the f.d.a. opened a hearing today to decide whether to end its approval of the drug avastin as a treatment for advanced breast cancer. the drug costs nearly $100,000 a year and there's serious doubt about how well it works. we asked dr. jon lapook to introduce us to the people whose lives are in the balance. >> reporter: liz cleary and her husband bob were newlyweds nine years ago when they got devastating news. liz had breast cancer and then, 18 months later, the chemotherapy stopped working. >> the cancer had metastasized to my lungs. you could make me cry right at this very moment just for thinking about how i felt at that moment. >> reporter: so, as a last-ditch effort, doctors decided to try avastin which kills cancer cells by choking off their blood supply. cleary credits the drug with keeping her alive for the past five years. >> within two and a half months of treatment scans showed no evidence of disease. so the five spots that were still in my lungs were gone. >> reporter: but according

until then, the f.d.a. says it's buyer beware. l 2 news >>> it appears water bills in palo alto are about to go up 12 1/2% despite the wet winter and the best conservation efforts in 19 years. there are two reasons. the water comes san francisco's hatchach akee. officials want to replace he have revenue lost because of all the conservation efforts. the hike impacts residential and commercial customers. it takes effect july 12th assuming that the city council approves. >>> well, do you have faith in california's leaders to fix the budget problems? according to a new field poll, not so much. what californians are thinking coming up in about 15 minutes. new at 6:00, not a smooth landing for a historic fighter jet in alameda. the plane, the landing and how it could not have come at a worst time. >>> and all of us are applauding the summertime weather. for some, it is causing big tree troubles. >>> a volcano eruption in chile has grounded more airplane flights and it threatening to delay a major soccer tournament. a cloud of ash from th

arsenic the f.d.a. says it's a carcinogen but i don't believe them why else would they be telling us for years that it's ok to feed it to chickens. for sixty years chickens in america have been fed arsenic and the f.d.a. zone studies say that arsenic in chicken meat is ok to eat. maybe that's right sort of lucius you know this one's a little light on the arsenic actually. you know but that's better but i know what you're thinking don't you wish there is a way to arsenic up your beef to don't worry the f.d.a. is is one step ahead of you you see they really can't get the full benefit of the arsenic in chickens by feeding it's of them because apparently they they poop too much of it out. i know no discussion well then the big all the arsenic going to waste or is it. they're not you know what they feed cows and back are you the operations. that's right cows get to eat arsenic laced chicken poop and then so do you see this is what the f.d.a. refers to as the circle of life so who is behind all this well the

the f.d.a. should be based on science and not on any irrelevant consideration. as much as officials at the f.d.a. claim that their decisions are based on sound science, their recent actions give us pause. for example, two months ago chairman upton along with chairman lucas and chairman graves sent a letter to the f.d.a. regarding the potential banff anti-microbial animal drugs and the lack of scientific support for that action. this potential ban has caused significant worry among our nation's producers -- the chair: the gentleman will suspend. the committee will be in order. the house is not in order. the gentleman can proceed. mr. lance: thank you, madam chair. this potential ban has caused significant worry among our nation's producers, veterinarians and consumers. the chairman finally received a response from the f.d.a. last friday, and the f.d.a. refused to answer the questions about a scientific basis for their actions. claiming that the matter is still, quote, under consideration, closed q

the f.d.a. facility requirements to exceed the scope of the 2009 master plan. i understand that. the f.d.a. is expanding. does good work. we're not criticizing it. but one area of the f.d.a.'s budget that is growing way too fast under this administration's budget is the brand new center for tobacco products. again, this agency, this center did not exist in 2006. in the f.y. twelve agriculture appropriation -- 2012 agriculture appropriation committee it has reductions sought by the republican majority. the same fiscal restraint should be applied to the center for tobacco products. we're talking about appropriation levels going back to 2006, 2009, 2010. so all i'm asking, let's move this back to 2009. an f.y. 2012 budget that was requested by the f.d.a. tobacco's act was $454 million, an increase of $238 million from fiscal year 2010, enacted levels of $235 million. so in one year it practically doubled. 110% increase. now, this is when we have a deficit. $1.5 trillion every year and we have a debt

