Trayvon Martin's parents go to Capitol Hill

Trayvon Martin's parents, father, Tracy Martin, left, and mother Sybrina Fulton, attend a House Judiciary Committee briefing on racial profiling and hate crimes, Tuesday, March 27, 2012, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Trayvon Martin's parents, father, Tracy Martin, left, and mother Sybrina Fulton, attend a House Judiciary Committee briefing on racial profiling and hate crimes, Tuesday, March 27, 2012, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Trayvon Martin's parents, father, Tracy Martin, left, and mother Sybrina Fulton attend a House Judiciary Committee briefing on racial profiling and hate crimes, Tuesday, March 27, 2012, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Trayvon Martin's parents, father, Tracy Martin, left, and mother Sybrina Fulton attend a House Judiciary Committee briefing on racial profiling and hate crimes, Tuesday, March 27, 2012, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Ernie Green, an original member of the Little Rock Nine, stands to be recognized on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 27, 2012, during a House Judiciary Committee briefing on racial profiling and hate crimes , that was attended by Trayvon Martin's parents. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Trayvon Martin's parents Tracy Martin, far left, and Sybrina Fulton, attend a packed House Judiciary Committee Democrats' briefing on racial profiling and hate crimes on Capitol Hill, in Washington, on Tuesday, March 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? In a packed forum on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, the parents of Trayvon Martin found support among members of Congress who turned the death of their 17-year-old's son into a rallying cry against racial profiling.

Martin's parents spoke briefly before a Democrats-only congressional panel as cameras clicked noisily in front of them. Many in the crowd, which filled the seats and lined the walls, strained to catch a glimpse of the parents whose son was shot and killed Feb. 26 in a Sanford, Fla. gated community.

"Trayvon was our son, but Trayvon is your son," Sybrina Fulton, Martin's mother, told the panel. "A lot of people can relate to our situation and it breaks their heart like it breaks our heart."

Martin's father, Tracy Martin, thanked "everyone who is holding the legacy of Trayvon."

"Trayvon is sadly missed and we will continue to fight for justice for him," said Tracy Martin, who wore a weary look.

During the two-hour forum, the lawmakers and witnesses openly criticized the police investigation of the shooting and the failure of police to arrest the admitted shooter, George Zimmerman. Those attending the hearing applauded the couple when Deborah Ramirez, a law professor at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, praised the parents' "dignity and grace in the face of this tragedy" and said they were an "inspiration to all."

Zimmerman, 28, has said he acted in self-defense. Federal and state officials are investigating.

"It is very important that we have independent eyes on this situation," said Rep. Corrine Brown, a Democrat whose district includes Sanford. "I am hoping we take this as a teachable moment. I am looking forward to how the Justice Department handles their independent investigation."

At a news conference after the forum, Martin and Fulton renewed their calls for justice in their son's death. When asked whether he thought his son's death was a hate crime, Martin said: "Yes, I believe he was racially profiled." The family's attorney, Benjamin Crump, said racial profiling also was a factor in the way the police conducted their investigation.

Several members of Congress have called for the case to be investigated as a hate crime. Another attorney for the Martin family, Daryl D. Parks, has said that statements from Department of Justice officials in a meeting with Martin's parents make clear that getting hate crime charges is going to be a challenge.

Martin was black. Zimmerman's father is white and his mother is Hispanic.

Tuesday's session was not an official House Judiciary hearing, so no votes or formal action could occur. The committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, said the meeting was intended to be a discussion of racial profiling, hate crime laws and Florida's Stand Your Ground law, which eliminated a person's duty to retreat when threatened with serious bodily harm or death.

But much of the discussion revolved around criticism of the police investigation, the failure to arrest Zimmerman, Zimmerman's actions, and reassurances to Martin's parents that "we got your back," as Rep. Andre Carson, D-Indiana, put it.

