Year: 2014

Joshua Drabek, 20, was convicted by a Dane County jury on February 21 of first degree sexual assault of a child without great bodily harm, second degree sexual assault of a child and child abuse-intentionally causing harm, according to court records. Drabek was accused of forcing her to engage in oral sex and trying to have intercourse with her, according to a criminal compliant. The girl’s father, Chad Chritton, 42, and his wife Melinda Drabek-Chritton, 44, who is Drabek’s mother, were sentenced to five years in prison each in the case.

CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) — As deaths from heroin and powerful painkillers skyrocket nationwide, governments and clinics are working to put a drug that can reverse an opiate overdose into the hands of more paramedics, police officers and the people advocates say are the most critical group — people who abuse drugs, and their friends and families.

By Susan Heavey WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid accused the billionaire Koch brothers on Wednesday of being 'un-American" for spreading headline-grabbing "lies" about President Barack Obama's healthcare law. Speaking on the floor of the Senate, the Nevada Democrat blasted ads by Americans for Prosperity, a political advocacy group backed by David and Charles Koch. Koch Industries Inc, the brothers' oil and gas conglomerate, fired back, saying the Kochs were not responsible for the ad by Americans for Prosperity and calling Reid's remarks "disgraceful." In its statement, Koch Industries said: "It is disgraceful that Senator Reid and his fellow Democrats are attacking a cancer victim as part of their campaign against Charles Koch and David Koch." Americans for Prosperity also struck back at Reid, saying in a statement: "Instead of admitting that the health care law is a bad deal for Americans, Senator Reid has chosen to attack the brave men and women who are sharing their personal stories about ObamaCare." The ad scored "two Pinocchios" out of a possible four by the Washington Post's fact checker Glenn Kessler, who said the commercial did not give a full accounting comparing the patient's old plan with a new one.

By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks finished flat on Wednesday with investors hesitant to make a big move on the day before comments from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, though retailers' shares rallied on results for a second day. Target Corp and Lowe's Cos Inc shares jumped following upbeat earnings and gave the biggest boosts to the S&P 500.

A DNA test of a pregnant woman's blood is more accurate than current methods of screening for Down syndrome and other common disorders, new research finds. If other studies bear this out, it could transform prenatal care by giving a more reliable, non-invasive way to detect these problems very early in pregnancy.

BERLIN (AP) — Cannabis use likely triggered fatal complications that led to the deaths of two men with underlying health conditions, according to scientists in Germany.

By Barbara Goldberg NEW YORK (Reuters) – Young men wearing pork-pie hats, knitted snoods and stylishly drab clothing are crowding doctors' waiting rooms in a burgeoning trend: Brooklyn hipsters seeking beard transplants. Toting photos of perpetually scruffy-faced actors like Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Gosling, an increasing number of men in their late 20s to early 40s are undergoing the procedure that can cost up to $7,000, Yael Halaas, MD, a facial plastic surgeon based in Manhattan said on Wednesday. "The demand for it has definitely increased," agreed Jeffrey Epstein, MD, a New York facial plastic surgeon who said he did 175 beard transplant procedures in 2013. "One reason is that whole hipster, casual way people like to look." Demand for the out-patient procedure completed under local anesthesia, which involves transplanting hair from the top of the head to the face, is growing quickly among those living in Brooklyn's coolest neighborhoods.

CHICAGO (AP) — Government research links indoor tanning by teenagers with other risks including binge drinking, unhealthy dieting and sexual activity.

Only preschool-age children show signs of a turnaround, with their obesity rates nearly halved in the same period, according to a new federal study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “The rapid increase in obesity we saw in the ’80s and ’90s has definitely slowed,” epidemiologist Cynthia Ogden told Reuters Health. “There’s some glimmer of hope in the new data in relation to the 2 to 5 year olds.” Ogden, a branch chief at the National Center for Health Statistics in Rockville, Maryland, a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is lead author of the new study. Obesity rates among 2 to 5 year old Americans dropped from 13.9 percent to 8.4 percent between 2003 and 2012, her team reports.