In today’s top news, October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month, D.C. sniper Lee Malvo says he felt like “worst piece of scum on the planet” and George Zimmerman’s lawyer speaks out about his client’s case.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month. [NBCAM]

D.C. sniper Lee Malvo says he felt like “worst piece of scum on the planet.” [Reuters]

George Zimmerman’s lawyer speaks out about his client’s case. [Orlando Sentinel]

A Florida school district wants its band uniforms removed from Juicy J’s “Bands a Make Her Dance” video. [Miami Herald]

A convicted TSA officer reveals that theft from passengers was part of a corrupt “culture.” [ABC]

Residents of Chicago’s South Side marched in an anti-violence rally Sunday. [Chicago Tribune]

Dolce & Gabbana responds to racist earrings backlash. [Telegraph]

California bans gay therapy for teens. [NBC News]

A deadly grenade attack hit a Kenyan Sunday school leaving one child dead and three injured. [BBC]

An official inquiry began into South Africa’s Marikana mine shootings. [AJE]

In today’s top news, the last of 11 students charged in FAMU hazing case turns herself in to authorities, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder calls violence in Detroit “unacceptable” and Black women see the biggest drop in employment across all races, genders.

Last of 11 charged in FAMU hazing case turns herself in to authorities. [CNN]

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder calls violence in Detroit “unacceptable.” [DetroitNews]

Black women see the biggest drop in employment across all races, genders. [BusinessWeek]

Colombian prostitute says her Secret Service agent clients were “stupid brutes.” [NBC]

Raven-Symoné talks to BET.com about her Broadway show, Sister Act and Whitney Houston. [BET]

Singer Chris Brown launches a toy line. [BET]

Study suggests men’s breast cancer more aggressive than women’s. [HealthDay]

Six Jamaicans are arrested in a U.S. lottery scam. [AP]

France elects Francois Hollande president. [BBC]

Four African leaders have been invited to this year’s G-8 summit to discuss food security. [CNN]

In today’s top news, Nicki Minaj returns to Twitter, Mitt Romney kicks off his general election campaign against President Obama after sweeping four primaries and Michelle Obama says the upcoming election could hinge on the votes of just a “few thousand folks.”

Nicki Minaj returns to Twitter. [BET]

Mitt Romney kicks off his general election campaign against President Obama after sweeping four primaries Tuesday. [MSNBC]

Michelle Obama says the upcoming election could hinge on the votes of just a “few thousand folks.” [Yahoo]

Michelle Obama is on pace to set the record for first lady television appearances. [BET]

Feds make first arrest in BP oil spill probe. [AP]

Chicago researchers are looking into whether weight loss can help African-American breast cancer survivors. [Chicago Tribune]

A release date has been set for a Jackie Robinson biopic. [BET]

Doctors warn about teens getting drunk off hand sanitizer. [KTLA]

Nigeria’s heath minister says 150 million are at risk of falling ill from malaria. [Vanguard]

The African Union proposes Sudan peace deal. [BBC]

In today’s top news, Trayvon Martin’s shooter appears uninjured in a surveillance video despite claims of self-defense, Spike Lee wrongly links elderly couple to George Zimmerman and a white alumni of Howard’s law school is credited with starting Trayvon Martin’s online petition.

Trayvon Martin’s shooter appears uninjured in video despite claims of self-defense. [BET]

Spike Lee wrongly links elderly couple to George Zimmerman. [BET]

White alumni of Howard’s law school is credited with starting Trayvon Martin’s online petition. [MSNBC]

Bobby Brown faces six months in jail following official DUI charge. [BET]

Florida teen gets life sentence for murdering two British tourists. [Guardian]

Criminal charges filed against JetBlue pilot who suffered a mental breakdown mid-flight. [Reuters]

Drinking alcohol may raise a woman’s risk for breast cancer. [HealthDay]

Overall cancer rates for U.S. are down. [CBS]

The National Rifle Association is selling hoodies that can conceal a gun. [MiamiNewTimes]

Delegation of west African leaders cancels Mali rebel negotiations. [BBC]

In today’s top news, a new study stresses the importance of mobilizing Black voters, more Black families are turning to home schooling and Afghan president Hamid Karzai calls for U.S. troops to leave the country’s villages.

