Free Republic

U.S. immigration agents have arrested 595 people at a Mississippi factory in what was the largest workplace enforcement raid in the United States to date, an immigration official said on Tuesday.

000 WTNT32 KNHC 260258 TCPAT2 BULLETIN TROPICAL STORM GUSTAV ADVISORY NUMBER 4 NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL072008 1100 PM EDT MON AUG 25 2008 ...GUSTAV STRENGTHENS...ALMOST A HURRICANE... AT 11 PM EDT...0300 UTC...THE HURRICANE WARNING IS EXTENDED FROM PORT AU PRINCE HAITI NORTHWARD TO LE MOLE ST NICHOLAS. A HURRICANE WARNING IS NOW IN EFFECT FROM BARAHONA IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC WESTWARD TO LE MOLE ST NICHOLAS HAITI. PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD BE RUSHED TO COMPLETION. AT 11 PM EDT...THE GOVERNMENT OF JAMAICA HAS ISSUED A TROPICAL STORM WATCH FOR JAMAICA. A TROPICAL STORM...

OXFORD - Beef Plant defendants Nixon Cawood and Charles Morehead, executives with The Facility Group of Georgia, are set to change their plea to guilty on a one-count information Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. So says two filings late today in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Mississippi. Cawood's hearing is set for 10 a.m. before Chief Judge Michael P. Mills. Moreheads is set for 10 a.m. Thursday. An information is a legal charge short of an indictment, which comes from a grand jury. No other details were available, but it seems possible Cawood and Morehead will follow...

Horn Lake, MS -- The black bear spotted in the Horn Lake, Mississippi area is still out there somewhere. It was last seen in a wooded area behind the Apple Creek Subdivision. Jimmy Massey was one of the last people to see the bear. "I saw something move in the trees, and there it was about 60 yards from me. It just stopped and stood there for about 30 seconds," Massey said. Mississippi Wildlife Officials believe the bear may be lost or looking for a mate. They tried to pick up a signal from a tracking collar the bear may...

NICE, France: In patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), immunosuppressive therapy followed by autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation elicited high response rates and improved quality of life for up to 6 years. The results of the study were presented here at the 18th Meeting of the European Neurological Society (ENS) by Tatiana Ionova, MD, PhD, Department of Haematology, Pirogov National Medical Surgical Center, Moscow, Russia. During the last decade, high-dose immunosuppressive therapy followed by autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation has been used with increasing frequency as a therapeutic option for patients with MS. "The aim of the study was to assess...

Cheney to appear in 'get out the vote' rally at the Desoto Civic Center SOUTHAVEN - White House officials confirmed Friday that U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney will make a campaign stop on behalf of 1st U.S. Congressional candidate Greg Davis May 12, the eve of the run-off election with Democrat Travis Childers. "We can confirm the vice president will be attending a get out the vote rally for Greg Davis," Jamie Breland, spokesperson in the White House Press Office of Vice President Dick Cheney, said Friday. Tentative arrangements call for Cheney to appear with Davis in an afternoon rally...

Last Summer, Microsoft Corporation quietly introduced a powerful tool for getting past security on laptops and PCs running the Windows operations system (which about 90 percent do). The device is a USB thumb drive called COFEE (Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor). When you capture an enemy computer, you plug in COFEE and then use over a hundred software to quickly get whatever information is on the machine. COFEE can quickly reveal passwords, decrypt files, reveal recent Internet activity and much more. A lot of this can be done without COFEE, but with the Microsoft device, intelligence collection is a lot...

While vitamin D’s role in strengthening bones is well established, its links to cancer and immune-system malfunctions have only recently emerged. At the Harvard School of Public Health, nutrition experts say large segments of the population don’t get enough vitamin D and are urging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to raise the daily recommended dose, from 400 international units to 800. For an update on what’s known so far about this important nutrient, the Harvard Public Health Review spoke with HSPH Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology Edward Giovannucci. *** Q: What are the documented benefits of vitamin D? A:...

