jedd gnomic: August 2013

Monday, August 5, 2013

AP source: A-Rod can play during suspension appeal

New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez answers questions from the media during a press conference after a minor league baseball rehab start with the Trenton Thunder in a game against the Reading Fightin Phils, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013 at Arm & Hammer Park in Trenton, N.J.. (AP Photo/Rich Schultz)

New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez answers questions from the media during a news conference after a minor league baseball rehab start with the Trenton Thunder in a game against the Reading Phillies, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013, in Trenton, N.J. (AP Photo/Rich Schultz)

New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez stands on first base after drawing a walk during the first inning of a Class AA baseball game with the Trenton Thunder against the Reading Phillies Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013, in Trenton, N.J. (AP Photo/Rich Schultz)

New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez trots to first base after drawing a walk during the first inning of a Class AA baseball game with the Trenton Thunder against the Reading Phillies Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013, in Trenton, N.J. (AP Photo/Rich Schultz)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Alex Rodriguez will be suspended Monday, likely through the 2014 season, as part of Major League Baseball's latest drug investigation but can play while he appeals, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press.

Major League Baseball informed the New York Yankees on Sunday that A-Rod will be suspended for his links to a clinic accused of distributing banned performance-enhancing drugs, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because no statement was authorized.

The Yankees weren't told the exact length of the suspension, though they were under the impression it will be through the 2014 season, the person said. The Yankees star could get a shorter penalty if he agrees to give up the right to file a grievance and force the case before an arbitrator, the person added.

A suspension from Monday through 2014 would add to 214 games, and an unsuccessful appeal could stretch serving the penalty into 2015. In the era before players and owners agreed to a drug plan in late 2002, arbitrators often shortened drug suspensions ? in the case of Yankees pitcher Steve Howe, his penalty was cut from a lifetime ban to 119 days.

MLB planned an announcement for noon EDT Monday, a second person familiar with the deliberations said, also on condition of anonymity.

Rodriguez is the most famous player linked to the now-closed Biogenesis of America anti-aging clinic in Florida, and the Yankees expect him to be charged with interfering with MLB's investigation, resulting in a harsher penalty than the other 13 players facing discipline.

Barring an agreement, Rodriguez's appeal would be heard by arbitrator Fredric Horowitz.

Adding to the drama: The 38-year-old Rodriguez, a three-time AL MVP, was due to return to the major leagues Monday night when the Yankees play at Chicago White Sox, his first big league appearance since hip surgery in January.

"He's in there, and I'm going to play him," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said Sunday after New York's 6-3 loss at San Diego.

Yankees outfielder Curtis Granderson was excited A-Rod could play during an appeal.

"I want him back with us. This is arguably one of the best hitters of all-time," he said. "Having him in the lineup is obviously going to be very positive for us."

New York is a season-high 9? games out of first place in the AL East and 4? out in the race for the second wild-card spot.

"We're going to be happy to see him back in the lineup, especially the way we've been playing," second baseman Robinson Cano said. "He can come up and help us win some games."

All-Stars Nelson Cruz of Texas, Jhonny Peralta of Detroit and Everth Cabrera of San Diego were among those who could get 50-game suspensions from the probe, sparked in January when Miami New Times published documents linking many players to the closed clinic in Coral Gables, Fla.

Many players were expected to agree to penalties and start serving them immediately, but an appeal by a first-offender under the drug agreement would postpone his suspension until after a decision by an arbitrator.

Milwaukee outfielder Ryan Braun, the 2011 NL MVP, agreed July 22 to a 65-game ban through the rest of the 2013 season for his role with Biogenesis. Braun was given a 50-game suspension for elevated testosterone that was overturned last year by arbitrator Shyam Das because of issues with the handing of the urine sample,

Since spring training, the union has said it will consider stiffer penalties starting in 2014.

"The home runs that are hit because a guy's on performance-enhancing substances, those ruin somebody's ERA, which ruins their arbitration case, which ruins their salary," Los Angeles Angels pitcher C.J. Wilson said. "So it's a whole domino effect."

Rodriguez's return from hip surgery was slowed by a quadriceps injury. He completed his second minor league injury rehabilitation assignment on Saturday night, a two-day stay at Double-A Trenton. Rodriguez walked in all four plate appearances, a day after hitting a two-run homer.

Following Friday night's game, Rodriguez all but said he thought MLB and the Yankees were conspiring to keep him from getting back to the big leagues.

