"I write urban outside the cliche," says St. Louis author Stephanie Acon. "My books are written realistically ... I've dealt first hand in an urban world where the scenes and situations can get so perplexing, complex, intriguing, and real - that I have to represent, and represent right!" After a decade on the Midwestern rap music scene, where she gained fame for her powerful rhyming raps under the performance name NinaRaw, Stephanie found redemption from a lifestyle fraught with risk and self-destructive pitfalls. Her arenas for salvation: Her reaffirmation ...

Supreme Court to rule on requirement of warrant for DWI blood tests If you are pulled over on suspicion of driving while intoxicated (DWI), is it necessary for the police officer to get a warrant to force you to take a blood test? The United States Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in a case that will decide this very issue, Missouri v. McNeely. What happened in the case? The case arose when Tyler McNeely was pulled over for speeding in October 2010 near Cape Girardeau, Missouri. During the course of the stop, the highway patrol officer found reason to ...

Do-it-yourself estate planning sites (DIY's): Are they a good idea? You may have seen advertisements from LegalZoom, Nolo and Rocket Lawyer for estate-planning assistance. However, if you are interested in creating a will, trust, power of attorney or other legal instrument, you should think twice before taking an online shortcut. While these services can be beneficial, they may not fully address your legal needs. This is especially true if you have a large and complex estate, multiple small assets or more than one heir. Consumer Reports conducted a thorough evaluation ...

Contested adoptions in Minnesota Not every parent that has a child is able to provide that child with the care that he or she needs. Maybe the parents had problems with drugs or alcohol, mental health difficulties that prevented them from parenting safely; or were too young to handle the responsibilities of being a parent. In some of these situations, a family member may step in and raise the child for the parents either on an unofficial or a legally recognized basis. In some situations, however, a child may be placed in foster care, and ultimately may become available ...

"Smart features" on cars can assist senior drivers Thanks to advances in medicine and people taking better care of themselves, more people are living longer and are remaining active than ever before. As people age, however, they can lose some of the physical abilities they had when they were younger, and this can have an impact on how they perform daily activities such as driving. Senior drivers should be aware of "smart features" available on vehicles that can assist them in being safer drivers. Addressing senior drivers' needs According to ...

Florida legislators considering texting ban again The dangers of texting while behind the wheel have been well documented, leading most states to adopt texting while driving bans to protect motorists on the road. Florida is now one of only five states in the country without legislation prohibiting this dangerous behavior. Despite repeated attempts in the legislature to pass such a law, Floridians are still legally allowed to send text messages while driving. Some members of the Florida legislature have taken a renewed look at banning texting while driving this year. ...

Bill seeks to alter Arizona bankruptcy exemptions From start to finish, much of the bankruptcy process is governed exclusively by federal law. However, when it comes to bankruptcy exemptions - which is property that the debtor is able to keep since it is "exempt" from the bankruptcy estate - the federal bankruptcy code expressly permits each individual state to opt-out of the federal exemptions and create their own, which Arizona has done. Consequently, those filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Arizona have a wide variety of exemptions at their disposal. For ...

Many military members are concerned about their custodial rights if he/she is deployed or otherwise unable to participate in a court custody action because of military responsibilities. Federal Law provides some protections under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA). This law is designed to protect the military member from a court issuing a custody judgment when the member is unable to defend himself because of military responsibilities. The SCRA not only provides for the appointment of counsel while the member is unavailable, but also for a stay of proceedings until ...

Specifying new Class 8 trucks with the latest technology requires hundreds of decisions about everything from the impact of new technology on preventive maintenance programs to the choice of components that will make the vehicle driver-friendly. One great resource for this complex decision-making is the local truck dealer, while another is a third-party service provider who can help get the specs right, said Jim Sweeney, Vice President of Capital Equipment for AmeriQuest Transportation Services in a blog posting. "Improving a fleet's operations used to be the fleet ...

Under the able baton of Conductor Laureate Ignat Solzhenitsyn, we journey to a historic moment in time with a program that commemorates the demolition of the Berlin Wall in 1989, leading to Germany's reunification. Performed in collaboration with a solo exhibition of photographs by James B. Abbott at the Center for Emerging Visual Artists, The Fall: A Photographic Portrait of Berlin and the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Abbott collaborates with Jorge Cousineau to present a multi-sensory concert experience. A founding resident company of The Kimmel Center for the Performing ...

McCusker & Company, a leading worldwide provider of consumer and commercial extended warranty services, announced today that it has been selected as the provider of extended warranty services to the dealers and customers of Texas-based Standard Supply. The new agreement extends McCusker & Company's leadership position serving the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) industry. "For more than 67 years HVAC professionals throughout Texas have trusted the Standard Supply line of supplies," said McCusker & Company Chief Executive Officer ...

This book has all the makings of your classic chick-lit read. It details the life and loves of famous Latino pop singer Ricky Biscayne, his rail-thin long-suffering model wife Jasminka, his mistress - fellow pop star Jill Sanchez, his publicist, naive Milan, Milan's elegant and constantly superior sister Geneva, and in a somewhat separate story, firefighter Irene, a single mother raising Ricky's daughter on a meagre budget but with determination and spirit. It is this elaborate cast of characters that elevates the story from celebrity gossip to a study of human nature ...

