Starwood Hotels & Resorts Forecast Top 10 Los Cabos Travel Trends

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Forecast Top 10 Los Cabos Travel Trends

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Forecast Top 10 Los Cabos Travel Trends For 2013

LOS CABOS, Mexico, Jan. 23, 2013 - Starwood Hotels and Resorts is forecasting an eight to ten percent increase in business at their Los Cabos resorts in 2013, crediting new development, infrastructure improvements and positive news for the forecasted upswing.? The Sheraton Hacienda del Mar Golf & Spa Resort and The Westin Resort & Spa share their ?top 10? travel trend predictions for what will drive the increased business:

? ? Access Draws More to Relax & Explore - It is getting easier all the time
? ? ? to get into and around Los Cabos. New nonstop flights added in mid-2012
? ? ? from strong Los Cabos? tourist-drawing metropolitan areas such as Orange
? ? ? County Calif. (Airtran) and Chicago (Frontier) to Los Cabos
? ? ? International Airport (SJD) and additional nonstop service coming in
? ? ? 2013 from Denver (Airtran), San Diego and Dallas-Fort Worth (Spirit) are
? ? ? expected to entice even more new and repeat travelers. Additionally, a
? ? ? new $250 million four-lane highway that halves travel time between Los
? ? ? Cabos and the state capital, La Paz, and other infrastructure
? ? ? improvements have made driving the southern tip of the Baja California
? ? ? peninsula a breeze, increasing access and tourist interest in regional
? ? ? exploration.
? ? Service Goes Super Nova - With a steadily growing number of luxury
? ? ? resort properties on the scene, resorts are finding new ways to deliver
? ? ? superior guest experiences.? Starwood Resorts Los Cabos, already lauded
? ? ? for their stellar service, have fully embraced the challenge of finding
? ? ? new ways to provide superior guest experiences that surprise and
? ? ? delight, such as from lauded Sheraton Hacienda del Mar Executive Chef
? ? ? Manuel de Luca and The Westin Resort & Spa Los Cabos Executive Chef
? ? ? Manuel Peruyero, who stroll the dining rooms daily to deliver
? ? ? personalized ?star treatment? and specially-prepared dishes to guests.
? ? Sporting Appeal Builds - From golf tournaments and sports fishing to
? ? ? water sports, off road races and personal physical challenges, Los Cabos
? ? ? will play host to a plethora of sporting events in 2013. New this year,
? ? ? both Starwood Resorts will host guests visiting for The Ironman Los
? ? ? Cabos triathlon (March 17). Leading off the year and golf tournaments?
? ? ? schedule was the recent Puerto Los Cabos World Pro-Am. Off-road races
? ? ? include the Cabo 500 and Tecate Score Baja 1000. Water sports draws
? ? ? range from internationally renowned sport fishing challenges, such as
? ? ? Bisbee?s Black & Blue Marlin Tournament, Tuna Jackpot, Los Cabos
? ? ? Billfish Tournament, Stars and Stripes Fishing and Golf Tournament, and
? ? ? SUP (Stand Up Paddleboard) Championships.
? ? Meetings Mania - The new, $100 million, state-of-the-art Los Cabos
? ? ? Convention Center, which hosted world leaders at the international G20
? ? ? Summit in June 2012 as its inaugural event, has introduced 72,000 square
? ? ? feet of eco-friendly functional meeting and exhibition space to the
? ? ? region. The facility, which also hosted the first-ever Los Cabos
? ? ? International Film Festival in November 2012, is expected to encourage
? ? ? more regional event development and expand Los Cabos? abilities to
? ? ? effectively compete in the destination meetings and conventions
? ? ? business. In tandem with industry trends towards hybrid meetings and
? ? ? events, Starwood Resorts Los Cabos, with some of the largest and most
? ? ? varied meeting and event facilities, offer state-of-the-art IT, with HD
? ? ? video conferencing that enables in-house AV PSAV teams to provide
? ? ? coordinated interface with nearly a thousand PSAV-served hotels
? ? ? throughout the world.
? ? Rejuven-cations Reign - Along with private white sand beaches, dazzling
? ? ? poolside fun in the sun and world-class dining, more travelers to Los
? ? ? Cabos will seek their own havens for personal rejuvenation. Starwood?s
? ? ? Sheraton Hacienda del Mar and The Westin Resort & Spa both offer, in
? ? ? addition to world-class spas and treatment packages, newly renovated and
? ? ? expanded gyms with workout programs and educational resources, as well
? ? ? as healthy dining alternatives, such as The Westin Resort & Spa, Los
