// a href = ./ // St Louis News, Weather, Sports, The Big 550 AM, St Louis Traffic, Breaking News in St Louis

KTRS News

KTRS News

WIGGINTON DASH BOOSTS CARDINALS PAST METS 6-3

Tuesday, 14 May 2013 07:37 Published in Sports
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Lance Lynn overcame early control woes and St. Louis used a three-run seventh inning to beat the New York Mets 6-3 on Monday night.

Lynn (6-1) allowed three runs on three hits and four walks the first two innings. He only gave up one hit and one walk in his last five innings. He is 4-0 at home this season. It was the Cardinals' 10th win in the past 12 games.

Rick Ankiel, signed by the Mets earlier in the day after clearing waivers and playing against the team that revived his career as a position player, just missed a diving catch on Ty Wigginton's pinch-hit bloop double to shallow center off Scott Rice (1-3) to open the seventh.

Matt Carpenter followed Wigginton's hit with a sharp grounder off Rice's leg and the ball rolled into foul territory down the first-base line. Wigginton never stopped running and his head-first slide barely beat the tag to snap a 3-3 tie. Matt Holliday homered with one out and Yadier Molina had an RBI double with two outs, both off Scott Atchison for the three-run cushion.

Daniel Murphy had three hits with a two-run double for the Mets, busting out of a 7-for-54 slump with one RBI the previous 14 games. The Mets have dropped four straight.

Lynn threw a career-high 125 pitches, four more than the previous high exactly one year ago in a loss to the Braves. Three relievers worked the last two innings with Edward Mujica earning his 10th save in 10 chances.

Lynn threw 54 pitches and Mets starter Jeremy Hefner needed 46 the first two innings in a game tied at 3, a distinct change after three straight days of pitching brilliance. Colorado's Jorge De La Rosa carried a no-hitter into the seventh Sunday, the Cardinals' Adam Wainwright went 7 2-3 innings before his no-hit bid ended Saturday and St. Louis rookie Shelby Miller retired the final 27 hitters after allowing a leadoff hit on Friday.

Three of the first four batters reached against Hefner including Allen Craig's RBI double just inside the third-base line for the lead and Jon Jay added a bases-loaded sacrifice fly that barely counted when Matt Holliday sprinted home just ahead of third baseman David Wright's tag on Craig, attempting to advance on left fielder Lucas Duda's throw.

Murphy tied it in the second with a two-run double, a liner that right fielder Carlos Beltran appeared to lose running out of the shadows into a patch of sunlight in right. Murphy scored from second on an infield hit after shortstop Daniel Descalso could not handle Wright's slow roller and the ball rolled free.

Notes: LHP John Gast makes his major league debut for the Cardinals in place of injured Jake Westbrook on Tuesday night against Dillon Gee (2-4, 5.55). Gast was 3-1 with a 1.16 ERA at Triple-A Memphis and began the year with 32 consecutive scoreless innings. ... Chris Carpenter, all but ruled out for the season in February due to nerve issues in his shoulder, threw another bullpen session Monday and remained on track in his bid to return as a reliever, but there's no specific timetable. "When he puts his mind to something and his body cooperates, we know what kind of talent he has." ... Descalso got his third start at SS for St. Louis. ... The Mets' John Buck struck out three times for a total of 13 the last six games.

© 2013 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED. Learn more about our PRIVACY POLICY and TERMS OF USE.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Treating breast cancer almost always involves surgery, and for years the choice was just having the lump or the whole breast removed. Now, new approaches are dramatically changing the way these operations are done, giving women more options, faster treatment, smaller scars, fewer long-term side effects and better cosmetic results.

It has led to a new specialty - "oncoplastic" surgery - combining oncology, which focuses on cancer treatment, and plastic surgery to restore appearance.

"Cosmetics is very important" and can help a woman recover psychologically as well as physically, said Dr. Deanna Attai, a Burbank, Calif., surgeon who is on the board of directors of the American Society of Breast Surgeons. Its annual meeting in Chicago earlier this month featured many of these new approaches.

More women are getting chemotherapy or hormone therapy before surgery to shrink large tumors enough to let them have a breast-conserving operation instead of a mastectomy. Fewer lymph nodes are being removed to check for cancer's spread, sparing women painful arm swelling for years afterward.

Newer ways to rebuild breasts have made mastectomy a more appealing option for some women. More of them are getting immediate reconstruction with an implant at the same time the cancer is removed rather than several operations that have been standard for many years. Skin and nipples increasingly are being preserved for more natural results.

Some doctors are experimenting with operating on breast tumors through incisions in the armpit to avoid breast scars. There's even a "Goldilocks" mastectomy for large-breasted women - not too much or too little removed, and using excess skin to create a "just right" natural implant.

Finally, doctors are testing a way to avoid surgery altogether, destroying small tumors by freezing them with a probe through the skin.

"Breast surgery has become more minimalistic," said Dr. Shawna Willey of Georgetown's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.

"Women have more options. It's much more complex decision-making."

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women around the world. In the U.S. alone, about 230,000 new cases are diagnosed each year.

