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Where Jazz Was Born, Musicians Say

Obamacare Is Out of Reach
By NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR, May 29, 2014 12:14 PM
When Raymond Weber, a New Orleans drummer, is on

stage, he cannot stop thinking about his music. When
he is off stage, he cannot stop thinking about his
growing pile of medical bills.
Mr. Weber, 47, has diabetes and high blood pressure,
and he is uninsured. His insulin pills can cost more
than $300 a month, and his three blood pressure
medications run $390 a month. The new health care
plan Mr. Weber qualifies for under the Affordable Care
Act would strangle his already tight budget, and he said
he could not afford another high monthly bill.
Its real
expensive,
he said. If it
was $200 a
month, I
could afford
that. Not
$400!
Mr. Webers 12-year-old son, Rodney, performed at a
Times were
RELATED
New Orleans Low-income Health

Program Could End in August
music workshop. Evan Ortiz | NYT Institute
not always so
tough for Mr.
Weber, who has played in New Orleans for over 40

years. He has toured with greats such as New Orleans
pianist and guitarist Malcolm John Rebennack Jr.,
more often called Dr. John. But now, the occasional
live show is harder to come across and often does not
pay enough to support his wife and three sons, who
also play instruments.
Im trying to work as hard as I can, Mr. Weber said.
Im taking every gig, even the kids parties.
Mr. Webers case is not unique. In 2012, musicians in
New Orleans made $17,800 on average, according to a
recent report from Sweet Home New Orleans, a
nonprofit organization that helps local musicians.
In the birthplace of jazz, life for musicians following
their passion pays very little and comes without health
benefits. And in many cases, national health care
initiatives have only aggravated their struggles.
The Affordable Care Act, which requires all Americans
to purchase health care, has pushed thousands of
musicians like Mr. Weber into the so-called sacrifice
zone. People inhabiting this area make too much
money to qualify for Medicaid in Louisiana but not
enough to afford a coverage plan under the new
national mandates.
But the coup de grace for these struggling artists came
when Gov. Bobby Jindal refused to accept legislation to
expand Medicaid coverage to low-income citizens. He
said that the cost of the expansion nearly $2 billion
over 10 years was too high.
Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell of New Orleans, who is
in favor of expanding Medicaid, has fought incessantly
against Governor Jindal, a Republican, to bring
Raymond Weber, 47, is an uninsured New Orleans drummer. He cannot

afford Obamacare, yet he makes too much to qualify for Medicaid. Evan Ortiz
| NYT Institute
medical coverage to more than 240,000 eligible

residents, including thousands of local entertainers.
Musicians are the heartbeat of this city, said Ms.
Cantrell, a Democrat. The rejection of the Medicaid
expansion feels like a rejection of the needs of those
human beings and the needs of their families.
The refusal, she said, could also stunt the citys
economy, which thrives largely in part because of its
music.
In 2012, entertainment in Louisiana generated more
than $395 million in gross sales, and it attracted nearly
four million people to festivals, according to the
Mayors Office of Cultural Economy.
Many of the medical facilities available to musicians
are struggling to sustain themselves under the states
new budgetary constraints.
The nonprofit New Orleans Musicians Clinic, which
provides musicians like Mr. Weber with free primary
care services, is no longer reimbursed for some of the
care it provides. And now, for the first time since it
opened 16 years ago, it is functioning at a $500,000
deficit.
The rejection affects the poorest of the poor, and
unfortunately, that sometimes includes musicians,
said Erica Dudas, managing director of the New
Orleans Musicians Assistance Foundation, which
provides aid to the Musicians Clinic. She estimates
that as many as 80 percent of the clinics patients fall
into the sacrifice zone.
Bethany Bultman, the founder and president of the
New Orleans Musicians Clinic, said that despite the
deficit, the clinic would continue to serve its patients.
Raymond Weber demonstrated drumming for a child at the jazz music

workshop. Evan Ortiz | NYT Institute
We are not going to say, Too bad, were not getting

reimbursed, so you cant come to our clinic, said Ms.
Bultman, who sees each of her patients as a cultural
icon. Every one of our 2,500 patients is as valuable as
Louis Armstrong, and each of them deserves medical
care if they need it, she said.
To that effect, the Musicians Clinic is helping some of
its clientele navigate, negotiate and become covered
under the Affordable Care Act, which Ms. Bultman calls
an honest-to-God life saver, for helping some of the
clinics sicker patients get health coverage despite their
pre-existent conditions.
During a recent visit at the Musicians Clinic, Mr.
Weber looked at the door as the nurse practitioner
opened it, her hands full of papers. She passed him a
sheet with the results of his most recent A1C test,
which showed how well he was managing his diabetes.
She smiled. This time his blood sugar, which normally
measures a dangerous 10 or 11 percent, came in at a
much safer level, 7.3 percent his best result in years.
Ive got to frame this, he said. If it wasnt for the
Musicians Clinic, Id be in shambles. Without this
place, a lot of us musicians would probably be dead.
As he left the clinicians office and walked past walls
lined with photographs of jazz legends who have been
treated there, Mr. Weber began to prepare for his next
gig, a workshop for children.
Mr. Weber took the stage under the white lights in
Tipitinas music club, where the pianist Professor
Longhair played out his final years. The venue was
filled with the smooth tunes of the saxophone and the
beats of his 12-year-old sons percussion. He looked
completely focused as he raised his microphone and
prepared for the conductors cue: Back to the music.
LATEST
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Mr. Weber performed with his band, the Raymond Weber Allstars, during
Louisiana Governor Blasts Obama Administration

on Education and Veterans Affairs
a Sunday jazz music workshop at Tipitinas. Evan Ortiz | NYT Institute
May 30, 2014 2:23 PM
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On an Island in the Bayous, Tabasco Sauce Holds

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New Orleans Low-income Health Program

Could End in August
By NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR, May 30, 2014 12:49 PM
As street musician Jack Parsons struck a final chord on

his guitar, he looked out at his audience about 100
health-care activists hed been asked to entertain as
they gathered outside New Orleans City Hall Thursday
to lobby to expand Medicaid coverage.
Jack Parsons, 60, a New Orleans street musician, played for a crow d of
activists w ith the National Healthcare for the Homeless Council in a rally near
City Hall on Thursday. They w ere protesting the state's refusal to expand
health care. Donnalyn Anthony | NYT Institute
Its all about health care, folks, Mr. Parsons, 60, said
RELATED
Where Jazz Was Born, Musicians Say

Obamacare Is Out of Reach
before launching into his own story: hed fallen through

the cracks after Hurricane Katrina, losing everything,
including his health care. He told the crowd about his
bouts of homelessness and how the states current
stance on medical care is leaving way too many people
here out of the picture him included.
A city program, the Greater New Orleans Community

Health Connection (GNOCHC), that might help Mr.
Parsons and those like him could soon disappear.
Funding for the program, a safety net for the citys
poor, is expected to run out in August unless the state
can provide $4 million immediately and $10 million
annually for the next three years. Without that money,
more than 53,000 low-income residents would be left
without access to primary care and behavioral and
mental health coverage.
If our patients dont receive GNOCHC, a lot of them
wont be able to receive regular Medicaid at all, and
then they wouldnt be able to come to our clinic for
free, said rally attendee Rhakeisha Pomfrey, 25, an
executive assistant for the federally qualified health
center, Health Care for the Homeless. We lose out on
money that would keep us open, and they lose out on
insurance that helps them receive health care.
Promfrey and others gathered Thursday for the rally,
which was organized by the National Health Care for
the Homeless Council, a Nashville nonprofit that was
holding its annual conference in New Orleans. She and
others used the event to support the citys GNOCHC
program.
Kaedeem Johnson, 10, at the rally. Donnalyn Anthony | NYT Institute
GNOCHC provides funding to a network of 18

community health clinics. Those clinics have 41 sites
across Orleans, Jefferson, Plaquemines and St. Bernard
parishes. To qualify for the program, residents must
make less than $11,490 a year for a single person and
$23,550 for a family of four.
The program, which supplements Medicaid, was
established following Hurricane Katrina in an effort to
supply the citys low-income with critical medical
coverage.
New Orleans Director of Health Charlotte Parent, called
the city initiative a bridge meant to carry those in need
until Medicaid, the health insurance program for the
poor, was expanded to cover more people. But
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal recently decided not
to approve that expansion.
That, Ms. Parent said, makes the citys low-income
health program even more important.
The people want it; the people should have access to
it, she said, and within the city of New Orleans we are
going to do everything we can to make sure that
happens, whether we get expansion or not.
One of the biggest champions in the fight for GNOCHC
funding is Susan Todd, a member of 504HealthNet, a

coalition of health clinic representatives. Ms. Todd said
that if GNOCHC fails to receive the state funding it
needs, it would be a nightmare. Thousands of people
would lose access to the community clinics they use for
their routine health -care needs. Instead, they would
flood hospital waiting rooms, straining emergency care
resources.
About 100 activists gathered near City Hall for the protest. Donnalyn
Anthony | NYT Institute
If they get sick with the flu or tonsillitis and need to

get tested, well, without access to a primary doctor,
they will end up in the emergency room, Ms. Todd
said. Thats not where they need to be. If an uninsured
person goes to the emergency room and they cant
afford it, that cost falls into taxpayers and the state.
That expense could cost the city an extra $26 million a
year, her organization estimates, as well as increase the
states health-care costs by $59 million.
At the New Orleans Musicians Clinic Megan
McStravick, a social worker who helps patients navigate
their health coverage options, is also fighting to keep
GNOCHC going. The Musicians Clinic provides primary
care to musicians in New Orleans; more than 60
percent of its patients receive aid through GNOCHC.

