Cain campaigns as harassment allegations build (AP)

WASHINGTON ? With the possibility of a statement from one of his accusers looming over his troubled presidential effort, GOP hopeful Herman Cain will spend the day trying to steer his campaign back to business as usual as he deals with sexual harassment allegations dating from the 1990s.

After a day in New York largely shielded from media attention, Cain will step back into public view in Washington for a speech Friday to Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group aligned with the tea party movement.

The event was scheduled well before damaging sexual harassment accusations from Cain's time as head of the National Restaurant Association emerged earlier this week. The address is the latest in a series of regular campaign appearances Cain has held even as he's offered ever-changing explanations about the charges leveled against him.

"As of today," Cain said hopefully on Thursday, "we're back on message and we're going to stay on message, and we've answered all of these questions."

Cain's political allies are trying to take the offensive. Late Thursday, a group called Americans for Cain released a Web video that, without offering proof, blamed liberals for the furor surrounding Cain and called the process "a high-tech lynching." The one-minute video maintains that liberals and the mainstream media can't challenge Cain on the merits of his policies, so they've attacked him with the sexual harassment reports, just as Clarence Thomas came under similar scrutiny during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

But Cain's Washington appearance will put him in the spotlight as the restaurant trade association is set to decide whether to allow one woman who accused Cain of sexual harassment to publicly address the allegations, despite an agreement that prevented her from talking.

Joel Bennett, an attorney for one of the women alleging sexual harassment, said Thursday he was seeking permission from the National Restaurant Association to release a statement on her behalf. Under an agreement stemming from her accusation in 1999, the woman agreed not to speak publicly about the episode she said occurred when she worked for the trade group and Cain was its president.

The association said it would make a decision Friday about whether to grant permission.

"This will not deter me" in the race for the White House, Cain declared Thursday, repeatedly denying the allegations in interviews on conservative media outlets.

As additional women have claimed harassment by Cain over the course of the past week, his campaign has argued that he's benefiting from the controversy. Cain has hired at least one more national finance staffer since Sunday, when the allegations first surfaced. His national finance team planned a meeting Friday morning in Washington to discuss strategy as it looks to broaden a grassroots fundraising base that's so far been driven by small online donations ? including more than $1.2 million in contributions since Sunday.

But since it was reported late Sunday that at least two women had complained about Cain when they worked at the National Restaurant Association ? and had received financial settlements ? Cain has struggled to explain himself.

He has said consistently he never sexually harassed anyone. But his answers to other pertinent questions have changed. In one instance, he first denied knowing of any settlements with former employees, then said he recalled one, explaining he had been aware of an "agreement" but not a "settlement."

The furor erupted at a time when Cain had vaulted to the top of public opinion polls as a leading conservative challenger to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination ? adding spice to a race already as unpredictable as any in recent memory. Romney was also set to speak at the Americans for Prosperity event in Washington on Friday.

There were also questions about whether Cain's wife, Gloria, would appear on Fox News Channel, as was reported earlier this week.

Cain's campaign started out blaming the liberal media. But since Wednesday it has blamed a political consultant on Cain's failed 2004 Senate campaign who now is helping Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a political rival. Cain backed off after the consultant denied leaking the information.

The firestorm started when the website Politico, citing anonymous sources and not naming any of the alleged victims, reported that one of the women was livid over a sexual overture Cain made toward her when he invited her to his room during a trade association event in the 1990s.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111104/ap_on_el_pr/us_cain

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Embraer shares drop after results, bribery probe (Reuters)

SAO PAULO (Reuters) ? Shares of Embraer (EMBR3.SA), the world's third-largest commercial planemaker, suffered the worst drop on Brazil's benchmark stock index on Thursday after reporting weak results and disclosing a bribery investigation.

The stock closed 5 percent lower in Sao Paulo at 11.09 reais a share, its worst session in six weeks, compared with a 1.5 percent rise on the Bovespa index (.BVSP).

Embraer booked a slim third-quarter loss due to a plunging local currency and warned in a late Wednesday filing it could miss its target for 2011 net revenue by as much as $200 million due to delayed deliveries.

The company also said in the securities filing that it had opened an internal investigation into transactions in three countries in response to a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The subpoena concerned possible violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits companies listed in the United States from bribing foreign officials.

Embraer lists American depositary receipts (ERJ.N) on the New York Stock Exchange.

Reuters reported in September that U.S. law enforcement officials were investigating possible bribery associated with contracts between aerospace companies and state airlines. There was no immediate evidence that the investigations were related.

While the aerospace industry has long been subject to such scrutiny, recent enforcement efforts by the Federal Bureau of Investigation has focused on sales and maintenance contracts on the commercial side rather than in defense.

