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Hold the medicinal lettucePublic release date: 26-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Shawna Williams shawna@jhmi.edu 410-955-8236 Johns Hopkins Medicine
Research suggesting genetic elements from plants make it into eater's bloodstream turns out to be a 'false positive'
In 2011 and 2012, research from China's Nanjing University made international headlines with reports that after mice ate, bits of genetic material from the plants they'd ingested could make it into their bloodstreams intact and turn the animals' own genes off. The surprising results from Chen-Yu Zhang's group led to speculation that genetic illness might one day be treated with medicinal food, but also to worry that genetically modified foods might in turn modify consumers in unanticipated ways.
Now, though, a research team at Johns Hopkins reports that Zhang's results were likely a false positive that resulted from the technique his group used. The new study, the Johns Hopkins group says, bolsters the case of skeptics who argued that genetic material from food would have little chance of surviving the digestive system, much less crossing the intestinal lining to enter the bloodstream. The study appears in the July issue of RNA Biology.
"It's disappointing in a sense it would open up so many therapeutic possibilities if microRNAs from food really could get into our blood and regulate our genes," says Kenneth Witwer, Ph.D., of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences, who led the new study. But beyond the fact that people won't be picking up prescription lettuce at the pharmacy anytime soon, he adds, the larger lesson is that scientific research's capacity for self-correction is alive and well.
Witwer said his group was intrigued by the earlier results, in which Zhang's group focused on microRNAs, molecules that are a chemical cousin of DNA. Rather than storing genetic information as DNA does, their primary role is to intervene in so-called "gene expression," the process of using genes' blueprints to build proteins. Because they affect whether and how much genes are actually used, microRNAs wield tremendous power, Witwer notes, "so it was startling to think that microRNAs from plants could get into the bloodstream, get into tissues, and regulate genes in those tissues."
Witwer teamed up with colleagues to check the results with a similar experiment of their own. They bought soy-based smoothies at a grocery store and tested their microRNA content, then fed the smoothies to macaques and took samples of the animals' blood.
Knowing that the concentrations of any plant microRNAs in the blood would be too low to measure directly, they used a common technique called polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to bring up the concentration of the genetic material. PCR is designed so that only certain fragments of genetic material in a sample the ones researchers choose to target will be copied. Zhang's studies had also used PCR to look for plant microRNAs.
Just as Zhang had, the Johns Hopkins team found what appeared to be the targeted plant microRNAs in the macaques' blood. But when they ran the experiment several times, they got highly variable results: Sometimes the microRNAs were present in low concentrations, and sometimes not at all. In addition, the samples from before the macaques drank the smoothies were just as likely to have the microRNAs as were the post-smoothie samples a result that just didn't make sense if the source of the microRNAs was the plant material in the drinks.
To Witwer, the results indicated that what he was seeing was not the targeted plant microRNAs, but fragments of the macaques' own genetic material that were similar enough to the targeted segments that the PCR copied them at low levels.
To test this, the team used a new technique in which PCR takes place in tiny aerosolized droplets rather than in a test tube. The advantage, Witwer says, is that by effectively running tens or hundreds of thousands of reactions at the same time, researchers can see whether the outcomes of those reactions are consistent in other words, whether the results are meaningful or just a fluke. In this case, the results were all over the place, indicating that plant microRNAs weren't really present.
At the same time, Witwer cautions, it remains possible that very low levels of microRNAs could enter the blood. Even if this happened, though, he says it is unlikely that such small numbers of molecules could affect gene expression. Additional studies will be needed to determine whether low-level transfer occurs and whether any plant RNAs serve a function in the body.
###
Link to article: http://www.landesbioscience.com/journals/rnabiology/article/25246/
The study was funded by the National Center for Research Resources, the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs and the National Institutes of Health (grant number P40 OD013117).
Other authors on the paper were Melissa A. McAlexander, Suzanne E. Queen and Robert J. Adams, all of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Related stories:
Making Memories: How One Protein Does It: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/making_memories_how_one_protein_does_it
Double Duty: Immune System Regulator Found to Protect Brain from Effects of Stroke: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/double_duty_immune_system_regulator_found_to_protect_brain_from_effects_of_stroke
Lost Molecule Is Lethal for Liver Cancer Cells in Mice: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/Lost_Molecule_is_Lethal_for_Liver_Cancer_Cells_In_Mice
Master Switches Found for Adult Blood Stem Cells: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/master_switches_found_for_adult_blood_stem_cells
Silencing Small but Mighty Cancer Inhibitors: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/Silencing_Small_but_Mighty_Cancer_Inhibitors
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Hold the medicinal lettucePublic release date: 26-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Shawna Williams shawna@jhmi.edu 410-955-8236 Johns Hopkins Medicine
Research suggesting genetic elements from plants make it into eater's bloodstream turns out to be a 'false positive'
In 2011 and 2012, research from China's Nanjing University made international headlines with reports that after mice ate, bits of genetic material from the plants they'd ingested could make it into their bloodstreams intact and turn the animals' own genes off. The surprising results from Chen-Yu Zhang's group led to speculation that genetic illness might one day be treated with medicinal food, but also to worry that genetically modified foods might in turn modify consumers in unanticipated ways.
Now, though, a research team at Johns Hopkins reports that Zhang's results were likely a false positive that resulted from the technique his group used. The new study, the Johns Hopkins group says, bolsters the case of skeptics who argued that genetic material from food would have little chance of surviving the digestive system, much less crossing the intestinal lining to enter the bloodstream. The study appears in the July issue of RNA Biology.
"It's disappointing in a sense it would open up so many therapeutic possibilities if microRNAs from food really could get into our blood and regulate our genes," says Kenneth Witwer, Ph.D., of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences, who led the new study. But beyond the fact that people won't be picking up prescription lettuce at the pharmacy anytime soon, he adds, the larger lesson is that scientific research's capacity for self-correction is alive and well.
Witwer said his group was intrigued by the earlier results, in which Zhang's group focused on microRNAs, molecules that are a chemical cousin of DNA. Rather than storing genetic information as DNA does, their primary role is to intervene in so-called "gene expression," the process of using genes' blueprints to build proteins. Because they affect whether and how much genes are actually used, microRNAs wield tremendous power, Witwer notes, "so it was startling to think that microRNAs from plants could get into the bloodstream, get into tissues, and regulate genes in those tissues."
