Being in debt is never an easy financial situation to cope with in life. Debt relief Calgary is a service provider to assist you in taking positive manageable steps in overcoming a financial crisis. On a an emotional level coping with not having enough for those things you always did is a demoralizing dilemma.
It is a time however that a household members will have to live frugally. This thought in itself is not a comforting one and does present a challenge for most. However, it can be thought of an exercise in itself and a learning one at that. It also is a means in bringing family members who are directly affected by a crisis such as this together.
The family can also be incorporated in so many ways in freeing up more time for breadwinners to have extra time to bring in more. In this way families that so often become disjointed and dysfunctional at times like these are able to team together as a unit for their greater good. It is therefore imperative that the whole family or more specifically those that the debt is directly affecting are informed of the situation at hand.
A family meeting should be held where a plan that has already been established is put into practice. For one, shopping bills will have to be structured in and not deviated from whilst correcting the debt that is owed. It is important that all household members are aware of the term that it will take to correct and rectify payments of outstanding moneys.
It is a juggle of times that ensures ultimately a debt being resolved. It is a time though for all to come together and do his or her part. Plotting a way forward on paper with objectives clearly set out for all is a practical solution so that all can work in tune in resolving the issues at hand.
Controlling the emotions is to a large extent the factor that makes or breaks a financial accounting book. Ignoring the practical implications of good financial practice is by in large suicidal. Learning from mistakes is a means of rectifying them.
The importance of doing this is that this list is not deviated from. This should be continued with until the debt has been paid off and the family can then look to purchase additional items that they up until now could not afford to. It is best to work on this together as friction and fights will break out.
Debt relief Calgary are aware of these subtleties. Developing a methodical and practical approach is advised. Interest on outstanding monies can mount up the longer left unresolved.
When you need debt relief Calgary residents can turn to www.bnasolutions.ca. Come see what BNA Solutions can do for you when you pay us a visit at http://www.bnasolutions.ca today.
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Roughly 11 million unauthorized immigrants live in the United States, and their backgrounds and stories are incredibly diverse. DREAM activists helped to change the picture of the 11 million by shining light on young people affected by our broken immigration system, while grassroots movements are highlighting the stories of families.? But a new report from the Williams Institute adds another facet to this picture: an estimated 267,000 undocumented adults identify as LGBT. Even more compelling, the report highlights the other struggles LGBT individuals face when dealing with the legal immigration system.
LGBT undocumented immigrants belong to two marginalized groups, making them among the most vulnerable individuals in the United States.
For unauthorized LGBT individuals, a path to citizenship is not only critical, but also demonstrates the range of people who could benefit from immigration reform. Gary Gates, author of the Williams Institute report, noted at an event last week that his estimate of LGBT unauthorized individuals is very conservative. He said he reached the number by cross-referencing survey data on undocumented immigrants, sexual orientation, and data on married same sex couples. Compared to all undocumented immigrants, they are more likely to be male and younger and less likely to be Hispanic. And as the Center for American Progress explains, they are also among the most vulnerable individuals in the U.S. because they belong to two marginalized groups: LGBT individuals and undocumented immigrants.
Including an earned path to citizenship in any immigration reform proposal would go far in helping LGBT undocumented immigrants with issues such as employment insecurity and health care access. But citizenship does not fix every problem that LGBT immigrants face. For example, because of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), citizens cannot sponsor same-sex spouses or partners through family-based immigration preferences no matter that person?s immigration status. In addition to the number of LGBT undocumented immigrants, the Williams Institute reports that there are roughly 637,000 LGBT-identified adults who are legal immigrants, thousands of whom are in stable relationships and even raising children with their spouses and partners in the U.S. But they risk being separated if one person cannot gain permanent legal residency. The New York Times reports that some binational same-sex couples decide to leave the U.S. as a result of this. Additionally, employment visa holders are unable to bring their same-sex partners through a spouse visa.
In President Obama?s vision for immigration reform laid out in January, the proposal says same-sex families should be treated the same as all other families ?by giving U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents the ability to seek a visa on the basis of a permanent relationship with a same-sex partner.? And there is support for such a policy. Nearly two-thirds of Latino voters polled recently said they agreed that same-sex couples deserve equal immigration rights.
While many states are recognizing same sex marriages or other legally sanctioned relationships, immigration law remains behind the times, largely because DOMA defines marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman. Because immigration law is bound by that definition, it keeps LGBT couples apart. Even if DOMA is overturned by the Supreme Court, however, bringing immigration law in line with the times could prove challenging, which offers all the more reason to consider affirmative changes in the course of immigration reform.
BEIJING (Reuters) - Intense lobbying by central government agencies and debt-laden local governments is keeping People's Bank of China hawks in check after inflation jumped to a 10-month high, forcing the central bank to keep its monetary policy setting in neutral.
Official data showed China's anemic pace of economic recovery from the slowest year of growth since 1999 may have paled early this year with a cooling in the domestic demand the new government has promised will lead the revival.
Beijing's concerns over growth are leaving the central bank with little choice but to toe the line and help to keep the expansion going, senior sources with knowledge of the situation said.
One area of government pushing hard for growth is the country's powerful planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said one source.
"The NDRC must make sure that the economic growth goal will be achieved," said the source, an NDRC researcher who is involved in drafting policy and who takes part in internal discussions of policies. "We cannot see any room for policy tightening right now."
Data at the weekend showed that industrial output rose 9.9 percent in January and February, less than expected. Retail sales rose 12.3 percent, the weakest pace for the combined months since 2004. The figures disappointed some who had hoped for a stronger pick up in a recovery that only started in the fourth quarter following seven straight quarters of a slowdown.
At the same time, consumer prices in February rose a stronger-than-expected 3.2 percent from a year earlier, a big jump from January's 2.0 percent pace and pressing towards the government limit for the year of 3.5 percent.
Liu Mingkang, a former PBOC deputy governor and a former bank regulator, said the PBOC's mandate is to deliver the overall economic objectives pursued by the State Council.
