It is almost too little, too late for Susan G. Komen For the Cure. When the organization chose to cut funding to Planned Parenthood that paid for breast cancer screenings, it planted itself clumsily and unnecessarily in the middle of America’s wars over abortion and mortally wounded its reputation. It doesn’t matter that they have now have apparently reversed that decision.

By even raising the possibility that they would pull the plug on the hundreds of thousands of dollars they give to Planned Parenthood to support breast cancer detection, they have lost the single-minded focus on finding a cure for a horrid disease that allowed them to become a charity giant envied by every other disease advocacy organization in the world.

In the highly competitive world of medical charities, Komen was the 800-pound gorilla. It could light up the night in pink, dress the monsters of the NFL in pink, stick a button on every lapel and convince women to walk 60 miles in three days for the cause.

Those battling Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, prostate cancer, melanoma, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and all the rest could only sigh and hope that there might still be a spot on a coat to stick another button or one last footstep that might be taken in the service of their plague.  And behind the scenes they let that frustration be known. The unimaginable blunder of the Komen leadership opens the door for the rest of those trying to help the afflicted to rush through with hands out and fingers pointing.

There is one last step that can be taken to save the mighty Komen from running aground permanently. The entire executive leadership and board must resign. Now. Anything less means that the prominence that Komen achieved will become simply one more in a long list of worthy causes that Americans may or may not choose to support.

Komen reversal illustrates political battle over Planned Parenthood

Jobless rate drops to lowest level in almost three years.

The U.S. economy created jobs at the fastest pace in nine months in January and the unemployment rate dropped to a near three-year low, offering a hopeful sign for hiring in the year ahead.

Employers added a net 243,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department reported Friday – that’s the most since April and far better than economists’ expectations for a gain of only 150,000.

“It’s a strong number, a very strong number, I would say,” said Vassili Serebriakov, a currency strategist at Wells Fargo Bank. “It’s consistent with the broad improvement in the U.S. economic data, but I think the extent of strength in today’s report is somewhat of a surprise, and this is a good sign for the U.S. employment market and the U.S. economy.”

The nation’s unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent in January from 8.5 percent in the prior month. The rate has dropped 0.8 percentage point since August and is now at its lowest level in nearly three years, having fallen for five consecutive months — the first time that has happened since late 1994.

The decline in the jobless rate reflected large gains in employment in the separate household survey from which the jobless rate is derived. Job gains were widespread, with even the transportation and warehousing sector increasing payrolls.

The jobless rate is calculated based on a government survey. A separate survey calculates how many payroll jobs are added. Neither survey takes into consideration how many people are collecting unemployment benefits.

January saw the most jobs added since and April and May 2010, when 277,000 and 458,000 jobs were created. But those months were skewed by massive hiring for the census. Before that, the last month with more job creation was March 2006.

The upbeat tenor of the January jobs report was further strengthened by revisions to November and December payrolls data, which showed 60,000 more jobs created than previously reported. In addition, hiring was widespread across many high-paying industries. And average hourly earnings rose four cents, which should help to support spending.

The report also suggested that expectations of a slowdown in U.S. economic growth in the first quarter were not yet having an impact on companies’ hiring decisions.

Vote: Do you think the economy has turned the corner?

The continued labor market improvement could be a relief for President Barack Obama who faces a tough re-election campaign this year.

Speaking at an event in Arlington, Va., Friday, Obama welcomed the strong January jobs report. But, he added, there are “still far too many Americans who need a job.”

“The economy is growing stronger. The recovery is speeding up. And we have to do everything in our power to keep it going,” Obama said.

Obama also called on Congress to pass a payroll tax extension and avoid sabotaging the recovery.

“Now is not the time for self-inflicted wounds to our economy,” he said, describing his message to Congress as: “Do not slow down the recovery that we’re on. Don’t muck it up.”

Economic data this week have certainly pointed to an improving economy.

Manufacturing grew at its fastest pace in seven months in January, and fewer Americans sought unemployment benefits last week, showing companies are cutting fewer jobs. Also, retail sales increases last month, carmakers started the year with strong January sales and the U.S. economy expanded at a 2.8 percent annual pace in the final four months of last year. That was one percentage point higher than in the previous quarter.

