loser for all involved.

The airline has not made any profit since its launch in May 2005.

United Breweries share price is up 5.75 percent year to date, while Mallya?s Kingfisher Airlines is down 34.7 percent.

?

?

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Check Out These Tips If You Are Interested In Buying Real Estate

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The Nation: Catholic Health Association Flip ... - Health and Fitness

Enlarge Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius speaks about the Affordable Care Act at Covenant Community Care health center June 20 in Detroit, Mich. The law and her department have come under heavy criticism for a mandate that would require insurance companies of religious organizations to cover contraceptives.

Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius speaks about the Affordable Care Act at Covenant Community Care health center June 20 in Detroit, Mich. The law and her department have come under heavy criticism for a mandate that would require insurance companies of religious organizations to cover contraceptives.

Read Another Opinion On The Affordable Care Act

Emily Douglas is a senior editor at TheNation.com.

From the Department of I Was Worried Enough About Obamacare Already, Thanks: the Catholic Health Association, a key ally of the Obama administration in passing the Affordable Care Act, has changed its mind about supporting the compromise on birth control coverage. That was the ?miraculous? accommodation that ensured no-cost contraceptive coverage to employees of religiously affiliated organizations, while making insurers, rather than the religious employers, responsible for picking up the tab. When the compromise was offered in February, CHA gave initial support. But CHA has now sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services opposing the compromise.

In an interview with Kaiser Health News?s Mary Agnes Carey, Sister Carol Ann Keehan, head of CHA, says:

I wouldn?t say as much as we withdrew support. What we said very clearly was that it is just too cumbersome. And I?ll tell you why.

Many, many, many of our organizations offer a choice in health coverage to their staffs. So they would have two different ways of dealing with their employees on this issue and, quite frankly, many of our members were hearing from local insurance companies and agents that ?well, we may not carve out explicitly how we?re charging you for this but there is no free lunch and you are going to pay for it one way or the other.? That was exactly what the goal was not. The goal was to not pay. And that?s not the fault of the White House. That?s the reality of the marketplace.

Here?s another reality of the marketplace: religious hospitals, like non-religious hospitals, rely on public funding for about half their operating revenues. Despite the religious affiliation, reports MergerWatch, ?little or none of the operating funds of these religious hospitals come from churches or other religious sources.? The reach of sectarian hospitals is vast: MergerWatch found that in 1999, religiously affiliated hospitals were operating one in every five acute care community hospital beds in the United States. And while Catholic hospitals may have been founded to cater to the spiritual needs of Catholics, by 2012 religiously affiliated hospitals are deeply embedded in diverse communities and in insurance plans. ?This complaint is a red herring,? says Sharon Levin, Director of Federal Reproductive Health Policy at the National Women?s Law Center. ?Women have a right under this law to needed healthcare, including contraception. How to avoid doing that should not be the focus.?

CHA?s letter makes clear the pitfalls of pandering to ?religious freedom? concerns in setting public policy. ?If an institution chooses to participate in secular activities, and hires people who are not co-religionists, they should be held to the same standard as other employers,? says Levin. ?Religion not a license to discriminate.?

At issue is not only contraceptive coverage. CHA is also concerned about what institutions count as ?religious??a designation that has ramifications that reach far beyond the birth control issue. While Obama?s compromise required hospitals, schools, and social service agencies with religious affiliations to provide contraceptive coverage, it exempted houses of worship as ?religious institutions.? According to its letter to HHS, CHA would like to see an institution considered ?religious? ?if it shares common religious bonds and convictions with the church.?

That?s a stretch. ?It is very important that the administration resist the request for a broader religious exemption that would cover entities that are not themselves religions but have vague ?bonds? to a religion or are motivated by faith,? says Frances Kissling, former head of Catholics for Choice. ?CHA claims that running hospitals is an integral part of living the teachings of Jesus. One can care for the sick and the impoverished in many ways besides controlling one-sixth of the hospital beds in the US.?

Meanwhile, the birth control mandate remains popular. A just-released poll found that nearly three-quarters of voters agree that cost should not be an obstacle to using birth control, including 66 percent of Catholic voters and 58 percent of evangelical voters.

Article source: http://www.npr.org/2012/06/21/155490852/the-nation-catholic-health-association-flip-flops

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Solar plane makes 2nd attempt in Morocco flight

RABAT, Morocco (AP) ? An experimental solar plane hoping to one day fly around the world is making its second attempt to fly over Morocco's High Atlas mountain after earlier being thwarted by high winds.

The delicate Solar Impulse has the immense wing span of a commercial jet but the weight of a family car. It took off Thursday morning from the capital Rabat and hopes to reach the city of Ouarzazate, 280 miles (465 kilometers) away by late night.

Pilot Andre Borschberg attempted the same flight on June 14 but had to turn back after unexpectedly strong winds buffeted the slow moving plane and sent it reeling backwards.

The plane flew from Switzerland to Morocco to publicize the possibilities of solar power and highlight the North African country's own solar power plans.

Associated Press

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Closing arguments set for Sandusky abuse trial

BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) ? Seven women and five men poised to hear closing arguments in Jerry Sandusky's child sexual abuse trial would begin jury deliberations without the benefit of having the former Penn State assistant football coach take the witness stand in his own defense.

