Article:

Russell Armstrong was found dead, apparently by suicide in California. Did his participation in 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' contribute to his death?

 Successful venture capitalist Russell Armstrong was found dead in his Los Angeles home Monday night, apparently by his own hand.

 No official cause of death has yet been declared. The coroner is still conducting an investigation.

 But that hasn't stopped the speculation that Armstrong's involvement in a reality TV show – ‘The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,’ starring his estranged wife, Taylor Armstrong – may have somehow led to his death.

 “He was down in the dumps over the latest allegations that he had abused Taylor. I told him people don’t believe everything they read and he told me, ‘It’s funny how a reality show can ruin your entire life,’” Armstrong’s friend Tom Vickers told RadarOnline.

 The couple’s relationship has often been rocky, and, through it all, the cameras have been rollilng. Responding to Taylor’s claims that he had been an abusive husband while she was filing for divorce on July 15, Armstrong told People Magazine, “Did I push her? Yes, maybe things happened in the heat of the moment, but it was during a time in our lives that was not characteristic of who we were. This show has literally pushed us to the limit.”

 Russell and Taylor are not the first reality TV couple whose marriage faltered on screen. Jon and Kate Gosselin, who starred together with their eight children in ‘Jon and Kate Plus 8’, ended their 10-year marriage in 2009. From then on, the show was called ‘Kate Plus 8.' It was just canceled.

 Industry insiders say that "reality" TV is often far from an accurate presentation of events. Small slights are exaggerated, peacemaking is ignored or left on the cutting room floor in the pursuit of a dramatic narrative. So, it's not clear that what the audiences saw – or even what the "actors" said about the show – bears much resemblance to the truth.

 Still, Mark Andrejevic, University of Iowa associate professor of communications studies, has said that keeping people on the threshold of mental breakdown is a tactic that has been used on some reality television shows. In a United Press International article on Aug. 2, 2009, Prof. Andrejevic said that “The bread and butter of reality television is to get people into a state where they are tired, stressed and emotionally vulnerable.”

 He wasn't talking about ‘The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,’ which only debuted in 2010. But one doesn't have to go far to find the destructive effects of living in a celebrity culture. Rabbi Schmuley Boteach, who once counseled Michael Jackson, told the Monitor last summer:

 "... [the] essentials for surviving celebrity are the same as for everyone else, he says: “You need a life to keep you grounded … someone to make you take out the garbage.” Next, he says is spiritual values. He points to musician Bono, who he he says has been married for 27 years and is a devout Roman Catholic, as the “perfect” celebrity. The Irish rocker also has a cause that is much higher than himself – Africa – and longtime friends, his band mates who will tell him when he’s being stupid – the last two tools for navigating fame. “If you have these in place, as Bono does,” adds Boteach, “you have a chance at a real, meaningful life.”

 Armstrong leaves behind a daughter, Kennedy, and two sons from previous relationships. ||||| Obituary

 Russell Armstrong, estranged husband of Taylor Armstrong of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” was found dead last night, an apparent suicide. The couple’s relationship fell apart on camera.

 Russell Armstrong, the 47-year-old husband of Taylor Armstrong of Bravo’s hit show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, was found dead Monday night, an apparent suicide. The news was first reported by TMZ. The couple had been married for six years and had one daughter, Kennedy, age 5. Russell also had two sons from a previous marriage.

 A spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner’s office told The Daily Beast Tuesday afternoon that Armstrong’s death does appear to be a suicide. But an autopsy will be done within two days.

 Armstrong had been staying with a friend in West Los Angeles on Mulholland Drive. According to a detective from the Los Angeles Police Department speaking with The Daily Beast, the friend discovered Armstrong hanged in his bedroom. Paramedics found him dead at the scene, a police spokesman said.

 Taylor Armstrong, 40, had filed for divorce in July, citing irreconcilable differences. But in an interview with People magazine around the same time, she said that her husband had physically abused her. Russell Armstrong told People: “Did I push her? Yes, maybe things happened in the heat of the moment, but it was during a time in our lives that was not characteristic of who we were. This show has literally pushed us to the limit.”

 The divorce petition filed by Taylor Armstrong on July 15 in downtown Los Angeles Superior Court makes no mention of abuse or domestic violence.

 On the show’s first season, Russell had been seen as a grumpy-at-best partner, with Taylor often lamenting the sadness in their marriage to other cast members. “My marriage is the worst it’s ever been,” she said to the cameras. “I just feel that something has to change.”

 In January, Russell Armstrong talked to The Daily Beast for a story about the husbands of Real Housewives, “I didn’t really understand what we were getting into.” He said that times when he was shown leaving parties, disappointing his wife, were in fact late at night.

 He agreed that his decision to stay in the background of the show “backfired.”

 “I’m going to be more engaging next season,” Armstrong said. In person, he appeared more at ease than he had on camera and seemed eager to show reporters speaking with him at a party that he was kinder than audiences had seen him being.

 During the same interview with The Daily Beast, he cited financial pressures and working all the time as things that added to his stress. Armstrong had filed for bankruptcy in 2005, and recent reports indicated that he was again in financial trouble.

 In a reunion special for the show, broadcast in early February, Armstrong responded to questions about what it was like watching his marital troubles on television. “It was difficult,” he said. “The last three years have been very challenging for the entire country. I, candidly, have been working 80-hour weeks. It’s very easy to get preoccupied with kids and business and the day-to-day grind.”

 The show’s first season ended with Russell and Taylor Armstrong trying to reconcile. “We definitely agreed that we wanted to keep our family together,” she said during the reunion, which had been filmed in early January. On the Beverly Hills reunion, Taylor’s cast mate Lisa Vanderpump said of Russell, “I have been quite honest that I don’t connect to him on any level at all. He seems quite cut off. And I think that must be very difficult to be married to.”

 On Tuesday, Russell Armstrong’s attorney Ronald Richards said the marriage suffered damage at the hands of the TV production. Richards represented him in the divorce and in a $1.5-million lawsuit filed against the couple last month alleging they had bilked people in an Internet medical scam. “People start making financial decisions based upon what’s best for the TV show instead of what’s best for them,” Richards told The Daily Beast. “So it creates a horrible cycle of bad decisions that start to pile upon one another. At this point, they were set on getting divorced.” Richards recalled Russell Armstrong as “a very nice guy who was very compassionate about the support of Taylor’s career. He was instrumental in getting her a lot of the brand licensing deals that she’s currently dealing with.” Richards talked to Russell Armstrong regularly and said that when he spoke to him two days ago he seemed depressed about his divorce and the pending lawsuit, but not at a level that worried Richards. “He had the normal depression that you would expect based on being in a lawsuit and a divorce but nothing beyond the ordinary,” Richards said. “I was not concerned. This is very tough on all levels. He had a very good relationship with all of his kids.”

 After the news of Armstrong’s death broke on Tuesday, Andy Cohen, Bravo’s executive vice president of original programming and development, who also hosts the channel’s talk show Watch What Happens: Live, tweeted, “I am so very sad about today’s news. My prayers and thoughts are with Taylor Armstrong and her family.” The network issued a similar statement.

 Through her manager, Robert Thorne, Taylor Armstrong issued this statement: “Taylor Armstrong is devastated by the tragic events that have unfolded. She requests privacy at this time so that she may comfort her young daughter. Her thoughts and prayers are also with Russell’s 11- and 13-year-old sons.”

 Bravo launched the successful Real Housewives franchise in 2006 with The Real Housewives of Orange County. In subsequent years, the show expanded to New York City, Atlanta, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., Miami, and Beverly Hills. Before cameras, women in the casts have experienced divorce, problems with their children, foreclosure, and bankruptcy.

 Get The Beast In Your Inbox! Daily Digest Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast. Cheat Sheet A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't). By clicking "Subscribe," you agree to have read the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Subscribe Thank You! You are now subscribed to the Daily Digest and Cheat Sheet. We will not share your email with anyone for any reason

 Off camera there have been two deaths as well: the fiancé of Gretchen Rossi and the ex-husband of Tammy Knickerbocker, both of Orange County, died of natural causes.

 Thom Beers, executive producer of several testosterone-fueled documentary-style programs that follow men whose livelihoods force them to confront death on a regular basis, has dealt with the passing of three cast members over the course of his career. The death that garnered the most attention was the sudden passing of Capt. Phil Harris on Discovery’s Deadliest Catch in 2010, who appeared to be recovering from a stroke he suffered while filming. Harris asked for production to continue, which allowed the cameras to capture his unexpected death and earned the series an Emmy nomination.

 “What happened on Housewives is a tragedy,” Beers said Tuesday. “The challenge is that when it happens, the shows are already in the can. It casts a pall over the whole production because the shows start airing, and there’s nothing you can do. This thing has happened that you’re not addressing because the show was in the can already, and it just becomes very weird. It really affects the spirit of the entire production.”

 Season 2 of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills was scheduled to premiere on Sept. 5. In a trailer for the upcoming episodes, Taylor Armstrong appears several times, at one point tearfully saying to cast mate Adrienne Maloof, “I feel like I’m breaking.” Maloof responds: “You are. You’re having a nervous breakdown.”

