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Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
US says Syrian rebels used chem weapons
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Obama administration flatly rejected a claim by Syrian President Bashar Assad's government that the U.S.-backed Syrian rebels used chemical weapons on Tuesday, calling it a desperate attempt by a beleaguered regime to distract attention from its own ledger of atrocities in two years of civil war.
A U.S. official went further and said there was no evidence either side had used such weapons Tuesday in an attack in northern Syria, disputing a competing claim by rebels that it was regime forces who fired the chemical weapon. Spokespeople for the White House and the State Department rejected only the Assad regime's charge.
The origin of the attack is still unclear, the official added. But the official noted that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons also is reporting no independent information of chemical weapons use. The official wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.
"We have no reason to believe that these allegations represent anything more than the regime's continued attempts to discredit the legitimate opposition and distract from its own atrocities committed against the Syrian people," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.
"We don't have any evidence to substantiate the regime's charge that the opposition even has CW (chemical weapons) capability," she added.
Syria's state-run news agency said 25 people were killed in the attack on the Khan al-Assad village in northern Aleppo province. It said 86 people were wounded, some in critical condition, and published pictures of children and others on stretchers in what appeared to be a hospital ward.
Russia, which has steadfastly supported Assad in Syria's civil war, backed Assad's assertion Tuesday.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the rebel use of chemical weapons represented an "extremely dangerous" development in a conflict that has already killed 70,000 people. It said the rebels detonated a munition containing an unidentified chemical agent, but didn't give further details.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said the U.S. is looking carefully at all allegations, but said the Obama administration is "deeply skeptical" of any claims emanating from Assad's regime. He said President Barack Obama believes any chemical weapons use would be unacceptable.
"This is an issue that has been made very clear by the president to be of great to concern to us," Carney said, adding that if the Syrian regime does use such weapons, "there will be consequences."
Asked if Syria's chemical weapons stocks remained secure, Nuland declined to answer. She also refused to assess the opposition's counterclaims that the regime used chemical weapons, beyond saying the U.S. would investigate the allegations.
"We've been very clear about our concerns that as the Assad regime becomes increasingly beleaguered, it finds that the violence that it is using by conventional means is inadequate, including its barbaric use of scuds," she told reporters. "So we are quite concerned that they will resort to other weapons. We've made clear that this would constitute a red line for the United States."
Nuland said the U.S. was asking Russia to explain its accusation against the rebels, but dismissed the likelihood of Moscow producing any evidence.
"They appear to have taken the regime's word for it," she said.
Syria has one of the world's largest arsenals of chemical weapons and Washington has been on high alert since last year for any possible use or transfer of chemical weapons by Assad's forces. It feared that an increasingly desperate regime might turn to the stockpiles in a bid to defeat the rebellion or transfer dangerous agents to militant groups such as Lebanon's Hezbollah, which the Syrian government has long supported.
At the time, officials noted movement of some of the Syrian stockpiles but said none appeared to be deployed for imminent use. Still, Obama declared the use, deployment or transfer of the weapons to be his "red line" for possible military intervention in the Arab country.
U.S. officials say they've been closely monitoring Syria's unconventional weapons stockpiles and coordinating with allies in the region and beyond on possible contingency plans in the event the weapons are no longer secure. They've provided no indication that Syrian rebels seized some of the stockpiles or acquired such weaponry in recent months.
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Kryptonite for cancer cells | news @ Northeastern
June 27, 2012 - Mansoor Amiji, Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Northeastern University. Amiji's field of expertise includes Drug Delivery and Nanomedicine, the application of nanotechnology for medical diagnosis, imagining, and therapy.
Every avail?able cancer drug is sus?cep?tible to resis?tance, according to Man?soor Amiji, Dis?tin?guished Pro?fessor and chair of the Depart?ment of Phar?ma?ceu?tical Sci?ences. Tumors grow more quickly than blood ves?sels, so these unruly masses of cells receive very little oxygen and nutri?ents, which means they know just how to sur?vive under harsh con?di?tions. They make minia?ture pumps to actively dispel any?thing that doesn?t serve them well (like drugs), and they evade all the checks and bal?ances that nor?mally main?tain healthy cell populations.
Each of these super?cell powers is coded in the cancer?s DNA. In theory, turning off the right genes would turn off the super?powers, according to Amiji. A method called RNA inter?fer?ence does exactly that. By inhibiting pro?tein pro?duc?tion of spe?cific sec?tions of DNA, so-??called small inter?fering RNA, or siRNA, can shut down the activity of indi?vidual?genes.
