Cancer patients' pain can be helped by psychosocial interventions, say researchers

Public release date: 30-Jan-2012
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Contact: Ferdie De Vega
Ferdinand.DeVega@moffitt.org
813-745-7858
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute

Up to one-third of cancer patients experience moderate to severe pain

TAMPA, Fla. -- Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center, who teamed with colleagues at five universities around the United States, analyzed past studies of cancer-related pain reduction and found that psychosocial interventions can have a beneficial effect on cancer patients' pain severity. They also found that certain psychosocial interventions provide better pain management and are effective in reducing the degree to which pain related to cancer and its treatment interferes with patients' lives.

Their analysis was published in a recent online issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

"Pain is one of the most common, burdensome and feared symptoms experienced by patients with cancer," said Paul B. Jacobsen, Ph.D., associate center director for Moffitt's Division of Population Science. "Our study looked at randomized, controlled studies of psychosocial interventions for pain published between 1966 and 2010 in which pain was measured as an outcome in adults with cancer, or in adults undergoing procedures to diagnose cancer."

According to the authors, cancer-related pain can arise for a variety of reasons, including direct tumor involvement, metastasis to bone or organs, treatment toxicity and diagnostic procedures. Moderate to severe pain suffered by up to one-third of cancer patients often interferes with sleep, daily activities, enjoyment of life, and work and social interactions.

In their analysis of past pain intervention studies, the researchers investigated separately data on pain severity and data on how pain may interfere with daily life. While there is a significant body of literature devoted to study of cancer pain intervention, the authors note that not all studies they surveyed measured pain as a primary outcome. Moreover, pain was measured inconsistently across the studies.

When 37 past studies were analyzed to assess the effects of psychosocial interventions on patient pain, the researchers found that the most successful psychosocial, non-pharmacological pain interventions were either skill-based interventions or educational. Skill-based interventions focused on changes in the ways in which patients interpret pain, while educational approaches provided instruction on how to better use medications or helped patients more effectively communicate with clinicians about their unrelieved pain.

"Skill-based interventions focus on changing a patient's dysfunctional beliefs about pain and promote the use of skills such as distraction and relaxation to manage it," explained Jacobsen.

The authors noted that their findings on the value of psychosocial interventions are consistent with the recommendations of both the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the American Pain Society. Both organizations recommend the use of psychosocial interventions as part of a "multimodal" approach to the treatment of cancer-related pain as well as the inclusion of experts in psychosocial care as members of the multidisciplinary care team.

The researchers concluded that psychosocial interventions worked equally well in reducing pain across patient demographic characteristics, such as sex and racial/ethnic subgroups. However, because the majority of the available patient data was on white females, the researchers recommend further study to determine if the same interventions could better manage pain across different subgroups of patients with cancer and in different treatment settings a strategy also suggested by the IOM.

"In short, we found that psychosocial interventions, including skills instruction and education can improve cancer pain management," concluded Jacobsen.

###

About Moffitt Cancer Center

Follow Moffitt on Facebook: www.facebook.com/MoffittCancerCenter

Follow Moffitt on Twitter: @MoffittNews

Follow Moffitt on YouTube: MoffittNews

Located in Tampa, Florida, Moffitt Cancer Center is an NCI Comprehensive Cancer Center a designation that recognizes Moffitt's excellence in research and contributions to clinical trials, prevention and cancer control. Moffitt currently has 14 affiliates in Florida, one in Georgia, one in Pennsylvania and two in Puerto Rico. Additionally, Moffitt is a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, a prestigious alliance of the country's leading cancer centers, and is listed in U.S. News & World Report as one of "America's Best Hospitals" for cancer.

Media release by Florida Science Communications

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Public release date: 30-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Ferdie De Vega
Ferdinand.DeVega@moffitt.org
813-745-7858
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute

Up to one-third of cancer patients experience moderate to severe pain

TAMPA, Fla. -- Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center, who teamed with colleagues at five universities around the United States, analyzed past studies of cancer-related pain reduction and found that psychosocial interventions can have a beneficial effect on cancer patients' pain severity. They also found that certain psychosocial interventions provide better pain management and are effective in reducing the degree to which pain related to cancer and its treatment interferes with patients' lives.

Their analysis was published in a recent online issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

"Pain is one of the most common, burdensome and feared symptoms experienced by patients with cancer," said Paul B. Jacobsen, Ph.D., associate center director for Moffitt's Division of Population Science. "Our study looked at randomized, controlled studies of psychosocial interventions for pain published between 1966 and 2010 in which pain was measured as an outcome in adults with cancer, or in adults undergoing procedures to diagnose cancer."

According to the authors, cancer-related pain can arise for a variety of reasons, including direct tumor involvement, metastasis to bone or organs, treatment toxicity and diagnostic procedures. Moderate to severe pain suffered by up to one-third of cancer patients often interferes with sleep, daily activities, enjoyment of life, and work and social interactions.

In their analysis of past pain intervention studies, the researchers investigated separately data on pain severity and data on how pain may interfere with daily life. While there is a significant body of literature devoted to study of cancer pain intervention, the authors note that not all studies they surveyed measured pain as a primary outcome. Moreover, pain was measured inconsistently across the studies.

When 37 past studies were analyzed to assess the effects of psychosocial interventions on patient pain, the researchers found that the most successful psychosocial, non-pharmacological pain interventions were either skill-based interventions or educational. Skill-based interventions focused on changes in the ways in which patients interpret pain, while educational approaches provided instruction on how to better use medications or helped patients more effectively communicate with clinicians about their unrelieved pain.

"Skill-based interventions focus on changing a patient's dysfunctional beliefs about pain and promote the use of skills such as distraction and relaxation to manage it," explained Jacobsen.

The authors noted that their findings on the value of psychosocial interventions are consistent with the recommendations of both the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the American Pain Society. Both organizations recommend the use of psychosocial interventions as part of a "multimodal" approach to the treatment of cancer-related pain as well as the inclusion of experts in psychosocial care as members of the multidisciplinary care team.

