Hatchery fish struggle to spawn in wild

Salmon born in captivity become domesticated in as little as one generation, a new study finds, explaining why hatchery-born fish don't do as well as wild-born ones in Oregon rivers.

Researchers created an enormous fish family tree using genetic samples from 12,700 steelhead trout (which are in the same family as salmon) returning from the sea to Oregon's Hood River to spawn. This fishy pedigree revealed the fish that spawned well in hatcheries had offspring that spawned poorly in the wild.

"They're adapting to captivity in a single generation," study scientist Mark Christie, a postdoctoral researcher at Oregon State University, told LiveScience. In other words, the fish rapidly became domesticated, Christie and his colleagues reported Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"It's similar to the process by which wolves were transformed into dogs," Christie said. "That's all that's occurring here, except it's occurring at a really rapid time scale."

Saving salmon
Salmon are considered anadromous fish, meaning they hatch in freshwater streams and rivers, travel as juveniles to the oceans, where they mature into adults and return to their birthplace to spawn and die. Steelhead are actually an anadromous type of rainbow trout, part of the salmon family.

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To increase threatened salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest, wildlife managers release more than 6 billion hatchery-born fish each year. But these fish reproduced at about 80 percent the rate of their wild-born brethren, Christie said, raising fears that the influx of hatchery salmon might affect the gene pool and harm the population as a whole.

To understand the problem, Christie and his colleagues needed to find out why these hatchery-born fish lag behind on the reproductive front. Fortunately for their research, high dams block spawning fish from making it upstream in the Hood River on their own. As a result, the fish must be "passed over" the dam in what is essentially an aquatic elevator. This gives Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife officials an opportunity to get a DNA sample from every fish that returns from the sea to spawn.

Using these DNA samples, Christie and his co-researchers traced the family relationships of 19 years of threatened Oregon steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykis), which unlike most salmon can survive multiple years of spawning. They found when fish produced higher-than-average numbers of offspring in the hatchery, the offspring of those offspring had just 71 percent the number of babies as fish born in the wild. In other words, whatever it is that makes baby fish thrive and survive in the hatchery is not beneficial in the real world.

Rapid adaption
The researchers also found that when hatchery-born fish were used to breed new generations in the hatchery, they produced more offspring than wild-born fish breeding in captivity. The two results together mean that the hatchery environment is putting strong evolutionary pressure on the fish, causing them to adapt rapidly ? and to lose the strengths that help them in the wild.

"It's probably not just a single trait that is being selected upon," Christie said. "It's probably a lot of traits. When you sum up across all those traits you can get a rapid reduction in fitness."

The researchers aren't yet sure what specific genetic changes occur in hatchery-born fish that make them ill-suited for reproduction in the wild. One possibility, Christie said, is that hatchery fish grow quickly and head out to sea after one year of life. Wild fish are slower to develop, and spend several years in fresh water before heading to the ocean.

The researchers are now digging deeper into the fish genomes to uncover the differences between wild- and hatchery-born steelhead DNA.

"Now that we know what is causing this, we can focus on figuring out specifically what in the hatchery is going on," Christie said. "Once we get there, we'll be able to make more informed management decisions."

You can follow LiveScience senior writer Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45743468/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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Eldorado Gold to buy European Goldfields for $2.4B (AP)

Gold and iron producer Eldorado Gold Corp. says it will buy European Goldfields Ltd. in a deal worth about $2.4 billion, increasing its ability to produce gold.

The Vancouver, Canada, company says European Goldfields stockholders will receive 0.85 Eldorado share and a fraction of a Canadian cent for each European Goldfields share. That values each European Goldfields at 13.08 Canadian dollars ($12.59), based on Eldorado's closing stock price on the Toronto Stock Exchange Friday.

European Goldfields operates a mine in Greece and is developing projects in both Greece and Romania. Eldorado operates in China, Turkey, Brazil and Greece.

Eldorado says the deal will create a company with a market capitalization of about $10.59 billion and help diversify production. The deal requires approval from both Eldorado and European Goldfields shareholders.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111218/ap_on_bi_ge/us_eldorado_gold_acquisition

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Health panel takes heat on cancer screening advice (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Dr. Ned Calonge knows firsthand how hard it is to tell Americans they'd be better off with fewer routine medical tests.

A long-time family doctor in Colorado, Calonge presided over the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an influential government-backed panel of health experts, when it said that most women under 50 could skip their regular mammograms.

