New Jersey authorities have taken custody of three siblings with Nazi-like names but declined to discuss the reason the children were removed. The state Division of Youth and Family Services removed the trio – 3-year-old Adolf Hitler Campbell, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell -from their home on Tuesday. Family Services would not elaborate on the reason for taking the children, saying they do not comment on specific cases. Last month, the parents grabbed headlines when a bakery refused to put the Nazi names on their children’s birthday cake.

White S. African pleads guilty of shooting Black kids. A White South African teen pleaded guilty Monday to shooting and killing four Blacks during a shocking shooting spree earlier this year, reports The Associated Press. Johan Nel, 18, appeared for the start of his trial in a court in Mmabatho, which is 185 miles away from Johannesburg. The courtroom was full of the victims’ family members. Prosecutors were set to present their case this week. Nel fired on children in deprived Black neighborhood back in January, according to witnesses.  After shooting relentlessly, he even stopped at one point to ask a farmer for more ammunition. When the farmer refused to provide him with any, he shot and killed his ostrich. A 3-month-old baby (who was being carried on his mom’s back), a 10-year-old boy, a 31-year-old mother and a 35-year-old man died from the attack.  

Obama makes a final pitch to America.  This morning Sen. Barack Obama will enter the final five days of his journey to the White House following one of the most expensive evenings in the history of political campaigns. Obama’s 30 minute primetime infomercial aired on three networks and cable stations Wednesday night to the tune of $4 million dollars. Get more at Pamela on Politics.

Her kids’ travel is getting Palin into trouble. Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin now faces a new ethics complaint that accuses her of abusing her power by charging the state when her children traveled with her. The complaint released Wednesday alleges Palin used her official position as governor for personal gain. It follows a report by The Associated Press last week that the Alaska governor charged the state more than $21,000 for her three daughters’ commercial flights, including events where they weren’t invited, and later ordered their expense forms amended to specify official state business. In some cases, Palin also has charged the state for hotel rooms for the girls, according to AP. The travel costs for events her children were not invited to and where they served in no official capacity for state purpose or business violated state ethics laws, the complaint charges. “Governor Palin intentionally secured unwarranted benefits for family members, improperly used state property to benefit her personal and financial interests, and illegally altered documents that were the subject of a Public Records request,” the complaint states. The latest complaint was filed by Frank Gwartney, an Anchorage Democrat who supports Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama. Earlier this month, a legislative report found Palin violated state ethics laws when she fired her public safety commissioner.

Kids: face your fears. It’s good for you. Ghosts, goblins and creepy Halloween things might be just what the doctor ordered for some kids. New research finds the best way for children to overcome their fears is to face them. While a fear of everything from spiders to parent separation to social interactions is normal in children, when such fears get in the way of normal living there’s a problem, say researchers. Turns out, facing up to those fears, such as calling up friends for social events to beat social anxiety or staying in a room alone without parents, is the best prescription, reports MSNBC. Past research, however, has shown that Halloween fright can be a little overwhelming for some kids. “We have children face their fears, and we teach them techniques for managing their anxiety, but research isn’t advanced enough to show which element should be the main part of treatment or whether both parts are necessary for improvement,” said researcher Stephen Whiteside of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. The research will be presented as a poster today at an annual meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Chicago. Whiteside and his colleagues looked back at the treatment and outcomes among 44 patients ranging from 4 to 18 years of age. It took less time for the people in the study to get over their fears once they were forced to confront them, the researchers found. They were able to cut their therapy sessions by a third.

Watch out for relatives with heart disease. African Americans with heart disease have a harder time staving off depression than Whites with the disease, says a new study. But even worse, Blacks are less likely to get treated for it, researchers say. The study of 864 adults with coronary heart disease found that 35 percent of African Americans and 27 percent of Whites had symptoms of depression. Yet Black patients were less than half as likely to be on an antidepressant medication. The findings are important, the researchers say, because depression in people with heart disease has been linked to a two- to four-fold higher risk of complications. “Under treatment of depression is a serious clinical issue,” Dr. James Blumenthal, one of researchers of the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., said in a statement.