Most can be treated by just having the lump removed, but that requires radiation for weeks afterward to kill any stray cancer cells in the breast, plus frequent mammograms to watch for a recurrence.

Many women don't want the worry or the radiation, and choose mastectomy even though they could have less drastic surgery. Mastectomy rates have been rising. Federal law requires insurers to cover reconstruction for mastectomy patients, and many of the improvements in surgery are aimed at making it less disfiguring.

Here are some of the major trends:

IMMEDIATE RECONSTRUCTION

Doctors used to think it wasn't good to start reconstruction until cancer treatment had ended - surgery, chemotherapy, radiation. Women would have a mastectomy, which usually involves taking the skin and the nipple along with all the breast tissue, followed by operations months later to rebuild the breast.

Reconstruction can use tissue from the back or belly, or an implant. The first operation often is to place a tissue expander, a balloon-like device that's gradually inflated to stretch the remaining skin and make room for the implant. A few months later, a second surgery is done to remove the expander and place the implant. Once that heals, a third operation is done to make a new nipple, followed by tattooing to make an areola, the darkened ring around it.

The new trend is immediate reconstruction, with the first steps started at the time of the mastectomy, either to place a tissue expander or an implant. In some cases, the whole thing can be done in one operation.

Nationally, about 25 to 30 percent of women get immediate reconstruction. At the Mayo Clinic, about half do, and at Georgetown, it's about 80 percent.

SPARING SKIN, NIPPLES

Doctors usually take the skin when they do a mastectomy to make sure they leave no cancer behind. But in the last decade they increasingly have left the skin in certain women with favorable tumor characteristics. Attai compares it to removing the inside of an orange while leaving the peel intact.

"We have learned over time that you can save skin" in many patients, Willey said. "Every single study has shown that it's safe."

Now they're going the next step: preserving the nipple, which is even more at risk of being involved in cancer than the skin is. Only about 5 percent of women get this now, but eligibility could be expanded if it proves safe. The breast surgery society has a registry on nipple-sparing mastectomies that will track such women for 10 years.

"You really have to pick patients carefully," because no one wants to compromise cancer control for cosmetic reasons, Attai said.

"The preliminary data are that nipple-sparing is quite good," but studies haven't been long enough to know for sure, Willey said. "It makes a huge difference in the cosmetic outcome. That makes the woman's breast recognizable to her."

Dr. Judy Boughey, a breast surgeon at the Mayo Clinic, said the new approach even has swayed patients' treatment choices.

"We're seeing women choosing the more invasive surgery, choosing the mastectomy," because of doctors' willingness to spare skin and nipples, she said.

It helped persuade Rose Ragona, a 51-year-old operations supervisor at O'Hare Airport in Chicago. She had both breasts removed on April 19 with the most modern approach: Immediate reconstruction, with preservation of her skin and nipples.

"To wake up and just see your breasts there helped me immensely," she said.

She chose to have both breasts removed to avoid radiation and future worry.

"I felt it was a safer road to go," she said. "I can't live the rest of my life in fear. Every time there's a lump I'm going to worry."

FREEZING TUMORS

Attai, the California breast surgeon, is one of the researchers in a national study testing cryoablation. The technique uses a probe cooled with liquid nitrogen that turns tumors into ice balls of dead tissue that's gradually absorbed by the body. This has been done since 2004 for benign breast tumors and the clinical trial is aimed at seeing if it's safe for cancer treatment.

"The technology is amazing. This is done in the office under local anesthesia, a little skin puncture," Attai said.

In the study, women still have surgery at some point after the freezing treatment to make sure all the cancer is destroyed. If it proves safe and effective, it could eliminate surgery for certain cancer patients.

"I'd love to see the day when we can offer women with small breast tumors a completely non-operative approach, and I do think that's coming soon," Attai said.

---

Marilynn Marchione can be followed at HTTP://TWITTER.COM/MMARCHIONEAP

© 2013 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED. Learn more about our PRIVACY POLICY and TERMS OF USE.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Video released early Monday by New Orleans police shows a possible suspect in the Mother's Day gunfire that wounded 19 people during a neighborhood parade.

The grainy surveillance video shows a crowd suddenly scattering in all directions, with some falling to the ground. They appear to be running from a man who turns and runs out of the picture. The person is wearing a white T-shirt and dark pants. The image isn't clear, but police say they hope someone will recognize him and notify investigators.

Police posted a series of still images from the video on YouTube.

Police believe more than one gun was fired in the burst of Sunday afternoon violence — the latest to flare up around a celebration this year — and they have vowed to swiftly track down those responsible. Detectives were conducting interviews, collecting any surveillance video they could find and gathering evidence from the scene. Cellphone video taken in the aftermath of the shooting shows victims lying on the ground, blood on the pavement and others bending over to comfort them.

Police also say the reward for information leading to arrests and indictments in the case is $10,000.

At least three of the victims were seriously wounded. Of the rest, many were grazed and authorities said that, overall, most wounds were not life threatening. No deaths were reported.

