Boy battling cancer rocks out with Pantera singer

Music

Randee Dawn NBC News contributor

3 hours ago

When 13-year-old Peyton Arens, who is battling a rare form of terminal cancer called Rhabdomyosarcoma, asked to have a particular dream fulfilled by the Make-A-Wish foundation, it wasn't your typical "I want to go to Disneyland" type request.?

The young man is a budding rock guitarist who idolizes Pantera singer Phil Anselmo, and just wanted to play with the heavy metal guitarist.?

And so it was: Thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, on July 31 Arens took the stage at Philip H. Hanselmo & The Illegals' national tour kick-off show in Tulsa, Okla. He played "Walk," from Pantera's 1992 album "Vulgar Display of Power," and according to Anselmo's blog, the kid "had a blast tearing it up."?

Check out the performance, and if you want to learn more about Arens, here's a link to his web page.?

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/entertainment/terminally-ill-boy-gets-wish-rock-out-pantera-singer-6C10842594

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'It will be beautiful again': Breezy Point couple returns home, and recovers through rebuilding

John Makely / NBC News

Christine and George Donley, both 63, are finally moving home after nine months of being displaced by Hurricane Sandy. All of their possesions that they could save are now piled up in one room on the second floor as workers finish repairing their home.

By Miranda Leitsinger, Staff Writer, NBC News

BREEZY POINT, N.Y. -- Half of their neighbors are gone, piles of sand occupy lots where homes once stood, and they?re living out of one room of the two-story house they?ve owned for 10 years. This is one couple?s life nine months after Hurricane Sandy.

Christine and George Donley, both 63, desperately wanted to get home after Sandy tore through their quiet corner of New York City last Oct. 29. But now that they?ve finally returned, being among familiar things offers just some?comfort.

?Sixty-three years old sleeping on a mattress on the floor is tough,? Christine said as she presented the single habitable room of their Breezy Point home. ?He sleeps on the couch, and this is where we live now.

?Everyone says, ?Oh, isn?t it great? You?re back in your house.? I say no, because, look how I'm living. This isn?t living.?

---

?Oh, it?s pretty close to it,? countered George. Christine admitted that he was the more optimistic of the two of them.

They have a mini fridge, a TV and a shower that doesn?t stream water at full capacity. Their former bedroom, at the other end of the house and facing the Atlantic Ocean, is what George now calls a storage room: it?s filled with items salvaged from the first floor ? a comforter, clothes, little mementos from life before.

Near the window, overlooking the sea, is a white chair with a foot rest.

?This used to be my little corner to sit and read. That was my reading corner and I'd look out onto the ocean, and life was peaceful,? said Christine, a retired school teacher. ?This is, this was, our beautiful bedroom.?

George gently told her: ?It will be beautiful again.?

Nearly 74,000 homes and apartments in New York and New Jersey, where Sandy made landfall, sustained damage, according to FEMA. Some 450 homes in New York were destroyed by the storm, while approximately 46,000 in New Jersey were destroyed or sustained major damage, the agency said.

The Donleys returned home July 20 after refuging in three different locations: the homes of two relatives (including one in the early days that housed 11 adults, two kids and a baby) and a rental apartment in Brooklyn.

Apart from dealing with the inconvenience of transient existence, the Donleys have spent untold hours wrestling with their insurance company over coverage, forcing them to take money out of their retirement savings for home. (They?re still challenging the firm?s decision not to pay $12,000 for foundation damage.)

They?ve watched their two daughters struggle, too, to get back to their damaged homes, helping them where they could with money, repairs and babysitting.

?It?s a loss of a year of your life, that?s what it?s like,? said George, a CPA who is mostly retired. ?It?s the loss of being near your friends and neighbors, and it?s because they?re suffering from the same loss that you don?t have contact with them.?

More than 75 percent of the homes in close-knit Breezy Point were damaged in the storm ? including nearly 130 that burned down in a fire triggered by Sandy?s surging waters (it was the largest blaze in New York City?s modern history).

In front of the Donley?s house is an empty lot, and another large one nearby is vacant.

?Four houses there,? George said, gesturing across the street. ?They floated up like an entire team, came up, and crashed into some of the houses here. So it was one, two, three, four.?

George said that observing the rebuilding of their house has given them a lift ? new appliances are waiting to be installed and they?ve ordered furniture just like their former pieces to make the downstairs feel homey. They?ve also figured out how to carve out a new room for the grandkids ? one, a grandson, who was born a little more than a week ago.

