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Monday, October 31, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Search suspended after Kansas grain elevator blast
Smoking rubble sits atop the Bartlett Grain Company in Atchison, Kan. Sunday morning Oct. 30, 2011, after an explosion at the grain elevator the night before. Crews temporarily suspended their search for three people missing since the explosion that killed three workers and left two critically injured with severe burns. (AP Photo/St. Joseph News-Press, Todd Weddle)
Smoking rubble sits atop the Bartlett Grain Company in Atchison, Kan. Sunday morning Oct. 30, 2011, after an explosion at the grain elevator the night before. Crews temporarily suspended their search for three people missing since the explosion that killed three workers and left two critically injured with severe burns. (AP Photo/St. Joseph News-Press, Todd Weddle)
Ramona Keil, embraces one of her grandchildren Sunday morning Oct. 30, 2011 in Atchison, Kan. as they wait to hear news of her son Travis Keil, who is missing following a explosion at the Bartlett Grain Company. Three people are confirmed dead and three others missing in the aftermath of a grain elevator explosion in Atchison, Kan., Saturday night. Emergency personnel are now in a recovery operation for the three missing individuals. (AP Photo/St. Joseph News-Press, Todd Weddle)
Ramona Keil, embraces one of her grandchildren Sunday morning Oct. 30, 2011 in Atchison, Kan. as they wait to hear news of her son Travis Keil, who is missing following a explosion at the Bartlett Grain Company. Three people are confirmed dead and three others missing in the aftermath of a grain elevator explosion in Atchison, Kan., Saturday night. Emergency personnel are now in a recovery operation for the three missing individuals. (AP Photo/St. Joseph News-Press, Todd Weddle)
Trey Cocking, city manager of Atchison Kan., addresses the media Sunday morning, Oct. 30, 2011 regarding a explosion at the Bartlett Grain Company the night before. Three people are confirmed dead and three others missing in the aftermath of a grain elevator explosion in Atchison, Kan., Saturday night. Emergency personnel are now in a recovery operation for the three missing individuals. (AP Photo/St. Joseph News-Press, Todd Weddle)
Lights from emergency vehicles flash near the bottom of a grain elevator in Atchison, Kan., Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. An explosion at the Bartlett Grain Co. elevator injured at least two people. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)
ATCHISON, Kan. (AP) ? Crews suspended their search Sunday for three people missing after a thunderous explosion at a Kansas grain elevator killed three workers and hospitalized two others with severe burns.
The blast, which shook the ground so hard that it was felt into neighboring Missouri, is a harrowing reminder of the dangers workers face inside elevators brimming with highly combustible grain dust at the end of the harvest season.
The explosion Saturday night at the elevator in Atchison, about 50 miles northwest of Kansas City, sent an orange fireball into the night sky, shot off a chunk of the grain distribution building directly above the elevator and blew a large hole in the side of the one of its concrete silos.
Officials with Bartlett Grain Co., which owns and operates the elevator, decided to temporarily halt the search for the three missing people ? one worker and two grain inspectors? because it was unsafe to be inside the facility, said Atchison City Manager Trey Cocking. Smoke could still be seen billowing from the top, and officials were fearful the building could fall on top of rescue crews.
Heavy equipment, federal safety investigators and engineers were expected to arrive later Sunday to assist the crews.
"It's a fairly dangerous situation. We don't feel comfortable putting fire crews in," Cocking said.
He said crews had not given up hope that they would find the remaining three alive, although the search was now considered a recovery effort. The victims' names had not been released by Bartlett Grain as of Sunday evening.
One of the missing was Travis Keil, a war veteran who had served as a site inspector for 16 years. His parents, Gary and Ramona Keil, drove from Salina to Atchison, to wait with his three children ? ages 8, 12 and 15 ? as crews searched.
"We have all our prayers working for him," Gary Keil said. "It's a parent's worst nightmare to go through this."
Bartlett Grain President Bill Fellows said in a statement that workers were loading a train with corn when the explosion occurred, but the cause was not immediately known.
Over the past four decades, there have more than 600 explosions at grain elevators, killing more than 250 people and injuring more than 1,000, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Just last year, there were grain explosions or fires in several states including In Nebraska, Illinois, Ohio, South Dakota and Louisiana. None were fatal, but several sent workers scrambling and one in Toledo, Ohio in September 2010 forced people to evacuate from a nearby mobile home park.
When grain is handled at elevators, it creates dust that floats around inside the storage facility. The finer the grain dust particles, the greater its volatility. Typically, something ? perhaps sparks from equipment or a cigarette ? ignites the dust. That sends a pressure wave that detonates the rest of the floating dust in the facility.
Fireballs are a common feature of grain dust explosions, where intense heat from the blast can reach 1,500 to 2,000 degrees.
Dust from corn is among the most dangerous. Most dust explosions happen in late summer and early fall when old, dried grain is being cleaned out of elevators in preparation for the harvest. Freshly harvested corn is less explosive because its wetter.
The Atchison elevator, which is federally licensed to handle up to 1.18 billion bushels, is among roughly 850-plus elevators in Kansas. The state is now winding up its fall harvest of corn, sorghum and soybeans.
OSHA has expanded its inspections and efforts to control volatile grain dust in Kansas elevators since an explosion in 1998 at DeBruce Grain, Inc.'s facility in Haysville, which killed seven workers and injured 10 others, said Tom Tunnell, executive director of the Kansas Grain and Feed Association, the industry group representing Kansas grain elevators.
He said the industry as a whole has increased awareness of the dangers since a number of elevator explosions along the Gulf in the 1970s.
"If ever an industry is as well trained, it is ours. We understand dust is an explosive agent and our members work hard to control it," Tunnell said Sunday.
The Atchison facility where the blast occurred has not been cited for any violations in the last 10 years, according to OSHA data, though Bartlett Grain Co. was cited after two people died in separate incidents at two of its other facilities. Neither of those fatalities involved explosions at grain elevators.
In 2007, a Bartlett Grain maintenance employee died in a fall from a work platform at the company's facility in St. Joseph, Mo. In 2004, another employee died while operating a lift that fell backward at a company site in Kansas City, Mo.
"The industry has had a good record ? except for a few of this type ? considering the billions and billions of bushels of grain handled," Tunnell said.
The two people injured in the explosion were taken to the burn unit at University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kan., hospital spokesman Dennis McCulloch said. One was listed in critical condition Sunday evening and the other was in serious condition, he said.
Cocking said four other people, including one woman, escaped without injuries. No names were being released pending notification of families.
