January 04, 2010

The California Court of Appeal has rejected an attempt by the insurance industry to cripple the right of the public, under Proposition 103, to scrutinize and challenge unjustified rate increases. The Court agreed with the nonprofit Consumer Watchdog and the Department of Insurance in upholding changes to state insurance regulations to make clear that insurance companies must pay the costs of consumer challenges to excessive insurance rates, in a decision issued last week. "This important victory ensures that California motorists, homeowners and businesses will pay the lowest insurance premiums possible," said Consumer Watchdog's litigation director Pam Pressley, who wrote the briefs and argued the case for the organization. "Like many other provisions of Proposition 103 that the insurance industry has tried to attack with lawsuits, this one has helped save Californians billions of dollars. Companies can only be made to obey the law when the public can challenge insurers' attempts to illegally hike rates and actively participate in the rate review and approval process as Prop 103 requires. Prop 103 and Consumer Watchdog continue to keep the insurance industry in check." Full release.

A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization today said new security measures announced by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) amount to profiling of Muslims. The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said the new guidelines, under which anyone traveling from or through 13 Muslim-majority nations will be required to go through enhanced screening techniques before boarding flights, will disproportionately target American Muslims who have family or spiritual ties to the Islamic world and therefore amount to religious and ethnic profiling. SEE: TSA Statement on New Security Measures for International Flights to the U.S. - http://www.tsa.gov/press/happenings/010310_statement.shtm . U.S. Requests Pat-Downs on All Flights From 14 Nations - http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,581895,00.html Full release.

Goozex, Inc., the leading online video game and movie trading community, produced its annual review of most requested video games and movies by site members. The list is a cumulative demand total produced by Goozex members that add items to their "request queue" in 2009. Within the top 10 most wanted games are late 2008 released titles that carried their demand momentum well into 2009. Perhaps the biggest surprise was the continued strength of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, a 2007 released title. Games released in the fourth quarter of 2009 have not had time to build the annual cumulative demand to make the top 10 list, with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Borderlands, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and Left 4 Dead 2 falling just outside the list. These titles are expected to be at the top of the 2010 annual list. The Xbox 360 has seen the most demand and trading activity on Goozex in 2009 among the different gaming platforms. Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii were second and third, respectively. Titles released on the Blu-Ray movie platform saw the most demand on Goozex in 2009. Full release.

NASA's Kepler space telescope, designed to find Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of sun-like stars, has discovered its first five new exoplanets, or planets beyond our solar system. Kepler's high sensitivity to both small and large planets enabled the discovery of the exoplanets, named Kepler 4b, 5b, 6b, 7b and 8b. The discoveries were announced Monday, Jan. 4, by the members of the Kepler science team during a news briefing at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington. "These observations contribute to our understanding of how planetary systems form and evolve from the gas and dust disks that give rise to both the stars and their planets," said William Borucki of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. Borucki is the mission's science principal investigator. "The discoveries also show that our science instrument is working well. Indications are that Kepler will meet all its science goals." Full release.

As the new year begins many consumers will be making resolutions, including about saving money. There are several ways to save money on insurance, but consumers should be careful about the ways in which they cut their insurance costs, according to the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.). "Money is tight right now and many people are looking for ways to cut costs," said Jeanne M. Salvatore, senior vice president and consumer spokesperson for the I.I.I. "However, there are smart ways that savvy consumers can save on their home and auto insurance, and there are mistakes that can result in being dangerously underinsured." Following are the five biggest insurance mistakes consumers should avoid: 1. Insuring a home for its real estate value rather than for the cost of rebuilding. When real estate prices go down, some homeowners may think they can reduce the amount of insurance on their home. But insurance is designed to cover the cost of rebuilding, not the sales price of the home. You should make sure that you have enough coverage to completely rebuild your home and replace your belongings. A better way to save: Raise your deductible. An increase from $500 to $1,000 could save up to 25 percent on your premium payments. Full release.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced intentions to ask a federal court to shut down a New Jersey cheese manufacturer with an alleged history of operating under insanitary conditions and producing cheese contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint for permanent injunction against Quesos Mi Pueblito and two of its officers, Felix Sanchez and Jesus Galvez. The complaint alleges that recent inspections by the FDA and the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services found Listeria-contaminated cheese and insanitary conditions at the Passaic company. If entered by the court, the injunction would stop the company and its officers from manufacturing and distributing food until they can bring their operations into full compliance with FDA food safety regulations and produce cheese that does not test positive for the presence of Listeria. The complaint for permanent injunction was filed in the U.S. District Court - District of New Jersey. Full release.

