Much of the country's midsection will face severe storms and a high risk of tornadoes. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
By Erin McClam and John Newland, NBC News
Blizzard warnings were in effect Tuesday in Colorado, where the temperature plunged more than 50 degrees in less than 24 hours and the wind chill approached zero. Forecasters also expect hurricane-force blasts of frigid air in Utah and heavy snow in the Dakotas.
The culprit is a deep dip in the jet stream that swung west and pulled arctic air far into the country. As it collides with warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, strong storms and tornadoes are possible in the Great Plains and Texas.
?It?s just brutal to be outside,? said Eric Fisher, a meteorologist for The Weather Channel.
Full coverage from Weather.com
In Denver, the temperature plummeted from 71 degrees at 2 p.m. Monday to 16 degrees at 7 a.m. Tuesday, with a wind chill of 1. More than 300 flights had been canceled into and out of Denver since Monday night.
Forecasters said Denver could get as much as 11 inches of snow and South Dakota more than a foot, with snow stretching as far north and east as Minnesota and Nebraska. In Utah, wind gusts of 75 mph were possible, The Weather Channel reported.
The calendar may say spring, but April is the second-snowiest month of the year in Denver. The city has averaged 9 inches in April since 1882, second only to the 11.5 inches it gets in an average March, according to the National Weather Service.
Seth Wenig / AP
Kids including Branden Rivera, 9, spray each other with water from a drinking fountain while enjoying the warm weather in New York on Monday. Things may not be so pleasant later this week, as a massive storm system moves east.
The weather pattern threatened to bring damaging wind, large hail and perhaps tornadoes to parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Iowa, and weaker storms later in the day in the Ohio Valley.
?We?re looking at the gamut today for severe weather,? Weather Channel meteorologist Kevin Roth said.
As the system moves east, severe storms are possible Wednesday across a boomerang-shaped swath of the country from the Texas Gulf Coast north through Indiana and into western Pennsylvania.
Severe storms could move into Georgia, West Virginia and the Carolinas on Thursday.
This story was originally published on Tue Apr 9, 2013 4:59 AM EDT
CHICAGO (AP) ? Former Illinois state Rep. Robin Kelly, whose campaign received a $2 million boost from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, easily captured Tuesday's special election to replace former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.
The win for the Matteson Democrat was widely expected as the Chicago-area district, which Jackson represented from 1995 until late last year, has been a Democratic stronghold for roughly six decades. Kelly emerged from a crowded field in the February primary by focusing heavily on anti-gun efforts and was helped by ads from Bloomberg's super PAC.
Kelly, 56, vowed to become a leader in the federal fight for gun control legislation and echoed the promise after her win.
"I'll continue to speak about it in the district. I'll continue to be in touch with those who have lost their children. I'll speak out where I can in D.C.," she told The Associated Press before her victory speech in Matteson.
She easily won over Republican community activist Paul McKinley, three independent candidates and a Green Party candidate in the district that includes city neighborhoods, suburbs and rural areas.
Her win also marked the end of an era for voters who had supported Jackson at the polls with healthy majorities each election after he took office. The Chicago Democrat stepped down in November after a mysterious medical leave where full details were never disclosed to the public. He cited his health and acknowledged he was under federal investigation in his resignation letter.
Months later ? as campaigning to replace him ramped up ? he pleaded guilty to charges that he misspent $750,000 in campaign funds on everything from toilet paper to furs.
Jackson was the third congressman in the district to leave under an ethical cloud, and many voters said Tuesday that they were just ready for a change.
"It hurt my heart. I had him way up here on a pedestal," said Robert Pierson, a Dolton resident who cast a ballot for Kelly on Tuesday. "I hope this time we are going to get it right."
Other voters said it was Kelly's attention to anti-gun efforts that made her an attractive candidate. Guns became the top issue during the campaign ? particularly before the primary ? and ads from Bloomberg's PAC played up that Kelly supports an assault weapons ban. The television spots also targeted one of her primary opponents, former one-term U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorson, who has received favorable ratings from the National Rifle Association.
Some voters, and certainly Kelly's political opponents, questioned the outside involvement. There were allegations of Kelly colluding with Bloomberg, which is prohibited. She dismissed those claims.
However, some voters said Tuesday they didn't mind Bloomberg's involvement, particularly on the issue of guns and violence. The election comes as Chicago has seen an uptick in murders.
"Mayor Bloomberg, he's for right," said 62-year-old suburban Chicago voter Ted Norwood, who cast a vote for Kelly. "He speaks for everybody."
After her primary win, Kelly received praise from Bloomberg and Vice President Joe Biden, and she recently received an endorsement from President Barack Obama, who noted her anti-gun efforts.
McKinley, 54, had portrayed himself as an anti-establishment candidate, blasting Chicago's machine politics. McKinley is an ex-convict who served prison time for robbery and other charges. On the campaign trail, he talked about his reintegration into society and how it made him a voice for inmates.
He said Tuesday that he wished Kelly good luck.
"The voters have voted, and she must work for the voters and not for the machine," he told the AP.
When Kelly heads to Washington she will face other challenges. She'll be taking over after Jackson, a nearly 17-year incumbent with a spot on the powerful House Appropriations Committee.
Despite Jackson's legal problems at the end of his career ? he was under a House Ethics Committee investigation for ties to ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich ? he brought home close to $1 billion in federal money to the district. He also had strong ties with community leaders and a family legacy. His wife was a former Chicago City Council member, and he's the son of civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Kelly said she's ready for the challenge and had already considered where to set up constituent offices in the district that overlaps with some of her old legislative district. Kelly served two terms as a representative in the Illinois House.
Voter turnout was low in several parts of the district. Tuesday's special election coincided with municipal elections ? not including Chicago, which elected its mayor and City Council in 2011. Early estimates for city precincts were roughly 8 percent with an anticipated 12 percent by day's end. Election officials said turnout was expected to be higher than the 2009 special election to replace Rahm Emanuel, who left Congress to be President Obama's chief of staff. In that year, roughly 10 percent of city voters went to the polls.
Turnout was higher in the suburbs, particularly areas with contested municipal elections.
Jackson, who has stayed out of the public eye since his medical leave last summer, appeared in federal court in February, where his wife Sandi Jackson also pleaded guilty. He faces up to 57 months ? more than four years ? in prison and a fine, under a plea deal with prosecutors.
___
Contact Sophia Tareen at https://www.twitter.com/sophiatareen .
