Wildfire near Yosemite National Park explodes in size

Sat, July 23, 2022

WAWONA, Calif. (AP) — A fast-moving wildfire near Yosemite National Park exploded in size Saturday and prompted evacuations even as firefighters made progress against an earlier blaze that burned to the edge of a grove of giant sequoias.

The Oak Fire, which began Friday afternoon southwest of the park near Midpines in Mariposa County, grew to 10.2 square miles (26.5 square kilometers) by Saturday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire.

“Explosive fire behavior is challenging firefighters,” Cal Fire said in a statement Saturday morning that described the fire activity as “extreme with frequent runs, spot fires and group torching.”

As of Saturday morning, the fire had destroyed 10 residential and commercial structures and damaged five more, the Mercury News reported. The fast-growing blaze prompted Caltrans to order numerous road closures, including a shutdown of Highway 140 between Carstens Road and Allred Road — blocking one of the main routes into Yosemite National Park.


Hot weather and bone dry vegetation caused by the worst drought in decades was fueling the blaze and challenging fire crews, said Daniel Patterson, a spokesman for the Sierra National Forest.

“The fire is moving quickly. This fire was throwing embers out in front of itself for up to 2 miles yesterday,” Patterson said. “These are exceptional fire conditions."

About 1,700 residents in the area were put under mandatory evacuation orders Friday night.

A shoeless older man attempting the flee crashed his sedan into a ditch in a closed area and was helped by firefighters. He was safely driven from the area and did not appear to suffer any injuries. Several other residents stayed in their homes Friday night as the fire continued to burn nearby.

There’s no immediate word on what sparked the fire.

Meanwhile, firefighters have made significant progress against a wildfire that began in Yosemite National Park and burned into the Sierra National Forest.

The Washburn Fire was 79% contained Friday after burning about 7.5 square miles (19.4 square kilometers) of forest.

The fire broke out July 7 and forced the closure of the southern entrance to Yosemite and evacuation of the community of Wawona as it burned on the edge of Mariposa Grove, home to hundreds of giant sequoias, the world's largest trees by volume.

Wawona Road is tentatively set to reopen on Saturday, according to the park website.

California Highway Patrol Officer Matthew Chance walks away from a car that crashed into a ditch while driving away from the Oak Fire in Mariposa County, Calif., on Friday, July 22, 2022. Chance gave the elderly driver a ride out of the fire evacuation zone. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M;LOANSHARKS
Discover Financial Plunges After Suspending Buybacks on Student-Loan Probe

Jenny Surane
Thu, July 21, 2022 


(Bloomberg) -- Discover Financial Services dropped the most in more than two years after the company suspended share repurchases, saying it started an internal investigation into compliance practices at the student-loan servicing business.

The board appointed an independent special committee to conduct the probe, Discover said in a statement late Wednesday. Chief Executive Officer Roger Hochschild said executives at the firm took the probe into account when they developed guidance for expenses for this year, and the company continues to expect costs to climb by a percentage in the mid-single digits.

“We can’t really give you anything to expect in timing,” Hochschild said on a call with analysts Thursday, noting the decision to pause buybacks was made by Discover. “As soon as we can, we hope to restart the buyback.”

Discover dropped 7.3% to $101.82 at 9:42 a.m. in New York, after falling 9.1% earlier Thursday, the biggest intraday decline since June 2020. The shares are down 12% this year compared with a 16% drop for the S&P 500 Financials Index.

The company has faced regulatory scrutiny of its student-loan business for years. In 2015, it agreed to a consent order with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau linked to certain private student-loan servicing practices, and five years later it entered into an order resolving a CFPB investigation tied to the 2015 order. With the latest order, Discover was required to implement a compliance plan as well as shell out $35 million in penalties and redress for consumers.

“The only thing I can say is you’ve got both the consent orders and the investigation are in the areas of student-loan servicing,” Hochschild told analysts. “But beyond that, there really isn’t anything else I can add at this time.”

The probe overshadowed an otherwise rosy quarter, Sanjay Sakhrani, an analyst at Keefe Bruyette & Woods, said in a note to clients. Revenue for the quarter was $3.22 billion, topping the $3.19 billion average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg, aided by a 14% increase in net interest income.

“The solid results likely take a bit of a back seat,” Sakhrani said. “Clearly, we need to get more details on the size and scope of any inappropriate practices and the associated financial ramifications.”

