Community Briefs

Institute awarded $1.2 million research grant

The National Institute of Dental Research has awarded a $1.2
million grant to the UCLA Dental Research Institute to launch a
biomedical research training program at the UCLA School of
Dentistry.

"Our goal is to train future basic science researchers how to
lead dental education," said Dr. No-Hee Park, director of the
institute and principal investigator for the grant. "These funds
will enable UCLA to expand its doctoral research program and
compete for the best Ph.D. candidates in the country."

UCLA’s program is one of only three in the nation funded by the
National Institute of Dental Research. The five-year grant will
provide research stipends and cover conference fees and travel
costs for doctoral candidates in oral biology and postdoctoral
fellows conducting oral health research. The program will match
graduate students with one of 15 faculty mentors in their areas of
expertise from the UCLA schools of dentistry and medicine.

Ex-Post editor speaks at UCR

Former Washington Post executive editor Benjamin C. Bradlee
spoke Tuesday at UC Riverside, blasting politicians and spin
doctors who lie to the media.

Bradlee, now retired, directed most of his criticism on House
Speaker Newt Gingrich and White House staffers who lied regarding
donations to the Democratic National Committee.

Bradlee, speaking Tuesday at the 32nd annual Press-Enterprise
Lecture at UCR, said Gingrich issued "one of the most extraordinary
mea culpas in the history of confession" to save his position as
speaker. Gingrich was re-elected speaker on Tuesday.

Gingrich denied for two years that his conservative political
action committee was involved with a college course he was
teaching, but the House Ethics Committee determined that the
committee was involved in developing, fundraising and promoting the
course, Bradlee said.

"He did not confess to violating any law ­ just to ‘failure
to ensure’ that he did not violate any law," Bradlee said. "Am I
the only one who thinks he is lying, even as he confesses?"

Bradlee’s 23-year term as executive editor included overseeing
coverage of international stories such as the assassinations of
President John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and civil rights leader
Martin Luther King Jr., the Vietnam War and was part of the
investigative team that broke the Watergate scandal.

He began his journalism career in 1948 at The Post, then left a
few years later to work at the State Department. He returned to The
Post in 1965 as managing editor and became executive editor in
1968.

Deadly mushrooms affect nine

An epidemic of poisonous wild mushrooms has sickened at least
nine people in Northern California, with three victims in intensive
care Wednesday facing possible liver transplants.

The most seriously ill were felled by the "death cap" mushroom,
known technically as Amanita phalloides, which can destroy the
liver.

Last year, 13 people were poisoned by wild mushrooms in the
region, including a farm worker who died and a Taiwanese immigrant
who needed a liver transplant.

"It is our strong recommendation that people not pick and eat
wild mushrooms," said Rose Ann Soloway of the American Association
of Poison Control Centers.

Experts say the death cap has flourished on the West Coast in
recent years, extending its range from Fresno to Washington state,
and appearing in far greater numbers.

Some experts say heavy rains of the past two weeks are
responsible for the death cap bumper crop, but Freedman said the
mushroom threat has been growing for several years, and no one is
certain why.

The UC San Francisco Medical Center has three mushroom-poisoning
victims facing possible liver transplants.

UCSF spokesman Bill Gordon said the cases spring from four
incidents since Dec. 28.

Compiled from Daily Bruin staff and wire reports.

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