Byline: By danny hakim section: Section B; Column 0; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 1 Length

URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: FROZEN FOODS (90%); WEALTHY PEOPLE (90%); FAST FOOD (86%); POTATO FARMING (77%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (77%); FERTILIZERS (74%); CATTLE FEEDLOTS (74%); WORLD WAR II (73%); PHOSPHATE ROCK MINING (53%); BASKETBALL (60%); SPORTS (50%); MAMMALS (89%)
GEOGRAPHIC: BOISE, ID, USA (90%) IDAHO, USA (91%); IOWA, USA (79%) UNITED STATES (91%)
CATEGORY: Food and Restaurants
PERSON: J. R. Simplot
LOAD-DATE: May 28, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: J. R. Simplot (PHOTOGRAPH BY J.R. SIMPLOT COMPANY, VIA REUTERS)
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Obituary (Obit); Biography
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

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May 27, 2008 Tuesday

Correction Appended

Late Edition - Final
Red Flags for Hereditary Cancers
BYLINE: By JANE E. BRODY
SECTION: Section F; Column 0; Science Desk; PERSONAL HEALTH; Pg. 6
LENGTH: 1273 words
All cancers are genetic in origin. When genes are working properly, cell growth is tightly regulated, as if a stoplight told cells to divide only so many times and no more. A cancer occurs when something causes a mutation in the genes that limit cell growth or that repair DNA damage.

This is true even if the carcinogen is environmental, like tobacco smoke or radon, or if the cause is viral, like Helicobacter pylori or Herpes papilloma virus.

Carcinogenic agents induce cancer by causing genetic mutations that allow cells to escape normal biological controls. Most cancers arise in this way, sporadically in an individual, and may involve several mutations that permit a tumor to grow.

But sometimes, a single potent cancer-causing mutation is inherited and can be passed from one generation to the next. An estimated 5 to 10 percent of cancers are strongly hereditary, and 20 to 30 percent are more weakly hereditary, said Dr. Kenneth Offit, chief of clinical genetics at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Genetic Chances

In hereditary cancer, the mutated gene can be transmitted through the egg or sperm to children, with each child facing a 50 percent chance of inheriting the defective gene if one parent carries it and a 75 percent chance if both parents carry the same defect.

You might be familiar with the BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations that are strongly linked to breast and ovarian cancer in women and somewhat less strongly to breast and prostate cancer in men. A woman with a BRCA mutation faces a 56 to 87 percent chance of contracting breast cancer and a 10 to 40 percent chance of ovarian cancer.

For some hereditary cancer genes, the risks are even greater. A child who inherits a so-called RET mutation faces a 100 percent chance of developing an especially lethal form of thyroid cancer. Likewise, the risk of stomach cancer approaches 100 percent in those with a CDH mutation, Dr. Daniel G. Coit, a surgeon at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, said at a recent meeting there.

Megan Harlan, senior genetic counselor at Sloan-Kettering, said these were red flags that suggest a cancer might be hereditary:

Diagnosis of cancer at a significantly younger age than it ordinarily occurs.

Occurrence of the same cancer in more than one generation of a family.

Occurrence of two or more cancers in the same patient or blood relatives.

For example, a woman with a BRCA mutation is at high risk for both breast and ovarian cancer. A mismatch repair mutation, known as MMR, significantly raises the risk for colon cancer and somewhat for uterine and ovarian cancer. Thus, the occurrence of colon, uterine and ovarian cancers among blood relatives suggests that the family may carry the MMR mutation.

Preventive Actions

Knowing that you have a high-risk cancer gene mutation offers the chance to take preventive actions like scheduling frequent screenings starting at a young age or removing the organ at risk. While surgery is clearly a drastic form of cancer prevention, in the future drugs may be able to thwart cancers in people at high risk, Dr. Offit said.

A third possibility, when a cancer gene runs in a family, is in vitro fertilization and genetic analysis to identify affected embryos and implant those lacking the defective gene.