Still, economists expect slower growth this year, as much of the growth at the end of last year was due to companies ordering more goods to restock their shelves. Also, an expected slowdown in Europe could mean slower demand for U.S. goods this year. And the U.S. Federal Reserve said last week that it will probably hold interest rates near zero at least through 2014, citing still-high unemployment.

Even with the January jobs gain, the employment market still faces a long road back to full health. The nation has about 5.6 million fewer jobs than it did when the recession began in late 2007. And there are still 12.8 million people out of work, though that is the fewest since the recession ended. An additional 11 million are either working part-time but would prefer full-time work, or have stopped searching for jobs.

When all those groups are combined, nearly 24 million are considered “underemployed.” The so-called “underemployment” rate ticked down in January to 15.1 percent, from 15.2 percent.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Pink ribbon backlash

Women are protesting the decision of the nation’s biggest breast cancer charity to stop new grants to Planned Parenthood. NBC’s Lisa Myers reports.

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/46244603

A study finding Alabama’s crackdown on illegal immigrants will cost the state up to $11 billion is under fire from the law’s supporters.

The cost-benefit analysis by University of Alabama economist Samuel Addy estimated up to 80,000 jobs were vacated by illegal immigrants fleeing after Alabama’s tough law passed in June 2011, costing Alabama’s economy up to $10.8 billion.

The lost jobs also cost Alabama up to $264.5 million in lost state sales and income taxes, and as much as $93.1 million in lost city and county sales taxes, it said.

The study found potential economic benefits include saving money used to provide public benefits to illegal immigrants, increased safety for citizens and legal residents, more business, employment, and education opportunities, and ensuring the integrity of various governmental programs and services.

The study asks: “Are the benefits of the new immigration law worth the costs?”

“Economies are demand-driven and so any policy, regulation, law, or action that reduces demand will shrink the economy no matter how well-intentioned,” Addy asserts in the study.

“That’s baloney,” state Rep. Micky Hammon, R-Decatur, immigration bill cosponsor, told the Huntsville Times. ”It’s clear the study overestimates the negative and underestimates the positive to skew the result toward an agenda,” Hammon said. “If 40,000 illegal workers leave the state, they free up jobs that homegrown Alabamians are happy to have.”

Addy said the university research staff has looked at key issues facing Alabama, including the economic impact of last year’s tornadoes, the BP oil spill and Gov. Bob Riley’s Amendment 1 proposal to overhaul state taxes, the Times reported.

Addy’s study said, “Anecdotal evidence to date seems to point to less than 9 of every 100 vacated jobs being filled by unemployed legal residents and citizens.”

Hammon told the newspaper that the state unemployment rate fell since the bill was signed, especially in Marshall County, “once a known hotbed for illegal immigration.”

A spokeswoman for Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, who signed the bill into law, told the Times that Bentley also questioned the study’s conclusions. Alabama has the lowest unemployment rate among seven southeastern states, the spokeswoman said.

In its latest unemployment rate report, which was for December 2011, the state’s Department of Industrial Relations said the state unemployment rate was 8.1 percent, down a full percentage point from December 2010. the governor’s office said the rate had been falling since August, when the rate was 9.9 percent. April 27 tornadoes that tore through Alabama had caused a spike in the rate, officials said.

In Marshall County, the December jobless rate was 6.9 percent, down from 8.0 percent a year earlier.

A U.S. appeals court has blocked Alabama from enforcing parts of the law, including a provision that permits Alabama to require public schools to determine the legal residency of children upon enrollment. But the court left most of the law untouched.

There are an estimated 11.2 million illegal immigrants in the United States.

Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah have passed “omnibus” immigration crackdowns since Arizona blazed the trail in 2010 with a law requiring police to check the status of all those they arrested and suspected of being in the country illegally. That measure has since been blocked by a court.

Senators voted 28-21 to approve a bill to legalize gay marriage in the state. Four Republicans crossed party lines and voted with majority Democrats for the measure. Three Democrats voted against it.

