The Fresh Start Recovery Centre?s gymnasium was bustling with volunteers last Thursday. As the sun beat down outside, it was easy to forget that a flood ravaged the streets of Calgary and devastated the towns surrounding it.
But no one has forgotten. Not here, anyway.
June 18 was a Day of Caring for over 150 PwC volunteers. Armed with $5,000 worth of supplies, they cut ribbon, stuck stickers, folded blankets, wrote caring notes, and packed fun passes for over 500 families in High River and Bowness, areas that have been heavily affected by last month?s flood.
? ? ?
These bundles of goodies, aptly named ?Hope Hampers,? are a different take on the ?necessities? families need to get through the destruction of the flood. The hampers are meant to give families a distraction from the daily devastation: A day at Heritage Park, an afternoon photo shoot for a family portrait or a picnic with a clean, silt-free blanket.
The volunteers gathered at 9 a.m. and were elbow-deep in glitter and construction paper by 9:05 a.m. After less than two hours, 500 hampers were folded and wrapped into neat packages, ready to be delivered.
At noon, 30 employees grabbed a bagged lunch and sandwiched into an overheated yellow school bus with Hope Hampers taking up most of the narrow seats. They were headed to High River to deliver hope and glee to residents burdened by homelessness and wreckage.
Many of the volunteers hadn?t seen thedevastation in High River outside the evening news. Eyes widened as volunteers witnessed men in white hazmat suits walking out of silt-covered homes with piles of rotting furniture, wood and drywall littering what once were manicured front lawns.
The first stop was Rowan House Emergency Shelter, a shelter that provides crisis intervention, long-term support and education for those affected by family violence in rural communities like High River. PwC volunteers quickly formed an assembly line, dropping off and stacking 80 hampers into the only dry space they had left: the garage, which also housed other donated goods like generic toilet paper and Ikea pillows.
Sherrie Botton, executive director of the emergency shelter, met volunteers with a big smile and outreached arms. Rowan House had to be evacuated during the flood, displacing all of their clients, children and employees. Their basement, all 3,000 square feet of counselling and childcare space, was lost.
The next stop was the residence of Tania, which doubled as a day home ? at least it did before the flood. The most eye-catching part of her home wasn?t the damage, but the neon signs taped to her second-story windows that read, ?High River Strong,? and ?We [Love] High River.?? From the outside, the house looked rather untouched, but, as we learned later, the damage was deep below the surface.
Last month, with 13 kids and three moms in tow, Tania was airlifted out of High River while wave after wave of floodwater threatened to drown her neighbourhood. Currently, she and her church are taking care of 75 children while their parents are busily gutting and pumping out homes.
As she told her story to PwC volunteers, she clutched her two small children to her side protectively while tears streamed down her face.
?This is why I contacted you,? she explained, ?So we can give these kids a summer.?
The now solemn volunteers contemplated her words as they unpacked another six dozen hampers through her front door.
Though routines are getting back to normal in Calgary?s downtown core, it?s important to remember that the after-effects of the flood are still raging in parts of the city and its surrounding areas. United Way would like to thank PwC, Neighbourlink, and Fresh Start for stepping up and delivering hope to those who need it most. This is what United Way?s?Day of Caring?is all about.
To find out where you can volunteer, please visit 211. Or consider a gift to the Emergency Community Support Fund. Until July 31, all online donations are directed to flood relief.
Large study reveals increased cancer risks associated with family history of the diseasePublic release date: 24-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Emma Mason wordmason@mac.com European Society for Medical Oncology
A family history of cancer increases the risk of other members of the family developing not only the same cancer (known as a concordant cancer) but also a different (discordant) cancer, according to a large study of 23,000 people in Italy and Switzerland.
The research, published in the leading cancer journal Annals of Oncology [1] today (Thursday), provides a comprehensive picture of the risk of developing various different types of cancer in families where there is a history of the disease, and is one of the few large studies of this kind that takes into account other important factors, such as individual characteristics and lifestyles, that could affect the degree of risk as well.
Results from the study supported known associations, such as the increased risk of developing the same cancer as a close relative, and the 1.5-fold increased risk of breast cancer in women with a history of colorectal cancer in the family. However, the study also found a 3.3-fold increased risk of developing oral and pharyngeal cancer among people who had a first-degree relative with cancer of the larynx, and a four-fold increased risk of cancer of the gullet (oesophageal cancer) where a first-degree relative had oral or pharyngeal cancer. If a first-degree relative had breast cancer, female family members had a 2.3-fold increased risk of ovarian cancer. Family members had a 3.4-fold increased risk of prostate cancer if a first-degree relative had bladder cancer.