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

As Snap melts down, its founders make sure to protect the people who matter: themselves

Therese Poletti - Yesterday

MARKETWATCH FIRST TAKE

Snap Inc. has never been an investor-friendly company — as long as those investors weren’t its founders, at least — and the parent company of the Snapchat app made that even clearer Thursday.

Related video: Snap's Sales Slump Prompts Social Media Stock Sellof

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Amid a major slowdown in its digital advertising business, Snap’s board created a unique (as in we’ve never seen anything like this before) dividend meant to ensure that its founders maintain control of the company, even if they decide to sell their stock. The dividend would be in the form of a 2-for-1 stock split, offering every investor a fresh Class A share for every share they currently own, but it will only occur if shares hit $40 within the next 10 years.

Full earnings coverage: Snap stock plunges 25% as advertising slows down, executives decline to offer forecast

That would seem like an easy target to hit, considering Snap was trading for $40 a share as recently as January. But Snap’s stock has been under enormous pressure since late last year, when Snap blamed changes Apple Inc. had made to the iPhone’s ad tracking, and advertisers hurt by supply-chain woes, for a big disruption in its advertising revenue.

Since that October warning, when Snap’s shares were trading in the vicinity of $75, shares have fallen around 78%. The stock was tumbling sharply again in after-hours trading on Thursday, to around $12, after yet another troubling earnings report in which Snap’s founders couldn’t find it in themselves to even offer a financial forecast.

Since its inception, Snap has been built to please its founders, Chief Executive Evan Spiegel and Chief Technology Officer Bobby Murphy. When it went public in 2017, it offered only nonvoting shares, known as Class A shares, an at-the-time unheard-of move that hasn’t been copied in a major IPO since, and gave Spiegel a “CEO bonus” that amounted to 3% of a company of which he already owned a healthy percentage. The result is that Spiegel and Murphy own a whopping 99.5% voting control of the company.

From 2017: Snap IPO boils down to one question: do you really trust Evan Spiegel?

While other companies that have planned stock splits of late, such as Amazon.com Inc. and Tesla Inc. have pronounced that their moves were meant to help their employees better handle their stock compensation, Snap showed its hand by blatantly stating in a letter Thursday that the move was specifically for their founders’ benefit. It is a way to let the founders continue to donate or sell stock without diluting their voting control and ownership stake — receiving one Class A shares for every supervoting share they currently own gives them a chance at liquidity.

While the two executives have been involved in a lot of philanthropy in recent years, the move seems self-serving. Are the co-founders just making sure they have an easier path to make donations, or are they fiddling while Snap burns?

Clearly, a $40 stock price is a not something Snap is going to see in the near future, so that is probably why no analyst posed a question about the dividend plan on the company’s conference call Thursday. The more immediate problem for investors is the company’s deteriorating ad business, and whether it is symptomatic of the economy or something more problematic at Snap itself.

Snap’s top leaders also should have been focused on Snap’s serious issues, such as the widening quarterly loss and lower-than-expected revenue, or the fact that the company is still unprofitable and doesn’t seem headed toward profitability. Instead, they made sure to protect themselves.

If investors had forgotten how founder-focused Snap is, they got a big reminder on Thursday. And whether those founders are worth it or not, investors have no say in the matter.

ANTI ABORTION FETUS FETISHIST FANTASYLAND
GOP Candidate: Hypothetical 14-Year-Old Incest Victim Is 'Perfect Example' For Abortion Ban

Daniel Marans
Wed, July 20, 2022 at 3:35 PM·4 min read

Tudor Dixon, a leading Republican candidate for governor of Michigan, confirmed in a recent interview that her opposition to abortion rights extends even to a minor who is raped by a family member.

On an episode of Charlie LeDuff’s talk show, “The No BS Newshour,” that aired Friday, LeDuff pressed Dixon, a conservative commentator and former steel industry executive, on whether her support for a strict abortion ban would apply to the most extreme cases.

By way of example, LeDuff proposed the hypothetical case of a 14-year-old girl who becomes pregnant after her uncle rapes her.

“Yeah, perfect example,” Dixon interjected.

“You’re saying carry that?” LeDuff asked, finishing his question.

