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WASHINGTON (AP) ? Recent mass shootings like the massacre of first-graders and staffers at a Connecticut elementary school and the increasing deadliness of assault weapons makes a ban on those firearms more urgent than ever, the Senate author of a proposal to prohibit them said Wednesday.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., made the remark as the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on her proposal, which would also bar ammunition magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds.
But the bruising, difficult path through Congress that the proposal will have was illustrated when the Judiciary panel's top Republican challenged the need for the assault weapons ban. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, questioned the ban's constitutionality and said it would take the weapons away from people who use them for self-defense.
Further underscoring the roadblocks that gun control legislation faces in Congress, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said Wednesday that he opposes universal background checks for gun purchases, a central piece of President Barack Obama's plan for curbing gun violence. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., told reporters that the proposal could lead to creation of a federal gun registry ? which the Obama administration has said will not happen.
The hearing was the Senate's third since the Dec. 14 attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., that killed 20 students and six workers. The Judiciary panel could begin writing legislation as early as Thursday, but that session is likely to be delayed until next week.
Numerous relatives and neighbors of victims of Newtown, as well as other shootings at Aurora, Colo., and Virginia Tech filled the large hearing room.
At one point, Feinstein played a video showing how a bump fire slide, a piece of equipment added to an assault weapon, allows it to rapidly fire many rounds of ammunition, much as a machine gun would.
"The need for a federal ban has never been greater," Feinstein said.
Grassley expressed sympathy for gun violence victims, but said existing gun laws are not being adequately enforced, including background checks designed to prevent criminals from getting weapons.
"We should be skeptical about giving the Justice Department more laws to enforce" when it's not enforcing current ones, Grassley said.
Grassley said he believed Congress will eventually take action on boosting penalties for illegally trafficking guns, on more adequately keeping guns from people with mental problems, and encouraging states do a better job of reporting mental health records of potential gun buyers to the federal background check system.
At one point, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., used his questioning of Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn to argue that the current background check system is not being well enforced, since only a handful of the roughly 80,000 people annually who fail those checks are prosecuted for filing documents saying they qualify to own the weapons.
Uncharacteristially for a Senate hearing, Flynn interrupted the senator, saying, "I want to stop 76,000 people from buying guns illegally," a reference to the gun purchases that the background check system blocked last year. "That's what background check does."
His remark drew applause from spectators in the room.
Graham countered that "the best way to prevent crazy people" from getting weapons is to do a better job of identifying before they get weapons. He said today's laws must be enforced better, "rather than expanding them and creating a false sense of security."
Also slated to testify was Neil Heslin, whose 6-year-old son, Jesse, was among those slain at Newtown. Heslin has become an active proponent of gun control laws, including the assault weapons ban.
"It's a burden, it's more than a burden on me," Heslin said in an interview Tuesday as he and three dozen others ? including other Newtown families and relatives of other mass shooting victims ? arrived in Washington for two days of lobbying lawmakers. "But I have to do it for my little boy."
Across the Capitol on Wednesday, the House Education and Workforce Committee planned to hear from school safety experts and counselors about how to keep students safe.
Witnesses testifying to the Republican-controlled House panel were expected to emphasize the role of school resource officers ? security professionals who are often armed and can double as informal counselors and liaisons to law enforcement. Those officers are commonplace in many schools and help officials develop safety plans.
Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers, was among those slated to testify, along with a school counselor and a school safety director.
Despite the raw emotion, Feinstein's effort to ban assault weapons is expected to fall short due to opposition by the National Rifle Association and many Republicans, plus wariness by moderate Democrats.
Feinstein's bill has attracted 21 co-sponsors, all Democrats. Including herself, it is sponsored by eight of the 10 Judiciary panel Democrats ? precarious for a committee where Democrats outnumber Republicans 10-8. Democrats on the panel who haven't co-sponsored the measure include the chairman, Pat Leahy of Vermont, who said Monday he hadn't seen the bill.
President Barack Obama made bans on assault weapons and large capacity magazines key parts of the gun curbs he proposed in January in response to the Connecticut school massacre.
The cornerstone of his package is a call for universal background checks for gun buyers, some version of which seems to have a stronger chance of moving through Congress. Currently, only sales by federally licensed gun dealers require such checks, which are designed to prevent criminals and others from obtaining firearms.
Feinstein's bill would ban future sales of assault weapons and magazines carrying more than 10 rounds of ammunition but exempt those that already exist. It would bar sales, manufacturing and imports of semiautomatic rifles and pistols that can use detachable magazines and have threaded barrels or other military features. The measure specifically bans 157 firearms but excludes 2,258 others in an effort to avoid barring hunting and sporting weapons.
Feinstein, who helped create a 1994 assault weapons ban that expired in 2004, and other supporters cite studies showing use of the firearms in crimes diminished while the prohibition lasted. A 2004 report said the proportion of gun crimes involving assault weapons dropped by up to 72 percent in five cities studied.
Opponents cite data from that same study showing assault weapons were used in only 2 percent to 8 percent of gun crimes, arguing that a ban would have little impact. The study also estimated there were 1.5 million assault weapons owned privately in the U.S. in 1994, and an estimated 30 million high-capacity magazines as of 1999, which critics say means exempting them would diminish a ban's effect
>>>good evening. i'm
chris matthews
back in washington. let me start tonight with this. we can usually tell when a
political party
has gone off the deep end. republicans did it with goldwater, democrats with mcgovern, fdr did it when he tried to pack the
supreme court
. republicans did it when they impeached
bill clinton
. so let's talk about this grabbed standing hue loo hooping bonanza of bs the republicans have thrown at
chuck hagel
. look at the list of gop senators who voted today again to continue the filibuster against the president's nominee for secretary of
defense
. check these names. barrasso and enzip of wyoming. cornyn and cruise of texas, crapo and rich of idaho, paul and mcconnell of kentucky. boozman of arkansas, coats of indiana, fisher of nebraska, grassley of iowa, heller of nevada, hoeven of
north dakota
, imhoff of oklahoma. eye sayson of georgia, johnson, wisconsin.
