The St. James, N.Y., first-grader is allergic to just about everything else -- chicken, turkey, rice, sweet potatoes and bananas, and more. As an infant, he was even allergic to his mother's breast milk, and she was a vegetarian.

"He was vomiting -- sometimes 15, 20 times," Jennifer Trovato, 37, told "Good Morning America." "He would lie there. He was lethargic. I would hold him in my arms, and I just didn't know what to do. "

Tyler hasThe allergy does not cause a typical immune response, and therefore is often missed by pediatricians and allergists.

"It's so upsetting," said Tyler's mother. "There's no words to describe when you see your child so sick like that."

Experts have no idea how many children have FPIES, but today, for the first time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has approved a new International Classification of Diseases code to help doctors identify the disease.

"This is monumental," said Fallon Schultz, founder of the

"We are making an invisible disease visible. Our children's disease is a real disease. It will open the doors to research."

Schultz worked closely with the foundation's medical advisory board to get approval from the CDC. This new diagnostic code will take effect in October 2015.

Now researchers can learn how common FPIES is, and locate patients based on the diagnostic code to take part in prevalence studies.

Schultz, of Red Bank, N.J., is the mother of Landon, a 4-year-old with FPIES. He can eat only seven foods, along with elemental formula. He just recently had a setback, failing a food test with wheat.

Like Landon, Tyler Trovato has to be hospitalized before he can try a new food.

If he ingests a food he is allergic to, Tyler begins to have stomach pains about two to four hours after ingestion, and then he vomits, sometimes so violently he bleeds. Diarrhea follows, and then a

Just this week, he ate penne in vodka sauce, a food that usually does not pose a problem, but the restaurant used chicken stock instead of cream.

"As we were driving home three or four hours later, he wound up having a reaction," said Trovato. "My husband had to pull over on the Long Island Expressway because he was sick all over."

Peanuts and dairy products are notorious offenders for children with food allergies, but in FPIES, there is an allergic reaction in the gastrointestinal system. The most common triggers are milk and soy, but any food, even rice and oats, can cause a reaction.

Unlike most food allergies, a FPIES reaction is delayed and usually begins two hours after ingestion of food culprits.

In an IgE mediated food allergy -- an allergy that produces an abnormal response to specific foods -- a child develops symptoms almost immediately after eating. And when blood and skin tests are carried out, there is a positive marker.

A non-IgE mediated food allergy such as FPIES is especially difficult to diagnose because standard skin and blood testing for specific IgEs are routinely negative.

Tyler saw two pediatric allergists and two gastroenterologists before anyone could figure out what was making the little boy so sick, because all the standard allergy tests came back negative. Finally, at 18 months, he was diagnosed.

"It was stressful for us as parents," said Trovato, a kindergarten teacher. "We knew there was something wrong. Now we are part of a study, and we are glad to do it, educating others."

The new diagnostic code will help researchers likeof Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City to learn more about these allergies and to find better treatments. Right now, doctors can only do "challenge testing" -- slowly introducing a child to a new food and waiting to see the reaction and to supplement the diet with elemental formula.

"We don't have good data about the prevalence of these disorders, and studies can be very expensive, since there is not an easy test," said Nowak-Wegzren, who is treating Tyler. "Because these allergies are so elusive, pediatricians don't know about them. We are trying to raise awareness."

She said more allergists need to be familiar with the insidious and dramatic symptoms of non-IgE food allergies.

"There are no hives or wheezing, and they may vomit 15 to 20 times," said Nowak-Wegzren. "They look very sick, and their coloring is off and they are gray and ashen and their blood pressure may drop. Some go into shock and end up in the emergency room."

FPIES can also increase the white blood cell count, mimicking infection, so children are subjected to a variety of unnecessary tests.

"It's not uncommon to have children come in three or four times on an ER visit before the mother notices every time she gives her child rice, this is happening."

Still, Tyler, a big Yankees fan and now in first grade, is doing well. He has outgrown some of his original food allergies.

"He's come a really long way," said his mother. "He can eat wheat, cheese and milk products, plus corn and apples."

"The local pizzeria knows us because if I call and order, they know to use a clean cutter," said Trovato. "One time he had a bad reaction, so I have to be really sure it's clean before they slice it and sometimes I have to wait around for a new pie to come. You would be surprised at all the things he is allergic to, so we have to be careful not to cross contaminate."

