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(PRWEB) July 25, 2012

Northwest Community Hospital (NCH) has received financial grant funding from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois (BCBSIL) to provide accessible health services and education to economically disadvantaged adults and families in Chicagos northwest suburbs. The $ 36,800 in funding from BCBSILs Community Partners Grant is earmarked for NCHs Community Nursing Program, a valuable and accessible healthcare resource, particularly for the low-income Latino populations in Palatine and throughout the northwest suburbs.

We are grateful to receive such generous funding from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois. This grant supports NCHs mission to improve the health of our community through accessible and quality healthcare services, said Karen Baker, NCHs director of Community Services.

NCHs Community Nursing Program helps those who are uninsured or on public aid navigate healthcare resources, an often difficult and confusing process especially for those with limited English language skills. Community nursing addresses these barriers by improving education and facilitating access to primary care services for at-risk populations who dont have a medical home for routine check-ups and proper wellness management.

Our community nurse, who is bilingual in Spanish, bridges socioeconomic, language and cultural gaps by working with patients to assess their immediate needs, while also collaborating with and referring to community clinics to accommodate urgent cases in the appropriate setting, said Baker, adding that the goal is to provide timely interventions and to establish proper behaviors in chronic disease management before a condition becomes more serious and only treatable in the Emergency Room.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that, in Illinois, the prevalence of obesity among the Latino population is more than 7 percent higher than that of non-Hispanic whites, according to the most recent data published in 2008. This means nearly one in three Latinos are obese, and the health risks can be even greater for those not engaged in preventive health practices due to economic hardship or cultural barriers.

Based on these findings and through a comprehensive community health assessment, NCH has developed specific initiatives within the context of its community nursing program to reduce health disparities among high-risk Latinos. These efforts include nutrition and fitness education, diabetes prevention, chronic disease management education and breastfeeding promotion.

The community nurse also oversees NCHs Promotoras de Salud program, a nationally recognized model in which bilingual women from the community deliver important health education to their peers. Some Promotoras are specially trained as breastfeeding peer counselors who can provide Latina moms with prenatal education on the benefits of breastfeeding, as well as post-delivery one-on-one support for new moms.

While NCHs Community Nursing Program is based out of the Palatine Opportunity Center, services are widely available to under resourced residents throughout the northwest suburbs. To learn more about Community Services at NCH and its wide range of community health initiatives and cultural resources, visit http://www.nch.org/community.

Source: http://5280automation.com/home-automation/nch-receives-grant-to-address-the-healthcare-needs-of-its-low-income-neighbors/

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Mars rover gets ready to roll with new brain

NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS

One small piece of the Curiosity rover's high-resolution panorama shows the spacecraft's high-gain antenna in the foreground, a blast mark left behind by the rover's sky-crane descent stage at lower right, and the rim of Gale Crater in the far background.

By Alan Boyle

NASA's Curiosity rover is almost fully reprogrammed for its two-year, $2.5 billion science mission on Mars, and mission managers say it should be ready to take its first short drive in about a week.

The final phase of Curiosity's four-day software transition was getting under way today, NASA spokesman Guy Webster said. The software for science operations, known as R10, has already been installed successfully on the rover's primary computer and is currently managing the rover's functions. All that remained was to finish installing the same software on the backup computer.


The software switchover called for removing the thousands of lines of code that were required for managing Curiosity's flight from Earth to Mars, as well as the instructions for the entry, descent and landing sequence known as the "seven minutes of terror." The R10 software package instead provides Curiosity with full use of its autonomous driving system and all the tools on its robotic arm. Curiosity's 4 gigabytes of data storage capacity wasn't enough to hold the entire software suite in its brain simultaneously.

The rover team put science operations on the back burner during the reprogramming.

"After the software transition, we go back to preparing the rover to be fully functional for surface operations," mission manager Art Thompson said today in a news release. "We are looking forward to the first drive in about a week."

The first short drive will be part of a routine to check out the rover's equipment as well as the characteristics of the landing site in Gale Crater.

Over the weekend, the Curiosity team released a partial panorama incorporating 79 high-resolution pictures from the rover's Mastcam imaging system. Each picture in the mosaic measures 1,200 by 1,200 pixels ??and the full-resolution panorama, including the black patches of missing data, amounted to more than 120 megapixels.

NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS

This strip is a massively scaled-down version of the full high-resolution panorama provided by the Curiosity rover team. The high-gain antenna is visible toward the left side of the strip. A dark dune field can be seen in front of the crater's mountain toward the middle of the image.

Even the limited view strengthened the impression that Gale Crater was reminiscent of California's Mojave Desert. One part of the picture shows a section of the crater wall, north of the landing site, where a network of valleys enters Gale Crater from the outside. NASA's image advisory says this is the first view that scientists have had of a one-time river system from the Martian surface.

One big difference between Gale and Mojave is the presence of a 3-mile-high (5-kilometer-high) mountain in the middle of the Martian crater, known as Mount Sharp or Aeolis Mons. The partial panorama doesn't show the full rise of the mountain to its peak, but even the limited view shows a dark, distant dune field, and then the layered buttes and mesas of the mountain's environs farther beyond.

Eventually, scientists plan to send Curiosity up the mountainside to document billions of years of geological history on Mars. During the?odyssey during which the rover will use a laser zapper, a drill, an onboard laboratory and other scientific instruments to determine how hospitable the region was to life in ancient times.

Curiosity's primary mission is due to last an entire Martian year, the equivalent of nearly two Earth years, but scientists hope the nuclear-powered rover will last even longer. The rover team is due to discuss the road ahead during a media teleconference at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT) Tuesday. Audio of the event will be streamed live online via NASA's website.

More about Mars:


Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBC News' other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Source: http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/13/13264829-reprogrammed-mars-rover-getting-ready-to-roll?lite

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US-Spain basketball final is a rematch of '08

LONDON (AP) ? The Americans say they are better than they were four years ago. So do the stats.

But they might not be the only ones.

In the rematch of the gold-medal game that produced a classic at the Beijing Olympics, the U.S. will square off against the Spaniards again.

"Spain is a better team than '08," LeBron James said. "We understand that they're a better team, so it's going to be a good game. So we look forward to it."

Who wouldn't, given the Olympic classic they staged in Beijing.

The U.S. completed its climb back to the top of international basketball with a 118-107 victory, pulling away after Spain was within four points in the final 2? minutes. The game was 40 end-to-end minutes of all offense, all the time, and the Americans could be even more potent now.

They are averaging 116.7 points ? just slightly off the Dream Team's record of 117.3 per game ? and set the Olympic record with 156 in an 83-point victory over Nigeria. They are averaging 10 points more than the '08 squad and winning by eight more points per game, and with James, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony, the U.S. has enough hot hands to occupy an octopus.

"We obviously have a lot of talent. Our team here is pretty ridiculous," Bryant said.

The rematch between the world's No. 1 and No. 2 teams was widely expected coming into the games, but Spain hasn't always looked up to the challenge in London.

The Spaniards lost twice in the preliminary round, then faced an 11-point halftime deficit against Russia in the semifinals after managing just 20 points ? which is about seven minutes worth of work for the Americans.

Spain rallied for a 67-59 victory, saying afterward how rewarding it was just to get to the gold-medal game while facing a number of injuries. And as the players hugged members of the Spanish royal family, then talked about the difficult circumstances they've overcome, they had the appearance of a team whose work was done, more ready for a vacation than another game within 48 hours.

"I'm not buying that," James said. "It's the same story you hear from Boston every year. They're hurt, they're old, not going to be able to compete, and then next thing you know finals come around, Eastern Conference finals, and they're right there. So I'm not buying that."

Nor is Durant.

"They're probably fooling you guys," he said. "They're a really, really good team. They play hard, they're a tough team, competitive, so it's not going to be a walk in the park for us."

Spain brings size the U.S. can't match, with brothers Pau and Marc Gasol, and Oklahoma City forward Serge Ibaka, who has played professionally in the Spanish leagues and became a Spanish national last year. The Americans will be forced to have James or Anthony defend Marc Gasol, who was an NBA All-Star this year and is much more of a threat than he was in Beijing.

"If I have to defend him, I have to keep him off the glass, rebound," James said. "There's also two sides of the court. If I'm guarding him, he's got to guard me."

Good luck with that, Marc.