"There is more than one party that benefits from me not ever stepping back on the field. And that's not my teammates and it's not the Yankee fans," said, adding: "When all this stuff is going on in the background and people are finding creative ways to cancel your contract and stuff like that, I think that's concerning for me."

He last played in October, going 3 for 25 (.120) with no RBIs in the playoffs. Rodriguez is owed $8,568,306 of his $28 million salary from Monday through the rest of the season and $86 million for the final four years of his contract with the Yankees. Girardi didn't think A-Rod's arrival would create more turmoil than the Yankees already are used to.

"I don't suspect it'll be awkward. Most of these guys know him as a teammate and have laughed a lot with Alex and been around Alex a lot," he said. "I think it'll be business as usual. I'm sure there will be more media there, obviously, tomorrow, but I think that's probably more for Alex to deal with than the rest of the guys. I don't think it'll be a big deal."

Lawyers involved in the drug cases have been trying to reach agreements that would avoid grievances. Deal or no deal, baseball Commissioner Bud Selig was prepared to announce discipline.

Peralta didn't think the possibility of a suspension made it harder to focus on the field.

"Nothing to worry about," he said. "Play the game how I play every day, and try to enjoy every day."

Asked what action he would take if penalized, Cruz said: "I haven't decided what I'm going to do."

There have been 43 suspensions under the major league drug agreement since testing with penalties for first offenses started in 2005. The longest penalty served has been a 100-game suspension by San Francisco pitcher Guillermo Mota for a positive test for Clenbuterol, his second drug offense.

In addition, Tampa Bay outfielder Manny Ramirez retired two years ago rather than face a 100-game suspension. When he decided to return for 2012 the penalty was cut to 50 games because he already had sat out almost an entire season.

Colorado catcher Eliezer Alfonzo was suspended for 100 games in September 2011, but the penalty was rescinded the following May because of handling issues similar to the ones involving Braun's urine sample.

___

AP Sports Writers Noah Trister in Detroit and Bernie Wilson in San Diego, and AP freelance writer Rick Eymer in Oakland, Calif., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-08-04-BBO-MLB-Drug-Investigation/id-6862adb7dc5f4a13b1636f3ebcf814ca

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Sunday, August 4, 2013

Why Chris Messina Leaves Google for NeonMob?

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"When is the draft @Messina2012 for U.S. Senate campaign going to begin? No one knows Montana better!"

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#Chris #Messina #leaves #Google

Source: GigaOM

Chris Messina, famous as the inventor of the hashtag convention on Twitter, has left Google. Messina worked on the short-lived Google Buzz, and more recently on user experience design for Google+. He also helped create Google Developers. Messi ...
Full article at: GigaOM ?More like this??22 hours ago, 3:08pm CDT

Why Chris Messina Leaves Google for NeonMob?

#ChrisMessina #leaves #Google for #NeonMob. The man was a genius for he brought us the by now ubiquitous hashtag feature that allows conversations to occur online in a specific # trend. Chris Messina had led a modest existence at Google despite his innovative invention which has become universal in its online scope. Six years ago he devised the net tool that was to achieve so much popularity. Ever since then conversations can occur in groups online without any hitches. The man had been concentrating on design and other aspects of the web at Google after that period of creativity. Redesigning was the main field of Chris. Some of Google?s prominent features such as brand badges, profiles and the +1 button were all products of his extremely fertile mind.

He was also responsible for the Google Developers knowledge base. However, after three years of service, Chris feels he should move on to more adventurous avenues. Seven days from now he will be paying NeonMob a visit. The art house is where he wants to restart his passionate exploration of creative technology. Chris is going to be creating a community at the new set up that he will be joining soon. Chris was a daring developer and UX designer at Google. He wants to expand his repertoire and find new channels of creative and artistic growth. And he is the sort of person who wants to test the limits of human ingenuity.?

Chris states in his blog that, "Next week I'll begin work at a 6-person startup based in San Francisco called NeonMob (sign up here!). I'll be focused on building a community and growing the service, which I believe is building an important, new platform for digital creatives and art enthusiasts."

Why Chris left Google for a really small start-up? Probably for #toTheFuture. He gives his opinion on this. He said, "I?m super positive about the future of Google+ and Google, and have a great amount of hope in the increasing role that design leadership is playing across the company ? and it was time for me to try my hand at something a little smaller and closer to a few dormant passions: art and collecting!"

