Serve Up Dinner Straight from the South Beach Wine & Food Festival
Label: LifestyleCarrot Lemon Thyme Sorbet and Executive Chef Hector Morales's Gazpacho
Come Thursday, there will be plenty of familiar faces heating up Miami Beach. And we mean in the kitchen.
As celeb chefs such as Bobby Flay, Paula Deen and Rachael Ray flock to the South Beach Wine & Food Festival presented by FOOD & WINE, you, too, can get a taste of the festivities, which run through the weekend. And you don't even have to leave your kitchen – just follow these recipes.
Carrot Lemon Thyme Sorbet
From Restaurant: Impossible chef Robert Irvine, who will be serving up his sorbet at the Whole Foods Market Grand Tasting Village• 1 tbsp. lemon zest
• 1 cup carrot juice
• 1 cup water
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp. thyme (minced)
• 1 cup fresh lemon juice
• ¾ cup sparkling water
Over medium high heat, bring water, juice, lemon zest, mint and sugar to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium, and simmer for additional 10 minutes. Then remove from heat and pour through chamois; let cool. Next, in a bowl, add prepared syrup and sparkling water. Finish in an ice cream machine.
Executive Chef Hector Morales's Gazpacho
Grab a cup from Badia Spices• 4 large beefsteak tomatoes
• 1 pint orange juice
• 1 pint tomato juice
• 3 red peppers (cleaned, seeded and chopped)
• 1 green pepper (cleaned, seeded and chopped)
• 1 large cucumber (peeled and seeded, cut in cubes)
• 1 medium onion (peeled and diced)
• 2 cloves garlic (roasted and chopped; rub with olive oil before roasting)
• 2 pieces of celery (chopped)
• 2 tsp. sea salt (recipe recommends Badia's)
• ¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil (recipe recommends Badia's)
• ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
• cayenne pepper to taste
Rub tomatoes with extra-virgin olive oil, and sprinkle with sea salt. Roast in a 400ºF oven until skin starts to come off. Let cool and peel the skins; chop the tomatoes.
Mix all ingredients together in a blender and purée until smooth.
Chef Curtis Stone's Cocktail
Chef Curtis Stone's Cocktail
The Aussie chef will host Moët Hennessy's The Q After Dark at the fest• 2 oz. vodka (recipe recommends Belvedere)
• ¾ oz. fresh lemon juice
• ¾ oz. simple syrup
Shake and strain over cubed ice into a rocks glass. Garnish with a wedge of lemon.
UK patient dies from SARS-like coronavirus
Label: HealthLONDON (AP) — A patient being treated for a mysterious SARS-like virus has died, a British hospital said Tuesday.
Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, central England, said the coronavirus victim was also being treated for "a long-term, complex unrelated health problem" and already had a compromised immune system.
A total of 12 people worldwide have been diagnosed with the disease, six of whom have died.
The virus was first identified last year in the Middle East. Most of those infected had traveled to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Pakistan, but the person who just died is believed to have caught it from a relative in Britain, where there have been four confirmed cases.
The new coronavirus is part of a family of viruses that cause ailments including the common cold and SARS. In 2003, a global outbreak of SARS killed about 800 people worldwide.
Health experts still aren't sure exactly how humans are being infected. The new coronavirus is most closely related to a bat virus and scientists are considering whether bats or other animals like goats or camels are a possible source of infection.
Britain's Health Protection Agency has said while it appears the virus can spread from person to person, "the risk of infection in contacts in most circumstances is still considered to be low."
Officials at the World Health Organization said the new virus has probably already spread between humans in some instances. In Saudi Arabia last year, four members of the same family fell ill and two died. And in a cluster of about a dozen people in Jordan, the virus may have spread at a hospital's intensive care unit.
M&A deals lift shares, suggest more value in market
Label: BusinessNEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday as merger activity suggested the market could offer investors still more value even as the S&P 500 and Dow industrials hover near five-year highs.
Equities have resisted a pullback as investors use dips in stocks as buying opportunities. The S&P is up about 7 percent so far in 2013 and has climbed for the past seven weeks in its longest weekly winning streak since January 2011, though most of the weekly gains have been slim.