The researchers concluded that psychosocial interventions worked equally well in reducing pain across patient demographic characteristics, such as sex and racial/ethnic subgroups. However, because the majority of the available patient data was on white females, the researchers recommend further study to determine if the same interventions could better manage pain across different subgroups of patients with cancer and in different treatment settings a strategy also suggested by the IOM.

"In short, we found that psychosocial interventions, including skills instruction and education can improve cancer pain management," concluded Jacobsen.

###

About Moffitt Cancer Center

Follow Moffitt on Facebook: www.facebook.com/MoffittCancerCenter

Follow Moffitt on Twitter: @MoffittNews

Follow Moffitt on YouTube: MoffittNews

Located in Tampa, Florida, Moffitt Cancer Center is an NCI Comprehensive Cancer Center a designation that recognizes Moffitt's excellence in research and contributions to clinical trials, prevention and cancer control. Moffitt currently has 14 affiliates in Florida, one in Georgia, one in Pennsylvania and two in Puerto Rico. Additionally, Moffitt is a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, a prestigious alliance of the country's leading cancer centers, and is listed in U.S. News & World Report as one of "America's Best Hospitals" for cancer.

Media release by Florida Science Communications

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/hlmc-cpp013012.php

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Obama: Send me the resume (Politico)

President Barack Obama on Monday made his first foray into Google Plus, trying to stay on message during the social media session as he faced an unexpected twist from a woman with an out-of-work engineer husband.

Obama began answering a jobs question from Jennifer Wedel, of Fort Worth, Texas, with a stock answer, telling her, ?I don?t know your husband?s specialty, but there?s a huge demand around the country for engineers,? especially in high-tech fields. But Wedel persisted, telling Obama that her husband is a semiconductor engineer.

Continue Reading

?I meant what I said, if you send me your husband?s resume, I?d be interested in finding out exactly what?s happening right there,? Obama responded, saying it seems to him based on industry reports that Wedel?s husband ?should be able to find something right away.?

?I?ll have to take you up on that,? Wedel said of the president?s offer to help her husband, Darin, who lost his job at Texas Instruments three years ago.

Later, Wedel told POLITICO that she and the president had a ?pretty crazy interaction? that she hadn?t expected when she asked about the federal government granting H-1B visas to skilled foreign workers while U.S. citizens such as her husband are out of work.

?I don?t think he was trying to be condescending or anything,? said Wedel, who never completed college and was a stay-at-home mom before her husband was laid off, but now has a full-time job at State Farm to help make ends meet. ?I just think I stumped him a little and he wanted me to hush about it.?

?I think he knows pretty well that the H-1B is an issue because ? it?s kind of like the Occupy movement ? big corporations are putting up the money to get the visas? and choosing lower-paid foreign workers over domestic ones, Wedel said. ?I don?t think what he was telling me was true, and I think he knew it, and that?s why he offered to take my husband?s resume,? she said, adding that her husband has kept it updated.

The Republican National Committee quickly seized on Obama?s response, sending multiple email messages about the incident to its mailing lists, including one with a note from communications director Kirsten Kukowski: ?A little out of touch??

Wedel said that she sees Obama as a bit disconnected from economic realities, but he?s not the only one. ?The reality is we?re still having a crisis ? it?s not over ? but the Republicans don?t realize that either,? she said. A longtime Republican who did not vote for Obama in 2008, Wedel said she and her husband for ?the first time ever don?t feel like we?re Republicans or Democrats because of the economy.?

She said she?s not drawn to any of the Republicans in the presidential race and might vote for Obama because at least she knows how he?ll handle the presidency. Wedel said she?d be more inclined to vote for him if the White House helps her husband get a job.

During the 45-minute interactive video session, Obama also fielded questions from a homeless veteran skeptical of foreign aid and an Obama impersonator curious to know what the president thinks of the parodies of him.

Though Obama described Google Plus ? the medium he used to chat while viewers watched on the White House website and YouTube ? as ?some newfangled thing,? this was not his first foray into online question-and-answer sessions. In 2011, he participated in conversations with users of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/politico_rss/rss_politico_mostpop/http___www_politico_com_news_stories0112_72185_html/44359922/SIG=11mm1cmcu/*http%3A//www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/72185.html

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US stocks down on Europe worries (AP)

NEW YORK ? Stocks dropped and yields for ultra-safe U.S. government debt fell to their lowest level this year Monday while financial markets around the world waited for Greece to nail down a deal to reduce its crushing debt.

Greece and the investors who bought its national bonds were close to a deal over the weekend. The investors would swap their bonds for replacements with half the face value.

Greece needs the deal to secure a crucial installment of bailout loans and avoid missing an upcoming bond payment. But the deal has been in the works for weeks and could still fall apart.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 72 points to 12,588 as of just before 1 p.m. EST, a drop of 0.6 percent. Financial stocks were the worst performers in the broader market, with Bank of America down 3.3 percent.

Borrowing costs for European countries with the largest debt burdens shot higher. The two-year interest rate for Portugal's government debt jumped to 21 percent from 14 percent last week.

U.S. Treasury yields sank to their lowest level this year as traders parked cash in the safest assets. The yield on the 10-year Treasury sank to 1.83 percent. It was trading above 2 percent just last week.

The euro dropped 0.6 percent against the dollar, and European stocks sank. French and Spanish stocks closed down 1.6 percent, Italian stocks down 1.2 percent and German stocks down 1 percent.

The focus on Greece has shifted attention away from what's going well in the U.S., said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank. Companies have reported stronger quarterly earnings, and hiring has picked up.

"Our collective breath has been held for so many months," Ablin said.

While the market is waiting on an agreement to cut Greece's debt and contain a wider European debt crisis, even a messy default could eventually lead to a stronger U.S. stock market, he said.

"If it finally happens and the world doesn't fall apart, maybe we'll have a reason to take risk again," he said. "Once you pull off the Band-Aid, it feels better."

An agreement between Greece and its creditors could serve as a blueprint for other European countries with heavy debt burdens. Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG, pointed to Portugal's soaring bond yields in a note to clients.

