Panel recommends parole for Manson family member

FILE - In this undated file photo provided by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shows Bruce Davis. Davis, convicted with Charles Manson and another man in two murders unrelated to the infamous Sharon Tate murders, is set for an appearance before a parole board panel on Thursday, Oct. 4, 2012, the eve of his 70th birthday. (AP Photo/California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)

FILE - In this undated file photo provided by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shows Bruce Davis. Davis, convicted with Charles Manson and another man in two murders unrelated to the infamous Sharon Tate murders, is set for an appearance before a parole board panel on Thursday, Oct. 4, 2012, the eve of his 70th birthday. (AP Photo/California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A former Charles Manson follower imprisoned for 40 years in a double murder engineered by Manson won a recommendation of parole Thursday in his 27th appearance before a parole board panel.

Bruce Davis, convicted with Manson and another man in the killings of a musician and a stuntman, was not involved in the infamous Sharon Tate murders in 1969.

The answer to his plea for freedom came on the eve of his 70th birthday. He was a young man of 30 when he was sentenced to life in prison in 1972 in a case that was a postscript to Manson's notorious reign as leader of the murderous communal cult known as the Manson family.

Davis long maintained he was a bystander in the killings of the two men, but in recent years he acknowledged his shared responsibility because he was present.

The hearing was held at the California Men's Colony at San Luis Obispo, where Davis is imprisoned.

His release was opposed by a Los Angeles prosecutor and by a former Manson family member, Barbara Hoyt, as well as Sharon Tate's sister, Debra Tate. The two women attended the hearing, according to The Tribune of San Luis Obispo.

The recommendation is not the last hurdle in Davis' quest for freedom. The parole grant is subject to a 120-day review period by the entire parole board. If it is upheld, Gov. Jerry Brown then has 30 days to review the decision.

Los Angeles County district attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said, "We certainly disagree with the board's decision. We will evaluate how we plan to proceed as the matter goes to Gov. Brown."

She noted that District Attorney Steve Cooley helped persuade then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to stop Davis' prior parole date in 2010.

A parole board determined then that Davis was ready for release, saying he had no recent disciplinary problems and had completed education and self-help programs.

However, Schwarzenegger reversed the decision, citing the heinous nature of the crimes and saying Davis was still a danger. Gov. Brown has the final say on decisions by the current parole board. His spokesman Gil Duran declined comment after the hearing, saying the issue had not yet reached the governor's desk.

Davis has been in prison since being convicted with Manson and another follower, Steve Grogan, in the murders of musician Gary Hinman and stuntman Donald "Shorty" Shea.

"I'm pleased and relieved and I hope Bruce's ordeal will be over," said attorney Michael Beckman, who has been fighting for years for the release of Davis.

He said an emotional Davis spoke to the panel at length and took responsibility for his role in the killings. Davis also said he tried to do good for other inmates and would continue ministering for troubled souls on the outside, the lawyer said.

If eventually freed, Davis will go to transitional housing associated with religious groups in Los Angeles County.

Davis became a born-again Christian in prison and ministered to other inmates, married a woman he met through the prison ministry, and has a grown daughter. The couple recently divorced.

Beckman said Davis also earned a master's degree and a doctorate in philosophy of religion.

Beckman said his client is totally rehabilitated and meets state requirements for parole. Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Patrick Sequeira opposed his release.

Few followers of the infamous Manson cult have been released from prison. Grogan was freed in 1985 after he led police to Shea's buried body.

Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme was released from federal prison in 2009 after serving time for the attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford.

Manson and two of his followers, Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel, remain in prison for life in the Tate killings. Their co-defendant, Susan Atkins, died of cancer behind bars in 2009. Another of the Tate killers, Charles "Tex" Watson, remains in prison.

___

Associated Press Writer Don Thompson in Sacramento contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-10-04-Manson%20Family%20Member/id-4b42d4cd4504410198f39c48facc797e

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How ketamine defeats chronic depression

ScienceDaily (Oct. 4, 2012) ? Many chronically depressed and treatment-resistant patients experience immediate relief from symptoms after taking small amounts of the drug ketamine. For a decade, scientists have been trying to explain the observation first made at Yale University.

Today, current evidence suggests that the pediatric anesthetic helps regenerate synaptic connections between brain cells damaged by stress and depression, according to a review of scientific research written by Yale School of Medicine researchers and published in the Oct. 5 issue of the journal Science.

Ketamine works on an entirely different type of neurotransmitter system than current antidepressants, which can take months to improve symptoms of depression and do not work at all for one out of every three patients. Understanding how ketamine works in the brain could lead to the development of an entirely new class of antidepressants, offering relief for tens of millions of people suffering from chronic depression.

"The rapid therapeutic response of ketamine in treatment-resistant patients is the biggest breakthrough in depression research in a half century," said Ronald Duman, the Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Neurobiology.

