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HavenWorks.com/health/archive/2005 |
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/ Archive
/ 2005
Government
- 
Military
- 
Psychology
- Health
- "A
Political Debate On Stress Disorder: As Claims Rise,
VA Takes Stock." ... "The spiraling cost of post-traumatic stress disorder
among war veterans has triggered a politically charged debate and ignited
fears that the government is trying to limit expensive benefits for emotionally
scarred troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan." ... "A total of 215,871
veterans received PTSD benefit payments last year at a cost of $4.3 billion,
up from $1.7 billion in 1999 -- a jump of more than 150 percent." ... "Experts
say the sharp increase does not begin to factor in the potential impact
of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, because the increase is largely the
result of Vietnam War vets seeking treatment decades after their combat
experiences." (1, 2)
-By Shankar Vedantam -WashingtonPost
Consumer
- 
Food
- Health
- "Labels
on food to list allergens more plainly: New federal
law intended to help consumers find ingredients that could sicken them."
... "A federal law effective Jan. 1 requires food labels to list ingredients
made from proteins derived from any of the eight major allergenic foods:
milk, eggs, fish, crustaceans, wheat, tree nuts, soybeans and peanuts.
The Food and Drug Administration says they account for 90 percent of all
food allergies." -AP
via -HoustonChronicle.com
Samuel
Alito
- 
Women's
- Abortion
- Health
- 
History
- 
Law
- "Alito
abortion memo drew cautionary response: Reagan administration
official said '85 correspondence should be kept quiet." ... "A June 1985
memo by Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito arguing that the Roe v. Wade
decision legalizing abortion should be overturned set off alarms in the
Reagan administration, prompting a senior official to caution that the
correspondence should be kept quiet, a new document released Friday shows."
... "In a recommendation to the solicitor general on filing a friend-of-court
brief, Alito said the government "should make clear that we disagree with
Roe v. Wade and would welcome the opportunity to brief the issue of whether,
and if so to what extent, that decision should be overruled."" ... "The
June 3, 1985 document was one of 45 released by the National Archives on
Friday. A total of 744 pages were made public."
-AP via -MSNBC
Samuel
Alito
- Women's
- Abortion
- Health
- History
- Law
- "Alito
Argued to Overturn Roe in 1985 Memo: Supreme Court
Nominee Samuel Alito Advocated Reversing Roe V. Wade in 1985 Memo." ...
"In paperwork released earlier from Alito's time in the Justice Department's
solicitor general's office, he recommended a legal strategy of dismantling
abortion rights piece by piece. And as part of an application for a job
as deputy assistant attorney general, Alito said the Constitution does
not guarantee abortion rights." -By Donna Cassata
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
South
Korea - Stem
Cells - Cloning
- Genetics
- Health
- 
US
- "S.
Korean's Stem Cell Data Fake, Panel Says." ... "A
panel investigating the work of South Korean cloning pioneer Hwang Woo
Suk has concluded that he deliberately fabricated key data in a landmark
paper this year, offering the first evidence of what is potentially one
of the greatest frauds in modern science." ... "The expert panel at Seoul
National University, where Hwang conducted his research, found that nine
of 11 stem cell lines he claimed to have created did not exist." ... "Hwang's
paper, published in May by the U.S. journal Science, purported to describe
the creation of 11 human embryo clones using DNA from patients suffering
from spinal cord injuries and genetic diseases. No other research group
has succeeded in cloning human embryos, though many have been trying."
... "Hwang's team claimed it used the embryos to create individualized
lines of stem cells that were perfect genetic matches to the 11 patients.
The achievement, known as therapeutic cloning, was believed to be the first
step toward creating personalized stem cell therapies for patients." (1,
2)
-By Barbara Demick and Karen Kaplan with contribution
by Jinna Park and -AP
-LAtimes
Government
- Law
- Military
- 
Terrorism
- 
Alaska
- 
Oil
- 
Environment
- Health
- 
Education
- 
Jobs
- 
Money
- "Senate
Extends Patriot Act, Kills Alaska Drilling (Update1)."
... "The U.S. Senate broke a legislative logjam and cleared the way for
its holiday departure last night with a series of short-term compromises
that extended the Patriot Act and blocked drilling for oil in Alaska's
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge." ... "Democrats prevailed in getting Senate
Republican leaders to abandon the oil-drilling plan, which was attached
to the defense budget." ... "[House] Lawmakers passed a $142.5 billion
budget for health, education and jobs programs that cuts funding from last
year's spending plan, sending the measure to Bush for his signature. The
House approved the measure 215-213 on Dec. 14." ... "The health budget
reduces funding for the No Child Left Behind education initiative, special
education and job training. It freezes funding for the National Institutes
of Health and low- income heating assistance." -By
Catherine Dodge -Bloomberg
Russia
- 
China
- Environment
- Health
- "Toxic
leak reaches Russian city: A slick of chemicals from
a toxic river spill in China has reached the Russian city of Khabarovsk
after weeks of anxious waiting for residents." ... "Officials say the levels
of the deadly benzene toxins were at acceptable levels and water supplies,
which are being filtered, will not be cut." ... "The benzene spill into
the Amur river was caused by an explosion at a Chinese chemical factory
last month." ... "The explosion occurred higher up the Songhua river, in
Jilin. The Songhua flows into the Amur river on the Russian border."-BBC
/News
Vietnam
- Drugs
- "Bird
flu victims die after drug resistance." ... "In a
development health experts are calling alarming, two bird flu patients
in Vietnam died after developing resistance to Tamiflu, the key drug that
governments are stockpiling in case of a large-scale outbreak." ... "The
experts said the deaths were disturbing because the two girls had received
early and aggressive treatment with Tamiflu and had gotten the recommended
doses." ... "The new report suggests that the doses doctors now consider
ideal may be too little." -By Alicia Chang
-AP via-Miami/Herald
Dick
Cheney - 
Seniors
- Health
- Education
- "Senate
passes budget cuts: Cheney passes tiebreaking vote."
... "The Senate Friday morning passed a $40 billion deficit reduction bill,
but only after Vice President Cheney cast the tie-breaking vote." ... "Opponents
and supporters of the measure in the Senate were deadlocked 50-50 on the
bill, until Cheney cast the deciding vote." ... "For the first time in
eight years, the spending measure cuts funding for several entitlement
programs." ... "Programs affected include Medicaid and Medicare, and funding
for student loans." -By Greg Robb
-MarketWatch
Psychology
- Drugs
- 
Science
- 
Alabama
- "Parkinson's
hope over 'implants': US scientists have moved a
step closer to developing a brain implant therapy for Parkinson's disease
symptoms." ... "The most common drug treatment for the brain condition
is levodopa, but the pills can leave people susceptible to involuntary
movements such as twitches." ... "The Alabama University team found in
tests on six patients, eye cells which produce levodopa can be implanted
safely and without the side effects." ... "The study was published in the
Archives of Neurology journal."-BBC
/News
Children
- Science
- 
UK
- "Colds
'may trigger child cancers': Scientists have found
further compelling evidence infections such as colds may trigger childhood
cancers." ... "The University of Newcastle-led team looked at 3,000 childhood
cancers in 0 to 14-year-olds from 1954 to 1998, the European Journal of
Cancer reported." ... "Researchers found unusual clusters of brain tumours
and leukaemia which were typical of infection-related disease." ... "But
children would need genetic factors to make them susceptible, they added.
Experts said more evidence was needed." ... "It was even possible infections
caught by mothers while pregnant could trigger the cancers, the report
said." ... "But the researchers stressed the findings did not mean people
could "catch cancer"."-BBC
/News
Woman
- Food
- Nutrition
- 
Sweden
- "Study:
Tea may help fight ovarian cancer." ... "Swedish
researchers have found tantalizing but far-from-conclusive evidence that
drinking a couple of cups of tea every day might help reduce the risk of
developing ovarian cancer." ... "Those [women in the study] who reported
drinking two or more cups of tea a day were 46 percent less likely to develop
the disease than women who drank no tea. Drinking less than two cups also
appeared to help, but not as much." -By Lindsey Tanner
-AP via -MercuryNews
Israel
- 
World
- Law
- History
- "Crystal
joins Cross and Crescent: A diamond-shaped red crystal
on a white background is to join the Red Cross and the Red Crescent as
an emblem for ambulances and relief workers." ... "Geneva Convention member
states voted by a two-thirds majority for the symbol which ends a decades-old
row and opens the way for Israel to join." ... "Israel had been denied
entry because its Red Shield was not approved." ... "Relief workers and
ambulances bearing the Red Cross or Red Crescent symbols are protected
under international law." ... "The Red Shield of David - or Magen David
Adom - was not recognised by the 1949 Geneva Conventions, and Arab states
had blocked attempts to find an alternative symbol."-BBC
/News
Bill
Frist
- Rick
Santorum - Tom
DeLay
- Medical
- Law
- "Terri
Schiavo's widower takes aim at politicians." ...
"Terri Schiavo's widower launched a political action committee on Wednesday
aimed at defeating elected officials he accused of exploiting a tragedy
for political gain by trying to block court orders that allowed his brain-damaged
wife to die." ... "Michael Schiavo said in a news release that the group,
TerriPAC, would raise money to campaign against members of Congress, mostly
Republicans, who drafted and voted for legislation to intervene in the
case." ... "Among Republicans it is targeting are Senate Majority Leader
Bill Frist of Tennessee, Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Rep. Tom
DeLay of Texas." -By Jane Sutton
-Reuters
GOV
- 
Air
- 
Water
- Health
- 
Politics
- Business
- 
Kentucky
- "A
fight over easing rules for reporting toxic emissions:
The EPA plan would help small businesses reduce paperwork." ... "Gracie
Lewis is on a crusade to save the Toxics Release Inventory, a trove of
federal pollution data vital to helping her - and activists nationwide
- win community battles for cleaner air and water." ... "Until a couple
of years ago, Mrs. Lewis was at her wits' end over the stew of chemical
odors wafting into her home from nearby factories in the industrial heart
of Louisville, Ky. [Kentucky], a neighborhood known as "Rubbertown."" ...
"Though she still smells them today, the city now has a plan for beating
back toxic emissions, in part because of TRI data gathered annually by
the Environmental Protection Agency, she says. With those crucial numbers
in hand, she and other activists can ferret out companies releasing harmful
chemicals. "Once we smell it, we call the odor hot line," she says." ...
"But that ability to check the numbers may be changing as the EPA mulls
over whether to lower the TRI reporting requirements. Small businesses
have welcomed the proposal because it eliminates extra paperwork. But Lewis,
environmentalists, and first responders have become part of a vocal national
backlash since the changes were first proposed in September. These groups
argue they would lose vital data and would not be able to hold polluters
accountable." -By Mark Clayton -CSMonitor
China
- Russia- Environment
- Health
- "Update
2: China City Rushes Water Plant Into Action." ...
"A city of 480,000 people in China's northeast rushed a new water plant
into operation as a toxic spill on a nearby river arrived Tuesday and the
city was forced to shut down other water facilities for fear of contamination,
the local government said." ... "The spill of cancer-causing benzene and
related compounds into the Songhua River has disrupted drinking water supplies
to millions of people in China, and a Russian city downstream is bracing
for the arrival of the chemicals early next week." ... "There has been
no indication that local Communist Party leaders, who are accused of initially
trying to conceal the spill, might face punishment." -Contributed
to by Helen Luk -AP
via -Forbes
Entertainment
- 
Cartoon
- Marketing
- Children
- Health-
"Cartoon
characters caught in adults' food fight." ... "A
report Tuesday from the Institute of Medicine calls for dramatic changes
in the marketing of foods and beverages to children. For example, it asks
that licensed characters — such as cartoon stars like SpongeBob and the
princesses in Disney features — be used to promote only nutritious foods."
... "But in calling for marketing standards that support healthful diets,
the report does not define exactly what foods it's talking about. And not
everyone has the same definition of a healthful food." -By
Nanci Hellmich -USATODAY
Psychology
- 
People
- Science
- "Study
bolsters link between health, stress." ... "A steady
stream of irritations and upsets from people and things around us can literally
make us sick or slow to heal." ... "Psychological stress and physical ills
have become so well linked over the past few decades that researchers into
the brain-immune system connection have a name for the specialty -- psychoneuroimmunology."
