Items 1 through 5 have been deleted, since they are primarily for families
living in Virginia and Maryland, and I did not want to send useless
information to the folks in the rest of the country. However, please let me
know if you live in Virginia, Maryland or DC; so that I can add you to my
private email distribution list for events in those states.


6. "Early Downward Trends in Neurodevelopmental Disorders Following Removal
of Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines" by David A. Geier, B.A. and Mark R.
Geier, M.D., Ph.D. in the Spring 2006 edition of the Journal of American
Physicians and Surgeons at http://www.jpands.org/jpands1101.htm
<http://www.jpands.org/jpands1101.htm>
<http://www.jpands.org/jpands1101.htm> . PDF copy of article is at
http://www.jpands.org/vol11no1/geier.pdf
<http://www.jpands.org/vol11no1/geier.pdf> .

"A new study published today (March 1,) shows that the rate of
neurodevelopmental disorders (NDs) in children has decreased following
removal of thimerosal, a preservative containing the neurotoxin mercury,
from American childhood vaccines. The study, published in the Journal of
American Physicians and Surgeons, a peer reviewed journal, by Dr. Mark Geier
and David Geier examined two independent databases maintained by the
government - one national and one state. The Vaccine Adverse Events
Reporting System (VAERS) database maintained by the Centers for Disease
Control and the Californian Department of Developmental Services (CDDS)
database each showed the same downward trend for the period from 2002
through 2005. According to the study "[t]he results indicate that the trends
in newly diagnosed NDs correspond directly with the expansion and subsequent
contraction of the cumulative mercury dose to which children were exposed
from [thimerosal-containing vaccines] through the U.S. immunization
schedule." The study examined the trend for cases of autism during the
period beginning 1994 and ending 2002 compared with the period from 2002 to
June, 2005. The trends for increases and decreases of cases of autism found
in the VAERS national database were consistent with the trends found in the
CDDC California database. Most significantly, in each database the
increasing and decreasing trends correlate with the time that the exposure
to thimerosal through the immunization schedule was increased and then
decreased after removal of mercury containing vaccines. "The consistency of
the effects observed for the spectrum of NDs, including autism and speech
disorders, and the agreement between the observations from two separate
databases, support the conclusion that the effect is real and not a chance
observation." The study found that the magnitude of the change in the
decreasing trend of cases was significant after removal of mercury from
vaccines. Data from the U.S. Department of Education, a third database,
showed a recent decrease of autism diagnoses that is consistent with the
findings in the two databases. ..."

7. "Schools' efforts for disabled assailed- Wilder says board has not put
funds toward federal-act compliance" dated 14 February 2006 by David Ress
from the Richmond Times-Dispatch at
<http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_B
asicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1137834080014>
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_Ba
sicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1137834080014.

"Richmond's School Board has given short shrift to disabled students for
more than a decade and did so again with a recent settlement, Mayor L.
Douglas Wilder said last night. Wilder told the City Council he didn't
think the council or the city administration should have been named as
defendants in the lawsuit. Last month, the School Board settled the lawsuit
filed by two parents and an advocacy group by admitting the board had failed
to comply with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and saying it
would make its best efforts to obtain money from the city for the work.
Wilder dismissed that as an empty gesture. He said the city has given the
school system $137 million for construction and major projects since 1992,
around the time when the school system first learned that virtually every
school building in the city failed to meet the standards of the disabilities
act. "Not a dime has been promised for ADA," he said, referring to the act.
"Whose fault is that?" Current and former School Board members disputed his
statement that they had not spent funds to comply with the act. An internal
study last year found that four of 60 buildings in the school system did
comply with the act's standards. Wilder -- saying that School Board members
"will tell you everyday, 'We run the schools, you just give us the money,'"
-- complained that "some members of the School Board are too happy to see
the city sued." Relations between Wilder and the School Board have been
strained since he took office last year, with bitter battles over budgets,
the location of the school system's headquarters, and his at-times sharp
attacks on the quality of city schools. ..."

8 "Rotavirus Vaccine Urged for Babies- RotaTeq Recently Won FDA Approval"
dated 22 February 2006 by Justin Gillis from The Washington Post at
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/21/AR200602210
1720.html>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/21/AR2006022101
720.html.

"Every healthy newborn in the United States should receive a new vaccine
designed to protect against an intestinal germ called rotavirus, a federal
advisory panel decided yesterday as it set aside theoretical concerns about
the vaccine's safety. The decision means that pediatricians are likely to
recommend three doses of the oral vaccine for nearly every child at age 2
months, 4 months and 6 months, beginning almost immediately. The vaccine won
approval from the Food and Drug Administration on Feb. 3, and some doctors
have received supplies of it. Every healthy newborn in the United States
should receive a new vaccine designed to protect against an intestinal germ
called rotavirus, a federal advisory panel decided yesterday as it set aside
theoretical concerns about the vaccine's safety. The decision means that
pediatricians are likely to recommend three doses of the oral vaccine for
nearly every child at age 2 months, 4 months and 6 months, beginning almost
immediately. The vaccine won approval from the Food and Drug Administration
on Feb. 3, and some doctors have received supplies of it. Merck has tested
the vaccine in about 70,000 babies in 11 countries, one of the biggest
vaccine trials ever conducted. That test ruled out a safety problem similar
to the one that felled RotaShield, an earlier rotavirus vaccine developed by
Wyeth, a drugmaker in Madison, N.J. But doctors said it is impossible to
design a test big enough to catch all possible side effects that might show
up once the product is used in millions of children. RotaTeq "generally
appears to have a better safety profile than the earlier vaccine," said
Umesh D. Parashar, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC. "But at the same
time it's something we'll continue to look at, and hopefully confirm absence
of risk." ..."