Ms. Harlan suggested that a woman with a BRCA mutation should start at an early age to conduct monthly breast self-exams and have a doctor examine the breasts two to four times a year. She also advised alternating mammograms and breast M.R.I.'s every 6 to 12 months, starting at age 25.

Likewise, someone who carries an inherited colon cancer gene should start yearly colonoscopies at 20 or 25. A woman with a uterine cancer gene mutation should be screened with sonography and endometrial biopsies yearly and, Dr. Offit added, consider having her uterus removed when she has finished having children.

A growing number of women with BRCA mutations are choosing prophylactic mastectomies and, in some cases, oophorectomies, or removal of the ovaries. That reduces their risk of breast or ovarian cancer 75 percent.

Dr. Coit described a family in which the father and his father both developed thyroid cancer linked to the RET mutation. The younger man's 6-year-old son was tested and found to carry the same damaged gene. Because the boy was certain to develop thyroid cancer, most likely at a young age, his thyroid was removed. Although the boy will need to take thyroid hormone for the rest of his life, the surgery reduced to zero his chance of developing this often fatal cancer.

Dr. Coit also told of a 33-year-old woman who carried the CDH mutation associated with highly lethal stomach cancer. Her stomach was removed and found to contain three microscopic cancer sites, making her preventive surgery also curative. She is one of 131 patients with the mutation who have had their stomachs removed and a stomachlike pouch created from the small intestine.

The doctor acknowledged that the surgery was a drastic measure, with an operative mortality of 1.5 percent and a complication rate of 53 percent. Most patients cannot eat as much as they used to after the surgery. They develop food intolerances and lose weight, but they do eventually adapt to their new digestive system, Dr. Coit said.

Practical Considerations

Before choosing surgery to reduce risk in an otherwise healthy person, Dr. Coit said these factors should be carefully considered:

Possible nonsurgical alternatives.

Actual cancer risk from the inherited gene and how much surgery can reduce it.

Timing of any operation.

Effects of surgery on quality of life.

Another question is how and whether to disclose hereditary cancer risk. Though many people fear limits on their job and ability to obtain affordable health insurance, a federal law was passed this month to prevent such genetic discrimination.

What if someone with a hereditary cancer gene refuses to warn family members of the possible risk and need for tests? These types of questions have begun to arise, in a handful of lawsuits against doctors. In a 1995 case in Florida, for example, the state Supreme Court ruled that a doctor has to inform patients of the risk to family members, but left it to patients to tell them about tests and the potential for prevention.

The deciphering of the human genome has prompted a number of entrepreneurs to cash in on people's genetic concerns. They offer DNA testing to look for aberrant genes associated with the risk of developing various diseases, especially cancer.

Such testing, when done reliably, might encourage some people to take charge of their health and make better plans for the future. But some professional genetics counselors say this approach to determining cancer risk is fraught with hazards, not the least of which is a false warning of a serious risk that does not exist.

''This kind of testing is premature,'' said Dr. Kenneth Offit, chief of clinical genetics at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. ''Some companies are selling research tests for mutations that carry a low risk of causing cancer, leading people to worry needlessly or be falsely reassured.''

Another problem, he said, is the prescription offered after the tests.

''Other companies are telling people what kind of foods to eat and what to put on their skin based on their genes,'' Dr. Offit said. ''Testing for known cancer genes is legitimate, but often the prescription given for a 'gene makeover' is not. Regulation of these labs is sorely needed. And people facing real hereditary cancer risks require intensive professional counseling.
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: BREAST CANCER (91%); CANCER (91%); CARCINOGENS (91%); GENES & CHROMOSOMES (91%); GENETIC DISEASE FACTORS (90%); BACTERIA (78%); GENETIC & MOLECULAR MEDICINE (78%); COLORECTAL CANCER (78%); DNA (78%); VIRUSES (77%); THYROID CANCER (73%); PROSTATE CANCER (73%); ENDOCRINE SYSTEM DISORDERS (73%); PROSTATE DISEASE (70%)
ORGANIZATION: MEMORIAL SLOAN-KETTERING CANCER CENTER (56%)
GEOGRAPHIC: NEW YORK, USA (75%) UNITED STATES (75%)
LOAD-DATE: May 27, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
CORRECTION-DATE: May 29, 2008