 The Daily Beast emailed Bravo for a response to Russell Armstrong’s attorney’s accusation that being on the show created undue financial pressure on the couple, and to ask whether the season premiere will air as planned, how much the dissolution of the Armstrong marriage would be featured during the season, and whether the show would be changed or reedited at all because of the news. A network spokesperson said no decisions have been made as of yet. ||||| Unscripted

 Two weeks before the season-two premiere of 'Beverly Hills,’ Taylor Armstrong’s estranged husband, Russell, is dead in a suicide. Kate Aurthur and Maria Elena Fernandez on the couple’s money woes and on-camera unraveling—and Bravo’s plans for the show.

 Update: On Wednesday afternoon, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Coroner's office confirmed the police department's early findings that Armstrong hanged himself. Toxicology results are pending, the spokesman said.

 The women of Bravo’s phenomenally successful Real Housewives reality TV franchise have experienced—on camera—divorce, problems with their children, foreclosure, and bankruptcy. Off camera there have been three deaths as well: the fiancé of Gretchen Rossi and the ex-husband of Tammy Knickerbocker, both of Orange County, died of natural causes; and the ex-fiancé of Atlanta’s Kandi Burruss was beaten to death in a fight at a club.

 And now there has been an apparent suicide. Russell Armstrong, the 47-year-old husband of Taylor Armstrong, 40, of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, was found dead Monday night, two weeks before the premiere of the show’s second season. He had been staying in West Los Angeles on Mulholland Drive with a friend, who discovered Armstrong hanged in his bedroom, according to a detective from the Los Angeles Police Department who spoke with The Daily Beast. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene, a police spokesman said. A representative from the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said Armstrong’s death does appear to be a suicide but that an autopsy will be conducted within two days. The news was first reported by TMZ.

 During the first season of Beverly Hills, Russell was portrayed as a grumpy-at-best partner, leaving parties in a sulk, buying his daughter a dog she was allergic to without seeming to care, and coming across as cold and uncomfortable. Taylor often talked about the sadness in her marriage to other cast members. “My marriage is the worst it’s ever been,” she told the cameras. “I just feel that something has to change.” The season ended with the couple trying to work out their problems. “We definitely agreed that we wanted to keep our family together,” Taylor said during a reunion of the cast, filmed in early January. The couple had been married for six years and had a 5-year-old daughter, Kennedy.

 But the reconciliation did not last. Taylor filed for divorce on July 15, citing irreconcilable differences. In an interview with People magazine around the same time, she said that her husband had physically abused her. Russell told People: “Did I push her? Yes, maybe things happened in the heat of the moment, but it was during a time in our lives that was not characteristic of who we were. This show has literally pushed us to the limit.” (The divorce petition filed in downtown Los Angeles Superior Court, viewed by The Daily Beast on Tuesday, makes no mention of abuse or domestic violence.)

 Season two of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills—part of a franchise that has expanded since the 2006 launch of Orange County to New York City, Atlanta, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and Miami—is scheduled to premiere on Sept. 5. Asked whether the show will air as planned, how much the dissolution of the Armstrong marriage will be featured during the season, and whether the show will be changed or reedited in the wake of Russell’s death, a network spokesperson said no decisions have been made. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the channel’s executives plan to wait “at least 24 hours to make a decision about whether they’ll postpone the show.”

 Russell does not appear in the premiere, which has already been sent out to the press. “He was not happy about how he thought the show would portray him,” Russell Armstrong’s attorney, Ronald Richards, reached on Tuesday, told The Daily Beast. But the couple’s marital problems are front and center, plot-wise. In her first scene, Taylor goes shopping for lingerie with friends in order to “spice up my love life” with Russell. She says they are in couple's therapy.

 The therapy comes up again later in the episode under more fraught circumstances. At a dinner party with the whole cast and their spouses—except for Russell—Taylor feels that Ken Todd, the husband of Lisa Vanderpump, is judging her for needing professional help to save her marriage. She breaks down in tears and leaves the table.

 When she returns, the confrontation continues. “We were at the end of our rope,” she tells Todd. “I’m really fragile right now. I’m going through so much—it’s a lot.”

 In confessional interviews to the camera, fan favorites Ken and Lisa do not appear to be sympathetic to Taylor. Ken says, “It seems to me that Taylor can turn on the waterworks whenever she wants to.”

 “Taylor’s very manipulative,” Lisa says. She later adds, “Her mood goes up and down like the whore’s drawers.”

 In a trailer for the upcoming season, Taylor appears to be crying several times, at one point tearfully saying to cast mate Adrienne Maloof, “I feel like I’m breaking.” Adrienne responds: “You are. You’re having a nervous breakdown.”

 Reality television has faced dilemmas over whether to air tragedies before. In 1994, MTV’s third season of The Real World cast the HIV-positive Pedro Zamora, and his death that same year was memorialized in a special tribute program. At the opposite end of the spectrum, when in 2009 Ryan Jenkins, a contestant on VH1’s dating show Megan Wants a Millionaire, murdered his wife and then committed suicide rather than be arrested, the network pulled the show off the air and scrapped it.

 Thom Beers, executive producer of several testosterone-fueled documentary-style programs that follow men whose livelihoods force them to confront death on a regular basis, has dealt with the passing of three cast members. The sudden death, on camera, of Capt. Phil Harris of Discovery’s Deadliest Catch in 2010 garnered the most attention. Harris, who appeared to be recovering from a stroke he suffered while filming, asked for production to continue, allowing the cameras to capture his unexpected death. The series earned an Emmy nomination.

 “What happened on Housewives is a tragedy,” Beers said Tuesday. “It casts a pall over the whole production because the shows start airing, and there’s nothing you can do … It really affects the spirit of the entire production.”

 According to Richards, the venture capitalist was suffering from financial difficulties made worse by lavish spending he and his wife felt was required by the show. Richards was representing him in the divorce and in a $1.5 million lawsuit filed against the couple last month, alleging they had bilked people in an Internet medical scam. “People start making financial decisions based upon what’s best for the TV show instead of what’s best for them,” Richards told The Daily Beast. “So it creates a horrible cycle of bad decisions that start to pile upon one another.”

 Get The Beast In Your Inbox! Daily Digest Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast. Cheat Sheet A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't). By clicking "Subscribe," you agree to have read the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Subscribe Thank You! You are now subscribed to the Daily Digest and Cheat Sheet. We will not share your email with anyone for any reason

 A Bravo spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on this assertion.

 Richards talked to his client regularly and said that when he spoke to Russell two days ago he seemed depressed about his divorce and the pending lawsuit, but not at a level that worried Richards.

 “He had the normal depression that you would expect based on being in a lawsuit and a divorce, but nothing beyond the ordinary,” he said. “I was not concerned. This is very tough on all levels.”

 Armstrong is survived by his daughter with Taylor and two sons from previous relationships. Through her manager, Robert Thorne, Taylor Armstrong said in a statement that she is “devastated by the tragic events that have unfolded. She requests privacy at this time so that she may comfort her young daughter. Her thoughts and prayers are also with Russell’s 11- and 13-year-old sons.”