Paul Moccia, who lives about a half mile from the grain elevator, said the explosion shook his house and lights flickered across his neighborhood for about 30 seconds.
"It was extremely loud. It was kind of like to me a double whomp, ? a bomp bomp. It reverberated, and kind of echoed down through the valley. ... kind of like a shock wave," said Moccia, 57. "Everybody came outside. Neighbors were trying to figure out what was going on. It was quite a thump."
_____
Hegeman reported from Wichita, Kan. Associated Press Writer Maria Sudekum Fisher contributed to this report from Kansas City, Mo.
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Wall Street protesters hold vigils for injured vet (AP)
OAKLAND, Calif. ? Anti-Wall Street demonstrators held vigils for an Iraq War veteran seriously injured during a protest clash with police in California as some Occupy encampments came under growing pressure from authorities to abandon sites in parks and plazas.
A crowd of at least 1,000 people, many holding candles, gathered Thursday night in Oakland in honor of 24-year-old Scott Olsen, who is hospitalized with a fractured skull.
Many in the crowd shooed away Oakland Mayor Jean Quan who retreated back into City Hall after trying to address them during a tense late-night appearance. She apologized to Olsen during a hospital visit earlier Thursday.
"I am deeply saddened about the outcome on Tuesday. It was not what anyone hoped for, ultimately it was my responsibility, and I apologize for what happened," Quan said in a written statement to protesters late Thursday. "I cannot change the past, but I want to work with you to ensure that this remains peaceful moving forward."
In Nashville, police cracked down overnight on an Occupy protest camp near the Capitol under a new policy setting a curfew for the complex. Officers moved in a little after 3 a.m. and arrested about 30, who were later released after a judge wouldn't sign the warrants. About 20 protesters who stayed on a nearby sidewalk were not arrested and were still there later in the morning as state troopers stood guard at the steps to the Capitol.
Protesters also held a vigil for Olsen in Las Vegas, which drew a handful of police officers. Afterward, protesters invited them back for a potluck dinner.
"We renewed our vow of nonviolence," organizer Sebring Frehner said.
The Marine veteran, who won medals in Iraq, has become a rallying cry for the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators across the nation, with Twitter users and protest websites declaring, "We are all Scott Olsen."
Joshua Shepherd, 27, a Navy veteran who was standing nearby when Olsen got struck, called it a cruel irony that Olsen is fighting an injury in the country that he fought to protect.
Despite the financial underpinnings of the protests, Olsen himself wasn't taking part out of economic need.
His friends say he makes a good living as a network engineer and has a nice apartment overlooking San Francisco Bay. Still, he felt so strongly about economic inequality in the United States that he fought for overseas that he slept at a protest camp after work.
"He felt you shouldn't wait until something is affecting you to get out and do something about it," said friend and roommate Keith Shannon, who served with Olsen in Iraq.
It was that feeling that drew him to Oakland on Tuesday night, when the clashes broke out and Olsen's skull was fractured. Fellow veterans said Olsen was struck in the head by a projectile fired by police, although the exact object and who might have been responsible for the injury have not been definitively established. Officials are investigating exactly where the projectile came from.
Even as the vigil was held in Oakland, protest organizers prepared to defy Oakland's prohibition on overnight camping on the now patchy, manure-smelling lawn outside City Hall.
Shake Anderson, an organizer with Occupy Oakland, said half a dozen tents were erected on the plaza by midday Thursday where police armed with tear gas and bean bag rounds disbanded a 15-day-old encampment Tuesday. More than two-dozen tents had been erected as food and supplies arrived late Thursday.
"We believe in what we're doing," Anderson said. "No one is afraid. If anything, we're going to show there's strength in numbers."
Few police were seen in the area during late Thursday, as Quan in her written statement said that she and interim police chief Howard Jordan hope to meet with protesters and urged them again not to camp at the plaza.
Elsewhere across the United States, protesters brushed off pressure from authorities and maintained the camps that have sprung up in opposition to growing economic inequality.
Protesters at San Francisco's Justin Herman Plaza braced for a police raid early Thursday that never came. Still, police have warned the protesters that they could be arrested on a variety of sanitation or illegal camping violations.
Officials told protesters in Providence, R.I., that they were violating multiple city laws by camping overnight at a park.
Anti-Wall Street protesters camped out in downtown Los Angeles said they're planning to continue their demonstration indefinitely, although both they and the mayor's office were eyeing alternate sites.
Meanwhile, Olsen has been improving. Doctors transferred him from the emergency room to an intensive care unit and upgrading his condition to fair on Thursday.
Dr. Alden Harken, chief surgeon at Highland Hospital, said Olsen was still unable to speak but had improved dramatically since he was hospitalized unconscious with a fractured skull and bruised brain that caused seizures.
Harken said Olsen was interacting with his parents, who flew in from Wisconsin, doing math equations and otherwise showing signs of "high-level cognitive functioning." The doctor said he may require surgery, but that's unlikely.
"He's got a relatively small area of injury and he's got his youth going for him. So both of those are very favorable," Harken said.
Olsen smiled during Quan's visit and expressed surprise at all the attention his injury has generated, hospital spokesman Vintage Foster said.
His uncle in Wisconsin told The Associated Press that Olsen's mother was trying to understand what had happened.
"This is obviously a heartbreaker to her," George Nygaard said. "I don't think she understands why he was doing this."
The group Iraq Veterans Against the War blamed police for Olsen's injury. Jordan said the next day that Oakland police will investigate whether officers used excessive force.
Police have said they responded with tear gas and bean bag rounds only when protesters began throwing bottles and other items at them.
On Tuesday, Olsen had planned to be at the San Francisco protest, but he changed course after his veterans' group decided to support protesters in Oakland after police cleared a two-week long encampment outside City Hall.
"I think it was a last-minute thing," Shannon said.
A video posted on YouTube showed Olsen being carried by other protesters through the tear gas, his face bloodied. People shout at him: "What's your name? What's your name?" Olsen just stares back.
People at OPSWAT, the San Francisco security software company where Olsen works, were devastated after learning of his injuries. They described him as a humble, quiet man.
Olsen had been helping to develop security applications for U.S. defense agencies, building on expertise gained while on active duty in Iraq, said Jeff Garon, the company's director of marketing.
Olsen was awarded seven medals while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, which he left as a lance corporal in November 2009 after serving for four years. One of them was the Navy-Marine Corps Achievement Medal.
Olsen moved to the Bay Area in July, and quickly found friends in the veterans against the war group.
His tours of duty in Iraq made him more serious, Shannon said.
