WASHINGTON, D.C.: Drugs approved to treat glaucoma
Glaucoma sufferers are about to get two new medicines to help fend off blindness including one that seems to work particularly well for black patients, who are at special risk. Both Travatan and Lumigan work by draining fluid buildup that is the hallmark of glaucoma. The Food and Drug Administration approved them Friday, saying both work equally well and thus offer an alternative to standard therapies.
But Travatan comes with an added marketing boost: A study found it worked best in black glaucoma sufferers, making it the first treatment allowed to target a group especially hard-hit by that disease.
Glaucoma is the nation's second-leading cause of blindness, afflicting some 3 million Americans and blinding about 80,000 of them a year. Black Americans are four times more likely than whites to suffer glaucoma; it typically strikes them at younger ages; and they go blind faster.
LOS ANGELES: Handyman convicted of 'Psycho' killings
A 34-year-old handyman has been convicted of strangling two women, including an actress who provided the voice of Norman Bates' mother in the classic Alfred Hitchcock film "Psycho."
Kenneth Dean Hunt was found guilty Thursday of two counts of first-degree murder. He could receive the death penalty at his sentencing, set for Monday.
Hunt avoided suspicion in the 1988 killing of actress Myra Davis for 10 years. Authorities originally thought his 1998 victim, Jean Orloff, 60, died of a heart attack.
It wasn't until Orloff's family was preparing to have her body cremated that it was discovered she had been strangled.
Davis, 71, had also appeared as Janet Leigh's body double in "Psycho." Her professional name was Myra Jones.
Wisconsin: Student fee outlay judged unconstitutional
Despite reforms, the University of Wisconsin's method for doling student fees to campus groups remained unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled.
System changes failed to make distribution content neutral, said U.S. District Judge John Shabaz in Thursday's decision. Also, student leaders still had too much say over which organizations received money, he wrote.
The case stems from a 1996 challenge to the constitutionality of the entire student fee system, which charges students at the university's 13 campuses a mandatory fee to fund campus organizations, regardless of an individual's opposition to those groups.
Last March, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the system, but sent part of the case to a lower court in Madison. There, Shabaz ordered a revamp of the system to ensure funds are doled out fairly.
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