? What: Presentation College is hosting a networking mixer sponsored by the Aberdeen Area Chamber of Commerce. Attendees can tour the facilities at the new wellness center.
? When: 5:15-7 p.m. Aug. 8.
? Where: Strode Center at Presentation College, 1500 N. Main St.
? RSVP: Call 605-225-2860 or email info@aberdeen-chamber.com by Aug. 7.
? Cost: $12 with an RSVP and $14 the day of the event.
?
?Presentation College's marketing slogan is "Stand Out" and the school is doing that as it works to raise its profile in Aberdeen and beyond.
?New suites for a growing student population are being built on campus. Half will be done before the fall semester begins, said Presentation marketing and public relations director Tim Beckham.
?The other half will be completed later in the fall. The suites will be able to house an additional 158 students, which will more than double housing capacity. Suites at the northwest end of campus can house 144 students.
?Another change to campus will be the conversion of the Strode Activity Center parking lot into a central campus green with benches and other features.
?At the Strode, a new Wellness Center is being completed. Machines and other weightlifiting equipment were installed last week. The center is for athletic training, as well as for use by faculty, staff and students.
?Beckham and administrators such as athletic director Brian Spielbauer and admissions director Adam Jenkins are working to increase visibility of the school.
?"We're on the north side of town, so people might not regularly see what's going on," Beckham said.
?The Aberdeen campus isn't the only one changing. The PC site in Sioux Falls recently moved into a new facility.
? There are other changes as well. Longtime vice president for enrollment JoEllen Lindner resigned from her post in January to take a job as president of the Aberdeen Catholic School System.
?"Any time you lose someone at PC, especially someone with a lot of experience who has helped expand the institution, it's not easy to replace them," Beckham said.
?Jenkins joined the staff a few weeks ago to fill the admissions director position.
?"I was really impressed when I saw they were progressing in this way," Jenkins said of the college.
?Jenkins was previously the interim director of admissions at Minnesota State University Moorhead. He also worked at University of Mary.
I was out on the road for the last week, talking about my book in New York, Boston, LA, San Francisco, Berkeley, and Portland, OR, all funded by the?Kickstarter backers?who supported my book before it was published.
Since I was spending other people?s money, I felt a strong responsibility to be frugal with it. Okay, that?s not exactly true.
I initially felt a strong urge to blow it all spectacularly, like the protagonist of a book I read while on the road,?The Art of Making Money: The Story of a Master Counterfeiter.
In the end, my better nature won out, and I booked and took the trip with the following principles in mind:
Eat, sleep, and otherwise travel cheap
Look for inexpensive or free venues with easy transit access
Hit as many cities as possible in about a week (the maximum time I was willing to take off work and away from my family), focusing on the cities with lots of readers
Don?t lose my mind completely
I?d like to share with you a few things I learned on the road. They?re applicable to far more than a book tour.
With the advent of crowdsourced everything (funding, accommodations, ridesharing, and so on), I think this kind of cheap?DIY?business travel is going to become more common.
I spent about $150 on venues, $500 on airfare, $600 on food and other expenses, and $0 on accommodations.
Last time I went on book tour, bankrolled by a major publisher, I spent more than that in a couple of days. This trip was a lot more fun.
Sometimes business travel and frugal travel are at odds.
If my company were flying me business class and putting me up at the Hyatt, I wouldn?t complain.?And if I were attending a conference where most of the value is in hanging around the hotel swapping beers?and ideas, I?d stay at the hotel.
But my company is myself, and this trip had no conferences.
For microbusiness owners, startups, small software developers, and anyone whose company is looking to get lean, it?s time to start thinking less Hilton and more Airbnb.
Frugal is better
In the 1963 edition of Arthur Frommer?s?Europe on Five Dollars a Day,?the author writes:
?I have one of the better-known European guidebooks before me as I write. This tome states that one really can?t consider staying in Paris at hotels other than the Ritz, the Crillon, or the Plaza Athenee?. It maps out, in other words, the short, quick road to insolvency that most American tourists have been traveling for years.?
I know this because Frommer?s guide is the subject of a hilarious book, Doug Mack?s?Europe on 5 Wrong Turns a Day,?in which Mack finds an old copy of Frommer and decides to use it as his European travel guide today.
No, of course you can?t travel Europe for $5 a day anymore, but Frommer?s point, that frugal travel is more authentic and more fun, is as true as ever, and it applies surprisingly well to business travel.
I began the trip by booking a multi-city trip at?Kayak.com. Many people I?ve spoken to assume that the airlines still charge exorbitant rates for anything other than round-trip flights, but it?s not true.
I booked four legs, including two cross-country flights, all on the same airline (for mileage plan and premium qualification purposes), for less than $600.
I also traveled the two short legs of the trip (New York to Boston and Portland to Seattle) on Amtrak, with tickets purchased via Amtrak Guest Rewards points.
As I arrived in each town, I was greeted with the words that warm a frugal traveler?s heart: ?Is that all you?re carrying??
For getting around, I relied mostly on transit.
All of the cities I visited offer real-time arrival information (via a digital display or smartphone app), support for Google Maps transit directions, and (with the exception of Portland) a plastic transit card that eliminates fumbling for change.
If you?re a reluctant transit rider, these innovations may win you over, but you can also catch a ride with UberX, Lyft, and other ridesharing services that are (usually) cheaper and better than a taxi.
Sleep cheap
In each tour stop, I stayed with friends. This may seem like cheating, but if I hadn?t had friends? beds and couches available, I would have stayed in similar accommodations via Airbnb.
Last time I took a business trip to the Bay Area, for example, I got a $30/night futon via Airbnb, and my host was a confident 9-year-old boy (and his dad) who kept me up late playing Plants vs. Zombies.
Airbnb, of course, also lists private rooms and whole apartments, and covers cities throughout the world.
While I was out on the road, I read a scary article about?a Minnesota musician whose tax status is in jeopardy.
The Minnesota Department of Revenue has classified Venus de Mars as a hobbyist rather than a professional, rejected all of her business expense deductions, and billed her for back taxes.
This was the part that really freaked me out: ?When de Mars goes on tour, she often sleeps at the house of a relative or friend. To de Mars, that is being frugal, but the Department of Revenue saw it as evidence that she was merely expensing a vacation.?
The state also accused de Mars of taking ?too much pleasure from her work.? You may all groan now.
I don?t know the specifics of the Venus de Mars case (except that ?The Venus de Mars Case? is a great album title).
So I started making my imaginary case before the Minnesota Department of Revenue: Is this really business travel? Of course: it?s the kind of business travel that results in more money left over to put into your actual business.
The key issue in small business tax audits always comes down to profit.
Is the business trying to make a profit? Keeping travel expenses low makes it more likely that you can wring a profit out of your business in any given year.
And if that argument doesn?t fly, I could always take up counterfeiting.