... "A report in the Archives of General Psychiatry finds that routine
marital discord can slow the body's ability to heal from trauma or surgical
wounds by as long as two days." -By Lee Bowman
-Scripps via -SeattlePI.NWsource
Psychology
- Science
- "Blistering
words hurt more than feelings: Time heals wounds,
but it does so slower for hostile couples who spar, study says." ... "New
research has found that couples with a habit of becoming hostile are slower
to heal from physical wounds." ... "In an experiment that definitely wasn't
a fun night out, 42 couples agreed to discuss with their partner a festering
issue in their marriage -- such as whether they should save money to have
a baby or buy a boat -- while still smarting from a small suction device
that created eight pea-sized blisters on their arms." ... "Those half-hour
arguments were videotaped and then assessed for mean, sarcastic or belligerent
comments and for non-verbal signs of hostility, such as sneering, menacing
looks, or eye-rolling." ... "It turns out blistering words and stares are
bad news for blisters, and perhaps more serious wounds as well. About one-third
of the couples were deemed to be hostile, and it took two days longer,
on average, for their wounds to heal -- seven days instead of five." -By
Anne McIlroy -GlobeAndMail
Christmas
- Stem
Cells - Parents
- "With
love at Christmas - a set of stem cells." ... "Christmas
shopping for the unborn baby has never been easy. However, stem cell technology
may have brought what is possibly this year's most original gift. For a
mere £1,250, it is possible to harvest stem cells from the umbilical
cord at birth and store them frozen for up to 25 years." ... ""Stem cells
are not just for life - they're for Christmas," said Shamshad Ahmed, managing
director of Smart Cells International, a company offering stem cell gift
certificates as a new line this year." -By John Carvel
-Guardian.co.uk
Australia
- US
- Business
- 
Home
- Health
- History
- "James
Hardie to Sign Asbestos Compensation Deal Today (Update3)."
... "James Hardie Industries NV, whose top executives quit last year amid
an asbestos probe, will today sign a A$1.6 billion ($1.2 billion) agreement
to compensate Australians sickened by its products." ... "James Hardie
is the biggest seller of home siding in the U.S., where it gets 80 percent
of its profit. In February, the company said it doesn't expect a significant
number of compensation claims in the U.S., where its subsidiaries never
used the asbestos." ... "James Hardie started using asbestos in Australia
in the 1920s. It began to phase out blue asbestos in 1968, and all products
were asbestos-free by 1986. The fibrous mineral has been linked to lung
cancer and mesothelioma, a form of cancer affecting the chest or abdomen."
-By Miriam Steffens -Bloomberg
World
- People
- Parents
-History
- "World
AIDS Day Observances." ... "World AIDS Day is being
marked by events around the globe taking note of the millions who've died
from the disease and highlighting campaigns to control it." ... "As of
this 18th World AIDS Day the global AIDS epidemic has killed 25 million
people. Last year saw 3.1 million AIDS deaths." ... "New HIV infections
have surged to a record high: an estimated 40,300,000 people." ... "An
estimated 2.2 million of those infected are children, according to the
United Nations, which is marking World AIDS Day with a new campaign to
fight the disease in children." (1, 2)
-AP -CBSNews
Louisiana
- New
Orleans - Hurricane
Katrina - Environment
- Science
- Parents-
"New
Orleans unhealthy, groups say." ... "Federal and
state environmental agencies are downplaying long-term health dangers posed
by chemicals in sediment that covers much of the New Orleans area, several
environmental groups charged Thursday." ... "The Natural Resources Defense
Council (NRDC), one of the nation's largest environmental groups, and several
local Louisiana environmental groups said that heavy metals, petroleum
components and pesticides in the dusty residue left behind by Hurricane
Katrina's floodwaters pose such a risk that families with children shouldn't
return until it is cleaned up." -By Tom Kenworthy
-USATODAY
Samuel
Alito- Abortion
- Medical
- Politics
- "Alito
File Shows Strategy to Curb Abortion Ruling." ...
"As a lawyer in the Reagan Justice Department, the Supreme Court nominee
Samuel A. Alito Jr. played an integral role in devising legal strategy
to pare back the landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade, documents disclosed
Wednesday show." ... "Judge Alito argued in a 1985 memorandum to the Reagan
administration's solicitor general that two pending Supreme Court cases
were an "opportunity to advance the goals of overruling Roe v. Wade and,
in the meantime, of mitigating its effects."" ... "And in a strongly worded
17-page legal analysis, he recommended advancing the administration's ultimate
case against Roe by defending state regulations requiring doctors to provide
women seeking abortions with information about fetal development, the risks
and "unforeseeable detrimental effects" of the procedure and the availability
of adoption services or paternal child support." (1, 2)
-By David D. Kirkpatrick
-NYTimes
John
Roberts
- 
New
Hampshire - Parent
-Abortion
- Woman
- Health
- "Roberts
signals support for abortion curbs: In high court
argument, chief justice hints at upholding New Hampshire law." ... "The
news in Wednesday's Supreme Court argument over New Hampshire's parental
notification abortion law was that the John Roberts era may be one in which
the right to get an abortion is further curtailed." ... "At least at first
blush, Roberts - hearing his first case as chief justice on abortion restrictions
- seemed to be trying hard to save the New Hampshire law from being declared
unconstitutional, as it was by two lower courts." ... "The U.S. Court of
Appeals for the First Circuit had ruled the entire New Hampshire law invalid,
partly because it did not provide an exemption for cases in which the doctor
decided that abortion was needed to prevent damage to the girl's health."
-By Tom Curry -MSNBC
New
Jersey - Health
- Drugs
- Business
- "Merck
to cut 7,000 jobs: World's third-largest drugmaker
says it will close 5 plants in the wake of 6,400 lawsuits over heart medicine
problems." ... "Merck & Co. announced yesterday it will eliminate 7,000
jobs, the biggest reduction in the company's 114-year history, and said
it still has "work to do" after a three-year earnings decline." ... "Chief
executive Richard Clark said the world's third-largest drugmaker will close
five plants to trim costs by as much as $4 billion through 2010 and will
seek acquisitions to boost product offerings. The job cuts represent about
11 percent of Whitehouse Station, N.J.[New Jersey]-based Merck's global
workforce of 62,000 and will be completed by the end of 2008."
-Bloomberg via -Newsday.com
China
- Health
- Environment-
"Chemical
blast in northeast China contaminates major river."
... "An explosion at a chemical plant in northeastern China 10 days ago
caused contamination in a major river more than 100 times above national
safety levels, environmental authorities said." ... "'After the blast at
the chemical plant the monitoring station in Jilin found that benzene went
into the river and polluted the water,' the Environmental Protection Administration
(EPA) said in a statement on its website."
-AFXNews via -Forbes
US
- 
Canada
- Animals
- Health
- "U.S.
Bans Imports of Some Canadian Poultry." ... "Federal
agriculture officials banned poultry imports from mainland British Columbia
on Monday after Canadian officials reported finding a duck at a poultry
farm that was infected with the flu." ... "Canadian authorities have said
that the virus that afflicted the duck was a mild North American strain
and not the virulent strain that has killed wild and commercial bird flocks
all over Asia, as well as more than 60 people." -By
Gardiner Harris -NYTimes
Japan- US
- Drugs
- Psychology
- "Childhood
Deaths in Japan Bring New Look at Flu Drug." ...
"The [American] Food and Drug Administration is looking into reports of
deaths and abnormal behavior among children in Japan who took the anti-influenza
drug Tamiflu, which is being stockpiled by governments around the world
for use in a possible flu pandemic." ... "Roche, the company that sells
Tamiflu, said that the reports of these problems were rare given that millions
of people had used the drug, and that the problems might have been caused
by the flu itself." ... "The documents also said there had been 32 instances
of "neuropsychiatric events," 31 of them in Japan, including delirium,
abnormal behavior and hallucination." -By Andrew Pollack
-NYTimes
Idaho
- New_Hampshire
- Alaska
- 
Illinois
- 
Wisconsin
- 
Colorado
- Secret
- GOV
- 
Police
- 
Intelligence
- Civil
Liberties - 
Library
- Business
- Health
- 
Privacy
- Politics
- "Senators
Vow To Block Patriot Act." ... "Half a dozen senators
worried about civil liberties –three Democrats and three Republicans –
said Thursday they will try to block the measure to renew the Patriot Act,
CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss reports." ... "The most controversial parts
of the law that vastly expanded FBI powers after 9/11 expire at the end
of the year unless renewed. An agreement on a measure to do that between
the House and Senate doesn't include some minimal new protections these
senators want, including having a judge review broad secret warrants when
the FBI seeks information from libraries, hospitals and banks." ... ""If
further changes are not made, we will work to stop this bill from becoming
law," GOP Sens. Larry Craig [Idaho], John Sununu [New Hampshire] and Lisa
Murkowski [Alaska] and Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin [Illinois], Russ Feingold
[Wisconsin] and Ken Salazar [Colorado] said in a letter to the Senate Judiciary
and Intelligence committees." -AP
-CBSNews
Samuel
Alito
- Women's
- Abortion
- Health
- History
- Politics
- 
Pennsylvania
- Illinois
- "A
coauthor says Alito was instrumental in Roe v. Wade brief."
... "Samuel A. Alito Jr. played a major role in constructing the Reagan
administration's 1985 brief that argued for overturning the Supreme Court
decision legalizing abortion, according to one of the coauthors." ... "Albert
Lauber, who served with Alito in the solicitor general's office, said Alito
had been instrumental in drafting arguments for why the court should uphold
laws in Pennsylvania and Illinois, which imposed numerous restrictions
on abortions." ... "''Sam did make a major contribution to a brief which
did argue, among other things, that Roe should be overruled," Lauber said.
''He just didn't write that specific part of the argument."" ... "The Supreme
Court struck down some of the abortion restrictions, saying in the 5-4
decision, ''the States are not free, under the guise of protecting maternal
health or potential life, to intimidate women into continuing pregnancies.""
-By Michael Kranish
-Boston/Globe
Government
- Science
- Medical
- Woman
- Drugs
- "FDA's
Actions on Pill Faulted: A GAO report bolsters charges
that the agency bowed to politics over a 'morning-after' drug." ... "Federal
drug regulators compromised their usual science-based decision-making process
when they ruled in 2004 against letting the "morning-after" birth control
pill be sold without a prescription, congressional investigators said Monday."
... "A detailed report by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office
bolstered critics' charges that the Food and Drug Administration had yielded
to political pressure from social conservatives, who feared that easier
access to the drug would encourage promiscuity." ... "GAO investigators
also found that three separate FDA offices had recommended that Plan B
be approved for sale without a prescription after reviewing data on safety
and effectiveness. Two panels of outside advisors had reached the same
conclusion at a joint meeting." (1, 2)
-By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
-LAtimes
People
- Seniors
- Science
- "Study:
Working out can add 4 years to your life." ... "People
who engaged in moderate activity — the equivalent of walking for 30 minutes
a day for five days a week — lived about 1.3 to 1.5 years longer than those
who were less active. Those who took on more intense exercise — the equivalent
of running half an hour a day for five days every week —extended their
lives by about 3.5 to 3.7 years." -By Rob Stein
-WashingtonPost via -HoustonChronicle.com
World
- 
Switzerland
- Drugs-
"Roche
plans 10-fold increase in Tamiflu." ... "Roche Holding
(RHHBF)
said Monday that will be able to produce 300 million treatments of Tamiflu
in 2007, marking the first time the Swiss drugmaker has disclosed specific
annual production plans for its increasingly-popular antiviral drug." ...
"Tamiflu, which reduces flu symptoms, is being stockpiled by countries
as a potential treatment if a worldwide flu pandemic occurs. Governments
and health officials have pressed Roche to license manufacturing rights
to other companies so that supplies can be increased faster." -By
Julie Schmit -USATODAY
US
- Australia
- Canada
- 
New
Zealand - Britain
- 
Germany
- Consumer
- Money
- "U.S.
Health Care Costs Big Money: Survey Says Americans
Pay More, Get Disorganized Care." ... "Americans pay more when they get
sick than people in other Western nations and receive more confused, error-prone
treatment, according to the largest survey to compare U.S. health care
with other nations." ... "The survey of nearly 7,000 sick adults in the
United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Britain and Germany found
Americans were the most likely to pay at least $1,000 in out-of-pocket
expenses. More than half went without needed care because of cost, the
survey found, and more than a third endured mistakes and disorganized care
when they did get treated." ... "While patients in every nation sometimes
run into obstacles to getting care and face deficiencies in treatment,
the United States stood out for having the highest error rates, most disorganized
care and highest costs, the survey found." -By Rob
Stein-WashingtonPost
Pakistan
- People
- 
Earthquake
- History
- Homes
- "Pakistan
seeks more medical aid as quake toll rises." ...
"Pakistan appealed for antibiotics and painkillers on Tuesday as it raised
the toll from last month's devasting earthquake to 57,597 killed and nearly
79,000 injured." ... "The updated figures from Pakistan Federal Relief
Commission brought the total official toll from the disaster to nearly
59,000 -- including 1,309 confirmed deaths and 6,622 injuries on on the
Indian side of the devasted Kashmir region." ... "At 7.6 magnitude, the
quake was the strongest to hit the South Asian region in 100 years. It
destroyed huge numbers of houses and left more than three million people
homeless or in need of emergency shelter with a brutal winter just weeks
away." -By Robert Birsel with contributions by David
Brunnstrom -Reuters
via -AlertNet.org/Newsdesk
Samuel
Alito
- Pennsylvania
- Parents- Women
- Abortion- Health
- Politics
- "Alito
has previously endorsed abortion restrictions." ...
