City officials say Lovato has canceled her appearance at Thursday's annual free concert because of strep throat. She's being replaced on the bill by 22-year-old country singer Hunter Hayes.

Desiree Peterkin-Bell, a city spokeswoman, says officials are sad that Lovato can't play but are glad to have Hayes, adding he's that he's "one of the biggest stars in country music right now."

Lovato tweeted Wednesday that "I can't sleep cause my throat hurts!!!"

The city's annual Independence Day concert will also feature John Mayer, Ne-Yo and J. Cole along with hometown hosts The Roots. Other performers will include Philadelphia-born singer Jill Scott, as well as Grace Potter and Ben Taylor.

___

Online:

http://www.welcomeamerica.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. regulators on Wednesday collected the final vote to approve the merger of Sprint Nextel Corpand SoftBank Corp , sources familiar with the situation said, clearing the last hurdle in the Japanese company's drawn-out battle to take control of the No. 3 U.S. wireless provider.

All three Federal Communications Commission members voted in favor of that merger as well as Sprint's related bid to buy out the shares of wireless company Clearwire Corpthat it does not already own, said the sources who spoke anonymously because the approval has not yet been announced publicly.

In filings with the FCC, Sprint, Clearwire and SoftBank had said they hoped to close both deals on July 8 or 9.

SoftBank's $21.6 billion deal to buy 78 percent of Sprint would mark the largest-ever overseas acquisition by a Japanese company as hard-driving billionaire SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son seeks to expand beyond the mature Japanese cellphone market.

Sprint needs investment from SoftBank to help it pay for a network upgrade and step up competition with No. 1 and No. 2 rival providers AT&T Incand Verizon Communications Inc. . The money would also help pay for the Clearwire buyout.

Clearwire, in which Sprint already owns a majority stake, is an important part of SoftBank's interest in Sprint because Clearwire holds a large amount of wireless airwaves, or spectrum, to help Sprint compete against its bigger rivals.

The FCC's review, running more than 70 pages long, focused on whether the two related deals were in the U.S. public interest and was the last regulatory hurdle for SoftBank after it received approvals from U.S. antitrust and national security regulators as well as Sprint shareholders.

FCC, Sprint and Clearwire spokesmen declined to comment. SoftBank could not be immediately reached for comment.

Clearwire minority shareholders are scheduled to vote on Sprint's buyout offer on July 8.

DELAY OVER SPECTRUM LANGUAGE

FCC Acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel cast their approval votes last week. The required third and final vote from Commissioner Ajit Pai was delayed until Wednesday by adjustments to the wording used to address Sprint's ownership of airwaves, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.

Verizon and others had asked the FCC to use its deal review to weigh how it calculates Sprint's airwaves toward the so-called spectrum screen, which ensures fair allocation of spectrum licenses among competing providers.

Because of Sprint's majority ownership in Clearwire, the FCC had already attributed its spectrum to Sprint for screen purposes but viewed it as less valuable than the type owned by Verizon and AT&T and counted only a portion of Clearwire's entire spectrum ownership toward the screen.

Because the FCC is reviewing its approach to calculating spectrum and using the spectrum screen in a separate proceeding, Pai's office took time to negotiate a careful way to word their response to related concerns, according to the source.

Before the FCC's review and approval were public, AT&T shot back, decrying the agency not making adjustment to the spectrum screen.

"This refusal to acknowledge and account for all available BRS/EBS spectrum is neither rational nor defensible," Joan Marsh, AT&T's vice president of federal regulatory affairs, wrote in a blog emailed to reporters on Wednesday.

THE ERGEN HURDLE

Both deals involving Sprint for weeks faced an aggressive bidding war launched in April by Dish Network Corp'sbillionaire maverick founder Charlie Ergen, who bid both for Sprint against SoftBank and for Clearwire against Sprint.

Several minority Clearwire shareholders had launched a boisterous campaign seeking a higher bid from Sprint and siding with the satellite TV service provider.

Crest Financial, a large minority shareholder of Clearwire, which had pushed against Sprint and thrown wrenches into the FCC's review of the SoftBank deal, dropped its opposition on Wednesday.