"He wasn't active in politics before he went in the military, but he became active once he was out ... the experience in the military definitely shaped him," Shannon said.
___
Dearen reported from San Francisco. Associated Press writers Dinesh Ramde in Milwaukee, Garance Burke in San Francisco, Julie Watson in San Diego, Lucas L. Johnson II in Nasvhille, Tenn., and Michelle Rindels in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
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Barack Obama Working To Boost Businesses Without The Help Of Congress
WASHINGTON -- Pushing a campaign to act without Congress, President Barack Obama moved unilaterally Friday to boost private business.
He signed executive orders aimed at spurring economic growth, capping a week in which Obama sought to employ the power of his office as he struggles to make headway on his jobs bill on Capitol Hill.
Obama's orders direct government agencies to shorten the time it takes for federal research to turn into commercial products in the marketplace. The goal is to help startup companies and small businesses create jobs and expand their operations more quickly.
On the other front, Obama called for creation of a centralized online site, to be known as BusinessUSA, for companies to easily find information on federal services. The site, a recommendation of the president's jobs council, is to be up and running within 90 days and will be designed with input from U.S. businesses.
Obama announced both steps in presidential memos released Friday morning.
"Today, I am directing my administration to take two important steps to help American businesses create new products, compete in a global economy, and create jobs here at home," Obama said. The White House had no estimate for how many jobs would be created.
On a larger scale, the president himself announced two other executive actions this week, one offering help for homeowners seeking to refinance at lower mortgage rates and the other allowing college students to simplify and lower their student loan payments. The White House also issued a challenge to community health centers in a bid to help get veterans jobs.
White House aides expect more such actions in coming days. Obama, up for re-election, is waging a public campaign to show voters he is acting on jobs more than Republicans are.
The Republicans who control the House counter that their economic bills have not been considered in the Senate. And they question Obama's latest tactic.
"This idea that you're just going to go around the Congress is just, it's almost laughable," House Speaker John Boehner told radio talk show host Laura Ingraham on Thursday.
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Judge allows criminal case against John Edwards to proceed (Reuters)
GREENSBORO, North Carolina (Reuters) ? A federal judge on Thursday allowed the criminal case to proceed against former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, who is accused of accepting illegal campaign contributions to hide an affair.
U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles ruled a day after hearing hours of argument in Greensboro, North Carolina, on five defense motions challenging the six-count indictment. Some of the defense arguments had merit, the judge said, but she ruled the issues should be decided by a jury.
Edwards, who has pleaded not guilty, is set to go to trial in January on charges of conspiracy, accepting illegal campaign contributions and making false statements.
At issue is the $900,000 prosecutors said was provided by two of Edwards' wealthy supporters to help him hide an affair and a child conceived with his former campaign videographer during his failed bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
Edwards, a former U.S. Senator from North Carolina and John Kerry's vice presidential running mate, faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count if convicted.
Edwards' lawyers said the gifts were intended to hide the affair from Edwards' wife and were not campaign contributions subject to campaign finance laws. In seeking to get the charges dismissed, defense lawyers also argued that the indictment was politically motivated and that, even if Edwards did all that was alleged, it did not amount to a crime.
Prosecutors said that Edwards indirectly benefited from the gifts in violation of federal contribution limits and reporting laws.
(Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Greg McCune)
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Saturday, October 29, 2011
7 dead after semi-truck slams into minivan in Ind. (AP)
BRISTOL, Ind. ? A tractor-trailer slammed into the back of a packed minivan in northern Indiana late Thursday, killing at least seven people and sending four other to hospitals, authorities said.
The minivan was carrying 10 people when it was hit along the Indiana Toll Road near Bristol, just south of the Michigan border, according to Indiana State Police. Witness accounts suggest that the minivan may have hit a deer, then slowed or stopped in the eastbound lanes before it was hit from behind by the tractor-trailer, police said.
Seven of the minivan's occupants died at the scene and the other three were taken to hospitals, including two who were airlifted. The driver of the tractor-trailer also was hospitalized.
None of the victims' names has been released. The conditions of those who survived also haven't been released.
State Police spokesman Sgt. Trent Smith said early Friday that the minivan had an Illinois license plate, and the truck had a Wisconsin tag. Both vehicles ended up in the center median, blocking traffic in both directions.
"That's not to say that the driver of the truck was from Wisconsin or the driver of minivan was from Illinois, but that's where the vehicles were registered," Smith said.
No other vehicles were involved in the accident, which was reported shortly before 8 p.m. Thursday. The crash shut down the toll road, though it was reopened just before midnight.
Other details weren't immediately available, Smith said.
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Vankoryth D?tente: A Hunt for a Beast
A week has come and passed, and still the presence of the werebeast hangs over the lands of Castle Vankoryth. With the victim count on the rise, has the beast's reckoning come? Or will the Vankoryth D?tente succumb to the ferocity of the beast that plagues their lands.
Post Order
Vankoryth D?tente: Lostamongtrees, SkullJester, Masslz, Nikora
Other: Tiko, Vyral
Note: 48 hour time limit on posting.
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450 Malaysia snakes, tortoises escape cooking pot (AP)
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia ? Malaysian authorities have rescued some 450 endangered cobras and tortoises headed for cooking pots in Thailand.
Celescoriano Razond, Malaysia's wildlife deputy enforcement director, says officials confiscated 302 Asiatic cobra, 145 tortoises and a macaque monkey Thursday from a house in northern Kedah state, near the Thai border.
He says two men have been arrested and could be charged for being in possession of protected wildlife, which carries a penalty of up to five years in jail and a fine.
He said Friday that an initial probe showed the animals were being smuggled out of the country to be peddled to restaurants in Thailand specializing in exotic meat.
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Friday, October 28, 2011
Mideast envoys make no breakthroughs (AP)
JERUSALEM ? International mediators on Wednesday failed to make any breakthroughs in their quest to bring Israeli and Palestinian officials back to the negotiating table, but in a small sign of progress, they announced that both sides would present "comprehensive proposals" for resolving key aspects of their conflict within three months.
The "Quartet" of Mideast peace makers said Israel and the Palestinians agreed to submit proposals on "territory and security" in the coming months, as part of a larger goal by the international community to forge a full peace agreement by the end of next year. Territorial claims and security concerns are core issues in any final deal.
Peace talks have been stalled for the past three years over Palestinian demands that Israel freeze settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem ? captured areas claimed by the Palestinians. The Palestinians say there is no point in negotiating as long as Israeli settlements gobble up the land on which the Palestinians hope to make a future independent state.
