Media Decoder Blog: With 'Daisy,' Beats Electronics Bets on Digital Music

Memo to Spotify: Beats Electronics is coming for you.

Beats, whose success with the Beats by Dr. Dre line of high-end headphones transformed a hobbyist niche into a huge mainstream market, has been planning its entry into the streaming music world since at least last year, when it bought the digital service, Mog.

Beats has been slow to reveal its plans, and the streaming market has been growing steadily without it. But two recently announced hires should signal to Spotify, Rhapsody and others that Beats is serious about challenging them.

On Thursday, Beats — whose founders are the hip-hop star Dr. Dre and the music executive Jimmy Iovine — announced that Ian Rogers of Topspin Media would be the chief executive of its digital service, which is code-named Daisy. Last month, a profile in The New Yorker of the musician Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails, “The Social Network”) revealed that he was acting as creative director.

The announcement on Thursday offered few details about what music fans (and current Mog subscribers) can expect. Daisy will be based on Mog’s technology to some degree, although executives suggested some changes, like the ability for artists to interact with their fans.

Mr. Rogers, a veteran of digital music well known by music executives and musicians alike, has been a longtime critic of existing digital music services; in 2006 he called iTunes “a spreadsheet that plays music.” On Tuesday, Mr. Iovine characterized the appeal of existing services as, “Give me your credit card, here are 12 million songs, and good luck.”

All digital services have to some degree or other been struggling with that perception. Last month, for example, Spotify introduced a number of features to help users find music on the service, like the ability to follow favorite artists and cellphone alerts for new songs.

A bigger challenge, however, is growth. Spotify has five million paying subscribers, Rhapsody about one million, and other American services are believed to be far behind. While Pandora has built a huge audience offering a free digital alternative to radio, and Sirius XM has gotten nearly 24 million paying subscribers for its version of radio, so-called on-demand services like Spotify and Rhapsody — which let consumers pick exactly what songs to listen to — have been slow to penetrate the mainstream.

Beats, however, has a major advantage in reaching everyday consumers: its headphones, which have become popular enough to be fashion accessories. The company is estimated to have more than $1 billion in sales, and says that it has nearly two-thirds of the premium headphone market. Beats headphones range from $100 earbuds to a $400 “pro” model.

Mr. Rogers, 40, got his start in the music business when the Beastie Boys spotted the fan site he had made in college, and hired him to run its Web operation. He later worked for Yahoo Music before joining Topspin, which offers online tools to musicians and record companies to help them market and sell music. (The Beastie Boys and Nine Inch Nails are two of its most prominent clients.)

“This is the gig I’ve been training for my whole career,” Mr. Rogers said.

Beats also made an investment in Topspin, which will continue with Jeremy Bellinghausen as its chief executive and Mr. Rogers as its executive chairman.

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Ben Sisario writes about the music industry. Follow @sisario on Twitter.

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L.A. County sheriff's area homicides fall; serious crime up overall

January 9, 2013, 11:55 a.m.

The number of homicides in the L.A. County Sheriff's Department's patrol areas fell to its lowest level since 1970 with 166 killings in 2012, Sheriff Lee Baca announced Wednesday.

The number of killings was four less than in 2011, a 2.3% drop. But serious crime increased 4.2% and all types of crime jumped 3%.

Violent crime -- rape, robbery, aggravated assaults and murder -- climbed 3.5% from 2011. Property crimes across the sheriff's areas jumped 4.3%.

"This is real historic," Baca said, referring to the low homicide rate, during a news conference at sheriff's headquarters in Monterey Park.

He said the decline in homicides makes for a positive picture despite a slight upturn in so-called "Part 1" serious crime.

"We are feeling positive despite the slight increase," he said.

Baca said gangs remain the most serious issue, as was underscored by an AK-47 gun battle between rival gangs Tuesday deputies came upon. 

Because the Sheriff's Department patrols such a vast territory, there was a great deal of disparity in the numbers. The Crescenta Valley station saw a 4.3% drop in serious crimes; the Temple City and Compton stations also reported 5% declines.

But the Avalon station on Catalina Island experienced a 17% jump in serious crime. Serious crime climbed 10.9% in West Hollywood, 9.3% in the Carson area and 8.5% in Lancaster when compared to 2011.