"President Bush's new Supreme Court nominee has a clearer track record
on abortion and would become a tie-breaking vote in deciding how far the
government can go to restrict women's access to the procedure." ... "As
a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, Alito
voted in 1991 to uphold a Pennsylvania law that included a provision requiring
women seeking abortions to notify their spouses. That case went to the
Supreme Court, where justices used it to reaffirm Roe v. Wade."
-AP via -USATODAY
Texas
- Parents
- Health
- "Judge
orders cancer patient returned to her parents, who opposed treatment."
... "A 13-year-old cancer patient who was put into foster care after her
parents refused to allow radiation treatment will be reunited with her
family, a judge ruled Monday." ... "Faced with her deteriorating health,
state district Judge Jack Hunter said Katie Wernecke would be better off
with her family in Corpus Christi [Texas] than in the custody of the foster
parents she was assigned by Child Protective Services."
-AP via -Canada.com
US
- Switzerland
- Global
- Drug
- Consumer
- "Flu
drug shipments to U.S. suspended." ... "Amid worries
about bird flu, demand for a flu medicine is so extreme that the drug's
maker has stopped shipping it to private U.S. suppliers just as consumers
fret over whether they should try to stock up on the drug." ... "Tamiflu,
a prescription drug designed to treat regular flu, is running scarce because
of worries the bird flu in Asia might morph into a contagious human flu
that circles the globe." ... "Tamiflu's maker, Roche Holding AG in Switzerland,
said Thursday it was temporarily suspending U.S. shipment because of increased
global demand. Company officials have previously said they are limiting
supplies to pharmacies to thwart hoarding." ... "But there are signs that
is happening." -By Lindsey Tanner
-AP via-Miami/Herald
Brain
- Genetics
- Drug
- Science
- "Schizophrenia
Linked to Genetic Mutation." ... "Heredity seems
to play a major role in schizophrenia, since the disease runs in families,
and now new research sheds light on exactly how a genetic mutation disrupts
the brain and makes people develop the condition." ... "The findings could
eventually result in better drugs for schizophrenia, which is difficult
to treat. For now, however, they're helping scientists understand the development
of the disease, said Dr. Doron Gothelf, a child psychiatrist at Stanford
University and co-author of a study in the Oct. 23 online issue of Nature
Neuroscience." -Forbes
Consumer
- Science
- "Findings
burst antibacterial soap bubble: FDA advisers say
use of regular cleaning products is just as effective." ... "Those popular
antibacterial washes are no more effective in preventing disease than a
good scrubbing with ordinary soap and water." ... "That's the conclusion
of federal health advisers, who warned manufacturers they would have to
prove their products are better if they expect to continue making such
claims to the public." ... "Panelists also said soaps that use synthetic
chemicals — as do many products which claim to eliminate 99 percent of
germs they encounter — could contribute to the growth of bacteria resistant
to antibiotics." -By John J. Lumpkin
-AP via -HoustonChronicle.com
UN
- Pakistan
- Earthquake
- People
- Health
- "U.N.:
Berlin-Type Airlift Needed in Asia." ... "The top
U.N. relief coordinator warned Thursday that bold initiatives like the
Berlin Airlift are needed to save as many as 3 million people left homeless
by the South Asian earthquake as winter approaches in the Himalayas." ...
"The World Health Organization, meanwhile, reported three quake survivors
died of tetanus, reinforcing fears that disease and infected injuries could
drive the 79,000 death toll far higher." ... "Jan Egeland, the U.N. relief
coordinator, appealed to NATO and other potential donors to step in with
an army of helicopters to fly in relief supplies and evacuate perhaps hundreds
of thousands of people." -By Munir Ahmad
-AP via -SFGate.com
Harriet
Miers - Texas
- Abortion
- Law
- Politics
- "Nominee
opposed right to abortion." ... "Harriet Miers, the
Supreme Court nominee, has disclosed a 1989 survey in which she supported
banning abortion except to protect the life of the mother." ... "The survey
did not ask whether Miers believed the Constitution protected a right to
abortion." ... ""If Congress passes a Human Life Amendment to the Constitution
that would prohibit abortion except when it was necessary to prohibit the
death of the mother, would you actively support its ratification by the
Texas Legislature?" the survey asked." ... "Yes, Miers answered. She told
the group that she would support a state ban on abortion, oppose public
funding for abortions, participate in "pro-life" events, and use her "influence
as an elected official" to "promote the pro-life cause."" -By
David D. Kirkpatrick -NYTimes
via -IHT.com
Harriet
Miers - Abortion
- Texas
- Medical- Law
- "Miers
Backed Ban on Most Abortions in '89." ... "Supreme
Court nominee Harriet Miers pledged unflagging opposition to abortion as
a candidate for the Dallas City council in 1989, according to documents
released Tuesday. She backed a constitutional amendment to ban the procedure
in most cases and promised to appear at ``pro-life rallies and special
events.''" ... "Asked in a Texans United For Life questionnaire whether
she would support legislation restricting abortions if the Supreme Court
allowed it, Miers indicated she would. Her reply was the same when asked,
``Will you oppose the use of city funds or facilities'' to promote abortions?"
... "While the Texans United For Life questionnaire was unsigned and undated,
senior Justice Department officials who briefed reporters said Miers herself
had included it in material to be turned over to the Judiciary Committee."
-By Jesse J. Holland -AP
via -Guardian.co.uk
Oregon
- Parents
- Drugs
- "Student
suspended for bringing vitamins to school in backpack."
... "Jessica Booth, a senior at Oregon City High School, is on suspension
after school officials say she brought vitamins to school without prior
notification." ... "Her mother says she thinks the school overreacted to
Jessica's over-the-counter supplements, which she says her daughter needs
for lactose intolerance." ... "Booth also claims school officials told
her that the pills could have led to arrest and jail." ... "Jessica's mother,
Michelle Booth, says she thinks the school overreacted to the vitamins,
and that threats of arrest, jail time and the five-day suspension are unwarranted."
-KATU.com
Stem
Cells -Massachusetts
- Wisconsin
- Political
- Religious- Health
- "Stem
cell discovery avoids loss of embryo: Laboratory
breakthrough may ease moral, religious concerns over beginning of life."
... "Two teams of U.S. scientists have found ways to harvest stem cells
from embryos without sacrificing a viable life in the process." ... "If
these proof-of-principle experiments, which were conducted in mice, can
translate to humans, they might ease the fierce ethical and political storm
that surrounds embryonic stem-cell research." ... "Stem cells from human
embryos are considered the key to regenerative medicine. They have the
power to multiply indefinitely and grow into all the various tissues that
make up a human body. As it stands now, the only way to access these cells
is to snatch them from the inner mass of a budding embryo that is destroyed
in the process. For those who believe life begins at conception, the method
is tantamount to murder." ... "But scientists at the Massachusetts-based
biotech firm Advanced Cell Technology and the University of Wisconsin have
now demonstrated that if they pluck a cell from an embryo that is a speck
of just eight cells, the embryo can survive to be implanted in a uterus
and result in a normal pregnancy." -By Carolyn Abraham
-GlobeAndMail
Minnesota
- Parents
- "Polio
Outbreak Occurs Among Amish Families In Minnesota."
... "The first outbreak of polio in the United States in 26 years occurred
earlier this fall in an Amish community in central Minnesota, state and
federal health officials reported yesterday." ... "Four children have been
infected with the virus, although none has become paralyzed. The Amish
typically decline to vaccinate their children. The last large outbreak
of polio occurred in numerous Amish communities in several states in 1979."
... "The outbreak poses little threat to children outside the Amish community.
About 98 percent of Minnesota's children are vaccinated against polio,
said Harry Hull, the state epidemiologist." -By David
Brown-WashingtonPost
Bill
Frist
- Health
- Drugs
- Business
- Politics
- 
Tenn.
- "SEC
Issues Subpoena To Frist, Sources Say: Records Sought
On Sale of Stock." ... "Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has
been subpoenaed to turn over personal records and documents as federal
authorities step up a probe of his July sales of HCA Inc. stock, according
to sources familiar with the investigation." ... "The Securities and Exchange
Commission issued the subpoena within the past two weeks, after initial
reports that Frist, the Senate's top Republican official, was under scrutiny
by the agency and the Justice Department for possible violations of insider
trading laws." ... "The disclosure of the subpoena comes as Democrats blasted
Frist anew for his financial and personal ties to Hospital Corporation
of America, a Nashville [Tennessee] chain founded in 1968 by his father
and his brother, Thomas Frist Jr. Critics yesterday seized on a report
that Frist held a substantial amount of his family's hospital stock outside
of blind trusts between 1998 and 2002 -- a time when he asserted he did
not know how much of the stock he owned." ... "During his decade in the
Senate, Frist has been active in shaping health care policy, including
creation of a Medicare prescription drug benefit." -By
Carrie Johnson and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum -WashingtonPost
Australia
- Medical
- Drugs
- Science
- People
- "A
triumph for scientific freedom." ... "This week's
Nobel Prize winners in medicine -- Australians Barry J. Marshall and J.
Robin Warren -- toppled the conventional wisdom in more ways than one.
They proved that most ulcers were caused by a lowly bacterium, which was
an outrageous idea at the time. But they also showed that if science is
to advance, scientists need the freedom and the funding to let their imaginations
roam." -By Madeline Drexler-Boston/Globe
Oregon
- Medical
- Drugs
- "Justices
Hear Arguments on Oregon's Assisted-Suicide Law."
... "The question of assisted suicide reached the Supreme Court today for
the second time in eight years, although the profound issues of professional
ethics and personal autonomy that have animated the national debate largely
remained outside the courtroom." ... "Instead, lawyers for the federal
government and for Oregon, the only state to have authorized physician-assisted
suicide, argued over a single question: whether John Ashcroft acted within
his authority as attorney general when he decided in 2001 that doctors
would lose their federal prescription privileges if they followed the Oregon
law's procedures and prescribed lethal doses of lawful medications for
their terminally ill patients who wanted to end their own lives."
-NYTimes
Oregon
- Medical
- Drugs
- "High
Court Revisits Suicide Debate." ... "The Supreme
Court is revisiting the emotionally charged issue of physician-assisted
suicide in a test of the federal government's power to block doctors from
helping terminally ill patients end their lives." ... "Oregon is the only
state that lets dying patients obtain lethal doses of medication from their
doctors, although other states may pass laws of their own if the high court
rules against the federal government. Voters in Oregon have twice endorsed
doctor-assisted suicide, but the Bush administration has aggressively challenged
the state law." (1, 2)
-CBSNews
Harriet
Miers - Texas
- New_Hampshire
- Woman
- Parents
- Abortion
- Health
- Politics
- "Bush
expected to nominate Harriet Miers to Supreme Court:
Miers currently works as White House counsel." ... "If confirmed by the
Senate, Miers, 60, would join Ruth Bader Ginsburg as the second sitting
female justice on the bench. O'Connor became the court's first ever female
justice in 1981." ... "Miers, who has never been a judge, was the first
woman to serve as president of the Texas State Bar and the Dallas Bar Association.
She also served on the Dallas City Council." ... "Abortion tops the court's
current docket. The most-watched case deals with a New Hampshire law requiring
minors to get parental permission before undergoing the procedure unless
a woman's life is in danger." ... "A federal appeals court ruled that exception
was not broad enough, since it did not include a woman's health." -By
Bill Mears -CNN
Hurricane
Katrina - New
Orleans - Homes
- Environment
- "Gulf
Wracked By Katrina's Latest Legacy—Disease, Poisons, Mold."
... "A month after Hurricane Katrina tore through the U.S. Gulf Coast,
medical experts are now struggling with the latest crisis in the region:
contamination." ... "Katrina left New Orleans and other communities tainted
with oil, sewage, and possibly poisons leached from federal toxic waste
sites, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says." ... "Health
and environmental agencies are advising people to avoid contact with the
sludge. They recommend that people wear gloves, goggles, and dust masks,
and that they wash promptly if exposure occurs." ... "In addition to the
toxic sediment, sprawling blooms of mold have now taken hold in many flooded
homes." (1, 2)
-By Adrianne Appel -NationalGeographic>News
Global
- Animals
- UN
- "Millions
could
die from bird flu pandemic, UN says." ... "Southeast
Asian nations approved the creation of a regional fund to fight bird flu
and other animal diseases, officials said on Friday, as the United Nations
warned the virus could mutate and kill up to 150 million people." ... "They
said the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) will also endorse
a global plan to contain avian influenza, which has killed 66 people in
four Asian countries since late 2003 and led to an estimated $15 billion
in losses for the poultry trade." -Reuters
via -IHT.com
Hurricane
Katrina - Health
- Louisiana- Alabama
- Mississippi
- "Senate
Panel Spars With White House Over Health Care for Victims:
Gov. Kathleen Blanco sidesteps the blame game regarding government response
to Hurricane Katrina and asks for help in creating jobs." ... "Senate Finance
Committee members accused the White House today of blocking a bipartisan
$9-billion healthcare package for Hurricane Katrina victims." ... "The
legislation would temporarily extend Medicaid coverage to thousands of
adult victims of the hurricane who would otherwise have no health insurance.
