DETROIT — A factory worker attacked and killed a fellow employee with a sword the suspect apparently made himself at the metals plant where both men worked, police said Thursday.
Witnesses told police the 30-year-old man had complained he was being bullied by another worker at Peerless Metals, which makes metal powders used in automobile brakes.
The suspect had been working on the sword for several days, apparently at work, and when he finished Wednesday, he struck the 40-year-old victim in the neck, nearly decapitating him, said police spokesman James Tate.
The suspect ran away but later returned to the factory. When police arrived, he was having a beer, authorities said.
BOSTON — A man was convicted of manslaughter Thursday for strangling a 14-year-old girl in 1975, a case that remained closed for more than 20 years until police read a diary kept by the man's mother.
David Allen Jones, 45, had been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Robin Gilbert, whose body was found partially covered with brush on a golf course in Reading, about 10 miles north of Boston, on July 2, 1975. The night before, Gilbert had left her parents' house to smoke a cigarette and never returned.
The Middlesex Superior Court jury deliberated for five days before convicting Jones of the lesser charge. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison at his sentencing, scheduled for Monday.
"We expected a murder conviction and will have to settle for manslaughter," Gilbert's family said in a statement.
Jones' lawyer, Eileen Agnes, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
The case had been closed after the state medical examiner ruled that Gilbert's death was the result of heart disease, despite her age and the fact that her clothes were ripped and her body had been dragged several hundred yards.
In 1996, police received a tip that led them to a diary kept by Jones' mother, who had died of cancer that year. Something in the diary led them to suspect Jones, who was 16 at the time of the killing. Police will not give details of the diary.
The Jones family lived down the street from the Gilberts, and the boy had been seen holding hands with Robin. Gilbert's sister said Jones called Robin at the house before she sneaked out.
Investigators exhumed Gilbert's body in 1997. A different medical examiner found that her heart was not diseased and ruled the case a homicide.
Jones was married and working as a cook outside Atlanta when he was arrested in 1997. He fought efforts to return him to Massachusetts, and it took several years to have his case transferred from juvenile court. He was charged with murder in 2000.
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 28, 2004--The Parties regret that this matter has caused tremendous pain, and they have agreed to settle. All cases and claims have been withdrawn and all Parties have agreed that there was no wrongdoing whatsoever by Mr. O'Reilly, Ms. Mackris, or Ms. Mackris' counsel, Benedict P. Morelli & Associates. We now withdraw any assertion that any extortion by Ms. Mackris, Mr. Morelli, or Morelli & Associates occurred. Out of respect for their families and privacy, all Parties and their representatives have agreed that all information relating to the cases shall remain confidential.
settle and the judge agrees with the terms and it would be the same as a trial, they have to settle, can't waste the courts or taxpayers money if the outcome would be the same.
Remember only 5 percent of cases go to trial. Over 90 percent settle anyway. You have to try for the court. It's when settling doesn't work then you go to trial or one side wouldn't receive the same outcome as a trial.
seeking money for damages.
Settling could mean they both walked away...or one side paid attorney fees, got a couple of million, whatever they had to do to satify both sides. The judge had to agree to this so the settlement is fine for both sides. It was legal and neither side took advantage of the other.
By JENNY PRICE
AssociRICHLAND CENTER, Wis. — A judge found an Illinois teen guilty Wednesday of gunning down his parents and uncle at a southwestern Wisconsin farmhouse, rejecting claims that he was insane when he committed the murders.
Steven M. Tomporowski, 18, had pleaded not guilty by reason of mental defect or disease to the three slayings, claiming schizophrenia made him unable to control his actions.
But Richland County Circuit Judge Edward Leineweber said Tomporowski's bizarre behavior could be explained by the teen's heavy use of LSD. He said there was evidence the teen faked mental illness in an effort to escape punishment.
He also cited testimony that Tomporowski told friends before the slayings that he hated his parents and wanted to kill them.
Tomporowski faces up to three life sentences when he is sentenced. A hearing has not been set. Had Leineweber found him insane, the teen would have been committed to a mental institution.
Tomporowski, of Westchester, Ill., admitted killing his parents and uncle in February at the farmhouse his grandfather used as a second home.
The bodies of Tomporowski's parents, Stephen J. Tomporowski, 52, and Deborah Tomporowski, 48, both of Westchester, and his uncle, Roger M. Tomporowski, 56, of Arlington Heights, Ill., were found Feb. 16.
Authorities said he shot the two men and then lured his mother to the farmhouse, about 70 miles northwest of Madison, by telling her the men had car trouble.
"This case can only be described as a tragedy," said John Wabaunsee, Tomporowski's attorney. "These are terrible crimes, these are heinous crimes."
Wabaunsee said Tomporowski started deteriorating mentally several years ago and used drugs to self-medicate his mental illness. A court-appointed psychologist testified last week that Tomporowski told her he had taken LSD every day for at least a year before the murders.
But Richland County District Attorney Andrew Sharp said the only psychiatrist to diagnose the teen with schizophrenia was a defense expert who examined him after his arrest. A doctor who treated him for a year before the murders never made that diagnosis.
CLEVELAND, Tenn. — A man who donated a kidney to someone he met over the Internet was jailed Thursday for failing to pay child support.
Rob Smitty, 32, surrendered to sheriff's deputies, accompanied by his attorney, who warned that Smitty was still taking medication following the Oct. 20 surgery.
After the operation, news surfaced that Smitty was being sought on a civil warrant for failing to pay child support.
Attorney Bill Speek said Smitty would remain in jail until bail is set or he pays a portion of the $8,100 he owes his ex-wife, who has custody of their 10-year-old daughter.
Smitty's arrest came eight days after he gave a kidney to Bob Hickey, a Colorado man who had been waiting for a transplant since 1999. The two men met through MatchingDonors.com, a Web site created to match organ donors and recipients for a fee.
The operation was believed to be the first organ transplant arranged through a commercial Web site.
Doctors went ahead with the procedure only after receiving assurances neither man stood to profit from the operation, which would violate federal law.
Smitty, a former commercial photographer who works for a meat company, has said Hickey provided money to help cover expenses and compensate him for missed work.
Will Election 2004 Turn Into Fiasco Like Florida 2000?
Last Presidential Vote Debacle May Be Repeated Yet Again— But This Time Even Worse
By James P. Tucker Jr.
This election has the potential to make the fiasco of 2000 appear innocent by comparison, experts of all political persuasions agree. Both major parties are dispersing thousands of high-powered lawyers to critical polling places throughout the nation, Republicans and Democrats looking for anything to challenge the election in court.
Electoral reforms launched after the Florida fiasco of 2000 have only been partially implemented. There is fear throughout the land that confusion—which caused some voters to mistakenly vote for Pat Buchanan in Florida—will again prevail.
Computer experts have also warned that electronic voting machines invite fraud. Where there is no “paper trail” a hacker could break into the system and change the outcome, they have repeatedly warned.
