'DWTS' reveals latest cut ? and Maks' return

ABC

Lisa Vanderpump's time in the ballroom with pro Gleb Savchenko has ended.

By Drusilla Moorhouse, TODAY contributor

Lisa Vanderpump didn't quit "Dancing With the Stars" -- she was voted out.

Considering how ill she was -- she fainted during practice and was vomiting in her trailer during most of Monday's performance show -- many believed that the "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star would withdraw like Dorothy Hamill did in week one. ?

But she remained, and was the last star standing alongside Victor Ortiz when host Tom Bergeron asked to "cue the dramatic music" (such a card, that guy). The pro boxer will continue to fight for the mirror ball trophy, while Lisa and partner Gleb Savchenko are leaving the ballroom.

While her family (including Giggy) applauded from the audience, Lisa insisted she was leaving on a high note.

"Just to be included with this (wonderful) group of people," she told co-host Brooke Burke-Charvet, "I'm really happy. It's been six long weeks -- boy, has it taken its toll. It's been the hardest thing I've ever done."

"I was given a gift dancing with (Gleb)," she added. "He's been so patient. ?I'd like to thank my castmates -- they've been amazing and made it so much fun."

ABC shook things up by declaring six couples safe -- including "Bachelor" star Sean Lowe and Peta Murgatroyd -- in the first third of the show. Before the last commercial break, Tom revealed that comedian D.L. Hughley and Cheryl Burke were also safe. Then underdog Andy Dick and his partner, Sharna Burgess, were quickly plucked from the trio of couples in jeopardy. ?

The first "safe" couple, Aly Raisman and Mark Ballas, were also selected to perform an encore of their Monday dance. (Len Goodman joked that he'd coached the Olympic gymnast all day on how to improve her backflip.)

Other standouts of Tuesday's results show:

• Brooke's baffling dress, the inspiration for hundreds of Twitter jokes about her "thong" necklace. (If it were a two-hour show, maybe "Brooke's thong" would have its own Twitter account.)

• Blind dancer Brilynn Rakes' beautiful performance with Derek Hough.

• Anna Trebunskaya returning to dance with Val Chmerkovisky during Jennifer Lopez and Andrea Bocelli's duet.

• Peta Murgatroyd and Tony Dovolani performing while Brad Paisley sang "Southern Comfort Zone" (not "Accidental Racist").

• Val dancing with Karina Smirnoff. Maybe not a highlight, but still enjoyable because of their awkward pairing.

Next week will introduce a brand new theme: Len's side-by-side challenge! Each couple will have to dance alongside returning pros including Maks Chmerkovisky, Chelsie Hightower, Tony Dovolani and Tristan MacManus.

Did the right dancer go home? Tell us on our Facebook page!

Related content:

More in The Clicker:

Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2013/04/09/17676945-lisa-vanderpump-eliminated-from-dancing-with-the-stars?lite

mega millions winner holy thursday chris stewart evo 4g lte marlins new stadium arnold palmer augusta national

Employers eager for new foreign worker program

WASHINGTON (AP) ? As desperate as unemployed Americans are to find work, there are still some jobs that many would never consider applying for because they are seen as too dirty, too demanding or just plain unappealing.

But employers that struggle to fill those jobs ? washing dishes, cleaning hotels, caring for the elderly ? could soon get help now that business groups and labor unions have agreed on a plan to allow thousands of new low-skilled foreign workers into the workforce.

The deal, which still needs final agreement from lawmakers, is one of the last major hurdles to completing immigration overhaul legislation this year, one of President Barack Obama's highest priorities. It is expected to be part of a broader measure that would address the status of the 11 million immigrants who either arrived in the U.S. illegally or overstayed their visas.

The new program, called the "W'' visa, is crucial for companies like Medicalodges Inc., a Kansas-based company that wants foreign workers to help run its chain of nursing homes and assisted-living facilities and perform in-home care for the elderly and people with developmental disabilities.

"We've offered signing bonuses, set up tables in grocery stores, sent direct mail, posted job openings on the Web, even laundromats, and it's still not enough to fill positions," said Fred Benjamin, chief operating officer for the company that operates in Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.