 In January, Russell Armstrong talked to The Daily Beast for a story about the husbands of Real Housewives. “I didn’t really understand what we were getting into,” he said at the time. “I don’t really watch reality television.” ||||| On Bravo's "Real Housewives" franchise, a main character is affluence. It takes many forms: private planes, posh mansions, thousand-dollar shopping sprees. And it seemed Russell Armstrong and his wife, Taylor, who appeared on "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills," had been living up to the lifestyle. Last season, Taylor threw a $60,000 party for their then-4-year-old daughter, frequently conferred with a private stylist and devoted much of her free time to philanthropy.On Monday night, Russell Armstrong, 47, was found dead in an apparent suicide, and facts began to emerge Tuesday that raise questions about how the program presented the couple and whether the resulting glare of publicity played any role in his death.For one, it appears the Armstrongs were far less wealthy than viewers might have surmised. Russell Armstrong, who described himself as a venture capitalist, was a struggling entrepreneur who racked up $12 million in debts in the tech bust and was recently sued with his wife for allegedly diverting investors' money to redecorate a Bel-Air mansion and hobnob with the truly wealthy." 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,' I think, was [Russell's] downfall. The TV show put a lot of pressure on him to produce financially. You're on a show with a couple like the Maloofs, who are verifiable billionaires, and you're not," said friend William Ratner, referring to "Housewives" personality Adrienne Maloof, whose family owns the Sacramento Kings and their home arena as well as Las Vegas' Palms casino resort.In July, Taylor Armstrong, 40, filed for divorce from her husband (the difficulties in the couple's marriage were evident in the show's first season). As a result, he had been staying with a friend at his home on the 1400 block of Mulholland Drive. On Monday night, the friend discovered Russell Armstrong's body: He had hanged himself and left no suicide note behind, according to authorities.A statement released by Taylor Armstrong's publicist said she was "devastated by the tragic events that have unfolded. She requests privacy at this time so that she may comfort her young daughter."The second season of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" is scheduled to premiere Sept. 5, according to Bravo, the cable network that airs the program. At press time, a Bravo representative said a decision had not yet been made on whether the season will be postponed or episodes re-edited.The "Real Housewives" franchise, which launched in 2006 and followed five women living in Orange County, has become one of Bravo's most lucrative brands, expanding into multiple locations including New Jersey, New York City and Atlanta. Much of its appeal centers on its protagonists' opulent lifestyles and the over-the-top drama surrounding them. Though many of the women on the shows boast about their rich and seemingly picture-perfect lives, in the tabloids, another reality has often been revealed: At least half a dozen "Housewives" have begun divorce proceedings and roughly the same number have filed for bankruptcy since signing on to the show.The first season of the "Beverly Hills" edition came to a close in January, when its finale episode drew an impressive 2.76 million viewers. In the series, Russell was portrayed as the strait-laced husband — he left parties early and his wife complained he was unaffectionate, which seemed to be at the core of the couple's struggles. Taylor, at one point, referred to their marriage as a "business partnership."Much of the second season was supposed to document her struggle to keep the marriage intact. In the upcoming season premiere, which already has been made available to the television media, Taylor is shown buying lingerie in an attempt to spice up their love life and discussing their attempt at couples therapy; Russell is the only husband not shown in the episode.Ratner, a Los Angeles restaurant investor, said he last saw Armstrong in June and that his friend already knew a divorce was coming."I went in and talked with him, and he said, 'I don't know why she's doing this. Why can't she do this off the show?' He said there were still two weeks left of shooting and he didn't want to be in it," Ratner explained. "He said the producers at Bravo told Russell and Taylor that they picked them as the 'disaster couple,' and if they weren't going to have drama in the second season, they would cut them and replace them with someone else."Asked to respond to Ratner's assertions, a Bravo representative said "Production has assured us that there is no truth to these claims." A network statement expressed sympathy for the Armstrong family "at this difficult time."But Ronald Richards, the attorney who is representing Russell Armstrong in the divorce and in previous litigation, agreed that his client's behavior changed once he became a part of a show — something he did in an effort to help build his wife's "brand.""He helped build the brand and the show, and it's unfortunate how things worked out because right when her brand became valuable and he thought he could get endorsements for different products, this happened," he said. "When you join these shows, you end up trying to support an imaginary lifestyle that's on the show. He was forced to do that because a character loses their brand value if they don't and diverts the segment on to other characters."In a July interview with People magazine , Taylor Armstrong said that Russell was verbally and physically abusive, sometimes "grabbing her, throwing objects, shoving her and pulling her hair." (None of these allegations was included in her divorce filing.)"Did I push her? Yes, maybe things happened in the heat of the moment, but it was during a time in our lives that was not characteristic of who we were," Russell Armstrong responded in the article. "This show has literally pushed us to the limit."However, in March 1998, Russell Armstrong pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery involving his first wife. He was sentenced to three days in county jail, 50 hours community service and 36 months summary probation. ||||| By Radar Staff

 Russell Armstrong broke down just days before he committed suicide and admitted to a friend that reality TV had destroyed his life.

 In an exclusive interview with RadarOnline.com Tom Vickers reveals how in his final days Russell was ‘somber’ and ‘withdrawn’ and blamed Real Housewives for turning his life upside down.

 “It’s terrible news,” said the photographer, who forged a friendship with Russell over recent months and last spoke to him on August 4. “But during our phone call he didn’t sound like the Russell that I knew.

 PHOTOS: Russell Armstrong and Taylor Armstrong In Happier Times

 “He was down in the dumps over the latest allegations that he had abused Taylor. I told him people don’t believe everything they read and he told me; ‘It’s funny how a reality show can ruin your entire life.'”

 At the time of his death he was facing divorce drama with Taylor who accused him of physically abusing her.

 PHOTOS: Celebs Who Died Young

 But while he vehemently denied laying a finger on her, Vickers said he didn’t feel up to telling his side of the story.

 “He told me the allegations were absolutely not true and that he wanted people to hear that from him. But he admitted he was too emotional and that there was too much to handle.

 PHOTOS: Celebrities Who Died In Bizarre Circumstances

 “He said: ‘I hope when I’m ready to speak people will be kind to me.’

 “I don’t know what has happened with him in the past, but I do know that he seemed like a really good man. He was always cheerful and he had a real Southern charm about him.

 PHOTOS: The Real Houswives Of Beverly Hills In Hawaii

 “It’s a really sad time and I’m sure there will be a lot of people who will miss him.”

 Russell was found hanged in a house in Beverly Hills on Monday night.

 RELATED STORIES:

 Russell And Taylor Armstrong’s Marriage Counselor Reacts To Suicide

 Russell Armstrong’s Ex-Wife Says ‘Taylor Drove Him’ To Suicide

 ‘Real Housewives’ Taylor Armstrong ‘Hysterical’ After Estranged Husband’s Suicide

 ‘Real Housewives’ Russell Armstrong Commits Suicide ||||| By Amber Goodhand – Radar Reporter

 Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Russell Armstrong had secrets about his sexual preference that were about to be revealed, and RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned that some were already discovered by his estranged wife, Taylor Armstrong.

 According to sources close to the 47-year-old, he was bisexual and worried that a tell-all book was going to out him, along with Taylor.

 PHOTOS: Russell Armstrong and Taylor Armstrong In Happier Times

 “About six months ago Taylor confided in a close friend that she’d found history for a gay website called Adam4Adam.com on Russell’s laptop,” the insider told RadarOnline.com.

 “He was also spending a lot of time at the gym, but his body wasn’t changing, which she claims led her to believe he was meeting with men he’d met off the website and not spending time working out as he claimed.”

 The insider also tells RadarOnline.com that when Russell was approached for comment about the impending tell-all book, it included great detail about what he liked in the bedroom.

 PHOTOS: Celebrities Who Died In Bizarre Circumstances

 “Not only was it going to come out that Russell was bisexual, but there were people on the record that were going to talk about the kind of sex he liked,” the source said. “He was into S&M type stuff; choking, rough-housing and slapping.”

 Ronald Richards, Russell Armstrong’s attorney tells RadarOnline.com “As Russell Armstrong’s attorney engaged for these type of claims, I’m unaware of the existence of any book, and unaware of any information about any adultery. I believe any claim would be false.”

 The businessman had a history of violence in his past, including allegations of abuse by Taylor and restraining orders filed against him by his ex-wife and an ex-girlfriend.

 PHOTOS: The Real Houswives Of Beverly Hills In Hawaii

 As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Russell’s ex-wife attributes his suicide to his relationship with Taylor and the pressures of being on the hit Bravo TV show, along with immense financial hardship.

 Russell was found hanged in the bedroom of a friend’s home on Monday night and pronounced dead at 8:16 p.m. by the Los Angeles City Fire Department.

 The new season of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is set to premiere on Bravo on September 5. It’s not known how Bravo will deal with the tragedy.

 RELATED STORIES:

 Russell Armstrong Was ‘Concerned And Scared’ For Tell-All Book

 Russell Armstrong Told Pal Just Before Suicide: ‘Reality TV Ruined My Life’

 Russell Armstrong’s Ex-Wife Says ‘Taylor Drove Him’ To Suicide |||||
What is a summary?

– After Russell Armstrong's suicide, one question is apparently on everyone's mind: Is Real Housewives to blame? The Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, and two separate Daily Beast stories all delve into that question, noting that Armstrong's marriage troubles were splashed all over television during the first season of the franchise's Beverly Hills version. Sources say the show pressured the Armstrongs to live beyond their means—they were actually millions in debt and being sued by investors—and also pressured them to ramp up the drama in their relationship. Radar reports that Armstrong told a friend, days before his death, that reality TV had ruined his "entire life." But Armstrong's ex-wife blames estranged wife Taylor, from whom Armstrong was getting divorced. "She's bad news and she drove him into this," the ex tells Radar. "I don't think it was the show. I think she drove him into financial stress and it just ruined him." Radar offers up another possible reason: A tell-all was about to be published, and would reveal that he was bisexual and may have had affairs with men. As for the second season of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, no word yet on whether its Sept. 5 premiere date will be pushed back.


Write a summary based on this article:

You know setting aside money for retirement is smart, but you don’t know anything about how it works. You need advice. Where do you turn?

 Maybe you have a financially savvy friend or family member. But a lot of people turn to professional advisers.

 Until now there have been two different kinds of investment advisers: those who are required to work in your best interests, and those who — amazingly — are not.

 But a new rule from the Department of Labor, which becomes final today, aims to change that. Under the new rule, savers will gain the right to sue or initiate arbitration against advisers who don’t meet high ethical standards or who fail to disclose conflicts.

 The effect, say both experts and many industry advocates, will be to drive many advisers to change their business models, while pushing others entirely out of the business.

 And that’s probably a good thing.