The recommendation two years ago challenged the conviction of many breast cancer patients that they survived precisely because they were screened early. It unleashed a public fury that has weighed on the panel's deliberations ever since.

"We blew the message," said Calonge, now president and CEO of the Colorado Trust foundation. "The nuance was completely gone."

Two men phoned in death threats to Calonge. Protesters showed up by the offices of the government agency that supports the panel, tucked away in a Maryland suburb. The furor slowed down work on a decision to limit prostate cancer screenings as President Barack Obama fought to pass his signature healthcare law and his Democratic party faced a mid-term election challenge in 2010.

"There was a lot of pressure from above to be more careful politically and orchestrate things better," said Dr. Kenneth Lin, who at the time was an officer at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), a Department of Health and Human Services entity that supports the panel. "Everything with the word 'cancer' got shoved back."

Calonge rotated off the panel this past March after eight years, while Lin quit AHRQ late last year in protest over the delay to prostate cancer screening guidelines that were only released in October. A White House official noted that Calonge has attributed the delay in a final decision on prostate cancer screenings to scheduling conflicts.

Their experience shows just how difficult it will be to curb spiraling costs in the world's most expensive healthcare system by determining what screenings work, based on a rigorous study of clinical evidence, and what can lead to unnecessary and risky procedures.

"More screening is not always better," said Dr. Christine Laine, a general internist and editor of the Annals of Internal Medicine who is not part of the panel. "That message is lost in healthcare in general."

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is right on the firing line. For much of its 27-year history, it helped convince millions of Americans to get screened early for disease.

Now the panel of primary care doctors, nurses and academics has reviewed a growing body of research that shows some early screening harms more people than it helps. But it has struggled to convince patients and doctors.

In the wake of the mammogram guidelines, the rate of such screenings for women aged 40 to 69 was barely changed in 2010 compared with 2009, according to the National Committee for Quality Assurance.

"We have a public health measure that we know is effective. Why is it continually being questioned?" said Dr. Carol Lee, breast imaging commission chairwoman at the American College of Radiology.

Graphic on mammograms: http://link.reuters.com/zuc25s

Graphic on U.S. cancer rates: http://link.reuters.com/byc25s

BROACHING THE NEGATIVES

The public at large is no less skeptical. A recent Gallup poll showed that nearly 60 percent of Americans believed that standard cancer screenings - including mammograms and prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood tests - were performed often enough. Thirty-one percent thought they should be conducted more frequently. Only 7 percent said they were done too often.

"It's extraordinarily hard to give up the notion that there's a way to protect yourself from dying from cancer... Our goal here is to make it a matter of evidence, not a matter of opinion," said Virginia Moyer, a pediatrician from Baylor College of Medicine, who now chairs the 16-member panel.

"Our successes are measured in positives," she said of the public's growing awareness of screening in the last three decades. "We are just beginning to approach the negatives."

Burned by the experience with mammograms, the task force is looking for a better way to deliver the message, consulting with powerful consumer interest groups, hiring public relations professionals and reworking some of the language tied to its system of letter-based recommendations.

"We're spending more time paying attention to how we say things to make sure it's understood well," said long-time panel member and current co-vice chair Dr. Michael LeFevre, a professor of family medicine at the University of Missouri School of Medicine. "We have no interest in being some wizard behind the curtain."

The panel now issues its recommendations in draft form first and solicits public comment before making them final. In about a year, the public may have a chance to chime in early on the evaluation process, including posing questions for researchers and reviewing the evidence report draft used by the panel.

Task force officials concede that the comments are unlikely to change the recommended letter grade, unless they introduce crucial new evidence. But they can point to misunderstandings and help the panel better craft its message.

In late October, the panel met with consumer interest groups, including retired persons lobby AARP and the Consumers Union, to get input on how to frame recommendations that was once reserved for patient advocates.

The public's participation has been unprecedented. The panel is now finalizing its PSA prostate cancer recommendation and public comments on the subject have reached into the thousands, LeFevre said.

WEIGHING THE EVIDENCE

The 2009 mammogram guidance from the task force was based on the panel's assessment of new research that showed most women over 40 face a 3 percent risk of dying from breast cancer if they have not been screened. Beginning mammogram screening at age 50 and following up every other year reduced that risk to 2.3 percent, compared with 2.2 percent risk starting at age 40.

