New whooping cough strain in US raises questions

NEW YORK (AP) — Researchers have discovered the first U.S. cases of whooping cough caused by a germ that may be resistant to the vaccine.

Health officials are looking into whether cases like the dozen found in Philadelphia might be one reason the nation just had its worst year for whooping cough in six decades. The new bug was previously reported in Japan, France and Finland.

"It's quite intriguing. It's the first time we've seen this here," said Dr. Tom Clark of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The U.S. cases are detailed in a brief report from the CDC and other researchers in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Whooping cough is a highly contagious disease that can strike people of any age but is most dangerous to children. It was once common, but cases in the U.S. dropped after a vaccine was introduced in the 1940s.

An increase in illnesses in recent years has been partially blamed on a version of the vaccine used since the 1990s, which doesn't last as long. Last year, the CDC received reports of 41,880 cases, according to a preliminary count. That included 18 deaths.

The new study suggests that the new whooping cough strain may be why more people have been getting sick. Experts don't think it's more deadly, but the shots may not work as well against it.

In a small, soon-to-be published study, French researchers found the vaccine seemed to lower the risk of severe disease from the new strain in infants. But it didn't prevent illness completely, said Nicole Guiso of the Pasteur Institute, one of the researchers.

The new germ was first identified in France, where more extensive testing is routinely done for whooping cough. The strain now accounts for 14 percent of cases there, Guiso said.

In the United States, doctors usually rely on a rapid test to help make a diagnosis. The extra lab work isn't done often enough to give health officials a good idea how common the new type is here, experts said.

"We definitely need some more information about this before we can draw any conclusions," the CDC's Clark said.

The U.S. cases were found in the past two years in patients at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. One of the study's researchers works for a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, which makes a version of the old whooping cough vaccine that is sold in other countries.

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JournaL: http://www.nejm.org

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Woman drugged girl, use her in hard-core porn, police allege

This post has been corrected. Please see below for details.

A North Hills woman who authorities allege plied a young girl with crack cocaine and photographed her having sex with an older man was indicted Tuesday on federal charges of producing child pornography and child sex trafficking.

Letha Montemayor Tucker was named Tuesday in a four-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury. If convicted of all the charges, Tucker would face a mandatory minimum federal prison sentence of 10 years and could get up to life in prison, authorities said.

The charges come a month after authorities sought the public's help in the investigation by releasing photographs of a man and woman depicted in a set of widely circulated child pornography photos. 

Tips started pouring in immediately after the photos were released, investigators said.

Tucker, who goes by the name Butterfly, was located about 10 hours after the release of the photos and taken into custody, said Claude Arnold, special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations in Los Angeles, a division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The alleged victim, who was about 12 years old when the photos were taken, was located within a week of the case going public, Arnold said. She is an adult now and is cooperating with authorities, he said. In addition to photographing the girl having sex with the man, authorities say, Tucker also committed sex acts with the victim.

Authorities are still trying to identify the man in the photographs.  

The photos were part of a child pornography collection known as the "Jen Series." The 40-some photos were first discovered by investigators in the Chicago area in 2007. Investigators say images in the series have been reported about 300 times and have been found on computers across the country.

The victim "didn't even know these images were out there," Arnold said.

An arraignment for Tucker is scheduled Feb. 13.

For the record, 6:06 p.m.: A previous version of this post gave the incorrect job title for Arnold.

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Chris Brown case raises tough questions for Virginia authorities

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Amid molestation scandal, archdiocese mulls over $200-million fund-raiser

-- Hailey Branson-Potts

Photo: Letha Montemayor Tucker, 52, of North Hills is led away by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after her arrest on suspicion of child pornography Jan. 3. Credit: Associated Press

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North Korean Propaganda Video Imagines Attack on U.S.

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea is not known for its subtlety, famous instead for its soaring patriotic rhetoric and threats to turn the capital of its rival, South Korea, into a “sea of fire.”

But even by those standards, the latest volley of North Korea propaganda is noteworthy. Posted recently on YouTube, a video by one of the North’s propaganda agencies shows an animated version of Manhattan in flames — part of a dream in which a young Korean man envisions a glorious future of rocket launchings and the reunification of the Korean Peninsula. The background music to the celebration of perceived military might: an instrumental version of “We Are the World.”

