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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Anna Burns Welker, wife of Patriots star, apologizes for criticizing Ray Lewis on Facebook

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="image620 " style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; height: 350px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 620px;"><img alt="Ray Lewis (52) of the Baltimore Ravens covers Wes Welker (83) in a file photo." src="http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2013/01/22/lewis_welker_file_78237363_620x350.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 1;" /></div><div class="imgText" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.8em; outline: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ray Lewis (52) of the Baltimore Ravens covers Wes Welker (83) in a file photo. <span class="greySplitter" style="border: 0px; color: #c4c4c4; font-family: Helvetica, Arial; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 2px; vertical-align: baseline;">/</span> <span class="creditImg" style="border: 0px; color: #202022; font-family: nimbus-sans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">PHOTO BY GREG FIUME/GETTY IMAGES From: </span><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/" style="background-color: transparent;">http://www.cbsnews.com</a></div><div class="imgText" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.8em; outline: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="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;">Last year, <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57372409/did-gisele-bundchen-tirade-violate-team-code/" 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;">Tom Brady's wife Gisele made headlines</a> after the Patriots' season ended, essentially blaming Wes Welker for dropping a key pass in the Super Bowl loss to the Giants.</div><div style="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="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;">Now, it's Welker's wife who is in the news for comments she made on Facebook following New England's season-ending loss to the Ravens.</div><div style="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="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;">After the game, Anna Burns Welker took to Facebook to support her husband - but mostly take a few shots at Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/baltimore-sports-blog/bal-anna-burns-welker-wes-welker-wife-ray-lewis-critical-facebook-page-0121,0,5768158.story" 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;">according to the Baltimore Sun</a>.</div><div style="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><a data-assetid="10015516" data-assettypeid="49" data-nodeid="400" data-overlay="1" data-overlayenabled="true" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-400_162-10015516-1.html" style="border: 0px; color: #b12124; cursor: pointer; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="storyEmbed" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(222, 222, 222); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; clear: left; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 4px 20px 20px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px; zoom: 1;"><figure class="gallery" 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;"><img class="image220" src="http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2013/01/20/NFL_159783794_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;" /></figure><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;">23 <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;">PHOTOS</span></div><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;">2013 NFL Postseason: Conference Title Games</h3></div></a><span style="color: black; font-size: 15px;"></span><div style="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;">"Proud of my husband and the Pats," Welker wrote on her Facebook page. "By the way, if anyone is bored, please go to Ray Lewis' Wikipedia page. 6 kids 4 wives. Acquitted for murder. Paid a family off. Yay. What a hall of fame player! A true role model!"</div><div style="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="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;">The post has since been deleted.</div><div style="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="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;">Lewis, who is retiring at season's end after a surefire Hall of Fame career, was cleared of murder charges in 2000 after a Super Bowl party fight involving Lewis and his entourage resulted in the stabbing deaths of two men in Atlanta.</div><div style="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="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;">It didn't take long for Mrs. Welker to apologize for her post.</div><div style="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="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;">"I'm deeply sorry for my recent post on Facebook," she said in a <a href="http://larrybrownsports.com/football/anna-burns-welker-apologizes-ray-lewis/171214" 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;">statement sent to Larry Brown Sports</a>. "I let the competitiveness of the game and the comments people were making about a team I dearly love get the best of me.</div><div style="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="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;">"My actions were emotional and irrational and I sincerely apologize to Ray Lewis and anyone affected by my comment after yesterday's game," she continued. "It is such an accomplishment for any team to make it to the NFL playoffs, and the momentary frustration I felt should not overshadow the accomplishments of both of these amazing teams."</div><br /></div>

Anna Burns Welker NFL Ray Lewis Anna Burns Welker, wife of Patriots star, apologizes for criticizing Ray Lewis on Facebook

Ray Lewis (52) of the Baltimore Ravens covers Wes Welker (83) in a file photo.  /   PHOTO BY GREG FIUME/GETTY IMAGES From:  http://www.cbsne...