The key parameters were outlined by outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao at the opening of the National People's Congress, or China's annual parliament meeting that is underway in Beijing. Apart from the inflation limit, it includes reaching full-year GDP growth of 7.5 percent and a rise in money supply of 13 percent.
The dilemma for policymakers is that rising prices sap the spending power of the Chinese Beijing wants to drive economic growth. But taking measures to check inflation could snub out the nascent growth they are trying to nurture.
Zhu Baoliang, chief economist at the State Information Centre, a top government think-tank, is clear about what the PBOC can not do at this point.
"There is no need to use policy tools such as raising interest rates, or bank reserve ratios in the near term," he told Reuters.
TIED HANDS
That would seem to restrict the PBOC to trying to calm inflationary pressure with the liquidity management tools it has experimented with in China's fledgling money markets, as well as so-called "window guidance" to curb loans by the country's Big Four banks, which dominate credit creation and lend at Beijing's behest.
Window guidance to ward off inflation pressure was clearly in evidence in February lending activity, according to the weekend data, which showed new bank loans fell to 620 billion yuan from 1.07 trillion in January, sharply undershooting market expectations of 750 billion yuan.
Take January and February together though and new loans are being extended at a 10 trillion yuan rate for the year, well above the 8.5-9 trillion yuan that Wang Jun, senior economist at the well-connected China Centre for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE), believes the PBOC is tasked with for 2013.
Proportionately, most lending happens in the first quarter as banks put loan quotas to work and slows towards the end of the year as they are used up.
"Controlling inflation will not be the top priority this year. Stabilizing growth is still be more important. The chances of obvious policy tightening are unlikely this year," Wang said.
TIGHT REIN
The central bank has gained more clout under the governorship of Zhou Xiaochuan, who has pursued a program of market-based reforms. But its lack of policy independence means it needs cabinet approval to adjust benchmark interest rates or the value of the yuan.
Its reforms though have allowed it to keep a reasonably tight rein on liquidity in the financial system - and the availability of funds banks have to lend - despite calls from China's provinces for aggressive monetary easing to support growth.
While those supporting economic growth have the upper hand, the policy debate could turn, the sources said.
Approval was given for around $150 billion worth of infrastructure projects last year, which has served to ramp up property prices and fuel a fresh round of housing speculation.
Real estate speculation is a red flag to a government worried that the urban middle class is increasingly being priced out of the property market in cities across the country.
Higher prices are also a sure way to sap the spending power of China's emerging consumer class that Beijing wants to nurture and drive the economy in future.
"The central bank may tighten monetary policy if it sees further rises in inflation," said an influential Chinese economist, who sits on the PBOC's monetary policy committee and requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the topic.
Analysts reckon inflation would have to top 3.5 percent for the central bank to win backing to tighten policy by raising benchmark interest rates or bank reserve requirements.
Still, the member on the PBOC monetary policy committee doubts inflation will rise above that level in the near term.
With nearly 3,000 delegates from across China in Beijing now for the NPC, there is no chance Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang - set to be confirmed as president and premier by the meeting's March 17 close - can miss the message from the provincial governments.
Huang Daowei, vice head of the southern Chinese region of Guangxi, is very clear on what policy settings must be for him to achieve his goal of closing the gap with richer provinces and who, like other provincial Party officials, will see his promotion prospects soar if his targets are met.
"We aim to maintain 12 percent economic growth this year, following the average 12.9 percent growth in the past decade," he told Reuters on the NPC's sidelines. "We don't expect policy to be tightened."
Antibiotic-resistant strain of E. coli increasing among older adults and residents of nursing homesPublic release date: 12-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Kate Enos kenos@gymr.com 202-745-5071 Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America
Antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli (E. coli) continues to proliferate, driven largely by expansion of a strain of E. coli know as sequence type ST131. A new study points to hospitals and long-term care facilities (LTCF) as settings in which this antibiotic-resistant strain is increasingly found. The study is published in the April issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.
E. coli is the most common gram-negative pathogen, causing both gastrointestinal disease and extraintestinal infections such as pneumonia, meningitis, and bloodstream, urinary tract, abdominal, and wound infections. Strains of E. coli that are resistant to single or multiple classes of antibiotics are becoming more prevalent. E. coli ST131 is commonly associated with fluoroquinolone resistance.
"The expansion of E. coli strain ST131 is recognized as a pandemic, but has received comparatively little attention in the United States," said Ritu Banerjee, lead investigator of the study. "Alarmingly, the pace of new antibiotic development has not kept up with the emergence of antibiotic-resistant E. coli, making development of strategies to halt further emergence and spread of these strains a public health priority."
In this retrospective study, investigators evaluated nearly 300 consecutive patients in Olmsted County, Minnesota with extraintestinal E. coli infections and found ST131 to be a dominant, antimicrobial-resistant clonal group associated with older age, long-term care facility residence, complicated infections, history of urinary tract infection, and prior antimicrobial use.
LTCF residence was the strongest predictor of ST131 infection, with LTCF residents having 8 times the risk of contracting E. coli ST131 compared with non-LTCF residents. This trend coincides with the increasing prevalence of ST131 among patients 65 years and older. It is likely that extensive antibiotic exposure, close contact with other antibiotic-exposed individuals, age and health-associated alterations in intestinal microbiota all contribute to the high prevalence of ST131 among the elderly population.
Patients with ST131 isolates were often treated with ineffective antibiotics at first and as a result they had recurrent or persistent symptoms. In the cohort, ST131 isolates were also more than twice as likely to be healthcare-associated infections as compared to community-associated infections.
"The finding that clonal expansion of ST131 is occurring primarily in healthcare and long-term care facilities indicates an urgent need for improved antibiotic use and infection control practices within such institutions, both to reduce selection for ST131 and to block further transmission. Efforts that focus on reducing overuse and misuse of fluoroquinolones are likely to have the greatest impact on ST131 prevalence, given the strong association between ST131 and fluoroquinolone resistance," said Banerjee.