Office Depot Inc
OfficeMax jumped 20 percent to $12.94 while larger rival Staples Inc
More than $158 billion in deals has been announced thus far in 2013. Last week, agreements included the acquisition of H.J. Heinz Co
"Equity investors have to be encouraged by M&A since, if the number crunchers are offering large premiums, that shows how much value is still in the market," said Mike Gibbs, co-head of the equity advisory group at Raymond James in Memphis, Tennessee.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 37.81 points, or 0.27 percent, at 14,019.57. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 6.84 points, or 0.45 percent, at 1,526.63. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 9.39 points, or 0.29 percent, at 3,201.42.
U.S. markets were closed on Monday for the Presidents Day holiday.
Health insurance stocks tumbled, led by a 7 percent drop in Humana Inc
UnitedHealth Group
Express Scripts
Wall Street's strong start to the year for was fueled by stronger-than-expected corporate earnings, as well as a compromise by legislators in Washington that temporarily averted automatic spending cuts and tax hikes that are predicted to damage the economy.
The compromise on across-the-board spending cuts postponed the matter until March 1, at which point the cuts take effect. Ahead of the debate over the cuts, known as sequestration, further gains for stocks may be difficult to come by.
"If there's no major contention with sequestration, it looks like stocks are prepared to handle it, but until then we'll probably stay in a consolidation period marked by sideways trading with a slow rate of ascent," said Gibbs.
Economic data showed the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market index unexpectedly edged down to 46 in February from 47 in the prior month as builders faced higher material costs.
According to the Thomson Reuters data through Monday morning, of the 391 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported results, 70.1 percent have exceeded analysts' expectations, compared with a 62 percent average since 1994 and 65 percent over the past four quarters.
Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies have risen 5.6 percent, according to the data, above a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season.
(Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Kenneth Barry and Nick Zieminski)
Chaz Bono: How I Lost 43 Lbs. - and Hope to Lose More
Label: LifestyleChaz Bono, before and after losing weight
Courtesy CBS Television Distribution
Chaz Bono's 2013 has gotten off to a healthy start!
The former Dancing with the Stars contestant, 43, has already dropped 43 lbs. since announcing his public mission to lose 50 lbs. beginning in mid-November.
He's now upped his goal to dropping a total of 80 lbs.
"I've been sticking to a really strict diet," he tells PEOPLE. "It's not any type of starvation thing. I'm just cutting out a lot of stuff and eating primarily protein and vegetables and fruit."
Bono, who weighed 250 lbs. pre-diet, first addressed his goal publicly with Dr. Travis Stork on an episode of The Doctors, after being approached by the show to get help.
"That episode was the most uncomfortable I've ever been on television in my life," Bono admits. "I had been wanting to lose weight. It was something I had been trying to do and failing at. This opportunity just kind of came in, and my initial reaction was 'absolutely not.' And after that, the more I thought about it, I realized I've been wanting to deal with this issue and somebody's willing to help me do it, so I decided to throw my pride away and get help."
The initial weight-loss process actually wasn't too challenging. He shed the pounds with the help of exercise and the Freshology delivered-meal plan.
"It hasn't been that long, but when you're a guy and you've got a lot of weight to lose, the initial stuff comes off pretty easily," says Bono, who'll return to The Doctors Wednesday to show off his weight loss. (check local listings). "You start to see results and you want to keep going. It's not to say you don't have cravings sometimes, but I'm very happy with how I'm looking and feeling. Especially when I'm traveling or I have to go out to eat or whatever, it's actually kind of easier than I thought to [eat healthy], so that's been good."
But now, the pounds aren't coming off as easily.
A Challenging Plan
"It's getting harder," he explains. "I'm just kind of at a little plateau right now, which I think is pretty normal, according to my doctor. The weight was falling off at first, and now it's just coming off slower. The smaller you are, the harder it is to lose weight. The last 10 or 20 lbs. are really hard to get off. I would like to lose more than that. I'm still dropping, but I'm just not dropping like I was in the beginning, which was about 4 lbs. a week."Despite the lull in his weight loss, Bono is continuing along strong with his journey.