The researchers from Italy, Switzerland and France looked at 12,000 cases of cancer occurring in 13 different cancer sites (mouth and pharynx, nasopharynx, oesophagus, stomach, colorectum, liver, pancreas, larynx, breast, womb, ovaries, prostate and kidneys) between 1991 and 2009. They matched them with 11,000 people without cancer, and collected information on any cancer in the family, particularly in a first-degree relative, age at diagnosis, sociodemographic characteristics, body shape, lifestyle habits such as smoking and alcohol intake, diet, personal medical history, including menstrual and reproductive factors, and use of oral contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy.
Dr Eva Negri, head of the Laboratory of Epidemiologic Methods at the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, Milan, Italy, said: "Besides confirming and quantifying the well-known excess risks of people developing the same cancer as their first-degree relative, we have identified increased risks for developing a number of different cancers. We have also found that if a patient was diagnosed with certain cancers when they were younger than 60, the risks of a discordant cancer developing in family members were greater.
"A major strength of our study is that we were able to adjust our analyses for tobacco, alcohol and a number of other lifestyle habits, which most previous studies have not been able to do."
Dr Negri said that some of the associations between discordant cancers were probably due to shared environmental factors such as family habits of smoking and drinking. However, she said: "Our results point to several potential cancer syndromes that appear among close relatives and that indicate the presence of genetic factors influencing multiple cancer sites. These findings may help researchers and clinicians to focus on the identification of additional genetic causes of selected cancers and on optimizing screening and diagnosis, particularly in people with a family history of cancer at a young age."
She said that the large numbers of patients in the study enabled the researchers to identify associations even for some rare cancers.
"For some rare cancers, a weak association with a different, common cancer can, on a population level, reveal a higher attributable risk than a strong association with the risk of developing the same cancer. For example, for ovarian cancer we found that a family history of breast cancer had a stronger attributable risk of ovarian cancer than the far rarer, albeit stronger, association with family history of ovarian cancer."
The researchers are still collecting data on the people they are studying, including biological material, which could help them to identify genetic factors that could be playing a role in the increased risk for people with a family history of cancer. They also plan to investigate whether some well-recognised risk factors are involved in increasing the risk to family members of developing concordant or discordant cancers, and if so, to what extent.
###
Notes:
[1] "Family history of cancer and the risk of cancer: a network of case-control studies", by F. Turati, V. Edefonti, C. Bosetti, M. Ferraroni, M. Malvezzi, S. Franceschi, R. Talamini, M. Montella, F. Levi, L. Dal Maso, D. Serraino, J. Polesel, E. Negri, A. Decarli, C. La Vecchia. Annals of Oncology. doi:10.1093/annonc/mdt280
[2] This study supported by the Italian Association for Cancer Research.
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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.
Large study reveals increased cancer risks associated with family history of the diseasePublic release date: 24-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Emma Mason wordmason@mac.com European Society for Medical Oncology
A family history of cancer increases the risk of other members of the family developing not only the same cancer (known as a concordant cancer) but also a different (discordant) cancer, according to a large study of 23,000 people in Italy and Switzerland.
The research, published in the leading cancer journal Annals of Oncology [1] today (Thursday), provides a comprehensive picture of the risk of developing various different types of cancer in families where there is a history of the disease, and is one of the few large studies of this kind that takes into account other important factors, such as individual characteristics and lifestyles, that could affect the degree of risk as well.
Results from the study supported known associations, such as the increased risk of developing the same cancer as a close relative, and the 1.5-fold increased risk of breast cancer in women with a history of colorectal cancer in the family. However, the study also found a 3.3-fold increased risk of developing oral and pharyngeal cancer among people who had a first-degree relative with cancer of the larynx, and a four-fold increased risk of cancer of the gullet (oesophageal cancer) where a first-degree relative had oral or pharyngeal cancer. If a first-degree relative had breast cancer, female family members had a 2.3-fold increased risk of ovarian cancer. Family members had a 3.4-fold increased risk of prostate cancer if a first-degree relative had bladder cancer.
The researchers from Italy, Switzerland and France looked at 12,000 cases of cancer occurring in 13 different cancer sites (mouth and pharynx, nasopharynx, oesophagus, stomach, colorectum, liver, pancreas, larynx, breast, womb, ovaries, prostate and kidneys) between 1991 and 2009. They matched them with 11,000 people without cancer, and collected information on any cancer in the family, particularly in a first-degree relative, age at diagnosis, sociodemographic characteristics, body shape, lifestyle habits such as smoking and alcohol intake, diet, personal medical history, including menstrual and reproductive factors, and use of oral contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy.