>>>kirk of illinois. moran of kansas. portman. roberts of rubio florida. toomey of pennsylvania. vitter of louisiana and wicker of mississippi. think about it, all these men, all men, voted against even having a vote on
hagel
. they did so after it was clear there would be a vote today on
hagel
. they did it to put themselves on record for no better ran than to undermine, undermine is the
key word
here, the successful functioning of our government. they knew it would hurt
hagel
's prestige, would discredit
president obama
's leadership and did it anyway. want to know why the government is grinding to a halt? check this list. they are men bent on division, distrust, and disdain toward the elected presidency of
barack obama
. and i mean it. i'm jined by
steve
clemens and piter by nert. these people are disrepresentable.
peter
binert why on god's earth with a
united states senator
whose purpose is to help the republic work knowing this guy is going to be 1k9 of
defense
, knowing there's going to be a vote on it, vote publicly to deny him even a vote today? why would they do that?
>>well, i think it's because they wanted to somehow show that they are more militantly in opposition than anybody else. but the whole thing is absurd.
>>they already did that.
>>that's right.
>>they already did that a week ago, two weeks ago. you know,
peter
, they did it. they did all that. they dutched all over this guy's nomination. they attacked him in the hearing, issued all the prereleases, made their point. why would they do it the very day they knew he'd be confirmed knowing they would be dumping on him as secretary of
defense
, not as a nominee, but actually as dkt of
defense
?
>>because we have so debased the idea of the filibuster that i honestly think people think of not voting to allow a vote as simply the same as voting no. this is how corrupted our
political system
has become that actually people see voting for a filibuster as simply no different than simply voting against someone. the whole system is not working the way it's supposed to.
>>you know what?
steve
, i respect any opinion on this within bounds. there are problems with this nomination. this is not superman.
>>right.
>>but they looked and they looked and i said face-to-face enough, they looked. had he ever made an anti-semitic look in private. had anybody heard him say anything awful. they looked and looked and looked and they couldn't find it an they still voted to deny him a vote.
>>two of the most militant senators opposed to
hagel
nonetheless did the right thing and voted for clowe you tour and that was mccain and graham. those were two of the centerpieces. when you look at inhofe,
ted cruz
, inhofe is ranking member of the
armed services committee
. he has certain responsibilities. i think they just blew it.
>>but you're right, they voted against -- voted for cloture to stop the debate. let me ask you about this,
peter
. let's talk about the look
looking forward
and what it does to our government. we have a government closed down in a lot of
defense spending
. it's going to hurt a lot. we have a potential -- we have a war we're still fighting. i wish everybody remembered that 37 men and women are out there on the post right now in some cases scared to death wherever they're stuck fighting the enemy and they couldn't agree on a secretary of
defense
in the
chain of command
. what's it do to the active military? what's it do to our future potential for saving money in
defense
and perhaps fighting another war in iran?
>>i think it's terrible. the fact that afghanistan which you remember
mitt romney
never mentioned in his speech at the
republican national convention
was barely mentioned by any of the republican senators in the 7 1/2 hour
hagel
hearing. i think it shows how fundamentally unserious and unreal so much of this
foreign policy
debate is. this hawkish party, this party which claims to be the party of
national security
in the military basically acting as if the
united states
is no longer at war when
american soldiers
are still dying there. i think, unfortunately, this very, very nasty campaign against
hagel
and let's be honest
hagel
's not very stellar performance in front of the
senate armed services committee
is going to make it harder for him to have the political leverage that he's going to need to make the tough decisions on cutting the
defense budget
. he's going to have to rebuild some of the political clout that i'm afraid he lost over the past few weeks.
>>let's go with that.
steve
, same question. what does it mean to our country. the wars were fighting now, the one we're sort of getting out of in iraq. the one we're still in in afghanistan. the one we may face within months.
>>i know
chuck hagel
and know him well. i know he's going to sit down and he's going to do exactly what
peter
said. he's going to come out with a plan. he's going to communicate with the soldiers in the field. he's going to remind them he was a sergeant, too, and he is going to implement the president's policy of shifting out of the wars we're engaged in now and sorting out other priorities. i think my estimate of this is that he's going to dom out with a very, very good and confident looking strategy for the military and its priorities and how to responsibly handle what likely are to be sizable cuts. so he's going to owe it, but people in the gop are saying that he's going to have to reinvent their relationship with them. i think it's the other way around. i grew up in oklahoma. my parents are in texas. these places have bases,
defense contractors
. now,
hagel
will be judicious. he's not going to hold anything against them, but their constituents are going to want -- can you talk to
chuck hagel
about our base? i don't know if he's going to take his calls before --
>>he may have to --
>>he will take their calls. he's not going to hold any grudges.
>>i guess --
>>but their grudges are go going to cost their quaets.
>>peter
, let's talk about the republic. what does it say about the ability of a president to pick his cabinet, especially the top officers. they're going after jack lew. they gave i guess kerry got this pretty clean but it looks like they're being very tough on these top appointees.
