Monday,  July 23, 2012 • Vol. 13--No. 009 • 26 of 27 •  Other Editions

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Safety, told The Associated Press they were various ages and that he personally saw two young children among the dead at the scene.
• "This is the most people I've seen in any passenger vehicle, and I've been an officer for 38 years," Bryant said, referring to the chaotic scene.
• The white 2000 Ford F-250 pickup was heading north on U.S. 59 on Sunday evening when it traveled off the right side of the highway near the unincorporated community of Berclair in Goliad County and struck two large trees, Bryant said. The 23 people were loaded inside both the truck's cab and bed.
• Six of those who died were still inside the truck when emergency crews arrived to find the mangled vehicle, Bryant said.
• ___

Should all kids get cholesterol tests? Doctors can't agree on widespread screening guidelines

• CHICAGO (AP) -- Should all U.S. children get tested for high cholesterol? Doctors are still debating that question months after a government-appointed panel recommended widespread screening that would lead to prescribing medicine for some kids.
• Fresh criticism was published online Monday in Pediatrics by researchers at one university who say the guidelines are too aggressive and were influenced by panel members' financial ties to drugmakers.
• Eight of the 14 guidelines panel members reported industry ties and disclosed that when their advice was published in December. They contend in a rebuttal arti

cle in Pediatrics that company payments covered costs of evaluating whether the drugs are safe and effective but did not influence the recommendations.
• It also is not uncommon for experts in their fields to have received some consulting fees from drug companies.
• Even so, the ties pose a conflict of interest that "undermines the credibility of both the guidelines and the process through which they were produced," says the commentary by researchers at the University of California at San Francisco. The authors are Dr. Thomas Newman, a researcher and former member of a Food and Drug Administration pediatrics advisory committee, and two heart disease researchers, Drs. Mark Pletcher and Stephen Hulley.
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