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Lone Star College Shooting: Two Caught, Three Injured at Texas College

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><iframe height="360" id="kaltura_player_1358910385" src="http://cdnapi.kaltura.com/index.php/kwidget/wid/1_xub5j4m4/uiconf_id/3775332/st_cache/23503?referer=http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/lone-star-college-multiple-people-shot-18287129&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/colleen_curry" rel="author" style="color: #336699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">COLLEEN CURRY</a> and GINA SUNSERI 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;">HOUSTON 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: 405px;"><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;"><br /></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 fight at a Houston college campus today resulted in a shooting that left three people injured and two others in custody, officials 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;">Shots were fired on campus of the Lone Star College shortly shortly before 1 p.m. CT, causing the campus to go into lock down and some students to be evacuated, according to police.</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;">Three people were injured in the gunfire, which police say stemmed from a fight that broke out between two men on campus. Both men involved in the altercation and a bystander who was a maintenance were injured by gunfire. All three were hospitalized.</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 fourth individual, a woman in her mid-50s, suffered from a medical condition during the incident and was transported to the hospital, where she is stable, the college 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;">"The was an altercation between two individuals, one individual did have a student identification, and during the altercation there was a man that was shot due to crossfire," Major Armando Tello of the Harris County Sheriff's Department said.</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: Campus lockdown" border="0" height="112" src="http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/abc_lone_star_college_lockdown_ll_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;">ABC News</div><div class="photo_caption" style="margin: 5px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;">Lone Star College System campus near Houston,... <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;"><img border="0" height="112" src="http://a.abcnews.com/images/WNT/abc_wn_auburn_120610_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></div><div class="rel_headline" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 3px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;">Auburn University Shooting <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/WNT/abc_wn_oakland_120402_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;">Oakland, Calif., Shooting at Christian School <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/Archives/abc_archive_WNBM9429A_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;">April 16, 2007: Virginia Tech Massacre <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;">Two suspects are now in police custody and are being treated at a nearby hospital with injuries, according to officials. They have not yet released any details on the suspects' identities. The condition of the third individual is unknown.</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;">Police said they received a call at 12:51 p.m. CT that there were shots fired on the campus. When police arrived at 12:53 p.m., there was no longer an "active shooter situation," they 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;">Police immediately apprehended one person of interest and took another into custody within about 90 minutes.</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 shooting took place in the center courtyard of the campus between two buildings, according to Richard Carpenter, chancellor of the Lone Star College system.</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 campus reopened about an hour and a half after the gunshots.</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;">When the shots were fired, the school told all students to seek "shelter in place" in messages and on their website. Officials evacuated some of the students from campus buildings.</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 shooting comes only a month after the massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Conn., in which 20 students and six staff members were shot, sparking a wave of attempted copycat crimes in states like California and Indiana.</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 Connecticut shooting inspired calls from government officials including President Obama for stricter gun control laws.</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;">Officials from the college said they had three drills on campus in the psat seven days to prepare for emergencies like this one, noting that they had never had an incident like this in 40 years of operation.</div></div></div>

Lone Star College Shooting Lone Star College Shooting: Two Caught, Three Injured at Texas College

Unfortunately your browser does not support IFrames. By  COLLEEN CURRY  and GINA SUNSERI From:  http://abcnews.go.com HOUSTON Jan. 22, 2013...

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Don't Be Too Quick to Dismiss HarBowl