“I see black smoke billowing somewhere in America,” the text that scrolls across the screen says in what are, in essence, subtitles of the man’s dream. “It appears that the headquarters of evil, which has had a habit of using force and unilateralism and committing wars of aggression, is going up in flames it itself has ignited.”

By Tuesday afternoon, the video had been removed from YouTube after a copyright complaint from Activision, the maker of the video game “Call of Duty,” from which the fiery New York scene was lifted. Copies, however, were up elsewhere on the Web, including on Live Leak.

The three-and-a-half-minute clip — titled “On Board Unha-9” and posted on YouTube on Saturday by Uriminzokkiri, a North Korean government Web site — is the latest evidence of the propaganda mileage Pyongyang is extracting from its Dec. 12 launching of its Unha-3 rocket, which the West considers North Korea’s first successful test of long-range-missile technology.

North Korea has been trumpeting the success of the rocket, which put a satellite into orbit, to its people, saying it was proof that their country was advancing toward a high-tech future. But the latest video is part of a years-long effort by the North to reach South Koreans and Koreans around the world through the Internet. (North Korea keeps its people, except for a tiny portion of its elite, cut off from the Internet.)

This is not the first time North Korea has portrayed attacks on the United States. Propaganda posters have shown a missile striking what looks like Capitol Hill.

The latest propaganda assault comes after weeks of increasingly strident missives from the North, which is angered by a Washington-led United Nations resolution tightening sanctions as punishment for the rocket test. The country has since promised a nuclear test, its third, as it tries to build what it calls a deterrent against attack by the United States or others.

There is no evidence that the North has the ability to strike the United States mainland with missiles.

The launching of the Unha-3 has become a symbol of pride in impoverished North Korea, where the government has told its people the success came despite American plots to “strangle and stifle” North Koreans. Thousands of scientists and officials there who were involved in the rocket project have been awarded government medals, according to North Korean news media.

Another YouTube video, also uploaded on Saturday, showed the Unha-3 rocket blasting off while a narrator identified as a worker in a Pyongyang cosmetics factory compared the moment to “flame of love igniting at first sight.” She also likened South Korean diplomats who pushed for United Nations sanctions to “ugly things” and “confrontational maniacs.”

Uriminzokkiri has been running Twitter and YouTube accounts since 2010, uploading more than 5,470 songs, news reports and videos. Earlier pieces had called Hillary Rodham Clinton, when she was secretary of state, a “minister in a skirt” and South Korean officials “servile dogs.”

South Koreans are blocked by their government’s firewall from gaining access to North Korean Web sites, but they could watch Uriminzokkiri posts on YouTube.

The “On Board Unha-9” video shows a sleeping man dreaming of traveling in a space shuttle named Kwangmyongsong-21. (The suggestion is that the North has a bright technological future, since the country is apparently up to only the third version of the Unha rocket, and the satellite that North Korea put into orbit in December is named Kwangmyongsong-3.)

The shuttle circles the Earth, passing over the Korean Peninsula, where people are jubilant over a reunification of the two Koreas. The camera then zooms in on the cataclysmic Manhattan scene from “Call of Duty,” which features Russians invading New York.

Marc Santora and Robert Mackey contributed reporting from New York.

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See the Stylish Photo Shoot Jessica Simpson Did Between Babies

Stylewatch
Style News Now

02/05/2013 at 04:00 PM ET

Courtesy Jessica Simpson Collection

Jessica Simpson is no stranger to buzzworthy photoshoots, but the glamorous shots she snapped for her Spring 2013 clothing line may take the cake.

The sunlit campaign photos, shot in November on Malibu’s El Matador Beach by famed fashion photographer Ellen von Unwerth, show the mom-to-be showing off her fab, Harley Pasternak-toned bod in pieces from her clothing, shoe and sunglasses collections.

“Last fall’s campaign was shot while I was pregnant [with daughter Maxwell Drew] so I worked behind the scenes on the shoot,” Simpson tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I was really excited to be back in front of the camera for this year’s campaign.”

