Verrazano 1st on AP's final Top 10 Derby list

NEW YORK (AP) ? Doug O'Neill is gearing up for a Kentucky Derby repeat.

A year after winning the Derby with I'll Have Another, the trainer is going for another ? this time with Goldencents.

The 3-year-old colt came through with a huge race in winning the Santa Anita Derby on April 6, and should be among the top contenders for the May 4 race.

O'Neill and his crew are feeling pretty good about their chances, especially after a recent workout in which Goldencents finally began to relax "big time.

"I saw a relaxed, mature horse that finished up great," O'Neill said after Goldencents worked four furlongs in 48.40 seconds at Santa Anita last week. One more workout on Thursday, and it's off to Louisville on Saturday.

I'll Have Another also won the Preakness, but was scratched and retired because of a tendon injury the day before attempting to win the Belmont Stakes and capture the Triple Crown.

Goldencents is No. 4 on the AP's final Run to the Roses' Top 10 list of Derby contenders, with Verrazano, Orb and Revolutionary holding their spots at 1-2-3, respectively.

Verrazano, one of as many as six Derby horses for trainer Todd Pletcher, had his first workout over Churchill Downs on Sunday, covering five furlongs in 1:00.20. Pletcher-trainee Revolutionary also worked, going four furlongs in 48.80.

Fountain of Youth and Florida Derby winner Orb worked five furlongs in 1:02.20 Sunday at Payson Park before departing for Louisville.

"This was the one we need to get behind us," trainer Shug McGaughey said. "What I liked to see was that he was very settled going to the track, warming up and coming home."

While O'Neill will be attempting to become the seventh trainer to win back-to-back Derbys (Bob Baffert was the most recent, with Silver Charm in 1997 and Real Quiet in '98), McGaughey will be saddling just his second Derby starter since his Easy Goer finished second to Sunday Silence in 1989.

"I'm really excited. I hope I stay excited and don't get nervous, but I know that's not going to happen," McGaughey said. "If everything goes right in the next 13 days, I'll really get excited about maybe having a chance to win."

The only changes in the top 10 saw Itsmyluckyday move up two spots to No. 7 and Mylute move into a tie at No. 10 with Will Take Charge.

Mylute finished second in the Louisiana Derby and has a new rider in Rosie Napravnik, the nation's fifth-leading jockey in earnings.

The 20-horse field will be chosen based on a new system of Derby qualifying points from designated races. Five of Pletcher's horses are in the top 20, with a sixth, Lexington Stakes winner Winning Cause, at No. 21.

Here's our Top 10:

1. Verrazano (Todd Pletcher, trainer; John Velazquez, jockey): Worked 5 furlongs in 1:00.20 Sunday at Churchill Downs, third fastest of 40 at the same distance. ... Wood winner is unbeaten in all four starts and will try to become the eighth unbeaten Derby winner. ... Next start: Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs, May 4. ... Final Derby future wager odds: 7-1.

2. Orb (Shug McGaughey, Joel Rosario): Fountain of Youth, Florida Derby winner worked five furlongs in 1:02.20 Sunday at Payson Park. ... Gets original rider back now that Johnny V has chosen Verrazano. ... Next start: Kentucky Derby. ... Odds: 13-1.

3. Revolutionary (Pletcher, Calvin Borel): Louisiana Derby winner worked 4 furlongs in 48.80 Sunday at Churchill Downs. ... 2-for-2 this year after winning one of four as a 2-year-old. ... Next start: Kentucky Derby. ... Odds: 12-1.

4. Goldencents (Doug O'Neill, Kevin Krigger): Worked 4 furlongs in 48.40 last week at Santa Anita. ... O'Neill on way to Churchill to try and win second straight Derby. ... Next start: Kentucky Derby. ... Odds: 49-1.

5. Overanalyze (Pletcher, Rafael Bejarano): Don't underrate Arkansas Derby winner, who also won the Remsen and Futurity Stakes ... Owner Mike Repole thrilled to have Derby fever again. ... Next start: Kentucky Derby. ... Odds: 49-1.

