BEIRUT (AP) ? An international aid organization is appealing for more funds to help Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan, saying warmer weather will increase health risks due to lack of shelter, water and basic sanitation.
Oxfam says it needs $53 million dollars to improve access to water and proper sanitation for Syrian refugees. So far the aid group has received $10.6 million dollars.
The Britain-based group said in a statement Monday that diarrhea and skin infections have already been noted among refugees in Jordan and Lebanon. The two countries host the bulk of 1.5 million Syrians who have fled the civil war at home, seeking shelter in neighboring countries.
Oxfam says it needs the funds quickly as temperatures are expected to soar in the region in the coming weeks.
May 20, 2013 ? What lures a lady frog to her lover? Good looks, the sound of his voice, the size of his pad or none of the above? After weighing up their options, female strawberry poison frogs (Oophaga pumilio) bag the closest crooner they can, finds research in BioMed Central's open access journal Frontiers of Zoology. This seemingly short-sighted strategy turns out to be the optimal mate choice strategy for these colourful frogs.
Males of the species congregate in the Costa Rican rain forest 'lek-style' to display and call together, giving females the chance to weigh up multiple males at once. But despite their best efforts, build and territory size, females tend to mate with the closest calling male, Ivonne Meuche from the University of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover, Germany, and colleagues report.
The find was confirmed by playback experiments where females, played recordings of various male calls, failed to discriminate between different call rates or frequencies, preferring instead, the nearest speaker.
Female mate choice is a tricky business. Some species chose the first mate that is 'good enough' whilst others seek out and compare many mates before returning to choose the fittest. But the simplest, least costly option is to mate with the first or nearest male encountered, regardless of quality. The strategy doesn't seem an evolutionary winner as it means that nearby, unfit frogs sometimes get to pass on their genes at the expense of more distant, genetically-superior specimens. But it does make sense in certain situations.
Non-choosy behaviour like this has been noted in fishes, and some frog species with a lek-like mating system. It's thought the strategy works for them because it reduces 'costs' in terms of search time and competition for mates. Female strawberry poison frogs may also benefit little from 'shopping around' because strong inter-male competition means the available mates are all much of a muchness.
The team also noted that females unable to find a mate within a certain time period ended up laying unfertilised eggs that never hatch. So in species, like the strawberry poison dart frog, where the choosing sex outnumbers the chosen sex, it makes sense to 'grab the nearest guy' rather than run the risk of not mating at all.
Sometimes, more medical information is a bad thing. The influential United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends against most women getting genetic screenings for their susceptibility to breast cancer. Why? Because the tests are imperfect: for every woman who gets tested for genes associated with onset breast cancer, even more will falsely test positive, leading spooked patients into needless surgery or psychological trauma. Super cheap genetic testing from enterprising health startups, such as 23andMe, have complicated cancer detection for us all by increasing the accessibility of imperfect medical information.
After discovering a mutated BRCA1 gene, known to increase the?likelihood?of breast cancer 60 to 80 percent, actress Angelina Jolie underwent a radical preventive double mastectomy. Her brave confession in the New York Times brought much needed attention to breast cancer awareness, but it?s dangerous in the hands of a statistically illiterate population.
For instance, as New York Times statistical guru, Nate Silver, once reminded me, while breast cancer mammograms are 75 percent accurate, a woman who tests positive only has about a 10 percent chance of actually getting cancer. Since the vast majority of women don?t have cancer, there are far more women who will falsely test positive (here is a helpful blog post with the numbers worked out). Most importantly, surveys reveal that many people don?t understand the math behind false positives in cancer testing, and may make uninformed decisions as a result.
The same math holds true for the mutated BRCA1/2 gene of Jolie?s confession: researchers estimate that a tiny 0.11 to 0.12 of women have the faulty gene. ?I believe in doing genetic testing for BRCA1/2 with appropriate counseling,? writes University of Southern California?s David Agus, one of Steve Jobs? cancer doctors. The answers are not simple in this case and require experienced professionals to discuss with the patient.?
Traditionally hundreds of thousands of dollars to test, a cottage industry of cheap genetic testing has sprung up. 23andMe, one of the most popular, offers the service for as little at $99, and has even dared to weigh in on the BRCA controversy on the company blog.
Citing a new study that found no negative emotional consequences from patients after learning about their BRCA1 mutation, 23andMe concludes, ?The findings are important given that a frequent criticism of direct-to-consumer testing is based on the assumption that it causes either serious emotional distress or triggers deleterious actions on the part of consumers.?
Given the absence of evidence for serious emotional distress or inappropriate actions in this subset of mutation-positive customers who agreed to be interviewed for this study, ?broader screening of Ashkenazi Jewish women for these three BRCA mutations should be considered.?
Sometimes, however, voluntary surveys don?t tell the whole story. In its cover story on Jolie?s decision, TIME magazine recounts the tale of one woman who likely had unnecessary preventative surgery after learning about a genetic defect. ?She freaked out and had a bilateral mastectomy,? said Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, who worried that this patient?s particular mutation was not as troubling as she worried it was.
Interestingly, TIME?s author, Kate Pickart, argues the financial costs of genetic testing has stall mass run on genetic tests. Even a new provision under the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) only mandates 100 percent insurance coverage for patients with a family history of genetic flaws.
But, at just $99 (and probably far less in the future), financial barriers are crumbling. This isn?t to say that genetic screening is bad, it just complicates things for the rest of us, especially those who don?t understand statistics. The more women get tested, the more false positives exist, the less confident patients and physicians become in a course of action.
Maybe our only hope out of this cheaper testing spiral is technology that makes detection more accurate and more predictive. One promising solution is a new bra that constantly monitors deep tissue for cancerous signs (below).
So, perhaps, before long, we will innovate our way out of this dilemma.
(Phys.org) ?Enough Northwest wind energy to power about 85,000 homes each month could be stored in porous rocks deep underground for later use, according to a new, comprehensive study. Researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Bonneville Power Administration identified two unique methods for this energy storage approach and two eastern Washington locations to put them into practice.
Compressed air energy storage plants could help save the region's abundant wind power ? which is often produced at night when winds are strong and energy demand is low ? for later, when demand is high and power supplies are more strained. These plants can also switch between energy storage and power generation within minutes, providing flexibility to balance the region's highly variable wind energy generation throughout the day.
"With Renewable Portfolio Standards requiring states to have as much as 20 or 30 percent of their electricity come from variable sources such as wind and the sun, compressed air energy storage plants can play a valuable role in helping manage and integrate renewable power onto the Northwest's electric grid," said Steve Knudsen, who managed the study for the BPA.
Geologic energy savings accounts
All compressed air energy storage plants work under the same basic premise. When power is abundant, it's drawn from the electric grid and used to power a large air compressor, which pushes pressurized air into an underground geologic storage structure. Later, when power demand is high, the stored air is released back up to the surface, where it is heated and rushes through turbines to generate electricity. Compressed air energy storage plants can re-generate as much as 80 percent of the electricity they take in.