A new study stresses the importance of mobilizing Black voters. [BET]

More Black families are turning to home schooling. [BBC]

Afghan president Hamid Karzai calls for U.S. troops to leave the country’s villages. [MSNBC]

Carol’s Daughter is planning to launch an online destination dedicated to natural hair. [BET]

Death investigation of Florida teen Trayvon Martin has been sent to the State Attorney’s Office. [BET]

Survey shows three out of ten adults aged 25 to 34 are living at home with parents. [TODAY]

Study links cadmium and other estrogen-like pollutants to higher rates of breast cancer. [LATimes]

Mississippi college band yells racial remark at a Latino basketball player during a game. [CNN]

Houston mother to be reunited with her son who was kidnapped eight years ago. [AP]

Uganda gay group sues U.S. evangelical minister for allegedly sowing hatred. [BBC]

Many Black Breast Cancer Patients Refuse Treatment About 20 percent of Black women with late-stage breast cancer refuse chemotherapy, and about 25 percent refuse radiation therapy, according to a new report. Experts say that if they are to address the high refusal rate, more research is needed to ascertain why they are rejecting the recommended treatments. Further Dr. Monica Rizzo, from Emory University, Atlanta, and colleagues found that about 6 percent to 7 percent of invasive breast cancers diagnosed each year in the United States are at stage III. The racial distribution, however, is far from equal. African-American women are twice as likely as Whites to be diagnosed with the disease. The researchers reviewed data for all women diagnosed with or treated for this disease at one inner-city hospital between 2000 and 2006. “Of 107 stage III breast cancers identified, 93 (86.9 percent) were in African-American women,” according the article in Cancer. “Patients with stage III cancer were significantly younger than patients with other types of stage III disease. Nearly 30 percent of cancers were triple negative tumors, which were most often seen with inflammatory breast cancers.” Twenty percent of the Black women refused chemotherapy and 23.6 percent refused radiotherapy. For non-African American women, the corresponding rates were 21.4 percent and 14.2 percent, according to Cancer. “At our institution, to overcome this high refusal rate, we have implemented a community outreach and internal navigational program to assure adherence to standard multimodalities therapy,” the authors note. “We strongly believe that these prospectively implemented interventions based on this and other studies at our center can significantly improve outcome in these advanced breast cancer patients.”

About 20 percent of Black women with late-stage breast cancer refuse chemotherapy, and about 25 percent refuse radiation therapy, according to a new report. Experts say that if they are to address the high refusal rate, more research is needed to ascertain why they are rejecting the recommended treatments. Further Dr. Monica Rizzo, from Emory University, Atlanta, and colleagues found that about 6 percent to 7 percent of invasive breast cancers diagnosed each year in the United States are at stage III. The racial distribution, however, is far from equal. African-American women are twice as likely as Whites to be diagnosed with the disease. The researchers reviewed data for all women diagnosed with or treated for this disease at one inner-city hospital between 2000 and 2006. “Of 107 stage III breast cancers identified, 93 (86.9 percent) were in African-American women,” according the article in Cancer. “Patients with stage III cancer were significantly younger than patients with other types of stage III disease. Nearly 30 percent of cancers were triple negative tumors, which were most often seen with inflammatory breast cancers.” Twenty percent of the Black women refused chemotherapy and 23.6 percent refused radiotherapy. For non-African American women, the corresponding rates were 21.4 percent and 14.2 percent, according to Cancer. “At our institution, to overcome this high refusal rate, we have implemented a community outreach and internal navigational program to assure adherence to standard multimodalities therapy,” the authors note. “We strongly believe that these prospectively implemented interventions based on this and other studies at our center can significantly improve outcome in these advanced breast cancer patients.”

Breast cancer screening is occurring far too late for most African American women, according to a new study in the Journal of American College of Surgeons. In fact, the study shows, one in 10 women will already have advanced breast cancer when it is first detected if current screening recommendations are maintained. “We believe that African American women may consider earlier breast cancer screening, possibly starting around 33-35 years of age,” Dr. Leonidas G. Koniaris, of the University of Miami, told Reuters Health. “It is at this age that the incidence of breast cancer in African American patients equals that for Caucasian women at 40 years of age, the suggested age to start screening.” Koniaris and his colleagues identified 63,472 breast cancer patients between 1998 and 2002 on analysis of a Florida cancer registry and inpatient hospital data. Of these, 90.5 percent were White and 7.6 percent were African American, Reuters reports. Black women had cancer at a younger age and with more advanced disease on first diagnosis. They also found that more than 10 percent presented with breast cancer before the age of 40, and 22.4 percent before age 45 years. African-American patients were also less likely to receive surgery. “Based upon our study, African-American women have a 1.72-fold increased risk of death from breast cancer,” Koniaris said. “Approximately two-thirds of this excess risk is attributable to late stage presentation.”

