HIV diagnosis rate fell by third in US over decade

NEW YORK — The rate of HIV infections diagnosed in the United States each year fell by one-third over the past decade, a government study finds. Experts celebrated it as hopeful news that the AIDS epidemic may be slowing in the U.S.

"It's encouraging," said Patrick Sullivan, an Emory University AIDS researcher who was not involved in the study.

The reasons for the drop aren't clear. It might mean fewer new infections are occurring. Or that most infected people already have been diagnosed so more testing won't necessarily find many more cases.

"It could be we are approaching something of a 'ceiling effect,'" said one study leader, David Holtgrave of Johns Hopkins University.

The study was released online Saturday by the Journal of the American Medical Association. It is part of the journal's special report on HIV research, issued ahead of the International AIDS Conference that starts Sunday in Melbourne, Australia.

HIV is the virus that causes AIDS, which destroys the immune system. The World Health Organization estimates 35 million people globally have the virus. In the United States, 1.1 million people are thought to be infected, though many don't know it.

The study is based on HIV diagnoses from all 50 states' health departments, which get test results from doctors' office, clinics, hospitals and laboratories. The data span a decade, making this a larger and longer look at these trends than any previous study, said another study author, Amy Lansky of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The findings: 16 out of every 100,000 people ages 13 and older were newly diagnosed with HIV in 2011, a steady decline from 24 out of 100,000 people in 2002.

Declines were seen in the rates for men, women, whites, blacks, Hispanics, heterosexuals, injection drug users and most age groups. The only group in which diagnoses increased was young gay and bisexual men, the study found.

The diagnosis rate is a direct measure of when people actually tested positive for the virus. The diagnoses may be identifying infections that happened recently or years before.

The study found diagnosis rates dropped even as the amount of testing rose. In 2006, the CDC recommended routine HIV testing for all Americans ages 13 to 64, saying an HIV test should be as common as a cholesterol check. The percentage of adults ever tested for HIV increased from 37 percent in 2000 to 45 percent in 2010, according to CDC data.

Lansky acknowledged that given the testing increases, the new findings may seem like a bit of a paradox. One might assume that "if more people get tested, you're more likely to find more people who are infected," she said.

But several factors could explain the decline.

One is Holgrave's 'ceiling effect' theory. Another is a possible ebb in new infections.

The CDC has been estimating about 50,000 new infections occur each year and that number has been holding steady in the past decade. That estimate comes from reports from 25 city and state health departments, joined with statistical modeling.

Lansky said maybe new infections are waning. Or maybe not, she and other experts said.

How could new infections be holding steady when diagnoses are falling? Perhaps the infection count might be buoyed by the expanding epidemic in young gay and bisexual men, said Sullivan, the Emory researcher.

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Online:

JAMA: http://www.jama.com

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Obama: US must retrain workers who lose jobs

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says all American workers deserve to know that if they lose their jobs, their country will help them train for a better one.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama says Congress has taken steps in the right direction by approving job-training legislation. But he says there's much more the U.S. can do for the middle class and those aspiring to join it.

Obama says Vice President Joe Biden next week will release a report on how the U.S. can improve its job-training system. The president says he'll visit a Los Angeles community college where workers are being retrained for jobs in health care.

In the Republican address, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana says Obama should encourage Senate Democrats to pass House-approved bills to put Americans back to work.

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Online:

Obama address: www.whitehouse.gov

GOP address: www.gop.gov

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Singapore Airlines apologizes over Ukraine remarks

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Singapore Airlines apologized Saturday over social media remarks it posted after the Malaysian jetliner was shot down that were taken by many as being insensitive.

After the Malaysia Airlines plane went down over Ukraine with 298 onboard Thursday, postings on Facebook and Twitter from Singapore Airlines claimed that its flights do not fly across Ukrainian airspace. The remarks drew the ire of many Malaysians, with some taking to social media themselves.

"A post starting with condolence (and) then, stating your planes are diverted and not using this airspace anymore would have made (you) sound less heartless!" Joannica Dass wrote on Facebook.

Others, however, felt many were overreacting to Singapore Airlines' remarks, and said the carrier was merely trying to get a message across to its customers.

