Boston Globe Correspondent

November 30, 2009

Smokers know they should quit for their health often balk because they don’t want to gain weight - and a new health problem - once cigarettes’ appetite-suppressing nicotine leaves their bodies. Quitting smoking while starting a weight-control program may seem like a recipe for failure, and guidelines for doctors discourage embarking on both simultaneously. But a new analysis suggests that not only do combined programs work, in the short term they work better than smoking-cessation programs alone.

Bonnie Spring and her colleagues at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine pooled the results of 10 randomized clinical trials in which some 2,233 smokers - all but 154 of them women - were divided into two groups. Some were assigned to programs that combined smoking cessation with weight control and others were enrolled in smoking cessation programs alone. After three months, people in the combined programs were 29 percent more likely to have stopped smoking than people in the smoking-cessation alone group. But after six to 14 months, when the programs had ended, the difference between the groups was no longer statistically significant.

People in the combined program, which emphasized more exercise and eating fewer calories, also gained less weight in the short term. After three months, they gained 2.1 pounds less than people in the smoking-only treatment group. After six months, however, the difference was not statistically significant.

BOTTOM LINE: People who quit smoking while enrolled in a weight control program put on fewer pounds and had more success staying off cigarettes after three months.

CAUTIONS: Because so few men participated in the trials, the results may not apply to them.

WHAT’S NEXT: The researchers want to see if they can replicate the success of the combined programs, which varied from study to study.

WHERE TO FIND IT: Addiction, September

Surgery in older people not linked to cognitive decline

There have long been worries about the effects of anesthesia on older surgery patients’ memory and cognitive abilities. Research dating to the 1950s in patients recovering from heart surgery has pointed to postoperative deterioration in mental skills. A new study calls into question the role of surgery in cognitive decline.

Dr. Michael Avidan of Washington University in St. Louis led a team that looked retrospectively at 575 people who volunteered for studies at the university’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, which meant that after age 50 their cognitive function was tested annually. When Avidan’s study began, 361 people had mild to moderate dementia, and 214 were dementia-free. They were divided into three groups: people who had non-cardiac surgery, major illness, or neither. Heart surgery was excluded because it carries a heightened risk of stroke.

About one-quarter of the participants who did not have dementia at the outset eventually developed symptoms, but this was no more common in people who had had surgery than in the other two groups.

BOTTOM LINE: Surgery in older people was not linked to cognitive decline.

CAUTIONS: People who volunteered to participate in Alzheimer’s research may not reflect the general population.

WHAT’S NEXT: The authors plan a larger study to look at whether specific anesthetics and procedures pose a higher risk of cognitive problems in older people.

WHERE TO FIND IT: Anesthesiology, November

November 29, 2009

Boston Globe

Pakistan continues to harbor Al Qaeda terrorists who would pose an imminent threat to US national security if they were to take control of that country’s nuclear weapons. Obama’s March report advised that our national security requires us to “disrupt, dismantle, and defeat Al Qaeda and its safe havens in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and prevent their return to either country in the future.’’

To achieve that goal, General Stanley McChrystal suggested a “counterinsurgency’’ strategy, saying that he needs at least 40,000 more US troops in addition to the 68,000 already there. But, he warned: “A foreign army alone cannot beat an insurgency; the insurgency in Afghanistan requires an Afghan solution. This is their war’’ and any success must come “by, with, and through the Afghan government.’’

In other words, without a legitimate and credible Afghan partner, that counterinsurgency strategy is fundamentally flawed. The current Afghan government is neither legitimate nor credible. It has recently been installed by nothing more than a fraudulent political default. President Hamid Karzai now knowingly presides over a culture of corruption, an opium-dependent economy and, so far, has shown neither the credibility nor political will to rid his government of its corrupt warlords and crony power brokers, providing slim hope for “an Afghan solution.’’

Further, General James Jones, the president’s national security adviser, says of Afghanistan: “The Al Qaeda presence is very diminished. The maximum estimate is less than 100 operating in the country, no bases, no ability to launch attacks on either us or our allies.’’

So, let’s get our priorities in order. We should not send a single additional dollar in aid or add a single American serviceman or woman to the 68,000 already courageously deployed in Afghanistan until we see a meaningful move by the Karzai regime to root out its corruption, assemble a more representative coalition government, and demonstrate some measure of transparency and accountability under the rule of law.

The brave US and NATO troops currently there should accelerate training of local Afghan Army and police forces to prepare for gradual reduction and ultimate disengagement while our civilian forces help build responsive governance infrastructures at the province level.

Our national security goal has not changed. But to achieve it, we need not enlarge our military footprint in Afghanistan and risk even more violence in retaliation for our perceived “occupation.’’

Instead, we and our NATO allies should narrow our strategy; focus on sealing and securing the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to prevent Al Qaeda from fleeing to Afghanistan as we use intelligence, drones, and special forces to “disrupt, dismantle, and defeat Al Qaeda and its safe havens in Pakistan’’ where the real danger exists; assist Pakistan in enhancing civilian control of a stable constitutional government, in ensuring its economic growth and in securing its nuclear weapons. With this refocused strategy, our NATO allies can do more to assist militarily and should step up with more civilian assistance.

Obama has inherited no good options, but a more focused strategy with no additional troops stands out as preferable to all the others.

Senator Paul G. Kirk Jr. of Massachusetts is a member of the Armed Services Committee and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Globe Correspondent

  November 29, 2009

Customers can often spend more than $50 per month for Internet service and hundreds or thousands of dollars on computers and laptops, so it’s important to invest in a networking router to match. After all, your Internet is only as fast and your network is only as reliable as your router. But be prepared to spend more than $100 here.