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Author's Take on 'Why Millennials Are Leaving the Church' Goes Viral, Sparks Debate

August 2, 2013|10:13 pm

In the article, which has garnered 196,000 Facebook recommendations since it was published Saturday morning on CNN's Belief Blog, the 32-year-old says she barely qualifies as a millennial because of her age, but she tends to identify with the younger generation and is often asked to speak about why those who are a part of it are leaving the church. Christian leaders, evangelical ones in particular, tend to assume that they can reach millennials by updating their church's style, she writes, but what young people are really searching for is "a change in substance."

Millennials, she suggests, want a "truce" between faith and science, churches that emphasize allegiance to God's kingdom over allegiance to a political party, to be challenged to live holy lives and for the LGBT community to feel welcome in faith communities, among other things.

"You can't hand us a latte and then go about business as usual and expect us to stick around," wrote Evans. "We're not leaving the church because we don't find the cool factor there; we're leaving the church because we don't find Jesus there."

At the end of her article, she suggests church leaders who want to win young people back to the church should ask them what they're searching for and how they would like to contribute.

Critics of Evans' piece generally agree that trying to make churches "cool" is simply not enough to keep millennials interested, but there are a variety of different opinions on how the church should begin trying to solve the problem.

Brett McCracken, author of Gray Matters: Navigating the Space Between Legalism and Liberty, said in an article for The Washington Post's On Faith?blog that "Christianity has become too obsessed with how it is perceived." Millennials do not have it all figured out, he writes, and instead of telling church leaders what the church should look like, they should be the ones listening to the wisdom of pastors, parents and older believers.

"As a Millennial, if I'm truly honest with myself, what I really need from the church is not another yes-man entity enabling my hubris and giving me what I want," wrote McCracken. "Rather, what I need is something bigger than me, older than me, bound by a truth that transcends me and a story that will outlast me; basically, something that doesn't change to fit me and my whims, but changes me to be the Christ-like person I was created to be."

Jonathan Fitzgerald, author of Not Your Mother's Morals: How the New Sincerity is Changing Pop Culture for the Better, said on Patrolmag.com?that he thinks both Evans and McCracken are only partially right in their approach to beginning to solve the problem.

"In both cases the solution that is proposed is a conversation and they just disagree about who should be doing the listening and who should be doing the talking," wrote Fitzgerald. "But what we really need is not conversation, but action. That is, the way forward for all parties is for Millennials to get involved. Stop making a list of demands and do something."

When young people really get involved in a church, he suggests, they can help change to occur, though it may take time and require them to work with people who hold different opinions.

Anthony Bradley, research fellow at the Acton Institute and associate professor of Theology and Ethics in the Public Service Program at The King's College, states in a blog post?that Evans' article focuses on "a narrow subculture of conservative American evangelicals" and not the universal church. It does not address, for example, why millennials are leaving other groups, such as Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, mainline Protestant and broad evangelical churches.

Bradley, who spent more than 20 years in the United Methodist Church (UMC) before joining the Presbyterian Church in America, says everything millennials are looking for in Evans' opinion could be found in mainline denominations like the UMC, yet even the UMC is "hemorrhaging."

"The bottom line is that most American Christian denominations are declining across the board, especially among their millennial attendees, and it would require a fair amount of hubris to attempt to explain the decline across America's 350,000 congregations," wrote Bradley.

After the overwhelming response to her article, Evans took to her blog?to offer some further explanation and to show which resources helped drive her to her conclusions.

"I hadn't intended it to be a comprehensive piece on the faith of millennials, just a commentary on how-generally, based on multiple surveys and my own experience, millennials in the U.S. long for change in the Church that goes beyond worship style and marketing," she wrote. "So it's been nice to see the conversation continue as church leaders, researches, and my fellow millennials weigh in."

She pointed to another blog post?in which she described "in gross generalizations" how mainline denominations offer nearly everything she says millennials are looking for in a church, though they lack "that evangelical fire-in-the-belly" and intensive Bible study, among other things.

Evans also says her goal in the CNN article wasn't to say the church should bend to the whims of millennials, but rather that it should change with them.

"The article wasn't intended to be a list of demands, but rather an expression of desires, a casting of vision and an articulation of my hope for the Church," she wrote. "Obviously, the real work begins when we come together in community to do the hard, daily work of reconciliation, listening, serving, and worshipping in spirit and truth."

According to the Public Religion Research Institute, 21 percent of millennials say they were raised in a religious home but do not currently identify with any religion.

