Thomas Friedman To Visit Rosalind Franklin University

Updated May 26?This is mostly sold out!

This press release comes from Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science:

NORTH CHICAGO, IL ? Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times foreign affairs columnist and author, will give a lecture on May 30 at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science (RFUMS), focussing on the state of education in the United States. To make a reservation, please visit https://www.volgistics.com/ex/portal.dll/ap?AP=107806532

WHO: ?Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist, recipient of three Pulitzer Prizes and the author of six bestselling books, among them The World Is Flat and That Used to Be Us.

WHAT: ?A lecture on the state of education in America, followed by a Q&A session

WHEN: ?Wednesday, May 30, 7 p.m.
6 p.m. Reception for sponsors
7 p.m. Lecture by Thomas Friedman
7:45 p.m. Q&A session
8:15 p.m. Book signing

WHERE: Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
Rhoades Auditorium
3333 Green Bay Road, North Chicago, IL 60064

WHY: Advance Illinois;?the Gorter Family Foundation;?North Chicago Community Partners;?Rosalind Franklin University of Medical & Science; Trinity International University; and Wintrust Financial Corporation support discourse on this important topic impacting our local communities.

About Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science:
Formed in 1912 as the Chicago Hospital-College of Medicine, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science is a national leader in interprofessional medical and healthcare education, offering a doctor of medicine program through the Chicago Medical School, doctor of podiatric medicine program through the Dr. William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine, and a range of degrees through its College of Health Professions, including nurse anesthesia, nutrition, physical therapy, pathologists? assistant and physician assistant. The University also offers advanced biomedical degrees through the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. The university received pre-candidate status for its College of Pharmacy and welcomed its first class August 2011. For more information, please visit www.rosalindfranklin.edu.

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Montreal Canadiens: Head coach search continues - Canada.com

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APNewsBreak: FEMA trailer litigation nears end

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? A class-action settlement agreement has been reached to resolve nearly all the remaining court claims over allegations that government-issued trailers exposed Gulf Coast residents to hazardous fumes after Hurricane Katrina, a lead plaintiffs' attorney said Monday.

In a court filing late Monday, plaintiffs' lawyers and several companies that manufactured FEMA trailers after the 2005 storm asked U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt to approve an expanded version of a multimillion-dollar deal initially announced in April.

A separate agreement with four FEMA contractors that installed or refurbished trailers will be filed Tuesday, lead plaintiffs' attorney Gerald Meunier told The Associated Press.

Nearly two dozen FEMA trailer makers agreed last month to pay a total of $14.8 million to resolve claims over elevated formaldehyde levels in FEMA trailers following hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Monday's expanded settlement agreement includes claims against trailer manufacturers Gulf Stream Coach Inc., Forest River Inc., Jayco Inc. and Monaco Coach Corp. Representatives of the four companies didn't immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

FEMA contractors Shaw Environmental Inc., Bechtel Corp., Fluor Enterprises Inc. and CH2M Hill Constructors Inc. also have reached agreements with the plaintiffs' lawyers, according to Meunier and a lawyer for the contractors.

Contractors' attorney David Kurtz said the companies are proud of the roles they played in response to Katrina.

"We agree, however, that all of the parties are best served by settling this matter and saving the time and expense of further litigation," Kurtz added.

The amount of money that would be paid by each of the eight companies wasn't immediately disclosed.

Residents of Louisiana, Texas, Alabama and Mississippi who lived in FEMA trailers after the 2005 hurricanes are eligible to participate.

Engelhardt is expected to hold a fairness hearing on the proposed settlement on Sept. 27. If he approves the deal, a group of Texas residents' claims against the Federal Emergency Management Agency would be the only formaldehyde-related claims that haven't been settled or dismissed by the judge, Meunier said.

Meunier estimates that roughly 60,000 plaintiffs could benefit from the entire settlement. He said the deal is a "positive development" for residents even if the amount of compensation is lower than many had anticipated when the case started nearly five years ago.

"But I think the outcome here reflects the realities of the case," Meunier said.

Meunier said the plaintiffs' lawyers tested a sample of FEMA trailers but couldn't test every unit occupied by every plaintiff.