"I don't think their comment was to advertise or boast their flight routes as much as it was to ease the tension of the hundreds of passengers that are scheduled to fly out to other countries over the next few days," Karishma Sharma wrote on Facebook.

On Saturday, Singapore Airlines apologized and tried to clarify its remarks.

"We are aware of that our Facebook and Twitter update on Friday morning may have come across as insensitive to some. The post was in response to many requests from our customers who had asked for information about our flight routes for their upcoming flights with us," Singapore Airlines said in an email to The Associated Press.

"We recognize that the information could have been better communicated and we sincerely apologize if it had offended our customers and anyone else in the online community," it said.

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Malaysia Airlines staff try to cope with disasters

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Coping with two disasters within a few months has left some Malaysia Airlines employees so shaken that they've been unable to function properly at work, a union official said Saturday.

The airline suffered its second disaster in less than five months Thursday when Flight 17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down in Ukraine with 298 people onboard. The carrier also is still dealing with the mystery of Flight 370, which disappeared March 8 with 239 people onboard en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia President Ismail Nasaruddin said morale among airline personnel is low as employees try to come to terms with the two disasters.

"Some of them are sad and very depressed," he said at a news conference. "We have not overcome the battle of missing MH370, and within such a short period, this incident has taken place involving another Malaysia aircraft."

Meanwhile, about 50 former high school classmates of a flight attendant who was aboard Flight 17, Nur Shazana Mohamed Salleh, gathered at a mosque Saturday in Putrajaya, a district just outside Kuala Lumpur, to pay final respects to their friend and others who died in Thursday's disaster.

"From the ages of 13 to 17, we did everything together," said the organizer of the gathering, who gave only the name Nik. "We're all like sisters. May God bless her and others on the plane."

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Megyn Kelly, Sean Hannity hit new ratings highs with crisis coverage

Coverage of both the Malaysia Airlines downed over Ukraine and unrest in the Gaza region helped two Fox News Channel programs reach new total-audience highs, according to data from Nielsen Media Research.

The 21st Century Fox cable outlet's "The Kelly File" delivered a high in total viewership, notching nearly 3.2 million viewers, while "Hannity" reached a new high of nearly 2.58 million viewers, according to Nielsen. "Hannity" also set a new record for viewers between 25 and 54, the demographic most attractive to advertisers in news programming, reaching 615,000.

Fox News was the most-watched cable-news network during Thursday coverage of the event, Nielsen said. Fox News averaged over 3 million viewers in primetime and nearly 600,000 among viewers between 25 and 54. Fox News averaged 1.5 million in total viewers for the viewing day and 313,000 among viewers between 25 and 54.

CNN also saw viewership surge. In primetime, CNN delivered its highest daily total viewership and 25-54 audience since its broadcast of the State of the Union address on January 2. The Time Warner outlet said it notched 1.2 million viewers in primetime overall while luring about 488,000 viewers in the demo. In total day, CNN lured its highest daily total audience and 25-54 viewership since its March 24 coverage of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. CNN captured an average of 699,000 in total viewers and an average of 247,000 between the ages of 25 and 54.

(C) 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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US states with higher minimum wages gain more jobs

WASHINGTON — Hiring data released for individual states suggests raising the minimum wage has an upside.

The 13 U.S. states that raised their minimum wages at the beginning of this year are adding jobs at a faster pace than those that did not. The data provides some counter-intuitive fuel to the debate over what impact a higher minimum has on hiring trends.

Many business groups argue that raising the minimum wage discourages job growth by increasing the cost of hiring. A Congressional Budget Office report earlier this year lent some support for that view.

But the state-by-state hiring data, released yesterday by the Labor Department, provides ammunition to those who disagree. Economists who support a higher minimum say the figures acknowledge the data doesn't establish a cause and effect.

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FBI issues warning about air conditioner coolant

ATLANTA — As the U.S. tries to phase out a polluting refrigerant that is used in millions of air conditioners across the country, unapproved coolant is popping up on the market — with potentially dangerous consequences.

The FBI is warning people to be on alert for refrigerant substitutes that have not been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency. Some contain propane, which is flammable and can explode or catch fire if, for example, a technician servicing an air conditioner gets too close to the coolant while soldering. So far, the explosions have been rare.