"At this rate, Portugal is going to move from the back to front burner in very, very short order," he said.

European leaders are also gathering in Brussels, focusing on how to stimulate economic growth when huge government spending cuts threaten to push many countries back into recession.

The latest data showed Spain's economy shrank in the last three months of 2011.

In other trading in the United States, the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell nine points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,307. The Nasdaq composite lost 12 points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,804.

The Commerce Department said Americans' income rose in December by the most in nine months. That's slightly better than what economists expected.

Among stocks making big moves Friday:

? The fast food chain Wendy's dropped 2 percent. The Wendy's Co. said Monday that a key measure of earnings dropped 30 percent in the fourth quarter. Charges for selling Arby's offset the effects of a jump in sales.

? PharMerica Corp. plunged 12 percent. The Federal Trade Commission said it was suing to block rival pharmacy company Omnicare Inc. from completing its $457 million takeover of PharMerica. The agency said a merger of the country's two largest long-term care pharmacies would raise the cost of Medicare prescription plans covering drugs for nursing home residents. Stock in Omnicare Inc. inched up less than 1 percent.

? Thomas & Betts Corp. soared 22 percent on news that Swiss engineering group ABB Ltd. agreed to buy the maker of power lines and other electrical products for $3.9 billion in cash.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/us_wall_street

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Going for the Knockout (talking-points-memo)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/192683277?client_source=feed&format=rss

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New roleplayer

RolePlayGateway is proudly powered by obscene amounts of caffeine, duct tape, Wordpress, Moodle, phpBB, AJAX Chat, Mantis, and the efforts of many dedicated writers and roleplayers. It operates under a "don't like it, suggest an improvement" platform, and we gladly take suggestions for improvements or changes.

The custom-built "roleplay" system was designed and implemented by Eric Martindale as of July 2009. All attempts to replicate or otherwise emulate this system and its method of organizing roleplay are strictly prohibited without his express written and contractual permission; violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

? RolePlayGateway, LLC

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/Cs1g4SLDPjc/viewtopic.php

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Genetic regulation of metabolomic biomarkers: Paths to cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes

ScienceDaily (Jan. 29, 2012) ? The research group at the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) has revealed eleven new genetic regions associated with the blood levels of the metabolites, including new loci affecting well-established risk markers for cardiovascular disease and potential biomarkers for type 2 diabetes.

In a study to the genetic variance of human metabolism, researchers have identified thirty one regions of the genome that were associated with levels of circulating metabolites, i.e., small molecules that take part in various chemical reactions of human body. Many of the studied metabolites are biomarkers for cardiovascular disease or related disorders, thus the loci uncovered may provide valuable insight into the biological processes leading to common diseases.

Laboratory tests used in the clinic typically monitor one or few circulating metabolites. The researchers at the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) used a high throughput method called nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) that can measure more than hundred different metabolites in one assay. This provides a much more in-depth picture of circulating metabolic compounds.

"Using this extensive analysis in thousands of people, we could identify a large number of genetic loci regulating the level of compounds circulating in the blood stream," says Dr. Samuli Ripatti, the leader of the study.

The team assayed 117 detailed metabolic markers, including lipoprotein subclasses, amino acids and lipids, and conducted the largest genome-wide association analysis of this type, in terms of study sample size of 8330 individuals from six Finnish population-based cohorts and 7.7 million genomic markers studied. They revealed, in total, 31 genetic regions associated with the blood levels of the metabolites.

Eleven of the loci had not been previously shown to be associated with any metabolic measures.

Among the findings were two new loci affecting serum cholesterol subclass measures, well-established risk markers for cardiovascular disease, and five new loci affecting levels of amino acids recently discovered to be potential biomarkers for type 2 diabetes. The discovered variants have significant effects on the metabolite levels, the effect sizes being in general considerably larger than the known common variants for complex disease have.

Also, using Finnish twin pair samples, the researchers indicated that the metabolite levels show a high degree of heritability. "This result suggests that the studied metabolites are describing better the underlying biology than the routinely used laboratory tests. Therefore, the study provides further support for the use of detailed data on multitude of metabolites in genetic studies to provide novel biological insights and to help in elucidating the processes leading to common diseases," Dr. Ripatti says.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Helsinki, via AlphaGalileo.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Johannes Kettunen, Taru Tukiainen, Antti-Pekka Sarin, Alfredo Ortega-Alonso, Emmi Tikkanen, Leo-Pekka Lyytik?inen, Antti J Kangas, Pasi Soininen, Peter W?rtz, Kaisa Silander, Danielle M Dick, Richard J Rose, Markku J Savolainen, Jorma Viikari, Mika K?h?nen, Terho Lehtim?ki, Kirsi H Pietil?inen, Michael Inouye, Mark I McCarthy, Antti Jula, Johan Eriksson, Olli T Raitakari, Veikko Salomaa, Jaakko Kaprio, Marjo-Riitta J?rvelin, Leena Peltonen, Markus Perola, Nelson B Freimer, Mika Ala-Korpela, Aarno Palotie, Samuli Ripatti. Genome-wide association study identifies multiple loci influencing human serum metabolite levels. Nature Genetics, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/ng.1073

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/sevm_yAy_xs/120129151007.htm

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Jobless man builds a house out of $1.82 billion worth of shredded money (Yahoo! News)

What would you do with $1.82 billion worth of shredded money? In Ireland, people build?houses out of it?? at least that's what Dublin-based artist Frank Buckley did. The unemployed artist originally wanted to create a gallery for his series of mixed-media?artworks called "Expressions of Recession," but he ended up building a house instead.

Buckley has been working roughly 12 hours a day every day since the beginning of December. During the early part of the construction process, he made bricks out of the decommissioned Euros Ireland's mint lent him. In all, around 50,000 money bricks went into building the house that consists of a bedroom, a bathroom, and a living room. He plans to continue expanding the house that sits on an empty office building to include a?kitchen, a shower, and a patio.

