10 facts about 10 new members of Congress

Which new member of the House is a former reindeer farmer? Who is the biggest new tea party name in the Senate? Here’s a look at 10 new members of Congress with unique backgrounds.

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The 113thCongress is sworn in on January 3, 2013, and it’s a diverse bunch.
There will be 90 new members of Congress to start the New Year, with 13 new senators and 67 representatives making their appearances in Washington.
The biggest names are in the Senate, with a superstar of the left and of the right getting top billing.
Elizabeth Warren defeated Scott Brown in Massachusetts in one of the most publicized races in 2012. Warren is seen as a new leader of the left, but the former Harvard Law professor was a Republican until 1995.
Ted Cruz is already being talked about as a 2016 presidential contender, even before he sets foot on the Senate floor. The Republican from Texas has tea party roots. He has also argued nine cases in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin is another high-profile name from the 2012 election making her Senate debut. Baldwin served 14 years in the House and is the first openly gay candidate elected to the Senate.
Maine’s new senator, Angus King, isn’t a Democrat or a Republican. King is a former governor who ran as an independent candidate in 2012. Since the 1980s, King has been involved with alternative energy products.
And Deb Fischer, the new senator for Nebraska, has a hands-on business background. She’s been in the ranching business since the 1970s, which could come in handy if votes need to be wrangled on the Senate floor.
The House has some interesting new members, including that professional reindeer farmer.
Kerry Bentivolio from Michigan is a newcomer to politics. Yes, he has reindeer and has worked as a Santa Claus portrayer, as well as a school teacher and engineer. He replaces Thaddeus McCotter in the House.
A better-known name is Joseph P. Kennedy III of Massachusetts. Just 32 years of age, Kennedy is the son of Joseph P. Kennedy II and the grandson of Robert Kennedy. He will represent Massachusetts’ 4th Congressional District.
Florida’s Ted Yoho will represent the state’s 3rd District in Congress. Yoho’s career prior to politics was being a large-animal veterinarian. He used a grassroots campaign to defeat incumbent Cliff Stearns in a primary.
And there will be two doctors in the House–literally. Dr. Ami Bera will represent California’s 7th District. He is the former chief medical officer for Sacramento County. Raul Ruiz, also of California, has three graduate degrees from Harvard and has worked as an E.R. doctor in the past.

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Factbox: Key players in scramble to avoid U.S. "fiscal cliff"

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The outcome of the "fiscal cliff" debate will be decided in four days, with just a handful of powerful leaders in Washington calling the shots, for better or for worse.
Here are some of the politicians and administration figures who are involved in trying to head off the tax increases and federal spending cuts that will take hold in January unless Congress acts, possibly pushing the economy into recession.
* Barack Obama, Democratic president: Reelected last month, the former Democratic U.S. senator from Illinois campaigned on the need to raise taxes on high-income Americans. He has insisted on this through the "fiscal cliff" negotiations with Republicans. But he offered them a compromise last week on setting the income threshold for tax increases at a higher level than he had initially sought. This offer was spurned.
* John Boehner, Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives: Capitol Hill veteran from Ohio. Struggles to control conservative Republicans from the Tea Party movement. Walked out of talks with Obama last week and vowed that the House would pass its own plan to avoid the "fiscal cliff." That effort collapsed in disarray. Boehner adjourned the House for the holidays and has not returned. The House was expected to reconvene on Sunday.
* Joseph Biden, Democratic vice president: Played key role in forging the 2010 deal to extend Bush-era tax cuts for two years after the Republican takeover of the House.
* Max Baucus, Democratic U.S. senator from Montana: Powerful chairman of tax-focused Senate Finance Committee. Will cross party lines for a deal. May be vulnerable in a 2014 re-election race.
* Dave Camp, Republican U.S. representative from Michigan: Chairs tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee until 2014. Gets along with Baucus. Has a tax plan of his own.
* Tim Geithner, Treasury secretary: Expected to step down soon, he is the architect of the Obama administration's fiscal policy. Took steps this week to postpone the arrival until sometime in February of U.S. government borrowing limit.
* Orrin Hatch, U.S. senator from Utah: Top Republican on Senate Finance Committee. Conservative but has worked with Democrats.
* Mitch McConnell, top Senate Republican: Worked with Biden on extending Bush tax cuts in 2010. Up for re-election in 2014 and faces scrutiny of Tea Party faction at home in Kentucky.
* Grover Norquist, activist: Heads the Americans for Tax Reform group. Almost every Republican in Congress has signed his group's "no new taxes" pledge, but its power may be fading.
* Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic leader: California representative and Obama ally. Powerful among liberal Democrats.
* Harry Reid, Senate Democratic leader: Blunt Utah power-broker and dealmaker. Must balance liberal and conservative factions, with many fellow Democrats up for re-election in 2014.
* Paul Ryan, Republican vice presidential nominee in the 2012 election and House Budget committee chairman: Wisconsin representative known for controversial budget proposals.