"There haven't really been any bad parts to this so far, except certain stuff that I miss eating," he says. "But ultimately, I would much rather look and feel better than eat those things. Everything else has been really great. I feel better and when I look in the mirror, I like what I see better."
But when it comes to offering guidance to others going through the same thing, Bono will steer clear.
"I don't want to ever be that guy [to give advice]," he says. "I've struggled with weight my whole life. I don't ever want to be the guy to say, 'Just do this.' For me, it was finally getting to a place where I was willing to do whatever it took to deal with this. When you get to that point, then whatever way you choose to do it, it's going to work."
And Bono is adamant about keeping it off.
"I'm willing to kind of never eat the things I like again," he said with a laugh. "Never say never, and I know it happens a lot, but I really want to do everything I can to avoid gaining it back. I'm not going into it thinking I'm going to do that. I'm going into it thinking I'm too old to [expletive] around with that. I need to keep my weight down, moving forward, in order to be healthy."
Study: Better TV might improve kids' behavior
Label: HealthSEATTLE (AP) — Teaching parents to switch channels from violent shows to educational TV can improve preschoolers' behavior, even without getting them to watch less, a study found.
The results were modest and faded over time, but may hold promise for finding ways to help young children avoid aggressive, violent behavior, the study authors and other doctors said.
"It's not just about turning off the television. It's about changing the channel. What children watch is as important as how much they watch," said lead author Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a pediatrician and researcher at Seattle Children's Research Institute.
The research was to be published online Monday by the journal Pediatrics.
The study involved 565 Seattle parents, who periodically filled out TV-watching diaries and questionnaires measuring their child's behavior.
Half were coached for six months on getting their 3-to-5-year-old kids to watch shows like "Sesame Street" and "Dora the Explorer" rather than more violent programs like "Power Rangers." The results were compared with kids whose parents who got advice on healthy eating instead.
At six months, children in both groups showed improved behavior, but there was a little bit more improvement in the group that was coached on their TV watching.
By one year, there was no meaningful difference between the two groups overall. Low-income boys appeared to get the most short-term benefit.
"That's important because they are at the greatest risk, both for being perpetrators of aggression in real life, but also being victims of aggression," Christakis said.
The study has some flaws. The parents weren't told the purpose of the study, but the authors concede they probably figured it out and that might have affected the results.
Before the study, the children averaged about 1½ hours of TV, video and computer game watching a day, with violent content making up about a quarter of that time. By the end of the study, that increased by up to 10 minutes. Those in the TV coaching group increased their time with positive shows; the healthy eating group watched more violent TV.
Nancy Jensen, who took part with her now 6-year-old daughter, said the study was a wake-up call.
"I didn't realize how much Elizabeth was watching and how much she was watching on her own," she said.
Jensen said her daughter's behavior improved after making changes, and she continues to control what Elizabeth and her 2-year-old brother, Joe, watch. She also decided to replace most of Elizabeth's TV time with games, art and outdoor fun.
During a recent visit to their Seattle home, the children seemed more interested in playing with blocks and running around outside than watching TV.
Another researcher who was not involved in this study but also focuses his work on kids and television commended Christakis for taking a look at the influence of positive TV programs, instead of focusing on the impact of violent TV.
"I think it's fabulous that people are looking on the positive side. Because no one's going to stop watching TV, we have to have viable alternatives for kids," said Dr. Michael Rich, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children's Hospital Boston.
____
Online:
Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org
___
Contact AP Writer Donna Blankinship through Twitter (at)dgblankinship
Yen resumes fall after G20, U.S. holiday thins trade
Label: BusinessLONDON (Reuters) - The yen resumed falling on Monday after Japan signaled it would push ahead with expansionist monetary policies having escaped criticism from the world's 20 biggest economies at the weekend.
Industrial metals also dipped and European shares were soft on lingering worries about the economic outlook, especially for the euro zone. While the risk of an inconclusive outcome in Italy's forthcoming election added to investor concerns.
However, activity was curtailed by the closure of markets in the United States for the Presidents' Day holiday.
