The Last Calendar - NYTimes.com

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; ">By the time he was 76, my father was frail. His balance was poor and he had trouble walking. He lived alone in Baltimore in a big house full of stairs, and watching him come tottering down those stairs was terrifying. Each time, I thought he might fall. He refused to make the house safer — no stair lifts, no grab rails (they would disfigure the house, he said) — and would not consider living anywhere else. When my brother and his wife invited my father to move in, the invitation was vigorously declined. And we lived in three different cities, far apart.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">To try to cope better with this situation, my brother and I created a shared Google calendar — an online calendar in which we could both make entries from wherever we happened to be. Each time either of us spoke to our father, we marked it in the calendar — what time of day it was, how he sounded, what we spoke about. (If one of us called and he did not answer, we marked that, too. Yes, we both have an obsessive streak.)</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; ">For example, on Oct. 13, 2009, at 1:30, I telephoned home, spoke to my father and wrote in the calendar that he was "just off to see the new doctor, writing a list of his medications. Nothing else to report; leaves starting to turn and it's starting to get cold." Later that afternoon, he called my brother and said that he liked the new doctor (she was "slim, tall, pretty, and seemed very nice"), and that he had indeed discussed his medications with her.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The upshot was that we had an excellent record of how he was — whether he was getting out, if he was cheerful or feeling low, changes to his medicines, any falls he said he had had. The calendar also allowed us to make sure that one of us spoke to him just about every day. And if I couldn't reach him, I didn't have to wonder if he was lying hurt and helpless at the bottom of the stairs for days — I could look at the calendar and see that my brother had spoken to him a few hours ago.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">We never told my father we did this — he probably would have been furious. There is, after all, something weird about the idea that people are taking notes on you, however loving their motives. It was our imperfect solution to an imperfect setup. And it helped us.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Just before his 79th birthday, my father started collapsing. First, he fell in the street. He thought he had tripped, but he wasn't sure. Then he fell several times in the house (fortunately, not while on the stairs). The calendar provided a full record of it — and we could both see that there was something new, something abnormal. It turned out that his heart was stopping. My brother flew down and took him to a hospital, where he had a pacemaker put in.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">But the calendar had other, more subtle effects, too. It was, in essence, a journal kept by two people who read each other's entries, and so it gradually became a conversation between the two of us as well as a straight-up record of events. One day, he's infuriating my brother with speculations about two friends' having an inappropriate affair: "I said I thought he was being outrageous and that it was none of his business, even if his wild speculations were true. I hope he has the sense not to say anything to anyone else about his unfounded, wild, no evidence claims." Another day, I'm remarking, "I'm worried by the extent to which he does not seem to cook for himself anymore."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">As you might expect, there are times when reading someone else's journal entries is disquieting and revealing. I discovered aspects of my brother's relationship with our father that I hadn't appreciated. One of his entries said: "Asked about my accident (first time)." This was more than a year after my brother had been hit by a car and badly hurt. My heart cracked: I had not realized how inattentive my father had been.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Going back through the calendar now, more than 18 months after my father died, the entries chart a relentless physical decline — profound fatigue, sore hips and knees, aching wrists, swollen legs, inflamed teeth, increasing <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/symptoms/memory-loss/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Memory loss." class="meta-classifier" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">forgetfulness</a>, the savage indignities of old age. One day, he took a bath but couldn't get out of the tub. Luckily, the housekeeper arrived; she couldn't get him out either, so she recruited the postman to help. My father thought this was hilarious: I admired his ability to laugh.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">For through it all, there's such courage. Yes, he's just had a pacemaker installed and he's feeling rotten, but he's making strawberry jam. One day, "He sounded very low — lonely, old, and scared." But another, he's reading a history of some sinister French aristocrats and planning to install a wood stove in the fireplace. A beloved friend is coming to stay. He's just learned a new poem.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">At the time, I was glad we kept the calendar because it helped us to cope with a difficult situation. Now I'm glad for a different reason: it helps me remember small details about him, the little things that slip out of memory, that fade with time. Laughs, tears, worries, frustrations, joy and love — it's all in the calendar.</p><nyt_author_id style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><div class="authorIdentification" style="margin-bottom: 2.8em; "><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 15px !important; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-style: italic; "><a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/olivia-judson/" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; font-size: 15px !important; line-height: 22px; ">Olivia Judson</a> is a writer and an evolutionary biologist.</div></div></nyt_author_id></div><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/23/opinion/the-last-calendar.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&_r=0&pagewanted=print">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/23/opinion/the-last-calendar.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&_r=0&pagewanted=print</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

The Last Calendar - NYTimes.com

By the time he was 76, my father was frail. His balance was poor and he had trouble walking. He lived alone in Baltimore in a big house full...

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Reference and Adult Programming Department Head - Whittemore Memorial Library, Naugatuck

<b>Reference and Adult Programming Department Head - </b><b><span style="color: #48286d;">Whittemore Memorial Library</span></b>, Naugatuck. 35 hours/week. $20.00 - $26.50 per hour, excellent benefits. Includes occasional evening and weekend hours. Schedule and supervise reference department staff. Work at the reference desk. Plan and oversee adult programming in conjunction with other staff members. Maintain reference and adult nonfiction collections. Must have technological proficiency, and exceptional oral and written communication skills. MLS preferred. 3-5 years public library experience including reference service and ability to relate well to the public and library staff required; readers’ advisory skills desirable. Familiarity with Evergreen or similar circulation system and MS Word/Excel/Publisher preferred. Please submit cover letter and resume with names of three references by Friday, <span style="color: red;">February 8, 2013</span> to Jocelyn Miller, Library Director, Howard Whittemore Library, 243 Church Street, Naugatuck, CT 06770.

Reference and Adult Programming Department Head - Whittemore Memorial Library, Naugatuck

Reference and Adult Programming Department Head - Whittemore Memorial Library , Naugatuck. 35 hours/week. $20.00 - $26.50 per hour, excelle...

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Maker Aware of 40% Failure in Hip Implant - NYTimes.com