 The new rule will require retirement advisers to act in their clients’ interests

 The Department of Labor developed the new standards over the past few years, as part of a larger regulatory effort to reduce risk for middle-class savers after the 2008 financial crisis.

 The two kinds of retirement savings pros are called "registered investment advisers" and "broker-dealers." Registered advisers — who often work with wealthier, more sophisticated clients — are required to uphold fiduciary standards, a special legal arrangement most often associated with lawyers and doctors. They are required to work in the best interests of their clients and can be punished for doing otherwise. Registered advisers are paid directly by their clients, and generally charge based on the size of the fund they manage.

 "Broker-dealers," on the other hand, are often more like salespeople (a dealer is a broker who works independently). They’re often paid commissions, increasing their incentive to suggest products with higher fees. Many also receive "revenue-sharing" payments from the banks and mutual funds that generate the investments the brokers sell, again potentially influencing them to steer savers toward products that charge more.

 The suggestions broker-dealers make to clients are held to a "suitability standard." That is, brokers are required to only propose products that are appropriate for the saver given his or her age, retirement goals, etc.

 "I've never met anyone who's going to go to a dealership to ask advice about whether to buy a new car"

 What brokers dole out is "advice" in the conventional sense, but the current rules don’t require it to be particularly good, or even fully well-meaning.

 "A sales pitch where they're going to get a huge commission isn't ‘advice,’" says Betsey Stevenson, a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan and a former member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) who co-authored its report on the rule.

 "Car salesmen get commissions, and everyone’s fine with that," she adds. "But I've never met anyone who's going to go to a dealership to ask advice about whether to buy a new car or take the bus."

 Savers lose a lot of money because of conflicted advice

 A decades-long shift from traditional pensions to 401(k) savings plans means more people than ever are responsible for deciding where to invest their own retirement savings.

 The CEA’s report, published in February 2015, found that bad advice from conflicted broker-dealers reduced savers’ returns by about 1 percent a year — as much as $17 billion a year nationwide.

 The greatest losses occur when workers roll their 401(k) balance into a higher-fee individual retirement account when leaving a job, rather than keeping it with their former employers.

 "A typical worker who receives conflicted advice when rolling over a 401(k) balance to an IRA at age 45 will lose an estimated 17 percent from her account by age 65," the CEA’s report said. The report adds that if there is $100,000 in that account, it could grow to $216,000 in 20 years without the bad advice, as opposed to $179,000 with the conflict of interest.

 Opponents say conflicts of interest aren't a problem

 Opponents of the new rules argue that most brokers already act the way regulators want them to.

 "If you don’t help someone, they’re not going to continue with you as a client," said Lisa Bleier, managing director at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, an industry group, in a December interview.

 Bleier said the Labor Department’s proposed rules were haphazard, applying only to retirement advisers and not to investment advisers generally. They’d require savers to sign extra contracts, including one the moment they walk in the door, she said, and would expose brokers to frivolous lawsuits.

 Stevenson argues that most savers would be fine with so-called "robo advice" from online services

 I pressed Bleier on the ethical issues involved in advisers receiving commissions or revenue-sharing arrangements. "I don’t see those compensation structures as a problem, no," Bleier responded. "The SEC has approved them."

 The new rule will probably drive a lot of advisers out of the business

 Both Stevenson, the professor and former Obama administration economist, and Bleier agree on one likely effect of the rules: A lot of brokers will stop serving middle-class clients.

 Broker-dealers will have three options:

 They can operate as they do now, but adhere to the new standards. Because it’ll be harder to steer clients toward high-fee products, they’ll make lower commissions — while still risking lawsuits from disgruntled clients.

 They could move away from commissions, charging the client a fixed fee the way registered advisers do.

 They could give up advising entirely.

 In late 2012, the UK passed a set of regulations that were similar to the Obama proposal — but stronger. The regulations not only imposed a fiduciary standard on retirement brokers, but also banned nearly all commissions, while also strengthening disclosure and professional training requirements.

 The result: The number of advisers in the UK fell from about 27,080 in 2009 to 23,640 in 2014, a reduction of about 13 percent, according to the Association of Professional Financial Advisers.

 The revenue generated by advisers was impacted as well. Advisers’ total income never fell, but it stopped growing for three years, from 2011 to 2013. But growth resumed in 2014 with a surge of fee-based income replacing a very large drop in commissions. (Outside factors like the eurozone debt crisis likely influenced advisers’ revenue, as well.)

 In the years since the new rules went into effect, both government and industry have expressed concern about a growing "advice gap" for middle- and lower-income retirement savers. While regulators have said it's difficult to measure the gap — measuring something customers aren’t doing — a research firm called Fundscape found, based on survey data, that many advisers were turning away investors who had less than about $148,000 in total assets. The average British investor has a portfolio of about $30,000.

 Bleier and Stevenson both believe something similar will happen here in the United States — less wealthy clients simply can’t afford the upfront fees charged by non-conflicted investment advisers. But while Bleier sees that as a big problem, Stevenson disagrees.

 Stevenson argues that most savers would be fine with so-called robo advice from online services that use data and algorithms to offer advice based on savers' specifications. Another option: They can read the Vox guide to retirement savings.

 "It’s not about good guys and bad guys," said Stevenson. "These guys are just trying to feed their families. And if they can offer a product where they get a $500 commission versus one where they get an $800 commission — they don’t want to give bad advice, but what if it’s hard to tell?"

 With the fiduciary rule, the government aims to resolve that tension and legally obligate advisers to put aside their self-interest. The result for savers, though, won’t necessarily be better advice. It could be less advice, at least of the kind you get from human beings.

 But that’s okay. Most people don’t need much advice, because the principles of saving for retirement aren’t complicated: Save 20 percent of your income, invest in low-cost index funds, and don’t touch the money until you reach your retirement age. ||||| Arthur Levitt Jr. is a former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a director of Bloomberg LP.

 Ronald Reagan used to say that the surest way to live forever was to become a federal program. If that’s right, the surest way to die is to be studied by Congress. In Washington, becoming the subject of legislative scrutiny virtually guarantees inaction, the disappearance of funding and political support, and ultimate demise.

 That’s precisely why congressional Republicans are insisting on the need to “study” further an Obama administration proposal to make financial advisers more accountable. The proposal in question, put forward by the Department of Labor, would target the conflicts of interest that can arise when advisers attempt to steer their clients into high-fee, high-risk investments.

 The Labor Department is attempting to update the fiduciary standard, raising the bar for any advice given by brokers working with retirement investors. If instituted, financial advisers will have to place a client’s interests above their own or those of their firm. That doesn’t seem like too hard a standard to meet, but not all advisers deliver on it. And to this point, nothing in the law has made them do so.

 A change is long overdue. The current proposal has already been studied at length, while the public and affected industries have had their chance to examine the rule, comment on it and suggest changes. Labor Department researchers estimate that the regulation would save more than $40 billion over 10 years in retirement savings.

 Republicans and some Democrats in Congress would apparently rather leave America’s investing public exposed to advisers who serve themselves first and their clients second. But rather than put forward their own ideas to address this problem, they’re attempting to dictate new parameters for the rule that would require it to be rewritten, thus running out the clock before President Barack Obama leaves office.

 As a former broker, I cannot accept the argument that brokers are simply order-takers rather than advisers. Responding to customers’ directions and anxieties invariably involves a dialogue that veers into the area of advice and counsel.

 As chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission in the 1990s, I’m also intimately familiar with the tactic of “study to kill.” Then, too, the Republicans in control of Congress used the maneuver to stymie important new rules to protect investors.

 In that case, I wanted to keep audit and accounting firms from selling consulting and other high-margin services to their audit clients. My fear was that the audit process -- which is dependent on independence and objectivity -- would be infected by concerns over losing other client work. An audit might be toned down in hopes of winning a lucrative consulting gig from the same client. Or auditors might not share important information with an audit committee so as not to embarrass managers critical to their success on other projects. The risk of self-dealing appeared to be great.

 My fears were well-placed. Major audit firms were later discovered to have allowed such conflicts of interest to affect their judgment; the resulting audits were not of consistently high quality. By the time the proposed rules had finally found their way into law in the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, it was too late and investors had lost billions of dollars in the 2001-2002 market meltdown and recession.

 Congress is in danger of repeating that mistake. The Labor Department has put forward a proposal after years of vetting, held four days of public hearings and considered comments from thousands of people. There’s no reason to study the issue further, nor any legitimate argument against the proposal itself. A vote to delay the rule further is a vote to kill the rule -- that’s how things work in Washington.

 Among America’s middle-class families, who are struggling to save enough for college and retirement and life’s other big-ticket items, this delay is going to cost money. Billions of dollars in fees will be paid to unscrupulous advisers who aren’t being held to account. I’ve seen this movie before: In the end, whose money matters more: investors' or that belonging to the people they’ve trusted for advice?

