Miller Media Moments

President-elect Barack Obama said in a news conference Sunday that the economy is likely to worsen.

According to New York Times coverage, Obama said he would pursue a recovery plan "equal to the task ahead."

Some of the proposed ideas included expanding public works programs and offering jobs to help develop green technology, according to the Times article.

The Los Angeles Times coverage said Obama believes economic times will worsen before they get better referring to the fragility of the financial system and to recent numbers showing the U.S. with its highest unemployment rate in 15 years.

Obama said it is not quite like the Great Depression, but a serious issue, according to the Times.

One of the main issues he addressed was the problems the auto industry is facing.

Obama for the first time voiced support for auto industry bailout legislation being drafted in Congress, according to the LA Times.

He said it would be "unacceptable" to allow the U.S. auto industry to fail during a time of growing unemployment, the LA Times article said.

"If this management team that's currently in place doesn't understand the urgency of the situation and is not willing to make the tough choices and adapt to these new circumstances, then they should go," Obama said during the news conference.

Obama said he is aware of the tough road ahead.

"As a part of our economic recovery package, what you will see coming out of my administration right at the center,� he said, “is a strong set of new financial regulations, in which banks, ratings agencies, mortgage brokers, a whole bunch of folks start having to be much more accountable and behave much more responsibly.�

Posted by mill3444 at 11:31 PM | Permalink

A Miami teenager killed himself after announcing his plan hour before on his blog.

Abraham Briggs, 19, broadcast the last moments of his life on a webcast and experts and his father say those who watched the video and followed the blog contributed to his death, according to USA Today.

Biggs, who was a student at Broward College, died of a combination of benzodiazepines, which he was prescribed for bipolar disorder, and opiates, according to USA Today.

Police found him dead in his father's bed 12 hours after he declared on a bodybuilding website that he planned to commit suicide.

His father said it was "unimaginable" that neither the website's operators nor any viewers alerted the police, according to BBC News.

Reports say that some viewers who logged in to watch encouraged the teenager to kill himself, while others tried to dissuade him, according to BBC News.

After several hours, when he had not moved some viewers finally notified the site's moderator, who then called the police, according to BBC News.

"Those individuals who were egging Mr. Biggs on in essence were able to depersonalize," Keith Whitworth, a professor of sociology at Texas Christian University who studies Internet fraud and social networking sites told USA Today. "They would not do it face to face, but in the computer medium they were able to absolve themselves of any personal responsibility for their actions."

Whitworth told USA Today at least one other Internet suicide has occurred. It was Kevin Whitrick, 42, who hanged himself in front of his webcam while others watched in 2007 in Britain.

Posted by mill3444 at 11:27 PM | Permalink

Tens of thousands of people in cities across the United States gathered Saturday to show support for same-sex marraige, giving voice to an issue many gay men and lesbians consider crucial for equality.

The New York Times reports rallies occurred in cities including San Francisco and Minneapolis only 11 days after California voters narrowly based a ballot revoking a previous law making same-sex ceremonies legal in the state.

Protestors across the country carried handmade signs with slogans like “No More Mr. Nice Gay� and “Straights Against Hate.� In New York, some 4,000 people gathered at City Hall, where speakers repeatedly called same-sex marriage “the greatest civil rights battle of our generation.� (New York Times)

“We are not going to rest at night until every citizen in every state in this country can say, ‘This is the person I love,’ and take their hand in marriage,� Representative Anthony D. Weiner of Brooklyn told the New York Times.

More than 700 people gathered on the plaza of the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis on Saturday to protest constitutional amendments in California, Florida and Arizona prohibiting gay marriage, according to the Star Tribune.

"It's really sad that this is even an issue at all," Kendra Atkins, 21, a University of Minnesota student from Eau Claire, Wis., told the Star Tribune before a rally in support of gay marriage in downtown Minneapolis. "Love is something we all experience in our own way and it's very unfortunate that certain people think there should be a right way and a wrong way to love."