James can cap off one of basketball's greatest individual seasons with a second gold medal and join Michael Jordan as the only players to win the NBA regular-season MVP, NBA Finals MVP, NBA title and Olympic title in the same year.

Jordan did it in 1992, when the Dream Team toyed with opponents who weren't ready to play basketball at the highest level yet. Things have changed now, yet the victory margins really haven't, the U.S. still clobbering teams who are much better than the caliber of competition guys like Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird faced.

The Americans returned to Barcelona last month and routed the Spaniards 100-78 in an exhibition game in which Spain rested Marc Gasol and backup point guard Sergio Rodriguez. Pau Gasol said the Spanish understand the U.S. is a powerful team and the game will be difficult, but it won't prevent his team from fighting.

"It's a huge opportunity," Gasol said. "Very few people get a chance to compete in a final, an Olympic final, in their careers, in their lives, and we are so fortunate that we have our second chance."

Rudy Fernandez, Spain's leading scorer in the 2008 final with 22 points, and fellow star Juan Carlos Navarro have battled nagging injuries this year. The Spanish had already lost dazzling NBA rookie Ricky Rubio, who started for them four years ago and is a much improved player now.

But both James and Anthony dismissed the notion that if the Americans are better than they were in 2008, they should win this game more easily now.

"We want to win. It don't matter. We still believe that if we win by one or two points, we're still going to believe that this team is better than '08," Anthony said.

It's expected to be the last international game for Bryant and U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski. And it could be the final appearance in red, white and blue for James and Anthony, rookies in 2004 when the U.S. hit its Olympic low point and now poised to go out on top.

"It's out the roof," Anthony said, describing his excitement level. "It's my second gold-medal game to be a part of, with this team, with this group of guys. And just to know the excitement level that everybody has for this game, it's going to be exciting."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-spain-basketball-final-rematch-08-041213202--oly.html

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Tuckman's Stages Of Group Development Help Us Better ...

tuckman model team buildingTeam building doesn?t happen overnight ? it is a process. Read this article on Tuckman?s stages of group development, and how managers need to give their teams apple time to gel.

We see it so often in professional sports: a top football club will spend millions of pounds on the world?s best players, but they just do not seem to come together and play cohesively as a team at the level that their talents would suggest. One would assume that when you assemble a talented team, the talent alone would be enough to establish productivity and quality. This, however, is not generally the case.

Bruce Tuckman?s landmark study on team building in the 1960s suggest that group development is a process, and in many instances, things can get worse before they get better.

The Happy Manager has a wonderful synopsis of Tuckman?s theory, which lays out the four key stages:??forming?, ?storming?, ?norming? and ?performing?.? These four stages account for the growth and progression of a successful team, ??from their creation as groups of individuals, to cohesive, task-focused teams.?

Forming

The ?forming? stage often features a high level of morale and can set the productivity bar high at the onset, since at this stage, coworkers are still getting to know one another and feeling each other out. Because of the widespread lack of familiarity, the ice has yet to be broken, and while very early team processes might seem effective, they are usually not representative of the team?s full potential.

Storming

This stage represents the natural downturn in a team?s progression towards successful teamwork and productivity. Once team members begin to familiarize themselves with other personalities in the group, initial power struggles and protective, isolationist work practices can begin to get in the way of smooth, effective workflow. This is due to the fact that few teams fully outline or understand work responsibilities from the very outset of their team formation, as business processes tend to evolve over time.

It can be said that the ?storming? stage is the true ?danger zone? for managers and employees, since managers can give up too easily of team formations in stage, and damaging interpersonal conflicts can occur which can be hard to ?walk back? in the long term.

Norming

While in the ?storming? stage, managers have to keep the ?norming? phase on the horizon, and mitigate the growing pains of a team in order to reach full productivity and potential down the line. Once a team manages to move out of the storming phase, they begin to know and accept their place within the business process, and work in tandem with their coworkers. If a manager can position his or her team in the norming phase, it is here that productivity, quality, confidence, and communication begin to grow exponentially.

Performing

This final stage is an open-ended one that represents the full maturing of the team building process. It is where a team truly becomes ?veteran? and works optimally and confidently, so that the company can rely on them on a consistent basis for steady productivity and the ability to meet even challenging, time-critical demands.

