AP Features, July 27th, 2007
Matthew Nagle
BROCKTON, Mass. (AP) _ Matthew Nagle, who volunteered for a groundbreaking treatment for the paralyzed that allowed him to use his brain signals to work a computer, died Monday. He was 27.
He died at Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton. Nagle fell into a coma on July 17 and was diagnosed with sepsis, an infection of the blood. He lived at New England Sinai Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in Stoughton.
Nagle was paralyzed from the shoulders down in July 2001 after he stabbed in the neck while trying to help friends in a brawl at an Independence Day celebration in Weymouth. He was left unable to breathe without a ventilator and nearly unable to talk after scar tissue grew over his vocal cords.
Nicholas Cirignano, who stabbed Nagle, is serving a 10-year prison sentence. The Norfolk County District Attorney's office says Nagle's death is being treated as a homicide.
In 2004, Nagle volunteered for a Brown University experiment with a device called BrainGate, which used a tiny sensor implanted in his head to read his electrical brain signals. The signals were read by computer software that allowed him to move a computer cursor.
The BrainGate chip was later removed, and electrodes were implanted to stimulate the diaphragm, which allowed Nagle to breathe without a ventilator and control his wheelchair with his breath.
His father, Patrick Nagle, said his son volunteered for the treatments because he wanted to do his part to help the paralyzed.
Nagle was born in Cambridge and grew up in Weymouth.
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Skip Prosser
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) _ Skip Prosser, who led Wake Forest to its first basketball No. 1 ranking three seasons ago, has died, the university said. He was 56.
Prosser died Thursday of an apparent heart attack, the university said.
Prosser spent six seasons with the Demon Deacons, winning an Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title in 2003 and reaching the NCAA tournament in his first four seasons. Wake Forest went to No. 1 for the first time during the 2004-05 season.
Before arriving in Winston-Salem, Prosser was head coach at Xavier for seven seasons and at Loyola of Maryland for one year.
Prosser had a career record of 291-146 as a head coach, including 126-68 with Wake Forest. While there, he coached future NBA stars Chris Paul and Josh Howard, and was the ACC coach of the year in 2003.
George Edward "Skip" Prosser was born Nov. 3, 1950, in Pittsburgh. A 1972 graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Prosser earned his master's degree in secondary education from West Virginia in 1980 while he was a high school coach. He joined the Xavier staff as an assistant before the 1985-86 season, spending eight years on the bench there.
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John Turner
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ Blues drummer "Uncle" John Turner, who played with guitarist Johnny Winter, has died at an Austin hospital, a family friend said. He was 62.
Turner died Thursday from complications related to hepatitis C, said Mark Murray.
With Winter, Turner performed at Woodstock in 1969. Turner split with Winter in 1970 and joined Krackerjack, which featured the late Stevie Ray Vaughan on guitar.
Bass player Tommy Shannon gave Turner the nickname "Uncle" because of his willingness drive his bandmates to gigs and take care of business affairs, said Murray, chief meteorologist at Austin television station KVUE.
Turner played or recorded with artists including B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix, Freddie King, Muddy Waters, and Lightnin' Hopkins.
He grew up in Port Arthur, where he started his musical career on guitar before switching to bass. He began playing drums in a band called the Nightlights.
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Alberto Villamizar
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) _ Alberto Villamizar, a Colombian politician and diplomat whose crusade against drug cartel kidnappings was chronicled by Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, has died. He was 62.
Two decades after he was nearly assassinated for his efforts to fight government corruption, Villamizar died Thursday in Bogota of complications from heart surgery, Sen. Juan Manuel Galan, a close family friend, told The Associated Press.
Villamizar rose to prominence in the 1980s as an ally of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan. During one of the bloodiest chapters in Colombia's history, the two sought to curb the growing wealth and political power of cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar.
As head of the New Liberal party in the lower house of congress, Villamizar blocked attempts backed by Escobar's Medellin cartel to pass a constitutional amendment forbidding extradition.
In retaliation, Escobar placed Villamizar on a lengthy, publicized hit list of adversaries _ including other politicians, judges, journalists and police _ for whose murder he offered huge sums.
After Villamizar narrowly escaped an attempt on his life outside his Bogota home in 1986, he was named Colombia's ambassador to Indonesia and left the country.
After his return, Escobar's henchmen kidnapped his wife, Maruja Pachon, and sister, Beatriz Villamizar de Guerrero. The story of their 1990 abduction, and Villamizar's lonely five-month negotiation with the cartel to win their release, was later detailed in Garcia Marquez's 1997 nonfiction work "News of a Kidnapping."
In 1996, President Ernesto Samper named Villamizar the country's first anti-kidnapping czar, a platform he used to create a special anti-abduction police force and to advocate for victims and their families.
Villamizar also served as Colombia's ambassador to the Netherlands (1991-1994) and Cuba (1997-1999).
