Europe has bought themselves some time by injecting all of this liquidity, says Ed Yardeni, Yardeni Research, who says there will be another injection in February.
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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/45824423/
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>>> there's outrage over customer fees. starting next month verizon will charge you extra if you pay your bill online. nbc's pete williams has details. it's not going to go over well.
>> verizon is calling this a convenience fee , $2 for the convenience of paying wireless phone and internet bills directly to verizon online, on the company's website or by phone, but the company says there are many ways to avoid the fee. the new fee goes into effect in two weeks for verizon wireless , the largest wireless service provider . january 15th they'll be charged $2 each month extra if they go to the company's website or pay by phone, that's $2 each time the bill is paid.
>> it's annoying, one doesn't like to be pushed and i'm sure it sucks.
>> everybody's doing it, and i don't know what you can do about it but we don't like it.
>> it's a little bit unfair so it's going to affect how i think about verizon .
>> reporter: verizon wireless says there are many ways to avoid paying the $2 charge and says most customers already take advantage of them. the company will not charge the fee if customers who enroll in automatic billing from a credit, debit, atm or checking account or pay by mailing in a check, going to the verizon wireless store or kiosk to pay in person, logging onto their own online banks to pay the bill, using the company's gift or rebate cards or pay by electronic checking. word of the fee comes over a battle of the plan to raise fees for debit cards . three card issuers backed down from new charges in the face of customer protest. verizon wireless may be trying to push more customers into using the automatic billing option because the company gets its payments on time that way. verizon wireless says the fee is intended to offset what the company describes is the cost of handling monthly payments sent in online or by phone and the word of the new fee is just coming out now. the company says customers will be notified directly.
Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/45824315/
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![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 27-Dec-2011
Share ] Contact: Stefan Blankenberg, M.D.
s.blankenberg@uke.de
JAMA and Archives Journals
CHICAGO For patients admitted to an emergency department with chest pain, use of a contemporary or highly sensitive test for levels of troponin I (a protein in muscle tissue) may help rule-out a diagnosis of heart attack, while changes in the measured levels of this biomarker at 3 hours after admission may be useful to confirm a diagnosis of heart attack, according to a study in the December 28 issue of JAMA.
One of the most common reasons patients seek care in an emergency department is for acute chest pain. "Early identification of individuals at high and intermediate risk for myocardial ischemia [insufficient blood flow to the heart muscle] is crucial because they benefit the most from early and aggressive treatment. According to international consensus and task force definitions of myocardial infarction [(MI; heart attack], the diagnosis of MI is based mainly on an elevated cardiac troponin level exceeding the 99th percentile and demonstrating an increase or decrease over time," the authors write. Highly sensitive troponin assays have been developed recently that reliably assess troponin levels in more than 50 percent of the general population. "The reliable detection of very low troponin concentrations using these new highly sensitive assays in the acute setting might pose a challenge in everyday clinical practice."
Till Keller, M.D., of the University Heart Center Hamburg, Germany, and colleagues evaluated the diagnostic performance of the newly developed highly sensitive troponin I (hsTnI) assay compared with a contemporary troponin I (cTnI) assay and their serial changes in the diagnosis of heart attack. The study included a total of 1,818 patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome (condition such as heart attack or angina) who were enrolled at chest pain units in Germany from 2007 to 2008. Twelve biomarkers including hsTnI and cTnI were measured on admission and after 3 and 6 hours.
Of the patients in the study, 413 (22.7 percent) had a final discharge diagnosis of acute MI. For discrimination of acute MI, both hsTnI and cTnI were superior to the other evaluated diagnostic biomarkers. Using the 99th percentile cutoff, hsTnI on admission had a sensitivity of 82.3 percent and negative predictive value (NPV) of 94.7 percent; hsTnI determined after 3 hours had a sensitivity of 98.2 percent with NPV of 99.4 percent. Compared with hsTnI, the cTnI assay (using the 99th percentile as cutoff) had comparable sensitivity and NPV: 79.4 percent sensitivity and 94.0 percent NPV on admission, and 98.2 percent sensitivity and 99.4 percent NPV after 3 hours.