The problem has cropped up as the U.S. phases out R-22, a chemical used for decades as a refrigerant in air conditioners and refrigerators. Because R-22 destroys the ozone layer, it is being banned globally under an international treaty. The EPA is guiding the switch over to ozone-friendlier refrigerants, and has listed approved ones on its website.

The phaseout caused prices of R-22 to skyrocket, increasing the demand for cheaper, unapproved replacements, many of which are made in China and sold on the black market. Products like "Super Freeze 22a" have been selling mostly online or over the telephone to home owners and "do-it-yourselfers," circumventing stores and regulators, the FBI said on its website. The FBI has launched an investigation into the sale of unapproved refrigerants but declined to answer questions from The Associated Press.

It is unclear how many people may have fallen victim to a refrigerant scam. Reports of fires or explosions seem rare. The EPA, without citing specific examples, said it knows of cases in the U.S. and abroad where people have been injured after using unapproved refrigerants in air conditioners. Additionally, the agency took action against at least one U.S. company in 2013 for selling an unapproved refrigerant that had the potential to explode.

There have been scattered reports of deaths overseas. A New Zealand firefighter was killed and seven others were seriously injured in a 2008 explosion blamed on a propane-based gas being used to cool a refrigeration warehouse, according to local media reports at the time. More recently, dock workers in Vietnam and Brazil were killed after giant shipping containers exploded when suspected counterfeit refrigerant was placed in their cooling units, according to shipping reports obtained by the U.N. Environment Programme.

The Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute, an Arlington, Virginia-based trade association, has yet to hear about an accident occurring domestically, said Karim Amrane, vice president of regulatory policy and research with the group.

Allison Bailes, founder of Energy Vanguard, an energy efficiency consulting and design firm in Decatur, Georgia, said consumers should choose only contractors who are licensed, preferably those who have North American Technical Excellence certification.

"Tell them you want the type of refrigerant ... that it is manufactured for. If it's supposed to be R-22, then put R-22 in it," Bailes said. Companies that skirt the law are "creating the potential for greater cost to their customers and causing injury or death to techs who work on those systems later."

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Environmental Protection Agency:

http://www.epa.gov/ozone/snap/r22a.html

http://www.epa.gov/ozone/enforce/blackmkt.html#cases

http://www.epa.gov/ozone/snap/refrigerants/lists/homeac.html

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Red Granite, 'Dumb and Dumber' producers settle dispute over sequel

Red Granite Pictures and Brad Krevoy and Steve Stabler have settled their legal tangle over the sequel to "Dumb and Dumber," and will dismiss lawsuits each side filed last year.

The litigation was over Krevoy and Stabler's claim that Red Granite froze them out of "Dumb and Dumber To." Krevoy and Stabler, who were producers on the 1994 original, contended that they were contractually entitled to compensation and producing credits. Friday's announcement of the settlement lists them as executive producers.

Krevoy and Stabler also said in a statement, "We apologize for naming Riza Aziz and Joey McFarland as individual defendants rather than just Red Granite." Aziz and McFarland are principals in the company.

Earlier this week, Krevoy and Stabler withdrew their racketeering claims against Red Granite and their principals, although there was no mention of a settlement at the time. A request for dismissal was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday.

As the dispute was brewing, Red Granite had filed a suit against Krevoy and Stabler last year, seeking a declaration that the duo had no claim on the sequel.

Krevoy and Stabler then filed a counterclaim, contending that a written agreement from 1994 gave them a right of first negotiation for sequels and remakes on terms as least as favorable to the original, and that Red Granite assumed that obligation when it purchased the rights. They contended in that claim that they were owed a minimum of $400,000 in front end compensation as well as producing credits.

Krevoy and Stabler then made the racketeering allegations in an amended complaint on March 25.

"Dumb and Dumber To" reunites stars Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels and directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly. The script was written by the Farrellys along with Sean Anders, John Morris, Mike Cerrone and Bennett Yellin.

Aziz and McFarland will be listed as producers along with Charlie Wessler, Bradley Thomas and The Farrelly Brothers.

Executive producers along with Krevoy and Stabler will be Marc Fischer, David Koplan, Danny Dimbort and Christian Mercuri.

Universal is releasing the sequel on Nov. 14.