 This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

 To contact the author of this story:

 Arthur Levitt JR at alevitt@bloomberg.net

 To contact the editor responsible for this story:

 Nisid Hajari at nhajari@bloomberg.net ||||| A proposed rule to impose tougher regulations on financial advisers is poised to move forward after opponents failed to persuade lawmakers to derail it. |||||

– Americans trying to save for retirement might be pleased to learn that a new law expected next year will require something that sounds obvious: All financial advisers will be required to work in their clients' best interests. As Vox explains, that is "amazingly" not the case now. Two kinds of advisers currently exist: "Registered investment advisers," who tend to work with the wealthy, are held to high fiduciary standards akin to the standards of doctors and lawyers, and they must indeed work in the best interests of their clients. But the other group, "broker-dealers," are more like salespeople who work on commissions. They're required only to provide "suitable" advice, and there's nothing stopping them from steering their middle-class clients into high-fee products that result in fat commissions for themselves. The Obama administration has been trying to tighten the law—to ensure that all advisers put their clients' interests above their own or their company's—and the spending bill that cleared Congress last week all but ensures it will happen. The financial industry had mounted a "last-minute battle" to kill the provision, but it fell short, reports the Wall Street Journal. As a result, the Labor Department is expected to draft the legislation in January ahead of its implementation later in the year. Proponents say that it will save people big money in their IRAs and 401(k)s, while the industry argues that it will drive many brokers out of business and thus put the price of getting investment advice out of reach for many. At Bloomberg View, meanwhile, former broker and SEC chief Arthur Levitt argues that the change is "long overdue."


Article:

As of Tuesday morning, the South Korean authorities had confirmed at least 95 MERS cases and were monitoring more than 2,500 people under quarantine for symptoms. At least seven patients have died.

 So many patients, including those in rural towns, seek medical care at large hospitals that securing a bed in a mega-hospital in Seoul, the capital, for a relative or friend has become a test of a person’s networking ability. Patients often visit small hospitals to get a referral to a bigger hospital.

 The two hospitals where the vast majority of MERS cases have occurred were among the biggest in their cities.

 “Many people want to check into famous hospitals, some even waiting in their emergency rooms until a bed gets available,” said Kim Woo-joo, head of the Korean Society of Infectious Diseases, who is leading the government’s epidemiological study of the MERS outbreak. “In big hospitals, we see bottlenecks. This is a very Korean thing, and I think this is not a good situation when we have a new contagious virus breaking out.”

 Photo

 In many ways South Korea is one of the world’s most technologically advanced countries, where most of the population is connected to the Internet and nearly everyone has a smartphone. But within a matter of days, it has also become known for the largest caseload of MERS outside of Saudi Arabia, where the disease first emerged in 2012.

 Researchers have traced MERS to a virus that is believed to have jumped from camels to humans. The virus can be spread by breathing the same air as an infected and coughing person in proximity. It causes high fevers and pneumonia-like symptoms, and there is no cure.

 The hospital odyssey of the first infected patient, known as the index case, began after May 11, when he developed a fever and began coughing. He visited a clinic in his hometown Asan, south of Seoul, on May 12, 14 and 15. Perplexed doctors, not knowing he had even visited Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in early May, sent him to a bigger hospital, St. Mary’s, in Pyeongtaek, 37 miles south of Seoul.

 Advertisement Continue reading the main story

 With no improvement, he went to Seoul to seek better medical care, visiting a relatively small hospital there on May 17, when X-rays suggested pneumonia. The next day he was referred to the Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, one of the largest in South Korea, where doctors suspected he had MERS, learned of his Middle East visit and isolated him. The correct diagnosis was confirmed on May 20.

 Mr. Kim said the crowded conditions at St. Mary’s had been ideal for the virus to spread. So far, 37 St. Mary’s patients have been confirmed as having caught the virus — nearly 40 percent of the known total.

 “It must have been a period when the virus was most active in him and he was coughing out a lot of virus droplets,” Mr. Kim said.

 One of the St. Mary’s patients infected by the index case later checked into the emergency ward of the Samsung hospital in Seoul, infecting at least 35 people there. Nearly 700 people who were at the emergency ward have been quarantined.

 Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters.

 There has been no sign of a panic among the wider public. But fears of the virus have led to the closings of nearly 2,000 kindergartens and schools and the cancellation of concerts and religious and social gatherings. Sales of face masks and hand sanitizer have soared. Baseball stadium attendance has plummeted.

 In a sign of widening fear in Asia, the authorities in Hong Kong raised their three-stage response level on Monday from “alert” to “serious,” which means ports of entry will exert tighter arrival controls. The Hong Kong Center for Health Protection posted an advisory about the raised response on its website, urging people to “avoid unnecessary travel” to South Korea.

 The W.H.O. appeared to be less concerned, saying that it was not advising special actions at ports and airports in South Korea or travel or trade restrictions, “given the lack of evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission in the community.”

 Video

 Alison Clements-Hunt, a spokeswoman for the health organization, said that the virus pattern found in South Korea was in line with those monitored elsewhere. The testing on a virus sample in South Korea “shows nothing alarming in terms of mutations and change in what would be the transmissibility of the virus.”

 Nonetheless, she said the organization was sending a team of experts to South Korea. She also said frequent visits to patients at hospitals in some Asian cultures were “something that may need to be looked at in the light of MERS.”

 Advertisement Continue reading the main story

 Some experts have faulted the South Korean government for the way it initially handled information on the outbreak. None of the hospitals where patients were infected had been alerted about the possibility of MERS.

 “Doctors were diagnosing the patients without knowing anything about MERS,” said Jee Sun-ha, a professor of public health at Yonsei University in Seoul. “Once the authorities detected the first case, they should have taken more aggressive steps, revealing the names of the hospitals the patients had visited and trying as much as possible to localize the outbreak.”

 It was only Sunday that the government revealed the names of all 24 hospitals the confirmed cases had visited — two and a half weeks after the first case was discovered. They have since added five more to the list.

 The government said it had been reluctant to make the names public, fearing possible panic in the neighborhoods around the hospitals. After their names were released, some of the hospitals reported a plunge in the number of outpatients and even closed down temporarily.

 But Choi Chang-woo, head of the civic group Citizens’ Solidarity for Safe Society, said that the government’s “monopoly on information,” which he said was rooted in South Korea’s authoritarian past, was partly to protect the business interests of big hospitals and keep people ignorant about mistakes.

 “They haven’t learned from the Sewol disaster,” Mr. Choi said, referring to the hundreds of deaths in the sinking of the Sewol ferry in April last year, often attributed to the government’s fumbled rescue. “This is what you get when your government’s top priority is not the safety of the people.”

 President Park Geun-hye’s weekly approval rating dropped six percentage points to 34 percent last week in the aftermath of the MERS outbreak, according to a survey released on Friday by Gallup Korea. On Monday, Ms. Park vowed an “all-out national response.”

 Efforts included exploiting South Korea’s advanced cellphone network, tracing the signals of people who had defied quarantine in order to find them.

 “Now the government is belatedly trying to mend the fence after the cow had already been stolen,” Mr. Choi said. ||||| SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea believes its MERS virus outbreak may have peaked, and experts say the next several days will be critical to determining whether the government's belated efforts have successfully stymied a disease that has killed seven people and infected nearly 100 in the country.

 Visitors wear mask as a precaution against the MERS, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, virus as they arrive at Incheon International Airport in Incheon. South Korea, Tuesday, June 9, 2015. South Korea... (Associated Press)

 A visitor wears a mask as a precaution against the MERS, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, virus as she arrives at Incheon International Airport in Incheon. South Korea, Tuesday, June 9, 2015. South Korea... (Associated Press)

 A foreign tourist, center, wears a mask as a precaution against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) as she takes pictures with her smartphone at the Myeongdong, one of the main shopping districts,... (Associated Press)

 Visitors wear mask as a precaution against the MERS, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, virus as they arrive at Incheon International Airport in Incheon. South Korea, Tuesday, June 9, 2015. South Korea... (Associated Press)

 Foreign visitors wear mask as a precaution against the MERS, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, virus as they arrive at Incheon International Airport in Incheon. South Korea, Tuesday, June 9, 2015. South... (Associated Press)

 South Korean elementary school students wear masks as a precaution against the MERS, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, virus as they sanitize their hands to protect against possible MERS virus at an elementary... (Associated Press)

 Foreign visitors wear mask as a precaution against the MERS, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, virus as they arrive at Incheon International Airport in Incheon. South Korea, Tuesday, June 9, 2015. South... (Associated Press)

 South Korean elementary school students wear masks as a precaution against the MERS, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, virus as they attend a lesson at an elementary school in Busan, South Korea, Tuesday,... (Associated Press)

 The biggest outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outside the region where it was first seen in 2012 was introduced to South Korea last month by a 68-year-old man who had traveled to Saudi Arabia and other nearby countries.

 When he got sick after his return to South Korea, he visited several hospitals and clinics, where dozens of other patients and hospital workers were infected before officials found he had MERS. Gradually, the government began isolating victims and quarantining those who'd had contact with them.

 There has been widespread fear here of the poorly understood disease, which has no vaccine and as much as a 40 percent mortality rate. There also had been growing criticism over failures by health workers and the government to initially recognize and quickly contain the disease.