Under the bill, the uninsured would get five months of coverage, and President
Bush would have the option of extending the program an additional five
months. It would also require the federal government to pick up the entire
tab for Medicaid costs in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi for 2006."
-By Mary Curtius
-LAtimes
Florida
- 
Weather
- Hurricane
Katrina - Hurricane
Rita - Medical- 
Nuclear
- MIL
- Disaster
- "AP:
Report Warned of Hurricane Health Woes." ... "Eight
months before the devastation of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, an internal
Homeland Security Department review warned that the nation was woefully
unprepared for a medical disaster and lacked a coherent plan for taking
charge of mass casualties." ... "Government medical teams had difficulty
coordinating and delivering help during 2004 hurricanes in Florida, said
the report obtained by The Associated Press. The report also said there
was inadequate planning for dealing with a surge of patients during a disaster
like a biological or nuclear attack." ... "It called for creation of a
uniformed medical reserve corps, including specialists, fashioned after
the National Guard." -By Cheryl Wittenauer
-AP via-WashingtonPost
New
Orleans - Louisiana
-
-
-
- "Mayor
Suspends Reopening City." ... "Under pressure from
President Bush and other top federal officials, the New Orleans mayor [Ray
Nagin] Monday suspended the reopening of large portions of the city over
the next few days because of the threat of a new round of flooding from
a tropical storm." ... "In Washington, Mr. Bush on Monday questioned the
plan to let people back in, saying there is "deep concern" about the possibility
that Tropical Storm Rita, which was headed toward the Florida Keys, could
head into the Gulf of Mexico and drop more rain on New Orleans. He said
he has been warned that the city's levees would be breached again if that
happened." ... "In addition, Mr. Bush said there are significant environmental
concerns. New Orleans still lacks drinkable water, and there are fears
about the contamination in the remaining floodwaters and the muck left
behind in drained areas of the city." (1, 2)
-AP -CBSNews
Louisiana
- Hurricane
Katrina -
-
-
- "UPDATE
1-Louisiana nursing home operators charged in deaths."
... "The owners of a nursing home where 34 people were found dead after
Hurricane Katrina have been arrested and charged with 34 counts of negligent
homicide for not evacuating those patients, the Louisiana attorney general's
office said on Tuesday." -Reuters
Hurricane
Katrina - Louisiana
- New
Orleans -
-
-
- "Some
follow, others hide from evacuation order: New Orleans
still dealing with holdouts; state has 25,000 body bags ready." ... "[New
Orleans, Louisiana] Police Chief Eddie Compass told NBC's "Today" show
that police would forcibly remove holdouts once the "thousands" still seeking
to evacuate voluntarily have done so." ... "A New Orleans water sample
taken by "Today" show producers and tested by Rice University found E.
coli levels a million times higher than what the Environmental Protection
Agency allows for recreational waters. That's as much E. coli as one would
find in raw sewage." (1, 2)
-MSNBC
TX
- New
Orleans -
-
- "Water
pollution a concern in New Orleans." ... "The reports
underscore advice issued by federal health officials Tuesday: Rescue workers
and anyone left in hurricane-ravaged areas should try to limit direct skin
contact with flood waters; seek immediate medical attention if they have
cuts or other wounds exposed to the dirty water; and wash their hands frequently."
... "Officials in Houston's Astrodome handed out alcohol-based hand sanitizers
Tuesday to help prevent spread of norovirus, an easily spread cause of
diarrhea and vomiting. Officials isolated some refugees with the illness,
made infamous by recent cruise-ship outbreaks, although they couldn't provide
an exact count. There is no treatment except to keep sufferers hydrated;
it normally lasts a few days." -By Lauran Neergaard
-MercuryNews
Hurricane
Katrina - TX
-
- "Victims
facing risks to health." ... "Public health officials
are struggling to ensure care for the thousands of evacuees who are chronically
ill. [Secretary of the Health and Human Services department Mike] Leavitt
has declared a public health emergency in Texas, which is housing 250,000
evacuees. ''The biggest challenge of all this is going to be maintaining
the chronic-care services to the people who had them before the hurricane
hit,'' he said." -By Jacob Goldstein-Miami/Herald
Hurricane
Katrina - Louisiana
- New
Orleans -
-
- "Flood
waters found contaminated: CDC: Evacuees, rescue
workers should take precautions." ... "Federal health and environment officials
renewed the call to avoid ingesting or being in New Orleans [Louisiana]
flood waters Wednesday after preliminary tests confirmed they contain hazardous
levels of bacteria and lead." ... "The amounts exceed 10 times the safe
levels, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen L.
Johnson said during a conference call with reporters." ... ""Human contact
with the flood water should be avoided as much as possible," he said. "Our
initial samplings indicate counts for E. coli and coliform in these areas
greatly exceed EPA's recommended level for contact."" ... "It may sound
obvious, he said, but "no one should drink the flood water, especially
children."" -By Kristen Gerencher
-MarketWatch
Hurricane
Katrina - Louisiana
- New
Orleans -
-
- "Officials:
Chemicals bigger concern than cholera: Polluted New
Orleans [Louisiana] water could be major health hazard." ... "Despite reporting
five deaths from a bacteria-caused illness, public health officials said
Tuesday they are more concerned about the possibility of toxic chemicals
in the water covering New Orleans than they are about a cholera outbreak."
... "Dr. Julie Gerberding, the director of the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, said that more than a week after Hurricane Katrina hit
the region health officials still don't know if the water contains toxic
chemicals." ... "Gerberding downplayed the risk of cholera, saying it has
not been found in the region for years, and is not likely to emerge now
as a threat." ... "Instead, public health officials are preparing for possible
outbreaks of infectious disease. They are focusing on E. coli and other
diseases that can cause diarrhea, including Norwalk viruses, which have
caused outbreaks on cruise ships." -CNN
Hurricane
Katrina - Louisiana
- New
Orleans - Mississippi
- TX
- -
- "Infections
kill 3 after Katrina; others at risk." ... "Three
people have died from bacterial infections in Gulf states after Hurricane
Katrina, and tests confirm that the water flooding New Orleans [Louisiana]
is a stew of sewage-borne bacteria, federal officials said on Wednesday."
... "A fourth person in the Gulf region is suspected to be infected with
Vibrio vulnificus, a common marine bacteria, Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention Director Dr. Julie Gerberding told reporters, citing reports
from state health officials in Mississippi and Texas." ... ""This does
not represent an outbreak," Gerberding told a news conference. "It does
not spread from person to person," she said." -By
Maggie Fox -Reuters.co.uk
Hurricane
Katrina - Disaster
- New
Orleans - Louisiana
-
-
-
-
-
- "Katrina
Takes Environmental Toll: Warning Issued On Water;
Federal Probes Of Relief Loom." ... "The dank and putrid floodwaters choking
this once-gracious city [New Orleans, Louisiana] are so poisoned with gasoline,
industrial chemicals, feces and other contaminants that even casual contact
is hazardous and safe drinking water may not be available for the entire
population for years to come, state and federal officials warned Tuesday."
... "As hundreds of police officers, emergency workers and volunteers waded
through flooded neighborhoods trying to coax remaining residents from their
ruined homes, health officials offered the first tentative assessments
of the environmental damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina and its resulting
floods: They ranged from contaminated water to the destruction of coastline
that acts as a buffer against hurricanes and other severe weather." ...
"State officials also released new tallies of Katrina's destruction, with
up to 160,000 homes in Louisiana destroyed and nearly 190,000 public school
students displaced by the storm and its aftermath." (1, 2,
3)
-By Timothy Dwyer, Jacqueline L. Salmon, and Dan Eggen
with contributions by David Brown, Juliet Eilperin, Michael A. Fletcher,
Spencer S. Hsu, Shankar Vedantam and Lucy Shackelford -WashingtonPost
Animals
- Genetics
-
-
- "Chimp
genome could reveal human secrets: What sets us apart
from apes? At latest count, about 4 percent of our DNA." ... "Scientists
announced yesterday that they had completed analysis of the genome of a
chimpanzee, humanity's closest genetic relative, and found that the gap
between humans and chimps is about 10 times smaller than the one between
rats and mice." ... "''The philosophical goal is that we all want to know
what makes us human," said researcher Tarjei S. Mikkelsen of the Broad
Institute of MIT and Harvard, which helped sequence the chimp genome. ''The
pragmatic goal is that it will help us understand diseases and conditions
that are unique to humans."" -By Carey Goldberg
-BostonGlobe
Hurricane
Katrina - Mississippi
- Louisiana
- Disaster
-
-
-
- "Hurricane
damage 'enormous'." ... "The Gulf Coast on Tuesday
began to confront the aftermath of one of the most devastating hurricanes
ever to hit the United States." ... "Officially, the regional death toll
was put at 55 Tuesday morning, but officials warned that it was certain
to rise; Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi said the toll in just one
county in his state could be as high as 80." ... "Some of the worst damage
reports came from east of New Orleans [Louisiana]. An estimated 40,000
homes were reported flooded in St. Bernard Parish. In Gulfport, the storm
left three of five hospitals without working emergency rooms, beachfront
homes wrecked and major stretches of the coastal highway flooded and impassable."
-By Joseph B. Treaster, Kate Zernike, and Ralph Blumenthal
with contributions by Abby Goodnough, Michael M. Luo, James Dao, Jeremy
Alford, Diane Allen, Terence Neilan, Christine Hauser and Shadi Rahimi
-NYTimes
Hurricane
Katrina - Louisiana
- Disaster
-
-
-
-
- "Crews
Pass Dead to Reach Storm Survivors." ... "Rescuers
along the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast pushed aside the dead to reach the
living Tuesday in a race against time and rising waters, while New Orleans
sank deeper into crisis and Louisiana's governor ordered storm refugees
out of this drowning city." ... "Two levees broke and sent water coursing
into the streets of the Big Easy a full day after New Orleans appeared
to have escaped widespread destruction from Hurricane Katrina. An estimated
80 percent of the below-sea-level city was under water, up to 20 feet deep
in places, with miles and miles of homes swamped." ... "Federal Emergency
Management Agency director Mike Brown warned that structural damage to
homes, diseases from animal carcasses and chemicals in floodwaters made
it unsafe for residents to come home anytime soon. And a mass return also
was discouraged to keep from interfering with rescue and recovery efforts."
-By Brett Martel with contributions by Holbrook Mohr,
Mary Foster, Allen G. Breed, Brett Martel, Adam Nossiter and Jay Reeves
-AP via -SFGate.com
Missouri
-
- Psychology
-
- Alzheimer's
- "Idle
brain invites dementia: Researchers say daydreaming
may cause changes that lead to the onset of Alzheimer's disease." ... "Scientists
have scanned the brains of young people when they are doing, well, nothing,
and they found that a region active during this daydreaming state is the
one hard-hit by the scourge of old age: Alzheimer's." ... ""We never expected
to see this," said Randy L. Buckner, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute
investigator at Washington University in St. Louis [Missouri]. He said
he suspects these activity patterns may, over decades of daily use, wear
down the brain, sparking a chemical cascade that results in the disease's
classic deposits and tangles that damage the brain." -By
Jamie Talan -Newsday.com
PA
- Psychology
- Language
-
- Alzheimer's
- "Study
Links Daydreaming, Alzheimer's." ... "Scientists
who set out to explore changes in the brain as Alzheimer's disease progresses
got a surprise: a possible link between daydreaming and the degenerative
brain disease that robs memory, language and thought." ... "The part of
the brain involved in daydreaming is always active, even if the mind is
at rest, said William Klunk, coauthor of the study and associate professor
of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh [Pennsylvania]. "It's like
an engine on idle," he said. "It never shuts down. That activity might
fuel the sequence of events that could lead to Alzheimer's."" -By
Cheryl Wittenauer -AP
via -SFGate.com
Psychology
-
- Alzheimer's
- "Daydreaming
activity linked to Alzheimer's." ... "The parts of
the brain that young, healthy people use when daydreaming are the same
areas that fail in people who have Alzheimer's disease, researchers reported
on Wednesday in a study that may someday help in preventing or diagnosing
the disease." ... ""We appear to use memory systems often in our default
states," [Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Randy] Buckner said
in a statement. "This may help us to plan and solve problems. Maybe it
helps us be creative. But it may also have metabolic consequences.""