"Combining the 99th percentile cutoff at admission with the serial change in troponin concentration within 3 hours, the positive predictive value (for ruling in AMI) for hsTnI increased from 75.1 percent at admission to 95.8 percent after 3 hours, and for cTnl increased from 80.9 percent at admission to 96.1 percent after 3 hours," the authors write.
"The shortcoming of conventional troponin assays with low sensitivity within the first hours after chest pain onset led to the evaluation of various so-called early biomarkers in the diagnosis of MI. In our study, the diagnostic information of hsTnI was superior to all other evaluated biomarkers alone."
"Use of hsTnI and cTnI assays in patients with suspected MI provides useful diagnostic information," the researchers write. "Determination of hsTnI and cTnI values 3 hours after admission to the emergency department with use of the 99th percentile cutoff provides an NPV greater than 99 percent, potentially allowing a safe rule-out of MI. Application of the relative change in hsTnI or cTnI concentration within 3 hours after admission in combination with the 99th percentile diagnostic cutoff value on admission improves specificity and may facilitate an accurate early rule-in of MI."
###
(JAMA. 2011;306[24]:2684-2693. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://www.jamamedia.org)
Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
To contact corresponding author Stefan Blankenberg, M.D., email s.blankenberg@uke.de
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 27-Dec-2011 Share ] Contact: Stefan Blankenberg, M.D.
s.blankenberg@uke.de
JAMA and Archives Journals
CHICAGO For patients admitted to an emergency department with chest pain, use of a contemporary or highly sensitive test for levels of troponin I (a protein in muscle tissue) may help rule-out a diagnosis of heart attack, while changes in the measured levels of this biomarker at 3 hours after admission may be useful to confirm a diagnosis of heart attack, according to a study in the December 28 issue of JAMA.
One of the most common reasons patients seek care in an emergency department is for acute chest pain. "Early identification of individuals at high and intermediate risk for myocardial ischemia [insufficient blood flow to the heart muscle] is crucial because they benefit the most from early and aggressive treatment. According to international consensus and task force definitions of myocardial infarction [(MI; heart attack], the diagnosis of MI is based mainly on an elevated cardiac troponin level exceeding the 99th percentile and demonstrating an increase or decrease over time," the authors write. Highly sensitive troponin assays have been developed recently that reliably assess troponin levels in more than 50 percent of the general population. "The reliable detection of very low troponin concentrations using these new highly sensitive assays in the acute setting might pose a challenge in everyday clinical practice."
Till Keller, M.D., of the University Heart Center Hamburg, Germany, and colleagues evaluated the diagnostic performance of the newly developed highly sensitive troponin I (hsTnI) assay compared with a contemporary troponin I (cTnI) assay and their serial changes in the diagnosis of heart attack. The study included a total of 1,818 patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome (condition such as heart attack or angina) who were enrolled at chest pain units in Germany from 2007 to 2008. Twelve biomarkers including hsTnI and cTnI were measured on admission and after 3 and 6 hours.
Of the patients in the study, 413 (22.7 percent) had a final discharge diagnosis of acute MI. For discrimination of acute MI, both hsTnI and cTnI were superior to the other evaluated diagnostic biomarkers. Using the 99th percentile cutoff, hsTnI on admission had a sensitivity of 82.3 percent and negative predictive value (NPV) of 94.7 percent; hsTnI determined after 3 hours had a sensitivity of 98.2 percent with NPV of 99.4 percent. Compared with hsTnI, the cTnI assay (using the 99th percentile as cutoff) had comparable sensitivity and NPV: 79.4 percent sensitivity and 94.0 percent NPV on admission, and 98.2 percent sensitivity and 99.4 percent NPV after 3 hours.
