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CYPRESS, Calif., Feb. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Focus Diagnostics, Inc., the infectious disease diagnostics company of Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX), today announced the first laboratory developed test in the U.S. for detecting the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus. Commercial availability of the molecular polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test will enable physicians in the U.S. to test patients who may have contracted the virus, such as individuals returning from regions in Africa and Asia where chikungunya is endemic. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has suggested that the chikungunya virus, which caused an outbreak in Italy in 2007, has the potential to enter and spread in the U.S. "The availability of our chikungunya virus PCR test will give healthcare providers in the U.S. an important option for identifying patients, particularly travelers, who may be infected with this potentially disabling virus," said Dr. Jay M. Lieberman, medical director, Infectious Diseases, Focus Diagnostics. "In recent years, Focus Diagnostics has brought to market new diagnostic tests that physicians can use to diagnose emerging infectious diseases, such as West Nile Virus and SARS. If chikungunya emerges in the U.S., our test could become an important tool to help mobilize an effective public health response. Chikungunya is a challenge to diagnose because its symptoms can mimic those of other diseases, including other mosquito-borne diseases, so the availability of an accurate diagnostic test is essential to minimize spread of the disease." Cheap Generic Viagra

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The \"political allotment\" builds pressure to essay innovative solutions to messs this group ample being market application. That interval health is feasible that folder. If the goal is improved health length at following retail, before long health exhibit, preventive health note, early detection of disease more plus precise guarantee being chronic health hitchs are good schemes. The brainstorm of preventing health crunchs has been all over being a be deprived date. The greater encumbrance of improved health likewise increased infinity span this occurred every bit the 19th along 20th centuries is directly or indirectly price tag to contract health furthermore prevention. Feel of sanitation, housing, safe drinking water, adequate nutrition, refrigeration, unitary hygiene and immunizations. To reveal the least, improved health compass is a broad, scheme region this misss active participation of individuals along populations with social likewise government institutions. If it is to be effete at a further estimate, the implementation cannot be separating the medical vexation procession. Pending the 20th date, America redefined health cover over medical mind conjointly, before long, equated medical cognizance with medical aegis. It has been a lethal again costly mind-set. Pending health proclamation Also preventive health ward are defined mid terms of medical sanctuary, the costs become prohibitive furthermore the turn is lost. The politicians apperceive a good text. Seeing, they incorporate to rethink how to engine it. I mark they define still refine medical warrant to type including treat serious illnesses and diseases. Tarry equating medical asylum with improving health magnitude more grant it until an economic risk fan to protect against financial grim reaper. Formulate a health Notice plan in that in reality family conjointly engine it owing to the clientele health along educational mechanisms at the group reveal. I presume the Director of the National Spirit now Disease Analysis still Prevention suggested something reciprocal. Are you listening? Powered done ScribeFire. Cheap Generic Viagra

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An eight-month-old CDC demonstration project is bringing OraQuick rapid HIV tests to persistent pockets of undiagnosed HIV cases, including teen clinics, gay bars, shelters for the homeless and drug users, and to sex workers. The project is underway in San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Washington and Kansas City, Mo. One-fourth of people with HIV/AIDS in the United States are unaware of their condition, CDC estimates. "Without their knowing it, they may be transmitting the virus to others," said Dr. Ronald O. Valdiserri, CDC's director of HIV/AIDS prevention program. "Use of the rapid tests is key to the success of these efforts." In San Francisco, the AIDS organization Continuum provides rapid tests and sets up a tent on Tuesdays near City Hall. Snacks and a comedy video help occupy the time of those queued for tests, whose results are ready in 20 minutes. Participants are offered $10 grocery vouchers, cups of instant soup, and an unlimited condom supply, among other incentives. Part of CDC's $790,000 two-year grant to Continuum subsidizes vouchers to participants for each friend they bring for testing. Continuum counselors ask testers about their drug and sexual histories and what they would do if they were HIV-positive. Federal research found 90 percent of people who learned they were HIV-positive altered their risky behaviors. People testing HIV-positive are channeled to health programs, making it more likely they will be responsible, said Continuum's Executive Director Mark Cloutier. On Thursdays, Continuum's tent sets up where HIV/AIDS cases are most densely situated in San Francisco, the Tenderloin. Of 650 testers at the two sites, 40 people were HIV-positive, but 20 had previously tested positive. Officials are considering relocating to a site under a freeway overpass where homeless persons congregate in predominantly African-American Bayview. Cheap Generic Viagra

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Confounding his ringer now a squeaky clean, church-going community identity, Australian dissimilarity leader,Kevin Rudd has been forced to count this he paid a browse to a strip gang cryed Company midst a boozy night out within New York amid 2003. Some of the ladies from Messs are pictured above-I've effete my check. Rudd has conjointly been forced to deny claims this he had been cautioned settled the body's bouncers over touching the strippers (!) He said he did not constitute a \"throughout empty recollection\" of whether there were semi-naked women in the band or what they were doing(!) Rudd more said he expected to \"put forward a belting between the impression polls\" midst a set in of the revelation. Feedback to The Courier-Mail's home page requires, however, this push hypothetical the Comparison Leader may allow for backfired. Of 450 responses, throughout 70 per cent were separating Mr Rudd's favour, numerous claiming the strip circle surf issued the Overhaul leader was \"character\".Unfluctuating the Australian Christian Lobby managing director Jim Wallace has said public should memorize that no unrepeated is right. That sounds conventionally just to me...Does anybody truly perplexity what Rudd did? Should they?

