"Two And A Half Men" star John Cryer definitely feels a difference on set since Ashton Kutcher replaced the hit sitcom's former star Charlie Sheen.
On the red carpet at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday night, he told E! that Kutcher is "great. He's a clown. He is up for anything, willing to do anything... a great, great spirit."
When E! host Giulianna Rancic asked if things felt differently on set in this post-Sheen era, Cryer -- who was nominated for his first SAG award -- took a bit of a jab at his former co-star. "It's a little less suspenseful being on the set nowadays," he said with a laugh. "When you come into work, you're pretty sure [Kutcher's] going to be there. And nobody's pushed his car off a cliff or anything like that"
As for Sheen, who is currently working on his FX series "Anger Management," Cryer said, "I haven't spoken with him though. I wish him well. He's got a good team around him and I can't imagine he's not going to put out a good show."
Symantec has "adjusted" its statement to Computer World that as many as 5 million Android users may be affected by the latest bit of malware, coming to the conclusion that the applications in question are simply using an aggressive ad network SDK. This mirrors the statement issued by Lookout, as well as our own. (And as well as Computer World's Android Power faction.)
After initially telling users that the "malicious code" found in 13 Android Market applications was malware and capable of data theft and other nefarious activity, Symantec now says the apps in question are more akin to Windows adware and not inherently malicious.
In other words, it's crapware. This we can all agree with. The apps in question use an advertisement SDK that allows things none of us likes -- it can add bookmarks, change your homepage, add shortcuts to the home screen and the like. We've all installed some free Windows program from the web, and had it install (or try to install) browser toolbars, add shortcuts to the home screen for more spammy programs. We all hated it then, and we hate it now. What we hate even more is when a company that claims to be acting in the interest of our security jumps the gun and labels these types of programs the same way it would label a bot or trojan.
We're mostly informed users here, and quickly realize the difference. But how many of those who stumbled across websites parroting Symantec's cries of five million infected are as Android savvy as we are? There's a good chance that it's not that many. Instead those readers were left confused and concerned that they had been "hacked."
We hope that the rest of the web that followed along will update their stories with today's news. And more important -- we hope that app developers stay far away from this sort of thing. Lord knows we're going to stay away from them if they don't.
>>you planning to grab breakfast on your way to work? you may be interested to know a new
fast food
giant is joining the breakfast battle.
janet shamlian
has more on that. good morning.
>> reporter: good morning to you. the breakfast wars are heating up. it's really the only area of growth in the
fast food
industry now. there is a new entrant into the game. how will mexican far
e e
play in the morning? the bell is ringing early as
taco bell
aims to find out. let's face it. it's not the first place you think of for breakfast.
>>can i get a number three with an
orange juice
, please?
>> reporter: taco bell
for years promoted a very different dining hour.
>>who says nothing good happens after midnight?
>> reporter: they branded the after hours snack attack with a new name.
>>late night
is made for fourth meal.
>> reporter: but now the bell is ringing for early rise rs.
>>no matter how you end your tight, start your morning with first meal at
taco bell
.
>>good morning.
>> reporter: the
breakfast club
dominated by mcdonald's and crowded with others like
burger king
and wendy's. even lunch timers like subway are in the game.
>>build a better breakfast at subway.
>> reporter: experts say it's the only growth area for restaurants in a tight economy. when customers are more time crunched than ever.
>>you have 13 minutes to eat breakfast, you can't go to a sit-down restaurant. even at home you have trouble making it in 13 minutes. you have to get stuff on the run. every
fast food restaurant
chain in america is looking at, if not doing something about, should i get into the breakfast market.
>> reporter: taco bell
won't have just burritos for breakfast.
>>can i have a cinnabon, please?
>> reporter: and other fare starting under $1 million.
>>i heard about the breakfast, stopped by yesterday. i said, i will come back in the morning and get some more.
>> reporter: the scramble for the breakfast dollar. as one of the biggest names in
late night
noshing sets up early. you can get the breakfast mostly in the west. 800 stores are hoping to roll it out to in the next couple of years. there is a burrito with your name
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? High winds reportedly topping 50 mph forced organizers to temporarily evacuate two tents at the NFL Experience interactive fan exhibit in downtown Indianapolis.
NFL Experience spokesman Noah Gold said visitors were ushered out of sponsor and memorabilia tents Sunday after tent operators read high wind speeds on gauges attached to the tents. The tents reopened about an hour later.
Gold said he wasn't sure how fast the winds were blowing prior to evacuation, but WTHR-TV reported downtown wind gusts up to 51 mph were recorded Sunday afternoon.
Parts of the NFL Experience featuring football games and shopping inside the Indiana Convention Center were not evacuated.
Gold said he didn't know how many people were evacuated.
'The Help' nabs Best Ensemble' in a stunning upset, while awards-show fave 'The Artist' leaves light on wins. By Eric Ditzian
Octavia Spencer at the SAG Awards on Sunday Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images
The SAG Awards, as we have noted, often have a curious way of letting us know what the Oscars are going to deliver. So when the Screen Actors Guild doled out its golden statuettes on Sunday night (January 29), we couldn't help but feel there were more than a few hints at how the Academy Awards might shake out in a few weeks.
What are we to make of the upset SAG win for "The Help" in outstanding cast in a movie, for instance? Where does this leave "The Artist," which had been looking increasingly, inevitably like the big champ come Oscar night, yet only won outstanding male performance (Jean Dujardin) at the SAGs?
