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There were 422,061 bankruptcy filings between April and June, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, up 9 percent from 388,148 in the prior three-month period, and up 11 percent from 381,073 a year earlier.

For the year ended June 30, there were 1.57 million bankruptcies, up 20 percent from 1.31 million a year earlier.

Consumer bankruptcies rose 21 percent to 1.51 million, and business bankruptcies rose 9 percent to 59,608.

In a series of studies conducted over the course of three years and published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, Scripps Florida scientists Paul Johnson and Paul Kenny have shown that rats’ response to unlimited junk food closely parallels well-known patterns of drug addiction — even down to the changes in brain chemistry.

“What we have are these core features of addiction, and these animals are hitting each one of these features,” Kenny said.

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Having established that the junk food rats had become addicted, Johnson and Kenny wanted to know how far this addiction would push them. So they took both junk-food addicted rats and rats that had not previously been exposed to such food, and exposed them to electrical shocks whenever they ate junk. Rats that had just been introduced to junk food quickly stopped eating it, while the addicted rats ignored the discomfort and kept eating.

Perhaps the most shocking finding came when the researchers took away the addicted rats’ access to junk food and started feeding them only healthy rat chow again — the same diets the rats had eaten as pups. When junk food was no longer available, the rats simply refused to eat for two weeks.

“They actually voluntarily starved themselves,” Kenny said.

Initial findings from a new survey of the Gulf conclude that dispersants may have sent the oil to the ocean floor, where it has turned up at the bottom of an undersea canyon within 40 miles of the Florida Panhandle. Plankton and other organisms showed a “strong toxic response” to the crude, according to researchers from the University of South Florida.

“The dispersant is moving the oil down out of the surface and into the deeper waters, where it can affect phytoplankton and other marine life,” said John Paul, a marine microbiologist at USF.

Results of the latest survey are scheduled to be released Tuesday, but CNN obtained a summary of the initial conclusions Monday night. Tests conducted offshore indicate the oil matches the 205-million-gallon Deepwater Horizon spill, which has been temporarily capped for a month, the summary states.

Some of it has spread into the DeSoto Canyon, a channel on the ocean floor east of the ruptured well. That canyon comprises part of the spawning grounds for much of the Gulf’s commercial fish. “To date, this is the easternmost location for the occurrence of subsurface oils,” the report states.

The oil is not “draping” across the bottom, but is spread out in “small, unevenly distributed droplets,” the report states. USF chemical oceanographer David Hollander said that when an ultraviolet light used to detect oil was turned onto the sea floor, “All of a sudden, it turns out to be a constellation of little dots.”

And the oil could well up onto the continental shelf and resurface later, Paul said. Or it could be eaten by fish and other animals and accumulate in the food chain, Hollander said.

The agency released for the first time a list of the 15 members of the Emergency Committee headed by Australian tropical diseases professor John Mackenzie, who was the only member publicly named during the outbreak.

They came from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin and North America, the list posted on the WHO’s website showed.

Most were scientific researchers and epidemiologists, along with a Senegalese diplomat, public health officials from Thailand and Chile as well as two specialists on international air travel and health.

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Critics had raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest that might have helped the drugs industry influence decisions on huge orders for special vaccines against A(H1N1) flu.

Paul and Nadia Rockwood of King Salmon have pleaded guilty to lying about the list and making false statements to the FBI in May.

Under a plea agreement, Paul Rockwood will serve eight years in prison and three years probation while his pregnant wife will serve probation. Sentencing is scheduled Aug. 23 in U.S. District Court in Anchorage.

Rockwood’s public defender claims her client was lonely in King Salmon and befriended an undercover Alaska State Trooper while attending mosque during trips to Anchorage.

“The relationship clearly was fed by the trooper’s interest in Mr. Rockwood and the drama created by their conversations,” his attorney, Sue Ellen Tatter, wrote in her sentencing memo.

“All of Mr. Rockwood’s behavior with the state trooper was talk or paperwork. None of Mr. Rockwood’s close associates, including his father, his wife and friends in King Salmon, believed he was capable of planned violence,” Tatter wrote.

Prosecutors alleged that Paul Rockwood, also known as “Bilal,” converted to Islam about a decade ago and began studying the teachings of American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who has professed hatred for the United States and supports acts of terrorism. The couple then moved to King Salmon, where he worked for the National Weather Service.

“While in Alaska, Rockwood researched and discussed methods of execution often at great length and in significant detail, components for mail bombs were purchased, the targets had been selected and a loose time line was established,” assistant U.S. Attorneys Steven Skrocki and Bryan Schroder wrote in their sentencing memo.

Prosecutors said he gave the list of targets to his wife in April, and she carried it with her on a trip to Anchorage, where the FBI obtained it.

The court documents didn’t disclose any names, only a summary of those on the list. It included a publishing company executive, a media personality, seven members of the military, seven other individuals, two religious organizations and two publishing companies.

Federal authorities also claim Paul Rockwood began researching ways to kill them.

“With some, this included discussing the use of mail bombs and the possibility of killing targets by gunshot to the head,” federal attorneys said.

“This was not a case of ‘if’, but a case of ‘when’ with the ‘when’ becoming more likely with Rockwood’s departure from King Salmon,” the government said.

Tatter counters that Rockwood was lonely, suffering from an inner ear disease that can cause dizziness, nausea and hearing loss, and that he was addicted to opiate painkillers and was in treatment during his relationship with the trooper.

She said he quit his job, and the family was moving from King Salmon to Boston on the first leg of a journey to England when they were intercepted May 19 by the FBI.

“When federal agents showed him the list — which they obviously obtained from the undercover trooper — Mr. Rockwood stated: ‘I’m surprised he (the Trooper Sgt.) compiled this …’ Mr. Rockwood did not admit that he himself compiled the list,” Tatter wrote.

She characterized Rockwood as “unsophisticated mechanically” and said he has never been committed to a plan of action. She said he was “soft-hearted and extremely committed to his family.”

“Many of our merchants are already installing cameras,” said Carl Chan, the chairman of the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, outlining in highlighter the several blocks that form the core of the area. “Eventually, we will be hiring security guards to patrol Chinatown.”

In the wake of the city’s laying off 80 police officers last month, Chinatown is leading a new trend in the crime-ridden city: an increase in privately financed public safety. Mr. Chan has asked every business owner to install a street-facing camera. A new Chinatown security force, perhaps staffed by armed guards, could be on the streets as soon as next month, he said.

The layoffs, which helped close a budget deficit of more than $30 million, eliminated a community-policing program that assigned officers to walk their beats and attend neighborhood meetings. Now some residents are pooling resources to restore a law-enforcement presence. The affluent Montclair District in the Oakland Hills and the Kings Estates neighborhood in East Oakland are also looking into private patrols.

Experts say the combination of police and private security that Chinatown is pursuing reflects a new approach to public safety.