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The storyline dogging Ron Paul as his numbers continue to rise in Iowa ? the racist content in newsletters published in the 1990s under his name ? poses a significant impediment to his campaign?s momentum.
But that?s not his only problem.
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Even as he disavows the newsletters ? the Texas congressman asserts he didn?t write them and never even read them ? Paul?s got a collection of other statements that he?ll likely need to explain in greater detail if he expects to capture the Republican Party nomination.
Here are six of them:
The ?disaster? of Ronald Reagan?s conservative agenda
?I think we can further thank Ronald Reagan for doing a good job [on furthering the Libertarian Party]. He certainly did a good job in 1980 pointing out the fallacies of the Democratic liberal agenda and he certainly did a good job on following up to show the disaster of the conservative agenda as well.?
The first rule in modern GOP politics is that you do not diss Ronald Reagan. The Reagan embrace may not be as tight as it was, say, a decade ago, but he is still a revered figure in the party. Thus, the above line from Paul?s nomination speech at the 1987 Libertarian Party convention in Seattle may not go over well with GOP regulars.
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are unconstitutional
Fox News?s Chris Wallace: You talk a lot about the Constitution. You say Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid are all unconstitutional.
Ron Paul: Technically, they are. ? There?s no authority [in the Constitution]. Article I, Section 8 doesn?t say I can set up an insurance program for people. What part of the Constitution are you getting it from? The liberals are the ones who use this General Welfare Clause.
Technically, he?s right: None of those programs are explicitly laid out in the Constitution. But even as many in the party are looking to reform entitlements and slash spending, almost no one takes it as far as Paul did in this March 2011 appearance on ?Fox News Sunday.? His position is not only ripe for devastating ads, it puts him at odds with a constituency that turns out to vote in high numbers.
American drug laws are designed to fund rogue governments, CIA programs
?I think that might be the No. 1 reason for the drug laws ? to raise the funds necessary for government to do illegal things, whether it?s some terrorist government someplace or whether it?s our own CIA to fund programs that they can?t get Congress to fund. I think it?s tragic and the sooner we get rid of the drug laws, the sooner this will end.?
While American attitudes toward drug laws have evolved over the years, Paul?s views on the legalization of drugs are still far out of the mainstream. And they are especially far out of the GOP mainstream.
During his 1988 Libertarian presidential campaign, Paul went after Republican nominee George H.W. Bush over his tenure as the head of the Central Intelligence Agency and made provocative allegations about CIA involvement in drug trafficking.
Paul has gotten much quieter about his views on drug legalization during the 2012 campaign, but there is a video trail that won?t be easy to dismiss. In his 1988 bid, he frequently gave interviews in which he spoke at length about his desire to see drugs legalized. That year, he appeared on ?The Morton Downey Jr. Show,? a provocative program designed to have people to yell at one another over political issues (Downey previews the segment by saying: ?We?ll talk to a man who could be snorting cocaine in the Oval Office.?); the performance makes the Howard Dean scream video clip seem like Masterpiece Theatre.
Posted on 2:03 pm, Thursday, December 22, 2011. Tags: fairways & friends scholarship golf tournament, parker school
MEDIA RELEASE
Parker School?s 9th annual Fairways & Friends Scholarship Golf Tournament took place Saturday, Dec. 10 at the Hualalai Resort.
A total of 54 golfers turned out for the event from which all proceeds benefit the school?s financial aid and scholarship programs.
Participants enjoyed playing 18 holes on the Hualalai course, followed by a reception at Ronnie?s Garden at the resort provided by the Four Seasons Hualalai?s Beach Tree Restaurant, complete with a hosted bar, entertainment, and prizes.
First place went to the team of Jeff Richardson and Gary Davis, both from Waimea.
Parker School provides a college-preparatory experience in a small-school setting where K-12 students develop academically while exploring their individual talents. More than 50 percent of these students receive financial assistance every year, and this year?s tournament earned more than $14,000 for Parker?s financial aid and scholarship programs.
Four Seasons Resort Hualalai general manager and Parker School parent, Robert Whitfield, said, ?It was the second year I have played in the tournament and it was tremendous fun. The camaraderie among the players is great whether you are a scratch golfer or a duffer.?
Parker School is grateful to the following sponsors and donors for helping make the golf tournament a success: Hualalai Resort and K & G Architects (title sponsors); Four Seasons Resort Hualalai and the Beach Tree Restaurant (reception sponsor); Big Island Country Club, Waikoloa Beach Golf Course, Kings? Waikoloa Golf Course, Hapuna Golf Course, Mauna Kea Golf Course, Hualalai Resort Golf Club, Hawaii Island Gourmet, Hamakua Nut Company, Hawaii Deep Sea Water, Waiaha Coffee and The Emily T. Gail Show, KTA Super Stores, Roy?s Waikoloa, Clever Construction, the Parker School Board of Directors, Title Guaranty, Kukio Golf and Beach Club, Lynn and Jim Lally, Hawaii Pacific Brokers LLC, Clever Concierge Service, and the Sheffield Family (prize and general sponsors).
? Find out more: www.parkerschool.net
?
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Parker School annual scholarship golf tourney (Dec. 11)
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SINGAPORE ? Oil prices hovered below $99 a barrel Thursday in Asia as signs of improving U.S. crude demand were offset by ongoing concerns about Europe's debt crisis.