T cell biology pioneer Allison wins first AACR honor for cancer immunologyPublic release date: 10-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Scott Merville smerville@mdanderson.org 713-792-0661 University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
Discoverer of drug to treat T cells, not tumors, receives inaugural AACR-CRI Lloyd J. Old Award in Cancer Immunology
WASHINGTON, D.C. The scientist whose discoveries led to the first drug approved for metastatic melanoma by "treating the immune system, not the cancer," also is the first to receive the AACR-CRI Lloyd J. Old Award in Cancer Immunology.
James Allison, Ph.D., professor and chair of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Department of Immunology, was honored today at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013 in Washington, D.C.
The American Association for Cancer Research and the Cancer Research Institute launched the award to recognize the increasing importance of immunology in cancer treatment and to honor Old, who died last year at 78 after a path-breaking career in immunology research and leadership.
"I'm delighted and honored to be given this award named for Lloyd Old, who is widely considered to be the father of cancer immunotherapy. I was fortunate in knowing Dr. Old as a mentor, but also as a close friend," Allison said.
"This new award by AACR and CRI recognizes individuals, but it's also gratifying recognition of the growing prominence of immune therapy and of our progress towards fulfilling Dr. Old's goal of unleashing the immune system against cancer," Allison said.
Antibody blocks inhibitor of T cell response
Allison's basic science discoveries about the immune system led to his identification and development of ipilimumab, known commercially as Yervoy, a monoclonal antibody that blocks a molecule on the surface of T cells that acts as a brake on the immune system.
About 23 percent of patients with late stage metastatic melanoma who took ipilimumab in clinical trials have lived for five years or longer, unheard of in stage 4 melanoma patients. The drug was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in May 2011.
"Our goal is to accelerate the transition of new drugs and rational combinations based on mechanistic insight into the clinic," Allison said. "These approaches have proven effective in the treatment of melanoma and prostate cancer, and there is no reason that immunotherapy, since it targets the immune system and not the cancer cell, shouldn't be effective against a broad range of cancer types."
The drug has been used in more than 4,000 patients with a variety of cancers, including clinical trials for prostate, renal, lung and ovarian cancers.
The immune system routinely recognizes and destroys abnormal cells, but cancer cells manage to evade detection and attack. Old and colleagues believed that the immune system is ideally suited to wipe out cancer if those problems can be overcome, an unpopular view for decades.
Allison's discoveries in T cell biology built the foundation for him to identify and advance ipilimumab. T cells are lymphocytes, a white blood cell with receptors to recognize and bind to antigens, allowing the T cells to launch a customized attack on viruses, bacteria, abnormal cells and proteins.
Allison discovered:
The T cell antigen receptor used by T cells to bind to and recognize antigens.
T cells require a second signal to launch an immune response after they've bound to an antigen. B7 molecules on presenting cells must engage a surface molecule called CD28 on the T cell.
An immune-inhibiting molecule called CTLA-4 inhibits activated T cells to protect normal tissue from attack. CTLA-4 apparently also protects cancer cells from attack.
Ipilimumab is an antibody that blocks CTLA-4's docking station on T cells.
Allison was chair of the immunology program and director of the Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He started at MD Anderson on Nov. 1. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, as well as a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The AACR-CRI Lloyd J. Old Award in Cancer Immunology was established to recognize an active scientist whose outstanding and innovative research in cancer immunology has had a far-reaching impact on the cancer field. CRI is the world's only nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to harnessing the immune system's power to conquer cancer.
Old was scientific director of CRI for 40 years and also a researcher at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in New York.
The AACR also announced the electronic launch of its newest journal, Cancer Immunology Research, which will publish original articles on major advances in cancer immunology. A print preview issue was distributed at the annual meeting.
###
AACR is the world's first and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research. AACR membership includes more than 34,000 laboratory, translational and clinical researchers; population scientists; other health care professionals; and cancer advocates in more than 90 countries. About 18,000 people attended the 2013 annual meeting.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
T cell biology pioneer Allison wins first AACR honor for cancer immunologyPublic release date: 10-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Scott Merville smerville@mdanderson.org 713-792-0661 University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
Discoverer of drug to treat T cells, not tumors, receives inaugural AACR-CRI Lloyd J. Old Award in Cancer Immunology
WASHINGTON, D.C. The scientist whose discoveries led to the first drug approved for metastatic melanoma by "treating the immune system, not the cancer," also is the first to receive the AACR-CRI Lloyd J. Old Award in Cancer Immunology.
James Allison, Ph.D., professor and chair of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Department of Immunology, was honored today at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013 in Washington, D.C.
The American Association for Cancer Research and the Cancer Research Institute launched the award to recognize the increasing importance of immunology in cancer treatment and to honor Old, who died last year at 78 after a path-breaking career in immunology research and leadership.
"I'm delighted and honored to be given this award named for Lloyd Old, who is widely considered to be the father of cancer immunotherapy. I was fortunate in knowing Dr. Old as a mentor, but also as a close friend," Allison said.
"This new award by AACR and CRI recognizes individuals, but it's also gratifying recognition of the growing prominence of immune therapy and of our progress towards fulfilling Dr. Old's goal of unleashing the immune system against cancer," Allison said.
Antibody blocks inhibitor of T cell response
Allison's basic science discoveries about the immune system led to his identification and development of ipilimumab, known commercially as Yervoy, a monoclonal antibody that blocks a molecule on the surface of T cells that acts as a brake on the immune system.
About 23 percent of patients with late stage metastatic melanoma who took ipilimumab in clinical trials have lived for five years or longer, unheard of in stage 4 melanoma patients. The drug was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in May 2011.
"Our goal is to accelerate the transition of new drugs and rational combinations based on mechanistic insight into the clinic," Allison said. "These approaches have proven effective in the treatment of melanoma and prostate cancer, and there is no reason that immunotherapy, since it targets the immune system and not the cancer cell, shouldn't be effective against a broad range of cancer types."
The drug has been used in more than 4,000 patients with a variety of cancers, including clinical trials for prostate, renal, lung and ovarian cancers.
The immune system routinely recognizes and destroys abnormal cells, but cancer cells manage to evade detection and attack. Old and colleagues believed that the immune system is ideally suited to wipe out cancer if those problems can be overcome, an unpopular view for decades.
Allison's discoveries in T cell biology built the foundation for him to identify and advance ipilimumab. T cells are lymphocytes, a white blood cell with receptors to recognize and bind to antigens, allowing the T cells to launch a customized attack on viruses, bacteria, abnormal cells and proteins.
Allison discovered:
The T cell antigen receptor used by T cells to bind to and recognize antigens.