Things were more predictable on the TV side of things. In 2012, for the second year in a row, "Modern Family" (Outstanding Cast in a Comedy) and "Boardwalk Empire" (Outstanding Cast in a Drama and a Lead Actor win for Steve Buscemi) had strong showings. Check out the full list of winners:
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture "Bridesmaids" "The Artist" "The Descendants" "The Help" "Midnight in Paris"
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role George Clooney, "The Descendants" Demian Bichir, "A Better Life" Leonardo DiCaprio, "J. Edgar" Jean Dujardin, "The Artist" Brad Pitt, "Moneyball"
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Michelle Williams, "My Week With Marilyn" Glenn Close, "Albert Nobbs" Viola Davis, "The Help" Meryl Streep, "The Iron Lady" Tilda Swinton, "We Need to Talk About Kevin"
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role Nick Nolte, "Warrior" Kenneth Branagh, "My Week With Marilyn" Armie Hammer, "J. Edgar" Jonah Hill, "Moneyball" Christopher Plummer, "Beginners"
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Octavia Spencer, "The Help" Berenice Bejo, "The Artist" Jessica Chastain, "The Help" Melissa McCarthy, "Bridesmaids" Janet McTeer, "Albert Nobbs"
Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture "The Adjustment Bureau" "Cowboys & Aliens" "Harry Potter and the Deahtly Hallows - Part 2" "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" "X-Men: First Class"
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie Or Miniseries Laurence Fishburne, "Thurgood" Paul Giamatti, "Too Big to Fail" Greg Kinnear, "The Kennedys" Guy Pearce, "Mildred Pierce" James Woods, "Too Big to Fail"
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie Or Miniseries Diane Lane, "Cinema Verite" Maggie Smith, "Downton Abbey" Emily Watson, "Appropriate Adult" Betty White, "The Lost Valentine" Kate Winslet, "Mildred Pierce"
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series Patrick J. Adams, "Suits" Steve Buscemi, "Boardwalk Empire" Kyle Chandler, "Friday Night Lights" Bryan Cranston, "Breaking Bad" Michael C. Hall, "Dexter"
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series Kathy Bates, "Harry's Law" Glenn Close, "Damages" Jessica Lange, "American Horror Story" Julianna Margulies, "The Good Wife" Kyra Sedgwick, "The Closer"
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series Alec Baldwin, "30 Rock" Ty Burrell, "Modern Family" Steve Carell, "The Office" Jon Cryer, "Two and a Half Men" Eric Stonestreet, "Modern Family"
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series Julie Bowen, "Modern Family" Edie Falco, "Nurse Jackie" Tina Fey, "30 Rock" Sofia Vergara, "Modern Family" Betty White, "Hot In Cleveland"
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series "Boardwalk Empire" "Breaking Bad" "Dexter" "Game of Thrones" "The Good Wife"
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series "30 Rock" "The Big Bang Theory" "Glee" "Modern Family" "The Office"
Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series "Dexter" "Game of Thrones" "Southland" "Spartacus: Gods of the Arena" "True Blood"
Screen Actors Guild Awards 48th Annual Life Achievement Award Mary Tyler Moore
Stick with MTV News all night for the 2012 SAG Awards winners, and don't miss all the fashion from the red carpet!
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) ? A homeless man who was stuck in thick mud near the Rio Grande river in Albuquerque for three days was rescued Saturday after some high school students on a field trip heard him yelling for help, authorities said.
However, the man's newfound freedom wasn't going to last. Police said he was wanted on a felony warrant, and they planned to arrest him after he was treated at a local hospital.
A group of La Cueva High School students and their biology teacher heard the man yelling Saturday morning from a marshy wetlands area in the Oxbow Open Space Preserve, the Albuquerque Fire Department and police officials said.
The students were in the area ? about two miles north of Interstate 40 in Albuquerque ? doing a school project. They called authorities and told them that the man said he'd been stuck in the river for three days and could not move, according to a police report.
Fire crews and preserve officers responded and found a "male subject stuck on a reed island about a hundred yards from the west bank of the river," the report said.
Crews deployed an air boat and used a pulley system to lift the man from the mud and water, and up a hill.
Police later identified the man as Clayton Senn, a transient who'd been living near the river.
Authorities said they discovered a warrant for Senn's arrest on suspicion of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a felony. Senn was taken to an Albuquerque hospital for treatment and was to be booked on the warrant upon his release, police said.
Details on Senn's condition were not immediately available.
BEIJING ? A young man posts his photo with a leaflet demanding freedom for Tibet and telling Chinese police, come and get me. Protesters rise up to defend him, and demonstrations break out in two other Tibetan areas of western China to support the same cause.
Each time, police respond with bullets.
The three clashes, all in the past week, killed several Tibetans and injured dozens. They mark an escalation of a protest movement that for months expressed itself mainly through scattered individual self-immolations.
It's the result of growing desperation among Tibetans and a harsh crackdown by security forces that scholars and pro-Tibet activists contend only breeds more rage and despair.
That leaves authorities with the stark choice of either cracking down even harder or meeting Tibetan demands for greater freedom and a return of their Buddhist spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama ? something Beijing has shown zero willingness to do.
"By not responding constructively when it was faced with peaceful one-person protests, the (Communist) party has created the conditions for violent, large-scale protests," said Robbie Barnett, head of modern Tibetan studies at New York's Columbia University.
This is the region's most violent period since 2008, when deadly rioting in Tibet's capital Lhasa spread to Tibetan areas in adjoining provinces. China responded by flooding the area with troops and closing Tibetan regions entirely to foreigners for about a year. Special permission is still required for non-Chinese visitors to Tibet, and the Himalayan region remains closed off entirely for the weeks surrounding the March 14 anniversary of the riots that left 22 people dead.
Video smuggled out by activists shows paramilitary troops equipped with assault rifles and armored cars making pre-dawn arrests. Huge convoys of heavily armored troops are seen driving along mountain roads and monks accused of sedition being frog-marched to waiting trucks.
For the past year, self-immolations have become a striking form of protest in the region. At least 16 monks, nuns and former clergy set themselves on fire after chanting for Tibetan freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama, who fled to India amid an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.
China, fiercely critical of the Dalai Lama, says Tibet has been under its rule for centuries, but many Tibetans say the region was functionally independent for most of that time.
In a change from the individual protests, several thousand Tibetans marched to government offices Monday in Ganzi prefecture in Sichuan province. Police opened fire into the crowd, killing up to three people, witnesses and activist groups said.
On Tuesday, security forces opened fire on a crowd of protesters in another area of Ganzi, killing two Tibetans and wounding several more, according to the group Free Tibet.
On Thursday in southwestern Sichuan province's Aba prefecture, a youth named Tarpa posted a leaflet saying that self-immolations wouldn't stop until Tibet is free, the London-based International Campaign for Tibet said. He wrote his name on the leaflet and included a photo of himself, saying that Chinese authorities could come and arrest him if they wished, group spokeswoman Kate Saunders said in an email.
Security forces did so about two hours later. Area residents blocked their way, shouting slogans and warning of bigger protests if Tarpa wasn't released, Saunders said. Police then fired into the crowd, killing a a 20-year-old friend of Tarpa's, a student named Urgen, and wounding several others.
