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Thursday, May 2, 2013

One step closer to a blood test for Alzheimer's

Apr. 30, 2013 ? Australian scientists are much closer to developing a screening test for the early detection of Alzheimer's disease, the leading cause of dementia.

A quarter of a million Australians currently suffer from dementia and given our aging population, this is predicted to increase to one million by 2050.

Researchers identified blood-based biological markers that are associated with the build up of amyloid beta, a toxic protein in the brain, which occurs years before symptoms appear and irreversible brain damage has occurred.

"Early detection is critical, giving those at risk a much better chance of receiving treatment earlier, before it's too late to do much about it," said Dr Samantha Burnham from CSIRO's Preventative Health Flagship.

Early detection is critical to give those at risk of Alzheimer's disease a much better chance of receiving treatment.

This research is just one part of the Australian Imaging and Biomarkers Lifestyle Study of Aging (AIBL), a longitudinal study in conjunction with research partners from Austin Health, Edith Cowan University, the Florey Institute of Neurosciences and Mental Health and the National Aging Research Institute. The AIBL study aims to discover which biomarkers, cognitive characteristics and health and lifestyle factors are linked with the development of Alzheimer's disease.

"Another recent study from the AIBL team showed that amyloid beta levels become abnormal about 17 years before dementia symptoms appear," said Dr Burnham. "This gives us a much longer time to intervene to try to slow disease progression if we are able to detect cases early.

"We hope our continued research will lead to the development of a low cost, minimally invasive population based screening test for Alzheimer's in the next five to ten years. A blood test would be the ideal first stage to help identify many more people at risk before a diagnosis is confirmed more specialised testing."

The results have been published today in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by CSIRO Australia. The original article was written by Vanessa Hill.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

S C Burnham, N G Faux, W Wilson, S M Laws, D Ames, J Bedo, A I Bush, J D Doecke, K A Ellis, R Head, G Jones, H Kiiveri, R N Martins, A Rembach, C C Rowe, O Salvado, S L Macaulay, C L Masters, V L Villemagne. A blood-based predictor for neocortical A? burden in Alzheimer?s disease: results from the AIBL study. Molecular Psychiatry, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/mp.2013.40

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/l5oeh9DA568/130501101309.htm

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Italy race problems seen with black gov't minister

FILE - In this April 29, 2013 file photo Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge listens as Italian Premier Enrico Letta delivers his speech during a vote of confidence to confirm the government, in the lower house of Parliament, in Rome. The appointment of Italy's first black cabinet minister was initially hailed as a giant step forward for a country that has long been ill at ease with its increasing immigrant classes. Cecile Kyenge's new job has instead exposed Italy's ugly race problem, an issue that flares regularly on the football pitch with racist taunts and in the rhetoric of xenophobic political parties but has come to the fore anew as a shaky coalition government tries to bring Italy out of its economic doldrums. Kyenge, 48, was born in Congo and moved to Italy three decades ago to study medicine. An eye surgeon, she lives in Modena with her Italian husband and two children and was active in local center-left politics before winning a seat in the lower Chamber of Deputies in February elections. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)

In this photo taken on April 28, 2013 photo Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge walks moments after taking oath during the swearing in ceremony at the Quirinale Presidential Palace, in Rome. The appointment of Italy's first black cabinet minister was initially hailed as a giant step forward for a country that has long been ill at ease with its increasing immigrant classes. Cecile Kyenge's new job has instead exposed Italy's ugly race problem, an issue that flares regularly on the football pitch with racist taunts and in the rhetoric of xenophobic political parties but has come to the fore anew as a shaky coalition government tries to bring Italy out of its economic doldrums. Kyenge, 48, was born in Congo and moved to Italy three decades ago to study medicine. An eye surgeon, she lives in Modena with her Italian husband and two children and was active in local center-left politics before winning a seat in the lower Chamber of Deputies in February elections. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