>>that's right. and this obsession with the
benghazi
thing, it seems to be again, it's a way for the republicans to still continue to fight the last election, and just politically it's hard to understand what the republicans feel they're gaining by continually picking these fits that they know they're not going to win. it seems like, you know, you're a student of the history, chris. you know how this happens. sometimes when parties get smaller because they have lost elections, they get more captive for a while by their most extremist wings. if you look at the way that
ted cruz
was essentially driving this whole debate over
chuck hagel
, you see that you have a
republican party
when in some ways it's most militant factions, the ones who are furthest away from ever being able to help the
republican party
compete nationally, are the ones driving the agenda.
>>i think one thing they'd like to do, let's talk about the
golden fleece
, what they're really after here. i think what the republicans want to do with
benghazi
, it's the thing -- the only thick they're interested in and they're the only ones interested in it is potentially in their
dream world
that they can prove that the
president of the united states
got an
emergency call
from
benghazi
, from lib yashtion and heard our ambassador,
chris stevens
, was in trouble, was under attack, and went off and played golf or had his dinner or forgot about it. . they want to show that somehow the
president of the united states
didn't go to the
defense
of his own guy over there and that's why the guy is dead. i think that's what they're after. i don't think there's any proof, any evidence, any reasonable to believe it, but that's the only thing that can justify this continual refocusing and refocuses and reattack.
peter
, what do you think. they're fighting the old battle. i think they're still going after obama personally.
>>also about
hillary clinton
in
2016
. it's about trying to take away the benefit she's gotten from what most people agree was a pretty successful run as secretary of state and creating a
political scandal
they can use all the way through until the next
presidential election
.
>>let's face it, they're going to turn on hillary the main she makes a move.
>>absolutely. they're waiting.
>>only last as long as obama's run.
>>that's right. jo let's take a look at the confirmation vote.
chuck hagel
's been confirmed by 58-41. so he got some republican votes there.
>>it's interesting. john bolten when he was up for under secretary of state, he also had 41 no votes against him. so they're tied. so those that were the bolden crowd can feel like they got a tie with
chuck hagel
.
>>injure attempt at symmetry disturbs me. i think no one is in the same league as bolten. why do they keep bringing up
benghazi
. what's the bee in the bonnet?
>>i think there's a couple things. for them there's the earnest side if you want to give
john mccain
and the others the benefit of the kout, they're
national heroes
and they think it's markers for things like the
iraq surge
. if you're not in the right place on that, you're not a true
national hero
stewarding the interests of the country in the right way. the deeper thing is this is a time where the other side really just wants to tear down the president anyway he can and to do it viciously every day
over and over
again and not be about constructive solutions. now, i happen to be one who doesn't think
john mccain
and even
lindsey graham
are really about that, but i think that the ted cruzs and inhofes are.
>>cruz is voting against everybody.
>>i think it's -- the petty slander. we've got to call it what it is. there is a game of slander that's coming out of
u.s. senate
offices today in a way that we haven't seen in generations. that's what we should be worried about.
>>we saw the staffer who said we're going to prove he's an anti-semite.
>>right. friends of hamas.
>>peter
, i know you're a
high levelpolicy analyst
but let's talk down and dirty politics. i don't dislike
lindsey graham
. in fact i like him. i don't dislike the guy at all. i think he's facing a potential right wing chal feng for renomination in
south carolina
by some standards on the republican right down there he's a
moderate republican
, i guess. was this a way to show that he had some bullets in his gun and he was willing to play right wing cowboy on issues like
benghazi
and it would make up for the fact he was smart and reasonable and even a bit progressive on issues like immigration?
>>absolutely. you know,
lindsey graham
reminds me of what al di ma toe used to be like when he was senator from new
york
. in the last couple years he would have to race to his left politically to get in touch with new
york
and in some ways graham does the same thing. he's actually relatively moderate the first four years and the last couple years he races to get in line with the
tea party
because people have seen what happened to
richard lugar
. there were people who were considered reasonable conservative credentials who are now no longer conservative enough to win their own primaries and that's what's driving even
big questions
like how you vote on
chuck hagel
.
>>i remember pataki in new
york
moved to the center. i like people who move to the center in
general elections
. it's the whackos who move so far right th
ZITACUARO, Mexico (AP) ? He found the love of his life 2,000 miles from home in a chance encounter that gave him butterflies, and she moved west to be with him. So of course, Jason Skipton told me, there could be no better place to propose marriage than in a swirl of orange and black butterflies that had migrated thousands of miles to mate.
Never mind that that the stunning monarch butterfly sanctuary was in an area of central Mexico contested by drug cartels. When Samantha Goldberger set up her camera and darted to Skipton's side for a Valentine's Day picture, he dropped to one knee and asked for her hand.
"This place is like a miracle. And it is a miraculous thing that took place with us," Skipton said. "No one knows why the monarchs travel so far, or come here to find each other. It is inexplicable."
Indeed, every year, millions of monarchs migrate from the eastern United States and Canada to central Mexico, a journey of 2,000 miles and more into a wooded land under attack by loggers in a region bloodied by drug traffickers. The tiger-striped butterflies arrive in late October and early November to hibernate in fir trees, clinging together like great clusters of fall leaves. Come February, they start to awaken in the warm sun, turn glittering somersaults in search of their mates, and begin to couple.
I had long wanted to see this magical sight, and to hear the delicate music the butterflies make with the fluttering of their wings. As I boarded the bus from Mexico City to Michoacan with my husband and a friend, I wondered what tourists we might encounter in a place both beautiful and beastly. Who had the appetite for travel to central Mexico after the U.S. government warned against non-essential travel to most of the state of Michoacan, where we were headed?
