Author: Personal Liberty News Desk

According to a recent study, regular exercise can significantly reduce anxiety symptoms that accompany a chronic illness.

After analyzing the results of 40 randomized clinical trials, researchers from the University of Georgia found that patients who exercised on a regular basis reported a 20 percent reduction in anxiety symptoms compared to those who did not exercise.

"Our findings add to the growing body of evidence that physical activities such as walking or weight-lifting may turn out to be the best medicine that physicians can prescribe to help their patients feel less anxious," said lead author Matthew Herring.

Individuals participating in the study found relief from anxiety caused by a variety of conditions, including multiple sclerosis, heart disease, cancer and arthritis.

The study’s co-author, Pat O’Connor, noted that exercise even helped calm respondents who were not very anxious to begin with. He added that exercise sessions of at least 30 minutes were found to be considerably more effective in reducing anxiety symptoms than routines lasting less than 30 minutes.

Additionally, there are a variety of herbal supplements on the market that can help calm the nerves, including B-complex vitamins, GABA and inositol.

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s top adviser and spokeswoman Meg Stapleton, who was rumored to have a "difficult" relationship with the media and some Republicans, has resigned.

Officially, Stapleton cited family commitments and the need to spend more time with her 2-year-old daughter as the reason for the resignation.

"Taking care of the governor was my priority for the last [few years] and now I just want to personally refocus and spend some time with my precious little one," she said, quoted by The Associated Press (AP).

However, others have pointed out that Stapleton has been increasingly unable to handle the growing amount of scrutiny surrounding Palin since the end of the 2008 presidential campaign.

In particular, media have reported journalists’ frustration with Stapleton who frequently failed to answer phone calls and emails and when she did, her answers appeared "terse and combative," according to CNN.

Moreover, although the former spokeswoman’s performance earned praise from some Palin advisers—including Fred Malek who said Stapleton "has been a one woman band and deserves much credit and admiration"—other commentators were less generous.

According to Geoffrey Dunn, writing for The Huffington Post, Stapleton was considered "incompetent" by senior McCain officials during the 2008 presidential campaign, and her feud with GOP fundraiser Becki Donatelli, of the Washington D.C.-based Campaign Solutions, reportedly led to Donatelli breaking off her relationship with Palin’s Political Action Committee.

As the immigration reform issue continues to create controversy among Washington’s lawmakers, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) has released a report on the likely partisan consequences of continued mass immigration.

For the purpose of the study, James G. Gimpel, a professor of government at the University of Maryland, College Park, examined the Republican share of the vote and the foreign-born share of the population over three decades in all U.S. counties.

In his report for CIS entitled “Immigration, Political Realignment and the Demise of Republican Political Prospects,” he revealed that the electoral impact of immigration has been greatest in counties with large populations, where most immigrants settle. In these locations, Republicans have lost 0.58 percentage points in presidential elections for every one percentage-point increase in the size of the local immigrant population.

In fact, among counties with at least 50,000 residents, where the immigrant share increased by at least two percentage points from 1980 to 2008, a total of 62 percent saw a decline in the Republican percentage. In counties with at least a six percentage-point gain in the immigrant share, approximately 83 percent saw a decline in the GOP vote share.

However, Republicans have remained competitive in presidential elections because losses in high-immigration counties have been offset by gains in low-immigration counties, the report also found.

As Republican lawmakers who are up for reelection later this year face tough battles ahead of them, they are increasingly counting on their party’s rising stars to boost their electoral chances.

In recent weeks, Sarah Palin has made a string of appearances on various campaign trails, most notably stumping for her former presidential running mate Senator John McCain who is facing a primary challenge in Arizona.

According to media reports, McCain has now reached out to another popular Republican – the newly elected Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown – to aid his effort, as Brown’s surprise win last January has energized the GOP.

Brown and the five-term Arizona senator are scheduled to appear together at a rally at Grand Canyon University’s Antelope Gymnasium in Phoenix this Friday. On Saturday, the two will head to Tucson to attend the University of Arizona-University of Southern California basketball game.