The incident, as with most reported clashes in Tibetan areas, could not be independently verified and exact numbers of casualties were unclear because of the heavy security presence and lack of access. The topic is so sensitive that even government-backed scholars claim ignorance of it and refuse to comment.
The government, however, acknowledged Tuesday's unrest, saying that a "mob" charged a police station and injured 14 officers, forcing police to open fire on them. The official Xinhua News Agency said police killed one rioter and injured another.
"The Chinese government will, as always, fight all crimes and be resolute in maintaining social order," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in comments on the incident.
The harsh response points to a deep anxiety about the self-immolations, said Youdon Aukatsang, a New Delhi-based member of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile.
"They're worried that there is an underground movement in Tibet that is coming to the surface," she said.
Tibetan desperation has been fed both by the harsh crackdown ? security agents reportedly outnumber monks in some monasteries ? along with a deep fear that the Dalai Lama, probably the most potent symbol of Tibet's separate identity, will never return.
The 76-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate handed his political powers to an elected assembly last year. That was intended to ensure the Tibetan cause would live on after him, but was met with considerable anxiety among many Tibetans who saw it as a sign he was giving up his role as leader of their struggle.
Dibyesh Anand, a Tibet expert at London's University of Westminster, said resistance to Chinese rule is likely to grow more fierce.
"Protests will get more radicalized since the Tibetans in the region see no concession, no offer of compromise, no flexibility coming from the government," he said.
LOS ANGELES, Jan 27 (TheWrap.com) ? When "This Means War" hits theaters on Valentine's Day, the Reese Witherspoon action comedy will arrive with a PG-13 rating, TheWrap has confirmed.
Fox, the studio behind the McG film, has trimmed sexual content in the film, and in return the Motion Picture Association of America has removed the R-rating, a spokeswoman for the ratings board said.
In addition to Witherspoon, "This Means War" stars Tom Hardy and Chris Pine. It centers on two CIA agents who compete for the same woman.
Fox lost its appeal on Thursday of the MPAA's rating.
After hearing statements from Ted Gagliano, president of feature post production for Twentieth Century Fox and from Joan Graves, who chairs the Classification and Rating Administration, the board upheld the R rating due to sexual content.
"This Means War" will now apparently arrive in theaters with a little less steam heat -- or at least with the sensuality and sex jokes dialed down a notch or two.
For an appeal to be successful, two-thirds of the board must vote that the rating is "clearly erroneous."
The board reviews between 800 and 900 movies each year. Usually, fewer than 12 are appealed.
CHICAGO ? One marker in hand and one in his mouth, Lou Chukman glances up and down from a sketchpad to a reputed Chicago mobster across the courtroom ? drawing feverishly to capture the drama of the judge's verdict before the moment passes.
Sketch artists have been the public's eyes at high-profile trials for decades ? a remnant of an age when drawings in broadsheet papers, school books or travel chronicles were how people glimpsed the world beyond their own.
Today, their ranks are thinning swiftly as states move to lift longstanding bans on cameras in courtrooms. As of a year ago, 14 states still had them ? but at least three, including Illinois this month, have taken steps since then to end the prohibitions.
"When people say to me, `Wow, you are a courtroom artist' ? I always say, `One day, you can tell your grandchildren you met a Stegosaurus," Chukman, 56, explained outside court. "We're an anachronism now, like blacksmiths."
Cutbacks in news budgets and shifts in aesthetic sensibilities toward digitized graphics have all contributed to the form's decline, said Maryland-based sketch artist Art Lien.
While the erosion of the job may not be much noticed by people reading and watching the news, Lien says something significant is being lost. Video or photos can't do what sketch artists can, he said, such as compressing hours of court action onto a single drawing that crystallizes the events.
The best courtroom drawings hang in museums or sell to collectors for thousands of dollars.
"I think people should lament the passing of this art form," Lien said.
But while courtroom drawing has a long history ? artists did illustrations of the Salem witch trials in 1692 ? the artistry can sometimes be sketchy. A bald lawyer ends up with a full head of hair. A defendant has two left hands. A portly judge is drawn rail-thin.
Subjects often complain as they see the drawings during court recesses, said Chicago artist Carol Renaud.
"They'll say, `Hey! My nose is too big.' And sometimes they're right," she conceded. "We do the drawings so fast."
Courtroom drawing doesn't attract most aspiring artists because it doesn't afford the luxury of laboring over a work for days until it's just right, said Andy Austin, who has drawn Chicago's biggest trials over 40 years, including that of serial killer John Wayne Gacy.
"You have to put your work on the air or in a newspaper whether you like it or not," she said.
The job also involves long stretches of tedium punctuated by bursts of action as a witness sobs or defendant faint. It can also get downright creepy.
At Gacy's trial, a client asked Austin for an image of him smiling. So, she sought to catch the eye of the man accused of killing 33 people. When she finally did, she beamed. He beamed back.
"The two of us smiled at each other like the two happiest people in the world until the sketch was finished," Austin recalled in her memoirs, titled "Rule 53," after the directive that bars cameras in U.S. courts.
There's no school specifically for courtroom artists. Many slipped or were nudged into it by circumstance.
Renaud drew fashion illustrations for Marshall Field's commercials into the `90s but lost that job when the department store starting relying on photographers. That led her to courtroom drawing.
Artists sometime get to court early and sketch the empty room. But coming in with a drawing fully finished in advance is seen as unethical.
Some artists use charcoal, water colors or pungent markers, which can leave those sitting nearby queasy. Most start with a quick pencil sketch, then fill it in. Austin draws right off the bat with her color pencils.
"If I overthink it, I get lost," she said. "I have a visceral reaction. I just hope what I feel is conveyed to my pen."
These days, Chukman and Renaud fear for their livelihoods. They make the bulk of their annual income off their court work. Working for a TV station or a newspaper can bring in about $300 a day. A trial lasting a month can mean a $6,000 paycheck. Chukman does other work on the side, including drawing caricatures as gifts.
Austin is semiretired and so she says she worries less. She also notes that federal courts ? where some of the most notorious trials take place, like the two corruption trials of impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich ? seem more adamant about not allowing cameras.
Still, though Rule 53 remains in place, federal courts are experimenting with cameras in very limited cases.