An extra decade of screening could invite harms such as unnecessary biopsies and tests, the possible treatment of non-deadly cancers and radiation. Women in their forties are also more likely to receive false positive results.

Another view of the data showed that starting screening at age 40 led to 5,000 more mammograms, 500 false positive results and 33 biopsies for every breast cancer death prevented, according to LeFevre.

"If it was just how many deaths do you cause versus how many deaths you prevent, that would be too easy, that would be simple math," LeFevre said. "We start with somebody who feels well, and we risk making them feel worse."

The panel voted on a "C" recommendation, which calls for patients to decide on the screening with their doctor. But when the recommendation came out in November 2009, it started with a sentence saying the panel "recommends against" routine mammograms for most women under 50, and that language triggered the controversy.

Under pressure, the task force dropped the phrase "recommends against" a month later. Its rating on mammograms remains a "C."

The American Cancer Society questioned the evidence, saying the panel focused on gold-standard clinical trials but weeded out newer observational studies that showed better results.

"Screening is not perfect and it's not error-free, but the question is... do you take protective measures against the unlikely probability that you develop cancer... or do you take your chances?" said Robert Smith, director of cancer screening at the ACS.

That calculation still appears to be guiding doctors, either out of concern of missing an early sign of disease or fear of lawsuits, health experts said.

"Shared decision-making (between doctors and patients) sounds nice, but in practice usually you just end up doing the test," said Dr. Roger Chou, an internist and researcher at the Oregon Evidence-Based Practice Center. Chou authored the report on prostate cancer behind this year's task force recommendation.

POLITICAL RUMBLINGS

The heat over mammograms weighed on deliberations over prostate cancer screening. In 2008, the task force gave an "I" recommendation on the PSA test in healthy men under 75, which meant it had insufficient evidence to make a call.

The panel usually updates its recommendations every five years, but new research published in 2009 warranted an earlier evaluation. One U.S. study showed a slightly higher risk of death for men with no symptoms of illness who received a PSA test, while European research showed a slightly lower risk of death.

Although the PSA blood test itself is innocuous, data reviewed by the task force also showed that 90 percent of American men who tested positive got treated, even if they may have been able to forego it, LeFevre said. Out of 1,000 men treated, five would die, 70 would have serious complications and 200 to 300 would be impotent or incontinent.

Given the possibility of false positives in the screening and the fact that prostate cancer can take many years to progress and show symptoms, the question is whether those risks are greater than the risk of doing nothing.

"It looks like your chance of being alive and well is greater if you don't get screened than if you do get screened," LeFevre said.

In November 2009, task force members voted on a stronger "D" rating on PSA tests, meaning they recommended against the prostate cancer screening in men under 75.

But the timing was poor as Obama struggled to win over a majority of lawmakers for his healthcare overhaul and Congressional elections loomed large. Once the law was passed in March 2010, it brought more attention to the task force by mandating insurance coverage of services it does recommend.

Republicans opposed to the bill used the mammogram example to show how government could intrude on life or death decisions. The task force's "C" and "D" recommendations don't dictate insurance coverage, but Congress quickly turned around legislation to make sure insurers covered mammograms for women in their forties.

"The thought that my work was being use as a fulcrum by one party to kill the most substantial part of healthcare legislation since I've been in practice? I've got to tell you, that's something to lose sleep over," Calonge said.

Officials working with the panel heard that more controversy could threaten the task force budget, up for Congressional approval. In 2010, Health Department funding for the panel was $4.3 million. This year, the agency overseeing the panel spent about $11 million on work related to the task force.

Calonge says the panel wanted more evidence of how the tests could harm healthy patients, and ordered further research. He canceled a new vote on PSA screenings in November 2010, citing scheduling problems, a decision that was widely criticized.

"In my heart of hearts I'd really like to believe that we'd delay it anyway," without the surrounding politics, Calonge said. "We were trying to make the recommendations solid."

That was too much for Lin, who believed the evidence was already enough to show the public was at risk. After talking with his pastor and his wife, he quit AHRQ.

"Even delaying it for a few months, much less a year, it was really relegating the men to the harms they were exposed to," Lin said.

(Editing by Michele Gershberg, Ed Tobin and Claudia Parsons)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111218/hl_nm/us_health_taskforce

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SEC charges ex-Fannie, Freddie CEOs with fraud (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Two former CEOs at mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Friday became the highest-profile individuals to be charged in connection with the 2008 financial crisis.

