2B
LIFE/ Ctiarlotte
Thursday, August 3, 2006
Swimwear gets more versatile
^ Continued from page 1B
fixim Gideon Oberson; Norma
Kamali’s ruffles and gold one-
piece suits; ajfd Indian-
inspired pieces by Inca.
But for those who don’t
mind showing some extra
skin, or prefer string bikinis
over boy short bottoms, the
little bikinis will always be
there. “A tan line says a lot
about you. I think it’s sexy”
Verdi said.
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What happened to Atlantic Beach?
Continued from page 1B
“The Black Pearl, an ocean-
front community offered its
riches to vacationers and res
idents alike. The fii-st vaca
tion home built on Atlantic
Beach was buHt circa 1934 by
Dr. A. J. Henderson, one of the
fotmding members of the
Atlantic Beach Company
Black folks later traveled
along Interstate 95, Highway
17 and South Carolina
Hi^way 9 to enjoy the sunny
beaches, cool breezes, aiid
warm ocean waters. It is said
that every wave that laps her
shore originated in Africa four
days earlier,” the history sec
tion of the website reads.
Now, the show^ outside of
the shore don’t even work.
Is Atlantic Beach a victim of
desegr^ation? I’ll admit that
going to Atlantic Beach wasn’t
a part of my weekend plan. I
don’t remember a time when
Myrtle Beach was closed, at
least legally to black vacation
ers.
Back in the 1970s, Atlantic
Beach’s luster began to wane
as blacks headed south (like I
wanted to) for Myrtle Beach
and other places that were
finally open to us. In 2001, the
town was nearly bankrupt
and in danger of losing its
charter. Tb this day they are
still trying to rebuild the
town’s economy says the web
site.
But if Atlantic Beach is
going to capitalize on some of
the millions of tourism dollars
generated by Myrtle Beach,
something has to be done to
draw people. The ocean isn’t
gcdng to do it alone.
Banking on history will
help, but there has to be more
than that. Once upon a time
entertainers hke Ray Charles
who was welcomed to perform
on the Grand Stand stayed at
Atlantic Beach because of seg
regation. Now that people
have a choice as to where they
can stay something has to be
done to make Atlantic Beach
a destination spot again.
New Orleans is now seeking tourists
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW OELEANS-A year
after Hurricane Katrina, New
Orleans is desperately seek
ing tourists.
The areas where tourists go
largely escaped devastation—
and are eagerly awaitir^ visi
tors willing to come and spend
money
Plenty of hotel rooms are
again available, most of New
Orleans’ world-renowned
restaurants are open, events
such as Mardi Gras and Jazz
Fest are back, and the dty is
reassembling its national
sports presence centered
armmd the Louisiana
Superdome and New Orleans
Arena.
Although the hot, humid
months of summer are typi
cally the city’s slow season,
tourism officials say there’s
more than ample evidence—
fiom their cash registers—
that woiti hasn’t gotten out.
“Right now, we’re hunkered
down for a slow summer,”
said Darrius Gray general
manager of the Holiday Inn-
French Quarter and presi
dent of the Greater New
Orleans Hotel & Lo(^mg
Association. “It’s slower than
usual.”
On a recent sultry day on
Bourbon Street, Matt
Buddenborg of the Detroit
area took in the trademark
tourist street on his first day
in town. “Tb tell you the truth,
I thox^ht it would be messy,”
he said. “It’s really well put-
together.”
David Clay of Casper, Wyo.,
on a road tiip throi^h the
South with Buddenborg, said
he’d heard that tourists areas
were solid but was still sur
prised by what he saw.
“I was expecting more disas
ter, but it looks pretty nice,”
Clay said.
With the dty still reeling
from Katrina, and hotel
rooms packed with emer
gency workers and displaced
residents, a scaled-back
Mardi Gras was held in
February attracting an esti
mated 700,000 people. In
April and May, the New
Orleans Jazz & Heritage
Festival returned with Shell
Exploration & Production Co.,
a major employer in the
region, sponsoring the music
event. The two-weekend Jazz
Fest drew 350,000.
By comparison, in the past,
a million people typically
attend the culmination of the
Carnival season, and the
2003 Jazz Fest attracted an
estimated 503,000 spectators.
Next year’s Fat Tuesday cel
ebration, the final day of
Mardi Gras, is set for Feb. 20.