When it comes to understanding, preventing and treating chronic diseases, multiple sclerosis ranks among the most challenging. The word “multiple” is apt in more ways than one. Various suggested causes include early-life exposure to certain viruses or toxic agents, geographic and dietary influences, inherent immunological defects and underlying genetic susceptibilities. MS is highly unpredictable. Rarely are any two patients alike in the presentation, duration and progression of symptoms; even the underlying cause of disability in MS is being reconsidered. And rarely do any two patients respond in the same way to a given therapy, be it medically established or alternative....

REFUGIO, Texas - With an abandoned Wild West-vintage town of storefronts slumbering just a block from old US 77, tiny Refugio is a place where myth and reality coexist in a ghostly silence. more stories like this Obama faces heat over aide's NAFTA remarks to Canadians Texas, Ohio could decide Dem nomination Canada says didn't misrepresent Obama over NAFTA McCain tags Dems on trade treaty NAFTA seen differently in Ohio, Texas And now this South Texas outpost is swept up in one of the more intriguing tests of myth vs. reality in today's political life: the battle over the so-called...

.S. News & World Report, which has made a name for itself by ranking and announcing the best colleges every year, is now ranking and listing the best careers for young people. A comparison of the latest lists shows a shocking disconnect and makes for dispiriting holiday reading. While the price of a college education has skyrocketed far faster than inflation, many careers for which colleges prepare their graduates are disappearing. U.S. News' Best Careers guide concludes, "college grads might want to consider blue-collar careers" because bachelor's degree holders "are having trouble finding jobs that require college-graduate skills." Incredibly, U.S....

The life of Ike Pringle has become a sort of enigma for local historians who are trying to figure out exactly what role the slave played in the American Civil War. Born in May, 1841, Isaac, or Ike as he was better known, was owned by the Pringle family that lived and owned land around Vimville. Ike took on the name of his owners and was forever called Ike Pringle. At an early age he was given to the grandson of the family, Frank Pringle. Not that far apart in age, the two basically grew up together until the Civil...

More details at FoxNews Channel as they come in...

I watched HBO's Inside The NFL this week and they aired a piece about a group of Packer fans that have been making trips to Brett Favre's hometown of Kiln, MS to help rebuild houses destroyed by Katrina. It was mostly a feel-good piece, but I really enjoyed it. This group has made about twenty trips to Kiln to help rebuild houses. I can't remember the exact number, but I think they said they've helped about 44 families rebuild. While I was watching this story, I couldn't help but think this is what's right with America. People helping other people....

Police are investigating a carjacking that lead to a chase and a shooting Monday afternoon near Olive Branch, Mississippi. The shooting happened in an area near the intersection of State Line Road and Riverdale Road in Olive Branch, Mississippi. Investigators said a 71-year-old woman was unloading groceries in the driveway of her south Shelby County home when a man approached her with a shotgun, demanding her car. 71-year-old Bobbie Gray is traumatized and feeling the emotional pain of fear wondering if her life will ever be the same. "He just walked up behind me as I was taking the groceries...

Microsoft Relevant Products/Services posted revenue of $13.76 billion for the company's fiscal first quarter -- a 27 percent increase over the year-earlier period. Net income amounted to $4.29 billion or 45 cents per share. "The first quarter represented an outstanding start of the fiscal year, with every part of the company performing above expectations," said Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell. "I was particularly happy that we increased revenue while meeting operating expense guidance." Microsoft's Client, Business Division, and Server and Tools units grew combined revenue in excess of 20 percent, with demand for Vista, Office 2007, Windows Server, and SQL Relevant...