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Curtain rises in 2013 on final act in soap opera over new arena for Oilers

EDMONTON - It started out as a sports arena but has become Edmonton's longest running soap opera.
A cost-shared deal between the hockey-mad city and the Edmonton Oilers to build a palatial downtown rink for the NHL team went from deal to no-deal to possible deal in 2012, with all sides now agreeing a final resolution — one way or the other — must come early in 2013.
It has been a series of setbacks and cliff-hangers enough to turn gung-ho glass-half-full Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel into a head-shaking fatalist.
"This is the last kick at the cat, more or less," said Mandel after the city and Oilers owner Daryl Katz agreed Dec. 12 to resume one last round of talks, with the help of a mediator.
"We'll see if anything happens from it.
"I'm not sure (of a solution) any more than I was before. I think there's a long row to hoe."
Local hockey fans can be excused for rolling their eyes following four years of fuzzy numbers, shifting statements, apologies, bluster, brinkmanship and revisionist history.
It was a deal everyone thought was done in October 2011, but it fell apart a year later when Katz demanded an extra $6 million a year from taxpayers along with a promise that the city ignore its own tendering rules and move its staff in as the anchor tenant in a proposed Katz office tower.
"It's wrong to hold us up for ransom," said Mandel on Oct. 17 when council formally voted to walk away from the deal to build the $478-million rink.
If the debate has become melodrama, then the mercurial, spectral Katz (pronounced CATES) is in the starring role.
The 51-year old pharmacy billionaire and owner of the Rexall chain of stores has been a polarizing figure since he bought the Oilers in 2008 and began stumping for a new downtown arena to replace aging Rexall Place, in the city's industrial north end.
The mop-topped magnate and philanthropist has been hard to pin down.
Interviews with journalists are rare and requests from many agencies, including The Canadian Press, have been rebuffed. Katz statements are largely restricted to email fan-outs or answers to sympathetic questions from a Katz staffer in broadcast interviews.
He has shown an understanding that celebrity is currency, carefully doling out biographical details in uncontextualized snippets, leaving fans to speculate about his true intentions, values and aims.
When he bought the Oilers in 2008, he cast himself as Katz the Visionary, the hometown boy who grew up an Oilers fan now handed a chance to give back.
"I don't know if I would have had the same enthusiasm (to buy the team) but for the opportunity to build a new arena and to revitalize downtown," Katz said at the time.
"Somebody had to step up."
When negotiations dragged on over the next three years, Katz cast himself as Gordon Gecko, moviedeom's pitiless Wall Street moneyman.
"Hockey is not philanthropy," he opined to The Globe and Mail in July 2012 in an interview beneath the nine-metre-tall windows of the living room in his mansion overlooking Edmonton's river valley.
"This is a business. Capital is portable."
As public opinion turned against Katz last fall as he asked for millions of dollars more from the public, Gordon Gecko was replaced by Katz the Crazy Dreamer, a put-upon family man just trying to help his community against his better business judgment.
"God knows I've spent enough money (on the arena project)," he told The Edmonton Journal in September.
"You know my wife thinks I'm nuts, OK?"
In the same interview he cast himself as Katz the Martyr, pilloried by critics despite rescuing the team from crisis, ruin and possible relocation.
"I bought the Oilers because the EIG (Edmonton Investors Group) was fractured and Edmonton's ability to keep the team was at risk," he said.
Reports at the time, however, described the chaos as more of a self-fulfilling prophecy after Katz made an escalating series of uninvited share offers that ultimately fractured the ownership group between those who wanted to cash in and those who wanted to stick it out.
Katz has also bounced between bluster and apology.
In late September, he threatened to move the team to Seattle, but then he later said sorry in newspaper ads after getting vitriolic blowback from fans on the Internet and in the media.
He has also demonstrated a tin ear for politics.
When city council demanded last fall that he appear before them in public to explain why he wanted millions of dollars more, he twice refused them and, for good measure, publicly scolded them for failing to show "political leadership."
At the next meeting on Oct. 17 — when the politicians canned the deal — councillor Jane Batty sarcastically thanked Mandel for finally showing "political leadership."
Both sides agree money is the stumbling block and have agreed to let a third party examine each side's financial projections.
It's still a fuzzy area because the Oilers, as per the norm with professional sports franchises, refuse to open their books.
The result has been a debate about numbers without the numbers. Independent forecasters estimate the Oilers are making millions of dollars a year. The Oilers say they're bleeding buckets of red ink.
Mandel said he still believes the Oilers are getting a good deal on the rink, which ultimately would cost more than $700 million when land costs and other related infrastructure kicked in.
Under the deal, taxpayers and ticket-buyers would build the facility. The city would own it and try to recoup the cost by extra property taxes from new office towers, restaurants and condos to be built up around the 18,400-seat facility.
In return, the Oilers would pay to run and maintain the facility for 35 years (estimated at $10 million a year) in addition to an annual $5.5-million payment to the city.
The team would keep all food and ticket revenue from Oiler games and other events at the arena for 11 months out of the year. Katz would also get naming rights (worth $1 million a year or more) and $2 million in advertising from the city for each of the first 10 years.
Katz says in recent months he has had a second look at the deal and insists it needs to be changed.
On Dec. 12, Katz negotiator John Karvellas told council there's no guarantee Alberta's petro-powered economy will stay strong, adding there's concern that out-of-towners may not want to drive downtown to a hockey game.
"We learned (from research) that the shine wears off a new arena in a hurry," said Karvellas.
He said while Oilers will no longer insist on a $6-million a year subsidy, any extra revenue from taxes should go into a fund for the team.
How is that not a subsidy? asked Counillor Amarjeet Sohi.
"I understand that if it walks like a duck, talk or quacks like a duck, then it's a duck, replied Karvellas.
"But I don't think this is a duck."
While the duck is debatable, there remains a $100-million elephant in the room.
Even if the two sides come to agreement, they still need to pry that nine-figure sum out of Premier Alison Redford's provincial government to fully fund the deal.
It's a problem that became more problematic in October when election documents showed Katz, his family, and business associates donated an eye-popping $430,000 to Redford's Progressive Conservatives in the spring 2012 election campaign.
Katz has never spoken about it. Redford maintains, as the Tory government has for years, that there will be no direct subsidy to the arena.
Karvellas, when asked about his contribution, said it was for good government, nothing more, nothing less.
Mandel is now trying to de-Katzify the debate, insisting the issue is not about personalities but about a new rink that all of northern Alberta can enjoy.
Redford's opponents, nevertheless, are poised to pounce on any perceived favouritism for Katz.
The NDP says the help has already begun.
Under provincial funding rules, health clinics can charge the province $10 for every flu shot. But in October NDP leader Brian Mason pointed out that new rules from Redford that kicked in after the election now allow pharmacies like Rexall to deliver the same flu shot at twice the price.
Critics say the $100-million shoe has yet to fall but have two words for taxpayers: Stay tuned.