Dish bowed out of the bidding for Clearwire last month after Sprint increased its offer to $5 a share, up from $2.97. Dish also dropped its battle to buy Sprint after SoftBank sweetened its offer.

(Reporting by Alina Selyukh; Additional reporting by Liana B. Baker in New York; Editing by Ros Krasny, Sandra Maler and Tim Dobbyn)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Four in 10 U.S. adults are now caring for a sick or elderly family member as more people develop chronic illnesses and the population ages, a new study has found.

"More health care is happening at home," said Susannah Fox, associate director of the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life project and the study's lead author. "As more people are able to be saved by medical advances, their lives are being extended, but they're also being sent home medically fragile. It's caregivers who are the first line of defense."

Researchers, which found that the number of caregivers increased 10 percent between 2010 and 2013, surveyed 3,014 adults nationwide and found that most caregivers were between 30 and 64 years old.

Fox also said the slow U.S. economy could explain why family members are becoming more responsible for care. With fewer or depleted savings, many people are less able to hire professional help, she said.

About half of the United States population has at least one chronic condition, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Adults ages 65 and older, 75 percent of whom have chronic conditions, are expected to make up 19 percent of the population by 2030, compared with 12 percent in 2000.

"As a chronic illness progresses, family members step in to help out," said Denise Brown, founder of the support site caregiving.com. "There's a better understanding of the progression of the disease than the practitioner because they live with it."

Fox said many caregivers become "voracious information consumers" who regularly tap into online resources to help them care for family or to cope with stress. "They want to turn up the volume on every resource of healthcare," she said.

Nearly half of adults surveyed in an earlier Pew Research Study said they expect to care for an elderly parent or relative at some point. Fox said the number of caregivers will likely continue increasing.

(Reporting By Yasmeen Abutaleb; Editing by Ros Krasny, Steve Orlofsky and Toni Reinhold)

[More from BGR: ]

This article was

First came the free yoga classes and gym memberships. Then the . Now some companies are encouraging their employees to exercise while they work.

, best known for candy-infused ice cream Blizzards, has installed a bank of treadmill workstations at its Edina, Minn., corporate headquarters as part of a wellness program aimed to combat "sitting disease," the not-so-technical term for ailments associated with sitting at a computer all day.

"You can really accomplish a lot of work at the same time as walking," Heather Peters, a member of Dairy Queen's corporate wellness committee, . "And it really helps you get through those more tedious tasks."

According to Megan Weizel, manager of the wellness program, the company also is adding showers and locker rooms "so people can freshen up if they exercise on their lunch hour or bike into work"in part to entice potential new employees.

"We're looking at not just these, but our whole wellness program as a recruitment tool," she said.

The American Heart Association so why not multitask, Weizel said.

Craig Bader, a Dairy Queen employee and one of the program's early adopters, said, "I feel like there's no interruption in the work that I'm doing so there's really no reason not to do it."

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Canadian Anthony Bennett, a power forward who played one year at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, leaped over a pair of touted centers to emerge as number one pick by the Cleveland Cavaliers at Thursday's NBA Draft.

While many draft analysts predicted Nerlens Noel of Kentucky or Ukrainian Alex Len of Maryland would go No. 1, the versatile, 6-foot-8 Bennett was the surprise top choice of a Cavs team that finished last season with a 24-58 record.

"I'm just as surprised as everybody else," Bennett, who averaged 16.1 points and 8.1 rebounds as a freshman at Las Vegas last season, told reporters at Barclays Center, home of the Brooklyn Nets.

"I heard everything was up for grabs. But I'm just real happy, glad that I have this opportunity, and I just got to thank God for everything."

Injuries to Noel (knee) and Len (foot) may have cooled the Cavs to those young big men, but Toronto native Bennett himself required shoulder surgery at the end of his college season and that did not deter the Cavaliers.

"It's just crazy. Made history," said an excited Bennett. "It's just like a long-time dream that I had since I first started playing basketball.

"It's just crazy."

