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Supreme Court Should Be 'Reined In' To Return Power To Legislative Branch, NYT Columnist Writes
Although Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor"s confirmation hearings are more than a month away, "it"s easy to predict how they will go," New York Times columnist Ross Douthat writes. Douthat predicts that Senate Judiciary Committee members "will attempt to divine Sotomayor"s position on a variety of controversial topics," such as abortion rights, and in "a series of polite, evasive answers, the nominee will feign a studious neutrality on almost every issue that could come before her during what"s likely to be decades as one of the most powerful women in the world." According to Douthat, the "deeper stakes" that likely will be ignored are that "Sotomayor will be joining a high court that"s gradually become a kind of extra legislative body." He cites research from Harvard Law School professor Jed Shugerman showing that the court over roughly the past 50 years has invalidated both state and federal statutes at an unprecedented rate. Douthat also points to data from Evan Caminker of the University of Michigan showing that in one eight-year period, the court invalidated 16 federal laws in 5-4 votes, something that occurred only 25 times in the previous two centuries. Douthat writes that "settling so many vexing controversies with 5-to-4 votes -- effectively making Anthony Kennedy the nation"s philosopher king -- is an awfully poor way to run a republic."Douthat continues that the "modern court"s most enduringly controversial power grabs -- with Roe v. Wade leading the way -- were usually the work of liberal justices" but that "in practice, the main divide between liberal and conservative judges tends to be over the responsibilities of the federal government, not judicial activism per se." He writes, "There are bipartisan ways that the Court could be reined in, and the legislative branch reinvigorated," including the idea of a supermajority rule that would require a 6-3 vote to overturn federal legislation. This idea "might spur the court toward greater consensus, and perhaps greater modesty as well," according to Douthat. Another possibility would be to implement 12-year term limits, he says. Douthat concludes that these suggestions would not "reduce the Supreme Court"s power directly, but it would help us see the court for what it has become -- a deeply political institution, as fallible as any other, and answerable, when all is said and done, to us" (Douthat, New York Times, 6/2).
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An Open Letter To The Health Minister From An Outback GP, Australia
An Alice Springs doctor has urged the Federal Government to overhaul Medicare to remove disincentives for General Practitioners to conduct longer consultations with patients.
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Study Demonstrated Once-Daily Vyvanse(R) CII Provided Significant Improvement Of ADHD Symptoms For Children At 13 Hours After Administration
Shire plc announced that a study published online in the peer-reviewed journal Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health found once-daily Vyvanse® (lisdexamfetamine dimesylate) CII significantly reduced the symptoms of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children aged 6 to 12 from the first time point measured (1.5 hours) up to the last time point assessed (13 hours) after administration. In this pediatric analog classroom study, treatment with Vyvanse was associated with significant improvement in behavior and attention in children at each time point measured, with improvement at 13 hours after administration.
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UT Gets Federal Stimulus Grant For Parkinson's Disease Research

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston has received a $412,500 federal stimulus grant for Parkinson"s disease research, the university announced today. It is the university"s first federal stimulus grant. Parkinson"s disease is an incurable brain disorder. Its symptoms include trembling, stiffness and problems with balance. An estimated one million Americans are diagnosed with the neurological disorder. The two-year grant will support efforts by researchers in the university"s Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM) to develop a therapeutic vaccine. Rowen Chang, Ph.D, an IMM professor of protein chemistry, is the principal investigator on the grant that comes from The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Chuantao Jiang, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant research professor at the IMM, is co-principal investigator. Chang plans to add one or two researchers to the team of scientists in his lab with the funds. The grant extends through April 30, 2011. "We are excited about receiving this grant, which will support our research and help the economy by employing more scientists," Chang said. Chang believes he may be able to slow the progression of Parkinson"s disease and possibly even prevent it by targeting a protein associated with the disease called alpha-synuclein. If successful, Chang"s vaccine would work by strengthening the immune system"s ability to suppress the activity of alpha-synuclein through the production of antibodies. The effectiveness of this vaccine will be tested in transgenic mice expressing human alpha-synuclein. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed by Congress to jumpstart the economy and create jobs. "The focus of the research has been on creating "locked structures" of proteins by internal cross linking," said C. Thomas Caskey, M.D., IMM Director/CEO. "The application of this technology to creation of therapeutic antibodies for Parkinson"s disease is a creative approach to new therapies for a challenging disease." Chang has been on the faculty of the Institute of Molecular Medicine for about a decade and was one of the initial appointments. He obtained his master"s of science degree from the National Taiwan University in Taipei and his doctorate from the Australian National University at Canberra. Robert Cahill University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston


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