AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Hundreds of abortion rights activists ensured that the first special legislative session descended into chaos.
Now, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has convened a second one and urged abortion opponents to respond with mobilizations of their own.
That means the Texas Capitol will again be the center of an ideological battle over abortion when lawmakers return to work at 10 a.m. Monday. The bell the clerk rings in the House for members to register their attendance could be reminiscent of a boxing match?announcing round two of a larger political slugfest.
The Legislature?s Republican majority has vowed to pass wide-ranging abortion restrictions. Opponents plan more protests.
Perry has urged lawmakers to work faster this time. He wants abortion bills approved long before the deadline so a filibuster won?t work.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said on Sunday that Edward Snowden made sure that the information he took about U.S. surveillance programs will continue to be published regardless of what happens to the former U.S. spy agency contractor.
Assange criticized the United States for revoking Snowden's passport and said it would not stop the classified information taken by the 30-year-old former contractor from getting out.
"Look, there is no stopping the publishing process at this stage," Assange said in an interview with ABC's "This Week" television show. "Great care has been taken to make sure that Mr. Snowden can't be pressured by any state to stop the publication process."
He did not directly respond when asked if WikiLeaks was in possession of the files.
Last week, Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who first published the classified information released by Snowden, said Snowden had made encrypted copies of his files and distributed them in case anything happened to him.
Greenwald told The Daily Beast that the people in possession of these files "cannot access them yet because they are highly encrypted and they do not have the passwords." But Greenwald said "if anything happens at all to Edward Snowden, he told me he has arranged for them to get access to the full archives."
Snowden left his job as an NSA contractor in Hawaii last month and went to Hong Kong before Britain's Guardian newspaper and the Washington Post published articles based on top-secret documents he took from the government that detailed U.S. surveillance programs.
After hiding in Hong Kong he fled Moscow, where he remains in hiding at the Sheremetyevo airport. The U.S. government has charged Snowden under the 1917 Espionage Act with theft and passing classified communications to an "unauthorized person."
Snowden is currently stuck in legal limbo in a transit area of the Moscow airport. Assange has said Snowden, who has sought legal advice from WikiLeaks, has requested asylum in Ecuador. But Snowden's passport was revoked by Washington and an Ecuadorean travel document he used to travel to Russia from Hong Kong has been declared invalid by Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa.
Correa told Reuters in Ecuador on Sunday that Snowden's fate is in the hands of Russian authorities. He said Quito cannot begin considering asylum for Snowden until he reaches Ecuador or an Ecuadorean embassy.
Assange sought asylum from Ecuador last year and is living in Ecuador's London embassy to avoid being extradited to Sweden, which wants to question him about allegations of sexual assault and rape.
Assange said the United States had "marooned" Snowden in Russia by revoking his passport.
"Is that really a great outcome by the State Department?" Assange asked, saying that Washington had put Snowden through a "meat grinder" although "Mr. Snowden has not been convicted of anything."
In a separate interview, President Barack Obama's national security adviser, Tom Donilon, said since Snowden was not traveling on valid papers he should be returned to the United States "because he's wanted here for a crime."
Donilon said Washington had been in discussions with the Russian government through law enforcement channels on a regular basis about Snowden.
"And I have to agree with (Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin, which - when he said the other day that it would be better for Mr. Snowden to decide where - when he's leaving ... sooner rather than later," Donilon said on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS." "We agree with that - that the sooner that this can be resolved, the better."
(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball; Editing by Bill Trott)
California Attorney General Kamala Harris officiates the wedding ceremony of Kristin Perry and Sandy Stiler, plaintiffs in the Prop 8 case, at San Francisco City Hall.
By Pete Williams and M. Alex Johnson, NBC News
The two couples who challenged?the law that had?barred same-sex marriage in California?were married Friday afternoon after a federal appeals court dissolved its stay blocking same-sex marriage in the state.
On the eve of San Francisco's Pride Weekend,?State Attorney General Kamala?declared Sandra Stier, 50, and Kris Perry,?48, "spouse and spouse" shortly before 5 p.m. (8 p.m. ET) at San Francisco City Hall. In their vows, the couple took each other as?"lawfully wedded wife."
"Right now, we feel really victorious and thrilled and relieved to be at the end of this long journey and just move forward like a regular married couple," Stier said in a conference call with reporters ? but not before she introduced Perry as "my beautiful wife."
Stier said she and Perry hadn't had time to schedule a honeymoon. But Perry said that after a celebration with "all of the people we love ... Sandy and I will go somewhere alone."
Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo, one of the couples who successfully challenged California's Proposition 8, marry in Los Angeles.
About 90 minutes later in Los Angeles, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa married the other couple, Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo, on his last day in office.
The ceremony, Katami said, was "about celebrating our private commitment and our public connection."
As the ceremony began, Villaraigosa said:?"I've done a few of these over the last couple years, but never have I been prouder. Never have I been more joyful than I am today. This is a special moment."
Many state officials, including Harris and Gov. Jerry Brown, celebrated the decision Friday on Twitter:
Twitter.com
Twitter.com
San Francisco City Hall will stay open until 8 p.m. Friday and will be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday for marriage licenses. The Los Angeles County registrar and clerk's office said it was deputizing extra marriage commissioners and extending days and locations to accommodate an expected rush of weddings.
Gina Alcomendias, the clerk-recorder for Santa Clara County, said few people had shown up at the County Building because the appeals court's decision came late in the day.
But "we're going to be busy Monday, I think ? the whole week next week," Alcomendias told NBC Bay Area. "Probably for a long while."
The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals lifted its stay two days after the Supreme Court declined to rule on Proposition 8, thereby upholding a lower court's decision overturning the ban.?The appeals court had blocked enforcement of that ruling pending the Supreme Court decision.
The justices also struck down?the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 federal law that barred recognition of same-sex marriages.
Supreme Court rulings generally don't take effect for 25 days. But Harris had called on the 9th Circuit to lift its stay as soon as possible Wednesday after Brown told the state's 58 counties to prepare for same-sex marriages.
Brown issued an order Friday afternoon making that official, declaring that "marriage licenses must be issued to same-sex couples immediately."
