Colby Gallagher joined the Fox 31 News Team in April 2012 as a general assignment reporter. Colby hails from Sewell, New Jersey and is an avid Philly sports fan.
Read?more: Local, News, Auction for Local Charities, Auction for Scholarships, Marine Corps Officers' Spouses' Club, Betsy Cisek, Marine Corps, Albany Marines, Military Spouses Give Back
Mardi Gras celebrations are still a week away but the Marine Corps Officers' Spouses' Club started the party a week early with a purple, green and gold-themed live and silent auction on Saturday evening? / Colby Gallagher
ALBANY -- Mardi Gras celebrations are still a week away but the Marine Corps Officers' Spouses' Club started the party a week early with a purple, green and gold-themed live and?silent auction?on Saturday evening.
Residents were invited to bid on different prize packages ranging from a golf getaway to a football lovers basket.
Organizers say it's a way for those who came out to continue giving back to the community by redeeming the prizes at local businesses.
"The marine corps base here and the military community in Albany is such a part of the Albany fabric that it's really important for us to support one another and this is such a perfect way for us to give back and for the community to give back as well," said club president Betsy Cisek.
All proceeds will go towards student scholarships or be used as grants to give to local charities.
Stay connected to MySouthWestGA.com as stories develop and the FOX 31 Newscast at 10 PM. Visit us on?Facebook?and?Twitter?to join in?on the conversation and connect with FOX 31!
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SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Revered Hungarian director Bela Tarr's famously uncompromising approach to cinema will now be passed to future generations as he begins a new course for budding filmmakers in Sarajevo.
The 57-year-old retired from directing after the release in 2011 of "The Turin Horse", a bleak, black-and-white portrayal of a peasant and his daughter abandoned by man and God in their remote, windswept cottage.
Its long takes and sparse dialogue and narrative were trademarks of Tarr, who won over critics around the world and is perhaps most famous for his seven-hour epic "Satantango" based on a novel by compatriot Laszlo Krasznahorkai.
It will come as little surprise to hear Tarr speak not of commercial success in cinema, but artistic integrity at a time when independent filmmakers are struggling to raise money to make movies that have limited box office potential.
"Film is different - you cannot teach, you can do only one thing which is to develop young filmmakers -- give them freedom, tell them they can be brave, they can be themselves, do what they really want," Tarr said in an interview.
Last week classes began at his newly launched Film Factory at the Sarajevo University School for Science and Technology, offering a three-year programme which Tarr and his associates said would adopt a fresh approach to filmmaking.
"It started when I decided not to make any more movies," Tarr said of his idea to launch an international PhD-level film programme for mature directors.
"I had the feeling this was the next step in my life because I want to share what I know, and I want to protect young filmmakers, give them the protection to be free," he told Reuters in his offices in the Bosnian capital.
ART BACK INTO FILM
Accommodated in a building located in the old part of Sarajevo, his Film Factory is now home to 17 students who have come from as far as Japan and Mexico to explore the secrets of filmmaking.
"It's a unique attempt to really work artistically in film, and to bring film to the level of art again," said Fred Kelemen, a German cinematographer and director who runs a camera workshop at the school.
"I think it's very important because it's something that many film schools around the world do not do any more," he added before mentoring students in capturing light against a dark backdrop on camera.
Kelemen has worked with Tarr on several films, and has been branded by critics as the "maestro of black and white silence".
The programme includes a theoretical section based on analyzing films as well as practical workshops which will be run by independent cinema stars including Gus Van Sant, Jim Jarmusch and Tilda Swinton.
Mexican filmmaker Carlos Reygadas, French director Thierry Garrel, Icelandic producer Fridrik Thor Fridriksson will also be among the lecturers, and possibly Aki Kaurismaki.
Students are expected to produce four films over the first two years and a feature in the final year.
"It looks like a menu," Tarr said of his programme. "In the end you have to cook your own food. The third part, when they are making their own movies, is where the real cooking is done, and that is my responsibility."
Most students said they applied for the school because of its unconventional approach to film and its roster of prominent figures from the film industry.
"After 110 years of cinema we are at the point where everything is undone," said Keja Ho Kramer from France, who has worked in the film business for the past 12 years.
"So to have an opportunity to rethink where the future is with all these amazing people is what interests me most."
Tarr is confident the course will achieve its goal of promoting freedom of art and expression, and produce some "good, strong movies.
"We are here, we have cameras, we have lights, we have fantasy, they have time, they are young, full of energy, full of hope - I do not see a problem. We just have to work, work, work, work."
(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Mike Collett-White and Paul Casciato)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Fox's Chris Wallace has landed the first postelection interview with defeated Republican nominee Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann.
Wallace said on "Fox News Sunday" that the interview will air on his show next week. Additional portions will be on Fox News Channel the next day. Wallace says he'll ask Romney how he has dealt with the defeat, what he plans to do and his thoughts about President Barack Obama's second-term agenda.
Fox News spokeswoman Ashley Nerz says the interview will be taped this week in southern California, where Romney has spent much of his time since the election.
Romney has also said he will speak March 15 to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, an annual event that draws leading Republican voices.
Asthma drug found highly effective in treating chronic, severe hives and itchPublic release date: 24-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David March dmarch1@jhmi.edu 410-955-1534 Johns Hopkins Medicine
Omalizumab therapy could soon replace other, more toxic treatments
An international team of researchers has found that a once-a-month, high-dose injection of a commonly used asthma drug is highly effective in treating teens and adults chronically afflicted with hives and severe, itchy rash. The drug, omalizumab, was tested on 323 people at 55 medical centers for whom standard antihistamine therapy failed to quell their underlying, allergy-like reaction, known as chronic idiopathic urticaria or chronic spontaneous urticaria.
"Physicians and patients may now have a fast, safe and well-tolerated treatment option to consider before prescribing even more antihistamines, which can be highly sedating," says Sarbjit (Romi) Saini, M.D., a Johns Hopkins allergist and immunologist, and study co-investigator. The research team's findings are scheduled to be published in The New England Journal of Medicine online Feb. 24, to coincide with their initial presentation at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology in San Antonio, Texas.
Participants in the study, which ran from 2009 to 2011, were mostly women and between the ages of 12 and 75. Each was randomly assigned to take one of three dosing regimens of omalizumab, or placebo, after which they were monitored through regular checkups for four months. Neither researchers nor participants were aware of what specific dose was being taken by which subjects during the study.
All study participants had chronic hives and rash for at least six months, with many having suffered from the condition for more than five years. All had continued to experience hives or a severe itchy rash for a full week while taking antihistamines.
"Patients suffering with this condition need more and better treatment options because chronic hives and rash are profoundly hard to treat and can be very debilitating," says Saini, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Saini, who has studied omalizumab since 2005, points out that fewer than half of those treated respond to traditional drug treatments with antihistamines.