The yen, which has dropped 20 percent against the dollar since mid-November, fell further after financial leaders from the G20 promised not to devalue their currencies to boost exports and avoided singling out Japan for any direct criticism.
The dollar rose 0.5 percent to 93.95 yen, near a 33-month peak of 94.47 yen set a week ago. The euro added 0.3 percent to 125.40 yen, to be midway between Friday's two-week low of 122.90 and a 34-month high of 127.71 yen hit earlier this month.
Strategists said the yen was likely to stay weak, though its decline could lose momentum until it becomes clear who will be taking the helm at the Bank of Japan when the current governor steps down on March 19.
"The yen probably will weaken a little further in anticipation of more aggressive easing under a new leadership team at the Bank of Japan," said Julian Jessop, chief global economist at Capital Economics.
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is poised to nominate the new governor in the next few days. Sources have told Reuters that former financial bureaucrat Toshiro Muto, considered likely to be less radical than other candidates, was leading the field.
Meanwhile the euro dipped slightly against the dollar when European Central Bank president Mario Draghi said the currency's recent gains made any rise in inflation less likely and added that he had yet to see any improvement in the euro zone economy.
Speaking before the European Parliament, Draghi said the euro's exchange rate was not a policy target but was important for growth and stability, adding that appreciation of the euro "is a risk".
The comments left the euro down 0.2 percent at $1.3334.
Elsewhere in the currency market, sterling hit a seven-month low against the dollar, after a key policymaker made comments about the need for further weakness and recent poor data which has kept alive worries of another British recession.
Sterling fell 0.25 percent to $1.5476 having earlier touched $1.5438, its lowest since July 13.
DATA LOOMS
A big week for data on the outlook for the world's economy weighed on other riskier asset markets following the recent dire fourth-quarter growth numbers for the euro zone and Japan, along with Friday's soft U.S. manufacturing figures.
In European markets, attention is focused on the euro area Purchasing Managers' Indexes for February and German sentiment indices due later in the week which could affect hopes for a recovery this year.
Analysts expect Thursday's euro area flash PMI indices, which offer pointers to economic activity around six months out, to show growth stabilizing across the recession-hit region, leaving intact hopes for a recovery in the second half of 2013.
Concerns over an inconclusive outcome in the Italian election on Sunday and Monday have added to the weaker sentiment as a fragmented parliament could hamper a future government's efforts to reform the struggling economy.
The worries about the outlook for Italy were encouraging investors back into safe-haven German government bonds on Monday, with 10-year Bund yields easing 3.5 basis points to be around 1.63 percent.
"Political uncertainty will keep Bunds well bid this week," ING rate strategist Alessandro Giansanti said, adding that only better than expected economic data could create selling pressure on German debt in the near term.
Italian 10-year yields were 4 basis points higher on the day at 4.41 percent.
EARNINGS HIT
European equity markets were taking their lead from corporate earnings reports which have been reflecting the sluggish economic conditions across the region.
Danish brewer Carlsberg
The 5.8-percent drop for shares in the world's fourth biggest brewery helped send the FTSEurofirst 300 index <.fteu3> of top European shares down 0.2 percent. Germany's DAX <.gdaxi>, France's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Britain's FTSE-100 <.ftse> ranged between 0.4 percent up and 0.15 percent lower.
Earlier, the G20 statement and subsequent comment from Prime Minster Abe indicating a renewed drive to stimulate the Japanese economy lifted the Nikkei stock index <.n225> by 2.1 percent, near to its highest level since September 2008.
MSCI's world equity index <.miwd00000pus> was flat as markets extended a two-week period of consolidation that has followed the big run-up in January, when demand was buoyed by the efforts of central banks to stimulate the world economy.
Data from EPFR Global, a U.S.-based firm that tracks the flows and allocations of funds globally, shows investors pulled $3.62 billion from U.S. stock funds in the latest week, the most in 10 weeks after taking a neutral stance the prior week.
But demand for emerging market equities remained strong, with investors putting $1.81 billion in new cash into stock funds, the fund-tracking firm said.