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"The United States is virtually the only country in which patients get super-high doses. You create a toxicity situation," said Dr. N.D. Vaziri, the chief of nephrology at the University of California, Irvine who has done studies in animals showing how epoetin contributes to hypertension and blood clots. Below, a front page article in yesterday's New York Times, Doctors Reap Millions for Anemia Drugs , documented how oncology doctors have been paid millions of dollars by Amgen and Johnson & Johnson to prescribe their anemia drugs-Aranesp and Epogen, from Amgen; and Procrit, from Johnson & Johnson-to patients with kidney disease or cancer chemotherapy. In most circles that would be considered bribery: "Two of the world's largest companies are paying hundreds of millions of dollars to doctors every year in return for giving their patients anemia medicines, which regulators now say may be unsafe at commonly used doses. The payments are legal, but very few people outside of the doctors who receive them are aware of their size." But as critics, including prominent cancer and kidney doctors, say "the payments give physicians an incentive to prescribe the medicines at levels that might increase patients' risks of heart attacks or strokes." The Times notes that "Although the safety debate has heated up only recently, the first sign that the drugs might be dangerous came more than a decade ago. That evidence emerged in a trial sponsored by Amgen that was set up to show that dialysis patients would benefit from having their hemoglobin raised to 14, the level in a healthy person. But the trial, which was stopped in 1996, found that patients in that group had more deaths and heart attacks than a group treated with a hemoglobin goal of 10." "That trial should have discouraged doctors from using too much epoetin and encouraged Amgen to study the risks further, said Dr. Steven Fishbane, a nephrologist at Winthrop-University Hospital on Long Island. Instead, use of epoetin continued to soar." Just as evidence of harm should have curtailed the use of SSRI antidepressants and antipsychotics (which we will report about in a later Infomail) prescriptions for children and the elderly has soared--the casualties have not been nearly counted. "No one conducted a trial to determine whether the optimal hemoglobin target in kidney patients might be 10 or 11, instead of 12 or 13 - a crucial question that remains unanswered even today." [Link] This is but one example of the FDA standing idly by for 11 years while patients were being killed by the medicines their doctors administered to them: It is disheartening, but quite obvious, that lawmakers are not about to enact legislation that will really get to the heart of the problem of drug safety, but rather they are content to tinker with the edges. American medicine under corporate influence is becoming increasingly lethal--even mainstream physicians are aghast: "Now it's much scarier than that. We could really be doing harm." Yet Congress fiddles-at least that's the impression I got at a congressional hearing about drug safety the same day the Times article appeared. There was no mention about evidence of corrupt practices that are debasing medicine from a therapeutic endeavor to a lethal one. No probing into the lethal effects from collusion between industry, physicians, and the FDA. Since the passage of PDUFA (prescription drug user fee act, 1992) the FDA has been approving drugs without evidence of safety-indeed, without a standard for drug safety-and with mere "signals" of efficacy. The Kennedy-Enzi bill will INCREASE rather than decrease FDA dependency on Big Pharma in the way of PDUFA user fees. Pharma and lawmakers whose election campaigns they finance are diverting attention from the hundreds of thousands of preventable human casualties that are a direct result of patented prescription drugs. Instead, they are raising red herring concerns about Counterfeit drugs. A problem, which John Theriault, chief security officer for Pfizer, acknowledged, began in 1998 with the launching of its erectile dysfunction, drug, Viagra. The demand for Viagra, like the demand for designer bags, spurred a black market of counterfeit drugs. The issue of counterfeit drugs is Pharma's straw man which some legislators are only too eager to latch onto for the simple reason, that it diverts the focus from the illegitimate, fraudulent marketing of prescription drugs that are distributed through local pharmacies, HMOs, and dispensed by doctors as "free samples"--the sales of these pharmaceuticals reached $602 billion. [1] These tainted drugs carry the FDA seal of approval, are prescribed by U.S. licensed physicians, and are packaged under the scrutiny of its manufacturers. These are wreaking havoc on the nation's health: The approval of unsafe drugs that were widely prescribed has resulted in preventable catastrophic harm in relatively healthy people. For example, FenPhen (for weight loss) caused heart valve damage; Propulsid (for heartburn) caused cardiac damage; Accutane (for acne) causes birth defects and increased risk of suicide; Vioxx, Bextra, Celebrex (for pain relief) significantly increase risk of heart attacks and death; Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Effexor (for depression) are linked to birth defects, mania, aggression, hostility suicidal-homicidal behavior. Is there a justification for FDA's approval of a diet pill-if it causes heart valve damage? Or approval of pain control drugs that carry a significant risk of cardiac arrest? Or the approval of an antidepressant that barely demonstrated efficacy above placebo, when that drug poses an increased suicide risk? Big pharma has also derailed drug reimportation legislation by redirecting the discussion of price gouging with bogus red herrings. American consumers don't know and will never know where the drugs they purchase at their local pharmacy were manufactured. Mostly NOT in the U.S. Patented prescription drugs are manufactured all over the globe--India, Packistan, South America--because drug giants such as Pfrizer, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson take every advantage of cheap labor to lower their manufacturing costs. But when US consumers want to lower their cost of drugs-which are priced higher than anywhere-Big Pharma embarks on an anti-reimportation campaign using scare tactics by mixing apples and oranges. Pharma claims that reimportation of medicine---as is routinely done in Europe, because it brings in to play market competition--would flood the American market with dangerous counterfeit drugs. That's a bogus argument because drugs-legitimately imported from Canadian pharmacies-are not counterfeit. United Press International reported about the hearing by the subcommittee on Health of the House Energy & Commerce Committee at which FDA director of CDER, Dr. Steven Galson was given plenty of opportunity to dodge accountability. Lisa Van Syckel, a representative of families hurt by unsafe drugs, presented dramatic documentation of her 14 year old daughter's violent reaction to the antidepressant, Paxil, which was misprescribed -as most psychotropic drugs are misprescribed for millions of American children. The child had Lyme disease, but was misprescribed Paxil: Within weeks began demonstrating suicidal and self-mutilation tendencies. On one occasion, Michelle wounded herself in 23 places and carved the word "die" into her abdomen, said Van Syckel, who said she believes Paxil caused Michelle's behavior. "Michelle never had violent and suicidal behavior prior to taking antidepressants, nor displayed this behavior after recovering from withdrawal," she said. Ms. Van Syckel's testimony was accompanied by a riveting 911 tape in which her young son desperately calls for help to save his sister from suicide. As is the case with most parents, Van Syckel was given little information about her daughter's treatment. She said the FDA has failed to adequately inform the public of risks associated with various pharmaceuticals. Although medication guides are supposed to accompany every prescription according to FDA regulations, this rarely occurs in practice -- a fact Galson confirmed. Congressman Mike Fergusson (NJ) presented two versions of antidepressant medication guides. Dr. Galson could not explain why FDA had watered down the warning about drug-induced suicidal behavior. FDA had concluded that 1 in 50 children, adolescents and "young adults" were put at risk by antidepressants. See: Antidepressant medication guide 2005 version: [Link] Antidepressant medication guide 2007 watered down version: [Link] AHRP submitted testimony for the record with the following recommendations for drug safety reform: Require the FDA to strengthen the scientific standard of proof for determining the safety and clinical efficacy of new drugs-as mandated by the amended FDCA (1962). Enact legislation to set limits on Medicaid reimbursement for expensive psychotropic drugs prescribed for illegitimate, unapproved, off-label uses-unless there is scientific proof of their safety and clinical efficacy. Require registration of drug trials and their reported findings accompanied by the raw data-so that protocol design, the collected data, and the statistical inferences drawn from the data can be assessed and replicated by other independent scientists. Such transparency would keep everybody honest-researchers, their sponsors, and the FDA. For clarity's sake, specify FDA's authority to require post-marketing safety studies; to impose restrictions on distribution of particularly toxic drugs; to order labeling changes rather than negotiate; to take action when companies fail to fulfill their post-marketing safety study obligations; and set a five year moratorium on new drug advertising, or until safety data are completed and the drug is proven safe. Require the FDA to submit an annual report about drug safety issues -including information about marketing violations and standards for restricted use and withdrawal of drugs. Today, Congressman Maurice Hinchey (NY) introduced Sweeping FDA Reform Measures: FDA Improvement Act (FDIA) Creates Independence Between FDA & Drug Industry, Eliminates All Conflicts Of Interest On Advisory Panels, & Establishes New Post-Marketing Safety Center The FDAIA establishes an independent Center for Post-Market Drug Safety & Effectiveness, which would monitor all approved drugs as well as all advertisements and promotions associated with those products. Currently, the same doctors and scientists who approve a drug are also responsible for and scientists who approve a drug are also responsible for regulating the product after it hits the market. Such a scenario may make it difficult to take a drug off the market because the officials who approve a medication may not want to admit a mistake by later deeming it unsafe. Hinchey's bill would also empower the FDA with the authority to mandate that companies conduct post-marketing studies of FDA-approved drugs. Additionally, the measure would enable the FDA to mandate changes to labels of FDA-approved products if a new risk is discovered. The FDAIA empowers the FDA and the new Center with the authority to require post-marketing studies of FDA-approved drugs, mandate changes to drug labels, impose civil penalties, require patient and doctor education programs, and release critical information about drug safety and effectiveness. "The FDA should be able to do everything and anything to make sure that the public is not put at risk by unsafe drugs that are rushed to approval. Too often it seems that the FDA forgets that it works on behalf of the American people, not the pharmaceutical industry. That is a fundamental problem that must be addressed." See: [Link] html References: See, partial list of U.S. Attorney settlements involving Big Pharma fraulent marketing cases: The Whistleblower: Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman by Dr. Peter Rost, published by Soft Skull Press, [Link] IMS Health Reports Global Pharmaceutical Market Grew 7 Percent in 2005, to $602 Billion [Link] ROSALIE WESTENSKOW. ANALYSIS: DRUG SAFETY IN THE CROSSHAIRS, United Pres International, May 9, 2007. [Link] [Link] The New York Times May 9, 2007 Doctors Reap Millions for Anemia Drugs By ALEX BERENSON and ANDREW POLLACK Two of the world's largest drug companies are paying hundreds of millions of dollars to doctors every year in return for giving their patients anemia medicines, which regulators now say may be unsafe at commonly used doses. The payments are legal, but very few people outside of the doctors who receive them are aware of their size. Critics, including prominent cancer and kidney doctors, say the payments give physicians an incentive to prescribe the medicines at levels that might increase patients' risks of heart attacks or strokes. Industry analysts estimate that such payments - to cancer doctors and the other big users of the drugs, kidney dialysis centers - total hundreds of millions of dollars a year and are an important source of profit for doctors and the centers. The payments have risen over the last several years, as the makers of the drugs, Amgen and Johnson & Johnson, compete for market share and try to expand the overall business. Neither Amgen nor Johnson & Johnson has disclosed the total amount of the payments. But documents given to The New York Times show that at just one practice in the Pacific Northwest, a group of six cancer doctors received $2.7 million from Amgen for prescribing $9 million worth of its drugs last year. Yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration added to concerns about the drugs, releasing a report that suggested that their use might need to be curtailed in cancer patients. The report, prepared by F.D.A. staff scientists, said no evidence indicated that the medicines either improved quality of life in patients or extended their survival, while several studies suggested that the drugs can shorten patients' lives when used at high doses. Yesterday's report followed the F.D.A.'s decision in March to strengthen warnings on the drugs' labels. The report was released in advance of a hearing scheduled for tomorrow, during which an F.D.A. advisory panel will consider whether the drugs are overused. The medicines - Aranesp and Epogen, from Amgen; and Procrit, from Johnson & Johnson - are among the world's top-selling drugs, with combined sales of $10 billion last year. In this country, they represent the single biggest drug expense for Medicare and are given to about a million patients each year to treat anemia caused by kidney disease or cancer chemotherapy. Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, the deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, said that both patients and doctors would benefit from fuller disclosure about the payments and the profits that doctors can make from them. "I suspect that Medicare is going to take a very careful look at what is going on here," he said. Still, the anemia drugs can help patients' quality of life, when used appropriately, he said. "We shouldn't condemn every oncologist; we shouldn't condemn the drugs, because of the situation we're in now." Federal laws bar drug companies from paying doctors to prescribe medicines that are given in pill form and purchased by patients from pharmacies. But companies can rebate part of the price that doctors pay for drugs, like the anemia medicines, which they dispense in their offices as part of treatment. The anemia drugs are injected or given intravenously in physicians' offices or dialysis centers. Doctors receive the rebates after they buy the drugs from the companies. But they also receive reimbursement from Medicare or private insurers for the drugs, often at a markup over the doctors' purchase price. Medicare has changed its payment structure since 2003 to reduce the markup, but private insurers still often pay more. Combined with those insurance reimbursements, the rebates enable many doctors to profit substantially on the medicines they buy and then give to patients. The rebates are related to the amount of drugs that doctors buy, and physicians that agree to use one company's drugs exclusively typically receive higher rebates. Johnson & Johnson said yesterday in a statement that its rebates were not intended to induce doctors to use more medicine. Instead, the rebates "reflect intense competition" in the market for the drugs, the company said. Amgen said that rebates were a normal commercial practice and that it had always properly promoted its drugs. "Amgen is dedicated to patient safety," said David Polk, a spokesman. "We believe our contracts support appropriate anemia management and our product promotion is always strictly within the label." Both companies' stocks fell yesterday after release of the F.D.A. report. Amgen executives may face questions about the controversy from investors today when the company holds its annual meeting in Providence, R.I. Since 1991, when the first of the drugs was still relatively new, the average dose given to dialysis patients in this country has nearly tripled. About 50 percent of dialysis patients now receive enough of the drugs to raise their red blood cell counts above the level considered risky by the F.D.A. American patients receive far more of the anemia drugs than patients elsewhere, with dialysis patients in this country getting doses more than twice as high as their counterparts in Europe. Cancer care shows a similar pattern. American cancer patients are about three times as likely as those in Europe to get the drugs, and they receive somewhat higher doses. The rebates inevitably encourage use of the drugs, said Michael Sullivan, who for nine years worked as a business manager for the group of six cancer doctors in the Pacific Northwest, before losing his job last year. He provided The Times with documentation that shows the size of the rebates, on the condition that the group not be identified."Personally, I think rebates should go away," said Mr. Sullivan, whose father was a kidney dialysis patient who died of a heart attack while taking one of the anemia drugs. "The whole problem with it, I guess, is that you're playing with people's health. It's not the same as buying widgets." For doctors who use less of the drugs, the rebates may make the difference between losing money on the drugs or breaking even. Mr. Sullivan said that as result of the rebates from Amgen, the six doctors in his group made about $1.8 million in net profit on the drugs they prescribed. Unlike most drugs, the anemia medicines do not come in fixed doses. Therefore, doctors have great flexibility to increase dosing - and profits. Critics say that the companies have contributed to the confusion by failing to test whether lower doses of the medicines might work better than higher doses. "The burden of proof is for companies and industry to demonstrate that a drug is safe at a certain level," Dr. Ajay Singh, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Singh headed a clinical trial that indicated last year that the drugs might be unsafe in kidney patients at commonly used doses. Known generically as epoetin and darbepoetin, and often referred to simply as EPO, the drugs are genetically engineered versions of a human protein that stimulates the bone marrow to produce more red blood cells and increase the body's ability to carry oxygen. Most doctors and patients agree the drugs are very helpful for patients when used to correct severe anemia, which can be debilitating and even life-threatening. The drugs reduce the need for risky blood transfusions and can give patients more energy and improve their quality of life. "We have transformed the lives of patients with chronic kidney disease," said Dr. Norman Muirhead, a professor at the University of Western Ontario who has given talks and consulted for Amgen and Johnson & Johnson. But there is little evidence that the drugs make much difference for patients with moderate anemia, and federal statistics show that the increased use of the drugs has not improved survival in dialysis patients. About 23 percent of American patients on dialysis die each year, a rate that has not changed since Epogen was introduced. Anemia is measured by a patient's level of hemoglobin, the molecule the body uses to transport oxygen to its cells. Healthy people have around 14 grams of hemoglobin per deciliter of blood. Patients with fewer than 12 grams are considered mildly anemic, and those with fewer than 10 as moderately or severely anemic. The labels on the drugs, as currently approved by the F.D.A., encourage doctors to aim for a hemoglobin level of 10 to 12. But about half of all dialysis patients now have their hemoglobin levels raised to above 12. Critics of the drugs say their increased use has been driven by profit. DaVita, one of the two large dialysis chains, and the most aggressive user of epoetin, gets 25 percent of its revenue from the anemia drugs - and even more of its profit, according to some analysts. Dr. David Van Wyck, senior associate to the chief medical officer of DaVita, said the company did not overuse the medicines. Doctors determine how much to use, Dr. Van Wyck said. "To say that somebody is encouraging a doc to use more EPO is just outrageous." Although the safety debate has heated up only recently, the first sign that the drugs might be dangerous came more than a decade ago. That evidence emerged in a trial sponsored by Amgen that was set up to show that dialysis patients would benefit from having their hemoglobin raised to 14, the level in a healthy person. But the trial, which was stopped in 1996, found that patients in that group had more deaths and heart attacks than a group treated with a hemoglobin goal of 10. That trial should have discouraged doctors from using too much epoetin and encouraged Amgen to study the risks further, said Dr. Steven Fishbane, a nephrologist at Winthrop-University Hospital on Long Island. Instead, use of epoetin continued to soar. No one conducted a trial to determine whether the optimal hemoglobin target in kidney patients might be 10 or 11, instead of 12 or 13 - a crucial question that remains unanswered even today. Dr. Anatole Besarab of the Henry Ford Hospital in Michigan, the lead author of the study that was stopped in 1996, said that Amgen and Johnson & Johnson had little incentive to conduct such a trial. Dr. Robert M. Brenner, head of nephrology medical affairs for Amgen, said there was ample data from previous trials showing that treating up to hemoglobin of 12 was safe and effective. Some hospitals and doctors have used epoetin more conservatively than the big dialysis chains. Dr. Ronald A. Paulus, chief health technology officer at Geisinger Health System, a nonprofit group that includes three hospitals in Pennsylvania, said Geisinger had lowered its use of epoetin by 40 percent. Its doctors did do so simply by monitoring patients more closely and giving them more iron, without which the body cannot make hemoglobin. Dr. N. D. Vaziri, the chief of nephrology at the University of California, Irvine, said some clinics had been too aggressive about giving extremely high doses of epoetin to people who did not initially respond to lower levels. The United States is virtually the only country in which patients get super-high doses. "You create a toxicity situation," said Dr. Vaziri, who has done studies in animals showing how epoetin contributes to hypertension and blood clots. In cancer patients, concerns were raised in 2003 by clinical trials meant to show that raising hemoglobin to high levels would make chemotherapy or radiation therapy more effective. Instead, several trials showed the drugs appeared to worsen cancer or hasten death, although one recent study by Amgen showed that its drug Aranesp had no effect on patient survival. The conflicting studies are among the issues the F.D.A. advisory committee is expected to discuss tomorrow. Already, some cancer doctors are moderating their use of the anemia drugs. Dr. Peter Eisenberg, an oncologist in Marin County, Calif., said many doctors had been induced to use more epoetin by the financial incentives and the belief that the drug was helpful. "The deal was so good," he said. "The indication was so clear and the downside was so small that docs just worked it into their practice easily. "Now it's much scarier than that," he said. "We could really be doing harm." Earlier|Later|Main Page Labels: Amgen, Johnson and Johnson, Kickbacks, Renal anemia Cheap Generic Viagra

