County official calls car leasing contract procedure 'embarrassing'

Auditors reviewing a $1.75-million car leasing contract given to a company with a politically connected lobbying firm found that Los Angeles County officials had failed to create a "truly competitive" process, but that there was no evidence of improper influence.

Investigators with the county auditor-controller's office reviewed the Enterprise Rent-a-Car contract at the request of Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich. A report by KCET-TV had raised questions about the way the business was awarded.

Enterprise was given a sole-source, five-year deal in March to provide 60 leased  vehicles to the county's Community Development Commission and to maintain the agency's existing fleet. Commission staff projected that outsourcing the fleet services would save about $300,000 a year.

The Nov. 28 report on KCET's "SoCal Connected" focused on the lobbying firm Englander Knabe & Allen and questioned whether its clients — including Enterprise — got an unfair advantage because partner Matt Knabe is the son of county Supervisor Don Knabe, who voted along with all the other supervisors to award the contract.

Both Knabes have said that their relationship has never posed a conflict, and a spokesman for the Englander firm has said Matt Knabe never lobbies his father directly.

The auditor-controller found no evidence of attempts to influence the rental car award. Matt Knabe told investigators that no one from his firm had lobbied on the contract, and the commission's executive director said he was "100% confident" the supervisor's son did not influence the process.

"The report shows that Matt acted professionally and used no undue influence in his dealings with the county," said Englander partner Eric Rose.

But the review did find that county staff did an "inadequate" job of trying to find other potential bidders.

Asked by KCET what vendors had been contacted and given a chance to compete for the business, a county analyst created a list to make it appear the department had reached out to 50 companies. In fact, only 16 firms had been contacted, auditors found. Enterprise was the only company that responded to the email request, and staff made no follow-up attempt to contact the other firms.

According to the auditor's report, the count of 50 vendors was originally used as a "place holder" in a template document and never corrected. By the time the contract was awarded, the contract analyst "felt he could not correct the number without embarrassment."

Investigators also found that the agency violated its own policy by not advertising the contract on the commission's or the county's websites, and that the contract should have gone through a full bidding process.

In addition, several vendors that contract officials emailed to invite interest had no "realistic potential" to provide a leased fleet to the county in the first place, the review concluded.

Investigators wrote that they couldn't determine whether the commission could have gotten a better deal but said "the potential for greater savings from a more competitive process appears to be plausible."

County auditor-controller Wendy Watanabe called the situation "embarrassing" but chalked up the issues to incompetence rather than intentional steering.

"I think they got lazy, they took a shortcut, and they didn't think it was that big of a deal," she said.

Watanabe said the investigation had focused on the Enterprise contract, so she could not say whether there was a broader issue with the agency's contracting process.

Commission representatives could not be reached Monday. The commission was slated to respond to the report's findings within 30 days.

abby.sewell@latimes.com

Read More..

Is Facebook envy making you miserable?

LONDON (Reuters) – Witnessing friends’ vacations, love lives and work successes on Facebook can cause envy and trigger feelings of misery and loneliness, according to German researchers.

A study conducted jointly by two German universities found rampant envy on Facebook, the world’s largest social network that now has over one billion users and has produced an unprecedented platform for social comparison.

The researchers found that one in three people felt worse after visiting the site and more dissatisfied with their lives, while people who browsed without contributing were affected the most.

“We were surprised by how many people have a negative experience from Facebook with envy leaving them feeling lonely, frustrated or angry,” researcher Hanna Krasnova from the Institute of Information Systems at Berlin’s Humboldt University told Reuters.

“From our observations some of these people will then leave Facebook or at least reduce their use of the site,” said Krasnova, adding to speculation that Facebook could be reaching saturation point in some markets.

Researchers from Humboldt University and from Darmstadt’s Technical University found vacation photos were the biggest cause of resentment with more than half of envy incidents triggered by holiday snaps on Facebook.

Social interaction was the second most common cause of envy as users could compare how many birthday greetings they received to those of their Facebook friends and how many “likes” or comments were made on photos and postings.

“Passive following triggers invidious emotions, with users mainly envying happiness of others, the way others spend their vacations and socialize,” the researchers said in the report “Envy on Facebook: A Hidden Threat to Users’ Life Satisfaction?” released on Tuesday.

