Collect and battle cards, find adventure in Elemental Kingdoms

Last month PC MMO giant Perfect World Entertainment announced that it had entered the mobile gaming business, revealing four upcoming games in the process. Now the first of those games, Elemental Kingdoms is available to download exclusively on iOS. Elemental Kingdoms is a surprisingly deep and robust collectible card game from China-based iFree Studio. Read on to learn about the game’s card combat system, player versus player battles, maze exploration, and much more.

Save the kingdom

To start with, you’ll select a male or female Hero. Then your campaign begins in the kingdom of Tundra, part of the Northern Alliance. A former ally, the Scarlet Nation suddenly joins up with the Black Swamp Tribe to invade Tundra. Your Hero will need to seek help from another kingdom and investigate the cause of the Scarlet Nation’s aggression as the game unfolds.

The world of Elemental Kingdoms is divided into numerous maps, each with multiple stages (battles) to conquer. By simply winning a battle, you’ll gain one star for that stage. But battles have Medium and Hard goals too, such as eliminating all of the opponent’s cards or winning with a certain quantity of HP remaining. Revisit stages to complete these extra goals and win up to three stars for the stage.

The stars you’ve earned on a map contribute to your revenue for that area. Players receive their revenue in a treasure chest once a day. If you want to increase revenue you’ll need to unlock more stars. But conquered stages will occasionally be invaded, threatening a map’s daily income. Take care of the invasion before the end of the day in order to keep your people safe and the coins flowing.

Money to spend

Gold coins are the game’s soft (non-premium) currency. They can be spent on card packs and Runes. You can’t get the rare 4- or 5-star cards with gold, but you will find material cards that help enchant (level up) other cards. Enchanting cards and Runes costs gold as well.

Gems act as the game’s premium currency. They’re mostly acquired by In-App Purchase, but players can also get them as login rewards or for completing certain events in the game. You’ll want to use gems to buy premium booster card packs that contain 4- and 5-star cards. They can also be used to skip cool-down times, restore energy, reset tower mazes, and increase the number of daily ranked matches a player can participate in.

Players can also get rare cards with Fire tokens. These tokens are given out as login rewards and for participating in special events.

Collecting cards and Runes

There are many more ways to get cards than just buying them with coins and gems. Players can get them as loot from winning battles, receive them as login rewards, or by exploring mazes.

Those mazes help keep Elemental Kingdoms from being just a succession of battles. Clearing all of the stages on a map (other than the first map) unlocks a maze to explore. Guards and treasure chests are hidden throughout each maze.

Not only do mazes have higher card drop rates than standard stages, some 4- and 5-star cards can only be found within them. A maze can be reset once daily for free. You can spend gems to reset them sooner as well.

On top of the collecting, enchanting, and selecting cards for your deck, you can also outfit it with Runes. Each Rune has a condition that triggers its spell. Trigger it during battle and it begins casting its spell. Runes can be discovered through exploration or by meditating in the Temple. Sometimes meditation will also uncover Rune shards, which can collected and exchanged for new Runes.

Card Combat

All the windows dressing in the world wouldn’t matter if Elemental Kingdoms didn’t have a good card combat system. Thankfully, the combat is easy to learn while still offering plenty of strategic possibilities.

The card combat screen consists of the battlefield in the center (active cards), each player’s preparation zone above and below the battlefield, both Heroes’ HP and the current round number at left, and Attack and Auto options on the right.

Every round, players draw a random card from the deck, which is then moved to the preparation zone. Cards in the preparation zone have a wait timer. Once the timer counts down to zero, players can select the card and move it to the battlefield.

Cards have HP and Attack attributes. They automatically attack cards lying directly across from them. If there is no card across from the attacking card, it attacks the opponent’s Hero instead.

Cards with zero HP get sent to the Cemetery. If your Hero’s HP runs out or all cards get sent to the cemetery, you lose the battle. Winning the battle gets you coins, EXP, and possibly cards.

In addition to HP and Attack attributes, cards can also have special abilities. A card only starts with one ability, but it can gain new ones at levels 5 and 10.

In keeping with the game’s highly approachable combat system, these abilities activate automatically when the right conditions are met. Standard skills cast each round that the card is on the battlefield. Quick Strike skills cast only when the card first enters the battlefield. Desperation skills only cast when the card gets destroyed.

Speaking of streamlined combat, players have the option to switch individual battles to Auto and let the AI fight for them. Only do this when you’re assured of victory!

Player versus player

Collecting cards is half the fun of a card battling game. The rest comes from testing your deck against other players and seeing who comes out on top. Elemental Kingdoms lets players battle it out online in two types of matches: Friendly and Ranked. Both support matchmaking, so don’t worry if your friends haven’t downloaded the game just yet.

In Friendly matches, the matchmaking system suggests 6 players of similar level for you to challenge. The matchmaking page can be refreshed in order to find different players. You can also challenge players on your friends list or via global chat. Friendly matches don’t carry risks or rewards; they’re purely for fun.

The goal of Ranked matches is of course to climb your way up the global leaderboard. Ranked matchmaking suggests five opponents of higher level to battle. Win and you’ll take the rank of your opponent while he or she drops down to your previous rank. There’s no penalty for losing a challenge you initiated.

A promising kingdom

Elemental Kingdom has just about everything you could want in a collectible card game: a deep story, beautiful artwork, slick combat, online multiplayer, and even exploration. And being free to play, you can easily try it on for size without spending a dime.

The only element of a physical card battling game that this one lacks is the ability for players to trade cards with each other. Perfect World tells us they “have no immediate plans to create a trading system,” but it is a frequent request. Perfect World and iFree Studio do plan to support Elemental Kingdoms with updates and special events in the future, so maybe trading will come along eventually – if it’s in the cards.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/x734PC9DUqE/story01.htm
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Congress eyes milk prices, politics in farm talks

WASHINGTON (AP) — The fight over renewing the nation's farm bill has centered on cuts to the $80 billion-a-year food stamp program. But there could be unintended consequences if no agreement is reached: higher milk prices.

Members of the House and Senate are scheduled to begin long-awaited negotiations on the five-year, roughly $500 billion bill this week. If they don't finish it, dairy supports could expire at the end of the year and send the price of a gallon of milk skyward.

