Group to Coordinate with Cuomo on Campaign-Finance Reform ...

Posted by: Jon Campbell - Posted in Uncategorized on Jun 25, 2012

A group of mostly wealthy New Yorkers will team up with Gov. Andrew Cuomo to make a revamped push for reforming New York?s campaign-finance system.

Protect Our Democracy?a new non-profit advocacy group?and its related political action conference has tapped Steve Cohen, Cuomo?s former top aide, to help coordinate the effort, which will make the case for a publicly funded system for funding state-level campaigns.

The effort appears to have grown out of a coalition that launched earlier this year?Fair Elections for New York, which like Protect Our Democracy includes Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes and his fiancee, Sean Eldridge.

?There has never been a more urgent or attainable moment for campaign finance reform,? Cohen said in a statement. ?Governor Cuomo has spoken out strongly about the need for reform, and Sean and the team at Protect Our Democracy will add much-needed momentum to the push for reform in Albany.?

Specifically, the effort will focus on New York City?s campaign-finance system, making the case for using it as a model for a statewide reform. The city system matches small contributions at a 6-1 rate, with the idea of putting more of an emphasis on small donors and taking influence out of wealthy political players.

The new effort was first reported by The New York Times.

Cuomo called for a revamped campaign-finance system in his second State of the State address in January, but it never took hold during this year?s legislative session after Republicans in the state Senate spoke out against a public system.

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'Glee' Season 4 Details: Kate Hudson, Sarah Jessica Parker And More Spoilers Revealed

When "Glee" returns for Season 4 in September, it'll have an added dose of star power in the forms of Kate Hudson and Sarah Jessica Parker. But who will these two blonde A-listers play on "Glee"? TV Guide Magazine has the scoop.

According to TV Guide, Hudson will play a NYADA dance instructor. "Dance is not Rachel's strong point, but as a freshman it's a requirement class she has to take," Lea Michele said. "It will put Rachel in a very vulnerable place, stuck with a teacher who doesn't make it easy for her."

Meanwhile, Sarah Jessica Parker will play a "manager of sorts" to Chris Colfer's character, Kurt. However, it's not in the performance arena.

The addition of Parker and Hudson isn't the only change for "Glee" Season 4. "American Idol" runner-up Jessica Sanchez is reportedly in talks to appear in several episodes and many of the main characters will be "underdogs" again, according to series co-creator Ryan Murphy.

"Many of the characters will be starting over as underdogs, which is a good thing for the show," he told Vulture. "I really made an effort, talking to all the regulars about it."

Who's staying and who's leaving? Murphy said he gave the cast members the options to move on, letting them decide. All will be revealed when Season 4 premieres in its new timeslot, Thurs., Sept. 13, 9 p.m. ET on Fox.

Click over to TV Guide Magazine for more "Glee" details.

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Turkey threatens action after Syria downs jet

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) ? Syria said Saturday it shot down a Turkish reconnaissance plane because the plane entered its airspace, insisting it was "not an attack" as both sides desperately tried to de-escalate the episode before it exploded into a regional conflagration.

Turkey threatened to retaliate but did not say what action it would take as it searched for the aircraft's two missing pilots.

The downed plane heightened tensions between two countries that had been allies before Syria's 15-month violent uprising, and signaled that the violence gripping Syria is increasingly bleeding outside its borders. Germany and Iraq were among the countries urging restraint in the region.

Syria and neighboring Turkey had cultivated close ties before the Syrian revolt began in March 2011, but since then Turkey has become one of the strongest critics of Syria's regime. Turkey hosts civilian and military Syrian opposition groups, including hundreds of army defectors who are affiliated with the Free Syrian Army and collect food and other supplies to deliver to comrades on smuggling routes.

Turkish authorities also suspect Damascus, which was collaborating with Turkey in its fight against autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels, is now turning a blind eye to Syria-based Kurdish fighters who belong to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, considered a terrorist organization in the U.S. and Europe.

The plane, an unarmed F-4, went down in the Mediterranean Sea about eight miles (13 kilometers) from the Syrian town of Latakia, Turkey said. Syria claimed the jet violated its air space over territorial waters, penetrating about 1 kilometer (0.62 mile). It said Syrian forces only realized it was a Turkish jet after firing at it.

In a telephone interview with Turkish TV news channel A Haber on Saturday, Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said the downing was "not an attack."

