Two missing Georgia boys have been found safe in Texas and their father has been taken into police custody.
Moments after pleading for her boys' return on television, the boys' mother Theresa Nash received a phone call from a citizen in Texas who said he was with her sons.
"I was in complete disbelief," Nash told ABC Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV as she was boarding a plane to pick up her sons. "He immediately put the phone to Ben and Henry and I talked to them. They were very, very shaken up."
Police in Austin, Texas, were notified when someone recognized the boys and their father at a motel after seeing them on TV.
"They were playing with a Nerf ball, went back inside, they were with Daddy and they came back out and somebody said, 'Put your hands up,' and everybody put their hands up," Nash said.
The boys' father Daniel Cleary was arrested without incident, police said.
"We don't know why he chose Austin," Austin Police Cpl. Wuthipong Tantaksinanuki told WSB-TV. "I know that after he was taken into custody, we did recover a handgun -- a pistol -- and a large sum of money."
Daniel Cleary, who will be extradited to Georgia, faces a charge of interstate interference with custody, a felony, and could face other charges, McGee said.
Benjamin and Henry Cleary had been missing since Wednesday from the greater Atlanta area.
Benjamin, 9, and Henry, 7, had plans to leave with their father, Daniel Cleary, on an overnight trip to Chattanooga, Tenn., on Dec. 22. When they failed to return as scheduled on Dec. 26, their mother, Theresa Nash, who does not live with the boys' father, went to his house to check on them, only to find the phone disconnected and the house empty.
An Amber Alert was issued for the boys.
"There is a court order for them to contact me every day," Nash told ABCNews.com on Friday. "When I hadn't heard from them, and their father's phone was turned off, I went to their father's house to see if they were there. The house was cleared out as if they had moved."
Nash called Cleary "unstable," and said he had only been using cash since the boys went missing. Police said they had not found any charges on his credit card.
The three were spotted Friday at a Walmart in Jackson, Tenn., McGee said.
The boys were found on Henry's eighth birthday and were expected to be reunited with their mother today.
"They've been begging for an Xbox 360 for Christmas, and Santa brought them one so they need to come home because it's waiting," Nash said on Friday.
A prayer vigil that was scheduled tfor today at 2 p.m. in Georgia's Suwanee Town Center Park will be still be held for prayers of thanks.
DUBAI (Reuters) - The Yemen-based branch of al Qaeda has offered a bounty for anyone who kills the U.S. ambassador to Yemen or an American soldier in the impoverished Arab state, a group that monitors Islamist websites said.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said it was offering three kilograms of gold for the killing of the U.S. ambassador in Sanaa, Gerald Feierstein, the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group said, citing an audio released by militants.
AQAP will also pay 5 million rials ($23,350) to whoever kills any American soldier in Yemen, it said.
The offer, valid for six months, was made "to encourage our Muslim Ummah (nation), and to expand the circle of the jihad (holy war) by the masses," SITE said, citing the audio.
AQAP, mostly militants from Yemen and Saudi Arabia, is regarded by the United States as the most dangerous branch of the network founded by Osama bin Laden.
In September, AQAP urged Muslims to step up protests and kill U.S. diplomats in Muslim countries over a film denigrating the Prophet Mohammad, which it said was another chapter in the "crusader wars" against Islam.
The film provoked an outcry among Muslims, who deem any depiction of the Prophet as blasphemous and triggered violent attacks on embassies in countries in Asia and the Middle East.
Four U.S. officials including the ambassador to Libya were killed in the aftermath. The Pentagon said it had sent a platoon of Marines to Yemen after demonstrators stormed the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa.
A U.S. ally, Yemen is struggling against challenges on many fronts since mass protests forced veteran leader Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down in February after decades in power.
President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's government is trying to re-establish order and unify the army.
Washington, which has pursued a campaign of assassination by drone and missile against suspected al Qaeda members, backed a military offensive in May to recapture areas of Abyan province. But militants have struck back with a series of bombings and killings.
(Reporting by Rania El Gamal; editing by Todd Eastham)
Sexuality begins in the womb because it starts with touch. After birth, being held and caressed mark the earliest connection that infants have with intimacy and love. These connections come directly from you and set the stage for your child?s comfort with his or her body.
We all seek touch. Studies confirm that we are healthier when we are touched, hugged, tickled, and massaged.1 When infants are touched in a loving and appropriate way, they learn to touch their own body in ways that are healthful and pleasurable. This wholesome model of touch continues throughout their development.
If ever there was an easy and welcome opportunity to pursue touch, it?s through the many tickling and hugging opportunities that arise during childhood. Permit yourself to celebrate these wonderful moments with your kids. ?
Kids are like sponges?they learn about our feelings toward sexuality through our words, actions, and interactions. The way that you relate to your child?s body shows your level of comfort with your child and with sex.
A natural springboard for starting conversations with your kids about sexuality emerges from developing good hygiene. Helping your children relate to their body through caring for their body teaches ownership and awareness of sexuality. Cleaning privates is an important topic in its own right, and these conversations introduce discussions about sex, from naming body parts accurately to establishing boundaries.
How do you handle children?s jokes about going to the bathroom? What?s your reaction to your toddler seeing you naked? How do you respond when other adults bring up sex in the presence of your child? Early parent-child interactions establish your child?s introduction to understanding and sex. Your cues set your child?s comfort level for talking to you about sexual issues. Kids develop (or fail to develop) comfort about their sexuality through exploration, play, interactions, and relationships. By opening these avenues in your relationships with your children and helping them understand their experiences, you help form their confidence to understand sexuality and themselves.
You should talk to your child as early as you can about proper and improper touch and explain that her or his body is under her or his control. Explain the necessity of telling you or a responsible adult if they ever feel uncomfortable about the way someone touches them.
?
BIRTH ? 3 years old
DO:
???? A ? Provide loving, caring interactions (tickle, hug, kiss). ??
???? B) ?Recognize, acknowledge (name), and support body exploration, especially during hygiene and toilet training
???? C) ?Monitor social exposure and models--from TV to personal contacts (babysitters, friends, family)
DON?T:
???? A) ?Shame because of what child does or says sexually
???? B) ?Reference what child does sexually as "funny" or "bad"
???? C) ?Project adult behaviors onto infant, e.g., baby boy touching mother's breast: "He's his father's son."
?
?? 1.????? Lynn Barnett, ?Keep in Touch: The Importance of Touch in Infant Development,? Infant Observation 8 (2005): 115?123.
?
?
John T. Chirban, Ph.D., Th.D. is a clinical instructor in psychology at Harvard Medical School and author of How to Talk With Your Kids About Sex (Thomas Nelson, 2012) that explains what kids need from parents at each stage of their sexual development and how parents can effectively communicate. For more information, go to dr.chirban.com and sexual problems.com.
Chicken nuggets haven't always been made from pink slime, nor were they invented by McDonalds. Turns out we know surprisingly little about how these ubiquitous golden hunks of deep-fried poultry ever actually made it onto fast food menus. More »
Apple's online retail store fell short of customer expectations over the holiday shopping season. Satisfaction with the company's website fell to a four-year low, according to ForeSee's annual Holiday E-Retail Satisfaction Index.?One big problem, no customer reviews to help shoppers decide which product is right for them.?
Apple's Wake Up Call
Apple's score of 80 is still considered very good, but the fact that the company did not make the list of top five online retailers should be a wake-up call. "It is a little bit of a yellow caution flag," said Larry Freed, president and chief executive of Foresee.
Apple's score fell three points from last year, because it did a poorer job helping customers wade through its growing list of products, Freed said. For example, outside of price, the difference between the iPad mini, iPad 2 and iPad with Retina display is not readily apparent for many consumers.
By comparison, Amazon topped the list for the eighth year in a row, despite having a vastly wider variety of products from multiple manufacturers. While Amazon is the equivalent of an online department store, Apple is more of a boutique shop.
Apple Avoids Social Reviews
Amazon's success is in consistently providing "great features" for customers to find and compare products, Freed said. The site's product reviews are particularly helpful.
"There are no product reviews on Apple's site," he said. "In trying to decide if the (iPad) mini is right for me or not, you're really forced to go somewhere else to get somebody's opinion."
ForeSee's index is based on more than 24,000 customer surveys collected between Thanksgiving and Christmas. A drop in the index is significant because each point on average represents a 14% decline in a site's growth rate in sales, according to Freed. For example, if a site had a 20% growth rate year to year in 2011, then dropping a point this year would cut that rate by 3%.