Witwer teamed up with colleagues to check the results with a similar experiment of their own. They bought soy-based smoothies at a grocery store and tested their microRNA content, then fed the smoothies to macaques and took samples of the animals' blood.
Knowing that the concentrations of any plant microRNAs in the blood would be too low to measure directly, they used a common technique called polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to bring up the concentration of the genetic material. PCR is designed so that only certain fragments of genetic material in a sample the ones researchers choose to target will be copied. Zhang's studies had also used PCR to look for plant microRNAs.
Just as Zhang had, the Johns Hopkins team found what appeared to be the targeted plant microRNAs in the macaques' blood. But when they ran the experiment several times, they got highly variable results: Sometimes the microRNAs were present in low concentrations, and sometimes not at all. In addition, the samples from before the macaques drank the smoothies were just as likely to have the microRNAs as were the post-smoothie samples a result that just didn't make sense if the source of the microRNAs was the plant material in the drinks.
To Witwer, the results indicated that what he was seeing was not the targeted plant microRNAs, but fragments of the macaques' own genetic material that were similar enough to the targeted segments that the PCR copied them at low levels.
To test this, the team used a new technique in which PCR takes place in tiny aerosolized droplets rather than in a test tube. The advantage, Witwer says, is that by effectively running tens or hundreds of thousands of reactions at the same time, researchers can see whether the outcomes of those reactions are consistent in other words, whether the results are meaningful or just a fluke. In this case, the results were all over the place, indicating that plant microRNAs weren't really present.
At the same time, Witwer cautions, it remains possible that very low levels of microRNAs could enter the blood. Even if this happened, though, he says it is unlikely that such small numbers of molecules could affect gene expression. Additional studies will be needed to determine whether low-level transfer occurs and whether any plant RNAs serve a function in the body.
###
Link to article: http://www.landesbioscience.com/journals/rnabiology/article/25246/
The study was funded by the National Center for Research Resources, the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs and the National Institutes of Health (grant number P40 OD013117).
Other authors on the paper were Melissa A. McAlexander, Suzanne E. Queen and Robert J. Adams, all of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Related stories:
Making Memories: How One Protein Does It: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/making_memories_how_one_protein_does_it
Double Duty: Immune System Regulator Found to Protect Brain from Effects of Stroke: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/double_duty_immune_system_regulator_found_to_protect_brain_from_effects_of_stroke
Lost Molecule Is Lethal for Liver Cancer Cells in Mice: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/Lost_Molecule_is_Lethal_for_Liver_Cancer_Cells_In_Mice
Master Switches Found for Adult Blood Stem Cells: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/master_switches_found_for_adult_blood_stem_cells
Silencing Small but Mighty Cancer Inhibitors: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/Silencing_Small_but_Mighty_Cancer_Inhibitors
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]General Motors in modern times has never successfully sold a tiny car like the Chevy Spark in the United States. The Spark's success today, 26869 sales in its first 12 months, exceeds GM's initial expectations by as much as ...
June 24, 2013 ? For 220 million years they have roamed the seas, denizens of the bustling coral reef and the vast open ocean. Each year, some emerge from the pounding surf onto moonlit beaches to lay their eggs. Throughout human history, we have revered them, used them, and worked to protect them, but we have only begun to understand these ancient, iconic creatures. Now, with all five of the sea turtle species in the U.S. threatened or endangered, knowledge is more crucial than ever.
NOAA scientist Dr. Peter Dutton leads a team that's trying to answer some important questions about marine turtles. What will happen as sea levels rise, covering the nesting beaches turtles have used for hundreds of years? Which turtle laid this mysterious clutch of eggs on a remote beach? Where in the ocean do they mate, and how big is this population?
Thanks to a recent breakthrough in the genetics lab, Dutton and his colleagues have a clever way to find answers. Like detectives, they have learned that fingerprints help solve the puzzle?genetic fingerprints. For decades, most sea turtle studies and conservation efforts have focused on nesting females and hatchlings, because they're easiest for humans to access. Male sea turtles, which don't come ashore, are elusive characters.
Dutton's team has pioneered a technique that allows them to fill in the blanks using tiny DNA samples from nesting females and hatchlings. As Dutton and his colleague Dr. Kelly Stewart wrote in a recent article, "Hidden in a hatchling's DNA is its entire family history, including who its mother is, who its father is, and to what nesting population it belongs." (See: http://seaturtlestatus.org/sites/swot/files/report/030612_SWOT7_p12_Sea%20Turtle%20CSI.pdf)
This innovative tool is opening up new avenues in marine turtle conservation. Population recovery goals are based on how long turtles take to reach maturity, and genetic fingerprinting can help reveal this key piece of information, which may be different for each population. Dutton's team developed the technique while studying endangered leatherbacks on St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. In the last four years, they have sampled 20,353 hatchlings there, and discovered the genetic identity of the fathers, even when multiple males have sired a single clutch of eggs; how often individual turtles mate and their reproductive success; and the ratio of males to females among the breeding turtles.
On Padre Island National Seashore in Texas, critically endangered Kemp's ridley turtles have been leaving scattered nests along remote beaches, but females are often long gone by the time monitors find the nests. There, NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center and the National Park Service are using the technique to match mystery nests to mother turtles. Identifying who's nesting where and when, survival rate, and breeding success over many years will help us monitor this small population and gauge the impact of major events like disasters.
In the most surprising news yet, green turtles have begun nesting in the main Hawai'ian islands for the first time in generations. Green turtles, or honu, have nested in the remote Northwest Hawai'ian Islands, primarily on the quiet, low-lying beaches of French Frigate Shoals, a coral atoll about 500 miles from Honolulu.
Genetic fingerprinting shows that about 15 untagged females have become "founders" on the main Hawai'ian islands, boldly nesting where no one has nested before?at least not for hundreds of years. It's possible that this pioneer population could provide a kind of buffer as sea level rise threatens to shrink their traditional nesting beaches. Many questions remain, but for now science is giving turtles, and those who care about them, reason to hope.
June 24, 2013 ? New research shows that to prevent starvation at night, plants perform accurate arithmetic division. The calculation allows them to use up their starch reserves at a constant rate so that they run out almost precisely at dawn.