(Photo: )

Of the nearly 900,000 active doctors and dentists in the U.S., just five percent earned the consistently high patient ratings on , , and other sites in 2012 needed to qualify for the Patients' Choice Award. Even fewer U.S. doctors - only one percent - earned Dr. Sajan Rao's achievement: award-worthy patient praise for five consecutive years (2008 through 2012).

Each year, millions of patients rate their doctors on various critical aspects of their care, including: diagnosis accuracy, time spent with the doctor, bedside manner, and follow-up. Vitals analyzes these ratings annually, along with other quality measures, to identify Patients Choice Award winners.

Dr. Sajan Rao commented on the recognition: "I'm grateful that so many patients have gone out of their way throughout the past five years to rate my care - and rate it so highly! It's wonderful to be recognized in this particular way. Thank you."

About Sajan Rao:a short profile by and about the honoree:

Dr. Rao is a graduate of George Washington University School of Medicine and completed his residency at University of California - San Diego, followed by a cardiology fellowship at Georgetown University. He was subsequently on the academic faculty at Georgetown University and Washington Hospital Center. Dr. Rao is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Disease and is a Diplomate with the National Board of Echocardiography and the Certification Board of Nuclear Cardiology.

For more information on this Patients' Choice Award Five Year Honoree, please visit .

A plaque has been designed to recognize the Patients Choice Award Five Year Honorees, including Naples Cardiovascular Disease Dr. Sajan Rao. The doctor's award plaque is .

For more information on Dr. Sajan Rao, call 239-261-2000, or visit .

About the Vitals Patients' Choice Award: Now in its fifth consecutive year, Vitals' Patients Choice Award is presented to every doctor in the US that maintains a 3.5 or higher aggregate rating for an entire calendar year. Visitors touse the same four-star rating system to make informed, confident choices about their healthcare every day. Patients' Choice is just one award in a suite of annual honors for the medical community bestowed by Vitals' users, including Compassionate Doctor and specialty-specific Top 10 Doctor awards.

This press release was written by American Registry, LLC with approval by and/or contributions from Dr. Sajan Rao and was distributed by PR Newswire, a subsidiary of UBM plc.

American Registry, LLC, recognizes excellence in top businesses and professionals. The Registry includes over 2 million significant business and professional recognitions. For more information, search The Registry at .

Contact Information:Sajan K RaoPhone: 239-261-2000Email Address:

SOURCE American Registry

Keith, who hit Carter during the second period of Tuesday's game with a retaliatory high stick in the face that required 20 stitches, was assessed a four-minute penalty for the play.

The ban will keep Keith, Chicago's top scoring defenseman, out of Thursday's Game Four of the best-of-seven series, which Chicago leads 2-1.

(Reporting by Larry Fine in New York; Editing by Frank Pingue)

(Reuters) - Nike Inc is dropping its partnership with the Livestrong Foundation, the cancer charity founded by disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, the latest repercussion from the doping scandal that last year stripped him of his titles.

Nike said on Tuesday it would end production of its Livestrong gear and apparel after the 2013 holiday line, concluding a long-standing licensing agreement for footwear and apparel between the two that helped Livestrong raise a total of $100 million over the course of the partnership.

"We expected changes like this," Katherine McLane, a Livestrong spokeswoman, said in a conference call with reporters. "Could there be fallout? Of course," she said. "We remain enormously confident...We are in strong fiscal shape."

When Armstrong left Livestrong's board, Nike said it would still back the charity, but no longer sponsor the man behind it.

However, Nike spokeswoman Mary Remuzzi told Reuters late on Tuesday that the decision to drop the partnership was taken as sales of the products had not met company's expectations.

Nike also distributed Livestrong's ubiquitous yellow wrist-bands, of which 87 million were sold.

Armstrong founded Livestrong in 1997 after being diagnosed with testicular cancer. The group flourished during his cycling career in which he won the Tour de France seven times.

The cyclist, who stepped down from Livestrong's board last October, admitted in January to systematic use of banned, performance-enhancing drugs after years of denials.

"This does show there are pros and cons of (a philanthropic foundation) being so closely associated with one person," said Patrick Rooney, associate dean of academic affairs and research at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.

Still, Rooney predicted a large enough number of people would be able to separate Armstrong's misdeeds and the foundation's good works that it could survive.