CORRECTION: The Personal Health column on Tuesday, about inherited cancers, misstated a viral cause of certain cancers. It is human papillomavirus, not herpes papilloma virus.
GRAPHIC: DRAWING (DRAWING BY ANDY MARTIN)
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

728 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
May 27, 2008 Tuesday

Late Edition - Final

Rockefellers Seek Change At Exxon
BYLINE: By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
SECTION: Section C; Column 0; Business/Financial Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1252 words
DATELINE: HOUSTON
The Rockefeller family built one of the great American fortunes by supplying the nation with oil. Now history has come full circle: some family members say it is time to start moving beyond the oil age.

The family members have thrown their support behind a shareholder rebellion that is ruffling feathers at Exxon Mobil, the giant oil company descended from John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust.

Three of the resolutions, to be voted on at the company's shareholder meeting on Wednesday, are considered unlikely to pass, even with Rockefeller family support.

The resolutions ask Exxon to take the threat of global warming more seriously and look for alternatives to spewing greenhouse gases into the air.

One resolution would urge the company to study the impact of global warming on poor countries, another would encourage Exxon to reduce its emissions and a third would encourage it to do more research on renewable energy sources like solar panels and wind turbines.

A fourth resolution, which the Rockefellers are most united in supporting, is considered more likely to pass. It would strip Rex W. Tillerson of his position as chairman of Exxon's board, forcing the company to separate that job from the chief executive's job.

A shareholder vote in favor of that idea would be a rebuke of Mr. Tillerson, who is widely perceived as more resistant than other oil chieftains to investing in alternative energy.

The Rockefellers say they are not trying to embarrass Mr. Tillerson, also Exxon's chief executive, but think it is time for the company to spend more of its funds helping the nation chart a new energy future.

''Exxon Mobil needs to reconnect with the forward-looking and entrepreneurial vision of my great-grandfather,'' Neva Rockefeller Goodwin, a Tufts University economist, said in a statement to reporters.

''The truth is that Exxon Mobil is profiting in the short term from investments and decisions made many years ago, and by focusing on a narrow path that ignores the rapidly shifting energy landscape around the world,'' she added.

The resolution on Exxon's chairmanship was offered for several years before the Rockefellers became publicly involved and last year was supported by 40 percent of shareholders who voted. Royal Dutch Shell and BP already separate the positions of chairman and chief executive, as do many other companies.

''You need a board asking the tough questions,'' Peter O'Neill, a private equity investor and great-great-grandson of John D. Rockefeller, said in an interview. ''We expect the company to figure out how in this changing world to adjust.''

Kenneth P. Cohen, vice president for public affairs at Exxon, said the shareholders pushing the resolutions were ''starting from a false premise.'' He added that the company was already concerned about ''how to provide the world the energy it needs while at the same time reducing fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions.''

Fifteen members of the family are sponsoring or co-sponsoring the four resolutions, but it appears that some have much more solid support in the sprawling family than others.

Mr. O'Neill said that 73 out of 78 adult descendants of John D. Rockefeller were supporting the family effort to divide the chief executive and chairman positions. The goal of that resolution is to improve the management of the company, which could strengthen its environmental policies and improve more traditional pursuits like exploring more aggressively for new oil reserves.

David Rockefeller, retired chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank and patriarch of the family, issued a statement saying, ''I support my family's efforts to sharpen Exxon Mobil's focus on the environmental crisis facing all of us.''

The Rockefeller family has always been identified with oil and the legacy of Standard Oil, but for several generations, it has also been active in environmental causes and acquiring land for preservation. John D. Rockefeller's grandsons devoted themselves to conservation issues, and Rockefeller charitable organizations have long promoted efforts to fight pollution.

Ms. Goodwin, one of the most vocal Rockefellers on the environment today, is co-director of the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts.

