Natural Cures for Diabetes

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court a federal court's order that the state reduce its prison population by 40,000 inmates, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

The appeal will be a dramatic escalation in the long-running legal battle over the state of California's overcrowded prisons and their often criticized medical care for inmates.

Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said the appeal will be filed later this week, adding that cutting the state's inmate population of about 170,000 must be done methodically and by state officials.

"We don't believe it's right," McLear said, referring to the federal court order. "We need to reduce the prison population but we need to do so in a responsible way."

Schwarzenegger is pressing for state legislation to cut the number of prisoners in order to bring down spending on prisons, one of the state's top expenditures.

He backed a bill approved last month by the state Senate that would reduce the state's prison population with a number of measures, including releasing elderly and ailing inmates. But the Assembly passed a rival and less ambitious bill on Monday, raising doubts the two bills can be reconciled.

A legislative battle over releasing prisoners may take shape amid public resistance to the idea after a sensational kidnapping case broke near San Francisco last week with the arrest of a paroled sex offender for abducting an 11-year-old girl, holding her for 18 years and having two children with her.

(Reporting by Jim Christie; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

By David Bailey and Helen Massy-Beresford

DETROIT/PARIS (Reuters) - U.S. auto sales boomed in August as $3 billion in government incentives drove sharp gains for Hyundai Motor Co and Ford Motor Co but failed to provide a boost for General Motors Co in its first full month outside bankruptcy.

Ford reported a 17 percent jump in monthly sales on Tuesday and the success of the U.S. government's "cash for clunkers" trade-in incentives pushed overall industry sales to the first year-on-year increase in 21 months.

Korea's Hyundai posted a 47 percent increase as sales of its Elantra sedan more than doubled.

The U.S. government incentive program also helped Honda post a 10 percent sales gain while Toyota Motor Corp sales were up 6 percent.

The two U.S. automakers to have emerged from government-sponsored bankruptcies -- GM and Chrysler -- lost market share during the August sales bonanza.

GM sales dropped 20 percent, while Chrysler was off 15 percent. Nissan Motor Co sales fell almost 3 percent from record levels of a year earlier.

Meanwhile, auto sales rose in France and Italy and stabilized in Spain on the success of similar government-backed sales incentives, data released on Tuesday showed.

The now-exhausted U.S. "clunkers" program, which was inspired by the programs in France and other European markets, drove a rush into dealerships in July and August.

More than 690,000 vehicles were scrapped in the United States for taxpayer-funded credits of up to $4,500 as consumers took advantage to drop gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs.

On an annualized basis, industry-wide U.S. sales topped 14 million units, according to Autodata.

That was up from 13.6 million a year earlier but still far below the 16 million range that had been seen as the bottom for the market until 2007.

WINNERS AND LOSERS

The winners in the U.S. incentive program were Asian automakers and Ford, which benefited from a stronger lineup of smaller cars and crossover vehicles, analysts said.

The result has been a more evenly matched battle for sales among the major automakers in the U.S. market that threatens to upset long-held market share rankings.

Hyundai and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp now command a combined 7.5 percent market share, making them larger on that basis than Nissan Motor Co.

GM, meanwhile, saw its share of sales of its core brands -- Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC -- drop to 16.3 percent of the U.S. market in August. That lagged Toyota's U.S. market share of 17.8 percent for the month.

"I think perception hurt GM," said Jessica Caldwell, director of industry analysis at Edmunds.com. "People didn't really see GM as a place to turn to when they needed to buy a fuel-efficient vehicle."

GM sales chief Mark LaNeve said the U.S. incentive program had clearly benefited Asian automakers more than GM.

"If it would have been a cash for capable trucks (program), we would have killed them, but it wasn't," LaNeve told reporters and analysts. "It was designed for smaller cars and smaller crossovers and although we're gaining ground quick, they still have more volume in that area."

Chrysler, now under control of Italy's Fiat, said it had lost potential sales when dealers ran short on some models after it shut down all of its production during a bankruptcy process that ended in June.

Chrysler responded with a continued program of discounts of up to $4,500 in rebates on select models this month.

Meanwhile, Ford, the only U.S. automaker to avoid a federally sponsored bankruptcy, posted its second consecutive monthly sales gain and said signs of a recovery in pickup truck demand pointed toward a broader recovery in the economy.

GAUGING THE PAYBACK

Ford reported the first increase in sales of its market-leading F-Series pickup trucks in almost three years.

Trucks like Ford F-150 are widely used in the U.S. construction industry. Pickup sales have dropped sharply in recent years on a combination of high gas prices, tight credit and the slowdown in home building.

Although major automakers said they expected September U.S. sales to tumble in the wake of the "clunkers" boom, executives also said they were banking on improved demand in the fourth quarter and a rebound of 10 percent or more in 2010.