There could be political ramifications, too. The House and Senate are far apart on the sensitive issue of how much money to cut from food stamps, and lawmakers are hoping to resolve that debate before election-year politics set in.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat who is one of the negotiators on the bill, says the legislation could also be a rare opportunity for the two chambers to show they can get along.

"In the middle of the chaos of the last month comes opportunity," Klobuchar says of the farm legislation. "This will really be a test of the House of whether they are willing to work with us."

The farm bill, which sets policy for farm subsidies, the food stamps and other rural development projects, has moved slowly through Congress in the last two years as lawmakers have focused on higher-profile priorities, like budget negotiations, health care and immigration legislation.

But farm-state lawmakers are appealing to their colleagues to harken back to more bipartisan times and do something Congress hasn't done very much lately — pass a major piece of legislation.

Even President Barack Obama, who has been largely silent on the farm bill as it has wound through Congress, said as the government reopened earlier this month that the farm bill "would make a huge difference in our economy right now."

"What are we waiting for?" Obama said. "Let's get this done."

The main challenge in getting the bill done will be the differences on food stamps, officially called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The House has passed legislation to cut around $4 billion annually, or around 5 percent, including changes in eligibility and work requirements. The Senate has proposed a cut of around a tenth of that amount.

"I think there are very different world views clashing on food stamps and those are always more difficult to resolve," says Roger Johnson, president of the National Farmers Union.

Johnson says coming together on the farm issues, while there are differences, will be easier because the mostly farm-state lawmakers negotiating the bill have common goals.

Passing a farm bill could help farm-state lawmakers in both parties in next year's elections, though some Republicans are wary of debating domestic food aid in campaign season. Republican House leaders put the bill on hold during the 2012 election year.

One way to pass the bill quickly could be to wrap it into budget negotiations that will be going on at the same time. The farm bill is expected to save tens of billions of dollars through food stamp cuts and eliminating some subsidy programs, and "that savings has become more key as we go into budget negotiations," Klobuchar said.

If that doesn't work, lawmakers could extend current law, as they did at the end of last year when the dairy threat loomed. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has said he wants to finish the bill and won't support another extension.

One of the reasons the bill's progress has moved slowly is that most of farm country is enjoying a good agricultural economy, and farmers have not clamored for changes in policy. But with deadlines looming, many say they need more government certainty to make planting decisions. Most of the current law expired in September, though effects largely won't be felt until next year when the dairy supports expire.

Some farmers are feeling the effects of the expired bill now, however. An early blizzard in South Dakota earlier this month killed thousands of cattle, and a federal disaster program that could have helped cover losses has expired.

Rep. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., also a negotiator on the conference committee, says her constituents aren't concerned with the differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill, but they just want to see a bill pass.

"Maybe the biggest question is can we put together a bill that can pass on the House and Senate floor," she said.

___

Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mcjalonick

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-28-US-Farm-Bill/id-53b9777f6cf54b9e97ce28dc96532f26
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Report: US monitored 60 million calls in Spain

MADRID (AP) — A Spanish newspaper has published a document it says shows the U.S. National Security Agency spied on more than 60 million phone calls in Spain in one month alone.

The report in El Mundo newspapers comes a week after Le Monde reported similar allegations of U.S. spying in France, and German magazine Der Spiegel reported that a document shows that Washington tapped Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone.

El Mundo said that a document provided by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden shows that the NSA monitored the phone calls from Dec. 10, 2012, until Jan. 8, 2013, but not their content.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-10-28-Spain-US-Spying/id-a622a67973ac4139bcc2ccaf6da8e0e5
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Arcade Fire On Its Brand New Beat

Audio for this story from Morning Edition will be available at approximately 9:00 a.m. ET.

 

Arcade Fire's new album, Reflektor, comes out Tuesday.

JF Lalonde/Courtesy of the artist

Arcade Fire's new album, Reflektor, comes out Tuesday.

JF Lalonde/Courtesy of the artist

Fans of Arcade Fire might be feeling a bit of culture shock. The group has been called the world's most successful indie rock band — but its new album, Reflektor, explores the Haitian roots of band member Regine Chassagne.

She and her husband, frontman Win Butler, have worked with Haitian relief groups for years; the band has donated more than a million dollars to charities there. Speaking with NPR's David Greene, Chassagne and Butler say the seeds of the idea for Reflektor were planted on a trip they took to Haiti right after winning the 2011 Grammy for Album of the Year, in a total upset.

"And then there's people coming from the mountains to watch us play who've never heard The Beatles before," Butler says of the scene when the band arrived. "You realize, stripped of that context, what you're left with is rhythm and emotion and melody; it kind of gets back to these really of basic building blocks of music. So we kind of wanted to start from there and try and make something out of it."

Reflektor isn't a dance record through and through, but it does incorporate many specific dance rhythms — "Here Comes the Night Time," for example, evokes the Hatian street music known as rara in its faster moments. The title of that song, Butler says, refers to an uncanny sight that can often be seen at dusk on the streets of Port-au-Prince, large parts of which have no electricity.

"Everyone's kind of really hustling to get home because it can be kind of dangerous in a lot of neighborhoods; you have to get home before nightfall. And people have their bags of groceries and they're sprinting in the streets trying to get home," he says. "And then you see, like, three dudes in really sharp suits that are just stepping out to go out to a nightclub or something like that. You kind of have this duality where it's this really exciting atmosphere, but then also really dangerous at the same time.

Chassagne says that though the new album's themes are deeply meaningful to her, she hopes the band has created something that can be appreciated anywhere.

"I'm kind of stuck a little bit in both worlds, so I would like to make something that, basically, my mom could dance. She wouldn't dance to a New Order song, but she would dance to the Haitian beat," Chassagne says. "I want to kind of do something that everybody can lock into."

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/10/28/240760218/arcade-fire-on-its-brand-new-beat?ft=1&f=3
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Banners reflect hard-line backlash in Iran

A poster depicting an American negotiator wearing a suit jacket and tie at a negotiating table and a dog to his side is displayed in Palestine square, Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has described his outreach to the U.S. as part of a "new era'' and a chance to put the nuclear standoff with the West to rest. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

A poster depicting an American negotiator wearing a suit jacket and tie at a negotiating table and a dog to his side is displayed in Palestine square, Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has described his outreach to the U.S. as part of a "new era'' and a chance to put the nuclear standoff with the West to rest. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

A poster depicting an American negotiator wearing a suit jacket and tie at a negotiating table and a dog to his side is displayed in Palestine square, Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has described his outreach to the U.S. as part of a "new era'' and a chance to put the nuclear standoff with the West to rest. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Banners that suddenly cropped up around Tehran in the past week depict an American diplomat dressed in a jacket and tie, while under the negotiating table he is wearing military pants and pointing a shotgun at an Iranian envoy.

