Internet opens elite colleges to all

There has never been a more exciting time for the intellectually curious.

The world's top universities have come late to the world of online education, but they're arriving at last, creating an all-you-can eat online buffet of information.

And mostly, they are giving it away.

MIT's initiative is the largest, but the trend is spreading. More than 100 universities worldwide, including Johns Hopkins, Tufts and Notre Dame, have joined MIT in a consortium of schools promoting their own open courseware. You no longer need a Princeton ID to hear the prominent guests who speak regularly on campus, just an Internet connection. This month, Yale announced it would make material from seven popular courses available online, with 30 more to follow.

As with many technology trends, new services and platforms are driving change. Last spring marked the debut of "iTunes U," a section of Apple's popular music and video downloading service now publicly hosting free material from 28 colleges. Meanwhile, the University of California, Berkeley recently announced it would be the first to make full course lectures available on YouTube.

Sync your iPod with iTunes and... rent a movie?

Apple Inc and Twentieth Century Fox are set to announce a deal that will allow consumers to rent Fox movies through Apple's digital iTunes Store, according to media reports on Thursday.

Patriots, Patriots, everywhere

As the NFL's New England Patriots attempt to finish the regular season Saturday as the first team ever with a 16-0 record, the game may appear to be everywhere you turn.

It almost is.

CBS and NBC will carry the NFL Network feed in the first simultaneously broadcast football game since the 1967 Super Bowl.

"We have taken this extraordinary step because it is in the best interest of our fans," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement, citing the "potentially historic" element of the game.

The Patriots will play the New York Giants on Saturday after beating the Miami Dolphins earlier this week, leaving it with a perfect 15-0 record in the season to date.

Former South Korea president to visit Portland

Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000, will speak in Portland in April, organizers announced Sunday.

Kim, 82, will speak at the University of Portland and at a downtown hotel, discussing his vision for peace on the Korean peninsula, according to the Wholistic Peace Institute. The Oregon organization is sponsoring the visit with the university and with the Kim Dae Jung Peace Center in Seoul.

Tickets and information are available from worldpeace@canby.com.

Kim was a longtime opposition-party member who survived assassination attempts, a kidnapping and imprisonment. He was elected president in 1997, and received the Nobel after participating in the first North-South presidential summit with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-il.

Kim completed his presidential term in 2003. He continues to support South Korea's Sunshine Policy of cooperation with North Korea, which his administration launched.

Kim visited Portland in 1995, when he received an honorary doctorate from Portland State University.

Bush passes on expanded care for kids

President Bush on Wednesday was ready to veto legislation that passed with bipartisan support to dramatically expand government-provided health insurance for children.

Innovative idea... Give customers a choice!

usatoday.com reports starting immediately, AT&T customers can ditch their AT&T phones and use any wireless phone, device and software application from any maker — think smartphones, e-mail and music downloading. And they don't have to sign a contract.

"You can use any handset on our network you want," says Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T's wireless business. "We don't prohibit it, or even police it."

Selfishly, this is good news for me, I'm with AT&T.

Cops: Man's wedding ring saved his life

AP News - Donnie Register has a new reason to be thankful he's married — police say his wedding band deflected a bullet and probably saved his life.

Two men walked into Register's shop at The Antique Market on Saturday and asked to see a coin collection, police Sgt. Jeffery Scott said.

When Register retrieved the collection, one of the men pulled a gun and demanded money. A shot was fired as Register threw up his left hand, and his wedding ring deflected the bullet, police said.

"The bullet managed to go through two of his fingers without severing the bone," said his wife, Darlene Register. "A part of the bullet broke off and is in his middle finger. The other part is in his neck, lodged in the muscle tissue. But it's not life-threatening."

She said she gives God all the credit.

Police were searching for the robbers, who Scott said "stole a substantial amount of cash."

New York police recruits use iPods to study

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Police Department is handing out iPods to academy recruits for the first time to allow them to listen to and watch coursework on the subway.

The iPods are "fully loaded" with subject matter including criminal procedure, New York State Penal Law, warrants, ethics and community policing, the department said on Monday.

Outfitting recruits with gadgets instead of books comes in handy because many students take public transportation to class.

"Now a recruit can watch a class on 'search and seizure' while going home on the subway," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a statement.

The current academy class includes 947 recruits and is scheduled for graduation on December 27.

60 minutes editorial of Bill Gates

Oregon Guard facing biggest deployment since WWII - Breaking News Updates - OregonLive.com

A 3,500-member Oregon Army National Guard unit has been put on alert that it will deploy sometime in 2009, most likely to Iraq or Afghanistan, according to an Oregonian report .

The 41st Brigade Combat Team, a light infantry brigade with units spread throughout the state, is now in line for a likely combat tour, said Brig. Gen. Mike Caldwell. It would be the largest single deployment of Oregon Guard troops since World War II, he said.

'This will be the big one,' said Caldwell, the Oregon Guard's second in command. If all 3,500 soldiers are deployed, the mission would include more than half of the state's 6,400 Army National Guard troops.

College course via mobile phone being offered in Japan - Engadget Mobile

Posted by Joshua Topolsky:
The questionably named Cyber University in Japan has begun offering a mobile class on the 'mysteries of the pyramids,' but instead of a typical PC's display of text, images, sound, and video, the mobile version offers a streaming Power Point presentation on the topic. The university -- 71-percent of which is owned by Softbank, a mobile service provider -- has 1,850 students, and offers almost 100 courses, though only one is available for phones. Sakuji Yoshimura, head of Cyber University, says that the technology will allow those with jobs or who have disabilities greater access to education. 'Our duty as educators is to respond to the needs of people who want to learn,' he said -- then went on to add, 'Even if the course is interrupted by an SMS."

You are here

(Reuters) - Internet search leader Google Inc said on Wednesday it is introducing a novel mapping system that uses cell phone towers to let mobile phone users locate nearby services without typing in addresses.

Wounded warriors face home-front battle with VA

WASHINGTON, Illinois (CNN) -- Ty Ziegel peers from beneath his Marine
Corps baseball cap, his once boyish face burned beyond recognition by a
suicide bomber's attack in Iraq just three days before Christmas 2004.

Ty Ziegel, a Marine, was badly wounded in Iraq. He battled the VA over
disability benefits when he returned.

He lost part of his skull in the blast and part of his brain was damaged.
Half of his left arm was amputated and some of the fingers were blown off
his right hand.

Ziegel, a 25-year-old Marine sergeant, knew the dangers of war when he was
deployed for his second tour in Iraq.

But he didn't expect a new battle when he returned home as a wounded
warrior: a fight with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

"Sometimes, you get lost in the system," he told CNN. "I feel like a
Social Security number. I don't feel like Tyler Ziegel."

His story is one example of how medical advances in the battlefield have
outpaced the home front. Many wounded veterans return home feeling that
the VA system, specifically its 62-year-old disability ratings system, has
failed them.

"The VA system is not ready, and they simply don't have time to catch up,"
Tammy Duckworth -- herself a wounded veteran who heads up the Illinois
Department of Veteran Affairs -- told the Senate Veterans Affairs
Committee in March.

VA Acting Secretary Gordon Mansfield said cases like Ziegel's are rare --
that the majority of veterans are moving through the process and "being
taken care of." He also said most veterans are fairly compensated.

"Any veteran with the same issue, if it's a medical disability, ... it is
going to get the same exact result anywhere in our system," he said.

More than 28,500 troops have been wounded in Operation Iraqi Freedom,
including about 8,500 that have needed air transport, according to the
U.S. military.

A recent Harvard study found that the cost of caring for those wounded
over the course of their lifetime could ultimately cost more than $660
billion.

In Ziegel's case, he spent nearly two years recovering at Brooke Army
Medical Center in Texas. Once he got out of the hospital, he was unable to
hold a job. He anticipated receiving a monthly VA disability check
sufficient to cover his small-town lifestyle in Washington, Illinois.

Instead, he got a check for far less than expected. After pressing for
answers, Ziegel finally received a letter from the VA that rated his
injuries: 80 percent for facial disfigurement, 60 percent for left arm
amputation, a mere 10 percent for head trauma and nothing for his left
lobe brain injury, right eye blindness and jaw fracture.

"I don't get too mad about too many things," he said. "But once we've been
getting into this, I'm ready to beat down the White House door if I need
to."

"I'm not expecting to live in the lap of luxury," he added. "But I am
asking them to make it comfortable to raise a family and not have to
struggle."

Within 48 hours of telling his story to CNN this summer, the Office of
then-VA Secretary Jim Nicholson acted on Ziegel's case. The VA changed his
head trauma injury, once rated at 10 percent, to traumatic brain injury
rated at 100 percent, substantially increasing his monthly disability
check.

