Soldier: Afghan killings were in legitimate combat

(AP) ? An Army staff sergeant accused of masterminding the murders of three Afghan civilians for sport gave his first public comments about the case at his court martial Friday, denying involvement in any plot but acknowledging he took fingers off their corpses "like keeping the antlers off a deer you'd shoot."

Wearing his green uniform decorated with service ribbons, Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs of Billings, Mont., contradicted the accounts of co-defendants and fellow soldiers who portrayed him as an imposing, bloodthirsty sociopath. He said that as far as he knew, each of the killings was legitimate.

The 6-foot-4, 26-year-old Gibbs answered questions from his lawyer, Phil Stackhouse, before five military jurors, a judge and spectators ? including his wife ? at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle. When Stackhouse asked why he took the fingers, Gibbs said he wasn't proud that he had done so.

"I think I was trying to be hard, a hard individual, and not let it affect me," he testified. "In my mind, it was like keeping the antlers off a deer you'd shoot. ... You have to come to terms with the things you're doing."

He added that he tried to disassociate the corpses from the people they had been.

"Bodies in general didn't mean anything to me," he said.

Gibbs is the highest-ranking of five soldiers charged in the killings, which took place in January, February and May of last year. Prosecutors said Gibbs and his co-defendants slaughtered the victims with grenades and powerful machine guns during patrols in Kandahar province then dropped weapons near their bodies to make them appear to have been combatants.

Gibbs wasn't present for the first killing but was accused of a providing an "off-the-books" grenade to then-Cpl. Jeremy Morlock of Wasilla, Alaska, who used it when he and Pvt. 1st Class Andrew Holmes, of Boise, Idaho, killed an Afghan teenager. Morlock and Holmes have pleaded guilty to murder.

Gibbs was accused of direct involvement in the second and third killings. He testified that the second killing was legitimate because he came under fire, and that he had nothing to do with the third killing.

Two co-defendants and other soldiers have testified against Gibbs, but Stackhouse said in his opening statement that the co-defendants conspired to blame Gibbs for what they did.

The shocking case came to light in May 2010, after a soldier who was beaten by Gibbs and others for reporting drug use in the platoon told investigators that his comrades had deliberately killed civilians. The five soldiers were arrested in Afghanistan, along with several others who faced less serious charges, including assault and drug use.

Gibbs also acknowledged Friday that he beat up the whistleblower, Pvt. 1st Class Justin Stoner, whom he described as a coward. After administering the beating, Gibbs and Morlock returned to Stoner's bunk. Gibbs admitted he displayed two of the severed fingers as he and Morlock tried to persuade Stoner not to speak with investigators.

"I didn't think it would scare Stoner because he had already seen the fingers before," Gibbs said. "He didn't really react to it."

One of the defendants, then-Spc. Adam Winfield of Cape Coral, Fla., tried to blow the whistle on the plot after the first killing by sending Facebook messages home to his parents in which he warned that more killings were planned.

"If you talk to anyone on my behalf, I have proof that they are planning another one in the form of an AK-47 they want to drop on a guy," Winfield wrote.

Calls by Winfield's father to Lewis-McChord went unheeded, and before long two more Afghan civilians had been killed ? one with the AK-47 found beside his body, prosecutors said. Winfield pleaded guilty in the final killing and said he took part because he feared Gibbs would hurt him if he didn't.

Gibbs' testimony Friday was at odds with that of the other witnesses, who said he began talking about killing civilians soon after he joined the unit in late 2009. In the second killing, Morlock ? who is serving 24 years for the murders ? said Gibbs killed an unarmed man after firing an illicit AK-47 into the wall of a compound and tossing the weapon at the man's feet to make him appear to have been an enemy.

But Gibbs maintained the engagement was legitimate. The man started firing with the AK-47, but the gun jammed, and he and Spc. Michael Wagnon, who is also charged in that killing, returned fire, Gibbs said.

"I was engaged by an enemy combatant," he said. "Luckily his weapon appeared to malfunction and I didn't die."

Wagnon's court martial is scheduled for January.

In the third killing, Gibbs contradicted testimony from Morlock and Winfield, who said Gibbs told them to shoot as he threw a grenade at an unarmed man.

Gibbs said he had nothing to do with that killing, and didn't even witness it. He ran toward the gunfire and saw Morlock and Winfield on the ground, firing into a cloud of dust, he said. Shortly before the shooting, he said, he had chastised the two of them for going outside the compound on their own.

During cross-examination, Maj. Robert Stella sought to portray aspects of Gibbs' story as farfetched. According to Gibbs, he noted, the second incident took place when a lone Afghan man ? with no other military-age men nearby, armed with an AK-47 with no extra ammunition ? attacked an entire squad of heavily armed Americans.

Gibbs faces 16 charges, covering a range of allegations from premeditated murder to assault. In one instance, he's accused of ordering his men to fire on unarmed men in a field. No one was injured, and Gibbs insisted on the stand that one of the men in the field was carrying a rocket-propelled grenade.

However, others who have testified about that shooting, including Staff Sgt. Robert Stevens, of Portland, Ore., who was at the time a close friend of Gibbs, said they knew the men were unarmed.

Gibbs could face up to life in prison if convicted. Four out of five jurors must agree for him to be convicted.