Recent cases involving defense companies may have spurred investigators to take a closer look at commercial aerospace deals, particularly given efforts by companies to offset declining demand in the United States and Europe with more deals in the Middle East and Asia, where corruption has been rampant. (Reporting by Brad Haynes in Sao Paulo and Tim Hepher in Paris; Editing by Matthew Lewis, Gary Hill)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111103/bs_nm/us_embraer

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Amazon creates Kindle double standard

Amazon

By Wilson Rothman

Today, Amazon announced that Kindle owners with Prime membership would be able to borrow books at no extra cost, every month, with no due dates. It's awesome news (which we already covered), but it suggests a new double-standard, one that will no doubt grow. Simply put, people who own Amazon hardware will get more stuff.

Until now, Amazon has been kind enough to treat e-book customers equally, whether they own a Kindle device, use the free app available on most smartphone and tablet platforms ??or both. That's what's awesome about Kindle books, and what makes them so competitive. Despite being locked down with digital rights management, you could "buy them once, and read them anywhere," to borrow Amazon's own phrasing.

When it comes to media, Amazon has been a little more strict. Though it has long allowed people to stream video over a computer or online device, it doesn't have an app for iPhone and iPad. Its streaming music service is Android friendly, though even that app couldn't be described as "lovely."

We knew the Kindle Fire would further concentrate Amazon's video and music offerings ? it only makes sense that you'd be able to stream content to that device, and there's no precedent for accessing that content via other mobile devices.?But keeping the new lending program from iPhone, iPad and Android users, many of whom happily pay $80 per year for Prime service, is a change in course for Amazon's e-book strategy. Even the public library service launched earlier this year is available to users of the free app.

I've asked Amazon if there was an explanation for the new program's owner limitation, and will let you know if I hear back. It certainly doesn't seem like a technical limitation, as any generation of Kindle is eligible for the program.

In the meantime, I read this as Amazon's way of consolidating its audience, pulling an Apple, and tying hardware, software and services together in an increasingly lucrative fashion, and let's face it, one that won't be too bad for customers either. (The strategy sure as heck didn't hurt Apple.) I just wanted to point it out, alerting people to look for more closure of this nature, and let the people who really oppose closed systems to sound off.

Update: Amazon confirmed to me that this was a move to build Kindle ownership: "We built this service to make owning a Kindle device even more attractive," said a representative.

More recent Amazon news from msnbc.com:

Catch up with Wilson on Twitter at @wjrothman, or on Google+. And join our conversation on Facebook.

?

Source: http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/03/8618399-amazon-creates-kindle-double-standard

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Researchers pinpoint possible new cause for unexplained miscarriages

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Researchers at St. Michael's Hospital have identified a potential new cause for unexplained miscarriages in mice.

They also identified two possible treatments to prevent these miscarriages and their work has broader implications for the development of new drugs to treat heart attacks and strokes.

The researchers, led by Dr. Heyu Ni, found that the same kind of blood-clotting in coronary arteries or blood vessels in the brain that causes heart attacks and strokes also happens in the placenta. The massive clotting can destroy the placenta, block blood flow to the fetus and cause miscarriages.

This condition is known as fetal and neonatal immune thrombocytopenia (FNIT), a bleeding disorder in which mothers generate antibodies that attack and destroy platelets in their fetuses and newborns. Platelets are the small cells in the blood that play a key role in clotting. In severe cases, FNIT may lead to bleeding in the brains of the fetuses and newborns and cause neurological impairment or even death.

The condition affects between one in 800 and one in 1,500 live births and is more commonly reported among Caucasians.

Maternal antibodies to one specific platelet antigen, HPA-1 (human platelet antigen) cause 75-95 per cent of FNIT cases. Antigens are the proteins that antibodies attack because they think they are a foreign substance such as bacteria or a virus.

Dr. Ni and his team discovered a novel mechanism that might partially explain this problem. They found that another antigen, HPA-2, causes a type of FNIT never described before that can lead to miscarriages in more than 83 per cent of mice. There have been only six to eight reported live births in the world of humans with FNIT caused by HPA-2. The new research suggests the reason these cases appear to be so rare is that most of the affected fetuses died through miscarriages, before doctors examined them.

Dr. Conglei Li and other researchers in Dr. Ni's laboratory found that sometimes these antibodies not only destroy platelets, but activate them and cause massive clotting in the placentas.

Dr. Ni, an immunologist, is also a scientist with Canadian Blood Services (CBS), one of the funders of this research. His findings appear in the November issue of the prestigious Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Dr. Ni's group demonstrated that, in mice, these miscarriages can be prevented using at least two therapies. One is the transfusion of IgG (IVIG), a CBS product made from plasma from donated blood, which has been widely used to treat several autoimmune diseases. The other is the transfusion of an antibody known as anti-FcRn, which blocks the attacking maternal antibodies from crossing the placenta. This second method was developed by Dr. Ni's group.