? ? ? Cabos?? SuperFoodsRx(TM) menus with nutrient-rich dishes and Sheraton
? ? ? Hacienda del Mar?s under 500-calorie ?Color Your Plate? selections.
? ? Trendy Weddings - Los Cabos will continue to attract destination
? ? ? weddings as more couples will flock the area for its uniquely beautiful
? ? ? setting, well-priced luxury dream wedding options with generous gifts of
? ? ? complimentary ?extras? and discounts. Events staff at both the Sheraton
? ? ? Hacienda del Mar and The Westin Resort & Spa, Los Cabos note that more
? ? ? couples are looking for highly unique twists for their weddings,
? ? ? including a ?trash the dress? trend that is rapidly growing in
? ? ? popularity as many brides are choosing to follow their wedding ceremony
? ? ? with a jump into the surf at the resorts or at Lover?s Beach by the El
? ? ? Arco scenic rock-arch.
? ? More Family Gatherings - With the U.S. State Department lifting travel
? ? ? warnings to Los Cabos and other popular destinations in Mexico last
? ? ? November* and the ever-increasing wealth of cultural, arts,
? ? ? environmental and sports activities for all ages, more
? ? ? multi-generational families will find their way to Los Cabos to
? ? ? celebrate holidays, family occasions and in-tandem getaways. Both
? ? ? Sheraton Hacienda del Mar and The Westin Resort & Spa in Los Cabos offer
? ? ? amenities that cater to every family member and feature newly renovated
? ? ? Kids Club facilities.
? ? Culinary & Cultural Exchange - Noting increasing guest interest in
? ? ? cultural experiences and world cuisines, both Starwood Los Cabos resorts
? ? ? regularly host cultural festivals and events such as The Westin Resort &
? ? ? Spa?s Oktoberfest, with traditional Swiss-German foods and alphorn
? ? ? music, and Sheraton Hacienda del Mar?s Peruvian Food Festival, featuring
? ? ? internationally renowned Peruvian cuisine pioneer Jose Montes, executive
? ? ? chef at the Sheraton Lima Hotel & Convention Center. Returning March 9,
? ? ? the Sheraton will again host its Pan, Queso y Vino (Bread, Cheese and
? ? ? Wine Festival) to benefit local boys? home Casa Hogar.
? ? Wired for Work & Play - With rapidly expanding online access, social
? ? ? media sharing, mobile phone and apps use, more ?working? vacationers
? ? ? will access wi-fi and, literally, set up office by the Sea of Cortez. At
? ? ? both Starwood Los Cabos? resorts, more social media fans will receive
? ? ? hotel and local news via Facebook and Twitter, and smart-phone users, in
? ? ? addition to handling bookings via mobile, will discover new regional
? ? ? resource apps such as the Los Cabos Mobile Guide, available at
? ? ? http://www.visitloscabos.travel.
? ? Los Cabos for Canines - More travelers will arrive with animal
? ? ? companions in tow, now that the Mexican government is permitting
? ? ? airlines to once again allow them in the cabin during flights to and
? ? ? from Mexico. (Check with your airline before booking for rules and
? ? ? restrictions, which vary and can change, particularly during hotter
? ? ? weather.) The Westin Resort & Spa is among the dog-friendliest luxury
? ? ? resorts in Los Cabos, where dogs may stay in-room and dine, al fresco
? ? ? with their families.
For more information on the Sheraton Hacienda del Mar Golf & Spa Resort, please call 52-624-145-8000 or visit http://www.sheratonloscabos.com.? For more information on The Westin Resort & Spa, Los Cabos, please call 1-800-012-9229 or visit http://www.westinloscabos.com.

*According to U.S. State Dept. Mexico Travel Update, reported in San Francisco Chronicle/SFGate.com (Dec. 4, 2012).

About Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with 1,128 properties in nearly 100 countries and 154,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels, resorts and residences with the following internationally renowned brands: St. Regis(?), The Luxury Collection(?), W(?), Westin(?), Le M?ridien(?), Sheraton(?), Four Points(?) by Sheraton, Aloft(?), and Element(SM). The Company boasts one of the industry?s leading loyalty programs, Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG), allowing members to earn and redeem points for room stays, room upgrades and flights, with no blackout dates. Starwood also owns Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., a premier provider of world-class vacation experiences through villa-style resorts and privileged access to Starwood brands. For more information, please visit http://www.starwoodhotels.com.