The three most popular brands of home routers are D-Link, Linksys by Cisco (formerly just Linksys), and Netgear. Belkin is another good brand. We tested four routers, one from each brand.

The Linksys by Cisco WRT610N at $179.99 is a powerful solution that requires some know-how and configuration to get going. The D-Link DIR-685 Storage Router at $229.99 is a great gadget-y choice because of its multimedia features. The Belkin N+ Router at $119.99 is a value-minded solution that packs features despite its low price. Finally, Netgear’s WNDR3700 for $159.99 is a well-rounded solution that works just as well for people who want to plug it in and go, and for those who want to delve into more complicated networking setups. Wireless range is great for all four devices: Place the router in the middle of the house, and everyone will be online.

The D-Link product is fun, but its price will turn some off. It has a built-in digital photo frame and internal storage for sharing files throughout your network, but the 3.2-inch screen is hardly ideal for showing off all your family pictures.

The Linksys by Cisco WRT610N is great for advanced users. You should know a thing or two about networks before you buy this, as you’re going to have to do more than just plug it in. The device is compatible with current and emerging standards of Wi-Fi technology, but all those options mean you have to configure the router to talk to your computers, and vice versa. Read the manual.

We liked the Belkin N+ because it’s simple. You can plug it in and go pretty quickly, but it’s not without its bonuses. There is a USB port where you can plug in an external hard drive for instant network attached storage. This makes sharing files, music, and videos very easy. You will have to go out and buy a hard drive though.

We liked the Netgear product the most because it combines the best of both worlds. The WNDR3700 has extremely fast wired networking and the latest wireless specifications. It has a fast processor (routers are basically tiny computers) and a dedicated wireless band designed for streaming video. Security is also something to consider. With this product, you can create two virtual networks: one for you and your family, and one for friends or guests. This is really handy.

Our Choice

NETGEAR WNDR3700$159.99
Pros: The WNDR3700 balances advanced features like the latest Wi-Fi standards and powerful security options with relative plug-and-play ease for the less technically minded.
Cons: Price may worry some. Quality is an investment.
The final word: It’s the best on the list. Plug it in, configure it, and it will always be there for you.

LINKSYS BY CISCO WRT610N

$179.99
Pros: The WRT610N is great for advanced users who want to customize their system.
Cons: The price is a concern, and novice users might get confused.
The final word: If this is your first time buying a router, pass.

D-LINK DIR-685 STORAGE ROUTER

$229.99
Pros: The D-Link has onboard storage and doubles as a digital photo frame.
Cons: Price. You’re paying for that digital photo frame.
The final word: It’s a great gadget, if you like gadgets.

BELKIN N+ ROUTER

$119.99
Pros: The Belkin is easy to use, relatively inexpensive, and powerful, with the ability to add a storage device.
Cons: None.
The final word: This is a fine choice for the 21st century multimedia family.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/29/world/main5826209.shtml

Health care lessons from Europe

Carolyn Lochhead

Chronicle Washington Bureau

Sunday, November 29, 2009

But three other wealthy nations - the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany - offer much closer parallels, as well as lessons.

Health care systems in the three nations more closely resemble the U.S. system of insurance-based coverage. Holland and Switzerland rely exclusively on private insurance, and all three rely on private doctors. The three European nations deliver universal coverage and world-class quality at a fraction of what Americans spend.

All of them require that everyone purchase insurance, make sure everyone can afford it and ban insurers from such practices as refusing to cover the sick that are common in the United States.

"We've got something worse than socialized medicine in this country," said Alain Enthoven, a Stanford University economist known as the father of the Dutch system.

"We have doctors causing hospital infections by not washing their hands because the incentives don't punish them for hospital infections, and we've got something that is financially destroying our economy. It's a disaster."

In many ways, the legislation in Congress builds on a broken system, experts said, reinforcing such features as relying on employers to buy health insurance rather than letting workers shop for their own plans.

European health care is universal, but contrary to popular perception, it is not all nationalized. Facing rapidly aging populations, many European countries have gone much further than the United States in using market forces to control costs. At the same time, regulations are stronger and often more sophisticated.

Most of Europe spends about 10 percent of its national income on health care and covers everyone. The United States will spend 18 percent this year and leave 47 million people uninsured.

Europe has more doctors, more hospital beds and more patient visits than the United States. Take Switzerland: 4.9 doctors per thousand residents compared with 2.4 in the United States. And cost? The average cost for a hospital stay is $9,398 in relatively high-cost Switzerland and $17,206 in the United States.

"In Switzerland, rich or poor, they all buy the same health insurance," said Regina Herzlinger, chairwoman of business administration at Harvard University and a leading advocate of the Swiss system. "The government gives the poor as much money as the average Swiss has to buy health insurance."

The Swiss and Dutch buy their own coverage from competing private insurers. Both systems address market failures that pervade U.S. health care: Insurance companies must provide a core benefit package and everyone must buy coverage. Consumers can shop for value and pocket the savings, as opposed to U.S. patients who hand the bill to someone else. Switzerland does not have a public program like Medicare or Medicaid.

Far from leading to poor quality and rationing, both countries and Germany, where government has a much larger role in health care, outperform the United States on many quality measures. These are not just broad measures such as life expectancy that could reflect higher U.S. poverty or obesity. Even Britain, much maligned by opponents of government-run health care in America, has made greater strides in preventive care.

"The data are pretty clear," said Peter Hussey, a Rand Corp. analyst. "Everybody (in the United States) is at risk for poor-quality care."

Americans often confuse intensive care with quality, said Beth Docteur, a consultant and former health official at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of 30 industrialized countries.

U.S. doctors face powerful economic incentives to do more, whether or not it improves a patient's health. These include fee-for-service payments that reward volume, fears of malpractice lawsuits that encourage more tests and procedures, and heavy marketing by drug and device makers.