The number of deputy-involved shootings rose from 37 in 2011 to 49 in 2012, but most of the increase came from non-hit shootings.

The Century station in Lynwood saw its number of homicides decline from 35 to 25.

The department's homicide bureau reported overall gang homicides rose 10.5% compared to 2011, when it includes killings it investigated in other non sheriff's area cities.

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Glenn Beck Says 3-D Printers Will Make America Great Again

Glenn Beck has seen the future, and it is 3-D printed.

On Tuesday, he featured one of MakerBot’s Replicators on his radio show/online broadcast, making it clear that he was impressed by the desktop device.

“This can make anything,” he says as the machine diligently prints out a tiny shark model. He’s no less impressed by how easy it is to create the models for a print, too, pointing to Autodesk’s 123D Catch as an exemplar. “Now I can take a picture of anything and it will make it.”

While this isn’t — strictly speaking — true (Beck would do well to remember Steve Jobs’ famous dictum that design is how it works, not what it looks like), it’s not that different from what we hear from the most enthusiastic advocates for 3-D printing.

In the segment, Beck is quick to highlight the societal implications, worrying about what it could mean for patents, art and currency. But his main focus is on the means to use this kind of technology to restore American exceptionalism.

“Jobs will come back to America because you’ll be able to make things again, remember this is early technology here,” he says. “However, those aren’t manufacturing jobs, they aren’t labor union jobs, they aren’t dolt jobs, per se. You will be able to make anything you need. So our economy in the entire world is turned upside down. You don’t need little slave children in China to make stuff. The Replicator 2000 will do it for you.”

Redesigning the World

Beck has always been something of a futurist. At the peak of his popularity at Fox News, his outlook was exceedingly dim. He warned of a coming insurrection, and a country that would fall into ruin. Accordingly, he encouraged his viewers should stock up on gold and disaster survivalist kits. As recently as the 2012 election, he was ready to suggest that call for the destruction of America in the face of an Obama win.

Today, Beck strikes a much more hopeful tone. On Monday, standing between his iconic chalkboard and an iPad, he launched the American Dream Labs, a series of initiatives to secure the future of the country. “I am not going to let somebody else redesign the world without me involved and without you involved because I don’t like the global planners. Here, we’re going to push the envelope and look for new creative innovative things in more than one area. I will show you how we can master technology,” he tells viewers.

“Here in Dallas we’re working on energy and food, but we’re also working on digital features that are going to blow your mind,” Beck says. He also promises revolutions in education and entertainment, if only he can find the right partners.

“This week we want to put you on notice that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Somebody is doing something, somebody is dreaming big, somebody is actually doing something big. Hank Rearden is about to pour some steel. It will fundamentally transform us back into the people that deserve the citizenship of the United States of America.”

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Jimmy Kimmel beats Letterman, closes on Leno in new time slot

NEW YORK (Reuters) – In a late night riff on David and Goliath, TV talk show host Jimmy Kimmel beat out veteran David Letterman and nearly caught ratings champion Jay Leno with his first show in their time slot.

The move from midnight to 11:35 p.m., which took effect on Tuesday, paid off big for ABC. “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” with guest Jennifer Aniston, attracted 3.1 million viewers, the second-highest number ever for the 10-year-old show and a 59 percent increase over its usual audience, according to ratings data on Wednesday.

Leno’s “Tonight Show” on NBC had 3.3 million total viewers, while Letterman’s “Late Show” on CBS was watched by 2.9 million Americans.

In the cherished 18-49 demographic, Kimmel trounced Letterman by 30 percent, with 887,000 versus 683,000 viewers.

“I am now 25 minutes closer to my lifelong dream of co-hosting ‘The View,’” Kimmel quipped on Tuesday about his show’s earlier time slot, referring to the long-running, popular daytime talk show hosted by Barbara Walters.

“The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” has led the late-night broadcast comedy race with 3.4 million viewers on average, according to Nielsen. “The Late Show with David Letterman” pulls in 3 million, while “Jimmy Kimmel Live” has grabbed 1.9 million in its former midnight time slot.

At 45, Kimmel is two decades younger than Leno, 62, and Letterman, 65.