Saini says the new study results offer substantial evidence that this first injection treatment option not only works, but does so more safely than other drugs, such as corticosteroids and the immunosuppressant cyclosporine, which carry risk of potentially severe and toxic side effects, including high blood pressure, bone thinning and even infection. By contrast, headache was the most severe side effect observed with omalizumab therapy. No study participants died or suffered anaphylactic shock, or had to withdraw because of any adverse effects or events.
According to Saini, chronic idiopathic urticaria affects some 3 million Americans, and may or may not involve swelling, with twice as many women as men suffering from these often socially isolating conditions. Saini says some patients experience such severe swelling of their eyes, hands, face, lips and throat that they have difficulty breathing. Some refuse to leave home, losing several days at a time away from work during flare-ups.
In the study, the team of American and European researchers injected a 300-milligram dose of the drug, sold under the brand name Xolair, once a month for three months. Saini says initial relief from symptoms was quick and occurred after a week. After three months, 53 percent of people experienced a total elimination of all hives and 44 percent had no further incidents of hives or itch. Lower doses of the drug, at 150 milligrams and 75 milligrams, and the placebo (or 0 milligrams) proved half as effective as the next larger dose, or had almost no effect at all, researchers say.
Saini, who also serves as director of Johns Hopkins' medical fellowship training program in allergy and clinical immunology, had conducted earlier research on the test doses, which he says are different from those used in omalizumab therapy for asthma. Single, uniform doses of omalizumab can be used to treat hives, whereas dosing for asthma is calculated based on the patient's weight and blood levels of IgE antibodies, known to play a key role in allergic reactions.
Researchers say it remains unclear as to precisely how omalizumab, first approved in the United States in 2003 as a treatment for severe asthma, stops the runaway allergy-like reactions underpinning chronic hives and itching. What is known, he says, is that omalizumab binds up free IgE circulating in the body, and lowers the number of IgE receptors on other histamine-carrying immune system cells. Saini says that in a typical allergic reaction, allergens, such as pollen and dust particles, bind to IgE receptors that sit on these immune system cells. This process quickly results in a controlled, wave-like release of histamine, a key triggering chemical involved in inflammation. But in the itchy rash of chronic hives, histamine release appears to be more spontaneous, suggesting that the histamine-carrying mast cells and basophils are abnormal.
Saini next plans more studies on omalizumab's effects on IgE, and how it contributes to chronic hives and rash. He says his goal is to understand the underlying mechanism of the disease and explain why the drug is effective.
###
Saini is a paid consultant to both Genentech and Novartis, omalizumab's marketer and manufacturer, respectively, which funded the latest study. The terms of these arrangements are being managed by The Johns Hopkins University in accordance with its conflict-of-interest policies.
Besides Saini, other researchers involved in this study were lead investigator Marcus Maurer, M.D., at the Charit-Universittsmedizin in Berlin, Germany. Study co-investigators included Karin Rosen, M.D., Ph.D.; Hsin-Ju Hsieh, Ph.D.; Sunil Agarwal, M.D.; and Ramona Doyle, M.D., at Genentech Inc., in San Francisco, Calif.; as well as Clive Grattan, M.D., at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital in Norwich, United Kingdom; Ana Gimenez-Arnau, M.D., Ph.D., at the Universitat Autnoma in Barcelona, Spain; and Janice Canvin, M.D., at Novartis AG in Redhill, United Kingdom; Allen Kaplan, M.D., at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston; and senior study investigator Thomas Casale, at Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Neb.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Asthma drug found highly effective in treating chronic, severe hives and itchPublic release date: 24-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David March dmarch1@jhmi.edu 410-955-1534 Johns Hopkins Medicine
Omalizumab therapy could soon replace other, more toxic treatments
An international team of researchers has found that a once-a-month, high-dose injection of a commonly used asthma drug is highly effective in treating teens and adults chronically afflicted with hives and severe, itchy rash. The drug, omalizumab, was tested on 323 people at 55 medical centers for whom standard antihistamine therapy failed to quell their underlying, allergy-like reaction, known as chronic idiopathic urticaria or chronic spontaneous urticaria.
"Physicians and patients may now have a fast, safe and well-tolerated treatment option to consider before prescribing even more antihistamines, which can be highly sedating," says Sarbjit (Romi) Saini, M.D., a Johns Hopkins allergist and immunologist, and study co-investigator. The research team's findings are scheduled to be published in The New England Journal of Medicine online Feb. 24, to coincide with their initial presentation at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology in San Antonio, Texas.
Participants in the study, which ran from 2009 to 2011, were mostly women and between the ages of 12 and 75. Each was randomly assigned to take one of three dosing regimens of omalizumab, or placebo, after which they were monitored through regular checkups for four months. Neither researchers nor participants were aware of what specific dose was being taken by which subjects during the study.
All study participants had chronic hives and rash for at least six months, with many having suffered from the condition for more than five years. All had continued to experience hives or a severe itchy rash for a full week while taking antihistamines.
"Patients suffering with this condition need more and better treatment options because chronic hives and rash are profoundly hard to treat and can be very debilitating," says Saini, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Saini, who has studied omalizumab since 2005, points out that fewer than half of those treated respond to traditional drug treatments with antihistamines.
Saini says the new study results offer substantial evidence that this first injection treatment option not only works, but does so more safely than other drugs, such as corticosteroids and the immunosuppressant cyclosporine, which carry risk of potentially severe and toxic side effects, including high blood pressure, bone thinning and even infection. By contrast, headache was the most severe side effect observed with omalizumab therapy. No study participants died or suffered anaphylactic shock, or had to withdraw because of any adverse effects or events.
According to Saini, chronic idiopathic urticaria affects some 3 million Americans, and may or may not involve swelling, with twice as many women as men suffering from these often socially isolating conditions. Saini says some patients experience such severe swelling of their eyes, hands, face, lips and throat that they have difficulty breathing. Some refuse to leave home, losing several days at a time away from work during flare-ups.
In the study, the team of American and European researchers injected a 300-milligram dose of the drug, sold under the brand name Xolair, once a month for three months. Saini says initial relief from symptoms was quick and occurred after a week. After three months, 53 percent of people experienced a total elimination of all hives and 44 percent had no further incidents of hives or itch. Lower doses of the drug, at 150 milligrams and 75 milligrams, and the placebo (or 0 milligrams) proved half as effective as the next larger dose, or had almost no effect at all, researchers say.
Saini, who also serves as director of Johns Hopkins' medical fellowship training program in allergy and clinical immunology, had conducted earlier research on the test doses, which he says are different from those used in omalizumab therapy for asthma. Single, uniform doses of omalizumab can be used to treat hives, whereas dosing for asthma is calculated based on the patient's weight and blood levels of IgE antibodies, known to play a key role in allergic reactions.
Researchers say it remains unclear as to precisely how omalizumab, first approved in the United States in 2003 as a treatment for severe asthma, stops the runaway allergy-like reactions underpinning chronic hives and itching. What is known, he says, is that omalizumab binds up free IgE circulating in the body, and lowers the number of IgE receptors on other histamine-carrying immune system cells. Saini says that in a typical allergic reaction, allergens, such as pollen and dust particles, bind to IgE receptors that sit on these immune system cells. This process quickly results in a controlled, wave-like release of histamine, a key triggering chemical involved in inflammation. But in the itchy rash of chronic hives, histamine release appears to be more spontaneous, suggesting that the histamine-carrying mast cells and basophils are abnormal.