6. Normandy Invasion (Chad Brown, Javier Castellano): Despite only a maiden win in five races, colt is considered one of the "now" horses for the Derby after strong second in Wood. ... Next start: Kentucky Derby. ... Odds: 18-1.

7. Itsmyluckyday (Eddie Plesa Jr., Elvis Trujillo): Worked 1 mile in 1:43.20 at Calder last week. ... Holy Bull winner and Florida Derby runner-up has one more workout planned, then ships to Churchill Downs on Friday. ... One of most experienced Derby starters, with five wins, two seconds and a third in 10 races. ... Next start: Kentucky Derby. ... Odds: 10-1.

8. Java's War (Kenny McPeek, Julien Leparoux): Ended three-race losing streak with Blue Grass win. ... Both trainer and rider looking for first Derby wins. ... Next start: Kentucky Derby. ... Odds: 31-1.

9. Palace Malice (Pletcher, Mike Smith): Another maiden winner also considered a "now" pick after running second in the Blue Grass. ... Next start: Kentucky Derby. ... Odds: 42-1.

10 (tie) Will Take Charge (D. Wayne Lukas, Jon Court): Rebel winner worked 1 mile in 1:41.60 Sunday at Churchill Downs. ... Comes into Derby off seven-week break. ... Next start: Kentucky Derby. ... Odds: 19-1.

10 (tie) Mylute (Tom Amoss, Rosie Napravnik): Louisiana Derby runner-up posted impressive workout at Churchill Downs on Sunday ? 4 furlongs in 47.80, the fastest of 81 horses at the same distance. ... Next start: Kentucky Derby. ... Odds: 5-1 (mutuel field).

___

Keep an eye on: Black Onyx, Frac Daddy, Govenor Charlie, Oxbow, Vyjack.

___

Follow Richard Rosenblatt on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/rosenblattap

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/verrazano-1st-aps-final-top-10-derby-list-152423306--spt.html

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Khloe Kardashian Out As ?X Factor? Host

Khloe Kardashian is out as host of The X Factor but Mario Lopez is staying put. The news came down today that the reality TV star would not be returning for season three of the FOX show. Rumors have been running ramped for weeks that Khloe would not be asked back to the hit Simon Cowell show. Today FOX made it official that Kardashian would not be back as host next fall but that Mario would be returning. Although there is a lot of speculation as to why she was not asked back, the network did not give a reason when they made the announcement. It is no secret that The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star had a difficult time as a host. Those who watched Kourtney & Kim: Take Miami know exactly what I am talking about. It was a completely different ball game then reality TV, which is what she is used to. A live show has got to be nerve racking, especially when you are reading from a teleprompter and can’t really be yourself. Personally if you can’t let my favorite Kardashian be herself then why hire her, just sayin. There are numerous conflicting reports out [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/8zu_pGHxTsE/

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Gun control forces seek new path after big loss

WASHINGTON (AP) ? It was a powerful moment on the White House lawn when thousands of guests, the loved ones of slain crime victims among them, crowded in as President Bill Clinton signed a sweeping crime bill that was six years in the making and included a hotly disputed ban on assault weapons.

"Today, at last, the waiting ends," Clinton said on that day in 1994. "Today, the bickering stops, the era of excuses is over."

Hardly.

Two decades and so many gun tragedies later, the political fallout from that long-gone assault weapons ban still casts a long shadow over Washington.

Gun-control advocates are scrambling to regroup after losing soundly to the National Rifle Association on their best opportunity in years to tighten gun laws. There's no shortage of finger-pointing about what went wrong for them or theories about what to do next.

It was a grim-faced President Barack Obama who stood in the Rose Garden with a handful of family members of those slain at Newtown, Conn., after the Senate last week rejected background checks and other gun restrictions, including a new assault weapons ban.