___

Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-11-04-Afghan%20Probe/id-6e2a0deae2eb4617a92f0fc492e6fec1

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Greece's Papandreou toughs out referendum pledge

Parliament member Milena Apostolaki reacts during the speech of Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou to the Socialist members of parliament in Athens, Monday, Oct. 31, 2011. Apostolaki's office said in Athens, on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011 she had declared herself an independent deputy in a letter to Parliament speaker. The Greek governing party deputy has defected over the prime minister's surprise decision to hold a referendum on a European debt deal, leaving the Socialists with a marginal two-seat majority in Parliament. (AP Photo/Eurokinissi, Tatiana Bolari) GREECE OUT

Parliament member Milena Apostolaki reacts during the speech of Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou to the Socialist members of parliament in Athens, Monday, Oct. 31, 2011. Apostolaki's office said in Athens, on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011 she had declared herself an independent deputy in a letter to Parliament speaker. The Greek governing party deputy has defected over the prime minister's surprise decision to hold a referendum on a European debt deal, leaving the Socialists with a marginal two-seat majority in Parliament. (AP Photo/Eurokinissi, Tatiana Bolari) GREECE OUT

A woman passes a screen showing a graph of falling stocks at the Athens Stock Exchange, in Athens, on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011. Prime Minister George Papandreou's unexpected decision late Monday led to markets plunging Tuesday on fears that Europe's plan to save the euro will unravel. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

A woman enters the Athens Stock Exchange, in Athens, on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011. The Greek government shocked financial markets with news that it would put its cost-cutting plan to a popular vote, which could lead the country to default on its debt. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos is seen during the speech of Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou to the Socialist members of parliament in Athens, Monday Oct. 31, 2011. The finance ministry said on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011 Venizelos is spending the night in a clinic after suffering stomach pains. Taking a huge political gamble, Greece's prime minister announced that his debt-strapped country will hold a referendum on the new European debt deal reached last week _ the first such vote in 37 years. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou addresses Socialist members of parliament in Athens, Monday, Oct. 31, 2011. Papandreou says his country will hold a referendum on a new European debt deal reached last week. Papandreou gave no date on other details of a proposed referendum on the deal that aims to seek 50 percent losses for private holders of Greek bonds and provide the troubled eurozone member with euro 100 billion ($140 billion) in additional rescue loans. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

(AP) ? Greece's prime minister held firm early Wednesday to his shock decision to call for a referendum on a hard-fought European debt deal, despite anger from abroad, market turmoil across the world and dissent from within his own party.

George Papandreou's government still faced a battle for survival, with a vote of confidence scheduled for Friday and a grilling from frustrated European leaders expected later in the day ahead of the Group of 20 summit in the French Riviera.

After a grueling seven-hour Cabinet meeting that finished after 3 a.m. (0100GMT), government spokesman Ilias Mossialos said Papandreou's ministers expressed "total support for the initiatives taken by the prime minister." He said the referendum would be held "as soon as possible."

However, government officials said two ministers still had strong reservations with the idea of a referendum, which will be the first in Greece since the country voted to abolish the monarchy in 1974. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to reveal details of the Cabinet meeting.

Papandreou told his ministers that putting the issue to the Greek people was the only way to safeguard the European deal.

"We will not implement any program by force, but only with the consent of the Greek people," he said. "This is our democratic tradition and we demand that it is also respected abroad."

A referendum, he said, "will be a clear mandate, and a clear message within and outside of Greece, about our European course and our participation in the euro," he said, according to a text of his speech to the meeting issued by his office.

"The dilemma is not 'this government or another one', the dilemma is 'yes or no to the agreement', 'yes or no to Europe', 'yes or no to the euro,'" he said.

World markets were hammered after Papandreou's surprise Monday night announcement amid fears the vote could unravel a deal which took European leaders months of complex negotiations among themselves and with banks to reach.

Greece's general price index plunged to close down 6.92 percent, while in Germany the Dax index, the major stock market average, lost 5 percent ? the equivalent of about 600 points on the Dow. The French stock market closed down 5.4 percent, the Italian 6.7 percent and London 2.2 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average finished down nearly 300 points, or 2.5 percent.

European leaders made no secret of their displeasure.

"This announcement surprised all of Europe," said a clearly annoyed French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been scrambling to save face for Europe before he hosts leaders of the G20 major world economies beginning Thursday.

"Giving the people a say is always legitimate, but the solidarity of all countries of the eurozone cannot work unless each one consents to the necessary efforts," he said.

Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who have been at the forefront of Europe's efforts to contain the debt crisis, talked by phone and agreed to convene emergency talks Wednesday in Cannes, France, to which Papandreou was also summoned to discuss implementation of the bailout. The working dinner will also be attended by Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs eurozone ministerial meetings, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde, top EU officials Herman Van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso, and new European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi.

French lawmaker Christian Estrosi was even more direct, saying on France-Info radio that the move was "totally irresponsible."

"I want to tell the Greek government that when you are in a situation of crisis, and others want to help you, it is insulting to try to save your skin instead of assuming your responsibilities," Estrosi said.

Papandreou's decision could upend the Oct. 27 deal that was the product of months of work by European leaders who were trying, sometimes opposed by their own people, to agree on the details of a second bailout for Greece and shore up their own economies in the name of saving the euro.

The deal would require banks holding Greek government bonds to accept 50 percent losses and provide Greece with about $140 billion in rescue loans from European nations and the IMF.