California Attorney General Kamala Harris instructs the Los Angeles County Clerk by telephone to begin same-sex marriages "immediately."
The Protect Marriage Coalition's?Proposition 8 Legal Defense Fund, which sponsored the ballot initiative, did not immediately return calls seeking comment. But in a statement, the group said it had been deprived of "our right to ask for reconsideration," calling the appeals court's decision an "outrageous act of judicial tyranny."
"Homosexual marriage is not happening because the people changed their mind," the group said in a statement. "It isn't happening because the appellate courts declared a new constitutional right. It's happening because enemies of the people have abused their power to manipulate the system and render the people voiceless."
Theodore Boutros, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers, said the appeals court was fully within its rights to lift its injunction, which simply restored the status quo in the circuit. Any attempt by opponents to seek reconsideration of the Supreme Court ruling is a separate matter, he said.
Watch the most-viewed videos on NBCNews.com
Miranda Leitsinger, Norma Rubio and Sossy Dombourian of NBC News contributed to this report. Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.
Related:
Same-sex marriage supporters cheer 'Cinderella moment'; opponents vow to fight on
Historic day for gay marriage after two big court decisions
Jeff Chiu / AP
Kris Perry, left, kisses Sandra Stier as they are married Friday at San Francisco City Hall in a ceremony officiated by state Attorney General Kamala Harris.
This story was originally published on Fri Jun 28, 2013 6:59 PM EDT
BERLIN (AP) ? The German government says it blocked a European Union agreement on capping carbon emissions from cars because the deal would have harmed its domestic auto industry.
Environmental campaigners had lobbied to limit emissions from passenger cars to 95 grams of CO2 per kilometer within seven years.
But Germany wants to allow automakers such as BMW, Daimler and Audi to collect 'credits' they can use to offset higher pollution levels beyond 2020.
Government spokesman Georg Streiter says Germany asked for a decision on the issue to be postponed Thursday because "a fair solution also has to take account of the particularities of the German auto industry" whose emissions are above EU average.
Streiter said Friday that Germany "wouldn't be doing so well today if the auto industry were doing badly."
SANFORD, Fla. (AP) ? The first week of George Zimmerman's second-degree murder trial wrapped up with testimony from two neighbors and a police officer that seemed to bolster the defense's argument that he was pinned on his back by Trayvon Martin before shooting the teen.
Neighbor Jonathan Good testified Friday that it appeared the unarmed teen was straddling the neighborhood watch volunteer, while another neighbor, Jonathan Manalo, said Zimmerman seemed credible when he said just after the fight that he shot Martin in self-defense. Officer Tim Smith testified that Zimmerman's back side was covered in grass and wetter than his front side.
All three were called as witnesses for prosecutors who are trying to convict him of second-degree murder.
Good, who had perhaps the best view of any witness, said he did not see anyone's head being slammed into the concrete sidewalk, as Zimmerman claims Martin did to him. Good initially testified that it appeared "there were strikes being thrown, punches being thrown," but during detailed questioning he said he saw only "downward" arm movements being made.
Zimmerman has claimed that he fatally shot 17-year-old Martin in February 2012 in self-defense as the Miami-area teen was banging his head into the concrete sidewalk behind the townhomes in a gated community.
Under prosecution questioning, Good said he never saw anyone being attacked that way. Good said he heard a noise behind his townhome and he saw what looked like a tussle when he stepped out onto his patio. He said he yelled: "What's going on? Stop it."
Good testified he saw a person in black clothing on top of another person with "white or red" clothing. He said he couldn't see faces but it looked like the person on the bottom had lighter skin. Martin was black and was wearing a dark hoodie. Zimmerman identifies as Hispanic and was wearing a red jacket. Good was back inside calling 911 when he heard a gunshot.
"It looked like there were strikes being thrown, punches being thrown," Good said.
Later, under cross-examination, he said that it looked like the person on top was straddling the person on bottom in a mixed-martial arts move known as "ground and pound." When defense attorney Mark O'Mara asked him if the person on top was Martin, Good said, "Correct, that's what it looked like." Good also said the person on the bottom yelled for help.
Zimmerman, 29, could get life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder. Zimmerman followed Martin in his truck and called a police dispatch number before he and the teen got into a fight.
Zimmerman has denied the confrontation had anything to do with race, as Martin's family and their supporters have claimed.
Manalo, whose wife had testified earlier in the week, was the first neighbor to step outside and see what happened with his flashlight after he heard a gunshot. He took cellphone photos of a bloodied Zimmerman and Martin's body, and those photos were shown to jurors on Friday. Manalo also described Martin's hands as being under his body.
Manalo said Zimmerman didn't appear shocked and acted calmly. After police officers arrived and handcuffed Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer asked Manalo to call his wife and tell her what happened.
Manalo started to tell Zimmerman's wife that her husband had been involved in a shooting and was being questioned by police when "he cut me off and said, 'Just tell her I shot someone,'" Manalo said.
Under cross-examination, Manalo said when he asked Zimmerman what happened, the neighborhood watch volunteer told him, "I was defending myself and I shot him."
"From what you could tell at that moment, that seemed completely true?" asked defense attorney Don West.
"Yes," Manalo said.
Smith, the police officer, testified that when he saw Zimmerman after the shooting, the neighborhood watch volunteer's backside was covered in grass and wetter than his front side, bolstering defense attorneys' contention that Martin was on top of Zimmerman.
As he walked to the squad car after he had been handcuffed, Zimmerman told the officer that "he was yelling for help and nobody would come help him," Smith said.
"It was almost a defeated ... a confused look on his face," Smith said.
Smith said Zimmerman described himself as "lightheaded" during the drive to Sanford Police Station but declined an offer to take him to a hospital.
The physician's assistant who treated Zimmerman the next day said that Zimmerman complained of feeling nauseated upon reflecting what had happened. But Lindzee Folgate attributed that to psychological factors rather than any physical condition. She also said it appeared his nose was broken, but it was impossible to say for sure since no X-rays were taken. She recommended he see an ear-and-nose doctor and a psychologist.
When O'Mara asked if abrasions on his head were consistent with someone who had his had slammed into concrete, Folgate said, "it could be consistent, yes."