Media Contacts: Terry Wills or Victoria Bors
Wills Communications, Inc.
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(310) 546-1212

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Posted on Jan 23, 2013 - 01:36 PM ? Print

Source: http://www.hospitality-industry.com/index.php/news/comments/starwood_hotels_resorts_forecast_top_10_los_cabos_travel_trends/

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Gilda's Club chapter in Wis. sticks with name

MADISON, Wis. (AP) ? Stung by the overwhelmingly negative reaction to removing the name of original "Saturday Night Live" cast member Gilda Radner from a cancer support group's title, the Madison-area chapter is borrowing one of the comedian's catch phrases for its next announcement: Never mind.

Gilda's Club Madison will remain just that, group leaders told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The board voted last week to keep the name after an avalanche of criticism in November when it announced it was switching to the more generic Cancer Support Community Southwest Wisconsin, in part out of concern that young people today were unfamiliar with Radner, who died of ovarian cancer in 1989.

"It really struck a chord with folks and all of us agreed we want people to come to Gilda's and get the help that they need," said Wayne Harris, chairman of the board for the Madison chapter. "If this is what it takes to make that happen, we're all as a group happy to make it happen."

The intention of changing to a broader name was honorable, Harris said. "In retrospect, we probably should have thought that through or understood it more," he said.

Anger over the name change, which was supposed to take effect this month, came from members of the local Gilda's Club chapter, fans of Radner who saw it as a slight to a woman who confronted cancer with dignity and humor, leaders of other clubs who reaffirmed their commitment to keeping the name, as well as Radner's husband, actor Gene Wilder.

"We started receiving emails right away," said Lannia Stenz, director of the Madison chapter. "For the most part it was simply asking 'why did you do this, please reconsider.' It was really, truly passionate feedback. We had some people who were angry but at the base of everything it was the love of Gilda and her story."

The potential loss of donations "was not as much of a factor in our decision to retain the name as the feedback our board and staff received from our members and community," Stenz said.

Stenz and Harris said the goal of the name change was always about making clear the group's mission, not to remove Radner's memory.

"We were just talking about changing the name that we went by legally," Harris said. While Radner would have still been a part of the organization, "in the end, they want to see Gilda's name out front," he said.

Paintings and drawings of Radner line the walls of the Madison-area chapter, which is located in the suburb of Middleton. One depicts her on top of Madison's state Capitol. Another imagines her sitting along the shores of Lake Mendota on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

The meeting rooms are named after her "Saturday Night Live" characters, including New York-street smart reporter Roseanne Roseannadana; speech-impeded talk show host Baba Wawa, a parody of Barbara Walters; and out-of-sync editorialist Emily Litella who would say, "Never mind," after being told of her confusion.

Radner was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1986. She sought support from The Wellness Community in California, and in 1991, her friends and family started Gilda's Club on the East Coast to honor her legacy. The name was inspired by something Radner said after her diagnosis: "Having cancer gave me membership in an elite club I'd rather not belong to."

Gilda's Club Worldwide merged with The Wellness Community in 2009, and the joint headquarters in Washington changed its name to the Cancer Support Community. Local chapters were given the choice of keeping their names or changing it. Of the 53 chapters worldwide, 23 are known as Gilda's Club.

Together, the chapters deliver $40 million a year in free care to about 1 million cancer patients and their families, said Linda House, executive vice president of the national Cancer Support Community. The Madison chapter has about 2,200 members.

Stenz said she hoped the Madison community that Gilda's Club serves will embrace its decision to keep the name.

As far as lessons learned from the experience, Harris had a simple takeaway: "We're not changing our name again."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gildas-club-chapter-wis-sticks-name-171947151.html

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Republican Party Brings Politics To A Crisis Point: Michael Tomasky

The Daily Beast:

With their refusal to vote for Boehner?s Plan B, Republicans have definitively shown that they?d rather sabotage democracy than govern. How can they be stopped?

Read the whole story at The Daily Beast

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/24/republican-party_n_2360061.html

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School Shooting Victim's Message From Beyond the Grave | FOX8 ...