Greece has been relying since May 2010 on a first multibillion dollar bailout by other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund. Juncker said the referendum was a dangerous decision that could endanger Greece's next installment of bailout loans ? without which the country will run out of money in mid-November.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, meanwhile, said he would try to prevent the referendum plan, saying he would "attempt to see that it doesn't happen." But he conceded it was up to Greece how it approves or rejects the European deal.

Papandreou's decision had left his government teetering on the verge of collapse Tuesday as his own deputies rebelled and his Socialist party saw its parliamentary majority whittled down to just two seats in the 300-member legislature with the defection of lawmaker Milena Apostolaki. Others called for the prime minister's resignation and the creation of a national unity government.

"Yesterday's surprise and irrational announcement of the referendum has led me to doubt something that I considered certain until yesterday: That I am a member of a group that is striving to save our country from bankruptcy," Socialist deputy Hara Kefalidou said.

"I cannot back a referendum which is a subterfuge by a government that appears unwilling to govern."

Apostolaki's departure "shows clearly that the government itself is losing gradually its cohesion," said George Tzogopoulos, a political analyst from the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy.

Under a recently amended law, a referendum can be called on issues of grave national concern, but needs approval by an absolute majority in the parliament.

Papandreou's decision was such a surprise that even the finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, apparently did not know about it ahead of time. He was unable to make the ministers' meeting Tuesday after being hospitalized with stomach pains. He remained in the clinic overnight.

____

Nicholas Paphitis and Theodora Tongas in Athens, Angela Charlton in Paris, Raf Casert in Brussels and Toby Sterling in Amsterdam contributed.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-11-01-EU-Greece-Financial-Crisis/id-713d231fc4ec4104a2f0d10040566dc8

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Search for protection against diabetic retinopathy and nephropathy gets NIDDK/NIH boost

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 2-Nov-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Jeffrey Bright
jeffrey.bright@joslin.harvard.edu
617-309-1957
Joslin Diabetes Center

$3.9 million type 1 diabetes impact grant will enable work to continue on discoveries made by the Joslin 50-Year Medalist Study

BOSTON -- Joslin Diabetes Center has received a $3.9 million DP3 grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, to identify protective factors that enable many Joslin 50-Year Medalists to remain free of commonly occurring diabetes complications.

Joslin has been awarding 50-Year Medals to people with insulin-dependent (type 1) diabetes since 1972. Many of the Medalists participate in the Joslin 50-Year Medalist Study, which examines this select cohort to discover the secrets of their long-term survival.

In April 2011 the study, led by George L. King, M.D., Chief Scientific Officer, reported in Diabetes Care that a high proportion of the 50-Year Medalists remained free of diabetic retinopathy, kidney disease (nephropathy), neuropathy or cardiovascular disease, in spite of living with type 1 diabetes for 50 years or more.

Diabetes complications can include damage to the retina, the kidneys, the nerves, and the blood vessels. Until now, complications research has focused on the causes of complications and treatments of complications after they have occurred. The findings of the 50-Year Medalist Study could change the direction of complications research.

"This search for protective rather than risk factors is part of a paradigm shift in Joslin's diabetes complications studies," says Dr. King, who also is head of the Dianne Nunnally Hoppes Laboratory for Diabetes Complications and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Using the support provided by the DP3 grant, King and his team will identify the factors that induce protection against long-term complications in the 50-Year Medalists. These factors could provide important biomarkers and therapeutic agents to prevent and halt diabetic retinopathy and diabetic nephropathy, two complications that significantly diminish lifespan and the quality of life of people living with type 1 diabetes.

###

The DP3 grant program at the NIDDK was established to fund bold and highly innovative new approaches to fundamental scientific problems that relate to type 1 diabetes. The amount of Joslin's award was close to the highest level of funding made under the program.

Other members of the 50-Year Medalist Study team include: Hillary Keenan, Ph.D., Andrzej Krolewski, M.D., Ph.D., Lloyd Paul Aiello, M.D., Ph.D., Edward Feener, Ph.D., Jennifer Sun, M.D., M.P.H., and Alessandro Doria, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., all from Joslin Diabetes Center; plus Marian Rewers, M.D., and Brian Bucca, O.D., both from Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes.

Joslin Diabetes Center is the world's preeminent diabetes research and clinical care organization. Joslin is dedicated to ensuring that people with diabetes live long, healthy lives and offers real hope and progress toward diabetes prevention and a cure. Joslin is an independent, nonprofit institution affiliated with Harvard Medical School. For more information about Joslin, visit http://www.joslin.org. Keep up with Joslin research and clinical news at Inside Joslin at http://www.joslin.org/news/inside_joslin.html. Become a fan of Joslin on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/joslindiabetes and follow Joslin on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/joslindiabetes



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 2-Nov-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Jeffrey Bright
jeffrey.bright@joslin.harvard.edu
617-309-1957
Joslin Diabetes Center

$3.9 million type 1 diabetes impact grant will enable work to continue on discoveries made by the Joslin 50-Year Medalist Study

BOSTON -- Joslin Diabetes Center has received a $3.9 million DP3 grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, to identify protective factors that enable many Joslin 50-Year Medalists to remain free of commonly occurring diabetes complications.

Joslin has been awarding 50-Year Medals to people with insulin-dependent (type 1) diabetes since 1972. Many of the Medalists participate in the Joslin 50-Year Medalist Study, which examines this select cohort to discover the secrets of their long-term survival.