"Combining the 99th percentile cutoff at admission with the serial change in troponin concentration within 3 hours, the positive predictive value (for ruling in AMI) for hsTnI increased from 75.1 percent at admission to 95.8 percent after 3 hours, and for cTnl increased from 80.9 percent at admission to 96.1 percent after 3 hours," the authors write.
"The shortcoming of conventional troponin assays with low sensitivity within the first hours after chest pain onset led to the evaluation of various so-called early biomarkers in the diagnosis of MI. In our study, the diagnostic information of hsTnI was superior to all other evaluated biomarkers alone."
"Use of hsTnI and cTnI assays in patients with suspected MI provides useful diagnostic information," the researchers write. "Determination of hsTnI and cTnI values 3 hours after admission to the emergency department with use of the 99th percentile cutoff provides an NPV greater than 99 percent, potentially allowing a safe rule-out of MI. Application of the relative change in hsTnI or cTnI concentration within 3 hours after admission in combination with the 99th percentile diagnostic cutoff value on admission improves specificity and may facilitate an accurate early rule-in of MI."
###
(JAMA. 2011;306[24]:2684-2693. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://www.jamamedia.org)
Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
To contact corresponding author Stefan Blankenberg, M.D., email s.blankenberg@uke.de
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/jaaj-tfb122211.php
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By Allison Linn
Natural disasters, terrorist attacks, global disease ? if you?re so inclined, there?s no shortage of major issues to fret about these days.
Still, a new poll finds that the catastrophic event Americans are most likely to be worried about is economic collapse.
The pollsters asked Americans to choose the top three catastrophic events that worry them the most. The top choice was ?economic collapse,? with 63 percent choosing that option.
Natural disaster was second, at 46 percent, and terrorist attack ranked third at 44 percent.
Market research firm Leiflin Inc. asked the question on behalf of the EcoHealth Alliance, a conservation group that also works on global disease issues. One-third of the people surveyed said they a global disease outbreak was one of their top three worries.
The poll of about 1,000 Americans, conducted this fall, had a margin of error of 3 percent.
The pollsters did not specify whether they were referring to global or national economic collapse. Still, after four years of very difficult economic times, it?s no surprise economic worries are top of mind for many Americans.
Related:
Your grocery bill is getting higher, and higher
It?s the economy, not the debt, stupid
What are you most worried about?
Source: http://lifeinc.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/28/9772280-what-worries-us-most-economic-collapse
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Samsung, the Korean smartphone giant, on Friday announced on one of its promotional blogs that it had dropped the idea of porting Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade to its Galaxy S smartphone or the 7-inch Galaxy Tablet. Since then, widespread arguments and heated debates on the issue have been escalating amongst the Android user community.
The company must be feeling the heat and the decision to review the upgrade process for Galaxy S alongside the 7-inch tablet only strengthens such claims supported by reports from MSN Korea. ??According to CNET, a spokesman from Samsung's U.S. division was unable to confirm the reports. However, he would contact the company's headquarters and report back any changes in the latest developments.
Meanwhile, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and LG have revealed their plans to embrace Ice Cream Sandwich for their upcoming smartphones. The first batch of SE smartphones to debut the new upgrade include: Arc S, Xperia Neo V, and Ray starting in the second half of March.
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Arc, Play, Xperia Neo, Xperia Mini and Mini Pro, Xperia Pro, Xperia Active, and Sony Ericsson Live are proposed to get the upgrade between April end and early May.
In related news, Motorola has hinted on its blog that it is presently in the process of building, testing and verifying carrier requirements before releasing the new platform on its devices.
With Google at the helm of controlling Motorola's fortunes, it will be interesting to see how the new platform takes shape on Motorola handsets. By the way, Samsung's decision to review the upgrade process for its key devices holds significance, considering the ensuing strategic platform developments in the rival camps.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Police said they have arrested a man in relation to a Thursday afternoon shooting outside the Chinese Consulate building in downtown Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Times reported that a protester fired nine shots at a security guard at about 2:15 p.m. local time, but only hit the building. The man, whose name wasn't released, turned himself in about three hours later, Officer Gregory Baek said.
