Story one http://www.nj.com/independentpress/index.ssf/2012/03/union_c ounty_runnells_offers_e.html EXCERSISE!!!

BERKELEY HEIGHTS The Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders and the Department of Parks and Community Renewal are pleased to offer an exercise program for the physically challenged at Runnells Specialized Hospital in Berkeley Heights. The program is suitable for post-stroke patients, people who are wheelchair-bound and ambulatory patients with physical limitations. This program is a great opportunity for our physically challenged residents to learn exercises that will improve their overall health and well-being and that they can continue to use at home, said Freeholder Chairman Alexander Mirabella. The twice-weekly classes will also afford participants a chance to meet new people and socialize. The Modified Exercise Program for the Physically Challenged will take place on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, from noon 1 p.m., from April 10 through November 1. Pre-registration is required by April 1, along with a current doctors release. Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis and the enrollment fee for the Modified Exercise Program is $20. These non-stressful exercise classes taught by a recreation therapist, music therapist and recreation therapy aides are designed to increase strength and range of motion, improve general mobility and body awareness, and improve heart and lung function. The classes are accessible to people in wheelchairs and activities can be adapted to all fitness levels. Runnells Specialized Hospital is located at 40 Watchung Way in Berkeley Heights and is a service of the Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders. For information on the Modified Exercise Program or any other programs for people with disabilities, visit the web site: http://ucnj.org/recreation-for-people-withdisabilities; call the Union County Department of Parks and

Community Renewal, Programs for the Disabled at 908-5274806; or e-mail http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/03/food_glorious_food_ tempts_thou.html Story two

Food glorious food tempts thousands at trade show

NEW YORK A blond woman in fishnet stockings and a blue bodysuit with the word "Police stitched on the lapel stands inside Jacob K. Javits Convention Center offering samples of bagels. When she notices a visitor with a camera, she asks, "Would you like me to pose?" Nearby, Brenda Lee Mojica points to dozens of delectable-looking pastries at Lecoq Cuisines booth. "Would you like to try anything?" she said. Thought youd never ask.
Jennifer Brown Tomoko Takedani, left, and Kyoko Yoshida from Nishiyoshida-Syuzou Co. Ltd pass out samples of Shochu, a Japanese barley-based liquor, at the International Restaurant & Foodservice Show.

The International Restaurant and Foodservice Show, which wraps up today, is ostensibly a trade show for the food industry, with 550 vendors and such on-site events as the Ultimate Barista Challenge, the U.S. Pastry Competition and the New York Wine Expo. It is also seemingly miles of aisles of free food from gelato, chocolate wafers, Jamaican coffee, cassoulet, pate, flatbreads and Parmesan peppercorn crackers to duck, lamb, vacuumed fried vegetables, and savory red crab and meat combos, offered by companies from here to Tokyo. Resistance, you quickly discover, is futile. "This one is completely natural. Smell it first," cooed a rep at Harvest Song preserves. "I think you should try some," John McLaughlin said of his hot sauces, preserves and sodas from Wyckoff-based Heartbreaking

Dawns. Oh, all right.

Jennifer Brown Visitors check out a food truck made by Custom Mobile Food Equipment of Hammonton.

The trade show is much more than just tasty temptation at every turn; it is a showcase for the latest in food equipment and technology. Ovens and ranges, chocolate melters and concentrated topping bases, and, over in the Japanese Pavilion, fearsome-looking kitchen knives and a "revolving sushi factory" a handsome rectangular box with a moving belt to display sushi. Dr. Smoothie and the Teaologist were at the show ... and so were Allergy Chefs Inc. One booth advertised "100 percent compostable, biodegradable, microwaveable, waterproof, oilproof and non-toxic" tableware. Another promised to "Unleash the Taste." Then there was the guy in the bowling shirt and his faithful travel companion a white refrigerator door. The door is named "Fridgie," and it goes to every trade show that Page Mesher attends. "The only door that has frequent flier miles," said Mesher, president of Off the Wall Magnetics.
Jennifer Brown Page Mesher, president of Off the Wall Magnetics, with "Fridgie,'' the refrigerator door he takes to every trade show.

The company makes refrigerator magnets. "Theyre a tried and true promotional product," Mesher said. "Restaurants need to be in a customers kitchen. If youre in the pizza business and not doing magnets, youre not going to be in the pizza business for long." How many magnets has Off the Wall, in business 20 years, made? "When we made our billionth, I stopped counting," Mesher replied. You dont have to tell Guy Selph that gourmet food trucks are suddenly the rage. Selph is in charge of sales and marketing at Custom Mobile Food Equipment, a Hammonton company in

business for 55 years. The Atlantic County, family-owned business makes food carts, kiosks, scooters, mobile kitchens, ice cream vans, even emergency service food trucks for the likes of the Red Cross. Building a truck takes eight to 10 weeks; prices range from $60,000 to about $265,000.
Jennifer Brown Anthony Maltese hands out samples of Karl Ehmer smoked meats.

