Iraq is one of several tides running against GOP candidates, driving away independent voters and some party faithful. Except for Missouri, independent voters in five Senate races polled by USA Today were swinging toward the Democrat. Party loyalty was stronger among Democrats than Republicans in every state but Ohio. Michael Minta, professor of political science in Arts & Sciences, comments on how the stem cell research issue is dividing Republicans in Missouri.

References:

1. Sept. 1, 2006 — Republicans tense as voter disillusionment sets in in the USA Today

Matt Malten, WUSTL assistant vice chancellor for campus sustainability, offers a few tips on how to lessen your impact on the environment without spending a lot of bucks. "The old adage of reduce, reuse, recycle remains apropos. We must remind ourselves that the first step is always to reduce our demand of natural resources," Malten said.

References:

1. Jan. 13, 2008 — A few tips to lead a 'greener' lifestyle in the DailyIndia.com (FL)

and 3 others.

School leaders in the Houston area said Thursday they're not expecting a shake-up in how they assign students to campuses after a Supreme Court decision that limits the use of race.
WUSTL law professor Samuel Bagenstos comments on the ruling.

References:

1. June 28, 2007 — Houston area schools don't expect ruling to have major impact in the Houston Chronicle

Vaccines for people and for cattle are just two approaches under development to prevent or treat food poisoning by the strain E. coli O157:H7.
Right now, scientists can do little medically to fight the pathogen, which was responsible for two severe outbreaks last fall.
WUSTL pediatrics professor Phillip Tarr, a gastroenterology specialist, comments on the difficulty of treatment.

References:

1. May 1, 2007 — Scientists Look to Vaccines in the War on E. Coli in the The New York Times

and 1 others.

Article looks at St. Louis' effort to rebuild its image in the face of population loss and public school accreditation problems.
WUSTL architecture professor John Hoal, who has been involved in numerous municipal planning projects, comments on the redevelopment effort.

References:

1. April 17, 2007 — Hopes for a Renaissance After Exodus in St. Louis in the The New York Times

and 3 others.

Friday story on retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor who will be part of a three-judge appellate court panel in St. Louis hearing two high-profile cases this week.
One case she'll hear involves a challenge to Missouri election law that opponents say denies voting rights to some who are mentally ill.
WUSTL law professor and anti-discrimination law expert Samuel Bagenstos says a dozen states allow for individual assessments of mentally ill people under guardianship.

References:

1. Feb. 9, 2007 — Former Supreme Court justice to hear cases in St. Louis in the Associated Press State & Local Wire

and 2 others.

November is National Alzheimer's Disease month. CNN medical correspondent Judy Fortin talked about the illness with John Morris, director of WUSTL's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. He said besides old age, diabetes and obesity are also risk factors for developing Alzheimer's.

References:

1. Nov. 6, 2006 — Diabetes, obesity can increase your Alzheimer's risk in the CNN.com

Hoover Institution research fellow David Henderson writes about the work of Edmund Phelps, this year's Nobel laureate in economics. Phelps collaborated with Robert Pollak on his capital formation research. Pollak is now an economics professor at WUSTL.

References:

1. Oct. 12, 2006 — Commentary: Laureate Phelps in the The Wall Street Journal

Hoover Institution research fellow David Henderson writes about the work of Edmund Phelps, this year's Nobel laureate in economics. Phelps collaborated with Robert Pollak on his capital formation research. Pollak is now an economics professor at WUSTL.

References:

1. Oct. 12, 2006 — Commentary: Laureate Phelps in the The Wall Street Journal

Parents are largely unaware of their children's alcohol and drug use, according to new WUSTL research published in the October issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experiemental Research.
WUSTL psychiatry professor and study researcher Jean Bierut comments.

References:

1. Sept. 27, 2006 — Parents Often Naive About Children's Drug Use in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

and 16 others.

Part of the alarm over cases of E. coli poisoning, such as the current spinach-linked outbreak, has been the difficulty in treating the most severe cases -- when toxins produced by the bacterium cause kidney failure. But researchers have been working for two decades to learn more about the illness and now think they will eventually have ways to limit the damage.
WUSTL pediatrics professor Phillip Tarr comments. Tarr treated many of the children who fell ill in 1993 in the Pacific Northwest from E. coli poisoning involving contaminated, under-cooked meat.