Teams get to this level by settling in comfortably to their individual roles, relying on their coworkers? complementary skills and contributions, and understanding what it expected from them at the managerial level.

Where Team Building Events Can Help in the Tuckman Model

From a team building events perspective, where can one expect to get the most ROI in the Tuckman model? At what stage should a company use a team building event?

There are two areas along Tuckman?s margin that are ripe for a team building event: the first is in the ?storming? stage. In this range, team building events can help to mitigate the potential damage that the storming stage can cause. For this reason, it is ideal for a team to engage in an event before they bottom out on the scale, as the low-point usually represents a potential ?point of no return.?

The other stage where team building events can be particularly helpful are in the ?Performing? stage. In this stage, even seasoned teams can run the risk of becoming stale or sedentary in their processes, and in this way, a team building events tailored for reenergizing a team and encouraging them to ?think out of the box? can yield a measurable ROI.

It?s worth noting that not all team perfectly follow the Tuckman model ? not all team building trajectories are the same. However, most teams progress along tuck man?s line in some relative similar fashion, so it is worth keeping it in focus for all of your team building efforts.

Thanks for reading our article! Are you looking to plan a team building event for your business? Be sure to target="_blank">contact Accolade Corporate Events for a FREE consultation today!

Tags: Tuckman

Source: http://www.accolade-corporate-events.com/team-building-blog/2012/08/tuckmans-stages-of-group-development-help-us-better-understand-the-process-of-team-building/

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How to Promote Your Business Like it's a Hollywood Blockbuster ...

If you?re struggling for ideas as to how to promote your business, then look to the stars! The Hollywood stars that is! While most businesses can only dream of budgets to match those of a blockbuster movie, don?t worry, you don?t need to have a budget of millions in order to create budget busting hype.

In the small business world, you can mimic a Hollywood campaign by building up the release of your new product, or by launching a special offer.

Let?s take a look at how some movie promotion tactics can translate into the small business world.

Posters

A sure sign of an impending blockbuster movie is that you suddenly see posters all over town. It probably isn?t feasible for you to do the same, but posters and flyers on a smaller scale are still a great tool for certain businesses. For those on a small budget you could print off your own posters for new product launches or offers and display them in local shop windows. If you have a big campaign to promote, maybe you could even get a full size billboard for a few weeks in a strategic local position.

Trailers

For really big films, even the trailer release can be a big deal! It?s not unheard of for people to go and see a certain movie just for a glimpse of the trailer for a bigger movie that?s on beforehand! With YouTube, everyone can be their own movie star and it?s perfect for small business. You can make your own videos advertising your products and services, like this one ? SEO Altrincham, and send the links out on emails, Facebook, Twitter, or your preferred social platform. For those who are camera shy you don?t need to appear on screen as there are sites that allow you to produce professional quality video without even owning a camera.

Launches

When a new film comes out you often hear of launch parties, invite only events for the super glamorous or advance screenings for a select few. Translate this into your business by having a special invite only event for your new product launch. You could invite a few long term customers and use the occasion to gauge their long term interest in your business. Or, you could say the event is for the first 10 responders and offer those people a special price for first come, first served. The aim of the game is to create desire by offering exclusivity, or the appearance of exclusivity.

If it?s an actual event make sure you take pictures or video and get comments from your guests as you can then use the footage as content for your website and to promote your business even further.

Giveaways

Everyone loves a freebie! Hollywood films may stretch their budget to offer trips to their studio in LA or a new car as a competition prize. What giveaways can you offer that are more appropriate to your business? People will fill in feedback forms at a restaurant for ?5 off their next bill, or they?ll cross the street to get a drink sample that?s being handed out. If you have an online business you could offer a series of downloads, or video tuition. Make sure that whatever you?re giving away it won?t bankrupt you and use it as a way to get customer buy in and contact details so that you can get something back from them in the future.

Press Releases

Have something newsworthy? Don?t wait for the press to find you, write your own press releases and submit them to PR sites. There are sites you can submit news to for free such as PR Web who will then syndicate your release across the internet. Before you publish your release, you need to make sure that you use correct search engine optimisation techniques so you both search engines and people find it.