In recent years, family members have quietly encouraged Exxon executives to take global warming seriously, but their private efforts did not go far. Until now, they have avoided publicity in their efforts, and the youngest Rockefeller generations have generally shunned attention.

Exxon executives said the company spent $2 billion over the last five years on programs to reduce emissions and improve efficiencies and had plans to spend $800 million on similar initiatives over the next three years. They said the company reduced the release of greenhouse gases from its operations last year by 3 percent, and it was working with Stanford to research biofuels and solar and hydrogen energy.

Since taking over the company two years ago, Mr. Tillerson has gradually shifted the company's positions away from those of his predecessor, Lee R. Raymond, who was considered a skeptic on the science of global warming.

But with gasoline prices soaring and concern growing over global warming, Exxon, the biggest of the investor-owned oil companies, is a target for politicians and environmentalists. Chevron, BP and Shell, Exxon's largest competitors, have given their investments in renewable fuels a much higher profile.

Similar or identical environmental proposals have not passed at previous Exxon shareholder meetings, but the public support of the Rockefeller family has given old efforts new energy.

The involvement of the Rockefellers, said Robert A. G. Monks, a shareholder who has been urging a separation of the chairman and chief executive jobs for years, shows that ''this is not just a matter of the self-appointed good guys against the cavemen, but also a matter of the capitalists wanting to make money.''

Nineteen institutional investors with 91 million shares announced last week that they would support resolutions asking Exxon to separate the top executive positions and tackle global warming. They included the California Public Employees' Retirement System, the California State Teachers' Retirement System and the New York City Employees' Retirement System.

California's treasurer, Bill Lockyer, who serves on the boards of the two California funds, said the company's ''go-slow approach'' on global warming ''places long-term shareholder value at risk.''

Under Exxon's rules, a shareholder proposal that passes is not binding without the support of the board. But Andrew Logan, director of the oil program at Ceres, a coalition of institutional investors and environmentalists, said, ''boards tend to strongly consider proposals that get significant support.''

Paul Sankey, an oil analyst at Deutsche Bank, said that he thought a separation of the chief executive and chairman jobs might be a good management move and that ''we might see a mild benefit to Exxon's public image.'' But he added, ''On balance, we wouldn't expect any change in strategy.''

The Fraternal Order of Police, which represents public safety officers, whose pensions are invested in Exxon, has publicly opposed the shareholder effort to change company policy.

''The Rockefeller resolution threatens to degrade the value of Exxon Mobil,'' the organization wrote in a letter to Mr. Tillerson that criticized the splitting of the top executive jobs.

URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: SHAREHOLDERS (90%); ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT (90%); FAMILY (90%); EMISSIONS (90%); RENEWABLE ENERGY (88%); SHAREHOLDER MEETINGS (77%); OIL & GAS INDUSTRY (76%); GLOBAL WARMING (75%); ENERGY RESEARCH (74%); WIND ENERGY (73%); WIND POWER PLANTS (73%); SOLAR ENERGY (73%); INTERVIEWS (71%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (71%); PRIVATE EQUITY (69%)
COMPANY: EXXON MOBIL CORP (85%); ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC (84%)
TICKER: XOM (NYSE) (85%); RDSA (LSE) (84%); RDSA (AMS) (84%); RDS (NYSE) (84%)
INDUSTRY: NAICS325110 PETROCHEMICAL MANUFACTURING (98%); NAICS324110 PETROLEUM REFINERIES (98%); NAICS211111 CRUDE PETROLEUM & NATURAL GAS EXTRACTION (98%); NAICS447110 GASOLINE STATIONS WITH CONVENIENCE STORES (84%)
PERSON: JAY ROCKEFELLER (84%); REX W TILLERSON (69%)
LOAD-DATE: May 27, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: Rex W. Tillerson, the chief executive of Exxon, stands to lose his job as chairman of the company if a resolution passes. (PHOTOGRAPH BY DANIEL ACKER/BLOOMBERG NEWS) (pg. C6)

Neva Rockefeller Goodwin and Peter O'Neill, descendants of John D. Rockefeller, are among those who want Exxon to shift priorities. Shareholders will vote Wednesday on four resolutions. (PHOTOGRAPH BY BRENDAN MCDERMID/REUTERS) (pg. C6)

PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

729 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

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May 27, 2008 Tuesday

The New York Times on the Web

Small-Business Books That Break the Mold
BYLINE: By PAUL B. BROWN
SECTION: Section ; Column 0; Business/Financial Desk; TOOL KIT; Pg.
LENGTH: 672 words
Books aimed at the small business and entrepreneur audience far too often fall into two categories.