A group demonstrating against human rights abuses in China had gathered outside the consulate earlier Thursday. One protester argued with a security guard after the guard allegedly took a sign and threw it in the trash. The protester then got into a vehicle and allegedly opened fire.
The security guard, Cipriano Gutierrez, told KCAL-9 television that there were about 20 people inside the consulate when the man fired at the building.
"I hit the ground and I was praying," Gutierrez told KCAL. "I grabbed phone books and put them over my head. A bullet came in the room right next to my knee. I thought I was going to die."
No injuries were reported.
A call to the consulate office wasn't immediately answered.
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The popular notebook service Evernote has branched out with the recent release of Evernote Food for iPhone and iPod Touch. Although Evernote Food won?t be ideal for users who like to automatically share their meals with friends, the app?s open flexibility makes it suitable for a variety of uses.
In Evernote Food, users can snap (or upload from their library) a photo of a meal, set the location where it took place, tag it, and add notes ? such as how it tasted, who you were with, or what you talked about while you ate. The interface of Evernote Food isn?t much of a deviation from other food social networks, but you will have to opt to manually share your Food entries via Facebook, Twitter or email if you want friends to know what you?ve recently tasted. I don?t see users of Evernote Food also uploading photos to Foodspotting or Forkly, so you won?t get the added benefit of seeing what other people have raved about at a particular restaurant.
If you?re OK with that sacrifice, what I like most about Evernote Food is its flexibility. Like Evernote suggests, you can use it to scrapbook everything you eat on a vacation, or you can use it to record a new recipe since entries can have multiple photos. ?The possibilities are really endless ? if you?re fond of the interface, you could even use the app to track non-food entries.
Your entries will automatically sync with your Evernote web notebook, so you can savor the memories with little work.
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ALBANY, N.Y. ? Federal prosecutors say disclosure of information used to obtain search warrants for the home and office of former Syracuse University assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine would jeopardize their ongoing investigation "into the sensitive area of child abuse and molestation."
Prosecutors say in a letter to a judge Wednesday that disclosure would lay bare their investigative steps while potentially embarrassing witnesses and endangering the safety of at least one of their sources.
Fine was fired Nov. 27 after three men said he sexually abused them when they were boys. He has denied wrongdoing.
Unsealed records show investigators were looking for pornography that could be used "to sexually arouse or groom young males" and records detailing Fine's contact with boys.
Fine's lawyers have said they wouldn't oppose unsealing the warrant application.
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Some companies are beginning to offer travel companion services for seniors, modeled after programs airlines currently have in place for unaccompanied minors, to help grandma or grandpa safely get where they are going and back home again.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45574568#45574568
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The Star-Ledger
Organ transplant experts are worried that proposed new federal health guidelines will limit the number of available donors and recipients willing to accept organs newly classified as risky.
By JoNel Aleccia
If you've had sex with two or more partners in the past year, you may be considered a risky organ donor, at least according to proposed new federal health guidelines that have drawn sharp protests from transplant experts who?say?they're far too broad.?
?With the new guidelines, every college student in America will be high risk,? said Dr. Harry Dorn-Arias, a transplant?surgeon at the University of Virginia. ?Right now, it's probably a prostitute or a guy with a needle in his arm. Next time, it will be just a young guy."
Under the new?policy proposed this fall?by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, deceased and living donors who were not monogamous in the previous 12 months would be considered at increased risk of transmitting HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C -- even if they had no other risk factors
CDC officials say the?proposed guidelines are aimed at making the organ supply safer and preventing accidental transmission of life-threatening infections. The policies wouldn?t absolutely ban anyone from donating, especially?in an exceptional or life-saving situation, but they would?call for?more scrutiny and testing.