If you're wondering how it feels to live in a house made out of paper currency, he said that it's quite warm inside: "Whatever you say about the Euro, it's a great insulator." Frank is one of the countless people all over the globe affected by recession, and he built the house because he "wanted to create something from nothing." It will take around seven more weeks to complete building his new home, but Buckley (who's been living in the house since December) welcomes any visitor who wants to take a look at his billion-dollar masterpiece.

Irish Times via?Treehugger

This article was written by Mariella Moon and originally appeared on Tecca

More from Tecca:

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20120128/tc_yblog_technews/jobless-man-builds-a-house-out-of-1-82-billion-worth-of-shredded-money

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THG Week in Review: January 22-28, 2012

Welcome to THG's Week in Review! Below, our staff looks back at the stories, stars and scandals that made these past seven days the craziest ALL YEAR.

If you don't already, you can FOLLOW THG on Twitter and Facebook for 24/7/365 news. Every day, week and year, let us be your celebrity gossip source!

Now, a rundown of the week that was at The Hollywood Gossip:

• Demi Moore was hospitalized after an apparent substance abuse issue.
• She was reportedly taking hits of nitrous oxide, a.k.a. whippets.
• Heidi Klum and Seal confirmed that they are indeed divorcing.
• Leah Messer of Teen Mom 2 suffered a miscarriage.
• Miley Cyrus went to town on a cake.
• Kristin Cavallari is pregnant!

Jenelle Evans Fights Roommate on Teen Mom 2

• Jenelle Evans suffered another meltdown, or 10, on Teen Mom 2.
• Oprah Winfrey is reportedly the godmother of Beyonce's baby.
• Alex Roldan is rumored to be the father of Khloe Kardashian.
• Terrell Owens is nearly broke, having made nearly $80M.
• Cynthia Nixon called her homosexuality her "choice."
• Joe Paterno passed away of lung cancer at 85.

Ben Flajnik on Ellen

• The Bachelor's Ben Flajnik got an earful from Ellen (above).
• Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis are maybe NOT over!
• Rumors surrounding Rihanna and Chris Brown persist.
• Justin Bieber and others gathered to honor MJ.
• Vinny is back in the fold on Jersey Shore.

Welcome to Megan Fox Island!

• What we wouldn't give for a trip to Megan Fox Island (above).
• Gabriel Aubry is accused of shoving his baby's nanny.
• 50 Cent sure has a lot riding on the Super Bowl.
• Will Brad Pitt marry Angelina Jolie after all?
• Elizabeth Smart is engaged!

Greg Kelly on Good Day New York

• Greg Kelly of Good Day New York (above) was accused of rape.
• Aretha Franklin and Willie Wilkerson called off their wedding.
• President Obama delivered his 2012 State of the Union.
• John Edward visited a contrived episode of KKTNY.
• Jane Carrey, Jim's daughter, is on American Idol:

Jane Carrey American Idol Audition

What was the highlight of the week for you? Did we leave anything out?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/thg-week-in-review-january-22-28-2012/

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APNewsBreak: Jackson enters fray over Grammy cuts

FILE - In this Oct. 16, 2011 file photo, Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks with reporters during the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr., Memorial in Washington. Jackson is entering the fray over The Recording Academy's cuts to its Grammy categories: He's asking to meet with the president of the organization and has raised the possibility of protests, with the awards a little less than two weeks away. In a Friday, Jan. 27, 2012 letter to Neil Portnow, president and CEO of the Grammys, the civil rights activist said his Rainbow Push Coalition was alarmed that there were reductions at a time "when our country needs to celebrate all its cultural traditions." (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 16, 2011 file photo, Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks with reporters during the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr., Memorial in Washington. Jackson is entering the fray over The Recording Academy's cuts to its Grammy categories: He's asking to meet with the president of the organization and has raised the possibility of protests, with the awards a little less than two weeks away. In a Friday, Jan. 27, 2012 letter to Neil Portnow, president and CEO of the Grammys, the civil rights activist said his Rainbow Push Coalition was alarmed that there were reductions at a time "when our country needs to celebrate all its cultural traditions." (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)

NEW YORK (AP) ? The Rev. Jesse Jackson is entering the fray over The Recording Academy's cuts to its Grammy categories: He's asking to meet with the president of the organization and has raised the possibility of protests with the awards less than two weeks away.

The civil rights activist sent a letter to Neil Portnow, the president and CEO of the Academy, and expressed his dismay over the Academy's decision last April to cut its categories from 109 to 78, the biggest overhaul in its then 53-year history. In the letter, Jackson said he had been talking to members of the entertainment community and asked that his organization, the Rainbow Push Coalition, "meet with you urgently to express our concerns and to see if we might help resolve this conflict ... and allow the Grammys to do what they do best."

In a statement to The Associated Press on Friday, Portnow said he was willing to talk with Jackson.

"We are receptive to meeting with the Rev. Jackson to explain how our nomination process works and to show the resulting diverse group of nominees it produced for the 54th Grammys ? many in the musical genres he cited in his letter," Portnow said. "We also agree with the Rev. Jackson that the Grammys are about music, not sales. They have, and always will, stand for excellence in music and celebrating the impact all music has on our culture."

In an interview with the AP on Thursday night, Jackson said he wanted "cooperation, not confrontation" with the Academy. However, he did raise the possibility of a protest of the Feb. 12 Grammys, to be held in Los Angeles, if his talks with the Academy did not go well.

"We are prepared to work with artists and ministers and activists to occupy at the Grammys so our appeal of consideration of mercy really might be heard," he said.

The Academy decided last year to shrink its voluminous categories after a yearlong examination of the awards structure. Among the changes: elimination of some of the instrumental categories in pop, rock and country; traditional gospel; children's spoken-word album; Zydeco or Cajun music album; and best classical crossover album. In addition, men and women compete head-to-head in vocal performance categories instead of separate categories for each sex.

Some musicians in the Latin jazz community have filed a lawsuit against the Academy, claiming the reductions in categories caused them irreparable harm. While there haven't been widespread protests against the cuts in the industry, there have been small but vocal protests, and artists including Carlos Santana have spoken against them.