"An unidentified object entered our air space and unfortunately as a result it was brought down. It was understood only later that it was a Turkish plane," A Haber quoted Makdissi in a translation of the interview. "There was no hostile act against Turkey whatsoever. It was just an act of defense for our sovereignty."

Turkish President Abdullah Gul conceded the plane may have unintentionally crossed into Syrian airspace, but said such an act was "routine" for jets to unintentionally cross borders for short periods. The government has not described the plane's specific mission.

Gul said his government was still investigating what happened, but "no one should have any doubt that whatever (action) is necessary will be taken."

It was not clear if that action would involve military retaliation, increased sanctions or other steps, including demands for compensation or an apology.

Faruk Celik, the Turkish Labor and Social Security Minister, said his nation would retaliate "either in the diplomatic field or give other types of response."

"Even if we assume that there was a violation of Syria's airspace ? though the situation is still not clear ? the Syrian response cannot be to bring down the plane," Celik told reporters. "The incident is unacceptable. Turkey cannot endure it in silence."

Germany and Iraq urged the countries to remain calm and not let the unrest in Syria become a wider conflict,

"Our main concern is the spillover of the crisis into neighborhood countries. No country is immune from this spillover," said Iraq Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon told Turkey Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in a telephone conversation Saturday that he commended the country for showing restraint in its initial reaction to the incident, said U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky. He urged both sides to deal with the issue diplomatically, not militarily.

Turkey has joined the United States and other nations in saying that Syrian President Bashar Assad should step down because of the uprising in his country that has killed thousands of people. Turkey also has set up refugee camps on its border for more than 32,000 Syrians who have fled the fighting.

Turkey said after an April border shooting incident ? in which two people in a Turkish refugee camp died? that it would call on its NATO allies to intervene if it felt its security was being threatened.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu met with military officials Saturday to assess what steps to take and to coordinate the search and rescue operation for the two missing pilots and the plane's wreckage, the ministry said. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was expected to discuss the incident with Turkish opposition party leaders on Sunday, and the foreign minister would make a statement on the same day, an aide said.

A Turkish official familiar with the meeting said Turkey was examining the plane's radar route and other flight data to ascertain whether the aircraft was flying over Syrian territory when it was shot down. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief journalists and would provide no further details.

Turkey, which is uneasy about Greek Cypriot gas exploration efforts around the island, is believed to have increased patrols recently over the eastern Mediterranean. Some analysts have speculated that the plane may have been spying on possible PKK rebels near Turkey's border. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton earlier this month warned about a massing of Syrian forces near Aleppo, saying such a deployment could be a "red line" for Turkey "in terms of their strategic and national interests."

In Baghdad, Zebari said Saturday that the recent defection of a Syrian pilot to Jordan and the downing of the Turkish jet showed that the Syrian conflict could have far-reaching repercussions.

"If this conflict were to turn into all-out sectarian or civil war, Iraq would be affected, Lebanon would be affected, Jordan would not be immune, (and) Turkey could be (affected)."

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said he was "greatly worried" by the incident, urged a thorough investigation and welcomed Turkey's cool-headed reaction in the immediate aftermath.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was following the situation closely and hoped the incident would be "handled with restraint by both sides through diplomatic channels," a spokesman said.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc and other government ministers urged restraint. "We must remain calm and collected," he said. "We must not give premium to any provocative speeches and acts."

The leader of Turkey's main opposition party, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, said the downing of the plane was unacceptable, but he also urged calm.

"All diplomatic channels must be kept open. We are expecting a coolheaded assessment of the incident," he said.

__

Associated Press writers Elizabeth Kennedy in Beirut, Lara Jakes and Kay Johnson in Baghdad, and Juergen Baetz in Berlin contributed to this report.

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Matriarch orangutan dies at the Phoenix Zoo at 52

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Blood-brain barrier building blocks forged from human stem cells

ScienceDaily (June 24, 2012) ? The blood-brain barrier -- the filter that governs what can and cannot come into contact with the mammalian brain -- is a marvel of nature. It effectively separates circulating blood from the fluid that bathes the brain, and it keeps out bacteria, viruses and other agents that could damage it.

But the barrier can be disrupted by disease, stroke and multiple sclerosis, for example, and also is a big challenge for medicine, as it can be difficult or impossible to get therapeutic molecules through the barrier to treat neurological disorders.

Now, however, the blood-brain barrier may be poised to give up some of its secrets as researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have created in the laboratory dish the cells that make up the brain's protective barrier. Writing in the June 24, 2012 edition of the journal Nature Biotechnology, the Wisconsin researchers describe transforming stem cells into endothelial cells with blood-brain barrier qualities.