ABC hopes that fact, coupled with his younger, tech-savvy audience, will make his show more appealing to advertisers. The network’s marketing blitz features ads with the tagline: “Younger. Smarter. Funnier. Earlier.”

Kimmel has been making the media interview rounds and exposed his butt crack for a Rolling Stone magazine cover story.

ABC television is a unit of Walt Disney Co..

(Reporting by Chris Michaud editing by Jill Serjeant)

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Pap Test May Prove Useful at Detecting More Types of Cancer, Study Suggests

The Pap test, which has prevented countless deaths from cervical cancer, may eventually help to detect cancers of the uterus and ovaries as well, a new study suggests.

For the first time, researchers have found genetic material from uterine or ovarian cancers in Pap smears, meaning that it may become possible to detect three diseases with just one routine test.

But the research is early, years away from being used in medical practice, and there are caveats. The women studied were already known to have cancer, and while the Pap test found 100 percent of the uterine cancers, it detected only 41 percent of the ovarian cancers. And the approach has not yet been tried in women who appear healthy, to determine whether it can find early signs of uterine or ovarian cancer.

On the other hand, even a 41 percent detection rate would be better than the status quo in ovarian cancer, particularly if the detection extends to early stages. The disease is usually advanced by the time it is found, and survival is poor. About 22,280 new cases were expected in the United States in 2012, and 15,500 deaths. Improved tests are urgently needed.

Uterine cancer has a better prognosis, but still kills around 8,000 women a year in the United States.

These innovative applications of the Pap test are part of a new era in which advances in genetics are being applied to the detection of a wide variety of cancers or precancerous conditions. Scientists are learning to find minute bits of mutant DNA in tissue samples or bodily fluids that may signal the presence of hidden or incipient cancers. Ideally, the new techniques would find the abnormalities early enough to cure the disease or even prevent it entirely. But it is too soon to tell.

“Is this the harbinger of things to come? I would answer yes,” said Dr. Bert Vogelstein, director of the Ludwig Center for Cancer Genetics and Therapeutics at Johns Hopkins University, and a senior author of a report on the Pap test study published on Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine. He said the genomes of more than 50 types of tumors had been sequenced, and researchers were trying to take advantage of the information.

Similar studies are under way or are being considered to look for mutant DNA in blood, stool, urine and sputum, both to detect cancer and also to monitor the response to treatment in people who already have the disease.

But researchers warn that such tests, used for screening, can be a double-edged sword if they give false positive results that send patients down a rabbit hole of invasive tests and needless treatments. Even a test that finds only real cancers may be unable to tell aggressive, dangerous ones apart from indolent ones that might never do any harm, leaving patients to decide whether to watch and wait or to go through surgery, chemotherapy and radiation with all the associated risks and side effects.

“Will they start recovering mutations that are not cancer-related?” asked Dr. Christopher P. Crum, a professor at Harvard Medical School who was not involved in the research.

But he also called the study a “great proof of principle,” and said, “Any whisper of hope to women who suffer from endometrial or ovarian cancer would be most welcome.”

DNA testing is already performed on samples from Pap tests, to look for the human papillomavirus, or HPV, which causes cervical cancer. Dr. Vogelstein and his team decided to try DNA testing for cancer. They theorized that cells or DNA shed from cancers of the ovaries and the uterine lining, or endometrium, might reach the cervix and turn up in Pap smears.

The team picked common mutations found in these cancers, and looked for them in tumor samples from 24 women with endometrial cancer and 22 with ovarian cancer. All the cancers had one or more of the common mutations.

Then, the researchers performed Pap tests on the same women, and looked for the same DNA mutations in the Pap specimens. They found the mutations in 100 percent of the women with endometrial cancer, but in only 9 of the 22 with ovarian cancer. The test identified two of the four ovarian cancers that had been diagnosed at an early stage.

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Obama’s Pick for Treasury Is Said to Be His Chief of Staff

WASHINGTON – President Obama will announce on Thursday that he intends to elevate his chief of staff and former budget director, Jacob J. Lew, to be his next secretary of Treasury, according to officials familiar with the decision.

If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Lew, 57, would be Mr. Obama’s second Treasury secretary, replacing Timothy F. Geithner, the last remaining principal on Mr. Obama’s original economic team, at the head of that team.