The age-old wrong of stealing another man’s wife — “alienation of affection” — is still recognized in six states, while being wholly or mostly abolished in 31 others. It traces its origins back at least to the Teutonic tribes of early Germany in the 10th Century. Now, a well-to-do businessman from Mississippi, facing a verdict of $754,500 for “alienating the affections” of the wife of a plumber, is asking the Supreme Court to impose a constitutional ban on such verdicts at least when they are used to punish the forbidden conduct. Asking for a stay of a Mississippi Supreme Court...

CHARLOTTE, NC (AP) - The family of a 15-year-old Charlotte girl killed in a charity bike ride is suing the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The lawsuit alleges that the MS Society promised traffic control and police protection it didn't deliver, and routed the 2006 Breakaway to the Beach from Charlotte to North Myrtle Beach, SC, along a stretch of narrow and busy highway unsafe for bicyclists. The lawsuit does not say how much money the family is seeking. Rachel Giblin was killed on Sept. 16, 2006, after a pickup truck hauling a trailer hit the tandem bike she and her...

Funny video: here.

A new treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) is being pioneered near Bristol. Six patients at Frenchay Hospital are being injected with their own stem cells in the hope that they will repair damage to the brain. Approximately 60,000 people in the UK suffer from MS, an incurable disease of the nervous system. Prof Neil Scolding, of the Institute of Clinical Neurosciences, said: "We know stem cells are attracted into the brain, into these areas of damage." He added that he hoped the stem cells would "help those areas to stop getting worse" and "repair damage". 'Lot of hope' Liz Allison,...

Let me start by saying I like Haley. I cheered him on back in 2003 when he was here in Southaven with the president. He brought jobs to Mississippi and has helped the coast recover after Katrina. But during this past primary season I noticed something. The literature that came from the state senate candidates was full of items that they would do to stop illegal immigration. Haley's pamplets shows his strides in jobs and education, which of course are a good thing. But digging through the web you don't find much on his stance of immigration. You find alot...

SEATTLE (AP) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) (MSFT)'s Xbox 360 video game console will be $50 cheaper starting Wednesday, confirming fuzzy snapshots of leaked advertisements posted by bloggers in late July. The company said its most popular console, which comes with a 20-gigabyte hard drive, will cost $349. A basic console without a hard drive or wireless controllers will retail for $279, $20 less than its current price, while the Xbox 360 Elite, a black version with a 120-gigabyte hard drive and high-definition video support, will drop $50 to $449. - snip - Sony Corp. (SNE) slashed the price of its...

Medical researchers have made a significant advance in understanding multiple sclerosis, a common neurological disease that causes symptoms ranging from muscle weakness to paralysis. The disease is one in which the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks the electrical insulation of nerve fibers. The cause is part genetic and part environmental, but researchers trying to identify the relevant genes have endured repeated frustration. Their approach has been to guess what genes might be involved and see if patients have abnormal versions. This guesswork has produced more than 100 candidate genes in recent years, none of which could be confirmed except for...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - After decades of dead ends, scientists have identified two genes that may raise the risk of multiple sclerosis, lending insight into the causes of the debilitating disease. The findings, released in two medical journals on Sunday, represent the first genes conclusively linked to multiple sclerosis in more than 20 years, experts said.

Microsoft Search Share Up Thanks to 'Chicktionary' By Nate Mook, BetaNews July 18, 2007, 12:12 PM After months of diminishing market share in the search industry, Microsoft may have found the answer to competing against Google and Yahoo: Chicktionary. The addictive game, which is available on the Live Search Club site, rewards users with prizes such as software. Microsoft's troubles in the search market date back many years. The company previously utilized Google and Yahoo to handle its search results, not launching its own engine until late 2004. At the time, Microsoft said it would put forth considerable effort and...

SEATTLE — Microsoft Corp. is once again on the defensive against hackers after the launch of a new program that gives average PC users tools to unlock copy-protected digital music and movies. The latest version of the FairUse4M program, which can crack Microsoft's digital rights management system for Windows Media audio and video files, was published online late Friday. In the past year, Microsoft plugged holes exploited by two earlier versions of the program and filed a federal lawsuit against its anonymous authors. Microsoft dropped the lawsuit after failing to identify them. The third version of FairUse4M has a simple...