Your tax dollars may be paying for unauthorized drugs. Tax dollars paid for $200 million in drugs that were never reviewed by the government for safety and effectiveness, an Associated Press investigation has found. The drugs give people a false sense of security, but they are also responsible for dozens of deaths, health officials say. Even so, millions of private patients who qualify for the low-income health care program are taking such drugs, and the government is picking up the tab, according to AP’s analysis of government data. The medications date back decades, before the Food and Drug Administration tightened its review process for drugs in the early 1960s, AP says. The FDA says it is trying to squeeze them from the market, but conflicting federal laws allow the drugs to the Medicaid health program to pay for them. Medicaid officials acknowledge the problem, but say they need Congress to fix loopholes in the laws that allow the unauthorized drugs to continue to qualify for payment.

Teen HIV rate jumps 45 percent in Central Ohio. The number of Central Ohio teenagers and young adults infected with HIV has mushroomed by 45 percent in three years, according to local figures. Of all the Franklin County women living with HIV, nearly three-quarters are African American. As dozens of countries commemorate World AIDS Day on December 1, Central Ohioans need to be reminded that the epidemic continues right here at home. The Ohio Department of Health reports that HIV infections in Central Ohio match the dramatic increases nationwide, especially in African Americans, youth, and women, local officials say. Between 2003 and 2006, the highest new infection rates in Central Ohio were among youth (ages 13-25), up nearly 45 percent. Infections among individuals ages 25-34 were up about 10 percent, and individuals ages 45-64 were up 13 percent. The number of new HIV infection diagnoses in the African American population jumped 22 percent. African American women are disproportionately affected, making up close to 75 percent of all women diagnosed in Franklin County. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that more than one million Americans are living with HIV. More than a quarter of them don’t even know they are infected. For more on HIV, what causes it, and whether your perceptions about the disease and people who have it are spot on or a little off, see the BET.com/Body & Soul feature “Are You Positive?”

 Young Black women have higher breast cancer rates. The incidence of breast cancer among African-American women under 40 is higher than for White women of the same age, according to the results of an analysis published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute on Friday. The researchers studied more than 300,000 cases of breast cancer based on age at diagnosis, year of diagnosis, racial and ethnic categories, and pathologic features of the cancer. They found that although White women had higher incidence rates than Black women after age 40, the reverse was true for younger women. In women under 40, the incidence rate per 100,000 woman-years was approximately 17 for Black women, compared with approximately 15 for white women. The discrepancy was even higher for women under age 30. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women in the United States, with about 180,000 cases diagnosed each year. Problems with early screening, which lead to later diagnoses, and access to care have negatively affected Black women’s survival rates, experts say. While mammogram breast screenings are generally advised for women age 40 and old, if the incidence of breast cancer in younger women continues to trend upward, health officials may have to identify either preventive or better screening approaches, including the identification of early risk factors, in younger women. Experts are also studying whether genetics play a role in the higher rates of breast cancer for younger Black women. For more info on breast cancer go to BET.com/lifestye/Body & Soul. 

For many people, today could be the day the quit. Today marks the American Cancer Society’s 33rd Great American Smokeout, a day when smokers are encouraged to not smoke for at least one day in the hope that they can quit permanently. Many Americans are expected to observe the Smokeout by refusing to light up a cigarette. Smoking one pack a day, means you’re spending about $2,000 to $3,000 a year, according to one estimate. November is also Lung Cancer Awareness Month, a month dedicated to raising awareness about the most devastating side-effect of smoking: lung cancer. Lung cancer killed 160,390 people last year, an average of 439 people a day, according to the Lung Cancer Alliance. It is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, killing more people annually than breast, prostate, colon, liver, kidney and melanoma cancers combined.  So how do you fight the urge? Well for starters you can build a support system for yourself, health officials say. Or use a buddy system, so you have someone to call. Try to stay busy so you’re not thinking about your next drag.

Exercise can cut a woman’s breast cancer risk. Here’s yet another benefit of working out: for women, it reduces your breast cancer risk by 20 percent. Women who got regular exercise, according to a study of more than 32,000 postmenopausal women, cut their risk of breast cancer by 30 percent. “Possible mechanisms through which physical activity may protect against breast cancer that are independent of BMI [body mass index] include reduced exposure to growth factors, enhanced immune function, and decreased chronic inflammation, variables that are related both to greater physical activity and to lower breast cancer risk,” said the authors, who published their findings in the journal of Breast Cancer Research.  However, there was a caveat.  The benefits of exercise were whipped out of women who did not get enough sleep. In some cases, women’s breast cancer risk actually increased by 50 percent in women who got less than 7 hours of sleep a night, the authors said.  Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death and is the sixth most-common cause of death for women of all ages in the U.S. While African-American women do not get breast cancer at a greater rate than White women, when they do get it they die at higher rates than White women do, according to federal statistics.