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Americans' growing dependency on food stamps

Posted: Published on March 3rd, 2012

One in seven U.S. citizens receives aid to buy food. Are we feeding the hungry, breeding dependency, or both? What are food stamps? They're a form of aid provided by the federal government to low-income households to help them buy food. The term "food stamps" comes from the coupon-like stamps used during the "War on Poverty" in the 1960s, although they were phased out in 2004 in favor of plastic debit cards, which are refilled electronically each month. In 2008, the government rechristened the program Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. But most people still call it food stamps, and the program has become a political flash point since GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said in January that "more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history." Is that true? There can be no dispute that the number of people added to food stamp rolls since 2008 is larger than in any previous president's term. Last year, 45 million Americans 14 percent of the population received food stamps; in 2008, before Obama took office, about 28 million did. But the number of recipients has risen steadily over the last decade, and actually … Continue reading →

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Cancer Drugs Thwart Ebola In Lab

Posted: Published on March 3rd, 2012

Frederick Murphy/CDC The Ebola virus causes a hemorrhagic fever that can be deadly. Ebola is one virus you never want to catch. Ever. After some aches and a fever, many infected people develop uncontrolled bleeding. The mortality rates from Ebola infection can run as high as 90 percent. There's no cure for Ebola. But a group of scientists is exploring whether some drugs already approved to treat cancer might help tame the virus. Sounds wild. But there's a reason and now some evidence to think it might work. To reproduce, the Ebola virus needs the help of cells it invades. And a couple of cancer drugs tweak a human protein that new copies of the virus use to leave their host cells so they can infect others. The tested drugs Gleevec and Tasigna, both sold by Novartis are called tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Tyrosine kinases are enzymes that put a phosphate group on a particular amino acid. Amino acids, as you might remember from high school biology, are the building blocks of proteins. When a phosphate group gets attached to the right tyrosine block on the right protein, it changes the shape and function of the protein. And that might change … Continue reading →

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Sector Snap: Generic competition and biotech drugs

Posted: Published on March 3rd, 2012

NEW YORK (AP) A group of Cowen and Co. analysts said Friday that record numbers of major drugs are facing patent challenges that could leave their makers vulnerable to greater competition in the next few years. The analysts said Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc., Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc., and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. are particularly vulnerable to patent challenges because each company gets a large chunk of its profits from one key drug. For Endo, that is the Lidoderm pain patch, and for Cubist, it's the antibiotic Cubicin, which brings in almost all of its sales. Teva, which is the world's largest generic drug company, is counting on strong sales of its multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone. The Cowen analysts said 67 drugs that bring in annual U.S. sales of at least $100 million per year will lose patent protection or marketing exclusivity through 2016, and they said the patents are being challenged on "at least 80 percent" of those drugs. Combined, those drugs had sales of $75 billion in 2011, or almost a third of all U.S. retail drug spending. Generic drugmakers like Teva often challenge the patents on brand-name drugs as part of an effort to start selling their own less-expensive … Continue reading →

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Alpine sets sights on new budget — Micardis Without A Prescription » Online Pharmacy

Posted: Published on March 3rd, 2012

By Sarah Hale on Mar 1, 2012 in Alpine, News The Town of Alpine is gearing up to create its budget for the coming fiscal year. According to Mayor Kennis Lutz, the budgeting process will begin in March. We will put together our first budget and have the first reading in April, he said. Then if we need to we can break it down further and hold some workshops. We do have some money saved up and weve got some debt paid off. Its nice to have a little money left over at the end of the day. According to Lutz, as the town council works on the budget for the coming year, the question that will be asked first is what does the town need? Once we know what our needs our and have budgeted to cover those needs then we can work on everything else, he said. According to Lutz, the town will continue to look for ways to cut costs and effectively manage town funds while at the same time providing a good level of service to its residents. The first budget reading will take place on April 3, 2012 during the regular meeting of the Alpine … Continue reading →

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Ex-pharmacy owners to pay $1.25 million over illegal drug sales

Posted: Published on March 3rd, 2012

The former owners of three pharmacies in San Diego have agreed to pay $1.25 millionfor having allowed their employees to illegally sell tens of thousands of tablets of the highly addictive prescription painkillers OxyContin and Vicodin, federal prosecutors said Thursday. Brothers Fadi and Ramsey Atiyaand their uncle Akram "Max" Atiya also were required to sell the pharmacies -- Galloway Pharmacy, Park Boulevard Pharmacy and White Cross Pharmacy -- as part of the settlement with the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego. The Atiyas alsorelinquished their Drug Enforcement Administrationregistration to sell controlled substances. The government alleged that the Atiyas kept such sloppy records that employees were able to order massive amounts of the painkillers and them sell them on the black market. Several employees have been convicted of drug charges. U.S. Atty. Laura Duffy said that "abuse of powerful and highly addictive controlled substances is a growing problem in our community. This office will not tolerate cavalier treatment of painkiller inventories." ALSO: SWAT team shoots gunman in bank, rescues hostage Student protests remain calm, focused on budget cuts Andrew Breitbart rebelled against Westside liberals, Limbaugh says -- Tony Perry in San Diego View original post here: Ex-pharmacy owners to pay $1.25 … Continue reading →

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Pharmacy student, employee stole Rx from drug store, say police