But the Donleys are still awaiting final word ? like many others across the city and in New Jersey ? from the federal government about new building requirements for homes situated in regional flood zones.

New, preliminary federal flood maps for the region mandate that people living in vulnerable areas like the Donleys will have to elevate their homes a certain number of feet ? about four in their case ? or face steep increases in their insurance. Some homeowners will have to get new kinds of foundations, too, among other adjustments.

John Makely / NBC News

Christine and George Donley, both 63, are finally moving home after nine months of being displaced by Hurricane Sandy.

The requirements could go into effect for all homeowners in the Breezy area, though some whose homes were significantly damaged or demolished will have to do the work sooner.

?We were living in the apartment and we?re saying, well, maybe we won?t go back in until we find out how high we have to go,? Christine said. Ultimately, ?we don?t have two to three years for them to decide how high we have to go. We can?t afford to pay the rent and pay a mortgage while they?re deciding.?

Elevating is an expense that can range from tens of thousands of dollars to more than $100,000 depending on the type of residence and foundation.

Returning to the Breezy community has made dealing with all of the uncertainty bearable.

?We?re able to see and spend time with our friends and neighbors who are here and we?re sharing (our) struggling stories with them,? he said. ?It?s good to see them.?

A neighbor and good friend, Catherine Palummeri, had tidied up the Donley home and put up a big sign reading, ?welcome home,? to greet the couple upon their return. ?I couldn't wait for them to come back,? she said.

?You need people, that?s it ? let?s get back to normal,? said Palummeri, who moved back in late March. ?The worst part was having no neighbors ? you had no interaction.?

Also giving the Donleys a boost: family time on the beach.

?The water has been beautiful. The beach has been great,? George said.

As she sat in a rocking chair on her new deck, where a city building department flyer was posted listing their home?s condition and new insulation clung to the outside walls, Christine said they would make it through the storm ? one that she said she would not ?honor? by calling it by its given name.

?We will get through this,? she said. ?I am stronger than the storm. I am. It took me a long time to say that, but I said it the other night. I am stronger.?

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663306/s/2f85eb91/sc/10/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A80C0A30C1983830A90Eit0Ewill0Ebe0Ebeautiful0Eagain0Ebreezy0Epoint0Ecouple0Ereturns0Ehome0Eand0Erecovers0Ethrough0Erebuilding0Dlite/story01.htm

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5 mobile marketing myths debunked - Luxury Daily - Columns

Lindsay Woodworth is director of marketing and pre-sales at Genesys I SoundBite

By Lindsay Woodworth

A growing number of marketers are experimenting with and leveraging the mobile medium, learning the best ways to expand their strategic marketing competency, although many have experienced a few bumps along the way.

While this does not cover every misconception out there, the five following myths are offered and debunked to provide marketers with insight around a few common assumptions that can impact how they interact with their customers via the mobile medium. A good starting point is to define the practice of mobile marketing and clarify what it is not.

Myth 1: Mobile marketing means mobile advertising
The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) defines mobile marketing as ?a set of practices that enable organizations to communicate and engage with their audience in an interactive and relevant manner through any mobile device or network.?

While technically that can include both marketing and advertising, it is critically important to distinguish mobile marketing from mobile advertising and approach your strategic use of them quite differently.

While mobile advertising includes ?paid? media, such as banner ads on another brand?s mobile Web site or paid mobile search campaigns in Google, mobile marketing is about ?owned? and ?earned? media.

It is more about your brand outlets and channels, your content and your desire to build long-term customer relationships than it is about creating ads. Think about the differences between public relations and advertising ? it is very similar.

While mobile advertising continues to make technology advances and provide more options for your ads, you are still using someone else?s Web site, application or channel.

With mobile marketing programs, you are enabling consumers to interact with your brand by delivering information to their mobile phones where you can control the experience.

Because of that, we believe that mobile marketing programs ? when done well ? are almost always going to be more insightful to consumer behavior and return better results.

This is not to imply that mobile advertising should not play a role in your overall marketing budget ? it probably should ? but if you are looking for a mobile marketing partner, simply engaging with one to develop an advertising program is a missed opportunity.

Myth 2: An iPhone app equals a mobile strategy
When we ask potential clients if their company is doing mobile marketing, many of them proudly say, ?Yes, we?ve launched both iPhone and Android apps.? That is a great start, but how are they reaching the other half of U.S. consumers?

ComScore reports that 58 percent of Americans own smartphones and 90 percent of smartphone owners have iOS or Android, so you are looking at reaching just 52 percent of Americans with your iOS and Android apps.

