Potentially Pathogenic Virus Found in Mad Cow Cells (Yale University) New Haven, Conn. — The alternative view that a virus causes spongiform encephalopathies of the brain, such as “mad cow” and Creutzfeldt-Jakob (CJD) disease, rather than prion proteins, which are normally produced throughout life, is bolstered in a new study by Yale School of Medicine researchers. [News Source]

Evidence builds that virus spurs mad cow (Denver Post) Researchers have found more evidence that a virus may cause mad cow disease and a related brain disorder in humans, threatening to overturn 25 years of research focusing on malformed proteins called prions. [News Source]

Music Listings (San Francisco Bay Guardian) Music listings are compiled by Duncan Scott Davidson. The music interns are Nathan Baker and Elaine Santore. Since club life is unpredictable, it's a good idea to call ahead to confirm bookings and hours. Prices are listed when provided to us. [News Source]

Dirt Cheap Dream Stocks (The Motley Fool) Who says value investing can't be glamorous? [News Source]

Cause of prion diseases could be viral. Researchers have found virus-like particles in the brain tissue of animals infected with so-called prion diseases, including the fatal human disorder Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. [News Source]

S. Korea urged to follow U.S safety rules on U.S. beef imports. The United States asked South Korea Tuesday to ease its safety regulations and allow full U.S. beef imports, as the two countries prepared to hold "technical" talks on resolving the beef row. [News Source]

COOL should be implemented sooner, not later. Senators - led by Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., Craig Thomas, R-Wyo. and our own John Thune - are sponsoring legislation to move the deadline for implementing country-of-origin labeling to Sept. 30 - one year ahead of the current deadline. [News Source]

Why Koreans have a beef with free trade. Since last March, the United States and South Korea have been straining to complete the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA). [News Source]

Premise registration continues on plan (Iowa Farmer) Editor’s note: On Nov.. 22, the Bush administration pledged not to make a planned National Animal Identification System mandatory. However, that has not derailed movement toward a voluntary tracking system. [News Source]

U.S. beef imports low 6 months since ban ended (Asahi.com) Lingering fears about mad cow disease and tight government restrictions have kept imports of U.S. beef at just one-tenth of what they were, even though a ban was lifted six months ago. [News Source]