With foreclosures and debt levels at historic highs, officials are also reporting related increases in loan-modification scams. Consumers anxious to save their homes can be easily swayed by bogus companies promising lower payments and better loan terms. But, after pocketing victims' fees, scam artists leave homeowners with few options. How Common Loan-Modification Scams Work In many loan-modification scams, a seemingly-reputable company claims that, in return for an upfront fee, the company will renegotiate the terms of homeowners' mortgages and secure lower monthly ...

The NFL's recent high profile measures to reduce the risks of concussions to players brought well deserved attention to an important subject. For many decades, athletes at all levels were expected to shake off the symptoms that follow a head injury and get back in the game. But intensive study of concussions has led to the awareness that they are indeed traumatic brain injuries, and re-injury before symptoms have cleared can have lifelong, serious consequences. As important as this development is for professional athletes, the problem among teen athletes might be characterized ...

Spouses must address many difficult issues when going through divorce, including child custody, child support and alimony. In addition, the division of assets and debts can be challenging, particularly if a spouse is hiding assets. In many marriages, one spouse handles all financial matters while the other is not involved, not informed and possibly not even interested in money management. This may work well during the marriage, but during divorce both spouses need a full and accurate understanding of each other's assets and liabilities. Hidden assets can affect the ...

The Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 2010, which would have made "black box" technology mandatory in all vehicles sold in the U.S. by 2015, never made it beyond committee approval in the House of Representatives. Nonetheless, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that event data recorders (EDRs), which store data on a vehicle's speed, braking activity, engine RPMs and sometimes even seat belt use, are installed in 85 percent of all cars currently on American roads. This advanced technology can prove extremely useful in motor vehicle accident litigation, ...

Merriam Webster's dictionary defines a whistleblower as "one who reveals something covert or who informs against another." This definition perfectly describes an insider informant who, at great risk to him or herself, tells others -- even higher-ups in the same company or agency -- about illegal or improper activities taking place there. California Labor Code Section 1102.5 is expansive. It protects employees against retaliation for even internal whistleblowing. An employee need not report the activity to the government or an outside agency. Remember too that California ...

Pennsylvania Still Debating Distracted Driving Laws A respected nonprofit safety organization, the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, has issued a report saying that Pennsylvania is one of seven states that have a "dangerous lack of basic laws" regarding driving safety. This suggests that the state is missing many good opportunities to reduce the number of car accidents. The report ranked individual states based on the number of recommended laws each had enacted. States could receive a green (good), yellow (average) or red (poor) ranking. Eight states had green ...

In People v. Soto, the California Supreme Court has clarified the case law interpreting section 288 of the Penal Code. In People v. Soto, the California Supreme Court has clarified the case law interpreting section 288 of the Penal Code. The court held that consent by a child 14 years and younger cannot be a defense to an aggravating charge of committing a lewd or lascivious act by force or duress. California law, in section 288(a) of the Penal Code, prohibits lewd acts with a child 14 years or younger; California law classifies lewd conduct as a sex crime. Section 288(b)(1) ...

Radisson Blu Hotel Bristol has unveiled its recent upgrades marking the official completion of Bristol's most recently opened hotel. The final phase of the hotel's construction started in June 2010 and was officially completed just before Christmas. Customers have already given excellent feedback about the hotel's new look. Radisson Blu Hotel, Bristol director of sales and marketing, Kathrin Cockhill commented: "We are very pleased to celebrate the official completion of the hotel. We believe these finishing touches deliver what our customers expect from a Radisson ...

The newly-launched English version of Casino Online is full of all kinds of online gaming articles, reviews and blogs and also share people's experiences on how they have profited by playing online gambling. Millions of players from all countries prefer to gamble without leaving the comfort of their house and that is why online gambling is growing day by day. In this modern era people glued to gambling websites from computers, laptops and even mobile phones and love to play online gambling games like slot machines, roulette, video poker and so on. People love to visit ...

London's dogs' tails will be wagging this week as they are invited to join one of the world's most famous dogs on Sunday for 'A Grand Day Out' in Battersea Park sponsored by Foresters the international, financial services organisation. Wallace and Gromit will be at Battersea Park on Sunday April 10th from 11am to take part in A Grand Day Out which will raise money for two charities - the Kennel Club Charitable Trust and Wallace & Gromit's Children's Foundation. There will be tea and cake from Yorkshire tea available for everyone who participates in this family- and ...

Join the Grand Slam of Slots II Tournament at All Slots Casino Want to win a shot at winning $2.43 million in gold bullion? How about some $290,000 in additional prizes? That's what you get if you win the Grand Slam of Slots II tournament that's taking place right now at the All Slots Casino. To help people qualify for the Grand Slam of Slots II final and get a shot at the big prizes, All Slots Casino is sponsoring a series of free slots tournaments from now until May 23. Winners of the tournaments get a free ticket to the main event, which runs from May 27 to June 6. ...

Everyone knows that a satisfactory love life is a crucial component of a healthy life. Having this regular bond of intimacy can counter the negative effects of stress, burn a few calories, and even help you lower your blood pressure. And besides all that, a confident mind can make you feel more intimately connected with your partner. It can boost your mood, bust your stress levels, improve your relationship, and enhance your health. But sadly, some men feel that they are not able to take advantage of the many benefits of intimate relations. The ability to perform is ...

Memphis Invest, GP has quickly earned the reputation as one of the premier investment property providers in the nation and the schedule they are keeping this weekend is a great example of just how well known the company and the city of Memphis are becoming. "We are traveling to New Jersey and New York this weekend with part of our team while much of our team is back in Memphis hosting investors from Australia," stated Kent Clothier, Sr., the founder and father of this family-owned real estate investing company. "We have worked very hard over the past six months training ...

