OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The family of a 16-year-old girl who died after fainting on an Omaha school bus says she had a heart problem.
Her cousin, Nancy Gutierrez, said school officials have shared preliminary autopsy results with the family. Omaha South officials say doctors found fluid in Graciela Cabrera’s heart and sent it to a specialist for further investigation.
Gutierrez says the evaluation’s results will be returned within 30 days.
Cabrera fainted on the bus Tuesday and first responders found her unconscious and not breathing. She was taken to an area hospital where she was pronounced dead.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is issuing guidelines that ban federal law enforcement from profiling on the basis of religion, national origin and other characteristics.
The Justice Department says it hopes the new policy being announced Monday can be a model for local police departments.
The policy expands upon decade-old guidelines that banned routine racial profiling.
Besides religion and national origin, the new rules will ban profiling on the basis of gender, gender identity and sexual orientation.
But they also contain major exemptions, including exemptions for Homeland Security agents responsible for screening for security at airports and at the nation’s borders.
The guidelines have been contemplated for weeks. But they’re being released amid a national conversation about race and policing brought on the Ferguson, Missouri, shooting and other cases.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Creighton University’s next president is a Nebraska native who is currently working at Marquette University.
Creighton’s board chose the Rev. Daniel Hendrickson Sunday to become the university’s 25th president.
Hendrickson will start the job on July 1. He is currently associate provost of academic initiatives at Marquette, and he grew up in Elkhorn, Nebraska.
Current Creighton President Rev. Timothy Lannon is retiring in January. Chris Bradberry, who is dean of the School of Pharmacy and Health Professions, will become interim president on Dec. 21.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The nation’s highest military court will hear oral arguments this week in the case of a Kansas airman of aggravated assault for exposing multiple sex partners to HIV at swinger parties in Wichita.
The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces would hear oral arguments on Tuesday the case against David Gutierrez.
Gutierrez was a sergeant at McConnell Air Force Base when he was sentenced in 2011 to eight years and stripped of his rank for aggravated assault. He was also found guilty of violating his commander’s order to notify partners about his HIV status and use condoms. The military judge also convicted Gutierrez of indecent acts and adultery.
At issue is whether the likelihood of transmission was so great as to constitute aggravated assault.
JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) — A proposal to double the cost to enter Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks in northwest Wyoming is drawing resistance.
The town of Jackson, fishing guides and wildlife safari companies are among those speaking out against a plan that calls for increasing entrance fees for the two neighboring parks.
Under the National Park Service plan, a 7-day pass good for both Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks would increase from $25 to $50. An annual $50 pass good for both parks would be discontinued in favor of each park having its own $60 annual pass.
The Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce and National Parks Conservation Association support the fee increases.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1” claimed the top spot at the box office for the third weekend in a row with an estimated $21.6 million.
The penultimate chapter in the massively successful franchise has now earned $257.7 million domestically. “Mockingjay – Part 1” is still about $78 million shy of where the previous installment, “Catching Fire,” was in its third weekend just last year.
Post-Thanksgiving is generally one of the year’s slowest box office weekends, with no new, wide releases.
In the specialty box office world, awards hopeful “Wild,” starring Reese Witherspoon, opened in 21 theaters Wednesday, earning an estimated $630,000 over the three-day.
The R-rated horror pic “The Pyramid” debuted in 589 theaters to a less impressive $1.35 million.
William Atkinson, a doctor who spent 25 years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is now associate director for immunization at the Immunization Action Coalition, said there’s still time to inoculate more of the population before the flu season peaks. He spoke Thursday at an event in Kansas City, Mo.-photo by Andy Marso
By Andy Marso
KHI News Service
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As flu cases begin to appear in Kansas, a former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention epidemiologist urged providers to continue distributing the flu vaccine while also preparing antiviral medications for high-risk patients.
William Atkinson, a doctor who spent 25 years at the CDC and is now associate director for immunization at the Immunization Action Coalition, said there’s still time to inoculate more of the population before the flu season peaks.
“Don’t stop just because Thanksgiving has passed,” Atkinson told an audience of about 40 at a Thursday meeting of the Mother & Child Health Coalition in Kansas City, Mo. “Keep going as long as you’ve got it.”
People 6 months of age and older are recommended to get a flu shot in the United States, where Atkinson said flu still kills more children than all other vaccine-preventable diseases.
About 100 children died of flu last year, Atkinson said, and that number may be low because it represents only the confirmed cases.
The illness is even more fatal in people 65 and older, who make up the bulk of the thousands of flu deaths each year.
Need for antiviral use
Atkinson emphasized that a recent CDC alert about possible compromised effectiveness of this year’s flu vaccine was not intended to discourage its use, but rather to inform providers about the urgency of dispensing antiviral medications to high-risk patients with flu-like symptoms.