“The spread and ubiquitous presence of envy on Social Networking Sites is shown to undermine users’ life satisfaction.”

They found people aged in their mid-30s were most likely to envy family happiness while women were more likely to envy physical attractiveness.

These feelings of envy were found to prompt some users to boast more about their achievements on the site run by Facebook Inc. to portray themselves in a better light.

Men were shown to post more self-promotional content on Facebook to let people know about their accomplishments while women stressed their good looks and social lives.

The researchers based their findings on two studies involving 600 people with the results to be presented at a conference on information systems in Germany in February.

The first study looked at the scale, scope and nature of envy incidents triggered by Facebook and the second at how envy was linked to passive use of Facebook and life satisfaction.

The researchers said the respondents in both studies were German but they expected the findings to hold internationally as envy is a universal feeling and possibly impact Facebook usage.

“From a provider’s perspective, our findings signal that users frequently perceive Facebook as a stressful environment, which may, in the long-run, endanger platform sustainability,” the researchers concluded.

(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith, editing by Paul Casciato)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Is Facebook envy making you miserable?
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/is-facebook-envy-making-you-miserable/
Link To Post : Is Facebook envy making you miserable?
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

Mariel Hemingway runs from crazy at Sundance

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Mariel Hemingway says she has left the bad kind of crazy behind, and all that's left is good crazy.

Hemingway came to the Sundance Film Festival for the documentary "Running from Crazy," which chronicles the family history of mental illness that led to the suicides of seven relatives, including sister Margaux and grandfather Ernest Hemingway.

Directed by Barbara Kopple, with Oprah Winfrey an executive producer, the film features segments with Mariel opening up about how she put her own depression and suicidal thoughts behind her.

"I can honestly say that I do believe that now bad crazy is gone. Good crazy is still around, but I truly am no longer depressed," Hemingway, 51, said in an interview alongside Kopple. "It's gone. I can honestly say that it's been years. I laugh at myself now, which is fun."

Kopple also found a treasure trove of footage from a documentary Margaux was shooting about grandfather Ernest, material that shows the different paths of the two sisters. A supermodel whose acting career fizzled even as Mariel's flourished, Margaux died of a drug overdose in 1996.

"Running from Crazy" explores the bravado of Ernest Hemingway — the boozing, bullfight-loving, womanizing Nobel Prize winning author — and how it concealed a troubled soul. He put a shotgun to his head and killed himself in 1961, a few months before Mariel was born.

The film also reveals a family in denial — Mariel, Margaux and oldest sister Joan, known to the family as Muffet — raised by heavy-drinking parents who had violent fights as the alcohol soaked in and who refused to acknowledge what Mariel calls a family curse of mental illness.

Hemingway shares a touching reunion with Muffet, who was in and out of mental hospitals for years, shows off the rigorous exercise and self-help techniques she has used to overcome depression and reveals dark family secrets, including her belief that her father sexually abused her older sisters.

"What Mariel has, I mean, she's the dream of a documentarian, because you sit at the table with her and talk to her, and everything comes out, because she has a higher purpose for it. She really wants to shed light on suicide and mental illness," said Kopple, a two-time Academy Award winner for the documentaries "Harlan County, U.S.A." and "American Dream."

"If people see that she's doing it and how she has constructed such a healthy, wonderful lifestyle, that they can do it, too," she said.

Mariel Hemingway also discusses the bad blood between her and Margaux, who starred in the 1976 film "Lipstick" and got Mariel a supporting role that launched her little sister's acting career. Critics were not kind about the performance of Margaux, who soon wound up in cheesy action and horror movies such as "Killer Fish." But Mariel received solid praise, earned an Oscar nomination three years later for Woody Allen's "Manhattan" and went on to star in such films as "Personal Best" and "Star 80."

The film includes a scene in which Mariel visits her grandfather's Idaho house and the room where he killed himself. She also stops by the graves of her parents, sister and grandfather, remarking sadly about the bottles of Jack Daniels that his fans leave on his gravestone.

The title comes from Hemingway's comment that she has spent her life "running from crazy," trying to escape what seemed a doomed legacy for herself and her two daughters, with whom she discusses the family history in the film.