"If federal courts do follow, that will be the end of us," Austin said.
Renaud holds out hope that, even if the worst happens, there will still be demand from lawyers for courtroom drawings they can hang in their offices. Lien plans to bolster his income by launching a website selling work from historic trials he covered, including of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
Chukman, a courtroom artist for around 30 years, jokes that if asked for his opinion, he'd have told state-court authorities to keep the ban in place a few more years until he retires.
"I recognize my profession exists simply because of gaps in the law ? and I've been grateful for them," he said wistfully. "This line of work has been good to me."
WASHINGTON ? Public university presidents facing ever-increasing state budget cuts are raising concerns about President Barack Obama's plan to force colleges and universities to contain tuition prices or face losing federal dollars.
Illinois State University President Al Bowman says the reality is that deficits in many public schools can't be easily overcome with simple modifications. Bowman says he's happy to hear Obama call for state-level support of public universities but adds that, given the decreases in state aid, tying federal support to tuition is a product of "fuzzy math."
Obama spelled out his proposal Friday at the University of Michigan.
Georgia Bio honors biotech company that enables stroke care Public release date: 27-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Toni Baker tbaker@georgiahealth.edu 706-721-4421 Georgia Health Sciences University
Augusta, Ga. It was a "common sense" decision to start the company in a large, mostly rural state in the middle of the stroke belt.
"We wanted to give better stroke care," said Dr. David Hess, stroke specialist and Chairman of the Department of Neurology at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University. It was the year 2000 and Hess and his colleagues were frustrated that nearly five years after the first stroke medication was approved by the Food and Drug Administration, patients were arriving at Georgia Health Sciences Medical Center too late to get the clot-busting drug that could reduce their stroke damage.
"We had customers before we had a company," said Hess, a founder and Chairman of the Board of REACH Health, Inc., the six-year-old company that packaged the need for rapid stroke care with the emerging capabilities of the Internet to provide that care remotely.
The company received a 2012 Georgia Bio Community Award Jan. 26 for its significant contributions to Georgia's life sciences industry. Georgia Bio is a private, non-profit representing universities, medical centers, companies and others involved in developing products that improve the health and well-being of people, animals and the environment.
The first iteration of the system was assembled at MCG: a security camera on an intravenous pole that rolled alongside a computer on a cart. In late 2011, REACH rolled out its fourth iteration: a professionally assembled, sleek system that enables immediate access to a wider range of care, such as critical or cardiac care.
"Anywhere we have time-critical situations or a severe shortage of specialists, the REACH system can perform," said Richard E. Otto, the company's Chief Executive Officer. REACH has offices in Alpharetta, Ga., a center for health care information technology, as well as the Georgia Medical Center Authority in Augusta, a statewide authority to advance the life sciences. The system, which works on a hub and spoke model, operates in more than 100 hospitals in a growing number of states that include Alaska, New York, Ohio, South Carolina and Louisiana.
"Today it's a uniform platform with multiple applications," Hess said. "That is what our customers want."
Part of REACH's success is what Hess calls its "secret sauce," which enables an interactive consultation between the stroke specialist and referring physician. "They put in data, we put in data, so in the end we produce a consult they can follow with guidelines, for example, on how to give tPA," Hess said, referencing the only FDA-approved stroke drug. Quick administration is necessary to maximize the drug's effectiveness and, even after all these years, less than 5 percent of patients get it. That disconnect is the primary reason development of a remote care system was common sense, Hess said. "It's an immediate, collaborative consultation in the cloud."
"It's never going to take the place of a physician and a patient sitting across from each other but that is not always possible," Otto added. In fact, with fewer than four stroke specialists for every 100,000 people, it's highly unlikely for stroke care.
"Efficiencies in medicine are driving decisions in medicine," Otto said. No doubt the REACH system increases the efficiency of stroke specialists by making distance from the patient irrelevant, he said. That's particularly cogent in an aging population with too few doctors.
REACH targets academic health centers, which tend to attract stroke specialists, as the logical starting point for developing the hub-and-spoke model that makes the system an efficient, effective tool on both ends of the patient consultation, Hess said. Georgia Health Sciences Medical Center, the original hub, now connects with 17 smaller hospitals across Georgia.
The latest REACH system is being tested at St. Joseph's/Candler in Savannah, the hub for eight hospitals in surrounding communities. The health system is still looking at the spectrum of specialties it will roll out with the system's expanded capabilities. St. Joseph's/Candler Stroke NET-work became operational in May 2009.
"St. Joseph's/Candler is committed to finding technology to help patients get treated quickly and recover faster," said Paul P. Hinchey, President & CEO of St. Joseph's/Candler. "We've had such a good experience with REACH that upgrading to the 4.0 platform was an easy decision. It will allow patients in our region fast and easy access to our expert specialists."
GHSU researchers showed in a study published in 2003 in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association that stroke patients in rural communities could be assessed and treated via the wireless Internet program just as well
###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
Georgia Bio honors biotech company that enables stroke care Public release date: 27-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Toni Baker tbaker@georgiahealth.edu 706-721-4421 Georgia Health Sciences University
Augusta, Ga. It was a "common sense" decision to start the company in a large, mostly rural state in the middle of the stroke belt.
"We wanted to give better stroke care," said Dr. David Hess, stroke specialist and Chairman of the Department of Neurology at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University. It was the year 2000 and Hess and his colleagues were frustrated that nearly five years after the first stroke medication was approved by the Food and Drug Administration, patients were arriving at Georgia Health Sciences Medical Center too late to get the clot-busting drug that could reduce their stroke damage.
"We had customers before we had a company," said Hess, a founder and Chairman of the Board of REACH Health, Inc., the six-year-old company that packaged the need for rapid stroke care with the emerging capabilities of the Internet to provide that care remotely.
The company received a 2012 Georgia Bio Community Award Jan. 26 for its significant contributions to Georgia's life sciences industry. Georgia Bio is a private, non-profit representing universities, medical centers, companies and others involved in developing products that improve the health and well-being of people, animals and the environment.
The first iteration of the system was assembled at MCG: a security camera on an intravenous pole that rolled alongside a computer on a cart. In late 2011, REACH rolled out its fourth iteration: a professionally assembled, sleek system that enables immediate access to a wider range of care, such as critical or cardiac care.