-Reuters via -AlertNet.org
Missouri
- Psychology
-
- Alzheimer's
- "Study
offers insights on Alzheimer's roots: Disease targets
areas of the brain that are involved in daydreaming." ... "The brain areas
involved in daydreaming, musing and other stream-of-consciousness thoughts
appear to be the same regions targeted by Alzheimer's disease, researchers
are reporting in a study that offers new insights into the deadly illness's
roots." ... "The strong correlation between the two suggests there might
be a link between the sort of thinking that people regularly do when not
involved in purposeful mental activity and the degenerative disease that
is characterized by forgetfulness and dementia, said scientists who conducted
the federally funded study." ... "Randy Buckner, a neuroscientist at Washington
University in St. Louis [Missouri], said the implications of the finding
are far from clear." -By Shankar Vedantam-WashingtonPost
via -HoustonChronicle.com
- Psychology
-
- Alzheimer's
- "Alzheimer's
Hits Brain's 'Daydream' Centers." ... "Reporting
in the Aug. 24 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, they [the researchers]
unexpectedly found that the regions of the brain that light up when you
slip into comfortable patterns of thought are the same as those that later
in life exhibit disabling clumps of plaque, a key characteristic of Alzheimer's."
-By Dennis Thompson -Forbes
Lesotho
-
-
-
- "Brain
drain hurts Lesotho AIDS fight - UN official." ...
"The brain drain drawing Africa's nurses to the West has hobbled the fight
against HIV/AIDS in Lesotho, a tiny kingdom where up to 30 percent of adults
already have the virus, a U.N. official said on Friday." ... "Stephen Lewis,
the U.N. special envoy for AIDS in Africa, said Lesotho's battle against
AIDS highlighted problems in the international community's response to
the disease in Africa, home to some 25 million of the world's total estimated
37.8 million people living with HIV." ... ""The problem now is human capacity.
Lesotho has a problem of nurses. Lesotho like other African countries is
struggling with brain drain to countries such as Britain and Canada," he
said." -By Ntsau Lekhetho
-Reuters
Malaysia
- 
- 
-
-
-
- Transport
- "Malaysia
Declares Emergency, Closes Port Amid Haze (Update1)."
... "Malaysia shut its biggest port after pollution from forest fires worsened
visibility in the Southeast Asian nation, which held crisis talks today
with Indonesia." ... "Haze is covering Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur
and much of the rest of the country, threatening shipping, air transport
and public health. Malaysian and Indonesian officials held talks on how
to reduce the spread of smoke and pollution from Borneo and Sumatra islands
and Peninsular Malaysia, where farmers use brushfires to clear land." ...
"Seasonal monsoon winds are spreading smoke from fires, set to clear forests
for use as farmland or sparked by the current dry season."" -By
Chan Sue Ling and Stephanie Phang -Bloomberg
John
G. Roberts Jr.
- 
CA
- Abortion
-
-
- "Boxer
demands Roberts support abortion, privacy." ... "[California]
Sen. Barbara Boxer said she would vote against John Roberts' nomination
to the U.S. Supreme Court, if she remains convinced he doesn't support
abortion rights." ... "Boxer, fearing a more conservative court could lead
"to the days of back alley illegal abortions," said pointedly of President
Bush's pick to succeed Justice Sandra Day o'Connor: "Judge Roberts cannot
duck this issue."" -By David Kravets
-AP via -MercuryNews
John
G. Roberts Jr.
- Abortion
- AD
News - 
-
- "Roberts'
stand on clinic protests attacked in abortion-rights ad:
A spot airing nationally becomes the first flash point since nomination."
... "An ad that a leading abortion-rights organization began running Wednesday
on national television, opposing the Supreme Court nomination of John Roberts
as one "whose ideology leads him to excuse violence against other Americans,"
quickly became the first flash point in the 3-week-old confirmation process."
... "Several prominent abortion-rights supporters and a neutral media watchdog
group said the ad was misleading and unfair, and a conservative group quickly
took to the airwaves with a counter advertisement." -By
Linda Greenhouse -NYTimes
via -HoustonChronicle.com
John
G. Roberts Jr.
- Abortion
- Religion
- Executions
- Secrets
- NY
-
- "Parties
Ask if More Roberts Surprises Wait." ... "Senate
Democrats are accusing the White House of delaying the release of Roberts'
paperwork to ensure Republicans aren't blindsided by information that could
hurt his confirmation. "The time for such partisan review of documents
was before the nomination of Judge Roberts to the Supreme Court," said
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. [New York]" ... "Last week the Justice Department
said it would not give the Senate internal records from 16 cases in which
Roberts dealt with such issues as abortion, affirmative action, school
prayer and capital punishment." -By Jesse J. Holland
-AP via -SFGate.com
-
- "Medicaid
insures historic number." ... "The nation has so
vastly extended taxpayer-funded Medicaid to the working poor this decade
that it has produced the biggest expansion of a government entitlement
since the Great Society was launched in the 1960s, a USA TODAY analysis
has found." ... "With little notice, the medical care program paid by federal
and state taxpayers has grown from covering 34 million people in 1999 to
47 million in 2004, an examination of government data shows." ... "About
100 million people — 1 in 3 — now have government coverage through Medicaid,
Medicare, the military and federal employee health plans. More than 10
million others are eligible for Medicaid but have not signed up." -By
Dennis Cauchon -USATODAY
-
-
- WalMart
- "Welfare
reform opens Medicaid to millions." ... "The expansion
of Medicaid to cover the working poor has fundamentally broadened the nation's
safety net and changed the lives of low-wage workers in the USA. It also
has put enormous strain on federal and state finances and made taxpayers
the health insurance provider for millions of workers at Wal-Mart, McDonald's
and other low-wage employers." ... "Medicaid and the related Children's
Health Insurance Program covered an average of 46.8 million Americans a
day in 2004, up more than 13 million from when welfare reform passed in
1997. The program covered 61 million people at some time during 2004, nearly
20 million more than in 1997." -By Dennis Cauchon
-USATODAY
OR
- Salem
-
- Drugs
- "Prescriptions
for cold pills to fight meth OK'd by Ore. Senate."
... "A plan to make Oregon the first state to require a doctor's prescription
for many cold and allergy relief medicines was approved Saturday by the
[Salem] Oregon Senate with the aim of shutting down methamphetamine labs
around the state." ... "The bill was endorsed despite complaints that the
requirement will put a hardship on law-abiding citizens who can't afford
doctor visits." ... "But backers called it a necessary step to help curb
availability of ingredients used to make a drug that's ruining lives —
especially those of children who are exposed to toxic chemicals and neglect
in homes used as meth labs." -By Brad Cain
-AP via -kgw.com
-
- Stem
Cells - "Frist,
Bush split on stem cell stance." ... "Senate Majority
Leader Bill Frist's dramatic decision to break with the White House by
supporting expanded federal funding for embryonic stem cell research exposed
a deep split among Republicans and set the stage for President Bush's first
veto." ... ""I am pro-life, I believe human life begins at conception,"
the transplant surgeon said. "I also believe that embryonic stem cell research
should be encouraged and supported."" ... "Republican strategist Charlie
Black estimates a quarter to a third of the GOP disagree with Bush on stem
cell research. But some conservatives call Frist's reasoning contradictory
and warn that he may regret his words if, as many expect, he runs for president
in 2008." -By Andrea Stone and Judy Keen
-USATODAY
OR
- Salem
-
- Drugs
- "Oregon
anti-meth law would require prescriptions." ... "A
bill passed by lawmakers on Saturday would make Oregon the first U.S. state
to require a doctor's prescription for cold medicines containing an ingredient
that can be used to make the illegal drug methamphetamine." ... "The bills
passed by the [Salem] Oregon Senate and House of Representatives also would
toughen penalties for meth-related crimes." -Reuters
- 
-
- Psychology
- "Survey:
30% of returning Iraq vets suffer mental ills." ...
"Thirty percent of U.S. troops surveyed have developed stress-related mental
health problems three to four months after coming home from the Iraq war,
the Army's surgeon general said Thursday." ... "The survey of 1,000 troops
found problems including anxiety, depression, nightmares, anger and an
inability to concentrate, said Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley and other military
medical officials. A smaller number of troops, often with more severe symptoms,
were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, a serious
mental illness." ... "Military medical officials, however, cautioned against
people reading their data as suggesting the war had driven so many soldiers
over the edge. Instead, they characterized the anxiety and stress as normal
reactions to combat, seeing dead and mutilated bodies, and feeling helpless
to stop a violent situation." -AP
via-USATODAY
OR
- Salem
- - Drugs
- "House
passes bill to toughen penalties for meth-related crimes."
... "A bill to toughen punishments for methamphetamine-related crimes was
overwhelmingly passed Wednesday by the [Salem, Oregon] House, sending the
measure to Gov. Ted Kulongoski." ... "The other bill in the meth package,
which also has passed the House, would make Oregon the first state to require
prescriptions for cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, which can
be made into meth." -By Niki Sullivan
-AP via -OregonLive.com
-
-
-
- 
-
- Animals
- Food
- "WHO
Presses China Over Bird Flu Samples." ... "Chinese
authorities have yet to release samples gathered in the western province
of Qinghai, where at least 6,000 migratory birds have died, Wadia said."
... "Over the last two years, hundreds of millions of birds, including
poultry and wild birds, have died or been slaughtered across Asia because
of the H5N1 bird flu virus, which also has infected some humans, killing
more than 55 people in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia, which
reported three new human deaths from bird flu Wednesday." ... "Health experts
have warned that migratory geese and gulls in Qinghai could be poised to
spread the virus to India, Australia, New Zealand and eventually Europe
when they fly south this summer." -By Alexa Olesen
-AP via -WashingtonPost
-
-
-
- Animals
- Food
- Genetics
- "China
holding out on bird flu." ... "The Chinese government
has not provided information requested urgently by international health
experts about recent avian flu outbreaks in birds, which now threaten to
spread the highly lethal virus to previously unaffected countries, according
to UN officials and independent researchers." ... "World Health Organization
officials and other international health organizations have asked the Chinese
government for details about three outbreaks in the remote western provinces
of Qinghai and Xinjiang. In seeking to head off a potential human pandemic,
international health experts said they require samples of the bird flu
virus, analyses of its genetic makeup and specifics about the extent of
the infection and efforts to contain it."-WashingtonPost
via -Newsday.com
-
-
-
- Drugs
-
- "Protesters
in China get angrier and bolder." ... "The police
began deploying in large numbers before dusk Monday, but the angry villagers
had already made their moves. They had learned their lessons after studying
reports of riots that had swept rural China in recent months. Sneaking
over mountain paths and wading through rice paddies, they made their way
to a pharmaceuticals plant, they said, for a showdown over the environmental
threat they say it poses." ... "As many as 15,000 people massed here on
Sunday night and fought with the authorities, overturning police cars and
throwing stones, undeterred by thick clouds of tear gas." ... "The riots
in Xinchang are part of a rising tide of discontent in China, with the
number of mass protests like these reaching 74,000 last year from about
10,000 a decade earlier, according to government figures. The details have
varied from incident to incident, but the recent wave of protests shares
a foundation of accumulated anger over the failure of China's political
system to respond to legitimate grievances and defiance of the local authorities,
who are often seen as corrupt." -By Howard W. French
-NYTimes via -IHT.com
John
G. Roberts Jr. - Sandra
Day O'Connor -
-
-
- Abortion
-
- "News
Analysis: Bush aims to disarm opposition." ... "With
his nomination of Judge John Roberts Jr. to the Supreme Court, President
George W. Bush has moved to plant the conservative imprint on the high
court that has been a central aim of his presidency, but with a choice
designed to frustrate any Democratic effort to block Bush's replacement
for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor." ... "As a judge for only two years on
the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit,
Roberts has a limited judicial record, which Democrats said would complicate
their hopes of mounting a filibuster against him." ... "But abortion rights
groups immediately cited support that Roberts had given to briefs opposing
the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. The briefs were filed
on behalf of the administration of Bush's father, when Roberts was the
deputy solicitor general." -By Adam Nagourney
-NYTimes via -IHT.com
John
G. Roberts Jr. -
-
-
- Abortion
- "Clues
sought in Roberts' legal record." ... "John Roberts'
legal career includes a stint at the Justice Department as principal deputy
solicitor general during the administration of President Bush's father,
13 years in private practice and two years on the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the District of Columbia Circuit." ... "Roberts helped write a 1990
Supreme Court brief in Rust v. Sullivan that said, "We continue to believe
that Roe (v. Wade) was wrongly decided and should be overruled." The court
did not address that issue, but sided with the Justice Department in ruling
that doctors and clinics receiving federal funds could not talk to patients
about abortion." ... "On another abortion-related issue, Roberts co-authored
a government brief saying that even though Operation Rescue sought to prevent
women from obtaining abortions by obstructing access to clinics, the group
wasn't subject to lawsuits under federal civil rights law because the organization
had not engaged in a conspiracy targeting women because of their gender."
