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Rocks Dropped Onto I-5 Smash 14 Cars
LAKEWOOD, Wash. -- Rocks dropped from a railroad trestle onto Interstate 5 smashed into more than a dozen cars and injured one person in Lakewood overnight, troopers told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News.

Based on information from some of the victims, police checked out the railroad track and arrested a 23-year-old man and an 18-year-old woman.

"I never expected it to happen here, but I was scared. I've never been so scared in my life," said Gwendolyn Harris, whose car was hit.

The rocks -- dropped from a trestle north of Bridgeport and south of Highway 512 -- damaged 14 vehicles, including a State Patrol car and a cab.

"They didn't give us a good reason after they were Mirandized as to why they were throwing rocks, but they both confessed to throwing rocks from the overpass," said Sgt. Erick Thomas of the Washington State Patrol.

Police said it is lucky that the rocks didn't kill anyone, given the height of the railroad bridge and the speed of the cars below on Interstate 5.

Troopers said possible charges include second-degree assault and malicious mischief, both felonies.





Edaleen Dairy Recalls 2 Ice Cream Products
LYNDEN, Wash. -- Edaleen Dairy located in Lynden, WA is recalling their Tin Roof Sundae and Chocolate Peanut Butter Nut Ice Cream in all sizes (1.75 quart carton, 1.5 gallon tub, 3 gallon tub), because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. This recall was a voluntary decision made by Edaleen Dairy and supported by the FDA.

The products were manufactured using peanuts/peanut products recalled by Peanut Corporation of American because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. Salmonella is an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy persons infected with Salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. In rare circumstances, infection with Salmonella can result in the organism getting into the bloodstream and producing more severe illnesses such as arterial infections (i.e., infected aneurysms), endocarditis and arthritis.

Tin Roof Sundae and Chocolate Peanut Butter Nut Ice Creams were sold distributors, stores, gas stations, scoop shops, etc. throughout Western Washington (Mostly in the Whatcom area). This product was also sold through the Edaleen Store located on 9593 Guide Meridian, Lynden, WA.

Tin Roof Sundae (UPC 14138 70005) and Chocolate Peanut Butter Nut (UPC 14138 70051) Ice creams were sold in 1.75 quart Cartons, 1.5 gallon tubs and 3 gallon tubs under the Edaleen’s Brand name. Products with dates of manufacture, found on the bottom of the carton, between October 1, 2007 and May 8, 2009 are affected by this recall.
No known illnesses have been reported to date in connection with this product/these products. The recall was initiated after it was determined that the peanut product received was manufactured by Peanut Corporation of America. The chocolate covered peanut product was bought by Edaleen Dairy from DOT Foods who are distributors of food ingredients. Edaleen Dairy has informed FDA of its actions and is fully cooperating with the Agency.

Customers that have bought the Tin Roof ice cream or the Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream should return this product to the place where they bought it from. An exchange or refund can be done. If there are any questions consumers can contact Edaleen Dairy Monday through Friday 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, phone number is (360) 354-5342 Pacific Time.





Plane Lands In Seattle Park
SEATTLE, Wash. -- A small plane made a surprise landing at a Seattle park Monday afternoon.

The Cessna 210 landed in Seattle's Genesee Park just before 4.30 p.m., to the surprise of Memorial Day park attendees.

There were no injuries, according to Seattle Police Department's Mark Jamieson.
Jamieson tells KIRO-TV that officers nearby heard the plane having mechanical difficulties.

The Federal Aviation Administration tells KIRO that the plane filed a flight plan to Seattle from Omak, in eastern Washington.

There were three people and one dog on board the plane, says the FAA spokesperson.





4 in 10 college kids are depressed, hopeless
Few have gotten professional help, new poll of students age 18-24 finds

WASHINGTON - Pressure about grades, student loans, relationships and school work take a toll on college students, finds a new Associated Press-mtvU poll.

More than 42 percent of those surveyed at 40 colleges said they had felt down, depressed or hopeless several days during the past two weeks, and 13 percent showed signs of being at risk for at least mild depression, based on the students' answers to a series of questions that medical practitioners use to diagnose depressive illness.

Eighty five percent of those surveyed reported feeling stressed in their daily lives in recent months, found the poll of 2,240 undergraduate students ages 18-24 at four-year colleges.

Many of those coping with feeling depressed complained of trouble sleeping, having little energy or feeling down or hopeless — and most hadn't gotten professional help. Eleven percent had had thoughts that they'd be better off dead or about hurting themselves.

