Avastin As Breast Cancer Treatment Tests FDA’s Ability To Say No

Callous bureaucrats are trying to steal away their hope. That’s the way several dozen protesters outside the Food and Drug Administration’s headquarters yesterday saw it. Inside another 20 breast cancer patients and their supporters stepped up to microphones to plead with the agency, sometimes tearfully, not to withdraw approval of Avastin, an $88,000-a-year drug they’re [...]

Funnybook Round-Up: Of Lawsuits, Ladies And Also, For Some Reason, ‘Burn Notice’

A quick around-the-horn this week: “We Request a Brief Recess, Your Honor, To Gloat, Cackle, Take Money Baths And Devise New Ways to Screw With The Plaintiff’s Dreams” Two super-suits in the news, of late. Jack Kirby’s heirs are suing Marvel for a share of the copyrights on his creations, and in a fine and [...]

Fishing In The Basement: A Manhattan Tale

I keep thinking about this story. It’s so unlikely, so unreasonable, but I can’t stop wondering … could this be? The time is 1955. We’re in a building, 992 Second Avenue in Manhattan to be exact, on 53rd Street. The teller of this tale is Jack Gasnick, the owner and operator of a hardware store [...]

Raising ‘Hell’ In Dramatic Richard Burton Style

The week that Elizabeth Taylor died I was a guest at a dinner party where the notorious gossip of her life swung around the table at a dizzying clip. When the talk, inevitably, turned to husband numbers five and six –- Richard Burton –- I pounced. All night I’d been waiting, wanting, churning to talk [...]

Greek Parliament Expected To Pass Austerity Package

Greece’s Parliament on Wednesday was poised to approve harsh new austerity measures aimed at forestalling a devastating default, but street protests vented popular anger over the plan for deep public-sector cuts and tax increases. A deputy with the opposition conservatives said she will break ranks with her party and back the ruling Socialists in the [...]

Solid Start Puts Bachmann In Front-Runner Territory

Republican presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota continues her announcement tour in South Carolina on Wednesday. Bachmann’s strong performance in debates and on the stump has vaulted her out of the second tier of candidates. On Tuesday, Bachmann stopped at a backyard event in Raymond, N.H. Poised and polished, she slings the applause lines [...]

Ex-Israeli Spy Chief’s Iran Comments Spark Row

The former Mossad spy chief’s name is on everyone’s lips in Israel — with good reason. Meir Dagan was the head of Israel’s spy agency for eight years and has been credited with raising the international prestige of the agency. So it came as a shock to many that upon leaving office he would talk [...]

China And Brazil Warm Up Business, Culture Ties

In its quest for resources and business opportunities, China needs to have influence in many countries. Increasingly, Beijing uses a sophisticated charm offensive, presenting an image of a modern and dynamic China — a strategy often called “soft power.” And Beijing is using the approach even in countries with a relatively good impression of China, [...]

States Threaten To Defy No Child Left Behind

A rebellion over No Child Left Behind has begun. The starting point: Idaho. Many states that say they need emergency relief from the controversial education law’s requirements — otherwise, they say, a huge number of decent schools will face sanctions. Idaho says it will just ignore the law this year. Under No Child Left Behind, [...]

FBI Invited Controversial Church To Talk To Agents

The Westboro Baptist Church is infamous for picketing soldiers’ funerals with signs like “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” and “God Hates the USA.” Yet the FBI recently invited leaders of the fundamentalist church to the Quantico Marine base in Virginia to talk to FBI agents as part of the bureau’s counter-terrorism training program. But after [...]