In April 2011 the study, led by George L. King, M.D., Chief Scientific Officer, reported in Diabetes Care that a high proportion of the 50-Year Medalists remained free of diabetic retinopathy, kidney disease (nephropathy), neuropathy or cardiovascular disease, in spite of living with type 1 diabetes for 50 years or more.

Diabetes complications can include damage to the retina, the kidneys, the nerves, and the blood vessels. Until now, complications research has focused on the causes of complications and treatments of complications after they have occurred. The findings of the 50-Year Medalist Study could change the direction of complications research.

"This search for protective rather than risk factors is part of a paradigm shift in Joslin's diabetes complications studies," says Dr. King, who also is head of the Dianne Nunnally Hoppes Laboratory for Diabetes Complications and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Using the support provided by the DP3 grant, King and his team will identify the factors that induce protection against long-term complications in the 50-Year Medalists. These factors could provide important biomarkers and therapeutic agents to prevent and halt diabetic retinopathy and diabetic nephropathy, two complications that significantly diminish lifespan and the quality of life of people living with type 1 diabetes.

###

The DP3 grant program at the NIDDK was established to fund bold and highly innovative new approaches to fundamental scientific problems that relate to type 1 diabetes. The amount of Joslin's award was close to the highest level of funding made under the program.

Other members of the 50-Year Medalist Study team include: Hillary Keenan, Ph.D., Andrzej Krolewski, M.D., Ph.D., Lloyd Paul Aiello, M.D., Ph.D., Edward Feener, Ph.D., Jennifer Sun, M.D., M.P.H., and Alessandro Doria, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., all from Joslin Diabetes Center; plus Marian Rewers, M.D., and Brian Bucca, O.D., both from Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes.

Joslin Diabetes Center is the world's preeminent diabetes research and clinical care organization. Joslin is dedicated to ensuring that people with diabetes live long, healthy lives and offers real hope and progress toward diabetes prevention and a cure. Joslin is an independent, nonprofit institution affiliated with Harvard Medical School. For more information about Joslin, visit http://www.joslin.org. Keep up with Joslin research and clinical news at Inside Joslin at http://www.joslin.org/news/inside_joslin.html. Become a fan of Joslin on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/joslindiabetes and follow Joslin on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/joslindiabetes



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/jdc-sfp110211.php

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Deaths from painkiller overdose triple in decade

FILE - In this Aug. 5, 2010 file photo, a pharmacy technician poses for a picture with hydrocodone tablets at the Oklahoma Hospital Discount Pharmacy in Edmond, Okla. Hydrocodone is the key ingredient in Vicodin. The number of overdose deaths from powerful painkillers more than tripled over a decade, the government reported Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011 - a trend that a U.S. health official called an epidemic, but one that can be stopped. Prescription painkillers such as OxyContin, Vicodin and methadone led to the deaths of almost 15,000 people in 2008, including actor Heath Ledger. That's more than three times the 4,000 deaths from narcotics in 1999. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 5, 2010 file photo, a pharmacy technician poses for a picture with hydrocodone tablets at the Oklahoma Hospital Discount Pharmacy in Edmond, Okla. Hydrocodone is the key ingredient in Vicodin. The number of overdose deaths from powerful painkillers more than tripled over a decade, the government reported Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011 - a trend that a U.S. health official called an epidemic, but one that can be stopped. Prescription painkillers such as OxyContin, Vicodin and methadone led to the deaths of almost 15,000 people in 2008, including actor Heath Ledger. That's more than three times the 4,000 deaths from narcotics in 1999. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)

(AP) ? The number of overdose deaths from powerful painkillers more than tripled over a decade, the government reported Tuesday ? a trend that a U.S. health official called an epidemic, but one that can be stopped.

Prescription painkillers such as OxyContin, Vicodin and methadone led to the deaths of almost 15,000 people in 2008, including actor Heath Ledger. That's more than three times the 4,000 deaths from narcotics in 1999.

Such painkillers "are meant to help people who have severe pain," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, which issued the report. "They are, however, highly addictive."

The report shows nearly 5 percent of Americans ages 12 and older said they've abused painkillers in the past year ? using them without a prescription or just for the high. In 2008-09 surveys, Oklahomans reported the highest rate of abuse; the lowest was in Nebraska and Iowa.

The overdose deaths reflect the spike in the number of narcotic painkillers prescribed every year ? enough to give every American a one-month supply, Frieden said.

Prescriptions rose as doctors aimed to better treat pain and as new painkillers hit the market.

Frieden and White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske, who joined him at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, said states need to take sharp actions to reverse the long-running trend.

States oversee prescription practices and can rigorously monitor prescriptions and crack down on "pill mills" and "doctor shopping" by patients, Frieden said.

Doctors should limit prescriptions ? giving only a three-day supply for acute pain, for example ? and look for alternative treatments, he said.

"For chronic pain, narcotics should be the last resort," he added.

A federal drug plan announced this year calls for state programs to track prescriptions. All but two states ? Missouri and New Hampshire ? have approved them, said Kerlikowske. But a number of states don't have them in place yet or doctors aren't using them enough to check on their patients' past prescriptions, he said.

"America's prescription drug abuse epidemic is not a problem that's going to be solved overnight, but at the same time, we're not powerless," said Kerlikowske, who urged parents to get rid of unneeded or expired painkillers so they aren't misused.

Some states are taking action. Earlier this month, a doctor in Southern California was sentenced to prison for illegally selling tens of thousands of prescriptions for painkillers and sedative. Ohio now requires pain clinics to be licensed by the state, and limits the amount of pills that can be dispensed at clinics. Florida also has cracked down on so-called "pill mills."

