A new study from the University of Southern California shows fasting for as little as two days can regenerate the body’s immune system.
The study showed that fasting worked not only for normal, “healthy” people but also the elderly and people whose immune systems have been compromised because of chemotherapy treatments.
The periods without eating would lower the amount of white blood cells in the body, which would trigger stem cells to begin regeneration of the white blood cells, rushing them into the body. However, the scientists also found that the rush of white blood cells also repaired damage.
“[Fasting] gives the OK for stem cells to go ahead and being proliferating and rebuild the entire system,” Professor Valter Longo said. “And the good news is that the body got rid of the parts of the system that might be damaged or old, the inefficient parts, during the fasting.”
A pilot clinical trial found that fasting for 72 hours prior to chemotherapy protected the patients against toxicity.
“He responded in an extremely emotional manner.”
That was one of the excuses given by a spokesman for the Oakland Unified School District after a school resource officer was arrested on felony charges for dumping a wheelchair bound student onto the floor after punching him several times.
A wheelchair bound student, Francisco Martinez, was lingering with some other students in a hallway late for their classes. Two officers were seen in a security camera video telling the students they needed to move on to their classrooms. The students refused, so one of the officers, Marchell Mitchell, grabbed the handles of Martinez’ wheelchair and started to push him down the hallway.
Martinez objected and started slapping the officer’s hands in an attempt to get him to stop pushing the wheelchair.
The officer then handcuffed Martinez, struck him several times and then dumped the student onto the floor. The school immediately fired Mitchell and had him arrested by Oakland police.
“We as a district apologize to the family of the victim,” said Oakland Unified School District spokesman Troy Flint.
San Francisco University officials are trying to downplay a report that one of their professors used taxpayer dollars to fly to the middle east and meet with various terrorist groups.
A non-profit group discovered during a request through the California Public Records Act that Professor Rabab Abdulhadi received more than $7,000 to fly to Jordan and the West Bank. The professor had initially been scheduled to speak at a conference at American University in Lebanon but was removed from the speaking list. She still took the trip.
Professor Abdulhadi then met with Leila Khaled, a convicted terrorist hijacker and member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terror group responsible for almost 160 bombings, assaults and assassinations. She also met with Sheikh Raed Salah, who funds the terrorist group Hamas and served a two-year terror related prison term.
The documents say the meetings with terrorists were set before the University provided the funding for the trip.
Professor Abdulhadi has spoken at various anti-Israeli events around the world.
Professor Abdulhadi did not return calls to Fox News.
A mentally ill 22-year-old California man killed six people and wounded seven others before killing himself in a premeditated murder rampage in Isla Vista, California.
Elliot Rodger posted a video online the day before his assault where he prepared to bring “retribution” on those who he believed had done him wrong, singling out college age women he said rejected him in favor of men he thought were crude and beneath him.
Rodger posted a 140-page manifesto online that he e-mailed to friends and family who were frantically searching for him the evening of his attack.
Rodger stabbed his three roommates to death before getting in a black BMW to start his rampage. He committed suicide when police closed in on him after a short chase.
Police say most of the deaths happened outside a convenience store where the bystanders didn’t realize initially what was happening and took some time to obtain cover. Witnesses say the gunman rapidly sped away after the shooting, running over two bicyclists in his way.
Police had been dispatched to Rodger’s house a month prior to the attack after reports of disturbing videos that he had placed online. Police visited with him and reported that they did not find any threatening signs.
Police in Santa Ana, California have arrested a man who kidnapped a 15-year-old girl ten years ago and then forced her to marry him and have his children.
Isidro Gracia disappeared in 2004 with his live-in girlfriend’s daughter who he had been raping for three months. He then drugged her and kept her addicted to drugs while they moved to a house in Compton, California. He obtained fake IDs for both of them and then kept her locked in a garage until her mid-20s.
He brainwashed her into thinking because she didn’t speak English, she was illegal and would be deported if she contacted police. He then forced her to marry him so she would be “legal” and then have his child so she couldn’t be deported. He said the girl’s family told him they’d given up looking for her and no longer wanted her.
Police discovered the situation when the women found her sister on Facebook and contacted her.
The 41-year-old Garcia is facing charges of kidnapping, rape, false imprisonment and other charges. He is facing life without parole if convicted on all the charges against him.
The woman, who is not being named because she was a minor when taken, has been reunited with her family. She said that she plans to raise her daughter in a loving family environment and to obtain an education.
Southern California emergency officials are dealing with a rash of wildfires that should not be happening this time of year.
“This is May, this is unbelievable. This is something we should see in October,” said Carlsbad fire chief Michael Davies told the BBC.
