The California Department of Real Estate (DRE) reports that hundreds of individuals and companies continue to take advantage of homeowners in desperate need of financial assistance to save their homes. In 2009 alone, the DRE filed almost 600 punitive actions against these scammers, and hundreds more have been filed so far this year. The cons ensnaring consumers share several common elements, including a demand for an upfront fee (this is in direct violation of California law, which now makes it illegal for attorneys, real estate licensees, foreclosure consultants and ...

Earlier this year, an 18-year-old woman leaving a dance party in Fresno rolled her Chevy Trailblazer on its side after making an abrupt left turn across two lanes of traffic and hitting the center divider. The SUV was struck by a Greyhound bus; six people were killed in the crash and nearly two dozen were injured. According to Fox News, the California Highway Patrol says the woman was driving under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash. According to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, the number of alcohol-involved car accident fatalities increased ...

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has issued a formal rule banning truck and bus drivers from texting while driving. Carriers are also prohibited from requiring or allowing texting by their drivers. The ban basically codifies current federal enforcement practices and follows up on guidance the FMCSA issued earlier in the year. The rule affects commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers who operate within interstate commerce. Sanctions for violators include a $2,750 fine for drivers and $11,000 fine for carriers. Drivers can also be disqualified from ...

In August 2010, Quality Egg, LLC (doing business as "Wright County Egg") and Hillandale Farms reportedly recalled 550 million eggs. Recent reports indicate that at least 1,600 people have been culture-confirmed to have suffered food poisoning from Salmonella infection and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates the actual number of peopled sickened by the contaminated eggs to be 38 times the culture-confirmed number. The Barns In September, records were presented to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce that showed that Salmonella had been ...

Woolworths, the online family superstore, will fleetingly return to the high street to set the Guinness World Record for the largest ever game of pass the parcel, and is appealing for towns and cities across the UK to take part. By visiting the Woolworths Pass the Parcel site between the 1st and the 15th November 2010, families can nominate their town to be visited by Woolies' loveable snowmen, Stan and Ollie Snow who will bring along with a giant parcel the size of a small car. The parcel will contain thousands of pounds worth of toys, including some of the most sought ...

Debenhams has announced the launch of Debenhams.ie, the retailer's new Irish online store. The new virtual department store marks an exciting development for fashionistas and shopaholics around the country, bringing the entire Debenhams product range right to everyone's doorstep. For the first time, favourite 'Designer at Debenhams' brands are now available to Irish customers online with fashion from Rocha.John Rocha, H by Henry Holland, Butterfly by Matthew Williamson, J by Jasper Conran, Betty Jackson.Black, Star by Julien Macdonald and Principles by Ben De Lisi. Debenhams.ie ...

IGO-POST, a European market leader in the production and supply of promotional merchandise to corporate clients, has announced the launch of a new custom made USB service. The new offering demonstrates IGO-POST's continued commitment towards providing customers with increased imprint possibilities and truly customised promotional solutions. The custom made service is being rolled out across 12 countries and serves as an extension to the company's existing multimedia collection which includes a wide range of promotional USB memory sticks, MP3/MP4 players and computer ...

Confused.com is set to unveil its latest advertisement featuring its animated logo Cara, singing the Queen classic 'Somebody to Love', later this week. Voiced by West End star Louise Dearman and with animation produced by Hornet, the advert will feature living logo Cara singing the Queen anthem before being joined by a backing choir of animated happy customers who have used Confused.com. Mike Hoban, chief marketing officer at Confused.com, said: "Confused.com was the first site to offer price comparison. This ad will confirm Confused.com's leadership position and ...

Athens, Ga. – Although the Great Recession has hit Hispanics and Asians particularly hard, their buying power is expected to grow rapidly during the next several years, according to the annual minority buying power report released today by the Selig Center for Economic Growth in the University of Georgia Terry College of Business. "Despite the recession, the underlying growth trends for Hispanics and Asians in the U.S. are still very strong," said Jeff Humphreys, director of the Selig Center and the author of the report. "Minorities have a lot of economic clout, and ...

COLLEGE STATION, Nov. 4, 2010 — A centuries-old religious ceremony of an indigenous people in southern Mexico has led to small evolutionary changes in a local species of fish, according to researchers from Texas A&M University. Since before the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the New World, the Zoque people of southern Mexico would venture each year during the Easter season deep into the sulfuric cave Cueva del Azufre to implore their deities for a bountiful rain season. As part of the annual ritual, they release into the cave's waters a distinctive, leaf-bound paste ...

LOS ANGELES (Nov. 4, 2010) – Nine years ago, scientists at Cedars-Sinai's Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute detected a subtle shift occurring in the molecular makeup of the most aggressive type of brain tumors, glioblastoma multiforme. With further study, they found that a specific protein called laminin-411 plays a major role in a tumor's ability to build new blood vessels to support its growth and spread. But technology did not exist then to block this protein. Now, employing new drug-engineering technology that is part of an advanced science called nanomedicine, ...

Approximately 60,000 pregnant women are hospitalized each year due to hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), an extreme form of nausea and vomiting that endangers their lives and often forces them to reluctantly terminate their pregnancies. And for women with sisters, mothers and grandmothers on either side of the family who have experienced extreme morning sickness during pregnancy, the risk of HG may be heightened, according to a new study led by researchers from UCLA and the University of Southern California. Researchers traced both the maternal and paternal family histories ...

Irvine, Calif., Nov. 4, 2010 – UC Irvine astronomers, along with scientists across the globe, are discovering hundreds of new galaxies through brighter galaxies in front of them that deflect their faint light back to the massive Herschel telescope. This effect, identified by Albert Einstein a century ago, is known as cosmic gravitational lensing. "I was surprised to learn that Herschel is so good at finding these cosmic lenses," said UCI professor of physics & astronomy Asantha Cooray, lead U.S. author of a paper about the discovery in the Nov. 5 issue of the journal ...