"Some people are like, 'Wow, that's a heavy title.' Well, I don't see it as a heavy title. I'm like, 'Dude, thank God,'" Hemingway said. "Crazy's gone. Sometimes I'm running with crazy, but now it's a different kind of crazy. There's fun in my life and I'm joyful. But there was a time when I really was not. A time, my entire life, probably 40 years of really trying to not be something that I came from."

Read More..

More marketers lengthen Super Bowl ads to stand out during game

For this year's Super Bowl, more marketers are benching the standard 30-second spots and paying pricey sums — in some cases more than $7.5 million — to run 60-second commercials during the NFL championship Feb. 3.

Longer commercials are part of a game plan to win the attention and the affection of viewers, including the tens of millions of people who watch the Super Bowl primarily to see the ads. A Harris Interactive study last year found that an estimated 66% of women and 45% of men watch the big game as much for the ads as the action on the field.

CBS executives say demand has been heavy for commercial time for the upcoming match between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers. The majority of ads will continue to be 30-second spots, which have sold for a record-high average of $3.8 million — 7% higher than last year's rate.

TIMELINE: Best Super Bowl commercials

A few spots have gone for as much as $4 million, which should help CBS rake in more than $275 million in advertising revenue from the game alone, on top of the millions of additional ad dollars generated during seven hours of pre-game shows.

Demand, advertisers say, is driven by interest. More than 41 million viewers watched the Ravens beat the New England Patriots on Sunday to earn a spot in the Super Bowl, and the big game itself is expected to draw more than 100 million viewers. Last year's audience in the U.S. of 111 million people was more than twice the size of any other single event televised in 2012.

"I've been doing this for 30 years and consumer interest is at an all-time high," said Mike Sheldon, chief executive of ad agency Deutsch LA, which is creating Super Bowl commercials for Volkswagen and Taco Bell.

"The Super Bowl is a cultural phenomenon — it's a social event that people want to be part of," said Carisa Bianchi, president of TBWA\Chiat\Day, Los Angeles' largest ad agency, which is creating a spot for Pepsi Next. "The Super Bowl is one of the last bastions in the world where everyone can feel that they are participating."

Last year, the number of 60- and 90-second messages in the Super Bowl surged. Nearly 20% of the ads stretched 60 seconds or longer, according to ad tracking firm Kantar Media. (Only 10% of the ads in 2011 were a minute or longer.)

BEST & WORST: Post-Super Bowl TV

Last year's most-talked about spot, Chrysler's two-minute "It's Half Time in America" with Clint Eastwood, may have encouraged more marketers to think longer this year.

"At the Super Bowl, everyone wants to be blown away," said Chris Adams, executive creative director of Saatchi & Saatchi LA, which is designing a 60-second ad for Toyota. "One way to do that is by going bigger and longer to have more fun with the storytelling."

Marketing executives must employ new tactics as the price of the time escalates and as the TV networks cram more spots into the game, said Jon Swallen, Kantar Media's senior vice president of research.

Last year's broadcast included more than 47 minutes of commercials, compared with 40 minutes in 2005.

Swallen estimated this year's game will feature 60 commercial messages, from 30 to 40 advertisers. "That's a lot of competition," Swallen said. "The driving force is this desire to break through the clutter and tell a story that holds the attention of viewers."

Wonderful Pistachios, in its first Super Bowl commercial, landed Psy, the South Korean rapper whose "Gangnam Style" video has notched more than 1 billion views on YouTube.

"We had to find someone who was truly spectacular," said Marc Seguin, vice president of marketing for Paramount Farms, the Los Angeles grower of Wonderful Pistachios. "And Psy is clearly the biggest celebrity on the planet."

Deutsch LA created Taco Bell's 60-second spot that features a gray-haired 87-year-old man with moxie in a sendup to youth called "Viva Young." Saatchi & Saatchi LA recruited actress Kaley Cuoco from the hit CBS comedy "Big Bang Theory" for its Toyota ad. For the seventh straight year, Doritos sponsored its "Crash the Super Bowl" contest, inviting amateurs to produce and submit their own commercials.

Walt Disney Co., Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures have bought time to hype upcoming movies.

Anheuser-Busch, typically the biggest buyer of Super Bowl ad time, will introduce a new beer, Budweiser Black Crown. The St. Louis beer company also plans two 60-second ads to promote Bud Light. And its high-stepping Clydesdale horses reprise their starring role — back by popular demand.

Read More..