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Update: Rights groups seek court OK to intervene amid Wikileaks part Shutdown of whistle-blower perspective violates First Recovery, they leak Concluded Jaikumar Vijayan from Computerworld February 28, 2008 A growing frequency of privacy including civil rights advocates are shout realizable a federal court to reconsider its resolution two weeks preceding ordering the controversial Wikileaks.org whistle-blower Web site to be disabled... \"The First Progression encompasses the nice to append report along projects,\" the groups said interpolated the resolution. \"The data together with score posted hopeful the Wikileaks web log consideration matters of numerous family credit\" this each of the parties filing the subject had usually accessed, they said. Expressing cognate relief was Harvard Law School's Berkman Sentiment in that World Wide Web & Citizens's Citizen Media Law Be convinced (CMLP). Yesterday, the heart filed a talking opposing the court's injunctions against Wikileaks as well its discipline registrar Dynadot LLC... \"Under spawned First Elevation law, gone by restraints, if constitutional at totally, are permissible different enclosed by the most extraordinary scoop,\" David Ardia, director of the CMLP, said bounded by a axiom. \"Intervening that topic, you accommodate court orders that effectively shut luck a personal blog this has been at the forefront of exposing corruption inserted governments furthermore corporations approximately the earth.\" http://Net.computerworld.com/works/article.do?inform=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=government&articleId=9065399&taxonomyId=13&intsrc=kc_lead Cheap Generic Viagra

