Diggins leads Notre Dame past Kansas, 93-63

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) ? Skylar Diggins was already having such a great day, her coach figured she might as well make it historic.

The Notre Dame point guard scored 22 of her 27 points by halftime Sunday and became the school's career scoring leader, leading the top-seeded Fighting Irish to a 93-63 victory against Kansas in the semifinals of the Norfolk Regional.

Coach Muffet McGraw had forgotten all about Diggins' pursuit of the school scoring mark until the game was well in hand. When she asked, she was told the senior was just two points away from passing assistant coach Beth Cunningham.

"I told her, 'You're coming out in 30 seconds. You might as well get one more,'" McGraw said she told Diggins.

Moments later, with 7:48 to play, the lefthander in her trademark white headband swished a 12-foot jumper.

"Coach told me to score two more. I didn't really know why, but I was like, 'OK,'" Diggins said.

It was that kind of the day for Diggins, who heard talk beforehand that the Norfolk Regional was full of great point guards, and quickly showed she might not have a peer, especially at this time of year with the stakes so high.

"We play in games that are so much like Sweet 16 or Elite Eight kind of caliber games in our conference," she said. "That helps all of us."

So does having a leader that makes it all look so easy. Diggins added nine assists and three steals, scored nine straight during a 16-2 first-half run that put the Irish (34-1) ahead to stay, and six more to cap a 10-2 run into halftime.

"She's what everyone says," Kansas point guard Angel Goodrich, who finished with seven points and 13 assists, said. "She's the whole package. She can create for herself and she can create for her teammates."

The victory was the 29th in a row for Notre Dame, and left the Irish one victory shy of a third consecutive trip to the Final Four. They have lost in the title game each of the last two years.

Carolyn Davis led the upstart Jayhawks (20-14) with 25 points on 11-for-17 shooting, but the second No. 12 seed ever to get this far in the women's tournament since the seeding format began in 1994 didn't stick around long.

Notre Dame led 40-27 at halftime and started the second half with a 22-9 run.

"We definitely let them play comfortable and confident," Jayhawks coach Bonnie Henrickson said. "I was disappointed our defensive effort wasn't better."

Goodrich's head-to-head duel with Diggins never materialized. When Goodrich, like Diggins a senior, finally scored with 5:48 left in the first half, Diggins already had 16 points and her team was about to make another run before halftime.

It came in the final 4:30 of the half, a 10-2 burst capped by two 3-pointers by Diggins.

"When she starts hitting the 3, you're in trouble," McGraw said.

Natalie Achonwa added 17 points and 10 rebounds for Notre Dame, Jewell Lloyd scored 15 and Kayla McBride 13 as the Fighting Irish shot 54.4 percent from the field, making 37 of 69 attempts.

Monica Engelman added 10 points for Kansas, but on just 4 of 16 shooting.

The Irish trailed 15-11 when Lloyd made a 3-pointer with 14:37 to go and then Diggins took over. She hit a 16-footer, a 17-footer, a 3-pointer and then had a steal and layup, making it 23-15. After Davis' stickback for the Jayhawks, Ariel Braker scored inside and Diggins did, too, posting up Goodrich.

The 16-2 run gave the Fighting Irish a 27-17 lead, and the spread stayed about the same until late in the half when Diggins hit a 3-pointer, then followed a turnover with another 3 from the right side.

___

Follow Hank on twitter at: http://twitter.com/hankkurzjr

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/diggins-leads-notre-dame-past-kansas-93-63-180031658--spt.html

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Over-diagnosis of reflux in infants leads to needless medication, research finds

Apr. 1, 2013 ? Medications used to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD, are some of the most widely used medications in children less than one year old.

But in a new study, researchers from the University of Michigan and the University of Missouri concluded that physicians often label common symptoms in infants, such as crying and spitting up, as disease. Frequent use of the GERD label can lead to overuse of medication, according to study published today online ahead of print in the journal Pediatrics.