Benchmark crude for February delivery was up 10 cents to $98.77 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.43 to settle at $98.67 on Wednesday.
In London, Brent crude was up 3 cents at $107.74 on the ICE futures exchange.
Oil jumped Wednesday amid evidence U.S. crude demand could be growing. The Energy Information Administration said Wednesday that crude inventories fell last week by 10.6 million barrels, the biggest drop ever for that time period and a much larger drop that the decrease of 2.3 million barrels forecast in an analyst survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill.
Crude has zigzagged near $100 for the last five weeks, with prices capped by investor fears that austerity measures to lower debt levels could trigger a recession in Europe next year.
Traders are also eyeing potential disruptions to global crude supplies. Tensions between Western nations and Iran, the world's fourth biggest crude producer, have been rising over Iran's nuclear ambitions. Political instability in Kazakhstan, which exports about 1.3 million barrels of oil per day or about 1.5 percent of world demand, could also threaten its supplies.
Trading volume normally falls during the next two weeks as many traders take vacations around the Christmas and New Year's Day holidays.
In other energy trading on the Nymex, natural gas rose 0.5 cent to $3.16 per 1,000 cubic feet. Heating oil fell 0.4 cent to $2.91 a gallon and gasoline futures were up 0.4 cent to $2.63 a gallon.
ANKARA, Turkey ? Turkish police on Tuesday detained some 40 people, including a number of journalists, as part of a growing investigation into a Kurdish group that prosecutors accuse of links to Kurdish rebels, the country's state-run television said.
The private Dogan news agency said Mustafa Ozer, a photographer working for the French news agency, Agence France Presse, and journalists for Kurdish media organizations were among the detained.
Eric Baradat, editor-in-chief of Agence France Presse, confirmed that a photographer for the Paris-based agency was detained but could not provide any details, citing agency policy.
Turkish state media said the latest arrests are part of an investigation launched two years ago. Since then hundreds of Kurdish activists, including elected mayors, have been detained on charges of membership of the Union of Kurdistan Communities, a group prosecutors accuse of being an offshoot of the outlawed PKK. The activists deny the accusation.
The official Anadolu Agency said Tuesday's raids were directed against the "press and propaganda" leg of the Union of Kurdistan Communities.
The PKK, branded a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, has been fighting for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey since 1984. Tens of thousands of people have died in the conflict since then.
The state-run TRT television said police on Tuesday conducted simultaneous raids in Istanbul and six other Turkish cities, detaining some 40 people. They will be questioned by anti-terrorism police in Istanbul, the station said.
The pro-Kurdish Firat news agency said at least 25 people were rounded up and that most of the detained are journalists working for Kurdish media organizations, including the Dicle news agency and the Birgun newspaper.
Tuesday's detentions are likely to further increase concerns over press freedoms in Turkey ? a predominantly Muslim democracy that seeks EU membership ? where dozens of journalists have been jailed, mostly on anti-terror charges. They include journalists accused of aiding a hardline secularist network which prosecutors say plotted to bring down Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government.
The United States and the EU have criticized Turkey's press freedoms and there are calls for the country to revise anti-terrorism laws which have led to the arrests of the journalists as well as dozens of student protesters.
Earlier this year, police also arrested an academician and a publisher as well as lawyers acting for the PKK's imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan in connection with their investigation into the group. No trial date has been set.
__
Associated Press writer Jenny Barchfield in Paris contributed.
VATICAN CITY?? The Vatican is determined to avoid limiting the number of visitors to the Sistine Chapel with its Michelangelo frescoes, despite harmful buildup of dust and other pollutants, the director of the Vatican Museums said Wednesday.
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"We will try to keep it open" without putting a limit on the growing number of visitors to the chapel, "in the conviction that it is possible to do so without risk to the paintings," Antonio Paolucci wrote in the Holy See's daily newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.
Paolucci, who also is one of Italy's most renowned art restoration experts, said the Vatican was working to give the chapel where popes are elected an "updated and efficient air conditioning system able to ensure the refreshing of the air and the combating of pollutants in both solid and gas forms."
Some 4 million people visit the Museums annually, with the chapel the highlight ? or even the sole aim of the visit ? for countless numbers of them. Ticket sales are a big moneymaker for the Vatican.
Dust, sweat, humidity and carbon dioxide exhaled by visitors who jam into the chapel to crane their neck to look at the frescoed ceiling can build to unwanted levels.
Last year, a high-tech monitoring system was installed in the chapel to obtain data, and the monitoring "is a good way along," Paolucci said.
The monitors register temperature and relative humidity at various heights in the chapel as well as the temperature of the frescoes themselves, dust levels, and the concentration of carbon dioxide, as well as the direction and speed of air currents in the cavernous room, he noted.
One surprising result of the study is the finding that many visitors loop back for another look at the chapel during their tour of the sprawling museums, Paolucci said.
"You would think that the number of visitors in the celebrated chapel would be equal to those who enter the Vatican Museums," Paolucci said. "Instead, no. They are more."
"This means that some, after having visited the chapel a first time, return, before leaving" the Museums, he said. "This makes us understand how impracticable and perhaps even inopportune it would be to put a cap on the number" of chapel visitors, Paolucci wrote.
In 1993, an air conditioning system was installed after the conclusion of the restoration of the "Last Judgment," Michelangelo's masterpiece on one of the chapel's walls, which he painted after his frescoed work on the ceiling.