GNOCHC is the most important right now because our
state didnt expand Medicaid, and these people have
LATEST
absolutely no access to any type of health coverage,
NEWS
Ms. McStravick said.
Long Awaited, New Orleans East Hospital to Open

in June
She was unsure whether Governor Jindal, who has final
May 30, 2014 6:00 PM
say on funding GNOCHC, will give the program the

money it needs. Governor Jindal, a Republican, did not
respond to requests for comment.
Immigrant Families Language Barrier Hinders

Education
May 30, 2014 4:00 PM
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KIDNAPPING AND KILLING
Sierra
NEW GREEN suspect
facing
death
DROUGHT LANDS GOLF COURSES IN WATER TRAP
BROWN IS THE
Fewer drinks for the links
Because of Californias severe drought, golf courses across the state are being forced to cut water use by as much as 50 percent.
So golf course operators are now performing triage saving the greens but letting the roughs, tee boxes and even some
fairways go brown. Here is the amount of water used per year on an average 18-hole golf course.
Tee boxes
Fairways
Roughs
Greens
2.1 million
gallons
19 million
gallons
20.9 million
gallons
2.3 million
gallons
DA to seek ultimate penalty

against 22-year-old man
despite absence of teens body
By Robert Salonga, Julia Prodis Sulek
and Mark Emmons
Staff writers
How much water is 1 million gallons?
How are courses

watered during
a drought?
Priority
A standard Olympic swimming pool

contains about 660,000 gallons.
Figures do not include practice areas and
clubhouse grounds, which on average are irrigated
with 3.5 million gallons and 2.2 million gallons, respectively.
All figures are for the Northern California coastal region.
Olympic
pool
One million gallons
fills approximately
1 1/3 pools.
Source: Golf Course Superintendents Association of America
1. Greens
2. Fairways
3. Tee boxes
4. Roughs
BAY AREA NEWS GROUP
Handicap: As water districts order course

operators to cut water use up to 50 percent,
many find themselves sacrificing fairways
PATRICK TEHAN/STAFF
Steve Naas hand waters a green at DeLaveaga Golf Course in Santa

Cruz, a practice many courses are implementing to save water.
By Nicholas St. Fleur
nstfleur1@mercurynews.com
Gripping a hose, Robert Hirsch, a

maintenance worker at DeLaveaga
Golf Course in Santa Cruz, sprays a
dry patch of grass, several feet away
from a lush green where a group of
golfers practice chipping with their
9-irons.
In another month, all of this
will be brown, Hirsch says as he
splashes another withered spot.
Were going to sacrifice some fairways.
DeLaveaga is just one of hundreds of golf courses across the
state girding for an especially long,
dry summer in the third year of Californias historic drought. In an effort to save water, Hirsch and other
workers are watering more by hand
and cutting back on indiscriminate
sprinkling. For many courses, conserving means using more recycled
water and modernizing irrigation
systems and all the while trying to convince golfers that when
See WATER, Page 8
WASHINGTON Accusing China of

vast business spying, the United States
charged five military officials on Monday with hacking into U.S. companies to
steal vital trade secrets in a case intensifying already-rising tensions between
the international economic giants.
The Chinese targeted big-name
American makers of nuclear and solar
technology, stealing confidential business information, sensitive trade secrets
See CHINA, Page 7
MEGAMERGERS UNDER FIRE
FCC spells out

relentless rise
in pay-TV fees
By Troy Wolverton
U.S. charges Chinese officials

with stealing vital trade secrets
By Eric Tucker
See SIERRA, Page 8
Cost of service has outpaced inflation

for nearly 20 years, regulator reports
CYBERSPYING CASE
Associated Press
SAN JOSE Two years after 15-year-old Sierra LaMar disappeared on her way to her school
bus stop, District Attorney Jeff Rosen announced
Monday he is seeking the death
penalty against the man charged
with kidnapping and killing her.
Despite ongoing volunteer
searches through the creeks and
fields of Morgan Hill, her body has
never been found a fact that
experts say could make a death
penalty verdict difficult to obtain. Sierra
At the same time, some are hoping that the specter of execution
could persuade the 22-year-old
suspect handyman and onetime grocery store clerk Antolin
Garcia-Torres to finally lead
investigators to her body.
This will be the first death penGarciaalty case since Rosen took office Torres
in 2011.
Given the facts of this case and after a comprehensive review by a committee of senior prosecutors, I have concluded that this defendant
(A companys
success should
not be based)
on a sponsor
governments
ability to spy
and steal
business
secrets.
Attorney General
Eric Holder, left
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With two planned megamergers threatening

to further reduce competition in the pay-TV industry, consumer advocates have been looking
for a way to shoot down the deals. A new report
on industry pricing may have
given them some needed am- IN BUSINESS
munition.
Congressional
The Federal Communica- committee sets
tions Commission late last hearings to examweek quietly released a re- ine AT&T-DirecTV
port documenting that yet merger. PAGE B5
again the average pay-TV
bill grew faster than inflation in 2012. In addition,
the FCC report noted that cable-related equipment prices, such as monthly fees for DVRs, also
outpaced inflation.
Consumers continue to see price hikes and
lousy service, said Delara Derakhshani, policy
counsel at Consumers Union, the public advocacy
group that publishes Consumer Reports.
See CABLE, Page 8
A8
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TUESDAY, MAY 20, 2014
111
Water
Continued from Page 1
Mother Nature turns off the
water spigot, brown is the
new green.
Northern California golf
courses like DeLaveaga use
about 140,000 gallons of
water per day, according to
the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. Thats roughly the same
amount of water a family of
four uses in a year.
But now golf courses
across the state are being
forced by water districts to
cut water use by as much as
50 percent. So golf course
operators are performing triage and setting
strict priorities saving
the greens and letting the
roughs and even some fairways go dry.
Thats only right, said
Jennifer Clary, a policy analyst in the Oakland office of
Clean Water Action, a national water conservation
group.
You walk past a green
lawn during a drought and
you wonder, Why is that
person wasting water? A
golf course is just one big
green lawn, she said. We
live in a desert and golf
courses that look like they
belong in Scotland are not
what you should have in a
dry climate like this.
Golf course officials are
the first to acknowledge the
image problem.
A lot of people see us
as a big water user, said
Jeff Jensen, the Southwest
regional field representative with the superintendents association. But
while were in the business
of growing grass for recreational purposes, we want
to be a leader in water conservation efforts.
Golf courses account for
less than 1 percent of the
freshwater use in California,
while homes, businesses and
industry use roughly 20 percent, according to the U.S.
Geological Survey. Farmers
use almost 80 percent.
PATRICK TEHAN/STAFF
Terry Crabtree, left, and David Salac play at DeLaveaga in Santa Cruz. Salac worries water conservation will change the feel of the game.
Part of golf is the beauty of the scenery. If you got dead grass, its just not pretty.
ONLINE EXTRA
Scan this code
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Read more drought coverage at www.mercurynews.
com/drought.
Like the overwhelming

majority of Californias
1,100 courses, DeLaveaga
does not use recycled water. As of 2009, only 14
percent of the total water
used on golf courses had
been reclaimed, according
to the California Alliance
for Golf.
But Jensen said his organization is hoping that
number will soon blossom.
The group now has several
task forces aimed at identifying which golf courses
could switch to recycled

