From a piece on the NPR website about the presidential race in York, Pennsylvania:
"I don't want to sound racist, and I'm not racist," Moreland says. "But I feel if we put Obama in the White House, there will be chaos. I feel a lot of black people are going to feel it's payback time. And I made the statement, I said, 'You know, at one time the black man had to step off the sidewalk when a white person came down the sidewalk.' And I feel it's going to be somewhat reversed. I really feel it's going to get somewhat nasty."
Moreland says she doesn't think all black people will "want payback." "I'm not talking about you, and I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about the people that are out on the street looking for trouble. Putting a black man in the White House — and if he gets there, he gets there; I'm going to live under his presidency and everything. And I'm still going to be friends with anybody black that wants to be my friend and everything. But I really feel there's going to be a time of adjustment. I really feel it. I hope I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong."
Leah Moreland will have just as many black friends, which is zero, after the election as she does now. Fact.
PITTSBURGH – A McCain campaign volunteer made up a story of being robbed, pinned to the ground and having the letter "B" scratched on her face in a politically inspired attack, police said Friday.
Ashley Todd, 20-year-old college student from College Station, Texas, admitted Friday that the story was false and was being charged with making a false report to police, said Maurita Bryant, the assistant chief of the police department's investigations division. Police doubted her story from the start, Bryant said.
Todd, who is white, told police she was attacked by a 6-foot-4 black man Wednesday night. She now can't explain why she invented the story, Bryant said.
Todd also told police she believes she cut the backward "B" onto her own cheek, but she didn't explain how or why, Bryant said.
Todd initially told investigators she was attempting to use a bank branch ATM when the man approached her from behind, put a knife with a 4- to 5-inch blade to her throat and demanded money. She told police she handed the assailant $60 and walked away.
Todd told investigators that she suspected the man then noticed a John McCain sticker on her car, became angry and punched her in the back of the head, knocking her to the ground and telling her "you are going to be a Barack supporter," police said.
She said he continued to punch and kick her while threatening "to teach her a lesson for being a McCain supporter," police said. She said he then sat on her chest, pinned her hands down with his knees and scratched a backward letter "B" into her face with a dull knife.
Todd told police she didn't seek medical attention, but instead went to a friend's apartment nearby and called police about 45 minutes later.
The Associated Press could not immediately locate Todd's family.
Bryant said somebody charged with making a false report would typically be cited and sent a summons. But because police have concerns about Todd's mental health, they are consulting with the Allegheny County District Attorney.
Todd remained in custody, and police were preparing to charge her with making a false report to police.
"We had some serious cases going on, and this wasted so much time," Bryant said. "Our detectives have been working through the night just to verify the information we suspected was false from the beginning."
Todd worked in New York for the College Republican National Committee before moving two weeks ago to Pennsylvania, where her duties included recruiting college students, the committee's executive director, Ethan Eilon, has said.
Eilon declined to comment on the investigation Friday or to help The Associated Press contact Todd.
Earlier Friday, police said they had found inconsistencies in Todd's story. They gave her a lie-detector test, but wouldn't release the polygraph results. Investigators also said bank surveillance photos did not back up the woman's initial story of being attacked at an ATM.
Police interviewed Todd after she contacted police Wednesday night and again on Thursday, Bryant said. They asked her to come back Friday, ostensibly to help police put together a sketch of the man. Instead, detectives began interviewing her.
"They just started talking to her and she just opened up and said she wanted to tell the truth," Bryant said.
Bryant said it doesn't appear that anyone else put the woman up to the false report.
Police suspected all along that Todd might not be telling the truth, starting with the fact that the "B" was backward, Bryant said.
"We have robbers here in Pittsburgh, but they don't generally mutilate someone's face like that," Bryant said. "They just take the money and run."
A "plastic soup" of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States, scientists have said.The vast expanse of debris – in effect the world's largest rubbish dump – is held in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting "soup" stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan.
Charles Moore, an American oceanographer who discovered the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" or "trash vortex", believes that about 100 million tons of flotsam are circulating in the region. Marcus Eriksen, a research director of the US-based Algalita Marine Research Foundation, which Mr Moore founded, said yesterday: "The original idea that people had was that it was an island of plastic garbage that you could almost walk on. It is not quite like that. It is almost like a plastic soup. It is endless for an area that is maybe twice the size as continental United States."
Yeah, sweet.
Here's what the whole thing looks like:
Humans have got no right. I don't think discussions of ethics and philosophy will sway our species though. The title of that graphic just above is pretty right on, huh? That's the human motto, really.
(CNN) -- Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin spoke Tuesday to CNN's Drew Griffin. It was her first interview with the network. Here is the transcript.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speaks with CNN's Drew Griffin Tuesday.