That's not just a case of the blues to be shrugged off by taking a break with Facebook or going for a workout.

Kristin Potts, who graduated from Penn State last week with a 4.0 in chemistry and will go on for a master's, says she's seen warning signs among fellow classmates.

"I had a couple friends who didn't come out of their rooms very much," she said. "I tried my hardest not to be like that, but I definitely saw it."

'There's still a stigma'
At the University of Maryland in College Park, students were sobered by two suicides within two weeks this past semester.

"It was pretty scary," says Aimee Mayer, a junior studying psychology. She says there's lots of information and help available for students with mental disorders, but "there's still a stigma associated with mental health issues and so a lot of people don't want to go to those services. They feel like they're less cool or something like that if they go. It's like a sign of vulnerability."

Megan Salame, a sophomore studying civil engineering at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., says she'd turn first to her parents if she felt depressed. But she hastened to add, "Depressed — I don't really like to use that word because it sounds so negative."

Mental health disorders like depression typically begin relatively early in life, doctors say, and college is a natural time for symptoms to emerge.

The AP-mtvU poll exploring the students' state of mind and the pressures they face, including strains from the tough economy. Among the poll results:

Nine percent of students were at risk of moderate to severe depression. That's in line with a recent medical study that found 7 percent of young people had depression.
Almost a quarter of those with a parent who had lost a job during the school year showed signs of at least mild depression, more than twice the percentage of those who hadn't had a parent lose a job. More than twice as many students whose parents had lost a job said they had seriously considered ending their own life, 13 percent to 5 percent.
Among those who reported serious symptoms of moderate depression or worse, just over a quarter had ever been diagnosed with a mental health condition.
More than half of those who reported having seriously considered suicide at some point in the previous year had not received any treatment or counseling.
Just a third of those with moderate symptoms of depression or worse had received any support or treatment from a counselor or mental health professional since starting college.
Nearly half of those diagnosed with at least moderate symptoms weren't familiar with counseling resources on campus.
Anne Marie Albano, an associate professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University, said college is a "tender age" developmentally, a period when young adults start taking responsibility for their lives. They're selecting careers, moving toward financial independence, establishing long-term relationships, perhaps marrying, having children.

The most troubling thing coming out of the AP-mtvU poll and other studies of young adults dealing with depression, she said, is that "they don't get help" at a time when they're just venturing off on their own.

"They have to learn to become their own monitors about their mental health and yet they have no training to do that," she said.

Everyday blues or clinical depression?
Alison Malmon, whose older brother, Brian, committed suicide when she was a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania in 2000, decided to do something about it. After searching unsuccessfully for a group that she could bring to campus that would encourage students to talk about mental health issues and seek help, Malmon created Open Minds. That group has grown into the nonprofit Active Minds, with chapters on more than more than 200 campuses.

Malmon, 27, executive director of the nonprofit, says students don't have to worry about how to draw the line between everyday blues and clinical depression.

"You don't need to have a serious, diagnosable depression to go talk to someone," she said. "If you feel down or if you feel like you're not yourself, go talk to somebody about it."

The AP-mtvU poll found that 84 percent of students said they'd know where to turn for help if they were in serious emotional distress or thinking about hurting themselves. Most said they'd go first to friends or family. Twenty percent said they'd try school counseling.

That means it may be up to friends and family to guide students toward professional help where warranted, said Malmon.

Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute for Mental Health, said students need to understand that depression is "a very treatable illness." Campus counseling centers are a good resource, he said, although they're not all set up take care of serious mental illnesses.

"There should be somebody there who could at least assess this, and in some cases offer reassurance that 'I'm sure you'll feel better after exams are over,'" he said. Serious cases can be referred for treatment, he said — "and treatment works."

Nearly 10 percent of adults in U.S. are depressed
Depressive disorders afflict an estimated 9.5 percent of adult Americans in a given year, or about 20.9 million people. The median age for onset is 30.





First death under new Washington suicide law
66-year-old woman was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer

OLYMPIA, Wash. - A 66-year-old woman who had stage 4 pancreatic cancer is the first person to die under Washington state’s new assisted suicide law.

Linda Fleming of Sequim died Thursday night after taking drugs prescribed under the “Death with Dignity” law that took effect in March. Assisted suicide group Compassion & Choices of Washington announced Fleming’s death Friday morning.