oh excuse me you might have heard about the two thousand and bill allowing the f.d.a. to put whatever they want on cigarettes by the way this is the same food and drug administration that has been responsible for ensuring all the food and drugs in the united states are good for you and since they can find a way to convince you that smoking cigarettes is healthy they finally resorted to this warning and cigarettes are addictive ok i mean now i know this from personal experience since i spent in iraq a lot it's hard to worry about cancer with mortars falling all around you and can you imagine a soldier in afghanistan getting this fix of the good smokes from home having to look at something like this warning smoking can kill you now i'm totally against smoking but if every cigarette is the equivalent of an orgasm for you and totally worth the cost that's for you to decide so imam feisal can but i'm pro freedom against forcing cigarette manufacturers or anyone making any product to put any kind of government mandated warning other product whatsoever so if the government is

relies on the manufacturers to bring it to the f.d.a.'s attention if their labels aren't up to speed. the court assumed in this decision that the generic manufacturers were under a state law obligation to petition the f.d.a. to change their labels and the court said nonetheless this federal law that gives them a federal obligation preempts state law tort liability claims. so my disagreement with the details is about just how comprehensive the federal scheme is here and i think that the presumption, not just the presumption against preemption in general but where states have long regulated and some tort liability cases at issue are areas in which the state has long regulated and the federal government hasn't regulated as comprehensively as i understand some of your comments would suggest. >> we are almost out of time but i hate to wrap things up without something said about the wal-mart case. heather? >> wal-mart was a gigantic class action involving 1.5 million plaintiffs, women at wal-mart brought a claim that said in essence that wal-ma

a black box warning is the most serious action f.d.a. can take short of pulling a drug from the market. in march the fda added a second black box warning indicating for the first time that quinolones may have neuromuscular blocking activity. but ray woosley a pharmacologist and internist who heads the non profit critical path institute in tucson says consumers are usually unaware of these warnings. >> the black box warning is actually intended for prescribers. the patient guides that are required for some medications are worded at the lay person level and its two totally different types of info and many times the serious warning the doctors are informed of may not be in the patient info. >> reporter: woosley also says like most drugs, quinolones went on the market without regulators knowing enough about their adverse affects on the general population. >> they only study a few thousand people with a very discreet and defined problem and then it goes on the market and its given to a lot of other people who weren't studied. these are very po

worked so cured my own diabetes and just kept moving forward so let me guess you started with the the f.d.a. is the food guide pyramid right that's the basis for all of your information and and all of your research. yes. the food guide pyramid that's a really big a sell out to pick agriculture and the u.s.d.a. continues to sell out to be gagged today with g m o's so you know we've got to get to what really works and that's that's not what the government is telling us to eat for sure and you have a segment there about eating our own excrement that's been processed in the meat you know that's what's coming next it's incredible what they put in the food as well of anything that would probably be healthier than most of the corn syrup stuff crap that is f.d.a. approved and government sanctioned but you know there's one thing that i haven't heard you talk about it's i know it's not something that that's a major theme on your web site natural news dot com but you know for me and for miles fitness and sports oh shoot all right we've got some technical difficulties here in the studios and we're goin

the legislation would cut the food safety budget of f.d.a. of $87 million below the fiscal year 211 -- 2011. we are witnessing now one of the deadliest encht coli outbreaks in europe and that infection is spreading across the world. my amendment has the support of centers for public interest and the national women's health network. now, it is time for us to understand, every year in the united statesu ,000 americans are killed from bad food, 1828,000 are hospitalized. 48 million are made sick. we have imported food that are causing difficulty. bat peanuts with salmonella. food and drug has the resources to do the job from protecting the american people. we are able to inspect less than 1% of the food coming into the united states. this is a positive risk to american consuming public. the situation here is indefensible. the house last year passed major improvements in our food safety laws and we saw to it, we had a funding mechanism which was removed by the senate. but without the adequate funding that this amendment would afford to our people,