More than a week of often-explicit testimony wrapped up Wednesday after Sandusky's defense team rested without calling their client. That set up closing arguments for Thursday morning, and jurors could start meeting behind closed doors that afternoon to start weighing Sandusky's fate.

Once famed for his coaching acumen, Sandusky is charged with 51 criminal counts for the alleged abuse of 10 boys over 15 years in hotels, at his home and in the football team's showers. Sandusky has maintained his innocence, and his attorneys have tried to weaken the prosecution's case by discrediting police investigators and suggesting that accusers are hoping to cash in on potential civil lawsuits.

Sandusky's arrest in November sparked an explosive scandal that led to the ousters of Hall of Fame coach Joe Paterno and the university president, and cast a critical eye on the role of college administrators in reporting abuse allegations. The sweeping case also led to renewed focus on child abuse issues.

The defense called just four new witnesses Wednesday, including a physician who they used to try to poke holes in the story of a Penn State assistant coach who testified that he saw Sandusky sexually assault a boy in the team showers more than a decade ago.

Defense attorneys finished in three days, resting around lunchtime Wednesday only after a longer-than-expected recess during which Sandusky and his lawyers huddled in private amid rampant speculation in the courtroom that he would take the witness stand.

Now, closing statements await the 12 jurors in a trial moving at a quick pace, more briskly than even the three-week time frame that Judge John Cleland had once estimated.

Cleland said he will begin Thursday by issuing jury instructions. The defense would then present its closing remarks before the prosecution takes its turn.

Then it's the jury that will determine the schedule depending on how long they take in deliberations. If convicted, the 68-year-old former defensive coordinator could be sent to state prison for the rest of his life.

Jurors will have to decide whether the defense was able to create sufficient doubt based on how the investigation was conducted, the reliability and motives of the accusers, and Sandusky's decades-long reputation as a man who worked tirelessly to help underprivileged children.

Prosecutors called 22 witnesses, including eight young men, ages 18 to 28, who alleged a range of abuse from grooming, kissing and massaging to fondling, oral sex and anal rape when they were boys.

Many of the 28 defense witnesses testified briefly to vouch for Sandusky's reputation. The defense's case has consisted of character witnesses who defended Sandusky's reputation, a psychologist who said Sandusky had a personality disorder and the ex-coach's wife, who said she did not see her husband do anything inappropriate with the accusers. His lawyers showed that an investigator had shared information with an accuser about other alleged victims' stories and repeatedly suggested that accusers have financial motivations for their claims.

Sandusky was only heard from via a November interview with NBC's Bob Costas, saying he probably shouldn't have showered with boys; and in letters he wrote to one of his accusers.

One of the last witnesses called was Dr. Jonathan Dranov, a physician summoned to the home of Mike McQueary's father in February 2001 to hear McQueary's account of seeing Sandusky sexually assaulting a boy in the campus showers. The boy, known only as Victim 2, has never been identified and isn't known to prosecutors.

Dranov testified that McQueary told of hearing "sexual sounds" and seeing a boy in the shower before an arm reached around to pull him out of view. McQueary said he made eye contact with the boy and Sandusky later emerged from the showers, Dranov said.

That account is different from what McQueary told a grand jury and testified to at a preliminary hearing and at the trial. He has said he saw Sandusky directly behind the boy's back, moving his midsection enough to convince McQueary it was a sex act.

Dranov told the jury that McQueary described hearing sounds he considered sexual in nature but did not provide him with a graphic description of what he saw.

"It just seemed to make him upset so I backed off that," Dranov said.

Asked to describe McQueary's demeanor, Dranov said: "His voice was trembling. His hands were shaking. He was visibly shaken," Dranov said.

McQueary's report to his superiors ? and Penn State officials' failure to go to outside law enforcement ? led to the firing of Paterno, who died of cancer in January.

McQueary had testified earlier in the trial that he wasn't "over-descriptive" in his conversation with Dranov, saying he told the doctor that what he saw was sexual, wrong and perverse.

David Hilton, who met Sandusky through a summer camp of his charity, testified Wednesday he felt like investigators were trying to coach him into accusing Sandusky.

"When it got to the second or third time I felt like they wanted me to say something that isn't true," he said.

During cross examination, lead prosecutor Joe McGettigan told Hilton that Hilton's uncle had contacted authorities out of concern after hearing of the initial charges against Sandusky.

Prosecutors allege that Sandusky met his alleged victims through The Second Mile charity. Sandusky founded the organization that once was lauded for its efforts to help at-risk children.

Sandusky didn't take the stand after his lawyer suggested in opening statements that he might and a day after his wife, Dottie, testified. In interviews Sandusky did shortly after his arrest in November, with the support and presence of defense attorney Joe Amendola, his responses were halting and uncertain, raising doubts about how he might stand up to cross-examination.

Criminal defendants in Pennsylvania, in serious crimes, generally are required to waive their right to testify on their own behalf, although that does not always happen in open court.

One of the jurors was excused from the case Wednesday with an illness; the female juror was replaced by an alternate, also a woman.