"Fifty per cent of pregnancies do not end in a live birth. Our findings may help explain why some women are having miscarriages," said Dr. Ni. "Furthermore, our treatments could be the answer to carrying a healthy child to term."

The observations by Dr. Ni's team of platelet activation and enhancement of clotting may be important in the development of safer anti-thrombotic drugs. These drugs are under development by several companies.

Dr. Ni's group is now collaborating with clinicians to address how relevant these discoveries in mice are in humans.

###

St. Michael's Hospital: http://www.stmichaelshospital.com/

Thanks to St. Michael's Hospital for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/114819/Researchers_pinpoint_possible_new_cause_for_unexplained_miscarriages

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Oil rises 18 pct in October (AP)

NEW YORK ? Oil soared 17.7 percent in October on the expectation that the world's thirst for petroleum would keep growing despite economic struggles in the West.

West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark oil in the U.S., jumped from about $79 to $93 per barrel during the month as fears of another U.S. recession subsided while Europe struck a landmark deal to reduce Greece's debt. Demand from emerging markets remains strong. And a strategy calling for traders to buy WTI futures contracts while selling another variety, Brent crude, also boosted the price of WTI.

The conditions that fostered the increase remain in place.

"Oil demand is higher worldwide," said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service. "Other parts of the world, most notably South America, are consuming a lot of our (petroleum) products."

Independent oil analyst Andrew Lipow expects benchmark oil to hit $100 per barrel by the end of the year. But this has been a year of pronounced swings in the price of oil. WTI hit a high of $113.93 at the end of April, after starting 2011 at around $91 per barrel.

Analysts say a number of factors will influence prices for the next two months and into next year:

_How much oil will Libya contribute? Oil demand is on track to exceed supply in the second half of 2012 by about 1 million barrels per day. But a return of Libyan oil to the market could fix the shortage. Libya was exporting 1.5 billion barrels of oil daily before the eight-month rebellion that ultimately ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi.

_Will Europe continue to struggle? Eurozone leaders hammered out an agreement last week to bolster the region's banks. The decision was regarded as a landmark development that put Europe on the path to resolving a lingering credit crisis. However, its banks are still weak, debts are still high, and investors are unsure if it has really turned the corner.

_More government stimulus in the U.S.? The U.S. economy is growing, but the 2.5 percent growth estimated for the third quarter is hardly a fervid pace. Analysts speculate that the Federal Reserve may try something similar to last year's $600 billion bond-buying program to boost the economy. As a result of that program, the dollar fell and oil surged.

_Another Arab Spring? Oil traders are keeping a wary eye on unrest in the Middle East. In Syria, for example, protesters have clashed with the government for seven months, leaving an estimated 3,000 people dead. Continuing violence in Syria and other oil-rich nations could hamper world supplies and push prices higher.

On Monday, WTI slipped 13 cents to end the month at $93.19 per barrel while Brent crude gave up 35 cents to $109.56 per barrel in London.

Traders continue to be wary of an economic downturn in the West. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said the European economy is headed for a "marked slowdown" next year. Analysts also note that Europe will need to slash spending and cut entitlement programs over the next several years to keep budgets in line, and that will hurt oil demand.

China, India and other developing nations are expected to buy whatever oil Europe doesn't use. The U.S. expects daily global oil consumption to average at 88.4 billion barrels this year and 89.8 million barrels next year.

While oil has become more expensive this month, gasoline prices have held steady.

Gasoline, which is made from crude oil, ended the month at a national retail average of about $3.443 per gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. Gasoline prices tend to flatten in the fall as the summer travel season ends and refineries are allowed to start making a cheaper-blend of winter fuel.

It's a different story for heating oil and natural gas. Both are used to heat homes and business, and tend to get more expensive as the weather cools.

Heating oil and natural gas futures rose by 9.5 and 7.3 percent, respectively, during October. Prices are likely headed higher in coming months. A nor'easter already blanketed the East Coast over the weekend, knocking out power to 3.1 million customers, and the National Weather Service predicted an especially chilly winter with above average snow and rain.

The Energy Information Administration said homeowners will spend 3 percent more for natural gas than they did a year ago. Those who burn heating oil will spend about 8 percent more. About half of U.S. households heat their homes with natural gas, though about 80 percent of homeowners in the Northeast use heating oil.

In other energy trading, heating oil slipped 1.63 cents to finish at $3.0429 per gallon and gasoline futures lost 3.93 cents to end at $2.6429 per gallon. Natural gas rose 1.1 cents to finish at $3.934 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111031/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices

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Previewing the Post-DVD World: Don't Expect the Free Ride to Last (ContributorNetwork)

In the wake of Steve Jobs' death, mainstream media outlets spilled a lot of ink trying to quantify the late Apple executive's impact on the pop-culture universe, as in Entertainment Weekly's recent piece about the evolution of the iPod. The magazine noted that many of the music fans who had stopped paying for CDs when MP3 files made it easy to download music happily embraced paying 99 cents per song after the iTunes store launched. To the great relief of music executives, the combination of convenience and low prices turned iTunes into a money machine.