American Free Press has reported on multiple occasions about the systemic problems with electronic voting.
High voter turnout and close contests could delay the final results for days, they warn.
“What happened in 2000 might never be repeated again, but some of the ingredients that produced chaos four years ago still exist,” said Doug Chaplin of electionline.org, a non-partisan research group.
Already there have been reports of elections games on the part of the Republicans and Democrats.
Just days before the election, thousands of people from the inner cities of the nation were registered, some by buses touring the neighborhoods and signing them up on the spot and others driven to registrars’ offices.
This raises the issue of illegal aliens voting. Some election analysts estimate that a million illegal aliens voted in 2000. Under the “motor voter” law, it is easy for non-citizens to register, many while obtaining drivers’ licenses.
And that is just the beginning.
There have been allegations that Republican officials in Nevada threw away voter registration cards of Democrats.
And, in perhaps one of the most outlandish cases, Chad Stanton, 22, was arrested in Ohio after delivering hundreds of bogus voter registration forms. His defense? He claims that he was paid in crack cocaine by a woman affiliated with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to fill out the forms.
Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader has repeatedly made charges that high-paid lawyers for the Democrats and Republicans have regularly intimidated supporters and volunteers across the country who have tried to help his campaign.
Because of the terrorist attacks in Madrid, which turned around Spain’s national election, security is on high alert at polling places. At some, it is invisible with no uniformed officers. At others, the men in blue are conspicuous.
Another area of concern is the so-called provisional ballots. The Help America Vote Act, another response to the 2000 election, allows voters who show up at the polls and believe they are registered, but whose names are not listed, to cast provisional ballots that will be counted if their registration is subsequently confirmed.
But states have different procedures for determining eligibility, and 28 mandate that votes cast in the wrong precinct not be counted. A federal judge in Michigan ruled Oct. 19 that the state must count provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct but in the correct city or town. A dozen lawsuits are pending across the country that could affect the validity of provisional ballots.
“Many people are afraid provisional ballots will become the hanging chads of 2004,” Chaplin said.
The outcome could depend on how much rain, snow or TV soap operas depress the turnout in an election expected to see a record number of voters, some of whom may actually be American citizens.
Day-care owner indicted for duct-taping toddler
Associated Press
ALICE - A South Texas day care owner has been indicted on felony charges of injury to a child and unlawful restraint after a 3-year-old boy was bound with duct tape at the day care.
Arleen Aguilar Trigo, 40, of Alice, was indicted Tuesday by a grand jury in Jim Wells County, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported.
Aguilar, who owns ABC Kiddie College Daycare, was arrested Oct. 13 after the child's grandmother checked on him and discovered he was tied at the ankles and wrists with duct tape.
Sarah Bazan told police an employee was lying on top of her grandson and holding him down with her arm and leg.
Aguilar surrendered her day care license shortly after that. She gave a voluntary statement to authorities that she restrained the boy to keep him from hitting an aquarium at the center, District Attorney Joe Frank Garza said.
Injury to a child is a third degree felony punishable by two to 10 years in prison. Unlawful restraint is a state jail felony punishable by up to two years in jail.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Singer Courtney Love has been ordered to stand trial on a felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon despite her attorney's claim the case had been "grossly overcharged."
Superior Court Commissioner Sanjay Kumar on Wednesday listened to testimony from the alleged victim, Kristin King, and a neighbor in the area of the April 25 incident.
"There is uncontroverted evidence that without provocation the defendant threw a bottle at the victim and chased her with a flashlight," he said.
Love was ordered to appear for arraignment Nov. 10. She remained free on $150,000 bail.
"We hope this will be resolved in a way to allow her to move on with her life," defense attorney Howard Weitzman said outside court.
The case is part of a long string of legal troubles for Love, former lead singer for the group Hole and widow of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.
Despite the legal setback, Weitzman said Love's well-publicized drug problems were behind her. "She couldn't be in any better shape than she is now. Things are looking better and better for Courtney," he said.
King testified Love came to the home of former boyfriend Jim Barber and found King asleep on a sofa. She said Love grabbed a liquor bottle and threw it at her head, threw a lit candle and pinched her breasts.
Neighbor Marilyn Corre testified she was awakened by yelling and crying.
"Then I saw another woman come charging out," she testified. "She had in her hand an extremely large torch (flashlight), silver in color. ... It was being used like a weapon."
Weitzman urged that the charge be reduced to a misdemeanor. He said the case was a situation of "she said, she said" and that the account given by the victim might not be completely truthful.
Prosecutor Gina Satriano said it was clear Love intended to cause great bodily injury and even if she did not cause the injuries, the intent supported the charge.
NEW YORK (AP) - Readers hungry for a good thriller can get ready to welcome an old friend: A new Hannibal Lecter novel, "Behind the Mask," is coming next fall.
"Thomas Harris is the premier novelist of psychological suspense of our time," said Irwyn Applebaum, president and publisher of the Bantam Dell Publishing Group, which announced the book's release Thursday.
"Millions of readers in 25 languages have wondered how Dr. Lecter developed his particular appetite for evil. This novel will satisfy their curiosity."
Film rights for "Behind the Mask" have been acquired by the Dino DeLaurentiis Company, which produced the Hannibal movies, "Red Dragon" and "Hannibal."
Harris has written three previous Lecter books: "Red Dragon,""Hannibal" and "The Silence of the Lambs," which was adapted into an Academy Award winning movie starring Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster. Harris is also author of the best-selling thriller "Black Sunday."
Indictments Keep Statute of Limitations From Expiring; Critics Raise Questions
The New York Times
Eight years ago, a man tried to rape a woman in a Canal Street subway station on Halloween, prosecutors say. He could not be found, and in 2001, before the statute of limitations on the crime ran out, prosecutors drew up an indictment based on a DNA profile.
This month, the profile turned up a match to a man named David Martinez, prosecutors said. Mr. Martinez was arrested yesterday in what Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney, said was New York State's first arrest based on what is known as a John Doe indictment, which uses DNA samples to charge an unknown sexual attacker before the statute of limitations expires.
The arrest of Mr. Martinez, 46, involves the first DNA match that prosecutors say has been confirmed in the John Doe Indictment Project, a city effort in which prosecutors, investigators and scientists seek to tie the most serious sex crimes to specific DNA profiles, and then file charges even before they have identified a suspect. The Manhattan district attorney's office started seeking such indictments in 2000.
The aim was to aggressively pursue sex offenders by indefinitely preserving the ability to prosecute. The program allows prosecutors to freeze statutes of limitations, which protect people from being arrested long after a crime is committed and facing a prosecution based on the fading memories of witnesses.
Mr. Morgenthau said yesterday that without mandatory DNA testing of certain criminals, "we wouldn't have made this case."
"It reassures victims that we don't give up," he said, "and their attacker may eventually be located and prosecuted."
