Senators reach 'substantive' immigration agreement

Immigration Reform Rally

WASHINGTON - Sen. Chuck Schumer said today that while there is not a final deal on immigration legislation just yet, the bi-partisan "Gang of Eight" senators working on immigration reform has reached a "substantive agreement" on the major components of an immigration plan.

"It is not a done deal. We have to draft the legislation. We have to have the group of eight sign off on the specific language, but we have substantive agreement on all the major pieces now between the eight of us," the Democrat from New York said in an interview with ABC News Sunday.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., made a similar statement today and said that he expects the parameters of the plan to be revealed next week.

"I think we've got a deal. We've got to write the legislation, but 2013, I hope, will be the year that we pass bipartisan immigration reform," Graham said on CNN's "State of the Union." "It's got to be written off. We haven't signed off. There are a few details yet. But conceptually, we have an agreement between business and labor, between ourselves that has to be drafted. It will be rolled out next week."

On Friday, business and labor leaders came to an agreement on a visa program for low-skilled immigrant workers, a major turning point in the debate on immigration reform.

In what the AFL-CIO described as the "W-Visa" program, 20,000 visas would be available for low-skilled workers beginning in April of 2015. The number of available visas would increase gradually in the following years but would never go above 200,000 or dip below 20,000 in any given year. Only 15,000 visas would be allocated to construction jobs each year.

"The fact that business and labor have come to an agreement overcomes the last major substantive hurdle we've had in our negotiations," Schumer told ABC News.

But the deal on a guest worker program does not mean the senate group's plan is finalized, because the Gang of Eight still has to hammer out details including border security and the path to citizenship and write the actual legislation.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., one of the members of the bipartisan group working on immigration, said today that reports of a final deal being reached are "premature," and he called for more hearings and discussion on the topic of immigration so that a "healthy public debate" is conducted.

"Arriving at a final product will require it to be properly submitted for the American people's consideration, through the other 92 senators from 43 states that weren't part of this initial drafting process," Rubio said in a statement. "In order to succeed, this process cannot be rushed or done in secret."

ABC News' Carlos Boettcher contributed to this report.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/schumer-gang-8-substantive-agreement-immigration-issues-230408180--abc-news-politics.html

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New world strategy aims to eradicate polio by 2018

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A new global plan aims to end most cases of polio by late next year, and essentially eradicate the paralyzing disease by 2018 ? if authorities can raise the $5.5 billion needed to do the work, health officials said Tuesday.

Part of the challenge will be increasing security for vaccine workers who have come under attack in two of the hardest-hit countries. And the plan calls for changing how much of the world protects against polio, phasing out the long-used oral vaccine in favor of a pricier but safer shot version.

Intense vaccination campaigns have dropped cases to a historic low, a good opportunity for what's being called the "endgame" strategy for this paralyzing disease, noted Dr. Rebecca Martin of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We have a chance now, with the fewest cases in the fewest places," she said, joining officials from the World Health Organization, Gates Foundation and Rotary International to discuss the strategy that will be finalized later this month.

Officials acknowledged that financing the six-year plan upfront will be difficult given tight government budgets. The money would cover vaccinations as well as the monitoring required to be sure polio really is gone.

Last year, authorities counted 223 cases of polio worldwide, down from 650 the year before. Once a worldwide scourge, vaccinations began in the 1950s, and were successful enough in developed countries that a global fight for eradication began in 1988. Now polio remains endemic in parts of just three countries ? Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria ? where all but six of last year's cases occurred. Other countries remain at risk, as travelers can spread the infectious disease to the unvaccinated.

Recent killings of vaccine workers in Pakistan and Nigeria have made the anti-polio campaign more difficult, but it hasn't stopped and it won't, said WHO polio director Dr. Hamid Jafari. Despite the attacks, those countries made progress against polio last year, he said.

The new strategy says countries also must deal with a smaller but real risk: polio cases caused by the vaccine itself. The highly effective oral polio vaccine contains live, weakened virus that can occasionally regain strength and cause the very disease it was intended to prevent. A shot version of the polio vaccine is made of a killed virus that poses no such risk. The polio-free U.S. switched to the shots over a decade ago, but 144 countries still use the oral vaccine. The new strategy calls for them to begin phasing out oral vaccine in 2016.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2013-04-02-Polio%20Fight/id-789efe993a2241e699f773c4017afe09

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Biker dressed as Easter Bunny pulled over by California officers

California Highway Patrol

A motorcycle rider in an Easter Bunny costume was pulled over by a California Highway Patrol officer on Saturday.

By Daniel Arkin, Staff Writer, NBC News

Move over, Mad Max. Step aside, Easy Rider. The Easter Bunny rules the road.

A motorcyclist wearing a full Easter Bunny costume was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol early Saturday after officers on routine patrol spotted the costumed man traveling down Interstate 8 without a helmet, NBCLosAngeles.com reported.

CHP Officer Adam Griffiths reportedly radioed: ?I?m stopping the Easter Bunny.?

The motorist ? who was cruising in a shiny red bike with an old-fashioned sidecar ? told Griffiths that he was on his way to an Easter charity event at which he was required to wear a bunny costume, including white gloves and floppy feet.

Griffiths' partner snapped a photo of the repentant rabbit, which has since circulated widely on social media networks.