"I think that presented a challenge," he said. "It was our belief that to go on trying thousands of cases with that kind of challenge in presenting the evidence ... was not going to be a very satisfactory alternative for the clients."

Daniel Balhoff, a court-appointed mediator who helped broker the proposed settlement with FEMA trailer makers, said in a court filing Monday that he believes the deal is "fair, adequate and reasonable."

"The plaintiffs are faced with significant burden of proof issues with respect to causation," he said. "For many plaintiffs, the manufactured home no longer exists or can no longer be located. Further, many individual plaintiffs faced causation problems due to the fact that they were smokers or had independent bases separate from formaldehyde exposure for their health issues."

Formaldehyde, a chemical commonly found in building materials, can cause breathing problems and is classified as a carcinogen. Government tests on hundreds of trailers in Louisiana and Mississippi found formaldehyde levels that were, on average, about five times what people are exposed to in most modern homes.

FEMA, which isn't a party in the settlement, downplayed formaldehyde risks for months before those test results were announced in February 2008. As early as 2006, trailer occupants began reporting headaches, nosebleeds and difficulty breathing.

The federal agency provided trailers or mobile homes to more than 144,000 families after the hurricanes. Plaintiffs' lawyers have accused the trailer makers of using shoddy building materials and methods in a rush to meet the agency's unprecedented demand for temporary housing.

In October 2007, Engelhardt was picked to oversee hundreds of consolidated lawsuits and tens of thousands of related claims. Since then, the case has generated more than 25,000 docket entries and resulted in three trials for individual claims. The juries in all three trials sided with the companies and didn't award any damages.

The settlement isn't the first in the litigation. Last year, a group of companies that manufactured mobile homes for FEMA after Katrina agreed to pay $2.6 million to resolve thousands of related claims. Mobile homes are larger and sturdier than travel trailers, which housed the majority of storm victims and are more prone to elevated levels of formaldehyde.

Fleetwood Enterprises Inc., which supplied FEMA with travel trailers before it filed for bankruptcy in 2009, agreed in 2010 to a settlement resolving about 7,500 to 8,000 claims. Terms of that deal weren't disclosed.

Engelhardt dismissed claims against FEMA by residents of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Plaintiffs' attorneys have asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to overturn Engelhardt's dismissal of the Louisiana claims. The appeals court previously upheld his dismissal of the Mississippi and Alabama claims.

Associated Press

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Gas leak operation gets under way

15 May 2012 Last updated at 05:01 ET

The operation to stop gas leaking from the Elgin platform in the North Sea is under way.

Total's platform was evacuated when the gas began leaking on 25 March.

The effort to stop the leak involves the pumping of heavy mud into the well from the main support vessel, the West Phoenix semi-submersible drilling rig, via a temporary pipeline.

Total said the operation and subsequent observation period would last a few days.

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Engagio Brings Its Social Inbox To Your Gmail Inbox

What's the best way to manage our conversations across all the websites and social networks we're visiting? William Mougayar, founder and CEO of Engagio, says that it's through a Gmail-style social inbox ? after all, that's the interface we use to manage most of our communication already (not that everyone's happy about it), and heck, it's the way many of us read our social network updates already. Now he's taking that approach a step further. Instead of accessing their Engag.io inbox in a separate website, they can install a Chrome extension, and then read Engag.io as a separate folder within Gmail itself.

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HuggablePeople #8: Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends ...

Anita Campbell, CEO and Publisher of SmallBizTrends.com, makes our huggable people list because she loves entrepreneurs and everything I have seen her do supports small business owners, usually in both a useful and creative way. Whether it is launching her Small Business Book Awards four years ago (the 2012 awards garnered 55,000 votes) to ensure that books on small business (and their authors) get a chance to shine, or writing her own tweets and speaking at conferences directly to entrepreneurs ? you can tell she loves what she does. I have also seen her be generous with both praise and assistance to well-known individuals and just regular folks; she excels at building authentic relationships and win-win opportunities. Her site?s tagline is: ?small business success ? delivered daily,? is a promise on which I think she delivers well. To me that makes her ?huggable people.?

What is Small Business Trends?

