US companies post more jobs, but fill them slowly

WASHINGTON (AP) ? U.S. employers advertised the most job openings in nearly five years in February, but overall hiring rose at a much slower pace. The figures suggest companies are too cautious about the economy to quickly fill open jobs.

The Labor Department said Tuesday that the number of available jobs rose 8.7 percent in February from January to a seasonally adjusted 3.93 million ? the highest since May 2008.

At the same time, companies hired a seasonally adjusted 4.4 million people. That's just 2.8 percent higher than January. And hiring remains lower than it was a year ago, when it reached 4.49 million.

Economists say there are several likely reasons for the disparity. Unemployed workers may lack the skills employers seek. Or companies may not be offering enough pay.

Hiring slowed sharply in March, despite the increase in job openings the previous month. Employers added only 88,000 net new jobs last month. That's the fewest in nine months and nearly half the pace of the previous six months.

Companies may have slowed hiring after steep, across-the-board government spending cuts took effect March 1. Those cuts are expected to shave about a half-point from economic growth this year.

Many companies may also be more reluctant to fill positions until they find the perfect candidate, according to many recruiting and staffing firms.

The increase in openings has steadily reduced the competition for each job. There were 3.1 unemployed people, on average, for each opening in February. That's down from a peak of 6.7 in July 2009, the highest in the 12 years the government has tracked the data.

But February's ratio is still above the ratio of 2 to 1 that is typical in a healthy economy. And in February, roughly 12 million Americans were unemployed.

Until companies start filling more jobs, the smaller ratio may prove to be less significant than in healthier economies.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-04-09-Job%20Openings/id-bd7d9e4c9a514cacb4199d54379756ba

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Google Fiber officially confirmed for Austin launch [updated]

With all this talk about the cord-cutting masses no longer wanting to subsidize TV channels they don't watch, it's a little surprising that one of the oldest, most widely available forms of TV is waning: over-the-air broadcast TV. Despite its attractive price of $0 per month and billions of advertising revenue, nobody ? including the broadcast networks, the tech companies that are out to disrupt them, and the cord-cutters and cord-nevers who hate cable ? is very enthusiastic about antennas. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/google-fiber-officially-confirmed-austin-launch-updated-194549818.html

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Bankrupt San Bernardino, creditors to meet in "painfully slow" case

By Tim Reid

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Creditors of bankrupt San Bernardino, including America's biggest pension fund and Wall Street bondholders, are due to meet in court on Tuesday in a case bogged down in arguments over the Southern California city's disclosure of financial records.

The slow progress in San Bernardino's case contrasts with that of another California city, Stockton, which last week was declared eligible for municipal bankruptcy in proceedings that have moved relatively swiftly since it filed for Chapter 9 in June.

For San Bernardino, a city of 210,000 which filed for bankruptcy just a month after Stockton and declared a fiscal emergency to avoid pre-bankruptcy negotiations with creditors, it is still unclear if the judge will be able to set a trial date to determine the city's eligibility for Chapter 9 protection.

"It's like Stockton is on jet fuel, and San Bernardino is walking," said Karol Denniston, a bankruptcy attorney with Schiff Hardin in San Francisco, who is not involved in either case.

"One city has got liquidity to work with and sophisticated planning. The other fell into bankruptcy and is crawling along, with a lack of staff and chaos. It's as different as you can get."

Both cities are considered test cases in the battle over whether municipal bondholders or pensioners will absorb most of the pain when a government goes broke. Battle lines have been drawn in both cases between Calpers, the state pension fund, and Wall Street bondholders over how they will be treated as creditors.

In August last year, San Bernardino, 60 miles east of Los Angeles, stopped paying its $1.2 million, twice weekly employer contributions to Calpers - America's biggest pension fund, with assets of $256 billion. The pension fund is opposing its bankruptcy petition. Stockton has kept current on its Calpers payments, and the fund did not oppose that city's bankruptcy.

Calpers says that for months it has been asking for an array of financial information from San Bernardino, whose city manager and finance chief both quit earlier this year. Last week San Bernardino's council voted to contract out its finance department.

A Calpers spokesman said there had been "fruitful" meetings with San Bernardino, but "progress remains painfully slow."