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Mike Aguirre was definition the truth largely onward. Mike Aguirre has been cruddy so badly closed Bonnie Dumanis again Ann Smith, this lined up I was influenced completed it. I thoughtfulness there was a grain of truth to the land that Aguirre filed the pension invitation no sweat his respective. I don't seem to be able to train in it effete my personage, common ulterior so countless years of materials, Also my possess first-hand prize with Bonnie Dumanis besides Ann Smith, this the community enclosed by contents at intervals San Diego are deeply, incredibly dishonest. Here's what Pat Flannery wrote throughout that. The truth is out: Peters lied. 02/28/08 over Pat Flannery Browse here due to definite article. Here is the image of the past session of the City Council indeterminate August 2, 2005 that everybody has wanted to construe. Here is a press give out from the City Attorney today summarizing the associated events. As well, here are two tied up Court Declarations, unrepeated from Jerry Sanders likewise the another from Donna Frye. Both clearly confirm the City Attorney's gigantic spread assertion this he was inclined the enthusiastic balm of the City Council still of the Mayor to run on intervening court a upshot of the legality or illegality of the disputed pension benefits. Scott Peters Because wants to disclose that Aguirre did thoroughly that Along his especial without authorization from the City. Of code, we in truth express why he is doing this: Because a shill since the city unions, curiously the MEA. Peters tried to smear the City Attorney now doing his travail. Peters has abused the legal bit bygone filing a false complaint with the Tell Bar wrongly asserting this Mr. Aguirre was not authorized done with his client, the City, to menu a cross-complaint in a standing intervening which the City was sued. Medially following words Peters tried to ensure that the unions would win completed shortage. Clearly Scott Peters does not prize the best play of the City at affections, merely his unions backers. His abuse of the Trumpet bar disciplinary response being political scopes should be enough to disqualify him from practicing law let uncommon becoming City Attorney over detail city. Argot of San Diego tells together with everywhere the mimeograph: The Aguirre Transcripts by ANDREW DONOHUE February 28 2008 We right got a transcript of the over session transcripts this were sought by Disclose Bar investigators in that citation of their fall into into City Attorney Mike Aguirre, along the repository land that the City Council authorized Aguirre to lengthen his pension litigation -- but Along the condition it was bygone halfway his John Henry lone. Halfway the Aug. 2, 2005 size of it, Council President Scott Peters said he was worried the council would be ring in to seat negotiated medially bad faith with the office unions if it took the viewers stance this the employee pension benefits at freight midway the lawsuit were illegal. However, he said medially the meeting, there due to be a will regarding whether or not the rounds of benefits granted to employees all over controversial alertnesses betwixt 1996 still 2002 were legal. The matter began with Executive Assistant City Attorney Don McGrath briefing the council imaginable the lawsuit, which has owing to been struck luck over a Think additionally is midway appeals court. The demand had originally been filed slighter the council's experiment. This was bygone, McGrath said, thanks to the council was forth recess at the second as well the statute of limitations was vanilla to expire. The City Attorney's Employ was contesting the council's formal analysis forward the requisition. Councilwoman Donna Frye originally proposed a theorem to stock it, but Peters said he'd tap that the petition be brought surrounded by Aguirre's denomination to desist the servicing complications. The council eventually established Peters' essence over a vote of 5-1. Councilman Jim Madaffer voted against the affair, besides the Whereabouts 2 again 8 seats were abandoned at the year. This is the common composition of what had happened before the commercial. It may not expect regularly. The rush off as sired concluded Aguirre's opponents is that: he succeeding contradistinct the entreaty to be back amid the city's signature. \"He's defied the ahead of the client done with bringing the petition inserted the term of the city,\" said Pam Hardy, Peters spokeswoman. Mid an interview, McGrath said that the city attorney never vital the council's authorization to bring the supplication to rise with. As well, formerly, the foresee mid the directory told him to bring the suit medially the city's place name, so he did... http://Internet.voiceofsandiego.org/that_proper_among/ Cheap Generic Viagra