9. "A Closer Look At 'Restraint'" dated 23 February 2006 from WGAL8 News at
<http://www.wgal.com/8onyourside/7371600/detail.html>
http://www.wgal.com/8onyourside/7371600/detail.html.

"The use of physical restraint in juvenile treatment facilities is a
hot-button issue right now. The state has issued a new directive about its
use in such facilities. It was dated just days before the death of a teen
who was restrained at SummitQuest Academy in Ephrata. News 8 On Your Side
reporter Susan Shapiro looked into the story and the issue of restraint.
Giovanni Aletriz, 16, was sent to SummitQuest Academy in Ephrata for
treatment of behavioral problems. But Aletriz, known as Joey, never got to
leave the facility. The 6-foot-1, 260-pound teen died Feb. 4 at Ephrata
Hospital after being restrained facedown by two SummitQuest counselor aids
for being disruptive. In Florida, a 14-year-old boy died after being
restrained for being uncooperative. The medical examiner ruled he died of a
medical disorder. Psychiatric nursing professor Wanda Mohr is a national
expert on the use of restraint with a published article and books on the
subject. "I come from the proposition that every restraint is a treatment
failure," said Mohr. "They're deadly, and frankly, they don't work because
if you look at the patterns, people are being restrained over and over
again." Mohr said most of the deaths are a result of asphyxiation and the
scenario is much the same. "Patient goes limp. Staff assumes patient is
compliant. Wait a couple of minutes. Release restraint. Patient doesn't get
up. Flip patient over. Notice he's blue," Mohr said. ..."

10. "Autism Tsunami Carries Away Parents' Resources- Society also faces
high and growing costs" dated 27 February 2006 by James Ottar Grundvig from
The Epoch Times at http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-2-27/38658.html
<http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-2-27/38658.html> .

"At his baptism at two-and-a-half-months old, my son Fridrik, had better
focus and communication skills than he would two years later when the
regressive form of autism took hold. That rite followed the first batch of
baby vaccinations by two weeks. Those immunizations included DTP, hepatitis
B, and HiB vaccines. But Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis (DTP) was a triple
shot that contained thimerosal. So Fridrik, weighing a slight thirteen
pounds at the time, had in essence five vaccines in a single day. And that
didn't include the "birth dose" of hepatitis B he received in the hours
after he was born. In retrospect, it wasn't the six vaccines he had in
sixty days that did the damage, but it allowed thimerosal, the mercury-based
preservative used in many baby vaccines, to take root and accumulate. The
full impact of that accumulation of mercury poisoning wouldn't reveal itself
until after the end of the baby vaccination cycle. By then Fridrik's nervous
system began to show signs of being fried. It would strangle his speech,
turn his fingers into claws, causing him to lose his desire to draw, and
make his skin very sensitive to the touch. Gone too was his ability to
focus, socialize, and recognize the faces of his mother and father. It
would be a full year after the first signs of autism that he was officially
diagnosed, and another year after that before his parents figured out what
to do about the devastating disorder. ..."

11. "Chicken pox outbreak" dated 27 February 2006 by Matt Clower from The
Troy Messenger at
<http://www.troymessenger.com/articles/2006/02/26/news/newsssss01.txt>
http://www.troymessenger.com/articles/2006/02/26/news/newsssss01.txt.

"Troy Elementary School nurse Sarah Black should probably go ahead and get a
revolving door for her office. It would help with all the traffic coming in
and out these days. TES is the midsts of the worst outbreak of chicken pox
the school has faced in eight years - an outbreak made more surprising
because most all the affected students have previously received chicken pox
vaccinations. Black said she could hardly believe it when the first
students started showing up in her office with the characteristic red, itchy
spots. "I was in denial at first, I said this can't possibly be chicken
pox," Black said. Oh, but was it ever chicken pox, and it has spread like
wildfire. Since the first student was diagnosed in late January, over 40
students in every grade have come down with it. In recent years, the
numbers of chicken pox cases at TES had been dramatically reduced by the
chicken pox vaccination which is now required for all incoming students. In
eight years, Black said she had seen only one student with a case. This
recent outbreak appears to be a new mutation of the virus, Black said, and
the Alabama Department of Public Health is calling it a second generation
breakthrough. ..."