The Germans apply especially rigorous scientific analysis to determine which medical procedures work and which don't. Critics here argue that such "comparative effectiveness research" leads to rationing or even "death panels." Recommendations this month by a U.S. government panel to cut back on mammograms have heightened such fears.

Karl Lauterach, director of the Institute of Health Economics at Germany's University of Cologne, described Germany's approach as "protecting patients against ineffective and highly inefficient care."

"If Americans experience a more intensive medicine, is this higher quality? The answer is absolutely not," Docteur said. "A lot of these surgeries and procedures may not even be appropriate for the patient. People are being exposed to risks of hospitalization and risks of adverse events that can exceed the actual benefits."

The Dutch address what experts consider a critical market failure: The profit-maximizing incentive among health insurers to dump sick people. In Holland, insurers can profit by covering the sick. Some even market plans to diabetics, a practice that would be unthinkable here. The Dutch do this through a complex scheme that pays insurers more for covering the sick.

"Get this wrong, and your public option will fail," warned Cathy Van Beek, acting chairwoman of the executive board of the Dutch Healthcare Authority. Health care reform, she said, "is highly complex and requires great time and effort to get things partly right some of the time."

Legislation in Congress would borrow from the Dutch by creating an "exchange" where some people could buy insurance. But Enthoven believes these are doomed to fail because they are missing key ingredients of the Dutch plan such as access for all.

 Moreover, "there is virtually nothing in the bills that is going to control costs," said Gerard Anderson, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. On the plus side, he said, "In terms of making sure people are insured and making sure that you can't be denied coverage, that's much more like the European systems."

SHOOTING

Four police officers shot dead at coffee shop near Parkland

Lui Kit Wong   The News Tribune

Scene of the police shooting at the Forza Coffee shop near Parkland on Sunday, November 29, 2009.

The News Tribune

Published: 11/29/09   9:28 am   |   Updated: 11/29/09  11:39 am

NEWARK, Ohio — Kelly Covert and her three sisters have been to more than 20 weddings this year.But they don't sit with the guests -- they lead the ceremony.

The four sisters from this central Ohio community -- Covert, 49; Lynn Wilson, 53; Jeanne Rian, 41; and Jennifer Felumlee, 40 -- marry dozens of couples in the state each year through their family business, Four Sisters Wedding Officiants.

Although they usually preside over the traditional white wedding, each sister has seen her share of unique ceremonies.

"We can do anything from a small wedding of three to five people in a backyard to a large wedding at The Dawes (Arboretum)," Rian said. "We can go anywhere in Ohio."

The women have conducted ceremonies in a barn, a tattoo parlor and a bowling alley. Covert has led the ceremony at a Halloween wedding and a Harley-Davidson wedding.

"I personally will never jump out of an airplane or do a scuba diving wedding, but other than that, I wouldn't turn anything down," she said.

Born and raised in Newark as the Gartner sisters, the four women always have been close.

"We are together almost every day, and there is never a day when we don't speak," Covert said.

Rian was the first of the sisters to get ordained to perform weddings five years ago.

"There's a lot of people who don't belong to a church and they don't want to join one just to get married," Rian said. "I thought there was a big need here for an alternative."

Her sisters got interested and decided to get ordained as well.

"We are not just sisters, we are best friends," Rian said. "We've always wanted to do something together, and this fits us well."

The sisters got ordained online through the Universal Life Church Monastery in Seattle. They took classes online and received their certification through the governor's office.

Their certifications also allow them to do christenings and funeral services, but weddings are their favorites, Covert said. They can conduct any kind of ceremony, religious or secular, and also do commitment ceremonies for same-sex couples

The sisters travel in pairs to every wedding they do. Although most of them take place in Licking County, they have traveled to Marietta, Akron and Elyria for ceremonies.

"We don't like to say no to anyone; there's always one of us who can do it," Covert said.

Some of the weddings the sisters preside over -- such as a Hawaiian-themed wedding or a country western wedding -- are carefully planned, but others are last-minute.

"We were on our way to Columbus one time when we got a call from a man in the military about to leave for basic training. He said 'We need someone to marry us,' I asked them when and he said 'Tomorrow,"' Covert said. "Sometimes, we have to drop everything."

But no matter what the time frame, the sisters try to customize each ceremony for every couple.

"We show them several different ceremonies, and we customize them until they get what they want," Covert said. "Some want prayers, some want readings, some want their own vows, there's are all kinds of possibilities, but for us, it's all about the couple."

The four sisters are working on getting a Web site to advertise their services, but right now most of their business comes from word of mouth, Rian said. Every year, they get more and more calls.

"Big weddings are expensive nowadays, and I think people are doing more intimate weddings because of the economy," she said.

The sisters are busiest during the summer and during holidays, especially Valentine's Day.

To prepare for a wedding, they practice what they'll say in front of each other, especially the vows.

"I was so nervous at first, I felt like I was the one getting married, but all the eyes are on the bride and groom," Rian said. "The more you do it, the easier it gets."

One of Rian's favorite parts of being a wedding officiant is watching the groom see the bride for the first time.

"You are (the groom's) right-hand support system for a few minutes when they are standing there alone, but once the couple stands up there together, it's wonderful."

Covert said she's enjoyed every wedding she's done.

"It's really a lot of fun, everyone smiling and happy and you leave feeling like it was great to bring two people together," she said. "It's a really good start to your day or your week."

Cobb home filled with garbage, insects, used food containers

Alexis Stevens
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

 6:26 p.m. Saturday, November 28, 2009

A Cobb County woman spent several hours in jail for having four children in a home filled with garbage, insects and fecal matter.