Krevoy and Stabler were represented by Bryan Freedman, Steven Formaker and Steven Stiglitz of Freedman and Taitelman. Red Granite was represented by Patricia Glaser, Paul Salvaty and Camilla Chan of Glaser Weil Fink Jacobs Howard Avchen & Shapiro.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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CEO guilty of paying kickbacks in stock scheme

BOSTON — The head of two publicly-traded companies has pleaded guilty to charges he paid kickbacks in return for the purchase of his firms' stock.

The U.S. attorney's office says 48-year-old Shailesh Shah of Chino, California, pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in Boston to two counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud. The judge set sentencing for October.

Prosecutors say Shah agreed to pay kickbacks to a purported investment fund representative in return for having that fund buy stock in his companies, SOHM, Inc. and Costas, Inc. The individual Shah believed worked for the fund was actually an undercover FBI agent.

Shah concealed the kickbacks through what prosecutors called sham consulting agreements and other fraudulent documents.

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FX tweaks ratings model by delaying 'The Strain' numbers

FX drama "The Strain" has delivered impressive ratings since its Sunday night premiere, emerging as the biggest new cable drama in young adults this summer and perhaps the biggest ever for the network. But a bigger story is that it took FX this long to tout its performance.

In a first for a TV industry grappling to get an accurate handle on audience measurement in the DVR era, the network waited until Nielsen issued its "Live + 3" numbers on Friday to release any ratings data to the press. The "Live + Same-Day" numbers were issued by Nielsen on Tuesday, and reported in some outlets, but they are increasingly becoming irrelevant for a business whose chief advertising currency is sold off numbers that include three days' worth of DVR playback.

It's not unusual these days, especially for 10 p.m. dramas like "The Strain," to jump in rating by more than 50% with just three days' worth of DVR playback. (The young-adult audience for "Strain" actually swelled by 64%, and could come close to doubling its audience when a full week's worth of data is included.)

"With the exception of sports, news and live events, Live+Same Day ratings no longer accurately reflect the audience delivery for a scripted entertainment program," said FX's John Solberg in a note accompanying Friday's ratings release. "We believe they grossly mischaracterize the actual audience due to the multiple data streams and platforms. Therefore, our first acknowledgement of any ratings will be on a Live+3 basis and beyond."

It may prove more difficult for the broadcast networks to do this, as there is a decades' long tradition of making next-morning ratings judgments about their shows, but FX is hoping its new ratings policy can at least spur a discussion throughout the industry.

Looking at Guillermo del Toro's vampire-virus drama"The Strain," it averaged a 1.91 rating in adults 18-49 (2.43 million viewers) and 4.73 million total viewers in "Live + 3" ratings, rising 64% in demo rating (from 1.18) and 58% in total viewers (from 2.99 million) from its "Live plus same-day" averages. The 1.91 puts it ahead of TNT's "The Last Ship," which did a 1.73 rating in Live+3 (after earning the same 1.18 rating as "The Strain" in "Live+same-day").

When Live+7 data is released by Nielsen, "The Strain" figures to leap-frog "The Americans" (5.12 million total viewers) to become FX's most-watched drama ever by this measure.

FX also projects that, inclusive of Live+7 data, VOD, digital and electronic purchases, the series premiere of "The Strain" will deliver over 10 million total viewers.

"The Strain," from FX Productions, was co-created and is executive produced by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, who teamed to pen the pilot script. Del Toro directed the episode.

Carlton Cuse serves as executive producer/showrunner and writer. Gary Ungar also serves as executive producer.

Showtime also issued Live + 3 numbers for its Sunday series on Friday, though it's unclear if this will be an ongoing policy. Its "Ray Donovan" and "Masters of Sex" had looked soft in their second-season premieres when the same-night numbers were released by Nielsen on Monday, but looked healthier four days later.

"Donovan" jumped 52% from same-night (1.224 million) to L+3 (1.865 million) to virtually match the 1.9 million for its year-ago series premiere. "Masters" surged by 68% (825,000 to 1.387 million) and also was in line with its series premiere of last year.

Both shows enjoyed stronger lead-ins for their series premieres ("Ray Donovan" had "Dexter" and "Masters of Sex" had "Homeland"), so holding steady is a positive sign.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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