Dixon replied that she would expect that girl to carry the baby to term and that she only supports allowing an abortion when a mother’s life is in danger.

“I know people who are the product ― a life is a life for me. That’s how it is,” Dixon concluded.

The Michigan news outlet Heartland Signal first reported on the conversation on Wednesday morning, posting a video of the exchange that it pulled from the YouTube page of “The No BS Newshour.”

The Michigan Democratic Party immediately condemned Dixon’s remarks.

Dixon’s “callous remarks are the perfect example of how dangerous Tudor Dixon would be for Michigan families,” Michigan Democratic Party spokesperson Rodericka Applewhaite said in a statement to the media.

Dixon’s support for an abortion ban that includes only an exception for cases when a mother’s life is danger is consistent with Michigan’s 1931 law banning abortion.

The Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, which made abortion a federal right, effectively overrode that old law.

But the high court’s June decision sending the issue of abortion rights back to the states would have triggered the 1931 ban had a Michigan judge not granted Planned Parenthood’s request for a temporary injunction blocking the law from taking effect on the grounds that it violates the state’s constitution.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), whom Dixon is challenging, has filed a second lawsuit challenging the restoration of the 1931 law in court.

Asked to clarify why Dixon thinks the case of a teenager who is raped is the “perfect example” of her belief that abortion should be illegal except in cases where the mother’s life is at risk, Dixon provided HuffPost a statement affirming her anti-abortion views and accusing Whitmer of holding extreme views in the opposite direction.

“Not everyone agrees with me that every life has value and we should have the courage, as [University of Michigan football coach] Jim Harbaugh put it, to let unborn children be born,” Dixon said in a statement. “I know that. I’m not hiding from it.”

“In contrast, Gretchen Whitmer won’t say if she has ANY limits on abortion because she supports abortion on demand for all, including minors (without their parents knowing),” Dixon added. “She just vetoed tens of millions of dollars to help pregnant women from the state budget. That is not pro-choice. It’s anti-Life. Big difference.”

Whitmer indeed employed a line-item veto last week to prevent public state funding from going to “crisis” pregnancy centers championed by abortion opponents. The pregnancy centers ― reviled by abortion rights advocates ― often pair counseling designed to discourage abortions with some basic resources that pregnant women seek.

The centers “purport to offer comprehensive reproductive health care, including abortion, but don’t, preying on women at a vulnerable time in their lives,” Whitmer spokesperson Bobby Leddy told the Detroit Free Press.

In addition, if Whitmer succeeds in stopping the 1931 law from taking effect, the state will continue to have a number of abortion restrictions still on the books. Those restrictions include requiring a minor to obtain consent from a parent to receive an abortion, and a prohibition on abortions after the point of fetal viability.

Whitmer, who revealed during a 2013 abortion rights fight in the state legislature that she had survived a rape as a teenager, is running for reelection on a platform of strong support for abortion rights.

“Thanks to the work we’ve done together, abortion remains legal in Michigan,” she tweeted on Monday. “We’re fighting every damn day to keep it that way.”

A public poll last week showed Dixon holding a narrow lead over her rival Republicans for the GOP gubernatorial nomination. She had 19% support, compared with 15% for businessman Kevin Rinke and 13% for chiropractor Garrett Soldano.

The winner of the Republican primary on Aug. 2 will face Whitmer in the general election in November.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

PUTIN HAS DONE THIS TO JW'S & NGO'S

Israel aims to stop Russian move against Jewish nonprofit


Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid speaks during a cabinet meeting at the prime minster's office in Jerusalem, Sunday, July 17, 2022. 

(Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP) 

Thu, July 21, 2022

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s prime minister on Thursday said he would send a delegation to Moscow in hopes of halting a Russian order to shutter the operations of a major nonprofit organization that promotes Jewish immigration to Israel.

Yair Lapid’s decision came after a spokeswoman for a Moscow District Court was quoted as saying that Russia’s Justice Ministry aims to “shut down” the Russian branch of the Jewish Agency. A court hearing in the case is scheduled for July 28.

The Jewish Agency is a nonprofit that works closely with the Israeli government to bring Jewish immigrants from around the world to Israel. Under the country’s law of return, anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent is automatically eligible for Israeli citizenship.

The Jewish Agency has been active in Russia since 1989, according to the Interfax report. Well over 1 million immigrants have come to Israel from the former Soviet Union, and an estimated 150,000 Jews still live in Russia.