Planning for the nationwide protests was started by a Seattle blogger, Amy Balliett, just days after the California vote, which took away gay marriage rights that had been granted by the state's high court, according to the Star Tribune.

Posted by mill3444 at 5:20 PM | Permalink

In a study in today's Pediatrics, doctors found that flu shots can keep kids out of the doctor's office, even when that season's vaccines aren't a perfect match for viruses in the community, according to USA Today.

"In a two-year study of 2,500 children ages 6 months to 5 years, those who were fully vaccinated had half as many flu-related medical visits. Children under 9 need two shots — given one month apart — to be fully vaccinated. Older kids need just a single shot. Researchers found that "partly" vaccinated children got no protection." (USA Today)

The Lancaster Eagle Gazette reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced it is changing its flu shot recommendations for children.

Up until February 2008, the recommendation was children 6 months to 5 years old, now it will be children 6 months to 19 years old.

The American Academy of Pediatrics is publishing its new guidelines Sunday, which recommend a flu shot for all healthy children ages 6 months to 18 years, nearly matching the CDC's recommendation changes, according to USA Today.

One in four eligible children have been immunized against the flu in the past, Joseph Bocchini, chairman of the pediatric academy's committee on infectious diseases told USA Today.

Up to 25% of children get influenza each year, Bocchini told USA Today. Because babies younger than 6 months are too young to be vaccinated, experts suggest those living in the house with them and caregivers get vaccinated to protect them.

Posted by mill3444 at 9:47 PM | Permalink

Oscar Winning actress Jennifer Hudson asked for the public's help Sunday in finding her 7-year-old nephew, who has been missing since the shooting deaths of her mother and brother.

Sunday evening, Hudson announced a $100,000 reward for the safe return of her nephew.

According to an Associated Press report in the Star Tribune, an Amber Alert remained in effect Sunday for Julian King, who disappeared Friday, the day both his grandmother, Darnell Donerson, 57, and 29-year-old uncle Jason Hudson were found in their Chicago home.

The estranged husband of Jennifer Hudson's sister, Julia Hudson, is listed as a suspect in the homicides, according to the AP report.

"There's a lot of forensic evidence," Chicago police spokeswoman Monique Bond told the AP. "We have to work the evidence and try to solve this case. Most importantly, we want to find the child."

The Chicago Tribune reports the Hudson home has become a magnet attracting fans, neighbors and curious onlookers.

Judy Broy of the South Loop told the Chicago Tribune she doesn't understand why Hudson's family insisted on living in the Englewood.

"They should have gotten out of here because this place can be tough," she told the Chicago Tribune.

Hudson won an Academy Award in 2007 for her role in "Dreamgirls."

Posted by mill3444 at 6:24 PM | Permalink

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president on Sunday morning during an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Powell, a Republican who served as President George W. Bush's first Secretary of State before resigning, called Obama a "transformational figure" who has reached out to all Americans with his campaign and a man who has displayed "a steadiness, an intellectual curiosity" and "a depth of knowledge" in his approach to the nation's problems, according to the New York Times.

The Associated Press coverage reported Powell said both Obama and Republican John McCain are qualified for the presidental position, but Obama is better suited to handle the nation's current problems.

"It isn't easy for me to disappoint Sen. McCain in the way that I have this morning, and I regret that," Powell said of his longtime friend, McCain, in his interview on "Meet the Press."

"But I firmly believe that at this point in America's history, we need a president that will not just continue, even with a new face and with the changes and with some maverick aspects, who will not just continue basically the same policies that we have been following in recent years," Powell said on "Meet the Press."

Some say Powell's endorsement is racially motivated.

The Obama campaign is happy to take the endorsement, however, some voters may discount the endorsement because of race or on the grounds that he is a disgruntled former member of the Bush Administraion, accroding to the New York Times.