Duckworth, the Illinois VA chief, knows exactly what Ziegel and other
severely wounded vets are going through. She lost both her legs when a
rocket-propelled grenade struck her Blackhawk helicopter on November 12,
2004. Her right arm was also shattered.

She told CNN she received "incredible care" at Walter Reed for 13 months,
but soon realized the transition to the VA wouldn't be as smooth.

"I started worrying about the fact that maybe this country won't remember
in five years that there are these war wounded," Duckworth said.

Garrett Anderson with the Illinois National Guard, for example, has been
fighting the VA since October 15, 2005. Shrapnel tore through his head and
body after a roadside bomb blew up the truck he was driving. He lost his
right arm.

The VA initially rejected his claim, saying his severe shrapnel wounds
were "not service connected."

"Who would want to tell an Iraqi or Afghanistan soldier who was blown up
by an IED that his wounds were not caused by his service over there?" said
Anderson's wife, Sam.

After pressure from Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the VA acted on
Anderson's case. He has since been awarded compensation for a traumatic
brain injury.

"It upsets me that the VA system operates in a way that it takes people of
power -- and who you know and what you know -- to get what you want," said
Anderson, who is now retired.

When asked about Anderson's case specifically, the VA's Mansfield said
such cases make him "more dedicated" to fixing the system.

In July, President Bush and a commission appointed to review the care of
veterans returning from war announced the need for a complete overhaul of
the disability ratings system, which dates back to World War II. The VA is
now considering action on the commission's recommendations.

Ziegel eventually won his battle. Still he feels for so many others he
believes are getting cheated by the system.

"We're feeding the war machine, but you never think of the war machine
that comes home and needs, you know, feeding back home," he said.

His family hopes they don't have to fight the VA again. In August, Ty
Ziegel's brother, 22-year-old Zach Ziegel, was deployed to Iraq.

"I want to make the VA system better because if he has to go through
anything I went through, that's really going to upset me. That'll make my
fuse real short and hot," Ty Ziegel said.

--Emily Probst, CNN

Go to sleep, chubby.

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Here's another reason to get the kids to bed
early: More sleep may lower their risk of becoming obese.

Lack of sleep plays havoc with two hormones that regulate the appetite.

Researchers have found that every additional hour per night a third-grader
spends sleeping reduces the child's chances of being obese in sixth grade
by 40 percent.

The less sleep they got, the more likely the children were to be obese in
sixth grade, no matter what the child's weight was in third grade, said
Dr. Julie Lumeng of the University of Michigan, who led the research.

Another explanation: Tired kids are less likely to exercise and more
likely to sit on the couch and eat cookies, Lumeng said.

If there was a magic number for the third-graders, it was nine hours, 45
minutes of sleep. Sleeping more than that lowered the risk significantly.

The study gives parents one more reason to enforce bedtimes, restrict
caffeine and yank the TV from the bedroom. The study appears in the
November issue of the journal Pediatrics.

In experiments by Eve Van Cauter of the University of Chicago and others,
sleep-deprived adults produced more ghrelin, a hormone that promotes
hunger, and less leptin, a hormone that signals fullness.

Thousands of America's heroes homeless

Study: Many of homeless are vets

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- More than 25 percent of the homeless population in the
United States are war veterans, although they represent only 11 percent of
the civilian adult population, according to a report to be released
Thursday.

On any given night last year, nearly 196,000 veterans slept on the street,
in a shelter or in transitional housing, the study by the Homelessness
Research Institute found.

"Veterans make up a disproportionate share of homeless people," the report
said.

"This is true despite the fact that veterans are better educated, more
likely to be employed and have a lower poverty rate than the general
population."

The National Alliance to End Homelessness includes the Homelessness
Research Institute as its research and education arm.

"These findings highlight the need to provide veterans with the proper
housing and supportive services to prevent homelessness from occurring in
the first place," said Nan Roman, the organization's president. "If we can
do that, then we can greatly reduce the number of homeless veterans in
general."

About 44,000 to 64,000 veterans are classified as "chronically homeless"
-- homeless for long periods or repeatedly.

Other veterans -- nearly 468,000 -- are experiencing "severe housing cost
burden," or paying more than half their income for housing, thereby
putting them at a high risk for homelessness.

At the National Alliance to End Homelessness event, Fannie Mae will
announce a $200,000 grant to the Common Ground organization that will
enable the construction of more permanent housing units for veterans.

"Our veterans have served America, and America must serve them," said
Daniel Mudd, president and CEO of Fannie Mae, in a statement.

Common Ground is a nonprofit developer of housing and other solutions to
prevent and end homelessness, according to the Fannie Mae statement.

Its nap time

(HealthDay News) -- A nap a day may keep the heart doctor away -- at least that's what recent research suggests. Now, a new British study reports that the first few minutes before you doze off might be an especially restful time for your heart.

Countdown to tipoff

Where amazing happens

You Can Help Save a Life

You can help save a life

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention's Out of the Darkness Community Walk is in Portland, OR this Saturday at noon at the World Trade Center downtown.

My Dad, Russ Blanchette, stepmother Thelma Blanchette, and I will be walking in memory of my brother, Barry Blanchette, sister MaraLee Blanchette, and the millions of others who have been touched by suicide. We are joining thousands of other walkers nationwide to raise the funds for the awareness and prevention of suicide.

Now, more than ever, you can make a crucial difference. Won't you please give generously to this great cause? Together, we can make a difference! Even a dollar helps. Donations can be anonyomus if you wish. Feel free to forward this to as many people as you'd like. Thank you for your support. Donations are
tax deductible and can be made on a secure website by clicking

HERE


My thanks to you for your time, consideration and support.

--Dan Blanchette

Busy weekend

An unpredictable season took a new twist Saturday when LSU, in its second week as No. 1, was upset 43-37 in triple overtime by Kentucky. A few hours later, California, poised to move up one spot to No. 1 with a victory, lost at home 31-28 to Oregon State.

It was the first time in 11 years the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the AP poll lost on the same day.

So, the Ohio State Buckeyes (7-0) beat Kent State 48-3 Saturday and are now ranked first.

The last year three different teams held the No. 1 spot during the regular season was 2000.

Ore. mental health provider cuts care for children

(AP) - Portland-based nonprofit Trillium Family Service, Oregon's largest provider of children's mental health care, says it will reduce staff statewide and close its inpatient and outpatient programs in Bend.

State officials say children no longer served by Trillium will likely be served by another provider.

Trillium will continue to serve about 350 children in the Portland and Corvallis areas who have severe mental illnesses and need inpatient care.

Judge allows class action against Target website

(Reuters) - A federal judge in California certified a class action lawsuit against Target Corp brought by plaintiffs claiming the discount retailer's website is inaccessible to the blind, according to court documents.

I feel old...

Forty percent of Americans have never lived when there wasn't a Bush or a Clinton in the White House.

Bush may veto Dems plan to expand children's health coverage

President Bush on Thursday asked Congress to give him a "clean" extension
of a state-run, federally funded children's health-care insurance program
so he could sign it before the program ends Sept. 30.

He threatened to veto a plan that he said Democrats currently have in
Congress in favor of an increase included in his 2008 budget proposal.

"We're not playing politics," said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., on the
floor of the Senate shortly after the president's news conference. "We
were coming together in a bipartisan way to be able to give more children,
American children, the ability to get their health-care needs taken care
of. And it's time that we have the president join with us in the right set
of priorities for American families."

I guess you really can't go home again

(CNN) -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday that Democrats
are disappointed that they have been unable to force President Bush to
change course in Iraq, but vowed to keep pushing with or without
Republican help.

GOP senators have successfully filibustered every Democratic-led push to
bring troops home from Iraq, using a procedural vote Wednesday to kill a
proposal that would have required the Pentagon to give troops returning
from Iraq stateside time equal to their time in the combat zone.

Though six Republicans joined Democrats in voting for the plan, the final
vote was four short of the 60 needed to break a filibuster.

"They want to protect the president more than they want to protect our
troops," said Reid, D-Nev.

Dave and O

Oprah Winfrey and first-time guest David Letterman share a laugh on the first show of her 22nd season held at WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden on Monday, in New York. (AP Photo/Harpo Productions,George Burns)

Report: VA distorts record on wait times (AP)

The Department of Veterans Affairs repeatedly understated wait times for injured veterans seeking medical care and in many serious cases forced them to wait more than 30 days, counter to department policy, an internal investigation shows.

There's something to this photography thing...