Saini next plans more studies on omalizumab's effects on IgE, and how it contributes to chronic hives and rash. He says his goal is to understand the underlying mechanism of the disease and explain why the drug is effective.
###
Saini is a paid consultant to both Genentech and Novartis, omalizumab's marketer and manufacturer, respectively, which funded the latest study. The terms of these arrangements are being managed by The Johns Hopkins University in accordance with its conflict-of-interest policies.
Besides Saini, other researchers involved in this study were lead investigator Marcus Maurer, M.D., at the Charit-Universittsmedizin in Berlin, Germany. Study co-investigators included Karin Rosen, M.D., Ph.D.; Hsin-Ju Hsieh, Ph.D.; Sunil Agarwal, M.D.; and Ramona Doyle, M.D., at Genentech Inc., in San Francisco, Calif.; as well as Clive Grattan, M.D., at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital in Norwich, United Kingdom; Ana Gimenez-Arnau, M.D., Ph.D., at the Universitat Autnoma in Barcelona, Spain; and Janice Canvin, M.D., at Novartis AG in Redhill, United Kingdom; Allen Kaplan, M.D., at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston; and senior study investigator Thomas Casale, at Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Neb.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? With the start of the Daytona 500 just hours away, NASCAR officials still have some cleaning up to do amid growing questions about fan safety.
The season opener will go off as planned Sunday less than 24 hours after at least 33 people were injured when a car flew into the fence during a NASCAR race at Daytona International Speedway, sending a tire and large pieces of debris sailing into the stands.
"Just seeing the carnage on the racetrack, it was truly unbelievable," driver Justin Allgaier said.
The final-lap accident Saturday marred the second-tier Nationwide Series race on the eve of a spectacle often called the Super Bowl of motorsports. Late into the night, track workers were scrambling to repair a huge section of fence that separates fans from the high-speed track.
Speedway President Joie Chitwood III has a news conference scheduled for Sunday morning to give the latest update on repairs and any safety changes that could be made before the "Great American Race."
The 12-car crash began about 200 feet from the start-finish line as the front-runners approached the checkered flag. Leader Regan Smith attempted to block Brad Keselowski for the win, triggering a horrific pileup that could have been much worse.
The front end of Larson's No. 32 car was sheared off, and his burning engine wedged through a gaping hole in the fence. Parts and pieces of his car sprayed into the stands, including a tire that cleared the top of the fence and landed midway up the spectator section closest to the track.
The 20-year-old Larson stood in shock a few feet from his car as fans in the stands waved frantically for help. Smoke from the burning engine briefly clouded the area, and emergency vehicles descended on the scene.
Ambulance sirens could be heard wailing behind the grandstands at a time the race winner would typically be doing celebratory burnouts.
"It was freaky. When I looked to my right, the accident happened," Rick Harpster of Orange Park said. "I looked over and I saw a tire fly straight over the fence into the stands, but after that I didn't see anything else. That was the worst thing I have seen, seeing that tire fly into the stands. I knew it was going to be severe."
Shannan Devine of Egg Harbor Township, N.J., was sitting about 250 feet from where the car smashed into the fence and could see plumes of smoke directly in front of her.
"I didn't know if there was a car on top of people. I didn't know what to think," she said. "I'm an emotional person and I immediately started to cry. It was very scary. Absolutely scary. I love the speed of the sport. But it's so dangerous."
Chitwood said 14 fans were treated on site and 14 others were taken to hospitals. Local officials said 19 people were taken to neighboring hospitals, including two who were in critical but stable condition.
Because of potential injuries, race winner Tony Stewart skipped the traditional victory celebration.
Stewart, who won for the 19th time at Daytona and seventh time in the last nine season-opening Nationwide races, was in no mood to celebrate.
"The important thing is what is going on on the frontstretch right now," said Stewart, a three-time NASCAR champion. "We've always known, and since racing started, this is a dangerous sport. But it's hard. We assume that risk, but it's hard when the fans get caught up in it.
"So as much as we want to celebrate right now and as much as this is a big deal to us, I'm more worried about the drivers and the fans that are in the stands right now because that was ... I could see it all in my mirror, and it didn't look good from where I was at."
There were at least five stretchers carrying injured people out of the stands, and a helicopter flew overhead.
Officials turned their attention to the track and the wreckage after injured were treated.
A forklift plucked Larson's engine out of the fence, and workers carried the tire out of the stands.
It was a chaotic finish to a race that was stopped for nearly 20 minutes five laps from the finish by a 13-car accident that sent driver Michael Annett to a hospital. His Richard Petty Motorsports team said he would be held overnight with bruising to his chest.
The race resumed with three laps to go, and the final accident occurred with Smith trying to hold off Keselowski through the final turn.
"It's Daytona. You want to go for the win here," Smith said. "I don't know how you can play it any different, other than concede second place, and I wasn't willing to do that today. Our job is to put them in position to win, and it was, and it didn't work out."
As the cars began wrecking all around Smith and Keselowski, Stewart slid through for the win, but Larson plowed into Keselowski and his car was sent airborne into the fence. When Larson's car came to a stop, it was missing its entire front end. Larson, who made his Daytona debut this week, stood with his hands on his hips before finally making the mandatory trip to the care center.
"I took a couple big hits there and saw my engine was gone," Larson said. "Just hope everybody's all right."
It appeared fans were lined up along the fence when Larson's car got airborne. But Chitwood said there was a buffer, adding there would be no changes to the seating before the Daytona 500.
"We don't anticipate moving any of our fans," Chitwood said. "We had our safety protocols in place. Our security maintained a buffer that separates the fans from the fencing area. With the fencing being prepared tonight to our safety protocols, we expect to go racing tomorrow with no changes."
Keselowski watched a replay of the accident and said it could cast a pall on the Daytona 500.
"I think until we know exactly the statuses of everyone involved, it's hard to lock yourself into the 500," Keselowski said. "Hopefully, we'll know soon and hopefully everyone's OK. And if that's the case, we'll staring focusing on Sunday."
___
AP Sports Writers Jenna Fryer, Dan Gelston and Jerome Minerva in Daytona Beach and Associated Press writer Jennifer Kay in Miami contributed to this report.
KARACHI (Reuters) - When Aurangzeb Farooqi survived an attempt on his life that left six of his bodyguards dead and a six-inch bullet wound in his thigh, the Pakistani cleric lost little time in turning the narrow escape to his advantage.
Recovering in hospital after the ambush on his convoy in Karachi, Pakistan's commercial capital, the radical Sunni Muslim ideologue was composed enough to exhort his followers to close ranks against the city's Shi'ites.
"Enemies should listen to this: my task now is Sunni awakening," Farooqi said in remarks captured on video shortly after a dozen gunmen opened fire on his double-cabin pick-up truck on December 25.
