Considering a Loan Modification? Consider Bankruptcy Instead. The crash of the housing bubble has left many homeowners in homes that are now not worth what was paid for them. The current economic crisis and rise in unemployment are leaving many homeowners with mortgages they cannot afford for houses that they cannot sell. As a result, there has been a rise in loan modification programs. Loan modifications sound appealing because of the promise to work with the lender to lower payments, allowing the distressed homeowner to keep their home and avoid foreclosure. These ...

Protecting Loved Ones from Elder Abuse According to the California Attorney General's office, more than 200,000 Californians over the age of 65 are subjected to elder abuse each year -- and the problem is not expected to get better any time soon. With a population of 3.7 million elderly, California already has the largest number of elderly residents in the nation. This number is expected to double in the next 20 years. As the baby boomer population enters their golden years, the number of people who need assistance from family members and long term care facilities ...

Fair Sentencing Act Reduces Disparity for Cocaine Sentences In August, President Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act into law. While the act does not eliminate federal sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses, the mere fact that it occurred is a surprising criminal justice reform. Ten years ago, those working to repeal the 100-to-1 sentencing disparity were dismissed as "soft on crime." The 1986 law was enacted at a time when many expected the crack cocaine epidemic affecting minority communities would cause a broader crime wave, which never ...

Report Offers Denver A Glimmer of Hope, But Economic Struggles Persist According to the latest Mountain Monitor report from Brookings Mountain West, the Denver area's gross metropolitan product (meaning the value of all of its produced goods and services) has almost returned to pre-recession levels. In the second quarter of this year, the gross metropolitan product was just .1 percent lower than its highest levels before the recession began. Perhaps surprisingly, though, this overall return to productivity is not reflected in employment rates. As the report indicates, ...

Another Alleged Police Brutality Incident Shakes Florida Law Enforcement A recent suspected case of police brutality, this time resulting in the serious injury of 38-year-old Bamako Walton of Roodhouse, is putting the spotlight back on the actions of Florida's law enforcement officers. While the facts are still not completely clear, it is known that Walton was the passenger in a vehicle pulled over by an officer with the Jacksonville Police Department in the early hours of August 8, 2010. What remains to be seen, however, is how he ended up with multiple facial contusions, ...

Presumed Occupational Diseases for Firefighters and Police Officers Maryland Annotated Code, Labor and Employment (LE) Article, 9-503 states that firefighters and police officers are given a presumption of compensability for certain occupational diseases if they contract heart disease or hypertension that results in "partial or total disability or death." Additionally, if a firefighter develops lung disease or certain specific cancers that results in partial or total disability, that firefighter is given a presumption of compensability that the disease was "suffered ...

Florida Sinkhole Claims Extending Beyond Sinkhole Alley? Pasco and Hernandez counties are well established as the centers of sinkhole activity in Florida; Florida lawmakers have gone so far as to craft unique laws governing insurance coverage for sinkholes in these two counties. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that the problem may be spreading, with sinkholes reportedly appearing as far south as Miami and Naples. Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty has requested claims data from both commercial and residential property insurance companies, with the ...

New Emphasis on Curbing Medicaid Fraud In 2009, President Obama revealed that Medicare and Medicaid are the biggest drivers of the federal deficit and debt. Both programs are crucial to the health care industry in the United States; however, crippling waste, abuse and fraud cost the system $60 billion annually. As such, the Obama administration seeks to crack down on Medicaid and Medicare fraud. Reports of flagrant Medicaid and Medicare fraud prompt public outcries. Consider the case of Elizabeth Corbitt, who in August was arrested on 419 counts of Medicaid fraud ...

Report on State of Oregon Hospitals Released In 2008, the Oregon Patient Safety Commission (OPSC) set a simple goal for itself - become the safest health care delivery system in the United States. The OPSC set out procedures and standards to measure progress in hospitals across the state. Noting that Oregon's level of care was only "average" by any measurement, the OPSC's objective was to use these standards to improve patient safety. The standards asked five main questions: -Can we demonstrate that we are eliminating preventable harm events? -Are we using evidence-based ...

The Costs of Medical Errors According to a recent ABC story, a study confirmed anecdotal evidence of the "July Effect" - a rise in medical errors during the month of July, when new residents fresh out of medical school report to their teaching hospitals. A 2000 publication by the Institute of Medicine indicated that up to 98,000 Americans may die each year as a result of preventable medical errors. Though the qualitative costs of medical errors can be devastating, a recent article in The Wall Street Journal says the quantitative costs can also be staggering. Citing ...

British Airways has launched its new 'lower price holiday finder' which allows customers to save time and money when booking their holiday package. Claire Bentley, managing director BA Holidays commented: "Following the success of dynamic packaging where flight plus hotel or flight plus car rental were combined to offer our customers the lowest pricing on ba.com, we have now developed more advanced options such as the new 'lowest price holiday finder' on ba.com. This new technology ultimately gives customers the opportunity to save even more time and money when booking ...

Hotels.com's latest destination hot list league table has found Venice taking the top spot list as the fastest rising destinations in terms of year on year searches through the site. The Italian city of Venice came out as being the hottest destination on the list for Brits with a 655% increase in searches on the UK Hotels.com site in June 2010 compared to June 2009, however with summer in full swing, traditional UK seaside destinations have also been proving popular as Cromer in Norfolk and Llandudno in North Wales saw rises of 565% and 495% respectively year on year. ...