Powell said he was aware of the racial aspect of his endorsement, but said it was not the dominating factor in his decision, according to the Associated Press.

According to the New York Times, Powell met with both candidates in June in preparation of making an endorsement decsion.

Powell said he has been unimpressed with the negative tone of McCain's campaign in recent weeks, according to the New York Times. He also was not pleased with McCain's choice of running mate Gov. Sarah Palin.

"She's a very distinguished woman, and she's to be admired, but at the same time, now that we have had a chance to watch her for some seven weeks, I don't believe she's ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the vice president," Powell said.

Posted by mill3444 at 8:58 PM | Permalink

A new study cautions the use of sample prescription drugs as a treatment plan for children.

The study, which will be published Monday, in the journal Pediatrics, looks in-depth at a 2004 survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that asked people how they got health care. As a part of the survey, they were asked if they received drug samples, according to the New York Times.

The study showed once in a doctor's office, children who did not have health insurance were more likely to receive free drug samples than their insured counterparts, according to the New York Times report.

Four of the 15 medications that were most frequently given out to children as free samples in the 2004 survey later proved to be potentially dangerous, researchers from Cambridge Health Alliance and Hasbro Children's Hospital report in Pediatrics, according to a Boston Globe report.

"I think the safety of free drug samples must further be examined," Dr. Sarah L. Cutrona, lead author and an internal medicine specialist at the Cambridge Health Alliance, said in an interview with the Boston Globe.

More than 500,000 children received samples of Advair, for asthma; Adderall and Strattera, both for attention deficit disorder; and Elidel, for eczema -- all of which were subjects of serious safety warnings by the Food and Drug Administraion, according to the New York Times.

Cutrona said in an interview with the New York Times that drugs given as free samples are often the newest, so their safety has not been investigated as much.

Ken Johnson, senior vice president of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, told the New York Times that "free samples have helped improve the quality of life for millions of Americans, regardless of their income."

Aware that drug samples are a way of marketing, some physicans don't use them at all.

Dr. Andrew D. Racine, director of general pediatrics at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx, told the New York Times free samples cloud a doctor's decision-making and that he does not use them as a part of patient care.

"As a physician, the way you should be making treatment decisons should not be based on which sales representatives come to your door," Dr. Racine told the New York Times. "This is just a marketing technique."

Cutrona said no matter what, this is an issue that needs to be looked into further.

"This is an issue that is concerning to me as a physician and a mother," she told the Boston Globe. "I am not a pediatrician but part of what we are trying to do is to get the issue on the radar of pediatricians."

Posted by mill3444 at 1:41 PM | Permalink

Beginning on Sept. 1, older children were abandoned under Nebraska's safe haven law, which has no age limit.

Eleven children were dropped of Sept. 24, forcing state officials to discuss possible misuses of the law, according to the Omaha World Herald.

State officials said parents should not be taking advantage of the law because they want to give up on raising their children, according to the Omaha World Herald.

"It is the job of the parent to be a parent," Todd Landry, children and family services director for the State Department of Health and Human Services told the Omaha World Herald. "(The law) in no way absolves a parent of their responsibilities."

In total last month, 15 older children in Nebraska were dropped off by parents or guardians, according to a report by the New York Times.

Mark Courtney, an expert on child welfare at the University of Washington, told the New York Times that what happened in Nebraska "would happen in any state."

"These days there's huge void in services for helping distressed families," he told the New York Times.

Nebraska was the last of the 50 states to enact a safe haven law, but its version was much broader than those in other states, according to the New York Times.

Lisa Blunt, a counselor with the Child Saving Institute in Omaha, told the Omaha World Herald parents should not resort to abandoning their children, but rather seek appropriate help.

Landry told the Omaha World Herald he predicted the courts would order the parents and guardians of the recently abandoned children to seek counseling and parenting classes to help them put back together their families.

Posted by mill3444 at 11:21 PM | Permalink

A University School of Music professors composed the music for a new opera that debuted in New York City on Sept. 12.