Of the photographer, Simpson gushes: “Ellen is incredible and was able to really capture the essence of the spring collection – it’s playful, all-American, classic.” Simpson demonstrates those qualities herself as she poses in items from a tie-dye skirt to a denim romper, sky-high neutral wedges to cheetah-print sunglasses — all while rocking her signature loose blonde waves, smoky eyes and light pink lips.

And the final word on the collection, straight from the star? “I want everyone to be able to wear my designs,” she says of the pieces, which are almost entirely under $200 and are starting to ship to stores including Macy’s and Nordstrom now. “The collection is accessible — from extra-small to plus and maternity, there is something for everyone to feel great in.”

Click to see another exclusive image from the campaign, then tell us: Are you excited to try on Jessica Simpson’s spring collection?

Courtesy Jessica Simpson Collection

–Alex Apatoff

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Critics seek to delay NYC sugary drinks size limit

NEW YORK (AP) — Opponents are pressing to delay enforcement of the city's novel plan to crack down on supersized, sugary drinks, saying businesses shouldn't have to spend millions of dollars to comply until a court rules on whether the measure is legal.

With the rule set to take effect March 12, beverage industry, restaurant and other business groups have asked a judge to put it on hold at least until there's a ruling on their lawsuit seeking to block it altogether. The measure would bar many eateries from selling high-sugar drinks in cups or containers bigger than 16 ounces.

"It would be a tremendous waste of expense, time, and effort for our members to incur all of the harm and costs associated with the ban if this court decides that the ban is illegal," Chong Sik Le, president of the New York Korean-American Grocers Association, said in court papers filed Friday.

City lawyers are fighting the lawsuit and oppose postponing the restriction, which the city Board of Health approved in September. They said Tuesday they expect to prevail.

"The obesity epidemic kills nearly 6,000 New Yorkers each year. We see no reason to delay the Board of Health's reasonable and legal actions to combat this major, growing problem," Mark Muschenheim, a city attorney, said in a statement.

Another city lawyer, Thomas Merrill, has said officials believe businesses have had enough time to get ready for the new rule. He has noted that the city doesn't plan to seek fines until June.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other city officials see the first-of-its-kind limit as a coup for public health. The city's obesity rate is rising, and studies have linked sugary drinks to weight gain, they note.

"This is the biggest step a city has taken to curb obesity," Bloomberg said when the measure passed.

Soda makers and other critics view the rule as an unwarranted intrusion into people's dietary choices and an unfair, uneven burden on business. The restriction won't apply at supermarkets and many convenience stores because the city doesn't regulate them.

While the dispute plays out in court, "the impacted businesses would like some more certainty on when and how they might need to adjust operations," American Beverage Industry spokesman Christopher Gindlesperger said Tuesday.

Those adjustments are expected to cost the association's members about $600,000 in labeling and other expenses for bottles, Vice President Mike Redman said in court papers. Reconfiguring "16-ounce" cups that are actually made slightly bigger, to leave room at the top, is expected to take cup manufacturers three months to a year and cost them anywhere from more than $100,000 to several millions of dollars, Foodservice Packaging Institute President Lynn Dyer said in court documents.

Movie theaters, meanwhile, are concerned because beverages account for more than 20 percent of their overall profits and about 98 percent of soda sales are in containers greater than 16 ounces, according to Robert Sunshine, executive director of the National Association of Theatre Owners of New York State.

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Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz

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Mystery after basketball coach, fiance murdered in parking lot

This post has been corrected. See the note below for details.

Family and friends had only praise for a Cal State Fullerton coach and her fiance Monday, a day after the recently engaged college sweethearts were found fatally shot in the parking structure of their condominium near UC Irvine.

The bodies of Monica Quan, an assistant women's basketball coach, and Keith Lawrence, who worked as a campus officer at USC, were discovered Sunday night in their parked car on the top floor of the parking structure at the upscale, high-security condominium complex.

They were each shot multiple times, and authorities said they have
tentatively ruled out the possibility of the crime being a murder-suicide or
motivated by robbery.

PHOTOS: Memorial for slain basketball coach

Those that knew the couple said they were shaken by the news.

Marcia Foster, the head basketball
coach at Cal State Fullerton, described her assistant as a special
person: "bright, passionate and empowering."