T cells require a second signal to launch an immune response after they've bound to an antigen. B7 molecules on presenting cells must engage a surface molecule called CD28 on the T cell.
An immune-inhibiting molecule called CTLA-4 inhibits activated T cells to protect normal tissue from attack. CTLA-4 apparently also protects cancer cells from attack.
Ipilimumab is an antibody that blocks CTLA-4's docking station on T cells.
Allison was chair of the immunology program and director of the Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He started at MD Anderson on Nov. 1. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, as well as a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The AACR-CRI Lloyd J. Old Award in Cancer Immunology was established to recognize an active scientist whose outstanding and innovative research in cancer immunology has had a far-reaching impact on the cancer field. CRI is the world's only nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to harnessing the immune system's power to conquer cancer.
Old was scientific director of CRI for 40 years and also a researcher at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in New York.
The AACR also announced the electronic launch of its newest journal, Cancer Immunology Research, which will publish original articles on major advances in cancer immunology. A print preview issue was distributed at the annual meeting.
###
AACR is the world's first and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research. AACR membership includes more than 34,000 laboratory, translational and clinical researchers; population scientists; other health care professionals; and cancer advocates in more than 90 countries. About 18,000 people attended the 2013 annual meeting.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Traditionally, healthcare managers -- whether they be health plans, care organizations, brokers or employers -- have struggled to get their members to engage with their wellness programs and heath tools. Founded in 2009, Denver-based startup, WellTok, has been on a mission to help health plan providers boost engagement by providing a suite of Web and mobile social media-based solutions. Through a social health management platform, the startup is essentially looking to help health plans "consumerize" their services, leveraging the ease-of-use, accessibility and social and mobile functionality now inherent to so many consumer-facing products to improve the user experience of their health plans.
Apr. 8, 2013 ? An exploding star observed in 1604 by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler held a greater fraction of heavy elements than the sun, according to an analysis of X-ray observations from the Japan-led Suzaku satellite. The findings will help astronomers better understand the diversity of type Ia supernovae, an important class of stellar explosion used in probing the distant universe.
"The composition of the star, its environment, and the mechanism of the explosion may vary considerably among type Ia supernovae," said Sangwook Park, an assistant professor of physics at the University of Texas at Arlington. "By better understanding them, we can fine-tune our knowledge of the universe beyond our galaxy and improve cosmological models that depend on those measurements."
The best way to explore the star's makeup is to perform a kind of post-mortem examination on the shell of hot, rapidly expanding gas produced by the explosion. By identifying specific chemical signatures in the supernova remnant, astronomers can obtain a clearer picture of the composition of the star before it blew up.
"Kepler's supernova is one of the most recent type Ia explosions known in our galaxy, so it represents an essential link to improving our knowledge of these events," said Carles Badenes, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh.
Using the Suzaku satellite's X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (XIS), the astronomers observed the remnant of Kepler's supernova in 2009 and 2011. With a total effective XIS exposure of more than two weeks, the X-ray spectrum reveals several faint emission features from highly ionized chromium, manganese and nickel in addition to a bright emission line from iron. The detection of all four elements was crucial for understanding the original star.
"Suzaku's XIS instrument is uniquely suited to this type of study thanks to its excellent energy resolution, high sensitivity and low background noise," said team member Koji Mori, an associate professor of applied physics at the University of Miyazaki, Japan.
Cosmologists regard type Ia supernovae as "standard candles" because they release similar amounts of energy. By comparing this standard to the observed peak brightness of a type Ia supernova, astronomers can pin down its distance. Their similarity stems from the fact that the exploding star is always a compact stellar remnant known as a white dwarf.
Although a white dwarf star is perfectly stable on its own, pair it with another white dwarf or a normal star and the situation eventually may turn volatile. The normal star may transfer gas onto the white dwarf, where it gradually accumulates. Or the orbits of binary white dwarfs may shrink until the two objects merge.
Either way, once a white dwarf begins tipping the scales at around 1.4 times the sun's mass, a supernova soon follows. Somewhere within the white dwarf, carbon nuclei begin merging together, forming heavier elements and releasing a vast amount of energy. This wave of nuclear fusion rapidly propagates throughout the star, ultimately shattering it in a brilliant explosion that can be detected billions of light-years away.
Astronomers can track some details of the white dwarf's composition by determining the abundance of certain trace elements, such as manganese, that formed during the explosion. Specifically, the ratio of manganese to chromium produced by the explosion turns out to be sensitive to the presence of a neutron-rich version of neon, called neon-22. Establishing the star's neon-22 content gives scientists a guide to the abundance of all other elements heavier than helium, which astronomers call "metals."
The findings provide strong evidence that the original white dwarf possessed roughly three times the amount of metals found in the sun. Progressive stellar generations seed interstellar gas with increasing proportions of metals. The remnant, which lies about 23,000 light-years away toward the constellation Ophiuchus, lies much closer to our galaxy's crowded central region than the sun does. There, star formation was probably more rapid and efficient. As a result, the star that blazed forth as Kepler's supernova likely formed out of material that already was enriched with a higher fraction of metals.
Park, Badenes, Mori and their colleagues discuss the findings in a paper scheduled for publication in the April 10 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters and now available online.
While the Suzaku results do not directly address which type of binary system triggered the supernova, they indicate that the white dwarf was probably no more than a billion years old when it exploded, or less than a quarter of the sun's current age.
"Theories indicate that the star's age and metal content affect the peak luminosity of type Ia supernovae," Park explained. "Younger stars likely produce brighter explosions than older ones, which is why understanding the spread of ages among type Ia supernovae is so important."
In 2011, astrophysicists from the United States and Australia won the Nobel Prize in physics for the discovery that the expansion of the universe is picking up speed, a conclusion based on measurements of type Ia supernovae. An enigmatic force called dark energy appears to be responsible for this acceleration, and understanding its nature is now a top science goal. Recent findings by the European Space Agency's Planck satellite reveal that dark energy makes up 68 percent of the universe.
Launched on July 10, 2005, Suzaku was developed at the Japanese Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), which is part of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), in collaboration with NASA and other Japanese and U.S. institutions.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Sangwook Park, Carles Badenes, Koji Mori, Ryohei Kaida, Eduardo Bravo, Andrew Schenck, Kristoffer A. Eriksen, John P. Hughes, Patrick O. Slane, David N. Burrows, Jae-Joon Lee. A SUPER-SOLAR METALLICITY FOR THE PROGENITOR OF KEPLER'S SUPERNOVA. The Astrophysical Journal, 2013; 767 (1): L10 DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/767/1/L10
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Posted on
04/8/2013 by
Tamara Lytle
| Washington Watch | Comments
Bulletin Today | Personal Health | Politics Print
President Obama first nominated Marilyn Tavenner to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) almost 2-1/2 years ago. She?s been running the agency, the federal government?s largest, as acting administrator for more than a year. CMS has a $820 billion budget, oversees health insurance for 100 million Americans and is charged with implementing the health care law.