A third big event—the
annual Essence Festival-
moved to Houston this sum
mer because of hunicane
repairs to the Superdome. It’s
not known yet if the festival
win return to the dty in 2007,
though talks are imder way
The dty’s aU-important con
vention business —a $9.6 bil
lion annual economic boost
before Katrina—got back on
track in late June when the
See NEW ORLEANS/3B
Better breathing may lead you to better blood pressure
Continued from page 1B
maker InterCure Inc., people
who used the slow-breathing
device for 15 minutes a day
for two months saw their
blood pressure drop 10 to 15
points. It’s not supposed to be
a substitute for diet, exmdse
or medication, but an addition
to standard treatment.
Why slow-breathing works
"is still a bit of a black box,”
says Dr. William J. Elliott of
Chicago’s Rush University
Medical Center, who headed
some of that research and
was surprised at the effect.
Slow, deep breathing does
relax and dilate blood vessels
temporarily, but that’s not
enough to explain a lasting
drop in blood pressure, says
NIHs Anderson.
So, in a laboratory at
Baltimore’s Harbor Hospital,
Anderson is using the
machine to test his own theo
ry When imder chronic
stress, people tend to take
shallow breaths and imcon-
sciously hold them, what
Anderson calls inhibitory
breathing. Holding a breati)
diverts more blood to the
brain to increase alertness—
good if the boss is yelling—but
it knocks off kilter the blood’s
chemical balance. More acidic
blood in turn mak^ the kid
neys less efficient at pumping
out sodium.
■ In animals, Anderson’s
experiments have shown that
inhibitoiy breathing delays
salt excretion enov^ to raise
blood pressure. Now he’s test
ing if better breathing helps
people reverse that effect.
“They may be. changing
their blood gases and the way
their kidneys are regulating
salt,” he says.
If Anderson’s right, it would
offer another explanation for
why hypertension is what he
calls “a disease of civilization
and a sedentary lifestyle.”
Meanwhile, health authori
ties recommend that every
one take simple steps to lower
blood pressure: by dropping a
few pounds, taking a walk or
getting physical activity and
eating less sodium—no more
than 2,300 milligrams a
day—and more finiits and
vegetables.
On the Net:
NIH blood pressure info:
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov
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Morning after pill entangles nominee
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON-Federal
health officials thought a sur
prise annoimcement about
the morning-after pill would
smooth the Senate confirma
tion of Dr. Andrew von
Eschenbach as commissioner
of the Pood and Drug
Administration.
Instead lawmakers ques
tioned both the timing and
sincerity of the news that the
FDA woidd again consider
allowing the emergency con
traceptive pills to be sold to
adult women without a pre
scription.
The Monday announcement
came on the eve of a Senate
committee hearing on von
Eschenbach’s nomination
The FDA hoped it would firee
up von Eschenbadi to discuss
his plans and vision for the
^ency
Instead, two of the senators
on the panel rrenewed their
vow to block his nomination
'until the FDA made a final
decision on whether to allow
Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. to
sell Plan B over the counter to
women 18 and older. Minors
would still need a doctor’s pre
scription.
Sens. Patty Murray, D-
Wash., and Ifillaiy Rodham
Clinton, D-N.Y, had placed a
similar hold on von
Eschenbach’s predecessor,
Lester Crawford.
They removed that hold
more than a year ago in
exchange for a pledge that the
FDA would act on Barr’s
application. Crawford won
Saiate confirmation but then
put off a decision on Plan B,
earning the enmity of the two
lawmakers.
‘Tool me once. We are not
going to go there again. We
will hold this nomination until
we have a decision on Plan B,”
said Murray, calling the tim
ing of Monday’s annoimce-
mait “highly suspect bdiav-
ior.”
Crawford resigned abruptly
in September 2005 only two
months after the Senate con
firmed him to run the agency
Von Eschenbach has been act
ing FDA commissioner since
then. In March, President
Bush nominated the urology
surgeon to lead the regulatory
agency on a full-time basis.
The morning-after piU is a
h^h dose of the most common
ingredient in regular birth
control pills. When taken
within 72 hours of improtect-
ed sex, the two-pfil series can
lower the risk of pregnancy by
up to 89 percent.
Since 2003, the Women’s
Capital Corp. and then Barr
have sougjit to loosen the pre
scription-only restriction on
Plan B.
Contraceptive advocates
and doctors groups say easier
access to Plan B could halve
the nation’s 3 million annual
unintended pregnancies.
Opponents say wider access to
the pin could promote promis
cuity
The FDA’s own scientists
say the piUs are safes.
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