There didn't appear to be other foreigners making the bus trip, a two-hour ride out the Toluca highway and along winding country roads as a subtitled version of the movie "Abduction" aired on TV screens overhead. Our hosts and hoteliers, Pablo and Lisette Span, had told us to buy a ticket at the taxi stand in the Zitacuaro bus station for the 10-minute ride to their Rancho San Cayetano. We did, arriving safe and sound.
Friends told us San Cayetano was one of the nicest and most charming places to stay in butterfly country. It's also one of the priciest, but the manicured grounds are lush and the rooms are cozy, each with a fireplace and woodpile ready to light at night. Although there are individual dining tables, guests naturally mingle and chat so that dinners and breakfasts become rather communal affairs. Pablo Span ate with us the first night and, in his gentlemanly way, tried to set us straight on the violence in Michoacan.
"Around the world, Mexico is synonymous with violence. But the violence is between the cartels fighting each other over territory, or between the cartels and the police and military. It's not against us. Not a single national or foreign tourist has died in the violence," he said.
The U.S. travel advisory makes a similar point that "attacks on Mexican government officials, law enforcement and military personnel ... have occurred throughout Michoacan."
Added Span: "The reality is ? touch wood ? we live exactly as we always have."
Touch wood? Really, that's our security policy?
But like Skipton and Goldberger, the guests we met were not only unfazed by the warnings, they were utterly captivated by the landscape. Another visiting couple, Michael Marez and Grace Buckley of Denver, Colorado, own a vacation house in Mazatlan, have been travelling throughout Mexico for years, and see no reason to stop now. They appeared to subscribe to the idea that violence is relative, noting that more than 1,700 people had been shot to death in the United States since the Newtown school massacre.
"People in the United States are desensitized to what happens in the United States and think what happens in Mexico is so much worse," said Marez. "We hope to avoid being collateral damage anywhere."
"You pay attention," added Buckley. "Sure Mexico has problems. They're sad and awful. But it's a wonderful country."
Rounding out the foreign crowd was a group of Intel employees and their families up from Mexico City. So it seemed the tourist pool, in this corner of Michoacan at least, was made up of expats, old Mexico hands, and hardy adventurers who consider witnessing the miracle of the monarch butterfly migration essential travel. (Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, also made the pilgrimage to see butterflies that weekend, but to the Piedra Herrada sanctuary near Valle de Bravo, in the state of Mexico.)
We opted to go to the reserve closest to San Cayetano called El Capulin, which is technically across the border from Michoacan in the state of Mexico. It is about half an hour's car ride from the hotel to the stables, where we rented some pretty scrawny horses and hired guides for the 1 ? hour trek uphill to the reserve at a place called Cerro Pelon. It was a rocky, dusty trip and there apparently are easier trails to the Sierra Chincua and the larger El Rosario sanctuaries in Michoacan, but it was well worth the saddle pain.
For here in the forest, I learned the great mystery of the monarchs, which is this: Most monarchs live only four or five weeks, but the generations that make the long migratory journey to Mexico live four or five months. They breed, the females lay their eggs on the road north, and die along with the males. Then, a year and five butterfly generations later, their descendants rely on some kind of instinctive GPS system to migrate south again, returning to exactly the same forest in central Mexico.
How cool is that?
Experts say the numbers of monarchs have been dwindling in recent years thanks to logging, insecticide use and other environmental pressures. We encountered a team of scientists from the World Wildlife Fund of Mexico and the Universities of Georgia and Wisconsin testing butterflies for parasites that attach themselves to the wings like excess baggage and drag the insects down. They found the ophryocystis elektroscirrha parasites on about 10 percent of the butterflies, which only weigh about a half-gram to begin with.
And yet, there are millions of them, flying, diving, sucking nectar from yellow and purple wildflowers, and seeking, like Skipton and Goldberger, the mates of their lives.
Recalling his romantic proposal, Goldberger said she remembers running to Skipton for the picture when "all of the sudden he was down on one knee." It took her a moment to realize what was happening. "It was incredible," she said.
And what did she respond?
"Yes."
___
If You Go...
BUTTERFLY MIGRATION IN MICHOACAN, MEXICO: http://www.visitmexico.com/en_us/VisitMexico30/Michocans_Billion_Monarch_Butterfly_Migration. Butterfly reserves are open mid-November through March. UNESCO World Heritage site: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1290. Reserves include El Capulin, over the border from the state of Michoacan to the state of Mexico. Entry fee at El Capulin, 35 pesos ($2.75). Horseback riding, 200 pesos ($16.50) and fee for guide, 200 pesos ($16.50) plus tip.
RANCHO SAN CAYETANO: Zitacuaro, Michoacan, http://ranchosancayetano.com/. Nightly rates, $130 plus 18 percent tax. Can be paid in dollars or pesos but quoted in dollars. Dinner at San Cayetano, 350 pesos ($27.45) plus 15 percent tip. Breakfast, 170 pesos ($13.30) plus 15 percent tip. They also will arrange box lunch tours to the sanctuaries.
GETTING THERE: Two-hour bus ride from Mexico City to Zitacuaro, Michoacan, on La Linea, 170 pesos ($13.30). Taxi from bus station to lodging, 35 pesos ($2.75).