###
Ritu Banerjee, Brian Johnston, Christine Lohse, Stephen B.Porter, Connie Clabots and James R. Johnson. "Escherichia coli Sequence Type 131 Is a Dominant, Antimicrobial-Resistant Clonal Group Associated with Healthcare and Elderly Hosts." Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology 34:4 (April 2013).
Published through a partnership between the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America and The University of Chicago Press, Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology provides original, peer-reviewed scientific articles for anyone involved with an infection control or epidemiology program in a hospital or healthcare facility. ICHE is ranked 15 out of 140 journals in its discipline in the latest Journal Citation Reports from Thomson Reuters.
SHEA is a professional society representing more than 2,000 physicians and other healthcare professionals around the world with expertise in healthcare epidemiology and infection prevention and control. SHEA's mission is to prevent and control healthcare-associated infections and advance the field of healthcare epidemiology. The society leads this field by promoting science and research and providing high-quality education and training in epidemiologic methods and prevention strategies. SHEA upholds the value and critical contributions of healthcare epidemiology to improving patient care and healthcare worker safety in all healthcare settings. Visit SHEA online at http://www.shea-online.org, on Twitter @SHEA_Epi and Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/SHEApreventingHAIs.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Antibiotic-resistant strain of E. coli increasing among older adults and residents of nursing homesPublic release date: 12-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Kate Enos kenos@gymr.com 202-745-5071 Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America
Antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli (E. coli) continues to proliferate, driven largely by expansion of a strain of E. coli know as sequence type ST131. A new study points to hospitals and long-term care facilities (LTCF) as settings in which this antibiotic-resistant strain is increasingly found. The study is published in the April issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.
E. coli is the most common gram-negative pathogen, causing both gastrointestinal disease and extraintestinal infections such as pneumonia, meningitis, and bloodstream, urinary tract, abdominal, and wound infections. Strains of E. coli that are resistant to single or multiple classes of antibiotics are becoming more prevalent. E. coli ST131 is commonly associated with fluoroquinolone resistance.
"The expansion of E. coli strain ST131 is recognized as a pandemic, but has received comparatively little attention in the United States," said Ritu Banerjee, lead investigator of the study. "Alarmingly, the pace of new antibiotic development has not kept up with the emergence of antibiotic-resistant E. coli, making development of strategies to halt further emergence and spread of these strains a public health priority."
In this retrospective study, investigators evaluated nearly 300 consecutive patients in Olmsted County, Minnesota with extraintestinal E. coli infections and found ST131 to be a dominant, antimicrobial-resistant clonal group associated with older age, long-term care facility residence, complicated infections, history of urinary tract infection, and prior antimicrobial use.
LTCF residence was the strongest predictor of ST131 infection, with LTCF residents having 8 times the risk of contracting E. coli ST131 compared with non-LTCF residents. This trend coincides with the increasing prevalence of ST131 among patients 65 years and older. It is likely that extensive antibiotic exposure, close contact with other antibiotic-exposed individuals, age and health-associated alterations in intestinal microbiota all contribute to the high prevalence of ST131 among the elderly population.
Patients with ST131 isolates were often treated with ineffective antibiotics at first and as a result they had recurrent or persistent symptoms. In the cohort, ST131 isolates were also more than twice as likely to be healthcare-associated infections as compared to community-associated infections.
"The finding that clonal expansion of ST131 is occurring primarily in healthcare and long-term care facilities indicates an urgent need for improved antibiotic use and infection control practices within such institutions, both to reduce selection for ST131 and to block further transmission. Efforts that focus on reducing overuse and misuse of fluoroquinolones are likely to have the greatest impact on ST131 prevalence, given the strong association between ST131 and fluoroquinolone resistance," said Banerjee.
###
Ritu Banerjee, Brian Johnston, Christine Lohse, Stephen B.Porter, Connie Clabots and James R. Johnson. "Escherichia coli Sequence Type 131 Is a Dominant, Antimicrobial-Resistant Clonal Group Associated with Healthcare and Elderly Hosts." Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology 34:4 (April 2013).
Published through a partnership between the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America and The University of Chicago Press, Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology provides original, peer-reviewed scientific articles for anyone involved with an infection control or epidemiology program in a hospital or healthcare facility. ICHE is ranked 15 out of 140 journals in its discipline in the latest Journal Citation Reports from Thomson Reuters.
SHEA is a professional society representing more than 2,000 physicians and other healthcare professionals around the world with expertise in healthcare epidemiology and infection prevention and control. SHEA's mission is to prevent and control healthcare-associated infections and advance the field of healthcare epidemiology. The society leads this field by promoting science and research and providing high-quality education and training in epidemiologic methods and prevention strategies. SHEA upholds the value and critical contributions of healthcare epidemiology to improving patient care and healthcare worker safety in all healthcare settings. Visit SHEA online at http://www.shea-online.org, on Twitter @SHEA_Epi and Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/SHEApreventingHAIs.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
How sweet it is -- for those selling sugary beverages anyway.
A judge on Monday invalidated New York City's plan to ban large sugary drinks from restaurants, movie theaters and other establishments, one day before the new law was to take effect.
State Supreme Court Justice Milton Tingling in Manhattan ruled the new regulation was "arbitrary and capricious" and declared it invalid, after the American Beverage Association and other business groups had sued the city challenging the ban.
Bottom line, Tingling ruled, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the city's Board of Health did not have the authority to issue the soda ban.
At a press conference Monday evening, Bloomberg decried the judge's ruling and vowed to appeal. Unlike most states, the New York Supreme Court is a trial court, and two appeals courts are above it.
Touting New York public health policies from the last decade -- banning smoking in the work place to banning trans fats and to posting letter grades in restaurants -- Bloomberg emphasized that the large sugary beverage rule is about saving lives.
"But as far as we have come, there is one public health crisis that has grown worse and worse over the years, and that is obesity," he said. "Five thousand people will die of obesity this year in New York. The best science tells us that sugary drinks are a cause of obesity."
The lower court ruling is a blow to Bloomberg, who had touted the ban as a way to address what he has termed an obesity "epidemic." But beverage manufacturers and business groups had called the law an illegal overreach that would infringe upon consumers' personal liberty.
