All qualified veterans with service-connected disabilities are entitled to receive veterans' disability benefits from the Department of Veterans' Affairs. Unfortunately, a huge backlog in the system means that many veterans are not getting their VA disability benefits as soon as they should be. As of July 2012, there were nearly 920,000 claims pending with the VA. Approximately 66 percent of those applicants had been waiting for more than 125 days. The backlog can be attributed to a number of different factors. New battlefield medical technology is allowing soldiers ...

Backed up traffic. Flashing lights. Narrow, winding lanes and confusing signage. Navigating a construction zone can be a challenge even for the most experienced drivers. Car accidents in construction zones are all too common in Connecticut and throughout the United States. But, by knowing more about the threats they are likely to face, the steps drivers can take to help protect themselves and how to address the fallout after an accident, motorists can be prepared for whatever dangerous construction zones throw in their way. The Hazards of Construction Zones According ...

Don't assume that the Veterans Administration will get it right the first time. The law of veterans disability benefits is complex and often misunderstood. Veterans regularly appeal VA decisions either because they are not compensated at the correct disability percentage or they are completely denied service connection. There is recourse for those who need a second opinion or want to fight for their benefits: Veterans who are denied benefits can take advantage of an appeals system that allows them to challenge the decisions made by a regional Department of Veterans Affairs ...

A marriage is a spiritual relationship. A marriage is a unique social commitment. But, marriage also is a financial partnership. Often the earnings of one partner far outpace those of the other. While a spouse who does not earn a large weekly paycheck relies on his or her partner's earnings, he or she contributes to the marriage in other ways that the Court recognizes. For this reason, the Court may make an alimony, or spousal support order. The higher-earning partner typically pays alimony to the lower-earning partner upon divorce. Alimony helps ease the couple's inevitably ...

To stay competitive in today's business environment, more businesses are focusing on work-life balances to attract (and retain) good employees. With a growing number of work tasks being performed remotely or through the Internet, employers are becoming more flexible about the actual time spent in the office. This allows working parents have more time to attend their children's school activities. The evolution of the workplace is the impetus behind a new law that would allow parents to take time away from work. The Family Education Leave Act would allow employees in Michigan ...

A person must make many decisions when creating a will, establishing a trust or implementing other estate planning strategies. Important choices regarding everything from tangible assets to the identity of people chosen to carry out one's wishes will have long term implications. One area of concern that has received enhanced attention from estate planning and probate lawyers in recent years is the fate of a person's digital assets. Everything from a person's Facebook profile to email distribution lists and other reams of data can have significant value, particularly ...

Our country is proud of its heroes. Unfortunately, the opportunity to be a hero is often tied to a great tragedy. In the case of Penn State's terrible child abuse disaster, the children that were abused now have the opportunity to emerge as heroes -- taking steps to ensure similar tragedies do not happen to future generations. Sexual abuse is a horrendous crime that is taken very seriously in Pennsylvania. There are potentially two types of lawsuits involved in sex abuse cases: Criminal lawsuits, which punish abusers, and civil lawsuits, which can offer the victims ...

The U.S. is heavily dependent on large vehicles like trucks and buses for commercial transport. On any given day, on any interstate highway across the country, high numbers of tractor-trailer trucks are traveling on the same roads as passenger vehicles and at high rates of speed. Of course, these immense, heavy vehicles are especially treacherous when involved in accidents with smaller vehicles like cars, minivans and SUVs, to say nothing of the dangers they pose to motorcycles and pedestrians. Because of the risk of serious injury and death in commercial vehicle collisions, ...

FreeAgent has dramatically overhauled its award-winning online accounting system in order to make it easier than ever for small businesses and freelancers to stay on top of their finances. As part of an extensive development project, FreeAgent has revamped and upgraded key areas of its cloud accounting software, ensuring it is more intuitive to use for tens of thousands of customers across the UK and overseas. The redesign was released to beta testers earlier this year, before being rolled out to all FreeAgent customers in June. Among the key changes are: - ...

Topman has teamed up with Teenage Cancer Trust to produce a series of four vibrant t-shirts to raise money for the charity. The high street retailer has been officially supporting Teenage Cancer Trust since 2010. The t-shirt range has been created by the Topman in house design team and is a cool credible graphic led collection of repeat all over prints and pocket graphics with each t-shirt design being inspired by music and musical instruments. The limited edition t-shirts are available in stores nationwide and online at topman.com and are priced at GBP18 with GBP5 ...

John (Walnut Creek, CA) came to Blue Tax for failure to comply with outstanding IRS taxes owed. He owed taxes for 2007-2008 and had also filed bankruptcy for those years. Once the bankruptcy was discharged, the IRS started collections against John again. Blue Tax's challenge was to ensure that John did not get collected on and to establish a resolution. John's case was complicated. After completing the financials for him, it was then determined that he was good applicant for Currently Non-Collectible status (CNC). What made this case complicated was that he had a lot ...

Global gold demand in Q2 2012 was 990.0 tonnes (t), down 7% from the 1,065.8t in Q2 2011 according to the World Gold Council's Gold Demand Trends report. This dip in demand was partly due to the comparison with exceptional demand last year, and also reflects the challenging global economic climate. In this context, gold performed as expected, acting as both a store of value and a source of liquidity. In value terms gold demand remained relatively stable year on year at US$51.2 billion, compared to US$51.6 billion in Q2 2011. During the quarter, the average price of gold ...