According to the agency, immigration has picked up since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, with 17,000 Russians taking Israeli citizenship and as many as 40,000 others coming to Israel and expected to apply. In comparison, some 7,700 Russian Jews immigrated to Israel last year.

Lapid’s office said the delegation heading to Russia would include representatives from his office, the Foreign Ministry and other government ministries.

“The Jewish community in Russia is deeply connected with Israel. Its importance arises in every diplomatic discussion with the Russian leadership,” Lapid said. “We will continue to act through diplomatic channels so that the Jewish Agency’s important activity will not cease.”

A Jewish Agency official said that Russia has accused the nonprofit of violating its privacy laws by collecting personal information of people who are interested in immigrating to Israel. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the pending court case, said it was not clear why Russia was cracking down on what he described as routine paperwork.

Russia and Israel have a close, if sometimes uneasy, relationship in Syria. Their two air forces maintain close communications to prevent clashes in Syrian skies — despite being on different sides of the civil war there. Russia has provided support to Syrian President Bashar Assad, while Israel often strikes what it says are enemy Iranian and Hezbollah targets aligned with Assad.

Lapid, who became Israel's interim prime minister this month after spending the past year as foreign minister, has been an outspoken critic of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Still, Israel has refrained from joining the United States and other Western countries in providing arms to Ukraine, apparently due to the sensitivities in Syria and concerns for the safety of Russia's Jewish community.

Lapid's predecessor, Naftali Bennett, was much more muted in his criticism of Russia and briefly attempted to serve as a mediator in the war.

ZIONIST ONLY STATE

Israel's Supreme Court rules 'disloyal' citizens can be stripped of status


Israel marks Independence Day, in Tel Aviv

Thu, July 21, 2022 

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the state can revoke the citizenship of people who carry out actions that constitute a breach of trust against the state, including terrorism, espionage or treason.

The ruling addressed a 2008 Citizenship Law in Israel that gives the state authority to revoke citizenship based on actions that constitute a "breach of loyalty".

It came following separate appeals in the cases of two Palestinian citizens of Israel who were convicted of carrying out attacks that killed Israeli citizens. The two were handed long sentences but the state sought to strip them of citizenship.

The Supreme Court denied the removal of citizenship in these two cases based on "serious procedural flaws" but ruled that the practice itself was constitutional, even if a person became stateless as a result. It said in such cases, the interior minister would have to grant permanent residency.

A joint statement in response to the ruling by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and Adalah, an Arab rights group, called the law discriminatory and said it "will likely be used exclusively against Palestinian citizens of Israel".

"There are many cases of Jews in Israel who took part in terror and not even once has the interior ministry thought to appeal to revoke their citizenship," the ACRI's Oded Feller told Reuters. "The only cases that were submitted to the court were of Arab citizens."

While many countries have laws that allow revocation of citizenship, "leaving someone stateless, without any other citizenship, this is something else", Feller said, adding that the law can be applied whether a person was convicted or merely suspected of carrying out security-related offences.

In the court statement, the justices acknowledged that leaving a person stateless challenged international law standards, but the majority opinion was that "the difficulty in itself does not render the entire practice as unconstitutional".

Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's finance minister and head of far-right Yisrael Beitenu party, welcomed the ruling. "Finally, justice is served," he said in a tweet.

(Reporting by Henriette Chacar; Editing by Alison Williams)

Japan govt approves state funeral date for slain ex-PM Abe, plan sparks protests

Mourners gather at the altar for the late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in Tokyo

July 22, 2022

TOKYO (Reuters) -The Japanese government said on Friday it would hold a state funeral for former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sept. 27, amid street and social media protests that the state shouldn't fund ceremonies for Japan's longest-serving, but divisive, premier.

Abe, prime minister for more than eight years over two terms and hugely influential in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) even after leaving office, was gunned down two weeks ago at a campaign rally, an incident that deeply shocked Japan.

His funeral was held soon after, but the cabinet decided on Friday that a state funeral will be held on Sept. 27 at the Nippon Budokan in central Tokyo.

"We made this decision, as has been said before, due to Abe's record as the longest-serving prime minister, during which he exerted leadership skills distinctive from others and bore heavy responsibility for dealing with a number of serious domestic and international issues," chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a news conference on Friday.