Bennett may be a touch smaller than classic the NBA power forward size, but he is strong, has a wide wingspan and good finishing moves around the rim, along with an accurate jumper that allows him to work from the outside as well.

"I can contribute at the four, at the three," said the 20-year-old. "There's things I still need to work on, but I feel like I'm a great team mate, unselfish. I think I can fit in right away."

Bennett said he had no clue he was going number one overall.

"When they said my name, that's when I knew," he said. "I had no idea before."

Bennett will be joining compatriot Tristan Thompson on the Cavs, who took the Canadian forward with the fourth overall pick in the 2011 draft. Thompson averaged 11.7 points and 9.4 rebounds a game last season for Cleveland.

"He's just a great guy,' said Bennett. "He seems real cool. Both from the same area. I'm going to be seeing him a lot."

Bennett was the first UNLV player to be voted Mountain West Freshman of the Year in 13 seasons and earned first-team All-Mountain West honors after leading the Rebels in scoring, rebounding and three-point percentage.

The Canadian scored in double figures in his first 17 games as a collegian, racking up 12 double-doubles, and scored 20 or more points 13 times.

Bennett's coach, Dave Rice, gave a sterling recommendation of his young forward before the draft.

"There's not much that he can't do on a court," said Rice.

"He can score from the perimeter. He can score in the post. He's a fabulous rebounder. The only thing that he lacked coming in was just experience."

Bennett predicted Canadians could go back-to-back atop the NBA Draft with Andrew Wiggins looming as a dominant player at Kansas.

"Next year with Wiggins, hopefully he does well at Kansas," said Bennett. "I'm rooting for him. I'm pretty sure he'll get that No. 1 spot."

(Editing by Peter Rutherford)

Against a soundtrack of romantic orchestral music and the backdrop of a twisted old olive tree, the collection presented on the first day of Milan Fashion Week on Saturday referenced the southern island's architectural wonders, natural beauty and native fauna.

The designing duo Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana stamped their creations with images of ancient Greek temples and pastoral countryside scenes, imprinted across three-piece suits and loose top-and-shorts combinations. The renderings are in black-and-white and color, creating a tapestry effect.

Dolce&Gabbana's Sicily is both formal and restrained, requiring suits that can be bold in shimmering red or blue, or simply somber black, and casual and lusty, with roughly woven drawstring pants or Bermuda shorts worn with nothing at all.

Outfits were paired with woven shoes, dark or white, or Greek-style leather sandals.

Just after the designers took their bows at the end of the show, a naked man jumped on the runway. He was immediately led away, and his motives were unclear.

On a more decorous note, Barcelona soccer player Lionel Messi set up shop in a Dolce&Gabbana boutique in the city center Saturday to sign books of photographs taken by Dolce himself.

SAO PAULO (AP) -- Scattered street demonstrations popped up around Brazil Wednesday as protesters continued their collective cry against the low-quality public services they receive in exchange for high taxes and rising prices.

In one of several protests, about 200 people blocked the Anchieta Highway that links Sao Paulo, the country's biggest city, and the port of Santos before heading to the industrial suburb of Sao Bernardo do Campo on Sao Paulo's outskirts. Another group of protesters later obstructed the highway again.

In the northeastern city of Fortaleza, some 15,000 protesters clashed with police trying to prevent them from reaching the Castelao stadium where Brazil were to play Mexico in the Confederations Cup soccer tournament on Wednesday.

Riot police used gas bombs and pepper spray to keep protesters from advancing past a barrier some 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) away from venue. A police car was burned by the demonstrators, who also threw rocks and other objects at the officers. The protest disrupted fans' efforts to access the stadium for Brazil's second match at the World Cup warm-up tournament.

"We are against a government which spends billions in stadiums while people are suffering across the country," said Natalia Querino, a 22-year-old student participating in the protest. "We want better education, more security and a better health system."

Earlier, hundreds of protesters cut off the main access road to the stadium, and police responded by diverting traffic away from the road. Official vehicles of tournament organizers FIFA were among those struggling to reach the stadium.

