Nation roundup for March 8

Setback reported in cancer battle

BOSTON (AP) — Scientists are reporting what could be very bad news for efforts to customize cancer treatment based on each person’s genes.

They have discovered big differences from place to place in the same tumor as to which genes are active or mutated. They also found differences in the genetics of the main tumor and places where the cancer has spread. This means that the single biopsies that doctors rely on to choose drugs are probably not giving a true view of the cancer’s biology. It also means that treating cancer won’t be as simple as many had hoped.

By analyzing tumors in unprecedented detail, “we’re finding that the deeper you go, the more you find,” said one study leader, Dr. Charles Swanton of the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute in England. “It’s like going from a black-and-white television with four pixels to a color television with thousands of pixels.”

Yet the result is a fuzzier picture of how to treat the disease. The study is reported in today’s New England Journal of Medicine.

It is a reality check for “overoptimism” in the field devoted to conquering cancer with new gene-targeting drugs, Dr. Dan Longo, a deputy editor at the journal, wrote in an editorial. About 15 of these medicines are on the market now and hundreds more are in testing, but they have had only limited success. And the new study may help explain why.

In Seattle, plans for a ‘food forest’

SEATTLE (AP) — A plot of grass sits in the middle of Seattle, feet from a busy road and on a hill that overlooks the city’s skyline. But it’s no ordinary patch of green. Residents hope it will become one of the country’s largest “food forests.”

The park, which will start at 2 acres and grow to 7, will offer city dwellers a chance to pick apples, plums and other crops right from the branch.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for the people of Seattle to be able to connect to the environment,” said Maureen Erbe, who walked her two dogs next to the plot on a recent overcast day. Would she pluck some fruits from the forest? “Heck yes, I love a good blueberry. You’re not from Seattle if you don’t like a good blueberry,” she said.

For health-conscious and locally-grown-food-loving Seattle, the park is a new step into urban agriculture. Cities from Portland, Ore., to Syracuse, N.Y., already have their own versions. In Syracuse, for example, vacant lots were turned into vegetable gardens to be tended by local teens.

When a group of people interested in sustainable gardening brought the idea of a food forest for the Beacon Hill neighborhood to city officials in 2010, the city-volunteer effort began.

The plot is in one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods. Next to it is a sports park, a driving range and a lawn bowling club. The food forest would be next to a heavily used road and near many apartment complexes.

The department has allocated $100,000 for the first phase of the park, roughly a 2-acre plot.

Cannon blast kills
one in San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A man arrested after a homemade cannon blasted through his mobile home, killing his girlfriend, “liked to live life on the edge,” his brother said.

Richard Fox, 39, was arrested for investigation of exploding a device resulting in death after the Tuesday blast in a mountain community near San Diego, sheriff’s Sgt. David Martinez said. Fox’s 38-year-old girlfriend was found dead from shrapnel wounds when authorities arrived at the home. The San Diego County medical examiner’s office identified her Wednesday as Jeanette Ogara.

Fox’s brother, Jerry Fox, said he spoke with his anguished brother by phone moments after the blast. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. It should have been me,” Jerry Fox said, recounting his brother’s words.

Fox shot the cannon after loading it with fireworks powder, Martinez said. He was treated at a hospital for shrapnel wounds to his right leg. Three other adults and a 4-year-old girl who were inside the home escaped injury.

Preliminary evidence suggested Fox was under the influence of alcohol, Martinez said. Investigators had not established a motive or determined if the blast was accidental.

“He gave us his version of the story. We want to corroborate that based on the evidence we find at the scene,” Martinez said.

It was unclear if Fox had an attorney.

Fox lived at the home with his girlfriend, whose name was not released, and the 4-year-old girl, who was to be placed with a relative. Martinez declined to identify the three other adults who were inside the home. The blast occurred in Potrero, a community of about 700 people on the Mexican border, about 40 miles east of San Diego. In 2008, military contractor Blackwater Worldwide pulled plans for training facility there after voters recalled five members of a planning board who supported the project.

John Arnold, a neighbor, told U-T San Diego that Richard Fox worked as a handyman and lived in the home for about six years.

“He liked experimenting with guns, and it looks like this experiment went bad,” he told the newspaper.

Sandra Barranon, who lives at the mobile home park, told U-T San Diego that she knew the couple for about 10 years. They were not married, she said.

The woman who died was unemployed, enjoyed doing The New York Times crossword puzzle, and kept the trailer neat and clean, Barranon said.

Denver authorities: Dead inmate killed up to 20

DENVER (AP) — A man who died in prison in 1996 after being convicted of murdering three women also killed four others between 1979 and 1988 and might be responsible for as many as 20 homicides, authorities said.

Vincent Groves, a tall hulking athlete who played on a high school championship basketball team, strangled most of his victims, said Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey.

Groves was first convicted of second-degree murder in 1982 for killing Tammy Sue Woodrum, 17, and was released in 1987 on mandatory parole. In 1990, Groves was sentenced to life in prison for the slaying of Juanita “Becky” Lovato, 19, and 20 years in prison for second-degree murder in the death of Diane Montoya Mancera, 25.

By using DNA from one of those murders, crime analysts have since linked Groves to the slayings of Emma Jenefor, 25, Joyce Ramey, 23, and Peggy Cuff, 20, who were all strangled in 1979, authorities said. Strong circumstantial evidence also tied Groves to the 1988 killing of Pamela Montgomery, 35, said cold-case detective Mylous Yearling.

“We now know that he killed these four women. That’s really important to the families of the victims. This gives them an answer,” Morrissey told the Denver Post (http://bit.ly/wUq5d5 ) Tuesday.

“They were very surprised. They thought their cases had been forgotten,” Yearling added. Groves was a member of a star-filled basketball team at Denver’s Wheat Ridge High School that lost 64-60 to Manual High School in the 1972 state title game, said Bert Borgmann, assistant commissioner of the Colorado High School Activities Association.

Later, he stalked the Colfax Avenue corridor, an area historically known for prostitutes, and different jobs also took him to locations throughout the Denver area, Yearling said. Some of the women Groves targeted were prostitutes, but others were acquaintances, he said. Groves was intelligent and could coax women into compromising situations, Yearling said. While in prison from 1992 until he died on Oct. 31, 1996, prison officials described Groves as an “average” prisoner. “He wasn’t a troublemaker. He wasn’t disruptive,” Department of Corrections spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti said. Jenefor’s body was found in her bathtub in March 1979, according to Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for Morrissey’s office. Ramey’s body was found in an industrial park in July 1979, Kimbrough said. Cuff’s body was found in an alley in November 1979, she said. Nine years later, a witness last saw Montgomery with a man matching Groves’ description driving a very loud, beat-up car that looked and sounded identical to his vehicle, Yearling said. Montgomery’s body was found in an alley.

While trying Groves in 1988, Morrissey tried to present evidence that tied Groves to eight other assault and homicide victims around the Denver area, including Ramey. Groves was the last person to be seen with the victims before they were found dead or escaped. A judge refused to allow the evidence of other alleged crimes and the jury acquitted Groves at the time. As part of a cold-case project funded with federal grants, Yearling said he was reviewing unsolved homicides when he realized the cases “were more than coincidences” and DNA evidence made the connection.

When Groves was dying in 1996 at age 42, detectives asked him to share the fate of his victims, but he refused, Morrissey said.

“This man destroyed lives. He destroyed families,” Morrissey said. “We figured that he was killing two women a month. He was maybe the most prolific serial killer in the state of Colorado. I believe we’ll link him to more.” ———

Information from: The Denver Post, http://www.denverpost.com