The study found that doctors' use of the label GERD prompted parents to request medication for their baby even when they had been advised that the medication would probably be ineffective.

"As doctors we need to appreciate that the words we use when talking with patients and parents have power -- the power to make a normal process seem like a disease. As pediatricians, our job is to make sick children healthy, not to make healthy children sick," says Tarini, who also is an investigator in U-M's Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit.

In the study, researchers surveyed parents coming into a pediatric clinic in Michigan about how they would respond to a hypothetical clinical scenario describing an infant who cries and spits up excessively but is otherwise healthy. Parents were randomly assigned to receive one of multiple vignettes. In some vignettes, the doctor gave a diagnosis of GERD; in others the doctor did not provide a disease label.

Additionally, half the parents were told that existing medications are probably ineffective; the rest were not given information about medication effectiveness. Parents who received a GERD diagnosis were interested in medicating their infant, even when told that medications were ineffective. Parents not given a disease label were interested in a prescription only when the doctor did not discuss whether the medication was effective.

Over-diagnosis of GERD can make a medical condition out of a normal behavior, says lead author Laura Scherer, assistant professor of psychological science in the College of Arts and Science at the University of Missouri.

"The growing digestive systems of an infant can be finicky and cause the child to regurgitate. The discomfort can cause the infant to cry, but it is not necessarily a disease," says Scherer. "Parents can learn from this study that a disease label can make them want medication for their child, regardless of whether the drugs are effective or not. Parents should follow doctors' advice, which sometimes means accepting a doctor's explanation of why an infant's crying and vomiting may be normal.

"Unnecessary use of medication is costly," says Scherer. "Especially for families without insurance, the over-use of medications can be a needless expense. In addition, the long-term side effects of the medication frequently prescribed to children diagnosed with GERD have not been fully studied, although the medication has been correlated to slightly higher rates of pneumonia."

Additional authors: Of the University of Michigan: Brian J. Zikmund-Fisher, Ph.D., Department of Health Behavior and Health Education in the School of Public Health and Angela Fagerlin, Ph.D. of the Department of Internal Medicine and co-director of the Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine.

Funding: Dr. Tarini is supported by a K23 Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (K23HD057994). Dr. Zikmund-Fisher was supported by a Mentored Research Scholar Grant from the American Cancer Society (MRSG-06-130-01-CPPB). Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Michigan Health System.

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. Laura D. Scherer, Brian J. Zikmund-Fisher, Angela Fagerlin, and Beth A. Tarini. Influence of 'GERD' Label on Parents' Decision to Medicate Infants. Pediatrics, 2013; DOI: 10.1542/peds.2012-3070

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/J-oXsYdztjw/130401104403.htm

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Small Talk: Small businesses squabble over paid sick-time laws ...

FILE- In this Friday, Jan. 18 2013 file photo, activists hold signs during a rally at New York's City Hall to call for immediate action on paid sick days legislation. Two months after a severe flu season forced millions of workers to stay home, paid sick time is becoming an issue for many small business owners. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Two months after a severe flu season forced millions of workers to stay home, paid sick time is becoming an issue for many small business owners.

City councils in Portland, Ore., and Philadelphia earlier this month approved laws requiring employers to give their workers paid sick leave. And two Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill in Congress that would make paid sick leave a federal requirement.

There?s a great divide among business owners over the issue. On one side are opponents who say paid sick time creates financial and administrative burdens for businesses that are struggling with a still recovering economy and uncertainty about health care costs and federal budget cuts. Others argue that it makes for a happier workplace and encourages employees to stay home instead of coming to work and infecting everyone around them.

"It increases morale, it increases loyalty, it provides a much safer work environment," says Andy Shallal, owner of Busboys and Poets, a chain of four restaurants in the Washington D.C., area. He was already giving his workers paid sick time before the Washington City Council passed a sick leave law in 2008. It?s particularly important in the restaurant business that sick employees don?t come to work.