"I see this as just round one," the president said, raw emotion in his voice. "Sooner or later, we are going to get this right."

But if the carnage at Newtown, the pleas of grieving family members and the persuasions of an engaged president weren't enough to push gun restrictions through Congress, the road ahead is sure to be difficult for those advocating tighter controls.

The NRA is powerful as ever and poised to stand firm for the long haul. Sentiment for stricter gun laws, which rose after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in December, has slipped somewhat in recent weeks. Obama's willingness to stick with the issue in a big way when he has immigration, budget and other pressing matters on his agenda is uncertain.

In the immediate aftermath of the latest votes, with legislative strategy up in the air, gun control advocates are pinning their best hopes on two broad paths forward:

?Trying to counter the NRA's impressive grass-roots network of nearly 5 million members by summoning more passion and energy from people who support restrictions such as an expansion of background checks for gun purchasers. Unless public demand for tougher gun laws "becomes a permanent fixture in politics to counterbalance the NRA, it's only going to be by luck and happenstance that gun control actually wins," said Dartmouth government professor Ron Shaiko, who has written extensively about the lobbying industry.

?Strengthening gun laws at the state level, where gun control advocates have had a number of significant victories in the months since Sandy Hook. "We're seeing leadership that is coming from the states, and we're going to be there to help that momentum and to make sure that momentum is felt here in this city, in Washington," said Mark Kelly, who founded a gun control group with his wife, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, after she was shot by a gunman in Arizona two years ago.

The NRA is digging in for a long fight and claiming public support naturally trends its way.

"There's a big misconception out there that gun rights are where they are because of the NRA," said NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam. "The reality is that majority of Americans support gun rights and support self-defense laws."

Polls paint a mixed picture.

In an Associated Press-GfK poll this month, 49 percent favored stricter gun laws, 10 percent wanted less-strict laws and 38 percent thought things should remain as they are. The poll found some slippage in support for stricter laws from earlier in the year.

On some measures, though, there is broad backing. Polls show 90 percent of those questioned support expanded background checks, for example.

Both sides agree there's an intensity gap on gun politics. Opponents of gun restrictions have been far more passionate about the matter and far more apt to vote solely on the issue, than those on the other side.

"It's where politics trumps policy," said Richard Feldman, head of the Independent Firearms Owners Association, which supported the background check bill.

Public interest in tighter gun controls has waxed and waned in relation to high-profile shootings over the years, said Shaiko, but "what is a constant in the equation is the NRA" ? and skittish politicians know that.

Legislators "want to feel like they can take a position and not be harmed by it," Shaiko said.

Their wariness harks back to passage of the last assault weapons bill, in 1994.

After Congress approved the 10-year ban on 19 types of military-style assault weapons, some Democrats quickly came to believe that it contributed to their loss of the House a few months later. When the ban lapsed in 2004, congressional Democrats made no serious effort to renew it.

Harry Wilson, a Roanoke College professor and expert on gun politics, said the NRA's clout comes more from its motivated members who vote, than it does from the group's campaign contributions to help those who back the NRA agenda and defeat those who don't.

"If the NRA was only money and (leaders) Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox, nobody would care," Wilson said.

Obama entered his second term convinced of the need to marshal public support to push his agenda through Congress. After last week's loss on guns, he said people were "going to have to sustain some passion about this."

"You outnumber those who argued the other way," he said. "But they're better organized."

There are plenty of outside groups ready. They include a mayors' group financed by New York's Michael Bloomberg; Organizing for Action, the grass-roots organization that grew out of Obama's re-election campaign; and a variety of other gun control groups.

"You have a number of senators who calculated that the NRA was going to have staying power on this issue," said OFA executive director Jon Carson. "They were more afraid of them than going against the vast majority of their constituents. So our job is to make clear that we are going to keep activated and keep calling them out on this issue."

In that spirit, former White House chief of staff Bill Daley wrote a column in the Washington Post criticizing North Dakota's freshman senator and other Democrats who opposed the background check bill. The headline: "Heidi Heitkamp betrayed me on gun control."

Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said that while the voices of the Newtown families were powerful in the gun debate, "it can't stop there. This issue will change when it is about mothers and fathers protecting their children."

The specifics of what happens next in Congress remain murky.

With the Senate gun control drive aground, House Republican leaders seem unlikely even to hold votes on gun legislation.

Some Republicans have been working on related mental health legislation. But House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said last week that leaders have made no decisions beyond that. House conservatives have gotten at least 45 signatures on a letter urging Boehner to avoid a gun vote unless a bill has support from more than half of the House Republicans.

There are far more signs of life in the states.

Legislatures in Connecticut, Maryland and New York, all Democratic-leaning states, have passed sweeping laws, chiefly strengthening bans on assault weapons and regulating ammunition. California, where Democrats control the Legislature and governorship, is considering similar legislation.

Colorado, a political swing state with a strong tradition of gun ownership, last month enacted far-reaching legislation banning large capacity ammunition magazines and requiring background checks for private sales. The state was the site of one of 2012's horrific shootings, when a gunman sprayed bullets into a packed movie theater.

More states in the Northeast appear ready to act.

Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, a Democrat, is considering signing a bill requiring background checks for private sales. Maine lawmakers are considering requiring background checks for gun-show sales. New Hampshire lawmakers are considering repealing a law giving armed citizens greater latitude in firing their weapons.

Massachusetts, New Jersey, Illinois and Rhode Island are also considering gun restriction bills.

"It's unquestionable that the trend is toward strengthening state gun laws," said Laura Cutilletta of the gun-control advocacy group Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

To be sure, more states have enacted laws this year advancing the rights of gun owners.

But those moves, all in GOP-controlled states, have been smaller in scope, in large part because most states had already enacted watershed gun bills.

In Kansas and Nebraska, for example, Republican governors have signed bills granting reciprocity for concealed-carry permit holders from any state. A number of states acted to make concealed-carry permit records confidential, and to bar local government from limiting their use. North Dakota enacted a law expanding the list of places concealed guns are allowed.

Even gun rights advocates describe the measures as narrower, a sign some of them attribute to a rising level of resistance in the states and a contraction of the gun-rights influence.

"It was a very defensive year for the gun-rights movement," said Aaron Dorr, executive director of Iowa Gun Owners. Iowa Democrats blocked the advance of minor gun-rights legislation this year.

In Wisconsin, Republicans also were on defense, despite controlling the Legislature and the governorship, unable to enhance concealed-carry rights. They did block legislation requiring background checks for all gun sales, despite appeals from families of victims of one of the two mass shootings in the state last year.

In Arizona, Republican Gov. Jan Brewer was expected to veto legislation requiring municipalities to sell confiscated guns, instead of destroying them.

It's clear the fight, already expected at the federal level in 2014, will expand to include state elections.

"We're prepared," said Jeff Nass, president of WI-Force, a Wisconsin gun-rights group. "I think their loss nationally is going to bring it home to the states next year."

On the other side, Jeri Bonavia of the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort said she expects groups such as Bloomberg's Mayor's Against Illegal Guns to spread into state races with advertising pressure that could diminish the NRA's impact.

"If they do, it neutralizes the NRA's pressure, and suddenly constituent voices matter more," Bonavia said.

___

Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Associated Press writers Alan Fram and Nedra Picker contributed to this report.

___

Follow Nancy Benac on Twitter: http://twitter.com/nbenac and Thomas Beaumont http://twitter.com/TomBeaumont

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gun-control-forces-seek-path-big-loss-152516059.html

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A Pocket Full of Family Memories: A Place To Call Home

I have neglected my blog here at "Pocketfull", but I do have a good excuse. Well, maybe not a good excuse but an excuse nonetheless. In recent months I've created a new blog which is dedicated to the history of my childhood hometown and I've been contributing to it almost twice weekly (See it here). For now at least, I've run out of steam so I've decided to devote some of my free time back here, amongst my family history.