But this is easier said than done. The siRNA mol?e?cules are incred?ibly finicky mol?e?cules, which Amiji likened to a picky house?guest who needs every?thing just so. ?They?re small, neg?a?tively charged, and extremely labile,? he said, and they degrade if you so much as breathe on them in the lab. All of these char?ac?ter?is?tics make it dif?fi?cult to get them where you want them inside the?body.
In a recent paper in the journal Bio?ma?te?rials, Amiji and col?lab?o?ra?tors at Novartis Insti?tutes for Bio?med?ical Research present a system that they believe will over?come some of these chal?lenges. Using their exper?tise in tar?geted drug delivery, Amiji?s team devel?oped a mod?ular system that can be used to deliver siRNA and any stan?dard drug directly to the cancer cells and nowhere else. This work is funded by the National Cancer Institute?s Alliance for Nan?otech?nology in Cancer Plat?form Part?ner?ship?grant.
?If we really want to take resis?tance head on, we need to address it in a mul?ti?fac?to?rial way,? said Amiji. The new mod?ular system is just that?a mul?ti?fac?eted approach that simul?ta?ne?ously addresses chemo tox?i?city and resis?tance, two of the most dif?fi?cult chal?lenges facing cancer drug developers.
In the research, spear?headed by Amiji?s former grad?uate stu?dent Shanthi Ganesh and cur?rent research assis?tant pro?fessor Arun Iyer, the team cre?ated a library of car?rier com?plexes, each spe?cial?ized for cer?tain prop?er?ties. Some of the com?plexes are good at car?rying neg?a?tively charged mol?e?cules (like siRNA) through the neg?a?tively charged cell mem?brane, which nor?mally repels them. Other com?plexes are good at engulfing hydrophobic drugs (which don?t dis?solve in water), while still others work better with hydrophilic, or
water-??loving,? drugs.
?It?s almost like Lego pieces that you can mix and match to create the right assembly for the right type of pay?load, and then sub?se?quently target the right area of the body where it needs to be deliv?ered,? said?Amiji.
The assem?blies also dawn mol?e?cules that make them act like homing-??pigeons in the blood, car?rying their mes?sages of cel?lular destruc?tion to cancer cells?alone.
In this research, Amiji?s team focused on a mol?e?cule called hyaluronic acid, which many cancer cells rec?og?nize via spe?cial?ized recep?tors on their sur?face. In the lab, they were able to design sys?tems that deliv?ered drugs and siRNAs directly and solely to cancer cells, wherein 100 per?cent of the pay?load was released.
But once they tested the process in live mice, they had less suc?cess. That?s because two fac?tors that help ensure the com?plexes will reach their target aren?t an issue in the petri dish: plumbing and instruc?tions. If the tar?geted cancer cells have too few recep?tors on their sur?face, the com?plexes won?t find them in the rel?a?tively enor?mous organ?ismal system. But even if receptor expres?sion is high, blood supply must also be high in the live mouse, or they won?t even begin their journey in the first?place.
Future researchers will need to bal?ance these fac?tors when using the team?s library to develop car?riers appro?priate for spe?cific drugs and cancer types, Amiji said. But the mod?u?larity of their system makes it espe?cially well-??suited to deal with a variety of unique chal?lenges. ?It allows us to cus?tomize this system for the right type of tumor,? he explained.
View selected pub?li?ca?tions of Man?soor Amiji in IRis, Northeastern?s dig?ital?archive.
Source: http://www.northeastern.edu/news/2013/03/kryptonite-for-cancer-cells/
Pregnant women's likelihood of cesarean delivery in Massachusetts linked to choice of hospitals
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Public release date: 18-Mar-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Marge Dwyer
mhdwyer@hsph.harvard.edu
617-432-8416
Harvard School of Public Health
Boston, MA There is wide variation in the rate of cesarean sections performed at different hospitals across the U.S. and one explanation has been that hospitals with higher c-section rates serve greater numbers of women at high risk for the procedure. Now, a new study by researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health provides the strongest evidence to date that it's not just medical need that determines who has c-sections, but also something at the hospital levelin other words, the same woman would have a different chance of undergoing a c-section based on the hospital she chooses.
The findings suggest that certain hospitals' high rates of cesarean births have more to do with characteristics of the hospitals themselves than with characteristics of their patients.