Dr Eva Negri, head of the Laboratory of Epidemiologic Methods at the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, Milan, Italy, said: "Besides confirming and quantifying the well-known excess risks of people developing the same cancer as their first-degree relative, we have identified increased risks for developing a number of different cancers. We have also found that if a patient was diagnosed with certain cancers when they were younger than 60, the risks of a discordant cancer developing in family members were greater.
"A major strength of our study is that we were able to adjust our analyses for tobacco, alcohol and a number of other lifestyle habits, which most previous studies have not been able to do."
Dr Negri said that some of the associations between discordant cancers were probably due to shared environmental factors such as family habits of smoking and drinking. However, she said: "Our results point to several potential cancer syndromes that appear among close relatives and that indicate the presence of genetic factors influencing multiple cancer sites. These findings may help researchers and clinicians to focus on the identification of additional genetic causes of selected cancers and on optimizing screening and diagnosis, particularly in people with a family history of cancer at a young age."
She said that the large numbers of patients in the study enabled the researchers to identify associations even for some rare cancers.
"For some rare cancers, a weak association with a different, common cancer can, on a population level, reveal a higher attributable risk than a strong association with the risk of developing the same cancer. For example, for ovarian cancer we found that a family history of breast cancer had a stronger attributable risk of ovarian cancer than the far rarer, albeit stronger, association with family history of ovarian cancer."
The researchers are still collecting data on the people they are studying, including biological material, which could help them to identify genetic factors that could be playing a role in the increased risk for people with a family history of cancer. They also plan to investigate whether some well-recognised risk factors are involved in increasing the risk to family members of developing concordant or discordant cancers, and if so, to what extent.
###
Notes:
[1] "Family history of cancer and the risk of cancer: a network of case-control studies", by F. Turati, V. Edefonti, C. Bosetti, M. Ferraroni, M. Malvezzi, S. Franceschi, R. Talamini, M. Montella, F. Levi, L. Dal Maso, D. Serraino, J. Polesel, E. Negri, A. Decarli, C. La Vecchia. Annals of Oncology. doi:10.1093/annonc/mdt280
[2] This study supported by the Italian Association for Cancer Research.
[ | 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.
When Joerg made metal-tipped toilet brushes a couple of months ago I'm pretty sure we were all thinking that they looked pretty tame. Okay, true, they violently annihilated a coconut suspended in ballistic gelatin, but they weren't horrifying, just chillingly effective. But a four shot repeating "monster" crossbow. That would be scary. And that's what we have here.
The lifetime rate of diagnosis of anxiety disorders is higher in women, with 33 percent experiencing an anxiety disorder in their lifetime, as compared with 22 percent of men. Experts believe this difference arises from a combination of hormonal fluctuations, brain chemistry and upbringing: women more often feel responsible for the happiness of others, such as their children or their spouse.
This article was originally published with the title The Anxious Sex.
MADRID (AP) ? Spain's prime minister on Monday brushed off demands he should resign after text messages emerged showing him comforting a political party treasurer under investigation over a slush fund stashed away secret Swiss bank accounts. The spectacle of alleged greed and corruption has enraged Spaniards hurting from austerity and sky high unemployment with no end in sight.
As Mariano Rajoy told reporters he would not step down, former Popular Party Luis Barcenas testified behind closed doors in Madrid, telling a judge investigating slush fund allegations that he gave 25,000 euros in secret payments to Rajoy and party secretary general Maria Delores de Cospedal between 2008 and 2010.
Rajoy declined to comment on specifics. But he insisted after meeting with Poland's premier that he will "see out the mandate the Spanish electorate gave me. This is a stable government that is going to fulfill its obligations."
Rajoy, who says neither he nor other party figures received illegal payments, did not deny exchanging text messages with now jailed former Popular Party treasurer Luis Barcenas. He insisted that the messages demonstrated that the state "was not bowing to blackmail. This is a serious democracy."
But the text messages, some analysts said, appeared to convey a tone of cronyism.
"Luis, nothing is easy," one message said. "But we are doing what we can. Cheer up."
Analysts are divided over whether the scandal could prompt an early exit for Rajoy, whose conservative party ousted the ruling Socialists in a 2011 landslide giving his party an absolute majority in Parliament and no requirement to call new elections until late 2015.