-AP via -USATODAY
John
G. Roberts Jr. -
-
-
- Marketing
- "Court
Nominee Heads To The Hill." ... "Abortion surfaced
quickly as a flash point." ... "NARAL-Pro Choice America announced its
opposition to Roberts even before Mr. Bush formally made his selection
public in a prime time televised White House appearance on Tuesday. The
group planned an "emergency demonstration" against the nomination across
the street from the Capitol at midday." ... "On the on the other side of
the political equation, Progress For America called a news conference to
announce a television commercial to begin running soon. The group, which
coordinates its efforts with presidential aides, pledged in advance to
spend at least $18 million on advertising and grass roots activities to
buttress the confirmation prospects of whomever Mr. Bush chose." (1, 2)
Contributions by -AP-CBSNews
John
G. Roberts Jr. -
- Abortion
- "Roberts
Meets Senators From Both Parties." ... "Supreme Court
nominee John G. Roberts paid courtesy calls on key senators Wednesday as
the White House rolled out a methodical campaign to secure his confirmation
and Democrats posed their first probing questions." ... ""No one is entitled
to a free pass to a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court," said Vermont
Sen. Patrick Leahy, senior Democrat on the committee that will question
the 50-year-old appeals court judge later this summer." ... "Abortion and
access to internal government memos loomed as likely flash points as Democrats
pointed toward the nationally televised proceedings." -By
Deb Riechmann -AP
via -SFGate.com
-
-
-
- "Survey:
25,000 civilians killed in Iraq war: 42,500 injuries
also recorded by Iraq Body Count." ... ""The Iraq Body Count -- a London-based
group comprising academics and human rights and anti-war activists -- said
on Tuesday that 24,865 civilians had died between March 20, 2003 and March
19, 2005." ... "The U.S. military in Iraq reacted to the report by saying
that "coalition forces have not targeted the Iraqi civilian population
during Operation Iraqi Freedom."" ... "The [Iraqi] prime minister's office
Tuesday said that:" ... ""The Iraqi Ministry of Health continually counts
the number of civilians killed and wounded and their most recent figures
show that 6,629 Iraqi civilians were killed and 23,838 wounded between
April 2004 and April 2005." ... ""Figures from the Ministry of the Interior,
which include casualties from Iraq's armed forces, show that 8,175 Iraqis
were killed in the 10 months between July 2004 and May 2005.""
-CNN
Alabama
- Georgia
-
-
-
- Gay
- "Rudolph
Gets Two Life Terms for Alabama Abortion Clinic Bombing."
... "Eric Rudolph was sentenced today to two life terms in prison for a
1998 bombing that killed an off- duty police officer and maimed a nurse
at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama." ... "U.S. District Judge
Lynwood Smith sentenced Rudolph, 38, who pleaded guilty on April 13 to
the Birmingham bombing. On the same day, Rudolph admitted setting off three
bombs in Georgia, including one at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta that
killed a spectator. He also admitted setting off bombs at an abortion clinic
in Sandy Springs, Georgia, and a gay nightclub in Atlanta." -By
David Voreacos -Bloomberg
-
- London
bombings
- "Hundreds
treated following blasts: Hospitals across London
have treated significant numbers of casualties after blasts killed at least
38 people." ... "Police said 700 people were hurt in the four explosions,
300 of whom were taken to hospital by ambulance. Of these, 95 were left
seriously injured." ... "Wounded people were assessed at triage minor injuries
sites set up near the blasts, with the most serious being taken to nearby
hospitals." ... "Public buses also took some of the wounded to hospital."
... "Many hospitals put their major incident plans into operation immediately
after the blasts." ... "Under the measures, hospitals can call in off-duty
staff and halt non-urgent surgery to free up theatres."-BBC
/News
- Transportation
-
-
-
- "Four
London Blasts Kill 40, Injure 700." ... "Four explosions
rocked the London subway and tore open a packed double-decker bus during
the morning rush hour Thursday, sending bloodied victims fleeing in the
worst attack on London since World War II. At least 40 people were killed,
U.S. officials said, and more than 700 were wounded." ... "The four blasts
went off within an hour, beginning at 8:51 a.m. (3:51 a.m. EDT), and hit
three subway stations and the double-decker bus. Authorities immediately
shut down the subway and bus lines that log 8.4 million passenger trips
every weekday." ... "As the city's transportation system ground to a near-halt,
buses were used as ambulances and an emergency medical station was set
up at a hotel. Rescue workers, police and ordinary citizens streamed into
the streets to help." -By Jane Wardell with contributions
by Jill Lawless, Barry Renfrew, Emily Rotberg, Sarah Blaskovich, Emma Ross
and Nick Mead -AP
via -Guardian.co.uk
-
-
- "Future
of abortion uncertain: With Supreme Court vacancy,
activists on both sides mobilize." ... "With the future of abortion law
hanging on the next few Supreme Court appointments, the resignation of
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has pushed activists on both sides of the national
divide into high gear." ... ""Abortion rights and women's rights are on
the line," said a mass fundraising e-mail sent out by the Feminist Majority
over the weekend, while the liberal lobby MoveOn.org said it aimed to deliver
250,000 signatures by Tuesday on an emergency petition asking U.S. senators
to help preserve the right to terminate a pregnancy." ... "At the same
time, the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group, said
it would mobilize 20,000 churches across the country in an attempt to change
the direction of the court. Another conservative group called Progress
for America launched an $18 million advertising campaign in support of
new justices who would overturn rulings it opposes. Chief among those is
Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right
to abortion." (1, 2)
-By Judy Peres -ChicagoTribune
- "Indonesia
polio cases reach 100: A further 21 cases of polio
have been found in Indonesia, bringing the total to 100, the WHO has said."
... "Twenty of the new cases are in Banten, West Java, the location of
the first case in the current outbreak." ... "Officials believe the outbreak
can be traced to Nigeria, where vaccinations were suspended in 2003 after
radical clerics said they were a US plot." ... "Polio is still endemic
in six countries - Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Nigeria, Niger and Pakistan."-BBC
/News
- West
Nile Virus News - "Possible
West Nile human case found in E. Wash.." ... "Health
officials confirmed late Friday what is the first possible human case of
West Nile virus in Washington State." -By KREM via
-KGW.com
- West
Nile Virus News - "First
West Nile virus case in state feared." ... "A woman
from the Spokane area has tested positive for the West Nile virus, apparently
becoming the first known case of the virus infecting a human in Washington,
according to the state Health Department."-SeattlePI.NWsource
-
-
- Drugs
- "Canada
to ban bulk drug exports, allow Internet sales."
... "Canada's health minister announced plans Wednesday to ban bulk exports
of prescription drugs to the U.S. but stopped short of cracking down on
the brisk cross-border trade in medications for American citizens." ...
"Nearly 2 million Americans order prescription drugs from Canada each year,
realizing savings of 20 percent to 80 percent off drug prices in this country.
All together, Canada's Internet pharmacies rack up annual sales of about
$1 billion, with another $500 million coming from so-called foot traffic
across the border." -By Judith Graham
-ChicagoTribune
-
-
- "Where's
The Apology? Bending the Facts on Schiavo." ... "We
are entitled to our moral, ethical and philosophical commitments. We are
not entitled to our own facts." ... "So why is this basic rule of argument
often ignored by politicians whose certainty about their righteousness
convinces them that they can say absolutely anything to further their causes?"
... "The autopsy in the Terri Schiavo case provides a rare moment of political
accountability. We should not "move on," as Senate Majority Leader Bill
Frist suggested. No, we cannot move on until those politicians who felt
entitled to make up facts and toss around unwarranted conclusions about
Schiavo's condition take responsibility for what they said -- and apologize."
(1, 2)
-By E. J. Dionne Jr. -WashingtonPost
-
- Tom
DeLay -
"Schiavo
autopsy results reach a divided Congress." ... "Conservative
lawmakers, led by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, joined Schiavo's
parents and their supporters in March in their fight to prolong her life
over the objections of her husband Michael. The controversy evoked emotional
rhetoric: DeLay called the court-ordered removal of Schiavo's feeding tube
an "act of barbarism."" ... "The autopsy said she had irreversible brain
damage, was blind and couldn't respond to visual stimulus." -By
Andrea Stone -USATODAY
-
- Psychology
- "Schiavo
autopsy shows irreversible brain damage: Parents
who fought feeding tube removal to consider legal options." ... "An autopsy
on Terri Schiavo backed her husband's contention that she was in a persistent
vegetative state, finding that she had massive and irreversible brain damage
and was blind, the medical examiner's office said Wednesday. It also found
no evidence that she was strangled or otherwise abused."
-AP via -MSNBC
- Psychology
- "Schiavo
parents reject autopsy results." ... "The autopsy
results, released Wednesday, could not determine what caused the collapse
15 years ago of the woman who became the focus of the right-to-die debate."
... ""The brain weighed 615 grams, roughly half of the expected weight
of a human brain," said Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Jon Thogmartin."
... ""This damage was irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment
would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons," he said."
-CBC.ca
-
- Autos
- "GM
Plans to Cut 25,000 U.S. Jobs by 2008." ... "General
Motors Corp. plans to eliminate 25,000 jobs in the United States by 2008
and to close plants as part of a strategy to revive its struggling North
American operations." ... "Speaking to shareholders at GM's 96th annual
shareholder meeting in Delaware Tuesday morning, Chairman and Chief Executive
Rick Wagoner said the capacity and job cuts will generate annual savings
of roughly $2.5 billion." ... "He noted that the company's current $1,500
per worker health-care expense puts GM at a "significant disadvantage versus
foreign-based competitors," and said GM has conducted "intense discussions"
with the unions about how to reduce health-care costs." -By John Porreto
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
- Drugs
- "Court
rules medical marijuana laws don't shield users."
... "Federal authorities may prosecute sick people who smoke marijuana
for medicinal purposes, even in states that have legalized the practice,
the Supreme Court ruled Monday." ... "The court, in a 6-3 decision, concluded
that state laws don't protect users from a federal ban on the drug. The
decision is a stinging defeat for marijuana advocates who had successfully
pushed 10 states to allow the drug's use to treat various illnesses." ...
"Justice John Paul Stevens, writing the decision, said that Congress could
change the law to allow medical use of marijuana." -Contributed
to by Richard Willing and the -AP
/ -USATODAY
- Netherlands
-
-
- "Second
Sudan aid worker arrested: An aid official has been
detained in Sudan's Darfur region, a day after his director was charged
with spying and spreading false information." ... "Vince Hoedt, Darfur
co-ordinator for the Dutch section of Medecins Sans Frontieres has not
yet been charged." ... "MSF Sudan director Paul Foreman was arrested on
Monday and later released on bail, over a report on rape." ... "The Sudanese
authorities deny accusations that they back the Arab Janjaweed militias
alleged to have committed widespread atrocities, such as mass killings
and mass rape." -BBC
/News
-
- "Indonesia
starts anti-polio blitz: Indonesia has begun a campaign
to vaccinate 6.4m children against polio in two days." ... "The country
is suffering its first outbreak of the disease for nearly a decade, with
16 cases reported so far." ... "The disease, spread by contaminated water,
is incurable and causes paralysis and sometimes death." ... "Indonesia
first detected a case in West Java province, 120km (75 miles) east of the
capital, Jakarta, last month."-BBC
/News
-
- STEM
CELL NEWS - "House
passes stem cell research bill." ... "Ignoring President
Bush's veto threat, the House voted Tuesday to lift limits on embryonic
stem cell research, a measure supporters said could accelerate cures for
diseases but opponents viewed as akin to abortion." ... "Bush called the
bill a mistake and said he would veto it. The House approved it by a 238-194
vote, far short of the two-thirds majority that would be needed to override
a veto." -AP
via -USATODAY
- Psychology
- "APA:
First Graders' Behavior Problems Linked to Caffeinated Cola."
... "Children who are inattentive, restless, and having difficulty sleeping
may be reacting to the caffeinated cola drinks in the school vending machine
or the home refrigerator." ... "First-graders have more behavior problems
on the days that they are exposed to caffeinated colas than on the days
that they have caffeine-free drinks, according to Chicago investigators
who reported today to the American Psychiatric Association meeting here."
... ["These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary
as they have not yet been reviewed and published in a peer-reviewed publication."
... "Primary source: American Psychiatric Association, 158th annual meeting.
Abstract #NR45."] -By Paula Moyer
-MedPageToday.com
Connecticut
-
-
-
-
- "Conn.
Nears Strict School Junk Food Ban: Connecticut Lawmakers
on the Verge of Adopting Most Far-Reaching School Junk Food Ban in U.S."