Casey Abigail Robinson, 37, of Acworth was charged with contributing to the deprivation of a minor because of the condition of the home, according to her arrest warrant.

The Mars Hill Road home had broken furniture, insect infestation, food and "used food" containers on the floor, according to police. Dirty dishes were stacked in the kitchen, and an "unknown source fecal matter" was present in the bathroom.

The bathroom next to the children bedroom was non-functioning, according to the arrest warrant.The four children in the home range in age from 6 to 13 years old, police said.

The home also had water flooding, mold growth and dirty clothes throughout, police said. The windows were covered in dirt, according to the warrant.

Robinson, who is listed as Casey Pineda on jail booking documents, was arrested at the home Friday evening. She was released on $2,500 bond around 11:30 a.m. Saturday morning.

LINK TO PHOTO

http://www.ajc.com/news/cobb/cobb-home-filled-with-217301.html

TRIBUNE WATCHDOG

City targets ex-NBA star for 'slum' housing

Walker 'humbly apologizes' for 'failings of my company'

Mold, lack of heat and buckling floors forced tenants to abandon this building at 6854 S. Cornell Ave., another property that until recently was owned by Walker's company. (Tribune photo by Zbigniew Bzdak / November 19, 2009)   LINK TO IMAGES   http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-091119-antoine-walker-pictures,0,5107529.photogallery   Antonio Olivo Tribune reporter November 29, 2009 The Prairie Avenue apartment building -- described by the city as a slum nuisance -- sits a short drive from where Antoine Walker once dominated basketball games, a prodigy at Mount Carmel High School on his way to escaping South Side poverty to become a fabulously wealthy NBA star. At one point, bricks fell off the building's facade, a hazard that went unfixed for months, city records show. Before that, a broken sewer pipe filled the basement with feces, toilet paper and other debris, creating an odor that forced families to move their children out. The angry tenants don't know Walker, 33, who reportedly earned $110 million during a 13-year pro career that included winning an NBA championship ring. But the 6-foot-9 former all-star -- known for a partying lifestyle that stretches from the golf course to the velvet-rope club -- plays a big role in their lives. His company owns the building. Amid a pile of financial troubles and legal actions capped off earlier this year with his arrest in Nevada for nearly $1 million in bad gambling debts, Walker is being pursued by city officials, bank attorneys and tenants' lawyers for housing problems that have resulted in what the city says are public hazards. Real estate investment companies that list Walker as an investor or principal -- Walker Ventures LLC and AW Realty LLC -- are the target of more than a dozen lawsuits alleging poor management of numerous properties, unpaid debts and damages caused by shoddy repair work. In one case last month, the city won $950,000 in court-ordered fines against Walker Ventures. Speaking to the Tribune Friday by telephone, Walker appeared contrite about the problems, blaming them on the bad economy, "a lot of financial mistakes throughout my career," and putting trust in other people. "I would like to humbly apologize to everyone who has been affected by the failings of my company," Walker said. "It was never intended to present [tenants with] unacceptable living conditions." In an era of celebrity scandal and richly rewarded fame, it's not unheard of for a multimillionaire athlete to suddenly turn up with financial problems. But as Walker carved a path of luxurious living from Chicago to Miami to Las Vegas, running up millions of dollars in debts to banks, casinos and at least one agent, the company bearing his name was leaving scars on the poor, urban landscape of his youth. On Cornell Avenue, a 13-unit building developed a mold problem so bad that a 7-month-old boy repeatedly woke up coughing, a tenant lawsuit says. The toxic fumes and a lack of heat drove all the tenants to abandon the building, which the city declared "a hulking public nuisance" before Walker Ventures eventually lost it in a bank foreclosure. On Minerva Avenue, another Walker Ventures building suffers from spotty electricity and a mouse and roach infestation that resulted in its failing several inspections tied to federal rent subsidies, government records show. Shoddy conditions and a problem with squatters drove most tenants away, and this month a team of city inspectors and police found several code violations, city officials said. In Country Club Hills, raw sewage leaked from bad pipes inside a condominium owned by Walker's AW Realty and managed by his mother, Diane Walker, according to a Cook County lawsuit that described how the leak destroyed the unit below. Many of the tenants were surprised to learn that their problems traced back to a former NBA star. "This is your property and you're supposed to be somebody?" demanded Kywanna Leftridge, 29, who lost most of her belongings and had to move temporarily into a homeless shelter with her son, 13, after her apartment in the Prairie Avenue building flooded. "It was horrible." Steven McKenzie, an assistant city corporation counsel, said that a number of foreclosed and now-abandoned properties have grown into neighborhood nuisances. One of the examples he cited was the Cornell Avenue building, which leaked natural gas in the vestibule as squatters were smoking upstairs, a fire hazard documented in court records. Known as affable and media friendly, Walker has been elusive when it comes to many of the property accusations. The tenants haven't seen him, and lawyers have been unable to find him to serve papers. McKenzie did extensive research, pulling records available only to law enforcement, to make sure the former NBA player was the same Antoine Walker behind the real estate company. The former star for the Boston Celtics, Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat -- who has not signed with another team this year -- talked to the Tribune Friday from Chicago in a telephone interview arranged by his publicist in New York. Before that, he had not returned repeated messages left by the Tribune with his attorneys, family and friends. In Tinley Park, Walker's mother, Diane, struck a tired air of defiance this month at the door of the $2.5 million mansion the ballplayer bought her. In the brick driveway, engraved with a large "W," sat four luxury cars. Diane Walker defended her son, noting how he has counseled troubled teens and helped others pay for college through his charitable Eight Foundation. "Talk about the goodness of his heart and what he's done," she said. Of the two real estate companies tied to the athlete, Walker Ventures has been most aggressive during the past several years about acquiring apartment buildings -- mostly on Chicago's South Side. The company was launched out of Coral Gables, Fla., in 2006, the same year Walker helped the Miami Heat win the NBA championship, according to Florida state records. As a limited liability company, it lists three principal "members," or owners, including Walker. In addition to using Walker's name, the company features his address and signature on its registration paperwork.