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><nyt_text style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div id="articleBody"><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">An internal analysis conducted by <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/johnson_and_johnson/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More information about Johnson & Johnson" class="meta-org" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">Johnson & Johnson</a> in 2011 not long after it recalled a troubled hip implant estimated that the all-metal device would fail within five years in nearly 40 percent of patients who received it, newly disclosed court records show.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Johnson & Johnson never released those projections for the device, the Articular Surface Replacement, or A.S.R., which the company recalled in mid-2010. But at the same time that the medical products giant was performing that analysis, it was publicly playing down similar findings from a British implant registry about the device's early failure rate.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">The company's analysis also suggests that the implant is likely to fail prematurely over the next few years in thousands more patients in addition to those who have already had painful and costly procedures to replace it.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">The internal Johnson & Johnson analysis is among hundreds of internal company documents expected to become public as the first of over 10,000 lawsuits by patients who got an A.S.R. prepares to go to trial this week. The episode represents one of the biggest medical device failures in recent decades and the forthcoming trial is expected to shed light on what officials of Johnson & Johnson's DePuy Orthopaedics division knew about the device's problem before its recall and the actions they took or did not take.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">The trial, which is expected to begin Friday in California Superior Court in Los Angeles, may also provide a guide to the consequences of the A.S.R. episode to Johnson & Johnson, both for the company's finances and its reputation. Last year, the company <a title="Reuters article." href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/business/johnson-johnson-takes-3-billion-charge-for-hip-recall.html" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">took a $3 billion special charge</a>, much of it related to medical and legal costs associated with the device. DePuy has offered to pay patient costs for replacement procedures.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">The A.S.R. belonged to a once-popular class of hip implants in which a device's cup and ball component were both made of metal. While the A.S.R. was the most failure-prone of those implants, surgeons have largely abandoned using such devices in standard hip replacement because their components can grind together, releasing metallic debris that damages a patient's tissue and bone.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">On Friday, Judge J. Stephen Czuleger, who is presiding over the Los Angeles case, unsealed a number of motions that contained portions of pretrial depositions of DePuy officials as well as related company records. Those disclosures, like the company's estimate of the A.S.R.'s failure rate, represent only a tiny fraction of the information that will become public if the trial proceeds. Over the last two years, plaintiffs' lawyers working on A.S.R.-related lawsuits have reviewed tens of thousands of internal DePuy documents and taken depositions from dozens of company executives.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Executives of DePuy have long insisted that their handling of the A.S.R. was forthright and appropriate. In mid-2010, when DePuy recalled the implant, officials said they were doing so because data that year from the National Joint Registry of England and Wales showed for the first time that it was failing prematurely at a higher rate than competing implants. In 2011, the British implant registry updated its projected failure rates for A.S.R. patients who had had it the longest, saying it was failing in one-third of them. It was that estimate that was challenged by DePuy.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">About 7,000 of the A.S.R. lawsuits have been consolidated in a federal court in Ohio. An additional 2,000 cases have been consolidated in a California state court. The California case chosen to go to trial this week was selected because the plaintiff, a man named Loren Kransky, has <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/cancer/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Cancer." class="meta-classifier" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">cancer</a> and may not live much longer, lawyers involved in the case said. DePuy has already settled a few A.S.R. cases before trial and it may choose to do so in Mr. Kransky's case as well.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">About 93,000 patients worldwide received an A.S.R., about one-third of them in the United States.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">There are two versions of the A.S.R., one used in standard hip implants and the other used in an alternative replacement procedure known as resurfacing. Only the standard implant was sold in the United States. Both versions of the A.S.R., however, used the same metal hip cup as part of their design.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Asked for comment about the company's internal analysis, a spokeswoman for DePuy, Mindy Tinsley, said in a statement that it "was based on a small, limited set of data that could not be used to generalize" the overall failure rate for the A.S.R.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">In 2011, when DePuy challenged the British joint registry's findings, the company made similar comments. Other medical organizations, however, have also projected very high failure rates for the A.S.R.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Hip implants, which are generally made from metal and plastic, often last for 15 years before they wear out and need to be replaced. Such devices can fail prematurely for a variety of reasons, but the early replacement rate is typically 1 percent after a year, or 5 percent at five years.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">In pretrial testimony, Paul Voorhorst, DePuy's director of biostatistics and data management, said that the company performed several reviews of A.S.R. failures in patients in fall 2011, a year after it recalled the model.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Based on the number of patients who had already undergone device replacement at the time, DePuy <a title="Pretrial testimony on artificial hips." href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/560445-testimony-on-artificial-hips.html" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">estimated that about 37 percent of patients</a> who got an A.S.R. might need to have it replaced within five years of receiving it.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Last year, The New York Times reported that DePuy executives decided in 2009 to <a title="Times article." href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/business/fda-asked-depuy-for-safety-data-just-before-hip-implants-phaseout.html" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">phase out the A.S.R.</a> and sell off its inventories weeks after the Food and Drug Administration asked the company in a letter for additional safety data about the implant.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">The F.D.A. also told the company at that time that it was rejecting its efforts to sell the resurfacing version of the device in the United States because of concerns about "high concentration of metal ions" in the blood of patients who received it.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">In other pretrial testimony released Friday, a DePuy engineer stated that company officials were aware in 2008 of reports by an English surgeon that the resurfacing version of the A.S.R. was releasing high levels of metallic ions, particularly in women. As a result of the reports, company officials felt they had to move quickly to redesign the implant.</p><nyt_correction_bottom><div class="articleCorrection" style="margin-bottom: 2.8em; "></div></nyt_correction_bottom><nyt_update_bottom></nyt_update_bottom></div></nyt_text><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important; float: none; "></span></div><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/23/business/jj-study-suggested-hip-device-could-fail-in-thousands-more.html?_r=0&pagewanted=print">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/23/business/jj-study-suggested-hip-device-could-fail-in-thousands-more.html?_r=0&pagewanted=print</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

Maker Aware of 40% Failure in Hip Implant - NYTimes.com

An internal analysis conducted by  Johnson & Johnson  in 2011 not long after it recalled a troubled hip implant estimated that the all-m...

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Library Assistant II - Babcock Library, Ashford

<strong>Library Assistant II - </strong><span style="color: #48286d;"><strong>Babcock Library</strong></span> in Ashford, Connecticut has an opening for position of Library Assistant II, Children’s Specialist. 30 hours every 2 weeks, including every other Saturday and occasional evening hours. Vacation, sick leave and paid holidays. $14.00 per hour. Anticipated start date March 1, 2013. Duties include the following: Planning, scheduling, publicizing and hosting children’s programs, story hours and activities. Planning and coordinating lively summer reading program each year. Planning and leading activities for children during school vacations. Visiting preschools for stories and outreach. Leading a monthly book discussion group for preteens. Recommending titles for purchase to Director. Cataloging children’s materials. Maintaining cheerful and current atmosphere in Children’s area. Preparing monthly items for local newspapers and statistics for reports. Circulation desk time, including general reference and phone. Assuming essential duties of other staff members in the event of their absence. Other duties as assigned. Requirements: High School diploma or equivalent; 2 years recent pertinent experience working with children in a library setting. Enthusiasm for planning and hosting programs for children. Understanding of principles of library cataloging and familiarity with DDC. Working knowledge of desktop applications such as MS Word and Publisher. Ability to work with minimal supervision and to self-start. Ability to work as a team member and be flexible as circumstances may require. Preferred Skills: Experience with ICONN request. Experience using automated library system for cataloging and circulation. Ability to multi-task and self-start. Ashford is a busy small town that enthusiastically supports and utilizes its library. The atmosphere is upbeat and friendly, thus the successful candidate will be a team player who is cheerful, cooperative and positive. He or she will be willing and able to function as part of a small town library staff, including pitching in to do what needs to be done. Please send cover letter, resume, and names, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers of 3 professional references via USPS or email no later than 6 pm <span style="color: red;">February 15, 2013</span>, to: Ginny Moses, Director, Babcock Library, 25 Pompey Hollow Road, Ashford, CT 06278, <a _fcksavedurl="mailto:gmoses@babcocklibrary.org" href="mailto:gmoses@babcocklibrary.org">gmoses@babcocklibrary.org</a>.

Library Assistant II - Babcock Library, Ashford

Library Assistant II - Babcock Library in Ashford, Connecticut has an opening for position of Library Assistant II, Children’s Specialist....

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Bitches, Bikes, and Guns with Jim Stewart

