A Sampling of Clips for July 6^th, 2009

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Parkinson's Drugs Show Promise in Resistant TB
Reuters, July 3 -- Drugs used to treat Parkinson's disease show promise as a new way to stem the rise of drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis, UCSD researchers said on Thursday. More

Similar stories in
Forbes
MSN Health & Fitness
KTVN, Reno, Nev.

How California's Fiscal Woes Began: A Crisis 30 Years in the Making
TIME Magazine, July 3 -- The Golden State's budget problems are hardly new. The seeds of them were planted more than 30 years ago. They begin with the 1978 property tax revolt and the victory of Proposition 13. (Quotes UCSD political scientist Thad Kousser) More

Sheep Getting Smaller in Scotland Due to Climate Change, Study Says
Los Angeles Times, July 3 – Along with polar icecaps and sandy beaches, sheep on a remote Scottish island are gradually shrinking as a result of global warming, according to a study published today in the journal Science. The finding offers unusual proof that large animals are already evolving to adapt to changes wrought by climate change, experts said. (Quotes UCSD biologist Kaustuv Roy, who wasn't involved in the study) More

Similar stories in
San Francisco Chronicle
Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio
New Scientist, U.K.

Global Gases
The Washington Post, July 6 -- Substantial amounts of methane gas can reach the ocean surface and the atmosphere from seafloor vents as deep as 600 meters, according to a study out Sunday in Nature Geoscience. Scientists had previously thought that deep-sea seeps do not reach the surface because the bubbles would dissolve. This research, from Evan Solomon at UCSD and his colleagues, suggests that current estimates of the contribution of oceanic methane to the atmosphere may be too low. More

Tough Times for Mexican Immigrants
Forbes, July 2 -- In light of unsettling unemployment figures released Thursday, consider buying one of the estimated 8 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. a beer this Fourth of July. The effects of 9.5% unemployment would be worse without them, says Gordon Hanson, director of the Center on Pacific Economies at UCSD. More

China's Elderly Will Overwhelm the Nation
Los Angeles Times, July 6 -- China's working-age population -- the engine behind its prolific growth -- will start shrinking within a few years. Meanwhile, the ranks of elderly are projected to soar. (Quotes Susan Shirk, a professor at UCSD and author of "China: Fragile Superpower”) More

'American Hybrid: A Norton Anthology of
New Poetry' Takes 73 Different Directions
Los Angeles Times, July 5 -- "I have always believed," David St. John writes in his introduction to "American Hybrid: A Norton Anthology of New Poetry" (W.W. Norton: 530 pp., $25.95 paper), "that the great strength of American poetry resides, at its source, in its plurality of voices, its multitude of poetic styles, and its consistent resistance to the coercion of what emerges -- in each generation -- as a catalog of prevailing literary trends." (The collection includes work by UCSD professor emerita Fanny Howe) More

Iranians Find New Ways to Keep Protests Alive
Christian Science Monitor, July 5 -- Using social networking sites like Twitter and video sites like Youtube, protesters have compiled powerful evidence of a legitimate outpouring of anger. (Quotes Babak Rahimi, an Iran scholar at UCSD) More

British Embassy Row: Why Iran's Hard-Liners are Inviting Isolation
Christian Science Monitor, July 3 -- A leading Iranian cleric's call Friday for some Iranian employees of the British Embassy to be tried for allegedly inciting prodemocracy protests has ratcheted up Iran's confrontation with both global powers and the sizable proportion of its own citizenry who believe the country's June 12 presidential election was rigged in favor of incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (Quotes Babak Rahimi, an Iranian-American professor at UCSD) More

A Generation Will Bear Scars of This Recession
San Diego Union-Tribune, July 5 -- Eventually, an economic boom will restore prosperity to this nation, this state, this region. But in many ways, the current recession may never end. It will survive in the attitudes of Americans schooled in hard times, just as an earlier generation was marked by the Depression. (Quotes UCSD economist James Hamilton) More

Two-Thirds Budget Rule Has Whole Lot of Foes
San Diego Union-Tribune, July 5 -- California is in the midst of a fiscal meltdown in part because of the Legislature's inability to muster the necessary two-thirds vote to pass a budget. This raises the question in some circles: Why should it have to? (Quotes UCSD political scientist Samuel Popkin) More

Why Lower Gas Prices Might be a Bad Sign
San Diego Union-Tribune, July 5  – As San Diegans fill up their gas tanks during this July Fourth weekend, the good news is that they're spending a little less at the pump than they did a couple of weeks ago – and a lot less than last year. (Quotes UCSD economist James Hamilton) More

Myth Matched: Is Earth Nurturing Like Gaia, or Murderous Like Medea?
San Diego Union-Tribune, July 6 -- In a new book, Peter Ward argues that the nature of life on Earth is distinctively non-Gaian. Instead, life behaves more like another figure from Greek mythology – Medea, the granddaughter of the sun god Helios, wife to Jason of the Argonauts, killer of her own children. (Quotes Christopher Wills, a biologist at UCSD and Jeffrey Bada, a marine chemist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography) More

UCSD Pits Herpes Against Melanoma
KPBS, July 6 – UCSD is taking part in a clinical trial that pits herpes against melanoma cancer. Dr. Gregory Daniels says the idea to use viruses to infect and kill cancer has been around for a hundred years. More

County Supervisors Say No to Clean Syringe Exchange
KPBS, July 6 – People who inject illegal drugs are at highest risk of spreading hepatitis C, H-I-V, and other bloodborne diseases. To reduce that threat, communities all across the country have launched clean syringe exchange programs. (Quotes Dr. Steffanie Strathdee, who heads up the division of global public health at the UCSD School of Medicine) More

Hepatitis C: An Epidemic More Widespread than HIV
KPBS, July 6 – There's a chronic liver disease that's ten times more infectious than HIV, and more widespread. Hepatitis C is a virus that's spread through IV drug use, like HIV. Left untreated, hepatitis C can cause life-threatening complications, including liver cancer. (Quotes Dr. Tarek Hassanein, liver specialist at UCSD) More

Pioneer Researcher Retires
North County Times, July 4 – During his more than 40-year career as a researcher, professor Wayne Cornelius did what few politicians and policy-makers do when it comes to undocumented immigrants: He spoke to them to find out why they come here. For decades, Cornelius has been a leading expert on Mexican migration to the United States. He retired last week as the director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, an immigration research organization at UCSD. More

UC Labor Union Significant for Postdoctoral Research
San Diego Union-Tribune, July 6 – Postdoctoral scholars in the University of California system have unionized, marking a significant shift in how the researchers' work is viewed and providing a possible model for counterparts nationwide. There are 5,800 postdoctoral scholars in the 10-campus UC system, including 1,200 at UCSD. More

Fighting a Lethal Disease She Doesn't Carry
Voice of San Diego, July 5 – Jody Goldstein's job clearly requires regular infusions of oomph, though she far outlasts whatever boost could have come from blasting Martina McBride on her way in to work at the Huntington's Disease Clinical Research Center at UCSD in La Jolla. More

The Authority on Water: Questions for Maureen Stapleton
Voice of San Diego, July 2 – When we last sat down for an extensive interview with Maureen Stapleton, general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority, the region's water wholesaler, the current water shortage hadn't yet unfolded. (Mentions research by Tim Barnett of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography) More

UCSD Parking Structure Wins Achievement Award
San Diego Business Journal, July 6 – UCSD was one of six California winners in the 2009 International Parking Institute’s Awards of Excellence Competition. More

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