Findings in small group hint that DNA-based therapy could work
By Nathan Seppa
Web edition: June 27, 2013
Using an experimental DNA-based therapy, scientists might slow the self-destructive immune reaction against insulin-making cells that causes type 1 diabetes. The finding, appearing in the June 26 Science Translational Medicine, represents a promising but preliminary advance toward devising a treatment for the condition, which often strikes in childhood.
Lawrence Steinman of Stanford University and his colleagues injected 26 volunteers weekly with placebos. Another 54 got the experimental treatment, which is designed to dampen the body?s immune reaction against insulin-making beta cells in the pancreas. In diabetes patients, rogue CD8 T cells attack a protein on beta cells called proinsulin, a precursor compound that becomes insulin after modification. The attack sabotages beta cells and insulin production.
The experimental treatment contains replacement DNA for the gene encoding proinsulin. Patients who received the DNA for 12 weeks apparently made altered proinsulin proteins that signal the immune system to rein in the rogue T cells. After five months, levels of the T cells declined in treated patients. The patients also showed stabilization and even improvement in measures of insulin production after 12 weeks, suggesting that the therapy might arrest beta cell destruction, the authors say. But both changes didn?t last long after treatment ended.
?Styled in Britain, Owned In China? (The New York Times)
?For more than two centuries, Gieves & Hawkes at No. 1 Savile Row in London has been creating suits for the men of the British royal family ? including the dark navy one that Prince William wore 2010 to announce his engagement to Kate Middleton. Yet today, in the upscale IFC Mall in Hong Kong, it is common to see a customer from mainland China trying on a double-breasted blazer similar to one owned by the prince and happily paying 12,000 Hong Kong dollars, or $1,550, for it. This quintessential British brand, owned by Trinity Limited of China, now has its largest customer base in China and has been gathering a tailor?s knowledge of these new clients? ?I want to maintain the British aristocratic accent but move the collection in a more international direction,? said Jason Basmajian, former artistic director of the Italian men?s wear house Brioni, who was appointed creative director of Gieves & Hawkes early this year.?
?Shop Rents Driven by Cashed-up Youth? (South China Morning Post)
?Shop rents in most mainland cities are expected to increase steadily as retail sales continue to grow on the back of a vast market of young, fashion-conscious shoppers who are willing to spend a significant proportion of their monthly incomes in stores, says property consultancy CBRE. The trend will not be confined to the first-tier cities, and tier-two cities, which are on the radar of international retailers, are expected to see a steady rise in new entrants to their retail markets.?
?Hong Kong?s I.T Limited Will Open Three New Mainland China Outlets? (China Retail News)
?Hong Kong fashion apparel retailer I.T Limited plans to invest HKD300 million to enhance its position in Hong Kong while expanding its business map in mainland China by opening three new stores in Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin in July 2013. In addition, its new store in Chengdu is expected to open at the end of 2013 or the beginning of 2014. The group?s largest project in 2013 is the new Galeries Lafayette project, which will be open in September in Beijing. Located in Xidan, the new Galeries Lafayette is a joint operating project by I.T Limited and Galeries Lafayette Group. With an area of five million square feet, the new Galeries Lafayette department store will have specialty stores of various brands, including Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Fendi, Chloe, and Givenchy. Those stores will cover 70% of the total area; while the remaining 30% will display products and brands sold via I.T. By opening four new stores, I.T will have 11 stores in mainland China.?
?The ?China Price? Is Not Right? (Jing Daily)
?Foreign brands in China are expensive. This is not just in relation to China?s lower income level: due to a mixture of duties, taxes, logistics costs, and price positioning, the price of foreign brands in China typically ranges from 30 to 80 percent more expensive than in their home markets. Among China?s sophisticated consumers, the price gap between China and the rest of the world has become common knowledge?especially among the aspirational and affluent white-collar workers who are expected to drive growth in the premium and luxury segments. These consumers are increasingly global and savvy in their purchasing behavior, have the opportunity to shop abroad, and are increasingly doing so. In an ongoing SmithStreet study of Chinese luxury customers in Europe, for example, every single respondent has essentially stopped buying luxury goods in mainland China, citing price as the primary (and typically solitary) reason.?
?Americans Exit Harrods Top 10 As Chinese Flock To London Store? (Bloomberg)
?The days of Americans being the biggest overseas shoppers at London?s Harrods store are over. While seven years ago U.S. visitors were the top foreign spenders at the purveyor of luxury fashions and specialty teas, they are now outnumbered by wealthy customers from China and the Middle East, according to Managing Director Michael Ward. ?It is probable today that America will not feature in our top 10 of overseas customers because of the growth of the east and the mineral- and oil-rich nations,? Ward, who has been in charge for more than seven years, said in an interview in his office at the 164-year-old store. China is ?by far No. 1.??
Human Main trait: Adaptable Life span: 70-100 years Average Height: 5'2"-6'2" Average Weight: 100-200 lbs
Humans in Chrome are widespread, can be found in most regions and, in general, are fierce and disagreeable, which can sometimes lead certain other races to view them with contempt. They are renowned for their diversity and ambition, and although they lack specialization, they can excel in many areas. Regardless of their precise origins, humans have been undeniably successful. While hardly the only dominant race of Chrome, humans are one of them and the most recent to obtain dominance. In spite of this strength, or perhaps because of it, humanity is an eternally fractured and divided race, broken up into over a dozen ethnic offshoots. It is believed that this is in part because humanity, unlike most other races, did not emerge as a whole but rather in several places at once, thereby resulting in its diversity.
The average human isn't as hardy as the average dwarf or as nimble as the average halfling. The average elf has a greater knack for arcane magic, and the average orc is certainly stronger. But human adaptability and energy makes the concept of an "average" human pretty nebulous. Individually, humans are vastly different from one another. Two humans chosen at random have less in common with each other than two elves -- and if the two humans come from different cultures, they might have less in common with each other than an elf and a dwarf do.
The Human mind is a strange amalgam of nostalgia and futurism, being enamored of past glories and wistfully remembered ?golden ages,? yet at the same time quick to discard tradition and history and strike off into new ventures. Relics of the past are kept as prized antiques and museum pieces, as humans love to collect things?not only inanimate relics but also living creatures?to display for their amusement or to serve by their side. Other races suggest this behavior is due to a deep-rooted urge to dominate and assert power in the human psyche, an urge to take, till, or tame the wild things and places of the world. Those with a more charitable view believe humans are simply collectors of experiences, and the things they take and keep, whether living, dead, or never alive, are just tokens to remind themselves of the places they have gone, the things they have seen, and the deeds they have accomplished.