Livestrong said its 2013 budget is $38.4 million, a 10.9 percent reduction from 2012, but that revenue projections were ahead by 2.5 percent.

Livestrong has similar licensing deals with sports eyewear maker Oakley, owned by Italy's Luxottica and others.

Nike will benefit from distancing itself from the charity and from the scandal-tainted athlete, said Robert Boland, a professor of sport management at New York University's Tisch Center.

"Their relationship with Livestrong was so based on Lance Armstrong and his story that it's almost impossible to separate them from a branding standpoint," Boland said. "The chief thing that is motivating Nike is they're looking to move on and put their years with Lance Armstrong behind them."

(Reporting by Phil Wahba, Ellen Wulfhorst and Scott Malone; additional reporting by Sakthi Prasad; Writing by Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Leslie Adler, Marguerita Choy and Dan Grebler)

LONDON (Reuters) - Fashion media and analysts broadly welcomed Marks & Spencer'snew clothing strategy and a preview of autumn/winter fashion ranges, giving the firm's boss some respite from pressure over falling sales.

Britain's biggest clothing retailer said on Tuesday it would focus on better quality and styles in womenswear, deliver more compelling and clearer sub-brands, and make shopping easier in stores, as it tries to reverse nearly two years of declining sales.

On Wednesday, shares in the 129-year-old firm, up 20 percent over the past year after periodic bouts of bid speculation, rose up to 4 percent, hitting a five-year high of 438 pence.

However, bookmaker Ladbrokes still made Chief Executive Marc Bolland odds-on at 8/11 to have left his position by the end of the year.

"The changes outlined contained a variety of enhancements based on detailed customer feedback that even the bears will find hard to completely ignore," said analysts at N+1 Singer, arguing that investors should not underestimate the potential from the changes if they gained traction.

M&S will present the autumn/winter ranges to the bulk of Britain's fashion media on Wednesday and Thursday but some key fashion editors have already viewed the ranges and like them.

Lisa Armstrong of The Daily Telegraph called it "the most convincing effort I've seen for a long time," The Times' Laura Craik said "M&S is back in the game," and the Guardian's Jess Cartner-Morley said the collection "could be a high street game changer."

Liz Jones, the influential fashion columnist at the Daily Mail newspaper, had a sneak preview last week and said she was "pleasantly surprised", praising much improved quality.

UNDER PRESSURE

Bolland, CEO since May 2010, is under pressure from investors to revive M&S's clothing business, which has reported seven straight quarterly falls in underlying sales.

The autumn/winter ranges are widely seen as make-or-break for a new general merchandise team, assembled by Bolland and led by John Dixon, the former boss of M&S's food business, and Belinda Earl, the former CEO of Debenhamsand Jaeger.

Bolland has repeatedly said the new team will not make a major impact on sales until the ranges start hitting the shops in late July.

But on Tuesday, he cautioned the market not to expect too much too soon. "This is a step in the right direction. The one thing that we want to be very clear on is that it's a step by step approach," he said.

Independent retail analyst Nick Bubb remained skeptical, given M&S's recent history.

"We were disappointed about the dichotomy between Bolland's view that all major store revamp work will be completed this financial year and Dixon's evident frustration with the clutter and poor presentation standards of the stores," he said.

And while analysts at Credit Suisse said the strategy seemed mostly sensible, they questioned how reinvesting in quality would be paid for.

"As with last week's logistics presentation we are left thinking this may well be the right change in management and strategy, two, or more, years late," they said.

Next week Bolland will present M&S's 2012-13 results, with analysts on average forecasting a 7 percent fall in pretax profit to 658 million pounds ($1.0 billion), according to a poll on the company's website. That would be a second straight annual decline, although the dividend is expected to be maintained. ($1 = 0.6554 British pounds)

(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - At first blush the two leading U.S. stock exchanges won a sweeping victory this week in a long-running legal battle over market data - the stock quotes, share prices and other trading information that are highly prized in the electronic marketplace.

But a ruling by the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit may also have opened the door for the Internet companies, brokers and others in the case to achieve a decade-old goal of cutting the fees the exchanges charge for the data.

The court ruled in a decision earlier this week it had no jurisdiction over a case brought by the NetCoalition of some 20 Internet companies, including Google Inc and Yahoo Inc, and the Securities Industry and Finance Markets Association, a 600-member lobby for brokers, bankers and asset managers.