NEWTOWN, Connecticut (CNN) ? Grace McDonnell would write messages for her mother in the bathroom window.

On the first day without Grace, the bathroom fogged up and mom glanced at the window. And right there was a message from beyond the grave.

The little girl had drawn the peace sign, her favorite symbol. Above it was a heart with the words: ?Grace, Mom.?

?She was all about peace and gentleness and kindness,? said Lynn McDonnell.

Amazing, Grace. A girl who lived by the family?s mottos: ?Live for the moment? and ?Soak it in.?

The McDonnells are now part of a community bound together by the tragedy of what transpired at a Connecticut elementary school, joined by a nation that has grieved with them.

Yet amid the memories of that awful day in Newtown, signs of hope have emerged.

Gene Rosen won?t forget his connection. It?s touched his soul and made him believe more in God and angels again.

Rosen went out back to feed two of his cats shortly after 9:15 a.m. on December 14. His home sits on an acre of land on Riverside Road, with his backyard on a hill overlooking Sandy Hook Elementary.

That day, he heard staccato gunfire ? Boom! Boom! Boom! ? coming from the vicinity of the school. The retired psychologist convinced himself it was fireworks.

Andrei Nikitchyuk was working in his home office that morning. He received a robocall from the school that it was in lockdown. He didn?t think much of it ? the school recently had two lockdowns for false alarms: a suspicious car and bank robbery.

Inside the school, his son, Bear, walked down the hall with a friend toward the main office. Gunshots whizzed by.

Teacher Janet Vollmer huddled with her children away from doors and windows. Someone turned on the intercom system. The sound of gunfire and a woman crying was piped into every classroom.

Vollmer told her kids she loved them and began reading out loud.

A loss of innocence

It shattered a town and brought a president to tears. Twenty children ? all aged 6 and 7 ? were gunned down in the safest place they had ever known, their home away from home. Six educators died, too, hailed as heroes.

Never had an act of violence seemed so heinous, so horrifying in America. An attack on pure innocence at a school that symbolized peace and love.

Since then, residents of Newtown have been dealing with the arc of life in unimaginable ways ? of death and loss, of pain and suffering, of shock and horror, of beginning to heal.

Couples who settled here years ago had grown close to one another through their children and their schools. Teens in middle school had babysat the first-graders slain at Sandy Hook. Some teens had played on sports teams with siblings of the slain children; others attended dance class with sisters of girls killed at the school. College students, home for the holiday, saw the school they loved desecrated.

?I can?t even tell you how hard it is for these kids,? said Lillian Bittman, former chairwoman of the Newtown Board of Education. ?A lot of these kids have been here their whole lives. That?s why these connections are so strong.

?They?ve lost their childhood.?

Newtown?s Pastor Rocky Veach had been a preacher in Littleton, Colorado, when the Columbine shooting occurred. He said the biggest lesson he learned from the 1999 massacre was ?that a lot of things are going to pan out over the next months here, even years, and you will see God?s hand was in this, but you can?t see it now.?

Maybe it?s too soon, too difficult to imagine another reality further in the future. Right now, residents can only think of the town they once knew and how everything changed that Friday.

For most, the pain is just too fresh, the attack too senseless to comprehend.

In the wake of the massacre, Americans have begun looking at gun control and mental health issues. It?s also forced our society to take a deep introspective look: Have we become too polarized? What can we learn from those children?

Is there meaning to be drawn from Grace?s message on that window?

Journey into hell

Gene Rosen had blocked out the sounds of whatever he heard coming from the school. How obnoxious, he thought, that somebody would shoot off fireworks so early in the day.

?I wanted to think that,? he said, ?because I know the school is over there.?

He fed his two cats in a loft above his garage and walked back toward his home. He spotted something odd toward the end of his driveway.

There were six children ? four girls and two boys ? sitting on his lawn. A woman sat in the middle with them. A tall, skinny man stood over them and spoke in a loud voice: ?IT?S GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT! IT?S GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT!?

Rosen thought they were practicing a school skit. When he got closer, he could see the children were out of breath and crying.

?There?s been an incident at the school,? said the woman, a Sandy Hook bus driver.

Rosen?s not sure how the bus driver ended up with the children on his lawn. Nor does he know the identity of the man, who later walked off.

But Rosen knows this: It was the start of a ?journey into hell.?