water. Water providers in
Coachella Valley in Southern California, for instance,
recently gave a $5.2 million
grant to six golf courses to
get them hooked up to reclaimed water by the end of
summer.
Recycled water is wastewater that is not treated to
meet drinking standards
but is suitable for landscaping and agricultural irrigation.
Jensen said golf course
officials are also looking
at creating more efficient
sprinkler systems and turf
reduction programs taking out the nonessential irrigated acres.
Poppy Hills in Pebble
Beach, which uses only recycled water for irrigation,
also just spent $3 million to
improve its sprinklers.
I think all golf course
Sierra
should face the ultimate
penalty, Rosen said in a
brief statement Monday.
Garcia-Torres alleged
history of attacking other
women contributed to
Rosens decision, he said.
After Garcia-Torres was
charged in Sierras disappearance, he was charged
with attempting to kidnap
and carjack three other
women in separate instances four years earlier,
when he worked at the
Morgan Hill Safeway and
allegedly preyed on the
women in the parking lot.
After being indicted by
a grand jury in February,
Garcia-Torres pleaded not
guilty to all the charges,
including kidnapping and
murdering Sierra. The Alternate Defenders Office,
which is representing him,
expressed disappointment
in Rosens decision, saying
it is a missing person case,
not a homicide. The case
does not appear to meet
any objective criteria for
seeking death nor do they
appear to match in any
manner the facts and circumstances of other cases
in this county where the
district attorney has sought
death, the office said in a
statement.
The LaMar family, however, supports Rosens
decision, Sierras father,
Steve LaMar, and cousin,
Keith LaMar, said Monday.
Were glad the DA
has chosen to do the right
thing, Keith LaMar said.
I dont personally feel society would be safe with
someone like that back in
it.
Several members of the
LaMar family either met
with one of Rosens deputies or joined a conference
GARY REYES/STAFF ARCHIVES
Antolin Garcia-Torres, 22, during his arraignment on

charges in the death of Sierra LaMar at Santa Clara
County Superior Court in San Jose on Feb. 13.
call about two or three
weeks ago to discuss the
death penalty possibility.
All but one cousin, who was
torn, supported the decision, Rosen said.
Keith LaMar also said
Rosen made it clear that
pursuing the death penalty
is not intended to be a bargaining chip to persuade
Garcia-Torres to lead authorities to her body.
Someone in the family asked, would the DA
use that is that one of
the factors? Keith LaMar
said. Rosen responded,
Absolutely not.
But Marc Klaas, founder
of the KlaasKids Foundation and who has helped
extensively with the ongoing search effort for Sierra,
said Rosens decision could
put needed pressure on

Garcia-Torres.
Its obviously going to
be a long, hard slog trying
to get a jury to recommend
execution when you dont
have a body, said Klaas,
whose daughter, Polly,
was kidnapped and killed
in Petaluma in 1993. But
perhaps this individual understands now how serious
the DA is and would be willing to make a deal to bring
Sierra home.
Obtaining the death
penalty without a victims
body is rare but not without precedent in Santa
Clara County: Mark Christopher Crew is on death
row for killing wife Nancy
Jo Crew in 1982, where
Crew and an accomplice
chopped off his wifes head
owners are committed to simply is no reclaimed wausing recycled water, said ter available.
The less potable water
Brad Shupe, Poppy Hills
general manager. But its we use, the better. Thats
While were in the business of growing

grass for recreational purposes,
we want to be a leader in water
conservation efforts.
Jeff Jensen,
Golf Course Superintendents Association of America
not as simple as Yes, well

irrigate with reclaimed water.
Converting from using
potable water to treated
wastewater is a slow, expensive process. The piping
alone can cost as much as $1
million per mile and often also involves hundreds
of millions of dollars of new
infrastructure, Shupe said.
He said in many areas there
and stuffed her body into a

55-gallon drum filled with
cement, but the remains
were never found.
Sierra vanished March
16, 2012, as she was walking to the bus stop near
her home in an unincorporated, rural area just north
of Morgan Hill. Garcia-Torres DNA was found on articles of Sierras clothing
found two days after she
disappeared, folded in her
Juicy-brand bag and tossed
into a field near her home.
Sierras DNA was also
found in the suspects red
Volkswagen Jetta.
Rosens decision to
pursue the death penalty
against
Garcia-Torres
comes after declining to do
so in six previous eligible
cases.
But the lack of a body
will present significant
challenges, said Steven
Clark, a criminal-defense
attorney and former Santa
Clara County prosecutor.
Theres a certain level
of depravity that goes with
a successful death penalty
case, where you can detail what the victim went
through, Clark said. The
jurors are appalled by and
decide that person should
no longer be in society.
Even now, between 20
and 30 volunteer searchers
continue to scour creeks,
woods and fields throughout the South County every Saturday, looking for
Sierra.
As a family member
whos lost someone, its
hard to describe, Steve
LaMar said. Holding out
that hope is just something
that you do.
Staff writer Mark Gomez
contributed to this report.
Contact Robert Salonga at
rsalonga@mercurynews.
com. Contact Julia
Prodis Sulek at jsulek@
mercurynews.com.
Man gets 25 years for mailing ricin to Obama

By Jeff Amy
Associated Press
JACKSON,
Miss.
A Mississippi man who
pleaded guilty to sending
letters dusted with the
poison ricin to President
Barack Obama and other
officials was sentenced
Monday to 25 years in
prison.
JamesEverettDutschke
was sentenced by U.S.
District Judge Sharion

Aycock in Aberdeen after
telling the judge May 13
that he had changed his
mind about wanting to
withdraw his guilty plea in
the case.
He also was sentenced
to five years of supervised
release and remains in federal custody.
Dutschke, who waived
his right to appeal, wasnt
fined or ordered to pay restitution because he doesnt

have enough money, federal prosecutor Chad Lamar said.
Unlike
last
week,
Dutschke said little and allowed his lawyer to do the
talking, Lamar said.
The 42-year-old Tupelo
resident sent the letters to
Obama, Republican U.S.
Sen. Roger Wicker and
Mississippi Judge Sadie

Holland in what prosecutors have said was an elaborate plot to frame a rival,
Paul Kevin Curtis. Poisoned letters addressed to
Obama and Wicker were
intercepted before delivery, but one letter reached
Holland. She was not
harmed.
The sentencing remains
set for May 27.
San Jose, said he would

prefer not seeing too much
brown which he fears will
change the feel of the game.
Part of golf is the beauty
of the scenery, he said. If
you got dead grass, its just
not pretty.
But Salac may be in the
minority of golfers. In one
survey by Golf Digest, 74
percent of golfers said they
should be willing to play on
brown grass during times of
low rainfall.
A bit of brown doesnt
bother Jack Sanchez, 64,
of Santa Cruz, who has
been golfing with his workmates at DeLaveaga every
Wednesday afternoon for
the last 20 years.
As long as youve got
18 holes, he said, thats all
that matters to me.
a no-brainer, said Gary

Ingram, superintendent at
Metropolitan Golf Links
in Oakland. But theres
just not enough piping out
there.
So if the new normal
means browner golf courses,
golfers have varying views
on the future of the game in
California.
At DeLaveaga, David Sa- Contact Nicholas St. Fleur
lac, a golfer of 30 years from at 408-920-5064.
Cable
But pay-TV operators
have argued that rising content costs the amounts
they pay companies such
as Disney to carry channels largely explain the
rate hikes. And as noted in
the FCC report, the pay-TV
operators have consistently
added channels to their offerings at a faster pace than
their prices have risen. For
example, expanded basic
customers had access to
about 160 channels last
year, up from about 150 the
year before, according to
the report.
The FCC report on payTV bills, which the agency
is required to issue annually
under the 1992 Cable Act,
comes as federal regulators are about to weigh the
merits of two mergers that
would reshape the pay-TV
industry. Over the weekend, AT&T announced
plans to buy DirecTV, the
largest satellite television
company, in a $67 billion
deal that would make the
combined entity the nations
largest pay-TV company.
Earlier this year, Comcast,
the largest cable company,
announced plans to acquire
Time Warner Cable, the No.
2 player, for $45 billion.
Both deals would require
FCC approval. In reviewing
such mergers, the commission is charged with determining whether they would
serve the public interest.
That makes the latest fee
report important, because
it gives consumer advocates
evidence to bolster their argument that the last thing
the industry needs is less
competition.
The report comes from
a survey of pay-TV operators, including traditional
cable companies, satellite
TV operators, telephone
companies such as AT&T
that offer pay-TV services
and companies such as RCN
that offer competing cable
services in some markets.
According to the survey,
the average monthly cost of
basic cable, the most popular service level, jumped 6.5
percent in 2012 to $22.63.
The cost of expanded basic service, which typically
includes many of the most
popular cable networks,
rose 5.1 percent to $64.41 a
month.
Meanwhile, basic cable
consumers paid an average