Duman and George K. Aghajanian, also professor of psychiatry at Yale, are co-authors of the review.

Understanding how ketamine works is crucial because of the drug's limitations. The improvement in symptoms, which are evident just hours after ketamine is administered, lasts only a week to 10 days. In large doses, ketamine can cause short-term symptoms of psychosis and is abused as the party drug "Special K."

In their research, Duman and others show that in a series of steps ketamine triggers release of neurotransmitter glutamate, which in turn stimulates growth of synapses. Research at Yale has shown that damage of these synaptic connections caused by chronic stress is rapidly reversed by a single dose of ketamine.

The original link between ketamine and relief of depression was made at the Connecticut Mental Health Center in New Haven by John Krystal, chair of the department of psychiatry at Yale, and Dennis Charney, now dean of Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, who helped launch clinical trials of ketamine while at the National Institute of Mental Health.

Efforts to develop drugs that replicate the effects of ketamine have produced some promising results, but they do not act as quickly as ketamine. Researchers are investigating alternatives they hope can duplicate the efficacy and rapid response of ketamine.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hNsIiq-5354#!

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Yale University.

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Journal Reference:

1. R. S. Duman, G. K. Aghajanian. Synaptic Dysfunction in Depression: Potential Therapeutic Targets. Science, 2012; 338 (6103): 68 DOI: 10.1126/science.1222939

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/2ioEtuhyNwo/121004141747.htm

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Toddler fell to death from moving car after opening door. Family calls ...

SWNS

A family has launched a campaign to make car locks compulsory after their toddler fell to his death from a moving car.

Two-year-old Levi Brailsford unbuckled his safety seat and opened the car door, an inquest heard. He was travelling home in his grandmother's 4X4 when he somehow managed to undo his three-point safety belt and crawled across the back seat.

The youngster then opened the passenger door which wasn't child-locked and fell on to the road.

His grandmother, Kathleen Medway, heard the door open as she headed towards a roundabout but did not realise Levi had fallen out until she pulled over.

Levi died from head injuries. Grandmother-of-10 Mrs Medway told Avon Coroner's Court: "As I was driving down towards the roundabout I heard the door go.

"I didn't shout or anything I thought that if I did shout it would make him jump so I just kept going round very, very slowly and bumped up on to the pavement thinking I would be OK.

"But as I pulled on to the pavement in my mirror I saw the door fall open. I didn't think anything of it, just that the door had opened in the manoeuvre.

"I got out and pushed it slightly closed and then suddenly saw him on the floor. Then I screamed."

Witness Sean Whittle, a passenger in the car, described how Mrs Medway screamed: "What have I done? Oh my God I killed our Levi".

In a written statement Levi's devastated mum, Andrea, described the two-year-old as a 'very active, troublesome but loveable' child.

She also said he was a quick learner and she had seen him undo his child safety belt before. The coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Levi's family have started a campaign to make child locks on all doors compulsory when carrying children.

All parents and extended family reading this, please check that all safety locks on your cars are turned on, however short your journey.

More on Parentdish:
Parents warned not to leave their babies asleep in car seats after death of four-month-old

Source: http://www.parentdish.co.uk/2012/10/03/toddler-levi-brailsford-fell-to-death-from-moving-car-after-opening-door-and-car-seat-buckle/

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Hurley still gets dressed in pink each October

Spokesperson and model Elizabeth Hurley speaks before lighting the Empire State Building pink in honor of the 20th Anniversary of the Estee Lauder Companies' Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign on Monday, Oct. 1, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Spokesperson and model Elizabeth Hurley speaks before lighting the Empire State Building pink in honor of the 20th Anniversary of the Estee Lauder Companies' Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign on Monday, Oct. 1, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Spokesperson and model Elizabeth Hurley, center, The Estee Lauder Companies executive chairman William Lauder and Rose Gill Hearn is the Commissioner for the Department of Investigation, light the Empire State Building pink in honor of the 20th Anniversary of the Estee Lauder Companies' Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign on Monday, Oct. 1, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Spokesperson and model Elizabeth Hurley poses on the observation deck after lighting the Empire State Building pink in honor of the 20th Anniversary of the Estee Lauder Companies' Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign on Monday, Oct. 1, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

NEW YORK (AP) ? After nearly two decades, Elizabeth Hurley still finds herself dressed in pink in October to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

She's been the face of the Estee Lauder Cos.' breast-cancer awareness and fundraising efforts for 18 years.

"This is a part of my life. I look forward to the month. Over the years, my commitment has become more significant," Hurley says.

The calendar is marked off for the entire month, the actress says, and she makes no other plans, although she's hoping to squeeze in a diner breakfast on this trip to New York City.