The wildfires have caused disruptions and evacuations all over southern California. Nine wildfires have broken out around San Diego and have caused evacuations of as many as 20,000 people because of the flames. San Marcos officials evacuated students from the California State University campus.
“The fire was right above campus. I could see it reaching over part of the hill, this really dark smoke. It was almost like an explosion,” said 19-year-old Grant Rapoza.
A 6,000 acre fire at Camp Pendleton Marine Base forced the evacuation of weapons stations for both the Marines and Navy.
“The common theme statewide this year is unprecedented number of fires and fire activity across the state, in many cases two to three months earlier than normal,” Ken Pimlott, director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told the Christian Post.
NBA observers were surprised when the Golden State Warriors dismissed coach Mark Jackson despite his very successful run with the team.
Now reports are surfacing that the coach’s strong Christian faith may have played a part in his dismissal from the team.
Mark Jackson, a pastor before being hired to coach the team, was asked on 95.7 FM in the Bay Area about comments Jackson’s strong Christian faith caused problems between himself and ownership that lead to his firing.
“I was hired when I was a pastor. I think it’s unfortunate because if it was true, you don’t encourage media to come do a piece on my church, on my ministry, the work on my faith. Don’t do it when it’s convenient and you’re searching for something. I never went around beating people in the head with a Bible,” said Jackson.
Jackson, the first coach to take the Warriors to the playoffs in consecutive seasons since 1991-1992, said that he is thankful for the opportunity God gave him with Golden State.
“I’m grateful…Maybe that doesn’t sell but I’m grateful for the opportunity and we move on. And God-willing another opportunity will present itself but if not, I’m totally at peace being a husband, a father, a pastor,” Jackson said.
Jackson and his wife Desiree Coleman are co-pastors of the True Love Worship Center International in Reseda, California.
Reading, writing and denying the killing of over 6 million Jews. That’s apparently part of a California schools’ curriculum after parents discovered an assignment telling their children to write papers denying the holocaust.
Rialto United School District assigned eighth grade students an assignment to “write an argumentative essay, based upon cited textual evidence, in which you explain whether or not you believe [the Holocaust] was an actual event in history or merely a political scheme created to influence public emotion and gain wealth.”
The interim Superintendent of the District, Mohammed Islam, claimed that no offense was intended to Jewish members of the community or Jewish parents.
“The intent of the writing prompt was to exercise the use of critical thinking skills,” Islam wrote in a statement. “There was no offensive intent in the crafting of this assignment. We regret that the prompt was misinterpreted.”
The Anti-Defamation League’s Associate Regional Director wrote the assignment had no benefit for students.
“It is ADL’s general position that an exercise asking students to question whether the Holocaust happened has no academic value,” Matthew Friedman wrote in a press release.
A district spokeswoman said the department that assigned the project will undergo cultural sensitivity training. The student’s assignment was canceled after public outrage.
The town of Pismo Beach, California will no longer have any form of prayer in their council meetings after bowing to the demands of the virulent anti-Christian groups Freedom From Religion Foundation and Atheists United San Luis Obispo.
The city claims they are trying to save taxpayer dollars by giving in to the demands of the anti-Christianists.
The two groups had filed a lawsuit against the city six months ago claiming the city was violating the mythical separation of church and state because the prayers were mostly Christian in nature. They said the city’s volunteer chaplain was a Christian and thus had a Christian tone to his prayers.
They also said that the volunteer chaplain, Rev. Paul E. Jones, would tell people to live a life “in accordance with the Bible.”
The city agreed in their settlement to eliminate the volunteer chaplain position but claimed no liability in the lawsuit.
David Leidner, a member of the anti-Christian Atheist United, said he was “very happy” that the Christian chaplain was no longer part of the meetings and that there will be no prayers allowed.
A California school district has ruled that teachers violated the rights of Christian students when they prohibited the distribution of a series of Bible coins.
The students were giving classmates coins that were printed with different Bible verses including John 3:16 and John 3:36.
“We’re going to make sure that students are protected,” Apple Valley School District Superintendent Thomas Hoegerman told the San Bernadino Sun. “There was no malicious intent but we clearly had folks who didn’t fully understand the implications.”
The children were giving the coins to their friends during recess periods and not during actual class time when they were stopped by teachers.
One of the teachers, Stormy DeHaro, told her student she hated the coins and they were a distraction to her class. A second teacher removed them from Valentine’s cards a student brought to her class and returned them to the child saying they were a violation “of the Ed Code.”
The superintendent says he regrets the incident and the problems it caused to the student’s family.