The world's two existing compressed air energy storage plants ? one in Alabama, the other in Germany ? use man-made salt caverns to store excess electricity. The PNNL-BPA study examined a different approach: using natural, porous rock reservoirs that are deep underground to store renewable energy.
The Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Bonneville Power Administration have identified two locations in eastern Washington state that could store enough Northwest wind energy to power about 85,000 homes each month. Credit: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Interest in the technology has increased greatly in the past decade as utilities and others seek better ways to integrate renewable energy onto the power grid. About 13 percent, or nearly 8,600 megawatts, of the Northwest's power supply comes from of wind. This prompted BPA and PNNL to investigate whether the technology could be used in the Northwest.
To find potential sites, the research team reviewed the Columbia Plateau Province, a thick layer of volcanic basalt rock that covers much of the region. The team looked for underground basalt reservoirs that were at least 1,500 feet deep, 30 feet thick and close to high-voltage transmission lines, among other criteria.
They then examined public data from wells drilled for gas exploration or research at the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington. Well data was plugged into PNNL's STOMP computer model, which simulates the movement of fluids below ground, to determine how much air the various sites under consideration could reliably hold and return to the surface.
Researchers at PNNL and BPA have identified a site they call Yakima Minerals that is about 10 miles north of Selah, Wash., and could house an 83-megawatt geothermal compressed air energy storage facility. Credit: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Two different, complementary designs
Analysis identified two particularly promising locations in eastern Washington. One location, dubbed the Columbia Hills Site, is just north of Boardman, Ore., on the Washington side of the Columbia River. The second, called the Yakima Minerals Site, is about 10 miles north of Selah, Wash., in an area called the Yakima Canyon.
But the research team determined the two sites are suitable for two very different kinds of compressed air energy storage facilities. The Columbia Hills Site could access a nearby natural gas pipeline, making it a good fit for a conventional compressed air energy facility. Such a conventional facility would burn a small amount of natural gas to heat compressed air that's released from underground storage. The heated air would then generate more than twice the power than a typical natural gas power plant.
The Yakima Minerals Site, however, doesn't have easy access to natural gas. So the research team devised a different kind of compressed air energy storage facility: one that uses geothermal energy. This hybrid facility would extract geothermal heat from deep underground to power a chiller that would cool the facility's air compressors, making them more efficient. Geothermal energy would also re-heat the air as it returns to the surface.
Researchers at PNNL and BPA have identified a site they call Columbia Hills north of Boardman, Ore., on the Washington state side of the Columbia River, that could house a 207-megawatt conventional compressed air energy storage facility. Credit: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
"Combining geothermal energy with compressed air energy storage is a creative concept that was developed to tackle engineering issues at the Yakima Minerals Site," said PNNL Laboratory Fellow and project leader Pete McGrail. "Our hybrid facility concept significantly expands geothermal energy beyond its traditional use as a renewable baseload power generation technology."
The study indicates both facilities could provide energy storage during extended periods of time. This could especially help the Northwest during the spring, when sometimes there is more wind and hydroelectric power than the region can absorb. The combination of heavy runoff from melting snow and a large amount of wind, which often blows at night when demand for electricity is low, can spike power production in the region. Power system managers have a few options to keep the regional power grid stable in such a situation, including reducing power generation or storing the excess power supply. Energy storage technologies such as compressed air energy storage can help the region make the most of its excess clean energy production.
Working with the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, BPA will now use the performance and economic data from the study to perform an in-depth analysis of the net benefits compressed air energy storage could bring to the Pacific Northwest. The results could be used by one or more regional utilities to develop a commercial compressed air energy storage demonstration project.
Details on the Northwest's two potential compressed air energy storage sites:
Columbia Hills Site
Location: north of Boardman, Ore., on Washington side of Columbia River
Plant type: conventional, which pairs compressed air storage with a natural gas power plant.
Power generation capacity: 207 megawatts
Energy storage capacity: 231 megawatts
Estimated levelized power cost: as low as 6.4 cents per kilowatt-hour
Would work well for frequent energy storage
Continuous storage for up to 40 days
Yakima Minerals Site
Location: 10 miles north of Selah, Wash.
Plant type: hybrid, which pairs geothermal heat with compressed air storage
Power generation capacity: 83 megawatts
Energy storage capacity: 150 megawatts
Estimated levelized power cost: as low as 11.8 cents per kilowatt-hour
No greenhouse gas emissions
Potential for future expansion
Explore further: NREL quantifies significant value in concentrating solar power
More information: BP McGrail, JE Cabe, CL Davidson, FS Knudsen, DH Bacon, MD Bearden, MA Chamness, JA Horner, SP Reidel, HT Schaef, FA Spane, PD Thorne, "Techno-economic Performance Evaluation of Compressed Air Energy Storage in the Pacific Northwest," caes.pnnl.gov/pdf/PNNL-22235.pdf.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) ? Is the tea party getting its groove back? Shouts of vindication from around the country suggest the movement's leaders certainly think so.
They say the IRS acknowledgement that it had targeted their groups for extra scrutiny ? a claim that tea party activists had made for years ? is helping pump new energy into the coalition. And they are trying to use that development, along with the ongoing controversy over the Benghazi, Libya, terrorist attacks and the Justice Department's secret seizure of journalists' phone records, to recruit new activists incensed about government overreach.
"This is the defining moment to say 'I told you so,' " said Katrina Pierson, a Dallas-based tea party leader, who traveled to Washington last week as the three political headaches for President Barack Obama unfolded.
Luke Rogonjich, a tea party leader in Phoenix, called the trio of controversies a powerful confluence that bolsters the GOP's case against big government. "Suddenly, there are a lot of things pressing on the dam," said Rogonjich.
It's unclear whether a movement made up of disparate grassroots groups with no central body can take advantage of the moment and leverage it to grow stronger after a sub-par showing in last fall's election had called into question the movement's lasting impact. Republicans and Democrats alike say the tea party runs the risk of going too far in its criticism, which could once again open the door to Democratic efforts to paint it as an extreme arm of the GOP.
"Never underestimate the tea party's ability to overplay its hand," said Democratic strategist Mo Elleithee. "Just because there is universal agreement that the IRS went too far, that should not be misread as acceptance of the tea party's ideology of anger."
At the very least, furor over the IRS devoting special attention to tea party groups claiming tax-exempt status is giving the tea party more visibility than it has had in months, and it's providing a new rallying cry for tea party organizers starting to plot how to influence the 2014 congressional elections. The law allows tax-exempt organizations to lobby and dabble in politics as long as their primary purpose is social welfare.