Apple's decline was not the worst among the 100 companies listed. The biggest drop in customer satisfaction was on J.C. Penney's site, which fell five points to 78. Among PC makers, Dell's site also dropped 3 points, but to a lower overall score of 77.
Like Apple, Dell's problem stems from providing too little assistance in figuring out which PC is the best fit among a wide variety of choices. "When you have too many choices, consumers tend to freeze and don't know what to do," Freed said. "Dell has that [problem]. They've got to simplify how you find what you are looking for."
Turmoil In Apple Retail Operations
Apple experienced significant turmoil within its management ranks in 2012, although it's difficult to say whether that contributed to its weaker performance in online customer satisfaction. John Browett, head of Apple's retail operations, was ousted this year after only six months at the helm. He had replaced Ron Johnson, who was responsible for Apple's highly successful retail stores. Johnson left Apple to become CEO of J.C. Penney.
Browett joined Apple from Dixons, a British consumer electronics retailer, where he had been CEO. Browett's troubles at Apple were mostly operational. His plans for cutting costs included reducing employees' hours and freezing hiring, decisions Apple later reversed.
While it would be unfair to pin Apple's latest ForeSee score on Browett, there's no doubt the consumer electronics maker needs to double down on improving its online customer experience to avoid turning the decline into a trend. Apple did not immediately return requests for comment.
ForeSee finds that site satisfaction leads to brand loyalty, positive recommendations and repeat purchases.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) ? William Spengler raised no alarms in prison for 17 years and for more than a decade afterward. Well-spoken, well-behaved and intelligent, his demeanor was praised by four straight parole boards that nevertheless denied him parole, worried that bludgeoning his 92-year-old grandmother with a hammer showed a violent streak that could explode again.
After his sentence was up in 1996, he stayed out of trouble until 2010, police said Friday. That's when Spengler went to a sporting goods store with a neighbor's daughter, picked out a Bushmaster semiautomatic rifle and a shotgun and had her buy the guns that the convicted felon couldn't legally possess. On Monday, he used the weapons to ambush firefighters lured to a blaze he set at his house in upstate Webster, killing two people and wounding three others before killing himself.
On Friday, state and federal authorities charged the woman who bought the guns, 24-year-old Dawn Nguyen, with lying on a form that said she would be the owner of the guns she bought for Spengler.
The charges involve the semiautomatic rifle and the 12-gauge shotgun that Spengler had with him Monday when volunteer firefighters Michael Chiapperini and Tomasz Kaczowka were gunned down. Three other people, including two other firefighters, were wounded before the 62-year-old Spengler killed himself. He also had a .38-caliber revolver, but Nguyen is not connected to that gun, police said.
Investigators were still working Friday to confirm their belief that a body found in Spengler's burned home was that of the sister he lived with, Cheryl Spengler, 67.
U.S. Attorney William Hochul said Nguyen bought the two guns on June 6, 2010, on behalf of Spengler. Police used the serial numbers on the guns to trace them to Nguyen.
"She told the seller of these guns, Gander Mountain in Henrietta, N.Y., that she was to be the true owner and buyer of the guns instead of William Spengler," Hochul said. "It is absolutely against federal law to provide any materially false information related to the acquisition of firearms."
During an interview late on Christmas Eve, she told police she had bought the guns for personal protection and that they were stolen from her vehicle, though she never reported the guns stolen. The day after the shootings, Nguyen texted an off-duty Monroe County Sheriff's deputy with references to the killings. She later called the deputy and admitted she bought the guns for Spengler, police said Friday.
That information was consistent with a suicide note found near Spengler's body after he killed himself. The rambling, typed letter spelled out Spengler's intention to destroy his neighborhood and "do what I like doing best, killing people."
Nguyen is scheduled to return to court on Jan. 8. She declined comment Friday, and a working phone number for her lawyer could not be found.
The .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle, which had a combat-style flash suppressor, is similar to the one used by the gunman who massacred 20 children and six women in a Newtown, Conn., elementary school earlier this month.
As police announced the charges against Nguyen, a clearer portrait of Spengler began to emerge, in the words of wary parole commissioners who kept him locked up until the law said they had to let him go.
At his final parole hearing in 1995, the then-45-year-old Spengler repeated his desire to get out of prison while he still had time to rebuild his life. He also took issue with a previous decision not to release him because the board believed he remained a danger to society.
"You know, the only area of confusion, the last Board, they said that I might be a danger to the community at that time," he said. "I can't figure out where in my record it shows that."
"Well, 13 shots to the head. The grandmother. You killed a 92-year-old woman. We are worried about that," a board member replied. "There might be another occasion where you lose your temper and you might repeat that behavior. That is what frightens us. That frightens us."
During four hearings between 1989 and 1995, Spengler quarreled with parole board members over details of his grandmother's killing, insisting each time he'd only hit her three times on the head with a hammer while evidence pointed to 13 blows, and initially saying he couldn't explain why the attack happened.
He told the commissioners he took care of his father's mother in her home next to his because others in the family had difficulty dealing with her, in part because she could be violent. He denied insinuations he was taking financial advantage of Rose Spengler.
The transcripts reveal a well-spoken man, proud to be staying out of trouble in prison and earning positions of trust and responsibility, even time out of prison with a work crew that did renovation work in places including a century-old chapel. The board members mention Spengler testing high for intelligence and noted he came to prison with no other crimes on his record, had only dabbled in drug use and had a spotty work history, mostly as a house painter.
On the day of the killing, he said, he planned to nail shut a basement door to prevent his grandmother from going down and endangering herself. But he said she attacked him, inadvertently kneed him in the groin, and he hit her with the hammer.
"So why do you think you killed her?" Spengler was asked in 1989.
"I still haven't figured that out. It was matter of just wanting to get out. She was between me and the door," he replied.
"She was just a little, bitty old lady," a board member commented.
"I realize that. That's why I still can't explain it," Spengler said.
Do you know a child who loves trains? Then I have the perfect giveaway for you. The folks at Chuggington are giving a way one of their Chuggington Die-Cast 10-in-1 Layout Track Packs along with 2 engines. Contest details after the jump. Prize: Chuggington Die-Cast 10-in-1 Layout Track Pack ($39.99 value) 2 engines will be [...]
By Lauren Jiggetts and Lauren Petty, NBCChicago.com
A man gunned down Thursday on Chicago's west side marked what police say is the city's 500th homicide of the year. It's a dubious distinction that hasn't occurred since 2008, when the city ended the year with 512 murders.
Police are releasing few details about the shooting that happened around 9 p.m. in the 4900 block of West Augusta. The man was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he died.
At a peace dinner held Thursday, residents came together to talk about ways to end violence. Alderman Anthony Beale, who is running for Jesse Jackson Jr.'s old 2nd Congressional District seat, said Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy needs to change strategies.
"His philosophy is not working,"?Beale said. "We need to put resources where the problems are, and then you will see crime drop across the city."
Chicago surpassed 2011's 435 murder total in October
Police said Chicago's 499th homicide victim was a man who died after he was shot at least four times ? including in the face and chest ? in a Gage Park neighborhood alley Wednesday night on the Southwest Side.
Frederico Martinez, of the 5400 block of South California Avenue, died from gunshot wounds he suffered near his home, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner?s office.
Police said the 32-year-old Martinez was standing with a female in an alleyway down the block from his home when a light-colored pick-up truck approached and somebody inside opened fire.
Martinez was shot in the face, chest and both arms and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he died, authorities said.
Behind the troubling statistics, flashing lights and crime tape, communities throughout the city are searching for solutions.
"There's no magic spell that can end it. It's a matter of people and neighborhoods coming together and deciding that it's not going to happen," said neighbor Robert Grider.
Larry Pickens, who is running in the special election in the 2nd Congressional seat, offered a few suggestions Thursday: "Teaching our young people alternative dispute resolution, non-violent strategies for addressing conflict and getting guns off the street."
Often called as a silent-killer, ovarian cervical uterine cancer claims a number of lives every year. This particular cancer is prevalent amongst females of all ages. People who have an ancestral history of this disease are at a higher risk. It is thus significant to be knowledgeable about the disease and the different degrees of its intensity.
Symptoms of ovarian cervical uterine cancer
Ovarian cervical uterine cancer symptoms are often misinterpreted as the indications for some other fatal diseases. However, a few of the general symptoms which become perceptible at the initial stages consist of abdominal uneasiness which is lead towards bloating. These intensify with time.