"This is the first concrete example in a fundamental biological process of such a sophisticated arithmetic calculation." said mathematical modeller Professor Martin Howard from the John Innes Centre.
Plants feed themselves during the day by using energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide into sugars and starch. Once the sun has set, they must depend on a store of starch to prevent starvation.
In research to be published in the open access journal eLife, scientists at the John Innes Centre show that plants make precise adjustments to their rate of starch consumption. These adjustments ensure that the starch store lasts until dawn even if the night comes unexpectedly early or the size of the starch store varies.
The John Innes Centre scientists show that to adjust their starch consumption so precisely they must be performing a mathematical calculation -- arithmetic division.
"The capacity to perform arithmetic calculation is vital for plant growth and productivity," said metabolic biologist Professor Alison Smith.
"Understanding how plants continue to grow in the dark could help unlock new ways to boost crop yield."
During the night, mechanisms inside the leaf measure the size of the starch store and estimate the length of time until dawn. Information about time comes from an internal clock, similar to our own body clock. The size of the starch store is then divided by the length of time until dawn to set the correct rate of starch consumption, so that, by dawn, around 95% of starch is used up.
"The calculations are precise so that plants prevent starvation but also make the most efficient use of their food," said Professor Smith.
"If the starch store is used too fast, plants will starve and stop growing during the night. If the store is used too slowly, some of it will be wasted."
The scientists used mathematical modelling to investigate how such a division calculation can be carried out inside a plant. They proposed that information about the size of the starch store and the time until dawn is encoded in the concentrations of two kinds of molecules (called S for starch and T for time). If the S molecules stimulate starch consumption, while the T molecules prevent this from happening, then the rate of starch consumption is set by the ratio of S molecules to T molecules, in other words S divided by T.
This research is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
Two Russian cosmonauts ventured outside the International Space Station today (June 24) to begin a six-hour spacewalk to test and upgrade systems on the orbiting lab's exterior.
Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and his crewmate Alexander Misurkin floated outside to begin their work at 9:32 a.m. EDT (1332 GMT). This is the sixth career spacewalk for Yurchikhin and Misurkin's first. So far, Yurchikhin has logged 31 hours and 52 minutes of spacewalk time.
You can?watch the spacewalk live on SPACE.com?courtesy of NASA TV now. Misurkin is in the blue striped suit and Yurchikhin is in red.?
"I'm excellent," Misurkin said as Yurchikhin joined him outside of the space station. "I'm ready to press on."
The cosmonauts are expected to test automatic docking cables in anticipation of a new Russian module scheduled to arrive at the station later this year. Misurkin and Yurchikhin also plan to install clamps that will hold cables from the station's U.S. side that will power the new module on the Russian portion of the laboratory.
They will also install handholds to aid in future spacewalks, retrieve experiments from the outside of the station and "replace a fluid flow control valve panel on the Zarya module," NASA officials said in a statement.
This is the first spacewalk since two NASA astronauts performed an unplanned emergency excursion to?fix an ammonia leak?on the outside of the space station in May. The spacewalk by Misurkin and Yurchikhin will mark the 169th in support of station care and construction.
The two cosmonauts are living and working on the space station along with NASA's Karen Nyberg and Chris Cassidy, European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano and Russia's Pavel Vinogradov.
The orbiting laboratory is about the size of a five bedroom house with the wingspan of a football field. The $100 billion?International Space Station?was built by five space agencies representing 15 countries. Construction began in 1998 and has been staffed with rotating crews of astronauts continuously since 2000.
Editor's Note: This is an updated version of an?earlier story about the spacewalk .?
Follow Miriam Kramer?@mirikramer?and?Google+. Follow us?@Spacedotcom,?Facebook?and?Google+. Original article on?SPACE.com.
Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
ISLAMABAD (AP) ? Islamic militants disguised as policemen killed 10 foreign climbers and a Pakistani guide in a brazen overnight raid against their campsite at the base of one of the world's tallest mountains in northern Pakistan, officials said Sunday.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack at the base camp of Nanga Parbat, saying it was to avenge the death of their deputy leader in a U.S. drone strike last month.
The attack took place in an area that has largely been peaceful, hundreds of kilometers (miles) from the Taliban's major sanctuaries along the Afghan border. But the militant group, which has been waging a bloody insurgency against the government for years, has shown it has the ability to strike almost anywhere in the country.
The Taliban began their attack by abducting two local guides to take them to the remote base camp in Gilgit-Baltisan, said Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. One of the guides was killed in the shooting, and the other has been detained for questioning. The attackers disguised themselves by wearing uniforms used by the Gilgit Scounts, a paramilitary force that patrols the area, Khan said.
Around 15 gunmen attacked the camp at around 11 p.m. Saturday, said the Alpine Club of Pakistan, which spoke with a local guide, Sawal Faqir, who survived the shooting. They began by beating the mountaineers and taking away any mobile and satellite phones they could find, as well as everyone's money, said the club in a statement.
Some climbers and guides were able to run away, but those that weren't were shot dead, said the club. Faqir was able to hide a satellite phone and eventually used it to notify authorities of the attack.
Attaur Rehman, the home secretary in Gilgit-Baltistan, said 10 foreigners and one Pakistani were killed in the attack. The dead foreigners included three Ukrainians, two Slovakians, two Chinese, one Lithuanian, one Nepalese and one Chinese-American, according to Rehman and tour operators who were working with the climbers. Matt Boland, the acting spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, confirmed that an American citizen was among the dead, but could not say whether it was a dual Chinese national.
The shooting ? one of the worst attacks on foreigners in Pakistan in recent years ? occurred in a stunning part of the country that has seen little violence against tourists, although it has experienced attacks by radical Sunni Muslims on minority Shiites in recent years.
Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed responsibility for the attack, saying their Jundul Hafsa faction carried out the shooting as retaliation for the death of the Taliban's deputy leader, Waliur Rehman, in a U.S. drone attack on May 29.
"By killing foreigners, we wanted to give a message to the world to play their role in bringing an end to the drone attacks," Ahsan told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.
