The First Tee Sea Coast

LEESBURG, Va., May 15, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
The Hyperemesis
Education and Research (H.E.R.) Foundation today declared May 15 as
Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) Worldwide Awareness Day, in an effort to
draw greater attention and seek federal and private funding to research
a condition that is likely more widespread than current studies
indicate. HG is a severe form of unrelenting, excessive nausea and
vomiting in pregnancy that usually extends beyond the first trimester,
and if severe and/or inadequately treated, it is typically associated
with weight loss, dehydration, starvation and potential loss of life. HG
is the most common cause of hospitalization in the first half of
pregnancy.

The
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that HG affects .05
percent to 2 percent of pregnant women globally. But the H.E.R.
Foundation — the world’s largest grassroots network of HG survivors and
leading site for HG information on the Internet – is campaigning to fund
research that will show the CDC numbers are, in fact, much higher and
that this disease is more prevalent than currently known.

“Any family touched by this disease knows how critical it is to find new
medical protocols that can help pregnant women win their battle against
HG,” said Ann Marie King, Co-Founder of the H.E.R. Foundation. “Over the
past decade, we have heard from thousands of women whose lives have been
affected and altered by HG. We call on the medical, research and
lawmaker communities to help moms everywhere with funding and research
that can help find comfort and a cure.”

Over the past month, the foundation has campaigned online with an action
petition that has resulted thousands of women from all 50 states and 15
countries responding to the call to action. Representatives of the
foundation will head to The
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Congress to
present the petition to agencies and lawmakers and continue education
that will result in federally funded research programs.

The H.E.R. Foundation recently joined the Million
Moms Challenge, a partnership created by ABC News and the United
Nations Foundation to raise awareness and funds to help mothers and
babies everywhere survive and thrive. “Too few people know about
Hyperemesis. The Million Moms Challenge community is helping the H.E.R.
Foundation draw attention to this disease, and rally support for the
mothers and families affected,” said Chrysula Winegar, community manager
of the Million Moms Challenge.

About H.E.R. Foundation

The H.E.R. Foundation was founded in 2002 and is the world’s largest
grassroots network of hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) survivors and leading
site for HG information on the Internet. H.E.R. is dedicated to helping
those suffering HG or those who have survived it. The Foundation is here
to be a voice of support and education to all who are faced with
managing HG. The mission is to find a cure for HG and its complications
through advanced research, provide education and support to those
seeking effective management strategies for HG, and provide information
on new resources and treatment options as they become available. H.E.R.
and hyperemesis have been featured on the Dr. Phil Show, the Today
Show, NBC Nightly News, FOX News and many other global news
organizations. For more information on the H.E.R. Foundation, visit
www.helpher.org
or on Twitter @hgmoms and Facebook at
www.facebook.com/HERFoundation

SOURCE: H.E.R Foundation

Gaia Group Public Relations
Laura Taylor, 202-271-8216
laura@gaiapr.com

Copyright Business Wire 2012

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Jerardo Lobato Hernandez lived on the streets of San Francisco for nearly a decade, struggling with severe depression, alcoholism and AIDS. Police arrested him regularly for public drunkenness, trespassing and illegal camping. Twice thieves put his health at risk when they stole his medications, which he is supposed to take daily.

Hes in great shape now, said Alberto Rangel, Hernandezs medical social worker at the Mission Neighborhood Health Center. Living in a residential hotel, receiving regular medical and psychiatric treatment and attending AA meetings though not yet sober, Hernandezs life has stabilized, his AIDS under control.

He is one of the success stories of San Franciscos nationally recognized model of care for people living with AIDS and HIV and those at highest risk of infection. But the system is under siege, say care providers.

The city is set to lose almost $8 million in federal AIDS funding in the new fiscal year that starts July 1 – the biggest one-time cut ever – and $10 million the following year.

The deep cuts would not shutter any programs, but would jeopardize care for people living in San Francisco with AIDS and HIV, city officials and care providers say.

I dont think its an exaggeration to say that restoring these funds is a matter of life and death, said Mike Smith, who runs the AIDS Emergency Fund and serves as president of the HIV/AIDS Providers Network in the city.

He and others hope the city will step in to fund the money lost from the Ryan White Care Act and the Centers for Disease Control. The Ryan White Care Act funding provides health care and social services for uninsured, underinsured and other financially vulnerable people living with HIV and AIDS. Funding allocated by the CDC is for prevention programs. Combined, the city got $41.8 million from the two federal programs for the current fiscal year that ends June 30.

