Source:  CNN
 

Former "Manson Family" member Susan Atkins, who stabbed actress Sharon Tate to death more than 40 years ago and now is terminally ill, was denied parole Wednesday, prison officials said.

The parole hearing was the 13th for Atkins, 61, who is battling terminal brain cancer. Held at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla, California, the hearing stretched to more than nine hours.

The panel set another hearing for Atkins in three years, said Michele Kane, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Atkins was 21 when she and other followers of Charles Manson participated in a two-night rampage that left seven people dead and terrorized the city of Los Angeles in August 1969. She and the others -- Manson, Leslie Van Houten, Patricia Krenwinkel and Charles "Tex" Watson -- were initially sentenced to death in the slayings of five people, including Tate, and two additional deaths the following night.

Their sentences were automatically commuted to life in prison when the Supreme Court struck down the nation's death penalty laws in 1972.

By her own admission, Atkins, known as Sadie Mae Glutz within the Manson family, held Tate down as she pleaded for mercy, and stabbed the actress 16 times. Tate was eight months pregnant. In a 1993 parole board hearing, Atkins said Tate "asked me to let her baby live. ... I told her I didn't have any mercy on her."

After killing Tate, according to historical accounts of the slayings, Atkins scrawled the word "pig" in blood on the door of the home Tate shared with her husband, director Roman Polanski. Polanski was not home, but three of Tate's house guests were also slain by the killers, as was a teenager who was visiting the home's caretaker in his nearby cottage.

In an interview scheduled to air Friday on CNN's "Larry King Live," Linda Kasabian, a former Manson follower who was the prosecution's star witness against Manson and Atkins, recounted the Tate slayings.

"I started hearing like horrible screaming and I started running toward the house and Sadie came running out and I just looked at her and I said, 'Sadie, please make it stop,'" Kasabian said. "And she said, 'I can't. It's too late.' ... It was unreal. It was so real that it was unreal."

On whether she asked Atkins and the others why they were killing, Kasabian said, "It wasn't that kind of a scenario. All that I said was, 'Sadie, make it stop.'"

For her safety, Kasabian asked to wear a disguise during the interview, which was conducted last month.

As of earlier this year, Atkins was paralyzed over 85 percent of her body and could not sit up in bed or be moved into a wheelchair, according to a Web site maintained by her husband and attorney, James Whitehouse. She has been described as a model prisoner who has accepted responsibility for her role in the slayings and now shuns Manson.

But Tate's sister, Debra Tate, told CNN in an e-mail in March that she does not think any Manson family member convicted of murder should ever be set free, saying the slayings were "so vicious, so inhumane, so depraved, that there is no turning back."

"The 'Manson Family' murderers are sociopaths, and from that, they can never be rehabilitated," Tate said. "They should all stay right where they are -- in prison -- until they die. There will never be true justice for my sister Sharon and the other victims of the 'Manson Family.' Keeping the murderers in prison is the least we, as a society who values justice, can do."

In a manuscript posted on her Web site, Atkins wrote that "this is the past I have to live with, and I have to live with it every day."

"Unlike the reader, or the people who seem to think Charles Manson was cool, I can't think about it for an hour or so and then go on with my life. Just like the families and friends of the victims, this is with me every day. I have to wake up every day with this and, no matter what I do for the rest of my life and no matter how much I give back to the community, I will never be able to replace what my crime took away. And that's not 'neat,' and that's not 'cool.'"

Atkins' brain cancer was diagnosed in March 2008, Whitehouse wrote on his Web site. On May 15, doctors predicted she would live less than six months. But she passed that deadline, he wrote, and celebrated her 21st wedding anniversary on December 7.

Recorded Telemarketer Call Now Illegal

Starting Tuesday, telemarketers will need written permission from consumers in advance in order to solicit them through automated pre-recorded telemarketing messages, sometimes called robo-calls, the Federal Trade Commission said.

Consumer advocates called the action a huge change to the national Telemarketing Sales Rule. "We don't anticipate a lot of consumers writing to robo-callers and saying 'Please call me,' " said Bob Williams, a spokesman in Consumer Union's Washington D.C. office.

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs had 4,102 complaints about pre-recorded telemarketing in 2007 and 2008.

"People were telling us they found robo-calls even more harassing and disturbing than calls from a live person," said Lois Greisman, the FTC manager for telemarketing enforcement.

The Sept. 1 change completes the phase-in of 2008 amendments to the federal telemarketing rule. Florida banned automated solicitations under most circumstances years ago, state officials said. Florida Consumer Affairs also takes complaints about telemarketers: Call 800-435-7352 or go to www.800helpfla.com.

The Direct Marketing Association had argued that telemarketers should be allowed to make automated calls to previous customers. Both allow automated political solicitations, informational calls about things like flight delays and school closings, debt collection, calls from banks or wireless companies, or charitable solicitations.

