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Release Date: 01/13/2012Contact Information: Kris Lancaster, (913) 551-7557, lancaster.kris@epa.gov

(Kansas City, Kan., Jan. 13, 2012) – The University of Kansas Hospital of Kansas City, Kan., will be honored next week by EPA for reducing its volume of solid waste through innovative recycling programs. EPA will present a 2011 WasteWise Gold Achievement Award for waste reduction in the workplace.

The hospital has made significant strides in protecting the environment through recycling, waste reduction, environmentally preferable purchasing, education and community involvement. Since 2010, the hospital has diverted more than 540,000 pounds of solid waste from local landfills.

WasteWise is a free, voluntary EPA program that helps businesses reduce their environmental impact and find cost savings through innovative waste reduction and recycling activities. The program provides an online reporting system called Re-TRAC, which allows members to track waste generation and reduction activities, generate customized reports, and calculate their greenhouse gas emission reductions and environmental impacts.

A tour of the University of Kansas Hospital, at 3901 Rainbow Boulevard, in Kansas City, Kan., will be held for news media and public from 12:15 to 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 17. A news conference will follow at 1:00 p.m. at the same location.

WHEN: 1:00 p.m., January 17, 2012 (Tour of the hospital will begin in the main lobby at 12:15 p.m.)

WHERE: Rieke Auditorium, 39th Street and Cambridge Avenue, Kansas City, Kan. 66160 (Parking is available at 39th Street parking garage.)

WHO: EPA Region 7 Deputy Regional Administrator Mark Hague, University of Kansas Hospital President and Chief Executive Officer Bob Page, University of Kansas Hospital Vice President of Operations Dwight Kasperbauer, and Kansas Department of Health and Environment Public Service Liaison Rodney Ferguson

The University of Kansas Hospital is affiliated with the University of Kansas Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Health Professions, and its various research projects. The facility contains 576 staffed beds (plus 24 bassinets) and serves nearly 27,000 inpatients annually.
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Locate this and other Region 7 news items on the News Where You Live interactive map

View selected historical press releases from 1970 to 1998 in the EPA History website.

Editor’s concern over bird flu

The editor of a leading scientific journal has said his "default position" is to publish full details of controversial research into the bird flu virus, unless progress is made on how to circulate details of the findings to scientists.

The request caused outcry among some scientists who believed that it was an infringement of academic freedom.

Some pointed out that the scientists had given presentations about their work at conferences and the details were already widely circulated, so redaction would have little purpose.

The scientists who carried out the research, and the journals concerned, have been considering the request and listening to suggestions as to how the research results could be redacted in the scientific journals, but distributed to bona fide researchers who urgently need the information.

The information is vital to develop a vaccine to any human form of bird flu, and it would enable surveillance teams to see if the bird flu virus was mutating into a form that could be transmissible to humans.

But such efforts have been put on hold for four months as governments, scientists and the journals decide what to do.

The latest stage is a meeting this week held at the WHO's headquarters in Geneva.

Bruce Alberts says that the research shows that it is very easy for lethal bird flu to develop and it should act as a "real wake-up call to the world".

He added: "This is likely to happen at some point in the wild because these viruses are mutating very actively in the wild."

Its role is to identify research that might pose a security threat and recommend redaction where appropriate.

Dr Alberts supports the NSABB mechanism because it enables government security advisers to be informed by the scientists who sit on the board.

He suggests that for him and the editor of Nature, Dr Phil Campbell, to simply ignore the recommendations of the NSABB would undermine a system which could be considerably worse.

"Both Science magazine and Nature would both of like to support the mechanism because it's the best mechanism we're ever going to get," he says.

The sticking point though is that the scientific community and governments cannot agree the process by which an applicant for redacted material is deemed to be worthy of receiving it and who should make that judgement.

Initially the US government had suggested that US scientists, with the input of some foreign researchers, should administer the distribution process.

But this week at the WHO, international health bodies have said they should be more intimately involved and it would not work to run it through the US government.

"It is our hope that that meeting will lead to an international resolution as to how to get the information selectively to those that need to know and that would allow us to adhere to the NSABB recommendation," says Dr Alberts.

EPA Announces Millions in Grants to Clean Air Projects in San Joaquin Valley

Should grief be treated like depression?