Matthew Amster-Burton is a?personal finance?columnist at Mint.com. His new book,?Pretty Good Number One: An American Family Eats Tokyo, is available now. Find him on Twitter?@Mint_Mamster.
Random act of kindness led to 5,435 cups being gifted at chain's branches
Tim Horton's spokesman denies donations are part of marketing campaign
Branch at a hospital treated twice on same day
By Jessica Jerreat
PUBLISHED: 18:27 EST, 26 July 2013 | UPDATED: 22:17 EST, 26 July 2013
What started as a random act of kindness in a branch of Tim Horton's has triggered a succession of coffee-buying kindness.
On Monday afternoon, a man in his 20s walked into an Edmonton branch of the coffee chain and ordered 500 cups of coffee, costing him $850.
As word spread of the generous gesture, others followed the anonymous donor's lead and soon rounds of coffee were being bought in several other Canadian towns by kind-hearted customers.
Cup of kindness: An anonymous customer in Edmonton sparked the trend when he bought 500 large coffees
By Friday, Tim Horton's staff, who said they were as surprised and thrilled about the trend as everyone else, sent a tweet stating: 'Eleven acts of kindness, 5,435 cups of coffee, one amazing week,'
The person who sparked the coffee-buying spree gave no reason for his large purchase to store manager Joanne Averion, and asked only that the drinks be handed out to the next 500 customers, according to the Huffington Post.
His generosity kept customers in free coffee until about 8.30am the following day.?
'That's pretty awesome just to know people are out there willing to just go "Hey, let's do something nice for somebody else",' one customer said.
What had appeared to be a one-off gesture however, soon became a chance to 'play it forward', with a customer in Calgary repeating the stunt in the Crowfoot Crossing branch on Wednesday.
Double order: Customers at the chain's branch in an Edmonton hospital were treated to free coffee twice in one day
Grateful: Monica Kavanaugh paid for 800 cups at the hospital to thank staff for looking after her father
On Thursday, word had spread, with people stopping for a coffee break in Red Deer and Ottawa, as well as those at a hospital, finding they had been treated to a free drink.
Staff at the Tim Horton's kiosk at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton said a man wearing hospital scrubs bought $500 of coffee in the morning and then a woman ordered 800 cups in the afternoon to thank staff for looking after her father.
One of the donors, Monica Kavanaugh, said: 'They've helped my father a lot and I just feel, why not give a little back to the hospital?'
?
Hospital shift manager Brenda O'Connor told the Calgary Sun: 'It really picks up everyone?s morale. Some people get good and some get bad news and we see that.'
She added it was touching to see 'some of that stress gone just because there?s someone out there with a little generosity'.
As word of the coffee-buying trend spread, some started to speculate that it could be part of a marketing campaign by the coffee chain.
However, Tim Horton's spokesman Michelle Robichaud denied that was the case, telling CBC: 'We?re just as surprised and thrilled as our guests have been by these incredible random acts of kindness...our only role is really in pouring the cups of coffee.'
Brewing: The coffee-buying trend started in Edmonton, above, but was soon replicated in other branches, including ones in Red Deer, left, and Calgary, right
The kindness bug made sure another 500 customers got off on the right foot on Friday, after a regular at the Chestermere branch, near Calgary, treated his fellow customers at 6am.
Manager Valerie Bruce said the donor, who wanted to remain anonymous, was a regular customer and that his actions had touched the town's residents.
'They?re just touched that it happened here in Chestermere with one of our locals,' she said.
'He?s a wonderful, terrific, kindhearted man. He said that "I hope other people recognize this as a random act of kindness and they will pay it forward themselves for somebody".'
His wishes were fulfilled later in the day when a customer came in and ordered 20 cups of coffee to be given away.
A local radio station on Friday also encouraged early morning listeners to get involved, by getting them to call in and donate money to a fund, which resulted in 785 coffees being purchased
'This was all spur of the moment,' Rock 102 morning anchor Derek Watson told the Leader Post. 'The phones lit up.'
Thrilled: Tim Horton's was shocked and delighted by its customers' generosity
The station paid for 500 coffees at a Saskatoon branch, but a listener later went into the same branch and bought a further 285.
It is not the first time Tim Horton's customers have showed their kindness to fellow coffee lovers. In the run up to last Christmas a customer in Winnipeg offered to pay for the coffee of the next person in line, according to Oddee.
The simple act of kindness led to a chain of 228 customers treating the person next in line to free drinks, and was only broken when a man who had been given four free coffees broke the chain by not paying for the next person's drinks.
A California man has been sentenced to 5? years in federal prison and must pay $3.5 million in restitution for a mortgage fraud scheme in Las Vegas.
George Anderson, 55, pleaded guilty in April to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud. He is currently released on bond and must report to federal prison by October 25.
In 2005, Anderson began orchestrating a double escrow mortgage scheme involving eight houses in the Las Vegas Valley area, according to the U.S. attorney?s office.
He had help from Andrew Swan, 38, of Illinois, and family members, officials said.
At least 16 mortgage loans were obtained that totaled approximately $6.5 million. The financial institutions involved in the home sales lost about $3.5 million, according to officials.
Swan also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison. He also was ordered to pay $3.5 million in restitution.
Contact Annalise Porter at aporter@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0264.
Celebrities love the attention and honor of landing on top lists, whether it be for their good looks or album/movie sales. But we’re certain most would love to make the Forbes Magazine “Highest Paid Stars Under 30″ list! Let’s see who’s bringing in the big bucks! Lady Gaga (age 27) $80 million Lady Gaga topped ...
So I participated in a web conference on some enterprise software. The company I work for is looking to go with a software partner for some expensive software, so I logged into the webex meeting.
At the end, they said (to my surprise) that they were giving away an iPad mini to one lucky participant. I've never won a thing in my life, but lo-and-behold, they pulled my name out of a hat.
I got an email later that said they were sending me an iPad mini (black, 16gig base version). I was skeptical until they forwarded me the Amazon confirmation with tracking.
It will be here on Wed.
While I'm happy to have a free base mini, I really would like to pay to upgrade it to a 32gig LTE version.
Will the Apple store entertain an exchange + payment on my end (obviously) for a sealed mini from Amazon? I really hope so.
Thanks.
__________________
HTC One & iPhone 5 for work
2013 MBP Retina 15/2.7/16/512 (Samsung Panel/Sandisk SSD) & Lenovo X230t for work
LONDON/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline said on Monday some of its executives in China appeared to have broken the law in a bribery scandal, as it promised changes in its business model that would lower the cost of medicine in the country.
GSK is the latest in a string of multinationals to be targeted by Chinese authorities over alleged corruption, price-fixing and quality controls.
Chinese police visited the Shanghai office of another British drugmaker, AstraZeneca, a company spokeswoman said on Monday. They arrived on Friday and took away a sales representative for questioning, she said.
Health Minister Li Bin maintained the pressure on the drugs industry by stating that her department would place people and companies guilty of bribery on a black list and punish them.