The tax-agency scandal ? it has led to the acting IRS commissioner's ouster, a criminal investigation and Capitol Hill hearings ? seems to validate the tea party's long-held belief among supporters that government was trampling on them specifically, a claim dismissed by ousted commissioner Steven T. Miller. He has called the targeting "a mistake and not an act of partisanship."
Nevertheless, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., elected in 2010 with tea party backing, said the IRS scandal "confirms many of the feelings that led to the tea party movement in the first place."
"What's happened here is a reminder of, this is what happens when you expand government," he said in an interview with The Associated Press. "That and the disaster that is Obamacare is going to be a real catalyst in 2014 and beyond."
Tea party activists hope they also can drive support ahead of the elections by stoking widespread suspicions that the Obama administration and State Department are hiding key details about the September 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. The seizure of Associated Press phone records also plays into their argument that government is too intrusive.
Tea party activists have tried to take advantage of the issues that have put some of their central tenets ? limited government and civil liberties ? in the spotlight.
From around the country last week, they headed Washington to hold a news conference on the Capitol steps and meet with members of Congress. Those who stayed home jammed House and Senate phone lines with calls urging congressional action as the IRS saga unfolded. An email from Teaparty.org that was sent to activists proclaimed: "We've worked so hard these past few years and it's paying off! We're witnessing the unraveling of a presidency at an unprecedented rate."
Freedomworks, a national tea party group, spent the week circulating petitions for congressional hearings and encouraging leaders of local groups who believe they have been targeted by the IRS to include their story on a national database to build the case against the agency.
"Perhaps all this attention will break something loose," said Jim Chiodo, an activist from Holland, Mich.
It wasn't long ago that the tea party was the hot new political kid on the block, bursting onto the national scene during the contentious summer debate over health care in 2009. Over the next few years, the loosely affiliated conservatives and civil libertarians would leave their mark on the 2010 elections by helping Republican candidates win Senate races in Florida, Kentucky, Utah and Wisconsin and scores of House races.
Those victories resulted in House and Senate Republican caucuses getting pushed to the right in legislative battles, making life difficult for Obama and his Democrats in an era of divided government.
But the movement's success was muted in 2012 when Republicans nominated the establishment-backed Mitt Romney for president, though he did little to inspire the tea party. He lost, and so did many tea party-backed House and Senate candidates.
Now, tea party activists say they are emboldened and won't be afraid to recruit candidates to run in Republican primaries against incumbents who appear to go easy on the Obama administration, particularly in light of the IRS scandal.
"It's one of those issues we should just raise hell about," said Nashville Tea Party leader Ben Cunningham.
Some say they're now even more suspicious of government than before.
"I personally feel so vindicated," said Mark Falzon, a New Jersey tea party leader. But he added: "What's scaring me now is what's going on below the water line that we're not seeing."
Republicans say that the tea party will have an opportunity come 2014 to make its mark again, particularly with Obama not at the top of the ticket. Also, they say that with Obama's health care law going into effect and with the slew of latest controversies, they now have concrete issues to point to when arguing against government overreach.
"Suddenly, this is a very real demonstration of too much power ceded to government bureaucrats," said Matt Kibbe, president of Freedomworks. "This is no longer theoretical."
___
Associated Press writers Steve Peoples in Boston and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.
Follow Thomas Beaumont on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Tom_Beaumont
Relationships tend to be the most balanced when the foundation is strong. If you can get the basics down, you?re much more likely to have a long-lasting and happy marriage.
Here are nine steps to a happy marriage (or non-married relationship):
1. Worry about your own?relationship.?Couples can make the mistake of paying too much attention to what?s going on in the relationships around them, and making comparisons to how other people?s relationships function. What works for their relationship may not work for yours, and vice versa. Stick to what works for you and your partner, even if it seems to go against the grain of others.
2. No mind-reading. ?It can feel really good to have your partner read your mind in just the right way. When it happens, it?s incredibly validating, and it can make everything in your relationship seem right. However, when it doesn?t go this way (most likely the majority of the time), it ends up being frustrating and disappointing. Often people watch their relationships slowly crumble as they sit around frustratingly waiting for the non-communicated fantasy to come true, which leads to the inevitable explosion of, ?You never do [these things] for me!? If you have something in mind, don?t wait around waiting for magic. Communicate what you want. It may not feel as good as having your mind read, but it will put you and your partner on the same page about your needs and desires.
3. Your partner has flaws ? leave them alone.?If you?re in a relationship with your partner, hopefully it?s because you love him/her despite the flaws. If your hope is to change your partner, perfect them, or prevent them from doing things you don?t approve of, you?re in for a rough, unhappy ride. People have this way of doing what they want to do. The trick is to be with someone whose flaws you can handle. Unless they?re doing something destructive to themselves, you, or your relationship, leave them be and accept their flaws as part of them.
4. Identify rituals.?Couples (and families) tend to experience more unity and positivity when they have rituals. Rituals can be anything meaningful to the couple. Examples: going skiing at a different location every winter; having dinner together (or as a family) every night; movie night out every Friday; surprise date to each other once per month; going for a walk after dinner every night; etc. The possibilities for relationship rituals are endless.
5. Identify values.?Relationships become quite complicated when both partners are trying to follow different value systems. While some values are likely to not align, hopefully the foundational values of your relationship are. Understand what works for your relationship, and see if you can compromise on the areas where your values differ.
6. Follow the argument rule.?Inevitably, you?re going to find yourself in an argument at some point during your relationship. Hopefully not often, but they do happen, and it doesn?t mean your relationship is breaking apart. People have different approaches to arguments, but some are more destructive to the relationship than others. The best way out of an argument is to follow this rule:?Stop.?Keep this in mind ? once in an argument, neither side is listening to the other side anymore. That?s what separates an argument from a conversation. Both are trying to outdo the other, and are trying to prove their point above the other. The only way out of an argument is to realize you?re in one, and then to stop. This doesn?t mean to stonewall your partner, which is a passive-aggressive behavior. Let them know that you want to take a break, and give your partner the last word so it?s more likely they?ll give you that break. You can always return to the conversation later when the emotions have cooled.
7.?Sex is important.?The reality is, sex is as important to your relationship as it is to the partner who wants it most. It doesn?t mean that the less-sexual partner needs to perform every time the other is in the mood. However, unless the more sexual partner is willingly prepared to not have sex, he/she will likely either get it somewhere else, or your relationship will begin to be chiseled at by sexual frustration ? and it takes only one partner?s sexual frustration for this to happen. What this says is that if both partners don?t experience a similar level of drive, there needs to be a compromise. And compromises can vary ? it doesn?t just mean that if the more-driven partner is in the mood ten times that the less-driven has to perform five times; it can involve compromises on the type of sex, or involving fantasies of different types as part of this compromise. Compromises can be creative. For example: ?Okay, we can have sex only twice this month, but I?d like to role play then as a compromise.? In the end, both partners need to be satisfied. The less-driven needs to be able to opt out at times, and the more-driven needs to have some satisfaction at times, too. (And if you find yourself not wanting intimacy with your partner on a regular basis, this could also be a sign of something else happening in your relationship that needs to be worked out).