She also testified that Zimmerman had written on a form reciting his medical history that he was exercising three times a week by doing mixed martial arts, a statement that prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda asked her to repeat.
Paramedic Stacy Livingston, who responded to the shooting scene, testified Zimmerman had a swollen, bleeding nose and two cuts on the back of his head an inch long. When O'Mara asked if Zimmerman should have been concerned with his medical well-being because of his injuries, Livingston said, "Possibly."
When photos of Martin's body were shown on a courtroom projector during Livingston's testimony, Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, looked away and blinked back tears.
___
Follow Kyle Hightower on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KHightower
Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP
COSTA MESA ? This year's Brea Lions Orange County North-South Prep All-Star Football Game was played on an unusually early date.
Historically, the game at Orange Coast College is played on the same Friday night in early or mid July as the opening night of the Orange County Fair. The fair's continued surge in popularity has made it necessary for nearby Orange Coast College to be used for fair parking. The fair's All-Star game chairman Phil Anton said the parking squeeze necessitated an earlier date for the game.
"We did look at July 5," Anton said. "But that's right after the Fourth of July, and we thought too many people would be out of town. So we went with June 28."
RARE MISS
Grif Amies did something he rarely did during regular-season games. The All-Orange County kicker missed a field goal.
Amies kicked 22 field goals for Corona del Mar in the 2012 season, his senior year. That tied the state record set by Chris Sailer of Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks.
Amies missed a 27-yard attempt with 29 seconds remaining in the second quarter Friday.
Amies missed his final field-goal try of the '12 season. His 57-yard effort late in the fourth quarter of the CIF-SS Southern Division championship game was just short of the target. Earlier he made a 43-yarder, the one that tied for the record, in the Sea Kings' victory over Garden Grove in the Southern Division final at Angel Stadium.
COACHING FRATERNITY
An all-star coaching staff often is a mix of the head coach's assistants from his high school, with perhaps a longtime friend who is head coach at another school. That was the case with the North coaching staff. Fred DiPalma of Katella brought in Anaheim coach Lanny Booher to be the defensive coordinator.
FUNDRAISER
The Brea Lions organize and manage the all-star game for charity. Proceeds from Friday's game will go to the PADRE Foundation (Pediatric Adolescent Diabetic Research & Education), Western Youth Services, Orange County Youth Foundation and other groups.
Past all-star AJ Hoover, Orange County football's leading tackler at Canyon a few seasons ago, spoke at halftime about how he managed his diabetic condition so he could continue to play football.
NOTES
Time Warner Cable channel 101 will carry taped coverage of the game Monday at 8 p.m. Other telecasts are Wednesday, July 6 and July 7 at 8 p.m. ...
Attendance was approximately 4,800 at Orange Coast College, which has a capacity of 7,600. ...
Catch of the game: Cody White, El Toro. In the third quarter, White went up to snare a pass from Corona del Mar's Cayman Carter, pulling the ball through the hands of a North defender. White ran another 20 yards to the South 47 for a first down. ...
The decidedly defensive game did not provide many offensive highlights. Of the few there were, the best might have been a 44-yard pass play by the South. Carter threaded an over-the-middle pass to Scott Hoover of San Juan Hills, who was brought down at the North 9-yard-line at the point of the catch. The South appeared to score on the next play, but the end-zone catch by Cole Robinson of Capistrano Valley was waved off because of an offensive pass interference call. ...
The North-South border for the game had been the 22 Freeway, until this year's game. In a pursuit of improved competitive equity, the border was moved south, to Warner Avenue. The smaller South still won for the fifth time in a row and has won nine of the past 11.
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) ? A suicide attacker blew himself up near one of the main churches of the Syrian capital Thursday, killing at least four people, state-run TV said.
The blast struck in the vicinity of the Greek Orthodox Virgin Mary Church in the predominantly Christian neighborhood of Bab Sharqi in Damascus' Old City, the broadcast said, although it was not clear if the church was the attacker's target. Several also were wounded in the explosion, the TV said, without giving further details.
A government official told The Associated Press that the suicide attacker was wearing an explosive belt and blew himself up near the church. Both the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, and state TV said at least four people were killed. State-run news agency SANA said the blast also wounded eight people.
An AP reporter who visited the area saw that the explosion occurred about 50 meters (yards) from the church and damaged several shops. An antiques shop suffered the worst damage, its windows shattered and objects strewn about.
"I heard an explosion then glass started flying and the place was full of dust," said Abdo Muqri, the owner of the shop who suffered injuries in his right arm and forehead. "I was watching television inside. Had I been near the door I would have been dead."
State-owned Al-Ikhbariya TV aired footage of the area showing a dead man a few meters from the shop. It also showed what appeared to be human flesh on a nearby tree.
About three hours after the blast occurred, two shells struck the area. A wounded man and a woman were seen being rushed away from the area, famous for its narrow streets and old buildings.
Rebels have fired mortars at central Damascus in the past.
Bab Sharqi and the nearby Bab Touma, two main areas of the city's famed old quarter, were famous for their restaurants and cafes that used to be packed until late at night.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing. Damascus has been hit by a wave of suicide attacks that have killed and wounded scores of people.
Lebanon's Al-Mayadeen TV, which has reporters in Damascus, said the target of the attack appeared to be a nearby post of the National Defense Forces, a paramilitary force fighting against rebels trying to topple President Bashar Assad.
Residents in the area said they did not know what the target of the blast was, with some saying the attacker may have blown himself up prematurely. Pro-government gunmen were seen roaming the streets after the blast.
Churches have been targeted in the past, mostly in the central city of Homs and Syria's largest city of Aleppo in the north. In April, two bishops were kidnapped in northern Syria. They are still missing.
Syria's conflict started with largely peaceful protests against Assad's regime in March 2011 but eventually turned into a civil war. Nearly 93,000 people have been killed in the fighting so far, according to the United Nations.
Christians are one of the largest religious minorities in the country, composing about 10 percent of Syria's population of 23 million people. They have tried to stay on the sidelines of the conflict, although the opposition's increasingly outspoken Islamism has prompted many to lean toward the regime.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The father of former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden said in an interview he is reasonably confident his son will return to the United States as long as certain conditions are met.