"I will make Sunnis so powerful against Shi'ites that no Sunni will even want to shake hands with a Shi'ite," he said, propped up in bed on emergency-room pillows. "They will die their own deaths, we won't have to kill them."
Such is the kind of speech that chills members of Pakistan's Shi'ite minority, braced for a new chapter of persecution following a series of bombings that have killed almost 200 people in the city of Quetta since the beginning of the year.
While the Quetta carnage grabbed world attention, a Reuters inquiry into a lesser known spate of murders in Karachi, a much bigger conurbation, suggests the violence is taking on a volatile new dimension as a small number of Shi'ites fight back.
Pakistan's Western allies have traditionally been fixated on the challenge posed to the brittle, nuclear-armed state by Taliban militants battling the army in the bleakly spectacular highlands on the Afghan frontier.
But a cycle of tit-for-tat killings on the streets of Karachi points to a new type of threat: a campaign by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) and allied Pakistani anti-Shi'ite groups to rip open sectarian fault-lines in the city of 18 million people.
Police suspect LeJ, which claimed responsibility for the Quetta blasts, and its sympathizers may also be the driving force behind the murder of more than 80 Shi'ites in Karachi in the past six months, including doctors, bankers and teachers.
In turn, a number of hardline Sunni clerics who share Farooqi's suspicion of the Shi'ite sect have been killed in drive-by shootings or barely survived apparent revenge attacks. Dozens of Farooqi's followers have also been shot dead.
Discerning the motives for any one killing is murky work in Karachi, where multiple armed factions are locked in a perpetual all-against-all turf war, but detectives suspect an emerging Shi'ite group known as the Mehdi Force is behind some of the attacks on Farooqi's men.
While beleaguered secularists and their Western friends hope Pakistan will mature into a more confident democracy at general elections due in May, the spiral of killings in Karachi, a microcosm of the country's diversity, suggests the polarizing forces of intolerance are gaining ground.
"The divide is getting much bigger between Shia and Sunni. You have to pick sides now," said Sundus Rasheed, who works at a radio station in Karachi. "I've never experienced this much hatred in Pakistan."
Once the proud wearer of a silver Shi'ite amulet her mother gave her to hang around her neck, Rasheed now tucks away the charm, fearing it might serve not as protection, but mark her as a target.
"INFIDELS"
Fully recovered from the assassination attempt, Farooqi can be found in the cramped upstairs office of an Islamic seminary tucked in a side-street in Karachi's gritty Landhi neighborhood, an industrial zone in the east of the city.
On a rooftop shielded by a corrugated iron canopy, dozens of boys wearing skull caps sit cross-legged on prayer mats, imbibing a strict version of the Deobandi school of Sunni Islam that inspires both Farooqi and the foot-soldiers of LeJ.
"We say Shias are infidels. We say this on the basis of reason and arguments," Farooqi, a wiry, intense man with a wispy beard and cascade of shoulder-length curls, told Reuters. "I want to be called to the Supreme Court so that I can prove using their own books that they are not Muslims."
Farooqi, who cradled bejeweled prayer beads as he spoke, is the Karachi head of a Deobandi organization called Ahle Sunnat wal Jama'at. That is the new name for Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, a forerunner banned in 2002 in a wider crackdown on militancy by Pakistan's then army ruler, General Pervez Musharraf.
Farooqi says he opposes violence and denies any link to LeJ, but security officials believe his supporters are broadly aligned with the heavily armed group, whose leaders deem murdering Shi'ites an act of piety.
In the past year, LeJ has prosecuted its campaign with renewed gusto, emboldened by the release of Malik Ishaq, one of its founders, who was freed after spending 14 years in jail in July, 2011. Often pictured wearing a celebratory garland of pink flowers, Ishaq has since appeared at gatherings of supporters in Karachi and other cities.
In diverse corners of Pakistan, LeJ's cadres have bombed targets from mosques to snooker halls; yanked passengers off buses and shot them, and posted a video of themselves beheading a pair of trussed-up captives with a knife.
Nobody knows exactly how many Shi'ites there are in Pakistan -- estimates ranging from four to 20 percent of the population of 180 million underscore the uncertainty. What is clear is that they are dying faster than ever. At least 400 were killed last year, many from the ethnic Hazara minority in Quetta, according to Human Rights Watch, and some say the figure is far higher.
Pakistani officials suspect regional powers are stoking the fire, with donors in Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-dominated Gulf countries funding LeJ, while Shi'ite organizations turn to Iran.
Whatever factors are driving the violence, the state's ambivalent response has raised questions over the degree of tolerance for LeJ by elements in the security establishment, which has a long history of nurturing Deobandi proxies.
Under pressure in the wake of the Quetta bombings, police arrested Ishaq at his home in the eastern Punjab province on Friday under a colonial-era public order law.
But in Karachi, Farooqi and his thousands of followers project a new aura of confidence. Crowds of angry men chant "Shia infidel! Shia infidel" at rallies and burn effigies while clerics pour scorn on the sect from mosque loudspeakers after Friday prayers. A rash of graffiti hails Farooqi as a savior.
Over glasses of milky tea, he explained that his goal was to convince the government to declare Shi'ites non-Muslims, as it did to the Ahmadiyya sect in 1974, as a first step towards ostracizing the community and banning a number of their books.
"When someone is socially boycotted, he becomes disappointed and isolated. He realizes that his beliefs are not right, that people hate him," Farooqi said. "What I'm saying is that killing them is not the solution. Let's talk, let's debate and convince people that they are wrong."
CODENAME "SHAHEED"
Not far from Farooqi's seminary, in the winding lanes of the rough-and-tumble Malir quarter, Shi'ite leaders are kindling an awakening of their own.
A gleaming metallic chandelier dangles from the mirrored archway of a half-completed mosque rising near the modest offices of Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslemeen - known as MWM - a vocal Shi'ite party that has emerged to challenge Farooqi's ascent.
In an upstairs room, Ejaz Hussain Bahashti, an MWM leader clad in a white turban and black cloak, exhorts a gaggle of women activists to persuade their neighbors to join the cause.
Seated beneath a portrait of Ayatollah Khomeini, the Shi'ite cleric who led the 1979 Iranian revolution, Bahashti said his organization would not succumb to what he sees as a plan by LeJ to provoke sectarian conflict.
"In our sect, if we are being killed we are not supposed to carry out reprisal attacks," he told Reuters. "If we decided to take up arms, then no part of the country would be spared from terrorism - but it's forbidden."
The MWM played a big role in sit-ins that paralyzed parts of Karachi and dozens of other towns to protest against the Quetta bombings - the biggest Shi'ite demonstrations in years. But police suspect that some in the sect have chosen a less peaceful path.
Detectives believe the small Shi'ite Mehdi Force group, comprised of about 20 active members in Karachi, is behind several of the attacks on Deobandi clerics and their followers.