The organization says Fleming was diagnosed last month with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

The new law was approved in last November’s election with a nearly 60 percent vote. It is based on Oregon’s measure which passed in 1997. Since then, about 401 people have used the Oregon law to end their lives.

Washington and Oregon are the only states to allow assisted suicide.





Death in New York City linked to swine flu
Woman is the city's second victim and the 11th in the United States

NEW YORK - A New York City woman died over the weekend of swine flu, becoming the city's second victim and America's 11th.

The World Health Organization, as of Friday, had tallied more than 12,000 swine flu cases worldwide, with more than half of them in the United States. It counted at least 86 deaths, with 75 of those in Mexico.

The New York woman, who was in her 50s, had other health conditions, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene spokeswoman Jessica Scaperotti said. No other information on her case was disclosed Sunday.

Assistant public school principal Mitchell Wiener, who died May 17, was the city's first death from the virus. The 55-year-old had been sick for several days.

Health officials aren't testing everyone
There were 280 confirmed cases of swine flu in the city and 94 hospitalizations as of Sunday, Scaperotti said. The number of confirmed cases probably doesn't fully reflect the spread of the virus, given that health officials aren't testing everyone for the H1N1 strain.

"It's most likely that if you're sick with the flu, that you have the H1N1 virus," Scaperotti said.

Those people with chronic health conditions such as diabetes and compromised immune systems who are suffering from flu-like symptoms should seek medical advice, Scaperotti said. Only those with more serious symptoms, such as shortness of breath, should go to emergency rooms, she said.

The city's first outbreak of swine flu occurred about a month ago, when more than 1,000 teenagers at a Catholic high school in Queens began falling ill following the return of several students from vacations in Mexico, where the virus was first detected.

The virus has coursed through the city's schools and even reached its jail system, where inmates' visiting hours have been limited and hand sanitizer passed around. On Thursday, correction officials said they would sanitize a 2,600-inmate jail on Rikers Island.

Eighteen U.S. soldiers infected with swine flu have recovered after treatment on an American base in Kuwait and left the country, a Kuwaiti health official said Sunday.

"They were treated and they have fully recovered," said Youssef Mandakar, deputy head of Kuwait's public health department. He said the soldiers had shown "mild symptoms" of the disease upon their arrival at an Air Force base.

Soldiers treated at U.S. military facilities
Kuwaiti authorities confirmed that the soldiers came from the United States but would not say where they had gone, adding that the troops had no contact with the local population and were treated at U.S. military facilities.

Ibrahim Abdul-Hadi, an undersecretary at the Health Ministry, said the U.S. military had examined and quarantined a number of soldiers who mixed with the infected ones.

Kuwait is a major ally of Washington and a logistics base for U.S. military personnel serving in Iraq.

Raad Mahmoud, a spokesman for the Iraqi Health Ministry, said precautions are being taken at airports and border entry points, but he said Iraqi authorities have no authority over U.S. troops and the foreigners who enter with them. He said the U.S. military has to administer medical tests to everybody when they enter the country and the military must present the reports to the ministry.

U.S. Army Maj. Jose Lopez, a military spokesman, said there were no reported cases of swine flu among American troops in Iraq.

Poland's Chief Sanitary Inspectorate on Sunday confirmed the country's third case of swine flu in a 21-year-old who had just returned to Poland from the United States.

Jan Bondar, the spokesman for the state office, said the man returned on Friday and presented himself at a hospital for testing after getting a call from a friend in Washington whom he had spent time with and who had contracted the virus.

The Pole's condition is not serious, Bondar said.





‘Jon & Kate Plus 8’ staged? Far from shocking
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Before the season premiere of “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” Kate Gosselin’s sister-in-law Julie urged viewers not to watch the episode, which aired May 25. The reason? The Gosselin’s “reality” show is staged.

If that revelation brought on a bout of emotional seasickness, then you probably shouldn’t read on, but try anyway, because Julie goes to great lengths in a post on her blog to describe the breach of trust:

“When the show first started, Kate made a wish list of things that she wanted, and that became the theme of each episode — the carpet, twins’ room, bunk beds, cow, hair plugs, teeth whitening, trips, etc. EVERYTHING that you see them do or buy is completely paid for out of the budget for the show or traded for free advertising … The episodes are also staged. Here’s how it works ... there is a staff of people reading these blogs and they base the shows around what people are talking about.”

I haven’t been this shocked since … oh right, I’m not shocked at all. Since the beginning of reality shows — or let’s just call it “mostly unscripted programming,” producers have been “staging” the shows.

