| | |
| Ex-nurse behind U.S. Congress mail threat gets two years in prison Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 08:10 PM PST By Teresa Carson PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - A former nurse from Vancouver, Washington, was sentenced to two years in prison on Wednesday for mailing more than 100 threatening letters containing white powder to members of Congress and media organizations in February of 2012. Christopher Carlson, 41, pleaded guilty to a charge of conveying false information and a hoax purporting to expose recipients of the letters to a biological toxin in a mass mailing that set off coast-to-coast anthrax scares. White powder contained in the envelopes, postmarked from Portland, Oregon, was later revealed to consist of celery salt and corn starch, the U.S. attorney for Oregon said in a statement about the sentencing. The letters were sent to congressional offices on Capitol Hill, and their field offices across the country, as well as to various media outlets, including The New York Times, National Public Radio and "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." About two dozen of the letters were received and opened by staff members before law enforcement was able to intercept the remainder. Full Story | Top |
| Ill health effects seen as unlikely for New Mexico workers exposed to radiation Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 07:12 PM PST Workers who initially tested positive for radiation exposure after an accidental release at a nuclear waste site in New Mexico are unlikely to experience any ill health effects, site managers said on Wednesday. Early tests of workers - who were above ground at the facility when unsafe levels of radiation were detected last month in an underground salt formation where nuclear waste is stored - showed 13 had inhaled radioactive elements at low levels, officials at the U.S. Department of Energy facility said. But further testing of the 13 workers have shown no further signs of contamination by radioisotopes such as plutonium, and they are thus unlikely to experience any health effects, managers at the facility said on Wednesday. "Follow-up testing of employees who were exposed to airborne radioactive material during the February 14 radiation release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant shows exposure levels were extremely low and the employees are unlikely to experience any health effects as a result," managers said in a statement. Full Story | Top |
| Murder charge filed in case of missing Tennessee nursing student Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 04:30 PM PST By Tim Ghianni NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - A Tennessee man was charged on Wednesday with murder and aggravated kidnapping in the death of a nursing student who disappeared three years ago from the driveway of her rural home. Zachary Rye Adams, 29, was arrested last week on an unrelated aggravated assault charge and is being held without bond in the Chester County Jail, authorities said at a news conference. Victim Holly Bobo, a cousin of country singer Whitney Duncan, was last seen on April 13, 2011 by her brother. Some spectators at the news conference at the Decatur County courthouse responded with gasps and sobs when Tennessee Bureau of Investigation director Mark Gwyn announced the murder charge. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. health plans that don't meet Obamacare rules can renew for two more years Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 04:01 PM PST  By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Wednesday said it would allow health insurers to extend plans that fail to comply with its signature health law for an additional two years, a move Republicans quickly condemned as a politically motivated delay. In a release of new guidelines to insurers and employers for 2015, the administration said it would now allow renewal of noncompliant health plans that begin as late as October 1, 2016. Officials said they believe the change would affect 500,000 to 1.5 million people who hold "transitional policies" that lack consumer protections enshrined in the law known as Obamacare. The policy stems from a wave of insurance plan cancellations last year that sparked a public outcry against President Barack Obama and Democrats, forcing the administration to abruptly allow people to renew noncompliant policies in states where regulators allowed the change. Full Story | Top |
| Nine-month-old baby may have been cured of HIV, U.S. scientists say Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 03:46 PM PST A 9-month-old baby who was born in California with the HIV virus that leads to AIDS may have been cured as a result of treatments that doctors began just four hours after her birth, medical researchers said on Wednesday. That child is the second case, following an earlier instance in Mississippi, in which doctors may have brought HIV in a newborn into remission by administering antiretroviral drugs in the first hours of life, said Dr. Deborah Persaud, a pediatrics specialist with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, at a medical conference in Boston. "The child ... has become HIV-negative," Persaud said, referring to the 9-month-old baby born outside Los Angeles, who is being treated at Miller Children's Hospital. That child is still receiving a three-drug cocktail of anti-AIDS treatments, while the child born in Mississippi, now 3-1/2 years old, ceased receiving antiretroviral treatments two years ago. Full Story | Top |
| Biden, Holder push to end backlog of unanalyzed rape kits Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 03:41 PM PST  By Julia Edwards WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder said on Wednesday that they would push the U.S. Congress to fund a budget proposal intended to clear the country's backlog of unanalyzed rape kits. Rape kits holding DNA evidence that could help catch perpetrators are often left on storage shelves in police stations and labs due to funding shortages, Holder told reporters in a conference call. President Barack Obama proposed in his 2015 budget, released on Tuesday, that $35 million in grants be given to communities to address their most critical needs for investigating and prosecuting sexual assault, including the testing of unanalyzed rape kits. A similar grant was previously given to Detroit, Michigan, which reported 10,995 untested kits collected between 1993 and 2006, according to U.S. Department of Justice documents. Full Story | Top |