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Accent 5"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style><![endif]--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal">I’ve already heard it. “Any more talk about the Harbaugh brothers coaching in the Super Bowl and I’m going to puke.” </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Usually I am one of those people. Any overhyped, media-crazed story has me rolling my eyes and flipping the channel. I’ve written about the hype, and how horrible it is, many times. I’ve verbally complained to people about the hype. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">But this time? This time, folks, I’m taking the side of hype.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">So sue me.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Let’s go over the other facts of the past fourteen days: the baseball writers decided no one was worthy of making the Hall of Fame, Lance Armstrong confessed to Oprah that he took PEDs, and Mante Te’o was the victim of a horrid prank (or so we think at the moment). Those types of stories are pretty depressing. The media trounces on those stories to get us to react. They want us to talk about the validity of the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America) and whether or not baseball players accused of taking steroids are should be in the HOF. They want us to ream out Armstrong for his jerkiness. They want us to feel pity for the Notre Dame defenseman.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Now think about the Harbaugh story. Jim and John – born a little over a year apart from each other – are head coaches of the two teams headed to the Super Bowl: the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens. John has established himself as a solid head coach, even while having no NFL playing experience. Jim played 15 years in the NFL after being a stellar college quarterback for the University of Michigan. The boys’ parents, a happily married couple named – get this – Jack and Jackie live in Mequon, Wisconsin, a little burb north of Milwaukee. Jack has gotten coaching film from the boys throughout the season and has given each support every step of the way. And now these two men are going to have to try and best the other on one of the biggest stages in sports.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Does that make us irritated at an organization? Does that make us think that a player is a giant jerk? Does that make us feel pity? </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">No! It makes us feel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">good!</i>It makes us feel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">happy!</i> Stories like this one are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">meant</i> to be overhyped! Why complain about this? Do you really want to hear more about the Los Angeles Lakers’ nosedive into the basement of the NBA? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Really?</i> Because I’d much rather hear about two men from a solid Midwestern family who have reached the pinnacle of their sport. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Last year I was already salivating at the idea, but then both the 49ers and the Ravens lost in their respective championship games, making the Super Bowl last year – even with Tom Brady – a little less important in my book.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">This year, though, I’m very excited for this game. I am looking forward to seeing the pregame and postgame talk about the Harbaughs. I look forward to seeing any screen shots of their parents – or maybe their sister and her husband, Indiana basketball head coach Tom Crean. I eagerly anticipate the CBS crew messing up “Jim” and “John” about twenty-one times. (Is there a prop bet for that one yet?) </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Why? Well, I take pride in family. It’s probably similar to me enjoying a good Peyton-Eli matchup. Okay, I also enjoy a good Peyton-Eli commercial. But they’re brothers, too. Like the Harbaughs, they grew up together, played with and against each other, had arguments, fought, laughed, joked, and lived together. To see a family story extend beyond college is a treat, especially because many times we hear about sports figures’ broken homes or tragic backstories. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Wouldn’t you like to play a giant game like this against your brother or sister? Pick your favorite sport. Now have your sibling be on the opposing side. For me, it would be swimming. If my sister was in the lane next to me in the finals of the 400m individual medley, I would sooooooo want to beat her. But at the same time, if she beat me, I would be very proud of her. Put yourselves in Jim or John’s shoes. Think of how much fun it would be!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">So enjoy the only kind of family drama there should be – played on a football field, where the outcome doesn’t really matter and they’ll shake hands at the end. Stories like this one are the ones that I will gladly overhype, whether you like it or not.</div>

Don't Be Too Quick to Dismiss HarBowl

I’ve already heard it. “Any more talk about the Harbaugh brothers coaching in the Super Bowl and I’m going to puke.”  Usually I am one of t...

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You Are Going to Die - NYTimes.com