CNN: You seemed to be very much on your game. You get huge crowds. Even bigger crowds than [Republican presidential candidate Sen.] John McCain. Why is that?
Sarah Palin: I think it's what I'm representing and what the message is and that is true reform of government that is so needed, and having a representative of someone who has a track record of showing that, yeah, you can, you can do this, you can reform, you can put government back on the side of the people, you can fight corruption. You can actually take steps towards helping our nation become energy-independent and all those things that we're talking about. I think that more and more Americans are realizing that, well, good, we have a candidate who has actually done some of those things and it's not just, talkin' the talk, she's gonna tell us how she's done this.
CNN: Let's talk about some of that, because, I mean, two months ago, it was all about who you were, where you were from and Wasilla, Alaska. I think, now it's just the economy. And you are the only person in this race with executive experience, who's taken over governments as mayor and governor. What will you do, day one, to tell the American people, things are changing for the better?
Palin: You know, that's a good point about that experience and we don't like to toot our own horn so we don't, I don't talk about my experience that much in terms of years in office or in positions that have been executive experience but, I have, I do have more experience than [Democratic presidential candidate Sen.] Barack Obama does. You know, he had served for his 300 days before he became a presidential candidate and that wasn't in executive office, of course, but, as an executive, working with John McCain, we will take on the special interests and we will clean up Wall Street and some of the abuse of the power in Washington, D.C., also to first and foremost get government back on the side of the people, and, we do this economically speaking here, by cutting taxes, not increasing them, allowing our small businesses and our families to keep more of what they earn, and produce so that they can reinvest according to their priorities. Not politicians' priorities and special interests' priorities. Our small businesses, keeping more of what they earn, that allows them to create more jobs, they're gonna be hiring more people, that gets our economy going. That's what has happened in the opportunities that I've had in executive positions as mayor, manager, and as governor. It works. Reining in government growth, recognizing government certainly plays appropriate roles in building infrastructure, providing tools for our families, for our businesses, but then government kinda getting outta the way as you have great oversight making sure that there isn't the corruption and the abuse, but government, I think get outta the way and let the private sector do what it does best.
CNN: Yeah, but, I mean we're in a crisis right now.
Palin: We are.
CNN: And the plans that you mention take time, you have to go through Congress. If you guys win, you'll both most likely be working with a Democratic Congress. It's gonna be a slow process. What I'm trying to find out from you -- from John McCain as well, day one, people want a difference, to make a difference in the economy, as we're seeing daily, swings in the stock market, houses going foreclosed on --
Palin: Mm-hmm. Well, day one, you bring in everyone around that table, too, you bring in the congressional leadership, and, assuming that there will be, certainly, Democrats, at that table, that's good, too, these are gonna be bipartisan approaches that must be taken, I have that executive experience also having formed a cabinet up there in Alaska that, you know, we've got independents and Democrats and Republicans whom I have appointed to our administrative positions to that, we have the best of ideas coming together in order to best serve the people. John McCain, too, he's been known as the maverick to take on his own party when need be, to reach over the aisle and work with the other party also. Now, Barack Obama has not been able to do that, he's gone with, what is it, 96 percent of the time with Democrat leadership. Not having that, I think, ability or willingness to work with the other side. So as an executive, we need to create that team that is full of good ideas and not let obsessive partisanship get in the way, as we start taking the measures to shore up our economy, which already Congress is working on with the rescue package, with some of the bailout packages, the provisions in there that can work, too, but it's gonna take everybody working together.
CNN: Will you and John McCain appoint Democrats to cabinet positions?
Palin: I don't know why you wouldn't, if they, if these Democrats are best suited to serve, and if they will not let obsessive partisanship get in the way of just doing what's right with a team effort, and support of the president to get this economy moving, and to win these wars, to meet these great challenges, I wouldn't have as my litmus test a party affiliation.
CNN: Yeah. Uh, Joe the plumber?
Palin: Yeah.
CNN: Socialism, it's come up on the campaign trail now.
Palin: Sure.
CNN: Governor, is Barack Obama a socialist?
Palin: I'm not gonna call him a socialist, but, as Joe the plumber had suggested, in fact he came right out and said it sounds like socialism to him and he speaks for so many Americans who are quite concerned now, after hearing finally what Barack Obama's true intentions are with his tax and economic plan, and that is, to take more from small businesses, more from our families, and then redistribute that according to his priorities. That is, that is not good for the entrepreneurial spirit that has built this great country. That is not good for our economy, certainly it's not good for the opportunities that our small businesses should have, to keep more of what they produce, in order to hire more people, create more jobs. That's what gets the economy going. So, finally Joe the plumber and as we talked about today in the speech, too, he's representing, you know, Jane the engineer and Molly the dental hygienist and Chuck the teacher and, and all these good, hard-working Americans who are, finally, were able to hear in very plain talk the other night, what Barack Obama's intentions were to redistribute wealth.