Humans are fecund, and their drive and numbers often spur them into contact with other races during bouts of territorial expansion and colonization. In many cases, this tendency leads to violence and war, yet humans are also swift to forgive and forge alliances with races who do not try to match or exceed them in violence. Proud, sometimes to the point of arrogance, humans might look upon dwarves as miserly drunkards, elves as flighty fops, halflings as craven thieves, gnomes as twisted maniacs, and hybrids as embarrassments and so on?but the race's diversity among its own members also makes many humans quite adept at accepting others for what they are.
Human society throughout Chrome's history seems to be in a state of constant flux as empires fragment and new kingdoms subsume the old. In general, humans are known for their flexibility, ingenuity, and ambition. Other races sometimes envy humans their seemingly limitless adaptability, not so much biologically speaking but in their willingness to step beyond the known and press on to whatever might await them. While many or even most humans as individuals are content to stay within their comfortable routine, there is a dauntless spirit of discovery endemic to humans as a species that drives them in striving toward possibilities beyond every horizon.
At the current day there is only one major human civilization. The Republic of Ebony which is the 1st democratic nation in a thousand years and its only about three hundred years old (youngest country in Chrome). Although Humans are scattered in settlements all across the world.
RELIGION
Humans are both more religious and less religious than members of the other races. They are less religious in that many humans do not care about religion, and no deity can claim the worship of more than a fraction of humanity. Yet they are more religious in that their variety comfortably supports dozens of faiths, each with adherents more numerous than those of many nonhuman deities.
Less Religious: Humans' drive and energy sometimes get in the way of religious matters. Some humans are too practical or too busy with mundane concerns to spend time praying to a being they cannot see, have never met, and receive nothing from. Humans generally demand tangible assistance from a deity's church before they offer their fealty in return. Humans naturally juggle multiple allegiances (to family, to country, to community, and so forth), and some just don't have room in their lives for a religious relationship.
Another barrier that keeps humans from embracing religion is that humans don't have a cohesive mythology and a set pantheon. The dwarves know that Dumath fathered them, and the gnomes know they're the creation of Garl Glittergold. Humans are not so certain of their origins, and no major deity demands their exclusive allegiance. Some humans claim that Pelor is the greatest of the gods, but others worship Heironeous or Kord with equal fervor. Because humanity has so many gods, no one deity can win the allegiance of the entire race.
More Religious: Many humans are adaptable enough to work all sorts of religious practices into their daily lives. Once a bond between deity and human worshiper is established, it quickly grows strong. "The goddess Ulariis says I have to get up before dawn to pray to her," thinks the human. "But Ulariis makes sure the fields around the city grow lots of wheat, so it's definitely worth it." In exchange for a benefit, whether tangible or intangible, a human is willing to change her routine and follow the dictates of a particular religion.
Some humans do worship a deity in a profound and deep way. In fact, those humans with faith are so staunch in their convictions that their single mindedness frightens even dwarves. After all, many dwarves know the god Dumath is their ultimate father, and that he watches over them -- it's an obvious fact that no one in dwarven culture would deny. But a deeply religious human has chosen a deity from among dozens of equally powerful gods, and she maintains that religious allegiance despite being surrounded with humans who don't agree with that choice.
At its basic definition, call tracking utility tells a business or organization which ad campaign or marketing method is very effective and which is not through tracking the number of the phone calls that are made from a specific ad campaign.
Many businesses and huge companies assume that their marketing campaigns and ads are working and that they generate leads randomly from one to another. So, they kept spending on the same campaigns that they once have had without minding the expenses. What they mistook a lot is that they do not know which ad generates leads.
Many advertisers failed to know if the potential customer is calling because they found a listing on Google, or through receiving a flier in the mail, or clicked through an online banner, or watched on TV or heard over the radio. If you are so keen enough, most of the business websites will add a special poll question at the bottom of their page to inquire about where do you find their article or website.
Call tracking allows businesses to know which form of advertising or campaigns that keep the phone ringing. This helps them stop wasting money on the ads that aren?t so effective and focus on a campaign that is more effective in driving buying customers instead.
How Does this Work?
Okay, let?s start with the most basic example. Let?s say you own a medium sized business. You occasionally do direct mail ads, radio commercials, banner ads, you listed your business on an online directory and Google PPC campaign. The call tracking software will assign a unique phone number to each of the campaigns and then the database will show you which ad or phone number generates the phone call and which is not.
You no longer need a tracking code after the call is connected or a coupon to bring into the store. You will simply put a unique phone numbers on each of the marketing pieces and wait which is working.
Who Could Benefit from Call Tracking?
If you pay to advertise elsewhere, especially on more than one platform, you could benefit from using call tracking software. You could waste a lot of revenues allotted for marketing campaigns if you do not use call tracking to identify which platform serves the utmost purpose.
Other Uses of Call Tracking Utility
Aside from the above functions, call tracking software also offers several other tools like call recording, call tagging, lead scoring, and goals and alerts.
Call recording allows you to record every call that comes in through a tracking number. You can also use call recording to gather customer feedback, concerns, problems, track employees customer handling performance and held them accountable, improve sales skills, improve customer service and gather important marketing data.
Call tagging allows you to tag or label calls in accordance to their marketing lead quality. The example is when a customer is calling simply to check the price but is not interested in buying the product, you can tag the call as ?far away from sale? or ?cold lead.?
Lead scoring allows you to score the call on certain criteria you choose to measure the lead quality. For instance, you can use the lead scoring to measure whether or not the caller is going to buy the product within 30 days, or whether they don?t have the money to buy now, or whether they are just hunting around.
Goals and alerts allows you to set goals and alerts for campaign ROI. You can use this tool to set a goal to generate specific amount of income from specific advertising campaign or set a goal to close a number of deals from specific ad campaign. It will also alert you when the deadline of your goals is approaching via text message or email.
With these crucial tools, you will never waste another amount of penny paid on advertising that does not work.
About the author...
Steven Wright ? who has written 1 posts on ShoeMoney.com.
Steven Wright is a Marketing Expert at Dial800. His task is to reach out prospective clients through online marketing, and promotes their company's online social presence. He is passionate about virtual phone business, call tracking and the wonders of inbound marketing. You can connect with Steven via Twitter at @Dial800.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - China and Russia rejected U.S. accusations they helped a former U.S. spy agency contractor escape prosecution in the United States, deepening a rift between powers whose cooperation may be essential in settling global conflicts including the Syrian war.