of $7.55 a month for equipment such as set-top boxes
and DVRs in 2012, up 4.4 percent from the previous year.
Expanded basic customers
saw their equipment charge
rise 4.2 percent to $7.70.
By contrast, inflation in
2012, which is the most recent for which the FCC has
compiled data, was just 1.6
percent.
On its face, competition
didnt appear to help keep
prices in check. In 2012, customers of cable companies
in markets the FCC dubbed
competitive paid $65.64 a
month for expanded basic
cable service, up 6 percent
from 2011. Expanded basic
subscribers whose only real
choice was the local cable
company paid $63.03 a
month, up 4.6 percent from
the year before.
Consumer
advocates
say thats an argument for
greater competition or
more regulatory scrutiny.
Part of the reason cable
rates rose faster in competitive markets is that cable
companies in those markets
arent subject to price caps
and can charge what they
think the market will bear.
Pay-TV service prices
have consistently grown
faster than inflation since
the FCC began issuing these
reports nearly 20 years ago.
Costs of basic, expanded basic and the next-most-popular tier of service have risen
at average annual clips of
4.3 percent, 6.1 percent and
5.1 percent, respectively. Inflation has grown at an average annual pace of just 2.4
percent over that period.
Representatives
for
Comcast were not available for comment. Representatives of AT&T, Dish
Network and DirecTV did
not respond to requests for
comment.
However, their previous
explanations for the price
hikes and moves havent
mollified many customers. Pay-TV operators as
a whole lost about 105,000
subscribers last year.
Robin Wolaner, a 60year-old San Francisco resident, hasnt cut the cord, but
said she feels foolish paying
around $200 each month to
Comcast.
I feel bad about it every
time I write a check, said
Wolaner, CEO of Vittana, a
nonprofit that provides student loans in the developing
world. I never have time to
watch half of what I record.
NATION
March 31 deadline extended for sign-ups for new health care law A4
ARE WARRIORS
DYSFUNCTIONAL?
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Sunnyvale
Car Wash
50% off
$80 for auto detail

with paint sealant
and clay bar combo
Coach Mark Jackson demotes assistant Brian Scalabrine

amid rumors of in-house discord SPORTS
BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

2.7 MILLION BAY AREA READERS WEEKLY IN PRINT AND ONLINE
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24/7 NEWS COVERAGE ON WWW.MERCURYNEWS.COM
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
$2 BILLION PURCHASE
ANSWER TO OVERHARVESTING
FARM REFINES
AQUACULTURE
Monterey outfit a model of sustainability in raising coveted abalone
A bold
leap to
virtual
reality
Facebook buys Irvine-based
startup Oculus with belief its
the next wave in computing
By Brandon Bailey
bbailey@mercurynews.com
VERN FISHER/MONTEREY COUNTY HERALD
Trevor Fay of Monterey Abalone Co. at work while tourists stroll the planks overhead on Wharf No. 2.
By Nicholas St. Fleur
nstfleur1@mercurynews.com
MONTEREY Trevor Fay grabs a

fistful of fresh, crisp kelp and crams it
into a large steel cage hidden within a
dim, wooden cavern beneath Municipal
Wharf No. 2, just a few hundred feet
from where tourists browse gift shops
and book whale-watching trips.
Its feeding time for more than a
thousand baby abalone that line the
cage in the nursery section of the
Monterey Abalone Co.
Since 1992, the iridescent-shelled

abalone have thrived in the companys
cages, which hang suspended in Monterey Bays waters from a barnaclecovered platform under the pier. A
trapdoor at the end of the commercial
dock serves as the entrance to an underworld that smells like brine and
rings with the sounds of sea lions roaring and metallic gears cranking up
cages.
See ABALONE, Page 14
From seed abalone to harvest

The Monterey Abalone Co. farms abalone under a municipal pier in Monterey.
The farming process starts with seed abalone purchased from
a land-based abalone farm. The seed abalone are about a year old
and about 30 millimeters in length.
ABALONE RULES
Abalone were once numerous
off the California coast, but
overharvesting has caused
their numbers to drop.
No commercial harvesting of
them in the wild is allowed.
Recreational harvesting is
legal north of the Golden Gate,
but sport fishers can take only
18 a year, only nine off the coast
of Marin and Sonoma counties.
Adult red abalone

at minimum market size
3.5 inches
See FACEBOOK, Page 14
PIPELINE SAFETY
Seed abalone
30 mm
0
1 year
2 years
3 years
It takes about three years to go from seed-size abalone to reach the minimum market-size length of 3.5 inches.
Source: Monterey Abalone Co.
CHUCK TODD / BAY AREA NEWS GROUP
THE PIES HAVE IT
A passion for pizza, perfection

Its my whole lifes work, says celebrity chef-restaurateur Tony Gemignani
INDEX
Business........B7
Classified C6, C7
Comics ........B10
Lottery...........A2
Movies ...........B6
Obituaries ... A16

Opinion ........ A18
People ...........A2
Puzzles ... B6, C8
Roadshow .....A2
Television ....B10
By Jessica Yadegaran
jyadegaran@bayareanewsgroup.com
In 2007, Tony Gemignani became the first

American to win the title of World Champion
Pizza Maker at the World Pizza Cup in Italy.
It was unprecedented for a non-Neapolitan to
take the title, let alone an American, and here
was this flour-coated victor from Castro Valley looking out into an angry mob of Italians.
While the rest of the American team celebrated in the safety of their hotel escorted
by polizia through the crowds and chaos
See PIZZA, Page 14
Announcing its second blockbuster deal in as

many months, Facebook said Tuesday it will pay
more than $2 billion in cash and stock for Oculus
VR, a small startup thats made a big splash with
its high-end prototypes of virtual reality systems for electronic games.
Skeptics immediately questioned the link between social networking and virtual-reality technology, which has been viewed as mostly suited
for immersive games, military training and the
like. But Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said
hes convinced the Southern California startup is
at the forefront of the next major wave in computing and communications.
Imagine sharing not just moments with your
friends online, but entire experiences. This can
change the way we communicate with our friends,
family and colleagues, Zuckerberg told analysts.
Drawing a parallel to the way mobile devices are
replacing desktop computers, he predicted that
virtual reality systems will emerge as a popular
medium for entertainment, education and other
uses even doctor visits.
Zuckerberg negotiated to buy the Irvine-based
company in just seven days, according to a source
familiar with the events, although he and other
Facebook executives first visited the company
and tried its technology a few months ago. Oculus
WEATHER PAGE B12

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ARIC CRABB/STAFF
Tony Gemignani at his restaurant Tonys

Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco.
PG&E plan to
cut down trees
draws outrage
City leaders object to utilitys claim that
safety trumps local and state laws
By Elisabeth Nardi and Lisa P. White
Staff writers
Pacific Gas & Electric is moving to cut down

thousands of oaks, redwoods and elms across the
Bay Area that block access to its natural gas pipelines, outraging city leaders who say the utility is
disregarding local laws
designed to protect trees. PIPELINES NEAR YOU?
The $500 million Pipe- To see where PG&Es
line Pathways project is pipelines run, go to
a statewide initiative to www.pge.com/safety/
clear obstructions from systemworks/gas/
the utility companys transmissionpipelines.
6,750 miles of gas lines
from Bakersfield to Eureka. PG&E says it needs
to remove the trees, shrubs and structures on private and public property to ensure pipeline safety
a top priority in the aftermath of the 2010 San
Bruno gas pipeline explosion that killed eight peo-
Copyright 2014 San Jose Mercury News
See PG&E, Page 5
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A10
BAY AREA NEWS GROUP
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 2014
000
Abalone
Farming abalone in Monterey Bay
Facebook
The Monterey Abalone Co. grows abalone in cages suspended in seawater
Hordes of abalone once

coated the rocks and sea
floor of Monterey Bay. But
because of overharvesting throughout most of the
20th century, wild abalone
now are scarce.
State regulations prohibit the commercial harvesting of abalone, but they
allow them to be farmed.
The Monterey Abalone Co.
is one of only two California
aquaculture operations that
use environmentally safe
methods to cultivate red
abalone in the same waters
the species has populated
for millennia.
Fay, the son of a marine biologist and a Salinas rancher, manages the
aquaculture operation with
his business partner, Arthur Seavey.
They are feeding the
abalone what they usually
eat where they usually eat
it, said Michael Graham,
a scientist at Moss Landing Marine Labs. Theyve
pretty much taken all of the
negatives out of aquaculture.
Most of the criticism
of aquaculture, commonly
called fish farming, stems
from the practices of the
giant salmon-farming industry. Environmentalists
fear that the practices pollute surrounding bodies
of water with excess feed,
potentially spreading diseases and threatening to
create genetically different
species when the farmed
fish escape into wild populations.
Most abalone farms are
land-based, such as the
one in Davenport, north
of Santa Cruz. The only
other underwater abalone
farm in California, Pacific
Abalone Farms, grows the
tasty mollusks in cages suspended off a raft in Monterey Harbor.
Seven species of wild
abalone inhabit California
waters, and each is fiercely
protected by state regulations. Only red abalone can
be farmed.
Feeding time
For the underwater

farmers, sustainability begins at feeding time with
hand-harvested kelp.
Every week a few of the
companys eight employees make four boat trips
to Montereys abundant
kelp patches, lean over
their 22-foot flat-bottom
aluminum skiff and wield
butcher knives to chop several tons of the plant from
its canopy.
Harvesting kelp, Fay
said, is a sustainable step
in the operation because
the sea grass grows 14 to
18 inches every day. Its
just like cutting the grass
in your frontyard, he said.
That top is going to come
right back.
Kelp, which is regulated
The red abalone

are corralled in
wire mesh cages
suspended in
the natural
seawater habitat
of Monterey Bay,
where they thrive.
A look inside the

abalone container
Once placed in the
container, the abalone
attach themselves to
panels inside the cage.
Abalone are densely
stocked in the
containers.
As the abalones increase
in size, they are given
more room to grow by
transfering them to a
bigger cage. The abalone
are harvested after three
to five years of growth.
Feeding hungry abalone