Contact: Aimee Frank media@gastro.org 301-941-2620 American Gastroenterological Association
Societies advocate same change for patients with Medicare
The federal government has issued an important clarification on preventive screening benefits under the Affordable Care Act. Patients with private insurance will no longer be liable for cost sharing when a pre-cancerous colon polyp is removed during screening colonoscopy. This ensures colorectal cancer screening is available to privately insured patients at no additional cost, as intended by the new healthcare law. Patients with Medicare coverage must still pay a coinsurance when a polyp is removed as a result of the screening colonoscopy.
Colonoscopy is a unique screening test because physicians are able to remove precancerous polyps and small cancers during the screening procedure. In many instances, removal of a polyp could result in the screening tests being categorized as a therapeutic procedure for which patients must pay coinsurance. This meant a patient could see their doctor for a screening colonoscopy assuming that it would be at no additional cost, only to receive a bill for the coinsurance after the doctor finds and removes a suspicious polyp. Cost sharing can create financial barriers that discourage the use of recommended preventive services.
Unfortunately, the cost-sharing issue remains a problem for patients with Medicare coverage. During National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month we will continue to advocate for adoption of legislation that would waive the coinsurance for Medicare beneficiaries when a screening colonoscopy becomes therapeutic.
In May 2012, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American College of Gastroenterology, American Gastroenterological Association, American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, Fight Colorectal Cancer (FCC) and the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable met with officials from the Department of Health and Human Services to discuss the cost-sharing problem. The groups advocated for the elimination of cost sharing for screening colonoscopy, and now we applaud the clarification the administration released earlier this week.
Following is the guidance language provided by the administration.
Q5: If a colonoscopy is scheduled and performed as a screening procedure pursuant to the USPSTF recommendation, is it permissible for a plan or issuer to impose cost-sharing for the cost of a polyp removal during the colonoscopy?
No. Based on clinical practice and comments received from the American College of Gastroenterology, American Gastroenterological Association, American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, and the Society for Gastroenterology Nurses and Associates, polyp removal is an integral part of a colonoscopy. Accordingly, the plan or issuer may not impose cost-sharing with respect to a polyp removal during a colonoscopy performed as a screening procedure. On the other hand, a plan or issuer may impose cost-sharing for a treatment that is not a recommended preventive service, even if the treatment results from a recommended preventive service.
###
Contact information for all societies:
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN)
ACS CAN, the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with the training and tools they need to make their voices heard. For more information, visit www.acscan.org.
Founded in 1932, the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) is an organization with an international membership of more than 12,000 individuals from 80 countries. The College is committed to serving the clinically oriented digestive disease specialist through its emphasis on scholarly practice, teaching and research. The mission of the College is to serve the evolving needs of physicians in the delivery of high quality, scientifically sound, humanistic, ethical, and cost-effective health care to gastroenterology patients. www.gi.org
American Gastroenterological Association
Contact: Aimee Frank (301) 941-2620, media@gastro.org
The American Gastroenterological Association is the trusted voice of the GI community. Founded in 1897, the AGA has grown to include more than 16,000 members from around the globe who are involved in all aspects of the science, practice and advancement of gastroenterology. The AGA Institute administers the practice, research and educational programs of the organization. www.gastro.org.
American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy
Contact: Anne Brownsey (630) 570-5635, abrownsey@asge.org
Since its founding in 1941, the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) has been dedicated to advancing patient care and digestive health by promoting excellence and innovation in gastrointestinal endoscopy. ASGE, with more than 12,000 members worldwide, promotes the highest standards for endoscopic training and practice, fosters endoscopic research, recognizes distinguished contributions to endoscopy, and is the foremost resource for endoscopic education. Visit www.asge.org and www.screen4coloncancer.org for more information and to find a qualified doctor in your area.
Fight Colorectal Cancer
Contact: Carlea Bauman (202) 907-5536
Fight Colorectal Cancer is the leading colorectal cancer advocacy organization in Washington, DC and demands a cure for the second leading cancer killer in the United States. In addition to our advocacy work, we offer support for patients, family members and caregivers, and serve as a resource for colorectal cancer advocates, policymakers, medical professionals and healthcare providers. We also do everything we can to increase and improve researchat all stages of development and for all stages of cancer. Find out how you can get involved at FightColorectalCancer.org or 877-427-2111.
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Contact: Aimee Frank media@gastro.org 301-941-2620 American Gastroenterological Association
Societies advocate same change for patients with Medicare
The federal government has issued an important clarification on preventive screening benefits under the Affordable Care Act. Patients with private insurance will no longer be liable for cost sharing when a pre-cancerous colon polyp is removed during screening colonoscopy. This ensures colorectal cancer screening is available to privately insured patients at no additional cost, as intended by the new healthcare law. Patients with Medicare coverage must still pay a coinsurance when a polyp is removed as a result of the screening colonoscopy.
Colonoscopy is a unique screening test because physicians are able to remove precancerous polyps and small cancers during the screening procedure. In many instances, removal of a polyp could result in the screening tests being categorized as a therapeutic procedure for which patients must pay coinsurance. This meant a patient could see their doctor for a screening colonoscopy assuming that it would be at no additional cost, only to receive a bill for the coinsurance after the doctor finds and removes a suspicious polyp. Cost sharing can create financial barriers that discourage the use of recommended preventive services.
Unfortunately, the cost-sharing issue remains a problem for patients with Medicare coverage. During National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month we will continue to advocate for adoption of legislation that would waive the coinsurance for Medicare beneficiaries when a screening colonoscopy becomes therapeutic.