The arrest, and another this week, are a first for New York State, but not for the country. Norman Gahn, an assistant district attorney in Milwaukee County in Wisconsin, said that in 1999, his office became the first to issue a warrant based on a DNA profile, which, like New York State's process of indictment, begins criminal proceedings. Since then, it has found and prosecuted eight people, including two accused of burglary, using the procedure. Six received prison time, he said.
This week, the police in New York City made another arrest under the program, in a 1994 attempted rape. The suspect, Johnny Boone, 50, a homeless man from Brooklyn, was taken into custody Tuesday night after a Manhattan grand jury returned an indictment on Friday based on DNA believed to be his, just 12 hours before a 10-year statute of limitations was to expire. Prosecutors are waiting for confirmation that the DNA, which was found on the pantyhose of the victim, matches the suspect's, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office said.
Neither Mr. Martinez nor Mr. Boone has been formally charged. Mr. Martinez will be arraigned tomorrow on charges of first-degree attempted rape, robbery and sexual abuse, Mr. Morgenthau said, and his spokeswoman said Mr. Boone will also be arraigned tomorrow, on a charge of attempted rape.
New York State law requires that a prosecution be brought within five years of felony-level crimes, or within 10 years if the criminal's identity and whereabouts are unknown.
The arrest of Mr. Martinez reopens a case whose trail of clues had long gone cold. In 1996, a 20-year-old exchange student from Germany was walking to the uptown No. 6 subway train at Canal Street, prosecutors said, when three men approached her at gunpoint and asked for money. The woman handed over $27, and the men started to leave, but one of them, a man prosecutors say was Mr. Martinez, pushed her against a wall, held a gun to her neck and sexually assaulted her. He then fled.
The woman, who is now working at a financial services firm in New York but was otherwise not identified, a stipulation of sex crime laws, was relieved by news of the arrest, Melissa Mourges, an assistant district attorney, said at the briefing yesterday.
"She was very surprised and very happy," Ms. Mourges said. "She had taken a leap of faith" by testifying before the grand jury, and had "to revisit the pain not knowing if anything was going to come of it."
Mr. Gahn, the assistant district attorney in Milwaukee County, said that other states, including Illinois, Oklahoma, Utah, Kansas and California, have some form of DNA procedure that freezes statutes of limitations for some crimes. Rockne Harmon, a prosecutor in Alameda County, Calif., said one person was tried and convicted in Sacramento under a John Doe warrant in 2002.
There have been 24 John Doe sex crime indictments in Manhattan, and 50 citywide, the Manhattan district attorney's office said. There are fewer than 10 such indictments in New York State outside the city, the office said.
Mr. Martinez, who has lived at a number of addresses in New York and New Jersey, came to the attention of the authorities via a simple parole violation, prosecutors said. He has been in and out of jail for parole violations since 1992, the authorities said, after serving seven years in jail for a robbery in Midtown Manhattan. On July 8 he violated his parole restrictions again, prosecutors said, and DNA was taken from him later that month. His sample was checked against a national DNA database, and it matched the profile of the DNA in semen collected from the victim's clothing, prosecutors said.
The New York Civil Liberties Union has raised questions about the practice of using DNA indictments to find suspects and push the boundaries of the statute of limitations, saying that suspects' due process rights could be violated.
Lawrence S. Goldman, a former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said he is wary of the procedure because it proves only one element of any sex crime: that a sexual act was committed, but not, for example, that it was forced.
"One can say, 'Oh, they got the right man because the DNA matches,' " Mr. Goldman said. Still, "there are all kinds of things it does not prove, such as whether the woman consented to the act."
What is more, there are large numbers of false accusations in the category of sex crimes, he said, and it is tricky to mount a defense many years after a crime is alleged to have taken place.
Barry C. Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, which handles cases in which DNA testing after convictions yields proof of innocence, said the Martinez and Boone cases will test how well John Doe indictments hold up in court.
A better approach, he said, would be to have the State Legislature codify the procedure. Still, he prefers it to initiatives in some states to scrap the statute of limitations altogether.
"I applaud Mr. Morgenthau for doing it in principle this way," he said. It is important to show that "the biology is critical."
LA CROSSE, Wis. — A man who said he threw a live electrical wire into his wife's bath hoping a near-death experience would save their marriage was convicted of attempted first-degree intentional homicide Wednesday.
William Dahlby said in court he was only trying to scare his wife the evening of May 9. He told jurors the wire was hooked to a "ground fault interrupter" designed to cut the electricity when the cord encountered water. His wife was not hurt.
Prosecutors said Dahlby was trying to kill his wife to start a new life with another woman.
Dahlby's wife, Mary, testified Tuesday her husband drew her bath after they spent the day taking a walk and a long motorcycle ride.
While she took her bath, her husband came into the bathroom and dropped the cord into the bath, she said.
She jumped out of the bath, but her husband tried to push her back in the tub, Mary Dahlby said. She got free and ran out of the bathroom.
Her husband, who also was convicted of intimidation of a victim, was scheduled for sentencing Dec. 10.
___
October 27, 2004 - 10:55 p.m. CDT
Copyright 2004, The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP Online news report may not be published, broadcast or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
CORNELIUS, N.C. — Jimmy Spencer was fired by Morgan McClure Motorsports on Wednesday, just days after he was arrested and accused of interfering with police officers as they attempted to serve a warrant on his son.
Spencer, 47, has driven 25 races for the team this season without posting a top-10 finish. He ran 29th in Sunday's race at Martinsville Speedway. The team didn't indicate whether the firing was because of Spencer's arrest.
"Over the past several weeks there has been a steady and gradual improvement in the Morgan McClure race car and Spencer has been an integral part of this drive for success," team owner Larry McClure said Wednesday in a statement. "While his part has been greatly appreciated by everyone here at Morgan McClure Motorsports, it has been decided, by mutual agreement, that it would be beneficial to both the team and to Jimmy Spencer to release him so that he may pursue other driving opportunities within the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series."
On Sunday night, officers went to Spencer's home to arrest James Jonathan Spencer Jr., 18, on a misdemeanor charge of injury to personal property, police records show. He is accused of pouring paint on two cars at a Cornelius home Oct. 6.
The elder Spencer was charged with two misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct and resisting a public officer.
BOSTON — At least one big-city police department has suspended use of pepper-spray pellet guns blamed for the death of a 21-year-old college student who was shot by police trying to break up a rowdy crowd of Red Sox fans last week.
The Seattle Police Department said it has shelved the equipment until it can determine what happened in Boston. Department spokesman Scott Moss said that the guns are normally restricted to a few trained officers and have yet to be used.
Other police departments around the country said they have found such crowd-control weapons to be effective and would keep using them.
"We've used it on six occasions and haven't had any problems with it," said Sgt. Carlos Rojas of the Santa Ana, Calif., Police Department.
Boston police, who acquired the weapons for last summer's Democratic National Convention, have put them aside at least temporarily and have gone back to using a previous model since the death of Victoria Snelgrove, who was shot in the eye.