FILE - In this April 28, 2013 file photo Italian Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge arrives at Chigi palace Premier's office, in Rome. The appointment of Italy's first black cabinet minister was initially hailed as a giant step forward for a country that has long been ill at ease with its increasing immigrant classes. Cecile Kyenge's new job has instead exposed Italy's ugly race problem, an issue that flares regularly on the football pitch with racist taunts and in the rhetoric of xenophobic political parties but has come to the fore anew as a shaky coalition government tries to bring Italy out of its economic doldrums. Kyenge, 48, was born in Congo and moved to Italy three decades ago to study medicine. An eye surgeon, she lives in Modena with her Italian husband and two children and was active in local center-left politics before winning a seat in the lower Chamber of Deputies in February elections. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)

ROME (AP) ? It was hailed as a giant step forward for racial integration in a country that has long been ill at ease with its growing immigrant classes. But Cecile Kyenge's appointment as Italy's first black Cabinet minister has instead exposed the nation's ugly race problem, a blight that flares regularly on the soccer pitch with racist taunts and in the diatribes of xenophobic politicians ? but has now raised its head at the center of political life.

One politician from a party that not long ago ruled in a coalition derided what he called Italy's new "bonga bonga government." On Wednesday, amid increasing revulsion over the reaction, the government authorized an investigation into neo-fascist websites whose members called Kyenge "Congolese monkey" and other epithets.

Kyenge, 48, was born in Congo and moved to Italy three decades ago to study medicine. An eye surgeon, she lives in Modena with her Italian husband and two children. She was active in local center-left politics before winning a seat in the lower Chamber of Deputies in February elections.

Premier Enrico Letta tapped Kyenge to be minister of integration in his hybrid center-left and center-right government that won its second vote of confidence Tuesday. In his introductory speech to Parliament, Letta touted Kyenge's appointment as a "new concept about the confines of barriers giving way to hope, of unsurpassable limits giving way to a bridge between diverse communities."

His praise and that of others has been almost drowned out by the racist slurs directed at Kyenge by politicians of the anti-immigrant Northern League party, an on-again, off-again ally of long-serving ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, and members of neo-fascist Internet groups.

In addition to his "bonga bonga" slur, Mario Borghezio, a European parliamentarian for the League, warned in an interview with Radio 24 that Kyenge would try to "impose tribal traditions" from her native Congo on Italy.

Kyenge on Tuesday responded to the insults, thanking those who had come to her defense and taking a veiled jab at the vulgarity of her critics. "I believe even criticism can inform if it's done with respect," she tweeted.

Unlike France, Germany or Britain, where second and third generations of immigrants have settled albeit uneasily, Italy is a relative newcomer to the phenomenon. France has several high-ranking government ministers with immigrant roots, and few French had a problem with the appointments: Former President Nicolas Sarkozy named a justice minister and urban policy minister, both born in France to North African parents, to his cabinet, while his minister for human rights was born in Senegal. Francois Hollande's government spokeswoman was born in Morocco and raised in France, and his interior minister was born in Spain. He also has two black ministers from French overseas territories ? one from Guyana and one from Guadeloupe.

Italy is another story. Once a country of emigration to North and South America at the turn of the last century, Italy saw the first waves of migrants from Eastern Europe and Africa coming to its shores only in the 1980s. In the last decade or two, their numbers have increased exponentially, and with them anti-immigrant sentiment: Surveys show Italians blame immigrants for crime and overtaxing the already burdened public health system. Foreigners made up about 2 percent of Italy's population in 1990; currently the figure stands at 7.5 percent, according to official statistics bureau Istat.

Some of the most blatant manifestations of racism occur in the realm of Italy's favorite sport, soccer ? which for Italians and others has shown itself to be a perfect venue for displays of pent-up emotions. In the case of a handful of Italian teams, soccer is a way for right-wing fan clubs to vent.

Mario Balotelli, the AC Milan striker born in Palermo to Ghanaian immigrants and raised by an Italian adoptive family, knows all about it. Perhaps Italy's best player today, he has long been the subject of racist taunts on and off the field: Rival fans once hung a banner during a match saying "Black Italians don't exist" while the vice-president of his own club once called him the household's "little black boy."

Balotelli called Kyenge's nomination "another great step forward for an Italian society that is more civil, responsible and understanding of the need for better, definitive integration."

