Category Archives: Transhuman News

WASHINGTON Prominent Democrat, gay rights activist and Obama donor Terry Bean is taking a leave of absence from his post at the Human Rights Campaign after being arrested and indicted on two counts of third-degree sodomy and third-degree sexual abuse with a teenage boy.

Bean and his 25-year-old former boyfriend, Kiah Lawson, allegedly used the iPhone app Grindr to arrange a sexual encounter with a 15-year-old boy in a Eugene, Oregon hotel on Sept. 27, 2013.

Bean has donated almost $70,000 of his own money to Obamas campaign and was responsible for raising at least a half million dollars during the 2012 election cycle.

Obama has publicly thanked Bean for his campaign contributions.

"I want to thank somebody who put so much work into this event, Terry Bean, Obama said during a July 23, 2012 event in Portland. Give Terry a big round of applause.

Beans attorney, Kristen Winemiller, said his client is the victim of an extortion ring, and has stressed that no allegations against Terry Bean should be taken at face value. We look forward to the opportunity to clear his name."

The Human Rights Campaign announced Bean was taking a break from his work there.

Terry Bean has taken a voluntary leave of absence from the HRC boarduntil his issues are resolved. Bean is just one of 80 board members,none of whom have daily oversight or responsibility for any of ourprograms, spokesman Fred Sainz said in a statement.

Beans name has been dropped from the HRC Board of Directors listing because he is not currently an active member.

Bean made a political appeal to HRCs membership during an Oct. 8, 2008 fundraising dinner in 2008, saying, the election of Joe Biden and Barack Obama may turn out to be the most pivotal moment in our journey for equality."

The rest is here:
Obama fundraiser, donor facing sex abuse charges

The Washtenaw ISD Board of Education voted unanimously at their Nov. 25 meeting to hire Cassandra Harmon-Higgins as the WISD executive director of human resources.

She will transition into her new post by mid-December.

Harmon-Higgins currently serves as the interim superintendent of Howell Public Schools and has been the executive director of labor relations for that district since 2012.

She anticipates joining the WISD staff.

I am honored to be selected for the position and genuinely excited to become a part of the WISD team, Harmon-Higgins said.

Harmon-Higgins has practiced law with the Access to Justice Legal Assistance Center, law firm Ramey & Associates P.C. and served as in-house counsel for Michigan AFSCME Council 25, AFL-CIO.

She earned her undergraduate degree from Florida A&M University, her masters from Florida Atlantic University and her law degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing. Washtenaw ISD Supt. Scott Menzel said Harmon-Higgins possesses the expertise that the agency was seeking and believes she is the right fit for the position.

Cassandra comes to us with a wealth of legal and educational expertise and is the ideal candidate for the human resources position, Menzel said. We warmly welcome her to the team and Im confident she will be a strong asset to our agency and to our constituent districts.

Kristen Clark has served as Washtenaw ISDs executive director of human resources since 2012. She is leaving in early December to accept a position as director of classified personnel with the Newport-Mesa Unified School District in Orange County, California.

Source:Washtenaw ISDpress release

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Washtenaw ISD hires new executive director of human resources

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

25-Nov-2014

Contact: Lee-Ann Donegan leeann.donegan@uphs.upenn.edu 215-349-5660 University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine @PennMedNews

PHILADELPHIA - New Penn Medicine research has found that elevated levels in the blood of the brain-enriched protein calpain-cleaved II-spectrin N-terminal fragment, known as SNTF, shortly after sports-related concussion can predict the severity of post-concussion symptoms in professional athletes. The complete findings were released today in the Journal of Neurotrauma.

This new study builds on previous research from this group showing that elevated blood levels of SNTF on the day of a mild traumatic brain injury treated in the emergency room predicted those patients who would go on to suffer diffuse axonal injury and long-term cognitive dysfunction.

"We extended this biomarker research to the domain of professional sports to test its merit as an objective and rapid way to determine players' severity of brain injury," says lead author, Robert Siman, PhD, Research Professor of Neurosurgery at Penn. "This blood test may aid neurobiologically-informed decisions on suitability for return to play following a sports-related concussion."

The study, conducted in collaboration with Henrik Zetterberg, MD, PhD and Kai Blennow, MD, PhD, of the Sahgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and their colleagues, enrolled 288 players in the top Swedish professional ice hockey league. Each of the 28 players who suffered a concussion during the first half of the 2012-2013 season received serial blood draws and was evaluated daily for symptom resolution using the latest guidelines for treatment of sports concussions. Eight of the concussed players were symptom-free within a few days of their injury, but 20 of the players had persistent post-concussion symptoms requiring they be withheld from play six days or longer. An additional 45 players were evaluated during the preseason, 17 of whom were also tested before and after a concussion-free training game.

Compared to those players who were not concussed, or whose concussion symptoms resolved rapidly, the researchers found an increase in the blood SNTF concentration from one hour up to 144 hours post-concussion in those players experiencing persisting post-concussion symptoms. SNTF is a protein that is present at undetectable levels in healthy human brains, but is produced under conditions where nerve cells are traumatized and begin to die. Concussions that lead to lasting brain dysfunction cause SNTF to accumulate in vulnerable long axon tracts of the brain, and its blood elevation is a measure of this diffuse axonal injury.

"These results show that SNTF has promise as a blood biomarker for sports-related concussion and beyond. High blood levels of SNTF appear to identify acute brain damage that corresponds with persisting symptoms after concussion. These observations lend further support to the growing awareness that concussion is not trivial, since it can induce permanent brain damage in some individuals," agree Siman and senior author, Douglas H. Smith, MD, professor of Neurosurgery and director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at Penn.

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Penn researchers identify protein that predicts post-concussion severity in professional athletes