CHINA RETURN
In the commodity markets, traders played catch-up after a week-long holiday last week in China, the world's second biggest consumer of many raw materials, which had kept activity subdued, with worries about the economic outlook weighing on sentiment.
Copper, for which China is the world's largest consumer, dipped to a near three-week low at $8,125.25 a metric ton (1.1023 tons) on the London futures market. Benchmark tin and nickel also touched three-week lows.
Gold managed to edge away from six-month lows as jewelers in China returned to the physical market after the Lunar New Year holiday but a lack of demand from U.S. markets saw the precious metal slip back to be down 0.1 percent to $1,607.06 an ounce.
Crude oil markets were mostly steady after the weak U.S. industrial production data on Friday [ID:nL1N0BF44A] was seen dampening demand, while tensions in the Middle East lent some support.
"We continue to see a mixed picture out of the United States. Industry output was lower than expected but that shouldn't affect the general upward direction," Olivier Jakob, analyst at Geneva-based Petromatrix, said.
Brent crude was down 20 cents at $117.46 a barrel after posting its first weekly loss since the first half of January. U.S. crude slipped 24 cents to $95.62.
(Additional reporting by Marius Zaharia and Ron Bousso; Editing by Philippa Fletcher and Alastair Macdonald)
Letter From Washington: A Sensible Deal Can Avert a 'Sequester' Disaster
Label: World
WASHINGTON — Democrats and Republicans in Washington agree: It would be a disaster if the “sequester,” with its more than $1 trillion of cuts to U.S. defense and domestic spending, took effect on March 1, as scheduled.
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta says the reductions to the Pentagon budget would undermine national security; the cuts to already pared-down domestic spending will set back critical needs like cancer research; Head Start, the preschool program for low-income children; and funding for the Border Patrol. The U.S. economic recovery would be impeded, at a cost of as many as 750,000 jobs.
President Barack Obama says the cuts “are a really bad idea.” In a rare display of accord, the House speaker, John A. Boehner, says the “meat ax” approach would “weaken” the nation’s defense. Mr. Obama and Mr. Boehner were two of the authors of the 2011 sequester agreement, figuring a sensible alternative would have emerged by now.
It has not, and the sequester could kick in on March 1, even if only temporarily. It is a textbook case of Washington dysfunction.
Both sides created this debacle, but there is no equivalency of blame today. Any alternative must emphasize cuts in mandatory entitlement programs and add revenue. Mr. Obama, publicly and privately, has left no doubt that he will surrender the Democrats’ political trump card and accept cuts in entitlement programs like Medicare, which offers health coverage to the elderly and disabled. Republican leaders insist that they will not give any ground on new revenue, without which there can be no deal.
An impasse would be unsettling to markets and the economy in the long run, even if deficit hawks exaggerate the severity of the crisis.
“The 10-year budget outlook remains tenuous,” says Bill Gale, director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution. “Even if seemingly everything goes right — in economic terms and political terms — we are still on the edge of dangerously high debt and deficit levels.”
It is not hard to devise a feasible alternative, if the irrational politics are put aside. First, any deficit-reduction plan should wait two years. That is because, as broke as Washington is, the deficit has already been narrowed by almost $2.5 trillion over the coming decade. In the short term, the government needs to bolster the shaky recovery by spending more on infrastructure and other projects.
Then, it should put in place a long-term $1 trillion deficit-reduction package, half of which is achieved through entitlement cuts, one-third through tax increases and the rest by shrinking discretionary programs, chiefly defense, which are funded through annual appropriations from Congress. That would send an encouraging sign to markets and help the economy, but only if it is a long-term plan, rather than the one-year fix that Senate and House Democrats are proposing.
Entitlements or mandatory programs like Medicare and Social Security, the government retirement system, make up almost 60 percent of the U.S. budget and are the engine of chronic deficits. Getting $500 billion over 10 years would not be pain-free, though it does not have to hurt those who can least afford to sacrifice.
The president has said he would go along with the scope of the Bowles-Simpson deficit commission’s proposed cuts to Medicare. That is about $350 billion. It would not require cuts for the most needy but would contain a means test for more affluent senior citizens. A sensible deal would not increase the eligibility age and would introduce more stringent cost controls and hit up drug companies for a little more.
