Stories about faith and family help Romney open up

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney gestures during a campaign stop with mill workers at the Madison Lumber Mill, Monday, Dec. 12, 2011 in Madison, N.H. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney gestures during a campaign stop with mill workers at the Madison Lumber Mill, Monday, Dec. 12, 2011 in Madison, N.H. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)

(AP) ? Mitt Romney is starting to open up.

For the past year, the former Massachusetts governor has emphasized his business background as he's argued that he should be president because he understands the economy and can fix it to help millions of out-of-work Americans. Yet Romney, a multimillionaire many times over whom critics call robotic, has struggled to connect with average people.

Now, he's trying to show people he personally understands what hardship is like by drawing on anecdotes from his upbringing ? funny, revealing and sometimes slightly awkward stories ? in hopes they will humanize him while providing a contrast with the rocky past of his chief rival, Newt Gingrich.

There's the one about how he proposed to his girlfriend in the back seat of his parents' car after he came back from his Mormon mission in France. "I said, 'You want to get married?' She said, 'Yeah!'" Romney said, smiling.

He's also opened up about counseling fellow Mormons who were having financial trouble. "What impressed me," he said, "was that we're all the same in the things we aspire for, the things we love."

He even told a group of New Hampshire voters about using a crude toilet while he traveled in France for his church. "There was a chain behind you with kind of a bucket, a bucket affair," he said. "I had not experienced one of those in the United States."

All told, the shared memories hammer home a point that he's tried to make in debates and on TV and repeatedly on the campaign trail.

"I think people understand that I'm a man of steadiness and constancy," he said during a debate in Michigan, a line his campaign team used in a commercial that's now running in Iowa. "Let me tell you this: If I'm president of the United States, I will be true to my family, to my faith and to our country."

Romney doesn't say it out loud, but his family and his faith are two direct contrasts with Gingrich. The former House speaker has been married three times and has acknowledged infidelities in both previous marriages. A longtime Southern Baptist, Gingrich converted to Catholicism in 2009.

Romney is relying more and more on his family ? especially in Iowa, where social conservatives hold sway ? to help him make his case with voters. His wife, Ann Romney, has spent more time in Iowa in the past week than her husband, telling audiences in West Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Council Bluffs about how her husband stood by her through a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.

"He is there, he is steadfast, you can count on him," Ann Romney said during one campaign stop. "He won't abandon you in the hardest times."

And Romney's son Josh has also campaigned here, readily showing off photos of his own family and telling stories about growing up with dad.

Perhaps more telling, Romney is talking more openly about his faith. His Mormon religion caused problems with many evangelical and conservative Christian voters during his 2008 presidential campaign. And while Romney gave a major speech on religion during that bid, critics say he never did enough to explain the Mormon church to people who don't understand it.

Now, little by little, he's explaining it.

During a stop in Hudson, N.H., on Sunday, he talked about how Mormon missionaries get paid very little and live among local hosts as young men and women in the church. On Monday, he told workers at a New Hampshire lumber mill how he became a pastor even though he was an English major looking to go to law school and business school.

"Well, in my church that sort of rotates around," he said. "They ask different people to do it, and you take the assignment for a while."

Later, Romney insisted to reporters that his campaign hadn't made a strategic decision to have him open up more.

"I just respond to the questions as they come, and the question that got asked today was about, was the same question I got asked in the debate, so I gave the same answer," he said.

But the pitch he's started to make is one that combines his business background with his own personal and religious background ? and looks ahead to a general election that's likely to be a struggle over which party can better defend America's middle class.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-12-15-Romney-Personal%20Side/id-1954f6e8619a48c598d7bf1b95faec71

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Snoop, Khalifa look to be next Cheech and Chong (AP)

ATLANTA ? Snoop Dogg remembered watching all of the Cheech and Chong movies growing up, idolizing the pothead tandem's ability to always escape from danger in their comedy films.

Wiz Khalifa revered Snoop Dogg for his weed-smoking, ultra-smooth West Coast swagger shown extensively throughout his rap career.

One is the mentor, the other is the protege. Since the two rappers met for the first time last year, they've built a strong rapport with each other and have united to create their own album, "Mac & Devin Go to High School," which was released this week.

The album is the soundtrack of the rappers' upcoming stoner comedy, "Mac & Devin Go to High School," which is expected to be released early next year. The duo feels they are capable of following the footsteps of Cheech and Chong, who gained fame through their marijuana humor.