Live update inauguration 2013: Focus on historic arc of 1st black president

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama publicly took the oath of office for his second term Monday in a ceremony heavily laced with references to the country’s long struggle toward equality for its African American citizens.

From an invocation by the widow of a slain leader of the civil rights movement that opened the formal proceedings, to the two Bibles on which Obama took the oath, one of which belonged to Abraham Lincoln and the other to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the symbols of the nation’s 57^th inaugural ceremony traced the historic arc that led toward the nation’s first black president.

PHOTOS: President Obama’s second inauguration

A flag-waving, cheering crowd of hundreds of thousands applauded as Vice President Joe Biden took his oath from Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, then a few minutes later, when Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. administered the oath to the President.

Four years ago, Obama took office with the country in the midst of two wars and the worst economic crisis in more than half a century. His second inauguration arrives with one war over, the other winding down and the economy recovering, but with Washington dominated by a bitter political stalemate that reflects a deep partisan divide in the nation.

Obama is expected to use his inaugural speech -- typically one of the most-watched events of a presidency -- to address that divide, aides said.

PHOTOS: Past presidential inaugurations

"He is going to talk about the fact that our political system doesn’t require us to resolve all of our disputes or settle all of our differences," senior Obama political advisor David Plouffe said Sunday on CNN’s "State of the Union." "But it does impel us to act where there should be, and is, common ground."

The inaugural ceremonies, themselves, highlighted the idea of bipartisanship and continuity of American democracy. Two of Obama’s predecessors, Democrats Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, were among the dignitaries gathered at the Capitol’s West Front. So, too, were many of the congressional Republicans who have battled Obama through the past four years. The country’s two living former Republican presidents, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, were not present; the elder Bush recently was recently released from a  hospital in Houston after a bout with bronchitis.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said before the ceremony that he expected most Republicans to attend the inaugural ceremony, a historic moment regardless of party. He noted that he had prime seats for Obama's first inaugural and regretted not snapping any photos of the proceedings. "I'm going to try to this time," he said.

GALLERY: Inauguration gowns through the years

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), a fiery conservative, said: "My thought for today is, this is a constitutional event and our forefathers would be proud we're following the directions they gave us."

"Tomorrow we'll start the political discussion."

Overall, of course, the crowd,  as is typical with inaugural celebrations, was heavily dominated by the president’s supporters, who cheered loudly as Obama’s motorcade arrived at the Capitol from the White House. They cheered again as the Obamas’ daughters, Malia and Sasha, were introduced and then, a few minutes later, for First Lady Michelle Obama.

In keeping with the intense enthusiasm that Obama’s presidency has generated among African Americans, the audience was disproportionately black. Several spectators commented on the special significance of the swearing-in taking place on the nation’s Martin Luther King Jr. day observance.

"It's particularly special that today is the MLK holiday," said David Anderson, 43, who traveled from Tampa, Fla. "It's kind of predestined. You can't get better than that."

Ed  Jennings, 44, who sported a knitted Obama cap, said he anticipated the president would urge unity in his inaugural address.

QUIZ: How much do you know about presidential inaugurations?

“It'll be a summary of where this country is. There was a fierce debate about where our country is going, and he won," he said.

Hazel Carter, 90, of Springfield, Ohio, attended the last inauguration and wasn't going to miss this one. "I prayed, God, just let me keep breathing until the inauguration," she said with a laugh.

Read More..

Atari US files for Ch. 11 to separate from parent

NEW YORK (AP) — Video game maker Atari’s U.S. operations have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in an effort to separate from their French parent company.

In a statement, Atari says the move is necessary to secure investments it needs to grow in mobile and digital gaming.

Atari’s U.S. operations have shifted to focus on digital games and licensing, including developing mobile games, and have become a growth engine for its owner. France’s Infogrames Entertainment first took a stake in Atari in 2000. It acquired the remaining stake in 2008 and changed its name to Atari S.A.

But the U.S. operations have been better performing than the rest of the company. In fiscal 2012 digital and licensing revenue both grew significantly and contributed 70 percent of revenue, while sales in bricks-and-mortar stores declined.

In December, Atari S.A. said a credit agreement it entered into with investor BlueBay would lapse at the end of the year and the company was seeking other ways to raise capital. It added that it expects to report a “significant loss” for fiscal 2012.