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgavrv2zshtG98KVnTZvqKn_EgrUkkP2Ez737eZNFOaVE-tKtAJ6b0q3mxoTOhe7F-SwGSRuCjbT8Ml7rDptrbHqayQ-FY1ell96M4wbFJ7EBKFj_ky-fhAdoMkVAo0a3Zfs7m0T7BnUbk/s1600/Jim+Stewart+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgavrv2zshtG98KVnTZvqKn_EgrUkkP2Ez737eZNFOaVE-tKtAJ6b0q3mxoTOhe7F-SwGSRuCjbT8Ml7rDptrbHqayQ-FY1ell96M4wbFJ7EBKFj_ky-fhAdoMkVAo0a3Zfs7m0T7BnUbk/s320/Jim+Stewart+4.jpg" width="222" /></a></div>Hey all you un-American, Second Amendment hating, abortion loving readers of <i>I’m With Stupid</i>.  Jim Stewart here.<br /><br />I’m a veteran, proud gun owner, proud American, and the neighbor of one arrogant, sarcastic, and fucked up freak of left wing nature, Matt-Man.<br /><br />I normally like to stay away from these blogs…these…these…instruments of re-education, however…I saw a picture of <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2013/01/jays-hillbilly-neighbor-speaks.html" target="_blank"><i><span style="color: blue;">Jayman’s neighbor</span></i></a> on here yesterday…<br /><br />And I said to myself…<br /><br /><i>“God intended that chick for me, and I think we could grow some right-thinking children together.”</i><br /><br />She thinks like me.  Cusses like me.  Holds a weapon like me.  Oh sure…her name, <i>Not Jayman’s Neighbor</i>, is a bit weird, but just look at her and read her words on the IWS blog thing yesterday.  You’d have to be some kind of lunatic, gay, baby killing lib to let her fucked up name get in the way of getting in her pants. That bitch RAWKS!!<br /><br />As soon as I saw her picture, I could see the Stars and Stripes blowing in the wind over amber waves of grain, and when I read what she had to say, it was like listening to the late great President Ronald Reagan.<br /><br />Well, the Ronald Reagan before he lost his mind due to lib doctors and FEMA putting an Alzheimer’s chip in his head after he was shot, which resulted in him unknowingly and against his will, calling for a ban on assault rifles in the early 90’s.  They really fucked him up!!  It’s bullshit!!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ7zqQsEkfGWJRjZfPbElqWokL51_HoP9XloW-eJq13gMRrg_QnFyprXL0w1fYEX7Pqe2PJGSDB4EneLB9sxPVUwiUlLVU24fVVPMOSZaOAR9Njkl8djBREIkNthRYDQ37NLETsj4ER5Q/s1600/Sexy+Girl+Gun+Hot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ7zqQsEkfGWJRjZfPbElqWokL51_HoP9XloW-eJq13gMRrg_QnFyprXL0w1fYEX7Pqe2PJGSDB4EneLB9sxPVUwiUlLVU24fVVPMOSZaOAR9Njkl8djBREIkNthRYDQ37NLETsj4ER5Q/s400/Sexy+Girl+Gun+Hot.jpg" width="231" /></a>Anyways, and as I was talking about…Not Jayman’s Neighbor needs to drop the Match.com bullshit and get a hold of JimStewartLoveGun.com.<br /><br />She mentioned that she needed a man who had been tested for diseases n’shit yesterday…She doesn’t even have to wait on my test results.  As soon as I saw her on IWS yesterday, I went and got tested.<br /><br />Other than a slight case of mange and anti-social disorder, I was given a clean bill of health.  And let me tell you, I know the test results are accurate because they were performed by one, Dr. David Smith.  An AMERICAN DOCTOR!!<br /><br />They were NOT performed by some towel head doctor named Dr. Rawalpindi, or Dr. Akbar Hussein, or Dr. I Came Here Illegally to America in Order to Put Herpes and Lyme Disease in your Flu Vaccination!!<br /><br />Nope, not a chance.  I use an American doctor every…fucking…time…I get…an American ailment.<br /><br />So the following goes out to Not Jayman’s Neighbor:<br /><br />I have the paper work proving I am clean. I own several guns, and I drink heavily.  I believe in God, the Baby Jesus, and the right to cut off a lib’s head and shit down his or her neck…I believe in the beauty and God-given sanctity of fucking all night in a drunken stupor with the windows open for all to hear.<br /><br />In other words, Miss Not Jayman’s Neighbor…<br /><br />I, Jim Stewart, am your soul mate.  And…<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkSCZpvjbU_7ymduNAAWwfoHf2YLu8kOWSE-d0xhjqNQx4lvx9HVHEic5xGMkfZ7xtZiGvftvIZ1WadqTTUzTu9VHV-snYYN78hRVCgUu-DQu8Sgl5YyvjAlK44dfF_fzOGoDr4O0mWjM/s1600/Jim+Stewart+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="309" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkSCZpvjbU_7ymduNAAWwfoHf2YLu8kOWSE-d0xhjqNQx4lvx9HVHEic5xGMkfZ7xtZiGvftvIZ1WadqTTUzTu9VHV-snYYN78hRVCgUu-DQu8Sgl5YyvjAlK44dfF_fzOGoDr4O0mWjM/s320/Jim+Stewart+3.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />If you would do me the honor of hangin’ with me, I can pop a wheelie and shake the bitch off the back of my bike in no time, and we can ride into a red, white, and blue sunset together.<br /><br />If you’re interested, get a hold of Matt-Man, because I'm sure that those Muslim lovin’ FEMA fucks are always sticking their big brown noses into my e-mail account.<br /><br /><i>Let freedom ring bitches, and keep your powder dry…</i><br /><br /><i>Jim Stewart</i><br /><br /><a href="mailto:mattmaniws@ymail.com">mattmaniws@ymail.com</a><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/MattMan_IWS" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">@mattman_iws</span></a><br /><br />P.S.  Don't forget...Jay and Matt broadcast LIVE at 11 AM ET today on Blog Talk Radio.  They will be talking <a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/im-with-stupid/2013/01/23/nothing-and-everything" target="_blank"><i><b><span style="color: blue;">Nothing and Everything</span></b></i></a>, so join them LIVE today at 11 AM ET by clicking <i><b><a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/im-with-stupid/2013/01/23/nothing-and-everything" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a></b></i>!!</div>

Bitches, Bikes, and Guns with Jim Stewart

Hey all you un-American, Second Amendment hating, abortion loving readers of I’m With Stupid .  Jim Stewart here. I’m a veteran, proud gun o...

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Leftover notes and quotes from Monday’s MLK Jamboree

