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Premiums under Affordable Care Act lower than CBO estimated
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WASHINGTON, June 19 (UPI) -- An analysis of the initial health plan filings in nine states finds premium rates appear to be falling below U.S. government estimates, analysts say.
Caroline Pearson, vice president at Avalere Health, a Washington firm that delivers research, analysis, insight and strategy for leaders in healthcare business and policy, said information on the nine states was publicly available and represent a cross section of geography and state size, including two federally facilitated exchanges.
The Avalere Health analysis found under the Affordable Care Act the second-lowest cost, or "Silver," premiums appear to be lower than the Congressional Budget Office estimated.
Premiums for the second-lowest cost plans for a 40-year-old non-smoker range from a low of $205 in one region in Oregon to a high of $413 in another region in Vermont, the analysis said.
The CBO previously projected nationwide the average monthly premium for the second-lowest cost Silver plan would be $433.
Pearson said these Silver premiums for those buying an individual healthcare plan are to be used to set federal premium subsidies. If premiums are lower than projected by the CBO, federal costs for per-person subsidies may be lower than expected, thus saving the federal government money, Pearson said.
"The initial data suggest that competition in exchanges is working to lower premiums, which will benefit non-subsidized enrollees and the federal government," Pearson said.
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Lil Wayne says he didn't mean to stomp on U.S. flag
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NEW YORK, June 18 (UPI) -- Rapper Lil Wayne said via Twitter Tuesday he meant no disrespect when he stomped on an American flag during a recent music-video shoot in New Orleans.
"I didn't step on the flag on purpose!" Wayne tweeted. "It's a scene in a video where the flag drops behind me and after it drops it's just there as I perform."
The 30-year-old hip-hop artist clarified his actions after footage from his "God Bless Amerika" video shoot was posted on YouTube Monday. Detractors outraged by the clip criticized the recording artist for being unpatriotic, the New York Daily News said.
"My country 'tis of thee/ sweet land of kill 'em all and let 'em die/ God bless Amerika/ This so godless Amerika ... the stars on the flag are never shining," the newspaper quoted Wayne as saying in the song.
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IRS scandal could change rules for non-profits
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WASHINGTON, June 17 (UPI) -- The scandal involving non-profit organizations and the Internal Revenue Service could bring clarity to rules governing non-profits, members of Congress say.
Democrats and Republicans differ on how regulations should be changed but there is common ground that the current system, with vague rules, needs improvement, Politico reported Monday.
"Congress needs to provide very clear guidance. The whole area has grown extensively without sufficient oversight," said Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said the statute on non-profit organizations "needs to be clarified so it is understood by IRS employees and the American public."
Congress has passed a law banning all political activity at 501 (c)(4) non-profit organizations, including those recently targeted, but the IRS implements a less stringent rule, saying only the organizations should not be primarily political, Politico noted.
"The IRS revelations are frankly helping to spur and help people realize the need for a reform bill," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.
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6 dead, 36 wounded in Chicago's most violent weekend this year
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CHICAGO, June 17 (UPI) -- Six people age 16 to 40 were shot to death and at least 36 people were wounded in Chicago's most violent weekend this year, authorities said.
The victims included 16-year-old Kevin Rivera, who was killed late Saturday when a gunman on a bicycle shot him as he walked in an alley near his home, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Killed in separate incidents were Jamal Jones, 19, Ricardo Herrera, 21, McGregory Porter, 24, Cortez Wilberton, 31, and Todd Wood, 40.
The violence is unnerving residents of the city.
"I had a family from my parish tell me recently that their 10-year-old son didn't want to come back to Chicago from vacation because of the violence," the Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Catholic Church said.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.
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Report: Clippers seeking Rivers, Garnett from Celtics in trade
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BOSTON, June 15 (UPI) -- Boston Celtics Coach Doc Rivers and forward Kevin Garnett could go to the Los Angeles Clippers in a possible trade, Yahoo! Sports reported Saturday.
The online publication, citing unnamed league sources, said center DeAndre Jordan and two first-round picks would be sent from Los Angeles to the Celtics for in exchange for Garnett and the right to hire Rivers as head coach.
The possible deal is being held up over the Celtics' insistence on including Clippers guard Eric Bledsoe in the package, the sources said.
Under the terms being discussed, Garnett would reportedly waive his no- trade clause to go to the Clippers as long as Rivers were able to accompany him.
The website said Celtics assistant Ty Lue would will likely join the pair in Los Angeles.
Rivers has been Boston's head coach since 2004, leading the team to the 2008 NBA title. The 37-year-old Garnett, meanwhile, has been contemplating retirement.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.
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Kim Kardashian said doing fine after giving birth to girl
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WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif., June 15 (UPI) -- Kim Kardashian has given birth to a daughter ahead of schedule, Us Weekly reported Saturday.
"Kim had her baby," a hospital source told Us Weekly. "She's five weeks early. Kim got sick last night and had the baby early.
"They're all doing great and amazing!"
The 32-year-old reality television personality had the baby with boyfriend singer Kanye West, 36. She gave birth at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in West Hollywood, Calif.
The magazine said Kardashian wasn't due until July 11.
Kardashian started dating in 2012 while she was still married to pro basketball player Kris Humphries. Their divorce was finalized June 4.
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Paris Jackson: Justin Bieber a bad role model
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| Paris Jackson listens as her grandmother Katherine Jackson makes comments during a hand & footprint ceremony honoring Michael Jackson at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles on January 26, 2012. UPI/Jim Ruymen |
LOS ANGELES, June 15 (UPI) -- Paris Jackson said Canadian pop star Justin Bieber isn't a good role model because he didn't speak out about his fans cutting themselves, sources told TMZ.
Sources connected to the Jackson family said Jackson became angry when young girls began tweeting about cutting themselves out of love for Bieber and he said nothing to discourage them.
Jackson also became angry when photographs of the pop star smoking weed in a hotel in January were leaked, the sources told TMZ. She thinks Bieber owes it to his fans to be more of a role model.
Jackson is currently at UCLA Medical Center after receiving treatment for cutting herself with a knife and taking 20 Motrin, TMZ reported Saturday.
Bieber and Jackson both live in the same gated community in Calabasas, Calif. |
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Kanye West's 'Yeezus' album leaks online
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LOS ANGELES, June 15 (UPI) -- Kanye West's new album "Yeezus" leaked online Saturday, days before it is scheduled to be released, TMZ reported.
Record label Def Jam is on damage control, trying to track down the source of the illegal digital leak, TMZ reported. Sources close to the record label said the company's special leaks division already has an idea who is behind the leak and plans to take punitive action.
Sources close to West said he was unfazed by the leak because he felt it would inevitably happen with such a highly anticipated album.
"Yeezus" is scheduled to officially be released Tuesday. |
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Study: Too much sugar can lead to heart failure
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HOUSTON, June 14 (UPI) -- A single sugar molecule stresses the heart and changes the muscle proteins, resulting in poor pump function leading to heart failure, U.S. researchers say.
Dr. Heinrich Taegtmeyer, principal investigator and professor of cardiology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, said the glucose metabolite glucose 6-phosphate could accumulate from eating too much starch and/or sugar.
Taegtmeyer performed pre-clinical trials in animal models, as well as tests on tissue taken from patients at the Texas Heart Institute who had a piece of the heart muscle removed to implant a left ventricle assist device by Dr. O.H. "Bud" Frazier and his team. Both led to the discovery of the damage caused by glucose metabolite glucose 6-phosphate, the study said.
"When the heart muscle is already stressed from high blood pressure or other diseases, and then takes in too much glucose, it adds insult to injury," Taegtmeyer said.
The study opened doors to possible new treatments. Two drugs, rapamycin -- an immunosuppressant -- and metformin, a diabetes medication, disrupt signaling of glucose metabolite glucose 6-phosphate and improved cardiac power in small animal studies.
"These drugs have a potential for treatment and this has now cleared a path to future studies with patients," Taegtmeyer said.
The findings were published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent. |
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Research: Nail zone stem cells, tissue regrow fingertips
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NEW YORK, June 13 (UPI) -- Stem cells under the base of a fingernail could one day be used to treat malformed nails or possibly amputated limbs, research by New York University suggests.
A study in mice indicated a chemical signal that triggers stem cells to develop into new nail tissue also attracts new nerves that promote nail and bone regeneration, ScienceNews.com reported Wednesday.
Mayumi Ito of New York University Langone Medical Center and her colleagues found stem cells that produce the hard nail and the soft tissue underneath. When they cut off the end of a mouse's toe, signals from the regrowing nail stimulated the tissue below to form new bone, the authors said.
Researchers said they found the digit bones can regenerate only if the stump has some nail stem cells remaining. However, they also found that cells alone weren't enough -- also necessary was an area of tissue that grows from the stem cells during normal nail growth, ScienceNews.com said.
After amputation, the tissue sends signals that attract nerves into the end of the stump and begin bone regeneration, researchers said. If the nail zone is removed or the signals are blocked, regeneration won't occur.
When the researchers genetically manipulated the mice to initiate the regeneration signals permanently, nail stem cells alone spurred regeneration even without the nail tissue zone, ScienceNews.com said.
The findings were published in Wednesday's edition of Nature.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.
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Mandela hospitalized for recurring lung infection
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PRETORIA, South Africa, June 8 (UPI) -- Former South African President Nelson Mandela has been hospitalized for a recurrence of a lung infection, the government said Saturday.
Mandela, 94, remains in "serious but stable condition" in a Pretoria hospital, the office of President Jacob Zuma said in a statement.
"The former president is receiving expert medical care and doctors are doing everything possible to make him better and comfortable," the statement said. "President Jacob Zuma, on behalf of government and the nation, wishes Madiba a speedy recovery and requests the media and the public to respect the privacy of Madiba and his family. "
"Madiba" is the South African term of affection for Mandela, who is considered the father of the modern nation. |
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Poll: U.S. split on responsibility for IRS scandal
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WASHINGTON, June 6 (UPI) -- Many Americans believe the Internal Revenue Service wrongly targeted conservative groups and it was politically motivated, a poll indicated Thursday.
Although that belief is widely held across the political spectrum, the public is split along party lines about who is to blame, The New York Times/CBS News poll found.
About 40 percent of the 1,022 people surveyed, including about two-thirds of Democrats, said the IRS acted on its own investigating conservative groups who had applied for tax-exempt status. Slightly more, including 70 percent of Republicans, said the Obama administration was involved.
The poll said people who closely followed the scandal and Tea Party supporters were significantly more likely to believe the actions were politically motivated.
While 60 percent of respondents thought the IRS was wrong in what it did, they split evenly about whether the agency's actions were illegal or just unethical.
Some 25 percent didn't think the IRS did anything wrong. Twice as many Democrats as Republicans thought the IRS acted appropriately.
The nationwide survey was conducted May 31 through June 4. The margin of error was calculated at 3 percent. |
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Woman gets jail for allowing daughter to be prostituted
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ST. PAUL, Minn., June 6 (UPI) -- A Minnesota woman has been sentenced to six months in jail for allowing her developmentally disabled teenage daughter to be prostituted.
Cheryl Ann Tchida, 51, of Woodbury, was sentenced Wednesday and ordered to surrender at the Ramsey County Workhouse in two weeks, the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press reported. She wept as she denied any intent to hurt her daughter.
"I would never intentionally put my daughter in harm's way," Tchida said.
Her daughter, now 19, has the intellectual capacity of a 5- or 6-year-old, prosecutors said. Investigators say Tchida left her daughter at a hotel in Roseville last year to spend time with a 17-year-old boy.
The teenager's uncle advertised the daughter's sexual services online. She told police she was forced to have sex with several men.
Investigators said when one man later sent a text saying he wanted to see the girl again, Tchida drove her to his apartment and left her there.
The daughter is now living in a group home, and prosecutors said she gets upset when she hears her mother's name. |
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Preacher influential in Civil Rights movement dies at 88
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NASHVILLE, June 4 (UPI) -- The Rev. Will D. Campbell, a longtime advocate for civil rights, died in Tennessee following a long illness, a friend said. He was 88.
John Egerton, Campbell's longtime friend, said Campbell had been in failing health since a stroke in 2011 and died from complications related to it.
Campbell was an influential voice, calling for integration in the South while also ministering to those who opposed it, persuading, gently, for a more tolerant society. His work gained praise from former President Jimmy Carter among many others.
The (Nashville) Tennessean noted Campbell's mantra: "If you're gonna love one, you've got to love 'em all."
He was also a staunch advocate for ending the death penalty and abortion.
Egerton wrote Campbell's passing came as partial relief for those who loved him after struggling in poor health for two years.
"In a final act of benevolence, Will spared them all the anguish of a long and traumatic last watch," Egerton wrote. "For him and for his family, his departure was not a cry of despair; it was more like a whispered sigh of relief. Finally, he is at peace."
Campbell's remains will be cremated and a memorial service in Nashville will be scheduled for later this month, Egerton said. |
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Former Rep. Jackson wants medical documents sealed
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CHICAGO, June 4 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., has asked a federal judge to seal parts of a sentencing memorandum dealing with his medical condition.
The document is scheduled to be filed by Friday, the Chicago Sun Times reported. Jackson and his wife, former Chicago Alderman Sandi Jackson, are scheduled for sentencing July 1.
Jackson's lawyers, in a motion Monday, said the sentencing memorandum will include information about Jackson's medical problems and those of a relative, the Chicago Tribune reported.
"In addition, Mr.Jackson plans to submit letters from two medical professionals regarding his medical condition," the lawyers said. "Disclosure of these materials would unnecessarily expose to the public intimate details of Mr. Jackson's and his family member's medical diagnoses and treatment."
The lawyers said prosecutors do not object to sealing some of the sentencing material, although they want to reserve the right to ask for it to be opened later.
Jackson, son of the civil rights leader, surfaced last year in the Mayo Clinic where he was being treated for bipolar disorder. He pleaded guilty to using campaign funds for personal expenses while his wife admitted evading income taxes. |
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Walmart pleads guilty to violating Clean Water Act
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LOS ANGELES, May 28 (UPI) -- Walmart has pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Water Act by improperly disposing hazardous materials at its U.S. stores, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
The retailer pleaded guilty in federal court in San Francisco to six counts in a case originally brought in Los Angeles, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
The company, based in Bentonville, Ark., will pay the government $81 million in a settlement and has already paid almost $30 million to California and Missouri, the department said in a news release.
Walmart pleaded guilty Tuesday in Kansas City, Mo., to violating the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act by improperly handling pesticides that had been returned by customers at its U.S. stores.
Court documents filed in the case indicate Walmart did not have a program in place and did not train workers in its stores on proper hazardous waste management and disposal practices prior to 2006 -- resulting in hazardous wastes being discarded improperly at stores or improperly transported to product return centers, the department said.
In some cases, hazardous materials were put into municipal trash bins or poured into sewer systems.
"Retailers like Walmart that generate hazardous waste have a duty to legally and safely dispose of that hazardous waste, and dumping it down the sink was neither legal nor safe," U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. said. "The case against Walmart is designed to ensure compliance with our nation's environmental laws now and in the future."
"Walmart has a comprehensive and industry-leading hazardous waste program," said Phyllis Harris, senior vice president and chief compliance officer for Walmart in the United States. "The program was built around training, policies and procedures on how to safely handle consumer products that become hazardous waste, and we continue to run the same program in every store and club that was deployed years ago. We are pleased that this resolves all of these issues raised by the government." |
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Oldest person in United States turns 114 in Michigan
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NKSTER, Mich., May 27 (UPI) -- The oldest living person in the United States celebrated her 114th birthday at her church in Michigan.
Jeralean Talley, who turned 114 Thursday, was honored Sunday at the New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church in Inkster when the congregation sang "Happy Birthday" and recognized her as the oldest living person in the United States, the Detroit News reported Monday.
"I'm just thankful," Talley said during the service. "If I do anything, it comes from you [God]."
Family members said Talley, the third-oldest person in the world, went fishing the day before her birthday and caught seven fish, the Detroit Free Press reported.
Talley received several letters of recognition in honor of her birthday, including one from President Barack Obama. Obama hailed the woman as "part of an extraordinary generation."
"This generation continues to guide us with its wisdom and inspire us," Obama wrote. |
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Bacteria found in homes with dogs may help prevent allergies
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RALEIGH, N.C., May 26 (UPI) -- Households with dogs are home to more types of bacteria, including varieties rarely found in households without dogs, U.S. researchers say.
Dr. Rob Dunn of North Carolina State University and colleagues at the University of Colorado said the team wanted to learn what variables influence the microbial ecosystems in homes, and the biggest variable it has found so far is dog ownership.
"We can tell whether you own a dog based on the bacteria we find on your television screen or pillow case," Dunn said in a statement. "For example, there are bacteria normally found in soil that are 700 times more common in dog-owning households than in those without dogs."
These microbial differences may be important. For example, it's known women who have a dog when pregnant are less likely to have children with allergies. While there's no known causal link between the presence of a dog and the absence of allergies, it has been hypothesized that the difference is related to the women's exposure to a wider variety of microbes, said Dunn, the study's co-author.
However, to this point there had been little data on what the differences in microbial populations might be. While this study doesn't demonstrate a causal link, it sheds more light on the subject, showing that dogs have a major influence on which microbes are found in people's homes.
The study, published in Plos One, found 7,726 phylotypes, or kinds, of bacteria in homes and each of the locations sampled harbored its own unique collection of bacteria. For example, the types of bacteria found in refrigerators, on kitchen counters and on cutting boards tended to be similar because they were primarily linked to food, while the bacteria on doorknobs, pillow cases and toilet seats were also fairly similar and came from humans. |
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NRA President Jim Porter: “It’s Only A Matter Of Time Before We Can Own Colored People Again”
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By Stacy L.
HOUSTON, May 2013 — It seems new National Rifle Association President (NRA) president Jim Porter may have found himself in a bit of hot water. Not long ago he made his feelings about the Civil War known when he referred to it as the “War of Northern Aggression.” In that same speech he referred to President Obama as a “fake president” and Attorney General Eric Holder as “rabidly un-American.” However none of those remarks that anyone could deem as racist compare to his remarks made at a recent press conference discussing his new leadership role at the NRA.
“I’m very proud to be taking the lead here at the NRA. We need to really buckle down and strap on our best arguments to defend what is our God-given rights. No more northern folk tryin’ take away what is rightfully ours. I will not stand by and let some liberal-elitists try to ruin what has made this country great, especially a liberal of, you know, a different breed.”
When asked to clarify Porter said,
“I don’t have to clarify. You know gall darn well what I mean. In fact, it’s only a matter of time before we can own colored people again. They sure as hell won’t be our leaders. It’s out-right embarrassing. The War of Northern Aggression made it all possible, and you be best to know it’s all gonna change back. I’ll be on the front lines making sure it happens. I don’t want my grandkids growing up taking orders from a colored man. It’s our God-given right to keep them as property and keep them in line.”
Several at the NRA, including vice president Wayne LaPierre, have since tried to distance themselves from Porter’s remarks. LaPierre said, “They brought him in over me to try and liven things up, calling me boring and rehearsed. Next time they’d be better off just making me president.”
It’s still unknown if the NRA and Porter will write an apology and retraction to his comments. Free Wood Post will keep you up to date as this story unfolds. |
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N.Y. man files 122 federal tax returns in dead people's names
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BUFFALO, N.Y., May 26 (UPI) -- A 42-year-old New York state man has admitted trying to scam the Internal Revenue Service out of $217,520 in refunds he sought in the names of 122 dead people.
The U.S. attorney's office said in a release John M. Berry Jr. of Dunkirk, pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Buffalo to making a false claim against the United States. The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a fine of $250,000 or both.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron J. Mango, who is handling the case, said between Sept. 3, 2008, and March 25, 2009, Berry filed 122 false income tax returns for the tax years 2007 and 2008 with the IRS.