Some examples of when you could use a press release to promote your business would be; promoting a local event, a new product with some great benefits or if you have won an industry accolade it might make a more interesting story than your Q1 sales figures.

Premier

A movie premier is a big event, build up can last for months culminating in all the stars, the director, producers and crew attending a screening that will be photographed for the world press and have hundreds of fans lining up to see their favourite celebrities.

You could have a countdown to your launch date on your website. If you?ve followed the tips above and made videos, press releases, held your launch event and done giveaways, then your ?premier? event should herald an increase in customer interest and hopefully a sales boost will follow.

For the Grand Finale, make sure you follow up with feedback from the event, get reviews from customers and update your website with news. After all, a Hollywood blockbuster isn?t just about the premier it?s about the critics reviews, the awards the DVD release and the merchandising

There you have it, learning how to promote your business like it?s a Hollywood blockbuster is not difficult, with the right script you too can become a star!

Source: http://www.business2community.com/strategy/how-to-promote-your-business-like-its-a-hollywood-blockbuster-0242346

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Successful Health And Fitness Tips That Will Certainly Modification ...

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Article by Harry88

Let?s begin this discussion by acknowledging that maintaining Fitness is not easy and it?s often not much fun either. But, we must also acknowledge that it is extremely important if one wants to stay healthy. Fortunately, extreme measures are not required. Just a little time and effort on your part is all that?s needed. It might even be fun.eat a carbohydrate heavy meal before participating in an invigorating exercise routine. Carbohydrates will fuel your Body and provide you with the energy you need to get through your workout. They will also help you to feel satisfied. eat your meal about thirty minutes before beginning to exercise.If you want to improve your putting, try to aim approximately 17 inches past the hole for straight-on putts. The reason for this is because these 17 inches surrounding the cup will not have any footprints. This means that the blades of grass are thicker, which will cause your putts to drastically slow down.Reduce stress on your muscles and avoid injury by warming-up before working out. Adequately warming-up will loosen up stiff muscles and get the blood flowing to them. Sudden movements on muscles that have not been properly warmed-up prior to exercise can result in pulled muscles, strains, and even tears.Getting a massage after you work out can be both a pleasant treat and a smart fitness booster. In the same way that a post-workout stretching routine can help you cool down, a vigorous massage can lessen the negative impact of harsh exercise. Massages are especially effective for preventing muscle soreness.Many people think that becoming fit means you need to lose weight, but in many cases it can mean the exact opposite. Being underweight can be just as much of a problem as being too fat. A medical professional should always be consulted in order to see exactly what is going on.Need some ideas for adding exercise to your daily routine? Try simply adding more activity to everything you do. Walking to a further water fountain or restroom at work will increase the number of steps you take in a day and walking a little faster when going up stairs or walking across a parking lot can add intensity to those steps.When you get injured from working out the best thing you can do for your body is to rest it. Use the acronym RICE: rest, ice, compression and elevation. Many sports medicine therapists advocate RICE when it comes to sprained ankles or other damage portions of the body. These instructions will help the injuries heal and also relieve some of the pain generated by the damaged muscles.Yoga is a great exercise that you can do almost anywhere. It may look easy, but doing yoga stances correctly can give you an intense workout that builds core strength and flexibility. Not only can you burn calories and build muscle, but you can even do it in front of the TV!Abdominal exercises should be paired with lower-back exercises. Everyone wants to exercise their abs to develop an attractive stomach. Too few people remember that the abdominal muscles are paired with the muscles in the lower back. Working out one while neglecting the other can effect posture negatively and cause back pain.Summer heat can really make it hard to get out and get the exercise that you want and need to get. Try to drink a low calorie slushie before or after your run. It will cool your body temperature down and give you a refreshing way to rehydrate after a long run.In order to avoid injuries, you should give your shoes an expiration date. You can use a pair of shoes for about 500 miles before it is time to replace them. To figure out when you should set your shoes expiration date, divide 500 by your weekly mileage. Write the expiration date on your shoes when you purchase them to be sure that you do not forget it.Have some hot peppers with your meals. Hot peppers will help you attain your fitness goals by speeding up your bodies hormone production. That, in turn, increases your metabolism and allows you to get more out of your workout routines. People who eat hot peppers tend to snack less.If you?re working on your overall fitness with running and are looking to increase your stamina, pick up the speed. If you avoid lengthening your stride and rely instead on taking quicker short steps, your body will acclimate to harder training quicker. You?ll be prepared for your next marathon in no time!Most people know the importance of stretching before a workout, but many do not hold their stretches long enough. Younger people should opt for a minimum of 30 seconds for each stretch. When you are topping 40 it becomes important to hold for at least 60 seconds because muscles are less pliable as we age. Allow time in your routine for full stretching.So to sum everything up, fitness isn?t always a fun pursuit, and it?s rarely easy, but with the proper attitude and training, it can Certainly be more of both. No one expects you to begin the long journey to a lifetime of fitness all alone. Help it out there, but first you have to make the decision to get started.