"They smoked joints, they were funny, they were cool and they would get into real situations," Snoop Dogg said. "To me, that's what me and Wiz represent. A lot of kids growing up don't understand who Cheech and Chong are. So we're the modern-day image of them. We're bringing it back."

Snoop Dogg and Khalifa have embodied the fun-filled, carefree life, with a devotion to smoking marijuana. Their easygoing demeanor is displayed on the duo's single, "Young, Wild & Free," featuring Bruno Mars, which peaked at No. 10 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart.

The rappers are latest popular hip-hop characters to create an album and movie revolved around their pothead excursions. Rapper Redman and Method Man appeared in the 2001 film, "How High."

But Khalifa said he and Snoop Dogg are ""trying to create our own lane.

"There have been others to pave the way for us, so we're just trying to keep it going, and tell our own stories," added Khalifa, who finished a six-city tour with Snoop Dogg this week.

Some believe the rappers are having too much fun with their storytelling. In May, there were reports that school officials canceled the filming of "High School" at Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, Calif., after learning the theme of the movie was centered around marijuana, which is an illegal substance.

When contacted by The Associated Press, school officials declined to comment.

But Snoop Dogg and Khalifa ? who both stand at a lanky 6-foot-4 ? coolly denied there were any problems.

"We heard about it, but it didn't mean much to us," Snoop Dogg said. "We got done what we needed to get done. It was shot and promptly prepared."

Snoop Dogg, 40, took a liking to the 24-year-old Khalifa after he noticed his kids' infatuation with the Pittsburgh-bred rapper's ubiquitous 2010 hit "Black and Yellow." From there, Snoop Dogg invited Khalifa to his home in Los Angeles.

"We have built a bond and a friendship that's going to last a lifetime," Khalifa said. "People will hear it in the music, and see it in the movie."

After a conversation that lasted a few hours, the two rappers decided that same day to collaborate for an album and movie. They didn't waste time, filming the movie and recording the album within a two-month timeframe.

In "High School," Khalifa stars as a senior valedictorian named Devin who is only focused on his academics. He breaks out of his shell after meeting Snoop Dogg's character, Mac, a teenage student (yes, he is playing a teen) who has street smarts but struggles to apply them in the classroom.

Snoop Dogg described his partnership with Khalifa as "a magical situation."

"I've been around magic a lot of times from being with Dr. Dre, Tupac, Master P. and Nate Dogg. What me and Wiz had was a magical moment right there."

___

Online:

http://www.snoopdogg.com

http://www.wizkhalifa.com

___

Follow Jonathan Landrum Jr. on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mrlandrum31

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111216/ap_en_mu/us_music_snoop___wiz

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AP Exclusive: US ambassador faults China on rights

(AP) ? China's deteriorating human rights record is a growing concern for the United States, even as overall ties between the countries become more entwined, U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke said Wednesday.

With China drawing criticism from candidates in the U.S. presidential election and Beijing changing Communist Party leaders next year, Locke said the Obama administration would work to maintain forward momentum in relations, including coaxing China to open up wider to U.S. exports and investment to create more American jobs.

In an interview, Locke reflected on his four months as the top U.S. diplomat in China, from efforts to cut the time Chinese have to wait to get visas, to cooperation on clean energy research, to his own unexpected celebrity as the first Chinese-American ambassador.

"When we're having lunch with the family ... or we're going to a supermarket, we're stopped by people who want pictures, even at the airport or on an airplane," Locke said at the U.S. Embassy during a lunch of sandwiches and pasta salad, indicative of his down-to-earth personal style that has won him kudos from many among the Chinese public.

Locke said the Foreign Ministry has summoned him only once for a dressing down, late one September night over the administration's decision to upgrade the U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets of Taiwan, the self-ruled island democracy claimed by China.

Long involved in China issues, first as governor of Washington state and then as commerce secretary, Locke described Beijing's reaction to the $5.85 billion deal as strong, but overall relations did not plummet the way they had after some previous U.S. arms sales. Recent initiatives by President Barack Obama to strengthen the U.S. military alliances with Australia and other countries on China's edge have not caused undue friction, he said, signs of the breadth of ties between the world's largest and second-largest economies.

"The U.S.-China relationship is certainly stronger than ever before, much more complex than ever before. The economies of China and the U.S. have become much more sophisticated and much more complex" since the start of diplomatic relations 33 years ago, Locke said.