knowledge about the dangers of quinolones drugs. meanwhile, f.d.a. officials say they are working hard to develop new, more accurate methods of tracking drugs and their effect on the millions of americans who take them each year. >> brown: now, the heir apparent takes the top job at al qaeda. it's been 45 days since u.s. navy seals killed osama bin laden at his compound in pakistan. and ever since, one question has been: who will lead al-qaeda now? the answer came today: bin laden's long-time deputy. a statement posted on an islamist website said: "the general leadership of al qaeda group, after the completion of consultation, announces that sheikh dr. ayman al-zawahri, may god give him success, has assumed responsibility for command of the group." the new al-qaeda leader will turn 60 on sunday and has been in hiding for many years. he's on the f.b.i.'s most wanted terrorist list, with a $25 million-dollar bounty on his head. and since going underground has been seen only on videos, repeatedly urging worldwide jihad. the latest message came last wee

but in terms of amendments to add more money to the f.d.a. or to food inspection, that really didn't happen on the house floor. host: once again let's look at some of the numbers, what makes up the agriculture bill, including money for food stamps and the w.i.c. program as we listen to robert, who is joining us from imperial, missouri, on you on our line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you guys doing? host: fine thank you. caller: i'm totally aggravated with the subsidies. it's like a previous caller said i'm in the same boat things go bad, and i have to suck it up. i think they need to look at the whole thing the way they subsidize other people and other companies. one of the things that i find aggravating is one of our recent -- one of our news channels did an investigation and they were showing these empty fields and lots, and they were land owners, and they said these people they had a list of them that are receiving subsidies as farmers. i think the smallest amount was like $33,000. then it went up to quite a bi

it ties the hands of the f.d.a. and ensures it will not have the funding to enforce the act or to mandate and guard against contaminated foods. we will be stuck with the status quo and people will continue to become sick. we should be improving our food safety system right now. for example, the g.a.o. issued a report highlighting the short delem comings to ensure the safety of imported safety. i urge my colleagues to vote for this amendment to restore $1 million in funding to food safety efforts. we should be doing more, not less, to keep our kitchen tables safe. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentlelady yield back? the chair: the gentlelady yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from rise? mr. kingston: i rise in opposition to this the speaker pro tempore: the chair: the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. kingston: food safety we place a high priority on and very concerned about and we have been watching this situation in europe detail as well concerned and prayers with the people who have su

the f.d.a. warning labels with color graphics. the graphic campaign is designed to take any glamor out of cigarette smoking and shows images such as this one. another label shows a mother holding a baby with smoke being blown into the child's face. these warnings would cover half the surface area of a pack of cart ton. the f.d.a. will decide by next week which images will appear on the packages. >>> the american cancer society reported a drop in cancer deaths in the united states. figures show 900,000 fewer people have died from cancer since 1990. that's about 22% fewer cases in men and about 14% fewer cases in women. it is due to better detection, treatment and fewer smokers. those with the least education are more than twice likely to die from a cancer compared to those who have more education >>> and consumer lap.com says it has found troubling results when it tested 38 multivitamins. 8 contained too little of a newt crept and three improperly listed ungreed cents and ingreed cents. ingredien

the f.d.a. gave the company 15 days to clean up the plant that makes keebler and famous amos cookies. inspectors found traces of listeria at the plant earlier this year. kellogg calls food safety a top priority and it says the facility will undergo a comprehensive cleaning. >> tom: sara lee will spin off its international coffee and tea business, but will keep its north american meats business. the firm had previously said it would spin off both businesses to create two separate publicly traded companies. the meats business, maker of jimmy dean sausage and hillshire farms products, will cut costs while it continues to consider price hikes. sara lee expects the split to be complete early next year. >> susie: investing in a college education-- tonight's commentator says the economic evidence shows it's a no brainer. he's jamie merisotis, president and c.e.o. of the lumina foundation. >> we hear a lot these days about what the experts think about jobs, about education and about our economic future.