Representatives from the Quartet ? the U.S., EU, United Nations and Russia ? participated in Wednesday's talks, along with the Quartet's Mideast envoy, Tony Blair. The Palestinians turned down a request for face-to-face talks with the Israelis, so negotiations were held separately with each side.
Israeli and Palestinian officials voiced little optimism afterward.
In addition to their calls for a settlement freeze, the Palestinians want their future border with Israel to be based on lines that Israel held before capturing east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war.
"We explained to the Quartet that we are prepared to sit at the negotiating table as soon as the Israeli government freezes all settlement construction and accepts clear terms of reference, specifically the 1967 borders," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said. "Anything short of that will simply put us back on the failed track that we have been on for the last 20 years."
Israel rejects both conditions. It still occupies east Jerusalem and the West Bank. It withdrew soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005, but still controls land crossings, as well as Gaza's coastline and airspace as part of a policy to contain the territory's Hamas rulers. The Islamic militant Hamas, overran Gaza in 2007 after routing forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, leaving the Palestinians split between rival governments.
Israel says it is prepared to sit down with Abbas at any time, but only without conditions. Palestinians are skeptical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's commitment to peacemaking because of hard-line positions he has taken, including his opposition to partitioning Jerusalem.
After Wednesday's meetings, Netanyahu's office issued a brief statement saying that discussions focused on ideas for renewing peace talks, and that more meetings would be held in the near future.
The Quartet's statement gave few details about how it would move forward, saying it would meet regularly with the parties over the coming three months "to review progress." Even if the Israelis and Palestinians present their proposals, the gaps will be immense and difficult to bridge.
The international community has been scrambling to salvage peace talks since the Palestinians asked the United Nations last month to recognize an independent state of Palestine, with or without a peace agreement. The request defied a U.S.-led effort to block the move, which is under review at the U.N. Security Council. The U.S., like Israel, says peace must be reached through negotiations, not a U.N. declaration.
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Today on New Scientist: 26 October 2011
Bat killer identified, but deaths continue
Fungus confirmed as the cause of "white nose syndrome" deaths in bats, but still no cure in sight
Zoologger: Horror hagfish is Halloween hardcase
Despite not having any jaws, hagfish hunt other fish, deter predators with slime, and eat rotting corpses from the inside out
Dinosaur teeth hold first clues to migration
Some 150 million years ago, vast herds of sauropods made seasonal migrations out of the dry floodplains of the western US and up into the greener highlands
The Israeli children who are suing for being born
Why are more and more people in Israel with genetic disorders filing lawsuits for "wrongful life"?
Inside Facebook's massive cyber-security system
The Facebook Immune System polices 800 million users, spots spammers in seconds, and can act without human intervention. But there's a way past its defences
Ka-ching! The future of cash in an app
Kaching lets users transfer cash by simply clicking on the phone number, email or Facebook ID of the intended recipient
Engineering electronic music, from oddity to ubiquity
A lampshade, an egg slicer and a hacked Speak & Spell are among the unexpected instruments of early electronic music.
Robot Venus flytraps could eat bugs for fuel
Two prototype insect-eating robots have been developed that employ smart materials to rapidly ensnare their prey
Code red: Repairing blood in the emergency room
We'll patch you up later - let's fix your blood first, says a controversial new approach to life-or-death medical emergencies
Childhood poverty leaves its mark on adult genetics
Genomes of adults raised in poor or rich households have distinctive patterns of epigenetic change - perhaps a response to early adversity
Things you never knew that nobody knows
Take a giggle-inducing whirlwind tour through 501 of The Things that Nobody Knows, led by former chess champion William Hartston
Climate unknown: How things will change in each region
Which regions are going to turn into tropical paradises? Which into unbearably humid hellholes? It would be useful to know. Unfortunately, we don't
What is it like to work at the Large Hadron Collider?
Particle physicist Amita Raval reveals what it is like to work on the world's most exciting experiment
Wolf packs don't need to cooperate to make a kill
The seemingly complex behaviours of wolf packs can be reproduced by simple rules, suggesting that pack hunting is easy to evolve
Internet responsible for 2 per cent of global energy usage
The internet consumes between 170 and 307 GW: but is that is a big number, or a small one?
Birth of biotech: Revisiting Genentech's glory days
A book about biotech pioneer Genentech from the company's point of view skimps on science in favour of a glossy tale of daring and chutzpah
Climate known: The planet is going to get a lot hotter
Extra carbon dioxide means a warmer world - and then positive feedback effects from things like water vapour and ice loss will make it warmer still
Climate unknown: Just how much hotter things will get
On current trends the temperature rise could exceed 4 ?C as early as the 2060s. But even that could be an underestimate
Sanatoriums could battle drug-resistant TB boom
Tuberculosis resistant to antibiotics is surging in Europe - it may be time to bring back tried-and-tested sanatoriums
Faster-than-light neutrino result to get extra checks
Physicists are running extra tests to check the claim - it could assuage the concerns of team members who withheld their names from the preprint
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
A look at economic developments around the globe (AP)
A look at economic developments and activity in major stock markets around the world Tuesday:
___
MILAN ? The Italian government and a broad European plan to save the euro were at risk, with Premier Silvio Berlusconi locked in a high-stakes battle with coalition partners to muster support for emergency growth measures demanded by the EU.
___
BRUSSELS ? A grand plan to resolve Europe's escalating debt crisis was once again in doubt after officials said that key parts of the package may not be ready in time for a leaders' summit on Wednesday.
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LONDON ? Stock markets turned sharply lower on worries that European leaders would be unable to deliver a comprehensive solution to the debt crisis in time for a high stakes summit on Wednesday.
Britain's FTSE 100 was 0.5 percent lower, while Germany's DAX fell less than 0.1 percent. France's CAC-40 slipped 1.2 percent.
___
TOKYO ? In Asia, shares ended mostly higher after a skittish day of trading. Japan's Nikkei 225 index closed 0.9 percent lower.
Elsewhere, South Korea's Kospi lost 0.5 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 1.1 percent. Benchmarks in mainland China, India, Taiwan, Singapore, and New Zealand also advanced.
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ATHENS, Greece ? Commuters in Athens are struggling as public transport workers hold another 24-hour strike, leaving the Greek capital without metro trains, trams or buses as unions lash out against new austerity measures.
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BANGKOK ? Thailand's devastating flood crisis deepened after floodwaters began pouring over sandbagged barriers into Bangkok's second airport, shutting it down after commercial airlines suspended flights and authorities closed its runways.
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TORONTO ? Canada's central bank left its key interest rate unchanged and reduced its growth forecast for 2011 and 2012.