Access to the specialized cells "has the potential to streamline drug discovery for neurological disease," says Eric Shusta, a UW-Madison professor of chemical and biological engineering and one of the senior authors of the new study. "You can look at tens of thousands of drug candidates and just ask the question if they have a chance to get into the brain. There is broad interest from the pharmaceutical industry."

The blood-brain barrier depends on the unique qualities of endothelial cells, the cells that make up the lining of blood vessels. In many parts of the body, the endothelial cells that line capillaries are spaced so that substances can pass through. But in the capillaries that lead to the brain, the endothelial cells nestle in tight formation, creating a semi-permeable barrier that allows some substances -- essential nutrients and metabolites -- access to the brain while keeping others -- pathogens and harmful chemicals -- locked out.

The cells described in the new Wisconsin study, which was led by Ethan S. Lippmann, now a postdoctoral fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, and Samira M. Azarin, now a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University, exhibit both the active and passive regulatory qualities of those cells that make up the capillaries of the intact brain.

The research team coaxed both embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells to form the endothelial cells of the blood-brain barrier. The use of induced cells, which can come from patients with specific neurological conditions, may be especially important for modeling disorders that compromise the blood-brain barrier. What's more, because the cells can be mass produced, they could be used to devise high-throughput screens for molecules that may have therapeutic value for neurological conditions or to identify existing drugs that may have neurotoxic qualities.

"The nice thing about deriving endothelial cells from induced pluripotent stem cells is that you can make disease-specific models of brain tissue that incorporate the blood-brain barrier," explains Sean Palecek, a UW-Madison professor of chemical and biological engineering and a senior author of the new report. "The cells you create will carry the genetic information of the condition you want to study."

The generation of the specialized blood-brain barrier endothelial cells, the Wisconsin researchers note, has never been done with stem cells. In addition to the potential applications to screen drugs and model pathologies of the blood-brain barrier, they may also provide a novel window for developmental biologists who are interested in how the barrier comes together and co-develops with the brain.

"Neurons develop at the same time as the endothelial cells," Shusta says, noting that, in development, the cells secrete chemical cues that help determine organ specificity.

"We don't know what all those factors are," Lippmann says. "But with this model, we can go back and look." Identifying all of the molecular factors at play as blank slate stem cells differentiate to become specialized endothelial cells could one day have clinical significance to treat stroke or tamp down the ability of brain tumors to recruit blood vessels needed to sustain cancer.

The new study was supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the U.S. National Science Foundation.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Wisconsin-Madison, via Newswise.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Ethan S Lippmann, Samira M Azarin, Jennifer E Kay, Randy A Nessler, Hannah K Wilson, Abraham Al-Ahmad, Sean P Palecek & Eric V Shusta. Derivation of blood-brain barrier endothelial cells from human pluripotent stem cells. Nature Biotechnology, 24 June 2012 DOI: 10.1038/nbt.2247

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

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

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Make Facebook Photos Private

Now you can fine tune the settings for each album. You can adjust them so that they are visible to everyone, friends of friends, or just friends. You can also make a custom setting that allows you to block specific people from viewing your photos.

Here are some suggestions for determining who should be able to see your photos:

  • If you're afraid of pictures being stolen, set privacy to only friends and use a digital watermark.
  • For pictures of nature, buildings and other generic images, consider sharing with everyone unless you're concerned about your copyright.
  • For pictures of friends, especially those in public situations, share with friends or friends of friends.
  • When posting pictures of children, especially if they aren't your own (please ask permission before posting!), share with just friends.

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Cyanide-Producing GM Grass Linked To Texas Cattle Deaths

Peristaltic writes "Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are trying to determine if an unexpected mutation in a popular GM grass, Tifton 85, is responsible for the sudden deaths of a small herd of cattle in Elgin, Texas three weeks ago. The grass has been used for grazing since 1992 without incident, however after a severe drought last year in Texas, the grass started producing cyanide in sufficient quantities to kill a small herd of cattle in Elgin, Texas. Testing has found the cyanide-producing grass in nearby fields as well." Update: 06/23 22:59 GMT by T : Reader Jon Cousins writes with a correction that means the headline above is inaccurate for including "GM." Tifton 85, he writes, is "absolutely not genetically modified. It's a conventionally bred hybrid."

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