Moreover, there is a pattern of irregular urinary condition even though there is no infection. Digestion and nausea problem also encompass together with inflation and inexplicable pain in pelvic area.
Detection and determination
Screening is the top method for detecting this disease. The detection comprises of pelvic exam including the vagina check up as well as the uterus check up which is performed by a medical expert. The latest technology in the field of examining this condition includes an annual blood-test. Despite the rare detection in the inceptive phases, early diagnosis contributes towards the success percentage of the termination this cancer.
Treatment of ovarian cervical uterine cancer
Ones the certification of this particular cancer is done along with its dispersion all over the patient, the treatment is carried on via surgery to eliminate the malicious tissue. It depends on the grade of the cancer, though the complete elimination from the uterus as well as the ovaries is unavoidable. Post-surgery the radiotherapy gets into effect as it destroys the remaining cancer cells. Another option that is well accepted and is helpful is chemotherapy.
Like other organs of the body, there could be cancer in the cervix as well. It is considered to be the second most prone organ to develop cancer, the first being the breast cancer. The cervix cancer does not have a characteristic of developing quickly. It develops gradually it is only noticeable when a person goes for a physical or screening exam. There are a number of options for cervical cancer treatment.
Different options of cervical cancer treatment
The medical industry has multiple options for treating this category of cancer. Hysterectomy is the most accepted method where the uterus is removed through a surgery. The lymph nodes are also removed together with the uterus if it is observed that the cancer has reached an advanced stage. Women undergoing hysterectomy treatment loose their capability of giving birth to children.
Though there are a number of gentle ways for treating cervical cancer, keeping the maternal capabilities unharmed. For women who want to remain fertile have a number of options to choose for cervical cancer treatment. Loop electrosurgical excision or LEEP is an established process. There are a number of benefits of this kind of treatment, inexpensive, a high degree of success rate, no major surgeries required, and application of local anesthesia are a few to name.
Cone biopsy is another option for cervical cancer treatment. Another method is cone biopsy. The surgical procedure includes eliminating only the cone shaped samples out of the mucous membrane, followed by radiation therapy.
Trachelectomy, a treatment for those on who the Cone biopsy does not show positive results. In this kind of surgery only the effected area is treated, the veracity of the ovaries as well as the uterus is maintained. However, it can only be performed if the cancer has not spread to the other parts of the uterus. There are a very few surgeons who are specialized in performing such intricate and complicated process.
Author?s Bio:
?
Jeffrey Eugenides is an experienced medical practitioner who has been writing a lot of posts related to various medical advancements. You will also find his posts on cord blood banking to be very informative to you.
Ovarian Cervical Uterine Cancer ? Latest Technologies to Eliminate the Silent Killer
DALLAS (AP) ? A grand jury in Texas has formally indicted Dallas Cowboys nose tackle Josh Brent on one count of intoxication manslaughter.
Brent is charged in connection with a Dec. 8 crash that killed his friend and Cowboys practice squad member Jerry Brown. He is out of jail on $100,000 bond.
Dallas County District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Debbie Denmon says the indictment was returned Wednesday.
Police in the Dallas suburb of Irving say Brent was speeding when his vehicle struck a curb and flipped. Brown was pronounced dead at an area hospital.
Intoxication manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Brent could be eligible for probation.
Britney Spears isn't finishing the year on a heartwarming note. The X Factor judge may have divorced Kevin Federline in 2006, but she's still dealing with the fallout of that marriage -- and now Kevin's older brother Christopher Federline is seeking a restraining order against his former sister-in-law and is calling Spears a "maniac."
Dec. 26, 2012 ? A new way to use MRI scans may help determine whether dementia is Alzheimer's disease or another type of dementia, according to new research published in the December 26, 2012, online issue of Neurology?, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) often have similar symptoms, even though the underlying disease process is much different.
"Diagnosis can be challenging," said study author Corey McMillan, PhD, of the Perelman School of Medicine and Frontotemporal Degeneration Center at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. "If the clinical symptoms and routine brain MR are equal, an expensive positron emission tomography (PET) scan might be needed. Or, a lumbar puncture, which involves inserting a needle into the spine, would be needed to help make the diagnosis. Analysis of the cerebrospinal fluid gives us reliable diagnostic information, but this is not something patients look forward to and is also expensive. Using this new MRI method is less expensive and definitely less invasive."
The study involved 185 people who had been diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease consistent with Alzheimer's disease or FTLD and had a lumbar puncture and a high resolution MRI. Of the 185, the diagnosis was confirmed in 32 people either by autopsy or by determining that they had a genetic mutation associated with one of the diseases.
Researchers used the MRIs to predict the ratio of two biomarkers for the diseases in the cerebrospinal fluid, the proteins tau and beta-amyloid. The MRI prediction method was 75 percent accurate at identifying the correct diagnosis in those with pathology-confirmed diagnoses and those with biomarker levels obtained by lumbar punctures, which shows similar accuracy of the MRI and lumbar puncture methods.
"Developing a new method for diagnosis is important because potential treatments target the underlying abnormal proteins, so we need to know which disease to treat," McMillan said. "This could be used as a screening method and any borderline cases could follow up with the lumbar puncture or PET scan. This method would also be helpful in clinical trials where it may be important to monitor these biomarkers repeatedly over time to determine whether a treatment was working, and it would be much less invasive than repeated lumbar punctures."
The study was supported by the Wyncote Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Academy of Neurology (AAN).
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Journal Reference:
Corey T. McMillan, Brian Avants, David J. Irwin, Jon B. Toledo, David A. Wolk, Vivianna M. Van Deerlin, Leslie M. Shaw, John Q. Trojanoswki, and Murray Grossman. Can MRI screen for CSF biomarkers in neurodegenerative disease?Neurology, 2012 DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e31827b9147
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.
FILE - In this photo taken June 25, 2011, file photo, Toyota keys sit in a fish bowl at the Toyota of Tampa Bay dealership in Tampa, Fla. A plaintiffs' attorney on Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012, says Toyota Motor Corp. has reached a settlement in a case involving hundreds of lawsuits over accelerations problems. Steve Berman said Wednesday the settlement, which still needs a federal judge's approval, was worth more than $1 billion and is the largest settlement in U.S. history involving automobile defects. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)
FILE - In this photo taken June 25, 2011, file photo, Toyota keys sit in a fish bowl at the Toyota of Tampa Bay dealership in Tampa, Fla. A plaintiffs' attorney on Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012, says Toyota Motor Corp. has reached a settlement in a case involving hundreds of lawsuits over accelerations problems. Steve Berman said Wednesday the settlement, which still needs a federal judge's approval, was worth more than $1 billion and is the largest settlement in U.S. history involving automobile defects. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)
In this Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012, photo, a Toyota dealership signs glows over a car lot in Tustin Calif. A plaintiffs' attorney on Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012, says Toyota Motor Corp. has reached a settlement in a case involving hundreds of lawsuits over accelerations problems. Steve Berman said Wednesday the settlement, which still needs a federal judge's approval, was worth more than $1 billion and is the largest settlement in U.S. history involving automobile defects. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it has reached a settlement worth more than $1 billion in a case involving unintended acceleration problems in its vehicles.
The company said the deal will resolve hundreds of lawsuits from Toyota owners who said the value of their cars and trucks plummeted after a series of recalls stemming from claims that Toyota vehicles accelerated unintentionally.
Steve Berman, a lawyer representing Toyota owners, said the settlement is the largest in U.S. history involving automobile defects.
"We kept fighting and fighting and we secured what we think was a good settlement given the risks of this litigation," Berman told The Associated Press.
The proposed deal was filed Wednesday and must receive the approval of U.S. District Judge James Selna, who was expected to review the settlement Friday.
Toyota said it will take a one-time, $1.1 billion pre-tax charge against earnings to cover the estimated costs of the settlement. Berman said the total value of the deal is between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion.
Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against Toyota since 2009, when the Japanese automaker started receiving numerous complaints that its cars accelerated on their own, causing crashes, injuries and even deaths.
The cases were consolidated in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana and divided into two categories: economic loss and wrongful death. Claims by people who seek compensation for injury and death due to sudden acceleration are not part of the settlement; the first trial involving those suits is scheduled for February.