Source: http://www.christianpost.com/news/authors-take-on-why-millennials-are-leaving-the-church-goes-viral-sparks-debate-101495/

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Saturday, August 3, 2013

Florida lawmakers agree to hearings on 'Stand Your Ground' law (reuters)

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Judge denies class action for Wal-Mart bias suit (Providence Journal)

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FDA: Mexico source of cyclospora outbreak

Diners at Red Lobster and Olive Garden restaurants in Iowa and Nebraska caught an intestinal illness tied to a rare type of parasite after eating eating salad mix that came from Mexico, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Friday.

The federal agency said its investigators traced the outbreak to four "illness clusters" of restaurants, which spokeswoman Theresa Eisenman later identified to CNN as Red Lobster and Olive Garden locations. The probe didn't find indications that any bags of salad mix with the parasite -- known as cyclospora -- were sold at U.S. grocery stores.

The tainted salad mix came from Taylor Farms de Mexico, "a processor of foodservice salads," according to the FDA.

Darden -- the parent company for Olive Garden, Red Lobster and other restaurant chains such as LongHorn Steakhouse -- described Friday's announcement from the FDA as "new information."

"Nothing we have seen prior to this announcement gave us any reason to be concerned about the products we've received from this supplier," Darden said in a statement, in which the company insisted "it is completely safe to eat in our restaurants."

Taylor Farms has been cooperating with U.S. officials, the FDA said, adding that tests will be conducted at the company's processing facility in Mexico "to try to learn the probable cause of the outbreak and identify preventive controls." The last inspection there, in 2011, turned no notable problems, according to the federal agency.

The company's CEO, Bruce Taylor, told CNN on Friday night that the company's plant in Mexico produced and distributed about 48 million servings of salads to thousands of restaurants in the Midwest and eastern United States this past June.

"We have an extensive testing program in Mexico to test water sources and raw product for coliforms, E. coli, Salmonella and Listeria," said Taylor. "All our tests have been negative and we have no evidence of cyclospora in our product."

As of Thursday, there had been 146 cases of cyclospora inspections reported in Iowa, according to that state's public health department. There were 82 reported cases in Nebraska.

Iowa health authorities said Thursday that the prepackaged salad mix of iceberg and romaine lettuce, carrots and red cabbage was no longer in the state's supply chain.

Source: http://www.wdsu.com/news/health/FDA-Mexico-source-of-cyclospora-outbreak/-/9853288/21312164/-/4o49loz/-/index.html?absolute=true

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Friday, August 2, 2013

FDA defining what "gluten free" means on packages

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A label that reads "gluten free" will now mean the same thing for all food, regardless of which kind you buy.

After more than a six-year delay, the Food and Drug Administration has set a new standard for labels that will make shopping easier for consumers on gluten-restricted diets. Until now, the term "gluten free" had not been regulated, and manufacturers made their own decisions about what it means.

Under an FDA rule announced Friday, products labeled "gluten free" still won't have to be technically free of wheat, rye and barley and their derivatives. But they will have to contain less than 20 parts per million of gluten.

That amount is generally recognized by the medical community to be low enough so that most people who have celiac disease won't get sick if they eat it.

People who suffer from celiac disease don't absorb nutrients well and can get sick from the gluten found in wheat and other cereal grains. Other countries already have similar standards.

Celiac disease affects up to 3 million Americans. It causes abdominal pain, bloating and diarrhea, and people who have it can suffer weight loss, fatigue, rashes and other long-term medical problems. Celiac is a diagnosed illness that is more severe than gluten sensitivity, which some people self-diagnose.

Only a very small number of people wouldn't be able to ingest the amount of gluten that will be allowed under the new rule, FDA officials said.

"Adherence to a gluten-free diet is the key to treating celiac disease, which can be very disruptive to everyday life," FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg said. "The FDA's new 'gluten-free' definition will help people with this condition make food choices with confidence and allow them to better manage their health."

The new FDA rule also would ensure that foods with the labels "no gluten," ''free of gluten," and "without gluten" meet the definition. Manufacturers will have a year to comply, though the FDA urged companies to meet the definition sooner.

Ten years ago, most people had never heard of celiac disease. But awareness and diagnosis of the illness has exploded in recent years. It's not entirely clear why ? some researchers say it was under-diagnosed; others say it's because people eat more processed wheat products like pastas and baked goods than in past decades, and those items use types of wheat that have a higher gluten content.

Many companies that market gluten-free foods already meet the standard. But Andrea Levario of the American Celiac Disease Alliance said the federal guidelines will cut down on painstaking shopping for those who suffer from celiac disease.