Related: Sequester Fallout: Where Will Medicare Patients Get Chemo?
On April 9, the Senate Finance Committee will hold her confirmation hearing.
Here are five things you should know about Tavenner.
She started out as a nurse. Her first post was in intensive care at Johnson-Wills Hospital in Richmond, Va.
She has a collaborative managerial style. ?I think one of the things that is so critical about how nurses view the world,? she said in an interview with Nurse.com, ?is that you are looking at how do you get everybody involved in the process, whether it?s family, whether it?s staff.? She encourages discussion from all sides, but once a decision is made, she said, ?We all move forward together.? That doesn?t sound like someone anxious to shake things up.
Her proudest accomplishment: improved electronic record-keeping. Tavenner told the Washington Post?s Sarah Kliff: ?? over the last few years we?ve passed the hump on IT adoption by hospitals, so we?re seeing much higher numbers and much more sophisticated use of technology. We?re seeing doctors come on board.?
She sees hope for slowing increases in health care costs. Tavenner says it?s not just a temporary blip from the recession. ?[S]ome of the changes we?re doing, whether payment reduction or delivery system reform, I think we?re seeing all of those coming together in a way that?s making a permanent difference.?
She?s the best chance for confirmation in years. The position has been a?political football in the battle over Obama?s health care reform. (There?s been no permanent head of the agency since 2006.)?But it can?t hurt that on Feb. 13 House Republican Leader Eric Cantor Tweeted, ?Marilyn Tavenner is eminently qualified to be Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.?
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry talks to reporters traveling abroad with him shortly after finding out their aircraft had a mechanical problem before take off Saturday, April 6, 2013, at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. A backup aircraft was brought in to replace the plane. (AP Photo/Paul J. Richards, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry talks to reporters traveling abroad with him shortly after finding out their aircraft had a mechanical problem before take off Saturday, April 6, 2013, at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. A backup aircraft was brought in to replace the plane. (AP Photo/Paul J. Richards, Pool)
ISTANBUL (AP) ? U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Turkish leaders Sunday to speedily restore full diplomatic relations with Israel, two American allies the U.S. sees as anchors of stability in a Middle East wracked by Syria's civil war, Arab Spring political upheavals and the potential threat posed by Iran's nuclear program.
Turkey, however, demanded that Israel end all "embargoes" against the Palestinians first.
In Istanbul on the first leg of a 10-day overseas trip, Kerry met with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu with the aim of firming up the rapprochement between Turkey and Israel that President Barack Obama kick-started during a visit to the Jewish state last month.
Kerry met later Sunday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan before traveling on to Israel.
"We would like to see this relationship that is important to stability in the Middle East and critical to the peace process ... get back on track in its full measure," Kerry told reporters at a joint news conference with Davutoglu. He said that meant promises of "compensation be fulfilled, ambassadors be returned and full relations be embraced."
The two nations were once close partners, but the relationship plummeted in 2010 after an Israeli raid on a flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip. Eight Turks and a Turkish-American died.
Before leaving Israel two weeks ago, Obama arranged a telephone conversation between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Erdogan. Netanyahu apologized for the incident, and compensation talks are expected to begin this week.
But Davutoglu suggested that full normalization of ties would probably take some time.
"There is an offense that has been committed and there needs to be accountability," Davutoglu said. He signaled that Turkey would pursue a "careful" advance toward a complete restoration of relations, with compensation and an end to Israeli trade restrictions on the Gaza Strip as the stumbling blocks.
"All of the embargoes should be eliminated once and for all," he said, speaking through an interpreter.
Fixing the Turkish-Israeli relationship has been a long-sought goal of the Obama administration, and the U.S. desperately wants significant progress by the time Erdogan visits the White House in mid-May.
The Turks have reveled somewhat in what they view as a diplomatic victory, with billboards in Ankara celebrating Netanyahu's apology and praising Erdogan for bringing pride to his country. Perhaps seeking to buffer his leverage further, Erdogan signaled shortly after the call that he was in no hurry to finalize the deal and pledged to visit the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory soon.
From a U.S. strategic sense, cooperation between the American allies has only become more important as Syria's two-year conflict has grown ever deadlier. More than 70,000 people have died in the war, according to the United Nations, but the U.S. fears it could get even worse ? by spilling into neighboring countries or through chemical weapons being used. Both potential scenarios have prompted intense contingency planning among Washington and its regional partners, Israel and Turkey included.
Kerry, who noted his twice-weekly telephone chats with Davutoglu, spoke of shared U.S. and Turkish efforts to support Syria's opposition coalition. The opposition has suffered from poor coordination between its political leadership and the military factions leading the fight against the Assad regime, and from intense infighting among those who seek to guide the amorphous movement's overall strategy.
Turkey has gone further than the U.S. in its assistance, accepting some 180,000 Syrians as refugees and sending advanced weaponry to rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar Assad. The U.S. is only providing non-lethal aid to the rebels in the form of meals, medical kits and training.
Kerry praised Turkey for its generosity toward refugees and commitment to keeping its borders open, an issue of growing U.S. concern as the outflow of Syrians stretches the capacities of neighboring countries to accommodate them.
"The United States and Turkey will continue cooperating toward the shared goal of a peaceful transition in Syria," he said.
Although given short shrift at the news conference, a U.S. official stressed ahead of Kerry's meetings that he would also urge the Turks to remain cautious over the contentious issue of Iraqi oil.
Turkey wants to import oil directly from Iraq's autonomous Kurds in the north, a step that would enrage the central government in Baghdad and one the U.S. opposes. Washington doesn't want the riches of Iraq to bring the country back to sectarian warfare and has urged that any export arrangement get the Iraqi government's blessing.
The secretary of state is flying later Sunday to Israel, his third trip there in the span of two weeks. He'll meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Sunday night, followed by Netanyahu and other senior Israeli and Palestinian officials Monday as part of a fresh American bid to unlock the long-stalled Middle East peace process.