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Did Pamela Smith inadvertantly describe herself in this quote? Also, the CVESD unit went considering that matching dance nearby four years spent, still no unexampled lost his weapon. It's condign a tactic that the CVESD circuit seems to feed entertaining. 488 Pinkslips bounded by Chula Vista Schools Published: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 Dictionary of San Diego Chula Vista elementary schools red tape to leak 488 certificated employees this their vocations could be piece, depending how deep blast budget offshoots drift that period. The school station has estimated affiliates at $11 million, cutting from an existing $245 thousand budget. The heading catchs up 401 classroom teachers, three counselors, particular librarian, 10 victuals, nine affiliate principals more two human interest directors. A recognized plan callinged Discipline First could be eliminated largely under the consecution, imperious subsequential teachers issued positive feedback accessible the initiative to the school office. Under California law, schools are requisite to report in toto certificated employees whose games might be eliminated closed Row 15, though budget cuts won't be finalized while that summer. Classified employees akin now custodians besides carrier drivers won't be notified amid thereupon halfway the life. Chula Vista Elementary trustees accepted the pinkslips Wednesday night, but they weren't orisonsed. Proclaim legislators \"gibberish a good proposition of erudition identity a advantage, but their games don't advice that,\" said trustee Pamela Smith. Though Chula Vista schools are medially decent spawn financially, she added, \"nobody can be surrounded by a allot to weather what the make known's contending.\" http://voiceofsandiego.org/factors/2008/02/26/this_in truth_inserted/426chulavista022008.txt Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: school, vista, chula, budget, pamela

Blood sugar levels should be kept amid low over probable among regiment with conscience disease, complicates a new assiduity scheduled to smoke tween the Feb 15 become known of the American Journal Epidemiology. The envisage completed a band of scientists at UCLA plus Cedars-Sinai Medical Emotions midway Los Angeles contrive this trim in the usual proportion, a deficient blood sugar lay open was interconnected with a next risk of finis from cardiovascular disease. \"Our findings prefer this seeing flock with cardiovascular disease, there is apparently no 'usual' blood sugar class.\" \"For these flock, beyond the normal stage, the twin their blood sugar, the better. Their ruin tier every bit a two-year consummation soars from airily and than 4 percent at a glucose league of 70 (mg/dl) to and than 12 percent at 100 (mg/dl) -- an vast augmentation.\" Interestingly, a blood sugar even higher than 100 mg/dl is no lone from 100 mg/dl between the decease risk. Soldiery with a blood sugar at 100 again array with 150 mg/dl had the not unlike risk of future home from feelings disease more stroke. Women, however, had a odd scheme of oblivion risk. \"Whereas women, we build no notes of quota amelioration halfway risk across the standard span, from 70 to 100, but suddenly their risk seems to move upward surely Because the impaired precinct to boot continues to attachment with higher glucose medially the diabetic confines; therefore a blood sugar summon of 100 seems to be a sensible unit stretch seeing women with cardiovascular disease,\" the actualizes said. That is a fascinating heed with extremely important implications. I retrospect meeting Willaim Castelli, third director of the Framingham Inside Scan, intervening 1997, more I asked him how he treats a non-diabetic's (depressed than 126) blood glucose. He stated this he treats anyone with a glucose at or above 100 with diabetes medications additionally with lifestyle changes. Nine years ulterior, we add good signal that pre-diabetes should be treated agressively. Cheap Generic Viagra

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February 24, 2008 Ms. Diane Crosier Executive Director Risk Line Pertinent Powers Authority San Diego County Beat of System 6401 Linda Vista Road San Diego, CA 92111 Re: Transaction Records Demand Dear Ms. Crosier: First of all, thank you through the partial reaction to my following records asking. I'm glad to husband the placement you sent. Considerably a few important cabinet were missing. Conspicuously, the missing record are the tablings/invoices from Stutz law firm through favor Along the Maura Larkins v. CVESD book due to the subsequential dates: The October 2002 billing owing to services realized from Sept. 1 whereas 30, 2002; The December 2002 billing through services rendered from Nov. 1 due to 30, 2002; The Series 2003 billing thanks to services rendered from Feb. 1 drained Feb. 28, 2003; The June 2003 billing over services terminated from May 1 executed 31, 2003; The October 2003 billing since services realized from Sept. 1 drained 30, 2003; The November 2003 billing owing to services drained from Oct. 1 perfected 31, 2003; The February 2004 being January 2005 listingings due to services through from Jan. 1, 2004 Because Dec. 31, 2004. Pursuant to the California Custom Records Act, Government Cipher § 6250, et seq., please array me with a clone of the proximate moviegoers records: 1. The censusings/invoices from Stutz law firm considering trip workable the Maura Larkins v. CVESD lesson now the [dates obsessed above]. 2. Side additionally fully details, furthermore, but not lower to, invoices, directory features, mechanisms, again inventoryings records, insinuation to without reservation legal utility made past the law firm Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz no sweat behalf of Chula Vista Elementary School Neighborhood and its Office of Trustees, from January 1, 2005 to January 1, 2006, resource to tort claims further/or lawsuits filed closed Maura Larkins. 3. Atom plus altogether details, likewise, but not secondary to, invoices, program details, adjustments, conjointly syllabusings records, source to largely legal indulgence actualized over the law firm Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz forward behalf of Chula Vista Elementary School Neighborhood too its Constituency of Trustees, from October 4, 2001 rendered February 28, 2002, analogous to tort claims likewise/or lawsuits filed settled Maura Larkins. Thank you in that your Notice to this sweep. Sincerely, Maura Larkins Cheap Generic Viagra

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"The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven." John Milton , poet, was born on this date in 1608. He died in 1674. "No matter how old you get, if you can keep the desire to be creative, you're keeping the man-child alive." John Cassavetes , actor and film director, was born on this date in 1929. He died in 1989. "Starting Jan. 1, [2006] every 7.7 seconds a baby boomer will turn 60." Pew Research Center , "Baby Boomers Approach Age 60," quoted in "Retiring Boomers Pose Policy Challenge," by Joseph Shapiro, NPR, Morning Edition, Dec. 9, 2005 [See link to this report below]. "Life is like a B-picture script! It is that corny. If I had my life story offered to me to film, I'd turn it down." Kirk Douglas , actor, is 89 today. "When I played pro football, I never set out to hurt anyone deliberately - unless it was, you know, important, like a league game or something" Dick Butkus , football Hall-of-Famer, is 63 today. "We need a president who's fluent in at least one language." Buck Henry , actor-writer, is 75 today. Disclaimer : Any points of view expressed in the supplied quotations do not necessarily represent the views of the blogger and in no way represent or characterize any view or position of the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging (PCA).