During that time, Berry obtained the personal and identifying information for 122 recently deceased individuals and then used that information to file federal tax returns. The defendant created fraudulent income and withholding information for the dead taxpayers and filed the returns electronically, Mango said.
The 122 tax returns sought refunds totaling $217,520 from the IRS, of which the defendant received $92,462.12. The refunds were deposited directly into Berry's bank account, Mango said.
"This case should serve as a warning that our office, working with our law enforcement partners, will not tolerate attempts to either steal the identities of individuals, or the money of the taxpayers of this country," U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul Jr. "That this defendant would rob the identities of deceased individuals is concerning, and could have brought additional grief and pain for their loved ones."
Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 26. |
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CDC: 75 percent in U.S. with hepatitis C don't know they are infected
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ATLANTA, May 7 (UPI) -- An estimated 3 million Americans are living with hepatitis C and about 75 percent don't know they are infected, U.S. health officials estimate.
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Vital Signs report said only half of U.S. adults with hepatitis C receive complete testing for the virus.
"Many people who test positive on an initial hepatitis C test are not receiving the necessary follow-up test to know if their body has cleared the virus or if they are still infected," Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC, said in a statement.
"Complete testing is critical to ensure that those who are infected receive the care and treatment for hepatitis C that they need in order to prevent liver cancer and other serious and potentially deadly health consequences."
Testing all baby boomers properly is critical to stem the increasing toll of death and disease from hepatitis C in this nation, CDC officials said.
"CDC recommends that everyone in the U.S. born from 1945 through 1965 be tested for hepatitis C in order to increase the proportion of those who know they are infected and linked to care," the report said. "The CDC also recommends that other populations at increased risk for hepatitis C get tested." |
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Texas executes fifth inmate this year
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HUNTSVILLE, Texas, May 7 (UPI) -- One-time drug dealer Carroll Joe "Outlaw" Parr was executed in Texas Tuesday for killing a teenager over a marijuana purchase outside a convenience store.
Parr, 35, was executed by lethal injection at the state prison in Huntsville, KWTX-TV, Waco, reported. He was the fifth person executed in Texas this year.
Parr had filed his own appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, which Justice Antonin Scalia rejected without taking it to the full court, the TV station said.
In his final appeal, Parr contended he had deficient legal help at his trial in Waco and in earlier stages of his appeal, KWTX-TV said.
Parr was convicted in the Jan. 11, 2003, slaying of Joel Dominguez, 18, and wounding of Mario Chavez, then 18, in Waco.
Authorities said Parr had bought marijuana from Dominguez at the store earlier and had returned with a friend, Earl Whiteside, to get his money back.
Dominguez returned the money but Parr shot him anyway. Whiteside shot Chavez in the hand, prosecutors said.
Whiteside pleaded guilty in 2004.
Parr maintained he didn't shoot Dominguez but wouldn't name the shooter. |
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Walking essential for those with arthritis, but few do
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ATLANTA, May 4 (UPI) -- Most adults with arthritis do no or little walking, but it is an effective and safe way to achieve proven arthritis relief, U.S. officials say.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report said for adults with arthritis physical activity is an essential self-management strategy proven to reduce pain and increase function.
"Walking is a low impact, acceptable and feasible way of obtaining these benefits and one preferred by those with arthritis, in part because it can be done in bouts as short as 10 minutes," the report said.
"However, almost two-thirds of adults with arthritis report no or low fewer than 90 minutes walking per week." Community-based programs, such as Walk With Ease, are available to help adults with arthritis increase their walking, CDC officials said.
Public health efforts that link such programs with environmental/policy strategies that increase access to safe walking environments and communication campaigns that build awareness of the benefits of walking can help adults with arthritis increase their walking, the report said. |
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Would a White Girl Be Prosecuted for a Botched Science Experiment?
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By Jesse LavaFollow
By now you've probably heard about Kiera Wilmot, the 16-year-old Florida girl who botched a science experiment with a plastic bottle and toilet cleaner. The bottle ended up exploding, and though no one was hurt and no property damaged, Kiera was expelled from high school and is now being prosecuted as an adult for discharging a weapon on school grounds. She had an exemplary behavioral record up until that point.
Kiera is, as one might expect, black. The notion of a white girl getting hauled off to jail for a harmless expression of intellectual curiosity is dubious, to say the least. And though the rise of "zero tolerance" policies in American schools should theoretically be race-neutral, that's not the reality. According to the Dignity in Schools campaign, "students of color... are more likely to be suspended and expelled than their peers for the same behavior" and "African American students [are] 3.5 times as likely to be expelled" as whites. What happened to Kiera Wilmot is part of a broader story about racial disparities in our criminal justice system.
Yet we don't have to go macro to get the whiff of racial bias in this case. The prosecutor who decided to throw the book at Kiera is one Tammy Glotfelty, an assistant state attorney in Florida. The officer who arrested Kiera named Glotfelty in his police report:
I THEN CONTACTED ASSISTANT STATE ATTORNEY TAMMY GLOTFELTY VIA TELEPHONE. I ADVISED [HER] OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE AND SHE ADVISED THIS OFFICER TO FILE THE CHARGES OF, POSSESSING OR DISCHARGING WEAPONS OR FIREARMS AT A SCHOOL SPONSORED EVENT OR ON SCHOOL PROPERTY F.S.S. 790.115 (1) AND MAKING, POSSESSING, THROWING, PROJECTING, PLACING, OR DISCHARGING ANY DESTRUCTIVE DEVICE F.S.S. 790.161 (A).
Sounds absurdly harsh, right? And there has been no reversal of this decision since then. But Glotfelty isn't always so heartless. Just last week, she decided not to prosecute a teenager named Taylor Richardson who accidentally shot and killed his younger brother with a BB gun. Glotfelty declared the case "a tragic accident." I don't doubt that it was. The Richardson kid will probably have nightmares about this incident for the rest of his life. But I do wonder how to make sense of a prosecutor who one week shows understandable compassion for a kid who made a terrible mistake and the next week insists on giving a teenager the harshest possible sanction for something that didn't harm anyone.
The first Tammy Glotfelty has a normal-sized heart in her chest. The second one has a hole there.
There is one fact, however, that may help us figure out the discrepancy between Glotfelty #1 and Glotfelty #2: The Richardson family is white.
Am I accusing Glotfelty of conscious racial bias? Nope. Self-awareness isn't the issue here. And maybe she has good reasons for treating these two cases differently. Hey, Taylor was 13 instead of 16; perhaps that makes all the difference in her eyes. But I can't shake the feeling that these two stories would have unfolded quite differently if the races of the children had been reversed. Somehow the white Kiera Wilmot would have had her story end with an adult touching her shoulder saying "I'm just glad you're alright." And the black Taylor Richardson would have heard platitudes about "taking responsibility" while being led away in handcuffs.
The school-to-prison pipeline has become a very real phenomenon in this country, at least in communities of color. Suspending and expelling students for minor misbehavior has become routine despite there being no evidence that these steps improve school safety and strong evidence that they are linked to increased odds of behavior problems later. Moreover, prosecuting children as adults can destroy their chances of becoming productive members of society later in life. If prosecutors like Tammy Glotfelty really want to get serious about public safety, they'll work to transform our racially disparate justice system and refuse to put harmless black students behind bars. |
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Study: Heavy metals found in lipstick and lip glosses
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BERKELEY, Calif., May 2 (UPI) -- Earlier research found heavy metals in makeup, but U.S. researchers analyzed lipsticks and lip glosses and measured the mineral levels to determine health risk.
"Just finding these metals isn't the issue; it's the levels that matter," principal investigator S. Katharine Hammond, professor of environmental health sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a statement. "Some of the toxic metals are occurring at levels that could possibly have an effect in the long term."
The researchers tested 32 different lipsticks and lip glosses commonly found in U.S. drugstores and department stores.
The study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, found lead, cadmium, chromium, aluminum and five other metals, some of which were found at levels that could raise potential health concerns. Lipstick and lip gloss are of special concern because they are ingested or absorbed, bit by bit, by the individual wearing them, the study authors said.
The researchers developed definitions for average and high use of lip makeup based on usage data reported in a previous study.
Average use was defined as a daily ingestion of 24 milligrams of lip makeup per day, but those who slather on lip color and reapply it repeatedly could fall into the high use category of 87 milligrams ingested per day, Hammond said.
The average use of some lipsticks and lip glosses would result in excessive exposure to chromium, a carcinogen linked to stomach tumors and high use of these makeup products could result in potential overexposure to aluminum, cadmium and manganese as well, the study said.
The study authors said for most adults, there is no reason to toss the lip gloss in the trash, but the amount of metals found do signal the need for more oversight by health regulators, currently, there are no U.S. standards for metal content in cosmetics. |
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Sleep-deprived men have lower sperm count, smaller testicles
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ODENSE, Denmark, April 29 (UPI) -- Men who consistently lacked sleep had a higher risk of deformed and lower sperm counts than men who were well rested, researchers in Denmark say.
Tina Kold Jensen of the University of Southern Denmark and colleagues said they found the sleep-deprived men also had a higher risk of lower testosterone levels and observable testicular size shrinkage.
Jensen and colleagues surveyed 953 men in their late teens and early 20s. All of the men delivered a semen sample, had a blood sample drawn, underwent a physical examination and answered a questionnaire including information about sleep disturbances.
Sleep disturbances were assessed on the basis of a modified four-item version of the Karolinska Sleep Questionnaire, which includes questions on sleep patterns during the past four weeks.
The study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, found men with sleeping problems -- insomnia, staying awake late, inconsistent sleep -- had an almost 30 percent lower sperm count, their sperm was more deformed, and their testicles were smaller. |
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Fasting may help those with diabetes, heart disease
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BIRMINGHAM, England, April 30 (UPI) -- A British researcher says existing research indicates intermittent fasting may help those with diabetes and cardiovascular disease, alongside with weight loss.
A review led by James Brown from Aston University in Birmingham, England, evaluated the various approaches to intermittent fasting -- fasting on a given number of consecutive or alternate days -- in the scientific literature.
The basic format of intermittent fasting is to alternate days eating "normally" with days when calorie consumption is restricted. This can either be done on alternative days, or where two days each week are classed as "fasting days," Brown said.
The review, published in the British Journal of Diabetes and Vascular Disease, found evidence from clinical trials showed fasting could limit inflammation, improve levels of sugars and fats in circulation and reduce blood pressure. In addition, the study found fasting bodies change how they select which fuel to burn, improving metabolism and reducing oxidative stress.
Fasting also appeared to aid those with ischemic heart disease. Fasting may even protect the heart by raising levels of adiponectin, a protein that has several important roles in carbohydrate and lipid metabolism and vascular biology, Brown said.
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1963 Birmingham bombing victims to get Congressional Gold Medal
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WASHINGTON, April 24 (UPI) -- The four young black girls killed in a 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., are being honored by Congress.
The bombing -- which killed Addie Mae Collins, 14; Denise McNair, 11; Carole Robertson, 14; and Cynthia Wesley, 14 -- was a seminal event in the civil rights struggle that ended legal segregation in the U.S. South and helped spur passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Nearly half a century after their deaths, the House of Representatives Wednesday voted to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the four girls killed Sept. 15, 1963. Twenty-two other members of the church were injured in the bombing and the 16th Street Baptist Church became a landmark in the civil rights movement.
The honor "is a strong reminder of how many people fought and died in the civil rights movement so that this country could live up to its founding ideals of equality and opportunity," said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. Cantor spoke in support of the bill to honor posthumously the "four little girls," The Washington Post said
Other recipients of the Congressional Gold Medal awarded annually by Congress include economist Mohammed Yunus, golfer Arnold Palmer, Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks, baseball legend Jackie Robinson and the Tuskegee Airmen, an African-American unit of fighter pilots during World War II. |
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Scientists predict arctic could be free of sea ice in summer by 2050
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WASHINGTON, April 12 (UPI) -- Two U.S. scientists say it's not a question of "if" there will be nearly ice-free summers in the arctic but "when," and sooner than many think.
National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration scientists James Overland and Muyin Wang say several different methods for predicting when the arctic will be nearly ice free in the summer show it could happen before 2050 and possibly within the next decade or two.
"Rapid arctic sea ice loss is probably the most visible indicator of global climate change; it leads to shifts in ecosystems and economic access, and potentially impacts weather throughout the northern hemisphere," Overland said in a NOAA release Friday.
"Early loss of arctic sea ice gives immediacy to the issue of climate change," he said.
The various methods for predicting ice loss includes observed trends, historical records and computer modeling of global climate.
"There is no one perfect way to predict summer sea ice loss in the arctic," Wang said. "So we looked at three approaches that result in widely different dates, but all three suggest nearly sea ice-free summers in the arctic before the middle of this century."
Although yielding different time frames, the multiple approaches still suggest future sea ice loss will be within the first half of the 21st century, with a possibility of major loss within a decade or two, the researchers said.
"Some people may interpret this [difference] to mean that models are not useful. Quite the opposite," Overland said. "Models are based on chemical and physical climate processes and we need better models for the arctic as the importance of that region continues to grow." |
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George Zimmerman's mother attacks media on Trayvon Martin case
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ORLANDO, Fla., April 11 (UPI) -- Gladys Zimmerman, mother of Florida neighborhood watch shooter George Zimmerman, is criticizing media and prosecutors on the anniversary of her son's arrest.
George Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder in the Feb. 26, 2012, shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in a gated community in Sanford. He maintains he fired his gun in self-defense and is not guilty.
In a two-page letter released Thursday through the Twitter account of her son, Robert, Gladys Zimmerman says her son, George, has been the victim of a "false narrative" of the case, CBS News reported.
"April 11, 2012, will be forever remembered by the Zimmerman family as the day the justice system failed us as Americans, and as a consequence an innocent man was arrested for a crime he did not commit, solely to placate the masses," she wrote.
She said media, and social media, made a rush to judgment before the evidence was available.
"It is astounding that despite the vast amount of information and evidence now available that support for George's self-defense claim, the majority of the media avoids its publication," she wrote.
George Zimmerman's trial is scheduled to begin in June. |
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VA budget has $63.5B for care, benefits
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WASHINGTON, April 10 (UPI) -- U.S. President Obama's Veterans Affairs Department budget includes $63.5 billion for care and benefits for military veterans and families, the White House said.
The budget, unveiled Wednesday, also includes $3.1 billion in estimated medical care collections for a total budget authority of about $66.5 billion.
"This funding will continue to drive improvements in efficiency and responsiveness at VA, enabling the department to better serve veterans and their families at a time when much is being asked of our men and women in uniform," the budget document said. "The budget supports efforts to ensure we meet the needs of today's veteran population, and invests in the continued modernization of VA to meet 21st century challenges."
The budget blueprint includes $54.6 billion for medical care, a 7.9 percent increase over the 2012 enacted level. It also proposes $55.6 billion in advance appropriations for the VA medical care program in 2015, which would offer timely, predictable funding for VA's medical care.
Nearly $7 billion was provided to maintain the department's focus on expanding and improving mental health services for veterans.
The budget invests $1.4 billion to provide VA services for homeless and at-risk veterans. The budget explanation said the funds would help combat veterans' homelessness through collaborative partnerships with local governments, non-profit organizations, and the departments of Housing and Urban Development, Justice, and Labor.
Also included is $136 million for a Veterans Claims Intake Program that would allow VA to directly receive and convert paper evidence, such as medical records, into a digital format for increased efficiency in claims-processing.
Specifically, the budget request includes $155 million for the Veterans Benefit Management System, designed to reduce processing time and claims backlog, long a complaint by benefits applicants. These effort support VA's work to eliminate the claims backlog and achieving the agency's goal of processing all claims within 125 days with 98 percent accuracy in 2015, the budget said.
Also included is funding to build three of five national veterans cemeteries. In 2011, the VA reduced the population threshold used to determine where new national veterans cemeteries should be built from 170,000 to 80,000 veterans living within 75 miles of a potential location. Under this lower threshold, VA will develop five new cemeteries and provide a nearby national cemetery option to at least 550,000 more veterans.
The new national cemeteries would be located in St. Augustine and Tallahassee in Florida, and in Omaha. |
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| Vitamin D may help insulin levels in obese |
COLUMBIA, Mo., March 26 (UPI) -- Vitamin D supplements may help obese children and teens control their blood-sugar levels, which may help stave off diabetes, U.S. researchers say.
Catherine Peterson of the University of Missouri and colleagues studied 35 pre-diabetic obese children and adolescents who were undergoing treatment in the university's Adolescent Diabetic Obesity Program.
All had insufficient or deficient vitamin D levels and had similar diets and activity levels.
Half of the study participants were randomly assigned either a high-dose vitamin D supplement or a placebo daily for six months, Peterson said.
The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found those who took the supplement developed sufficient vitamin D levels and lowered the amount of insulin in their blood.
"By increasing vitamin D intake alone, we got a response that was nearly as powerful as what we have seen using a prescription drug," Peterson said in a statement. "We saw a decrease in insulin levels, which means better glucose control, despite no changes in body weight, dietary intake or physical activity."
The vitamin D dosage given to the obese adolescents in the study was not something recommended for everyone, Peterson said.
"For clinicians, the main message from this research is to check the vitamin D status of their obese patients, because they're likely to have insufficient amounts," Peterson said. "Adding vitamin D supplements to their diets may be an effective addition to treating obesity and its associated insulin resistance." |
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| Diabetes drugs may affect pancreatic cells
GAINESVILLE, Fla., March 25 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers said they found pancreatic abnormalities in patients who had taken a widely used type of drug for type 2 diabetes.
Dr. Mark Atkinson, professor of pathology and pediatrics at the University of Florida who was the study leader, and Dr. Peter Butler, director of the Larry L. Hillblom Islet Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, found cell mass was increased about 40 percent in the pancreas of deceased organ donors who had type 2 diabetes treated by incretin therapy.
Incretin therapy takes advantage of the action of the gut hormone glucagon like peptide 1 (GLP-1) to lower blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes, the researchers said.
Although there have been conflicting reports on the effects of the incretin class of drugs on the pancreas in animal studies, this is the first report to note such changes using human pancreas, the study said.
"There is an increasing appreciation that animal studies do not always predict findings in humans," Butler said in a statement.
The study, published in the journal Diabetes, found the pancreas of the individuals who had been on incretin therapy were larger than the organs from those who had been on other types of diabetes therapies, and was associated with increased cellular proliferation.
Pancreas from incretin treated individuals also had an increase of pancreas dysplasia, an abnormal form of cell proliferation that is a risk factor for pancreatic cancer, the study said.
Of the eight donors who were on incretin therapy, seven had been taking sitagliptin, or Januvia, marketed by Merck and one had been on exenatide, or Byetta, sold by Bristol-Myers Squibb, the study said.
These and other similar drugs are currently under investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for their possible links to pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer, the researchers said.
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TEESA Store Front
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Obama calls for reduction in nuclear arsenals
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U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on June 19, 2013. Obama is in Berlin on his first official state visit to Germany and after meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, spoke at the historic site where fifty years earlier U.S. President John F. Kennedy delivered his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner (I am a Berliner)" address . UPI/David Silpa
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BERLIN, June 19 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama, speaking at Berlin's symbolic Brandenburg Gate, called for a reduction of the world's nuclear stockpiles by as much as a third.
"Peace with justice means pursuing the security of a world without nuclear weapons, no matter how distant that dream may be," Obama said. "And so as president, I've strengthened our efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and reduce the number and role of America's nuclear weapons. Because of the New START Treaty, we're on track to cut American and Russian deployed nuclear warheads to their lowest levels since the 1950s."
But more work must be done, he said and announced additional steps.