After the judge's ruling, Bloomberg went to Twitter to respond:
"We believe @nycHealthy [NYC Health Dept.] as the legal authority and responsibility to tackle causes of the obesity epidemic, which kills 5,000 NYers a year."
Bloomberg also said the city plans to appeal the decision as soon as possible. "We are confident the measure will ultimately be upheld," he wrote.
The American Beverage Association released this statement following the ruling:
?The court ruling provides a sigh of relief to New Yorkers and thousands of small businesses in New York City that would have been harmed by this arbitrary and unpopular ban. With this ruling behind us, we look forward to collaborating with city leaders on solutions that will have a meaningful and lasting impact on the people of New York City.?
The ban would have prohibited the city's food-service businesses from selling sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces, though city officials had said they would not begin imposing $200 fines on offending businesses until June.
Bloomberg has made improving the health of New Yorkers part of his legacy. The soda ban had followed similar crackdowns on fat, sugar and salt and a smoking ban that has been replicated around the world.
In anticipation of the soda ban, Bloomberg on Monday released new data tying sugary drinks to the city's fattest neighborhoods. The new city study showed nine of the neighborhoods with the 10 highest obesity rates were also the highest in sugary drink consumption. At the other end, the three least obese neighborhoods were also the lowest in sugary drink consumption.
Companies like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and McDonald's Corp had argued that the ban was inconsistent in its application, since it would still permit grocery and convenience stores to sell the drinks in any size.
Venezuela's oil is too big for major energy companies to ignore and too risky to plunge into. Eventually, post-Ch?vez Venezuela will choose pragmatism over idealism. ?
By Andrew Holland,?Guest blogger / March 9, 2013
An oil worker walks past a drilling rig at an oil well operated by Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA in Morichal in 2011. Venezuela's oil industry has suffered from Hugo Ch?vez's policies. With Mr. Ch?vez gone, pragmatism will eventually trump ideology.
Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters/File
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On Tuesday, the government of Venezuela announced that President Hugo Chavez had died from cancer. Recently re-elected, Chavez had long used the country's vast reserves of oil for his "Bolivarian Socialist Revolution." ?His successor will face many challenges in continuing Venezuela's status as a major oil producer, largely due to the legacy of Chavez over the last decade.
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Venezuela ranks as the country with the number one, two, or three oil reserves in the world, depending on who's doing the counting, along with Saudi Arabia and Canada. These reserves led the country to be a founding member of OPEC, and one of the petro monopoly's most ardent supporters. However, its oil has more in common with the heavy tar sands oil of Canada than the light, sweet crude of the Persian Gulf. ?Future production in the country will require new investment capital and expertise in the heavy oil of the Orinoco belt.
When Chavez came to power, PdVSA, the national monopoly oil producer, was widely admired as one of the most professional in the world. Over the last decade, however, Chavez has wrung the golden goose to pay for the social spending ?that has underwritten his social programs. The company is showing the stress resulting from poor management and underinvestment.
The Amuay refinery fire in August of 2012, killing 48, was symptomatic of the problems faced by the company. And, in a country in which about 95% of export revenue and 50% of the budget is due to profits from oil, the importance of PdVSA can not be overstated. Perhaps an even stronger symptom of the problems faced by PdVSA was that in September, it was forced to pay contracts with IOUs, not cash. It was widely speculated that the company's coffers were emptied in the lead-up to the October 7 election, in which Chavez was reelected.
After announcing his intention to retire following the 2013 season earlier this morning, Rivera made his Grapefruit League debut this afternoon against the Braves. And it didn?t take him long to shake the rust following knee surgery.
In his first game action since last May, Rivera notched two strikeouts over a perfect inning of work. Topping out at 92 mph, the 43-year-old induced a pop-up from Dan Uggla and struck out Juan Francisco and Chris Johnson looking before he left the field to a standing ovation. Are we sure that he can?t pitch forever? Just saying.
Between the Alex Rodriguez drama and the injuries to Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira, there hasn?t been much good news for the Yankees this spring, but the successful debuts of Derek Jeter and Rivera should temper the panic talk. At least for a couple of days, anyway.
Darrelle Revis and Richard Sherman recently squabbled regarding the question of which of them is the best cornerback in football.
Nobody checked with Joe Haden.
Haden, Browns cornerback and top-five pick in 2010, shared his assessment on Friday?s Pro Football Talk.
?I would say honestly and this is just me being real 100%, I would say Darrelle Revis,? Haden said.? ?I studied tape on guys and I try to look and see what I can do to get my game to be on their levels [and] I feel like I?m honestly the number two cornerback in the league, that?s just my opinion personally.
?I studied all the good guys, all the great guys that are in the league now but Darrelle Revis he just stands out cause he?s just complete.? He tackles, he can play off, he can play press, and he?s just very, very, very patient and he?s just hard to deal with off the line.? His footwork on the line is amazing and that?s just the one thing I feel like I need to get to his level is just press so I feel that?s why he?s the No. 1 cornerback now.?
Haden also made a case for leaving Sherman out of the top two.
?Not to take anything away from him, I mean he?s a really good player on a talented team,? Haden said.? ?They get seen a lot, their defense is, their secondary is amazing with him,? Earl [Thomas], you got [Kam] Chancellor, I mean their other corner too they have just their whole secondary, they get recognition, their team wins, they get seen a lot more but he?s a really, really good player but it would be Revis and then myself.?
So, basically, Haden very politely said to Sherman the stuff Sherman said to Skip Bayless.