Sandusky attorney Karl Rominger also asked Cleland to dismiss five counts related to so-called Victim 8, the other boy never identified by investigators. Rominger argued that the timing of the charges had not been proven by the testimony of a janitor's co-worker, who said the janitor had told him he saw Sandusky molest the boy in a shower. The Penn State janitor himself was ruled not medically competent to testify.

The judge didn't immediately rule on the motion.

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How to own the phone interview | USA TODAY College

By Ashley Ritter

Photo by Justin Denmark, Thinkstock.

An interview is an interview, no matter how it?s conducted.

You finally landed an interview with the company of your dreams. The only catch is the interview will be done over the phone, which will likely decide if you will be asked to come in to meet the company in-person.

Phone interviews sound simple. You don?t have to put on your best business attire and you don?t even have to move from your own bedroom, but they take just as much preparation as in-person interviews.

Follow these tips to own your phone interview and succeed in the companies? interview process.

BEFORE

1. Do your research

Research the company. Look at their company website ? do they have a Twitter or LinkedIn page you can follow? You?ll be able to use something you may have seen online in your phone conversation. Also research typical interview questions.

It?s a good idea to have already thought about your responses to these kinds of questions so you aren?t making the interviewer wait too long for your answers.

2. Pick a quiet location

This may seem like a no-brainer, but you?d be surprised at how much noise an air conditioning unit can make in the living room. I?d suggest a place with little-to-no noise at all, such as your bedroom or your silent patio.

By having a location already in mind when the interviewer calls you, you won?t be stuck running around your apartment last minute trying to kick your roommates out of the common areas.

3. Practice

Have someone you trust have a mock interview with you over the phone. This will give you the opportunity to practice the answers to your researched typical interview questions.

If possible, record your practice trial-runs and you will be able to see just how long that awkward pause was or how you say ?uh? before every response.

By having a person you can trust help you, they will offer you constructive advice on how you really sound while on the phone.

DURING

4. Take your time

Don?t think that as soon as an interviewer asks you a question, you have to dispatch the first thing that pops into your head. It?s okay to take a few seconds before each response to gather your thoughts.

The interviewer would rather you talk slower, clearer and more precise than rush to come up with an incomplete or jumbled answer. Even if you immediately know the answer, take a moment to group your thoughts together before having a word vomit that you?ll have to clean up later.

5. Smile

A phone interviewer will notice a change in your tone of voice and you can do this by smiling while you talk. Smiling will express positivity and confidence, even if the employer can?t see your face.

Don?t smile the entire time or you may come across as fake or insincere, but definitely smile if you are talking about your awesome summer spent volunteering or why you?re the best candidate for the job.

6. Use your sources

One of the great things about phone interviews is the employer can?t see what you are doing. You should have a copy of your resume and cover letter nearby so you can refer to it at any point during the interview.

You should also have your computer around so you can have their company website up and reference back to it when asked about how you?d be a good fit for them. Also, don?t forget about the phone?s mute button.

If you have a coughing attack, or just can?t wait to use the bathroom, use the mute button for a few seconds until you?re done?then don?t forget to un-mute yourself!

AFTER

7. Follow up

Just because this wasn?t an in-person interview, doesn?t mean you should not send a formal thank-you note. The note should be short and concise, restating your interest in the position.

And remember, an interview is an interview, no matter how it?s conducted.

Ashley is a senior at the University of South Florida, pursuing a degree in advertising and a minor in creative writing. Follow her on Twitter.

You might also be interested in:

1. How to ace a phone interview
2. Interview CPR: Quick fixes for 6 interview disasters
3. Seven steps to ace your job interview
4. 10 ways to have the best interview possible
5. How to make a professional phone call

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of USA TODAY.

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Sweden on alert, explosives found near nuke plant

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ONA12 schedule drops: Three days of ... - Online News Association

The ONA12 Program and Conference Chairs have been hard at work on the 2012 Online News Association Conference & Awards Banquet, building sessions and identifying speakers who will turn emerging technology into news gold, take deep dives into digital storytelling and help you evolve in your digital media career. Once again, we had an amazing response to the Session Selector, and your subsequent votes gave us more than enough ideas for four solid tracks of news immersion.

Here?s the program for the conference general sessions so far. Note that more keynotes and panelists will be announced in the coming weeks and registration for the Pre-conference program will open June 28. We hope you?ll join us to share our excitement over the future, meet with old friends and make lots of new ones.

An ONA12 registration tip: We?ve extended the early-bird registration deadline to give you time to check out the programming below. Register by June 20 to get the early-bird rate (and a guaranteed spot ? we?ve sold out the past five years running). Also make sure to reserve your rooms at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco. They?re also going fast.

ONA12 general sessions

Friday and Saturday, Sept. 21-22
Check out the full schedule, with times and descriptions.