If Rajoy's position as leader becomes untenable, his party could theoretically decide he needs to go and select someone else as prime minister. It's unlikely that there would be any changes in Spain's tough austerity measures aimed at helping keep the European debt crisis at bay.
But the ever deepening scandal and its twists and turns have shaken Spaniards who saw their country teeter on the edge of a full-blown public finances bailout last year before Rajoy asked for a 100 billion euro bailout of the country's hurting banks, raised taxes and cut public services ? all in the name of saving the country from ruin.
And the corruption allegations come on top of unemployment at 27 percent with the rate double that for those under age 25, plus an ill-fated elephant hunting trip by Spain's king last year seen as a shameless sign of royal excess while the economy tanked.
Sitting on a shady park bench on a hot day in downtown Madrid, guide dog trainer Juan Antonio Luna said the corruption allegations on top of the painful cuts Spaniards keep on amazing and angering him as details leak out bit by bit .
"They raised our taxes, they cut services like national health care, and they got rid of scholarships for college students," said Luna, 56. "But there are millions (of euros) hidden away in Switzerland. If this happened in the United States, they would fire the president. Not here. They have no shame. They are raising taxes through the roof and swindling us at the same time."
Investors are closely watching the case play out without panicking yet, but Spain's already shaky image abroad is getting hammered, said Javier del Rey, a political science professor at Madrid's Complutense University.
"We're hitting new lows, with the Spanish brand tarnished across Europe," he said. "The question is if Rajoy stays, will it go down more? How is he going to be received in Brussels, London and Paris under these circumstances?"
Rajoy's leadership of his party is strong and party members fear that forcing him to step down could be make matters worse, potentially causing the party itself to implode, said Florentino Portero, a professor of contemporary history at Spain's Open University.
"But Barcenas places a question mark over whether Rajoy has the legitimacy to lead the government, particularly at a moment when strong leadership is needed to carry out the reforms Spain needs," Portero said. "At a time when the government is raising taxes to unprecedented limits, threatening the livelihood of the middle classes, that the same party should be found to be hiding its own income from the tax inspectors is morally unacceptable."
The scandal started earlier this year, when allegations of irregular or illegal party member financing emerged in a scheme allegedly orchestrated by Barcenas, a top financial in the Popular Party for nearly two decades until her resigned in 2009 after being named as a suspect for illegal party funding.
Details of the case have dripped out piecemeal for months, but reached a fever pitch on Sunday, when the text messages between Barcenas and Rajoy were printed by the El Mundo newspaper.
Barcenas was jailed last month while awaiting possible trial on tax fraud and money-laundering charges after the National Court found he had held the 47 million euros in secret Swiss bank accounts. Speculation has been rampant since then that he might try to drag the party and the government into the scandal, and TV camera crews film everyone who shows up outside jail to visit him.
While the slush fund probe has rocked the party and the county, Rajoy on Monday boasted that his party's economic reforms were beginning to pay off.
"Let no one think we are going to be distracted from getting Spain out of the crisis," he said.
During his appearance before a judge held behind closed doors, Barcenas gave details of making cash payments directly to Rajoy and Cospedal over a three-year period while Rajoy was Spain's opposition leader, the leading newspaper El Pais reported. The private news agency Europa Press said Barcenas claimed to have given 25,000 euros to Rajoy and Cospedal in 2010 alone but acknowledged there were no receipts.
He also reportedly confirmed the authenticity of ledger sheets handwritten by him and published by El Mundo last week allegedly documenting other under-the-table payments to Rajoy and other party leaders. El Mundo said the documents showed Rajoy received at least 42,000 euros in payments while serving as a government minister between 1997 and 1999.
Other Popular Party members portrayed Barcenas as a liar and a tax cheat who is trying to save himself by falsely implicating Rajoy.
"It's Barcenas who is in jail and it's up to him to explain where he got the money in Switzerland from," said Carlos Floriano, the party's deputy national organizer.
Barcenas initially claimed the money stemmed from private business deals. But last week El Mundo quoted him as saying the Popular Party has long been illegally funded.
Economy Minister Luis de Guindos dismissed suggestions that the scandal was affecting Spain's economic credibility, noting that Spanish stocks rose slightly on Monday and interest rates eased on the nation's benchmark 10-year bond.
"As regards international investors," he said, "nobody has asked me about this."