The anti-American images were ordered taken down Saturday by Tehran authorities. But they made their point.

It was another salvo by hard-liners who are opposed to President Hassan Rouhani's pursuit of better ties with Washington and worried that Iran could make unnecessary concessions in its nuclear program in exchange for relief from Western sanctions.

The banners and posters were something of a warm-up to the main event: Rouhani's critics are planning major anti-U.S. rallies — and amped-up "Death to America" chants — on the Nov. 4 anniversary of the U.S. Embassy takeover in 1979 following the Islamic Revolution.

Anti-American murals have long been part of the urban landscape in Iran, and include images of the Statue of Liberty transformed into a creepy skeleton and bombs raining down from the Stars and Stripes. The storming of the U.S. Embassy is marked every year with protests outside the compound's brick walls.

Now, however, the images reflect internal divisions in Iran and suggest more intrigue ahead.

Rouhani's groundbreaking overtures to the U.S. appear to have the backing of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This means that — at least for the moment — he has the ultimate political cover to try to reach a nuclear deal and perhaps find other ways to cross the 34-year diplomatic no man's land between the countries.

However, the criticism and protests by hard-line resisters, led by the Revolutionary Guard, are as much directed at Rouhani's government as they are intended as a message for the supreme leader.

The Guard and others know that Khamenei does not want to risk an open confrontation that could sow further discord in Iran. The subtext of the posters and banners: More pressure could come if Rouhani's government is perceived as moving too fast toward concessions when nuclear talks resume next week in Geneva with the U.S. and other world powers.

The signs had an ad-agency quality that is rare compared with the usual anti-American fare of simple fliers and hand-lettered placards.

"American Honesty," read one in Farsi and slightly mangled English, showing the U.S. negotiator with the shotgun under the table.

Another depicted an American negotiator in a suit, a black attack dog by his side. The third one showed an open hand facing the open claws of what appeared to be an eagle, the symbol of the U.S.

On Sunday, with most of the images taken down, new posters popped up around Tehran. They contained just one sentence, in Farsi: "We don't oppress and don't allow to be oppressed."

The high production values of the banners and posters suggest possible connections to the powerful propaganda machinery of well-funded groups such as the Revolutionary Guard or its nationwide paramilitary network, known as the Basij.

Mohsen Pirhadi, head of Basij's Tehran branch, said he ordered the posters put up, but gave no further details on the designers or financial backers.

"These posters were in line with the interests of the (ruling) system," the Bahar newspaper quoted him as saying Saturday.

A day earlier, protesters trampled posters of Wendy Sherman, the chief U.S. nuclear negotiator with Iran, who said earlier this month that past experience suggests "deception is part of the DNA" of the nuclear talks. Iran's hard-line media, however, added "Iranian" to the quote and stirred outrage.

"Our people have seen nothing but dishonesty, deception of public opinion, betrayal and back-stabbing by Americans during the past years. ... Therefore, there is no way they can trust American promises and deceiving smiles," hard-line politician Hamid Reza Taraqi told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Israel and others suspicious of Iran have used similar language to question Rouhani's sincerity.

A conservative lawmaker, Hamid Rasaei, decried the order to take down the posters and banners. "Why is a group seeking to erase the 34-year-old honor of the Iranian nation?" he told Parliament on Sunday.

A moderate lawmaker, Mohammad Javad Kowlivand, demanded a probe into the U.S.-bashing campaign.

Political analyst Hamid Reza Shokouhi said opposition to Rouhani's outreach reflects the insecurities that come with any bold diplomatic gestures.

"Public opinion cannot easily digest that everything has suddenly changed," he said.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-10-27-Iran-Poster%20Pressure/id-1de680b8a359470cb07d2f21933d8291
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Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 4: Brandi Glanville, Kyle Richards Already Feuding With New Girls

Mo' Housewives, mo' problems. Thanks to the addition of new girls Carlton Gebbia and Joyce Giraud, season four of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is already steeped in drama. Us Weekly caught up with the cast at the RHOBH and Vanderpump Rules premiere party on Wednesday, Oct. 23, at L.A.'s Boulevard 3, where they dished to Us about who's already feuding with whom, what they think of the new Housewives, and what viewers can expect from the new season.

PHOTOS: RHOBH's biggest bombshells

Lisa Vanderpump, for one, was very...diplomatic when speaking about the recent additions to the show. Though she was quick to praise Gebbia, a British interior architectural designer she describes as "very supportive," she was less effusive about Giraud, a two-time winner of the Miss Puerto Rico pageant who's married to producer Michael Ohoven, with whom she has two kids. (Gebbia is married, too, to businessman David Gebbia, the father of her three children.)

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"She's very honest, that's for sure," the Vanderpump Rules star said of Giraud. "I didn't get off to a great start with her, but I like her very much. I think she is very straightforward and very direct, and I like that about her."

Giraud, for her part, makes no apologies for who she is. "I think it's always tough to be a new girl in a bunch," she noted. "I'm honest and I'm myself. Some people will like it, and some people will not."

PHOTOS: Real Housewives' bikini bodies

Costar Brandi Glanville is in the latter group. "I like Carlton and I don't like Joyce," Eddie Cibrian's ex told Us of her thoughts on the new girls. "Carlton is a real straight woman. She is a great woman, a great mom. She is the real deal and no BS, and the other one is the complete opposite."

The Drinking and Tweeting: And Other Brandi Blunders author also spoke with Us about the ups and downs in her relationships with Vanderpump and Kyle Richards. Of the former, she said: "We don't hate each other. We love each other a lot. There is a hiccup in our road, and I think some things were done and said, and I'm hurt and she is hurt. I hope that one day we can be friends again." 

PHOTOS: Real Housewives' plastic surgery -- before and after!

Her friendship with Richards, meanwhile, seems to have improved. "It was a gradual change," she explained. "We had so much other drama to get through. We had to go through stuff to get where we are now. I think at the end of the day we are both mothers of young children, and she gets it."