8. Listen to your partner.?People don?t like the things they say to fall on deaf ears. So when your partner speaks to you, listen. Often what?s being said in some way communicates a relationship want or need. If you?re busy or aren?t in the mood to listen at that moment, let your partner know when a better time will be.
9. Be open to help.?Even the best relationships take work and have their rough patches. Don?t be afraid of help. Admitting to needing help at times doesn?t mean you?re in the wrong relationship or that you?re doomed to breakup. It means you could use an objective person outside of the action to assess how to best bring things back on the right track. This a proactive step for the good of your relationship, and it?s much more likely to help faster than waiting around hoping that troubles resolve themselves.
Of course there are other things than these nine particular steps that may help your relationship function as a whole. But if you have these steps down, you?re likely doing well already. And remember, enjoy each other ? you chose each other for a reason!
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APA Reference Anonymous. (2013). 9 Steps to a Happy Marriage. Psych Central. Retrieved on May 20, 2013, from http://blogs.psychcentral.com/relationships-balance/2013/05/19/9-steps-to-a-happy-marriage/
By: Nigel Brimble With countless waterways crossing over a hundred square miles of land, there's plenty to see with a trip to the Norfolk Broads. However, as pleasant as a trip down the shore can be, the best way to experience the Broads is by a special boat tour. Before you begin your journey, though, you should ask yourself what sort of trip you actually want to have!
The easiest way to experience the Broads is by a guided tour on one of our many boats that circle throughout the region. Norfolk Broads boating tours allow for custom itinerary plans so that you can spend as much or as little time in each area as you'd like. Whether you want to sit back and enjoy the scenery or use your time on the boat as a way to rest between the many exciting destinations and events that fill the Broads, you'll be able to plan the perfect trip for your whole family.
If that sort of Norfolk Broads boat hire isn't quite what you're looking for, though, then don't worry too much. Herbert Woods is proud to offer a wide selection of other options for you to choose from. On the most personal level, you can rent a day boat or canoe for as little as an hour or as long as the entire day. Take a group out for a picnic or paddle your way through some of the nicest areas of the Broads at the pace you truly want to enjoy.
If that's still not enough to satisfy your taste for tours, then try a cruiser holiday with one of our most luxurious rentals. We currently offer more than one hundred different private cruisers for you to choose from, each with their own size and style for you to pick from. Cruisers can allow anywhere from two to eleven guests to sleep comfortably, and you can rent for as long as three weeks if you plan for a truly serious tour of the Norfolk Broads. Alternately, you can keep it simple with rentals for the middle of the week or over the weekend. However you plan to enjoy your trip, we'll work with you to put the time and the boat together for the perfect vacation.
With so many different ways to experience the Norfolk Broads, there's never been a better time to have the tour of your dreams. Find out more about your rental opportunities on our website or start planning your trip through the Broads today. You probably won't be able to see every bit of them, but with a little planning and some goals in mind, we can help you create the perfect boat rental experience.
Note: Some larger vehicles may have trouble with some passageways in the Norfolk Broads region. If you are renting a private boat, with no guide, you may wish to make yourself familiar with emergency procedures and learn how to read the maps of the Broads so that you can avoid areas that may be difficult for your boat to use.
About the Author: Norfolk Broads boating by Herbert Woods offers hundreds of miles of exciting river experiences for families, tourists, and all other visitors.
Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com
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Cultural Trips And Their ImportanceBy: bilrobinson | May 19th 2013 - When planning a vacation, you might opt for going on cultural trips to a foreign country that is renowned for its cultural artifacts. You might opt for such a trip if you love to experience a culture that is different from your own.
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?.as Zambia is rated highest cancer mortality in world-over NEW DEHLI ? India has highest number of women dying from cervical cancer and Zambia has highest mortality rate. Australia provides a global model for dramatically preventing cervical cancer. More women die of cervical cancer in India than anywhere in the world. India along with China, Brazil, Bangladesh and Nigeria represent over 50 percent of the global burden of cervical cancer deaths. However, African countries are struggling to deal with cervical cancer too according to the new Cervical Cancer Crisis Card, which ranks countries from across the world based on the number of deaths from cervical cancer and the overall mortality rate. The Crisis Card is available on the Cervical Cancer Free Coalition website and launched globally to mark International Mother?s Day last Sunday. Cervical cancer kills an estimated 275,000 women every year and 500,000 new cases are reported worldwide. This entirely preventable disease is the second largest cancer killer of women in low and middle-income countries. According to the Crisis Card, Zambia has the highest mortality rate for cervical cancer. ?It is shocking that Zambia is ranked number 1 on the Cervical Cancer Crisis Card for mortality rate,? said Zambia?s First Lady Christine Kaseba. ?We can change this by making life saving vaccines available that almost entirely prevent the disease. We have the tools and technologies, this mother?s day we must stop talking and act to save women?s lives.? However, there are reasons for hope too. According to the Crisis Card, Australia has the lowest cervical cancer mortality rate, which is due to the successful rollout of a comprehensive package of HPV vaccines, treatment and prevention. According to the Government of Australia, there has also been a decline in genital warts and cervical abnormalities among young women since the introduction of the HPV vaccine in Australia. Jennifer Smith, Executive Director of the Cervical Cancer Free Coalition said: ?Cervical cancer is a preventable cancer, yet we are still seeing so many deaths around the world. At Cervical Cancer Free Coalition we are working towards building networks across the globe to help support our common goal of a world free of cervical cancer. Together we can dramatically reduce this disease through vaccination, screening and education.? The startling disparities between women in the developed and developing world are personified by cervical cancer.? A woman in Zambia is 25 times more likely to die from cervical cancer than a woman in Australia and India has 750 times more deaths than Norway. This level of inequity is also reflected across gender indicators with girls less likely to attend school but more likely to be malnourished and married as a child. Unless life-saving HPV vaccines are prioritised by decision makers this inequity will remain. Seth Berkley, CEO of the GAVI Alliance said ?2013 is the beginning of a dramatic shift in women?s health. A new low price for the HPV vaccine has been negotiated by GAVI for countries eligible for support, opening the door for millions of girls in the world?s poorest countries to be protected against one of the leading cancer killers of women. Ghana will be one of the first African countries to receive HPV vaccines this year with GAVI support.? Coming in the same month as the global Women Deliver 2013 conference that will have a focus on gender and health equity in terms of the post-2015 framework (the follow framework to the Millennium Development Goals), the report is a timely reminder of the challenges facing women, especially in the low to middle income countries. By prioritising women?s health in the next developmental framework, world leaders would show