I sent my 11-year-old son to school today with a stuffy nose and mild cough, as I’ve done countless times in the past. Now, though, I’m wondering whether I should have kept him home. How do I know it’s really a garden-variety cold and not the swine flu?

“That’s a great question,” says Richard Wenzel, a swine flu expert and former president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. “You really have no way of knowing if it’s the flu or just a cold.” Given that we’re in the middle of an H1N1 epidemic, he estimates that my son’s chances of having this flu are considerable, since some of his friends have had confirmed cases–maybe even as high as 50/50. Even though he doesn’t have fever? I press. “At the beginning of the outbreak in Mexico, only 30 percent of patients hospitalized with the infection had fever initially,” he tells me, “and 15 percent of patients never developed a fever at all.” What usually sent them to the hospital was shortness of breath or chest pain. In Chile, he adds, about half of those with confirmed H1N1 had no fever; many just had a headache and runny nose.

To truly contain the spread of this virus, he says, it would have been smart for me to keep my son home from school. While I can work effectively from home, many working parents can’t. I wonder if this is why the government isn’t recommending that we keep ourselves or our kids home at the first sign of a sniffle. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says: “Those with flulike illness should stay home for at least 24 hours after they no longer have a fever, or signs of a fever, without the use of fever-reducing medicines.” That implies that hacking coughs and runny noses shouldn’t keep us away from others.

“The CDC is stuck. They’ve defined flu as having a fever, which means they’re going to miss a lot of cases,” Wenzel says. To be fair, the CDC does list the following as symptoms of H1N1: cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills, fatigue, and, in some people, diarrhea and vomiting. But fever seems to be the determining factor in whether we should isolate ourselves.

Since most doctors aren’t testing for H1N1, we must use our own judgment to decide if that mild cold warrants taking sick days and keeping our kids home from school for up to a week. We might be helping prevent the spread of a potentially deadly virus. Then again, it might be pointless if others are going about their usual day coughing and sneezing around others. (Hopefully, they’re washing their hands frequently and coughing into their elbows.) After speaking with Wenzel, I might keep my son home tomorrow–especially if his symptoms get worse.

“This flu seems to spread more easily than a cold virus or seasonal flu,” says Wenzel, “most likely because so few people have been exposed to it in the past.” Kids are slated to be among the first to get the H1N1 vaccine when it becomes available in early October–a nasal spray vaccine called FluMist will the first on the market. But many will probably already have been infected before they can get immunized; Wenzel predicts the outbreak will last another four to eight weeks before tapering off. Unfortunately, that’s just around the time when the vaccine will be available in large quantities. It seems that despite the government’s best efforts to get the vaccine out quickly, it missed the boat on this one.

Yes, the CDC will still stick with its recommendation to get any children over the age of 6 months vaccinated–and pregnant women too–unless a previous infection was confirmed via a lab test. But Wenzel says parents may decide on their own to pass up the immunization if their child recently had a respiratory infection that appeared to be swine flu. “These kids probably don’t need the vaccine,” he adds, “but there’s a level of uncertainty, and parents may still be wise to choose immunization just to be on the safe side.”

While most cases of H1N1 are mild, this virus has the potential to cause severe complications, including death. The CDC says warning signs in children that warrant immediate medical attention include fast breathing or trouble breathing; bluish or gray skin color; not drinking enough fluids; severe or persistent vomiting; not waking up or interacting; a child so irritable that he does not want to be held; and flulike symptoms that improve but then return with fever and a worse cough. Warning signs in adults include difficulty breathing or chest pain, purple or blue discoloration of the lips, vomiting and inability to keep liquids down, and signs of dehydration, such as feeling dizzy when standing or being unable to urinate.

NEW YORK - President Barack Obama says he expects unemployment will be a “big problem” for at least another year.

Speaking during taping of “The Late Show” with David Letterman, Obama called the $787 billion economic stimulus program that Congress enacted earlier this year a “tourniquet” that stopped the economic bleeding. Without that spending, he said another 1.5 million jobs, or more, would have been lost.

But Obama said it’s going to take time for the economy to become whole again. As he put it, “Unemployment is going to be a big problem for at least another year.” The nation’s unemployment rate hit 9.7 percent in August. Most economists expect it to top 10 percent next year.

Obama said he’s confident the economy will come back stronger than ever.

Blake Christina Lively (born August 25, 1987) is an American actress. She stars in the

book-based TV series Gossip Girl as Serena van der Woodsen. She has also appeared in several

films including Accepted and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants as well as its sequel,

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2.