A new Australian drama is set to start on the Seven Network next week called 'A Place To Call Home' and while I've been rather looking forward to watching this post-world-war-two drama it has got me thinking lately about "home" and what it means to me personally. Even though I have lived in Australia for most of my life, I still have a hankering for my childhood home. Beyond this, I have often found myself wondering what my family and my ancestors would have called home.

Both of my grandmothers were devoted to their homes. My maternal grandmother Lilian always proudly called herself a "Londoner", even long after the war ended in 1945, when she was married and living in a quiet market town in Suffolk. Then, in 1978 she emigrated to Australia. Yet, all her life, at every opportunity she could get, she went back to London. Her heart was always right there and when she died in 1983 of a massive heart attack, I always believed (and still do, to this day) that it was because her heart was broken for home.

My paternal grandmother Freda lived in Beccles all her life. She never moved away from the town, except for a few years when she moved to nearby Brampton but she quickly welcomed a return to Beccles. There was no question of her living anywhere else but Beccles. She was born there, she was married there, she raised four boys there, and it never entered her mind to travel further than was absolutely necessary. She believed in setting down your roots and staying put and, for the most part, she was content with that. It didn't make her small minded but it certainly made her homely and connected to her roots.

My grandfathers? My paternal grandfather Herbert lived in Bungay, London, and later, Beccles. I don't think that any one particular place meant more to him. I believe he went where "duty called" for the most part, even during the Second World War when he was stationed at Sutton Coldfield.

My maternal grandfather was born and lived all his life in Bungay. While he fudged his age slightly on enlistment with the Norfolk Regiment I don't think it was necessarily because he wanted to escape home life. He just wanted to do what he felt was right. He was to travel to India during his pre-World War Two service and later to Dunkirk before his capture and internment in a German Prisoner-of-War camp. Later, in 1944-45, he served with the Royal Army Medical Corps and was stationed at Epsom, county Surrey. After the war, when he married my grandmother Lilian, they remained in Bungay and raised their family there, trying (against impossible odds at times) to live by the post-war standards of a secure family life.

If I look back another generation, to my great-grandparents' idea of what home meant to them, it differs quite dramatically. For example, my maternal great-grandparents Albert and Elizabeth, were born in the exact same town in London. They were both from working-class families and both were baptised at the same church. Their families possibly knew one another and shared a similar social history. Albert was restless though, even as a young boy. He wanted to travel and see the world, stretch his wings and leave Putney well behind him forever. He lied about his age to get into the Royal Navy and his only reason for returning to Putney was to marry his sweetheart, Elizabeth, in 1905. After that they lived in Southwark, Fulham, Tooting, Bloomsbury and later, Sutton (where they settled and remained until Elizabeth's death in 1951).

My other maternal great-grandparents, Percy and Nellie, were much like my paternal grandmother. They remained in the Suffolk market town of Bungay all their lives. There was no question of moving away, although my great-grandfather Percy, as a younger man, did love the sea and he took to fishing on trawler boats off the coast of Lowestoft for many years before settling back to farm life after the Great War (1914-1918).

My paternal great-grandparents were also a mixed bunch. Albert and Eva were Becclesians to the last, although my great-grandmother Eva was born in Loddon (her parents were Loddon born and raised before moving to Beccles) but she never had a great need to return there. Beccles was her home and Great Yarmouth was her favourite family holiday destination. Albert was born and raised in Beccles, and he remained staunchly faithful to the town and its townsfolk; at home, in religious circles, and in his work.

My other paternal great-grandparents, Arthur and Barbara, lived as a married couple in the market town of Bungay and raised their family there but they were not knowingly tied to their roots. Barbara was born in Holdenhurst, county Hampshire and lived there until she was a young girl, when her father took on a new job as a Railway Gatekeeper in Woodsford, county Dorset. Less than five years later, her mother passed away, her father abandoned her and she moved to London to work in the Domestic Service. Arthur joined the Norfolk Regiment as a young man and served in both the Boer War and the Great War. It was during the Great War that Barbara moved back to London with the children (including my grandfather Herbert) while Arthur was away fighting for King and Country. When the war ended they went back, as a family, to Bungay.