"We see so clearly a case of racial profiling," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-New York, who mentioned he is also dealing with the New York City police force's stop-and-frisk policies.

The parents drew many onlookers who lined a wall and waited for the meeting's end for a chance at a glimpse of the parents.

At a news conference following the forum, Fulton had to pause and fight back emotions before telling reporters she was looking to the congressional members for help. Asked about a a bounty issued by the Black Panthers for Zimmerman, Fulton said "we want this done peaceful. We want you to protest. We want you to rally. We want this done peaceful."

The Orlando Sentinel has reported that Zimmerman told police that he and Martin exchanged words before the teen punched him in the nose and began banging his head on the ground. He says he cried out for help. Martin's parents said their son made the pleas for help.

Witness accounts differ, and 911 recordings in which the voices are heard are not clear.

The parents' attorney, Ben Crump, said the negative reports that are being leaked about Martin are making Zimmerman look like the victim and Trayvon as the suspect.

Martin's parents initiated the campaign to draw national attention to their son's death with an online petition calling for Zimmerman's arrest. Their son's death quickly caught fire through social media and then drew national media focus. His parents have since attended rallies in Florida and appeared on national television shows.

Earlier Tuesday, House Speaker John Boehner said "clearly what happened is in fact a tragedy," but he steered clear of calling for Zimmerman's arrest as some lawmakers have done. "It's being investigated by state and federal officials, which I think is appropriate," said Boehner, R-Ohio.

_____

Associated Press writer Stacy A. Anderson contributed to this report

_____

Follow Suzanne Gamboa at http://www.twitter.com/APsgamboa

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-03-27-US-Neighborhood%20Watch%20Death-Congress/id-2739f78887e34f90a023c81635f961c6

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ANGLE portfolio co Geomerics expands its offering ...

3:34 am by Andre Lamberti

ANGLE () said its 33 per cent-held portfolio company Geomerics has developed new products for mobile devices and for Nintendo's new Wii U console and is strenghtening its sales pipeline.

ANGLE operates as a specialist medical technology company with products in cancer diagnostics and fetal health, and it also owns a specialist technology consultancy.

Geomerics, which specialises in computer games middleware, presented at a recent game developer conference in San Francisco, showcasing improvements in its Enlighten offering, which now supports a wide range of mobile devices, including the iOS-based iPad and iPhone, Android devices and PlayStation Vita.

Enlighten allows for games such as Battlefield 3 to display realistic light effects in real time.

Geomerics also announced its new product capability for Nintendo's new Wii U console, the successor to the Wii, adding to its capability on the PC, PS3 and Xbox360.

Since the end of the conference on March 9, Geomerics has been notified of four new sales for major new games, three of which are to new customers, and its pipeline of prospective customers is steadily increasing, ANGLE told investors.

There has been further market recognition for Geomerics' Enlighten with Battlefield 3 receiving the award as best game of the year 2011 from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).

Battlefield 3 is the fastest-selling Electronic Arts game ever, selling more than 5 million units in its first week of release.

According to ANGLE, the reviews of Battlefield 3 have frequently singled out the lighting. For example, The Guardian reported "Visually Battlefield 3 is a marvel of beautiful lighting effects", and GameSpy in its review said "Once they see the light - they'll understand what a special game Battlefield 3 is".

Geomerics chief executive Gary Lewis said: "The BAFTA award for Battlefield 3 is an excellent further endorsement of the success of the game. We are pleased with ongoing adoption of the Enlighten technology in major new games. 2012 looks like being a great year for us and the expansion into mobile computing offers substantial growth potential for the future."

Source: http://www.proactiveinvestors.com/companies/news/26879/angle-portfolio-co-geomerics-expands-its-offering-26879.html

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Build up medical deduction for home ... - Business Management Daily

Do you need to modify your home to account for a family member?s medical condition?

Strategy: Draw up plans now for home improvements. If you qualify, you may be able to deduct a portion of the cost as a medical expense.