Those conditions could include not detaining Snowden before trial, NBC News said on Friday. The NBC report added that he plans to make that point in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to be sent through his lawyer later on Friday.
Snowden's father, in part of the NBC interview that aired on the "Today Show," also said he is concerned his son was being manipulated by others, including people from WikiLeaks.
Snowden fled the United States to Hong Kong in May, a few weeks before publication in the Guardian and the Washington Post of details he provided about secret U.S. government surveillance of Internet and phone traffic.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Vicki Allen)
Danny Alexander: "We are putting long-term priorities before short-term political pressures"
Plans for a ?100bn modernisation of the UK's infrastructure, including new homes, road repairs and improved flood protection, have been announced.
The package, of which ?50bn will come in 2015-16, is also aimed at boosting new sources of energy like shale gas.
Treasury Minister Danny Alexander said the plans put "long-term priorities before short-term political pressures".
But Labour said projects must start now and capital investment in the engine of the economy was actually falling.
The announcement of the government's infrastructure plans came a day after Wednesday's Spending Review, in which ?11.5bn of cuts to Whitehall departments were spelt out.
While the first ?50bn is committed to infrastructure projects starting in 2015-16, the rest is for the period from 2016 to 2020.
The main funding commitments include:
?3bn to build 165,000 new affordable homes
?28bn for road improvements, including ?10bn for essential maintenance
?10bn to clear a "backlog" of school building repairs
850 miles of railway to be electrified as part of ?30bn rail investment
?250m for extended super-fast broadband to rural areas
?370m for flood defences. Agreement with industry to provide affordable insurance for flood-hit homes
?800m extra funding for Green Investment Bank
?150m for health research including into dementia
?100m for a new prison in Wales
"This is an ambitious plan to build an infrastructure that Britain can be proud of," Mr Alexander told MPs.
The road building programme was the largest for 40 years and the support for new homes the most substantial for more than two decades, he said.
As part of efforts to boost home building, government-owned land will be sold to the private sector and together with sales of other government assets, including the Student Loans book, would raise ?15bn.
There will be new support to help the building of new nuclear plants, including Hinkley Point in Somerset, a guaranteed price for offshore wind energy and tax incentives brought in for shale gas projects.
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Spending Review Documents
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His speech came as a report was being published showing that the UK's shale gas reserves were greater than previously thought.
The transport plans focused mainly on roads and railways.
'Road decay'
Mr Alexander said ?10bn would be spent on dealing with the UK's "decaying" road network, with 21,000 miles of roads to be resurfaced and new lanes to be added to the busiest stretches of motorways.
Among the most significant projects, the ?1.5bn upgrading of the A14 between Huntingdon and Cambridge will be brought forward by two years to 2016.
Mr Alexander said the spending on roads was equivalent to the cost of filling 19m potholes.
On rail, he restated plans to electrify large parts of the network and increased the budget for the proposed HS2 line connecting London and seven of the largest ten UK cities, to more than ?42bn.
Osborne: "We've got a long-term plan now as a country to up our national game"
He also confirmed that ?2m feasibility funding would be provided for London's proposed Crossrail 2 project, but said Mayor Boris Johnson's challenge was to work out how the private sector could meet at least half the cost of the scheme.
He also said the basis of an agreement had been reached with the insurance industry for it to pay for a new scheme to help 500,000 homeowners in areas prone to serious flooding to get cover at reasonable prices.
Earlier, Mr Osborne told BBC Breakfast that "you cannot just build a road in a week" but new homes, schools and roads were already finished and the coalition had a "long-term plan" rather than the "stop-start" approach of previous governments.
On energy, he said shale gas was "environmentally safe" and could provide "cheap energy" for many years to come - but that projects - criticised by environmental campaigners - would need to get the appropriate planning approvals.
'Act now'
But shadow chancellor Ed Balls said most of the projects would not begin for four years.
"They should do an immediate boost for housing and transport this year and next," he told ITV's Daybreak.
Ed Balls: "The international monetary fund says a ?10bn boost is needed now"
"George Osborne talks about capital spending but he's not actually acting.
"I don't think the public buy into this at all - I think people see their living standards falling, tax cuts for millionaires, the economy flatlining, unemployment high. The plan has completely failed."
The ?50bn for 2015-16 represents a real-terms fall of 1.7% from the infrastructure budget for 2014-15 but the coalition says the figure is still higher than the one Labour was planning when it lost power in 2010.
'Rarely delivered'
Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said spending was being directed towards "polluting high-carbon infrastructure" such as roads and shale gas instead of prioritising jobs in renewable energy and energy efficiency,
The British Chambers of Commerce welcomed the announcement but said it must quickly be translated into action.
"Infrastructure projects are too often promised and too rarely delivered in this country, and that cycle must be broken," director of policy Adam Marshall said.
"The Whitehall machine must be judged by the number of diggers on the ground, not strategies and press notices."
In Wednesday's Spending Review, the chancellor said the economy was "out of intensive care" and announced several measures aimed at saving money, including:
June 27, 2013 ? Researchers from the Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research in Tokyo have discovered that forced elongation of telomeres (extensions on the end of chromosomes) promotes the differentiation of cancer cells, probably reducing malignancy, which is strongly associated with a loss of cell differentiation. They report their findings in a manuscript published online ahead of print, in the journal Molecular and Cellular Biology.
"Cancer cells may maintain short telomeres to maintain their undifferentiated state," says Hiroyuki Seimiya, a researcher on the study.
Telomeres are protective extensions on the ends of chromosomes, which shorten as cells age, like an hourglass running down. They protect the end of the chromosome from deterioration or from fusion with neighboring chromosomes.Without telomeres chromosomes would progressively lose genetic information as cells divide and replicate.
Cancer cells have shorter telomeres compared to healthy cells, but they guard their immortality by maintaining these telomeres' length.
In the study, the forced elongation of cancer cells' telomeres suppressed a number of genes and proteins that appear to be involved in tumor malignancy, according to the report. For example, one of these factors, N-cadherin, is involved in prostate cancer metastasis.
Based on their results, the investigators now propose that telomeres also modulate the behavior of cells by controlling gene expression, by as yet unknown mechanisms, says Seimiya. His research, he says, may ultimately lead to new types of treatments for cancer.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Society for Microbiology.