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><header class="entry_header" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; padding: 20px 20px 0px; width: 580px;"><div class="graphic_header" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 600px;"><div class="blog_icon left" style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px 20px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 100px;"><a href="http://varsitynow.blogs.starnewsonline.com/" style="border: 0px; color: #004776; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" height="100" src="http://varsitynow.blogs.starnewsonline.com/files/2012/02/VarsityNow100.gif" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="100" /></a></div><div class="blog_titles left" style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 400px;"><h3 style="border: 0px; color: #aaaaaa; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: lighter; letter-spacing: 0.1em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: capitalize;"><a href="http://varsitynow.blogs.starnewsonline.com/" style="border: 0px; color: #004776; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Varsity Now</a></h3><h1 class="entry_title" style="border: 0px; color: #31669d; font-family: Arimo, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 30px; font-weight: lighter; letter-spacing: -0.03em; line-height: 32px; margin: 5px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://varsitynow.blogs.starnewsonline.com/21228/leftover-notes-and-quotes-from-mondays-mlk-jamboree/" rel="bookmark" style="border: 0px; color: #004776; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Permalink to Leftover notes and quotes from Monday’s MLK Jamboree">Leftover notes and quotes from Monday’s MLK Jamboree</a></h1><div class="post_meta" style="border: 0px; color: #aaaaaa; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.03em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="sep" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Tuesday, </span><a href="http://varsitynow.blogs.starnewsonline.com/21228/leftover-notes-and-quotes-from-mondays-mlk-jamboree/" rel="bookmark" style="border: 0px; color: #004776; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="2:49 pm"><time class="entry-date" datetime="2013-01-22T14:49:23+00:00" pubdate="">January 22, 2013</time></a> at 2:49 <span class="by-author" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="sep" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">by </span><span class="author vcard" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a class="url fn n" href="http://varsitynow.blogs.starnewsonline.com/author/latimer/" rel="author" style="border: 0px; color: #004776; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="View all posts by Powell Latimer">Powell Latimer</a></span></span></div><div class="post_meta" style="border: 0px; color: #aaaaaa; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.03em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">From: <a href="http://varsitynow.blogs.starnewsonline.com/" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit;">http://varsitynow.blogs.starnewsonline.com</a></div><div class="post_meta" style="border: 0px; color: #aaaaaa; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.03em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /><div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.67; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">I was up in Sampson County on Monday for the MLK Jamboree, a day full of basketball. The story is here, but there was plenty that couldn’t fit. Here’s the leftover ntoes and quotes from my notebook, done chronologically.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.67; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">-<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Laney girls 58, Lakewood 26</strong></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.67; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">This game was supposed to be closer. Lakewood was the top-rated 1A girls team in the state, and if you’re coming off a run to the state title game, you should be able to hang with anyone.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.67; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">I forgot about Laney’s defense. The Bucs completely shut down Lakewood’s offensive attack, and handled the pressure Lakewood tried to throw at them with relative ease.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.67; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Laney enters every game with three boxes to check off for a win: 1) suffocating the other team’s offense 2) limiting turnovers 3) scoring enough to win. Laney almost always checks the first two boxes by default, and hopes the third comes around at some point. (That’s one reason Ashley can give Laney trouble the Eagles can create enough pressure and have enough scoring firepower to uncheck two of those boxes.)</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.67; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">But on Monday, Laney checked all three and the result was a rout. There weren’t any huge runs, just Laney consistently using its size advantage on both ends.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.67; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Laney coach Sherri Tynes on her team’s post play:</strong></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.67; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">“Our post players did a good job of getting high-low positioning. And our guards did a great job finding them.”</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.67; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Tynes, on Lakewood’s pressure</strong></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.67; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">“They pressured us, but as the game went on we got a little more calm and handled that pressure.”</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.67; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">-Jack Britt Boys 49, Laney 39</strong></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.67; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Laney coach Nate Faulk reiterated that the Bucs were missing leading scorer Kirby Kealon, who is the best offensive threat that Laney has. Kealon, out with injury, will be back for Friday’s game according to Faulk.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.67; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">“They did a better job of shutting us down,” Faulk said. “If we’re not hitting shots, we’re so limited – if shots aren’t going for us then it’s hard.”</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.67; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">-Hoke County boys 69, Hoggard 57</strong></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.67; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Hoke County didn’t show up for the game until about 7:25 p.m. The team got lost trying to find Union High School. It didn’t make a significant difference for Hoke.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.67; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Joe O’Donnell has stepped up as a senior for Hoggard in the past few games. In five games in January, O’Donnell is averaging 18.4 points per game for Hoggard. He had 12 on Monday with a couple of huge three-pointers.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.67; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">“He’s really playing well,” Hoggard coach Brett Queen said. “We’ve been doing some things to make him more aggressive and he’s doing the things a confident senior does.”</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.67; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Queen also made an excellent point with regards to the postseason: The No. 1 seeds in the east will likely include some combination of Clayton, Garner, Hoke County, 71st, and whoever wins the Mideastern Conference, with the MEC winner probably as the No. 4 seed. So Hoggard’s chances of seeing Hoke County a third time and possibly in the regional are pretty good if the Vikings can win the Mideastern Conference.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.67; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">-As a final note, Union boys coach Tim Pope is almost worth the drive by himself. He’s a very good coach and extremely helpful to media at the MLK Jamboree, but he’s also a champion at railing officials. During one particular exchange Monday, Pope laid into the refs with a sentence-long outburst.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.67; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Here’s the thing: Pope has a thick Eastern North Carolina accent, and I could only pick out the last three words: “86 years old!” That’s funny in and of itself, but it’s also impressive – I’ve had two and a half years of interviewing coaches in southeastern North Carolina, plus 14 years of life in Translyvania and Gaston Counties. Suffice it to say I’m well-versed in country accents. But I couldn’t understand Pope. I’m assuming he was going for hyperbole with regards to a referee’s assumed age, but I asked Pope what he said after the game and he declined to elaborate. Probably for good reason. Oh well.</div></div></div></div></header></div>

MLK Leftover notes and quotes from Monday’s MLK Jamboree

Varsity Now Leftover notes and quotes from Monday’s MLK Jamboree Tuesday,  January 22, 2013  at 2:49  by  Powell Latimer From:  http://varsi...