Taken from her site? ?From its humble beginnings as one of the first business blogs on the Web, using the free Blogger.com blog platform, Small Business Trends has grown and evolved into an influential source of information ? while still retaining a conversational and authentic format. Small Business Trends was founded in 2003 by Anita Campbell, in Cleveland, Ohio. Our content is syndicated through Newstex, BusinessInsider.com and to other sites around the Web. ?Small Business Trends currently reaches over 4,000,000 readers annually, via direct visits, RSS feeds and social feeds. Anita is widely regarded as an expert in small business issues. ?She is the co-author of Visual Marketing: 99 Proven Ways for Small Businesses to Market with Images and Design (Wiley 2011).

Disclosure I have done some PR work for SmallBizTrends.com in the past.

A Few Fun and Useful Questions I asked Anita:

Q1 Cathy Larkin: What drives you to help small business owners and entrepreneurs? You obviously love what you do, it really shows in all you do.

A1 Anita Campbell: ?I think being a small business owner is a high calling. ?When you consider the ?food chain? of people who rely on even the smallest businesses for their livelihoods and their families? welfare, you realize that small business ownership is about much more than just commerce. ?That?s what drives me.

Q2 Cathy Larkin: Was there a moment of change, an incident, or interaction with a ?business owner, or at an event, or when you changed your site? when you saw that what you were doing could reach a larger audience, and really have an effect? If so, can you tell us about it briefly?

A2 Anita Campbell:? There have been times when I?ve questioned what we do on Small Business Trends and whether we are adding value. But then someone will email me or come up to me at an event, and tell me how they read the site everyday or always find something of value to pass along to a co-worker, and I feel gratified. ?And I feel gratified not just for me, but for everyone on the Small Business Trends team. ?It?s an accomplishment for all.

Q3 Cathy Larkin: What would you like to tell small business owners about believing in themselves, about being different in a good way, or about any aspect of small business ownership that you feel they need to remember/be aware of?

A3 Anita Campbell:? I?d say to them: be guided by a gut feel for doing what?s right for your employees, your customers, your stakeholders. ?If your business is like most, it probably isn?t perfect. ?Your products and services could no doubt be better (whose couldn?t?). ?And chances are you would like to pay your employees more. ?But if you are guided by a mission of serving others you will eventually resolve those ?issues and pull away from the competitive pack.

Q4 Cathy Larkin: Would you share a link to a fav blog post of yours from the past that gets lost on your site, and why this link?

A4 Anita Campbell:??Successful Small Business Owners are Like Roombas;??reason: ?the title says it all.

Q5 Cathy Larkin: Favorite quote?

A5 Anita Campbell?s Fav Quote: ??Inspect what you expect.? ?It means that as a leader, you must pay attention to your business and signal to employees and team members what you expect out of them by asking and by actively engaging as a manager and leader.

Q6 Cathy Larkin: When you take break from work, where will we most likely find you, or what will you most likely be doing:

A6 Anita Campbell:? In my garden trying to make something grow. ?:-)

Q7 Cathy Larkin: If you could take 50 to 100 small biz owners, whom you?ve met or interacted with via social media or your website, anyplace in the world for a long weekend (at no cost, and with no loss of business) ? where would take them? and why?

A7 Anita Campbell:? I?d take them on a cruise so we could all kick back and enjoy ourselves, and find time to get to know one another.

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Palestinian Prisoners Agree to End Hunger Strike (Voice Of America)

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Rumor: Apple Tapping Nvidia for Newest MacBook Pros [Rumors]

The drooliest MacBook Pros are around the corner, so we hear, and they're going to be pretty swanky! And here's a nice cherry on top: the Pro models will have Nvidia's newest, fastest graphics. More »

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What's causing mass pelican and dolphin deaths in Peru?

Delays in the autopsies of thousands of dead pelicans and dolphins in Peru are causing difficulties for officials as they attempt to determine causes of death in these die-offs.

The carcasses of dead pelicans still litter the beaches of northern Peru, even as the last of nearly 900 dolphins are cleared away.

Skip to next paragraph

The mass die-offs have Peruvian scientists searching for a cause and environmentalists raising questions about the government's ability to protect the Pacific nation's marine life, among the world's most abundant thanks to the Humboldt current that hugs most of its 1,500-mile (2,400-kilometer) coast.