The race situation is almost schizophrenic in Italy. In the same week Kyenge was made a government minister and Balotelli was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world, AC Milan's rival Juventus was fined 30,000 euro for fans' racist taunts during a game against Milan in which Balotelli wasn't even playing.

"There was no racism 40 years ago because there were no non-white Italians," said James Walston, a political science professor at American University of Rome. "You need the other in order to hate the other."

"It will take a long time ? probably there will never be a completely racism-free society ? but it will take a long time for Italy to reach the sort of acceptance, multi-cultural acceptance that the rest of Europe has and North America has," he said in an interview.

Kyenge got off to a rocky start with the Northern League when, on the day she was named minister, she said one of her top priorities would be to make it easier for children of immigrants born in Italy to obtain Italian citizenship. Currently, such children can only apply once they turn 18.

The issue has vexed Italy for years and previous center-left governments have failed to change the law even though most Italians ? 72 percent according to a 2012 Istat-aided study ? favor it. It's not just a matter of a passport but has real impact on the ability of an immigrant family to integrate into Italian society: Children of non-EU immigrants born in Italy, for example, can't take advantage of the EU citizen discounts at the Colosseum and other cultural treasures, having to pay full admission prices to get in to learn the heritage of the nation where they were born. If they were Italian citizens, they'd get in free until they were 18.

But raising an issue that so riles the Northern League ? during an already tense political transition ? was enough to set off Roberto Maroni, the interior minister in Berlusconi's last center-right government and a top League official. Maroni immediately demanded that his successor as interior minister make clear his position on the law.

Other members of Maroni's party were more blunt: Italian newspapers quoted the head of the League in Italy's northern Lombardy region Matteo Salvini as saying that Kyenge was a "symbol of a hypocritical and do-gooding left that wants to cancel out the crime of illegal immigration and thinks only about immigrants' rights and not their duties."

La Repubblica newspaper on Tuesday, meanwhile, cited the vile insults directed at her on fascist Internet groups such as www.ilduce.net . Repubblica said the antagonism was born from the League's basic opposition to a minister who tends to favor immigrant rights. "But the racist origins had to explode. And here they are. True, they're consigned to the stupid transience of the Web, but they're a sign of the widespread climate of hatred" in the country, the paper wrote.

Coming to Kyenge's defense was Laura Boldrini, the president of parliament's lower chamber, who for years was the chief spokeswoman in Italy for the U.N. refugee agency. In that role she frequently defended the rights of immigrants ? and squared off with Northern League leaders after they pushed through a controversial 2009 policy to send back would-be Libyan migrants without screening them first for asylum.

"It is indecent that in a civil society there can be a series of insults ? on websites but not only there ? that are being hurled against the neo-minister Cecile Kyenge," Boldrini said. "Like many people, watching her take her oath of office I felt that Italy was taking an important step forward, and not just for 'new Italians.'"

Also defending Kyenge was the other foreign-born minister in Letta's government, Josefa Idem, a German-born Italian who won five Olympic kayaking medals before retiring after the London Games. Idem is Italy's new equal opportunities minister ? one of seven women in Letta's government ? and in that role authorized an investigation by Italy's national anti-discrimination office into the racist online slurs directed against Kyenge.

Italian news reports quoted Idem as saying she was doing so in her capacity as minister "but also as a woman."

Sociologist Michele Sorice at Rome's Luiss University said Italians have long harbored racist attitudes, stemming from the nation's colonial past in north Africa, but that they stayed hidden until the Northern League "legitimized" xenophobic political rhetoric after entering the government in the 1990s. The League denies it's xenophobic and says it is merely protecting the interests of Italians.

Italy has since become more sensitized to the issue, Sorice said, but it still lags behind its European and North American partners. Changing the law on citizenship, as Kyenge wants, "wouldn't do anything more than to bring Italy into line with the great European traditions," he said.

But he was doubtful that this particular government, made up of longtime political rivals, could pull it off when even previous center-left governments had failed to do so.

"It remains to be seen how this can be done on a practical level with a coalition government," he said.

___

Tricia Thomas in Rome and Lori Hinnant in Paris contributed.