A survey conducted by a British psychologist queried subjects about their
mood before and after they ate chocolate, drank wine, listened to music,
and gazed at photos of loved ones. Only the photos gave a noticeable lift
-an 11 percent improvement.

Up in the sky

The moon enters the earth's shadow and moves to full lunar eclipse (lower, R), as seen over Portland, August 28th.

Photo: REUTERS/Richard Clement

Olympics pass on Vista

Lenovo, the computer supplier to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing declined to add Microsoft's Vista as the operating system in their computers stating the following, "the Olympic Games require mature, stable technologies and it's not a place to try new technologies."

"Vista in your Olympics, sir?"

"Nope, none for me, thanks."

Army suicides highest in 26 years

Army soldiers committed suicide last year at the highest rate in 26 years, and more than a quarter did so while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a new military report.


The report, obtained by The Associated Press ahead of its scheduled release Thursday, found there were 99 confirmed suicides among active duty soldiers during 2006, up from 88 the previous year and the highest since the 102 suicides in 1991 at the time of the Persian Gulf War.

The suicide rate for the Army has fluctuated over the past 26 years, from last year's high of 17.3 per 100,000 to a low of 9.1 per 100,000 in 2001.

Last year, "Iraq was the most common deployment location for both (suicides) and attempts," the report said.

$254,900

Confidence

Phoenix is BIIIIG

The fastest-growing big suburb (with a population of 100,000 or more) is Gilbert, Ariz., outside Phoenix, which expanded from 112,766 people to 191,517.

The Phoenix area saw the greatest positive domestic migration of any American metro last year, with 115,000 more people moving into town than leaving. Affordable housing and a growing economy draw a lot of people to the city.

Rounding out the top 10 fastest-growing suburbs after Lincoln, Calif., were four Phoenix suburbs: Buckeye, Surprise, Goodyear and Avondale.

Doh! Simpsons creator miffed at Vermont choice

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- If you think residents of Springfield, Oregon were miffed when Springfield, Vermont won the right to host the premiere of the movie "The Simpsons," listen to its creator, Oregon native Matt Groening.

Online voters gave the honor to the Vermont town, one of a dozen or so Springfields in the country.

Groening described himself as an outraged Oregonian and asked, "How could they posibly do this to us?"

He says that secretly, he has always believed the Simpsons live in Springfield, Oregon--or maybe Beaverton.

The Simpsons TV show enters its 19th year on the air this fall. It has harvested more than 20 Emmy awards and a Peabody.

The movie opens in theaters today.

Panel calls for improved veterans care

A presidential commission on Wednesday urged broad changes to veterans' care that would boost benefits for family members helping the wounded, establish an easy-to-use Web site for medical records and overhaul the way disability pay is awarded.

The nine-member panel, led by former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., and Donna Shalala, health and human services secretary during the Clinton administration, also recommended stronger partnerships between the Pentagon and the private sector to boost treatment for traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.

A 29-page report was presented to President Bush in the Oval Office, just after the Senate addressed some of the issues Wednesday morning by passing sweeping legislation to expand brain screenings, reduce red tape and boost military pay.

Only recently, the VA has taken steps to add mental health counselors and 24-hour suicide prevention services at all facilities, after high-profile incidents of veterans committing suicide. In the past, the VA had failed to use all the money for mental health that was allotted to it.

Among the proposals:

Provide better family support, because one-third of injured Iraq war veterans reported that a family member or close friend had to relocate to care for them. It calls for training and counseling for families of service members who require long-term care and improved family leave and insurance benefits for family members.

Injured Iraq war veterans sue VA head

AP - Frustrated by delays in health care, injured Iraq war veterans accused VA Secretary Jim Nicholson in a lawsuit of breaking the law by denying them disability pay and mental health treatment.

The lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, filed Monday in federal court in San Francisco, seeks broad changes in the agency as it struggles to meet growing demands from veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Suing on behalf of hundreds of thousands of veterans, it charges that the VA has failed warriors on numerous fronts. It contends the VA failed to provide prompt disability benefits, failed to add staff to reduce wait times for medical care and failed to boost services for post-traumatic stress disorder.

The lawsuit also accuses the VA of deliberately cheating some veterans by allegedly working with the Pentagon to misclassify PTSD claims as pre-existing personality disorders to avoid paying benefits.

Summer 1999

This is a promotional poster for the 1999 Oregon Brewer's Festival which was one of the very first major social events I participated in days after I made my move to Portland from Phoenix. I volunteered to be a "tapster", meaning I poured beer all day.

And... I... drank some of it too.

Man, that was a good summer.

The 2007 event, now in its 20th year, will take place July 26,27,28 & 29.

VA head quits amid scrutiny on vets care

AP - VA Secretary Jim Nicholson abruptly resigned Tuesday after months of the Bush administration struggling to defend charges of shoddy treatment for veterans injured in the Iraq war.

Nicholson, a former Republican National Committee chairman and a Vietnam veteran, was picked by President Bush to head the Veterans Affairs Department in 2005. Planning to return to the private sector, he said his resignation is to take effect no later than Oct. 1.

Nicholson, 69, is the latest in a line of senior officials heading for the exits in the final 1 1/2 years of the Bush administration.

His resignation comes amid intense political and public scrutiny of the Pentagon and VA following reports of shoddy outpatient care of injured troops and veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and elsewhere.

It also ends a beleaguered two-year tenure in which Nicholson repeatedly fought off calls for his resignation over the VA's unexpected $1.3 billion shortfall in 2005 that put health care at risk; last summer's theft of 26.5 million veterans' personal data in what was the government's largest security breach; and, more recently, the award of $3.8 million in bonuses to senior officials who were responsible for the agency's budget problems.

Walter Reed is a Pentagon-run facility. But charges of poor treatment relating to poor coordination quickly extended to the VA's vast network of 1,400 hospitals and clinics, which serve 5.8 million veterans. The VA also has a severe backlog of disability payments to injured veterans, with overwhelming delays of 177 days that Nicholson has called unacceptable.

"Secretary Nicholson's resignation should be welcome news for all veterans," said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "The VA under Secretary Nicholson has been woefully unprepared for the influx of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, consistently underestimating the number of new veterans who would seek care, and failing to spend the money Congress allotted to treat mental health issues."

His departure comes at a critical time. Nicholson most recently headed a presidential task force charged with making immediate improvements to health care in which he pledged to take "personal responsibility."

Democrats quickly called for a replacement who would vigorously look after veterans.

"The fact is, veterans have been right to be disappointed in Jim Nicholson's leadership at VA," said Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and a 2008 presidential candidate, citing in part backlogs of between 400,000 and 600,000 disability claims. "It is clear that Secretary Nicholson is leaving the VA worse off than he found it."

Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., who chairs the House Veterans Affairs Committee, cautioned that Democratic lawmakers won't stand for it if Bush tried again to "appoint someone who's a good ol' boy."

VA vows to expand mental health services

AP - Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson pledged Monday to add mental health services at more than 100 VA medical centers to fight resistance to seeking help for depression and other illnesses.

The VA is being pressed by growing cases of mental health problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury from veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, Nicholson said at a national forum of VA mental health experts. He said the department will work harder to meet the challenge.

To fight stigma against seeking help for anxiety and depression, the VA this year is devoting $37.7 million of its nearly $3 billion mental health budget toward placing psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers within primary care clinics.

The additions will take effect in two-thirds of the VA's 153 medical centers, supplementing mental services already offered at the department's 882 outpatient clinics.

Such a move will help allow the VA to begin testing all veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan for mild to moderate brain injury, an often unseen problem that can emerge months after finishing service. It would also allow for brief treatment for those who may not require specialty care, Nicholson said.

"Given the possible reluctance of some veterans to talk about emotional problems, increasing our mental health presence in primary care settings will give veterans a familiar venue in which to receive care without actually going to an identified mental health clinic," he said.

Other measures now under way:

_Adding 23 new VA-run Vet Centers, which are small, storefront walk-in clinics with a staff of about 5 people, to reach a total of 232 centers nationwide. The centers provide combat stress counseling, marriage therapy, job assistance and medical referrals, although recent congressional surveys found them to be understaffed with long wait times due to increased demand for services.

_Hiring more suicide prevention coordinators for VA medical centers and keeping emergency services for mental health open around the clock, as well as starting a full-time suicide prevention hot line. This comes after the VA inspector general earlier this year found that veterans were at increased risk of suicide because of spotty services in clinics nationwide.

_Hosting state mental health conferences to facilitate collaboration of veterans services on a state, local and community level. Some state officials have complained that the VA needs to do a better job of sharing information about wounded soldiers returning home so states can help.

Monday's VA forum comes amid renewed focus on veterans health care because of the prolonged Iraq war.