While Mr. Lew has much less experience than Mr. Geithner in international economics and financial markets, he would come to the job with far more expertise in fiscal policy and in dealing with Congress than Mr. Geithner did when he became secretary at the start of Mr. Obama’s term. That shift in skills reflects the changed demands of the times, as emphasis has shifted from the global recession and financial crisis of the president’s first years to the continuing budget fights with Republicans in Congress to stabilize the growth of federal debt.

The partisan tension over the budget between Mr. Obama and Republicans suggests that Mr. Lew will face a grilling by Senate Republicans in confirmation hearings. But despite weeks of speculation that Mr. Lew would be named Treasury secretary, Republicans have not signaled that they plan to mount the kind of opposition they raised to Mr. Obama’s potential nomination of Susan E. Rice, the ambassador to the United Nations, for secretary of state, and Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense; the president named Mr. Hagel on Monday, and eventually settled on Senator John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, for secretary of state.

Mr. Lew’s departure would create an important vacancy for what would be Mr. Obama’s fifth White House chief of staff, a turnover rate that is in contrast with the stability at Mr. Geithner’s Treasury. Leading candidates are said to include Denis McDonough, currently the deputy national security adviser in the White House; and Ron Klain, a former chief of staff to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Mr. Lew had a brief turn in the financial industry before joining the Obama administration four years ago, working at the financial giant Citicorp, first as managing director of Citi Global Wealth Management and then as chief operating officer of Citigroup Alternative Investments.

His first job with Mr. Obama was at the State Department, where Mr. Lew was the deputy secretary responsible for managing day-to-day operations of the department and its international economic policy. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton protested to Mr. Obama when the president in 2010 tapped Mr. Lew to replace Peter R. Orszag as budget director.

It was Mr. Lew’s second stint heading the Office of Management and Budget. He previously served in President Bill Clinton’s second term, helping to negotiate a bipartisan budget deal with Congressional Republicans that led to four years of budget surpluses. In the 1980s, Mr. Lew was a senior aide to House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill, a Democrat, also advising in budget negotiations with President Ronald Reagan.

He has been deeply involved in the deficit negotiations over the last two years. And, if he were quickly confirmed, as Treasury secretary his first test could come as soon as next month, when analysts expect a fight over raising the debt ceiling, which is the legal limit on the amount that the government can borrow.

Republican leaders have said they would refuse to raise the ceiling unless Mr. Obama agrees to equal spending cuts, particularly in entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security. Mr. Obama has said that he will not negotiate over the ceiling, with the country’s full faith and credit at stake.

With battle lines already drawn, the country is expected to run out of room under the ceiling sometime between mid-February and March. At that point, Congress would need to raise the borrowing limit, or the country would start defaulting on obligated payments, like those promised to seniors, doctors, contractors and bondholders.

Mr. Lew’s role as an Obama negotiator in 2011 did not endear him to Republicans, in particular House Speaker John A. Boehner, and he took a lower-profile role in the most recent negotiations at year-end. The White House was eager to avoid controversy given the likelihood of Mr. Lew’s nomination to Treasury. Instead Mr. Geithner and Rob Nabors, the director of legislative affairs, were lead negotiators.

Mr. Lew, a native of New York, is known for his low-key, professorial style and organizational skills. While he was a favorite of Mr. Obama and other staff members as chief of staff, Mr. Lew made it known that he did not want to continue in that post for a second term.

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Testimony about Colorado massacre resumes in James Holmes hearing

More emotional testimony was expected at a hearing on the Aurora movie theater massacre, as prosecutors continued to lay out their case against the defendant, James Holmes.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. — Vivid testimony about the movie theater massacre that shocked a nation extended into a second day as a preliminary hearing for James E. Holmes resumed Tuesday.

Prosecutors continued to lay out their case against Holmes, 25, accused of killing 12 people and injuring about 70 during a shooting rampage on July 20 in a suburban cinema. At issue in the proceeding, expected to last a week, is whether there is a sufficient case to go to trial.

In the first day of testimony Monday, law enforcement officials described the bloody shooting scene and heartbreaking rescue attempts to bring the gravely wounded to treatment.