___

Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-05-01-Italy's%20Race%20Problem/id-8e07601fdb2a4c54825473aba990941b

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First full cruise season under new EPA rules start

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) ? More than 1 million cruise ship passengers are expected to visit Alaska this year, but industry officials fear new fuel standards intended to limit pollution from large ships could drive vessels away and lower that number later.

This will be the first full cruise season in Alaska under rules that require cargo carriers and cruise ships to use a low-sulfur fuel within 200 miles of U.S. and Canadian shores. The U.S. agreed to the standards as part of an international treaty.

While the rules affect much of the North American coast and Hawaii, officials in Alaska argue they will have a disproportionate effect here, and they have sued to prevent the restrictions from being enforced in waters off Alaska's coast.

A federal judge has yet to weigh in on the lawsuit filed by the state shortly before the new standards took effect Aug. 1. Meanwhile, the first ships of this season have begun arriving in Alaska.

The rules adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency "will increase the cost of operating cruise ships, and increased costs translate into fewer cruise ship visitors," attorneys for the state argued in the lawsuit.

The rules also will increase the cost of shipping cargo to Alaska, the attorneys say. "In all of these ways, EPA's rules will have a substantial and harmful effect of Alaska's citizens and economy."

According to the EPA, ships are major contributors to emissions from mobile sources in the U.S. and Canada, and most are foreign-flagged or registered outside North America. By 2020, the new standards ? set to become more stringent in 2015 ? will cut emissions of nitrogen oxides, fine particulate matter and sulfur oxides by 23 percent, 74 percent, and 86 percent, respectively, below predicted levels if the rules were not in place, the agency said.

The EPA estimates the overall cost of implementation to be $3.2 billion in North America, while the estimated dollar value for health benefits associated with the change could be up to $110 billion in the U.S. alone by 2020.

"Alaskans depend on clean air to stay healthy, and we need the cruise industry to do its part," said Michael LeVine, Pacific senior counsel for the conservation group Oceana. He likened the industry's complains to "having a houseguest who leaves all of his trash in your yard and then complains when you ask him to pick it up."

Cruise ships must use the more expensive fuel for the duration of their trips to Alaska, given they remain within the 200-mile limit the entire time, unlike ships serving other cruise destinations like Mexico or the Caribbean, said David Peikin, a spokesman for the trade group Cruise Lines International Association. He said in an email that ticket prices have risen an average of $88 per person per voyage to Alaska as compared with before the rules took effect.

The EPA said there are ongoing talks with stakeholders about flexibility and future plans to meet the tightening standards.

A cruise can cost thousands of dollars, and for many people the increased cost won't be much of a factor, said John Binkley, president of the Alaska Cruise Association. But it could turn away other more "price conscious" travelers and eventually make it harder for companies to fill ships, leaving Alaska less competitive, he said.

The fuel rules "imposed a higher economic penalty on Alaska than any other state because of the fact that we're so dependent on waterborne transportation, and the environmental benefits were less than any other state because we have such a small population and such vast areas," Binkley said.

The last several years, the Alaska cruise industry has benefited from the rebounding U.S. economy, a 2010 rollback of a state head tax on cruise ship passengers, and a robust tourism marketing budget, Binkley said.

Twenty-eight ships are expected this year, up one from 2012. About 937,000 cruise ship passengers visited last year. The recent high was 1.03 million in 2008, according to a state-commissioned report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/first-full-cruise-season-under-epa-rules-start-125312813.html

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Mobile ads help grow Facebook's 1Q revenue 38 pct.

Michael Goodwin, Senior Partner for HTC, displays an HTC First cell phone wit the new Facebook interface at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Thursday, April 4, 2013. The company says it is not building a phone or an operating system. Rather, Facebook is introducing a new experience for Android phones. The idea behind the new Home service is to bring content right to you, rather than require people to check apps on the device. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

NEW YORK (AP) ? A year ago, Facebook was just testing the waters of mobile advertising, causing plenty of headaches for investors ahead of its massive initial public offering.

It has since eased those worries.