The Academy contends the changes simply make the awards more competitive but don't prevent people from entering into competition.

But Jackson said he's concerned that they limit participation of those who have been disenfranchised.

"Music of all arts should be expansive and inclusive," he said. "So much talent comes from the base of poverty and those in the margins. You limit the base, you miss too much talent."

Jackson said he became involved because he had been contacted by people in the music industry, though he would not name them. He said he became involved after hearing concerns of those affected.

Princeton professor and activist Cornel West also expressed his concerns in a statement on Friday, saying: "I believe the elimination of the ethnic Grammy categories is unjust and unfair."

Jackson has confronted the entertainment industry over concerns over diversity before: In 1996, he urged a boycott of the Academy Awards because of the industry's treatment of minorities.

While some have gone so far as to call the Grammy cuts racist, Jackson said he did not believe that.

"I don't think that we have to prove that to make our point," he said. "We're talking about expansion."

He added: "Sometimes inclusion is inconvenient but it's the right thing to do."

___

Online:

Grammys: http://www.grammys.com

___

Nekesa Mumbi Moody is the AP's music editor. Follow her at http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-01-27-Grammys%20Cuts-Jackson/id-49fe619ae00b4f718247ba30bfcfc627

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Student charged in Utah school bomb plot (AP)

ROY, Utah ? Authorities on Friday charged an 18-year-old man with possession of a weapon of mass destruction after they say he and another teenager planned to bomb a Utah high school.

Dallin Morgan and a 16-year-old were arrested Wednesday at Roy High School, about 30 miles north of Salt Lake City, after police were alerted to the plot by a fellow student who received ominous text messages from one of the suspects.

"If I tell you one day not to go to school, make damn sure you and ... are not there," the message read, according to court records.

Authorities said the pair had detailed blueprints of the school and had planned to try to steal a plane at a nearby airport after their attack. The students told police they had been learning to fly on a flight simulator program on their home computers.

Investigators were trying to determine just how close the two suspects were to pulling off an attack they say was inspired by the deadly 1999 Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colo.

Authorities say the younger suspect visited the school last month to interview the principal about the shootings and security measures.

Morgan was released on bond, pending arraignment Wednesday. The 16-year-old, whom The Associated Press isn't naming because he's a minor, had been held at a juvenile facility but authorities declined to immediately say whether he remained in custody Friday.

The FBI is examining the suspects' computers. Local and federal authorities searched the school, two vehicles belonging to the suspects and their homes but found no explosives.

The 16-year-old suspect's father declined comment Friday, and no one answered the door at Morgan's home.

The charge filed Friday includes conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction, not necessarily possessing one. Prosecutors are considering additional charges.

The suspects told authorities they were inspired by Columbine, but were offended when compared to them because "those killers only completed one percent of their plan," according to a probable cause statement.

Roy High School sophomore Bailey Gerhardt told The Salt Lake Tribune she received text messages from one of the suspects and alerted school administrators.

"I get the feeling you know what I'm planning," read one of the messages, according to court records. "Explosives, airport, airplane.

"We ain't gonna crash it, we're just gonna kill and fly our way to a country that won't send us back to the U.S.," read one message to the girl.

Royal Eccles, manager at the Ogden-Hinckley Airport, about a mile from the school, said Friday it would have been nearly impossible for the students to steal a plane or get the knowledge to fly one using flight simulator programs.

"It's highly improbable," Eccles said. "That's how naive these kids are."

While authorities are still working to determine a motive, one text message noted the suspects sought "revenge on the world."

Police credit the girl with helping foil the plan, though authorities said the school didn't have any assemblies set, and the suspects revealed no specific dates to pull off the attack.

"It could have been a disaster," Roy police spokeswoman Anna Bond said.

The juvenile suspect also told investigators he was so "fascinated" by the Columbine massacre that he visited the school and interviewed the principal about the shootings.

Columbine Principal Frank DeAngelis confirmed Friday he met with the 16-year-old student on Dec. 12 after the teenager told him he was doing a story for his school newspaper on the shootings.

DeAngelis told the AP he frequently gets requests from students doing research on the shootings, and the request from this one wasn't unusual.

"He asked the same questions I get from many callers and visitors asking about the shooting," DeAngelis said. He said the student wanted details about the shooting, the aftermath and the steps taken since then to protect the school.

Police said the student told them Roy school officials would not allow him to write the story.

DeAngelis said he was shocked when he got a call from Utah police on Wednesday asking if he had met with the youth. He said the interview raised no red flags but that he would do things differently with future requests.

"This was definitely a wake-up call. This is the first time this has happened," DeAngelis said.

The Roy High School plot "was months in planning," said Roy police Chief Gregory Whinham, and included plans for a device designed to "cause as much harm as possible to students and faculty" at the school.

Morgan told police the 16-year-old had previously made a pipe bomb using gun powder and rocket fuel.

"Dallin told me that (the juvenile) bragged about using a bomb to blow up a mail box and having three handguns in his house," according to a police affidavit. The 16-year-old boy "claimed that he did not have the guns but Dallin was the source of the guns because he is 18 and can purchase a gun."

The two students prepared by logging hundreds of hours on flight simulator software on their home computers, Bond said.

Both students had "absolute knowledge of the security systems and the layout of the school," Bond said. "They knew where the security cameras were. Their original plan was to set off explosives during an assembly. We don't know what date they were planning to do this, but they had been planning it for months."

The parents of both students "woke up in the middle of a nightmare," Bond said. "They've been very cooperative."

___

Associated Press writer Steven K. Paulson contributed to this report from Denver.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/education/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_re_us/us_school_bomb_plot

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Romney is the aggressor in final Florida debate (AP)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. ? An aggressive Mitt Romney repeatedly challenged Republican rival Newt Gingrich Thursday night in the final debate before next week's critical Florida primary, demanding an apology for an ad saying he harbors anti-immigrant sentiments and ridiculing the former House speaker's call to colonize the moon.