After weeks of study, investigators say they think they know why at least 4,450 pelicans have died: Hotter than usual ocean temperatures have driven a type of anchovy deeper into the sea, beyond the reach of many young pelicans.

But Peruvian scientists studying the deaths of dolphins and porpoises from early February to mid-April say it remains a mystery, due in part to the government's slowness in investigating the phenomenon.

Authorities were so late in gathering tissues from the mammals that crucial clues were likely lost, said the scientist heading the dolphin death probe, Armando Hung, head of the molecular biology lab at Cayetano Heredia University.

At the same time, local officials have been so slow in removing carcasses that the Health Ministry urged the public last weekend to stay away from beaches from Lima, the coastal capital, northward, though it did not identify any specific health issue.

Up and down the coast, disoriented pelicans have been seen standing on beaches where they don't normally alight. Some have even been seen walking along coastal roadways.

Beginning at the end of January, daily catches of about 5 tons of anchovetas a day by fishermen in the northern region of Lambayeque dwindled after they began finding the small fish dead on the beach, said Fernando Nique, president of the Puerto Eten fishermen's association.

"After that, we haven't seen any more anchoveta," he said.

Patricia Majluf, a biologist and former deputy fisheries minister, said that tongues of warm water reach into coastal zones, driving anchovetas deeper underwater where many birds can't reach them.

"For a coast as dynamic as ours, it's not rare that this occurs," said Majluf. "It looks ugly because this has occurred at the same time and place (as the dolphin deaths)."

A biologist at the National University of Trujillo, Carlos Bocanegra, said his analysis of 10 dying pelicans last week supports that theory. Their digestive tracts were either empty or had the remains of fish pelicans don't normally eat.

Scientists say the dead pelicans are generally young, 3-4 years old, an age in which they do not dive as deep as their elders.

Ocean temperatures in the region, said Bocanegra, are currently 6 degrees Celsius (10 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal for this time of year, Peru's autumn.

A similar pelican die-off happened in 1982-1983 and again in 1997-1998 when the El Nino meteorological phenomena warmed the ocean, Bocanegra said.

"We saw mass deaths along Peru's entire coast, also associated with high sea temperatures. Pelicans, cormorants, Peruvian boobies and guanay cormorants died," he said.

The dolphin die-off, by contrast, remains a mystery.

Hung told The Associated Press that lab tests have so far ruled out a number of bacterial infections as the cause of the dolphin deaths, though other tests remain.

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More on the Haircut, in Context (Atlantic Politics Channel)

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Same sex marriage on the campaign trail (Reuters)

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Mortgage rates inch down to 3.91 percent

The average rate for a 30 year fixed rate mortgage declined 1 basis point to 3.91 percent since last week while the purchase application volume increased 3.4 percent and the refinance application increased 1.3 percent over the same period.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) publishes the results of a weekly applications survey that covers roughly 50 percent of all residential mortgage originations and tracks the average interest rate for 30 year and 15 year fixed rate mortgages as well as the volume of both purchase and refinance applications.

Skip to next paragraph SoldAtTheTop

Writer, The PaperEconomy Blog

'SoldAtTheTop' is not a pessimist by nature but a true skeptic and realist who prefers solid and sustained evidence of fundamental economic recovery to 'Goldilocks,' 'Green Shoots,' 'Mustard Seeds,' and wholesale speculation.

Recent posts

The purchase application index has been highlighted as a particularly important data series as it very broadly captures the demand side of residential real estate for both new and existing home purchases.

The latest data is showing that the average rate for a 30 year fixed rate mortgage (from FHA and conforming GSE data) declined 1 basis point to 3.91% since last week while the purchase application volume increased 3.4% and the refinance application increased 1.3% over the same period.

The following chart shows the average interest rate for 30 year and 15 year fixed rate mortgages since 2006 as well as the purchase, refinance and composite loan volumes (click for larger dynamic full-screen version).

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here.To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on paper-money.blogspot.com.

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John Travolta's Difficult Week: Another Sexual Harassment Claim

Actor's lawyer vehemently denies all three claims that have been made so far.
By Gil Kaufman

John Travolta
Photo: Getty Images

After two anonymous male masseurs came forward with claims alleging that John Travolta assaulted and sexually harassed them during rub downs, another man has come forward with a similar story.