The chapel, which also features works by Botticelli and Perugino, underwent an ambitious restoration that spanned two decades and ended in the 1990s. Some critics found the cleaning made the colors look too bright for their tastes, but defenders said the restoration removed centuries of accumulated dirt and candle smoke, making it possible to marvel at the original vividness.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
DALLAS ? Kevin Durant scored 21 points and reserve James Harden added 16 to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 106-92 victory over the defending champion Dallas Mavericks on Sunday night in the preseason opener for both teams.
Durant, the NBA scoring leader last season at 27.7 points a game, went 13 for 14 from the free throw line.
Lamar Odom, acquired from the Los Angeles Lakers in a trade on Dec. 11, had 14 points and seven rebounds in his Mavericks debut.
Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd, leaders of the Mavericks title run, were in uniform and are healthy but were rested.
Delonte West and Odom started in their place.
Dominique Jones and Roddy Beaubois had 17 points each to pace Dallas.
The Mavs are working newcomers Odom, Vince Carter and West into their rotation, looking to make up for the losses of key rotation members Tyson Chandler, J.J. Barea and Caron Butler to trades or free agency.
Oklahoma City returns its core of young players.
The teams complete their two-game home-and-home exhibition set Tuesday night at Oklahoma City.
The Thunder took control with an 11-0 second-quarter run that included two 3-pointers from Daequan Cook, expanding a 25-24 lead after one quarter to 58-51 by halftime.
Oklahoma City went 7 for 11 from 3-point range in the first half, with Cook hitting 3 of 4 from beyond the arc.
Durant's nine points in the third quarter, all on foul shots, pushed the Thunder to a 90-70 advantage entering the fourth.
Dallas opened the fourth quarter with a 14-0 run and pulled as close as 93-88 on Ian Mahinmi's dunk with 5:04 remaining.
But the Thunder scored the next five points, including a pair of jumpers from Eric Maynor, for a 98-88 edge with 3:21 left, closing out the Mavs.
NOTES: Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said his primary goal in a short preseason is getting his veteran team into game shape. "Our guys would benefit from a longer camp, but that's not in the cards," Carlisle said. ... Dallas beat Oklahoma City in five games in last season's Western Conference final. ... The Mavericks open the regular season on Christmas Day, hosting Miami, their opponent in the finals. The Thunder host Orlando on the same day.
FORT MEADE, Maryland?? The pretrial hearing for the U.S. soldier accused of leaking government secrets to the WikiLeaks website was bogged down in a dispute over the impartiality of the presiding officer.
David Coombs, the civilian defense lawyer for the accused leaker, 23-year-old Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, argued that Army Lt. Col. Paul Almanza, was biased and therefore should step aside.
Almanza's civilian occupation as a Justice Department prosecutor was the chief reason behind Coombs' latest move. The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation targeting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Almanza refused to step down, and Coombs then asked that the proceedings be suspended while he initiated an appeal of that decision.
The hearing was to determine whether Manning will face a court-martial on charges that he aided the enemy by leaking hundreds of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents.
Manning, who has been in military detention since his arrest in Iraq in May 2010, sat quietly at the defense table in the opening session of his pretrial hearing Friday as sides were tangled in the latest dispute.
A member of the prosecution team, Capt. Ashden Fein, said the government opposed recusal.
"The United States does not believe you've exhibited any bias in any form and that you can render a fair and impartial decision," Fein told Almanza.
Case spurs international movement
Manning is charged with aiding the enemy by leaking hundreds of thousands of secret documents that ended up on the website. At the time, he was a low-level intelligence analyst in Baghdad.
If his case goes to trial and he is convicted, Manning could face life in prison. The government has said it would not seek the death penalty.
The case has spawned an international movement in support of Manning, who is seen by anti-war activists as a hero who helped expose American mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan. To others he is a villain, even a traitor, who betrayed his oath of loyalty by deliberately spilling his government's secrets.
Coombs also argued that Almanza had wrongly denied a defense request to call as witnesses the "original classification authorities" who first decided to classify as secret the material WikiLeaks published.
"Let's put witnesses on the stand," he said. "Why is this stuff classified? Why is it going to cause harm?"
Classified documents
The hearing is open to the public, but with limited seating. A small number of reporters were present but not allowed to record or photograph the proceedings.
A U.S. military legal expert told reporters shortly before the proceedings began that the presiding officer is likely to make his recommendation on whether to court-martial Manning within eight days after the hearing ends. The hearing is expected to last over the weekend and possibly well into next week.
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The legal expert, who could not be identified under Army ground rules, said Manning is to be present for all proceedings, including sessions closed to the public for consideration of classified material.
The site of the hearing, Fort Meade, is home to U.S. Cyber Command, the organization whose mission includes protecting computer networks like the one Manning allegedly breached by illegally downloading huge numbers of classified documents in Iraq.
Manning's lawyer asserts that the documents' release did little actual harm.
Last month, 54 members of the European Parliament signed a letter to the U.S. government raising concerns about Manning's 18-month pretrial confinement.
Plans for vigil
Manning's supporters planned to maintain a vigil during the hearing and were organizing a rally for Saturday.
Army Maj. Gen. Michael S. Linnington, commander of the Military District of Washington, could choose other courses aside from court-martial, including applying an administrative punishment or dismissing some or all of the 22 counts against Manning.