... "Connecticut is on the verge of adopting the most far-reaching ban
in the country on soda and junk food in public schools, in an effort to
curb rising rates of childhood obesity." ... "Advocates say Connecticut's
ban would be the strongest because it is so broad, applying to all grades
and all school sites where food is sold." (1, 2)
-By Noreen Gillespie -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
- Psychology
- Gay
- "Psychiatrists
May Push for Gay Marriage OK: Psychiatric Group Moves
Toward Statement Calling for Recognition of Gay Marriage." ... "Representatives
of the nation's top psychiatric group approved a statement Sunday urging
legal recognition of gay marriage. If approved by the association's directors
in July, the measure would make the American Psychiatric Association the
first major medical group to take such a stance." -By
Doug Gross -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
-
- Cloning
- Stem
Cells
- "Stem-cell
research surges ahead of lawmakers: Researchers announce
a significant breakthrough as US House is about to consider reversing a
stem-cell ban." ... "In what many are calling a breakthrough, an international
team of scientists for the first time has produced human embryonic stem
cells genetically matched to specific people diagnosed with diseases. They
hope the advance will one day lead to growing replacement tissue to treat
specific maladies." ... "The technique, which involves cloning, will find
its most immediate use as a powerful research tool, scientists say. An
enormous amount of work remains to be done to determine if embryonic stem
cells can be used to treat injuries or illnesses." -By
Peter N. Spotts -CSMonitor
-
- Cloning
- Stem
Cells
- Genetics
- "Scientists
Clone Stem Cells From Human Patients." ... "South
Korean scientists have surmounted a key hurdle in stem cell research, reporting
today that they have produced 11 human embryo clones of injured or sick
patients and harvested individualized stem cells in a process that could
be used to treat patients with their own genetically matched tissues."
... "The technique, reported by the same team that produced the first human
embryo clones last year, also produced the stem cells with a much higher
level of efficiency than in the past, boosting the technology well into
the realm of medical therapy." ... "If the technique can be replicated
in other labs, scientists said they could create individualized lines of
stem cells to produce tissues suitable for transplants without running
the risk of rejection." (1, 2)
-By Karen Kaplan-LAtimes
- Psychology
- "Sexual
Orientation: In The Brain." ... "Scientists trying
to sniff out biological differences between gay and straight men have found
new evidence — in scent." ... "It turns out that sniffing a chemical from
testosterone, the male sex hormone, causes a response in the sexual area
of gay men's brains, just as it does in the brains of straight women, but
not in the brains of straight men." ... "In a separate study looking at
people's response to the body odors of others, researchers in Philadelphia
found sharp differences between gay and straight men and women." (1, 2)
-By Randolph E. Schmid -AP
via -CBSNews
-
- Food
- Mother's-Day
- "Getting
fast-food critics on the team." ... "For 28 years,
Dr. Dean Ornish has been trying to persuade people to make their eating
habits more healthy." ... "In his five books, he champions low-fat diets;
he was one of the first researchers to show that stringent healthy eating
could reverse chronic illness, particularly heart disease. Among his advice
to patients is to eat a lot of vegetables and minimally processed foods
and to avoid all things greasy." ... "Yet Ornish also works for McDonald's.
As a paid consultant, he meets with top executives, gives talks to employees
and recently wrote nutritional words of wisdom about diet and breast cancer
for table displays to go into all McDonald's restaurants in the United
States for Mother's Day on Sunday." ... "He is not the only one straddling
this line between science and commerce." -By Melanie
Warner -IHT.com
via -NYTimes
Florida
-
-
- "Florida
Drops Effort to Block Abortion for 13-Year-Old."
... "After first resisting a judge's order to allow a 13-year-old in state
custody to get an abortion, [Florida] Gov. Jeb Bush's administration changed
course today and said it would abandon the legal fight." ... "The reversal
came a week after state lawyers sought an emergency injunction in Palm
Beach County Circuit Court to stop the girl, identified as L. G., from
having an abortion later that day. Judge Ronald Alvarez agreed to delay
the procedure while he weighed the case, but ruled Monday that the girl
was competent to make decisions about her pregnancy and free to do so under
the state's Constitution." -By Abby Goodnough
-NYTimes
- 
-
- Psychology
- EMail
- "E-mails
'hurt IQ more than pot'." ... "Workers distracted
by phone calls, e-mails and text messages suffer a greater loss of IQ than
a person smoking marijuana, a British study shows." ... "The constant interruptions
reduce productivity and leave people feeling tired and lethargic, according
to a survey carried out by TNS Research and commissioned by Hewlett Packard."-CNN
-
- Food
- "Government
Issues 12 New Food Pyramids: Out With the Old Food
Pyramid, in With 12 New Ones As Government Re-Evaluates Dietary Guidelines."
... "The government flipped the 13-year-old food pyramid on its side Tuesday,
added a staircase for exercise and offered a dozen different models, all
aimed at helping Americans trim their waistlines." ... "Criticism of the
new pyramid stood in contrast to praise that greeted the more detailed
"Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005," released by the government in
January. Developed by a panel of scientists and doctors using the latest
research, the 70-page booklet served as the basis for the pyramid's makeover."
... "The guidelines' message was to choose foods packed with the most nutrition
and the least calories; for example, bread made from whole-grain flour
instead of white flour." (1, 2,
3)
-By Libby Quaid with contributions by John Heilprin
-AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
- Psychology
- "The
Bully Blight: Scientists find that getting picked
on is more harmful than anyone knew." ... "Bullies have lurked in hallways
and on playgrounds ever since history's first day of school, and until
recently, dealing with them was considered just another painfully useful
life lesson. But that attitude is changing. In 2002 the American Medical
Association warned that bullying is a public-health issue with long-term
mental-health consequences for both bullies and their victims. Just last
month UCLA researchers published two new studies showing that bullying
is much more widespread and harmful than anyone knew." ... "subsequently
lead to more victimization." The studies also indicate that schools take
too narrow a view of what constitutes bullying." (1, 2)
-By Michael D. Lemonick
with contributions by Elizabeth Coady, Avery Holton, Sora Song, and Sonja
Steptoe -TIME.com
-
- 
- 
- "Deadly
Flu Virus Shipments Missing." ... "Health experts
have destroyed two-thirds of the specimens of a killer influenza virus
sent as part of routine test kits around the world, the U.N. health agency
said Friday. It said it was still trying to trace two shipments that were
supposed to go to Mexico and Lebanon." ... "The World Health Organization
has been urging thousands of labs in 18 countries which received vials
of the nearly 50-year-old H2N2 virus to destroy the samples amid fears
of a global pandemic should the virus be released." (1, 2)
-AP
via -CBSNews
Tom
DeLay -
- 
-
-
-
-
- "DeLay
under fire: What's at stake." ... "DeLay has been
admonished more by the House Ethics Committee than any sitting member of
Congress." ... "Last year, the bipartisan panel — the only House committee
with equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats — unanimously criticized
DeLay for three things. It said a golf fundraiser with executives of an
energy company created the appearance that he was giving donors special
access. It said he improperly tried to have the Federal Aviation Administration
find Texas legislators who were hiding in Oklahoma to thwart action on
his plan to redraw the state's congressional districts. And it said he
promised a retiring House Republican he would endorse the man's son to
succeed him if he voted for Bush's Medicare drug plan." ... "In 1999, the
committee warned DeLay after he threatened the Electronic Industries Alliance,
a trade group, for hiring a former Democratic congressman as its president.
And it cautioned him in 1997 about creating the impression that campaign
contributions would bring "official action or access."" ... "In addition,
two investigations — one in Texas, the other in Washington— are targeting
close DeLay allies." -By Kathy Kiely and Jim Drinkard
with contributions by Jill Lawrence -USATODAY
-
- New_Jersey
- "Nation's
largest terror drill begins: Organizers of the $16
million mock disaster view failure as a way to learn." ... "The biggest
anti-terrorism drill ever held in the United States got under way Monday
with a mock biological attack in New Jersey and a simulated chemical-weapons
explosion in Connecticut." ... "Named TOPOFF 3, the $16 million, weeklong
exercise is meant to find weak spots in the nation's emergency planning."
-By Wayne Parry -AP
via -HoustonChronicle.com
-
-
-
- Ashland
- "Choosing
their time: The next contentious end-of-life issue:
assisted suicide. How Oregon offers a way out." ... "Steve Mason is ready
for death. Since last December, the 65-year-old writer has kept four small
bottles of clear liquid Nembutal-- a lethal dose of barbiturates--in his
Ashland, Ore., condominium." ... "And at some point in the next few months,
when terminal lung cancer has spread to his liver or brain, when his breath
is short and he feels too sick to eat or sleep, he will pick a day to gather
close friends and family about him. He will give away his belongings and
say his goodbyes. "It will be a celebration of life," Mason predicts."
... "A continent away from the political battle that has surrounded Terri
Schiavo, a radical experiment in end-of--life policy has unfolded much
more quietly over the past seven years. Oregon's Death with Dignity Act,
twice approved in statewide voter referendums, is the only statute in the
U.S. allowing doctors to write lethal prescriptions for terminally ill
patients who want to control the time and place of their death." -By
Margot Roosevelt -CNN
-
- "Why
Oregon is at the forefront of change on end-of-life care."
... "The Terri Schiavo case and its emphasis on end-of-life care could
put a spotlight on Oregon, where policies and practices point to a future
most Americans apparently want and are working toward: personal decision-making,
widely available hospice care, and the final act of human life played out
at home and not in a hospital." ... "In all these areas, studies show,
Oregon is ahead of the rest of the country." -By Brad
Knickerbocker -CSMonitor
Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Animals
- Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment
- "Human
damage to Earth worsening fast-report." ... "Humans
are damaging the planet at an unprecedented rate and raising risks of abrupt
collapses in nature that could spur disease, deforestation or "dead zones"
in the seas, an international report said on Wednesday." ... "The study,
by 1,360 experts in 95 nations, said a rising human population had polluted
or over-exploited two thirds of the ecological systems on which life depends,
ranging from clean air to fresh water, in the past 50 years." ... "Ten
to 30 percent of mammal, bird and amphibian species were already threatened
with extinction, according to the assessment, the biggest review of the
planet's life support systems." -By Alister Doyle
-Reuters
via -AlertNet.org
/Newsdesk
- -
-
-
-
-
-
- Food
- Animals
- Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment
- "U.N.
Study: Earth's Health Deteriorating: U.N. Study Warns
Growing Populations, Economic Activity Have Strained the Earth's Ecosystems."
... "Unless nations adopt more eco-friendly policies, increased human demands
for food, clean water and fuels could speed the disappearance of forests,
fish and fresh water reserves and lead to more frequent disease outbreaks
over the next 50 years, it warned." (1, 2)
-By Catherine McAloon with contributions by Kenji
Hall -AP via
-ABCNEWS.com
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Food
- Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment
- "Study
highlights global decline." ... "The most comprehensive
survey ever into the state of the planet concludes that human activities
threaten the Earth's ability to sustain future generations." ... "The report
says the way society obtains its resources has caused irreversible changes
that are degrading the natural processes that support life on Earth." ...
"This will compromise efforts to address hunger, poverty and improve healthcare."
... "The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was drawn up by 1,300 researchers
from 95 nations over a period of four years." ... "It reports that humans
have changed most ecosystems beyond recognition in a dramatically short
space of time." ... "The way society has sourced its food, fresh water,
timber, fibre and fuel over the past 50 years has seriously degraded the
environment, the assessment (MA) concludes." -By Jonathan
Amos -BBC
/News
-
-
- Food
- "Oregon
moves to limit junk food in schools." ... "Oregon's
state legislature is considering putting limits on sales of soda pop, candy
and other junk food in public schools, saying that such food is part of
the reason that too many U.S. children are obese."
-Reuters via -CNN
- -
- Tom
DeLay
- "DeLay's
Own Tragic Crossroads: Family of the lawmaker
involved in the Schiavo case decided in '88 to let his comatose father
die." ... "Today, as House Majority Leader, DeLay has teamed with his Senate
counterpart, Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), to champion political intervention in
the Schiavo case. They pushed emergency legislation through Congress to
shift the legal case from Florida state courts to the federal judiciary."
... "And DeLay is among the strongest advocates of keeping the woman, who
doctors say has been in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years, connected
to her feeding tube. DeLay has denounced Schiavo's husband, as well as
judges, for committing what he calls "an act of barbarism" in removing
the tube." ... "In 1988, however, there was no such fiery rhetoric as the
congressman quietly joined the sad family consensus to let his father die."
-By Walter F. Roche Jr. and Sam Howe Verhovek-LAtimes
-
- "Poll:
Keep Feeding Tube Out." ... "Americans have strong
feelings about the Terri Schiavo case, and a majority says the feeding
tube should not now be re-inserted. This view is shared by Americans of
all political persuasions. Most think the feeding tube should have been
removed, and most also do not think the U.S. Supreme Court should hear
the case." ... "An overwhelming 82 percent of the public believes the Congress
and President should stay out of the matter. There is widespread cynicism
about Congress' motives for getting involved: 74 percent say Congress intervened
to advance a political agenda, not because they cared what happened to
Terri Schiavo. Public approval of Congress has suffered as a result; at
34 percent, it is the lowest it has been since 1997, dropping from 41 percent
last month. Now at 43 percent, President Bush’s approval rating is also
lower than it was a month ago."
