Wednesday, May 30, 2012

El domingo 27 el Coliseo Ciudad de Atarfe de Málaga sintió la emoción de más de 7.000 personas. El 'culpable' no fue otro que Lenny Kravitz, que ofreció un increíble concierto como inicio de su gira española. Dos horas de puro rock en las que el artista presentó los temas de su nuevo álbum, 'Black and White America'; pero sin pasar por alto himnos como 'Fly away', 'It ain't over', 'Believe' y' Stand by my woman' o 'Are you gonna go my way?'. Lenny tiene ya fijados sus próximos objetivos: La Coruña, Barcelona y Madrid, en el festival Rock in Rio.

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Vikings cornerback Asher Allen has retired from football at age 24, head coach Leslie Frazier announced Wednesday. 

Allen suffered a concussion in the first half of Week 15 game last season against the New Orleans Saints, and missed the next game but started the final game of the season. He also suffered a concussion in November 2010. Last year, he also struggled with a shoulder injury late in the season and a preseason toe injury that caused him to miss the season opener. Frazier wouldn’t say if the concussions were a reason for the retirement. 

“He’ll talk about it more at some point, but he explained to me that this was something he wanted to do. He had given it a lot of thought and that’s what he wanted to do,” Frazier said. 

Allen was a third-round draft pick of the Vikings in 2009 and played in 37 career games, making 21 starts. 

With a secondary depleted of depth last year after starter Antoine Winfield spent the final seven games on injured reserve and Chris Cook spent the final 10 games away from the team after an arrest for domestic assault, Allen ended up starting nine games. 

The Vikings added cornerbacks Chris Carr and Zack Bowman in free agency and drafted Josh Robinson in the third round this year, but Allen would have been a likely candidate to earn a roster spot. 

“He would have been one of the corners fighting for a spot, just like the other guys are, but his experience would have helped us,” Frazier said. 

“Surprised. I didn’t see that coming, but everybody has to make decisions that are best for them.” 

Frazier said he was informed of Allen’s decision to retire last Thursday and indicated the Vikings will keep their options open in searching for additional depth. The Vikings also released cornerback Cedric Griffin before the start of free agency. Griffin had played in 80 games and made 70 starts since being a second-round draft choice in 2006, but torn anterior cruciate ligaments in each of his knees since 2009 limited his effectiveness. 

“You’ve got to keep looking like we would even if (Allen) were here to create competition and continue to upgrade that position and that’s what we’ll do,” Frazier said. “We want depth and we want competition in the secondary and he definitely helped to provide that, but that opens up another spot.” 

Allen finishes his short Vikings career with 129 tackles, four interceptions and 18 passes broken up. He led the team with 10 passes defensed in 2010, when he 

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Other companies are doing the same math. A report in March by the Boston Consulting Group found seven industry groups, selling about $200 billion in Chinese-made imports, that will likely shift production back to the U.S. to duck rising costs in China. That could add between $20 billion to $55 billion to U.S. gross domestic product before the end of the decade, the authors estimated.
U.S. export gains in Chinese and other global markets will create between two million and three million American jobs, lower the U.S. unemployment rate by between 1.5 to 2.0 percentage points and cut the U.S. merchandise trade deficit by 25 to 35 percent, according to the study.
Demand for Chinese exports, meanwhile, is being hurt by the ongoing recession in Europe, China’s largest trading partner. The hit to China’s exports so far has been relatively mild compared to the sharp downturn that followed the financial panic of 2008, according to Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics. Lost exports amount to about $300 billion - about half the losses from the 2008 downturn – and the Chinese economy is better able to weather the loss because its large and its currency is stronger than in 2008, he said. But he figures the drop in exports hasn’t run its course and could get a lot worse.
The slowdown in China is also starting to take a bite out of the economies of smaller, emerging economies and trading partners that supply the raw materials needed to feed China’s export machine.
“Asia should be very worried if the European situation continues to unravel," said Rob Subbaraman, chief Asia economist, at Nomura Group.  “It can handle moderate growth in Europe or the U.S. But if we start to move toward a deep recession there’s a tipping point where Asia gets hit very hard again.”
To be sure, China’s economy is still growing at a pace that would feel like wild prosperity in larger developed economies like the U.S. or Europe. But as the last major engine of growth, some forecasters are cautioning that the loss of Chinese demand threatens to spark a wider global slowdown that will crimp demand for U.S.-made products.
U.S. manufacturers are “about to face a negative shock from the hit to exports from the deepening European downturn and the spreading impact on demand in other key trading partners in Asia,” said David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff.
One big unknown is whether Chinese consumers will pick up the slack from the lost growth in exports. China continues to pursue an ambitious, 30-year plan to transform itself from a rural agrarian society to an urbanized manufacturing and consumer-driven economy. The ongoing flood of workers from farms to factories -- the largest peace-time migration in human history -- will continue to drive demand for new housing, cars and other consumer products.

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Researchers at the Urban Institute used census data to estimate health insurance coverage for veterans aged 19 to 64.
While veterans are more likely to have health insurance than the general population, about 1 in 10 of the nearly 12.5 million veterans under age 65 do not have health coverage either through the VA or other insurers.
The rates of uninsurance appear to be especially high for veterans under age 35.
“They are disproportionately younger, and they appear to have served more recently,” said Genevieve Kenney, a senior fellow with the Urban Institute and co-author of the report.

Kenney said the uninsured veterans also tended to have lower incomes and lower levels of education and were less likely to be full-time workers than the veterans with health coverage.
Contrary to popular belief, veterans are not automatically eligible for health care coverage once they leave the military. Jacob Gadd, deputy director for health care with the American Legion, said health coverage is generally provided to the poorest and the most badly injured of those who have served.
For example, combat veterans are eligible for five years of free medical care for any service-related issues. Other veterans can get at least some coverage for injuries if they can prove they are related to their service.
In addition, veterans who have very little income or are in financial distress can qualify to receive care through Veterans Affairs medical centers. (The VA provides an overview of who is eligible.)
Gadd said many veterans don’t appear to be aware of what benefits are available to them, especially if they have injuries from their time in service.
American Legion research has shown that only about half of military members who have returned home from deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan have enrolled in the VA for health care.
“We are worried about the other half, whether they know if benefits are available to them,” Gadd said.
Gadd said some veterans may be choosing not to seek out health care, especially if they have post-traumatic stress or other conditions they fear could carry a stigma.
There are clear costs to not having health insurance. Kenney, of the Urban Institute, said separate research has shown that high numbers of uninsured veterans have health issues that are not being addressed.
About one-third of uninsured veterans said they were delaying care due tocost, the researcher found.