In Friday's interview, Walker said his intention was to start a real estate venture that would help him ease into post-NBA retirement. He chose to focus on his native South Side community, he said, out of hope that he could help revive some long-struggling neighborhoods.

"I wanted to be part of restoring the neighborhood. I've always been passionate about the South Side," he said, expressing regret that he did not wait to invest until after he retired and "had more time to be directly involved in the company."

Walker has left day-to-day operations of Walker Ventures to one of the company's two other members, Frederick G. Billings, 44, who Walker said had been a friend for 18 years.

Billings, who has owned construction and tax consultant companies, is out on bond after being arrested in March on charges of running a mortgage scam in Chicago that netted him more than $700,000 in illegal loans, court records show.

As part of that case, he faces felony counts of fraud, forgery and theft, and in another case, he is accused of fraudulently collecting $10,000 in federally subsidized rent payments, though those actions are not connected to Walker Ventures or AW Realty.

Like Walker, Billings has run up gambling debts in Las Vegas, in his case totaling $229,000, according to a 2005 federal bankruptcy filing that allowed him to avoid paying it off. The bankruptcy filing also helped Billings avoid paying another $1.5 million he owed, some in unpaid taxes and the rest to investors, former customers and other creditors, U.S. Bankruptcy Court documents show.

When reached by the Tribune, Billings declined to comment, other than to cite a court filing in July that seeks to dismiss him from one city lawsuit against Walker Ventures by claiming that he is only a "managing member" for the company and not the owner or developer.

"Nah, I don't want to discuss that stuff, man," he said, before hanging up.

Walker said Friday that he was unaware of Billings' other legal problems. "I wouldn't have put my reputation on the line had I known about them," Walker said.

Walker said he became aware of his companies' problems only when court summonses from Chicago began arriving on his doorstep in late 2008 in Miami, where he currently lives. He said he was "saddened" by the allegations. "I was misguided into trusting other people and put my money and faith into other people's abilities," he said.

Walker Ventures tenants, some of whom remembered watching Walker's buzzer-beating shots on TV, have mostly interacted with Billings about their living conditions.

"Someone said the basketball player Antoine Walker owned this property, but I could not believe that; I didn't want to believe that," said Barbara Brooks, among a group of tenants in the Cornell Avenue building who sued Walker Ventures over the mold and other problems.

That 2008 case was settled, but when one tenant tried to cash a $1,000 check signed Antoine Walker, it bounced, said attorney Paul Bernstein, who represented the tenants. The check eventually went through, but none of the five other tenants named in the suit have received their $1,000 settlement payments, he said.

Near several vacant lots in the city's Washington Park neighborhood, the Prairie Avenue building serves as collateral for another financial problem: a $1.5 million promissory note to the JP Morgan Chase bank, signed Antoine Walker. The note was never repaid, according to a court judgment.

The city declared the property in violation of its "slum nuisance" ordinance in a lawsuit this year trying to force Walker Ventures to do repairs.

Before a court-appointed receiver moved in, the building's crumbling facade repeatedly poured bricks onto a public sidewalk. Miquel Evans, 17, said a large slab nearly hit him in the head in April when he walked up to visit his cousin Lonyae Almond.

Walker Ventures allowed that hazard to fester for months, despite repeated orders to fix it, city attorneys said.

After the broken sewer pipe filled the entire basement with a knee-deep pool of raw sewage, "everything was mold and mildew for months," said Almond, 31, adding that the problems began shortly after Walker Ventures took over the building in 2008.

"My daughter couldn't stay here for months because the smell was so bad; it was unbearable for anyone to live here. (The smell) was even inside our clothes, it lasted so long."

Inside the Minerva building, now in foreclosure proceedings, Antoinette Joseph and her three children -- ages 13, 11 and 9 -- noticed that trash began accumulating out back for months shortly after Walker Ventures assumed control of the building last year.

"Sometimes, I lie in bed and there's a mouse in bed with me. One time, it just sat there and watched me," Joseph said.

McKenzie said that city officials have begun to look into other Walker Ventures properties, and plan to place liens on those buildings in order to collect unpaid fines. Under laws governing limited liability companies, the city cannot go after Walker's personal assets, McKenzie said.

Walker said he's working to resolve his financial problems and hopes to reach a resolution with the city over its lawsuits.

"I accept full responsibility for the debts of my company," he said, adding that he's working hard to sign again with an NBA team. "I feel like I'm in the best shape of my life.

"Hopefully, I can make wiser choices, on and off the court," he said

Boston Globe

November 28, 2009

Mattapan grandmother makes special delivery

BOSTON -- A grandmother from Mattapan performed double duty this Thanksgiving, cooking dinner and helping deliver her new granddaughter.

Patricia McCalop was in the middle of preparing a Thanksgiving feast when her daughter, Africa McCalop, suddenly went into labor. She called 9-1-1 but there was no time to wait.

Africa had gone to the hospital early Thursday morning, but doctors said she wasn't ready to deliver. Then, just hours later, she gave birth to a baby girl at her mother's home.

"It was so fast. I didn't even know what to do. I felt the head coming, I was trying to hold her in until the ambulance came so I got to a safe place, but she wouldn't let me hold her, she just came," said Africa McCalop of her daughter Danizah's birth.

Patricia was simultaneously trying to deliver Danizah and cook the Thanksgiving turkey.

"So I'm running, you know, trying to cook the turkey...you know, I didn't want the turkey to burn either," said Patricia of the hectic scene at the family's home.