SAN BERNARDINO SAYS HAS PROVIDED DOCUMENTS

In a court filing submitted on Monday afternoon, San Bernardino said it had provided more than 23,200 documents in support of its bankruptcy application.

The city said it "is making every effort to meet Calpers' proposed deadlines and still devote sufficient resources to the City's daily operations."

Last week, three labor unions asked the judge overseeing San Bernardino's case to allow them to sue the city in state court, so the unions could try to overturn contracts imposed by the city that cut pensions and other benefits.

The judge, Meredith Jury, said she would probably rule on that motion on Tuesday, but indicated that she was unlikely to allow the unions' request to bypass the federal bankruptcy court.

In December, she blocked a similar attempt by Calpers to bypass the bankruptcy court and collect on its overdue pension payments from San Bernardino.

The judge also repeated an assertion she made at an earlier hearing - that she is convinced the city is insolvent.

Denniston said what the city must now show is that it acted in good faith with its creditors when it declared bankruptcy.

The burden of proof on that is higher for San Bernardino than Stockton, because in San Bernardino's case the city declared a fiscal emergency before filing for bankruptcy - a move aimed at avoiding pre-bankruptcy negotiations with creditors.

Denniston said San Bernardino is the first city to take the fiscal emergency route, and must now show, among other things, that it was not a self-created fiscal emergency due to years of bad financial management, which some creditors, including Calpers, claim.

(Editing by Tiziana Barghini, Leslie Gevirtz and Mohammad Zargham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bankrupt-san-bernardino-creditors-meet-painfully-slow-case-004952088--sector.html

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New mechanism for cell membrane fission proposed

Apr. 8, 2013 ? A study led by the Membrane Nanomechanics group of the Biophysics Unit of the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country has made it possible to characterise the functioning of a protein responsible for cell membrane splitting. The results of the study, published in the journal Science, make it possible to see the basic mechanisms of cell life from a fresh perspective, like the fusion and splitting of cell membranes. What is more, the methodology developed will allow various neuromuscular disorders to be diagnosed.

Cells have a series of specialised proteins so that their membranes can join together (fuse) or separate (split) without losing their protective role against the external medium. One of these specialised proteins is the protein dynamin responsible for the constriction and fission of the necks of endocytic vesicles. Two of the main characteristics of dynamin are its assembly capacity on membranes with high curvature (the necks of the vesicles) and its GTP activity, in other words, the capacity to use the energy stored inside the GTP molecules. GTP, which stands for guanosine triphosphate, is a chemical compound that plays a crucial role in cell metabolism.

It was hitherto thought that the dynamin used the GTP energy to produce a very strong constriction of the neck of the vesicle and thus bring about its fission. Nevertheless, the study led by the Ikerbasque lecturer, Vadim Frolov, has enabled the fission action by the dynamin to be characterised for the first time on nanometric scales and with great time resolution. "We have managed to characterise the minimal functional unit of the dynamin," says the researcher. This study has made it possible to separate the membrane splitting process by the dynamin into two stages: the first, a purely mechanical one in which the constriction of the vesicle neck takes place, and the second, in which the dynamin "functions like a catalytic centre by inserting some of its domains into the membrane," explains Frolov. "The GTP hydrolysis increases the internal flexibility of the dynamin molecule, thus allowing the optimum shape of the protein to be found on the membrane so that it splits. This optimization constitutes the essence of "geometric catalysis," a new way of seeing the activity of the proteins while the membrane is being remodelled," he adds.

Protein involved in neurodegenerative diseases

According to Frolov, this study has marked "the start of a new line of research in the Membrane Nanomechanics group." In fact, this project, which has had a two-year duration, has led to "the specification and development of the method necessary to be able to characterise the action of dynamin with great space-time precision." It is a combination of fluorescence microscopy measurements and electrophysiological ones. "Now we are in a position to measure the passing of the ions along the inside of a lipid nanotube while we observe it by means of fluorescence microscopy. The result can be translated into a technique that allows very fast processes on very small scales to be characterised," says Frolov.