Editor’s note: Dr. Charles Raison, CNNhealth’s mental health expert, is an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

DOJ and EPA propose more time to complete Baton Rouge Sewage Treatment Plant upgrades

Contraceptives, religious freedom: Are we in a new culture war?

Contraceptives, religious freedom: Are we in a new culture war?Brianna Keilar and Eric Marrapodi ("CNN," February 17, 2012)

Washington, USA – Welcome to the culture wars 2.0, where the front lines now are religious freedom and contraceptives. Abortion? Gay marriage? Those are so last year.

The White House seems to have assuaged the concerns of liberal and moderate religious voices, particularly Catholics, who complained that the U.S. Health and Human Services mandate on contraceptive coverage violated religious freedom of conscience. The policy now includes a wide exemption for religious groups; requires insurance companies, instead of religious employers, to foot the bill; and still includes a year to hammer out the details.

But now, the issue is firmly entrenched in a political battle on Capitol Hill. Republicans are seizing on the issue as an opportunity to push back on the Affordable Care Act, which they gleefully call “Obamacare.” Democrats, meanwhile, are punching back, saying that rolling back the mandate is a slap in the face to women and that this is exclusively a women’s health issue.

Political shots were fired from both sides at a Thursday hearing convened by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

The hearing, titled “Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience?” featured conservative religious voices from across the spectrum, most of whom were male.

“Today’s hearing is a solemn one. It involves freedom of conscience,” Issa said at the beginning of the hearing.

The Most Rev. William Lori, the Catholic bishop of Bridgeport, Connecticut, testified on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which denounced the compromise last week, saying it still raised “serious moral concerns.”

Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University, testified: “The administration impedes religious liberty by unilaterally redefining what it means to be religious.”

Craig Mitchell, an associate professor from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, said the HHS policy, “… is not just wrong for religious conservatives, it’s wrong for all Americans.”

The Democratic women on the committee slammed Republicans for not allowing a female witness on the first panel — a Georgetown University law school student chosen by Democrats to appear in support of the policy.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, took offense to the overwhelming majority of men on the witness list. “I want to know — where are the women?” she asked.

Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., raised her voice against Issa’s lineup. “We’ve been denied the right to have a witness!”

Two women invited by the Republicans — Dr. Laura Champion and Allison Dabbs Garrett — later testified during a second panel in the afternoon.

The Obama administration has largely satisfied moderate and liberal Catholics whose objections to the policy prompted the change. They point to religious groups like Catholic Charities and the Catholic Health Association, which initially opposed the HHS mandate but now support the compromise.

“The president’s accommodation both recognizes the institution’s religious identity while also maintaining affordable health care for all Americans,” James Salt, the executive director of Catholics United, told CNN. Salt was part of the driving force of liberal Catholic groups that pushed the White House hard to make the change to the policy.

If the fight with moderate and liberal religious voices has ended, the battle on Capitol Hill continues. Both sides are appealing to their bases, with Republicans seeing an opportunity to chip away at the president’s signature health care reform law. They have proposed legislation in the in the Senate and the House to repeal the contraception policy and allow any employer — not just religiously affiliated ones — to reject the requirement.

On Wednesday, Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Nebraska, said at a news conference on the new bills, “No American should be forced to choose between their faith and their job.”

Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who led the charge in Congress to pass Obama’s health care bill when she was speaker, said the issue was about women’s access to health care. “Imagine, they’re having a panel on women’s health and they don’t have any women on the panel. Duh. What is it that men don’t understand about women’s health and how central the issue of family planning is to that?”

“The Catholic vote, in particular those moderate Catholics in the middle who can swing one way or the other, they are always highly sought-after political prizes,” said John Allen, a CNN Vatican analyst and reporter for the National Catholic Reporter.

“Forty-five percent of those Catholics are going to vote for the Democrat no matter what, and 45% of the Catholics are going to vote for the Republican no matter what. So the game is always for those 10% of Catholics in the middle. But of course, you’re talking about a pool of people over the age of 18 who are eligible to vote, of about 4 million people, and they tend to be heavily concentrated in states that are battleground states, places like Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, the Southwest, Texas and so on,” Allen said.