However, Locke expressed strong concerns over China's rights record, saying abuses had been rising over the past year as Chinese leaders worried that the democratic uprisings that swept Egypt and other Arab countries might spread to China. He cited the widespread detention and arrest of activists and lawyers and a lack of judicial independence.

"It's getting worse. I think certainly the last several months, or actually the last year or so, we've seen developments and incidents that give us great pause and a great deal of concern," Locke said.

Locke said he has met with a wide range of activists, lawyers and religious leaders and sensed they were uneasy to discuss not only sensitive topics such as controls on religion but also mundane ones such as raising incomes and living standards for women and migrant workers.

The embassy's deputy chief of mission tried to meet in the last two weeks with Liu Xia ? the wife of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo who herself is under house arrest ? but was stopped from doing so, Locke said.

"So we are monitoring these cases. We are trying to meet with individuals as much as we can," he said. Locke said he has continued to raise the case of jailed American geologist Xue Feng, visiting him twice. He said the case highlights the abuse of the legal system in China.

Though Locke said he reached out to human rights lobbyists soon after Obama selected him as ambassador last February, he has been seen as being more comfortable with business and trade issues. The rights community has criticized him for not being as visible an advocate as his predecessor, would-be Republican presidential candidate Jon Hunstman.

Being of Chinese ancestry ? his grandfather emigrated from southern China and worked as a servant ? has made Locke's tenure as ambassador unusual. From before he boarded the plane to take up the post in August, he has been in the spotlight; someone photographed him buying coffee in a Starbucks in Seattle and posted it on the Internet.

He has won wide admiration in social media. That he carries his own knapsack, buys coffee and travels economy class has drawn favorable comparisons with Chinese officials, who often travel first class and in the company of fawning assistants. The more nationalistic state media have questioned whether these habits are part of a plan to defame China, and editors and reporters have said they have been told not to give Locke too much prominence in their reporting.

"Who would have thought that just getting a cup of coffee would create such a stir," Locke said.

Another unexpected controversy has been over Beijing's often dismal air quality. The U.S. Embassy publishes on the Internet and Twitter readings from a rooftop monitor. The results are frequently at odds with Beijing's official data and are being used by local Chinese to prod their government into doing something.

Locke said he has been surprised by the awful air when he walks the family dog at night or takes his three children to the school bus in the morning. He said no Chinese official has complained to him about the data, though state media have.

"We get questions from the Chinese media about whether we're trying to sow discontent," Locke said.

____

Associated Press reporter Scott McDonald contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-12-14-AS-China-US/id-51f79cdd8a16463bad739a3b0b24722d

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ECB's Kranjec: EU summit moves "radical" (Reuters)

LJUBLJANA (Reuters) ? Decisions reached by the European Union summit last week are "radical" and will lead to harmonization of policies which has not been possible so far, European Central Bank Governing Council Member Marko Kranjec said on Monday in a TV interview.

He also said in an interview on Television Slovenia that the euro will survive the present euro zone debt crisis.

"I see that (the result of the summit) as a good achievement of the politics in Brussels, more could not have been expected, truly radical changes have been reached regarding harmonization of public finances," said Kranjec.

He pointed out that automatic sanctions will be imposed for breaching the budget deficit rules and that countries will have to put the new rules into their constitutions.

"I am sure that the euro will stay ... because any country that would want to exit the monetary union would be worse off (than in the euro zone)," he added.

"Europe is determined to play an important role in the global market, global politics, global economy and it can only reach that by integration, also monetary integration," said Kranjec.

Although a deal was reached at the summit to strengthen budget discipline it failed to restore financial market confidence on Monday but Kranjec said the markets needed more time to react to the deal.

"The Brussels deal with be an important step towards stabilization and further preventing of the crisis in the euro zone," added Kranjec.

The outcome of the two-day EU summit last week was criticized by major credit rating agencies. Kranjec said the agencies should not be given too much credit since in the past (before the global crisis) their ratings of financial markets and states were higher than they should have been.

(Reporting By Marja Novak; Editing by Andrew Hay)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111212/bs_nm/us_ecb_kranjec

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Preoperative aspirin therapy can benefit cardiac surgery patients, study finds

ScienceDaily (Dec. 5, 2011) ? Aspirin taken within five days of cardiac surgery is associated with a significant decrease in the risk of major postoperative complications, including renal failure, a lengthy intensive care unit stay and even early death (30-day mortality), according to a study by researchers at Thomas Jefferson University and UC Davis Medical Center set to appear in the journal Annals of Surgery.