After a comprehensive review, I've determined that we can ensure the security of America and our allies -- and maintain a strong and credible strategic deterrent -- while reducing our deployed strategic nuclear weapons by up to one-third," said Obama, who shed his coat early on in his speech under warm, sunny skies. "And I intend to seek negotiated cuts with Russia to move beyond Cold War nuclear postures."
He said the United States would work with its NATO allies "to seek bold reductions in U.S. and Russian tactical weapons in Europe. And we can forge a new international framework for peaceful nuclear power, reject the nuclear weaponization that North Korea and Iran may be seeking."
Obama also announced the United States will hold a summit in 2016 "to continue our efforts to secure nuclear materials around the world, and we will work to build support in the United States to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and call on all nations to begin negotiations on a treaty that ends the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons."
"These are steps we can take to create a world of peace with justice," he said.
Peppering his speech with the phrase, "peace with justice," Obama also spoke of efforts to tackle climate change, close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, eradicate AIDS and treat all persons equally.
"We are more free when all people can pursue their own happiness," Obama said. "As long as walls exist in our hearts to separate us from those who don't look like us or think like us or worship as we do, then we're going to have to work harder together to bring those walls of division down."
He also spoke about the need to balance national security with personal privacy, addressing controversies over the National Security Administration's cellphone and Internet monitoring.
"[Peace] with justice depends on our ability to sustain both the security of our societies and the openness that defines them, Obama said, later noting, "which is why even as we remain vigilant about the threat of terrorism, we must move beyond the mind-set of perpetual war."
In America it means "redoubling our efforts" to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and controlling the use of new technologies such as drones, he said.
"It means balancing the pursuit of security with the protection of privacy. And I'm confident that that balance can be struck," Obama said. "I'm confident that, working with Germany, we can keep each other safe while at the same time maintaining those essential values for which we fought."
The U.S. programs are "focused on threats to our security, not the communications of ordinary persons. They help confront real dangers, and they keep people safe here in the United States and here in Europe."
During a joint news conference at the Chancellery, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she and Obama discussed the public's concern about "some kind of blanket, across-the-board gathering of information."
"[There] needs to be a balance; there needs to be proportionality, obviously, between upholding security and safety of our people and our country -- and there are quite a lot of instances where we were getting very important information from the United States," she said.
"And at the same time, obviously people want to use those new, modern means of communication and technology and do so freely," she said. "And as we learn to live and deal responsibly with other new means of technology, we have to learn and deal responsibly with this one."
Obama said during the news conference he told Merkel a balance must be struck "and we do have to be cautious about how our governments are operating when it comes to intelligence."
Once he returns to the United States, Obama told reporters, he will look for ways "to declassify further some of these programs without completely compromising their effectiveness, sharing that information with the public, and also our intelligence teams are directed to work very closely with our German intelligence counterparts so that they have clarity and assurance that they're not being abused."
At Brandenburg Gate, Obama said all democratic governments must listen to the "voices who disagree with us" and have an open debate about "how we use our powers and how we must constrain them."
Democracies also must remember "that government exists to serve the power of the individual, and not the other way around," he said. "That's what makes us who we are and that's what makes us different from those on the other side of a wall." |
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The Berlin Wall belongs to history, he said, "And the greatest tribute that we can pay to those who came before us is by carrying on their work to pursue peace and justice not only in our countries but for all mankind."
Fifty years ago next week, President John F. Kennedy spoke at the Brandenburg Gate about democracy versus communism.
"Freedom has many difficulties, and democracy is not perfect," he said. "But we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us," referring to the Berlin Wall, built in 1961 and torn down in 1990.
Kennedy's Jan. 26, 1963, speech is known for a phrase he said in German: "Ich bin ein Berliner," or "I am a citizen of Berlin."
On June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan stood at the gate and called on Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to demolish the Berlin Wall.
"General-Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate!" Reagan said. "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.
All rights reserved. |
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Report: U.S. healthcare cost growth slowing down
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NEW YORK, June 18 (UPI) -- U.S. healthcare inflation is projected to drop to 6.5 percent next year despite millions more newly insured Americans added to the system, consultants say.
In its annual report, "Medical Cost Trend: Behind the Numbers," PwC's Health Research Institute said the decline in spending growth -- healthcare inflation -- is a signal of progress in the quest to bend the cost curve, or lower healthcare spending.
The ongoing slowdown in the healthcare growth rate defies historical post-recession patterns and is likely to be sustained even as the Affordable Care Act adds millions more to the insurance rolls, the report said.
From 2001-03 healthcare spending inflation peaked at 8.8 percent in a year, but most of the slowdown since 2008 was due to the weak economy as workers delayed treatment, or people lost jobs and health insurance.
However, the PwC's Health Research Institute report said structural changes after 2008 within the healthcare industry resulted in lower costs including: large employers contracting directly with hospital systems, hospital decisions to lower costs and patients choosing walk-in clinics instead of hospital emergency rooms or doctor visits. In addition, employers are passing on more of the cost of health insurance to employees.
PwC's Health Research Institute conducted interviews in March and April with 10 health plan officials, whose companies cover a combined 95 million people about their estimates for 2014 and the factors driving those trends.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.
All rights reserved. |
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Under the U.S. Supreme Court: Natural DNA can't be patented
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WASHINGTON, June 16 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court last week dealt a devastating blow to the genetics industry -- or opened up new vistas depending on the point of view -- by ruling unanimously naturally occurring DNA segments could not be patented.
However, the opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas said cDNA, called complementary or synthetic DNA, "is patent eligible because it is not naturally occurring."
Besides causing a revolution in the genetics industry, the decision affects the healthcare of millions, and the billions in profits such patents bring. An estimated 40 percent of human DNA is patented, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has awarded patents on human genes for more than 30 years.
DNA segments, of course, are the building blocks of life, or in some cases, the building blocks of death.
The underlying case that brought last week's ruling involves Myriad Genetics of Salt Lake City, which holds patents for isolated DNA covering gene mutations BRCA1 and BRCA2. When present, the mutations indicate an increased risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer. The patents also cover ways of isolating the genes to test for the presence of the mutation.
Women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations face as much as an 85 percent cumulative risk of breast cancer as well as an up to 50 percent cumulative risk of ovarian cancer.
DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, contains the genetic instructions -- or information -- that determine the development of living organisms.
Critics complained Myriad's diagnostic analysis makes it impossible for women to confirm their test results elsewhere while others cannot afford the $3,000 cost of Myriad's test. If insurance covers the procedure -- not always the case -- it brings the cost down to $100.
A coalition of healthcare professionals, patients and the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in New York in 2009, saying such patents restrict science and make it difficult for women to get crucial medical care.
The Supreme Court's ruling reverses a ruling in favor of Myriad by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington.
Thomas' opinion devotes many paragraphs to scientific explanations of DNA, but the justice was precise in what the ruling meant.
Myriad Genetics Inc. "discovered the precise location and sequence of two human genes, mutations of which can substantially increase the risks of breast and ovarian cancer," Thomas wrote. "Myriad obtained a number of patents based upon its discovery. This case ... requires us to resolve whether a naturally occurring segment of deoxyribonucleic acid [DNA] is patent eligible under [the federal patent code] by virtue of its isolation from the rest of the human genome. We also address the patent eligibility of synthetically created DNA known as complementary DNA [cDNA], which contains the same protein-coding information found in a segment of natural DNA but omits portions within the DNA segment that do not code for proteins. ... [W]e hold that a naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent eligible merely because it has been isolated, but that cDNA is patent eligible because it is not naturally occurring."
Though he was delivering bad news to the company, Thomas also acknowledged the work that Myriad has done.
"The average American woman has a 12- to 13-percent risk of developing breast cancer, but for women with certain genetic mutations, the risk can range between 50 and 80 percent for breast cancer and between 20 and 50 percent for ovarian cancer. Before Myriad's discovery of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, scientists knew that heredity played a role in establishing a woman's risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer, but they did not know which genes were associated with those cancers.
"Myriad identified the exact location of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes on chromosomes 17 and 13," he wrote.
"Knowledge of the location of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes allowed Myriad to determine their typical nucleotide sequence. That information, in turn, enabled Myriad to develop medical tests that are useful for detecting mutations in a patient's BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes and thereby assessing whether the patient has an increased risk of cancer."
Myriad had filed patent infringement suits against other entities that performed BRCA testing, causing those entities to desist.
Section 101 of the Patent Act provides that a patent is allowed whenever someone "invents or discovers any new and useful ... composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement," Thomas explained.
But, citing precedent, he wrote, "We have 'long held that this provision contains an important implicit exception'" that is, "Laws of nature, natural phenomena and abstract ideas are not patentable.'"
Seven justices signed on to Thomas' opinion. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote a separate opinion, saying he could not confirm the science in Thomas' opinion, but agreed with the judgment.
The ACLU, which provided lawyers for the challenge, and Myriad both claimed victory immediately after the Supreme Court decision.
"The U.S. Supreme Court today unanimously invalidated patents on two genes associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Patent Foundation," the ACLU said, "on behalf of researchers, genetic counselors, patients, breast cancer and women's health groups, and medical professional associations representing 150,000 geneticists, pathologists, and laboratory professionals."
"Today, the court struck down a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation," Sandra Park, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Women's Rights Project, said in the statement. "Myriad did not invent the BRCA genes and should not control them. Because of this ruling, patients will have greater access to genetic testing and scientists can engage in research on these genes without fear of being sued."
The ACLU statement said: "The restrictions on examining the BRCA genes can have devastating results. Kathleen Maxian of Buffalo, N.Y., is suffering from late-stage ovarian cancer that she believes could have been prevented. Her sister, who is a breast cancer survivor, obtained a test from Myriad that did not look for all known genetic mutations associated with cancer and was told she was negative for mutations. Years later, her sister learned that she did, in fact, have a BRCA genetic mutation -- information that Maxian could have relied on to seek preventive surgery. Numerous labs across the country have stated that they are capable of providing this comprehensive screening and would do so were it not for Myriad's patents.
"Lisbeth Ceriani, a breast cancer survivor and plaintiff in the case, was faced with having to pay over $4,000 for Myriad's testing to determine if she carried a genetic mutation associated with hereditary ovarian cancer because Myriad had refused to enter into a contract with her insurance company," the ACLU statement said. "She was forced to wait 18 months before she was able to obtain the test through a grant, at which point she learned she did indeed carry a mutation."
"I'm relieved that no other women will have to go through what I went through," Ceriani said. "I'm so glad that the Supreme Court agrees that women deserve full access to vital information from their own bodies."
Myriad Genetics Inc. issued its own statement from Salt Lake City.
The statement concentrated on the positive, saying, the Supreme Court upheld the company's "patent claims on complementary DNA, or cDNA. However, the Court ruled that five of Myriad's claims covering isolated DNA were not patent eligible."
But, "Following today's decision, Myriad has more than 500 valid and enforceable claims in 24 different patents conferring strong patent protection for its BRACAnalysis test.
"Importantly, the court noted that many of Myriad's unchallenged claims are method claims applying knowledge about the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes," the company statement said. "While these method claims were not at issue in this case, the court highlighted Federal Circuit Judge [William] Bryson's opinion that, "[a]s the first party with knowledge of the [BRCA1 and BRCA2] sequences, Myriad was in an excellent position to claim applications to that knowledge."
"We believe the court appropriately upheld our claims on cDNA, and underscored the patent eligibility of our method claims, ensuring strong intellectual property protection for our BRACAnalysis test moving forward," said Peter D. Meldrum, Myriad president and chief executive officer. "More than 250,000 patients rely upon our BRACAnalysis test annually, and we remain focused on saving and improving peoples' lives and lowering overall healthcare costs.
"We are collaborating with the medical and scientific communities to improve patient access to genetic testing and facilitate research worldwide," Meldrum said. "Already, more than 10,000 scientific papers have been published on the BRCA genes, ranking them among the most researched genes in history. We are committed to advancing scientific knowledge even further, and Myriad will continue to encourage and support academic research studies conducted on the BRCA genes. While we are confident that Myriad offers the highest quality genetic tests in the world, we also support patients' rights to seek second opinion tests from any of the many laboratories conducting BRCA testing for the purpose of confirming the Myriad test result."
The Wall Street Journal said Myriad had reason for its optimism, despite the Supreme Court decision. The value of Myriad stock rose 8 percent on the morning the decision came down.
MICHAEL KIRKLAND || UPI Senior Legal Affairs Writer |
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Sudanese conflict draws international concern
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WASHINGTON, June 14 (UPI) -- The U.S., British and Norwegian governments said Friday they were deeply concerned by growing tensions between Sudan and South Sudan.
Sudan and South Sudan this year agreed to establish a demilitarized zone along their shared border and address oil disputes. Both sides have worked on and off on security deals with their African partners since South Sudan gained independence in 2011.
The Sudanese Embassy in Washington accused South Sudan of backing rebel forces along the border region.
"The support includes military training, intelligence, vehicles, weapons, fuel and food," the Thursday statement said.
A joint statement issued Friday by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, British Foreign Secretary William Hague and Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide called on both sides to honor their commitments to peace.
"We are deeply concerned at the heightened tension between the governments of Sudan and South Sudan," the statement said.
The United Nations said this week it was dispatching a human rights expert to Sudan to examine the issues there. Conflict in border states Blue Nile and South Kordofan have raised concerns from the world body.
South Sudan gained independence in 2011 as part of a peace deal backed by Western powers in 2005. Oil disputes, ethnic fighting and border skirmishes have threatened to unravel the peace deal. |
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Zimmerman trial jurors to be sequestered
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| Mark O'Mara (far left) jury consultant Robert Hirschhorn (center left) and George Zimmerman listens to instructions from Judge Debra Nelson during jury selection on the fifth day of jury selection in Seminole circuit court, Sanford, Florida, June 14, 2013. Judge Nelson confirmed that the jury will be sequestered. George Zimmerman is accused of second degree murder in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin. UPI/Gary W. Green/Pool |
SANFORD, Fla., June 13 (UPI) -- The jury in the Florida trial of a neighborhood watch volunteer charged with killing an unarmed black teenager will be sequestered, the judge said Thursday.
Circuit Judge Debra Nelson said she expects the trial of George Zimmerman to take two to four weeks, the Orlando Sentinel reported. She said jurors will be away from their homes for that time.
Zimmerman, 29, is charged with the second-degree murder of Trayvon Martin, 17, who was walking to a relative's home in a gated community in Sanford when he was shot. Zimmerman says Martin assaulted him and he fired in self-defense.
Jury selection began Monday. Potential jurors, whose names are not being released, are being questioned closely on how much they know about the racially charged case and whether they have formed an opinion.
A middle-aged white woman who was being questioned when Nelson made the announcement said the period of time was "doable." She said being away from home for a long period of time was her "biggest fear."
While the woman said she feared "repercussions" if Zimmerman is acquitted, she said she believed she could decide the case based on the evidence.
Another woman said she thinks Zimmerman is innocent. She described herself as a strong supporter of gun rights.
"You'd have to work really hard to change my opinion," she said.
Other potential jurors interviewed Thursday morning said they hadn't really followed the case, the Sentinel reported.
A retired white male, who described himself as "a West Virginia boy," told attorneys he reads the newspaper and watches local television, but hadn't formed an opinion. He said 17-year-old Martin looked like a "typical teenage boy" in published photos he had seen.
The potential juror said his son had also died and he considered Martin's death "a shame."
By Wednesday, 20 potential jurors had cleared the first stage of interviews. Attorneys have questioned them about their knowledge of the Feb. 26, 2012, shooting. Two women said they had only a passing familiarity with the case.
Some 75 people have been judged unsuitable and sent home.
Attorneys hope to assemble a group of 30 potential jurors from whom six jurors and four alternates would be selected to hear the case. |
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Zimmerman Jury Selection in Florida
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| Sybrina Fulton, the mother of slain teen Trayvon Martin listens to a prospective juror during the third day of jury selection in Seminole circuit court, Sanford, Florida, June 12, 2013. George Zimmerman is accused of second degree murder in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin. UPI/Joe Burbank/Pool |
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'Steve Harvey' talk show renewed through 2016
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| TV and radio personality Steve Harvey stands atop his star, during an unveiling ceremony honoring him with the 2,497th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles on May 13, 2013. UPI/Jim Ruymen |
CHICAGO, June 12 (UPI) -- Daytime talk show "Steve Harvey" has been renewed through 2016 to station groups across the United States, NBCUniversal Domestic TV Distribution said Wednesday.
"Steve is one of the best entertainers in the country and his first season has been a tremendous success because of the personal connection he makes with the daytime audience," Ted Harbert, chairman of NBC Broadcasting, said in a statement. "It's so great to see Steve's very funny and substantive show being rewarded with long-term commitments from our station partners."
"Steve Harvey," which was already renewed for its second season in national syndication earlier this year, has now been extended for additional seasons through 2016 with station groups including the NBC-owned television stations, Hearst, Cox, Media General, FOX, Sinclair, Gannett, Local TV, Allbritton, LIN, Nexstar, Raycom and others.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.
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67th Annual Tony Awards in New York
'Kinky Boots,' 'Pippin,' 'Vanya,' 'Woolf' win big at Tony Awards.
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Patina Miller, winner of the award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for 'Pippin', Cicely Tyson, winner of the award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for 'The Trip to Bountiful' and Billy Porter, winner of the award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for ' Kinky Boots' arrive in the pressroom at the 67th Annual Tony Awards held at Radio City Music Hall on June 9, 2013 in New York City. UPI/Monika Graff
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NEW YORK, June 9 (UPI) -- "Kinky Boots," the feel-good story about a British factory that produces fabulous shoes for drag queens, was named Best Musical at the Tony Awards in New York.
"Kinky Boots" star Billy Porter earned the prize for Best Actor in a Musical, while the show also earned the accolades for Best Sound Design, Orchestrations, Score and Choreography at Radio City Music Hall Sunday night.
The show, which featured music by pop star Cyndi Lauper, went into the competition nominated for a leading 13 awards.
"Matilda," a stage adaptation of Roald Dahl's children's book about a young girl trying to save herself and her classmates from an evil school headmistress, was up for 12 prizes. It won for Best Book, Scenic Design of a Musical, Lighting Design in a Musical and Featured Actor in a Musical for Gabriel Ebert.
Christopher Durang's "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike," a comedy about a dysfunctional family in rural Bucks County, Pa., won the Tony for Best Play.
Edward Albee's scathing relationship drama "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" was declared the Best Revival of a Play. Pam MacKinnon picked up the award for Best Direction of a Play and Tracy Letts the prize for Best Actor in a Play.
"Pippin" earned the title for Best Revival of a Musical. The medieval circus-themed show's ringmaster Patina Miller won for Best Actress in a Musical and her co-star Andrea Martin scored the Tony for Featured Actress in a Musical. Diane Paulus picked up the trophy for Best Direction of a Musical for directing "Pippin."
Cicely Tyson garnered the Best Actress in a Play award for "The Trip to Bountiful," Courtney B. Vance won the statuette for Featured Actor in a Play for "Lucky Guy" and Judith Light went home with the Featured Actress in a Play prize for "The Assembled Parties."
The CBS telecast of the prize presentation featured performances by the stars of "Kinky Boots," "Matilda," "Newsies," "Once," "Bring It On," "Annie," "Pippin," "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," "Motown," "The Phantom of the Opera" and "A Christmas Story." Neil Patrick Harris served as host of the awards show.
New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg said during the ceremony 11.6 million people attended shows during the 2012-13 Broadway season.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.
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NSA document leader Edward Snowden, identifies himself
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LONDON, June 9 (UPI) -- Former CIA worker Edward Snowden says he is the source of leaked top-secret documents detailing U.S. intelligence collection of electronic communication data.