Edward Snowden, charged with disclosing secret U.S. surveillance programs, left Hong Kong for Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on Sunday. The U.S. State Department said diplomats and Justice Department officials were holding discussions with Russia, suggesting they were looking for a deal to secure his return to face espionage charges.
An airport source said the 30-year-old American, who has asked for asylum in Ecuador, had flown in on Sunday and had been booked on a flight to Cuba on Monday but had not got on board.
Journalists camped out at the airport have not spotted him inside, or leaving, the transit area, and say a heavy security presence has been relaxed for the past 24 hours. He has not registered at a hotel in the transit zone, hotel sources say.
A receptionist at the Capsule Hotel "Air Express", a complex of 47 basic rooms decorated predominantly with grey carpets and grey walls, said Snowden had turned up on Sunday, looked at the price list but then left.
U.S. officials admonished Beijing and Moscow on Monday for allowing Snowden to escape their clutches but the United States' partners on the U.N. Security Council, already at odds with Washington over the conflict in Syria, hit back indignantly.
"The United States' criticism of China's central government is baseless. China absolutely cannot accept it," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in Beijing, also dismissing U.S. criticism of Hong Kong, a Chinese territory, for letting Snowden leave.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied suggestions Moscow had helped Snowden in any way, including by allowing him to fly into Sheremetyevo.
"He chose his itinerary on his own. We learnt about it ... from the media. He has not crossed the Russian border," he said. "We consider the attempts to accuse the Russian side of violating U.S. laws, and practically of involvement in a plot, to be absolutely groundless and unacceptable."
Lavrov's insistence Snowden had not entered Russia implies he has not left the airport transit area, used by passengers flying from one non-Russian airport to another without going through passport control or requiring an entry visa.
The transit area is Russian sovereign territory, but it could be argued that in staying there Snowden had not formally entered the country - a move that could implicate President Vladimir Putin in helping a fugitive.
Interfax news agency quoted a source "in the Russian capital" as saying Snowden could be detained to check the validity of his passport if he crossed the Russian border.
Snowden is travelling on a refugee document of passage provided by Ecuador, the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said.
Putin is not shy of celebrating people who challenge Washington, but has an interest in keeping relations with the United States on track as both sides try to improve security cooperation and arrange a peace conference on Syria.
U.S. DISCUSSES SNOWDEN WITH RUSSIA
Jay Carney, a spokesman for the White House, said it was Washington's assumption that Snowden was still in Russia.
Snowden, whose exposure of the surveillance raised questions about civil liberties in the United States, flew to Moscow after being allowed to leave Hong Kong even though Washington had asked the Chinese territory to detain him.
Snowden, until recently a contractor with the U.S. National Security Agency, had been expected to fly to Havana from Moscow on Monday and eventually go on to Ecuador, according to sources at the Russian airline Aeroflot.
There is no direct flight from Moscow to Quito, which has said it was considering Snowden's asylum request.
Ecuador, like Cuba and Venezuela, is a member of the ALBA bloc, an alliance of leftist governments in Latin America that pride themselves on their "anti-imperialist" credentials. The Quito government has been sheltering WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at its London embassy for the past year.
The airport source confirmed Snowden was travelling with Sarah Harrison, a legal researcher working for WikiLeaks.
"She (Harrison) came together with Edward Snowden from Hong-Kong on June 23 around 5 p.m.," the source said. "He had a ticket to go to Havana on the 24th, but he did not use it. She also had one, but she didn't use it either."
DEFIANCE
With Snowden's whereabouts a mystery, U.S. President Barack Obama, may face prolonged embarrassment from a young man leading the world's lone superpower on a global game of hide and seek.
Obama told reporters his government was "following all the appropriate legal channels working with various other countries to make sure the rule of law is observed".
But U.S. officials said intelligence agencies were concerned that they did not know how much sensitive material Snowden had in his possession and that he may have taken more documents than initially estimated.
He could publish more documents or they could get into the hands of foreign intelligence. The Kremlin denies knowledge of any contacts between Russian officials and Snowden, despite media speculation the security forces could be questioning him.
Carney said his escape would damage U.S.-China relations and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Snowden's activities could threaten the security of China and the United States.
"People may die as a consequence to what this man did," he told CNN. But to his supporters, Snowden is a whistle blowing hero who exposed the extent of U.S. surveillance activities.
(Additional reporting Gabriela Baczynska and Lidia Kelly in Moscow, Alexandra Valencia in Quito, Mark Felsenthal, Paul Eckert and Mark Hosenball in Washington and Katya Golubkova in Havana, Writing by Elizabeth Piper and Timothy Heritage, editing by)
There's a new pest invading many American towns, and it's about as menacing as it sounds: the Asian tiger mosquito.
Named for the black-and-white stripes on its body, the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) was first brought to Texas in a shipment of tires (which are notorious for holding the standing water that mosquitoes require for breeding), the Wall Street Journal reports.
The bug is worrisome for several reasons: Unlike other mosquitoes, the aggressive Asian tiger bites all day long, from morning until night. It has a real bloodlust for humans, but also attacks dogs, cats, birds and other animals. [Sting, Bite, Destroy: Nature's 10 Biggest Pests]
"Part of the reason it is called 'tiger' is also because it is very aggressive," Dina Fonseca, associate professor of entomology at Rutgers University, told the Journal. "You can try and swat it all you want, but once it's on you, it doesn't let go."
The Asian tiger mosquito joins other insects now threatening U.S. residents. Gallinippers (Psorophora ciliata), for example, are a type of shaggy-haired mosquito whose bite reportedly feels like being stabbed; they're currently found throughout much of Florida.
But few insects are as effective at spreading illness as the Asian tiger mosquito. The pest transmits more than 20 diseases, according to the Cornell Chronicle, including West Nile fever, dengue fever, yellow fever and two types of encephalitis.
Additionally, the mosquitoes transmit the chikungunya virus, the Chronicle reports. Though the disease is rarely fatal, chikungunya causes debilitating symptoms, including severe joint pain, fever, achiness, headache, nausea, vomiting, rash and fatigue.