Hotels.com's latest hot list of the fastest-rising destinations for hotel searches across in July has revealed that Farnborough in Hampshire has managed to top the list.  The town famed for its annual summer air show topped the table of fastest rising destinations with a 565% increase in searches in July compared with the same time last year. The interest in staying in Farnborough around the time of the air show provides a good indicator of the continued endurance in popularity of the UK 'staycation' throughout 2010. Further afield and with schools out for the summer, ...

Hays Social Housing, the leading recruiting expert, is working in partnership with AmicusHorizon, one of the largest housing associations in the South East region on a job seeking skills programme. The three-month programme, which was set up because residents said they needed support in gaining employment, has already secured jobs or training for several tenants and has improved the employability of many others. The programme started in June with introductory seminars and a series of one-on-one career coaching sessions. Each participant also attended five Hays workshops, ...

Most professional financial planners will tell you that planning for retirement is an ongoing process that requires a comprehensive strategy with continuous reviews and adjustments. This usually means a commitment of both time and money either by hiring a professional financial advisor or dedicating the resources to acquiring and learning a professional financial planning software like ExecPlan Express. Though ExecPlan Express is an easy to use application because of its needs based analysis design and its focus on the basic fundamentals of retirement planning, it is ...

Fantazzle Weekly Fantasy Football Games enters Week Three of the 2010 fantasy football season with a special fantasy game now available every Sunday on the site. Fantazzle introduces the SuperStakes Sundays Fantasy Football Game. SuperStakes Sundays will be offered every week at Fantazzle with guaranteed cash prizes awarding thousands of dollars to each week's winners. For the inaugural Fantazzle SuperStakes Sunday, limited time fantasy football promotions are available, which include a guaranteed prize pool with free cash added, plus a special deposit bonus that includes ...

The web site, www.noworriesnow.org, provides opportunities for prom attendees to learn more about the proms, RSVP for events, and offers a number of ways for people to participate in the organization. Also seen on the web site is a blog with latest news, audio and video clips, and information about past and future proms. In addition, the interactive site allows visitors to request a prom in their city. Fred Scarf, Foundation founder explains, "It is important to have a website that can be easily integrated into the lives of the patients, donors, and fans of No Worries ...

Author Rene Natan announces the release of the new suspense thriller "The Blackpox Threat". The Blackpox Threat. A deadly virus is on its way to Canada--from Ukraine via Italy. Would beautiful Tamara Smith, thirty-two, be able to help in the covert operation that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service has carefully orchestrated? Would Tamara Smith be able to prevent an epidemic of Blackpox? Rene Natan's new thriller is available at OldLinePublishingllc.com and Amazon.com. Website: http://vermeil.biz/Irene Gargantini, aka RENE NATAN, has authored seven ...

"A giant rhino with a ridiculously supersized head." "Fifteen long, pointed sideways oriented eye horns: one over the nose, one atop each eye, one at the tip of each cheek bone, and ten across the rear margin of the bony frill." "A horned face: large horn over the nose and short, blunt eye horns that project strongly to the side." Such phrases have been used to describe two newly discovered species of dinosaurs with looks only a mother could love. Still, they are drawing the attention and inspiring the imagination of scientists and lay people alike. Announced today ...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23, 2010 — If America is to recover from years of severe job losses and financial crisis, the nation must stay the course of smart, sustained investments in our most valuable economic engine: scientific research and globally competitive education that together fuel technological innovation. So says a National Academy of Sciences report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Revisited, that was issued today. "The Academy has taken a responsible position with long-term stability in mind," said American Chemical Society President Joseph S. Francisco, Ph.D. ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Researchers report this month that MALAT1, a long non-coding RNA that is implicated in certain cancers, regulates pre-mRNA splicing – a critical step in the earliest stage of protein production. Their study appears in the journal Molecular Cell. Nearly 5 percent of the human genome codes for proteins, and scientists are only beginning to understand the role of the rest of the "non-coding" genome. Among the least studied non-coding genes – which are transcribed from DNA to RNA but generally are not translated into proteins – are the long non-coding RNAs ...

A University of Oklahoma research team has uncovered a key to arresting the growth of thrush—a type of oral yeast infection that sickens patients with compromised immune systems, diabetes and newborns as well as healthy individuals, who may contract the disease following antibiotic treatment of an illness. An OU team of natural products chemists and microbiologists observed several clinical strains of Streptococcus mutans capable of arresting the growth of the pathogenic yeast Candida albicans. The bacteria species, S. mutans keeps other oral microorganisms in check ...

Washington, DC, September 23, 2010 – A new study looking at how hospitals account for the number of pediatric patients who develop catheter-associated bloodstream infections (CA-BSIs) found substantial inconsistencies in the methods used to report the number of patients who develop these infections. The study, conducted by the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Focus Group, appears in the October issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals ...

Grand Rapids, Mich. (September 23, 2010) – Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) scientists participated in a study with researchers from the University of Utah that could help find ways to improve shunt systems used to treat the neurological disorder hydrocephalus, or "water on the brain," the leading cause of brain surgery for children in the United States. Researchers studied the shunt systems under a variety of conditions by creating a bioreactor that mimics the environment inside patients. Hydrocephalus is an excessive accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in ...

Development of an effective vaccine for malaria is a step closer following identification of a key pathway used by the malaria parasite to infect human cells. The discovery, by researchers at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, Australia, provides a new vaccine target through which infection with the deadly disease could be prevented. Each year more than 400 million people contract malaria, and more than one million, mostly children, die from the disease. The most lethal form of malaria is caused by the parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Part of the parasite's ...