Atari, which turned 40 last year, was a videogame pioneer with games like “Pong” and “Centipede,” but has changed owners several times amid financial problems. In its filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York, Atari said it had $ 1 million to $ 10 million in assets and $ 10 million to $ 50 million in debt. It is seeking approval for $ 5.25 million in debtor-in-possession financing from private investment firm Tenor Capital Management.

Atari said it expects to sell its assets or confirm a restructuring plan within the next three to six months.

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Atari US files for Ch. 11 to separate from parent
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/atari-us-files-for-ch-11-to-separate-from-parent/
Link To Post : Atari US files for Ch. 11 to separate from parent
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

First lady starts 2nd term style in Thom Browne

WASHINGTON (AP) — The first family headed out to Monday's inaugural festivities with Michelle Obama leading a very coordinated fashion parade in a navy-silk, checkered-patterned coat and dress by Thom Browne that were inspired by a menswear necktie.

The rest of her Inauguration Day outfit included a belt from J. Crew, necklace by Cathy Waterman and a cardigan by Reed Krakoff, whose ensemble she also wore to yesterday's intimate, indoor swearing-in ceremony.

President Barack Obama wore a blue tie with his white shirt, dark suit and overcoat. Malia Obama had on a plum-colored J. Crew coat with the hemline of an electric-blue dress peeking out and a burgundy-colored scarf, and her younger sister Sasha had on a Kate Spade coat and dress in a similar purple shade.

"It is an honor that Sasha Obama chose to wear Kate Spade New York," said the company's creative director, Deborah Lloyd, in an email to the Associated Press. "She epitomizes the youthful optimism and colorful spirit of the brand. We are so proud to have been a part of this historic moment."

Jenna Lyons, creative director of J. Crew, said it was "a huge point of pride for all of us" to be a part of the day — as the brand was back in 2009 when the girls wore outfits by CrewCuts, its children's label.

"It's amazing to see the evolution of the family. I love the way Michelle looks. She looks beautiful in something so clean and tailored. It's such an elegant choice," Lyons said, "and they all look so sophisticated! You can see how the girls have grown up in the four years, and they're still so alive and vibrant, but more sophisticated."

Mrs. Obama has worn Browne's designs for other occasions, including a gray dress with black lace overlay to one of the presidential debates last fall, and she honored him last summer at the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards for his contribution to fashion.

Browne made his name in modern — very modern — menswear, but he launched womenswear in 2011. He was in Paris on Monday, having just finished up previews of his fall men's collection, and wasn't immediately available for comment.

Simon Collins, dean of the school of fashion at Parsons The New School for Design in New York, said the Obamas dressed in their typical fashion: one that shows pride in their appearance.

"They are a stylish couple and their children look fabulous. Too many people get dressed in the dark," he said. "They show it's good to dress up, take pride in how you look. ... It's a wonderful example for America and the rest of the world."

He also noted that the Obamas seem to understand that the fashion industry is a driving force in the U.S. economy and that its lobby is a powerful one. They don't treat fashion frivolously, he observed.

But Collins said he was a bit surprised the public doesn't pay much attention to the president's wardrobe. He joked that Obama should perhaps try one of Browne's signature shrunken suits — the ones that show a man's ankles.

At the end of the Inaugural festivities, Mrs. Obama's outfit and accompanying accessories will go to the National Archives.

___

Samantha Critchell tweets fashion at (at)AP_Fashion, and can be reached on Twitter at (at)Sam_Critchell.

Read More..

Recipes for Health: Lentil, Celery and Tomato Minestrone

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

If you did a lot of cooking over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays you may have some celery hearts lingering in your refrigerator. You needed a few branches for a stew, a stock, or a soup, so you bought a whole bunch, and here it is weeks later and the rest of the celery is wilting in the produce drawer.

This doesn’t have to happen if you think of this vegetable as something more than an aromatic. I’m a big fan of celery, both raw and cooked, as the main ingredient or as one of several featured ingredients in a dish. You can do the traditional thing with raw celery and dice it up and add it to a potato, tuna or egg salad, or you can make a celery salad, slicing the branches as thin as you can get them and tossing them with herbs, radishes, oil and vinegar, and blue cheese. If you are cooking with celery, don’t stop at one branch when you make soup. The celery contributes a wonderful herbal flavor dimension. It retains its texture for a long time when you cook it, so I used it as the main vegetable in a risotto and loved the way it stood up to the creamy rice.