Beginning in 2013, the chance for a medical deduction will be reduced or even eliminated. So you should take action in 2012. ?

Here?s the whole story: To qualify as a deductible medical expense, the cost must be incurred primarily for the prevention or alleviation of a physical or mental defect or illness. For a medically necessary home improvement, the deductible medical expense equals the cost above the resulting increase in the home?s value if you own the home. The entire cost of improvements made by tenants is eligible for the deduction.

However, unreimbursed medical expenses are deductible only to the extent the annual total exceeds 7.5% of AGI. Even worse, the AGI threshold is scheduled to increase to 10% in 2013.

Example: You need to install an elevator and make other modifications in your home to accommodate a disabled individual. The improvements will cost $20,000 and an appraiser estimates it will increase your home?s value by $8,000. None of the cost is covered by your insurance. For simplicity, let?s say your annual AGI is $220,000 and you have $2,000 in other unreimbursed medical expenses for the year. ?

If you make the home improvements in 2012, you can deduct $5,500 of the cost. Reason: That?s the amount by which your unreimbursed medical expenses ($22,000) exceed 7.5% of your AGI ($16,500). However, if you wait until 2013, your deduction is zero because your expenses ($22,000) don?t exceed 10% of your AGI ($22,000).? ?

Tip: You can also deduct operating and maintenance costs for a medically necessary home improvement, subject to the AGI deduction floor.

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A hidden architecture: Researchers use novel methods to uncover gene mutations for common diseases

Public release date: 25-Mar-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Marjorie Montemayor-Quellenberg
mmontemayor-quellenberg@partners.org
617-534-2208
Brigham and Women's Hospital

BOSTON, MAHuman geneticists have long debated whether the genetic risk of the most common medical conditions derive from many rare mutations, each conferring a high degree of risk in different people, or common differences throughout the genome that modestly influence risk.

A new study by Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) researchers has harnessed data and new analysis tools to address this question in four common diseases: rheumatoid arthritis; celiac disease; coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction (heart attack); and type 2 diabetes.

The study will be electronically published on March 25, 2012 in Nature Genetics.

The researchers developed a new statistical method built upon "polygenic risk score analysis" to estimate the heritable component of these diseases that is explained by common differences throughout the genome.

Their method takes advantage of data from previously published genome-wide association studies, or GWAS, an approach used to scan DNA samples for common genetic markers seen throughout the populationcalled SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms).

According to senior author Robert Plenge, MD, PhD, BWH director of Genetics and Genomics in the Division of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy, "We used GWAS data and a Bayesian statistical framework to demonstrate that a substantial amount of risk to these four common diseases is due to hundreds of loci that harbor common causal variants with small effect, as well as a smaller number of loci that harbor rare causal variants."

Using data on rheumatoid arthritis, they estimated that variation in hundreds of locations throughout the genome might explain 20 percent of rheumatoid arthritis risk, after excluding all of the known rheumatoid arthritis genetic risk factors.

They used computer simulations to demonstrate that the underlying genetic risk in rheumatoid arthritis is largely explained by many common alleles rather than rare mutations.

They observed similar results for celiac disease (43 percent), myocardial infarction (48 percent) and type 2 diabetes (49 percent).

"What is remarkable is that our statistical model was broadly applicable to several common diseases, not just rheumatoid arthritis," said Plenge, who is also an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and an associate member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. "Our study provides a clear strategy for discovering additional risk alleles for these and likely many other common diseases."

According to the researchers, these methods can be applied to other genome-wide datasets (e.g., GWAS or whole genome sequencing) to estimate the degree to which there is a genetic component.

One exciting possibility is assessing the genetic basis of individual response to drugs.

"Our method may be particularly useful for diseases and related traits that cannot be easily studied in families," said Eli Stahl, PhD, lead study author, BWH research associate and member of the National Institutes of Health-funded Pharmacogenomic Research Network (PGRN). "For traits such as treatment efficacy or toxicity, we often assume there is a genetic basis to the clinical variability observed among patients. Now, we have the statistical tools to quantify the extent to which this is the case directly."