The Manning case has led to a debate over the broader issue of whether the government's system for classifying and shielding information has grown so unwieldy that it is increasingly vulnerable to intrusions.
Rape allegations
Absent from the Meade proceedings will be Assange, who runs WikiLeaks from England. He is fighting in British courts to block a Swedish request that he be extradited to face trial over rape allegations.
A U.S. grand jury is weighing whether to indict Assange on espionage charges, and WikiLeaks is straining under an American financial embargo.
The materials Manning is accused of leaking include hundreds of thousands of sensitive items: Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, State Department cables and a classified military video of a 2007 American helicopter attack in Iraq that killed 11 men, including a Reuters news photographer and his driver.
Manning, who turns 24 on Saturday, was detained in Iraq in May 2010 and moved to a Marine Corps brig at Quantico, Va., in July. Nine months later, the Army sent him to the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., after a series of claims by Manning of unlawful pretrial punishment.
When it filed formal charges against Manning in March 2011, the Army accused him of using unauthorized software on government computers to extract classified information, illegally download it and transmit the data for public release by what the Army termed "the enemy."
Global headlines
The first large publication of the documents by WikiLeaks in July 2010, some 77,000 military records on the war in Afghanistan, made global headlines. But the material provided only limited revelations, including unreported incidents of Afghan civilian killings as well as covert operations against Taliban figures.
In October 2010, WikiLeaks published a batch of nearly 400,000 documents that dated from early 2004 to Jan. 1, 2010. They were written mostly by low-ranking officers in the field cataloging thousands of battles with insurgents and roadside bomb attacks, plus equipment failures and shootings by civilian contractors. The documents did not alter the basic outlines of how the war was fought.
A month later, WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of State Department documents that revealed a hidden world of backstage diplomacy, including candid comments from world leaders.
It took months for the Army to reach the conclusion that Manning was competent to stand trial. In the meantime Manning's civilian lawyer, Coombs, has sought to build a case that appears to rest in part on an assertion that the government's own reviews of the leaks concluded that little damage was done.
___
Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Republican U.S. presidential contender Mitt Romney, once the leader and presumed nominee, is back in front-runner mode.
Less than three weeks before Iowa kicks off the state-by-state Republican battle to find a challenger to President Barack Obama, polls show support for main rival Newt Gingrich may already be softening.
Romney also won an important endorsement on Friday from South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.
With other contenders scrambling to slice up Gingrich, Romney was a model of decorum at the final Republican debate on Thursday before Iowa kicks off the nominating race on January 3.
Romney let rivals Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann lead the way in attacking Gingrich and stayed well above the fray. He even exchanged compliments at times with Gingrich, the former House of Representatives speaker who has rolled past him in polls in the last month.
"His whole goal now is to get back to being the 'safe and steady' candidate. He can let his surrogates do the work for him," Republican strategist Ford O'Connell said.
"He doesn't even need to win Iowa, he just needs to make sure that Gingrich doesn't - and Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann can help him with that."
After a week of intensifying criticism of Gingrich's temperament and judgment, climaxed when Romney called him "zany," his attack machine went dark when the debate lights went on.
A Rasmussen poll showed Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, has a slight lead over Gingrich in Iowa, a state Romney has largely bypassed this year after spending millions there in 2008 only to lose.
Two other polls show Paul, a libertarian Republican congressman, moving into second place behind Gingrich in Iowa and gunning for an upset that would almost certainly help Romney by stopping Gingrich's rise.
Polls show Romney also still has a commanding lead in New Hampshire, the state where he has focused his efforts, putting him in prime position to put a stranglehold on the race with strong performances in the first two contests.
'WILL GO ON FOR A WHILE'
The next contest is in conservative South Carolina, followed by the big battleground state of Florida, an expensive state for advertising where the more moderate Romney has worked hard at organizing.
"Everybody wants to win Iowa and we all hope to do that, but this process is going to go on a while," Romney told Fox News after the debate.
Romney got a boost on Friday with a much-sought endorsement from Haley, a favorite of Tea Party conservatives who had been heavily courted by Romney's rivals.
South Carolina holds the third nominating contest after Iowa on January 3 and New Hampshire on January 10.
"The election next November will have ramifications for generations," Haley said in a statement released by the Romney campaign. "Neither South Carolina nor the nation can afford four more years of President (Barack) Obama, and Mitt Romney is the right person to take him on and get America back on track."
A fade by Gingrich would be fitting in a race that has seen multiple contenders - first Bachmann, then Texas Governor Rick Perry and then businessman Herman Cain - rise to the top only to fall back to the pack.
Romney, with a decided financial edge over Gingrich, will have a clear advantage the longer the race goes on. He launched a heavy wave of advertising attacks on Gingrich's temperament and electability this week.
He capped those attacks by calling Gingrich's ideas "zany" during a New York Times interview.
Gingrich obviously was paying attention.
"I'm very concerned about not appearing to be zany," he joked at one point during the debate.
In the debate, Romney sat back and let Bachmann and Paul batter Gingrich over his work for mortgage giant Freddie Mac, while former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum reminded voters Gingrich was not well liked as House speaker.
"Romney was back in front-runner mode tonight emotionally, if not statistically," Republican Dan Schnur, a former aide to John McCain's 2000 presidential bid, said of Romney's passive debate performance.