The conference opens Friday with a keynote breakfast (we?ll be announcing our keynote soon) and moves into our expert panels:

Track 1: Storytelling

• Collect, Clean and Manipulate: A Data Journalism Workshop
• Blow Up the Funny Pages: Why Comics Make for Serious Journalism
• Fast-Track Video Workshop
• Journalism Under Duress: Risks of Reporting Conflict
• Beat Reporting for the Digital Age

Track 2: Community

• Social Media Debate: Best Practices vs. Bad Habits
• #NOFILTER: How Social Photography Is Changing News and Journalism
• Ethics of the Community Newsroom
• The Business of Collaboration
• Pinterest, Instagram, Google+: Keep Up, Keep Sane

Track 3: The Wild West

• 10 Tech Trends for 2012
• Designing the Digital Newsroom
• Making the Leap Out of Newsrooms
• Design Is How It Works
• Anatomy of the New Journalist
• Drones for Journalism
• The New Era of Social TV

Track 4: Backstory

• CISPA, SOPA and Beyond: How Policy Shapes News
• Designing Digital Newsrooms
• Mini-Law School for Digital Journalists
• Make an Impact. Then Measure It.
• Real Metrics: Grow and Manage Your Numbers
• Journey Into ?the Business Side?

New this year! The Midway: Our interactive, digital storytelling sandbox is an exposition of innovation. Here our estimated 1,300 attendees can check out and test the (invite-only) leading-edge products and ideas in digital journalism, ask questions of their creators, hear speakers, sign up for Office Hours, experience presentations, network, snack, recharge and experiment. More coming soon.

End each day with a celebration

• Thursday: Opening Reception, sponsored by NPR and Digital First Media. Prepare for a dim sum feast, drinks and the usual amazing networking at the historic Rincon Center. (Note that entry to the reception comes with general conference registration.)
• Friday: Networking Event, featuring an informal and inspirational discussion, followed by drinks and snacks, courtesy of Yahoo.
• Saturday: The Online Journalism Awards Banquet, celebrating the best in digital journalism, led by our favorite emcee, @Hari, i.e., Hari Sreenivasan, Correspondent and Director of Digital Partnerships at PBS NewsHour. Welcome to our first-time sponsor, Msnbc Digital Network.

Start your conferencing early on Thursday, Sept. 20

Join us before the conference for smaller, intensive workshops on mobile, election tools and data, data visualization, programming, long-form and Agile project management. Full program and registration opening June 28.

• Law School for Digital Journalists (LSfDJ): A full day of practical training, taught by leading experts on digital media law, presented in conjunction with the UNC Center for Media Law & Policy, the Stanford Law School Center for Internet & Society and the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. This is a course, not a series of panels. Classes will cover the full range of legal issues that impact the professional lives of digital journalists: copyright, newsroom law, international media law, access and FOIA, and the legal issues involved in launching and running a digital news operation. The day will end with a plenary panel featuring heavyweight legal experts and educators. See the curriculum and speakers from ONA11 here. (Note: Separate registration fee.)

• Hacks/Hackers Hacking @ ONA12: Journalists, developers and designers, come join this third annual event, this year at Storify?s SF headquarters. Meet new people, make new friends and work on those projects you?ve been thinking about. What we produce together at the all-day hack day will help shape the future of news and civic information. Hacks/Hackers will provide food, snacks and beverages from great local establishments to keep you going as you collaborate and prototype your ideas. Register now at hhhona3.eventbrite.com. (Note: Separate registration fee.)

• Career Summit & Job Fair: Our full day of career development and networking continues to grow. We?re expecting to break last year?s record for recruiters from major and independent media and technology companies. Presentations will focus on the new navigating the market, landing a job, advancing your digital journalism skills and building your brand. Registration for both opens June 28. Recruiters, tables are still $250 ? reserve here. Questions? See the Recruiter FAQ.

Interested in sponsoring or exhibiting? See our latest packages, fill out this form or contact Branden Smith at branden@journalists.org or (703) 774-5017.

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Church abuse victim faces trial for beating priest

William Lynch listens during an interview in San Francisco, Monday, June 18, 2012. Lynch was charged with savagely beating Rev. Jerold Lindner. Lynch dreamed for years about confronting the Jesuit priest he says molested him and his little brother more than 30 years ago during a camping trip. Now, as Lynch prepares to go to trial on felony assault and elder abuse charges for attacking Lindner in the lobby of his retirement home.(AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

William Lynch listens during an interview in San Francisco, Monday, June 18, 2012. Lynch was charged with savagely beating Rev. Jerold Lindner. Lynch dreamed for years about confronting the Jesuit priest he says molested him and his little brother more than 30 years ago during a camping trip. Now, as Lynch prepares to go to trial on felony assault and elder abuse charges for attacking Lindner in the lobby of his retirement home.(AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

File-In this file photo provided by Debbie Lucas shows the Rev. Jerold Lindner in this undated photo during a camping trip to Northern California. William Lynch alleges that Lindner sexually abused him and his brother more than three decades ago on a similar Christian camping trip. Lynch is charged with assault for attacking the priest earlier this year and goes on trial Wednesday June 20,2012. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Debbie Lukas, File) NO SALES

File-In this Nov. 12, 2010 file photo Will Lynch walks out a San Jose, Calif., courthouse after his arraignment. Lynch was charged with savagely beating Rev. Jerold Lindner. Lynch dreamed for years about confronting the Jesuit priest he says molested him and his little brother more than 30 years ago during a camping trip. Now, as Lynch prepares to go to trial on felony assault and elder abuse charges for attacking Lindner in the lobby of his retirement home. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma,File)