A support system

For the poor and marginalized, it doesnt take much to destabilize their health if they lose their housing, fail to take their medications, or miss out on treatment for substance abuse and mental health problems. Its very easy for the downward spiral to begin, Smith said.

His nonprofit, the AIDS Emergency Fund, provides grants of about $500 each to some 2,400 clients a year, helping them cover such expenses as rent, utilities, prescriptions and medical treatment. Nearly half the annual $2.1 million budget is Ryan White funding.

About 40 programs run by the city and nonprofits in San Francisco that serve thousands of clients rely, in part, on Ryan White grants. The money is used for services that include legal counsel, food delivery to the homebound, dental and medical care, mental health and substance abuse counseling, housing assistance and hospice care.

Many people, like Hernandez, rely on a web of services to keep them alive.

Im doing much better now, said Hernandez, 51.

Asking for city help

Federal AIDS funding no longer favors urban areas like San Francisco because most new infections occur in suburban areas. With the cuts looming, three supervisors from the LGBT community, Scott Wiener, David Campos and Christina Olague, have made funding restoration a priority, and service providers have stepped up their lobbying efforts to get Mayor Ed Lee to include restoration funding in his budget proposal, due out June 1.

In January, the mayor authorized a $1.8 million budget supplemental to offset earlier cuts in Ryan White Care Act funding that threatened HIV and AIDS programs in the current fiscal year that ends June 30. Now Lee is being asked to allocate more local funds to make up for the lost federal funds in the new budget cycle.

The cuts would be devastating, said Wiener, who represents the Castro district, which has been the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in San Francisco.

While great inroads have been made in preventing and treating the disease since it was first discovered 31 years ago, people are still getting infected, living with it and dying.

Big numbers

As of the end of March, there have been 29,131 cumulative cases of AIDS and another 5,996 cases of HIV non-AIDS recorded in San Francisco, according to city health department data. There have been 19,606 reported deaths in the city from the disease.

An estimated 15,523 people in the city are living with the virus, many of them for years or decades. One reason for that is because of our system of care, Wiener said. Its critical we dont let it unravel.

San Francisco currently spends more than $70 million a year on HIV/AIDS-related services, said Greg Wagner, the health departments budget chief.

The city, with an annual budget in the $7 billion range, faces a projected $170 million deficit in the new fiscal year and a $312 million shortfall the year after that. By law, the mayor must submit a balanced budget proposal to the Board of Supervisors for consideration.

The mayor is very aware of and concerned about Ryan White Care funding cuts, and he is working to protect these programs and services, said Lees spokeswoman, Christine Falvey. He… is working to find a solution, but the mayor is also trying to close a $170 million budget shortfall.

Rachel Gordon is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Twitter: @rachelgordonsf. rgordon@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A – 1 of the San#xA0;Francisco#xA0;Chronicle

A clear battle line was drawn by the audience at Monday night’s public hearing on the county’s proposed budget. Speakers either thought the Carroll County Public School system needed more money next year or it needed less.

The public hearing, held at Carroll Community College in Westminster, gave residents the opportunity to express their opinions on the proposed Fiscal Year 2013 operating and capital budgets. Residents took turns explaining why their point of view was right and why others were wrong. Groups erupted with applause and cheers after the people they agreed with ended their speeches.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

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Funding for nonprofits survives state budget ax
The governor, bowing to opposition, asked lawmakers to scrap the proposal to reduce funding. The House also rejected many of McDonnells other amendments.

By Michael Sluss
981-3373

Founded only four years ago, Castlight is fast establishing itself as the leader in a field rarely associated with health care: cost transparency. The San Francisco, Calif.-based company offers employees of self-insured companies the ability to compare medical procedures based on price and quality, which vary widely within the same geographical area. Earlier this month, it announced it raised $100 million, bringing the total amount of funding to $181 million, a record amount for a health IT start-up.

Castlight has now hired John Driscoll, an experienced industry executive, as president. (Co-founder Giovanni Colella is chief executive). Driscoll spent the past nine years at pharmacy benefits manager Medco Health, most recently as group president, where he championed electronic prescribing, helped establish a national drug safety system in Sweden, and oversaw consumer-driven programs. Prior to Medco, he served as an advisor on health care investments at Oak Investment Partners, an investor in Castlight. He also spent eight years at Oxford Health Plans, which was once hailed as a progressive HMO and is now part of UnitedHealth Group.

