FIFA President Sepp Blatter announced today that he will resign from soccer’s governing body following the indictment of over a dozen top officials on corruption charges. Also, the FDA will again consider whether flibanserin, a pill aimed at restoring lost libido in women, should be approved. Then, author Mark Haskell Smith talks about his foray into nudism and what goes on, once the clothing is off.
After Sepp Blatter steps down from FIFA, what next?
FIFA President Sepp Blatter announced today that he will resign from soccer’s governing body following the indictment of over a dozen top officials on corruption charges.
The controversy surrounding FIFA and Blatter has continued to grow after seven officials were arrested in Zurich ahead of last week’s election for president of FIFA. Earlier this week, the U.S. government accused Jérôme Valck, FIFA’s Secretary General and top aide to Blatter, of transferring $10 million to the FIFA account of Jack Warner, Vice President of FIFA and President of CONCACAF.
Will FIFA change once Sepp Blatter leaves the organization? What reforms are needed to rid FIFA and the soccer world of corruption? How will Blatter’s resignation and the growing controversy shape soccer in time for the 2018 World Cup?
REMARKS BY FIFA PRESIDENT BLATTER
Guests:
David Wallechinsky, President of the International Society of Olympic Historians and author of "The Complete Book of the Olympics" (Aurum Press, 2012)
Major government cancer study will test precision, gene-targeting medicine
The federal government is launching a very different kind of cancer study that will assign patients drugs based on what genes drive their tumors rather than the site of tumor origin.
The National Cancer Institute's NCI-MATCH (Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice) trial will be a precision medicine experiment at more than 2,400 sites around the country. Starting in July, about 3,000 patients, whose other treatments have failed, will have their tumor genes sequenced to see what mutations or pathways fuel their disease.
About 1,000 patients whose tumor characteristics most closely match one of the 20 or so gene-targeting drugs offered in the study will be put into groups of about 30 patients to get that drug. "The goal is really to try to get the information faster, so when we see responses we can expand rapidly" and offer the drug more widely, said Dr. Douglas Lowy, M.D., the Cancer Institute's acting director.
Details of the study were revealed Monday at an American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago. NCI is working in conjunction with the Food & Drug Administration to ensure successful drugs will be approved.
With files from the Associated Press.
Guests:
Dr. Douglas Lowy, MD, Acting Director, National Cancer Institute - the federal government's principal agency for cancer research and training.
Dr. Lee Rosen, MD, Health Sciences Clinical Professor of Medicine with a specialty in experimental therapy, UCLA Division of Hematology-Oncology; Dr. Rosen practices at UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica
Women’s groups divided over FDA review of ‘female Viagra’
Women’s groups disagree about the efficacy and marketing of a controversial so-called “female viagra” drug up for approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
This Thursday the Food and Drug Administration is set to once again consider whether flibanserin, a pill aimed at restoring lost libido in women, should be approved. A coalition of women’s and pharmaceutical groups that have collected over 40,000 signatures under the name Even the Score, are accusing the FDA of gender bias for approving Viagra and 25 other drugs to help men have sex, but zero for women.
Still others, including women’s groups, counter that Even the Score is just a profit-hungry pharmaceutical industry disguising itself as a fight for women’s rights. They say there’s nothing sexist about denying approval for drugs that don’t have an adequate risk-to benefit ratio, referring to flibanserin’s clinical trials, one in particular where women taking flibanserin reported having an average of 4.4 “satisfying sexual experiences” a month, compared to 3.7 for women on a placebo and 2.7 for the control group. They say those kinds of results aren’t worth the long list of side effects and that this pathologizing of women’s desire is applying a male model to female brain.
But one woman involved in the study described herself as “devastated” when the trial ended and she could no longer continue taking the drug. The whole debate is raising pressing questions about the FDA’s drug approval process, how society views women’s sexual desire, and the ethics of treating conditions with placebos.
Guests:
Sally Greenberg, Executive Director of the National Consumers League and a supporter of Even the Score, a campaign for sexual health equity that’s accusing the FDA of gender bias
Thea Cacchioni, PhD, a sociologist and Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies, University of Victoria, Canada; she testified before the FDA in the 2010 advisory hearing of flibanserin
Austin Beutner on LA Times' expansion in Southern California
Los Angeles Times Publisher and CEO Austin Beutner has big plans for the LA Times.
In recent months the LA Times has been expanding its coverage, reporting stories north of L.A. to as far down as San Diego. As part of its news expansion, LA Times' parent company Tribune Publishing recently purchased the San Diego Union-Tribune for $85 million, uniting the newspapers of California’s two largest cities. Beutner says the regional consolidation gives the LA Times “more scale, journalists, voices, and content to succeed digitally.”
Having only held the position as publisher for less than a year, Beutner has been strategically working to make improvements to the company. His efforts have focused on community building, local reporting and revamping the newspaper’s online presence and coverage.
One concern is whether the LA Times will be able to maintain its individual voice as the organization takes over more papers in the region. Beutner said the LA Times will work with each newspaper’s editorial team to ensure that they inform and engage their community and customers. He says “our objective is to look for the diversity and to make sure we are bringing a broader range of opinion to our customers so that they are more informed and that they can make their own choice at the end of the day.”
Beutner would not comment on whether there are any further discussions of Tribune Publishing purchasing Press Enterprise or the Orange County Register, however he says “consolidation regionally is a bit like gravity. You look at the economies of being together in any region in the country in newspapers, and it’s quite compelling, so I think gravity over time wins out.”
Guest:
Austin Beutner, publisher of the Los Angeles Times
The man who went undercover to understand the growing appeal of nudism
Shortly after the invention of clothing, mankind began to indulge in nudity. But being in-the-buff has gotten a bit of a bad rap.
The very word “nudist” conjures up images of free-spirited flower children, beach-lounging Europeans and even…perverts.
Author Haskell Smith wanted to know what people found so alluring about baring all, so he stripped-down to see what’s up with nudists. For his new book, “Naked at Lunch,” Haskell embarked on the naked adventure of a lifetime; he hiked the Austrian Alps, went on a naked walking tour of Europe and even took a nude cruise. He discovered that the stigma was hard to shake.
Smith joins Larry Mantle today to talk about what goes on, once the clothing is off.
Mark Haskell Smith will be speaking with the Los Angeles Times’ David Ulin about "Naked at Lunch", on June 3, at 7:00pm at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena. Click here for more info.
Guest:
Mark Haskell Smith, author of a number of books, including his latest, “Naked at Lunch: A Reluctant Nudist's Adventures in the Clothing-Optional World” (Grove Press, 2015), which is available in bookstores today