Following disclosures earlier this year of shoddy outpatient treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, both the VA and the Pentagon have acknowledged missteps in planning for the surge of injured veterans returning home. That has prompted several reviews by congressional panels and presidential commissions on ways to improve care.

"VA is advancing its mental health program in a full-court press," Nicholson said.

Idaho man wants to manufacture underwater hotel in Portland

What: World's first undersea resort

Where: A "mystery" island in Fiji

Cost: $15,000 a week to stay there

Planned opening: Late 2009

Oregon connection: Structure is expected to be manufactured and assembled in the Portland area.
As home to the West Coast's largest ship-repair facility, on Swan Island, Portland has the huge dry-dock, industrial facilities and trained workers to manufacture and assemble the hotel.

Shut 'er down part 2

North Korea told the United States it shut down its nuclear reactor, the State Department said Saturday, hours after a ship cruised into port loaded with oil promised in return for the country's pledge to disarm.

Odds are...

Phoenix opened with 7-to-2 odds of winning the 2008 NBA championship last month but has moved to 3-to-1, second to San Antonio (5-to-2) at Las Vegas sports books.

Shazam!

Al McCoy, the longtime Phoenix Suns broadcaster will receive the 2007 Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame during Enshrinement festivities September 7-9 in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Named in honor of the late legendary sports broadcaster and former Basketball Hall of Fame President Curt Gowdy, the prestigious awards are given annually to one member of the print and one member of the electronic media whose efforts have made a significant contribution to the game of basketball.

“The Gowdy Award presentation is certainly one of the highlights of Enshrinement Weekend, and both Mr. McCoy and Mr. Moran exemplify the true spirit of the award”, said John L. Doleva, Hall of Fame President & CEO, in a statement. “These two men have dedicated much of their professional careers to telling the story of basketball for millions of readers, listeners and viewers, and the Hall of Fame is proud to honor their efforts.”

McCoy, considered by many to be the dean of all NBA play-by-play announcers, will mark his 36th season with the Suns in 2007-08, the longest tenure with any one team among current broadcasters.

Shut 'er down

AP - North Korea seemed ready Friday to take a first step toward scaling back its nuclear weapons program, perhaps this weekend, as U.N. inspectors prepared to monitor the shutdown of its sole operating atomic reactor.

After years of tortuous negotiations and delays during which the North argued its nuclear program was needed for self-defense, the reclusive communist regime said last week that once it recieves the oil shipment scheduled to arrive Saturday, it would consider halting its reactor for the first time in five years.

"With the kind of help which we (have received) from the (North) in the past few weeks, we think we will do our job in a successful way," International Atomic Energy Agency team chief Adel Tolba said in Beijing.

Illinois man files suit over lost love

Stealing someone's heart can cost you: Just ask German Blinov.

A Cook County jury ordered Blinov to shell out $4,802 last month after he was sued by a husband from a Chicago suburb for stealing the affections of the man's wife.

Arthur Friedman used a little-known state law to mount the legal attack against Blinov. The alienation of affection law, one of eight across the country, lets spouses seek damages for the loss of love.

"This guy ruined my life — he backstabbed me," Arthur Friedman told the Chicago Sun-Times. "What he did was wrong. And I did what I had to do to get my point across."

Blinov doesn't deny having a relationship with Natalie Friedman while she was married, but he was surprised to learn he could be sued for it.

Only looking for help from enlisted professionals?

Speaking to Congress Thursday, S. Ward Casscells, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, acknowledged that the Army's touted plans to hire 25 percent additional mental health specialists may prove hard to fulfill for awhile because of problems in recruiting and retaining active-duty professionals.

"It's not easy to get people into the military," said Casscells, referring to plans by Army Surgeon Gen. Gail Pollock. "We cannot hire 200 Army psychiatrists, which Gen. Pollock wants to do, we can't do that overnight. So we need everyone to reach out and look out for service members."

Pentagon Urges Mental Health Changes

(AP) The Pentagon's top health official, S. Ward Casscells, spoke to Congress Thursday as the military rushes to improve its much-criticized mental health system.

Casscells, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs said he wants to see better mental health assessments, stronger privacy protections and a "buddy system" to change the military's stigma against seeking help for anxiety and depression.

Casscells' comments came as the Pentagon and Congress are reviewing 95 recommendations made last month by a task force chaired by Navy Surgeon General Donald Arthur. Issuing an urgent warning, the panel found that more than one-third of troops and veterans currently suffer from problems such as traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder and urged stronger leadership, more money and a fundamental shift in treatment to focus on prevention and screening.

"We would never blame someone who has broken a leg or got cancer, yet we will blame people who have a natural reaction to an incredibly stressful situation," said Arthur, who also testified Thursday before a House Armed Services subcommittee.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates last month pledged to fix problems and ordered that a corrective plan be finished by mid-September. He is also supporting a plan that would do away with the practice of asking troops about previous mental health treatment when they apply for a security clearance.

A recent Pentagon study found about 38 percent of soldiers and 31 percent of Marines report psychological conditions such as brain injury and PTSD after returning from deployment. Among members of the National Guard, the figure is much higher — 49 percent — with numbers expected to grow because of repeated and extended deployments.

On Thursday, Casscells said his team was still analyzing the recommendations and formulating policy proposals for Gates to review. But he indicated a need for greater privacy, including possibly shielding reports of mental health discussions that service members have from line commanders.

In the meantime, the Army has launched an extensive educational program on the stigma attached to mental health problems to determine whether it can be expanded to the other armed services.

Hill to Valley

Grant Hill has told the Phoenix Suns that he plans to sign with them when the free agency moratorium is lifted Wednesday.

Hill chose Phoenix over Detroit, Orlando, San Antonio, Miami and Dallas. Hill heard phone pitches from each team this week, talking to Suns General Manager Steve Kerr and Coach Mike D'Antoni on Tuesday.

A five-time NBA All-Star, Grant Hill has been named to the All-NBA First or Second Team four times and has a 20 point per game career average.

Photo: AP

Smith Seeks Mental Health Parity For Veterans

Oregon's two US Senators heard from veterans Tuesday about mental health care that's available to soldiers returning from war.

The hearing at the Veterans Affairs medical center in Portland gathered testimony for the Senate's committee on aging. Republican Gordon Smith is the ranking member of the panel and Democrat Ron Wyden is also a member.

Smith said he's introducing a bill establishing what he calls a "Hero to Hero" program. It would make mentor among veteran's more systematic. Smith said his ultimate aim is put treatment of mental health on par with physical medicine.

Gordon Smith: "It needs insurance parity. It needs medical school parity. It needs Medicare and Medicaid parity. And this is just one more chapter in that agenda. And that is veterans mental health parity."

Smith plans a similar hearing on Thursday at a veterans clinic in White City, and a third hearing on Capitol Hill later this summer.

Colin Fogarty, OPB News

Bush gets Libby out of jail time

Lewis "Scooter" Libby was convicted in March of lying to authorities and obstructing the investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative's identity. The former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney was the highest-ranking White House official ordered to prison since the Iran-Contra affair.

"I respect the jury's verdict," Bush said in a statement. "But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby's sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison."

Bush's move came hours after a federal appeals panel ruled Libby could not delay his prison term.

Reaction was harsh from Democrats.

"As Independence Day nears, we're reminded that one of the principles our forefathers fought for was equal justice under the law. This commutation completely tramples on that principle," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said through a spokesman.

A new perspective

An education program for personnel at all levels of the military is among main recommendations of a yearlong mental health study. The task force study, ordered by Congress, called for urgent action to improve care for members of the military, under strain from simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, officials said earlier Friday.

The military also needs to train leaders to understand that physical health and psychological health are equally important, said Vice Adm. Donald Arthur, co-chair of the task force.

"We concentrate a great deal on ... how fast can you run a mile, how many sit-ups and push-ups can you do," Arthur told reporters. "But we don't often concentrate on the psychological health of the service member."

"If you break your leg, it's not your fault; if you get cancer, it's not your fault; if you have a post-traumatic stress reaction, it's not your fault," he said.

Soldiers struggle to find therapists to take their insurance

Soldiers returning from war are finding it more difficult to get mental health treatment because military insurance is cutting payments to therapists, on top of already low reimbursement rates and a tangle of red tape.

Wait lists now extend for months to see a military doctor and it can takes weeks to find a private therapist willing to take on members of the military. The challenge appears great in rural areas, where many National Guard and Reserve troops and their families live.

Roughly one-third of returning soldiers seek out mental health counseling in their first year home. They are among the 9.1 million people covered by Tricare, a number that grew by more than 1 million since 2001.