"Our study reinforces a common thread in the literature, that many subtle differences throughout the genome explain much of the differences in risk for individuals for all kinds of diseasesthis has powerful implications for the genetic architecture of disease, for risk prediction and prognosis, as well as for basic biology and developing new drug targets," said co-senior author Soumya Raychaudhuri, MD, PhD, BWH Division of Immunology, Allergy and Rheumatology, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

###

This research was done in collaboration with colleagues from the University of California, Los Angeles; University Medical Center and University of Groningen, The Netherlands; Massachusetts General Hospital; The University of Pennsylvania; Karolinska Institutet at Karolinska University Hospital Solna, Stockholm, Sweden; The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research; University of Toronto, Mount Sinai Hospital and University Health Network; University of Manchester; and University Medical Center, Utrecht.

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health; the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS); the Pharmacogenomics Research Network (PGRN) and National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS); the Canadian Institutes for Health Research; Ontario Research Fund; and a Canada Research Chair.

Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) is a 793-bed nonprofit teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School and a founding member of Partners HealthCare, an integrated health care delivery network. BWH is the home of the Carl J. and Ruth Shapiro Cardiovascular Center, the most advanced center of its kind. BWH is committed to excellence in patient care with expertise in virtually every specialty of medicine and surgery. The BWH medical preeminence dates back to 1832, and today that rich history in clinical care is coupled with its national leadership in quality improvement and patient safety initiatives and its dedication to educating and training the next generation of health care professionals. Through investigation and discovery conducted at its Biomedical Research Institute (BRI), www.brighamandwomens.org/research, BWH is an international leader in basic, clinical and translational research on human diseases, involving more than 900 physician-investigators and renowned biomedical scientists and faculty supported by more than $537 M in funding. BWH is also home to major landmark epidemiologic population studies, including the Nurses' and Physicians' Health Studies and the Women's Health Initiative. For more information about BWH, please visit www.brighamandwomens.org.

---

[ | 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.

Public release date: 25-Mar-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Marjorie Montemayor-Quellenberg
mmontemayor-quellenberg@partners.org
617-534-2208
Brigham and Women's Hospital

BOSTON, MAHuman geneticists have long debated whether the genetic risk of the most common medical conditions derive from many rare mutations, each conferring a high degree of risk in different people, or common differences throughout the genome that modestly influence risk.

A new study by Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) researchers has harnessed data and new analysis tools to address this question in four common diseases: rheumatoid arthritis; celiac disease; coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction (heart attack); and type 2 diabetes.

The study will be electronically published on March 25, 2012 in Nature Genetics.

The researchers developed a new statistical method built upon "polygenic risk score analysis" to estimate the heritable component of these diseases that is explained by common differences throughout the genome.

Their method takes advantage of data from previously published genome-wide association studies, or GWAS, an approach used to scan DNA samples for common genetic markers seen throughout the populationcalled SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms).

According to senior author Robert Plenge, MD, PhD, BWH director of Genetics and Genomics in the Division of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy, "We used GWAS data and a Bayesian statistical framework to demonstrate that a substantial amount of risk to these four common diseases is due to hundreds of loci that harbor common causal variants with small effect, as well as a smaller number of loci that harbor rare causal variants."

Using data on rheumatoid arthritis, they estimated that variation in hundreds of locations throughout the genome might explain 20 percent of rheumatoid arthritis risk, after excluding all of the known rheumatoid arthritis genetic risk factors.

They used computer simulations to demonstrate that the underlying genetic risk in rheumatoid arthritis is largely explained by many common alleles rather than rare mutations.

They observed similar results for celiac disease (43 percent), myocardial infarction (48 percent) and type 2 diabetes (49 percent).