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Ratings for Kevin Bacon's 'The Following' give Fox a solid new drama

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="thumbnail" style="background-color: #f2f2f2; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 13px 8px 8px; position: relative; text-align: center; width: 600px; z-index: 1000;"><div class="holder" style="display: inline-block; margin: 0px auto 5px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><table cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px auto; width: 1px;"><tbody><tr><td style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="Kevin Bacon, Jeannane Goossen" border="0" height="401" src="http://www.trbimg.com/img-50feed97/turbine/la-et-st-kevin-bacons-the-following-gives-fox--001/600" style="border: 0px; display: block; margin: 0px auto;" title="Kevin Bacon, Jeannane Goossen" width="580" /><br /><div class="small" style="font-size: 11px; margin-top: 6px; padding: 0px;">Kevin Bacon and Jeannane Goossen in "The Following." <span class="credit">(<span class="photographer">Fox</span>)</span></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><div class="articlerail" style="background-color: white; clear: both; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 234px; z-index: 4;"><div class="articleRelates module" style="border: 1px solid rgb(231, 231, 231); margin: 0px 0px 30px; padding: 10px 10px 0px;"><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="newRelatedItem" style="clear: both; list-style: none outside none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px;"><a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-the-following-ep-kevin-williamson-in-hot-seat-about-shows-violence-20130108,0,735909.story" style="clear: both; color: rgb(0, 0, 0) !important; display: block; text-decoration: none; width: 212px;" target=""><img alt="Winter TCA: 'The Following's' Kevin Williamson quizzed on violence" height="105" src="http://www.trbimg.com/img-50ec8f28/turbine/la-et-st-the-following-ep-kevin-williamson-in-hot-seat-about-shows-violence-20130108-thumbnail/187/16x9" style="border: 0px; display: block; float: left; margin-bottom: 4px; margin-right: 5px; padding-right: 8px;" title="Winter TCA: 'The Following's' Kevin Williamson quizzed on violence" width="187" /></a><a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-the-following-ep-kevin-williamson-in-hot-seat-about-shows-violence-20130108,0,735909.story" style="clear: both; color: rgb(0, 0, 0) !important; display: block; text-decoration: none; width: 212px;" target="">Winter TCA: 'The Following's' Kevin Williamson quizzed on violence</a></li><li class="newRelatedItem" style="clear: both; list-style: none outside none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px;"><a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-the-following-20130121,0,994558.story" style="clear: both; color: rgb(0, 0, 0) !important; display: block; text-decoration: none; width: 212px;" target=""><img alt="Review: Kevin Bacon helps make 'The Following' worth following" height="105" src="http://www.trbimg.com/img-50fcb282/turbine/la-et-st-the-following-20130121/187/16x9" style="border: 0px; display: block; float: left; margin-bottom: 4px; margin-right: 5px; padding-right: 8px;" title="Review: Kevin Bacon helps make 'The Following' worth following" width="187" /></a><a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-the-following-20130121,0,994558.story" style="clear: both; color: rgb(0, 0, 0) !important; display: block; text-decoration: none; width: 212px;" target="">Review: Kevin Bacon helps make 'The Following' worth following</a></li><li class="newRelatedItem" style="clear: both; list-style: none outside none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px;"><a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-serial-killers-tv-cult-the-following-20130120,0,1098257.story" style="clear: both; color: rgb(0, 0, 0) !important; display: block; text-decoration: none; width: 212px;" target=""><img alt="Beware &#8212; serial killers loose on broadcast TV " height="105" src="http://www.trbimg.com/img-50f98a89/turbine/la-et-st-serial-killers-tv-cult-the-following-20130120-thumbnail/187/16x9" style="border: 0px; display: block; float: left; margin-bottom: 4px; margin-right: 5px; padding-right: 8px;" title="Beware &#8212; serial killers loose on broadcast TV " width="187" /></a><a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-serial-killers-tv-cult-the-following-20130120,0,1098257.story" style="clear: both; color: rgb(0, 0, 0) !important; display: block; text-decoration: none; width: 212px;" target="">Beware — serial killers loose on broadcast TV</a></li></ul></div></div><div class="konafilter pm-ad tpl02 " id="pmad-rail" style="background-color: white; clear: left; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 10px 20px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 4;"><div class="medium_rectangle medium_rectangle_google_img" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; height: auto; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 232px; word-wrap: break-word;"><div class="ad_header" style="height: 12px; line-height: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 0px 5px; word-wrap: break-word;"><br /></div><div class="ad_body" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; word-wrap: break-word;"><br /></div></div></div><span class="toolSet" style="background-color: white; display: inline-block; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-right: -50px; margin-top: 6px; width: 335px;"></span><br /><div class="byline" style="color: #292727; float: left; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px;"><span class="toolSet" style="background-color: white; display: inline-block; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-right: -50px; margin-top: 6px; width: 335px;"><span class="byline" style="display: block;">By Scott Collins From: <a href="http://www.latimes.com/" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 13px;">http://www.latimes.com</a></span></span><br /><div class="date" style="color: #930000; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; margin-top: 3px; padding: 0px;"><span class="toolSet" style="background-color: white; display: inline-block; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-right: -50px; margin-top: 6px; width: 335px;"><span class="dateString" style="display: inline;">January 22, 2013</span><span class="dateTimeSeparator" style="border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; color: white; display: inline; font-size: 10px; letter-spacing: -1px; margin-left: 6px;">, </span><span class="timeString" style="display: inline; text-transform: lowercase;">12:08 p.m.</span></span></div></div><span class="toolSet" style="background-color: white; display: inline-block; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-right: -50px; margin-top: 6px; width: 335px;"><div class="clear" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></div></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><br /><div id="story-body-text" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.43; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;"><a class="taxInlineTagLink" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/entertainment/movies/kevin-bacon-PECLB000297.topic" id="PECLB000297" style="color: #666666; text-decoration: none;" title="Kevin Bacon">Kevin Bacon</a> has given Fox some of its best ratings news in months.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">Bacon's gory new serial-killer drama <a class="taxInlineTagLink" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/entertainment/television/the-following-%28tv-program%29-ENTTV00001045.topic" id="ENTTV00001045" style="color: #666666; text-decoration: none;" title="The Following (tv program)">"The Following"</a> slashed its way to 10.4 million total viewers in its Monday premiere, according to Nielsen.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">That placed "The Following" solidly among TV's highest-rated new dramas this season. NBC's post-apocalyptic<a class="taxInlineTagLink" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/entertainment/television/revolution-%28tv-program%29-ENTTV00001047.topic" id="ENTTV00001047" style="color: #666666; text-decoration: none;" title="Revolution (tv program)">"Revolution"</a> (11.6 million for the premiere) and CBS' Sherlock Holmes update <a class="taxInlineTagLink" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/entertainment/television/elementary-%28tv-program%29-ENTTV00001065.topic" id="ENTTV00001065" style="color: #666666; text-decoration: none;" title="Elementary (tv program)">"Elementary"</a> (13.4 million) drew somewhat larger total audiences, but Bacon's show actually tied "Elementary" among young adults.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">In "The Following," Bacon plays a former <a class="taxInlineTagLink" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/crime-law-justice/crimes/fbi-ORGOV000008.topic" id="ORGOV000008" style="color: #666666; text-decoration: none;" title="FBI">FBI</a> agent called out of retirement after the serial killer he put away escapes from prison and activates a cult of followers.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">The news could not come at a better time for Fox, which has languished for much of this season so far. When talking with reporters earlier this month in Pasadena, network chief Kevin Reilly cracked: "We all screw up. Look at my fall."</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">What did you think of Bacon's "The Following"?</div></div></div>