Snowden, 29, who formerly worked as a technical assistant for the CIA and currently works for defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, revealed his identity voluntarily, Britain's The Guardian reported Sunday.
"I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong," he told the newspaper, which initially reported on the National Security Agency data collection last week.
Snowden, in part in his capacity with Booz Allen, has worked for four years at the NSA, the newspaper said.
Snowden said when he decided to leak the documents he also decided he would not remain anonymous.
"I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions," he said in a note accompanying the first documents he provided to The Guardian.
"I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant," he said.
Snowden insisted he does not want public attention because he wants the story "to be about what the U.S. government is doing."
He said he fears "the harmful effects on my family" but was otherwise willing to sacrifice "a very comfortable life" -- a $200,000 annual income, possibly his career -- "because I can't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, Internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building."
"You can't wait around for someone else to act," he said.
"I carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest," he said. "There are all sorts of documents that would have made a big impact that I didn't turn over, because harming people isn't my goal. Transparency is." |
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Serena Williams wins French Open title
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PARIS, June 8 (UPI) -- Serena Williams defeated defending champion Maria Sharapova 6-4, 6-4 Saturday, beating Sharapova for a 13th straight time to win her second French Open title.
Williams' second win at Roland Garros comes 11 years after her first and gives her at least two wins in every Grand Slam event. It comes 12 months after Williams was a very surprising upset victim in the first round of the 2012 French Open.
Since then, Williams is 68-3 with 11 tournament titles and has returned to the world No. 1 ranking.
Saturday's win was the 31st consecutive match win for Williams, a career best.
She holds the championships at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in addition to the French Open. All told she has 16 major tournament titles.
"Actually 11 years ago I didn't even think I'd still be playing. I never thought I would play past 28, or something like that but I'm still here," William said after the match. "And this one was so good. It's the only one I hadn't won more than one of. Now I have multiple titles at every major, singles and doubles, so I'm really pumped."
She is the fourth women's player in the Open Era to win each major tournament at least twice. The others are Hall of Famers Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert and Steffi Graf.
Williams improved to 14-2 in matches against Sharapova. They have played four times this year, with Williams winning in the semifinals at Doha and in championship matches in Miami, Madrid and Paris.
Sharapova, the world No. 2, who was seeking to repeat at the championship where she completed her career Grand Slam last year, jumped out to a 2-0 lead but Williams answered by winning four straight games. Sharapova evened the set with a break to 4-4 but Williams quickly broke back and held serve for the first set.
Sharapova fought off five first-game break points but lost the first Williams had in the third game. Williams didn't give Sharapova a chance after that, dropping just two points on serve the rest of the way.
Williams pounded out 10 aces -- three in the final game -- and had 33 winners against 19 unforced errors. Sharapova only had two break chances, which she won both of, but Williams ended up winning more than 75 percent of the points on serve.
Williams completed a French Open in which she lost one set, that coming in the quarterfinals to Svetlana Kuznetsova. Sharapova was the only player to have two sets with at least four games won against Williams.
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NSA said to be spying on millions of Verizon users
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FORT MEADE, Md., June 6 (UPI) -- The FBI is amassing millions of U.S. Verizon customers' phone records for a top-secret Defense Department domestic spying program, a court order indicates.
The program requires Verizon Business Services to give the FBI an "ongoing, daily" download of "all call detail records," including caller and recipient locations, call time and call duration, the court order leaked to the British newspaper The Guardian says.
It applies to all calls made domestically and between a domestic U.S. location and anywhere else in the world.
The information is then provided to the Defense Department's National Security Agency, based at Fort Meade in Maryland. The agency was originally devoted exclusively to collecting and analyzing sometimes-encrypted foreign-communications intelligence, but since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has focused more and more on domestic spying.
The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order is labeled "Top Secret," the highest security level that, by definition, means publicly disclosing the information would cause "exceptionally grave damage" to national security.
It does not require Verizon to divulge phone numbers or communication contents.
But its collection would let the NSA easily build a complete picture of who, where, when and how individuals contact each other, The Guardian said.
The order, as published by The Guardian, can be found at tinyurl.com/FBI-NSA-Verizon-Spying.
The court order shows for the first time the Obama administration is indiscriminately collecting the communication records of millions of U.S. citizens, regardless of whether they are suspected of wrongdoing, The Guardian said.
The blanket program gives Washington unlimited authority to get phone-call data for three months, ending July 19. It was approved by the surveillance court April 25.
The April 25 order was signed by Judge Roger Vinson in one of his last acts on the FISC bench. Vinson, a senior U.S. District Court judge for the Northern District of Florida, completed his seven-year FISC term May 18.
It was unclear Verizon is the only landline and cellphone network operator ordered to provide the information, although The Guardian said earlier reporting suggests the NSA has collected call records from all major U.S. phone networks.
It is also unclear from the warrant if the three-month court order is a one-time-only command or the latest in a series of similar orders.
The Guardian said it approached the NSA, the Justice Department, which oversees the FBI, and the White House for comment in advance of publication.
All three declined. |
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Syrian army recaptures border crossing
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TEL AVIV, Israel, June 6 (UPI) -- Syrian army forces Thursday recaptured the Quneitra border crossing between Israel and Syria seized by rebels earlier in the day, officials said.
Syrian army troops had taken control of the Quneitra crossing, the only crossing between Israel and Syria, Israeli Army Radio reported.
Israel submitted a complaint to the United Nations after the Syrian army deployed tanks and armored personnel carriers in the demilitarized zone, Israel Radio said. Israeli military officials predicted rebel forces will attempt to recapture the crossing, the report said.
In the afternoon Israeli farmers were permitted to tend their crops near the border, Israel Radio said. Earlier, the the army had closed roads in the area due to intense fighting between pro-regime and rebel forces.
The developments come less than a day after Syrian regime forces recaptured Qusair near the Lebanese border that in recent weeks had been the site of intense fighting between rebels and Hezbollah-backed pro-regime forces.
The Quneitra crossing is the only crossing between Israel and Syria, and marks the cease-fire line between the Syrian- and Israeli-controlled portions of the Golan Heights. The crossing is mainly used by U.N. personnel deployed in the area and the Druze population, which crosses to study and work in Syria. The crossing is also used to export apples grown by Israeli Druze farmers.
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First time jobless claims drop by 11,000
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WASHINGTON, June 6 (UPI) -- The U.S. Labor Department said first-time jobless benefits claims dropped by 11,000 to 346,000 in the week that ended Saturday.
The department revised last week's estimate from 344,000 to 357,000, which put the four-week rolling average at 352,500, an increase of 4,500 from the previous week.
The largest increases in initial claims for the week that ended May 25 were in California (with 8,622 additional first-time claims), Missouri (with 2,999) and Kentucky (with 1,750).
The largest decreases in the week were in Michigan, where first-time claims dropped by 2,185, North Carolina with a decline of 1,747 and South Carolina with a decline of 867. |
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Scientists look for source of rogue GM wheat
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PORTLAND, Ore., June 6 (UPI) -- Scientists say it is unclear how genetically modified wheat reached Oregon, where its discovery led to some foreign markets suspending imports of U.S. wheat.
Kendall Lamkey, chairman of the Iowa State University agronomy department, said "corn pollen can travel ... a great distance" under wind power or through contact with insects, but the wheat gene is "unlikely to be moving to other varieties in any significant way."
Wheat plants generally fertilize themselves, as opposed to scattering pollen, scientists said.
The genetically modified, or transgenic, wheat was found June 1 in a field in Oregon belonging to a farmer with a total of 125 acres planted with wheat. Less than 1 percent of his crop was found to include the transgenic strain, The New York Times reported.
Monsanto Co., which developed the strain, stopped tests on the crop 12 years, the Times said.
The transgenic strain was developed to make the wheat resistant to Roundup, an herbicide Monsanto produces.
Although health issues are generally not associated with genetically modified wheat, organic farmers would not be able to sell their crops at customary top prices if their crop is discovered to be genetically modified.
Europe and Japan ban imports of transgenic crops.
"All bets are off when you start introducing new kinds of crops," said David Ervin, environmental management professor at Portland State University. "That we haven't had any serious events to this point doesn't mean we won't have significant risks of them occurring in the future."
Monsanto officials told reporters on a conference call Wednesday the genetically modified wheat found in Oregon may have been the result of sabotage. The company said testing found no sign of genetic modification in 30,000 samples of commercial wheat seeds from Oregon and Washington state. |
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Rep. Conyers: Farrakhan's speech 'racist, anti-Semitic'
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DETROIT, May 24 (UPI) -- U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., has described remarks made by Louis Farrakhan in a Detroit speech as "unacceptable racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic."
In a statement released Thursday, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee said Farrakhan's "important charitable work" does not excuse what he said in his speech last week, the Detroit Free Press reported. Conyers was at the speech by the Nation of Islam leader in a Detroit church, Fellowship Chapel, last Friday.
The Free Press reported Farrakhan referred to "Satanic Jews" and the "synagogue of Satan" and said President Barack Obama has "surrounded himself with Satan."
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"Farrakhan made unacceptable racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic statements, which I condemn in the strongest possible terms," Conyers said. "It was my expectation that Minister Farrakhan's speech would focus on the many challenges facing the city of Detroit. In previous days, he had discussed efforts to revitalize our city by purchasing property and investing in blighted neighborhoods. Regrettably, he used this opportunity to promote views that have no place in civilized discourse."
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The Anti-Defamation League condemned Farrakhan's remarks in a statement issued Tuesday.
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Monster tornado devastates Oklahoma City area; at least 51 dead
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OKLAHOMA CITY, May 20 (UPI) -- A huge tornado cut a devastating path in suburban Oklahoma City Monday, slamming schools, a hospital, businesses and homes, and killing at least 51 people.
The Oklahoma chief medical examiner's office said there were at least 51 confirmed deaths, MSNBC reported. NBC News said at least 20 of those were children.
"It is absolutely devastating, this is horrific," Oklahoma Lt. Gov Todd Lamb said. "We're going to have fatalities. ... We're going to have significant injuries. ... We just don't know what those numbers are. Schools have been hit, a hospital has been hit, businesses have been flattened, neighborhoods have been wiped away -- we don't have the numbers in yet, but it is going to be significant and it is going to be horrific."
President Obama spoke by phone with Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin to express his concern for the victims of the storms that ravaged the state both Monday and Sunday, the White House said in a statement.
"While information is still coming in, the president made clear that his administration, through FEMA [the Federal Emergency Management Agency], stands ready to provide all available assistance as the governor's team responds to the storm, and that he has directed his team to ensure that they are providing available resources as the response unfolds," the White House said.
"The president told Governor Fallin that the people of Oklahoma are in his and the first lady's thoughts and prayers and, while his team will continue to keep him updated, he urged her to be in touch directly if there were additional resources the administration could provide."
One sixth-grade boy named Brady told KOCO-TV he and other children at Briarwood Elementary School in Moore took refuge in a bathroom.
"Cinderblocks and everything collapsed on them but they were underneath so that kind of saved them a little bit, but I mean they were trapped in there," he said.
Neighbors pulled children and teachers out of the rubble at Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore.
KFOR reported Plaza Towers Elementary students hugged and clung to school walls as the tornado passed.
ABC said area hospitals received dozens of people with injuries, including 33 at Integris Southwest Medical Center in downtown Oklahoma City where officials said 10 were in critical condition.
Oklahoma University Medical Center spokesman Scott Coppenbarger said the facility had received 20 patients.
KFOR-TV, Oklahoma City, reported the dead included a 7-month-old baby.
KWTV-DT, Oklahoma City, cited unnamed reports as saying three people had died at a 7-Eleven Store in Moore.
CNN said the tornado was estimated to be 2 miles wide as it swept through the southern suburb of Moore. Its affiliate, KFOR-TV, reported houses were leveled. KOKH-TV, Oklahoma City, reported the National Weather Service said the storm was at least an EF-4, meaning winds hit 200 mph.
"It's just destroying everything. There's so many homes in the air right now. The motion on this storm is sickening," storm chaser Spencer Basoco said.
The Oklahoman reported Norman Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Kelly Wells said the hospital's second floor was largely gone.
"All of our staff has been accounted for," she said. "None of our patients there have been critically injured. We're in the process of evacuating the hospital."
There were reports of gas leaks in Moore, with one destroyed home in flames.
Interstate 35 was shut down by the state highway patrol.
The Oklahoman reported the twister hit Moore about 3 p.m. and dissipated west of Lake Stanley Draper about 3:36 p.m.
The Warren Theatre was heavily damaged as well.
NBC News reported aerial footage showed widespread destruction.
"A large part of the community has been affected," Jayme Shelton, a spokesman for Moore, told MSNBC.
Oklahoma City police told NBC southern portions of the city and Moore sustained "major damage ... a lot of damage."
The National Weather Service had issued a tornado emergency for the Oklahoma City metro area earlier in the day, hours after a rash of twisters ripped through five states.
A twister was spotted in Newcastle, Okla., Monday afternoon, hours after tornadoes raced through Oklahoma, Kansas, Illinois, Iowa and Missouri, killing two people, injuring 21 and destroying dozens of homes, authorities said.
Tornadoes were reported Sunday and Monday, with baseball-size hail and other harsh conditions in the forecast, CNN reported.
The Oklahoma medical examiner identified two men killed by a twister that hit a trailer park in Pottawatomie County as Glen Irish, 79, and Billy Hutchinson, 76, both of Shawnee, The Oklahoman said.
At least 21 injuries were reported in Oklahoma and more in Missouri.
Dozen tornadoes were reported in Oklahoma, Kansas, Illinois and Iowa, the National Weather Service said.
Early Monday, a tornado touched down in Golden City in southwestern Missouri, and buzzed through two counties, Barton County Emergency Management Director Tom Ryan said.
More tornadoes were spotted in several locations in Iowa and in Carroll County, Ill., weather service officials said.
Fallin had declared a state of emergency for 16 counties. She said the declaration could be amended if necessary.
Emergency management officials reported dozens of homes were destroyed, The Oklahoman reported.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission reported 23,000 utility customers were without power.
One tornado flipped three tractor-trailers and damaged four other vehicles at the Interstate 40-U.S. 177 overpass just west of Shawnee, sending several people to hospitals, officials said.
Truck driver David Bergquist said he was under the I-40 bridge near Shawnee as the tornado approached, comparing the scene to a popular 1996 movie about tornadoes and their power.
"What they did on 'Twister' was pretty damn accurate," he told The Oklahoman. "All I lost was a windshield."
Near Carney, Janee Keiser said she, her mother, her daughter and two granddaughters holed up in a cellar as a tornado wiped out their home.
"It's gone -- all the buildings, all the cars," Keiser said. "It took the garage, the barn, the shed -- it took it all.
"But we're all fine and that's the most important thing," she said. "The other stuff can be rebuilt."
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.
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Obama cheers on grads at black men's college
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ATLANTA, May 19 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Sunday urged graduates of Morehouse College to add "role model" to their goals in life, and not to focus only on material success.
Speaking at Sunday's commencement for the all-male school in Atlanta -- whose alumni include civil rights icon Martin Luther King -- Obama said members of the Class of 2013 has an obligation to do what they can to lift the entire black community.
"No one expects you to take a vow of poverty," Obama said. "But I will say it betrays a poverty of ambition if all you think about is what goods you can buy instead of what good you can do."
Obama recalled previous generations' struggles for civil rights and economic advancement, and said there were lingering social problems that need solving.
He called the "Morehouse Men" a special asset.
"Ask yourself what broader purpose your business might serve, in putting people to work, or transforming a neighborhood," said Obama. "The most successful CEOs I know didn't start out intent on making money -- rather, they had a vision of how their product or service would change things, and the money followed."
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc.
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Maid says she thinks Michael Jackson sexually abused boys
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NEW YORK, May 17 (UPI) -- Adrian McManus, Michael Jackson's one-time housekeeper, told TV's "Inside Edition" she believes the late U.S. pop star was a child molester.
McManus started working for the singer in 1993, in the wake of the first allegation of sexual molestation. Jackson, who was plagued with sexual-abuse claims before and after his death in 2009, was never convicted of any criminal wrongdoing.
But McManus said in an interview airing Friday on "Inside Edition" she believes Jackson committed the crimes.
Asked, "Do you think Michael Jackson was a child molester?" McManus replied, "Yes, I do.
"He groomed the little boys," she said. "I think he was getting them drunk."
McManus said Jackson warned her to keep quiet about what she saw.
"He told me, 'What happens at Neverland, stays in Neverland,'" she recalled, adding Jackson threatened to have her killed if she ever spoke out.
"He said, 'If you ever go on a talk show, or a TV show, we can hire a hit man and have your neck slit. They'll never find your body. We can hire a sniper to take you out," she said.
McManus testified against the singer at his 2005 child-molestation trial, but he was acquitted of all charges.
Wade Robson, a 30-year-old dancer-choreographer befriended by Jackson when he was a boy, described Jackson as "a pedophile and a child sexual abuser" during a recent appearance on the "Today" show.
CNN said Robson denied in testimony at Jackson's 2005 child molestation trial that the singer had sexually abused him.
Robson said on "Today" he was "psychologically and emotionally completely unable and unwilling to understand that it was sexual abuse" at the time but is now ready to confront his past.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.
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Grading Obama's first 100 days into second term
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President Obama passed the 100-day mark of his second term vowing to soldier on for his agenda while recognizing the limitations of working within a divided government.
Yes, things are dysfunctional, he said, but he's still optimistic.
"I'm actually confident that there are a range of things that we're going to be able to get done," Obama said during a news conference last week. "I feel confident that the bipartisan work that's been done on immigration reform will result in a bill that passes the Senate, passes the House, and gets on my desk. And that's going to be historic achievement, and I've been very complimentary of the efforts of both Republicans and Democrats in those efforts."
Political observers give Obama props for pushing an aggressive agenda that includes immigration reform and gun control. He's stirred the pot and generated conversation on many issues.
Still, Obama doesn't appear as focused on matters such as the budget, and in fact, seems adrift, earning him a B- from one political observer.
"There're some signs that he's less focused" on some issues, such as the budget-related matter, Lawrence Jacobs, director for the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota's Hubert H. Humphrey Institute and Department of Political Science.
What must be remembered, though, is the "brutal environment" that is Washington these days, Jacobs said.
There was a compromise on background checks for gun purchases hammered out between two senators -- a Democrat and a Republican -- who are members of the National Rifle Association. Obama used his pulpit to speak about "commonsense" anti-gun-violence legislation.
It went down in the Senate.
Obama showed willingness to consider painful cuts in entitlements and for programs he typically champions to try to avoid the across-the-board spending cuts, known in Washington parlance as the sequester, without success.
"What did he get in return? Campaign fodder," Jacobs said.
And the window for him to advance his agenda in Congress is rapidly closing, considering the 2014 midterms are, essentially, just around the bend.
Just how he proposes to revive his political prospects after setbacks on gun control and the sequester remains unknown.
One questioner noted neither the gun legislation he championed nor his work to avoid the sequester passed muster in Congress and asked if he still had the "juice" to advance his agenda on Capitol Hill.
When stated that way, Obama said, "maybe I should just pack up and go home. Golly. You know, I think it's a little, as Mark Twain said, you know, 'Rumors of my demise may be a little exaggerated at this point.'"
Later he said, "But, you know, ... you seem to suggest that somehow these folks over there have no responsibilities, and that my job is to somehow get them to behave. That's their job.
They're elected," he said. "Members of Congress are elected in order to do what's right for their constituencies and for the American people."
Obama held his cards close during his news conference, offering little insight into how he intends to proceed with any of the unfinished items on his agenda.
But one area Obama could actively pursue would have an enormous effect is his use of administrative and judicial powers, Jacobs said, an area he says the president has been "asleep at the switch."
"He's been kind of passive on that ... it's almost shocking," Jacobs said.