The 73-year-old incumbent is seeking to stave off a primary challenge from former Representative J.D. Hayworth in August. However, despite the support McCain received from Sarah Palin, four Tea Party organizations in Arizona announced that they will not endorse any candidate in the Republican primary, according to CNN.

At the end of February, the House ethics committee "admonished" Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY) for allowing a private company to fund two trips that he and other members of the Black Caucus took to the Caribbean in 2007.

Later this week, Republicans in the House will introduce a special resolution to strip Rangel of his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee, signaling a possible end of his tenure in Washington, Fox News reports.

The embattled representative is currently being investigated for several other illegal matters, including allegations that he failed to pay taxes on undisclosed personal assets and that he used congressional stationery to solicit donations for his school of public service at The City College of New York.

Many political pundits believe that some Democrats will be forced to vote for the resolution to relieve Rangel of his duties as chairman, after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for an end to the "culture of corruption" that prevailed when the GOP had the majority in the House, according to The Washington Post.

"These Democrats who ran on ‘change’ and promised to run the most ethical Congress in history have a responsibility to call for Charlie Rangel’s resignation and to give back the thousands in tainted money they received from him," concluded Ken Spain, communications director for the National Republican Congressional Committee quoted by the news source.

In one of the biggest cases to come before the Supreme Court in years, justices are hearing arguments today in McDonald v. Chicago over the city’s 28-year-old handgun ban. It has also prompted both proponents and opponents of the ban to once again voice their cases.

The court’s role will be to decide two fundamental questions, namely whether strict state and local gun control laws violate the Second Amendment rights and whether an individual’s right to own a weapon extends beyond federal jurisdiction, according to CNN.

Community activist Otis McDonald is the key plaintiff in the case, arguing that the ban should be overturned.

"We are in a war," he told the news provider, adding that the case is about "the innocent law-abiding citizens against the drug dealers and gang bangers."

However, Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence (ICHV) says that ruling against the ban would result in more gun suicides, homicides and unintentional shootings.

"The court must not ignore the longstanding and robust history of effective gun laws in this country for purely political or ideological reasons," said Thom Mannard, executive director of ICHV. He added that the case was "completely manufactured" by the gun lobby in order to dismantle America’s gun laws for their own profit.

The ICHV also cited polls that suggest an overwhelming majority of NRA members and gun owners nationwide favor common sense gun laws.

Meanwhile, critics point out that although Chicago’s ban is one of the most restrictive in the U.S., the city continues to be among the most violent in the nation.

On Thursday, three dozen Republican and Democratic lawmakers met at the White House-initiated healthcare summit and agreed on one thing; the current system needs changing. Unfortunately, liberal and conservative leaders came to an accord on little else, leaving the often contentious six-and-a-half hour televised meeting with an uncertain plan on how to proceed.

President Obama soundly rejected the Republicans’ pleas to start from scratch or conduct piecemeal reform, stating that the nation cannot afford another year-long debate.

GOP and Democratic leaders butted heads on several key issues, including Obama’s proposal to establish state or national purchasing exchanges, where individuals and small businesses can pool together and compare federally regulated health plans, according to Fox News. Republicans responded that all private insurance plans should be offered without government regulation to create a competitive playing field, implying their distaste for involving the federal government outside of setting minimum standards for insurance plans.

The GOP also took issue with the Democrats’ plan to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from Medicare to help pay for the government’s reform proposal. Moreover, Republicans opposed the mandate that nearly everyone be required to carry insurance.

However, the president did seem open to a GOP request that insurers be allowed to compete across state lines.

Republican leaders left the summit unsure of how Obama and other Democratic leaders will proceed. The president left the door open to using the parliamentary tactic known as reconciliation, which would allow Democrats to push through healthcare reform with 51 votes, instead of 60.

Discussions between President Obama and Senator John McCain became heated during Thursday’s healthcare summit, culminating with the commander-in-chief reminding the Arizona Republican that he is no longer campaigning for the nation’s top leadership position.

In the middle of the debate over healthcare policy reform, McCain slammed Democratic leaders for allowing special deals to be inserted into the Senate’s version of the bill, including special "carve-outs" that won over many moderate Democrats, convincing them to vote along party lines.