GSK's head of emerging markets, Abbas Hussain, said his company had zero tolerance for employees who broke the law.
"Certain senior executives of GSK China, who know our systems well, appear to have acted outside of our processes and controls, which breaches Chinese law," he said in a statement.
Hussain, sent to China last week to lead GSK's response to the crisis, held a meeting with the Ministry of Public Security at which he also promised to review GSK's business model.
"Savings made as a result of proposed changes to our operational model will be passed on in the form of price reductions, ensuring our medicines are more affordable to Chinese patients," Hussain added.
Britain's biggest drugmaker gave no details on the changes or the extent of price cuts - but the move addresses a key issue for Beijing, which launched a probe into pricing at 60 local and international drug firms earlier this month.
GSK supplies key products such as vaccines in China, as well as drugs for lung disease and cancer.
Chinese police, who have detained four Chinese executives from GSK, last week accused the firm of bribing officials and doctors to boost sales and raise drug prices by funneling up to 3 billion yuan ($489 million) to travel agencies.
GSK has called the allegations "shameful".
Last week, Chinese officials also visited the Shanghai office of Belgian drugmaker UCB. The latest visit to AstraZeneca shows authorities are spreading the net, although AstraZeneca described the case as a local police matter.
"We believe that this investigation relates to an individual case and while we have not yet received an update from the Public Security Bureau, we have no reason to believe it's related to any other investigations," the spokeswoman said.
CHIEF EXECUTIVE TO SPEAK ON WEDNESDAY
In a statement, China's Ministry of Public Security said GSK's Hussain, who was dispatched to China last week by CEO Andrew Witty, apologized for the scandal during the meeting.
Witty will detail what action the drugmaker is taking in response to the bribery allegations when he presents quarterly results on Wednesday, sources said.
GSK's intention to cut the price of its medicines in China would be in line with how other foreign companies have responded to pressure from Beijing.
European food groups Nestle and Danone said they would cut infant milk formula prices in China after Beijing launched an inquiry into the industry.
"In China, when the government criticizes people, they tend to bow down and apologize very quickly because they are scared of the authority of the central government to do tremendous harm to their business - whether it be for arresting executives very quickly or through auditing," said Shaun Rein, managing director of the Shanghai-based China Market Research Group.
Separately, GSK had a setback in another important emerging market on Monday when it abandoned a scheme to increase its stake in GSK Consumer Nigeria, its consumer healthcare business in the country, following opposition from minority shareholders.
CULTURE OF PAYMENTS
China has long been known for a culture in which drug companies make payments to doctors, since physicians rely on rewards for writing prescriptions to offset meager salaries.
Those practices, however, are increasingly at odds with a crackdown on corruption under President Xi Jinping, leaving companies struggling to toe the line while not losing business in a highly competitive market.
Chinese state media has aired interviews with one of the detained GSK executives who has said travel agencies were used to arrange conferences, some of which were never held, to allocate money that could then be used for bribes.
One of the agencies at the center of the scandal has been identified by state media as Shanghai Linjiang International Travel Agency.
The New York Times said documents it obtained showed that in the last three years at least six other global pharmaceutical firms, including Merck, Novartis, Roche and Sanofi, had used that agency to make arrangements for events and conferences.
Roche, Merck and Sanofi told Reuters they had used the Linjiang agency in the past. Novartis had no immediate comment.
The travel agency's business has now been suspended, China's official Xinhua news agency reported last Thursday.
(Additional reporting by Ruby Lian in SHANGHAI, Michael Martina and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING and Caroline Copley in ZURICH; writing by Dean Yates; editing by Sophie Walker)
Marc Anthony may have just released his 11th studio album, but he's calling it "3.0," in part a clear reference to a reinvention of his public persona. The Grammy winner trotted that new, upgraded self onto the TODAY plaza Tuesday to rock out with a brand new salsa-flavored song, "Vivir Mi Vida" ("It's My Life") ? and talk to Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie about the controversy that popped up over another tune he recently sang.
"It's like a whole new and improved me," he joked about "3.0," noting it was a "little tongue-in-cheek" reference ? and that someone else had taken "2.0" already.
But he was more serious in responding to Lauer's question about Anthony's performance at Major League Baseball's All-Star Game on July 16, where he sang "God Bless America" and surprisingly drew some criticism on Twitter and the Internet, with some non-fans who apparently didn't think he was "qualified" to sing that famous anthem.
"If I'm not qualified, I don't know who is," said Anthony. "I was born and raised in New York; I'm an American; I'm Puerto Rican. And for those who don't know, Puerto Rico is a territory of the US to start with.
"But if you think about it," he added astutely, "Irving Berlin was a Russian-Jewish immigrant who wrote 'God Bless America.' Just think about that for one second." (Berlin was born in modern-day Belarus, which at the time was part of the Russian Empire.)
Anthony didn't linger on the controversy, however; he was ready to get his music out. And even 11 albums in, he says he feels younger than ever. "I literally feel like I'm 18 all over again, and I have so much more to do!" he said.
Massive open online courses ? MOOCs ? have been scheduled to take the education world by storm for the last couple years. The revolution has been very slow-going thus far, though. Fits and starts have been frequent.
Take the case of San Jose State University. As the Los Angeles Times reports, the Silicon Valley school has suspended a much-ballyhooed partnership with privately-held MOOC giant Udacity designed to offer very cheap, for-credit online courses. The collaboration fizzled primarily because over half of all enrolled students failed the classes.
San Jose State?s MOOC experiment was teeming with problems. For example, a large number of students participating in the online courses didn?t have their own computers?or even access to a computer. These participants ? students at a college prep academy called Oakland Military Institute ? were enrolled for three weeks before program mentors became aware of the issue.
More broadly, students in traditional classes performed significantly better than students in the Udacity?s MOOCs.
Reasons other than the course delivery method could explain the disparity. For example, San Jose State students made up fewer than half of the students in the MOOCs. A big percentage of MOOC students represented high schools in local low-income communities.
Pass rates varied by class. In three spring math courses ? remedial math, college algebra and elementary statistics ??rates ranged from 20 percent to 44 percent ?On the bright side, over 80 percent of the students who participated completed the courses. (It?s not clear how completion was defined or policed.)
In January, California Gov. Jerry Brown, who has been an aggressive proponent of online education at the state?s public universities, announced the partnership between San Jose State and Udacity.
Each class cost just $150 (with no state or federal financial aid available).
The National Science Foundation provided a grant for the courses.
?There are many complex factors that relate to student performance, and we?re trying to study the factors that help or hinder students in this environment,? San Jose State Provost Ellen Junn told the L.A. Times.
?We learned that we could have prepared them better about what it means to take an online course and that this is a university course with real faculty teaching for university credit,? she added. ?Maybe some students didn?t take it quite seriously.?
Follow Eric on Twitter?and send education-related story tips to?erico@dailycaller.com.