?It?s geared for the patient so the patient knows as much as they can about the organ being transplanted in them,? said Dr. Matthew J. Kuehnert, director of the CDC?s office of Blood, Organ and Other Tissue Safety.
But transplant experts are outraged because they say the proposal arbitrarily focuses on monogamy and could limit both the number of available donors and the number of recipients willing to accept organs newly classified as risky.
They worry that potential living donors may balk at donating if they know their sexual history alone could raise questions about their suitability, particularly if the situation involved a family member.
?If you were going to give your organ to your mom or dad or sister, you?re going to be ashamed of that,? said Dorn-Arias. ?You?re either going to say no, or you?re going to lie.?
The proposed policy could also require families of deceased donors to answer uncomfortable questions -- ones they may not even know the answers to -- about the specific sexual behaviors of their loved ones.
??It?s probably going to triple what we consider high risk at this point,? said Tracy Giacoma, transplant administrator at the University of Kansas Hospital. ?It may scare patients off from taking these organs. More patients may die because they don?t take these organs.?
More than 28,000 organs are transplanted each year, but more than 112,000 people are on organ waiting lists, according to figures from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.??
The guidelines could affect a wide swath of?potential donors, particularly younger people.?About a quarter of women and nearly 30 percent of men ages 20 to 24 said they had two or more sexual partners in the past 12 months, according to a 2006-2008 report by the National Center for Health Statistics.
Should donors who have had more than two sex partners in a year be considered high risk?
170125
No.
66%
170126
Yes.
21%
170127
I don't know.
13%
VoteTotal Votes: 4301
When tragic deaths occur, those are precisely the people who should donate their organs, if possible, Giacoma said.
"If you have a?[donor] that's 19 years old and he had multiple partners, we'll have to tell the recipient, this is a high-risk organ," she said.
The sexual partner tally is only one of several new factors that could tag a potential donor as being at increased risk of infection. It?s part of a larger set of guidelines that would update 1994 Public Health Service policies for preventing transmission of HIV through human tissue and organs.
"Our priority here is patient safety," said Kuehnert, who noted that the guidelines describe "increased risk," not "high risk," of infection. "[Patients] should know if they're getting an organ at elevated risk."
The 1994 guidlines exclude certain groups?as?donors,?including men who have had sex with other men within the past five years, people who've used IV drugs or exchanged sex for money or drugs in the past five years, hemophiliacs,?those exposed to HIV, and people who've had sex with anyone in those categories. They also limit people who've been incarcerated.
The new plan calls for the first-ever guidelines for testing living donors and it adds hepatitis B and hepatitis C to the list of must-test viruses, along with HIV, Kuehnert said. ?As it stands now, only HIV?is included in the guidelines, though most organ transplant centers do test for a range of other potential?diseases.?
The proposal also calls for use of the most sensitive tests available to detect infection?and for shorter testing windows to avoid transmitting infections, which occurs in an estimated 1 percent of transplant cases and has been fatal, Kuehnert said.
Between 2007 and 2010, the CDC participated in more than 200 investigations of suspect unexpected transmission of infections including HIV and hepatitis B and C, with dozens of cases confirmed, Kuehnert?added.
The risk of infection from organs may be rare, but it's real. Helen Boucher's husband, George, 54, of Pawtucket, R.I., died in 2005 after receiving a kidney tainted with a rare infection traced back to a virus from the donor's pet hamster.?The new guidelines wouldn't have helped?detect the Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis virus?--?known as LCMV --?but Helen Boucher, now 61, said preventing the trauma her family endured is worth any extra scrutiny.
"My gut feeling is if you want to be a donor, you?re doing a wonderful thing, but you also have to think about what could happen to the recipient," she said. "If I?m willing to be a donor, I?m willing to answer any of those questions that someone is going to ask of me."