The underground network is led by a hardened militant codenamed "Shaheed", or martyr, who recruits eager but unseasoned middle-class volunteers who compensate for their lack of numbers by stalking high-profile targets.
"They don't have a background in terrorism, but after the Shia killings started they joined the group and they tried to settle the score," said Superintendent of Police Raja Umar Khattab. "They kill clerics."
In November, suspected Mehdi Force gunmen opened fire at a tea shop near the Ahsan-ul-Uloom seminary, where Farooqi has a following, killing six students. A scholar from the madrasa was shot dead the next month, another student killed in January.
"It was definitely a reaction, Shias have never gone on the offensive on their own," said Deputy Inspector-General Shahid Hayat.
According to the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee, a Karachi residents' group, some 68 members of Farooqi's Ahle Sunnat wal Jama'at and 85 Shi'ites were killed in the city from early September to February 19.
Police caution that it can be difficult to discern who is killing who in a vast metropolis where an array of political factions and gangs are vying for influence. A suspect has yet to be named, for example, in the slaying of two Deobandi clerics and a student in January whose killer was caught on CCTV firing at point blank range then fleeing on a motorbike.
Some in Karachi question whether well-connected Shi'ites within the city's dominant political party, the Muttahida Quami Movement, which commands a formidable force of gunmen, may have had a hand in some of the more sophisticated attacks, or whether rival Sunni factions may also be involved.
Despite the growing body count, Karachi can still draw on a store of tolerance. Some Sunnis made a point of attending the Shi'ite protests - a reminder that Farooqi's adherents are themselves a minority. Yet as Karachi's murder rate sets new records, the dynamics that have kept the city's conflicts within limits are being tested.
In the headquarters of an ambulance service founded by Abdul Sattar Edhi, once nominated for a Nobel Prize for devoting his life to Karachi's poor, controllers are busier than ever dispatching crews to ferry shooting victims to the morgue.
"The best religion of all is humanity," said Edhi, who is in his 80s, surveying the chaotic parade of street life from a chair on the pavement outside. "If religion doesn't have humanity, then it is useless."
(CNN) ? A hacker falsely posted on the Twitter account of Oscar Pistorius? older brother Saturday that the South African Olympian was going to do media interviews, a family spokeswoman said.
Carl Pistorius didn?t post such a tweet, and he and his sister, Aimee, were cancelling all their social media accounts Saturday, said family spokeswoman Janine Hills. All three Pistorius siblings live in South Africa, she said.
On Friday, Oscar Pistorius was freed from jail on bail eight days after the shooting death of his model girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, 29.
Pistorius, 26, is charged with premeditated murder in her February 14 death.
?It is most unfortunate that during this sensitive time, someone would choose to hack into Oscar Pistorius older brother, Carl Pistorius? Twitter handle,? Hills said in a statement. ?Carl did not tweet this afternoon, out of respect to Oscar and Reeva.?
Hills said she heard on a South Africa radio station that Carl Pistorius? Twitter account stated that Oscar Pistorius was going to speak to the media.
?This is untrue,? Hills told CNN in a separate interview. ?I spoke to Oscar myself. He has not spoken to anybody and does not plan on doing any interviews.?
The hacking apparently occurred Saturday afternoon, she said.
Meanwhile, Oscar Pistorius? family and friends expressed ?immense relief? Saturday about how he was freed on bail, a relative said.
?What happened has changed our lives irrevocably,? said Arnold Pistorius, the athlete?s uncle, referring to the events surrounding Steenkamp?s death.
Oscar Pistorius said he fired his gun because he thought an intruder was hiding in a toilet room inside the bathroom of his Pretoria home, not realizing it was actually Steenkamp inside.
?We are acutely aware of the fact that this is only the beginning of a long road to prove that, as we know, Oscar never intended to harm Reeva, let alone cause her death,? Arnold Pistorius said in a statement. ?We realize that the law must run its course, and we would not have it any other way.?
CNN?s Lonzo Cook and Aliza Kassim contributed to this report.
NEW ORLEANS ? The Mavericks didn?t have to go far to get the lowdown on the player they finally settled on to help them at the trade deadline.
When Don Nelson coached at Golden State, he was there for Anthony Morrow?s first two seasons in the NBA. When Nelson?s son, Mavericks president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson called to get a scouting report, he liked what he heard.
?Next to Chris Mullin,? the former Mavericks coach said, ?[Morrow?s] probably the best pure shooter I ever coached. You?re going to love him.?
The Mavericks clearly felt they needed a high-quality shooter more than they needed a tough-nosed defender as the NBA trade deadline passed Thursday afternoon.
They didn?t exactly blow the league away with their acquisition of the 27-year-old Morrow, but by giving up Dahntay Jones, the Mavericks made a commitment to getting Dirk Nowitzki, Vince Carter and Shawn Marion some help in the form of perimeter shooting.
Morrow is a career 42.5 percent 3-point shooter. He had trouble getting on the court this season with the Atlanta Hawks. But he was a double-figure scorer his first four seasons in the league, including a career-best 13 points per game in his second season with the Warriors.
?From training camp, we?ve talked about the lack of shooting,? Donnie Nelson said. ?It?s been a pretty significant hole. And to have a guy step in who?s one of the top stretch shooters maybe in the history of the league and provide some help there was just really, really important to us.?
It certainly wasn?t the sort of big splash that will turn around the Mavericks? season. They are five games below .500 and 4 1/2 games out of the final playoff spot. It will remain an uphill climb, and they know Morrow won?t be any sort of savior. But he can help. And at this point, that?s what the Mavericks need.
And they did it without sacrificing flexibility in the summer. Morrow?s $4 million expiring contract is $1 million more than Jones?, which also ends after this season.
And while defense wins in the NBA, this version of the Mavericks needs scoring from the perimeter since it has been difficult at times to put points on the board from closer range.
?He?s one of the best shooters in the game,? Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said of Morrow. ?And you can never have too many shooters.
(ABC 6 NEWS) -- When the question to ban same sex marriage was put before voters in Minnesota, it was defeated. Now one of the Republican Senators who pushed for that vote is having a change of heart.
Support for legalizing gay marriage is expanding in Minnesota at least when it comes to lawmakers. Republican Representative Branden Peterson of Andover took an unexpected step across party lines on Wednesday.
Political Analyst, Chad Israelson, says it's a big deal.
"Yeah that is significant, because what it does is it breaks us out of this sort of one party is for it one party's against it," said Chad Israelson.
Petersen is the first Republican to signal a yes vote for the gay marriage bill that is expected to be introduced at the Capitol this year.
"It's a shock and surprise that somebody on the GOP side would actually sign on to the marriage equality bill," said Vangie Castro, Chair of Gay and Lesbian Community Services in Rochester.
However, local members of the Republican party aren't so thrilled.
"Branden was a State Representative last year and supported in fact with his vote the marriage amendment, so it's a surprise and personally a disappointment," said Rochester Representative Mike Benson.
Even with the support of a GOP lawmaker, Representative Mike Benson feels it won't make much of a difference.