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Thanks for reading my post. If you are still looking for ways to lose weight rapidly, then you need to come over to learn more about lose weight quickly now.

Do you want to start lose weight faster today? Then you can take a look at how to loose weight fast now.












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Source: http://howcanyouloseweighttoday.com/2012/08/11/successful-health-and-fitness-tips-that-will-certainly-modification-your-body-weight-loss-hypnosis/

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How do you deal with stress during pregnancy? | Family Encyclopedia

My job can be very stressful so, I want some ideas on how to safely handle the stresses of life during pregnancy. I know that some herbs must be avoided during pregnancy; this is why I mention my pregnancy. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Exercise always helps with stress, might look into yoga. Probably should check with a doctor before doing anything to make sure won?t hurt the baby.

Maybe you are interested in

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Source: http://www.familyencyclopedia.net/how-do-you-deal-with-stress-during-pregnancy

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Foreclosure Actions Increase in 60 Percent of ... - Clear Bankruptcy

Even though the recession has officially ended, the American economy continues to sputter along, as evidenced by the recent news that home foreclosure filings increased in three out of five major American cities.

In the first half of 2012, foreclosure actions increased in 60 percent of U.S. cities with populations of at least 200,000, according to a recent report from Bloomberg Businessweek .

All told, more than one million homes in major metropolitan areas were subject to default, auction, or repossession notices, which represents a jump of 1.5 percent from the last six months of 2011, sources say.

Home Foreclosures Rise Across the Country

Across the country, one out of every 126 households faced a possible foreclosure in the first half of 2011, according to RealtyTrac, a company that tracks real estate data.

Of the 212 cities that qualify as ?major? under the company?s formula, 125 saw an increase in foreclosure filings.

The foreclosure news was worst in Tampa, Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York City, all of which had the largest increase of filings among the top 20 most populated American cities.

Of course, not every American city saw the floodgates of foreclosure open up. Several large cities actually saw their foreclosure numbers decline, including Boston, San Diego, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle, where foreclosure actions dropped by a staggering 24 percent.

But despite these pockets of success, the majority of American cities seem to be experiencing a foreclosure renaissance, which is bad news for consumers who are already weighed down by excessive debts.

Some analysts believe that the rising tide of mortgage debt could lead more filers to file for bankruptcy, which may serve as a powerful tool against home foreclosure.

Reason for Foreclosure Spree

Sources say that foreclosures took a downward turn at the end of 2011 as investigations into abusive lending practices delayed banks? efforts to seize homes across the country.

However, now that the dispute over aggressive lending practices is more or less over, sources expect foreclosures to continue rising for the foreseeable future.

The trend appears to have the most significant consequences for the state of California, which has seven of the 10 highest municipal foreclosure rates, according to sources.

And it also holds the cities with the three highest foreclosure rates in the county. These cities are Riverside, Modesto, and Stockton, which famously filed for bankruptcy this month, thanks in part to sinking revenues caused by a vast reduction in the city?s property tax base.