Tricare's psychological health benefit is "hindered by fragmented rules and policies, inadequate oversight and insufficient reimbursement," the Defense Department's mental health task force said last month after reviewing the military's psychological care system.

Tricare's reimbursement rate is tied to Medicare's, which pays less than civilian employer insurance. The rate for mental health care services fell by 6.4 percent this year as part of an adjustment in reimbursements to certain specialties.

In parts of Montana, some families drive two hours to see a physician of any kind that will take Tricare, said Dorrie Hagan, state family program director for the Montana National Guard.

War veterans lack adequate mental health care: Pentagon report

Military mental health services lack personnel and money to properly treat a growing number of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, said a Pentagon report out Friday.

"The military system does not have enough resources, funding or personnel to adequately support the psychological health of service members and their families in peace and during conflict," concluded a year-long Pentagon mental health task force report: "An Achievable Vision."

Studies of troops three and four months after returning from Iraq and Afghanistan showed 38 percent of soldiers and 31 percent of Marines suffered psychological symptoms.

The problems increase as troops are repeatedly deployed, the study said.

A study published Monday in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health said that returning fighters are twice as likely to commit suicide as civilians.

Most at risk are soldiers seriously wounded in combat or who have suffered psychological trauma during their deployments.

To meet these needs, the authors of the new Pentagon report recommend increasing the level of care without estimating how much money or how many specialists would be needed.

"Mental health professionals are not sufficiently accessible to service members and their families," one of the report's authors, vice admiral Donald Arthur, told reporters.

For prevention, he said, "We recommend that we continue and increase the embedding of psychological health professionals into the line units that deploy."

"We recommend that there be more availability of mental health professionals for active duty and family members," Arthur said.

VA hospital conditions criticized... Again.

The Department of Veterans Affairs knew for months that shower heads, handrails and other fixtures posed serious suicide risks to Seattle-area psychiatric patients, but refused to fix the problems, inspectors said in a report released Friday.

Similar conditions were seen in a Tacoma psychiatric ward, but nothing was done — even though one patient tried to commit suicide in January, the report said.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., was unsatisfied with the agency's response and scheduled a flight home to personally inspect the Seattle VA hospital's progress on Friday.

Inspectors also said the procedure for determining psychiatric patients' safety was not up to par.

Disclosures in February that war veterans were not getting adequate care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center stunned the public, outraged Capitol Hill and forced three high-level Pentagon officials to step down.

A group of senators moved Wednesday to boost disability pay to those hurt in combat and improve care for brain injury in response to shabby treatment of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed.

On Thursday, officials told The Associated Press that the Army is planning to hire at least 25 percent more psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers to help a growing number of soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health needs.

Walter Reed's new commanding officer said the Army medical system has lost the trust of soldiers, their relatives and the American people but is working hard to fix its problems and provide quality care to troops.

"We are working very hard to restore confidence and trust. We are very serious about this," Maj. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker told the AP during an interview Friday in Jacksonville, Fla., where he planned to speak at the Florida Veterans of Foreign Wars Convention.

Go to college for free

Apple on Wednesday announced the launch of iTunes U as a dedicated area within the iTunes Store, offering free content from top U.S. colleges and universities. Participating institutions include Stanford University, U.C. Berkeley, Duke and MIT.

"It's just an amazing way for lifelong learners to get more material," said Chris Bell, Apple's director of worldwide marketing for iTunes. "This really opens up the world of digitial education."

The content on iTunes U runs the gamut from lectures to language lessons, lab demonstrations, sports highlights and campus tours. Other participating institutions include NJIT, Queen’s University, Texas A&M, Otis College of Art and Design, Arizona State and more.

Obama: Improve mental health care

By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer
CONWAY, N.H. - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Sunday the country is not providing enough mental health services for active duty troops and veterans. He proposed spending hundreds of million dollars more each year for better care.

"We cannot expect our young men and women to serve in our armed forces, if we are not making sure they get the treatment they deserve," Obama said during a town hall-style meeting that drew more than 1,000 people to a middle school gym.

"That should be part of the sacred pact we make with our veterans," he said.

The Illinois senator urged the Pentagon to recruit more mental health professions to help identify and treat problems. He said improvements are needed at every stage of military service: recruitment, deployment and re-entry into civilian life.

"Let's lead, by showing the world how we treat our veterans when they come home. ... We still don't make sure those who have problems have the adequate counseling; we don't help families the way we should," Obama said.

According to Obama's plan, mental health treatment would be a regular part of military life. There would be improved screening and treatment and no denial of benefits due to pre-existing conditions. Military families would receive more counseling and support.

Obama aides said he would propose increasing the Veterans Affairs Department's budget. The changes he advocates are expected to cost several hundred million dollars a year, they said.

To help cover the cost, Obama proposed better collection of unpaid taxes owed by defense contractors. A second source could come from recovering more money from third-party payers at Defense Department and VA hospitals.

An internal VA review released this month said veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are at increased risk of suicide because not all agency health clinics have 24-hour mental care available.

The report by department's inspector general was the first comprehensive look at VA mental health care, particularly suicide prevention.

Already strained troops and veterans say they are suffering more psychological problems due to repeated and extended deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Earlier in May, a panel of medical experts said the surge in the number of veterans suffering post-traumatic stress disorder requires development of better tests to evaluate affected personnel and determine how best to compensate them.

Let's Say Thanks

San Diego Students Salute Troops, Sign Record Number of Postcards
Jerome Abaya, 17, and Angelica Diaz, 18, from Morse High School pile and sort postcards for U.S. troops that were signed by students from the San Diego Unified School District as a Memorial Day tribute. Earlier this week, students from all 178 schools in the district signed more than 65,000 cards, making it the largest card drive held by Xerox Corporation's Let's Say Thanks program, a free and easy way for the public to send postcards to U.S. servicemen and women stationed overseas.
Please visit letssaythanks.com and send your support, free, to U.S. troops stationed overseas.
Photo Credit: Robert Benson

Memorial Day events: Portland

May 28 – 10 a.m. – Major Gen. Raymond F. Rees, the Adjutant General, Oregon National Guard, will speak
at the Willamette National Cemetery for the 57th Annual Memorial Day Ceremony. An Oregon Air National Guard flyover has been requested. The program includes music by the Fort Vancouver Pipe Band. A joint military Color Guard will present honors and provide a rifle salute.

Contact: George Allen, 503-273-5250

10 a.m. – The names of 801 Oregon Vietnam veterans who were killed during the war will be read at the
Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

11 a.m. – During the annual ceremony at the Memorial, veterans groups will post the colors and present wreaths. Guest speakers will be announced. The Portland Police Highland Guard will play Amazing Grace. The Oregon Army National Guard will retire Colors. An Oregon Air National Guard flyover has been requested. The Memorial is located in Washington
Park across from the Metro Park Zoo at 400 S.W. Canyon Road.

Contact: Jerry Pero, 503-266-1686

Look up

Oregon Air National Guard releases Memorial Day fly-over schedule:

Two F-15 Eagle jet fighters from the 142nd Fighter Wing of the Oregon Air National Guard will fly over events commemorating Memorial Day.

10:00 a.m. Oregon City Mountain View Cemetery
10:03 a.m. Gresham Heroes Memorial
10:10 a.m. Willamette National Cemetery
10:13 a.m. Vietnam Veteran's Memorial
10:16 a.m. Portland Yacht Club
10:50 a.m. Mt. Angel Calvary Cemetery
11:00 a.m. Beaverton Memorial Park
11:03 a.m. Scappoose Heritage Park
11:05 a.m. Woodland Veteran's Memorial, WA
11:15 a.m. Forest Grove Forest View Cemetery
11:30 a.m. Longview Memorial Park, WA
11:32 a.m. Castle Rock, WA
11:40 a.m. Warrenton Oceanview Cemetery
Noon Independence Airport
12:30 p.m. Tualatin Valley Memorial Park Cemetery

All passes will be about a thousand feet above the ground and about 400 mph. The weather or other military needs could cancel the flights.

Come Tuesday

Phoenix will be watching Tuesday's draft lottery closely.

If Atlanta doesn't get one of the top three selections, the Suns will get the pick as part of the Joe Johnson-Diaw trade. The Suns also have Cleveland's No. 21 pick and their own No. 29 choice.

"You can get an All-Star out of this draft," D'Antoni said. "You add an All-Star to this mix, that's pretty good."

Frozen music

(Reuters) - A Scottish church featured in the best-selling novel "The Da Vinci Code" has revealed another mystery hidden in secret code for almost 600 years.

A father and son who became fascinated by symbols carved into the chapel's arches say they have deciphered a musical score encrypted in them.