"We see some drop-off in September, but we are starting to see concrete signs of automotive recovery moving into the fourth quarter," said Bob Carter, Toyota's manager of its main brand in the United States.

BMW said it also expects U.S. sales to increase over the remainder of the year even without any further support from the Obama administration.

"I think they've done the experiment. It's worked. But I don't think it will be repeated," BMW North America President Jim O'Donnell told Reuters.

He added: "I think car sales will continue to steadily rise as we move out of the worst of the recession.

Elsewhere, auto sales in Canada fell for a 10th consecutive month.

But France saw a 7 percent gain in August car sales and the French government said it would continue to fund its equivalent of the "clunkers" program to encourage consumers to swap out of old cars into 2011.

Car registrations in Italy were up almost 9 percent in August.[nMAT009908]

Spanish car sales stabilized in August after 16 months of declines. Car sales for Germany, Europe's biggest market, are due on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Shin Jieun, Jason Webb, Devidutta Tripathy, Crispian Balmer, David Bailey, Soyoung Kim and Kevin Krolicki; Writing by Helen Massy-Beresford; Editing by Patrick Fitzgibbons and Matthew Lewis)

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Some 3,600 firefighters battling a week-old wildfire raging in the mountains near Los Angeles got their first big break on Tuesday from higher humidity that helped them push towering flames away from threatened homes.

More than 121,000 acres -- an area nearly the size of Chicago -- have burned in the rugged San Gabriel Mountains and Angeles National Forest above the heavily populated foothills 15 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. About 6,300 homes remained under evacuation orders. Dozens of dwellings have been destroyed.

So far, the cost to battle the so-called Station Fire has risen to nearly $14 million, a worrisome figure for a state struggling with a ballooning deficit due to the poor economy. Two firefighters lost their lives on Sunday.

A flare-up along the fire's southwestern flank posed a renewed danger to the communities of Sunland and Tujunga, just inside Los Angeles city limits. Fire commanders said it would probably take another two weeks to fully contain the blaze.

But the fire's overall growth has slowed and fire commander Mike Dietrich said on Tuesday he was "a lot more optimistic."

"We are still at 5 percent containment. However, with firefighting activity that occurred last night and the last several days, I expect that will increase substantially today," Dietrich said.

National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Mehle, who is assigned to the fire, said the change in weather was due mostly to wind patterns pulling in more damp air from northern Mexico and the Baja region -- a phenomenon called monsoonal moisture.

53 STRUCTURES LOST

He said there may be a slight benefit, too, from extra moisture spun off from Hurricane Jimena, a Category 4 storm that drenched the tip of the Baja Peninsula on Tuesday.

Potential downsides of the weather change were the likelihood of gusty winds and the possibility of dry lightning strikes that could ignite new blazes in dense brush that has not burned in decades. Moisture in the air was also keeping smoke from the fire closer to the ground, making it more difficult to fight with aircraft in some spots.

Fifty-three structures have been lost out of the 12,000 at risk in the area. Mount Wilson, a hub of broadcasting towers and telecommunications, as well as home to an historic observatory, was still very much threatened, Dietrich said.

But he said fire intensity around the peak had eased, and fire crews were sent back to the site around dawn on Tuesday, days after they were withdrawn for fear of being engulfed.

Two firefighters were killed on Sunday when their position was overrun by flames and their vehicle plunged 800 feet down an embankment. Several other firefighters suffered minor injuries trying to rescue them, authorities said.

At least three civilians have also been injured, two of them badly burned when they were trapped by advancing flames after disregarding evacuation orders.

Police continued to evacuate foothill-area homes on Tuesday, though firefighters were able to conduct controlled burns overnight to push flames back into the forest.

More than 3,600 firefighters battled the blaze with help from water- and retardant-dropping aircraft. Despite progress in controlling the fire, Dietrich said the crews "are fighting for every foot."

The cause of the Station Fire, the biggest of several wildfires burning throughout the state, remains under investigation. It comes at the start of the most difficult months for California wildfires, from September to November, when fierce winds increase the danger of big fires.

(Additional reporting by Mary Milliken, editing by Dan Whitcomb and Todd Eastham)

By Jason Lange

LOS CABOS, Mexico (Reuters) - Hurricane Jimena slammed Mexico's Baja California peninsula with howling winds on Tuesday and drenched the upscale Los Cabos resort area where tourists hunkered in boarded-up hotels.

The storm's windspeed eased as it neared land, and the U.S. National Hurricane Center said Jimena was now a Category 3 storm packing 125 mph winds with higher gusts, rather than an extremely dangerous Category 4.

Sheets of rain poured down from dark gray skies as Jimena's winds buffeted the tip of the peninsula, home to world-class golf courses, yachting marinas and five-star hotels. The hurricane was forecast to make landfall on Wednesday in a sparsely populated area farther up the peninsula.