William Lynch listens during an interview in San Francisco, Monday, June 18, 2012. Lynch was charged with savagely beating Rev. Jerold Lindner. Lynch dreamed for years about confronting the Jesuit priest he says molested him and his little brother more than 30 years ago during a camping trip. Now, as Lynch prepares to go to trial on felony assault and elder abuse charges for attacking Lindner in the lobby of his retirement home.(AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

William Lynch listens during an interview in San Francisco, Monday, June 18, 2012. Lynch was charged with savagely beating Rev. Jerold Lindner. Lynch dreamed for years about confronting the Jesuit priest he says molested him and his little brother more than 30 years ago during a camping trip. Now, as Lynch prepares to go to trial on felony assault and elder abuse charges for attacking Lindner in the lobby of his retirement home.(AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Opening statements were scheduled to begin Wednesday in the trial of a man accused of beating an aging Jesuit priest who he says molested him and his younger brother more than 35 years ago.

William Lynch has said the priest abused him and his brother during a camping trip in Northern California's Santa Cruz Mountains. Now 44, Lynch will get his longtime wish to face the Rev. Jerold Lindner in court for the first time.

Lynch faces felony charges of assault and elder abuse after prosecutors say he beat Lindner in 2010 in front of startled witnesses at a retirement home for priests.

In the months since his arrest, Lynch has refused to discuss a plea deal and has grown intent on using his own legal trouble to try Lindner in the court of public opinion in a potentially explosive proceeding likely to include testimony from Lynch, the priest and several more of his alleged victims.

The trial will take place in Santa Clara County Superior Court, where several other victims are expected to attend. Lynch faces up to four years in prison if convicted on all charges.

The judge overseeing the case recently ruled that Lynch's lawyer can ask the priest about Lynch's allegations during cross-examination. If Lindner denies the accusations, attorney Pat Harris can call up to three other witnesses who claim they were also molested by Lindner as children, including Lynch's younger brother.

The Lynches, who were 7 and 4 at the time, were raped in the woods and forced to have oral sex with each other while Lindner watched, according to a civil lawsuit. Lindner has been accused of abuse by nearly a dozen people, including his own sister and nieces and nephews, but was never criminally charged because the allegations were too old.

Lindner hung up Monday when The Associated Press called him for comment. He has previously denied abusing the Lynch boys and said in a deposition from the late 1990s that he didn't recall the siblings. The brothers settled with the Jesuits of the California Province for $625,000 in 1998.

Getting Lindner into court ? even as a victim ? has helped Lynch find the peace of mind he's been searching for his whole life, he said.

"I don't want to go to jail but I've come to realize that this whole thing is really bigger than me and the way that I've chosen to handle this is to make a statement," Lynch told the AP. "I'm prepared to take responsibility for anything I've been involved in. I'm willing to do it. I think it's a small sacrifice to get Father Jerry into court."

The priest will likely testify at the trial, but Lynch's attempt to shame and expose Lindner is misguided, said Deputy District Attorney Vicki Gemetti.

Even if the molestation allegations are true, the judge's order only allows the defense to ask general questions about sexual abuse for the purpose of challenging Lindner's credibility as a witness. Other defense witnesses who allege abuse by the priest can't be questioned about specific details that could inflame the jury.

"What the jury needs to be deciding is did an assault take place? There might be sympathetic reasons for an assault, but yes, it's an assault," Gemetti said. "The victim is not squeaky clean but that doesn't change the fact that you can't take the law into your own hands."

It's unlikely testimony about Lynch's abuse allegations could tip the case in his favor ? but not impossible, said Jody Armour, a professor at the University of Southern California's Gould School of Law who specializes in criminal law and social justice issues.

Jurors will have to be reminded not to be swayed by their prejudices or by any sympathy they may feel for Lynch.

"These are some of the toughest cases in criminal law," Armour said. "Even though that jury will be told, 'Don't think about this, this is not evidence, it just goes to credibility,' how are people going to keep those two things separate in their mind?"

There have been several other instances of violence, sometimes fatal, against priests accused of abuse since the Roman Catholic clergy abuse scandal unfolded in 2002.

In Baltimore, a man who claimed he was sodomized and fondled by a priest a decade earlier shot the clergyman three times in 2002 after the priest told him to go away when he demanded an apology. The defendant was acquitted of attempted murder but served 18 months of home detention on a gun conviction.

The following year, priest John Geoghan was strangled in his cell by a fellow inmate who claimed he was chosen by God to kill pedophiles. Geoghan was serving a 9- to 10-year sentence for groping a boy and was at the center of the Boston clergy abuse scandal. He had been accused of molesting as many as 150 boys.

Police said they connected Lynch to the May 2010 attack using phone records. A half hour before the beating, a man identifying himself as "Eric" called the rest home and said someone would arrive shortly to inform Lindner of a family member's death.

When Lindner showed up in the lobby, Lynch asked the 65-year-old priest if he recognized him. After the priest said he did not, Lynch began punching him, according to a police account. On a 911 tape, the assailant can be heard yelling, "Turn yourself in or I'll (expletive) come back and kill you," as a receptionist speaks to a dispatcher.

