Kamis, 08 Maret 2012

Family of Florida boy killed by Neighborhood Watch seeks arrest


 Family of Florida boy killed by Neighborhood The family of a 17-year-old African-American boy shot to death last month in his gated Florida community by a white Neighborhood Watch captain wants to see the captain arrested, the family's lawyer said on Wednesday.

Trayvon Martin was shot dead after he took a break from watching NBA All-Star game television coverage to walk 10 minutes to a convenience store to buy snacks including Skittles candy requested by his 13-year-old brother, Chad, the family's lawyer Ben Crump said.

"He was a good kid," Crump said in an interview, adding that the family would issue a call for the Watch captain's arrest at a news conference on Thursday. "On his way home, a Neighborhood Watch loose cannon shot and killed him."

[Related: Fla. teen avoids deportation]

Trayvon, who lived in Miami with his mother, had been visiting his father and stepmother in a gated townhome community called The Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford, 20 miles north of Orlando.

As Trayvon returned to the townhome, Sanford police received a 911 call reporting a suspicious person.

Although names are blacked out on the police report, Crump and media reports at the time of the shooting identified the caller as George Zimmerman who is listed in the community's newsletter as the Neighborhood Watch captain.

Without waiting for police to arrive, Crump said, Zimmerman confronted Trayvon, who was on the sidewalk near his home. By the time police got there, Trayvon was dead of a single gunshot to the chest.

"What do the police find in his pocket? Skittles," Crump said. "A can of Arizona ice tea in his jacket pocket and Skittles in his front pocket for his brother Chad."

Zimmerman could not be reached for comment on Wednesday evening at a phone number listed for him on the community's newsletter.

Crump said the family was concerned that police might decide to consider the shooting as self defense, and that police have ignored the family's request for a copy of the original 911 call, which they think will shed light on the incidents.

"If the 911 protocol across the country held to form here, they told him not to get involved. He disobeyed that order," said Ryan Julison, a spokesman for the family.

"He (Zimmerman) didn't have to get out of his car," said Crump, who has prepared a public records lawsuit to file on Thursday if the family doesn't get the 911 tape. "If he never gets out of his car, there is no reason for self-defense. Trayvon only has skittles. He has the gun."

Since Trayvon, a high school junior who wanted to be a pilot, was black and Zimmerman is white, Crump said race is "the 600 pound elephant in the room."

"Why is this kid suspicious in the first place? I think a stereotype must have been placed on the kid," Crump said.

Iditarod Musher Dramatically Revives Fallen Dog


Commitment and attachment to one's dog can reach admirable levels, but a moment this week in the Iditarod showed just how far one owner would go to keep his prized pup alive.

Scott Janssen (seen at right with his sled team at the start of the race) was forced to make a decision when his dog collapsed while they were making their way down the Dalzell Gorge in Alaska. Marshall, Janssen's 9-year-old husky, suddenly fell in a heap in the midst of pulling hard at Janssen's sled.

"Boom! Laid right down. It was like a guy my age having a heart attack," Janssen told the Anchorage Daily News. Janssen is an Anchorage funeral home owner, who has dubbed himself "The Mushing Mortician."

When he rushed to Marshall's side, the outlook wasn't good.

"I know what death looks like, and he was gone. Nobody home," Janssen, an Iditarod sophomore (he finished 42 out of 47 last year), said.

For a musher devoted to his dogs, it was a heart-wrenching moment at the worst possible time. The Iditarod is a grind, forged by the will of the musher and his dogs, and the bond they share.

"I was sobbing," he said. He began mouth-to-snout CPR -- compressing the husky's chest and doing his best to breathe life into him. "I really love that dog."

Two dead in shooting at Pittsburgh hospital


Two people were killed in a shooting at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center on Thursday, and one of the dead was believed to be the shooter, the hospital said.
Seven other people were wounded in the shooting at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, UPMC said in a Twitter posting.
"Police have told us there were 9 total victims ... 2 of whom have been confirmed dead," UPMC said on Twitter.
"According to police, 1 of 2 confirmed dead... is believed to be the shooter," it said on Twitter.
Earlier reports of a second shooter were inaccurate, UPMC said.
UPMC spokeswoman Allison Schlesinger said victims were taken to the UPMC Presbyterian Emergency Room.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said a UPMC police officer had been shot in the leg.
The incident began at about 2 p.m.
An eyewitness said police were escorting people out of the psychiatric institute, and police were going into the building with bomb-sniffing dogs.
Pittsburgh city police had officers at the scene but could not yet provide details, a spokesman said. A university police spokesman said he had no information to report.
Measures have been put into place to secure hospital patients and staff, UPMC said on Twitter.
(Reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst in New York; Editing by Daniel Trotta and Eric Walsh)

Seven Million Pounds of “Pink Slime” Beef Destined for National School Lunch Program


McDonald's and Taco Bell have banned it, but now the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is picking up 7 million pounds of beef containing ammonium hydroxide-treated ground connective tissue and meat scraps and serving it up to America's school kids. If you thought cafeteria food was gross before….