Once a week the cage is lifted out of the water and the hungry abalone are fed giant kelp harvested from Monterey Bay.
The cage is opened and the
abalone are given a seawater
rinse to remove waste material.
Unwelcome guests,
such as crabs and
starfish, are removed.
Kelp is gently placed between

the abalone panels. As much
kelp as possible determined
by the number of abalone
is placed in
the cage.
All of the kelp

will be eaten
in a week.
The process is
then repeated.
Source: Monterey Abalone Co.
CHUCK TODD / BAY AREA NEWS GROUP
fried or sauteed and served

in a garlic, butter or lemon
sauce.
The end result of all
our work is an abalone that
looks and tastes like a real
wild abalone, Fay said.
The farm raises abalone
from broodstock it receives
from a hatchery that holds
more than 9 million larvae.
But the survival rate for
the larvae is extremely low.
Little more than 1 percent,
or about 100,000, get to the
farm.
Life cycle
VERN FISHER/MONTEREY COUNTY HERALD
Trevor Fay holds three farm-raised abalone at the

Monterey Abalone Co., underneath Wharf No. 2.
by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife,
can only be legally harvested with a permit.
The practice of feeding
abalone is no more complicated than cutting hay and
feeding it to a cow, said
Randy Lovell, the departments aquaculture coordinator.
It takes the abalone
nearly a week to devour
the 10 to 40 pounds of kelp
packed in their cages. But
because there are hundreds of cages, feeding the
farms abalone army seems
like a never-ending task for
workers.
By the time they finish, its time to start at the
other end, Fay said. Its
like painting the Golden

Gate Bridge.
Workers also feed the
abalone red algae, which
give the mollusks their red
appearance. Red algae are
abundant where wild abalone grow, but not every
farm incorporates it into
the sea snails diet. Thats a
mistake, Fay said, because
omitting the algae leaves
the abalone with pale shells
and a bland taste. The algae
also increase the abalones
growth rate by 25 percent,
he said.
Monterey Bay Abalone
sells abalone directly to
local restaurants and consumers as an expensive
entree more than $60
that is often grilled, pan-
Pizza
MIKE LUCIA/STAFF ARCHIVES
Tony Gemignani tosses pizza for kids at Pyzanos

Pizza in Castro Valley in 2008.
scrawled across his chest.
No one loves pizza more
than me.
Friend and fellow pizza
celebrity chef Joe Carlucci
of Famous Joes Pizzeria
says that just might be true.
I thought I was the
most passionate person
about pizza until I met him
(Gemignani), says Carlucci, a New York native
who has been a teammate
and competitor of Gemignanis on the Food Network
and the World Pizza Cup
circuit. Carlucci is also the
Guinness World Record
holder of the highest pizza
toss. He takes it to another
level. Pizza is Tonys child
until he has one.
That passion is reflected
in his pizzeria, the only
one in the country with
seven types of ovens and
three different dough mixers. Gemignani uses seven
kinds of flour to achieve
various crusts and more
than a dozen cheeses. He

pulls his own mozzarella
and extracts his own honey
from two beehives on his
rooftop garden. It goes on
his Honey Pie, a wood-fired
California-style pizza with
calabrese peppers and fried
caramelized onions.
In his kitchen, pillows of
pizza proof in old-fashioned
Neapolitan wood boxes.
The menu is organized by
region and oven type. For
instance, Italy is broken up
into Roman, Sicilian, Neapolitan and Classic. American pizza includes Chicago, New York and some
lesser known styles, such
as Detroits Red Top, a
thick square cooked in blue
steel pans from Detroit to
achieve crunchy, toasted
corners reminiscent of
macaroni and cheese topping. St. Louis-style is
cracker-thin, with extra
sweet tomato sauce and
provel, a processed cheese
3 and 6 inches. Regulations

aimed at protecting the
species and the bay dictate
what size of abalone the
company can sell, as well as
the conditions in which the
farm is operated.
Because of its feeding
methods, the companys
abalone gets a green
light from the Monterey
Bay Seafood Watch Program, said Peter Bridson,
the programs aquaculture
research manager. The
program uses a traffic-light
rating system to denote sustainable seafood options.
He said the Monterey
Bay Abalone Co. runs a
particularly
sustainable
operation because there
are no significant concerns
about chemical waste or
feed waste or fear of the
abalone escaping.
Seavey acknowledges
that his operations image
is sometimes tainted by the
widely criticized practices
of salmon farming. However, he thinks the comparison is unfair.
Its like saying all of
agriculture is bad because
people dont like industrial
farming, Seavey said. We
hope that we can be an example of sustainable aquaculture not just environmentally, but economically,
too.
A week after birth, the

abalone develop their shells.
At about nine months, they
can start eating kelp. The
abalone munch on the sea
grass using two teeth-like
mouthpieces called radula,
which interlock to rasp
away kelp.
Its like having a zipper to rub against kelp and
grind off pieces into their
stomach, said Jim Covel,
director of interpretation at the Monterey Bay
Aquarium.
The company partitions
its farm into three sections
that grow abalone of different shell sizes and ages.
Every section holds about
60 cages that can each support hundreds of older abalone with 6-inch shells to
thousands of juvenile abaContact Nicholas St. Fleur
lone with 2-inch shells.
The company sells aba- at 408-920-5064. Follow him
lone when they are between at Twitter.com/SciFleur.
PIZZAS RENAISSANCE MAN

Gemignani sat quietly pondering his winning pizza.
Then he looked at a teammate and said: I think
I know how to make the
dough better next time.
Those who know him say
it is that drive for perfection
that has led to his success.
In only five years, Gemignani has revitalized his
corner of San Franciscos
North Beach with Tonys
Pizza Napoletana and
its adjoining slice house,
which turns out more than
1,000 pizzas a day. Its also
home to The International
School of Pizza, where he
trains chefs from all over
the world. He also owns
Capos, a Chicago-style restaurant and whiskey bar a
few blocks over.
To date, Gemignani, 40,
has won three world titles
in pizza cooking and eight in
pizza acrobatics tossing
dough at uncanny heights
and speeds. He holds two
pizza-related
Guinness
World Record titles, and
his third book, The Pizza
Bible, is due out in October on Ten Speed Press
after the summer release
of his artisan pizza flour for
home chefs.
Its my whole lifes
work, says the spikyhaired brunette, sitting at
a table inside Tonys on a
bustling Thursday afternoon. The words Respect
the Craft are tattooed on
his hands. Pizza for Life is
Once filled with kelp,

the cage is closed and
returned to the seawater.
Who: Tony Gemignani;

www.tonygemignani.com
Occupation: Chef, restaurateur, author, master
instructor and 11-time World
Pizza Cup champion.
Residence: San Francisco
(and currently building a
home in San Ramon)
Current projects: Slice
House and Pizza Rock
expanding into AT&T Park,
the East Bay and Las Vegas.
His book, The Pizza Bible,
will be out in October on Ten
Speed Press.
ONLINE EXTRA
Scan this code
to view a photo
gallery or see it
and a video of
Gemignani tossing pizza
dough at www.mercury
news.com/food.
made with cheddar, Swiss

and provolone.
A decorated California chef using processed
cheese?
Yeah, he admits. If
someone from St. Louis
comes in here, I couldnt
use mozzarella. Theyd
know. People come looking for their favorites from
back home. People from
Detroit know and expect
those crunchy corners.
Gemignani uncovered
these regional specialties
while traveling the world
with his pizza acrobatics
team. He fell into acrobatics after high school when
he started working for his
brother, Frank, at Pyzanos,
in Castro Valley.
To entertain the crowds