As part of the economic loss settlement, Toyota will offer cash payments from a pool of about $250 million to eligible customers who sold vehicles or turned in leased vehicles between September 2009 and December 2010.
The company also will launch a $250 million program for 16 million current owners to provide supplemental warranty coverage for certain vehicle components, and it will retrofit about 3.2 million vehicles with a brake override system. An override system is designed to ensure a car will stop when the brakes are applied, even if the accelerator pedal is depressed.
The settlement would also establish additional driver education programs and fund new research into advanced safety technologies.
"In keeping with our core principles, we have structured this agreement in ways that work to put our customers first and demonstrate that they can count on Toyota to stand behind our vehicles," said Christopher Reynolds, Toyota vice president and general counsel.
Current and former Toyota owners are expected to receive more information about the settlement in the coming months. Some information is also available at http://www.ToyotaELsettlement.com , a website created for Toyota owners affected by the settlement.
"We are extraordinarily proud of how we were able to represent the interests of Toyota owners, and believe this settlement is both comprehensive in its scope and fair in compensation," Berman said.
Toyota has recalled more than 14 million vehicles worldwide due to acceleration problems in several models and brake defects with the Prius hybrid. The automaker has blamed driver error, faulty floor mats and stuck accelerator pedals for the problems.
Plaintiffs' attorneys have spent the past two years deposing Toyota employees, poring over thousands of documents and reviewing software code, but the company maintains those lawyers have been unable to prove that a design defect ? namely Toyota's electronic throttle control system ? was responsible for vehicles surging unexpectedly.
Both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and NASA were unable to find any defects in Toyota's source code that could cause problems.
The company has been dogged by fines for not reporting problems in a timely manner.
Earlier this month, NHTSA doled out a record $17.4 million fine to Toyota for failing to quickly report floor mat problems with some of its Lexus models. Toyota paid a total of $48.8 million in fines for three violations in 2010.
Toyota President Akio Toyoda appeared before Congress last year and pledged to strengthen quality control. Recent sales figures show the company appears to have rebounded following its safety issues.
You might have noticed, in Part 1, my contempt for the entitled laziness of some skippers. On reflection I must hedge. My portrait of a pampered ?yachtsman? might apply unfairly to the larger group of ?those who sail,? as was suggested by a recent visit to Portland Yacht Services.
At the end of November, I joined my neighbor Luke in examining a 25-foot sailboat at the PYS yard. Luke and his wife already own a sailboat, but he knows of my interest in sailing, and thought it would make a perfect ?first boat?. He knew the owner. And the price was right: free.
It taught me a little about the yachting world and a lot about myself. No facade of grim formality received us at the PYS office: just some friendly grey-haired guys with calculators. It was a refreshingly capitalist exchange. I was never so delighted to be an anonymous consumer.
Of course, the numbers they crunched did not sum to zero. First of all, there was a winter storage fee of more than $1,000. Shrink-wrap was a few hundred more. Spring launching, more. And the cutlass bearing is going to fail at some point?
So, even if Luke?s friend did give away his sailboat, I?d be knee deep in commitment before it ever touched the sea. It was a frightening thought, and it struck me that while I often pined for the comforts of a sailboat, they weren?t worth the headaches.
My acceptance of windsurfing as a cheap alternative to (traditional) sailing is, I realized, actually a preference. Though a year or two of sailing might cost no more than my $4,000 investment in windsurfing gear, I?d rather have the versatility of windsurfing than the comfort and range of a sailboat.
How much is it costing me to store my windsurfing equipment this winter? Zero dollars. Spring launching? Zero. Take it to the lake? Zero. There is something deeply gratifying about its human scale. I carry it to the water. Then it carries me. We can travel on either side of the water?s edge. It seems almost magical.
That is why, in planning my resumption of the trek, I opted for kayaking. While it lacks the alluring promise of a free ride, it fits perfectly with my freshly acquired ?amphibious? mandate: to travel by water ?with my bed on my back?, and, at any moment, take to shore and disappear.
?Roll or Die.?
So said the bumper of an old Volvo wagon that just pulled in to the East End landing with two kayaks on top. A short, athletic young woman bounded out of the driver?s seat. She wore a braid of jet-black hair, from which many wily strands had drifted. She walked, I thought, like a tomboy.
It was early September. The parking lot was full of kayaks, including mine. I was going out paddling to practice ?eskimo? rolls. Everyone else, it seemed, was part of a class. She was one of the instructors.
I told her I was heartened by the sentiment of ?Roll or Die?. For the Inuits who first developed the kayak (and the roll) in icy northern waters, it was literally true. In our warmer waters, and with modern gear, it?s easier to get back into a kayak. But any such ?recovery? is a poor substitute to rolling. In rough conditions, it could come down to ?Roll or Die?.
I had learned to roll last summer by watching YouTube videos. I didn?t even have a spray skirt yet. I flipped over, thrashed around a little bit, failed a few times, and then, to my great surprise, succeeded. Some days later I tried again, but failed completely. Not even close. The required movements seemed impossible to imagine from an upside-down point-of-view, with water all around and air underneath.
In late August of this summer, we visited my in-laws on Shelter Island, New York. I brought my kayak and a book on eskimo rolling and practiced in the pool for hours. I wanted a ?bomb-proof? roll, a dependable, instinctive roll. I studied techniques, variations and drawbacks, and gradually it became easier. I wore a diving mask so that I could see what I was doing, and to keep water out of my nose.
I was confident, I dare say ?prepared? for the second leg of my trip.
MUMBAI (Reuters) - The rupee fell for a second session on Thursday, dragged by a late slide in the domestic stock market and a fall in the euro, with a crucial inflation number on Friday to give cues ahead of the central bank's rate setting meeting next week.
Shares fell for a fifth day as dealers booked profits in a market which has outperformed its regional peers in 2012 and seen capital inflows of over $20 billion.
The rupee has been supported in recent sessions by inflows on shares sales by state-run miner NMDC Ltd and Bharti Infratel.
About 30 percent of NMDC's $1.1 billion share sale was picked up by foreign investors, sources told Reuters.
Bharti's up to $830 million initial public offering was fully covered by Thursday, a day ahead of issue close.
The rupee's losses were also caused by a rebound in the global dollar on Thursday as investors looked past an expected Fed outcome and booked profits on short dollar positions.
"The recovery in the global dollar and a fall in stocks just turned the tide against the rupee," said Hemal Doshi, currency strategist at Geojit Comtrade.
"Unless the USD/INR closes below 54.25, it will stay in a 54.25-54.80 range."
The partially convertible rupee closed at 54.46/47 per dollar, weaker than its Wednesday's close of 54.32/33.
Investors are now looking forward to the inflation data on Friday, with a Reuters poll showing a 7.60 percent rise in October.
India's central bank is likely to hold rates steady on December 18, but views on a cash reserve ratio cut were split, a Reuters poll conducted before the data release showed.
Credit Agricole, however, expects the rupee to gain next year with a December-end target of 52 to the dollar.
"The INR is trading at relatively attractive levels in REER terms, and seems to have priced in many of the fundamental problems it faces," the brokerage said in a note, referring to the real effective exchange rate (REER).
In the offshore non-deliverable forwards, the one-month contract was at 54.78, while the three-month was at 55.31.
In the currency futures market, the most-traded near-month dollar/rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange, the MCX-SX and the United Stock Exchange all closed at around 54.6450, with total traded volume of $5.2 billion.
(Reuters) - A long-running legal dispute between Bank of America Corp and insurer MBIA Inc could be settled in early 2013 after recent maneuvers involving MBIA's bonds, analysts at research firm CreditSights wrote.
MBIA won the necessary consent of bondholders to change the terms of some of its debt last month, despite a move by Bank of America to thwart the change. That outcome has reduced the bank's negotiating leverage, increasing the likelihood of a settlement, the analysts wrote in a report dated Tuesday.
Bank of America, the second largest U.S. bank by assets, last week also said that it was proceeding with an offer to buy some of MBIA's bonds, which could be part of a settlement strategy, according to the report. The bank took a similar approach in a pact this year with insurer Syncora Holdings Ltd , CreditSights said.
"We speculate that BofA is adding exposure to MBIA's capital structure to conceal the amount of a settlement so as to not set a precedent for negotiations with other litigants," analysts Rob Haines and Eric Axon wrote.
MBIA and Bank of America declined comment.
The legal wrangling is a major cloud hanging over both companies, which have struggled to recover from mortgage-related troubles from the financial crisis.