"I'm sorry we're gathered here today for news like this," Foster said at a campus news
conference Monday. "There just aren't words."

Friends said Quan shared a love of basketball with Lawrence, whom she met at Concordia University in Irvine, where the two played basketball. A tweet from Concordia on Monday described the two as "incredible alum."

Lawrence was a standout player, both at Concordia, where he helped lead his team to the 2007 NAIA national championship game, and at Moorpark High, where he was a starter.

Tim Bednar,
who coached Lawrence at Moorpark, said the point guard and shooting guard came from a family of athletes, was
talented, yet quiet and humble. After Lawrence graduated in 2003, he
continued to participate in summer youth camps.

When he returned for the camps, Bednar said, he was known as the "best basketball player that ever came through" the school.

"He was awesome with the kids," Bednar said. "They all wanted to be around Keith Lawrence."

Lawrence's friends and family put up a Facebook page. "RIP Keith
Lawrence, you will be missed," it said. Within hours, 840 people had
left comments or indicated they "liked" it. Concordia put up a link to
Lawrence's game-winning shot that carried the school into a post-season
tournament.

Michelle Thibeault, 27, said in a Facebook message that she had known
Quan for more than a decade. The two were on the same athletic teams
and went to junior high and high school together. "Monica was loved by
everyone," she said.

During a somber gathering at the Cal State Fullerton gymnasium Monday, Foster said: "We just shared a moment of incredible joy on her recent engagement. A bright light was just put out."

[Updated, 9:35 a.m. Feb.5: An earlier version of this post attributed a statement about Monica Quan to Quan's brother, Ryan. It should have been attributed to Marcia Foster, head basketball
coach at Cal State Fullerton.]

About 40 people later gathered at Walnut High School to remember Quan, whose aunt described her as "vivacious and energetic."

“Monica is like the daughter we never had,” Nicki Lew said.

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Afghan Airline, Kam Air, No Longer Under U.S. Ban

KABUL, Afghanistan — The American military on Monday reversed a recent decision to blacklist one of Afghanistan’s main airlines, Kam Air, on suspicion of drug smuggling, and it agreed to share details of its accusations with the Afghan government.

The turnaround came after days of Afghan criticism and what some Western officials described as a disagreement between the military and the American Embassy on the prudence of the ban, which would have forbidden any American military contracts with Kam Air. The prohibition came to light in news reports last week, and it was an embarrassment after a positive meeting between President Obama and President Hamid Karzai in Washington in which Mr. Karzai stressed the importance of Afghan sovereignty.

According to a statement released late Monday evening by United States Forces-Afghanistan, the military said that senior officials met with senior Afghan officials at the Foreign Ministry on Saturday, explaining the reasons behind the blacklisting and offering information about the company that led to the ban.

In return, the statement said, the Afghan government agreed to investigate Kam Air and take further action, if needed. Afghan officials could not be reached for comment.

The statement noted deference to the Afghan government’s sovereignty as one reason that it had lifted the ban. The United States military does not directly contract with Kam Air, but the lines are somewhat blurry because the military pays for many activities by the Afghan government. Banning Kam Air from military contracts cast a shadow over the company and posed difficulties for Mr. Karzai’s travel plans. He frequently charters Kam Air planes for official visits abroad, but he was forced to make other plans for his current visit in Europe, officials said.

On Monday, he met in London with Prime Minister David Cameron and President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan to discuss halting efforts to restart the peace process with the Taliban. The leaders reaffirmed support for establishing an office in Qatar to aid in talks with Taliban delegates there, and set a six-month deadline for progress, officials said.

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Which Star Admits To Wearing a Fluorescent Unitard With Doc Martens?

Stylewatch
Style News Now

02/04/2013 at 04:45 PM ET

Courtesy Women’s Health

It’s hard to believe that the star whose street style we most worship has ever made a wardrobe misstep. But rather than bury the evidence, Jessica Alba is sharing her biggest fashion fail with Women’s Health (proof that stars are not like the rest of us; we may or may not have burned our sixth grade class photos).

“What do I regret wearing? There’s so many, I don’t think I could choose just one,” she admits. “I definitely rocked a Lycra unitard-y thing … One fluorescent color on one side, another fluorescent color on the other side with keyhole cutouts all the way up the body. I rocked it so hard with my Doc Martens.”