CNN: Do you think his intention though, if not a socialist, is to move away from capitalism, true capitalism?
Palin: Well, anyone who would want to increase taxes at a time like this, especially with economic woes that are adversely affecting all of us, anybody who would want to do that to take more from businesses and our families, and then dole those dollars out according to their priorities, that, that is not a principal of capitalism.
CNN: Some are saying we're already moving towards socialism with the bailout, the banking industry investment that this government has made, that John McCain and Barack Obama have signed on for. What is your views on that and yet another possible supplement to the income of Americans.
Palin: We cannot start moving closer and closer to socialism. That will destroy the entrepreneurial spirit in America. That will punish hard work and productivity, and that work ethic that we try to instill in our children so that they will know that they can be rewarded for their productivity, for their hard work. We cannot move in that direction, that it should be so concerning for any American voter to consider that perhaps there are some who would like us to go there. Now, as for the economic bailout provisions and the measures that have already been taken, it is a time of crisis and government did have to step in playing an appropriate role to shore up the housing market to make sure that we're thawing out some of the potentially frozen credit lines and credit markets, government did have to step in there. But now that we're hearing that the Democrats want an additional stimulus package or bailout package for what, hundreds of billions of dollars more, this is not a time to use the economic crisis as an excuse for reckless spending and for greater, bigger government and to move the private sector to the back burner and let government be assumed to be the be-all, end-all solution to the economic challenges that we have. That's what's scaring me now about hearing that the Democrats have an even greater economic bailout package, but we don't know all the details of it yet and we'll certainly pay close attention to it.
CNN: On its face are you against that?
Palin: On its face, I want to make sure that this is not being used by the Democrats as a time for bigger government, more dollars being taken from taxpayers to bail out anybody, any entity that's been engaged in corruption, in self-dealing, in greed, there on Wall Street or in D.C. that has adversely affected Main Street, so, on its face, I, what we're gonna need to know more about what the Democrats have in mind for this additional bailout.
CNN: You know, as, you're a fiscal conservative.
Palin: Yes.
CNN: As a fiscal conservative, I'm looking at the McCain proposals. And all of them seem to involve heavy amounts of government money, or government involvement, whether it be home mortgages or propping up the banking industry. I mean, are you square with that?
Palin: I beg to differ with that, because what McCain has talked about with shoring up the home mortgage market also to make sure that we, we're gonna have a level playing field here. He's not asking for an additional hundreds of billions of dollars, he's saying, OK, with the $700 billion that his colleagues and he there in Congress have already approved, let's make sure that the priority is, we're gonna help the homeowners who had been kinda sucked into the wrong mortgage, and that was via predatory lenders taking advantage unfortunately and exploiting too many Americans. He's saying let's take the dollars that are already there and let's best use them. Let's, he's not saying, more, more, more government intervention and more dollars. He's saying, let's best use the dollars that have already been approved.
CNN: What is your role going to be as vice president?
Palin: Well, we've talked a lot about that, John McCain and I have, about the missions that I'll get to embark on if we are so blessed to be hired by the American people to work for them. It's gonna be government reform, because that is what I've been able to do as a mayor and as a governor. You take on the special interests and the self-dealings. Yep, you ruffle feathers and you have the scars to prove it afterwards, but you have to take that on to give the American people that faith back in their own government. This is their government and we gotta put it back on their side. So, government reform and energy independence, can't wait to work on that. That's been my forte as the governor of an energy-producing state and as a former chair of the energy regulator entity up there in Alaska. So, look forward to that and that's a matter of national security and our economic prosperity opportunities. That though, too, the other mission that John and I are anxious for me to lead on is helping our families who have children with special needs, ushering in that spirit to Washington, D.C., where we saw, we're gonna give every child a chance and a good educational opportunity will be provided. That's gonna be a matter, too, of prioritizing the federal dollars that are already there and making sure that every child is given opportunity.
CNN: Yeah. Governor, you've been mocked in the press. The press has been pretty hard on you, the Democrats have been pretty hard on you, but also some conservatives have been pretty hard on you as well. The National Review had a story saying that, you know, I can't tell if Sarah Palin is incompetent, stupid, unqualified, corrupt or all of the above.
Palin: Who wrote that one?
CNN: That was in the National Review, I don't, have the author.
Palin: I'd like to talk to that person.
CNN: But they were talking about the fact that your experience as governor is not getting out. Do you feel trapped in this campaign, that your message is not getting out, and if so who do you blame?