MBIA claims that Bank of America owes it billions of dollars over soured mortgages that it wants the bank to buy back. Bank of America says the insurer owes it billions over certain credit default swap transactions.
CreditSights said it expects a comprehensive settlement that would cover both issues.
MBIA proposed the changes to its debt on November 7 to eliminate the risk that it might be considered in default if a troubled insurance unit were put into rehabilitation or liquidation by the New York State Department of Financial Services.
MBIA said at the time that if there were such a default, it would have insufficient liquidity to make good on the notes and would probably immediately pursue other actions, including bankruptcy.
Bank of America countered with an offer to buy MBIA bonds, saying it believed the changes would increase the risk of MBIA's insurance unit being placed in rehabilitation or liquidation. That would jeopardize all policyholder claims, including Bank of America's, the bank said. But on November 26, MBIA said it won the necessary consent of bondholders to make the changes.
On December 5, Bank of America said it waived certain conditions in order to continue with its offer to buy MBIA bonds through Tuesday. It has not said whether it has extended the offer.
CreditSights said MBIA could avoid regulatory seizure for three to four years or potentially altogether if a settlement with Bank of America occurs.
Meanwhile, lawyers for MBIA were in New York State court on Wednesday arguing that at least $12.7 billion of the loans in question were defective. Bank of America's Countrywide mortgage unit disputed that fact.
The hearing is set to resume on Thursday.
Bank of America bought subprime lender Countrywide Financial in 2008.
(Reporting By Rick Rothacker in Charlotte, N.C. and Karen Freifeld in New York; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Leslie Gevirtz)
In slightly puzzling news, Google appears to have pulled the Nexus 4 Android 4.2.x system images from its online repository of factory images. These files allow devices to be restored to their original state, so if something goes wrong when flashing a ROM or otherwise tinkering with your phone, there's an easy way back to stock.
Factory images for other Android 4.2 devices, such as the Nexus 10, Nexus 7, Nexus 7 3G and Galaxy Nexus remain on Google's site, so it'd appear whatever caused them to be withdrawn is specific to the Nexus 4.
Our best guess is that this might relate to the LTE situation on the Nexus 4. By changing a hidden setting, it's possible to use the N4 on LTE networks running on Band 4 (AWS), though this is not officially documented or approved by regulators. And that last part may be key -- if Google is preparing to patch this hidden LTE option out of the Nexus 4 -- as it'd be required to do to avoid falling foul of bodies like the FCC -- then clearing out earlier factory images might simply be a precaution. It's possible Google's looking to keep regulators happy by making it harder to find the earlier radio code that enabled this unlicensed LTE functionality. That's just speculation on our part, however, there may be a much more innocuous explanation.
In any case, we'll keep you posted on any further developments.
One day in 2005 Hamdi Ulukaya, owner of a small feta cheese company in upstate New York, took a tour that would change his life. As he walked through the 100-year-old yogurt factory, a handful of employees were busying themselves with the work of shutting the factory down.
?On the way back, I called my attorney and I said, ?I just saw a plant and I think I want to buy it,?? explains Ulukaya, a 40-year-old immigrant who grew up on a dairy farm in eastern Turkey. ?He said, "You?re really, really crazy. That's not going to happen.?"
But Ulukaya saw something in the defunct factory that no one else did: an opportunity to bring the yogurt of his youth to the masses. So using loans of less than $1 million, some backed by the Small Business Administration, he bought the plant.
Ulukaya spent the next two years developing the recipe for Chobani yogurt.
NBC News
Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya and Rock Center's Harry Smith.
?That place became my home,? Ulukaya told Rock Center's Harry Smith in an interview airing Thursday, Dec. 13 at 10pm/9CT on Rock Center with Brian Williams. ?It was lonely days, difficult days, a lot of question marks, a lot of pressure to see if I would make it to the next day.?
No longer does Ulukaya have to worry if his company will make its next payroll.
WATCH: Chobani founder on billion dollar Greek yogurt business
Since launching in 2007, Chobani has grown into a $1 billion business, according to Ulukaya, with no signs of slowing down. He also did something arguably more impressive: he changed what Americans eat.
Before Chobani came along, Greek yogurt sales in America were nearly nonexistent. Now, more than a third of the yogurt we eat is Greek, and Chobani is the biggest seller.
Ulukaya's personal wealth is now valued at $1.1 billion by the Bloomberg Billionaire's Index.
Impact on the local community
The good fortune, though, is not only his. Chobani's rise has been a lifeline for one of the most economically depressed parts of the country: rural upstate New York. This area was struggling long before the recession hit, with tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs disappearing in the last few decades.
?I expected the plant to sit there vacant [after Kraft left]. I had these visions of it becoming dilapidated and falling apart,? says Maria Wilcox, one of the four remaining Kraft workers that Ulukaya hired from New Berlin, the tiny town where the plant is located.?
Growing from those first few workers, Chobani now employs more than 1,300 people in upstate New York and has made $193 million in capital investments on the old factory.
?Other companies came and looked at the plant and the surrounding area and left. [Ulukaya] always had a vision for the plant here that included the community,? says New Berlin Mayor Terry Potter.? ?He?s brought a sense of rejuvenation to the community.?
Along with good-paying jobs, Chobani built New Berlin its first little league field, free of charge.
Chobani also trucks 4 million pounds of milk daily to its New Berlin factory from the area's 5,300 dairy farms. New York produced some 530 million pounds of yogurt in 2011 -- more than twice 2008 levels ? and a direct result of Greek yogurt production.
A new kind of CEO
Ulukaya has been able to accomplish all of this so quickly by bypassing many of the traditional models for business success, especially in the food industry. Instead of focus groups, consultants and big marketing campaigns, Ulukaya has focused on perfecting his product based on response from consumers. Ulukaya still has messages from customers (every single one) forwarded to his cell phone daily.
The company has been particularly good at harnessing the power of positive feedback online.
?The communication is so fast; you don't need huge money for the marketing or your voice to be heard,? says Ulukaya. ?It's a flat world.?
In fact, Chobani has only launched two television ad campaigns, the most recent during the 2012 London Olympics, for which they were an official sponsor. Ulukaya had to pull the ads because the factory couldn?t keep up with the increased demand.
Chobani runs on the idea that consumers? voices will shape the market; with the internet, word of mouth is a more valuable marketing tool than ads, says Ulukaya. This helps new guys on the scene make a big impact quickly. And, he adds, it?s their responsibility to challenge the status quo.
?It's a shame what's in the supermarkets today,? says Ulukaya. ?It doesn't have to have all these preservatives.? It doesn't have to have all these bad colors and stuff like that. . . It's the manufacturer's responsibility. They can make it better. They can make it nutritious, and they can make it accessible. That's what we did in Chobani.?
So what?s next for the company?
Chobani just opened its first retail store, a boutique yogurt bar in SoHo, this summer. Now customers can sit down to enjoy a ?yogurt creation," with gourmet fresh toppings and, of course, Chobani.
Ulukaya is coy about what?s on the horizon for Chobani as far as new products, but he?s clear about one thing: this is only the beginning.
Editor's Note: Harry Smith's full report airs Thursday, Dec. 12 at 10pm/9CT on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams.
SU2C, Cancer Research Institute announce new immunology translational research dream teamPublic release date: 12-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Rick Buck rick.buck@aacr.org 215-446-7162 American Association for Cancer Research
PHILADELPHIA Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) and the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) announce the formation of a Dream Team project dedicated to cancer immunology "Immunologic Checkpoint Blockade and Adoptive Cell Transfer in Cancer Therapy." Cancer immunology is a field of research that explores the complex relationship between cancer and the immune system, with the goal of discovering immune-based solutions to curing cancer.
The SU2C-CRI Cancer Immunology Translational Research Dream Team will receive $10 million in funding over three years for this translational cancer research project that will unite laboratory and clinical efforts leading to the immunological treatment, control and prevention of cancer.
The team will be led by James P. Allison, Ph.D., and Antoni Ribas, M.D., Ph.D. Allison is chairman of the department of immunology, director of the immunotherapy platform and co-director of the David H. Koch Center for Applied Research of Genitourinary Cancers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Ribas is professor of medicine, surgery and molecular and medical pharmacology, director of the tumor immunology program area at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, and member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
"The goal of our Dream Team is to expand, optimize and explore combinations of two novel immunotherapies, immune checkpoint blockade and adoptive T-cell transfer," said Allison. "It is our dream, indeed our expectation, that by optimizing these two uniquely successful and complementary approaches, we will be able achieve durable responses in a large percentage of patients suffering from a variety of types of cancer."