In a lawsuit filed in New York, the Securities and Exchange Commission brought civil fraud charges against six former executives at the two firms, including former Fannie CEO Daniel Mudd and former Freddie CEO Richard Syron.

The executives were accused of understating the level of high-risk subprime mortgages that Fannie and Freddie held just before the housing bubble burst.

"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives told the world that their subprime exposure was substantially smaller than it really was," said Robert Khuzami, SEC's enforcement director.

Khuzami noted that huge losses on their subprime loans eventually pushed the two companies to the brink of failure and forced the government to take them over.

The charges brought Friday follow widespread criticism of federal authorities for not holding top executives accountable for the recklessness that triggered the 2008 crisis.

Before the SEC announced the charges, it reached an agreement not to charge Fannie and Freddie. The companies, which the government took over in 2008, also agreed to cooperate with the SEC in the cases against the former executives.

The Justice Department began investigating the two firms three years ago. In August, Freddie said Justice informed the company that its probe had ended.

Many legal experts say they don't expect the six executives to face criminal charges.

"If the U.S. attorney's office was going to be bringing charges, they would have brought it simultaneously with the civil case," said Christopher Morvillo, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice in Manhattan.

Robert Mintz, a white-collar defense lawyer, says he doubts any top Wall Street executives will face criminal charges for actions that hastened the financial crisis, given how much time has passed.

Mudd, 53, and Syron, 68, led the mortgage giants in 2007, when home prices began to collapse. The four other top executives also worked for the companies during that time.

In a statement from his attorney, Mudd said the government reviewed and approved all the company's financial disclosures.

"Every piece of material data about loans held by Fannie Mae was known to the United States government and to the investing public," Mudd said. "The SEC is wrong, and I look forward to a court where fairness and reason ? not politics ? is the standard for justice."

Syron's lawyers said the term "subprime had no uniform definition in the market" at that time.

"There was no shortage of meaningful disclosures, all of which permitted the reader to assess the degree of risk in Freddie Mac's" portfolio, the lawyers said in a statement. "The SEC's theory and approach are fatally flawed."

According to the lawsuit, Fannie and Freddie misrepresented their exposure to subprime loans in reports, speeches and congressional testimony.

Fannie told investors in 2007 that it had roughly $4.8 billion worth of subprime loans on its books, or just 0.2 percent of its portfolio. That same year, Mudd told two congressional panels that Fannie's subprime loans represented didn't exceed 2.5 percent of its business.

The SEC says Fannie actually had about $43 billion worth of products targeted to borrowers with weak credit, or 11 percent of its holdings.

Freddie told investors in late 2006 that it held between $2 billion and $6 billion of subprime mortgages on its books. And Syron, in a 2007 speech, said Freddie had "basically no subprime exposure," according to the suit.

The SEC says its holdings were actually closer to $141 billion, or 10 percent of its portfolio in 2006, and $244 billion, or 14 percent, by 2008.

Syron also authorized especially risky mortgages for borrowers without proof of income or assets as early as 2004, the suit alleges, "despite contrary advice" from Freddie's credit-risk experts. He rejected their advice, "in part due to his desire to improve Freddie Mac's market share."

Fannie and Freddie buy home loans from banks and other lenders, package them into bonds with a guarantee against default and then sell them to investors around the world. The two own or guarantee about half of U.S. mortgages, or nearly 31 million loans.

During the financial crisis, the two firms verged on collapse. The Bush administration seized control of them in September 2008.

So far, the companies have cost taxpayers more than $150 billion ? the largest bailout of the financial crisis. They could cost up to $259 billion, according to their government regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Administration.

Mudd was paid more than $10 million in salary and bonuses in 2007, according to company statements. He was fired from Fannie after the government took over. He's now the chief executive of the New York hedge fund Fortress Investment Group.

Syron made more than $18 million in 2007, according to company statements. His compensation increased $4 million from 2006 because of bonuses he received ? part of them for encouraging risky subprime lending, according to company filings. It's not clear what portion of the bonuses was for his efforts to promote subprime lending.

Syron resigned from Freddie in 2008. He's now an adjunct professor and trustee at Boston College.