awaiting their pies, Gemignani experimented with
tossing tricks, like rolling
the dough along the backs
of his shoulders. After a
few years, he entered his
first pizza-throwing competition in Las Vegas and
quickly became the top
pizza thrower in the world.
The title took him on
the road. When he wasnt
doing television appearances or exclusive gigs, like
the time he made pizza for
Francis Ford Coppola at
the directors Napa estate,
he would steal away into local kitchens, working with
chefs and gathering knowledge about regional flavors
and Old World pizza-making styles.
And he brought it all
back to that Castro Valley
kitchen, crafting American pies for customers, but
working as a mad pizza scientist before the pizzeria
opened.
Id be in kitchen at 5
a.m. experimenting with
different flours from around
the world, he recalls.
Ironically, the first time
he tasted Neapolitan pizza
was on a trip to Italy that
had nothing to do with
cooking competitions. It
was 14 years ago on his honeymoon. He had just started
working at Pyzanos, and,
as he sunk his teeth into the
blistered, perfectly charred
crust and tasted that marriage of sweet tomatoes and
sea salt, he closed his eyes
and said, I know nothing.
Now he just might know
it all.
Drawing a parallel to the

way mobile devices are replacing desktop computers,
he predicted that virtual
reality systems will emerge
as a popular medium for entertainment, education and
other uses even doctor
visits.
Zuckerberg negotiated
to buy the Irvine-based
company in just seven days,
according to a source familiar with the events, although
he and other Facebook executives first visited the
company and tried its technology a few months ago.
Oculus VR was founded by
Palmer Luckey, a 21-yearold software developer and
self-described science fiction enthusiast, less than
two years ago; CEO Brendan Iribe is a veteran of previous startups.
Coming just a month after Facebook agreed to pay
an eye-popping $19 billion
for online messaging service
WhatsApp, analysts said the
Oculus deal demonstrates
Zuckerbergs determination
to push the worlds largest
social networking company
into new business sectors
and technologies.
It also shows the tremendous pressure on major Internet companies like Facebook and Google to acquire
promising new technology
ahead of their rivals. The two
Internet giants reportedly
made competing offers in
several recent deals, including the WhatsApp acquisition, and have been racing
to hire talented scientists in
such cutting-edge fields as
artificial intelligence.
Google has dabbled in
augmented reality, as well,
by developing products
like the wearable computer
known as Glass, which can
project information on a
headset screen while its
wearer is walking or moving
through the real world.
Oculus impressed audiences at recent technology
conferences by showing
off a prototype headset,
called Oculus Rift, which
surrounds the wearer with
sights and sounds that simulate stepping into a different
landscape or imaginary setting something akin to the
immersive holodeck experience in science fictions
Star Trek. Reviewers have
called the effect strikingly
realistic.
Virtual worlds are a
new medium, just like DOS
was a medium and the Web
browser and Android and
iPhone smartphones, said
Antonio Rodriguez, an Oculus board member and general partner at venture firm
Matrix Partners, which took
part in two funding rounds
for the startup.
Noting that Facebook
was criticized for being slow
to shift from desktop PCs
to the mobile computing
model, Rodriguez added:
If youre Mark Zuckerberg
and want to be sure you are
early to the next medium,
whats better than to go
with the dominant company
in this area?
But one expert said hes
skeptical that Facebook can
deliver on Zuckerbergs vision for virtual reality.
Virtual reality inherently has been a singular
experience. It hasnt been
social, said Brian Blau, a
Gartner technology analyst
and computer scientist who
has worked at virtual reality
companies.
While virtual reality
could be an appealing feature in multiplayer electronic games, Blau added,
there are vast technological
challenges in designing a
system that works for one
person, let alone for multiple people.
Zuckerberg,
however,
told analysts on a conference
call that recent advances in
computer hardware have
substantially lowered the
cost of powerful processors and other components
needed to create realistic,
immersive experiences. He
also boasted that Oculus VR
has already hired many of the
best engineers in the field.
Facebooks first priority will be helping its new
subsidiary finish building a
working product and bring
it to market, according to
Zuckerberg, who said other
applications will come over
time. He said Facebook
will develop software and
services around the Oculus technology and perhaps
seek to profit by selling virtual goods or advertising
down the line.
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Cycling event helps veterans cope

More than 200 pedal through Central Coast
By NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR
Herald Correspondent
POSTED: 10/14/2013 07:39:12 PM PDT
0 COMMENTS
UPDATED: 10 MONTHS AGO
For the past four years, there hasn't been five minutes that have
gone by without Garrett Vanbrenk thinking about being in Iraq
and the friends he left behind there.
Click photo to enlarge
At least that's the way it seems to the 26-year-old Army veteran.

Vanbrenk had trouble adjusting to civilian life after serving abroad
from 2008-09. He said he felt alone and didn't have anyone who
understood him.
But on Monday he said he had a newfound sense of belonging
after having completed Day 2 of his first long cycling event with a
community of veterans like him.
Happening Around Monterey

News & Business
(/portlet/article/html/render_gallery.jsp?
ksbwtv (http://youtu.be/rbxyukuBUJ8)
articleId=24309995&siteId=570&startImage=1)
Former Army medic Adam Volchok of
Los Angeles finishes the Watsonville...
(DAVID ROYAL/The Herald)
Vanbrenk is one of more than 200 veterans, many of whom were

injured fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, pedaling on a 450-mile
bike trip through the Central Coast as a part of the United Healthcare Ride 2 Recovery event.
The program aims to use cycling as a way for wounded veterans to heal physically and mentally.
Vanbrenk became involved with Ride 2 Recovery three months ago after joining a Menlo Park
post-traumatic stress disorder program. He credits the program and the cycling with changing his
life.
"Before I went into the program I truly believed that I could never be happy or be worth anything
or do well unless I was deployed in a combat zone," he said.
While at Menlo Park, Vanbrenk met Estevan Rojas, a 32-year old Marine, who also had trouble
readjusting to civilian life after serving in Iraq in 2003.
He too took part in the Ride 2 Recovery event and found that cycling could restore what he had
lost in Iraq.
"I was a grunt and now (as a civilian) I couldn't find that high of clearing out buildings and going
into that zone. But through cycling I get that high," Rojas said.
"I'm not clearing buildings anymore but I'm with other people and we're pushing it to the limit
enjoying one another that's the camaraderie that I missed."
The program started six years ago and the ride is an annual event. This year it began in Palo Alto
and will conclude Saturday at the Santa Monica Pier. During their trek the riders will cover 55 to
100 miles a day.
On Monday most of the riders donned red and blue cycling jerseys to support Project HERO,
which coaches the veterans in preparation for the Ride 2 Recovery Challenge and helps them set
their own personal cycling goals.
"So many veterans have been touched by this program," said Gil Ramirez, who leads the
Department of Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Medical Center resident program. He said the cycling is a
way for the veterans to exercise and connect with each other.
"Cycling mirrors a lot of the things that people learn in military units: how do we look after each
other, work together and how do we push ourselves in a healthy way?"
Crow dynew s
Many of the veterans who cycle with Ride 2 Recover are missing limbs or have other disabilities
that keep them from using regular bikes. Tommy Muir, a program manager, said the organization
has adapted hundreds of bicycles and has created bikes that accommodate triple and even
quadruple amputees. Scott Moro a former professional cyclist, engineered a bicycle for one veteran
who had been severely burned. The veteran hadn't ridden a bike since he was a child, and after
being burned thought he never would again. But special handlebars were designed to make it
easier for him to maneuver the brakes and gears. Now he is able to ride.
"The bike is the great equalizer," said Debora Spano, who works for United Healthcare. "For
anyone who's looking to ride we'll figure it out."
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your health
What's Going On In There? How Babies'

Brains Practice Speech
by NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR
July 15, 2014
5:08 PM ET
University of Washington
A baby's first words may seem spur of the moment, but really, the little
ones have practiced their "Mamas" and "Dadas" for months in their minds.
Using what looks like a hair dryer from Mars, researchers from the
University of Washington have taken the most precise peeks yet into the
fireworks display of neural activity that occurs when infants listen to people
speak.
They found that the motor area of the brain, which we use to produce
speech, is very active in babies 7 to 12 months old when they listen to
speech components.
"What we're seeing is that the babies are practicing because they want to
talk back," says Patricia Kuhl, a speech psychologist at the University of
Washington and the lead author on the paper, published Monday in the
Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences.
Kuhl used a machine called a magnetoencephalograph, or MEG, that
measures the brain's magnetic field from outside the head. Unlike MRIs or
CTs, which require that patients be completely still, the MEG can scan
images in moving patients, which works out perfectly for fidgety babies.
University of Washington/YouTube
The scanner lets scientists glimpse at what's going on in that little head.
Babies undergo a huge transition from 7 months to 12 months that is very

important for language acquisition, Kuhl says. At the age of 7 months, a
baby can distinguish sounds from different languages, such as English or
Spanish. But by 12 months the baby focuses in on her or his native
language and begins to tune out foreign speech.
Kuhl placed 57 babies aged either 7 months or 12 months under the
machine and played repeated human sounds for them. The speakers
played repeated "da" and "ta" syllables in English and then "da" in Spanish.
They found that the motor part of the brain lit up when the baby listened to
the sounds, indicating that they were trying to mimic or respond to the
speech. By 12 months, the babies, who had English-speaking parents, had
a harder time responding to the Spanish-language sounds.
Susan Goldin-Meadow, a developmental psychologist from the University of
Chicago who was not involved in the study, says it furthers understanding of
how babies process language. "We've had the behavioral data for a while,"
she says. "But this provides evidence on the neural level."
Kuhl says that her research supports parent's use of "parentese," or baby
speak, a form of talking to babies with a higher pitch, slower pace and
exaggerated facial expressions. "This is a good way to promote their ittybitty social skills to develop," she says.
Not everyone sees this as an endorsement of parentese, though. Barbara
Lust, a cognitive scientist from Cornell University who was not involved in
the study, says the results "show more generally how important surrounding
your child with language is, but it doesn't make a strong enough argument
for needing to talk to a baby in a motherese way."
Kuhl says her next steps are to have researchers speak to the baby using
parentese and analyze the baby's reactions, to see if the children respond
more strongly to it.
The take-home message for new moms and dads, she says: "Talk to your
baby; you're prompting it to act on the world."
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Don't Pop That Bubble Wrap! Scientists Turn