A flip of the mitotic spindle has disastrous consequences for epithelial cellsPublic release date: 21-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Gina Kirchweger gxk@stowers.org 816-806-1036 Stowers Institute for Medical Research
Stowers investigators use genetics and live cell imaging to illuminate molecular mechanisms that position the cell division machinery in growing tissues
KANSAS CITY, MOConstructing a body is like building a houseif you compromise structural integrity, the edifice can collapse. Nowhere is that clearer on a cellular level than in the case of epithelial sheets, single layers of cells that line every body cavity from the gut to mammary glands. As long as epithelial cells pack tightly and adhere to their neighbors, the cellular business of building tissue barriers and constructing ducts goes smoothly. But if epithelial cells fail to hold together, they die, or worse, produce jumbled masses resembling tumors known collectively as carcinomas.
Stowers Institute for Medical Research Associate Investigator Matt Gibson, Ph.D., and his team use simple animal systems like fruit flies and sea anemones to investigate how epithelial cells maintain order while getting jostled by cell division.
New findings from his lab published in the July 21 advance online issue of Nature demonstrate that the way the mitotic spindlethe machinery that separates chromosomes into daughter cells during cell divisionaligns relative to the surface of the cell layer is essential for the maintenance of epithelial integrity. It also hints at a surprising way that cells initiate a gene expression program seen in invasive cancers when that process goes awry.
The study employs live imaging of fruit fly imaginal discs, simple larval tissues that ultimately give rise to the adult wing. "In a culture dish, cells can divide willy nilly," says Gibson. "But in an organism cell division must be reconciled with the broader structural context. Our work is addressing how epithelial tissues maintain structural integrity, even during the extreme events of cell division."
The starting point for this work was the lab's 2011 Current Biology paper showing that when columnar cells packed in an epithelium divided, their upper (apical) end briefly ballooned out to allow the cell's nucleus to move into that region. As division began, the mitotic spindle (which faithfully distributes chromosomes into each daughter cell) invariably oriented itself parallel to the apical surface of the epithelium.
In other words, if you pointed a tiny camera in your gut toward dividing epithelial cells of its lining, you would "see" the mitotic spindle looking like a symmetrical web, exactly like it did in your high school biology textbook.
To determine why its orientation was non-random, the group did an equivalent experiment. Using high resolution fluorescence imaging to look inside dividing cells in developing wing discs, they observed that the two poles of the spindle were always near the septate junctions, specific regions of close molecular contact between neighboring cells. Two junction components, proteins called Discs Large and Scribble, were juxtaposed to the spindle, suggesting they might act as cues to orient it.
The seemingly odd names given to these factors decades ago reflect what biologists saw in fly mutants lacking each protein. In flies without Discs Large, the imaginal discs are massively overgrown, while fly embryos lacking Scribble resemble a chaotic scribble reminiscent of a tumor. Gibson reasoned that the reported tumor-suppressive activity of these proteins might be linked to a role in keeping the mitotic spindle in line.
So his group genetically deleted Scribble, Discs Large and a host of other factors in wing disc cells and watched what happened when cells divided, an effort aided by a customized microscope built by the Stowers Microscopy Center. What they saw was dramatic: Scribble deletion caused the mitotic spindle to flip over at a random angle, as did deletion of Discs Large. Next, by directly perturbing the spindle, the researchers video-captured the process by which cells with misoriented spindles began to peel away, or delaminate, from the epithelium.
"I did not expect that spindle orientation defects could be sufficient to cause loss of epithelial identity," explains Yu-ichiro Nakajima, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the Gibson lab and the study's first author. "But people in the field have hypothesized that spindle misorientation might cause tumorigenesis or even contribute to cancer development."
Initially, the group did not observe such dire consequences: Gibson says that delaminating cells generally "fall out of the epithelium" and are killed off by apoptosis, a mechanism healthy tissues use to eradicate damaged cells. But when the team experimentally inhibited apoptosis, tumor-like growths emerged at the base of the cell layer. Cells in those growths expressed genes switched on in invasive human tumors, among them the fruit fly version of human Matrix metalloproteinase-1, an epithelial cancer biomarker.
"The findings derived from epithelial biology often lead to a better understanding of cancer development," says Nakajima. "We have found that spindle orientation has a tumor-suppressive role in proliferating epithelia. So we are looking for other spindle regulators that may represent novel tumor suppressors."
Human epithelial cells do express mammalian Scribble and Discs Large proteins, and both play key roles in maintaining epithelial cell polarity, or shapa property lost in metastatic cancer cells. Whether Scribble or Discs Large act as tumor suppressors in human cancers is under investigation.
Gibson urges caution in comparing regulation of Drosophila and human epithelia. Nonetheless he notes that normal tissues in both flies and humans protect themselves by killing off misbehaving cells via apoptosis. If that mechanism failed, as is frequently observed in human cancers, disordered cells within an epithelium could escape.
"When cells are basically imprisoned in an epithelial layer, things stay nicely organized," says Gibson. "But in this study we found that simply forcing a cell to delaminate from an epithelium is enough to initiate an abnormal gene expression program. That means that maintaining an ordered structure is not just a physical requirement but could also protects cells from switching on potentially aberrant genes."
###
Other contributors were Emily Meyer from the Gibson lab, and Amanda Kroesen and Sean McKinney, Ph.D., from the Stowers Microscopy Center.
The study was funded by the Stowers Institute for Medical Research and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.
About the Stowers Institute for Medical Research
The Stowers Institute for Medical Research is a non-profit, basic biomedical research organization dedicated to improving human health by studying the fundamental processes of life. Jim Stowers, founder of American Century Investments, and his wife, Virginia, opened the Institute in 2000. Since then, the Institute has spent over 900 million dollars in pursuit of its mission.
Currently, the Institute is home to nearly 550 researchers and support personnel; over 20 independent research programs; and more than a dozen technology-development and core facilities.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
A flip of the mitotic spindle has disastrous consequences for epithelial cellsPublic release date: 21-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Gina Kirchweger gxk@stowers.org 816-806-1036 Stowers Institute for Medical Research
Stowers investigators use genetics and live cell imaging to illuminate molecular mechanisms that position the cell division machinery in growing tissues
KANSAS CITY, MOConstructing a body is like building a houseif you compromise structural integrity, the edifice can collapse. Nowhere is that clearer on a cellular level than in the case of epithelial sheets, single layers of cells that line every body cavity from the gut to mammary glands. As long as epithelial cells pack tightly and adhere to their neighbors, the cellular business of building tissue barriers and constructing ducts goes smoothly. But if epithelial cells fail to hold together, they die, or worse, produce jumbled masses resembling tumors known collectively as carcinomas.
Stowers Institute for Medical Research Associate Investigator Matt Gibson, Ph.D., and his team use simple animal systems like fruit flies and sea anemones to investigate how epithelial cells maintain order while getting jostled by cell division.