"Anywhere we have time-critical situations or a severe shortage of specialists, the REACH system can perform," said Richard E. Otto, the company's Chief Executive Officer. REACH has offices in Alpharetta, Ga., a center for health care information technology, as well as the Georgia Medical Center Authority in Augusta, a statewide authority to advance the life sciences. The system, which works on a hub and spoke model, operates in more than 100 hospitals in a growing number of states that include Alaska, New York, Ohio, South Carolina and Louisiana.
"Today it's a uniform platform with multiple applications," Hess said. "That is what our customers want."
Part of REACH's success is what Hess calls its "secret sauce," which enables an interactive consultation between the stroke specialist and referring physician. "They put in data, we put in data, so in the end we produce a consult they can follow with guidelines, for example, on how to give tPA," Hess said, referencing the only FDA-approved stroke drug. Quick administration is necessary to maximize the drug's effectiveness and, even after all these years, less than 5 percent of patients get it. That disconnect is the primary reason development of a remote care system was common sense, Hess said. "It's an immediate, collaborative consultation in the cloud."
"It's never going to take the place of a physician and a patient sitting across from each other but that is not always possible," Otto added. In fact, with fewer than four stroke specialists for every 100,000 people, it's highly unlikely for stroke care.
"Efficiencies in medicine are driving decisions in medicine," Otto said. No doubt the REACH system increases the efficiency of stroke specialists by making distance from the patient irrelevant, he said. That's particularly cogent in an aging population with too few doctors.
REACH targets academic health centers, which tend to attract stroke specialists, as the logical starting point for developing the hub-and-spoke model that makes the system an efficient, effective tool on both ends of the patient consultation, Hess said. Georgia Health Sciences Medical Center, the original hub, now connects with 17 smaller hospitals across Georgia.
The latest REACH system is being tested at St. Joseph's/Candler in Savannah, the hub for eight hospitals in surrounding communities. The health system is still looking at the spectrum of specialties it will roll out with the system's expanded capabilities. St. Joseph's/Candler Stroke NET-work became operational in May 2009.
"St. Joseph's/Candler is committed to finding technology to help patients get treated quickly and recover faster," said Paul P. Hinchey, President & CEO of St. Joseph's/Candler. "We've had such a good experience with REACH that upgrading to the 4.0 platform was an easy decision. It will allow patients in our region fast and easy access to our expert specialists."
GHSU researchers showed in a study published in 2003 in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association that stroke patients in rural communities could be assessed and treated via the wireless Internet program just as well
###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan ? Unknown assailants fired rocket propelled grenades at the military academy near Osama bin Laden's compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad early Friday morning, causing damage but no casualties, police said.
It was the first attack in the normally peaceful northwest city since U.S. Navy Seals killed bin Laden during a daring night raid on his compound last May. The grenades damaged a wall of the academy, said senior local police officer Abdul Karim.
The operation against bin Laden outraged Pakistani officials because they were not told about it beforehand. Many U.S. officials questioned how bin Laden could live for years near Pakistan's equivalent of West Point. But the U.S. has not found evidence senior Pakistani leaders knew he was there.
On Thursday, Iranian security forces killed six Pakistani traders taking goats into Iran, a Pakistani official said. Iranian officials were not immediately available for comment.
The incident happened on the Iranian side of the border near the southeastern Pakistani town of Gwadar, said its deputy commissioner Abdur Rehman.
Rehman said Iranian authorities were not releasing the bodies. He gave no more details.
Earlier this month, Iranian security personnel allegedly crossed into southwest Pakistan and killed one man.
There is occasional violence along the poorly marked border, where smuggling, banditry and terrorism are rife.
The incidents do not appear to have affected Islamabad's relations with Tehran, which are based on larger regional interests.
Pakistan's ties with Iran have ebbed and flowed over the last 20 years, dependent largely on developments elsewhere in a turbulent region, where Iran's archrivals Saudi Arabia and the United States have also sought influence. Sunni-Shia tensions within Pakistan have also been a factor.
Relations have been stable since the downfall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2002.
Pakistan is battling an Islamist militant insurgency along its border with Afghanistan in the northwest of the country.
Earlier Thursday, security forces killed at least 20 militants in the northwestern Kurram tribal region after coming under attack, said local government official Wajid Khan. He said 22 troops were also wounded in the attack.
The death toll could not be independently confirmed as the fighting was in a remote area off-limits to journalists.
Kurram is considered a main base for the Pakistani Taliban. Scores of insurgents are believed to hiding there after escaping military operations in the nearby tribal regions in recent years.
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Associated Press writer Abdul Sattar contributed to this report from Quetta, Pakistan.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. ? An ex-Marine from Virginia pleaded guilty Thursday and has agreed to serve a 25-year prison sentence on charges that he fired a series of overnight pot shots in 2010 at the Pentagon, the Marine Corps museum in Quantico and other military targets as part of what prosecutors called a campaign to strike fear throughout the region.
Prosecutors also revealed Thursday new details about Yonathan Melaku's intended next target: Arlington National Cemetery, where he was arrested before he was able to carry out a plan to deface gravestones there.
As part of Thursday's plea deal, Melaku, 24, of Alexandria, pleaded guilty to destruction of U.S. property, use of a firearm in an act of violence and intention to injure a veterans' memorial, namely the cemetery. Prosecutors and Melaku's lawyer agreed to a 25-year sentence as part of the deal, and U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee said he would agree to the sentence as well.
Formal sentencing was delayed until April so a pre-sentence report can be prepared and Melaku's lawyer can request a mental-health evaluation for his client.
Prosecutors also released a video, made by Melaku, that was part of the evidence in the case, in which Melaku is seen firing shots at the National Museum of the Marine Corps as he drives by from I-95, where the museum is easily visible. In the video, Melaku shouts "God is Great!" in Arabic and talks about targeting the museum and "turning it off permanently."
The overnight shootings in October and November of 2010 twice targeted the Marine Corps museum and once each targeted the Pentagon and military recruiting stations in Woodbridge and Chantilly.
The shootings raised a high level of concerns, prompting authorities to suspect they were related and conducted by an individual with a grievance against the military in general or the Marines specifically.
But the shootings went unsolved until this summer, when Melaku ? a naturalized U.S. citizen from Ethiopia ? was spotted by police on Fort Myer and ran off, leaving a backpack behind. He was later caught and arrested at Arlington National Cemetery. The incident prompted a massive security scare in and around the Pentagon.
