News, information and research from Boston University
September 1, 2009 at 3:36 pm
After eight years of diminishment, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is being reshaped and emboldened by new Attorney General Eric Holder. Law Professor Robert Volk, an authority on the law and sexual minorities, can discuss what this reemphasis on civil rights could mean.
Contact Robert Volk, 617-353-3156, rvolk@bu.edu
September 1, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Nutrition professor and healthy eating expert Joan Salge Blake suggests that research to support the "Freshman 15" is minimal, and that a 15 pound weight-gain is not inevitable for college freshman. Salge Blake says "Some research suggests that the Freshman 15 is a myth as weight gain didn’t occur at all or didn’t occur in the majority of college students studied during the first semester (the length of the study) or the entire first year."
August 31, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Spider-Man, Iron Man, and the X-Men are joining forces with Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto. Walt Disney Company's $4 billion agreement to buy Marvel Entertainment will bring 5,000 Marvel characters under the Disney umbrella. Professor Bill Linsman, director of the BU-in-LA program, can talk about what the blending might mean.
Contact Bill Linsman, 323-571-4535, linsman@bu.edu
August 31, 2009 at 10:57 am
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank plans legislation to subject the Federal Reserve to a "complete audit" without encroaching on the central bank's monetary policy independence. He's teaming with Texas Republican Ron Paul in the effort. Former Federal Reserve Bank examiner Mark T. Williams, who teaches finance in the School of Managment, can comment.
Contact Mark T. Williams, 617-358-2789, williams@bu.edu
August 31, 2009 at 10:13 am
Embedded video from CNN Video
August 28, 2009 at 11:36 am
Even as the economy improves, the state of America's banks is looking more precarious, with the FDIC adding 111 new lenders in the last quarter to its "sick list" of endangered banks. Robert R. Bench, a former deputy Comptroller of the Currency and now senior fellow at the BU School of Law's Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law, can comment on the dicey state of affairs in the banking industry.
Contact Robert R. Bench, 617-353-5428, bobbench@bu.edu
August 28, 2009 at 9:54 am
An agreement in which Abbott Laboratories will develop a specific genetic test to screen non-small cell lung cancer tumors to identify potential patients for a proposed oral cancer drug being developed by Pfizer, was hailed as an important development in the new era of personalized genomic medicine, by Avi Spira, MD. He is Associate Professor of Pathology andLaboratory Medicine.
"This is a very big step if they can first identify the subset that will benefit prior to treatment."
Contact Avi Spria, 617-414-6980, aspira@bu.edu
August 27, 2009 at 11:11 am
With no shortage of potential hopefuls who might seek Ted Kennedy's U.S. Senate seat, it appears the Mass. governor and legislature will amend the law to allow for an interim apointee pending a special election. Professor Fred Bayles, a former AP and USA Today reporter who directs the BU Statehouse journalism program, says it will likely be a "contentious and contested" battle of succession.
Contact Fred Bayles, 617-353-7736, fbayles@bu.edu
August 27, 2009 at 10:36 am
Embedded video from CNN Video
August 26, 2009 at 3:19 pm
The first official forecast that the global swine flu pandemic, expected to return to the USA this fall, could lead to two million people hospitalized and between 30,000 and 90,000 deaths are "suspect" and contribute to a "climate of scaremongering and shaky science," claims Al Ozonoff. He is a School of Public Health associate professor of biostatistics who has researched real-time survillance systems for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Contact Al Ozonoff, (617) 638-5866, aozonoff@bu.edu