The other executives charged were Fannie's Enrico Dallavecchia, 50, a former chief risk officer, and Thomas Lund, 53, a former executive vice president; and Freddie's Patricia Cook, 58, a former executive vice president and chief business officer, and Donald Bisenius, 53, a former senior vice president.

Lund's lawyer, Michael Levy, said in a statement that Lund "did not mislead anyone." Lawyers for the other defendants declined to comment Friday.

Based on the outcomes of similar cases, the lawsuit might not yield much in penalties against the former executives.

In July, Citigroup paid just $75 million to settle similar civil charges with the SEC. Its chief financial officer and head of investor relations were accused of failing to disclose more than $50 billion worth of potential losses from subprime mortgages. The two executives charged paid $100,000 and $80,000 in civil penalties.

Fines against executives charged in SEC civil cases can reach up to $150,000 per violation. SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro has asked Congress to raise the limit to $1 million.

The SEC has brought other cases related to the financial crisis since it began a broad investigation into the actions of Wall Street banks and other financial firms about three years ago.

Goldman Sachs & Co., for example, agreed last year to pay $550 million to settle charges of misleading buyers of a complex mortgage investment. JPMorgan Chase & Co. resolved similar charges in June and paid $153.6 million.

Citigroup Inc. agreed to pay $285 million to settle similar charges, though that settlement was recently struck down by a federal judge in New York City.

Most cases, however, didn't involve charges against prominent top executives.

An exception was Angelo Mozilo, the co-founder and CEO of failed mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. He agreed to a $67.5 million settlement with the SEC in October 2010 to avoid trial on civil fraud and insider trading charges that he profited from doling out risky mortgages while misleading investors about the risks.

Associated Press writers Marcy Gordon in Washington and Larry Neumeister in New York contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111216/ap_on_bi_ge/us_fannie_freddie_charges

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Man adjust to new life after 3 decades in prison

Barry Beach shares a long embrace with his mother, Bobbi Clincher, after being released on his own recognizance by Fergus County District Judge E. Wayne Phillips' after serving 29 years behind bars for the 1979 murder of Kim Nees in Poplar, Mont. Beach will live with a couple in Billings while awaiting a new trial. (AP Photo/The Great Falls Tribune, Rion Sanders) NO SALES

Barry Beach shares a long embrace with his mother, Bobbi Clincher, after being released on his own recognizance by Fergus County District Judge E. Wayne Phillips' after serving 29 years behind bars for the 1979 murder of Kim Nees in Poplar, Mont. Beach will live with a couple in Billings while awaiting a new trial. (AP Photo/The Great Falls Tribune, Rion Sanders) NO SALES

Barry Beach, seen here in front of Rapid Tire in Laurel, Mont., on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011, was released from prison after almost three decades for a murder he says he didn't commit. He is awaiting retrial for the 1979 murder of a teenager near the town of Poplar. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)

Barry Beach cleans the side of a 1994 pickup he inherited from his uncle in Laurel, Mont., Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011. Beach was released from prison last week after almost three decades and is awaiting retrial for the 1979 murder of a teenager near the town of Poplar. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)

Barry Beach is seen in Laurel, Mont., Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011. Beach was released from prison after almost three decades for a murder he says he didn't commit. He is awaiting retrial for the 1979 killing of a teenager near the town of Poplar. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)

Barry Beach sheds tears as he listens to terms of his release by Fergus County District Judge E. Wayne Phillips' after serving 29 years behind bars for the 1979 murder of Kim Nees, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011 in Lewistown, Mont. (AP Photo/The Great Falls Tribune, Rion Sanders) NO SALES

(AP) ? When Barry Beach was convicted of murder in 1984 for the killing of a female schoolmate, Miami Vice was a hit TV show. A car phone was a rich man's boxy appliance. Beach's mullet hairdo was in vogue.

Nearly 28 years later, Beach has returned to freedom and a new world. Not only is everything more expensive, technologically advanced and a whole lot faster, he has returned to his adopted hometown of Billings a cause celebre to many people who believe he is innocent.

Beach's status has seemingly grown each year as his case received more attention amid doubts about his guilt. He has the backing of a long list of influential supporters in Montana along with a New Jersey-based innocence group that helped publicize his case. Pro-Barry Beach placards began appearing in local businesses and national news reports prompted even more people to come forward with new information potentially incriminating others in the crime.

It all helped Beach walk free last week as a judge released him while he awaits a new trial in the 1979 murder of a teenager who was savagely beaten.