In the city of Belo Horizonte some 2,000 protesters took to the streets in a peaceful demonstration, while others were reported to be gathering in Niteroi, across Guanabara Bay from Rio de Janeiro.

The actions followed another night of mass marches around Brazil and nearly a week of unrest that has shocked the country's leaders ahead of a papal visit next month and next year's World Cup soccer tournament.

Beginning as protests against bus fare hikes, the demonstrations have quickly ballooned to include broad middle-class outrage over the failure of governments to provide basic services and ensure public safety, even as the country's economy modernizes and tax rates remain some of the highest in the world.

Protest organizers, who have widely employed social media, said new mass demonstrations will be held in Sao Paulo and Rio on Thursday. The Rio action promises the most volatility, with protesters planning to march to Maracana stadium where Spain and Tahiti will meet in a Confederations Cup match. Police have said they will not allow protesters to interrupt the game.

Fortaleza, Rio, Belo Horizonte, Salvador and Brasilia have received soldiers from Brazil's elite National Force to bolster security during tournament games.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter urged protesters Wednesday to stop linking their anger against the government to the Confederations Cup. The cost of building stadiums for the FIFA tournaments has been a regular complaint at marches.

In an interview with Brazil's Globo TV network broadcast, Blatter said he could "understand that people are not happy, but they should not use football to make their demands heard."

Blatter added: "We did not impose the World Cup on Brazil."

On Tuesday night, tens of thousands of Brazilians flooded central Sao Paulo, with the protest following the rhythm of mobilizations that drew some 240,000 people across Brazil the previous night. Though mostly peaceful, small bands of radicals split off in Sao Paulo to fight with police.

Fernando Grella Vieira, head of the Sao Paulo state public safety department, said 63 people were detained during Tuesday's protests. He told the Globo TV network on Wednesday that police would guarantee the right to demonstrate but would "repress all forms of vandalism."

Local governments in at least four cities have responded to the unrest by agreeing to reverse bus and subway fare hikes, and Sao Paulo's fare hike could also be rolled back. It's not clear that will calm the country, though, with the protests already expanding to take on a wide range of other issues.

Beyond complaints about transit fares, protesters haven't produced any concrete demands even as they've waved signs, gone on social media and chanted their anger at the entire governing system. A common cry at the rallies: "No parties!"

"What I hope comes from these protests is that the governing class comes to understand that we're the ones in charge, not them, and the politicians must learn to respect us," said Yasmine Gomes, a 22-year-old squeezed into the plaza in central Sao Paulo where Tuesday night's protest began.

President Dilma Rousseff, a former leftist guerrilla who was imprisoned and tortured during Brazil's 1964-85 dictatorship, has hailed the protests for raising questions and strengthening Brazil's democracy. "Brazil today woke up stronger," she said in a statement Tuesday.

Yet Rousseff offered no actions that her government might take to address complaints.

The protests have raised troubling questions about the country's ability to provide security ahead of it playing host to some of the world's biggest events, including the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

And Brazil's media has scrambled to cover the sprawling protests, while at times sparking the ire of protesters, with the powerful Globo TV network in particular drawing derision.

Whenever what appears to be a Globo helicopter swoops over a demonstration, protesters hiss, raise their fists and chant slogans against what they say was the network's failure to widely show images of a violent police crackdown on protesters last week in Sao Paulo.

Such mass protests are rare in this 190 million-person country, with demonstrations generally attracting small numbers of politicized participants.

Many now protesting in Brazil's streets hail from the country's growing middle class, which government figures show has ballooned by some 40 million people over the past decade amid a commodities-driven economic boom.

The protesters say they've lost patience with endemic problems such as government corruption and inefficiency. They're also slamming Brazil's government for spending billions of dollars to host the World Cup and Olympics while leaving other needs unmet.

A November government report raised to $13.3 billion the projected cost of stadiums, airport renovations and other projects for the World Cup. City, state and other local governments are spending more than $12 billion on projects for the Olympics in Rio.

Attorney Agatha Rossi de Paula, who attended Tuesday's protest in Sao Paulo along with her mother, called Brazil's fiscal priorities "an embarrassment."