The third alleged victim, the first to be publicly named, is Chilean cruise ship employee Fabian Zanzi, who, according to reports, says that Travolta accosted him in 2009 while he was working as a VIP liaison on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship.

Zanzi told ABC.es that Travolta allegedly offered him $12,000 to have sex, but that he spurned the "Pulp Fiction" star's advances. "He hugged me and asked me to do a massage," Zanzi said. The cruise ship worker has reportedly filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Travolta, but no evidence of that suit had emerged at press time.

The latest allegation capped a difficult week for the married star, who has long battled allegations that he is gay. The two anonymous masseurs filed a $2 million civil lawsuit
 against Travolta earlier in the week, which the actor's lawyer tagged as "a complete fiction and fabrication." Speaking on Travolta's behalf, attorney Marty Singer said, "None of the events claimed in the suit ever occurred. The plaintiff, who refuses to give their name, knows that the suit is a baseless lie. It is for that reason that the plaintiff hasn't been identified with a name even though it is required to do so."

Singer went on to say that Travolta, ,58, was not in California on the date when the first claimant -- who has since said he got the date wrong -- said the "Hairspray" actor allegedly made sexual advances towards him during a massage.

On Friday (May 11), Singer also denied the claims by Zanzi, accusing him of "hopping on the bandwagon" in search of "his 15 minutes of fame."

"This individual is simply hopping on the bandwagon to get his 15 minutes of fame by coming up with a story for the first time with something that supposedly happened over three years ago," Singer told the New York Daily News. "Nobody has ever heard from this guy before. No lawyer has contacted us."

Radar Online reported that the Atlanta resort where the second John Doe accuser claims Travolta made sexual advances has been asked to preserve the surveillance tape taken during that time in the event that it becomes evidence in the lawsuit.

Quoting an unidentified source close to the case, the gossip site reported, "The hotel has been notified by the masseur's attorney to preserve the surveillance video of the time when Travolta stayed there ... The surveillance video will be crucial evidence in the case because it shows Travolta going to the spa the next day after it is claimed the incident occurred, looking for the masseur, because he wanted to see him again, which is all detailed in the lawsuit. Travolta was told the masseur wasn't available and he left. The masseur was extremely upset when he left Travolta's room, which would have been captured on the camera in the hallway as well."

The 14-page suit filed by the first alleged victim last Friday in California's U.S. District Court, charges Travolta with assault, sexual battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that among other salacious activities, Travolta exposed himself and groped the masseur despite protests during a massage performed in Los Angeles in January 2011.

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Visualized: HP's all-in-one PCs over the years, one from 1983

HP's TouchSmart sub-brand and its other AIOs should be no stranger to many PC advocates, but in case you've never come across one before, the company's laid all of them out on one side of its Global Influencer Summit in Shanghai. Models range from the TouchSmart IQ770 launched back in 2007, all the way to the recently shipped Z1 workstation and even the just-announced t410 Smart Zero Client; but the real gem of the booth is that little beige HP 150 right in the middle -- it's one of the first-ever touchscreen PCs, dating back to 1983, powered by an 8MHz Intel 8088 chip, ran MS-DOS and cost a mere $3,995.

Whilst on the topic, HP's Vice President of Industrial Design Stacy Wolff shared some interesting stats: his team found that much like laptops, there are very different screen size preferences across different regions, with the US showing strong interest in 20-inch and 23-inch HP AIOs, whereas China much prefers 20-inch over 21.5-inch and 23-inch. With the big jump in AIO market penetration in each region between 2008 to 2012 (almost doubled in Japan and the US; and an even bigger leap for other markets), HP predicts that these machines will continue to steadily increase market penetration across more price points -- this was illustrated with what it conveniently calls the "AIO wedge" on a chart. Feel free to take a gander at our gallery for more tidbits.

Gallery: Visualized: HP's all-in-one PCs over the years, one from 1983

Visualized: HP's all-in-one PCs over the years, one from 1983 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 May 2012 16:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Most Radical Social Experiment in Modern History (Atlantic Politics Channel)

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