“There’s a thick political subtext here, which is both Republicans and Democrats would like to define the other side as hostile to the interest of those centrist Catholics who could swing either way,” he said.

Senior Obama administration officials say they are confident they have assuaged the concerns of those middle-of-the-road Catholics and were not aiming to win over Catholics and other religious leaders because they say nothing would have appeased them short of a complete reversal of the policy.

The New Résumé Rules

By ELIZABETH GARONE

Q:
I am a senior executive and haven’t looked for a job in more than 10 years. How can I make my résumé more current by today’s standards?

–Boston, Mass.

Getty Images

A: While the résumé as you know it from 10 years ago is still alive and kicking, there have been a number of modifications to it. No longer do job candidates simply present a Word document of their qualifications. Today, they need to craft a package both online and off to present to a prospective employer. This needs to include both a résumé and an online profile as well as an easy way for a prospective employer or recruiter to move back and forth between the two.

Embrace technology. The biggest change is also the most expected one: a move toward technology. An online networking presence is no longer just an option but a requirement.

In today’s executive search market, if you’re not on LinkedIn, you don’t exist,” says Wendy Enelow, author of “Expert Resumes for Managers and Executives” and “Best Resumes for $100,000+ Jobs.” Ms. Enelow suggests including live email links on your Microsoft Word résumé and live links to your LinkedIn profile. “Make it easy for recruiters and hiring managers to contact you with one click to your email and one click to your LinkedIn profile,” she says.

Don’t make assumptions. The job market is in a transition stage when it comes to applications and how they are submitted, says Mary Henige, General Motors’ director of social media and digital communications. Therefore, a lot of how you present yourself should depend on the hiring manager’s preference, she says. If you’re not sure what that is, it’s best to cover all of your bases. “I recommend that a candidate include both a link to his or her résumé and an attachment but to never assume it’s one way or another unless it’s clear,” says Ms. Henige.

More Career Q&As

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Have a question about your career? Email: cjeditor@dowjones.com

Expansion is good. The one-page rule for résumés no longer holds true, according to Howard Seidel, a partner at Essex Partners, a Boston-based senior level career management firm. “While one page makes sense when you have little experience, it doesn’t make sense when, as a senior executive, you have 10, 20 or more years of experience,” he says. “Executive typically do themselves an injustice by keeping the résumé to a page.” Mr. Seidel suggests expanding to two or three pages but giving the first page enough punch to entice the reader to delve further.

Overused is out. At first glance, “team player” and “innovative” might sound like good words to use on your résumé, but that would be a mistake, according to Krista Canfield, a spokesperson for LinkedIn. The business networking site recently combed through millions of user profiles and came up with a list of the top 10 overused terms. These included innovative, dynamic, motivated, extensive experience, results-oriented, proven track record, team player, fast-paced, problem solver, and entrepreneurial.

“Your online profile is a valuable piece of professional real estate,” says Ms. Canfield. “The problem with using generic words and phrases in your profile and résumé is that hundreds, if not thousands, of other professionals are describing themselves the exact same way.” She suggests replacing the overused terms with descriptions of those specific projects that you have worked on, which resulted in concrete results for your clients.

Looks still count. Even with the explosion of email over the last decade, aesthetics still matter, says Mr. Seidel. In some ways, they are more important than ever. “In addition to information overload, many employers experience résumé overload,” he says. “If an employer or a recruiter is seeking you out because of a reputation, the résumé’s appearance may not matter. If you are seeking out an employer’s attention, its appearance often does matter.”

Scanned not read. One thing that has not changed is employers scanning résumés rather than reading them word-for-word, says Kathryn Ullrich, an executive career consultant in Silicon Valley and author of “Getting to the Top: Strategies for Career Success.” To differentiate yourself from the pack, broadcast your brand. One way to do this, says Ms. Ullrich, is to replace an old-school phrase like “summary” at the top of your résumé with your brand: “social media marketing” or “finance director, software,” for example. “Invite a longer, deeper look at your résumé by making your brand stand out,” she says.

Write to Elizabeth Garone at cjeditor@dowjones.com

Study Asks: Who Has Easy Path to Top?

By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN

A new study shows a large gap in perceptions among the sexes in who has more opportunities for advancement—men or women.