The decision appeared to slam the door on the petitioners and remove a potential obstacle to efforts by the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market to offset sharp drops in revenue from stock transactions by boosting market data sales.

But the court did offer a path for Sifma and the NetCoalition group to mount a new battle, several people close to the case said.

The court indicated the Securities Exchange Act, which governs exchanges and their responsibilities as self-regulatory organizations, requires that the exchanges provide for the "equitable allocation" of reasonable fees, among other dues and charges.

The petitioners have argued the exchanges are effectively monopolies and competition is not sufficient to restrain prices.

"I intend to submit a ... petition," said Roger Blanc, a lawyer with Willkie Farr who represented the NetCoalition, the name by which the case is also called. "As soon as we can put it together, we'll be back before the circuit court."

The case is notable because of the importance of market data in an electronic market that relies on "signal processing," the analysis of data by high-speed computers, to trade.

Sifma and the NetCoalition had sought judicial review of the proprietary data both NYSE and Nasdaq sell after the Securities and Exchange Commission let stand almost all their filings for new schedules and higher prices for market data in recent years.

The petitioners challenged the SEC over more than a dozen filings, saying the fees were exorbitant and regulators had abdicated their duties to ensure data fees were "fee and reasonable," a loosely defined standard the agency must uphold.

Four of the complaints were combined before the appeals court, which has oversight of the SEC, and the two exchanges with the regulators provided a joint opinion in the case.

Market data has been a thorn in the side of the SEC for years, with regulators unable to resolve the issue despite a series of high-profile hearings and studies from 1999 to 2005.

A former senior SEC official said market data is highly contentious with no easy answer.

Although the appeals court said the Dodd-Frank act stripped it of jurisdiction in the case, the court left intact its August 2010 ruling that there must be evidence that competition is constraining the fees the exchanges charge for the data.

The court also said the exchanges cannot enforce fee rules that are inconsistent with the exchange act, and said fees need to be tied to "some type of cost-based" standard to guard against excessive profits.

The latter point could be a boon for the petitioners' cause. They have long contended the cost of producing the data is negligible and the exchanges charge far in excess of its cost.

"We are pleased that the court has affirmed our ability to provide high-quality data at reasonable rates to vendors who profit from reselling the data to their customers," a spokesman for the Nasdaq said. The NYSE declined to comment.

The NYSE and Nasdaq presented academic studies to bolster their position that competition exists for market data, and they have strongly resisted any cost analysis of their data.

The Nasdaq's chief financial officer has been telling analysts that market data is an "extremely high-margin" business. Revenue from the U.S. sale of proprietary data at the Nasdaq has expanded at a compound annual growth rate of about 10.8 percent since 2007, a period in which data usage has exploded.

The emphasis on market data as a profit center is misplaced, according to former SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt. The exchanges are trying to staunch their hemorrhaging and charging for data is purely a short-term solution to a long-term problem, he said.

A good portion of market data is public and should not be proprietary as the exchanges see it, Pitt said in an interview before the court's ruling this week. Allowing data to be available only for those who can afford it will create hard-to-justify market dislocations, he warned.

"The question is when you've allowed people to treat market data as proprietary for so long, how do you justify making a shift and what accommodations do you make?" Pitt said.

The case is NetCoalition and Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association v Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit; No. 10-1421.

(Reporting by Herbert Lash; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

If youre familiar with , the idea to print out the entire Internet may not be a surprise: Currently serving as the , and the founding editor of , a sprawling online archive of avant garde creativity, Goldsmith is an unusual thinker, to say the least. His books include Day (which involved retyping an edition of The New York Times); Solilquy (which documentedevery word that he spoke for an entire week); the recent(transcripts of media reports from 9/11, the day John F. Kennedy was shot, and so on); and(which makes the case for repurposing existing texts into new forms of literature).

Still, even by Goldsmiths standards, this scheme sounds like a doozy. In cooperation with UbuWeb and , a gallery in Mexico City, Goldsmith has issuedto print out as much as of the web as you want be it one sheet or a truckload, and send the printouts to the gallery.

Not surprisingly, some have reacted to this with eye-rolling, or outrage. . ? . And so on.

While we could theorize printing out the internet in its entirety -- something that a conceptual art piece would do -- the sheer bulk and physicality of the act needs to be materialized to be able to understand the sheer magnitude, he told me via email.