The funeral will be fully paid for by state funds likely to be taken from the budget reserve, he said.

The last state funeral for an ex-prime minister paid for fully by state funds was in 1967, with successive funerals paid for partly by the state and partly by the LDP.

The current plan has triggered growing disquiet. Around 200 people gathered near the PM's office in Tokyo to protest the decision, according to the Kyodo news agency, and on social media objections ranged from the use of taxpayer funds, to complaints the government may seek to make political capital of Abe's death and cement his legacy.

On Thursday, 50 people filed for an injunction in a Tokyo court seeking a halt to the use of public funds for the event, saying there should have been more discussion before making a decision.

Only 49% supported the idea of a state funeral in a recent public opinion poll by public broadcaster NHK, and the topic was trending on social media on Friday.

On Twitter, a user with the handle 'Yuki no Imogai' posted, "(Prime Minister Fumio) Kishida always bragged he listens to the people, so why isn't he doing it now?"

Others contrasted the plan with the government response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with new cases surging to record levels in Japan this week. [L1N2Z20KK]

"Given they're doing next to nothing about the pandemic, how did they manage to decide this so quickly?", posted Twitter user 'Heron'.

"Take the money you'll use for the funeral and do something about the coronavirus."

(Reporting by Yoshifumi Takemoto and Elaine Lies; Writing by Chang-Ran Kim and Elaine Lies; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)

‘Manipulated’ Alzheimer’s data may have misled research for 16 years

Sarah Knapton
Thu, July 21, 2022 

Man points at brain scan images - David A White/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

The key theory of what causes Alzheimer’s disease may be based on ‘manipulated’ data which has misdirected dementia research for 16 years – potentially wasting billions of pounds – a major investigation suggests.

A six-month probe by the journal Science reported “shockingly blatant” evidence of result tampering in a seminal research paper which proposed Alzheimer’s is triggered by a build-up of amyloid beta plaques in the brain.

In the 2006 article from the University of Minnesota, published in the journal Nature, scientists claimed to have discovered a type of amyloid beta which brought on dementia when injected into young rats.

It was the first substance ever identified in brain tissue which could cause memory impairment, and seemed like a smoking gun.

The Nature paper became one of the most-cited scientific articles on Alzheimer’s ever published, sparking a huge jump in global funding for research into drugs to clear away the plaques.

But the Science investigation claims to have found evidence that images of amyloid beta in mice had been doctored, in allegations branded “extremely serious” by the charity Alzheimer’s Research UK.

Elizabeth Bik, a forensic image consultant, brought in to assess the images, told Science that the authors appeared to have pieced together parts of photos from different experiments.

“The obtained experimental results might not have been the desired results and that data might have been changed to … better fit a hypothesis,” she said.
‘Mislead an entire field of research’

Issues with the research were originally spotted by neuroscientist Dr Matthew Schrag of Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, who noticed anomalies while involved in a separate investigation into an experimental Alzheimer’s drug.

In a whistleblower report to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr Schrag warned that the research “has the potential to mislead an entire field of research”.

The journal Science looked separately into his claims, and said its own investigation “provided strong support for Schrag’s suspicions”.

Although the Minnesota authors stand by their research, the claims are now being studied by the NIH, who can choose to pass on the matter to the US Government’s Office of Research Integrity if deemed to be credible.

The journal Nature has also launched its own investigation and has placed a warning on the 2006 article urging readers to “use caution” when using the results.

If proven, such manipulation could mark one of the biggest scientific scandals since Dr Andrew Wakefield linked the MMR jab to autism in a 1988 Lancet article.

Plaques in the brain were first identified in dementia patients by the German psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer in 1906, and in 1984 amyloid beta was found to be their main component.

For the next 20 years, hundreds of trials were conducted into therapies targeting amyloid in the brain, but all failed, leading to the theory being largely abandoned until the Minnesota paper was published in 2006.

Since then, universities, research institutions and pharmaceutical companies have spent billions investigating and trialling therapies to clear the brain of amyloid, but none have worked.

Dennis Selkoe, professor of neurologic diseases, at Harvard University, told Science that there was “precious little evidence” that the amyloid found by the Minnesota team even existed.

Professor Thomas Sudhof, a Nobel laureate of Stanford University, added: “The immediate, obvious damage, is wasted NIH funding and wasted thinking in the field because people are using these results as a starting point for their own experiments.”