In the backpack police found spent shell casings; five pounds of ammonium nitrate, a common material in homemade explosives; two cans of spray paint; and a notebook in Arabic that contained references to Osama bin Laden, the Taliban and the "path to jihad."
Melaku eventually admitted to authorities that he planned to desecrate grave markers in the cemetery by spraying Arabic graffiti on them, and to deliberately leave the ammonium nitrate behind.
Nobody was hurt in any of the incidents, but Melaku has been ordered to make $111,000 in restitution for the damage he caused to the buildings, including the Pentagon.
Though no one was hurt, FBI spokeswoman Jacqueline Maguire called the case serious, and credited investigators for arresting Melaku before he did worse. She noted that a search of Melaku's home produced evidence that Melaku was looking to build a homemade timer.
The defense lawyer, Gregory English, said he has no doubt that his client is legally sane, but said a proper mental-health diagnosis may help his client become a better person while he serves his sentence.
English, himself a former Marine, said after the hearing that his personal experience suggests it's possible that some sort of post-traumatic stress or dispute with the Marines may have triggered Melaku's actions rather than any desire to support al-Qaida or the Taliban.
"The facts of the case and what his parents are saying to me about the young man suggests these actions are totally out of character," English said.
Dana Boente, the top assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, which prosecuted the case, said authorities have no evidence that Melaku suffers from any serious mental-health disorders or that his years in the Marine reserves provided a motive for the crime. He said Melaku never served overseas.
Boente called the crimes "a campaign of calculated and sustained attacks against military installations and memorials in northern Virginia."
Melaku did not speak during the hearing, except to answer a series of questions from the judge with a soft-spoken, "Yes, sir" and a final "guilty, sir" to formally enter his plea.
BEIJING (Reuters) ? China on Thursday criticized the European Union for banning oil imports from Iran, Beijing's third biggest crude supplier and a major trading partner.
The European Union agreed on Monday to ban imports of oil from Iran and imposed a number of other economic sanctions, joining the United States in a new round of measures aimed at pushing Iran into reining in its nuclear activities that Tehran says are for peaceful purposes.
China, the world's second largest crude consumer, has long opposed unilateral sanctions that target Iran's energy sector and has tried to reduce tensions that could threaten its oil supply.
Last week, Beijing told a visiting Iranian delegation that returning to nuclear talks was a "top priority." During a tour to Arab states earlier this month, Chinese premier Wen Jiabao also made a strong statement opposing Iran developing and possessing nuclear weapons, but defended China's right to buy Iranian crude oil as normal trade activity.
Asked about the EU embargo, China's Foreign Ministry said in a faxed statement: "It is not a constructive approach to simply pile up the pressure and impose sanctions."
"China hopes relevant parties to resort to measures conducive to regional peace and stability," the statement added.
China is the largest buyer of Iranian crude oil, importing 30 percent more from Iran in 2011 compared to the previous year. But China halved its purchases from Iran in January and February, following a dispute over the terms of payment.
(Reporting by Chen Aizhu and Tracy Zheng; editing by Miral Fahmy)
Motorola Mobility released their fourth quarter and year-end financials today, and now we can see why they made it a point earlier this month to downplay analyst expectations. The company's new figures reveal that while Motorola raked in $3.4 billion in Q4 2011, they also incurred a net loss of $80 million.
WASHINGTON ? Mitt Romney released two years of his federal tax returns under pressure from Newt Gingrich, who made his 2010 tax filings public ahead of his GOP rival. Romney, in turn, successfully pressed Gingrich to disclose contracts between his consulting firm and housing giant Freddie Mac.
Don't confuse the sudden surge of transparency by the leading Republican presidential candidates with a commitment to open up the inner workings of the federal government ? or their campaigns. In their hands, transparency has been a club to beat an opponent with until he produces information he'd rather keep private. It's been a political weapon in an increasingly ugly campaign that is heading toward a crucial primary in Florida on Tuesday.
"Transparency and accountability are about a lot more than a candidate releasing personal information when his or her back is against the wall," said Patrice McDermott, executive director of OpenTheGovernment.org, a coalition of public interest groups. "An executive who cares about transparency makes it clear he or she understands the public has a right to know what its government is doing."
Openness advocates said they don't know what changes, if any, Romney and Gingrich might propose to the Freedom of Information Act, the nation's preeminent open records law, or other transparency initiatives advocated by the Obama administration. But the signals from the GOP's fractious campaign are worrisome, they say, especially at a time when there is so much pressure to slash federal budgets.
Prior to releasing his tax returns, Gingrich said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that "the country deserves accountability, and they deserve transparency" as he pressed Romney to do the same. On his campaign website, Gingrich lists accountability and transparency as cornerstones of his plan to overhaul the country's education system. He also proposed to reform the Federal Reserve "to promote transparency."
Romney has pushed Gingrich to disclose more about work he was paid to do after leaving Congress, warning voters could see "an October surprise a day" about the former House speaker. Romney also has demanded that documents relating to a House ethics committee investigation of Gingrich in the mid-1990s be released.
Gingrich told Fox News on Wednesday that he "would love to have a transparency and accountability debate with Mitt Romney."
In GOP debates last November, Romney advocated greater transparency in the nation's health care and immigration systems. But efforts by Romney and his staff to keep records from his term as Massachusetts governor from becoming public are inconsistent with his calls for openness.
The Associated Press reported in November that Romney's personal gubernatorial records ? including emails exchanged with aides, private calendars and other materials ? were unaccounted for when staff began gathering information to be housed in the state's archives.
Top Romney aides also were permitted to buy and remove their state-issued computer hard drives. Romney said he followed the law. His campaign aides said their actions were based on a 1997 Massachusetts court ruling that the records of all governors are private.
Yet governors, agency heads and even presidents are free to use their discretion to release records unless there is a specific prohibition against making the information public.
President Barack Obama's pledge to create the most transparent administration in American history remains an unfulfilled promise.
Among Obama's first and most significant moves was to reverse the Bush administration's policy of using any legitimate legal basis to defend withholding records from the public. Obama promised "an unprecedented level of openness in government" and ordered new Freedom of Information Act guidelines to be written with a "presumption in favor of disclosure."