Conversations in Israel will also cover shared U.S. and Israeli concerns over Iran's nuclear program. The U.S. and other world powers met the Islamic republic in Kazakhstan for another round of negotiations, but no breakthrough was announced on a proposed deal that would see international sanctions on Iran eased if Tehran convinces the world it is not trying to develop nuclear weapons.
Kerry said the "door is still open" for a negotiated agreement, but that the onus was on the Iranians.
"If you have a peaceful program for nuclear power, as a number of nations do, it's not hard to prove that," he said. "They have chosen not to live up to the international requirements and standards with respect to verification of their program."
The other stops on his trip are Britain, South Korea, China and Japan. He returns to Washington on April 15.
Luke Bryan pulled off a shocking win on Sunday night when he beat out heavyweights Blake Shelton, Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift to win the Academy of Country Music Award's biggest prize of the evening: entertainer of the year. The winner is chosen by fan votes.
The musician, who co-hosted the show with Shelton, was stunned after his name was announced, and appeared to cry as he slowly walked out from backstage to accept the award from Shania Twain, who was making her first appearance at the ACMs in 10 years. Even with his trophy in hand, Bryan stood in silent shock at the microphone for a long while.
"This is ... I don't know what to say, you guys," he finally started. "Thank you guys so much, fans, for doing this to me, thank you so much for making my life what it is. What I always wanted to be was just a country singer that got to ride on a tour bus and show up on a new stage and play music every night. ? I just started headlining! ? Every time I step on stage, it is a blessing to me to play for fans. ... This is the defining moment of my life!"
Bryan, 36, been on the scene since his debut album was released in 2007, but wasn't a headlining act until his single "Country Girl (Shake It for Me)" exploded after he started delivering booty-shaking performances of the catchy tune at awards shows in 2011.
Al Powers / AP
The other big winner of the night was Shelton's wife, Miranda Lambert. She took home three of the four trophies she was nominated for: song and single record of the year for "Over You," and female vocalist for the fourth year in a row. Lambert shared the song of the year victory with her husband, who co-wrote the tune.
"Last time this happened, you didn't get a chance to talk, and you're not going to get a chance either this time," he joked as he and his wife accepted their trophies. "I'll?tell you all something: I?ve learned so much from this human being standing next to me ? she blows me away, but as far as standing here right now, I used to think I was a decent songwriter until I started hanging out with her."
Notable moments from the show included Garth Brooks and George Strait's performance together; Reba McIntire's announcement that the ACM was "renaming its most prestigious honor to the ACM Dick Clark Artist of the Decade Award"; and Stevie Wonder closing the show with "Signed, Sealed, Delivered."
The complete list of winners:
Entertainer of the year: Luke Bryan
Male vocalist: Jason Aldean
Female vocalist: Miranda Lambert
Vocal duo: Thompson Square
Vocal group: Little Big Town
New artist: Florida Georgia Line
Album: Eric Church, "Chief"
Single record of the year: Miranda Lambert, "Over You"
Song: Miranda Lambert, "Over You"
Video: Little Big Town, "Tornado"
Vocal event: "The ?Only Way I Know," Jason Aldean with Luke Bryan and Eric Church
New male vocalist: Brantley Gilbert
New female vocalist: Jana Kramer
New vocal duo or group: Florida Georgia Line
The 48th Annual ACM Awards was held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Not every scanner is a great one if you're thinking about going paperless. You need a good one that'll handle all the documents, receipts, and oddly-shaped papers you need to digitize, and preferably one with great software support to help you keep all that stuff organized. Here's a look at five of the best, based on your nominations.
Earlier this week, we asked you which document scanners you thought were the best for the job. Not just any old scanner, or multi-function scanner/printer/copier?specifically which document scanners were best for helping you empty that filing cabinet and go paperless. We have a favorite of our own, but we've shown you how to go paperless with any scanner, and even cleared up some of your questions after the fact. After tallying up your nominations, here's a look at the top five.
Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500/Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500
The ScanSnap S1500 is technically no longer available, having been replaced by the newer ScanSnap iX500, but those of you who own them and nominated them noted that both models are exceptional at quickly scanning documents of different sizes and shapes, and even converting some text documents into searchable PDFs. While the S1500 was Windows only, the iX500 extends support to Mac users who want to organize their lives too. The S1500 sported 20ppm scanning, and the iX500 brought that up to 25, and both models have a document feeder that makes scanning multi-page documents as easy as loading the tray?no feeding each page one after the other. The iX500 also supports scanning to iOS and Android devices, can make PDFs with one button, and more. It'll set you back $500 retail ($430 at Amazon).
Doxie Go
The Doxie Go is a great scanner?so much so that our own Adam Dachis used it to go paperless in two days, and showed you how you can do it too. It's a tiny thing, portable enough to fit into a bag and go with you almost anywhere, is powered via USB, and great for scanning everything from photographs to multi-page documents to tiny receipts on thermal paper. Best of all, the Doxie comes with software that makes the most of its features and helps you organize the documents you scan with it. If you scan text, the companion app does OCR so you can search the text in those documents, and if you prefer to use another platform like Dropbox or Evernote to organize your files, it syncs with those services as well. Even if you don't use another web service for your documents, the Doxie's software can sync with all of your (iOS) mobile devices and computers on its own. The Doxie Go will set you back $199 ($187 at Amazon), but the other Doxie models are a bit cheaper.
Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i
If you're looking for a more affordable ScanSnap document scanner than the previously mentioned iX500, the S1300i brings a smaller, space-saving form factor to your desk without sacrificing much of the power that makes the ScanSnap line a great one for digitizing documents. It does away with the large body in exchange for a smaller, more streamlined model like the Doxie Go or the NeatReceipts, but still includes a fold-out document tray for multiple pages and papers of odd sizes. You can keep the tray closed and feed photos or other documents yourself though, and the fact that it's tiny and USB-powered makes it portable enough to take with you if you travel. It even supports multi-sided documents, and it comes with the ScanSnap software for Windows and OS X to make getting your documents in a format you can use easy. The ScanSnap software can also sync with and scan to other web services, including Evernote, Dropbox, and Google Drive, if you prefer to use one of those services to organize your newly digitized documents. The S1300i will set you back $300 retail ($260 at Amazon).