Alleged thieves apparently broke in to a foreclosure home in north St. Louis, changed the locks so that they had keys to the house, forged ownership papers, and then rented the place out to an unsuspecting family. Police have charged suspects Winston Clay and Todd Edwards with forgery and stealing.
Renter Bertha Williams thought the rental home "was legit" because Clay and Edwards had keys to the front door. Plus they advertised and listed it for rent at $650/month. For six months Clay and Edwards collected the rent -- nearly $4,000 in all -- until the real owner, Tracy Franklin, who had been living out of town during the foreclosure process, checked on the house while back in St. Louis, reported local TV station KMOV.
Williams and co-renter Dwayne Ellis will have to find another place to live, while Clay makes another visit to the police station. AOL Real Estate found that Clay has other arrests under his belt during this past 12 months, including possession of drug paraphernelia, domestic assault and failure to register a vehicle.
Ellis says that, the next time, he and Williams will do research on the Internet to determine if the owners are who they say they are.
In another foreclosure-related case, a woman in Virginia was also too trusting of her landlord who apparently leased to her a home that was already in foreclosure. Courtney Gourgoulianis and her two-year-old daughter were evicted from their rental house in Virginia Beach on Monday, only days after moving in, reported WTKR in Norfolk, Va. The owner of the house hasn't been around and the leasing agency is not getting back to her.
"I shouldn't have to suffer the consequences of someone else's crap," says Gourgoulianis. And she's right. Renters of foreclosures do have some legal rights against eviction due to foreclosure.
But it's even better to be proactive by researching the landlord. Check county property or tax assessor websites to find out who the owner of a home really and be forthright enough to ask to see recent mortgage statements.
For more tips, see "Foreclosure Eviction: What It Means for Renters" or "What Happens If Your Landlord Is Foreclosed On."
More about landlord issues: Landlord on 'Worst' List Faces Jail for 30 Housing Code Violations When a Landlord Endangers Your Life Landlord's Smoke Detectors Hid Spy Cameras
More on AOL Real Estate: Find homes for rent in your area. Find out how to calculate mortgage payments. Find homes for sale in your area. Find foreclosures in your area.
Follow us on Twitter at @AOLRealEstate or connect with AOL Real Estate on Facebook.
After serving four years as Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary, Janet Napolitano is set to resign on Friday. The?Los Angeles Times?reports Napolitano will become president of the University Of California system. ?
?While some may consider her to be an unconventional choice, Secretary Napolitano is without a doubt the right person at the right time to lead this incredible university," Sherry Lansing, the regent and former film industry executive who headed the search committee, said in a statement being released Friday. "She will bring fresh eyes and a new sensibility -- not only to UC, but to all of California. She will stand as a vigorous advocate for faculty, students and staff at a time when great changes in our state, and across the globe, are presenting as many opportunities as challenges.?
by Zach Maxwell Sports ReporterDurant Daily Democrat
Hunter Horath of Kingston at the plate Thursday against the Dale MudCats. Horath had an RBI and a base hit in the 13-4 win.
slideshow
Trace Stewart of the Texoma Lookouts made the tag on courtesy runner Calan Veit of Morrison in Thursday OK Kids action.
slideshow
All three Texoma area teams won their baseball games on Thursday to advance in the 2013 OK Kids Midget State Championship.
The Durant Rangers took a 10-0 decision over the Dale Pirates in a likely early look at some 2020 Class 2A state baseball finalists. The Rangers lineup is heavy with Silo-area boys.
The Rangers scored six runs in the first inning to set the tone and added two in the second and two in the third to complete a four-inning run-rule shut-out. Brady Nichols pitched all four innings and collected all 12 outs on Ks, allowing just one hit.
Connor Roberts had a two-RBI single, Kyle Hughes had a base knock to score courtesy runner Jayton White, and Noah Morrison collected an RBI. Darrin Brown had an RBI single good for two more in the first.
Willy Sandler took a solo shot over the 220 sign and Hughes added another RBI base hit in the second for the 8-0 lead. Sandler and Cade Buchanan had RBIs in the third.
The Durant Rangers will be off Friday to await the winner of semifinal games. The championship game is set for 6 p.m. Saturday, but if the Rangers lose that game a tie-breaker will be played immediately thereafter.
In the earlier Thursday games, Texoma Lookouts eliminated Morrison Wildcats 6-5 in 9 innings, and Kingston Outlaws sent home the Dale MudCats 13-4 to set up an all-Texoma quarterfinal between the Lookouts and Outlaws at 6 p.m. today.
The winner will play the Dale Pirates at 8 p.m. for the right to play in the Saturday championship against Durant Rangers.