The U.S. insists the CIA strikes primarily kill al-Qaida and other militants who threaten the West as well as efforts to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan. In a recent speech, President Barack Obama outlined tighter restrictions on the highly secretive program.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who wants to pursue peace talks with militants threatening his country, has insisted the U.S. stop the drone strikes, saying they violate Pakistan's sovereignty and are counterproductive because they often kill innocent civilians and stoke anti-U.S. sentiment in this nation of 180 million.
Sharif responded to the attack on the camp by vowing "such acts of cruelty and inhumanity would not be tolerated and every effort would be made to make Pakistan a safe place for tourists."
Officials expressed fear the attack would deal a serious blow to Pakistan's tourism industry, already struggling because of the high level of violence in the country.
The interior minister promised to take all measures to ensure the safety of tourists as he addressed the National Assembly, which passed a resolution condemning the incident.
"A lot of tourists come to this area in the summer, and our local people work to earn money from these people," said Syed Mehdi Shah, the chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan. "This will not only affect our area, but will adversely affect all of Pakistan."
He said the base camp was cordoned off by police and paramilitary soldiers after the attack, and a military helicopter searched the area.
Volodymyr Lakomov, the Ukrainian ambassador to Pakistan, also condemned the attack and said, "We hope Pakistani authorities will do their best to find the culprits of this crime."
Many foreign tourists stay away from Pakistan because of the country's reputation as being a dangerous place. But a relatively small number of intrepid foreigners visit Gilgit-Baltistan during the summer to marvel at the towering peaks in the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges, including K2, the second-highest mountain in the world.
An even smaller group tries to climb them. Nanga Parbat is over 8,000 meters (26,250 feet) tall and is notoriously difficult to summit. It is known as the "killer mountain" because of numerous mountaineering deaths in the past.
Pakistan has very close ties with neighboring China and is sensitive to any issue that could harm the relationship. Pakistani officials have reached out to representatives from China and Ukraine to convey their sympathies, the Foreign Ministry said.
The government suspended the chief secretary and top police chief in Gilgit-Baltistan following the attack and ordered an inquiry into the incident, said Khan, the interior minister.
The shooting was one of the worst attacks on foreigners in Pakistan in the last decade. A suicide attack outside a hotel in the southern city of Karachi killed 11 French engineers in 2002. In 2009, gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in the eastern city of Lahore, killing six Pakistani policemen, a driver and wounding several players.
___
Associated Press writer Rasool Dawar contributed to this report from Peshawar, Pakistan.
June 23, 2013 ? A new discovery about how cells move inside the body may provide scientists with crucial information about disease mechanisms such as the spread of cancer or the constriction of airways caused by asthma. Led by researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), investigators found that epithelial cells -- the type that form a barrier between the inside and the outside of the body, such as skin cells -- move in a group, propelled by forces both from within and from nearby cells -- to fill any unfilled spaces they encounter.
The study appears June 23, 2013 in an advance online edition of Nature Materials.
"We were trying to understand the basic relationship between collective cellular motions and collective cellular forces, as might occur during cancer cell invasion, for example. But in doing so we stumbled onto a phenomenon that was totally unexpected," said senior author Jeffrey Fredberg, professor of bioengineering and physiology in the HSPH Department of Environmental Health and co-senior investigator of HSPH's Molecular and Integrative Cellular Dynamics lab.
Biologists, engineers, and physicists from HSPH and IBEC worked together to shed light on collective cellular motion because it plays a key role in functions such as wound healing, organ development, and tumor growth. Using a technique called monolayer stress microscopy -- which they invented themselves -- they measured the forces affecting a single layer of moving epithelial cells. They examined the cells' velocity and direction as well as traction -- how some cells either pull or push themselves and thus force collective movement.
As they expected, the researchers found that when an obstacle was placed in the path of an advancing cell layer -- in this case, a gel that provided no traction -- the cells moved around it, tightly hugging the sides of the gel as they passed. However, the researchers also found something surprising -- that the cells, in addition to moving forward, continued to pull themselves collectively back toward the gel, as if yearning to fill the unfilled space. The researchers dubbed this movement "kenotaxis," from the Greek words "keno" (vacuum) and "taxis" (arrangement), because it seemed the cells were attempting to fill a vacuum.
This new finding could help researchers better understand cell behavior -- and evaluate potential drugs to influence that behavior -- in a variety of complex diseases, such as cancer, asthma, cardiovascular disease, developmental abnormalities, and glaucoma. The finding could also help with tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, both of which rely on cell migration.
In carcinomas, for instance -- which represent 90% of all cancers and involve epithelial cells -- the new information on cell movement could improve understanding of how cancer cells migrate through the body. Asthma research could also get a boost, because scientists think migration of damaged epithelial cells in the lungs are involved in the airway narrowing caused by the disease.
"Kenotaxis is a property of the cellular collective, not the individual cell," said Jae Hun Kim, the study's first author. "It was amazing to us that the cellular collective can organize to pull itself systematically in one direction while moving systematically in an altogether different direction."
"Meet the Press" moderator David Gregory had a heated exchange with Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald on Sunday, during which?Gregory asked Greenwald, point blank, if he should be charged with a crime for his role in publishing leaked classified documents from NSA leaker Edward Snowden.
"To the extent that you have aided and abetted Snowden," Gregory said, "even in his current movements, why shouldn't you, Mr. Greenwald, be charged with a crime?"
"I think it's pretty extraordinary that anybody who would call themselves a journalist would publicly muse about whether or not other journalists should be charged with felonies," Greenwald responded.?
"The assumption in your question, David, is completely without evidence ? the idea that I've 'aided and abetted' him in any way."
Greenwald accused Gregory of advocating a position that has touched off some controversy in recent weeks with the Obama administration and leak investigations. Greenwald pointed to the Justice Department's obtaining of Associated Press reporters' phone records and its investigation involving Fox News reporter James Rosen.
"The scandal that arose in Washington before our stories began was about the fact that the Obama administration is trying to criminalize investigative journalism ? by going through the emails and phone records of AP reporters, accusing a Fox News journalist of the theory you just embraced ? being a 'co-conspirator.'"