Hurley, 47, was at the Empire State Building on Monday wearing a plunge V-neck, gathered-waist Issa jersey dress to flip the switch to turn the lights pink. She did it two years ago with Evelyn Lauder, who died last November.

Lauder co-founded the Pink Ribbon Campaign 20 years ago, and since then, more than 122 million free pink ribbons have been handed out at department-store cosmetic counters as a reminder about breast health and the research being done for a cure, Hurley says.

"We were a great double act. This is bittersweet. ... She was a wonderful person, and I hope a little bit rubbed off on me."

Without Lauder, Hurley finds herself busier this month, with planned stops in Toronto, London and Paris, among others. The campaign reaches 70 countries.

"If you open up my suitcase, you'll see a lot of pink dresses, nude-colored shoes and a lot of pink handbags, too," she says.

The campaign has found much success raising money for research: $35 million so far, Hurley says, though, it's with each mammogram made by a woman who might otherwise have forgotten or resisted to make that call for her appointment that she feels a greater sense of accomplishment.

William Lauder, Evelyn's son and executive chairman of the cosmetics company, says he gets a little thrill ? and a giant burst of pride ? every time an NFL football player puts on a pair of hot pink gloves or uses a pink towel to support the breast cancer campaign.

He remembers his mother establishing the Breast Cancer Research Foundation in 1993 and making it her life's work.

It now seems hard to imagine an October not washed in pink, Hurley and William Lauder agree.

There's also a perk in all the pink lip gloss that goes along with the campaign, adds Hurley. There's one this year named for her called Pink Innocence.

"I love it when I get the new gloss, and when I see other people wearing it."

An interactive exhibition looking back at the 20 years of the Breast Cancer Awareness campaign is open to the public Tuesday and Wednesday outside the GM Building on Fifth Avenue.

___

Online:

http://www.facebook.com/BCACampaign

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-10-02-Fashion-Elizabeth%20Hurley/id-860115d478844c36aea961a0049179c2

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Return to Sender

The vast majority of countries have signed international agreements committing them to the principle that undeliverable letter should be returned to their senders

Photograph by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

The allegedly poor performance of ?the government? is a staple of conservative rhetoric, while progressives retort that private sector success is typically built on a solid foundation of public services and infrastructure. Common sense, however, suggests simply that the quality of government services varies. The United States Navy is a fantastically high-performing agency. When I visited Stockholm, employees of the metro system did a great job of helping me understand how to use the city?s bikeshare system, even though they had to speak in a foreign language and I was clearly not eligible to vote for their bosses. But when a few years back I needed to get a replacement recycling bin from the D.C. Department of Public Works, my then-roommates and I were plunged into a Kafkaesque nightmare. Even though these differences in performance level are clearly real, there?s very little effort to measure them.

A paper posted last week to the National Bureau of Economic Research website aims to counter that with a simple test. The vast majority of countries have signed international agreements committing them to the principle that undeliverable letter should be returned to their senders. So the researchers deliberately mailed letters to fake businesses around the world to see which postal agencies return them, and how promptly. Many of the results are about what you?d expect?Germany is efficient and well-governed?but there are some surprising high-performance standouts, including dark horses Uruguay and Algeria.

The basic experiment was simple enough. Alberto Chong, Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes, and Andrei Shleifer mailed 10 letters to fake businesses in each of the 159 countries.

Each letter was correctly formatted and featured both a return address and a clear request to ?please return to sender if undeliverable.? The letters all featured a real city and real (and appropriate) ZIP Code (or similar), paired with the name of a fake company and a nonexistent street address. The idea was to ensure that the letters would make it through the automated scan-and-sort portion of the delivery process and find their way into the hands of a human letter-carrier. The question then is what happens when a carrier is faced with an undeliverable piece of mail: Does she throw it out, or does she do what she?s supposed to do and initiate the process for returning it?

This is, the authors note, an interesting test of government performance in part because there?s no place for bribery. Shakedowns are an important aspect of public sector dysfunction in many parts of the world, but it?s not logistically possible to make return of undeliverable mail contingent on the payment of a bribe.

The experiment revealed amazingly wide variation in postal performance. Twenty-one countries returned all the letters within a 12-month span. Four of them?the United States, El Salvador, the Czech Republic, and Luxembourg?got it all done within 90 days. There were 16 countries, by contrast, that didn?t send any of them back within a year. Those are mostly African countries, but Cambodia, Tajikistan, and Russia also make the list of shame.

The meat of the analysis, however, is the number-crunching that followed. Controlling for other variables, it turns out that you?re more likely to get your letter returned from a country that uses the Latin alphabet. That?s about what you?d expect, considering that the envelopes were addressed using the Latin alphabet. Then again, international postal conventions commit all countries to delivering Latin-addressed mail so the fact that personnel appear not to be properly trained in its use is telling. In addition, various measures of ?postal resources? are positively correlated with proper return of the letters. Countries that have more postal workers per capita, more post offices per square mile, and more detailed postal databases all do better. Money invested in postal systems, in other words, isn?t ?wasted? in any narrow sense: More resources really do make more productive postal agencies.

