Whistling

A whistled language used by shepherds on one of Spain's Canary Islands is processed by the brain in exactly the same manner as Spanish, researchers reported in this week's Science. They used functional magnetic resonance imaging to determine which parts of the brain are activated in response to the whistling language, Silbo Gomera.

WASHINGTON - The former top federal prosecutor in Arizona retaliated against the lead whistle-blower in the Fast and Furious gun-smuggling scandal by leaking an internal report that suggested the whistle-blower once favored allowing illegal gun sales as a way to track weapons to drug cartels in Mexico, the Justice Department's inspector general's office said Monday. Dennis K. Burke, who resigned from the U.S. attorney's office following the Fast and Furious matter, told investigators that he leaked an internal memorandum to a television producer in which ATF Special Agent John Dodson discussed an earlier case involving gun trafficking on the border.

Stand within arm's length of Joel Brandon, study him closely, watch every move he makes, and you still won't believe your ears. This has to be a trick. No one could produce that kind of sound without using a musical instrument. Brandon will tell you that his body is a musical instrument, thank you very much, and he only calls what he does whistling because he has no better word to describe it. "I haven't been able to name it, to give it its proper due," he says with a trace of frustration.

MEXICO CITY -- Aldo De Nigris scored at the final whistle to give two-time defending champion Monterrey a 1-0 victory over Los Angeles Galaxy on Wednesday night, sending the Mexican team to the CONCACAF Champions League final with a 3-1 aggregate score in the two-game semifinal. Monterrey will face fellow Mexican club Santos Laguna in the final. Santos Laguna advanced Tuesday night, tying the Seattle Sounders 1-1 for a 2-1 aggregate victory. De Nigris has four goals in the tournament to help put Monterrey in position to become the first team to win the regional tournament three consecutive times since Mexico's Cruz Azul in 1969-1971.

"Tumbling Tumbleweeds" floated from whistler Steve Herbst's puckered lips last week as he stood over the Sons of the Pioneers star on Hollywood Boulevard. Most passersby looked around, searching for the speakers they thought the music -- from "Cats" tunes to Stevie Wonder hits -- was coming from. A boy with a blond mullet stood at a nearby jewelry cart, where his mother was perusing the baubles. He stared, mouth agape at Herbst's subtly puffing cheeks.

"We keep looking to see if we can see Ireland across the water. You just feel like you're playing in Scotland." Davis Love III, about Whistling Straits golf course in Kohler, Wis., site of PGA Championship

As one who can whistle both parts of "The Andy Griffith Show" theme simultaneously, without articles like Ann Gerhart's "Where Have All the Whistlers Gone?" (May 22), a lone, polyphonic whistler certainly could feel archaic and idiosyncratic. I must, however, take issue with adman Steven Herbst when he "refuses to demean his instrument by whistling any old jingle." Lighten up, Steve. As the article says, "It's happy-go-lucky. It's jaunty. It's loner art," and there's no shame in jingles.

People don't whistle much anymore. It used to be so American, so evocative of our rugged individualism and independence, of a certain jaunty happy-go-luckiness. A fella whistled while he worked, whistled a happy tune, then wet his whistle with a cold one, and whistled at the girls going by. Jiminy Cricket whistled, and the Seven Dwarfs, and Gene Kelly and Santa Claus and Woodrow Wilson and Charles Lindbergh and Albert Einstein.

California's newest multimillionaire didn't get rich by winning the lottery. He blew the whistle on the Bank of America. Patrick Stull, along with his attorneys, will receive $25 million of BankAmerica's $187.5-million settlement of a lawsuit alleging that the bank cheated municipal bond issuers. BankAmerica is the biggest bank in the nation since its $40-billion merger with NationsBank Corp. in September.

Finally released after spending half of his life in prison, and still he had to wait. So Christopher Boyce hung around the prison parking lot, rubbernecking, taking in the fresh air around Sheridan, Ore., unsure what to make of freedom. A half hour went by before the big Suburban at last came lumbering up the driveway, carrying his father, a former FBI agent, and his mother, once a Catholic nun.

The University of California has agreed to pay $1.2 million to settle a federal whistle-blower lawsuit charging falsification of records and poor supervision of patients by UC Irvine anesthesiologists. The suit said anesthesiologists at the university's medical center filled out patient care reports before procedures started, "making it appear the anesthesiologist was present" when he or she wasn't. The lawsuit was brought by Dr. Dennis O'Connor, a former professor of anesthesiology at UCI School of Medicine, who will receive $120,000 of the settlement.