 Nearly 3,000 people have been placed in isolation and 2,200 schools closed in South Korea. Although MERS spreads through close contact with sick people, not through the air, many people here have avoided going to crowded places like baseball parks and movie theaters. Travel agencies report a sharp increase in the number of foreigners canceling plans to visit South Korea.

 The outbreak, however, has so far been contained in hospitals and there's no evidence, the U.N. health agency says, of "sustained transmission in the community."

 Authorities say the first MERS patient didn't reveal his Saudi Arabia trip to doctors until he arrived at the Seoul-based Samsung Medical Center after being treated at three other hospitals, including St. Mary's Hospital in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul. Samsung and St. Mary's have seen most of the country's infections.

 The initial patient's wife, who was the country's second MERS case and is now out of the hospital, recently told a local TV station that her husband didn't intend to hide information about his travels, but simply had trouble talking to doctors because of his high fever.

 Because the virus' incubation period is estimated at five to six days on average, extending up to about two weeks, experts believe there won't be any more cases directly infected by the first patient. The Health Ministry said that no more MERS cases have originated from St. Mary's Hospital.

 There are still concerns about Samsung Medical Center, where at least 37 people have been infected, although fewer cases have been reported there in recent days.

 The initial patient was eventually isolated on May 20 after doctors at Samsung, where the man ended up, suspected he had MERS and alerted the government, which moved him to a government-run facility. But a week later, another so-called "super-spreader" — a man who'd been infected by the initial patient at St. Mary's Hospital — checked into an overcrowded Samsung Medical Center, where he was forced to stay for several days in the emergency room. He spread the disease among doctors, visitors and other patients there, according to health officials.

 The maximum incubation period for those infected by the second "super-spreader" ends around this Friday, experts said, which raises hopes that the outbreak could weaken soon.

 "I cautiously predict (MERS) will peak today" and be stabilized in the next few days, Health Minister Moon Hyung-pyo told lawmakers Monday.

 The prospects for the virus weakening this week depend on whether there are many people who have evaded government quarantine measures and infected other people in various places, said Jacob Lee, an infectious disease expert at Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital in Seoul.

 World Health Organization experts arrived in South Korea on Monday to investigate the outbreak.

 There are concerns that South Korea's economy could suffer as tourism and business travel drop because of MERS fears.

 Hong Kong has issued a red travel warning for South Korea, the second highest of three levels, and advised residents against unnecessary travel there. Hong Kong has been hypersensitive to infectious diseases since the outbreak of SARS in 2003, which killed hundreds of people.

 MERS has mostly been centered in Saudi Arabia. It belongs to the family of coronaviruses that includes the common cold and SARS, and can cause fever, breathing problems, pneumonia and kidney failure.

 ___

 Associated Press writer Kelvin K. Chan in Hong Kong contributed to this report. ||||| 2015/06/09 11:38

 SEJONG, June 9 (Yonhap) -- South Korea confirmed another death from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and reported eight new cases Tuesday, raising the number of infections to 95.

 The latest fatality, the seventh since the country first reported the outbreak on May 20, was a 68-year-old woman who had already been suffering from chronic heart conditions, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

 She was hospitalized at Seoul's Samsung Medical Center on May 27-28, during which she came in close contact with a MERS patient.

 The total number of people diagnosed with the disease came to 95 as the country confirmed eight new cases.

 All eight new patients were infected after coming in close contact with those previously diagnosed at five hospitals, including Asan Medical Center, one of the largest hospitals in the capital.

 As of Tuesday morning, 2,892 people, including family members of those diagnosed, were in isolation for possible infection from coming into close contact with a MERS patient, according to the ministry.

 The health ministry said it will fully fund the cost of diagnosis and treatment for those who have contracted the disease, as well as those in quarantine as suspected cases.

 The ministry again warned against groundless fears, noting nearly two-thirds of those diagnosed with the disease had existing health conditions while all of those who have died from the disease had existing illnesses or other health problems.

 Two people diagnosed with the disease have been released after making complete recoveries.

 The number will soon reach three as another patient was set to be discharged from the hospital later in the day, the ministry said.

 So far, all infections have occurred at hospitals where at least one MERS patient had visited or stayed for treatment -- the reason the government believes the disease can still be contained.

 Keiji Fukuda (L), an assistant director-general of the World Health Organization who is leading a delegation of medical experts to South Korea, speaks during the first meeting of a joint response team with South Korean officials at the government complex in Sejong, South Korea on June 9, 2015. (Yonhap)

 To help prevent the disease from spreading further, the government has released the names of all hospitals affected by the disease, which stood at 29 as of late Monday.

 Government officials said the number of new infections, along with the number of patients, may begin to dwindle this week.

 "The government has decided to switch to an all-out response system as if it was seeking to eliminate the disease this very week," acting Prime Minister Choi Kyung-hwan said in a meeting with officials over the outbreak, adding he will daily attend the emergency meetings until the disease is eliminated.

 "This week may be very crucial to overcoming MERS. The government will mobilize all available resources and necessary budget to help eradicate the disease at the earliest date possible," said Choi, who is also the country's finance minister.

 MERS is a viral respiratory illness that was first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012. The disease had a very high fatality rate of over 40 percent before the outbreak in South Korea, according to the health ministry. Currently, the disease has a fatality rate of around 8 percent here.

 Still, health officials here are struggling to find out the reasons for what they have called the unusually fast and wide spreading of the disease, which had only some 1,100 confirmed cases throughout the world before the outbreak here.

 With 95 confirmed cases, South Korea now has the second-largest number of people diagnosed with the disease after Saudi Arabia, which has reported over 1,000 cases since it reported the world's first case in 2012.

 A team of medical experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) was here to help explain the reason.

 The experts were set to form a joint response team with officials here to find any factors driving the outbreak, according to WHO Director-General Margaret Chan.

 In a recent interview with Yonhap, Chan noted the country's traditional culture of family members caring for their loved ones in hospitals or at home may have contributed to the fast spread of MERS here.

 bdk@yna.co.kr

 (END) ||||| The outbreak of Middle East Respiratory System in South Korea, which began last month, continues to spread. Should you worry about the virus? The WSJ's Deborah Kan explains.

 SEOUL—After returning from the Middle East in May, a 68-year-old South Korean man visited a doctor in Asan, a provincial city about 50 miles south of Seoul.

 “It was like he had caught a cold,” his wife said in an interview with a local television station. She said her husband suffered from a fever and coughing fits. The doctor suspected a minor ailment.

 But... |||||
What is a summary?

– When a 68-year-old man visited a clinic in Asan, South Korea, on May 12, and again two and three days later, doctors were stumped by his coughing and wheezing. He was referred to a larger hospital in Pyeongtaek, then a smaller one in Seoul before X-rays on May 17 suggested he had pneumonia, reports the New York Times. Still, he was referred once more to one of the country's largest hospitals, the Samsung Medical Center in Seoul. There, doctors learned he hadn't just visited Bahrain on a recent trip as he had previously disclosed, but also the UAE and Saudi Arabia, the Wall Street Journal reports. (The patient's wife says he had trouble communicating with a high fever.) A test confirmed on May 20 he had the highly contagious MERS virus. Since then, 37 people at the Pyeongtaek hospital have tested positive. "It must have been a period when the virus was most active in him and he was coughing out a lot of virus droplets," a doctor says of the man considered the first patient in South Korea's outbreak. One of the sick from Pyeongtaek spent days in the Samsung Medical Center's ER, where another 35 were infected. South Korea has so far identified 95 total cases at 29 hospitals, including eight new cases today, reports Yonhap News. Seven have died, though all had preexisting health issues. Almost 3,000 are under quarantine, including 700 who were in the crowded Samsung Medical Center ER when the carrier arrived, while 2,200 schools have been closed, the AP reports. Authorities, however, say the virus may have peaked. Its incubation period—between five and 14 days—for the first patient has ended, meaning no other cases should arise in connection with that patient. The incubation period for the other carriers ends around Friday. "This week may be very crucial to overcoming MERS," the prime minister says. "The government will mobilize all available resources and necessary budget to help eradicate the disease."


– Tim Pawlenty released a statement today saying he wouldn’t be signing the “Marriage Vow” that got Michele Bachmann in so much trouble, the AP reports. Pawlenty said he supports “the core principles of the Family Leader’s Marriage Vow Pledge,” but that “rather than sign onto the words chosen by others, I prefer to choose my own words, especially seeking to show compassion to those who are in broken families through no fault of their own.” (Time has the statement here.) He joins Mitt Romney in refusing to sign. Pawlenty released a six-minute video (left) in which he and his wife discuss their faith, and run through a host of socially conservative talking points, saying that God “values traditional marriage as between one man and one woman,” that the founders would want us to be pro-life, and that separation of church and state was “intended to protect people of faith from government, not government from people of faith.”

Expand this summary.

Doh! 404!

 These are not the droids you are looking for! ||||| Republican Tim Pawlenty says he won't sign a pledge written by a conservative Iowa group that asks presidential candidates to denounce same-sex marriage rights, pornography and forms of Islamic law.