There's no vaccine to prevent chikungunya and no treatment; people usually recover in a few weeks. But while they're infected with the virus, they can be bitten again by another mosquito, which could then spread the disease to someone else, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Since its introduction to the United States in the 1980s, the Asian tiger mosquito has spread to 26 states, primarily in the eastern United States, the CDC reports. The bug is also established in South and Central America, southern Europe and several Pacific islands.
Part of its success at spreading throughout the world is due to a warming climate, but the Asian tiger mosquito has one other pesky adaptation: Its eggs are tough enough to survive a cold winter, according to Science News.
If there's a silver lining to this story, it might be this: The Asian tiger mosquito is displacing another disease-carrying mosquito species, Aedes aegypti. Every time a male Asian tiger mosquito mates with a female A. aegypti, chemicals in his semen make her sterile, Science News reports.
But this also means Asian tiger mosquitoes are expanding their territory. Experts recommend removing all sources of standing water, wearing insect repellent and covering up with long sleeves and pants to avoid the bloodthirsty mosquitoes ? and the diseases they spread.
Follow Marc Lallanilla on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? A deeply divided Supreme Court on Tuesday halted enforcement of the federal government's most potent tool to stop voting discrimination over the past half century, saying it does not reflect racial progress.
In a 5-4 ruling, the court declared unconstitutional a provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act that determines which states and localities must get Washington's approval for proposed election changes.
President Barack Obama, the nation's first black chief executive, issued a statement saying he was "deeply disappointed" with the ruling.
The decision effectively puts an end to the advance approval requirement that has been used, mainly in the South, to open up polling places to minority voters in the nearly half century since it was first enacted in 1965, unless Congress can come up with a new formula that Chief Justice John Roberts said meets "current conditions" in the United States.
Roberts, writing for a conservative majority, said the law Congress most recently renewed in 2006 relies on 40-year-old data that does not reflect racial progress and changes in U.S. society.
"The coverage formula that Congress reauthorized in 2006 ignores these developments, keeping the focus on decades-old data relevant to decades-old problems, rather than current data reflecting current needs," Roberts said.
Obama was sharply critical of the ruling and called on Congress to reinvigorate the law.
"While today's decision is a setback, it doesn't represent the end of our efforts to end voting discrimination," the president said. "I am calling on Congress to pass legislation to ensure every American has equal access to the polls."
That task eluded Congress in 2006 when lawmakers overwhelmingly renewed the advance approval requirement with no changes in the system by which states and local jurisdictions were chosen for coverage. And Congress did nothing in response to a high court ruling in a similar challenge in 2009 in which the justices raised many of the same concerns.
Tuesday's decision means that a host of state and local laws that have not received Justice Department approval or have not yet been submitted will be able to take effect. Prominent among those are voter identification laws in Alabama and Mississippi.
Going forward, the outcome alters the calculus of passing election-related legislation in the affected states and local jurisdictions. The threat of an objection from Washington has hung over election-related proposals for nearly a half century. At least until Congress acts, that deterrent now is gone.
That prospect has upset civil rights groups which especially worry that changes on the local level might not get the same scrutiny as the actions of state legislatures.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined by her three liberal colleagues, dissented from Tuesday's ruling.
"Hubris is a fit word for today's demolition" of the law, Ginsburg said.
She said no one doubts that voting discrimination still exists. "But the court today terminates the remedy that proved to be best suited to block that discrimination," she said in a dissent that she read aloud in the packed courtroom.
Ginsburg said the law continues to be necessary to protect against what she called subtler, "second-generation" barriers to voting. She identified one such effort as the switch to at-large voting from a district-by-district approach in a city with a sizable black minority. The at-large system allows the majority to "control the election of each city council member, effectively eliminating the potency of the minority's votes," she said.
Justice Clarence Thomas was part of the majority, but wrote separately to say again that he would have struck down the advance approval requirement itself.
Civil rights lawyers condemned the ruling.
"The Supreme Court has effectively gutted one of the nation's most important and effective civil rights laws. Minority voters in places with a record of discrimination are now at greater risk of being disenfranchised than they have been in decades," said Jon Greenbaum, chief counsel for the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. "Today's decision is a blow to democracy. Jurisdictions will be able to enact policies which prevent minorities from voting, and the only recourse these citizens will have will be expensive and time-consuming litigation."
Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said, "This is like letting you keep your car, but taking away the keys."
The decision comes five months after Obama started his second term in the White House, re-elected by a diverse coalition of voters.
The high court is in the midst of a broad re-examination of the ongoing necessity of laws and programs aimed at giving racial minorities access to major areas of American life from which they once were systematically excluded. The justices issued a modest ruling Monday that preserved affirmative action in higher education and will take on cases dealing with anti-discrimination sections of a federal housing law and another affirmative action case from Michigan next term.
The court warned of problems with the voting rights law in a similar case heard in 2009. The justices averted a major constitutional ruling at that time, but Congress did nothing to address the issues the court raised. The law's opponents, sensing its vulnerability, filed several new lawsuits.
The latest decision came in a challenge to the advance approval, or preclearance, requirement, which was brought by Shelby County, Ala., a Birmingham suburb.
The lawsuit acknowledged that the measure's strong medicine was appropriate and necessary to counteract decades of state-sponsored discrimination in voting, despite the Fifteenth Amendment's guarantee of the vote for black Americans.
But it asked whether there was any end in sight for a provision that intrudes on states' rights to conduct elections, an issue the court's conservative justices also explored at the argument in February. It was considered an emergency response when first enacted in 1965.
The county noted that the 25-year extension approved in 2006 would keep some places under Washington's oversight until 2031 and seemed not to account for changes that include the elimination of racial disparity in voter registration and turnout or the existence of allegations of race-based discrimination in voting in areas of the country that are not subject to the provision.
The Obama administration and civil rights groups said there is a continuing need for it and pointed to the Justice Department's efforts to block voter ID laws in South Carolina and Texas last year, as well as a redistricting plan in Texas that a federal court found discriminated against the state's large and growing Hispanic population.
Advance approval was put into the law to give federal officials a potent tool to defeat persistent efforts to keep blacks from voting.
The provision was a huge success because it shifted the legal burden and required governments that were covered to demonstrate that their proposed changes would not discriminate. Congress periodically has renewed it over the years. The most recent extension was overwhelmingly approved by a Republican-led Congress and signed by President George W. Bush.
The requirement currently applies to the states of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. It also covers certain counties in California, Florida, New York, North Carolina and South Dakota, and some local jurisdictions in Michigan. Coverage has been triggered by past discrimination not only against blacks, but also against American Indians, Asian-Americans, Alaska Natives and Hispanics.