Grifiths told the man that the bunny head obstructed his view and put other motorists in danger, according to local reports. But Griffiths ultimately let him off with a verbal warning instead of a citation.

?If you ride a motorcycle, you have to be aware of your total surroundings,? CHP spokesman Brian Pennings told the Los Angeles Times.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2a37e0f1/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C0A10C175524270Ebiker0Edressed0Eas0Eeaster0Ebunny0Epulled0Eover0Eby0Ecalifornia0Eofficers0Dlite/story01.htm

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CMS softens Medicare Advantage funding changes

Medicare Advantage customers may not see the drastic benefit cuts or premium hikes next year that insurers have been warning about after all.

Health insurers had predicted big, painful changes for many of their Medicare Advantage customers after the federal government said in February that the amount it pays per person for the popular coverage could fall more than 2 percent in 2014.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services then changed course on Monday and said it now expects that the cost per person to climb more than 3 percent.

"That's a huge positive" for the industry, said Sheryl Skolnick, an analyst who covers health insurers for CRT Capital Group.

The shares of several health insurers rose sharply in extended trading Monday following the CMS announcement. Medicare Advantage plans have become a key source of growth for insurers, which receive about $10,000 per member to provide customers with basic Medicare coverage topped with vision or dental coverage, or premiums lower than standard Medicare rates.

Insurers offer hundreds of different Medicare Advantage plans around the country, and they flood TV airwaves each fall with commercials during the annual open enrollment period for the popular plans.

More than 13 million people were enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans last year, or about 27 percent of the Medicare population, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. That total has nearly doubled since 2006.

Many Medicare Advantage plans will ultimately get paid less next year due to several other variables like a premium tax that is called for in the health care overhaul, the massive federal law that aims to cover millions of uninsured people. Analysts also expect insurer profits from the plans to be strained by the growing cost of care.

But their finances won't be squeezed so tightly that they have to chop benefits, raise rates by large amounts or leave markets entirely, as some on Wall Street initially feared.

"I think what CMS did here was to buy stability for the program," said Dan Mendelson, president of the market analysis firm Avalere Health. "Most beneficiaries will not see dramatic changes going forward into next year."

The trade association America's Health Insurance Plans had launched an intense lobbying and marketing push after the initial CMS announcement. It included television ad campaigns entitled "Drastic" and "Too Much."

But the association said Monday that CMS with the final 2014 rate announcement took an important step "to help stabilize Medicare Advantage at a time when the program is facing significant challenges."

Some health insurance stocks had retreated since the CMS announcement in February. Shares of Humana Inc., for instance, had fallen more than 10 percent as of late last week. Medicare Advantage plans account for more than 60 percent of the Louisville, Ky., insurer's revenue.

Humana shares climbed more than 9 percent, or $6.78, after markets closed Monday to $81.80. Shares of the largest Medicare Advantage plan provider, Minneapolis-based UnitedHealth Group Inc., rose 4 percent, or $2.28, to $61.25 after hours.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-04-01-Medicare%20Advantage-2014%20Rates/id-694adacd14d64ab9b6512434a327f3ba

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256 Shades Of Grey

I want a black and white computer, and I don't want it out of sheer, wanton weirdness. I actually think it's a good idea. Here's why.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/WgBl6Rz7Tpo/

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New initiative provides free developmental assessments for children most at risk for autism

Apr. 1, 2013 ? Kennedy Krieger Institute today announced a new, pilot initiative to help identify the red flags of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in infant siblings of children with ASD as early as possible. Research studies have found that for families who have one child with ASD, the chance of a subsequent sibling developing the disorder is one in five. The goal of this new initiative is to put a national spotlight on children most at risk -- infant siblings -- and to bring support and awareness to those families already affected by the disorder.

"In terms of screening for early diagnosis, a predisposition to autism should not be treated differently than a predisposition to cancer or diabetes," says Rebecca Landa, Ph.D., director, Center for Autism and Related Disorders at the Kennedy Krieger Institute. Beginning in April, Dr. Landa's team will provide free developmental assessments for infants between ages five to 10 months who have an older sibling diagnosed with ASD and live within a Mid-Atlantic five-state region or the District of Columbia.

Landa says, "If your mother had breast cancer, then you know you should get tested earlier and more frequently than someone without an elevated risk. The same is true for autism. The tracking of developmental milestones is critical for all children, but babies who are at increased risk for autism need to be monitored earlier and more often than the current screening recommendations for infants and toddlers."

While the overall incidence of autism is widely discussed, Kennedy Krieger is striving to educate families on siblings' increased risk and empower them to seek out a developmental expert in their area armed with this information.

"We've launched this initiative to increase the likelihood of identifying children most at risk so that families can seek help sooner and not miss out on early intervention, which can improve lifelong learning, communication and social skills," said Dr. Landa. "My hope is that our initiative encourages institutions and physicians across the country to provide this same type of support for families."

While children typically receive a diagnosis of ASD between ages two to four, researchers are discovering that the earliest signs of ASD can be detected in infants as young as six to 14 months of age. The earlier ASD is detected, the more effective early intervention can be in the life of a child.

The free developmental assessments will take place at the nationally renowned Center for Autism and Related Disorders at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. Families living in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia are currently eligible. To find out more, visit autism.kennedykrieger.org.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/mind_brain/child_development/~3/q611Lx2LyVc/130401090544.htm

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