Here's the clip:
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FILE - In this June 21, 2013 file photo, a banner supporting Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, is displayed at Central, Hong Kong's business district. The Hong Kong government says Snowden wanted by the U.S. for revealing two highly classified surveillance programs has left for a "third country." The South China Morning Post reported Sunday, June 23, 2013 that Snowden was on a plane for Moscow, but that Russia was not his final destination. Snowden has talked of seeking asylum in Iceland. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
FILE - In this June 21, 2013 file photo, a banner supporting Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, is displayed at Central, Hong Kong's business district. The Hong Kong government says Snowden wanted by the U.S. for revealing two highly classified surveillance programs has left for a "third country." The South China Morning Post reported Sunday, June 23, 2013 that Snowden was on a plane for Moscow, but that Russia was not his final destination. Snowden has talked of seeking asylum in Iceland. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
HONG KONG (AP) ? A former National Security Agency contractor wanted by the United States for revealing two highly classified surveillance programs has been allowed to leave for a "third country" because a U.S. extradition request did not fully comply with Hong Kong law, the territory's government said Sunday.
A statement from the government did not identify the country, but the South China Morning Post, which has been in contact with Edward Snowden, reported that he was on a plane for Moscow, but that Russia was not his final destination.
Snowden, who has been in hiding in Hong Kong for several weeks since he revealed information on the highly classified spy programs, has talked of seeking asylum in Iceland.
Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency, citing an unidentified Aeroflot official, said Snowden would fly from Moscow to Cuba on Monday and then take a flight to Caracas, Venezuela.
Snowden's departure came a day after the United States made a formal request for his extradition and warned Hong Kong against delaying the process of returning him to face trial in the U.S.
The Hong Kong government said Snowden left "on his own accord for a third country through a lawful and normal channel."
It acknowledged the U.S. extradition request, but said U.S. documentation did not "fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law." It said additional information was requested from Washington, but since the Hong Kong government "has yet to have sufficient information to process the request for provisional warrant of arrest, there is no legal basis to restrict Mr. Snowden from leaving Hong Kong."
The statement said Hong Kong had informed the U.S. of Snowden's departure. It added that it wanted more information about alleged hacking of computer systems in Hong Kong by U.S. government agencies which Snowden had revealed.
Snowden's departure eliminates a possible fight between Washington and Beijing at a time when China is trying to deflect U.S. accusations that it carries out extensive surveillance of American government and commercial operations. Hong Kong, a former British colony, has a high degree of autonomy and is granted rights and freedoms not seen on mainland China, but under the city's mini constitution Beijing is allowed to intervene in matters involving defense and diplomatic affairs.
Hong Kong has an extradition treaty with the U.S., but the document has some exceptions, including for crimes deemed political.
The Obama administration on Saturday warned Hong Kong against delaying Snowden's extradition, with White House national security adviser Tom Donilon saying in an interview with CBS News, "Hong Kong has been a historically good partner of the United States in law enforcement matters, and we expect them to comply with the treaty in this case."
Snowden's departure came as the South China Morning Post released new allegations from Snowden that U.S. hacking targets in China included the nation's cellphone companies and two universities hosting extensive Internet traffic hubs.
He told the newspaper that "the NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cellphone companies to steal all of your SMS data." It added that Snowden said he had documents to support the hacking allegations, but the report did not identify the documents. It said he spoke to the newspaper in a June 12 interview.
With a population of more than 1.3 billion, China has massive cellphone companies. China Mobile is the world's largest mobile network carrier with 735 million subscribers, followed by China Unicom with 258 million users and China Telecom with 172 million users.
Snowden said Tsinghua University in Beijing and Chinese University in Hong Kong, home of some of the country's major Internet traffic hubs, were targets of extensive hacking by U.S. spies this year. He said the NSA was focusing on so-called "network backbones" in China, through which enormous amounts of Internet data passes.
The Chinese government has not commented on the extradition request and Snowden's departure, but its state-run media have used Snowden's allegations to poke back at Washington after the U.S. had spent the past several months pressuring China on its international spying operations.
A commentary published Sunday by the official Xinhua News Agency said Snowden's disclosures of U.S. spying activities in China have "put Washington in a really awkward situation."
"Washington should come clean about its record first. It owes ... an explanation to China and other countries it has allegedly spied on," it said. "It has to share with the world the range, extent and intent of its clandestine hacking programs."
One fighter got back on the winning track while another decided to end his career at Bellator's summer debut on Wednesday night.
Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal was knocked out in his last Bellator fight, which was a surprising result for the onetime Strikeforce champ. Wednesday's fight with Seth Petruzelli was his first fight since then, and he came back with a memorable knockout.
Lawal wrestled Petruzelli to the ground, then finished the fight at 1:35 in the first round with a huge right hook. He needed just one punch to knock Petruzelli out. Lawal will move on in Bellator's light heavyweight tournament to fight Jacob Noe.
"It's kind of highly emotional for me to talk about this right now, but I think maybe I've been in the cage more than everybody in this room here," he said. "I lived the life. That's what I want to say. I have no regrets. I was happy to help this sport grow."
Noe earned his spot in the semifinals with a win over Strikeforce and UFC veteran Renato "Babalu" Sobral. He lost in a third-round, standing TKO, then announced his retirement from MMA.
Babalu finished his career with a record of 37-11. He started fighting in 1997, and fought in Brazilians promotions and Rings before fighting at UFC 28. Sobral fought such fighters as Fedor Emelianenko and Chuck Liddell.
One of the more memorable moments of Sobral's career was at UFC 74. Sobral submitted David Heath with an anaconda choke, but wouldn't break the hold when first instructed to by the ref. He was later cut from the UFC and fined by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for his wrongdoing.
Sobral then went to Strikeforce and won the light heavyweight championship before losing it to Gegard Mousasi. He also fought in One FC, and then Bellator before he hung up his MMA gloves.
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:
1. BRAZIL CABINET TO MEET AFTER PROTESTS GROW VIOLENT
About 1 million people rallied in more than 80 cities as Confederations Cup games began; one protester was killed and least 40 were hurt.
2. EDGY INVESTORS WATCH WALL STREET
Asian stock markets fell today and the Dow had its biggest drop of the year yesterday over concerns about the Fed's plans to cut its stimulus program.
3. KEY IMMIGRATION COMPROMISE REACHED
The Senate agreed on a military-style surge to secure the U.S.-Mexican border, boosting momentum for passage of the overhaul.