The authors of the Minnesota paper have defended their original findings claiming they “still have faith” that amyloid play a major causative role in Alzheimer’s.
Amyloid itself not in question

Commenting on the findings, Dr Sara Imarisio, head of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “These allegations are extremely serious. While we haven’t seen all of the published findings that have been called into question, any allegation of scientific misconduct needs to be investigated and dealt with where appropriate.

“Researchers need to be able to have confidence in the findings of their peers, so they can continue to make progress for people affected by diseases like dementia.

“The amyloid protein is at the centre of the most influential theory of how Alzheimer’s disease develops in the brain. But the research that has been called into question is focused on a very specific type of amyloid, and these allegations do not compromise the vast majority of knowledge built up during decades of research into the role of this protein in the disease.”

Dr Richard Oakley, associate director of research at Alzheimer’s Society, said: “There are many types of amyloid we know contribute to brain cell death in dementia. If what’s suggested here ends up being true we definitely would not need to throw the baby out with the bath water.”

Amid flood of Alzheimer's research, questionable conduct persists

By Judy Packer-Tursman
UPI

Beta-amyloid plaques and tau in the brain are two hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease, a topic spurring much research and some questions about scientific integrity. 

Photo courtesy of National Institute on Aging/NIH

WASHINGTON, July 21 (UPI) -- A probe by a prestigious science journal, published Thursday, raises questions about the integrity of some Alzheimer's disease research, including scientific evidence that helped launch an investigational drug into large, ongoing clinical trials.

The probe, which examined research into Cassava Sciences' lead Alzheimer's drug candidate, simufilam, was published in the American Association for the Advancement of Science's peer-reviewed academic journal, Science.

A range of Alzheimer's research -- particularly related to simufilam -- has been under dogged scrutiny by scientists, medical journals and some researchers' own institutions. The Food and Drug Administration has been asked to intervene.

It's a complex tale of medical intrigue, whistleblowers and accusations of faulty and deceptive research amid hope that scientists can make large strides in combatting Alzheimer's debilitating effects.

RELATED Greater risk of Alzheimer's may be linked to gut disorders, cholesterol, study says

As part of its probe, Science asked Elisabeth Bik, a California-based scientific integrity consultant, to serve as one of two independent image analysts.

She reviewed the findings of Dr. Matthew Schrag, a physician and neuroscientist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, who had explored potential errors in some Alzheimer's research by fellow neuroscientist Sylvain Lesné.

Lesné is a neuroscientist at the University of Minnesota.

Bik found Schrag's conclusions about possible image manipulation by Lesné in some of his research papers "compelling and sound," the magazine said.

Bik told UPI in an email she also has "serious concerns" about published research papers on simufilam from the Cassava-linked lab of Hoau-Yan Wang, an associate medical professor at the City University New York School of Medicine.

"It appears that some figures and other data from the Wang lab at CUNY, where Cassava's preclinical -- and some clinical -- work has been done, might have been falsified," Bik said.

RELATED One protein seen as 'critical factor' in development of Alzheimer's disease

Specifically, Bik questioned the Wang lab's presentation of "Western blots," used to detect Alzheimer's disease.

"Without public access to most original photos or data, it is hard to know what has really transpired," she said, "but the few purported original images that have been publicly shared appear to have been Photoshopped."

Remi Barbier, Cassava's president and CEO, told UPI in an email Wednesday, "It should go without saying that Cassava Sciences denies any and all allegations of wrongdoing. Any indication or inference that Cassava Sciences has engaged in any sort of misconduct is simply not true."

Jay Mwamba, CUNY's publications editorial manager, said the university "takes accusations of research misconduct very seriously" and its research integrity officer follows a specified policy after an accusation to determine whether misconduct occurred.

"While we cannot comment further at this time, we also recognize there is external interest in this process and where we can keep the public informed, we will," Mwamba told UPI in an email.

Vanderbilt's Schrag is the whistleblower whose expert findings led to Science's six-month investigation, according to AAAS.

Schrag said in the Science article his major concern is that the research by Cassava-linked scientists may be misleading and slow the race to find effective treatments for the neurodegenerative disease.

Neither Schrag nor Vanderbilt University Medical Center responded to UPI's requests for comment.