The proposed guidelines shorten the time frame for many of the higher-risk behaviors from five years to one year. But?they also classify as risky people who have used kidney dialysis during that time; people who have snorted cocaine or heroin nasally; those who've been in prison, jail or juvenile detention centers for more than three consecutive?days in the past year; those who currently have or who have been treated for syphilis, gonorrhea or genital ulcers in the past year and people who have immigrated to the United States within the last year from a country with a high prevalence of hepatitis B.
Other aspects of the plan have drawn fire from transplant experts who object to?tests that might be too expensive and too slow for all centers to administer.
But it's the new emphasis on two or more sexual partners that has ignited most ire, judging from public comments about the proposal being accepted through Dec. 21 at www.regulations.gov.
?I am opposed to the guidelines as written,? wrote Dr. John Radomski, chief of surgery at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center in Camden, N.J. ?The list of high risk behavior seems way too broad.?
CDC officials downplayed the controversy, saying that the proposal is a draft and can be changed, particularly if there's strong evidence to support any alteration. They said the primary goal is to?obtain as much information about transplanted organs as possible, whether that comes from personal histories or advanced screening tests.
Using a set of behaviors to gauge risk makes sense, Kuehnert said, and studies suggest that having more than one sexual partner raises the risk of infection.
?We can quibble about whether it should be two sexual partners or three or five or 10, but we?ll have to have a cut-off point,? he said.
Should donors?who?had sex with more than two people in a year be considered high risk? Tell us on Facebook.
Related stories:
Infected organs pose deadly transplant risk
Killer's quest: Allow organ donation after execution
Agencies consider new organ donation rules
?
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NEW DELHI (AP) -- Hollywood star Tom Cruise says his visit to India this week follows a lifelong desire to see the country.
He said while touring the iconic, white-marble Taj Mahal mausoleum in Agra that he is "very excited" about being in the country for a fan screening of his latest action-thriller, "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol," days ahead of its world premiere on Wednesday.
Cruise joins Bollywood star Anil Kapoor for the red-carpet screening Sunday in Mumbai. The film sees Cruise reprise his role as secret agent Ethan Hunt, while Kapoor plays an Indian business tycoon.
Cruise told Press Trust of India on Saturday, "I wanted to come to India my whole life, so I am very excited."
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BAUCHI, Nigeria ? Gunmen armed with machine guns and explosives attacked a town Sunday in northern Nigeria, bombing a local police station and raiding at least one bank, witnesses said.
The assault happened early Sunday morning in the town of Azare, in Nigeria's Bauchi state, residents Ibrahim Azare and Yakub Isa told The Associated Press. The gunfire lasted several hours as those in the city hid inside their homes.
It was unclear if anyone was injured, but the witnesses said the damage in the town was extensive. A Nigerian Red Cross official said he was heading to the town to examine damage, but had no information about casualties.
Police officials in Bauchi state and Nigeria's capital Abuja did not answer calls for comment Sunday.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. However, it mirrored recent mass attacks in northeastern Nigeria claimed by a radical Muslim sect known as Boko Haram.
The group has launched a series of attacks against Nigeria's weak central government over the last year in its campaign to implement strict Shariah law across the nation of more than 160 million people.
Boko Haram claimed responsibility for a Nov. 4 attack on Damaturu, Yobe state's capital, that killed more than 100 people. The group also claimed the Aug. 24 suicide car bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Nigeria's capital that killed 24 people and wounded 116 others.
Little is known about the sources of Boko Haram's support, though its members recently began carrying out a wave of bank robberies in the north. Police stations have also been bombed and officers killed.
Boko Haram has splintered into three factions, with one wing increasingly willing to kill as it maintains contact with terror groups in North Africa and Somalia, diplomats and security sources say.
The sect is responsible for more than 380 killings in Nigeria this year alone, according to an AP count.
___
Musa reported from Maiduguri, Nigeria. Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell contributed to this story from Lagos, Nigeria.
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. ? Country singer Mindy McCready said Thursday she would not bring her 5-year-old son back from Tennessee to Florida, despite violating a custody arrangement and a judge's order.