Towns in New Hampshire that had been covered by the law were freed from the advance approval requirement in March. Supporters of the provision pointed to the ability to bail out of the prior approval provision to argue that the law was flexible enough to accommodate change and that the court should leave the Voting Rights Act intact.
On Monday, the Justice Department announced an agreement that would allow Hanover County, Va., to bail out.
Kate Gosselin has spoken out about the controversial photo in which she dons a plastic geisha-style wig and pulls her eyes up at the corners to imitate the look of an Asian person.
"This was a happy memory of mine," Gosselin wrote on her website. A fan had sent the plastic wig, Gosselin said, and she and husband Jon took turns wearing it and snapping photos. Gosselin added a photo of Jon in the wig to her site. "Naturally, I 'slanted' my eyes to show him my best Asian impression, which made him smile," she wrote.
Jon Gosselin was born in Wisconsin, and his parents are a mix of European and Korean descent.
"At that time, a common topic of our show was 'everybody?s Asian' ? except for mommy, so a thoughtful fan figured she?d help me look Asian too," Gosselin wrote.
"I married an Asian," she said in the post. "I have eight biracial children therefore I?m quite certain that I?m the last person that could be called a racist."
The photo of Gosselin making the gesture was distributed Sunday by someone calling him or herself "KatieDeen." That person created a fresh account on Twitter on Sunday evening, and posted just one item -- this picture, with the accompanying caption information suggesting that Gosselin "makes fun of Asians with 8 half Korean children."
Gosselin did not say if she knew who had published the photo, but did write that it "was taken and misused without my permission and opportunistically turned into something that it never was intended to be."
The gesture has caused controversy for others in the past, including in 2008 when the Spanish Olympic Team were photographed en masse for an advertisement making the gesture.
Obamacare: Missouri already has a shortage of primary care doctors. When Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act) goes into effect on Jan.1, some say the ratio of patients to doctors will get even worse.
By Chris Blank,?Associated Press / June 22, 2013
Senate clerks arrange 95 proposed amendments to the health insurance exchange bill at the statehouse in St. Paul, Minn., earlier this year. Minnesota will set up its own health insurance exchange to comply with Obamacare, but the federal government will do it on behalf of 34 other states.
Glen Stubbe/The Star Tribune/AP/File
Enlarge
Missouri is facing a shortage of the primary care doctors. The strain could grow as more Missourians soon gain health insurance under the federal health care law.
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"A lot of folks say that politics is the biggest threat to Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act. I think the second biggest threat is the lack of primary care providers to serve the folks who are going to gain access to coverage," said Joe Pierle, CEO of the Missouri Primary Care Association that represents community health centers. "We can give everybody health insurance, but if they can't get in to a doctor, especially in rural Missouri, then we're really not making much progress."
Nationwide, the shortage of family doctors stems from a populace that is getting older and a desire by doctors to seek out specialties with better pay and hours. A shortfall of primary care doctors can mean more difficulty scheduling appointments and longer waits while reduced preventive care can push patients' health problems into chronic conditions. Clinics more frequently are using search firms to find practitioners.
Missouri had a little less than 74 active patient care primary care doctors per 100,000 residents in 2010 according to figures from the Association of American Medical Colleges. That ranked 35th and put it behind the national per capita average of more than 79 active primary care doctors. Among its neighbors, Missouri had fewer doctors per 100,000 residents than Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Tennessee.
Access to a primary care doctor seems a particular issue in Missouri's rural areas. The medical school at the University of Missouri-Columbia has a pipeline program aimed at increasing supply and retention of rural doctors that includes but is not limited to family medicine.
Some also are suggesting consideration of changes to types of care health professionals are authorized to offer.
The challenge of access to primary care doctors could grow as the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"), the new federal health care law, is fully implemented Jan. 1. The law will require most Americans to obtain health insurance. People with lower incomes will be eligible for subsidies and can obtain coverage through online marketplaces called health insurance exchanges. Insurers also will be barred from denying coverage because of a pre-existing condition.
The Missouri Foundation for Health estimated there currently are 877,000 people in Missouri without health insurance. The foundation said about 300,000 people will be eligible for the subsidies. Another roughly 50,000 people likely have been priced out of the insurance market because of significant pre-existing conditions but could pay for affordable insurance coverage. That means about 350,000 more people could gain insurance, and they are expected to seek health care. However, it's unclear how many doctors Missouri will need to meet the demand.
Ryan Barker, vice president of health policy for the Missouri Foundation of Health, said better data could track where doctors practice and how frequently. Furthermore, some of the people who will gain health insurance already could be seeing a primary care doctor.
"We do not have a good sense of how many of the individuals who are going to gain insurance currently do not have a primary care doc and are going to put this additional pressure," Barker said. "Honestly, we just don't have a good sense of how much pressure is this adding to the system."
JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israel has appointed respected banker Jacob Frenkel as the next governor of the Bank of Israel.
It will be Frenkel's second term in the position. The current governor, Stanley Fischer, will be leaving the position at the end of this month after eight years in office.
The appointment must be approved by Israel's Cabinet, but significant opposition is unlikely.
Frenkel won praise for his role as central bank chief from 1991 to 2000 for his part in reducing inflation, liberalizing financial markets and integrating Israel's economy into the global financial system.
He has since worked in international finance. Frenkel, 70, is currently chairman of JPMorgan Chase International.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the decision Sunday in a statement sent to news media.
HONG KONG/MOSCOW (Reuters) - An aircraft believed to be carrying Edward Snowden landed in Moscow on Sunday after Hong Kong let fugitive former U.S. security contractor leave the territory, frustrating Washington's efforts to extradite him on espionage charges.
The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said Snowden was heading for a "democratic nation" which it did not name, although a source at the Russian airline Aeroflot said he would fly on within 24 hours to Cuba and then planned to go to Venezuela.
Snowden's departure from Hong Kong, a former British colony which returned to China in 1997, is likely to be highly embarrassing for the administration of President Barack Obama. U.S. authorities had said only on Saturday they were optimistic Hong Kong would cooperate over Snowden, who revealed extensive U.S. government surveillance in the United States and abroad.
Moscow airport officials said the flight from Hong Kong had landed but could not immediately confirm Snowden was on board. However, a source at Aeroflot said he had booked a seat on the service.