First, there are hours upon hours of footage that need to be culled down into bite-size pieces that have a plot fit to air on television. When you’re working with that much material, the editing process is by nature a manipulative one. A story has to be told, parts will be left out, it is what it is. Move on.

Second, for a mostly unscripted program to be interesting, there needs to be some sort of action. A person who worked on the set of “Newlyweds,” which turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey, confirms that sometimes events would be cooked up for the sole purpose of giving the couple something to do worth taping.

“Not everyone does something interesting every single week. You’d sit there with the calendar and figure out what to do,” said the source. “One week there might be an anniversary — easy. The next, there might be nothing, so we dream up a scenario where Nick tries to move furniture in without movers. Suddenly you have television.”

Julie also goes on to say in the blog post that Jon and Kate’s “children are being prompted to say or do certain things.” Yes, this happens, too, but there’s not always cause to be cynical about it. In some instances, a character will say something that’s caught by producers, but doesn’t get picked up on tape, and they’re asked to repeat it so that it’s usable. Point being: not everything that doesn’t seem totally organic stems from something sinister or misleading.

There are plenty of painfully obvious reasons for an individual to not want to watch “Jon & Kate,” as is true with just about any show. But the idea that it’s staged should not be one of them.

Paul McCartney angry about digital TV
The recession has hit even celebrity wallets but Paul McCartney, who has a reputation for being overly frugal even in good economic climates, is taking things a bit far according to a source who knows him well.

“He’s furious over this switch to digital cable. He doesn’t think it’s right that you have to either go to the trouble of getting an adapter or you have to buy a new TV, which he should do anyway,” said the source. “You’d think he’d have an apartment full of flat screen TVs but really, he’s got these old clunky sets in this tiny New York apartment.”





Red Bull pulled in Germany after cocaine test
Authorities say the drug level was too low to pose a health risk
BERLIN - Six German states have told retailers to stop selling Red Bull Cola energy drinks after a test found a trace amount of cocaine.

The bans started Friday after a sample test conducted by authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia state found 0.4 micrograms per liter in the drink.

Five other states also banned it from shops amid concerns over possible narcotics law violations.

Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment said Monday that the cocaine level was too low to pose a health risk. It planned to produce a more detailed report Wednesday.

Red Bull said its cola is "harmless and marketable in both the U.S. and Europe." It said similar coca leaf extracts are used worldwide as flavoring, and a test it commissioned itself found no cocaine traces.





N. Korea nuclear test reverberates worldwide
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South Korea formally announced Tuesday that it would join a U.S.-led effort to crack down on trafficking in weapons of mass destruction in response to North Korea's new nuclear test.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's government said it would join the 6-year-old Proliferation Security Initiative because of "the grave threat WMD and missile proliferation is posing to global peace," Foreign Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young said.

The effort is aimed at interdicting shipments of weapons technology, a rare source of hard currency for North Korea, but Moon said the south would continue to uphold a shipping agreement with the north.

North Korea previously had protested any move by South Korea to join the initiative. There was no immediate response to Tuesday's declaration, but North Korea's state-run news agency said in April that any effort to join the initiative would be regarded as "a declaration of war."

The North Korea's nuclear bomb test -- its second -- reverberated around the world Monday, with the U.N. Security Council condemning it as a "clear violation" of international law and even Pyongyang's closest ally criticizing the exercise. China said North Korea "disregarded the opposition of the international community" to conduct the test.

"The Chinese government expresses firm opposition to this," a statement from Beijing's foreign ministry announced. It urged Pyongyang to return to the six-party talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear program, abide by its existing commitments and "cease any actions that might cause the situation to deteriorate further."

North Korea agreed in 2008 to scrap its nuclear weapons program, which it said had produced enough plutonium for about seven atomic bombs, in exchange for economic aid. But the deal foundered over verification and disclosure issues, and the North expelled international inspectors and announced plans to restart its main nuclear reactor.

At the United Nations, Security Council members took about an hour Monday to express their unanimous condemnation of the move. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin called Monday's test "very serious" and said it "needs to have a strong response."

In a statement authorized by the council members, Churkin said the test was a "clear violation" of previous resolutions calling for North Korea to avoid provocative steps such as nuclear weapons or missile tests. And U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said Washington will seek "strong measures" against North Korea.

"The U.S. thinks that this is a grave violation of international law and a threat to regional and international peace and security," she said.





Disfigured Mirror
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