PHOTOS: Colorado movie theater shooting

The prosecution has been trying to show that Holmes acted deliberately while the defense in cross-examination has focused on how the former neuroscience graduate student appeared emotionally detached, bolstering their expected insanity presentation.

Throughout, Holmes has sat impassive, while some of the victims' relatives have wept during the more graphic testimony.

On Tuesday, the atmosphere at the Arapahoe County Court House contained less of the frenzy that marked the first day. Yet the proceedings come as the debate over gun control has heated up in the wake of the attack last month in Newtown, Conn., in which 20 children and six adults were killed by a lone gunman who invaded the Sandy Hook Elementary School. The gunman first killed his mother in their home and ended his shooting spree by killing himself.

WHO THEY WERE: Aurora theater shooting

Tuesday’s testimony also comes as the nation commemorates the second anniversary of the Tucson shooting where six died and 13 were injured when gunman Jared Lee Loughner opened fire in a supermarket parking lot where former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was holding a meet-and-greet with her constituents. Tucson, which has had events for several days, will mark the exact time of the shooting with the ringing of bells across the city at the moment of the morning attack.

Giffords, who went through a painful recovery and rehabilitation for gun wounds to the head, has become a spokeswoman for greater gun control. She and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, announced they would raise money to support gun control efforts. The pair visited Newtown last week.

On Monday, Aurora police testified about the horrors they found in the theater, including blood-soaked aisles and walls, crumpled bodies, and scores of spent shell casings.

TIMELINE: U.S. mass shootings

The prosecution also showed surveillance video of Holmes entering the theater complex just past midnight. He had purchased his ticket 12 days earlier. The chilling, soundless video shows Holmes redeeming his ticket at a kiosk, giving it to a ticket taker, then lingering near the concession stand for a few minutes before turning toward Theater 9, where the Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises” was playing.

Prosecutors have yet to announce whether they will seek the death penalty.

ALSO:

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Chicago man fatally poisoned a month after hitting lotto jackpot

Alabama police: High school white supremacist planned bomb attack

Deam reported from Centennial, Colo.; Muskal reported from Los Angeles. 

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Help Wanted: Astronauts Needed for Mars Colony

Mars One, a nonprofit organization based in the Netherlands, intends to establish a human settlement on Mars in 2023.

They need astronauts.

Anyone on planet Earth can apply if they meet the basic requirements. But obviously, the job isn’t for just anyone.

Today, Mars One released its application criteria. Among other virtues, astronaut candidates must have “a deep sense of purpose, willingness to build and maintain healthy relationships, the capacity for self-reflection and ability to trust. They must be resilient, adaptable, curious, creative and resourceful.” And be at least 18 years old (no maximum age has been set).

The selection process will begin during the first half of 2013. Mars One experts and viewers of a “global, televised program”  — think reality TV where the prize could be a trip to a dry, dusty world — will choose from among the applications. Those ultimately selected will be assembled into teams of four. At least six teams are supposed to be ready to launch in September 2022. But only one team will make the first trip to the Red Planet, and that team will be decided democratically.

“The people of Earth will have a vote which group of four will be the first Earth ambassadors on Mars,” the Mars One website says. Subsequent teams will be sent in two-year intervals.

At least eight years of training will be provided before launch, including simulated missions, practice in a restricted mobility environment, and lessons in electronics, equipment repair, basic and critical medical care. In 2016, the company plans to begin rocketing supplies to Mars, including spare parts, two rovers, and living units that can be assembled into a base once humans arrive.

But it’s a one-way trip for all involved: Once on Mars, there’s no coming back.

Video: Mars One

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Fox: Passion, disagreements with new ‘Idol’ team

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Five minutes into their season-opening news conference and the new team at “American Idol” were having their first disagreement — about their disagreements.

Asked Tuesday whether a supposed feud between new judges Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj was a publicity stunt, Fox network executive Mike Darnell said it was authentic. He said there was a lot of passion within the group, which also includes country star Keith Urban and returning judge Randy Jackson. He said there were also a lot of disagreements.

Carey, however, called the story “some trumped-up thing.”

Minaj later called Carey one of her favorite all-time artists who has shaped a generation of singers.