Sound Physicians, a leading hospitalist organization focused on driving improvements in quality, satisfaction and financial performance of inpatient healthcare delivery, announced today an agreement to provide hospitalist services at two Broward Health facilities: Broward Health Coral Springs and Broward Health Imperial Point. Sound Physicians will provide comprehensive hospitalist services to the 200-bed Broward Health Coral Springs in Coral Springs, Fla., and the 204-bed Broward Health Imperial Point in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. To start, Sound Physicians will recruit ...

Tic Toc Games, an independent game studio based in North Hollywood, CA, is launching their flagship title, PUG RUN, an original game concept from the mind of the CEO, Shereef Morse. His main inspiration for the game came from his son and his dog Greta, whose cute and cuddly personality makes a lasting impression on everyone that she meets. Drawn by a small boy with a larger-than-life imagination, Bogart awakens and begins to run towards the boy, only to find The Void slowly creeping up behind him to stop him. See the world change from black and white to color the closer ...

Sportsman's Warehouse has acquired 10 Wholesale Sports Outdoor Outfitters locations in Oregon, Washington and Montana. The stores, which were acquired from Canadian cooperative United Farmers of Alberta, were temporarily closed on March 11th for remodeling and restocking, and will re-open as Sportsman's Warehouse locations within the next few weeks. "We are very pleased to increase our presence in the Pacific Northwest market in such a significant manner," noted John Schaefer, Sportsman's Warehouse CEO. "This acquisition is in line with our business plan, ...

After outgrowing teenage infatuations with the girl next door, adult males seem to be biologically designed to avoid amorous attractions to the wife next door, according to a University of Missouri study that found adult males' testosterone levels dropped when they were interacting with the marital partner of a close friend. Understanding the biological mechanisms that keep men from constantly competing for each others' wives may shed light on how people manage to cooperate on the levels of neighborhoods, cities and even globally. "Although men have many chances to pursue ...

PORTLAND, Ore. – Scientists at Oregon Health & Science University and the Portland VA Medical Center have developed a drug that may represent one of the world's best hopes for treating and preventing malaria — a disease that kills more than one million people each year. The scientists have described the drug, and its effectiveness against mice infected with malaria, in the March 20 issue of Science Translational Medicine, an interdisciplinary journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The drug — called ELQ-300 — "is an exciting compound as it ...

LA JOLLA, CA----Ever find yourself racking your brain on a Monday morning to remember where you put your car keys? When you do find those keys, you can thank the hippocampus, a brain region responsible for storing and retrieving memories of different environments-such as that room where your keys were hiding in an unusual spot. Now, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have helped explain how the brain keeps track of the incredibly rich and complex environments people navigate on a daily basis. They discovered how the dentate gyrus, a subregion of ...

You may have heard of couples that strive for exact equality when it comes to chores, i.e. I scrub a dish, you scrub a dish, I change a diaper, you change a diaper. But new research finds that keeping score with chores isn't the best path to a high-quality relationship. Instead the data points to two items that should have a permanent place on a father's to-do list: Do housework alongside your spouse Spend quality time with the kids "We found that it didn't matter who did what, but how satisfied people were with the division of labor," said Brigham Young University ...

In a recently published article in Communication & Sport, Jimmy Sanderson, assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Clemson University, and Elizabeth Emmons, a doctoral student in the College of Communication and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama explore people's willingness to forgive then Texas Rangers player Josh Hamilton after an incident in January 2012. Hamilton serves as a unique study for fan behavior, as he as arguably generates as much attention as a human interest story as he does for his athletic performance. Hamilton's ...

Managing the delicate issue of sexual expression amongst people with dementia is the focus of a new education resource produced by Griffith University researcher Dr Cindy Jones. The first resource of its kind and the subject of funding from the Department of Health and Aging and Queensland Dementia Training and Study Centres (DTSC), Sexualities and Dementia: Education Resource for Health Professionals is aimed at assisting health professionals working across care settings. Based on national and international literature and research by Dr Jones from Griffith's Centre ...

Illnesses caused by many of the world's most deadly viruses cannot be effectively treated with existing drugs or vaccines. A study published by Cell Press in the March 21 issue of the journal Chemistry & Biology has revealed several compounds that can inhibit multiple viruses, such as highly lethal Ebola virus, as well as pathogens responsible for rabies, mumps, and measles, opening up new therapeutic avenues for combating highly pathogenic viruses. "The medical field currently does not have ideal antiviral therapies, often no therapeutics at all, and the development ...

In infected individuals, HIV mutates rapidly to escape recognition by immune cells. This process of continuous evolution is the main obstacle to natural immunity and the development of an effective vaccine. A new study published by Cell Press in the March 21 issue of the journal Immunity reveals that the immune system has the capacity to adapt such that it can recognize mutations in HIV. The findings suggest that our immune cells' adaptability could be harnessed to help in the fight against AIDS. An international collaboration between research groups in France, England, ...

PHILADELPHIA — Scientists have characterized how the functionality of genetically engineered T cells administered therapeutically to patients with melanoma changed over time. The data, which are published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, highlight the need for new strategies to sustain antitumor T cell functionality to increase the effectiveness of this immunotherapeutic approach. Early clinical research has indicated that cell-based immunotherapies for cancer, in particular melanoma, have potential because patients treated ...

Seventy-five percent of the world's population consumes nearly twice the daily recommended amount of sodium (salt), according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism and Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention 2013 Scientific Sessions. Global sodium intake from commercially prepared food, table salt, salt and soy sauce added during cooking averaged nearly 4,000 mg a day in 2010. The World Health Organization recommends limiting sodium to less than 2,000 mg a day and the American Heart Association ...