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| Preservationists fight to save rare albino redwood tree in California Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 05:35 PM PDT By Laila Kearney SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Northern California preservationists are fighting to keep a rare albino redwood, one of just 10 trees of its kind known to exist, from being chopped down to make way for a new commuter rail system, arborists and city officials said on Wednesday. The albino chimera coast redwood, standing 52 feet high in a commercial district of Cotati, a town in California's wine country, also is the tallest and widest specimen of its type, said Tom Stapleton, a certified arborist who is leading a group of researchers and community members pushing to save the tree. The tree is a form of albino redwood with a genetic mutation that causes its branches to be striped, in a candy cane-like pattern, with a mix of green and white needles. Albino redwoods are a mutant variety of the evergreen species known as the California redwood, giant redwood or coast redwood, which is named for the reddish color of its bark and includes the tallest living trees on Earth. Full Story | Top |
| GOP takes aim at Obamacare to fund Medicare Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 05:33 PM PDT  By Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Republicans said on Wednesday that they are pushing a plan to delay for five years the penalties for failing to buy health insurance under Obamacare, and to use the savings to spare doctors from a steep cut in Medicare payments. Delaying until 2019 the financial penalty for not signing up for health insurance would slow down Obamacare signups and save the government billions of dollars that would otherwise be paid out in taxpayer subsidies to enrollees, the Republicans say, citing Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates. Democrats derided the idea as a "poison pill." They complained that House Republicans have tried dozens of times to change or repeal Obamacare and now proposed another change to a bipartisan deal making a long-sought repair to the formula used to determine Medicare payments to physicians. Full Story | Top |
| New York's Albany County seeks to limit crude oil processing Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 05:32 PM PDT New York's Albany County issued a moratorium on Wednesday on the expansion of crude oil processing in the Port of Albany, pending a public health investigation. Processing and storing crude oil at the port could pose health risks, said County Executive Daniel McCoy, who estimated that the health review could take "many months." The moratorium targets a proposed expansion at an oil-processing facility operated by Global Partners LP. The company is seeking to build several boilers that would heat crude oil before it is off-loaded and shipped for refining. Global Partners can transport by rail up to 160,000 barrels a day of crude to its Albany terminal, which includes some 50,000 bpd for Phillips 66 in a five-year commitment to ship North Dakotan Bakken crude by rail to its 238,000-bpd Bayway refinery in Linden, New Jersey. Full Story | Top |
| 'Love hormone' oxytocin may help anorexics fight food fixation Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 05:01 PM PDT By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Oxytocin, a brain chemical known as the "love hormone", is showing promise as a potential treatment for people with the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, according to research by British and Korean scientists. In studies of anorexic patients, researchers found oxytocin altered their tendencies to become fixated on images of fattening foods and large body shapes - suggesting it could be developed as a treatment to help them overcome unhealthy obsessions with diet. Anorexia nervosa affects millions of people worldwide - including around 1 in 150 teenage girls in Britain, where it is one of the leading causes of mental health-related deaths, both due to physical complications and suicide. As well as problems with food, eating and body shape, patients with anorexia often have social difficulties, including anxiety and hypersensitivity to negative emotions. Full Story | Top |
| US Airways flight diverted to Houston due to sick baby Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 05:00 PM PDT A US Airways flight from Tampa to Phoenix made an emergency landing in Houston when a toddler aboard had a life-threatening medical emergency during the journey, the Houston Fire Department said on Wednesday. Flight 678 was met by an ambulance when it landed at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport on Tuesday night. The child was in stable condition, the department said, without offering details on the cause of the medical emergency. Two medically trained personnel, not associated with the child, were on the flight and helped stabilize the child until the plane touched down in Houston, media reports said. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. cattle deaths linked to Zilmax far exceed company reports: study Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 04:06 PM PDT The number of U.S. cattle deaths that may be linked to the Merck & Co Inc feed additive Zilmax are much higher than the figures reported by the drug company to the federal government, according to a research study published on Wednesday. The findings by researchers from Texas Tech University and Kansas State University show that more than 3,800 cattle in 10 feedlots that were fed Zilmax died in 2011 and 2012, with between 40 percent and 50 percent of the deaths likely attributable to Zilmax. The numbers reported in the study, which was published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, would indicate a larger death toll than Reuters found late last year in a review of all deaths reported to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by Merck since Zilmax was introduced in 2007. Drug makers are required to report deaths and other adverse events associated with their drugs - in this case based largely on what cattle and feedlot owners have told the company. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. calls Guantanamo hunger strikes 'non-religious fasting' Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 03:38 PM PDT  By Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New Guantanamo Bay U.S. prison guidelines describe hunger striking detainees as undergoing "long term non-religious fasting," a copy of the document obtained by Reuters shows. Two U.S. military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Wednesday the change in terminology helps differentiate between detainees with medical conditions caused by malnourishment, and political protesters who were at or above their ideal bodyweight. The change follows headline-grabbing hunger strikes by detainees last year which drew renewed attention to President Barack Obama's frustrated efforts to shutter the facility on a U.S. military base in Cuba. The previous guidelines mentioned "hunger strikes" frequently, but the new ones totally exclude the term and only makes one passing reference to the word "hunger." "It's not our job to feed into their political protests. Full Story | Top |