"What is remarkable is that our statistical model was broadly applicable to several common diseases, not just rheumatoid arthritis," said Plenge, who is also an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and an associate member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. "Our study provides a clear strategy for discovering additional risk alleles for these and likely many other common diseases."

According to the researchers, these methods can be applied to other genome-wide datasets (e.g., GWAS or whole genome sequencing) to estimate the degree to which there is a genetic component.

One exciting possibility is assessing the genetic basis of individual response to drugs.

"Our method may be particularly useful for diseases and related traits that cannot be easily studied in families," said Eli Stahl, PhD, lead study author, BWH research associate and member of the National Institutes of Health-funded Pharmacogenomic Research Network (PGRN). "For traits such as treatment efficacy or toxicity, we often assume there is a genetic basis to the clinical variability observed among patients. Now, we have the statistical tools to quantify the extent to which this is the case directly."

"Our study reinforces a common thread in the literature, that many subtle differences throughout the genome explain much of the differences in risk for individuals for all kinds of diseasesthis has powerful implications for the genetic architecture of disease, for risk prediction and prognosis, as well as for basic biology and developing new drug targets," said co-senior author Soumya Raychaudhuri, MD, PhD, BWH Division of Immunology, Allergy and Rheumatology, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

###

This research was done in collaboration with colleagues from the University of California, Los Angeles; University Medical Center and University of Groningen, The Netherlands; Massachusetts General Hospital; The University of Pennsylvania; Karolinska Institutet at Karolinska University Hospital Solna, Stockholm, Sweden; The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research; University of Toronto, Mount Sinai Hospital and University Health Network; University of Manchester; and University Medical Center, Utrecht.

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health; the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS); the Pharmacogenomics Research Network (PGRN) and National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS); the Canadian Institutes for Health Research; Ontario Research Fund; and a Canada Research Chair.

Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) is a 793-bed nonprofit teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School and a founding member of Partners HealthCare, an integrated health care delivery network. BWH is the home of the Carl J. and Ruth Shapiro Cardiovascular Center, the most advanced center of its kind. BWH is committed to excellence in patient care with expertise in virtually every specialty of medicine and surgery. The BWH medical preeminence dates back to 1832, and today that rich history in clinical care is coupled with its national leadership in quality improvement and patient safety initiatives and its dedication to educating and training the next generation of health care professionals. Through investigation and discovery conducted at its Biomedical Research Institute (BRI), www.brighamandwomens.org/research, BWH is an international leader in basic, clinical and translational research on human diseases, involving more than 900 physician-investigators and renowned biomedical scientists and faculty supported by more than $537 M in funding. BWH is also home to major landmark epidemiologic population studies, including the Nurses' and Physicians' Health Studies and the Women's Health Initiative. For more information about BWH, please visit www.brighamandwomens.org.

---

[ | 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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-03/bawh-aha032212.php

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GOP candidates on the trail (cbsnews)

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Poland exhumes some 2010 plane crash victims

WARSAW, Poland (AP) ? One autopsy report describes organs that had been removed years before. Another adds 20 centimeters (nearly 8 inches) to a short man, making no mention of bones disfigured by childhood polio. One family doubts whether an autopsy was performed at all.

Polish investigators have exhumed the remains of three of the 96 Poles killed in the 2010 plane crash in Russia that killed President Lech Kaczynski due to what they say are flaws in the initial autopsies performed by Russian officials.

Two of the 96 victims were exhumed this week in Poland, following a first such exhumation last August. More could follow, prosecutors say.

"There were discrepancies. Evidence gathered in Poland differed from information in the Russian documentation," said Col. Zbigniew Rzepa, spokesman for the chief military prosecutor's office. "We had to carry out the exhumations to clarify all the doubts."

Surviving relatives of the three have been enraged by the faulty autopsy reports, which have added to their private grief. News of the flawed reports has also added to suspicions held by some Poles that the Russians were, at best, sloppy in their handling of the crash aftermath, and, at worst, trying to cover something up.