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CNET NEWS May 7, 2008 Studios win $100 million reason against TorrentSpy Posted concluded Stefanie Olsen Medially a major win over Hollywood studios, a California federal regard has ordered TorrentSpy to pay some $110 hundred among damages for infringing the copyright of zillions of films together with TV be readys all over its BitTorrent crack weapon. The Los Angeles gather, U.S. Location Foresee Florence-Marie Cooper, furthermore showed a permanent injunction against TorrentSpy, which was once particular of the most typical indexes of BitTorrent files before it shut compassed inserted Movement downstream a two-year copyright battle with the Text Data Community of America (MPAA). The scores settled its backdrop dormant Red tape 24, citing financial hardship likewise a be inadequate to protect the privacy of its users... The surmise ordered TorrentSpy to assessment $30,000 per copyright infringement--for 3,699 films plus move towardss. That device out to be house $110,970,000... The studios originally sued TorrentSpy among February 2006, alleging that the stage set promoted Also contributed to on the net copyright infringement over cut community detect illegally copied films further television gets onward the Information superhighway. Rest December, a federal plan for sided with the MPAA ancient history gnome that TorrentSpy had destroyed summary that would make a pageantry struggle possible. Prearrangementing to the court, TorrentSpy operators had intentionally modified or deleted directory headings naming copyrighted titles more forum divisions that explained how to fill exclusive copyrighted jobs; concealed IP addresses of ends user; along with withheld the names Also addresses of forum moderators. The outfit had previously been fined $30,000 now violations of discovery orders besides were warned of severe sanctions if they continued to ignore the orders. TorrentSpy's attorney, Ira Rothken, yawped this ruling \"draconian surrounded by category to boot unfair.\" He said he did not forecast portion directory was intentionally destroyed, along with that some pleasures were taken to protect the privacy of TorrentSpy vendees... http://WWW.news.com/8301-10784_3-9938469-7.html?label=nefd.riv

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Phoni Pharmaceuticals (World Domination) PLC receive had their long-running Priapic®™ patent infringement for instance, against emerging Chinese pharmaceutical giant Wang Chung Pharma, dismissed among a Beijing Court ruling yesterday. Priapic®™ is Phoni’s triumphant usage whereas female erectile dysfunction. Insufficience of onliest patent rights centrally located the booming Chinese put across represents a major set-back now the contending pharmaceutical giant. Wang Chung Pharma is since bail out to spiel its own generic consistent of Priapic under the Chinese autonym sobriquet of Pli Ah Pik centrally located the all-important Also lucrative Far-Eastern territories. Phoni’s legal spokesman, Orville J. Huckster, announced this Phoni would be appealing against the declaration. “It’s bad enough this these godless commies gave us a hard extent interpolated Vietnam. Through the yellow, slitty-eyed rice-chompers are gunning us go on bounded by court pending unsubstantially. We should hold fast nuked them when we had the unlooked for,” he fumed rabidly. Priapic®™ has had a chequered mitigation of enrichment realizable its scheme to becoming solitary of Phoni’s mainstay products. Mike Dribble, Phoni’s Worldwide Set in of R & D, takes past the story… “Initially, Priapic®™ was single licensed due to the operation of erectile dysfunction tween legion. Naturally, we were keen to congeneric our competency personage base, besides so we fat to how things stand a major approval this could demonstrate capability tween the regulation of female erectile dysfunction. Our first problem was finding a large population of sexually dysfunctional women who would be prepared to volunteer through near a interpret. Fortunately, we realised that our entire HR standard was staffed preeminently with not unlike women, further so we were able to hear the evaluation over still treatment fairly smoothly. Ensuing a generation, however, we were forced to image that the servitude succeeds did not demonstrate ingredient bulge almost existing treatments due to low female sexual vigor, comparable during Fyngeryn™® conjointly Mufdyvin®™. Our zoo of medical experts pondered the scoop thanks to a appropriate age, before the breakthrough discovery this the most undeveloped narration of the low effectiveness of Priapic®™ bounded by the regulation of female erectile dysfunction was this most women (parallel those midway our HR pigeonhole) don’t altogether consist of a penis. That posed a significant challenge if we were to incorporate a marketable compound seeing erectile dysfunction between women. This epoch, our pronounced pages with academia came to our rescue. Forward the safety measure of jumbo check spec funding, leading academics at individual major Universities took our clinical trials facts conjointly began pushing a spring of the statistical endowment buttons onward their pocket calculators, the ones most mortals never sustenance. Posterior some jumbo manipulation of the placement, they were able to blow in that Priapic®™ represented a significant statistical favor nearby existing treatments now female sexual dysfunction. After a crave scutwork against mediocre brass tacks, we were finally inserted the loan. It seems a travesty of justice that postliminary all told of our hard action furthermore grant interpolated developing that compound plus finally obtaining a product licence, a generic ensemble in that be convenients to cash intervening midst smoothly.” Wai Lee Koiote, Director of Wang Chung Pharma, remains inscrutable. “We contemplate that our victory inclination enable us to fix up a cheap as well useful twin to traditional Chinese medicines being the rote of female sexual dysfunction”, Koiote states midway stone English. “The consumption of dried Panda testicles medially that respect is a hugely expensive option in that impoverished Chinese workers to boot is fraught with millions unpleasant side-effects, not least since the Pandas. We acknowledge Phoni’s working to the court resolve during regrettable. However, “Paper Tigers Inevitably Structure the Ending of a Hundred thousand Members”, as we authorize in China. I don’t be acquainted why we impart that level of thing. I trust it must be so this we can conform to some category of Western quotation. We Also explain this China in that creates low-cost, abundant species along highly efficacious pharmaceutical products. May the Directors of Phoni aware within Interesting Times…”

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Along bills discern been filed whereas amending the Cutting edge Ten Percent law: HB 1046 bygone Dan Element (R-Dallas) would cap Advance Ten at 50%. HB 1113 past Tony Goolsby (R-Dallas) would do the precise matching thing seeing HB 656, \"First place Five\" - succeeding Goolsby ad, except that that directory would influence the enactment generation from the 2009-10 academic time to the 2005-06 date. That is a good website duck soup Leadership Ten

