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Thursday, February 6, 2014

Women’s rights advocate and Georgetown University Law Center graduate Sandra Fluke announced her candidacy yesterday to run for the California State Senate.

The Democrat previously stated she would run for a seat in the United States Congress being vacated by retiring Congressman Henry Waxman. She informed the Los Angeles Times that she decided to run for the California State Senate instead of the U.S. Congress because she felt she would be able to accomplish more for the people of California as a state Senator.

She will attempt to gain election to the seat currently occupied by Ted Lieu, a Democrat from Torrance, California. Lieu is currently in the beginning of his own campaign for Congressman Waxman’s seat representing California’s 33rd congressional district.

In a release to the press, Fluke said: “I am extremely moved by the outpouring of local and national support I have received since I announced that I was considering running for office. My entire career has been devoted to the public interest, whether representing victims of human trafficking or advocating for working families.”

She described her intentions for the California legislature: “I am committed to continuing that fight in Sacramento, working to protect our environment, ensure our access to health care, and create the jobs that are desperately needed. While I strongly considered offering my candidacy for Congress, I feel there is a better way for me to advance the causes that are important to our community.”

Fluke characterized herself as a new voice for progressivism: “I believe that the families and communities of this district — from West Hollywood to West L.A. and from Santa Monica to Torrance and beyond — deserve to have a fresh perspective from a new generation of progressive leadership in Sacramento, and I am eager to get to work fighting for the causes that matter most to our future as a community, state and nation.”

After graduating from law school, Fluke moved to Los Angeles where she used her skills as a lawyer to help improve conditions for individuals related to improving the living wage and advocating for better foster care for children.

Fluke was nominated as a candidate by Time magazine for their Person of the Year of 2012. Time concluded Fluke helped give U.S. President Barack Obama an edge in his 2012 presidential re-election campaign.

Fluke was a featured speaker on September 5, 2012 at the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Fluke spoke to attendees at the convention about the consequences for women of electing Republican candidate for U.S. President Mitt Romney over incumbent President Barack Obama. Fluke campaigned with President Obama in his bid for re-election.

She was recognized April 22, 2012 with the Stand Up for Choice Award. Fluke was given the Stand Up for Choice Award at the “Third Annual Multi-Generational Brunch” of the organization NARAL Pro-Choice America which was held in New York City (NYC), New York in the United States.

Fluke received a nomination in March 2012 as a candidate for Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. The list is released annually as a special edition of Time magazine, titled Time 100.

She gave testimony to the US Congress on February 23, 2012 before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee at a hearing about women’s health and contraception. She also worked for Sanctuary for Families in NYC which worked to crack down on human trafficking and domestic violence.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

A 54-year-old German farmer who lost both arms in a farming accident six years ago has become the first patient to receive a complete double arm transplant. The patient, whose name has not been released, underwent the operation at the Klinikum rechts der Isar, part of the Technical University of Munich (Technische Universität München), last week; he is said to be recovering well.

The operation lasted 15 hours and was performed by a team of 40 specialists in Plastic Surgery, Hand Surgery, Orthopedics and Anesthesiology, under the direction of the head of the Plastics and Hand Surgery department, Prof. Hans-Günther Machens, Dr. Christoph Höhnke (Head of Transplants, Senior Physician; Plastics and Hand Surgery) and Prof. Edgar Biemer, the former Chief of Plastic Surgery at the Clinic.

In a press statement released by the clinic, it was revealed that the patient had been thoroughly physically checked and had psychological counselling prior to the surgery to ensure he was mentally stable enough to cope with the procedure. Since completion of the surgery, the patient has been on immuno-suppressant drugs to prevent rejection of the new limbs.

Following the surgery, the press release from the clinic’s press manager, Dr. Tanja Schmidhofer, included the following statement:

Without the immuno-suppressant drugs given to the patient, the risk of there being a Graft-versus-Host Reaction or GvHR, would have been significant due to the upper arm containing a large amount of bone marrow, consisting of ICC’s or Immuno-Competent Cells, which would have triggered a near total rejection of the new limbs. A GvHR is a condition which results in the cells from the transplant attacking the immune system of the body.

Indications from the clinic suggest that the double attachment went well, although it could be up to 2 full years before the patient is able to move the arms.

The donor arms came from an unnamed teenager, who is believed to have died in a car accident.

Aviation articles by Wikinewsie Iain Macdonald.