Duke's Seth Curry (30) reacts following a basket against North Carolina during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Chapel Hill, N.C., Saturday, March 9, 2013. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
Duke's Seth Curry (30) reacts following a basket against North Carolina during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Chapel Hill, N.C., Saturday, March 9, 2013. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
North Carolina's Reggie Bullock, right, guards Duke's Ryan Kelly (34) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Chapel Hill, N.C., Saturday, March 9, 2013. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
North Carolina's P.J. Hairston (15) drives to the basket with Reggie Bullock (35) against Duke's Seth Curry (30) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Chapel Hill, N.C., Saturday, March 9, 2013. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
North Carolina's Desmond Hubert (14) shoots as Duke's Josh Hairston (15) defends during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Chapel Hill, N.C., Saturday, March 9, 2013. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
Duke's Seth Curry (30) reacts following a basket against North Carolina during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Chapel Hill, N.C., Saturday, March 9, 2013. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) ? Seth Curry kept burying shots against helpless North Carolina defenders to give No. 3 Duke a big lead, then Mason Plumlee dominated inside to keep the Blue Devils in complete control against their fiercest rival.
This performance was about more than just beating up the Tar Heels. It was the Blue Devils showing they're determined to play their best in March.
Curry hit his first seven shots during Duke's torrid start, helping the Blue Devils cruise to a 69-53 victory Saturday night in a game that was never in doubt.
Curry finished with 20 points, while Plumlee had his best performance in a month with 23 points and 13 rebounds. That duo provided Duke (27-4, 14-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) all the punch it needed to earn a season sweep of the Tar Heels.
"You want to be playing at your best going into the tournament and you can't afford a loss at this point in the season where you're questioning your lineups and what your identity is," Plumlee said. "It was the kind of win we needed going into tournament time."
Duke scored the game's first 14 points, never let UNC (22-9, 12-6) closer than nine and led by 25 points after halftime. The Blue Devils shot 55 percent, including 18 for 26 (69 percent) in a first half that silenced a once-rowdy Smith Center crowd and overwhelmed the once-surging Tar Heels.
If Saturday night was any indication, Duke is ready for next week's ACC tournament in Greensboro and beyond.
Curry and the Blue Devils came out with a shooting display that ran North Carolina right out of the Dean Dome by halftime. Not to mention it turned the latest renewal of the famed rivalry into a colossal dud.
Curry made one 3, hit a scooping layup and banked in a runner during Duke's 6-for-6 start that helped the Blue Devils to a football-esque 14-0 lead.
At one point, he even hit one as he fell backward to the floor, the kind of play that eliminates any doubt about whose night it's going to be.
"Guys set screens for me and I was able to create some space to get shots off, keep the defense off balance, and I was feeling good to start the game," Curry said. "I wanted to come in and set the tone for my team that we could win in this environment."
After Curry made his seventh straight shot, UNC coach Roy Williams practically wandered out near midcourt to shout at his players as they ran down on offense.
"He just toyed with us," Williams said. "He was in complete control on the offensive end."
Curry finished 8 for 13 and Plumlee took over inside by making 10 of 15 shots against the Tar Heels' undersized frontline.
"Seth's performance in the first half, he just the best player on the court," coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "In the second half, we had the best player on the court in Mason."
In each of the past two seasons, Duke had won the first meeting only to have UNC win the second to clinch the ACC regular-season title.
That story line was off the table this time. Miami took care of that by beating Clemson for the outright title earlier Saturday. Duke ? which is integrating senior Ryan Kelly back into the lineup after a two-month absence due to a foot injury ? had already clinched the No. 2 seed for the ACC tournament. North Carolina State's loss at Florida State meant the Tar Heels would be the No. 3 seed but could still tie Duke for second in the standings.
Instead, it turned into a reversal of last year's finale at Cameron Indoor Stadium, where the Tar Heels jumped all over the Blue Devils early in a blowout win.
It was the first "Senior Night" loss for Williams as a head coach, both at Kansas and at North Carolina.
UNC had gone 6-1 since going to a four-guard lineup in that first meeting, but the Tar Heels looked rattled once the Blue Devils charged in front and never recovered.
"I wasn't concerned about the score, but I was really concerned about the look on our face," Williams said. "I felt like every shot we took we were hesitant or tight ... but I didn't like the way we looked on every shot we took. We never got out of that hole."
James Michael McAdoo finished with 15 points to lead the Tar Heels despite playing with a bulging disk in his back, but the rest of his teammates did little to help him. The Tar Heels all too often settled for jumpers and didn't seem interested in attacking the rim on the way to shooting just 34 percent.
That included missing their first 11 3-point tries and finishing 1 for 14 from behind the arc, an area where they had thrived since Williams inserted 6-foot-5 sophomore P.J. Hairston into the starting lineup at the 4-spot.
Hairston finished with 14 points on 4-for-12 shooting and hit the Tar Heels' only 3 to cut the deficit to 63-49 at the 5-minute mark. But Quinn Cook answered with two driving baskets, the second a hanging shot that dropped through as the shot clock expired and took back any fleeting momentum North Carolina had built.
Cook scored 12 and completely outplayed UNC freshman point guard Marcus Paige, who regressed from his recent strong play with four points on 1-for-6 shooting and five turnovers.
"We did keep fighting, and we never gave in," Hairston said. "We still played offense and still tried to make shots, and we still tried to do different things on the defensive end to slow them down. They were just making everything they put up."
Chuck Hagel arrived in Afghanistan for his first trip abroad as U.S. defense secretary. On the flight over he told the press that he was? traveling there to better understand "where we are in Afghanistan."
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By Akbar Shinwari, Producer, NBC News
KABUL - A suicide bomber blew himself up on the roadway outside the Afghan Defense Ministry in Kabul on Saturday, Afghan officials said.
At least 8 civilians were killed in the attack, and another six or seven wounded, according to Afghan officials. The attack took place during a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, but he was in another part of Kabul during the attack.
The attack was followed by small-arms fire, a spokesman for Afghanistan's NATO-led force, told Reuters. Other details remained vague, though Afghan officials believe it was one suicide attacker, either on foot or on a bicycle.
An International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) spokesman said Hagel was nowhere near the explosion.?A defense official said Hagel "is in a safe and secure location" on an ISAF facility. All entry and ?exit points remained on lockdown there and no one was being allowed on or off the base.
"The Secretary was in a briefing when the incident occurred. The briefing continued as planned without interruption," Pentagon spokesman George Little said.?
The attack underscored the security challenges facing Afghanistan as U.S.-led NATO forces prepare to leave the country by the end of 2014.?