The reassessment came as Boston police girded for another potential Sox-inspired frenzy, with the hometown team on the brink of a World Series victory against the St. Louis Cardinals. The Red Sox had their first chance to clinch Wednesday night.
Snelgrove was among an estimated 80,000 fans who swarmed the streets outside Fenway Park after the Red Sox beat the rival New York Yankees to advance to the World Series for their first since 1986.
Officers fired into a crowd of fans, striking Snelgrove and at least two others.
Within 24 hours of Snelgrove's death, Boston Police Commissioner Kathleen O'Toole suspended use of the pepper guns. Several days later, O'Toole tapped Massachusetts' former chief federal prosecutor, Donald K. Stern, to lead an investigation into the death.
On Wednesday, the lawyer for the police commander in charge of crowd control the night of Snelgrove's death said the officer fired four rounds from a pepper-spray pellet gun, but did not hit Snelgrove.
Deputy Superintendent Robert O'Toole fired the weapon in an attempt to rein in out-of-control fans who were climbing on the rafters at Fenway Park and a sign at a nearby bar.
The Boston Globe quoted two anonymous sources, including an officer involved with police weapons training and an individual briefed on the investigation, as saying O'Toole fired at a group of students who were climbing the girders behind Fenway Park's left field wall.
O'Toole, who is not related to Kathleen O'Toole, then handed his weapon to patrolman Richard Stanton, who refused to fire it because he also had not been trained, the sources said.
O'Toole handed another gun to patrolman Samil Silta, who also told O'Toole he was not trained to use it but fired into the crowd anyway, the Globe reported. Another officer who fired into the crowd, patrolman Rochefort Milien, was trained to use the guns, the sources said.
Attorney Timothy Burke said the rounds fired by O'Toole did not strike anyone in the head. "No one was aimed at or shot at in the face," Burke told The Associated Press.
Burke also said that contrary to the Globe report, Burke had been trained to use the weapon.
Virginia-based FN Herstal, which manufactures the FN303 weapon used in Boston, said there have been no other instances of anyone seriously injured or killed since the gun went on the market about two years ago.
Bucky Mills, deputy director of law enforcement sale, marketing and training, said a couple of hundred law enforcement agencies have bought the guns, including New York City and Washington, D.C., and several federal agencies.
Charles "Sid" Heal, a commander with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department and an expert on less-than-lethal force, said the only thing that stopped his department from buying the FN303 was its cost — about $900 per launcher. Heal said the FN303 launcher was known to be very accurate.
"They're one of the best that are out there," Heal said. "We tried it, we liked it, we just couldn't afford it."
On its Web site, FN Herstal says the weapon should never be aimed at a person's throat, neck or head.
The same weapons were used without incident in College Park, Md., in 2002 after the University of Maryland basketball team won the NCAA championship.
WASHINGTON — Kyocera Wireless Corp. is recalling about 1 million cell phone batteries because some may be counterfeit, which could cause them to short-circuit, overheat and burn users.
The San Diego company has received 10 reports of battery failures — eight resulting in smoke and property damage and two that caused minor burn injuries, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said Thursday.
The recalled batteries, manufactured by Hecmma Group of El Paso, Texas, and made in China, involve three different cell phone models:
_K400 Series (Phantom, Blade and Rave): phone models KE413, KE433, KE/KX414, KE/KX424, KE/KX434; battery models CV90-K3040-03, CV90-K3040-09, CV90-K3040-10, CV90-K3040-11.
_3200 Series: phone models 3225, 3245, 3250; battery models same as K400 Series.
The batteries were sold nationwide at ALLTEL, Cricket Communications, MetroPCS, U.S. Cellular and Verizon Wireless stores, as well as by telemarketing retailers, various Web sites and regional phone carriers.
The K400 and 3200 Series were sold from December 2003 to September 2004 for $30 to $100; the Slider Series sold from May to September for $30 to $170. The batteries were also sold separately during those time periods for $30 to $60.
The commission advises consumers to stop using the batteries and store them with nonflammable materials. If users do not hear from Kyocera they should contact the company to receive a free replacement battery.
Kyocera can be reached at 866-559-3882, weekdays 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. EDT.
Whatever happened to the plan for lower gas prices right before the election?
Thanks AJC for the full-page ad showing a picture of that cutie Scott Slade. He looks like my fourth husband and I've only been married three times!
What I don't like about cellphones is you can only eavesdrop on half the conversation.
Seen Sunday morning on I-575: A truck with the "Support Wildlife" license tag with a deer tied to the bumper.
Don't worry folks, the flu epidemic won't hit until after Election Day.
What is the position of local reverends regarding Cynthia McKinney's support of gay marriage and abortion? The silence is deafening.
A "senior White House official" said that it's standard intelligence policy not to let the enemy know a lot of information. If that's true, this administration must regard the American public as the enemy.
Why are Christians who exercise both faith and reason never interviewed on TV?
Now that Aunt Fritzi is gone, Blondie is the only good woman left in the Comics.
If you're a garbage collector, you never want to read a horoscope that says, "Bury yourself in your work."
I never realized my husband drank until one day he came home sober.
Illinois Senate candidate Barack Obama seems to be gaining political support in every state. Should we worry about this becoming an "Obamanation"?
Unfortunately, some people view the chess set issue only in black and white.
If the world was a logical place, men would ride horses sidesaddle.
My son must be a closet Democrat. When I asked him why he hadn't cleaned the garage, he said, "I have a plan for that."
Why do we subsidize farmers that produce tobacco but not companies that would produce the flu vaccine?
Mike Luckovich is not the only one who's going to spiral into depression if Bush wins. Try all of Europe and half of America.
Japanese scientists have created a camera with such a fast shutter speed, they now can photograph a politician with his mouth shut.
That a school board chairwoman owns a pit bull tells you all you need to know.
Just finished my Halloween decorations. I put a John Kerry sign in the yard.
Nader: Here's a clue for ya. If "undecided" is kicking your butt, it's time to drop out of the race.
Just for once, I'd like the Great Pumpkin to appear on Halloween Night. If for no other reason than to shut up Lucy.
I hope we are not really as gullible and stupid as those running the presidential campaigns think.
I keep trying to come up with a witty vent about checkers, but nothing really moves me.
Joey (Repeat)
NBC: Thursday, October 28 7:00 PM
Sitcom
Pilot
Joey Tribbiani moves to Los Angeles to pursue his dream of becoming a big Hollywood star with the help of his new agent and the support of his sister and his nephew.
Will & Grace (Repeat)
NBC: Thursday, October 28 7:30 PM
Sitcom
Last Ex to Brooklyn
Grace is vexed when she learns that Leo's ex-girlfriend (Mira Sorvino) is intimately acquainted with Will.
Extreme Makeover (New)
ABC: Thursday, October 28 7:00 PM
Medical, Health
A 48-year-old singer/musician, a 38-year-old Beverly Hills High School alumnus and 38-year-old identical twins are made over and the results revealed to family and friends.