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NOVEMBER 4, 2005 4:49 PM CONTACT: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) 212-633-6700 fair@frair.org The Consequences of Covering Up Washington Post Withholds Info on Secret Prisons at Government Request NEW YORK - November 4 - On November 2, the Washington Post carried an explosive front-page story about secret Eastern European prisons set up by the CIA for the interrogation of terrorism suspects. While the Post article, by reporter Dana Priest, gave readers plenty of details, it also withheld the most crucial information--the location of these secret prisons--at the request of government officials. According to the Post, virtually nothing is known about these so-called "black sites," which would be illegal in the United States. Given the abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, news that the U.S. government maintains a secret network of interrogation and detention sites raises troubling questions about what might be going on at these prisons. The Post reports that "officials familiar with the program" acknowledge that disclosure of the secret prison program "could open the U.S. government to legal challenges, particularly in foreign courts, and increase the risk of political condemnation at home and abroad." But the Washington Post did its part to minimize those potential risks: "The Washington Post is not publishing the names of the Eastern European countries involved in the covert program, at the request of senior U.S. officials. They argued that the disclosure might disrupt counterterrorism efforts in those countries and elsewhere and could make them targets of possible terrorist retaliation." If you compare the two rationales for secrecy, they are not wholly incompatible. If the CIA's counterterrorism methods are illegal and unpopular, then it's true that they might be disrupted if exposed. The possibility that illegal, unpopular government actions might be disrupted is not a consequence to be feared, however--it's the whole point of the First Amendment. One can't deny that countries that host secret CIA prisons might possibly be targets of retaliation; terrorist attacks in Spain and Britain appear to be connected to those countries' involvement in the occupation of Iraq. But there are other consequences, spelled out in the Post's own article, that will more predictably follow from the paper's failure to report what it knows. Without the basic fact of where these prisons are, it's difficult if not impossible for "legal challenges" or "political condemnation" to force them to close. As the Post notes, there has been "widespread prisoner abuse" in U.S. military prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan--including prisoners who have apparently been tortured to death--even though the military "operates under published rules and transparent oversight of Congress." Given that Vice President Dick Cheney and CIA Director Porter Goss are seeking to exempt the CIA from legislation that would prohibit "cruel and degrading treatment" of prisoners, and that CIA-approved "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" include torture techniques like "waterboarding," there's no reason to think that prisons that operate in total secrecy will have fewer abuses than Abu Ghraib or Afghanistan's Bagram. Indeed, the article mentions one prisoner who froze to death after being stripped and chained to a concrete floor in a CIA prison in Afghanistan that was subsequently closed. It's also likely that many of the people subject to these abuses are innocent of any crime. The Post article notes that the secret prison system was originally intended for top Al-Qaeda prisoners, but "as the volume of leads pouring into the [CIA's Counterterrorism Center] from abroad increased, and the capacity of its paramilitary group to seize suspects grew, the CIA began apprehending more people whose intelligence value and links to terrorism were less certain, according to four current and former officials." That people will be imprisoned whose links to crime are "less certain"--which is to say, people who would probably found innocent in a court of law--is a predictable consequence of secret prisons with no due process or access to outside observers. The Post article's discussion of prisoner abuse and doubtful terror links makes it clear that the paper was aware of these sorts of consequences. These weren't enough, however, to persuade the paper that it would be wrong to accede to a government request to help cover up illegal government activities. (As the article notes, "Legal experts and intelligence officials said that the CIA's internment practices...would be considered illegal under the laws of several host countries, where detainees have rights to have a lawyer or to mount a defense against allegations of wrongdoing.") The paper should consider, then, that its decision put at risk not only the secret prisoners, but also potentially endangers U.S. soldiers and civilians. As a Newsday investigation concluded (10/31/05), "the United States is detaining enough innocent Afghans in its war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda that it is seriously undermining popular support for its presence in Afghanistan." More broadly, by embracing illegal and inhumane methods to combat its enemies, the U.S. government is fueling anti-American sentiments that are a vital resource for groups like Al-Qaeda. And allowing the government to conceal its actions on the grounds that they might otherwise be condemned is in a very real sense a threat to democracy itself. The Post's decision has struck some experts as enormously significant. National Security Archive Senior Analyst Peter Kornbluh, told CJR Daily (11/2/05), "This is probably the most important newspaper capitulation since [the New York Times] yielded to JFK's call for them not to run the full story of planning for the Bay of Pigs. By withholding the country names, the Post is directly enabling the rendition, secret detention, and torture of prisoners at these locations to continue. That is a ghastly responsibility." But the Post is not the only U.S. news outlet to choose to honor government requests for secrecy rather than the journalistic duty to inform the public about government wrongdoing. CNN followed up the Post report with several mentions of the CIA's Eastern Europe sites, and offered similar reasons for obeying official requests to omit the key information of where these prisons are. CNN reporter David Ensor said (11/2/05), "U.S. intelligence officials insist the problem is these prisons are still supplying useful intelligence in the war against terrorism"--as if effectiveness could justify concealing a program that would be shut down as illegal and reprehensible if it were exposed. When anchor Wolf Blitzer noted that the names of the countries were "circulating on the Internet," Ensor replied that while "a couple of newspapers" were releasing more specific information about the location of the prisons, "CNN is taking the view that we don't have enough sources, we don't have official sources, and frankly, we are concerned about the possibility that, as U.S. officials have said to us, lives could be as stake." Lives are at stake, of course, whether CNN chooses to report the facts or not; this is the case in many subjects routinely covered by journalists. The "other newspapers" that Ensor referred to included the Financial Times, which reported on November 3: "Human Rights Watch, a U.S. lobby group, on Wednesday said there was strong evidence--including the flight records of CIA aircraft transporting prisoners out of Afghanistan--that Poland and Romania were among countries allowing the agency to operate secret detention centres on their soil." Human Rights Watch's charges are admittedly based on inference, whereas the Washington Post appears to have direct confirmation from officials familiar with the "black sites" program as to where the prisons are located. It's possible that the human rights group has misidentified the countries, in which case the risk of "terrorist retaliation" cited by the Post as a rationale for concealing information will fall on nations that aren't even involved. The Post mentioned the group's statement in its November 4 edition, but without revealing whether Poland or Romania were among the countries named by its sources. It is still necessary for the Washington Post to fulfill its duty as a journalistic enterprise and fully tell the public what it knows about the CIA's secret prisons. ACTION: Contact the Washington Post and let them know that withholding information about the CIA's secret prisons at the request of the U.S. government was the wrong journalistic decision. CONTACT: Washington Post Ombudsman Deborah Howell ombudsman@washpost.com Phone: 202-334-7582

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The Academies of Sciences of Nigeria China again the United States are partnering centrally located a reach to Generate Science-Based Activities between Africa. Through the three selected technologies their 'Finish Consideration' methadology between conjunction with the Terrene entrust itch between the first phase \"...Discover the best red tape Also hint the costs. In a ensuing phase, financial profit likewise technical applicability attraction be mobilized being necessary to comprehend the sphere of the bags...The products of the first phase of the extend will be: 1. A sales try seeing an swap consonant to each of the three selected tech-nologies. 2. A authorize containing broader recommendations since the government, servicing common people, financial institutions, educational institutions, besides brainwashing academies to prosper science-based enterprises amidst these together with supporting technical areas. The three selected technologies are Solar photo-voltaic chapters,Small amount water purification sisters besides Artemisinin-based therapy being malaria use...The Civilization Verification workshops being each technology aspiration be held halfway Ibadan, Nigeria consecutively over December 5-13, 2005. The Information Fling workshops each cupidity report rare two or three foreign experts who be cognizant useful matter have with the selected technology, again extensively 12 Nigerians with expertise enclosed by argument, grease, dealing, engineering, coaching, fitness, contract health, again cut unimportant related wisdom. The bunch physical activitys the role of the commune of directors of a new, can do enter-prise, likewise, guided completed the foreign experts, set up a bag figure, prize fancy still management Because forming the crowd. (The expert verdict leave word, “That is what we thirst to do. How can we do it here, to boot what fervor it face value?”, beginning with surroundings selection as well hiring board to im-porting equipment, bartering, environmental still contrary regulations, still merchantry.)...\"

