You can call it a sign of the times. But it’s more accurate to call it a series of signs that reflect our times. Several recording stars are teaming up to express their thoughts on the world’s political scene. They have posed for photos featuring protest signs that they made up themselves, The Associated Press reports. Among those involved is Public Enemy. You can probably guess what their sign reads: “Fight the Power.” Others involved include Modest Mouse, R.E.M., Death Cab for Cutie and Rage Against The Machine. The signs will be auctioned off starting next Tuesday. Proceeds from the online sales will go to benefit War Child International, a nonprofit organization that helps kids in areas of conflict around the globe, AP reports.  See the auction signs here.

Jordin Sparks is to be praise, and criticized for her stand on abstinence. Jordin Sparks made a bold statement when she stood up at MTV’s Video Music Awards on Monday for the Jonas Brothers’ right to wear promise rings, a symbol of their pledge to abstain from sex until marriage. But she also unwittingly chastised any teenager who happens to be sexually active. How? Vital Signs has the details. 

New York City shows largest decline in infant deaths. New York City has made the biggest improvement of all major cities in lowering its infant death rate, according to new numbers from the city’s Health Department. New York’s infant mortality rate fell again in 2007, reaching the lowest level ever recorded. The 2007 rate - 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births, down from 5.9 in 2006 - marked the sharpest one-year decline since 2001, when the city’s rate dropped to 6.1 from 6.7 per 1,000 live births. Of the 128,961 babies born in New York City in 2007, 697 died before reaching a year old, 43 fewer than in 2006. The city’s infant mortality rate remained significantly lower than that of the nation, which was 6.7 deaths per 1,00 live births in 2006, the most recent year on record. The number of local births surged by 3,455 during 2007, and births to Asian women accounted for half of the increase. News reports suggest that many Chinese couples timed their pregnancies to coincide with the Year of the Golden Pig, a particularly auspicious year in the Chinese lunar calendar. Here’s how the numbers break down by ethnic group: The infant mortality rate was 9.8 per 1,000 live births among Blacks, 6.3 among Puerto Ricans, 4.3 among other Hispanics, 3.9 among Whites, and 3.1 among Asian/Pacific Islanders. “We are heading in the right direction, but substantial disparities remain,” said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, New York City health commissioner. “Infant death rates remain unacceptably high among Blacks and Puerto Ricans and in low-income neighborhoods. We need to expand services for these groups and communities, and we also need to work to reduce inequities that persist in income, education, health care, safe neighborhoods and access to healthy affordable food and regular physical activity.” How did the city improve its numbers? Health officials say the department has been working on many fronts to help women stay as healthy as possible before pregnancy, obtain quality health care during pregnancy, and provide the care and support their babies need to thrive. Its key initiatives include breastfeeding education, safe-sleep education, cribs for families that can’t afford them, and nurse home-visiting during pregnancy and early childhood.

Measles vaccine doesn’t cause autism, experts say.  The measles-mumps-rubella vaccine causes neither autism nor gastrointestinal disorders, a study found Tuesday, disputing a theory that has persisted for a decade. The theory began in 1998, when British researcher Andrew Wakefield published studies that suggested the measles vaccine caused gastrointestinal problems and that those GI problems led to autism. Co-author W. Ian Lipkin of Columbia University in New York said Wakefield theorized that the virus used in the vaccine grew in the intestinal tract, leading to inflammation that seeped from the bowel into the blood and affected the nervous system, causing autism. In Wednesday’s study, the researchers replicated key parts of Wakefield’s original study and determined that the vaccine neither causes autism or GI problems, said Mady Hornig, a study co-author. Irish pathologist John O’Leary, who co-authored the original study. He and the other researchers looked for evidence of the measles vaccine in children’s intestines after they had been vaccinated and sought to determine if their GI problems and autism symptoms occurred before or after they were vaccinated. After studying 38 children, they found that only one child had trace amounts of the measles virus.

Vital Signs: Basketball star Grant Hill is on a mission to protect you from the flesh-eating bacteria known as MRSA. Why? Vital Signs has the details of his personal experience with the disease.

Not all fat created equal. Fat in obese patients is “sick” when compared to fat in lean patients, Temple University scientists say.   The same the cells in diabetics’ fat tissue aren’t working properly and as a result, are sicker than cells found in lean patients’ fat tissue, a study published in the September issue of Diabetes finds. Lead author Guenther Boden, M.D. theorizes that “sick fat” could more fully explain the link between obesity and higher risk of diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Researchers from the departments of endocrinology, biochemistry and surgery at the Temple University School of Medicine took fat biopsies from the upper thighs of six lean and six obese patients and found significant differences at the cellular level. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is found in every cell and helps synthesize proteins and monitor how they’re folded. The stress that Boden describes causes the ER in fat cells to produce several proteins that ultimately lead to insulin resistance, which has been found to play a major role in the development and progression of obesity-related conditions.

Study: Almost 1,000 People Died In Louisiana From Katrina

On the three-year anniversary of Hrricane Katrina, a new study says the storm caused the deaths of some 986 deaths in Louisiana either directly or indirectly, making it the deadliest hurricane to hit the U.S. Gulf Coast in 80 years. Find out more at Vital Signs.

Blacks in the South have higher HIV rates. Blacks in the South have higher HIV and AIDS rates. Why? Read more at BET.com/Body & Soul.

Be Sickle Smart program hits major cities.

The Be Sickle Smart program is on the road, and likely will be in a city near you. “American Idol” season two Winner Ruben Studdard hosted the Be Sickle Smart Education Day in Jacksonville, Fla., last Saturday to raise awareness of the risk of iron overload, a serious condition that affects people living with sickle-cell disease. Transfusional iron overload is a serious condition that can arise from having 10 or more blood transfusions over one’s lifetime (which is common among people who suffer from sickle-cell disease). If left untreated, iron overload can lead to serious health problems, including liver and heart damage, to name a few. The nationwide Be Sickle Smart campaign is a community-based health education effort leveraging advocacy groups, churches, local media and community leaders to raise awareness of sickle-cell disease and iron overload. The program will continue in Birmingham on Sept. 13 and Chicago on Sept. 18, with other stops planned later for Atlanta, Los Angeles, St. Louis and Philadelphia. More than 70,000 people in America have sickle-cell disease. One in 12 African Americans carries the trait for sickle-cell disease. For more information, go to Ask About Iron.com.

Is L.A. driving the trans fat bandwagon off a cliff?
Vital Signs: Cities and states are helping you cut the fat from your diets. Cities like Los Angeles are going as far as to stop fast food restaurants from opening in poor communities to lessen the number of unhealthy restaurants there. But do we really need that kind of help in the fat fight, or is the city going too far? Vital Signs has more.