The measure now moves to the House, where there is enough support for the bill to pass. Gov. Chris Gregoire says she will sign the bill if it makes it to her desk, Seattle TV station King 5 reported.

Legislators debated the measure for two hours Wednesday night at the capitol in Olympia before voting.

The Senate adopted a series of amendments intended to clarify religious exemptions in the legislation, the Seattle Times reported.

Opponents promise a referendum in November if the bill is signed into law.

Any challenge to the bill can’t be filed until after it is passed by the full Legislature and signed into law by Gregoire. Opponents then must turn in 120,577 signatures by June 6.

If opponents aren’t able to collect enough signatures, gay and lesbian couples would be able to be wed starting in June. Otherwise, they would have to wait until the results of a November election.

Before last week, it wasn’t certain the Senate would have the support to pass the measure, as a handful of Democrats remained undecided.

But after the first public hearing on the issue Jan. 23, a previously undecided Democratic senator, Mary Margaret Haugen of Camano Island, said she would be the 25th and deciding vote in support of the bill, all but ensuring its passage.

PhotoBlog: Washington State clears gay marriage bill hurdle

Same-sex marriage is legal in New York, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and the District of Columbia.

Lawmakers in New Jersey and Maryland are expected to debate gay marriage this year, and Maine could see a gay marriage proposal on the November ballot.

The debate over same-sex marriage in Washington state has changed significantly since lawmakers passed Washington’s Defense of Marriage Act in 1998, which banned gay marriage. The constitutionality of DOMA was ultimately upheld by the state Supreme Court in 2006, but earlier that year, a gay civil rights measure passed after nearly 30 years of failure.

The quick progression of domestic partnership laws in the state came soon after, with a domestic partnership law in 2007, and two years of expansion that culminated in 2009 with the so-called “everything but marriage law” that was upheld by voters after opponents filed a referendum to challenge it.

Under the measure that passed Wednesday, the more than 9,300 couples currently registered in domestic partnerships would have two years to either dissolve their relationship or get married. Domestic partnerships that aren’t ended prior to June 30, 2014, would automatically become marriages.

Domestic partnerships would remain for senior couples where at least one partner is 62 years old or older. That provision was included to help seniors who don’t remarry out of fear they could lose certain pension or Social Security benefits.

Since the death of Canadian skier Sarah Burke in January, fans and supporters from around the world have donated over $300,000 – more than enough to cover the massive U.S. medical bill generated by efforts to save her.

The outpouring of grief for Burke and the influx of funds are a tribute to a young woman who was a pioneer and legend in her sport. The need for a fundraiser — to help her grieving family avert bankruptcy — was viewed by some Canadians and U.S. observers as a condemnation of the U.S. health care system.

“The irony is that had the accident occurred in Canada… her care would have been covered because, unlike the U.S., Canada has a system of universal coverage,” wrote Wendell Potter, an insurance executive-turned-whistleblower who writes for iWatch at the Center for Public Integrity. “No one in Canada finds themselves in that predicament, nor do they face losing their homes as many Americans do when they become critically ill or suffer an injury…”

Burke, who died at 29, was on skis by age five, and pursuing a professional skiing career before she left high school. She pioneered women’s halfpipe skiing and was instrumental in getting the event included in the X-Games, according to a profile in Sportsnet magazine of Canada.

“She was to freeskiing what Wayne Gretzky was to hockey or Michael Jordan was to basketball — the iconic face of a sport,” wrote Sportsnet reporter Dan Robson. “She built her world by conquering limits, both on the hill and off it.”

After Burke’s crash while training on the Eagle Superpipe at Park City Mountain Resort in Utah on Jan. 10, doctors fought to save her for nine days. She died Jan. 19, from a torn vertebral artery in her neck that caused bleeding in her brain.

Burke’s contribution to sport — not to mention her youth, beauty, charisma and fame — has no doubt helped the effort to generate donations to cover an operation, countless tests, care and hospitalization. The fundraising page on GiveForward.com late Monday showed that $302,535 had been raised. Burke’s publicist said that medical costs were expected to be about $200,000.