Related: What You Need to Know About the New Meat and Poultry Labels

According to TheDaily.com, the term "pink slime" was coined by microbiologist Gerald Zirnstein, formerly of the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service. He first saw it being mixed into burger meat when he was touring a Beef Products Inc (BPI) facility in 2002 after an outbreak of salmonella. "Scientists in D.C. were pressured to approve this stuff with minimal safety approval," Zirnstein told The Daily.

"Pink slime," which is officially called "Lean Beef Trimmings," is banned for human consumption in the United Kingdom. It is commonly used in dog and chicken food. Celebrity chef and safe food advocate Jamie Oliver featured the substance and called for its ban on the April 12, 2011 episode of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, which may have influenced McDonald's to stop using beef patties containing the filler.

Reportedly, Zirnstein and his colleague Carl Custer studied the substance and classified it as a "high risk product." Custer, who worked at the Food Safety Inspection service for 35 years, says, "We looked at the product and we objected to it because it used connective tissues instead of muscle. It was simply not nutritionally equivalent [to ground beef]. My main objection was that it was not meat."

Another issue is the ammonium hydroxide, a chemical that is used to kill pathogens such as E. coli. The FDA considers it safe for human consumption but a 2009 expose by the New York Times questioned its safety and efficacy. Some food advocates are asking for meat containing "pink slime" to be labeled. It's used in about 70% of ground beef in the US. "We don't know which districts are receiving what meat, and this meat isn't labeled to show pink slime. They don't have to under federal law," Bettina Siegal, a writer and mother of two who created TheLunchTray.com told NBC. Siegel has started a petition to demand the USDA stop using the product in the National School Lunch Program.

Would you allow your kids to eat ground beef mixed with "pink slime?" Let us know in the comments below.

Blue People Look for Genetic Connection to Kentucky Fugates


Genetic Connection to Kentucky Fugates Kerry Green was a "blue baby," born in 1964 in Tulsa, Okla., and his family was given little hope that he would live because of a malformed aorta.

But by 3 years old and several heart surgeries later, Green was being described by doctors as a "miracle child," small for his age at 23 pounds, but a "real live wire."

What doctors didn't know then was that the boy had a more serious underlying condition, a rare blood condition called methemoglobinemia -- the same disorder that affected the Blue Fugates of Kentucky.

"I was picked on as a kid in elementary school because I am blue," said Green, who is now 46. "I look dead. My lips are purple and my fingernails and toes are dark."

Today, Green lives in Seattle and is disabled, but he said he believes finding a genetic connection to the Fugates may help him learn more about the father he never knew.

Kerry Green spent two months in an Oklahoma Hospital and was expected to die.

"I am positive my father had the condition -- they all told me," said Green. "I did see one kind of blurry picture of him and you could almost see it. He's got the pale look I do."

Raised by his grandparents, Green said he doesn't even know if his father is alive. Bob Green, who would be 67, had been a long-haul truck driver with relatives who had migrated west from Kentucky.

A sister was put up for adoption and Green doesn't know the whereabouts of two brothers. His mother wandered in and out of his life.

"I just want to know where I came from and to know that side of my family history," said Green. "It's hard to describe and it's kind of weird not knowing where the condition of mine came from. People have pointed out the Fugates to me before."

Seven generations of the Fugates lived an isolated pocket of Appalachia, passing down a recessive gene that turned their skin blue through in-breeding.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the mountain people dispersed, and the family gene pool became much more diverse. Other relatives, perhaps like Green's paternal relatives, scattered throughout Virginia and Arkansas.

Even today, "you almost never see a patient with it," said Dr. Ayalew Tefferi, a hematologist from Minnesota's Mayo Clinic. "It's a disease that one learns about in medical school and it's infrequent enough to be on every exam in hematology."

In the mildest form, methemoglobinemia causes no harm, and most of the Fugates lived well into their 80s. But in Green's case, his body is starved of oxygen and every organ is affected.

Methemoglobinemia is a blood disorder in which an abnormal amount of methemoglobin -- a form of hemoglobin -- is produced. Methemoglobin cannot effectively release oxygen.

Hemoglobin is responsible for distributing oxygen to the body and without oxygen, the heart, brain and muscles can die.

"I don't breathe very well," said Green. "The red blood cells don't give me enough oxygen."

Green's condition was such an anomaly that hematologists at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston paid for him to fly East several years ago just to study him.

A former construction worker and welder, Green is married and has two children --- 27 and 15 -- neither of whom has the disorder.

Most of what is known about methemoglobinemia comes from one doctor's study of the Fugate ancestry in the early 1960s. Dr. Madison Cawein III, a hematologist at the University of Kentucky's Lexington Medical Clinic, drew family charts and blood samples to better understand the genetic disorder.

The most detailed account, "Blue People of Troublesome Creek," was published in 1982 by the University of Indiana's Cathy Trost.

The ancestral line began with a French orphan, Martin Fugate, who settled in Eastern Kentucky. Isolation and in-breeding passed on the disorder.