STANFORD, Calif. — Doctors at the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System are testing a new kind of clinical trial that's not only less costly but guides doctors to switch to the best treatment even before the trial is completed. The new approach — called a point-of-care clinical trial — was developed by Stanford University biostatistician Philip Lavori, PhD, and a Boston-based team as an alternative to expensive, lengthy, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials to compare drugs and procedures that are already in regular use. "The goal of point-of-care clinical ...

A new study has demonstrated no significant benefit of taking the drug bosentan for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The results were published online ahead of the print edition in the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Read the full study here. Although the primary endpoint of the Bosentan Use in Interstitial Lung Disease (BUILD)-3 study was not attained, researchers point to the possibility of benefit for a subset of IPF patients who had undergone surgical lung biopsy to confirm their diagnosis. The study, ...

VIDEO: This is a video of a "beating " cardiomyocyte. Click here for more information. Johns Hopkins scientists have developed a simplified, cheaper, all-purpose method they say can be used by scientists around the globe to more safely turn blood cells into heart cells. The method is virus-free and produces heart cells that beat with nearly 100 percent efficiency, they claim. "We took the recipe for this process from a complex minestrone to a simple miso soup," ...

LA JOLLA, CA – New research by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute and collaborating institutions has identified a key regulator of fat cell development that may provide a target for obesity and diabetes drugs. In a paper published in the latest issue of Cell Metabolism, the scientists describe a protein called TLE3 that acts as a dual switch to turn on signals that stimulate fat cell formation and turn off those that keep fat cells from developing. TLE3 works in partnership with a protein that is already the target of several diabetes drugs, but their use has ...

Does a reduction in the price of alcohol result in an increase in deaths due to alcohol? This was the subject of a study following a significant reduction in taxes in Finland in 2004 (30% for spirits, 3% for wine).The abolition of import quotas by the EU in 2004 also made it possible to import from other member countries and this led to an increase of approximately 10% in alcohol consumption in Finland. This paper is particularly interesting as it not only reports the effects of reducing costs of alcohol on alcohol-related mortality, but it also reports the effects of such ...

PHILADELPHIA — The advancements of our electronic age rests on our ability to control how electric charge moves, from point A to point B, through circuitry. Doing so requires particular precision, for applications ranging from computers, image sensors and solar cells, and that task falls to semiconductors. Now, a research team at the University of Pennsylvania's schools of Engineering and Applied Science and Arts and Sciences has shown how to control the characteristics of semiconductor nanowires made of a promising material: lead selenide. Led by Cherie Kagan, professor ...

ARLINGTON, Va. - Marking a milestone for the Navy, the Office of Naval Research and its industry partner on April 6 successfully tested a solid-state, high-energy laser (HEL) from a surface ship, which disabled a small target vessel. The Navy and Northrop Grumman completed at-sea testing of the Maritime Laser Demonstrator (MLD), which validated the potential to provide advanced self-defense for surface ships and personnel by keeping small boat threats at a safe distance. "The success of this high-energy laser test is a credit to the collaboration, cooperation and teaming ...

For those old enough to remember Mutual of Omaha's "Wild Kingdom" television series, the dynamics of predator-prey relationships seemed clear enough: predators thinned out prey populations, which enabled a smaller, but stronger, population to survive and reproduce. However, a new paper by University of Notre Dame biologist Gary Belovsky appearing in the prestigious journal Ecology Letters suggests that predator-prey relationships are much more complex than originally thought. The paper arose out of pioneering studies Belovsky, who also is director of the Notre Dame ...

College Park, Md.—Nearly 5 million American children participate in the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, but until now no one has looked at the gender messages young people get when they start collecting those coveted badges. Kathleen Denny, a sociology graduate student at the University of Maryland, College Park, analyzed scouting manuals and found that—despite positive aspects—today's scouts are being fed stereotypical ideas about femininity and masculinity. Her findings were recently published in Gender & Society, the highly-ranked journal of Sociologists for Women in Society. Girl ...

ST. LOUIS – Saint Louis University researchers have identified a novel mechanism to control the traffic of cells and fluid from tissues to lymphatic vessels. It may be possible to harness this mechanism to fight cancer spread from one organ to another organ and improve the effectiveness of vaccines. The lymphatic system is an extensive fluid transit system, consisting of vessels in the body. It defends the body against infection. Cancer cells and infection-fighting cells that are part of the immune system use the lymphatic system to get to other organs, including the ...

TORONTO, On – April 8, 2011 – Increased levels of a protein that helps regulate the body's blood pressure may also predict a major cardiovascular event in high-risk patients, according to a study led by St. Michael's Hospital's cardiovascular surgeon Subodh Verma. Measuring the amount of the protein, known as plasma renin activity (PRA), in the blood stream may give doctors another tool to assess a patient's risk and help prevent a heart attack or stroke. "Conventional factors like genetics and environment do not always provide a complete patient story and an understanding ...

A galaxy's core is a busy place, crowded with stars swarming around an enormous black hole. When galaxies collide, it gets even messier as the two black holes spiral toward each other, merging to make an even bigger gravitational monster. Once it is created, the monster goes on a rampage. The merger kicks the black hole into surrounding stars. There it finds a hearty meal, shredding and swallowing stars at a rapid clip. According to new research by Nick Stone and Avi Loeb (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), upcoming sky surveys might offer astronomers a way ...