"We are in a good place," Richards added to Us. "We are in a much better place than we were, but obviously it couldn't get any worse than it was. We have gotten to know each other more, and we understand each other better."

PHOTOS: The biggest celeb feuds ever

Not to worry, though -- there's still plenty of drama brewing this season. Richards may have patched things up with Glanville, but she clashed with Gebbia, a self-described "wild girl" and practicing pagan.

"It was very hard because I'm very quiet and protective of what I believe in just because there are ignorant people," Gebbia told Us of her Celtic ancestry and involvement with witchcraft. "When it did come out, for the most part it was received in a favorable way. Then you have the percentage...I don't judge people by their faith, but unfortunately some people are uncomfortable."

PHOTOS: Real Housewives' biggest fights ever

That said, she's glad she signed on for the show. "It has been an enjoyable journey," she told Us. "There are certainly some ups and bloody downs, but I don't have any regrets."

Gebbia and Giraud joined Bravo's RHOBH to replace departing cast members Taylor Armstrong and Adrienne Maloof.

Source: http://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/real-housewives-of-beverly-hills-season-4-brandi-glanville-kyle-richards-already-feuding-with-new-girls-20132410
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Preparing For The Big One, Whisper Campaigns, 'Frankenstein'

Cars lie smashed by the collapsed Interstate 5 connector a few hours after the Northridge earthquake on Jan. 17, 1994, in California.

AFP/Getty Images

Cars lie smashed by the collapsed Interstate 5 connector a few hours after the Northridge earthquake on Jan. 17, 1994, in California.

AFP/Getty Images

In this weekend's podcast of All Things Considered, host Arun Rath explores the power of Hollywood whisper campaigns, learns what some people are doing to prepare for "the big one," and talks to first time composer Alexander Ebert.

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Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/10/27/241238396/preparing-for-the-big-one-whisper-campaigns-frankenstein?ft=1&f=1039
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New study examines link between pregnancy weight gain, autism spectrum disorders

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

28-Oct-2013

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Contact: Melinda Rogers
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801-608-9888
University of Utah Health Sciences

Can gaining weight during pregnancy provide clues into the cause of autism spectrum disorders?

New research from the University of Utah shows the answer to that question may be yes in some situations. Researchers have uncovered an association between autism spectrum disorders and a small increase in the amount of weight a mother gains during pregnancy. The results of the new study, "Maternal Prenatal Weight Gain and Autism Spectrum Disorders," are published in November edition of the journal Pediatrics.

Previous studies have identified links between women's prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) and pregnancy weight gain to an increased risk for the development of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in children. But in the new study from University of Utah, researchers build on prior research by identifying an association between autism spectrum disorder risk and prenatal weight gain, after accounting for important related factors such as a woman's prepregnancy BMI.

"The risk of autism spectrum disorder associated with a modest yet consistent increase in pregnancy weight gain suggests that pregnancy weight gain may serve as an important marker for autism's underlying gestational etiology," said Deborah A. Bilder, M.D., lead author of the study and an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Utah. "These findings suggest that weight gain during pregnancy is not the cause of ASD but rather may reflect an underlying process that it shares with autism spectrum disorders, such as abnormal hormone levels or inflammation. ."

This small difference in pregnancy weight gain and the association with ASD was found in two separate study groups. Researchers carried out the study by comparing the cases of 8-year-olds living in Salt Lake, Davis and Utah counties. A group of 128 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders were compared to a control group of 10,920 children of the same age and gender. Researchers also examined a second sample group of 288 Utah children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders and compared their data with that of unaffected siblings. In both scenarios, pregnancy weight gain patterns obtained from birth certificate records were identified as common factors in mothers who gave birth to children born with autism spectrum disorders. Such a small, but consistent finding suggests that these small changes in pregnancy weight gain and ASD may share the same underlying cause. The mother's BMI at the onset of pregnancy was not linked to ASD in either study group.

ASD data utilized for this study were taken from the Utah Registry of Autism and Developmental Disabilities, a Utah Department of Health (UDOH) registry. "Utilizing this database to study possible associations that may shed light on the causes of Autism Spectrum Disorder is essential," said Harper Randall, M.D., medical director at the Division of Family Health and Preparedness at UDOH. "

"The findings in this study are important because they provide clues to what may increase the risk of having an autism spectrum disorder and provide a specific direction for researchers to pursue as they search for the causes for autism spectrum disorders," said Bilder. "Doctors have known for a long time that proper nutrition is essential to a healthy pregnancy. Pregnant women should not change their diet based on these results. Rather, this study provides one more piece for the autism puzzle that researchers are exploring."

Autism spectrum disorders are neurobehavioral disorders manifested by a range of impaired social interactions, abnormal language development, and stereotypic behavior and interests. According to the most recent statistics from the Utah Department of Health, estimates show that 1 in 63 Utah children have an autism spectrum disorder. Another study by the CDC released in 2012 suggests the risk may be even higher, estimating Utah's rate at one in 47. Autism spectrum disorder is no longer considered a rare disorder. It is now recognized in 1 to 2 percent of our population. "This calls for further investigation of its underlying etiology as a public health concern," said Bilder.

###

In addition to Bilder, other authors on the study include: Amanda V. Bakian, Ph.D.; Joseph Viskochil, M.Ed.; Erin A.S. Clark, M.D.; Elizabeth L. Botts, M.D.; Ken R. Smith, Ph.D.; Richard Pimentel, MSCS; William M. McMahon, M.D. and Hilary Coon, Ph.D.

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

28-Oct-2013

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Contact: Melinda Rogers
melinda.rogers@hsc.utah.edu
801-608-9888
University of Utah Health Sciences

Can gaining weight during pregnancy provide clues into the cause of autism spectrum disorders?

New research from the University of Utah shows the answer to that question may be yes in some situations. Researchers have uncovered an association between autism spectrum disorders and a small increase in the amount of weight a mother gains during pregnancy. The results of the new study, "Maternal Prenatal Weight Gain and Autism Spectrum Disorders," are published in November edition of the journal Pediatrics.

Previous studies have identified links between women's prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) and pregnancy weight gain to an increased risk for the development of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in children. But in the new study from University of Utah, researchers build on prior research by identifying an association between autism spectrum disorder risk and prenatal weight gain, after accounting for important related factors such as a woman's prepregnancy BMI.