 Pawlenty said Wednesday he agrees with the principles behind the Family Leader's Marriage Vow. But he says he prefers "to choose my own words, especially seeking to show compassion to those who are in broken families through no fault of their own."

 The former Minnesota governor is the second major candidate to decline the pledge, following former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's decision Tuesday. Two Republicans, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, have signed it.

 Pawlenty's announcement coincides with the release of a new radio ad and web video where he and his wife discuss their faith. |||||


Write an article based on this summary:

– It's been a week since 21-year-old San Antonio native Drake Kramer was spotted at the Bright Angel Lodge on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. Last Monday, the avid hiker and aspiring geologist texted his father that he was at the Grand Canyon and "needed to be back with Mother Earth and set his soul free," his father tells ABC News; then he disappeared. "At that point we really started getting worried and started calling and trying to get people to look for him," his dad says. Kramer had visited the area with his aunt, and he posted "wish I could stay" on Facebook. "We're focusing on the positive by trying to believe that him saying he needed to be with Mother Earth and set his soul free that he was talking about being out in nature and being one with nature," says his dad. Because a week has gone by with no clues, efforts are now being scaled back to rangers and pilots looking for clues when they're in the area, reports San Antonio Express-News. Kramer is described as 5 feet 7 inches tall, 140 pounds, with blue eyes and brown hair. He was last seen in blue jeans and an olive-green sweatshirt. "We don't know what his plans were. He may be hiking, we just don't know," says a Grand Canyon National Park spokeswoman. (A group of 15 hikers was found in California's wilderness just last fall.)

Drake Kramer missing for sixth day of searching

 Photo: Courtesy Photo Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Image 1 of 1 Drake L. Kramer, 21, of San Antonio, was reported missing from Grand Canyon National Park on Monday, Feb. 2, 2015. Drake L. Kramer, 21, of San Antonio, was reported missing from Grand Canyon National Park on Monday, Feb. 2, 2015. Photo: Courtesy Photo Drake Kramer missing for sixth day of searching 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

 After six days of searching, a San Antonio man is still missing at the Grand Canyon National Park.

 Drake L. Kramer, 21, was last seen Feb. 1 in the vicinity of the Bright Angel Lodge on the South Rim, the National Parks Service said in a press release.

 Kramer stayed the previous night as a guest at the lodge, checking out the next morning. Family members reported him missing Monday.

 No additional clues have been found in the time that the National Parks Service Search and Rescue has been searching for Kramer.

 Because of this, the search will be scaled back to a continuous, but limited mode in which rangers and pilots search for clues when in the area, the release stated.

 Kramer is described as 5’7, 140 pounds, brown hair and blue eyes. He is last known to be wearing blue jeans and an olive green sweatshirt.

 For the past six days, park rangers have searched the South Rim developed area, stretching from Hermit’s Rest on the West Side to Grandview on the East, the release stated.

 “Teams of searchers have walked miles along the canyon rim, searched heavily forested areas, utilized dog teams, performed several over the rim technical searches, and conducted multiple aerial reconnaissance missions to support ground searchers,” the release stated.

 Posters with Kramer’s picture and description remain at various South Rim locations. Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts is encouraged to call the National Park Service Silent Witness Line at (928) 638-7840.

 jbeltran@express-news.net

 Twitter: @JBfromSA ||||| The father of a missing hiker last seen at the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona says his son texted him telling him "he needed to be back with Mother Earth."

 Drake Kramer, 21, of San Antonio, was last seen Sunday morning checking out of the Bright Angel Lodge, officials said.

 His father, Robbin Kramer, said his son told him Monday that "he was at the Grand Canyon and he needed to be back with Mother Earth and set his soul free. At that point we really started getting worried and started calling and trying to get people to look for him."

 The family reported Drake Kramer missing on Monday, and search efforts and a missing person investigation are now under way.

 Facebook

 "He posted on his Facebook when he was out here with his aunt last time: 'Wish I could stay.' And he had other posts about ... places he'd like to see, like the Redwood Forest, before he dies," Robbin Kramer said.

 "We're focusing on the positive by trying to believe that him saying he needed to be with Mother Earth and set his soul free that he was talking about being out in nature and being one with nature," he said.

 Drake Kramer loves to be outdoors and camp, his father said, but he's not sure if his son took appropriate hiking equipment with him.

 "He was on the road to be a geologist so he could be out in nature where he loves to be," Robbin Kramer said.

 Drake Kramer drove out west on I-10, according to his father.

 "There had to be people that saw him when he filled up for gas. We'd really like to know if anyone saw him purchase any of the appropriate equipment with cash," Robbin Kramer said. "If anyone along the way saw him, heard anything, any information would be great."

 Kirby-Lynn Shedlowski with the Grand Canyon National Park told ABC News, "We don't know what his plans were. He may be hiking, we just don't know."

 "Nobody is sure where he is, what he's doing, if he's OK," Robbin Kramer said. "So many people that love him and are worried about him. Everyone is just on the edge of their seat."

 Drake Kramer is described as having brown hair and blue eyes. He is 5 feet 7 inches tall and 140 pounds, officials say. Anyone with information can call the National Park Service Silent Witness Line at 928-638-7840. |||||


Summarize this article:

 Hand Grips Clinically Proven Beneficial for Prevention of Low Back Injuries.

 Don't let snow shovelling be a pain in your back.

 Welcome to MOTUS. We manufacture hand grips that offer arthritis and back pain relief and reduce the risk of repetitive strain injuries including Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and tendinitis.

 Motus grips are a snow shovel accessory that make snow shovels easier to work with. Use the D-grip and the T-grip on shovels, scoops, pushers and roof rakes. The ergonomic design adjusts to any stature, short or tall, left or right-handed.

 The D-grip mounts mid-way down the handle and gives lifting leverage to the forward hand. The T-grip mounts at the upper end of the handle and gives pushing and pulling control to the back hand. In combination, they optimize their mechanical advantage.

 There are two main actions that take place when working with snow shovels:

 Lifting is involved in the use of snow and scoop shovels.

 Biomechanically, lifting involves the body as a third class lever.

 Adding the D-grip mid-way down the shovel handle moves the fulcrum to the lower hand, transferring the effort to the long end of the shovel, making it a first class lever.

 With increased leverage, the user may now lift a heavier load with greater ease.

 Pushing & Pulling is involved in the use of snow pushers and roof rakes.

 Adding the D-grip mid-way down the handle improves posture by allowing the user to stand taller with less back bend.

 Limb alignment and hand position with the D-grip are more neutral, reducing the risk of repetitive stress injury.

 Neutral limb alignment and hand position also reduce fatigue and blisters.

 Adding the T-grip handle at the upper end allows a greater range of motion.

 A straight line of force from the shoulder to the grip opens the space between the shoulders for good posture and reduced risk of back and muscle strain.

 Neutral limb alignment and hand position help reduce arthritis and back pain.

 A Case Study Assessment of MOTUS Power-Grip Products

 by Dean Kriellaars, Ph.D.,

 University of Manitoba, School of Medical Rehabilitation

 May 20, 1992

 I. Description

 Straight Grip (T-grip)

 The straight grip provides a fixed hand placement at right angle to the implement shaft.

 D-ring Handle (D-grip)

 The d-ring handle provides a hand placement site, which is slightly displaced from the implement shaft. The d-ring can be positioned at any angle relative to the shaft but is typically positioned close to a right angle to the shaft.

 II. Method

 A pseudo-static, biomechanical assessment of the straight grip Power-Grip product was undertaken in case study fashion for a simple shoveling task. The Newtonian equations for static equilibrium were developed to estimate the trunk joint moment required to hold a load with and without the straight hand-grip. A dynamic and EMG analysis was not undertaken.

 III. Results for the Straight Grip

 A. This hand-grip permits the wrist angle to remain in a near neutral position in the ulnar/radial plane. The amount of ulnar deviation is limited to a maximum of 10 degrees as compared to 35 degrees (near the end of range of motion) without the use of the straight grip.

 In lifting with an implement, the wrist can undergo maximum ulnar deviation during a specific period. This results in compression of the tissues located on the ulnar side of the wrist (the ulnar nerve, blood supply, carpal ligaments, tendons, etc.) and tension in the radially located tissues. Prolonged or repetitive loading of a joint at the end of range of motion can be deleterious to the tissues. In the mid-range of a joint, the muscles can operate efficiently to bear the load, however, in the end of range of motion, the passive tissues bear a disproportionate amount of the load since the muscles are in a compromised position. The decreased ulnar deviation resulting from the use of the straight grip is beneficial to the structures in and about the wrist.

 B. The hand-grip requires the forearm to be in a pronated position.

 Without the use of the straight grip, the forearm would be in a supinated position. This positioning influences the set of muscles recruited to perform the task. Most notably, with the forearm in a supinated position, the biceps brachii can operate to control the amount of supination and is in an advantaged position to aid in elbow flexion. When the straight grip is used, the forearm is positioned in pronation. This positioning results in a different muscle strategy to be employed during the lifting task. The biceps brachii is positioned in a relatively lengthened position and the forearm extensors and forearm supinators are required to control the degree of pronation. The difference in lifting with the straight grip represents a substitution of muscles required to perform the task. An electromyographical analysis would be required to establish the precise muscle activation pattern. This may limit the amount of elbow flexion used to perform the task enabling the user to incorporate larger trunk and lower limb musculature.