It would take political will and political capital, but Obama could effect significant change without congressional approval.
Obama's focus can't be solely on what he can get Congress to pass because it's a "false hope," Jacobs said. So maybe it's time for him to look to shaping his legacy through his powers in the administrative and judicial realm.
"There needs to be modesty," Jacobs said, noting Obama is "stalemated by conservatives in the House and a Senate that's tied up in knots."
"He finds himself in difficult circumstances," the professor said.
While Obama can't force lawmakers to his will because Congress is independent, "there are areas where he can have influence," Jacobs said. "The president has enormous power when it's exercised in a focused way."
Obama can exercise power through regulatory agencies and departments such as Treasury, Health and Human Services and the Interior, as well as through legislation such as the financial reform law known as the Dodd-Frank Act.
Using his administrative and judicial authority is how President Ronald Reagan wielded huge influence, Jacobs said.
And the clock is ticking, Jacobs said because of 2014. Democrats, as evidenced by some of the votes on the background checks measure, are skittish.
Historically, he said, the "the record is terrible" for presidents in the sixth year of their administration at the polls.
"The hourglass has turned," Jacobs said. "We're heading into the 2014 election cycle. I'd say he has until fall [for action on his agenda]. His honeymoon has blown by."
Some strategists told The Hill Obama needs to take his message to the people living in lawmakers' home districts.
"Power politics since the time of Cicero is effectively an exercise in physics," said Chris Lehane, a California-based Democratic strategist, "and the physics here in this current age of paralysis is to create enough public pressure in targeted states and districts to force an official to take action."
Other strategists say Obama needs to keep the conversation going and focus on the positive, even though he's had some failures recently.
Still other Democratic strategists told The Hill Obama is making the right choices so far in his second term -- he's engaging lawmakers and taking advantages of the presidency.
"I didn't realize President Obama had lost his mojo," said strategist Jamal Simmons.
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U.S. condemns massacres in Syria that left about 150 dead
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DAMASCUS, Syria, May 4 (UPI) -- The Obama administration Saturday denounced the Syrian government after rebel supporters alleged two massacres left about 150 people dead.
The State Department's Jen Psaki said in a statement sharply rebuking the regime of Bashar Assad that the United States was "appalled" by the "horrific reports" of "gruesome" killings of families, including women and children.
"We strongly condemn atrocities against the civilian population and reinforce our solidarity with the Syrian people," Psaki said. "As the Assad regime's violence against innocent civilians escalates, we will not lose sight of the men, women, and children whose lives are being so brutally cut short.
"We call on all responsible actors in Syria to speak out against the perpetration of unlawful killings against any group, regardless of faith or ethnicity. Those responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law and serious violations and abuses of human rights law must be held accountable."
Activists said 77 people were killed in Baniyas Friday, a day after 72 were killed at the nearby village of al-Bayda, the BBC reported. The attacks led large numbers of Syrians to flee the area.
The government said the deaths in Baniyas resulted from clashes with "terrorist groups," the BBC reported.
Videos posted online show the bodies of women and children, some of them mutilated or partially burned.
Hundreds of families are reported to have fled Baniyas and headed south to the city of Tartus, but have been blocked by the pro-government militia known as the shabbiha.
Anti-regime activists said operations along the coast were an indication of Assad's intention to consolidate his government's position.
In a public appearance Saturday at Damascus University, Assad unveiled a statute honoring "martyred students."
Separately, Israel said its warplanes struck inside Syria Friday, hitting weapons Israel believed were headed to Hezbollah in Lebanon. |
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Obama names Watt to FHA, Wheeler to FCC
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WASHINGTON, May 1 (UPI) -- President Obama announced the nomination Wednesday of veteran U.S. Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
The president also said that Tom Wheeler, a former lobbyist for the telecommunications industry and investor in industry startups, to head the Federal Communications Commission. He named Mignon Clyburn as interim chief until Wheeler's nomination is confirmed by the Senate.
Watt is now in his 11th term in Congress. Obama said his long experience on the Committee on Financial Services has given him the insight he needs to head the federal housing agency.
"He knows what it's going to take to help responsible homeowners fully recover," Obama said. "And he's committed to helping folks just like his mom -- Americans who work really hard, play by the rules day in and day out to provide for their families."
Wheeler also has the expertise needed at the FCC, the president said.
"Now, if anybody is wondering about Tom's qualifications, Tom is the only member of both the cable television and the wireless industry hall of fame. So he's like the Jim Brown of telecom, or the Bo Jackson of telecom," Obama said. |
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NYPD head says African-Americans not stopped and frisked enough
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NEW YORK, May 2 (UPI) -- In defense of New York City's stop-and-frisk policy, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says 75 percent of violent crimes are committed by African-Americans.
In a televised interview Wednesday, Kelly said the controversial police tactic, which many say disproportionately targets blacks and Latinos, may not be used enough, the New York Daily News reported.
"About 70 percent to 75 percent of the people described as committing violent crimes -- assault, robbery, shootings, grand larceny -- are described as being African-American," Kelly told ABC's "Nightline." "The percentage of people who are stopped is 53 percent African American. So really, African-Americans are being under-stopped in relation to the percentage of people being described as being the perpetrators of violent crime."
Meanwhile, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn continued to support a bill that would create an inspector general to oversee the NYPD, the New York Post reported.
Quinn, a mayoral candidate, said Wednesday her efforts would continue to slash the number of stop-and-frisks conducted by police officers, which were at an all-time high in 2011 with 684,000 and dropped to 525,000 in 2012.
"The [nearly] 700,000 number, which was at our height, it has gone down because of the intervention of my office and the council," Quinn said. "That's a number that is too high and clearly shows that many of those stops could not have been happening in a constitutionally sound way." |
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Get ready for higher gas prices, EIA says
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WASHINGTON, April 30 (UPI) -- U.S. consumers can expect to start pay more for gasoline as refiners start the shift to a summer fuel blends, the U.S. Energy Department said.
The Energy Department said refiners are starting shifting to summer-grade gasoline ahead of Wednesday's deadline. Summer blends have lower volatility than those used during winter because emissions can increase during warm weather.
"It costs refiners several cents per gallon more to make summer-grade gasoline, compared with winter-grade fuel, which is part of the reason that retail pump prices can rise in the summer," the department's Energy Information Administration said.
Motor group AAA reports that U.S. consumers paid, on average, $3.50 for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline Tuesday. That's about 30 cents lower than the same time last year. Regional highs were reported in Illinois, with a $3.91 average, and in California, with a $3.90 average.
Some states have stricter gasoline requirements, which may explain price variations, the EIA said.
EIA said gasoline prices during the peak summer drive season, which extends to September, should average $3.63 per gallon. Refiners switch back to winter blends in mid-September. |
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When in Doubt, Blame a Dark-Skinned Man
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Julianne Malveaux
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TriceEdneyWire) - I don’t know where CNN’s John King got the information that a suspect in the Boston bombing was “a dark-skinned male”, but beyond apologizing he needs to explain himself.
How many sources gave him the false tip? If it was fewer than two, then he violated a basic journalism rule. Who were these sources (if you don’t want to out them publicly, tell your editor)? Did King understand that he used the kind of racial/ethnic coding that once got people, even uninvolved and innocent people, lynched?
Remember Charles Stuart. He was riding through Roxbury (used to be the ‘hood) when he says a Black man of indeterminate description, wearing a jogging suit with a stripe on the sleeve shot him and his wife in an attempted carjacking. Pregnant Carol Stuart lived for just a few hours, and their baby, delivered by C-section, lived for only seventeen days. Stuart’s report of the alleged incident sparked a national outpouring of sympathy of him, and an excoriation of “Black criminals” who do such senseless things.
The police were nearly going door to door looking for a suspect, and several Black men were interrogated. Stewart identified one man in a line-up, and police were building a case against him when it discovered that Stuart’s wounds were self-inflicted and that his brother had helped him slaughter his wife.
Meanwhile, Stuart collected at least $100,000 from an insurance policy on his wife, using the money to pay for a new car in cash, and to buy jewelry. Unable to face the consequences of his actions, Stuart committed suicide by jumping off a bridge.
Stuart was too much a coward to be judged by a jury of his peers, but hundreds of Black men could not escape the injustice of the Stuart accusations. The Roxbury community was traumatized by the results of Stuart’s lies. Innocent men were questioned, many spending time at police stations in an effort to clear themselves. Those questioned and detained included students, professional men, the unemployed, and everybody in between. When in doubt, blame a Black man, any Black man, and let the chips fall where they may.
In 1994 Susan Smith, a South Carolina housewife, said that a Black man stole her two children. Later, she confessed to killing her own children. Meanwhile, again, dozens of innocent Black men were stopped, frisked, and taken to police stations for questioning. Clearly Susan Smith was mentally ill, but she wasn’t so broken that she didn’t know that blaming her children’s disappearance on a black man gave her lies more credibility.
The Stuart and Smith cases made headlines in the late twentieth century. Now our feet are firmly planted in the twenty-first century. Does this kind of racist stereotyping still take place? While these kinds of cases no longer make headlines, I wouldn’t be surprised if any of these occurrences continue to be. When in doubt, blame a Black man.
So here comes CNN’s John King, a heretofore-respected newsman, who repeatedly said that a “dark skinned man” was a suspect in the Boston bombing. Here we go again. This kind of false reporting makes every dark-skinned man in Boston a suspect, reminds Bostonians of the Stuart hoax, and sends a shudder through those African-Americans who remember police officers going door to door in housing projects rounding up the Black men.
Thanks, John King. Your job is to report the news, not make it. I wonder if you will apologize as many times as you said “dark-skinned man” or if you will ever explain where you got your false information. I’d hate to think that you transitioned from journalist to creative writer when you shared this information.
Some will say no harm was done because there was a correction. No harm was done if you don’t know the history. If someone described an alleged criminal as a White man with brown hair, it is unlikely that the police would go door to door looking for a White man with brown hair.
That’s the basic racism that is the foundation of our nation’s history. John King's erroneous reporting reminds us how easy it is to blame a "dark skinned" man.
As President Obama said, those responsible for the Boston bombings must be caught and punished. We now know that the two bombing suspects turned out to be of Chechnyan descent, nowhere close to "dark-skinned" males.You should have waited until there was proof, John King, before you reported it.
Julianne Malveaux is a DC based economist and author. |
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Letting a baby 'cry it out' goes against biology
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SAITAMA, Japan, April 21 (UPI) -- Parents are often advised to let a baby "cry it out" in a crib but Japanese researchers say to let babies cry and not pick them up goes against biology.
Kumi Kuroda of the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Saitama, Japan, said there is a very good reason mothers often carry their crying babies to help them calm down -- infants experience an automatic calming reaction upon being carried, whether they are mouse or human babies.
The study showed an infant calming response to carrying is made of a coordinated set of central, motor and cardiac regulations and an evolutionarily conserved component of mother-infant interactions, the researchers said.
"From humans to mice, mammalian infants become calm and relaxed when they are carried by their mother," Kuroda said in a statement.
Kuroda said the idea for the study came while cleaning the cages of her lab's mouse colony.
"When I picked the pups up at the back skin very softly and swiftly as mouse mothers did, they immediately stopped moving and became compact. They appeared relaxed, but not totally floppy, similar to a human baby," Kuroda said.
Once the researchers found an ECG monitor electrodes small enough to use on conscious mouse pups, the researchers found when the baby mice were carried their heart rates slowed, they became calm, relaxed and stopped crying.
The study, published in the journal Current Biology, found the heart rates of human babies slowed immediately upon being carrying -- same as mice. |
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Voter study: Black wait time twice white's
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CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 9 (UPI) -- Blacks waited nearly twice as long as whites to vote in November's U.S. election and Southeast voters waited longer than most others, a university study finds.
For most voters lines at the polls were relatively short, Massachusetts Institute of Technology political science Professor Charles Stewart says in a study, "Waiting to Vote in 2012," published in the Journal of Law & Politics.
"Two-thirds of voters in 2012 waited less than 10 minutes to vote, and ... only 3 percent of voters waited longer than an hour," he says, basing his information on the Survey of the Performance of American Elections, the Cooperative Congressional Election Study and county election websites.
The average wait in November actually fell to 13 minutes from 17 minutes in November 2008, the study says.
Florida's voters generally waited the longest, an average of 39 minutes, while Vermont's voters waited the least, less than 2 minutes, Stewart says.
Other states with wait times longer than 20 minutes were Maryland at 36 minutes and Virginia and South Carolina at 25 minutes each, the study finds. The wait time in Washington, D.C., was 36 minutes.
"The greatest times tended to cluster in the Eastern Seaboard, especially in the South, with wait times diminishing as one moves west," Stewart says.
Among those who waited longer than an hour, the average wait was 110 minutes, a minute longer than in 2008, he says.
"Urban voters waited longer than rural voters, early voters waited longer than Election Day voters, and African-American and Hispanic voters waited longer than whites," he says.
Indeed, no individual demographic difference stood out as much as race, he says.
"Viewed nationally, African-Americans waited an average of 23 minutes to vote, compared to 12 minutes for whites; Hispanics waited 19 minutes," the study says.
The study finds little variation when looking at other demographic categories.
The average wait time for voters with household incomes less than $30,000 was 12 minutes, compared with 14 minutes for voters with household incomes greater than $100,000, it says.
"Strong Democrats waited an average of 16 minutes, compared to an average of 11 minutes for strong Republicans. Respondents who reported they had an interest in news and public affairs 'most of the time' waited an average of 13.2 minutes, compared to 12.8 minutes among those who had 'hardly any' interest," the study says.
Stewart suggests there is no "magic bullet" to fix the long-line problem in areas where it exists.
"Intuition suggests that long lines, where they exist, might be mitigated through remedies such as better allocation of resources, the deployment of more modern technologies such as electronic poll books, or the use of larger polling facilities that can accommodate crowds better. But, the sad reality is that we simply do not know where to start in making things better," he says in the study.
After the election, President Barack Obama established a bipartisan commission to study ways of improving voting efficiency and reducing long wait times at the polls. The commission is expected to deliver a report in six months. |
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Jada Pinkett Smith: Will and I don't have an open relationship
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LOS ANGELES, April 15 (UPI) -- Hollywood actress Jada Pinkett Smith says she and her husband, actor Will Smith, don't have an open relationship contrary to longstanding rumors saying they do.
The actress addressed the buzz during a recent interview with HuffPost Live, saying: "I've always told Will, 'You can do whatever you want as long as you can look at yourself in the mirror and be OK.' Because at the end of the day, Will is his own man. I'm here as his partner, but he is his own man. He has to decide who he wants to be and that's not for me to do for him. Or vice versa."
E! News said Monday Pinkett Smith posted a clarification on Facebook after many people interpreted her remarks as confirmation she and her husband are permitted to have sex with other partners.
"Let me first say this, there are far more important things to talk about in regards to what is happening in the world than whether I have an open marriage or not," she wrote on Facebook.
"I am addressing this issue because a very important subject has been born from discussions about my statement that may be worthy of addressing," she wrote. "The statement I made in regard to, 'Will can do whatever he wants,' has illuminated the need to discuss the relationship between trust and love and how they co-exist.
"Do we believe loving someone means owning them? Do we believe that ownership is the reason someone should behave'? Do we believe that all the expectations, conditions, and underlying threats of 'you better act right or else' keep one honest and true? Do we believe that we can have meaningful relationships with people who have not defined nor live by the integrity of his or her higher self?
"What of unconditional love? Or does love look like, feel like, and operate as enslavement? Do we believe that the more control we put on someone the safer we are? What of TRUST and LOVE? Should we be married to individuals who can not be responsible for themselves and their families within their freedom? Should we be in relationships with individuals who we can not entrust to their own values, integrity, and LOVE...for us???
"Here is how I will change my statement...Will and I BOTH can do WHATEVER we want, because we TRUST each other to do so. This does NOT mean we have an open relationship...this means we have a GROWN one."
Jada Pinkett and Will Smith married in 1997. They have two children. |
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Whitaker-Bloom movie 'Zulu' to close Cannes film fest
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CANNES, France, April 12 (UPI) -- France's 66th Festival de Cannes is to close with a screening of "Zulu," a thriller starring Forest Whitaker and Orlando Bloom shot in South Africa.
The film was directed by Jerome Salle and adapted from the novel of the same name by Caryl Ferey.
Set in contemporary Cape Town, the film is about two police officers "caught up in a suspenseful search [that] combines elements of political film noir and social study," a synopsis said.
The renowned film festival is to open May 15 with a showing of Baz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby." |
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Halle Berry calls pregnancy at 46 'biggest surprise of my life'
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LOS ANGELES, April 8 (UPI) -- Hollywood actress Halle Berry told CNN finding out she is pregnant with her second child at the age of 46 "has been the biggest surprise of my life."
The Oscar-winning "Monster's Ball" star is engaged to actor Olivier Martinez. She has a 5-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.
"I feel fantastic. This has been the biggest surprise of my life to tell you the truth," Berry told CNN of her second pregnancy, which was first reported in the media last week. "I thought I was kind of past the point where this could be a reality for me. So it's been a big surprise and the most wonderful."
Berry said she does not know the baby's gender. |
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| Beyonce, Jay-Z tour Cuba for anniversary |
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HAVANA, April 6 (UPI) -- Beyonce and Jay-Z celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary in Cuba, where they were photographed touring Old Havana.
The couple were also spotted visiting a school and dining out, the Los Angeles Times reported. Fans mobbed the musicians Thursday while they were at La Guardia restaurant, People reported.
Some media outlets reported the couple were in the Communist country as tourists, which would be illegal because of the longstanding U.S. embargo against Cuba, the Times said.
The Miami Herald reported the government has issued some exceptions for cultural, religious academic and other types of visits.
Beyonce and Jay-Z married April 4, 2008.
In a recent interview with British Vogue, Beyonce said she's "happily married. I love my husband."
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McConnell Accuses Liberal Group of Bugging
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WASHINGTON, April 9 (UPI) -- U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell Tuesday accused a liberal Kentucky group of bugging his campaign headquarters.
McConnell has asked the FBI to investigate how a campaign strategy session regarding a possible challenge by Ashley Judd was recorded and delivered to Mother Jones, the same publication that released the infamous video of Mitt Romney's "47 percent" speech.
The Hill reported McConnell, R-Ky., accused the Kentucky Democratic super-PAC Progress Kentucky of planting a bug and recording a strategy session involving McConnell and his aides in which they discussed using Judd's religious beliefs and history of depression as part of an attack strategy.
Judd, a longtime liberal activist and actress, had been considering challenging McConnell for his seat in 2014 but has since decided against a run.
"Senator McConnell's campaign is working with the FBI and has notified the local U.S. attorney in Louisville, per FBI request, about these recordings," McConnell campaign manager Jesse Benton said in a statement.
"Obviously a recording device of some kind was placed in Senator McConnell's campaign office without consent. By whom and how that was accomplished presumably will be the subject of a criminal investigation."
The Hill said Progress Kentucky has yet to respond to the charges.
The audio tape has McConnell and members of his staff discussing how they would attack Judd on the campaign trail if she did run.
At one point, they evaluate the portions of Judd's autobiography where she discusses her history of depression.
"She's clearly, this sounds extreme, but she is emotionally unbalanced," a male voice can be heard telling the group. "I mean it's been documented. ... She's suffered some suicidal tendencies. She was hospitalized for 42 days when she had a mental breakdown in the '90s."
At another point the group mocks an audio clip played of Judd describing her belief in God as rooted in nature, invoking St. Francis of Assisi and "Brother Donkey, Sister Bird." One unidentified aide predicts conservative Christians would "take to the streets with pitchforks" after hearing Judd's views on religion..