"It's tough work taking care of people with Alzheimer's and dementia that may strike somebody or scream at people, may be incontinent, have difficulty getting in and out of bed, or need help feeding," he said. "But we believe there are a lot of people from other countries who would gladly take these jobs."

The average salary for nursing assistants is $9.50 an hour, while licensed practical nurses with at least two years of college training can earn about $16.50 an hour. But the company says it has little room to increase wages to attract workers because most of the patients they care for receive fixed Medicaid or Medicare payments.

The new W visa program would admit 20,000 low-skilled foreign workers starting in 2015 and could gradually grow up to a cap of 200,000 after five years. The number of visas would fluctuate, depending on unemployment rates, job openings, employer demand and other data.

It would fill a gap in current law, which doesn't give employers a good way to bring in such workers for year-round positions. The existing H-2B visa program for low-wage nonagricultural workers is capped at 66,000 per year and applies only to seasonal or temporary jobs.

If other temporary worker programs are any indication, most of the foreign workers taking advantage of the new W-visa program would come from Mexico, Jamaica and Guatemala. About 80 percent of workers in the H-2B visa program in 2011 were from Mexico, according to State Department data.

"It's not perfect, but it's probably as good as it can reasonably be to make both sides happy in a way that protects the interests of U.S. workers while also bringing workers in when employers truly need them, not just when they say they need them," said Daniel Costa, immigration policy analyst at the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

Labor unions have criticized other temporary worker programs, claiming that businesses don't look hard enough for American workers to fill the jobs and that foreign workers depress U.S. wages and have no chance for advancement. But unions made sure more protections were built into the new program.

The number of workers admitted each year would fluctuate based on actual employer needs determined by a new federal bureau to monitor the job market. Workers would earn the same wages paid to U.S. workers or the prevailing wages for the industry they're working in, whichever is higher. And it would allow foreign workers to move from employer to employer, petition for permanent residency after a year, and eventually seek U.S. citizenship.

Not all business groups are pleased with the deal. Several major construction industry groups issued a statement criticizing the agreement for limiting the number of visas for construction workers to 15,000.

"A guest worker program that fails to provide a sufficient number of visas to meet market demand as the construction sector recovers will inevitably make it harder to fill critical labor openings," said a statement from Associated Builders and Contractors, the National Association of Home Builders and other groups.

Labor unions, worried about members losing jobs to foreign workers, argued that construction should be treated differently from other industries because it can be more seasonal in nature and includes a number of higher-skilled trades.

But the agreement is seen as a boon to employers in long-term care, the hotel and restaurant industry and other low-wage service sectors that are among the fastest-growing job categories in the nation. Seven of the 10 largest occupations in the country now pay less than $30,000 a year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"We want to hire Americans, we do everything we can to hire Americans, but if no more Americans are available we would like access to those foreign-born workers," said Shawn McBurney, senior vice president of government affairs at the American Hotel and Lodging Association.

Many hotels pay $10.50 an hour and up for entry-level housekeeping jobs, McBurney said, and offer employees the potential of working their way up to better jobs.

"Even though the employment rate isn't what we'd like it to be, there are jobs at hotels that Americans just don't want to take, despite the amount of pay we offer, the benefits and the upward mobility," McBurney said.

___

Follow Sam Hananel on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamHananelAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-04-10-Immigration-Foreign%20Workers/id-60610628254a4d85a39575987dc47095

epo suits PlayStation Network chip kelly NRA Golden Globes 2013 Anna Kendrick

Korg announces Volca analog synth series, we go eyes-on

Korg's love of the mini-analog synth clearly remains strong as it's added three more new ones to the fold -- the Volca Beat, Volca Bass and Volca Keys (the clue to what they do is in the names). While some firms take a pro product and work down, making cheaper versions, Korg seems to take a different approach. It did the stripping-back thing when it launched its popular Monotron synth. Since then, it's incrementally developed it back up into a whole category of its own, the latest iteration of which we apparently see before us here. The trio of mini-synths clearly take inspiration from the Monotribe groovebox that came before them, but are a step up in terms of design. Brushed metal finishes give them a vintage, almost Stylophone feel. The Volca Bass, in particular, looks almost too much like the legendary Roland TB-303 to be coincidence, and if we didn't know better, we'd say the color scheme of the Beat echoes the TR-808. As we happened to be in Frankfurt, we couldn't resist getting out hands on them, or as you'll see past the break, at least trying to.