So there we have it; a mixture of loyalties towards home and yet, across the board, so very similar. There are those who willingly left home to fight in the war. Those who wanted to leave their homes for broader horizons. Those who stayed in the same town all their lives, loyal to the last. Those who wanted to run from their past and never look back and those who couldn't let go of their past and so returned again and again.

To this day I share the same tug-of-war with my maternal grandmother Lilian, the Londoner, who always found a way to go back even though the memories of her childhood were not altogether pleasant or heart-warming ones. Something always called her back and she was deeply proud of her London roots, even in the impossible heat and vastness of Australia that she made home for the last remaining years of her life. My own tug-of-war calls me back to Beccles, and sometimes that call is overwhelming. It certainly reflects in my ability to write about it without getting completely caught up and swept away in a sea of nostalgia and sentiment! Even though Australia is now the place I call my home I still carry a piece of Beccles deep within my heart, and I always will. I could never let it go.

Source: http://pocketfulloffamilymemories.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-place-to-call-home.html

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Apple confirms it keeps Siri data for up to two years

It's no secret that Apple hangs onto your Siri data for some length of time (as other companies so with search data and the like), but it hasn't been clear exactly how long it keeps that data sitting on its servers. Wired has now cleared that up somewhat, though, hearing from Apple spokesperson Trudy Muller that the company "may keep anonymized Siri data for up to two years." That word follows another report from Wired yesterday that raised concerns about the issue. As Muller notes, the data is immediately deleted if a user turns Siri off at any time, and it's anonymized from the start; neither your Apple ID or email address are stored with a data, but rather a randomly generated number that represents the user and becomes associated with the voice files. That number then gets disassociated from voice clips after six months, but Apple still hangs onto the files for another 18 months for what's described as testing and product improvement purposes.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple

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Source: Wired

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/vj11CFyG_bE/

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Amazon's 14 Original Series Pilots Are All Online Now for Free

Amazon just launched the 14 pilot episodes for its original series showdown—six kids shows and eight comedies. Surely at least one of these programs will be good. Actually, we're pretty excited for a few of them. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/x5BQoWWBgkY/amazons-14-original-series-pilots-are-all-online-now

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Anger, fear, tears normal response to disasters

Kaitlyn Greeley, a clinical care tech at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, poses Thursday, April 18, 2013. Greeley, speaking about her emotional response in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings said, "it's just a very isolated feeling, the world upside down. It just doesn't feel right yet." (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Kaitlyn Greeley, a clinical care tech at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, poses Thursday, April 18, 2013. Greeley, speaking about her emotional response in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings said, "it's just a very isolated feeling, the world upside down. It just doesn't feel right yet." (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Kaitlyn Greeley, a clinical care tech at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, poses Thursday, April 18, 2013. Greeley, speaking about her emotional response in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings said, "it's just a very isolated feeling, the world upside down. It just doesn't feel right yet." (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

BOSTON (AP) ? Kaitlyn Greeley burst into tears when a car backfired the other day. She's afraid to take her usual train to her job at a Boston hospital, walking or taking cabs instead. She can't sleep.

"I know this is how people live every day in other countries. But I'm not used to it here," said Greeley, 27, a technician at Tufts Medical Center who was on duty Monday when part of the hospital was briefly evacuated even as victims of the blast were being treated in the emergency room.

Anger, crying jags and nightmares are all normal reactions for both survivors of the Boston Marathon bombings and witnesses to the mayhem. While the injured and those closest to the blasts are most prone to psychological aftershocks, even people with no physical injuries and those like Greeley might feel the emotional impact for weeks afterward as they struggle to regain a sense of security. What's not clear is who will suffer lingering anxiety, depression or even post-traumatic stress disorder.