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Kanye West sued for allegedly sampling '74 song without permission
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LOS ANGELES, April 9 (UPI) -- The children of the late songwriter David Pryor are suing U.S. rapper Kanye West for allegedly sampling one of Pryor's songs without permission, documents show.
Trena Steward and Lorenzo Pryor allege West used part of their father's 1974 song "Bumpin' Bus Stop?" in his 2005 hit "Gold Digger," TMZ reported Monday.
Steward and Pryor have asked a judge to stop the sale of West's 8-year-old record. They also are seeking unspecified damages, the celebrity news website said.
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Chris Brown back in court
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LOS ANGELES, April 6 (UPI) -- A lawyer for singer Chris Brown accused Los Angeles prosecutors of fraud for saying he submitted defective documentation of his court-ordered community service.
Prosecutors accused Brown of submitting poorly documented, and possibly fraudulent, paperwork indicating he completed 180 days of community service in his home state of Virginia. He agreed to perform the labor as part of a 2009 plea bargain deal when he was prosecuted for assaulting his girlfriend, pop star Rihanna.
The work was purportedly completed under the supervision of Richmond, Va., police but prosecutors said records show Brown was traveling abroad on the dates documents said he was picking up trash in Virginia.
Brown was in court Friday to face allegations his violated his probation,
His attorney, Mark Geragos, asked for a contempt of court hearing, accusing prosecutors of filing false documents, CNN reported.
"And I don't mean just false, it is fraudulent," he said.
District Attorney Jackie Lacey asked Superior Court Judge James Brandlin to restart Brown's 1,400 hours of community service under the supervision of a probation officer, CNN reported.
Brandlin ordered Brown to return to court June 10 because lawyers needed more time to review "additional discovery" in the case.
Bryan Norwood resigned as Richmond police chief in February after prosecutors questioned the validity of paperwork showing Brown performed the required community service under the supervision of Richmond police officers. |
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The statue of Frederick Douglass is unveiled in Washington
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| The statue of Frederick Douglass is seen during its unveiling ceremony in Emancipation Hall of the United States Capitol Visitor Center on June 19, 2013 in Washington, D.C. The statue is a gift from the District of Columbia. UPI/Kevin Dietsch |
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U.N. committee briefed on progress of U.S. asteroid mission
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VIENNA, June 19 (UPI) -- Progress is being made on the U.S. goal of sending the first human mission to an asteroid, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said after briefing a U.N. body.
"Aside from advancing our understanding of the nature of these mysterious objects and how we might protect our planet from them, this initiative will provide valuable experience in future mission planning and operations," Bolden said in Vienna Wednesday, a day after addressing the U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.
Presenting NASA's plan, Bolden noted President Barack Obama has set a goal of sending humans to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars by the 2030s, a U.N. release said.
"We are on track for fulfilling those goals and are making progress in developing the launch vehicle and spacecraft needed to carry astronauts to the deep space destinations of an asteroid and Mars," he said.
Mazlan Othman, Director of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs, applauded NASA's commitment to the asteroid initiative.
"We need initiatives such as these to continue capture the imagination of everyone and inspire us to make space work for the benefit of humankind," she said following Bolden's remarks.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.
All rights reserved. |
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Database of private security cameras could help in crime investigation
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BALTIMORE, June 19 (UPI) -- The U.S. arm of a Russian software firm says it's created a database to help Baltimore police track down private surveillance video that may help solve crimes.
"We've almost completed development of a database application for the IT department of the city of Baltimore, which allows companies to voluntarily register data about security cameras they already own and operate," Bill Conforti of EastBanc Technologies' Washington office told RIA Novosti Wednesday.
"So if there's a crime, the police department can contact the owners of cameras who have registered in the location where the crime was committed" to request access to their video footage for help in solving the crime, Conforti said.
The database, which would strengthen Baltimore's CitiWatch program of 580 city-operated video cameras, would speed up crime investigations because police "would know which companies' footage they could request -- they would not have to wait for the companies to come forward," he said.
The database being developed by EBT, based in the southwestern Siberian city of Novosibirsk, is not an active surveillance program, he stressed, because police would only view footage from private cameras registered on the database if they receive a report of a crime in the neighborhood.
The database is nearly ready to be rolled out, he said, but the actual date would be determined by city officials.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.
All rights reserved. |
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Apple to sell iPads to Los Angeles public schools in $30 million deal
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LOS ANGELES, June 19 (UPI) -- In a deal worth an initial $30 million, Apple will eventually equip every student in the Los Angeles school district with an iPad.
The LA Board of Education voted 6-0 Tuesday to approve the contract following a nod of approval for the Apple tablets from both students and senior staff, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The school district will pay $678 per iPad, one for every student in all 47 campuses of the district, considered the second-largest school district in the United States, with more than 640,000 students.
The cost is higher that Apple's normal retail because the tablets will come with educational software preinstalled and include a three-year warranty.
The school board voted to spend $30 million on an initial order for more than 31,000 iPads as the first part of a multi-year commitment.
Before the vote, some board members expressed concerns about the cost and the exclusive arrangement with Apple.
A representative from Microsoft said she also had reservations about the deal. Robyn Hines, senior director of state government affairs for Microsoft, said schools shouldn't focus just on one computing platform and that students should have access to products they'll use in the business world, including those from Microsoft.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.
All rights reserved. |
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Obama: Being a dad 'the best job'
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President Barack Obama attends a Father's Day luncheon to celebrate the importance of strong families and mentoring in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC on June 14 , 2013. Fathers and their children as well as students and leaders from the Becoming a Man (BAM) program at Hyde Park Academy in Chicago attended the event. UPI/Olivier Douliery/Pool |
WASHINGTON, June 14 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama told the crowd at an early Father's Day luncheon Friday being a father was "the best job."
"You know obviously this is a great way for us to celebrate Father's Day and -- and just to remind ourselves, those of us who are fathers, how lucky we are," the president said. "It's the best job I've got. And I know that all the fathers here feel the same way."
Obama said his guests represented "a bunch of different organizations. We're very proud of everything you guys do."
Obama welcomed 14 students and five chaperons from Chicago's Hyde Park Academy High School among his guests at the informal luncheon in the State Dining Room to mark Father's Day, the Chicago Tribune said. |
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California health plan raises questions of cost, affordability
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SACRAMENTO, June 13 (UPI) -- Health coverage could come with $2,000 deductibles and $45 doctor co-pays, raising questions about the affordability of state-based exchanges, analysts say.
A plan developed in California reveals how much clients of the state exchanges could actually pay under the federal health law nicknamed Obamacare, CNNMoney reported Thursday.
A "silver-level" plan, one of four possible plans with the second-cheapest premiums, would cost an average of $321 a month. Customers who choose that plan would have a $2,000 deductible, $45 co-pays for primary care visits and a $250 charge for emergency room visits.
The elite gold or platinum plans have no deductibles and cheaper co-pays. But they have higher monthly premiums.
Obamacare caps out of pocket expenses. In the platinum plan, a patient would spend no more than $4,000 a year in the platinum plan; no more than $6,400 in the less expensive plans.
Marian Mulkey, director of the health reform initiative at the California Healthcare Foundation, said, the hardest question "is will it be a good deal and will consumers be able to afford it."
The answer depends on how healthy enrollees are and whether they are currently insured.
Gary Claxton, director of the healthcare marketplace project at the Kaiser Family Foundation, says, it's "hard for anyone who isn't well off to afford it."
However, "in many cases, depending on the plan, the coverage will be more comprehensive than what the enrollee currently has," said Anne Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for Covered California that is running the state's exchange.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.
All rights reserved. |
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Under the U.S. Supreme Court: DNA ruling a big win for police
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WASHINGTON, June 9 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court, in a huge victory for law enforcement, ruled 5-4 last week that taking a DNA sample from prisoners accused of serious crimes does not violate the Constitution.
To the outrage of civil liberties advocates, the ruling was not about defendants who had been convicted of a crime. All 50 states allow DNA sampling of those convicted of a felony. The ruling addressed those who had merely been accused of a serious crime.
The underlying case is fairly stark.
In 2003 a man concealing his face and armed with a gun broke into a woman's home in Salisbury, Md. He raped her. Police were unable to identify him, but they did take a sample of the invader's DNA from the woman.
In 2009 Alonzo King Jr. was arrested in Wicomico County, Md., and charged with first- and second-degree assault for menacing a group of people with a shotgun. "As part of a routine booking procedure for serious offenses, his DNA sample was taken by applying a cotton swab or filter paper -- known as a buccal swab -- to the inside of his cheeks. The DNA was found to match the DNA taken from the Salisbury rape victim."
King subsequently was convicted of the rape.
A Maryland appeals court set aside the conviction, finding that the state act authorizing DNA collection from felony arrestees was unconstitutional.
The narrow U.S. Supreme Court majority reversed the state appeals court.
Writing for the unusual mix of justices in the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy said putting a swab into a prisoner's mouth to take a DNA sample, like fingerprinting and photographs, did not violate the Fourth Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches.
Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia led the dissent. He was joined by the court's three women -- all liberals -- Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Scalia was so disgusted by the majority opinion he read his dissent from the bench -- something a justice does only when he or she is pretty worked up.
Besides the unusual mix on dissent, what makes the ruling more remarkable is that in April the justices made it harder for police to take driver blood tests without a warrant.
In that separate case, the Missouri Supreme Court suppressed the blood sample evidence in a drunk driving case, saying there had been no "exigent circumstances" -- no circumstances that called for immediate action -- that would have excused the failure to obtain a warrant under the Fourth Amendment.
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed.
In the prevailing high court opinion, Sotomayor said U.S. Supreme Court precedent on warrantless searches "applies here, where the search involved a compelled physical intrusion beneath [a defendant's] skin and into his veins to obtain a blood sample to use as evidence in a criminal investigation."
She said an exception to a warrant requirement would occur only when a "totality of the circumstances" supports "exigent circumstances."
She was joined in the majority by Scalia, among others.
The majority opinion in the Missouri case baffled Chief Justice John Roberts. Joined by two other justices -- liberal Justice Stephen Breyer and conservative Justice Samuel Alito (conservative Justice Clarence Thomas dissented separately) -- Roberts concurred in part with the majority and dissented in part: "A police officer reading this court's opinion would have no idea -- no idea -- what the Fourth Amendment requires of him, once he decides to obtain a blood sample from a drunk driving suspect who has refused a Breathalyzer test. I have no quarrel with the court's 'totality of the circumstances' approach as a general matter; that is what our cases require. But the circumstances in drunk driving cases are often typical, and the court should be able to offer guidance on how police should handle cases like the one before us."
In last week's DNA case from Maryland, Kennedy contended that there was no invasive procedure involved, like the injection of a needle, just the gentle swab inside a defendant's mouth. The biological material is examined for genetic markers that could be tied to an individual.
"The advent of DNA technology is one of the most significant scientific advancements of our era," Kennedy said in the majority opinion. "The full potential for use of genetic markers in medicine and science is still being explored, but the utility of DNA identification in the criminal justice system is already undisputed. Since the first use of forensic DNA analysis to catch a rapist and murderer in England in 1986 ... law enforcement, the defense bar and the courts have acknowledged DNA testing's unparalleled ability both to exonerate the wrongly convicted and to identify the guilty. It has the potential to significantly improve both the criminal justice system and police investigative practices."
The underlying case involved the Maryland DNA Collection Act, which allowed the sampling of DNA when someone was arrested by police who had probable cause to believe a felony had been committed.
"The legitimate government interest served by the Maryland DNA Collection Act is one that is well established: The need for law enforcement officers in a safe and accurate way to process and identify the persons and possessions they must take into custody," Kennedy said. "It is beyond dispute that 'probable cause provides legal justification for arresting a person suspected of crime, and for a brief period of detention to take the administrative steps incident to arrest.'"
He added later in the opinion, "DNA identification can provide untainted information to those charged with detaining suspects and detaining the property of any felon. For these purposes officers must know the type of person whom they are detaining, and DNA allows them to make critical choices about how to proceed."
At the heart of Kennedy's opinion was the "reasonableness" of DNA sampling.
"In light of the context of a valid arrest supported by probable cause [the suspect's] expectations of privacy were not offended by the minor intrusion of a brief swab of his cheeks," Kennedy wrote. "By contrast, that same context of arrest gives rise to significant state interests in identifying [the suspect] not only so that the proper name can be attached to his charges but also so that the criminal justice system can make informed decisions concerning pretrial custody. Upon these considerations the court [majority] concludes that DNA identification of arrestees is a reasonable search that can be considered part of a routine booking procedure. When officers make an arrest supported by probable cause to hold for a serious offense and they bring the suspect to the station to be detained in custody, taking and analyzing a cheek swab of the arrestee's DNA is, like fingerprinting and photographing, a legitimate police booking procedure that is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment."
Scalia was withering in dissent.
"The Fourth Amendment forbids searching a person for evidence of a crime when there is no basis for believing the person is guilty of the crime or is in possession of incriminating evidence," he wrote. "That prohibition is categorical and without exception; it lies at the very heart of the Fourth Amendment. Whenever this court has allowed a suspicionless search, it has insisted upon a justifying motive apart from the investigation of crime.
"It is obvious that no such non-investigative motive exists in this case," Scalia said. "The [court majority's] assertion that DNA is being taken, not to solve crimes, but to identify those in the state's custody, taxes the credulity of the credulous. And the [majority's] comparison of Maryland's DNA searches to other techniques, such as fingerprinting, can seem apt only to those who know no more than today's opinion has chosen to tell them about how those DNA searches actually work."
Scalia said he does not want to ban all DNA sampling, but blasted sampling of suspects who had not yet been convicted of a crime.
"All parties concede that it would have been entirely permissible, as far as the Fourth Amendment is concerned, for Maryland to take a sample of King's DNA as a consequence of his conviction for second-degree assault," he said. "So the ironic result of the court's error is this: The only arrestees to whom the outcome here will ever make a difference are those who have been acquitted of the crime of arrest [so that their DNA could not have been taken upon conviction]. In other words, this [state] act manages to burden uniquely the sole group for whom the Fourth Amendment's protections ought to be most jealously guarded: people who are innocent of the state's accusations.
"Today's judgment," Scalia said, "will, to be sure, have the beneficial effect of solving more crimes; then again, so would the taking of DNA samples from anyone who flies on an airplane [surely the Transportation Security Administration needs to know the 'identity' of the flying public], applies for a driver's license, or attends a public school. Perhaps the construction of such a genetic panopticon is wise. But I doubt that the proud men who wrote the charter of our liberties would have been so eager to open their mouths for royal inspection. I therefore dissent, and hope that today's incursion upon the Fourth Amendment, like an earlier one, will some day be repudiated."
Reaction to the ruling has been largely negative.
Steven Benjamin, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, immediately issued a statement saying, "Today, the Supreme Court essentially ruled that Americans' homes and cars are more protected from warrantless searches than our bodies. How can this be? As technology advances, we must be careful to protect fundamental privacy interests from unacceptable government intrusion. This type of intrusion might now be constitutional, but it certainly is not mandatory. NACDL calls on the state legislatures to provide greater protection than what the Supreme Court has provided today."
On its website, the NACDL said it has a longstanding position against the expansion of DNA databases to include, among other categories of people, those persons arrested by law enforcement but not yet convicted of any offense. The organization filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of King in the Maryland case.
Steven R. Shapiro, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, immediately issued a statement saying, "Today's decision creates a gaping new exception to the Fourth Amendment. As Justice Scalia's dissent convincingly demonstrates, DNA testing of arrestees has little to do with identification and everything to do with solving unresolved crimes. While no one disputes the importance of that interest, the Fourth Amendment has long been understood to mean that the police cannot search for evidence of a crime -- and all nine justices agreed that DNA testing is a search -- without individualized suspicion. Today's decision eliminates that crucial safeguard. At the same time, it's important to recognize that other state laws on DNA testing are even broader than Maryland's and may present issues that were not resolved by today's ruling."
The editorial board of The New York Times rumbled, "Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, pretended that collecting DNA is like fingerprinting, a legitimate part of the police booking procedure to identify a suspect. But the main reason law enforcement seeks DNA sampling is not to get an accurate name. It is to connect the suspect to other cases, unrelated to the arrest, by matching the DNA found at other, older crime scenes, when there is no reasonable suspicion to do so."
The Times editorial said the federal government and 28 states permit DNA collection before conviction.
"The decision severely undermines fundamental Fourth Amendment principles that protect individuals against unjustified searches and incursions on privacy by law enforcement," the Times said.
The editorial ended up by quoting Scalia -- not a usual practice for the newspaper: "This search had nothing to do with establishing King's identity," Scalia wrote, warning that "as an entirely predictable consequence of today's decision, your DNA can be taken and entered into a national DNA database if you are ever arrested, rightly or wrongly, and for whatever reason."
In contrast, an editorial in The Baltimore Sun called the ruling a victory for "common sense," among other things.
"The Supreme Court's decision today to uphold Maryland's law allowing the collection of DNA samples from people arrested for serious crimes upholds the interests of justice, the Constitution and common sense," the Sun said. "Concerns that the DNA samples could violate suspects' privacy were unfounded, the practice of taking the samples is less intrusive than other searches authorized under the Fourth Amendment, and the direct result of a ruling against the law would have been the possibility that a known rapist would be released onto the street."
The Sun's editorial also cited Scalia.
"Justice Scalia's lively dissent rejects the idea that 'identity' amounts to anything more than connecting a name to a person and argues that DNA collection from arrestees serves only as a means to seek evidence to solve unrelated crimes," the Sun said. "His objections miss the mark. DNA itself is not evidence of a crime any more than fingerprints or mug shots. And if the use of DNA in this regard is unconstitutional, so, too, is the collection and analysis of fingerprints that has been standard practice for decades. His argument that the speedier processing of fingerprints than DNA makes them different is unconvincing, given that the technology that makes instant fingerprint matching possible has only been around since 1999.
"It is important not to lose sight of what is at stake here," the editorial added. "The result of the court's decision is that Mr. King will not go free. Nor will at least 50 other criminals who were convicted in Maryland based on DNA evidence collected from arrestees. Maryland's law strikes a careful balance between our rights to privacy and our interest in determining whether arrestees have committed prior crimes. The court's decision serves the interests of both public safety and justice."
MICHAEL KIRKLAND || UPI Senior Legal Affairs Writer |
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Senators lean toward review of NSA spying program
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WASHINGTON, June 9 (UPI) -- A U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee member said Sunday the public needs to be better informed on the scope of government phone and Internet records access.
Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said while the National Security Agency's vast monitoring program had been vetted by the legal system, the political uproar will linger unless the public is provided with more details on how the intelligence was collected and used.
"I'm calling for a wholesome debate all over the country," Udall said on CNN's "State of the Union. "Maybe Americans think this is all OK, but I think the line has been drawn too far toward 'we're going to invade your privacy versus we're going to respect your privacy.'"
Udall said there was no escaping the chance communications of American citizens would be caught up improperly in the massive electronic sweeps, and the value of the data collection would be a moot point if it offends the voters.
"I think the ultimate check, the ultimate balance is the American public understanding to what extent their personal phone calls are being collected, even if only in this category of metadata," Udall said.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., agreed public review is needed because the NSA monitoring was critical to uncovering terrorist plots, particularly at a time when the Middle East was particularly tumultuous.
McCain told CNN the review would probably best be limited to the Intelligence Committee for security reasons, but all of Congress might have to be involved in order to completely clear the air.
"I think it's entirely appropriate that we have congressional review, that we have executive review, and we take the case to the American people to some degree as so (they know) what we are doing," he said. |
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Tiger Woods back on top of Forbes top sports earnings list
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NEW YORK, June 6 (UPI) -- Golfer Tiger Woods, paid more than $78 million in the last year, has regained the No. 1 position in Forbes magazine's list of the world's highest-paid athletes.