 C. The change in wrist position and forearm pronation results in an increased shoulder abduction angle (5-10 degrees).

 The change in wrist position requires the shoulder to be abducted. The lifting task normally involves the use of shoulder abductors. When the straight grip is used the starting angle for the abduction movement is greater. The change in joint angle would alter the muscle activation pattern required to perform the task. It is possible to speculate that the supraspinatus muscle, which is claimed to account for the first 5 degrees of abduction, would not be involved in the abduction when the straight grip is employed, instead the larger deltoid muscles would be primarily involved. This may result in a decreased likelihood of tendinitis (or similar disorder) of the intrinsic shoulder muscles. This speculation would have to be examined with electromyographical analysis.

 D. The change in upper limb kinematics (joint angles) due to the hand-grip reduces the trunk flexion angle in the neighborhood of 5 degrees.

 The kinematics of the upper limb holding on to the straight grip allows the trunk to remain in a more upright position during a lifting task. This results in a decreased effort from the extensor muscles of the hip and back since they do not have to work as hard to hold up the weight of the trunk. These muscles do not have to work as hard since there is i) a decrease in the moment of the weight of the upper body due to a decrease in the moment arm, and ii) a decrease in the moment of the weight of the load (that being lifted) due to a decrease in the moment arm are (the perpendicular distance from the line of action of the weight force acting vertically downward to the specific axis of rotation, say the L4 vertebral axis). This decrease in the moment of the load and upper body weight would be in the order of 5%. For repetitive tasks this small decrease would result in substantial energy savings and may result in less cumulative trauma.

 E. The change in upper body kinematics (joint angles) allows the load borne by the implement to be carried closer (about 5 cm) in the para-sagittal plane to the joint axes of rotation, most notable the hip and lumbar vertebral axes, as well as the upper limb axes (shoulder and elbow).

 Similar to point D., when the lifted load is carried closer to the body this results in a decrease in the moment arm of the load relative to the body's axes of rotation (hip, lumbar, shoulder, etc.). The decrease in moment arm reduces the tendency of the load to rotate downward which proportionately relieves the muscles from having to rotate the load upward. The magnitude of this effect is between 3 and 5 %.

 The overall reduction in load arising from the decrease in trunk angle and the closer load carrying is near 10%. This is a substantial amount, not only for repetitive tasks, but also for a single execution of a task. This would be beneficial for prevention and rehabilitation of low back injuries.

 F. The hand-grip did not result in an observable change in lower limb kinematics.

 The method employed in this study did not permit accurate evaluation of lower limb kinematics. A video motion analysis would be required for this purpose.

 G. The hand-grip constrains the user to a specific set of lifting postures.

 This constraint arises from the fact that the user must hold the grip and since the grip is fixed on the implement shaft the user's upper limbs are required to maintain a fixed geometry during lifting. Any task executed repetitively results in specific muscle fatigue, as such it may be beneficial to allow the user to rest or the freedom to adopt different postures to perform the same task which results in a substitution of non-fatigued muscles for the fatiguing muscles. This factor is primarily related to user understanding of proper lifting concepts and is not actually limited by the straight grip (i.e. changing the position of the straight grip periodically).

 H. The straight grip was found to fit any of the 14 different implements tested independent of:

 1. material (plastic, metal or wood),

 2. shaft diameter

 3. the presence of water (rain).

 The straight grip was found to loosen or tighten somewhat with variations in temperature. The user would be advised to check that the grip is secure before each use.

 I. The hand-grip reduces the potential for blister formation.

 The kinematics of lifting without the hand-grip involves movement of the hand relative to the shaft resulting in skin surface shear which leads to blistering. With the use of the straight grip the magnitude of skin surface shear may be less which would result in a decrease in blister formation.

 CASE STUDY ASSESSMENT SUMMARY

 "hand-grip permits the wrist angle to remain in a near neutral position"..."beneficial to the structures in and about the wrist."

 "enabling the user to incorporate larger trunk and lower limb musculature."

 "decreased likelihood of tendinitis (or similar disorder) of the intrinsic shoulder muscles"

 "remain in a more upright position during a lifting task"..."substantial energy savings and may result in less cumulative trauma."

 "The overall reduction in load arising from the decrease in trunk angle and the closer load carrying is near 10%. This is a substantial amount, not only for repetitive tasks, but also for a single execution of a task. This would be beneficial for prevention and rehabilitation of low back injuries."

 "The hand-grip reduces the potential for blister formation."

 SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE NEWSLETTER and

 BECOME ELIGIBLE FOR PRODUCT DISCOUNTS.

 Our informative newsletter is packed with facts and insights into ergonomics.

 Subscribers also receive periodic discounts on our ergomomic grips.

 To subscribe, enter your email address and check the box below to have your address added to our mailing list. We promise NEVER to give your address to third parties. You may unsubscribe at any time.

 E-mail address: Comment: Options: Add my address to the mailing list click here to visit Ergonomic Garden Tools

 Privacy Policy

 T-grip

 Only $20.00

 Mail any 25 grips for $25

 D-grip

 Only $20.00

 Mail any 25 grips for $25

  ||||| "Would it kill you to shovel the front walk?" A monster snowstorm raging from New Mexico to Maine raises this question afresh. Typically it's posed by a woman standing with hands on hips and assuming a Thurberesque mien as she gazes down on a man exercising his thumb on the remote but otherwise in repose. The correct answer: "It might."

 Snow-shovel design may not rank up there with the Three Gorges Dam as an engineering challenge, but it kills more than 10 times as many people each year. My Slate colleague Juliet Lapidos has observed that the 1,200 annual heart-failure deaths attributed to blizzards represent only about 0.3 percent of all annual deaths from heart disease. But that's a lot more people than die from watching a football game (though that poses health risks too). You can say all these shovelers should exercise more, and that's certainly true. But such advice is of little help to a sedentary soul whose doorstep is suddenly buried in a four-foot drift.

 Advertisement

 The science of shoveling was invented by the Progressive Era efficiency expert (and father of Taylorism) Frederick Winslow Taylor. Taylor observed laborers shoveling varying weights and concluded that the shovel load with which "a first class man would do his biggest day's work" was about 21 pounds. That's remarkably close to the current recommendation from Canada's Center for Occupational Health and Safety (keep per-shovel snow loads below 24 pounds). At the Bethlehem Steel works in Pennsylvania, Taylor gave out shovels specifically designed to hold 21 pounds—small ones for shoveling iron ore, big ones for shoveling ash—and made "thousands of stop-watch observations" to calculate the most efficient shoveling method.

 Taylor's purpose was not to preserve workers' health but to maximize output; by following his recommendations, Bethlehem was able to increase the daily weight shoveled by each laborer from 16 to 59 tons. But because physical endurance was a necessary component to maximizing output, Taylor's shoveling method also reduced wear and tear on the human body. "[T]his is not nigger driving," Taylor said (that's how Progressives talked in 1911); "this is kindness; this is teaching; this is doing what I would like mighty well to have done to me if I were a boy trying to learn how to do something." He recommended that workers

 press the forearm hard against the upper part of the right leg, just below the thigh … take the end of the shovel in your right hand and when you push the shovel into the pile, instead of using the muscular effort of your arms, which is tiresome, throw the weight on the body of the shovel … [T]hat pushes your shovel in the pile with hardly any exertion and without tiring the arms in the least.

 Reading Taylor's recommendations, one is struck by two significant changes in American life. One is that 100 years later African-Americans are considered human beings whose physical well-being concerns society (at least in theory) as much as that of Caucasians. The other change is that, even taking into account that Taylor's subjects were all experienced manual laborers, people must have had much stronger backs back then.

 Like Slate on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.

 Like This Story |||||

– If you live in America, there’s a good chance you’re shoveling snow today—or will be soon—but beware: The dreaded chore can actually kill you. How to avoid such a tragic fate? Well, for starters, keep your per-shovel load to 24 pounds or less. Beyond that, however, the recommendations get muddled, notes Timothy Noah on Slate: Shovels that make it easier to gather the snow make it harder to lift the snow, and vice versa. There is one obscure shovel supposedly better suited to both parts of the job, but good luck finding one in a hardware store. A few other things will lessen your risk: Don’t start shoveling while snow is still falling (it’s colder, so you’ll put additional strain on your heart); don’t bundle up too much (getting too hot isn’t good, either); and don’t drink coffee (it increases your heart rate) or hot cocoa (who knows why?) right before shoveling. If that all sounds like too much trouble, “wait till someone younger or poorer than you knocks on your door and offers to shovel your walk for $20 or $30,” Noah recommends. “Delegate. The economy will benefit and your cardiologist will thank you.”