Palin: No, I'm getting my message out right now, through you and with you, Drew, to the American people who are watching CNN, and I appreciate this opportunity. No, you know that, I am obviously an outsider of the Washington elite and of the conventional, I think, media, targets or media characters that have been a part of this for years and, I think that is fine, that is good for the American electorate to understand. They have a choice here in our ticket of having the experience and the reputation that comes with John McCain as being the patriot and the maverick in the Senate, you take that and you combine it with a team member who is new and fresh with new ideas, new vision, new energy that needs to be infused into Washington, D.C., with that commitment to clean it up in D.C. Put government on the side of the people and fight hard for Americans. You have that, that combination and I think that some in the media, maybe in The National Review, they don't know what to make of that, they're like, gee, she's, you know, where'd she come from, surely, you know, it should be our job I think they assume is to, pick and, and be negative and, and find things to mock and, that's just I guess part of the political game, I guess. But we're very committed and focused and moving forward between now and November 4, getting that message out to the American people that our plan to get this economy back on the right track, and to win the wars, put government on the side of the people. It's the right thing to do, and, I think we have the right message, despite the mocking that comes our way.
CNN: Governor, our time is very short and I must ask you just two questions, one is on [Palin's former brother-in-law, Alaska State Trooper Mike] Wooten, if there's one thing that's followed you negatively --
Palin: Tasergate, right, right,
CNN: You call it Tasergate,
Palin: We sure do.
CNN: Troopergate, whatever. The Branchflower Report said you were perfectly in your right, to fire [Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Walt] Monegan.
Palin: Right.
CNN: But also found out that you violated the ethics. Was it a mistake to allow your husband to use your office to try to pressure the troopers to fire Mr. Wooten.
Palin: Not at all because A, that, the trooper who had tasered his kid and had, you know, made death threats against my family and said he was gonna bring the governor down and all that. My husband did exactly, I think, what any sensible, reasonable father, husband would do who was concerned about their family's safety.
CNN: But was it a mistake to allow him to use the governor's office to that extent?
Palin: Not when you look at other governors' track records when they had their spouse as for instance [former Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski] had his spouse as his top adviser, and she was in meetings, she was in the office so, you know, kinda, of a double standard here. But what Todd was what any reasonable husband and father would do. He followed the instruction of the Department of Public Safety's own personal security detail that is our personal protection. They asked Todd, you have a problem with this state trooper, he is a threat, you need to take that to the commissioner of the Department of Public Safety. Todd did exactly that and then of course, he got clobbered for it, now in the media because there's a misunderstanding of what he's done. Our Department of Law in Alaska has right there on its Web site -- it said, if you have a problem with an Alaska state trooper, the paragraph says, you go to the Commissioner of Department of Public Safety and you share that concern with him. That's what Todd did. So no, I don't think that it was an abuse of power of my office at all. And I was very thankful that that report cleared me of any illegal dealings or anything else. I replaced the commissioner because he was not doing the job that I expect of my cabinet members. That is, you serve the Alaskan population up there. Of course he's a cabinet member who was assigned to do that, to the best of our team's ability and you have a lotta energy, you fulfill the vision that we have laid out for you, and he wasn't doing that and that's why he was replaced.
CNN: Governor, if in two weeks you're not elected, do you come back at the top of the ticket in 2012?
Palin: I'm concerned about and focused on just the next two weeks, Drew, and again getting that message out there to the American public. Thankfully, too, the American public is seeing clearer and clearer what the choices are in these tickets. I think, some revelation just occurred, not just with Joe the plumber but revelation occurred with [Democratic vice presidential candidate] Joe Biden's comment the other night that, he telling his Democratic financial donors saying that, he said mark my word, there's gonna be economic, and, or international crisis he said, if Barack Obama is elected, because he will be tested and he said there are four or five scenarios that will result in an international crisis with an untested presidential candidate in Barack Obama and -- first I think we need to thank Joe for the warning there. But, Joe's words there I think, can shed some light, too, in terms of the contrast you have in the tickets. John McCain is a tested leader. He has gone through great adversity. He has the scars to prove it. He has shown his true leadership. It hasn't just been all talk, and Joe Biden's comments there about an untested, as he had said in the primary, unprepared candidate to be president, I think was very telling.
CNN: Have you guys been briefed on any scenario like this?
Palin: On the four or five scenarios, that, well, who knows what Joe Biden was talking about, you know? It, all you have to do, though, is look back at Obama's foreign policy agenda and you can assume what some of those scenarios may be. As he considers sitting down and talking to [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad or [former Cuban President] Fidel Castro or [North Korean President] Kim Jong Il, some of these dictators, without preconditions being met, essentially validating some of what those dictators have been engaged in, that could be one of the scenarios that Joe Biden is talking about is, as a result of that, that proclamation that he would meet without preconditions being met first. That could be a scenario that results in a testing of our country, and, the four or five other scenarios that he's talking about, I don't know, I hope that Joe Biden will explain it.