Woods, 37, had a very public fall due to personal scandal that affected his golf game and attractiveness to sponsors. It also caused him to slip from the top of the Forbes' list last year, a position he occupied from 2001 to 2012.
However, a resurgence on the golf course has returned him to No. 1 in the men's world golf rankings and the Forbes' list. The magazine estimates Woods, who has won $13.1 million on the course in the last 12 months, all told was paid $78.1 million.
That includes prize money, endorsements, appearance fees and golf course design. About a quarter of that figure comes from an endorsement agreement with Nike.
Tennis player Roger Federer, who received $14 million for six exhibitions in South America last December, is second on the list with about $71.5 million in earnings. The NBA's Kobe Bryant ($61.9 million) is third and LeBron James ($59.8 million) comes in fourth. NFL quarterback Drew Brees took in $51 million for the No. 5 spot. All four, like Woods, have endorsement agreements with Nike.
The rest of the Top 10: No. 6 Aaron Rodgers (football), $49 million; No. 7 Phil Mickelson (golf), $48.7 million; No. 8 David Beckham (soccer), $47.2 million; No. 9 Cristiano Ronaldo, soccer ($44 million); No. 10 Lionel Messi (soccer) $41.3 million.
Alex Rodriguez, at $30.3 million and 18th on the list, is the highest paid baseball player and No. 22 Maria Sharapova, with earnings of $29 million, is the highest listed woman. Samuel Eto'o, a soccer player from Cameroon, comes in at No. 100 with compensation of $16.4 million. |
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Obama announces new Internet initiative for classrooms, educators
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WASHINGTON, June 6 (UPI) -- President Obama Thursday unveiled ConnectED, a plan to link 99 percent of America's students to the Internet via high-speed connections within five years.
Obama also called on the Federal Communications Commission to modernize and leverage its existing E-Rate program to meet that goal, the White House said in a release.
Obama, calling on businesses, states, districts, schools and communities to support his vision, also directed the federal government to make better use of existing funds to get Internet connectivity and educational technology into classrooms and teachers trained on its advantages.
The initiative does not require congressional action, the White House said.
"We are living in a digital age, and to help our students get ahead, we must make sure they have access to cutting-edge technology," Obama said. "So today, I'm issuing a new challenge for America -- one that families, businesses, school districts and the federal government can rally around together -- to connect virtually every student in America's classrooms to high-speed broadband Internet within five years, and equip them with the tools to make the most of it."
Millions of students now lack high-speed broadband access and less than 20 percent of educators say their school's Internet connection meets their teaching needs, the White House said in a release.
The White House said ConnectED will bring high-speed Internet within students' reach, particularly benefiting rural communities that typically lag in connectivity. |
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The AIDS-like Disease Seldom Mentioned
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by Karen Lambert
June 4th / Health - I have Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFS/CFIDS/ME) and HIV-NEGATIVE AIDS, idiopathic CD lymphocytopenia. With these two clinical diagnoses, I believe that makes me living proof that the AIDS-like CFS/ME is transmissible, something that the medical establishment seems unable to admit or to acknowledge. I also believe it makes me living proof that CFS and HIV-NEGATIVE AIDS are basically the same mysterious immune disorder.
Three years ago, after a heterosexual sexual encounter, I became seriously ill with what looks like the natural disease progression of AIDS. After an “acute infection” and a “period of asymptomatic health”, I have fallen extremely ill to an unrelenting, progressively-worsening AIDS-like demise. I can pinpoint exactly when I was infected with my “chronic viral syndrome of unknown etiology” and because the “acute infection” stage was so distinguishable, I can also pinpoint exactly when my undiagnosed pathogen left my body and infected yet another host.
Whatever I am currently dealing with, it strongly resembles classic textbook HIV/AIDS disease. But, to add to my inquiry, I also clinically satisfy the CDC’s criteria for the diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
Increasingly, I have become concerned that my systemic diagnosis is caught up in the treacherous politics of CFS/ME and AIDS. Most people with CFS/ME do not like to talk about the many symptoms and immune abnormalities that they share with AIDS patients. I also suspect that most ailing patients would rather be told that they have the very mysterious CFS than to be told that they have AIDS.
I have a Master’s degree. I am a director at my firm. I used to be a triathlete. I have never used IV drugs. I have never traveled abroad. I can count my sexual partners on two hands. Statistically speaking, I know that my undiagnosed infectious and communicable disease is not rare…so, you tell me, if they are not in the miscellaneous CFS/ME category, where are all these other immunosuppressed people?
Anyone with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, who does not consider the possibility that CFS/ME will eventually progress to a NON-HIV AIDS diagnosis, is very well trumping their own ability to diagnosis the root cause of their illness.
Why isn’t CFS/ME a reportable disease overseen by our public health department? Why are ME and CFS (i.e., the same exact disorder) suspiciously categorized as two separate illnesses on a worldwide level (i.e., by ICD codes)? Doesn’t anyone else but me, very clearly see, the catastrophic cover-up going on here?
Why are we not reading about Non-HIV AIDS cases (and/or the AIDS-like nature of CFS) on the front pages of every newspaper in the world? And if CFS/ME is Non-HIV AIDS, then, depending on who you believe, there are anywhere between 500,000 – 14,000,000 Americans out there with a transmissible illness. If that is what it truly is, our new form of AIDS dwarfs the ‘original’ AIDS epidemic — tenfold!
I want honest answers for myself, for everyone who is suffering from this hideous illness, and especially for those who remain uninfected by my undiagnosed infectious and communicable disease.
As worrisome as my health is to me, I am extremely troubled by the strong likelihood that more people are being infected every minute that Non-HIV AIDS cases (like mine) are allowed to go undetected – especially if it turns out that AIDS and CFIDS/ME are basically the same disorder.
You can label my AIDS-like illness whatever you wish. I would even allow you to call it infectious-CFS, even though it is utterly beyond my realm of comprehension as to how the medical establishment can generically name an entire disease paradigm based on just one (of my numerous) symptom(s).
Regardless of how politics may try to dissuade or delude you, all you need to know is that my idiopathic immune dysfunction is infectious! It is contagious! And it is spreading, unleashed, in the world’s population!
I am not afraid to say that I have AIDS without HIV — idiopathic CD lymphocytopenia — my second official clinical diagnosis. I am equally as unafraid of saying the most obvious thing about CFS/ME: it sure does look like AIDS to me.
We talk openly about preparing for an impending Avian Flu pandemic. Why not talk about the HIV-NEGATIVE AIDS epidemic that already exists (and is spreading) amongst us?
If it takes courage to think and to say the things that I do, I hope that there will be a miraculous outbreak of bravery from coast-to-coast. I stopped fighting for myself a long, long time ago. I
fight for humanity.
I demand a CFS/HIV revolution. Vive La Revolución?.
To learn more about non-HIV AIDS, and to see the *new* face of AIDS, please visit: CFS Straight Talk
Could I be you?
Karen Lambert
CFS Straight Talk
Karen Lambert a Master’s degree. She was a director at my firm. She used to be a triathlete. She has never used IV drugs, nor traveled abroad. Shecan count her sexual partners on two hands.
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Book: Bill Clinton called Obama 'incompetent'
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NEW YORK, June 2 (UPI) -- Former U.S. President Clinton called President Obama "incompetent" and "an amateur," a new book out this week alleges.
Edward Klein's new book, "The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House" (Regnery Publishing) also states campaign sources said Clinton extracted a promise from Obama to support his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for president in 2016 in return for the former president's backing in 2012, the New York Post reported Sunday.
In a piece for the Post adapted from his book, Klein said in 2011 Bill Clinton wanted Hillary to challenge Obama in 2012, a gambit she declined. Klein said two people who attended the meeting with the former president in Chappaqua, N.Y., recounted how Bill Clinton then went on a tirade against the sitting president.
"I've heard more from Bush, asking for my advice, than I've heard from Obama," Klein said his sources quoted Clinton as saying. "I have no relationship with the president -- none whatsoever. Obama doesn't know how to be president. He doesn't know how the world works. He's incompetent. He's an amateur!"
Klein said Obama resisted giving Bill Clinton a role in his re-election bid but went along with the advice of adviser David Axelrod when his race against Republican candidate Mitt Romney tightened.
Bill Clinton agreed to give a sterling endorsement of Obama with Obama agreeing to do the same for Hillary Clinton, said Klein, a former Newsweek foreign editor and ex-editor in chief of The New Times Magazine who has written books about Obama, Hillary Clinton and the Kennedys.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.
All rights reserved. |
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Mich. activist crawls in protest of high school closure
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ALBION, Mich., May 31 (UPI) -- An activist in Michigan said he crawled on his hands and knees for 25 miles to protest the closing of a high school in Albion.
Bobby Holley, an older man who declined to give his age, began the crawl Tuesday morning in his home town of Battle Creek and ended it Thursday afternoon in front of the New Life Ministries International Church in Albion, mlive.com reported.
The Albion Public Schools Board of Education, which is facing a $1.1 million deficit, voted May 14 to discontinue teaching high school students.
"Don't worry about what condition I'm in," Holley said to a crowd of supporters Thursday. "I had to do this to create awareness of the situation [at Albion High School]. Now it's the community's turn to show support."
Former Albion High School Principal Derrick Crum attended the rally at the end of Holley's crawl. Crum was voted out Tuesday by the Albion Public Schools.
"My firing was fair," Crum said. "The school has to save money, I get that. What we're trying to say here, though, is that we want the district to exhaust all their options before doing something this drastic."
Board member Sonya Brown said she walked the last several miles of Holley's journey with him.
"I'm a community member and Albion parent first and foremost," she said. "This affects us all."
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.
All rights reserved. |
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Singer Janet Jackson is a billionaire
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LOS ANGELES, May 23 (UPI) -- U.S. pop star and occasional actress Janet Jackson has earned $1 billion throughout her years as an entertainer, Variety reported.
The money has come from recording and publishing music, as well as performing live around the world and starring in films such as "The Nutty Professor," "The Klumps," "Poetic Justice" and "For Colored Girls."
Jackson, 47, is married to businessman Wissam Al Mana, who also is a billionaire, "Entertainment Tonight" said.
Other billionaires in the entertainment industry include Madonna, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.
All rights reserved. |
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IRS official Lois Lerner pleads the Fifth, denies wrongdoing
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WASHINGTON, May 22 (UPI) -- The U.S. Internal Revenue Service official who revealed IRS conservative-group targeting declined to answer lawmaker questions Wednesday.
Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division on tax-exempt organizations, declined to testify on constitutional grounds but issued a statement saying she had not done anything wrong.
"While I would very much like to answer the committee's questions, I have been advised [by counsel] ... to invoke my right [against self-incrimination]," Lerner said when she appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Attorney William Taylor told the committee in a letter his client would not answer questions following accusations by the panel's Republican leaders Lerner had lied to them.
Lerner committed no crime nor made any misrepresentations, the letter said. But "under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course."
When Lerner first apologized for the targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status on May 10, she told reporters she learned of the improprieties from news reports in early 2012.
But a Treasury Department inspector general's audit found she knew about the targeting much earlier and tried to cleanse the practice by broadening the efforts to include liberal groups.
"The committee has been contacted by Ms. Lerner's lawyer, who stated that his client intended to invoke her Fifth Amendment right and refuse to answer questions," committee spokesman Ali Ahmad said Tuesday.
Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller and former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman both testified before the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday.
Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal S. Wolin also was testifying Wednesday. He has said he learned of the inspector general's audit into the targeting last summer. Republicans have said they want him to explain what he did with that information.
Miller and Shulman, a George W. Bush appointee who left the job Nov. 9, told the Senate panel they never discussed the targeting with administration officials outside the agency during the 2012 campaign year.
Miller also offered new details about how Lerner came to disclose the results of the inspector general's report at a May 10 bar association event.
Miller told senators Tuesday he planted the question at the closed-door meeting with tax lawyers that prompted Lerner's revelation.
He also said IRS officials were talking about disciplining Lerner.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.
All rights reserved. |
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Record $590.5 million Powerball jackpot won by single Florida ticket
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ZEPHYRHILLS, Fla., May 19 (UPI) -- One ticket has won the largest Powerball jackpot in history -- $590.5 million -- bought at a Publix supermarket in Zephyrhills, Fla., a lottery official said.
The ticket had the winning numbers of 22, 10, 13, 14, 52 and Powerball number 11, said David Bishop, deputy secretary of Florida Lottery.
Saturday's jackpot was the largest in Powerball history, surpassing a $587.6 million jackpot split in November by winners in Arizona and Missouri, CNN reported Sunday.
The largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history was the March 2012 Mega Millions game worth $656 million.
Had there been no winner in Saturday's Powerball game, the jackpot would have skyrocketed to a record $925 million for Wednesday's drawing, CNN said.
The odds of winning the jackpot were 1 in 175,223,510, which is less likely to happen than hitting two consecutive holes in one.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc.
All rights reserved. |
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The Issue: The 2013 farm bill
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The biggest issue in the U.S. farm bill has little to do with agriculture and everything to do with partisan politics and the role of government in caring for the poor: food stamps.
It has a catchier name now, SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The mark-up of the $500 billion measure approved 36-10 by the House Agriculture Committee last week cuts $20.5 billion in food assistance over 10 years to rein in SNAP's growth. The program, which serves 47 million Americans, averages $70 billion a year, about 70 percent of farm bill spending and eclipsing the crop insurance program.
Predictably, Republicans say the cuts to SNAP should be bigger while Democrats argue they're too big.
The program has doubled since the recession hit in 2008 and Congress approved a temporary expansion of the program, which expires later this year.
The Trust for America's Health issued a statement criticizing the cuts, saying they would damage the nation's health and noting a competing Senate Agriculture Committee measure makes much smaller cuts.
"That said, if the nation continues to underfund vital public health programs, we will never achieve long-term fiscal stability as it will be impossible to help people get/stay healthy, happy and productive," the statement said.
Jeffrey Levi, executive director of the trust called the cuts "disproportionate" and "deplorable," noting nearly half the beneficiaries are children.
The cuts, he said, would take 3 million people off the eligibility list and deny 280,000 children school meals.
Agriculture Chairman Frank D. Lucas, R-Okla., disagreed.
"I like to think we have a well-balanced bill and that we can draw from all sides," he told Roll Call. "The extremes will never support us. I think we have enough of a coalition."
Ranking Democrat Collin C. Peterson of Minnesota said lawmakers have to recognize SNAP needs to be modified.
"We have the middle ground. I worked with Frank on this. He thinks he has what he needs to get the bill through his caucus."
In addition to the SNAP cuts, the farm bill cuts direct payments to farmers, who get some $5 billion whether or not they grow corn, soybeans, wheat and other crops mainly in the Midwest and Plains. Some of the money will go toward trimming the deficit but the rest goes to new subsidies for southern crops: peanuts, cotton and rice. A late amendment also preserved the Christmas tree-promotion program, which would raise $2 million annually at 15 cents a tree for a program similar to those for beef and milk.
Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., admits the bill is far from perfect but sees it as a good compromise.
"The fact that Democrats and Republicans could come together with a 36-10 vote meant that we have to compromise on some things," Bustos told saukvalley.com.
"Whenever I talk with farmers, their No. 1 concern is that they want certainty. Our bill does that. It gives farmers certainty. When we have severe weather, they can deal with that."
The omnibus farm bill requires reauthorization every five years. In addition to SNAP, crop insurance and crop subsidies, it covers trade and marketing, rural development, conservation and agriculture research.
The last farm bill -- the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 -- increased spending by $288 billion and provided increased subsidies for such things as biofuels, which the World Bank has blamed for increased food prices worldwide. It initially was to expire last year but was extended through Sept. 30 in the deal that averted the so-called fiscal cliff.
MARCELLA S. KREITER || United Press International |
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Holder, Issa clash on Perez
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WASHINGTON, May 15 (UPI) -- U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and a top Republican got testy Wednesday over Thomas Perez, nominated to head the Labor Department.
Perez is the outgoing head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.
Holder appeared before the House Judiciary Committee to answer questions about several controversies that have erupted in recent days.
Rep. Darrel Issa, R-Calif., played a recording at the hearing purporting to show Perez offering to withdraw the United States from a whistle-blower suit. Issa is a frequent critic of Perez.
Issa claimed Perez acted inappropriately in getting St. Paul, Minn., city officials to drop a lawsuit seeking to limit fair housing claims when intentional bias is missing -- trading the government withdrawal from the whistle-blower suit for the ending the St. Paul suit.
Issa repeatedly interrupted Holder's long answers to questions, demanding a yes or no.
At one point, Holder refused to stop talking and described Issa's method of questioning as "unacceptable" and "shameful" for a congressman.
A Senate panel was scheduled to hold a hearing on Perez' nomination Thursday.
Republicans on the committee attacked Holder on a number of fronts, from abortion to the investigation of the Boston Marathon bombings. |
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O.J. Simpson testifies in bid for new trial
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LAS VEGAS, May 15 (UPI) -- O.J. Simpson testified Wednesday he was unaware his companions were armed when they visited a Las Vegas hotel room in to retrieve sports memorabilia.
Simpson, 65, convicted for armed robbery and kidnapping in 2008 and sentenced to nine years in prison, testified for several hours Wednesday at a hearing in Las Vegas to determine if his conviction can be overturned, NBC News reported.
Simpson and his new attorneys must convince a judge that Simpson's former attorney, Yale Galanter, did shoddy work, never revealed a conflict of interest and didn't inform Simpson of a possible plea deal, KTNV-TV, Las Vegas, said.
Wednesday's actions in court were unprecedented. Simpson didn't testify during the robbery trial or at the 1995 trial in which he was acquitted of killing his ex-wide and her friend.
Simpson, appearing grayer and heavier than in the past, recounted a day drinking with friends in a Las Vegas hotel, followed by a chaotic face-off with memorabilia dealers, holding allegedly stolen merchandise.
Simpson said guns were "never a subject" as he and five colleagues discussed visiting the dealers' hotel rooms to view merchandise he claimed was stolen from him, and said he didn't see anyone exhibit a gun. His purpose in visiting the rooms was to reclaim the memorabilia, saying it belonged to his family and "not to some guy selling at a hotel room in Vegas."
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White House releases Benghazi emails
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WASHINGTON, May 15 (UPI) -- The White House Wednesday released more than 100 pages of emails related to talking points on the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
The release came a day after White House spokesman Jay Carney accused Republicans of fabricating -- or at least misrepresenting -- the content of the emails.
U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice came under fire for her appearances on Sunday talk shows in the immediate aftermath of the attack during which she chalked up the violence to anger toward an anti-Muslim film that had been circulating.
The New York Times reported Democrats and top aides had been urging President Obama to release the emails to knock down Republican charges.
Earlier this week, McClatchy Newspapers reported U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens had refused offers of more security before the attack on the consulate.
Why Stevens, who was killed along with three other embassy workers, turned down the offers was unclear, given embassy officials during an Aug. 15 meeting concluded they could not defend the consulate in Benghazi amid deteriorating conditions in the city.
In a cable, the embassy outlined the circumstances and said it would detail what it needed in a separate cable.
"In light of the uncertain security environment, U.S. Mission Benghazi will submit specific requests to U.S. Embassy Tripoli for additional physical security upgrades and staffing needs by separate cover," said the cable, which was first reported by Fox News.
Rather than wait for the second cable, however, Army Gen. Carter Ham, then-commander of the U.S. Africa Command, called Stevens and asked if the embassy needed a special security team, the officials said. Stevens told Ham it did not, the government officials said.
During a meeting several weeks later, Ham again asked Stevens if he wanted additional military security and again Stevens said no, the officials told McClatchy.
"He didn't say why. He just turned it down," one official said, speaking anonymously.