Kevin Bacon The Following Ratings for Kevin Bacon's 'The Following' give Fox a solid new drama

Kevin Bacon and Jeannane Goossen in "The Following."  ( Fox ) Winter TCA: 'The Following's' Kevin Williamson quizzed o...

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Kaepernick’s Parents on Tattoos, Dating

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px;">FOX40′s Luana Munoz sat down with the parents of 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick to get their take on his tattoos and dating life.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span><span class="time-ago" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px;">21 hours ago</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px;"> </span><br style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px;" /><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px;">by </span><a href="http://fox40.com/bio/luana-munoz/" rel="author" style="color: #0088cc; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; text-decoration: none;">Luana Munoz</a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px;"> </span><br style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px;" /><span class="hidden-phone" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px;">Reporter</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px;"><br /><span style="background-color: white;">From: </span></span><a href="http://fox40.com/">http://fox40.com</a></div><iframe frameborder="0" height="338" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://widget.newsinc.com/single.html?WID=1&VID=24255605&freewheel=69016&sitesection=ktxl&w=601&h=338" width="601"></iframe></div>

Kaepernick Kaepernick’s Parents on Tattoos, Dating

FOX40′s Luana Munoz sat down with the parents of 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick to get their take on his tattoos and dating life. 21 hou...

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Beyonce lip-syncing furor: She's not the first

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">From:<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/">http://www.cbsnews.com</a><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Beyonce's musical performance at President Obama's second inauguration on Monday has caused a stir in the press as the U.S. Marine Band said Tuesday that the singer lip-synced to "The Star Spangled Banner."</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a data-assetid="50139416" data-assettypeid="14" data-nodeid="207" data-overlay="1" data-overlayenabled="true" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50139416n" style="border: 0px; color: #b12124; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></a></div><div class="storyEmbed" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(222, 222, 222); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; clear: left; float: left; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 4px 20px 20px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px; zoom: 1;"><a data-assetid="50139416" data-assettypeid="14" data-nodeid="207" data-overlay="1" data-overlayenabled="true" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50139416n" style="border: 0px; color: #b12124; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></a><br /><br /><figure class="video" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px 0px -32px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 40px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px;"><a data-assetid="50139416" data-assettypeid="14" data-nodeid="207" data-overlay="1" data-overlayenabled="true" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50139416n" style="border: 0px; color: #b12124; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img class="image220" src="http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2013/01/21/Politics_Beyonce_121_220x157.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; height: 140px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px;" /></a></figure><br /><div class="meta" style="border: 0px; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 0.85em; font-style: italic; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px; z-index: 11;"><a data-assetid="50139416" data-assettypeid="14" data-nodeid="207" data-overlay="1" data-overlayenabled="true" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50139416n" style="border: 0px; color: #b12124; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Play <span style="border: 0px; color: #b12124; font-family: nimbus-sans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 2px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">VIDEO</span></a></div><a data-assetid="50139416" data-assettypeid="14" data-nodeid="207" data-overlay="1" data-overlayenabled="true" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50139416n" style="border: 0px; color: #b12124; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></a><h3 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; color: #202022; font-family: nimbus-sans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; font-style: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.07em; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 10px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px;"><a data-assetid="50139416" data-assettypeid="14" data-nodeid="207" data-overlay="1" data-overlayenabled="true" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50139416n" style="border: 0px; color: #b12124; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Beyonce sings national anthem at inauguration 2013</a></h3><a data-assetid="50139416" data-assettypeid="14" data-nodeid="207" data-overlay="1" data-overlayenabled="true" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50139416n" style="border: 0px; color: #b12124; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></a></div><a data-assetid="50139416" data-assettypeid="14" data-nodeid="207" data-overlay="1" data-overlayenabled="true" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50139416n" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #b12124; cursor: pointer; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></a><br /><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A source very familiar with the situation tells CBS News that Beyonce performed the National Anthem live, but she pre-recorded a track of the song to sing over. The source said this is a standard performing practice. And the musical accompaniment by the Marine Band? A recording.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-207_162-57565248/beyonce-lip-synced-national-anthem-at-inauguration-marine-band-says/" style="border: 0px; color: #b12124; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Beyonce lip-synced national anthem at inauguration, Marine Band says</a></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">There has been no comment by Beyonce's publicist. However, pictures and video of her performance is prominent on the artist's <a href="http://www.beyonce.com/news/2013-inaugural-performance" style="border: 0px; color: #b12124; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">website</a>.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If it is true that Beyonce did lip-sync at Monday's inauguration, she wouldn't be the first artist to perform that way at a major national event. Here are a few examples:</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><ul class="greyBullet" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><li style="background-image: url(http://asset2.cbsistatic.com/cnwk.1d/i/cbs/generic/genericSprite.png); background-position: -446px -2606px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">In 1991, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/marine-band-says-beyonce-lip-synced-national-anthem-at-obamas-inauguration/2013/01/22/4902d3d0-64d1-11e2-889b-f23c246aa446_story.html" style="border: 0px; color: #b12124; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Whitney Houston</a> lip-synced her iconic interpretation of "The Star Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl.</li><li style="background-image: url(http://asset2.cbsistatic.com/cnwk.1d/i/cbs/generic/genericSprite.png); background-position: -446px -2606px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">Oscar-winner and former "American Idol" contestant Jennifer Hudson <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/earshot/beyonce-inauguration-lip-sync-national-414260" style="border: 0px; color: #b12124; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">did the same thing</a> with the anthem at the Super Bowl in 2009.</li><li style="background-image: url(http://asset2.cbsistatic.com/cnwk.1d/i/cbs/generic/genericSprite.png); background-position: -446px -2606px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">Faith Hill also performed to a backing track for "America The Beautiful" at the same event in 2009.</li><li style="background-image: url(http://asset2.cbsistatic.com/cnwk.1d/i/cbs/generic/genericSprite.png); background-position: -446px -2606px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">At President Obama's first inauguration in 2009, Yo-Yo Ma's performance came into question over "hand syncing." The acclaimed cellist had said the instruments weren't working properly in the very cold weather.</li></ul><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">There were even reports that <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/did-madonna-lip-sync-halftime-show-super-bowl-2012-video-406084" style="border: 0px; color: #b12124; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">speculated </a>Madonna was lip-syncing during her appearance at the 2012 Super Bowl half-time show. "The only thing Madonna proved during the Super Bowl 46 show is her irrelevance; the halftime show was so obviously lip synced that it was painful," <a href="http://dallas.sbnation.com/2012/2/5/2773985/2012-superbowl-halftime-show-madonna" style="border: 0px; color: #b12124; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">wrote </a>SBNation's JP Starkey.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">As for Beyonce, a statement released by the Marine Band to CBS News on Tuesday said that "there was no opportunity for Ms. Knowles-Carter to rehearse with the Marine Band before the Inauguration so it was determined that a live performance by the band was ill-advised for such a high-profile event. Each piece of music scheduled for performance in the Inauguration is pre-recorded for use in case of freezing temperatures, equipment failure, or extenuating circumstances. Regarding Ms. Knowles-Carter's vocal performance, no one in the Marine Band is in a position to assess whether it was live or pre-recorded."</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">CBS News has confirmed that James Taylor, who also performed "America The Beautiful" at President Obama's second inauguration, did not perform to pre-recorded music and that everything was live, according to the artist's representative.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A representative for singer Kelly Clarkson, who had sang "My Country This Of Thee" at also at the inauguration Monday, told The Associated Press, that her performance was live</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: Georgia, 'Time New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div></div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8rzgmA4vDjM?feature=player_detailpage" width="640"></iframe></div>