CNN: I guess we have to wrap it up.
Palin: Yes.
CNN: I mean I could go on with you forever.
Palin: So could I, on that one especially.
CNN: [LAUGHS] I mean, did Joe Biden get a pass?
Palin: Drew, you need to ask your colleagues and I guess your bosses or whoever is in charge of all this, why does Joe Biden get a pass on such a thing? Can you imagine if I would've said such a thing? No, I think that, you know, we would be hounded and held accountable for, what in the world did you mean by that, VP presidential candidate? Why would you say that, mark my words, this nation will undergo international crisis if you elect Barack Obama? If I would've said that you guys'd clobbered me.
CNN: You're right. [LAUGHTER] You're right. Can I ask one more question?
Palin: Sure, good.
CNN: You've talked about America. And certain parts of America, that are maybe more American than other parts of American, Are there?
Palin: Ehhh, I don't want that misunderstood. No, I do not want that misunderstood. You know, when I go to these rallies and we see the patriotism just shining through these people's faces and the Vietnam veterans wearing their hats so proudly and they have tears in their eyes as we sing our national anthem and it is so inspiring and I say that this is true America, you get it, you understand how important it is that in the next four years we have a leader who will fight for you. I certainly don't want that interpreted as one area being more patriotic or more American than another. If that's the way it's come across, I apologize.
By Dan NoyesHave you thought about where the eggs for your breakfast come from? We're getting the first look at new undercover video taken at a Southern California egg ranch -- one of the biggest in the state. It is part of the Proposition 2 campaign to improve conditions for farm animals.
"I was hired as a maintenance guy in the chicken barns," says an undercover investigator for the group, Mercy for Animals, who wore a hidden camera while working at Norco Farms in Menifee during August and September.
He documented what's called a battery cage operation. This is the way that 95 percent of the eggs in this country are produced.
"All of the birds were confined in cages that were so small they couldn't stretch their wings and they couldn't walk or turn around without being in constant contact with other birds or the walls of the cages. Some of the cages were so overcrowded that the birds literally had to lie on top of each other," says the investigator.
That is the simple point of Prop. 2 -- "to prohibit the cruel confinement of farm animals in a manner that does not allow them to turn around freely, lie down, stand up, and fully extend their limbs."
The video at Norco Ranch shows the hens have no room for natural behavior such as foraging, dust bathing or perching. We played the video for the group opposing Prop 2.
"Well, it would be great if we all had more room, but the fact of the matter is for the hens to have more room, the farmers need to make incredible improvements in their property in terms of their equipment and infrastructure and they need a lot more land, they need more space," says Julie Buckner with the "No on Prop. 2" campaign. [As though anyone needs eggs]
"If Proposition 2 passes, it will effectively force us out of business," says egg farmer Jill Benson.
The "No on 2" campaign arranged an interview with an egg farmer in Modesto. Benson defended her battery cage operation, with six hens per cage.
"The feed's in front of her, the water's in back, she can flap her wings and still socialize with her neighbors," says Benson. [She admits that they socialize, that they have real interactions and feelings.]
The undercover video at the other ranch in Southern California raises more concerns than cage size and overcrowding. The investigator found badly decomposed carcasses in cages with hens still producing eggs for human consumption. Eggs on a conveyor belt bounced off the head of one dead bird. Other live chickens were stuck in the cages, and the investigator says the injured were left to suffer.
"I never saw a veterinarian on the property nor was there any kind of a protocol ever explained to me for what humane euthanasia would be," says the investigator.
The investigator tells the I-Team when he pointed out injured birds, the workers did not call a vet and they did not do a very good job -- or a humane job -- of killing the hens. They would keep flopping for minutes. He also found chickens suffering what is called a prolapse.
"And a prolapse is where a chicken has laid enough eggs or a particularly large egg so that her uterus turns inside out and then she's bleeding from the wound and eventually all of her insides spill out from her cavity," explains the investigator.
"Farming isn't always pretty [Especially when it's rape and torture.], it isn't glamorous and for those of us who live in the cities and suburbs, we really don't have much of a chance to see how the food we eat is raised," says Buckner.
Norco Ranch is owned by Land O' Lakes, which referred our calls for comment to Moark LLC, the subsidiary that oversees the farm. Moark President and CEO Craig Willardson says the company follows strict guidelines on humane treatment, and that workers killing hens this way is wrong.
"As you described, that twirling around, that is not part of our accepted procedures. We will do an investigation up to and including termination of any employees who were involved in that activity," says Willardson.
