His lawyers have quit on him, but the man whose wife died in a freeway crash after singer Brandy rear-ended a vehicle wants big money. Even though Brandy wasn’t charged with any wrongdoing in the Los Angeles-area accident, she was reportedly willing to pay $200,000 of a $1.2 million settlement offer made by her insurance company. Marouane Hdidou apparently hopes to get more from the platinum-selling artist and former “Moesha” star: When he rejected the offer, his attorneys withdrew from the case. Hdidou’s wife was found to have been driving with marijuana in her system, authorities say. Investigators decided that Brandy wasn’t at fault in the 2007 accident after a year of examining evidence.

Why do Blacks have kidney-rejection issues? A Johns Hopkins research team reports it may have an explanation for at least some of the higher organ-rejection rates seen among Black kidney transplant recipients. In a small study of 50 healthy adult men, half of whom were Black and half of whom were White, researchers found significantly different amounts of certain immune system cells that are associated with kidney rejection, reports Medical News Today. The cells, known as human leukocyte antigen-specific, or HLA-specific B cells, when “sensitized” produce antibodies that have long been thought to be a factor in transplanted kidney rejection, says Andrea Zachary, professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins and lead researcher of the study. Patients become sensitized when exposed to HLA in blood or tissue that is not their own, Zachary says. Sensitized HLA-specific B cells then produce antibodies that attack transplanted organs containing foreign HLA. “Now that we have an accurate way to count these cells, we are able to confirm what we long suspected, that Blacks might have a bigger army of HLA-specific B cells,” says Zachary, who presented her findings at the Congress of the International Transplant Society in Sydney, Australia on Aug. 12. “Knowing that Blacks have an increased number of HLA-specific B cells – which increases their opportunity for antibody-mediated rejection – we may be able to customize treatments for Black recipients to account for these differences and lessen the likelihood that the organ will be rejected,” says Zachary.
Leave that ear wax alone. O.K., those who have a high-gross meter can skip this one, but you might want to pay attention for your ears’ sake. While many people feel they need to remove ear wax – technically a mixture of secretion, hair and dead skin called cerumen – don’t. It is actually protective since it has lubricating and antibacterial properties, said Dr. Peter Roland, an ear specialist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. He chaired a panel that released new guidelines Friday from the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery Foundation. The guidelines are the first comprehensive clinical recommendations meant to help health-care professionals identify patients with impacted wax and treat them properly. “The conclusion is that the mere presence of ear wax does not require anything,” Roland said. If the ears are functioning, and there is no problem, most people should do nothing. And that includes resisting the urge to use a cotton-tipped swab to clean out the ear, he said. Using a swab can actually drive excess wax in further, he said, and then medical attention is often needed to remove it.

Vital Signs: The Republican VP pick’s teen daughter’s pregnancy is her business, but what does it say about “abstinence-only” sex education that conservatives like Sarah Palin are so fond of? Read more at Vital Signs.