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NEW DELHI ? India's central bank raised its key interest rate by 25 basis points, the 13th such hike in 18 months as the government struggles to contain persistently high inflation.
WARSAW, Poland ? Official figures show that Poland's jobless rate remained at 11.8 percent in September, the same as in the previous month.
___
MADRID ? Spain has raised nearly $4.9 billion in short-term debt, but at sharply higher interest rates due to jitters over the EU's sputtering efforts to contain the eurozone financial crisis.
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Do bacteria age? Biologists discover the answer follows simple economics
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Public release date: 27-Oct-2011[ | E-mail |
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University of California - San Diego
When a bacterial cell divides into two daughter cells and those two cells divide into four more daughters, then 8, then 16 and so on, the result, biologists have long assumed, is an eternally youthful population of bacteria. Bacteria, in other words, don't age -- at least not in the same way all other organisms do.
But a study conducted by evolutionary biologists at the University of California, San Diego questions that longstanding paradigm. In a paper published in the Nov. 8 issue of the journal Current Biology, they conclude that not only do bacteria age, but that their ability to age allows bacteria to improve the evolutionary fitness of their population by diversifying their reproductive investment between older and more youthful daughters. An advance copy of the study appears this week in the journal's early online edition.
"Aging in organisms is often caused by the accumulation of non-genetic damage, such as proteins that become oxidized over time," said Lin Chao, a professor of biology at UC San Diego who headed the study. "So for a single celled organism that has acquired damage that cannot be repaired, which of the two alternatives is betterto split the cellular damage in equal amounts between the two daughters or to give one daughter all of the damage and the other none?"
The UC San Diego biologists' answerthat bacteria appear to give more of the cellular damage to one daughter, the one that has "aged," and less to the other, which the biologists term "rejuvenation"resulted from a computer analysis Chao and colleagues Camilla Rang and Annie Peng conducted on two experimental studies. Those studies, published in 2005 and 2010, attempted unsuccessfully to resolve the question of whether bacteria aged. While the 2005 study showed evidence of aging in bacteria, the 2010 study, which used a more sophisticated experimental apparatus and acquired more data than the previous one, suggested that they did not age.
"We analyzed the data from both papers with our computer models and discovered that they were really demonstrating the same thing," said Chao. "In a bacterial population, aging and rejuvenation goes on simultaneously, so depending on how you measure it, you can be misled to believe that there is no aging."
In a separate study, the UC San Diego biologists filmed populations of E. coli bacteria dividing over hundreds of generations and confirmed that the sausage-shaped bacteria divided each time into daughter cells that grew elongated at different ratessuggesting that one daughter cell was getting all or most of the cellular damage from its mother while the other was getting little or none. Click this link to watch the time-lapse film of one bacterium dividing over 10 generations into 1,000 bacteria in a period of five hours and see if you can see any differences.
"We ran computer models and found that giving one daughter more the damage and the other less always wins from an evolutionary perspective," said Chao. "It's analogous to diversifying your portfolio. If you could invest $1 million at 8 percent, would that provide you with more money than splitting the money and investing $500,000 at 6 percent and $500,000 at 10 percent?"
"After one year it makes no difference," he added. "But after two years, splitting the money into the two accounts earns you more and more money because of the compounding effect of the 10 percent. It turns out that bacteria do the same thing. They give one daughter a fresh start, which is the higher interest-bearing account and the other daughter gets more of the damage."
Although E. coli bacteria appear to divide precisely down the middle into two daughter cells, the discovery that the two daughters eventually grow to different lengths suggests that bacteria do not divide as symmetrically as most biologists have come to believe, but that their division is really "asymmetrical" within the cell.
"There must be an active transport system within the bacterial cell that puts the non-genetic damage into one of the daughter cells," said Chao. "We think evolution drove this asymmetry. If bacteria were symmetrical, there would be no aging. But because you have this asymmetry, one daughter by having more damage has aged, while the other daughter gets a rejuvenated start with less damage."
###
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Public release date: 27-Oct-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Kim McDonald
kmcdonald@ucsd.edu
858-534-7572
University of California - San Diego
When a bacterial cell divides into two daughter cells and those two cells divide into four more daughters, then 8, then 16 and so on, the result, biologists have long assumed, is an eternally youthful population of bacteria. Bacteria, in other words, don't age -- at least not in the same way all other organisms do.
But a study conducted by evolutionary biologists at the University of California, San Diego questions that longstanding paradigm. In a paper published in the Nov. 8 issue of the journal Current Biology, they conclude that not only do bacteria age, but that their ability to age allows bacteria to improve the evolutionary fitness of their population by diversifying their reproductive investment between older and more youthful daughters. An advance copy of the study appears this week in the journal's early online edition.
"Aging in organisms is often caused by the accumulation of non-genetic damage, such as proteins that become oxidized over time," said Lin Chao, a professor of biology at UC San Diego who headed the study. "So for a single celled organism that has acquired damage that cannot be repaired, which of the two alternatives is betterto split the cellular damage in equal amounts between the two daughters or to give one daughter all of the damage and the other none?"
The UC San Diego biologists' answerthat bacteria appear to give more of the cellular damage to one daughter, the one that has "aged," and less to the other, which the biologists term "rejuvenation"resulted from a computer analysis Chao and colleagues Camilla Rang and Annie Peng conducted on two experimental studies. Those studies, published in 2005 and 2010, attempted unsuccessfully to resolve the question of whether bacteria aged. While the 2005 study showed evidence of aging in bacteria, the 2010 study, which used a more sophisticated experimental apparatus and acquired more data than the previous one, suggested that they did not age.
"We analyzed the data from both papers with our computer models and discovered that they were really demonstrating the same thing," said Chao. "In a bacterial population, aging and rejuvenation goes on simultaneously, so depending on how you measure it, you can be misled to believe that there is no aging."
In a separate study, the UC San Diego biologists filmed populations of E. coli bacteria dividing over hundreds of generations and confirmed that the sausage-shaped bacteria divided each time into daughter cells that grew elongated at different ratessuggesting that one daughter cell was getting all or most of the cellular damage from its mother while the other was getting little or none. Click this link to watch the time-lapse film of one bacterium dividing over 10 generations into 1,000 bacteria in a period of five hours and see if you can see any differences.
"We ran computer models and found that giving one daughter more the damage and the other less always wins from an evolutionary perspective," said Chao. "It's analogous to diversifying your portfolio. If you could invest $1 million at 8 percent, would that provide you with more money than splitting the money and investing $500,000 at 6 percent and $500,000 at 10 percent?"