the f.d.a. says women should know that breast implants are not life-time devices. the longer a woman has implants the more likely they are to have medical complications. starting in july, verizon wireless will stop offering smart phone and tablet customers unlimited data plans. according to the "l.a. times" the largest cell phone provider will move to tiered data plan charging customers different rate for limited use packages. you may remember, at&t, verizon's biggest rival scrapped the unlimited data plans in june of last year. now charges $25 a month for two gigabyte of data and $10 for each additional gigabyte. no word on what the tiered price package for verizon will look like. >>> today at 3:00 on 7 live, how young is too young to be putting on make-up? a 5-year-old how-to tips are going viral on the internet. then at abc7 news at 4:00 -- >> we really did slim you. >> michael finney shows you which slim suits actually do what they say. and take off inches. in the 5:00 news airs following the president's speech on the war in afghanistan. you can watch the presid

the f.d.a. says women should know that breast implants are not life-time devices. e longer a woman has implants the more likely they are to have medical complications. starting in july, verizon wireless will stop offering smart phone and tablet customers unlimited data plans. according to the "l.a. times" the largest cell phone provider will move to tiered data plan charging customers different rate for limited use packages. you may remember, at&t, verizon's biggest rival scrapped the unlimited data plans in june of last year. now charges $25 a month for two gigabyte of data and $10 for each additional gigabyte. no word on what the tiered price package for verizon will look like. >> we'll be right back. ha you called to switch us to anthem yet? honey, how can i call now, i can barely hear a thing with amber's band practicing. ♪ you're right, we've had enough. but i know exactly what to do. you take care of the music and i'll switch us to anthem. sometimes you just have to pull the plug. ♪ sorry, grandpa, we'll try to keep it down. i just... give it to me. ♪ [ female

here in washington today, the f.d.a. said the implant are safe but they don't last very long. our dr. jennifer ashton is in her office in englewood, new who get them for breast reconstruction will need to have them removed within ten years. >> reporter: well, one reason, scott, may have to do with radiation therapy because women with breast cancer who have been treated with radiation and then go on to have implants, it's important to remember that radiation is very effective in killing the cancer but it also does damage to the healthy tissue, and that could increase the risk for things like scar tissue formation or asymmetry down the road. also, women could elect to have their implant revised because they want to change the size or the shape. and lastly, if the breast cancer recurs, that could require that the implant be removed in treating that recurrence. >> pelley: so how can women with breast implants monitor their safety? >> well, i think it's important for both women and their doctors to realize that these implants are not meant to last a lifetime, so both women and thei

the f.d.a. said studies of its proposed medicine to treat vision loss from macular degeneration met its goals. the treatment has yet to be approved, though. shares popped 5%. and we saw a series of earnings warnings. owens-illinois makes glass containers. its warning gets blamed on higher-than-expected manufacturing and delivery cost increases. lawn care company scotts miracle-gro says it can't make up for a slow spring, and steel maker nucor's guidance for the second quarter came in below forecast. and that's tonight's "market focus." >> tom: it has been tough to own stock in a financial company. the group is the worst- performing stock sector this year. tonight's "street critique" guest finds some of the concern overblown, but not all. she's hilary kramer, editor of gamechangerstocks.com. >> tom: one area where you think it is overblown when it comes to finance is morgan stanley the investment banker. down 14% the past year at a 52-week low a week ago. why do you think the worries are overblown

the f.d.a. rejected a new drug application for the treatment from pfizer and pain therapeutics. pfizer fell almost 3%. pain therapeutics shed more than 42%. the medicine uses technology from durect, which lost a third of its value. and that's tonight's market focus. >> tom: hewlett-packard hopes this time is the charm for its tablet computer business. h.p. takes another swing at apple's ipad and other touch- screen tablets next week when it releases its touch-pad. this device is bigger and cheaper than h.p.'s most recent tablet effort, the slate. the big difference: it's the first tablet to run hewlett packard's own operating system. h.p. inherited the web o.s. software when it bought palm last year. the touch pad enters a competitive market where apple has had a long lead, especially in terms of software applications or apps designed for tablets. apple's ipad dominates with more than 90,000. google's android system has about 100. the vice president of hewlett- packard's web o.s. developer relations business unit. richard kerris is confident in h.p.'s market position. >> applica