"This technique will enable us to study why small mutations in the dynamin lead to various human diseases, like neuromuscular diseases," adds Frolov.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Basque Research, via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. A. V. Shnyrova, P. V. Bashkirov, S. A. Akimov, T. J. Pucadyil, J. Zimmerberg, S. L. Schmid, V. A. Frolov. Geometric Catalysis of Membrane Fission Driven by Flexible Dynamin Rings. Science, 2013; 339 (6126): 1433 DOI: 10.1126/science.1233920

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://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/le57uk-FfZ0/130408085041.htm

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Egyptian court dismisses lawsuit to ban comedy show

On Saturday a Cairo court dismissed a lawsuit against the popular Egyptian comedy show by satirist Bassem Youssef. Youssef has been under fire for criticizing Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi.

By Aya Batrawy,?Associated Press / April 6, 2013

A bodyguard secures popular Egyptian television satirist Bassem Youssef, who has come to be known as Egypt's Jon Stewart, as he enters Egypt's state prosecutors office to face accusations of insulting Islam and the country's Islamist leader in Cairo, Egypt March 31.

Amr Nabil/AP/File

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A Cairo court on Saturday dismissed a lawsuit filed by an Islamist lawyer demanding that a popular Egyptian satirist's TV show be banned for allegedly insulting the president and containing excessive sexual innuendo.

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Judge Hassouna Tawfiq said the court dropped the complaint against Bassem Youssef's "ElBernameg," or "The Program," because the plaintiff did not have an interest in the case. Youssef still faces other investigations related to the show but the ruling may set a precedent.

The comedian has been in the international spotlight since Egyptian authorities brought him in for questioning this week in a separate case over the same accusations, a move that prompted criticism from as far away as Washington. On his Jon Stewart-inspired show, Youssef frequently satirizes everything from President Mohammed Morsi's policies to his mannerisms, as well as hardline Islamic clerics, while highlighting contradictions in their comments.

His criticism of Morsi and the president's backers in the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most organized political force, has angered some within the Islamist fundamentalist group.

Plaintiff Mahmoud Abul-Enein, a Brotherhood lawyer, filed the suit demanding the suspension of the license of the private satellite TV channel, the Capital Broadcasting Center, which airs Youssef's show. He claimed the comedian's program "corrupted morals" and violated "religious principles."

A chief Brotherhood lawyer said that Abul-Enein's lawsuit was filed independent of the group.

The president's office said earlier this week that it was not involved in the legal action against Youssef, and that it recognizes the "importance of freedom of expression."

In his written opinion, the judge explained that "it is clear from the statement released by the president's office ... that the presidency is not going to file a complaint against media personality Bassem Youssef or anyone else out of respect for freedom of expression."

"It is the right of citizens to express themselves freely far from restrictions and the presidency urges respect for the law," the judge added.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/sEE09ABNGN0/Egyptian-court-dismisses-lawsuit-to-ban-comedy-show

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Bad weather hits British wheat crops

6 April 2013 Last updated at 12:17 ET

Britain will become a net importer of wheat for the first time in a decade this year because of bad weather, the National Farmers' Union has said.

NFU president Peter Kendall said more than two million tonnes of wheat had been lost because of last year's poor summer.

The prolonged cold weather would also hit this autumn's harvest, he said.

But he said the shortage was unlikely to affect the price of bread because of the global nature of the market.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Kendall said the average yield fell from 7.8 tonnes a hectare to 6.7 tonnes last summer.

Looking ahead to the 2013 harvest, he said farmers had only managed to get three quarters of the planned wheat planted this year, so the UK was already 25% down on potential production.

"I've been walking crops yesterday on the farm in Bedfordshire and they look pretty thin. We would normally say you should hide a hare in a crop of wheat in March. You'd struggle to cover a mouse in some of mine.

"If we got three quarters of the area planted, and the same yield as last year, we could be looking at a crop of only 11m tonnes of wheat when we actually need 14.5m tonnes of wheat for our own domestic use here in the UK," he said.

'Written off 2013'

Andrew Watts, a wheat farmer and the NFU combinable crops board chairman, said farmers had been hoping for a kind autumn after a poor harvest in 2012, but this had not happened.

"It seems many farmers have written 2013 off and are trying to do what they can with the crops in the ground. Everyone is focussing on 2014 and making sure the land is in a good condition to get good crops then.