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; color: black; text-align: left; " class=""><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-left; 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; " class="">My sister and I recently toured the retirement community where my mother has announced she'll be moving. I have been in some bleak clinical facilities for the elderly where not one person was compos mentis and I had to politely suppress the urge to flee, but this was nothing like that. It was a very cushy modern complex housed in what used to be a seminary, with individual condominiums with big kitchens and sun rooms, equipped with fancy restaurants, grills and snack bars, a fitness center, a concert hall, a library, an art room, a couple of beauty salons, a bank and an ornate chapel of Italian marble. You could walk from any building in the complex to another without ever going outside, through underground corridors and glass-enclosed walkways through the woods. Mom described it as "like a college dorm, except the boys aren't as good-looking." Nonetheless I spent much of my day trying not to cry.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-left; 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; " class="">At all times of major life crisis, friends and family will crowd around and press upon you the false emotions appropriate to the occasion. "That's so great!" everyone said of my mother's decision to move to an assisted-living facility. "It's really impressive that she decided to do that herself." They cited their own stories of 90-year-old parents grimly clinging to drafty dilapidated houses, refusing to move until forced out by strokes or broken hips. "You should be really relieved and grateful." "She'll be much happier there." The overbearing unanimity of this chorus suggests to me that its real purpose is less to reassure than to suppress, to deny the most obvious and natural emotion that attends this occasion, which is sadness.<br class=""><br class="">My sadness is purely selfish, I know. My friends are right; this was all Mom's idea, she's looking forward to it, and she really will be happier there. But it also means losing the farm my father bought in 1976, where my sister and I grew up, where Dad died in 1991. We're losing <em class="">our old phone number</em>, the one we've had since the Ford administration, a number I know as well as my own middle name. However infrequently I go there, it is the place on earth that feels like home to me, the place I'll always have to go back to in case adulthood falls through. I hadn't realized, until I was forcibly divested of it, that I'd been harboring the idea that someday, when this whole crazy adventure was over, I would at some point be nine again, sitting around the dinner table with Mom and Dad and my sister. And beneath it all, even at age 45, there is the irrational, little-kid fear: Who's going to take care of me? I remember my mother telling me that when her own mother died, when Mom was in her 40s, her first thought was:<em class=""> I'm an orphan.</em></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-left; 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); " class="">Plenty of people before me have lamented the way that we in industrialized countries regard our elderly as unproductive workers or obsolete products, and lock them away in institutions instead of taking them into our own homes out of devotion and duty. Most of these critiques are directed at the indifference and cruelty thus displayed to the elderly; what I wonder about is what it's doing to the rest of us.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-left; 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); " class="">Segregating the old and the sick enables a fantasy, as baseless as the fantasy of capitalism's endless expansion, of youth and health as eternal, in which old age can seem to be an inexplicably bad lifestyle choice, like eating junk food or buying a minivan, that you can avoid if you're well-educated or hip enough. So that when through absolutely no fault of your own your eyesight begins to blur and you can no longer eat whatever you want without consequence and the hangovers start lasting for days, you feel somehow ripped off, lied to. Aging feels grotesquely unfair. As if there ought to be someone to sue.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-left; 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); " class="">We don't see old or infirm people much in movies or on TV. We love explosive gory death onscreen, but we're not so enamored of the creeping, gray, incontinent kind. Aging and death are embarrassing medical conditions, like hemorrhoids or eczema, best kept out of sight. Survivors of serious illness or injuries have written that, once they were sick or disabled, they found themselves confined to a different world, a world of sick people, invisible to the rest of us. Denis Johnson writes in his novel "Jesus' Son": "You and I don't know about these diseases until we get them, in which case we also will be put out of sight."</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-left; 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); " class="">My own father died at home, in what was once my childhood bedroom. He was, in this respect at least, a lucky man. Almost everyone dies in a hospital now, even though absolutely nobody wants to, because by the time we're dying all the decisions have been taken out of our hands by the well, and the well are without mercy. Of course we hospitalize the sick and the old for some good reasons (better care, pain relief), but I think we also segregate the elderly from the rest of society because we're afraid of them, as if age might be contagious. Which, it turns out, it is.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-left; 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); " class="">Because of all the stories we've absorbed, we vaguely imagine that our lives will take the shape of a narrative - the classic Aristotelian ramp diagram of gradual rising action (struggle and setbacks), climax (happy marriage, professional success), and a brief, cozy denoument (kicking back with family and friends, remembering the good times on a porch someplace pretty). But life is not shaped like a story; it's an elongate and flattened bell curve, with an attenuated, anticlimactic decline as long as its beginning. Friends have described seeing their parents lose their faculties one by one, in more or less the reverse order that their young children are acquiring them.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-left; 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); " class="">Another illusion we can't seem to relinquish, partly because large and moneyed industries thrive on sustaining it, is that with enough money and information we'll be able to control how we age and die. But one of the main aspects of aging is the loss of control. Even people with the money to arrange to age in comfort can die in agony and indignity, gabbling like infants, forgetting their own children, sans everything. Death is a lot like birth (which people also gird themselves for with books and courses and experts) - everyone's is different, some are relatively quick and painless and some are prolonged and traumatic, but they're all pretty messy and unpleasant and there's not a lot you can do to prepare yourself.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-left; 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); " class="">I'm not trying to romanticize the beauty of osteoporosis, the wisdom of Alzheimer's or the dignity of incontinence. More than one old person has ordered me, "Do not get old." They did not appear to be kidding. I'm not talking about Learning from the Invaluable Life Experience of Our Elders, or even suggesting we need to accept the inevitable with grace. I am all for raging against the dying of the light, and if they ever develop DNA rejuvenation or some other longevity technique I will personally claw, throttle and gouge my way through Warren Buffett, Rupert Murdoch and any number of other decrepit billionaires in order to be first in line.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-left; 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); " class="">But we don't have a choice. You are older at this moment than you've ever been before, and it's the youngest you're ever going to get. The mortality rate is holding at a scandalous 100 percent. Pretending death can be indefinitely evaded with hot yoga or a gluten-free diet or antioxidants or just by refusing to look is craven denial. "Facing it, always facing it, that's the way to get through," Conrad wrote in "Typhoon." "Face it." He was talking about more than storms. The sheltered prince Siddartha Gautama was supposedly set on the path to becoming the Buddha when he was out riding and happened to see an old man, a sick man and a dead man. Today he'd be spared the discomfiture, and the enlightenment, unless he were riding mass transit.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-left; 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); " class="">Just yesterday my mother sent me a poem she first read in college - Langston Hughes's "Mother to Son." She said she could still remember where she was, in her dorm room at Goshen College, when she came across it in her American Lit book. The title notwithstanding, it does not make for Hallmark-card copy. <em class="">Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.</em> It tells us that this life is not a story or an adventure or a journey of spiritual self-discovery; it's a slog. And it orders us to keep going, don't you dare give up, no matter what. Because I'm your mother, that's why.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-left; 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; " class=""><em class="">Tim Kreider is the author of "<a href="http://books.simonandschuster.com/We-Learn-Nothing/Tim-Kreider/9781439198704" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none; " class="">We Learn Nothing</a>," a collection of essays and cartoons. His cartoon, "The Pain - When Will It End?" has been collected in three books by Fantagraphics.</em></div></div><a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/you-are-going-to-die/?src=me&ref=general&pagewanted=print" class="">http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/you-are-going-to-die/?src=me&ref=general&pagewanted=print</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; " class=""><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