Lindner was able to drive himself to the hospital and has since recovered.

Lindner was removed from ministry and placed at the Los Gatos retirement home in 2001. He was named in two additional lawsuits for abuse between 1973 and 1985, according to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Those cases were included in the record $660 million settlement between the church and more than 550 plaintiffs in 2007.

Even if he is convicted, Lynch hopes that facing the priest in court will help him deal with the demons that he said have held him hostage for years. He has battled depression and alcoholism, attempted suicide and his marriage failed.

"He still comes into my dreams now. He just took ownership of me in a way that's hard to get rid of and I have to learn how to live with him," Lynch said of the priest.

"My expectations are realistic, but I'm also coming into this for the first time sort of in control of my life."

Associated Press

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What is the Church?s view on stem cell research?

June 19th, 2012

What is the Church?s view on stem cell research?

The Church is strongly in favor of stem cell research. Indeed, it has funded and even led conferences in attempts to find medical solutions via stem cells. The Church has almost always supported science, and even the Galileo affair was really an argument about whether he had actually proven his claims about relationship of the earth and the sun scientifically. (Many secular scientists believe he had not.)

The Church objects to killing fellow members of the species homo sapiens in order to get the benefit of embryonic stem cell research science. Nazi Germany showed us that science and medicine need to be disciplined by morality, and the Catholic principle that ?it is always wrong to aim at the death of an innocent person? is a strong bulwark against the powerful trampling on minority and vulnerable populations. Happily, the best stem cells (like the ?pluripotent? cells found in amniotic fluid) do not come from embryos, so we do not need to kill some humans in order to heal others with stem cells.

From Charles C. Camosy and the Busted Halo Question Box.

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Readers Write: Conservatives can't compromise; Retirement is for cheap learning

Letters to the Editor for the weekly print issue of June 18, 2012:?How can a conservative compromise with a position that is totally against his or her own political, economic, and social philosophy? An?important option for one's retirement years is learning stuff, at a low cost.

June 18, 2012

How can a conservative compromise?

The May 28 DC Decoder article "Why Congress is gridlocked" reports on the reasons Capitol Hill in-siders give for the gridlock. The third point, "A lack of institutional knowledge," is a valid point. The newer members are not beholden to other members of Congress in mutual back-scratching or to the lobbyists plying their trade on the Hill.

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As for socialization, they are in Washington to work, not attend parties. Yes, they have a lot to learn, but they know that they have a purpose higher than being reelected at the next election.

The "hyperactive news media" (the fourth point) is a valid issue as well, but these former Hill staffers and scholars can't blame the media itself for news leaks. News leaks come from the Congress members themselves or aides working in their offices. It is the responsibility of a free press to report what it knows.

As a retired manager of a major media outlet in New York, I recall the stultifying effect that the Federal Communications Commission's "fairness doctrine" had on programming.

The seventh reason ("You get the Congress you vote for") says: "Americans say they want compromise in their government. But they don't vote for compromisers." To this I say: Happily, we still have a core of conservative citizens in the Untied States. How can a conservative compromise with a position that is totally against his or her own political, economic, and social philosophy?

Arthur Thompson

Atchison, Kan.

Low-cost learning for happy retirement

Margaret Price's Money column "Retirement is more than savings" in the May 21 issue failed to mention an important option for one's retirement years: learning stuff.

In my year and four months of retirement I've taken a master gardener class and a master naturalist class, two drawing classes, and a class on Milton; taken classes on T.S. Eliot, Plotinus, and St. Augustine through my church; participated in German discussion groups through my local senior citizens center; and attended numerous lectures and films at a nominal cost.

My fellow students are energetic, lively, interested, and interesting people getting the most out of their retirement years. I can't foresee ever running out of new enthusiasms to explore.

Kathryn Tanner

Savannah, Ga.?

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A look at recent tech-industry earnings

Here is a summary of recent earnings and reports for selected technology companies and what they reveal about the state of spending and the overall economy:

April 6: Samsung Electronics Co. says it is expecting a record operating profit of $5.1 billion for the first quarter. It says the result would be a 97 percent rise from its operating profit a year earlier. Samsung estimated that its first quarter sales rose 21.6 percent from a year earlier. More details will come when Samsung releases its full quarterly results.

April 12: Google Inc. reports adjusted earnings and adjusted revenue that beat expectations. Google's revenue was helped by a 39 percent increase in "paid clicks," but the prices of its search-driven text ads continued to decline. CEO Larry Page called the first quarter "very strong," but acknowledgehd there's more work to do.

April 17: Yahoo Inc.'s first-quarter earnings show signs of modest progress under recently hired CEO Scott Thompson. Net income grew 28 percent from the same time last year and exceeded expectations. Revenue grew less than 1 percent, but represented a breakthrough because the company's revenue has been steadily falling for years.

IBM Corp. says first-quarter net income grew 7 percent, helped by strong profit margins in its services business and strong revenue growth across its software and services businesses. Revenue was flat overall because of declines in the hardware and financing segments, and revenue fell short of analysts' expectations. IBM increases its full-year guidance to at least $15 per share, above the $14.93 expected by analysts.

Intel Corp. says its net income in the first quarter fell 13 percent as spending on research and marketing rose while sales were flat.