On Wednesday the world's biggest social networking company said nearly a third of its advertising revenue came from mobile in the first three months of the year, helping to push total revenue up 38 percent to surpass Wall Street's expectations.

"They are making the transition to mobile faster than anyone anticipated," said Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia. "It seems like they are delivering."

Facebook Inc. said Wednesday that its net income was $219 million, or 9 cents per share, in the January-March period. That's up from $205 million, or 9 cents per share, in the same period a year ago, when it was still private.

Revenue grew to $1.46 billion from $1.06 billion, above analysts' expectations of $1.44 billion.

Excluding special items, mainly related to stock compensation expenses, Facebook earned 12 cents per share, matching the average of analyst expectations, according to FactSet.

Menlo Park, Calif.-based Facebook said that its mobile advertising revenue was 30 percent of its total ad revenue in the first quarter, amounting to $375 million. That's up from 23 percent, or $306 million, in the fourth quarter. In the third quarter ? the first time it disclosed such figures ? the company generated 14 percent, or $153 million, of its advertising revenue from mobile.

Investors had been worried about Facebook's ability to grow mobile revenue since before its initial public offering in May 2012. That's because although the number of people who access Facebook on smartphones and tablet computers has been growing quickly, Facebook didn't begin showing ads to those users until last year.

David Ebersman, Facebook's chief financial officer, said most advertisers did not specify that their ads be shown only on desktop computers or only on mobile devices, "rather they put their ads into our system and allow us to show the ads on whatever device where the ads will perform best."

Bhatia thinks Facebook will fare even better on mobile devices once Zuckerberg firms up its plan to make money from the growing audience checking into Instagram, a photo-sharing service that the company bought last year for $521 million. The analyst believes Instagram will play a bigger role in Facebook's business next year.

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said the results are likely to quiet skeptics who doubted Facebook's ability to mine its growing mobile traffic for revenue. He was particularly impressed by the 23 percent increase in Facebook's mobile ad revenue, even though the company's overall ad revenue for the period dipped 6 percent from the final three months of last year.

"Their mobile business is probably bigger than any mobile business on the planet other than the (wireless telecommunications) carriers and Google," Pachter said.

Facebook started showing mobile advertisements in early 2012. In the third quarter of last year, the company generated 14 percent, or $153 million of its advertising revenue from mobile. In the fourth quarter mobile ads represented to 23 percent, or $306 million.

Research firm eMarketer says Facebook's share of the U.S. online advertising market is growing. This year, the company is expected to take a 6.5 percent share of U.S. online ad spending, up from 5.9 percent in 2012. Still, that figure is far behind Google Inc.'s 41.6 percent.

On the mobile front, eMarketer expects Facebook to take a 13.2 percent share of U.S. ad revenue, up from 9.5 percent in 2012, the first year it made any money from mobile ads. Though Facebook is No. 2, it is far behind Google in U.S. mobile advertising. EMarketer expects the online search leader to take a 54.7 percent share of U.S. mobile advertising revenue this year.

The company also grew its user base during the quarter. This has also been an area of some concern to investors amid chatter of "Facebook fatigue," especially among younger users, surfacing in recent months. But Facebook said its monthly user base grew to 1.11 billion accounts as of the end of March, up 5 percent from 1.06 million at the end of December.

The number of users who access Facebook every day, on average, grew 8 percent to 665 million in March, from 618 million in December.

Gartner Inc. analyst Brian Blau said the ongoing growth of daily users suggests that the service is a tough habit to break.

"The network remains in full force," Blau said. "You have to give them a lot of credit."

That doesn't mean there won't be concerns about some Facebook users, especially teenagers, migrating to other mobile applications and digital outlets to hang out with friends and share slices of their lives, said Forrester Research analyst Nate Elliott.

"There is always going to be something new in social," Elliott said. "The question is how much of it is a threat to Facebook? All Facebook can do is keep those users coming back and make money off those users. And Facebook seems to be doing both of those things reasonably well."

Instagram now has 100 million monthly users, up from 22 million when Facebook agreed to buy the company in April 2012.