At one extreme, the flawed autopsies have encouraged Polish conspiracy theories claiming Vladimir Putin and other Russian leaders ordered the downing of Kaczynski's plane, which crashed in fog on April 10, 2010. According to one fanciful theory, Russians produced fake fog to blind the pilots. Another claims there were survivors of the crash who were later shot.

No ranking Polish officials voice such views, which are seen as fringe by many Poles ? though they have been encouraged by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, a conservative party leader who is the late president's surviving twin.

A Polish government investigation determined that the crash was primarily caused by inadequate pilot training and errors but that poor guidance from Russian air traffic controllers also contributed.

The new autopsies form part of a separate investigation by military prosecutors aimed at determining whether anyone bears blame for any crimes. No charges have been brought yet.

Andrei Kovalyov, the head of the Russian Center for Forensic Expertise, which conducted the autopsies, defended his group's work, and said if there are errors it is because the bodies were very badly disfigured in the plane crash.

"We have performed the genetic research and inspections of the bodies to international standard," Kovalyov told The Associated Press. "Any discrepancies, if they exist, are likely rooted not in badly performed autopsies but the fact that the bodies were fragmented. When remains of the numerous victims get mixed up inside the cabin there can be problems regarding the attribution of body parts."

Many Poles easily accept the Russian explanation and see no need for the exhumations, feeling that it doesn't change the larger picture of the tragedy.

Even Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said it's hard to expect perfect reports given "what state the bodies were in after the crash."

But, he added: "You have to respect the needs of the families, who want to have 100 percent certainty that the Russian documentation is consistent with their knowledge and the findings of Polish prosecutors."

The first victim to be exhumed, the late conservative lawmaker Zbigniew Wassermann, had a report filled with mistakes. News reports said it described organs that that been surgically removed years before and incorrectly described bone fractures he had suffered.

Neither prosecutors nor his family would give precise details, but his daughter Malgorzata Wassermann confirmed that general picture.

"The document from the Russian autopsy was taken out of the blue," she told AP. "It disagreed with the facts: It described things that did not exist and did not describe things that were there."

His new autopsy, carried out in August, corrected the record but did not change the larger conclusions about the cause of his death, said Col. Ireneusz Szelag, a spokesman for the prosecutors.

Another lawmaker, Przemyslaw Gosiewski, was exhumed on Monday. The Russian autopsy report described him as 1.8 meters tall (5 foot 9), when in fact he was 20 centimeters (nearly 8 inches) shorter, according to the law firm representing the family.

The report also failed to mention bone defects resulting from childhood polio.

"Glaring irregularities in the documentation mean there can't be certainty if an autopsy was even carried out," said Rafal Rogalski, the Gosiewski family lawyer.

In the case of the third exhumation, family members of Janusz Kurtyka, the head of a state historical institute, doubt that an autopsy was performed because they saw no marks on his body indicating a post-mortem, Szelag said.

Neither officials nor the family would reveal further details about Kurtyka's case.

Lech Kaczynski was a deeply patriotic leader who was skeptical of Russia, a historic foe that invaded Poland's eastern half during World War II and controlled the country during the Cold War. Most of the people traveling with him were political allies who shared his views, so it's no surprise their families would voice distrust in Russia after the crash.

The presidential delegation was traveling to honor 22,000 Polish officers murdered by Josef Stalin's secret police at the start of World War II in the Katyn forest and other locations. That symbolism only added to the national grief and to the suspicions.

___

Associated Press writer Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/poland-exhumes-2010-plane-crash-victims-075014615.html

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'Hell no, we won't glow': 130 held at anti-nuke protest

Jim Cole / AP

93-year-old anti-nuclear activist Francis Crowe, center, and her friend Anneke Corbett are escorted off the property of Entergy Corp. in Brattleboro, Vt. after being arrested for trespassing.