Professionals in the film industry watched these developments closely because they hope to replicate the music industry's iTunes income. Just as selling millions of downloads replaced some of the cash record labels lost when CD sales plummeted, Hollywood types have crossed their fingers that selling digital copies of movies will replace some the income they're losing as DVD sales fade.

Yet even though the disappearance of physical media has been troubling for showbiz executives, the transition has been intoxicating for young consumers who came of age during the digital era. To these consumers, the idea of clearing CDs and DVDs off their shelves, and instead storing movies and music on hard drives or in the digital cloud, seems like common sense: Why bother with clunky plastic discs when everything worth listening to or watching can live in the same digital ether that feeds laptops and smartphones?

For these consumers, digital-era convenience is tethered to the idea that prices will continue dropping as entertainment companies discard traditional operating expenses: Just as the days of paying $17.99 for a brand-new CD gave way to the new reality of paying $9.99 for a download of the album, it seemed reasonable that the days of paying $24.99 for a brand-new DVD would give way to a new reality of paying a fraction of that amount for a download of the movie. After all, weren't prices on other forms of digital movie delivery dropping as well?

Consider Netflix, the movie-rental company that's been making headlines lately because of its miscalculations about the speed with which consumers are abandoning DVDs. For years, Netflix customers bought "unlimited" DVD rentals for fees around $10 or $20 per month; depending on the customer's cinematic appetite and free time, the customer could conceivably burn through a dozen or more movies each month, translating to a unit price of under a dollar per film.

And then, when Netflix introduced its phenomenally popular instant-streaming functionality, the numbers got even more outrageous. Customers gained the ability to complement dirt-cheap DVD rentals with open access to a vast library of movies and TV shows, driving the unit price for each hour of content even lower than before. Until this summer, it seemed like the party was never going to end, in terms of getting filmed entertainment for less and less with each successive year.

Now things are changing fast, and for the worse. The adjustments started over the summer, when Netflix introduced its controversial pricing-structure changes, which nearly doubled the cost per month for Netflix clients who use both physical DVD rentals and online streaming. In an instant, the illusion that prices for filmed entertainment were on a permanent downward slide was shattered. Netflix took a major PR hit and suffered the humiliation of scuttling its proposed spinoff company, Quickster, before the spinoff even launched. But, tellingly, the price increases have not been reversed.

The same type of lightning-fast backlash was felt at Universal Pictures recently, because the studio's plan for selling video-on-demand access to its upcoming Ben Stiller-Eddie Murphy movie Tower Heist (for absurd fees around $50 per viewing) was crucified in the court of public opinion and suffered the same fate as the never-launched Quickster. Obviously, there's a threshold of greed the public will not abide, but even with this well-reported resistance (Occupy Hollywood?), price points that previously seemed inviolate are changing, and not just for Netflix customers.

Last week, Redbox, the company behind those ubiquitous movie-rental kiosks outside convenience stores and supermarkets, announced that its standard single-movie rental price was bumping from $1 to $1.20. (Keep in mind this price increase is happening at a time when consumers are moving away from renting physical DVDs.) Across the home-entertainment spectrum, companies that used to offer great deals are acknowledging that old pricing structures have become unsustainable.

Additionally, the normal logic that a competitive marketplace can support multiple companies offering closely related products seems to apply only sporadically in the realm of home entertainment. Just as price is becoming less and less attractive for consumers, so too, apparently, is choice.

For instance, one would think that (prior to recent events) Netflix's overwhelming dominance of the DVDs-by-mail business would have motivated some enterprising company to enter the market as a legitimate competitor, seeing as how it was the explosive profits of renting DVDs by mail that allowed Netflix to become a showbiz powerhouse that now regularly pays six-figure licensing fees for streaming content. Yet the only company to make a real run at Netflix in this area has been Blockbuster, the onetime titan of brick-and-mortar video-rental stores.

For the last couple of years, Blockbuster has been trumpeting its DVDs-by-mail service as preferable to Netflix based on the dubious feature of customers being able to return mail-order discs to stores in order to get new discs faster than by waiting for postal turnaround. The problem, of course, is that there are so few Blockbuster stores left, and the inventory in the stores is so abysmal, that this isn't much of an incentive.