"If I had a business executive come to me and say I want to spend a few hundred billion dollars to put a colony on the moon, I'd say, `You're fired,'" Romney declared. That was just one particularly animated clash between two rivals struggling for supremacy in the race to pick an opponent to President Barack Obama in the fall.

Gingrich responded heatedly. "You don't just have to be cheap everywhere. You can actually have priorities to get things done." He said that as speaker of the House he had helped balance the budget while doubling spending on the National Institutes of Health.

The debate was the 19th since the race for the Republican nomination began last year, and the second in four days in the run-up to Tuesday's Florida primary. Opinion polls make the race a close one ? slight advantage Romney ? with two other contenders, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Texas Rep. Ron Paul far behind.

Gingrich's upset victory in the South Carolina primary last week upended the race for the nomination, and Romney in particular can ill-afford a defeat on Tuesday.

While the clashes between Gingrich and Romney dominated the debate, Santorum drew applause from the audience when he called on the two front-runners to stop attacking one another and "focus on the issues."

"Can we set aside that Newt was a member of Congress ... and that Mitt Romney is a wealthy guy?" he said in a tone of exasperation.

There were some moments of levity, including when Paul, 76, was asked whether he would be willing to release his medical records. He said he was, then challenged the other three men on the debate stage to a 25-mile bike race.

He got no takers.

In the days since Romney's loss in South Carolina, he has tried to seize the initiative, playing the aggressor in the Tampa debate and assailing Gingrich in campaign speeches and a TV commercial.

An outside group formed to support Romney has spent more than his own campaign's millions on ads, some of them designed to stop Gingrich's campaign momentum before it is too late to deny him the nomination.

With polls suggesting his South Carolina surge is stalling, Gingrich unleashed a particularly strong attack earlier in the day, much as he lashed out in Iowa when he rose in the polls, only to be knocked back by an onslaught of ads he was unable to counter effectively.

Thursday night's first clash occurred moments after the debate opened, when Gingrich responded to a question by saying Romney was the most anti-immigrant of all four contenders on stage. "That's simply inexcusable," the former Massachusetts governor responded.

"Mr. Speaker, I'm not anti-immigrant. My father was born in Mexico. My wife's father was born in Wales. ... The idea that I'm anti-immigrant is repulsive. Don't use a term like that," he added.

At the same time, Romney noted that Gingrich's campaign had been pressured to stop running a radio ad that called Romney anti-immigrant after Florida Sen. Marco Rubio called on Gingrich to do so.

He called on Gingrich to apologize for the commercial, but got no commitment.

About an hour later, Romney pounced when the topic turned to Gingrich's proposal for a permanent American colony on the moon ? an issue of particular interest to engineers and others who live on Florida's famed Space Coast.

The audience erupted in cheers when Romney said he'd fire an executive who came to him with such a costly plan, but he wasn't finished.

He said the former speaker had called for construction of a new Interstate highway in South Carolina, a new VA hospital in northern New Hampshire and widening the port of Jacksonville to accommodate the larger ships that will soon be able to transit the Panama Canal.

"This idea of going state to state and promising people what they want to hear, promising hundreds of billions of dollars to make people happy, that's what got us into trouble in the first place," Romney said.

Gingrich responded that part of campaigning is becoming familiar with local issues, adding, "The port of Jacksonville is going to have to be expanded. I think that's an important thing for a president to know." He went on to refer to completion of an Everglades project that he did not describe, then noted he had worked to expand NIH while he was speaker.

Gingrich raised questions about Romney's wealth and his investments. "I don't know of any American president who's had a Swiss bank account," Gingrich said. Romney replied that his investments were in a blind trust over which he had no control. "There's nothing wrong with that," declared Romney, who has estimated his wealth at as much as $250 million.

Earlier Thursday, it was disclosed that Romney and his wife, Ann Romney, failed to list an unknown amount of investment income from a variety of sources including a Swiss bank account on financial disclosure forms filed last year. His campaign said it was working to correct the omissions.

Gingrich also failed to report income from his 2010 tax return on his financial disclosure. The former Georgia congressman will amend his disclosure to show $252,500 in salary from one of his businesses, spokesman R.C. Hammond said.

Debating in a state with a large and influential Jewish population, Romney and Gingrich vied to stress their support for Israel rather than criticize one another.

And all four men were quick to name prominent officials of Hispanic descent who deserved consideration for the Cabinet. Gingrich trumped the other three, saying, "I've actually thought of Marco Rubio in a slightly more dignified and central role," an evident reference to the vice presidential spot on the ticket.

Immigration was a recurring theme.

Gingrich said Romney was misleading when he ran an ad accusing the former House speaker of once referring to Spanish as "the language of the ghetto." Gingrich claimed he was referring to a multitude of languages, not just Spanish.

Romney initially said, "I doubt it's mine," but moderator Wolf Blitzer read it aloud and pointed out that Romney, at the ad's conclusion, says he approved the message.

As for immigration policy, it was difficult to discern their differences.

Both men said they want to clamp down in illegal immigration, create programs to make sure jobs go only to legal immigrants and deport some of the 11 million men and women in the country unlawfully.

Gingrich has never said how many illegal residents he believes should be deported, preferring to say that the United States is not going to begin rounding up grandmothers and grandfathers who have lived in the United States for years.

Romney agreed that was the case ? and Gingrich said that marked a switch in position.

"Our problem is not 11 million grandmothers," Romney said. "Our problem is 11 million people getting jobs that many Americans, legal immigrants would like to have."

Romney and Gingrich also exchanged jabs over investments in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two mortgage giants that played a role in the national foreclosure crisis that has hit Florida particularly hard.

Gingrich said Romney was making money from investments in funds that were "foreclosing on Floridians."

Romney quickly noted that Gingrich, too, was invested in mutual funds with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He then added that the former House speaker "was a spokesman" for the two. That was a reference to a contract that one of Gingrich's businesses had for consulting services. The firm was paid $300,000 in 2006.