Accused extortionist wants $180 million from Oprah.

A man who unsuccessfully demanded more than a million dollars from Oprah Winfrey now wants $180 million. Keifer Bonvilliain backed off after he was reported to authorities for saying he wanted big dollars to withhold a tape of the talk show diva’s employee making damaging statements about Winfrey. Bonvilliain was arrested and charges were dropped last year, but now he says his “reputation” was damaged “on a world level,” according to his lawsuit. Winfrey’s peeps say the suit will give them a chance to revisit whether Bonvillain did an illegal wiretapping to start the whole mess in the first place.

Lyfe Jennings reportedly demanded children, fired shots.

A witness to the Georgia incident in which Lyfe Jennings allegedly kicked in his estranged girlfriend’s door before firing a gun and leading cops on a chase says the singer wanted one thing. “Where are my kids?” the woman, who called 911, quotes Jennings as yelling. “I want my f–king kids!” A recording of the emergency call about Jennings’ alleged behavior last week indicates that the singer retrieved the pistol from his car. He later jumped in and fled cops until he had a wreck and was arrested, say police. Jennings faces charges of attempting to elude police, discharging a firearm near a public highway, refusing an alcohol test and felony weapons possession by a convict. The Toledo, Ohio native served prison time for arson before launching his music career.

Entrepreneur’s financial, personal challenges mount

Damon Dash’s custody challenge continues. Damon Dash’s troubles seem to be increasing as 2008 progresses. Following widespread reports of home foreclosure action against him and the loss of his licensing agreement with Pro-Keds, the Roc-a-fella Records co-founder is dealing with ongoing child custody grief. Dash recently filed a motion to force the mother of his son, Damon “Boogie” Dash Jr., to return him to Damon Sr. The film and music entrepreneur has sole legal custody. A judge this week threatened to issue an arrest warrant for Linda Williams if Boogie wasn’t brought home. A lawyer representing the teenager says he wants to remain with his mother.

Inattentive parents more likely to raise drugged out kids.

Parents who don’t monitor their children’s school-night activities, safeguard their prescription drugs, address the problem of drugs in their children’s schools, and set good examples increase the chance that their 12- to 17-year old children will smoke, drink, and use illegal and prescription drugs, according to a new report. “This year’s survey reveals that too many mothers and fathers are problem parents who fail to take essential steps to prevent their kids from smoking, drinking or using drugs. By their actions – and inactions – by failing to become part of the solution, these parents become part of the problem of teen alcohol and drug abuse,” said Joseph A. Califano, Jr., former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare and the chairman and president of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), which conducted the study. “Indeed, these problem parents enable – some even encourage – their 12- to 17-year olds to use and abuse tobacco, alcohol, and illegal and prescription drugs.” The study, the National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XIII: Teens and Parents, is the 13th annual back-to-school survey conducted by Columbia University-based CASA. It found that the later teens are out of the house hanging out with friends on school nights (Monday through Thursday), the likelier alcohol and drug use will be going on among them. Almost half (46 percent) of 12- to 17-year-olds report leaving their house to hang out with friends on school nights. Among these teens, 50 percent who come home after 10 p.m. say that drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana or other drug use occurs; 29 percent who come home after 8 p.m. and before 10 p.m. say that drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana or other drug use occurs.

Breast-feeding shows new benefits. There are proteins in human breast-milk — not present in cow’s milk — that may fight disease by helping remove bacteria, viruses and other dangerous pathogen’s from an infant’s gastrointestinal tract, researchers in Switzerland and Australia say. Researchers have known for years that breast milk appears to provide a variety of health benefits, including lower rates of diarrhea, rashes, allergies, and other medical problems that cow’s milk does not provide. However, the biological reasons behind this association were not clear. To find out, the scientists collected human and cow’s milk samples and analyzed the content of milk fat in both. They found that fat particles in human milk are coated with particular variants of two sugar-based proteins, called MUC-1 and MUC-4. Previous studies by others have shown that these proteins can block certain receptors in the digestive tract that are the main attachment sites for E. coli, Helicobacter pylori and other disease-causing microbes, thereby preventing infection. By contrast, since cow’s milk lacks these protein variants, it may not offer the same disease protection, the researchers say.