Neat Scanner
Despite its appearances on infomercials and late night television, the Neat Scanner is actually a capable document scanner, and those of you who nominated it praised it for being speedy, portable, and able to handle documents of all sizes easily, from business cards to full-sized sheets of paper. The Neat comes in two varieties, the NeatDesk (shown here) and the NeatReceipts, a smaller, USB-powered version similar in size and shape to the Doxie Go. Both models include supporting software to make scanning and organizing your documents easy, and that also sync with the Neat mobile app for iOS and Android. Neat's angle is to get you hooked with the device, and then sell you additional services, like its Neat Cloud service, which is essentially a Dropbox clone with a monthly fee, or its NeatVerify service that puts a human eye on every document you scan to make sure it's been processed correctly. On its own though, the Neat scanner and software package make a powerful enough combination to keep your paper clutter to a minimum. The NeatDesk will set you back $400 ($380 at Amazon), and the NeatReceipts $179 ($140 at Amazon). Both models come with the desktop software.
Your Smartphone's Camera
Several of you said that your smartphone's camera and an accompanying organizational app would work just fine for you. It's free, not including the cost of an app you may use, and it only requires the equipment you already own. This is true, but this is a perfect case of getting what you pay for: it may be free and easy, but it's slow, especially compared to the other contenders in the top five, and scanning large, multi-page documents you may want to digitize will undoubtedly be an agonizing process with a smartphone's camera. If you want the document you photograph to be legible and useful, or even searchable once you save it and organize it, good luck. Still, enough of you nominated it that it's worth mentioning as an option. Photo by Mauricio Lima.
Now that you've seen the top five, it's time to vote for the all-out Lifehacker community favorite.
No real honorable mentions this week, since most of the nominees were variants on the above, or other ScanSnap models from Fujitsu, which says you guys really like them. Still, we're willing to bet that there are other models not represented that some of you prefer. Don't just complain that we "missed" them, let us know what your preferences are and why in the discussions below!
Have something to say about one of the contenders? Want to make the case for your personal favorite, even if it wasn't included in the list? Remember, the top five are based on your most popular nominations from the call for contenders thread from earlier in the week. Don't just complain about the top five, let us know what your preferred alternative is?and make your case for it?in the discussions below.
The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it's not because we hate it?it's because it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest, but if you have a favorite, we want to hear about it. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at tips+hivefive@lifehacker.com!
NEW YORK ? The stock market's robust rally was slowing even before Friday's jobs report, but the red flag sent up by the weak data makes the path to more gains less secure.
It means the bulls will have to look to earnings for a way to keep the rally going. The S&P 500 hit an all-time closing high on Tuesday, but lately defensive stocks have been leading the charge, and notable growth indexes are slipping.
This rotation has many thinking the long-awaited market correction is nigh. A 3 percent decline in the Russell 2000 index this week seemed to be a confirmation of the trend.
"Momentum I think has been slowing a bit, and it would be interesting to see if this is just a one-session sell-off," said Bruce Zaro, chief technical strategist at Delta Global Asset Management in Boston, about Friday's decline.
In the first quarter, the benchmark's healthcare index added 15.2 percent and utilities gained 11.8 percent, besting the broad S&P 500's 10 percent gain.
The transition into defensive stocks may respond to investors' taking into account the effect of higher payroll taxes this year and the $85 billion in government spending cuts that started to trickle at the beginning of the year.
The shift is "a rotation into sectors less affected by a short-term slowdown in the consumer," said Eric Kuby, chief investment officer at North Star Investment Management Corp in Chicago.
Earnings hold the key Earnings season starts in earnest next week, with the highlight coming from JPMorgan Chase & Co and Wells Fargo & Co on Friday. Details on Wells Fargo's earnings will be dissected for clues on the health of the housing market.
Overall, S&P 500 earnings are expected to have risen 1.5 percent last quarter, down from a 4.3 percent gain expected at the start of the year, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Investors "are really waiting for the earnings season on balance to disappoint," said Zaro.
Companies have caught up on the lowered expectations, and negative outlooks have been predominant ahead of earnings season. In fact, the negative-to-positive guidance ratio from S&P 500 companies is at its highest since the third quarter of 2001, according to Thomson Reuters data.
At 4.7, the ratio is the sixth-highest among 69 readings dating to 1996.
"Companies understand that since the economy is weak there's no reason to be a hero and give guidance you can't beat," said Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at the ConvergEx Group in New York.
F5 Networks was the latest and one of the most dramatic examples of lowered earnings expectations. The network equipment maker partly blamed lower government sales for its profit warning late on Thursday, which erased almost a fifth of its market value on Friday.
In past quarters, revenue beats have taken the focus off the bottom line as investors were expecting the stronger economy to translate into more sales, but that may not be the case this time around.
"At this point earnings are going to be perhaps more important than revenues only because we know Q1 was only a so-so quarter for the economy," said Colas.
"It's not going to be a surprise if revenues are a little bit light. Where we really have to make sure the numbers work is at the earnings level."
Busy week for the Fed The Federal Reserve could be next week's wild card. Indications of renewed support for loose monetary policy - or the slightest hint in the direction of tightening - have triggered wild moves in the market.
The minutes of the March FOMC meeting are due on Wednesday and market participants will look for insight into the debate regarding the amount and duration of bond purchases the U.S. central bank is executing monthly.
The hawkish argument - a reduction of stimulus - was dented by Friday's job report, so any mention of it in the minutes may not trigger panic. But more than a dozen speeches by various Fed officers next week could stir things up.
The economic reports calendar is light except for consumer data. Retailers are expected to post a 1.9 percent rise in sales for last month, compared with a gain of 2.9 percent in March last year when same-store sales figures are published Thursday.
The Commerce Department posts its own retail sales figures on Friday, followed by the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan survey of consumers.
We first noted it back in 2008: the possibility of using LED light bulbs for secure and directional wireless internet access. Well, the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute is claiming that speedy data rates of up 3Gbps have proven feasible in its labs. The boost comes from its latest enhancements, allowing the 180Mhz frequency to be used over the usual 30Mhz, which apparently leaves extra room for moving data. If you'll recall, that's a significant leap over the 800Mbps top speed it achieved back in 2011 mixing various light colors. While this IR-like take on wireless internet access gains steam, remember that it's more likely to be used in areas where WiFi radios cause interruptions (hospitals, trade shows like CES, etc.) -- rather than a strip of mini spot lights from IKEA for the casa. (We can dream, can't we?) FHHI plans to show off the new gear at FOE '13, but for now you'll find the full press release after the break.
It?s different with another; the state of New Hampshire has no coverage requirement that should be had by the state. All drivers in New Hampshire are able to have or have no auto insurance coverage to cover them while accident happens. Though like that, yet all drivers who drive on the road of New Hampshire to improve financial responsibility. It?s important for paying responsible while accident happens. And for people who want to choose auto insurance coverage are welcome for any coverage also available.