Sure the task seems impossible, he conceded, but even a small portion of the printed Web would overwhelm any space.

I think it's fair to say that most of us spend more time organizing and managing our cultural artifacts that we do actually interacting with them. This is a new condition, something that the concept of this show wishes to underscore.

Amusingly, this gesture toward grappling with endless digital documentation will in fact be documented at where anyone who donates printed Web material will be listed as a contributing artist. But Goldsmith has hopes for the physical hoard avoiding death by recycling in August: Id love to see it grow and travel, moving to Biennials, getting larger and larger, he mused.

With accusations of past abuse already swirling around newly hired athletic director Julie Hermann, theTuesday that Hermann was also involved in a sex discrimination lawsuit while serving as an assistant athletic director at Louisville in 2008. In the latter case, a Louisville assistant track coach, Mary Banker, claimed she reported a head coach's "discriminatory treatment" of athletes to Hermann, and was fired soon after. Banker claimed in a lawsuit that Hermann was to blame for her ouster.

From the :

In 2008, Banker sued the university’s athletic department, saying that she had been subjected to discriminatory treatment because of her sex. She said that she was ultimately terminated after she voiced her concerns to Hermann and complained to the university’s human resources department, according to the complaint in Kentucky state court.

Among her concerns: the male coaches would refer to student-athletes with words that were derogatory toward women. She also said that because she was female she was instructed by the head coach, Ron Mann, to set up party tables and make food arrangements for recruiting lunches. []

Hermann claimed she never heard any of those complaints until the Star-Ledger asked her for comment, saying, "None of this is familiar to me."

Rutgers must be experiencing a sense of deja vu, having just gone through an that sank its men's basketball coach, Mike Rice, and AD Tim Pernetti. In that case, Rice was videotaped shoving his players and hurling basketballs at them while shouting homophobic slurs. The university fired Rice when the video went viral, and Pernettiwhen it was revealed he'd known about the abuse for months, but had only suspended Rice for one game as punishment.

Hermann is scheduled to start her new post in June, but some say she shouldn't even get the chance.

Two New Jersey state senators have called on the school to fire Hermann immediately. They've also suggested that Rutgers University President Robert L. Barchi should get the boot, too.

"This is becoming Comedy Central," state Sen. Richard Codey, a former governor, . "It's an embarrassment to the students and alumni of a great university and it's time Mr. Barchi takes his show on the road.”

Even Gov. Chris Christie (R) has , saying that he wants to talk to Rutgers officials about the allegations.

Rutgers defended the hiring Monday morning, saying it had conducted a "rigorous and consultative" interview process that examined Hermann's entire career.

Indeed, Rutgers knew of the lawsuit yet hired Hermann anyway — which has only intensified the calls for higher-ups to lose their jobs.

blamed the school administration for not adequately vetting Hermann in the wake of its lingering basketball scandal, saying the university was proving itself to be a "train wreck," or, to use a Jersey metaphor, "Snooki without the phenomenon."

"Rather than putting an ugly chapter to bed, Rutgers keeps authoring new ones," .

likewise, said the latest incident at the school meant it might be time for more than just members of the athletics department to face the ax.

"There are two sides to every story, and Hermann surely has strong credentials, but the university needed to be clear of any shadow of discrimination or abuse after the Rice scandal," . "Instead it has run headlong into a more embarrassing situation."

View this article onGetIssues of The Week

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By Mike Collett

PORT LOUIS, Mauritius, May 31 (Reuters) - Workers' rights demonstrators protesting against the 2022 World Cup finals being held in Qatar were arrested and detained for seven hours by police while the FIFA Congress was being held on Friday.

The demonstration was taking place in the Mauritian capital of Port Louis about 24 km (15 miles) from the Swami Vivekananda Convention Centre where the Congress of FIFA's 209 member nations, including Qatar, was taking place.

The demonstration involved around eight people holding protest banners demanding a revote of the 2010 decision to award Qatar hosting rights for the World Cup.

The demonstration was organised by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and their banners read: "Re-run the vote. No World Cup without workers' rights."

The ITUC has become increasingly active and also held a protest outside last week's UEFA Congress in London.

South African Gemma Swart, the ITUC's campaign and communications specialist, told the media by telephone: "We were arrested and held in a Port Louis police station for seven hours without charge.