Earlier this month, consulting firm Bain & Co. surveyed 1,834 business professionals world-wide on gender parity in the workplace. The findings, which will be presented later this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, show that 90% and 85% of men and women, respectively, believe qualified applicants of either gender have the same shot at landing a junior-level position. Yet 81% of men said opportunities to move to middle management are gender neutral, compared with just 52% of women. Similarly, 66% of men said promotions to the executive level are equally attainable by both sexes, versus 30% of women. As for appointments to leadership and governance roles, 69% of men and 31% of women said consideration is granted evenly among the sexes.

In reality, women represent a much smaller portion of leadership roles in business. A December 2009 study from New York research organization Catalyst Inc. shows 3% of chief executive officers and 13.5% of all executive-officer positions within Fortune 500 companies are women. In the boardroom, women hold only 15.2% of seats.

Men’s perceptions may be rosier than women’s because they may be considering the long-term progress women have made in the workplace, says Ellen Galinsky, president of nonprofit Families & Work Institute in New York. Men will “say women have it a lot better than they did in the past,” she says. “Women say, ‘Yes, but there are a lot fewer of us and we had to give up a lot more to get there.’ “

Perceptions may play a role in women lagging behind men in advancing their careers, says Deborah M. Kolb, a professor specializing in women and leadership at Simmons School of Management in Boston. Ms. Kolb says studies have consistently shown women are seen by bosses and colleagues—men and women alike—as being less capable of serving in leadership posts than men, despite evidence to the contrary. “Women often get asked to take career detours, to go into areas like human resources, to be on the diversity committee,” she says. “Men get asked to take on strategic-development activities.”

Similarly, studies suggest that women are disproportionately assigned to oversee change within businesses—assignments that pose greater risk of failure, adds Ms. Kolb. “They get asked to clean up messes, so they might not have a track record of success and mistakes may follow them,” she says.

Research also shows that men are better at developing career advocates than women, Ms. Kolb adds. “Men are much more likely to have sponsors who put them forward,” she says. “Women are not as well connected and networked. It’s harder for them to be seen as the kind of people to be put forward.”

Achieving gender parity in the workplace is possible if business leaders take a systematic and customized approach to finding out what derails women along the way at their organizations, says Orit Gadiesh, chairman of New York-based Bain.”You need to tailor it to the company—how many women you have, where they drop off, and what happens with promotions,” she says. “You can’t fix what you don’t measure.”

Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com

Maldives president said he stepped down to avoid bloodshed

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – Thousands of Nasheed supporters have taken to the streets in protest. Al Jazeera correspondent Steve Chao reporting from the capital island of Male on Wednesday said that up to 3,000 people took part in the protests in support of Nasheed.

Police reportedly fired tear gas and clashed with protesters as they attempted to push the crowds backwards. There were also reports of Nasheed being manhandled by security forces. Nasheed only suffered minor injuries, according to his supporters.

Nasheed stepped down earlier this week in the wake of a police mutiny and clashes on the streets after weeks of anti-government protests.

Nasheed said he was compelled to resign to prevent bloodshed. Asked why he had stepped down, Nasheed said “Because I didn’t want them to go shooting our people. They were threatening me and they were threatening the people. I didn’t want that.”

Nasheed said he believed he still had the backing of the people and hinted he would seek office in new elections, currently scheduled for next year. “We are certain that the people of this country are with us,” he said.

Nasheed’s home is currently guarded by soldiers. Mohamed Waheed, the former vice-president sworn in as Nasheed’s successor said that was for his family’s protection. Waheed also said he had revoked a travel ban preventing Nasheed and other officials from leaving the country.

Members of Nasheed’s Maldives Democratic Party have already denounced the events, with a former presidential aide, speaking anonymously, telling Al Jazeera that he has been “profoundly shocked” by what he has witnessed.

“You call it what you want,” he said. “But when someone metaphorically and physically puts a gun at your head and tells you to resign, that’s a coup in my mind.”

Nasheed’s former foreign minister said Islamists were behind the takeover in the mostly Sunni Muslim nation of 330,000 people.

“I was with the president throughout and I knew what was going on Tuesday. It was nothing but a coup by Islamists,” Naseem told AFP news agency.