"After one year it makes no difference," he added. "But after two years, splitting the money into the two accounts earns you more and more money because of the compounding effect of the 10 percent. It turns out that bacteria do the same thing. They give one daughter a fresh start, which is the higher interest-bearing account and the other daughter gets more of the damage."
Although E. coli bacteria appear to divide precisely down the middle into two daughter cells, the discovery that the two daughters eventually grow to different lengths suggests that bacteria do not divide as symmetrically as most biologists have come to believe, but that their division is really "asymmetrical" within the cell.
"There must be an active transport system within the bacterial cell that puts the non-genetic damage into one of the daughter cells," said Chao. "We think evolution drove this asymmetry. If bacteria were symmetrical, there would be no aging. But because you have this asymmetry, one daughter by having more damage has aged, while the other daughter gets a rejuvenated start with less damage."
###
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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/uoc--dba102711.php
Police Busted for Alleged Gun Smuggling
Eight NYPD officers and one New Jersey corrections officer have been arrested on charges that they were running a gun-smuggling ring that trafficked more than $1 million in illegal weapons and stolen goods.
The officers arrested include five active-duty officers assigned to Brooklyn and three retired NYPD officers, although two of the retired officers were active when committing the alleged crimes, prosecutors said. All those arrested were picked up by FBI agents and NYPD Internal Affairs investigators early Tuesday.
According to the criminal complaint, some of those arrested smuggled 20 firearms as recently as Sept. 22. The cache included three M-16 rifles, one shotgun and 16 handguns, most of which had their serial numbers removed.
Read the original story on NBC New York
One officer bragged to an informant in July, as an associate displayed a shotgun for sale, that it was a "sample" and that they could get anything "from A to Z."
The allegations are no doubt troubling for the NYPD, whose commissioner, Ray Kelly, has joined with Mayor Bloomberg in speaking out on illegal guns as a nationwide scourge that threatens public safety, particularly that of police officers.
Bloomberg said in a statement that the charges, if true, are a "disgraceful and deplorable betrayal of the public trust."
Several of those arrested are also accused of illegally transporting other stolen goods. The group is accused of transporting stolen slot machines from Atlantic City, N.J., to Port Chester, N.Y., in March. Two months later, they allegedly stole more than 200 cases of cigarettes from trucks in Virginia and hauled them to New York.
A common tactic, prosecutors said, included breaking into tractor-trailers that were hauling cigarettes.
At one point while transporting stolen slot machines, one of the officers said to an informant, "Listen, when you're doing stuff like this you gotta be intelligent ... you gotta set it up where if I'm a cop on the side of the road, am I gonna stop that Ryder truck there?"
The same officer later said all the policemen participating in the slot machine scheme were "risking a lot for a little," the complaint said.
"They know what's going, and how much trouble they could get in, and what they're risking," he said. "They're risking a lot."
The investigation involved interviews with the informant, undercover work, surveillance, and intercepted phone conversations.
Janice K. Fedarcyk, assistant director in charge of the FBI in New York, said the crimes were "reprehensible."
'The public trusts the police not only to enforce the law, but to obey it," she said. "These crimes, as alleged in the complaint, do nothing but undermine public trust and confidence in law enforcement."
Most of the officers worked out of the 68th Precinct, which serves the Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Fort Hamilton neighborhoods.
One officer who allegedly participated in cigarette smuggling expressed concern about trafficking weapons, saying at one point he was fine "as long as there's no drugs and guns involved."
Before the details were unsealed, a PBA spokesman declined comment, saying he was unaware of the specific charges as well as which officers were being charged.
In all, 12 people are charged with multiple federal conspiracy counts announced Tuesday by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, Kelly and FBI officials.
The alleged NYPD corruption arrests come as other officers could also be charged this week in a separate ticket-fixing investigation headed by the Bronx District Attorney's office.
Interestingly, the criminal complaint in the gun-smuggling case indicates that the investigation began in late 2009, when the informant was introduced to one of the officers as a person who could "fix" his traffic tickets. The informant then developed a relationship with that officer.
Officials have said more than a dozen NYPD officers could face charges in the ticket-fixing case, including some police union delegates.
In the gun-smuggling case, the suspects are expected to appear in federal court in Manhattan on the charges.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45028595/ns/local_news-new_york_ny/
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Gene responsible for relapses in young leukemia patients
Public release date: 26-Oct-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: William Raillant-Clark
w.raillant-clark@umontreal.ca
514-343-7593
University of Montreal
ATF5 polymorphisms influence efficacy of E. coli asparaginase
This press release is available in French.
One of the causes of resistance to cancer treatment in children is now beginning to be elucidated. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients with a particular form of the ATF5 gene are at higher risk of having a relapse when treated with E. coli asparaginase, a key chemotherapy drug for this type of leukemia. This is what a study by Dr. Maja Krajinovic published in the Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology, reveals Dr. Krajinovic is an investigator at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center, which is affiliated with the University of Montreal.
Dr. Krajinovic's team focused on asparaginase, one of the drugs in a chemotherapy "cocktail" administered to young patients during the intensification phase of their treatment.
They observed that E. coli asparaginase therapy was associated with an increase in relapses when administered to patients who had particular polymorphism (special form) of the ATF5 gene. In fact, this gene regulates asparagine synthetase, an enzyme that produces asparagine, which in turn feeds cancer cells.
"In the presence of this polymorphism that, as we demonstrated, modifies the transcription rate of the ATF5 gene, it is possible that the medication, rather than preventing the proliferation of leukemia cells by reducing the rate of asparagine, does just the opposite by creating feedback that triggers cancer cells to produce asparagine themselves," explains Dr. Krajinovic.
The discovery of a form of gene associated with high rates of relapse during treatment with E.coli asparaginase opens the door to the possibility of selecting a type of pharmacological treatment based on a patient's genetic profile, an approach that reflects the shift toward personalized medicine. "If a DNA test detects the implicated polymorphisms in children, it will be possible to predict the risk of relapse or side effects," exclaimed Dr. Krajinovic. "The clinician can then propose an alternative treatment or adjust the dose accordingly."