Early life

Lively was born in Los Angeles to actors Ernie and Elaine Lively. She was raised as a

Southern Baptist.The youngest of five siblings, Lively has a brother, Eric, two

half-sisters, Lori and Robin, and a half-brother, Jason. Both of her parents and all of her

siblings are, or have been, in the entertainment industry. “My mom and dad always taught

acting, so instead of getting me babysitters, they would just bring me to class,” Lively

recalls.

As a child, Lively was homeschooled.Lively attended Burbank High School in Burbank where she

participated in Burbank High School’s show choir, In Sync, and was a cheerleader.Lively

stated in an interview for the August 2008 Seventeen that she attended 13 schools. She

wanted to attend Stanford University.Lively was not at all interested in acting but during

the summer between her junior and senior year, her brother, Eric, made his agent send her

out on a few auditions. Of the two auditions, she got the role of Bridget for The Sisterhood

of the Traveling Pants.

Career

Lively at the New York premiere of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Lively started out in film with a bit role in Sandman in 1998. In 2005, Lively played

Bridget in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, for which she received a Teen Choice Award

nomination for “Choice Movie Breakout - Female.” She reprised the role in 2008 in the

sequel, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. She starred in Accepted, Simon Says, and

Elvis and Anabelle in 2006. She received the Breakthrough Award from Hollywood Life for her

role in Accepted in December 2006.

Lively was cast in the CW’s series Gossip Girl which premiered in September 2007. She plays

Serena van der Woodsen in the teen drama.While rumors of infighting among the Gossip Girl

co-stars have circulated in the tabloids, Lively denies that there is any unfriendly

competition on-set. “The media is always trying to pit us against each other,” she said in

an interview, “I guess because it’s just not interesting to say, ‘Everyone gets along;

everybody just works 18-hour days and goes home to sleep.’ That’s not fun to read, I

guess.”Her first magazine cover was the November 2007 issue of Cosmo Girl, where she

discussed her time in high school and her career prior to Gossip Girl.She has since appeared

on the January 2008 cover of shopping magazine Lucky. She has more recently appeared on the

March 2008 cover of Teen Vogue, as well as the May 2008 cover of NYLON with her Gossip Girl

co-star Leighton Meester. She appeared on the cover of the August 2008 issue of Seventeen.

The star also was on the cover of “Girls’ Life”’s August 2008 issue, along with The

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants co-stars Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel, and America

Ferrera. More recently Lively also appeared on the cover of the September 2008 issue of

Cosmopolitan and the cover of the February 2009 issue of Vogue. In January 2009 Lively was

voted one of the top “35 Most Stylish Women To Look Out For” by Glamour UK. Lively also

appears on the cover of Glamour magazine (August 2009) with an eight-page spread inside.”

Personal life

Lively reportedly had a nose job after filming 2006’s Accepted. In January 2008, OK! caught

up with Lively at Wednesday night’s Chanel Fine Jewelry’s Night of Diamonds held at The

Plaza in NYC, and asked her about the rumor. “I don’t know,” Lively told OK! “It’s the way

you address any rumor. People want to talk. They want to create negative things about you

and your life, make up things. You can’t look at it. You can’t let them affect you.”

Blake Lively dated actor Kelly Blatz from 2004 to 2007, the two had been friends since

childhood.In late 2007, rumors circulated that Lively was dating her Gossip Girl co-star and

former childhood classmate Penn Badgley.In May 2008, People magazine published photos of the

two kissing while on vacation in Mexico.Lively and Badgley have since become more open about

their relationship, which has made it a favorite topic of the tabloids. Lively was placed

#33 on the Maxim Hot 100 List in 2009.

The attacks of September 11, 2001, are still vivid and painful to many. After eight years our losses, loved ones and friends and fellow citizens, and icons we thought would stand long after we were gone, still leave empty spaces in our lives and our hearts and our city’s skyline.

Staten Island Advance weblogger Michael W. Dominowski looks back on that terrible day, and the Advance presents a gallery of historic photos from the attacks. Looking at them may be painful, but it also may be necessary.

MALIBU, Calif. (AP) — A Wells Fargo & Co. executive who oversees foreclosed properties hosted parties and spent long summer weekends in a $12 million Malibu beach house, moving into the home just after it had been surrendered to Wells Fargo to satisfy debts, neighbors said.

The previous owners of the beachfront home in Malibu Colony — a densely built stretch of luxury homes that has been a favorite of celebrities over the years — were financially devastated in Bernard Madoff’s massive fraud scheme, real estate agent Irene Dazzan-Palmer said.