Nonetheless, during the tumult of this summer's Netflix changes, I was wooed by Blockbuster's savvy marketing strategy of offering steep discounts to new customers as a means of poaching disgruntled Netflix clients. I tried Blockbuster's DVDs-by-mail service as an experiment, and the service was so disappointing that I dumped my subscription after a matter of weeks. Blockbuster's online interface is fine (it's an almost identical copy of Netflix's interface), but the company's shipping speed is atrocious. Typically, if I return a disc to Netflix, the company issues my next disc within a matter of hours from the time they register the return. But with Blockbuster, it regularly took two to three days from the time a return was registered for the company to issue a fresh disc. There's simply no comparison between the two services, so customers who want DVDs by mail are stuck with Netflix as their only real choice.

Less choice, higher prices, unexpected changes . . . not exactly the most appealing combination.

Given these circumstances, it is clear that the brief window of time during which the realm of online movie rentals was a buyer's market is closing. Back in the days of VHS rental stores, there was a clear marketplace hierarchy: Customers could pay low fees at mom-and-pop stores, but the tradeoff was poor selection, or customers could pay high fees at major chains, which had better inventory. Now, the VHS-era financial reality is reforming in the digital marketplace: Consumers can pay low fees by patronizing businesses like Blockbuster's DVDs-by-mail service, which has serious drawbacks, or they can pay premiums by patronizing smoother operations, like Netflix's various delivery systems.

Obviously, paying fair market value for a desirable product is standard operating procedure in a capitalistic economy. But, as indicated by tip-of-the-iceberg price hikes like Redbox's 20-cent bump and by scary experiments like Universal's attempt at Tower Heist price-gouging, consumers should brace for nasty surprises when they discover the gulf between what consumers consider fair market value and what companies consider fair market value.

And that's without taking into consideration major changes that are still in the discussion stages. Just imagine what will happen to home-entertainment prices if concepts like "net metering," which involves consumers paying for the amount of bandwidth they use instead of flat Internet-access fees, become reality. Bottom line: Enjoy dirt-cheap movie rentals while they last, because the party is almost over.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111102/us_ac/10325119_previewing_the_postdvd_world_dont_expect_the_free_ride_to_last

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POLL: What Was the Worst Celebrity Marriage Ever?


Kim Kardashian filed for divorce from Kris Humpries after just 72 days of marriage. Perhaps her fairy tale wedding was not what it was meant to be after all.

Or maybe it was, given who we're talking about. She made millions off her big day and E! can start looking for her next future ex-husband in the near future.

They're far from the only stars to tie the knot only to bail almost immediately, however. Where do Kim and Kris rank among the worst celebrity marriages?

Kris Humphries Kardashian

In the last decade, stars like Jennifer Lopez, Eddie Murphy and Pamela Anderson (twice!) have seen unions dissolve within the same year of their nuptials.

Heck, Britney Spears tied the knot to Jason Alexander in Vegas and had it annulled 55 hours later. Time enough for him to get it in, and that's about it.

One of the shortest in recent times came when Chris Kattan wed Sunshine Tutt on June 28, 2008 ... and divorced her August 10. Terrible marriage, awesome name.

Even more recently, Tara Reid and Zack Kehayov tied the knot in August of 2011, but now she's saying it was bogus and never even legal. Weaksauce.

Which union was the worst of them all? Vote below!

Admittedly we kept the list very recent and defined "worst" by shortest. To submit your own as an honorable mention, hit the comments section below!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/10/poll-what-was-the-worst-celebrity-marriage-ever/

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White House staff lose weight, credit first lady

FILE - In this May 20, 2011 file photo, White House chefs, from left, Susie Morrison, executive chef Chriseta Comerford and Adam Collick, taste the salads they prepared in the kitchen of the White House in Washington. While the first lady's campaign to lower childhood obesity rates will need time to produce results, if ever, the White House is one place where her message about eating balanced meals and getting more exercise is not only resonating, but showing results, too. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

FILE - In this May 20, 2011 file photo, White House chefs, from left, Susie Morrison, executive chef Chriseta Comerford and Adam Collick, taste the salads they prepared in the kitchen of the White House in Washington. While the first lady's campaign to lower childhood obesity rates will need time to produce results, if ever, the White House is one place where her message about eating balanced meals and getting more exercise is not only resonating, but showing results, too. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

FILE - In this May 20, 2011 file photo, White House chefs, from left, executive chef Chriseta Comerford, Adam Collick, and Susie Morrison, prepare salads in the kitchen of the White House in Washington. While the first lady's campaign to lower childhood obesity rates will need time to produce results, if ever, the White House is one place where her message about eating balanced meals and getting more exercise is not only resonating, but showing results, too. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

(AP) ? Surrounded all day and most nights by delicious cakes, cookies, pies and more, Susie Morrison gave in to temptation too often during long hours at work in the White House pastry kitchen.

But no more.