In May 2012, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American College of Gastroenterology, American Gastroenterological Association, American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, Fight Colorectal Cancer (FCC) and the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable met with officials from the Department of Health and Human Services to discuss the cost-sharing problem. The groups advocated for the elimination of cost sharing for screening colonoscopy, and now we applaud the clarification the administration released earlier this week.
Following is the guidance language provided by the administration.
Q5: If a colonoscopy is scheduled and performed as a screening procedure pursuant to the USPSTF recommendation, is it permissible for a plan or issuer to impose cost-sharing for the cost of a polyp removal during the colonoscopy?
No. Based on clinical practice and comments received from the American College of Gastroenterology, American Gastroenterological Association, American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, and the Society for Gastroenterology Nurses and Associates, polyp removal is an integral part of a colonoscopy. Accordingly, the plan or issuer may not impose cost-sharing with respect to a polyp removal during a colonoscopy performed as a screening procedure. On the other hand, a plan or issuer may impose cost-sharing for a treatment that is not a recommended preventive service, even if the treatment results from a recommended preventive service.
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Contact information for all societies:
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN)
ACS CAN, the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with the training and tools they need to make their voices heard. For more information, visit www.acscan.org.
Founded in 1932, the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) is an organization with an international membership of more than 12,000 individuals from 80 countries. The College is committed to serving the clinically oriented digestive disease specialist through its emphasis on scholarly practice, teaching and research. The mission of the College is to serve the evolving needs of physicians in the delivery of high quality, scientifically sound, humanistic, ethical, and cost-effective health care to gastroenterology patients. www.gi.org
American Gastroenterological Association
Contact: Aimee Frank (301) 941-2620, media@gastro.org
The American Gastroenterological Association is the trusted voice of the GI community. Founded in 1897, the AGA has grown to include more than 16,000 members from around the globe who are involved in all aspects of the science, practice and advancement of gastroenterology. The AGA Institute administers the practice, research and educational programs of the organization. www.gastro.org.
American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy
Contact: Anne Brownsey (630) 570-5635, abrownsey@asge.org
Since its founding in 1941, the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) has been dedicated to advancing patient care and digestive health by promoting excellence and innovation in gastrointestinal endoscopy. ASGE, with more than 12,000 members worldwide, promotes the highest standards for endoscopic training and practice, fosters endoscopic research, recognizes distinguished contributions to endoscopy, and is the foremost resource for endoscopic education. Visit www.asge.org and www.screen4coloncancer.org for more information and to find a qualified doctor in your area.
Fight Colorectal Cancer
Contact: Carlea Bauman (202) 907-5536
Fight Colorectal Cancer is the leading colorectal cancer advocacy organization in Washington, DC and demands a cure for the second leading cancer killer in the United States. In addition to our advocacy work, we offer support for patients, family members and caregivers, and serve as a resource for colorectal cancer advocates, policymakers, medical professionals and healthcare providers. We also do everything we can to increase and improve researchat all stages of development and for all stages of cancer. Find out how you can get involved at FightColorectalCancer.org or 877-427-2111.
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TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) ? Tunisia's interior minister said Tuesday that four suspects belonging to a radical Islamist group are being held for their involvement in the murder of a leftist opposition politician earlier this month that plunged the country into a political crisis.
Ali Larayedh said the suspects, some of whom had been arrested in the last 48 hours, were just accomplices to the murder and did not include the assassin himself, who remains at large and subject to a manhunt.
The suspects range in age from 26 to 34 years old and are part of a "radical religious group," the minister said, adding that one had confessed to accompanying the actual assassin.
Chokri Belaid was shot four times outside his home on the morning of February 6, provoking widespread rioting around the country as many held the government responsible for his death.
Belaid's assassination resulted in the resignation of the country's prime minister and Larayedh has been appointed his successor to form a new coalition government.
Thousands demonstrated on Sunday, protesting the lack of progress in solving the crime, which was seen as a symptom of the increasing violence in Tunisia's politics.
Since the overthrow of the country's secular dictatorship in January 2011, there has been a rise in ultraconservative Muslims known as Salafis, some of whom have resorted to violence.
Authorities have also discovered numerous weapons caches and clashed with militants crossing into the country from neighboring Algeria and Libya.
Just 12 hours after (already denied) rumors circulated that Barnes & Noble may ditch its Nook business, the company has had to make an announcement concerning its retail division. Thanks to SEC regulations, the company has had to 'fess up that majority shareholder and "founder*" Leonard Riggio is pondering buying the brick-and-mortar retail business -- presumably hiving off the Nook brand as a separate entity. Of course, this could easily just be the rattling of sabers by a disgruntled founder (and not for the first time of late), or we might see the bookseller cleft in two parts in the near future. Either way, we'll be watching with great interest.
* He founded the book chain that would buy the Barnes & Noble name.
An amazing new video shot over 12 days by an amateur astronomer has captured the stunning beauty of an active volcanoes on Earth with the Milky Way galaxy as its backdrop.
Photographer Justin Ng combined images of the moon, sun, Milky Way?other celestial objects as they appeared over three volcanoes in Indonesia to create his first time-lapse video.
"My goal was to capture the beautiful Milky Way galaxy, star trails and sun rise along with the 3 volcanoes namely Mount Bromo, Mount Semeru and Mount Batok," Ng told SPACE.com in an email. Justin Ng is a photographer based in Singapore. He captured the images between May 26 and June 6 of 2012.
Although Ng's video of volcanoes and the night sky is stunningly beautiful, it wasn't easy to capture.