By msnbc.com staff and news services

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. -- A 93-year-old anti-nuclear activist was among more than 130 protesters arrested at the corporate headquarters of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant Thursday, the first day of the plant's operation after the expiration of its 40-year license.

Frances Crowe, of Northampton, Mass., said she wants Vermont Yankee to cease operations because she feels it's a threat to the people who live nearby.

---

"As I was walking down, all I could think of was Fukushima and the suffering of all the people, and I don't want that to happen to New England," said Crowe in referring to the Japanese nuclear reactor damaged last year after an earthquake and tsunami.

Fukushima disaster response frighteningly similar to Chernobyl

When asked how many times she'd been arrested, she answered: "Not enough."

A heavy police presence and ropes blocked off access to the offices in Brattleboro. The arrests were made calmly and without any confrontation, with obvious signs that protesters and police had worked out the logistics beforehand.

Unlawful trespass
Brattleboro Police Chief Gene Wrinn said in a statement that more than 130 people had been arrested for unlawful trespass. He said after being processed, they were later released.

The Brattleboro Reformer?reported that Thursday's protest was the largest?in Vermont in 25 years.

A company spokesman said work continued as normal at the plant 10 miles south in Vernon.

"We greatly appreciate the backing of our supporters and respect the rights of opponents to peacefully protest," said a statement issued by company spokesman Larry Smith. "Inside the gates, our employees will not be distracted. As it is every day, their focus on safety will be laser sharp."

'Shut it down'
A crowd estimated at more than 1,000 gathered in a downtown Brattleboro park before they marched the 3 ? miles to the headquarters. Some marched on stilts. Others with painted faces carried signs that read "hell no, we won't glow." Many chanted: "Shut it down."

Gov. Peter Shumlin was sympathetic to the protesters.

"I am very supportive of the peaceful protesters gathered today in Brattleboro to express their ? and my ? frustration that this aging plant remains open after its agreed-upon license has expired," he said.

Jim Cole / AP

Hundreds of anti-nuclear activists march to the local corporate offices of Vermont Yankee owner Entergy Corp. in Brattleboro, Vt., on Thursday.

In a coordinated action in New Orleans, the headquarters of Vermont Yankee's parent company, Entergy Nuclear, another group of seven activists was arrested after going into the building and refusing to leave, police said. The Journal News reported that five others also were arrested at Entergy offices in White Plains, N.Y.

Loyola University law professor Bill Quigley said the New Orleans protesters live near the Vermont plant and traveled to Louisiana to request a meeting with Entergy CEO J. Wayne Leonard. They didn't get that meeting before they were arrested.

"We're trying to tell Entergy that the whole world is watching, and you can't pollute in one area of the country without consequences for everybody," Quigley said.

Radioactive tritium leaks from 48 US nuke sites

The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued the plant a 20-year license extension, but the state of Vermont wants the plant to close and the two sides are fighting a legal battle. In January, a federal judge issued an order that allows the plant to continue operating while the legal case continues in court.

Handcuffed
While the protesters gathered on the Brattleboro Commons, Vermont Yankee supporters sat across the street and watched. A half-dozen signs saying "VT4VY" were posted on the lawn.

"The thing is these people are not going to realize it until it's too late what a benefit it is down there. I feel bad for them. I don't think they're looking at the big picture," said Steve Shaclumis of Brattleboro.

Some protesters, including Crowe, were released immediately with citations to appear in court. Others were handcuffed and led onto a waiting school bus. It was expected they would be taken to a police station and then released.

According to The New York Times, the cost?of decommissioning a single reactor is?estimated at $400 million to $1 billion.

The newspaper reported on Tuesday that Entergy "is at least $90 million short of the projected $560 million cost of dismantling Vermont Yankee."

The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

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Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/23/10822517-hell-no-we-wont-glow-dozens-of-anti-nuclear-activists-arrested-at-vermont-yankee-protest

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