April 18: EBay Inc. says its first-quarter net income grew 20 percent thanks to higher revenue from its PayPal business and brisk sales at its e-commerce websites. The results beat Wall Street's expectations.

Mobile phone chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. says its quarterly profit more than doubled as strong demand for smartphones boosted its sales; but it expects costs to increase as it makes more chips.

April 19: Microsoft Corp. fares better than analysts anticipated in its latest quarter, boosted by a surprising rise in sales of its Windows operating system for personal computers

Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. reports adjusted earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street's expectations. AMD's revenue forecast for the current quarter was at $1.59 billion to $1.68 billion, while analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting $1.59 billion.

Nokia Corp. reports a huge net loss, one of the company's worst ever quarters, and blames tougher-than-expected competition. It has faced stiff competition from the likes of Apple Inc.'s iPhone and handset makers using Google Inc.'s popular Android software.

April 23: Netflix Inc. says it suffered its first quarterly loss in seven years, but the setback was far smaller than analysts expected. Netflix had rising licensing fees and a bill for an international expansion. Netflix predicted that it would make money during the current quarter. Still, Wall Street was worried about tougher competition. Skittish investors keyed on a second-quarter forecast that calls for a slowdown in subscriber growth during the spring and early summer.

Chipmaker Texas Instruments Inc. says first-quarter net income fell 60 percent from a year ago as revenue shrank. But the results still beat analysts' expectations.

Xerox Corp. says first-quarter net income fell 4 percent as the company spent more on building its services business, which now makes up more than half the company's revenue. The company says it's investing in new offerings and long-term contracts in order to increase growth. In the short term, that has hurt profitability.

April 24: Apple Inc. reported blowout iPhone sales ? 35 million in the latest quarter, almost twice as many as it sold a year ago and above analyst expectations. Net income nearly doubled to $11.6 billion, and revenue was up 59 percent at $39.2 billion. IPad sales came in below analyst expectations, at 11.8 million units. But that was still two and a half times as many as it sold in the same quarter a year ago.

April 25: Motorola Solutions Inc., which sells communications equipment to government and corporate customers, says first-quarter net income declined from a year ago, when the company recorded a large tax-related gain. Revenue grew thanks to strong demand from the company's government customers.

April 26: Amazon.com Inc. reports strong quarterly earnings and says its Kindle Fire tablet computer remains its best-selling item. However, its outlook for revenue growth was slower than expected.

Online games company Zynga Inc. reports adjusted earnings of 6 cents a share, a penny better than what Wall Street expected. Revenue grew 32 percent.

April 27: A surge in Galaxy smartphone sales fueled earnings at Samsung Electronics to a record high in the first quarter, usually a tough season for the global consumer-electronics industry. The South Korean company outshined handset rivals such as Nokia Corp. Strong demand for high-end smartphones, such as the Galaxy Note and the Galaxy S2 introduced last year, helped mask lower profit from memory chips, another Samsung flagship business.

May 1: Mobile phone maker Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. reports a slightly larger net loss in the first quarter as expenses grew more than revenue. Motorola says it still expects its acquisition by Google to close by the end of June. The deal still needs to be approved by authorities in China.

May 3: LinkedIn Corp. says its first-quarter net income more than doubled, and its revenue doubled from a year ago. Adjusted profit and revenue beat expectations. During the quarter, revenue grew across the company's divisions. The business-networking company also announces plans to buy presentation-sharing website SlideShare for $118.8 million.

May 9: Cisco Systems Inc. says its quarterly earnings surged 20 percent in the latest sign that a recently completed overhaul is paying off for the world's largest maker of computer-networking equipment. However, Cisco raised the specter of a sharp slowdown in technology spending, rattling investors already fretting about the economy's fragile condition. Cisco made a sobering forecast for the current quarter and traced it to skittish customers who are waiting longer to close deals and spending less money because of growing uncertainty about the economy, particularly in Europe and India.

May 14: Online deals company Groupon Inc. says it had a smaller net loss and sharply higher revenue in the first quarter, helped by increased demand from a growing customer base.

May 17: Salesforce.com Inc., which makes Web-based business software, says it had a net loss in the first quarter, but adjusted profit and revenue beat expectations. It raises its forecast for full-year results.

May 22: Dell Inc. reports disappointing first-quarter results and forecasts weak sales in the current quarter. The computer maker says sales to big businesses, consumers and the public sector decreased.

May 23: Hewlett-Packard Co. says it will cut 27,000 workers, or 8 percent of its work force, by October 2014. News of the cutbacks overshadowed the release of HP's latest quarterly results. The company's earnings and revenue were both better than analysts projected.

Coming up:

Tuesday: Adobe Systems Inc.

Thursday: Oracle Corp.

June 28: Research in Motion Ltd.

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Google Offers swings by the iPhone, saves dough for Apples

iPhone owners bummed that their Android-using friends were taking advantage of Google Offers they couldn't use can now level the playing field: an iOS port has just gone live. Much like its Google-native peer, the iPhone-optimized version can spot discounts in the neighborhood and will let you claim them on the spot. The chronically inattentive still get a lot of love in the process with both mentions of new offers and warnings for soon-to-expire deals. In keeping with Google Offers' current US-only focus, the app won't show outside of American borders just yet -- but if you've been thinking those yoga classes in Portland were a bit too dearly priced, your iPhone (and a well-timed sale) is now all it takes to set things right.