But specialists say that how resilient people are helps determine how quickly they bounce back. The resilient tend to be people who share their emotions before becoming overwhelmed, who know how to copewith stress, and who have the ability to look for a silver lining ? such as focusing on bystanders who helped the wounded.

Focusing on the horror, "that's harder on our body and our mind," said Dr. Catherine Mogil, co-director of the family trauma service at the University of California, Los Angeles. "People who tend to be able to make positive meaning out of tough situations are going to fare better."

Among the typical reactions that psychologists say anyone who witnessed the bombings or their aftermath might experience include difficulty sleeping or eating; sweats or stomachaches; anxiety or fear ? especially in crowded situations that remind people of the bombing. People may have a hard time focusing on work or other everyday activities. They may feel numb, anger easily, or cry often.

Priscilla Dass-Brailsford, a psychologist at Georgetown University Medical Center, said that if those symptoms don't fade in about a month, of if they are bad enough to impair function, people should seek help.

But for most, "time is a great healer," said Dass-Brailsford, who served on disaster mental health teams that counseled survivors of 9/11 in New York.

Specialists say only a small number of people are expected to be so severely affected that they develop PTSD, a disorder that can include flashbacks, debilitating anxiety, irritability and insomnia months after the trauma. Even among veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the best estimate was that just under 20 percent returned with symptoms of PTSD or major depression.

More at risk for lingering psychological effects are people who've previously been exposed to trauma, whether from the battlefield, a car crash or a hurricane.

During two stints in Iraq as a Marine, Eusebio Collazo of Humble, Texas, was gravely wounded and today runs regularly to help deal with PTSD. Running with a veterans group called Team Red, White & Blue, he was at mile 25 of the marathon when the bombs detonated ? and adrenaline fueled his frantic race to find his wife, Karla, at the finish line. She was unharmed.

"My wife keeps asking me, 'I don't know how I should be feeling. I want to cry but I can't.' And then I want to cry, and I can't cry either. So, there's a lot of weird, different feelings going on," Collazo said Thursday. It's harder, he said, to handle explosions on the home front than in a war zone.

In Boston's hospitals, teams of counselors and social workers are telling patients and their families what to expect in the difficult days and weeks ahead.

"Most people are having a lot of flashbacks," and thoughts of the bombing interrupt their days and nights, said Lisa Allee, who directs the Community Violence Response Team at Boston Medical Center. "These are very typical, normal, expected emotions after any traumatic event or disaster."

Beyond hospitalized patients, part of coping is awareness about how to take care of the psyche ? turning off scary TV coverage and reading a book, going out for a quiet dinner, anything to temporarily cut the stress, says Dass-Brailsford, the disaster specialist.

That's especially true for parents who are trying to calm their children, added UCLA's Mogil, because kids take their emotional cues from the adults around them. Younger children especially don't need to see repeated footage of the blasts, because they may think it's happening again.

For a lot of people, psychiatrists say, talking about their experience can be cathartic.

A cashier's routine "how are you?" was enough for Anndee Hochman to tear up in a Philadelphia hardware store Wednesday. Hochman and her 12-year-old daughter had traveled to Boston to watch her partner run the marathon ? and all three were in different places when the bombs exploded, Hochman herself just a few blocks from the finish line.

Hochman spent 10 minutes telling the store clerk her family's story of reuniting ? and said it helps every time she's told friends, family, even a near-stranger about the experience.

Unknowingly, Hochman echoed the advice to look for a silver lining as she counseled daughter Sasha, who was nervous about returning to school.

"I reminded her, " 'Sweetie' ? and reminded myself, too ? 'there may have been a few people who planned those bombs and wanted to hurt people," Hochman said, "but there are so many more people there and in the world who want to help.'"

___

AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard reported from Washington. AP writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-19-Boston%20Marathon-Psychological%20Aftershocks/id-b0f235393db04a5191daa192e0bfc214

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