People who have certain coverage despite do not be required by the state law but it?s important than people who do not. People who have coverage will not spend much money while accident happen whereas in the contrary for people who don?t have no. seeing this bad fact, certainly we can see that auto insurance in New Hampshire is important to have.
If you desire to have auto insurance coverage, you may compare low car insurance quotes in New Hampshire instantly. There are some auto insurance quotes online that available offer their insurance quotes service online. The right quote is important things that should be known first before decide to go insurance company for choosing the right coverage. You need to know which the right company and ways for reducing premium in New Hampshire.
Certainly each state sometimes has different rate depending some reasons which influence it become variation such as financial and type of money that used. And for the rate also is able to different even in one state. Therefore it?ll be important thing for you to compare first about the rate that offer by companies which offer in the state of New Hampshire. Using auto insurance quotes provider is one of the best ways for getting cheap rate.
SULPHUR SPRINGS, Texas (AP) ? A capital murder suspect and a convicted drug offender whose escape from a Texas jail left residents in the largely rural area on edge are back in lockup after being captured in a barn.
Brian Allen Tucker, who is awaiting a capital murder trial, was returned to the Hopkins County Jail on Thursday along with John Marlin King. It's the same jail in Sulphur Springs, about 75 miles northeast of Dallas, that authorities say the two inmates fled on Tuesday.
Their capture came after federal, state and local officers raided a barn where the men were hiding in Cooper, 20 miles northwest of Sulphur Springs.
Hopkins County sheriff's Sgt. Brad Cummings said authorities had received dozens of reports from people who thought they had seen one or both of the fugitives.
In the end, an attempt to pawn jewelry left in a vehicle the men allegedly stole in Sulphur Springs is what led authorities to their Cooper hideout, Delta County Sheriff Ricky Smith said. A Cooper pawn shop clerk's report led officers to the person with the jewelry, who revealed Tucker and King's whereabouts, Smith said.
Officers also arrested Charles Ensey, the owner of the house where the barn was located. He was in the Delta County Jail in Cooper on Thursday. Smith said he was charged with two counts of hindering arrest.
Bond had not been set. Ensey was scheduled to go before a magistrate Friday.
The arrests came two days after Tucker and King slipped past a Hopkins County Jail fence.
Sheriff's officials said the inmates fled the jail in Sulphur Springs on Tuesday by scaling a fence or slipping through a gap in a perimeter fence. Officials said a maintenance person noticed a problem with the fence around a recreation yard used by female inmates. Hours later, deputies and other law enforcement officers were searching the woods and areas east and northeast of the jail.
Tucker was being held on $1 million bond in the 2011 death of Bobby Riley of Mahoney. Riley was found strangled in his home and some music instruments and firearms had been stolen. Jury selection in the murder trial was set to begin June 3.
Tucker previously was convicted of burglary and driving while intoxicated, and has been arrested several times for violating parole.
King was being held on several charges, including evading arrest, burglary and possession of a controlled substance. According to court documents, he pleaded guilty last month to the possession charge as a habitual offender and received a sentence of 40 years in prison.
All WWE programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans, wrestling moves, trademarks, logos and copyrights are the exclusive property of WWE, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. ? 2013 WWE, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This website is based in the United States. By submitting personal information to this website you consent to your information being maintained in the U.S., subject to applicable U.S. laws. U.S. law may be different than the law of your home country. WrestleMania XXIX (NY/NJ) logo TM & ? 2013 WWE. All Rights Reserved. The Empire State Building design is a registered trademark and used with permission by ESBC.
Friday, April 5, 2013 This five-frame sequence of images from NASA's New Horizons mission captures the giant plume from Io's Tvashtar volcano. Snapped by the probe's Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) as the spacecraft flew past Jupiter in 2007, this first-ever movie of an Io plume clearly shows motion in the cloud of volcanic debris, which extends 330 km (205 miles) above the moon's surface. Only the upper part of the plume is visible from this vantage point. The plume's source is 130 km (80 miles) below the edge of Io's disk, on the far side of the moon. Io's hyperactive nature is emphasized by the fact that two other volcanic plumes are also visible off the edge of Io's disk: Masubi at the 7 o'clock position, and a very faint plume, possibly from the volcano Zal, at the 10 o'clock position. Jupiter illuminates the night side of Io, and the most prominent feature visible on the disk is the dark horseshoe shape of the volcano Loki, likely an enormous lava lake. Boosaule Mons, which at 18 km (11 miles) is the highest mountain on Io and one of the highest mountains in the solar system, pokes above the edge of the disk on the right side. The five images were obtained over an 8-minute span, with two minutes between frames, from 23:50 to 23:58 Universal Time on 1 March 2007. Io was 3.8 million km (2.4 million miles) from New Horizons. Credit: Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute This is a composite image of Io and Europa taken March 2, 2007 with the New Horizons spacecraft. Here Io (top) steals the show with its beautiful display of volcanic activity. Three volcanic plumes are visible. Most conspicuous is the enormous 300-kilometer (190-mile) high plume from the Tvashtar volcano at the 11 o'clock position on Io's disk. Two much smaller plumes are also visible: that from the volcano Prometheus, at the 9 o'clock position on the edge of Io's disk, and from the volcano Amirani, seen between Prometheus and Tvashtar along Io's terminator (the line dividing day and night). The Tvashtar plume appears blue because of the scattering of light by tiny dust particles ejected by the volcanoes, similar to the blue appearance of smoke. In addition, the contrasting red glow of hot lava can be seen at the source of the Tvashtar plume. This image was taken from a range of 4.6 million kilometers (2.8 million miles) from Io and 3.8 million kilometers (2.4 million miles) from Europa. Although the moons appear close together in this view, a gulf of 790,000 kilometers (490,000 miles) separates them. Io's night side is lit up by light reflected from Jupiter, which is off the frame to the right. Europa's night side is dark, in contrast to Io, because this side of Europa faces away from Jupiter. Credit: Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Jupiter's moon Io is the most volcanically active world in the Solar System, with hundreds of volcanoes, some erupting lava fountains up to 250 miles high. However, concentrations of volcanic activity are significantly displaced from where they are expected to be based on models that predict how the moon's interior is heated, according to NASA and European Space Agency researchers.
Io is caught in a tug-of-war between Jupiter's massive gravity and the smaller but precisely timed pulls from two neighboring moons that orbit further from Jupiter ? Europa and Ganymede. Io orbits faster than these other moons, completing two orbits every time Europa finishes one, and four orbits for each one Ganymede makes. This regular timing means that Io feels the strongest gravitational pull from its neighboring moons in the same orbital location, which distorts Io's orbit into an oval shape. This in turn causes Io to flex as it moves around Jupiter.
