An interesting item crossed my desk today. Michigan comes to market with transportation refunding deal This appears to be a PR attempt by the Governor that Michigan can borrow (via bonds) and nothing will change in consideration of the fact that the Governor Snyder and his emergency manager, Kevin Orr have included guaranteed bonds by the city …
“For 29 years, I have defended clients facing marijuana charges in the District. At every initial appearance, without fail, the judge admonishes the defendant either to stay in school or to hold down a job. But most employers in this town will not hire entry-level workers who do not have a police clearance. What crime is increasingly tripping up those looking for work? Possession of marijuana. In 1995, police in the District arrested about 1,850 people for having pot. By 2011, the number had skyrocketed to more than 6,000. There are twice as many marijuana arrests in the District as there are students graduating from D.C. high schools each year.” Continue reading →
“Police in Arlington, Texas are being criticized for their tactics during a drug raid on a local farm that came up empty while allegedly damaging both the property and the crops. Several residents at the ‘Garden of Eden’ sustainability garden were handcuffed at gunpoint by officers during the Aug. 2 raid, which also involved a SWAT team, after an undercover officer and helicopter surveillance allegedly gave authorities probable cause to believe there was marijuana being grown on the premises. ‘They came here under the guise that we were doing a drug trafficking, marijuana-growing operation,’ owner Shellie Smith told WFAA-TV. ‘They destroyed everything.'” Continue reading →
“One doesn’t often think of cancer cells themselves being vulnerable to infections, but a team of scientists in Ottawa, Ontario is using advanced mathematical modeling to engineer viruses that will infect and destroy cancer cells. The team uses predictive modeling to investigate how treatment techniques and genetic modification might allow cancer-killing (oncolytic) viruses to overcome cancer cells’ anti-infection defenses and kill them. Kaern and Bell constructed a mathematical model of the process of infection of a cancer cell with an oncolytic virus, including how the virus would replicate, spread itself and override the cancer’s biological defenses.” Continue reading →
“Researchers at the University College London announced Sunday in a study published by the journal Nature Cell Biology that they’ve observed for the first time ever how cancer spreads throughout the body and metastasizes, which causes about 90 percent of all cancer deaths. Meanwhile, another major breakthrough in recent days should give hope to breast cancer patients. Scientists at the Duke Cancer Institute announced on Saturday that a drug already on the market in Europe, approved to treat osteoporosis, has the added benefit of stopping late-stage breast cancer growth in its tracks.” Continue reading →
“After progress in a second round of tests using stem cells to regrow nerve fibres, the China Spinal Cord Injury Network (ChinaSCINet) has applied for regulatory approval in China for a third and final phase, which it hopes to start in the autumn. 15 out of 20 patients in the Chinese city of Kunming, who received umbilical cord blood cell transplants and intensive walking therapy, were on average able to walk with minimal assistance seven years after complete spinal cord injury. The treatment involves injecting umbilical cord blood mononuclear cells into patients’ damaged spines to help regenerate nerves, while lithium is used to promote the growth of the nerve fibres.” Continue reading →
“Gene scientists on Wednesday said that in lab-dish cells, they had found a way to switch off the rogue chromosome that causes Down’s syndrome. The breakthrough opens up the tantalising goal of therapy for Down’s, they said, cautioning that years of work lie ahead before this aim is reached — if, in fact, it is attainable. Down’s syndrome is the world’s leading genetically caused mental disease, accounting for around one in 600 live births in the United States. It is the first time that correction has been achieved for an entire chromosome, a coil of DNA that is studded with hundreds of genes, the protein-making codes to build and sustain life.” Continue reading →
“Told that the woman had been sleep-driving 10 months previously and had a fondness for the beach, police ordered patrol cars to keep a lookout for her silver hatchback and began tracking her via her mobile phone. They said data showed the phone was on and she was sending texts as she drove from her Hamilton home to the beachside town of Mount Maunganui via Auckland, a distance of almost 300 kilometres (190 miles). After five hours on the road, she was finally found slumped over the wheel of her car in the driveway of a house she used to live in, with no recollection of her sleepy sojourn.” Continue reading →