A 9-1-1 dispatcher helped Patricia to make sure Danizah was healthy and breathing.

"She's like, 'take her little foot out.' I was scared, and I grabbed her little foot, and she's like, 'take it and spank it.' So I spanked the little foot a little bit and she moved, and I was like, 'yeah, she's moving, she's moving,'" said Patricia of her granddaughter's first moments.

Paramedics arrived shortly after Danizah was born and took both Africa and Danizah to the hospital.

Danizah arrived two weeks early but healthy, weighing in at six pounds

Dog Recovering After Eating 130 Nails

Owner Thankful Basset Hound Is Ali

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

  JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Ashley Saks couldn't believe what she saw when the veterinarian brought her the X-rays. Her 2-year-old Basset Hound Roxy had ingested over 100 nails.

“I counted about 130, but I don't know how many she threw up before she was taken, so it could've been more,” Saks said.

The unbelievable X-rays showed a clump of about 100 or so nails stuck at the base of Roxy's stomach. At that point, there were already a few stragglers that made its way through her intestines.

“They put her to sleep, stuck something down her throat, and pulled them out a few at a time,” said Saks. “Because it was such a big bulk, they couldn't just pull them out, it took over an hour to do that.”

                    LINK TO VIDEO AND SLIDESHOW

http://www.news4jax.com/news/21716645/detail.html

Saks said she left the dog with a friend for the weekend while she was out of town and told her friend to make sure to lock Roxy up whenever he leaves because she doesn't like being alone. But last Saturday he ran to the store thinking she would be OK to roam around by herself and that's when she found the nails.

“It's unbelievable she's thankfully still alive,” Saks said.

Saks said the nails didn't puncture any of her internal organs.

Friday, 11.27.09

Tiger Woods involved in car accident outside home

Tiger Woods sustained facial lacerations after running into a fire hydrant and tree with his SUV outside of his home.

Tiger Woods' wife used a golf club to smash out the back window of a sport utility vehicle and pulled her husband out after he slammed into a fire hydrant and tree outside his Florida home early Friday, according to local police.

MUST HAVE TOYS THROUGH THE YEARS

http://www.boston.com/business/specials/holiday/2009/must_have_toys/

Mae Anderson

Associated Press

Friday, November 27, 2009

LINK TO PHOTO OF ZHU ZHU: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/27/BU6O1AR2UT.DTL#ixzz0Y5lSIoIE

Seeing a fully stocked shelf, she decided to hold off until Christmas.

That was "before I knew that the hamsters would soon be off the shelves and more scarce than an H1N1 vaccine," said Fowlkes, 32.

Now she can't find them anywhere.

Zhu Zhu Pets - which retail for about $10 and are aimed at 3- to 10-year-olds - are this year's bona fide must-have toy, following in the footsteps of past crazes for Tickle Me Elmo and Cabbage Patch Kids. On resale Web sites like eBay and Craigslist, they fetch $40 or more. Vital accessories such as the hamster car and funhouse are sold separately.

By many counts, the toy is an unlikely hit. They're in a field crowded with toy pets. The hamsters, which scurry around, make noises and drive cars, don't always work the way you expect and have a limited range of action.

"Honestly, I don't really get it," said BMO Capital Markets analyst Gerrick Johnson. "But I don't need to get it for a toy to be hot."

The toys do have several factors that make them compelling, Johnson said: fun accessories and scarcity - sometimes when something is hard to obtain it makes people want it more. One big thing going for them in tough economic times: They're cheap.

Unlike past hot toys made by large manufacturers like Mattel's Tickle Me Elmo and Tiger Electronics' Furby, Zhu Zhu Pets are made by tiny Cepia Inc. of St. Louis, with just 16 employees in the United States and 30 in China, making their success even more unlikely.

Just 6 years old, Cepia worked on an electronic dispensing device for consumer products before turning to toys.

The company was started by toy industry vet Russ Hornsby, 56.

The success of Zhu Zhu Pets wasn't entirely accidental. After being inspired by classic robotic toys, like the barking puppy dog who flips, Hornsby created a prototype. The craze sets Cepia up for a strong 2010. Hornsby estimates the company will sell $100 million in Zhu Zhu Pets by the end of the year. It's always hard to tell how long a toy will stay hot, but based on bookings, he says that will grow to $350 million to $400 million by the end of next year as production ramps up.

BMO analyst Johnson agreed 2010 will be big for Zhu Zhu Pets.

"I don't know what Chinese New Year is coming up, but as far as toys are concerned, next year will be the year of the hamster."

Brockton fire caused by children jumping on mattress

November 26, 2009 09:30 PM

Globe photo by George Rizer

Megan Lopes (center) and other burned-out residents talk with a Brockton fire official last night.

Jack Nicas

Globe Correspondent

A fire that tore through two Brockton triple-deckers Thursday night, driving 33 residents out of their homes, was started by children jumping on a bed, fire officials said today.

“They were bouncing up and down on two mattresses and a box spring that were up against a wall where a plug was,” said Brockton Fire Lieutenant Edward Williams.

The back-and-forth motion of the mattresses abraded a transformer for a cell phone charger, Williams said. “I believe they broke the plastic apart, and that caused a short circuit that either heated up enough, or caused sparks, to catch the mattress on fire.”

After the children were shooed out of the second-floor room for making too much noise, the fire flared up just after 8 p.m. at 609 Warren Ave. As the three-story apartment building ignited, its windows blew out, spreading flames to another triple-decker six feet away, Williams said.

Six Brockton engines and three ladder companies responded to the fire, knocking it down by 11:15 p.m. Two firefighters suffered puncture wounds and cuts, but neither was hospitalized, Williams said.

