Meth breastfeeding-death charges filed

Prosecutors say a California mother knowingly endangered her infant's life by breastfeeding while using methamphetamine and has been charged in his death.

Six-week-old Anthony Acosta III died last year after an allegedly fatal level of the drug was passed to him by his mother, Maggie Jean Wortman, 26, who continued to breastfeed him despite her meth addiction, ABC News reported Friday.

Wortman's attorney, arguing it was not the meth in the infant's bloodstream that resulted in his death, said his client is pleading not guilty to second-degree murder charges.

Wortman admitted to investigators that she used the drug during pregnancy and approximately three times after Anthony was born, court documents show.

"Mothers who are abusing amphetamines through any route -- smoking, snorting, swallowing, injecting -- can pass amphetamines to their babies via breastfeeding," said Dr. Marcel Casavant, chief of pharmacology and toxicology at Nationwide Children's hospital. "In fact, amphetamine is concentrated into breast milk, which means breast tissue takes amphetamine from the mother's bloodstream and actively moves it into the milk."

Wortman has said she was unaware that using meth while breastfeeding could be dangerous to her baby, although a police officer testified at a preliminary hearing that Wortman was given a pamphlet on the dangers of breastfeeding while using meth.

Wortman's 19-month-old daughter has also tested positive for methamphetamine and is in protective custody, ABC reported.

Seattle bankers indicted over home loans

Four people were indicted in an alleged loan-fraud scheme that federal prosecutors said led to the collapse of a Seattle-area bank.

Two of the defendants were former vice presidents of the now-defunct Pierce Commercial Bank and allegedly helped steer mortgage loans to unqualified buyers who wound up defaulting.

The defendants allegedly fudged the information on about 270 loan applications valued at more than $45 million between 2004 and 2008. About 100 of those loans eventually defaulted, the U.S. attorney's office in Seattle said in a written statement Friday.

Pierce Commercial was closed by federal regulators in November.

"This conspiracy didn't just damage Pierce Commercial Bank," U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan said. "This activity helped pump up the housing bubble that artificially drove up valuations, and now leaves innocent families underwater on their mortgages."

The defendants included Shawn Portman, 39, former senior vice president and loan officer for the bank. He was arrested Friday by federal agents.

Also indicted were former Senior Vice President Sonja Lightfoot, 52, and bank employees Adam Voelker, 38, and Jeanette Salsi, 54.

S&P lowers U.S. credit rating

The bond rating agency Standard & Poor's Friday downgraded U.S. debt from its current triple-A rate to AA+, a move an administration official called "amateur."

Citing government officials it did not identify, ABC had reported earlier Friday the administration was preparing for such a move.

S&P said the downgrade reflects its opinion that the debt reduction plan Congress enacted "falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government's medium-term debt dynamics."

"The effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges," S&P said in announcing its decision.

One federal official told ABC News the downgrade would be based in part on confusion associated with the way Congress handled legislation to raise the limit on federal borrowing and a lack of confidence that further deficit reduction can be achieved under the current U.S. political system.

Citing another source it did not identify, ABC said another reason for the move was be the Republicans' refusal to allow a deficit reduction deal to include new revenues.

However, another government official said the White House had told S&P the company's thinking was "based on flawed math and assumptions." And S&P acknowledged "its numbers are wrong."

An administration official told NBC News after the credit rating was lowered, "It's amateur hour at S&P."

Treasury Department officials said the S&P announcement came after Treasury pointed out the rating agency, in a draft of its downgrade announcement, overstated U.S. debt by incorrectly adding $2 trillion to its projection of the debt, The New York Times reported.

The effect of the downgrade was a matter of speculation Friday but the Times noted that a small increase in interest rates on borrowed funds could add tens of billions of dollars to the nation's annual debt repayment.

There is also a possibility that a downgrade of federal debt could lead to downgrades of other government-backed instruments, possibly leading to higher mortgage interest rates.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.,, the ranking member on the House Financial Services Committee, said on MSNBC the decision was "just a political judgment by a group of incompetents."

"This is the rating agency that took money from people who were selling junk bonds and told other people to buy it," Frank said, accusing S&P of overvaluing private debt while consistently undervaluing public debt."