Beyonce buzz national anthem Beyonce lip-syncing furor: She's not the first

From: http://www.cbsnews.com Beyonce's musical performance at President Obama's second inauguration on Monday has caused a stir in t...

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Michelle Obama Stuns in Jason Wu -- Twice

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><iframe height="360" id="kaltura_player_1358911212" src="http://cdnapi.kaltura.com/index.php/kwidget/wid/1_5lld54di/uiconf_id/3775332/st_cache/85410?referer=http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/politically-dressed-inauguration-daughters-18243560&autoPlay=false&addThis.playerSize=392x221&freeWheel.siteSectionId=nws_offsite&closedCaptionActive=true&addThis.playerSize=640x360&closedCaptionsOverPlayer.fontsize=18" style="border: 0px solid #ffffff;" width="640">Unfortunately your browser does not support IFrames.</iframe> <div style="font-size: x-small; margin-top: 0; text-align: left;"><br /><div id="date_partner" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; height: 32px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 150px; min-height: 30px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 490px;"></div><div class="byline_date" style="float: left; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 490px;"><div class="byline_date_inner" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 485px;"><div class="byline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">By <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/author/shushannah_walshe" rel="author" style="color: #336699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">SHUSHANNAH WALSHE</a> (<a href="http://twitter.com/shushwalshe" style="color: #336699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@shushwalshe</a>) From: <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/" style="font-size: 11px;">http://abcnews.go.com</a></div><div class="date" style="margin: 0px; padding: 4px 0px 0px;">Jan. 22. 2013</div></div></div><br /><div id="sponsoredByAd" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; left: 430px; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-align: right; top: 404px;"><span id="sponsoredbylogo1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span id="_fw_container_sponsoredbylogo1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 150px;">Michelle Obama, wearing a <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/01/live-updates-inauguration-day-2013/#MichellesDress" style="color: #336699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">custom Jason Wu</a> ruby-colored chiffon and velvet gown, with a halter-top neckline and deep back, stunned again Monday night at the inaugural balls.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 150px;">The first lady <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/ladies-inaugural-ball-gowns-past/story?id=18287165" style="color: #336699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">also wore a Wu</a> gown -- a floor length, one-shouldered white number -- to the inaugural balls four years ago, taking the 26-year-old designer to instant celebrity.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 150px;">She chose Wu again for this year's inaugural, much to his shock, Wu said, embellishing his creation with a handmade diamond ring by jewelry designer Kimberly McDonald and Jimmy Choo shoes.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 150px;">Wu wasn't the only one surprised. Obama's choice also astonished a number of fashion critics, who thought she'd choose another little-known designer.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 150px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/slideshow/celebrities-wearing-jason-wu-18287680" style="color: #336699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Check Out Other Celebrities Wearing Jason Wu</a></strong></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 150px;">Wu was born in Taiwan, grew up in Canada and was educated in the United States, Tokyo and Paris. Now based in New York City, more than 85 percent of the Jason Wu Collection is made in New York's Garment District, according to Jason Wu Studios. Made-in-New York might have been a selling point, as the first lady tends to favor American designers.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 150px;">Wu said he hadn't known that Obama had chosen his design again, although he did create it specifically for her and submitted the sketches and finished gown to the White House. It was quite a shock to him when she walked onto the stage at the Commander-in-Chief's Ball Monday evening.</div><div class="rel_container g_4" id="rel_image_feature" style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; float: left; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px; margin: 20px 50px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 200px;"><div class="rel_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="rel_thumb" style="line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8896966065785019252" name="lpos=widget[Left_Rail_Image]&lid=view[Image]" style="color: #336699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="PHOTO: U.S. first lady Michelle Obama waves at the Southern Regional Inaugural Ball at the DC Armory in Washington, DC, early January 21, 2009; U.S. first lady Michelle Obama arrives for The Inaugural Ball at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Ja" border="0" height="112" src="http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/gty_michelle_obama_jason_wu_lpl_130122_wg.jpg" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.5px; padding: 0px;" title="" width="199" /><span class="image_icon" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://a.abcnews.com/assets/images/icons/image_icon_35x35.png); background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; height: 35px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 5px; top: 73px; width: 35px;"></span></a></div><div class="rel_headline" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 3px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="photo_credit" style="color: #aaaaaa; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: right;">Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images; Michael Kovac/WireImage</div><div class="photo_caption" style="margin: 5px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;">U.S. first lady Michelle Obama waves at the... <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8896966065785019252" name="lpos=widget[Left_Rail_Image]&lid=view[Image]" style="color: #336699; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">View Full Size</a></div></div></div></div><div class="rel_container g_4" id="rel_1" style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; float: left; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px; margin: 20px 50px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 200px;"><div class="rel_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="rel_thumb" style="line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8896966065785019252" name="lpos=widget[Left_Rail_Video_1]&lid=view[Video]" style="color: #336699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="112" src="http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/121010_pol_poldressed_wl.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="200" /><span class="image_icon" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://a.abcnews.com/assets/images/icons/play_icon_35x35.png); background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; height: 35px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 5px; top: 73px; width: 35px;"></span></a></div><div class="rel_headline" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 3px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;">Politically Dressed: Beauty Edition<a class="open" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8896966065785019252" style="color: #336699; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Watch Video</a></div></div></div><div class="rel_container g_4" id="rel_2" style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; float: left; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px; margin: 20px 50px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 200px;"><div class="rel_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="rel_thumb" style="line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8896966065785019252" name="lpos=widget[Left_Rail_Video_2]&lid=view[Video]" style="color: #336699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="112" src="http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/abc_pd_inaug_130110_wl.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="200" /><span class="image_icon" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://a.abcnews.com/assets/images/icons/play_icon_35x35.png); background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; height: 35px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 5px; top: 73px; width: 35px;"></span></a></div><div class="rel_headline" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 3px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;">Politically Dressed: Inauguration Edition <a class="open" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8896966065785019252" style="color: #336699; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Watch Video</a></div></div></div><div class="rel_container g_4" id="rel_3" style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; float: left; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px; margin: 20px 50px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 200px;"><div class="rel_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="rel_thumb" style="line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8896966065785019252" name="lpos=widget[Left_Rail_Video_3]&lid=view[Video]" style="color: #336699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="112" src="http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/ann_biden_130121_wl.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="200" /><span class="image_icon" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://a.abcnews.com/assets/images/icons/play_icon_35x35.png); background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; height: 35px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 5px; top: 73px; width: 35px;"></span></a></div><div class="rel_headline" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 3px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;">Vice President Joe Biden Sworn In to Second Term <a class="open" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8896966065785019252" style="color: #336699; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Watch Video</a></div></div></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 150px;">"Mrs. Obama likes to keep her secrets. She surprised me again. She's really good at it," Wu told <a href="http://www.wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-features/michelle-obama-picks-jason-wu-again-6644989?module=Fashion-Fashion%20Features-main" style="color: #336699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Women's Wear Daily</a> after she took the stage. "I was so nervous. You'd think I wouldn't be, since I'd experienced it before, but I really was."</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 150px;">Women's Wear Daily reported that four years ago, when Michelle Obama entered the ball wearing his gown, Wu had only three employees and was at home eating pizza with a friend. This time he was watching with a team of 30 in his downtown New York City studio.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 150px;">"I was just elated. It's hard to describe," he told WWD.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 150px;">And of dressing Obama in the bold red?</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 150px;">"Like last time, I had to go with my gut. I instinctively had to think of the woman in the dress. After four years in office, I thought the country was ready to see a confident first lady in red. It just felt right," he said.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 150px;">On Monday evening, Wu also spoke with <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/22/us/first-lady-and-fashion-are-no-longer-so-combustible.html?_r=0" style="color: #336699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="external">The New York Times</a>, and said he was "still floating."</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 150px;">"You have to think about the client, and I felt like red was such a perfect color for her. It's such a confident color for her. and it really was my first instinct," Wu told the Times.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 150px;">After the first lady took the stage Monday night with the president, they danced to Al Green's "Let's Stay Together," performed by Jennifer Hudson. Obama's gown and the accompanying accessories will go to the National Archives.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 150px;"><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/politically-dressed-inauguration-daughters-18243560" style="color: #336699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Political fashion stylist Lauren Rothman</a> told ABC News she wasn't surprised that Obama chose Wu instead of putting the spotlight on another little-known designer.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 150px;">"There was a lot of pressure on who was going to design that ball gown, but deciding on Jason Wu took some of that pressure away," Rothman said, noting that Obama wore Reed Krakoff to the official ceremony and Thom Browne at other inaugural events, which will undoubtedly boost their careers as well.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 150px;">"I am not at all surprised that she was loyal to Jason Wu, because she is loyal to the people she wears," Rothman said. "I don't know if anyone could have imagined that she would have worn him again, but at the same time, it's not surprising because her fashion personality is very loyal."</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 150px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 150px;">Rothman also believes the choice signaled assurance, saying, "In the second term she is sending a message that she's got a more relaxed, quiet confidence in what she has to prove fashion-wise."</div><div style="margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 150px;">Obama does wear Wu quite often; the young designer is one of her favorite choices. She wore a magenta sleeveless dress of Wu's for the cover of Vogue in March 2009, and she wore a black-and-white sheath dress by Wu in a 2008 interview with ABC's Barbara Walters. Wu and Obama were originally introduced by Vogue's Andre Leon Talley.</div><div class="rel_container g_4" id="rel_1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin: 20px 50px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 200px;"><div class="rel_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="rel_thumb" style="line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><br /></div></div></div><div class="rel_container g_4" id="rel_3" style="clear: left; float: left; margin: 20px 50px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 200px;"><div class="rel_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="rel_headline" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 3px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"> </div></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 150px;">Wu has won several awards for design, including the Swarovski Award for Womenswear at the CFDA Fashion Awards in 2010. In 2011 he was nominated for the CFDA/Swarovski Award for Accessory Design and in 2008 was named one of the finalists in the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. He launched his first ready-to-wear line in 2006, at the age of 23.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 150px;">Last year Wu designed a line for Target, which sold out almost instantly.</div><br /></div></div>

Jason Wu Michelle Obama Michelle Obama Stuns in Jason Wu -- Twice

Unfortunately your browser does not support IFrames. By  SHUSHANNAH WALSHE  ( @shushwalshe ) From:  http://abcnews.go.com Jan. 22. 2013 Mic...

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Why concierge medicine will get bigger - Elizabeth O'Brien's Retire Well - MarketWatch