Professor Doug Geers, who was a graduate student at Columbia University in 2001, experienced 9/11 firsthand and now has written the 90-minute score for this new show.

As a reporter for the Minnesota Daily, I had the opportunity to talk with those involved with the production for an article released Tuesday. The opera titled, "Calling: An opera of forgiveness" is based on a book of essays titled "A Mother's Essays from Ground Zero" by Wickham Boyle, a New York writer and mother.

School of Music Professor Doug Geers was asked by Boyle to create an opera based on her words, Boyle told me in an interview for the Minnesota Daily.

The story, Geers said in an interview with me, is “up-close and down to earth,� follows the life of one family witnessing the attack on the World Trade Center and the journey they take from sadness to finding forgiveness and hope for the future.

“It’s very personal. It’s not abstracting it. It’s really talking about people,� Geers said in an interview with me for the Minnesota Daily. “Everyone who experienced it has a story.�

Although the story surrounds the events of Sept. 11, Geers told me in an interview the action only sets the story in motion; it’s not the ultimate message of the piece.

“It’s a story of trying to find how you can cope with the bad things that happen in life,� he told me in an interview, “and how you can find your way to the other side and find hope.�

Geers and Boyle were also waiting for the New York Times to review the show.

The New York Times reported Tuesday a "tense undercurrent in the music builds to a sudden whine from Mr. Geers's computer" as a scene plays out with New Yorkers going about their normal morning routinues.

Geers's music, "a tonal vocabulary punctuated with fidgets and squeals, aptly conveys contradictory moods, through it seldom asserts a character as personal as that of Ms. Boyle's words," according to the New York Times review of the show.

Boyle said in a inteview with me for the Minnesota Daily she hopes the show will gain enough attention to move it into the future.

Director of University Opera Theatre David Walsh told me in an inteview for the Minnesota Daily there has been discussion of performing "Calling" in a future opera season at the University.

Posted by mill3444 at 3:29 PM | Permalink

Call to raise driving age

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety released a report making a case for raising the driving age, USA Today reported Tuesday.

According to the report 16-year-old drivers are the most likely to crash, so the Institute for Highway Safety said by raising the driving ages many lives could be saved.

Some states have already made attempts to raise the driving age including Deleware, Florida, Georgia and Massachusetts, but all have failed.

"Teens themselves have been growing up under a certain set of rules about when they can get their liscence," Adrian Lund, the president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, told USA Today. "Parents get tired of being taxis," she told USA Today.

In an Associated Press article that ran in the Pioneer Press, Lund said raising the driving age will be a "tough sell" to teens and parents, but that car crashes are the leading cause of teenage deaths.

Many teens are not enthusiastic about the idea.

"I would be really upset because I've waited SO long to drive," Diamante White, a 16-year-old in Reading, Pa., who got her permit in July told the Associated Press. She said learning to drive is "growing-up experience."

Parents in Minnesota aren't sure that changing the driving age is the best way to protect young drivers, according to a report in the Star Tribune.

"By 16, they have all these sports practices, and parents need help driving," Beth Clarine, the parent of a 16-year-old girl told the Star Tribune.

Clarine told the Star Tribune that she thinks the six month permit period and new state laws Minnesota adopted this year will be helpful in keeping teen drivers safe.

But, those who are advocating the change bring statistics to the table that show a need for change.

From 2005 to 2007 16-and 17-year old drivers were involved in 116 fatal crashes in Minnesota, which resulted in 133 deaths, the Star Tribune reported from the Minnesota Public Safety Department.

No matter what happens, conversations will occur about the issue in many states.

"From the state perspective, we think the new report... is a conversation starter," Jonathan Adkins, a spokesperson for the Governors Highway Safety Association told USA Today. "Some states may want to consider raising the driving age, but it will be a non-starter in other states. We think it's worth dialogue and more research."

Posted by mill3444 at 8:23 PM | Permalink