WASHINGTON -- The federal government's automatic budget cuts mean there will be less financial incentive to turn in tax cheats. In a notice on its website, the Internal Revenue Service said it would pay 8.7% less to informants who blow the whistle on tax-dodging individuals or corporations. The payments are being reduced because of the spending reductions required by the across-the-board cuts known as sequestration that kicked in Friday, the IRS said. QUIZ: How much do you know about the federal budget cuts?

In the same week that Lance Armstrong announced that he would not cooperate with the anti-doping agency that uncovered the deception he used to win seven Tour de France titles, the Justice Department on Friday opted to press him for the millions he took from former sponsor the U.S. Postal Service. By joining a whistle-blower lawsuit first filed by Armstrong's former cycling teammate Floyd Landis, the Justice Department alleges Armstrong and teammates violated sponsor agreements by using banned substances and methods, including blood doping, testosterone and human growth hormone.

An appeals court has overturned a $3.8-million jury award to a former Countrywide Financial Corp. human resources executive who contended he was fired because he refused to lie for the giant home lender and exposed unsafe working conditions. Michael Winston, a former leadership coach for Countrywide executives, won a wrongful-termination verdict in February 2011 from a Los Angeles County Superior Court jury in Van Nuys. The suit named as defendants Countrywide and Bank of America Corp., which acquired the high-risk mortgage specialist in 2008 and decided against retaining Winston.

When Michael Woodford in 2011 became president of Olympus Corp., the Japanese optical equipment maker, he told his secretary there was no need to walk backward each time she left his office. In the executive suite of a Japanese company, where fawning deference to those at the top is the norm, this counted as a radical egalitarian gesture. But, as Woodford discovered, he was not really at the top at all. Although he had been promoted to the presidency, becoming the first foreigner to assume that role since the company was established in 1919, he was kept out of the inner circle.

Lest there be any concern that our new "Bachelor," Sean Lowe, is too innocent to handle a gaggle of debaucherous women, have no fear. The good ol' Texas boy arrived at the iconic Agoura Hills mansion well equipped to ward off overeager females in sparkly gowns. "I brought a rape whistle in case I'm in trouble," Sean warned one "Fifty Shades of Grey" fan, who had just pulled a cheap-looking tie out of her cleavage. Oh, that's right. There was no shortage of crazy on the season premiere of "The Bachelor" Monday night, the 17th -- yes, you heard me right -- season of this marvelous, soul-ruining show.

It's long been said there are only seven basic story lines in all of literature. Increasingly, the same might be said about cars, whose styles are becoming more of a monoculture with each model year. Sedan or subcompact, each genre seems to be defined by a single, rather predictable silhouette. But not in Van Nuys, where Icon builds low-volume custom automobiles that take classic car shapes and updates them with modern, under-the-hood technologies and stylish in-the-cabin appointments pulled from aircraft, boats and fine watches.

Northrop Grumman Corp. has agreed to pay $1.4 million to settle a whistle-blower lawsuit that accused the defense contractor of overcharging the U.S. Air Force for B-2 bomber instruction and repair manuals, federal prosecutors said Friday. In the latest allegations of overcharging on the $44-billion bomber program, a former employee accused Century City-based Northrop of violating the federal Truth in Negotiations Act by inflating cost estimates on the manuals.

Biotech giant Amgen Inc. pleaded guilty in federal court to improper marketing of its anemia drug Aranesp and has agreed to pay $762 million in criminal fines and civil settlements to resolve complaints from company whistle-blowers. Federal prosecutors in New York said the Thousand Oaks company was "pursuing profits at the risk of patient safety" by encouraging doctors to use its popular anemia drug for unapproved uses to boost sales and to take market share from a rival drug maker.

It's disappointing to see leaders, public figures and CEOs undone by sex scandals. But it becomes a tragedy when these cases are of an abusive nature. And worse yet, when they're kept quiet, leaving the victims even more powerless. The Penn State case, in which Jerry Sandusky abused young boys while Joe Paterno and  administrators worried more about the institution than the victims, was a harsh reminder that we can't blindly trust people, even respected members of our communities.