"The risk of autism spectrum disorder associated with a modest yet consistent increase in pregnancy weight gain suggests that pregnancy weight gain may serve as an important marker for autism's underlying gestational etiology," said Deborah A. Bilder, M.D., lead author of the study and an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Utah. "These findings suggest that weight gain during pregnancy is not the cause of ASD but rather may reflect an underlying process that it shares with autism spectrum disorders, such as abnormal hormone levels or inflammation. ."

This small difference in pregnancy weight gain and the association with ASD was found in two separate study groups. Researchers carried out the study by comparing the cases of 8-year-olds living in Salt Lake, Davis and Utah counties. A group of 128 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders were compared to a control group of 10,920 children of the same age and gender. Researchers also examined a second sample group of 288 Utah children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders and compared their data with that of unaffected siblings. In both scenarios, pregnancy weight gain patterns obtained from birth certificate records were identified as common factors in mothers who gave birth to children born with autism spectrum disorders. Such a small, but consistent finding suggests that these small changes in pregnancy weight gain and ASD may share the same underlying cause. The mother's BMI at the onset of pregnancy was not linked to ASD in either study group.

ASD data utilized for this study were taken from the Utah Registry of Autism and Developmental Disabilities, a Utah Department of Health (UDOH) registry. "Utilizing this database to study possible associations that may shed light on the causes of Autism Spectrum Disorder is essential," said Harper Randall, M.D., medical director at the Division of Family Health and Preparedness at UDOH. "

"The findings in this study are important because they provide clues to what may increase the risk of having an autism spectrum disorder and provide a specific direction for researchers to pursue as they search for the causes for autism spectrum disorders," said Bilder. "Doctors have known for a long time that proper nutrition is essential to a healthy pregnancy. Pregnant women should not change their diet based on these results. Rather, this study provides one more piece for the autism puzzle that researchers are exploring."

Autism spectrum disorders are neurobehavioral disorders manifested by a range of impaired social interactions, abnormal language development, and stereotypic behavior and interests. According to the most recent statistics from the Utah Department of Health, estimates show that 1 in 63 Utah children have an autism spectrum disorder. Another study by the CDC released in 2012 suggests the risk may be even higher, estimating Utah's rate at one in 47. Autism spectrum disorder is no longer considered a rare disorder. It is now recognized in 1 to 2 percent of our population. "This calls for further investigation of its underlying etiology as a public health concern," said Bilder.

###

In addition to Bilder, other authors on the study include: Amanda V. Bakian, Ph.D.; Joseph Viskochil, M.Ed.; Erin A.S. Clark, M.D.; Elizabeth L. Botts, M.D.; Ken R. Smith, Ph.D.; Richard Pimentel, MSCS; William M. McMahon, M.D. and Hilary Coon, Ph.D.

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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/uouh-nse102513.php
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Company hosting Obamacare data has technical glitch: U.S. official

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A data center that hosts the key website for the healthcare exchanges that are at the heart of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare reform law lost connectivity on Sunday, said a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services.

Verizon's Terremark, which operates a data center hosting the Healthcare.gov website and a data system for verifying information, experienced a networking component failure that impacted several government websites.

The October 1 implementation of Obama's healthcare law, also known as Obamacare, has been marred by technical glitches and delays.

"We are working with Terremark to get their timeline for addressing the issue," HHS spokeswoman Joanne Peters said in an email. "We understand that this issue is affecting other customers in addition to HealthCare.gov, and Terremark is working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible."

(Reporting by David Morgan, writing by Anna Yukhananov and Emily Stephenson; Editing by Paul Simao)

• Health Care Policy
• President Barack Obama
• Terremark
• data center

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/connecticut-official-reports-obamacare-data-system-down-201243816.html
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'Walking Dead' Predictions: It's Hammer Time

From Tyreese's fury to Karen's murderer, here are five of our predictions for Sunday night's 'Walking Dead' episode, 'Isolation.'


By Josh Wigler

Source:
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1716280/walking-dead-predictions-episode-three.jhtml

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Lou Reed, Leader Of The Velvet Underground, Has Died At 71

Musician Lou Reed, for decades a rock icon, died Sunday at age 71. In 2006, he took a picture of an ad for his own photo exhibit in Naples.

AFP/AFP/Getty Images

Musician Lou Reed, for decades a rock icon, died Sunday at age 71. In 2006, he took a picture of an ad for his own photo exhibit in Naples.

AFP/AFP/Getty Images

Lou Reed, the singer and songwriter whose work as a solo artist and as the leader of cult-favorite band The Velvet Underground influenced generations of musicians, has died at age 71.

Rumors of Reed's possible demise have been circulating for the past week; his death was first reported Sunday by Rolling Stone. The magazine notes that he received a liver transplant earlier this year.

Update at 3:45 p.m. ET: Reed's literary agent, Andrew Wylie, has confirmed to NPR that Reed died Sunday morning at 11, of complications related to his liver transplant. We've made slight changes to this post to reflect that confirmation. Our original post continues:

Singer and songwriter Lou Reed, a leader of the ground-breaking rock group the Velvet Underground, has died at age 71. He's seen here in the 1970s.

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Singer and songwriter Lou Reed, a leader of the ground-breaking rock group the Velvet Underground, has died at age 71. He's seen here in the 1970s.

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1942. The musician's official Facebook page didn't announce his passing overtly, choosing instead to post a photo titled "The Door" Sunday morning. More than 1,000 notes of condolence and grief soon followed.

Reed's songs as a guitarist for The Velvet Underground and later during his solo career blended art and noise in deceptively simple combinations, with his New York-inflected voice telling stories of street deals and odd characters.

"One chord is fine," he said of his approach to the guitar, in Rolling Stone's obituary. "Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz."

In a remembrance of Reed, NPR's Neda Ulaby quotes his Velvet Underground co-founder and longtime collaborator John Cale explaining that the band didn't care to make things easy for their listeners:

"We were not user-friendly at all," Cale told NPR in 2000. "Anyone listening to a bass guitar and regular guitar coming out of the same amp — it couldn't have been a really great listening experience."

Along with Cale on viola, bass and other instruments, the band's core personnel included drummer Moe Tucker and guitarist Sterling Morrison. Bassist Doug Yule later replaced Cale in the lineup.