"They are as responsible for the financial crisis as anybody else," he said. "There is zero chance of (the United States) defaulting."

Moody's Investor Services and Fitch Ratings both said Tuesday they will keep the country's credit rating at triple-A for now, but they said a downgrade is still possible if the U.S. financial situation deteriorates or if promised federal spending cuts don't materialize.

The two credit ratings firms issued their assessments after President Barack Obama signed into law compromise legislation passed by Congress to raise the nation's debt limit and cut its budget deficit.

Women desccribe sex harassment in military

A University of South Carolina instructor says her 30-minute documentary provides a glimpse of the lives of female soldiers who served in U.S. military.

Cathy Brookshire, a USC speech, communication and rhetoric instructor, says female veterans broke their silence about their experiences in the military in the documentary "Soldier Girl."

"The public makes assumptions of life in the military based on simplistic notions of what a military life consists of, particularly for women in the service," Brookshire said in a statement. "They have no idea of what it's like out there."

As the roles of women in the military changed from traditional office positions to field duty, sexual harassment became widespread, the veterans said.

"When I joined the Marine Corps, you were either one of two things. You were either a lesbian or you were a whore," Mary Rock, an African-American who served from 1973 to1993. "I was neither, and for black women, we weren't supposed to be attractive and intelligent too. Those two were not supposed to go together."

Susan Jarvie, an academic advisor at USC who served in the U.S. Air Force from 1976 to 1979 and 1980 to 1982, said there was lack of safeguards for women.

"There were no social actions to protect you. There was no one to go to file a complaint of harassment," Jarvie said."You just had to put up with it because that was the price of being on the flight line, and you had to find a way to fight them back."

Philly cracks down on teen flash mobs

A curfew for Philadelphia teenagers will be strictly enforced this weekend after a flash mob attacked two people last week, Mayor Michael Nutter said Friday.

Under Philadelphia's curfew ordinance, those under 13 must be off the streets by 10 p.m. and those from 14 to 17 by midnight. Nutter, in a statement, reminded city residents that teens and their parents can both face penalties for curfew violations.

"I want to strongly encourage parents and guardians to be vigilant and to look out for their children this weekend," he said. "There is no excuse for young people to be able to participate in coordinated, violent behavior if parents are doing their job. It is your responsibility, not the government's, to watch your kids."

The city has increased patrols in Center City where two men were robbed and beaten. One of those arrested was 11.

Police said the young people in the mob appeared to be communicating by text message.

Nutter said he plans a news conference Monday to announce additional steps to curb teen violence.

Asian glacier on a speed run

A glacier in Tajikistan is on a speed kick, scientists say, moving more since June than it has at any time in the last 22 years.

The Medvezhiy glacier, located in the Pamir Mountains, has moved almost 3,300 feet since June 3, NewScientist.com reported Thursday.

Known for periodic bursts of speed, the glacier has reached the point where it is now blocking the Abdukagor River, prompting worries of flooding as a glacial lake 650 feet deep and 1,150 feet wide has formed behind it.

In its last major movements, in 1962 and 1973, the glacier advanced by as much 1.25 miles, later releasing 700 million cubic feet of water once the Abdukafor breached the glacier's ice dams.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/08/04/Asian-glacier-on-a-speed-run/UPI-70821312507591/#ixzz1UBEx4diO

Asian glacier on a speed run

A glacier in Tajikistan is on a speed kick, scientists say, moving more since June than it has at any time in the last 22 years.

The Medvezhiy glacier, located in the Pamir Mountains, has moved almost 3,300 feet since June 3, NewScientist.com reported Thursday.

Known for periodic bursts of speed, the glacier has reached the point where it is now blocking the Abdukagor River, prompting worries of flooding as a glacial lake 650 feet deep and 1,150 feet wide has formed behind it.

In its last major movements, in 1962 and 1973, the glacier advanced by as much 1.25 miles, later releasing 700 million cubic feet of water once the Abdukafor breached the glacier's ice dams.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/08/04/Asian-glacier-on-a-speed-run/UPI-70821312507591/#ixzz1UBEx4diO