The couple signed the property over to Wells Fargo last spring, and the bank subsequently denied requests to show the house to prospective buyers, Dazzan-Palmer said.

Residents in the gated community told the Los Angeles Times that a woman they believe was Cheronda Guyton took up occupancy at the home in May. Residents said they obtained Guyton’s name from the community’s guards, who had issued her a homeowner’s parking pass.

Residents also wrote down the license plate number of a 2007 Volvo sport-utility vehicle they say was parked in the home’s garage. A check of state motor vehicle license plates by the Times found the vehicle was registered to Guyton.

Guyton is a Wells Fargo senior vice president responsible for foreclosed commercial properties, resident Phillip Roman said.

“It’s outrageous to take over a property like that, not make it available and then put someone from the bank in it,” said Roman, who lives a few homes away from the property.

Residents said Guyton, along with her husband and two children, often hosted guests at the home, including a large party the last weekend of August. Malibu Colony is about 25 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

Wells Fargo said in a written statement that it would conduct a thorough investigation of the allegations by neighbors, but said it wouldn’t “discuss specific team member situations/issues for privacy reasons.”

Guyton’s home number is unlisted, and attempts to reach her at her Los Angeles office after work hours were unsuccessful.

The bank’s agreement with the prior owner required it to keep the home — a 3,800-square-foot, two-story structure built in the early 1990s — off the market for a period of time, Wells Fargo said in the statement. The bank said it planned to list the property for sale soon.

Move over Anne Geddes - there’s a new baby photographer in town. Tracy Raver was on the “Today” show Friday morning to talk about her unique way of photographing newborns. Searches on the shutterbug promptly shot through the roof.

The photos (many of which you can see in the video below) are of sleeping babies that seem to be posing for the camera. Raver explained that getting babies into cute poses is easier than one might think. A full belly and a warm room will do wonders for making a baby sleepy. And once those eyelids shut, it’s pretty simple to pose the baby.

In the interview with Meredith Vieira, Raver said that she strives for photos that show babies curled up, as if they were in their mother’s womb. In addition to taking photos for clients, Ms. Raver also instructs other photographers on how to keep babies asleep and calm enough to take photos. And while most babies respond to the same tricks, Raver explained that little girls tend to be feistier than boys.

As for the searches, it appears that the “Today” show interview will do wonders for Raver’s business. Queries on her name and “tracy raver photography” both posted triple-digit gains.

We assume many parents will be inspired by the interview to photograph their own babies. Parents should act quickly - according to Raver, after the baby is a month old, it gets a lot more difficult.

You can watch the interview below.

Some people have found Kurt Cobain’s posthumous appearance in Guitar Hero 5 a little unsettling — including his widow, Courtney Love.

In a Twitter tirade for the ages, the former Hole frontwoman announced plans to sue Guitar Hero 5 publisher Activision over the way her late husband was represented in the game, reports The Guardian.

“For the record this Guitar Hero [expletive] is breach of contract on a Bullys part and there will be a proper addressing of this and retraction,” she posted on her Twitter account. “WE are going to sue the [expletive] out of ACtivision we being the Trust the Estate the LLC the various LLCs Cobain Enterprises.”
Courtney Love

Uhhhh…You go girl!

Cobain appears as one of five exclusive in-game artists in Guitar Hero 5, joining the likes of Carlos Santana and Johnny Cash as playable characters.

In particular, Love is incensed over the look of Cobain’s avatar, which can be used by gamers to play non-Nirvana songs with Cobain lip-synching along. Love insisted she “never signed off on the avatar, let alone this [expletive] feature” and that “there’s been four breaches of a very strict contract.”

However, according to Activision vice president Tim Riley, working with Love was smooth and easy.

“Courtney supplied us with photos and videos,” he told The Guardian. “She picked the wardrobe and hairstyle, which turned out to be the ‘Teen Spirit’ look, then we went back and forth over changes - some subtle, some not so subtle.”

But Love simply doesn’t agree. From her Twitter feed:

“We have NOTHING to do with this it was presented to me and oi said “show me a better avataR” TO DRAG MY HEELS., never did i intend on allowing GUITARHERO for me or for Kurt i am NOT yoko [expletive] Ono no ofense to her, but i am a different person entirely and this is insane.