The fundraising page said that future contributions would go to a foundation “to honor Sarah’s legacy and promote the ideals she valued and embodied.”

The loss of Sarah Burke is no less painful for her loved ones, but with medical care covered through donations, the aftermath will not bring them additional hardship.

For many Americans, the hardship persists.

On Monday, Potter pointed to the plight of a 13-year-old Caroline Richmond on life support in Alabama after collapsing from a stroke, which turned out to be caused by leukemia. Her self-employed parents do not have health coverage.

“As it turns out, Caroline is one of more than 50 million men, women and children who do not have health insurance in the United States, which is why her family is in the same predicament as Sarah Burke’s,” Potter wrote.

The community has launched a multi-pronged effort to raise money to cover mounting medical costs for Carolyn — car washes, a bake sale, a fish fry and so on — but like most people who have life threatening medical conditions, she is not famous.

An estimated 700,000 American families file for bankruptcy every year because of medical debt, Potter said.

Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) has some critics saying that the company is losing out to online shoppers. Showrooming is said to be the reason that brick-and-mortar sales aren’t growing as fast as online sales. Showrooming is where you go into a physical store, look at the product you want, then go online to make the actual purchase. While I’m sure this does happen (I’ve done it myself a few times) to say this is the death knell of the big box retailer is overreaching.

Here is a real life example. Right now on Best Buy’s website there is a 32” Samsung LCD TV for $299.99. It’s available at about 10 different local stores for immediate site-to-store pickup. On Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) the same 32” Samsung LCD TV sells for $299.99. (I didn’t cherry pick this one product I just figured a 32” TV is a pretty standard product that both Best Buy and Amazon would have.) The price is the same, are you surprised? This is an example where Amazon’s pricing should be superior because of their lack of overhead, but it’s not. I’m sure there are examples where Amazon has a better price than Best Buy, but I think the majority of the time the pricing is similar. That being said, the idea that shoppers will leave Best Buy en masse for online merchants is overblown. Best Buy is price competitive and you can buy the item and have it today instead of in 5-8 business days.

What about Best Buy stock, is it a good value? Let’s take a look at analyst expectations and see:

Current Price: 25.44
P/E based on ’12 earnings: 7.53
Growth expected: 8.53%
Yield: 2.52%
PEG+Y: 1.47

The stock looks like a decent bargain right now. The PEG+Y is a useful statistic that compares the growth rate plus the yield to the P/E. This is a good metric if you are comparing two companies where one pays a dividend and the other does not. With a PEG+Y ratio, the higher the better. Usually a 1.5 ratio or better is what you want, and Best Buy comes very close. Just for point of comparison, Amazon’s PEG+Y is 0.27. Keep in mind also that Best Buy has been raising its dividend for the past few years.

The company’s cash flow statement shows Best Buy has an average of $252 million positive cash flow after capital expenditures and dividends in the last 4 quarters. This cash flow has helped Best Buy double their cash, net of long term debt, in the last year. The remainder of this positive cash flow has been used to buy back shares.

What could Best Buy do differently to be even more competitive?

1. Cut down their CD, DVD, and Blu-ray collections. As these formats move more toward streaming media, the physical discs will become more obsolete.
2. Offer site-to-store dedicated computers. Just because there are 25-35 laptops on display doesn’t mean they all sell well. This takes up a lot of space and ends up confusing and overwhelming customers. Pick several price points and have a few laptops at each price point that are best sellers. Then relegate the rest to the dedicated site-to-store computers. This would use less than half the space and allow the company to retail the number of selections available.
3. The benefits of Reward Zone should be advertised and mentioned much more often in the stores. This is Best Buy’s differentiating factor and gives customers a reason to be repeat buyers.
4. Best Buy needs to decide what its niche is. By offering appliances, musical instruments, furniture and exercise equipment the company is straying from its roots. Each of these departments needs to be looked at to determine if they have a future in Best Buy stores and inventory.
5. Shrink the size of the average store. By focusing on core products and greater utilization of site-to-store, the remaining inventory could fit into a 10-20% smaller store.