Gallery: Korg Volca series eyes-on

Filed under: Misc

Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/kdXf5XS5PWM/

sean taylor Lisa Robin Kelly Nexus 4 Girl Meets World Jason Babin Nolan Daniels angus t. jones

Facebook Home hands-on (video)

We've taken a closer look at the HTC First hardware, so let's dig into the firmware side -- namely, the Facebook Home user interface featured on the First. As we heard prior to the event, Home is essentially a skinned version of Android OS that unsurprisingly offers a deeper amount of integration with the social network. As the name of the phone implies, this isn't going to be the same one-and-done deal that we've seen on other devices bearing the unofficial title of "Facebook Phone"; Home is likely here for the foreseeable future, so we'll go more in-depth on the UI and our first impressions.

Filed under: Internet, Facebook

Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/V2V_b5cxa6I/

billy crystal oscars 2012 angelina jolie oscars chardon high school christopher plummer viola davis school shooting in ohio shooting at chardon high school

Aid groups: US should send cash, not food, abroad

WASHINGTON (AP) -- After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, former President Bill Clinton apologized for long championing food aid policies that helped Arkansas rice growers but made it harder for the impoverished country to grow its own crop.

Floods of imports of U.S. rice had put many of the country's growers out of business, and Clinton called his policies a "mistake."

Three years later, aid groups are pushing President Barack Obama to make the kind of change Clinton argued was needed and send cash in lieu of crops.

The White House won't say whether Obama's budget proposal, scheduled to come out next week, will suggest changing the way foreign food aid is distributed. But food aid groups, farm groups and their allies in Congress are preparing for the possibility Obama will tackle the issue in his second term.

At issue is whether the government should ship U.S.-grown food overseas to aid developing countries and starving people or simply help those countries with cash to buy food. Currently, the United States is shipping food abroad under the "Food for Peace" program started almost six decades ago by President Dwight Eisenhower to help farmers get rid of food surpluses and boost the country's image during the Cold War.

This approach has long been a profitable enterprise for American farmers and shippers, and those groups are strongly opposing any changes to the program.

But several food aid groups say times have changed and argue that shipping bulk food abroad is inefficient and expensive when government budgets are tight and developing countries need every dollar. Particularly controversial is the process of what is called "monetization," or selling the food once it arrives overseas to finance development projects. A 2011 report by the Government Accountability Office found monetization cost the U.S. an extra $219 million over a three years, money that could have been used for other development projects.

Aid groups are split on the point, since some finance their activities through monetization. But major aid groups like Oxfam and CARE say the process can destroy local agriculture by dumping cheap crops on the market at a price too low for local farmers to compete.

The food aid groups are pushing Obama to shift all or part of the average $1.8 billion spent on the program annually to other cash development accounts. If the administration does propose change, it could be in for a tough political battle.

Worried that an overhaul of the Food for Peace program could come in Obama's budget, a bipartisan group of 21 senators wrote a letter to the president in February asking him not to make changes.

"American agriculture is one of the few U.S. business sectors to produce a trade surplus, exporting $108 billion in farm goods in 2010," the senators wrote. "During this time of economic distress, we should maintain support for the areas of our economy that are growing."

The letter was signed by Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, the chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor, the Democratic chairman of the Senate subcommittee that controls agriculture spending. The top Republicans on both of those panels signed the letter as well, as did Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski of Maryland.

Farm groups say the program is also a public relations tool for the United States.

"Bags of U.S.-grown food bearing the U.S. flag and stamped as "From the American People" serve as ambassadors of our nation's goodwill, which can help to address the root causes of instability," several farm and shipping groups wrote in a February letter to Obama.

"These are the kinds of things you don't want to make dramatic quick changes to," says Roger Johnson, president of the National Farmers Union, one of the groups that signed the letter.

But aid groups say change is a long time coming. Gawain Kripke of Oxfam says his group estimates that by spending the same amount of money, the United States could provide assistance for 17 million more poor people by changing the way the aid is distributed.

Blake Selzer of CARE says he is encouraged that food aid is being discussed.