The United States could cut its per capita health care spending by double-digit percentages if it took full advantage of the cost-cutting tools now available, according to an article in the Winter 2010 Issues in Science and Technology. Unfortunately, say authors Arnold Milstein and Helen Darling, neither the House nor the Senate health care bills come close to doing this. Milstein and Darling were participants in the Institute of Medicine's (IOM's) Roundtable on Evidence-Based Medicine. "The IOM's series of roundtables provided ample evidence that the biggest barrier to progress is not lack of effective waste-trimming tools," the authors write. "Rather, it is the vulnerability of elected officials to accusations of impairing a service that is both consciously and unconsciously equated with protection from death and suffering. We can and must navigate through this political minefield so that we can accelerate efforts to produce better U.S. health care at a lower cost." Full release.

Elusys Therapeutics, Inc. (Elusys), a privately-held biopharmaceutical company, announced today that it has signed a contract potentially totaling up to $143 million to complete the final development, commercial manufacturing and licensure of Anthim, the company's late stage anthrax therapeutic. Funding will be provided by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The first contract year provides $16.8 million of funding with options for additional funding over the following four years. If licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the federal government could buy Anthim for the Strategic National Stockpile under Project Bioshield. Project Bioshield is designed to accelerate the research, development, purchase and availability of effective medical countermeasures for the Strategic National Stockpile. Anthim is being developed by Elusys to treat people stricken by inhaled anthrax and to prevent illness from anthrax. Full release.

An open letter to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, today asked his government to stop incitement to violence being broadcast into Iran by a terrorist group from London. Massoud Khodabandeh, of Leeds-based Middle East Strategy Consultants, said, "The Iranian people's courageous, peaceful demonstrations to achieve their natural freedoms and rights are being fatally undermined from within the U.K." Khodabandeh said the Mojahedin-e Khalq (aka MKO, MEK, NCRI, PMOI, Rajavi cult) is broadcasting incitement to violence from London through its satellite programme Sima-ye Azadi. The group is also known to be financed through British-based banks. "Britain, following Washington's lead, has put herself in a position where she is seen to support terrorism. This is not in our interests," said Khodabandeh. Hardliners in the Iranian government yesterday imposed zero tolerance on street protests after it was found that members of the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq cult had been dispatched to Iran to foment violence among the ordinary protestors. In August 2009, Massoud Khodabandeh published a second report following consultation with the Iraqi government on plans to expel the cult from Iraq. An Iraqi government official stressed that terror teams could not have been sent from Camp Ashraf after American forces handed over control of the terrorist base to Iraq in January 2009. Full release.

A causal relationship between gastrointestinal disorders and the behavioral features of children with autism spectrum disorder has been acknowledged for years by parents caring for those affected, yet dismissed by mainstream medicine. A landmark paper, Recommendations for Evaluation and Treatment of Common Gastrointestinal Problems in Children with ASDs, a consensus report published this week in Pediatrics, is an important step forward in closing this gap. Acknowledging that certain behavioral manifestations of patients with ASD such as self-injury and poor sleep might have a GI basis is the first step toward achieving substantive therapies. Because it was felt that many individuals with ASD might have undiagnosed medical conditions, often involving the gastrointestinal tract, representatives from the Autism Research Institute (ARI) and other autism advocacy groups worked to convene a gut consensus meeting from which the articles were derived. On May 29-30, 2008, a multidisciplinary panel of 27 clinical and research experts met in Boston, Massachusetts to develop recommendations for the evaluation and treatment of GI disorders in individuals with ASD. Full release.

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