He once had worked as a psychologist with the chronically mentally ill at a state psychiatric hospital. But nothing had prepared him for what would transpire next. Instead, at 69, his grandfatherly instincts kicked in.

He invited the children into his home. He ran upstairs and grabbed as many stuffed animals as possible. They calmed the children briefly.

One of the girls stared out his living room window. ?I want my mommy,? she said. ?I want my mommy.?

The two boys sat on the floor, crying uncontrollably and shouting, ?We can?t go back to school! We can?t go back to school! We don?t have a teacher!?

Then they said the name of their 27-year-old teacher, Victoria Soto.

?Mrs. Soto! Mrs. Soto! She?s gone,? they said in unison.

One of the girls said she watched the teacher fall to the ground.

Without prompting, one of the boys added, ?He had a big gun and he had a little gun.?

The other boy said, ?Yeah, yeah, he had a big gun and a little gun.?

Then they both began anew their chilling cry. ?We can?t go back to school. We can?t go back to school ??

Blowing Mom a kiss

Grace McDonnell, 7, enjoyed Sandy Hook Elementary School with its loving teachers and inviting learning environment. Earlier in the week she had a stomachache, and her mother suggested she stay home.

?No way,? the girl said. ?I have too much fun there, and I don?t want to miss anything.?

Eager to learn, Grace would pack her bag the night before school and skip to the bus stop when it was time to leave.

The night before the tragedy, Mom and Dad tucked their only daughter in bed. ?See you in the morning,? Chris McDonnell told her. ?Don?t let the bed bugs bite.?

Mom often joked that her daughter was so full of life ?she would talk from the minute she woke up until the minute she went to bed. We were always, ?It?s time for bed, Grace. It?s time for bed, Grace.??

That Friday morning was like any other school day, a whirlwind of activity before heading out the door. She skipped down the road and boarded the school bus.

Grace blew her mother a kiss, as she always did. An endearing final image.

?Luckiest guy in the room?

Bear was one of two third-graders chosen by their teacher for the important job of class helper. The pair headed out of the room that morning to deliver an attendance report to the office.

As they neared the office, gunshots rang out. Bear said he could see bullets flying by. Smoke filled the air.

The two children froze, like deer in headlights. A second-grade teacher saw the children were in harm?s way, raced toward them and grabbed them. She pulled them into a bathroom with other children and barricaded the door.

?If she didn?t do that, I don?t know,? said Bear?s father, Andrei Nikitchyuk.

Nikitchyuk and his wife were filled with anxiety when they realized the robocall was real. Rumors were rampant. Parents were panicked. Police were everywhere.

A Ukrainian native, Nikitchyuk came to the United States in 1992 shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He had always felt safe here and had been fortunate enough to live the American dream.

He settled in Newtown eight years ago. His two oldest children, ages 13 and 14, had attended Sandy Hook.

?It?s just horrific,? Nikitchyuk said. ?I don?t know how our little ones are going to be affected by all this, but our older ones, I think, matured in just a few days.?

The father was spurred to action: ?This horrific event woke me up.? He traveled to the White House to speak up for gun control. He was the Sandy Hook representative for a Newtown United delegation that was joined by families who had lost loved ones to gun violence in the mass shootings in Aurora, Colorado, Columbine and Virginia Tech, as well as random shootings in Chicago.

?I was the luckiest guy in the room because my kid survived and theirs didn?t.?

The group met with Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Obama.

Nikitchyuk?s message: ?This is unacceptable in our society. We have to do better.?

Emergency plans and instinct

Kindergarten teacher Janet Vollmer heard what she believed were gunshots. Then, the intercom system piped in the sounds of gunfire into her room. The teachers were well-schooled on drills; their principal made sure of that.

Vollmer immediately began putting her emergency planning to use. She knew the drill was to get kids outside and to the nearby firehouse. But it seemed too dangerous. She had 19 children she needed to protect.

?There was no announcement of what was going on,? she said. ?My instinct was it wasn?t good.?

The teacher of 18 years gathered her kindergartners in a cubby area away from the door. Teaching assistants closed the blinds.

?We read a story and we kept them calm,? she said. ?We do this as teachers. We are trained. We have drills. We talk to the kids and in case something were to happen, this is what we do.?