Taking some of these steps would make Best Buy a more focused and profitable company. We know that Best Buy can be price competitive, their stock is a decent bargain right now, and they are growing their cash each quarter. The idea that they are a sinking ship doesn’t appear to ring true. We’ve looked at a lot of information, so do your own research and decide if this company is a Best Buy after all.

Wars have come and gone. But for more than half a century, the CIA and U.S. military have relied on a skinny sinister-looking black jet to go deep behind enemy lines for vital intelligence-gathering missions.

The high-flying U-2 spy plane was first designed during the Eisenhower administration to breach the iron curtain and, as engineers said, snap “picture postcards for Ike” of hidden military strongholds in the Soviet Union.

And although the plane is perhaps best known for being shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960 and the subsequent capture of pilot Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 continues to play a critical role in national security today, hunting Al Qaeda forces in the Middle East. The aging cold warrior once slated for retirement in 2015 may fight on into the next decade.

The fleet of 33 spycraft was supposed to be replaced in the next few years with RQ-4 Global Hawks, the high-tech drones that have been part of the Air Force since 2001. But this week the Pentagon proposed delaying the U-2′s retirement as part of Defense Department cutbacks.

At an estimated cost of $176 million each, the Global Hawk drone had “priced itself out of the niche, in terms of taking pictures in the air,” said Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter at a Thursday news conference. “That’s a disappointment for us, but that’s the fate of things that become too expensive in a resource-constrained environment.”

The Pentagon has determined that operating the U-2 would be cheaper for the foreseeable future; it won’t disclose how much operating the U-2s will cost for security reasons. The government has relied on the U-2 since 1955, when the aircraft was first built and designed under tight security by Lockheed Corp. at its famed Skunk Works facilities in Burbank headed by legendary chief engineer Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson.

“It’s incredible to think that these planes are flying,” said Francis Gary Powers Jr., Powers’ son and founder of the Cold War Museum in Warrenton, Va. “You’d think another spy plane, or satellite or drone would come along by now to replace it.”

Lockheed, now Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda, Md., boasts on its website that the U-2, which naysayers said “could not be built and would last a few years,” continues to play a critical role in national security.

Flying a nearly six-decade-old plane may sound risky, but the military’s U-2s are regularly “rebuilt, redone and retrofitted,” said Dianne Knippel, a Lockheed spokeswoman. Each of the nation’s 33 U-2s get refurbished at Lockheed’s new Skunk Works facility in Palmdale.

Since 1994, the Air Force said, at least $1.7 billion has been invested to modernize the U-2 airframe. These upgrades also include new engines, new cockpits and, of course, new cameras and sensors.

Today, the U-2 is flying more missions and is involved in more operations than ever, said Staff Sgt. Heidi Davis, an Air Force spokeswoman. Since 2003, the Air Force has flown more than 95,000 hours in the U-2 providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

“The U-2 supports the boots on the ground using its various sensors and cameras to relay information to the requesting war fighting units,” she said. “Specific missions conducted by the U-2 will not be discussed due to operational security.”

Few U-2 missions are ever discussed. The former chief of Lockheed’s Skunk Works facility, Ben Rich, gave a few details in his book “Skunk Works.” In it, he wrote about the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, when Russians were found delivering ballistic missiles to Cuba.

The CIA was flying a U-2 above Cuba when it discovered a missile site. President Kennedy wanted to know, “How do we know these sites are being manned?” Rich wrote. The CIA showed the president a picture taken from a U-2 at 72,000 feet. It showed a worker using an outdoor latrine.

“The picture was so clear you could see that guy reading a newspaper,” Rich wrote.

Most of the U-2′s capabilities are classified, but analysts say its newest sensors enable the U-2 to listen in on cellphone and radio conversations and pinpoint the location of the caller on the ground. Some can even “smell” the air and sniff out chemical plumes emanating from a potential underground nuclear laboratory.