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The 9 worst political gaffes of 2012

In an election season riddled with gaffes, flubs, and verbal miscues, here are the lowlights
The arguably most damaging verbal flub of the 2012 election season — Mitt Romney's covertly recorded comments to wealthy donors that 47 percent of Americans are government-addicted moochers — wasn't even a classic inadvertent gaffe: He meant to say it, and even revisited the theme after he lost the presidential race, griping that President Obama won re-election by handing out "gifts" to young, minority, and female voters. But gaffes of a more traditional nature played an unusually active role in the 2012 election — starting long before the calendar flipped to 2012 — helping define Romney as an out-of-touch plutocrat and Vice President Joe Biden as a buffoon, and very possibly costing Republicans control of the Senate. Here, nine of the most consequential political gaffes of 2012:
1. A key Romney adviser forecasts an "Etch-a-Sketch" moment
On March 21, just as Romney was on the verge of wrapping up the Republican nomination, top adviser Eric Fehnstrom went on CNN and seemed to celebrate Romney's reputation for opportunistic flip-flopping. Asked if the primaries hadn't pushed Romney too far to the Right, Fenhstrom answered: "Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It's almost like an Etch-A-Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again." The Etch-a-Sketch imagery haunted Romney the rest of the campaign (although he very skillfully did "shake it up and start all over again" in his first debate against Obama).
SEE MORE: Democrats hold the Senate: What it means

2. Senate hopeful Todd Akin mangles "legitimate rape" and biology
Republicans had justifiably high hopes of seizing control of the Senate in November, but the wheels started coming off on Aug. 19, when Todd Akin, a Missouri Republican facing vulnerable incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill (D), was asked about his opposition to all abortions, including those conducted after cases of rape. He memorably told the local TV interviewer that pregnancy from rape is "really rare," because "if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." His poll numbers sank and never recovered, and McCaskill won re-election.
SEE MORE: The failed 'war on women': 5 big election victories for women

3. Senate hopeful Richard Mourdock says rape babies are "what God intended"
After Akin's blunder, other Republicans with similar hardline view on abortion started getting the rape question. Richard Mourdock, who defeated shoo-in GOP incumbent Sen. Richard Lugar in Indiana's Republican primary, was so queried at an Oct. 23 debate against Democratic challenger Rep. Joe Donnelly. It didn't go well. Mourdock said that, after struggling with the rape-abortion question for a long time, "I came to realize that life is that gift from God. And, I think, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen." His slim lead disappeared in the polls, and, with it, any hope the GOP had of retaking the Senate. Donnelly won.
SEE MORE: Secession threats, aggravated assault, and more overreactions to the election [Updated]

4. Romney says he's "not concerned about the very poor"
The Republican presidential nominee had his own share of gaffes on the campaign trail, many of them tied to his seeming inability to artfully answer questions relating to his massive wealth. So his consultants must have been "gnashing their teeth," said Washington Monthly's Ed Kilgore, when in a Feb. 1 interview on CNN, Romney told Soledad O'Brien, "I'm not concerned about the very poor." He added, "we have a safety net" for the poor, and he wasn't worried about the very rich, either. Still, said Kilgore, presciently, "it's this tone-deafness that makes a lot of Republicans nervous about Mitt Romney as a general-election candidate."
SEE MORE: The multibillion-dollar 2012 election: By the numbers

5. Romney likes "being able to fire people"
On Jan. 9, as he was facing intra-Republican fire over job losses at companies taken over by his former company, Bain Capital, Romney chose an unfortunate way to describe his prescription for health insurance reform. Your insurer should be determined by your job, he said, so "if you don't like what they do, you could fire them. I like being able to fire people who provide services to me." The "I like being able to fire people" part of that quote, combined with the satisfaction on his face when he said it, helped perpetuate an image of Romney as a heartless capitalist out of touch with average Americans.
SEE MORE: The funniest tweets from Election Night 2012