Drew Carey's Green Screen Show (New)
WB: Thursday, October 28 7:30 PM
Comedy
Skits include ``The Dentist''; ``Toaster''; ``Alaska''; and ``Onion Sam.''
Survivor: Vanuatu, Islands of Fire (New)
CBS: Thursday, October 28 7:00 PM
Game show, Reality, Action, Adventure
Anger, Threats, Tears... and Coffee
FOX: Movie: ``Bedazzled''
WWE SmackDown! (New)
UPN: Thursday, October 28 7:00 PM
Sports non-event, Pro wrestling
The Apprentice (New)
NBC: Thursday, October 28 8:00 PM
Reality, Game show
A Tale of Two Leaders
The teams meet with advertising executive Donny Deutsche for their latest task: creating a recruitment campaign for the New York City Police Department.
life as we know it (New)
ABC: Thursday, October 28 8:00 PM
Drama
Partly Cloudy, Chance of Sex
When Dino quits the hockey team for no apparent reason, Michael confronts his son about what's really upsetting him; Jackie has trouble admitting that she lives in a very dysfunctional household; Ben auditions for the school play.
Charmed (Repeat)
WB: Thursday, October 28 8:00 PM
Drama, Suspense, Paranormal, Fantasy
Cheaper by the Coven
Grams puts a spell on the brothers to end their rivalry, but the spell turns the Charmed Ones into bickering teens; Leo consults a demonic seer (Charisma Carpenter) to find out who is behind the attack on Wyatt.
ER (Repeat)
NBC: Thursday, October 28 8:55 PM
Drama
NICU
Abby and Neela are assigned to a monthlong rotation in the neonatal intensive-care unit, and they experience emotional highs and lows while caring for the struggling infants.
PrimeTime Live (New)
ABC: Thursday, October 28 9:00 PM
Talk, Newsmagazine
Bill Clinton discusses his health and the upcoming presidential election in his first television interview since having open heart surgery.
Without a Trace (New)
CBS: Thursday, October 28 9:00 PM
Crime drama, Action, Adventure
American Goddess
A makeover winner disappears in the midst of the publicity event at which she was the featured guest, and the team must comb through the possible suspects to learn what happened to her.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (New)
cbs: Thursday, October 28 8:00 PM
Crime drama, Action, Adventure, Suspense
Swap Meet
The team investigates a group of swingers in a gated community when one of them is found murdered after attending one of the group's parties.
YAXCOPOIL, Mexico (Reuters) - One minute you're a big T-Rex, the next you're toast.
Challenging conventional theory, new scientific research suggests the dinosaurs may have been scorched into extinction by an asteroid collision 65 million years ago that unleashed 10 billion times more power than the Hiroshima nuclear bomb.
Earth's temperatures soared, the sky turned red and trees all over the planet burst into flames, said atmospheric physicist Brian Toon of the University of Colorado.
Among the few survivors would have been animals living in water or burrowed in the ground like turtles, small mammals and crocodiles.
"Essentially, if you were exposed you were broiled alive. That is probably what happened to the dinosaurs. They were big creatures that didn't have anywhere to hide," said Toon.
Scholarly debate over how the dinosaurs died is fierce and the theory put forward by Toon and others adds one more twist to the greatest forensic mystery of all time.
Despite opposition from some scientists, the idea that the dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid that slammed into Mexico's Yucatan peninsula has won general acceptance since it was first mooted in the early 1990s.
Under that argument, academics say the giant reptiles mostly froze or starved to death when a huge cloud of particles kicked up by the meteorite blocked the world's sunlight for months.
But Toon, the co-author of a study published in the Geological Society of America Bulletin in May, reckons the dinosaurs' end was even more dramatic.
Creatures living near ground zero would have been vaporized immediately while those in the Caribbean area and southern United States would have drowned in 330-feet-high (100-metre) tsunamis when the asteroid impacted near today's Gulf of Mexico shoreline at a speed of 33,750 mph (54,000 kph).
Then, a column of red-hot steam and dust soared thousands of miles (km) into space and most of it fell back toward Earth within a few hours, turning the heavens into hell.
GIANT FIRE
"The entire sky would be radiating at you. It would be like standing next to a giant fire; you'd be burned very severely," Toon said, whose research is based on mathematical and computer models.
Land dinosaurs all around the world perished from the intense heat of several hundred degrees Fahrenheit, said Toon.
He agrees with other scientists that the dust cloud later cooled and blocked out the sun, but says the land dinosaurs were already history by that time.
The darkness finished off many of the remaining marine reptiles and fish by killing plankton and disrupting the food chain, said Toon.
But those views are being challenged by some researchers who say the Yucatan meteorite was not as great a catastrophe as first thought.
A theory gaining ground is that global warming combined with another asteroid collision in an unknown location other than the Yucatan was what cut short the dinosaurs' reign.
The academics are unlikely to agree soon on what caused the demise of the Triceratops, Sauropods and their kin but in the jungly Yucatan peninsula, locals are in no doubt.
"Everyone knows that the asteroid here killed the dinosaurs. They teach it in the schools," said Isabel Lopez, a shop owner in the village of Yaxcopoil.
"It's a shame what happened," said schoolboy Daniel Tzeu, 11, lamenting the dinosaurs' end. He was standing near a bore hole in the village dug by University of Arizona scientists probing for rock samples in a crater caused by the asteroid.
The crater, around 100 miles (160 km) in radius is now buried 1/2 mile (1 km) underground, partly beneath the sea.
The University of Arizona has found "shocked" rocks it says could only have been damaged by an asteroid collision.
David Kring, one of the University of Arizona scientists who proved the Yucatan crater was the asteroid crash site, agrees the catastrophe killed off the land dinosaurs but doubts they all burned to death.
Many starved when plants were destroyed by fires, a subsequent period of global darkness and acid rain.
"If you knock out the vegetation you really have undermined the food chain," he said.
WRONG ASTEROID?
But Princeton University geologist Gerta Keller disagrees that the asteroid put paid to the dinosaurs. She says asteroid debris, known as ejecta, found embedded in ancient rocks shows the Yucatan meteorite hit Earth many millennial before the dinosaurs vanished.
"The ejecta everywhere is in sediment layers that pre-date the mass extinction by about 300,000 years," she said.
Global warming (news - web sites) caused by 400,000 years of repeated volcanic eruptions in western India weakened the dinosaurs and then another asteroid struck earth, although scientists have yet to find its crater, Keller said.
"It's a double whammy at that point," she said.
A combination of the two disasters deprived the Earth of oxygen and the dinosaurs probably suffocated to death, she said.
ROCHESTER, Minn. - Terrorists lying in wait to attack. Planes falling from the sky. Ships blowing up. The candidates in the race for president are painting some scary scenarios to motivate voters.
In the first presidential campaign in a new age of terrorist threats, President Bush (news - web sites) and Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) are speaking to the public's worst collective nightmares, making the case that the next occupant of the White House will make the difference in whether the country is safe or at greater risk.