McClatchy said the offer of aid and Stevens' refusal were not revealed in either the State Department's Accountability Review Board investigation of the Benghazi events or during congressional hearings and reports issued into what happened Sept. 11, 2011, when the consulate was stormed and Stevens and three other diplomatic staffers were killed.
Gregory Hicks, Stevens' deputy, was not asked about the offer during his appearance before a House of Representatives committee last week, and testimony has not been sought from the now-retired Ham.
Both Hicks and Ham declined to comment, McClatchy said.
"As far as Mr. Hicks knows, the ambassador always wanted more security and they were both frustrated by not getting it," Hick's lawyer, Victoria Toensing said.
A spokesman for Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, indicated some lawmakers may have known about the Stevens-Ham discussions before last week's hearing.
"There were certainly robust debates between State and Defense officials over the mission and controlling authority of such forces," Frederick Hill told McClatchy in an email. "The lack of discussion by the public [Accountability Review Board] report about the role interagency tension played in a lack of security resources remains a significant concern of the oversight committee." |
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Reid: 'House Republicans have truly lost their minds'
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WASHINGTON, May 15 (UPI) -- U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday "House Republicans have truly lost their minds" under a popular definition of insanity.
Reid, speaking of House GOP leaders' plan to hold a 37th vote on repealing the Affordable Care Act -- commonly known as "Obamacare" -- cited a statement often attributed to Albert Einstein, that insanity is defined as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
"If that's true, the House Republicans have truly lost their minds," Reid said in a speech on the Senate floor.
Noting that House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said after the 2012 election "Obamacare is the law of the land," Reid said, "Tea Party extremists bullied the speaker into holding another vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and roll back benefits for tens of millions of Americans."
Reid pointed out Boehner had said last week 70 freshmen members of Congress who had not previously had an opportunity to cast a vote to repeal the healthcare reform law have "been asking for an opportunity to vote on it."
He said House Republicans "will waste this week on yet another dead-end repeal vote."
"Perhaps Republicans think the 37th time is the charm." Reid said.
Citing a CBS News analysis putting the cost of the repeal votes at "$52.4 million and counting," Reid said that was enough money "to restore funding for 19 million meals for homebound seniors or 6,900 children dropped from the Head Start program" under federal spending cuts known as the sequester.
"Fortunately, Republicans' latest repeal effort -- their latest exercise in insanity, as described by Albert Einstein -- is doomed to fail like all the others," he said.
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Next healthcare repeal vote is for new Congressmen, Boehner says
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WASHINGTON, May 9 (UPI) -- Another House vote to repeal the healthcare reform law will give new lawmakers a chance to weigh in on the issue, House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday.
Although nearly 40 votes have been held since the law was passed, Boehner, R-Ohio, said of the upcoming vote, scheduled for next week: "We've got 70 new members who have not had an opportunity to vote on the president's healthcare law. Obamacare is going to drive up the cost of healthcare. It is going to drive up the cost of health insurance and make it harder for small businesses to hire workers."
Boehner admitted the law is unlikely to be repealed, but added, "I'm going to do everything I can to make sure we don't wreck the best healthcare delivery system the world has ever known."
Boehner made the remarks during a press availability.
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Texas the plan to vote "just demonstrates again how out of touch [Republicans] are with the American people, who are tired of efforts by Republicans to re-fight the political battles of the past.
"I've lost count, but I think the House has scheduled -- the House Republicans has scheduled a vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act for something like the 40th time next week," Carney said. "It didn't work 39 times prior; it won't work the 40th time." |
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Obama's visit signals respect, Costa Rica FM says
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SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, May 3 (UPI) -- President Obama's Costa Rican visit signals new respect for Latin America, Costa Rica's foreign minister said as Obama was to meet with regional leaders.
"In the first term, we noticed indifference," Costa Rican Foreign Minister Enrique Castillo told CNN en Espanol.
"This gesture of coming to Costa Rica and meeting with the Central American presidents is a change," he said.
Obama is to meet Friday with Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla, followed by a meeting with Chinchilla and national leaders from Belize, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.
The countries, along with Haiti, whose president was not expected to attend, represent the Central American Integration System, a Central American economic and political organization seeking to improve cooperation and integration in the region.
White House officials said Obama would focus on the benefits of closer cooperation with the United States.
Obama, who spent the night in Mexico City after meeting with President Enrique Pena Nieto, is to travel to Costa Rica in the afternoon after delivering remarks at Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology, which contains artifacts from Mexico's pre-Columbian heritage, and meet with Mexican entrepreneurs.
In meeting with Pena Nieto Thursday, Obama offered his support for Mexico's shifting security strategy as he called for a greater focus on economic ties.
Pena Nieto is revamping his law enforcement bureaucracy, which U.S. officials say could limit coordination with U.S. agencies.
Mexico has placed new restrictions on intelligence-sharing with the United States, pulling back on the extraordinary access the previous Mexican administration gave U.S. authorities in prosecuting the drug war and organized crime.
Mexican officials deny the changes will lessen Mexico's coordination and cooperation with U.S. law enforcement efforts.
When Obama arrives in Costa Rica, he plans to meet with U.S. Embassy staff at a hotel before meeting with Chinchilla and the Central American leaders, the White House said Thursday night. |
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Obama nominates Charlotte mayor as transportation secretary
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WASHINGTON, April 29 (UPI) -- President Obama nominated Charlotte, N.C., Mayor Anthony Foxx to be his secretary of transportation Monday, succeeding Ray LaHood.
Obama called Foxx "one of the most effective mayors that Charlotte has ever seen."
"Since Anthony took office, they've broken ground on a new streetcar project that's going to bring modern electric tram service to the downtown area," the president said. "They've expanded the international airport. And they're extending the city's light rail system. All of that has not only helped create new jobs, it's helped Charlotte become more attractive to business."
If approved by the Senate, Foxx, whose city hosted the Democratic National Convention in September, would be the second African-American in Obama's Cabinet and the first black agency officer nominated in Obama's second term. Eric Holder has been attorney general since 2009.
Foxx has the respect of his peers from across the country, Obama said.
"And as a consequence, I think that he's going to be extraordinarily effective," he said.
Obama also plugged his "Fix-It-First" initiative as a way to put people back to work as quickly as possible on the most urgent infrastructure projects.
"And to make sure taxpayers don't shoulder the entire burden, I've also proposed a partnership with the private sector," he said. "But Congress has to step up, fund these projects. They need to do it right away."
Obama praised LaHood for his service as transportation secretary.
"Ray has fought tirelessly to rebuild America's infrastructure -- creating good jobs that strengthen our economy and allow us to better compete in the global economy," Obama said. "So every American can thank Ray for his dedication to make our transportation system not just stronger, but also safer."
Obama also is expected to nominate billionaire Obama donor and business executive Penny Pritzker as commerce secretary and Deputy National Security Adviser Michael Froman as U.S. trade representative, several news organizations reported.
All three positions require Senate confirmation.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI).. |
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SciTechTalk: Surveillance in Boston bombing raises issues
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The public release of photos and videos in the hunt for the Boston Marathon bombing suspects was made possible in large part because we now live in a society where we are never long out of the field of view of a camera mounted somewhere or carried by someone.
The outcome will no doubt bring another round in the debate on the pros and cons of the seemingly Orwellian scenario of a camera on every street corner and in every citizen's purse or pocket.
In the bombing, it is just that scenario that allowed the FBI to release videos and photos of two men they had identified as suspects in the act that killed three people and injured dozens more.
Surveillance videos came first, from businesses and institutions along the streets adjacent to the marathon finish line where the two explosive devices were planted and then detonated.
The release of those videos sent scores of people scrambling to scan the photos they had snapped with innumerable smartphones and digital cameras. The result was even more, and clearer, pictures of the alleged suspects flooding into the FBI.
Some will argue for the benefits of the technology that found them; others will worry about that technology's ability to find -- and see -- any or all of us, and what that means to our privacy,
The concern is not a new one. Ben Franklin famously said, "Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
The debate has come into even sharper focus in recent months over the subject of camera-equipped drones as increasing numbers of federal, state and local governments are using or considering using them for surveillance.
Ordinary citizens can even purchase small helicopter-like drones equipped with high-resolution cameras that can send video to a smartphone or tablet.
The proliferation of cameras has led the American Civil Liberties Union to go on record with concerns about the impact on the privacy of American citizens.
In Britain, which has led the way in the use of surveillance cameras -- a reported 1.85 million closed circuit TV cameras are in streets, malls, hospitals and schools -- the debate over their use and presence has been constant and very public.
"The technology has overtaken our ability to regulate it," Andrew Rennison, Britain's first-ever surveillance commissioner, said in an interview with a British newspaper. "It is the Big Brother scenario playing out large. It's the ability to pick out your face in a crowd from a camera which is probably half a mile away."
While few will take issue with the use of pervasive surveillance technology in solving a terror attack on American soil, when the terror case is resolved and its perpetrators brought to justice the cameras will still be there, silently watching and recording the activities of ordinary Americans as they go about their increasingly less-private business.
JIM ALGAR || United Press International |
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Boston Marathon manhunt: Suspect in custody
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WATERTOWN, Mass., April 19 (UPI) -- A suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings was taken into custody in Watertown, Mass., Friday evening, The Boston Globe reported.
Police sources told the newspaper the suspect, believed to be Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was apprehended after being cornered in a boat in the back yard of a home. Police used "flash bang" stun grenades to disorient and distract the man, the newspaper said, and the police sources said an ambulance was sent to the scene.
Area resident Lisa Bontempi told the Globe by telephone "there's a lot of shooting."
"I'm really scared," she said. "I've got to go."
Another area resident, Louise Harrison, said there were officers "rushing to the corner."
"We've got cops in bulletproof vests and an ambulance is there, with someone carrying out a stretcher," she said.
The arrest came after shots were fired within an hour after police said residents could leave their homes following an all-day lockdown and door-to-door search.
NBC said dozens of police and armored vehicles converged on the location where the shooting was heard and residents were ordered to take shelter as officers cordoned off the area.
The Globe reported a source said police believed they had located Tsarnaev.
Massachusetts State Police Col. Timothy Alben described Tsarnaev as "a very violent and dangerous person."
Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan, 26, were named as suspects in Monday's explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 170. Thursday night, the brothers allegedly killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer and critically wounded a Massachusetts Bay Area Transit officer, then engaged in a shootout with police in Watertown that left the elder brother dead. WCVB-TV, Boston, said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev ran over his brother fleeing the scene.
Gov. Deval Patrick told a late afternoon briefing the lockdown imposed on Watertown had been lifted and people were allowed outside their homes. The suspension of public transportation also was lifted.
Alben told the same briefing the search of the neighborhood where the shootout occurred was "not fruitful" but pledged, "We remain committed to this. We do not have an apprehension but we will have one."
Alben said Tsarnaev had abandoned his vehicle and fled on foot, triggering the lockdown and search in a 20-block area.
WCVB said police found homemade explosives, pipe bombs and a pressure cooker in their search of the shootout scene as well as 200 rounds of spent ammunition.
"[We found] unexploded ordnance that were made safe and removed," Alben said.
Cambridge mechanic Gilberto Junior said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev came into his shop Tuesday, seeking his girlfriend's car, a white Mercedes wagon, even though it had yet to be repaired.
"He was very nervous. He was biting his fingernails and shaking his legs," Junior told WCVB. "He was very agitated.
"I wish I knew at the time it was him."
Alben said he had no knowledge of a white Mercedes associated with the suspect.
Police said the brothers shot and killed MIT police officer Sean Collier, 26, of Somerville and critically wounded Massachusetts Bay Area Transit officer Richard Donahue Jr., 33. Donahue was reported in stable condition following surgery.
The Globe reported an explosive trigger was found on Tamerlan's body, which exhibited "blast wounds," when it was examined at the morgue.
Before the shootout, police said the suspects tossed a pressure cooker bomb at their pursuers -- similar to the devices that exploded Monday.
Boston media reported Dzhokhar Tsarnaev became a U.S. citizen last Sept. 11.
Ruslan Tsarni, an uncle of the suspects, said he was ashamed of his nephews.
"I never would have imagined the children of my brother would have been involved in that," he said.
Tsarni, who said his family was ethnic Chechen and Muslim, said his nephews "put a shame on our family. He put a shame on entire Chechen ethnicity."
NBC News reported counterterrorism officials were looking into the possibility the Tsarnaev brothers were linked to the Islamic Jihad Union of central Asia, a terrorist group. NBC New York said it had obtained travel records indicating Tamerlan Tsarnaev went to Russia from Jan. 12-July 17, 2012.
The men's father, Anzor Tsarnaev, told the Los Angeles Times in a telephone interview from his home in Dagestan he does not believe his sons were involved in the events.
"It is a provocation of the special services who went after them because my sons are Muslims and don't have anyone in America to protect them," said the elder Tsarnaev, adding his boys had no training in handling firearms or explosives.
"I'm hurt for everyone who has been hurt. I'm sorry for all the people who are hurt and for all the people who lost their lives," the men's sister, who lives in West New York, N.J., and whose name was withheld, told The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger.
She said she never would have expected her brothers to be involved in such violence.
After their photos were released by the FBI Thursday, the brothers carjacked a Mercedes sport utility vehicle and told the driver they were behind Monday's attack and had just killed a campus security officer, a source told NBC News. The driver was released unhurt. |
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U.S. housing market showing signs of bubbles
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LOS ANGELES, April 12 (UPI) -- Online real estate firm Redfin.com said the U.S. housing market shows signs of bubbles in certain locations due to prices climbing faster than incomes.
In Los Angeles, for example, the home prices to incomes ratio is now 26 percent higher than it was thirteen years ago.
In addition, "so many people in L.A. are in between where they bought at huge bubble prices in 2005 and 2006 and now, and they are not willing to list their homes," said Redfin Chief Executive Officer Glenn Kelman.
In theory, home prices rising faster than incomes creates an opportunity for prices to collapse, because at some point prices have gone too far ahead of the ability for people to afford a home.
For now, "The result is there is a rush on what inventory is out there," Kelman said.
Redfin said 91 percent of the homes they sold in March involved a bidding war, the newspaper said.
Los Angeles came in behind Washington as the second most bubble-like market, the Times said.
In a study of 15 cities, the least bubble-like markets are in Atlanta and Chicago, the report said. |
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Robin Kelly to replace Jesse Jackson Jr.
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CHICAGO, April 9 (UPI) -- Former Illinois state lawmaker Robin Kelly Tuesday won the special election for the U.S. House seat Jesse Jackson Jr. left before pleading guilty to corruption.
With 60 percent of the precincts in Illinois' 2nd Congressional District counted, Kelly, a Democrat, had 78 percent of the vote to 15 percent for Republican Paul McKinley, the Chicago Tribune reported. Green Party candidate LeAlan Jones was third ahead of three independents who also appeared on the ballot.
"Yes, we've seen some tough times and some setbacks. I know for some of you, your faith in your leaders is a little shaken," Kelly said in prepared remarks.
"Through your support, you put your trust in me. I thank you for that and I promise that I'll never let you down."
"Watch us take on the NRA [National Rifle Association], the Tea Party and anyone else standing in the way of safety," her statement said.
Turnout was low -- about 8 percent as of 1:30 p.m. -- in the scandal-plagued district, the newspaper said.
Jackson, 48, is to be sentenced June 28 for illegally using at least $750,000 in campaign funds to buy, among other things, a Rolex watch, celebrity memorabilia, furs, a cruise and two stuffed elk heads. He pleaded guilty Feb. 20 in federal court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud and false statements.
Last summer, he took a leave of absence to deal with mental issues and in August he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
His wife, Sandi Jackson, a former Chicago alderman, pleaded guilty to separate charges of filing false tax returns. Her sentencing was set for July 1. |
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Social Security petitions delivered to WH
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WASHINGTON, April 9 (UPI) -- Advocates Tuesday delivered more than 2 million petition signatures to the White House, protesting a planned switch in calculating Social Security benefits.
The budget President Obama plans to unveil Wednesday is expected to recommend a switch in calculating cost of living adjustments to Social Security to a method known as chained CPI, which is projected to reduce increases in the cost of living by 0.3 percentage point a year, reducing Social Security spending by an estimated $112 billion in the next decade.
"Contrary to the political spin, America's seniors know this chained CPI proposal isn't a 'tweak' or an 'adjustment,'" Max Richtman, president and chief executive officer of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare, said in a press release.
"It's not more accurate for seniors but it is designed to cut benefits and raise taxes, largely on the poor and middle class. Any politician in Washington who thinks they can slip these benefit cuts by millions of seniors, veterans, people with disabilities and their families unnoticed is in for the shock of their careers."
Richtman urged Obama to rethink the proposal.
"We are not going to balance the budget on the backs of the elderly, disabled vets, the sick, women or children," Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind-Vt., told those delivering the petition. "When one out of four major profitable corporations pay nothing in federal income taxes we know how we can deal with deficit reduction in a way that is fair. The White House tells us they want to defend the middle class. Well if you really want to defend the middle class you don't cut Social Security, and you don't cut Medicare and you don't cut benefits." |
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Obsession With Testing is Behind Rampant School Cheating
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By Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.
(TriceEdneyWire) - The Atlanta public school cheating scandal is but “the tip of the iceberg,” reports Bob Schaeffer, public education director of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing. A new FairTest survey reports confirmed cheating incidents in 37 states and the District of Columbia in just that last four years. It also lists 50 ways adults in public schools artificially boost test scores.
When everyone cheats, you know something is wrong with the test. In fact, high-stakes testing — in which jobs and even the existence of schools depend on the results of a standardized test — is a perverse way to evaluate teachers and schools.
As Isabel Nunez, associate professor at the Center for Policy Studies and Social Justice at Concordia University Chicago, writes, “Standardized testing has become monstrous” and is unsupported by the best research in the field. It’s the spearhead of an assault that is undermining public education, turning teaching from a life mission to a badly paid, insecure job, and putting children at risk. We better step back and take another look to build, not destroy our public schools.
First, we have to get real about what schools can do. A school cannot thrive as an oasis in a social desert. Even the best teacher cannot reach a student who is plagued by an untreated toothache. Schools cannot bear the blame for all the maladies of poverty, unemployment, danger and pain. Parents with jobs matter. Adequate housing with a computer in the house matters. Transportation to schools matters. Nutrition and health care matters. School distance matters. Dangerous streets matter.
There is no shortcut to equal opportunity. School funding remains separate and unequal. We know how to create great public schools. We see them in the affluent suburbs across the country. But in impoverished urban and rural areas, children go without text books, without computers, without adequate facilities to exercise. Don’t blame the teachers. Often the teachers reach into their own pockets to get needed supplies for their students.
There is no shortcut to high-quality teachers. The countries that are succeeding respect teachers and pay them accordingly. The current policy — using high-stakes testing to substitute for high pay, clear mentoring, peer review, social respect — virtually guarantees that the best teachers will not risk going to the schools that need them the most.
Closing neighborhood schools has high costs. Parents must find ways to transport their children longer distances. Children must cross what often are contested gang boundaries. Rousing parental involvement becomes even more difficult if the school is across town.
At this point, testing and shutting down schools have become a way to avoid investing in the basics. Let’s start there. Make certain every child has adequate nutrition and health care. Provide every child with preschool, smaller classes in the early grades, after-school programs, and affordable training or college after high school. Engage parents in supporting their schools before the threat comes to shut them down. Afford teachers high pay and high respect to attract the best students. Save the big money wasted on high stakes tests and invest the time and the resources in children.
And then focus attention on the areas most in need. Create jobs programs to put people to work doing work that needs to be done. Raise the minimum wage, make health care not just mandatory but affordable. Build affordable housing.
The schools will rise as the neighborhood rises. And inevitably, they will flail as the neighborhood fails.
Let’s provide every child with a fair start. There is no better return on the dollar.
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