WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday confirmed Dr. Regina Benjamin to be the U.S. surgeon general, elevating a well-known Alabama family physician to be the nation’s top doctor. Benjamin, 53, was approved by voice vote. Benjamin was the first black woman to head a state medical society, received the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights and just last fall received a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant.”
Georgia: Swine flu stats
As many as 5.7 million Americans were infected with swine flu during he first few months of the pandemic, according to estimates from federal health officials. Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that between 1.8 million and 5.7 million Americans were infected from mid-April through July 23. The figures are the CDC’s most specific calculation to date. They also estimated that between 9,000 and 21,000 hospitalizations occurred during that time.
New Jersey: Dobbs shooting
Police in New Jersey are trying to determine who fired a bullet that struck CNN commentator Lou Dobbs’ home as his wife stood nearby. State police said Dobbs’ wife and driver were outside the home in Wantage on Oct. 5 when they heard the gunshot. They said the bullet didn’t penetrate the siding and fell to the ground outside. Dobbs said he had been receiving threatening phone calls for weeks. On his radio show, he connected the gunshot to his advocacy for a crackdown on illegal immigration and to his opponents’ rhetoric.
Florida: Chinese drywall
Federal studies released Thursday cannot yet definitively link imported Chinese drywall to health problems or corrosion of pipes and wires that thousands of U.S. homeowners have been reporting for nearly a year. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, which is leading the multi-agency investigation, said it needs to further study the matter before it can consider a recall, ban or other solutions to help affected homeowners. Additional results from ongoing studies were due to be released next month.
California: Water use drops
A new study shows that water usage per person is lower now than it was in the mid-1950s, thanks to water-saving technologies and a nationwide push to safeguard dwindling supplies. The study from the U.S. Geological Survey shows that industries, as well as average households, also are using less water overall than in 1975, when national water use peaked. California, which is in the third year of a withering drought, was the most water-hungry state in 2005, the most recent year for which figures are available.
Arizona: Sweat lodge probe
Motivational speaker and author James Arthur Ray is canceling his remaining 2009 seminars after three people died at a sweat lodge ceremony he led in northern Arizona. Ray announced on his Web site Thursday that he needs to dedicate all his “physical and emotional energies” to bringing closure to the matter. Ray is the subject of a criminal investigation into the Oct. 8 sweat lodge ceremony at a high-priced retreat outside Sedona. Besides the three deaths, 18 others among more than 55 people inside the lodge were hospitalized.
Canada: Bandidos guilty
Six members of the Bandidos biker gang were found guilty Thursday of murdering eight men associated with the gang in the worst mass slayings in Ontario history. Wayne Kellestine, along with five co-accused, were found guilty of 44 counts of murder and four manslaughter convictions. The bloodied bodies of eight men linked to the Toronto chapter of the Bandidos biker gang were found on April 8, 2006. The men were stuffed into four vehicles abandoned in a farmer’s field in southwestern Ontario, a few miles from a farmhouse belonging to Kellestine.
Malaysia: Bibles confiscated
Authorities have confiscated more than 15,000 Bibles in recent months because they referred to “God” as “Allah,” a translation that has been banned in this Muslim-majority country, Christian church officials said Thursday. The alleged seizure of the Bibles, imported from neighboring Indonesia, is certain to reignite complaints by religious minorities that their right to practice their faiths freely has come under threat as the government panders to the Muslim majority. Indonesian language is similar to Malaysian language, both of which use “Allah” as translation for God in both Islamic and Christian traditions.
From Herald news services
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