Yet, AAAS said in a news release summarizing the findings that the Science investigation "has found strong support for Schrag's suspicions, calling into question key lines of research in the quest to understand and treat Alzheimer's."

Schrag told Science that he sees "red flags" in some simufilam research by Cassava-linked scientists and broader Alzheimer's studies by Lesné, some of which were co-authored by Lesné's mentor, Karen Ashe.

"The university is aware that questions have arisen regarding certain images used in peer-reviewed research publications authored by university faculty Karen Ashe and Sylvain Lesné," Jake Ricker, a University of Minnesota spokesman, told UPI in an email Wednesday.

"The university will follow its processes to review the questions any claims have raised. At this time, we have no further information to provide," Ricker said. He confirmed that Lesné and Ashe "are currently university employees."

Schrag's deep dig began last summer when he was asked by Jordan A. Thomas, a Washington-based attorney with the law firm Labaton Sucharow, to investigate simufilam research findings to see whether he could spot any perceived irregularities.

Science describes Thomas's clients as "two prominent neuroscientists" concerned about the potential risks of simufilam without shown benefit.

Looking at published images related to simufilam, Schrag identified what Science describes as "apparently altered or duplicated images in dozens of journal articles."

Schrag doesn't use the word "fraud" or claim to have proven misconduct, according to Science, because such an assessment would "require access to original, complete and unpublished images and in some cases raw numerical data."

Aided by Schrag's work, Thomas filed a "statement of concern" last August with the Food and Drug Administration about the "accuracy and integrity" of data supporting ongoing clinical evaluation of simufilam.

It raised concerns about clinical biomarker data, "Western blot" analyses and analyses involving human brain tissue.

Thomas also filed a citizen petition alleging "grave concerns about the quality and integrity" of studies related to simufilam and its efficacy. He declined further comment in a phone call with UPI.

In February, the FDA dismissed the petition, which sought to halt clinical trials of simufilam. The drug agency said its decision was partly based on the petitioners' request that the agency "initiate an investigation," which is outside its scope of possible actions.

But, the FDA said, "We take the issues you raise seriously." The agency did not return UPI's requests for comment.

Meanwhile, Alzheimer's research has continued apace. Much of it centers on beta-amyloid, a protein that collects to form plaques in the brains of people with the disease -- the subject of Lesné's work.

This focus on reducing amyloid plaques, and figuring out how the tau protein contributes to Alzheimer's development, is seen by many as key to potential treatments.

"I think of amyloid as the fuse and tau as the bomb," Dr. Glen R. Finney, a professor of neurology at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine and director of the Geisinger Health Memory and Cognition Program, told UPI in a phone interview Wednesday.

While there are nearly 150 Alzheimer's drug candidates in the pipeline, Finney said the disease develops slowly, so finding a safe and effective treatment may take a decade.

In June 2021, the FDA gave accelerated approval to Biogen's infused monoclonal antibody drug Aduhelm (aducanumab), the first new Alzheimer's drug since 2003 and the first targeting amyloid beta plaques.

Cassava's drug candidate simufilam, an oral tablet, is taking a different approach, trying to stabilize a protein in the brain, altered filamin A, to improve cognitive functioning.

"With Alzheimer's, it seems that conventional science -- which has failed repeatedly -- continues to be met with optimism, while new approaches are attacked," Cassava's Barbier said. "I find this perplexing. There is an urgency to develop safe and effective treatments for people with Alzheimer's."

Finney said this "is a tough nut to crack" since "a lot of people [are] hungry for hope and sometimes that may lead to science not as strong being promoted."

Finney conceded "scientists are people, too, and may take shortcuts," necessitating institutional review boards and the need to replicate results in multiple labs.

However, he said, "The bigger problem isn't people massaging data. It is being careful we're not looking at studies with rose-colored glasses" and avoiding narrow research.

"It is not a time to despair or a time to pull back on Alzheimer's [research]," he said. "We need to have a 'moon shot' and accelerate it."

NASA chooses SpaceX for $255 million Falcon Heavy telescope launch from Florida


Emre Kelly, Florida Today
Thu, July 21, 2022 

SpaceX's three-core Falcon Heavy rocket will launch a new NASA space telescope from Florida in the coming years, the agency said in this week's announcement of the $255 million contract.