4. OBAMA NAMING NEW FBI DIRECTOR
James Comey was George W. Bush's No. 2 at the Justice Department, known for a 2004 standoff with the White house over warrantless wiretapping programs.
5. WATCHDOG BLAMES FIRM THAT CLEARED NSA LEAKER
An inspector general says the company that conducted Edward Snowden's background check is under investigation.
6. WHO ISN'T ON GEORGE ZIMMERMAN'S JURY
Men. Most of the six women picked to hear the racially charged murder trial are white.
7. CANADA FLOODS WASH CARS AND FURNITURE AWAY
As many as 100,000 people face evacuation, and waters that caused mudslides and closed the Trans-Canada Highway were rising.
8. CLEARING THE HAZE IN SINGAPORE
Indonesia has sent planes and helicopters to tamp down forest fires that are blamed for Singapore's three days of record-high air pollution.
9. WHY CRITICS SAY MAINE GOVERNOR HAS GONE TOO FAR
Paul LePage, who once told NAACP leaders to "kiss my butt," on Thursday used a sexually vulgar phrase to describe how he thinks a lawmaker is taking advantage of people.
10. CHAMPIONS AGAIN
LeBron James' 37 points led the Heat to a 95-88 Game 7 win over San Antonio and Miami's second straight championship.
LONDON (AP) ? British visual artist and filmmaker Sam Taylor-Johnson has been signed to direct the movie version of erotic best-seller "50 Shades of Grey," producers have announced.
Taylor-Johnson, whose only previous feature was the 2009 John Lennon biopic "Nowhere Boy," promised she would "honor the power" of the book, which has sold millions of copies and spawned countless imitators.
The announcement was made Wednesday by Universal Pictures and Focus Features. Producer Michael De Luca said Taylor-Johnson's "unique ability to gracefully showcase complex relationships dealing with love, emotion and sexual chemistry make her the ideal director" for the story of the S&M-tinged romance between a young student and an enigmatic billionaire.
"50 Shades" author E.L. James tweeted that she was "delighted and thrilled" by the choice.
The 46-year-old director, previously known as Sam Taylor-Wood, is one of Britain's best-known visual artists. Her works include a video portrait of David Beckham sleeping that hangs in London's National Portrait Gallery. She also made "Crying Men," a compilation of Hollywood actors in tears.
In 2012 she married "Kick-Ass" star Aaron Johnson, whom she met when he played the young Lennon in "Nowhere Boy." Both adopted the surname Taylor-Johnson.
Bristol Community College plans to begin offering daytime classes in Taunton this fall.
The Taunton School Committee voted 7-1 Wednesday to allow Superintendent Julie Hackett?s administration to move forward with a plan to allow BCC to use space at the Cohannet School building.
?Taunton has a critical need for access to higher education in the city,? BCC President John J. Sbrega said. ?Taunton has always been an important part of our service area, and while we have provided direct services in the evening, it is clear from city officials and business leaders that there are residents who can benefit from college courses during the day. We are happy to serve those students.?
The community college plans to offer daytime general education courses in English, math, history and behavioral sciences at Cohannet in the fall. The credits from the courses will be able to be applied to any degree or certificate program, according to the college. Developmental courses will also be offered for students who need to improve their skills before doing college-level coursework.
?This is the start of bringing an institution of higher learning to downtown for all the citizens of Taunton,? School Committee member David Souza said.
The news comes just two weeks after Boston-based Bay State College got approval to relocate its Middleboro satellite to Myles Standish Industrial Park in Taunton.
BCC has a main campus in Fall River and satellites in New Bedford and Attleboro. The community college currently offers evening courses in Taunton at Friedman Middle School.
Cohannet, which was originally a middle school then served as the temporary home of Taunton District Court, currently houses Taunton?s alternative high school.
?We haven?t worked out any details,? Hackett said. ?What we would be talking about for a September start date would be a couple courses at a time. We?d have a small impact to begin with, then see how it goes.?
Josephine Almeida, who cast the lone vote opposing the plan to bring BCC to Cohannet in the fall, raised concerns about community college students and alternative high school students being in the building at the same time. She also said she thinks Cohannet School should be the future home of the superintendent?s office and central administration.
?I think BCC is a wonderful program, however, I don?t think September is the time to start it at Cohannet,? Almeida said.
Almeida complained that the School Committee hasn?t been given time to thoroughly discuss the proposal.
?There?s an old adage that you strike while the iron is hot. As far as I?m concerned the iron is hot right now,? Christine Fagan said. ?We should seize the opportunity here. It doesn?t come around very often that a high school can partner with a community college of BCC?s stature.?
Preliminary plans call for the a total of four classes to be offered, no more than two at any given time in the day. The classes, Hackett said, would end in the morning before the alternative high school?s day begins.
Sbrega credited state Sen. Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton, Mayor Thomas Hoye Jr. and Hackett for working to help launch the BCC day program.
?It?s going to be a tremendous shot in the arm for Taunton?s economic development and a great opportunity for students who may not have enjoyed those opportunities,? he said.
According to BCC?s enrollment data, approximately 10 percent of its 12,000 students are from the Greater Taunton area. Sbrega expects to see that number spike once day classes are established in the city, mirroring a trend he saw when the community college established programs in New Bedford and Attleboro.
?This is a great partnership with the city and with Bristol Community College, and it?s a great opportunity for our students,? Hackett said.
June 19, 2013 ? Differences between Martian meteorites and rocks examined by a NASA rover can be explained if Mars had an oxygen-rich atmosphere 4000 million years ago -- well before the rise of atmospheric oxygen on Earth 2500m years ago.
Scientists from Oxford University investigated the compositions of Martian meteorites found on Earth and data from NASA's 'Spirit' rover that examined surface rocks in the Gusev crater on Mars. The fact that the surface rocks are five times richer in nickel than the meteorites was puzzling and had cast doubt on whether the meteorites are typical volcanic products of the red planet.
'What we have shown is that both meteorites and surface volcanic rocks are consistent with similar origins in the deep interior of Mars but that the surface rocks come from a more oxygen-rich environment, probably caused by recycling of oxygen-rich materials into the interior,' said Professor Bernard Wood, of Oxford University's Department of Earth Sciences, who led the research reported in this week's Nature.