Trying to capture these shots in a tourist-heavy area like Mount Bromo also created a unique set of issues for the amateur astronomer, Ng said. A wind storm at around the 2-minute, 10-second mark in the nearly four-minute video collapsed some of photography equipment, but the cameras still managed to shoot about ?seconds worth of photos before falling over, he added.
"As Mount Bromo is a famous tourist attraction spot, hundreds of jeeps can be seen during wee hours ferrying the tourists to the peak and back," Ng said. "Many of my clips were ruined due to light pollution caused by these jeeps. Also, I have to check the camera LCD screen frequently to prevent condensation issues from ruining my hours of effort and I have to battle against the strong wind from toppling my cameras."
Ng cites luck as a major factor in the success of his trip to Mount Bromo.
"Luck really played an important role to ensure the success of this film. I had to make important decisions everyday because I wouldn't have been able to capture some of the rare scenes if I did not visit the location when it happened," Ng wrote. "Post processing tens of thousands of shots to deflicker my clips was also a nightmare but the beautiful scenes I managed to capture made my efforts all worthwhile."
Follow Miriam Kramer on Twitter?@mirikramer?or SPACE.com?@Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook?&?Google+.?
Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Mozilla, makers of the popular Firefox Internet browser, is preparing to challenge Google and Apple's grip on smartphone software.
A new Firefox operating system for mobile devices is set for a July release after winning the backing of 13 wireless service providers around the globe, including Spain's Telefonica, China Unicom and America Movil.
Mozilla is betting there's room for a software developer-friendly mobile platform alongside Apple's and Google's Android, which together power the majority of mobile devices on the planet.
The new software is based on open Web standards and is capable of operating on devices with much lower hardware requirements than today's existing crop of smarpthones, according to Mozilla.
Because the Firefox OS is open-source and Web-based, third-party developers will be free to sell mobile applications without needing to share revenue with Apple or Google.
"There's a strategic imperative for the industry to have another OS that really is open and supports choice and competition," said Mozilla's Senior Vice President of Products, Jay Sullivan.
Mozilla will showcase some of the first hardware devices based on that software at the Mobile World Congress, taking place in Barcelona this week. Among the brands that have signed on to make devices based on Firefox OS are South Korea's LG, China's ZTE and Huawei.
Unlike Google and Apple's operating systems, which are built from proprietary technology, Firefox OS uses the HTML5 standard that Web services are built with. That means anyone familiar with Web programming can create Firefox OS apps.
Whether a smartphone built on Web standards can deliver the kind of performance that consumers expect remains to be seen. Facebook famously stopped using HTML5 to develop its iPhone app last year, with Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg saying the technology couldn't deliver acceptable quality and calling a decision to use HTML5 for its app one of Facebook's "biggest mistakes."
SIZE MATTERS
Mozilla, a non-profit organization, also faces stiff competition. Google's Android software, which the company distributes free to phone vendors from Samsung to HTC, had roughly 70 percent share of the worldwide smartphone market in the fourth quarter, according to industry research firm Gartner. Apple, which created the smartphone market with the 2007 launch of the now-iconic iPhone, had a roughly 21 percent share of the market.
"The real barrier here is not necessarily a technical one, it's scale," said John Jackson, an analyst with research firm IDC. Mozilla will need to attract large numbers of consumers and app developers if it hopes to avoid the fate of previous mobile operating system hopefuls, such as Palm's WebOS, now owned by Hewllet-Packard.
But "the world's computing experiences are going mobile and when they get to the mobile environment, they're happening on a platform that's controlled by either Apple or Google," said Jackson. "There's a universe of content and service providers that have an interest in seeing a more neutral platform materialize."
Mozilla will initially look to compete in so-called "emerging economies" in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia, where many people still use older phone models and have yet to upgrade to more expensive smartphones that feature touchscreens and high-speed Internet connections.
The first phones will be available this summer in Brazil, Columbia, Poland, Venezuela, Serbia and Spain.
The first Firefox OS phones that Telefonica will offer this summer come with a wholesale price of $100. The price that consumers pay for the phone will vary in different markets and depend on whether the phone is offered on a pre-paid basis or comes with a service contract, a Telefonica spokesman said.
Telefonica will eventually offer higher-end Firefox OS phones, and plans to offer Firefox devices in all 25 countries that it operates in by the end of 2014.
(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Bernard Orr)
PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande sang the praises of local produce at the annual French farm show, where the horse meat scandal added to French cattle breeders' downbeat mood.
Hollande, who was long the head of the rural Correze region, spent hours talking to livestock farmers, who worry that the discovery of horse meat in lasagnas and other processed foods labeled as beef-based will cast another cloud over their sector.
"We need to promote French quality, French production and French cattle breeding," Hollande told reporters at Europe's largest farm show.
He added that France will push for traceability and compulsory labeling of meat in processed foods at talks with EU partners.
In 2000, mandatory labeling was introduced for beef due to health concerns that stemmed from Europe's bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also called mad cow disease, crisis but labels on the origin of beef do not apply to processed food.
"The idea that prepared foods should have the same safety requirements as fresh butcher products will become evident in the coming months," Hollande said.
France has played a pivotal role in the horsemeat scandal as a company in southern France has been blamed for having mislabeled Romanian horse meat and resold it as beef to companies who make ready-made meals based on minced beef.
"People have confidence in their farmers, but not necessarily in their food," Xavier Beulin, the head of FNSEA, France's largest farm union, told Reuters.
Many farmers are worried the scandal will hit their sector, which struggles with the high cost of grain-based animal feed.
"When something like this happens just weeks before the show, it gives a bad image," said Florent Michard, 25, in front of the family's Prim'Holstein cows.