These days, the actress and Honest Company founder prefers colored denim and moto jackets to full-body neon Spandex. On her must-have list: a denim jacket, a sharp coat, a great pair of jeans, a fitted blazer, neutral t-shirts and an LBD.

Check out an ab-baring exclusive photo from the Women’s Health shoot (below), and pick up the March issue of Women’s Health to find out more of Alba’s fashion and beauty tips, as well as details about her new book, The Honest Life. Tell us: What’s your biggest fashion regret?

Courtesy Women’s Health

–Jennifer Cress

PHOTOS: CHECK OUT MORE STARS WITH GREAT STYLE!

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Bullying study: It does get better for gay teens

CHICAGO (AP) — It really does get better for gay and bisexual teens when it comes to being bullied, although young gay men have it worse than their lesbian peers, according to the first long-term scientific evidence on how the problem changes over time.

The seven-year study involved more than 4,000 teens in England who were questioned yearly through 2010, until they were 19 and 20 years old. At the start, just over half of the 187 gay, lesbian and bisexual teens said they had been bullied; by 2010 that dropped to 9 percent of gay and bisexual boys and 6 percent of lesbian and bisexual girls.

The researchers said the same results likely would be found in the United States.

In both countries, a "sea change" in cultural acceptance of gays and growing intolerance for bullying occurred during the study years, which partly explains the results, said study co-author Ian Rivers, a psychologist and professor of human development at Brunel University in London.

That includes a government mandate in England that schools work to prevent bullying, and changes in the United States permitting same-sex marriage in several states.

In 2010, syndicated columnist Dan Savage launched the "It Gets Better" video project to encourage bullied gay teens. It was prompted by widely publicized suicides of young gays, and includes videos from politicians and celebrities.

"Bullying tends to decline with age regardless of sexual orientation and gender," and the study confirms that, said co-author Joseph Robinson, a researcher and assistant professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. "In absolute terms, this would suggest that yes, it gets better."

The study appears online Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, said the results mirror surveys by her anti-bullying advocacy group that show bullying is more common in U.S. middle schools than in high schools.

But the researchers said their results show the situation is more nuanced for young gay men.

In the first years of the study, gay boys and girls were almost twice as likely to be bullied as their straight peers. By the last year, bullying dropped overall and was at about the same level for lesbians and straight girls. But the difference between men got worse by ages 19 and 20, with gay young men almost four times more likely than their straight peers to be bullied.

The mixed results for young gay men may reflect the fact that masculine tendencies in girls and women are more culturally acceptable than femininity in boys and men, Robinson said.

Savage, who was not involved in the study, agreed.

"A lot of the disgust that people feel when you bring up homosexuality ... centers around gay male sexuality," Savage said. "There's more of a comfort level" around gay women, he said.

Kendall Johnson, 21, a junior theater major at the University of Illinois, said he was bullied for being gay in high school, mostly when he brought boyfriends to school dances or football games.

"One year at prom, I had a guy tell us that we were disgusting and he didn't want to see us dancing anymore," Johnson said. A football player and the president of the drama club intervened on his behalf, he recalled.

Johnson hasn't been bullied in college, but he said that's partly because he hangs out with the theater crowd and avoids the fraternity scene. Still, he agreed, that it generally gets better for gays as they mature.

"As you grow older, you become more accepting of yourself," Johnson said.

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Online:

Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org

It Gets Better: http://www.itgetsbetter.org

___

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

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Parole Board urges Brown to release former Charles Manson follower

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California's governor has been asked to make the final decision on whether a former Charles Manson follower will be released on parole after serving more than 40 years in prison.

The state's Board of Parole Hearings submitted to Gov. Jerry Brown its recommendation that Bruce Davis is suitable for parole.

The 70-year-old Davis was convicted with cult leader Manson and another man in the killings of a musician and a stuntman. He was not involved in the infamous Sharon Tate murders.

California Department of Corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton says the board had until Monday to deliver legal documents to Brown, but they submitted the package Friday.

Brown has up to 30 days to act on the parole decision. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger rejected a previous parole recommendation for Davis.

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