Never a runner, the assistant pastry chef has finished her first 5K run. When the weather cooperates, she pedals her bicycle 26 miles roundtrip to work. She's eating more vegetables, limiting coffee and drinking up to a gallon of water every day ? dietary changes that Morrison says helped her drop 30 pounds from her 5-foot-5 frame in about 18 months.

One person gets most of the credit for Morrison's lifestyle makeover: Michelle Obama.

While the first lady's campaign to lower childhood obesity rates will need time to produce results, if ever, the White House is one place where her message about eating balanced meals and getting more exercise is not only resonating, but showing results, too.

"She is a great inspiration for me to focus every day to try harder, and I have," Morrison said.

Some of Morrison's colleagues are also taking the message to heart ? and the proof is in their waistlines. Four members of the White House residence staff ? Morrison, two chef colleagues and an assistant curator ? have lost more than 110 pounds since July 2010. They have kept the weight off so far.

Executive chef Cristeta Comerford, now 15 pounds lighter, said Mrs. Obama's campaign helped the group recognize their poor eating habits.

Instead of the cookie she reached for daily, Morrison, 44, said she now snacks on an apple or a handful of grapes.

Comerford often lined up a cup of coffee, a can of soda and a can of Red Bull and sipped from all three during the day.

Assistant chef Adam Collick cut out hundreds of calories by eliminating a daily coffee fix ? three 20-ounce cups topped with whipped cream drizzled with chocolate syrup. He and Comerford have replaced their caffeinated drinks mostly with calorie-free water. They still drink coffee, but stop at two cups a day.

Collick also has cut down on mindless eating and is limiting dessert to a few times a week, instead of with every meal. Those changes and about an hour of exercise most days have helped the 46-year-old lose 30 pounds. He said consistency is important for good results.

"Once you see the changes in your body and the way you feel, it's going to make you want to keep doing it," said Collick, who became a de facto coach to colleagues battling the bulge. The 25-year veteran of the White House kitchen helped motivate them to stick with their programs or get back on track after they'd overdone it a little.

Overdoing it is easy as a chef in a place where there are few food-free functions ? ranging from receptions and dinners for hundreds of visitors to lunch for President Barack Obama and a guest in his private dining room off the Oval Office. One occupational hazard for the chefs is having to taste the food during all stages of preparation to check the flavorings, a seemingly simple task that when performed again and again every day can jeopardize anyone's well-intentioned efforts to eat right.

If not careful, Collick said, the chefs could easily eat an entire meal just by tasting their way through the work day.

"We're preparing really good food so it's really very easy to just snack all the time," added Comerford.

Comerford, 47, said she wanted more stamina to keep up with her 10-year-old daughter, a competitive gymnast, and to set an example with her smart food choices. The family sticks to a balanced diet of whole grains, low-fat proteins and plenty of vegetables but will loosen up enough on weekends to enjoy a hamburger or equally indulgent meal.

That's the basic advice Mrs. Obama dispenses ? that losing weight doesn't have to mean deprivation. The first lady has said french fries are her favorite food and she also has been taken to task from time to time after being spotted at burger joints around town.

Assistant curator Lydia Tederick said she lost more than 35 pounds after signing up for Weight Watchers and joining a gym with her husband. They work out at least three times a week, and Tederick said she spends most Saturday mornings at the farmer's market stocking up on fresh fruit and vegetables.

Her initial goal was just to lose weight so she could fit into her clothing better.

"But now my goal is to maintain my weight, to tone up, be more fit, and I would love to have arms that look as fabulous as Mrs. Obama's," Tederick said.

Jim White, a spokesman for the American Dietetic Association, applauded the employees. He said studies have shown that having a partner in weight loss aids the process.

"Losing weight is not the easiest thing to do or we wouldn't have overweight in this country," said White, a registered dietitian and personal trainer in Virginia Beach, Va.

Morrison, who has worked in the pastry kitchen since 1995, said she gained weight after giving up exercise because of injuries and not paying attention to her diet. After deciding it was time to refocus on her fitness, Morrison said she would envision herself working out and getting healthier and stronger.

"I persevered and it's nice to come to this point and have happy results," she said.

Perseverance will be important for Morrison in the days ahead. White House chefs will soon begin preparing for a holiday season that, despite Mrs. Obama's focus on eating healthier, still serves up traditional, calorie-laden fare at dozens of parties and receptions that jam the calendar between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

___

Darlene Superville can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2011-11-01-White%20House%20Weight%20Loss/id-f19ad2c557104b06987981e32522e37d

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Cain says he was 'falsely accused' of harassment

>>> well, he's become the most famous campaign operative of the cycle.

>> we need you to get involved because together we can do this. we can take this country back.

>> mark block, the chief of staff for the herman cain campaign and the guy running the show there. his candidate planned to focus on his economic today but it's a new -- yesterday the -- last night the spokesman j.d. gordon didn't deny the specific allegation that somehow these two women left the national restaurant association after a financial settlement.