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State Settles Sexual Harassment Lawsuit

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services has agreed to pay an Oxford woman $320,000 to settle a sexual harassment case involving a former supervisor at John Umstead Hospital who had a prior history of mistreating female workers.
Dorothy Hawley won the settlement last month. Before the harassment settlement, her former supervisor, James Hobgood, had been convicted of assaulting Hawley and another female employee in October, 2000.

Hawley filed suit against Hobgood and the state, and evidence showed that Hobgood had been fired from another state facility 22 years earlier. In that case, Hobgood had been disciplined for sexual harassment after complaints from female staffers. Hobgood's personnel file noted that he was "not eligible for re-employment with the state," said Jack Nichols, a Raleigh attorney who represents Hawley. 

"Our firm felt that Dorothy Hawley was entitled to a remedy for her mistreatment by James Hobgood and John Umstead Hospital," Nichols said. "Public employers are now on notice that they are subject to such claims in the same way that private employers can be held liable. For John Umstead, the cost of not checking on an employee's prior behavior was a six-figure damages award."

Hawley had won $433,000 in damages from the N.C. Industrial Commission, but the state appealed the award. Mediation resulted in the $320,000 settlement.
Nichols said the lawsuit represents the first time someone had sued the state under a claim of negligent hiring, negligent retention and negligent supervision of an employee.

Has Avandia Caused Heart and Lung Promblems in Patients?

Karen H. says that she is not positive that Avandia has caused her heart problems but it is the only drug she has taken that she says caused a bad reaction. She did not suffer an Avandia heart attack but she says she believes she suffered other Avandia side effects. Although there is allegedly a link between Avandia and heart attacks, Karen (not her real name) says that it was congestive heart failure, pulmonary hypertension and a stroke that have her concerned.
"Doctors were trying medications to find one that was best. It made my breasts swell and I got fat very quickly. I was not feeling well overall. Eventually the doctor took me off Avandia and I went back to metformin.

I didn't hear anything about Avandia at the time and I don't think my doctor did because he didn't say anything about it. I got a doctor's appointment and found out I was in congestive heart failure and didn't know it. My heart was going crazy. The doctor put me on medication but I had to try a few medications to find the right one.

I've been having tests done every year since.

[Karen was not told when the previous stroke would have occurred.]

The only thing that bothered me [caused a reaction] was the Avandia.

I noticed the side effects almost right away. I was just diagnosed as being diabetic so I was in contact with the doctor often. I noticed the side effects fairly quickly. There were issues with the Avandia and it made me feel bad. The doctor took me off it pretty quickly. It was about a month later that I had the foot swelling and congestive heart failure. No one mentioned the Avandia as a cause in 2002. I would suggest that, if you're taking Avandia, to watch yourself. Monitor yourself.

Heparin Contamination

Following the Heparin contamination that was allegedly associated with numerous deaths and adverse reactions, patients have wondered whether their Heparin injection, or their exposure to Heparin syringes, might have resulted in their own adverse reaction. Meanwhile, spouses whose loved ones died after being exposed to Heparin are filing lawsuits alleging the makers of Heparin knew or should have known about the Heparin contamination. In 2008, investigators found that the Heparin contamination was caused by an ingredient known as oversulfated chondroitin sulfate. Chondroitin sulfate is a naturally occurring substance that is made from animal cartilage. According to Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, oversulfated chondroitin sulfate actually acts like Heparin. "It is most likely that chondroitin sulfate was chemically modified to create this compound [the compound found in Heparin]," Woodcock said, via teleconference. "Oversulfated chondroitin sulfate, unlike common chondroitin sulfate, mimics Heparin's activity, therefore appears to be Heparin when subjected to standard tests."

Furthermore, according to Woodcock, "Oversulfated chondroitin sulfate is not an approved drug in the US, nor should it be present in Heparin." The compound was found in samples of Heparin that were tested following reports of adverse reactions in patients. According to U.S. News & World Report, there were 785 reports of adverse reactions associated with Heparin in approximately 3 months, compared with 100 adverse reports in all of 2007.

Oversulfated chondroitin sulfate is less expensive to make than Heparin, which is made from pigs intestines, so a company looking to save money, might choose to use it instead of the Heparin, especially since it is so easily mistaken for Heparin. The lawsuit was filed in February, 2009, and alleges that Baxter, maker of Heparin, substituted Heparin with OSCS to save money. In fact, the lawsuit states that while OSCS costs $9 to produce, Heparin costs $900 to produce, making OSCS an attractive and much less expensive product. Following the Heparin recall, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) visited the plant in China where Heparin is produced. The FDA found violations including incomplete inventory records, incomplete manufacturing instructions and a lack of critical processing steps identified for Heparin Sodium USP process.

Furthermore, plaintiffs claim that Baxter wrongfully allowed the contaminated Heparin to be put on the market and breached express warranties that Heparin did not have dangerous side effects.

Veteran Miami Newsman Killed in Motorcycle Crash

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