New findings from his lab published in the July 21 advance online issue of Nature demonstrate that the way the mitotic spindlethe machinery that separates chromosomes into daughter cells during cell divisionaligns relative to the surface of the cell layer is essential for the maintenance of epithelial integrity. It also hints at a surprising way that cells initiate a gene expression program seen in invasive cancers when that process goes awry.
The study employs live imaging of fruit fly imaginal discs, simple larval tissues that ultimately give rise to the adult wing. "In a culture dish, cells can divide willy nilly," says Gibson. "But in an organism cell division must be reconciled with the broader structural context. Our work is addressing how epithelial tissues maintain structural integrity, even during the extreme events of cell division."
The starting point for this work was the lab's 2011 Current Biology paper showing that when columnar cells packed in an epithelium divided, their upper (apical) end briefly ballooned out to allow the cell's nucleus to move into that region. As division began, the mitotic spindle (which faithfully distributes chromosomes into each daughter cell) invariably oriented itself parallel to the apical surface of the epithelium.
In other words, if you pointed a tiny camera in your gut toward dividing epithelial cells of its lining, you would "see" the mitotic spindle looking like a symmetrical web, exactly like it did in your high school biology textbook.
To determine why its orientation was non-random, the group did an equivalent experiment. Using high resolution fluorescence imaging to look inside dividing cells in developing wing discs, they observed that the two poles of the spindle were always near the septate junctions, specific regions of close molecular contact between neighboring cells. Two junction components, proteins called Discs Large and Scribble, were juxtaposed to the spindle, suggesting they might act as cues to orient it.
The seemingly odd names given to these factors decades ago reflect what biologists saw in fly mutants lacking each protein. In flies without Discs Large, the imaginal discs are massively overgrown, while fly embryos lacking Scribble resemble a chaotic scribble reminiscent of a tumor. Gibson reasoned that the reported tumor-suppressive activity of these proteins might be linked to a role in keeping the mitotic spindle in line.
So his group genetically deleted Scribble, Discs Large and a host of other factors in wing disc cells and watched what happened when cells divided, an effort aided by a customized microscope built by the Stowers Microscopy Center. What they saw was dramatic: Scribble deletion caused the mitotic spindle to flip over at a random angle, as did deletion of Discs Large. Next, by directly perturbing the spindle, the researchers video-captured the process by which cells with misoriented spindles began to peel away, or delaminate, from the epithelium.
"I did not expect that spindle orientation defects could be sufficient to cause loss of epithelial identity," explains Yu-ichiro Nakajima, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the Gibson lab and the study's first author. "But people in the field have hypothesized that spindle misorientation might cause tumorigenesis or even contribute to cancer development."
Initially, the group did not observe such dire consequences: Gibson says that delaminating cells generally "fall out of the epithelium" and are killed off by apoptosis, a mechanism healthy tissues use to eradicate damaged cells. But when the team experimentally inhibited apoptosis, tumor-like growths emerged at the base of the cell layer. Cells in those growths expressed genes switched on in invasive human tumors, among them the fruit fly version of human Matrix metalloproteinase-1, an epithelial cancer biomarker.
"The findings derived from epithelial biology often lead to a better understanding of cancer development," says Nakajima. "We have found that spindle orientation has a tumor-suppressive role in proliferating epithelia. So we are looking for other spindle regulators that may represent novel tumor suppressors."
Human epithelial cells do express mammalian Scribble and Discs Large proteins, and both play key roles in maintaining epithelial cell polarity, or shapa property lost in metastatic cancer cells. Whether Scribble or Discs Large act as tumor suppressors in human cancers is under investigation.
Gibson urges caution in comparing regulation of Drosophila and human epithelia. Nonetheless he notes that normal tissues in both flies and humans protect themselves by killing off misbehaving cells via apoptosis. If that mechanism failed, as is frequently observed in human cancers, disordered cells within an epithelium could escape.
"When cells are basically imprisoned in an epithelial layer, things stay nicely organized," says Gibson. "But in this study we found that simply forcing a cell to delaminate from an epithelium is enough to initiate an abnormal gene expression program. That means that maintaining an ordered structure is not just a physical requirement but could also protects cells from switching on potentially aberrant genes."
###
Other contributors were Emily Meyer from the Gibson lab, and Amanda Kroesen and Sean McKinney, Ph.D., from the Stowers Microscopy Center.
The study was funded by the Stowers Institute for Medical Research and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.
About the Stowers Institute for Medical Research
The Stowers Institute for Medical Research is a non-profit, basic biomedical research organization dedicated to improving human health by studying the fundamental processes of life. Jim Stowers, founder of American Century Investments, and his wife, Virginia, opened the Institute in 2000. Since then, the Institute has spent over 900 million dollars in pursuit of its mission.
Currently, the Institute is home to nearly 550 researchers and support personnel; over 20 independent research programs; and more than a dozen technology-development and core facilities.
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Oddworld-creator Lorne Lanning says that Microsoft "isn't acknowledging" smaller developers.
Microsoft does have the best reputation with independent game developers. While the company's digital storefront helped to launch several prominent names in the indie scene to success, recent years have seen its relationship with many independent developers degrade to the point many are opting out of future Xbox releases. While some entities would insist that Microsoft does in fact value independent developers and their products, others have had a less rosy view of the company.
Among the disgruntled is Lorne Lanning, founder of Oddworld Inhabitants and creator of the Oddworld series. "At the business level, Microsoft isn't acknowledging people like us," said Lanning. "It's as if we don't matter." Lanning's opinions on Microsoft's handling of indies comes primarily from his own efforts to secure a release for his company's game Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD. Stranger's Wrath HD, intended to be a revival for the Oddworld series, wound up not releasing on Xbox 360. "We couldn't get clear answers for 15 months," said Lanning. "We don't have five biz dev guys and two attorneys and some PR people to send up there to roll out whatever carpets you have to roll out to get attention." According to Lanning, Microsoft failed to respond to inquiries until Stranger's Wrath HD landed on the competing PlayStation Network. "We release on PSN, and we get a mail the next day that says, 'Oh, you released on PSN at a lower price point, you didn't meet our margins, sorry you can't be on the system.' Boom. And that was it."
While Microsoft repairing its relationship with indie developers isn't outside of the realm of possibility, recent actions by the company have arguably demonstrated that it intends to continue with things as they are, and perhaps even make some things worse. In addition to maintaining unpopular rules requiring indie games to find a publisher before they can be ported to Xbox Marketplace, the company recently revealed it would be dissolving its indie game section altogether. "People like us are clearly not in Xbox One's business model," said Lanning. "And there's nothing we can do about that."
