Free Republic

You don’t have to be a Eurosceptic to have issues with Big Europe. Given five years of record unemployment and austerity budgets in Europe, elections for the European Parliament, held last week, were always expected to produce victories for the populist parties that reject the EU and its political values. But the scale of their success – parties described as “far right” gained about one-sixth of the seats in the Strasbourg-based assembly, and a couple polled better than their own governing parties at home -- has given a jolt to the European establishment. Tens of millions of people are...

The top officer and enlisted soldier for the 143rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command have been temporarily suspended, officials announced Monday. Brig. Gen. Bryan W. Wampler, the commanding general, and Command Sgt. Maj. Don B. Jordan were suspended Oct. 10 pending an ongoing investigation, said Maj. Thomas Campbell, a spokesman for the 1st Theater Sustainment Command. The 143rd ESC falls under the 1st TSC. Campbell said he could not discuss the ongoing investigation, but he did say it is not related to any criminal misconduct. The 143rd is currently deployed to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. Wampler took command of the 143rd in January,...

14 July 2007 Hope for new Parkinson's therapy Scientists have discovered a protein which may help to slow, or even reverse symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Parkinson's destroys nerve cells that produce the brain chemical dopamine, causing movement and balance problems. Finnish researchers found the new molecule can prevent degeneration of these cells - and help damaged cells start to recover. Their paper, featured in Nature, showed symptoms eased in rats given injections of the protein. Current anti-Parkinson's drugs do not stop nerve cells from degenerating and dying, and their effects can be patchy and short-lived. The researchers, from the...

WASHINGTON, June 19 — President Bush will issue an executive order intended to encourage scientific advances in regenerative medicine, according to senior White House officials who said Mr. Bush would announce the initiative on Wednesday, just as he vetoes a measure promoting embryonic stem cell research. The embryonic stem cell measure has widespread public support, and the veto would be the second time Mr. Bush has rejected it. By pairing the veto with a new scientific initiative, the White House clearly hopes to blunt the inevitable criticism that Mr. Bush will face from researchers, advocates for patients and politicians, including...

The British government is withdrawing its objections to creating hybrid embryos from humans and animals for use in stem-cell research. The government had proposed a ban on the procedure last year. The stem cells are created by injecting human DNA into empty animal eggs, making the embryos 99.9 percent human, The Times of London said Thursday

April 09, 2007, 6:00 a.m. Missing the PointEmbryo-research advocates finally back ethical alternatives but still insist on ethical violations. By Yuval Levin In January, the House of Representatives passed a bill to overturn President Bush’s embryonic-stem-cell funding policy. Sponsored by Democrat Diana DeGette of Colorado and Republican Mike Castle of Delaware, the bill was exactly identical to one passed by Congress and vetoed by the president last July. And this time, too, the House was nowhere near the margin needed to overturn another presidential veto. The Senate will act on the measure in the coming days, but the bill’s...

JEFFERSON CITY — A $350 million spending plan that Gov. Matt Blunt originally trumpeted as a godsend for Missouri's life sciences industry was stripped on Thursday of anything relating to that research. One of those projects would have spent $5.5-million project to help young biotechnology companies build out costly wet lab space in Cortex, a biotech business corridor in midtown St. Louis. The University of Missouri-Columbia was hit hardest by the new plan, losing an $85 million research center that had once been touted as the centerpiece of Blunt's spending plan. Instead, Blunt is now requesting $31 million to reconstruct...

California supporters of stem cell research are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Yesterday, the California Court of Appeal in San Francisco rejected a lawsuit that has been delaying full operations at the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). Although the case could still make its way to the state supreme court, CIRM proponents are confident the institute has overcome is last major legal hurdle. The creation of CIRM was approved by voters in November 2004 as a way to get around federally imposed limits on research with human embryonic stem (ES) cells (ScienceNOW, 6 October...

Mice cloned from skin stem cells 13 February 2007 US researchers have cloned healthy mice from skin cells for the first time. Despite notorious difficulties in producing animals through cloning, nine of 19 mice who were born survived into adulthood. The scientists replaced the nucleus from an unfertilised egg with the nucleus from an adult skin stem cell. Embryos produced in this way may also be a useful source of stem cells, say the researchers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers have previously managed to clone mice using other kinds of adult cells, but it has...

Daniel Kerner sits in his Portland hotel room, laughing as two characters argue in the film "Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius" and moving in time to the music. Hair is growing over the scars on his scalp, where Oregon Health & Science University doctors last month injected brain-making stem cells. It was the world's first such procedure, his doctors say, a risky and experimental trial to fight Batten disease, the brain-wasting illness killing the California boy. In the four weeks since, his parents say, the 6-year-old has grown more lively each day. The milestones are small: More smiles, more eye contact,...