Fire officials estimate $150,000 in damages to the initial building, and $50,000 to the second.

The American Red Cross housed 21 of the residents last night, including eight children, Winnie Dimock, an official with the Red Cross Massachusetts Bay chapter, said today.

Two families, from the first and third floor of 609 Warren Ave., found their own housing, Williams said. They were not at the scene when Red Cross officials responded just before 10 p.m., Dimock said.

The Red Cross took in the three families from 613 Warren Ave. and the family of eight from the unit where the fire started. That family, which includes three children and three young adults just over 18, was the only family to lose all of their belongings, Dimock said.

“We have them in a hotel for the rest of the weekend,” Dimock said. “Then we refer them to other agencies for further assistance.”

Williams, from the fire department, said there is fire damage on several floors of the buildings and heat, water, and smoke damage throughout both. The buildings will be livable again, but it could be nearly a year until then, he said.

“Both of the buildings can be salvaged,” he said, “no doubt about it.”

Below is the Globe's account of the fire originally posted Thursday night.

Michael Corcoran, Globe Correspondent

A fast-moving fire jumped from one Brockton triple decker to a second one tonight, causing extensive damage to both buildings and leaving 18 residents, including five children, temporarily without homes on Thanksgiving.

The fire broke out just after 8 p.m., in the second floor of a three-story apartment building at 609 Warren Ave.,according to Brockton fire officials. The fire soon spread to a neighboring building at 613 Warren and continued to burn until 8:43 p.m., when firefighters extinguished the blaze.

Fire officials were not sure of the total damage late tonight but said it was “extensive.” The cause of the fire is under investigation. No initial injuries were reported.

Neighbors crowded the surrounding streets to watch as flames shot out of the top of one building.

The Red Cross was contacted to assist the 18 people who were knocked out of their homes. A Red Cross spokeswoman said the organization provides temporary housing to people who are displaced in a disaster.

Earlier in the day, a fire in North Reading also disrupted the holiday.

The blaze, caused by an electrical problem, destroyed two unoccupied homes on Swan Pond Road, North Reading fire officials said. Fire Captain Barry Galvin said that when they reached the homes on Swan Pond Road shortly after 6:30 a.m., the buildings were already engulfed.

The fire originated in a small "camp-style" house and spread to a larger house that was under construction. "Both structures were a total loss," Galvin said. The cause was an "electrical accident" in the smaller home, State Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan said. 

There were no injuries, officials said.

The positive side of the recession

The recession has not been bad news for everyone. Jessica Salter finds three businesses that are flourishing amid the gloom.

Jessica Salter

Telegraph UK
7:00AM GMT 26 Nov 2009

Prev Cindy and Robert Pellet, owners of Forsham Cottage Arks Photo: Tara Darby Jennifer Pirtle with a class at The Make Lounge. Photo: Tara Darby

When economists first warned us that Britain’s financial collapse might be as bad as the Great Depression, a national belt-tightening ensued. But while other G7 countries have managed to bounce back, Britain is still lagging behind, and the Bank of England says the country will take two years to regain its pre-crisis level of economic output.

Sales on the high street have struggled as the recession has thrown up a new set of values to live and enjoy life by. The businesses that are booming are the ones that reflect the shift from rampant consumerism to a more austere but creative way of living. While a girls’ night out may once have involved a new dress, <snip>tails and a taxi home, now you could be customising knickers over a glass of wine at an evening sewing class. And instead of buying organic fruit and vegetable boxes and free-range eggs, parents who are worried about what their children eat are embracing the Good Life by growing their own greens and keeping chickens.

Keeping chickens

Cindy Pellet looks fondly over her black-and-white speckledies as they clean each other’s beaks. 'They’re just like two little old ladies,’ she says. 'They no longer lay, but they have given us such good service I have to keep them.’

The retired hens spend their days modelling chicken houses, or 'arks’, to an increasing number of customers. Based near Ashford in Kent, Forsham Cottage Arks, the company Cindy, 52, founded 30 years ago with her husband, Robert, 57, now sells about 14 chicken arks a day, compared with three or four a week in 1979.

'People are buying chickens not only to save money on eggs. Keeping hens is also a step towards being a bit more self-sufficient and going back to traditional values, and I think that’s what people look to when the economy turns bad.’

According to a nationwide survey, an estimated 1,000 chicken sheds are being sold in Britain every week to people who want to keep chickens in their back gardens. B&Q, the garden equipment and DIY retailer, reported a threefold rise in sales of chicken coops last year, and riding on that success it is now planning to stock pigsties. Sales of vegetable seeds have massively increased, according to the seed company Suttons, which says that 70 per cent of seed sales are now vegetables, and 30 per cent flowers, reversing the trend of five years ago when 30 per cent of sales were vegetable seeds.

The Pellets decided to set up the business when Robert was made redundant from his job as a printer at the Kent Messenger, the weekly news­paper where he had worked for 17 years. Faced with two mortgages, one for the house and another for his 'horse-mad’ wife’s paddock, Robert started developing the chicken houses he used for their own hens into arks which they could sell commercially. Now the couple employ 23 staff, including their daughter, Tracey, 31. Their office is across the garden from their house and on its wall is a framed picture of Robert proudly holding up the first egg his chickens laid.

'We’re the original Good Lifers, we have had chickens, pigs, goats, dogs, horses and grow all our own vegetables,’ Cindy laughs. 'It’s important to be aware of the food chain, and if you feed your own chickens there is no better way of controlling the quality of what you eat.’