Zach Johnson of the United States prepares to play off the 12th tee during the first round of the British Open Golf Championship at Muirfield, Scotland, Thursday July 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
Zach Johnson of the United States prepares to play off the 12th tee during the first round of the British Open Golf Championship at Muirfield, Scotland, Thursday July 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
Tiger Woods of the United States plays out of the rough on the first fairway during the first round of the British Open Golf Championship at Muirfield, Scotland, Thursday July 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland plays a shot onto the first green during the first round of the British Open Golf Championship at Muirfield, Scotland, Thursday July 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland reacts after playing a shot off the 6th tee during the first round of the British Open Golf Championship at Muirfield, Scotland, Thursday July 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Scott Heppell)
Zach Johnson of the United States looks at his ball on the 13th green during the first round of the British Open Golf Championship at Muirfield, Scotland, Thursday July 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
GULLANE, Scotland (AP) ? Zach Johnson and Tiger Woods sure know how to start the British Open.
Now, they've got to show they can finish.
Bouncing back from a tough loss last weekend, Johnson opened with a 5-under 66 on a sunny Thursday at Muirfield ? another brilliant start after a 65 at Lytham last year.
"I don't know what the secret is," Johnson said.
Can he keep it going? A year ago, the 2007 Masters champion followed up with a 74 on the way to a ninth-place finish.
"This game demands resilience," Johnson said. "That just comes with experience."
Woods has plenty of experience winning majors ? he's got 14 of 'em ? but it's been more than five years since he captured the last one, the longest drought of his career in the tournaments that matter most.
Woods also got off to a strong start, posting an impressive 69 in the increasingly difficult conditions of the afternoon.
Don't get too worked up about his chances just yet, however. He shot 67 in the opening round at each of his last two Opens, only to watch someone else leave with the claret jug. Woods faded to 23rd at St. Andrews in 2010, skipped a year because of injuries, and tied for third at Lytham.
This one didn't begin so well for the world's top-ranked player. Woods yanked his very first shot off a lone tree far left of the fairway and was forced to take an unplayable lie, leading to bogey. But a stretch of three birdies in four holes after the turn moved Woods into contention, and he added another two-putt birdie at the par-5 17th set up by a couple of iron shots that just kept rolling and rolling on turf that played more like a tabletop.
"It was tough," Woods said. "The golf course progressively got more dried out and more difficult as we played. I'm very pleased to shoot anything even par or better."
Rory McIlroy, ranked No. 2 in the world, is still trying to recapture the form he showed last August, when he won his second major title with a runaway victory at the PGA Championship.
At the moment, he's not even close.
The 24-year-old from Northern Ireland hacked his way to a 79 ? the second-worst round of his Open career and the continuation of a baffling slump that began after he changed equipment.
"I wish I could stand here and tell you guys what's wrong and how to make it right," McIlroy said. "I don't know what you can do. You just have to try and play your way out. Sometimes I feel like I'm walking out there and I'm unconscious."
The only time McIlroy shot worse in the Open was an 80 at St. Andrews in 2010, but that was more a product of a brutal wind than poor shots.
This time, he could blame only himself. Heck, he didn't even beat birthday boy Nick Faldo, who stirred up a bit of a tempest this week when he advised McIlroy to spend more time focused on golf rather than off-the-course pursuits.
Faldo, who turned 56 on Thursday, matched McIlroy's score even though he's barely played at all the last three years.
Under brilliant blue skies, the temperature climbed into the low 80s and the wind off the Firth of Forth wasn't too much of a hindrance for the morning starters. Some spectators broke out umbrellas, only it was to fend off rays instead of rain.
The greens were slick as ice, having baked in the unseasonably dry Scottish weather over the past few weeks, and several golfers ? Phil Mickelson and Ian Poulter among them ? complained about the tough pin placements given the speed of the putting surfaces.
"The 18th needs a windmill and a clown face," Poulter griped.
But McIlroy had plenty of problems just getting to the green.
Time and again, he found himself whacking at the ball out of the rough or trying to escape the treacherous bunkers. His most telling sequence came at the 15th, where he drove it into the tall grass, chopped it out just short of the green, then sent a putt screaming past the flag ? right into a bunker on the other side.
He let out a sigh that said everything ? a once-dominant player who, as Paul Azinger said earlier in the week, looks "adrift."
Johnson, on the other hand, quickly shook off his playoff defeat in the John Deere Classic. He didn't arrive at Muirfield until Monday morning after making bogey on the 72nd hole and losing to 19-year-old Jordan Spieth, who became the youngest winner on the PGA Tour since 1931.
The loss did nothing to dampen Johnson's confidence.
Quite the opposite, actually.
He got on a roll with an eagle at the par-5 fifth, and birdies at the next two holes sent him to a lead that he still had by the end of the long day.
"If anything from last week, what I've embraced is the fact that I'm playing great and I can put that into play, and I'm certainly somewhat confident in what I'm doing, confident in my routines, confident in my walk out there, confident in my lines," he said.
Mark O'Meara had plenty of confidence, as well. He ripped through the front nine as though he was in his prime ? not a 56-year-old who has combined to shoot 76 over par in the past decade at golf's oldest major. The 1998 Open champion shot 31 on the front before stumbling a bit with three bogeys.
But O'Meara rolled in a curling, 35-foot eagle putt at the 17th, lipped out a birdie putt at the tough 18th, and finished with a 67, tied with Spain's Rafael Cabrera-Bello and just one stroke off the lead.
Not that it's unusual for an old-timer to play well in the Open. Four years ago, Tom Watson nearly won at age 59. For that matter, O'Meara wasn't even the only 50-something player on Thursday's leaderboard.
Fifty-four-year-old Tom Lehman shot 68.
Miguel Angel Jimenez, Brandt Snedeker, Dustin Johnson and qualifier Shiv Kapur joined Lehman at two shots back. Kapur, a 31-year-old from India who plays on the Asian Tour, actually led for a while after making birdies on six of the first seven holes, turning with a dazzling 30. A double-bogey at the 10th knocked him back.
Another stroke behind were major champions Woods, Mickelson, Angel Cabrera and Todd Hamilton, along with up-and-comer Spieth, whose John Deere victory got him into the Open. The teenager hardly looked out of place, making only one bogey the entire round.
Hamilton's 69 certainly looked out of place. He now plays on a minor-league circuit in the U.S., and this was his lowest round in the Open since he improbably won the championship in 2004.
"I didn't really know what to expect," he said. "I hit a couple of drives early with the driver and made a few putts and that kind of settled me down, and I didn't try to do a lot of stuff that I didn't feel comfortable doing."
___
Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963
THQ's liquidation plans have been approved by the Delaware court, bringing its bankruptcy saga to a close. The NCAA will not renew its contract with Electronic Arts for the NCAA Football video game series. We've got new looks at Sir, You Are Being Hunted, Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON'T KNOW! and The Regular Show: Mordecai and Rigby in 8-Bit Land, as well another feature diving into the world of eSports and a photo essay on Evo 2013.
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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc trimmed its outlook for 2013 revenue after revealing a sharp 12 percent slide in ad prices in the second quarter, signs that CEO Marissa Mayer's attempts to revive the struggling Internet giant may not produce quick results.