Related:?Chuck Hagel in Afghanistan: 'We're still at war'
Brands are trying to get hip to social media and high-metabolism marketing. But that means confronting a whole slew of legal challenges.
The biggest challenge for brands in digital today is translating the traditional advertising laws into new media forms. Laws that involve television and print were thought up when there was a lot of space in media for disclosures. Then with the rise of the Internet, these laws were easily translated because there?s space online for that. With small screens for mobile and 140-character limits on Twitter, advertisers are plagued with combining their advertising statement with a disclosure.
?The problem is that advertisers haven?t gotten a lot of clarity on how to make appropriate discolsures,? said?Allison Fitzpatrick, partner in the advertising, marketing & promotions group at the law firm Davis & Gilbert. ?The FTC did produce a report a few weeks ago for mobile?disclosure, but advertisers need more guidance. And a lot of the guidance they?re getting is after the fact. It?d probably be more helpful to know how traditional laws apply to new media prior to NAD action.?
Privacy has always been an issue online and even more so with the advent of social media and mobile. According to Gonzalo Mon,?partner at the law firm Kelley Drye & Warren, new and different executions and technology always have their own set of legal challenges. Privacy is top of mind for brands now, mostly because of the massive amounts of consumer data now collected.
State regulators in California and the Federal Trade Commission are cracking down on the collection and use of data in social media and in mobile. Take what happened to Delta Airlines. California?s attorney general sued Delta for excluding a privacy policy within the company?s mobile app, claiming the app violates the state?s Online Privacy Protection Act. The suit claims that the Fly Delta app, which lets people manage their flights and bookings, collects users? private information like location, name, number and frequent flyer account number and does not let users know how Delta uses this information. The lawsuit is still underway, but Delta could face a fine of $2,500 for each time the non-compliant version of the app was downloaded. This fine would be in the millions.
Brands are faced with other issues. One post could go viral and bring to light the wrongdoings of a brand. Subway is known for its ?footlong? heroes. In response to a post about the footlongs, a consumer, Matt Corby, posted a picture of his Subway sandwich along side a ruler, showing the sandwich was not, in fact, 12-inches long. The initial image was posted to Reddit and the Facebook post received over 130,990 likes, 3,910 shares, and 5,890 comments. This resulted in three lawsuits by consumers against Subway.
?The informal nature of social media marketing tends to make people forget that it is still commercial advertising, and technically, the same laws apply regarding false advertising, use of trademarks, celebrity images, etc.,? said?Andy Lustigman, partner at the law firm Oshlan Frome Wolosky.
?Curating? content can also be troublesome for brands in social media. Brands like Patagonia, Barneys and others often team up with bloggers. The problem is these individuals aren?t well-versed in advertising law. Expedia once sent a blogger to Disney to coincide with its new ?Cars?-themed section on the brand?s website. Expedia let the blogger run the social media show for 36 hours. The company did not review the pictures or videos she posted. This turned out to work well for the brand, and it didn?t have any legal ramifications. But according to Kelley Drye?s Mon, whatever a blogger or an influencer says on behalf of a brand, the brand can be held liable for. If the blogger isn?t 100 percent accurate, or over exaggerates, the brand could face legal trouble.
This issue is a problem in crowdsourcing as well. In 2010, sandwich shop Quiznos ran a contest on Facebook asking fans to submit videos on why Quiznos is better than its competitor Subway. Subway caught wind of this and said that consumers were making a lot of false claims about its brand and subsequently sued Quiznos. After months of battling it out in court, the two sides ended up settling.
?You?ve got to be careful with crowdsourcing because a lot of times, consumers will submit content that infringes on copyright laws and make claims that are just untrue and the brand is responsible for that,? Mon said. ?Crowdsourcing carries some peril because what happens is out of your control.?
MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) ? Facebook says the chancellor of the University of California at San Francisco, Susan Desmond-Hellmann, will join its board of directors.
She will be the second woman elected to the Menlo Park, Calif., company's board, joining Facebook's No. 2 executive, Sheryl Sandberg. The company named Sandberg to the body last June after criticism that its directors were all men.
Before serving as chancellor, Desmond-Hellmann was an executive at biotechnology drugmaker Genentech, which markets some of the best-selling cancer drugs in the world. She is a doctor with a specialty in treating cancer.
Facebook Inc.'s board also includes Netflix Inc. chief Reed Hastings, entrepreneurs Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel, and Washington Post Co. CEO Donald Graham. Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg is chairman of the board, which now has nine members.
We knew Facebook had something new planned for its News Feed, and today at an event at Facebook HQ in Menlo Park, the company confirmed those rumors. As suspected, the new feed filters content by type to display whatever specific feed you choose, plus it presents even larger images and bigger advertisements. The new layout also serves to better highlight Pages users have liked in a more central and easier to access area, and provides info pulled in by services linked to folks' Facebook IDs.The desktop FB site's not the only beneficiary of the new layout, as the Social Network is also bringing these features to its mobile apps as well to provide a consistent experience across platforms.
Why the change? Well, Mark Zuckerberg said that the goal for News Feed is to "give everyone in the world the best personalized newspaper we can," and making it more visually engaging will help Facebook reach that goal. You see, almost 50 percent of the content in News Feed is now photos, and almost 30 percent of content comes from Pages.
(Reuters) - Staples Inc, the largest U.S. office supply chain, reported lower-than-expected quarterly revenue and forecast weak full-year earnings as corporate customers and other shoppers in Europe and North America reduced discretionary spending.
Many investors look at office-supply retailers as a barometer of economic health because demand for their products is closely tied to white-collar employment rates.
As customers increasingly buy office supplies online or at mass merchants, these chains are fighting a battle for relevance. Analysts have called for consolidation as sales crumbled after the recent U.S. recession.
Office Depot Inc and OfficeMax Inc last month decided to combine in a $976 million all-stock deal. The deal is subject to investor and regulatory approval.
Comparable-store sales at Staples' North American stores fell 5 percent in the fourth quarter, while in Europe it decreased 9 percent, mainly due to fewer customers visiting its stores, the company said.