After about 30 minutes, she said, police knocked on the door. The children were told to close their eyes and walk in a line outside. She told the kids to look straight at the walls and nothing else until they got outside. They headed to the Sandy Hook firehouse, the school?s emergency gathering point.

It would be hours before she learned the awful magnitude. She had taught 10 of the slain children just last year.

?The gift of these children?

Gene Rosen?s home sits right next to the firehouse. Inside his house, the kids continued to wail.

?We can?t go back to school!?

At one point, one of the boys broke through his tears with a note of levity. He sat up, held his finger in the air and said, ?Just saying, your house is very small.?

?In that moment, he brought into the home peace and light,? Rosen recalled. ?I felt like an angel descended upon us and this boy, and we laughed.?

?God sent a respite from hell ? just a moment of recess.? He paused, then added: ?They saw their teacher assassinated.?

He and the school bus driver tried to call the children?s parents, but they got answering machines. They notified the driver?s supervisor who relayed the information to authorities. Some of the parents soon arrived. The parents, Rosen and the six kids walked to the neighboring firehouse.

The children and their teachers huddled in bay areas where firetrucks are typically kept so they could be counted.

Two hours later, after Rosen had returned home, a woman knocked on his door. She said she was the mother of 6-year-old Jesse Lewis.

?Her face looked frozen in fear. She said to me, ?I heard there were six kids here. Is he here???

Rosen knew the names of the six children who he helped. His heart sank. ?No, he?s not here,? Rosen told her.

As he recalled that encounter, Rosen wept. ?She was just looking for a miracle, and I wanted to deliver her son to her ? and I couldn?t.?

Initial reports had indicated two adults were dead, but by late Friday afternoon parents of the slain children were told of their loss at a private room in the firehouse.

Back at the firehouse, Rosen looked at a list posted later and wept again when he saw two of the names: Victoria Soto and Jesse Lewis.

Before the tragedy, Rosen often read children?s books to an elementary school in a neighboring town.

He?d recently come across a kid?s book about a girl whose dog died in a fire. For weeks afterward, the girl smelled soot in her dreams and couldn?t sleep. Then, one night a one-eyed cat jumped into her bed, cuddled with her and purred. The cat?s soothing purr helped her sleep for the first time.

?The book doesn?t end with a rainbow,? he said. ?It ends with hope in the sense of the continuity of her healing.?

He couldn?t help but wonder: What will be Newtown?s one-eyed cat?

?The one-eyed cat is here,? he said. ?I don?t know what it is yet.?

The son of Orthodox Jews from Ukraine, Rosen hasn?t been to synagogue in more than 40 years. But he said God delivered six angels to him that day. ?This experience has made me spiritual,? he said. ?I want to show those children that there is light.

?Let the goodness of the children, their essential innocence and goodness and energy ? let them provide us with a pathway,? he said. ?That?s what I want the gift of these children to be.?

?So many angels?

The McDonnells were overcome when they first saw Grace?s white casket at the funeral home. ?You felt like the floor was falling out beneath you and your breath was taken away,? her mother said.

But then, they pulled out Sharpies of all colors and began drawing: peace signs, ice cream cones, lighthouses, sea gulls. The family said it looked like it was covered in graffiti by the time they were done.

?We had to take great joy in knowing that when we walked in there it was so white, and our breath was taken away,? Lynn McDonnell said. ?But when we walked out of there, it was like we had joy again. It had so much color.?

The family also brought Grace?s favorite pocketbook, seashells, hair bows and flip-flops, as well as her sunglasses and a frying pan. Her father placed his New York Yankees cap with her. Grace loved Taylor Swift and Kenny Chesney ? the family gave her music from both.

?When we left, we were like: She?s fully stocked,? her mom recalled.

Her father said that ?thinking of her smile, her spark, her brightness? helped guide the family through this most difficult time. Telling Grace?s 12-year-old brother Jack what had happened, he said, was the ?toughest thing to do.?

The McDonnells, like the other grieving families, met privately with President Obama when he visited Newtown last Sunday. Lynn McDonnell said his visit brought reassurance. ?He?s just a dad coming in to meet a dad and a mom and a son ? and we really felt that.?

Grace was a budding artist. The family gave the president a painting of an owl she had drawn. He told the family he would treasure it.

The parents say they?re comforted by the fact Grace died with her friends. ?She was at a place that she loved,? her mother said.