WASHINGTON, DC – A large national study finds that screening current or former heavy smokers with a CT scan can reduce deaths from lung cancers by 20 percent. One potential reason for the reduction is that the scan can pick up tumors at an early stage. The study was conducted by the National Cancer Institute at 33 centers around the country including Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, a part of Georgetown University Medical Center. The National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) involved more than 53,000 current and former heavy smokers ages 55 to 74. More than ...

BETHESDA, MD – October 20, 2010 – Thousands of the world's top scientists and clinicians in the human genetics field will convene to present their latest research findings at the American Society of Human Genetics 60th Annual Meeting, which will be held November 2-6, 2010, in Washington, D.C. A number of scientific presentations at this year's meeting will provide information about important new research findings that advance and expand our current understanding of the issues and implications involved in direct-to-consumer and clinical genetic testing. ASHG will host ...

VIDEO: ASHG, Genetic Alliance & WJLA-TV ABC 7 Family Health History Campaign created this public service announcement video: ''Know and Share Your Family Health History.'' For more information about the Talk Health... Click here for more information. BETHESDA, MD – October 22, 2010 – Thousands of the world's top scientists and clinicians in the human genetics field will convene to present their latest research findings at the American Society of Human Genetics 60th Annual ...

November 5, 2010 (OAKLAND, Calif.) – An electronic message sent to physicians the moment they ordered a blood test for elderly patients reduced unnecessary use of the test that is often false-positive for the elderly, according to a paper published in the November edition of American Journal of Managed Care. The D-dimer test, combined with a clinical risking algorithm, can help in the diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis (blood clots in veins, otherwise known as DVTs) and pulmonary embolism (blood clots in the lungs). The risk of developing a blood clot in the venous circulation ...

Chapel Hill, NC – One of the most frustrating problems faced by doctors who treat pancreatic cancer is the lack of effective therapeutic options. More than 38,000 people in the United States die of the disease each year, and new drugs and treatments are desperately needed. For almost three decades, scientists and physicians have known that a gene called the KRAS oncogene is mutated in virtually all pancreatic cancers, making it an important target for scientists looking for a way to stop the growth of pancreatic cancer tumors. The problem is that the KRAS gene triggers ...

Overweight children reported more frequent intake of healthy foods such as fruit, vegetables, fish, brown bread and potatoes as well as low-energy cheese and yoghurt compared with normal weight children. This comes from a recent study from researchers at Telemark University College, Norway and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. The study showed that: Overweight children drank juice and artificially sweetened soft drinks more often, while the normal weight children drank carbonated drinks and ate unhealthy foods and processed foods such as burgers, sausages, ...

Japanese research group led by Prof. Ryusuke Kakigi and Dr. Emi Nakato (National Institute for Physiological Sciences: NIPS) and Prof. Masami K Yamaguchi (Chuo University) found that the hemispheric differences in the temporal area overlying superior temporal sulcus (STS) when processing positive (happy) and negative (angry) facial expressions in infants. Their finding was reported in NeuroImage. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is an optical imaging technique that can measure changes in the concentrations of oxyhemoglobin (oxy-Hb), deoxyhemoglobin (deoxy-Hb), and total ...

Most mutations in the genes of the Salmonella bacterium have a surprisingly small negative impact on bacterial fitness. And this is the case regardless whether they lead to changes in the bacterial proteins or not. This is shown by Uppsala University scientists in an article being published today in the prestigious journal Science. The researchers have examined the impact of mutations on the rate of growth of the Salmonella bacterium and show that most mutations have generally very small effects. Moreover the negative effects are of the similar magnitude for changes that ...

From apocalyptic forecasting to estimates of mass extinctions, climate change is a topic which is filled with fearful predictions for the future. In his latest research, published in WIREs Climate Change, historian Matthias Dörries examines the cultural significance of fear and how it became a central presence in current debates over climate change. Climatic change, as represented by the media, often prompts headlines predicting disastrous events, frequently adopting fear laden language including analogies with war and warnings of the imminence or irreversibility of ...

Toronto, Ontario, November 5, 2010 – Even though most adults want to avoid looking older than their actual age, research led by St. Michael's Hospital shows that looking older does not necessarily point to poor health. The study found that a person needed to look at least 10 years older than their actual age before assumptions about their health could be made. "Few people are aware that when physicians describe their patients to other physicians, they often include an assessment of whether the patient looks older than his or her actual age," says Dr. Stephen Hwang, a ...

Evolutionary divergence of humans from chimpanzees likely occurred some 8 million years ago rather than the 5 million year estimate widely accepted by scientists, a new statistical model suggests. The revised estimate of when the human species parted ways from its closest primate relatives should enable scientists to better interpret the history of human evolution, said Robert D. Martin, curator of biological anthropology at the Field Museum, and a co-author of the new study appearing in the journal Systematic Biology. Here is a link to the article: http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2010/11/04/sysbio.syq054.full.html?ijkey=CaQif1LgTAd7xOD&keytype=ref Working ...

HOUSTON -- (Nov. 5, 2010) -- A new study by Rice University bioengineers finds that the workhorse proteins that move cargo inside living cells behave like prima donnas. The protein, called kinesin, is a two-legged molecular machine. Rice's scientists invented tools that could measure the pulling power of kinesin both singly and in pairs, and they report this week in Biophysical Journal that kinesins don't work well together -- in part because they are so effective on their own. "Researchers have been investigating the mechanical properties of individual motor proteins ...