For example, as Io gets closer to Jupiter, the giant planet's powerful gravity deforms the moon toward it and then, as Io moves farther away, the gravitational pull decreases and the moon relaxes. The flexing from gravity causes tidal heating -- in the same way that you can heat up a spot on a wire coat hanger by repeatedly bending it, the flexing creates friction in Io's interior, which generates the tremendous heat that powers the moon's extreme volcanism.
The question remains regarding exactly how this tidal heating affects the moon's interior. Some propose it heats up the deep interior, but the prevailing view is that most of the heating occurs within a relatively shallow layer under the crust, called the asthenosphere. The asthenosphere is where rock behaves like putty, slowly deforming under heat and pressure.
"Our analysis supports the prevailing view that most of the heat is generated in the asthenosphere, but we found that volcanic activity is located 30 to 60 degrees East from where we expect it to be," said Christopher Hamilton of the University of Maryland, College Park. Hamilton, who is stationed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., is lead author of a paper about this research published January 1 in Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
Hamilton and his team performed the spatial analysis using the a new, global geologic map of Io, produced by David Williams of Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz., and his colleagues using data from NASA spacecraft. The map provides the most comprehensive inventory of Io's volcanoes to date, thereby enabling patterns of volcanism to be explored in unprecedented detail. Assuming that the volcanoes are located above where the most internal heating occurs, the team tested a range of interior models by comparing observed locations of volcanic activity to predicted tidal heating patterns.
"We performed the first rigorous statistical analysis of the distribution of volcanoes in the new global geologic map of Io," says Hamilton. "We found a systematic eastward offset between observed and predicted volcano locations that can't be reconciled with any existing solid body tidal heating models."
Possibilities to explain the offset include a faster than expected rotation for Io, an interior structure that permits magma to travel significant distances from where the most heating occurs to the points where it is able erupt on the surface, or a missing component in existing tidal heating models, like fluid tides from an underground magma ocean, according to the team.
The magnetometer instrument on NASA's Galileo mission detected a magnetic field around Io, suggesting the presence of a global subsurface magma ocean. As Io orbits Jupiter, it moves inside the planet's vast magnetic field. Researchers think this could induce a magnetic field in Io if it had a global ocean of electrically conducting magma.
"Our analysis supports a global subsurface magma ocean scenario as one possible explanation for the offset between predicted and observed volcano locations on Io," says Hamilton. "However, Io's magma ocean would not be like the oceans on Earth. Instead of being a completely fluid layer, Io's magma ocean would probably be more like a sponge with at least 20 percent silicate melt within a matrix of slowly deformable rock."
Tidal heating is also thought to be responsible for oceans of liquid water likely to exist beneath the icy crusts of Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus. Since liquid water is a necessary ingredient for life, some researchers propose that life might exist in these subsurface seas if a useable energy source and a supply of raw materials are present as well. These worlds are far too cold to support liquid water on their surfaces, so a better understanding of how tidal heating works may reveal how it could sustain life in otherwise inhospitable places throughout the Universe.
"The unexpected eastward offset of the volcano locations is a clue that something is missing in our understanding of Io," says Hamilton. "In a way, that's our most important result. Our understanding of tidal heat production and its relationship to surface volcanism is incomplete. The interpretation for why we have the offset and other statistical patterns we observed is open, but I think we've enabled a lot of new questions, which is good."
Io's volcanism is so extensive that it gets completely resurfaced about once every million years or so, actually quite fast compared to the 4.5-billion-year age of the solar system. So in order to know more about Io's past, we have to understand its interior structure better, because its surface is too young to record its full history, according to Hamilton.
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NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center: http://www.nasa.gov/goddard
Thanks to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center for this article.
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AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The Texas House of Representatives on Thursday began debating a two-year budget proposal that would increase state spending by about 7 percent and restore some of the cuts made to public education in 2011.
Two years after lawmakers passed a spending plan that made deep cuts in the face of a budget shortfall, the state's financial health and robust economic growth have allowed budget writers to add back a significant amount of that money, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Pitts told his colleagues.
"We have not done so recklessly and we have not replaced every dollar that was removed during last session," said Pitts, a Republican.
He said the proposed budget "will preserve the state's fiscal stability and economic prosperity while protecting the citizens of Texas through vital services and programs."
The House is expected to vote on the proposed budget on Thursday evening.
Texas Comptroller Susan Combs projected earlier this year the Legislature would have $101.4 billion available to spend, thanks to higher-than-expected tax collections boosted by economic growth. That included $8.8 billion expected to remain at the end of the current budget cycle.
The House budget proposal for 2014-2015 includes $93.5 billion in state spending, a 7 percent increase over the previous two-year period. The total proposed House budget, including federal funds, is $193.8 billion, a 2.1 percent increase.
The proposal includes an additional $2.5 billion for schools, two years after $4 billion was cut from education.
The proposed budget would not tap the state's rainy-day fund, which is projected to have $11.8 billion by the end of the 2014-2015 budget cycle. There is a separate proposal to use some money from the fund for water infrastructure projects.
Some lawmakers argued that the rainy-day fund, which is generated mostly from oil and gas production taxes, should have been used for schools.
"We're not fully funding public education," Representative Abel Herrero, a Democrat, said during Thursday's debate. "We have billions of dollars in our rainy-day fund."
Herrero successfully added an amendment to the budget proposal that says state money may not go to private-school vouchers. That vote sent a signal to lawmakers who are proposing voucher programs.
The Senate in March passed a budget proposal that includes about $1 billion less for schools than the House proposal. The Senate's proposal would spend $94.1 billion in state funds and $195.5 billion total. Both chambers have Republican majorities.
Like the Senate budget, the House budget increases spending on mental health programs.
After the House approves a spending plan, the two chambers will have to reconcile the differences in their proposals.
(Reporting by Corrie MacLaggan; Editing by Eric Beech and Mohammad Zargham)
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Public release date: 10-Apr-2013
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Traditionally, healthcare managers -- whether they be health plans, care organizations, brokers or employers -- have struggled to get their members to engage with their wellness programs and heath tools. Founded in 2009, Denver-based startup, 
On April 9, the Senate Finance Committee will hold her confirmation hearing.
Not every scanner is a great one if you're thinking about going paperless. You need a good one that'll handle all the documents, receipts, and oddly-shaped papers you need to digitize, and preferably one with great software support to help you keep all that stuff organized. Here's a look at five of the best, based on your nominations. 