Half the remaining savings could come from changing the formula for the cost-of-living increases for Social Security and other inflation-adjusted entitlements. That is a realistic proposal if protections are carved out for the very poor and the very elderly. The Center for American Progress has offered workable specifics. The rest could come from cutting agricultural subsidies and other entitlement programs.
The White House would buy this, and it has been the dream of Republicans for years.
On taxes, Republicans contend that the fiscal cliff deal in January, which raised taxes on the wealthy by $600 billion, means any further revenue-raisers are off the table.
A number of party leaders also pay lip service to the Bowles-Simpson recommendations, which proposed $1 of new revenue for every $2 of spending cuts, after eliminating former President George W. Bush’s high-end tax cuts. If these Republicans have their way and the sequester or any alternative to it is exclusively spending cuts, that ratio would be more than four to one.
The easiest way to get those revenues would be a plan resembling the administration’s proposal to limit deductions to the 28 percent rate and then exclude charitable deductions from that cap. That would raise more than $300 billion.
The other Republican argument is that any tax changes should await broad tax reform. But limiting deductions would not narrow their options or dash their hopes of using changes to the tax code as a vehicle for lowering rates.
There are endless possibilities for curbing tax breaks in a revenue-neutral measure that also lowers rates, such as scaling back big-ticket items like the home mortgage deduction, the health care exclusion or the preferential treatment for capital gains. Other changes are politically appealing, like ending the carried-interest loophole for rich investors or the tax breaks for the oil and gas industries.
What should not be cut is nondefense discretionary spending, like veterans’ programs, medical and scientific research and education. Even without the sequester, these programs are headed toward their lowest level, as a percentage of the economy, since the Eisenhower administration.
An entitlements and revenue-based deal, however, would approximate the Bowles-Simpson targets, and engender confidence in markets and businesses. The politicians could then turn to tax reform, immigration, gun violence, maybe a modest climate-change measure, and substantive oversight.
As a bonus, a successful deal might also lessen public cynicism about Washington.
Carrie Underwood's Light-Up Dress Makes Readers Say 'Wow'
Label: LifestyleWhat's on the minds of PEOPLE readers this week? We love knowing your response to the news – and, as always, you had lots to say about all of our stories.
From a heartfelt (and funny) "baby announcement" for a 13-year-old to your sadness over the shocking news that Olympian Oscar Pistorius has been charged in South Africa with allegedly murdering his model girlfriend, readers responded with what made them angry, happy and also laugh out loud this week.
Check out the articles with the top reactions on the site this week, and keep clicking on the emoticons at the bottom of every story to tell us what you think.
Kelli Higgins and her husband opened their hearts big enough to adopt son Latrell and his sister Chanya in 2011. After the parents expressed sadness that they'd never have baby photos of the pair to add to their family album, Chanya, 12, suggested a photo shoot that ended up with photos of Latrell, 13, swaddled in blankets much like a newborn.
Readers were wowed by country singer Carrie Underwood's princess-style gown at the Grammy Awards, worn during her performance of "Blown Away." Not only was the silver gown stunning, it also provided a surprise light show, glowing with special effects that dazzled the audience with a visual surprise.
Our readers joined the royal family in expressing outrage after photos were published of the Duchess of Cambridge wearing a bikini – and showing off her small baby bump – as she happily vacationed on the private island of Mustique last week with Prince William. A spokesman for the couple at St. James Palace, who called the photos a disappointment, told PEOPLE: "This is a clear breach of the couple's right to privacy."
Readers were saddened by the shocking news that South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius, known as a hero around the world as the "Blade Runner," has been charged with murder in the death of his model girlfriend Reva Steenkamp, 24. Pistorius, 26, wept in court Friday as charges were read.
Readers were amused by news that one of The Bachelor's most colorful contestants this season is now allegedly engaged. Tierra LiCausi, 24, proved much-watch TV as she schemed, fought and cried in a failed effort to win Sean Lowe's love.
Check back next week for another must-read roundup, and see what readers are reacting to every day here.
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