According to the study's authors, the findings are significant because despite remarkable progress in cardiac surgery, the number of major complications from cardiac surgery remains high.

"Therapies targeted to prevent or reduce major complications associated with cardiac surgery have been few and ineffective so far," said Jianzhong Sun, an anesthesiologist at Thomas Jefferson University and lead author of the study. "These complications are significant and costly both for the public health and the quality of patient life."

The study team evaluated the impact of preoperative aspirin on major outcomes in adults (total 4,256 consecutive patients) who had cardiac surgery -- mostly coronary artery bypass graft or valve surgery -- at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital or UC Davis Medical Center between 2001 and 2009. Among 2,868 patients who met the inclusion criteria, 1,923 took aspirin (about 81 to 325 mg daily) at least once within five days preceding their surgery versus 945 not taking aspirin (non-aspirin therapy).

The outcomes showed that preoperative aspirin therapy (vs. non-aspirin) is associated with a significant decrease in the risk for 30-day mortality, major adverse cardiocerebral events, postoperative renal failure and average time spent in the intensive care unit.

Beneficial effects of preoperative aspirin use found in the current study "are in line with our previous findings and findings from early postoperative aspirin studies," wrote Sun and colleagues in their paper.

"We know that aspirin can be lifesaving for patients who have experienced heart attacks," said Nilas Young, chief of cardiothoracic surgery at UC Davis and a study co-author. "Now we know that this simple intervention can do the same for patients who undergo certain coronary surgeries. This outcome could lead to new preoperative treatment standards in cardiac medicine."

The researchers acknowledge that bleeding remains a concern with preoperative aspirin therapy. However, they said, in the current era of cardiac surgery, the potential for bleeding may be avoided by using antifibrinolytic therapy, which prevents the breakdown of clotting factors in the blood, and/or a low dose of aspirin.

"Overall, the outcome benefits provided by preoperative aspirin therapy may override its possible risk of excess bleeding in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Nonetheless, further studies are certainly needed to examine this potential side effect carefully," Sun and colleagues wrote.

Added Zvi Grunwald, chair of anesthesiology at Jefferson, "While we are excited that the study clearly showed that preoperative use of aspirin significantly reduced major complications and mortality in patients undergoing cardiac surgery, we do urge further study before recommending aspirin for cardiac surgery patients prior to surgery."

In addition to Sun and Young, study investigators included senior author Longhui Cao, Scott Silvestry, Will Sun and James Diehl of Thomas Jefferson University; Hong Lui of UC Davis; and Ning Zhao of the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Davis Health System.

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Journal Reference:

  1. Longhui Cao, Nilas Young, Hong Liu, Scott Silvestry, Will Sun, Ning Zhao, James Diehl, Jianzhong Sun. Preoperative Aspirin Use and Outcomes in Cardiac Surgery Patients. Annals of Surgery, 2011; DOI: 10.1097/SLA.0b013e318234313b

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111205140605.htm

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Eggs have own biological clock

Aging mechanisms in worms? reproductive cells differ compared with rest of body

Web edition : 4:45 pm

DENVER ? Egg cells age differently than cells in the rest of the body, a new study shows.

The finding, from experiments with roundworms presented December 5 at the annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology, might one day lead to ways to predict how long women will stay fertile or even to extend a woman?s fertile years.

Princeton University biologist Coleen Murphy and her colleagues study aging in the roundworm, Caenorhabditis elegans. The worms typically live for about 21 days, but fertility drops off sharply after about a week and the worms can no longer reproduce after they are about 9 days old. Even though 9-day-old worms still have plenty of eggs left, the egg cells, also called oocytes, are of such poor quality they can?t produce embryos.

Women experience a similar sharp decline in fertility starting in their late 30s. This drop-off in reproductive capability is one of the earliest signs of aging.

In earlier work, Murphy and colleagues discovered that certain mutations in biological processes regulated by insulin prolonged worms? lives and gave them about three extra fertile days. Mutations in a different biological process, controlled by a protein called TGF-beta, extended fertility but not life span.

In the new study, the researchers examined which genes are turned on or off to prolong life and fertility in the oocytes and other body cells of the long-lived worms.

?We were really surprised to find this was a completely different mechanism? controlling aging in eggs compared with other body cells, Murphy said at the cell biology meeting. ?In fact, there was almost no overlap between the genes involved in the long life of worms and those that extend fertility in the oocytes.?