that they?re serious about challenging inequity and building sustainable societies where universal rights are guaranteed for all. ?By investing in women, nations are investing in their future prosperity. If women are educated, are represented politically and have access to good quality health services, then they and their children are much more likely to stay healthy and contribute positively to their nation,? said Sania Nishtar, Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Information Technology, Education and Training in the Government of Pakistan. ?Huge progress has been made across the world, but much more can be done to save and improve millions of women?s lives, particularly those from the poorest and most marginalised communities.? Cervical cancer is a taboo issue in many places as it is linked to sexual reproduction and cancer. Unless women?s groups and civil society join together to lead movements that break through stigma, patriarchy and other societal barriers, we will continue to see large numbers of deaths and high mortality rates. Projections show that by 2030, almost half a million women will die of cervical cancer, with over 98 percent of these deaths expected to occur in low and middle-income countries. The time to act is now. The crisis card also calls for: The rollout of a comprehensive approach to cervical cancer that includes the aggressive rollout of HPV vaccines that prevent disease and for the scaling up of screening and treatment options. Women to be encouraged to visit their health provider for early screening of precancers using either the pap smear (colposcopy), visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) and HPV testing to help diagnose precancerous cells. Treatment of precancers is advancing, which provides hope to the hundreds of thousands of women who missed out on the vaccine. Health systems need to be strengthened so that all women who need access to treatment can access affordable, quality care. ? CERVICAL CANCER FREE COALITION.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A look at key moments this past week in the wrongful death trial in Los Angeles between Michael Jackson's mother, Katherine Jackson, and concert giant AEG Live LLC, and what is expected at court in the week ahead:
THE CASE
Jackson's mother wants a jury to determine that the promoter of Jackson's planned comeback concerts didn't properly investigate Dr. Conrad Murray, who a criminal jury convicted of involuntary manslaughter for Jackson's June 2009 death. AEG's attorney says the case is about personal choice, namely Jackson's decision to have Murray serve as his doctor and give him doses of a powerful anesthetic as a sleep aid. Millions, possibly billions, of dollars are at stake.
WHAT HAPPENED
? Jurors heard from AEG Live's first two witnesses, a pair of choreographers who worked on Jackson's ill-fated "This Is It" shows. Stacy Walker told the panel she never saw any signs Jackson was impaired or ill during rehearsals. Her colleague Travis Payne, who rehearsed one-on-one with Jackson, acknowledged he couldn't say how many times the pair actually rehearsed and said he was concerned the singer was under the influence of prescription medications in the weeks before his death.
? An AEG accounting executive testified about the budget for "This Is It," which was planning on paying Murray up to $1.5 million for the first few months of the shows. The former cardiologist was never paid because Jackson died before signing his contract.
WHAT THE JURY SAW
? Payne shift from a composed, sometimes-smiling witness to one who fought back tears toward the end of his day-and-a-half of testimony. His devotion to Jackson was evident from his wardrobe, which included a black blazer with an emblem stitched onto each sleeve containing the letters "MJ" and golden wings.
? Lots of courthouse hallways and downtown Los Angeles. Friday's session featured a four-hour lunch break due to witness availability issues. The trial's third week featured only three days of live testimony and the jury was kept waiting or sent out of the room numerous times while attorneys argued legal issues.
QUOTABLE MOMENTS
? "Sometimes in rehearsal, Michael would appear just a little loopy," Payne said of Jackson's demeanor after visiting his longtime dermatologist Dr. Arnold Klein, who is not a party to the case.
? "I just never in a million years thought he would leave us, or pass away," choreographer Stacy Walker said of Jackson. Walker testified for AEG and said she never saw signs Jackson was under the influence of medications or was ill.
OUTSIDE THE COURTROOM
? A state attorney urged a court to reject an appeal by Jackson's former doctor, Conrad Murray, stating there were no legal errors by a trial judge and the physician's own attorneys failed to raise issues at the appropriate time. Murray has shown no remorse for playing "Russian roulette" with Jackson's life.
WHAT'S NEXT
? A corporate attorney for AEG Live will testify, reflecting a shift in the trial focus away from Jackson and toward a central issue in the case ? whether Murray was hired by the concert promoter.
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) ? Commuter trains damaged in a crash in Connecticut were being removed Sunday in the first step to making repairs and restoring service, the agency that runs Metro-North said.
Aaron Donovan, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash, gave Metro-North the OK to remove the trains. Hundreds of feet of track need to be repaired, he said.
"We have a lot of work ahead of us, to restore signals and overhead wires," Donovan said.
Later Sunday, the Connecticut Department of Transportation will announce jointly with Metro-North a plan for the rush-hour commute beginning Monday.
Investigators are looking at a broken section of rail to see if it is connected to the derailment and collision outside Bridgeport that left dozens injured. Seventy-two people were sent to the hospital Friday evening after an eastbound train from New York City derailed and was hit by a westbound train. Nine remain hospitalized.
Service has been suspended between South Norwalk and New Haven, which includes stops at 12 stations.
Donovan compared the loss of service to a "very significant storm."
Most recently, the Waterbury branch of Metro-North was down immediately after the massive Feb. 9-10 snowstorm that blanketed the Northeast.
Investigators said Saturday that the crash was not the result of foul play, but a fractured section of rail is being studied to determine if it is connected to the accident. National Transportation Safety Board member Earl Weener said the broken rail is of substantial interest to investigators and a portion of the track will be sent to a lab for analysis.
Weener said it's not clear if the accident caused the fracture or if the rail was broken before the crash. He said he won't speculate on the cause of the derailment and emphasized the investigation was in its early stages. Officials earlier described devastating damage and said it was fortunate no one was killed.
The crash damaged the tracks and threatened to snarl travel in the Northeast Corridor. The crash also caused Amtrak to suspend service between New York and Boston.
NTSB investigators arrived Saturday and are expected to be on site for seven to 10 days. They will look at the brakes and performance of the trains, the condition of the tracks, crew performance and train signal information, among other things.
The MTA operates the Metro-North Railroad, the second-largest commuter railroad in the nation. The Metro-North main lines ? the Hudson, Harlem, and New Haven ? run northward from New York City's Grand Central Terminal into suburban New York and Connecticut.
The last significant train collision involving Metro-North occurred in 1988 when a train engineer was killed in Mount Vernon, N.Y., when one train empty of passengers rear-ended another, railroad officials said.
Pig farming is tough, foul-smelling, and dirty work. Turns out, that's the good part of it. See, since 2009 the American hog farming industry has been struck with an explosive pork poop problem?in that the decomposing porcine waste will go boom under the right conditions.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Congress' nonpartisan budget analyst says President Barack Obama's budget would trim projected federal deficits by $1.1 trillion over the coming decade.