"It?s gross. Nobody wants to have anyone preparing their food when they?re sick," Shallal says.

A lot of Americans get paid sick leave, including many who work at small businesses. A study issued in July by the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 66 percent of small businesses, those with up to 499 workers, provided paid sick leave. Among companies with fewer than 50 workers, half provided leave. Eighty-two percent of workers at companies with 500 or more employees have paid sick leave.

Lawmakers have been stepping in to get paid sick leave extended to more workers. San Francisco is widely believed to be the first major city to enact a paid sick leave law. The law, which requires that sick time be given to all workers, took effect in 2007. Since then, Washington, Seattle and Connecticut have enacted laws and Portland?s City Council passed its bill on March 13. The laws aren?t identical, but all generally provide for workers to accrue sick time and to also use it for family illnesses and some types of emergencies.

Paid sick leave has run into roadblocks in other cities. Philadelphia?s City Council passed its bill March 14, but Mayor Michael Nutter vetoed a similar bill in 2011. He hasn?t decided yet whether he?ll sign the latest bill, spokesman Mark McDonald says.

Among the consequences cited by opponents of paid sick time: Companies will have to pay overtime to replacement workers, financially strapping businesses that are already struggling in an uncertain economy. The added expense will prevent them from expanding, or hiring other workers. Keeping track of accrued sick time will force an owner or another employee to take time away from other critical tasks.

Those issues are likely to be raised in Congress, where Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, have reintroduced the Healthy Families Act, which would require that workers be allowed to earn up to seven days of paid sick time a year. DeLauro has introduced such a bill in every Congress since 2004. In the last Congress, the bill didn?t make it to the House floor.

story continues below

DeLauro expects opposition from small businesses, but she notes that companies with fewer than 50 employees will be exempt.

"This is not only helpful for workers, but smart for employers," she said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It reduces turnover, increases productivity and prevents the spread of illness."

A study by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics issued last month showed that workers generally take few sick days. Those in industries including financial services, information, transportation and professional services took an average of about four sick days a year. Those in the leisure, hospitality and construction industries took about two days.

Many small company owners say paid sick time is good business.

"We like many bookstores in the country do not pay exceptionally well," says Bradley Graham, owner of Politics & Prose in Washington. "We?re very happy to be able to offer additional compensation to the staff in the form of paid sick leave."

Fears that businesses won?t be able to grow if they have to pay for sick time are groundless, says Andy Shallal, the Washington restaurant owner.

"With sick leave, we?ve expanded, we?ve hired more people," Shallal says. "Business associations tend to go through this apoplectic fit almost to scare people into believing this is going to be a horrible thing for business, when in reality, it?s not."

Another reason why many business owners support the laws is they don?t want people coming into work and infecting co-workers and customers.

"There?s much more awareness among employers about public health concerns," says Ophelia Galindo, a human resources consultant with Buck Consultants in Orange County, Calif. "It?s much better for that sick employee to be at home ? even employers that are struggling realize that?s important."

Joyce Rosenberg covers small business for The Associated Press.

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/56073552-79/sick-paid-workers-leave.html.csp

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Christians in Holy Land, Mideast celebrate Easter

JERUSALEM (AP) ? Catholics and Protestants flocked to churches to celebrate Easter on Sunday in the Holy Land and across the broader Middle East, praying, singing and rejoicing as a new pope pleaded for peace in the region.

Some Mideast Christian communities are in flux, while others feel isolated from their Muslim-majority societies. In places like Iraq, they have sometimes been the victims of bloody sectarian attacks.

At St. Joseph Chaldean Church in Baghdad, some 200 worshippers attended an Easter mass that the Rev. Saad Sirop led behind concrete blast walls and a tight security cordon. Churches have been under tighter security since a 2010 attack killed dozens.

"We pray for love and peace to spread through the world," said worshipper Fatin Yousef, 49, who arrived immaculately dressed for the holiday. She wore a black skirt, low-heeled pumps and a striped shirt and her hair tumbled in salon-created curls.