The band's first two albums, The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) and White Light/White Heat (1968), became touchstones of art-rock for generations that followed. A third self-titled album, produced without Cale, included the mournful "Pale Blue Eyes."

In a career that spanned New York's Andy Warhol-era experimental art scene and included the unlikely hit "Walk on the Wild Side," Reed never lost his sense of urban grit and cool.

"Walk on the Wild Side came from Transformer, Reed's second solo album that was produced by David Bowie and released in 1972. On the strength of that single and songwriting gems such as "Perfect Day" and "Satellite of Love," the album cemented Reed's status as a star whose music will be played for decades to come.

As Neda reports, "Walk on the Wild Side" was Reed's only Top 40 hit; the song's iconic bass line has been sampled and evoked by musicians producing everything from rock and club music to hip-hop.

Reed is survived by his wife, the musician Laurie Anderson; the pair wed in 2008.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/27/241194533/lou-reed-leader-of-the-velvet-underground-has-reportedly-died?ft=1&f=1039
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NYPD: Cousin admitted fatally stabbing mom, 4 kids

Women gather on the steps of an apartment building opposite the scene of a brutal fatal stabbing, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013, in New York. Police say a mother and her four young children were killed in a late night stabbing rampage at a Sunset Park, Brooklyn, home. A Chinese immigrant, 25-year-old Ming Don Chen, was arrested Sunday on five counts of murder in the deaths of his cousin's wife and her four children. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Women gather on the steps of an apartment building opposite the scene of a brutal fatal stabbing, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013, in New York. Police say a mother and her four young children were killed in a late night stabbing rampage at a Sunset Park, Brooklyn, home. A Chinese immigrant, 25-year-old Ming Don Chen, was arrested Sunday on five counts of murder in the deaths of his cousin's wife and her four children. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Crime scene detectives investigate the scene of a multiple fatal stabbing Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013, in New York. Police said a mother and her four young children were stabbed to death in a brutal rampage just before 11 p.m. Saturday in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. The New York Police Department said a suspect, 25-year-old Ming Don Chen, a Chinese immigrant, was arrested Sunday on five counts of murder in the deaths of his cousin's wife and her four children in the stabbing rampage in their Brooklyn home. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

A crime scene detective leaps up the steps at the scene of a multiple fatal stabbing Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013, in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, in New York. Police said a mother and her four young children were stabbed to death in a brutal rampage just before 11p.m. Saturday. The working-class neighborhood is home to many Chinese immigrants. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Crime scene specialists work at the scene of a fatal stabbing, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Police say a mother and her four young children were killed in a late night stabbing rampage at the Sunset Park, Brooklyn home, far right. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Medical Examiner Transport personnel prepare to place a loaded body bag into their vehicle after exiting the residence of a crime scene in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013 where five people, including a toddler, were stabbed to death in New York. Emergency responders found three of the victims dead at the residence just before 11 p.m. Saturday. Two others were taken to Brooklyn hospitals, where they were pronounced dead. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

NEW YORK (AP) — A Chinese immigrant was arrested Sunday on five counts of murder in the deaths of his cousin's wife and her four children in a stabbing rampage in their Brooklyn home.

The suspect, 25-year-old Ming Don Chen, implicated himself in the stabbings late Saturday in the Sunset Park neighborhood, police said. Chief of Department Phil Banks said the victims "were cut and butchered with a kitchen knife."

Two girls, 9-year-old Linda Zhuo and 7-year-old Amy Zhuo, were pronounced dead at the scene, along with the youngest child, 1-year-old William Zhuo. Their brother, 5-year-old Kevin Zhuo, and 37-year-old mother, Qiao Zhen Li, were taken to hospitals, where they also were pronounced dead.

Chen is a cousin of the children's father and had been staying at the home for the past week or so, Banks said. He came to the United States from China in 2004 and seemingly struggled to make it, Banks said.

"Ever since he came to this country, everybody seems to be doing better than him," he said.

On Saturday night, Chen had apparently been acting in such a way that concerned Li, Banks said. She tried to call her husband, who wasn't home, but couldn't reach him.

Banks said Li called her mother-in-law in China, who also was unsuccessful in reaching her son. The mother-in-law reached out to her daughter, who lives in the neighborhood, Banks said.

She and her husband came to the house and banged on the door, then called 911. Officers in the area investigating another matter responded, Banks said.

"It's a scene you'll never forget," he said. The victims had wounds in their necks and torsos.

Chen was in custody and wasn't immediately available to comment. He also faces counts of assault on a police officer, which happened while he was being processed, and resisting arrest, Banks said.

Bob Madden, who lives nearby, was out walking his dog when he saw a man being escorted from the building by police. He was barefoot, wearing jeans, and "he was staring, he was expressionless," Madden said.

Yuan Gao, a cousin of the mother, said the man had recently moved to the area and had been staying with different people.

Fire department spokesman Jim Long said emergency workers responded just before 11 p.m. to a 911 call from a person stabbed at the residence in Sunset Park, a working-class neighborhood of adjoining two-story brick buildings with a large Chinese community.

Neighbor May Chan told the Daily News it was "heartbreaking" to learn of the deaths.

"I always see (the kids) running around here," Chan said. "They run around by my garage playing. They run up and down screaming."

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-27-Brooklyn%20Stabbings/id-8be2df4b9c454f54b4e29a82ece5e760
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In Marvel's 'Iron Man,' family's secrets unravel

This image provided by Marvel shows the cover of "Iron Man" No. 17, out Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013 in comic shops. In the issue, Tony Stark, the avenging philanthropic billionaire better known for the high-tech armor he wears as Iron Man, is about to find himself felled by not one, but two, family secrets that has him questioning his place in the world and why the reality of his origin was kept from him. (AP Photo/Marvel)

This image provided by Marvel shows the cover of "Iron Man" No. 17, out Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013 in comic shops. In the issue, Tony Stark, the avenging philanthropic billionaire better known for the high-tech armor he wears as Iron Man, is about to find himself felled by not one, but two, family secrets that has him questioning his place in the world and why the reality of his origin was kept from him. (AP Photo/Marvel)

This image provided by Marvel shows shows a page from "Iron Man" No. 17, out Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013 in comic shops. In the issue, Tony Stark, the avenging philanthropic billionaire better known for the high-tech armor he wears as Iron Man, is about to find himself felled by not one, but two, family secrets that has him questioning his place in the world and why the reality of his origin was kept from him. (AP Photo/Marvel)

Tony Stark's always been a man of many talents for whom surprise is a rare thing.