McCready took the boy during a recent visit at her father's southwest Florida home and a judge signed an order Thursday ordering authorities to take the boy into custody and return him. It's not yet clear whether she could face criminal charges.
"I'm doing all this to protect Zander, not stay out of trouble," McCready wrote in an email to The Associated Press on Thursday. "I don't think I should be in trouble for protecting my son in the first place."
McCready says she is in Tennessee and it is looking less likely that she will bring her son back to Florida. She says she cannot travel because she's nearly seven months pregnant with twins. There was no answer at a Nashville address for McCready.
The judge's order means law enforcement anywhere can pick up Zander and bring him back to Florida.
McCready and her mother have had a long custody battle over the boy. Until recently, the boy was living with McCready's mother. Her mother was awarded guardianship in 2007. McCready says her son has suffered abuse at her mother's house; her mother, Gayle Inge, denies the abuse allegations.
"Once the child is located, we will pick him up and bring him back to Florida," said Terri Durdaller, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Children and Families. "Although these circumstances are unfortunate for a young child, his safety and well-being are our number one priority."
Durdaller said any criminal charges would come at the discretion of law enforcement or the Lee County (Fla.) State Attorney's office.
McCready provided a series of emails to the AP with Lee County Judge James Seals' ruling to return the boy and correspondence with her attorney. Seals wrote to McCready's lawyer that once the boy is back in Florida "we'll pick up the pieces."
"Mom has violated the court's custody order and we are simply restoring the child back into our custody," the judge wrote. "Nothing more. Nothing less. The court makes no judgment about whether Mom will or will not competently care for the child while in her custody. It only wants the child back where the court placed him."
McCready was born in Florida and found fame in Nashville as a singer in the mid-1990s, including a No. 1 hit, "Guys Do It All the Time." She has lived a complicated life in recent years.
In August, she filed the libel suit in Palm Beach County against her mother and the National Enquirer's parent company, American Media Inc., over a story published in the tabloid newspaper that quoted Inge.
In July 2007, she was accused of scuffling with Inge and resisting arrest at her mother's home in Florida. She was sentenced to jail for 60 days for a probation violation and released; she served 30 days in jail. She also lost custody of her son.
And in 2008, McCready was admitted to a Nashville hospital after police said she cut her wrists and took several pills in a suicide attempt.
During the TV show "Celebrity Rehab 3" in 2010, McCready came off as a sympathetic figure, and host Dr. Drew Pinsky called her an angel in the season finale.
Also in 2010, police went to Inge's home for a report of an overdose, and McCready was taken to a Florida hospital. However, neither the hospital nor McCready's publicist would say why the singer was hospitalized.
McCready also fought the release of a tape in which she reportedly talked about former Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens, with whom she had an affair as a teenager.
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Walking around Rome today when suddenly the street musician starts playing Sweet Home Chicago. #isthatasign? 
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Source: http://twitter.com/palindrome713/statuses/142734084936957952
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Take one of the more popular -- if not wonderfully eccentric -- Android tablets of 2011, slim it down, clad it in brushed metal, pump it full of new specs and march it off into 2012 with the likelihood of one of the first upgrades to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Oh, and throw in a nearly full-size keyboard dock with trackpad, full USB and SD ports, turning it all into a solid Android laptop.
This, friends, is the ASUS Transformer Prime. And this is our Transformer Prime review.
Welcome to the era of NVIDIA's Tegra 3 platform. The Transformer Prime is but the first of the quad-core devices. Other tablets are no doubt on their way, and smartphones are coming down the pike as well. But the Transformer Prime is the one leading the way, and it's definitely doing so in style.
So let's dive on into our Transformer Prime review and look at what's new, what's continued from the Transfomer line, and what it means for you.