Smartphone apps are just one piece of your marketing puzzle in the way that mobile advertising is just part of the marketing picture.

Apps alone do not have wide enough reach. There is not a particular marketing channel ? digital or otherwise ? that offers the highest reach, engagement and ROI.

Your challenge as a marketer is creating the right recipe of mobile marketing programs ? for example apps, SMS, mobile Web, mobile-optimized email or QR codes ? with your other marketing channels.

Just as we would not advocate only using text message marketing, mobile touch points must be integrated across your organization and offer multiple opportunities for customer interaction and loyalty building for success in mobile marketing.

Myth 3: Mobile marketing is complicated
Admittedly, this one actually has some truth to it.

There is complexity around the carrier connections needed, the set of rules you need to follow, and the mobile technology options available, but the underlying use cases and common sense required to run effective mobile programs are similar to other marketing channels.

Ask yourself questions such as, ?Does this meet my customer?s needs?? and ?Am I adding value to the customer relationship?? and ?Is this an effective use of my marketing dollars??

If you can answer those questions positively and have a trusted mobile technology partner, implementing mobile marketing programs is not complicated. And that often means not rushing toward the latest and greatest marketing technology just because you can, such as augmented reality or a complicated user experience.

You can keep things simple with smart opt-in SMS communications, perhaps paired with a mobile microsite, and still see powerful results.

Myth 4: All mobile users are all the same
One of the reasons companies provide for not investing in mobile marketing is they believe it is not relevant to their demographic targets, that mobile only reaches Generation Y, or only reaches those with smartphones, or only those who are traveling.

Both third-party research and our direct experience supporting client programs debunks those assumptions.

Addressing the question of age, Google?s ?Our Mobile Planet? shows that 55 percent of Americans ages 30-49 and 25 percent of those over 50 owned smartphones.

As for mobile only reaching those on the go outside the home, Google reports that 52 percent of all smartphone users watch television while on their smartphones, and a study from Telef?nica?s O2 UK and Sony Mobile showed that 75 percent of the respondents used their phone while in the bathroom.

So while mobile users may be close to home or far away, as a marketer you should not make assumptions about them.

Myth 5: Mobile marketing is creepy
Do you worry about giving your mobile number to a company for fear of them sending you unwanted texts or calls? Do you think it is a bit intrusive to be walking by a store in the mall and get an instant alert on your phone that calls you by name to tell you the store is having a sale? You are not alone.

Mobile phone technology enables precise location tracking, which can be extremely helpful while using a mapping application but disconcerting when used without your knowledge or in ways you do not like.

But the reality is that when it comes to short code-based text messaging campaigns, the wireless carriers have in place strict consumer-focused opt-in guidelines, and Congress is bringing bills to the floor to discuss mobile privacy laws through applications and Web sites.

Those companies who do not obey have their programs shut off, are heavily fined, and are typically publicly dragged through the media for these practices.

Remember when online privacy concerns were a huge roadblock for ecommerce from taking off?

With $225.5 billion in retail ecommerce sales last year, it is fair to conclude that we are officially over that hurdle. ?The same can be expected regarding the trajectory of mobile privacy concerns.

There will still be a few unwanted text messages occurring and companies with unscrupulous practices, but it is unlikely that SMS spam will become widespread like it has with email and direct mail.

THE BOTTOM LINE is that companies have to earn consumers? express consent and must remain in compliance in order to take advantage of the benefits of mobile marketing. The industry is set up to ensure that.

Just as online privacy concerns are fading into the background, mobile consumers will learn to trust brands that have proven to be trustworthy.

Lindsay Woodworth is director of marketing and pre-sales at?Genesys / SoundBite, Arlington, VA. Reach her at lwoodworth@soundbite.com.

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Senate seeks numbers from NSA on phone collection

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Exactly how many phone records of Americans does the National Security Agency collect in its massive surveillance program?

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, tucked a provision into the 2014 fiscal year defense spending bill that would require the NSA to report to Congress ? within 90 days after the legislation becomes law ? on the precise number of phone records collected, the total reviewed by NSA employees and all bulk collection activities, including how much they cost and when they began.

The NSA also would have to provide Congress with a list of potential terrorist attacks that have been thwarted due to the information obtained through the sweeping data collection program.