| Sebelius says no Obamacare mandate delay, enrollment extension Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 03:12 PM PDT  By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - There will be no delay in the penalty most Americans face under President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law if they fail to obtain health coverage this year, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Wednesday. Sebelius also said there would be no postponement of this month's deadline for enrolling in coverage through new private health insurance marketplaces or the Medicaid program for the poor. "No, sir," was Sebelius' categorical answer when asked about both prospects by Representative Kevin Brady of Texas at a hearing of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee. Speaking a day after her department released new Obamacare data showing private insurance enrollment rising to 4.2 million people as of March 1, Sebelius rebuffed Republican claims that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's implementation was failing to attract enough enrollees. Full Story | Top |
| Republicans say Obamacare helped clinch Florida victory Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 02:36 PM PDT  By Barbara Liston ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - The Republican Party's leadership was quick to claim their win in Tuesday's special congressional election on Florida's west coast as a landmark victory over President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, according to political analysts. But local Florida analysts say the narrow result was more likely a reflection of the district's voter make-up, low turnout, and a Democratic challenger lacking in charisma, than public opposition to the president's signature healthcare legislation, popularly known as Obamacare. "In the end, it looked just like the divided country, and the (Republican) district that it is," said Susan MacManus, a political analyst and professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Republican David Jolly, 41, defeated Democrat Alex Sink, 65, by 3,500 votes, or a 1.9 percent margin - 48.4 percent to 46.5 percent, according to the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections website. Full Story | Top |
| Wall Street little changed as Ukraine, China concerns brushed off Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 02:13 PM PDT  By Rodrigo Campos NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks finished little changed on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq up for the first session in five, as investors grappled with the evolving situation in Ukraine but shrugged off concern over weakness in China's economy. The EU agreed a framework for its first sanctions on Russia since the Cold War, a stronger response to the Ukraine crisis than many had expected and a mark of solidarity with Washington in the effort to make Moscow pay for seizing Crimea. London copper prices, a proxy for economic health due to the metal's broad industrial use, hit their lowest since July 2010 on concerns about credit problems in China, but later rebounded. "The situation in Ukraine and a slowing China are going to matter, but they haven't mattered yet. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. House panel investigates EPA's power plant rule setting Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 02:02 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. House of Representatives committee said on Wednesday it is launching an investigation into the Environmental Protection Agency's decision-making process involving emissions standards for new power plants. Republican leaders of the House Energy and Committee have written to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy requesting documents to determine whether the agency complied with the law when it developed its proposals for new power plant standards, which were announced in late 2013. (Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Susan Heavey) Full Story | Top |
| Slightly elevated blood pressure also tied to strokes Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 01:44 PM PDT By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with blood pressure that is elevated but not enough to be considered "high" are still at an increased risk for strokes, according to a new analysis of past studies. Researchers found that having so-called prehypertension was linked to a 66 percent increased risk of stroke. "There has been disagreement in the community in general," Dr. Joshua Willey told Reuters Health. "Are these people at risk for stroke?" Willey, a neurologist at Columbia University in New York, was not involved with the new study. Full Story | Top |
| Pfizer says U.S. court invalidates Celebrex patent; generics loom Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 01:34 PM PDT  (Reuters) - A U.S. court ruled invalid a patent covering Pfizer Inc's blockbuster Celebrex painkiller, the drugmaker said, giving generic rivals an earlier U.S. entry that analysts estimated could cost the company $3 billion in revenue by the end of 2015. Pfizer shares closed down 1.4 percent on the New York Stock Exchange. Pfizer said it would appeal the ruling, made by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, which invalidated a patent covering how Celebrex is administered to treat osteoarthritis. Celebrex has annual global sales of about $3 billion, including $2 billion in the United States. Full Story | Top |
| Kids with family routines more emotionally, socially advanced Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 12:42 PM PDT They found each ritual was linked to a 47 percent increase in the odds that children would have high so-called social-emotional health, which indicates good emotional and social skills. Social-emotional health "allows children to express their feelings, understand others' emotions and develop and sustain healthy relationships with peers and adults," said Dr. Elisa Muniz, the study's lead author and a pediatrician at Bronx Lebanon Hospital in New York. "There is strong scientific evidence that children who possess these abilities to a greater degree are more likely to succeed in school," Muniz said. The study followed children from birth until they began kindergarten. Full Story | Top |
| Maryland mall shooter may have copied Columbine massacre: police Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 12:39 PM PDT  By Alice Popovici MARRIOTTSVILLE, Maryland (Reuters) - The gunman who killed two store employees at a Maryland mall early this year may have been obsessed with the 1999 Columbine High School massacre and left a journal behind in which he wrote that he might already be dead, police said on Wednesday. The shooter, Darion Marcus Aguilar, 19, did not know the victims when he opened fire at a crowded Columbia, Maryland, mall about 20 miles west of Baltimore on January 25 before killing himself with his 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun. Investigators have been unable to find any connection between Aguilar and the employees he gunned down at a Zumiez Inc skateboard store, the Howard County Police Department's investigation found. He was a young man that did not garner much attention to himself," Police Chief William McMahon told a news conference. Full Story | Top |
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