"I still believe that the majority of Minnesotans believe marriage is a right that is given to people who are of different sex, man and a women, one man one women," said Benson.
but backers of same sex marriage say Petersen's support is a key step forward to passing the bill.
"I hope that his leadership will show to his party that you don't necessarily have to toe the line but hopefully that you can you know look deep inside of you and do what's right for all Minnesotans," said Castro.
"As Peterson said it's an issue that eventually we assume is going to happen and you sort of want to be on the right side of history on that," said Israelson.
While Representative Petersen says he'll sign a measure to allow same sex marriage in Minnesota, he also says there's a few things that need to be addressed before he signs. That includes making sure religious leaders are exempt from performing same sex marriages if it's against their beliefs.
Braden Center jumps his sled over a mound of snow on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013 in Wichita. Kan. Parts of Kansas have received over a foot of snow since a strong winter storm moved through the area. (AP Photo/The Wichita Eagle, Travis Heying)
Braden Center jumps his sled over a mound of snow on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013 in Wichita. Kan. Parts of Kansas have received over a foot of snow since a strong winter storm moved through the area. (AP Photo/The Wichita Eagle, Travis Heying)
Tom McReynolds clears snow from a neigbors' house in Wichita, Kans.,Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013. Kansas was the epicenter of the winter storm, with parts of Wichita buried under 13 inches of still-falling snow, but winter storm warnings stretched eastern Colorado through Illinois. (AP Photo/The Wichita Eagle, Jaime Greene)
Two men help push a car down a snow-covered street Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013, in St. Louis. Blinding snow bombarded much of the nation's midsection Thursday, causing whiteout conditions, making major roadways all but impassable and shutting down schools and state legislatures. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Traffic moves steadily along Interstate 70 East and West in St. Charles, Mo. on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013. Blinding snow, at times accompanied by thunder and lightning, bombarded much of the nation's midsection Thursday, causing whiteout conditions, making major roadways all but impassable and shutting down schools and state legislatures. Freezing rain and sleet were forecast for southern Missouri, southern Illinois and Arkansas. St. Louis was expected to get all of the above , a treacherous mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain. (AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, David Carson) EDWARDSVILLE INTELLIGENCER OUT; THE ALTON TELEGRAPH OUT
Emergency crews work to get a van out from the snow packed shoulder of I-70, Thursday afternoon Feb. 21, 2013 in Topeka, Kan. Kansas was the epicenter of the winter storm, with parts of the state buried under 14 inches of powdery snow, but winter storm warnings stretched from eastern Colorado through Illinois.(AP Photo/The Topeka Capital Journal, Chris Neal)
ST. LOUIS (AP) ? Powdery snow bombarded much of the nation's midsection Thursday, leaving as much as 17 inches in some places, shutting down airports, schools and state legislatures.
The storm system swirled to the north and east Thursday night, its snow, sleet and freezing rain prompting winter storm warnings from Kansas to Illinois. Forecasters say the storm will continue its crawl overnight, hitting the upper Midwest by Friday morning.
The system has already left impressive snow accumulations, especially in Kansas, where a foot and half of snow fell in Hays. Farther east in Topeka, 3 inches of snow fell in only 30 minutes, leaving medical center worker Jennifer Carlock to dread the drive home.
"It came on fast," Carlock said as she shoveled around her car. "We're going to test out traction control on the way home."
Numerous accidents and two deaths were being blamed on the icy, slushy roadways. Most schools in Kansas and Missouri, and many in neighboring states, were closed and legislatures shut down in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Nebraska and Iowa.
National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Truett said it was "pouring snow" earlier Thursday, with it falling at a rate of 2 inches per hour or more in some spots.
All flights at Kansas City International Airport were canceled for Thursday night, and officials said they'd prepare to reopen Friday morning. In St. Louis, more than 320 flights at Lambert Airport were canceled, and traffic throughout the state was snarled by hundreds of accidents.
Northern Oklahoma saw between 10 and 13? inches of snow. Missouri's biggest snow total was 10 inches, shared by the Kansas City metropolitan area, Rockport in the northwest corner and Moberly in the central part of the state.
But the highest amounts were in Kansas, where snow totals hit 14 inches Hutchinson, Macksville and Hanston, and 13 inches in Wichita.
Transportation officials in affected those states urged people to simply stay home.
"If you don't have to get out, just really, please, don't do it," Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback said. Interstate 70 through Kansas was snow-packed, and a 200-mile stretch between Salina and Colby was closed. The Kansas National Guard has 12 teams patrolling three state highways in Humvees to rescue motorists stranded by the storm.
For those who needed to drive, it's wasn't a fun commute.
Richard Monroe, a technology manager and marketing representative for the Missouri State University bookstore, said he arrived with eight of his colleagues in Kansas City, Mo., on Wednesday for a conference. He said a shuttle bus taking them on what should have been a five-minute trip got stuck in the snow. Then it ran into a truck.
The vehicle was incapacitated for nearly two hours.
"We saw today that Kansas City is just shut down. I've never seen a big city like this where nothing is moving," the 27-year-old said.
Others people came down with cabin fever, including Jennifer McCoy of Wichita, Kan. She loaded her nine children ? ages 6 months to 16 years ? in a van for lunch at Applebee's.
"I was going crazy, they were so whiny," McCoy said.
In Iowa, cases of wine and beer ? along with bottles of scotch and whiskey ? were flying off the shelves at Ingersoll Wine and Spirits ahead of the storm's arrival in Des Moines.
"A lot of people have been buying liquor to curl up by the fire," wine specialist Bjorn Carlson said.
The storm is expected to drop 3 to 9 inches of snow in Iowa overnight, while Nebraska will see another 2 to 5 inches.
Heavy, blowing snow caused scores of businesses in Iowa and Nebraska to close early, including two malls in Omaha, Neb. Mardi Miller, manager of Dillard's department store in Oakview Mall, said most employees had been sent home by 4 p.m., and she believed "only two customers are in the entire store."
Back in Kansas, Katie Nungesser of the People's City Mission says her shelter is over capacity, so people are being placed in the shelter's chapel, lounges, and even a kitchen nook.
"When it gets like this, we just stuff every part of this building," she said of the 24-hour shelter. "We'll have people sleeping everywhere."
The storm brought some relief to a region that has been parched by the worst drought in decades.
Vance Ehmke, a wheat farmer near Healy, Kan., said the nearly foot of snow was "what we have been praying for." Climatologists say 12 inches of snow is equivalent to about 1 inch of rain, depending on the density of the snow.
Near Edwardsville, Ill., farmer Mike Campbell called the precipitation a blessing after a bone-dry growing season in 2012. He hopes it is a good omen for the spring.
"The corn was just a disaster," Campbell said of 2012.
Areas in the Texas Panhandle also had up to 8 inches of snow, and in south central Nebraska, Grand Island reported 10 inches of snow. Arkansas saw a mix of precipitation ? a combination of hail, sleet and freezing rain in some place, 6 inches of snow in others.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency Thursday morning. All flights at Kansas City International Airport were canceled for Thursday night, and officials said they'd prepare to reopen Friday morning.