___

Associated Press writers Brian Bakst, Kasie Hunt and Steve Peoples contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_el_ge/us_republicans_debate

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PFT: Manning, Irsay: No 'hard feelings between us'

AP

New Buccaneers head coach Greg Schiano said at his introductory press conference this afternoon that he?s going to build the kind of team that becomes a hot ticket in Tampa Bay, playing winning football that will make the fans proud.

?We?ve got to re-connect with our fan base, and I can?t wait to do it because we have to earn your trust,? Schiano said. ?This Buccaneer football team will earn your trust. We?ll earn your trust on the football field. We?ll earn your trust in the community. Something that you can be proud of.?

When he got his first question, Schiano was asked how quickly he thinks he can turn around the fortunes of a team that ended the season on a 10-game losing streak, and he said he views it as his job to turn things around immediately.

?I don?t believe in doing anything except to be the best, so we?re going to try to be the best today, starting today,? Schiano said. ?How long that will take, I can?t tell you that, but we?re going to work to be the best we can be every single minute. And I?ve said this many times: When our best is the best, we?ll be Super Bowl champs.?

Schiano is a much more conventional choice than the first college coach the Bucs tried to hire, Oregon?s Chip Kelly, and he described his coaching philosophy as one he learned from his old boss, Joe Paterno.

?Great defense, win the special teams battle, and be a physical offensive football team that takes shots down the field,? Schiano said. ?Physical, run the football physically and take shots down the field. That formula works.?

Schiano said he didn?t take the job until he had time to study the team, its personnel, the ownership, the front office and the facilities, and he concluded that the Bucs have a young core of talented players who can win right away.

?I?m very impressed with the young group, that core group,? Schiano said.

Now Schiano?s job is to turn that core group into what Raheem Morris failed to make it last year: A winning team.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/01/27/colts-issue-joint-manning-irsay-statement/related/

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If Oscar-Nominated Films' Posters Told the Truth

The Shiznit is at it again. Last year, they went viral with spot-on parodies of the 2011 Oscar race, and now they're doing it again, giving "The Artist," "The Descendants" and all the other supposed "best" movies of the year a good roasting with their hilariously blunt feature -- If the Oscar-Nominated Movie Posters Told the Truth.

The premise is simple: these parody posters deliver 100% truth in advertising. If Hollywood always operated under these principles, perhaps it could finally pull itself out of its box office slump.

Check out some of our favorite posters below, then head over to The Shiznit for the full list of painfully-true posters.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1924381/news/1924381/

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I Am Not Cancer. I Am CrossFit. by Hilary Achauer - CrossFit Journal

Exhausted and overwhelmed after battling thyroid cancer, Kelly Knight discovers CrossFit and newfound energy and confidence. Hilary Achauer reports.

When Kelly Knight turns on her phone, the first thing she sees is this quote by Martha Washington: ?I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself.?

Knight, a 48-year-old registered nurse, has found herself in some dark situations lately. Her son, now 25, has been sick for the past five years. Nobody could figure out the problem until a recent visit to the Mayo Clinic uncovered a tumor in his adrenal glands. In the midst of caring for and worrying about her son, Knight was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in December 2010. The cancer spread to her lymph nodes, and she went through two full rounds of radiation.

In October 2011, Knight visited RSA CrossFit in Kennewick, Wash. Owner Joey Sanchez, a cancer survivor himself, greeted her and showed her around. Sanchez was diagnosed with synovial cell sarcoma when he was 15 years old. He almost lost his left arm, but after several surgeries and chemotherapy, he has been cancer-free for 15 years. Knight started slowly but was immediately hooked.

Source: http://journal.crossfit.com/2012/01/i-am-not-cancer-i-am-crossfit.tpl

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RolePlayGateway is proudly powered by obscene amounts of caffeine, duct tape, Wordpress, Moodle, phpBB, AJAX Chat, Mantis, and the efforts of many dedicated writers and roleplayers. It operates under a "don't like it, suggest an improvement" platform, and we gladly take suggestions for improvements or changes.

The custom-built "roleplay" system was designed and implemented by Eric Martindale as of July 2009. All attempts to replicate or otherwise emulate this system and its method of organizing roleplay are strictly prohibited without his express written and contractual permission; violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

? RolePlayGateway, LLC

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Ten Common Misconceptions Debunked In Under Four Minutes [Video]

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Pelosi hints, then denies she has Gingrich secrets (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Does House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi know some dark secrets about GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich? Twice, she offered tantalizing hints that she does. And then said she doesn't. Gingrich said Wednesday that the House Democratic leader should come out with it or shut up.

The latest back-and-forth in the contest of two former House speakers came in a CNN interview Tuesday night, when host John King suggested to Pelosi that she "could come back here next January or next February with a President Gingrich?"

"Let me just say this. That will never happen," Pelosi said.

When King asked, "Why are you so sure?" Pelosi responded: "There's something I know. The Republicans, if they choose to nominate him, that's their prerogative. I don't even think that's going to happen."

On Wednesday, Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said: "The `something' leader Pelosi knows is that Newt Gingrich will not be president of the United States. She made that clear last night."

Hammill's statement, however, acknowledged that this wasn't the first time that Pelosi hinted that she knows something about Gingrich that she hasn't revealed.

In December, Pelosi reminded an interviewer that she served on the ethics panel that investigated Gingrich's use of tax-exempt organizations. That case ended with a reprimand by the House and a $300,000 penalty against the then-speaker for misleading the committee and prolonging its investigation.

Pelosi said last month: "One of these days we'll have a conversation about Newt Gingrich. I know a lot about him. I served on the investigative committee that investigated him, four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. A thousand pages of his stuff."

Hammill repeated the explanation provided after those comments.

"Leader Pelosi previously made a reference to the extensive amount of information that is in the public record, including the comprehensive committee report with which the public may not be fully aware," the spokesman said.

Gingrich said Wednesday that Pelosi should come out with her information or stop talking.