"The SU2C-CRI Dream Team brings together a leading group of tumor immunologists working to speed up the pace of scientific advances to use the immune system to fight cancer," said Ribas.
Co-leaders of the Dream Team are Drew M. Pardoll, M.D., Ph.D., and Cassian Yee, M.D. Pardoll is director of the division of immunology and Abeloff professor in the departments of oncology, medicine, pathology and molecular biology and genetics at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. Yee is a member of the Clinical Research Division and program in immunology at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; a professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine; and an attending physician at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance in Seattle, Wash.
Scientists on this Dream Team represent eight institutions: MD Anderson Cancer Center, UCLA, The Johns Hopkins University, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, California Institute of Technology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Netherlands Cancer Institute.
"The clinical advances in immunotherapy just in the past two years have shown that these strategies indeed empower the patient's own immune system to successfully fight their cancer. Single interventions opened the door; the future is combinatorial therapy, and the synergistic expertise of our Dream Team will catalyze the development of the most innovative combinations," said Pardoll.
"Adoptive T cell therapy in recent years has really come into its own. Novel strategies to generate long-lasting, highly effective T cells are being developed, and in combination with new immunomodulatory agents like the checkpoint inhibitors, we can fully exploit the immune system to treat patients with cancer. We are so fortunate to now have the opportunity to explore these new frontiers in immunotherapy," said Yee.
Significant scientific developments in the field of cancer immunology and the recent FDA approvals of two cancer immunotherapies highlight the field's potential to transform cancer treatment. The formation of this Dream Team focused on this promising area of cancer research aligns with CRI's 60-year mission to advance cancer immunology and SU2C's mission to accelerate the translation of scientific discovery into new treatments for cancer patients.
"Because of my deep respect for the innovative approach to cancer research taken by Stand Up To Cancer, I wanted to support the creation of a team dedicated to this emerging area of research," said tech entrepreneur and philanthropist Sean Parker. "I am delighted that SU2C and the Cancer Research Institute have combined their expertise to select a Dream Team with such great potential to move the field forward through cutting-edge technology and science."
"Cancer immunology, a field which the Cancer Research Institute pioneered and has led for sixty years, is a high-potential area of medical research that is producing some of today's greatest breakthroughs in cancer patient treatment, and I am confident that this Dream Team is going to succeed in making the next great advance," said Jill O'Donnell-Tormey, Ph.D., chief executive officer and director of scientific affairs at CRI.
"Stand Up To Cancer is excited to make this investment in exploring strategies that can activate and enhance the body's own natural ability to fight cancer. The field of cancer immunology is ripe with possible breakthroughs that could change the landscape of cancer treatment, and thus perfectly suited to Stand Up To Cancer's mission to accelerate research that can make more cancer patients survivors," said Sherry Lansing, SU2C co-founder, founder of the Sherry Lansing Foundation, and chairperson of the Entertainment Industry Foundation's (EIF) Board of Directors. (SU2C is a program of EIF, which is a 501(c)3 charitable organization.)
"Along with collaboration, innovation is a pillar of SU2C's model of cancer research, and we are incredibly grateful to have the support of a true innovator in the world of technology like Sean Parker," said SU2C Co-founder Rusty Robertson. "With this immunology-focused Dream Team, we have the opportunity to utilize Sean Parker's generous contribution to advance a cutting-edge field that holds great potential to save lives."
The SU2C-CRI Cancer Immunology Translational Research Project
Cancer immunologists have long hypothesized that specific interventions could stimulate and "re-educate" patients' own immune systems to attack their cancer. In one immunology-based cancer treatment approach, what kills cancer cells is a type of white blood cell called the T lymphocyte. Expanding these T lymphocytes outside the body, engineering them to be more potent and reinfusing these souped up anti-cancer lymphocytes into patients a process termed adoptive cell therapy or ACT is like adding more soldiers to the immune army. However, lymphocytes also have inhibitory receptors, termed checkpoints, that put the brakes on immune responses. Cancers exploit these checkpoints to resist immune attack by the anti-tumor lymphocytes. Blocking checkpoints with specific antibodies disables the brake and allows the immune system to get the upper hand.
The Dream Team will focus on two approaches to overcome these obstacles. First, they will investigate checkpoint blockade, where the checkpoints themselves are inhibited using antibodies, once again allowing T lymphocytes to kill the cancer cells. Second, the team will pursue multiple ACT approaches.
Using tumors obtained from patients, the team will evaluate checkpoint expression before and after ACT and/or checkpoint blockade, and will test the hypothesis that multiple T lymphocyte targets are generated in the tumor. The clinical impact of this project lies with the potential synergy of combining these two immunology-based therapeutic approaches to treat a range of tumor types to improve the lives of patients with cancer.
The project is estimated to start in the spring of 2013, with the first clinical trials scheduled to open in early 2014.
Dream Team Selected Through Unique, Rigorous Process
A SU2C-CRI Joint Scientific Advisory Committee (JSAC) conducted a unique, interactive, rapid and rigorous evaluation of the applications using a multi-step scientific review process. The JSAC is composed of highly accomplished senior laboratory researchers and physician-scientists, as well as patient advocates.
The committee is chaired by Nobel laureate Phillip A. Sharp, Ph.D., institute professor at the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is co-chaired by Giorgio Trinchieri, M.D., and Carl H. June, M.D. Trinchieri is director of the Cancer and Inflammation Program and chief of the Laboratory of Experimental Immunology at the Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, and associate director for basic science at the Trans-NIH Center for Human Immunology. June is director of translational research at the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania, and is an investigator with the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute. He is also a professor in the department of pathology and laboratory medicine.
The review process began with a call for letters of intent in March of 2012 by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), SU2C's scientific partner. The committee then chose four finalist teams, each of which met in person with the JSAC to present plans for their research and respond to questions about their projects a level of interaction between applicants and reviewers that is unique among scientific review processes.
The AACR is responsible for administering the grant and provides ongoing scientific oversight to ensure that progress is being made. Since the launch of Stand Up To Cancer, the AACR has played an integral role as SU2C's scientific partner by providing scientific leadership, expert peer review and grants administration.
Dream Team Principals and Advocate Members
The "Immunologic Checkpoint Blockade and Adoptive Cell Transfer in Cancer Therapy" Dream Team consists of a multidisciplinary group of experts that includes laboratory and clinical researchers, young investigators and senior scientists who have not worked together in the past, as well as patient advocates. Besides Allison, Ribas, Pardoll and Yee, team members include:
Principals:
David Baltimore, Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.
Glenn Dranoff, M.D., Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Mass.
Philip D. Greenberg, M.D., Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Wash.
Michel Sadelain, M.D., Ph.D., Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, N.Y.
Ton Schumacher, Ph.D., Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Jedd D. Wolchok, M.D., Ph.D., Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, N.Y.
Advocates:
Robert E. Behrens, REB Investments Inc.
Debra Black, Melanoma Research Alliance
Roy Doumani, cancer survivor
Valerie Guild, Aim at Melanoma
Jonathan W. Simons, M.D., Prostate Cancer Foundation
Mary Elizabeth Williams, Salon.com
Since Stand Up To Cancer's launch in 2008, SU2C has awarded grants to nine Dream Teams and one International Translational Cancer Research Grant. Twenty-six Innovative Research Grants have been awarded to individual young investigators. These recipients comprise more than 450 scientists from 87 institutions.
###
Media Contacts:
SU2C
Adam Pockriss
212-843-8286 apockriss@rubenstein.com
CRI
Brian Brewer
917-676-0871 bbrewer@cancerresearch.org
AACR
Rick Buck
215-446-7162 Rick.Buck@aacr.org
About Stand Up To Cancer
Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), a 501(c)3 charitable organization raises funds to hasten the pace of groundbreaking translational research that can get new therapies to patients quickly and save lives. In the fall of 2007, a group of women whose lives have all been affected by cancer in profound ways began working together to marshal the resources of the media and entertainment industries in the fight against this disease.