"Even after taking into account factors that put women at risk of having a c-section, such as age, and pre-existing health conditions, some hospitals still have higher rates of c-section delivery than others," said senior author S V Subramanian, professor of population health and geography at HSPH. Put simply, for two women with a similar observed risk profile, one might have a c-section delivery and one might not, depending on which hospital they go to, he said.
The study appears in the March 18, 2013 online issue of the journal PLOS ONE. The article will be available after the embargo lifts at this link: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0057817.
While c-sections can be a lifesaving procedure for an infant in distress, or when there are multiple births or other labor complications, c-sections that are not medically necessary can put mothers and babies at avoidable risk of infection, extend hospital stays and recoveries, and increase health costs. In spite of these risks, c-section rates have been increasing in the U.S. over the past 17 years. Mirroring the national trend, cesarean deliveries in Massachusetts have increased steadily since 1997. In 2009, about one-third of all births in Massachusetts were by c-sectionup 61% from 1998.
In 2008, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health invited local clinicians and researchers to partner with state health officials in a study to better understand why c-section rates have been rising in Massachusetts. The HSPH, Boston University, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Massachusetts Department of Public Health team, using data from the Pregnancy to Early Life Longitudinal data system, analyzed 228,864 births in Massachusetts' 49 hospitals with maternity services from 2004-200698% of all births during that period.
The researchers found that about 27% of first-time mothers in Massachusetts having single, vertex (head-first) presentation, full-term infants from 2004-2006 had c-sections. C-section rates in Massachusetts hospitals varied from 14% to 38% even among this low-risk group.
Previous research had been unable to offer clear answers on whether variations in hospitals' c-section rates had simply to do with hospitals' different case mix. But the new research findings, say the authors, show with more certainty that a mother's risk of c-section really is influenced by her choice of hospital. "This is the first time that anyone has shown this problem exists right here in Massachusetts, which is widely considered to be one of the world's premier health care hubs," said Mariana Arcaya, research scientist at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies and co-author of the study.
The findings suggest that hospital practices and culture are important determinants of a hospital's c-section rate, said lead author Isabel A. Cceres, who was an epidemiologist at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health at the time of the study. Though this study did not pinpoint which hospital factors were at play, the authors highlighted previous studies suggesting that liability and insurance, being a teaching hospital, hospital admission practices, and the presence of midwives may influence c-section rates. Lack of clinical guidelines or standards on when a cesarean should be performed also may help explain why hospital rates are so variable.
The researchers said that hospitals should re-examine their procedures for deciding when to perform c-sections to make sure that medical neednot other factors such as doctor preferences or fear of liabilitydetermine how babies are delivered.
###
There was no direct funding for this study.
"Hospital differences in cesarean deliveries in Massachusetts (US) 2004-2006: the case against case-mix artifact," Isabel A Cceres, Mariana Arcaya, Eugene Declercq, Candice M. Belanoff, Vanitha Janakiraman, Bruce Cohen, Jeffrey Ecker, Lauren A. Smith, S V Subramanian, PLOS ONE: March 18, 2013.
Visit the HSPH website for the latest news, press releases and multimedia offerings.
Harvard School of Public Health is dedicated to advancing the public's health through learning, discovery, and communication. More than 400 faculty members are engaged in teaching and training the 1,000-plus student body in a broad spectrum of disciplines crucial to the health and well being of individuals and populations around the world. Programs and projects range from the molecular biology of AIDS vaccines to the epidemiology of cancer; from risk analysis to violence prevention; from maternal and children's health to quality of care measurement; from health care management to international health and human rights. For more information on the school visit: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu
HSPH on Twitter:http://twitter.com/HarvardHSPH
HSPH on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/harvardpublichealth
HSPH on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/user/HarvardPublicHealth
HSPH home page: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu
[ | 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.
Public release date: 18-Mar-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Marge Dwyer
mhdwyer@hsph.harvard.edu
617-432-8416
Harvard School of Public Health
Boston, MA There is wide variation in the rate of cesarean sections performed at different hospitals across the U.S. and one explanation has been that hospitals with higher c-section rates serve greater numbers of women at high risk for the procedure. Now, a new study by researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health provides the strongest evidence to date that it's not just medical need that determines who has c-sections, but also something at the hospital levelin other words, the same woman would have a different chance of undergoing a c-section based on the hospital she chooses.
The findings suggest that certain hospitals' high rates of cesarean births have more to do with characteristics of the hospitals themselves than with characteristics of their patients.