Kerry's new vision of doomsday is based on reports that the Bush administration failed to secure nearly 400 tons of explosives missing from a military installation in Iraq (news - web sites). He accuses the Bush campaign of playing on people's fears while saying he speaks to their hopes, but in the same speech he'll raise the dangers of the missing explosives.
"Folks, these are the kind of explosives that took down Pan Am 103 (news - web sites)," Kerry said this week in Las Vegas, a reference to the 1988 plane bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. "These are the kind of explosives that blew up the USS Cole (news - web sites). And there are enough explosives there to harm America."
Bush says his opponent doesn't know what he's talking about on the missing weapons cache, then paints his own frightening picture of a world with Kerry as the U.S. president.
"I want to remind the American people if Senator Kerry had his way, we would still be taking our global test, Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) would still be in power, he would control all those weapons and explosives, and could have shared them with our terrorist enemies," Bush said Wednesday.
The central theme of Bush's re-election campaign long has been to make it seem dangerous to elect Kerry. But he's sharpened his attacks since a speech Oct. 18 in which he accused Kerry of having a dangerous mind-set that would permit a response to terrorism "only after America is hit."
Bush touts himself as a steady leader and better protector while reminding audiences of the horror of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
"The terrorists who killed thousands are still dangerous and they are determined to strike again," Bush said Wednesday in Lititz, Pa. "And the outcome of this election will set the direction of the war against the terrorists. ... If America shows uncertainty or weakness in this decade, the world will drift toward tragedy."
Kerry says his combat experience during the Vietnam War shows he is not the weakling Bush portrays him to be. Kerry said he will fight the terrorists "with all of the intensity with which I went at it, and I went at it, and the guys who were on my boats will tell you how we went at it. We fought."
Not all the warnings are about death and destruction, but they are still meant to frighten.
Bush says Kerry's proposals cost so much that he would have to raise taxes on the middle class. Kerry says Bush could reinstate the military draft and plans to privatize Social Security (news - web sites).
Bush has said he would not do either, although he does favor allowing younger workers to invest some of their payroll taxes in personal retirement accounts. Kerry recently pledged not to raise taxes on people earning $200,000 or less.
Perhaps the scariest visions have come from Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) who, while campaigning, frequently raises the possibility of terrorists unleashing weapons of mass destruction in urban areas.
"The biggest threat we face now as a nation is the possibility of terrorists ending up in the middle of one of our cities with deadlier weapons than have ever been used against us, with a biological agent, or a nuclear weapon, or a chemical weapon of some kind, able to threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans, not just 3,000," he said in Carroll, Ohio, last week.
Cheney has said he suspects terrorists will try to disrupt Tuesday's election. He also has said that if Kerry were in charge the Soviet Union might still exist and Saddam might not just control Iraq, but the entire Persian Gulf.
Cheney's wife also stoked fear Wednesday when she introduced the vice president in Washington, Pa.
"The terrorists will try to come after us again," Lynne Cheney said. "They'll try. You know it. And I ask, 'Who do I want to have standing in the doorway ... protecting us?' It is not John Kerry."
ST. LOUIS - They are now forever a part of New England lore, names such as Pokey Reese right up there with Paul Revere and Plymouth Rock. Because these Boston Red Sox (news) — yes, the Boston Red Sox! — are World Series (news - web sites) champions at long, long last. No more curse and no doubt about it.
Pedro Martinez paraded the trophy down the left-field line, hoisting it high over his head with both hands after Boston won it for the first time since 1918, beating the St. Louis Cardinals (news) 3-0 Wednesday night for a four-game sweep.
Thousands of Red Sox fans at Busch Stadium roared. Seeing was believing, but they still couldn't believe their eyes.
"We know people who are 90 years old who have just said: 'Just one championship before I die,'" Red Sox chairman Tom Werner said.
Johnny Damon homered on the fourth pitch of the game, Derek Lowe made it stand up and the Red Sox wrapped up a Series in which they never trailed.
Ridiculed and reviled through decades of defeat, the Red Sox didn't just defeat the Cardinals. They dominated the team with the best record in baseball.
"All of our fans have waited all their lives for this night, and it's finally here. These guys did it for you, New England," Red Sox owner John Henry said.
Chants of "Thank you, Red Sox!" bounced all around the ballpark when it was over, with Boston fans as revved-up as they were relieved.
Only 10 nights earlier, the Red Sox were just three outs from getting swept by the New York Yankees (news) in the AL championship series before becoming the first team in baseball postseason history to overcome a 3-0 deficit.
It was Boston's sixth championship, but the first after 86 years of frustration and futility, after two world wars, the Great Depression, men on the moon, and the rise and fall of the Soviet Union.
After all that, on an eerie night when the moon went dark in a total eclipse, MVP Manny Ramirez and the Red Sox made it look easy. They became the third straight wild-card team to win the Series, and the first club to win eight straight in a postseason.
Gone was the heartbreak of four Game 7 losses since their last title, a drought — some insist it was a curse — that really began after they sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920.
Damon's leadoff homer against Jason Marquis and Trot Nixon's two-out, two-run double on a 3-0 pitch in the third inning were all that Lowe and the bullpen needed.
"They outplayed us in every category, so it ended up not being a terrific competition," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "We were ready to play. We didn't play good enough."
Having won the first-round clincher against Anaheim in relief and then winning Game 7 at Yankee Stadium, Lowe blanked the Cards on a mere three hits for seven innings.
Relievers Bronson Arroyo and Alan Embree worked the eighth and Keith Foulke finished it off for his first save.
Even before Doug Mientkiewicz caught Foulke's toss on Edgar Renteria's grounder for the last out, the Red Sox were rushing out of the dugout. Boston players streamed in from the bullpen, and they all came together in a pulsating pile between the mound and first base.
With flashbulbs popping, the hugging and jumping was electrifying. And why not? The day that would never quite come for a generation of Red Sox players and fans had arrived.
"We can't reverse what was a long time ago," first-year manager Terry Francona said. "This was our team this year. You can't do anything else about any other year."
Now the Red Sox get to raise the World Series banner next April 11 in the home opener at Fenway Park, with the vanquished Yankees in town forced to watch. No telling who will be there — 18 Boston players are potential free agents, including Martinez and Lowe.
"I wish we could get our rings tomorrow," Lowe said. "Unbelievable — no more going to Yankee Stadium and having to listen to '1918.'"
Lowe followed up peak performances by Curt Schilling and Martinez, capping off a year in which Boston traded away popular shortstop Nomar Garciaparra.
"I'm so happy. I'm happy for the fans in Boston, I'm happy for Johnny Pesky, for Bill Buckner, for (Bob) Stanley and (Calvin) Schiraldi and all the great Red Sox players who can now be remembered for the great players that they were," Schilling said.