Prosecutors are contesting Beach's release and are adamant that the right man was convicted in the murder of 17-year-old Kim Nees, pointing to his confession as the ultimate proof. Beach says it was a coerced and false confession. Prosecutors are also flabbergasted by the positive reception for Beach and find it insensitive to the family of the victim.

Beach says he has been bolstered by the support he has found in Billings, with strangers coming up to hug him in the street as the 49-year-old builds a new life in this strange, new world.

He has a job making Christmas cookies at the bakery owned by the wife of the supporter he's living with. He's fixing up the Ford pickup that he inherited. He plans to help out a local jail ministry over the holidays, even though he knows his own reprieve from behind bars may be temporary.

"I'm just trying to get my wheels," said Barry Beach after replacing his truck's bald tires at a Laurel store. "It's part of the life out here is you've got to be mobile you know. I'm just trying to get caught up so I can start living life, start enjoying life."

Last week, the judge released Beach without bail since, in part, he will be living with a former county commissioner and well-known Billings business owner. An enthusiastic Beach said he has enjoyed each moment ever since ? even the mundane chore of buying auto insurance.

"I spent all my years in prison setting up and preparing for this moment," he added. "I truly feel like I am living the life I fought so hard to have."

Prosecutors aren't ceding the case.

The state attorney general's office will be asking the Montana Supreme Court to reverse District Judge E. Wayne Phillips's order for a new trial, hoping to restore Beach's original sentence and send him back to prison. Both sides say it could take the court up to a year to sort through the case.

"I think the other important thing to keep in mind is that we have a victim here and family members of a victim," said Assistant Attorney General Tammy Plubell. "It gets increasingly difficult to explain all this to them."

The mother of the victim has long believed Beach was rightfully convicted. Diane Nees declined to be interviewed by The Associated Press.

Former Yellowstone County Commissioner James "Ziggy" Ziegler, in whose home Beach is now staying, said the attorney general's office would be wrong to pursue a retrial.

"I just think with the groundswell of all the support, my opinion is that the attorney general's office better give it a hard look if they want to take it to another trial," said Ziegler. "I think the court of public opinion is such that they just need to let it go away."

Cameras rolled and reporters blogged and tweeted Beach's every move the day of his release. They were there when he changed into a Washington Redskins jersey, gave his mother a prolonged hug and munched on olives at a party at Lewistown's Yogo Inn. His life outside jail has continued to be front-page news as Beach went about his first days of freedom, with the scrutiny even documenting Beach's renewed relationship with his favorite meal ? a McDonald's cheeseburger and strawberry shake.

The meal was the same one Louisiana detectives fed him during the long-ago interrogation that led to a confession that landed Beach in prison for Nees' killing.

Prosecutors argue Beach's detailed confession matches the crime scene, and that his new evidence relies on hearsay testimony built on years of rumors that a gang of girls were really responsible for the deadly attack on Nees at a popular riverside party spot for Poplar teenagers.

The state recently detailed its argument against Beach, building on the transcribed confession that would certainly be a big part of any new trial. The state argues that Beach was known to have a temper, and let it get out of control that night after Nees rebuffed his advances.

"At this point, Beach grabbed Kim by her arm and pulled her over next to him. Kim slapped him and Beach 'flew off the handle again,'" the state's recent court filing reads, quoting the confession. "Beach said he picked a 12-inch chrome crescent wrench off the floorboard and started hitting Kim with it inside the cab of the truck."

Beach's attorneys, however, convinced the judge to grant the new trial and release Beach in the meantime. They brought several witnesses to a hearing last summer who testified that a group of women have over the years let slip their involvement in the crime, or who saw events that summer evening that would indicate a gang of girls with relatives on the local police force committed the crime.

As for Beach, he believed all along that he would eventually be vindicated and he now intends to take full advantage of the opportunity.

"I am not going to waste the opportunity God has put in my life," Beach said. "I am going to do everything in my power to enjoy it."

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Brown in Billings contributed to this report.

.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-17-Old%20Murder%20Case/id-42ff0d1098dc454a976021713a5cb27c

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Britain to have 13,500 troops on duty for Olympics

LONDON (AP) ? Britain will have 13,500 troops deployed on land, at sea and in the skies to help protect next summer's Olympics.

Defense Secretary Philip Hammond confirmed in a statement Thursday that Typhoon fighter jets, helicopters and two warships will all be on duty to guard against security threats to the 2012 London Games.