"Even after taking into account factors that put women at risk of having a c-section, such as age, and pre-existing health conditions, some hospitals still have higher rates of c-section delivery than others," said senior author S V Subramanian, professor of population health and geography at HSPH. Put simply, for two women with a similar observed risk profile, one might have a c-section delivery and one might not, depending on which hospital they go to, he said.
The study appears in the March 18, 2013 online issue of the journal PLOS ONE. The article will be available after the embargo lifts at this link: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0057817.
While c-sections can be a lifesaving procedure for an infant in distress, or when there are multiple births or other labor complications, c-sections that are not medically necessary can put mothers and babies at avoidable risk of infection, extend hospital stays and recoveries, and increase health costs. In spite of these risks, c-section rates have been increasing in the U.S. over the past 17 years. Mirroring the national trend, cesarean deliveries in Massachusetts have increased steadily since 1997. In 2009, about one-third of all births in Massachusetts were by c-sectionup 61% from 1998.
In 2008, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health invited local clinicians and researchers to partner with state health officials in a study to better understand why c-section rates have been rising in Massachusetts. The HSPH, Boston University, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Massachusetts Department of Public Health team, using data from the Pregnancy to Early Life Longitudinal data system, analyzed 228,864 births in Massachusetts' 49 hospitals with maternity services from 2004-200698% of all births during that period.
The researchers found that about 27% of first-time mothers in Massachusetts having single, vertex (head-first) presentation, full-term infants from 2004-2006 had c-sections. C-section rates in Massachusetts hospitals varied from 14% to 38% even among this low-risk group.
Previous research had been unable to offer clear answers on whether variations in hospitals' c-section rates had simply to do with hospitals' different case mix. But the new research findings, say the authors, show with more certainty that a mother's risk of c-section really is influenced by her choice of hospital. "This is the first time that anyone has shown this problem exists right here in Massachusetts, which is widely considered to be one of the world's premier health care hubs," said Mariana Arcaya, research scientist at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies and co-author of the study.
The findings suggest that hospital practices and culture are important determinants of a hospital's c-section rate, said lead author Isabel A. Cceres, who was an epidemiologist at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health at the time of the study. Though this study did not pinpoint which hospital factors were at play, the authors highlighted previous studies suggesting that liability and insurance, being a teaching hospital, hospital admission practices, and the presence of midwives may influence c-section rates. Lack of clinical guidelines or standards on when a cesarean should be performed also may help explain why hospital rates are so variable.
The researchers said that hospitals should re-examine their procedures for deciding when to perform c-sections to make sure that medical neednot other factors such as doctor preferences or fear of liabilitydetermine how babies are delivered.
###
There was no direct funding for this study.
"Hospital differences in cesarean deliveries in Massachusetts (US) 2004-2006: the case against case-mix artifact," Isabel A Cceres, Mariana Arcaya, Eugene Declercq, Candice M. Belanoff, Vanitha Janakiraman, Bruce Cohen, Jeffrey Ecker, Lauren A. Smith, S V Subramanian, PLOS ONE: March 18, 2013.
Visit the HSPH website for the latest news, press releases and multimedia offerings.
Harvard School of Public Health is dedicated to advancing the public's health through learning, discovery, and communication. More than 400 faculty members are engaged in teaching and training the 1,000-plus student body in a broad spectrum of disciplines crucial to the health and well being of individuals and populations around the world. Programs and projects range from the molecular biology of AIDS vaccines to the epidemiology of cancer; from risk analysis to violence prevention; from maternal and children's health to quality of care measurement; from health care management to international health and human rights. For more information on the school visit: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu
HSPH on Twitter:http://twitter.com/HarvardHSPH
HSPH on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/harvardpublichealth
HSPH on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/user/HarvardPublicHealth
HSPH home page: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu
[ | 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.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/hsop-pwl031513.php
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Artist David Hockney 'devastated' by assistant's death
LONDON (Reuters) - Police are investigating the death of British artist David Hockney's assistant who was rushed to hospital from his employer's home early Monday and later died in hospital.
Humberside police said a 23-year-old man from Hockney's hometown of Bridlington in northeast England died in Scarborough General Hospital after being taken there in serious condition at around 6 a.m. on Monday by a friend.
Hockney's publicist, Erica Bolton, confirmed that the deceased was 23-year-old Dominic Elliott who had worked as an assistant in the artist's studio in Bridlington and was painted by Hockney on occasion.