Overall, there were 36,450 fatal overdoses in 2008, including accidental cases and suicides involving illegal drugs like heroin and cocaine along with prescription medicines. About three-quarters of the deaths from prescriptions involved narcotic painkillers.

That's the year Ledger died from an accidental overdose of painkillers and sedatives. A few months later, a 12-year-old girl from suburban New York overdosed on methadone she bought from a 15-year-old boy.

Narcotics also played a role in the recent deaths of a 27-year-old model at the mansion of an Anheuser-Busch heir and of former hockey player Derek Boogaard.

Other findings of the CDC report:

? New Mexico had the highest overdose death rate (27 per 100,000) and Nebraska had the lowest (5.5). The national rate was 11.9.

? Fatal overdoses were more likely in men, middle-aged adults and whites and American Indians.

? Sales of prescription painkillers are highest in the Southeast and Northwest.

Frieden noted the wide differences between overdose death rates among states. For example, West Virginia's rate is about 26 per 100,000 while neighboring Virginia's rate is only 9.

"This highlights the importance of states getting policies right on preventing drug abuse," he said.

__

Online:

CDC report: http://cdc.gov/mmwr/

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2011-11-01-Painkiller%20Overdoses/id-0e13e45369b349d4a6c7b7c833f15b0a

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Cain accusers now enjoy successful careers (AP)

WASHINGTON ? They are two successful, professional women, now the focus of an intensifying presidential campaign after their sexual harassment complaints against GOP businessman Herman Cain became public.

One woman thrived in her pursuit of her communications career, more recently working in federal government jobs in Washington. The other moved up in positions focusing on political outreach and later public policy research, working since 2005 at a large lobbying and consulting firm in New Jersey with Republican and Democratic clients.

Cain calls their complaints of sexual harassment, settled a dozen years ago while he was leading the National Restaurant Association, "totally false" and baseless, raising questions about the women who, until days ago, had privately dealt with their allegations of his sexually inappropriate behavior.

The two women have declined dogged media requests to speak out, including requests from The Associated Press. A lawyer for one of the women has said he will ask the restaurant association to lift a confidentiality agreement prohibiting comment after Cain insisted he did nothing wrong, suggesting that at least one of the women may have been terminated. But his client is having second thoughts, concerned about how the frenzied attention she'd likely receive will affect her career, her family, and her life today, a person close to the situation said Wednesday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the accusations and the fact that the incident has become public is very unsettling to the woman.

The AP confirmed the identity of the women but is not revealing their names. But what can be disclosed about their backgrounds without identifying them reveals that Cain's two accusers moved on professionally and personally after their ordeals at the restaurant association.

One of the women continued her education after earning her college degree. She has handled political outreach and fundraising in the private sector and for trade organizations. She owns her own home, volunteers on community boards and serves on public boards in her county and town.

The other woman earned her master's degree before moving into her current communications career. She started a media career in Washington soon after graduate school, working in the private sector and in the federal government. Her husband has worked as a lobbyist on environmental, municipal and health issues. And he's donated money to both Democrats and Republicans. They live in suburban Maryland.

A third woman interviewed by the AP said Cain also made sexually suggestive remarks or gestures to her while she worked with him at the restaurant association. She said she considered filing a complaint against him because of what she considered aggressive and unwanted behavior. But she never did.

___

Associated Press writer Stephen Ohlemacher contributed to this report. DeFalco reported from Trenton, N.J.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111103/ap_on_el_pr/us_cain_accuser

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Obama urges Congress to pass transportation bill (AP)

WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama pressed Congress on Wednesday to pass the transportation piece of his stalled $447 billion jobs bill, saying it "makes absolutely no sense" to have more than a million construction workers sitting around when there are repairs to be made, including to the Potomac River bridge where he spoke.

The Senate is expected to vote Thursday on whether to take up the measure ? $50 billion for road and bridge repair and $10 billion to attract private money to help finance such construction. But like Obama's earlier jobs proposals, this piece is expected to be unanimously opposed by Republicans and a few Democrats who object to any new spending and a proposed new tax on the wealthy to help pay for it.

Obama said the nation's aging transportation network costs American businesses and families about $130 billion a year, calling it a drag on the overall economy. He said failure to act could cost the country hundreds of billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of jobs by the end of the decade.

Obama said the public supports him and that Congress would have to answer to their constituents if they don't pass it.

"There's no good reason to oppose this bill. Not one," he said at the foot of the Key Bridge, which connects the District of Columbia and Arlington, Va. "And members of Congress who do, who vote no, are going to have to explain why to their constituencies. The American people are with me with this. And it's time for folks running around spending all their time talking about what's wrong with America to spend some time rolling up their sleeves to help us make it right."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111102/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama

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Kris Jenner on Nicole Brown Simpson Death: Shocking, Tragic


Kris Jenner was married to one of the men who helped acquit O.J. Simpson over 16 years ago.

But in her upcoming memoir - "Kris Jenner... And All Things Kardashian," due out tomorrow - the wife of Robert Kardashian makes it clear that she believes Simpson murdered his ex-wife, writing in detail about the night of June 12, 1994 when Nicole Brown Simpson was killed.

Kris Jenner Book Cover

Jenner writes that Nicole called her the night tragedy struck and asked her to come over for a talk, but Kris declined because she was preoccupied with her family.