This video comes at a tough time for the opponents of Prop. 2. They say if the bill passes, it will drive egg production out of state.
"The farmers in California, egg farmers in California, are doing the best possible job they can caring for their animals and providing us with a clean, safe food product," says Buckner. [I think that no one would/does actually believe that statement. The "best job" they could do would be to stop farming.]
"This is abuse that is so horrific, that if we kept dogs or cats in these conditions, it would be illegal. The very least that we can do in a civilized society is afford this basic protection to farm animals, as well," says Nathan Runkle with Mercy for Animals.
The president of the company that owns Norco Ranch agreed to give us a tour some time next week. But he says he has to get back to us on whether we can bring a television camera.
Prop. 2 would not take effect until 2015, so the egg producers would have time to adjust or move out of state, as the "No on 2" people argue.
For more on this story, read the I-Team Blog: Eggs for your breakfast.
 Hormone may stimulate development of cancer cells |
Eating meat and dairy products may increase the risk of prostate cancer, research suggests.
Such a diet raises levels of a hormone called Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1) which promotes cell growth.
A University of Oxford team examined the results of 12 studies, featuring a total of nearly 9,000 men.
They found men with high blood levels of IGF-1 were up to 40% more likely to develop prostate cancer than those with low levels.
The study appears in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
IGF-1 plays a key role in the growth and development of children and adolescents.
In adults it continues to regulate cell growth and death, but it can also inhibit the death of cells which have come to the end of their natural life cycle.
Extent unclear
Lead researcher Dr Andrew Roddam said the degree to which diet influenced IGF-1 levels was unclear.
But he said levels could be up to 15% higher in people who ate a lot of meat and dairy products.
Dr Roddam said: "There is a need to identify risk factors for prostate cancer, especially those which can be targeted by therapy and/or lifestyle changes.
"Now we know this factor is associated with the disease we can start to examine how diet and lifestyle factors can affect its levels and whether changes could reduce a man's risk."
Dr Roddam said raised levels of IGF-1 were likely not only to increase the risk of developing prostate cancer, but also to aid the spread of tumours.
Research shows that cells fed IGF-1 grow much more quickly.
However, Dr Roddam said there was no evidence to suggest that measuring IGF-1 levels could be used to develop a new test to screen for prostate cancer.
Each year in the UK more than 34,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer and around 10,000 die of the disease.
Dr Lesley Walker, of the charity Cancer Research UK, which funded the study, said: "While there are established risk factors associated with prostate cancer of age, family history, and ethnicity, there are no clear data on modifiable risk factors."
And Debbie Clayton, of the Prostate Cancer Charity, agreed such areas of research could be useful.
But she added: "More research is needed, however, before this can be translated into useful advice for men on which foods may need to be modified in their diet."
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's hometown required women to pay for their own rape examinations while she was mayor, a practice her police chief fought to keep as late as 2000.
A former Alaskan lawmaker says it seems unlikely that Gov. Sarah Palin was unaware of Wasilla's policy.
Former state Rep. Eric Croft, a Democrat, sponsored a state law requiring cities to provide the examinations free of charge to victims. He said the only ongoing resistance he met was from Wasilla, where Palin was mayor from 1996 to 2002.
"It was one of those things everyone could agree on except Wasilla," Croft told CNN. "We couldn't convince the chief of police to stop charging them."
Alaska's Legislature in 2000 banned the practice of charging women for rape exam kits -- which experts said could cost up to $1,000.
Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president, often talks about her experience running Wasilla, population approximately 7,000, and that has prompted close scrutiny of her record there. Wasilla's practice of charging victims for their rape exams while she was mayor has gotten wide circulation on the Internet and in the mainstream media. 
Watch CNN's Jessica Yellin check the facts in Wasilla »
Some supporters of Palin say they believe she had no knowledge of the practice. But critics call it "outrageous" and question Palin's commitment to helping women who are the victims of violence.
For years, Alaska has had the worst record of any state in rape and in murder of women by men. The rape rate in Alaska is 2.5 times the national average.
Interviews and a review of records turned up no evidence that Palin knew that rape victims were being charged in her town. But Croft, the former state representative who sponsored the law changing the practice, says it seems unlikely Palin was not aware of the issue.
"I find it hard to believe that for six months a small town, a police chief, would lead the fight against a statewide piece of legislation receiving unanimous support and the mayor not know about it," Croft said.
During the time Palin was mayor of Wasilla, her city was not the only one in Alaska charging rape victims. Experts testified before the Legislature that in a handful of small cities across Alaska, law enforcement agencies were charging victims or their insurance "more than sporadically."
One woman who wrote in support of the legislation says she was charged for her rape exam by a police department in the city of Juneau, which is hundreds of miles from Wasilla.