?We have so many angels and so many bright stars shining over all of us in this town right now,? the father said. ?They will teach us how to go on and how to live through them.?

They have no hatred toward the shooter, a point they?ve emphasized to their surviving son.

?The thing that Grace taught us is that you?ve got to live for the future,? her father said. ?You?ve got to live for happiness, peace, and to not divert your energies to hate, anger. That wasn?t her. It?s not us.?

That, they say, is their daughter?s lasting legacy.

*Click to read more.

Source: http://fox8.com/2012/12/23/school-shooting-victims-message-from-beyond-the-grave/

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Sudan rules out devaluation despite black market gap

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan plans to close the gap between official and black market exchange rates through higher earnings from resources like gold and oil instead of devaluing the pound again, a vice-president said on Wednesday.

Sudan has been in economic crisis since South Sudan seceded last year, taking with it three-quarters of the once unified nation's oil output. This had been Sudan's main source of revenues and the dollars it needs to pay for imports.

Inflation hit 45 percent in October. This week Sudan's pound fell to a historic low of 6.5 pounds against the dollar on the black market as hopes faded that Sudan would soon collect revenues from South Sudanese oil exports.

In an interview with Reuters, Second Vice President al-Haj Adam Youssef said authorities were trying to get the rate down to about 4.5 pounds to the dollar, close to the official rate of around 4.4 pounds.

"There are some efforts to have the price of the dollar around 4.5 as an average in the next few months, and that will be appropriate for our economy, for export and import as well," he said in his office in Sudan's Republican Palace on the Nile.

Youssef said the government would not devalue the pound, as it did in July when it nearly halved the official value.

Instead, it hoped the pound would get a boost from previously announced plans to increase foreign currency earnings through higher output of gold and oil from Sudan's own resources.

"We want things to be normalised by the natural mechanism," he said.

There is little foreign trade in the pound, but listed firms like cellphone operator Zain, German airline Lufthansa and Bank of Khartoum, co-owned by Dubai Islamic Bank, watch the rate closely because they sell products in pounds and then struggle to convert profits to dollars.

CUTTING SUBSIDIES

Sudanese officials blame economic problems largely on tensions with South Sudan, which was supposed to pay Khartoum fees to pipe oil through Sudanese pipelines to a Red Sea port.

But the two fell out over the fees, and South Sudan shut down its 350,000 barrel-per-day output in January. Flows have yet to resume, although the two signed economic and border security deals in September that officials say could see oil exports restart by the end of the year.

Sudan says it aims to increase oil production in its remaining fields from 115,000 barrels per day to 150,000 bpd next year. It had planned to boost output to 180,000 bpd this year but failed to reach the target.

The country's gold exports reached between 47 and 48 tonnes this year and were expected to rise above 50 tonnes annually, bringing in more than $2 billion a year, Finance Minister Ali Mahmoud said this week.

Even before South Sudan seceded - the result of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war - Sudan's economy was weakened by years of conflict, corruption and U.S. trade sanctions.

The government was forced to scale back its costly fuel subsidy programme in June to plug a budget deficit left by the loss of oil revenues, sparking small anti-government protests.

Youssef said the government still aimed to eliminate subsidies for all commodities but declined to give a timeline, saying only that subsidies would be phased out gradually.

The country's cabinet approved the country's 2013 budget on Monday, putting the budget gap at 10 billion Sudanese pounds - roughly $1.5 billion at current black market rates.

Even without earnings from the South's oil - which are not included in the budget - Youssef said the government could draw about half the deficit from the central bank and make up the rest with increased tax collection and other measures.

Support from friendly countries could also help, he said, although this was not included in the budget. "There is no problem as far as the deficit is concerned," he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sudan-rules-devaluation-despite-black-market-gap-060041732--finance.html

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Asperger's dropped from revised diagnosis manual

CHICAGO (AP) ? The now familiar term "Asperger's disorder" is being dropped. And abnormally bad and frequent temper tantrums will be given a scientific-sounding diagnosis called DMDD. But "dyslexia" and other learning disorders remain.

The revisions come in the first major rewrite in nearly 20 years of the diagnostic guide used by the nation's psychiatrists. Changes were approved Saturday.

Full details of all the revisions will come next May when the American Psychiatric Association's new diagnostic manual is published, but the impact will be huge, affecting millions of children and adults worldwide. The manual also is important for the insurance industry in deciding what treatment to pay for, and it helps schools decide how to allot special education.