The veteran senator also blasted Obama for his of lack of transparency in creating the piece of legislation.

"In fact, eight times you said that negotiations on healthcare reform would be conducted with the C-SPAN cameras," said McCain. "I’m glad more than a year later that they are here."

Obama tried to interject more than once, but McCain went on for several more minutes.

After he had finished, Obama responded, "Let me just make this point, John, because we’re not campaigning anymore. The election’s over."

"Well, I’m reminded of that every day," McCain replied, causing an eruption of laughter in the room.

Unemployment insurance and COBRA benefits expired for millions of U.S. citizens on Sunday after Senator Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) single-handedly stopped a $10 billion bill that would have funded several extension programs.

In an after-hours session on Thursday, Bunning opposed the legislation because it would add to the federal deficit, which is already at an all-time high. He suggested that the money be taken from unspent Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds, but Democrats objected.

"I believe we should pay for it," said Bunning. "I’m trying to make a point to the people of the United States of America."

Meanwhile, Bunning’s opposition to the bill also blocked the extension of several federal programs, a move that has put nearly 2,000 transportation employees out of work.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood blasted the senator’s decision on Monday, expressing his disappointment that "political games are putting a stop to important construction projects around the country."

However, while praising the Bunning’s decision to temporarily block the legislation, GOP leaders have admitted that the extensions will be passed. The senator’s one-man filibuster was made to point out the hypocrisy in the Senate, said Senator John Kyl (R-Ariz.), according to Fox News.

Results of a recent study have suggested that bitter melon extract, a common dietary supplement, may help protect women from breast cancer cell growth.

"Our findings suggest that bitter melon extract modulates several signal transduction pathways, which induces breast cancer cell death," said lead researcher Ratna Ray, professor in the department of pathology at Saint Louis University. "This extract can be utilized as a dietary supplement for the prevention of breast cancer."

In the study, researchers found that bitter melon extract, which is commonly used in the East as a folk remedy for diabetes because of its blood sugar-lowering properties, was capable of decreasing cell growth and division, and even induced death in some breast cancer cells without harming healthy tissue.

Although Ray believes that the supplement will not cure cancer, she does feel that it may delay or even prevent cancer cell metastasis.

However, the researchers stress that their findings were established in a laboratory, and haven’t been tested on humans. They note that it is important to first establish the validity of their results in animal models before recommending the addition of bitter melon extract to a person’s diet.

According to top international human rights groups there is evidence that key congressional members knew about the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) interrogation and detention programs, and that the United States government covered up the details of its cooperation with Polish authorities in the so-called rendition flights.

The groups—led by Amnesty International USA (AI USA)—received the documents in response to their Freedom of Information Act litigation. Among other things, they reportedly show that in one of his first acts as chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) discontinued efforts by previous chair to implement greater oversight of CIA detention and interrogation programs, failing to fulfill the role of Congress in overseeing the agency.

"These documents reveal that members of Congress colluded in covering up evidence of the U.S. government’s torture program," said Tom Parker, policy director for AI USA. He also called for a "full and impartial investigation" as Congress could not be trusted "to properly investigate itself."

Meanwhile, Open Society Justice Initiative, an advocacy group, said that official flight records—provided by Polish Air Navigation Services Agency in response to a freedom of information request filed by a human rights group—confirm that at least six CIA flights landed in Poland in 2003.

It is the first time a Polish government agency has confirmed that CIA aircraft landed repeatedly close to a suspected CIA secret detention and interrogation site for "high-value detainees."

"These records reinforce the troubling findings of official European enquiries and global human rights groups, showing complicity with CIA abuse across Europe," said Adam Bodnar of the Warsaw-based Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights.

An overwhelming majority of Americans believe that the United States government system is broken, but most also say that there is some hope for it to improve, according to a recent CNN-Opinion Research Corporation poll.

The study found that a staggering 86 percent of U.S. residents hold such negative opinion about their government, an increase from 77 percent three years ago.

However, only 5 percent of them believe the government cannot be fixed, while 81 percent still hold out hope for improvement, which is 10 percent more than in late 2006.