"This was the safe and careful Romney we've seen for most of the year," he said. "Maybe their internal polling is showing their attack ads on Gingrich are doing the job, so they didn't need to do it to his face."
COMMENTARY | Lawrence Kudlow, writing in RealClearPolitics, suggests that one of the great issues of the 2012 election in the Keystone XL pipeline. The Republicans have positioned themselves neatly in favor of blue-collar jobs and President Obama against.
As of this writing the Republicans have attached approval of the pipeline, which would run from the Alberta tar sand fields to Texas refineries, in a bill that would extend the payroll tax cut and have dared Obama to veto it. At hazard are 20 thousand jobs in building the pipeline, 100 thousand indirect jobs caused by the pipeline, and the goal of American energy independence.
The reason Obama is in the position of opposing a shovel ready project is his obsession with destroying America's use of fossil fuels and creating an renewable energy economy. That obsession, which has taken on the dimensions of religious mania, has caused the president to do all sorts of inane things. Opposition to the building of the Keystone XL pipeline is just one of the blunders Obama has committed. The Solyndra scandal, resulting from an unwise loan guarantee, stems from Obama's faith based energy policy.
The policy has annoyed a group of people who would ordinarily be in the Democratic coalition, unionized teamsters, plumbers, pipe fitters, and other working class people. The Democrats seem to have recognize this and have decided that tossing the white working class under the bus is an acceptable political maneuver. The New York Times reported recently that the Democrats are cobbling together a coalition that includes upper middle class environmentalists-people who are opposed to the Keystone XL-and does not include the working stiffs who would benefit from building the pipeline.
The Republicans are therefore in the wonderful position of being the party of builders. Any candidate for president that the Republicans nominate will be in favor of building Keystone XL and thus the jobs that will be created. President Obama will be against it and therefore against those jobs.
It was not always so. Part of the popular appeal of Franklin Roosevelt was that he was in favor of building things. Whatever one thought about the stimulus efforts of the New Deal, at least they involved building roads, bridges, dams, and rural electrical power systems. Obama, despite his rhetoric, is in favor of none of these things. He will suffer next year as a result.
HARRISBURG, Pa. ? As soon as he walked into the Penn State locker room, Mike McQueary heard running water and rhythmic, slapping sounds of "skin on skin." He looked in a mirror and saw a naked Jerry Sandusky, the former assistant coach, holding a young boy by the waist from behind, up against the wall in the campus shower.
"I just saw Coach Sandusky in the showers with a boy and what I saw was wrong and sexual," McQueary recalled telling his father that night in 2002. He repeated it the next morning to coach Joe Paterno, who slumped deep into his chair at his kitchen table.
"He said, `I'm sorry you had to see that,'" McQueary said.
McQueary's testimony Friday at a preliminary hearing for two Penn State officials accused of covering up the story was the most detailed, public account yet of the child sex abuse allegations that have upended the university's football program and the entire central Pennsylvania campus. Paterno and the university president have lost their jobs, and officials Tim Curley and Gary Schultz are accused of lying to a grand jury about what McQueary told them.
A Pennsylvania judge on Friday held Curley, the university's athletic director, and Schultz, a retired senior vice president, for trial after the daylong hearing.
Curley said that McQueary never relayed the seriousness of what he saw, and said he was only told that Sandusky was "horsing around" with a boy but that his conduct wasn't sexual.
He said he told the university president about the episode and the top official at a children's charity that Sandusky founded, but never told university police. "I didn't see any reason because I didn't think at the time it was a crime," he told the grand jury, according to testimony read into the record on Friday.
Curley, Schultz and Paterno have been criticized for never telling police about the 2002 charges. Prosecutors say Sandusky continued to abuse boys for six more years. Sandusky has denied having inappropriate sexual contact with boys.
In about two hours on the witness stand, McQueary said again and again that what he saw was a sexual act, although he stopped short of saying he was sure that Sandusky, now 67, had raped the boy.
"I believe Jerry was sexually molesting him and having some type of sexual intercourse with him," McQueary said on Friday. He said later he "can't say 100 percent" that Sandusky and the boy were having intercourse because he was seeing Sandusky from behind.
He said after talking to his father, he went over to Paterno's home the next morning and said that what he had seen "was way over the lines, it was extremely sexual in nature." He said he would not have used words like sodomy or intercourse with Paterno; he did not get into that much detail out of respect for the coach, he said.
Paterno told the grand jury that McQueary said he saw Sandusky doing something of a "sexual nature" with the youngster but that he didn't press for details.
"I didn't push Mike ... because he was very upset," Paterno said. "I knew Mike was upset, and I knew some kind of inappropriate action was being taken by Jerry Sandusky with a youngster."
Paterno told McQueary he would talk to others about what he'd reported.
McQueary said he met nine or 10 days later with Curley and Schultz and told them he'd seen Sandusky and a boy, both naked, in the shower after hearing skin-on-skin slapping sounds.
"I would have described that it was extremely sexual and I thought that some kind of intercourse was going on," said McQueary.
McQueary said he was left with the impression both men took his report seriously. When asked why he didn't go to police, he referenced Schultz's position as a vice president at the university who had overseen the campus police
"I thought I was talking to the head of the police, to be frank with you," he said. "In my mind it was like speaking to a (district attorney). It was someone who police reported to and would know what to do with it."
