Tornadoes: 3 Days, 14 States
More than 240 tornadoes have been reported since Thursday, including a “family” of 92 tornadoes that killed 22 people and left 84,000 without power in North Carolina on Saturday. Tornado activity has been heavier this year than last, according to the National Weather Service.
Thursday
• 23 tornado sightings in 5 states
Seventeen of the 23 tornadoes on Thursday were reported in Oklahoma. At least two residents of Tushka, in Atoka County, shown above, died when a twister touched down there. Most residents made it to shelters before the storms hit.
Friday
• 113 tornado sightings in 6 states
Alabama and Mississippi had the most tornadoes and damage, with 101 of the 113 sightings in those two states alone. At least seven people were killed in Alabama, and more than a dozen counties reported damage, including Autauga County, above.
Saturday
• 107 tornado sightings in 4 states
There were 92 tornadoes reported across North Carolina on Saturday night. At least 14 people were killed and 50 seriously injured in Bertie, N.C., according to state officials. Major avenues in downtown Raleigh were blocked by fallen trees. A Lowe’s store, in Lee County, above, was damaged extensively.
Video: Research Links Weight Loss and Memory Performance
Professor at Kent State is optimistic losing weight can improve brain function
Can losing weight make you smarter?
One professor at Kent State University is working to answer that question. And so far, the answer appears to be "yes."
John Gunstad, an associate professor of psychology at Kent State, is working to publish the first round of research in a study linking weight loss to improved brain fuction.
Gunstad worked with a team of researchers for the past four years collecting data from 150 patients in New York and North Dakota. Their research showed patients who had undergone bariatric weight loss surgery demonstrated improved memory and concentration as they lost weight.
One particular test showed patients who lost weight could both learn more words and retain them more effectively.
"Seeing that weight loss improves both of those steps is very encouraging," Gunstad said. "Now we just have to figure out how it all happens."
Gunstad's research team is following study participants for two years. Each patient was tested before the bariatric surgery and 12 weeks after. The participants were tested again one year after surgery and will undergo more testing at the two-year mark.
The $1.5 million study, funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, will culminate with the findings published in an upcoming issue of Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, the Official Journal of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.
Gunstad, a neuropsychologist, said weight loss has more far-reaching effects on brain function than just improving memory and concentration.
"It’s broader than just memory," he said. "So it seems to be that obesity affects the brain in lots of ways. And we’re just really I think at the tip of the iceburg."
Their next line of research will study whether patients who lose weight through more natural steps — dieting and exercise — also show improved brain function as opposed to only surgical patients.
"We’re cautiously optimistic that it will happen," he said. "Exercising more, eating a healthier diet, all those things lead to better cognition."
Reese Witherspoon Dazzles at First Post-Wedding Premiere
BY PAUL CHI AND SARA HAMMEL
Sunday April 17, 2011 09:00 PM EDT
Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson
Dave Allocca/Startraks
Newlywed Reese Witherspoon just returned from her honeymoon, but she's already back to work and looking glamorous at her first public event since her wedding day.
Witherspoon, 35, posed with costarRobert Pattinson, wearing her new wedding ring and dazzling in a white Jason Wu cocktail dress accented with black beading. The newlywed says being referred to as Mrs. Toth now is simply "great."
Also garnering praise from the actress was Pattinson himself – despite his runny nose during their steamier scenes in the film.
"Even if this guy is sick, I'm so lucky. We had great time," Witherspoon told reporters. "Not only is he super sexy and obviously incredibly handsome, but he's really a lovely, nice person."
Now that Witherspoon and Pattinson are pals, the Oscar winner jokingly says she's bummed out that she hasn't received a wedding gift from theTwilight star.
"Not yet and I am waiting," she says with a laugh. "Tell him tick-tock, I am waiting!"
Water for Elephants hits theaters April 22.
If this isn't the Great Depression, it is the Great Humbling. Can manhood survive the lost decade?
