-- June Casagrande Newport parking meter lawsuit...

-- June Casagrande

Newport parking meter lawsuit will continue

A constitutional battle over Newport Beach parking meters will end

up in court, it was decided Wednesday.

City officials were unable to strike a deal with Newport Beach

resident John Nelson during a hearing Wednesday morning.

Nelson is suing the city on the grounds that its policy of not

enforcing parking meters near churches on Sunday morning is

unconstitutional.

A city ordinance dating to the 1970s says that parking meters near

four houses of worship should not be enforced from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

on Sundays.

All four churches are on the Balboa Peninsula; they are the only

churches in the city where nearby parking is metered. They are Christ

Church by the Sea, 1400 W. Balboa Blvd.; Christian Science Church and

Reading Room at 3303 Via Lido; St. James Episcopal Church of Newport

Beach, 3209 Via Lido; and Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church,

1441 W. Balboa Blvd.

Nelson said he believes the practice violates the church-state

separation in the Constitution. He filed the suit Jan. 11 in United

States Court’s Central District.

Because the sides could not reach a compromise, the matter will go

to court, though the date has not yet been set. City officials have

defended the practice, saying they believe it is constitutional, but

Nelson said he looks forward to the court’s opinion.

“I had hoped that the city would recognize that their case is

fairly weak and that they would do the right thing and rescind this

exception to the parking enforcement, thereby saving both sides a lot

of time and effort and legal fees,” Nelson said Thursday. “I think

that with it going to trial, we stand a real strong likelihood that

we will prevail.”

Dyes may cure parasitic disease, study finds

Chagas disease, a parasitic disease that is nearly epidemic from

Mexico to Tierra del Fuego, may have met its match in a simple

solution of dyes, a UC Irvine study has found.

The study, released Tuesday, used purple and blue dyes commonly

found in laboratories. The results may provide an affordable,

effective treatment for the disease that infects about 17 million

people in 21 Latin American countries. It may also provide an

effective way to remove harmful organisms from blood.

The study was presented recently at the annual meeting of the

Argentina Assn. of Hematology and Immuno-hematology in Buenos Aires.

Jose Ocariz, associate professor of pathology and director of UCI

Medical Center’s Blood Bank and Donor Services, and his colleagues

found that the two dyes -- crystal violet and methylene blue --

eliminated measurable concentrations of Trypanosoma cruzi, the

parasite that causes Chagas disease, in human blood samples.

“The two dyes appeared to wipe out any measurable concentration in

the laboratory of T. cruzi from the blood samples,” Ocariz said in a

press release. “This means the dyes could prove a low-tech way to

eliminate most of the parasites, allowing the body’s immune system to

fight the disease successfully. The dyes also removed from blood a

number of disease-causing organisms, including viruses and bacteria.”

Brazilian physician Carlos Chagas discovered the disease in 1909.

It is considered a disease of poverty because the parasite is

transmitted by a bug found in substandard housing, according to the

World Health Organization, which estimates that nearly 100 million

South Americans are at risk.

It also can be transmitted by transfusions of contaminated blood.

In some countries, the rate of T. cruzi contamination in blood banks

ranges higher than rates for the viruses that cause AIDS and

hepatitis.

While Chagas may be endemic to South and Central America, the

problem of contaminated blood is of worldwide concern. Reports have

surfaced of infections with AIDS, hepatitis, West Nile encephalitis

and other diseases from tainted transfusions, causing a number of

repeated blood shortages and a worldwide attempt to find new ways to

ensure clean transfused blood.

Many solutions are either expensive or result in new but

occasionally lethal complications for transfusion recipients. Some

dyes, such as methylene blue, are used alone to treat the disease,

but require the use of ultraviolet radiation, which has been

associated with increased rates of certain cancers. Ocariz’s

combination treatment did not require the use of radiation.

As an added measure of safety, the dyes can be removed by an

inexpensive filter before transfusion to patients.

Researchers are still studying how well dyes can eliminate

parasites, bacteria and other organisms from blood, as well as other

simple and cost-effective methods that can add an extra layer of

safety. Ocariz’s colleagues included Edward Shanbrom, a private

researcher who is a pioneer in the use of products to clean

transfused blood; Gerald Manning, chair of molecular biology and

biochemistry; and John Owens, research associate in the college of

medicine.

UCI management school makes top 50

The latest round of business school rankings places UC Irvine’s

Graduate School of Management’s MBA program in the Top 50 nationally

and its Executive MBA program in the top 50 internationally.

In BusinessWeek’s latest report on Oct. 10, the school was listed

alphabetically among 20 schools in the unranked “Next 20” list. This

means it placed between 31 and 50.

The magazine ranks schools with full-time MBA programs, surveying

graduates and recruiters. It sent questionnaires to every MBA

graduate -- 16,906 students -- at 88 schools in North America, Europe

and Latin America. The survey included 780 U.S. business schools.