Levario said that wheat must be labeled on food packages but that barley and rye are often hidden ingredients in food. The standard will also ensure that companies can't label products "gluten-free" even if they are cross-contaminated from other products made in the same manufacturing facility. She said shopping can be like "playing Russian roulette" for people who have celiac.

"This will eliminate confusion for the consumer and will cut down on calls to companies to try and determine whether their products are safe and gluten free," she said.

Michael Taylor, FDA deputy commissioner for foods, said the rule originally proposed during the George W. Bush administration was delayed because the agency was evaluating what standard was correct.

"We wanted to do a careful scientific assessment of the data and the range of sensitivities," Taylor said.

Congress originally directed the FDA to set the standards in 2004 as part of a larger law that required food packaging to list major allergens. Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., originally introduced a bill calling for the standards in 1999. She praised the FDA rules and called them "a long time coming."

In the decade since Congress considered the standards, gluten-free foods have become big business. Millions of people are buying the foods because they say they make them feel better, even if they don't have celiac disease. Americans spent more than $4 billion on gluten-free foods last year, according to the American Celiac Disease Alliance, and a major manufacturing survey issued this week suggested that the niche industry is giving an economic boost to the food industry overall.

One of the largest manufacturers of gluten free foods, Boulder Brands, said it has been seeing double-digit growth in sales and is looking at expanding into bigger markets. The company's brands, Glutino and Udi's, already meet the new standards.

"We expect the new regulations to impact sales in a positive way as consumers can feel more confident in their gluten free choices," said T.J. McIntyre, executive vice president of the company.

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

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fda-defining-gluten-free-means-packages-130020591.html

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AP Interview: USPS eyes alcohol deliveries

Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe poses with next to a portrait of Benjamin Franklin, the first postmaster general, after an interview with the Associated Press at his office at U.S. Postal Service Headquarters in Washington, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013. Donahoe has a wish list for raising cash for his financially ailing agency. High on it is delivery of beer, wine and spirits. In an interview with The Associated Press, Donahoe also endorsed ending most door-to-door and Saturday mail deliveries as cost-saving measures. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Charts show U.S. Postal Service operating losses and total mail volume since 2001; 2c x 4 inches; 96.3 mm x 101 mm;

Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe poses with a mailbox from the early 1900's during an interview with the Associated Press at his office at U.S. Postal Service Headquarters in Washington, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013. Donahoe has a wish list for raising cash for his financially ailing agency. High on it is delivery of beer, wine and spirits. In an interview with The Associated Press, Donahoe also endorsed ending most door-to-door and Saturday mail deliveries as cost-saving measures. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe gestures during an interview with the Associated Press at his office at U.S. Postal Service Headquarters in Washington, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013. Donahoe has a wish list for raising cash for his financially ailing agency. High on it is delivery of beer, wine and spirits. In an interview with The Associated Press, Donahoe also endorsed ending most door-to-door and Saturday mail deliveries as cost-saving measures. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe is interviewed by the Associated Press at his office at U.S. Postal Service Headquarters in Washington, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013. Donahoe has a wish list for raising cash for his financially ailing agency. High on it is delivery of beer, wine and spirits. In an interview with The Associated Press, Donahoe also endorsed ending most door-to-door and Saturday mail deliveries as cost-saving measures. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Special delivery from the post office ? beer, wine and spirits, if Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has his way.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Donahoe said Thursday delivery of alcoholic beverages is on his wish list as the agency considers ways to raise revenue and save money after losing $16 billion last year. He also said he endorses ending most door-to-door and Saturday mail deliveries as a way to help stabilize the service's finances.

Donahoe said delivering alcohol has the potential to raise as much as $50 million a year. He mentioned how customers might want to, for example, mail bottles of wine home when they tour vineyards. Donahoe said his agency has looked at the possibility of using special boxes that would hold two, four or six bottles and ship for a flat-rate anywhere in the country.

"There's a lot of money to be made in beer, wine and spirits," Donahoe said. "We'd like to be in that business."

The Postal Service says mailing alcoholic beverages is currently restricted by law. Customers are even told to cover any logos or labels if they use alcoholic beverage boxes for shipments.

The agency is also urging changes in how it delivers the mail. A House committee has passed legislation to stabilize the Postal Service's ailing finances that would cut letter deliveries to five days and phase out door-to-door deliveries over 10 years. The bill does not include a provision to allow the agency to deliver alcohol.

The Senate passed a postal reform bill last year that included a provision allowing the agency to deliver alcohol. The bill would require that such shipments would have to comply with any state laws where the shipment originated and was delivered. The measure also said the recipient would have to be at least 21 years old and would need to provide valid, government-issued photo identification upon delivery.