Since the introduction of combination chemotherapy, the rate of pediatric survival without relapse has skyrocketed to about 80%. Yet some patients still resist treatment or present side effects. Pharmacogenetic research strategies involve studying the reaction to each drug used for combined chemotherapy based on various patient genetic profiles so as to design treatment plans that increase efficacy and reduce side effects in patients. Dr. Krajinovic has published a number of similar studies that focus on antifolate, another drug used in combination regimens to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
###
Study Details
The study, led by Dr. Maja Krajinovic, an investigator in the Viral and Immune Disorders and Cancers research axis at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center and the Departments of Pediatrics and Pharmacology at the University of Montreal, was published online on the Oct. 4, 2011 in the scientific journal Blood. Dr. Daniel Sinnett, an investigator working in the same research axis, conducted with Dr. Krajinovic polymorphism-related functional assays. Dr. Sinnett is also an author of many studies on the genetic determinants of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, including a recent study on natural killer cells published in collaboration with Dr. Ali Ahmad as principal author. The study was published in the August 4, 2011, issue of Blood and was reviewed in an editorial that underscored the originality of the work.
The study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada, the Charles Bruneau Foundation and the Fondation des Gouverneurs de l'espoir. Drs. Maja Krajinovic and Daniel Sinnett also held National researcher career award from the Fonds de recherche en sant du Qubec (FRSQ) in conjunction with this work. The functional studies were conducted in part within the context of one of the projects of Genome Quebec and Genome Canada.
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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.
Public release date: 26-Oct-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: William Raillant-Clark
w.raillant-clark@umontreal.ca
514-343-7593
University of Montreal
ATF5 polymorphisms influence efficacy of E. coli asparaginase
This press release is available in French.
One of the causes of resistance to cancer treatment in children is now beginning to be elucidated. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients with a particular form of the ATF5 gene are at higher risk of having a relapse when treated with E. coli asparaginase, a key chemotherapy drug for this type of leukemia. This is what a study by Dr. Maja Krajinovic published in the Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology, reveals Dr. Krajinovic is an investigator at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center, which is affiliated with the University of Montreal.
Dr. Krajinovic's team focused on asparaginase, one of the drugs in a chemotherapy "cocktail" administered to young patients during the intensification phase of their treatment.
They observed that E. coli asparaginase therapy was associated with an increase in relapses when administered to patients who had particular polymorphism (special form) of the ATF5 gene. In fact, this gene regulates asparagine synthetase, an enzyme that produces asparagine, which in turn feeds cancer cells.
"In the presence of this polymorphism that, as we demonstrated, modifies the transcription rate of the ATF5 gene, it is possible that the medication, rather than preventing the proliferation of leukemia cells by reducing the rate of asparagine, does just the opposite by creating feedback that triggers cancer cells to produce asparagine themselves," explains Dr. Krajinovic.
The discovery of a form of gene associated with high rates of relapse during treatment with E.coli asparaginase opens the door to the possibility of selecting a type of pharmacological treatment based on a patient's genetic profile, an approach that reflects the shift toward personalized medicine. "If a DNA test detects the implicated polymorphisms in children, it will be possible to predict the risk of relapse or side effects," exclaimed Dr. Krajinovic. "The clinician can then propose an alternative treatment or adjust the dose accordingly."
Since the introduction of combination chemotherapy, the rate of pediatric survival without relapse has skyrocketed to about 80%. Yet some patients still resist treatment or present side effects. Pharmacogenetic research strategies involve studying the reaction to each drug used for combined chemotherapy based on various patient genetic profiles so as to design treatment plans that increase efficacy and reduce side effects in patients. Dr. Krajinovic has published a number of similar studies that focus on antifolate, another drug used in combination regimens to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
###
Study Details
The study, led by Dr. Maja Krajinovic, an investigator in the Viral and Immune Disorders and Cancers research axis at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center and the Departments of Pediatrics and Pharmacology at the University of Montreal, was published online on the Oct. 4, 2011 in the scientific journal Blood. Dr. Daniel Sinnett, an investigator working in the same research axis, conducted with Dr. Krajinovic polymorphism-related functional assays. Dr. Sinnett is also an author of many studies on the genetic determinants of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, including a recent study on natural killer cells published in collaboration with Dr. Ali Ahmad as principal author. The study was published in the August 4, 2011, issue of Blood and was reviewed in an editorial that underscored the originality of the work.
The study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada, the Charles Bruneau Foundation and the Fondation des Gouverneurs de l'espoir. Drs. Maja Krajinovic and Daniel Sinnett also held National researcher career award from the Fonds de recherche en sant du Qubec (FRSQ) in conjunction with this work. The functional studies were conducted in part within the context of one of the projects of Genome Quebec and Genome Canada.
[ | E-mail | 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/2011-10/uom-grf102611.php
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Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Conn. man convicted of kidnapping ex-wife, arson
FILE - In this Oct. 21, 2011 photo, Richard Shenkman watches on as his attorney Hugh Keefe takes notes while final evidence and witnesses are presented by the State's Attorney's Office during Shenkman's trial in Hartford Superior Court, Friday, Oct. 21, 2011 in Hartford, Conn. Shenkman was convicted Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011 of kidnapping his ex-wife, holding her hostage for nearly 12 hours and burning down the Connecticut home they used to share. (AP Photo/Tim Cook, Pool)
FILE - In this Oct. 21, 2011 photo, Richard Shenkman watches on as his attorney Hugh Keefe takes notes while final evidence and witnesses are presented by the State's Attorney's Office during Shenkman's trial in Hartford Superior Court, Friday, Oct. 21, 2011 in Hartford, Conn. Shenkman was convicted Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011 of kidnapping his ex-wife, holding her hostage for nearly 12 hours and burning down the Connecticut home they used to share. (AP Photo/Tim Cook, Pool)
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) ? A former advertising executive is facing the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison after being convicted Tuesday of kidnapping his ex-wife, holding her hostage for nearly 12 hours and burning down the Connecticut home they used to share.
Richard Shenkman, 62, showed no visible emotion as the six-person jury in Hartford rejected his insanity defense and convicted him of all 10 charges, including kidnapping, arson, assault, threatening and violating a protective order. His ex-wife, who escaped without serious injury, testified that Shenkman fired a handgun near her head, prepared a noose for her and claimed to have rigged the house with explosives.
The standoff in 2009 ended when Shenkman came out of the burning home and pointed the gun at his head. Police subdued him with rubber bullets and stun guns and took him into custody. Two psychiatrists testified that Shenkman was psychotic at the time, but the prosecutor argued that he was just acting mentally ill to avoid prison and presented experts who testified Shenkman wasn't psychotic.
Shenkman, who didn't testify, has been detained since his arrest. He is set to be sentenced Jan. 4. The 10 charges carry up to about 90 years in prison.
He also awaits trial for allegedly burning down his and ex-wife Nancy Tyler's former beachfront home in East Lyme in 2007.