Keating Holland, CNN polling director, said that the increase in the number of Americans who see their government as broken is the most pronounced among higher-income individuals and those who live in rural areas.

"Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but those are the groups that make up the bulk of the Tea Party [movement] today," he suggested, quoted by the news network’s website.

According to a separate CNN-Opinion Research Corporation poll, activists in the Tea Party movement—which was created last year in response to the massive stimulus package passed by Congress and signed by President Obama—tend to be male, rural, upscale and are overwhelmingly conservative.

Republican lawmakers blasted the Obama administration’s mortgage assistance program last week, claiming that it has harmed the nation’s economic recovery.

Representatives Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) argue that the $75 billion Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), which provides incentives for mortgage companies to modify loans of qualified buyers, has failed "by every empirical measure" and is a waste of taxpayer’s money.

When President Obama unveiled the program one year ago, he said that it would help 3 million to 4 million homeowners avoid foreclosure, according to ABC News. As of last month, the Treasury Department estimated that 116,000 homeowners have received permanent loan modifications.

"[The] Treasury’s own data suggests that hundreds of thousands of homeowners would receive temporary modifications but fail to qualify for permanent ones, thus ultimately leading to default," said the lawmakers. "These homeowners would have been better off if they had defaulted earlier and spent the payments on more affordable housing options."

Officials with the Treasury Department have admitted that the treatment of borrowers has been a dilemma over the past year, according to the Associated Press. They are currently working on several consumer protection provisions, including barring lenders from foreclosing on homeowners while their applications are being considered.

According to a recent United Kingdom (UK) study, drinking coffee on a regular basis may lower the odds of having a stroke.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge in England monitored nearly 23,000 men and women over a 12-year period and found that "self-reported coffee consumption was inversely related to stroke risk."

In the study, individuals who drank coffee on a regular basis had a 27 percent decreased risk of having a stroke compared to those who never consumed the beverage. The researchers found that the results were consistent irrespective of which type of coffee was consumed, including caffeinated, decaffeinated, instant or ground.

"This association was consistent in subgroup analyses stratified by sex, age, social class, educational level, smoking status, alcohol drinking, tea drinking, physical activity, plasma vitamin C and diabetes status," said study leader Yangmei Li, an epidemiologist at the university.

Although the researchers suspect the antioxidants in coffee help lower inflammation in the blood vessels, additional studies need to be conducted to understand the perceived health benefits of consuming the beverage.

Separate studies have also indicated that drinking coffee and tea may help reduce the risk of developing diabetes.

The Senate has voted to temporarily extend several key provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, the nation’s primary counterterrorism surveillance law. Lacking a filibuster-proof majority, Senate Democrats decided against adding new privacy protections to the provisions, which had been scheduled to expire at the end of February.

The bill, which was approved on a voice vote with no debate, will extend for one year three important sections of the USA PATRIOT Act.

If endorsed by the House, the legislation would continue to allow investigators to require third parties to provide them access to a suspect’s personal records without their knowledge. It would also enable the government to utilize roving wiretaps to monitor phone lines and internet accounts that a terrorism suspect may be using, according to Main Justice.

Finally, the bill would allow the government to track a suspect without advanced knowledge of the target’s affiliation with a foreign power or international terrorist organization.

Democratic supporters of the extensions believe that they may protect the Obama administration from Republican criticism that they are too soft on terrorism, according to MSNBC.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has found that Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jay Bybee, then working as a DOJ lawyer, exercised "poor judgment" when he prepared legal memos regarding the use of torture on detainees in United States custody. Although the document failed to recommend disbarment, it has fueled an independent and long-running campaign to have Bybee disbarred.

At the forefront of the push is the organization called DisbarTortureLawyers.com, which last year filed a disciplinary complaint against Judge Bybee seeking his disbarment in Washington, DC. After the DOJ announcement, it has vowed to supplement that complaint with the new report.

"Until [he] resigns or is removed from the bench, we call on all lawyers of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to file motions to disqualify Judge Bybee, should he be assigned to their cases, on the basis of these official findings of poor judgment," said attorney and campaign spokesperson Kevin Zeese.