The agency faces $15 billion in losses this year and is working toward restructuring its retail, delivery and mail processing operations.

"We don't want to take any more debt on," Donahoe said. "We want to be able to get profitable, pay it down, just like any other business would, so that you stay strong for the future."

The service's losses are largely due to a decline in mail volume and a congressional requirement that it make advance payments to cover expected health care costs for future retirees. About $11.1 billion of last year's losses were due to the health care payments.

Donahoe said over the last decade, the mail volume at his agency's trademark blue boxes has dropped 60 percent.

"That's our most profitable mail," he said. "That will continue to drop off because people pay bills online. And we understand that, it's easy, it's free, and so we have to continue to make changes."

On a bright note, Donahoe said the volume of packages the service handles has grown considerably in recent years, a trend he expects to continue.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee recently approved a plan for the service to gradually shift from door delivery to cluster box and curbside delivery, which includes mailboxes at the end of driveways. The agency has been moving toward curbside and cluster box delivery in new residential developments since the 1970s.

About 1 in 3 mail customers has door-to-door delivery. Some lawmakers have complained that ending home delivery in many densely developed urban areas would be difficult and pose hardships for many people, including the elderly and places where the weather can be harsh.

"We'd work with the communities," Donahoe said, adding there would be special hardship exemptions for those physically unable to get their mail at centralized locations. "We want to figure out how to do it so people don't get mad."

Donahoe said there are ways to install centralized mail boxes that fit in well with the neighborhood and also don't cause a lot of hardship for customers.

Some 30 million residential addresses receive delivery to boxes at the door or a mail slot. Another 87 million residential addresses receive curbside or cluster box delivery.

Door-to-door delivery costs the agency about $350 per year, on average. Curbside delivery costs average $224 per year for each address, while cluster box delivery averages $160.

The service earlier this year backpedaled on its plan to end Saturday mail delivery after running into opposition in Congress. It has tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully over the past several years to persuade Congress to approve ending Saturday mail delivery.

The National Association of Letter Carriers has said ending Saturday delivery would in particular hurt rural residents and the elderly who depend more heavily on the mail for prescription drugs and other goods. Donahoe said there would be a six-month implementation period to help smooth out any problems and that medicines would still be delivered on Saturdays.

The Senate last year passed a bill that would have stopped the Postal Service from eliminating Saturday service for at least two years and required it to try two years of cost-cutting instead. The House didn't pass a bill.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-08-01-Postal%20Delivery-AP%20Interview/id-b7c5860048f546c79f27471537868329

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MLB Releases List in Performance-Enhancing Drug Scandal to Union

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Source: abcnewsradioonline.com --- Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Streeter Lecka/Getty Images (NEW YORK) -- Major League Baseball has informed the Union which players it intends to punish for obtaining performance-enhancing drugs from Biogenesis, the now-defunct clinic in South Florida first named as a supplier by the Miami New Times , ABC News has learned from a source close to the investigation. Alex Rodriguez is reportedly among the players who could face suspension. He did not answer questions Wednesday in Tampa, where he continues a rehabilitation stint at the Yankees? training facility. Rodriguez, arguably the biggest star with the biggest salary at $28 million for the season, has not played since October because of an injury. ?Baseball is trying to drop the hammer as hard as it can,? said Tim Kurkjian, an ESPN analyst for Baseball Tonight . ?MLB is going to try to ban A-Rod for life but if they do, they know they?ll get in an incredible fight with the Union.? Players Union representatives started Wednesday to inform the targeted ballplayers whether they have a right to appeal or whether it?s better for them to accept a plea deal as Ryan Braun did. Braun, 29, was suspended July 22 for the rest of the season ? 65 games ? for using the banned substances he?d denied using for nearly two years. He stands to lose $3 million of a nearly $9 million salary. According to ESPN, Rodriguez might face a harsher punishment than Braun. He allegedly did not only violate the league?s drug policy but also ...

Source: http://abcnewsradioonline.com/national-news/mlb-releases-list-in-performance-enhancing-drug-scandal-to-u.html

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Wheels: A Suburban Jersey Spin in the 2014 Ford Fiesta

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Source: www.nytimes.com --- Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Ford?s new Fiesta, although not big on power, is a nice-looking way to get from place to place for little money. ? ? ? ? ...

Source: http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/a-suburban-jersey-spin-in-the-2014-ford-fiesta/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Monday, August 5, 2013

AP source: A-Rod can play during suspension appeal

Sunday, August 4, 2013