Facebook's stock rose 12 cents to $27.55 in after-hours trading. The stock closed down 34 cents on Wednesday. It is up 3 percent since the beginning of the year compared with an 11 percent increase for the Standard & Poor's 500 index. Facebook went public on May 18, 2012, at $38 per share, a price it hasn't hit since.

AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-05-01-US-TEC-Earns-Facebook/id-41e79fb4b5f04f6e8928a5c1121b33ca

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New gloves, more time: What rule change could help MMA?s eye poke problem?

Alan Belcher. Gian Villante. Anthony Johnson. Wagner Prado. Waachiim Spiritwolf. Constantinos Phillippou. These fighters have all been on the wrong end of an inadvertent eye poke and the inadequate set of rules that accompany eye pokes. What can be done in a sport where open-fingered gloves are used and strikes to any part of the face are allowed?

The UFC's vice president of regulatory affairs Marc Ratner has one idea that he thinks will help situations like the one that arose during Villante's loss. Ovince St-Preux inadvertently poked Villante in the eye. Referee Kevin Mulhall didn't see the poke, but Villante stepped back and said he was poked in the eye. Mulhall asked Villante if he could see, Villante responded he couldn't, and in accordance with MMA rules, the fight was stopped.

What Ratner wants to do is take the referee out of the decision to stop the fight. Since it's a medical decision, let the fight doctor make it. It will also give fighters time to recover as they wait for the doctor to come into the cage.

"I think by bringing the doctor in, just the whole operation will take a couple of minutes, and I think that should alleviate most of the pain and give us enough time to make sure the guy can fight," Ratner said.

Ratner will introduce this change to the Association of Boxing Commissions, the national oversight group of state MMA and boxing associations.

Referee John McCarthy also favors this approach:

From the eye poke. U can use the doctor 2 help in giving the fighter time 2 clear their vision.There is no need to rush in this situation

? Big John McCarthy (@JohnMcCarthyMMA) April 28, 2013

A change to allow some extra time would also keep fighters out of the weird position of possibly lying to officials. Villante honestly answered the question, "Can you see?" He didn't think Mulhall would stop the fight because of it. This situation could make fighters think twice about how they answer the question, which could put their health in danger.

The open-fingered gloves don't help. Fighters use sparring gloves that are smaller than boxing gloves in training, but the gloves' size would get in the way during ground fighting and submission attempts. UFC commentator Joe Rogan has spoken during many fights about the need for a better design for fight gloves, but none have surfaced among high-level fighting.

How can MMA fix this problem? Great ideas don't have to come from executives or state commissioners. If you have an idea to combat eye pokes, share it on Cagewriter's Facebook page. We'll feature the best ones in a post.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/gloves-more-time-rule-change-could-help-mma-161900052.html

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Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Iowa jury awards $240 million to mentally disabled turkey plant workers

(Reuters) - A jury on Wednesday awarded $240 million to 32 mentally disabled workers at an Iowa turkey processing plant to compensate for what government attorneys described as abuse by the Texas company that employed and housed them.

A federal jury in Davenport found that Hill Country Farms, doing business as Henry's Turkey Service, of Goldthwaite, Texas, had created an unlawful hostile environment for the men and discriminated against them on the basis of their disability. Jurors awarded them $7.5 million each, following a week-long trial, according to court documents.

According to the lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Hill Country Farms, workers at the West Liberty, Iowa plant were hit and kicked by Hill Country employees, called names, denied bathroom breaks and restrained or confined to rooms. Injuries and complaints of pain or requests for doctor's visits were ignored, the complaint said.

Henry's Turkey Service shut down in February 2009, the EEOC said.

Neither EEOC attorney Robert A. Canino nor an attorney for Hill Country Farms, David L. Scieszinski of Wilton, Iowa, were immediately available for comment.

A federal judge last September found that Henry's Turkey Service had violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by paying the workers "severely substandard wages" -- $65 a month rather than the average of $11 to $12 per hour given to non-disabled workers who performed the same work, according to the EEOC. Senior U.S. District Judge Charles R. Wolle awarded the workers $1.3 million for the pay discrimination.