Hammond indicated soldiers would take a key role in tackling possible threats from car bombs or other attempted terrorist attacks. The announcement follows concerns that plans to use 10,000 security guards and about 12,000 police officers would not be sufficient to guard against possible security threats.

Britain's government has said it expects the terror threat level to be set at "severe" during the July 27-Aug.12 Olympics, meaning an attempted attack is judged to be highly likely.

Troops would be on duty in several cities, including key venues in London, aboard boats along the River Thames, which winds through the capital and part of southern England, and in the coastal city of Weymouth where sailing events will take place.

The military will provide "an enhanced level of capability and response, including ordnance disposal, military working dogs and the capability to search vehicles and buildings," Hammond said.

Air force chiefs have also worked with police and Olympic organizers on an "appropriate and scalable air security plan," Hammond said.

Last month, Olympic officials doubled the funding for security operations at venues, raising overall security costs for the 2012 games to more than 1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion.)

National Olympic Security Coordinator Chris Allison, an assistant commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police, said troops would help safeguard the event.

"Delivering a safe and secure Games will only be achieved through a range of different agencies working closely together," Allison said.

Hammond said during the 17-day period of the Olympics, about 7,500 troops would work directly on guarding venues.

"I have no doubt that they will do a fantastic job ? and I look forward to their professionalism and agility being on show on the world stage once again," he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-12-15-OLY-London-2012-Security/id-91f9ea313d414132a43e1687927ce17f

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Save some cash: December 16 is Free Shipping Day (Yahoo! News)

Thousands of merchants promise free shipping for one day only!

For many who shy away from online?shopping during the holidays, it can come down to dollars and cents. A product may be the same price online as it is in the store, but nasty shipping charges can pile up in a hurry, leaving a bigger bill than expected. But fear not, December 16 is Free Shipping Day ? the one day when shipping charges take a back seat to convenience. Over 2,500 online merchants are offering shipping deals for today only, so get that credit card ready and make this holiday the best one ever.

The list of retailers participating in the event is truly astonishing and covers every category of product you could possibly desire. Some of the top names include JCPenney, Toys R Us, Cabela's, Best Buy, Target, and Barnes & Noble. A full list of the stores on board with the deal can be browsed at the?Free Shipping Day website, where you can also grab the required discount codes. Remember, this deal is only valid for one day, so be sure to take advantage while you can.

(Source)

This article originally appeared on Tecca

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20111216/tc_yblog_technews/save-some-cash-december-16-is-free-shipping-day

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Diapers made from silk and shrimp shells?

Harvard University

Shrilk is a new material inspired by insect cuticle that is made with components found in silk and shrimp shells. Shown here is a replica of an insect wing made with Shrilk.

By John Roach

Parents who fret over the choice between cloth and disposable diapers may soon have another option: biodegradable ones made with a new material called called "Shrilk," so named because it's made by?combining a silk protein with chitin, a hard substance commonly extracted from shrimp shells.

The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University reports that Shrilk "replicates the exceptional strength, toughness, and versatility of one of nature's more extraordinary substances ? insect cuticle."


The wonder material is billed as "a low-cost, biodegradable, and biocompatible" replacement for plastics in consumer products ? think diapers, trash bags, and packaging ? as well as a range of medical applications such as sutures and "a scaffold for tissue regeneration."

To make the material, institute researchers studied the mechanical and chemical interactions between the materials that make up many a bug's exoskeleton?? chitin, a polysaccharide polymer, and protein organized in a laminar, plywood-like structure ??and recreated the chemistry and laminar design in their lab.

The result, according to the institute, is a "thin, clear film that has the same composition and structure as insect cuticle."

Manipulations of water content in the manufacturing process allows for variations in stiffness from elastic to rigid.

In other words, the researchers turned to nature and found a material ? insect cuticle ? that provides protection, is lightweight, flexible and versatile, and then they found a way in the lab to recreate it using natural raw materials.

Material limit
Of course, like all raw materials, chitin and silk are finite, noted Javier Fernandez, a researcher at the Wyss Institute who is the lead author of a paper describing the material this week in the journal Advanced Materials.

"In the case of chitin, the limit is very high because chitin is the second most abundant polymer on earth (only surpassed by cellulose) and is present from fungus to arthropod (for example, shrimp)," he told me in an email.?