>> first of all, chuck, let me tell you that herman cain has never sexually harassed anybody, period, end of story. the only people who spoke publicly about the story in that article are the ones that were in the best position to know. they were the chair, vice chair and immediate past chair of the national restaurant association during herman cain 's tenure. yet all three -- and all three said that he was a man of total integrity. every negative word and accusation in the article is sourced to a series of unnamed or anonymous sources , and this is questionable at best. i am not personally aware of any cash settlement relating to sexual harassment charges to mr. cain .

>> have you asked mr. cain that question?

>> yes, i have. and he said to me emphatically, when there is facts, bring them to me. let me face my accusers and we'll deal with it then.

>> i can tell you, i have my own sourcing on this that talks about a cash settlement from somebody who was familiar and was working at the national restaurant association . i understand there are nondisclosure agreements on this and that's part of the reason why you're going to get sometime some of this tougher sourcing on this because in order to get the money you had to sign this. but there's a lot of string here. is he issuing a flat -- even to you that doesn't sound like he's giving you a flat-out denial.

>> i would suggest that you contact the national restaurant association and ask them about any settlement. i am not personally aware of any settlement dealing with mr. cain .

>> you understand how that sounds?

>> yes, i do. it's very serious.

>> no. the fact that you cannot say it and you're telling us that we have to go to the association.

>> that's the place to get the answer on if there was a settlement.

>> how concerned are you that this story, because you can't -- you can't and the campaign cannot be the ones to stop this, that you're saying we have to go there.

>> i think mr. cain will be addressing it today. and again, mr. cain has never sexually harassed anyone, period.

>> did you ask him about the allegations?

>> yes, i did.

>> not just about the financial part but about the allegations?

>> absolutely.

>> and you're comfortable -- was is a miscommunication between he and the women.

>> he said emphatically the story is not true. bring me some facts, bring me my accuser and that's the way we should handle this in today's society, shouldn't we?

>> well, it's a new world order .

>> kid of like the cigarette.

>> well, you brought up the cigarette thing. i want to play yesterday on "face the nation" herman cain was asked specifically about this now famous viral video that's made you an internet star and frankly tv star. let's go to the back and forth here.

>> was it meant to be funny?

>> it was meant to be informative. if they listen to the message where he said america has never seen a candidate like herman cain . that was the main point of it. ignored or whatever the case may be.

>> it's not funny to me. i am a cancer survivor like you. i had cancer that's smoking related. i don't think it serves the country well, and this is an editorial opinion here, to be showing someone smoking a cigarette. you're the front runner now. i would suggest that perhaps as the front runner you'd want to raise the level of the campaign.

>> do you -- you were saying before, you said you had had a conversation with the cbs folks.

>> yes.

>> tell me about it.

>> and i have been on the record that i do not condone anybody smoking. i would not encourage anybody to smoke. i by choice smoke. and as we have said in the campaign many times, one of the reasons that we're in the first place in polling and whether it be texas and iowa or nationally is we let herman be herman and mr. cain lets block be block. i smoke, it's a fact. now, we never anticipated that this message to our supporters, which is really what it was, that we were excited about the campai campaign, we were excited about the poll numbers. everybody knows that we're running this as a different type of campaign from a bottoms up instead of a top down. never anticipated that it would go viral the way it did. i mean, chuck --

>> so you're not longer -- are you going to make sure you're not filmed smoking a cigarette anymore?

>> if i'm standing outside of a hotel having a cup of coffee on my iphone and i have a cigarette and somebody films it, there's nothing i can do about that.

>> i understand. but you're not going to be having your campaign filming you.

>> absolutely not.

>> i want to go back one more time to the politico story. if the facts come out and mr. cain wasn't clear with you, how disturbing is that to you?

>> i have complete confidence that what mr. cain told me is absolute factual and true, chuck.

>> what gives you that confidence?

>> i've known him.

>> but you're confidence, 100% confident that all parts of this story are inaccurate.

>> yes.

>> 100%?

>> yes, sir. how many times do i have to say it.

>> there may not have been a miscommunication between mr. cain an those staffers.

>> right.

>> and did he leave under normal circumstances?

>> yes, he did.

>> you've asked him all of these questions?

>> yes, sir.

>> i want to go to the campaign strategy that you've done.

>> yes.

>> uf spent a lot of time in alabama, a state whose primary is far away . you and mitt romney are leading in iowa and have spent the least amount of time in iowa . what are we missing here? what is the old school political world missing here?