"We just want what we paid in taxes back, through health care, education and transportation," said the 34-year-old. "We want the police to protect us, to help the people on the streets who have ended up with no job and no money."

So far, the mass gatherings have shown no evidence of any central leadership, although they've been tied to smaller activist organizations such as one asking for lower transit fares. Groups of Brazilians have also staged small protests in other countries, including Mexico, Portugal, Spain and Denmark.

A cyber-attack knocked the government's official World Cup site offline Tuesday, and the Twitter feed for Brazil's Anonymous hackers group posted links to a host of other government websites whose content had been replaced by a screen calling on citizens to come out to the streets.

___

AP writers Jenny Barchfield and Rob Harris in Rio de Janeiro, Marco Sibaja in Brasilia, Tales Azzoni in Fortaleza and Jill Langlois in Sao Paulo contributed to this report.

* Dortmund jump into second spot (Updates with details, quotes)

BERLIN, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Champions Borussia Dortmund eased past Nuremberg 3-0 on Friday with two goals from Jakub Blaszczykowski to move into second place in the Bundesliga with their third straight league win.

The Poland midfielder converted a spot kick in the 18th minute and drilled in his eighth goal of the season three minutes later.

Fellow countryman Robert Lewandowski fired in another in the 88th to lift Dortmund to 36 points, ahead on goal difference from Bayer Leverkusen, who take on Freiburg on Saturday.

Leaders Bayern Munich, on 45, travel to VfB Stuttgart on Sunday. Nuremberg are 15th.

Dortmund keeper Roman Weidenfeller's stunning double save from a Tomas Pekhart point-blank header and Markus Feulner's rebound shot in the 16th minute denied the visitors an early lead.

"It was good to have come out of this having won 3-0," said Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp, whose team are through to the Champions League round of 16.

"If Roman Weidenfeller had not made those two saves then Nuremberg would have taken the lead. We had to stay patient and we did that," he told reporters.

Klopp's move to start Blaszczykowski instead of Kevin Grosskreutz paid off with Blaszczykowski calmly converting the spot kick, awarded for a foul on Lukasz Piszczek.

He soon struck again, connecting with a well-timed cutback from Mario Goetze as Dortmund enjoyed almost continuous possession.

Nuremberg offered little resistance in the second half but Dortmund wasted several good chances before Lewandowski was left with too much space in the box and grabbed his 12th goal of the campaign.

Dortmund fans reserved their biggest cheer of the eveningfor playmaker Nuri Sahin, who has returned after spells at Real Madrid and Liverpool and came on as a substitute for his first home appearance in the 77th minute.(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Mark Meadows)

The Vergelate Wednesday after noticing that a Free Call button had suddenly appeared in the application (to get to it, hit the "i" icon in the corner). The social network had previously tested free voice calls in Canada, and promised that a stateside version was on its way. Android owners are out of luck for now, but expect the feature to become available soon.

Of course, free phone call apps are nothing new. Google Voice, Gmail, and Skype have been offering free in-app calling for some time. But Facebook is different: The slice of smartphone owners who are also on the billion-person-plus social network is considerable and growing larger by the day. Although Skype and Google offer perfectly fine apps in their own right, no one's been anointed"The Next Big Thing in Free Phone Calls" yet. It's still anyone's game.

Moving into voice calls is a smart move for Facebook, even ifthatpeople are decreasingly using their phones for conversation. (Time spent talking on your phone falls decidedly behind browsing the internet, checking social networks, playing games, and listening to music in that order.) Facebook, which just this week unveiled an impressive, has been trying to get phone owners to use dedicated apps like Facebook Messenger andfor some time now, toof . And points out that the feature could finally squelch rumors that Facebook is working on its own phone, even though CEO Mark Zuckerbergtime and time again. "Nobody really needs an actual Facebook phone," , "because apps make every phone a Facebook phone."

For consumers that's great news. It means there's little reason to pay for minutes ever again. Facebook's Messenger app is currently available for free in the Apple .

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