Schilling got himself traded from Arizona to Boston last November, eager to beat the Yankees and put the Red Sox in the World Series for the first time since 1986. He made it worth his while, with the win ensuring him an extra $15 million in a contract he negotiated himself.
Boston got key contributions from almost everyone. Backup outfielder Dave Roberts did not play in the Series, yet it was his stolen base in the ninth inning of Game 4 in the ALCS that began the comeback against Yankees closer Mariano Rivera.
And while second baseman Mark Bellhorn was born in Boston, no one else on the roster came from anywhere near Beantown. And the only homegrown players on the team are Nixon and rookie Kevin Youkilis.
No matter, they can all share it in. And the win left no doubt which city is now the most jinxed in baseball. It's Chicago — the Cubs last won it all in 1908, the White Sox in 1917.
Meanwhile, the Cardinals team that led the majors with 105 wins never showed up. The timely hitting, solid pitching and sharp baserunning that served them so well all season completely broke down.
Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen and Jim Edmonds, the meat of the order, combined for just one RBI. Rolen got it on a sacrifice fly, and it was little consolation as he went 0-for-15.
Ramirez, put on waivers in the offseason and nearly traded to Texas for Alex Rodriguez, was 7-for-17 (.412) with a homer and four RBIs. The left fielder's biggest contribution came in Game 3, when he bounced back from a couple of errors to throw out a runner at the plate and end an early St. Louis threat.
"I went through a lot of drama during the winter," he said.
Nixon, drafted by the Red Sox in 1993 and part of the organization longer than any other player, was drained by the end.
"Any time you don a Red Sox uniform, you have to talk about the history of this team and not having a World Series championship since 1918," he said. "Sooner or later, that hex had to stop. Everybody thought it was a curse, but to use it was just a five-letter word."
Notes:@ Ramirez tied Derek Jeter and Hank Bauer for the longest postseason hitting streak at 17 games. ... Damon hit the 17th leadoff homer in Series history. Jeter (2000) was the last to do it. ... The Red Sox led for 34 of the 36 innings. ... The Red Sox won on the 18th anniversary of their Game 7 at Shea Stadium. ... La Russa's teams have lost eight straight World Series games. Oakland was swept by Cincinnati in 1990.
"Soup makes the perfect diet food," says Barbara Kafka, author of Soup: A Way of Life. "It has a lot of flavor without a lot of fat. When I don't want to eat too heavily, I choose soup."
Why Soup Helps You Lose Weight
Research shows that when you start a meal with a broth-based soup, especially one swimming with vegetables, you'll likely consume about 100 fewer calories at that meal - and you won't make up the calories at the next.
"Several studies show that soup eaters end up weighing less than non-soup eaters," says Penn State nutrition professor Barbara Rolls, Ph.D., co-author of Volumetrics: Feel Full on Fewer Calories.
"Incorporating soups into a weight-management plan as a first course at lunch or dinner can really help save calories," she notes. She also likes it as a snack: "When you get the munchies, it's much better to have some soup than to go to the candy machine."
Soup + Walking = 20 Fewer Pounds
"Small changes make a big difference," says John Foreyt, Ph.D., director of the nutrition research clinic at Baylor University's College of Medicine in Houston, who has studied soup's role in weight loss. "For many people, small changes over time are more sensible and more effective than big changes.
"I like the 100/100 rule," he says. "Eat 100 calories less tomorrow, and expend an extra 100 calories in physical activity, such as 20 minutes of walking." In the course of a year, he notes, such a change may make a difference of 20 pounds.
Soup Studies
The soup effect has been demonstrated again and again over the past 20 years:
In an early-1980s University of Pennsylvania study, 500 people in a weight-loss program noted each meal they ate for 10 weeks. Some were told to eat soup at least four times a week. The soup eaters ate fewer calories - on average, 100 less per day - and lost the most weight.
In a Baylor University College of Medicine study, Dr. Foreyt asked a group of overweight men and women on a low-cal diet to eat soup every day. They liked it - and were better able to maintain their weight loss than non-soup-eaters.
At Penn State, Dr. Rolls' group gave women a 270-calorie first course before lunch. Some got chicken-rice casserole, others the casserole plus 10 ounces of water. A third group received chicken-rice soup made from the casserole ingredients plus the water. Soup eaters took in about 100 calories fewer at the meal - and they didn't eat more at dinner.
In her latest studies, Rolls and colleagues find that the hunger-suppressing benefits of soup lasts a full two hours.
In Paris, researchers at the "Laboratory of the Neurobiology of Nutrition" confirm that water with a meal doesn't affect how full people feel - but having the same ingredients as soup does.
The Paris scoop: Soup better satisfies hunger if it is chunky.
Why Soup Works
Broth-based, low-fat soup is filling, yet low in calories. It's as simple as that.
Emerging research finds that a food's bulk and weight is key to satisfying hunger. If a food fills you up with fewer calories, you'll eat fewer calories.
"If you eat foods with fewer calories in a portion, you'll get more satisfaction calorie for calorie," says Dr. Rolls. "You'll control hunger better."
That's why calorie-laden cream- or butter-based soup won't help. Even bean soup made with lots of olive oil can be very caloric. It's calories that count.
Soup is also different from drinking water. Soup, especially one with chunky vegetables, is digested slowly. It is food. Water or soda quenches thirst, but it doesn't satisfy hunger.
"Hunger and thirst are controlled through two completely separate mechanisms in the body," says Rolls. "Soft drinks and fruit drinks trigger thirst mechanisms - those calories actually tend to add on to food calories. But when you get into soups, they're going to trigger hunger mechanisms."
Beyond Soup: Eating Strategies
Is soup unique? Not at all.
Eat any filling, low-calorie food as an appetizer or first course, and you'll likely make it easier to consume fewer calories at that meal:
Eat an apple on the way to lunch.
Order melon as a first course.
Start with a salad with just a little low-cal dressing.
When you go to the salad bar, fill up your plate with "big" foods like greens and vegetables, before going back for more calorically dense choices.
It's a kind of preemptive eating strategy. Make substitutions you like, ones that can become part of your life. If you like soup, start there. It's a strategy that many traditional cultures - which by necessity had to satisfy hunger with few caloric resources - have adopted. In Mexico, nearly every meal has a soup. In China, rice soup (congee) is breakfast.
In the peasant cultures of southern Europe, a family may have a large pot of soup continually simmering on a stove - providing both lunch and dinner - accompanied by bread, perhaps a small piece of cheese or meat, and usually a salad.
In Ecuador, notes Soup author Kafka, when you meet a friend, you don't ask, "Have you eaten?" but "Have you had soup?"
Robert A. Barnett is the co-author of Volumetrics.
Your children will pick up your attitudes about exercise -- make it a positive one! If you see exercise as a chore, your children will, too. Think of activities that you can do with your kids. Get them off to a good start -- and off the fast food -- with fun activities that make the whole family more active.
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways. Asthma attacks occur when an individual with asthma is exposed to triggers, such as dust, pet dander, smoke, viruses, exercise or cold air which cause the muscles around the airways in the lungs tighten, the air tubes to swell, and the cells in the air tubes to make more mucus than normal. This combination of events hampers the flow of air to and from the lungs, making it difficult to breathe.
The most common symptoms of an asthma attack include:
Wheezing
Shortness of breath
Coughing
Chest tightness, pain, or pressure
What Causes an Asthma Attack?
Twitchy Airways - People with asthma have what are commonly referred to as "twitchy airways;" highly sensitized airways that tend to overreact to natural substances in the environment.
Triggers - Some of the more common substances that aggravate or "trigger" the twitchy airways into causing an asthma attack, are cold air, exercise, allergens such as dust, mold, or pollen, and colds and viruses.
When Does an Attack Occur?
Most asthma attacks occur within a few minutes of exposure to a trigger and may last for an hour or longer before beginning to subside.
Occasionally, a second or late reaction can appear. This attack usually surfaces about four hours after the first contact with the allergen and can last for several hours before dissipating.
In some difficult cases, even later and recurrent reactions can take place, usually at night.
What Happens in the Body?
Constriction - When triggered, the muscles around the airways in your lungs tighten. They squeeze your airways and cause them to narrow. This constriction makes it hard for you to breathe in and out.
Inflammation - At the same time, the tissue inside the airways becomes red and swollen, or inflamed. As the inflammation increases, the space inside your airways shrinks. The cells that line the airways also produce more and thicker mucus than normal, filling up more of the shrinking passageways.
Less Room to Breathe
The combination of constriction, inflammation, and mucus production means you have less and less available space to take air into your lungs and more difficulty breathing.
Shortness of breath or tightness in the chest are just some of the warning signs that should impel you to seek immediate treatment. Without treatment your breathing can become even more labored, your wheezing louder. If you can still use a peak flow meter at this time, your reading will probably be less that 50%.
How Bad Can It Get?
Silent Chest - As the intensity of symptoms increases, you won't be able to use the peak flow meter at all and there won't be enough airflow to even produce wheezing. This condition is known as the "silent chest" and is a dangerous development in the progress of an asthma attack. Many people believe the absence of wheezing means that the attack is abating. To the contrary, you should be taken to a hospital immediately.
Lack of Oxygen - If your asthma attack is not treated you will eventually find it impossible to speak and your lips and fingernails will develop a bluish color. This is an indication that you have less and less oxygen in your blood. If you do not receive aggressive treatment in an intensive care unit, you will most likely lose consciousness and die.
Immediate Response
Once you recognize the symptoms of an asthma attack or of a pending attack, it's important to treat them immediately. Because the severity of an asthma attack can escalate quickly, you want to do everything you can to stop its progress.
If you feel an asthma attack coming on or are experiencing an attack, immediately take the steps that you and your doctor outlined in your Emergency Asthma Action Plan. Your prompt action can mean a shorter, milder episode, or in the case of a severe attack, it can save your life.
Stop Attacks Before They Start
Asthma is a chronic condition. It is always there, even if you don't feel it. The treatment plan that you and your doctor worked out is designed to keep the constriction and inflammation of your airways to a minimum and to also reduce your sensitivity to triggers. By following your daily treatment plan you can keep your asthma under control and help to stop attacks before they start.
Good nutrition is a basic and formidable tool in your effort to manage your asthma or allergies. People with asthma or allergies tend to have specific nutritional deficiencies linked to their conditions. By tailoring your nutrition you can shore up any deficiencies, strengthen your defenses, and raise your overall energy and sense of well-being.
Asthma and the Need for Calcium
Many people with asthma use oral and inhaled forms of corticosteroids to help them breathe comfortably. The effective dose increases for people over 40. High doses can increase your risk of developing osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is a bone disease in which the bones lose density and become prone to fractures.
Calcium is a bone builder and when taken with Vitamin D, which helps the body to absorb calcium, it can help decrease the risk of osteoporosis.
Suggested Calcium Intake - For those at risk for osteoporosis the suggested adult calcium intake is 1500 mg with 800 IU (international units) of Vitamin D per day.
Foods with Calcium - Foods rich in calcium include dairy products, tofu, raisins, sardines and salmon with bones and dark green, leafy vegetables like broccoli, chard and collards.
Can You Get Enough Calcium? - Unfortunately, some people are either allergic to dairy products or unable to digest them. In addition, as we get older our ability to absorb calcium decreases and other nutrients, such as large amounts of proteins and fiber, can also deplete the body's calcium.
Calcium Supplements - Calcium supplements can help you to reach your recommended daily intake. Avoid the supplements that contain bone meal, oyster shell or dolomite as they could contain toxic materials. Talk to your doctor because calcium supplements can interfere with other medications and can cause abdominal side effects. Start with lower dosages and work your way up.
The Need for Fluids
You can reduce asthma and respiratory allergy symptoms by thinning the mucus in the lungs. And just as you would think, drinking more fluids is the answer. Mineral water with a high calcium content can help you to increase your intake of both fluids and calcium.
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Studies have shown that Omega-3 fatty acids may be effective in reducing asthma symptoms in many people with the condition. Another study found that children who regularly ate fresh, oily fish containing Omega-3 fatty acids were four times less likely to develop asthma than children who rarely or never ate oily fish. Scientists speculate that the Omega-3 fatty acids reduce airway inflammation and responsiveness, thus preventing the development of asthma or reducing its severity.
Foods with Omega-3 Fatty Acids - Omega-3 Fatty Acids are found in oily fish such as salmon, tuna, orange roughy, mullet, and rainbow trout and in flaxseed, soybean oil, canola oil and dark green, leafy vegetables.
Choose Your Foods Carefully
Clear links have been made between poor nutrition and the bronchial difficulties of asthma. Good nutrition helps the body to fend off infection and to reduce the symptoms of asthma and allergies.
A Healthy Diet - A healthy diet includes fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and whole grains. A diet high in fat may increase a child's risk of developing asthma while a diet rich in Vitamin E is thought to improve lung function.
Food Labels - If you have allergies and asthma it is always a good idea to read food labels. Know your triggers and watch for them. A common ingredient, modified wheat starch, is "modified" by six chemicals that can trigger allergies and asthma.
Know What You Need - If you have a food allergy that eliminates an entire food group from your diet, talk to your doctor about the vitamins or mineral supplements you might need to keep you in the pink.
Preventing Allergies in Children
Evidence suggests that fewer allergies surface in the first two years of a child's life if they were exclusively breast-fed during their first 6-12 months. In addition, if the mother avoids eggs, cow milk, peanuts and fish while nursing, she may also help to reduce eczema in her baby.
Something you do for your heart may help rev up your immune system, too.
Working out regularly appears to supercharge your immune system, new research suggests. In a study, fit older men displayed a more robust immune response than their out-of-shape peers. Hitting the gym, going for brisk walks, or playing your favorite sport a few times each week are great ways to meet your minimum exercise needs.