DisbarTortureLawyers has also promised to work with jurisdictions outside the U.S. to indict other top Bush administration lawyers, including John Yoo, David Addington, William Haynes, Alberto Gonzales and Stephen Bradbury, as well as former Vice President Dick Cheney, for violating the UN Convention Against Torture.

But the idea is strongly opposed by many Republicans, such as Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, who sits on the House Judiciary Committee, who said that "it is important that future government lawyers know that their efforts to protect Americans will not be criminalized by future administrations," quoted by CNN.

After losing their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and other Democratic leaders have acknowledged that they may utilize the controversial parliamentary procedure known as budget reconciliation to pass their version of the healthcare bill.

The tactic would allow Democrats to push through major aspects of the bill with just 51 votes, rather than the 60 that are usually required to overcome a filibuster.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)and other GOP leaders have lashed out at Reid for trying to jam through a piece of legislation that is being heavily resisted by the American people. Republicans are also questioning the timing of Reid’s threat to use the parliamentary procedure on the eve of the bipartisan healthcare summit hosted by President Obama.

"It’s hard for us to quite understand why, with reconciliation being planned, we’re having a meeting which is allegedly designed to engender some bipartisan agreement," said Senater John Kyl (R-Ariz.).

Reid warned the GOP to "stop crying" over the possibility of reconciliation, as it has been used by Republicans many times in the past. He noted that the shortcut has been used 21 times since 1981.

As the $15 billion jobs bill advanced through Congress last week, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) said the measure included no verification mechanism to ensure that newly created jobs will be filled by legal U.S. workers.

FAIR also alleges that the bill, which was authored by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), does not prevent employers from claiming tax credits and exemptions if the workers they hire are illegal aliens.

"It is unconscionable that while some 25 million Americans are unemployed or relegated to part-time work, the Senate is refusing to include protections that would guarantee that newly-created jobs are filled by Americans who desperately need them," said Dan Stein, president of FAIR.

He accused Reid of "consistently" blocking any efforts to prevent businesses that receive government contracts or tax benefits from hiring illegal immigrants.

The bill is a package of tax credits and exemptions for employers who create new jobs. On Feb. 23, five Republicans, including the newly elected Senator Scott Brown (R-Mass.), joined 57 Democrats in breaking the Republican filibuster, opening the way to the final vote.

An initial study conducted at the Henry Ford Hospital suggests that a common B vitamin may help improve neurological function after a stroke.

Researchers at the facility have recently found that when lab rats with ischemic stroke are given vitamin B3, or niacin, their brains experience new blood vessel and nerve cell growth, which significantly improves cognitive function. Additional research is currently being conducted to investigate the effects of an extended-release form of niacin on human stroke patients.

"If this proves to also work well in our human trials, we’ll then have the benefit of a low-cost, easily-tolerable treatment for one of the most neurologically devastating conditions," said Michael Chopp, scientific director of the Henry Ford Neuroscience Institute.

Niacin is currently recognized as the most effective natural supplement for increasing high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), or "good" cholesterol. Separate studies have found that HDL-C is abnormally low in patients who have recently suffered a stroke.

The researchers also believe that the discovery may open another avenue of treatment for patients suffering from brain injury and impaired neurological function.

Although some conservatives appear disconcerted about the rise of congressman Ron Paul’s (R-Texas) popularity, the National Inflation Association has suggested his anti-Fed and pro-gold standard stance is striking a cord with many Americans.

NIA representatives have said they were thrilled that Paul won the past weekend’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) straw poll of potential Republican candidates in the next presidential election.

"Ron Paul’s win at CPAC demonstrates that the libertarian movement is beginning and NIA members are at the forefront of it," the organization said in a statement, adding that one of the its top predictions for 2010 was that America will see a move towards a libertarian third party.

NIA also said that out of the 534 members of Congress in Washington, Paul is the only one who understands that inflation, fueled by interest rate decisions made by the Federal Reserve and enabled by the fiat money system, is the biggest threat to America’s economy and its future.

"Without the Federal Reserve, Washington would be forced to live within its means and all Americans would enjoy a higher standard of living," according to the organization.