These linguistic and technological factors statistically explain 41 to 46 percent of the observed variance in postal performance. The rest seems to be the secret sauce of management.

What?s interesting here is that good performance is strongly correlated with general indicators of economy-wide management skill. Countries with higher-ranked business schools, better-educated managers as revealed by census data, and high scores on surveys about managerial willingness to delegate and capacity to innovate all do well at delivering the mail. In other words, politics may matter less than you think, and ?the government? isn?t that different from the private sector. Well-managed, high-productivity postal services exist in the same place as well-managed, high-productivity private enterprises. Given this, it is also not surprising that they found no difference in efficiency between countries that have government postal monopolies and those that have competitive mail delivery.

Researchers often puzzle over the fact that on the quality of government services almost invariably increases with per capita income. This, the authors point, is ?surprising if one focuses on the uniqueness of government, but makes perfect sense once it is recognized that government is subject to the same dynamics as the private sector.? In other words, government agencies are people and tend to share the characteristics of the overall society in which they?re embedded. Countries well supplied with capital and skilled workers manage to do a decent job of delivering the mail. Those that can?t get letters sent where they belong tend to be countries where the private sector doesn?t work well either. The stellar performance of El Salvador?s postal service may be an indicator that this small, poor country devastated by recent civil war has some of the underlying qualities needed to make it much richer.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=bac94e55568d14193e1ed3baabc4da5e

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When Opportunity Knocks?After Judgment | Rusty Law, LLC

The best way to avoid a judgment in Small Claims Court is to PAY YOUR BILLS.? Pay your bills on time every time and usually you can avoid Small Claims Court altogether.? For some people, though, ?Pay your bills? is easier said than paid.

Situations happen.? Medical hardships, job loss, divorce, and loss of income not only disrupt lives, they can affect good bill-paying practices and damage credit.

Regardless of how you get to Small Claims Court, once there, you will probably be better off to avoid a collection judgment against you.? Even if you do not have the money to pay right away, you are not ?safe? in your poverty.? You may count your misfortune as fortunate for the time being, but a judgment could hamper your recovery in the future.

A judgment is a lien, good for twenty years and which can collect interest.? If opportunity knocks five or ten years after the judgment, you are still responsible to pay that judgment collection.

Debt collectors know this.? They know they cannot collect on all judgments when they happen, but they also know that they have twenty years to wait for that money to come in.? Debt collectors monitor your accounts and will garnish your wages and/or seize your bank account to collect the amount owed.

The best way to deal with a judgment is not to get one?but after that, seek competent legal counsel.? Do not ignore the situation.? A debtor may have legal options, but he can lose rights if he does not know to assert them.? Get legal advice if you are facing a judgment or already have one against you because there are serious consequences which can more than inconvenience you.

Source: http://www.rustylaw.com/when-opportunity-knocks-after-judgment/

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After falls, yields on 91, 266-day Egypt bills edge up

CAIRO (Reuters) - Average yields on 91-day and 266-day treasury bills sold at auction on Sunday edged higher, interrupting a downward trend of recent weeks, and the Finance Ministry sold fewer 266-day bills than it had offered, central bank data showed.

One analyst said the relatively swift fall in yields since the middle of the year made a small correction on the upside unsurprising but said it was too early to talk about a reversal in the broader trend of falling yields.

Egypt, battered by months of political turmoil, has been seeking to lift investor confidence in its economy. Investors have been encouraged by the start of talks for a $4.8 billion International Monetary Fund loan, aid from Gulf states and a campaign by the new government to outline a reform programme.

The ministry sold 1 billion Egyptian pounds of 91-day bills at an average yield of 12.941 percent, compared to a yield of 12.396 percent on 91-day bills issued on September 25.

The ministry sold 266-day bills worth 2 billion pounds with an average yield of 13.547 percent, compared to 13.354 percent on 266-bills issued on September 25. The ministry had offered bills worth 3.5 billion pounds.

The central bank offers the T-bills on behalf of the Finance Ministry.

The average yield on 91-day bills have been falling from levels of more than 14.5 percent in the middle of year, while average yields at auctions of 266-day bills had risen to almost 16 percent in June before they began to slide.

"I think next week's auction may provide some insight as to where we may be headed," said one fixed-income analyst. "The pace of the drop in yields was quite fast, so I wouldn't rule out any corrections - but I don't expect a reversal in the trend at this point."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/falls-yields-91-266-day-egypt-bills-edge-141059498--finance.html

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