Trash Into Test Tubes
July 22, 2014
3:31 PM ET
i
American Chemical Society
Hate to burst your bubble, glass lab gear. But plastic bubble wrap also
works pretty well at running science experiments.
Scientists at Harvard University have figured out a way to use these petite
pouches as an inexpensive alternate to glass test tubes and culture dishes.
They even ran glucose tests on artificial urine and anemia tests on blood, all
with the samples sitting inside bubble wrap.

"Most lab experiments require equipment, like test tubes or 96-well assay
plates," says chemist George Whitesides, who led the study. "But if you go
out to smaller villages [in developing countries], these things are just not
available."
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One glass test tube can cost between $1 and

$5. Bubble wrap, by contrast, is dirt cheap.
One square foot of it, with about 100 to 500
bubbles depending on bubble dimensions, costs
only 6 cents, Whitesides and his team reported
Thursday in the journal Analytical Chemistry.
"You can take out a roll of bubble wrap, and you have a bunch of little test
tubes," he says. "This is an opportunity to potentially use material that
would otherwise have been thrown away."
Whitesides is a master at converting cheap, everyday materials into lab
equipment. He's made a centrifuge from an egg beater and CD player. And
he's designed a glucose detector from paper and tape.
While visiting scientists around the world, Whitesides noticed that many labs
in developing countries don't even have simple pieces of equipment, such as
test tubes for running blood tests, storing urine samples or growing
microbes.
That's when the idea popped into his head: bubble wrap. The packaging
material is readily available all over the globe, and scientists often have it
around the lab because other equipment is shipped in it.
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So Whitesides and his team tried injecting blood

and chemicals into the clear blisters with a
needle and syringe. They then sealed the holes
with nail polish.
The bubbles held the liquid with no problem.
And since the plastic is clear, the team could
use the mini-test tubes for tests that involve color changes. For instance, to
test for anemia, the scientists added a chemical that changes colors when it
reacts with iron in blood. They also successfully grew bacteria and worms
inside the bubbles.
But to make a good test tube or petri dish, the bubble wrap also needed to
be sterile.
So Whitesides' students filled the plastic bubbles with a solution of food for
microorganisms and looked to see if bacteria grew inside. After four days,
no microbes appeared. To their surprise, the air and plastic inside the
bubbles were completely sterile.
That finding also surprised Michele Barry, a tropical disease doctor at
Stanford University, who wasn't involved in the study.
"I had no idea that the bubbles themselves were sterile, which is fabulous,"
she tells Goats and Soda. "I just assumed it would be colonized by bugs.
So this is amazingly interesting."
Labs in poor countries have a great need to store samples, Barry points
out. The bubble wrap could also be used to test water for toxic metals,
such as mercury, arsenic and lead, she says.
But the plastic packaging comes with many limitations. The mini-test tubes
must be handled carefully or they'll pop literally. And bubble wrap is
sensitive to light. It degrades over time.
To use the bubble wrap, scientists need needles and syringes which
could be just as scarce as test tubes in a bare-bones lab, Barry points out.
Whitesides says he doesn't have specific plans to roll out the bubble wrap
in labs anytime soon. But he hopes that this proof-of-concept study will
inspire other scientists around the world to take the idea and wrap it up.
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Did Neanderthals Eat Plants? The Proof May

Be In The Poop
June 26, 2014
3:25 PM ET
i
Mauricio Anton/Science Source
Neanderthals clubbed their way to the top of an ancient food chain, slaying
caribou and mammoths. But a peek inside their prehistoric poop reveals
that the meat-loving early humans may have also enjoyed some salad on
the side.
Researchers excavating a site in southern Spain where Neanderthals lived
50,000 years ago were initially looking for remnants of food in fireplaces.
Then they stumbled upon tiny bits of poop which turned out to be the
oldest fecal matter from a human relation ever discovered.

Ainara Sistiaga, a paleoarchaeologist with the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology who led the excavation, tells The Salt that what surprised her
team even more was the contents of the poop.
When they analyzed poop from the site, called El Salt, under a microscope,
they saw cholesterol-like compounds called phytosterols, which come from
plants. The feces also contained a lot of animal-derived cholesterol
confirming they were also chowing down on meat.
"This opens a new window into Neanderthal diet because it's the first time
we actually know what they digested and consumed," Sistiaga says. The
findings appeared Wednesday in the journal PLOS One.
For years, scientists assumed our early ancestors were carnivores.
According to that theory, Neanderthals saw plants merely as part of the
terrain, or perhaps as tools, but certainly not as food. Until a couple of
decades ago, there was little hard evidence of an omnivorous Neanderthal.
One study found fossilized bits of plant stuck between the teeth of a
Neanderthal. That study, Sistiaga points out, did not confirm the
Neanderthals' taste for plants because she says they could have used their
mouths as a third hand to hold the plant and use it as a tool. Or the plant
material could have come from the entrails of an animal they'd eaten, she
says.
The scientists who previously tackled this debate on the side of the
omnivorous Neanderthal say that the new findings help make the case.
i
Ainara Sistiaga /Courtesy of PLoS
"It shows that from the mouth to the end point, you consistently have plant
material," says Stephen Buckley, an archaeological chemist at the
University of York, who previously found plant material in Neanderthal teeth.
"This paper makes it extremely difficult for people who want to maintain the
idea that Neanderthals only ate meat to do so."
His views are echoed by Alison Brooks, paleoanthropologist at The George
Washington University in Washington, D.C. She tells The Salt that the new
work by Sistiaga puts "another nail in the Neanderthal carnivore coffin."
But Brooks also raises some questions about the team's methods for
determining who or what produced the poop. She says it's possible
the poop came from another omnivorous mammal, such as a wolf, bear or
Macaque monkey.
"I don't know what humans are doing defecating in a fireplace, but you
could see a wolf doing that," says Brooks.
But Sistiaga says that certain mammal carnivores such as wolves and lions
can be ruled out because their quick digestive systems prevent them from
converting cholesterol into coprostanol, a compound found in the feces. She
also says that chimps and gorillas have closer cholesterol-to-coprostanol
ratios to herbivores, so that rules them out, and there is currently no
evidence of other primates in the area where the site is.
Her next steps are to further excavate El Salt and unearth more ancient
clues to piece together what made up the Neanderthals' dinner plate.
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A house fly couple settles down on the ceiling of a manure-filled cowshed for a romantic night of
courtship and copulation. Unbeknownst to the infatuated insects, their antics have attracted the
Sleep: The Ultimate Brainwasher?
A Possible Cure for Baldness, in 3D

Gold in Trees May Hint at Buried Treasure
acute ears of a lurking Natterer's bat. But this eavesdropper is no perverthe's a predator set on
a two-for-one dinner special. As a new study reveals, the hungry bat swoops in on the
FROM THE MAGAZINE
unsuspecting flies, guided by the sound of their precoital "clicks."
2013-10-24 13:07, Vol. 342, No. 6157