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Journal Reference:
K. Hirashima, T. Migita, S. Sato, Y. Muramatsu, Y. Ishikawa, H. Seimiya. Telomere length influences cancer cell differentiation in vivo. Molecular and Cellular Biology, 2013; DOI: 10.1128/MCB.00136-13
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? The office of the South African president says Nelson Mandela's health improved overnight, and his condition remains critical but is now stable.
President Jacob Zuma's office said in a statement Thursday that he received the update from the medical team that is treating the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader at a Pretoria hospital.
Zuma, who visited Mandela on Thursday, said in the statement that the former president is "much better" than when Zuma visited him on the previous night.
His office says it is disturbed by what it calls rumors about Mandela's health. Unconfirmed reports and speculation about Mandela have been swirling on social media and other forums.
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Julianne Moore is in early talks to join the cast of "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay," an individual familiar with the project has told TheWrap.
The Oscar nominee would play President Alma Coin - the leader of the autocratic society behind the gladiatorial games - in the two-part finale. Moore joins a cast that will include heavyweights Philip Seymour Hoffman and Jennifer Lawrence and heartthrobs Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson.
She previously co-starred with Hutcherson in the Oscar-nominated 2010 film "The Kids Are All Right."
Moore recently scored Emmy gold for her portrayal of a different politician, vice presidential aspirant and "you betcha" spouter Sarah Palin in last year's HBO film "Game Change." She next stars in a remake of "Carrie" and the medieval action adventure "The Seventh Son."
"Mockingjay" will be released in two parts, with the first installment hitting theaters on November 21, 2014, and the second chapter debuting on November 20, 2015.
A British schoolteacher, Daisy Christodoulou, has just published a short, pungent e- book called Seven Myths about Education. It's a must-read for anyone in a position to influence our low-performing public school system. The book's focus is on British education, but it deserves to be nominated as a "best book of 2013" on American education, because there's not a farthing's worth of difference in how the British and American educational systems are being hindered by a slogan-monopoly of high-sounding ideas -- brilliantly deconstructed in this book.
Ms. Christodoulou has unusual credentials. She's an experienced classroom teacher. She currently directs a non-profit educational foundation in London, and she is a scholar of impressive powers who has mastered the relevant research literature in educational history and cognitive psychology. Her writing is clear and effective. Speaking as a teacher to teachers, she may be able to change their minds. As an expert scholar and writer, she also has a good chance of enlightening administrators, legislators, and concerned citizens.
Ms. Christodoulou believes that such enlightenment is the great practical need these days, because the chief barriers to effective school reform are not the usual accused: bad teacher unions, low teacher quality, burdensome government dictates. Many a charter school in the US has been able to bypass those barriers without being able to produce better results than the regular public schools they were meant to replace. No wonder. Many of these failed charter schools were conceived under the very myths that Ms. Christodoulou exposes. It wasn't the teacher unions after all! Ms. Christodoulou argues convincingly that what has chiefly held back school achievement and equity in the English-speaking world for the past half century is a set of seductive but mistaken ideas.
She's right straight down the line. Take the issue of teacher quality. The author gives evidence from her own experience of the ways in which potentially effective teachers have been made ineffective because they are dutifully following the ideas instilled in them by their training institutes. These colleges of education have not only perpetuated wrong ideas about skills and knowledge, but in their scorn for "mere facts" have also deprived these potentially good teachers of the knowledge they need to be effective teachers of subject matter. Teachers who are only moderately talented teacher can be highly effective if they follow sound teaching principles and a sound curriculum within a school environment where knowledge builds cumulatively from year to year.
Here are Ms Christodoulou's seven myths:
1 - Facts prevent understanding 2 - Teacher-led instruction is passive 3 - The 21st century fundamentally changes everything 4 - You can always just look it up 5 - We should teach transferable skills 6 - Projects and activities are the best way to learn 7 - Teaching knowledge is indoctrination
Each chapter follows the following straightforward and highly effective pattern. The "myth" is set forth through full, direct quotations from recognized authorities. There's no slanting of the evidence or the rhetoric. Then, the author describes concretely from direct experience how the idea has actually worked out in practice. And finally, she presents a clear account of the relevant research in cognitive psychology which overwhelmingly debunks the myth. Ms. Christodoulou writes: "For every myth I have identified, I have found concrete and robust examples of how this myth has influenced classroom practice across England. Only then do I go on to show why it is a myth and why it is so damaging."
This straightforward organization turns out to be highly absorbing and engaging. Ms. Christodoulou is a strong writer, and for all her scientific punctilio, a passionate one. She is learned in educational history, showing how "21st-century" ideas that invoke Google and the internet are actually re-bottled versions of the late 19th-century ideas which came to dominate British and American schools by the mid-20th century. What educators purvey as brave such as "critical-thinking skills" and "you can always look it up" are actually shopworn and discredited by cognitive science. That's the characteristic turn of her chapters, done especially effectively in her conclusion when she discusses the high-sounding education-school theme of hegemony:
I discussed the way that many educational theorists used the concept of hegemony to explain the way that certain ideas and practices become accepted by people within an institution. Hegemony is a useful concept. I would argue that the myths I have discussed here are hegemonic within the education system. It is hard to have a discussion about education without sooner or later hitting one of these myths. As theorists of hegemony realise, the most powerful thing about hegemonic ideas is that they seem to be natural common sense. They are just a normal part of everyday life. This makes them exceptionally difficult to challenge, because it does not seem as if there is anything there to challenge. However, as the theorists of hegemony also realised, hegemonic ideas depend on certain unseen processes. One tactic is the suppression of all evidence that contradicts them. I trained as a teacher, taught for three years, attended numerous in-service training days, wrote several essays about education and followed educational policy closely without ever even encountering any of the evidence about knowledge I speak of here, let alone actually hearing anyone advocate it. ... For three years I struggled to improve my pupils' education without ever knowing that I could be using hugely more effective methods. I would spend entire lessons quietly observing my pupils chatting away in groups about complete misconceptions and I would think that the problem in the lesson was that I had been too prescriptive. We need to reform the main teacher training and inspection agencies so that they stop promoting completely discredited ideas and give more space to theories with much greater scientific backing.