The Senate Appropriations Committee backed the report request on Thursday in voting for the overall bill. It first Senate effort aimed at the program since revelations two months ago that the NSA was collecting hundreds of millions of Americans' phone records as part of an effort to combat terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The disclosure has revived the debate ? in the nation and Congress ? over whether secret national security programs encroach on Americans' privacy rights. Skeptics wary of the program are pressing for changes though wholesale revisions are unlikely as surveillance efforts have the strong support of the Republican and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate.

The NSA has said that its two surveillance programs ? the other sweeps up Internet usage data ? have stopped at least 50 terror plots across 20 countries.

"We're talking about some changes in the program, some disclosure in the program that would still keep it in some form as a tool to fight terrorism but would also assure the American people about the limits of its use," Durbin said in a telephone interview on Friday.

The senator was one of several lawmakers ? proponents and critics ? who met with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday to discuss the surveillance programs.

Durbin said the purpose of his measure is to obtain basic information about the program, which has largely emerged piecemeal.

"Just this last week, we did get some information from the NSA about the number of queries in a given year, which you can draw some conclusions about just how active is this effort, how many telephone numbers are being followed to find out if they have connections and what we do in the bill is to try to make this a more complete disclosure of the volume of collected information," said Durbin, chairman of the Appropriations defense subcommittee and a member of the Judiciary Committee.

"There is a lot of misunderstanding about what's collected, why it's collected and how much is being used," Durbin said.

Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Friday that "almost everybody except for a few" understand that the NSA program is vital. The task in the coming weeks is to make Americans understand that constitutional rights aren't being trampled.

"What we have to do is educate the public and we have to make some changes to show that so that we can be more open but not give the information to the enemy," Ruppersberger told reporters in a brief interview.

The House Intelligence Committee likely will incorporate some changes in its authorization bill in late September or early October, he said. The counterpart Senate panel and House and Senate Judiciary committees also are likely to act this fall.

In a letter to Ruppersberger, Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., pressed the committee to include several proposals circulating in Congress while insisting that "the government be more transparent in how these programs ensure national security and protect Americans' civil liberties."

Among them is requiring that the secret federal court that oversees the program publically disclose specific opinions and that the Senate confirm judges appointed to the court.

Last week, the House narrowly rejected a challenge to the program. Libertarian-leaning conservatives and liberal Democrats had joined forces on a measure that would have canceled the statutory authority for the NSA program, ending the agency's ability to collect phone records and metadata under the USA Patriot Act unless it identified an individual under investigation.

"The vote in the House was amazing," Durbin said. "Within seven votes of basically putting an end to an intelligence program or changing it dramatically and that is unheard of."

He said it was a "call to action for those who want to maintain program to be more open about it and also to be open to changes that will make it more trustworthy."

Among potential changes are who should do the basic metadata collection, how they'll do it and how it will be used, Durbin said. Another possible change is an effort to demystify the secret court, creating greater opening without compromising national security.

___

Associated Press writer Richard Lardner contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-08-02-US-NSA-Surveillance/id-b7eed598d411450885392107fae9179e

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Video: Cigna's CEO breaks down mixed results

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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/cnbc/52641797/

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Couples celebrate legal same-sex marriage in Minn. in midnight ...

by Jon Collins, Minnesota Public Radio,
Sasha Aslanian, Minnesota Public Radio

August 1, 2013

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ST. PAUL, Minn. ? Together for eight years, Kay Davis and Sandy Wimer never expected to see the day Minnesota would let them marry.

But after decades of political battles and a dramatic two-year swing in state politics, they stood at Minneapolis City Hall in the wee hours of Thursday morning with the law on their side.

"A lot of people came before us. A lot of people really suffered with not being accepted," said Davis of Eagle Lake. "Pioneers that had been together 30, 40 years and never were married legally in everybody's eyes -- so this is kind of a salute to them that it's legal."

Thursday's first-ever same-sex weddings capped an extraordinary seven months in Minnesota that began in November when Minnesotans rejected a plan to write the state's 40-year gay marriage ban into the Minnesota constitution. That vote's political momentum helped remake the Legislature, which in May changed the law, making Minnesota the 12th state to legalize same-sex marriage.

Click for more photos of the first Mpls. same-sex weddings

? Photos: Couple celebrates vows in Moorhead
? Couples exchange marriage vows
? Same-sex marriage foes say voters feel 'betrayed'
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? Details: The Minnesota same-sex marriage bill
? Survey: Where will the wedding bells ring?
? Video: Jack Baker and Michael McConnell predicted victory in 1970s
? Interactive: Deep roots of the marriage debate
? Special report: How the marriage amendment was defeated
? Profile: The general behind Minnesota's same-sex marriage law

Opponents have vowed to bring back the ban. The couples who married Thursday morning at City Hall, and the families and friends who celebrated with them, were focused on their new future, one where they have the same legal standing as other couples.