The Congressional Budget Office said Friday that after four straight years of annual shortfalls exceeding $1 trillion, Obama's budget would leave this year's deficit at $669 billion.
The report says annual budget gaps would fall slowly to $399 billion in 2017 before gradually rising again.
The budget office says that of the overall savings Obama proposes, $974 billion would come from higher revenues and $172 billion from spending cuts.
Overall, the budget office says Obama's budget would produce $5.2 trillion in red ink through 2023. But that is $1.1 trillion less than the deficits that would be generated over that time if no tax or spending laws are changed.
Radio?s first quarter was flat at $3.5 Billion, aided by an uptick in Spot in MARCH after a sluggish start to the year.? Both Digital and Off-Air performed well throughout the quarter and were up 9% and 5% respectively, reports the RAB.
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Spot spending by Communication/Cellular advertisers soared by over 1/3 (36%) for this quarter, propelling the category to #1 for the period.? Also up -- in rank order based on spending --were Financial Services (+13%), Department/Discount Stores & Shopping Centers (+58%), and Home Furnishings/Floor Coverings (+6%).? While dollar volume was virtually flat for Television/Networks/Cable Providers (-3%) and Restaurants (-2%), these were solid contributors to radio?s bottom line in the #2 and #4 spots; Automotive declined 20% and slipped to the #3 rank.
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"Major increases in radio advertising by Communications/Cellular and Financial Services went a long way to offset a drop in Automotive spending," stated RAB Pres./CEO ERICA FARBER. "Additionally, spending is up in the Department/Discount Stores category -- reflecting increased confidence among retailers who have experienced radio?s ability to drive traffic and sales."
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"Radio?s digital sector revenue continues to grow as radio stations invest in and promote their digital offerings to listeners, driving increased attention by the ad buying community," FARBER added.
In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news.
It's been a slow couple of weeks here through the beginning of May. Everyone, it seems, was saving up to pile all of their announcements at once, leaving us scrambling and our RSS feed spinning. Over the past few days, new phones were announced by BlackBerry, Nokia, Sony and Samsung while Google has been dropping all sorts of stuff in our laps at I/O and even Microsoft got in on the game by confirming Windows 8.1 will be shown next month. Surely someone could have made a few phone calls and maybe pushed their bit of news up or back a week or two.
As I write this, late at night in a hotel in San Francisco, it's Google I/O that's dominating the headlines. New Android boss Sundar Pichai promised a very dev-focused event, moving away from the consumer-heavy fireworks of years past, and that's exactly what we got, with Google spending far more time talking APIs and IDEs than tablets and smartphones.
May 17, 2013 ? Working with lab mice models of multiple sclerosis (MS), UC Davis scientists have detected a novel molecular target for the design of drugs that could be safer and more effective than current FDA-approved medications against MS.
The findings of the research study, published online today in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine could have therapeutic applications for MS as well as cerebral palsy and leukodystrophies, all disorders associated with loss of white matter, which is the brain tissue that carries information between nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord.
The target, a protein referred to as mitochondrial translocator protein (TSPO), had been previously identified but not linked to MS, an autoimmune disease that strips the protective fatty coating off nerve fibers of the brain and spinal cord. The mitrochronical TSPO is located on the outer surface of mitochondria, cellular structures that supply energy to the cells. Damage to the fatty coating, or myelin, slows the transmission of the nerve signals that enable body movement as well as sensory and cognitive functioning.
The scientists identified mitochondrial TSPO as a potential therapeutic target when mice that had symptoms of MS improved after being treated with the anti-anxiety drug etifoxine, which interacts with mitochondrial TSPO. When etifoxine, a drug clinically available in Europe, was administered to the MS mice before they had clinical signs of disease, the severity of the disease was reduced when compared to the untreated lab animals. When treated at the peak of disease severity, the animals' MS symptoms improved.
"Etifoxine has a novel protective effect against the loss of the sheath that insulates the nerve fibers that transmit the signals from brain cells," said Wenbin Deng, principal investigator of the study and associate professor of biochemistry and molecular medicine at UC Davis.
"Our discovery of etifoxine's effects on an MS animal model suggests that mitochondrial TSPO represents a potential therapeutic target for MS drug development," said Deng.
"Drugs designed to more precisely bind to mitochondrial TSPO may help repair the myelin sheath of MS patients and thereby even help restore the transmission of signals in the central nervous system that enable normal motor, sensory and cognitive functions," he said.
Deng added that better treatments for MS and other demyelinating diseases are needed, especially since current FDA-approved therapies do not repair the damage of immune attacks on the myelin sheath.
The UC Davis research team hopes to further investigate the therapeutic applications of mitochondrial TSPO in drug development for MS and other autoimmune diseases. To identify more efficacious and safer drug candidates, they plan to pursue research grants that will enable them to test a variety of pharmacological compounds that bind to mitochondrial TSPO and other molecular targets in experimental models of MS and other myelin diseases.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? Twenty-three youths have died in the past nine days at initiation ceremonies that include circumcisions and survival tests, South African police said Friday.
Police have opened 22 murder cases in the deaths in the northeastern province of Mpumalanga, according to spokesman Lt. Col. Leonard Hlathi. He said an inquest is being held into the 23rd death, of a youth who complained of stomach pains and vomited.
Initiation ceremonies are common in South Africa, where youths partake in various activities as a rite of passage into adulthood, usually over the course of three weeks. Some 30,000 youths signed up for initiation this year.
In addition to being circumcised, the boys and young men are put through a series of survival tests which sometimes include exposure to South Africa's chilly winter conditions with skimpy clothing. Their faces are painted with red clay and they also are given herbal concoctions to drink.
Nelson Mandela, the first democratically elected president of South Africa, described the experience in his autobiography as "a kind of spiritual preparation for the trials of manhood."
Hlathi said that all the deaths occurred at government-registered initiation sites where medical practitioners usually are present. The government became involved to prevent such unnecessary deaths.
Mathibela Mokoena, chairman of the House of Traditional Leaders in Mpumalanga, says the Department of Health was alerted before the initiation ceremonies began, but only showed up after the first few deaths were reported. He said the department has now agreed to have officials present for the remainder of the ceremony.
It was not immediately possible to get a response from the department. The department spokesman was on a plane, an assistant said. The minister's spokesman did not answer his phone or respond to a telephone message.
The deaths are the highest recorded in Mpumalanga, surpassing the previous highest toll of eight some years ago, Mokoena said. He said early investigation by the House of Traditional Leaders showed some schools were negligent, leaving the youths in the care of young men instead of experienced adults.
Mokoena said some of the initiates were not in ideal health when they enrolled. He said new legislation is being introduced outlining procedures to be followed, and including a punishment of a life ban for those found negligent.
The suspected causes of the deaths were not released pending the results of post-mortems. Most deaths in the past have been caused by infection and loss of blood after circumcision.