there's retaliation in various federal agencies now just not national security refinding some cases in the f.d.a. the cases in the army corps of engineers so there's been a pushback on whistleblowers and we are pleading for public or to get behind the whistleblowers and try to make it right thank you both so much for a time i mean it's sad that this is happening but even more sad and ironic that it's happening forty years after the pentagon papers came out one would think that we would have all of a little bit from from those years anyway thank you both so much for your time thank you very much all right well the justice department's war against whistleblowers was blown wide open last year when we could leaks released its cache of classified military and state department documents and it was then that tom offered his take on what we can leaks actually meant for the world at large and how julian songe is changing absolutely everything take a look at the top of the show we discussed the wiki leaks revelation that president obama actively prevented the prosecution of bush officials. or torture a sh

answer the courts and the f.d.a. still suppress them also rick since it was an exile from jennifer curry desert cannabis also the person there be from the early one nine hundred then jani was right the show needs to be an hour long it is always over too fast so i agree and i guess that's all the time we have a person i'd so united for washington d.c. will see attacks on one atom or versus the man. assures that so much of it there is millimeters even exist in the real serious ok in the new game outside interest in this continent is immense rich in natural resources in a growing middle class china at the u.s. . the official allocation to your money so no one called touch from the point you substitute. life on the. video on demand. comes an r.s.s. feeds now in the palm of your. machine on the key jobs cong. the sanitation and free credit cation free. storage free. range and free. free stereotypes free the sold free blogs just plug in video for your media projects a free meal dog a hearty dot com. fish fish. fish fish fis

you ask whether transgenic fish is available in the marketplace as far as i understand right now the f.d.a. is considering whether to approve it or not the food and drug administration they're having a great deal of difficulty because there is not a lot of science that says transgenic fish is unhealthy for people to consume which is what the food and drug administration looks at there's a lot of concern about the environmental impact if the transgenic fish escapes and they all escape these animals are born to escape if this vicious cage what kind of horrible impact will it have on the rest of the fish population these fish are bred to grow faster or be stronger and they have a tremendous advantage over the wild fish population. i don't know what this might do to us or our children or our children's children and the government needs to become more active and at the very least label it so we know what we're the. it's just so unfair for people to work in ignorance even though they care even though they want to know if the government doesn't cooperate. we're all victims of big one of the major

last november, the f.d.a. unveiled the 36 images that would be considered for inclusion on every cigarette pack in the country for graphic health warning labels and today we are publishing the nine selected. these graphic warnings labels represent the first major change to cigarette labels in 25 years. the final nine images were selected based on a number of important criteria. we took into account public comment from across 1700 stakeholders including experts and industry, some of overwhelm whom submitted scientific research studies. we also conducted a national study of our own to gauge people's response. actually the largest study ever conducted involving some 18,000 participants. we examined how effective the proposed warnings were at communicating the health risks as well as the warnings in terms of its ability to encourage smokers to quit and to discourage nonsmokers from ever wanting to smoke. consider this. a pack a day smoker will see these labels more than 7,000 times a year. and kids who are under th

down but making higher wages because government employees tend to be if they're going to work for the f.d.a. or the e.p.a. or one of these agencies that the keeping is a lot of it well they tend to have college educations or master's degrees or ph d.'s and therefore they're more are paid the fact of the matter is and we all know this that people who work in government jobs are actually with identical levels of education and experience make less than they do in the private sector studies that disagree on that although there are look there are opposed to that this is also the benefits which are outlandish compared the profit so even when you include the benefits the private sector employees are making more money than public sector the difference is the public sector employees have more job security and they have more job security because these unions and you guys now want to strip away the union so we don't really use your user we're both perfectly legal to have a union but should i tax dollars go to pay for union time no the should not it's a point of fact it works out to if it's two point n