The last in the direct line of Fugates to inherit the gene was Benjamin "Benjy" Stacy, whose skin at birth was "as Blue as Lake Louise," according to doctors at the time. He now lives in Alaska, according to Facebook.
Mother and Grandmother Were Blue

Green is not the only person to wonder if there is a genetic connection to the Blue Fugates.

Jennifer L. Adams Horsley of Hartford, Ind., said she is certain that her mother-in-law, Amanda Susan Parker Horsley, was descended from the family.

"She was from the upper regions of Kentucky," she said. "Her lips and nail beds were perpetually blue."

"They were like that almost all the time," said Horsley, 62, and a retired nurse. "The color depended on when she got upset or was cold. It was so pronounced that everybody thought she was sick."

Parker died at 73 of liver cancer nine years ago, "So we may never know," said her daughter-in-law.

Amanda Susan Horsley had blue-tinged skin and so did her mother.

The family presumes that Parker's mother, Mary McCleese Parker, also had the condition.

"My grandmother was blue," said Horsley's husband John H. Horsley. "Everyone thought it was real odd."

He grew up in Ohio, but his parents had met in Carter County, Kentucky. The Horsleys said they know of no other children or grandchildren who inherited the gene for methemoglobinemia.

"It was never diagnosed and doctors were baffled," said Jennifer Horsley. "I don't think they had even heard the name."

Methemoglobinemia may be passed down through families or can be caused by exposure to certain drugs, chemicals or foods.

In Green's case, the disorder was genetic and occurs when there is a problem with the enzyme called cytochrome b5 reductase.

In type one, the red blood cells lack the enzyme. In type 2 -- also called hemoglobin M disease -- the enzyme doesn't work anywhere in the body.

Green has M disease, which is caused by defects in the hemoglobin molecule itself and can be passed down from only one parent.

The disorder once saved his father's life, according to a story told by Green's mother. "A woman shot him five times and he didn't bleed out because his blood was so thick."

For that very reason, Green takes three different blood-thinning drugs to prevent blood clots and morphine for the pain.

"I have found a way to live around it the best I can," he said. "It's caused me a lot of emotional problems.

As for finding his father, "I would really like to more about how he grew up with it and how he dealt with it. My father and I never met, but come to find out, we are a lot alike.

How Often Should You Wash Your Hair?


About 90% of Americans shampoo daily. One hundred years ago, people only washed their hair monthly, and in the 1950s, it was customary for women to have their hair washed and set once a week at the salon.

Related: Eight Things Your Hair Says About Your Health

A clean head of hair feels fresh and smells great but over-washing can turn one's healthy locks into a pile of straw. The average person's hair grows less than half an inch per month so long strands that have been subjected to a lot of shampooing (as well as chemical treatments, blow drying, and the elements), tend to get dried out and dull at the ends and even break off. Dirtier hair-gasp-also holds a style better.

How often you need to shampoo depends on how oily your scalp is and your hair's texture. Oil-known as sebum-travels more easily down smooth, straight hair, making it look greasier faster. Sounds a little gross, but sebum helps moisturize and waterproof the hair shaft. This is one reason why curly or coarse hair is drier. When you wash every day, you typically strip off this natural moisturizer and then have to slather it back on in the form of commercial conditioner.

Joe Murray, owner of Hale Organic Salon in New York City, tells Yahoo! Shine that shampooing a couple of times a week is plenty. "If you can't stand a being a little oily, then coat your wet hair with conditioner up to the ears to protect it and then just wash the scalp." On gym days, try simply rinsing with water instead of shampooing and finish with a light conditioner to detangle. Another tip Murray offers is to "spot clean around the hairline with a little dry shampoo. It will also help stretch the time between blow outs."

Shampooing does stimulate the scalp, which brings blood flow and healthy nutrients to the hair follicles. As an alternative, Murray is a fan of a gentle daily scalp massage and regular brushing with a good quality hairbrush.

People with flaky scalps may be inclined to shampoo frequently, but dermatologist and spokesperson for the American Academy of Dermatology, Nia Terezakis, MD says this can actually exacerbate the problem. "When you have a flaky scalp its not dirty, its dandruff or a form of psoriasis," she explains to Yahoo! Shine. "Use a shampoo formulated for dandruff and let it sit on your scalp for 20 seconds before rinsing." You can follow up with a separate shampoo and conditioner of your choice, "But don't scrub," she advises. "It will flake even more."

When you choose a shampoo, Terezakis says to pick a product that is made for your specific hair type whether it be oily, dry, limp, curly, etc. "Companies spend a lot of money on cosmetic chemists and different products really do work." One exception: "Baby shampoos aren't necessarily gentle on adult hair," she warns. "They are made because babies squirm. They don't sting the eyes but they can be drying."

If you are used to washing your hair daily, it can take a few weeks to get used to a new routine. You may be over producing sebum to compensate for stripping the scalp. Gradually increase the days between shampooing and see if your hair becomes healthier and takes more time to appear dirty as a result.