The victims included 10 men, seven women, a boy and a girl. The children, both 10 years old, were grazed and in good condition.

It's not the first time gunfire has shattered a festive mood in the city this year. Five people were wounded in January after a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade, and four were wounded in a shooting in the French Quarter in the days leading up to Mardi Gras. Two teens were arrested in connection with the MLK shootings; three men were arrested and charged in the Mardi Gras shootings.

"The specialness of the day doesn't appear to interrupt the relentless drumbeat of violence," Mayor Mitch Landrieu said at a news conference outside a hospital where victims were being treated Sunday night.

Mary Beth Romig, a spokeswoman for the FBI in New Orleans, characterized the shooting as street violence.

As many as 400 people came out for the second-line procession — a boisterous New Orleans tradition — though only half that many were in the immediate vicinity of the shooting, Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas said. Officers were interspersed with the marchers, which is routine for such events.

Second-line parades are loose processions in which people dance down the street, often following behind a brass band. They can be planned events or impromptu offshoots of other celebrations. They trace their origins to the city's famous jazz funerals.

Police saw three suspects running from the scene. No arrests had been made as of late Sunday.

Outside the hospital Sunday night, Leonard Temple became teary as he talked about a friend who was in surgery after being shot three times during the parade. Temple was told the man was hit while trying to push his own daughter out of the way.

"People were just hanging out. We were just chilling. And this happened. Bad things always happen to good people," said Temple, who was at the parade but didn't see the shootings.

A social club called The Original Big 7 organized Sunday's event. The group was founded in 1996 at the Saint Bernard housing projects, according to its MySpace page.

The neighborhood where the shooting happened is a mix of low-income and middle-class row houses, some boarded up. As of last year, the 7th Ward's population was about 60 percent of its pre-Hurricane Katrina level.

The crime scene was about 1.5 miles from the heart of the French Quarter and near the Treme neighborhood, which has been the centerpiece for the HBO TV series "Treme."

Sunday's violence comes at a time when the city is struggling to pay for tens of millions of dollars required under federal consent decrees to reform the police department and the city jail. The mayor initially backed the police reform agreement and had sought a comprehensive civil rights investigation of the department when he took office in 2010. However, he is trying to put the brakes on the reform plans. In January, he said the city can't afford to spend millions required under the police reform agreement and the jail agreement reached separately between the Justice Department and Sheriff Marlin Gusman, who runs the city-funded jail.

The agreement to reform the police department came after a scathing Justice Department report in 2011 said the city's officers have often used deadly force without justification, made unconstitutional arrests and engaged in racial profiling. A series of criminal investigations focused on a string of police shootings in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Shootings at parades and neighborhood celebrations have become more common in recent years as the city has struggled with street crime, sometimes gang-related.

But police vowed to solve Sunday's shooting. Serpas said it wasn't clear if particular people in the second line were targeted, or if the shots were fired at random.

"We'll get them. We have good resources in this neighborhood," Serpas said.

___ Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Michael Kunzelman and Kevin McGill in New Orleans and AP Radio reporter Jackie Quinn in Washington.

Latest News

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
Prev Next
Mayor Slay calls for donations to Moore, Oklahoma

Mayor Slay calls for donations to Moore, Oklahoma

  City leaders were together to announce the start of a drive to collect donations headed to Moore, Oklahoma.  The campaign started out on Twitter with the hashtag #STL4OKC. The ...

Friends and family of victim call for investigation int…

Dozens of protesters demonstrated outside St. Louis city police headquarters Wednesday, determined to continue pressuring for an investigation into the shooting death of a St. Loui...

Larry Conners no longer with KMOV

Larry Conners no longer with KMOV

Long-time KMOV reporter and anchor Larry Conners is no longer with the station.  KMOV President Mark Pimentel issued the following statement: "We regret to announce that Larry Co...

Roads closed in advance of Senior PGA Championship

Roads closed in advance of Senior PGA Championship

Some roads are already closed in Town & Country as Bellerieve Country Club as preparations continue for the Senior PGA Championship. From 6AM until 8PM through Sunday, Ladue R...

Man runs from traffic stop, into police headquarters

Man runs from traffic stop, into police headquarters

A St. Louis man redefined the phrase, out of the frying pan and into the fire. Clayton police were conducting a traffic stop when the suspect jumped out of his car and started run...

Police investigating reports of illegal taping at Illinois High School

Police investigating reports of illegal taping at Illin…

BELLEVILLE, Ill. -- AP —Police in Belleville say they’re investigating reports that female students at a Catholic high school secretly were videotaped by one of the school’s sports...

Priya, the elephant calf, makes public debut

Priya, the elephant calf, makes public debut

Visitors to the St. Louis Zoo got their first look at the newest resident of the elephant exhibit. Priya, the Asian Elephant calf, made her debut today. A zoo spokesperson says th...

Gov. Nixon considering expansion to adoption benefits

Gov. Nixon considering expansion to adoption benefits

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is weighing whether to sign legislation that would allow children's non-related legal guardians to receive adoption subsidies. C...

© 2013 KTRS All Rights Reserved

St Louis Web Design