College presidents from about 100 of the nation’s universities, including Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, are calling on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, saying current laws actually encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus.
The movement called the Amethyst Initiative began quietly recruiting presidents more than a year ago to provoke national debate about the drinking age. Prominent schools in the group include Duke, Dartmouth and Ohio State.
The statement the presidents have signed avoids calling explicitly for a younger drinking age. Rather, it seeks “an informed and dispassionate debate” over the issue and the federal highway law that made 21 the de facto national drinking age by denying money to any state that bucks the trend.
Nevada: Homes burn in Reno
A wind-whipped fire in northern Reno destroyed at least six homes and forced evacuations Monday. No serious injuries were reported. The cause wasn’t known, but investigators were looking into reports that juveniles ran from the area about the time the blaze broke out.
D.C.: More women are having fewer children, if at all
More women in their early 40s are childless, and those who are having children are having fewer than ever before, the Census Bureau said Monday. In the last 30 years, the number of women age 40 to 44 with no children has doubled, from 10 percent to 20 percent. And those who are mothers have an average of 1.9 children each, more than one child fewer than women of the same age in 1976. Unemployed women had about twice as many babies as working women, although women in the labor force accounted for the majority — 57 percent — of recent births. Only a quarter of all women who had a child over the past year were living below the poverty level.
@3. Headline News Briefs 14 no:FDA reports diabetes drug deaths
Food and Drug Administration regulators are working on a stronger label for Byetta, a widely used diabetes drug, after two pancreatitis deaths were reported with the medication despite earlier government warnings. Regulators stressed Monday that patients should stop taking Byetta immediately if they develop signs of acute pancreatitis, a swelling of the pancreas that can cause nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. The FDA warned that it is very difficult to distinguish acute pancreatitis from less dangerous forms of the condition.
Texas: Rains flood 800 homes
Torrential rains flooded nearly 800 homes in southern Texas on Monday, forcing frantic rescues by boat and sending families scrambling for high ground. More than 13 inches of rain fell in some parts of Starr County. The worst of the flooding was north of the Rio Grande Valley’s main highway, where a “lake” three miles long and a mile wide ran through neighborhoods in Escobares and Los Saenz, small communities east of Roma.
Australia: Baby whale bonds with boat
Australian news reports say a lost humpback whale calf has bonded with a yacht it seems to think is its mother and on Monday tried to suckle from it. The 1- to 2-month-old calf was first sighted Sunday in waters off north Sydney. Rescuers towed the yacht out to sea Monday, and the 1- to 2-month-old finally detached from the boat but returned to an inlet near Sydney today, Australian television news reported.
England: Chew gum and get well?
British researchers say chewing gum while recovering from surgery is a great idea for some patients. Ggum may speed the return of normal bowel function after colon surgery, a new analysis of five studies suggests. Some patients have trouble moving their bowels after colon surgery but chewing gum may fool the body into good digestion. Gum gets the juices flowing, literally. Besides saliva, it may stimulate gut hormones and pancreatic secretions, according to the study’s authors, researchers at Imperial College London.
China: Standoff over Bibles ends
A group of American Christians who had 315 Bibles confiscated by Chinese customs officials left the airport Monday after a 26-hour standoff, saying they realized officials would not change their stance. Members of Vision Beyond Borders, who arrived in the southwestern city of Kunming on Sunday, had previously said they would not leave the airport until the authorities returned the Bibles, taken from their checked luggage. Chinese law forbids bringing religious products into the country for more than personal use.
From Herald news services
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