"He worked for him for over two years and was a hugely valued member of the team," Bolton told Reuters.
"David Hockney has been unable to comment. He is really devastated by the news."
Bolton was unable to confirm local media reports that it was Hockney's long-term partner who had taken Elliott to hospital after he fell at their house or whether the artist was at home at the time.
Police said in a statement that the circumstances of the man's death were not clear and inquiries into the events leading to his death were ongoing.
"There were no signs of violence and a post mortem examination is due to take place tomorrow," said a police statement.
Tributes were paid to Elliott by the Bridlington rugby club, where he played in the first and second teams.
"He will be sadly missed by all the players and Club members," said a statement on the club's website.
Hockney, 75, famous for his colourful landscapes and portraits, is one of Britain's most influential living artists who was an important contributor to British pop art.
He was born in the northern city of Bradford in 1937 and spent decades in the United States. But he now lives in the seaside town of Bridlington and has spent the last few years painting the landscapes of the East Yorkshire Wolds.
A major show of Hockney's landscapes at the Royal Academy last year, titled, "A Bigger Picture", attracted more than 600,000 people.
(Reporting by Clare Hutchison and Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Michael Roddy)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-investigate-death-artist-hockneys-assistant-media-120605892.html
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Monday, March 18, 2013
Bills seek end to farm animal abuse videos
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) ? An undercover video that showed California cows struggling to stand as they were prodded to slaughter by forklifts led to the largest meat recall in U.S. history. In Vermont, a video of veal calves skinned alive and tossed like sacks of potatoes ended with the plant's closure and criminal convictions.
Now in a pushback led by the meat and poultry industries, state legislators across the country are introducing laws making it harder for animal welfare advocates to investigate cruelty and food safety cases.
Some bills make it illegal to take photographs at a farming operation. Others make it a crime for someone such as an animal welfare advocate to lie on an application to get a job at a plant.
Bills pending in California, Nebraska and Tennessee require that anyone collecting evidence of abuse turn it over to law enforcement within 24 to 48 hours ? which advocates say does not allow enough time to document illegal activity under federal humane handling and food safety laws.
"We believe that folks in the agriculture community and folks from some of the humane organizations share the same concerns about animal cruelty," said Mike Zimmerman, chief of staff for Assembly Member Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, whose bill was unveiled this week. "If there's abuse taking place, there is no sense in letting it continue so you can make a video."
Patterson's bill, sponsored by the California Cattlemen's Association, would make failing to turn over video of abuse to law enforcement within 48 hours an infraction punishable by a fine.
Critics say the bills are an effort to deny consumers the ability to know how their food is produced.
"The meat industry's mantra is always that these are isolated cases, but the purpose of these bills is to prevent any pattern of abuse from being documented," said Paul Shapiro, vice president of farm animal protection for the Humane Society of the United States, which conducted the California and Vermont investigations.
In Indiana, Arkansas and Pennsylvania it would be a crime to make videos at agricultural operations.
The goal of the proposed California law, industry representatives say, is to halt any abuses quickly and get video evidence to government regulators within two days, not to impede undercover investigations by animal welfare groups.
"The people doing this aren't cops so I wouldn't think it's their job to build a case. The goal for all of us is to reduce instances of animal abuse," said David Daley, a Cattlemen vice president and professor of agricultural science at California State University-Chico.
Formal opposition to the California bill comes from the ASPCA, the Teamsters, the HSUS and dozens of others. They say these attempts by the agriculture industry to stop investigations are a part of a nationwide agenda set by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative think tank backed by business interests.
ALEC has labeled those who interfere with animal operations "terrorists," though a spokesman said he wishes now that the organization had called its legislation the "Freedom to Farm Act" rather than the "Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act."
"At the end of the day it's about personal property rights or the individual right to privacy," said spokesman Bill Meierling. "You wouldn't want me coming into your home with a hidden camera."
Animal welfare advocates say all of the focus on secrecy is energy misspent.
"I wish the cattlemen actually wanted to stop cruelty, not the documenting of cruelty," said HSUS California director Jennifer Fearing. "One could think of a thousand ways for them to actually stop cruelty rather than waiting for people to make videos and turn them over."
Animal welfare advocates say law enforcement agencies do not have the time or inclination to work complex animal abuse and food safety cases, and that federal USDA inspectors in slaughter plants have turned a blind eye to abuse.