Thomas Mitchell, a 75-year-old musician and ex-Royal Air Force code breaker, and his composer and pianist son Stuart, described the piece as "frozen music."

Their site details the 27-year project to crack the chapel's code.

They have also scheduled a world premiere at a concert in the chapel on May 18, when four singers will be accompanied by eight musicians playing the piece on mediaeval instruments.

Browse faster on the go

Mobile WiMAX, the high-speed wireless standard for portable devices, has taken another step forward, with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approving the first WiMAX-class laptop card for the Clearwire network.

Yahoo! An easy option to chat

Yahoo, the world's second-largest supplier of instant-messaging, launched a new version on Thursday that works inside a Web browser rather than requiring users to download a separate piece of software.

"Hypochondriac's dream"

The Oregonian reports:
A new site, whoissick.org, hopes to become a grass-roots database, of sorts, for what ails you. You log on, plug in your ZIP code and your symptoms. Chills? Check. Stomach ache? Check. Fever? Better check that, too.

The site records your symptoms and lets you know who else is under the weather in your ZIP code. We plugged in 97201 -- downtown Portland -- and found 131 people feel lousy.

Nifty idea, but is it effective?

We asked Dr. Mel Kohn, Oregon's epidemiologist, to take a look at whoissick.org. He thought it was interesting but flawed.

For starters, it's hard to interpret the symptoms when people are self-reporting. What do the symptoms mean? Is the cough a cold or the start of something more serious? Is it a low-grade fever that came and went or is it higher than 101 degrees and has it gone one for more than a day?

"The way they are listed on that Web site, your fever might be different from my fever so it's a little hard to interpret," Kohn said.

Besides, who's reporting their illnesses? Kohn said it's likely that more people in their 20s are visiting the site to log their symptoms compared with people in their 60s.

He said it correlating the info on whoissick.org with hospital visits or visits to primary care doctors. But taken alone, the data on whoissick.org isn't too helpful, he said.

"I think it's interesting but I am skeptical about what the value is," Kohn said.

Statistical formula favors Suns as champs (USA Today)

Signs point to the Phoenix Suns as the next NBA champions. At least some statistical signs point that way.

Phoenix finished the regular season with the second-best record (61-21) behind the Dallas Mavericks (67-15), yet comparing the teams with the five best records in 10 regular-season team statistics, the Suns are the most dominant.

Back from the dead

Today, Internet phone company Vonage said a federal appeals court issued a permanent stay of a previous court's injunction that would have barred it from signing up new customers.

Verizon brought Vonage to court over patent infringement allegations.

"In layman's terms, it means business as usual," said Brooke Schulz, a spokeswoman for Vonage.

This weeks Sports Illustrated cover

TiVo named in top 3 amongst PC World's 50 best tech products of all time

Procrastination Station

A flood of last-minute tax filers swamped the Turbo Tax e-filing system early Tuesday, causing long delays for taxpayers trying to check that their electronic returns had been submitted successfully.

Intuit, which makes the popular TurboTax and ProSeries tax software, posted a message on its TurboTax web site Wednesday morning that notified filers that they could not access their returns.

As a result, filers who had waited until Tuesday's deadline to submit their federal and state income tax forms electronically did not know if their returns were processed by the midnight cutoff.

By late morning Wednesday, however, the message was taken down and users, according to Intuit spokesman Harry Pforzheimer, should have received a confirmation that their returns had been filed.

On Wednesday afternoon, the IRS granted a two-day extension to taxpayers who were unable to e-file their returns using Intuit software products on Tuesday evening. They now have until 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, April 19 to file.

Pforzheimer blamed the problem on technical difficulties resulting from a last-minute flood of returns filed starting early as Tuesday afternoon.

During peak demand, Intuit was processing 50 to 60 returns per second, he said. "We started seeing a very significant slowdown in the database," he added, noting that the company processed more than a million tax returns Tuesday.

By Wednesday morning, however, all returns filed before the deadline had been processed, said Pforzheimer.

Calling the glitch "just not acceptable," Pforzheimer said the company will test its system's capability during the off-season to avoid a repeat of the problem.

As of last weekend, the number of e-filers hit a record of 61 million this year, up 6 percent from the year earlier, according to the IRS.

Apple's Steve Jobs maintains $1 salary

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs received a salary of $1 last year, according to documents filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission and various published reports.

Shares of Apple have soared in the past year as the Macintosh maker not only grew its computer sales but also tapped a rich vein of revenue with its iPod portable music players. Its market capitalization has grown to more than $78 billion, and industry analysts expect Apple's fortunes will only swell with the iPhone, a smart phone-iPod combination scheduled to go on sale in June.

'Tiny Bubbles' singer Don Ho dies at 76

Legendary crooner Don Ho, who entertained tourists for decades wearing raspberry-tinted sunglasses and singing the catchy signature tune "Tiny Bubbles," died Saturday morning of heart failure. He was 76.

Promoter Tom Moffatt said he attended Ho's final show Thursday and Ho received a standing ovation. Afterward, Ho reminisced about his many years in Waikiki and talked about how Judy Garland sang with him one night.

Ho entertained Hollywood's biggest stars and thousands of tourists for four decades. For many, no trip to Hawaii was complete without seeing his Waikiki show — a mix of songs, jokes, double entendres, Hawaii history and audience participation.

Shows usually started and ended with the same song, "Tiny Bubbles." Ho mostly hummed the song's swaying melody as the audience enthusiastically took over the familiar lyrics: "Tiny bubbles/in the wine/make me happy/make me feel fine."

"I hate that song," he often joked to the crowd. He said he performed it twice because "people my age can't remember if we did it or not."

Inspired by the U.S. military planes flying in and out of Hawaii during World War II, Ho joined the Air Force. As the Korean War wound down, he piloted transport planes between Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu and Tokyo.

When he returned home and took over his parents' struggling neighborhood bar, Honey's, he put together a band and started performing at his father's request.

Honey's became a happening place on Oahu, with other Hawaiian musicians stopping in for jam sessions. Ho began to play at various spots in Hawaii, then had a breakout year in 1966, when appearances at the Coconut Grove in Hollywood helped him build a mainland following, and the release of "Tiny Bubbles" gave him his greatest recording success.

Soon he was packing places such as the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. Stars such as Lucille Ball, Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra were known to be in the audience for Ho's shows.

Ho also became a television star, and hosted the "The Don Ho Show" on ABC from 1976-77. One of Ho's most memorable TV appearances was a 1972 cameo on an episode of "The Brady Bunch."

Gov. Linda Lingle said Ho created a legacy that will inspire future generations of musicians in Hawaii.

"Hawaii has lost a true island treasure," she said. "He laid the foundation for the international prominence Hawaii's music industry enjoys today."

Ho is survived by his wife, Haumea, and 10 children, including Hoku, who sometimes performed with her father.

Returning troops face obstacles to care

Injured soldiers returning home for medical treatment face an unacceptable maze of paperwork and bureaucracy, leaders of a presidential commission on veterans' health care said Saturday.

At its first public meeting, the nine-member panel heard from veterans, spouses and advocacy groups who decried what they said was a failed system. The commission pledged to work quickly to find solutions rather than assign blame.

Their reviews in recent weeks have pointed to inadequacies with the treatment of brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as outpatient care.

Donna Shalala, health and human services secretary under President Clinton, said the commission planned a report by late July that would be pragmatic and "solution-driven."

Among the areas the report will address: fostering cooperation between the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs, which do not have systems in place to share inpatient records electronically; providing institutional support to families who bear burdens of caregiving; and reforming a disability benefits system that critics say shortchanges injured soldiers.

"Our timeline for action is very short," Shalala said. As a result, she said commissioners may not be able to visit every military hospital and VA clinic to examine conditions.

Shalala encouraged injured troops and veterans to express their concerns to the commission through their Web site — http://www.pccww.gov

Dialing and driving

OPB reports...

If you live in Washington, get ready to hang up and drive. Legislation has passed the House that bans driving while talking on a cell phone -- unless you use a hands-free device.

This would be a secondary offense -- which means you can't be stopped for talking on the phone alone.

Microsoft warns of 4 "critical" security holes

Microsoft Corp. warned of four security flaws in its software that it categorized as "critical" on Tuesday that could allow attackers to gain control of a user's computer.

The latest patches can be downloaded at www.microsoft.com/security.

Free Wi Fi Gets Bigger

The Oregonian reports:
Portland's Wi-Fi project got a clean bill of health today from the contractor hired to test the system, clearing the way for a rapid expansion that will triple the free network's service area in a little more than a month.