Morrison had the bases loaded with nobody out in the seventh and eighth innings against Texoma. But Trevor Dan Dailey was able to pitch out of these spots.
The difference came in the Texoma ninth when Hunter Savage banged a single and Trace Stewart?s grounder up the middle got away, allowing Savage to score the walk-off game winner.
Kingston was a little more decisive against the Dale MudCats, spotting a 4-2 lead before putting up 11 runs in the final three innings.
Rylee Holmes collected seven Ks in relief of starter Jacob Lawless. Hunter Horath closed the game on the mound for the Outlaws.
Collin McMahan had a solo blast over the scoreboard in the second inning to give Dale their largest lead at 4-1. Horath got one back with an RBI knock to score Christian McGowan.
But it was the four-run third which turned the tide in favor of Kingston. Lawless collected an RBI and came around to score, tying the game 4-4. McGowan?s sac fly scored Conner Brister and Tyler Adams reached base and managed to steal his way home.
The Outlaws held an 8-4 lead in the fourth when Brister unleashed a two-run bomb to pad the lead. The fifth inning saw more Kingston offense, with Jake Idleman?s two-RBI double followed by a solo home run for Lawless.
The 12-and-under league state championship is being held at the Durant Multi-Sports Complex. Admission to today?s games (at 6 and 8 p.m.) and Saturday?s 6 p.m. final is $5 per day.
Note: In Wednesday games, Bryce Crawford had 13 strikeouts.
BOSTON (AP) ? The family of a woman who may have been the Boston Strangler's last victim could be just days away from getting answers about her slaying after decades of wondering if police pinned it on the right man.
Casey Sherman struggled Thursday to hold back tears for his late aunt as he joined law enforcement officers to talk about a case that gained public notoriety but always has been a source of private pain for his family.
Nineteen-year-old Mary Sullivan, whom Sherman called "the joy of her Irish Catholic family," left the quiet of Cape Cod for the bustle of life in Boston in January 1964. A few days later she was dead.
Someone raped and strangled her in the apartment she'd just moved into, and her death became linked to what some believed was the work of a serial killer who also stole the lives of 10 other women during a homicidal rampage in the Boston area that lasted two years.
For the first time, authorities said Thursday that they have forensic evidence tying a suspect to Sullivan's case. And the name was a familiar one: Albert DeSalvo. He was the man who first confessed to being the Boston Strangler, but later recanted before his stabbing death in prison as he served a life sentence for other crimes.
"I've lived with Mary's memory every day, my whole life. And I didn't know, nor did my mother know, that other people were living with her memory as well," Sherman said Thursday of the aunt who died before he was born. "And it's amazing to me today to understand that people really did care about what happened to my aunt."
Authorities will exhume DeSalvo's remains because testing of DNA from the scene of Sullivan's rape and murder produced a "familial match" with him, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley said. It happened after scientific advances that only became possible recently, and after police secretly followed DeSalvo's nephew to collect DNA from a discarded water bottle to help make the connection.
Conley said the match excludes 99.9 percent of suspects, and he expects investigators to find an exact match when the evidence is compared directly with DeSalvo's DNA.
The district attorney stressed that the evidence only applied to Sullivan's slaying and not the other 10 homicides.
"Even among experts and law enforcement officials, there is disagreement to this day about whether they were in fact committed by the same person," Conley said.
Eleven women between the ages of 19 and 85 were sexually assaulted and killed in the Boston area between 1962 and 1964, crimes that terrorized the region and grabbed national headlines.
DeSalvo, a blue-collar worker and Army veteran who was married with children, confessed to the 11 Boston Strangler slayings and two others. But he was never convicted of the Strangler slayings.
He went to prison for a series of armed robberies and sexual assaults before his death in Massachusetts' maximum security prison in Walpole in 1973.
An attorney for DeSalvo's family said Thursday they believe there's still reasonable doubt he killed Sullivan, even if additional DNA tests show a 100 percent match.
The lawyer, Elaine Sharp, said previous private forensic testing of Sullivan's remains showed other DNA from what appeared to be semen was present that didn't match DeSalvo.
"Somebody else was there, we say," Sharp said of the killing. "I don't think the evidence is a hundred percent solid, as is being represented here today."
But Donald Hayes, a forensic scientist who heads the Boston Police Department's crime lab, said investigators' samples were properly preserved, while the evidence used in private testing came from Sullivan's exhumed body and was "very questionable."