It was the first Easter since the election of Pope Francis and she and others expressed hope in their new spiritual leader. "We hope Pope Francis will help make it better for Christians in Iraq," she said.

The pope spoke of the Middle East in his first Easter message, pleading for Israelis and Palestinians to resume negotiations to "end a conflict that has lasted all too long."

He also called for peace in Iraq and in Syria. "How much blood has been shed! And how much suffering must there still be before a political solution to the crisis will be found?" Francis asked.

In Jerusalem, Catholics worshipped in the church of the Holy Sepulcher, built on a hill where tradition holds that Jesus was crucified, briefly entombed and then resurrected. The cavernous, maze-like structure is home to different churches belonging to rival sects that are crammed into different nooks and even the roof.

Clergy in white and gold robes led the service held around the Edicule, the small chamber at the core of the church marking the site of Jesus' tomb. Many foreign visitors were among the worshippers.

"It's very special," said Arthur Stanton, a visitor from Australia. "It represents the reason why we were put on this planet, and the salvation that has come to us through Jesus."

Israel's Tourism Ministry said it expects some 150,000 visitors during holy week and the Jewish festival of Passover, which coincide this year. It is one of the busiest times of the year for the local tourism industry.

Protestants held Easter ceremonies outside Jerusalem's walled Old City at the Garden Tomb, a small, enclosed green area that some identify as the site of Jesus' burial. Another service was held at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Jesus' traditional birthplace.

Catholics and Protestants, who follow the new, Gregorian calendar, celebrate Easter on Sunday. Orthodox Christians, who follow the old, Julian calendar, will mark it in May.

There are no precise numbers on how many Christians there are in the Middle East. Census figures showing the size of religious and ethnic groups are hard to obtain.

Christian populations are thought to be shrinking or at least growing more slowly than their Muslim compatriots in much of the Middle East, largely due to emigration as they leave for better opportunities and to join families abroad. Some feel more uncomfortable amid growing Muslim majorities that they see as becoming more outwardly pious and politically Islamist over the decades.

The situation for some Mideast Christians is in flux.

In Syria, Christians, who make up some 10 percent of the country's 23 million people, have mostly stayed on the sidelines of the two-year civil war. While outraged by the regime of Bashar Assad's brutal efforts to quash the opposition, they are equally frightened by the Islamist rhetoric of many rebels and their heavy reliance on extremist fighters.

Christians make up some 10 percent of Egypt's 85 million people. Human rights groups say the police under former authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak rarely took the needed steps to prevent flare-ups of violence against Christians, a situation that persisted since he was overthrown in 2011. The rise of Islamists in Egypt has emboldened extremists to target churches and Coptic property, leading to a spike in attacks and sometimes unprecedented steps like the evacuation of entire Christian populations from villages.

In Libya, most Christians are Egyptian laborers who are working in the oil-rich country. Tensions rose last month after assailants torched a church in the eastern city of Benghazi and militias arrested some 100 Christians, mostly Egyptian, accusing them of proselytizing.

In Iraq, Christians have suffered repeated attacks by Islamic militants since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, and hundreds of thousands have left the country. Church officials estimate that the Christian communities have shrunk by at least half. The worst attack was at Baghdad's soaring Our Lady of Salvation church in October 2010 that killed more than 50 worshippers and wounded scores of others.

There currently are an estimated 400,000 to 600,000 Christians in Iraq, with most belonging to ancient eastern churches. Some two-thirds of Iraq's Christians are Catholics of the Chaldean church and the smaller Assyrian Catholic church. Members of both churches chant in dialects of ancient Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke.

Yousef, the worshipper in Baghdad, said lingering fear pushed her to send her son to live with relatives in Arizona last year. Yousef said she was arranging for her other daughter and son to immigrate.

"There's still fear here, and there's no stability in this country," she said.