The CDC alert warned that early cases of the flu this year have predominately been of the influenza A (H3N2) type, which the annual vaccine has traditionally been less effective in preventing. But Atkinson said there are many types of flu that the shot will still be effective against and, because influenza seasons are unpredictable, it’s impossible to know yet just how comprehensive the shot will be this year.
“The vaccine is still effective and will work most of the time,” Atkinson said. “It may work almost all the time.”
The CDC alert advises that patients with flu-like symptoms who are at high risk of complications should be administered antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu or Relenza before laboratory tests have confirmed influenza. Such drugs shorten the duration of influenza and can prevent complications, especially when administered within 48 hours of first symptoms.
Those at risk of complications include patients who are older or have underlying health conditions.
“Those are the people you need to pull the trigger on your antiviral drugs sooner rather than later,” Atkinson said. “That was basically the message.”
The message is timely, Atkinson said, because flu season has begun in many states.
The CDC’s weekly surveillance map showed “local” outbreaks of flu in Kansas and Missouri as of Nov. 22, and on Thursday the Sedgwick County Health Department confirmed the first cases of flu in that area this season.
Misty Kruger, a spokeswoman for the Shawnee County Health Agency, said via email that she could not confirm the presence of the illness in the county but said that flu cases have occurred in the northeast Kansas region.
Kruger said the health agency still has flu vaccine and encourages residents to get vaccinated “wherever flu shots are available within the community.” The agency also reminds people to wash their hands frequently, cover their mouth when they cough and stay home when ill to avoid spreading influenza.
‘High dose’ for seniors
Atkinson said some versions of the flu vaccine have been shown to be more effective for different demographics.
He said he now recommends a “high dose” version for seniors, including his parents.
“There now is data that is clear, that this vaccine when given to people 65 and older, the high dose vaccine compared to the regular vaccine, it works better,” Atkinson said. “It reduces influenza disease and complications in people 65 and older.”
Atkinson also said the “data are quite convincing” that a live vaccine administered by nasal spray is more effective in children, though studies have yet to show any added benefit for adults.
“Nobody understands exactly why, but clearly it’s better in children,” Atkinson said.
The nasal spray, or flu mist, is approved for ages 2 through 49. Atkinson advised that providers should administer it to patients age 2 through 8 if they can, but give the traditional injection if that’s all they have on hand.
“If you don’t have flu mist — you ran out, didn’t order enough, whatever reason — don’t let them go,” Atkinson said. “Don’t let them out of your sight before you get a dose of influenza vaccine into them. Don’t send them away and say, ‘Come back next week,’ because odds are they won’t. Get them while you’ve got them there.”
Andy Marso is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
WAYNE, Neb. (AP) — Wayne State College has indefinitely suspended a fraternity after two people suffered alcohol poisoning and police began investigating whether drinks at house parties were spiked with drugs.
Wayne State officials said in a press release that Tau Kappa Epsilon can no longer recruit or use college facilities or resources. Officials cited ‘illegal and dangerous activities related to the use of alcohol’ at the fraternity.
Jeff Carstens, dean of students at Wayne State, says administrators received numerous reports of underage drinking at the off-campus house.
Wayne State President Curt Frye says administrators didn’t arrive at the decision lightly.
School officials say they’re open to reinstating the fraternity if its members develop a plan to address the drinking culture and problems at the house.
EASTON, Pa. (AP) — Prosecutors say necrophilia motivated a Pennsylvania man to fatally shoot his stepdaughter last month.
Gregory Graf was charged after police found 33-year-old Jessica Padgett’s body buried on his property in Northampton County.
District Attorney John Morganelli said Friday that Graf videotaped himself sexually abusing the body. Authorities say they found the video on Graf’s computer on Thursday.
Morganelli says the 53-year-old fencing company owner confessed to killing Padgett, a mother who worked at a day care. Padgett’s mother was in Florida at the time of the slaying.
Graf is being held without bail on a homicide charge. Morganelli says he will also be charged with abuse of a corpse.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Gas has dropped below $2 a gallon at a handful of stations in Oklahoma and Texas this week, a level that a price-watching group says is the lowest in the nation and a bargain that’s proven irresistible to some long lines of drivers coming from miles away to fill up.
Patrick DeHaan with GasBuddy.com said early Friday that three Oklahoma City stations were the only ones in the United States with sub-$2 gas. A Texas station also later dropped its price below that level.
OnCue Express in Oklahoma City lowered its price to $1.99 earlier this week. Nearby stations followed suit.
The nationwide average for a gallon of gas is $2.71, nearly $1 below this year’s peak of $3.70 in June. Gas hasn’t been this cheap since October 2010.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The family of a 16-year-old girl who died after fainting on an Omaha school bus says she had a heart problem.