E&A Supply in Plainfield calls itself "the chefs toy store," and company president Joel Green was showing off the latest kitchen equipment, particularly a 40-inch by 40-inch Blodgett convection oven at his booth. "The new big thing is green," Green said. "Everyone wants to control costs. theyre looking for that one piece of equipment that will do the work of five pieces of equipment." Over at Forgione Associates, Theresa Forgione was bringing the heat. The Queens food broker offered samples of Cholula hot sauce, dubbed "the flavorful fire." "People want flavor in their food, not just heat," Forgione explained. The free food went on and on: lamb sausage from Le Bec Fine Foods in Linden; duck from Crescent Duck Farm on Long Island; pork sausage from Fossil Farms in Boonton. Edible flowers, why not? San Marcos, Calif.-based Fresh Origins offers 350 varieties of edible flowers, micro greens, "tiny veggies" and more. They even crystallize flowers and greens, turning them into displays that can last up to two years without refrigeration. Boscos Family Foods offered Karl Ehmer chicken bratwurst, Alpine ham, andouille, farmers salami and dry-cured bacon, while McLaughlin, from Heartbreaking Dawns, talked about going from abstract painter to food maker. "Foods my medium. I dont even paint anymore," he said. The company name? Its from French poet Arthur Rimbaud: "But truly, I have wept too much! The Dawns are heartbreaking." Its probably a good idea to save the shochu for last at a trade show like this. The distilled liquor long popular in Japan Japanese samurai not only drank it, but used it to cure injuries after battle is now making inroads in America.

"This is the lighter, smoother one," explained Tomoko Takedani, of Nishiyoshida-Syuzou Co., pointing to one bottle of shochu. "This is richer, bolder," she added, pointing to another. "Would you like to try?

STORY 3
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120305160818.htm

Stem Cells Can Repair a Damaged Cornea

ScienceDaily (Mar. 5, 2012) A new cornea may be the only way to prevent a patient going blind -- but there is a shortage of donated corneas and the queue for transplantation is long. Scientists at the Sahlgrenska Academy have for the first time successfully cultivated stem cells on human corneas, which may in the long term remove the need for donators.
See Also: Health & Medicine Stem Cells Prostate Cancer Skin Cancer Immune System Pancreatic Cancer Today's Healthcare Reference Stem cell treatments Embryonic stem cell Refractive surgery Aqueous humour Approximately 500 corneal transplantations are carried out each year in Sweden, and about 100,000 in the world. The damaged and cloudy cornea that is turning the patient blind is replaced with a healthy, transparent one. But the procedure requires a donated cornea, and there is a severe shortage of donated material. This is particularly the case throughout the world, where religious or political views often hinder the use of donated material. Replacing donated corneas Scientists at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, have taken the first step towards replacing donated corneas with corneas cultivated from stem cells. Scientists Charles Hanson and Ulf Stenevi have used defective corneas obtained from the ophthalmology clinic at Sahlgrenska University Hospital

in Mlndal. Their study is now published in the journal Acta Ophthalmologica, and shows how human stem cells can be caused to develop into what are known as "epithelial cells" after 16 days' culture in the laboratory and a further 6 days' culture on a cornea. It is the epithelial cells that maintain the transparency of the cornea. First time ever on human corneas "Similar experiments have been carried out on animals, but this is the first time that stem cells have been grown on damaged human corneas. It means that we have taken the first step towards being able to use stem cells to treat damaged corneas," says Charles Hanson. "If we can establish a routine method for this, the availability of material for patients who need a new cornea will be essentially unlimited. Both the surgical procedures and the aftercare will also become much more simple," says Ulf Stenevi. Few clinics conduct tranplants Only a few clinics are currently able to transplant corneas. Many of the transplantations in Sweden are carried out at the ophthalmology clinic at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Department of Ophthalmology, Mlndal.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/06/real_estate/obama_mortgages/index.ht m?iid=HP_LN

Story 4

Obama cuts refinance costs for some mortgages

http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/06/real_estate/obama_mortgages/index.ht m?iid=HP_LN

The new fees are for borrowers whose FHA loans were issued before June 1, 2009. An estimated 2 to 3 million borrowers could take advantage of the savings, which could reduce mortgage payments for the typical FHA borrower by about a thousand dollars a year, according to the administration. Borrowers who refinance their existing FHA loans will pay an upfront insurance premium equal to 0.1% of the mortgage amount -- $100 for a $100,000 loan -- plus an annual fee of 0.55%. The fees being announced for refinancing contrast sharply with the cost of obtaining a new FHA loan, according to Jaret Seiberg, an analyst with the Washington Research Group. A borrower making a 3.5% down payment on a home purchase as of April 1 will pay a 1.75% upfront fee and a 1.25% annual fee. Those purchase fees were raised barely a week ago to improve the FHA's capital reserve. Has Obama's housing policy failed? Still, lowering refinancing fees "should be broadly positive for housing and the economy by reducing foreclosures and freeing up income for consumers to spend on other goods and services," Seiberg said. The new policy will also make it easier for the banks to refinance loans because it directs the FHA to not count these refinanced loans toward the lender's "compare ratio." That calculates the performances of loans issued by the lenders and compares it to other lenders's performances. Some lenders have not wanted to refinance FHA loans because they tended to have been made during years of high default rates, according to Seiberg. The administration proposal eliminates the downside to banks making these refinance loans. This FHA refinance fee reduction is the latest in a long line of

administration initiatives intended to jump start the housing market and, by extension, the economy. It can be thought of as an addition to the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP). The program enables borrowers with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae (FNMA, Fortune 500) or Freddie Mac (FRE) to refinance even when they are deep underwater on their loans, owing far more than their homes are worth. By reducing mortgage payments, both HARP and the new FHA fees free up money that could now be spent on other things like consumer goods.

http://weather.yahoo.com/united-states/new-jersey/elizabeth-2398316/ weather http://news.cnet.com/