Members of the SU2C Executive Leadership Council (ELC) include Talk Show Host, Journalist and well-known Cancer Advocate Katie Couric; Sherry Lansing, Chairperson of the Entertainment Industry Foundation's Board of Directors and founder of the Sherry Lansing Foundation; EIF President and CEO Lisa Paulsen; EIF Senior Vice President Kathleen Lobb; Rusty Robertson and Sue Schwartz of the Robertson Schwartz Agency; Pamela Oas Williams, President of Laura Ziskin Productions and Executive Producer of Stand Up To Cancer's In-House Production Team, and Nonprofit Executive Ellen Ziffren. All of the ELC members were co-producers of the 2012 televised special. The late Laura Ziskin, executive producer of both the Sept. 5, 2008 and Sept. 10, 2010 broadcasts, was also a member of the ELC. SU2C was formally launched on May 27, 2008. Sung Poblete, Ph.D., R.N., has served as SU2C's president and CEO since 2011.
SU2C's "Dream Team" approach to funding translational cancer research enables scientists from different disciplines at research centers across the country and internationally to collaborate on projects geared toward getting new, less toxic treatments to patients as quickly as possible. Monies also support innovative cancer research projects that are often deemed "too risky" by conventional funding sources. Sixty-five institutions are currently involved. As SU2C's scientific collaborator, the American Association for Cancer Research, led by a prestigious SU2C Scientific Advisory Committee, provides scientific oversight, expert review of the research projects and grants administration. For more information, visit standup2cancer.org.
About the Cancer Research Institute
The Cancer Research Institute (CRI), a nonprofit established in 1953, is the global leader in cancer immunology. Since its inception, CRI has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to support research conducted by more than 3,000 scientists and clinicians worldwide to understand the immune system and how it can be harnessed to conquer all cancers. This work has laid the foundation for nearly every major cancer immunotherapy breakthrough over the past half century.
Guided by an international panel of the world's leading immunologists and cancer immunologists, including three Nobel laureates and 29 members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, CRI provides essential funding to support every stage of discovery, from laboratory investigation to clinical trials of the most promising cancer immunotherapies for patients.
CRI also sponsors a seminal international symposium on cancer immunology each year, hosts annual scientific colloquia dedicated to overcoming challenges in immunotherapy research and development, forges collaborative partnerships between academia and industry to facilitate the development pathway for novel immunotherapeutics, and presents special recognition awards to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to cancer research, patient care and public awareness.
Through its sustaining support and leadership in the field, CRI is accelerating the development of safe and effective immunotherapies that stand to revolutionize the treatment of all cancers. For more information, visit http://cancerresearch.org or follow CRI on Twitter @CancerResearch.
About the American Association Cancer Research
Founded in 1907, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is the world's first and largest professional association dedicated to advancing cancer research and preventing and curing cancer. AACR membership includes 34,000 laboratory, translational and clinical researchers; population scientists; other health care professionals; and cancer advocates residing in more than 90 countries. The AACR marshals the full spectrum of expertise of the cancer community to accelerate progress in the prevention, biology, diagnosis and treatment of cancer by annually convening more than 20 conferences and educational workshops, the largest of which is the AACR Annual Meeting with more than 17,000 attendees. In addition, the AACR publishes eight peer-reviewed scientific journals and a magazine for cancer survivors, patients and their caregivers. The AACR funds meritorious research directly as well as in cooperation with numerous cancer organizations. As the scientific partner of Stand Up To Cancer, the AACR provides expert peer review, grants administration and scientific oversight of individual and team science grants in cancer research that have the potential for near-term patient benefit. The AACR actively communicates with legislators and policymakers about the value of cancer research and related biomedical science in saving lives from cancer. For more information about the AACR, visit www.AACR.org. Follow the AACR on Twitter: @aacr #aacr. Follow the AACR on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/aacr.org.
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SU2C, Cancer Research Institute announce new immunology translational research dream teamPublic release date: 12-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Rick Buck rick.buck@aacr.org 215-446-7162 American Association for Cancer Research
PHILADELPHIA Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) and the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) announce the formation of a Dream Team project dedicated to cancer immunology "Immunologic Checkpoint Blockade and Adoptive Cell Transfer in Cancer Therapy." Cancer immunology is a field of research that explores the complex relationship between cancer and the immune system, with the goal of discovering immune-based solutions to curing cancer.
The SU2C-CRI Cancer Immunology Translational Research Dream Team will receive $10 million in funding over three years for this translational cancer research project that will unite laboratory and clinical efforts leading to the immunological treatment, control and prevention of cancer.
The team will be led by James P. Allison, Ph.D., and Antoni Ribas, M.D., Ph.D. Allison is chairman of the department of immunology, director of the immunotherapy platform and co-director of the David H. Koch Center for Applied Research of Genitourinary Cancers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Ribas is professor of medicine, surgery and molecular and medical pharmacology, director of the tumor immunology program area at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, and member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
"The goal of our Dream Team is to expand, optimize and explore combinations of two novel immunotherapies, immune checkpoint blockade and adoptive T-cell transfer," said Allison. "It is our dream, indeed our expectation, that by optimizing these two uniquely successful and complementary approaches, we will be able achieve durable responses in a large percentage of patients suffering from a variety of types of cancer."
"The SU2C-CRI Dream Team brings together a leading group of tumor immunologists working to speed up the pace of scientific advances to use the immune system to fight cancer," said Ribas.
Co-leaders of the Dream Team are Drew M. Pardoll, M.D., Ph.D., and Cassian Yee, M.D. Pardoll is director of the division of immunology and Abeloff professor in the departments of oncology, medicine, pathology and molecular biology and genetics at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. Yee is a member of the Clinical Research Division and program in immunology at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; a professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine; and an attending physician at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance in Seattle, Wash.
Scientists on this Dream Team represent eight institutions: MD Anderson Cancer Center, UCLA, The Johns Hopkins University, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, California Institute of Technology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Netherlands Cancer Institute.
"The clinical advances in immunotherapy just in the past two years have shown that these strategies indeed empower the patient's own immune system to successfully fight their cancer. Single interventions opened the door; the future is combinatorial therapy, and the synergistic expertise of our Dream Team will catalyze the development of the most innovative combinations," said Pardoll.
"Adoptive T cell therapy in recent years has really come into its own. Novel strategies to generate long-lasting, highly effective T cells are being developed, and in combination with new immunomodulatory agents like the checkpoint inhibitors, we can fully exploit the immune system to treat patients with cancer. We are so fortunate to now have the opportunity to explore these new frontiers in immunotherapy," said Yee.
Significant scientific developments in the field of cancer immunology and the recent FDA approvals of two cancer immunotherapies highlight the field's potential to transform cancer treatment. The formation of this Dream Team focused on this promising area of cancer research aligns with CRI's 60-year mission to advance cancer immunology and SU2C's mission to accelerate the translation of scientific discovery into new treatments for cancer patients.
"Because of my deep respect for the innovative approach to cancer research taken by Stand Up To Cancer, I wanted to support the creation of a team dedicated to this emerging area of research," said tech entrepreneur and philanthropist Sean Parker. "I am delighted that SU2C and the Cancer Research Institute have combined their expertise to select a Dream Team with such great potential to move the field forward through cutting-edge technology and science."
"Cancer immunology, a field which the Cancer Research Institute pioneered and has led for sixty years, is a high-potential area of medical research that is producing some of today's greatest breakthroughs in cancer patient treatment, and I am confident that this Dream Team is going to succeed in making the next great advance," said Jill O'Donnell-Tormey, Ph.D., chief executive officer and director of scientific affairs at CRI.
"Stand Up To Cancer is excited to make this investment in exploring strategies that can activate and enhance the body's own natural ability to fight cancer. The field of cancer immunology is ripe with possible breakthroughs that could change the landscape of cancer treatment, and thus perfectly suited to Stand Up To Cancer's mission to accelerate research that can make more cancer patients survivors," said Sherry Lansing, SU2C co-founder, founder of the Sherry Lansing Foundation, and chairperson of the Entertainment Industry Foundation's (EIF) Board of Directors. (SU2C is a program of EIF, which is a 501(c)3 charitable organization.)
"Along with collaboration, innovation is a pillar of SU2C's model of cancer research, and we are incredibly grateful to have the support of a true innovator in the world of technology like Sean Parker," said SU2C Co-founder Rusty Robertson. "With this immunology-focused Dream Team, we have the opportunity to utilize Sean Parker's generous contribution to advance a cutting-edge field that holds great potential to save lives."