Air pollution can damage the heart, study says. Air pollution has short-term and long-term toxic effects on the heart and blood vessels, causing increased hospitalization for cardiac illness, and even death, a new report says. The article, expected to be published in the Aug. 26 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, looks at previous research that finds inhaled pollutants set off an increase in “super-oxiding molecules” that damage cells. The damage not only causes inflammation in the lungs, but triggers harmful effects in the heart and cardiovascular system, scientists say. “We used to think air pollution was a problem that primarily affects the lungs. We now know it is also bad for the heart,” Dr. Robert A. Kloner, director of research at the Heart Institute of the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, said in a journal news release. Ultrafine air pollutants, such as those from car exhaust, may pass into the bloodstream and damage the heart and blood vessels directly, recent research has suggested. Studies conducted at the Heart Institute found that ultrafine air pollutants can cause an immediate drop in coronary blood flow and the heart’s pumping function, and tend to cause arrhythmias. Researchers have also found that high levels of air pollution can lead to emergency hospital admissions for heart attack, chest pain and congestive heart failure and even to death from heart disease, arrhythmias, heart failure and cardiac arrest. “Air pollution can be dangerous at levels that are within the accepted air quality standards,” said Dr. Boris Z. Simkhovich, a senior research associate at the Heart Institute of the Good Samaritan Hospital.

“Happy Meals” are pretty sad. Most fast food for children is unhealthy, loaded with too many calories and too much fat and salt, says a report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Officials from the restaurant industry, however, disagree, saying that menus have improved nutritionally in recent years, giving diners a choice of healthier options. Want to see how your favorite fast food joint compares? Go to Vital Signs.

One in three uninsured workers is seriously sick. One out of every three working-age, uninsured Americans suffers from a chronic illness and isn’t getting the medical care they need, a new report shows. Although the study didn’t specifically look at the health consequences of lack of insurance and lack of access to medical care, it’s reasonable to assume that these factors would lead to various medical complications, said the authors of a study published in the Aug. 5 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. “This is something that is very true in my clinical experience,” Dr. Andrew Wilper, instructor in medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle, told HealDay. “The uninsured can’t get in to see the doctor, they miss medications, their blood pressure is out of control and, really, you see devastating consequences.” Wilper was a fellow in general internal medicine at Harvard Medical School while conducting the study. Another expert agreed that a lack of insurance along with chronic illness can be a potentially lethal combination. “These people are going to end up with complications of their illnesses prematurely. They will be disabled early. They will probably die younger. It is a major public health disaster,” said Dr. Oliver Fein, president-elect of Physicians for a National Health Program and professor of clinical medicine and public health at Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University in New York City. “Long term, there will be expensive admissions to hospitals, usually through the emergency department, due to diabetes out of control and congestive heart failure because of hypertension.” About 47 million Americans in 2007 were uninsured, up from 31 million in 1987, according to government figures. Using data from interviews with almost 12,500 people aged 18 to 64 who had participated in the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES), the authors conclude that an estimated 11.4 million working-age Americans with at least one of seven chronic medical conditions do not have health insurance. This included 16.1 percent of the 7.8 million people with cardiovascular disease, 15.5 percent of the 38.2 million people with hypertension and 16.6 percent of the 8.5 million people with diabetes. Other conditions examined were asthma, high cholesterol, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or a previous diagnosis of cancer. “We found some pretty striking differences when we compared uninsured individuals with one of these seven conditions with insured individuals with one of the conditions,” Wilper said. About 26 percent of uninsured people reported no standard site of care, versus only 6.2 percent of those who had insurance. More than 22 percent of uninsured individuals reported no visits to a health professional in the past year compared to 6.2 percent of insured people, and 7.1 percent of uninsured people with a chronic condition reported that the emergency room was their standard site of medical care, versus 1.1 percent of those carrying insurance.