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Asking persistent, skeptical questions of lawyers representing both the Bush and Gore campaigns, justices of the Florida Supreme Court hammered away at concerns about the question of ballot recounts in key Florida counties on Monday, November 20. According to the November 21 Miami Herald, when Deputy Attorney General Paul Hancock claimed that it was impossible for large counties to conduct recounts within seven days, Justice Barbara J. Pariente (LAW’70) pressed him for proof. "Is that really something that we have in the record, that it can’t be done?" she asked. Pariente was appointed as the 77th justice of the Florida Supreme Court by late Florida Governor Lawton Chiles.

Doctors have long urged patients with cardiac disease and diabetes to lose weight. A new study from the American Heart Association, led by MED Professor Peter Wilson, reports that losing even a few pounds will help decrease the risk of heart disease and aid people with diabetes. According to the study, diabetics who lost weight using the weight loss drug Xenical reduced their risk of developing heart disease by almost 20 percent. "In diabetics, even modest change in weight is an opportunity to really reduce cardiovascular risk," Wilson says in a November 13 Dow Jones News Service story. "Weight loss is a healthy goal for anyone who is obese, but it’s not always easy for people with type 2 diabetes to lose weight. This study suggests a potential new way to help people with diabetes reduce their chances of a heart problem – before it’s too late." The study also found that newly diagnosed diabetics can lose weight and no longer be considered diabetic.

The American Heart Association also recently released a study showing that drinking black tea promotes healthy arteries, which may explain why tea drinkers have a lower risk of heart attack and stroke. The research involved 50 men and women with coronary artery disease, and it found that tea relaxes and dilates arteries, increasing blood flow to the heart. "Drinking tea reversed an underlying abnormality that contributes to coronary heart disease and stroke," says MED Associate Professor Joseph Vita in a November 14 USA Today story. The researchers gauged the tea’s effect on artery function by using ultrasound to study the dimensions of arteries in the volunteers’ arms, inflating and deflating a blood pressure cuff to increase blood flow. The lining of a healthy artery releases nitric oxide, a chemical that causes the artery to dilate. People with coronary artery disease produce less nitric oxide. "Both short-term and long-term consumption of tea reversed this abnormality, while drinking water had no effect on endothelial function," says Vita.

Ready, set, shop. The holiday shopping season is here once again, and even with the relatively new online stores gaining in popularity, the outlet mall is being rediscovered as a mecca for bargains by thrifty shoppers. Or so they think. Outlet malls such as the 200-venue Arundel Mills in Maryland have been dwarfing traditional galleria or anchor malls in the variety of stores and entertainment each has to offer. For compulsive shoppers, living near a mall like Arundel Mills can be disastrous; for ardent shoppers, it is a dream come true. According to a Stanford University study, as many as 8 percent of Americans may have compulsive shopping disorder, and about 90 percent of these are women. Frederic Brunel, COM assistant professor of marketing, says in the Washington Post November 16, "The outlet mall demographic falls along a broad, Coach-to-Old-Navy spectrum. Even so, outlet shoppers do share one thing in common: we would characterize them as people who like toget a deal. The psychological drivers are the promise of a cheaper price, and at outlets, perception is king." Representatives at Arundel Mills say that the average visitor spends three hours and about $125 a trip, compared with about an hour and $53 at a traditional suburban mall.

"In The News" is compiled by Mark Toth in the Office of Public Relations.

7 December 2000
Boston University
Office of University Relations