Alcohol Ohio

I was born in Cleveland, Ohio, but have lived here in L.A. since I was 3 years old. I lived with my aunt initially, my mom sent me ahead of her, but the same day my mom moved here my aunt threw us out. We lived from pillow to post. We were on the streets. When I was 8 or 9 years old, we finally got an apartment in Watts."I started using alcohol in adolescence, experimenting, but it got progressively worse. I graduated from high school and went to Leimert Park Beauty College in the Crenshaw area. In 1977, I opened up my own hair salon, called Serenity Hair Design. I started partying more, drinking again and that led to cocaine. I hit a lot of walls, a lot of depression. I wasn't able to maintain the salon, I'd be at home crashed out instead. I had a son at that time and wasn't able to take care of him appropriately."In 1989, my mom died suddenly and it devastated me because there were so many things unresolved.

County OVI will pick up patrols

Stark County is the most deadly and dangerous county in Ohio, based on population, when it comes to alcohol-related deaths and alcohol-related accidents with injuries, said Perry Police Chief Tim Escola.

Escola should know. He heads the Stark County OVI (operating a motor vehicle under the influence) Task Force charged with the mission of reducing those numbers.

The task force is planning extra enforcement � checkpoints and saturation patrols � for Thanksgiving week, and if its recent record holds true that will mean more traffic stops.

Escola recently released the task force�s most recent year-end report, which covers a period from October 2006 to October 2007. The results show 1,003 more traffic stops this year.

Stark has a problem with drivers under the influence.

SSA considers ad space guidelines

Steamship Authority (SSA) members will consider guidelines that would determine the type of advertising allowed aboard SSA vessels and in terminals when they meet Tuesday. The SSA agreed last November to begin selling advertising space, in an effort to generate outside revenue. As a result, this year poster advertising has begun spouting up on ferry walls that were previously adorned only with artwork from local artists and school children. In a telephone conversation with The Times Tuesday, SSA general manager Wayne Lamson said he was presented with a request to advertise from Bacardi this summer. Mr. Lamson said he rejected the ad because he thought it was best to proceed cautiously, but he decided it was important to have a set of guidelines. .

New Drug/Alcohol Treatment Facility In Crookston

A hospital announced plans today for a new drug and alcohol treatment center; it will be one of the largest in northwestern Minnesota. The Sisters of St. Joseph Convent on the east side of Crookston has been vacant for three years. A group of private investors has now purchased it for nearly two million dollars and will lease it to Riverview for their Glenmore Treatment Facility. Bill Erickson says, "Glenmore has been a wonderful part of Riverview. We saw a need to expand services and an opportunity, now it is a reality." Riverview officials say they have simply out grown their current drug and alcohol treatment facility with 27 beds. This new facility will offer 52 beds, a dining room and plenty of space for conference rooms, exercise rooms and more.

Iraq Veterans Experience Delayed Mental Stress, Study Finds

Soldiers who served in Iraq are experiencing much greater mental distress three to six months after leaving the war zone than when they first returned to the U.S., according to a Walter Reed Army Institute of Research/U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Washington Post reports. For the study, researchers analyzed questionnaires completed by 88,235 Iraq War soldiers. About 56,000 of the respondents remain on active duty, while 32,000 are in the Army Reserve or National Guard. Ninety percent of the questionnaires were completed by men, 60% of whom were married (Scott Tyson, Washington Post, 11/14).

Overall, almost one-third of the servicemembers had signs of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, conflicts in relationships and other mental health problems six months after leaving Iraq, the study found (Johnson, AP/Long Island Newsday, 11/13).

Hepatitis C Treatment Reduces the Virus but Serious Liver Problems May Progress

Patients with chronic hepatitis C and advanced liver disease who did not respond to previous standard therapy experienced significant decreases in their liver enzymes, viral levels, and liver inflammation following treatment with long-term pegylated interferon. However, the treatment did not slow or prevent the progression of serious liver disease. These findings come from the clinical trial, Hepatitis C Antiviral Long-Term Treatment Against Cirrhosis (HALT-C) and were reported at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease in Boston on November 5, 2007. HALT-C is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with additional support from Hoffmann-La Roche Inc.

"The HALT-C trial unequivocally demonstrated that maintenance therapy with peginterferon does not prevent progression of liver disease among patients who have failed prior treatments," said James Everhart, M.D., project scientist for HALT-C and a program director for the Division of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the principal sponsor of HALT-C at NIH.