This Category ‘sub-page’ will display up to 500 articles which one of the project’s contributors has written on a specific topic.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

US President Barack Obama presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to fifteen people Tuesday, including former US President George H. W. Bush and current Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel. The award—the US’s top civilian medal—is given to those who have made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”

The fifteen medal recipients were chosen in 2010, but not all of them were present to receive the award at the White House Tuesday. Merkel did not attend the ceremony, and the award for Tom Little was given to his wife because the winning optometrist had been killed in August while working in Afghanistan. The medal recipients “reveal the best of who were are and who we inspire to be,” said Obama.

The other winners are: John H. Adams, environmental advocate; Maya Angelou, poet and author; Warren Buffett, billionaire executive and philanthropist; Jasper Johns, contemporary artist; Gerda Weissmann Klein, Holocaust survivor; Yo-Yo Ma, cellist; Sylvia Mendez civil rights activist; Stan Musial, retired St. Louis Cardinals baseball player; Bill Russell, retired basketball coach and Boston Celtics player; Jean Kennedy Smith, diplomat and disabilities advocate; and John J. Sweeney, former president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Six applicants to join the Alabama Department of Corrections and their driver have been killed after the prison van they were traveling in collided with an 18-wheeled truck. Both vehicles burned at the scene.

Andrew David Carter, who was driving the Lewis Trucking Company truck with a cargo of treated lumber, escaped the wreck without serious injury. He was briefly hospitalised and released. The deceased have been identified as driver Rodney Kelley, and applicants Julius Erving Douier, Lionel Michael Moore, John Henry Foye Jr., Brandon Jamaal Anglin, Henry Louis Simmons, and Derrick Lamar Ivey. The oldest victim was 45 and the youngest nearly 19.

The wreck occurred on Alabama’s Route 82 near Bullock County, having left Bullock Correctional Facility to travel to Draper Correctional Facility in Elmore County for mental and physical fitness tests on the passengers before employment with the state.

The road was closed for eight hours while bodies and wreckage were recovered. As well as the van and the truck cab, part of the trucks cargo and several hundred square feet of nearby timber land were consumed by the fire. An investigation is ongoing, but it appears that the truck crossed the center line and there are no skid marks present.

The relatives of the victims will be offered counseling by the Department of Corrections.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

An HIV-positive man was sentenced to 35 years in prison Wednesday, one day after being convicted of harassment of a public servant for spitting into the eye and open mouth of a Dallas, Texas police officer in May 2006. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that no one has ever contracted HIV from saliva, and a gay-rights and AIDS advocacy group called the sentence excessive.

A Dallas County jury concluded that Willie Campbell’s act of spitting on policeman Dan Waller in 2006 constituted the use of his saliva as a deadly weapon. The incident occurred while Campbell, 42, was resisting arrest while being taken into custody for public intoxication.

“He turns and spits. He hits me in the eye and mouth. Then he told me he has AIDS. I immediately began looking for something to flush my eyes with,” said Waller to The Dallas Morning News.

Officer Waller responded after a bystander reported seeing an unconscious male lying outside a building. Dallas County prosecutors stated that Campbell attempted to fight paramedics and kicked the police officer who arrested him for public intoxication.

Prosecutors said that Campbell yelled that he was innocent during the trial, and claimed a police officer was lying. Campbell’s lawyer Russell Heinrichs said that because he had a history of convictions including similarly attacking two other police officers, biting inmates, and other offenses, he was indicted under a habitual offender statute. The statute increased his minimum sentence to 25 years in prison. Because the jury ruled that Campbell’s saliva was used as a deadly weapon, he will not be eligible for parole until completing at least half his sentence.

The organization Lambda Legal (Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund), which advocates for individuals living with HIV, says that saliva should not be considered a deadly weapon. Bebe Anderson, the HIV projects director at Lambda Legal, spoke with The Dallas Morning News about the sentence. “It’s been 25 years since the virus was identified, but there are still lots of fears,” said Anderson.

The Dallas County prosecutor who handled the trial, Jenni Morse, said that the deadly weapon finding was justified. “No matter how minuscule, there is some risk. That means there is the possibility of causing serious bodily injury or death,” said Morse. Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins stated: “If you look at the facts of this case, it was clear that the defendant intended to cause serious bodily injury.”

A page at the CDC’s website, HIV and Its Transmission, states: “HIV has been found in saliva and tears in very low quantities from some AIDS patients.” The subsection “Saliva, Tears, and Sweat” concludes that: “Contact with saliva, tears, or sweat has never been shown to result in transmission of HIV.” On Friday the Dallas County Health Department released a statement explaining that HIV is most commonly spread through sexual contact, sharing needles, or transfusion from an infected blood product.