6. Joe Biden suggests Obama has "buried the middle class"
The vice president stuck his foot in his mouth, possibly admitted an awkward truth, and certainly did no favors to Obama at an Oct. 2 campaign rally in Charlotte, N.C. Explaining why Romney's plan to cut taxes on the rich would burden the middle class, Biden said: "How they can justify — how they can justify raising taxes on the middle class that's been buried the last four years. How in Lord's name can they justify raising their taxes with these tax cuts?" The problem, of course, is that Obama has been president for most of the past four years. Coincidentally or not, Obama didn't win North Carolina.
SEE MORE: Recall-mania: Why American voters are increasingly eager to oust lawmakers

7. Romney trash-talks the London Olympics... in London
Romney's résumé includes an impressive stint turning around the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002, but includes very little foreign-policy experience. To boost his international credentials, he visited some of America's closest allies — Britain, Israel, and Poland — during a week-long trip in July. Things got off to a rocky start in London when he unintentionally lobbed a number of minor insults at our former colonial overlords. The most damaging was his questioning of how prepared London was to host the summer Olympics, saying he saw several "disconcerting" signs. That earned him public rebukes from Prime Minister David Cameron and London Mayor Boris Johnson, both Conservatives, and some pointed ribbing from Obama in the October debates.
SEE MORE: Is Puerto Rico on the verge of becoming the 51st state?

8. Obama tells Russia he'll have "more flexibility" after the election
The president wasn't entirely gaffe-free during the campaign. The indiscretion that haunted him the longest was a dreaded hot-mic comment he made to then–Russian President Dmitri Medvedev at a March 26 summit in South Korea. Obama and Medvedev — who was about to switch jobs with then–Prime Minister Vladimir Putin — were discussing a number of issues, including a U.S. missile defense plan to which Russia objects. "Give me space," Obama said, unaware his microphone was on. "This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility" to deal with missile defense." Romney pounced, saying Obama is "telling us one thing and doing something else." He added, "I don't think he can recover from it." (He did, though Republicans brought it up for the rest of the campaign.)
SEE MORE: Virginia Senate race: First reactions to Democrat Tim Kaine's victory

9. Karl Rove challenges Fox's election-night math
This one isn't so much a gaffe as a general-purpose blunder. Rove, who became a Fox News commentator and Wall Street Journal columnist after George W. Bush's presidency, played a prominent role in Fox's 2012 election-night coverage. When the network's decision desk called Ohio for Obama, sealing his re-election, Rove disagreed passionately, arguing that it was too soon to call the state. This led host Megyn Kelly to walk down the hall to discuss the Ohio call with Fox's vote tabulators, and an embarrassing detour into partisanship for the GOP-leaning network. The dispute was a hit to Rove's stature and his pocketbook — Fox benched him after the election (at least for a spell).

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Best of 2012: The Year of Comedy, Citizens United, Health Care Competition, and Trolls

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
Red lights illuminate Pennsylvania Avenue as the U.S. Capitol glows in the twilight, in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012, as talks continue on the looming fiscal cliff.
The Political Landscape is a weekly conversation with National Journal writers, editors, and outside experts on the news of the day.
2012 was a year of ineffable change domestically and abroad. At home: historic elections, a shifting demographic, evolving technologies, and tragic shootings. Abroad: political upheaval and unrest across the Middle East, changing U.S. military strategies, and the threat of a nuclear-capable Iran.
On this week's episode, we focus on the domestic issues covered by Political Landscape in 2012. We'll play back the highlights from some of the best interviews of the year. If you'd like to skip around to different topics, note the timestamps below. They represent when each topic comes up on this week's episode.
We investigated the impact of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision on the 2012 election. (2:20-6:58)
We examined Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's jobs plan. (6:58-11:07)
We dug into the advanced data-mining techniques used by both presidential campaigns. (11:07-15:47)
We explored the ways the presidential candidates were strategically using (or not using) comedic appearances to curry favor with voters. (32:08-35:49)
After Election Day, we spun the story forward.
We discussed the ramifications of results up and down the ballot. (15:47-20:57)
We talked about the coming changes for health care policy (20:57-26:20), net neutrality (26:20-32:08), and gun control.

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Long-lived bats offer clues on diseases, aging