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Gaps Seen in Therapy for Suicidal Teenagers

Most adolescents who plan or attempt suicide have already gotten at least some mental health treatment, raising questions about the effectiveness of current approaches to helping troubled teenagers, according to the largest in-depth analysis to date of suicidal behaviors in American teenagers.

The study, posted online Tuesday by the journal JAMA Psychiatry, found that 55 percent of suicidal teenagers had received some therapy before they thought about suicide, planned it or tried to kill themselves, contradicting the widely held belief that suicide is due in part to a lack of access to treatment.

The findings, based on interviews with a nationwide sample of more than 6,000 teenagers and at least one parent of each, linked suicidal behavior to complex combinations of mood disorders like depression and behavior problems that include attention-deficit and eating disorders, as well as alcohol and drug abuse.

The study found that about one in eight teenagers had persistent suicidal thoughts at some point, and about a third of them had made a suicide attempt, usually within a year of having the idea.

Previous studies have had similar findings, based on smaller, regional samples. But the new study is the first to suggest, in a large nationwide sample, that access to treatment does not make a big difference.

The study suggests that effective treatment for severely suicidal teenagers must address not just mood disorders, but also behavior problems that can lead to impulsive acts, experts said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1,386 people between the ages of 13 and 18 committed suicide in 2010, the latest year for which numbers are available.

“I think one of the take-aways here is that treatment for depression may be necessary but not sufficient to prevent kids from attempting suicide,” said Dr. David Brent, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, who was not involved in the study. “We simply do not have empirically validated treatments for recurrent suicidal behavior.”

The report said nothing about whether the therapies given were state of the art, or carefully done, said Matt Nock, a professor of psychology at Harvard and the lead author; and it is possible that some of the treatments prevented suicide attempts. “But it’s telling us we’ve got a long way to go to do this right,” Dr. Nock said. His co-authors included Ronald C. Kessler of Harvard, and researchers from Boston University and Children’s Hospital Boston.

Margaret McConnell, a consultant in Alexandria, Va., said that her daughter Alice, who killed herself in 2006, at the age of 17, was getting treatment at the time. “I think there might have been some carelessness in the way the treatment was done,” Ms. McConnell said, “and I was trusting a 17-year-old to manage her own medication; we found out after we lost her that she wasn’t taking it regularly.”

In the study, researchers surveyed 6,483 adolescents from the ages of 13 to 18 and found that 9 percent of male teenagers and 15 percent of female teenagers experienced some stretch of having persistent suicidal thoughts. Among girls, 5 percent made suicide plans and 6 percent made at least one attempt (some were unplanned).

Among boys, 3 percent made plans and 2 percent carried out attempts – which tended to be more lethal than girls’ attempts.

(Suicidal thinking or behavior was virtually unheard-of before age 10.)

Over all, about one-third of teenagers with persistent suicidal thoughts went on to make an attempt to take their own lives.

Almost all of the suicidal adolescents in the study qualified for some psychiatric diagnosis, whether depression, phobias, or generalized anxiety disorder. Those with an added behavior problem – attention-deficit disorder, substance abuse, explosive anger – were more likely to act on thoughts of self-harm, the study found.

Doctors have tested a range of therapies to prevent or reduce recurrent suicidal behaviors, with mixed success. Medications can ease depression, but in some cases can increase suicidal thinking. Talk therapy can contain some behavior problems, but not all.

One approach, called dialectical behavior therapy, has proved effective in reducing hospitalizations and attempts in people with so-called borderline personality disorder, who are highly prone to self-harm, among others.

But suicidal teenagers who have a mixture of mood and behavior issues are difficult to reach. In one 2011 study, researchers at George Mason University reduced suicide attempts, hospitalizations, drinking and drug use among suicidal adolescent substance abusers. The study found that a combination of intensive treatments – talk therapy for mood problems, family-based therapy for behavior issues and patient-led reduction in drug use – was more effective that regular therapies.

“But that’s just one study, and it’s small,” Dr. Brent said. “We can treat components of the overall problem, but that’s about all.”

Ms. McConnell said that her daughter’s depression seemed mild and that there was no warning that she would take her life. “I think therapy does help a lot of people, if it’s handled right,” she said.

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