the f.d.a. review was the first since sales of silicone implants resumed in 2006. they had been banned for 14 years over concerns about possible links to cancer and other illnesses. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to gwen. >> ifill: now, to the politics of climate change. former vice president al gore, writing in an upcoming edition of rolling stone magazine, takes president obama to task in an article titled "climate of denial." mr. gore writes: resident obama has thus far failed to use the bully pulpit to make the case for bold action on climate change..." he goes on to argue that the president "...has not defended the science against the ongoing, withering and dishonest attacks." gore's article has forced a largely internal debate into public view. we get three takes on that, from glenn hurowitz, who works on environmental issues at the center for international policy. daniel weiss, the director of climate strategy at the center for american progress. and ken green, who studies environmental policy for the american enterprise institute. glen

the p.t.o. and f.d.a. had established two different standards and this amendment simply seeks to fix that, to give an identical outcome from two different agencies that resulted from different interpretations of the hatch-waxman act of 1984. inventors should not have to guess. we give a clean deadline. i ask my colleagues to support this amendment. the chair: the gentleman from michigan has 45 seconds remaining. mr. conyers: i yield all the rest of my time to scott garrett, the distinguished gentleman from new jersey. the chair: the gentleman from new jersey is recognized for the remaining time. mr. garrettette: it covers drugs and products that must be approved by the f.d.a. with the extension we're talking about here, the patent office and f.d.a. has interpreted it in two different ways, creating uncertainty that has led to miscalculation. it is consistent with the court ruling that when the f.d.a. approves -- provides final approval after normal business hours, that 60-day clock begins on the next day. b

. >> reporter: the f.d.a. said today it's stepping up inspections of fresh produce imported from europe. officials note there have been very few shipments of tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce from germany and spain this year. harry? >> smith: john, what are the odds this e. coli might end up in the united states? >> it's unclear, because even if you don't get it from imported vegetables, it's possible to get it from somebody who recently returned from europe. the incubation period is up to ten days, so theoretically somebody could feel perfectly fine, pick it up in europe, come here feeling fine, then come down with the illness, get the bacteria on their hands, they shake your hands, you get the bacteria on your hand, you put your hand in your mouth. so obviously the answer is to do frequent hand washing, which we're always telling people to do anyway. >> smith: jon lapook, thank you. turning to the middle east, in yemen what started as a pro- democracy movement may be devolving into civil war. civilians are fle

so the court clarified the law so when f.d.a. sends a notice of approval after normal business hours, the 60-day period requesting patent restoration begins the next business day. the house judiciary committee takes a court decision where common sense dictates to protect all patent holders against losing patent extension as a result of confused counting calculations. so i want to quote ranking member conyers of the house judiciary committee who sponsored the amendment and the committee chairman smith who supported mr. conyers. ranking member john conyers stated during markup, the amendment is needed to -- and i quote him -- "remove what amounts to a trap and would clarify the term business day, and so our attempt here is to make the congressional effort at patent reform more clear and more efficient." chairman lamar smith also advocated passage of this amendment during markup in the house judiciary committee, and i would quote him -- "i will recognize myself in support of the amendment. now the gentleman's amendment -- meaning the

nother story this one's a lot more serious actually so the f.d.a. is now about to release their new smoking labels on packs of cigarettes and they're pretty graphic this is the first change under twenty three twenty five years they've made labels and some of them they said they were trying to pull on your emotional heartstrings because sometimes they felt like it was too graphic that people just tend to tune it out and some of them while they just wanted to be really graphic like. the smoking through your neck obviously we can say with that with that deter you do you think about going to her kids my favorite cigarette out of ever seen was turned out was a couple looking unhappy in bed and there was a cigarette and said it happens to everyone smoking makes it happen more and it's one of them. again and again sex sells and if you don't people their sex life is going to be ruined if they smoke then it probably has a better chance of making them quit rather than showing a picture of a crying baby just. i want to know what's your take a lot and i want to