The company is now forecasting revenue of $4.45 billion to $4.55 billion this year, down from $4.5 billion to $4.6 billion previously. Yahoo also reported that second-quarter net revenue was down slightly at $1.071 billion, though it posted adjusted profit that was ahead of Wall Street targets.
Yahoo, in a novel post-results livestream akin to a TV newscast with Mayer and CFO Ken Goldman playing news anchors, acknowledged the pressure on prices but stressed that Yahoo was developing new ad formats and technology that would reverse the trend.
"We can do better in display, and this is going to be a clear focus for the business," a relaxed Mayer said onscreen, referring to Yahoo's display advertising business.
On Tuesday, the company reported a 12 percent slide in price-per-ad in the second quarter from a year earlier, outstripping the first quarter's 2 percent decline.
Analysts said advertising exchanges, which help get ads on spots on various Internet websites, are putting pressure on prices, especially for premium advertising.
"If there is some kind of genius happening here, it needs to start materializing later this year, and taking your guidance down is not a step in that direction," BGC analyst Colin Gillis said. "We have had eight quarters of decline for the number of display ads sold. And the price per ad dropped significantly this quarter - that's huge."
"This is just the beginning of the trend, of the drop in the price per ad. You still have a pretty big gap between what you can get direct and what you can get selling on an exchange," Gillis said.
The stock rebounded after an initial 2 percent to 3 percent slide, trading 1.1 percent higher at $27.19 after the company disclosed better-than-expected results from China's Alibaba, the Internet giant of which Yahoo owns 24 percent.
OPEN SESAME
Shares of Yahoo have gained about 70 percent since Mayer took over a year ago, in large part due to share buybacks that stem from its slice of Alibaba, which is preparing to go public in what could be the largest debut from a Chinese Internet company.
On Tuesday, Yahoo clarified that it planned to repurchase an additional $1.9 billion of its stock, part of a previously announced $5 billion buyback plan. During the past several quarters, Yahoo has repurchased $3.65 billion of its shares using proceeds from the sale of part of its stake in Alibaba Group.
Yahoo also shared details of Alibaba's first-quarter performance. The company founded by English schoolteacher Jack Ma increased revenue 71 percent to $1.4 billion in the quarter and almost tripled net income, to $669 million.
As for Yahoo itself, net revenue, which excludes fees paid to partner websites, was $1.071 billion in the second quarter, within its forecast of $1.06 billion to $1.09 billion, but below the $1.081 billion it posted in the second quarter of 2012.
Revenue from its display advertising business in the second quarter fell 11 percent from the year before on an adjusted basis, while search advertising revenue was up 5 percent on an adjusted basis.
Yahoo said it earned 35 cents per share, excluding certain items in the second quarter, compared with 30 cents in the year-ago period. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial I/B/E/S were looking for 35 cents in adjusted earnings per share.
"They had guided to basically expect some sort of growth in the second half of the year," said Sameet Sinha, analyst at B. Riley & Co, on the full year net-revenue guidance. "Now that thing is coming down, and you never know, you might end up the year just being flat in terms of revenue."
(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Gunna Dickson and Prudence Crowther)
BEIJING (Reuters) - Japan's Honda Motor Co is planning to produce Acura cars in China with a local partner starting in 2016, part of an effort to tap growing demand for upscale vehicles in the world's biggest auto market.
Honda said on Thursday it has agreed with Guangzhou Automobile Group Co to jointly produce Acura cars in China. It did not offer other details including the anticipated size of production capacity or which models it plans to manufacture where.
A Beijing-based Honda spokeswoman said one Acura model that is likely to be produced in China is a new compact SUV that is not offered in the brand's product lineup today. The new model is likely to be based on a "concept" model - the Acura SUV-X - that it showed off at the Shanghai auto show in April, she said.
Honda's chief executive, Takanobu Ito, said at the Shanghai auto show that the Tokyo-based automaker planned to produce Acura cars in China within the next three years.
Honda's move comes as a slew of global premium auto brands pile into China. One key factor for global automakers to ensure that an upscale brand succeeds in China is local production. Because of high tariffs charged on cars brought into China from overseas, it is difficult to generate volume unless a carmaker produces upscale cars locally in the country.
Audi AG , Mercedes-Benz and BMW all produce models in China with local partners.
General Motors Co also has recently begun producing Cadillac cars in China. Among Japanese automakers, Nissan Motor Co is building a factory in the eastern city of Dalian to produce some models for its upscale Infiniti brand.
China's premium car demand is likely to reach 2.7 million cars a year by 2020, a level that would allow China to displace the United States as the world's biggest premium car market.
(Reporting by Norihiko Shirouzu; Editing by Chris Gallagher)
Following its announcement in May that Telstra would reorganise its operational activities into five groups, the National Applications Services (NAS) business unit is planning to establish global delivery centres to pursue international expansion and growth.
As part of the proposal, Telstra has flagged it will cut up to 170 jobs as it shifts part of its back office operations to India, amid sweeping changes to the company?s operations. It also said in May that those changes would affect about half of its 30,000 strong domestic workforce. But the job cuts announced today are part of a different restructure of operations. Telstra staff were told of the potential cuts before the plan was made public.
David Burns, head of Telstra?s National Applications Services business, said the restructure and job cuts would affect its National Applications Services unit. The NAS unit provides customers in government and business with ICT network-based products and services, including managed network services, security, cloud, and video conferencing services.
Mr Burns said the company?s current business model was inadequate and the offshoring needed to occur to promote domestic and international growth. ?Today we are announcing a proposal to establish global delivery centres with industry partners ? in India to help us pursue international and growth aspirations for this [NAS] business,? Mr Burns said.
?Whilst no decision has been made to proceed as yet, our announcement today could affect existing Telstra employees,? he said. If the decision goes ahead, up to 170 jobs would be offshored from October. It would take a period of six to 12 months to complete.
The roles would disappear from all major capital cities, including Hobart and Canberra. The Indian jobs would be in back office operations, including service operations, SLA reporting, business and infrastructure operations, and resource management.
There?s still plenty of debate about where Joe Flacco ranks among starting quarterbacks and whether he is ?elite.?
But what about his understudy Tyrod Taylor? Where does the athletic third-year veteran out of Virginia Tech rank among the league?s backups?
Smack-dab in the middle of the pack, says NFL.com?s Marc Sessler.
Sessler put all quarterback replacements in one of nine categories: Pair of aces, strong support, strong support, the wild card, game managers, future potential, backup bros., ugliness and not enough data.
Taylor was ranked in the ?strong support? category at No. 16.
?Taylor would see more snaps in another system, but Joe Flacco's durability has him on lockdown,? Sessler wrote.
That is certainly true. Flacco has never missed a start since being drafted five years ago. As such, Taylor has mainly only seen snaps in mop-up duty after games were already out of reach.