Posted: Published on March 3rd, 2012

PORTSMOUTH A local pharmacy student used his position as a drug store employee to steal prescription drugs, police allege. Now facing two criminal charges, one of them a felony, is James Henschke, 23, of 851 Ocean Blvd., Rye. The felony alleges Henschke was in possession of a bottle of Alprzolam (Xanax) without a prescription and he's also charged with a misdemeanor alleging he stole the pills from a Lafayette Road drug store. According to an affidavit by detective Robert Munson, Henschke was working at the drug store when a coworker saw him steal a bottle containing 100 2mg tablets of the prescription drug. When confronted, Henschke put a confession in writing and also admitted to stealing the Suboxone and Clonazepam during a two-year period, the detective's affidavit states. The pharmacy estimated the value of the stolen drugs at $670.96, according to police. In his report to the Portsmouth court, Munson said he gave Henschke a ride to a Portsmouth home where he was staying at the time of the alleged Jan. 14 theft and Henschke led him to a duffle bag containing a stolen bottle of Alprzolam with half the pills missing. Henschke admitted he'd taken four of the pills, … Continue reading →

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Holding a mirror to brain changes in autism

Posted: Published on March 2nd, 2012

Public release date: 2-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Rhiannon Bugno Biol.Psych@utsouthwestern.edu 214-648-0880 Elsevier Philadelphia, PA, March 2, 2012 Impaired social function is a cardinal symptom of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). One of the brain circuits that enable us to relate to other people is the "mirror neuron" system. This brain circuit is activated when we watch other people, and allows our brains to represent the actions of others, influencing our ability to learn new tasks and to understand the intentions and experiences of other people. This mirror neuron system is impaired in individuals with ASD and better understanding the neurobiology of this system could help in the development of new treatments. In their new study, Dr. Peter Enticott at Monash University and his colleagues used transcranial magnetic stimulation to stimulate the brains of individuals with ASD and healthy individuals while they observed different hand gestures. This allowed the researchers to measure the activity of each individual's mirror neuron system with millisecond precision in response to each observed action. They found that the individuals with ASD showed a blunted brain response to stimulation of the motor cortex when viewing a transitive hand gesture. In other words, the mirror … Continue reading →

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KTRK's Tim Melton on the mend after stroke

Posted: Published on March 2nd, 2012

Longtime KTRK (Channel 13) sports reporter Tim Melton, who suffered a stroke last October, said today that he is continuing with rehabilitation work and feeling better and moving better. Tim Melton has been with Channel 13 since 1981.(handout) Melton posted an update on his Facebook page regarding his condition and confirming the nature of his illness. He said he has been undergoing treatment at the TIRR Memorial Hermann. I thank all of you who have expressed your concern as to what caused my absence, but I wanted to wait until I had a good sense of what the future holds before saying anything, he wrote. I am happy to report Im getting better every day. My thanks to all my friends at Channel 13 for their concern and support. Thanks to the doctors, therapists and nurses at TIRR. And special thanks to my sons and wife, who have had to go through the recovery with me and Im not always the greatest patient. Melton, who has been with Channel 13 since 1981, said he understands that viewers have been hungry for news of his condition. If theres not concern theres curiosity, and I appreciate those who are concerned. I even … Continue reading →

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Student Innovation at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Seeks to Mend Previously Untreatable Tissue Injuries

Posted: Published on March 2nd, 2012

Christopher Rivet Is One of Three Finalists for the $30,000 2012 Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize Newswise Troy, N.Y. Christopher Rivet has successfully married two powerful bioengineering technologies to develop a new method for delivering drugs directly to an injury site and jumpstarting the process of tissue regeneration. His innovation could be an important new tool in preventing paralysis resulting from spinal cord trauma, cancer, diabetes, or a host of other diseases. Rivet, a doctoral student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is one of three finalists for the 2012 $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize. A public ceremony announcing this years winner will be held at 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday, March 7, in the auditorium of the Rensselaer Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies. For more information on the ceremony visit: http://www.eng.rpi.edu/lemelson Rivets project is titled A Hydrogel and Electrospun Fiber Composite Material, and his faculty adviser is Ryan Gilbert, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Rensselaer. Sadly, there is no shortage of situations that lead to a loss of functioning tissue and, in turn, paralysis. These circumstances can range from the surgical removal of a tumor, to untreated bedsores, to a spinal cord injury stemming from … Continue reading →

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Parkinson's disease stopped in animal model: Molecular 'tweezers' break up toxic aggregations of proteins

Posted: Published on March 2nd, 2012

ScienceDaily (Mar. 2, 2012) Millions of people suffer from Parkinson's disease, a disorder of the nervous system that affects movement and worsens over time. As the world's population ages, it's estimated that the number of people with the disease will rise sharply. Yet despite several effective therapies that treat Parkinson's symptoms, nothing slows its progression. While it's not known what exactly causes the disease, evidence points to one particular culprit: a protein called -synuclein. The protein, which has been found to be common to all patients with Parkinson's, is thought to be a pathway to the disease when it binds together in "clumps," or aggregates, and becomes toxic, killing the brain's neurons. Now, scientists at UCLA have found a way to prevent these clumps from forming, prevent their toxicity and even break up existing aggregates. UCLA professor of neurology Jeff Bronstein and UCLA associate professor of neurology Gal Bitan, along with their colleagues, report the development of a novel compound known as a "molecular tweezer," which in a living animal model blocked -synuclein aggregates from forming, stopped the aggregates' toxicity and, further, reversed aggregates in the brain that had already formed. And the tweezers accomplished this without interfering with normal … Continue reading →

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