>> couple of things. one is the internet, the new media or digital media , and our ability to communicate with people that way. the fact that a video goes viral like it did and i'm being told there's over 20 million people that have seen that. but more importantly we have been in iowa -- there's only one candidate that's been there more than us. we have been in iowa early, we have built an organization in iowa , new hampshire, south carolina , florida, nevada, and we're opening up other states. our campaign, and this is a very difficult thing to understand, is really a bottoms up campaign, as a by-product of what happened on april 15th of 2009 with the explosion of the tea party movement or the citizens movement, as mr. cain calls it. you don't need this very structured top down organization to be able to deliver a message.

>> now we're showing live pictures. your candidate, your boss has taken a seat at the american enterprise institute . you think he could say something at top.

>> we would ask everyone to remain seated for security purposes and at 10:05 we'll begin a round table conversation with lots of geeky nerd types who study taxes. we're going to talk about the details of 9-9-9. welcome. it's very great to have you here.

>> it's my pleasure, happy to be here. boy, this is -- turn it down -- pull it down just a smidgeon.

>> you didn't turn it on?

>> because i tend to project. so pull it down just a smidgeon. i'll blow this thing to smitherines.

>> we didn't hit the power when they miked me up. you're loud and clear.

>> i'm happy to be here. thank you very much. i want to thank all of you all for being here.

>> thank you very much, mr. cain . to get rolling right away, it's halloween, so if you're going to go as one of your political opponents and you really want to square people tonight, who would you dress up as?

>> it has to be one of my political opponents?

>> let's say one of your republican opponents because president obama would be a layup sglo for that.

>> that is a trick question . i believe i would go as ron paul .

>> okay. so mr. cain , you've talked a lot in the debates about how business experience is different from political experience and may be preferable now. i wonder if you could talk a little bit about how you think your business experience has influenced the design of 9-9-9.

>> all right, mr. block, i know we'll be talking about the economy and we'll be monitoring this and turning it around. let me ask you one other question about -- you talked about april 15th , 2009 .

>> yes.

>> you got your start, i believe, at americans for prosperity ?

>> correct.

>> what is your relationship with the koch brothers, and what is it that their interests in which you've been doing and what is their interest in the cain campaign?

>> you know, it's interesting we get tied to the koch brothers quite a bit. in fact i was doing an interview over the weekend where i had stated that when i was a director of americans for prosperity , not once, not once were we ever given the directive on how to take a stand on a policy based upon what the koch brothers, koch industries felt or said. we were really given the autonomy to run our state organizations the way we thought --

>> how many times have you met them?

>> probably about four times.

>> when was the last time you've talked to them?

>> probably about a year ago.

>> so are they donors to the cain campaign?

>> no, they have not.

>> have you asked them to be?

>> every time it is suggested in the media that we're fronts for the koch family, i would suggest that if they are donating to us, their payments are past due.

>> tomorrow you're going to be holding -- mr. cain is holding sort of an open house , if you will, for congressional republicans to come, a meet and greet.

>> yes.

>> do you expect some endorsements tomorrow?

>> don't know if we are going to get endorsements tomorrow. the number one reason we're in washington this week besides the typical doing the tv shows and stuff is for the congressional and senate delegations to get to know mr. cain , to get to know what his platform is, his bold ideas on things like 9-9-9 and some of the other policy things we're going to be rolling out. they really want to understand how this campaign is structured. what are we doing in iowa , what are we doing in new hampshire.

>> are you giving a presentation?

>> i'll be with mr. cain . i'll let him answer the questions. the way that we've run this thing, and you have to admit that not many people understand why are we first in the polls.

>> right.

>> why are we first in iowa . why are we statistically head-to-head with governor perry in texas. and i think the majority of it has to do with the cain 's message of leadership that really is resonating.

>> his message or the resume, the fact that he's never held elective office?

>> i think both. i think both.

>> are you concerned that what's -- you know, this story.

>> yes.

>> one of those feeding frenzy moments that could be 24 hours it could go away or it could last all week, how this is happening at this time that could really undercut your ability to sort of get the republican party around you?

>> chuck, we went into this knowing full well that this is a tough, tough business. okay? this is not and will not be the first. i have no idea what the other crises, as we call them, will be. but we have a long road to hoe. it's a long way between now and november, 2012 . i think that we will handle them all professionally and we're not going to change our campaign strategy. everything that we've done up to this point has worked beyond our expectations and we're just going to -- as i usually say to my staff, keep your head down and sell tickets.

>> how much money did you raise this month?

>> we're over $5 million.

>> so more than a million a week.

>> average $1.25 million a week.

>> and how many more staffers have you added in the early states?

>> we went from 32 staffers the day of the florida straw poll to 63 today. so we've doubled in the last 30 days .

>> mark block, chief of staff to herman cain , thanks for coming in this morning.

>> thanks for having me. i look forward to being back.

>> we'll be in touch and we'll have you back.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45099767/ns/politics-decision_2012/

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