Sharp also said Thursday that the family was outraged that police followed a DeSalvo relative to get the DNA they needed for comparison.
But Sherman, who previously wrote a book on the case pointing to other possible suspects, acknowledged the new findings point to the man he had defended. Sherman said the DNA evidence against DeSalvo appeared to be overwhelming.
"I only go where the evidence leads," he said, thanking police and praising them "for their incredible persistence."
Sherman also expressed sympathy for the DeSalvo family, with whom he had joined in the past in a shared belief that DeSalvo didn't kill his aunt. That belief was based on DeSalvo's confession, which Sherman previously said was inconsistent with other evidence.
The families of DeSalvo and Sullivan had jointly sued the state for release of evidence while pursuing their own investigation. They had Sullivan's body exhumed in 1999 for private DNA testing as part of the effort.
F. Lee Bailey, the attorney who helped to obtain the confession from DeSalvo, said Thursday's announcement will probably help put to rest speculation about the Boston Strangler's identity.
Authorities said they're continuing to comb through evidence files and still are hoping to find samples to do DNA testing in connection with the other Strangler-linked killings.
They plan to exhume DeSalvo's body from a grave in Peabody, Mass., sometime this week and said it could be just a matter of days before they get results of DNA testing they're planning.
____
Associated Press writers David Sharp in Portland, Maine, and Mark Pratt in Boston contributed to this report.
We all know that the oil and gas industry is booming and there are jobs available. But how do you find that dream job in the oil fields? An option is to head to the Fairfield Inn, 2525 S. Canal St., on Wednesday to Devon Energy's job fair.
Cindy Allen, Devon Energy media relations and corporate communications, said the company's focus during the job fair is on hiring lease operators, but applicants seeking other types of positions should not be discouraged from coming to the job fair.
The fair will be held from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
"Although we are focusing on lease operators, others are welcome to come to the job fair to see if they qualify for other positions as well," she said.
Lease operators maintain oil and gas production and expenses, Allen explained. She said an operator prepares and submits daily reports and records of daily gas or liquid volume, well pressure and volume of chemicals uses. The operator also performs daily operation checks of assigned wells, production and injection facilities.
***
Telephone scams run abound and last week, several residents, including myself, received a phone call via cell phone purportedly from a representative from Publishers Clearing House, informing individuals that they had won $2.5 million.
The caller sounds legitimate, but don't be fooled. A Current-Argus subscriber received a call about an hour after I did. She said she called the number that appeared on her cell phone after
she hung up with the bogus Publishers Clearing House representative. He answered the phone, but the phone number is based in Jamaica.
I compared notes with the reader, and the information we received about our bogus win was exactly the same. Here is the info:
The caller identifies himself as Andy Gilmore. The name of the lawyer who will be contacting you to sign papers that day for the $2.5 million win is Mary Jones.
The confirmation number of your win is 4043335 and the certified check number is 19903. I have talked to other readers and it appears everyone that is contacted by these scam artists gets the same confirmation and certified check number.
After you receive this information, you are asked to go to Walgreens, Wal-Mart or Lowes to obtain a green dot card. The explanation is that your phone number was randomly picked from a list provided by these companies, and they will get 1 percent of your winnings for taxation purposes.
I called Publishers Clearing House's scam hotline and gave the investigator the information. He was concerned that I may have given out pertinent information that could have resulted in financial hardship. I assured him that I didn't.
The investigator confirmed what I already knew - Publishers Clearing House does not call people to give them a heads-up about winning a monetary prize.
So, if you get a call from someone claiming to be from Publishers Clearing House, hang up immediately. When you hang up, they will call back to assure you they are legitimate -- again, hang up.
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CARC's Washington Ranch has a new director whose goal is to make the "oasis in the desert" a place where people want to come to hold a retreat, conferences, family reunions and weddings.
Chris Jones took the helm as the new director two weeks ago and is working hard to upgrade the facilities and bring in more business.
Jones said the hotel rooms will be remodeled, recreation vehicle hook-ups will be installed and in general, the property and grounds will get a make-over.
He said the CARC's board of directors has been supportive of his vision for the facility and he plans to make it become a reality. "We are still doing a lot of weddings here, but we also want to become a full conference facility, utilizing the atrium and other facilities to their fullest," Jones. "We also would like to do more retreats here.
Washington Ranch, located about 30 miles south of Carlsbad, is centrally located near Carlsbad Cavern Nation Park, Guadalupe Mountain National Park. It is also located along the Black River about five miles south of White's City on U.S. Highway 62-180.