Caster Semenya, the 18-year old at the center of one of the biggest gender scandals in sports history, withdrew from a weekend race in South Africa amidst unconfirmed reports that her gender tests have revealed that she has both male and female sexual organs.She was scheduled to compete in the 4,000 meters at the national cross country championships in Pretoria. Semenya’s coach, Michael Seme, says his runner “isn’t feeling well”.

Yesterday, unsubstantiated reports from Australia and England said that Semenya’s tests showed that she has no womb or ovaries and produces testosterone levels three times higher than a normal woman. The IAAF thinly denies the reports. (The organization’s spokesman says he hasn’t “seen” the results, which doesn’t mean he hasn’t “heard” the results. Nor has the IAAF come out and said that the reports are false.)

The Today Show aired a report on the Semenya situation this morning:

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama used only-in-Washington accounting Wednesday when he promised to overhaul the nation’s health care system without adding “one dime” to the deficit. By conventional arithmetic, Democratic plans would drive up the deficit by billions of dollars.

The president’s speech to Congress contained a variety of oversimplifications and omissions in laying out what he wants to do about health insurance.

A look at some of Obama’s claims and how they square with the facts or the fuller story:

___

OBAMA: “I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits either now or in the future. Period.”

THE FACTS: Though there’s no final plan yet, the White House and congressional Democrats already have shown they’re ready to skirt the no-new-deficits pledge.

House Democrats offered a bill that the Congressional Budget Office said would add $220 billion to the deficit over 10 years. But Democrats and Obama administration officials claimed the bill actually was deficit-neutral. They said they simply didn’t have to count $245 billion of it - the cost of adjusting Medicare reimbursement rates so physicians don’t face big annual pay cuts.

Their reasoning was that they already had decided to exempt this “doc fix” from congressional rules that require new programs to be paid for. In other words, it doesn’t have to be paid for because they decided it doesn’t have to be paid for.

The administration also said that since Obama already had included the doctor payment in his 10-year budget proposal, it didn’t have to be counted again.

That aside, the long-term prognosis for costs of the health care legislation has not been good.

CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf had this to say in July: “We do not see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount.”

___

OBAMA: “Nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have.”

THE FACTS: That’s correct, as far as it goes. But neither can the plan guarantee that people can keep their current coverage. Employers sponsor coverage for most families, and they’d be free to change their health plans in ways that workers may not like, or drop insurance altogether. The Congressional Budget Office analyzed the health care bill written by House Democrats and said that by 2016 some 3 million people who now have employer-based care would lose it because their employers would decide to stop offering it.

In the past Obama repeatedly said, “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period.” Now he’s stopping short of that unconditional guarantee by saying nothing in the plan “requires” any change.

___

OBAMA: “The reforms I’m proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.” One congressman, South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson, shouted “You lie!” from his seat in the House chamber when Obama made this assertion. Wilson later apologized.

THE FACTS: The facts back up Obama. The House version of the health care bill explicitly prohibits spending any federal money to help illegal immigrants get health care coverage. Illegal immigrants could buy private health insurance, as many do now, but wouldn’t get tax subsidies to help them. Still, Republicans say there are not sufficient citizenship verification requirements to ensure illegal immigrants are excluded from benefits they are not due.

___

OBAMA: “Don’t pay attention to those scary stories about how your benefits will be cut. … That will never happen on my watch. I will protect Medicare.”

THE FACTS: Obama and congressional Democrats want to pay for their health care plans in part by reducing Medicare payments to providers by more than $500 billion over 10 years. The cuts would largely hit hospitals and Medicare Advantage, the part of the Medicare program operated through private insurance companies.

Although wasteful spending in Medicare is widely acknowledged, many experts believe some seniors almost certainly would see reduced benefits from the cuts. That’s particularly true for the 25 percent of Medicare users covered through Medicare Advantage.

Supporters contend that providers could absorb the cuts by improving how they operate and wouldn’t have to reduce benefits or pass along costs. But there’s certainly no guarantee they wouldn’t.

___

OBAMA: Requiring insurance companies to cover preventive care like mammograms and colonoscopies “makes sense, it saves money, and it saves lives.”

THE FACTS: Studies have shown that much preventive care - particularly tests like the ones Obama mentions - actually costs money instead of saving it. That’s because detecting acute diseases like breast cancer in their early stages involves testing many people who would never end up developing the disease. The costs of a large number of tests, even if they’re relatively cheap, will outweigh the costs of caring for the minority of people who would have ended up getting sick without the testing.

The Congressional Budget Office wrote in August: “The evidence suggests that for most preventive services, expanded utilization leads to higher, not lower, medical spending overall.”