There is the ''how I made $27 trillion in business, and you can too,'' genre or the ones that say you only need to take care of customers (or cash flow or sales or something else) and you will be the envy of Warren Buffet and Bill Gates.

The following four do not fit into either mold, and if, for no other reason, are worthy of consideration.

Let's start with the best, and work our way through the list.

''A Whack on the Side of the Head'' (Business Plus), a book about increasing creativity, has just been reissued to celebrate its 25th anniversary and it easy to understand its lasting appeal.

The author, Roger von Oech, a consultant, has taken an abstract subject -- how to think differently -- and made it concrete by asking a series of questions, all of which involve breaking what he calls the ''mental locks'' that bind our thinking.

''Most of us have certain attitudes that lock our thinking into the status quo and keep us thinking 'more of the same,' '' he writes. ''These attitudes are necessary for most of what we do, but they get in the way when we are trying to be creative.''

He suggests breaking the locks by acknowledging that they are there and forcing yourself to pry them open.

We are typically taught, for example, that there is one right answer to a problem. But, he says, keep searching even after you find it. After all, as Linus Paul, winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize in chemistry and the 1962 Nobel Peace Prize, put it, ''The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas.''

Perhaps one of the most appealing things about ''How to Get Rich'' (Ebury Press, 2006), is that the author, Felix Dennis -- the publisher of Maxim, The Week and Stuff magazines, spends a lot of time discussing the mistakes he made. He didn't understand that people who buy computer gaming magazines wanted a free game with each copy, as one of his rivals was offering. And he laments not diversifying into television and exploiting the internet.

That candor gives him credibility when he offers several warnings to entrepreneurs:

Never be overoptimistic when it comes to day-to-day finances. ''If cash flow is good, then no matter how badly run or poorly managed a company is, there is always a decent chance of turning it around,'' he says. ''But if a business's cash flow is weak or failing, then the chances are it must shut down or be sold in the not-too distant future.''

Never act big. You, and your company, should live below your means.

Never skimp on hiring talent.

There are only four traditional business ideas in ''The One Minute Entrepreneur'' (Doubleday, 2008), the latest in the ''One Minute'' series by Ken Blanchard, this time assisted by Don Hutson and Ethan Willis. Here they are:

1. Revenue needs to exceed expenses

2.Collect your bills. Don't let your customers use you to increase their cash flow.

3. Take care of your customers. ''You work for them.''

4. Take care of your people.

But the appeal of the fable is not in the business advice, it is the relentlessly upbeat, encouraging message that if you work hard enough, and concentrate on the right things, you will be successful.

Like all fairy tales that have a happy ending, it would be nice to believe the message is true.

The premise underlying ''Life Entrepreneurs'' (Jossey Bass, 2008), by the consultants Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek, is simple. The same principles that can make you a success in starting your own business -- recognizing opportunities, taking risks and innovation -- can lead to a more fulfilling life as well.

They argue that you can obtain the life you want by following exactly the approach you did in starting your business: You develop a plan, in this case for what a good life would look like, and you figure out how to obtain it.

That sounds simple in the abstract. But then, again, so does starting a successful business. Hard work is required in both cases.

URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: SMALL BUSINESS (90%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (89%); AWARDS & PRIZES (86%); NOBEL PRIZES (86%); ANNIVERSARIES (69%); COMPUTER GAMES (60%); CHEMISTRY (50%)
PERSON: WARREN BUFFETT (57%)
LOAD-DATE: May 27, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

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