Love gifts in the animal kingdom

On Valentine's day, what beau could possibly resist a hand-picked gift, wrapped in perfumed silk?

Instead, beguiling packaging can disguise a multitude of disappointing items – from dried-out ant husks to worthless bits of plant.

"If a male finds a receptive female, but [he] doesn't have prey at that moment, any object could be easily be wrapped in silk to be offered," explains Pedro Ere Disconzi Brum, another member of the Brazilian research team.

"This may be a crucial step for this male to be chosen by the female in the early steps of the courtship process."

Moreover, Mr Brum explains, if the male is in poor condition, he can catch prey for himself and wrap up the leftovers to gain the attention of a mate.

"The male is probably exploring the female perception by adding a chemical signal that induces her to bite the gift," he explains.

When the female bites the gift she is momentarily distracted. So the male is able to take the opportunity to mate, regardless of the parcel's contents.

Male fruit flies meanwhile are much more direct: Drosophila subobscura simply regurgitate a nutritional liquid gift for potential mates.

Dr Michael Ritchie from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, has studied the exchange and tells BBC Nature that it is "harder to 'cheat' with vomit". For flies, the quality of the offering relates directly to the condition of the male.

Invertebrates have a fascinating (and often revolting) array of courtship gifts. Dr Karim Vahed from the University of Derby believes crickets are the most fascinating of all.

During mating, males present females with a "spermatophore" which Dr Vahed describes as "an edible, gelatinous substance which is attached to the sperm-packet".

The gift serves to feed and distract the female while sperm transfer takes place, but scientists have discovered many more layers of complexity to the exchange.

"While the gift is attractive to the female, it is not necessarily tailored to suit [her] nutritional needs," says Dr Vahed, citing tropical house crickets as an example.

He explains that, in this particular species, males offer low value gifts, but flavour them with feeding stimulants in order to trick females.

Dr Vahed has also found that the production of good gifts can be costly for males.

"It is known that producing a large gift delays males from re-mating, so males of species with large gifts would be expected to be more choosy," he said.

In a recent study of 54 different species, the biologist confirmed this theory. He found that the saddle-backed bush cricket (Uromenus rugosicollis) spent up to 104 minutes assessing a female before presenting its gift.

In contrast, the Polish species Leptophyes albovittata produced a spermatophore ten times smaller and mated after just 24 seconds.

In the bird world, the male kingfisher is known as one of the most conscientious present pickers.

To woo a mate, males are required to swallow fish so that they can be presented to females with style: face first.

"Females are quite fussy – about both size and species," says wildlife filmmaker Charlie Hamilton James who has a particular soft spot for the birds.

"Males offering bullheads or stone loaches are less likely to succeed than males offering minnows – sticklebacks are somewhere in the middle.

Courtship does not always run smoothly for the brightly coloured birds. Mr Hamilton James notes that impatient males only wait around 10 minutes before giving up and eating the fish themselves.

"Sometimes the female will beg for fish and the male will ignore her and eat them in front of her," he adds.

Moving from fish to a meat course brings us to the sociable chimpanzee. And gift-giving behaviour among our closest cousins is currently the subject of much debate.

Professor Jill Pruetz, an anthropologist at Iowa State University, is currently studying savannah chimpanzees in Senegal.

Last year the team recorded males sharing wild plants and meat with non-related females. The exchange, though, did not necessarily result in immediate mating.

Likewise, in his study published in 2010, Dr Ian Gilby from Duke University, US, found the same lack of "response" by females to this male generosity in East African chimpanzees.

But research by Cristina Gomes and Christophe Boesch, suggests that male chimps could be playing "the long game".

Through close observation of a group in the Tai Forest reserve in Ivory Coast, they found that males sharing meat with a female over a long period of time increased their chance of mating with her.

"The Gomes and Boesch study is intriguing," says Dr Gilby, "In one way, their results are the same as ours – meat sharing did not increase the chances of an immediate mating."

"However, they found that a single sharing event increased a pair's probability of mating within the next several months."

Whether the females "remember" generous males or the meat-sharing creates a particularly strong bond remains to be resolved.

When it comes to animal tokens of affection, choice may be the female prerogative but males have more than a few tricks up their sleeves.

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University of Kansas Hospital to be Honored for Reducing Waste