The bat, a reservoir for viruses like Ebola, SARS and Nipah, has for decades stumped scientists trying to figure out how it is immune to many deadly bugs but a recent study into its genes may finally shed some light, scientists said on Friday.
Studying the DNA of two distant bat species, the scientists discovered how genes dealing with the bats' immune system had undergone the most rapid change.
This may explain why they are relatively free of disease and live exceptionally long lives compared with other mammals of similar size, such as the rat, said Professor Lin-Fa Wang, an infectious disease expert at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore who led the multi-centre study.
"We are not saying bats never get sick or never get infections. What we are saying is they handle infections a lot better," Wang said in a telephone interview.
What was missing from both species of bats was a gene segment known to trigger extreme, and potentially fatal, immune reactions to infections, called the cytokine storm.
Cytokine storms end up killing not only offending viruses in the body, but the host's own cells and tissues too.
"Viruses rarely kill the host. The killing comes from the host's immune response. So it looks like what bats are doing is depress the inflammation (cytokine storm). If we can learn that, we can design drugs to minimize the inflammation damage and control viral infection," Wang said.
The study, which saw the participation of researchers from China, Denmark, Australia and the United States, was published on Friday in the journal Science.
Compared with other mammals of similar size, bats live a long time, with lifespans of between 20 and 40 years. Rats live between 2 and 3 years, on average.
IMMUNE GENES LINKED TO FLIGHT
Interestingly, Wang and his colleagues found that the highly evolved genes that give bats their superior immune system also enable them to fly.
Out of more than 5,000 types of mammals on the planet, bats are the only one capable of sustained flight and some species can fly more than 1,000 km in a single night.
Such intense physical exertion is known to produce toxic "free radicals" that cause tissue damage and it is these same genes that give the bat the ability to repair itself, Wang said.
"What we found was the genes that evolved fastest were genes involved in repairing DNA damage. That makes sense ... because when you fly, metabolism goes up and it generates free radicals that are toxic to cells," Wang said.
"Because bats fly, they (would have had) to evolve and adapt ... to get genes that can repair DNA damage."
Wang said we have much to learn from the bat, which has evolved to avoid disease and live exceptionally long lives.
"Cancer, ageing and infectious disease, these are the three major areas of concern for people," he said.
"We have studied rats for 150 years to understand how to do better in these three areas. Now we have a system, the bat, that has done very well in evolution. We can learn from the bat. With modern techniques, we can design new drugs to slow down the ageing process, treat cancer, fight infections.

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Spectrum Pharma's blood cancer drug meets goal in mid-stage trial

 Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc said a mid-stage trial of its experimental blood cancer drug met the main goal of shrinking tumors.
The drug, belinostat, was tested in patients with relapsed/refractory peripheral T-Cell (PTCL) lymphoma, who have failed at least one therapy.
The biotechnology company said it expects to file a marketing application with U.S. health regulators by mid-2013, and expects a review date in 2014.
Belinostat was granted orphan-drug status and fast-track status by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for PTCL.
Spectrum's shares, which have fallen about 22 percent in the last year, closed at $11.30 on the Nasdaq on Thursday.

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Perennial Flu Vaccine Gets Closer

Every fall, you need a new flu shot. That's because today's vaccines train your immune system to recognize specific strains of flu—identified by two proteins on the virus's coat: hemagglutinin and neuraminidase. That's where the 'H' and 'N' come from in H1N1.
Problem is, those proteins are a moving target—they mutate quickly. Once they do, your immune system can't recognize them. And you've got something like the 2009 swine flu, a strain the flu shot never primed us to fight.
To make a more universal vaccine that would work year after year, researchers focused on a smaller, more stable protein called M2. In human strains, the protein has hardly changed since the 1930s.
Researchers engineered an M2 vaccine, and gave it to mice. Then they exposed the mice to lethal doses of human, swine and bird flus. All the vaccinated mice survived—their unlucky counterparts did not. The research appears in the journal Molecular Therapy. [Min-Chul Kim et al., Viruslike particles containing multiple M2 extracellular domains confer improved cross protection against various subtypes of influenza virus]
A good seasonal flu vaccine will still beat the M2 vaccine. But if the M2 gives us insurance against a surprise strain, well, it might be worth a shot.

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Spectrum Pharma's blood cancer drug meets trial goal

 Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc said a mid-stage trial of its experimental blood cancer drug met the main goal of reducing the size of tumors.
The biotechnology company's shares, which have fallen about 22 percent over the past 12 months, were up about 3 percent at $11.60 in morning trade on the Nasdaq and touched a high of $11.75 .
The drug, belinostat, was tested in patients with relapsed or refractory peripheral T-Cell lymphoma (PTCL), and who had failed to respond to at least one therapy.
The company said it expects to file a marketing application with U.S. health regulators by mid-2013, and expects a review date in 2014.
The trial was conducted under a special protocol assessment that provides a company with a written agreement that the design of the study and analysis of the data are adequate to support a marketing application with the U.S. health regulator.
Spectrum markets another drug to treat PTCL, named Folotyn, which it obtained as part of its acquisition of cancer drugmaker Allos Therapeutics earlier this year.
MLV & Co analyst George Zavoico said Folotyn and belinostat have different mechanisms of action, and having two drugs for the same indication could be useful in cases of relapsed patients who develop resistance to one of them.
PTCL consists of a group of aggressive blood cancers that develop from T-cells, a class of white blood cells.