The U-2, nicknamed Dragon Lady, has been successful spying on other countries, but not because it’s stealthy — countries often know that it’s flying overhead at more than 70,000 feet. At that height, few countries have the capability to blast it out of the sky.

But it has happened. The Powers incident proved that.

That’s part of the reason the Pentagon thought the remotely piloted Global Hawk would be a good replacement. Global Hawks, made in Palmdale by Northrop Grumman Corp., have been part of the U.S. arsenal since their first flight in 1998, carrying out humanitarian, scientific and combat missions.

There are various versions of the drone, including one for the Navy. The Air Force has 20 active Global Hawks and had planned to buy dozens more to replace the U-2s. But that plan is on hold, pending approval from Congress.

Northrop lashed out at this week’s Pentagon plan, saying the U-2 needs to be replaced. In a statement, the company said the U-2 “places pilots in danger, has limited flight duration and provides limited sensor capacity.”

Thirty-three pilots have died in U-2 operations, including pilots from Lockheed, the CIA and the Air Force.

To fly a U-2, pilots must, like astronauts, don a 35-pound yellow pressure suit to protect themselves from rapid decompression at high altitudes.

It helps stop nitrogen from forming bubbles in their blood and bringing on decompression sickness, known as the bends. To eat, they ingest meals like chicken a la king and beef gravy in tubes through their space suits.

Pilots are trained near Sacramento at Beale Air Force Base, where the U-2s are based.

Typically each year, 18 new pilots go through the 10-month course. At the same base, the Air Force is training about 60 new Global Hawk pilots a year.

“They might want to start training more U-2 pilots,” said Loren Thompson, a defense policy analyst with the Lexington Institute, who estimated that the earliest the U-2 would be retired is 2023. “There’s still a lot of fight in that aircraft.”

Lately, people have begun to realize the importance of renewable sources of energy, such as solar power. In such a scenario, it is obvious that the trend of using a solar lamp post has picked up pace. The light fixture in this lamp post is powered by solar energy. Furthermore, it also has an in-built solar panel. When it is bright and sunny outside, this panel absorbs the sunlight. The sunlight is stored in the batteries that are already there inside the fixture.

A typical solar lamp post is accompanied by sensors that are designed to detect darkness in an easy manner. Therefore, when it gets dark, the light switches on automatically. Similarly, the light shuts down, when the sun rises again. Furthermore, some of the lamp posts are known to have motion sensors. These motion sensors have the ability to sense movement. Therefore, the motion sensors get activated, only when they detect some movement. Moreover, these lamp posts are available in various designs and styles. These designs are based on the contemporary trends. The market is literally flooded with options. You just need to choose a lamp post that fulfills your requirements.

Solar lights literally spice up the outdoors. Perhaps, this is the reason because of which these lights sell like hot cakes. However, there are many factors that have influenced the popularity of these lights. To begin with, these lights are quite easy to install. Therefore, anyone can install these lights, including housewives.These lights do require some amount of assembling. However, assembling these lights is very easy. It is a common misconception that solar products are really expensive. These lights are quite affordable, and also help you in saving some hard earned money. Furthermore, these lights use the solar power that is absolutely free.

It is essential for us to reduce carbon emission. Moreover, we need to cut down on our energy consumption. Solar lights can help you in reducing the energy consumption in a cost-effective manner. Experts suggest that these lights have a positive impact on the environment. Furthermore, these lights are very bright. Therefore, you can use these lights to lighten up walkways and other places that require illumination. if you are planning to buy these lights, you should look for affordable options. For this purpose, you can refer to some online portals. Generally, these online portals offer the lights at economical prices. Moreover, you will also find a lot of options online.

Author is an NGO worker, works for saving our earth program. Use solar products like as solar lights and solar lamp post.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kathleen_R_Cole

http://EzineArticles.com/?Lessen-Your-Carbon-Footprint-With-a-Solar-Lamp-Post&id=6759340

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Bringing manufacturing back to America

Owner Michael O’Shaughnessy talks about the decision to have Element Electronics open up a new television assembly plant outside of Detroit – the only one of its kind in the country.

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/politicsnation/46169963