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><p id="" class="leadin" style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.17em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; clear: both; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">If you've joined a concierge medical practice, recent trends in the worlds of health care and insurance may have you feeling good about your decision. If you haven't signed up with one of these practices—also called "boutique," "personalized" or "private-physician" practices—some of those same trends may lead you to consider it down the road.</p><p id="" class="" style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Certainly, plenty of baby boomers have done the math and deemed the investment worthy. In the typical concierge experience, a primary-care doctor accepts insurance for routine services but also charges a non-reimbursable fee that pays for amenities like 24/7 access to the doctor, same-day appointments, longer appointment times and a greater degree of personalized attention. The annual fee for such practices currently averages about $1,800.</p><p id="" class="" style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Now that the business model has been around for a while, more patients are saying that it involves less stress than a traditional medical practice. What's more, two recent studies that tried to measure the health impact of one popular concierge model found its patients had lower hospitalization rates and other benefits.</p><p id="" class="" style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The approach has its critics, with some arguing that concierge medicine exacerbates the disparities in care between the haves and have-nots. But for people with the resources to afford it, the boutique-practice model clearly has a growing appeal.</p><div class="bgConga" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial; float: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 17px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div class="clear" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; clear: both; "></div></div><p id="" class="" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; ">While the number of concierge doctors remains small, it's growing at a rapid clip. In the U.S., there were about 4,400 private physicians in 2012, a 25% increase from 2011, according to the American Academy of Private Physicians. That's out of some 600,000 practicing doctors nationwide. At an average of roughly 350 patients per concierge doctor, that means more than 1.5 million Americans are under the care of a physician who provides an additional level of service in exchange for a fee.</p><p id="" class="" style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Concierge medicine's perceived advantages will only grow in the coming years, experts say, as the traditional health-care system becomes even more strained. The full implementation of the Affordable Care Act next year is expected to bring more than 20 million formerly uninsured patients into the health-care system through 2022, exacerbating an existing physician shortage.</p><p id="" class="" style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">What's more, proposed changes to Medicare could cut doctors' reimbursements, further squeezing their revenue. Concierge doctors make the case that their fee cushions them, and by extension their patients, from these changes looming on the health-care horizon.</p><h3 style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.17em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.465em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">A buffer from Medicare cuts</h3><p id="" class="" style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">That's an argument that could be particularly persuasive to those approaching retirement—and Medicare eligibility. As one of the biggest recipients of federal tax dollars—the government spent $486 billion on Medicare in 2011, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities—Medicare is vulnerable to cuts as part of any congressional effort to trim the budget deficit.</p><p id="" class="" style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Proposed changes to the program include raising the eligibility age and implementing more income-based pricing. The government could also decide to reimburse doctors even less for their services. As it stands, Medicare these days usually pays doctors only enough to meet their overhead—that is, to pay the rent, support staff and other expenses—with little left over for the doctors' salary, said Jeffrey Milburn, a consultant in the Health Care Consulting Group of the Medical Group Management Association, a trade group for medical practice managers.</p><p id="" class="" style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Many concierge doctors accept Medicare, but they say they don't rely on it to meet their costs. That's a good position to be in, said Dr. Gary W. Dorshimer, who recently switched his practice at the University of Pennsylvania Health System over to a concierge system. The annual $2,500 fee he charges his patients will help offset any cuts in Medicare reimbursement, he noted.</p><p id="" class="" style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Penny DelGaudio, 69, a Medicare recipient and longtime patient of Dr. Dorshimer's, decided to make the transition with him. "I don't consider myself wealthy," said DelGaudio, a real estate agent in Medford, N.J. But she and her husband decided the $5,000 annual cost for the two of them was worth it, for the increased access to the doctor, shorter wait times, and insulation from future health-care changes.</p><p id="" class="" style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Recently, some in the industry say, personalized-medicine patients have also been insulated from health-care inflation, at least when it comes to their annual retainer. Fees have been "incredibly stable," according to the American Academy of Private Physicians, and the industry's largest network, MDVIP, a unit of Procter & Gamble, has kept its fees essentially flat since 2007. (Patients' insurance premiums, of course, have generally risen over the same period.)</p><h3 style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.17em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.465em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Spending more to buy face time</h3><p id="" class="" style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Concierge practices rely on a simple equation: more money for the doctor equals more time for the patient. Many private doctors have rosters of as few as 300, compared with 2,000-plus in a traditional practice. While most boutique-medicine doctors say they're open to more patients, experts say they'll typically cap their practice at 500 or 600.</p><p id="" class="" style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The upshot: Instead of rushing through a 10-minute visit, private doctors can spend a half-hour or more with their patients. Many private doctors offer an extensive annual physical that can last a few hours.</p><p id="" class="" style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">That's a change in approach that many doctors would like to see become more widespread. Experts say that traditional medicine has become reactive, treating patients in discrete episodes only after something goes wrong. Few blame the doctors themselves for the current system—they're under strain from rising costs and falling insurance reimbursements.</p><p id="" class="" style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"The incentives now are for piecework and symptomatic care," said Robert Williams, director of Deloitte's life sciences and health-care consulting practice. The Affordable Care Act aims to change this, but systemwide changes have only just begun.</p><p id="" class="" style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Additional time means concierge doctors can focus more on education and prevention, proponents say. William F. Hoover, a retired police officer with the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey now living in Las Vegas, credits his concierge doctor with changing his lifestyle. Hoover ate the heavy, meat-and-potatoes meals of his childhood until his doctor, Candice Tung, introduced him and his wife to quinoa and other healthy foods that have helped him lose weight and keep his diabetes in check. "It's a pain in the butt trying to stay healthy at 65," he said, and it helps to have an ally like Dr. Tung, who is affiliated with MDVIP.</p><p id="" class="" style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">MDVIP is the country's largest network of private physicians, with about 560 affiliated doctors and 200,000 patients in more than 40 states and Washington, D.C. The company has reported revenue growth of approximately 20% per year over the past 3 years, according to a spokeswoman. Since 2007, the number of doctors and patients is up 200%, according to CEO Dan Hecht. "The more chaotic it is in health care, the more changes, the more desirable it is to have confidence in the doctor/patient relationship," Hecht said.</p><h3 style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.17em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.465em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Parsing the health studies</h3><p id="" class="" style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">According to two recent studies financed by MDVIP, its system improves its patients' health outcomes. The company recently published a study in The American Journal of Managed Care that found a 79% reduction in hospital admissions for Medicare patients in MDVIP-affiliated practices, compared with those in traditional practices, and a 72% decrease for those with commercial insurance in MDVIP-affiliated practices between the ages of 35 and 64. Another study, published recently in the International Journal of Person Centered Medicine, found that MDVIP patients better managed their chronic conditions. For example, 83% of MDVIP patients with diabetes had good blood pressure control, versus 50% to 65% in the national benchmark.</p><p id="" class="" style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">While those studies were peer reviewed, the data was compiled and analyzed by the company's medical director and other company employees and affiliates—and some experts have questioned MDVIP's methodology. For starters, critics said that the company should have engaged a third party to study its effectiveness, instead of undertaking the study on its own.</p><p id="" class="" style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Others wondered whether MDVIP's studies did enough to minimize "selection bias." MDVIP patients—who pay an annual fee of $1,500 to $1,800—are more affluent than the population at large. That means they may also be more educated and likely to follow a doctor's instructions. In other words, these patients might be less hospitalized than the general population anyway, regardless of who provides their primary care, said Dr. Albert Wu, a practicing internist and professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.</p><p id="" class="" style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">While the data did not allow MDVIP researchers to formally control for selection bias, "the bias is very minimal," Hecht said, adding that the fact that the studies were published in peer-reviewed journals spoke to their rigorous methodologies.</p><h3 style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.17em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.465em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Wrestling with 'elitist' label</h3><p id="" class="" style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Other critics say concierge practices are elitist. And even supporters of the approach worry that the spread of personalized practices will only worsen the country's primary-care physician shortage, by making some doctors inaccessible to middle- and lower-income families. ( <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/27/health/la-he-practice-concierge-medicine-20110627" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-family: inherit; color: rgb(0, 65, 118); text-decoration: underline; ">To read a doctor's essay about the drawbacks of concierge medicine for middle-income patients, click here </a>.)</p><p id="" class="" style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Some private physicians counter that they were burned out before they went the concierge route, and they might not have remained in medicine if they didn't have that option. "It's helped extend my career," UPenn's Dr. Dorshimer said. Johns Hopkins' Dr. Wu said the country already has a multitiered health-care system, with some people on government insurance, some on private insurance, and others served by veteran's plans or community clinics. There is not always a stark divide between haves and have notes, Dr. Wu said, while the Affordable Care Act will create many more patients who "have some."</p><p id="" class="" style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">MDVIP executives and others balk at the term "concierge" medicine, saying their service is more inclusive than the image of CEOs in robes and slippers evoked by the term. Indeed, other models offer what some call "concierge light." The network One Medical Group, currently available in 5 major cities, charges just $200 annually for longer doctor visits, minimal wait time, iPhone appointment scheduling and prescription refills and other amenities. The group has slashed overhead by increasing its use of technology and cutting down on support staff. Doctors weigh in patients and take their vital statistics, which provides a good opportunity for both sides to catch up, said Dr. Tom Lee, One Medical's CEO, who holds both an MD and an MBA. "Because we've re-engineered our practice, we can weather most reimbursement storms," Lee said.</p><p id="" class="" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.354em; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; ">Scott Breslar, 55, a restaurateur in Morris, Ill., says he understands why the concierge concept is expanding. He credits Dr. John Saran, his MDVIP-affiliated physician, with helping him manage complex health conditions, including major surgeries. "It's painful to shell out $1,500 per year," Breslar said. "But it's an insurance policy, and you know exactly what you're getting." <span class="endsquare" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 3px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-family: inherit; background-color: rgb(180, 201, 202); display: inline-block; height: 8px; width: 8px; vertical-align: middle; "></span></p></div><a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-concierge-medicine-will-get-bigger-2013-01-17">http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-concierge-medicine-will-get-bigger-2013-01-17</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

Why concierge medicine will get bigger - Elizabeth O'Brien's Retire Well - MarketWatch

If you've joined a concierge medical practice, recent trends in the worlds of health care and insurance may have you feeling good about ...

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