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Mother loses UK legal fight to stop son's cancer radiotherapy

LONDON (Reuters) - A mother in Britain, who was so desperate to stop her cancer-stricken son having to undergo conventional medical treatment that she went into hiding with him, lost a court battle on Friday to prevent him receiving radiotherapy.
The case of Sally Roberts, 37, a New Zealander living in Brighton, southern England, and the plight of her seven-year-old son has made headlines in Britain.
Roberts wants to try alternative treatments first, including immunotherapy and photodynamic therapy for her son Neon. She has been told the boy needs treatment fast but fears the side-effects of conventional medicine.
Doctors treating the boy had warned that without radiotherapy he could die within three months
Judge David Bodey told the High Court in London the life-saving radiotherapy treatment could start against the mother's wishes, the Press Association reported.
"The mother has been through a terrible time. This sort of thing is every parent's nightmare," the judge said.
"But I am worried that her judgment has gone awry on the question of the seriousness of the threat which Neon faces."
The story of the sick blue-eyed blonde boy came to public attention earlier this month when Roberts prompted a nationwide police hunt by going into hiding with Neon for four days to stop him from undergoing the treatment.
The mother's relentless battle in court also cast a light on the dilemmas parents can face when dealing with the illness of a loved one, considering the short-term and long-term risks of a treatment and handling conflicting medical information available at the click of a mouse.
Roberts said in court she had researched on the Internet her son's condition - a fast-growing, high-grade brain tumor called medulloblastoma - and sought advice from specialists around the world because she did not trust British experts.
She feared radiotherapy would stunt the boy's growth, reduce his IQ, damage his thyroid and potentially leave him infertile.
Earlier this week, a judge ruled that Neon could undergo emergency surgery to remove a tumor which had resisted an initial operation in October, despite opposition from his mother, who found he appeared to be recovering after what she said was a "heartbreaking" stay in hospital.
"EXPERIMENTAL AND UNPROVEN"
Surgeons said Neon's operation on Wednesday had been successful but that radiotherapy was needed to ensure no residual tumor was left behind.
Neon's father Ben, who lives in London and is separated from Roberts, has sided with his son's doctors.
But his wife suggested exploring several alternative treatments, including immunotherapy, which mainly consists of stimulating the body's immune system to fight cancerous cells, and photodynamic therapy, which uses a photosensitizing agent and a source of light to kill malignant cells.
The hospital treating Neon slammed "experimental and unproven" methods which entered "unchartered territory". The hospital, which cannot be named, also questioned the credentials of some of the private specialists contacted by Roberts's team.
The court heard that at least one of these could not even correctly spell medulloblastoma.
Radiotherapy is used to prevent cancer from spreading or striking back after surgery but it can damage nerve tissue and healthy brain cells.
Long-term side effects tend to be more common in children, whose nervous systems are still developing.

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Do Baby Boomers Resent Their Children?

When new research came out recently about 20-somethings' financial struggles, the survey also revealed some encouraging news: Not only are members of Gen Y optimistic about their future, but older Americans--Gen Y's parents and grandparents--agreed that young people today have it rough. That kind of cross-generational solidarity suggests a mutual understanding and support network that Gen Yers desperately need to get on their feet.

After all, some experts have found that help from family members, in the form of emotional support or financial assistance, can make the difference between falling further behind and finding a way to move forward. Luckily, many of today's 20-somethings benefit from so-called "helicopter parenting" and continued closeness with their parents--one reason why at least 1 in 4 feel comfortable enough to move back home after college graduation.

But the comments left by readers in response to our recent articles on the subject suggest that a far stormier relationship might be lurking beneath those cheery survey findings. Comments left by older Americans are often full of resentment toward the younger generation, describing them as spoiled brats who don't know how to be frugal and lack any appreciation for what's been given to them.

In response to the finding that half of young adults have taken jobs they don't want in order to pay bills, a commenter calling himself "old unemployed guy" wrote, "The shock! The horror! It's called being a grown up and it really sucks. Fortunately there is a support group that meets at the corner bar every night."

Another commenter wrote, "The problem with Generation Y is that they're[sic] idiotic enough to believe government can fix the economy." Another focused on student-loan debt and argued that young people should not complain about having so much of it. Rick of Texas wrote, "We worked our way through school, and graduated without debt. I have two sons, and both worked their way through school. If you built up debt going through school, you have to pay it off."

A commenter calling herself Kathryn also disagreed with the premise that young people have it harder today. "Things are no harder now, than [they were] in their grandparents' generation. They just want more, and sooner. They see the house the earlier generations have, and automatically think that is what they should have," she wrote.

The harsh words also flowed in the other direction. A younger American, calling himself Danny of New York, wrote, "I am really tired of older Americans trying to talk about how younger Americans are stupid? The economy is crap, not because of us but because of you."

Another story that profiled a young man surviving on $20,000 a year drew similar ire from older commenters. They wrote that it was irresponsible to live without health insurance and that he was too young to understand how hard life would become once he also had a family to support.

These commenters raise questions about how older and younger Americans are truly getting along. We might be living together more than in the past, and be more involved in each other's daily decisions and lives, but do we like each other? What explains this intergenerational anger? Do older Americans resent younger ones, and if so, why? Does either generation really have it "better" than the other?

The unfortunate truth might be that the economy has made it harder for everyone--young and old--to feel good about their financial state. And that frustration easily pours out into angry comments.

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How to Communicate with Younger Colleagues

In today's workforce, baby boomers constantly interact with younger co-workers  and managers. These younger workers have been raised in a generation of social media, with connectivity always and everywhere. Individuals constantly update their status and current events via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, texting, and other technologies. If anything new or unexpected occurs, friends are notified immediately. This tendency to constantly update and make on-the-fly changes sometimes leads to reluctance to meet commitments for meetings and appointments.

