Atkins files for bankruptcy

• Can pasta and potatoes be far behind?
• As unlikely as it may seem, Atkins Nutritionals Inc., the company launched by Dr. Robert Atkins in 1989 to popularize the low carbohydrate craze, has filed for bankruptcy.
• Originally promoting nutritional supplements, Atkins developed a diet that promoted a high protein, low carb diet that took the nation by storm through the 1990s into the 21st century.
• A bill designed to ease restrictions on financing embryonic stem cell research has enough votes to reach President Bush's desk, but it's still short of the votes needed to override his expected veto.
• Even though Senate majority leader Dr. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., announced last week that he would support a bill allowing federal funding for some stem cell research, Sen.
• Specter, who has Hodgkins Disease and supports easing stem cell research funding restrictions said, "My analysis is that we have 62 votes at the present time, and we've got about 15 more people who are thinking it over."
• He predicted the upper house may have enough votes to override the expected Bush veto when the time comes.
• However, it may be more difficult to defeat an override in the House of Representatives with a two-thirds vote when the original bill passed the 435 mmember house by 44 only votes.
• A drug used to treat symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) can also help people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) who haven't responded to other medications.
• Yale University School of Medicine researchers conducted a study using 13 patients with OCD who had not responded to other medications, according to a university news release.
• Dame Cicely Saunders, a British nurse and physician who is credited with updating the concept of offering hospice care for the terminally ill, died at the facility she founded, her hospice's Web site announced July 31.