Source: http://www.clearbankruptcy.com/blog/foreclosure-actions-increase-in-60-percent-of-major-us-cities/

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Mitt Romney's green-jobs criticism carries risks

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney poses with a bust of famed baseball announcer, Harry Caray, after a private fundraising event at Harry Caray's Italian Steakhouse restaurant in Chicago, Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney poses with a bust of famed baseball announcer, Harry Caray, after a private fundraising event at Harry Caray's Italian Steakhouse restaurant in Chicago, Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama makes a statement on the ongoing efforts on the drought during a meeting of the White House Rural Council in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2012. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney campaigns at Acme Industries in Elk Grove Village, Ill.,Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama holds a meeting on the ongoing efforts on the drought during a meeting of the White House Rural Council in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2012. From left are, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the president and Small Business Administration Administrator Karen Mills. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

(AP) ? Mitt Romney's presidential campaign has been savaging what it calls President Barack Obama's "unhealthy" obsession with "green jobs." The Republican challenger criticizes the government program that propped up solar manufacturer Solyndra, and he mocks Obama's vision of a boom in employment, citing a European study to argue that new solar or wind-energy positions would destroy jobs elsewhere.

But when a campaign spokesman said last week that Congress should let a tax break for wind energy producers expire at the end of the year, some Republicans were concerned the candidate had gone too far.

Republican Rep. Tom Latham, R-Iowa, noting that nearly 7,000 Iowans work in the wind industry, assailed the Romney campaign for "a lack of full understanding of how important the wind energy tax credit is for Iowa and our nation." Iowa's senior senator, Chuck Grassley, told reporters he didn't believe Romney really opposed the extension, and he joined five other GOP lawmakers in voting for it in the Senate Finance Committee.

The Obama campaign quickly organized conference calls for reporters and circulated fact sheets showing the deep support the credit has in such swing-voting states as Iowa, Colorado and Nevada.

Obama will appear in Denver and western Colorado Wednesday to promote his economic plan, and the wind tax credit may well come up.

The backlash on the wind tax issue shows the risks Romney takes in targeting a fast-growing and popular industry that Obama has embraced. However, Romney's aides argue the campaign is just making a principled economic argument against excessive government interference in the marketplace ? one that the conservative movement, which Romney has struggled to win over, has praised.

Indeed, Patrick Hedger, a researcher at FreedomWorks, a small-government group that is a prominent backer of the tea party movement, called Romney's position "a happy surprise." He added that Republicans who feared a political cost from Romney's position were stuck in an outdated way of thinking. "We've got to get out of this cycle of buying votes with money we don't have," Hedger said.

But critics contend that Romney, who counts members of the fossil fuels industry as major financial supporters and relies on the head of an oil company as his energy adviser, has backed himself into a corner. "I think it's really a knee-jerk reaction to what this president has done," said Jeff Gohringer, a spokesman for the League of Conservation Voters. "He (Romney) is actually going to states and advocating cutting thousands of their jobs."

Surveys show the industry's popularity. A Gallup poll in March found Americans nearly twice as likely to favor wind and solar energy as coal or oil. The American Wind Energy Association released a poll last month showing that more than half of Iowa's voters say they would not back a presidential candidate who did not support expanding wind power. A January poll by Colorado College found that a majority of voters in six Western states believe that expanding renewable energy will create more jobs.

In Colorado, GOP Rep. Doug Lamborn says he was pleased the Romney campaign took a stand against the tax credit. "It shows he's standing on principle and not pandering to win votes," Lamborn said. But Lamborn is the only one of the state's seven congressional representatives to oppose the extension.

Obama made green jobs a focus of his 2008 campaign, and he included tens of billions of dollars in incentives to promote energy efficiency and the renewable industry in federal stimulus efforts. After Solyndra's bankruptcy last year, Republicans lined up to criticize the administration program that guaranteed the firm's loans, and Romney has broadened the attack to the administration's support for the entire industry, even in states where it is popular.

During a May stop in Colorado, where the poll from Colorado College found two-thirds of residents believe renewable energy will create jobs, Romney mocked Obama for spending billions to create "green jobs." He asked the crowd: "Have you seen those jobs anywhere?"

The Romney campaign argues that what it calls "much-ballyhooed" wind and solar jobs may actually lessen the total number of jobs available because they replace positions in dirtier, but more labor-intensive industries. It cites a controversial Spanish study that found that every renewable energy job in that country destroyed 2.2 others.

"In place of real energy, Obama has focused on an imaginary world where government-subsidized windmills and solar panels could power the economy," Romney wrote in a March op-ed piece published in The Columbus Dispatch in Ohio. "This vision has failed."

The Obama campaign has been eager to respond, especially after an Iowa Romney campaign spokesman, Shawn McCoy, said last week that the candidate favored doing away with the wind tax credit.