He?s played in 10 regular-season games over the last two seasons, throwing the ball 30 times for 18 completions, 197 yards, one interception and zero touchdowns.
Taylor?s most extensive work came in Week 17 against the Bengals last season when Baltimore already had its playoff path set. In that game, Taylor got mixed reviews against the then sixth-ranked defense. He finished 15-of-25 for 149 yards passing. He rushed for one touchdown, but also threw a game-deciding pick six that led to a 23-17 loss.
Without more game film, it?s tough to rank Taylor higher or lower on the list.
Below are Sessler?s rankings. What do you think?
Pair of aces
1. Kirk Cousins, Redskins 2. Kyle Orton, Cowboys
Strong support
3. Chad Henne, Jaguars 4. Chase Daniel, Chiefs 5. Kevin Kolb, Bills 6. Nick Foles, Eagles 7. Matt Moore, Dolphins 8. Matt Hasselbeck, Colts
Strong support
9. Matt Cassel, Vikings 10. Ryan Fitzpatrick, Titans 11. Ryan Mallett, Patriots 12. Shaun Hill, Lions 13. Colt McCoy, 49ers 14. T.J. Yates, Texans 15. Jason Campbell, Browns 16. Tyrod Taylor, Ravens
The wild card
17. Tim Tebow, Patriots
Game managers
18. Drew Stanton, Cardinals 19. Brady Quinn, Seahawks 20. Bruce Gradkowski, Steelers 21. David Carr, Giants
McNabb: Ravens To Win Less Than 10 Games, Finish Third
Former Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb is paid to give his opinions, and so he shouldn?t hesitate to give his two cents when asked.
But it just so happens that McNabb didn?t get off to a good start with many Ravens fans when he said running back Ray Rice fumbles ?way too much.?
And he won?t win any Baltimore fans over with his latest Ravens prediction.
When asked if the Ravens will make it to 10 wins this year ? a number that usually earns a playoff spot ? McNabb responded:?
?I don?t think so. I don?t think so. I look at this division and I start with Cincinnati. I like what Cincinnati is able to do on the defensive side and I like what they are going to be able to do on the offensive side. I think Pittsburgh will be the team in second place in this division.
?I think Baltimore will finish third.?
Ray Lewis Challenges Men To Be Active In Families
Retired Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis knows what it?s like to grow up without a father.
His father left him as a newborn with a 15-year-old mother stranded at the hospital with bills to pay.? Lewis had a stepfather, whom he called the ?most abusive man? he had ever lived with.
?I started to learn the story, and it baffled me,? Lewis told the No More Excuses men's conference at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Church Saturday in Texas, per the Dallas Morning News. ?The world is too crazy to leave a man by himself.?
Understanding the challenges that come in that type of environment, Lewis is now urging men to be active in their families and communities.
Lewis was first Ray Jenkins when he was born, but changed his name to Ray Lewis after a man by that name began dating his mother and took care of hospital bills. Lewis talked about the pain he felt while living in hismother and stepfather?s garage in Florida.
As good as his mother was to him, Lewis said nothing can replace the critical role of a father.
?I don?t care how good a mom is, how awesome she is, how spiritual she is. She can never teach a man to be a man,? he said.
Quick Hits
@A_Mellette3: Me and Doc Rivers [Twitter]
@BPierce_30: Just got done my cardio in the rain. #Noday'soff [Twitter]
Jamison Hensley looked at one move each AFC North team needed to make this offseason, but didn?t. Any guesses to the move Hensley believes the Ravens missed on? No surprise ? signing a veteran wide receiver in free agency. ?Even though Boldin was never a 1,000-yard receiver for the Ravens, Joe Flacco depended on him in clutch situations,? Hensley wrote. ?According to ESPN Stats & Information, Boldin led the Ravens with 43 targets on third down this season (including the playoffs) and ranked seventh among wide receivers with 29 catches on third down.? [ESPN]
There?s still plenty of hype for the upcoming ?epic? Fox Sports promo with Flacco and 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis. Here?s a behind-the-scenes video from the set. [Fox Sports YouTube]
SAN DIEGO ? A prominent former supporter of San Diego Mayor Bob Filner said Thursday that allegations he sexually harassed women are based on victims' firsthand accounts, but she refused to divulge specifics as the leader of the nation's eighth-largest city kept a public silence.
Former Councilwoman Donna Frye choked up as she said her call for the mayor to resign was one of the most difficult decisions she has made. She would not describe the nature of the alleged abuse or say whether it occurred while Filner was mayor.
Frye said more than one woman told her about being harassed but she didn't elaborate on who they are or say how many.
"I believe what they have told me, and they need to know that they are not alone," Frye said at a news conference. "There are people who support and care about them."
Frye, a fellow Democrat who is endeared by Filner's liberal base, said she wouldn't run office if the mayor stepped down.
Filner, who is divorced, made no public statements since the allegations surfaced Wednesday even as allies pressed for answers.
"There are no allegations to address," Filner told KNSD-TV, which caught up with him in an elevator of his downtown apartment building Wednesday.
The scandal erupted during a bad spell for Filner, 70, who suffered two high-profile staff defections last month. On Monday, Filner's fiance, Bronwyn Ingram, announced in an email to her team of volunteers that she was breaking their engagement.
"I am extremely disappointed and heartbroken, both for what Team First Lady could have accomplished, and for me, personally; however, this is the only action I can take given the devolvement of our personal relationship," Ingram wrote.
Marco Gonzalez, an environmental attorney who has worked closely with Frye on many issues, also urged Filner to step down.
"At our recent meeting I was of the impression that you understood the gravity of the circumstances surrounding your treatment of staff, and in particular, the women who work for you in the Office of the Mayor," he wrote the mayor.
Filner was elected to a four-year term in November as San Diego's first Democratic mayor in 20 years after 10 terms in Congress.
Frye was Filner's director of open government for several months until resigning for a position at Californians Aware, a group that advocates for open government. KPBS, San Diego radio and television station, said she made clear in an interview that she was not a victim.
Frye lost a write-in campaign for mayor in 2004 only because several thousand voters who wrote her name on the ballot failed to darken the adjoining ovals. If those ballots were counted, she would have unseated Republican Dick Murphy, who later resigned amid a scandal over city finances.
San Diego County Democratic Party Chair Francine Busby said she wanted more details before weighing in on the allegations against Filner.
"Key questions remain to be answered both by Mayor Filner and those leveling these charges," she said.
Scott Peters, a Democratic congressman, also said he wanted more specifics.
"If these accusations are proven true, Mayor Filner will face real, tough and serious consequences," he said.
Celebrities love the attention and honor of landing on top lists, whether it be for their good looks or album/movie sales. But we’re certain most would love to make the Forbes Magazine “Highest Paid Stars Under 30″ list! Let’s see who’s bringing in the big bucks! Lady Gaga (age 27) $80 million Lady Gaga topped ...
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Public release date: 21-Jul-2013
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