Finetune Desktop streams music, taps into iTunes

Digital music service Finetune on Tuesday announced the launch of a preview release of Finetune Desktop, an application that enables you to stream music from the online service to your Mac or PC.

First joint inter-Korean school set to open in Pyongyang

Having served in South Korea on the DMZ, this story is very meaningful to me.

The AFP reports:
The first joint university set up by South and North Korea will open this year in Pyongyang against the backdrop of warming ties between the two sides, the school authorities said here Wednesday.

Pyongyang University of Science and Technology is set to open in the capital of the communist country in September, with 150 graduate students enrolled on subjects including IT, food and business.

"This is the first ever joint school set up by North and South Korea," an official of the private Northeast Asia Foundation for Education and Culture said.

All the courses will be given in English, he said.

The school's faculty will be composed of some 45 South Korean and foreign professors and 10 general staff.

The foundation originally planned to open the school in April but strained inter-Korean ties delayed the project.

Tensions eased after progress was made at six-party talks on dismantling North Korea's nuclear programmes, enabling the university to move forward, the official said.

Kim Jin-Kyong, dean of Yanbian Science and Technology College, will be the first dean of the inter-Korean college, he said.

The project has cost the foundation some 17 million dollars since 2002, with North Korea providing construction workers and some materials including sand and pebbles.

The college will consist of a five-storey building for lectures, a four-storey building for a library, dining facilities and research and five dormitory buildings.

Downtown Portland commute brought to a crawl by... a landslide?

New law expands insurance policies for mental health

Jennifer Byrd of the AP writes:
Private health-insurance policies for individuals and small companies in Washington now will be required to offer coverage for mental-health treatment equal to their medical benefits.

"Washington now has the strongest and the best mental-health parity requirements in our nation," Gov. Chris Gregoire said as she signed the bill into law Friday.

The measure expands a mental-health parity law passed in 2005 that required all private health-insurance policies for large groups to provide equal coverage for medical and mental-health treatment. Under the new measure, that requirement expands to companies with fewer than 50 employees and to individual policies.

It means, for example, that if a health plan allows unlimited doctor visits for colds and sprains, there can't be a cap on therapy sessions.

With this law and the 2005 measure, mental-health parity now covers about 2 million of the state's 6 million people, said Randy Revelle, senior vice president of the Washington State Hospital Association.

The remaining 4 million are covered by federal programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, work at self-insured companies or have no insurance.

Some of those self-insured companies, such as Swedish Medical Center, Ben Bridge Jewelers, American Airlines, AT&T and General Motors, do voluntarily offer mental-health parity to employees, Revelle said.

But only a federal law would require them to do so.

Bush apologizes for Walter Reed conditions

President Bush apologized Friday for the shoddy conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and promised during a visit to the facility for war veterans that "we're going to fix the problem."

Critics questioned the timing of Bush's visit six weeks after poor conditions and neglect of veterans were exposed there.

Retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, among retired military officers who took part in a conference call before Bush's visit, praised the president for seeing wounded soldiers. But, he added: "I'm convinced he would honor them more if he would refrain from using soldiers as props in political theater."

"I would be very happy to see him do the Walter Reed visit more like the commander and secondarily as an inspector general, rather than as a politician," he said.

Bobby Muller, president of Veterans for America, said Bush wasn't seeing areas of the hospital most in need of change. He cited Ward 54, where soldiers are suffering from acute mental health conditions, and outpatient holding facilities where soldiers see long waits to get processed out of the Army.

"Walter Reed is not a photo-op," Muller said. "Walter Reed is still broken. The DOD health care system is still broken. ... Our troops need their commander in chief to start working harder for them."

Walter Reed is considered one of the Army's premier facilities for treating the wounded. The revelations in mid-February of poor treatment and neglect of those wounded in war was an embarrassment to Bush, who routinely speaks of the need to support the troops and praises the care they receive back home.

Troops and veterans say many of the issues have been well-known for a while, and have long been in need of greater attention.

This week, the House voted to create a coterie of case managers, advocates and counselors for injured troops. The bill also establishes a hot line for medical patients to report problems in their treatment.

Help for Oregon's mentally ill children

statesmanjournal.com reports:
Gov. Ted Kulongoski wants Oregon children to have better access to mental-health services.

To make that happen, the governor on Tuesday signed an executive order establishing the Children's Wraparound Steering Committee to oversee the development of an integrated care system for youths with mental illnesses and their families.

"The issue of mental-health care for Oregon children has been long overlooked," Kulongoski said. "The time has come to develop an integrated system of care for these children."

Kulongoski signed the order surrounded by young Oregonians and their families whose lives have been adversely affected by mental-health issues.

It is estimated that more than 43,000 children in Oregon have mental illnesses, according to census data.

The governor also addressed the need to integrate and coordinate services that help address developmental and behavioral disorders in youths, saying they and their families often need services from multiple child-serving agencies.

The shared agenda is intended to break down communication and collaboration barriers that often occur between youths, families, mental-health providers and service agencies and schools.

The newly created steering committee is charged with developing strategies aimed at improving cross-agency service coordination at the state and local levels to help provide better care for children, youth and their families.

Under the executive order, the committee must submit its plan to the governor by October.

Tom Cruise Kills Oprah

Mom donates laptops to wounded soldiers

Laura Brown, a mother with a son who fought in the Iraq war, is trying to improve conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center — one laptop computer at a time.

The 50-year-old from Cody, Wyo., was chatting on the Internet with the mother of a wounded soldier two years ago when the mother mentioned she had to print out her son's e-mails and take them to him at Walter Reed because there weren't enough laptop computers to go around.

So Brown formed a group, Laptops for the Wounded, to raise money for the cause.

The hospital, flooded with wounded from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has attracted media and congressional scrutiny in the last month, due to reports of shoddy living conditions for soldiers housed there.

Brown said she can relate with the loneliness and isolation of the wounded because she is also disabled, having suffered knee and back injuries in recent years. She is also inspired by her son, who lost his young wife to illness just weeks after they were married several years ago.

You go, girls.

Arizona State led nearly the entire way to beat Bowling Green 67-49 Saturday in the Greensboro Regional.

The win gave third-seeded Arizona State (31-4) its first trip to the NCAA tournament's round of eight, where the Sun Devils will face the Duke-Rutgers winner Monday with a chance to go to the Final Four. (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)

..And then it happened

Someone actually posted the entire Suns Dallas game from last week online at youtube.com, in 15 parts.

Like a mini series.

And no, Im posting the entire game. (I think only one of you would like that).. This is funny to say... but in part 11 of 15...
...is the final minute of regulation.

I've watched alot of basketball in my 31 years, and have hoped on hope before... had faith...

but Phoenix was down by 7 points with 57 seconds left. And then down 5 with 32 seconds left, with the Mavericks Nowitzki set to shoot two free throws. He's a 90% shooter from the line. 5th best in the league.

With the game in Dallas, fans were chanting "MVP! MVP!" to salute the amazing game, season and career of one of the game's best players.... And then it happenned.

Looking back at the Suns/Mavs Double Overtime Classic

This was the first time in 35 years that two teams with records this good faced each other this late in the season. The game surpassed the hype.

Former Arizona Governor admits to seeing UFO seen by thousands in 1997

Photo: National UFO Reporting Center

Sleepless nights may hinder moral judgment

Sleep deprivation may lead not only to bleary-eyed mornings, but clouded moral judgment as well, a study suggests.

Army researchers found that when they subjected a group of volunteers to two sleepless nights, the lack of shut-eye seemed to hinder participants' ability to make decisions in the face of emotionally charged, moral dilemmas.

The dilemmas in this case were hypothetical scenarios, and not actual events. But the study authors say the findings could have implications for people who are both routinely sleep-deprived and often need to make quick decisions in a crisis -- such as soldiers in combat and medical professionals.

Dr. William D. S. Killgore and colleagues at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research report the findings in the journal Sleep.

New digs

koin.com reports:
Oregon Health and Sciences University officials expressed support for the choice of Junction City as the site for a new state psychiatric hospital.

OHSU President Dr. Joe Robertson said, "The Junction City location will create excellent educational opportunities for students and expose them to careers in the behavioral sciences and public psychiatry. Oregon has a strong need for specialists in the area of mental health."

The Junction City hospital will be the second of two psychiatric hospitals planned to replace the aging facility in Salem. The first hospital, planned for completion in 2011, will be a 620-bed facility located on the site of the existing Oregon State Hospital campus in Salem. The hospital in Junction City will hold 360 beds.

Create your own NBA highlight reels

Heather Havenstein of Computerworld reports:

The National Basketball Association unveiled a new video “mashup” tool on its Web site that for the first time allows fans to build their own Web 2.0 applications.

