WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of existing homes fell in 41 states during the April-June quarter while home prices were down in one-third of the metropolitan areas surveyed, a real estate trade group reported Wednesday. The new figures from the National Association of Realtors underscored the severity of the current housing slump, the worst downturn in 16 years. However, Realtors officials said they saw some glimmers of hope in the data. They noted that existing home prices were up in 97 of the 149 metropolitan areas surveyed compared with the sales prices of a year ago. That represented price gains for 65 percent of the areas surveyed, an improvement from the first quarter of this year when only about 55 percent of the metropolitan areas reported price gains from the same period a year ago. In the fourth quarter of last year, less than half of the metropolitan areas reported price gains. ‘Although home prices are relatively flat, more metro areas are showing price gains with general improvement since bottoming-out in the fourth quarter of 2006,’ said Lawrence Yun, senior economist for the Realtors. The states suffering the biggest drop in sales in the second quarter, […]
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is putting the final touches on regulations that could give Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales important new sway over death penalty cases in California and other states, including the power to shorten the time that death row inmates have to appeal convictions to federal courts. The rules implement a little-noticed provision in last year’s reauthorization of the Patriot Act that gives the attorney general the power to decide whether individual states are providing adequate counsel for defendants in death penalty cases. The authority has been held by federal judges. Under the rules now being prepared, if a state requested it and Gonzales agreed, prosecutors could use ‘fast track’ procedures that could shave years off the time that a death row inmate has to appeal to the federal courts after conviction in a state court. The move to shorten the appeals process and effectively speed up executions comes at a time of growing national concern about the fairness of the death penalty, underscored by the use of DNA testing to establish the innocence of more than a dozen death row inmates in recent years. Amid the public debate, the number of people […]
NEW YORK — Even as the U.S. dollar sags, many Americans are still heading overseas for bargains on elective cosmetic procedures and other surgical care they could not afford otherwise. In some cases, they are also seeking experimental therapy unavailable in the U.S., such as last-ditch stem-cell-infusion therapy for myocardial ischemia. They may also be trying to jump to the head of the line for an organ transplant. The scope of so-called medical tourism depends on how it is defined. It could be as mundane as simply crossing the border by car for simple dental work. It could mean elaborate highly planned excursions to Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, India, Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Turkey, and other destinations. Some observers estimate that as many as 150,000 Americans head across the border or overseas every year for therapy they can’t afford or can’t get here. Others view that number as greatly inflated. Some say that cosmetic and other therapy at established centers overseas is little riskier than it is here. Others invoke caveat emptor. The economic case can be compelling, though: at the age of 53, Howard Staab, a self-employed carpenter from Durham, N.C., needed surgery […]
NEW YORK — Would it surprise you to learn that according to official Pentagon figures, at least 118 U.S. military personnel in Iraq have committed suicide since April 2003? That number does not include many unconfirmed reports, or those who served in the war and then killed themselves at home (a sizable, if uncharted, number). While troops who have died in ‘hostile action’ — and those gravely injured and rehabbing at Walter Reed and other hospitals — have gained much wider media attention in recent years, the suicides (about 3% of our overall Iraq death toll) remain in the shadows. For whatever reason, I have always found soldiers who take their own lives especially tragic, though some might argue the opposite. Since the beginning of the war, I have written numerous columns on self-inflicted deaths, from average grunts to Col. Ted Westhusing (angry about contractor abuses), Alyssa Peterson (appalled by interrogation techniques) and Linda Michel (denied medication after returning home). But generally, the suicides get very little local or national attention. In a sense, the press doesn’t know what to do about them. Did they serve their country well, but ultimately let it down? Or is […]
VANCOUVER — A unique gene that can stop cancerous cells from multiplying into tumours has been discovered by a team of scientists at the B.C. Cancer Agency in Vancouver. The team, led by Dr. Poul Sorensen, says the gene has the power to suppress the growth of human tumours in multiple cancers, including breast, lung and liver. The gene, HACE 1, helps cells fight off stress that, left unchecked, opens the door to formation of multiple tumours. Dr. Sorensen’s team found cancerous cells form tumours when HACE 1 is inactive, but when additional stress such as radiation is added, tumour growth is rampant. Kick-starting HACE 1 prevented those cells from forming tumours.
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