| Washington state issues first pot-growing license Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 03:32 PM PST By Jonathan Kaminsky OLYMPIA, Washington (Reuters) - Marijuana regulators issued Washington state's first business license for recreational cannabis on Wednesday to a grower who said he expects to have blooming pot plants ready to harvest within eight weeks. Washington state and Colorado residents alike voted to legalize personal possession and consumption of marijuana for adults in 2012, with Colorado getting a jump on opening state-licensed retail stores, which also were permitted to grow their own. Colorado beat Washington to the punch in part because it already had a system in place for licensing medical marijuana suppliers, and they became the first group of outlets allowed to enter the newly created recreational pot market in January. Medical marijuana was already legal in Washington as well, but the state had no formal regulation of its supply and distribution. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. House votes to delay Obamacare penalty for non-enrollment Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 03:25 PM PST  By David Morgan and Thomas Ferraro WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to delay for one year the tax penalty Americans will pay under President Barack Obama's healthcare law if they decline to enroll in health coverage. The vote, part of a Republican election-year attack strategy against the 2010 healthcare law known as Obamacare, marked the 50th time House Republicans had passed legislation to try to repeal or dismantle it. The measure to delay the tax penalty passed by a vote of 250-160, with 27 Democrats joining with 223 Republicans to back the legislation. Full Story | Top |
| Groups sue EPA to force it to move on pesticide disclosures Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 02:50 PM PST Three environmental and public health groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday, seeking to press it to move forward with rules that would require public disclosure of certain pesticide ingredients. The Center for Environmental Health, Beyond Pesticides, and Physicians for Social Responsibility, all non-profit advocacy groups, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. The groups claimed there has been an "unreasonable delay" on the EPA's part in finalizing rules to require chemical manufacturers to disclose hazardous inert ingredients in their pesticide products. Full Story | Top |
| California third-graders caught smoking pot in school bathroom Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 02:42 PM PST Three third-graders were caught smoking marijuana in the boys' bathroom of their northern California elementary school last week in what the local police chief says marked the youngest pot bust he has ever encountered. The three boys - two 8-year-olds and one 9-year-old - were caught last Thursday by another student, who informed school administrators, who in turn alerted local law enforcement, said Sonora Police Chief Mark Stinson. The police chief of Sonora, a picturesque "Gold Country" town in the Sierra foothills about 130 miles east of San Francisco, said the youngest person he previously knew of being busted for smoking pot was about 10 years of age. Under California law, no one under 12 is usually charged with a crime, but the boys could be subject to juvenile justice proceedings. Full Story | Top |
| Gene therapy may offer 'functional' cure for HIV Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 02:02 PM PST A strategy to genetically modify cells from people infected with HIV could become a way to control the virus that causes AIDS without using antiviral drugs, according to results from an early-stage trial that were published on Wednesday. Data from the small study of the Sangamo BioSciences therapy, known by the code name SB-728-T, were issued in the New England Journal of Medicine, the first publication of data from a human trial of a technology called "gene editing." The technique is designed to disrupt a gene, CCR5, used by HIV to infect T-cells, the white blood cells that fight viral infections. A patient's cells are removed and processed to alter the DNA that codes for the CCR5 receptor. The Phase 1 trial, led by the University of Pennsylvania, enrolled 12 HIV patients. Full Story | Top |
| Italian watchdog says Novartis, Roche colluded over eye drug Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 01:54 PM PST  By Katharina Bart and Silvia Aloisi ZURICH/MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's antitrust authorities said Swiss drugmakers Novartis and Roche colluded to try to stop cancer drug Avastin being used to treat a serious eye disease, and fined the companies 182.5 million euros ($251 million). In a statement on Wednesday, Italy's regulator accused the two Basel-based firms of striking an alliance to prevent distribution of Roche's Avastin as a treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in favor of the more expensive drug Lucentis made by Novartis. It fined Novartis 92 million euros ($126.4 million) and Roche 90.5 million euros. Full Story | Top |
| Toronto police chief hands off case linked to embattled mayor Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 01:48 PM PST  By Allison Martell TORONTO (Reuters) - Ontario authorities have agreed to a request from Toronto's police chief to supervise an investigation that has already resulted in extortion charges against an alleged drug dealer and associate of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, a probe the mayor contends is politically motivated. Toronto Police have declined to say much about Ford's role, if any, in the case against his friend and occasional driver, Sandro Lisi. But police documents released last fall showed that the mayor, now running for re-election, had been under surveillance for months. His admission of drug use came days after Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair said his force, during an earlier investigation called Project Traveler, had obtained a video featuring the mayor that was consistent with media reports about a video clip showing Ford appearing to smoking crack. Full Story | Top |
| When tribes build casinos, obesity falls in youth Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 01:47 PM PST By Ronnie Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - After American Indians built casinos on California tribal lands, their incomes rose and their children's obesity rates fell, according to a new study. They found that an infusion of resources was linked to a reduction in poverty and youth health risks. "The casino is serving as a proxy," Dr. Neal Halfon told Reuters Health. "A casino in every neighborhood is not the answer, but increasing family income and removing other pressures that reduce the capacity of families to invest in their children should be part of the solution." American Indian children have disproportionately high rates of obesity, the study says. Full Story | Top |
| Lawsuit challenges Arizona's limits on use of abortion drug Wednesday, Mar 05, 2014 01:16 PM PST By David Schwartz PHOENIX (Reuters) - Two women's healthcare providers have filed a federal lawsuit in Arizona to block new regulations that would limit the use of the most popular abortion-inducing drug in the state, officials disclosed on Wednesday. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Phoenix on behalf of Planned Parenthood Arizona and health center Tucson Women's Center, said the rules, due to go into effect on April 1, are unconstitutional and would severely hamper a woman's right to a non-surgical abortion. Under rules required by a 2012 abortion law, any medicine used to induce an abortion in Arizona must be administered according to protocol authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and subject to instructions on the label. The FDA has approved RU-486, the so-called "abortion pill," for use within seven weeks' gestation. Full Story | Top |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment