A Sampling of Clips for 
February 14 - 17, 2004

* UCSD faculty and staff may obtain a copy of an article by e-mailing the University Communications Office

Despite Advance in Cloning, Scientists Are Tempering Hope With Reality
New York Times, Feb. 15-South Korean scientists have announced the development of a line of cloned human embryonic stem cells, the universal cells that in theory can turn into any of the body's cells or tissues. In the face of powerful opposition to cloning of any kind from religious and political groups, including members of the Bush administration and Congress, these scientists say they desperately need friends. Yet scientists say it will be a long time for the treatment to be ready for patients. (Quote by Lawrence S. B. Goldstein M.D., a professor of cellular and molecular medicine at the University of California, San Diego.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/15/science/15CLON.html

Similar article appeared in:
Miami Herald, Feb. 15
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/nation/7957745.htm

Scholars Eye Abortion Proposal
San Jose Mercury News, Feb. 16-Some of the nation's top scholars of the U.S. Supreme Court's history and current behavior see no chance of South Dakota succeeding in the attempt under way to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. In telephone and e-mail interviews, six professors from across the political and constitutional spectrum, including UCSD professor Peter Irons, said the justices declined in the Webster case in 1989 to specifically address a Missouri law's statement that life begins at conception.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/7966088.htm

Los Angeles' Sins of Commission
Los Angeles Times, Opinion, Feb. 15-A hallmark of Progressive-era democracy, the commission system of mayor-appointed citizens setting policy for city departments, appears corrupted by fundraising imperatives. Nowhere does the triumph of money and mayoral rule over citizen rule appear more evident than at the city's powerful and wealthy proprietary departments -- airports, harbor and Water and Power -- that annually dispense $1 billion in contracts. (Article written by Steven Erie, a professor of political science at UC San Diego.)
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-op-erie15feb15,1,5271671.story

Seafaring Lab Goes In-Depth
Los Angeles Times, Feb. 16-Cruising for the gray whales, once an endangered species, has become a quintessential Southern California pastime. Up and down the coast -- and especially off Orange County -- private and commercial fishing vessels that once went to dry dock for winter repairs now make up one of the largest whale-watching fleets in the country. Between October and May, gray whales journey 12,000 miles, from frigid Arctic waters to warm Baja California lagoons and back. (Quote by Shelley Glenn, program coordinator at the Birch Aquarium of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.)
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-peeled16feb16,1,4027565.story

Without A Trace
Newsday, Feb. 14-From the World Trade Center files, consider the confounding case of Arturo Alva Moreno. Moreno, a native of Mexico, first appeared on the published list of the World Trade Center missing on Sept. 28, 2001. Then, in November, citing lack of evidence, the city Medical Examiner, on the recommendation of the Police Department, removed the name along with 40 others, citing that there was not enough evidence that he indeed lived in New York. Now his family is fighting to not only prove he was working at the World Trade Center, but to prove his existence. (Quote by Jeffrey Davidow, the president of the Institute of the Americas at the University of California in San Diego.)
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/newyork/politics/nyc-wtc0215,0,2881613.story?coll=nyc-manheadlines-politics

Climate Experts Forecast Trouble
Oregonian, Feb. 14-Multiyear droughts and more winter precipitation in the form of rain rather than snow could become commonplace in the Northwest, climate scientists said Friday. New studies indicate that the Cascades are in trouble if climate projections for the coming decades are accurate, said Edward Miles, leader of the Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington. Miles said the study by his group, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory updated their earlier projections, published a year ago in the journal Climatic Change. The study showed that future conditions could be even worse than scientists first thought.
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1076763549318781.xml

Dumped!
NewScientist, Feb. 14-Why is it so painful when romance goes wrong? Blame the wiring of your brain and the harsh realities of evolution, says Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey. (Quote by psychologist Reid Meloy of the University of California, San Diego.)
* No link available online.

Scientists Plan Sites to Monitor Seafloor
Houston Chronicle, Feb. 13-The complex, ever-moving seafloor off the Pacific Northwest coast could become one of the most studied expanses of underwater terrain under a bold plan to build permanent seafloor observatories. The National Science Foundation plans to launch a five-year, $ 208 million observatory program that would let scientists continuously monitor the planet's oceans. (Quote by John Orcutt, deputy director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.)
* No link available online.

OC Air Cargo
City News Service, Feb. 16-Orange County's economy will suffer unless another airport is developed in Riverside or San Bernardino counties, according to a book out next month, the Orange County Register reported today. Southern California needs more capacity to handle international air cargo, particularly in San Diego and Orange counties, said Steven P. Erie, author of "Globalizing L.A." and director of urban studies at UC San Diego.
* No link available online.

State's Economic Future Depends on Mainstreaming Immigrants
Pasadena Star-News, Feb. 14-For the first time this spring, according to a new report from WICHE, the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, just as the nation marks the 50th anniversary of the watershed Brown vs. Board of Education school segregation decision, California will graduate as many Latinos and blacks from its public high schools as it does non-Hispanic whites. Whites now constitute less than 42 percent of the class. What that means is that California's economy and its people, an increasing percentage of whom will be either too old or young for the work force, will be heavily dependent on today's immigrants and their children. (Quote by Professor Wayne Cornelius, director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies of the University of California at San Diego.)
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/Stories/0,1413,206~11851~1956922,00.html#

Cheating in Sports Could Become Genetic
San Diego Union-Tribune, Feb. 17- Some seriously pumped-up rats have set rodent records hauling weights up little ladders in a Philadelphia lab, where genetic engineering may be shaping the future of the National Football League. And that is not necessarily good news, scientists here said yesterday. At a time when some athletes will do just about anything to make their bodies bigger, stronger and faster, gene therapy is a whole new frontier. (Quote by UCSD professor of pediatrics, Theodore Friedmann.)
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/science/20040217-9999-1n17genes.html

`Fertilizing' Oceans Could Affect Food Chain, Scientists Say
San Diego Union-Tribune, Feb. 14-The idea seems simple enough: Add iron to the oceans so they absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than they normally do, and you've found a way to cut the amount of greenhouse gases warming the planet. But, like most things in science, it's not that easy. That was the word yesterday from scientists gathered for the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. (Quote by Mike Landry, a researcher from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.)
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/sat/news/news_1n14fertile.html

See Dick Drink
Houston Star-Telegram, Opinion, Feb. 15- More than 10 million youths ages 12 to 20 reported drinking alcohol in the past month, and 7.2 million of these were binge drinkers, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Parents of teens are right to fear these high rates of alcohol abuse that can lead to accidents, injuries and even death, as is too often the case. Yet a recent report has identified a more common but less visible harm associated with teen drinking that gives new cause for concern. (Cites research conducted by the University of California, San Diego.)
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/7960225.htm

Fast is Fat with An 's'
The Straits Times (Singapore), Feb. 15-This century's many daily forms of 'I want it yesterday' demands are leaving most people addled, frazzled and convinced that they no longer have any control over their lives. Researchers believe it's also contributing to the growing obesity rate. (Quote by Jeremy Schwimmer M.D., a professor of pediatrics at the University of California at San Diego.)
* No link available online.

Myogen to Present Ambrisentan Study Details
Denver Business Journal, Feb. 16-Myogen Inc. today announced Lewis Rubin, M.D., will present details of AMB-220, the phase II study of ambrisentan in pulmonary arterial hypertension, May 23 at the ATS 2004 International Conference. Dr. Rubin is director of the Pulmonary Vascular Center at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, and a principal investigator for AMB-220.
http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2004/02/16/daily4.html

China Trade Proves Mixed Blessing
San Diego Union-Tribune, Feb. 14-With the soaring U.S. trade deficit with China as a backdrop, a panel appointed by Congress spent the past two days in hearings at UC San Diego, looking at how to deal with China's growing technological and economic prowess.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/sat/business/news_1b14china.html

Ex-secretary of State Gives Views on Bush, Iraq War in Visit to S.D.
San Diego Union-Tribune, Feb. 14-"The Achilles heel of the doctrine of pre-emption is accurate intelligence," former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said yesterday in San Diego. The Bush administration's Achilles' heel may be that the weapons of mass destruction it said it went to war to destroy have not been found in Iraq. Earlier, Albright spoke to more than 500 students, faculty and members of the public at the Institute of the Americas on the campus of the University of California San Diego.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/sat/news/news_1n14albright.html