The book has great relevance to our current moment, when a majority of states have signed up to follow new "Common Core Standards," comparable in scope to the recent experiment named "No Child Left Behind," which is widely deemed a failure. If we wish to avoid another one, we will need to heed this book's message. The failure of NCLB wasn't in the law's key provisions that adequate yearly progress in math and reading should occur among all groups, including low-performing ones. The result has been some improvement in math, especially in the early grades, but stasis in most reading scores. In addition, the emphasis on reading tests has caused a neglect of history, civics, science, and the arts.
Ms. Christodoulou's book indirectly explains these tragic, unintended consequences of NCLB, especially the poor results in reading. It was primarily the way that educators responded to the accountability provisions of NCLB that induced the failure. American educators, dutifully following the seven myths, regard reading as a skill that could be employed without relevant knowledge; in preparation for the tests, they spent many wasted school days on ad hoc content and instruction in "strategies." If educators had been less captivated by anti-knowledge myths, they could have met the requirements of NCLB, and made adequate yearly progress for all groups. The failure was not in the law but in the myths.
Our educators now stand ready to commit the same mistakes with the Common Core State Standards. Distressed teachers are saying that they are being compelled to engage in the same superficial, content-indifferent activities, given new labels like "text complexity" and "reading strategies." In short, educators are preparing to apply the same skills-based notions about reading that have failed for several decades.
Of course! They are boxed in by what Ms. Christodoulou calls a "hegemonic" thought system. If our hardworking teachers and principals had known what to do for NCLB -- if they had been uninfected by the seven myths -- they would have long ago done what is necessary to raise the competencies of all students, and there would not have been a need for NCLB. If the Common Core standards fail as NCLB did, it will not be because the standards themselves are defective. It will be because our schools are completely dominated by the seven myths analyzed by Daisy Christodoulou. This splendid, disinfecting book needs to be distributed gratis to every teacher, administrator, and college of education professor in the U.S. It's available at Amazon for $9.99 or for free if you have Amazon Prime.
?
Follow E. D. Hirsch, Jr. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/edhk9
A British schoolteacher, Daisy Christodoulou, has just published a short, pungent e- book called Seven Myths about Education. It's a must-read for anyone in a position to influence our low-performing public school system. The book's focus is on British education, but it deserves to be nominated as a "best book of 2013" on American education, because there's not a farthing's worth of difference in how the British and American educational systems are being hindered by a slogan-monopoly of high-sounding ideas -- brilliantly deconstructed in this book.
Ms. Christodoulou has unusual credentials. She's an experienced classroom teacher. She currently directs a non-profit educational foundation in London, and she is a scholar of impressive powers who has mastered the relevant research literature in educational history and cognitive psychology. Her writing is clear and effective. Speaking as a teacher to teachers, she may be able to change their minds. As an expert scholar and writer, she also has a good chance of enlightening administrators, legislators, and concerned citizens.
Ms. Christodoulou believes that such enlightenment is the great practical need these days, because the chief barriers to effective school reform are not the usual accused: bad teacher unions, low teacher quality, burdensome government dictates. Many a charter school in the US has been able to bypass those barriers without being able to produce better results than the regular public schools they were meant to replace. No wonder. Many of these failed charter schools were conceived under the very myths that Ms. Christodoulou exposes. It wasn't the teacher unions after all! Ms. Christodoulou argues convincingly that what has chiefly held back school achievement and equity in the English-speaking world for the past half century is a set of seductive but mistaken ideas.
She's right straight down the line. Take the issue of teacher quality. The author gives evidence from her own experience of the ways in which potentially effective teachers have been made ineffective because they are dutifully following the ideas instilled in them by their training institutes. These colleges of education have not only perpetuated wrong ideas about skills and knowledge, but in their scorn for "mere facts" have also deprived these potentially good teachers of the knowledge they need to be effective teachers of subject matter. Teachers who are only moderately talented teacher can be highly effective if they follow sound teaching principles and a sound curriculum within a school environment where knowledge builds cumulatively from year to year.
Here are Ms Christodoulou's seven myths:
1 - Facts prevent understanding 2 - Teacher-led instruction is passive 3 - The 21st century fundamentally changes everything 4 - You can always just look it up 5 - We should teach transferable skills 6 - Projects and activities are the best way to learn 7 - Teaching knowledge is indoctrination
Each chapter follows the following straightforward and highly effective pattern. The "myth" is set forth through full, direct quotations from recognized authorities. There's no slanting of the evidence or the rhetoric. Then, the author describes concretely from direct experience how the idea has actually worked out in practice. And finally, she presents a clear account of the relevant research in cognitive psychology which overwhelmingly debunks the myth. Ms. Christodoulou writes: "For every myth I have identified, I have found concrete and robust examples of how this myth has influenced classroom practice across England. Only then do I go on to show why it is a myth and why it is so damaging."
This straightforward organization turns out to be highly absorbing and engaging. Ms. Christodoulou is a strong writer, and for all her scientific punctilio, a passionate one. She is learned in educational history, showing how "21st-century" ideas that invoke Google and the internet are actually re-bottled versions of the late 19th-century ideas which came to dominate British and American schools by the mid-20th century. What educators purvey as brave such as "critical-thinking skills" and "you can always look it up" are actually shopworn and discredited by cognitive science. That's the characteristic turn of her chapters, done especially effectively in her conclusion when she discusses the high-sounding education-school theme of hegemony:
I discussed the way that many educational theorists used the concept of hegemony to explain the way that certain ideas and practices become accepted by people within an institution. Hegemony is a useful concept. I would argue that the myths I have discussed here are hegemonic within the education system. It is hard to have a discussion about education without sooner or later hitting one of these myths. As theorists of hegemony realise, the most powerful thing about hegemonic ideas is that they seem to be natural common sense. They are just a normal part of everyday life. This makes them exceptionally difficult to challenge, because it does not seem as if there is anything there to challenge. However, as the theorists of hegemony also realised, hegemonic ideas depend on certain unseen processes. One tactic is the suppression of all evidence that contradicts them. I trained as a teacher, taught for three years, attended numerous in-service training days, wrote several essays about education and followed educational policy closely without ever even encountering any of the evidence about knowledge I speak of here, let alone actually hearing anyone advocate it. ... For three years I struggled to improve my pupils' education without ever knowing that I could be using hugely more effective methods. I would spend entire lessons quietly observing my pupils chatting away in groups about complete misconceptions and I would think that the problem in the lesson was that I had been too prescriptive. We need to reform the main teacher training and inspection agencies so that they stop promoting completely discredited ideas and give more space to theories with much greater scientific backing.