  ASUS has refined the design of the original Transformer, making it slimmer and sexier while boosting the internal storage. NVIDIA's quad-core Tegra 3 processor is nothing short of astounding. The optional keyboard dock has gotten an excellent makeover as well, turning the whole thing into an outstanding Android laptop. |  Is shipping with Android 3.2, but has already been promised an upgrade to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. While you now get more bang for your buck with Tegra 3 and the internal storage upped dto 32/64GB, it's still a pricey package for both the tablet and keyboard dock. |
  The Transformer Prime ushers in a new breed of Android tablets. Familiar, yet more powerful (and thus with more potential) than anything you've used before. If you can part with a minimum of $650, it makes for a great Android mobile computing/gaming rig. | |
Inside this review | More info |
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/EmObe-pDcxE/story01.htm
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Possible help from the IMF for Europe gave the markets a glimmer of hope and the euro a shot in the arm, but U.S. lawmakers vow to block the funds. Discussing the impact this action is taking on the equity and currency markets, with Ashraf Laidi, Inter...
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/45528368/
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Sean Gallup / Getty Images file
Bathers relax on inflatable water mattresses near the beach at Porto Katsiki, on the island of Lefkada, Greece, in 2010.
By Rob Lovitt, msnbc.com contributor
There?s good news and bad news on the American vacation front courtesy of a survey from Expedia.com.
Released on Wednesday, the Vacation Deprivation Study revealed that U.S. workers let two days of vacation go unused this year, down from three days last year.
Unfortunately, the drop wasn?t realized because people took more vacation days ? the average American worker took 12 days in both years ? but because they received, on average, 14 days of vacation this year vs. 15 in 2010.
Do you take all of your allotted vacation time?
169594
Yes -- and I'd take more vacation days if I had them.
55%
169595
No -- it's too tough to get away from work.
16%
169596
Almost -- I take time off work, but I give up some time each year.
11%
169597
Are you nuts? -- I wish I had the time and money for vacations.
18%
VoteTotal Votes: 6493
?In terms of days they left on the table, as in ?It?s yours and you gave it away,? it went down,? said Joe Megibow, vice president and general manager. ?But we?d like to see the gap get closed by people using more of their vacation days rather than having employers give them less.?
Less, of course, is a relative term as the annual study once again showed Americans getting far fewer vacation days than their peers in most other developed countries. Surveying 7,800 employed adults in 20 countries, the study (as usual) showed that workers in Europe get far more time off ? 25 to 30 days per year ? and tend to use almost all of it.
?In Europe, vacations are considered a way of life not a luxury,? said Megibow. ?Even in countries where respondents reported less financial strength, they still go on vacation.?
Conversely, almost half of U.S. respondents reported their financial situation as ?solid? or ?good,? which according to Megibow, suggests a very different point of view: ?In the U.S., people view vacations as a luxury,? he told msnbc.com. ?Even though Americans report slightly stronger financial health, vacations are still one of the things that gets cut.?
Part of the problem may be that such feelings are being tempered by past events. ?People are still focusing on the bad news and not taking in good news like retailers doing well,? said Alden Cass, a performance coach and CEO of Competitive Streak Consulting Inc. ?They?re almost having a PTSD-like reaction to things that are out of their control.?
Far better, suggests Cass, is to just let go. ?People need to get away to reduce the amount of anxiety in their lives, to disengage from their BlackBerrys and iPhones and to not worry about the things they do on a daily basis,? he told msnbc.com. ?Sometimes lying on a Caribbean beach where there?s no Internet access is the best recipe for coming back with a clear head, an objective mindset and a better attitude.?
On the subject of disengaging, at least, Americans seem to be getting the message. When survey participants were asked how often they checked e-mail or voicemail while on vacation, 41 percent said never, 34 percent said sometimes, 20 percent said regularly and just 4 percent said constantly.
?Americans don?t get a lot of vacation,? said Megibow, ?but on the few days they take, most are checking out [from work], which is great.?
More stories you might like:
Rob Lovitt is a longtime travel writer who still believes the journey is as important as the destination. Follow him at Twitter.?
Source: http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/29/9097884-us-to-world-dude-wheres-my-vacation
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