'This result is surprising because while the meteorites are geologically 'young', around 180 million to 1400 million years old, the Spirit rover was analysing a very old part of Mars, more than 3700 million years old.'
Whilst it is possible that the geological composition of Mars varies immensely from region to region the researchers believe that it is more likely that the differences arise through a process known as subduction -- in which material is recycled into the interior. They suggest that the Martian surface was oxidised very early in the history of the planet and that, through subduction, this oxygen-rich material was drawn into the shallow interior and recycled back to the surface during eruptions 4000 million years ago. The meteorites, by contrast, are much younger volcanic rocks that emerged from deeper within the planet and so were less influenced by this process.
Professor Wood said: 'The implication is that Mars had an oxygen-rich atmosphere at a time, about 4000 million years ago, well before the rise of atmospheric oxygen on earth around 2500 million years ago. As oxidation is what gives Mars its distinctive colour it is likely that the 'red planet' was wet, warm and rusty billions of years before Earth's atmosphere became oxygen rich.'
June 19, 2013 ? The smaller components become, the more difficult it is to create patterns in an economical and reproducible way, according to an interdisciplinary team of Penn State researchers who, using sound waves, can place nanowires in repeatable patterns for potential use in a variety of sensors, optoelectronics and nanoscale circuits.
"There are ways to create these devices with lithography, but it is very hard to create patterns below 50 nanometers using lithography," said Tony Jun Huang, associate professor of engineering science and mechanics, Penn State. "It is rather simple now to make metal nanomaterials using synthetic chemistry. Our process allows pattern transfer of arrays of these nanomaterials onto substrates that might not be compatible with conventional lithography. For example, we could make networks of wires and then pattern them to arrays of living cells."
The researchers looked at the placement of metallic nanowires in solution on a piezoelectric substrate. Piezoelectric materials move when an electric voltage is applied to them and create an electric voltage when compressed.
In this case, the researchers applied an alternating current to the substrate so that the material's movement creates a standing surface acoustic wave in the solution. A standing wave has node locations that do not move, so the nanowires arrive at these nodes and remain there.
If the researchers apply only one current, then the nanowires form a one-dimensional array with the nanowires lined up head to tail in parallel rows. If perpendicular currents are used, a two-dimensional grid of standing waves forms and the nanowires move to those grid-point nodes and form a three-dimensional spark-like pattern.
"Because the pitch of both the one-dimensional and two-dimensional structures is sensitive to the frequency of the standing surface acoustic wave field, this technique allows for the patterning of nanowires with tunable spacing and density," the researchers report in a recent issue of ACS Nano.
The nanowires in solution will settle inplace onto the substrate when the solution evaporates, preserving the pattern. The researchers note that the patterned nanowires could then be transferred to organic polymer substrates with good accuracy by placing the polymer onto the top of the nanowires and with slight pressure, transferring the nanowires. They suggest that the nanowires could then be transferred to rigid or flexible substrates from the organic polymer using microcontact-printing techniques that are well developed.
"We really think our technique can be extremely powerful," said Huang. "We can tune the pattern to the configuration we want and then transfer the nanowires using a polymer stamp."
The spacing of the nodes where nanowires deposit can be adjusted on the fly by changing the frequency and the interaction between the two electric fields.
"This would save a lot of time compared to lithography or other static fabrication methods," said Huang.
The researchers are currently investigating more complex designs.
The National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and the Penn State Center for Nanoscale Science supported this research.
If you had your heart set on getting back some of the data you had stored on Megaupload, now would be a good time to stop hoping. According to Kim Dotcom, petabytes of user data have already been deleted off old Megaupload servers. Thousands of pirated movies cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
iMore's guide to the best, most reliable, and most widely used cross-platform messaging apps that are available for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone.
What will it take to get every app on every platform? That's the question we're asking on Talk Mobile today. When it comes to messaging solutions, there's definitely some fragmentation present. Odds are you have friends that don't have iPhones, but Androids or BlackBerries instead. Since iMessage is exclusive to iOS and OS X, you'll have to find another option to communicate with friends and family on other platforms. While texting is always a viable option domestically, international messaging is still an issue for many.
Here are the messaging apps we think you should check out if you need a better way to communicate with all the Android, BlackBerry, and WindowsPhone users out there.
Facebook Messenger
If you use Facebook and all your other friends do, Facebook Messenger is an easy and convenient way to converse with friends and family either over WiFi or over the cellular network. Facebook Messenger is a separate app download outside of the regular Facebook app and focuses strictly on messaging.
With support for push notifications, group conversations, and more, it's a message option that your friends are most likely already tied into. Facebook Messenger is currently available for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry.
Whatsapp has been around for quite a while and provides an easy and free way to send messages. With over 200 million registered Whatsapp users, you may find more people using it than you think. Whatsapp is also available for a broad number of platforms including iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, Nokia S40, and Symbian. That should about cover any platforms you need to.
Whatsapp also supports unlimited group messaging as well as unlimited audio, video, and photo sharing. It's also got a pretty nice interface which is an added bonus.
Skype is one of the most widely used platforms on the internet when it comes to audio and video conferencing with over 300 million registered users to date. Let's also not forget that it has pretty good messaging capabilities built right in. Recent updates have also given it a pretty clean and elegant interface as well. Skype also comes equipped with push notifications so you know you're receiving your messages when you need to.
Skype to Skype messaging will be free, anywhere in the world. Skype has apps available for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone.
Kik has been around for quite some time and has a user base of over 50 million users. The thing I really like about Kik is the user interface. It's clean and easy to navigate. Push notifications are super fast and it can automatically pull in anyone you know that's already using Kik, just like Whatsapp can.
Kik may not have as many users as some of the other big guys but it's still a very viable alternative if you don't fancy any of the others and can convince your friends Kik is the way to go. Kik has apps for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and Ovi. It's worth noting that the BlackBerry version of the app is not supported by RIM and will need to be downloaded on its own.
Piip is another cross-platform messaging option that a lot of people forget about. It's got support for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, and Windows Phone as well as many other devices. While I prefer the interface and design of apps like Skype and Kik better, Piip is also very good at what it does and has a pretty large user base as well.
Piip features include unlimited sending of group messages, message status reports, and photo, video, and audio sharing. Much like the other guys, Piip does what it says it does, and does it well.