The square-jawed, red-haired assistant coach spoke in a steady voice in his first public account of the alleged abuse, sometimes turning his seat and leaning toward defense lawyers to answer questions. His voice rose a few times and he blushed once when describing the sexual encounter in the shower.
Defense lawyers for Curley and Schultz argued that a perjury charge should not be based solely on a person's testimony under oath contradicting someone else's testimony. The defense said uncorroborated testimony from McQueary is not enough and sought to pick apart the ways he described the shower scene differently to different people.
The defense noted that McQueary admitted changing his description of the shower encounter when speaking with Paterno ? enough so that the coach didn't believe a crime had occurred.
McQueary said he had stopped by a campus football locker room to drop off a pair of sneakers in the spring of 2002 when he saw Sandusky with the boy, who he estimated was 10 or 12 years old.
McQueary, 37, said he has never described what he saw as anal rape or anal intercourse and couldn't see Sandusky's genitals, but that "it was very clear that it looked like there was intercourse going on."
In its report last month, the grand jury summarized McQueary's testimony as saying he "saw a naked boy ... with his hands up against the wall, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky."
McQueary said he peeked into the shower three times ? the first via a mirror, the other two times directly. The last time he looked in, Sandusky and the boy had separated, he said. He said he didn't say anything, but "I know they saw me. They looked directly in my eye, both of them."
McQueary said the entire encounter ? from when he first entered the locker room to when he retreated to his office ? lasted about 45 seconds.
Curley told the grand jury that he couldn't recall his specific conversation with McQueary, but McQueary never reported seeing anal intercourse or other sexual conduct. He said he spoke to Sandusky about it, who first denied having been in the shower with a boy, but later changed his story.
Schultz said he remembered McQueary and Paterno describing what the younger coach saw only in a very general way.
"I had the impression it was inappropriate," Schultz told the grand jury. "I had the feeling it was some kind of wrestling activity and maybe Jerry might have grabbed a young boy's genitals."
Under cross-examination, McQueary said he considered what he saw a crime but didn't call police because "it was delicate in nature."
"I tried to use my best judgment," he said. "I was sure the act was over." He said he never tried to find the boy.
Paterno, Schultz and Curley didn't testify, but District Judge William C. Wenner read their grand jury testimony from January at the Dauphin County hearing.
Curley's attorney, Caroline Roberto, said prosecutors "will never be able to reach their burden of proof at a trial."
Schultz's attorney, Tom Farrell, predicted his client would be acquitted.
He also took a shot at Paterno, saying, "I'm an Italian from Brooklyn, and he may not have called the police but he may have done what I would have done, which is get the boys in the car with a few baseball bats and crowbars and take it to the fellow."
Sandusky says he is innocent of 52 criminal charges stemming from what authorities say were sexual assaults over 12 years on 10 boys in his home, on Penn State property and elsewhere.
Curley, 57, was placed on leave by the university after his arrest. Schultz, 62, returned to retirement after spending about four decades at the school, most recently as senior vice president for business and finance, and treasurer.
While our shirt is still being pressed ahead of the launch event in London later today, yet more details have leaked on the LG Prada 3.0. Some decidedly realistic press shots have surfaced ahead of the phone's big debut, alongside some concrete-looking specifications. The dual-core OMAP 4430 processor seen last week is apparently clocked at 1GHz, with a high definition screen showing off a classy monotone Android skin, lying over Gingerbread version 2.3.7. The spec sheet also reveals 8GB of storage, expandable by microSD, with an eight megapixel auto-focus camera peering out from the textured backing. Interestingly, the slab with style will also pack NFC according to the leak. We've got a few more hours to wait until we can give it a personal going-over -- fashion phone obsessives, hold on.
"They're headlining MSG?" one of my friends recently asked, regarding the Black Keys' upcoming tour. "When did that happen?" The question is legitimate considering, for the first eight or so years of the band's career, they experienced success only in the indie world, never cracking into the Top 40 charts until their 2010 release, Brothers. With this album came a track called "Tighten Up," which was eventually picked up by pop radio stations, gaining the band wide critical acclaim, including three Grammy awards, including one for Best Alternative Music Album, and guest spots on Saturday Night Live and other late nights shows. The Black Keys were clearly on their way.
Now, having made that leap from indie obscurity into mainstream consciousness, the way the Arcade Fire did last year with The Suburbs, everyone was curious to see what Akron, Ohio's coolest blues rock duo, consisting of vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney, would put out next. El Camino, the band's seventh album, produced by Danger Mouse, who also worked on Brothers with the guys, is an amazing collection of songs clearly inspired by rock and roll from the 50's and 60's as well as from the arena rock era of the 70's.
"After the first three or four songs were recorded, it kind of became apparent that they're all rooted in this early rock and roll feel," Carney explained in a video interview recently posted on MTV.com. "It was around that time that we decided to make a whole album that was built around that. We'd never made an album that was all coming from the same exact direction. We kind of wanted to do that."
The album's first track and first single, "Lonely Boy," has the potential for great success. Auerbach's brilliant, gritty and ripping opening guitar riff alone won me over whole heartedly. Combined with Carney's heavy, slamming drum beats that quickly join in, this is a fantastic rock song.