But the avenging philanthropic billionaire — better known for the high-tech armor he wears as Iron Man — is about to find himself felled by not one, but two, family secrets that has him questioning his place in the world and why the reality of his origin was kept from him.

The big reveal comes in the pages of "Iron Man" No. 17, out Wednesday in comic shops, written by Kieron Gillen, illustrated by Carlo Pagulayan and Scott Hanna, lettered by Joe Caramagna and edited by Mark Paniccia.

In it Gillen brings the long-simmering story to its conclusion with Stark finding out that not only is he — again, spoilers — adopted, but that his parents, Howard and Maria, had a son — imbued with alien technology proffered by the rogue android 451 — who has been hidden away from the world, laden with unknown abilities and, perhaps, powers.

Gillen calls it a new challenge for Stark, one that is closer to home and more down to earth than his normal conflicts, which have included villainous masterminds, god-like alien intelligences and mechanical behemoths, among others.

"What could I do to challenge the characters' core conception of their self," Gillen said in an interview of the revelations which find Tony both accepting of them yet still experiencing a swirl of emotion as the facts of his life come out in full view and meeting his brother, Arno, who has been in a hospital his entire life, wanting for nothing, but an enigma regardless.

"When you discover something about yourself, you reprocess. How does it churn in the gut? How do you re-examine your life?" said Gillen. "It's a completely different prism in how you study yourself."

The notion of Tony's being adopted changes nothing about him as a Stark, said Marvel Editor-In-Chief Axel Alonso.

"When Kieron pitched the story, the bottom line question for us was 'Does this open up the doorway to stories that are worth telling?'" he said. "And it does. Who are Tony's parents? Will he want to know them? How will he feel about Howard? How will this affect the dynamic between father and son?"

That, said Alonso, will enrich Tony and, by extension, Iron Man, whose first appearance was 50 years ago in "Tales of Suspense" No. 39.

"When you introduce a twist this big to an iconic character's life, you have to do due diligence and think through all the angles," he said. "We will definitely have something to say about adoptions and what it means."

___

Moore reported from Philadelphia. Follow him at http://www.twitter.com/mattmooreap

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-10-23-US-Iron-Man's-Secret/id-57f0703d90d74e5f930dca630e2f30fd
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Watchdog: Syria has filed chemical weapon details

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Syria has filed details of its poison gas and nerve agent program and an initial plan to destroy it to the world's chemical weapons watchdog, the organization announced Sunday.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said in a statement that Syria completed its declaration as part of a strict and ambitious timeline that aims to eliminate the lethal stockpile by mid-2014.

The group, based in The Hague, said Syria made the declaration Thursday. The announcement provides "the basis on which plans are devised for a systematic, total and verified destruction of declared chemical weapons and production facilities," the group said.

Such declarations made to the organization are confidential. No details of Syria's program were released.

Syria already had given preliminary details to the OPCW when it said it was joining the organization in September. The move warded off possible U.S. military strikes in the aftermath of an Aug. 21 chemical weapon attack on a Damascus suburb. Syria denies responsibility for the deadly attack.

OPCW inspectors were hastily dispatched to Syria this month and have visited most of the 23 sites Damascus declared. They have also begun overseeing destruction work to ensure that machines used to mix chemicals and fill munitions with poisons are no longer functioning.

Syria is believed to possess around 1,000 metric tons of chemical weapons, including mustard gas and sarin.

It has not yet been decided how or where destruction of Syria's chemical weapons will happen. Syria's declaration includes a general plan for destruction that will be considered by the OPCW's 41-nation executive council on Nov. 15.

Norway's foreign minister announced Friday that the country had turned down a U.S. request to receive the bulk of Syria's chemical weapons for destruction because it doesn't have the capabilities to complete the task by the deadlines given.

The announcement came among renewed fighting in Syria. In the Christian town of Sadad north of Damascus, where al-Qaida-linked rebels and soldiers are fighting for control, a rocket smashed into a home and killed five members of a family, activists said.

At least three women were among the dead, said Rami Abdurrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights. He said it wasn't clear whether the projectile was fired by Syrian soldiers or the hard-line rebels who have been trying to seize the town for the past week.

Abdurrahman said the rocket strike occurred overnight Friday. The Observatory obtains its information from a network of activists on the ground.

He says residents are trapped in their homes in the western neighborhoods of Sadad, which rebels have controlled since taking a checkpoint last week.

The rebels appear to have targeted Sadad because of its strategic location near the main highway north from Damascus rather than because it is inhabited primarily by Christians. But extremists among the rebels are hostile to Syria's Christians minority, which has largely backed President Bashar Assad during the conflict. Other al-Qaida-linked fighters have damaged and desecrated churches in areas they have overrun.

The official Syrian news agency said troops wrested back control of eastern parts of Sadad, but were clashing in other areas.

Also Sunday, Syrian Kurdish gunmen clashed with al-Qaida-linked groups to cement their control of a major border crossing with Iraq. The Kurdish militiamen captured the Yaaroubiyeh post in northeast Syria on Saturday after three days of clashes with several jihadist groups. Abdurrahman said the Kurdish gunmen were fighting pockets of rebels in southern Yaaroubiyeh.

Syria's chaotic three-year-old civil war pits Assad's forces against a disunited array of rebel groups. Al-Qaida-linked hard-liners have fought other groups as well as Kurdish militias who have taken advantage of the government's weakness to cement control over territory dominated by the ethnic minority.

In neighboring Lebanon, another two people were killed by sniper fire during fighting between rival sects in the northern city of Tripoli, the official state news agency reported.

At least nine people have been killed since clashes flared earlier this week, security officials said.

Syria's civil war has effectively spread to Lebanon's second largest city, where it has inflamed tensions between two impoverished Tripoli neighborhoods, home to Assad opponents and supporters.

The Bab Tabbaneh district is largely Sunni Muslim, like Syria's rebels. The other neighborhood Jabal Mohsen mostly has residents of Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

The latest round of fighting began four days ago. Tensions had been mounting since Oct. 14, when a Lebanese military prosecutor pressed charges against seven men, at least one of whom was from Jabal Mohsen, for their involvement in twin bombings near two Sunni mosques in Tripoli on Aug. 23 that killed 47 people.