That doesn’t mean preventive care doesn’t make sense or save lives. It just doesn’t save money.

___

OBAMA: “If you lose your job or change your job, you will be able to get coverage. If you strike out on your own and start a small business, you will be able to get coverage.”

THE FACTS: It’s not just a matter of being able to get coverage. Most people would have to get coverage under the law, if his plan is adopted.

In his speech, Obama endorsed mandatory coverage for individuals, an approach he did not embrace as a candidate.

He proposed during the campaign - as he does now - that larger businesses be required to offer insurance to workers or else pay into a fund. But he rejected the idea of requiring individuals to obtain insurance. He said people would get insurance without being forced to do so by the law, if coverage were made affordable. And he repeatedly criticized his Democratic primary rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, for proposing to mandate coverage.

“To force people to get health insurance, you’ve got to have a very harsh penalty,” he said in a February 2008 debate.

Now, he says, “individuals will be required to carry basic health insurance - just as most states require you to carry auto insurance.”

He proposes a hardship waiver, exempting from the requirement those who cannot afford coverage despite increased federal aid.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Mike Duvall’s second term as a member of the California Assembly was progressing pretty much like his first - in relative obscurity, with few notable legislative accomplishments.

The Orange County Republican is now a YouTube hit after KCAL-TV aired his racy comments about sexual conquests that were caught by an open microphone in a Capitol hearing room. Several media outlets said the comments referred to Duvall’s affairs with a female lobbyist and another woman. He resigned Wednesday.

California’s legislative leaders have been trying to focus on a number high-profile issues - from water policy to prisons to renewable energy - during the waning days of their legislative session. On Wednesday, they instead found themselves answering questions about a lawmaker who bragged about a spanking fetish, the type of underwear worn by a mistress and his apparent ability to carry on two extramarital affairs at once.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, called it “a very sad day.”

“We have such big issues before the Legislature and to have this become a distraction, he felt his responsibility was to step aside,” she said.

Duvall, 54, lives in Yorba Linda with his wife when he is not in Sacramento, and has two adult children.

He made the comments about the affairs to Assemblyman Jeff Miller during a break in a committee meeting inside the Capitol on July 8, apparently unaware that the microphone at the desk was on.

“I’m getting into spanking her,” Duvall is heard saying on the videotape, which was made as a matter of routine by a legislative office.

Miller asks if she likes it too. Duvall responds: “She goes, ‘I know you like spanking me.’ I said, ‘Yeah, that’s ’cause you’re such a bad girl.’”

Duvall also describes the woman’s “eye-patch underwear” and the age difference between himself and his mistress, identified in some media reports as a lobbyist for an energy company. He tells Miller, a fellow Republican from Corona, that the woman’s birthday was two days earlier.

Duvall said he joked with the woman that she was getting old after turning 36 and told her, “I am going to have to trade you in.”

The lawmaker then brags about an affair he is having with another woman.

“Oh, she is hot! I talked to her yesterday. She goes, ‘So are we finished?’ I go, ‘No, we’re not finished.’ I go, ‘You know about the other one, but she doesn’t know about you!’” Duvall can be heard saying in an apparent reference to his affair with the lobbyist.

The unseemly remarks also raise questions about the relationship between lawmakers and lobbyists. The Assembly Ethics Committee is investigating Duvall’s comments, in part to determine whether the affair might have influenced his votes.

He was vice chairman of the Assembly Utilities Committee.

Several media outlets reported the woman Duvall refers to in his comments works as a lobbyist for Sempra Energy, a San Diego-based energy services company that operates San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and Southern California Gas Co. Sempra issued an e-mail statement saying it was investigating the claims.

“The employee has denied the speculative media reports. Our investigation will be conducted to ensure not only that our policies on employee conduct are strictly adhered to, but also that our employee is treated fairly,” the company said.

Duvall was elected in 2006 to represent an Orange County district that includes Fullerton, Anaheim, Placentia, Orange, Brea and Yorba Linda. Before that, he served six years on the Yorba Linda City Council. He also owns an insurance agency.

In stepping down, Duvall said it would not be fair to his family, constituents or friends to remain in office.

“I am deeply saddened that my inappropriate comments have become a major distraction for my colleagues in the Assembly, who are working hard on the very serious problems facing our state,” he said. “Therefore, I have decided to resign my office, effective immediately, so that the Assembly can get back to work.”

The lawmaker had received a 100 percent rating from Capitol Resource Institute, a conservative advocacy group, for his votes on legislation considered pro-family during the 2007-08 legislative session.