But his administration has struggled to meet the high expectations and lofty rhetoric, especially when national security records are involved. Still, Obama raised the profile of an issue the Bush White House treated with disdain.
The president of the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, Thomas Fitton, sent a survey to all the presidential candidates, including Obama, in early December with questions about government transparency and accountability and other issues. Only the Gingrich campaign responded. It said their candidate would not participate in the questionnaire.
"Politicians of all stripes are hesitant to make public information that is controversial," Fitton said. "Democratic administrations say they are going to give you everything and then withhold information. Republican administrations are more philosophically opposed to transparency laws and tell you up front they are not going to give you anything. I don't know what's worse: hypocrisy or unapologetic secrecy."
Under Fitton, Judicial Watch has been sharply critical of the Obama administration's claims that its policies have made government more open. In August, a federal judge ruled in Judicial Watch's favor after the group challenged the Secret Service's position that White House visitor logs are presidential records and therefore exempt from public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.
But Fitton expects to fight the same battles if former Bush administration officials return to positions in the White House and Justice Department under a Romney or Gingrich administration. "They'll continue these hard core legal positions in court against transparency," he said.
Since the September 2001 terror attacks, the government has disclosed less information about its own actions while collecting more personal information about ordinary U.S. citizens, said Liza Goitein, director of the Liberty and National Security Project at the Brennan Center for Justice in New York.
"Unfortunately, this trend has continued under President Obama, and there is little reason to think it would abate under a Romney or Gingrich administration," Goitein said.
Just as the Bush administration did, the Obama White House has used the state secrets privilege to turn aside lawsuits seeking accountability for warrantless wiretapping and torture, she said. It has also kept from public view photographs of detainee abuse and a legal opinion justifying the extrajudicial execution of U.S. citizens. And the Obama administration has prosecuted more national security whistleblowers than all previous administrations combined, Goitein said.
Both Gingrich and Romney advocate using the military, and not the criminal justice system, to deal with suspected terrorists, she said.
"More generally, both candidates are portraying themselves as being relentlessly tough on terrorism, and there's a stubborn myth out there that toughness and transparency are incompatible," Goitein said. "I wouldn't hold out high hopes for transparency in either a Romney or a Gingrich administration."
A new study on living animals has shown for the first time that eating cocoa (the raw material in chocolate) can help to prevent intestinal complaints linked to oxidative stress, including colon carcinogenesis onset caused by chemical substances.
The growing interest amongst the scientific community to identify those foods capable of preventing diseases has now categorized cocoa as a 'superfood'. It has been recognised as an excellent source of phytochemical compounds, which offer potential health benefits.
Headed by scientists from the Institute of Food Science and Technology and Nutrition (ICTAN) and recently published in the Molecular Nutrition & Food Research journal, the new study supports this idea and upholds that cacao consumption helps to prevent intestinal complaints linked to oxidative stress, such as the onset of chemically induced colon carcinogenesis.
"Being exposed to different poisons in the diet like toxins, mutagens and procarcinogens, the intestinal mucus is very susceptible to pathologies," explains Mar?a ?ngeles Mart?n Arribas, lead author of the study and researcher at ICTAN. She adds that "foods like cocoa, which is rich in polyphenols, seems to play an important role in protecting against disease."
The study on live animals (rats) has for the first time confirmed the potential protection effect that flavonoids in cocoa have against colon cancer onset. For eight weeks the authors of the study fed the rats with a cocoa-rich (12%) diet and carcinogenesis was induced.
Possible protection
Doctor Mart?n Arribas outlines that "four weeks after being administered with the chemical compound azoxymethane (AOM), intestinal mucus from premalignant neoplastic lesions appeared. These lesions are called 'aberrant crypt foci' and are considered to be good markers of colon cancer pathogenesis."
The results of the study showed that the rats fed a cocoa-rich diet had a significantly reduced number of aberrant crypts in the colon induced by the carcinogen. Likewise, this sample saw an improvement in their endogenous antioxidant defences and a decrease in the markers of oxidative damage induced by the toxic compound in this cell.
The researchers conclude that the protection effect of cocoa can stop cell-signalling pathways involved in cell proliferation and, therefore, subsequent neoplasty and tumour formation. Lastly, the animals fed with the cocoa-rich diet showed an increase in apoptosis or programmed cell death as a chemoprevention mechanism against the development of the carcinogenesis.
Although more research is required to determine what bioactive compounds in cocoa are responsible for such effects, the authors conclude that a cocoa-rich diet seems capable of reducing induced oxidative stress. It could also have protection properties in the initial stages of colon cancer as it reduces premalignant neoplastic lesion formation.
A not-so-guilty pleasure
Cocoa is one of the ingredients in chocolate. It is one of the richest foods in phenolic compounds, mainly in flavonoids like procyanidins, catechins and epicatechins, which have numerous beneficial biological activities in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases and cancer (mainly colorectal cancer).
In fact, compared to other foods with a high flavonoid content, cocoa has a high level of procyanidins with limited bioavailability. These flavonoids are therefore found in their highest concentrations in the intestine where they neutralise many oxidants.
###
ldefonso Rodr?guez-Ramiro, Sonia Ramos, Elvira L?pez-Oliva, Angel Agis-Torres, Miren G?mez-Juaristi, Raquel Mateos, Laura Bravo, Luis Goya, Mar?a ?ngeles Mart?n. "Cocoa-rich diet prevents azoxymethane-induced colonic preneoplastic lesions in rats by restraining oxidative stress and cell proliferation and inducing apoptosis". Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, 55:1895-1899, diciembre de 2011. DOI 10.1002/mnfr.201100363.
FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology: http://www.fecyt.es/fecyt/home.do
Thanks to FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology for this article.
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A Florida man has been arrested on charges that he hacked to death a Connecticut man and ate the victim's eye and part of his brain.
Police in Lynn Haven, Fla., said Wednesday that 35-year-old Tyree Lincoln Smith was arrested Tuesday night on a Connecticut warrant for murder.
According to police in Bridgeport, Conn., Smith was covered in blood when he told a relative on Dec. 16 that he had killed a man with a hatchet and eaten pieces of his brain and his eye.
The relative contacted authorities after the?body of Angel "Tun Tun" Gonzalez, 43, was discovered Jan. 20 at his Bridgeport, Conn., apartment. Police say Smith left Connecticut that day on a Florida-bound bus.