The next morning, Kris heard the news and says she "instinctively knew that in some way O.J. had something to do with her death."

"I truly couldn't believe she had been so betrayed by the person who she had once loved most," Jenner writes. "That O.J. would be so destructive and selfish and jealous that he would do that to her was just mind-blowing to me. All these thoughts were running through my mind."

The reality star adds that Nicole wanted to show her evidence of Simpson's beatings on the night she died.

"She had been keeping this in physical proof in the form of photographs and, it would, turn out, other evidence, in which she had documented 17 years of abuse."

O.J., of course, was found not guilty of Nicole's murder in 1995, but was ordered to pay $34 million to her and Ron Goldman's families in a subsequent civil suit. He was then sentenced to 15 years in jail in late 2008 for armed robbery. Truly amazing.

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/10/kris-jenner-on-nicole-brown-simpson-death-shocking-tragic/

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Lesson of the Day: Circadian Clocks are HARD to shift!

I originally published this on February 28, 2007.

This is a story about two mindsets ? one scientific, one not ? both concerned with the same idea but doing something very different with it. Interestingly, both arrived in my e-mail inbox on the same day, but this post had to wait until I got out of bed and started feeling a little bit better.

First, just a little bit of background:

Circadian oscillations are incredibly robust, i.e., resistant to perturbations and random noise from the environment. Ricardo Azevedo has described one model that accounts for such robustness in his two-part post here and here and others have used other methods.

Circadian clock can be re-set only by a very limited set of environmental cues. For each cue, there is a dedicated, evolved pathway by which such cue resets the clock. Light is one such cue ? the one we understand the best, down to each molecule. Temperature is another one (in warmblooded animals, the clock is exposed to a constant temperature of the body, but taken out into a dish, it does entrain to temperature cycles). In some animals, olfactory cues (smell) can affect the clock. Scheduled feeding and bouts of exercise can also reset the clock. In each case we have a decent idea which part of the brain is responsible for feeding this information to the clock and by which neurotransmitters or hormones.

For a long time it was thought that humans are especially sensitive to social cues, but perhaps this conclusion is erroneous as, at the time, it was thought that very dim light cannot shift human clocks so many exchanges between subjects and staff occurred in dim light. We now know that dim light resets the human clock.

Clock regulates timing of thousands of body functions, sleep being only one of them. Most of the functions timed by the clock cannot themselves feed back on the clock. Of the hormones whose release is timed by the clock, melatonin is the only hormone that can phase-shift and entrain the rhythms, while in some organisms, sex steroids can also have a slower, long-term effect on the period and phase.

So, can the act of sleeping reset the clock?

This is not a bad question as there is nothing theoretically against such a notion. The question was asked by sleep and clock researchers in the past and, them being scientists, they tested it in several different ways. Every time the answer came out the same: No, timing of sleep cannot affect the working of the clock. Falling asleep and waking up at unusual times does not reset the clock. Naps do not reset the clock.

This is now a well-known fact in chronobiology which was creatively used in the experimental design of the study reported here and here. The question they asked was if the circadian time affects athletic ability in competitive swimmers.

But, how can they eliminate all the other potentially confounding factors, e.g., time since waking-up, time since last meal, etc.? It is impossible to control for all those other factors. So, they did the opposite, they made sure that every confounding factor is present at every time of day and every swimming test. They did it by utilizing the knowledge that naps do not reset the clock. All the swimmers were made to sleep for an hour and be awake for two hours and over and over agaian, for a very long period of time (about 55 hours). They swam 200m during every bout of wakefulness.

What they found was that the time of day made a big difference ? as much as 5 seconds (remember that 5 hundredths of the second can make a difference between Olympic Gold and no medal at all!). Afternoon times were better than morning times. Period between 2am and 8am was awful! The 11pm time was the best.

What is also important is that the findings from this study are very similar to findings of previous studies which in no way attempted to control for confounding factors. This suggests that, coaches? beliefs notwithstanding, all those other factors have little or no effect on swimming performance compared to the effects of the circadian time.

Anyway, that was a good scientific study utilizing the knowledge that repeated naps do not reset the biological clock.

Now, to the second story.

How about a story about a guy who wakes up one morning with a brilliant idea ? if something could reset the clock a little bit, perhaps something like a massage, doing a series of those while on an intercontinental flight could potentially beat jet-lag!

Now, someone with a scientific mindset would get on Google and, in two-to-five minutes of searching discover those few cues that actually do reset clocks. No massage there. Back to the drawing board. This idea has no legs. It?s over. One of those many brilliant ideas to discard before breakfast.

But if you do not have a scientific mindset but a predatory business mindset? What then? Then, of course, your next question is not going to be if your idea is valid, but how to turn your idea into dollars. So, you build a website, give it a catchy name of Jet Lag Passport and sell a PDF explaining to the unitiated how to get rid of jet-lag for $19.95. Which doesn?t work.

But, sounding all scientific only brings in some potential customers. How can one bring in some others, for more money? Well, that?s easy. Pepper your idea with additional woo. How about some New-Agey mind-body woo plus some Oriental ?medicine?? Sure, why not? People seem to fall for that kind of stuff. You just need to press some acupressure points every two hours and that will help reset your clock (I am wondering how molecular transcription factors in the SCN respond to pressing your nose?!). Oh, and don?t forget to say some magic words as you do this (?Even though I have this jet lag, I deeply and completely accept myself, and I choose to feel good now and when I arrive in (your destination). ?) because self-persuasion must really be effective! Oh, drink enough fluids as dehydration prevents this method from working!