Driscoll left Medco shortly after the Federal Trade Commission approved its merger with Express Scripts last month, and was quickly tapped by Colella to expand Castlight’s partnerships with employers and payers. “We’re in the first inning to get consumers and plans make smarter decisions,” says Driscoll. “The data is coming.”

Colella had first approached Driscoll prior to founding Castlight, to bounce the idea of a start-up that mines claims to deliver a clear picture of what certain tests and procedures costs, and in which locations. “I thought it was great, assuming you can pull together the technology and employers,” says Driscoll. He was impressed when Medco and Castlight embarked on a pilot program with a mutual customer this past January, integrating Medco’s MyRx Choices that allows members to compare prescription drug costs, with Castlight’s tools. “The level of consumer engagement was off-the-chart,” says Driscoll, starting the first week. Now Castlight plans to bring the same transparency to drugs.

SEATTLE, May 15, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
Prosodic Inc. (
www.prosodic.com ),
the first software platform that brings predictability and insight in
optimizing owned Facebook content, today announced it has completed a
$1.4 million seed round of funding.

Seed round investors include Bellevue, Wash.-based venture capital firm
Ignition Partners, as well as several angel investors, including David
Remer, CEO of Remer Inc., and Gary Vaynerchuk, co-founder of Vayner
Media and New York Times best-selling author.

“Media companies, brands and publishers now have the ability to reach
their Facebook audiences with far greater precision, at times when
they’re actually online and interacting with Facebook,” said Leigh
Fatzinger, CEO of Prosodic. “Prosodic uses real-time predictive
analytics to determine when audience segments are most likely to
interact with content, providing measurable lift to earned, owned and
paid media on Facebook.”

The Prosodic platform, designed for media companies, brands and
publishers with substantial Facebook audiences, is currently processing
social performance data for more than 330 million Facebook Page Likes
and increasing the value of brands’ advertising and engagement on
Facebook by allowing them to better target when their audience will be
online and responsive. Through the use of the Prosodic platform, brands
such as Discovery Communications have realized a 70 percent increase in
interactions, a 46 percent increase in post impressions, and a 42
percent increase in click-through rate as a result of using the platform
to plan, target and optimize Facebook content.

Prosodic has been categorized as “social performance” software by
industry analyst Jeremiah Owyang of Altimeter Group. He recently stated
in a blog post on Web-Strategist.com,
“The noise is becoming deafening with everyone from consumers to brands
all shouting in social that targeting is needed to cut through the
noise. Those that deploy volume quickly find they’re part of the noise,
and get cast by the wayside.”

Prosodic offers brands the ability to monitor conversation performance
as it happens, as well as to anticipate audience presence and content
performance up to seven days in advance through predictive analytics and
behavioral intelligence.

Leigh Fatzinger will be moderating a panel titled “How to Have a
Conversation With a Million People at Once” for Likeable
U during Internet Week in New York City on Tuesday, May 15 at 10
a.m. EDT.

About Prosodic

Prosodic, Inc. develops patent-pending social media predictive analytics
software for brands. The easy to use Software as a Service suite enables
brands to determine when, what type, and how much content to present to
their audiences, in real-time and up to seven days in the future, for
maximum exposure, interaction and sharing. The company was founded in
2011 and is based in Seattle, WA. For more information, or to schedule a
free demonstration, contact Prosodic at
www.prosodic.com or
via email at info (at) prosodic (dot) com. Find Prosodic on Facebook at Facebook.com/GoProsodic
and follow Prosodic on Twitter at @GoProsodic.

About Ignition Partners

For more than a decade, Ignition Partners has helped entrepreneurs in
the Northwest and beyond build innovative, category-defining businesses.
The firm invests in cloud-computing, big data, mobile and consumer
companies and leverages the deep operating backgrounds of its partners
to help start-ups scale. Past and current Ignition investments include
Xensource, Splunk, Heroku, Pure Networks, Hipmunk and DocuSign. To learn
more, visit
www.ignitionpartners.com
or follow us on Twitter @ignitionvc.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available:

http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=50277764&lang=en

SOURCE: Prosodic Inc.

Waggener Edstrom Worldwide
Liz Kelley, 512-527-7027
lkelley@waggeneredstrom.com

Copyright Business Wire 2012

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The lira rebounded from its weakest
in more than a month after the Turkish central bank halved the
daily funding it makes available at the lowest policy rate.

The lira appreciated 0.3 percent to 1.8044 per dollar at
10:18 am in Istanbul after depreciating to its lowest level
yesterday since April 10. The yield on two-year benchmark debt
retreated for the first time in three days, down three basis
points, or 0.03 percentage point, to 9.53 percent.

The central bank varies its funding rate on a daily basis,
maintaining borrowing costs within a 5.75 percent to 11.5
percent interest-rate corridor introduced last year. The bank
yesterday resumed lending at the lowest rate for the first time
since May 3, ending the longest streak of tightening since the
period between Dec. 29 and Jan. 9, offering 4 billion liras at
the one-week repurchase agreements auction. It offered 2 billion
liras today at the minimum rate, restricting money supply.

“The central bank provides liquidity at 5.75 percent today
but the amount is smaller than yesterday,” Murat Toprak, chief
emerging market currency strategist for Europe, the Middle East
and Africa at HSBC Bank Plc in London, said in e-mailed
comments.

The lira yesterday pierced its 200-day moving-day average
of 1.8059, a key level for technical analysts. Crossing the
moving average threshold and remaining above it is an indication
the currency’s move may be sustained.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Selcuk Gokoluk in Istanbul at
sgokoluk@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Gavin Serkin at
gserkin@bloomberg.net

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CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. and NEW YORK, April 24, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ –
eMoney Advisor, LLC, (
www.emoneyadvisor.com ), leading provider of advanced wealth and goal planning solutions for financial advisors, has partnered with Collegiate Funding Solutions, Inc. (CFS) (
www.collegiatefundingsolutions.com ), a leader in web-based college planning software and related add-on services to help advisors deliver increased college planning services to their clients. eMoney subscribers now have discounted access into CFS’ services to help them become the one-stop-shop for college planning and funding services. Included are CFS’ industry-leading college-planning software, a “hands-on” college admissions and financial aid service, a monthly college planning e-newsletter subscription for clients and a web-based client attraction system. “We are very pleased to affiliate with Collegiate Funding Solutions,” stated Edmond J. Walters, CEO and founder, eMoney Advisor, LLC. “Advisors have traditionally been effective at helping families with college savings and funding strategies, but more is now needed. Clients need help identifying ways they can reduce their college expenses. CFS helps fill this void and enables advisors to deliver a more comprehensive college planning experience.”

“CFS and eMoney are very synergistic and complementary,” says Roger Lorelle, president of CFS. “With today’s absurdly-high college costs, parents are increasingly looking to their financial advisor for college planning strategies, beyond just the traditional savings strategies, that will help them reduce their out-of-pocket college costs. eMoney’s flexible planning capabilities and online client experience coupled with our tools and educational resources help advisors meet this rapidly-growing need.”About eMoney Advisor, LLCeMoney Advisor, LLC, based in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, provides a suite of award-winning, web-based wealth-planning tools that offer an aggregated, comprehensive view of a client’s financial portfolio, as well as features and functions that enable more complete planning and better serving of a client’s needs. eMoney’s suite of tools is used by leading financial services firms around the country, including such well-known names as TD Ameritrade, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, LPL Financial, Mass Mutual Financial Group, RBC Capital Markets, Lincoln Financial Advisors Corporation, MetLife, New York Life, Northern Trust, Securian Financial Services, and Allstate Financial Services among others.

About Collegiate Funding SolutionsCollegiate Funding Solutions (CFS) is a leading provider of web-based college planning and funding solutions for financial services professionals and financial institutions. CFS’ mission is to empower families to make better informed college planning and funding decisions with the help of their professional advisor or financial institution.

SOURCE eMoney Advisor, LLC

Copyright (C) 2012 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

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AVON, Mass., Apr 24, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
Terascala, Inc., the leader in accelerating big data applications
through storage I/O optimization, today announced that it has closed a
$14 million Series B funding round. Strategic partners close to the
company invested approximately fifty percent of the round, with Ascent
Venture Partners, an early backer of the company, contributing the
remainder. Terascala will use the funding to significantly expand
research and development, marketing, customer support, to develop
strategic alliances, and to fuel international expansion.

“We’re thrilled to close our Series B round with a significant
investment from industry leaders and continued support from Ascent,”
said Steve Butler, CEO of Terascala. “Our pioneering work in developing
a software stack that delivers optimized, scalable I/O on
industry-standard storage appliances enables organizations to accelerate
big data applications, and clearly, industry leaders are taking notice.”