My other personal favorite is "Little Black Submarines." It starts off slowly with just Auerbach's voice and some slow guitar picking. Then half way through there's a one-second pause before he tears mercilessly into the song with a guitar riff so explosive, it briefly makes Hendrix seem inadequate. This song in particular, I can't wait to see live at the Garden. It just begs for a giant stage and thousands of ravaging fans.
With the release of El Camino, I wonder, could they be America's new favorite rock and roll band? Rock fans have recently been deserted by the Kings of Leon who can't seem to stay sober or get along. They've also been deserted by Jack White who has gotten weird (proof: check out his collaboration with Insane Clown Posse). And, let's face it, the Strokes' last album wasn't so great. So who's to fill the void?
My vote is for the Keys, obviously. Not only is their music great and the kind that can fill every nook of a venue as huge as the Garden, but Auerbach and Carney are also two of the most likeable, hilarious guys you've ever seen. Check out any interview with them on YouTube for proof. Also the fact that they named their album El Camino then put a photograph of a minivan on the album cover that is clearly not an El Camino furthers this. But what's best, they genuinely seem to enjoy spending all their time together. They're like brothers. (Just like the album name! Coincidence? I think not.)
If you haven't already, be sure to check out the Black Keys' new album, El Camino. But if you're currently stuck at work and only have access to YouTube, do yourself a favor and watch the video for "Lonely Boy," which features 48-year-old previously unknown actor/musician/security guard Derrick T. Tuggle, dancing his own free style dance in front of a hotel room door. It's bizarre and funny, but so addictive, which makes it fit in so perfectly with what the Black Keys do.
LSUHSC research finds many women not receiving recommended breast cancer adjuvant treatmentPublic release date: 6-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Leslie Capo lcapo@lsuhsc.edu 504-568-4806 Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center
New Orleans, LA A first-of-its kind study led by Xiao-Cheng Wu, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Public Health at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, reports that a significant number of women are not receiving guideline-recommended treatment for breast cancer and what factors contribute. The research is published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology December 5, 2011 Early Release section.
The research team, which also included Vivien Chen, PhD, Professor and Director of the Louisiana Tumor Registry at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Public Health, explored how race/ethnicity, insurance status, poverty, education, and hospital type were associated with the delivery of guideline-recommended adjuvant systemic therapy for breast cancers. Adjuvant systemic therapies like chemotherapy, a regimen of a group of specific chemotherapy drugs, and hormone therapy often follow an initial treatment like surgery to treat cells that may be too small to be seen and to reduce the chances of recurrence. Decisions about whether or not adjuvant systemic therapies are indicated, and which type, are determined by lymph node status, histology, tumor size, grade, and hormonal receptor status. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines were developed to improve cancer care and survival.
For this very large study of 6,734 women using Pattern of Care data from population-based cancer registries, the researchers grouped women by whether or not they received chemotherapy, chemotherapy regimen, or hormone therapy, according to the NCCN guidelines. The researchers found that 35% of the women studied received non-guideline chemotherapy (either no chemotherapy although recommended or use of chemotherapy when not recommended), 12% received non-guideline regimens (not treated with the chemotherapy drugs recommended), and 20% received non-guideline hormone therapy.
Significant predictors of non-guideline chemotherapy included Medicaid insurance, high poverty, and treatment at hospitals not accredited as Commission on Cancer (CoC) hospitals by the American College of Surgeons. Predictors of non-guideline regimens of specific chemotherapy drugs included lack of insurance and low education. Predictors of non-guideline hormone therapy included high poverty and treatment at non-CoC hospitals.
Previous studies focused primarily on racial differences and did not examine an association with poverty. This study found that women residing in high-poverty areas were less likely to receive guideline therapy. However, a number of other socioeconomic status factors may also contribute.
While women with Medicaid were less likely to receive guideline chemotherapy compared to women privately insured, uninsured women were not less likely to receive chemotherapy and hormone therapy according to the guidelines. They were, however, less likely to receive the recommended chemotherapy regimens than privately insured women. One of the reasons may be that uninsured women are often younger than privately insured women. Because younger women are more likely to receive chemotherapy than older women, the association may be diluted.
Not surprisingly, women were less likely to receive treatment according to the guidelines in hospitals not accredited by the American College of Surgeons. This is probably due to the multi-specialty approach, comprehensive care, and commitment to ongoing monitoring and improvement of cancer care by CoC hospitals. Women treated at CoC hospitals may also have greater access to oncology consultations.
"Guideline-recommended adjuvant systemic therapies for breast cancer are not disseminated proportionally in the community," notes Dr. Wu, who is also Assistant Director of the LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans' Louisiana Tumor Registry. "Socioeconomically disadvantaged and medically under-served women are less likely to receive guideline therapies. Underlying causes for the disparities need to be identified so we can target interventions to help improve care and cancer prognosis for women across the board."
According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women, excluding cancers of the skin. An estimated 232,620 new cases of breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed this year, with 39,970 deaths.
The study was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Program of Cancer Registries. Besides LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Public Health, the team included researchers from Emory University, Duke University Medical Center, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the University of Kentucky, the University of Wisconsin, and the California Cancer Registry.
"This is an example of how registry data, in conjunction with special studies, can help to ensure quality care for every cancer patient in Louisiana and beyond," concludes Dr. Vivien W. Chen, Professor of Public Health and Director of LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans' Louisiana Tumor Registry.