In addition to the chicken arks (the bestselling Boughton starter kit, including ark, floor liner, feed holder, water fountain and nest sawdust shavings, costs £395), the Pellets sell accessories ranging from electric fencing to automatic door openers. Three times a year, the couple also run a one-day £85 poultry course from a rented room at a nearby golf club. Today, two middle-aged couples, a man in his thirties with a ponytail and a woman in her forties, none of whom have owned chickens before, are on the course. Pellet is busy doling out cups of tea and biscuits while Fred Ham, an international chicken show judge, is turning a brown hen over to demonstrate a healthy chicken. 'You want a nice big eye at this end, which shows that there are no respiratory problems, and a clean white bum at the other end, which shows there are no digestive problems,’ he says. 'If you have got both of those, whatever happens in between will be fine.’

Sewing lessons

Dressed in tight jeans and Converse trainers, Jennifer Pirtle does not look like the type of woman who runs a craft workshop. But then her workshop, based in a converted Georgian house, with light streaming in through floor-to-ceiling windows, is a world away from a sewing class in a chilly church hall.

Pirtle, 41, who was born in California, founded the Make Lounge, where participants learn skills from sewing to cake decoration and jewellery making, three years ago after struggling to find an evening class that fitted in both with her job as a magazine writer and her life as a mother.

'I checked with some girlfriends and found that there was a real market for this kind of class,’ she says. 'My classes are full of women mainly aged between 25 and 40, either with jobs that do not allow them to be creative or busy mums who need a bit of time to carve out for themselves.’

To test her idea, in April 2007 Pirtle began running a few classes in a shared studio near Angel in north London. A year later, with the help of a private investor, she moved around the corner to her current location in Barnsbury Street – after eight months she had broken even. Now, with a team of 30 freelance coaches, she runs about 25 classes a week. 'Part of the Make Lounge’s success is down to the recession,’ she says. 'There is this make-do-and-mend mentality, but mainly people don’t just want to charge meaningless items to their credit card, they want to put a bit more thought into it.’

The courses, described as 'the price of an evening out or less’, range from basic sewing lessons (£34 for two hours), to Italian leather belt making classes (£45 for three hours). All include materials, wine and nibbles. 'The women who come to my classes want their clothes to be personal,’ Pirtle says. 'So instead of the same fast, throw-away fashion everyone else is buying, they come away with a stylish item and a skill.’

According to a recent survey by the climate change charity Global Cool, the average woman in Britain spends £470 a year on clothes she never wears, wasting £11.1 billion in the process. With this in mind, Pirtle designed her creative alterations course. 'Most women have items at the back of the closet, probably with their tags still on, that they can then redesign rather than spend money on new clothes,’ she says.

The Make Lounge is tapping into a national trend: according to hotcourses.com, Britain’s largest course-finding website, there has been an 84 per cent increase in the number of internet searches for dressmaking tuition. John Lewis, the department store chain, reports similar findings: sales of buttons are up nearly 50 per cent on last year, zips are up 20 per cent, and the chain’s own-brand sewing machines have sold over 200 per cent more than this time last year in its Oxford Street store.

With 5,000 subscribers to her weekly newsletter, and at least 10 women a day signing up, in September Pirtle opened a retail shop (which, if it is successful, she will take online) and she is looking into renting more workshop space. Her biggest challenge is not getting women through her doors but making crafting appeal to men too. 'When the rare men do come to our workshops, they really enjoy it.’

Mental workouts

Octavius Black bounces in his chair excitedly and, struggling to keep his voice down, leans across the table. 'The secret for organisations to escape a recession is different each time,’ he says. 'In 1980 it was strategy. In 1991 it was technology. This time it is people. Those organisations who engage their employees, rather than dismissing them as “lucky to have a job”, will be the ones that emerge fastest and strongest.’

Then he laughs loudly, because it is not much of a secret. Since the recession there has been a 50 per cent increase in uptake of courses run by the Mind Gym, the company Black co-founded 10 years ago with his business partner, Sebastian Bailey. Courses cost £75 each per employee and range from 90-minute mental workouts with titles such as 'Wood for the Trees’ and 'Me, Me, Me’, to board games and paired interviews, rather than presentations.

The Mind Gym now boasts a client list comprising 40 per cent of companies from the FTSE 100. 'We worked with a retailer who was cutting 40 per cent of roles,’ Black, 41, says. 'As a result of applying the Mind Gym techniques to the remaining employees they remained sufficiently motivated to work split shifts through the night and delivered the best customer service in 21 years.’

After graduating from Oxford in 1989, Black began working as a management consultant. He cites an early career blip as 'working for the tycoon Robert Maxwell at the time Mr Maxwell jumped ship’. In 1991 Black led the sales and marketing side of a fledgling communication consultancy as it grew from nine to 100 people before being snapped up by the American advertising giant Omnicom. He continued working there until he founded the Mind Gym in 2000.

The original idea came from a discussion over dinner. 'We were sitting at the table pondering trends,’ he explains. 'We started thinking that if the 1980s was the decade of the body and the 1990s was the decade when people started taking care of their soul with feng shui and yoga, then the decade of the mind had to be coming.’

Now the Mind Gym, whose head office is in Kensington, London, has more than 100 freelance coaches who have worked with more than half a million people, and in 2006 they opened an office in New York.

'Brain training is a bit like medicine at the turn of the 20th century,’ Black says. 'Much of it is like the old apothecaries – the personal view of the person who is proposing them. We’re like the first doctors with the science to back it up.’

He points out a study recently commissioned by the Mind Gym which uses psychology and neuroscience to illustrate that people who have the best work-life balance are those who work the longest hours and are self-employed. 'That is just the opposite of what you would imagine. But things are not as they are; they are as we see them. If we can train people to look at the world in a certain way they will have more energy, achieve more and be far happier.’ Black, who has already had one breakfast meeting before 9am and is itching to bound away to another, is testament to the science. 'I just love my job, so it doesn’t feel like working,’ he beams.