"Our lawyers told us that under local laws we could hold a peaceful demonstration with up to 11 people and we were below that.

"We staged a similar protest in London last week outside the UEFA Congress without any problems."

FIFA has yet to comment. (Editing by John O'Brien)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For years, Apple Inc kept a low profile in Washington as it grew into one of the most valuable companies in the world. Now the iPad maker has taken the lead, perhaps inadvertently, on a top priority for U.S. business: simplifying America's tax code.

Chief Executive Tim Cook, who was called before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on Tuesday to answer questions about Apple's alleged tax avoidance, used his appearance to plead for an overhaul of corporate taxes. That marked a sharp turnabout for a company that until now has been content to let rivals like Google and Microsoft fight Washington policy battles.

And even though the scrutiny Apple has come under in Washington could further challenge the company as it copes with a sagging stock price, rising competition and questions about its labor practices, it may have little choice but to commit fully to the fight over the corporate tax code.

"They are very, very tactical," said a former Apple lobbyist who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the company. "They only join issues they really care about."

Recently, Apple has backed unsuccessful legislation that would have allowed international companies to bring overseas profits back home without paying the 35 percent corporate income tax.

Repatriation of profits has been a top concern for U.S. companies, which collectively have more than $1.5 trillion sitting offshore. Most say they keep the money there to avoid the taxes they would face by bringing it home.

Bowing to increasing shareholder pressure to distribute some of the $100 billion it keeps overseas, Apple has opted to borrow money at low interest rates rather than bring the cash home and take the tax hit.

Apple's Washington office referred questions to its California headquarters. Officials there declined to comment.

Apple has spent far less than other corporate titans on Washington lobbying over the past decade, records show, and the company has often declined to work with other technology companies on issues affecting the industry as a whole. It dropped out of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 2009 after it disagreed with the business lobby's stance on climate change.

The company spent about $2 million on lobbying last year, up from $180,000 in 1999, records show. This year it is on pace to nearly double last year's figure.

Apple's lobbying expenditures still pale in comparison with those of Microsoft Corp., which spent $8.1 million in 2012, and Google, which spent $16.5 million, records show.

And unlike other businesses such as AT&T and Exxon Mobil, Apple has not set up a political action fund to distribute employee contributions to congressional allies - a common tool for wielding influence in Washington.

"Clearly, Apple does not have a huge footprint for the tech sector. I don't mean to denigrate almost $2 million (spent on)lobbying - that's a lot of money - but it's not as much as other tech companies have been spending," said Bill Allison, editorial director for the Sunlight Foundation, a non-profit that deals with money in politics.

Lobbyists not associated with the firm privately said Apple's minimal Washington presence could have put it in the crosshairs of the Senate subcommittee, which on Monday accused the company of ducking $9 billion in U.S. taxes through offshore subsidiaries. The lobbyists pointed to the example of Microsoft, which had little presence in Washington before antitrust investigators at the Department of Justice nearly succeeded in splitting the company up in the 1990s.

Though Apple, like many other Silicon Valley companies, served as an important source of campaign money for Democratic candidates in the 2012 election, it has enlisted experienced Republicans to make its case in Washington.

Apple's chief lobbyist, Catherine Novelli, served as a top trade official in Republican President George W. Bush's administration. Other in-house lobbyists have worked as aides to senior Republican lawmakers, including Texas Representative Joe Barton, who used to oversee tech issues as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, records show.

The company also has hired outside firms to extend its reach in Congress and throughout government. Lobbyists at Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock and Capitol Tax Partners have worked for the Bush administration and top Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The Glover Park Group and the Franklin Square Group have provided lobbyists from the Democratic side of the aisle who lobby on tax, broadband, electronic waste and spectrum issues.

The company has also enlisted Jon Bernstein, a former Democratic staffer at the Federal Communications Commission, to lobby that agency and the White House on subsidies for broadband access and technology-related legislation.

None of the lobbyists immediately responded to requests for comment.

The company does have one ace in its pocket: its sleek gadgets. Even lawmakers who grilled Cook on Apple's tax practices said they were avid iPhone and iPad users.

"I love Apple!" Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill declared.

(Reporting by Andy Sullivan and Gabriel Debenedetti in Washington and Poornima Gupta in San Francisco; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Marilyn W. Thompson and Tim Dobbyn)