This diagnostic guide "defines what constellations of symptoms" doctors recognize as mental disorders, said Dr. Mark Olfson, a Columbia University psychiatry professor. More important, he said, it "shapes who will receive what treatment. Even seemingly subtle changes to the criteria can have substantial effects on patterns of care."

Olfson was not involved in the revision process. The changes were approved Saturday in suburban Washington, D.C., by the psychiatric association's board of trustees.

The aim is not to expand the number of people diagnosed with mental illness, but to ensure that affected children and adults are more accurately diagnosed so they can get the most appropriate treatment, said Dr. David Kupfer. He chaired the task force in charge of revising the manual and is a psychiatry professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

One of the most hotly argued changes was how to define the various ranges of autism. Some advocates opposed the idea of dropping the specific diagnosis for Asperger's disorder. People with that disorder often have high intelligence and vast knowledge on narrow subjects but lack social skills. Some who have the condition embrace their quirkiness and vow to continue to use the label.

And some Asperger's families opposed any change, fearing their kids would lose a diagnosis and no longer be eligible for special services.

But the revision will not affect their education services, experts say.

The new manual adds the term "autism spectrum disorder," which already is used by many experts in the field. Asperger's disorder will be dropped and incorporated under that umbrella diagnosis. The new category will include kids with severe autism, who often don't talk or interact, as well as those with milder forms.

Kelli Gibson of Battle Creek, Mich., who has four sons with various forms of autism, said Saturday she welcomes the change. Her boys all had different labels in the old diagnostic manual, including a 14-year-old with Asperger's.

"To give it separate names never made sense to me," Gibson said. "To me, my children all had autism."

Three of her boys receive special education services in public school; the fourth is enrolled in a school for disabled children. The new autism diagnosis won't affect those services, Gibson said. She also has a 3-year-old daughter without autism.

People with dyslexia also were closely watching for the new updated doctors' guide. Many with the reading disorder did not want their diagnosis to be dropped. And it won't be. Instead, the new manual will have a broader learning disorder category to cover several conditions including dyslexia, which causes difficulty understanding letters and recognizing written words.

The trustees on Saturday made the final decision on what proposals made the cut; recommendations came from experts in several work groups assigned to evaluate different mental illnesses.

The revised guidebook "represents a significant step forward for the field. It will improve our ability to accurately diagnose psychiatric disorders," Dr. David Fassler, the group's treasurer and a University of Vermont psychiatry professor, said after the vote.

The shorthand name for the new edition, the organization's fifth revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, is DSM-5. Group leaders said specifics won't be disclosed until the manual is published but they confirmed some changes. A 2000 edition of the manual made minor changes but the last major edition was published in 1994.

Olfson said the manual "seeks to capture the current state of knowledge of psychiatric disorders. Since 2000 ... there have been important advances in our understanding of the nature of psychiatric disorders."

Catherine Lord, an autism expert at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York who was on the psychiatric group's autism task force, said anyone who met criteria for Asperger's in the old manual would be included in the new diagnosis.

One reason for the change is that some states and school systems don't provide services for children and adults with Asperger's, or provide fewer services than those given an autism diagnosis, she said.

Autism researcher Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer for the advocacy group Autism Speaks, said small studies have suggested the new criteria will be effective. But she said it will be crucial to monitor so that children don't lose services.

Other changes include:

?A new diagnosis for severe recurrent temper tantrums ? disruptive mood dysregulation disorder. Critics say it will medicalize kids' who have normal tantrums. Supporters say it will address concerns about too many kids being misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder and treated with powerful psychiatric drugs. Bipolar disorder involves sharp mood swings and affected children are sometimes very irritable or have explosive tantrums.

?Eliminating the term "gender identity disorder." It has been used for children or adults who strongly believe that they were born the wrong gender. But many activists believe the condition isn't a disorder and say calling it one is stigmatizing. The term would be replaced with "gender dysphoria," which means emotional distress over one's gender. Supporters equated the change with removing homosexuality as a mental illness in the diagnostic manual, which happened decades ago.

___

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner .

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2012-12-01-US-MED-Mental-Disorders/id-804f91e992cc40a9832c0ae0177be70b

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Undermining faith in law enforcement and national security: the legacy of Eric Holder (Powerlineblog)

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