Brian Goodell, of Mission Viejo, Calif., won two gold medals in the 1976 Olympics. An all-American, God-fearing golden boy, he segued into a comfortable career in commercial real estate. Until 2008, when he was laid off. As a 17-year-old swimmer, he set two world records. As a 52-year-old job hunter, he’s drowning.
Brock Johnson, of Philadelphia, was groomed at Harvard Business School and McKinsey & Co., and was so sure of his marketability that he resigned in 2009 as CEO of a Fortune 500 company without a new job in hand. Johnson, who asked that his real name not be used, was certain his BlackBerry would be buzzing off its holster with better offers. At 48, he’s still unemployed.
Two coasts. Two men who can’t find jobs. And one defining moment for the men in the gray flannel suits who used to run this country. Or at least manage it.
Capitalism has always been cruel to its castoffs, but those blessed with a college degree and blue-chip résumé have traditionally escaped the worst of it. In recessions past, they’ve kept their jobs or found new ones as easily as they might hail a cab or board the 5:15 to White Plains. But not this time.
Can Manhood Survive the Recession?
The suits are “doing worse than they have at any time since the Great Depression,” says Heidi Shierholz, a labor economist at the Economic Policy Institute. And while economists don’t have fine-grain data on the number of these men who are jobless—many, being men, would rather not admit to it—by all indications this hitherto privileged demo isn’t just on its knees, it’s flat on its face. Maybe permanently. Once college-educated workers hit 45, notes a post on the professional-finance blog Calculated Risk, “if they lose their job, they are toast.”
The same guys who once drove BMWs, in other words, have now been downsized to BWMs: Beached White Males.
Through the first quarter of 2011, nearly 600,000 college-educated white men ages 35 to 64 were unemployed, according to previously unpublished Labor Department stats. That’s more than 5 percent jobless—double the group’s pre-recession rate. That might not sound bad compared with the plight of younger, less-educated workers and minorities, but it’s a historic change from the last recession, when about half as many lost their oxford shirts. The number of college-educated men unemployed for at least a year is five times higher today than after the dotcom bubble. In New York City, men in the 35-to-54 kill zone have lost jobs faster than any other group, including teenage girls, according to new data from the Fiscal Policy Institute.
As if middle age isn’t bad enough. The moribund metabolism. The purple pill that keeps your food down. The blue pill that keeps another part of your anatomy up. Now you can’t get aneffing job? Stuck in your own personal Detroit of the soul, with the grinding stress of enforced idleness. The wife who doesn’t look at you quite the same way. The poignantly forgiving sons. The stain on your masculinity for becoming the bread-loser.
Several drunk driving arrests Saturday in Petaluma
By RANDI ROSSMAN
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Published: Sunday, April 17, 2011 at 5:37 p.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, April 17, 2011 at 5:37 p.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, April 17, 2011 at 5:37 p.m.
Petaluma police reported numerous arrests Saturday allegedly involving people who’d been drinking at the annual Butter and Egg Days festival, including two people in one car arrested on suspicion of drunken driving.
Police officials late Saturday night issued a release listing 13 calls and a dozen arrests between about 3:45 p.m. and 9:45 p.m., which officials tied to activity following the parade.
Officials said the parade and parade-goers posed no problems.
The bulk of the calls involved people arrested on suspicion of being drunk in public.
One such arrest was of a 31-year-old man stopped near B and Second streets at about 7:10 p.m. after reports from citizens of someone walking on top of cars and urinating in public.
A 22-year-old man was arrested at about 6:45 p.m. after he punched a car whose driver had been stopped by a police officer.
The officer was conducting the traffic stop when the young Novato man ran up to the car and hit it, police reported. He was with a group who told officers they’d come to town for the day’s activities.
Police reported two suspected drunken driving cases, garnering three arrests.
The man and woman arrested from one car were stopped after a 4:50 p.m. caller reported seeing a possibly intoxicated man running over bushes as he drove from Galland Street near downtown.
Officer stopped the car on Petaluma Boulevard North. They found a woman behind the wheel, officials said.
Officers learned the man had been driving initially but they’d switched spots.
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