###
LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans educates Louisiana's health care professionals. The state's academic health leader, LSUHSC comprises a School of Medicine, the state's only School of Dentistry, Louisiana's only public School of Public Health, and Schools of Allied Health Professions, Nursing, and Graduate Studies. LSUHSC faculty take care of patients in public and private hospitals and clinics throughout the region. In the vanguard of biosciences research in a number of areas in a worldwide arena, the LSUHSC research enterprise generates jobs and enormous economic impact, LSUHSC faculty have made lifesaving discoveries and continue to work to prevent, advance treatment, or cure disease. To learn more, visit http://www.lsuhsc.edu and http://www.twitter.com/LSUHSCHealth.
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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.
LSUHSC research finds many women not receiving recommended breast cancer adjuvant treatmentPublic release date: 6-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Leslie Capo lcapo@lsuhsc.edu 504-568-4806 Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center
New Orleans, LA A first-of-its kind study led by Xiao-Cheng Wu, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Public Health at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, reports that a significant number of women are not receiving guideline-recommended treatment for breast cancer and what factors contribute. The research is published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology December 5, 2011 Early Release section.
The research team, which also included Vivien Chen, PhD, Professor and Director of the Louisiana Tumor Registry at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Public Health, explored how race/ethnicity, insurance status, poverty, education, and hospital type were associated with the delivery of guideline-recommended adjuvant systemic therapy for breast cancers. Adjuvant systemic therapies like chemotherapy, a regimen of a group of specific chemotherapy drugs, and hormone therapy often follow an initial treatment like surgery to treat cells that may be too small to be seen and to reduce the chances of recurrence. Decisions about whether or not adjuvant systemic therapies are indicated, and which type, are determined by lymph node status, histology, tumor size, grade, and hormonal receptor status. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines were developed to improve cancer care and survival.
For this very large study of 6,734 women using Pattern of Care data from population-based cancer registries, the researchers grouped women by whether or not they received chemotherapy, chemotherapy regimen, or hormone therapy, according to the NCCN guidelines. The researchers found that 35% of the women studied received non-guideline chemotherapy (either no chemotherapy although recommended or use of chemotherapy when not recommended), 12% received non-guideline regimens (not treated with the chemotherapy drugs recommended), and 20% received non-guideline hormone therapy.
Significant predictors of non-guideline chemotherapy included Medicaid insurance, high poverty, and treatment at hospitals not accredited as Commission on Cancer (CoC) hospitals by the American College of Surgeons. Predictors of non-guideline regimens of specific chemotherapy drugs included lack of insurance and low education. Predictors of non-guideline hormone therapy included high poverty and treatment at non-CoC hospitals.
Previous studies focused primarily on racial differences and did not examine an association with poverty. This study found that women residing in high-poverty areas were less likely to receive guideline therapy. However, a number of other socioeconomic status factors may also contribute.
While women with Medicaid were less likely to receive guideline chemotherapy compared to women privately insured, uninsured women were not less likely to receive chemotherapy and hormone therapy according to the guidelines. They were, however, less likely to receive the recommended chemotherapy regimens than privately insured women. One of the reasons may be that uninsured women are often younger than privately insured women. Because younger women are more likely to receive chemotherapy than older women, the association may be diluted.
Not surprisingly, women were less likely to receive treatment according to the guidelines in hospitals not accredited by the American College of Surgeons. This is probably due to the multi-specialty approach, comprehensive care, and commitment to ongoing monitoring and improvement of cancer care by CoC hospitals. Women treated at CoC hospitals may also have greater access to oncology consultations.
"Guideline-recommended adjuvant systemic therapies for breast cancer are not disseminated proportionally in the community," notes Dr. Wu, who is also Assistant Director of the LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans' Louisiana Tumor Registry. "Socioeconomically disadvantaged and medically under-served women are less likely to receive guideline therapies. Underlying causes for the disparities need to be identified so we can target interventions to help improve care and cancer prognosis for women across the board."
According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women, excluding cancers of the skin. An estimated 232,620 new cases of breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed this year, with 39,970 deaths.
The study was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Program of Cancer Registries. Besides LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Public Health, the team included researchers from Emory University, Duke University Medical Center, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the University of Kentucky, the University of Wisconsin, and the California Cancer Registry.
"This is an example of how registry data, in conjunction with special studies, can help to ensure quality care for every cancer patient in Louisiana and beyond," concludes Dr. Vivien W. Chen, Professor of Public Health and Director of LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans' Louisiana Tumor Registry.
###
LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans educates Louisiana's health care professionals. The state's academic health leader, LSUHSC comprises a School of Medicine, the state's only School of Dentistry, Louisiana's only public School of Public Health, and Schools of Allied Health Professions, Nursing, and Graduate Studies. LSUHSC faculty take care of patients in public and private hospitals and clinics throughout the region. In the vanguard of biosciences research in a number of areas in a worldwide arena, the LSUHSC research enterprise generates jobs and enormous economic impact, LSUHSC faculty have made lifesaving discoveries and continue to work to prevent, advance treatment, or cure disease. To learn more, visit http://www.lsuhsc.edu and http://www.twitter.com/LSUHSCHealth.
[ | 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.
US rejects Chavez cancer comments (funny comment followed by funnier response. Stop it boys!) bbc.co.uk/news/world-lat? 
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Public release date: 6-Dec-2011
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