Prosecutor Vicki Melchiorre said Tyler was relieved that the trial was over and that he was found guilty instead of not guilty by reason of insanity, which would have resulted in him being sent to a state psychiatric hospital for criminals with periodic reviews on whether he should be released.
"She wants her life back," Melchiorre said.
Tyler, a civil litigation attorney, didn't talk with reporters at the courthouse after the verdict but sent an email to The Associated Press late Tuesday afternoon.
"I'm so grateful to the jury for their hard work and careful deliberation," she wrote. "My family and I are pleased with the verdict and appreciate the prosecutor's hard work, dedication and skill."
Shenkman's lawyer, Hugh Keefe said he was disappointed with the verdict, but wasn't surprised because insanity defenses are hard to prove. He said such defenses are used in only 1 percent of criminal trials and only a quarter of those succeed. He also said he believes juries are biased against mentally ill defendants.
"He knew how difficult this defense was, and he knew he didn't sound pretty on the tapes," Keefe said, referring to recorded calls between Shenkman and police during the crisis.
Jurors declined to comment while leaving the courthouse Tuesday. They began deliberations at the end of the three-week trial Monday afternoon.
On July 7, 2009, police said Shenkman kidnapped Tyler from a downtown Hartford parking garage at gunpoint and forced her to drive about nine miles to the South Windsor home they once shared.
Authorities said Shenkman and Tyler were due in court for a divorce-related hearing later that morning, and he was supposed to turn over the house to her or face jail time for contempt of court.
Tyler testified at the trial about her harrowing ordeal, saying Shenkman handcuffed himself to her, fired a handgun twice near her head, prepared a noose for her and claimed to have rigged the house with explosives as swarms of police surrounded the home. Tyler had called a friend on her cellphone in concern over seeing Shenkman's minivan near her Hartford office and urged her to call police just before she was kidnapped.
Tyler said that Shenkman handcuffed her to an eyebolt in a basement wall at one point, and that she managed to unscrew the bolt and run outside when Shenkman went upstairs to check on police activity.
Shenkman talked on the phone to dispatchers and police officers several times during the crisis. The jury listened to the recorded conversations, in which Shenkman sometimes sounded frantic, screamed, used profanity and several times counted down the seconds to his threatened killing of Tyler.
Police testified that the nearly 15-hour standoff ended when Shenkman came out of the burning home, which was uninsured at the time, and pointed a handgun at his head. Minutes later, officers shot Shenkman with rubber bullets and used a stun gun on him twice before subduing him and taking him into custody.
Shenkman and Tyler married in 1993 and she filed for divorce in 2006. A judge approved the divorce in 2008, but court proceedings continued as Shenkman appealed.
Tyler also testified that Shenkman once told her that he had learned he could get his way in many situations if he acted crazy.
Melchiorre told the jury during closing arguments Monday that Shenkman kidnapped Tyler and burned down the home because he was upset she filed for divorce and he didn't want her to have the house. She also said he was scared to go to prison.
"Fear of going to jail is not psychotic," Melchiorre said, "especially when you're a 60-year-old, short, out-of-shape guy with an annoying disposition. It's not something that would make him popular in jail."
In the East Lyme house fire, Shenkman is being detained without bail on charges he burned that house down just hours before he was to hand it over to Tyler as part of the divorce.
Shenkman is the brother of Mark Shenkman, founder and president of one of the nation's largest money management firms, Shenkman Capital Management. His former advertising firm, Primedia, once produced the former "Gayle King Show" in 1997 starring Oprah Winfrey's best friend, who now has a new TV show with the same title.
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Jackson doctor's defense case expected to start (AP)
LOS ANGELES ? Defense attorneys for the doctor charged in Michael Jackson's death are expected to begin calling witnesses in their case Monday after they finish grilling a key prosecution expert.
The defense case will be Dr. Conrad Murray's opportunity to counter four weeks of damaging testimony about him from 33 prosecution witnesses who have cast him as an inept, distracted and opportunistic doctor who repeatedly broke legal, ethical and professional guidelines.
The defense case is expected to comprise of 15 witnesses, although Murray's attorneys have not publicly revealed whether they will call the Houston-based cardiologist to testify on his own behalf. Jurors have heard from the doctor through a more than two-hour interview with police, and it seems unlikely that Murray's attorneys would subject their client to what would be blistering questioning from prosecutors.
Monday will begin with lead defense attorney Ed Chernoff questioning Dr. Steven Shafer, the prosecution's final witness and an expert in the anesthetic propofol, which Murray had been giving Jackson as a sleep aid. Chernoff's questioning on Friday challenged Shafer's conclusions and comments he had made about colleague Dr. Paul White, who will testify for the defense team.
So far, Shafer has not retreated from his position that Murray is solely responsible for Jackson's death and that the cardiologist committed 17 egregious violations of medical practices that each could have either led to Jackson's serious injury or death.
After Shafer is done testifying, Murray's attorneys will likely ask a judge to dismiss the involuntary manslaughter case against the cardiologist. Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor will rule on the oral motion immediately and if he rejects it, the defense case will begin.
Defense attorneys have said they will call police detectives who prosecutors did not call, several character witnesses, White and possibly other experts. They expect their case will last through Thursday.
Murray has pleaded not guilty, and faces up to four years behind bars and the loss of his medical license if convicted.
The defense will have its work cut out for them to try to sway jurors to acquit Murray.
"He will have to change the landscape here and show some reasonable doubt, said Marcellus McRae, a former federal prosecutor and trial attorney who has been following the case closely. "The question is will this be enough."
McRae said calling Shafer as the prosecution's final witness was a master stroke.
"Brick by evidentiary brick, Shafer has built a wall of scientific reasons for the jury to conclude that Dr. Murray was criminally negligent," he said. "It allows the prosecution to tell the jury that their case is built on science rather than shifting theories."
Out of sight of the jury, the defense's theory has shifted in recent months from arguing that Jackson swallowed propofol and gave himself the fatal dose and more recently that the singer had swallowed several pills of the sedative lorazepam, which led to his death.
They may also argue that Jackson somehow gave himself a shot of propofol after Murray left the room, killing him quickly.
Prosecutors have sought to discredit all those theories through Shafer, who himself drank propofol before the trial in an attempt to confirm that it wouldn't induce sedation or other ill effects. He called the amount of lorazepam in Jackson's stomach "trivial" and last week said the only possible explanation for Jackson's death based on the evidence was that Murray put the singer on IV drip of propofol and left the room after the singer appeared to be asleep.
This week, it will be the defense's turn to either offer alternate theories or somehow pick apart the prosecution's case.
___
AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch contributed to this report.
___
McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP
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