When a USDA inspector at the Vermont plant was heard in 2009 coaching a plant worker on how to avoid being shut down, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack weighed in, calling the conduct "inexcusable."
In reaction to concerns, the USDA has been working to improve enforcement of its humane handling regulations over the past two years, including establishing an ombudsman position that accepts reports of violations. Last year 24 new positions in the Food Safety Inspection Service were dedicated to humane handling, said a high-ranking food safety official not authorized to speak publicly.
That hasn't slowed investigations or the bills designed to stop them. The Arkansas bill goes further than the others and would prohibit anyone other than law enforcement from investigating animal cases.
Last year Iowa, a major egg-producing state, passed a bill making it illegal to deny being a member of an animal welfare organization on a farm job application. Utah passed one that outlaws photography.
Most of the sensational videos of abuse in recent years are shot by undercover operatives who surreptitiously apply and are hired by the meat processors for jobs within the facilities. One recorded last year by Compassion over Killing at Central Valley Meats in Hanford, Calif. showed a worker standing on a downed dairy cow's nostrils to suffocate it and others repeatedly shot in the head, prompting several fast-food hamburger to cancel contracts, at least temporarily.
Animal welfare groups say investigations take weeks because the operatives nose around only when they aren't performing the duties for which they were hired.
An HSUS investigator was in the Hallmark plant in Southern California for six weeks between October and November 2007, when the nonprofit turned over to the local district attorney evidence that included fraud in the federal school lunch program because animals too sick to walk were being slaughtered. In January 2008, HSUS released the video to force the DA to act. Two employees were convicted of cruelty charges.
Late last year, nine workers at a Wyoming pork processing facility were charged with animal cruelty after an HSUS video showed them kicking and tossing piglets and failing to euthanize a sow gravely injured by a worker while giving birth.
In 2009, HSUS spent 21 days in the Vermont slaughterhouse where male calves born to dairy cows were killed for veal.
"Believe me our investigators would like to be out of there as soon as possible. They're stoic, they're courageous, but they are not enjoying their work at all," said Mary Beth Sweetland, director of investigations for HSUS.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bills-seek-end-farm-animal-abuse-videos-181902626.html
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Boeing CEO Jim McNerney's Pay Rose To $21.1 Million In Year Leading Up To Dreamliner Disaster
-- Boeing CEO Jim McNerney's compensation rose 15 percent last year to $21.1 million, as the company rewarded him for better-than-expected profits and faster airplane production.
McNerney's pay was disclosed in a regulatory filing Friday and analyzed by The Associated Press. It covered 2012, before problems emerged with Boeing's new 787 that have grounded the plane for two months and counting.
Other reasons cited by the company for the CEO's pay raise included more orders and deliveries of Boeing's 737 and 777, and cost-cutting efforts in Boeing's defense business.
McNerney's stock and option awards both rose 10 percent from 2011. His incentive-based cash bonus jumped 24 percent because Boeing's profits were higher in 2010 through 2012 than the target set by its directors.
The board wrote that factors in McNerney's higher pay included his "effective leadership and successful implementation of Boeing's business strategies."
His base pay was unchanged at $1.9 million.
McNerney, 63, is also Boeing's chairman and president.
Chicago-based Boeing Co. posted a 2012 profit of $3.9 billion, down 3 percent from 2011. Revenue rose 19 percent to $81.7 billion. Growth in its commercial airplanes business has been offsetting shrinking demand for its military wares.
The filing covered 2012, when Boeing was speeding production of its new 787 Dreamliner. The plane was grounded in mid-January after two battery issues, including a fire in a plane on the ground. Boeing is testing a fix that, if approved, would get the planes flying again.
Boeing shares rose 2.7 percent during the year, to finish at $75.36. On Friday they rose $1.81, or 2.1 percent, to close at $86.43. It's been rising in recent weeks as investors have anticipated a fix for the 787 problem.
Boeing's annual meeting will be April 29 in Chicago.
The AP's formula is designed to isolate the value the company's board placed on the executive's total compensation package during the last fiscal year. It includes salary, performance-related bonuses, perks, and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year. It also includes bonuses and above-market returns on deferred compensation, which McNerney did not receive.
The calculations don't include changes in the present value of pension benefits, and they sometimes differ from the totals companies list in the summary compensation table of proxy statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which reflect the size of the accounting charge taken for the executive's compensation in the previous fiscal year.
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/17/boeing-ceo-pay_n_2895721.html
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