Frankly, reading through the PDF (provided to me for free by the author who, for some unexplained reason, thought I?d like it! Sometimes one wonders if the quacks are really aware how bad their stuff is! Or is it the huge ego?). I did not know where to start. Nothing in it makes any sense. This is just NOT the way a human body works. Not even close. Molecules in our cells could not care less what we say and what we want and what parts of the skin we touch. I could not deceive my body that I was feeling fine last week ? I had to take antibiotics instead. Likewise, chanting and acupressure and self-suggestion will not in any way change the rate of transcription of clock genes in your SCN or the rate of degradation of the clock proteins. And that is just SCN. Jet-lag is not a symptom of resetting of the SCN clock but the result of internal desynchronization between myriads of clocks in all our organs. Drinking water will not help, sorry.

Remember the beginning of this post? How difficult it is to shift the clock? How robust it is? How useful this fact was for the swimming study? Only people?s gullibility can match its robustness!

But then I looked around the website and realized that this is no naive amateur writing this. This is a subset of the notorious Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) which is a variant of the Thought Field Therapy (TFT). See the first link for a who?s-who in medical woo on the sidebar (starting with Deepak Chopra of course) and check the second link for a beautiful fisking of another EFT-related quackery by Orac. There is an ocean of woo there ? far too much for just one person ? little me ? to debunk on one?s own. So, let?s just remain on the topic of jet-lag.

If anyone offers to sell you a cure for jet-lag that does not combine, in some way, use of bright lights, melatonin pills and strict scheduling of meals and exercise upon reaching the destination, do not buy it ? it will not and cannot work. There are just no physiological explanations even how it might work ? it is so New-Agey and gooey and mystical it is not even approaching a form of a testable hypothesis and thus does not warrant any time wasted by scientific researchers on it. Go read something else?.The correct information about alleviating jet-lag is available online for FREE!

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=2004f3faa0cc96b3272b66840b2457c9

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Big Business SEO | Outspoken Media

How many of you out there have taken on a large business as an SEO client and just been appalled at the state of their Web properties? Some companies either think they don?t need to do SEO, or they try to and, well, make a mess of things. Whether you?re with a company that could use a little help, or you?ve recently taken on a big business as a client and need to right a lot of wrongs, Tom Critchlow has you covered. He?s about to share some of his own experiences, and offer some tips on how to get back on track. Or, you know, get on track in the first place, if that?s where you are.

Tom asks for a show of hands of who?s involved in big business SEO. Lots of hands. He says after this session, some of you may reconsider. Hmm?

He says he?s going to provide a lot of tips that small businesses can benefit from as well, maybe not now, but later.

Tom says one of the biggest problems is that big businesses don?t focus on the small things, like changing title tags. When doing SEO for big business, think big. Think of something that?s really going to move the needle. Big picture thinking is creating content vs. creating 1,000 pieces of content. They?ll respond well to big ideas. When trying to pitch in these environments, pitch big ideas that will crush the competition.

You might say, ?But I?m never going to get the budget for that big project!? Justify the budget with pilot projects. Run a trial on a microsite, a subdomain, just one part of the site. It requires less budget, but has measurable results. Then you can go back 6-12 months later and say hey, this worked. Now I want more money to do it again, but bigger. That?s how you get the big budget.

The Lean Enterprise
There?s a circle of activity that every business goes through. You have to get through the loop as fast as possible, but there?s a bigger vision and an end goal. The loop is:

  • ideas
  • build
  • product
  • measure
  • data
  • learn
  • ideas

Businesses have to get through this as quickly as possible. This also applies to a pilot project for a big business.

Let?s talk about Zappos. They have 50,000 product videos. Whether or not this was done for SEO, building out a process and team to deploy them is a phenomenal asset for their SEO. Far too often, this kind of thing gets lost in the small-minded things, like putting a few hundred words of content on a page.

The interesting thing is, these videos aren?t that great. But they still have a lot of power. What Zappos is really doing is investing in page types. Invest in improving your page types, or building new page types. Good page types are not sufficient but they are required. Start making your pages earn their rankings.

Amazon is a perfect example. Their pages rank everywhere. Partly because of the number of links, but also because their product pages are huge. They have everything you might want to know on that page. Look at the Amazon Kindle page. They lay out everything. Every objection you might have is addressed, every question you might have is answered. For Tom, that?s an easy SEO project. Invest in making pages better. You?re going to have a hard time ranking if you don?t have good page types.

Invest in Data

Tom says he loves Rand Fishkin and SEOmoz, but for big sites, the ranking data from SEOmoz won?t cut it. Instead, you should invest in one of the enterprise solutions: Brightedge, Conductor, Covario, Searchmetrics. When your client comes to you and asks what happened to their rankings, it?s not enough to say, ?Oh, there was a Panda update.? You need to show them the data. These tools will give you the data when you need it.

Invest in tools that allow for competitive intelligence. Monitoring, tracking, and investigating competitors is necessary.

Organization

The information architecture of a Web site is bad enough. The org chart of a company can be even more confusing. But if you?re working on a big business project, you have to know the company?s structure. You have to know whom to talk to, what their roles are, who can get things done. If you have a PR problem, you need to know who to go to.