Staples outlined a plan last year to cut costs by closing stores, but that blueprint did not pass muster with some on Wall Street who were looking for deeper cuts in North America and Europe.
Overall, sales rose 3 percent to $6.56 billion, but missed Wall Street's average expectation of $6.72 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The company forecast full-year adjusted earnings of $1.30-$1.35 per share, which trailed analysts' expectations of $1.43 per share.
Net income fell to $78.1 million, or 12 cents per share, in the fourth quarter ended February 2, from $283.6 million, or 41 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, the company earned 46 cents per share, topping analysts' average expectation by 1 cent.
The company also raised its quarterly dividend by 9 percent to 12 cents per share.
Staples shares closed at $13.29 on the Nasdaq on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Siddharth Cavale in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
Ocean waves crash over a seawall and into houses along the coast in Scituate, Mass., Thursday, March 7, 2013. A nor'easter is bringing wind-whipped, wet snow to Massachusetts, and coastal flooding is expected in communities still recovering from February's blizzard. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Ocean waves crash over a seawall and into houses along the coast in Scituate, Mass., Thursday, March 7, 2013. A nor'easter is bringing wind-whipped, wet snow to Massachusetts, and coastal flooding is expected in communities still recovering from February's blizzard. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Carol Marelli walks down her flooded street Thursday, March 7, 2013, in Sea Bright, N.J., after an overnight storm. Flooding remained a problem in other shore towns. Water on roadways was also forcing closures in towns including Monmouth Beach, Absecon, Aberdeen, Egg Harbor Township and Wildwood. A coastal flood warning remains in effect until 9 a.m. Friday, but forecasters were not expecting Thursday's wind to be as strong as Wednesday, when gusts exceeding 60 mph were recorded in many places along the ocean. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
Carol Marelli walks down her flooded street Thursday, March 7, 2013, in Sea Bright, N.J., after an overnight storm. Flooding remained a problem in other shore towns. Water on roadways was also forcing closures in towns including Monmouth Beach, Absecon, Aberdeen, Egg Harbor Township and Wildwood. A coastal flood warning remains in effect until 9 a.m. Friday, but forecasters were not expecting Thursday's wind to be as strong as Wednesday, when gusts exceeding 60 mph were recorded in many places along the ocean. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
Carol Marelli walks down her flooded street Thursday, March 7, 2013, in Sea Bright, N.J., after an overnight storm. Flooding remained a problem in this and other shore towns. Water on roadways was also forcing closures in towns including Monmouth Beach, Absecon, Aberdeen, Egg Harbor Township and Wildwood. A coastal flood warning remains in effect until 9 a.m. Friday, but forecasters were not expecting Thursday's wind to be as strong as Wednesday, when gusts exceeding 60 mph were recorded in many places along the ocean. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
Amy Price, of Jennerstown, right, and her friend, Theresa Pelesky, of Boswell cross country ski in Laurel Mountain State Park near Jennerstown, Pa.. They are pre-school teachers whose school was closed for the day due to the weather. Jenner Township received six to eight inches of snow from the storm. (AP Photo/The Tribune-Democrat, John Rucosky) THE MORNING CALL OUT; DAILY AMERICAN OUT; WJAC-TV OUT
BOSTON (AP) ? Coastal towns in Massachusetts were bracing for powerful waves at morning high tide and commuters were facing a tough drive as a nor'easter offshore was bringing waves of snow, strong wind and water from the Atlantic to New England.
Snowfall of 8 to 12 inches was forecast in central Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island by Friday morning, with 6 to 10 inches in Boston and nearby areas.
"We are watching a conveyor belt of wave after wave of snow coming in over the Atlantic," said Alan Dunham, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton, Mass. "The morning commute will definitely be a challenge," he said, especially for those headed into Boston from the south.
Powerful waves and high winds were expected to cause more trouble than snow.
In Scituate, Mass., a shoreline town about 30 miles south of Boston, emergency management officials were worried about getting through Friday's high tide.
"I think that's going to be very dangerous," said Scituate Police Chief Brian Stewart. He said the town had advised people in flood-prone areas to leave during high tides that began Thursday, when no major damage was reported.
"Why put yourself at risk?" he said. "Folks have been through this before, and they know what happens in these areas. We're recommending that people in areas that have experienced coastal flooding to evacuate three hours before high tide."
In Salisbury, Mass., on the New Hampshire border, officials ordered evacuations for homes along several beachfront streets flooded during a February blizzard.
A coastal flood warning was in effect for east-facing shores in Massachusetts, with possible 3-foot surges at high tide.
"The one we are watching is on Friday morning, after another 12 hours of strong northeasterly winds piling more water up," the National Weather Service's Dunham said.
On Cape Cod, where the storm was expected to be mostly rain, officials were concerned about beach erosion. The area suffered extensive erosion from Superstorm Sandy in October and a major snowstorm last month.
"We've really gotten more erosion in the last six months than we've experienced in the last decade," said Sandwich Town Manager George Dunham. "These three storms are really taking a toll."
Some less severe beach erosion was forecast along the southern Maine coast, and up to six inches of snow in southern Maine and New Hampshire.
In Connecticut, where up to 6 inches of snow was expected by Friday, people were hoping for a break after a snowy winter.
"I'm just wishing we'd be done with snow," said Steve Edwards, a contractor in Newtown. "We just finally saw some green grass."
The late-winter storm buried parts of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic before sweeping into New England.
In Virginia, three people were killed, including a 22-year-old man who died after his vehicle ran off an icy road. Up to 20 inches of snow piled up in central and western Virginia, which had more than 200,000 outages at the height of the storm. The storm dumped 2 feet of snow in parts of neighboring West Virginia, closing schools in more than half the state and leaving more than 20,000 customers without power. Two North Carolina boaters were missing offshore after a third crew member was rescued Wednesday.
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Associated Press writers John Christoffersen in Newtown, Conn., and Sylvia Lee Wingfield in Boston contributed to this report.