12. "Hollywood calls autistic basketball star" dated 28 February 2006 by
Ben Dobbin from The Associated Press at
<http://www.mlive.com/sportsflash/topstories/index.ssf?/base/sports-7/114116
2761155110.xml&storylist=&thispage=1>
http://www.mlive.com/sportsflash/topstories/index.ssf?/base/sports-7/1141162
761155110.xml&storylist=&thispage=1.

"Alone in the gym after practice, Jason McElwain went through his elaborate
pregame ritual. The 17-year-old senior, manager of the Greece Athena High
School basketball team, drained a 3-pointer, a double-pump layup and a free
throw, kissed the back of his ring finger at center court and sped off to
the dressing room to exhort and amuse his teammates. "You've gotta give it
everything you got!" McElwain sang in rap verse. "The winner goes home all
happy/The loser goes home and says/`Mommy we lost the game, wah wah wah!'"
McElwain, who is autistic, was back in his role as an all-around motivator
on the eve of a sectional semifinal game Tuesday night - handing out water
bottles, dispensing tips, helping run drills. Two weeks earlier, he suited
up for a game and delivered a jaw-dropping performance. His play drew
national attention, and a flood of calls from Hollywood. His parents have
received inquiries from about 25 production companies ranging from The Walt
Disney Co. and Warner Bros. to independent documentary filmmakers. "I don't
know what I'm walking into," McElwain said. In his team's final home game
of the season, McElwain entered with four minutes to go. It was his first
and only appearance for the Athena varsity team in this Rochester suburb.
The 5-foot-6 manager hit six 3-point shots and a 2-pointer and was carried
off the court on his teammates' shoulders. ..."

13. "Time for CDC to Come Clean" by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in
HuffingtonPost.com at <http://tinyurl.com/rzbz6> http://tinyurl.com/rzbz6.

"Correspondence newly obtained under the Freedom of Information Act raises
troubling new questions about CDC's role in the Thimerosal scandal.
Thimerosal is the mercury-based vaccine preservative that has been linked to
epidemics of neurological disorders, including autism, in American children
born after 1989. Responding to scientific studies linking dangerous levels
of mercury to a range of health disorders, the CDC in July 1999 recommended
that the nation's vaccine makers eliminate Thimerosal as a preservative, "as
soon as possible." But the newly released documents show that behind the
scenes CDC was quietly discouraging Thimerosal's removal. In a July 1999
letter, vaccine producer SmithKline Beecham tells CDC that it is ready to
produce non-Thimerosal DTP (Diptheria/Tetanus/Pertussis) vaccines
immediately and has sufficient inventories to supply the entire U.S. market
during the remainder of 1999 and the first half of 2000, by which time other
vaccine manufacturers would have their Thimerosal-free DTP vaccines on line.
Thimerosal-laden DTP vaccines containing 25 micrograms of mercury apiece
were then being administered to American infants at two months, four months
and six months -- far exceeding EPA's recommended safe level for mercury.
Had CDC accepted SmithKline's offer, it could have immediately reduced the
mercury exposures to vaccinated six-month-old children by 40%. However, in
November, CDC mysteriously sent a letter back rejecting SmithKline's offer.
Then, on July 14, 2000 CDC published a deceptive press release promising to
require that all vaccines be Thimerosal-free as soon as "adequate supplies
are available." This was a full 12 months after the agency had denied
SmithKline's proposal. ..."

14. "The Age of Autism: Less is Beautiful" by Dan Olmstead from United
Press International at <http://tinyurl.com/pj77m> http://tinyurl.com/pj77m.

"Whatever the reason, a big decline in autism diagnoses would be welcome
news to anyone who cares about the nightmarish prevalence of the disorder.
The latest signal that something may be going on comes from the
father-and-son research team of Dr. Mark R. Geier and David A. Geier. They
report in the spring issue of the Journal of American Physicians and
Surgeons that "significant decreasing trends in newly diagnosed NDs
(neurodevelopmental disorders) were observed ... from mid-2002 through 2005"
in two separate databases. The first is kept by the California Department
of Developmental Services and is widely regarded as the most accurate
barometer of full-syndrome, professionally diagnosed cases of autism. Those
qualifiers are important because autism spectrum disorders run the gamut
from severe (full-syndrome) to milder (Asperger's disorder) to hard to
define (the awfully named PDD-NOS, or pervasive developmental disorders, not
otherwise specified). So focusing on the full-syndrome cases -- the most
easily identified and indisputable -- is a smart way to go. The other
database is the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System maintained by the
federal government, to which health professionals, parents and anyone else
can report what they believe are side effects of vaccines. That's much less
consistent and credible, of course, but the Geiers see the VAERS information
as an informal confirmation of the California data --companion graphs
printed side by side in the study show remarkably similar rise-and-falls in
autism. "The consistency of the effects observed for the spectrum of NDs,
including autism and speech disorders, and the agreement between the
observations from two separate databases, support the conclusion that the
effect is real and not a chance observation. The magnitude of the change in
the trend lines is substantial," the Geiers write. ..."


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