"For me, I just feel a certain amount of anxiety is gone," said Laura Migliorino, who married Mary Bahneman in the City Council chambers. "We probably weren't even aware of how much anxiety we lived with. We thought we'd be OK if something happened. It was like, maybe the doctor would be OK," said.

"We were always sort of at the mercy of everybody."

Gov. Mark Dayton, who signed the same-sex marriage law, stopped by city hall early in the night to applaud the couples about to wed.

"The real credit," he told them, "belongs to all your parents, grandparents who said, 'That's -- that's my daughter. That's my grandson that you're vilifying, that you're demonizing. We're not going to stand for that here in Minnesota'. We're better than that in Minnesota and we proved that over the last year."

Minneapolis launched more than three dozen weddings on Thursday, starting just after midnight with Margaret Miles and Cathy ten Broeke of Minneapolis. They stood on the center steps with their 5-year-old son, Louie.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak started a hair early and had to stretch the sentences a bit to make sure his marriage pronouncement to them came after midnight.

"By the power now finally vested in me, by the laws of the people of Minnesota, we do hereby declare that Margaret and Cathy are legally married. You may kiss the bride," Rybak said, as the crowd erupted in applause and some bystanders wiped away tears.

The two women kissed, and their five-year-old son Louie hugged his moms.

Rybak married couples in the rotunda long into the morning, while Hennepin County judges presided over ceremonies in the Minneapolis City Council chambers.

Kelly Frankenberg of Lakeville married Donna Nguyen at City Hall while wearing a long white dress with sparkly straps. They said they decided to marry now partly because Frankenberg is seven months pregnant, and legal marriage eliminates any legal wrangling that otherwise would have to take place for both of them to have legal custody of the child.

"It's just historically incredible. It gives me goosebumps every time I think about it, that this is really part of history, too," Frankenberg said. "It's just very overwhelming -- in a good way."

For many, the night was an occasion for celebration even if it wasn't their wedding night. Travis and Jerry Fladmark of Richfield were already legally married in San Francisco in 2008. The new law means Minnesota recognizes that marriage as legal.

"There are so many things left to be done but for us this is the big step," Jerry Fladmark said. "We are legit now and that feels pretty exciting, it feels like you're truly part of society in every way."

Amy Conrad and Demoya Gordon of Minneapolis were heading home at about 2 a.m. after taking their vows. Like many at the gathering, they were stunned by how quickly legalization happened in the state, which only last year was considering a constitutional ban of same-sex marriage.

"I'm so proud," Conrad said as she and her new wife walked arm in arm down 4th Street. "I couldn't be more happy."

Lynne Larsen of Minneapolis never expected to be able to marry her partner, Linda Alton, in her lifetime. After the marriage law passed in May, the 75-year-old Larsen posted a singing invitation to her wedding on YouTube.

Early Thursday morning, the couple wore white pants and the same colorful blouses for the occasion. The choice was accidental, said Alton, 68. She and Larsen had picked the same thing out in the store.

"We said, 'our families are going to die, our daughters are going to cringe,'" Alton said.

Daughters Christine and Kay Alton stood by, smiling. The outfits were forgiven. They were pleased their mom's 24-year relationship was now officially recognized by the state of Minnesota.

Jon Collins is an online reporter for MPR News.

Sasha Aslanian is a reporter with MPR News' Twin Cities metro reporting unit.

Source: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/08/01/news/same-sex-marriage-legal-minnesota

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Hulu follows in Netflix?s steps, will release its own original shows

Hulu Original Series The Wrong Mans

Hulu isn?t letting Netflix reap all the rewards for producing original content. Bloomberg reports that Hulu is planning to release its own original series that will be available to Hulu Plus subscribers, starting this fall with a show called The Wrong Mans that Bloomberg describes as ?a comedy about two office workers who become caught up in a deadly criminal conspiracy.? From there, the company plans to release ?20 exclusive and original series this year? with the goal of releasing 40 original series over the next two years. Netflix has shown that online content providers can have success with their own original shows, as House of Cards, Arrested Development and Orange is the New Black have been hits with critics and audiences.

[More from BGR: Motorola Moto X preview]

This article was originally published on BGR.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hulu-follows-netflix-steps-release-own-original-shows-020046640.html

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