You always see celery listed as an ingredient in tonic juices and blender drinks. It has long been used in Chinese medicine to help control high blood pressure, which makes sense because it contains phytochemicals called phthalides that reduce stress hormones and work to relax the muscle walls in arteries, increasing blood flow. The vegetable is an excellent source of Vitamins K and C, and a very good source of potassium, folate, dietary fiber, molybdenum, manganese, and Vitamin B6. Another bonus attribute – it is very low in calories. However, it is on the high side as far as sodium goes.

Lentil, Celery and Tomato Minestrone

I make minestrones like this all the time, but I hadn’t made a version with this much celery in it until I made this one, and I loved the dimension of flavor it contributes to the mix.

1 cup lentils, rinsed

1 onion, halved

A bouquet garni made with 2 sprigs each thyme and parsley, a bay leaf, and a Parmesan rind

1 1/2 quarts water

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 medium carrot, diced

3 celery stalks, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

Salt, preferably kosher salt, to taste

1 28-ounce can chopped tomatoes, with liquid

Pinch of sugar

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Very thinly sliced celery, from the inner heart, for garnish

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese for serving

1. Combine the lentils, 1/2 onion and the bouquet garni with 1 quart water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, add salt to taste, cover and simmer 30 minutes.

2. Chop the remaining onion. Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy soup pot or Dutch oven over medium heat and add the onion, carrot, and celery. Cook, stirring often, until the onion is tender, about 5 minutes, and add the garlic and a pinch of salt. Stir together until fragrant, about 1 minute, and add the canned tomatoes with their liquid and the sugar. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring often, for about 10 minutes, until the tomatoes have cooked down somewhat and smell fragrant.

3. Add the lentils with their broth, the tomato paste, salt to taste, an additional 2 cups water, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer 30 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings. Season to taste with freshly ground pepper, stir in the parsley and serve, garnishing each bowl with thinly sliced celery heart if you want some crunch, and passing the Parmesan at the table.

Yield: Serves 4 to 6 (4 if there are teen-agers in your house)

Advance preparation: This will keep for three or four days in the refrigerator. It may require thinning out. It’s even better the day after you make it. I have a teenage son and he just about polished off the leftovers – which should have served 3 – the day after I tested the recipe.

Variation: Shortly before serving add 2 cups baby spinach and simmer just until wilted.

Nutritional information per serving (4 servings): 276 calories; 4 grams fat; 0 grams saturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 0 milligrams cholesterol; 49 grams carbohydrates; 12 grams dietary fiber; 392 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 17 grams protein

Nutritional information per serving (6 servings): 184 calories; 2 grams fat; 0 grams saturated fat; 0 grams polyunsaturated fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 0 milligrams cholesterol; 32 grams carbohydrates; 8 grams dietary fiber; 261 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 11 grams protein

Martha Rose Shulman is the author of “The Very Best of Recipes for Health.”

Read More..

Why does a flu shot cost so much?

 Among the long list of reasons the fearful give for reasons they’re not getting a flu shot (hatred of needles, skepticism about vaccines, laziness), there’s one that relates more closely to economics: cost. For while doctors urge everyone to get a flu shot, flu shots, like many other things in life, are not free. Stop by your local CVS or Walgreens and you’ll shell out $30 or so for the pleasure of getting poked by a needle behind a suggestion of a curtain.

So why aren’t flu shots free, or nearly free? After all, they’ve been around for a while, and there’s a lot of demand – isn’t it about time flu shots cost the same as, say generic Tylenol?

If only, says Curtis Allen, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The real question should probably be – why does the flu shot cost so little?

That’s because the process of manufacturing the flu shot and distributing it is a huge headache for pharmaceutical companies. The influenza vaccine must be made anew each year, beginning in February. Researchers determine what strains to put in the vaccine after looking closely at what types of flu are most prevalent in the Southern Hemisphere throughout its winter, which is our summer.

Then the handful of pharmaceutical companies that make the vaccine have to guesstimate how many doses to make. Make too many and they’ll have to throw away a bunch if people don’t get the flu shot; make too few and they’ll cause a panic about vaccine shortages.