Government spokeswoman Phumla Williams said the government is sending condolences to the families and urged creation of "better and safe initiation schools that will ensure the safe passage of young initiates to manhood and prevent the unfortunate loss of lives."
NEW YORK (AP) ? Cisco Systems led the Dow Jones industrial average slightly higher Thursday after the technology company reported higher sales. Mixed corporate earnings and economic reports kept the major stock indexes flipping between slight gains and losses.
Shortly after noon, the Dow was up 12 points at 15,288. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up less than a point at 1,659.
The news on the economy Thursday wasn't encouraging. Applications for unemployment benefits rose last week, and manufacturing slowed in the mid-Atlantic region. The manufacturing report from the Philadelphia branch of the Federal Reserve sent bond prices up in morning trading and turned stocks lower, but not for long.
"We've been seeing a lot of that this year," said Scott King, an investment adviser at Unified Trust Co. in Lexington, Ky. "The news isn't great, yet the market holds tight."
Cisco jumped 13 percent, or $2.68, to $23.87. Cisco turned in quarterly results late Wednesday that beat analysts' expectations, with the help of better revenue from the U.S. and emerging markets.
The networking equipment company sells its routers, switches, software and services to corporate customers and government agencies around the world. As a result, Cisco's performance is often considered a gauge of how the technology industry is doing.
The Nasdaq rose 8 points to 3,479, a gain of 0.2 percent.
Wal-Mart fell 2 percent, the biggest drop among the 30 Dow stocks. The world's largest retailer turned in weaker sales and a dim forecast for profits. The company blamed bad weather and delayed tax refunds for earnings and sales that fell short of what analysts had expected. Wal-Mart's stock lost $1.68 to $78.11.
Companies have reported record quarterly profits this earnings season. Seven of every 10 in the S&P 500 have trumped analysts' earnings estimates, according to S&P Capital IQ. Earnings have climbed 5 percent over the year before.
But revenue has looked weak: six out of every 10 companies in the S&P 500 have missed forecasts, and revenue has edged up just 1 percent. Without higher sales, companies are getting more of their profits from laying off staff and other cost-cutting moves.
If the market is going to keep climbing this year, King said, sales will have to start rising. Analysts are looking for that to happen as economic growth gains strength later this year.
"It's hard to see how companies can squeeze more earnings growth out of cost savings," King said. "At some point, the economic numbers and revenue have to pick up."
The Philadelphia branch of the Federal Reserve reported that manufacturers in the region said business conditions have slumped this month. Orders for manufactured goods and shipments have been weak.
In Washington, the Labor Department reported that the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose last week to 360,000. That suggests companies are laying more people off, just one week after applications for benefits hit a five-year low.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note sank to 1.88 percent from 1.94 percent late Wednesday. It's a sign that traders are shifting money into low-risk investments like U.S. government debt.
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) ? Mobile phone service has been cut in areas of northeast Nigeria as the military sends more soldiers to the region to fight Islamic extremists.
An Associated Press journalist in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, found services unavailable since early Thursday morning. Mobile phone numbers belonging to government officials and military officials there and in neighboring Yobe state could not be reached.
A military spokesman in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, did not respond to requests for comment. A spokeswoman for MTN, the country's dominant carrier, would only say "no comment" when asked if the government told them to turn off service in the region.
President Goodluck Jonathan placed Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states under emergency rule on Tuesday night. Authorities announced a curfew Thursday for Adamawa state.
Earlier this week we reported on how Backupify was closing down TweetBackup, a free service to back up your Twitter account that it acquired in 2010; now we have confirmed that, as we'd heard, this is part of a bigger plan at the company to phase out consumer services altogether, as Backupify focuses its efforts on paid services for enterprise customers. From today, it will stop accepting new sign-ups for its free tier of back-up services for personal files. It is also discontinuing by the end of this year support for certain sites, including Facebook personal profiles, Blogger, Picassa and Flickr.
If?insanity?is defined as repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting a different result, the student loan interest rate throwdown that?s about to be reprised in Washington, D.C., warrants an intervention.
You may recall that at this time in 2012, Congress was in a lather over the subsidized student loan interest rates that the feds make available to financially needy students. The deficit hawks argued the program costs taxpayers some?$6 billion?annually.
So as part of the deal that was cobbled together at the 11th hour to prevent the rates from doubling, those billions were?extracted, in part, from the same consumer-learners who the program was intended to assist in the first place ? by eliminating the six-month interest-free grace period after students graduate until their first loan payment is due.
As it turned out, there were?33 billion reasons?(the estimated dollar amount the Dept. of Education expects to earn from student loans in the 2013 fiscal year) why this was a false contention, as all hell broke loose once a Congressional Budget Office memorandum?revealed?how profitable the program actually is.
[Related Article:?The Ultimate Guide to Student Loans]
The New Calculation Method, Under a Microscope
So after the recriminating articles and caustic blog posts, the White House weighed in with a proposal to spend some of those profit dollars on grants, along with a scheme to reconstitute the manner in which student loan rates are calculated.
The administration proposes pegging the interest rates for 10-year student loans to the yield of the 10-year Treasury note,?plus?the following upcharges: 0.93% for subsidized Stafford loans, 2.93% for unsubsidized loans and 3.93% for parent and graduate student PLUS loans.
Therefore, if the 10-year Treasury note yields 1.75% in today?s market, subsidized Stafford loans would run 2.68%, unsubsidized Stafford?s 4.68% and PLUS loans 5.68%?clearly better deals than what?s currently in place for each.
However, the proposed methodology is misleading because it?s not the way financial transactions are priced in the real world.
As I explained in an?earlier?post, a lender?s cost is based on a given transaction?s so-called half-life.
So, in the case of a student loan that?s structured to be fully repaid over a 10-year period, the half-life would be five years, in which case the government?s cost would correspond with the five-year Treasury note.
Although it may sound as if I?m quibbling about a bunch of calculator keystrokes, bear with me because this really is a big deal. Here?s why.
Today?s yield curve is positive ? which means it costs more to borrow money for 10 years than it does for five. At .75% for a five-year yield, the government?s true cost in today?s market is more than 1%?less?than the proposed student loan index implies.
Therefore, its spread (which is finance industry-speak for profit margin) isn?t 0.93% for subsidized loans, it?s actually more than 1.93%, and 3.93% for unsubsidized loans and 4.93% for PLUS loans.
What do all these interest rates and spreads mean? A boatload of profit.
The 2.68% subsidized loans would yield a 9.9% gross profit in today?s dollars, the 4.68% unsubsidized loans would yield 20.8%, and the 5.68% PLUS loans would yield 26.5%.
(For those who care to track my math, I calculated the loan payments for each interest rate scenario on the basis of a 120-month term loan and then discounted those values at the government?s 0.75% cost of funds across the board.)