But Wasilla stood out. Tara Henry, a forensic nurse who has been treating rape victims across Alaska for the last 12 years, told CNN that opposition to Croft's bill from Wasilla Police Chief Charlie Fannon was memorable.
"Several municipal law enforcement agencies in the state did have trouble budgeting and paying for the evidence collection for sexual assault victims," Henry said. "What I recall is that the chief of police in the Wasilla police department seemed to be the most vocal about how it was going to affect their budget."
Croft has a similar memory. He said victims' advocates suggested he introduce legislation as a way to shame cities into changing their practice, and Wasilla resisted.
"I remember they had continued opposition," Croft said. "It was eight years ago now, but they were sort of unrepentant that they thought the taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for that."
He does not recall discussing the issue with then-Mayor Palin.
The bill, HB270, was before the legislature for six months. In testimony, one expert called the practice of billing the victim "incomprehensible." Others compared it to "dust[ing] for fingerprints" after a burglary, only "the victim's body is the crime scene."
During a rape exam, the victim removes her clothing and a medical professional gathers DNA evidence from her body. There is also a medical component to assess her injuries. That component has led some law enforcement agencies to balk at paying.
Henry, the forensic nurse, said charging victims "retraumatizes them."
"Asking them to pay for something law enforcement needs in order to investigate their case, it's almost like blaming them for getting sexually assaulted," she said.
The Alaska Legislature agreed. The bill passed unanimously with the support of the Alaska Department of Public Safety, the Alaska Peace Officers Association and more than two dozen co-sponsors.
After it became law, Wasilla's police chief told the local paper, The Frontiersman, that it would cost the city $5,000 to $14,000 a year -- money that he'd have to find.
"In the past, we've charged the cost of the exams to the victim's insurance company when possible," Fannon was quoted as saying. "I just don't want to see any more burden on the taxpayer."
He suggested the criminals should pay as restitution if and when they're convicted. Repeated attempts to reach Fannon for comment were unsuccessful.
Judy Patrick, who was Palin's deputy mayor and friend, blames the state.
"The bigger picture of what was going on at the time was that the state was trying to cut their own budget, and one of the things that they were doing was passing on costs to cities, and that was one of the many things that they were passing on, the cost to the city," said Patrick, who recalls enormous pressure to keep the city's budget down.
But the state was never responsible for paying the costs of local investigations. Patrick was also a member of Wasilla City Council, and she doesn't recall the issue coming before council members, nor does she remember discussing the issue with Palin.
She does recall Palin going through the budget in detail. She said Palin would review each department's budget line by line and send it back to department heads with her changes.
"Sarah is a fiscal conservative, and so she had seen that the city was heading in a direction of bigger projects, costing taxpayers more money, and she was determined to change that," Patrick said.
Before Palin came to City Hall, the Wasilla Police Department paid for rape kits out of a fund for miscellaneous costs, according to the police chief who preceded Fannon and was fired by Palin. That budget line was cut by more than half during Palin's tenure, but it did not specifically mention rape exams.
In a statement, Jill Hazelbaker, communications director for Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign, said that "to imply that Gov. Palin is or has ever been an advocate of charging victims for evidence gathering kits is an utter distortion of reality."
"As her record shows, Gov. Palin is committed to supporting victims and bringing violent criminals to justice," Hazelbaker said. "She does not, nor has she ever believed that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence gathering test."
Those who fought the policy are unconvinced.
"It's incomprehensible to me that this could be a rogue police chief and not a policy decision. It lasted too long and it was too high-profile," Croft said.
The rape kit charges have become an issue among Palin critics who say as governor she has not done enough to combat Alaska's epidemic problem of violence against women. They point to a small funding increase for domestic violence shelters at a time when Alaska has a multibillion-dollar budget surplus. Victims' advocates say that services are lacking and that Palin cut funding for a number of programs that treat female victims of violence.
In the past week, Alaska's challenges with sexual assault have been in the spotlight again -- in connection with an ongoing inquiry into whether Palin abused her power by firing the head of Alaska's Department of Public Safety. Palin's office released e-mails showing that one area of disagreement between her and Department of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan was his lobbying in Washington for $30 million to fund a new program of sexual assault response teams.
Giving up meat could drastically reduce your carbon footprint, with meat-eaters' diets responsible for almost twice the emissions of those of vegetarians, a German study said on Tuesday.
A diet with meat is responsible for producing in a year the same amount of greenhouse gases as driving a mid-sized car 4,758 kilometres (2,956 miles), the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IOeW) said.
But the food a vegetarian consumes in 12 months is responsible for generating the same emissions as driving 2,427 kilometres, the IOeW said in a study commissioned by independent consumer protection group Foodwatch.