The Highlight Mixer tool—available at the NBA site or myvideo.nba.com—marks the first time the NBA has allowed fans to build customized applications on the site, said Steve Grimes, vice president of interactive services at NBA Entertainment. Users can access NBA game clips, team logos and music to create their own videos, which can then be posted on the NBA site or a user’s own site.

The collection of video clips, which will be updated each week, will be searchable and indexed by teams, dunks, jumpers, buzzer beaters, still photos and other options.

Highlight Mixer uses video editing and remixing tools from Eyespot to allow fans to “sit in the editor’s chair” even if they don’t have any video-editing skills, Grimes said.

“There is a pent-up demand to be able to create your own highlight reels,” he said. “Every fan has their own perspective, and this is the chance to share that with other fans and the rest of the world.”

However, video editing can be hard for inexperienced users, and the NBA didn’t want the task to be difficult, Grimes said. Users do not have to download any editing software or other applications. Instead, a Web interface from the site allows them to “mash” together the content and special effects to build the videos. Fans can create a new video in less than five minutes, he said.

For now, the NBA is limiting use of the tool to its own video, Grimes added. That means users won’t be allowed to sprinkle in their own videos. “We’re trying to balance the desire to give our fans as much opportunity to engage with the league as we can, while at the same time recognizing we have a brand—and a brand that we have to protect,” Grimes said.

Mac users should be able to access the NBA’s mashup tool via the Firefox Web browser. The league says it has not completed Safari browser compatibility as of yet, but promises to notify users in its forums once Safari development is complete.

The NBA is the latest organization to put in new tools to allow users to build their own applications by aggregating Web content. Earlier this month, Yahoo had to take down a prototype Web site for building mashups called Pipes on the same day it was launched because demand exceeded capacity.

Macworld.com staff contributed to this report.

Editor’s Note: This story is reprinted from Computerworld. For more Mac coverage, visit Computerworld’s Macintosh Knowledge Center.

Mental health specialists push for insurance

DEE ANNE FINKEN of The Oregonian reports:
A national effort requiring insurers to cover treatment for mental illness and substance abuse -- on a level equal to that for physical illnesses -- comes Saturday to the Pacific Northwest, an environment that has supported similar legislation with state laws.

A forum Saturday at Washington State University Vancouver -- involving consumers, psychologists, researchers, and hospital and law-enforcement representatives -- will address the need for a federal law despite inroads made at the state level.

"Until we have a federal parity law, state parity legislation is always at risk," said Gregory Robinson, executive director of Columbia River Mental Health Services in Vancouver.

Robinson noted that Oregon and Washington are among 41 states with varying mental-health parity requirements, but he said nearly two summers ago a congressional bill dealing with health plans for small businesses would have erased parity legislation in all states.

"Although most of the language of that bill wasn't about mental-health parity, it included this poisonous pill," Robinson said.

A national effort is being led by U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., who has been a major force behind the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007. U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, a psychologist who worked in the field for 23 years before his election in 1998, invited Kennedy to Vancouver to host the forum and discuss the act.

"Mental-health equity, or parity, as it is called, has predominately been left up to the states," said Baird, a Democrat from Vancouver. "But a hodgepodge of laws means many, many plans exempt people from coverage."

The U.S. Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee on Wednesday provided momentum to the campaign when it approved legislation addressing parity. Kennedy plans to introduce legislation in the House in March.

Beyond treatment for depression, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and other mental illnesses, the federal act would require insurers to cover treatment for substance abuse, a provision that makes Oregon's bill one of the strongest in the nation. Signed by Gov. Ted Kulongoski in August 2005, the bill went into effect this year.

Randy Revelle, of the Washington Coalition for Insurance Parity, said state lawmakers and Gov. Chris Gregoire could vote in March on a bill that, though it would not include coverage for substance-abuse treatment, would extend parity for mental-health treatment to nearly a half million Washingtonians left out of a bill passed in 2005.

Still, Revelle said, another 4 million Washingtonians -- those covered by Medicare, Medicaid, the military or self-insurance plans -- won't have parity until a federal is passed.

Opponents have raised concerns about the economic impact of coverage parity. But Robinson said Americans have accepted that many Americans -- one in five -- suffer from depression at some point and that treatment works.

Pippen to Phoenix?

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Scottie Pippen is tired of retirement. He wants to return to the NBA for a chance to win his seventh championship ring.

With most of the league's stars and decision-makers gathering at the All-Star weekend festivities in Las Vegas, the 41-year-old Pippen announced he's hoping for a late-season return to a contending team -- preferably in a warm-weather city -- nearly 2 1/2 years after he left the league.

"I know that I have the skills," Pippen said. "I think it's sort of been on my mind the last couple of months. It's just about me going out and polishing my skills."

The forward hasn't played since his retirement on Oct. 5, 2004, following a 17-season career with Chicago, Houston and Portland. He won six titles in his famed role as Michael Jordan's wingman with the Bulls, and was part of two gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic teams.

Pippen has been working out in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., during the winter, and he believes the time is right to add his experience and defensive prowess to a contending club, perhaps in Miami or San Antonio.

"This is definitely a stage I can use to get the word out there," Pippen said. "I would only do this for a contender."

Pippen said he would be open to offers from any team, but also said he would contact a few unnamed teams in hopes of getting the best destination.

Little green men gotta drink too

An orbiting spacecraft has sent back new evidence for the presence of
water on Mars.

Scientists have long debated whether water flowed on the red planet, with
evidence increasing in recent years. The presence of water would raise the
possibility of at least primitive life forms existing there.

Images from a camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show
alternating layers of dark- and light-toned rock in a giant rift valley.

Layered outcrops can indicate cycles with materials deposited by regular
episodes of water, wind or volcanic activity according to University of
Arizona researchers in Thursday's edition of the journal 'Science'.

Just last December scientists reported evidence that water may be flowing
through Mars' frigid surface. Images from Mars Global Surveyor showed
changes in craters that provide the strongest evidence yet that water
moved through them as recently as several years ago, and is perhaps doing
so even now.

7/7/07

Environmental activists led by former Vice President Al Gore announced
plans Thursday for a 24-hour pop concert across seven continents in July
to mobilize action to stop global warming.

The "Live Earth" concerts on July 7 and will bring together more than 100
of the world's top musical acts, organizers said. Names of the performers
were not immediately released.

Organizers of the concerts and the new campaign Save Our Selves (SOS) hope
to reach a global audience of some 2 billion people through concert
attendance, radio, television and Internet broadcasts.

North Korea ready to discuss nuke disarmament

Great news tonight from the AP.

North Korea expressed its readiness Thursday to discuss initial steps of its nuclear disarmament, raising hopes for the first tangible progress at international talks on Pyongyang's atomic weapons program since they began more than three years ago.

Pay more, get less

Microsoft has significantly raised what it charges retail customers for technical support for its latest software, Windows Vista and Office 2007, while narrowing the help offered to users.

As of Jan. 30, customers who buy full retail copies of Vista and Office 2007 will get unlimited calls, e-mails and Web chats with Microsoft technical support during the first 90 days after activating the software. But after that period, customers contacting Microsoft for help with Vista will pay $59 per incident, up from $35, according to Matt Fingerhut, general manager of consumer support for platforms and business applications. For technical assistance with Office, customers will pay $49 per incident, also up from $35.

Dinosaur eggs reportedly found in India

Three Indian explorers have recovered more than 100 fossilized eggs of dinosaurs in a remote area in a central Indian state, a news report said Monday.

The amateurs also found footprints of the dinosaurs through which they could also trace the 'track way of the now extinct heavy animals.

Now you see it... now you don't

Steve Nash (#13), the NBA's best passer and two time MVP, will likely sit out tonight's game against the Blazers in Portland. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

Happy tuesday

Robot parking garage to open in New York

Would you trust a robot to park your car? The question will confront New Yorkers in February as the city's first robotic parking opens in Chinatown.

Bush Hails NYC Subway Hero During State of Union

President Bush hailed Autrey for his act of bravery three weeks ago in Harlem, when he saw a man fall onto the subway tracks, leapt down to get him, and held the man in a space between the rails as the train roared over them.

"There is something wonderful about a country that produces a brave and humble man like Wesley Autrey,'' the president said, prompting a long standing ovation from the lawmakers.

The 50-year-old construction worker was joined by his two young daughters, who witnessed their father's death-defying leap and have joined him at public ceremonies honoring him.

Autrey shakes hands with first lady Laura Bush as Lynn Cheney (C), wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, watches during the State of the Union speech on Capitol Hill on Tuesday night. REUTERS/Jason Reed