The content gap in the org chart: It?s not uncommon for the only shared hierarchy for content producers to be the CEO. The missing link is Chief Content Officer. More big businesses should have a Chief Content Officer. The way most businesses are structured, several people may be producing content. The problem is, the CEO can?t be there all the time to resolve disputes.

You may also have freelancers or other content writers, but that?s not good enough. You need someone who knows what quality content means, how to get it, how to maintain it. Those are things the other senior members of the org chart don?t care about.

Understand the roles of your colleagues and teach them how to help you. Everyone can help SEO but in very different ways. Sometimes one person shops around the SEO strategy to the other departments, but people don?t buy into it. How can we educate everyone in the company about SEO? Not just in a general way, but in a specific way?

Enterprise is about getting shit done, but that?s sometimes difficult. There was a blog post [he's not sure where] and one of the points was, ?And then you just?? But in-house, there is no ?and then you just.? It?s not trivial. We try hard not to rely on deliverables as the things people pay for. They pay for results. Unless your recommendations translate into action, there?s no value.

Zappos quote: ?I think we?ve done a good job over the last couple of years getting SEO worked into the flow of the company.? This is important. It?s not just a one-off project. It?s not just changing title tags. He?s making the whole company educated about SEO. Effecting change is changing processes. Whether it?s changing them or creating new ones. You can do anything once. How do you make sure it?s repeatable, scalable, and gets done? Processes are the most important thing you can change. You have to examine them, find the holes, find the problems before you can fix them. Changing processes will have massive results.

Anything you do on a one-off basis is worthless. You change something, and then it gets overwritten a week later by someone else. You have to make sure that what you?re doing is going to last. Figure out a process for how content gets onto the site, and how SEO is embedded into is. Get SEO into the process, not just the end result.

You created an infographic, and you get 100 links. Woo! How can you create one every week? How can you create something that gets links for 12 months? There are things you can do that are far more scalable than one-off projects.

Project Management

This is the secret to getting things done. How do you actually change the processes? Project management is the shared language, and everyone needs to speak that language to get anything done. In SEO, we talk all the time about competitive analysis. Next time, call it gap analysis. Everyone knows what that is.

Consider performing a SWOT Analysis: strengths, weaknesses, oppportunities, threats. [Tom provided a link at this point that explains the SWOT analysis in more detail, but I missed it. I did see it was on sciencedirect.com, so check that out.]

Consolidation

Tom recommends, for any large site, prune aggressively. Is removing crappy links really going to help things? He says absolutely. If you have a lot of microsites or subdomains, removing some of them is going to help you. One of the first things he says at the beginning of a project is, how can we reduce things? What can we get rid of? It?s very valuable to trim out the fat.

Google Webmaster Tools is one of the best ways to do this. It will tell you what you can get rid of.

Here?s an example of a failure to consolidate content. Gucci has more than five million Facebook fans. But the content they promote on Facebook doesn?t exist on the main Gucci site. Consolidate your content onto the places it matters. They?re not leveraging this activity. It?s not rocket science. Think about how thin you?re spread. Try to consolidate to the places it?s going to make the most sense.

LinkedIn

Tom explains how to hack biz development. One way is by leveraging partnerships. It can get you links you couldn?t get otherwise. He wrote a blog post about it on SEOmoz a while back. It?s valuable, but people flamed his blog post for it. So here?s the actionable tip: If you want to get business development done as an SEO or agency, find a C-level, sit down for 20-30 minutes, go to their LinkedIn profile, see who they?re connected to, send a few messages. This is going to produce syndication, partnerships, acquisitions, opportunities to build widgets, etc. It?s an actionable way to hack business development. Forget guest posts. Get a regular gig on Huffington Post. That?s the kind of BD he?s talking about.

Get in bed with Google?but be careful. Say Google was testing a new video format. They contact you to test it, you do it, it messes up your site, your rankings tank, and then Google stops taking your calls. Tom says that?s TOTALLY hypothetical. You must remember, Google is looking out for their own best interests?not yours.

Also remember, your market is not static. Build industry reports that show movement as well as competitive intelligence. For big business, the market is not stationary.

And that?s it for now! We?re breaking for lunch, and then reconvening for a session from Bob Rains called ?Why I?m a White Hat Now.? Ooh, sounds like one you wouldn?t want to miss!

About the Author

Michelle Lowery

Michelle Lowery is the Operations Manager of Outspoken Media. She's usually pretty quiet on Twitter because she's usually writing.

Get social with Michelle at Twitter

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Source: http://outspokenmedia.com/internet-marketing-conferences/big-business-seo/

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88% Tucker & Dale vs Evil

Tucker: There we were minding our own business, just doing chores around the house, when kids started killing themselves all over my property.I guess the perfect way to start this off is saying that I had no intention of seeing Tucker & Dale vs Evil prior to yesterday. So I went on Zune, and saw it was extremely cheap, so I said "why not" and went ahead. Even though I had no prior interest in this, I found myself enjoying it for the most part throughout. The laughs are far from scarce and it's really fun seeing Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk get into their misunderstood, crazy, and frequently bloody situations together. However, the younger aged cast doesn't bode well performance-wise, unless I somehow missed the intentional bad acting. I did in fact enjoy this and found it somewhat similar to Shaun of the Dead in terms of the substantial use of gruesome humor. So I really enjoyed this for the most part, and found it to be well-directed, and well acted by the two leads, as well as a surprising twist, making this an unexpected fun time.Read the whole review at www.creedsdelight.com

July 5, 2011

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tucker_and_dale_vs_evil/

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