-CBSNews
-
-
-
-
-
- Secrets
- "New
EPA Mercury Rule Omits Conflicting Data: Study Called
Stricter Limits Cost-Effective." ... "When the Environmental Protection
Agency unveiled a rule last week to limit mercury emissions from U.S. power
plants, officials emphasized that the controls could not be more aggressive
because the cost to industry already far exceeded the public health payoff."
... "What they did not reveal is that a Harvard University study paid for
by the EPA, co-authored by an EPA scientist and peer-reviewed two other
EPA scientists had reached the opposite conclusion." ... "That analysis
estimated health benefits 100 times as great as the EPA did, but top agency
officials ordered the finding stripped from public documents, said a staff
member who helped develop the rule. Acknowledging the Harvard study would
have forced the agency to consider more stringent controls, said environmentalists
and the study's author." (1, 2)
-By Shankar Vedantam -WashingtonPost
Tom
DeLay -
-
-
- "DeLay
And Company: The G.O.P. leader's troubles mount,
with new questions about his dealings with the former aide who helped build
his political machine." ... "Ed Buckham's name was one you didn't hear
much outside the secluded corridor where he worked on the first floor of
the Capitol." ... "Thanks to an unusually close and trusting relationship
with his boss, Tom DeLay's chief of staff quietly became one of the most
powerful people in Washington " ... "Buckham shared not only DeLay's religious
faith but also his audacious vision for harnessing the financial and political
clout of business and conservative interests to carry out the G.O.P. agenda
and increase its majority in Congress. DeLay offered lobbyists the best
seats they had ever had at the table, a say in legislative and political
strategy, on the understanding that they in return would pour millions
into DeLay's favored causes and candidates. In addition, he threatened
to shut out lobbying shops that employed Democrats. In Washington that
seamless coordination between his office and the lobbying corridor of K
Street has become known as DeLay Inc. It developed the muscle to push or
block pretty much everything DeLay asked for, from protecting tax breaks
for low-wage garment manufacturers on the Northern Mariana Islands (where
DeLay spent New Year's Day 1998 with his wife and Buckham) to creating
a Medicare prescription-drug plan that critics say is a better deal for
pharmaceutical companies than it is for seniors." -By
Karen Tumulty
-TIME.com
-
- "Report:
Chrysler wins health savings: UAW agrees to deductibles
for 35,000 employees, retirees, saving Chrysler tens of millions: report."
... "Chrysler Group has won changes from the United Auto Workers union
that will save it tens of millions of dollars in health costs, while costing
employees and their family up to $1,000 in health care deductibles, according
to a published report." -CNN/Money
-
-
-
- Psychology-
"Study
links mercury from power plants to autism." ... "After
years of debate about whether a nationwide explosion in autism is related
to a mercury-based preservative used in vaccines, Texas researchers have
found a new suspect: mercury from coal-burning power plants." ... "In a
new study, scientists at the University of Texas Health Science Center
at San Antonio are reporting a strong correlation between higher mercury
release levels and the developmental disorder marked by communication and
social interaction problems." ... "The study was undertaken amid uncertainty
about a dramatic increase in autism. Once thought to occur in 1 of every
10,000 children, today it is estimated to afflict as many as 1 in 250."
... "The still poorly understood disorder has a strong genetic component,
but the increase in cases has fueled theories the environment is playing
a role. To some, mercury, a neurotoxin that affects the brain, spinal cord,
kidneys and liver, made logical sense ." -By Todd
Ackerman -HoustonChronicle.com
-
-
-
- "Could
cuts in emissions come faster?" ... "Deep in the
Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia sits a giant coal-fired power plant
aptly named Mount Storm - a 1,600-megawatt goliath that just a few years
ago ranked second in the nation in toxic mercury emissions." ... "Today,
however, the plant is turning over a new leaf. Since new pollution controls
were bolted onto the plant, sulfur dioxide (SOX) and nitrogen oxides (NOX)
are now scrubbed out of its smokestack emissions. The even better news
is that a lot of mercury is being captured, too, scrubbed out at the same
time at no extra cost, a company official says." ... "The plant's success
casts an odd light on the nation's new Clean Air Mercury Rule, announced
Tuesday. If existing technology can remove the lion's share of mercury
emitted at a majority of today's power plants, why does the new law wait
until 2018 to impose similarly stringent limits?" ... "That's what environmentalists
are asking." -By Mark Clayton -CSMonitor
- Anthrax
News
- "Anthrax
scare a false alarm." ... "The working theory is
that workers at the initial laboratory [that tested for anthrax], Commonwealth
Biotechnology Inc. in Richmond, Va., contaminated the sample taken from
the Pentagon with actual anthrax that is kept on hand for comparison purposes,
a Homeland Security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said
Wednesday. That would explain why the sample came back as positive for
anthrax." ... "Robert Harris, chief operating officer of Commonwealth Biotechnology,
said it is premature to conclude that there was contamination at his lab
and said testing is ongoing." -AP
via -GlobeAndMail
- Anthrax
News
- "Anthrax
Scare Closes 3 Military Mailrooms." ... "Hundreds
of postal workers were offered antibiotics Tuesday and many were taking
them after initial tests detected anthrax in a pair of military mailrooms.
Nobody reported symptoms of the disease as officials awaited results of
further testing." ... "Three mail facilities were closed —
two that serve the Pentagon and one in Washington that handles mail on
its way to the military as well as all federal offices in the area." -By
Laura Meckler -AP via -SFGate.com
- Anthrax
News
- "Signs
of anthrax detected at two Pentagon mailrooms." ...
"Sensors at two military mail facilities in the Washington area detected
signs of anthrax on two pieces of mail Monday, but Pentagon officials said
the mail had already been irradiated, rendering any anthrax inert."
-AP via -USATODAY
Anthrax
News
- "Hamilton,
N.J., post office reopens after anthrax attacks."
... "The New Jersey post office that handled anthrax-laced letters reopened
Monday morning, nearly 3 1/2 years after the deadly mailings that further
heightened the nation's fears in the weeks after the Sept. 11 terror attacks."
... "The post office was closed on Oct. 18, 2001, after NBC anchor Tom
Brokaw, two U.S. senators and the offices of the New York Post received
anthrax-laced letters that went through Hamilton."
-AP via -USATODAY
- STEM
CELL NEWS - "Stem
cell therapy safety boosted: A new way of growing
human embryonic stem cells in the laboratory will reduce the risk that
their use in therapy could go wrong, say scientists." ... "At present the
cells are cultured using live animal cells which carries the risk of contamination
with viruses and other harmful agents." ... "Researchers at Advanced Cell
Technology in Boston have developed a method which avoids the use of animal
cells." ... "The Advanced Cell Technology team has developed a way to replace
the use of animal cells with a sterile protein matrix." ... "Tests on stem
cells cultured using the new technique for six months showed that they
retained their ability to form different tissues." ... "Dr Stephen Minger
of King's College London, who created the first embryonic stem (ES) cell
line in the UK, said the new work was a step forward." ... "However, he
said that the culture medium was still derived from animal sources." ...
""This might be cell free and serum free, but it is not animal free.""-BBC
/News
-
- GENETICS
- "At-Home
Genetic Testing Raises Questions: Cheap At-Home Genetic
Testing Opens Deep Pandora's Box, Troubling Some Medical Professionals."
... "They are exploiting the blizzard of genetic discoveries reported almost
daily since scientists published the complete map of all human genes five
years ago." ... "The tests are cheap, easy to administer, often just a
cotton swab inside the cheek, and the results are available online, cutting
out the visit to the doctor's office." ... "Plus, the companies note, the
test results aren't usually jotted down on official medical histories,
which keeps sensitive information away from insurance companies." ... "Still,
as the popularity of at-home genetic tests soars, so do questions about
whether they will be correctly interpreted." (1, 2,
3)
-By Paul Elias -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
- Utah
- "Utah
Chemical Spill Forces Evacuations: Toxic Chemical
Spill Forces Evacuation of More Than 6,000 People Near Salt Lake City."
... "Officials were angered that they could not pin down what was in the
tank and the information they were given conflicted with their own observations."
... "The tanker car's manifest said it was sulfuric and hydrofluoric acids;
the company told them it was hydrochloric, hydrofluoric, nitric and sulfuric
acids. Late Sunday, the company corrected itself, saying the contents were
phosphoric, acetic, sulfuric and hydrofluoric acids, and ammonia all at
a concentration of only 10 per cent." ... ""What's concerning to us is
the concentration level," Foote said, saying the waste appeared to be of
a much higher concentration." (1, 2)
-By Leon D'Souza -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
- "Forensic
Identification of 9/11 Victims Ends: More Than 1,000
Victims Unidentified Due to Technological Limits." ... "Shortly after the
9/11 terrorist attacks, authorities said they would continue searching
until they could return to every family something of their lost relative."
... "But now, families of nearly half of the 2,749 who died in the attacks
will soon receive letters from the New York City Medical Examiner's Office
saying it has reached the limits of forensic science for now." ... "Remains
of 57 percent of the victims were identified using DNA, dental records,
or bits of jewelry." (1, 2)
-ABCNEWS.com
-
-
- "Oregon's
assisted-suicide law to get high court airing: Supreme
Court agrees to review Bush administration's bid to block the nation's
only doctor-assisted suicide law." ... "The United States Supreme Court
has agreed to take up physician-assisted suicide, potentially one of the
most profound political and social issues today. The case involves Oregon's
law allowing certain individuals to take their own lives with the help
of a doctor. The outcome could determine whether such laws are enacted
in other parts of the country." ... "Oregon's "Death with Dignity Act"
became law in 1997 after voters twice had approved it at the polls by wide
margins. It applies only to mentally competent adults who declare their
intentions in writing, are diagnosed as terminally ill, and take the prescribed
drug themselves orally after a waiting period. Oregon's law specifically
prohibits "lethal injection, mercy killing, or active euthanasia."" -By
Brad Knickerbocker -CSMonitor
-
-
- GENETICS-
"Senate
OKs ban on genetic discrimination." ... "The Senate
voted Thursday to protect people who are reluctant to have genetic testing
for breast cancer or heart disease because of fears the results might cost
them their jobs or health insurance." ... "Senators voted 98-0 for legislation
prohibiting employers from using genetic information in hiring and firing
decisions and barring insurers from using such information to deny coverage
or raise premiums." ... "In 2003 the Senate, on a 95-0 vote, passed a nearly
identical bill, also sponsored by Snowe, and more than half the House members
agreed to support a companion bill introduced by Rep. Louise Slaughter,
D-N.Y. But the Republican leadership in the House never brought the legislation
to a vote before the full vote." -By Jim Abrams
-AP via -SeattlePI.NWsource
- GENETICS
- "Gene
map opens up uncharted territory: Patterns of genetic
variation could help tailor drug therapy to particular patients." ... "A
map has been unveiled that shows the pattern of genetic variation among
people descended from populations all over the globe. The information should
be a valuable resource for researchers hoping to tailor medicines to individual
patients based on their genes." ... "To construct the map, David Cox of
Perlegen Sciences in Mountain View, California, and his colleagues took
DNA samples from 71 US volunteers descended from European, African and
Chinese populations. They then catalogued the distribution of small genetic
differences called single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)." -By
Michael Hopkin -Nature
-
-
-
- "Bush's
Science Advisor, Congressman Clash Over Computer Models."
... "President Bush's science advisor and a prominent Democratic Member
of Congress sparred publicly this week about the administration's stance
on computer models." ... "Representative Henry Waxman accused the administration
of invoking scientific uncertainty to discredit evidence counter to its
policies." ... "John Marburger, science advisor to the president, responded
that the computer models used to make predictions about climate change
and public health were both ambiguous and prone to group-think errors by
scientists." -By M.L. Baker
-eWEEK
Jim
Nicholson
- Politician
- Lawyer
- Government
- Military
- Health
- "Profile:
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson." ...
"Jim Nicholson, the former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, succeeded Anthony
Principi as secretary of Veterans Affairs." ... "Nicholson, a former Republican
National Committee chairman (1997-01), has served as the ambassador to
the Holy See since August 2001. He graduated from West Point and became
a decorated Vietnam War veteran, lawyer and successful home developer in
Colorado before chairing the RNC." ... "The Department of Veterans Affairs
is the second largest in the federal government, with more than 220,000
employees who oversee health care and benefit programs for the country's
25 million military veterans." -ABCNEWS.com
| http://HavenWorks.com/health/archive/2005 |
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