News

Dale Klein, Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), was interviewed on C-SPAN's Newsmakers this last Sunday on October 22nd, 2006. Regarding twenty nine recent pending license requests for the construction of new nuclear power plants in the US, he stated that there will be a nuclear renaissance in the United States:

"I do believe that we will see license applications in 2007 and we are looking – we have expressions of intent from a lot of the utilities indicating up – as I said, up to about 29 new nuclear plants. So I believe that there will be a [nuclear] renaissance in the United States."

In a joint announcement, both NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) have released findings from the Aura satellite which shows that from September 21st through the 30th of 2006, the Antarctic ozone hole was the largest ever recorded.

"From September 21 to 30, the average area of the ozone hole was the largest ever observed, at 10.6 million square miles," said Paul Newman, atmospheric scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. If the stratospheric weather conditions had been normal, the ozone hole would be expected to reach a size of about 8.9 to 9.3 million square miles, about the surface area of North America.

The Guardian reports on a series of recent studies showing that feeding vitamin and Omega 3 fatty acid supplements may decrease violence among repeat offenders by as much as 37%. These results are leading researchers, and some psychiatrists, to conclude that at least some violent outbursts and other mental disorders are the result of vitamin and essential fatty acid deficiency.

Science Daily reports that researchers at Imperial College London have published a study in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B which links Toxoplasma gondii, a parasitic protozoa which as part of its life cycle is excreted within cat feces, to schizophrenia. The findings show that when rats are fed Haloperidol, an anti-psychotic, and Valproic acid, a mood stabilizer and anti-convulsant, replication of T. gondii within a host organism appears to be inhibited.

Jonathan Weisman, economics reporter for the Washington Post, admitted in an informal posting on Poynter that the White House demanded he rewrite a quote [REFERENCE DEAD] taken 'off the record' from an unnamed administration official before they would provide approval for final publication. In his post he clearly admits that he "[...]violated journalistic ethics, by placing into quotation marks a phrase that was never uttered by the source[...]", and then published the story as news.

March 7th, 2003, at an official press briefing, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer twice admitted under questioning that the President's staff preselected which reporters to call, and the order, for the East Room Press Conference on the evening of March 6th, 2003. This Press Conference was President Bush's eighth solo news conference since inauguration, and the second formally presented in the East Room during prime time.

Mr. Fleischer responded to a reporter's query over a short gaffe in which the President was heard to say to a reporter, "You'll be there in a moment," upon which he then called CNN correspondent John King and remarked "...this is a scripted...[pause]", after which an outburst of laughter from the press pool could be heard. The president then moved directly onto the next question. An audio excerpt of this gaff is available from this Buzzflash commentary. [*]

This is my first feature article written for the now defunct Cincinnati, OH alternative weekly Everybody's News, published November 10-16 1995, issue #374. At the time mifepristone, or RU-486, had not been FDA approved and it was unclear if or when it ever would be. FDA finally did approve the drug September 28, 2000 - just over five years after publication. While the article is old and contains some outdated information, the fact that RU-486 is getting recent media attention for deaths after use might generate some interest. Should the FDA revoke approval for RU-486, methotrexate is a known safe alternative as an abortofacient. Given that over ten years after writing this article methotrexate still hasn't been approved by the FDA as an alternative drug induced abortion, when it continues to be used for a wide variety of other ailments, only shows that FDA unwillingness to approve drug induced abortion is a political and not a medical decision. Should RU-486 be taken off the market, off-label prescription of this drug for abortion may once again be considered as a viable option by physicians.

The New England Journal of Medicine has available an abstract of Dr. Hausknecht's original August, 1995, study: Methotrexate and Misoprostol to Terminate Early Pregnancy.