BlackBerry Messenger isn't out for iPhone and Android just yet but should be later this summer. RIM has a stellar track record with BBM and it's a service many BlackBerry users past have sorely missed when migrating to other platforms.
We're sure BlackBerry Messenger will be a crowd favorite once it's officially launched for iPhone and Android. If you have a lot of friends using BlackBerries, you'll have instant access to them the minute you download BBM. We'll have a more thorough review of the service as soon as its available later in the summer.
Coming soon
SMS messaging
If you're only concerned about sending messages within your home country and don't have a need for international texting, regular SMS may be the best option and it's something that comes equipped on every smartphone nowadays. Not only that, most carriers now bundle unlimited text messages with shared data plans which makes it more attainable than before.
If none of the apps above catch your fancy or you can't get all your friends to jump on board with only one cross-platform messaging solution, native SMS may be the safest bet across the board.
Your picks?
What do you use for either cross-platform messaging or to send international text messages as a cheaper alternative to native SMS? These are some of our favorites but we know, you the readers, find some great ones on your own as well. Let us know in the comments!
WASHINGTON (AP) ? States can't demand proof of citizenship from people registering to vote in federal elections unless they get federal or court approval to do so, the Supreme Court ruled Monday in a decision complicating efforts in Arizona and other states to bar voting by people who are in the country illegally.
The justices' 7-2 ruling closes the door on states independently changing the requirements for those using the voter-registration form produced under the federal "motor voter" registration law. They would need permission from a federally created panel, the Election Assistance Commission, or a federal court ruling overturning the commission's decision, to make tougher requirements stick.
Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote the court's majority opinion, said federal law "precludes Arizona from requiring a federal form applicant to submit information beyond that required by the form itself."
Voting rights advocates welcomed the ruling.
"Today's decision sends a strong message that states cannot block their citizens from registering to vote by superimposing burdensome paperwork requirements on top of federal law," said Nina Perales, vice president of litigation for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "The Supreme Court has affirmed that all U.S. citizens have the right to register to vote using the national postcard, regardless of the state in which they live."
Under Proposition 200 approved in 2004, Arizona officials required an Arizona driver's license issued after 1996, a U.S. birth certificate, a passport or other similar document before the state would approve the federal registration application. It can no longer do that on its own authority.
Less than 5 percent of people registering to vote in Arizona use the federal form, said Matt Roberts, a spokesman for Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett. The rest register through the state, meaning they will continue to be asked to provide proof of citizenship when signing up to vote.
But because of the court ruling, people can merely choose the less onerous federal form, which asks people to swear if they are citizens or not, but does not demand proof.
Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, who argued the case before the Supreme Court, expects the state will ask the Election Assistance Commission to approve the citizenship proof on the federal form and to fight any denial in court ? the process laid out in Monday's ruling.
"The U.S. Supreme Court has given us a clear path to victory for the people of Arizona, who overwhelmingly approved the state constitutional amendment that was the subject of the legal challenge," Horne said. "Since the U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear that this pathway exists, Arizona should use it. The sanctity of the ballot box is a cherished right for all Americans and it must be protected."
Federal officials deadlocked on Arizona's request in 2005, and the state did not appeal.
In other actions Monday, the court:
?Ruled that agreements between the makers of name-brand and generic drugs to delay the generics' availability can be illegal and challenged in court.
?Ruled that prosecutors in some instances may use a suspect's silence at an early stage of a criminal investigation against him or her, before the suspect has been arrested or informed of constitutional rights.
?Agreed to decide in its next term a new dispute involving race; specifically, whether federal housing law requires proof of intentional discrimination.
The Arizona case is the first of two major voting decisions to be made by the court this month. Justices have yet to say whether a section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a law that has helped millions of minorities exercise their right to vote, especially in areas of the Deep South, was still needed, despite several justices voicing deep skepticism during arguments in February.
Arizona has tangled frequently with the federal government over immigration issues involving the Mexican border, health care and more. But the decision on voter registration has broader implications because other states have similar requirements, such as Alabama, Georgia, Kansas and Tennessee, and still others are contemplating such legislation.
Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp called the decision disappointing but said he would continue working with state officials to "provide a safe, secure and legal system for voter registration."
Tom Caso, a professor at Chapman University School of Law in California and supporter of the Arizona law, said the decision "opened the door" to noncitizen voting.
"The court's decision ignores the clear dictates of the Constitution in favor of bureaucratic red tape," Caso said. "The notion that the court will not enforce the Constitution unless you first apply to a commission that cannot act because it has no members is mind-boggling."
Currently, the Election Assistance Commission has no active commissioners. The four commissioners are supposed to be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The last two left in 2011, according to the panel's website.
Kathy McKee, who led the push to get Proposition 200 on the ballot in Arizona, said the ruling makes it harder to combat voter fraud, including fraud carried out by people who don't have permission to be in the country. "To even suggest that the honor system works, really?" McKee said. "You have to prove who you are just to use your charge card now."
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito were the only two dissenters. Alito said the decision means that Arizona now has two voter registration systems, and that the success of an applicant could come simply by the system he or she chooses. "I find it very hard to believe that this is what Congress had in mind," he said.
Opponents of Arizona's law saw it as an attack on vulnerable voter groups such as minorities, immigrants and the elderly. They say they've counted more than 31,000 potentially legal voters in Arizona who easily could have registered before Proposition 200 but were blocked by the state law in the 20 months after it passed. They say about 20 percent of those thwarted were Latino.
Arizona officials say they should be able to pass laws to stop noncitizens from getting on their voting rolls. The Arizona voting law was part of a package that also denied some government benefits to people in the country illegally and required Arizonans to show identification before voting.
Arizona can ask the federal government to include the extra documents as a state-specific requirement, Scalia said, and challenge any adverse decision by the government in court. Louisiana's request already has been granted, Scalia said.
The ruling upholds one by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which said the 1993 National Voter Registration Act of 1993 trumps Arizona's Proposition 200.
The case is 12-71, Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc.
___
Associated Press writer Jacques Billeaud contributed to this story from Phoenix.
___
Follow Jesse J. Holland on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jessejholland
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Public release date: 26-Jun-2013
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One fighter got back on the winning track while another decided to end his career at Bellator's summer debut on Wednesday night.