References:

1. Sept. 25, 2006 — Search for an E. coli defense in the Los Angeles Times

and 1 others.

Northwest Airlines Corp. flight attendants on Thursday asked to be released from federal mediation so they can strike the carrier after a federal judge ruled they couldn't walk off the job. WUSTL law professor and labor relations expert Neil Bernstein comments.

References:

1. Sept. 15, 2006 — Judge again blocks flight attendants from striking against Northwest Airlines in the Associated Press
2. Sept. 22, 2006 — Attendants seek mediation end in the Chicago Tribune

and 5 others.

The Department of Homeland Security today awards a multi-billion dollar contract to beef up border security. The anticipated winner is Boeing. Despite the aerospace giant's background, Boeing's border security plan is less high tech than you might expect.
WUSTL computer science professor Robert Pless comments on surveillance technology. He is assistant director of WUSTL's Center for Security Technologies.

References:

1. Sept. 21, 2006 — U.S. to Deploy Proven Technology on Borders in the NPR - Morning Edition

Article on the increasingly common attack fare in news releases from political operatives desperate to spin news coverage to their advantage.
WUSTL political rhetoric expert Wayne Fields, who directs the American Culture Studies program, says these tactics threaten to drain the substance out of political debate.

References:

1. July 25, 2006 — Political pros sharpen their knives in press release wars in the Associated Press State & Local Wire

and 5 others.

Editorial responds to a recent series in the Spanish-language New York newspaper El Diario/La Prensa sheds some light on a mostly overlooked national phenomenon, the misunderstood and endangered young Latina, who represents one of the fastest-growing segments of the American population. Hispanic teenage girls attempt suicide more often than any other group. A five-year study now in its second year in New York is being led by WUSTL social work and psychiatry professor Luis Zayas, who says the self-destructive behavior seems to affect Latinas of every origin and every region of the country.

References:

1. July 21, 2006 — Editorial: Young Latinas and a Cry for Help in the The New York Times

President Bush got bit again Monday by the open-microphone bug. Apparently unaware that his words were being broadcast, Bush offered an unvarnished assessment of Syria's alleged support for Hezbollah's attacks on Israel. He also criticized United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, teased British Prime Minister Tony Blair about a sweater he recently gave the president, and joked about the long-windedness of some unnamed world leaders. Wayne Fields, a political scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, said Bush is unlikely to take heat at home for his remarks.

References:

1. July 18, 2006 — Live mike captures Bush's tough talk at G8 summit in the USA Today

Several hundred Parisians gathered at City Hall yesterday to pay tribute to a French army captain, Alfred Dreyfus,who was convicted wrongly of treason in a trial that divided France more than a century ago. Anti-Semitism and assimilation are still controversial subjects in France today. WUSTL anthropology professor John Bowen comments.

References:

1. July 7, 2006 — Secularism, the French & Alfred Dreyfus in the The New York Sun

New research shows that birds are becoming extinct faster than scientists have thought.
A group of scientists that included WUSTL biology professor and conservationist Peter Raven, president of the Missouri Botanical Garden, revised the existing extinction estimate to take into account ongoing fossil discoveries of extinct species and missing birds not yet classified as extinct. The results of their study appear this week in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

References:

1. July 4, 2006 — Bird extinction pace worries scientists in the Kansas City Star

and 19 others.

Scientists who study Alzheimer's disease say they are on the brink of finding treatments to slow or stop it.
A few weeks ago, Congress voted to reduce funding for research on Alzheimer's disease.
WUSTL scientists commenting are neurology professor Anne Fagan Niven, neurology professor and chair David Holtzman, and Tom Meuser, director of education and rural outreach at WUSTL's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.

References:

1. July 4, 2006 — Funding for Alzheimer's research is key, scientists say in the Kansas City Star

and 17 others.

Seven members of one family in a remote village in Indonesia have died of bird flu, and disease detectives from around the world are trying to determine the facts surrounding the case.
It remains unclear if the family members transmitted the deadly illness to one another or if all were infected by a source yet to be identified.
WUSTL molecular microbiology professor Andrew Pekosz comments.

References:

1. May 25, 2006 — Outbreak has bird-flu experts stumped in the Chicago Tribune

and 11 others.