The new director of the National Hurricane Center, under fire from staff members who wanted him ousted, said Friday that he won't resign and that the disagreements can be resolved. Director Bill Proenza replaced Max Mayfield in January. On Thursday, 23 employees - about half his staff - urged the government to removed him immediately. "We may have some disagreements in the philosophy of making changes at the hurricane center in the future as far as what we want for new capability, new science and technology," Proenza said in a phone interview. "Does that justify removing someone?" The senior...

Voting rights of whites violated in Mississippi county, judge says By Jack Elliott Jr. ASSOCIATED PRESS July 1, 2007 JACKSON, Miss. – A federal judge has ruled that a majority black county in eastern Mississippi violated whites' voting rights in what prosecutors said was the first lawsuit to use the Voting Rights Act on behalf of whites. U.S. District Judge Tom S. Lee ruled late Friday that Noxubee County Democratic Party leader Ike Brown and the county Democratic Executive Committee “manipulated the political process in ways intended and designed to impair and impede participation of white voters and to dilute...

http://www.streamaudio.com/stations/asx/wzzk_fm.asx

Joe Wilcox Joe Wilcox Entomology is one of my passions, but I take a different view of bugs than Microsoft—and not just by kind. The company is once again counting security bugs, and possibly to a fault. There are some things you count and compare, and some things you don't. Security flaws should be in the "don't" category, not that Microsoft seems to get it. For years, the company has used number of flaws as a measure for touting security improvements. Counting is a great security by PR approach, but little more. Today, Jeff Jones, Microsoft's security strategy director, released...

Nobody knows what causes , the nervous system disease that affects more than 400,000 Americans, but new research sheds light on why the body is attacking itself and how to reverse it. Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered how one protein could turn the tide against the degeneration found in the brains of MS patients, and actually reverse some of the worst effects of the disease. The protein - alphaB-crystallin - is not usually found in the brain, but in the lens of the eye. It only develops in the brain in response to nerve cells...

UCI College Republicans say school administrators gave preference to a Muslim Student Union event over theirs. Three members of UC Irvine's College Republicans have filed a complaint with the campus administration, saying that officials unfairly moved their group two weeks ago to make room for a Muslim Student Union event. In a statement filed May 22, students Reut Cohen, Brock Hill and Julian Babbitt said administrators told their club to move its booth on Ring Road during the Muslim Student Union's "Israel: Apartheid Resurrected" event on May 17. The College Republicans, they said, had booked the spot by the administration...

PASS CHRISTIAN, Miss. (AP) — Bishop Thomas J. Rodi says he is deeply saddened by a lawsuit filed by more than 150 members of Holy Family Parish, formerly St. Paul Parish in Pass Christian.The suit, filed May 1, names Rodi, the Diocese of Biloxi and Holy Family pastor the Rev. Dennis Carver as defendants. The bishop's response was published Friday in the Gulf Pine Catholic, the diocese's newspaper, and was reprinted on http://www.sunherald.com.The lawsuit asks the court to compel the diocese to rebuild the church on the beach and get an accounting of donations made to the church after Hurricane...

Testosterone can help protect against brain shrinkage in men with multiple sclerosis (MS), a small, preliminary trial suggests. Patients who applied a gel containing the hormone every day for a year showed less brain shrinkage than expected for people of their age with MS. The study participants also showed an increase in muscle mass over the course of the one-year trial.

HOUSTON --A U.S. citizen accused of working alongside al-Qaida members pleaded guilty Thursday to a charge of receiving training from a foreign terrorist organization, authorities said. During a court hearing, Daniel Joseph Maldonado, 28, a Muslim convert who grew up in New Hampshire and was also known as Daniel Aljughaifi and Abu Mohammed, admitted to traveling in December to a terrorist camp in Somalia, where he was trained to use firearms and explosives in an effort to help the Islamic Courts Union topple the government and install an Islamic state. Members of al-Qaida were present at the camp.