“Storage I/O optimization is rapidly becoming a core requirement for big
data applications,” said Terri McClure, senior analyst at Enterprise
Strategy Group. “Terascala is a leader in the development of solutions
that address this requirement, and the fact that its product runs on an
open source file system and on industry-standard platforms makes for a
very compelling value proposition in a price sensitive market.”

Organizations worldwide use Terascala solutions to improve their ability
to process pools of big data, which until now has been limited due to
the lack of throughput abilities of standard file systems. Terascala’s
unique approach to high throughput, high capacity storage combines the
Lustre file system, extensive analysis and optimization tools,
integration and services into a state-of-the-art solution that
accelerates big data applications running on large interconnected server
installations and optimizes data access.

The Terascala Integrated Storage Information System (TISIS(TM)) provides
appliance management and workload-driven I/O technology for open source
Lustre, the world’s fastest parallel file system. TISIS runs on
industry-standard storage appliances in a wide range of market segments,
including life sciences, financial services, energy, academic research,
computer-automated engineering (CAE), and government/defense.

“Terascala solutions solve a huge problem in the marketplace today,”
said Walter Dick, general partner at Ascent Venture Partners.
“Organizations are grappling with how to speed the delivery and analysis
of big data sets. Terascala’s approach, which accelerates big data
applications through storage I/O optimization, is the answer for a great
number of companies.”

About Terascala

Terascala’s high throughput storage solutions accelerate big data
applications through storage I/O optimization. With Terascala,
organizations can transition from simply storing and sifting their data
to leveraging that data to drive applications. Terascala-based storage
appliances combine a parallel file system, the company’s TISIS(TM) analytic
and optimization tools, integration and services, to enable rapid
analysis of big data sets using large interconnected server
installations. Founded in 2005, Terascala is based in Avon, Mass., and
counts a number of industry leaders among its partners, including Dell,
EMC and NetApp. Learn more at
http://www.terascala.com .

Terascala, the Terascala logo, and TISIS are trademarks of Terascala,
Inc.

SOURCE: Terascala, Inc.

Terascala, Inc.
Rick Friedman, 508-588-1501 x218
Vice President, Marketing and Product Management
rick@terascala.com

Copyright Business Wire 2012

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NEWMARKET Since the state Department of Environmental Services issued a letter of deficiencies in the Macallen Dam in 2008, Newmarket has actively been looking at ways to solve the problem.

Dam safety will ultimately force something to be done, said Eric Hutchins of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

One option is to remove the dam entirely, and the town is currently waiting for sufficient funding to complete a study on the feasibility of removal.

While $45,000 was appropriated via town vote to pay for the study, it was determined that the cost of the study would more likely fall into the $125,000-$150,000 range.

This is a black hole money pit, said Newmarket resident Jeff OConnor. All of a sudden youre into people wanting every little issue examined.

The goal of the project is to complete a study to determine if removal of the dam is prudent, feasible, and economical.

The town has secured a $40,000 grant from the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) and NOAA, and has several other grants pending.

Pending funding, Town Planner Diane Hardy hopes to see the study, which could take anywhere from 18 months to two years, beginning this summer.

Theres not necessarily a decision at the end of this, said Hutchins. There may be more questions.

The study will consider how the removal would affect flood control, the impact to property owners along the waterfront, recreation and socioeconomic impacts. It will also aim to identify what impact the removal would have on species that habitat the dam.

OConnor, who lives on the waterfront, was flooded during the 2006 and 2007 storms and said that he has more interest in seeing the town determine a way to modify the dam to make it safe and to control flooding.

Two years of flooding left a lot of people asking, What do we do to address long-term flooding in Newmarket? said Hardy.

For me, the focus should be on, how do we maintain what is the historic dam, what is the beautiful falls…;and the upstream environment and recreational benefits, as well as enhanced property value and overall aesthetics of the Great Bay Watershed as it culminates at the Macallen Dam, said OConnor.

Repairs to the dam would cost approximately $505,000.

The Macallen Dam Removal Feasibility Committee is currently in the process of drafting a Request for Proposals (RFP) for potential consulting teams.

The consultant team will not be asked to provide its recommendation on whether to modify or remove the dam, but will be asked to present the information from its study in an objective manner to help Newmarket make an informed decision.

Dam problem areas were identified as: the upstream face of the concrete piers of the gate, the left upstream spillway training wall, and the right abutment wall, among several others.