The book has great relevance to our current moment, when a majority of states have signed up to follow new "Common Core Standards," comparable in scope to the recent experiment named "No Child Left Behind," which is widely deemed a failure. If we wish to avoid another one, we will need to heed this book's message. The failure of NCLB wasn't in the law's key provisions that adequate yearly progress in math and reading should occur among all groups, including low-performing ones. The result has been some improvement in math, especially in the early grades, but stasis in most reading scores. In addition, the emphasis on reading tests has caused a neglect of history, civics, science, and the arts.
Ms. Christodoulou's book indirectly explains these tragic, unintended consequences of NCLB, especially the poor results in reading. It was primarily the way that educators responded to the accountability provisions of NCLB that induced the failure. American educators, dutifully following the seven myths, regard reading as a skill that could be employed without relevant knowledge; in preparation for the tests, they spent many wasted school days on ad hoc content and instruction in "strategies." If educators had been less captivated by anti-knowledge myths, they could have met the requirements of NCLB, and made adequate yearly progress for all groups. The failure was not in the law but in the myths.
Our educators now stand ready to commit the same mistakes with the Common Core State Standards. Distressed teachers are saying that they are being compelled to engage in the same superficial, content-indifferent activities, given new labels like "text complexity" and "reading strategies." In short, educators are preparing to apply the same skills-based notions about reading that have failed for several decades.
Of course! They are boxed in by what Ms. Christodoulou calls a "hegemonic" thought system. If our hardworking teachers and principals had known what to do for NCLB -- if they had been uninfected by the seven myths -- they would have long ago done what is necessary to raise the competencies of all students, and there would not have been a need for NCLB. If the Common Core standards fail as NCLB did, it will not be because the standards themselves are defective. It will be because our schools are completely dominated by the seven myths analyzed by Daisy Christodoulou. This splendid, disinfecting book needs to be distributed gratis to every teacher, administrator, and college of education professor in the U.S. It's available at Amazon for $9.99 or for free if you have Amazon Prime.
?
Follow E. D. Hirsch, Jr. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/edhk9
Findings in small group hint that DNA-based therapy could work
By Nathan Seppa
Web edition: June 27, 2013
Using an experimental DNA-based therapy, scientists might slow the self-destructive immune reaction against insulin-making cells that causes type 1 diabetes. The finding, appearing in the June 26 Science Translational Medicine, represents a promising but preliminary advance toward devising a treatment for the condition, which often strikes in childhood.
Lawrence Steinman of Stanford University and his colleagues injected 26 volunteers weekly with placebos. Another 54 got the experimental treatment, which is designed to dampen the body?s immune reaction against insulin-making beta cells in the pancreas. In diabetes patients, rogue CD8 T cells attack a protein on beta cells called proinsulin, a precursor compound that becomes insulin after modification. The attack sabotages beta cells and insulin production.
The experimental treatment contains replacement DNA for the gene encoding proinsulin. Patients who received the DNA for 12 weeks apparently made altered proinsulin proteins that signal the immune system to rein in the rogue T cells. After five months, levels of the T cells declined in treated patients. The patients also showed stabilization and even improvement in measures of insulin production after 12 weeks, suggesting that the therapy might arrest beta cell destruction, the authors say. But both changes didn?t last long after treatment ended.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) ? Kevin Rudd has wrenched back the job of Australian prime minister from the woman who had maneuvered him out three years ago, possibly just in time to soften a crushing defeat that his party likely faces in upcoming elections.
He was sworn in Thursday and urged fellow lawmakers to be "a little kinder and gentler" toward each other following the internal coup that ousted Julia Gillard, the country's first woman prime minister.
Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat, forced Gillard out Wednesday in nearly the same way she ousted him in 2010. Each faced a party leadership vote in the face of a revolt from Labor Party lawmakers, but while Rudd did not contest Gillard's earlier challenge, she went ahead with a vote that she lost 57-45.
Gillard tendered her resignation Wednesday night.
In a brief statement to Parliament two hours after he was sworn in as national leader, Rudd praised Gillard's "major reforms" on issues such as industrial law and school literacy testing, as well "her great work as a standard bearer for women."
Rudd's ouster had created a rift in the Labor Party and endless infighting. He had tried twice previously to oust Gillard, last year and in February. Many took the fact that he never posed for a Parliament House portrait, as other former prime ministers had done, as a sign that he never gave up on returning.
"As we all know in this place, political life is a very hard life; a very hard life indeed," Rudd told Parliament.
"Let us try ? just try ? to be a little kinder and gentler with each other in the further deliberations of this Parliament," he added.
Markets reacted calmly to the change in leadership, which is not expected to affect Australia's economy or its strong dollar. Amid global financial instability and after years of growth fueled largely by a mining boom, the nation's economy has cooled.
Rudd's way back to leadership was paved with the Labor Party's dismal opinion polling under Gillard, ahead of elections she had set for Sept. 14 but that Rudd could schedule as early as Aug. 3. Australians favor Rudd over Gillard, and while the conservative opposition is still favored to win the next election, Rudd's leadership could help avoid a landslide defeat.
Rudd had warned that Labor was facing its worst election defeat under Gillard's leadership in the 111-year history of the Australian federation.
Gillard lacked Rudd's charisma, and although many Labor lawmakers preferred her style, her deepening unpopularity among voters compelled a majority to seek a change.
Opposition leader Tony Abbott demanded an explanation from Rudd of why Gillard was deposed with elections looming. Abbott also called for an election date to be confirmed.
"Politics is a tough business and sometimes it is far more brutal than it needs to be," Abbott said.
"This is a fraught moment in the life of our nation. A prime minister has been dragged down; her replacement owes the Australian people and the Australian Parliament an explanation," he added.