Lynn Haven police say federal, state and local law enforcement officers took Smith into custody at?a residence?without incident.
According to ctpost.com, an affidavit in the case says Gonzales had seen?Smith sleeping outside on a porch and invited him?to come in from the cold and share the apartment he was living in.
Once in the apartment, the affidavit states, Smith began beating Gonzalez about the head and face with the ax, ctpost.com reported.
He later told his relative the blows to Gonzalez's head were so severe he was able to remove an eye from the victim's head along with a piece of the victim's brain, which he then carried in a plastic bag to a nearby cemetery where he ate the parts at his brother's grave site, ctpost.com reported..
Odalys Vaszuez told ctpost.com that she wants justice for her stepfather's slaying.
"Here it is that my dad was trying to help this guy, telling him to come inside from the cold," she told the website. "If my father was helping him stay warm, what kind of person is it who does this, who repays him by swinging an axe at him and hitting him so hard it blows his brains out?"
Police said the woman Smith was staying with in Florida was unaware of the allegations and is cooperating with investigators, according to NBCConnecticut.com.
WASHINGTON ? Mitt Romney's tax returns tell the tale: Yes, he's rich ? really rich.
His returns, spanning more than 500 pages and released under political pressure Tuesday, represent an extraordinary financial accounting of one of the wealthiest U.S. presidential candidates in generations, with his annual income topping $20 million.
It remains unclear how the details of Romney's fortune will play among American workers, who on average earn less in a lifetime than Romney paid in taxes in 2010 alone. Meanwhile, the typical taxpayer pays a similar share of his income to Uncle Sam as he does, roughly 15 percent.
Romney's returns ? which include a 2011 tax estimate ? spilled out new details of his scattered holdings, tax strategies and charitable donations. Romney paid about $3 million in federal income taxes in 2010, having earned more than seven times that from his investments.
The documents quickly became fodder for his opponents, with Democrats chiding the former Massachusetts governor for not disclosing more about his financial history. The White House also weighed in about tax fairness as President Barack Obama prepared for his State of the Union Address.
Romney is hardly the only wealthy American seeking the presidency, though he's on a level all his own.
Republican rival Newt Gingrich, who had publicly pressed him to release his tax information, released his own return for 2010 last week. It revealed that Gingrich earned more than $3.1 million, mostly from $2.5 million paid by his companies, partnerships and investments, and paid just under $1 million in federal tax, a rate of about 31 percent.
Obama and his wife, Michelle, reported income of $1.73 million last year, mostly from the books he's written, and paid $453,770 in federal taxes.
Romney's tax returns showed he continues to profit from Bain Capital, the private equity firm he founded but no longer runs; from a Swiss bank account closed just as he launched his campaign and from new listings of investment funds set up overseas.
Romney had long refused to disclose any federal tax returns, then hinted he would offer a single year's return in April. Yet mounting criticism from his rivals and a hard loss in last week's South Carolina primary forced his hand.
"Governor Romney has paid 100 percent of what he owes," said Benjamin Ginsberg, the campaign's legal counsel. Ginsberg and other advisers said Romney did not use any aggressive tax strategies to help reduce or defer his tax income.
For 2011, Romney will pay about $3.2 million with an effective tax rate of about 15.4 percent, the campaign said. Those returns haven't yet been filed yet with the Internal Revenue Service. In total, he would pay more than $6.2 million in taxes on $45 million in income over the past two years, his campaign said.
Romney had been cast by his GOP opponents as a wealthy businessman who earned lucrative payouts from his investments while Bain slashed jobs in the private sector. Romney concedes that some companies Bain invested in were unsuccessful but says others created large numbers of jobs.
As for his own tax payments, he said in Monday night's debate in Tampa, "I pay all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more. ... I don't think you want someone as the candidate for president who pays more taxes than he owes."
He added, "You'll see my income, how much taxes I've paid, how much I've paid to charity."
Romney's 2010 return showed about $4.5 million in itemized deductions, including $1.5 million contributed to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Romney's charitable giving is above average, even for someone at his income level, according to IRS data.
Romney's GOP rivals did not immediately comment on his tax disclosures. But House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, defended him, telling reporters that Romney's tax rate is close to the 15 percent rate most Americans pay on long-term capital gains from the sale of investments.
Romney's advisers stressed that he met all his federal tax obligations, provided maximum transparency and did not take advantage of what they described as "aggressive" strategies often used by the ultra-rich. Still, for millions of taxpayers grappling with their own returns as tax season looms, Romney's multimillion dollar wealth provides a window into an unfamiliar world.
His 2010 return shows a number of foreign investments, including funds in Ireland, Switzerland, Germany and Luxembourg. Most of Romney's vast fortune is held in a blind trust that he doesn't control. A portion is held in a retirement account.
Romney's advisers acknowledged Tuesday that Romney and his wife, Ann, had a bank account in Switzerland as part of her trust. The account was worth $3 million and was held in the United Bank of Switzerland, said R. Bradford Malt, a Boston lawyer who makes investments for the Romneys and oversees their blind trust, which was set up to avoid any conflicts of interest in investments during his run for the presidency.
In 2009, UBS admitted assisting U.S. citizens in evading taxes and agreed to pay a $780 million penalty as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department.
The political discussion over releasing Romney's tax information highlighted an argument that Democrats are already starting to use against him ? that he is out of touch with normal Americans. And it may well have hurt him in the South Carolina primary, where he lost by 12 percentage points to Gingrich after spending several days resisting calls to release the returns.
Asked during a round of television interviews about Romney's relatively modest tax rate, Obama adviser David Plouffe said: "We need to change our tax system. We need to change our tax code so that everybody is doing their fair share." Obama planned to talk about economic fairness in his State of the Union speech to Congress Tuesday night.
Other Democratic Party voices were less restrained. "He used every loophole in the book available to the wealthy and corporations to avoid paying his fair share," said Democratic National Committee Executive Director Patrick Gaspard.
On the other hand, Romney's wife, Ann, had told supporters at a Florida rally on Sunday: "I want to remind you where we know our riches are. Our riches are with our families."
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Associated Press writers Stephen Ohlemacher and Alan Fram in Washington and Kasie Hunt in Tampa, contributed.
___
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Public release date: 27-Jan-2012
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Motorola Mobility released their