[Related Article:?Can You Erase Student Loan Debt Through a Loophole?]
So, for the $33 billion of new loans the CBO projects will be made in 2013, if all were subsidized (which won?t happen), the government would earn $327 million for its trouble, $686 million if all were unsubsidized and $874 million if all were PLUS loans.
Look, it?s a lender?s prerogative to charge whatever rate it wants. However, in this case, a more meaningful debate would center on whether the government is in the student loan business altruistically or exploitatively.
And if altruistically, how much profit does it really need to make in order to cover its costs?
(Per Senator Elizabeth Warren?s?recently introduced bill, the answer is ?near-zero,? as the rate she proposes is equal to what the Federal Reserve currently charges its member banks, which also happens to be equal to the yield of the aforementioned 5-year Treasury note.)
A Smarter Way to Lend
If we?re going to talk pricing, shouldn?t we also have a discussion about credit underwriting criteria so that we?re not lending more to our children (and their parents) than they?ll ever be able to repay?
Look at the repayment term. Is 10 years a reasonable duration for debts that can be as large as mortgages?
Shouldn?t the standard be moved to 20 years or more so the loan payments won?t end up crowding out other borrowing for, say, cars and houses, as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau points out in its?recently published?Student Loan Affordability analysis?
And what of the deferment period? Shouldn?t we also talk about requiring interest payments while the students are still in school?
The dark side of deferments (and forbearances, for that matter) is in the negative amortization that ensues, where the unpaid interest is added to the principal amount, on which more interest is then charged.
In fact, why are we even spending so much time jawboning pricing for $33 billion of 2013 loans when we?ve done little more than tinker with and whine about the $1.1 trillion debt debacle that?s affecting many million more borrowers?
Take the recent?letter?of the Consumer Bankers Association (advocates for the retail banking industry) to the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency and chairmen of both the Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
In this letter, the CBA asks that its constituents be granted permission to offer graduated and interest-only repayment plans to their student loan borrowers.
The CBA also asks for regulatory relief from the so-called Troubled Debt Restructure (TDR) designation that its member banks claim is impeding their ability to help their financially distressed customers (an issue that?s also raised in the CFPB report and elsewhere).
[Related Article:?Can You Really Get Your Credit Score for Free?]
First of all, while graduated plans will help to make larger payments more affordable in the short run, unless the durations of the underlying loans are also extended, borrowers will soon find their principal balances will have increased in size because of the negative amortization.
Their future loan payments will also be higher than they were originally.
Second, the TDR issue is a smoke screen. I say that because when push comes to shove,?lenders are responsible for the decisions they make.
However, in this case, they are attempting to trade the financial consequences of their own mistakes for an offer to do what they should have been doing all along: restructuring the loans in a way that helps distressed borrowers with their payments.
A Better Solution
If we are truly serious about solving a problem that threatens the financial health and welfare of a generation of consumers in our consumer-driven economy, then consider the following suggestions.
1. Expand the government?s relief programs so that all education loans ? public and private alike ? are eligible.
Yes, this expansion of government largesse won?t come cheap, which is why the cost should be shared by all those who are responsible for this financial fiasco.
To start, the government?s present-day relief programs (which are currently limited to federal loans) calculate repayment amounts on the basis of discretionary income: the difference between the poverty line and total household income.
Once this program is opened up ? hopefully, with streamlined approval and documentation process ? a simpler and more effective way of going about that would be to reset the payment amount to 10% of pretax household income for up to 25 years.
A fundamental precept of good personal financial management is limiting debt payments to no more than 25% of pretax income. Therefore, allocating 10% of that 25% to education loans would leave 15% for other borrowing, spending and saving.
As for the financing for this expanded program, the debt the government would incur in due course would be self-liquidating (that is, money borrowed to finance the loans would be offset by the borrower?s repayments) and the administrative costs would presumably continue to be handled as they are today: via upfront fees that may be added to the borrower?s loan amount.
When it comes to the costs that are associated with payment delinquencies and defaults, however, these should be covered by a special-purpose government fund, one that is financially underwritten by the private lenders (the same ones that have benefitted from the high rates they?ve long charged for loans that are as bankruptcy-proof as the lower-rate alternatives the government offers on a direct basis), and also by the schools (those that blithely channeled their student borrowers toward the various loan programs without concern for their longer-term financial well being).
The private lenders? contributions can take the form of loan principal discounts to be determined by?reconciling private loan rates?with those the government offers within the context of its own relief programs.
The level of the schools? financial support can be pegged to their individual?cohort default rates, which would have the added benefit of encouraging a more judicious approach when it comes to counseling students on the long-range implications of the financial and academic decisions they?re asked to make.
2. Reform the loan servicing process.
Lenders ? government and private alike ? are outsourcing their payment collection activities to private loan servicing companies.
However, not only are these subcontractors?failing to adequately address?legitimate consumer issues, the incentive programs are warped.
Reportedly, these folks earn bonuses for remediating defaulted accounts when they should instead be held accountable for failing to prevent the negative migration of delinquent payments in the first place.
Drawing from my own lending experience, borrowers who miss one or two payments often can be brought back to current status. Those who miss three, four or more, however, are less likely to recover.
Appropriately designed loan servicing incentive programs guard against this kind of slippage ? deliberate or otherwise.
3. Reform the bankruptcy laws, tax code and assist in the rehabilitation of personal credit.
As I mentioned before, private lenders enjoy the same protections against the easy discharge of student loan debt as does the government, thanks to their successful lobbying efforts.
This needs to be undone, if only to encourage the peaceful transfer of private loan balances ? including those that have been securitized ? into the government?s relief programs.
Regarding the tax code, just as it was modified to exempt the taxable gains on forgiven mortgage debts during the housing crisis, so too should it be revised to accommodate those whose unpaid student loan balances may be forgiven over time.
And finally, when it comes to the damage done to personal credit, it would help if the clock were reset?after?a student loan is restructured or modified, rather than having the event itself continue to negatively impact credit scores and the opinions of future lenders.
Going forward, however, it would then be up to the student borrower to faithfully adhere to the reconfigured loan?s terms and conditions.
Do you have any burning student loan questions??
Follow?@CreditExperts?and?@Mint?on Twitter for a chance to ask author and student loan expert Mitchell D. Weiss all your student loan questions during our?May 21 Student Loan Chat.?
?Just How Big are the Profits Behind Student Loan Interest Rates was originally published on Credit.com and was written by?Mitchell D. Weiss,?an experienced financial services industry executive, entrepreneur and adjunct professor of finance at the University of Hartford. He is also the author of the recently published?College Happens: A Practical Handbook for Parents and Students,Life Happens: A Practical Guide to Personal Finance from College to Career-2nd Edition, and?Business Happens: A Practical Guide to Corporate Finance for Small Businesses and Professional Practices.
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