Snowden, who worked for the National Security Agency, had been hiding in Hong Kong since leaking details about the U.S. surveillance activities to news media.
In their statement announcing Snowden's departure, the Hong Kong authorities said they were seeking clarification from Washington about reports of U.S. spying on government computers in the territory.
The Obama administration has previously painted the United States as a victim of Chinese government computer hacking.
Earlier this month Obama called on his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to acknowledge the threat posed by "cyber-enabled espionage" against the United States and to investigate the problem when they met in California. Obama also met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Northern Ireland last week.
A spokesman for the Hong Kong government said it had allowed the departure of Snowden - regarded by his supporters as a whistleblower and by his critics as a criminal and perhaps even a traitor - because the U.S. request to have him arrested did not comply with the law.
In Washington, a Justice Department official said it would seek cooperation with countries Snowden may try to go to.
"It's a shocker," said Simon Young, a law professor with Hong Kong University. "I thought he was going to stay and fight it out. The U.S. government will be irate."
OBAMA AGENDA SIDELINED
Obama has found his domestic and international policy agenda sidelined as he has scrambled to deflect accusations that the surveillance violates privacy protections and civil rights. The president has maintained it has been necessary to thwart attacks on the United States, and the U.S. government filed espionage charges against Snowden on Friday.
A source at Aeroflot said Snowden would fly from Moscow to Cuba on Monday and then planned to go on to Venezuela. Reporters at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport said there was no immediate sign of Snowden, but Russian media suggested he may have been whisked away by car to a foreign embassy in the capital.
Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper said earlier his final destination might be Ecuador or Iceland.
The WikiLeaks anti-secrecy website said it helped Snowden find "political asylum in a democratic country".
The group said he was accompanied by diplomats and was travelling via a safe route for the purposes of seeking asylum. Sarah Harrison, a legal researcher working for the WikiLeaks, was "accompanying Mr. Snowden in his passage to safety".
"The WikiLeaks legal team and I are interested in preserving Mr Snowden's rights and protecting him as a person," former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon, legal director of WikiLeaks and lawyer for the group's founder Julian Assange, said in a statement.
"What is being done to Mr Snowden and to Mr Julian Assange - for making or facilitating disclosures in the public interest - is an assault against the people."
Assange has taken sanctuary in the Ecuadorean embassy in London and said last week he would not leave even if Sweden stopped pursuing sexual assault claims against him because he feared arrest on the orders of the United States.
U.S. authorities have charged Snowden with theft of U.S. government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence to an unauthorized person, with the latter two charges falling under the U.S. Espionage Act.
The United States had asked Hong Kong, a special administrative region (SAR) of China, to send Snowden home.
"The U.S. government earlier on made a request to the HKSAR government for the issue of a provisional warrant of arrest against Mr Snowden," the Hong Kong government said in a statement.
"Since the documents provided by the U.S. government did not fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law, the HKSAR government has requested the U.S. government to provide additional information ... As the HKSAR government has yet to have sufficient information to process the request for provisional warrant of arrest, there is no legal basis to restrict Mr Snowden from leaving Hong Kong."
It did not say what further information it needed.
The White House had no comment.
CHINA SAYS U.S. "BIGGEST VILLAIN"
Although Hong Kong has an independent legal system and its own extradition laws, China controls its foreign affairs. Some observers see Beijing's hand in Snowden's sudden departure.
Iceland refused on Friday to say whether it would grant asylum to Snowden, a former employee of contractor Booz Allen Hamilton who worked at an NSA facility in Hawaii.
Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said earlier this month that Russia would consider granting Snowden asylum if he were to ask for it and pro-Kremlin lawmakers supported the idea, but there has been no indication he has done so.
The South China Morning Post earlier quoted Snowden offering new details about the United States' spy activities, including accusations of U.S. hacking of Chinese mobile telephone companies and targeting China's Tsinghua University.
Documents previously leaked by Snowden revealed that the NSA has access to vast amounts of internet data such as emails, chat rooms and video from large companies, including Facebook and Google, under a government program known as Prism.
China's Xinhua news agency, referring to Snowden's accusations about the hacking of Chinese targets, said they were "clearly troubling signs".
It added: "They demonstrate that the United States, which has long been trying to play innocent as a victim of cyber attacks, has turned out to be the biggest villain in our age."
Venezuela, Cuba and Ecuador are all members of the ALBA bloc, an alliance of leftist governments in Latin America who pride themselves on their "anti-imperialist" credentials.
(Additional reporting by Fayen Wong in Shanghai, Nishant Kumar in Hong Kong and Andrew Cawthorne in Caracas; Alexei Anishchuk and Steve Gutterman in Moscow, and Tabassum Zakaria and Mark Felsenthal in Washington; Writing by Nick Macfie and David Stamp; Editing by Anna Willard)
Japanese researchers have developed a new sugar and water-based solution that turns tissues transparent in just three days, without disrupting the shape and chemical nature of the samples. Combined with fluorescence microscopy, this technique enabled them to obtain detailed images of a mouse brain at an unprecedented resolution.
The team from the RIKEN Center for Developmental biology reports their finding today in Nature Neuroscience.
Over the past few years, teams in the USA and Japan have reported a number of techniques to make biological samples transparent, that have enabled researchers to look deep down into biological structures like the brain.
"However, these clearing techniques have limitations because they induce chemical and morphological damage to the sample and require time-consuming procedures," explains Dr. Takeshi Imai, who led the study.
SeeDB, an aqueous fructose solution that Dr. Imai developed with colleagues Drs. Meng-Tsen Ke and Satoshi Fujimoto, overcomes these limitations.
Using SeeDB, the researchers were able to make mouse embryos and brains transparent in just three days, without damaging the fine structures of the samples, or the fluorescent dyes they had injected in them.
They could then visualize the neuronal circuitry inside a mouse brain, at the whole-brain scale, under a customized fluorescence microscope without making mechanical sections through the brain.
They describe the detailed wiring patterns of commissural fibers connecting the right and left hemispheres of the cerebral cortex, in three dimensions, for the first time.
Dr. Imai and colleagues report that they were also able to visualize in three dimensions the wiring of mitral cells in the olfactory bulb, which is involved the detection of smells, at single-fiber resolution.
"Because SeeDB is inexpensive, quick, easy and safe to use, and requires no special equipment, it will prove useful for a broad range of studies, including the study of neuronal circuits in human samples," explain the authors.