Google Offers swings by the iPhone, saves dough for Apples originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jun 2012 14:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows 8: You?ll Absolutely Hate It At First (But Give It A Chance Anyway)

Windows 8 is, without doubt, Microsoft's most ambitious release in recent memory. It does away with a lot of what users have come to expect from Windows over the years. The iconic Start button is gone, for example. Instead, we now get an operating system that has a bit of a split personality, with Metro replacing the Start menu and offering full-screen apps and a legacy desktop with its usual taskbar, which basically looks like Windows 7.5. All of this has made pundits wary about how users will react once they get their first Windows 8 machine. People don't like change and, as Reuters pointed out last week, chances are that Microsoft's users struggle will struggle the redesign. Indeed, chances are you will absolutely hate Windows 8 at first.

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How Listeners Shape the Evolution of Music

MUSICAL REPRODUCTION: Recombination (red and blue) and mutation (gold) produce "daughter" tunes for an audience to rate. Image: MacCallum, Mauch, Burt, Leroi, PNAS

Public tastes may exert a kind of "natural selection" that improves music's appeal?up to a point?finds a study published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research supports the theory that culture and art are shaped by processes similar to those in biological evolution.

Whereas past research using computer models has probed whether popular songs could evolve by selecting for particular musical attributes, "the real difference here is the selection process," says Armand Leroi, professor of evolutionary developmental biology at Imperial College London and a co-author of the paper. Instead of using a computer program or an individual to select which songs "reproduce," "we just let public taste decide," Leroi adds.

He says that people are very comfortable with the idea of natural selection in organisms, but when it comes to music they fail to recognize the creative power of consumer preferences on which songs survive. There is a perception that only the composer and performer are the innovators.

In the experiment, the researchers first populated their "tune world" with short clips of sound encoded by a computer program. They mimicked sexual reproduction by exchanging code between two "parent" clips, analogous to genetic recombination, and by adding random mutations to create "daughter" clips, after which the parent clips would "die." For each generation, they kept 100 songs.

After the researchers used random processes to develop a "gene pool" with sufficient diversity, members of the public were invited to the DarwinTunes Web site and rated the songs on a five-point scale from "I can?t stand it" to "I love it." The computer program then recombined the codes of the top-rated songs, and new songs emerged to be rated in the next generation.

• Click arrows for audio
• Darwin Medley at 0 Generations
• MP3 file
• Darwin Medley at 150 Generations
• MP3 file
• Darwin Medley at 600 Generations
• MP3 file
• Darwin Medley at 3000 Generations
• MP3 file

As the generations "evolved" and progressed, the clips started sounding like music. "What we're making here sounds kind of like electronica dance music," Leroi says. In part, the style might have been influenced by the type of people who would choose to visit a Web site such as DarwinTunes. "I wouldn't be surprised if it's a whole lot of little ravers generating the kind of music that they really like," Leroi says. The results have proved popular among the scientists, too: "We've had some informal little parties in which we've played some DarwinTunes," he says. "Well, you don't want to listen to them all night, but it's definitely listenable to, and certainly danceable to."

After DarwinTunes had evolved for about 2,500 generations, users rated songs from different generations side by side to produce data about the way the songs' musical appeal changed over time. The researchers found that the average likability increased rapidly for about 600 generations and then settled into a kind of equilibrium, or stasis.

Using previously existing music-analysis technology, researchers compared two musical traits, chord clarity and rhythmic complexity, with the users' ratings of the clips' appeal. They found that both were correlated with maximal listener appeal, and that all three characteristics entered stasis around the same time. Researchers estimated an "evolutionary peak" of maximal appeal based on chord clarity and rhythmic complexity and found that the tunes had not reached that peak. Rather, using a variety of statistical techniques, the group determined that the most likely cause of stasis was "low transmission fidelity"?in other words, the children were "too different" from their parents, so the favorable musical qualities were not being passed down intact.

Further analysis indicated a couple of likely reasons for the low transmission fidelity. Recombination, the process by which the genetic material of the two parents is blended, might break up genes that positively influence each other. Alternatively, the delicate structures that make music pleasing could be very sensitive to mutation. The researchers could change the computer programs to overcome these difficulties. Leroi says, "We want to fiddle with the mutation rates, fiddle with the recombination rates." He wants to see if they can get closer to a peak in musical appeal.

The paper notes that although this study suggests that individual consumers' tastes shape music produced by DarwinTunes, the evolutionary process in human-composed music is more complex. Composers and musicians themselves are responsible for a large amount of musical development, and social groups influence individual ratings as well. The researchers want to incorporate these other influences into musical software. "This could be much, much bigger," Leroi says. He imagines modifying DarwinTunes, even turning it into an iPhone game with not thousands but millions of users. "You could produce a whole new musical ecosystem, as it were."

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Nabors shares set to rise on natural gas upswing: Barron's

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U.S. deserter in Sweden steps forward after 28 yrs

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