Two cops are accused of cruising Harlem with a Black doll head on their antenna.

A prominent New York state Senator is wondering why New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg hasn’t spoken out against two White cops who rode around Harlem with the head of a human-sized Black doll impaled on their antenna. New Yorkers “deserve to hear from their mayor,” State Sen. Bill Perkins, a Democrat who represents Harlem, said outside the 25th Precinct station, where the officers were assigned. “The deafening silence speaks volumes.” Witnesses told authorities that they approached the officers and asked why they had the doll’s head on their antenna, but they merely laughed and threw it in the trunk. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says there is an investigation underway. Earlier, he said the officers were unaware that the head was there. Bloomberg has mentioned the investigation but called any conversations about the matter are counterproductive until all the facts are in. “I think we’re doing the right thing and stirring things up doesn’t add a heck of a lot,” Bloomberg said at City Hall. “We take any kind of racial slur very seriously.” Activists are demanding that police release any surveillance footage that may show how the doll head ended up on the car. Clarence Jones, a 27-year-old Black man, was arrested Sunday after trying to take pictures of the doll head with his camera phone. He was with Perkins during the protest. “I called them racist and they pointed at the doll head and laughed,” said Jones. Police alleged that they arrested him for driving away in an illegally parked car while he was being ticketed. His tooth was broken and arm was hurt during his arrest, he said. “This isn’t about a traffic ticket; this is about a baby doll head,” Jones’ attorney, Roger Wareham, said.

Money men pledge $500 million for anti-smoking effort
Billionaires Bill Gates and New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced yesterday that they’ll contribute a combined $500 million to a worldwide antismoking campaign, The New York Times reports. The new campaign, dubbed Mpower, will receive $250 million from Bloomberg’s foundation during the next four years, in addition to $125 million already donated. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation plans to give $125 million during a five-year period. Bloomberg has spoken out against smoking for years, but this is a new effort by the Gates Foundation, the Times reports. The campaign will encourage governments to raise tobacco taxes, ban smoking in public places, outlaw cigarette giveaways and kid-directed advertising, start advertising campaigns against smoking, and offer people help in quitting.

Life expectancy rises for HIV patients
Since 1996, the life expectancy of HIV patients in developed countries taking antiviral therapy has increased more than 13 years, and deaths have dropped by almost 40 percent, researchers report. Despite these gains, life expectancy still falls short by some 20 years, compared with people in the general population. Life expectancy among injection-drug users and those who start their treatment late is even shorter, reports HealthDay.com. “People on [antiretroviral therapy] can live a fairly long life,” said lead researcher Robert Hogg, from the British Colombia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS in Vancouver. “If they are women, they can marry and have children, and see them grow up. If they’re going to school, they can graduate from university, or they can continue to have a full adult life expectancy.” The report was published in this week’s special HIV/AIDS issue of The Lancet. For the study, Hogg’s team collected data on 43,355 HIV patients from Europe and North America who participated in 14 studies. Among these patients, 18,587 started treatment in 1996 to 1999, another 13,914 began treatment in 2000 to 2002, and 10,584 started treatment between 2003 and 2005. Deaths decreased from 16.3 deaths per 1,000 person in 1996 to 1999 to 10 deaths per 1,000 person-years in 2003 to 2005. In addition, life expectancy for someone starting treatment at age 20 increased more than 13 years, from 56.1 years in 1996 to 1999 to 69.4 years in 2003 to 2005, the researchers found. Still, African Americans remain the largest group affected by HIV in America and tend to have shorter life expectancies because of being treated later in the disease cycle, health experts say. For those who start treatment later, life expectancy is 52.4 years, compared with 70.4 years for patients treated early. Also, life expectancy for injection drug users is also lower at 52.6 years, compared with people who acquired HIV is another way at 64.7 years.

Study to examine the South’s high cancer rates.
Researchers plan to recruit 90,000 people in 12 Southern states to learn why the South has become the cancer belt of the United States and why Blacks have higher rates of several kinds of cancer, United Press International reports. Brain cancer and lung cancer are among those that disproportionately affect people living in the South. “When you look at a map of brain cancer incidence in the United States the Southeast just lights up in red,” Dr. Reid Thompson, of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville said in a news release. The researchers will look at study participants’ lifestyles, family medical histories and risk factors for cancer and other serious diseases, UPI reported. “We’re asking patients about their diets, possible job-related exposure to cancer causing chemicals, and we’re collecting DNA samples,” Thompson said.