For fibroin, which is a protein created in the production of silk, the limit is lower. And it isn't readily extracted from discarded waste, such as chitin is from shrimp shells.?

At the lab scale, where the researchers are developing the material and its production, these limits aren't a problem, but "if we are proposing a new technology for the future and we want to scale the production then we're going to find it," Fernandez said.

The limit is similar to what we've already found with lumber and cellulose, which are forest products that we use to build houses and make newspaper, for example. Trees seemed super abundant and renewable until we started using more than we grew each year and ecosystems began to fray.

Engineering solutions
Scientists, however, may be able to overcome the resource limitations in the production of Shrilk with the help of genetic engineering. Chitin, for example, can be over-expressed in genetically modified microbes and fibroin has been produced in bacteria and goat milk, Fernandez said.

(Similar genetic engineering, or course, is applied to other natural resource dependent industries, including forestry where trees are engineered to grow faster for pulp and paper products, for example.)

"In the process of harvesting fibroin and chitin, growing bacteria will be the equivalent to planting trees," he noted. "To produce more of our components, we only need to promote some specific ecological cycles."

That means that future parents juggling between diapers?made with petroleum products that clog landfills, or cloth ones that consume energy and require chemicals to keep clean, might get a more sustainable option: Shrilks.

First, though, Fernandez said that he and his team need to spend more time in the lab improving their biological and fabrication methodology.

"But behind [that lab work] is a new way of thinking in technological development where things should be produced and integrated in natural cycles."

More on futuristic bioinspired materials:


John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. To learn more about him, check out his website. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.

Where nations used to compete to get into space, now the competition focuses on private businesses, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into next-generation spaceships. Msnbc.com science editor Alan Boyle reports from inside the rocket factories on the future of spaceflight.

Source: http://futureoftech.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/15/9470925-diapers-made-from-silk-and-discarded-shrimp-shells

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Video: Teens Vandalize Fairfax Station Christmas Display

Patch:

A home surveillance video shows teenagers smashing up an elaborate Christmas display at a Fairfax Station home at 4 a.m. on Sunday.

"I woke up the next morning, looked out front and was really broken-hearted," said homeowner Michael Lester. "The more I looked, the more horrified I was."

Lester has put on spectacular Christmas displays in the front yard of his home on Wayfarer Drive in Fairfax Station for the last 15 years. The massive, colorful display draws thousands of visitors each year. This year was the last year Lester, 61, planned to put up decorations of this scale.

"It's one thing when you're in your 50s, but it's hard for me to decorate now," Lester said.

Read the whole story: Patch

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/13/video-teens-vandalize-fai_n_1147386.html

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Eddie Long taking time off from Ga. megachurch (AP)

LITHONIA, Ga. ? Megachurch leader Bishop Eddie Long announced Sunday he's taking time off to focus on his family after his wife filed for divorce.

Long's spokesman, Art Franklin, said the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church leader told his congregation during church services that he will continue to serve as senior pastor at the church in Lithonia just outside Atlanta. But Long said he needs a sabbatical.

Franklin declined to say how long the pastor's sabbatical from the church would be. He said Long and his family "are asking for privacy and sensitivity to their family."

Long's wife, Vanessa Long, filed a petition for divorce Thursday in DeKalb County Superior Court to end her 21-year marriage to the embattled minister. The church sent out a press release Friday morning saying Vanessa Long planned to withdraw her petition, but her attorney said later in the day that she had changed her mind.

In her petition, Vanessa Long indicated that the marriage is "irretrievably broken" and that there was "no hope of reconciliation of the parties." She asked the court for temporary and permanent alimony, as well as attorneys' fees and an equitable division of marital and non-marital property.

"Vanessa and I are working together in seeking God's will in our current circumstances," Eddie Long said in a written statement.

According to the divorce petition, the couple is "currently living in a bona fide state of separation."

The split comes more than a year after allegations last year that Eddie Long used his lavish lifestyle and position of spiritual authority to lure four young men into sexual relationships. Eddie Long settled the cases but has never admitted to any wrongdoing.

Details of the settlements were not disclosed.

The allegations attracted national attention, took a toll on Long's reputation and distracted from his international ministry.

The Longs were married March 10, 1990. The couple has three children together and has another child from Long's previous marriage.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111204/ap_on_re_us/us_georgia_megachurch_pastor

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