You Are Going to Die - NYTimes.com

My sister and I recently toured the retirement community where my mother has announced she'll be moving. I have been in some bleak clini...

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My Micro NY

Today at the Museum of the City of New York, Mayor Bloomberg announced the winner of the <a href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/hpd/html/developers/HPD-adAPT-NYC-RFP.shtml"><i>adAPT NYC</i> competition</a> for a micro-unit apartment building in Kips Bay.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nycmayorsoffice/8404839263/" title="adAPT_NYC_Rendering_Fall by nycmayorsoffice, on Flickr"><img alt="adAPT_NYC_Rendering_Fall" height="414" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8216/8404839263_d50891a728_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br />The winner is "My Micro NY" from a team made up of Monadnock Development, the Actors Fund Housing Development Corporation, and nARCHITECTS. Their winning project is a 10-story building with 55 micro-unit apartments ranging from 250 to 370 square feet.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nycmayorsoffice/8405929666/" title="adAPT_NYC_Rendering_Winter_Construction by nycmayorsoffice, on Flickr"><img alt="adAPT_NYC_Rendering_Winter_Construction" height="414" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8512/8405929666_396a27c748_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br />Head over to Houzz for more images and <a href="http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/6853312/list/Microunits-Are-Coming-to-NYC--See-the-Winning-Design">my write-up on the winning project</a>.

My Micro NY

Today at the Museum of the City of New York, Mayor Bloomberg announced the winner of the adAPT NYC competition for a micro-unit apartment ...

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