The EEOC offered evidence that the 100-year-old former schoolhouse being used as living quarters for the men was bug- and rodent-infested, inadequately heated and had a leaky roof. The state fire marshal closed it down as unsafe, the EEOC said.

(Reporting by Mary Wisniewski; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iowa-jury-awards-240-million-mentally-disabled-turkey-192037167.html

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Federal Labor Board Rules for Sheraton Anchorage Hotel Union

ANCHORAGE, Alaska?

The National Labor Relations Board has largely sided with union workers at a Downtown Anchorage hotel in a long-running labor dispute, ordering its Texas-based management company to implement a series of reforms.

According to a 74-page Wednesday decision posted on the NLRB?s website (PDF), the board has decided to uphold administrative law judge Gregory Meyerson?s August 2011 findings that Sheraton Anchorage Hotel owners Remington Lodging and Hospitality unfairly infringed on the rights of UNITE HERE Local 878 members.

At an August 2010 protest rally at the Sheraton, union employees said management had moved to divide employees, while Remington claimed that death threats had been made against Denis Artiles, the hotel?s general manager.

A federal injunction against Remington in February 2012 from U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Burgess required the company to restore employee benefits including lunch breaks and paid health care, after workers claimed management had coerced a majority of employees to vote the union out.

The board found specific issue with several Remington practices cited by Meyerson, including unilateral changing terms of employment in October 2009 without mentioning management?s issues with the union to officials at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

?Here, (Remington) initiated the modification of the contract but failed to notify the FMCS of the parties? labor dispute before making the changes,? the board wrote. ?Accordingly, we find that those changes were unlawful.?

The NLRB criticized Remington?s decision to discipline nine employees for presenting Artiles with a boycott petition, a move the board says the company didn?t defend in its filings.

?(Remington?s) exceptions and brief in support contain 11 numbered exceptions,? the board wrote. ?None challenges the judge?s finding that the Respondent unlawfully disciplined the nine employees.?

The board also upheld Meyerson?s findings that Remington unlawfully failed to recognize UNITE HERE and enforced eight rules in its employee handbook, such as provisions barring employees from having conflicts of interest with the hotel or leaving their work areas without permission from their department heads.

In its only significant point of disagreement with Meyerson, the board reversed his finding that Remington?s decision to unilaterally change promised benefits under an incentive plan for housekeepers was lawful because it was a small change -- or ?de minimis? in legal terms.

?As far as the record reveals, the housekeepers labored for a month or more under the impression that stepping up their work efforts would result in tangible employment benefits,? the board wrote. ?On this record, we cannot excuse (Remington?s) unilateral conduct as de minimis.?

Remington scored a minor victory when the NLRB agreed with Meyerson?s conclusion that a hotel plan to unilaterally outsource bellhops? driving duties was lawful, because it wouldn?t threaten any bellhop positions.

The board?s orders to Remington include requiring it to recognize and bargain with UNITE HERE. More than 20 other provisions bar unlawful practices ranging from issuing warning or suspensions to employees who support the union to confiscating employees? union buttons. In addition, Remington must offer to reinstate the nine employees it disciplined, as well as rescinding the eight offending rules in the employee handbook.

The NLRB also concurred with Meyerson that a notice of Remington?s violations should be read to employees -- in both English and Spanish -- by either a high-ranking member of company management or an NLRB agent in the presence of such an official.

?In his decision, the judge found that such a remedy was warranted by (Remington?s) numerous, severe, and widespread unfair labor practices,? the board wrote. ?No party has excepted to the judge?s recommendations, and we agree with the judge that such a remedy is warranted.?

A Tuesday statement from UNITE HERE hailed the NLRB?s ruling, but focused on keeping up local pressure on Remington?s leadership.

?While workers are pleased with this new Board ruling in their favor, they want to remind the public that their struggle is not over and that they continue to ask the community to boycott the Sheraton until the dispute is resolved,? union officials wrote.

Remington officials couldn?t immediately be reached for comment late Tuesday afternoon.

Contact Chris Klint

Source: http://www.ktuu.com/news/federal-labor-board-rules-for-sheraton-anchorage-hotel-union-043013,0,969079.story?track=rss

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