Venezuela's President Hugo Ch?vez covers the ears of his grandson Manolito as they watch a display by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. aircraft at the airport in Bangalore, India, in March 2005. (Gautam Singh/AP/File)
Mr. Ch?vez was no fan of ?gringa? ? or North American ? customs, taking particular issue with Halloween.
During a weekly radio and TV broadcast in 2005, he compared the American holiday to ?terrorism, putting fear into other nations, putting fear into their own people.?
?Families go and begin to disguise their children as witches,? he said. ?This is contrary to our way.??
Whether it's a swift tour of the floor at MWC, a rapid lap at a Barcelona racetrack or 4K video streamed directly to your TV (over a lightning fast rural connection) there's a distinct smell of burning rubber in the air. Failing that, it could be the smell of money burnt on luxury phones? Either way, this week's podcast is definitely hot. Get it right here.
In this photo taken Feb. 14, 2013, Peter Bensinger, a former Drug Enforcement Administration chief under Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, speaks at a news conference in Chicago. Bensinger is one of eight former DEA chiefs that say the federal government needs to act now or it might lose the chance to nullify Colorado and Washington's laws legalizing recreational marijuana use. They plan to issue joint statements Tuesday, March 5, 2013, saying the Obama administration has reacted too slowly and should immediately sue to force the states to rescind the legislation. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)
In this photo taken Feb. 14, 2013, Peter Bensinger, a former Drug Enforcement Administration chief under Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, speaks at a news conference in Chicago. Bensinger is one of eight former DEA chiefs that say the federal government needs to act now or it might lose the chance to nullify Colorado and Washington's laws legalizing recreational marijuana use. They plan to issue joint statements Tuesday, March 5, 2013, saying the Obama administration has reacted too slowly and should immediately sue to force the states to rescind the legislation. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)
FILE - In this Jan. 26, 2013 file photo, a bar code is seen attached to a marijuana plant at a grow house in Denver. The bar codes are assigned to each plant and follow it through the growing and distribution process. Eight former Drug Enforcement Administration chiefs say the federal government needs to act now or it might lose the chance to nullify Colorado and Washington's laws legalizing recreational marijuana use. The onetime DEA heads plan to issue joint statements Tuesday, March 5, 2013, saying the Obama administration has reacted too slowly and should immediately sue to force the states to rescind the legislation. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski, File)
CHICAGO (AP) ? Eight former U.S. drug chiefs warned the federal government Tuesday that time is running out to nullify Colorado and Washington's new laws legalizing recreational marijuana use, and a United Nations agency also urged challenges to the measures it says violate international treaties.
The former Drug Enforcement Administration chiefs criticized Barack Obama's administration for moving too slowly to file a lawsuit that would force the states to rescind the legislation. Marijuana is illegal under federal law.
"My fear is that the Justice Department will do what they are doing now: do nothing and say nothing," former DEA administrator Peter Bensinger told The Associated Press in an interview Monday. "If they don't act now, these laws will be fully implemented in a matter of months."
Bensinger, who lives in the Chicago area, said if the federal government doesn't immediately sue the states it'll risk creating "a domino effect" in which other states legalize marijuana too.
The statement from the DEA chiefs came the same day the International Narcotics Control Board, a U.N. agency, made its appeal in an annual drug report, calling on federal officials to act to "ensure full compliance with the international drug control treaties on its entire territory."
But Brian Vicente, co-author of the Colorado pot legalization law, said a handful of North American countries have expressed support for legalization.
"You have two states revolting and they're saying it doesn't work in their state and their community and it sends a strong message globally," he said.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told a meeting of state attorneys general last week that he is still reviewing the laws but that his review is winding down. Asked Monday for a comment on the criticism from the former DEA administrators, Holder spokeswoman Allison Price would only say, "The Department of Justice is in the process of reviewing those initiatives."
The department's review has been under way since shortly after last fall's elections. It could sue to block the states from issuing licenses to marijuana growers, processors and retail stores, on the grounds that doing so conflicts with federal drug law. Alternatively, Holder could decide not to mount a court challenge.
The ex-DEA heads are issuing the statements through the Florida-based Save Our Society from Drugs. One of its spokesmen is based in Chicago.
The former DEA administrators are Bensinger, John Bartels, Robert Bonner, Thomas Constantine, Asa Hutchinson, John Lawn, Donnie Marshall and Francis Mullen. They served for both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Holder is scheduled to appear Wednesday before a U.S. Senate judiciary committee hearing. The former DEA chiefs want senators to question Holder on the legalization issue.
Advocates of legalization have welcomed Colorado and Washington's new laws, arguing that criminalizing drugs creates serious though unintended social problems. The ex-DEA heads say they disagree with that view.
After votes last fall, Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize marijuana's recreational use ? putting federal authorities in a quandary over how, or whether, to respond.
Washington state officials responsible for creating a regulated marijuana system have said they are moving forward with a timetable of issuing producer licenses by August.
Bensinger ? who served as DEA administrator under Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan ? said the supremacy of federal law over state law when it comes to drug laws isn't in doubt.
"This is a no-brainer," he said. "It is outrageous that a lawsuit hasn't been filed in federal court yet."
Advocates of less stringent drug laws criticized the ex-DEA heads later Tuesday.
Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance, said the eight are destined to share the legacy of agents who enforced alcohol prohibition before that policy was deemed a failure and reversed in 1933.
"The former DEA chiefs' statement can best be seen as a self-interested plea to validate the costly and failed policies they championed but that Americans are now rejecting at the ballot box," Nadelmann said.
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AP Writer P. Solomon Banda in Denver also contributed to this report.
Roughly 11 million unauthorized immigrants live in the United States, and their backgrounds and stories are incredibly diverse. DREAM activists helped to change the picture of the 11 million by shining light on young people affected by our broken immigration system, while grassroots movements are highlighting the stories of families.? But a new report from the Williams Institute adds another facet to this picture: an estimated 267,000 undocumented adults identify as LGBT. Even more compelling, the report highlights the other struggles LGBT individuals face when dealing with the legal immigration system.![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 12-Mar-2013
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