Swanky hotels nailed boards over their windows, wrapped exposed furniture with plastic and turned conference rooms into storm shelters with camp bedding and board games.

A beachfront hotel at Cabo San Lucas tied a fountain statue of the sea god Neptune to palm trees and anchored a lobby chandelier to the ground with ropes to stop them blowing away.

Poor families, hotel workers and builders huddled in shelters in schools after 5,000 people were evacuated.

Torrential rain flooded main roads, turned streets in one shanty town into muddy rivers and caused a sewage system in the town of San Jose del Cabo to overflow.

Many tourists were trapped as flights out were canceled.

"I've never experienced anything remotely like this," said real estate investor Reg Wilson, 36, from Orange County, California. "I have no idea what to expect. We don't have a lot of options so we just have to ride this out."

Jimena came close overnight to becoming a Category 5 storm -- the top of the Saffir-Simpson scale and potentially devastating -- but weakened as it approached land.

People in Los Cabos were still scared. "I've never seen a storm this big in the 23 years I have lived here," said Caterina Acevedo.

Jimena's winds knocked down a power line, which lay on the ground firing sparks into the air, and Mexicans from a slum just north of Los Cabos fretted as they sheltered in a school that their flimsy homes could blow away or sink into mud.

"People are really worried," said Ilda Ramirez, 33, who lives in a shack made from cardboard and scrap materials. "I know we could end up losing everything."

EMERGENCY SHELTERS

Mexico has no oil installations or significant coffee and mining interests in the area. Cabo San Lucas port was closed.

An Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development meeting of officials from dozens of countries to discuss tax havens had to be moved from Los Cabos to Mexico City.

Much of Baja California is desert and mountains that are popular with nature lovers, surfers, sport fishermen and retirees. Los Cabos, normally bathed in brilliant sun from dawn to dusk, attracts planeloads of tourists all year round.

"We did a last-minute booking and ended up getting a hurricane," said tourist Cathy Hallock, 60, from California.

Many residents of shanty towns refused to leave, despite city buses waiting to take them to emergency shelters.

Jimena was about 110 miles southwest of Cabo San Lucas and moving northwest at 12 mph.

The Hurricane Center forecast it would dump 5 to 10 inches of rain on southern Baja California and create a storm surge and coastal flooding. "These rains could cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides," it said.

Yachts, water taxis and glass-bottomed boats had been removed from the water at the port of Cabo San Lucas.

Colleen Johnson, 55, who just moved here from Canada, stocked up on water, batteries and canned food. "We're a little leery, but I think we are doing everything right," she said at a Wal-Mart store that had run out of rain ponchos.

Jimena is the second hurricane of the 2009 eastern Pacific season to pound Mexico. Hurricane Andres swept a fisherman to his death in Acapulco in June.

(Additional reporting by Susy Buchanan; Writing by Catherine Bremer; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

By Susan Heavey

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Congressional Budget Office may be missing potential savings from various health reform proposals by not looking at efforts to manage or prevent expensive, chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, researchers said in a study released on Tuesday.

The study, published in the Tuesday edition of the Health Affairs journal, comes as members of the U.S. Congress prepare to return to Washington next week and again take up legislation to revamp the U.S. healthcare system.

President Barack Obama has made the overhaul a top priority this year, but debate has swelled in both parties in part over the CBO's early projections the Democratic plan could cost nearly $1 trillion.

Obama and other Democrats have argued the CBO does not factor in how improvements to care such as primary doctor visits, although costly at first, could improve people's health and lower costs over time.

The nonpartisan CBO, charged by Congress to estimate the cost of various programs, now uses a 10-year forecast that cannot look at the cost of programs aimed at diseases that can last for decades, researchers at the University of Chicago said.

Instead, the CBO should use methods that would weigh savings from earlier treatment and other intervention that could help reduce costly complications from conditions that arise when left untreated or improperly treated, they said.

Lawmakers need cost estimates that look at a period of 25 years for healthcare legislation, they said in their study, which was sponsored by diabetes drug maker Novo Nordisk A/S and looked at a scientific model to help estimate such costs for long-term diseases.

"Although this would not be necessary for the vast majority of cost estimates produced by the CBO, it would improve the information available when Congress considers health legislation with implications for the treatment of a relatively small number of costly chronic illnesses," they wrote.

In the study, researchers at the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center said new longer-term estimates would also help legislators and others estimate how having healthier, longer-living patients would affect costs.

In their model, the researchers used the example of diabetes, which affects nearly 8 percent of the U.S. population, or 24 million Americans, and factored in the costs of complications such as blindness, kidney failure and stroke.

They projected the disease would cost $336 billion a year 25 years from now. They then factored in the costs of prevention programs that would include medication and routine testing and how they could save money over time.

While such methods would need to be adjusted as treatments change, it could provide the CBO a starting point to look more long term, they said.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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