"Mitt Romney would slash investments in clean energy, which would cede leadership of these critical sectors of our economy to competitors like China and India ? and the jobs that go with them," the Obama campaign said in a statement, adding that the Republican has opposed ending tax breaks for the oil industry.

The American Wind Energy Association estimates that 37,000 jobs would be lost if the tax credit isn't extended this year. The credit was created in a 1992 energy bill signed by President George H.W. Bush and was renewed in a 2005 measure that passed a Republican Congress and was signed by President George W. Bush.

The Obama administration gave Romney an opening by overselling the promise of renewable energy jobs, said Jonathan Rothwell, a senior associate at the Brookings Institution who helped write a report on the growth of green jobs. The jobs will come, Rothwell said, but it will probably take a couple of decades. "The Obama administration did exaggerate the short-term benefits of the green economy by implying it would drive us out of the recession," he said.

Rothwell noted that renewable energy jobs are well-dispersed across the country and, while small in number, are growing rapidly. "That explains why there is broad, and in some cases bipartisan support," he said.

The issue came up in an annual green energy conference hosted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday in Las Vegas.

Obama's interior secretary, former Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar, noted that the Senate Finance Committee agreed on the proposal last week to extend the wind energy tax credit.

"That shows it ought not to be a Republican or Democratic issue, it ought to be an American issue," Salazar said, stating the administration view.

Reid said he was confident it would pass by the end of the year.

___

Associated Press writer Ken Ritter contributed from Las Vegas.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-08-07-Presidential%20Campaign-Wind%20Energy/id-b5224ae147844c1eb9b7e0b806389055

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Olympic Viewing: Different NBC rules on Twitter

Despite some lingering dissatisfaction with NBC's practice of holding back television coverage of high-profile events for prime time, things are different on Twitter.

NBC's Olympics Twitter feed regularly reports news of events as they happen, as does the network's website. The Twitter feed also sends out alerts to followers shortly before big events are to take place, directing fans to live feeds of the action available online. This stands in contrast to television coverage, where the idea of not spoiling the experience for people who want to be surprised in the evening holds sway.

NBC would have lost credibility with the online community if things were done differently, said Jeff Jarvis, a media critic who writes the Buzzmachine.com blog.

"On the Net, they have to play by the Net's rules," Jarvis said. "On TV, they can play by their rules."

Now is essentially the only time zone on the Web, he said. NBC would have stuck out with other news organizations actively reporting news as it happens. NBC also believes ? and research bears this out so far ? that the people who actively seek out news of the games on the Web will also watch their broadcasts, and create a buzz that drives up interest among others.

Jarvis said he'd occasionally been frustrated to get a tweet announcing a result when it hadn't been made clear when the event was taking place so he could watch it online. But after a few initial problems, he believes the online component of NBC's coverage has run fairly smoothly.

SNOOZE-FEST: It's difficult to broadcast blowouts, but during the U.S.-Canada women's basketball game, the camera cut to a shot of Candace Parker and Shelden Williams' daughter snoozing in the stands, and the announcers noted that the third quarter is generally when the U.S. team puts its opponents to sleep. Never a good idea to encourage your audience to doze off or, even worse, give such an obvious invitation to tune out.

DRESSAGE: Mitt Romney couldn't be there, but the NBC Sports Network gave him a chance to see Rafalca, the horse that his wife Ann co-owns, in the dressage competition. Anchor Tim Ryan said Ann Romney was there to watch, but NBC offered only a couple of very brief crowd shots, and it wasn't clear whether Romney was in any of them.

WORLDWIDE: The International Olympic Committee is estimating that almost 900 million people across the world watched at least part of the opening ceremonies for the London Games. It's often difficult to come by worldwide viewership figures; IOC television and marketing director Timo Lumme said about 80 of the 200 national television markets have audited figures and the rest are estimates. Lumme said Usain Bolt's win in the 100-meter final will likely be the most-watched single event of the Olympics worldwide. Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium said that was true in its country ? with 6.2 million viewers, the Bolt race outpaced anything on the telecast so far.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-08-07-Armchair%20Olympics/id-d9adbbb150054ec6acfcc8378a57e471

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