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LEONARDORTI—THEORANGECOUNTYREGISTER University of California, Irvine, student Patrick Lim, 22, le , gets a lecture about the American flag from Carol Schlaepfer, 76, of Pomona, during a pro-flag rally in Anteater Plaza on Tuesday in Irvine. ByGillianFlaccus TheAssociatedPress IRVINE Whenstudentgov- ernment representatives at the University of California, Irvine voted to ban all flags — including the American one — from their tiny of- fice, they thought they had found a solution to a battle over freedom of speech that began when someone first tacked a U.S. flag to the wall in January. The flag had been at the center of an in- creasingly bitter game of cat-and-mouse, with some students taking it down re- peatedly and others replac- ing it in the dark of night. Last week, six student legislative council members passed a resolution ban- ning all flags from their of- fice space, saying the U.S. flag could be viewed as hate speech because some con- sider it a symbol of colonial- ism and imperialism. The executive cabinet of the As- sociated Students organi- zation vetoed the legisla- tion two days later — but it was too late. The vote prompted a fu- ror: Taxpayers protested on the campus plaza, the school was bombarded with angry comments on its so- cial media sites and one state lawmaker proposed a constitutional amendment that would prohibit state- funded colleges and uni- versities from banning the U.S. flag on campus. On Thursday, student govern- ment meetings were can- celed for the second day in a row because of an unspec- ified threat. The debate resonated on the ethnically and reli- giously diverse suburban campus south of Los An- geles, where tensions over freedom of speech have taken the national stage several times before. For years, Jewish students and members of the Muslim Student Union have sparred in a dispute that came to a head in 2011, when 10 Mus- lim students were arrested and prosecuted for disrupt- ing a speech by Israeli am- bassador Michael Oren. In 2007, federal civil rights investigators looked into complaints of anti-Semitic speeches given at the uni- versity by invited Muslim speakers, but they found the comments were directed as Israeli policies, not Jewish students. UC flag flap raises free speech debate UC IRVINE Thank you! PLEASE RECYCLE THIS NEWSPAPER. By Matthew Perrone The Associated Press WASHINGTON Federal health officials issued multiple announcements Thursday aimed at ad- dressing growing safety concerns about medi- cal scopes that have been linked to several recent "su- perbug" outbreaks. The Food and Drug Administration released stricter guidelines for man- ufacturers of reusable med- ical instruments, includ- ing specialized endoscopes used in about a half-million U.S. medical procedures each year. For the first time the FDA is asking manufactur- ers to submit scientific data showing that their devices can be safely disinfected. FDA officials acknowl- edged that previous agency guidelines from 1996 made no such request from com- panies. "Rather they could attest that they had completed or would complete the valida- tion prior to marketing," said Dr. William Maisel, di- rector of FDA's medical de- vice center. Additionally, the agency announced a two-day meet- ing for mid-May to gather expert opinion on improv- ing the design and regula- tion of the so-called duode- noscopes. The specialized endoscopes consist of a flex- ible fiber-optic tube that is inserted down the throat, through the stomach and small intestine to diagnose and treat conditions in the pancreas and bile ducts. The government an- nouncements come amid escalating criticism of the FDA's oversight of the hard- to-clean devices, which have been linked to some- times fatal outbreaks of an- tibiotic-resistant bacteria at several hospitals. Last week 10 members of Congress asked the FDA to answer questions about the devices, including how the agency reviews manu- facturers' cleaning instruc- tions. Inthelastmonth,twoLos Angeles hospitals have re- ported superbug infections in patients despite follow- ing manufacturer's clean- ing guidelines. The duode- noscopes' complex design — intended to help physicians drain fluids in the body — also makes the instruments extremely difficult to clean. Bodily fluids and other par- ticles can stay in the device's crevices even after cleaning and disinfection. In the first case, seven patients at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center con- tracted an antibiotic-resis- tant strain of bacteria af- ter undergoing endoscopic procedures with a device made by Olympus Corp. Two patients died from the infection. Last week an- other Los Angeles Hospital, Cedars-Sinai Medical Cen- ter, reported that four pa- tients were infected with the same superbug after be- ing treated with the same Olympus scope. RECENT OUTBREAKS FDA seeks more info on scopes linked to 'superbug' "PG&E"referstoPacificGasandElectricCompany,asubsidiaryofPG&ECorporation.©2015PacificGasandElectricCompany. 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