Body, or somatic, cells are known to turn on stress-management genes to protect proteins and change metabolism as they age. But oocytes don?t bother with guarding proteins, Murphy and her colleagues found. Instead, eggs ramp up production of factors that protect them from or repair DNA damage and make more of proteins that help egg cells divvy up their chromosomes correctly, the researchers reported.

Because the entire job of an egg is to provide genetic information used to build a new generation, it is perhaps not so surprising that eggs devote resources to making sure the DNA stays healthy and chromosomes and are allocated properly, said Craig Blackstone, a physician and researcher at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Md. ?It makes sense that this would happen, but it hadn?t been shown before,? he said. ?It?s clever of her to study this.?


Found in: Genes & Cells

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/336760/title/Eggs_have_own_biological_clock

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Feds to allow use of Medicare data to rate doctors (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Picking a specialist for a delicate medical procedure like a heart bypass could get a lot easier in the not-too-distant future.

The government announced Monday that Medicare will finally allow its extensive claims database to be used by employers, insurance companies and consumer groups to produce report cards on local doctors ? and improve current ratings of hospitals.

By analyzing masses of billing records, experts can glean such critical information as how often a doctor has performed a particular procedure and get a general sense of problems such as preventable complications.

Doctors will be individually identifiable through the Medicare files, but personal data on their patients will remain confidential. Compiled in an easily understood format and released to the public, medical report cards could become a powerful tool for promoting quality care.

"There is tremendous variation in how well doctors do, and most of us as patients don't know that. We make our choices blind," said David Lansky, president of the Pacific Business Group on Health. "This is the beginning of a process to give us the information to make informed decisions." His nonprofit represents 50 large employers that provide coverage for more than 3 million people.

Medicare acting administrator Marilyn Tavenner called the new policy "a giant step forward in making our health care system more transparent and promoting increased competition, accountability, quality and lower costs." But some consumer groups said Medicare is still putting limitations on their access.

Early efforts to rate physicians using limited private insurance data have thus far focused on primary care doctors, but Medicare's rich information could provide the numbers to start rating specialists as well, Lansky said. Consumers will see the first performance reports by late 2012, said a Medicare spokesman.

Medicare officials say they expect nonprofit research groups in California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Massachusetts and other states to jump at the chance to use the data. With 47 million beneficiaries and virtually every doctor and hospital in the country participating, Medicare's database is considered the mother lode of health care information.

Tapping it has largely been forbidden because of a decades-old court ruling that releasing the information would violate the privacy of doctors. Insurance companies tried filling with their own claims data, but their files are nowhere near as comprehensive as Medicare's

Following appeals from lawmakers of both parties on Capitol Hill, President Barack Obama's health care overhaul changed federal law to explicitly authorize release of the information. Medicare followed through in regulations issued Monday.

Employer groups welcomed the new policy.

"There is pent-up demand for this data because everyone wants to be a more informed, intelligent consumer, especially as health care costs are still rising," said Maria Ghazal, policy director at the Business Roundtable, which represents CEOs of major companies providing coverage to some 35 million employees, retirees and family members.

Companies will use the data analyses in their annual updates to their insurance plans. But Ghazal said they also want to put report cards directly in the hands of their employees.

"We want to make it understandable and usable by our employees," said Ghazal.

Early ratings efforts using insurance company data have lacked sufficient statistical power to rank specialists. The numbers of cases of cancer and serious heart problems in the younger, working-age population simply weren't big enough. The Medicare data could change that, since older people are more prone to chronic illnesses.

"If you want to look at heart disease or cancer, suddenly you have more data to look at each doctor with," said Lansky. "It's the power of numbers."

Doctors groups fought for years to prevent release of the Medicare data. The American Medical Association argued it could be misleading to untrained consumers. For example, a surgeon who has lots of patients who develop complications may actually be a top practitioner who takes cases that others less skilled would turn away.

Lately the medical groups shifted to putting conditions on the use of the data, with some success. For example, Medicare's rule gives individual providers the right to review their information before it is publicly released, and 60 days to challenge it.

Some consumer groups said that particular restriction will make it difficult for them to produce ratings. Unlike employer associations, they don't have economic leverage over doctors.

Consumers Union's Health Ratings Center is currently rating hospitals and some medical providers. But Lisa McGiffert, director of the group's patient safety campaign, said Medicare's review requirement may be too cumbersome for a group like hers.

"These kinds of caveats will lead to fewer users of the data, and fewer communicators to the public," she said. "There's this protectionism about doctors' information that we need to get beyond."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111205/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_medical_report_cards

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