Australian lawmakers this week defied Prime Minister John Howard and voted to allow researchers working with human embryonic stem (ES) cells to engage in the controversial practice of research cloning, otherwise known as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). The change, recommended last year by a committee appointed by Parliament, ends a 4-year ban on the procedure. Stem cell researcher Alan Trounson at Monash University in Melbourne says scientists are "elated" by the 6 December vote in the lower House. The 82-to-62 margin of victory followed a 2-vote squeaker in the Senate last month. The new law, which will take effect...

Democrats Revive Embryonic Stem Cell Bill WASHINGTON - The same embryonic stem cell bill that prompted President Bush's only veto is headed to his desk again, this time from Democrats who have it atop their agenda when they take control of Congress in January. It's uncertain whether supporters of the measure can muster enough votes to override another veto. The bill, which would expand federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, is supported by a majority of Americans as a way to speed the search for possible cures for dozens of diseases. It is staunchly opposed by Bush and others...

The only veto so far wielded by President George W. Bush was against the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act this past July. In something of a rarity over the last six years, the Act passed with bipartisan support. Bush issued his veto in the face of strong public backing for the research. For example, an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll taken shortly after his veto found 68 percent of Americans in favor expanding federal support for human embryonic stem cell research. The president didn't veto the bill because he's against federal funding of scientific research; he vetoed it as a favor...

The pattern in the media reportage about stem cells is growing very wearisome. When a research advance occurs with embryonic stem cells, the media usually give the story the brass-band treatment. However, when researchers announce even greater success using adult stem cells, the media reportage is generally about as intense and excited as a stifled yawn. As a consequence, many people in this country continue to believe that embryonic stem cells offer the greatest promise for developing new medical treatments using the body's cells -- known as regenerative medicine -- while in actuality, adult and alternative sources of stem cells...

Monday November 6, 2006 Passion of the Christ Star Jim Caviezel Explains Opposition to Embryo Research His Opposition to Michael J. Fox's Stem-Cell Ads By Meg JalsevacHOLLYWOOD, November 6, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Actor Jim Caviezel is defending his stance against Michael J. Fox’s campaign ad which was used to promote politicians who support embryonic stem cell research.  Caviezel insists that he is sympathetic to Fox’s condition but wants to ensure that the public is informed of all the facts before they cast their votes.    Fox’s ad encouraged Missourians to vote ‘Yes’ on Amendment 2 which would allow scientists in the...

Actor Michael J. Fox is coming under fire for the second time in two days after recording a second television commercial blasting a pro-ilfe candidate on the isssue of stem cell research. The latest ad, in Maryland, attacks pro-life candidate when his opponent voted against stem cell research. In the new spot, Fox vouches for Senate hopeful Ben Cardin, a current congressman, in his bid against pro-life Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele. "Cardin fully supports lifesaving stem cell research and that's why I support Ben Cardin," Fox says. However, Cardin voted against a bill that would have authorized the federal...

Actor Fox stars in campaign ad for Doyle A television ad for Democratic Governor Jim Doyle is the latest done by actor Michael J. Fox, who's backing candidates across the country who support embryonic stem cell research. Fox has Parkinson's disease and has recorded other ads on behalf of candidates supporting the research. The issue may have more potency here because University of Wisconsin scientists have been pioneers in the field. Fox speaks directly into the camera, with his Parkinson tremors evident, is asking voters to re-elect Doyle. Fox says Doyle's Republican opponent, Mark Green, has stood in the way...

Dear Ken: Michael J. Fox appeared this weekend in a political ad directed against Jim Talent. Although I did not see the ad myself, I did hear it on my local radio station. It has been described by those who have seen it as very effective. The ailing Michael J. Fox is made to look even more pitiful by the smoke and mirrors of the make-up artist and cameraman and perhaps even by the skills of the the actor himself. Although we sympathize greatly with this man's illness, we cannot abide his mischaracterization of President Bush's veto of a bill...

Injecting human embryonic stem cells into the brains of Parkinson's disease patients may cause tumors to form, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday. Steven Goldman and colleagues at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York said human stem cells injected into rat brains turned into cells that looked like early tumors. Writing in the journal Nature Medicine, the researchers said the transplants clearly helped the rats, but some of the cells started growing in a way that could eventually lead to a tumor. Various types of cell transplants are being tried to treat Parkinson's disease, caused when dopamine-releasing cells...

Some of our most important candidates are being attacked in Big Lie campaigns, stating that if elected they want to "outlaw stem cell research." I've seen it in attacks upon Senator Talent of Missouri and Rep. Mark Green, opposing Jim Doyle for Governor, here in Wisconsin. Doyle has bought heavily into TV ads with this slander. FReepers should know that pro-lifers are strongly for adult stem cell research, since this is the only effective treatment for disease. We also konw that fetal stem cell production creates human cloning farms and has never done anything but poison human subjects. Does anyone...