Official data show that French cattle breeders earn just 15,000 euros per year on average, compared to 72,000 to 80,000 euros a year for cereal growers and sugar beet farmers.
The socialist president said he aimed to shift part of EU farm subsidies to livestock farmers from crop growers, who are benefiting from high grain prices.
A visit to the Paris farm show - which attracts around 700,000 visitors a year - is a must for every French president and Hollande spent hours eating and drinking his way through the dozens of food stands, in the style of conservative former president and farmer's ally Jacques Chirac.
Hollande's immediate predecessor, the urbane conservative Nicolas Sarkozy, had a more difficult relationship with farmers and one of his visits to the show became notorious when he said "get lost, you jerk" to a visitor who he felt had insulted him.
The visit to a mostly successful sector - France is Europe's largest agricultural producer and grain exporter ahead of Germany - came as a break to Hollande who is facing a hostage crisis in Nigeria and a growing risk of recession.
At one point Hollande took a large Aubrac bull by the horns, as if to show he will tackle livestock farmers' woes head-on.
"With a gesture like that, he seemed to send us a message," the bull's breeder Jean-Pierre Besson told Reuters.
(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Pineau, writing by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Stephen Powell)
Triglyceride lipid emulsions rich in an omega-3 fatty acid injected within a few hours of an ischemic stroke can decrease the amount of damaged brain tissue by 50 percent or more in mice, reports a new study by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center.
The results suggest that the emulsions may be able to reduce some of the long-term neurological and behavioral problems seen in human survivors of neonatal stroke and possibly of adult stroke, as well. The findings were published today in the journalPLoS One.
Currently, clot-busting tPA (recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator) is the only treatment shown to improve recovery from ischemic stroke. If administered soon after stroke onset, the drug can restore blood flow to the brain but may not prevent injured, but potentially salvageable, neurons from dying.
Drugs with neuroprotective qualities that can prevent the death of brain cells damaged by stroke are needed, but even after 30 years of research and more than 1000 agents tested in animals, no neuroprotectant has been found effective in people.
Omega-3 fatty acids may have more potential as neuroprotectants because they affect multiple biochemical processes in the brain that are disturbed by stroke, said the study's senior author, Richard Deckelbaum, MD, director of the Institute of Human Nutrition at Columbia's College of Physicians & Surgeons. "The findings also may be applicable to other causes of ischemic brain injury in newborns and adults," added co-investigator Vadim S. Ten, MD, PhD, an associate professor of pediatrics from the Department of Pediatrics at Columbia.
The effects of the omega-3 fatty acids include increasing the production of natural neuroprotectants in the brain, reducing inflammation and cell death, and activating genes that may protect brain cells. Omega-3 fatty acids also markedly reduce the release of harmful oxidants into the brain after stroke. "In most clinical trials in the past, the compounds tested affected only one pathway. Omega-3 fatty acids, in contrast, are very bioactive molecules that target multiple mechanisms involved in brain death after stroke," Dr. Deckelbaum said.
The study revealed that an emulsion containing only DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), but not EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), in a triglyceride molecule reduced the area of dead brain tissue by about 50 percent or more even when administered up to two hours after the stroke. Dr. Deckelbaum noted, "Since mice have a much faster metabolism than humans, longer windows of time for therapeutic effect after stroke are likely in humans." Eight weeks after the stroke, much of the "saved" mouse brain tissue was still healthy, and no toxic effects were detected.
Studies are currently under way to test the emulsion in older mice and in mice with different types of stroke. The researchers are also conducting additional studies to identify more precisely how the omega-3 emulsion works and to optimize the emulsion in order to improve functional recovery after stroke.
After animal studies on dosages and timing, and if the emulsions continue to show promising results, Dr. Deckelbaum said, clinical trials could begin quickly, as such emulsions have already been shown to be safe in people. Similar emulsions are used in European ICUs for nutrition support, and in the US they have been found to be safe when tested in babies for their nutritive and anti-inflammatory effects.
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Columbia University Medical Center: http://www.cumc.columbia.edu
Thanks to Columbia University Medical Center for this article.
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Agreement covers certain Nikon cameras running the Android platform.
Microsoft Corp. and Nikon Corporation have signed a patent licensing agreement that provides broad coverage under Microsoft?s patent portfolio for certain Nikon cameras running the Android platform. While the contents of the agreement will not be disclosed, Microsoft will receive royalties from Nikon.
?Microsoft and Nikon have a long history of collaboration, and this agreement further demonstrates the value that both companies place on responsible IP licensing,? said David Kaefer, general manager of Intellectual Property (IP) Licensing at Microsoft. ?Microsoft is proud to align with a leader in the digital camera industry to license Android technology for the benefit of Nikon?s customers.?
Microsoft?s Commitment to Licensing Intellectual Property
The patent agreement is another example of the important role intellectual property (IP) plays in ensuring a healthy and vibrant IT ecosystem. Since Microsoft launched its IP licensing program in December 2003, the company has entered into more than 1,100 licensing agreements and continues to develop programs that make it possible for customers, partners and competitors to access its IP portfolio. The program was developed to open access to Microsoft?s significant R&D investments and its growing, broad patent and IP portfolio. Microsoft?s specific patent licensing program for Android device makers has resulted in signed license agreements with numerous companies including Samsung, LG, HTC, Acer and Barnes & Noble.
More information about Microsoft?s licensing programs is available at http://www.microsoft.com/iplicensing.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq ?MSFT?) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft?s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.
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Public release date: 25-Feb-2013
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