Earliest Known Galaxy Formed Stars at a
Breakneck Pace
Previous studies of freshwater amphipods, water striders, and locusts have shown that mating
Astronomers using the Hubble Space
can make animals more vulnerable to predators, but these studies did not determine why. A
Telescope have imaged the earliest
team from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany, which was led by Bjrn Siemers,
galaxy yet, dating from just 700 million
found that the bat-fly interactions in the cowshed provided clues for understanding what tips off a
years after the big bang, and conclude that it was
predator to a mating couple. The researchers observed a teenage horror film-like scene as
forming stars at a furious rate 100 times that of the
Natterer's bats (Myotis nattereri)preyed on mating house flies (Musca domestica).
modern Milky Way.
Bats find prey primarily through two methods: echolocation and passive acoustics. For most
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bats, echolocation is the go-to tracking tool. They send out a series of high frequency calls and
The current climate of austerity has not

stopped NCI Director Harold Varmus from
listen for the echoes produced when the waves hit something. The researchers found that by
launching new initiatives.
using echolocation, bats could easily find and catch house flies midflight, yet they had difficulty
hunting stationary house flies.
Varmus's Second Act
Years after steering the National
"The problem is that these flies sit on the ceiling at night, and when the bat tries to echolocate
Institutes of Health into a 5-year budget
them, the substrate masks the weak echo of the flies," says Stefan Greif, a doctoral student who
doubling, the Nobel Prizewinning
worked under Siemers. The cowshed ceiling is covered in small bumps similar in size to the flies.
virologist is now helping the cancer institute deal with the
So when the bat bounces its signal off the surface, the bugs are invisible among the bumps.
aftermath.
That's when passive acoustic cues, or the sounds that prey make, come into play. The team
noted that the male made a clicking sound with his wings before copulating that alerted the bats
MORE FROM SCIENCE MAG
to the pair's location. These clicks were between 9 kHz and 154 kHz and came in 3-second
bursts. So to humans, whose hearing maxes out around 20 kHz, the clicks sound like lowfrequency buzzing. But to bats, which can hear sounds up to 150 kHz, the clicks are clear
SCIENCEINSIDER
auditory alerts. Locked onto the sound, the bats would swoop in and snatch the fly pair with a
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"prey pocket" formed from the excess skin extending from their tail, in a process called gleaning.
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Bats attacked 26 percent of mating flies, grabbing a double meal almost 60% of the time, the
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researchers reveal online today in Current Biology.
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http://news.sciencemag.org/2012/07/bats-catch-mating-flies-act
Page 1 of 4
10/27/13 5:01 AM
Two-for-one special. Bats attacked 26% of mating flies, grabbing a

double meal almost 60% of the time.
Credit: Stefan Greif
More Science News Videos
To confirm that the bats were responding to the clicks, the researchers played recordings of fly
sounds through speakers. The team found that the bats attacked the speakers whenever they
played the buzzing recordings, but ignored them when they played white noise or the sound of
the flies walking.
Christian Voigt, a behavioral ecologist at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in
Berlin, calls the work "a breathtaking story." It's also a "striking example," he says, of the bats'
spatial memory, which allows the animals to pinpoint where prey are after hearing their sounds.
The study also illustrates learning in Natterer's bats, says Greif. The hungry bats "cannot find the
flies [through echolocation], but they have apparently learned that the buzzing sound that the
flies do when they copulate actually means food." Rachel Page, a behavioral ecologist at the
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, agrees. "It's a combination of
inquisitiveness and rapid learning that allows the bats to home in on something like a fly
copulating and then realize, 'Wow, now that's something that would make a good meal.' "
John Ratcliffe, a neuroethologist at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense, praises the
study for "meticulously testing different hypotheses and coming up with a strong explanation as
to 'what's going on.'"
Aerial assault.The team found that the bats attacked the speakers
whenever they played the buzzing recordings.
Credit: Stefan Greif
So if buzzing can get them gobbled, why don't the flies keep the noise down? Research by Lisa
Meffert who was at Rice University in Houston, Texas, suggests that buzzing is a part of their
courtship behavior. A male house fly vibrates his wings while on top of the female. Although the
female can choose to reject the male by kicking him off at any point, copulation always occurs
after the males make their buzzing noise.
The authors of the paper speculate that the females may use the buzzing to assess some aspect
of the males' fitness, so they may need to hear this sound before allowing mating to proceed. If
Page 2 of 4
10/27/13 5:01 AM
so, the male's performance makes for potentially fatal foreplay.

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What Gets Geckos Unglued | Science/AAAS | News
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What Gets Geckos Unglued

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Giant Camels Roamed Arctic Realms

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Alyssa Stark
FROM THE MAGAZINE
Super sticker. A Tokay gecko on a wet surface trying to resist being pulled by the harness attached to its pelvis.
2013-10-24 13:07, Vol. 342, No. 6157

A Cancer To-Do List
Geckos are the superheroes of the lizard family. Equipped with sticky toe pads capable of
The current climate of austerity has not
supporting the weight of two humans, they cling to walls and scurry across ceilings with ease.
stopped NCI Director Harold Varmus from
But like any superhero, the reptiles have their kryptonite. A new study shows that soaked
launching new initiatives.
surfaces and wet feet cause them to lose their grip.

The key to the gecko's sticking success lies in tiny hairlike structures, called setae, found on the
base of its toes. Each of these microscopic bristles can split into hundreds of nano-sized tips
called septulae. Septulae create so-called van der Waals interactions between their molecules
U.S. Shutdown Ends, but Not Budget

Anxiety
The U.S. government shutdown is over,

but anxiety over future spending levels for
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and the molecules of the surface that a lizard is clinging to. Such interactions are normally weak,
but because there are millions of septulae on each of a gecko's toes, each tiny bristle adds a
small grip, which together creates a secure hold. A million setae, which would fit neatly on a
Earliest Known Galaxy Formed Stars at a

Breakneck Pace
dime, could support the weight of a child.
Astronomers using the Hubble Space

Telescope have imaged the earliest
Previous research had tested geckos' adhesive abilities on dry surfaces, such as smooth glass
http://news.sciencemag.org/2012/08/what-gets-geckos-unglued
galaxy yet, dating from just 700 million

years after the big bang, and conclude that it was
Page 1 of 4
10/27/13 4:39 AM
and rough walls, but they had not investigated how the reptiles react to wet surfaces, which are
forming stars at a furious rate 100 times that of the
common in the rainforest environments in which many geckos live. So in the new study,
modern Milky Way.
researchers at the University of Akron in Ohio fit a group of Tokay geckos (Gekko gecko) with a
tiny harness hooked up to a force sensor and placed the reptiles on dry, misted, and water
covered glass surfaces. As the harness pulled back on the geckos, the sensor measured how
much force it took to get the well-attached reptiles unstuck. The team found that as the surfaces
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became wetter, the geckos struggled to maintain their grip.
Hang on! A gecko slips trying to grip onto a glass surface while its feet
are wet.
Credit: Alyssa Stark University of Akron, Department of Biology
The researchers then tested how the geckos dealt with wet feet on different surfaces. They
submerged the lizards' feet in water for 90 minutes and then strapped them to the harnesses and
tested them on the same surfaces again. This time the team found a significant reduction in
adhesive ability. It takes 20N of force, or about 20 times its own body weight, to get a gecko to
slip when its feet are dry and on a dry surface. But when a gecko's feet were wet, they became
unstuck with less than 1N of force. A gecko that had its feet submerged slid down the same dry
surfaces that it would normally have no problem scrambling up (see video). A gecko's ability was
most impaired when their feet and the surface were soaked, slipping with less than 0.5N of force
applied, the team reports online today in The Journal of Experimental Biology.
Although scientists don't know the answer yet, one hypothesis for why the submerged geckos
lost their stickiness is that their toes lost their superhydrophobic, or water-resistant, properties as
they became oversaturated with water.
"It's interesting because we think of geckos generally as being really great at sticking," says lead
SCIENCEINSIDER
author and integrative biologist Alyssa Stark. "This experiment shows that there are some
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limitations to their ability."
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The results highlight the importance of understanding the ecology of an animal and the surfaces
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that it normally encounters in the wild, especially when looking at that organism's biomechanics,
Report Claims Industry Influence at European Food

Watchdog Persists
says Timothy Higham, a biomechanist from the University of California, Riverside, who was not
French Mathematician Tapped as Next ERC President
involved in the work. "Before this study we probably would not have guessed that water would
have impacted adhesion this much. In fact we might have even predicted that it wouldn't impact
adhesion at all, given that the gecko's hydrophobic pads are supposed to work fairly well in
water."
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Duncan Irschick, a functional biologist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, says that he
was not shocked by the results. "It's not unexpected that if you dunk lizards into water that
they're going to have their adhesive performance reduced." What is startling, he says, is the
extent to which the gecko's adhesive performance declined.
Stark says that her team's research will enable biologists to better understand how geckos
behave when they are approached by a predator while wet and how they keep a grip on a
Page 2 of 4
10/27/13 4:39 AM
drenched branch. It also has implications for scientists looking to create new adhesives that can
support immense weights by mimicking the gecko's mechanics. Ali Dhinojwala, a polymer
scientist from the University of Akron, says that by understanding what causes the gecko's
adhesion to fail, scientists can avoid the same pitfalls when they design synthetic gecko-like
adhesives, which could be used in medicine, robotics, and new super glues. By studying the
limitations of the gecko's natural adhesive system, scientists might get their hands on adhesives
that are reusable, hold enormous amounts of weight, and stay strong for long periods of time
even when wet.
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