When baby boomers were young, our technology was pretty basic. We called each other from a land line, mail was in written form and took days to arrive, and "being connected" meant you knew people, rather than were accessible 24/7. Making plans required planning in advance, and last-minute changes happened only for emergencies. Our lives may have seemed less flexible, but we generally met commitments and arrived on time.

With the advent of today's smart phones, people are perpetually connected. Why worry about making changes in advance when, with a quick text, plans are easily altered at the last moment. It is a new way of thinking. Being late has become acceptable as long as you warn your companion before the actual hour ticks by. Fewer people feel obligated to honor specific time commitments since they can quickly make changes on the fly. Without feeling a need to stick to a scheduled event, a mindset develops that accepts last-minute changes as the norm, often frustrating those patiently waiting at the other end.

Have you had the experience of arriving on time only to receive a last minute message that "plans have changed" as your young friend lays out an alternative agenda? Some young people make on-again, off-again arrangements for a visit which changes multiple times until the very last minute. I have learned to write in pencil on my calendar and believe the kids are coming only when they physically walk through the front door.

Another concern is the incredible distraction that perpetual connectivity encourages. Everywhere you go people are using smart phones to communicate and update their status. Lunches are interrupted, conversations misunderstood, and attention is diverted from where it should be directed. Not only does it give the impression that those on the other end are more important than the person you are currently engaged with, but it can be dangerous. Every day I see people texting while driving. There is a time and a place for connectivity. A balance needs to be maintained if we are to best interact with each other.

Respect for each other's time and busy life is a basic tenant of living and working together harmoniously. Calendars are typically packed with events for the weeks and months ahead as we carefully monitor and balance free time with our obligations. We count on others to be there when they say, and that most changes will be made in advance.

This new lifestyle with instant access everywhere is not a bad thing. It is a powerful technology with broad applications that can be more effective if better controlled and managed. Baby boomers should attempt to understand that this is how the younger generation operates and adapt accordingly. If you have an appointment, reconfirm as the date gets closer. If you experience a last-minute change of plans, don't get angry. At least you were made aware of the delay and understand what is happening, rather than wondering what is up. Feel free to inform others that you are a bit of a stickler when it comes to being on time, but realize that you may be in the minority. Since it appears that perpetual connectivity is here to stay, a little tolerance can go a long way.

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Aging in America Conference Attendees Told Who Will 'Transform Aging'

Aging in America 2012 Conference

The conference is held each year to allow those interested in aging and older adults to come together to talk, learn and advocate for their various agencies, businesses and institutions, as explained in the conference introduction. Three thousand attendees were expected for the event. With 80 million Americans reaching age 65 from 2011 to 2029, all aspects of American life will be affected, just as they have been throughout the lifetimes of the baby boomer generation.

Putting Effects of Baby Boomer Aging into Perspective

Ken Dychtwald, CEO of AgeWave and noted gerontologist, was one of the panel of presenters at the conference. Dychtwald said just as hospitals, pediatricians, schools and other institutions were strained by the volume of those people born from 1946 to 1964, so it is with health care and geriatric medicine today, according to the Huffington Post.

Solutions for Dealing with Aging and the Future

Baby boomers have done more than strain institutions and budgets throughout the decades. As Dychtwald stated, "Anyone who thinks (the boomers) will turn 65 and be the same as the generation before are missing out on the last 60 years of sociology. The boomers change every stage of life through which they migrate."

Rhonda Randall, chief medical officer of United Healthcare, said the single biggest factor driving the cost of health care upward is the care required for chronic diseases. Preventive care is becoming increasingly important -- and covered -- by health insurance providers.

Scripps Howard columnist Ann McFeatter reported Dychtwald's proposed solutions for the future in CrescentNews.com: Americans need to take control of their health by avoiding unhealthy lifestyle choices such as smoking and becoming/remaining overweight; more funding is needed for scientific research to eliminate, control and cure diseases affecting older adults; and more health care professionals need to be better versed in health and lifestyle issues associated with aging.

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One Big Reason Not to Rush into Early Retirement

 You might want to think twice about retiring early.  That’s because, new research has shown a link between early retirement and premature death.

Research by Andreas Kuhn, Jean-Philippe Wuellrich and Josef Zweimüller found that men, in particular, had an increased risk of death before age 67 when they retired early. To prove this, the researchers looked at a group of blue-collar workers from Austria, born between 1929 and 1941.

"We find that a reduction in the retirement age causes a significant increase in the risk of premature death for males, but not for females," the research said. "The effect for males is not only statistically significant but also quantitatively important. According to our estimates, one additional year of early retirement causes an increase in the risk of premature death of 2.4 percentage points (a relative increase of about 13.4 percent, or 1.8 months in terms of years of life lost)."

[10 Easy Paths to Self Destruction]

According to the research, this can be attributed to negative health habits of people during retirement.  These habits, which include smoking, drinking, unhealthy diet and limited exercise, contribute to 78 percent of casual retirement deaths, while smoking and drinking alone result in 32 percent of casual retirement deaths.