###
Dr. Takeshi Imai is available for interviews over the phone at +81(0) 78-306-3376 or by email at imai@cdb.riken.jp.
Alternatively, for more information please contact:
Juliette Savin
Global Relations Office
RIKEN
Tel: +81-(0)48-462-1225
Mobile phone: +81-(0)808895-2136
Email: pr@riken.jp
Pictures and the original journal research article in Nature Neuroscience are available on request.
Reference
Meng-Tsen Ke, Satoshi Fujimoto, and Takeshi Imai
"SeeDB: a simple and morphology-preserving optical clearing agent for neuronal circuit reconstruction"
Nature Neuroscience, 2013 doi: 10.1038/nn.3447
About RIKEN
RIKEN is Japan's largest research institute for basic and applied research. Over 2500 papers by RIKEN researchers are published every year in leading scientific and technical journals, covering a broad spectrum of disciplines including physics, chemistry, biology, medical science and engineering. RIKEN's research environment and strong emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration and globalization has earned a reputation for scientific excellence worldwide.
Website: http://www.riken.jp/en/ Find us on Twitter at @riken_en
About the Center for Developmental Biology
The RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) was launched in April 2000 to advance research in the fields of animal development and regeneration and contribute to areas of clinical medicine that can benefit from such research. The CDB is dedicated to developing a better understanding of fundamental processes of animal development at the molecular and cell biological level, the more complex phenomena involved in organogenesis as well as the biology of stem cells and regeneration. By elucidating these processes researchers working at CDB hope to improve the effectiveness of regenerative medicine, for the benefit of society.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Japanese researchers have developed a new sugar and water-based solution that turns tissues transparent in just three days, without disrupting the shape and chemical nature of the samples. Combined with fluorescence microscopy, this technique enabled them to obtain detailed images of a mouse brain at an unprecedented resolution.
The team from the RIKEN Center for Developmental biology reports their finding today in Nature Neuroscience.
Over the past few years, teams in the USA and Japan have reported a number of techniques to make biological samples transparent, that have enabled researchers to look deep down into biological structures like the brain.
"However, these clearing techniques have limitations because they induce chemical and morphological damage to the sample and require time-consuming procedures," explains Dr. Takeshi Imai, who led the study.
SeeDB, an aqueous fructose solution that Dr. Imai developed with colleagues Drs. Meng-Tsen Ke and Satoshi Fujimoto, overcomes these limitations.
Using SeeDB, the researchers were able to make mouse embryos and brains transparent in just three days, without damaging the fine structures of the samples, or the fluorescent dyes they had injected in them.
They could then visualize the neuronal circuitry inside a mouse brain, at the whole-brain scale, under a customized fluorescence microscope without making mechanical sections through the brain.
They describe the detailed wiring patterns of commissural fibers connecting the right and left hemispheres of the cerebral cortex, in three dimensions, for the first time.
Dr. Imai and colleagues report that they were also able to visualize in three dimensions the wiring of mitral cells in the olfactory bulb, which is involved the detection of smells, at single-fiber resolution.
"Because SeeDB is inexpensive, quick, easy and safe to use, and requires no special equipment, it will prove useful for a broad range of studies, including the study of neuronal circuits in human samples," explain the authors.
###
Dr. Takeshi Imai is available for interviews over the phone at +81(0) 78-306-3376 or by email at imai@cdb.riken.jp.
Alternatively, for more information please contact:
Juliette Savin
Global Relations Office
RIKEN
Tel: +81-(0)48-462-1225
Mobile phone: +81-(0)808895-2136
Email: pr@riken.jp
Pictures and the original journal research article in Nature Neuroscience are available on request.
Reference
Meng-Tsen Ke, Satoshi Fujimoto, and Takeshi Imai
"SeeDB: a simple and morphology-preserving optical clearing agent for neuronal circuit reconstruction"
Nature Neuroscience, 2013 doi: 10.1038/nn.3447
About RIKEN
RIKEN is Japan's largest research institute for basic and applied research. Over 2500 papers by RIKEN researchers are published every year in leading scientific and technical journals, covering a broad spectrum of disciplines including physics, chemistry, biology, medical science and engineering. RIKEN's research environment and strong emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration and globalization has earned a reputation for scientific excellence worldwide.
Website: http://www.riken.jp/en/ Find us on Twitter at @riken_en
About the Center for Developmental Biology
The RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) was launched in April 2000 to advance research in the fields of animal development and regeneration and contribute to areas of clinical medicine that can benefit from such research. The CDB is dedicated to developing a better understanding of fundamental processes of animal development at the molecular and cell biological level, the more complex phenomena involved in organogenesis as well as the biology of stem cells and regeneration. By elucidating these processes researchers working at CDB hope to improve the effectiveness of regenerative medicine, for the benefit of society.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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June 23, 2013 ? A major study from researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology provides new revelations about the intricate pathways involved in turning on T cells, the body's most important disease-fighting cells, and was published today in the scientific journal Nature.
The La Jolla Institute team is the first to prove that a certain type of protein, called septins, play a critical role in activating a calcium channel on the surface of the T cell. The channel is the portal through which calcium enters T cells from the blood stream, an action essential for the T cell's survival, activation, and ability to fight disease.
Patrick Hogan and Anjana Rao, Ph.D.s, are senior authors on the paper and Sonia Sharma and Ariel Quintana, Ph.D.s, are co-first authors. Drs. Sharma, Rao and Hogan are former researchers at Harvard Medical School with high-level genetics expertise who joined the La Jolla Institute in 2010. Dr. Quintana conducted advanced microscopy that was a major aspect of the study.
Dr. Hogan describes the discovery as another important step in understanding the overall functioning of T cells -- knowledge from which new, more precisely targeted drugs to treat diseases ranging from cancer to viral infections can emerge. "It's like working on an engine, you have to know what all the parts are doing to repair it," he says. "We want to understand the basic machinery inside a T cell. This will enable us to target the specific pressure points to turn up a T cell response against a tumor or virus or to turn it down in the case of autoimmune diseases."
The findings were published in a Nature paper entitled "An siRNA screen for NFAT activation identifies septins as coordinators of store-operated Ca2+ entry."
"We have found that the septin protein is a very strong regulator of the calcium response, which is essential for activating immune cells," says Dr. Sharma, who was recently appointed to a faculty position, and now leads her own independent laboratory at the La Jolla Institute, in addition to serving as scientific director of the newly established RNAi screening center.