More than 320 flights at Lambert Airport in St. Louis were canceled by Thursday afternoon. Traffic throughout the state was snarled by hundreds of accidents and vehicles in ditches.
The University of Missouri canceled classes for one of the few times in its 174-year history. At a nearby Wal-Mart, some students passed the ice scrapers and snow melt, heading directly to the aisles containing sleds and alcohol.
"This isn't our usual Thursday noon routine," Lauren Ottenger, a senior economics major from Denver, said as she stockpiled supplies.
___
Associated Press writers Alan Scher Zagier in Columbia, Mo.; Bill Draper and Margaret Stafford in Kansas City, Mo.; Margery Beck in Omaha, Neb.; John Hanna in Topeka, Kan.; Roxana Hegeman in Wichita, Kan.; Catherine Lucey and Barbara Rodriguez in Des Moines, Iowa; Tim Talley in Oklahoma City; Chuck Bartels in Little Rock, Ark.; and Jim Suhr in St. Louis contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON -- The Republican National Committee is starting 2013 with a financial advantage over its Democratic rivals.
The RNC raised $6.9 million in January and ended the month with $7.1 million in cash - along with no debt.
The Democratic National Committee brought in $4.3 million in January and ended the month with $4.7 million in cash.
But the DNC is carrying a large debt of $20.7 million, down slightly from the end of the year. Democrats racked up the debt while helping President Barack Obama hold onto the White House.
Party committees filed monthly financial reports Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Wednesday issued its long-awaited final rule on essential health benefits that insurers must offer consumers in the individual and small-group market beginning in 2014 under the healthcare reform law.
A cornerstone of President Barack Obama's plan to enhance the breadth of healthcare coverage in the United States, the mandate allows the 50 U.S. states a role in identifying benefit requirements and grants insurers a phased-in accreditation process for plans sold on federal healthcare exchanges.
Wednesday's rule included few changes from previous administration proposals, a fact that could help states and insurers as they prepare for new online state health insurance marketplaces, known as healthcare exchanges, scheduled to begin enrolling beneficiaries for federally subsidized coverage on October 1.
"The administration has been consistent in its approach to essential health benefits for more than a year, and that continued today. It's good news for states and insurers because it means they don't have to make any changes," said Ian Spatz, a senior healthcare adviser at the consulting firm Manatt Health Solutions.
The exchanges are expected to cover as many as 26 million people within 10 years and seem likely to dominate individual and small group insurance markets. Another 12 million people are expected to receive healthcare coverage through an expansion of the Medicaid program for the poor, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act sets out 10 benefit categories that must be covered by most plans at the same level as a typical employer plan. The categories range from hospitalization, prescription drugs and maternity and newborn care.
Insurers including UnitedHealth Group Inc, Aetna Inc and Cigna Corp will use the government's final word on these required benefits as they design plans and set premium prices ahead of the exchange launches. They have each said they will sell plans on some of the exchanges, but have not yet committed to which ones.
UnitedHealth, the largest insurer, said it is still reviewing the new rule. The company said the exchange insurance plans will essentially be a new type of coverage.
"In the long term, we are expecting and preparing for an 'exchange' category of coverage to become established as a new benefit category between Medicaid and the traditional commercial benefits markets," spokesman Daryl Richard said.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human said the rule would mean greater access to mental health and substance abuse services by requiring parity with other healthcare benefits. HHS estimated that 62 million Americans would gain mental health coverage, an issue that has risen in importance after a string of mass shooting including last year's elementary school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.
The final rule preserved the state role in determining how the requirements are met by selecting their own benchmarks from plans sold within their respective borders. Most states opted for their home market's largest small-group plan.
HHS kept to the benchmark rule despite objections from consumer groups who claimed that some of the selected plans were not comprehensive enough and argued for a single, uniform federal package.
But HHS officials found that maintaining states as primary regulators of state insurance markets would keep benefit offerings more in line with services typically offered through employer-sponsored plans in each state.
"The states continue to maintain their traditional role in defining the scope of insurance benefits and may exercise that authority by selecting a plan that reflects the benefit priorities of that state," HHS said in the rule.
The administration also gave insurers the chance to phase-in requirements for plans sold on federally facilitated exchanges and denied requests from groups that wanted to exempt low-cost community health plans and Medicaid managed-care plans from the accreditation process.
(Reporting by David Morgan and Caroline Humer; Editing by Jan Paschal and Andrew Hay)
Meet Garry A. Berger of Berger Legal LLC. With 15 attorneys, most working from home and a few from their own offices, Berger Legal is a virtual law office comprised of only senior professionals that delivers a full range of legal services. As Berger Legal grew and expanded into other areas, handling cases from New York to Florida to France, Spain and other parts of Europe, implementing a scalable practice management platform was crucial.
When asked how using Clio and ?the cloud? has changed the way he practices law, Berger emphasized the ability for ?his whole firm to work remotely, either from home or an office space of their choosing. Doing so allows his firm to keep overhead low, and charge lower rates for client services. He also said he ?used to have to wait until two weeks after each month closed to see how the firm was doing. Now I can find out how the firm is doing, by a particular client or matter, now instead of later. And I can also see what people are working on now instead of later.?
For any lawyer, tracking time is still the standard method for billing. And for Berger Legal, ?Clio is easier and neater than using a spreadsheet. It?s really great and a big win for billing since it cut down my office manager?s time spent on records.? Berger also said that his office manager can now ?focus on other tasks, which changes her role considerably and is a huge help to the firm.?
Before implementing Clio, spreadsheets were how the firm tracked and recorded time. As Berger explained it, ?each person recorded their time in Excel, and sent the spreadsheet to the office manager/billing coordinator. She did her magic to put the entry into QuickBooks.? Straightforward process for a one or two person firm, perhaps, ?but as the firm grew it became unmanageable. We needed remote, online access, in order to minimize all of the time spent populating bills with time records.?
Berger Law needed a scalable, cloud-based practice management platform. Being able to have his firm work remotely, simplify and streamline billing and time records and still keep overhead low are necessary to his firm?s success. To some, investing in a practice management platform might seem counterintuitive as it, too, is an expense. When asked about this, Berger said that ??if you?re trying to avoid expenses Clio makes the cut. It?s an expense worth incurring. Another way to think of it is that we don?t pay rent.?
And Berger had one final word on billing: ?The presentation of the bills in Clio is very nice, and though we?ve always been accurate in our bills and timely, we?re now a little more accurate and timely.?
Read more?#GoneClio interviews?to see how other lawyers have realized the benefits of cloud-based practice management. Interested in being interviewed??Let us know!
For the full interview, click
INTERVIEW?
How big is your firm?
15 attorneys now, and it?s a virtual platform so most of the attorneys work from home and a few work from their own offices.
What did you use before Clio?