A laboratory study led by UNC medical oncologist Stergios Moschos, MD, demonstrates how a new targeted drug, Elesclomol, blocks oxidative phosphorylation, which appears to play essential role in melanoma that has not been well-understood. Elesclomol (Synta Pharmaceuticals, Lexington, MA) was previously shown to have clinical benefit only in patients with normal serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), a laboratory test routinely used to assess activity of disease. For more than 60 years, scientists have known that cancer cells undergo glycolysis, or metabolize glucose, at ...

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., August 17, 2012 — Members of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover ChemCam team have received the first photos from the instrument's remote micro imager. The successful capture of ChemCam's first 10 photos sets the stage for the first test bursts of the instrument's rock-zapping laser in the near future. "The successful delivery of these photos means we can begin efforts in earnest for the first images of Mars rocks by the ChemCam instrument and the first use of the instrument's laser," said Los Alamos National Laboratory planetary scientist Roger ...

A mysterious region deep in the human brain could be where we sort through the onslaught of stimuli from the outside world and focus on the information most important to our behavior and survival, Princeton University researchers have found. The researchers report in the journal Science that an area of our brain called the pulvinar regulates communication between clusters of brain cells as our brain focuses on the people and objects that need our attention. Like a switchboard operator, the pulvinar makes sure that separate areas of the visual cortex — which processes ...

TORONTO, Ontario (August 17, 2012) –An 'all-natural' method for studying pancreatic islets, the small tissues responsible for insulin production and regulation in the body, has recently been developed by researchers at the University of Toronto's Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME) to try to track metabolic changes in living tissues in 'real time' and without additional chemicals or drugs. It's an organically-minded approach that could lead to big changes in our understanding of diabetes and other diseases. Assistant Professor Jonathon V. ...

DETROIT — Correctional facility employees who trust supervisors and management are less likely to experience job burnout, a Wayne State University researcher has found. "Trust builds commitment and involvement in the job," said Eric Lambert, Ph.D., professor and chair of criminal justice in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, "but lack of trust leads to burnout and stresses people out." A correctional facility employee himself before becoming an academic, Lambert developed his study of staff members at a private Midwestern juvenile detention facility after learning ...

Satellite imagery on August 17 is showing signs of re-organization in the remnants of Tropical Depression 7 (TD7). TD7 has moved into the warm waters of the Bay of Campeche where it is regaining strength and appears much more organized. NASA's GOES Project created a visible image of the remnants of Tropical Depression 7 from August 17 at 9:45 a.m. EDT (1345 UTC) from NOAA's GOES-13 satellite. The image showed several areas of stronger thunderstorms. The stronger thunderstorms appear brighter white in the imagery and are located around the center and to the northeast of ...

DENVER — New research shows that people who have bariatric surgery to treat obesity report an overall improvement in quality of life issues after surgery, from their relationships to their medical conditions. Arizona State University researchers will present their findings at the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association. Obesity is an epidemic in the United States with more than one-third of adults over age 20 classified as obese. Bariatric surgery is an increasingly common procedure that individuals are turning to that typically results in dramatic ...

DENVER — New research examining relationships and the use of alcohol finds that while a long-term marriage appears to curb men's drinking, it's associated with a slightly higher level of alcohol use among women. The study, led by the University of Cincinnati (UC), will be presented at the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association. Based on survey data and interviews, the authors revealed that married men reported consuming the lowest number of drinks, compared with single, divorced, and widowed men. That's in part because of their wives' lower levels ...

DENVER — Women playing full-contact tackle football face challenges beyond the playing field—yet there's little research about this niche in athletics. Jennifer Carter, a University of Cincinnati doctoral student in the UC Department of Sociology, will present her research on body maintenance in women's professional football at the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association. Carter first began her research observing a team in the Women's Football Alliance (WFA), but she then became a defensive back, and learned firsthand how women condition themselves ...

The way legislators, experts and other opinion leaders discuss the role of parents and schools in reducing educational inequalities has changed dramatically since the Elementary and Secondary Education Act first passed in 1965. Put simply, parents were viewed as part of the problem then, with schools seen as the solution. In recent years, with No Child Left Behind and more school choice options, these roles have flipped. "There has been a continued focus on reducing educational inequalities; however, there are stark contrasts in the way policymakers and experts talked ...

Integrate is almost here and so is Homony! A relative newcomer to the commercial audio world, Homony will be displaying its products at Integrate 2012 to be held on 21-23 Aug 2012 at Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, Melbourne. Look out for Homony's wide range of products on display at booth A9. Don't miss this opportunity to check out our low cost solutions for small, medium and large sized applications. On display, will be our enhanced Audio Matrix System that comes with remote control panels and sleek paging microphones. Check out our all-in-one BGM and public ...

High-fashion baby boutique Landry Grace is back with a new website and a new focus: custom creations of all kinds. On August 16, 2012, the company launched its updated site, which features ground-up designs and accessories for every style of baby and toddler room. A labor of love for co-founder Nan Latimer and her daughters, Mandy Lane and Lacey Miller, Landry Grace opened its digital doors in 2011 with an array of creative collections and ready-to-ship gifts for little ones and expecting moms. It wasn't long before customers started asking the team for help matching ...

K2M, Inc., a spinal device company developing innovative solutions for the treatment of complex spinal pathologies and minimally invasive procedures, today announced a partnership with Cadwell Laboratories, Inc., a leading manufacturer and marketer of diagnostic and monitoring products for neurophysiology, to provide a neuromonitoring solution for the company's RAVINE Lateral Access System. This announcement comes on the first day of the 2012 World Congress of Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery and Techniques (WCMISST) Conference in Bahia, Brazil. "K2M's partnership ...