Lebanon shares its northern and eastern border with Syria. Lebanon's Sunni leadership has mostly supported the rebels, while Alawites and Shiites have backed the Assad government. Members of all three sects have gone as fighters to Syria.

____

AP writer Diaa Hadid reported from Beirut

• Unrest, Conflicts & War
• Politics & Government
• Syria
• chemical weapons

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/watchdog-syria-filed-chemical-weapon-details-112157561.html
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Key U.S. official faces grilling over Obamacare website

By David Morgan and Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two months before the troubled October 1 launch of Obamacare exchanges, a key administration official overseeing the program assured a congressional oversight panel that work was on track to roll out a tested website that would make it easy for Americans to enroll in affordable health insurance coverage.

"This is a large and complicated endeavor that I am proud to lead, and every decision is being made by my prior work experience," Marilyn Tavenner testified on August 1 before the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, describing the launch of the Healthcare.gov website.

Come Tuesday, the former nurse who heads the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will again find herself before a House committee - this time, to explain how Healthcare.gov failed when the administration flipped the on switch. She will face Republicans eager to prove, thus far unsuccessfully, that the White House orchestrated decisions that may have stalled the system.

Lawmakers on both sides of the partisan aisle are growing increasingly impatient with website snafus that they say are frustrating the public and adding to taxpayer costs. The White House has scrambled to fix technical issues and disputes Republican allegations that political motives were behind changes in the website's function.

Tavenner's scheduled testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee is expected to offer insight into the decision-making. A key player, she was cleared to visit the White House 425 times between December 2009 and June 2013, including for several meetings with Obama himself, visitor logs show.

One Oval Office meeting with Obama in March would have occurred as some technology officials in her agency publicly fretted about the possibility that the complicated website would malfunction, telling an insurance forum they were working to avert problems.

Tavenner, 62, who was confirmed for her job by the Senate in May, was optimistic about the rollout when questioned by skeptical Republican senators at an April hearing.

Tavenner is expected to be a critical witness this week because "she's more responsible for decisions made at CMS that probably led to this disaster," said Joe Antos, a healthcare analyst with the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank.

A committee aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: "We expect her to be forthcoming. We think she'll be a very serious witness, and she's certainly integral."

Tavenner appears one day before her boss, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, is due to testify before another panel in the Republican-controlled chamber.

Committee aides hope that Tavenner can describe system problems at the more complicated back end of the federal marketplace, where consumers determine their eligibility for premium subsidies and enroll in coverage. Aides and experts fear new crippling problems could emerge as enrollment picks up in November and early December.

LAST-MINUTE DECISION

There is also intense interest in Washington in learning who decided at the last minute to deny visitors to Healthcare.gov the ability to browse insurance plans without first creating a website account. That decision is widely blamed for the bottlenecks that helped paralyze the system as millions of visitors flooded the marketplace in the first days of enrollment and during the ensuing weeks.

"That (decision) had to be made at the highest possible levels, meaning in my view the White House. That's a strategic call about selling the reform," Antos said.

White House visitor logs, which provide a public record of who visits with administration officials, have not yet been released for the August period when potential problems with the website launch may have been discussed.

Republicans also want to know who in the administration decided to make Tavenner's agency the "quarterback" or system integrator for the huge information technology system behind Healthcare.gov. Analysts say that decision - rather than giving the job to the private sector - also may have created problems.

Last week, the administration announced that it was handing the job over to a private contractor as part of the effort to fix the online enrollment system.

CMS, the agency that oversees the massive federal Medicare and Medicaid programs, already had plenty to do before it took charge of implementing Obamacare, the Senate's leading Republican Mitch McConnell said in May, after voting against Tavenner's confirmation.

Tavenner, who had served as acting administrator for more than a year, was nonetheless easily confirmed by the Senate on a 91-7 vote. Promising to run the agency like a business, she won accolades from leading Republicans who looked favorably on her career as a nurse and later as an executive for Hospital Corporation of America. She left HCA after 25 years to become Virginia's health and human resources secretary.

Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a fellow Virginian, introduced Tavenner at her Senate hearing. He said he differed with Obama's healthcare policy, "but if there is anyone that I trust to try and navigate the challenges, it is Marilyn Tavenner."

House Republican lawmakers at Tuesday's hearing are expected to focus not just on the healthcare website, but on the Affordable Care Act and its impact, aides said.

"The website is terrible ... but the real problem is the law, which is causing people to lose coverage that they already have," one Republican aide said.

Democrats will ask Tavenner what steps the administration will take to fix the reported website problems, one House Democratic aide said.

The Democrats may focus on positive experiences of some of the 700,000 people who have filled out applications as a first step toward enrollment, including some who have been denied insurance previously because of pre-existing conditions, the Democratic aide said.

Nonetheless, Democrats view the hearing as a largely political event staged by Republicans as part of their continued criticism of Obamacare, he said.

On Friday, aides to committee Republicans were reviewing what Tavenner said on the record to Congress about the healthcare website before it went live, and comparing that with the actual rollout.

(Additional reporting by Gabriel Debenedetti; Editing by Marilyn Thompson, Martin Howell and Mohammad Zargham)

• Politics & Government
• Government
• Marilyn Tavenner
• White House

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/key-u-official-faces-grilling-over-obamacare-website-050809165--sector.html
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Natalie Portman Arrives at the Airport with Aleph

She’s been working hard to promote her new movie “Thor: The Dark World,” and Natalie Portman touched down in Paris, France this morning (October 23).

Joined by her adorable son Aleph Millepied, the “V For Vendetta” actress seemed to be in good spirits as she hopped off a plane and scurried off to gather her things and find her ride.

Ms. Portman premiered “Thor” in London’s Leicester Square earlier this week, telling press that “feminism is misinterpreted” in most movies due to the fact that men write the script.

"I don't think that's necessarily feminist to see women like we see men in movies. Just having a range of different ways women can be - whether it's weak and strong, just being human and being real, and not just being some fantasy of a male writer - is more feminist than 'she knows how to do kung fu.’”

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/natalie-portman/natalie-portman-arrives-airport-aleph-1051137
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