Smaller-born babies tend
to earn lower incomes
1 CHICAGO — Babies bom
smaller than normal tend to
have lower incomes as adults but
are just as likely as normal birth
weight people to be employed,
married and satisfied with their
lives, a study found.
The study linked the lower in
comes to lower achievement in
school, which led to lower-pay
ing, blue-collar jobs.
Previous studies have linked
low birth weight to problems with
brain development in children.
But those studies did not track
low birth-weight babies past mid
childhood, said Dr. Richard S.
Strauss, the study’s lead re
searcher and assistant professor of
pediatrics at the University of
Medicine and Dentistry of New
Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson
Medical School.
The study, which was pub
lished in Wednesday’s Journal of
the American Medical Associa
tion, tracked about 1,000 full-term
babies who weighed less than
about 5.5 pounds at birth in
Britain in 1970. They were exam
ined at ages 10, 16 and 26 and
compared with normal-size ba
bies born the same year.
The adults born small earned
about 10 percent less, and those
who had normal birth weights
were twice as likely to become
professionals.
Web site to give away
scholarship money
2BOSTON — An Internet site to
be launched Thursday is
promising to give away $10,000 a
day in college scholarship money.
No essay required. No nerve
wracking interview. Just the luck
of the draw.
Newlpigest
The savvy marketers at
FreeScholarships.com know the
sweepstakes may sound too good
to be true. But it’s the latest of a
host of Web sites handing out mil
lions to Web surfers willing to tell
marketers about themselves.
The scholarships from the new
Cambridge-based company are fi
nanced largely by marketers and
advertisers who are particularly
keen on the teen-age and 20-some
thing markets.
And the incentives for coughing
up demographic information are
great. FreeScholarships plans to
award an additional $25,000
every month and $50,000 each
quarter, in addition to the daily
giveaway of $10,000.
The money is available for col
lege, graduate school, even private
school for children. College grads
with loans to pay off are also eligi
ble, as are parents planning for fu
ture college bills. Winners need
only be U.S. citizens over 13.
The Web site sounds well-in
tentioned enough, said Mark Can
non, deputy executive director of
the National Association for Col
lege Admission Counseling,
which represents guidance coun
selors and admissions officers.
Tables turn when prison
guards charged with murder
3STARKE, Fla. — Four prison
guards were arrested and
charged with second-degree mur
der Wednesday in the fatal beat
ing of a death-row inmate.
Capt. Timothy Thornton, Sgt.
Jason Griffis, and Sgt. Charles A.
Brown all turned themselves into
the Bradford County Jail, where
they were being held on $100,000
bond, according to jail officials.
Also arrested was Sgt. Robert
W. Sauls, who was to be booked
Wednesday evening, according to
a law enforcement source who re
quested anonymity.
A grand jury investigating the
death issued sealed indictments
Wednesday. The indictments
were expected to be unsealed
Thursday.
All were scheduled to make
. their first court appearance Thurs
day morning. They face up to life
in prison if convicted.
“It’s a travesty of justice,” said
Thornton’s attorney, Gloria
Fletcher. “The man didn’t do any
thing. He was doing his job.”
Guards claimed Valdes, 36, had
severely injured himself by throw
ing himself off his bunk onto the
concrete floor of his cell.
The medical examiner said an
autopsy showed Valdes was beat
en to death. The inmate had boot
marks on his body, his ribs were
broken and his testicles were
swollen.
Valdes was sentenced to death
for the fatal shooting of a prison
guard while attempting to help a
fellow inmate escape in 1987.
New AIDS drugs should
require fewer pills
4 SAN FRANCISCO—Powerful
new AIDS drugs in develop
ment should help relieve one of
the biggest problems of treatment
—the pill burden.
Over the past four years, new
treatment combinations have rev
olutionized AIDS care, changing
HIV infection from a death sen
tence to a disease that is treatable,
if not curable.
Patients, however, must adhere
to a tedious and exacting schedule
of downing pills, often more than
20 a day.
Now, drugmakers are working
on new drugs that require much
smaller doses as well as better ver
sions of the old standbys that can
be taken less frequently.
Experts say that if all goes well,
over the next two or so years it
may be possible to reduce the pill
burden to just four tablets taken
once a day.
“Most drugs are dosed twice or
three times a day for a reason.
Once a day is not enough. The
Holy Grail would be to take all
your medicines once a day with as
few capsules as possible. We are
not so far from that, maybe in the
next couple of years, ” said Dr. Eu
gene Sun, head of antiviral drug
research at Abbott Laboratories.
The Associated Press
an really put your
in perspective