The SU2C-CRI Cancer Immunology Translational Research Project
Cancer immunologists have long hypothesized that specific interventions could stimulate and "re-educate" patients' own immune systems to attack their cancer. In one immunology-based cancer treatment approach, what kills cancer cells is a type of white blood cell called the T lymphocyte. Expanding these T lymphocytes outside the body, engineering them to be more potent and reinfusing these souped up anti-cancer lymphocytes into patients a process termed adoptive cell therapy or ACT is like adding more soldiers to the immune army. However, lymphocytes also have inhibitory receptors, termed checkpoints, that put the brakes on immune responses. Cancers exploit these checkpoints to resist immune attack by the anti-tumor lymphocytes. Blocking checkpoints with specific antibodies disables the brake and allows the immune system to get the upper hand.
The Dream Team will focus on two approaches to overcome these obstacles. First, they will investigate checkpoint blockade, where the checkpoints themselves are inhibited using antibodies, once again allowing T lymphocytes to kill the cancer cells. Second, the team will pursue multiple ACT approaches.
Using tumors obtained from patients, the team will evaluate checkpoint expression before and after ACT and/or checkpoint blockade, and will test the hypothesis that multiple T lymphocyte targets are generated in the tumor. The clinical impact of this project lies with the potential synergy of combining these two immunology-based therapeutic approaches to treat a range of tumor types to improve the lives of patients with cancer.
The project is estimated to start in the spring of 2013, with the first clinical trials scheduled to open in early 2014.
Dream Team Selected Through Unique, Rigorous Process
A SU2C-CRI Joint Scientific Advisory Committee (JSAC) conducted a unique, interactive, rapid and rigorous evaluation of the applications using a multi-step scientific review process. The JSAC is composed of highly accomplished senior laboratory researchers and physician-scientists, as well as patient advocates.
The committee is chaired by Nobel laureate Phillip A. Sharp, Ph.D., institute professor at the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is co-chaired by Giorgio Trinchieri, M.D., and Carl H. June, M.D. Trinchieri is director of the Cancer and Inflammation Program and chief of the Laboratory of Experimental Immunology at the Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, and associate director for basic science at the Trans-NIH Center for Human Immunology. June is director of translational research at the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania, and is an investigator with the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute. He is also a professor in the department of pathology and laboratory medicine.
The review process began with a call for letters of intent in March of 2012 by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), SU2C's scientific partner. The committee then chose four finalist teams, each of which met in person with the JSAC to present plans for their research and respond to questions about their projects a level of interaction between applicants and reviewers that is unique among scientific review processes.
The AACR is responsible for administering the grant and provides ongoing scientific oversight to ensure that progress is being made. Since the launch of Stand Up To Cancer, the AACR has played an integral role as SU2C's scientific partner by providing scientific leadership, expert peer review and grants administration.
Dream Team Principals and Advocate Members
The "Immunologic Checkpoint Blockade and Adoptive Cell Transfer in Cancer Therapy" Dream Team consists of a multidisciplinary group of experts that includes laboratory and clinical researchers, young investigators and senior scientists who have not worked together in the past, as well as patient advocates. Besides Allison, Ribas, Pardoll and Yee, team members include:
Principals:
David Baltimore, Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.
Glenn Dranoff, M.D., Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Mass.
Philip D. Greenberg, M.D., Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Wash.
Michel Sadelain, M.D., Ph.D., Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, N.Y.
Ton Schumacher, Ph.D., Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Jedd D. Wolchok, M.D., Ph.D., Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, N.Y.
Advocates:
Robert E. Behrens, REB Investments Inc.
Debra Black, Melanoma Research Alliance
Roy Doumani, cancer survivor
Valerie Guild, Aim at Melanoma
Jonathan W. Simons, M.D., Prostate Cancer Foundation
Mary Elizabeth Williams, Salon.com
Since Stand Up To Cancer's launch in 2008, SU2C has awarded grants to nine Dream Teams and one International Translational Cancer Research Grant. Twenty-six Innovative Research Grants have been awarded to individual young investigators. These recipients comprise more than 450 scientists from 87 institutions.
###
Media Contacts:
SU2C
Adam Pockriss
212-843-8286 apockriss@rubenstein.com
CRI
Brian Brewer
917-676-0871 bbrewer@cancerresearch.org
AACR
Rick Buck
215-446-7162 Rick.Buck@aacr.org
About Stand Up To Cancer
Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), a 501(c)3 charitable organization raises funds to hasten the pace of groundbreaking translational research that can get new therapies to patients quickly and save lives. In the fall of 2007, a group of women whose lives have all been affected by cancer in profound ways began working together to marshal the resources of the media and entertainment industries in the fight against this disease.
Members of the SU2C Executive Leadership Council (ELC) include Talk Show Host, Journalist and well-known Cancer Advocate Katie Couric; Sherry Lansing, Chairperson of the Entertainment Industry Foundation's Board of Directors and founder of the Sherry Lansing Foundation; EIF President and CEO Lisa Paulsen; EIF Senior Vice President Kathleen Lobb; Rusty Robertson and Sue Schwartz of the Robertson Schwartz Agency; Pamela Oas Williams, President of Laura Ziskin Productions and Executive Producer of Stand Up To Cancer's In-House Production Team, and Nonprofit Executive Ellen Ziffren. All of the ELC members were co-producers of the 2012 televised special. The late Laura Ziskin, executive producer of both the Sept. 5, 2008 and Sept. 10, 2010 broadcasts, was also a member of the ELC. SU2C was formally launched on May 27, 2008. Sung Poblete, Ph.D., R.N., has served as SU2C's president and CEO since 2011.
SU2C's "Dream Team" approach to funding translational cancer research enables scientists from different disciplines at research centers across the country and internationally to collaborate on projects geared toward getting new, less toxic treatments to patients as quickly as possible. Monies also support innovative cancer research projects that are often deemed "too risky" by conventional funding sources. Sixty-five institutions are currently involved. As SU2C's scientific collaborator, the American Association for Cancer Research, led by a prestigious SU2C Scientific Advisory Committee, provides scientific oversight, expert review of the research projects and grants administration. For more information, visit standup2cancer.org.
About the Cancer Research Institute
The Cancer Research Institute (CRI), a nonprofit established in 1953, is the global leader in cancer immunology. Since its inception, CRI has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to support research conducted by more than 3,000 scientists and clinicians worldwide to understand the immune system and how it can be harnessed to conquer all cancers. This work has laid the foundation for nearly every major cancer immunotherapy breakthrough over the past half century.
Guided by an international panel of the world's leading immunologists and cancer immunologists, including three Nobel laureates and 29 members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, CRI provides essential funding to support every stage of discovery, from laboratory investigation to clinical trials of the most promising cancer immunotherapies for patients.
CRI also sponsors a seminal international symposium on cancer immunology each year, hosts annual scientific colloquia dedicated to overcoming challenges in immunotherapy research and development, forges collaborative partnerships between academia and industry to facilitate the development pathway for novel immunotherapeutics, and presents special recognition awards to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to cancer research, patient care and public awareness.
Through its sustaining support and leadership in the field, CRI is accelerating the development of safe and effective immunotherapies that stand to revolutionize the treatment of all cancers. For more information, visit http://cancerresearch.org or follow CRI on Twitter @CancerResearch.
About the American Association Cancer Research
Founded in 1907, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is the world's first and largest professional association dedicated to advancing cancer research and preventing and curing cancer. AACR membership includes 34,000 laboratory, translational and clinical researchers; population scientists; other health care professionals; and cancer advocates residing in more than 90 countries. The AACR marshals the full spectrum of expertise of the cancer community to accelerate progress in the prevention, biology, diagnosis and treatment of cancer by annually convening more than 20 conferences and educational workshops, the largest of which is the AACR Annual Meeting with more than 17,000 attendees. In addition, the AACR publishes eight peer-reviewed scientific journals and a magazine for cancer survivors, patients and their caregivers. The AACR funds meritorious research directly as well as in cooperation with numerous cancer organizations. As the scientific partner of Stand Up To Cancer, the AACR provides expert peer review, grants administration and scientific oversight of individual and team science grants in cancer research that have the potential for near-term patient benefit. The AACR actively communicates with legislators and policymakers about the value of cancer research and related biomedical science in saving lives from cancer. For more information about the AACR, visit www.AACR.org. Follow the AACR on Twitter: @aacr #aacr. Follow the AACR on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/aacr.org.
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Public release date: 12-Dec-2012
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