n e w s                       

 the thursday morning eNEWS   archives 

The Thursday Morning eNEWS

---

WINGS Lakefront Cottages are open thru mid November

Planning a staff meeting or a weekend retreat for your clients? WINGS Positive Social Opportunities Network has the facility within a hour of Detroit to meet, relax, and refocus your energies. We offer accommodations for 30 in a fairly private compound for your use. Contact Mike at (810)359-2800 today to plan your event for this Fall or next Spring. We are proud to be able to offer this great facility to our community and hope to see you there soon! Check out the amenities at www.wingsmi.org/cabins.htm. This project is funded entirely by the Edwin H Drescher Jr Memorial Trust.

Happenings

August 10     The Inn Place is having a Karaoke Fundraiser for AIDS Walk Detroit on Friday, August 10^th.  The Inn Place is located at 917 N. Main St., Royal Oak.  It's just south of Catalpa. Here is how the fundraiser works:
$2 to sing a song
$5 to make somebody else sing a song
$10 for the person to buy themselves out of singing that song
$20 to gong somebody off the stage

Here is a chance to sing (or not!) at Metro Detroit’s #1 karaoke bar, all for a great cause. The fun starts at 9:00 pm and runs all night; the karaoke is hosted by Steve C.

Aug 31           Edwin H Drescher Jr Memorial Weekend at Higgins Lake

WINGS 10^th Annual weekend to Higgins Lake will be for 3 nights this year from Friday, August 31 thru Monday, September 3. There will be snacks provided on Friday afternoon, 8 delicious meals, and 3 nights lodging. There is no charge for this trip as it was provided for by the Edwin H Drescher Jr Living Trust, however there is a refundable reservation fee of $25.00 returned upon your arrival. Transportation will be on your own. The first 100 paid reservations will attend. So why not spend the holiday weekend lakeside among friends and enjoy the roaring bon fires, boating and swimming in Higgins Lake, and some just plain Good food and FUN where you can be all that you are! Get your registration form by writing to reservations@wingsmi.org

Sept 22          Weekend of Sept 22 there is a HIV_Social Campout at campit. It is being created by a guy in my space. You will have to go to mySpace and create an account to get to the info after you are added as a friend. Once you create an account search for HIV_Social Campout and add as a friend, after you are approved by Jeff then you can see his blogs on this page for the info..

Sept 16          AIDS Walk Detroit www.aidswalkdetroit.org

Oct 18            Horizons Project founder retirement dinner

Twenty years ago, she had a vision that has saved lives and human spirits. Now, Kathryn Wright, D.O., founder of The Horizons Project, is retiring. A special retirement dinner and Inaugural fundraiser will be held Thursday, Oct. 18 from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. at the Roostertail on the Detroit River. Dr. Wright sought to provide nonjudgmental, youth-sensitive care to adolescents and young adults living with HIV/AIDS. In 1994, she founded the Horizons Project which has evolved into Detroit's premier HIV/AIDS agency for Youth. Proceeds from the event will directly support the Horizons Project of the Children's Hospital of Michigan. For more information contact Linda Hyter at (313) 924-9493 or by email at lhyter@dmc.org

Nov 1-2          13^th Annual STD & HIV Conference

Conference to be held at the Ann Arbor Marriott Ypsilanti. For complete information go to www.hihivnews/std_hiv_conference_2007.htm

 

In the News

Gates Foundation Gives Institute of Human Virology $15M Grant for Research on HIV Vaccine, Maryland Gov. O'Malley Announces

Bor, Baltimore Sun, 8/1

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland's School of Medicine a five-year, $15 million grant to develop a potential HIV vaccine, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) announced Tuesday, the Washington Post reports (Rein, Washington Post, 8/1).According to the AP/Forbes, the grant is part of the Gates Foundation's Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery, an international network of researchers focused on developing a safe and effective vaccine. The grant will support a public-private partnership among the institute, Wyeth and Profectus BioSciences. Profectus was created in 2003 to develop and commercialize technology developed by the institute, the AP/Forbes reports.Dave Wilkins, CEO at the institute, said the first grant payment, which will be about $2.1 million, is expected to be available in two or three weeks. It will be used for equipment maintenance, salaries of about 10 to 15 researchers and supplies, according to the AP/Forbes (Witte, AP/Forbes, 7/31). Robert Gallo, founder and director of the institute, said that he expects the grant to expand his research on a possible HIV vaccine that he has tested successfully on monkeys. The vaccine candidate works by intercepting the virus before it can enter the body's cells and attack the immune system's response to an infection, the Post reports. It would give antibodies the best chance of working against the various strains of HIV, Gallo said at a press conference in Annapolis, Md. The vaccine candidate also has the potential to eliminate HIV from infected cells, according to Gallo. "We have a vaccine candidate that we think is extremely interesting and unique in its properties," Gallo said. He added that he hopes to begin clinical trials next year (Washington Post, 8/1).Albert Reece, dean of the Maryland School of Medicine, said, "Seeing the end of HIV/AIDS is still a dream," but Gallo's research is a "positive step toward seeing that dream come through." O'Malley said efforts such as this could help the U.S. "unleash the weapons of salvation" and increase Maryland's efforts to become a center of biotechnology. A Gates Foundation spokesperson was not available for comment, according to the Baltimore Sun.

 

House Votes To Remove Amendment From Labor-HHS Appropriations Bill That Would Have Reduced Ryan White Funding in Some Areas

AP/International Herald Tribune, 7/20

The House on Wednesday voted 230-196 to defeat an amendment in the fiscal year 2008 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill (HR 3043) that would have reduced Ryan White Program funding for some areas, including San Francisco, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The amendment -- which was introduced by Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) -- highlights the debate between cities like San Francisco, which were at the "epicenter" of the HIV/AIDS epidemic when it first emerged in the 1980s and early 1990s, and communities nationwide that were "hit by the disease later," according to the Chronicle. Communities more recently affected by the costs associated with HIV/AIDS have said that Ryan White funding formulas "unfairly favo[r] cities such as San Francisco and have been trying to change it, with some success," the Chronicle reports (Epstein, San Francisco Chronicle, 7/20). The Bush administration in May announced Ryan White funding reductions for some areas -- including an $8.6 million reduction in funding to the San Francisco metropolitan area, which includes San Mateo and Marin counties -- according to a release from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Pelosi and Rep. Dave Obey (D-Wisc.), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, included language in the Labor-HHS bill to mitigate funding cuts to San Francisco and 11 other jurisdictions nationwide. The language restored $6.3 million in funding for San Francisco. The amendment introduced by Barton would have reinstated those cuts, according to the release (Pelosi release, 7/18)."What we were trying to do was make more funds available to those areas of the country where the epidemic was still prevalent and growing and less funds on a discretionary basis where the epidemic had once been centered but was now, thankfully, not as prevalent," Barton said (San Francisco Chronicle, 7/20). Pelosi said that "more people are living with HIV/AIDS" in San Francisco than