Police release composite of gunman

Authorities have released a composite drawing of a gunman who robbed an Orangeburg business.

Orangeburg Department of Public Safety Capt. Mike Adams said a forensic artist completed a composite drawing Friday said to be one of two men who robbed Carolina Title Loan on Aug. 1.

Just after 2 p.m., two gunmen entered the John C. Calhoun Drive business and held the employees at gunpoint before taking an undetermined amount of money. The two gunmen then fled the property.

Observed by several witnesses, the gunmen were chased toward Russell Street until they lost their pursuers.

Investigators interviewed several of those witnesses who described the suspect as a 5 foot 6 inch to 5 foot 8 inch tall black male with an average build. He was wearing a black hat, white shirt and black pants.

The government has ramped up enforcement of student loan debts. Retirees in default may see their Social Security benefits slashed.   (Shutterstock)

Owe Student Loans? Your Social Security Might Be Cut

FEDS TAKING UP TO 15% OF SOME RETIREES' CHECKS

(NEWSER) – If you're retired and owe student loans, your Social Security benefits might not be as big as you thought. More and more retirees who are in student loan default are seeing a chunk of their monthly Social Security checks being grabbed by the federal government. Since January, the feds have shrunk the size of around 115,000 retirees' checks, nearly twice as many as in 2011, reportsMarketWatch, picking up on a report in SmartMoney. The amount of money withheld varies, but it can reach up to 15%.

“This is going to catch an awful lot of people off guard and wreak havoc on their financial lives,” says one financial planner. In many cases, the affected retirees are in debt not for themselves but because they helped pay for their children's college loans, note consumer advocates. The government does give two offers to debtors to set up a payment plan before the cuts kick in, and they will not touch checks of $750 or less.

Michael Teasley, white president of NAACP at HBCU, found dead

Michael Teasley

The first white president of a student chapter of NAACP at an HBCU has been mysteriously found dead. Michael Teasley, age 40, took the position in 2010. The cause of his death is unknown. The Huffington Post reports:

Michael Teasley, a white student who became the first white president of an NAACP student chapter at a historically black college, was found dead in his apartment on Monday. He was 40 years old.

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Robotic earthworm could be use for secret military missions

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and Seoul National University are turning heads with their latest creation: A robotic earthworm. While some may call it the most detestable robotic-creation yet, others will call it an engineering marvel. The earthworm robot is described by researchers in the latest report from MIT News.

Researchers believe that the robotic earthworm could have military-like uses. According to Sangbae Kim, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, the soft autonomous robot may be appropriate for moving over inhospitable terrain or squeezing through small spaces.

The robot, nicknamed “Meshworm” because of the flexible tube that is its body, contains “artificial muscle” from wire constructed of nickel and titanium (an alloy that stretches and contracts with heat). The researchers mimicked the segments of an earthworm by wrapping wire around the flexible tube. To move the robotic earthworm forward, researchers applied a small current to the wire.

“You can throw it, and it won’t collapse,” Mr. Kim says. “Most mechanical parts are rigid and fragile at small scale, but the parts in Meshworms are all fibrous and flexible. The muscles are soft, and the body is soft … we’re starting to show some body-morphing capability.”

New strain of swine flu infects 145 people

The victims, mostly children, have contracted the swine flu virus after contact with pigs at agricultural fairs this summer. Most of the cases have been mild. Still, health officials advise caution.

Pig enclosures stand empty at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Health officials said cases of the flu were mild, but advised fairgoers to wash their hands. (Matt Dial, Associated Press / August 7, 2012)

A new type of swine flu has infected at least 145 people, mostly children, since July 12, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's a significant jump from the 12 cases confirmed by the agency last week.

"We're seeing a big increase, and we think it's a real increase," said the CDC's Dr. Joseph Bresee in a Thursday update on thevirus, which people have contracted after contact with pigs at county fairs.

So far, most of the illnesses have been mild: Two people have been hospitalized this year and nobody has died. Still, CDC officials advise anyone planning to attend an agricultural fair to take precautions.

Daily aspirin cuts cancer death in seniors

ATLANTA, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- A study involving more than 100,000 predominantly elderly participants found daily aspirin use lowered cancer mortality, U.S. researchers say.

The study, published online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, pooled results from existing randomized trials of daily aspirin for prevention of vascular events and found daily aspirin use was associated with an estimated 16 percent lower overall risk of cancer mortality.

Study leader Eric J. Jacobs of the American Cancer Society and colleagues analyzed data from 100,139 U.S. adults age 60 and older -- mainly white -- who were tracked for up to 11 years.

The reduction in cancer mortality observed in the current study was considerably smaller than the 37 percent reduction reported in a recent pooled analysis of randomized trials, Jacobs said.

Jacobs and colleagues said their study was observational, not randomized, and therefore could have underestimated or overestimated potential effects on cancer mortality if participants who took aspirin daily had different underlying risk factors for fatal cancer than those who did not.

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