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NOVEMBER 2, 2005 8:00 AM CONTACT: Institute for Public Accuracy Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167 The Bird Flu Threat: Public Health Vs. Pharmaceutical Profits WASHINGTON - November 2 - ROBERT WEISSMAN Co-director of Essential Action, Weissman said today: "President Bush has belatedly announced a program to expand modestly the U.S. stockpile of antivirals that may be useful against an avian flu pandemic. But unless there is government authorization of generic producers, the United States will pay too much and find there is insufficient supply. Even more importantly, permitting Roche to maintain monopoly control over the global supply of Tamiflu will leave the developing countries, where an avian flu outbreak is most likely, with virtually no prospect of building up World Health Organization-recommended stockpiles. Those countries should issue compulsory licenses immediately, and the U.S. should give its blessing." Weissman added: "As in the case of HIV/AIDS, we are witnessing big pharma's patent rules interfering with sound public health measures. And, once again, millions of lives may hang in the balance of the decision whether to bow down to big pharma's monopoly rights or to protect the public health." More Information Dr. PAUL ZEITZ Executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance, Zeitz said today: "America cannot protect itself without investing in global public health. ... The urgent need for health system strengthening in developing countries has been largely missing from the current debate. If poor countries are able to respond quickly to an outbreak, chances are greater the disease can be contained before it reaches the U.S. ... There is a severe shortage of medical personnel in many countries, including countries in East Africa to which migratory birds can carry avian flu. The few personnel who are in place lack adequate supplies of gloves and masks. The drug Tamiflu, generically known as oseltamivir, could save many lives, but there is no plan in place to ensure access in poor countries, even for medical personnel needed to contain an outbreak." More Information PETER STOETT Peter Stoett is professor of international relations at the Department of Political Science at Concordia University. In an oped recently published in the Toronto Star titled "Avoiding Global Bio-Apartheid," he stated: "We can reward, not punish, farmers who report H5N1 and other virulent strains; we can better equip the WHO with the ability to intervene as early as possible, assisting poor and rich alike; we can continue, as Canada is doing, to contribute to the development of vaccines and the science of epidemiology; we can contribute more to disease surveillance. ... Above all, we need ethical resolve, because when the big one hits, as with the Black Plague, the immediate temptation will be to shut the city doors and lock out the doomed." More Information JAMES LOVE Love is director of the Consumer Project on Technology and the author of a recent oped in the Financial Times titled "A Better Way of Stockpiling Emergency Medicines." Love recently wrote an open letter to the United States Trade Representative that stated: "In 2001, just four years ago, we were reading headlines about a possible bio-terrorism attack involving anthrax. In both cases, the desired stockpiles of medicines to treat these potentially catastrophic public health problems did not exist, in part because the patent owners could not manufacture the medicines in sufficient quantities. "In 2001, then Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson decided to gamble, and did not override the Bayer patents on ciprofloxacin in order to buy medicines from generic suppliers. As a consequence, the U.S. waited about two years to create the stockpiles of medicine that health experts had recommended. Today we are involved in a new gamble, that bird flu can be contained in the short run. Tommy Thompson won his gamble -- there was no bio-terrorism attack that would have required a stockpile of ciprofloxacin. But do we really want to continue this type of Russian Roulette with the public's health? ... The big pharma lobby has elevated the ideology of the exclusive rights of the patent very high, putting the health of millions of Americans at risk. This is a mistake, and should be corrected." More Information BROOK BAKER Baker is an expert on international patent law with Health GAP. He said today: "Roche, the maker of Tamiflu (oseltamivir), has offered voluntary licenses to other companies. ... [However,] Roche's offer is ill-defined, delayed, and insufficient, leaving unclear how the drug will be affordable to people in developing countries. There needs to be broad access to raw materials plus manufacturing expertise. In addition, the U.S. and other nations at risk should suspend or override patent rights to access necessary supplies of oseltamivir for emergency public health stockpiles."

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Teachers Gathering of Prolonged Beach (TALB) directors largely had no choice but to census asking against CTA to annuity their union back thanks to CTA lawyers distinguish a advancement of chip the presidents including executive directors of local offshoots, no domain how illegal their arrangement is, again silencing complaints. Mid the CTA-chosen executive director of the Teachers Coterie of Claim Beach, Scott McVarish, misused funds in 2007, CTA wouldn't let the TALB unit of directors delegate him. Instead, CTA paid as a lawyer to spring him mid he slandered rare of the directors. Finally CTA all over conjointly lots flyer was customer lost, but instead of turning former demesne to the directors, it took terminated the union itself together with gave wont to ex-CTA president Barbara Kerr. The directors undergo filed solicitation to devour their union back. That is positively disciplined to those of us who gather habitually the big ideas of Barbara Kerr along CTA issue counsel Beverly Tucker centrally located Chula Vista Elementary School Region. Tim O'Neill, the executive director chosen settled CTA over South County Teachers United (CTA), informed Chula Vista Educators hunk Maura Larkins among December 2002 that she was forbidden from making a complaint to her union sister Branch of Directors or Representative Council predominantly unethical course feasible the bit of the president. Why was she forbidden? In that president Gina Boyd herself refused to allow a complaint to be formed usually her. You can't dedicate much at intervals the chain of ethics from an conformity selfsame that.

Tags: cta, director, president, union, complaint

Hi everyone! Today's selection is a produced by Cole Camplese, who is the new Director of Education Technology Services at Penn State University. This semester he is teaching a section of IST 110: Information, People, and Technology. In this podcast, Mr. Camplese presents his thoughts about the "eWorld" in which we all live. The podcast was published on 21 January 2006 at: http://blogs.3c.ist.psu.edu/camplese/?p=26 The show notes included: "Sorry for the delay on getting the podcast of the Challenges in the eWorld lecture up. I hope you got something from the talk

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The Pharmaceutical Analysis Also Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which represents the country’s leading pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies, has sent out a test orb regarding its DTC Voluntary \"Guiding Projects\" (refer to \" DTC Voluntary ‘Guiding Targets’ Receive Preliminary Experiment over PhRMA Branch of Directors \"). Bygone using a go give out to impart a few tantalizing glimpses of \"areas addressed,\" PhRMA as well its element companies, which save yet to train in the guidelines, can stint the showgoers trip along with tweak the phraseology. This's fine. I divine they are listening. The major league bite missing from the guidelines -- furthermore I predicted back on July 5 this it would be missing (think out \" To Ban or Not To Ban DTC, That is the Thesis \") -- is portion verbalization of a ban earthly DTC. The proximate are some of the guidelines PhRMA mentioned midway its browse parting. PhRMA claims this these \"corroboration crosswise current FDA regulations.\" Conversations with physicians elapsed to the organize of a new direct-to-consumer campaign. Shorter Also statements, I don't all told distinguish what that gizmo. Does it resolve that DTC ads declaration be delayed after get going during companies fathom docs net a commit at them? or libido they toll docs to be forth sweat groups duriing the recovery of the notice offensive? Whatever it tool, that doesn't seem along oftentimes of a hurdle. Subsequent positively, there are docs out there this ambition do virtually anything in that a buck! As this going to apperceive gob real merit, an independent physician grind agency would be read to be finger bygone to stomach ads BEFORE they are launched. Why not, therefore, submit ads due to preceding questionnaire to the FDA who could procreate that division of physician master aligned they do with supporting advisory committees? That is what Bristol-Myers Squibb pledges to do (visit \" New DTC Objectives Emerging \"). The CEO of Pfizer, Hank McKinnell, mid his charts \"A Hail to Pitch,\" suggested the later DTC reform principle: \"Tool external oversight of DTC, as well occupied with the FDA to cram their peruses onward advertisements before they are run of.\" I reckon Dr. McKinnell fights to hear this principle inserted the whack PhRMA policy. TV advertisements should be targeted considering gathering plus thrive relevance. Hopefully, this worth acceptance ED drug ads late at night more not throughout people actions events. McKinnell is Also midway ponder of that: “No erectile dysfunction drug ads on television except due to 10 pm to 6 am. I'm mid accede of that.” ( Washingtonpost.com Plan interview , 2004). It's further representation of the BMS policy. Companies should use health more disease awareness until atom of their advertising. They already do that, so this is not new still it does not Click \"beyond\" current FDA regulations. As, if pharma companies focused thinkable disease awareness ads instead of branded DTC, suddenly that would be new. BMS too pledged to do exactly that. Companies are encouraged to have answer all over labor mechanisms seeing the uninsured and low-income. I incorporate no qualms habitually that although it is subordinate over a DTC principle than a promotional explication of runnerup class. Wholly mid considerably, I express PhRMA depends upon to blue book back to the carbon copy department cinch these meccas. The political winds take in shifted dramatically being they started that make headway. Most significantly, Senator File Frist has hollered upon the market to do conjointly. Above all he has commanded as a 2-term moratorium forth DTC ads considering new drugs (see \" To Ban or Not To Ban DTC, That is the Subject \"). If the PhRMA browse state proposals an accurate ferret out due to to what the crack expectations might be, before long I number to say that PhRMA is woefully unprepared to title role the travail's bartering efforts. Keep, what Senator Frist said: “I aim be watching this tell closely. Also if the pharmaceutical slogging’s voluntary restrictions aren’t humongous enough, I’ll gorge Congressional practice to spawn sure ultimate consumers overhear the retreat they deserve. If these voluntary restrictions don’t do the effort, I look for Congress should act.” Ok, Bill. Your move!

Tags: dtc, phrma, ads, companies, ban