Seeing as the rise of YouTube and Google video has pretty much made Adobe's Flash the de facto standard for web streaming, you'd have to be a fool to try and introduce a browser plugin for a new format. Either a fool, or a company with deep pockets. How deep? Try "This is madness! This is Sparta!" deep. Yeah, it's Microsoft. Their Silverlight plugin, which works not only with IE, but with Safari and Firefox (ha ha, Opera users) and essentially provides a browser plugin that lets everyone stream WMV files like they do with flash files. The improvement upon...

To all Freepers and family members who have MS (multiple sclerosis): how much of the cost of your injectable does your insurance cover, if you use betaseron or copaxane or avonex? I was shocked this year to learn my wife's medicine is now a non-preferred drug and that we pay 30% of the cost, which is $500 a month. Now that's a lot better than paying the full price, but it is still very high. I have always had it covered as a flat co-pay before - say $50. Are there ways to reduce the cost or do I have...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists intrigued by the fact that multiple sclerosis can slip into remission when women are pregnant said on Tuesday a pregnancy-related hormone may offer great promise for treating the neurological disease. Researchers at the University of Calgary said a study involving mice showed that a hormone called prolactin triggers production of myelin, a fatty substance that insulates nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. In multiple sclerosis, the immune system, which normally protects the body, is believed to attack the myelin that coats nerve cells, causing a worsening loss of sensation and movement that can range...

BRANDON, Miss. -- A Brandon woman is working to remove what she calls a symbol of Mississippi's history of racism. The arrest of 71-year-old James Seale on Wednesday in connection with the 1964 kidnappings of two black teenagers grabbed national headlines, serving to some writers as a sign that Mississippi is making amends with a racist past. But Darlene Collier, founder of the Flag Has Got To Go, said Mississippians are too eager to hang on to symbols of that past. Collier created and started selling T-shirts urging people to take down Confederate flags shortly after a 2001 vote failed...

A prolonged bout of intestinal parasites seems to slow the decline of patients with multiple sclerosis, according to a study released today. The results suggest that immune-modulating molecules from parasites could be developed into drugs to ease autoimmune diseases, and that by conquering parasite infections, modern medicine may have inadvertently increased our vulnerability to these illnesses. Autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS) occur far more often in developed countries than in developing countries. And parasitic infections, which have been beaten down in the United States, are still common in South America and elsewhere in the developing world, says neuroimmunologist...

Testimony in the trial of Chicago resident Muhammad Salah and Abdelhaleem al-Ashqar of Northern Virginia, continued yesterday. FBI Agents gave testimony focusing on items found in Ashqar's home during a search of his Oxford Mississippi residence on December 26, 1993, in addition to wiretaps of his phone and fax lines. Special Agent Bradley Benabidez testified that the FBI acquired over 2400 hours of audio during the year that they maintained a wiretap. Benabidez further described the December 1993 search of Ashqar’s home where a team of agents from the FBI photographed over 1600 documents. A few of those documents which...

It's minus 120 degrees and all I'm wearing is a hat and socks. Cryotherapy is the latest treatment for a range of illnesses including arthritis, osteoporosis, and even MS. New Age madness or a genuine medical breakthrough? The airlock door to the cryo-chamber slides open before me. A powerful whoosh of cold air escapes and a few curls of frozen smoke snake out around my legs. It’s like standing in front of a giant refrigerator, but instead of taking out a pint of cold milk I’m about to step inside. The temperature is minus 120 degrees and all I’m wearing...