Before Clio each person recorded in Excel, sent the spreadsheet to the office manager/billing coordinator who did her magic to put the entry into QuickBooks. When the firm was smaller, just two or three people, it was manageable but as the firm grew it became unmanageable. We needed remote access, online, in order to minimize all of the time spent populating bills with time records.
Our attorneys don?t all work full time, some work part time, so she wasn?t collecting a dozen full time schedules, but it nonetheless got to the tipping point.
What made you decide on Clio? Did you try out any other solutions?
Clio was recommend by someone I trust who ?was speaking at a conference on technology. I really hadn?t heard of Clio, then he mentioned it, and I took a look at it and thought it was really fantastic. He?s really involved in the space so his recommendation was meaningful.?
At various times I looked at other options, but they didn?t seem to be very user friendly.
What problems did Clio help your firm solve?
I used to have to wait until two weeks after each month closed to see how the firm was doing. Now I can find out how the firm is doing, by a particular client or matter and I can also see what people are working on now instead of later.
What did you find to be Clio?s most valuable feature?
Time entry is very easy. Clio is easier and neater than using spreadsheet. It?s really great and a big win for billing since it cut down my office manager?s time spent on records, which frees her up to do other things for the firm. She can focus on other tasks, which changes her role considerably and is a huge help to the firm.
What benefits have you realized from Clio that you didn?t anticipate?
Clio is what I expected. And it has plenty of bells and whistles.
Have Clio & ?the Cloud? changed the way you practice law? If so, how?
When I started, it was just the idea of working from home that I liked, and saving on overhead so I could charge lower rates. The firm grew, I hired people but it never made sense to rent office space and incur expenses. I wanted to maintain the same idea of working from home for myself and enable my colleagues to work either from home or in office space of their choice closer to home. As long as the clients are happy, it doesn?t matter where our lawyers work. Clio lets us work from different locations, which keeps overhead low which in turn keeps rates low.
How did you find the process of getting up and running with Clio?
Very simple. I did a trial and basically was up and running. I got some help from the videos, then did a walk through and a call or two with Clio and my firm. It was all pretty basic and from the point of view of an attorney. So it was pretty simple and at this point it?s very self-sustaining.
How has Clio improved your firm and the service you offer your clients?
The client still receives bills from me, though maybe a couple days earlier than before. The presentation of the bills in Clio is very nice.
Have you had any experiences with Clio?s support team?
Everyone is very helpful, and they know the product.
Would you recommend Clio to your colleagues?
Of course. That?s why I offered to do the interview.
Mac or PC?
Mostly PC. I think there are one or two people who use Macs. Either way, we haven?t had any issues.
Read more?#GoneClio interviews?to see how other lawyers have realized the benefits of cloud-based practice management. Interested in being interviewed??Let us know!
Dr. Roach: Non-cancer pain best treated by pain-management specialist
Dr. Keith Roach
Dear Dr. Roach: I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis three years ago, and I seem to have the worst, most aggressive type of the disease. I receive IV steroid treatment and prednisone that relieves my leg pain, but the relief lasts only a month. I have to limit my activities, which has significantly changed my mood and outlook toward life. My MS doctor has prescribed a myriad of drugs for depression, inflammation and pain, most of which I refused because I do not want to live under the vice of a hundred pills a day. The one pain medication I agreed to try was morphine. This allowed me to go about my daily activities almost the way I lived my life before the MS. The problem is my doctor refuses to continue to prescribe painkillers, saying she doesn?t want to further complicate the constipation most people with MS deal with. I am willing to take any medication necessary for constipation, but she won?t budge. Should I deal with the pain, or change doctors? ? J.D.
Treatment of non-cancer pain with powerful narcotics like morphine is a big issue right now in the medical community, with some advocating never doing so at all, under any circumstances. I understand your doctor?s concern about constipation, which indeed can be a difficult problem for MS patients even without narcotics. However, I see your point as well that constipation can be treated, and it sounds as though the morphine has done very well for you.
This is the perfect situation for a consultation with a pain specialist. Pain specialists have expertise in managing different kinds of pain as well as complications of their side effects. That leaves your MS doctor to deal with your MS. I would recommend talking to your MS doctor about consultation with a pain-management specialist.
Dear Dr. Roach: In your opinion, which exercise is better ? biking or walking? Specifically, which burns more calories? ? W.B.
Any kind of exercise is better than no exercise, and I recommend people do whatever kind of exercise they like and that is comfortable for them. Walking is great because it takes no special equipment, can be done virtually anywhere and doesn?t put excess stress on the joints.
Biking is great, too, because it puts even less stress on the joints, although it may not help the bones stay as strong as does walking or, better yet, jogging. However, biking can be done at any level of intensity, from a low-intensity pedal around the neighborhood, to maximum-intensity bike racing. Changing up your exercises is a great idea too.
If you weigh 130 pounds, walking can burn off 120-350 calories an hour. A slow bike ride might burn 240 calories an hour, but a trained bike racer might burn off 1,000 calories per hour.
DR. KEITH ROACH IS A SYNDICATED COLUMNIST WITH NORTH AMERICA SYNDICATE INC., P.O. BOX 536475, ORLANDO, FL 32853-6475.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) ? Lou Spadia, a longtime executive with the San Francisco 49ers, has died. He was 92.
The team announced his death on Monday. No further details were provided.
Spadia worked for the 49ers for more than 30 years, serving as team president from 1967-76. Spadia, who grew up in San Francisco, also founded the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1979.
A funeral service is scheduled for Tuesday morning at Saint Pius Catholic Church in Redwood City.
CBS 2 News’ “This Morning” and “News at Noon” anchor Rob Morrison was arrested in Darien, Connecticut early Sunday morning for allegedly choking his wife during a fight. Police also observed Morrision threatening his wife, CBS “MoneyWatch” reporter Ashley Morrison, after his arrest. Rob had become angry at his wife on Saturday evening that ended ...
A committee of MEPs has taken the first crucial step to repair the EU?s broken emissions trading scheme (ETS) by withholding 900 million carbon credits from auction until a later date. Unfortunately, lawmakers put off drafting the necessary legislation, and the next step for the plan is up for debate in the coming week.
In theory, every actor and actress in the planet could be connected to Kevin Bacon in six steps or less. And in theory, according to Hungarian physicist Albert-L?szl? Barab?si, every random web page can be accessed from any other random page by clicking just 19 times or less. More »
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Public release date: 24-Feb-2013
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Meet Garry A. Berger of Berger Legal LLC. With 15 attorneys, most working from home and a few from their own offices, Berger Legal is a virtual law office comprised of only senior professionals that delivers a full range of legal services. As Berger Legal grew and expanded into other areas, handling cases from New York to Florida to France, Spain and other parts of Europe, implementing a scalable practice management platform was crucial.
CBS 2 News’ “This Morning” and “News at Noon” anchor Rob Morrison was arrested in Darien, Connecticut early Sunday morning for allegedly choking his wife during a fight. Police also observed Morrision threatening his wife, CBS “MoneyWatch” reporter Ashley Morrison, after his arrest. Rob had become angry at his wife on Saturday evening that ended ...