"Look, I think if she knows something she ought to say it. If she doesn't know something she ought to quit saying it. But this is baloney. I don't think any Republican is going to be threatened by Nancy Pelosi. Frankly, I'd rather have her threaten me than endorse me. So I feel pretty good about it. If she has something, bring it out," he said.

Mitt Romney, Gingrich's chief rival for the GOP presidential nomination, has asked that all records from Gingrich's ethics investigation be released. In January 1997, when the case ended, the committee did make public its final report as well as exhibits ? which amounted to a comprehensive account of the committee's findings.

The chairman of the ethics committee during the Gingrich investigation, former Republican Rep. Nancy Johnson, said the committee traditionally does not publicly release investigative documents.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_el_pr/us_pelosi_gingrich

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Video: Playing Fixed Income Funds

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/46119360/

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Fed adds more punch to low-rate pledge

Larry Downing / Reuters

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has been a dominant force in pushing for more openness at the central bank.

By John W. Schoen, Senior Producer

New normal, meet the new Fed.

The Federal Reserve took two major new steps Wednesday to assure businesses and consumers that it intends to keep borrowing costs at record low levels for the foreseeable future ? at least three years.

For the first time in its 94-year history, the central bank opened its mind to the public, publishing a collection of charts that break down policymakers? forecasts on interest rates, inflation and unemployment. ?And for the first time ever, it set an explicit target for inflation, 2 percent a year, instead of an implied target.

Both steps are in keeping with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke?s stated goal of making the Fed?s decisions ever more transparent. Economists welcomed the new moves but said they have their own risks.

The first headline to come out after central bankers ended their two-day meeting Wednesday was the news that policymakers do not expect to raise short-term interest rates until late 2014 at the earliest, rather than mid-2013 as they said a month ago.? Those record-low rates are still needed to help boost an improving but still sluggish economy, the Fed said in the new statement.??

"I think what they are seeing is that the rate of growth is not sufficient to bring down the unemployment rate,? said Brian Dolan, chief strategist at Forex.com. Unemployment stood at 8.5 percent at the latest reading in December, with 13 million Americans who would like a job unable to find one.

The latest data show the economy beginning to strengthen: Hiring has picked up, factories are increasing output and car sales are rising. Still, the threat of a recession in Europe continues to weigh on the global economy. U.S. consumers have been resorting to borrowing again to maintain spending levels that may not be sustainable.

In its latest forecast, the central bank cut its growth outlook this year but is now a bit more optimistic about the unemployment rate. It expects the U.S. economy to grow between 2.2 percent and 2.7 percent this year. That's down from its November's forecast of between 2.5 percent and 2.9 percent. But it sees unemployment falling as low as 8.2 percent this year, better than its earlier forecast of 8.5 percent. December's rate was 8.5 percent.

By making its plans and expectations clear and explicit, the Fed is hoping to boost public confidence that interest rates will stay low. If the strategy works, that higher confidence will encourage investment and spending that would give the moribund economy a lift.

The plan could create problems for Fed officials down the road as economic conditions change. Though the disclosures are being billed as ?expectations,? investors have come to view the pronouncements as commitments. If events overtake the Fed?s current thinking, those expectations may have to be altered. That could undermine the credibility of these forecasts, according to Credit Suisse economists.

?Eventually, the Fed is bound to discover it cannot live up to the policy trajectory communicated to the market,? they wrote in a recent note explaining the changes in Fed?s communication strategy. ?When this happens the Fed will have enhanced its transparency at the expense of its credibility. And between those two assets, credibility is by far the more important.?

That, the economists argue, could have ?the perverse effect of encouraging greater volatility in the fixed income markets, especially when the FOMC eventually starts forecasting higher funds rate targets.?

Promising to keeping rates low to spur borrowing and spending may be a double-edged sword. Potential home buyers, for example, may be happy to sit on the fence as long as they don?t have to worry about missing out on record-low mortgage rates.

?It may take the floor away from the housing market,? said Douglas C. Borthwick, managing director at Faros Trading. ?With no apparent need for buyers to lock in lower rates today they may be more encouraged to wait a little while longer to pull the trigger. Why buy today when there may be more supply tomorrow?"

Since the Great Recession of 2007-09 and the biggest housing collapse since the 1930s, the Fed has thrown pretty much everything in its toolkit at the financial system, trying to revive the economy. Conventional moves targeting short-term lending have been followed by unorthodox schemes that included massive buying of mortgage bonds and a switch in the maturities of Treasury bonds to drive down longer-term rates. On Wednesday, the Fed announced no new plans to buy bonds.

Economists generally believe the Fed?s initial moves succeeded in heading off a deeper financial and economic collapse. But the economy is still growing slowly, and the job and housing markets are still badly broken.

The Fed has been debating for some time the idea of publishing its internal inflation and unemployment forecasts. The central bankers have been following an unofficial inflation target of about 2 percent of the last few years.

Part of the problem with publishing both inflation and unemployment targets is that, while they are both part of the Fed?s ?dual mandate,? managing the two objectives often call for conflicting policies. Controlling inflation often calls for tighter monetary policy, for example, which typically slows growth and raises the level of unemployment.

The Fed?s new rate-forecast policy may already be having the desired impact. As details of the Fed?s new policy have been disclosed, interest rates on U.S. Treasury bonds, a bellwether for borrowing costs from mortgages to corporate commercial paper, have been edging lower.

On Wednesday, Treasury yields fell on the news that the Fed plans no rate increase until late 2014 at the earliest. The yield on the 10-year note sank to 1.95 percent, down from 2.02 percent just before the Fed made its announcement.

Lower yields could help further reduce mortgage rates and possibly boost stock prices as investors shift out of lower-yielding Treasurys. Stocks, which had traded lower before the Fed announcment, quickly recovered their losses. The Dow Jones industrial average, which had been down about 60 points before the announcement, was up 81 points shortly before the close.

{"contentId":"10235144","totalVotes":"2974"}

Is the Fed helping the economy with its latest actions?

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Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says he will "not get involved in political rhetoric" and also shares insight on Dodd-Frank.

Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/25/10235144-fed-adds-more-punch-to-low-rate-pledge

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