Ragbag Headliners

Japanese nuclear agency "provisionally" raises the threat level from a stricken power plant from 5 to 7, the most severe category.

The 1986 Chernobyl accident in the former Soviet Union also rated a 7 on the International Nuclear Events Scale, which equates to a "major release of radioactive material with widespread health and environmental effects requiring implementation of planned and extended countermeasures."

A Japanese official says the release of radiation at the Fukushima Daiichi plant is about 10% of what was emitted at Chernobyl –CNN Reports

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Masturbation May Help To Relieve Restless Legs Syndrome

Apparently, being master of your domain isn't all that it's hyped up to be.

Researchers say that for sufferers of the neurological disorder restless legs syndrome, a little self-pleasure could be just what the doctor ordered.

In a recent letter published by the medical journal Sleep Medicine, Luis Marin and colleagues at the Federal University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, report the case of a patient who, with masturbation and sexual intercourse, eased the symptoms of his RLS.

"The patient reported that he would get complete relief from RLS symptoms, granting him normal sleep following sexual intercourse or masturbation," the letter read.

RLS is characterized by the constant urge to move the limbs. It afflicts, to varying degrees, between 7 and 10 percent of Americans and Europeans.

California-based sleep specialist and RLS expert Dr. Mark Buchfuhrer says he's encountered at least one to two dozen similar cases -- and estimates that possibly "10 times as many" of his own patients, not surprisingly, decline to discuss their masturbation-induced relief.

But he also cautions against over-reacting to a single case study.

"Since we don't know what causes restless legs, it's very hard to speculate what makes it better," Buchfuhrer told AOL News.

One possible explanation, according to the letter, is that the chemical release of dopamine in the brain triggered by masturbation and sexual intercourse could ease the symptoms, an idea that Buchfuhrer has briefly discussed in his own writings.

"The theory that the release of dopamine with orgasm helps is a very good one and may even be the correct one," Buchfuhrer said. "I'd say that's a very reasonable and plausible theory, but it's no more than a theory."

In fact, the only two drugs currently approved for treating RLS are Mirapex and Requip, both of which are dopamine-based.

Buchfuhrer says he has also encountered cases when masturbation and sexual activity have caused negative effects for RLS patients. So while the dopamine theory is a good one, the five-knuckle shuffle is probably unlikely to catch on as the latest RLS wonder treatment.

As the doctor put it, "It's not something I routinely ask about." -AOL News 

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U.S. Appeals Court OKs Decision Blocking Arizona Immigration Law

A federal appeals court on Monday affirmed a previous injunction of Arizona's controversial immigration law, another setback for legislation that has drawn sharp opposition from President Barack Obama's administration.

In its ruling, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit sided with the U.S. Justice Department and against Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who signed the measure known as SB 1070 into law last year.

Among other things, this legislation would have required local law enforcement in Arizona to apprehend and help deport illegal immigrants. The Obama administration sued, arguing that only the federal government has that authority.

That lawsuit led to U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton's decision last July, which temporarily blocked the law's most contested parts just a day before they were scheduled to go into effect. That included the requirement that local police officers should check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws. –Read more at CNN U.S. 

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Japan Nuclear Plant Evacuees Demand Compensation

Small business owners and laborers forced to leave their homes and jobs because of radiation leaking from Japan's tsunami-flooded nuclear plant rode a bus all the way to Tokyo on Wednesday to demand compensation from the plant's operator.

People are increasingly growing frustrated with Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s handling of the nuclear crisis, which has progressed fitfully since the March 11 tsunami swamped the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, knocking out important cooling systems. Restoring them will take months.

"I am not asking for anything more than I am entitled to," said Ichijiro Ishikawa, 69, who dug roads and tunnels and is now living in a shelter because his home is in a 12-mile (20-kilometer) evacuation zone around the plant. "I just want my due."

He and about 20 other people who lived and worked near the plant traveled 140 miles (220 kilometers) southwest to hand-deliver a letter to the president of Tokyo Electric, known as TEPCO. They said talks with the government over how to compensate victims will take too long to get started and they want money now. A few were near tears.

They met near company headquarters with four TEPCO officials who bowed to them in apology. President Masataka Shimizu later apologized during a two-hour news conference and pledged to do more, saying cash payments would be readied as soon as possible and the company would do its best to get the plant's reactors under control and stop radiation leaks. –Read more at Yahoo News

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Japan Nuclear Disaster Tops Scale

Japan's prime minister vowed to wind down the month-long crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant "at all costs" Tuesday after his government officially designated the situation there a Chernobyl-level nuclear accident.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan said he wants the plant's owner, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, to produce a timetable for bringing the disaster to an end, "and they will be doing that soon." And a day after his government warned that thousands more people would need to be evacuated from the surrounding region, he pledged to provide jobs, housing and education for those uprooted by the accident.

Japanese leader invokes WWII to urge quake recovery

"The government will not forsake the people who are suffering because of the nuclear accident," Kan told reporters in a Tuesday evening news conference.

Japan declared the Fukushima Daiichi crisis a Level 7 event on the international system for rating nuclear accidents Tuesday, putting it on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the former Soviet Union. The top-scale designation was based on the massive release of radioactivity since the accident began, particularly in its early days, and classifies Fukushima Daiichi a "major accident" requiring long-term countermeasures. –Read more at CNN World  

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Cultures Clash As Oklahoma's Hispanic Population Surges

Marcelino Garcia's three-decade journey from illegal immigrant to successful businessman has unfolded against an unlikely backdrop -- the deeply conservative state of Oklahoma.

State leaders here have passed some of the country's strictest immigration laws, including some that go beyond the controversial measures approved in Arizona last year. Latino activists said Oklahoma's laws drove tens of thousands of Hispanic immigrants away, although an exact number is difficult to calculate.

But that makes the newest U.S. Census figures even more remarkable: Oklahoma's Hispanic population has nearly doubled in the last 10 years, from 179,000 to more than 332,000.

Latinos now account for 9% of Oklahoma's 3.8 million residents, and are the largest minority group, surpassing the number of Native Americans, who make up about 8.5% of the population. While Oklahoma's population grew about 9% since 2000, the Hispanic population grew 85% and accounted for about half the state's overall growth.

Latinos now account for 9% of Oklahoma's 3.8 million residents, and are the largest minority group, surpassing the number of Native Americans, who make up about 8.5% of the population. While Oklahoma's population grew about 9% since 2000, the Hispanic population grew 85% and accounted for about half the state's overall growth. –Read more at CNN U.S.