Iraqi officials have made efforts to secure churches since the violence of 2010.

High blast walls topped with wire netting and barbed wire surrounded the St. Joseph Church in Baghdad's middle-class district of Karradeh. Four Iraqi Christian volunteers stood at the church entrance, double-checking the people entering. And blue-khaki clad Iraqi police guarded roads surrounding the church and checked papers of passers-by as worshippers filed inside.

White-robed church volunteers marched down the church aisle behind Father Sirop, who waved incense and chanted in the white-painted church adorned with three ornate chandeliers and a series of simple paintings illustrating the life of Christ.

Worshippers stood for lengthy passages of Sirop's mass, at one point bursting into applause when he told them, "Celebrate! You are Christians!"

___

Hadid reported from Baghdad. Follow Hadid on twitter.com/diaahadid and Goldenberg on twitter.com/tgoldenberg

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/christians-holy-land-mideast-celebrate-easter-143435186.html

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Two fifth-graders face trial in alleged Washington murder plot

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Two Washington state fifth-grade boys, accused in a foiled plot to rape and kill a girl and kill or harm six other classmates, will stand trial as juveniles, a prosecutor said on Friday.

Stevens County Prosecutor Tim Rasmussen said the boys, 11 and 10, pleaded not guilty during an arraignment on Friday over the alleged murder-rape plot that also targeted other children in Colville, Washington, about 215 miles east of Seattle.

One of the boys wanted the girl dead because "she's rude and always made fun of me and my friends," according to court documents.

"There are very few prosecutions of a crime of this magnitude with boys of this age," Rasmussen told Reuters.

Stevens County Superior Court Judge Allen Nielson determined during the hearing that the boys had the capacity to understand right and wrong, Rasmussen said.

Under Washington state law, children ages 8 to 12 are presumed not to have the mental capacity to form an intention to commit a crime. Juvenile court is typically reserved for defendants between ages 12 and 18.

The 10-year-old suspect was charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, juvenile firearm possession and witness tampering, Rasmussen said.

The younger boy had taken a gun that originally belonged to his grandfather from his older brother's room, according to a declaration of probable cause.

The 11-year-old was charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, possession of a dangerous weapon, a knife, at school and tampering with a witness, Rasmussen said.

The boys planned to lure the girl away from school in Colville, a town of 4,600 people in eastern Washington, according to court documents.

A teacher found a list of six more targeted classmates, prosecutors said.

The fifth-graders had boarded a school bus on February 7 with a knife, a semi-automatic pistol and ammunition in a backpack on their way to Fort Colville Elementary School, prosecutors said.

A fourth-grader on the bus saw the knife and reported it to a teacher's aide, prosecutors said. One of the suspects later said he would kill the student who told school officials about the weapons, they said.

If convicted of all charges, the boys could each be sentenced to 103 to 127 weeks unless a judge finds "manifest injustice" and orders a longer sentence, Rasmussen said.

The boys have been expelled from the school district indefinitely. A status hearing is set for April 8.

(Reporting by Laura Myers; Editing by Ian Simpson and Eric Beech)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2a25f309/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cid0C513780A90A/story01.htm

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Obama: Easter, Passover a time to pray, reflect

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is wishing a joyful Easter to those who celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama says the Easter and Passover holidays give millions of Christians, Jews and people of other faiths a chance to slow down and recommit themselves to loving their neighbors and seeing everyone as a child of God.

Jews celebrated Passover at sundown on Monday. Easter is Sunday.

In the Republican address, Rep. Terry Lee of Nebraska called for approval of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline to bring oil from Canada's tar sands to Texas Gulf Coast refineries. Lee says the project would help create tens of thousands of jobs.

The Obama administration is considering whether to approve the project, which would run through Lee's home state.

___

Online:

Obama's address: http://www.whitehouse.gov

Republican address: http://www.youtube.com/HouseConference

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-easter-passover-time-pray-reflect-100047714--politics.html

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