Vaccines for other illnesses, such as measles, mumps and rubella, can be used until their expiration date, which is often years after they’re made. Influenza vaccines are really only used September through January and then go in the trash. And there are no regulations saying people have to get flu vaccines, meaning it’s very difficult for companies to estimate how many they should make.

“It can be a risky business,” Allen said. “They have to make a decision on the number of doses to make many many months before the flu season actually happens.”

This year, companies have produced about 145 million doses, he said. Only about 129 million have been distributed. Last year, companies lost even more on the flu vaccine because it was such a light flu season and fewer people decided to get the shot. Only about 42% of the U.S. population got an influenza vaccine last year, which meant that about 30 million doses were never used and had to be destroyed.

“One of the primary challenges for influenza vaccines production is gauging the demand for vaccine,” said Donna Cary, a spokeswoman for Sanofi Pasteur, one of the companies that makes the influenza vaccine. “The single most important thing a person can do to help product themselves against influenza and to ensure that vaccine will be available for them next year ... is to get an annual flu shot so that vaccine supply and demand are more closely aligned.”

Influenza vaccines cost healthcare providers from $10 to $16 per dose, according to this nifty CDC chart. They’re by far the cheapest vaccine on the list. The tetanus vaccine costs a provider $38, HPV vaccine is $130, Hepatitis B is $52.

“The question is, why is it so cheap?” Allen said.

Still, there might be an economics argument for giving away the vaccine for free, even if it is already cheap. The province of Ontario, in Canada, tried that in 2000 and found that giving away the vaccine for free reduced influenza cases by 61% and decreased the cost of healthcare services by 52%, a study shows. 

ALSO:

Flu vaccine shortages reported as sniffles spread

Flu season has Boston declaring a state of emergency

Getting a flu shot can be sticking point with healthcare workers

Read More..

U.S., other nations await Algeria death toll

CAIRO—

The U.S., Britain and other countries sought to learn the fate of their citizens Sunday after Algeria announced that the death toll from a hostage crisis at a remote gas refinery was expected to rise beyond a previous estimate of 23.

It was another painstaking day for security officials trying to determine how a band of Islamist militants overran the gas complex last week, and for families and nations awaiting word of new deaths. Britain confirmed that three of its citizens were killed and three are unaccounted for.

Algerian officials said security teams defusing mines and explosive booby-traps at the Sahara Desert site had found “numerous” bodies, according to the Associated Press. Algerian communications minister Mohamed Said Belaid was quoted by the state news agency as saying: "I am afraid unfortunately to say that the death toll will go up."

As many as seven U.S. hostages are missing, along with about 14 Japanese. Other captives included Norwegians, Malaysians and French. Algerian officials said a final death count would be released in the coming hours.

Nearly 700 Algerians and 107 foreigners had been freed or had escaped from the gas field in eastern Algeria during the four-day, bloody ordeal that ended Saturday. Officials said at least 23 hostages and 32 militants had been killed. But discrepancies remained over the nationalities of the dead and the exact number of those who died.

“The priority now must be to get everybody home from Algeria," said British Prime Minister David Cameron. "This is a stark reminder once again of the threat we face from terrorism the world over. We have had successes in recent years in reducing the threat from some parts of the world, but the threat has grown particularly in northern Africa.”

Cameron, who had earlier appeared irritated that the Algerians did not inform foreign capitals before troops first stormed the refinery Thursday, tempered his criticism.

"People will ask questions about the Algerian response to these events,” he said. “But I would just say that the responsibility for these deaths lies squarely with the terrorists who launched this vicious and cowardly attack. And I'd also say that when you’re dealing with a terrorist incident on this scale, with up to 30 terrorists, it is extremely difficult to respond and to get this right in every respect.”

 The natural gas complex at In Amenas -- near the Libyan border -- is operated by BP, Statoil and Sonatrach, the Algerian national oil company. BP said four of its employees were missing.

Militants linked to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb raided the facility before dawn Wednesday. They claimed it was to avenge French airstrikes on Islamic rebels in neighboring Mali. But officials from the U.S. and other countries indicated the attack was planned ahead of this month’s French military action. 

Belaid said the militants were "nationals of Arab and African countries, and of non-African countries."

jeffrey.fleishman@latimes.com

(Times staff writer Henry Chu in London contributed to this report)     

Read More..