Rudd's office could not immediately confirm whether Rudd would replace Gillard in a visit to Indonesia that had been scheduled for next week.
Governor-General Quentin Bryce commissioned Rudd as prime minister on Thursday, what is likely to be Parliament's last day before elections.
Anthony Albanese was sworn in as deputy prime minister and Chris Bowen was sworn in as treasurer during the same ceremony. Rudd has yet to say when he will announce his complete Cabinet after seven ministers resigned following Gillard's ouster.
Rudd faces a potential no-confidence vote in Parliament. He probably would survive it, but a loss could trigger an election as early as Aug. 3.
Bryce revealed that she took late-night legal advice on whether she should swear in Rudd. A minority government such as Gillard led has not been seen in Australian federal politics since World War II, and Labor's leadership change raised unique constitutional questions.
While Rudd has the support of his party, Labor has just 71 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives. Gillard was able to govern with support from some independents and the minor Greens party. They are not obligated to support Rudd, though he did get the backing of at least two independent lawmakers who had not supported Gillard.
Rudd's statement fulfilled a condition set by Bryce that he quickly notify Parliament of his appointment so that lawmakers had an opportunity to take action.
Gillard said after her loss Wednesday that she was proud of her government's achievements, including the introduction of an unpopular carbon tax paid by the biggest industrial polluters. She had been dogged by her pre-election promise never to introduce such a tax.
Gillard's gender was a focus several times during her tenure, and she made international headlines for calling Abbott a misogynist.
She said Wednesday that because of her tenure, "It will be easier for the next woman and the woman after that and the woman after that. And I'm proud of that."
NEW YORK (AP) ? A publishing executive who has helped release books by such acclaimed authors as Jhumpa Lahiri, Jane Smiley and James Salter has won the Maxwell E. Perkins Award for lifetime achievement in fiction.
Robin Desser of Alfred A. Knopf is the latest recipient of a prize named for the editor of Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Desser, a vice president and editorial director at Knopf, has worked on a wide range of fiction, from such acclaimed debuts as Sandra Cisneros' "The House On Mango Street" to books by established stars such as Salter and Smiley.
The Perkins award is sponsored by the nonprofit Center for Fiction. Previous winners include Nan A. Talese of Doubleday and Jonathan Galassi of Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
FILE - This undated publicity photo from Disney/Bruckheimer Films, shows actors, Johnny Depp, left, as Tonto, a spirit warrior on a personal quest, who joins forces in a fight for justice with Armie Hammer, as John Reid, a lawman who has become a masked avenger, The Lone Ranger, from the movie, "The Lone Ranger." The film opens nationwide on July 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Disney/Bruckheimer Films, Peter Mountain, File)
FILE - This undated publicity photo from Disney/Bruckheimer Films, shows actors, Johnny Depp, left, as Tonto, a spirit warrior on a personal quest, who joins forces in a fight for justice with Armie Hammer, as John Reid, a lawman who has become a masked avenger, The Lone Ranger, from the movie, "The Lone Ranger." The film opens nationwide on July 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Disney/Bruckheimer Films, Peter Mountain, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer fight for justice in their upcoming film, "The Lone Ranger," but their ancestors did it for real.
Genealogy research website Ancestry.com revealed Wednesday the two actors descend from historic American freedom fighters.
Hammer plays the Lone Ranger and Depp portrays his Native American sidekick, Tonto. Yet the site's historians discovered that it's Hammer with the native roots. The 26-year-old actor is a descendent of Cherokee leader and peace advocate Chief Kanagatucko, who was known as "Old Hop" or "Stalking Turkey" because of his age and gait.
Researchers said Depp's eighth great-grandmother was Elizabeth Key, the first slave in the American colonies to sue for her freedom and win. It happened in 1656 in Virginia, where some of Depp's ancestors have lived since the early 1600s.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? A federal appeals court says former Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod can continue her defamation case against a conservative blogger.
Larry O'Connor, a colleague of the late blogger Andrew Breitbart, asked a federal court of appeals to throw out the case, saying it violates his freedom of speech rights. The appeals court on Tuesday upheld a federal district court's rejection of that motion to dismiss.
The case is one of the first high-profile federal lawsuits to test bloggers' freedom of speech rights, and large news organizations including the New York Times Co., Washington Post Co. and Dow Jones & Company, Inc., have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in the suit.
Sherrod was ousted from her job as a rural development official in 2010 after Breitbart posted an edited video of Sherrod, who is black, supposedly making racist remarks. She sued Breitbart, O'Connor and an unnamed defendant for defamation and emotional distress after USDA officials asked her to resign and the video ignited a racial firestorm.
Breitbart died unexpectedly last year. Sherrod's lawyers say the unnamed defendant is the person whom they believe passed the video on to Breitbart, though the person's identity remains unknown.
The video on Breitbart's website turned out to be edited, and when Sherrod's full speech to an NAACP group earlier that year came to light, it became clear that her remarks about an initial reluctance to help a white farmer decades ago were not racist but an attempt at telling a story of racial reconciliation. Once that was obvious, Sherrod received public apologies from the administration ? even from President Barack Obama himself ? and an offer to return to the Agriculture Department, which she declined.
Sherrod's 2011 lawsuit says the incident affected her sleep and caused her back pain. It contends that she was damaged by having her "integrity, impartiality and motivations questioned, making it difficult (if not impossible) for her to continue her life's work assisting poor farmers in rural areas" even though she was invited to return to the department.
O'Connor's lawyers had argued to have the case dismissed under a District of Columbia statute called an anti-SLAPP law that aims to prevent the silencing of critics through lawsuits. A federal district court judge rejected their motion to dismiss, citing timing and jurisdictional issues, prompting the appeal.
In March arguments, the lawyers told the court of appeals that O'Connor and Breitbart, before he died, stood by the content, saying the blog post was opinion.
"What happened here is what happens in journalism every day," said Bruce Brown, a lawyer for O'Connor.
Sherrod's lawyers disagreed and said dismissal under the District of Columbia statute would violate their right to a trial.
The case has been closely watched as a test of the District of Columbia's anti-SLAPP statute.
___
Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MCJalonick
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