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, named after the first woman to hold an executive position at NASA, is slated to fly from Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A no earlier than October 2026. The roughly $255 million price tag includes launch-related costs; the telescope itself is expected to run up a tab between $3 and $4 billion.

So far, the Space Coast has hosted three Falcon Heavy launches since the triple-core rocket debuted in February 2018. It's a slower pace than expected for SpaceX's first heavy-lift vehicle that typically includes side boosters landing at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, but at least a dozen more are planned through 2026.

With an eight-foot primary mirror, Roman sits on the smaller end of the modern telescope spectrum. The recently launched James Webb Space Telescope, for example, has a 21-foot primary mirror but also works a different kind of mission. Roman will use a much wider field-of-view to dig into dark energy, exoplanet, and astrophysics investigations.

A rendering of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, formerly known as the Wide Field InfraRed Survey Telescope. It was later renamed for Roman's astronomy work and leadership at NASA.

More: Astronomers on Webb telescope images: 'Like a kid in a candy store'

More: At KSC, SpaceX Falcon booster exhibit is ready to wow guests

Roman's wider field-of-view also means it can observe areas much faster than the Hubble Space Telescope, for example, which could take years to collect images of the same areas due to its "zoom level" on the universe. With all three major telescopes – Hubble, Webb, and Roman – in play after 2026, NASA says future observations will be able to leverage the advantages of all three.

"WFIRST’s surveys don’t require that we know exactly where and when to look to make exciting discoveries," Julie McEnery, the Roman Space Telescope's senior scientist, said in a NASA technical document. "The mission will turn on the floodlights so we can explore the universe in a whole new way."

The telescope was previously known as the Wide Field InfraRed Survey Telescope, or WFIRST, but was renamed in honor of Roman and her astronomical work at NASA. She played key roles in the deployment of other space telescopes like Hubble, for example.

SpaceX's selection for the contract continues to push its manifest – past and present – beyond just communications satellites. The company has been selected for national security missions like GPS, delivering Artemis program payloads to the moon for NASA ahead of astronauts arriving on the surface, and now multibillion-dollar science investigations like the Roman telescope.

For the latest, visit floridatoday.com/launchschedule.

Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @EmreKelly.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: NASA chooses SpaceX for Falcon Heavy telescope launch from Florida

Pentagon renames UFO office, expands mission to include ‘transmedium’ objects



Catherine Buchaniec
Wed, July 20, 2022 

WASHINGTON — After only eight months of existence, the Pentagon’s office tasked with investigating and tracking UFOs — or unidentified aerial phenomena — will look beyond the stars for objects of interest.

On Wednesday, the Pentagon announced that it renamed and expanded the authority of the government’s chief UFO office. Formerly known as the Airborne Object Identification and Management Group, the office will now be known as the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO.

With the new name comes increased responsibilities, the Defense Department said in a statement. While the group was mostly focused on airborne and threats in space, the renamed office will also look into unidentified objects that are submerged in water or deemed “transmedium.”

Transmedium typically refers to the ability of an object to fly across multiple environments. For example, an object could be considered “transmedium” if it could fly through Earth’s atmosphere in addition to another environment, such as space or underwater.

The office’s new scope and name result from a provision of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2022. The bill included a provision to establish an office with responsibilities that were broader than those originally assigned to the old office.

The renaming comes amid an uptick in interest in UFOs in Washington.
Congress takes renewed interest in issue

Earlier this year, Congress held its first hearing on UFOs in over a half century. During the hearing, lawmakers questioned Pentagon officials for more information about sightings of UFOs, with many lawmakers voicing criticism about a lack of transparency surrounding the issue.

The House voted last week to create a government system for reporting UFOs as an amendment to this year’s defense bill. The amendment would also compel current and former defense officials to reveal information about the phenomena.

In June 2021, the intelligence community released a long-awaited report on what it knows about a series of flying objects observed over the past few decades. The release of the report, while revealing little about the sightings, marked one of the first times the government acknowledged the mysterious sightings.

In addition to investigating objects, the renamed office will also be tasked with synchronizing efforts across the Department of Defense and with other U.S. federal departments and agencies to detect and identify objects of interest near locations pertinent to national security, such as training areas or military installations.

In cases where a relevant object is identified and deemed a hazard to national security, the office is also responsible for mitigating the threat.