"Our results also suggest that preventive health policies should be targeted to (early) retirees," the research said. "Policies that induce individuals to adopt healthy (or avoid unhealthy) behaviors may have disproportionately positive health consequences for workers who (are about to) permanently withdraw from the labor market."

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10 Great Opportunities for Older Volunteers

If you have time and an interest in volunteering, you can literally create your own program. Aided by Internet sites that match needs and volunteers, along with other do-it-yourself online tools, boomers are rewriting the book on how volunteering works.

[See Top 10 U.S. Places for Healthcare.]

AARP has kicked off a large volunteer effort through its "Create the Good" program and website. "People want more flexibility in their volunteering," says Barb Quaintance, AARP senior vice president for volunteer and civic engagement. There is a preference for self-directed volunteer efforts: More than half of all boomers select this approach, according to AARP, as it allows them to satisfy their needs as well as those of the recipients they help.

Americans' willingness to volunteer has been steadily increasing, according to a survey from the government's Corporation for National & Community Service, which oversees the Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and related volunteering programs. Across different age groups, the rate of volunteering has grown dramatically. More than 26.5 percent of adults ages 45 to 64 volunteer, the corporation says, up from 22 percent 20 years ago. For older volunteers, the rate has increased during the same period, from 17 percent to more than 28 percent. In 2010, 21.9 million baby boomers dedicated 2.9 billion hours of service to communities throughout the country, most often with a religious institution--the most popular organizations through which this age group volunteers.

"The baby boomer generation is the largest, healthiest, and most educated generation in history," says Robert Velasco, II, acting CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). "While a large portion of older adults volunteer, it's crucial to not place them in the same category. Seniors aren't monolithic," he says. "All of them want to make a difference, but I think they may want to make a difference in different ways."

At the younger end of the senior age spectrum are people who are still working or have recently retired. They might have a preference for skills-based volunteering, in which they can put their career skills to work in volunteer settings. Funding cutbacks during the recession have increased the needs of nonprofits, he notes. Accountants are needed to work on agency finances. Social workers are needed to work with children and at-risk populations. Various nonprofits may need a range of skilled tradespeople--plumbers, electricians, and the like.

[See AARP Moves to Protect Social Security and Medicare.]

But it's the wave of younger volunteers that is changing the model. "There's a whole new world of volunteering," Quaintance says. In some cases, volunteers' demand for flexibility and control has been hard for nonprofits to accept. Some agencies are accustomed to recruiting volunteers who go where they are directed and do what they're told. "Nonprofits are waking up to the fact that they need to be more flexible," and it can be a difficult adjustment, Quaintance says.

On the Create the Good site, volunteers can access local volunteer needs by ZIP code and see these needs broken down into several categories: Show-Up, DIY (Do It Yourself), Online, and what it calls "5 Minute" opportunities that may be nonrecurring, relatively quick ways that people can help.

"The strategic nonprofits have figured out how volunteers can be a critical part of their solution," Velasco says. "Many boomers bring advanced professional and management skills that can help nonprofits increase their impact on community issues. Engaging boomers in more challenging assignments has the added benefit of increasing the likelihood they will continue to volunteer over a longer period of time because they find the work more engaging."

Here is a list of volunteering opportunities that might be of interest:

Preparing income taxes. The AARP Tax Aide program has more than 34,000 volunteers throughout the country who donate their time and expertise to help people with their taxes. It is a major example of "skills-based" volunteering, which is growing.

Road and waterway clean-ups. If it's green, people want to help. Weekend clean-up campaigns are great opportunities for people to improve their communities, meet like-minded neighbors, and get outside for some exercise. These activities also meet volunteers' growing interest in flexible and even one-shot volunteer opportunities.

Helping the helpers. Nonprofits have seen funding decline even as demand for their services soars. Skills-based volunteers are increasingly filling key roles at agencies that had been performed by full-time staffers.

[See The Secret to a Long and Happy Life.]

Applying for benefits. The steep recession has led to record increases in food and other assistance programs. Often, people need help in applying for benefits, to make sure they qualify and obtain benefits promptly.

Helping kids at school. Just about anything that has to do with children is high on the list of desired activities, ranging from reading to younger children, tutoring, helping coach sports teams, and assisting with a wide range of extracurricular enrichment programs. There are many other school-based volunteer opportunities, and the need will grow this fall because of widespread school funding cutbacks throughout the country.

Helping kids at home. The slow economic recovery has put tremendous stress on families, forcing all adults in a household to seek work and creating rising demand for home-based caregivers and after-school support programs.

Repairing safety nets. From assisting food banks to driving people to healthcare clinics, there is plenty of help needed. Cash-strapped governments and social-service support programs badly need volunteers to help meet a range of human needs.

Live the dream. There are loads of opportunities to volunteer in activities you've always wanted to try: working with animals, being a docent or tour guide, helping arts organizations, and the like. Someone needs and will appreciate having the benefit of your skills.

National and state parks. Parks often take an early hit when budgets are cut. The government regularly seeks volunteers to clean and even help manage the under-staffed and under-funded National Park Service.

When disaster hits. Americans step up when their neighbors are hurting. Recent weather volatility has produced unusually severe storm damage throughout the country, and a related increase in volunteer activity.

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