"A lot of people don't understand our food aid program," he says. "The more daylight this is given the more people will say to themselves, is this the best way to use our tax dollars?"

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/aid-groups-us-send-cash-195948893.html

nba finals K Michelle roger clemens multiple sclerosis falling skies rodney king Webb Simpson

A New Microchip for Early Cancer Detection

Using a plastic chip, doctors may soon be able to detect a much wider range of cancer cells in their patients' blood, according to a study published yesterday in Science Transitional Medicine. Their work focuses on a new version of the CTC-Chip, a technology first developed in 2007 to detect circulating tumor cells, the cells that leave a tumor and travel through the bloodstream to metastasize in other parts of the body.

The original lab-on-a-chip, no bigger than a microscope slide, works by passing blood samples through a set of nearly 80,000 posts, each barely the size of a human hair and coated with antibodies that attract circulating tumor cells, or CTCs. Once the sample has passed through, researchers can examine the chip and count CTCs to see how far the cancer has progressed. The problem until now has been that chips rely on the presence of the cell-surface protein EpCAM to capture CTCs. But some cancer cells?including those found in melanoma and certain types of breast cancer?have a reduced number of EpCAMs or lack them completely, making them hard to catch.

The new device, made of multiple chips, gets around this problem by targeting the blood cells in a patient's sample rather than the cancer cells. The first chip in the system skims off the tiny red blood cells and platelets so that only the CTCs and white blood cells flow into the second. This second chip draws the remaining cells into a single-file line, where tiny magnetic beads, each about the size of a bacterium, grab surface proteins specific to white blood cells. Finally, a magnetic field attracts the pairs of white blood cells and magnetic beads, leaving just the CTCs to be collected.

Mehmet Toner, a biomedical engineer and professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School who worked on both models of the chip, says the new generation makes three major improvements.

First, he tells PM, the chip has a much higher throughput. For early cancer detection, when cancer cells are scarce, a chip needs to be able to process about 10 to 20 milliliters of blood. The first chip could process only 1 to 2 milliliters per hour, meaning hours of processing for a single test. The new chip can process 10 milliliters of blood per hour.

The new chip can also find CTCs that lack the EpCAM protein, which escaped the earlier model. "Our original vision was that most cancers are epithelial and had EpCAMs," Toner says, "but it turns out that you need different flavors of antibody for different stages of cancer?cells can change their phenotype," or composition, "with time and treatment. So looking for a specific antibody on the surface of the cancer cell was a little bit na?ve." Now the antigen-independent chip can detect cells from virtually any kind of cancer.

Finally, the new chip preserves CTCs in an "unaltered and pristine state" instead of letting them get stuck to tiny posts on the microchip. With these cells, Toner says, doctors can do precise pathological and genetic studies, telling them much more about the progression of their patients' cancers. These three improvements, Toner says, could make the chips much better at detecting cancer early.

"AIDS is a good analogy for cancer treatment," Toner says. "In this country, it's a chronic disease. We have a test, we can diagnosis it and treat it and monitor the patient. You have a very individual level of monitoring and diagnosis. We can't do this with cancer. In underdeveloped countries, they detect AIDS too late and bombard the patient with toxic drugs, and still barely anyone survives. We are treating cancer in the West like they treat AIDS in Third World countries. We wait too long to find it, and treatment is expensive, and survival rates are low."

Toner also hopes the chip's relative ease of production?it is plastic instead of glass and uses commercially available magnetic beads?will make its transition to the mass market a quick one. The developers are working with Johnson & Johnson to distribute the product, which will soon undergo clinical trials. "We are hopeful and excited," he says, "that this will become a reality in the very-near term."

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/breakthroughs/a-new-microchip-for-early-cancer-detection-15306261?src=rss

Jerry Buss Chris Bosh wife josh duhamel josh smith presidents day mindy mccready mindy mccready

How Chess Got Its Timeless Style

You know a chess piece when you see one. They might be the most recognizable objects in gaming. But they didn't always look that way. In fact, for the longest time they didn't even look a way. The Smithsonian Magazine dug into the roots of that iconic design and it's not as old as you might think. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/eN7ks8a3rp4/how-chess-got-its-timeless-style

Conclave tmz Sizzurp the bachelor earthquake What is a Jesuit nbc news