Dr. Hogan says the discovery took the research team by surprise. "We knew septins existed in the cellular plasma (surface) membrane, but we didn't know they had anything to do with calcium signaling," he says. Septins are known to build scaffolding to provide structural support during cell division.
This finding builds on Dr. Rao and Dr. Hogan's groundbreaking discovery in 2006 showing that the protein ORAI1 forms the pore of the calcium channel. The channel's entryway had been one of the most sought after mysteries in biomedical science because it is the gateway to T cell functioning and, consequently, to better understanding how the body uses these cells to fight disease.
To the research team's surprise, the septins were forming a ring around the calcium channel. "We aren't sure why, but we theorize that the septins are rearranging the cellular membrane's structure to "corral" the key proteins STIM and ORAI1, and maybe other factors needed for the calcium channel to operate," says Dr. Hogan.
Dr. Sharma adds that, "essentially we believe the septins are choreographing the interaction of these two proteins that are important in instigating the immune response." Without the septins' involvement, T cell activation does not occur.
In the study, the researchers devised a simple visual readout of activity in a main pathway responsible for activation of T cells -- the same pathway that is targeted by the immunosuppressive drug cyclosporin A that is used clinically -- and looked for impairment of the activity when individual genes were, in effect, deleted. After sorting through the roughly 20,000 human genes, they turned up 887 gene "hits," says Dr. Hogan.
With further experiments, they should be able to classify those hits into genes that affect the calcium channel itself and genes that act later in the pathway. "We are hopeful that one or more of these genes can be used as a clinical target for new drugs to treat transplant rejection and immune diseases, some of the same indications now treated with cyclosporine A," adds Dr. Hogan. He believes that a medication aimed at an early step of calcium entry through the ORAI channel could be more effective and have fewer side effects than cyclosporin A, which targets a later step in the pathway and can cause complications such as kidney disease.
June 20, 2013 ? Since the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts in in Earth's upper atmosphere in 1958, space scientists have believed that these belts consisted of two doughnut-shaped rings of highly charged particles -- an inner ring of high-energy electrons and energetic positive ions, and an outer ring of high-energy electrons.
However, in February of this year, a team of scientists reported in the journal Science the surprising discovery of a previously unknown third radiation ring. This narrow ring had briefly circled Earth between the inner and outer rings in September 2012 and then almost completely disappeared.
How did this temporary radiation belt appear and dissipate?
In new research, the radiation belt group in the UCLA Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences explains the development of this third belt and its decay over a period of slightly more than four weeks. The research is available in the online edition of the journal Geophysical Research Letters and will be published in an upcoming print edition.
By performing a "quantitative treatment of the scattering of relativistic electrons by electromagnetic whistler-mode waves inside the dense plasmasphere," the investigators were able to account for the "distinctively slow decay of the injected relativistic electron flux" and demonstrate why this unusual third radiation belt is observed only at energies above 2 mega-electron-volts.
Understanding the processes that control the formation and ultimate loss of such relativistic electrons is a primary science objective of the NASA Van Allen Probe Mission and has important practical applications, because the enormous amounts of radiation the Van Allen belts generate can pose a significant hazard to satellites and spacecraft, as well to astronauts performing activities outside a spacecraft.
The current research was funded by the NASA, which launched the twin Van Allen probes in the summer of 2012.
The lead author of the research is Richard Thorne, a UCLA professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences, who was a co-author of the Feb. 28 research paper in Science. Co-authors of the new research include Wen Li, a graduate student who works in Thorne's laboratory; Binbin Ni, a postdoctoral scholar who works in Thorne's laboratory; Jacob Bortnik, a researcher with the UCLA Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences; Daniel Baker, a professor at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and lead author of the February Science paper; and Vassilis Angelopoulos, a UCLA professor of Earth and space sciences.
A college professor appearing on MSNBC accused Republicans of wanting to advance "white supremacy" for a vote to restrict late-term abortions.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted Tuesday to ban all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. It was seen as a symbolic vote since it is unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate or be signed by President Barack Obama.
But discussing the vote on MSNBC recently, University of Pennsylvania professor Salamisha Tillet went a step further, suggesting racism motivates abortion opponents.
The white majority in America has been decreasing, Tillet noted, resulting in "a moral panic, a fear of the end of whiteness."
She said Republican opposition to abortion is a response to that, and that "women's bodies, white women's bodies in particular, are a crucial way of reproducing whiteness, white supremacy, white privilege."
Kristen Powers, appearing on Fox News, said Tillet's argument made no sense, considering black women get 40 percent of the abortions in the United States despite the black population being only 13 percent.
"If you were a white supremacist you would actually support abortion," Powers said.
She pointed out left-wing criticism of a pro-life group's ad put up in Times Square that said abortion killed black babies.
Powers said it feels that if you are pro-life you are unfairly labeled as being racist.
"Why can't they just accept there are actually some people who think you shouldn't be aborting a baby after 22 weeks?"
The "Dexter" Coolhaus truck in midtown Manhattan on June 19, 2013.
"Dexter" fans in New York and Los Angeles are in for a tasty treat. As Showtime prepares for the launch of the hit drama's final season and its push for some Emmy recognition, the network is giving fans in the two cities a special creation: a "Killer Combo" of an ice cream sandwich from Coolhaus this Wednesday through Sunday.
We hit up the Coolhaus truck parked at E. 53rd St. and Park Avenue in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday to check out the offering, and it was a concoction worthy of the vigilante killer. The sandwich features two sides to represent Dexter Morgan -- his light (Snickerdoodle cookie) and dark halves (double chocolate cookie), with Tahitian vanilla bean ice cream and a bloody delicious cherry swirl sandwiched in the middle.
Anna Chan / TODAY.com
The "Killer Combo" ice cream sandwich.
Yes, it was as yummy as it looks and sounds. (It would've been more fitting to have the sandwich dripping with all the blood Dexter tends to find at his crime scenes, but we're just being nitpicky.)
We weren't the only ones who were excited by the sight of Dexter Morgan's face on the side of an ice cream truck in New York. (And also a sign that read "FREE ice cream sandwich!") The line of "Dexter" and sweet treat fans went around the corner of the block. According to an employee, after being open for only two hours, they had already given away more than 265 ice cream sandwiches.
"Dexter" season eight kicks off on June 30 on Showtime. To see where the Coolhaus trucks will be next in New York and Los Angeles, follow @CoolhausNY and @CoolhausLA on Twitter.
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