For more information about the facility and what it has to offer, contact Jones at 575-706-2967
Thanks to the efforts of Democrat Sen. Max Baucus and Republican Rep. Dave Camp, Congress will take up tax reform this year. Before the debate begins, however, Republicans need to set out the principles that represent our values. In my 24 years in the House and Senate, I never wrote a bill that represented a 100 percent?statement of my values, but I always found it important to know where the North Star was as I tried to navigate through the swamp.
First, under no circumstances should Republicans agree to make the tax system even more progressive than it already is, or to increase the number of people who do not pay income taxes. In 1980, the top 1 percent?and 5 percent?of income earners in America paid 19.1 percent?and 36.9 percent?of total federal income taxes. Today, the top 1 percent?and 5 percent?pay 37.4 percent?and 59.1 percent. Meanwhile, 41.6 percent?of American earners now pay no federal income taxes.
The more progressive the tax system becomes the more unstable the country's public finances get. High-income Americans earn a large share of their income in bonuses, dividends and capital gains, all of which are highly sensitive to the business cycle. This means wide swings in tax collections that play havoc with government budgets. The removal of large numbers of people from the tax rolls makes the political system more unstable. Individuals and households that pay no income taxes have a diminished stake in limited government.
Second, government should collect the minimum revenues needed to support and protect a free society and do so in a way that is, as far as possible, neutral in its effect on individual behavior. In its purest form, this means no individual deductions, credits or tax expenditures. No matter how committed Americans may be individually to charitable giving or home ownership, the government should not promote those values through special provisions in the tax code.
Third, Republicans should require all similarly structured firms be treated the same. If sweat equity is taxed as a capital gain for a mechanic who opens a garage with a financial partner, it should be treated the same for a hedge fund or private-equity manager who shares in the gains of his investors.
Fourth, business subsidies and credits should be eliminated. Ending subsidies to fund lower tax rates improves the efficiency of capital allocation. The sine qua non of tax reform is a more efficient allocation of investment capital. If the tax breaks that create crony capitalism are allowed to survive, then tax reform failed.
Fifth, all costs of production should be equally deductible when they are actually incurred, and all income should be recognized at the time it is actually earned and taxed only once. President Obama's repeated proposal to force large Subchapter S corporations and limited liability entities to be taxed as C corporations is a movement in the wrong direction. Revenues flowing from those changes would come almost exclusively from the double taxation of corporate income: first on corporate profits, and again when individuals pay taxes on dividends and capital gains.
Other things being equal, the efficiency of a nation's corporate tax system can be measured by the lack of special-interest provisions in the code and how low the tax rate is. But things are never equal?and a fixation with achieving a given corporate tax rate is dangerous. That's because you can, within limits, make the tax rate whatever you want it to be by changing the definition of what is a deductible business expense.
For example, by limiting or eliminating the deductibility of interest cost?a perfectly legitimate cost of doing business?the "savings" could be used to lower the corporate tax rate. But such changes would further distort the cost of capital relative to the cost of labor and almost certainly be detrimental.
Similarly, you could eliminate the deductibility of wages and other costs of doing business and simply tax gross receipts instead of net profit. The tax rate would be low, but would economic efficiency be increased? No.
Sixth, tax reform should move toward the elimination of taxes on the foreign earnings of American companies, whose profits are already taxed abroad. Other countries recognize that the competitiveness of their companies would be severely damaged if they had to pay higher taxes than their competitors in foreign markets and do not impose domestic taxes on foreign earnings.
By attempting to tax foreign earnings when they are repatriated, the United States has incentivized companies not to repatriate earnings. As a result, U.S. companies hold huge hoards of cash abroad while domestic investment lags.
Since America is now the worst place in the world to earn corporate profits, we might be better off ending all business subsidies and using the savings to eliminate the dual taxation of corporate income and the taxation on foreign earnings?and to lower the corporate tax rate as much as is consistent with revenue neutrality, using static scoring. We could then write a provision into the law that if the improved code collects more taxes than the static revenue estimates, the rate would automatically be lowered over time by the amount of over-performance, down to 25 percent.
Some final advice: Compromise is fine if it moves you in the right direction. But don't compromise on things that will only make rational reform harder in the future. If you can improve the tax code and help the economy now, do it. But remember, the Obama administration too shall pass, and a poor deal now will make a good one harder to achieve in the future.
Mr. Gramm, a former Republican senator from Texas, is a senior partner of US Policy Metrics and a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
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Public release date: 24-Jul-2013
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