"This is what producing food is all about - the weather."

He added: "We have got to put it in context, this is only the first time since the late 1970s that we have been net importers, Over the past five or six years we have been in surplus."

The crop damage is dealing a further blow to Britain's farming industry, which is already reeling from a spate of recent livestock deaths due to the cold weather.

But Mr Kendall said only about 10% of the cost of a loaf of was attributable to wheat. The rest was due to processing, transport, and packaging, he said.

"We could see wheat double and the impact on a loaf of bread would not be enormous.

"But we need to make sure, in the UK, we are producing raw materials for what has been - despite the weather - a fantastically successful sector," he said.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22050874#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Taking Aim: Dr. Karen Remley Brings Visionary Leadership to ...

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Written by Alison Johnson

?

Last year, when Dr. Karen Remley was still State Health Commissioner, she assembled a standing desk in her Richmond office so she could do a little dancing while answering emails. Since resigning that post and taking a leadership position at Eastern Virginia Medical School last month, Remley has upped the calorie-burning ante a bit: she ordered a standing treadmill desk.

At 56, Remley believes in tapping all available resources to be as healthy as possible. She?s bringing that same vision to her new job as founding director of EVMS? M. Foscue Brock Institute for Community and Global Health, which aims to connect medical students, residents and faculty even more closely with their surrounding communities.?

The more doctors know about the populations they serve-?specific health data and trouble spots, cultural diversity and existing resources-?the better they?ll be at helping individual patients and planning outreach and service projects, says Remley, also an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Health Professions. ?

?Our vision is to be the most community-oriented medical school in the country,? she says. ?It?s about understanding what a community really needs and wants, versus what you just think is a good idea.?

An out-of-state medical student, for example, might not grasp how the region?s bridges and tunnels can impact where people want to go for care, or the issues that affect retired military populations. The institute, named for a well-loved community physician, aims to help EVMS target its clinical, research and education programs and student-led clubs to areas of greatest local need.? ?

Remley has approached health care from many sides during her career, as an emergency room pediatrician at Children?s Hospital of The King?s Daughters, a hospital vice president, the medical director at an insurance company, a leader of two medical charities and, from 2008 to 2012, the state?s health commissioner, or principal advisor to the governor and legislature.?

?Our vision is to be the most community-oriented medical school in the country,? she says. ?It?s about understanding what a community really needs and wants, versus what you just think is a good idea.?

Last October, Remley stepped down over concerns about the politically-charged process to develop new regulations for the state?s abortion clinics. ?It was the hardest decision I?ve ever made in my life,? she says, calling herself ?humbled and honored? to hold the post. Highlights of her tenure include improved infant mortality and vaccination rates, narrowing health disparities between racial groups and stronger communication between public health leaders and doctors in private practice.?

A native of Las Vegas, Nevada, where her father was stationed at Nellis Air Force Base, Remley earned her undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a Master of Business Administration from Duke University. She moved to Hampton Roads in 1991 to work at CHKD and teach at EVMS. ?So now I?m back-?it?s like I took a very long sabbatical,? she says with a laugh.?

Remley and her husband John Onufer, a cardiac electrophysiologist, have two daughters: Kathleen, 27, an urban planner in New Orleans, and Emily, 25, who?s a second-year medical student in Richmond. The couple still divides time between homes in Virginia Beach and Richmond, which means Remley has to work harder at her New Year?s resolution of building more physical activity into her day. She usually gets on a rowing machine for 30 minutes at 5:30 or 6 a.m., watching the sun rise and listening to National Public Radio, and tries to take 10,000 steps daily.?

As for her mental health, Remley likes to read, garden and laugh with family and friends. Plus there?s her stress-busting office boogying?or, with the treadmill desk, walking and running?done to music mixes made by her daughters. And Remley also draws energy from her work. ?

?I?m so excited to continue my passion for uniting public health with clinical healthcare, and reaching young people just getting into the medical profession,? she says. ?They?re not going to be in their 30s and 40s, still trying to figure out what their community looks like.?

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Source: http://www.thehealthjournals.com/2013/04/karen-remley-evms/

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