The calculations are based on emissions of greenhouse gases, including methane produced by the animals themselves, as well as emissions from food production including manufacturing feed and fertiliser and the use of farmland.
Going vegan -- giving up meat and dairy products -- would cut the emissions released in making what you eat more than seven-fold, to the equivalent of driving 629 kilometres, it said.
And if it is all organic, your food footprint is almost a 17th of that of a meat-eater -- the equivalent of driving 281 kilometres.
Beef is particularly environmentally unfriendly, it said, with producing a kilo (2.2 pounds) the same as driving 71 kilometres compared with 26 kilometres for pork.
Switching to organic farming can cut emissions dramatically, "but what counts is the way we feed ourselves ... production and consumption first and foremost of beef and milk must be cut drastically," the study said.
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It's not hard.
It's not expensive.
It's not gross.
It's not a sacrifice.
He was born three weeks early after his mother was hit by a car.
Vets battled to save her but she died soon afterwards.
Orphan: Muntjac fawn Rupert was delivered by Caesarean section after his mother was killed by a car. He was just six inches tall and weighed 500 grams
Sleepy head: The male has short antlers, usually four inches or less, and uses them to push enemies off balance so he can wound them with his two-inch upper canine teeth. The small deer is also called the barking deer
The little orphan, delivered by Caesarean section, was just six inches tall and, at 500 grams, weighed little more than a bag of sugar.
It looked like he, too, would face a tough fight for survival.
But staff at Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital in Buckinghamshire believe Rupert, as he has been named, will make a full recovery after his dramatic arrival.
At five days old, he is being kept in an incubator and has just opened his eyes.
Wee thing: Rupert is growing into quite a handful. The muntjac grows to 37 inches in length, and weighs between 22 and 40lbs when fully grown
Les Stocker, founder of Tiggywinkles, said: 'Rupert's mother had very severe injuries. We brought him out and got him breathing and then he went into an incubator on oxygen. He is now being fed by a tube.'
'Deer are very, very tricky but this one has spirit. He's an extremely feisty little guy and quite pushy,' he added.
Muntjac are the oldest known deer, appearing 15-35 million years ago, with remains found in Miocene deposits in France and Germany.
First steps: An unspecified species of muntjac was introduced to the grounds of Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire in the 19th century by the then Duke of Bedford
Alien species: Larger numbers of muntjac escaped from Whipsnade Zoo, and they are the more likely ancestors, in addition to other releases
The present-day species are native to south-east Asia and can be found from India and Sri Lanka to southern China, Taiwan, Japan and Indonesian islands.
Reeves's Muntjac has been introduced to England and is now common in some areas there.
Inhabiting tropical regions, the deer have no seasonal rut and mating can take place at any time of year.
However, this behaviour is retained by populations introduced to temperate countries.
Males have short antlers, which can regrow but they tend to fight for territory with their tusks.
Widespread: Muntjac colonies exist throughout England below Derbyshire, and the population continues to grow. Small groupings of muntjacs have been seen in large urban parks in the Islington, Highgate, East Ham, Finchley and Greenwich areas of London
Vinnie England was holidaying in Benidorm with his family when he got the two-and-a-half inch image of the spiky-haired cartoon character on his right arm at a henna tattoo shack.
But days after returning home, Vinnie complained that his arm was hurting and the temporary image soon began to redden and blister.
Marked for life? Vinnie shows off the marks left by his tattoo. His mother Hayley, right, fears the scars will be permanent
His mother Hayley Shipway, 24, who lives with Vinnie and his four-week-old sister Ruby, said a red ring appeared around the Bart outline.
She took him to the doctors who gave him a steroid cream.
'The next morning it had got much worse so I took him back to the doctors and as soon as I lifted up his sleeve and showed the nurse her face just dropped,' she told the Bristol Evening Post.
'It was inflamed and sore, and looked like the Bart Simpson had been scratched into his skin with a pin.'
Mrs Shipway, from Southmead, Bristol, who has let Vinnie have stick-on tattoos before, said he now keeps asking her to take the scar off.
An excited Vinnie sits for a family holiday snap while the artist applies the 'temporary' tattoo
She added: 'We have been told that the scarring in the shape of Bart Simpson may be permanent because he had such a bad reaction.
'I just feel so guilty. People have said it's not our fault, but we let him have it done.'
A genuine henna tattoo should fade within 10 days and the ink is usually a red-brown colour.
But the ink used on Vinnie's skin was black, suggesting it contained a hair dye chemical called paraphenylenediamine or PPD.
PPD is often mixed with the henna by tattoo artists abroad because it is cheap.
A high concentration of PPD is used which can cause dermatitis when in contact with the skin.