Charlie Rangel opens his mouth...and mocks the South: (hat tip: reader CRB) “It’s not just committees — our influence within the House Democratic caucus will grow enormously,” Mr. Rangel said in an interview. To that end, he sketched out an expansive federal agenda: Teaming up with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on gun control, passing new tax incentives for urban job programs, and redirecting federal money to New York in return for the outsize tax collections that the federal government makes here. “Mississippi gets more than their fair share back in federal money, but who the hell wants to live in...

Vitamin shots may help protect multiple sclerosis patients from severe long-term disability, a study suggests. Currently, there is no effective treatment for the chronic progressive phase of MS, when serious disability is most likely to appear. Researchers cut the risk of nerve degeneration in mice with MS-type symptoms by giving them a form of vitamin B3 called nicotinamide. The Children's Hospital Boston study appears in the Journal of Neuroscience. MS, which affects about 85,000 people in the UK, is a disease of the central nervous system. It causes the break down of the myelin sheath, a fatty protein, which coats...

LAS VEGAS - Jerry Lewis' annual Labor Day telethon raised a record $61 million to fight muscular dystrophy, bolstered by a huge donation from a group of firefighters and the lack of a major hurricane before the show. "We did good," said Lewis, 80, looking choked up as the final figure, $61,013,855, flashed across the tote board Monday. "I can only thank you from the bottom of my heart for so many little people that can't thank you, can't show their appreciation in any way." Leading the contributors was the International Association of Fire Fighters, which donated a record $23.5...

06/14/06 -- Researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and the University of Calgary have found that stem cells derived from adult skin can create neural cell types that can be transplanted into and function in mouse models of disease. This research is reported in the June 14, 2006 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. SickKids researchers previously discovered what type of cells can be made from these stem cells (called skin-derived precursors, or SKPs) based on the role played by neural-crest stem cells during embryogenesis. In addition to generating the peripheral nervous system, neural crest stem cells generate...

Embryonic stem cells have not cured or successfully treated a single patient. Contrast that with the more than 70 conditions that are treatable using non-embryonic stem cell therapies. One of the hottest debates in bioethics today surrounds research using stem cells taken from either in vitro fertilization or cloned human embryos. From state legislatures and the halls of Congress to the United Nation, the controversy over whether to ban (or fund) such research rages. Human cloning for embryonic stem cell research creates human embryos virtually identical to a patient’s genetic composition. The embryo’s stem cells are then harvested — a...

INVERNESS, Scotland, November 18, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A British teen who has multiple sclerosis now claims she is walking after umbilical cord stem cell therapy she traveled abroad to receive. Wheelchair-bound since 2003, 19 year-old Amanda Bryson told The Herald that she has been walking daily since immediately after her treatment from a private clinic in the Netherlands Friday. Believed to be the only British beneficiary of the umbilical cord stem cell therapy, Bryson said this week, "It sounds shocking, but I could feel the difference after just five minutes. Since the treatment I have been transformed. I am doing...

Adult stem-cell research may lead one day to cures for terminal and debilitating diseases "I hope we will always be guided by both intellect and heart, by both our capabilities and our conscience." -President George W. Bush1 Few areas of scientific study hold as much potential as adult stem-cell research. This research is already generating medical breakthroughs and treatments for debilitating diseases and disabilities, such as spinal cord injuries, sickle cell anemia and Parkinson's. Indeed, scientists laud stem-cell treatments as the "miracle cure" of the 21st century. Unlike so many areas of biotechnology, adult stem cells do not spark a...

OXFORD, Miss. -- A mental evaluation was ordered Thursday for Michael Pruitt, who is accused of kidnapping and shooting a 6-year-old Marshall County girl. During the hearing in Lafayette County Circuit Court, defense attorney John L. Dolan asked that the issue of bond be taken up at a later date. Dolan also requested a mental evaluation for Pruitt and Asst. Dist. Atty. Lelani Hill agreed to the request. Pruitt will remain in jail until the mental evaluation can be scheduled, officials said. "Due to the nature of the charges, the state does not have any objections," Hill told Circuit Judge...